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 eleven: Hosu Hustle
It was night time in the Hosu area, and yet the illumination and noises coming from down below where Dabi and Kurogiri stood in the shadows of a large water tank on top of an apartment building would suggest that things are as lively as if it were broad daylight. But then again, Dabi had just deployed the five nomu loaned to him by the master of the League of Villains, having them cause all manner of chaos in order to distract and lure in as many pro heroes as possible.
Meanwhile, Stain the Hero Killer stuck to the shadows of alleyways down below, pulling in lesser pro heroes to end them every so often. There was a vast number of pro heroes in the Hosu area tonight, Dabi had no doubt that many of them actually came to Hosu upon hearing of Stain's presence here rather than keep away because of the risk. The many lesser pro heroes undoubtedly thought that, if they took down Stain, they'd see a huge boost in their renown.
Dabi figured out what the long story made short here was; the lesser pro heroes thought that the rewards outweighed the risks.
"How many pro heroes do you think we and Stain can kill in our pincer attack here in Hosu tonight, Kurogiri?" Dabi asked.
"I can't say exactly," replied the mist villain, "Last I heard before the attack on Hosu kicked off, there were approximately one-hundred pro heroes in Hosu. Most are sidekicks following pro heroes who have their own agencies, and a good few of the pro heroes with their own agencies are still no great shakes if you ask me."
Dabi hummed contemplatively as he nodded along. "...You don't sa-"
"The only notable hero who I heard was in the Hosu area," Kurogiri interjected, "Is Endeavor. Reports on him suggest that he's eager to more than make up for the forced down time he was in. Perhaps he's aiming to be the hero who brings the Hero Killer to justice."
Dabi scoffed bitterly at the notion of anything good happening for Japan's number two hero. Even more so if it came at the expense of something bad happening to a villain as notable as Stain, who Dabi was still hoping to collect as a solid member of the League of Villains. Dabi had asked about potentially seeing if he could field the 'twelve piece puzzle' that the master said he was working on for him, but the master was insistent on making sure all twelve 'pieces' were gathered first.
Dabi still wanted to know what exactly the master meant by 'pieces'. Oh well, he supposed that he'll wait like a good boy to see what sort of 'puzzle' the master was putting together for him.
The winged nomu was able to perk back up and bust out of the capture tape weapon that Aizawa had bound it with. Immediately, Aizawa and Gran Torino leapt into action to fight the nomu. It tried to flee, but Aizawa was able to use more capture tape to catch it by its right ankles, using the weapon as a lasso to pull the monster back in so that he and Gran Torino could continue their tag team assault on it.
"Midoriya!" Gran Torino called out, "Help escort the other passengers in this train car out to the adjacent car! We don't want any of them getting caught up in this! Stay with all of them until I come to get you!"
"Right!" Izuku said as he immediately went to make the other passengers in that train car follow him to the one immediately in front of the one they were all in right now. It was only a total of four people, and they were all away from the point where the winged nomu crashed into the train car, so they were all physically fine although the early twenties secretary woman was very much frightened by the fact that a monster had crashed into the train car all of them were in.
After Izuku and the four civilian passengers vacated to the train car up ahead, Gran Torino delivered a solid kick to the head of the winged nomu, stunning it again and giving Aizawa the chance to bind it with his capture tape weapon again. When the winged nomu was once again bound, Aizawa took out a hunting knife and stabbed it into the exposed brain of the winged nomu, making it jerk a little bit until it became eerily still.
When the winged nomu stopped jerking around, Gran Torino looked up at Aizawa. "Thanks for the assist, Eraserhead."
Aizawa arched a wry eyebrow at the suspicious tone that the older pro hero had used. "...So you were able to figure out I've been trailing you and Midoriya before now."
"I was able to pick up on it starting from the day I took the boy with me to go to All Might's agency," Gran Torino went on, his tone getting more suspicious "Although I didn't know it until now that you were the stalker following us."
The underground hero narrowed his gaze slightly. "Midoriya is, at the very least, a suspicious individual."
"The boy?" Gran Torino replied, looking incredulous, "He's just a goofy, geeky hero fan boy who's getting to live his dream of becoming a hero himself! I don't see how he would even begin to qualify as a 'suspicious individual' as you have put it!"
