In which I air some of my many grievances over the current canon trajectory, and have as much fun as I possibly can tearing canon to shreds.
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Please everyone…please be okay.
Izuku opened his eyes, finding himself in the dark, swirling void that he'd only been inside a couple of times before. Dark Shadows swirled around his body, binding his mouth, and preventing him from speaking. Or maybe he didn't have a mouth in here.
Only things were different this time. The void wasn't entirely formless. There was a platform. As if someone had taken a chunk out of a building and just set it floating in space. In a ring, ornate chairs sat, each with a different color backing for it. And in them, sat who he assumed were the previous wielders of One For All, bar two. He could see two others standing apart, glaring at the walls behind the rest of them, leaving some empty seats.
"Before you wake up…" Banjo-san stated, "We've got to have a chat."
A pale man with a sickly pallor followed up, "Sorry to spring this on you so suddenly." It was the first wielder. All For One's brother. "Before, we could only interact with you in minor ways, particularly when you were flitting in or out of consciousness. But as of four months ago, One For All started rapidly growing in power. We were able to take on more solid forms. And our last battle seems to have pushed it past some limit. We'll be able to interact with you with much greater ease now."
Izuku smiled minutely as Banjo chimed in, "Don't worry though. We'll still give you your privacy!" He shot Izuku a cheesy thumbs-up.
Izuku nodded at him, "Wh d y n-d t tl m?" Izuku managed to force some words out for the first time. Banjo clapped cheerfully.
One of them stood. He was a giant man, looming tall over Izuku. He may even have been a bit taller than All Might. "Allow me. I am Hikage Shinomori, the fourth. You drew on my power without meaning to in your last battle." Izuku nodded, thinking of Danger Sense. "It was a shock to me. I get the sense that it would have been better for you to discover Danger Sense in a better setting." Izuku deadpanned a little at the pun, though his lips quirked.
Banjo took a friendly swipe at Hikage, which he dodged, "He was a bit of a weirdo, not gonna lie. He was a bit of a hermit."
"The other people were the weirdos." Hikage countered, focusing on Izuku, "Would you happen to know what killed me? Or how old I lived?" Izuku nodded to the latter, but shook his head at the former, "Well I'll tell you then. Old age." Izuku's eyes bulged. Old age? How was that possible? Hikage died when he was forty! "I'll get straight to the point. Banjo and I had no way of knowing why. It was only after Yagi researched it that we found out the truth. It was One For All itself that killed me." If he had a jaw, Izuku's would have dropped, "Shocking, isn't it? One For All cannot be wielded by an ordinary man. I held onto it for eighteen solid years, and spent all of it training to overcome the first's brother. I was the one to hold it the longest, after Yagi. I knew I couldn't defeat that monster, so I focused on building One For All up instead. And then these cracks started appearing on my body. I thought maybe it had been a disease… But when Yagi dug up my autopsy, it revealed the truth. The strain of holding multiple Quirks was what did me in, eating away at my life force. The others never held it for that long. Only Yagi did. He had something the rest of us lacked."
Izuku shook his head, understanding immediately, "H lckd smtn y hd."
The first nodded, "He was Quirkless, and so was able to hold One For All without difficulty. We always thought our spirits were infused in One For All, but we're not sure that was the case any longer. What my brother said confirmed it. We are fragments of the Quirk factors One For All absorbed. Only Yagi truly infused One For All with his spirit."
He would have gone on, but something happened then. Their eyes all widened as All Might's flaming shade twitched, before it hunched over, and then solidified.
"ALL MIGHT?!" No lack of mouth would have prevented that shout.
Nana also stood in shock, "Toshi?! NO! You- wha-"
Toshinori looked young again. Filled with life and vigor. You could even still see the whites of his eyes. He held up his hands, "Wow, I haven't felt this good in years." He chuckled.
"You were fine! You can't be dead!" Nana panicked.
"Relax." Toshinori smiled at her, "I could feel One For All pulsing inside young Midoriya. I think I just managed to learn how to fall in here. I should be able to wake up…" He paused, and a bead of sweat appeared above his forehead, "…I hope." Nana barreled into him, hugging the stuffing out of him.
"Then welcome, eighth. I hope you won't be offended when I say we hope you don't get in here for real for quite a while." This drew some chuckles, while Izuku clenched his pounding heart, "Regardless, to use the same 'glass' analogy Yagi once used, our bodies are like glasses. They can only hold a certain amount of liquid inside of them. A glass with a Quirk would warp and distort upon receiving One For All. You would merely spill, and trying to keep a handle on it just made more and more spill, until you ended up like me." Hikage continued the analogy, "One For All was a perfect fit for his Quirkless vessel. That was why he was able to hold onto it with an iron grip for forty years."
"By some twist of fate, the power that could be passed on was meant for someone who had none to start." The first finished.
"Ah, so I was right." Toshinori said. He let out a chuckle, "Guess we were more special than we thought, huh, young Midoriya?"
Izuku could only shake his head in bemused disbelief. He looked at his own hands. Some more of the shadowy wisps had faded, 'This means I won't be able to pass One For All on myself… not unless I found a worthy wielder who is also Quirkless…'
"And it's unlikely you will, in this day and age." Nana said gently, standing up and patting his hair. She closed her eyes and sighed. When she opened them, she visibly looked older and her eyes were sorrowful, "Sorry for springing this on you after such a reveal… but we have to know." She backed away, "Can you kill Tomura Shigaraki?" Izuku's eyes widened as Nana sat down heavily, "That's not a request. I'm asking if you could bring yourself to do it?" She asked him, "You looked at him in that fight with All For One and saw someone asking for help. All of us could feel it because we're in sync with your emotions."
The others stayed silent. Even All Might. Izuku couldn't help but look at him, but Toshinori shook his head, "You cannot look at me for an answer, Izuku." It was one of the rare times his mentor said his first name. "You are the wielder of One For All now. It is up to you to walk your own path. We have spent many months teaching you to be the Hero you wanted to be, rather than a carbon copy of myself. Though if you were asking…. Yes… Even I have blood on my hands. And were I still healthy, I would fight All For One to the death myself once more."
Izuku closed his eyes, and Banjo spoke next, "You saw someone in need of help, but none of us did. He may have been hurting. He just got body jacked, after all. But even in that situation, his eyes were filled with nothing but malice and hatred. All For One's destroyed body is weak now. He tried many times in the past to steal One For All from me and En here." He jerked his thumb at his own successor, "He never succeeded. One For All must be passed on, not taken. Only an INTENSE emotion could overwhelm our willpower. Even now, we think All For One must have taken over Shigaraki and cultivated his hatred to have his cake and eat it too. He wants a new, younger, better body, while using Shigaraki's hatred to overwhelm our will and steal One For All, once and for all."
The first spoke up again, "We thought that Yagi had finished him. That our task to defeat my brother was done. But he escaped somehow. He rose again, to infect a new generation of Villains." He sighed, staring at his feet.
Nana looked ready to cry, "Izuku… I know full well how unfair we're being to you. Tomura is my grandson! I removed myself from my son's life to keep him out of danger, and yet it only ever seems like I make mistakes! It's beyond shameful for an adult to ask a child to fix their mistakes, but you're our only hope!" She floated to him, placing her hands on his shoulders, "If he takes One For All, it's all over. No one will ever be able to stand against him. I don't like it any more than you, but some people are beyond saving! They can't be reasoned or bargained with because they just want to see the world burn!" Tears were pouring from her eyes as she stared at him, "If it turns out that there's someone who is beyond saving… would you have the strength to do it?"
