Chapter 24: Black and Green!
"AAAARRGGGHHH!"
Izuku found himself falling through the portal the mist villain had created and hit the ground hard. He didn't have much time to look around though as he was instantly under attack from villains on all sides.
He picked a handful of them up with Phantom-Force and threw them against a crumbling building where they fell unconscious right away. As he turned around to shoot a couple of green fireballs at another charging villain while he was ducking for cover in a ditch, he saw some of his fellow classmates.
Shiozaki was instantly under attack and surrounded. Unfortunately for her attackers, they realized she was not to be underestimated because they wound up being wound up in her vines and being smashed into one another before being tossed into a glue trap that Bondo had created.
The big guy who Izuku had always taken for a gentle giant was quite the sight to behold and shocked Izuku. He'd never thought he'd see the boy use his ginormous size to his advantage. He was picking up the villains left, right, and center and with his great strength tossing them into the glue traps that he had created.
He then saw Aoyama who was nervously shooting his navel laser at incoming attackers. It was then that he remembered what the boy had said about his quirk not being well for his body as he instantly saw the toll it was having on him given the discomfort on his face.
The fighting went on for about twenty minutes, with hordes of villains running towards them. The hero students developed a routine that worked for them. Aoyama would act like an electric fly lantern, attracting the villains towards them. Once they were in range, Shoizaki with her vines and Izuku with his telekinetic abilities, would pick them up and throw them into the many glue traps that Bondo had created. Tetsutetsu would then knock the few out that had quirks that helped them escape the glue traps.
"Why couldn't I be sent to the fire zone?!" Izuku groaned to himself as he massaged his head in an attempt to relieve his pounding headache, he was at the edge of his limit of psychokinetic abilities. He then heard a scream and turned to see Tetsutetsu get knocked out by a villain who managed to escape Bondo's glue trap. Blood was starting to drip down his face and the villain created a sword from their body and raised it above the unconscious teenager.
Since he didn't know if he could use anymore of his psychokinetic abilities, Izuku switched to fire, immediately shooting a large green fireball at the villain who was then pushed back at the force of the impact. His clothes ignited from the impact and the villain had to stop, drop, and roll to put them flames out.
"Well well well… That wasn't very heroic..."
Izuku turned to see a villain just chilling while sitting on a destroyed building. He had a helmet over his head. It wasn't like a normal motorcycle helmet in that the dark glass covered the entire face from what Izuku assumed was the villain's forehead all the way down to the chin.
His outfit was made from a shiny black material covered in red piping with dark black flames licking the edges of his costume like Endeavor's hero outfit. It covered every part of his body including his neck and up into his helmet, not showing a clue of what the villain looked like underneath. From just body shape and appearance, Izuku assumed that this villain was a handful years his senior, but far more built up in terms of muscle and several inches taller, standing near six feet compared to Izuku's Five foot Five.
"Setting some poor poor unfortunate soul on fire and letting him burn alive." the masked villain chuckled, "Not the behavior I expected from the most cherished of UA's Golden Eggs. Especially the one who was the first born with more than two quirks since they first emerged hundreds of years ago. Back when people discriminated against those who had quirks, till they were put in their rightful place."
"Enough villain! Repent for your sins or suffer the torment of Lucifer for eternity!" Shiozaki called out, she immediately outstretched her vines in a rapid motion towards the masked villain who just sat there watching the attack come towards him as though he was bored. The vines wrapped around him and he didn't seem phased.
Next thing Izuku saw was the villain let out a visible sigh as the vines were then engulfed in black and violet flames. The vines surrounding him burned away and raced back towards Shiozaki along her extended vines. The flames reached her body before she could detach her hair and engulfed her.
Shiozaki let an ear splitting and gut wrenching scream as she was essentially being burned alive. Her hero costume, a white toga was set ablaze and turned to ash within seconds. She collapsed onto the ground, rolling around, screaming her head off as the flames would not go out.
Izuku immediately reached out with his Pyro quirk and did his best to command the flames burning Shiozaki alive to go out and cool down. However, something that never happened before occurred when he tried to command the flames to go out. Instead of extinguishing right away, he found himself in a sort of mental struggle on top of his currently existing pounding headache.
