Chapter 21

Shoto had no idea how the principal had done it, but he still couldn't believe how lucky he was to have not been selected for the internship with his father. Either that was due to random chance, a genuine attempt at diversifying his skill set or pity, but he was thankful for it either way. Six whole days that he would not have to spend with the bastard were a welcome vacation. He even might learn something genuinely new instead of getting beaten into the ground ever since his fourth birthday.

Secretly he also didn't want to see the disgustingly smug look on Enji's face when he used his fire in training for the first time in years. He could not bear it to give that despicable man such a petty victory.

"So kiddo, watcha sulkin' about?"

Well, his current 'teacher' was sadly more than a bit obnoxious in his own way.

"Nothing." Shoto blankly replied.

"Awesome!" grinned the annoying man cheerily as if his answer had been an insightful revelation.

What a weirdo.

"Let's get going! We have a minor fire to put out on the Tereseki street 23! Hop hop! The nice lady from the fire department owes me one, hehe!"

Wordlessly the teen sprinted off towards the address, unheeding when the pro hero hot on his heels cried out 'Unfair!' as he used the ice side of his quirk to slide along the ground quicker. Using his quirk to the fullest extent was how he was going to beat his father. There would be no holding back now or later when he proved to the world what a useless piece of shit his old man really was.

Arriving at the scene he immediately noticed the burning trash-bin (there was a possible joke about his father to be made somewhere, but he couldn't be bothered to think of it right now) and Shoto did what he did best: Encase the entire thing in a block of shining blue ice. All in all it was rather anticlimactic.

Huffing and puffing his mentor caught up with him, astonishingly not that much too late considering he possessed no special ability to run faster.

"Ha! Isn't it great kiddo? Heroing? Come on, smile a little! Show all those pretty girls who just saved their city from a burning pile of garbage!"

Deadpanned, the hero-in-training stared up at the man who was supposed to teach him about being a pro hero. Not a shred of hilarity was to be found on his scarred face.

"You set me up for this." Shoto accused.

"Yup!" admitted 'Thermostat', the Temperature Hero, without a hint of shame. "Say cheese!"

Promptly a camera flashed.

And Shoto felt the irrational urge to hit something.

One wave of the hero's hand was enough to melt the block of ice into water that consequently seeped away into the drain. Temperature manipulation was handy like that.

"Come on, give those nice lasses an autograph! That's part of the job too, ya' know?"

Gradually he turned his head and found that they had indeed attracted a small group of spectators, most of which indeed appeared to be schoolgirls excitedly whispering to each other while they stared at him. As they noticed his own gaze one of them went red in the face and another yelped so loud that the rats probably heard her in the dumpster down the road.

'How bothersome...'

Adopting his long-practiced media smile, he waved at the girls who promptly squealed in synchronicity.

Hastily he returned to their pre-planned patrol route, eager to avoid such encounters in the future. Of course Shoto knew that a certain amount of media presence was required to be a hero, but that did not mean that he enjoyed the hollow, superficial attention of strangers judging him more for his looks and heritage than who he was as a person.

Suddenly his dark thoughts were interrupted by a buzz in his pocket, which was an unusual occurrence. Only his private messages were set to alert him via vibration and aside from his sister nobody really contacted him that way. Oh, there were certainly many who would try, but his number was a well kept secret.

Shoto left his temporary mentor to escort an old lady over the street while he checked his messages.

Strangely enough they were from Midoriya (or 'Deku' as he called himself).

[Help! Hero Killer]

Followed by a string of numbers that he assumed were auto-generated coordinates.

Oh...

This was bad if it was what he thought it was.

All Might's secret lovechild had found an infamous villain by sheer stupid coincidence. No, this was too convenient. A trap? An assassination attempt? He would need help for this.

"Thermostat! I have an emergency!"

~[#҈#]~

"Mmph..." she grunted vaguely.

Himiko was careful to betray none of her emotions to the adorable bear-thing that had introduced himself as Nedzu, principal of UA and – most importantly – her love's employer. He told her that he would rescue her, that she would see her beloved again soon, that this was a chance to break free from the chains of the HPSC and she wanted to believe him. She really did.