There was nothing but silence for a moment, while Izuku's emotions swirled around them, and then the darkness that surrounded him faded from his mouth, "It would be easy to say yes or no right now." He admitted, "But it wouldn't ring true. When we were fighting him, my rage was boiling. Sensei had to cut off his own leg to keep that Quirk Destroying Bullet from removing him from the fight. If it had happened during the fight, I would have felt AWFUL later… but I could have done it." He sighed, "He destroyed enough of a city to create a crater where it once stood, and killed so many people. So many good Heroes. And yet when his consciousness invaded ours, I could feel nothing but pain coming from him. Nothing but a little boy screaming for someone to save him." He clenched his fists, and the shadows dispersed from him entirely, "He's both a young boy in need of help, and a mass murderer who would stop at nothing to get his way. A monster. He's tried to kill me. He almost killed Tsu!" He almost snarled, and stopped.
He took a deep breath, and none of the others interrupted. "One For All may have been created to fight All For One, but now it's a power to save people. All Might showed us that for forty years! It's a power that gives hope to other people!" The rainbow light of their Quirk shone in his grasp, and he clenched his fist, "But at the same time… he can't be forgiven. Even if he was crying, even if something terrible happened that brought him into All For One's arms… He still committed all those vile acts. He still has a body count in the thousands. Or even tens of thousands." A tear leaked from one of his eyes, "Or even hundreds of thousands if we count Gigantomachia's rampage to get to him. I- I do want to save him. I've never wanted to kill anyone. All I ever wanted was to save people… But I don't know what that means with him."
The first stood up, "I know well how you feel. Even better than you." He sighed, placing his hand on Izuku's shoulder, "All For One was my brother. We grew up together. He always took care of me. And then he figured out that damn Quirk and it was like he changed entirely. Or maybe it just brought out the worst traits in him he'd hidden from the world. All I wanted was to stop him… but he was my brother. The same brother who had played with me. Taken me to school. Helped me with classwork… HOW could I kill him? With my own two hands?"
Toshinori sighed, a tear of his own leaking from his eye, "I'm sorry, Midoriya-shōnen. Sorry for leaving this burden to you." He stood, hugging the much younger boy, "We will support you no matter what, but you're right. Shigaraki cannot be forgiven. Perhaps… perhaps letting him rest is the only option."
Izuku nodded, "Yeah…" He said quietly.
"You're a good young man, Izuku. No matter what happens in the end, we will support you. But if there is no other option… I just pray you can find the strength none of us could before that madman tears someone you love from you as well." Izuku tried to respond to the first, but was interrupted.
"You all are too soft." A rougher voice said. They all looked as one of the vestiges that had kept away stepped forward. He looked not unlike Kacchan if you squinted.
"He's young, chief." The other one with the bandana joined them as well.
"Rest of them don't have that excuse." The Kacchan lookalike deadpanned, "Look kid, I get what you're saying, but that heart of yours could put the world in danger. I'm glad to hear you will do it if push comes to shove, but we need more conviction than that. There's no one else in this world that we know of that could stand against not one, but two All For Ones."
"And we all felt that screaming boy the same as you did." The other one said, "But even now, it may already be too late. All For One has taken over his body and is not only consuming his mind and soul, but using it as well. I doubt my Quirk would even work on such an amalgamation. By the time we fight, he might not be Tomura Shigaraki, Tenko Shimura, or All For One at all. Tenko would have been swallowed by much more dominant personalities."
Izuku pursed his lips, "I thought of that too…" He looked down, "I just…" He stared at his hand, "I could have ended up like him. Could have let the torment from when I was a child break me. I… we don't know the circumstances, but I can't help but see a twisted mirror of myself. Someone I could have become if All Might had never found me."
"You would never have become like him." Toshinori said vehemently, gripping his shoulder tightly.
Izuku let out a sad laugh, "You're in here now, All Might. I'm sure you can feel all the darkness in me. You helped bury all the sorrow and anger with your hope… but it was still there. Every time I get into a fight like with him… with Muscular… That rage comes out."
"And yet you've never let it control you." Nana said, placing her hand on All Might's and gently removing it from his shoulder, "Deep down, you're a good boy, Izuku. And none of us would have chosen another successor. Well, except maybe Second, but even Third agrees." She smiled playfully, "Second is a bit of a grouch, after all."
"I'm right here." The Kacchan lookalike snorted, "When I was your age and younger, I experienced the same things you did. I was treated like I wasn't human. Called a monster for my gift. Spat on. Hated. I tried to make a better world because of it. I fought so that others like me could be safe from that. I didn't fight so a Quirkless boy could be treated as a pariah the same as I was. And yet you still buried that rage and sorrow. You kept hope bright, even when no one else ever gave you a chance. If we had met, my choice would have been the same as theirs." He glared at Izuku, "That's why you NEED to understand this. There aren't any do-overs. No one else could handle One For All, and even if by some miracle you find another Quirkless person, they would break themselves the same way you did. With All For One possessing Ragdoll's Quirk, they would immediately be found and killed at best. If you fail and have to pass it on, you're sending someone to their grave. We all have your back, but we have to know that you can do it. It's like Yagi said. If you really want to save him… let him be at peace."
"All For One is a different story." Izuku said after a few minutes. That steely determination filled him, "I don't know if I'll be able to finish Shigaraki if there's any Tenko left in him… but I will fight All For One with every fiber of my being."
"That's all we can ask for right now." The first sighed, and Izuku pulled Nana in for a hug as she continued to cry into his shoulder. "Now, let's talk about our Quirks. You'll need to master all of them if we're to be victorious. You already know of Danger Sense, Black Whip, and Float, so why don't we start off with En just to complete that chain?"
En nodded from where he remained sitting, "Smokescreen." He held a hand up and Izuku watched as smoke started wafting off of his body. En seemed like a man of few words, "Good for obscuring yourself. Surprise attacks."
"It's a cool Quirk." Izuku said, smiling at the man, "I'll make you proud by wielding it, En-san."
"You think every Quirk is cool." The Third snorted, "The name's Mitsunami Isamu. My Quirk was simply called First Order." He revealed, "With it, I could do a variety of things. I could place my hand on a concrete block and tell it that it was weak, and it would crumble under its own weight into sand. I could place my hand on the air and tell it that it was solid, and a solid shield of air would form. I could even use it on myself, and make myself five times stronger than a normal human even before One For All. It was incredibly versatile, but I could only have one 'order' up at a time."
"Holy crap!" Izuku yelled, stars in his eyes as his inner fanboy started to shine. But he couldn't even start pestering Isamu for more information, because Toshinori had let out a loud gasp at the same time.
"Holy stinking SUPER CRAP!" He yelled, "That Quirk sounds familiar!"
Most of the rest rolled their eyes at him slipping into English, but Isamu was curious, "The hell do you mean? The only one I ever explained my Meta Ability's mechanics to was the Chief. No one else ever found out about it."
"Did you have any children?" Toshinori asked excitedly.
Isamu's face was pained for a moment, before he sighed and looked down, "Yes… a Quirkless child with my Quirkless wife. I had to send them away like Shimura did for their safety, long before I began the battle against All For One. I… I never saw them again. They changed their names and appearances to avoid his eye."