The flames around Shiozaki's burning body refused to submit to his commands. Izuku had prior experience with quirk produced flames, and this didn't match up with said experiences. Back when he and Hiro were training with Backdraft, he had taken up on a work study student from Ketsubutsu Academy who could create flames and control them within twenty feet of her. Izuku found that he could control the work study student's flames just as easily as fire produced everywhere else. This was more of a battle of wills.
Izuku started to growl as he shoved more concentration into his quirk as he fought the black flames surrounding his fellow student as his headache was dangerously climbing up till 11. Slowly the flames started to die down and become smaller. Shiozaki had since stopped screaming and thrashing about for she had fallen unconscious from the pain of being burned alive.
"Oh I don't think so." the helmeted villain cackled as he reached out his hand towards Shiozaki and the flames roared up, "I'm not done having fun yet. Can't let you get rid of my entertainment!"
"You bastard!" Izuku shouted as he once again was forced into the battle of wills to extinguish the fire engulfing Shiozaki.
"Excuse me! I was planned, and if you want to point fingers at people, point them at yourself!" the villain laughed, wheezing at the end, "After all, I am just acting upon the inspiration you gave me few minutes ago!"
"I extinguished those flames before permanent damage could be done!" Izuku shouted back, his head was throbbing from the mental tug of war as they fought for control of the raging flames. "This is just sick!"
"Sick as in awesome!" the villain cackled as the flames burst into life once more as they were almost extinguished. "Now watch as your overgrown pile of kale is turned to- WHAT!?"
The villain was cut off as a beam of light struck him in the chest. He flinched back as turned around and saw Aoyama facing towards him as he shot more sparkling beams of light towards the villain.
"That tickled!" the villain laughed, "That was like an… okay and iffy punch. Are you sure you are putting your all in your attacks?!"
"Your taunts mean nothing to moi!" Aoyama shouted back as he launched his most powerful laser blast yet, only for the villain to simply lazily twist his torso and lean to the side as sparkling light completely missed his target. With the villain distracted by Aoyama, Izuku managed to snuff the fire out and rush over to Ibara to apply his healing quirk to her once he determined that miraculously she was still alive. Thankfully the villain didn't notice that Izuku was actually also making the fire colder so she stopped burning.
"Come on! Surely you can do better! You evidently picked that hero costume to be the knight in shining armor for all those poor victims of villain attacks. How can you do that if your own quirk is clearly hurting you? What honorable knight clutches his stomach while his face is green with nausea? That costume is nothing more than a pathetic lie!"
"I told you your insults mean nothing to moi villain!" Aoyama shouted as he let out another blast of energy coming from his stomach, but it was weaker than the last. The villain simply stepped out of the way from sparkling light once more.
"Look at you." the villain cackled, "I thought you had to be good to get into UA. The world famous hero school! Continually ranked in the top 5 hero schools worldwide. Yet here you are, with a quirk that takes you out before the big bad guy. How can you possibly be the knight from fairy tales of old if you are unable to rescue the damsel in distress because you are about to puke all over her while carrying her in your arms. Mind you, your current damsel in distress is currently nothing more than a burnt and charred corpse! Well guess what, you aren't living in a fairy tale like you would though hero work would be. Welcome to reality!"
The villain while giving a sinister smile under their helmet, crossed their arms over his chest and conjured multiple daggers solidified black fire and threw them at Aoyama. The shining knight, overcome with stomach pains, struggled to dodge out of the way of the flying blades of dark fire. They pierced his armor, sinking into his shoulder and his thigh. The final blade that hit him struck his stomach, shattering the focusing lens on his belt. Aoyama began screaming like a wounded animal as he collapsed onto the ground, sparkling light, slowly leaking out of the cracks in the lens on his belt.
Izuku looked up from where was desperately trying to stabilize Shiozaki. Sparkling gold aura surrounding them both as Izuku did his best to ease her suffering when she regained consciousness. He was focusing mainly on her vital internal organs because there was nothing he could do for much of the skin though without going to his green aura, which he decided right now was too risky for he needed his own stamina and energy for when the masked villain turned his attention back to him.
