"Kacchan!" - Speech

'Deku!' - Thoughts

"I AM HERE!" - All Might Speech

"Detroit Smash!" - Special Technique Usage

Beta'd by BigCC

Chapter 3: Opposing Ghostly Ripple

One Year Later

Front Gate, Aldera Junior High

Midoriya Izuku couldn't hold in a sigh as he was released form the abysmal excuse of a Junior High he was forced to attend for another day. Honestly, the teachers could at the very least attempt to hide their blatant Quirkism! It had taken a single instance of sending Hierophant Emerald snooping around the faculty room to find their 'hidden' shrine. Said shrine featuring a single portrait of one Yotsubashi Chikara, better known as Destro, the former Grand Commander of the Meta Liberation Army, in a place of honour at the centre.

Honestly, the fact that the faculty was made up of supporters of a supposedly defunct Quirkist Terrorist Organization explained so very much about why the imbeciles seemed so intent on fawning over and ingratiating themselves to any student with a strong Quirk. The Meta Liberation Army, from his own research, might have espoused Free Quirk Use and Liberation over Regulation as their primary slogans, but their rhetoric had just as much to do about how those with the strongest 'Metahuman Abilities' should stand at the top of the hierarchy.

Quirkism disguised under a rhetoric of freedom and free expression was still very much Quirkism.

By all rights he should have already reported it…except he hadn't. Why?

Izuku's biggest reason was that it simply wasn't worth the hassle at the moment. Right now, an investigation would simply disrupt his education (if you could call it that) and possibly make things problematic for him in the future. So far, the faculty had done nothing worse than blatant nepotism and favouritism toward a few students which, while morally unacceptable, wasn't precisely illegal. Unless he found proof that the MLA was still active and they were actually members, rather than merely supporting the idea behind it, than they were doing nothing illegal.

The worst that would happen to them if he managed to tip off the police and heroes would be Aldera Junior High being shut down from the scandal and the teachers all black-listed. A not-unpleasant result in his opinion, but not one worth the disruption it would cause to his own plans, nor the smear it could leave on his own record just by being associated with the school.

So, Izuku would keep his peace for now and wait until he was securely enrolled in U.A. High as a Hero Course student before he dropped an anonymous tip about the location of the shrine and anything else he found to the police and a few hero agencies.

He'd also continue to keep a weather eye on his teachers. If they ever crossed the line, then…well, Izuku was always of the opinion that plans should always be subject to change as circumstance demanded.

A sudden, loud bark of laughter broke him from his train of thoughts, turning Izuku's attention to where Bakugō was laughing his head off as he led a couple of his flunkies off towards the shopping arcade.

Thankfully, Kakyōin-san's advice had borne a surprising amount of fruit. Their bimonthly matches had managed to burn off much of the [Explosion]-wielder's excessive hostility during the times between them. He was still an abrasive asshole, but he was at least no longer as rabid about antagonizing Izuku, merely growling and snarling as usual whenever they were forced to interact.

Though at least some of that could likely be attributed to Bakugō Mitsuki gleefully cracking the whip to keep her 'dumbass son in line.'

Izuku frowned a bit as he considered that. Bakugō Katsuki was many things, but 'stupid' was certainly not one of them. The blonde bomber had quickly started training to train his speed and reflexes after their first match, even managing to come up with a way to use his explosions to accelerate his movements, a technique he'd dubbed 'Explosive Turbo.' It had only taken two or three matches before the aggressive teen had managed to start blowing through the unseen and nigh-intangible tendrils of Hierophant Emerald faster than his Stand could fire its Emerald Splash.

This had in turn allowed Izuku to stop holding back his firing reflexes and actually cut loose a bit in their fights.

The end result was much the same as their previous matches, with Bakugō ending up in a battered, bruised and bloody heap. Still, his progress was immensely impressive and Izuku had been in such a good mood that he'd offered a bit of advice on how his opponent could improve, most notably refocusing on the fundamentals of his defence in addition to increasing his evasive skills.

His thanks for that well-intentioned advice was a blistering diatribe of invectives along with a particularly foul suggestion that he perform some anatomically improbable feats with barn animals.

Charming, simply charming.

'So much drive and talent; an immensely powerful and versatile Quirk mixed with such a keen combat instinct…and it is all wasted on someone who is more interested in becoming a hero for his own self-aggrandizement and to further bolster his sense of self-importance.' Izuku thought bitterly, and not for the first time over the years since their relationship had truly soured on both ends. In his mind, there was truly no greater example of the inherently unfair nature of the universe than the fact that someone as self-centred and maliciously-natured as Bakugō had been born with such a plethora of natural gifts, while he'd needed something that was nothing short of a miracle to gain his own abilities.

'I can't help but shudder as I consider how I might have turned out had I never had my fateful encounter with Kakyōin-sempai.' Izuku thought morbidly as he started to head home. 'I'd likely still be following 'Kacchan' around like a lost puppy, trying to escape the world by diving into my Hero Analysis hobby.'

Not that he'd ever given up his Hero Analysis, he simply didn't use it as a way to escape reality any longer. Even Kakyōin had praised his analytical ability and had encouraged him to further hone and practice with them, saying that an ability to quickly break down, analyse, and counter a foe's strengths would serve him well in the future.

Turning a corner, he was surprised to come face to face with a poster placed on a telephone pole, warning everyone about a local villain that had been killing people. Izuku frowned, recalling the, admittedly limited, information he'd been able to find out about the villain involved. They struck once a week, on a different day each time but never less than three days apart, with the victims being seemingly selected at random. Despite in-depth examinations from the police and several hero agencies there had been no solid links connecting any of the victims. The only commonalities were that they were all found in isolated areas of Musutafu and they were all killed via brute force decapitation. Their heads had been literally ripped off their shoulders.

Honestly, 'Villain' seemed to be a bit of a blasé term for the type of person they were dealing with. Everything Izuku had found out about the case had pointed to this being a full-on serial killer.

"The amount of force needed to kill someone like that means that they'd need at least a mid-tier strength-enhancing Quirk to accomplish it." Izuku murmured to himself. "But if they are doing this by hand, some physical evidence should have been left on at least one of the two dozen victims that have been found so far. So, either the killer is insanely cautious about leaving any traces behind, or they are somehow killing their victims from a distance, most likely through some form of advanced telekinetic Quirk. That would also explain why the police haven't been able to find any evidence of them at the crime scene, even when using enhanced sensory quirks. They were never physically at the site."