Aizawa scowled bitterly. "I have my reasons." Looking down at the now dead winged nomu, Aizawa went on, "Well with this monster dead, the passengers don't have to worry."
Gran Torino turned to look at the dead winged nomu, scowled a bit. "It would have been nice if we could of turned it in alive to those guys already handling the similar monster from the USJ."
Immediately turning to face Gran Torino, Aizawa said, "How did you know about the nomu from the USJ?"
"I got it from All Might," Gran Torino answered, "When he discussed with me some private concerns that he had about the possible return of a great villain he had fought years ago."
"Why would he tell you?"
"I'm his old mentor slash teacher," Gran Torino replied to Aizawa's continued inquisition, "And I as a matter of fact know about the villain that All Might's worried about. Anyway, we ought to put this little inquisition of yours on hold and make sure the remains of this nomu are properly secured for when we turn it over to the authorities."
Aizawa's gaze narrowed. "...This isn't over, Gran Torino."
The older pro hero let out a mildly annoyed scoff. "We'll see about that, Eraserhead."
Over where the thick of the fighting in Hosu was going down, the Flame Hero Endeavor was leading a charge against three nomu; one had grayish light skin, one was big, black, and lacked eyes, and the other was as tall as the black one but had grayish light skin like the smaller one, also this third nomu had a very obese appearance, looking more or less like a large spherical mass of fat.
"I'm going to take down the fat one!" Endeavor called out to the sidekicks behind him, "Keep the other two off of me until I'm done!" The number two hero rushed forward, leaving a trail of flames in his wake, as he zeroed in on the fat nomu. The small gray nomu tried to go for Endeavor, but a stream of explosions blasted it away, giving Endeavor free reign to charge at his intended target.
The person who cast those explosions, Katsuki Bakugo, smirked in amusement. "These monsters ain't so tough after all!" Bakugo barked out. The explosive teen then saw the big black nomu try to go for Endeavor, but he cast some explosions at it to push it away. However, a stream of ice shot out and struck the big black nomu at the exact same time as Bakugo's explosions. Turning around, Bakugo saw his classmate Todoroki standing there.
"Oi, IcyHot!" Bakugo barked, "I had that one!"
"I'm trying to trap it it ice, Bakugo," Todoroki said back to his far less calm classmate, "Give my dad's sidekicks a chance to beat down on it with impun-"
*WOOSH*
Todoroki was cut off when he, Bakugo, and all of Endeavor's sidekicks who were there heard a great blast of fire sear out at something; looking over, they all saw it as Endeavor had grabbed ahold of the fat nomu's head then blasted it with flames so hot, the flames turned blue and incinerated the fat nomu's head until it was wholly carbonized, leaving it as nothing but a burnt husk of ash. Clearly dead, the fat nomu went slack before Endeavor let go of the head and allowed it to drop.
The two interns and many sidekicks barely had any time to register the fact that Endeavor had just killed the fat nomu before the other two nomu both got back up. "Let me try trapping one of them to make things easier for the others, Bakugo," Todoroki said as he and the others went back to trying to focus on the nomus who were still alive.
"It's first come first served, I say!" Bakugo declared as he used his explosions to rocket towards the smaller nomu.
"Hey blasty boy!" a female sidekick with green fiery hair called out, "Endeavor's son has a point! We can't let you have all the fun! Save some of the monsters for us to whack!"
Todoroki turned to look at the female sidekick in question. "...Hey Burnin, where's Kido and Onima?"
The female sidekick, now identified as Burnin, turned to look around. "...That's what I would like to know," Burnin said, "Where did those two run off to?"
...
In an alleyway near where Endeavor and his company were fighting the remaining nomus there, Stain the Hero Killer had just finished killing the Endeavor agency sidekicks Kido and Onima, after coming across them standing over the corpse of a light grayish nomu they had killed. It was similar in size to the light grayish nomu that Endeavor and his company were fighting, but this one had a much more weasel like appearance.
The Hero Killer sheathed his katana in its scabbard before he looked down at his handiwork. "...That makes five fakes killed so far," Stain said to himself, before looking up to look out of the entrance to the alleyway he was hiding in. He could both hear and see signs of more fake heroes fighting out in the open. Grinning to himself, Stain walked forward as he said, "...Let's see how much more of the tumor that's plaguing this society I can carve out."
