Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
Vlad King's Green Bean
Chapter six: Questioning and the beginning of the consolidation of power
Aizawa and Hizashi were looking down at the small child that was in the police station's lounge area, accompanied by All Might's police detective friend Naomasa, as well as Nezu and Nemuri who were also there. The child was a girl, no older than six to seven years of age, and she was sitting there, looking smaller than she really was.
She had long white hair, red eyes that were looking down (the child was clearly worried slash scared, not that any of them would hold it against her), a horn growing out of the side of her head, and she was wearing clothing that, although sized right and appropriate for a girl her age and size, clearly looked freshly bought, not to mention still a little big for her given that she looked like she hardly ever ate. It was a contrast to how she didn't look like she had access to new clothing due to her visible level of hygiene.
The girl's clothing consisted of a white long sleeved dress blouse, red pinafore, black stockings, and yellow boots. Sitting on the chair next to her was a messenger bag and a duffle bag that looked sized for a child her age; Aizawa accurately deduced the bags contained what belongings that the girl before him and the others owned.
"This is the child that was left in Midnight's home," Naomasa said to Aizawa and Hizashi who had just shown up, "We got it that her name is Eri."
Aizawa and the others turned to look at the young girl, now identified as Eri. "...Young lady," Nezu began, "Would you feel comfortable with telling us how you came to be at Nemuri's home?"
"You aren't in any trouble, by the way," Nemuri added, "And you can tell us anything and everything about how you were left at my house. Naomasa here is a nice police man, Shouta, Hizashi, and I are pro heroes, and Nezu is our boss."
"That makes him, like, a super pro hero," Hizashi offered, clearly trying to be reassuring to the small scared girl.
Eri looked up briefly at the adults, mainly focusing on Nezu. "...He looks like a cute stuffed animal."
Nezu chuckled in good humor at Eri's remark. "If you'd like Eri, I can arrange to have an actual stuffed animal made in my image and given to you as a gift. It won't even be part of anything you have to tell us. Consider it a favor from me to you."
Leaning to his right where Aizawa stood, Hizashi whispered, "I think she unknowingly stroked Nezu's ego just now."
Back to Eri, she looked back down. "...Mr. Rappa and his new friends saved me."
"Could you elaborate on that, please?" Naomasa asked.
Eri looked back up at Naomasa, looking curious and mildly confused. "Elaborate?"
"That word means he would like more details," Aizawa explained gently.
The little girl nodded in understanding before looking back down. "...Mr. Rappa found out what Kai was doing to me. Although he did come off as kind of scary because he likes to punch and fight others, Mr. Rappa was still nice deep down because he didn't like finding out about what Kai had been doing with me."
"Could you tell us more about these Mr. Rappa and Kai fellows?" Naomasa asked, already with a notepad and pen out.
Eri never raised her head. "...Kai said that I was helping him to make the world pure, that I would help him reset things to how they ought to be. I have no idea why he needed my... needed my blood for it, though."
"I'm sorry," Nemuri said, sounding a tad absolutely livid on Eri's behalf, "He needed your blood?!"
Eri nodded her head slightly, still never really raising it. "You sound like you don't like that Kai was using my blood. You and Mr. Rappa are in agreement with that. He found out about Kai taking and using my blood, while Kai and all of Mr. Rappa's now ex-friends were distracted by a news report about a bunch of nice kids from a hero school being killed on a field trip." Eri shuddered a bit as she recalled how 'Mr. Rappa' felt. "...Mr. Rappa did not like what Kai was doing at all."
Naomasa and the members of the UA staff exchanged looked; Eri was probably talking about the news report about how five UA students were killed at the USJ. Naomasa and the heroes turned to look back at Eri, with Nezu asking, "...What did this Mr. Rappa do when he found out what this Kai fellow was doing?"
The young girl shuddered a bit. "...I thought that he would yell and rage, he got like that sometimes when he was having fun punching and fighting people. But he didn't yell and rage. He secretly stole everything that Kai had made from by blood, put it in a backpack, secretly gathered me, then left Kai's place. Mr. Rappa, he..." Eri shuddered a little bit, clearly rattled by her experiences. "...He saved me from Kai's grasp."
"And then Mr. Rappa took you to Nemuri's place and left you there," Aizawa said.