The killings had been going on for nearly half a year now, and none of the local heroes or police had been able to discover anything about the villain. Their appearance, Quirk, motives and even their gender were all still unknown.

There was even some talk about bringing Principal Nezu from U.A. for advisement. The Genius Hero excelled at these kinds of cases and had a reputation for solving seemingly insolvable crimes.

Izuku had learned a great deal about the investigation through the liberal use of Hierophant Emerald to sneak into police stations and simply listen in on the various conversations. He wasn't actually breaking the law, since it only covered the use of bugs or a Quirk to eavesdrop on people, and, technically, a Stand was neither electronic nor a Quirk.

Another sign of Kakyōin's influence on Izuku, his belief in the law had become far more…flexible since they'd met.

The exact reason why he'd skirted the law was simplicity itself. The killings were getting closer and closer to this side of Musutafu and he was starting to become concerned that the killer could very well be in his own backyard right now. While Izuku wasn't personally scared of someone attacking him, if anything were to happen to his mother; then he was fairly certain that he wouldn't be able to stop himself from hunting down the bastard responsible and killing them in the slowest, most agonizing way he could imagine.

Izuku was a generally good person, but he was also a devoted son and loved his mother with all his heart and soul. Any harm to her would bring forth his wrath like few other things.

"I'm home!" he called out as he entered his house, absently removing his shoes.

"Welcome home Izuku!" Inko returned as she came out of the kitchen to greet her son. She'd finally managed to shed the remaining pudge from her worry-eating and now looked just as lovely as she did back when she was a younger woman, with only the addition of a few crow's feet at the corners of her eyes showing her age. Despite her renewed appearance, she'd yet to show any interest in dating, content to simply raise her son and manage her investments.

"Oh, another flier came through the door today…about that terrible killer." she added with a grimace. "They've started calling them the 'Bloody Ripper' now."

"The mass media strikes again, I see." Izuku offered with a sigh and a shake of his head. Apparently, it had been the same even back in the pre-Quirk Era, according to Kakyōin; reporters would always try and give serial killers sensational names to try and sell papers or raise their ratings. "What was the flier about?"

"A standard 'do not go out late alone' notice." Inko answered, frowning at the offending paper. "Honestly, is that all they're doing? This…person has murdered at least twenty-four people by now and they're just telling everyone to stay together and not go out late. Are they even taking this seriously?"

"There hasn't been a killer this capable of avoiding capture in a long time, Mum. Particularly this close to U.A. High." Izuku pointed out as he placed his bag down and took a seat on the sofa. "Normally, either the police or the heroes are able to track down killers like this fairly quickly thanks to sense-enhancement and information-gathering Quirks, but this 'Bloody Ripper' has somehow managed to find a way around them so far. I'm honestly worried that they're going to try and institute a curfew for all of Musutafu if this keeps up; that would really make it a lot harder to keep up with my training program."

"Oh dear…" Inko began to worry at her lip slightly. "Sweetie, I know you take your training seriously, but it would just destroy me if something happened to you because of this horrible person. I won't ask you to stop, but please…be careful, promise me."

"Of course, Mum." Izuku promised at once. "I have no intention of wandering around the more isolated of Musutafu, so I'll hopefully be able to avoid wandering into their sights either way."

"I know sweetie, but…just better safe than sorry, you know." his mother agreed, before leaning over and kissing him on the crown of his head. "I'm already working on dinner, so go get washed up and changed out of your uniform."

As his mother walked back into the kitchen, Izuku let out a slightly weary sigh as he got up and head to wash up and change into his casual clothes before sitting down to refine his costume design proposal for a bit while he waited for dinner to be ready. He was honestly grateful he'd asked Bakugō Mitsuki for help with it, the woman was a professional clothing designer after all, and she'd been eager to help out.

"Bah, it's the least I can do after all the grief my brat's been causing you, Izu-chan." she'd waved him off.

He was truly glad he'd asked for her help; his first couple of design attempts had been truly dismal. He knew, from browsing a few forums regarding U.A. and its Hero Course, that first year U.A. students normally only submitted a general outline of what they wanted and would then let the professional Support Companies U.A. had contracts with handle fleshing them out, but Izuku had a very specific set of ideas for what he wanted to get across for his costume, and he wanted his design to show them off as clearly as possible.

Later That Night

Musutafu Outskirts

"S-Stay back…get the fuck away from me!" a terrified voice shrieked as its owner tried to escape his pursuer. An ordinary, if taller than average, salaryman with a single large eye ran, looking positively terrified and nearly tripping over his own feet as he fled down the street. His hands were a bloodied mess, with several fingers obviously broken, looking like he'd just tried to punch his way through a steel-reinforced wall. "I've got to get away!"

"No, you need to come closer…." A voice purred out from the darkness behind him.

The fleeing salaryman suddenly found his body freezing up, coming to sudden halt before he began to jerkily turn around and start walking toward a figure standing beneath a broken street-light, the flickering light casting them completely in shadow. His single eye seemed to bulge with effort as he unsuccessfully tried to fight off whatever was controlling him, doing everything he could to try and break free and run again. But his body simply wasn't listening to him any longer.

In the next moment the man's head seemed to suddenly twist atop his neck; the sheer force of the motion quickly ripping it free from his shoulders in a fountain of blood, some of which flew in the direction of his killer.

"So much for the might of the [Cyclops] Quirk." the figure sneered down at the body that was still at least three meters away from them as the head seemed to hover in mid-air for a moment before dropping on top of its former corpse. "Taste what real power is like, you trash!"

The Next Day

Midoriya Residence

"…the latest victim has been identified as Katame Ikko-shi, Age 34. His body was discovered earlier this morning by a dog walker. He possessed a Heteromorphic Quirk known as [Cyclops] that, in addition to granting him a single eye with enhanced perception, also bolstered his strength and durability." the news announcer on the TV reported. "This marks the twenty-fifth identified victim of the Bloody Ripper in the past six months. Both police and local hero agencies have been baffled by this spree of murders; with no links between the various victims and no motive for these grisly crimes being discovered despite investigations into every victim's background. Chief of Police Tsuragamae Kenji had this to say."