"I'm sorry for the bad memory…" Toshinori sounded pained, "But be glad to know they lived." Isamu's head snapped to him, a look of hunger on his face. "And your child lived, loved, and had children of their own. And they had children of their own. All For One never found them." He grinned fiercely, "When I was only eighteen, I fought a Villain in America. Well, two of them. One that had rocket launchers for arms and another with a transformation that turned him into a behemoth. He was going to crush a car with a family inside after they beat a few Heroes, and I saved them." His grin was splitting his face, "I met the family after the incident… and one of the young girls in that car…" Isamu had not taken his eyes off of Toshinori, a minute tremor in his frame. "Her name was Cathleen Bate, or-"
Isamu flinched as if he'd been struck, and he put his trembling fist in front of his face, "They survived…" he said hoarsely, joy in his voice. The Second clapped him on the shoulder, and it was the first time any of them had seen a smile on his face. "They really survived! Bate… that was the fake name they adopted… They kept it even generations later? Sakura… Sōsuke…" He let out a shuddering breath, and pulled his fist away. He brushed his tears away and cleared his throat, "Continue."
Only half of them were smirking at his attempt to play it off, "Cathleen Bate… or as young Midoriya would know her better as… Star and Stripe." Izuku's squeal nearly broke their eardrums.
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Izuku stared at the list of injuries and fatalities from the battle at the hospital and abound. It had been worse than he had thought while unconscious. Far worse. A few tears leaked from his eyes as he let out a shuddering breath, the paper tearing under his fists, "Miss Midnight…" It was… far worse when someone he knew had lost their life during the incident. He… he hadn't even been able to say goodbye before she was laid to rest.
"This is what I mean." The voice of the Second sounded in his head, though not unkindly, "All Villains are flocking to his banner now. All of them will do as he commands. All of them will be out for blood. With One For All, I have little doubt you'll be able to put them behind bars. But what about Gigantomachia? What about Dabi? Shigaraki? All For One himself? You can't afford to be naïve right now, Ninth. Or else the next name you read on a list may be 'Uraraka Ochako' or 'Iida Tenya.'" He said nothing more.
"That won't happen." Izuku growled and released the paper he was holding, letting it float away in the wind. As he did so, an explosion rang out, a giant plume of dust rising into the air, shadowing a gigantic figure within it. The figure swiped his arm through the dust, revealing himself to be a rocky-looking behemoth that had just pushed over a building. Even from this distance, Izuku could hear the laughter.
He activated One For All and leapt, Float taking over and rushing him towards the Villain at speed. His version of Float was much more advanced than Nana's. She had laughed and told him he flew more like Superman than she ever had, even with One For All.
The Villain roared and tried to punch another building. The wind churned around his fist, but Izuku got in front of it all the same. With a grunt, he repelled the blow with twin thrusts of his hands, throwing out far more force at 30% than the Villain was capable of generating even with all of his power. "EHHH?!" The Villain bellowed, just barely keeping from being able to fall over, "Who the fuck are you?!"
With his emotions the way they were after finding out about his teacher's passing, Izuku didn't much feel like bantering. He looked intimidating as all hell with his hood up, even in broad daylight. His costume was currently pretty shabby, since he didn't have time to get it repaired before leaving U.A. Its torn nature was probably making him look scarier than he had intended. "I'll say this once. Surrender."
"HA!" The Villain barked out a laugh, "AS IF! I HAVEN'T GOTTEN ENOUGH REVENGE YET, BITCH!" He punched out at Izuku, even more rock forming on his arms. Did he have something similar to Kirishima's Quirk ON TOP of something similar to Mount Lady's Quirk? Talk about hitting the Superpower Lottery! And he was wasting it as a Villain.
'These kinds of guys piss me off.' Izuku growled in his head. All that potential for good and they waste it on evil. This should be an easy fight. 30% continuous One For All and Blackwhip would be more than enough. He could wrap the man's arm with Blackwhip and fly behind him, putting him in a shoulder lock and throwing him to the ground. He could also just punch him or kick him, but that might cause too much collateral.
And frankly, he needed to figure out First Order's limits, because the few classified things that All Might had been able to relay about Star and Stripe's New Order had Isamu's jaw on the ground. He really wanted to meet her at some point. He exhaled and spoke, "The air will mimic my body at fifty times the scale!"
Unseen to anyone else but Izuku, a giant version of himself formed around him. It was just as big as the enemy he was facing. The Air Titan Izuku caught the man's arm without even a whisper of strain, and Izuku smirked behind his cowl. "WHAT THE HELL?!" The man roared, trying to jerk his arm out of Izuku's iron grip.
"Holy shit, it worked! Damn if One For All isn't the best drug!" Isamu cackled in his head, with three different smacks following it with roars of 'DON'T CALL IT A DRUG!' Isamu grumbled, "Oh, and the first Order is still active, but I can feel it straining. Two is definitely your limit, just like Cathleen."
"Good to know!" Izuku responded, pulling the Villain forward and rearing his right fist back. He punched, and the air fist crashed into the Villain's jaw with a thunderous crack. The Villain went limp immediately, and Izuku held him up by the arm. He started to shrink, and Izuku dispersed his second Rule and raced underneath the falling Villain, catching him, and putting him on his shoulder in a fireman's carry for transport. He took his hood off, "Is everyone alright?!"
The crowd of onlookers who had been hiding and trembling behind whatever they could, cheered, "THANK YOU SO MUCH!"
"Everyone is fine!" A salaryman called out to him, "There was no one on the floor he tried to destroy! Thank you for getting here so quickly!"
Izuku smiled, and then heard someone ask him his name, "Just call me Deku!" He said, before flying away and towards the closest precinct.
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"L!" Tatami Nakagame had a deadpan look on her face as she walked behind Yō Shindō. She had her hands cupped in front of her face to make herself louder, "That's a pretty big fat L right there, Yō!" Her fellow classmate was grinding his teeth as he stomped away in front of her, "Press F to pay respect-"
"Damn it! One quick application of Vibration and that entire damn building would have come down! I'd drag those assholes out myself if-"
Tatami's cellphone went off, and she stopped taunting her classmate to answer, "Hey, so the mission was a bust, as expec-"
"GET OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW!" The phone screamed, making Tatami jump and almost drop it. Before she could get a word out, another yell came through, "Itejiro spotted him with his own eyes! He's on his way there! We won't make it in time! You all have to get out of there NOW!"
BOOM
They both whirled towards the sound, and their stomachs dropped as something huge impacted the building and started sliding downwards. Glass and concrete alike shattered and rained down to the ground. Their gorges rose as they saw the writhing mass of exposed muscles surrounding his entire torso. His bulging pants suggested his legs were just about the same. "Heya!" Muscular grinned madly at them, "Let's have some FUN!" He roared, before apparently taking stock of them, "Huh? There's only two of you?! Don't you have any more!? That's not nearly enough!"
Yō grit his teeth, "GO!" He yelled at Tatami, "GET EVERYONE OUT OF HERE!"
She took off running, "What about you?!"
"I'll demolish him!" Yō hissed, preparing his Quirk.
Tatami raced to the building and barged in just as a loud eruption sounded nearby, throwing up another plume of destruction behind a building, "We need to get away!" She yelled to the group which had ignored their request to evacuate not even ten minutes ago, "There's an extremely dangerous Villain on the loose here!"
The man shoved her to the side, "Our town's already been torn to hell!" He yelled at her, "Now you want us to abandon it too?! We'll take that Villain down ourselves!"
"You'll die! That's a S-Rank Villain!" She yelled back, but they were cut off as the roof of the building practically exploded, "Yō!" She screamed in fear. He looked beaten to hell and back.