But powerful men like him always lied. They hid behind honeyed words which barely concealed their disgust and apathy. How could she possibly trust anybody in this cruel world who was not her saviour?

Although Nedzu certainly was very cute... So that counted in his favour.

"I am glad you like it here..."

"Yeah..." she once again answered without saying anything.

Seeing as the silence between them began to stretch uncomfortably she opted for a simple misdirection.

"Sorry. It's all a lot to take in still. The food here is good."

'Not as good as what Tanya could make' was left unsaid.

"Wonderful. I will share your compliment with Lunch Rush. We are truly blessed to have such talent working at UA."

"Yeah..."

"When this whole affair is over, where would you like to work, Toga-san?"

He said that with such casual cheer as if dealing with the HPSC was just typical Monday business! Well, maybe it was for him... Her beloved had lamented how easily the overgrown rat had outmanoeuvred her.

Only after mulling that over did the actual content of his question catch up with her brain.

"Huh?" Himiko blinked.

"Would you like to get a formal hero licence or go to the theatre perhaps? With your acrobatic skills and useful quirk you would have good chances in both fields, I believe." Nedzu smiled.

"U-uhm..." she stuttered.

Nobody had really asked her that before. Not even her love. Her parents had always chosen for her and later there never seemed as if she would get to decide stuff like that. Subsequently she couldn't recall ever spending much thought on her career choice. Desperately she searched for the first thing that came to mind...

"I'll become Tanya's sidekick! That would be nice."

Going out on patrol with her, stopping crime, making a few gangsters cuter with her knives... Yeah, that sounded like fun.

"How lovely! It's nice to see such a wholesome friendship. When we talked in the hospital, she immediately tried to convince me to take you in before the HPSC could get to you. It was her most pressing concern. She seemed of the opinion that you were no longer safe in their care."

Himiko's nose scrunched up as she failed to fully hide her sneer. Those parasites naturally wanted to get rid of her at the slightest hint of trouble. Pathetic cowards, the lot of them.

"I assume you don't miss them terribly?"

For the first time she allowed her real emotions to leak out. There could be no harm in demonstrating her disgust for the Hero Commission, right?

With venom in her voice she hissed: "Of course not. They can rot in hell for all I care."

"I am sorry that you had to endure what you did, but I promise you that I will do my best to bring them to justice. No one should endure being kidnapped and forced to do things against their will. Especially not from the government that was sworn to protect them."

"Hmph."

She really didn't care that much about politics and the like. Obviously, seeing the bastards responsible for chaining her beloved for years being dragged out of the courtroom in handcuffs would be extremely gratifying, nearly as much as cutting them up would be, but it was not too important. Himiko's focus in life would always lie on spending time with her saviour and having fun.

Shiny, black eyes appeared to vivisect her mentally while the fluffy mammal adjusted the sleeves of his adorable little suit.

"Well, good news is that your partner is going to be returning soon. She is healing quite nicely."

A stone that she didn't know was weighing on her got lifted from Himiko's heart. Tanya was going to be alright.

"Under a disguise you should be able to freely interact out in the open; maybe you even want to participate in her class as a junior instructor. That could be arranged..."

It was obvious that the favour being offered here would cost her something. Nonetheless was the opportunity of interacting with Tanya outside the basement far too tempting to pass up.

"What do I need to do?"

"Oh, just the usual. Obey the school rules and don't compromise your identity while anyone could possibly recognize you, be nice, don't leave UA's premises, try to entertain yourself and eventually – if you want – talk with our school counsellor."

Unbidden, the nasty memories of the 'quirk counsellor' returned who had merely told her to suppress her urges, to abstain and act 'normal'. As if mere words could make anything better, he never bothered to see her needs as real, but only as problems to be solved! Once again she was labelled as the problem child who needed to be fixed with 'therapy'.

Somehow Nedzu read her thoughts, because he reassuringly raised his paws.

"No, no, no, I can assure you that Hound Dog's services are nothing like the quirk counselling you received in the past. We don't want to talk about your quirk, but about what you suffered."

"Why? Why do you care?"

