A/N: So. Winter break is around the corner. Winter break means no school. No school means more free time.

You know what more free time means don't you? Yeah, of course you do. Gonna have more time to work on this fic, pogchamp.

Review Response:

Zekken182:

Bruh.

MaleficKing9001:

Glad to hear that you're enjoying my story. As for your suggestions, I'd like to thank you for that. I do have my own vague ideas for what to do in the future but your thoughts are still nice to hear.

a54321:

I'm glad I managed to do something that was a pleasant surprise. I hope you'll continue to enjoy my fic.

Lance Eterna:

Not a bad idea. I'm gonna have to think up the catchphrase tho if I do that. We'll see but thank you.

zuest:

Tbh the idea of that makes me laugh. I'd imagine Roman would be on an egotistical high for a few days. Also, yes, I do know that Roman Candles are real fireworks. Those are actually what inspired Roman's name, along with the fictional character Roman Candlewick.

Cane Master Race:

Thanks for the feedback. Also, when it comes to Ao3 I'm just not too big of a fan of the site so Ima stick to this one for now. I do also have a Wattpad account where I posted another mha fic but... Wattpad is Wattpad. The less said the better...

G28:

A corrupt cop isn't a bad idea. Thanks for the suggestion.

holandia1103:

Keep trucking I will.

Halo:

Yes. Absolutely yes. If Roman almost beat a 15 year old girl to death because of her idealism (Neo being Marry Poppined of the side of a warship not withstanding) then he'd 100% get really fucking annoyed with any hero who just spouts that mindless drivel at him.

As for having RWBY or MHA powers It kinda depends. Some quirks from mha are really fucking strong. One I'd love to have would be Overhaul cause you can fucking disassemble and reassemble shit on a molecular fucking level. That's strong. Really strong. On the other hand, you can also have some basic bitch shit like extending your fucking fingers by a few inches. Quirks are basically trying to win the genetic lottery.

But with RWBY, every singe person (That unlocks one) has an Aura and that alone can let you do a lot of shit most quirks can't, not to mention a semblance on top of that which range from convenient, to powerful or a mix of the two. Some semblances can be bad, don't get me wrong but even then those bad semblances can be used in some way. So in general, I think I'd prefer having an Aura and some kind of semblance rather than a quirk.

Wyran cost:

I just wanna get something off my chest with you.

*stares intently with narrowed eyes*

When I was writing this chapter, originally, I was actually planning on Roman robbing a bank. But then, you post your review and a part of my soul died when I saw that you literally said what I was planning couldn't be what I was planning since it was too obvious. But, on the bright side, you were kinda right. Bank robbing is cliche af, so, I got the idea for this chapter instead and I gotta say I'm kinda glad that you pointed that out. I'm liking where I'm going with this a bit more. Even if over 3000 words went down the drain in an instant. Lmao.

Otherwise tho, glad to see you enjoy my fanfic. If you have any more suggestions, don't be afraid to share them but please try to time it better so I don't wilt away in despair ;-;

Taken69:

No. Akira and Roman won't be together.


Chapter Nine: Into The Spotlight


Last minute preparations. It was always the most nerve-wracking part of any heist for Roman. It always filled him with adrenaline, the prospect of getting caught or just barely escaping the police's grasp, it was one of the reasons he loved doing what he did. But he wasn't an adrenaline junkie, not at all. Anyone who would think so would be more wrong that anyone had ever been before in their entire life.

Okay well at least he wasn't a large adrenaline junkie.

With an unlit cigar in one hand and Melodic Cudgel in the other, he stood observing his crew running around like headless chickens getting ready for his little plan that would thrust himself out into the spotlight. Today was the big day and he was itching to get a move on. Akira had come through with the clothing he had ordered and now everyone here was wearing something one could call professional. Maybe even a little fancy for a few.

Speaking of the new recruits, they have proved competent enough, no worse than the thugs that ran with Junior but that wasn't a problem, not yet. He didn't necessarily need quality at the moment. He needed quantity and for what was going to happen, he had enough quantity for now. He hoped that more will be flooding in soon, he's going to need all the bodies he can get his hands on after today.

Torchwick turned and looked at the board the plan was on one last time. He'd already briefed everyone with what they needed to know, some more than others, and now he was just trying to kill time. His target was something a little unorthodox but still something he felt would be a step in the right direction.