Surprisingly, Eri gently shook her head in the negative. "...No. I fell asleep as Mr. Rappa carried me away from Kai's place, and when I woke up I was sitting on a padded seat in a booth at a bar."
"He... took you to a bar?" Hizashi asked questioningly.
"His new friends hang out there," Eri said, "A black haired guy with a few patches of purple skin and he wore a long black coat with short sleeves, a human lizard person with purple hair and he carried a samurai sword, this blonde girl who was really nice to me, and when I woke up Mr. Rappa was talking to a man made of blackish purple smoke and he was dressed like a bartender."
The last person who Eri had described alarmed the heroes. "...Did you get a decent look at the smoky bartender, Eri?" Nezu asked.
Eri nodded in the affirmative, still never raising her head much. "...He served me a big glass of yummy apple juice when he saw that I was awake."
"Did you ever hear the smoky bartender's name?" Nezu asked.
Eri looked like she was thinking about it, then said, "...I think the guy with the long black short sleeved coat called the bartender Kurogiri."
"Did this 'Kurogiri' fellow," Nezu said after pulling up a photo of the mist portal villain from the USJ attack (said photo was taken by security cameras and sent to a data base Nezu can access) and showing it to Eri, "Look like this?"
Eri looked at the photo for a minute. "...Yes. That's him."
The heroes and Naomasa were totally going to store that bit away for later; it was the name of the lone villain from the USJ attack who got away. "Can you tell us what all Mr. Rappa was doing with Kurogiri and the others?" Naomasa asked.
"Mr. Rappa said that he wanted to join them," Eri said, "He said that he needed 'a new group to roll with', whatever that means. He even got out all of what Kai made from my blood, asked that all doses of the destroying drug both finished and prototype be destroyed but to hold onto all doses of the restoring serum just to be safe."
"Destroying drug? Restoring serum?" Nemuri said questioningly.
Eri winced a bit out of discomfort. "Kai said those would help make the world pure."
Naomasa turned to look at the heroes. "This could be a sign of bad things to come. We need to get the word out to look for this Kai fellow so we-"
"You can't find him." Eri cut Naomasa off and prompted him and the heroes to turn to look at her. "You can't find Kai," Eri said, "Right before the nice blonde girl and her lizard person friend dropped me off at the pretty lady hero's house, Kurogiri informed Mr. Rappa and the others that his boss tracked down, captured, and killed Kai."
Naomasa and the heroes were now alarmed. Kurogiri, and by extension probably the whole of the villain force who attacked the USJ, had a mysterious boss who, at the very least, had killed this Kai fellow who had been probably torturing Eri for her blood to make twisted drugs and the like. "Can you tell us anything about this boss Kurogiri has?" Nezu asked.
Eri was silent for a bit as she tried thinking about it. "...Kurogiri's boss is also the boss of the nice blonde girl, the lizard person, the guy in the long black short sleeved coat, and now Mr. Rappa as well. Kurogiri assured me that his boss made Kai pay for how mean he had been to me. Kurogiri said that his boss collected a lesson fee from Kai before killing him."
"You said that Mr. Rappa's new friends, the blonde girl and the lizard person," Nezu said, "Left you at Nemuri's place. Did they also give you the stuff you have here?"
Eri nodded in the affirmative. "...When Mr. Rappa brought me to the bar, all I had on was a thin, patched up dress that was also kind of dirty. It was all that I had since Kai didn't permit me anything else. The blonde girl went out and got me new clothes including what I'm wearing now, as well as some of what I have in my bags. The lizard person got me everything else that's in my bags, as well as the bags themselves."
"I assume that they didn't have a bath at the bar," Nemuri noted, "Because you do look like you need one. At least your hair's brushed out."
"They had no bath there, no," Eri said, "As soon as I was dressed in some of my new clothes, the blonde girl and her lizard person friend took me to your house and left me there. They said that they weren't able to properly care for me, but assured me that the police and their pro hero friends had what was needed to care for me." Finally, Eri looked up at Naomasa and the heroes. "That's all I can remember. I'm sorry."
"No no, you gave us plenty," Naomasa assured Eri, "And if you remember anything else, you can let the pro heroes know, alright?" Eri nodded a bit before she lowered her head again.
...