Oops. She hadn't meant to let so much of her anger slip.

If the principal was offended then he did not show it.

"To help you of course. Bottling up all your feelings after certain traumatic events is never the best choice. It does wonders to the psyche to just speak about anything you want without fear of repercussions. I am aware that you trust Ms. Degurechaff more than anyone in this world, but I imagine that there are things you would not want to talk about with her, at least not initially. That is totally normal. Please think about it. His door is always open for people like you who had a difficult upbringing, an unfortunately common occurrence."

"Okay."

"The choice is yours, but I will be offering it to your partner too. You are neither alone nor weak. Anyways, would you like me to secretly contact your parents about your wellbeing?"

Himiko instinctively scowled.

"I assumed so. No need to fear, I was merely confirming a suspicion."

What? How could he know what her parents were like? They had always done their best to appear normal and ordinary, so how could he confirm anything just from her expression? Nedzu was scarier than she originally realized.

"Humans can be unkind creatures. Luckily I am not one, for better or worse..." he smiled widely, exposing a mouth full of very sharp teeth that glinted ominously in the neon light.

She naturally returned it, presenting her own fangs which caused him to chuckle.

"Lastly, if you want to ever return fully to society we will have to address the details of your previous... occupation."

"Mou~... It's not fair to bore a cute girl like that! Talking about all this business stuff makes me soooo tired!" she fake-pouted, attempting to regain control of the situation. Staying passive and silent for long periods of time triggered uncomfortable memories that she couldn't help but want to escape from, despite her training.

"I fear there is no way around it, Toga-san. For you see... As much as I can sympathize with you – and I truly do – I am also devoted to the safety of my wards. The only reason why I allowed you to live here, in the arguably safest place in Japan, is that I know from your previous two unauthorized entries into school premises that you bear no ill will towards my students. I am aware that you were compelled to commit certain unsavoury actions, but that does not mean that I will overlook these misdeeds. No matter how justified, a crime is still a crime."

There he was, calling her a criminal. Ironic. Wasn't abducting an agent of the HPSC also illegal? Not that she was complaining.

Instead she energetically nodded. Those parasites she removed from the streets had mostly been deserving of their fate, but as long as she was in the claws of this scary, white teddy bear she would abide by his silly little rules. It was the smart thing to do. It was what Tanya would have wanted her to do.

"From this moment onward you will never endanger another sentient life if it is not absolutely necessary for the survival of yourself or other innocents. Am I understood?"

"Okidoki, Nedzu! I promise not to stab anyone anytime soon!" she chirped and saluted.

Inwardly she winced. Judging from his unamused expression, that was probably not the right move. Hastily she course-corrected.

"Eh, I meant, indeed I understand. As long as I am not threatened I won't hurt a fly! Honest!"

"Good."

His friendly smile was back again.

"I never doubted you, Toga-san. Though, you said that Argent was your superior, yes?"

Himiko raised a single eyebrow in confusion.

"Yeah?"

"Don't you blame her for what she made you do? She took you in when you ran away, right? So, it stands to reason that all of this would have never happened to you without her interference. The blood on your hands is in a way her fault, one could argue."

Shock.

Then rage.

Blinding, white-hot smoking hatred flooded her entire body. Her fingers curled, her spine went straight as a board and her heightened senses kicked into overdrive as the muscles in her jaw prepared for a strong bite.

This stupid furball dared?!

Only pure fucking willpower stopped her from tearing into him with her bare hands.

"As if I could ever blame her for what those pigs did to us; to her! No number of broken bones or cut throats could ever be enough to repay her for saving me! You don't get to talk about her like that! Tanya-sama is better than any of you filthy paper-pushers! You don't know what it takes to survive out there! She SAVED me! If I had to gut the entire world for her I would do it in an instant and with a smile on my face! Don't you dare try to sully her name!"

Panting, she only now noticed that she had stood up from her seat to tower over the still unperturbed looking principal.

"Fascinating... Forgive me; I was simply speaking hypothetically of course. I do not blame either of you. I must apologize for this terrible misunderstanding. Please think nothing of it."