He did a little bit of digging and with a decent sum of cash to Giran, who Roman now decided was 10 times better than Junior ever was, found out that people just like Akira are being harassed and extorted, and that police and heroes are doing very little, if nothing at all. The two thugs he'd bludgeoned at Akira's shop had been arrested after he'd left and Giran had been able to identify who they worked for.

It turned out, a good chunk of the thugs and minor villains in the city answered to one man. He went by the villain name: The Robber Baron. Torchwick was also given the man's real name but he couldn't be bothered to even TRY remembering it. Giran had told him that apparently, the man held a tight monopoly on many of the cities smaller businesses, threatening to ruin the owners themselves and their livelihoods If they didn't submit to his demands.

Roman saw an opportunity.

At first, he'd wanted to hit a valuable target like a bank or something of that nature but came to realize that it wasn't the smartest move he could make at the moment. Here he was, still an unknown, someone thought to be an annoyance at most and a wannabe upstart at the least. He wasn't important. Not yet. If Torchwick were to go through with his original idea, his reputation would be solidified as a common criminal and the police and heroes would be all the more a problem.

What he was doing now still held a risk but it was a much better option in the long run. Taking out other criminals without a Hero license was still a crime as he'd come to learn, skimming through anything about quirks, heroes and their laws. However, if he played this right, his positive reputation could jump up among the local populace, making any law enforcement hesitant in trying to come after him at least or completely indifferent at best. He wouldn't be surprised if they were glad for someone doing their job for them. That being said, It was two birds with one stone really. Take out the competition before he's even entered the field and reap the rewards once the job was done.

He would need to be careful after the fact though. With this move, he'd be forced to hide any serious illegal activities such as grand larceny or murder if the need arose, but Torchwick was okay with that in the end. Back on Remnant he'd lived for the publicity, for the thrill of being on every newspaper after running circles around Huntsmen and police. He'd be doing something similar here, except out of plain sight. They'd know what he'd be doing but wouldn't be able to do anything about it. He'd be running metaphorical circles around the heroes in place of literal ones. An involuntary twitch of the corners of his lips blossomed into a full blown grin.

He lit a flame on his lighter and lifted it to the cigar in his hand, before putting the former away and placing the latter up to his lips. His eyes widened slightly and an involuntary cough caught him by surprised, smoke spilling out in an uncontrolled manner from his lungs. "Shit…" Torchwick mumbled. "This brand is a lot stronger…" He took in another drag and was more prepared this time. Now that he wasn't coughing his lungs out, he could safely say that the quality was high.

Pushing the cigar flavor aside, Roman went over the plan one last time. He'd found out that The Baron operated out of a complex in the red lights district of Musutafu. That wasn't very far from his current position, meaning it wouldn't be too hard to take over when all was said and done. The plan was fairly simple really.

Torchwick and the rest of his Candles were to make their way down into the red light's district and confront The Baron without alerting the police to their presence. The objective was to make The Baron submit to him and take control of his resources. Failing that, he'd simply kill the Baron and any who'd try to resist him before taking everything he owned anyways. It would most likely be bloody either way but it was necessary. Thankfully, there was a good chance the police wouldn't care to investigate any murders of villains, assuming he played his cards right.

He turned around and spotted Tsutomu and Hanako overlooking and helping with the preparations. "Tsutomu! Hanako!" He shouted, getting their attention before waving them over. The two quickly finished up what they were doing and jogged over to his side.

"Boss. Something wrong?" Tsutomu asked with a bit of concern.

"No. I'm just checking in. How's everything going? I'd like to get a move on while the sun is still in the sky. I'm not sure how long this'll take." He explained, taking another drag of his cigar. He was used to it now so he wouldn't be coughing up a storm again any time soon.

Hanako looked over her shoulder at the rest of the men, gave a nod to herself and turned back around. "We should be ready to go in no more than a couple minutes. Transport is ready and all of us have something to fight with, if it's not a gun or some kind of weapon, the boys are going to rely on their quirks." She explained to him as he nodded in acknowledgment.