"Well we just got a lot," Aizawa scowled as he and the others met in a separate room at the police station, "Mainly that the lone bastard who got away from the attack that killed five of my students and Thirteen not only has a boss, but four new allies as well including that Rappa guy who brought Eri to them."
"Said smoky bastard now also has a name we can pin on him," Hizashi said, "That being Kurogiri. And his boss must have thrown the old group Rappa belonged to into upheaval by killing their leader Kai. I'm also worried about how Rappa apparently took everything that Kai made from Eri's blood with him, but at least the things that are specifically designated as destroying drugs are being destroyed."
"And what Eri said about Kurogiri's boss collecting a lesson fee from Kai before killing him also has me worried," Nemuri said, "What does that mean?"
"It's obvious that Eri has no clue, otherwise she would have told us," Aizawa said. Turning to look at Nezu and Naomasa, the underground hero said, "What do you guys think about this?"
"Well for starters," Nezu said, "Until more information is made available to us on this matter, we keep what all we all know to ourselves. We cannot tell another soul anything until we have enough information to proceed further." The principal animal of UA looked to Aizawa, Hizashi, and Nemuri. "That being said, you all can't tell anyone else at UA about this. Certainly not any of your students, but also not Sekijiro, not Ryo, not Higari, hell not even All Might can be brought in on this."
Aizawa nodded in agreement. "Smart way of thinking. It'd be irrational to take any real moves before getting and processing more information on the matter." The underground hero also doubted the ability of Sekijiro and All Might to be able to keep a lid on things, as they apparently think with their hearts rather than their brains if they willing give chances to lost causes like Midoriya. Aizawa still had no idea why they were letting the green haired boy continue on as he was.
It will only bring future heartbreak.
Meanwhile, given that there was going to be no UA Sports Festival this year, the hero course students of UA were being made to train for a separate examination that will gather scores to be reviewed by pro heroes who will be picking interns from that list that way. Izuku Midoriya of UA's Class 1-B, though he was still going to train, didn't have to worry about getting a good enough score to impress pro heroes in the hopes one will pick him as an intern.
Because he more or less was starting his internship right now, under the guidance of Gran Torino, the old teacher of All Might himself.
Today, which under normal circumstances would have been the day Izuku started to train for the UA Sports Festival, was the day Izuku would begin his training under Gran Torino. The green haired boy, after following directions given to him by All Might, made his way to a brick building that was a bit out of the way. Izuku gave the door a knock before calling out, "Hello? Is anyone there? I'm Izuku Midoriya, and I was-"
"Come in, boy!" a clearly older male voice called out in a friendly enough tone, prompting Izuku, after a few moments hesitation, to open the door. Upon doing so, Izuku saw Gran Torino standing right there, as if waiting for him. Gran Torino was dressed in a yellow and whitish hero outfit that included a cape, and he wore a black domino mask. He had his hands on a wooden cane planted firmly right in front of him. He looked up at Izuku (Gran Torino was a bit on the short side).
"Close the door behind you," Torino instructed, prompting Izuku to follow the order. After the door was closed, Torino said, "Toshi's got a good heart, don't get me wrong. But when he called me about him and your homeroom teacher Vlad King wanting to arrange for me to work with you due to how you apparently are having some trouble getting One For All down pat, I could tell right away that Toshi had flubbed a good part of your initial training."
Izuku looked a bit surprised. "...You know about One For All?"
Torino let out a huff of a chuckle. "I trained Toshi. I was also friends with the holder of One For All prior to Toshi. So yeah, I know a bit. Probably more than what you know." Torino looked at Izuku with mild amusement in his expression. "...I'll be telling you what all I know, and maybe we'll discover a few new points as I work to clean up the mess that Toshi made of your initial training."
Izuku nodded in agreement, ready to begin his training under All Might's old teacher. The green haired boy was ready and willing to do what all it took to get himself up to snuff when it came to using One For All. He wanted to prove that he was worthy of the legacy that had been passed down to him by the Symbol of Peace, no matter the blood, sweat, tears, and sweat he would be shedding in the process of getting a firm handle on One For All.
...
Meanwhile, over at a certain bar, five certain villains were standing about. "So the rumors are true," Kurogiri, a dark misty man dressed as a well to do bartender, said as he polished a glass by hand as he stood behind a bar, "UA canceled its yearly Sports Festival this year after all."