Muscular cackled, "What, is that IT?!" He pressed Yō harder into the concrete, before grinning off to the side directly at Tatami and the civilians who had too much pride and not nearly enough sense. "'Spot a Hero and you're bound to find nine more!' Perfect!"
Yō tried to use his Quirk more intensely, and Muscular turned his bad grin back on him, "Ain't enough kid. You ain't got nearly enough power!"
Yō was bruised and bleeding, "Then I'll just have to max out! Your brain will be a milkshake by the time I'm done with you!" Even the air near them started to quake and vibrate. He was pouring every bit of strength he could into his Quirk, and the building itself started to shake itself to pieces.
Yet Muscular just raised him up and started to squeeze, "Ahahaha! Maybe that might have done something before jail, kid!" Yō hacked and coughed as he tried to get air, "Hey, do you think if I squeeze hard enough, your head will pop right off? I've never tried that before!"
"And you never will!" A hand dug right into Muscular's eye socket with an iron grip, before writhing black strands attacked his hand. The strands forced his fingers open, allowing Yō to fall to the floor. Before his feet had even hit, the two of them were gone. Muscular was impacting the ground and digging a trench into it, while Izuku floated there in front of Yō.
"Y-you!" Yō coughed as he tried to catch his breath. He could hardly move a muscle from his own attack, "Y-you s-s-sound fam-iliar."
Izuku glanced back at him, "You okay, Shindō-san?" He looked back at Muscular, "Sorry I couldn't catch you. He's stronger than he used to be." His brows furrowed beneath his hood. Muscular hadn't been affected in the slightest by Yō's attack. He bit his bottom lip, 'Please tell me MUSCULAR of all people doesn't have Shock Absorption now.'
'We all know our luck is really that shitty.' The Second scoffed in his mind.
Yō laid back, "I couldn't do a damn thing!" He almost cried at the thought. He recognized Izuku now. He was the same kid from the Provisional License Exam. A first year. Was U.A. really that far ahead of the rest of them?
"You did enough." Izuku told him, "You were able to get Nakagame-san out and she was able to keep the stragglers away. I'm not sure if you injured him, but you gave me more than enough information."
He would have gone on, but Muscular landed in the destroyed street before them, even more muscles covering his body, "YOU!" He yelled gleefully, "I know that voice! I'd NEVER forget that voice, Midoriya! It's really you, isn't it?!" He laughed in utter joy, "I've missed you, little guy! All these weaklings just don't measure up!"
Izuku stared dispassionately at him, not responding. He gently placed Yō down on the building again, now that it appeared stable.
"Looks like you've got a new trick up your sleeve too!" Muscular grinned, crushing a rock and inserting it into his eye socket, "I've made some improvements of my own! I'm just DYING for another battle to the death with you, Midoriya! Let's fucking kill each other!"
Izuku blurred from sight, landing in front of Muscular at a much greater speed than he could react to. "Texas SMASH!" The air churned around his fist as he threw a straight punch directly into Muscular's diaphragm. A windstorm erupted, shattering windows around the block and throwing up bits of the concrete. The onlookers watched in shocked awe as they all saw the shadow of All Might in their mind's eyes.
"H-Holy crap! I-It's like watching All Might all over again!" One of the stragglers who had refused to evacuate whispered in awe.
Izuku was frowning behind his hood, "So, I was right." He stood straight, glaring at the cloud of smoke. "Wasn't I, Imasuji Gōto?"
The smoke cleared, revealing that Muscular had simply slid backwards until he came to a stop. The civilians gaped as they realized just what they had been about to try to fight. Muscular was nothing like the ruffians they'd gotten cocky about beating. The two trainees that had been trying to evacuate them had been right. They would have been ripped apart by a monster like that. The madman rubbed his chest a little, but his grin was even wider than before. It was practically ripping apart his face, "THAT'S WHAT I'M FUCKING TALKING ABOUT, MIDORIYA!" He cackled in glee, "That felt JUST like the punch you beat me with last time, and your arm isn't even scratched!"
He was right too. That had been a full blown 100% Smash. The first of Izuku's Orders that he had active for this fight was a godsend. 'Midoriya Izuku will be capable of handling 100% of One For All's might.'
"This is going to be the BEST!" He launched himself forward at Izuku.
Only Izuku wasn't idle. Smoke started pouring out of him and completely engulfed his body and the street. 'Crap, too much.' He could feel En nodding in agreement. He definitely needed more control using his various Quirks. Something which could only come via experience.
Luckily, he had an easy solution for the downside of En's Quirk. "Midoriya Izuku will be capable of seeing through smoke as if it is air." He mumbled in a low tone.
The ghostly En smiled beside him, seen only by Izuku. Though his high collar prevented his mouth from being seen, you could still tell, 'Third, your Quirk is definitely the best.' Isamu preened a little bit inside One For All.
'My punch did hurt him a little. We got lucky. It's Absorption, not Nullification.' Izuku thought to the others, getting nods of agreement.
"Hey, what the hell is this, Midoriya?!" Muscular swiped at the smoke with his enhanced muscles, trying to blow the particles away, "Come out and fight me, damn it! None of this pussy shit! You taught me a new meaning of fun back then! Don't you DARE make this boring!" He lunged at a shape, which was actually a motorcycle. It got crushed under his bulk, "DAMN IT! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Little did he know, but after forming the initial smokescreen, Izuku had left entirely. He had gently collected the fallen Hero in Training and delivered him to his partner. With them safe and running away, Izuku returned to the action.
"Here." Izuku growled, before landing a vicious, "Manchester Smash!" His heel crashed right into the crown of Muscular's head, cratering the ground beneath them and blowing all the smoke away in another hellish windstorm. He wanted to follow up with a St. Louis Smash, but Danger Sense blared, and he instead kicked with his other leg, blasting him back and away as Muscular tried a spinning backfist on him. 'This isn't going to work.' He thought to himself. 'I can overwhelm the Shock absorption well enough, but it's just like when All Might fought Nōmu. One hit isn't going to cut it. I could give myselfShock Absorption with another Order, but I have no way to know if that's the ONLY Quirk All For One gave him or if an Order is powerful enough.'
Nana responded, 'You've never been a brawler like Toshi, Izuku. Your greatest strength has always been your mind. That's why your usual non-critical-battle Order was so intelligent. As much as I love him, you shouldn't become a-'
'Meathead.' He could hear Isamu's smirk.
Nana let out an exasperated sigh, '-Like Toshi.' She finished glumly.
"You're killing my high here, Midoriya! Enough with the tricks!" Muscular yelled at him, before he grew even larger and dug into the ground and dug out a gigantic section of the street. "Take this!" He threw what amounted to a giant boulder at Izuku.
Izuku thrust his fist forward, blowing the entire thing to hell. Muscular had only used it as a distraction to race forward. Izuku ducked low underneath Muscular's punch, before Blackwhip snared him in a tangled mess of fibers. Muscular roared in anger as he increased his muscle mass, trying to break free to no avail. Izuku raced into the sky, dragging the Villain behind him like a sack of trash. Higher and higher they went, until the air started to thin out. Izuku leveled out and turned to stare at Muscular, who was thrashing and trying to rip apart Blackwhip ineffectually.
"FUCKING LET ME GO!" He roared.
"You do know you'll fall a couple miles, right?" Izuku asked him dryly.