He'd need to fix that sooner or later. He wasn't really expecting most of the men under him to be exactly effective but he wanted them to be able to at least somewhat hold their own. Over reliance on quirks wasn't a good thing. Once he got the chance, he'd need to fix that, including with Tsutomu and the rest of his original members.

"Isao, Takeo and Emiko are also waiting on standby now. The former should be making sure the trucks won't die on us while we're actually on the move and the other two are just waiting I think. Not like there's much for them to do right now anyways." Tsutomu spoke up after a few seconds of silence.

"That's fine. Make sure that we're ready to go soon, I'm going to be outside." Torchwick replied, before spinning on his heels and walking towards one of the back exits. "No problem Boss." Hanako responded. He heard both of their footsteps moving in the opposite direction and smiled. Those two were reliable. All five of them were really, but those two were more so.

As he walked, Roman noted the warehouses interior. It was starting to look more and more lived in as time went on. That generally tended to happen when around 30 people, himself included, stayed in one building. That being said, not every single member of his gang stayed in this building all the time, but all of them had stayed at least a single night, at least once.

Opening the doors, he was met with the sun's rays falling onto him, his hat only minimally shading his face from the light. He took a look around and nodded in satisfaction as a few more Candles roamed around doing last minute checks to make sure everything was in place. He noted Isao was observing the men as they worked with Takeo standing beside him. A glance to the left gave him a view of Emiko, sitting on the back of one of the trucks, smiling happily and kicking her legs back and forth.

Seeing that the former two were busy, Roman sighed and started making his way towards Emiko. When the young girl spotted him, she beamed brightly and gave him a large smile and a wave. "Roman! Hi!" She greeted, eagerly jumping to her feet and jogging over to him. He noted that she'd easily won over a few of the new thugs that had joined, gaining small smiles as she walked by. It was just something about the air she gave off he supposed.

"Emiko." Torchwick greeted, a small genuine smile on his face. "Is everything ready out here?"

She gave him an eager nod. "Yup!" She said, popping the P. "Isao and Takeo should have everything ready in a few more minutes really. I think they are ready actually. Pretty sure they just don't wanna be caught slacking off by you." Roman raised an eyebrow and looked over. Sure enough, if he looked closely, he could see that the both of them were a little stiff under his gaze. Isao glanced over but quickly looked away when he noticed Torchwick was looking. He snorted in amusement.

"Well you're not wrong about that." He turned back towards the young girl and noticed she seemed really excited.

"So today is the big day huh? I'm really excited! I can't wait to go already!" She said, vibrating slightly and constantly bopping up and down on her feet. Torchwick chuckled a little. "We'll be moving out soon. Just be a little more patient." As if right on cue, Tsutomu, Hanako and the rest of the Candles exited the main building and began walking to their assigned vehicles.

Torchwick gave a whistle and soon the rest of them were moving to where they needed to be. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Isao and Takeo both slump slightly as the tension bled from their shoulders. He glanced back towards Emiko. "Alright kid, it's time to go. Go meet up with your sister alright?" She gave an eager nod and he turned to walk away. Before he could, a small hand grabbed his arm.

"Uh… Roman?" Emiko asked. Said thief turned his head and glanced at her, her previous excitement turned into nervousness and a little bit of embarrassment.

"What is it kid?" he asked, a little impatiently this time.

"Um… Well… I just wanted to say... Thank you…" She said, quietly but is was enough for him to hear. His eyebrows shot up and he turned to face her fully. He didn't speak, he was too surprised to do so. Emiko took his silence as acknowledgment and so she continued.

"Things were pretty rough before we met you… Even though we literally tried to rob you, you still came to us when you needed help…" Then a faint reminiscent smile appeared. "And when we asked if we could stay with you, you accepted us. Life has been… Pretty good since then actually." She backed up a bit. "So yeah. Thanks Roman." She then turned after giving one final bright smile and scampered off to the vehicle her sister was in.

"Huh…" Roman mumbled, before shaking his head and turning to the vehicle he was meant to drive. He hesitated for a moment before an involuntary twitch of his lips forced them into a small smile. He shook his head and scoffed playfully, before making his way over to his vehicle, Melodic Cudgel tapping the asphalt all the while.

He opened the door to the drivers seat and put one foot in, before turning to the others. He raised his cane in the air and waved it in a circular motion, giving them a whistle that meant it was time to go. Roman closed the door to the drivers seat and all of the engines started up, before they departed.

