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 twenty-eight: Red Riot Rising

It was the beginning of the school week, and over in UA's Class 1-A, most of Aizawa's students noticed that a fair number of their classmates were unaccounted for. "Hey," Mina began aloud, "I'm noticing a distinct lack of Uraraka, Kirishima, Todoroki, and Bakugo."

"I also got it from Awase-kun over in Class 1-B that Midoriya is also absent," Yaoyorozu spoke up, "I'm also curious as to what's going-"

"They're on excused leaves of absence due to taking part in the work-studies," Shinso's voice spoke up, getting his classmates to turn to face him. Giving them a look of mild annoyance, Shinso went on, "Our classmates are trying to work hard to compensate for their share of the lack of competence that all of us had shown during the Provisional License Exams," Shinso explained, clearly sounding annoyed not only with his classmates but also with himself, "Just like I plan to make up for my share of said incompetence."

Mina gave Shinso an annoyed, pouty look. "I fail to see how we were incomp-"

"We blindly trusted someone who Aizawa-sensei had told us couldn't be trusted," Shinso began pointing out, "And it got all of us eliminated from the Provisional License Exams. The only reason we were able to get our provisional licenses anyway is because of a combination of the villains attacking rendering normal results from the exams moot and how the lot of us had protected a high ranking member of the HPSC who pulled strings for us out of gratitude." Giving Mina an dry, serious look, Shinso went on, "So yeah. The lot of us were incompetent, and only scraped by due to sheer dumb luck."

Mina wanted to argue back, but knew that she couldn't without pointing out how Aizawa has been just as bad, if not worse, than what Shinso says they had been. Mina and the others in 1-A now weren't able to speak up about their dictator of a homeroom teacher without him punishing them for it. The underground hero had, in all but words, told his students that they aren't allowed to criticize him, argue with him, or otherwise call him out on anything. He was clearly going full dictator now, and the students of 1-A couldn't do anything about it.

...Not that one or two among their number who were actually loyal to Aizawa were going to complain about it.

It was nighttime in the city when two villains, both with gigantification quirks, were more or less having a slugfest in the middle of everything, fighting one another rather violently. As they fought, Nejire Hado, in costume as Nejire-chan, flew in and cast a Wring Wave, hitting both and knocking them over. "Are you two fighting one another because you can both go giant?" Nejire asked aloud, "Geez, that's rather bland." Turning to look behind her, Nejire called out, "Uravity, Green Bean, now!"

Jumping out into the scene were Izuku and Uraraka who, combining shots of Delaware Smash Air Force from Izuku and lots of rubble raining down after Uraraka restored its gravity, knocked out the giant villains. With the giant villains defeated, the three interns of Ryukyu met up with one another. "Nice work, you two!" Nejire praised, then added after turning to look at Uraraka, "And are you SURE you wanna use Uravity as your hero alias? I seriously think that Pink Cheeks would be a much cuter alias for you!"

"I'm... quite sure," Uraraka replied. Turning to look at Izuku, Uraraka went on, "And are you seriously okay with Green Bean, Izuku?"

Shrugging, Izuku replied, "It's until I can come up with something better." It was as the three interns were talking that their boss, the Dragon Hero Ryukyu, came on up to them.

To her interns, Ryukyu said, "That all was splendid. Good work to all of you."

The three interns all bowed their heads respectfully to Ryukyu. "Thank you, Ryukyu."

"...Yeah, I'd say that Midoriya and Uraraka are ready to be brought in on the... big plan," Ryukyu said, "A plan being thrown together by a former sidekick of All Might's."

Izuku perked up at that. "A former sidekick of All Might's?"

"He's been following this one criminal group for quite some time," Ryukyu began to explain, "Although he's had to adjust his planning a few times due to events that have occurred since the beginning of the current school year at UA. Adjust it for things that he expressed shock over not being able to foresee."

"Ooh, ooh, what kind of plan is it, Ryukyu?" Nejire asked.

Holding up a hand to cut Nejire off, Ryukyu said, "You all will find out about that later. We... can't exactly talk about the finer details out in the open." Ryukyu's interns were all curious about the big plan that was happening, but didn't want to risk annoying their boss by pestering for details; all that they could hope for was that things'll go smoothly for the entire operation.

Meanwhile, Chronostasis and Mimic were meeting with Dabi, Spinner, Toga, and Twice in a private meeting room. "Well now," Chronostasis began, "I'm glad to see that you all came here to discuss the terms of how the League of Villains will allow the Shie Hassaikai to assimilate you guys."