The image on the screen quickly shifted to a large man with the head of a beagle, standing in front of the Musutafu Police Headquarters. "The entirety of the Police Department are giving their all in attempting to find and identify the one behind these gruesome crimes, and even more resources are being allocated to our department as we speak. Woof. A special task force of both heroes and police officers has already been created and, as of earlier this morning, Principal Nezu of U.A. has volunteered his services to take lead on the investigation. Woof. With all these factors in place, I have no doubts that the perpetrator will soon face justice for their crimes. Woof!"

"A canine-based Mutation Quirk only affecting the head? How unusual." Izuku murmured absently, even as he twirled a pen between his fingers, his mind racing with this new information. His forays into the various police departments had found that there was a single commonality between the various victims of the Bloody Reaper: they'd all possessed fairly weak or harmless Quirks.

One of the first victims had simply possessed a Mutation Quirk that gave them gills in addition to normal lungs. Another could extend their nose to over a foot in length. Another could change their eye colour at will. Yet another had been able to produce soap from their hands.

However, this latest victim was different. [Cyclops] was Mutation Quirk that granted its possessor a middling amount of enhanced strength and durability. It was nothing compared to what some other Quirks could offer, but it was a sharp increase in power compared to the Bloody Ripper's previous victims.

It could be a copycat, but Izuku doubted that. No, it was more likely that the killer was growing more confident in their abilities after so long without being confronted.

They were getting bolder, and that would make them far more dangerous if they were ever cornered.

"Oh my, how dreadful. And that was just a couple of miles away!" Inko murmured in worry from her spot next to him. "It's a good thing you decided against going out to train yesterday, Izuku."

"Yeah, that's…yes." Izuku nodded, swallowing his own thoughts. He was relatively certain of his ability to defend himself should he be attacked, but advertising that fact would only make his mother worry about him going looking for trouble. "Mum, I want you to be careful as well. From the way things are looking, whoever's behind this is obviously not right in the head."

"Don't worry Izuku, I'm always finished with my shopping long before it gets that late." Inko offered her son a reassuring smile. "Now, you'd best be heading out or you'll be late for school."

"Hm?" Izuku glanced toward the clock, noting that he was indeed running a bit behind. "Gah! I'm going to be late!"

Inko could only giggle as her baby briefly lost the composed mien he always tried to project these days and ran about grabbing his things. Her boy had become so self-controlled over the past few years that she honestly didn't mind teasing him every once and a while to get him to act his age.

"Bye Mum, love you!" Izuku shouted as he ran pell-mell out of the door.

Smiling softly at her son's departing figure, Inko gently closed the door behind him and set about her daily cleaning. There wasn't much she needed to do; both she and her son tended to be quite tidy and organized by their very nature, so it only took an hour or so to keep their apartment clean unless she was going the whole nine-yards.

Humming happily, the single mother began to bustle about her home, quietly happy and content with her life at the moment.

After School

Streets of Musutafu

Izuku was in a good mood as he walked down the street, heading toward Ichigaya's Butchers. It was only a minor detour on his usual route home and his mother had texted him at lunch requesting that he pick up some meat for tonight's dinner, his personal favourite: tonkatsu.

He just barely kept himself from drooling at the mere thought. His mother's tonkatsu recipe was simply to die for in his humble opinion. Anyone who preached about the glories of professional chefs or the high-quality ingredients of fine dining had obviously never tasted a home-cooked meal made with a mother's love. He'd take his mother's cooking over any restaurant's paltry attempts ten time out of ten.

"Out of the way!" A sudden shout from behind him quickly drew him from his hunger-induced musings, mere moments before he was body-checked from behind and sent sprawling across the ground. Fortunately, several years of Aikido and various other forms of self-defence training kicked in, allowing him to fall properly and quickly regain his feet. The moment he was standing again, he was glaring down at the one responsible, a woman who looked to be in her thirties or somewhere thereabouts. Her pink hair was rather sloppily cut, as if someone had simply chopped off the excess hair with a knife, and hung down to her shoulders, framing a fairly plain, ordinary face.

The woman's only remarkable feature were her intense, heterochromatic eyes. One eye was simply an empty pool of black, from the sclera to the iris and pupil; while its opposite was an equally blank pool of stark white. She was dress in a typical office-worker's skirt-suit, a boring beige in colour, and she was currently scowling up at him in frustration.

"Kid, when someone tells you to get out of the way, you're supposed to freakin' move!" she barked at him from where she'd fallen. "Now I'm going to be late!"

"Perhaps you should try watching where you're going then, rather than just expecting everyone to simply leap into traffic at your command, miss." Izuku shot back coolly, utterly unimpressed with the woman's arbitrary vitriol.

She was the one who'd barrelled into him, after all.

"Grr…you're fucking lucky I don't have time to deal with disciplining a worthless brat right now!" the woman growled as she got back to her feet. "You'd better hope I don't catch you hanging around here again, boy!"

With that, she pushed past him and vanished into the crowd, leaving an irritated Izuku staring after.

"Hmph." Izuku grunted as he dusted himself off. "Some people are such a…" he muttered before coming to a stop when he noticed a wallet on the ground. Picking it up, he casually flipped it open; quickly noting the commuter pass for the same belligerent woman who'd just ran into him from out of nowhere.

"Amagasaki Chigusa…huh?" he muttered before absently pocketing the wallet and making his way toward the nearest kōban (Police Box) to hand it in. There was no way in hell he was going to chase that lady just to return it, not after how rude she'd been; so she could do the damn footwork to get it back herself. Heck, he was showing remarkable restraint by simply not taking the cash out before he handed it over to the lost and found section of the kōban as compensation for the woman nearly knocking him onto his face.

Such restraint was far more than most other teenagers could muster.

After handing the wallet in to the on-duty officer in the box, a kindly young man who'd thanked Izuku for his good deed, Izuku had left and picked up the pork his mother had requested before he started heading home. As he walked, he began making mental plans for training Hierophant Emerald's Sensory Barrier in more open and crowded areas. He hadn't done that yet, mostly due to the risk of sensory overload from the sheer number of people who could be moving through a crowded street. That and the fact that the normal version of Sensory Barrier was a fixed and immovable zone designed to lock down and contain an area to prevent a large number of enemies from overwhelming him.