...
The big black nomu was partly trapped in ice conjured by Todoroki when Endeavor did to it what he did to the fat nomu, incinerating its head until it was carbonized. The smaller light grayish nomu had already been slain via a well aimed icicle shot to its exposed brain from Todoroki, which meant that all of the nomu were now down and wouldn't be getting up again.
Endeavor was breathing a bit hard to catch his breath. "Shoto! I need you to help cool me down!" the number two hero barked out. Not that he wanted to, Todoroki nonetheless went over to his father and used his ice to cool his father off, with Bakugo following along more because Endeavor was employing him as an intern. "Is everyone accounted for?" Endeavor called out to his sidekicks as Todoroki cooled him down with his ice.
Burnin shrugged while the other present sidekicks were looking around. "Kido and Onima are both missing, but I think that it's nothing to-"
*SLASH*
Burnin was cut off when her left leg from halfway up her knee down was quickly cut off by Stain as he rushed past her, making her fall back as she cried out in pain and agony. Two of the other sidekicks immediately went to tend to Burnin who was clutching the bleeding stump that was now the end of her left leg while as many of the other sidekicks tried to surround the Hero Killer.
Stain, a bloodied katana in his right hand, stood in the middle of a circle made of Endeavor's sidekicks surrounding him. "...If you trash think that you can take me on," Stain said, "Then you'll end up as nothing more than footnotes in the history of my grim duty to this country."
"Duty?!" one male sidekick called out, "You've killed loads of pro heroes! Crippled many more like Ingenium from Team Idaten, and our own member Burnin here just now! And yet you have the nerve to call it duty?!"
"You obviously don't see just how far gone things have gotten in society due to the prolific blooming of fake heroes like yourselves," Stain growled, "The only way to better the overall health of our country's society it to prune dead branches." The Hero Killer raised his katana. "...Who wants to save themselves the pain and submit to the pruning voluntarily?"
"HERO KILLER!" Endeavor bellowed out, rushing right at Stain in an explosive blast of fire. The Flame Hero jumped down at Stain, making him leap to the side to evade. "I shall be the one who will bring you to justice for your vile evil!" Endeavor declared, casting a powerful blast of fire at Stain from his left hand.
Stain leapt to his left to evade again as one of Endeavor's male sidekicks (a different one than the one who just prior had scolded Stain) rushed at the Hero Killer to try to strike him. Stain merely did a pirouette to evade that sidekick's hit while pulling out one of his (Stain's) many hunting knives and jabbing it right into that male sidekick's throat, making him cry out as he fell back after Stain yanked out the hunting knife.
Endeavor, enraged at more injuries to his company, threw more fire at Stain, who leapt to his right to evade while doing another pirouette to swing his katana's blade at another male sidekick (this being the same one who called Stain out a few moments ago), slicing clean through that sidekick's neck and claiming his head. The remaining sidekicks that Endeavor had there were quickly failing against the murderous might of the Hero Killer.
After Stain leapt to get away from the dead sidekick he had just decapitated, a jet of ice shot up along the ground at Stain's feet, making him jump up to evade. However, when Stain did that, he got hit by a stream of explosions that blasted into him; he wasn't able to evade well while he was up in the air like that. As he fell back down, Stain caught the sight of two hero welps who were both trying to aim at him.
Right before he could say anything, Stain was blasted back down to the ground by the fires of Endeavor, who leapt down right on top of him. With an infuriated snarl on his face, Endeavor blasted Stain in the face at point blank range with the fires that carbonized the heads of the two nomu that fell to the Flame Hero. Stain's cries sounded angered and pained, not a hint of fear in them, before they... well... suddenly stopped.
After Stain's form on the ground went slack, Endeavor got off of him. "...Heh," Endeavor said, more to himself, "I took out the Hero Killer." Endeavor turned to face what was left of his company. "Tend to the wounded!" Endeavor barked out, "And cover the fallen! I get the feeling that the missing Kido and Onima had a bad run in with the Hero Killer before we tangoed with him! I'm going to go look!"
Before anyone could stop him, Endeavor took off. After the Flame Hero was gone, Todoroki and Bakugo looked around at the carnage that they stood near; Burnin's bleeding stump of a left leg had been bound up as best as can be managed, the sidekick who was decapitated was covered with a sheet, and the sidekick who took a knife to the throat was now also being covered with a sheet. Meanwhile a female sidekick was nudging the corpse of the Hero Killer with her left foot.