Gesturing to Kurogiri, the lizard person villain said, "No doubt that they had to cancel due to what all that Shigaraki guy and his army of fodder villains did before he was killed and they were captured."
"Indeed, Spinner," Kurogiri remarked, "Granted, it's sad what happened to the master's chosen successor. I mean, who would have thought that one of the fledgling heroes at the USJ would be able to not only copy Shigaraki's quirk but then use it on Shigaraki to turn him to dust?"
"The heroes have proven," a sinister voice said from a laptop nearby, catching the attention of the villains in the bar, "Through canceling their precious Sports Festival this year, that enough pressure from us can cow them. But at the same time we still cannot afford to underestimate any of them. My dear Tomura paid the ultimate price because of the mutual hubris between him and I. His death at the USJ was a wake up call, even for me."
The dark haired villain in the dark long coat with short sleeves raised an arched eyebrow. "That's part of why you said that you're now focusing a part of your efforts on consolidating power, huh?"
"Exactly, my dear Dabi," the voice from the laptop replied, "The generous donation that was made by our good friend Kai Chisaki before he... perished... will go a long way to the goal of making up for the death of my dear Tomura at the USJ."
A tall, well toned man with long hair and he wore a mask that only exposed the lower half of his face spoke up. "That Overhaul prick is actually going to be good for something? I find that hard to believe, with all due respect."
"In time, you shall see," the voice from the laptop replied, "But Kai Chisaki's... donation... is one part of a twelve part puzzle that is being assembled to benefit Dabi. He'll need it too, given that he's going to be my new successor in leading the League of Villains."
Dabi scowled mildly. "...I never thought that I'd take you and your collective up on the offer. But with what all you've shown, I'm willing to bite. Just don't expect me to want any of your 'gifts' as you've taken to calling them."
The voice from the laptop chuckled in dark amusement. "...You're powerful enough as is, and you've already got the drive to reach your goals. I'm just... providing a vehicle you can drive to reach said goals, fine-tuning it up and tricking it out. I'm just missing five pieces is all, although one of them is going to be difficult to pick."
"Ooh, Dabi's getting a new car?" the blonde girl asked, sounding legitimately surprised and excited.
"...Well he can ride it, yes," the voice from the laptop replied, sounding mildly surprised to find himself caught off guard by the girl's nature. "Anyway, I'm making moves to acquire three more of the pieces, one of which was more or less a requested piece. Hence why I confirmed that Dabi could ride it if he wants."
Kurogiri turned to look at the laptop. "Any other news, master?"
"Counting you, Kurogiri," the voice from the laptop began, "Dabi's League only has five members. You will need to recruit more members to shore up the numbers. I have plans to acquire a potential member straight out of Tartarus, but-"
"Woah, woah, woah," Spinner said, "We got a plan that involves us breaking into Tartarus of all places?! Tartarus, aka the most heavily fortified, guarded, and inescapable prison in the world that was made specifically to hold the strongest of villains?!"
"At ease, my dear Spinner," replied the voice from the laptop, "We aren't going to collect our new friend from Tartarus just yet. We'll need some more hands for my plan if we're to free her. Preferably a pair or two who aren't visibly distinguishable."
Dabi gave an amused hum of a chuckle. "...I'll see what I can do, boss man."
The following day that UA students had off from classes, the hero course students at least were still training to impress prospective pro heroes to have them hire them as interns. Aside from Izuku, who was already Gran Torino's intern and was already training under him. Gran Torino had Izuku over to join him for breakfast, as he wanted to talk a few things over with the green haired boy first before they got into training for the day.
"You're trying to use One For All like how Toshi uses it," Gran Torino remarked after sitting down in the arm chair on the other side of a coffee table opposite of the one Izuku sat in. The older pro hero placed a plate of taiyaki down on the coffee table. "Or rather how you believe Toshi uses it," Gran Torino went on, "That might be your problem, Midoriya."
Izuku looked curious. "Really?"
"You look like you're trying to unleash as much as possible at one specific point," Gran Torino said as be picked up a taiyaki from his plate. "Using that point to hit the target."
Izuku looked a bit guilty as he hung his head. "...Well I don-"
"GAHHH!" Gran Torino cried out in annoyance, cutting Izuku off. The green haired boy looked up and saw that Gran Torino was looking at his taiyaki in annoyance. "Damn microwave must be busted," the older pro hero grumbled in annoyance, "This taiyaki is still frozen."