'Hmm, normally when I use that technique, I completely disassemble Hierophant Emerald into its natural strand state and spread it over the area. My zone has expanded both as Emerald has grown larger and as I've learned to spread it outward into thinner and thinner strands.' he pondered absently as he went over the technique in his head. 'With my current level of skill, I could probably create a reasonably sized barrier without completely disassembling Hierophant Emerald. Perhaps, as long as I leave the majority in its humanoid form, I might be able to create a mobile version. I could start with just the cape, since those strands have always been the easiest to manipulate in their disassembled state. Granted, it would reduce the resulting Barrier's area of effect significantly, but the benefits of being able to freely move and manoeuvre while keeping my defensive area active would definitely be worth the cost. I'd also need to work on adjusting their intangibility to keep them from snapping every time I moved the barrier past a stationary object…'

Half-lost in thought as he tried to plan and formulate a new application of one of his Stand's strongest abilities, the green-haired boy made his way home.

The Next Morning

"…the body of a surprise victim, off-duty Police Officer Yamada Keisuke-shi, Age 24, was discovered outside his apartment complex earlier this morning by one of his neighbours as they were leaving for work." the news commenter stated seriously. "This is the first known instance of the Bloody Ripper breaking their once-a-week pattern, which experts believe shows an alarming and dangerous shift in their mentality. Police and local hero agencies are advising all residents of Musutafu to exercise extreme caution when moving around after dark and to only do so in cases of absolute necessity."

Izuku suddenly froze as the news screen shifted to show a picture of the murdered policeman.

"Izuku? Izuku? Honey, is everything alright?" Inko asked anxiously as she noticed her baby staring in frozen shock at the screen.

"I…when I was grabbing the pork yesterday, I found a wallet someone had dropped and turned it into the local kōban…to him." the verdette eventually offered, swallowing slightly as he pointed to the image on the screen before them. "He…he was quite a nice fellow, thanking me for being a good citizen and wishing me a safe evening."

"Oh sweetie…" his mother quickly moved next to him and wrapped her son in a protective hug. "I'm so sorry…do you want me to call you in sick today?"

"No…No Mum, I'm fine." Izuku seemed to quickly pull himself back together, giving his mother a strong squeeze in return. "Thank you, but I'm fine. It was just…quite the shock to see someone I'd just talked to yesterday displayed on the TV like that, you know."

"Oh, my brave boy!" Inko pulled him into a tighter hug.

"Mum!" Izuku half-heartedly complained as he felt his ribs creak at the strength she was gripping him with.

Later

Classroom, Aldera Junior High

As one might expect, most of the conversation going on throughout the school had to do with the latest change in the Bloody Ripper case. Even teenagers were interested in a vicious serial killer running around their town. Hushed, whispered conversations were abound this morning, each carrying varying levels of fear and disquiet at the sudden death of a police officer.

At least for those that had more empathy and emotional range than your average teaspoon, that is.

"So what if some fucking cop was offed?" Bakugō Katsuki grunted in annoyance toward his nervous cronies. "No cop has got a Quirk worth a damn, otherwise they'd have become heroes instead. What was this guy supposed to have again? [Squirt Gun] or some shit like that? Nothing but a freakin' short range water pistol, just another weak sauce extra. This fucker's just a coward goin' after extras that can't fight back, if he'd tried that shit with me then I'd have kicked this Roper guy's ass in ten seconds flat."

"Ripper, Bakugō." Izuku pointed out irritably, in no mood to deal with his former friend's usual boastings. "They're calling them the Bloody Ripper, and they've managed to kill twenty-six people in less than half a year."

"Fuck off, Deku!" the blonde bomber sneered back. "What the hell do you care anyway?"

"I met Officer Yamada yesterday after school." he stated simply, his cold tone making the growing sneers on Bakugō's various cronies fall as they instinctively stepped back. "I simply handed him a wallet I'd found dropped on the ground and he thanked me for doing a good deed. And now he is dead."

His minions might have been reacting instinctively to the verdette's cold tone, but Katsuki Bakugō was made of sterner stuff. He saw the cold rage burning in his former friend's eyes. The nerd was actually pissed off that some no-name cop had been offed? Why? Just because he'd met the man the day before?

Typical, the nerd had always been disgustingly soft.

A lot of the bullshit that Izuku had always prattled on about had never made any sense to him, but years of interactions in their younger days had allowed him to at least gain at least some understanding of the nerd's thought processes. He was compassionate, as his mother had called it, and despite the cold persona the bastard had built up and worn since his Quirk manifested, that obviously hadn't changed. For Izuku to have met a person and interacted with them, however briefly, and for them to simply been killed just a few hours later; it was something that would get Deku's blood boiling.

'Tch, same stupid fucking Deku.' the [Explosion] wielder sneered sharply in his head. 'Getting serious about some background character.'

In Bakugō's mind, there was simply no point in getting concerned about some random extra or background character dying if he'd had nothing to do with it.

But while he might have never been the most empathic of people, Katsuki was at least smart enough (and self-aware enough) to realize that his own opinions were fairly different from the norm, and so he chose to keep them to himself on the matter…for the most part.

"Don't do anything stupid, Deku. I'm the only one allowed to kill your ass." he grunted aloud before turning and ignoring his former friend.

Izuku momentarily froze in shock. Was Katsuki expressing…some form of actual concern? For him of all people? Would wonders never cease to amaze? Granted, he'd done it in the most antagonistic and biting way possible, but still…

Perhaps his old friend wasn't so without hope after all?

"You needn't worry…I'm not you after all, Bakugō." he responded with a light smirk as he turned and walked away. All the blonde boy did in response was to let of a handful of crackling explosions while growling lowly.

Katsuki knew better than to stain his record by outright attacking someone while still in the school building, after all. There was no way he'd let Deku bait him into damaging his perfect record or prevent him from fulfilling his destiny as the next Number One Hero.

After School

Izuku's Room, Midoriya Residence

Looking across the freshly printed map of Musutafu, Izuku frowned as his eyes drifted across the various counters he'd placed across it. Each denoting the locations where the various victims of the Bloody Ripper had been discovered; along with a small number penned atop each denoting the order they had been killed in.