"Let's get this show on the road…" Torchwick mumbled.


Around half an hour later, the vehicles rolled to a stop, the tires scattering the odd pebble or piece of cracked asphalt at the did so, before the engines were cut entirely, their rumble silenced and brought to a halt. Right after, all of the doors to the vehicles opened and men stepped out, all wearing similar yet different close.

Roman Torchwick was the last man out of the truck. He surveyed his surroundings with a keen eye, the thief looking much more serious than he usually did. After a minute of tense silence and finding nothing of note, satisfied, Roman turned towards his men. All of them were being quiet, just as they had been instructed. They may have been new and rowdy but Torchwick had instilled in them a fear of disobedience. Cinder may have indirectly taught him a thing or two.

"Alright." He began, tapping his cane against the ground to make sure he had everyone's attention. "All of you have been briefed on exactly what I need you to do. We have to do this quiet and I expect all of you to follow the plan. If we do this right, we'll be done before the sun even starts to go down. If one of you fucks up?" Torchwick let a snarl appear on his face. "You had better best hope you fucked up for a damn good reason."

"Emiko." Said girl looked over to him, looking a little nervous. "I need you to head up there, scout out the area, make sure we're clear to go. Be quick but don't rush it." She gave him a nod and stretched her arms up to their limit, allowing her to grab the edge of the roof, before retracting her arms and pulling herself up in the process. She looked back at him for one second before disappearing from view.

They were in the center of the Red Lights district at the moment, not even half a block away from The Baron's compound. He could tell some of his men looked jittery, and not just because of his not so subtle threats. They didn't want to be here because of who it is they'd be taking down. Probably because they were either screwed over by the guy or just knew him by reputation. Either way, It looked like they'd sooner take the chance to try and screw the guy over themselves rather than not.

Not too long later, Emiko returned and hopped down from the roof, before turning to Torchwick. "We weren't too far off from the original estimate. No more than 20 guards outside, spread out evenly give or take along the perimeter." Roman gave her a nod. She might have been a child but she could get serious when the time called for it. That was what was important.

He turned to Takeo and Hanako. "Alright you two are up. Take some men and try to clear a way inside, preferably without being seen. Take out anyone you have to and while I'd rather we avoid any unnecessary deaths, I'd sooner you kill anyone who spots you rather than have the damn alarm tripped before we're ready." He paused, turned towards Emiko and narrowed his eyes. "Except for you." Hanako ruffled her head while snickering and Roman turned back towards Hanako. "Go!" The two of them did as ordered, taking no more than six men each, before splitting off from the main group.

Roman walked over to the edge of the alley and peaked around the corner. He only watched for enough time to see Hanako and one of the other Candles coordinate to take out one of the guards who slumped over, unconscious, the latter of which took the downed man's weapon. Torchwick nodded in approval, before peaking back around.

He grabbed something from his pocket and handed it to Isao, before explaining to both himself and Emiko. "You know what to do with this. Get it up to that antenna and turn it on. Be quick about it, the sooner it's up, the larger our margin of error."

"You got it boss. We'll let you know when it's done." Isao and Emiko scurried off, alone and without any other support aside from only two others. That left ten men between himself and Tsutomu but he wasn't going anywhere just yet.

"Alright…" Torchwick muttered, before peaking around the corner once more. He glanced at his phone right as he got a message from Hanako. 'The front is clear of anyone not our own. Should be safe to get a move on so long as we don't make any noise just yet.' Torchwick grunted to himself before snapping back a reply. 'Good work. Keep an eye on your sister. Once she gives the go ahead, you and Takeo move on to phase two.'

His attention was snapped to Tsutomu as his second in command spoke. "Boss. Emiko's giving us the go ahead. They planted the device so we should get a move on. They'll be rejoining us in the base right?" The man asked.

"Yeah." Roman quickly pulled out a detailed blueprint layout of the compound. "The plan is for them to make their way through here, while we go through the front. We'll meet up not too far from where the target should be, assuming no serious complications arise." Torchwick glanced back up to the antenna and waited for a moment, before the device kicked in, blocking any and all signals within a sizable distance and disrupting electronics.