"Hang on," Dabi replied, a smooth and cocky casual look on his face, "This meeting is about how YOU GUYS will allow MY GROUP to assimilate you into our fold."

Chronostasis gave an unamused hmph. "We have more than you do overall. More foot soldiers, more resources, more power overall." Gesturing to Dabi and his group, Chronostasis said, "It's for the best that you all yield to us."

"And what is it that you all would have us do," Spinner replied, "If we do yield?"

"First off," Mimic began, "It's not IF you do yield, it's WHEN you do yield. Second, the first thing we'll have you do is help with recovering the girl that the traitor Rappa took when he ran off with everything the late boss Kai Chisaki had for his plans to dominate Japan!"

"You guys wanna get back to hurting lil' Eri-chan?" Toga nearly exclaimed.

Gesturing to Dabi's group as a whole, Chronostasis said, "Look, just submit to us. We'll beat you anyway, so it's best to start following our rule now. We can rule Japan together that way."

Gesturing to Chronostasis, Dabi replied, "Look, the only thing you guys have that's even a remote threat to the League of Villains is that gun of yours that has all remaining Quirk Destroying bullets in the world. All TWO remaining Quirk Destroying bullets. We can just force you to use them up, then pop ourselves back with the doses of restoring serum that we got. You guys can't screw us over in any way, and the real fighting can begin in earnest."

"That's why we need the girl back," Chronostasis said, "Her blood is the key to making more Quirk Destroying bullets."

Dabi folded his arms over his chest, an unamused look on his face. "...Why is the little lady, or rather her blood, so important?"

"With it," Chronostasis said, "We can control Japan. Shoot a person with a Quirk Destroying bullet to kill their quirk, then sell them a dose of restoring serum. They'll pay through the nose to have their quirk back, you basically can't be a normal person in this world without a quirk. That, plus the fear we'll inspire, will allow us to rule Japan as we see fit."

Dabi held a hand to his chin in consideration. "...So we need to protect little Eri while forcing you to use up your last two Quirk Destroying bullets." Looking to the two men before him, Dabi went on, "Maybe we'll have to kill you two as well, you probably know how to make more Quirk Destroying bullets. I got it from Rappa that you lot who makes up the Shie Hassaikai who rules over the Eight Bullets never told anything to Rappa or any of his masked fellows. And I can see why, given that you wouldn't trust underlings with anything that they could use against you." Getting up, Dabi said, "Well, we'll take our leave now. The next time we meet, it'll be on the battlefield as enemies until my side beats yours down and assimilates you lot and all your goods into the League of Villains."

As Dabi and his group made his way to the door to leave, Mimic jumped in front of them, blocked them from leaving by aiming a gun at them. "And what makes you think that we'll let you guys just waltz out of here?" Mimic asked, "I mean, you especially fire boy, given that you're the leader! We can just hold you hostage and force you all and the rest of your group to submit to the rule of the Shie Hassaikai!"

In response, Dabi held up a finger on his right hand. "One, me, Spinner, Toga, and Twice here are actually clones made with Twice's quirk," Dabi said, "He can make realistic clones of others provided he gets measurements. I'm not dumb enough to poke into the lion's dens without a way to ensure safety for me and my fellows." He then held up the next finger. "Two, these clones have until six in the morning tomorrow to get back to where the REAL Dabi and others are waiting, otherwise they'll assume things here went south and IMMEDIATELY take action as outlined in their plan b."

"Which also covers looking into making sure little Eri is protected," Spinner spoke up, "Given that Rappa is suspicious of you guys."

Smirking in amusement, Dabi said to Chronostasis after turning to face him, "So go ahead. Kill us. It'll just lead to the real ones taking action."

Chronostasis growled in annoyance. What was worse was the fact that, given he and Mimic were so confident that they'd be able to make the League of Villains submit to their rule here, they had only brought the gun loaded with the two remaining Quirk Destroying bullets, which Mimic currently held. If what this supposed clone Dabi said was true, then Chronostasis and Mimic would waste what put them on equal bargaining power with the League of Villains for nothing, and the timing wouldn't be worse given they'll be out their one threat.

Scowling beneath his mask, Chronostasis said, "...Mimic, stand down and let them go."

Mimic, despite also being annoyed, responded right away and let Dabi's group go. After Dabi's group had left, Mimic turned to look at Chronostasis. "What do we do now, Chronostasis?"

"...We get the girl back to make more Quirk Destroying bullets," Chronostasis said, "Put ourselves in a better position to bargain with the League of Villains."