Each and every one of them had either been lured or followed to some isolated area of the city…aside from Officer Yamada, who'd been killed right outside his own apartment complex in a fairly busy residential district.

The increase in the danger of their chosen target could be explained by an increase in confidence, but why change where they chose to make their attacks? And why break their once-a-week pattern so abruptly and sharply? What was it about Office Yamada that had triggered such a dramatic change?

Shaking his head in frustration, Izuku swept the counters off the map and absently hid it behind his old cork-board. Just like their victims, there were no commonalities about the various attack sites that the Bloody Reaper had used in the past, save for the fact that they were all fairly isolated or remote locations. The police only knew that they were attack sites and not simply dump sites simply because there were absolutely no signs that the bodies had been moved after death, with blood spray in the surrounding areas matching what would have been caused by a sudden, violent decapitation.

Gritting his teeth, Izuku tried to shake off the uneasy feeling that had been shadowing him since he'd learned about Officer Yamada's death. It was a cold, sharp feeling, like he'd somehow just barely dodged an unseen bullet. Every instinct in his body, refined and honed under Kakyōin's harsh tutelage, was warning him that something dangerous was approaching and that Officer Yamada's death was somehow connected.

Something had triggered, or perhaps even forced, the Bloody Ripper to completely abandon their normal Modus Operandi and attack Yamada outside their normal timeframe and hunting pattern. Perhaps it had something to do with the officer's position; none of the previous targets had been involved with the police force. They had been almost exclusively retired individuals, Freeters, university students, or basic office workers.

Izuku blinked, before his eyes sharpened in realization. Over two dozen deaths and not a single one had been involved with the various emergency services, the Hero Safety Commission, Hero Agencies in general, or even actual government employees. That could not be a coincidence. No, somehow the Bloody Ripper was screening their various targets before selecting those that likely didn't have any form of backup or support, and whose death would not cause a sudden ramp up in the manhunt due to the victim's relationships with someone important.

Which just made Officer Yamada death a further outlier! So why had he died!?

Frown deepening, Izuku considered this new datum with everything that he already knew, only to come up with nothing. There was just too much that he didn't know, which was the same issue that the police were dealing with, or something close to it.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Izuku slumped. Even if he did somehow miraculously discover some hidden truth about the Ripper, there was no way he could take it to police without exposing that he'd been spying on them. Nor could he move to act on the information himself, since vigilantism was very much illegal in the current day and age, even more so than it had been back before the Quirked Era where superpowers weren't even considered in the equation.

Straightening with a sudden jerk, Izuku made his way over to his computer and did a quick search for the legal definition of 'vigilantism' on the net. The result actually left him stunned speechless for a moment.

"Vigilantism is legally defined as someone acting in the same manner as a Pro Hero and freely using their Quirk to attempt to apprehend criminals and/or save lives and property, in direct defiance of the Japanese Vigilante Pardoning Act 2XXX, the Professional Hero Act 2XXX and the Universal Quirk Restriction Act 2XXX."

"What?" Izuku coughed out in disbelief. He was well aware of those three acts.

The Vigilante Pardoning Act had marked the legal end of the Vigilante Era and the start of the Pro Hero System in Japan. It was, for lack of a better word, an olive branch to the more stable and moderate vigilantes during those first few chaotic decades that had followed the birth of the Luminescent Baby and the start of the Quirked Era. After Japan's government had been able to regain some measure of control over the populace after the emergence of Quirks, this act had offered amnesty to any vigilantes that matched the Japanese Government's criteria, on the condition that they either retired as vigilantes or took up positions as government-sponsored agents.

That act had been followed several years later by the Professional Hero Act, which had grandfathered in and officially deputized the majority of vigilantes who had risen to combat a sudden violent upsurge in dangerous and powerful individuals after the original Vigilante Pardoning Act had been passed, granting them restricted rights to act as law enforcement in exchange for being restricted by certain rules and guidelines in the line of duty. It had also established the Heroics Regulation Authority, which had been tasked with ensuring that all the newly licensed 'Heroes' obeyed the regulations that were put in place to govern them, as well as establishing the necessary skills and qualifications a Vigilante would need to qualify to be deputized.

The Regulation Authority would later evolve and expand with the development of the Pro Hero System to become the Hero Public Safety Commission, which was in charge of both monitoring Pro Heroes and with helping establishing the requirements that Hero Schools needed to meet in order for their students to gain their Hero Licenses, as well as regulating, administrating and monitoring the various Licensing Exams.

Finally, the Universal Quirk Restriction Act had been the final nail in the coffin of any remaining independent vigilantes that didn't want to bow to public authority. Passed just a few years after the Professional Hero Act and the Pro Hero System began to truly take form, it explicitly banned anyone from freely using their Quirks in public areas unless they had a Professional Hero License issued by the government. The law would go through several legal revisions and amendments in the following years, with exceptions being made for most physical alterations caused by Heteromorphic Quirks as well as Quirks that had an involuntary trigger, eventually evolving into the Legal Quirk Usage laws that were on the books today.

Even now, two-hundred years later, possessing a Pro Hero License was still the only way for someone to legally be able to freely use their Quirk in public, in Japan at least. There had been the, relatively, recent development of Limited Quirk Licenses that allowed those with particularly useful or practical Quirks to use them in professional setting after the applicant displayed a suitable level of control over their Quirk.

Granted, the law wasn't the most heavily enforced. Minor or accidental use of Quirks in public were mostly ignored or, at worst, issued a warning as long as it didn't cause a public disturbance. This was especially true for younger individuals, particularly those that hadn't reached high school age yet, since many children practised with their Quirks in the hopes of eventually joining a Pro Hero Course at schools like U.A. It was how he and Bakugō were able to get away with their training and 'spars' as long as they kept them to out-of-the-way areas and didn't cause any real property damage.

Kakyōin had professed to a good deal of scepticism and suspicion toward the HPSC after he'd learned about them after Izuku had explained the Pro Hero System in more detail. Their entire remit was, as he had pointed out, far too broad with no actual limiting or supervisory bodies in order to act as a check and balance. Such situations had always been breeding grounds for corruption and abuses of power, particularly when it came to keeping that power securely in their hands.