'Remind me to thank Giran after this…' Roman thought, before sighing and etching a grin of anticipation on his face. "Alright, let's get a move on." Tsutomu and the others followed him as the quietly rushed into and across the compound, making their way to the main building. He just caught sight of Takeo and the others using one of the other more unorthodox forms of entrances before they vanished from sight. He brought his focus to in front of him right as they came to the steel doors, blocking their way in.

"You're up Tsutomu. Put that strength of yours to work."

"Won't be a problem for much longer Boss." The large man assured, before moving up the doors as the men moved to get out of his way.

Tsutomu grabbed the doors and began to pull, making grunts of serious effort. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen but then a few chips of cement fell from the wall outlining the door. The a crack was heard, allowing the door to come a little lose. Tsutomu stopped pulling and started pushing in the opposite direction. A loud bang noise was the result, the door becoming even more loose. He kept pushing and pulling, the door loosening even more each attempt, before with one last mighty haul, the door came free. Tsutomu threw the door to the side and took a few deep breaths as the ordeal had tired him out.

Torchwick couldn't help but whistle as a few of the men, who hadn't seen the Goliath of a man in action yet, could only gape at the strength. "When you said you'd be able to pull this off you definitely weren't kidding." Tsutomu didn't respond, still winded from prying the steel doors, with part of the wall still attached free from the building. Roman tapped his shoulder a bit. "We need to get a move on big guy. Get it together." That did it and after a few more breaths, Tsutomu was ready to go.

"Sorry boss… Just tired out a bit…" Tsutomu took one last large breath. "Alright, I'm ready to go. After you boss." Torchwick could only smirk.

The group then entered the building. They had definitely made noise but thankfully all the guards on the outside that were in hearing range of the door were either dead, or as was the case for most of them others, unconscious. Roman took a look at the bodies and had to say, while the new recruits were still green, they weren't all bad. Then he heard rapid footsteps approaching from one of the buildings hallways.

The entire group tensed only as Torchwick tried to find a solution to keep this guard quiet but cursed to himself as he came up short. The door swung open as a guard tumbled into the room they were in. His eyes zeroed in on all the intruders before they widened.

"Hey! What the he-" A wrench, which flew a little too fast than what would be considered normal, impacted the man's temple, before he wobbled a bit, his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell to the floor with a quiet but audible thump. Time itself seemed to freeze in the room. Torchwick turned his head, as did everyone else, only to stare at one of his goons with an outstretched hand.

The man didn't seem to notice the stares for a few seconds but when he did, he glanced around the room for a few seconds. When no one spoke up, he decided to go for it. "What?"

"How- Wha- Where did you even get a wrench from?" Torchwick asked, in some sort of emotion prior unknown to man.

"I was working on the trucks before we came here… Didn't have time to put it away…" He replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

Torchwick just blinked, looked back to the very unconscious man on the floor, then back to the thug that threw the wrench which now laid at the bodies feet. "Some days I can't even…" He mumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose before his head snapped up. "You know what, I'm not going to question that. Good job I guess." He replied although the thug's nervous demeanor didn't really change.

"Alright, I need the four of you-" Roman generally gestured to the four men closest to the door. "-to stay here and make sure we're not interrupted. Grab some weapons from any nearby bodies, tie em up if you need to, just watch for anyone that'll be a problem and don't get yourselves killed. Got it?" The four of them gave him nods, before scampering off to do as they were told.

"Let's go." he said to the rest of them, the group making their way through the building. The jog was tense, Roman's eyes snapping from side to side, searching for any threat or indicator that they might have fucked something up but it didn't look like that was the case.

The device that Emiko planted on top of the tower looked to be doing it's job if the lack of any response so far was anything to go by. Torchwick wanted to finish this without the entire compound and maybe more thugs barring down on them. He was fairly sure he'd be able to fight his way out if the need arose, but there was absolutely no way in hell he'd risk something like that.

Eventually, after running through the halls for a bit, Roman, Tsutomu and the rest of his Candles turned a corner, before stopping at the stairwell they needed to descend which would lead to The Baron's office. There was only one small problem. Around a dozen heads, both mutated and normal, turned towards them before getting into stances.

"Get them! Don't let them reach the boss!" One of them shouted, before all of them rushed in wildly.