He saw Aoyama twisting and writhing on the ground as the belt that kept his quirk from leaking was compromised. The pain was clearly evident on his face as he was making sounds that no human should be capable of voicing and the villain stood over the helpless teen, laughing his butt off.
"I never knew people could make such noises! If only they let me take my phone with me! My father would love this!"
Izuku was disgusted with what he was seeing as he finished using his healing quirk on Shiozaki, silently handing off Shiozaki's burnt, but still living body to Bondo as he was also carrying Tetsutetsu.
"Get both of them out of here." Izuku whispered to the giant boy, "Try and find an emergency exit and get them out of here and raise the alarm. I've managed to stabilize Shiozaki, but if she doesn't get immediate medical attention she won't survive. As much as I would like backup, your quirk isn't suited for direct combat."
Bondo merely nodded as he rushed off before the helmeted villain finished berating and taunting Aoyama till the blond boy passed out.
"Shame." the villain moaned like a toddler who had their favorite toy taken away, "I was really, really enjoying that noise. Guess I'll just have to submit it to memory since my dear father wouldn't let me take my phone with me."
"What kind of father encourages such behavior!?" Izuku called out to the villain who then turned to face him.
"Oops!" the villain laughed, "Forgot you were there little boy! Was so caught up in the faux-knight over here I forgot about you. But don't worry! You have my undivided attention now!"
The villain once again conjured black flaming daggers and threw them at Izuku who dodged out of the way before sending a handful of green fireballs at the helmeted villain. The villain dodged this attack by simply jumping off the collapsed building he was standing on and slowly floating to the ground.
"Fireballs?" the villain mocked, "How unoriginal!"
The villain then conjured black flaming whips and lashed them out towards Izuku. The hero course student dodged by rolling to the left before against the advice his currently pounding head was giving him, telekinetically grabbing hold of the villain and throwing in backwards into the building behind him. The resulting attack however seemed to double the pain in his head and his vision started to begin to blur.
"Now that's more like it!"
The villain's body to Izuku's alarm then became surrounded with crimson lightning. Izuku's breath got caught in his chest as his mind began racing.
"That lightning is just like mine when I activate One For All! But how!? Based on how All Might's description there can't be another quirk like it!"
"Tut. Tut. And you thought you were the only one special enough to have more than one quirk. The sheer hubris." the villain laughed as the lightning began to move around his body and pool into his right arm. "You must be SHOCKED!"
The villain dramatically threw his right arm forward as he twirled his double bladed sword of flame. Izuku was in too much pain thanks to the pounding in his cranium to have the reaction time to dodge so as a result the red lighting hit him dead on and sent him flying twenty meters backwards.
His skin was burnt from the electrical discharge. From the neck down he felt tingly as a result of the electrical shock. His left leg began to twitch uncontrollably as his nervous system was temporarily overloaded from the blast. His heart, while beating fast before felt off.
Izuku didn't have time to collect himself as the villain jumped and came flying towards him, flaming sword and all. Hastily, Izuku created a solid wall of flames in front of him. His eyes turned to the size of saucers as the villain cut through the wall of flames with his sword, green parting for black.
Izuku hastily dodged downwards and rolled to the left, but the villain predicted his movement. He felt the flaming sword graze his cheek as he was evading, and crying out as he felt as though molten metal was drizzled across his face.
"How about a little intermission…" the villain chuckled, "You wouldn't want me to do that again would you Izuku Midoriya?"
"What is it that you want!?" Izuku growled as he got to his feet and got into a fighting stance. "WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM!?"
"My problem?" The villain snickered, "You know… I'm not quite sure myself! Perhaps I need to travel to Tibet and climb a mountain to ask an old hermit only to receive the same advice I would've gotten out of a fortune cookie. But you know what… NAH!"
"You ask me what my problem is? I honestly don't know and nor do I give a damn in figuring it out. I only know I have a problem because I only have an answer, and that answer is beating the crap out of you."