"Ha! Sounds like fun! Wonder if it would be enough to kill me!" Muscular crowed as he seemed to finally take stock of his position, "Wonder how wide your splatter would be if I threw you down from here!" he laughed madly, "You're really killing my vibe though! I thought we were going to have a grand old brawl like last time, and yet you're throwing out these cheap ass party tricks!"
The vestiges growled angrily at his cheapening of their Quirks.
"You really are mad, aren't you? Where is All For One hiding?" Izuku let out a sigh.
"Who the fuck cares?!" Muscular laughed, "I'm right here! Are you cheating on me, Midoriya?!" He leered at the much younger boy.
Izuku felt a shudder run through his frame, and didn't dignify that with an answer. "Was there truly no other path for you, Imasuji Gōto?"
"Imasuji Gōto?" Muscular sneered, "Who the fuck is that?! My name is Muscular! And Muscular means raging against this world and killing whoever the fuck I want!"
Izuku smirked behind his mask, having gotten what he wanted. If this didn't work, Plan B surely would. It had to. He grabbed at the air, "The air on our path to the ground shall impart no air resistance." His new Order took root, the world responding to it.
'At least name this something OTHER than an American City, you reverse-weeb.' The second snapped in his head.
'…Fine.' Izuku grumbled as One For All ignited in him.
"What are you mumbling about, huh?!" Muscular yelled up at him. He didn't notice Izuku angling him towards a condemned section of the destroyed city. He knew for a fact nobody was there. It was simply too dangerous even for squatters. "Are you trying to BORE me to dea-"
Izuku all but physically turned into a bolt of green lightning. One For All sparked madly around him as his foot crashed into Muscular, sending them racing towards the ground. "GACK!" The Shock Absorption couldn't take all of the force, and he hacked out a bunch of spit from the hit. He bulked up more and more to nearly maximum, and still, he couldn't rip more than a few strands of Blackwhip. "RAIDEN SMASH!"
The two of them hit the ground with a thunderous bang, shattering what remained of the pavement and blowing rubble away in a windstorm. Even a cyclone formed around them. When the storm settled, all that remained was a dirt crater. Izuku's hood had fallen off, revealing his tired face. Izuku leapt away, spinning backwards into the air while he tucked into a ball. He landed on the dirt and groaned as his leg twinged in pain. That had been a bit much, even for his Order. He would definitely need to rest after this.
'Raiden Smash.' The Second groused in his head, 'Seriously kid? Not something cool like 'Indra's Arrow' or 'Mjolnir Impact.' You just HAD to go with another themed name from that meathead. Fanboy!'
Izuku deadpanned as Yoichi unknowingly did the same thing as Tatami did minutes ago, 'Press F to pay respect-'
They stilled as he heard Muscular groan.
The giant man had torn muscle fibers hanging all over him as he tried to struggle to his feet. "H-Holy shit, Midoriya!" He panted as he fought his way to his knees, "You really are the best! I hope we can do this forever!" He slumped, unable to get up.
Izuku sparked with One For All and landed on Muscular's back with his hand on his shoulder, "Muscular will be unable to move a muscle." He mumbled, and Muscular completely locked up.
Muscular tried to speak, but was unable to do so. He also wasn't able to breathe, and his heart stopped pumping. Even his voice box was unable to function, so he couldn't even release a muffled groan. He didn't know what the hell had happened!
'I should have led with this!' Izuku groaned to himself. He could feel the man fading fast, but he had one more Order he wanted to try. He sacrificed the Order allowing him to withstand One For All at full power, "Neither Muscular's natural Quirk nor any of the ones given to him by All For One will work as long as this Order is active."
All of the muscle covering his enemy's form sloughed off of his body, revealing bare skin. Izuku poked him, and he could feel no resistance either. Seconds later, unable to comprehend what had happened, Muscular went unconscious.
Izuku sighed in relief and rolled off the man, landing beside him spread eagle and letting out a sigh of exhaustion. He straightened and got up, before he counted down a few more seconds to make sure Muscular was good and unconscious. The last thing he needed was for the madman to wake up. Finally, he released both Quirks and reset his Primary Order, "Midoriya Izuku will grow accustomed to One For All's power more quickly and efficiently." Feeling himself droop, he wrapped the unconscious man up with Blackwhip and flew off with him.
'…Seriously though, 'Mjolnir Impact' would have been so much better!' Isamu argued, and Izuku almost fell out of the sky.
The onlookers watched in both worry and awe as Izuku flew away, the enemy which had killed dozens and injured Yō in tow. Tatami blushed lightly, "We never even got to thank him…" She mumbled to herself.
"This is going to be a hell of a video though…" Yō managed to laugh before the pain made him flinch again. One of the civilians had gotten the whole fight up until the two vanished after Izuku did his best imitation of a lightning bolt. All they had been able to catch after was the aftermath of his attack.
"Here miss. We don't want anyone dying either." The civilians came in with a makeshift stretcher. She smiled in exhaustion as she helped get her friend on it.
-]|[-
All Might took off his sunglasses and stopped leaning on his car as Izuku flew into the alley and stumbled, skidding to a stop, "Midoriya-shōnen!" He exclaimed, "Are you injured?" He helped steady his successor.
"A little." Izuku admitted, slumping into his mentor's side, "Tired too. Had to fight Muscular again."
Toshinori growled protectively, "Did you not use your Order? That's what you set it aside for; fights you felt you couldn't handle without it."
Izuku straightened, "Worse. I did. Muscular had Shock Absorption like the Nōmu you fought at the beginning of the school year. I injured my leg breaking through it the final time."
"Damn… You weren't reckless, were you?" Toshinori asked in concern.
"No. He didn't touch me." Izuku shook his head, "Didn't want to risk getting hit by a hidden third Quirk."
"You did well, shōnen." Toshinori put his hand on his shoulder, "And I'm glad you aren't being reckless. Now, trust in the other Heroes following us and rest. I made many mistakes, and putting the world solely on my shoulders was the biggest one. It's time for you to rest and recover."
Izuku smiled as All Might led him into the car. He sighed as he got comfortable, inclining the seat back, "Midoriya Izuku will feel fully rested and recovered after four hours of sleep." His mentors and the vestiges were right. His mind was his greatest asset. Jailbreaking First Order in ways Isamu had never thought of had proved it to all of them. Normally he would do only two hours, but he didn't want to test it with an injury. Hopefully four hours would be enough. If not, he'd go right back to sleep.
He had promised his mom that he would be coming home. He wasn't about to break that promise.
-]|[-
The pounding of the rain in the dead of night painted a bleak picture. The entire city just seemed run down and depressed, with the weather reflecting it. And that night bore witness to a grizzly sight. "MONSTER!"
"KYA!" A gigantic woman of over three meters nearly fell over as she was suddenly attacked. A ball of something that she really hoped was just water splashed her, soaking her fur, and making what little makeup she was able to wear run. Her jerky movements launched her umbrella into the air behind her as she tried to shield herself ineffectually with her arms. "No! Please stop!" She begged, tears in her eyes, "I haven't done anything wrong!"
"LIAR!" The three men attacking her roared, "You're just trying to get us to lower our guards so you can strike!"
She let out a sob, "Please! Just leave me alone!" They didn't listen. The leader aimed his arm at her, launching another ball of fluid. She closed her eyes, cringing in terror behind her arms. But nothing hit her. Instead, there was a loud WHOOSH along with some grunts.