His bow was deep, but the force of his insult stung unmitigated.

"I am going to leave you to your own then. You know where to find your blood supply if you need any and you can contact me through your armband any time you want. Have a nice day Toga-san! It has been a pleasant conversation."

Moving to the door of the small concrete room Nedzu calmly waved his paw and disappeared into the hallway.

Her faith in her beloved could never be diminished by such a pathetic scheming rodent. Himiko saw right through his game!

Anything else she could endure, humiliation and libel, but nobody attacked her love and got away with it. Especially after she had failed miserably to protect her already...

Too weak.

She was too weak!

Filled with fury at the world and herself she threw herself into her workout routine until she blacked out from exhaustion.

~[#҈#]~

Izuku was not a religious boy. Nobody he knew had ever visited a church, in fact.

That still did not stop him from sending a quick prayer to god in hopes that he could help his friend. There were many times in his past where he had been sad or hurt or afraid; even for his life, but there was a different kind of horror seeing a person he cared about bleed out next to him.

Fighting with all his might, going beyond Plus Ultra was comparatively simple. No matter how much his muscles hurt while they tore themselves in exertion, it felt good to stand up against evil and prove to himself and indirectly his idol that he was no longer helpless. This was his dream, his reason for enduring years of bullying from Kacchan and it was liberating.

However, this experience was massively soured by two soul-crushing facts:

Firstly, every second he wasted fighting was lowering Iida's chances of survival.

Secondly, this was not a fight he could win.

Armed with a dented steel bar and his dwindling hope, Izuku was under no illusion that he stood any chance against a combatant many times more knowledgeable, more ruthless and more unburdened than he was. An opponent so terrifying that the world had given him the moniker 'Hero Killer'...

The insane vigilante 'Stain'.

"You disappoint me, hero! Is that the end of your resolve?" taunted the ghastly murderer, grinning in an utterly unhinged fashion.

Since the beginning of their confrontation Izuku had recognized that the madman loved to preach his ideology to others and would spend precious time monologuing. Alone he might have been able to escape relatively easily, but due to Iida's wounded state that was not an option. Consequently he stalled as much as possible without it being obvious.

"Th-that's rich coming from you! You kill kids for fun!"

"It's not for my own pleasure! It is for a better world!"

Lightning quick Stain's wicked looking katana shot forwards, probing Izuku's defences. Because of his friend's warning, he avoided getting cut like the plague. Apparently the Hero Killer's quirk let him paralyze victims whose blood he ingested, explaining his unnaturally large mouth and focus on swordplay.

"And that involves murdering kids?" Izuku shouted back, frantically dodging out of the way of another slash.

"If I must... No right choice is ever easy, but if I can clear the streets from these fakes then it'll be worth it!"

"You're wrong!" he retorted in the absence of a more clever argument.

'Well done, Deku...' he chastised himself. Despite his plan, actually engaging the armed psychopath in front of him in a verbal and physical fight simultaneously was pretty hard.

"What a shame that you cannot see it, young one. There could have been much potential in you..."

Oh, frick! That sounded awfully foreboding…

He could really use some assistance now before the situation got entirely unsalvageable.

Luckily he had just managed to send a message to all of his stored contacts before jumping into the fray, so hopefully one of them would understand his plea for help for what it was and send reinforcements. The emphasis was on hopefully.

"Uh... Heroes don't kill!"

"Yes, but I am no hero. I am the one who cleans society, taking on its sins to stain myself with their corruption!"

Izuku saw the blade coming directly for his throat and made a split-second decision that could potentially end the fight if he survived it. Because Iida lay behind him, he couldn't spin out of the way or else his friend would be exposed to the merciless killer hell-bent on ending him, which left the greenette only to face the blood stained sword head on.

Yeah, the 'plan' was terrible, but he did not have the liberty of coming up with something better on the spot!

Tapping into the near bottomless well that was his power, Izuku channelled as much of One for All's liquid lightning through his flesh, his bones, his very soul as he could grab without literally exploding and delivered a devastating punch to the side of the incoming instrument of death.