Meanwhile, over in the Kansai region's Eshua Market, Eijiro Kirishima and Tamaki Amajiki, both in hero costumes, were following along behind Taishiro Toyomitsu, also known as the BMI Hero Fat Gum. "A simple patrol through this neighborhood ought to give you the warm up you'll need to really start working, Red," Fat Gum said in a kindly yet casual tone as he led Kirishima and Tamaki on patrol.

Kirishima nodded in understanding and appreciation. "Thanks, Fat Gum. It's a shame Fourth Kind couldn't take me again, so I'm glad that you reached out to me."

"And why wouldn't I reach out to offer you an internship?" Fat Gum said, "You got just the right attitude for the job, not to mention how I'm certain you can help pry Suneater here out of his shell."

"But I like my shell..." Tamaki said, his tone indicating some level of embarrassment.

Turning to look at his senpai, Kirishima remarked, "Oh come on, Tamaki-senpai, I'm pretty sure Fat Gum's trying to complement you."

Gently shaking his head, Tamaki replied, "I'm pretty sure I was recruited because Fat Gum wanted to mess with me. I'm not the optimistic type like-"

"I ain't got too much optimism myself, you know."

Tamaki stopped short when he heard Kirishima speak up. "...There's been a lot of times where I couldn't do anything," Kirishima said, "I want to bridge that gap between me and my classmates." Clenching a fist closed, Kirishima went on, "Not to mention find a girl who I can convince that I'm worth her time roman-"

"Hey, get back here!"

Kirishima was cut off when he, Tamaki, and Fat Gum heard someone call out, then they spotted a group of thugs trying to run away. "Boys, this is the perfect chance to get some field experience in!" Fat Gum said, "Let's go subdue those thugs!"

Acting on command, Kirishima and Tamaki ran in behind Fat Gum to confront the thugs. Fat Gum cut the group of thugs off and caught two of them in a squishy bear hug hold that smooshed them against his large, fat body. One of those thugs tried getting away using a quirk similar to Edgeshot's quirk, but was caught and subdued by Tamaki who had octopus tentacle-like fingers.

"Whoa ho ho!" Kirishima said after knocking out a thug with a punch to the face, "Not bad, Tamaki-senpai!"

"He's already got a lot of points over those who are already pro heroes," Fat Gum said, "All he needs to become A-grade hero material is to get a little of the sunshine attitude that you radiate, Red."

Wincing in embarrassment, Tamaki said, "You guys are embarr-"

"Tamaki-senpai, look out!" Kirishima yelled, cutting his senpai off and going right into Hardening, jumping behind Tamaki and tanking a gun shot from a thug in the crowd. With Hardening active, the bullet harmlessly bounced off of Kirishima.

"Those guys are my brothers!" the thug yelled, "Let them go now!"

"Everyone get down!" Fat Gum yelled at the civilians in the area, "We're dealing with an armed thug here!"

As the civilians all dropped while panicking, the armed thug took off, realizing that he couldn't get to his fellows. This prompted Kirishima and Tamaki to give chase. The thug tried to shoot again, but Kirishima blocked the bullet with his hardened body. Scoffing in annoyance, the thug dropped his gun and took off. "Tamaki, you stay here and guard the area," Fat Gum ordered, "I'll take care of the thug with Red backing me up!"

Nodding once, Takami replied, "Got it!" He then saw Fat Gum and Kirishima take off after the fleeing thug.

...

Eventually, Kirishima caught up to the fleeing thug. "You know, it's hella unmanly to run away like that!" Kirishima scolded the thug, "You ought to just face the consequences of being a villain like a man."

"Try to make me!" the thug yelled before three blades grew out of him and grew like rapid-growing vines right at Kirishima, only to break upon hitting the red haired boy's hardened body.

Charging right through the blades, Kirishima yelled, "Red Counter!" before punching the thug in the face, sending him tumbling down to the ground. Approaching the downed thug, Kirishima said, "Look, just surrender and-"

"NEVER!" the thug yelled, right before Kirishima saw the thug inject some manner of drug into himself. The thug cried out in pain, right before dozens of blades started growing out of him. As he blocked the blades, Kirishima saw that some civilians were nearby, although he couldn't see them clearly due to focusing on trying to subdue the blade quirk thug.

Hey, civilians!" Kirishima called out, "Take cover! This guy here's a serious thr-"

*SCLORCH*

One of the blades from the blade quirk thug managed to slash along Kirishima's side despite his hardening, making him bleed. "GAAHH!" Kirishima cried out in pain, but he gritted his teeth and pushed on through.