"...Kind of reminds you of what we experienced back in the USJ," Todoroki said to Bakugo, "Don't you agree, Bakugo?"
Bakugo growled firmly, clenching his fists. "...We need to be stronger, IcyHot. We need to be strong enough to avoid meeting the same fate as your dad's extras here, strong enough to avoid the fate our classmate extras who bit it at the USJ got dealt." Todoroki wasn't sure what to make of Bakugo referring to (more or less) everyone aside from Bakugo himself as extras, but he decided that it's not important right now.
Especially because Bakugo actually had a point. They DID have a need to become stronger.
A few days later, Izuku dressed in his UA uniform was getting ready to leave Gran Torino's apartment building. "Well our time together in the internships is over, my boy," Gran Torino said, "But I'd say that you've made a lot of progress. You're up to eighteen percent of One For All that you can use safely now."
Izuku nodded in thanks to the older pro hero. "Thanks again, Gran Torino. I don't think that even All Might would have been able to make that much progress in helping me get One For All under control in the time I had with you."
"That's because Toshi doesn't know how to teach," Gran Torino said in a brutally honest manner. Gently shaking his head, the older pro hero said, "But that's besides the point. Anyway, when you get back to UA, do me a favor."
"Let All Might know how well I'm doing?" Izuku guessed.
Shrugging, Gran Torino replied, "...Well, that too, but I was actually going to say that you ought to be wary of Eraserhead."
The green haired boy looked surprised by that. "Be wary of him?"
"He's suspicious of you," Gran Torino said, "I get the feeling that he'll try to dig into what Toshi and I don't want anyone outside of the know to dig into. Keep your guard up, but try not to pop up on his radar as much as you can. Don't be afraid to ask Toshi for help, especially if you explain to him what all I've told you." Izuku nodded in agreement, afraid of what could happen if Eraserhead found out about One For All. "...Now," Gran Torino said, "Is there anything else bothering you?"
"Well I'm still concerned about the Hero Killer's attack in Hosu a few days ago," Izuku spoke up, "He reportedly killed seven people before being killed by Endeavor, and a lot of the people who Stain had killed were some of Endeavor's sidekicks."
The older pro hero nodded in agreement. "Yes, yes, grim business that. Pro heroes normally come under fire if they take a life, but Endeavor was able to squeak away from that trouble for killing Stain due to Stain's reputation, the fact that Stain that night killed multiple of Endeavor's sidekicks while crippling that poor Burnin girl into retirement, and how Endeavor cited during an interview that he feared for the safety and well being of the two interns he had with him at the time. The killings of the nomus there were all also excused because they're horrific monsters."
Izuku nodded in understanding, especially since he got it that Endeavor's interns in question were Bakugo and Todoroki. First year hero course students of UA, same as Izuku himself. UA already got into the news due to the deaths of five of Class 1-A's students in the attack on the USJ.
Izuku did not want to see anymore of his peers get cut down while still training and learning to be pro heroes.
When Izuku got to the Class 1-B homeroom, he walked in only to see that a fair number of his classmates all had somber looks on their faces. "...What happened?" Izuku asked, getting some of his classmates to turn to look up and at him.
"Dude," Yosetsu began, "Did you hear how seven people were killed by Stain during that one chaotic night in Hosu a few nights back?"
Izuku nodded grimly in the affirmative. "...Yeah. I saw it on the news while I was training with my pro hero mentor during the internships. Seven pro heroes, two being Native and Manual, and the other five being sidekicks working for Endeavor's agency."
Yosetsu gently shook his head. "...Yeah, the news just revealed that it was actually just four sidekicks of Endeavor who were killed by the Hero Killer. The fifth supposed sidekick of Endeavor's was actually a UA first year hero course student who was working their internship at the time. The police admitted that they said five of Endeavor's sidekicks were killed because they needed time to properly notify the student's next of kin."
Izuku's eyes went wide with shock, as well as a hint of heartbreak. Looking around the classroom, the green haired boy did a quick head count; to his relief, every last one of his classmates was in the classroom at the time, so no one from Class 1-B bit it.