"Your microwave's broken?" Izuku asked.
Humming in annoyance, Gran Torino said, "It's one of those old numbers where the food just sits on a stationary tray in the microwave. Maybe I ought to get a new microwave that slowly spins food around, to spread the heat more evenly. That ought to get my taiyaki perf-"
"THAT'S IT!" Izuku exclaimed, pointing at Gran Torino. The older pro hero looked at Izuku out of curiosity as the green haired boy pointed at the plate of imperfectly microwaved taiyakis. "I'm like those taiyaki!" Izuku declared.
Looking at Izuku as if he thought that the boy had a screw loose, Gran Torino said, "...Explain."
Gesturing to the plate of taiyakis, Izuku said, "I'm like one of those taiyakis, and the heat from the microwave is like One For All. Simply sitting still in the microwave only lets the heat apply to certain areas, with said areas becoming heated, right?"
Gran Torino arched a wry eyebrow. "...Yes, and the taiyaki I bit into was cooked a bit on the outside but still mostly frozen on the inside. Your point?"
"I've been trying to use One For All through just one point," Izuku said, "Using as much as possible from that one point, when I instead should be using only a little bit at a time and spreading that bit as evenly as possible throughout my entire body."
The older pro hero looked like he was now starting to understand what Izuku was trying to get at here. "Seems like you've reached a breakthrough in using One For All. Let's see if-"
"Breaking news," the TV which was left on for background noise while Izuku and Gran Torino had breakfast said as it played the news, "Three pro heroes are unconscious and hospitalized following the three of them being discovered left lying on the ground late last night to early this morning!"
Gran Torino, citing the fact that he's an old man as an excuse to watch the news, immediately turned to look at the TV, even turning the volume up. Izuku was likewise interested and worried, as there were three pro heroes hospitalized. "Earlier this morning," the news anchor said, "Pro heroes Endeavor, Mt. Lady, and Ryukyu were confirmed to have been admitted to the nation's top hospital for pro heroes. No word is yet available on the conditions of any of them, but so far it's confirmed that they are all still alive."
Gran Torino and especially Izuku were worried for the pro heroes. One was a popular up and coming star in the pro hero field, and the other two are celebrated veterans who both are in the top ten of the Hero Billboard Chart JP. "Additionally in local news," the news anchor went on, "A suspected villain who posts videos of his crimes on the internet was seen fleeing a convenience store late last night when confronted by two sidekicks from Edgeshot's agency."
"Oh, that guy again?" Gran Torino mumbled in annoyance, "I heard of him once or twice on the news, but he's nothing big."
"The suspected villain," the news anchor said, "Accompanied by a short girl with long red pigtails, was seen fleeing alongside a young adult male with a mutation quirk that makes him look like a humanoid lizard. No one was harmed in the incident at the convenience store, although the short girl was seen stealing a few snack bags of gummy candy. We'll bring more on this story as soon as we have more info."
The news when proceeded to cut to the weather forecast, but Gran Torino turned to look at Izuku. "Even top heroes aren't safe from villains," Gran Torino said, getting Izuku's attention, "That's why we must be constantly vigilant, why we must be prepared." Smirking a bit, Gran Torino went on, "Now, let's see what your analogy comparing you to one of my taiyakis says about how you ought to be using One For All."
Izuku, although worried about the pro heroes on TV, was eager to get started on the new day's training, now that he had an idea on how to use the mighty legacy that All Might had passed down onto him.
END, CHAPTER SIX
This one sees the heroes get a hold of Eri way earlier than normal, due to Rappa discovering what Overhaul was up to while Overhaul and the others were distracted by a report on the news about the deaths of five students and a teacher over at the USJ. The heroes also learn Kurogiri's name, and that Kurogiri has a boss, but they have no idea who said boss is. The hero course students of UA begin training to impress pro heroes to try to get internships, aside from Izuku who technically is starting his internship.
This training starts at around the time that they normally would have started training for the Sports Festival, meaning that Izuku begins training under Gran Torino, and discovering certain things about using One For All, way a head of schedule. But things aren't all fun and games, as three notable pro heroes are out of it with no word yet on their respective conditions aside from how at least they're all still alive, and two certain persons meet and flee with Spinner. How this will affect the story will be seen as it further develops.