Seeing that he had at last scored a hit on Kirishima, the blade quirk thug called out, "Ah ha ha! The time of heroes truly is at an end! Now it's time for us outcasts in society to shine on through!"

Seeing that the blade quirk thug's attack was starting to get through his Hardening, Kirishima thought back to when he and his classmates in Class 1-A were talking in the common area of their dorm, about how they had just finished a lesson under All Might who helped them with thinking up effective ways that they could all use their respective quirks to their fullest.

(FLASHBACK)

Kirishima was talking to Bakugo, Sero, Kaminari, and Tokoyami in the living room area of the 1-A dorm building. "...My quirk ain't all that versatile," Kirishima said, his tone somewhat disappointed, "At least compared to what you all have. All I can do make myself really, really hard."

"Oooooooooooooooooohhhhhhoooooooo!" Aoyama could be heard crying out from somewhere in the 1-A dorm building, his cry resounding with aroused, sensual pleasure.

Looking to Kirishima, Bakugo scoffed in annoyance. "You're selling yourself short, Stupid Hair."

The other boys looked surprised by Bakugo scolding Kirishima like that. "...What do you mean, Bakugo?" Kaminari asked.

The explosive teen jerked a thumb at Kirishima. "This idiot has a lot more potential that he gives himself credit for, he's a lot better than what he's saying right now. He even has earned the confidence of some of the classmates that Tsunotori and Deku over in 1-B have, as well as Tsunotori and Deku themselves." Turning to face the red haired Hardening user, Bakugo said, "You're a strong, durable fighter. You can both take and give one hell of a hard pounding."

"Oooooooooooooooooohhhhhhoooooooo!" Aoyama could be heard, once again, crying out from somewhere in the 1-A dorm building, his cry resounding with aroused, sensual pleasure.

Kirishima, a bit surprised to hear this praise, gave a small but sincere smile. "...Thanks, Baku-bro." Pounding his fists together, Kirishima said, "It'll be a tough sell to take me down in a fight!"

Bakugo gave a smirk in return. "There we go, that's what I wanna see." Offering Kirishima a fist bump, Bakugo said, "Kirishima."

(FLASHBACK OVER)

Kirishima remembered Bakugo's words of encouragement, how he's better than he thinks he is. He'll show everyone who tries beating down on him by taking all that they can dish out and more! He'll get harder, and harder, and harder than ever before! And he did start becoming harder, looking like solid rock, creaking a lot as he moved, and even taking on a more monstrous appearence.

The blade quirk thug, although surprised to see this new form out of Kirishima, still poured it on with the blades, only to stop when all of them proceeded to shatter on impact with Kirishima's harder than ever before body. Sensing danger, the blade quirk thug took a cautious step back. And upon seeing the blade quirk thug take that step back, Kirishima took a step forward.

"This..." Kirishima said, even his voice sounding rocky and hard and monstrous, "...This is my maximum hardness! RED RIOT UNBREAKABLE!"

As the monstrous looking Kirishima began charging right at the blade quirk thug, the low tier villain cried out, "No! Stay back, monster!"

More blades poured out from the blade quirk thug, only to break on the unbreakable hero in training. Kirishima knew that he had to act fast; this new form of his, a form he achieved through rigorous training, will only last for one half to three fourths of a minute. But that was all the time that he was going to need, because this blade quirk thug, even with his quirk going haywire, was not going to be able to hurt him anymore. The blade quirk thug could be pouring out all of the blades in the world, but it would make no difference.

There was no breaking Eijiro Kirishima.

Upon getting within punching range, Kirishima pulled his right fist back and, with a devastating Red Gauntlet, socked the blade quirk thug across the face, knocking him out. At around that time, Kirishima's Unbreakable wore off, but with the blade quirk thug out cold, there was no need for worry. It was around that time that Fat Gum came in, while civilians hung nearby, taking photos of the heroism Kirishima had pulled off. "Not bad, Red," Fat Gum said, "You took out this thug! The authorities will be by soon, and once a pair of quirk-suppressing cuffs are placed on this one, it'll be off to holding for him!"

Kirishima let out a tired breath. "...Thanks, Fat Gum."

...

Back where Tamaki was left guarding civilians on Fat Gum's orders, Fat Gum came back with Kirishima, who had since been given treatment for injuries sustained in the field. "...Really," Fat Gum said, "He injected himself with something, then his weak blade quirk suddenly became a hell of a lot stronger."

Kirishima nodded in the affirmative. "What do you think it means, Fat Gum?"