She opened her eyes and saw someone floating protectively in front of her. "What the hell are you all doing?! Attacking an innocent woman who was just trying to find shelter?! Can't you see how terrified she is?!" Tears of relief started to pour from her eyes. A Hero had come to save her! A real Hero!
Izuku glared at them from behind his hood, and the leader of the trio sputtered under his intimidating visage, "Y-Yeah, well she shouldn't wander around in the dark looking like that!"
She flinched behind him, new tears of sorrow replacing those of relief. The sound of her sob went right to Izuku's heart. "Like what?!" He growled and the three seemed to realize that they'd actually stepped in it this time. They turned to run but Izuku raised his arm, flicking three of his fingers at the men. Three perfectly aimed blasts of wind erupted, tearing apart each of the three support items they'd (illegally) acquired. They went down with screams of shock, but were uninjured. "I understand being on edge on a night like this, but you weren't attacking her because she was dangerous. You just saw what she looked like and assumed she was bad! This is a hate crime!"
The leader turned around and howled at him, "FUCK YOU, YOU MUTANT-LOVING FUCK!"
That did it. Izuku used the last of his Quirks. His pupils dilated behind his hood, and a wave of something blasted out from him in a large sphere, pushing away the rain momentarily. The woman he was defending flinched, and then blinked as nothing happened. The rain began falling once more, and she gaped as her three assailants collapsed, foaming at their mouths. "Wh-wha?"
Izuku turned around and took off his hood, surprising her when she saw how young he was. He had a smile on his face, "Hey, are you okay?" He raised his hand and pointed it behind and to the side and a single strand of Blackwhip reached out. She turned in lieu of answering and saw her equally big umbrella being brought gently back to them.
She took it gingerly as he handed it back to her, looking down. "…I can't help what I look like…" She whispered brokenly, but Izuku heard it all the same.
He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder gently, ready to take it back if she looked uncomfortable. She sniffed and reached up and gripped his hand tightly, "Not everyone is cruel like them. I think your fur is beautiful." He struggled to say it. He'd never called anyone beautiful before. But she needed it, and it wasn't like he was lying. Even matted down, her blue fur looked like it would be very soft and luxurious.
She smiled weakly back at him, "You're just saying that…"
Izuku's smile widened, "…I'm a very bad liar. You'd know." He chuckled, and she giggled, her smile looking a bit more genuine this time.
"I was slow to evacuate. I… things weren't bad around here, at first. I thought I'd be safe at home… that I could just wait it out…" She sighed, "But then people started getting hurt and I was just so scared." She had reacted well, so he pulled her into a hug. She relaxed into it, clutching onto him tightly. "I should have just left when they first asked us to evacuate. Everything just turned so horrible so fast…" She sobbed into his shoulder.
"U.A. will welcome you with open arms." He said, rubbing her back. It was taking everything he had to keep from reacting to the fact a very hot woman was clutching him like a lifeline. Her ordeal helped, otherwise he may have been freaking out, "My friends will make sure you're safe and happy there."
"Your friends?" She pulled back, but didn't let go entirely. "Did you graduate from U.A. recently? Wow!"
He smiled, "No, I was actually about to end my first year there." Her eyes bugged out in shock, "I had to leave for personal reasons." He looked away as headlights started to get closer, "I can't wait for this to end so I can go back home."
Her response was cut off by the thunderous roar of the engine of All Might's car. She let go of him but raced behind him as Toshinori left the car, "Are you alright, miss?"
She relaxed minutely, but her jaw dropped at Izuku's words, "She's okay, All Might. Can you get her to U.A?" He glared over at the still-fallen men who had been so cruel to the woman he was protecting. "I need to get those… scum to the precinct."
"Scu-" Toshinori's eyes widened, and then he took in the giant but timid woman behind him. Realization struck, "I see." His measured words hinted at none of the rage he felt. "This way please, miss. I'll get you to safety."
She hesitated, so Izuku patted her on the shoulder again, "Go on. All Might will get you to U.A."
"I don't even know your name…" She walked forward, before stopping and turning to him. "You're my Hero!"
"Just call me Deku!" Izuku smiled back at her, before pulling his hood over his head, "Goodbye!" Blackwhip lashed out, grabbing the three men none too gently.
"Midoriya-shōnen!" Toshinori called out, and Izuku caught the bento thrown at him. "It's tonkatsu in there! Should help keep your spirits up! Eat up before it spoils!"
"Thanks!" Izuku smiled, his eyes looking like cute little 'U's' in his hood. He raced into the sky, a shockwave blowing the rain away as the three strung up men followed.
Toshinori gave his best All Might smile to the woman, "This way, miss."
She hesitated for just a brief moment, before following, "Are you really All Might!?" She blurted, and Toshinori laughed heartily.
-]|[-
Danger Sense only had the barest of moments to warn him. He just barely managed to turn the hand which was holding his communicator and GPS tracker before the device was annihilated, leaving him uninjured. He stared at it as his hand lowered. The device had been stapled to the wall of the building in front of him, at a downward angle. The 'bullet' was made of pink and blue fibers and had a speaker attached to the end of it, "Hey you, boy in green." Izuku took a deep breath as anticipation rose in him, "Come quietly, and you get to keep your limbs."
'It's her…' Despite himself, Izuku smiled behind his hood. She easily could have blown his spine out with that shot. She was definitely talented enough for it. She had even nearly bypassed Danger Sense. Izuku couldn't count the number of times he'd fanboyed over her as a child. Someone who had taken a Quirk that provided nothing that couldn't be made or bought to the very limit. It had given him no small amount of hope that maybe he could make something of himself too.
He'd been devastated when her actions and capture had come to light.
But maybe there was some Hero still left in her? One For All started to crackle around him, and he was gone. A bare millisecond later, he was at his broken communicator and ripping it off the wall, and another shot blasted into the building, striking his afterimage. 'Everyone told me to retreat if I encountered her.' He thought to himself as he sped around the city, rebounding off of solid air platforms with another Order. 'But this is an opportunity I can't pass up!' His eyes widened and he turned in midair, where a bullet was curving towards him from above. He braced himself and caught the bullet with his bare hands. The impact was enough to blow him back nearly twenty meters. "She's keeping up with 40%... That's nuts…" He let out a little surprised/nervous giggle.
'Okay, seriously, your reaction to getting shot at shouldn't be 'this is awesome,' brat.' The Second holder grumbled.
He growled in a bit of pain as the bullet kept spinning like a drill in his iron grip for a few seconds, trying to escape his grasp. It finally ran out of steam, allowing him to drop it. His hands steamed in the rain as he remembered Snipe-sensei gushing about her in an interview. Snipe's Quirk Homing allowed him to hit anything in a 600m radius, and it wasn't limited to bullets. He could throw things too. Her?
Lady Nagant could hit anything she wanted within three kilometers, and she did it with pure skill. All her Quirk did was allow her to transform her arm into a rifle and use her hair to create different kinds of bullets. That was what he knew.
Izuku focused on the building he assumed she was stationed on. One kilometer away, which meant she still had two to go if he had wanted to escape. But he knew for a fact that All For One was giving Quirks out. It couldn't be too many, otherwise they would turn into mindless puppets. Something he was sure All For One didn't want with Lady Nagant. But no doubt, there would be extra surprises.