The villain then began to float up in the air and stay stationary right above him. He dispelled his flaming sword as he pressed both of his hands together as though in a Christian prayer. He tilted his head to the side as though in thought, but then with a quiet laugh he separated his hands and snapped his fingers.
Izuku felt something grab both of his arms and legs. He had been restrained by what appeared to be pure darkness. He turned his head around and saw they originated from shadows of the derelict buildings. Inside the buildings he saw terrified business and support course students that they were supposed to be saving.
"How could we have forgotten about them?" Izuku thought to himself in horror as he felt a pang of guilt and dread coarse through his body.
The villain followed Izuku's gaze, peering into each individual broken and shattered windows. He then shook his head as though in disappointment before turning his gaze back at Izuku who was still struggling to escape the shadows restricting his movement. Even with One For All activated, Izuku was unable to escape the bonds of darkness.
"Izuku, Izuku, Izuku…" The villain said in a disappointed voice, "I thought you were supposed to be a hero course student. Someone that is meant to save the innocent and the helpless. Yet there are all these poor unfortunate souls still trapped with their hearts beating with fear. They came to this school to learn to do the jobs that would keep them far from the front lines, yet hear they are. But I am not complaining. I do love an audience."
"YOU SICK BASTARD!" Izuku roared out as he again struggled to break free from his bonds with futility. But the villain then placed a hand over his chest as though offended.
"Excuse me, but I just recently had a checkup." the villain responded in a faux-wounded voice, "My dear father wouldn't have let me come on this mission if the doctor didn't give me a clean bill of health. He might have still let me have an observational role anyways. After all, we can't have my dear sociopath of a brother get it into his head that he can kill All Might with that science experiment of his."
"But anyways, where were we?" the villain asked, putting a finger to his chin, completely now ignoring Izuku's attempts to break free of his bindings as he walked up a pile of rubble facing away from Izuku.
"Oh yeah… To think that the top scoring individual on the entrance exam would get so caught up in a fight, that he would forget about prioritizing the lives of innocent bystanders. Such behavior wouldn't do for one of UA's golden eggs now? Ha Ha!"
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPPP!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPPP!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPPP!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPPP!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPPP!
"What the heck is that noise supposed to be?" the villain asked nobody in particular as he pointed his head towards the ceiling as though trying to determine where the noise was coming from.
Meanwhile Izuku felt something rise in his chest at the sound of the noise. That feeling was hope. That was the level three security breach alarm. For that to be sounding meant that the main campus knew that the school was under attack and alerting all the heroes in the Shizuoka Prefecture to boot. Help was on its way. He just needed to hold out against this villain a bit longer.
The villain was still deep in his monologue, explaining why Izuku would never make a good and proper hero. With the villain distracted, Izuku knew that this was probably his only chance he had to break free from these bindings. He knew he didn't have the strength to brute force his way out of the bindings with One For All. He had been trying that for the past couple of minutes to no avail.
He decided that he needed to cut himself free. He quickly pictured in his head the night that they moved into the dorms when Kamakiri was demonstrating his quirk of producing blades from his body. He closed his eyes and imagined blades of solid fire coming from his arms and legs.
He heard tears from his costumes as the blades began to manifest and protrude from his costume. With an eldritch sound, the shadows were sliced and he was cut free. The villain had just reached the top of the pile of debris and instantly turned around and fired black poles of fire from his palm. Each pole impacted Izuku before he could dodge. He cried out in pain after the projectiles impacted him. He groaned out in pain as he staggered back, struggling to stay up.
"Now now." the villain said mockingly as he conjured his double bladed black fire sword once more. "Can't have you escaping now can we? After all, my dear old man wants to meet you sooooo much! Unlike my brother, I always respect my father's wishes, and he wants nothing more than to sit down and have a cup of tea with you."
That is when the villain snorted and shook his head as he stopped walking about twenty paces from where Izuku was struggling to stay standing.
"But if I had my way I would have knocked you out and taken you to some nice abandoned warehouse by now, and tied you up. Once there I would have given you hundreds of paper cuts all over your naked body before dumping you with liters of ice-cold lemon juice, and then to only wash you off with salt water. Why may you ask? Because there is something about you Izuku Midoriya that just pisses me off and I want to see you writhe in pain. Oh but don't worry… I wouldn't kill you right away."