That particular conversation had led to Izuku doing some research on the subject and what he'd found had been…extremely suspicious. Enough so that he was forced to agree with his mentor that there was likely something rotten in the HPSC.

It would be something he'd have to look out for and try and remove once he became a Pro himself.

'Still, for the government to leave such a large and glaring loophole.' he pondered, getting his mind back on track. He went over the situation again and things began to fall into a more realistic picture. 'Hm…yes, then again…why would someone attempt to be a vigilante while refusing to use their Quirk?'

In stark contrast to how it had been during the early days of the Quirk Era, most people these days wouldn't be trying to become a vigilante out of a desire to help or protect others. Instead, most would simply be people out to prove something, whether to themselves or to society at large. People who'd failed to enter or were expelled from a hero course, people who'd been bullied because of their Quirk, people who'd had their Quirks looked down on and even those who simply wanted to show off the power of their Quirk.

In such a case, these types of people wouldn't even consider becoming a vigilante for any other reason but to use their Quirk, making the loophole moot.

Shaking his head at such petty reasoning, Izuku quickly wiped his search history and closed his computer down, his thoughts growing dark for a moment as he thought of the sheer pettiness that seemed to pervade the entire world at times.

In all of Aldera Junior High, there were maybe a dozen students, including both himself and Bakugō Katsuki, who were seriously planning on attempting the entrance exams for a Hero Course of some form. Of them, only himself and Bakugō did anything that could actually be considered training. The rest were completely confident in the idea that their Quirks would be all they needed in order to gain entry into a Hero Course.

Idiots.

The rest of their various classmates had been convinced that unless one had a 'strong' or 'flashy' Quirk you didn't stand a chance of becoming a hero. Many were still going to make an attempt, if for no other reason than to say that they'd tried. A waste of time in Izuku's opinion, since none of them had ever made any efforts to train themselves or their Quirks and many were simply underutilizing what could be quite useful Quirks if they just tried to practice with them properly.

Again, idiots.

Pettiness and laziness seemed to be a poison that was infecting the world at large these days. Seemingly everywhere he looked were people who were either too lazy to try and improve themselves, or were only acting for some petty reason. Sometimes both.

He honestly prayed that he'd meet a better quality of people when he finally arrived at U.A., otherwise he might well lose all hope for humanity.

Having already finished his homework, Izuku got to his feet and headed toward the living room. Hopefully some TV would be able to pull him from his grim mood.

The Next Day, After School

Streets of Musutafu

Izuku's pace was slow and measured, expressing no outward signs of the chills racing up and down his spine. It had felt like someone had been walking over his grave ever since he'd left Aldera today. Every bit of paranoia and danger sense in his body was going off like an air raid siren; warning that some unseen danger was stalking him.

With a thought, Hierophant Emerald manifested, floating a good ten meters above his body. Using his Stand's eyes instead of his own, he quickly located what had to be the source of his sudden paranoia, a very familiar woman in a boring, beige skirt-suit.

Amagasaki Chigusa.

The pink-haired woman was glaring daggers at his back, even as she moved discretely through the crowds behind him, hands slowly clenching and unclenching into claws and her heterochromatic eyes seemingly shining with barely suppressed rage.

However, what had initially drawn Izuku's attention to her was what was floating just above and behind her shoulder. A humanoid figure completely enclosed in white armour with a feminine cast (it even had a boob plate). It had vestigial, red feathered wings emerging from its back and tufts of bright red fur seemed to stick out from every groove or opening of the armour. Its limbs looked heavily muscled despite their feminine form and its face was completely concealed by a white porcelain mask of a beatific female face, seemingly joined with the helmet's faceplate.

And yet, despite how glaringly obvious and out of place the figure appeared, not a single person seemed to be paying it any attention. Normally, such a flagrant display of Quirk usage would have drawn attention from nearly everyone else on the street, but instead all their eyes seemed to either ghost over it or look through it like it wasn't…even…there…

Izuku nearly tripped as realization struck him like a thunderbolt, only his current focus keeping his shock from being displayed to the world.

They couldn't see it, because it wasn't a Quirk, it was a Stand! Amagasaki Chigusa wasn't a Quirk-holder, but rather a Stand-user! The only reason he could see it was because he had a Stand himself!

'Holy shit…wait.' Izuku fought to keep his breathing even as everything started clicking into place. 'If she has a Stand, then…could she possibly be…?!'

It made a terrible kind of sense. A Stand, particularly a close-combat Stand, would easily be capable of exerting the kind of force needed to commit that kind of brutal feat. It would explain why no physical evidence had been found, since a Stand would have been fully capable of committing the crimes without their holder ever having to get within arm's reach if its range was long enough. And the physical enhancements granted by a Quirk like [Cyclops] would mean nothing to a Stand, since they were nearly invulnerable to anything but another Stand.

If his suspicions were correct, which he was becoming more and more sure of, then there was no way in hell he was leading her anywhere close to his home. At the next intersection, he quickly and casually adjusted his course, moving in the opposite direction of his and his mother's apartment. Through the eyes of Hierophant Emerald he watched as his stalker quickly changed course to follow after him, her own Stand obediently following after her. She was so focussed on watching him that she didn't notice Hierophant Emerald.

Izuku's mouth set into a grim line. Now completely certain of what was happening, he knew just what he had to do.

Only a Stand could truly battle another Stand, after all.

Over the course of the next half-hour, Izuku gradually led his pursuer toward a fairly isolated area he was familiar with. It had once been a fairly upscale gated apartment complex, until a rampaging group of villains had turned it into a battlefield and devastated it to the point it had to be completely evacuated a few months ago. With all the various insurance claims, lawsuits, and other investigations surrounding the damages done, it had been left to rot until the legal matters were settled. Most people tried to stay clear of the place since there was a very real threat of the remainder of the building collapsing, but that only made it better for what Izuku currently had in mind.

He kept his pace calm and casual as he slipped under the ragged police tape that was the only thing preventing entrance through the complex's large front entrance. He could easily spot where the large, wrought-iron gate that had once barred entrance was still embedded into the side of one of the buildings from where a villain had literally ripped it off and threw it about in a rage. Despite having been abandoned for months, the complex's courtyard still clearly showed the remnants of the love and care that its residents had put into maintaining it, including the gazebo that stood at its centre.