"Drugs like that are illegal here in Japan," Fat Gum said, a hint of seriousness in his expression, "The Asian version lasts a few minutes, but the American version lasts roughly two hours. That stuff is vile."

"If I find any, I'll turn it all over to you to handle," Kirishima said, "I don't want that stuff in me anyway. It's like cheating, which is hella un-manly."

Fat Gum gave a smile, patted Kirishima on the back. "I knew you were a good kid, Red." The two of them then looked over and saw that Tamaki was talking to a few civilians. When Fat Gum and Kirishima got over, the civilians began trying to hound Fat Gum for details. "Easy there, folks," Fat Gum said, "We'll answer a few harmless questions here and there."

"I have one," said a young college age woman, "Your new intern there, the one with the red spiky hair. What's his hero name?"

Looking surprised, Kirishima said, "My... classmates and I didn't get a chance to pick hero names yet." With a smirk, Kirishima said, "But I know what I want mine to be!" Jerking a thumb at himself, Kirishima said, "Go ahead and call me Red Riot!"

The following morning over at UA, Kirishima, Uraraka, Todoroki, and Bakugo were all being praised by (most of) their classmates. "Dude!" Kaminari said to Kirishima, "You made the news with your awesome take down of a criminal thug while you were with Tamaki-senpai and Fat Gum!"

"And check out this article on Uraraka and Midoriya teaming up to take down some giant villains with Nejire-senpai and Ryukyu!" Mina said, holding up her phone that had the appropriate article pulled up.

Turning to look at Bakugo and Todoroki, Sero asked, "What about you guys? Aside from your brief involvement with helping to pull victims from that massive wreck that was caused, what did you do?"

Scoffing in annoyance, Bakugo replied, "Not much. And IcyHot's daddy says we can't give out any details that we know until all of the next of kin notifying had been taken care of."

"The most you guys will know about the massive traffic accident Mirko caused while fighting a Nomu from the League of Villains is whatever makes the news," Todoroki explained to his classmates.

"Mirko caused the accident?!" Hagakure exclaimed.

"She was fighting a Nomu at the time?!" Jiro cried out in surprise.

Looking curious, Todoroki asked, "What, that didn't make the news?" Shrugging, Todoroki went on, "I mean, there were enough witnesses there, so I'd figure info like that would have gotten out to the public."

Gently face palming, Bakugo said, "IcyHot, you idiot." Speaking out loud, Bakugo went on, "Anyway, expect to see little of us over the next few days. Kirishima, IcyHot, Round Face, Deku over in 1-B, and I are gonna be busy. Not saying what it is because I don't know right now."

With a confident smile, Kaminari replied, "Well whatever it is that you all got going, you'll knock it out of the park."

"Yeah, exactly," Jiro added, "I'm confident that you guys and the pro heroes will resolve the matter without issue, without anything popping up that can throw a wrench into things for-"

*BAM*

Everyone in Class 1-A was startled when the door leading in was thrown open with a slam. Walking in was a VERY pissed looking Aizawa, followed by a not as pissed but still rather pissed looking Hizashi, and a cowering and ashamed looking Nemuri. "...Class," Aizawa began, his eerily cool tone sending shivers down the spines of all of the 1-A students, "For once, there's been a big screw up and none of you are to blame for it."

"What happened, Aizawa-sensei?" Shinso asked.

Jerking a thumb at Nemuri, Hizashi answered for Aizawa, "Nemuri here had allowed Eri to get kidnapped by weird guys, one tall and one really short, both wearing bird beak masks of some kind."

"ERI'S BEEN KIDNAPPED?!" most of the 1-A students exclaimed in unison.

END, CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Author's notes;

This chapter sees work study shenanigans kick into gear, with Izuku and Uraraka helping Nejire and Ryukyu take down some big boys, Chronostasis and Mimic try and fail to get the League of Villains to submit to the Shie Hassaikai, Kirishima take another step towards true manliness, mentions suggesting that Mirko's involvement in the accident she had caused while fighting a Nomu might have been covered up, and things end on a troubling note where Eri ends up snatched by two mysterious bird beak masked guys (it's Chronostasis and Mimic) because Eri needing to be rescued is part of the package of the Hideout Raid arc.

(And for those of you who might worry about it, relax; Eri is NOT going to get killed. I didn't/still don't have it in me to kill off Kota, so what makes you think I'd do the same to Eri?)

Speaking of, that stuff will start going down in the next chapter, where a meeting will occur. Given the setup before hand, things in the meeting will boil down differently. Stay tuned to see more.