"You see, killing my prey is just an easy way out for them. If they are dead they can't feel dread. They can't fall into depression. They can't have emotional scars and trauma. They can't wake up screaming and sweating from nightmares where they relive their nightmares from when they were awake. That is what makes me truly… happy."
"You know… I wonder if that girl that I raped is still having nightmares about me? Or that girl who witnessed me stab her dear old daddy in the back? Oh hold on… I've just realized, I've never properly introduced myself. Where are my manners? You can call me Blackflame, remember it well because it will be in your nightmares for the rest of your life!"
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BOOM!
BOOM!
CRACK!
CRACK!
Both the Blackflame and Izuku looked up to see a hoard of entrance exam robots charging towards them. Blackflame jumped and dodged the hordes of missiles, rubber bullets, and lasers coming towards him.
Just right after Blackflame's impressive display of gymnastics of dodging the projectiles the ground rumbled violently and three massive zero pointers emerged from the ground. Only one of the zero pointers however resembled the one that he and Felix had destroyed previously. The other two were clearly more heavily armed and armored, clearly meant for second and third year hero course students.
"Welp!" Blackflame laughed as he smashed a few more robots to pieces with his flaming sword, "Guess the time for chit chat is over. Now go to sleep Izuku Midoriya!"
Blackflame moved to knock him unconscious with the blunt side of his blade, but only for Izuku to duck around the blade and grab Blackflame's arm.
Flashback
"Now Midoriya there is something I'd wish to discuss with you." Recovery Girl said as they had finished an exercise of Izuku bandaging up a dummy as a part of his medical training.
"What is it Recovery Girl?" Izuku asked, taking a seat on one of the beds in the infirmary and began smoothing out a few of the few creases in his white coat.
"When you use your green aura when activating Life Force what happens again?" the elderly hero asked and Izuku began talking fast.
"While my gold aura works exactly like your quirk, with my green aura the difference is that I convert my own energy, or stamina and use it to heal other people. It is more powerful though and the healing energy or stamina seems to go further per unit given that I can heal injuries that are considered 'permanent' such as… my foster brother's… old scars... but we have yet to determine by how much since I've yet to master that aspect of my quirk to test it safely."
"Spot on so far." Recovery Girl mused, tapping her cane on the floor as she stared right into the viridescent boy's eyes. "However I have recently come up with a theory about this particular quirk that you have.."
"What theory could that be?" Izuku asked excitedly, leaning forward and his eyes dilating as they widened at the thought of a pro hero such as Recovery Girl analyzing his quirk.
"Well... it is not something I'm sure I should tell you." Recovery Girl said flatly which had Izuku giving her the look of a wounded puppy.
"But Recovery Girl!" he protested, "You can't just tease me that you have come up with a theory about my quirk and then not tell me! I'm going to lose sleep staying up all night trying to come up with the same theory as you!"
"Don't do that. I already know you don't get enough sleep as it is!"
"How do you know how much I sleep?!" Izuku said, eyes going wide.
"We put smart pillows and smart mattresses in all the dorm rooms." Recovery Girl explained. "It was in the brochure you got when you moved in."
"Uh… I didn't read that…"
"Clearly…"
"But I'm sure my mom read it…"
"What good does that do you?"
"Ummmmmm…."
"That's what I thought." Recovery Girl sighed, "Well I might as well tell you before you figure it out and stupidly try to attempt it on your own."
"I theorize that if you can possibly give your own stamina or energy away to someone else, it might be possible for you to steal and take away someone else's stamina and energy."
"Are you serious Recovery Girl?" Izuku asked, mouth slightly hanging open, amazed that he had never thought of it before.
"Well the idea came to me when you decided to rename your quirk to Life-Force." Recovery Girl groaned as she leaned back into her chair, "It seems logical to me that if you can give you can most likely also take."
"How come I never thought about that!" Izuku groaned as he leaned back onto the bed only to get a whack from the cane.