Well, what was left of it anyway. Apparently someone, the villain who'd destroyed the gate most likely, had ripped the roof off and had thrown it like a frisbee. He could still see remnants of broken wood off to one side of the gateway.

As Izuku casually strolled up the steps of the gazebo, he suddenly came to a stop and spun around. Leaning back against one of the gazebo's remaining supports, he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"I do believe it's well past time we ended our little game of Onigokko. Besides, aren't you a little too old to be playing children games, Amagasaki-san?" he called out calmly. In the same instant, he dispelled Hierophant Emerald from its place hovering in the air.

There was a brief moment of silence, but then the pink-haired form of his adversary stalked into the courtyard, glaring absolute bloody murder up at him.

"Little brat!" she practically snarled, teeth gnashing together as her black and white eyes practically bulged outward as they locked onto him.

"We meet again, my good lady." Izuku responded politely with a disarming smile, ignoring the Stand that was floating menacingly behind her for the moment. "So, would you mind telling me why you've been following me since I left school, all while looking like you wanted nothing more than to rip out my throat with your teeth?"

"It's all your fault, you damned brat!" Chigusa snarled out, her fingers practically forming claws as she swiped them through the air. "You and that stupid fucking cop! They'll know who I am now, and they're going to start hunting me like some fucking common murderer!"

"Ah…so it is because of the wallet I turned in." the verdette sighed softly in self-recrimination, offering a silent prayer of apology to Officer Yamada for accidentally getting him involved. "It is just as I suspected then…Miss Bloody Ripper."

"You've got some balls on you, talking down to me like that, you stupid runt." the monochrome-eyed woman growled out. "Arrogant shits, always so proud of their fucking Quirks. Yet none of them could so much as touch me now that I've gotten real power! Twenty-six dead and not a single one of them could even touch me."

"Ah…so you're Quirkless then, and you've been attacking and murdering those with weak Quirks to assuage your wounded pride and make yourself feel better? How…utterly petty." Izuku offered with casual disinterest, his eyes like chips of emerald ice as he stared down at the woman standing opposite of him.

'What the fuck is wrong with this kid? He's facing down an infamous serial killer and he's not even rattled!' said serial killer mentally growled out as she continued to glare at the teen in front of her, teeth clenching in barely constrained fury at the casual dismissal of her. 'He can't be any older than fucking thirteen, maybe fourteen tops, and yet he's not even batting a fucking eyelid at staring me down. Is this little shit really that confident in his Quirk? Tch…time he learned his lesson.'

"So fucking what!?" she scoffed aloud. "A brat with a fancy Quirk can never understand the shit I've had to deal with….to be treated like you're not even human just cause of a fucking toe joint…to be constantly looked down on for your entire fucking life just because of some shitty genetics. Well, it's well past time I got some payback; I've hunted down every one of those bastards who took such pride in their stupid Quirks and showed them the power of the Quirkless! And you're next, brat!"

Izuku merely continued to stare down at her balefully. "…of all the people you could have ranted at, you really did choose the worst possible person to vent your spleen at." Izuku bit out coldly. "I don't suppose you've ever heard of Latent Quirk Syndrome?"

"Nope." the woman spat out.

"Then perhaps you've heard of its more common idioms, Invisible Quirk Syndrome or perhaps…Late Bloomer Syndrome?" the greenette continued.

The last one actually caused the woman to blink. "Wait, you're fucking telling me…"

"At the tender age of four I was misdiagnosed as Quirkless, no different from you." Izuku confirmed coldly, eyes hard. "For four years I was bullied and belittled for it, until the day a miracle occurred and I manifested my own abilities. So yes, I DO understand what it's like to be Quirkless, and it does not excuse your slaughter of innocents for nothing more than being born luckier than you or I."

"Fuck you! At least you actually got one in the end!" Chigusa snapped back, eyes practically glowing as glared at me with renewed venom, the condemnation seemingly only adding fuel to the fires of her rage.

"And how precisely have you been going about your grisly deeds?" Izuku continued calmly "The exact methods of these murders should be impossible for a woman of your size without a Quirk."

He already knew the answer, but he had to admit he was curious on how precisely she'd acquired a Stand. Had she had her own encounter with a ghostly visitor?

The rage seemed to bleed out of the woman, her form going slack for a moment. Then she began to shake, a low malevolent chuckle rising up from her form, before her head shot up, mismatched eyes practicality glowing with malice and a sneer on her face.

"Quirks aren't the only powers to exist in this world, little boy." she whispered out, her voice just barely audible on the evening air. "Thanks to that person, I not only gained a power unimaginable to most of the trash that infests this world, I even got a stupid, fucking Quirk out of the deal as well!"

Izuku's eyes narrowed slightly in interest at that admission. 'Fascinating…it looks like gaining a Stand also seems to stimulate a person's Quirk Factor in some way, awakening it for a Quirkless person. I wonder what would happen if a person who already had an active Quirk Factor gained a Stand as well? More importantly though…'

"I must admit, my curiosity has been piqued." Izuku stated aloud, "Just who was this person that managed to give you your so-called power?"

Chigusa's chuckles died just as suddenly as they began, her eyes hardening. "I think I'm done talking to you." she hissed out. "After all, it's not like the dead need any answers."

"And what exactly did I do? I'm well aware you're going to have to try and kill me now that I know exactly who you are Miss Ripper, but why were you hunting me in the first place? Did our little encounter the other day really piss you off enough to sign my death warrant? I must say, that kind of temper is most unflattering."

"Fuck you!" the pink-haired woman snarled back, her previous frenzy quickly returning as she was reminded of just what had brought her here. "It's because you fucking grabbed my wallet and handed it to that dumbass cop! Somehow that one-eyed bastard managed to splatter a bit of his blood on it and that overly nosey pig saw it! He handed the thing over to his fucking precinct and now there's no way to get it back!" she was losing more and more control the longer she spoke, looking almost like she was in the midst of some form of manic fit. "Any day now, they're going to get the results back and figure out just who I am! All of my hard work, ruined! All because you and that pig couldn't keep your noses out of my business! It's! All! Your! Fault!" she practically shrieked near the end, once again looking like she was ready to try and rip him apart with her bare hands.

