Part 4: A Menace in Phantom's Blood

Ch. 1

Streets of the City, early Monday morning

The rain began to pour down during the night, bits of thunder and lightning crackling occasionally, and thought was extremely early in the morning, the night life was busier than ever. Bars were open serving drinks and food to any couples and business partners celebrating and partying. The karaoke corners and dance floors were also lively, with singers jamming out to A Cruel Angel's Thesis while the crew was frustrated that the song was picked tonight for the 50th time in a row.

In one of the alleyways, a man was on his way home. He wasn't anyone special, no wife, no kids, just a late, hard-working businessman. If you want a description, he had black hair, a black suit, blue eyes, and a thin stature. He was looking at his watch when he heard a small and whispery, "Wrrrrrrrrrryyyyy" around him.

His attention shifted from his watch to his dimly-lit surroundings. "What's going on? Who's there?" No response… he kept walking down the alley, but a few seconds later, the cry registered to his ears once more, "Wrrrrrrryyyyy." He began to run, run as fast as he could, until something hit him on his back and knocked him out onto the floor, cold. With the little bit of consciousness he had left, he tried to get up, but whatever knocked him down wouldn't let him move.

"You think a mere mortal like yourself could outrun me?!" the shadowy figure announced. "Foolish, and how utterly useless!" A bolt of lightning came crashing down nearby, revealing the figure's bright blonde hair, his Victorian clothing, and those red, devilish eyes, whilst the white fangs from his mouth also caught the man's eyes before finally collapsing in what would become his undead slumber.

The figure resting his leg on top of the now unconscious man moved two of his fingers towards the right side of the man's neck, before ultimately piercing the skin. Blood from the man's carotid artery began to seep itself into the fingers which pierced it, ultimately sucking the blood from the body nearly dry.

The now dead man though slowly began to rise, his skin hollow and thin enough to see his bones. He let out many small groans, and his hands sagged as he began to walk around, his bloodlust now beginning to show. It was clear the man had become a zombie.

"Now Compress!" Dio called out, and the magician came up and touched the zombie and it was transformed into a blue sphere, small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. As Compress picked it, he was asked a simple, yet intense question.

"What is our tally now?"

"With this man, we're at a count of about 50 zombies."

Dio let out a hearty, sinister laugh, before saying, "That's only about a fraction of what we need. Let us finish while the moon is still shining!" and the two walked off, the rain beginning to pour harder, making their silhouettes harder to see, and soon they vanished into the night, looking for the next target to strike.

UA High School, Heights Alliance, Monday morning

As the sun quietly rose from the horizon into the sky, the students were also getting up, either by natural instinct or through the ringing of alarm clocks. For Deku, today's wakeup was with the latter option.

His eyes opened groggily, trying to eye and snooze his clock. As he did so and rubbed his eyes, he was greeted with a quaint "Good Morning." He turned his head to find Giorno sitting on his chair, with a cup of coffee in his hand, its saucer resting between his fingers on the other. He was currently taking a sip as Deku moved around in his bed with slight confusion.

"How did you get in?"

"I came in through the door. I used Gold Experience to turn a chip of wood into a small snake, which unlocked it."

"While that is cool, I appreciate it if you never do that again," Deku responded with a neutral, displeased stare.

Giorno let out a small laugh before continuing to drink his coffee. "Don't worry, I'm not one to just barge into someone's room for no reason." He put his drink on the table, his smiling face turning into a more stern expression as he did so. "That being said, I wanted to talk to you privately."

"What is it?"

"Jotaro told me about DIO's disruption of your meeting yesterday . Said you and Kacchan got hit in the gut, and DIO's to blame for that."

His thoughts flashed back to the encounter; both of them reeling on the ground in extreme pain while the man on the TV gave nothing but a hardy sneer and a laugh.

"You also know of my lineage...or at least part of it…"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm sure you're no stranger to a good secret. I can see the truth you hide in your eyes. So, how about a little deal. I'll tell you my secret, and in exchange you'll tell me yours." He picked up the cup and saucer taking in another sip.

Izuku pondered this for a few seconds, realizing the blight he made at the beginning of the year in openly revealing the truth to Bakugo. Not to mention, the seemingly new Quirks that he had only recently discovered. One more fact came to the front of his subconscious: he had only known Giorno for a few days. While he knew him to be a kind student, he didn't know him Kacchan-level well.

"I'm sorry, but I can't. Not yet."

Giorno moved the cup away from his mouth, put it on the saucer, and let it rest on the table once more.

"Very well then," he responded with no resentment whatsoever, "but you know, I still feel like telling a bit of mine." A slight pause, before a serious look was morphed onto his face. "DIO has an obsession with Jotaro, me, and the Joestar lineage... because he's a part of it too."

"Really?" Izuku questioned, "How is he related?"

"How and why, I won't say yet." Giorno responded as he finally got up from the chair, and with his beverage in hand, made his way to the door, before letting out a slight laugh.