Torchwick looked at his men out of the corner of his eye. "I hope you're all competent enough to handle at least one of these idiots!" Then, without enough time to do much else, he extended Melodic Cudgel and held it in preparation for combat, the other goons and Tsutomu doing the same.


"Hehehehe- OW! What was that for?!"

"Shut up you idiot! If we get caught because you're being a fucking dumbass, the boss is going to kill us!"

"Alright, fine… Sorry sheesh, let's just go…"

Hanako rolled her eyes at Isao's idiocy and begrudgingly started moving forward again. The two of them were sneaking through one of the ventilation systems around the compound. It was definitely cliché but people were really, really stupid and assuming they didn't make too much noise, like Isao was doing by giggling and rubbing his hands together like a fucking gremlin, they should be fine. If the gremlin emerged again, she'd just have to smack him on the head one more time.

"Why are we crawling through here again?" Came the whispered question from Isao. Hanako struggled not to sigh.

"We're taking out one of the big targets the boss want's dealt with." She explained hastily. The guy The Roman Candle was trying to knock off the board so to speak had a few trusted people that did important work for him, or that's what Roman had told her.

Their job was to take the guy out and prevent him from joining with his boss when the time came. After that, they were supposed to meet up with Torchwick and Tsutomu and take out the big guy himself, along with Emiko and Takeo assuming they did their job quick enough.

"Just to make sure, can you repeat what Torchwick told us about the guy?" To his credit, Isao at least tried to keep a straight face which almost sold the attempt at feigning double checking when in reality, he just wasn't paying attention when Roman was telling them about the plan.

"He didn't have too much to tell us to begin with. I think he has some kind of sonic emitter quirk, kind of like Present Mic, just without the whole screaming thing, you know?" She thought about the implications of going up against Present Mic in a fight and imagined blood exploding from her ears. She shivered slightly from phantom pains. "I am so glad we wouldn't have to go against him…"

"You can say that again… It would probably destroy Emiko if she'd go up against him." Isao noted, to which Hanako hummed in affirmative. "Still," Isao continued. "I'm not sure how we're going to handle this guy. Do you have a plan?"

"Not really." Hanako responded bluntly to which Isao stared. "We'll have to wing it I guess."

There was a tense silence before Isao sighed in despair and defeat. "We're doomed…"

"Shut up!"

"...At least tell me that the guys we grabbed are doing their jobs right?" Isao pleaded, hoping for the slightest bit of good news in a really not too bad of a situation. Bastard liked being dramatic at the worst of times. She was still cringing from the sales pitch he'd thrown Torchwick about the dress code thing. She'd been peaking around the corner and opted to record the entire thing for later mockery instead of saving the poor dude from the embarrassment. Although she did love her new dress…

As for the men that had gone with them, after they'd cleared out a path for Torchwick, Hanako had sent a little over half of them to search the nearby area just in case they were missing someone or something, while the rest of them continued on to the room they were currently heading to. In reality there was a sort of plan, which was to have the goons rush in and distract the guy so they could take him out, but nothing else really.

"How am I supposed to know that? We'll just have to hope for the best. They held their own against the other guards we took out so they should be fine." At Isao's deadpanned look she sighed. "Keyword: should." She pulled out her phone and took a look at the timer she set up.

"We have five more minutes before the grunts are gonna rush in. That's enough time to get there, assuming you reign in that gremlin of yours." Isao rolled his eyes and groaned, causing Hanako to snicker.

The two crawled slowly for a few more minutes, before coming up to the vent opening that led to the room they were looking for. Both of them leaned in, peering through the small slits of the vent and into the room. There wasn't really anything of note anywhere in the room aside from a bunch of crates scattered around but their target was sitting at a desk and reading a magazine. Hanako didn't take a guy like that to read fashion magazines.

The guy looked to be in his early thirties maybe. He had a goatee type beard and dyed red hair that was styled in a mohawk. Standard black jeans and a yellow coat with ripped sleeves and a white shirt underneath. He had some kind of harness on his face that curled around his ears.

Hanako snapped a look at her phones timer and grinned at what she saw. Thirty seconds. She looked over to Isao and showed him her phone. He chuckled silently in anticipation. The gremlin almost came out again but a swift head chop stopped it in it's tracks. The two sat quietly, eagerly waiting for the clock to hit zero, getting even more antsy with each tick.