Green sparks filled the air as his supercharged knuckles connected with the rusty steel in slow motion, knocking it off course and ripping it out of Stain's unprepared hands.

Instantly time seemed to speed up once more to its normal tempo as the sword shattered against the brick wall of the alleyway, embedding itself in partially and shooting sharp shrapnel everywhere. The villain grunted in pain and surprise as he was hit by the fragments of his weapon while Izuku tried to shield the immobile body of his classmate against the danger.

Groaning, Stain removed a larger piece of steel from his bare shoulder, eying the gaping hole in his arm more with annoyance than pain.

"Very nice! Perhaps I judged you too early, hero! I saw the determination in your eyes... Keep it up and you might become a fine hero one day. Never hesitate to strike back and rob your opponent of their advantage!"

What the heck? One moment the guy wanted to kill him and now he praised him and gave tips. Stain was seriously insane.

"Too bad that this was not my only sword!" laughed the villain and reached for the second sheath on his back.

'Oh no, you don't!' roared Izuku mentally, shattering the pavement underneath his feet as he ploughed into the Hero Killer and swung his unbroken arm into his ribs to stop him from reaching for another weapon.

Nimbly the athletic man avoided most of the blow, although his bones still bent dangerously under the impact. Nonetheless he was forced to abandon the grab for his sword, leaping further down the alley instead.

"Excellent! You are already taking my lessons to heart, I see!"

Slowly but surely, Stain's ramblings were starting to get on his nerves. Time was running out for Iida. Should he risk it and make a run for it with his friend over his shoulder? That would of course only worsen his internal injuries and maybe lead him to-

Izuku cut that thought off.

Desperately he tried to plead reason one last time.

"Leave already! You sent your message. Th-the heroes or the police will no doubt show up at any moment!" he lied. "With all the noise we made it is inevitable. Do you want them to catch you?"

A dark scowl overtook the murderer's twisted features.

"They would be too late for the fake. Cowardice is unbecom-"

"Woooooosh!"

Fire filled the street, cutting them off from each other. Strangely though, Izuku felt pleasantly cool all of a sudden, which, taking into account that he stood only a few steps away from a giant wall of bellowing flames, was pretty weird.

"Halt right there, villain! Surrender!" screamed somebody from above his line of sight, most likely the rooftops.

It was of no concern to him. What mattered was that the heroes had arrived.

"Your perversion of justice ends today!"

Rushing to his classmate's side he attempted to recall everything he read about first aid on the internet.

"Iida stay with me! We're getting you help."

He should have studied regular anatomy more! Was he bleeding so much because Stain hit an internal organ or was the wound more superficial? It was impossible to tell.

"Midoriya, I told you to run away..." whispered the injured boy in a disbelieving tone.

"I wouldn't leave you alone with a villain! We're friends, remember? And you can call me Deku if you want."

The last part slipped from his lips involuntarily.

"Haha. Only if you call me Tenya... I really messed up, didn't I?"

There was more yelling behind him, but Izuku was solely focused on his friend and the hand that he held while pressing it over the wound in his stomach.

"Yeah you did. Miss Degurechaff and Mister Aizawa are going to chew you out so badly when you come back to school."

Where was this confidence coming from? Here he was bantering like this was the school cafeteria!

"Oh, I am sorry for poor Yaoyorozu. She will have to deal with all the class president responsibility alone while I am stuck in detention for the rest of the year. Ha..."

And did Tenya just make a joke!? Honestly? This day was plain crazy.

Abruptly his face shifted back to his usual expression.

"But if I don't make it-"

"Don't say that!" interrupted Izuku, but Tenya continued calmly.

"If I don't, please tell my parents and my brother that I am deeply sorry. I got so angry when Tensei told me how Stain attacked him, how he ruined him and I couldn't... I... I was not myself. I convinced my mentor to visit Hosu for a single day, because I wanted to find him and I did... Look where that got me..."

"Tenya you can tell them that yourself. The ambulance will be here any second! Don't give up!"

"I won't. Thank you for being there for me, Deku. You are an amazing friend."

As the approaching sirens lit up the shadowy alleyway both boys shared a watery smile that would forever burn itself into their memory.