Izuku merely raised his eyebrow at the woman's ravings. 'Bastion of sanity, this woman obviously is not. Then again, the whole serial killer thing should have made that clear already.'

"You could have simply chosen not to kill all those people." he offered dryly, mildly annoyed by the deranged woman arbitrarily trying to pin all of her issues on his shoulders. She was even more self-centred than Bakugō, and that was saying something from Izuku's perspective. "You chose to take those people's lives for your own satisfaction, now the consequences of such acts will fall flatly on your head. Deal with it."

The murderess was practically frothing at the mouth at this point. "Kid, I've never in my life met someone who's pissed me off like you have." she hissed out in a broken, strained tone. "Normally, just wiping you arrogant pieces of garbage off the face of the Earth gives me a fucking jolly but you…I am going to enjoy making you squeal like nothing I've done before. You can count on that!"

"If you believe you are capable of it, then by all means try it." the more senior of the two Stand Users replied coldly as he stared down at her. The time for talk was apparently over; he'd never get anything else out of her in her current state, so it was time to get down to business. "After all, do you think I'd have led you to such a perfect battlefield if I wasn't sure of my ability to win? So please, come at me murderess, and I'll thank you in advance for becoming the lab rat that I can use to test and see how far I've progressed with the last five years of training!"

That final remark seemed to push the pink-haired serial killer straight over the edge.

"AMANOJAKU JUDGEMENT!" she howled, the white and red figure behind her suddenly shooting straight towards him, arms extended forwards as it aimed for his head.

'Experiment Number One...' Izuku mentally intoned as he quickly brought his hands together, before just as quickly pulling them apart. '...begin!' With a twist of his wrist and an adjustment of his arms he brought the resulting surge of glowing green liquid around to bring it to bear directly at the charging Stand. "Emerald Splash!"

In an instant, dozens of fist-sized emeralds shot out of the stream, streaking through the air straight at the figure that Izuku was assuming was named [Amanojaku Judgement]. The crystalline projectiles quickly began pummelling the opposing Stand incessantly.

This experiment was to test something that Izuku had been curious about since Kakyōin had first explained the normally indestructible nature of Stands to him. Only the abilities or body of another Stand should be able to harm the charging figure. In that case, his Emerald Splash should have done nothing more than push the opposing Stand back.

But his Quirk, [Emerald Hierophant], was different. It was inexplicably linked to Hierophant Emerald, or perhaps even its progenitor Hierophant Green. Either way, his Quirk seemed to mimic the capabilities of a Stand in many ways, so could it actually cause damage to another Stand?

That was what this experiment would hopefully tell him.

"Gyaaah!" Chigusa suddenly shrieked in pain as welts, bruises and cuts seemed to suddenly appear across her face and upper body as her Stand was rapidly pushed back by the barrage. Numerous small cracks were already covering its armour and mask-like face, mirroring the wounds appearing on its master's skin. "Wh-what is going on?!"

'Hm…a partial success, at least.' Izuku silently mused as he continued his barrage. 'I'm going at almost full power now, so my Emerald Splash should be travelling at about 1320 feet per second and the impact velocity should be at over 900 feet per second at this point. That would be the rough equivalent of an automatic shotgun firing #000 buckshot at near point-blank range, and yet all I'm managing to do is cause surface wounds. Either her Stand possesses a phenomenal defensive quality, a not impossible event given its armoured nature, or my Quirk's ability to affect Stands is limited at best.'

Deciding that the experiment had gone on long enough and he'd get no more valuable data from it, Izuku quickly cut the flow off from his Quirk and readjusted his stance, arms crossed over his chest as he waited for the inevitable blow-up that was sure to follow.

Someone so caught up in their own sense of power would undoubtedly react quite negatively to having someone manage to hurt them like he'd just done.

Oh, how right he was.

"WHAT THE FUCKING HELL WAS THAT!?" Chigusa shrieked out, one arm rising to wipe at the cuts scattered across her face. "HOW!? That fucking [Cyclops] bastard broke his goddamned fingers trying to hit me and he couldn't even scratch [Amanojaku Judgement], so how can a sawed-off runt with some shiny rocks hurt us like this!?"

"Hierophant Emerald." Izuku intoned simply, allowing his green and white Stand to manifest directly behind him, perfectly mirroring his stance.

The pink-haired serial killer's entire being seemed to freeze as she instantly recognized what she was now facing.

"A-a Stand!?" she whispered in shock. She took a step back, head shaking rapidly in denial as her eyes scrunched closed and her hands fisted into her uneven hair. "No, no, no! It's impossible, that person would never hand a Stand over to some pathetic child! No! Not fair! No! I traded everything I had for this power! They wouldn't do this to me!"

'She's referring to the person who gave her that Stand so…politely.' Izuku mused curiously. It was an attitude he wouldn't have expected from the woman given all her previous behaviour.

Aloud, he simply announced, "I am very much certain that we did not receive our Stands from the same source, nor did I ever need to pay anything for it. As I said, I gained my own abilities through nothing short of a miracle. And just as obviously, you can see that my Quirk and my Stand are invariably linked, allowing me to fight your own with both my abilities. Even if my Quirk can do no more than injure you at the moment, please do enjoy having a taste of the pain you seem to enjoy inflicting on others."

If anything Izuku's statement seemed to push the already unhinged woman further into the abyss. "You…You…You damned BRAT!" she snarled, eyes shooting open and nearly bulging out of her skull as she stared at him with a look of pure and supreme murder. "I practically had to sell my soul to get my hands on this kind of power and you just fucking stumble on it by pure luck!? WHY!?

Izuku merely shrugged absently, as if saying, 'Why are you asking me?'

"I am going to make you SCREAM for mercy before you die, boy!" the Bloody Ripper snarled out, crimson blood spreading across her face from her weeping wounds. "And I doubt I'll be in any mood to grant you any!"

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Next Chapter: Stand Off

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Stand Parameters: Hierophant Emerald (Early Teens Version)

Destructive Power: B (Amazing)

Speed: B (Amazing)

Range: A (Very Amazing)

Persistence: B (Amazing)

Precision: B (Amazing)

Developmental Potential: B (Amazing)

[Stand Parameter Ratings List]

EX - Immeasurable

A – Very Amazing

B – Amazing

C – About Human Level

D – Weak

E – Really Weak

N/A - Non-existent