"But you know, fate is a beautiful force. Bringing you and me together, like how this cup is always dragged back to its saucer. The reason our lives even had a chance of colliding was because we saved your mother from a group of thieves."

Izuku's face turned into one of shock. "You mean that was you?!"

Giorno let out a smile as he opened the door and walked out.

Immediately, Izuku's mind made the final connection as it flashed back to the gifts his mother sent him. In that bag, there was a note, on which it read:

My Dearest Izuku,

I hope school has been treating you well. It's still been a bit hard adjusting to the fact that you're living in dormitories with your friends, knowing that you're working hard and doing your best, it eases that pain. I wanted to text you this, but earlier today I had been robbed, maybe even nearly killed...but thanks to a group of heroes, I came out with nothing but a scratch. I had never met them, so they might be from out of town or the country. They asked about you and I was happy to tell them about your hard work. They had a few heroes-in-training they wanted to enroll so I picked up some goodies, and went with them to drop it off. Hopefully, the gifts made it to you in one piece. If you want to give some stuff to your friends, that is fine. Let me know if you need anything else. Love you baby!

Mom

P.S.: Feel free to give Katsuki one of the toothbrushes I got for you. You and his mother know how long those last with him. :)

(Author's Note: I don't entirely know how the Japanese write a letter, so if anyone decides they want to draw or animate this, A. let me know B. feel free to chance the formatting in anyway you want. Thanks! :) )

After Izuku got changed and packed his schoolbag, he made his way to the student area, where there was a lot of feverish chatting from the students. He let out a few "Good morning"s to everyone, asking some if they had slept well.

He made his way to the kitchen area where a few students seemed to be making breakfast. Tsu, Momo, Sato, Yukako, Giorno, and a whole four cartons of eggs were sitting out.

"Hope everyone is ready for some omelets!" Tsuyu cried in excitement, before letting out a small "Ribbit!"

On Koichi's table, a big omelet with a huge, red heart of ketchup along with his name, was placed on his table by none other than Yukako, her smile staying bright the whole time.

"Here you go, my dear Koichi. I made it special just for you."

Koichi gave a warm smile back at her, as he said "Thanks!" and as she went back to cooking with the others.

Deku went to the couch in the living room, where Kaminari, Kirishima, Bakugo, Josuke, and Okuyasu were sitting.

"Hey good morning Deku!" Josuke yelled with a cheery smile on his face.

"Good morning Josuke," Deku responded, before he turned and said, "Good morning Kacchan."

Bakugo gave a blank stare, before he turned back and said, "Morning, nerd."

Kaminari was flipping through channels on the TV remote, with not a care in the world, talking and chatting with the folks in the vicinity… when one of the news channels interrupted with a BREAKING NEWS, fanfare and all.

We are getting new, breaking news. Patrols now confirm the disappearance of at least 200 people overnight. Among those are a few, low-ranked Heroes, including…

"Two-hundred?" Kirishima blurted in surprise, along with slight looks of concern in others' faces.

"Even Heroes are missing?" Deku pondered, "that's odd"... his thoughts shushed as he focused back on the news:

...Heroes will continue patrolling. If you'd like to report a missing person call…

Giorno, while holding a tray with coffee and eggs, leaned over to Josuke, and with their eyes darkened, and a very short conversation ensued.

"Do you think it was him?" Giorno asked.

"No doubt in my mind. He must be up to something...should we talk to Jotaro about this?"

"We'll let him know in a bit. But we'll also have to let Midoriya and Bakugo know too."

Their whispers dwindling, the two turned back to the nearby environment, while the next news segment on the TV captured the attention of nearly everyone within earshot. Except this time the voice was male and spoke in a much lighter and happier tone.

In other news, reception for the opening of the new Joestar Agency was widely positive. The lavish building has a variety of amenities and is hosting family Heroes from many corners of the globe.

"Hey Josuke!," Okuyasu excitedly interrupted, with a wild look in his eyes, "That's you were yesterday? It looks so cool!"

"I know right?!" Josuke excitedly responded back to his friend, giving him a hearty pat on the back.

These new Heroes even got a chance to show their worth, as several Nomu showed up after the opening ceremony. Thanks to witness footage, we can get a glimpse of the little effort needed to take the Nomus down. There also seemed to be a few U.A. students, and their teacher, the Pro Hero Eraser Head.

The footage on the TV cut to scenes of Jotaro and Jonathan beating the vicious creatures with relative ease. The next bits of footage showed Deku, Bakugo, Iida, Todoroki, and Aizawa aiding in the fight as well. What seemed to be missing was footage of Kirishima's possession…

"Dang! These new Heroes must be really strong," Kaminari commented, "If they beat these Nomus so quickly, there might be no villain that can put up a fight with them!

"Looks like there's gonna be some new competition now!" Kirishima yelled with excitement, as the TV was wrapping up the morning news.

Kaminari turned the TV off while Giorno calmly stated, "It's about time we get going for class. We don't want to be late."

As breakfast and the early morning wrapped up, the sun was rising and ready to shine on a great day...but this evening would be one of which painted the moon bloody red and the sky doused in green.