"5..."

"4..."

"3..."

"2..."

"1..."

A shit eating grin appeared on Isao's face. "This is where the fun begins." Hanako was stopped from groaning by the door to the room slamming open, the goons that had come with them rushing in with weapons raised and firing. Their target toppled over his chair in surprise but quickly stood up.

Hanako and Isao used the distraction to quietly open the vent and jump to the floor, before closing the distance between The Barron's lieutenant and themselves. Speaking of the man, he had begun fighting the goons, throwing sonic waves left and right. There wasn't too much real skill in the way he fought and that, coupled with the fact he was outnumbered twelve to one, allowed the goons to get a few lucky, yet only superficial hits on him. In the end though, they were all eventually tossed away like rag dolls, alive, but out of the fight.

"Fucking pricks…" The guy mumbled. "Why the hell wasn't I told we were under attack…? Gotta warn the boss…" He started to move but a metal bat getting smashed into the back of his head stopped him from going anywhere. Isao cheered as the man stumbled and nearly fell, but to his surprise, he caught himself and stood up, bleeding, but not out just yet.

"Two more roaches huh? Alright, I'll make this quick." Isao paled slightly at the man's threat.

"Oh shit…" A sonic wave was hurled at him but a purple glow enveloped him, before he was thrown to the side before he could get hit. The sonic wave passed him and the glow rescinded as he tumbled to the floor, before falling into a roll and jumping to his feet.

Hanako jumped in, throwing two crates at their target which were blasted apart with a sonic wave, but that was enough for her to close the distance. She slammed a fist into the man's stomach and kicked high, her foot smacking him in the nose. In response, the man threw a sonic wave at her. She managed to dodge it but was left open to a kick which made her stumble, before another sonic wave threw her back into a pile of crates.

Cursing, Isao threw himself into a roll to avoid a wave before falling into a sprint, trying to dodge as much as he could. He positioned himself on the opposite side of a small pile of crates. A sonic wave blasted them apart but one of the crates was barreling straight towards him. He readied hit bat and swung hard with his quirk activated. The crates momentum halted, before soaring in the opposite direction, throwing the guy off of his feet as it crashed and splintered against him.

Isao used the chance to turn to Hanako who had just managed to stand back up. "Hanako! Use your quirk to throw shit at me!" She had a glint of realization and grinned sadistically at her friend. 'At least he isn't always an idiot.' She thought, before using her telekinesis to start chucking some crates and other times at Isao.

Isao felt like he was playing Major League Baseball as he used his quirk to bat away anything that came at him with his quirk. Granted Hanako liked to screw with him a lot and so she was throwing a few too many things at him which he needed to ignore or occasionally avoid but still, he as enjoying this.

A few of the projectiles were either blasted apart or thrown to other parts of the room from the sonic waves the man was shooting at them but there were simply too many objects for him to properly avoid and most of them found their target, slamming against the man with a large amount of force. The man grit his teeth and threw himself to the side and behind one of the crate piles, protecting himself from the onslaught of projectiles.

A second later, he blasted the pile apart and charged at Isao, who threw himself into a defensive stance while trying to gain distance. Hanako's eyes widened and she shifted her aim from Isao to the man rushing him, practically catapulting objects left and right but they were either avoided, ignored or blasted apart.

The man managed to reach Isao and the two engaged in combat. Isao swung his bat a few times but the man, now suitably pissed, either soldiered through the pain with grit teeth as he blocked the swings with his arms or narrowly dodged the swings. Enough was enough when a fist met Isao's face, followed by a foot being thrown into his stomach, sending him rolling. Isao quickly stood up while supporting himself with his bat but he couldn't protect himself from the oncoming sonic wave. It slammed into him with full force, sending him tumbling, rolling and skidding across the floor, before he landed in a heap.

"Isao!" Hanako shouted but was thrown of her feet herself when a sonic wave hit her. She managed to catch herself and land on her feet but a second wave was already coming her way. A purple glow enveloped a table and two nearby crates before Hanako threw them against the sonic wave. The objects shattered on impact, showering the floor with splinters but had successfully managed to negate the sonic waves impact.