"...Yeah, I confirmed that it was a member of Class 1-A who was killed," Juzo said after Izuku was done doing the headcount, prompting Izuku's heart to sink, "Itsuka wanted all of us to go see Class 1-A to offer them our condolences, given that the senseis and other staff members are having a meeting right now. She wanted to wait for you to get here and lead us over before we all went over, given that you're the class rep."
Izuku nodded in understanding, placed his bag on his desk. "...Yeah. I'm ready to go when everyone else is." With Itsuka joining him, Izuku led all of Class 1-B to go see Class 1-A, who has just lost a sixth classmate. Izuku worried who it might end up being, bracing himself for the worst.
...
Upon reaching the door leading into the Class 1-A homeroom, Izuku knocked on it to let those who were inside know that he and his class were here. A few moments later, a teary eyed Yaoyorozu opened the door. "Oh, Class 1-B," Yaoyorozu said, sniffling a bit due to how she was/is still crying, "Is there something we can help you with?"
"It has come to our attention that one of your classmates was killed during the internships," Izuku said, "We came here to offer our condolences."
Yaoyorozu nodded in understanding. "...Thank you, Midoriya. It's just that we've already lost Asui, Monoma, Sato, Koda, and Mineta when the USJ was attacked by villains, and now we're trying to deal with finding out that Iida was killed by the Hero Killer in Ho-"
"Iida was killed?!" Izuku nearly exclaimed, clearly taken aback out of shock. Izuku couldn't blame Yaoyorozu for crying, given that he wanted to cry now himself. Iida was one of the three persons in Class 1-A who he had befriended, the others being Uraraka and Tokoyami. And now Izuku was finding out that Iida had been the one to lose his life to the Hero Killer's blades. If there were any consolation to this, it was that Endeavor had guaranteed it that Stain would never claim another life ever again.
...But still, knowing that he was never going to see Iida again...
Looking at Yaoyorozu, Izuku asked, "Would it be alright if we came in to see you guys?"
"From what I gathered from Kayama-sensei," Yaoyorozu began, "The staff meeting is going to take a while. We should have the time."
Izuku then led his classmates into the 1-A homeroom. Inside, Izuku right away spotted a framed photo adorned with simple funerary ribbons sitting on one of the desks in the room. Some of the boys in 1-A, as well as most of the girls, stood near that desk while looking at the framed photo that sat on it. "...I suppose that's Iida's desk?" Izuku asked.
"Yes," Yaoyorozu replied, "The photo will stay there until the school inevitably picks a first year non hero course student to transfer into 1-A." Taking note of the students standing near Iida's desk to pay respects to their late class vice rep, Izuku saw the two surviving 1-A students that he was on friendly terms with, Uraraka and Tokoyami, the former being teary eyed and the latter looking grim as he had Dark Shadow (who was teary eyed) resting over his left shoulder in a small chibi form.
Turning to look at Yaoyorozu as the rest of 1-B began to mingle with 1-A, Izuku asked, "What was Iida even doing in the area of Hosu?"
"From what my classmates and I had been able to gather on the matter," Yaoyorozu began, "Iida's pro hero mentor during the internships, Manual, had Iida with him while in Hosu. Apparently, Manual led a charge against Stain when he came across him trying to kill the pro hero Native, forcing Iida to follow. Not only did Manual and Iida fail to save Native before Stain killed him, but Stain then went on to kill Iida and Manual as well."
Itsuka looked confused by that. "...Really? That doesn't sound like something that Manual would do, at least while he had an intern with him."
Shrugging, Yaoyorozu replied, "Well that's what the HPSC official investigation into the matter said when it made the news." Izuku nodded in understanding, then went over to the late Iida's desk to pay respect to one of his friends from outside of Class 1-B. Izuku still felt heartbroken over how one of his friends had been killed, and he had no doubt he was going to cry about it at some point later on in the day. But for now he had to be strong.
His classmates in 1-B needed their class rep to be strong.
END, CHAPTER ELEVEN
Author's notes;
This chapter sees the internship stuff and Hosu business wrap up, with Stain's actions (and even his death) here having consequences that will reach far beyond this portion of the story. The next chapter will explore the fall out of what all had gone down during the internships and the incident in Hosu. Don't turn that dial.