He activated Smokescreen and flew in a zig-zagging pattern around the buildings, trying to see what she would do next. He wasn't disappointed. Danger Sense screamed and he abruptly used an air platform to dodge to the left, avoiding another bullet that had come from behind him. It wasn't without casualty, however. His hood had slipped off his head and the shot had annihilated it, leaving only his mask. She was repositioning, he realized. Far, far faster than she should have been able to. And despite his erratic movements and Smokescreen, she still managed to nearly hit him. "Infrared scope on her rifle? Wonder if she's capable of that?" It was just a guess, but if it was true, En's Quirk would be useless.
But she'd given him more info than he needed. She was shooting from above now. Far above the actual buildings. 'All For One gave up that floating Quirk? Seriously? Does he have multiple copies? I thought he would never part with that one.'
'Focus!' Nana chided him.
'Right.' Izuku mentally slapped himself. "Midoriya Izuku may not be hit by ranged projectiles."
Isamu let out a sharp gasp of air as Izuku stopped on a dime and turned to face Nagant, 'Kid, not that I don't trust my Quirk, but are you SURE about that?!'
"It hasn't failed me yet!" Izuku blasted off towards Nagant, making a show of weaving and dodging her bullets. They started coming faster and faster, with less and less time between shots as he grew closer. And finally, they came at a pace Danger Sense couldn't even detect. And Izuku was nowhere near fast enough to dodge them with mere reflexes.
The bullet approached his right arm, and it was almost as if he could see it in slow motion. It slowly crawled to him. Ten feet. Five feet. One foot. Five inches.
And then it inexplicably veered away from him just slightly and missed him entirely, "WHAT?!" Nagant gasped as she somehow missed a shot she had fully intended on hitting.
And then Izuku was on her, twisting her arm back above her shoulder, "Jackpot!"
"I don't know how you made my shot miss!" Nagant yelled at him as her rifle retracted back into her arm so quickly that there were three little vapor rings left behind, "But don't think you won!" She used the momentum to throw her elbow at his face, and her rifle blasted out of it aimed directly at him.
Izuku was forced to let go as it hit him in the gut, and a kick raced him out of its path as another howitzer shot would have cut him in half just from the gas pressure coming out of the barrel. "You're so awesome!" He couldn't help but fanboy. He really thought he had her there.
She smirked, "Oh, a fan?" She aimed her rifle at him, the two simply floating in the air, "Didn't expect to still have any of those."
"How could a kid who grew up Quirkless do anything but admire a Hero like you?" Izuku asked, and her eyes widened, "A Quirk like yours doesn't give you anything someone couldn't find or buy, and you were one of the best! It gave me hope I could actually be someone!"
"Quirkless?" Her eyes narrowed, "You sure don't look Quirkless from where I'm standing, Midoriya! Is that why All For One is so desperate to get his hands on you? You one of his little experiments that betrayed him?" Izuku growled, "Struck a nerve, did I?"
Izuku didn't respond, his eyes widening as a shot raced at him from behind. It also missed due to his Order, but he whirled around and took his eyes off her. The shot had… come from one of her previous bullets?!
"Tch!" Nagant clicked her tongue as she vanished into the night, 'How are my shots missing?!'
"Why are you siding with that bastard of all people?!" Izuku yelled into the night, focusing on trying to hear her voice. "Don't tell me you buy into his nonsense!"
"I don't give a damn about him! All I want is the destruction of this sham of a society!" She answered back, grinding her teeth as yet another of her bullets just missed. He had given up all pretenses of dodging, though he wasn't sitting completely still either. 'Am I going to need to shoot him point-blank?!' Her bullets weren't total wastes. Each of them had transceivers that allowed her to speak to him without giving herself away. "I was exhausted keeping this manufactured farce of Order on my shoulders! Exhausted from all the KILLING!" She hissed at him, "A group of terrorists; a Hero group collaborating with criminals to gain fame and fortune; even simple scientists who were delving a bit too deeply to make the damned Commission feel comfortable! Any time something could shake their damned society, law and order would no longer cut it! So, they sent me, and claimed it was for peace." She spat out, "Every Black Op they could think of found its way into my lap, until I was so covered in blood I couldn't wash it off!"
Now Izuku had stopped everything he was doing. His head was swimming with everything he was learning that one of his honest favorite Heroes as a child had to endure. His fists were clenched by his side and trembling as his rage started to boil.
She took another shot, and watched as her perfectly placed shot yet again weaved around her completely static target. "I was just a cog in a system with two sides. One which needed both sides to maintain itself. So, I complied! I did my duty! I killed and killed and killed until I couldn't even get near a group of young fans without picturing the blood on my hands! It was a system so fragile it made my HEAD SPIN!"
Izuku turned his head to look directly at her, and she unconsciously took a step back, "And that was when you killed another Hero?"
"Hah!" She barked out a suddenly nervous laugh. He'd caught sight of her with frightening ease. Had he somehow learned her patterns? 'This kid… he's GOOD!' She couldn't help but think in respect for her foe. "Even after what I did, they couldn't let people know the truth, huh? I never killed another Hero! I killed that bastard leading the Hero Public Safety Commission! I wasn't even allowed to question them. There were two crappy Heroes that baited civilians into causing crimes, so they could catch and cash in newly minted criminals and raise their reputations." She sneered, "They were awful scum, but nothing they did deserved anything but jail time. But that wasn't what was ordered, was it? No, instead of the jail time and punishment they deserved, I was ordered to make them disappear. Couldn't reveal the dark and hidden underbelly of heroics to the people, could they? Internal disputes? Mutiny? Public can't know about that! This society is nothing but a gilded illusion, seen through rose-colored glasses!"
Izuku's anger was still boiling, and he couldn't help but feel for her. But that said… "So what? A future ruled by All For One will somehow be better?!"
"It would be a hell of a lot more transparent, at least!" She answered back, "Say you bring back the status quo… What then?" She asked, no longer bothering to fire at him. It was clear that no matter what trick she molded into her bullets, she just couldn't hit him, "History will just repeat itself! The public gets to gaze at the bright and shiny side… all the while someone else is eaten alive trying to hold the illusion together."
Izuku upped his usage of One For All to 55%, his current short-burst maximum. In a blaze of speed that caught Nagant completely blind, he was in front of her. A shockwave erupted from him, blowing the rain away from her. She gasped, aiming her rifle, but he caught the barrel and jerked it away.
"Wh-what the hell?!" She gasped, "What, did you step it up to second gear?!" Izuku had been incredibly fast.
"You're right." He said, and she stopped cold. He was looking at her with compassion. Something which astounded her, "First Stain and now you. Neither of you were wrong, even if your actions were. Are. This world is shades of gray. I'm seeing that now. And after learning about you, Nagant… Returning to the status quo would do more harm than good." She almost smiled, but his next words wiped it away, "But you've clearly forgotten why people like us wanted to become Heroes in the first place. It was always to help other people, wasn't it? It's BECAUSE this world is a blend of fear and anger that I have to extend a helping hand!"
"Tch! That phony education has done wonders for you!" She cancelled her Quirk, wincing in pain as a small section of the barrel tore from his grip. With another motion, she reached for her belt and pulled something off of it with a loud CLICK. She threw it and dashed away. Izuku's eyes widened, and he threw his arms up to block his eyes and ears.
BANG!
The flashbang disorientated him, forcing him to stumble around in the air and shake his head, trying to get his bearings as the tinnitus rang in his ears. Three more shots whizzed past him as Nagant fired her re-extended rifle at him, thinking that maybe she could finally hit him if he could neither see nor hear. "God damn it! I'm positive he couldn't see or hear those! It's a passive?!" She ground her teeth, 'And he easily found me earlier! Am I really going to have to try that?'