The man rushed her and closed the distance and they both began throwing punches and kicks, blocking, dodging and deflecting the blows. Hanako grit her teeth as she fought. The man, while unskilled, was much bigger and much stronger than her. Besides it wasn't as if she was exactly trained in fighting people either. She was just a street rat after all.

Thankfully, despite the odd sonic wave the man threw in in order to mix up his attack pattern, the way his sonic waves worked was that they started out small and expanded from a point on his hand in a cone shape, meaning that she was close enough to avoid the sonic waves, assuming she paid attention, which she did.

But even then, with all of her effort, eventually, she made a mistake that cost her the fight. A sonic wave blasted against her stomach, forcing her back. She crashed through a pile of crates and rolled painfully on the ground with splinters cutting numerous shallow cuts all around her body as they flew in the air all around her from the impact. Dazed, but still conscious, she hauled herself to her hands and knees before turning, only to see another sonic wave heading towards her. Her eyes widened in fear and she froze.

"HANAKO!" A shout snapped her out of it and she looked over, only to see Isao throwing himself between her and the sonic wave, She reached out a hand and opened her mouth, preparing to scream at him for doing something so stupid when he thrust a hand out. A dark blue barrier materialized into existence, much to her astonishment. When the sonic wave smashed against it, it's momentum stopped.

Before reversing.

It hurled back towards it's source and slammed into their target's body, throwing him back like a football player punting a football across a field. The two watched as he flew through the air, before the man hit the wall at the far end of the room. A resounding crack echoed throughout the now destroyed room, before the man's body fell to the floor limp. Then blood pooled around his body.

"He… Hehehe…" Isao's nervous laughter brought her attention back to him. She glanced over, only to see him chuckling weakly in between deep breaths. He looked surprised and so was she.

"I didn't know your quirk could do that…" She mumbled while panting.

"Yeah…" He replied, collapsing onto his ass, supporting himself with his bat. "Me neither… You learn something knew everyday."

Everything was silent aside from the two's deep breaths before Hanako snorted, which devolved into the both of them snickering like school children. "Fuck man… That was crazy…" Hanako said, earning a grunt of agreement from Isao. They sat there for a few minutes, trying to catch their breath before Isao stood up slowly and turned towards Hanako.

"Alright…" He reached out a hand to her. "Let's go see if the rest of the idiot's are okay." Hanako only stared at him, her cheeks flushed red slightly, before shaking her head and somehow getting some words out of her mouth.

.

.

.

"Yeah… Let's do that… Fuck…"


A/N: Well then, there's the start of the Debut. I'm gonna be honest, I took a little longer with this chapter than the rest of the others and for a multitude of reasons (other than rewrites. *stares intently again*). First off was that school was a pain since the holidays are coming up, the teachers are throwing a shit ton of stuff at us so we have enough grades for the report card for this semester.

Another thing was just trying to figure out how I wanted this chapter to go. I spent a full day trying to ask myself: "Do I want one large chapter or do I split the debut into multiple parts since it's kind of like a volume/season finale and if I choose option number 2, how do I want to split it?" Yeah it took a while to figure it out and I'm still kinda winging it but I actually like writing by the seat of my oversized clown pants.

Also this is the first time I wrote a scene that didn't really include Roman since I was kind of running on fumes with Torchwick always being everywhere and I didn't know how to pace the chapter without throwing some other characters in the spotlight. Not sure if it's visible but at the end of Roman's scene at around the center of the chapter I was kinda just done. I'm really glad I did change the focus tho and the final scene with Hanako and Isao is probably my favorite in this chapter, the first scene with Emiko talking with Torchwick being a close second.

Anyways I don't have too much to add to what I've already said. There are gonna be 1-3 more chapters before I hit a time skip. Not sure how big it'll be but like I said in an earlier chapter, Midoriya and the rest of Class 1-A won't be in U.A. just yet. What I want to do for that time right before U.A. is stuff like grabbing a few more canon characters for Roman to interact with but otherwise I don't have any plans yet. If one of you have an idea, I'd love to hear it.

With that said, I'd like to thank all of you for reading my fic. Questions, suggestions, feedback be it good or bad, let me know. I want to hear all of it. Aaaaand I'll see all of you when the next chapter is ready. See ya.