"No lying down on the beds unless you are a patient!" Recovery Girl yelled as Izuku moped as he sat back up, rubbing the back of his head. "Anyways, I don't want you under any circumstances trying to take energy from someone until you fully master the control over the flow of energy with your green aura. It is simply too dangerous to attempt until then, you could wind up accidentally killing someone by stealing all their energy away. Plus we don't know how your body will react when you absorb more energy than it can safely handle."
"Understood Recovery Girl." Izuku nodded, understanding the ramifications.
Back to the Present
"Sorry Recovery Girl, but I have to break my word." Izuku thought to himself as he activated Life-Force.
Both Izuku and Blackflame became surrounded by a sparkling crimson ruby red aura as tendrils of energy were forced out of Blackflame, shooting into Izuku within moments of Izuku making physical contact.
"What are you doing!?" Blackflame shouted as he instantly felt weaker while Izuku felt nothing but pure energy rushing into him and flowing throughout his entire body like he was standing underneath a waterfall.
Blackflame struggled to break free from Izuku's grip, the flame sword dispelling once more as he lost focus. He violently managed to shove Izuku away who was being encircled by a sparkling ruby red field of energy.
"Kurogiri! Emergency Evac NOW!" Blackflame wheezed as he hit a button on the side of his helmet. Instantly he was swallowed up by a black portal and vanished.
Izuku was having problems of his own. He was experiencing what Recovery Girl warned him might happen if he used this ability before he was ready. His body felt like it was on fire as struggled to stand up.
"Need to get rid of excess energy…" Izuku thought to himself as activated his gold aura on himself and began to heal his headache as well as all the physical injuries Blackflame had just given him. However, it wasn't enough as Izuku felt the energy violently pulse throughout his body as his skin tingled as every hair on his body tried to stand on end.
He stumbled towards where Aoyama was lying unconscious from the injuries Blackflame had given him. He placed both of his hands on the boy's chest as he dumped his green aura into the boy in a desperate attempt to heal his fellow hero course student and get rid of the excess energy.
The energy came rushing out violently out of him as it funneled straight into Aoyama. Izuku quickly took his hands off of his classmate the instant he felt light-headed once more as he still had trouble with controlling the flow of energy and fell on his back.
Slowly Aoyama blinked awake and sat up, he was about to stand up and approach Izuku when they heard a loud explosion. Both boys turned towards the ceiling to see a fresh hole where something had been punched through and out of the USJ.
"Mon Amie." Aoyama said softly as he helped Izuku back onto his feet, "My money is on that that was All Might who did that."
"I don't take sucker bets Aoyama." Izuku chuckled as he double checked his body to confirm that all of his injuries were now healed. "Are you all healed? Did I put too much energy into you?"
"Oui, but I feel… different…" Aoyama said softly as he was unsure how to describe the feeling he was in, "I… used to have this feeling in moi stomach all the time, but now…"
They were interrupted when an exam robot approached them. Both boys instinctively at the sight of the robot prepared for another round of fighting before Izuku remembered the robots came to their rescue mere moments ago.
"Izuku I'm glad you are alright." came Felix's voice out of the robot.
"Felix!" Izuku exclaimed in shock, "All those robots!? Was that you?"
"Yeah." Felix said, "Alex, Haimawari, and I managed to get to the underground control room and knock out… okay it was Haimawari who took out the villain that was in here, but I managed to set off the alarm and alert the rest of UA about what was going on. Anyways, I deactivated all the disaster simulations throughout the facility and flooded all the zones with robots. I took personal control over them when I noticed you were stuck in a tight corner."
"Thanks Felix." Izuku sighed, bowing his head towards the robot, "I really owe you one. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. How are the rest of the students?"
"I had the robots help evacuate all the business and support course students through the emergency exits throughout the facility or into the underground storage rooms where the robots are stored and charged." Felix explained, "All the villains in the surrounding zones have been detained and I can see on the monitors that the villains in the central plaza where all the teachers were fighting have left through a similar portal that the villain you were fighting escaped through."
"So it is all over?" Izuku asked.
"As far as I can tell it is all over." Felix confirmed.