Izuku's ears stopped ringing as a new voice joined the fray, "AREN'T YOU DONE YET?!" His eyes narrowed as his hands curled into fists, "I UPHELD MY END OF THE BARGAIN! TAKE ME TO THE BOSS!"
A hateful rage rose up in Izuku for the first time in a while, "Chisaki!"
Nagant almost smiled. She had one more trick up her sleeve. Something she had only ever used once, on a mission that had almost killed her. The most dangerous she'd ever been sent on. But she only had a single shot at this. If it failed, she was going to be completely out of commission. 'Let's add one more thing to think about, shall we?' She aimed her rifle at Chisaki, but it was different this time. It bulged grotesquely, far bigger than it had been. This bullet would be the biggest and fastest one yet. It would be more of a howitzer shot than a sniper round, "If I know anything about you little Heroes, it's that you can't stand to let anyone die under your watch! Even a hated foe!" She yelled, and the bullet fired with a thunderous crack. Even as it did, her rifle started to change, and she raised her left arm for the first time. It also started to look like it was going to create a rifle, 'This should slow you down at least! Then while you're distracted, I'll-'
Izuku vanished, the rain blasting away from them entirely. It took a good two seconds for it to start falling again. Izuku appeared in front of Chisaki with his hand held out. It closed in an iron grip around her bullet, and unlike the last time he had caught one (with both hands too!) this one stopped spinning immediately. His grip immediately cut off every bit of momentum in her shot. He had turned on his "full power" Order in an instant, and spiked up to 100%.
'…Wow!' Nagant couldn't help but be reminded of All Might as she stared at his back. He had not only saved Chisaki (someone she KNEW he hated just from the vitriol he'd spat just saying his name.) but he had arrived long before her bullet, and caught it one-handed. His arm hadn't even jerked from the catch. Her plan was totally forgotten. Her left arm returned completely to normal.
"Boss… gotta see the boss…" Chisaki moaned, looking past his fist at Nagant, "He-he's all I have left! You promised to take me to him! I have t-to apologize!"
That seemed to trigger Izuku something fierce, "APOLOGIZE TO ERI, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" His fist, still clutching her bullet, crashed into Chisaki's face. The former yakuza boss got blown straight downwards into the roof, the rain again blowing away in a ring around him. He was out like a light. And apparently no longer in the mood to trade words, Izuku turned to Nagant, who rapidly turned and tried to flee. Izuku whipped his leg in a kick, and Nagant was blown away as the wind pressure from his kick acted more like one of her howitzer shots, wrecking her rifle's barrel. She could recover from a little damage in a short amount of time and keep using it, but not from having it bent in half like a weak pretzel.
'Not even a bit of hesitation…' She replayed the scene in her head, 'A truly despised enemy, and he jumped in to save him almost before I had even fired.' She replayed it again, and then flashed back to the moment the old president who had recruited her first told her that her arm would make the world a better place. 'When was it… when did the empty platitudes start making me want to puke?' She fell out of the sky.
And then Izuku caught her hand. She stared up at him in shock, "That shot wouldn't have killed him." Her eyes went even wider when she saw his smiling face, "And if you had really been behind All For One's brand of garbage, there wouldn't have been a fight at all. You'd have blasted me in the spine." A single tear rose up in her eye, "You did so much for us that no one else could, and they bathed you in darkness because of it. That's why you know the light can be brought back! You've still got the soul of a Hero, Kaina Tsutsumi!"
She felt her heart hammering in her chest, 'What a guy…' She closed her eyes, that single tear falling as she gave him a brilliant smile, "Midoriya Izuku…" By the time the third word had been spoken, her flesh had started to crack with inner bits of light, and Danger Sense had started to scream. "You're a real her-"
Izuku reacted immediately, his other hand flashing out and touching her forehead harder than he intended, "Kaina Tsutsumi will not be affected by any trap or monitoring Quirks put on her by All For One!"
"Wh-what?!" She shook her head from the sudden impact, "What was that for?" She asked him, reaching up and brushing his hand off to rub her forehead. The impact had been so jarring she hadn't actually heard his words.
"Damn that All For One!" He growled in response, "When he gave you that floating Quirk, he trapped you as well! You started glowing like a bomb and Danger Sense was blaring like a klaxon." He started flying them to one of the rooftops.
She stared at him in disbelief, before she bit her lip in anger, "Damn him!" She said as she touched down. He landed a bare second later.
"Did he give you any way to contact him?" He asked, earning a growl.
"Yes, he fucking did." She growled, pulling it out, "It likely would have been destroyed if I had been blown up." She clicked it on, and there was a response after only one ring, "All For One!" She growled hatefully.
"Ahahaha!" Yoichi's brother laughed, "MY, what a fascinating Quirk you just used, Midoriya Izuku." He ignored her entirely, incensing her.
"Cut the shit!" She yelled, "You had NO WAY of knowing I wouldn't-"
"Wouldn't what? Stick to the contract. Oh, poor little Nagant." All For One mocked her, "In the end, all you ever were was a tool to be used by others." Nagant reared back as if struck, "I didn't need to know anything. It was merely a failure clause I included in our contract when I gave you Air Walk. Broken tools should be thrown away like the trash that they are." He laughed uproariously.
"You…!" She trembled in rage and sorrow.
"But you, Midoriya Izuku. Now you're interesting. That delightful little gift of yours will be a wonderful addition to my collection." He kept on laughing, entirely amused by the situation, "I wonder," he asked playfully, "How long can you keep that little trick of yours up? Does it still work when you're asleep? Unconscious? Oh, I so look forward to the exact moment you drop your guard! My only wish was that I still had eyes so I could watch woeful little Nagant go up in flames like a lovely summer firework!"
"…" Izuku glared at the receiver, "Tell me, you fucking potato," For the first time, All For One no longer sounded amused as he made a noise of affront, "Do you still have any nerves left after All Might turned your face into purée? Do you still feel pain under all that equipment and anesthesia keeping you alive?" He cut off All For One before he could even respond, "I hope you do, because I'm going to go looking."
He grabbed Nagant again, "Any and all trap and monitoring Quirks or equipment put in Kaina Tsutsumi by Mugen Shigaraki will be painlessly destroyed, leaving behind only her original Quirk and Air Walk!"
Kaina? She didn't feel anything. Just a sense of lightness she hadn't known she was missing. But All For One?
His voice came over the call, howling in agony. And then it cut off abruptly, with static replacing his voice. The destruction of the Quirks he'd left in her to monitor her caused some psychic backlash on the man, causing him to feel as if a spike was being driven directly into his brain.
Kaina felt elated.
Izuku let go of her forehead, "You're not a tool." Her heart hammered in her chest at his words, "And while I do hope you decide to fight with us, I'd only want it if you wanted to help us. If you wanted to just disappear, I'd support you all the way as well." She grinned broadly at his words and then he rubbed the back of his head, suddenly looking bashful, "O-Oh, and s-sorry for getting all grabby, Nagant."
She deadpanned, "You're kidding, right?" She let out a laugh, "That was more catharsis than I've felt my entire life. Don't you dare apologize, Izuku." She stepped forward, smiling down at him. She was just a bit taller than him, after all. "You saved me twice today, you know?" She took another step forward, and Izuku blushed as he seemed to realize how close she had gotten.
"Twice?" Izuku tilted his head to the side, making him look pretty cute.
"That's right." She said, "My life…" She got even closer now, and officially invaded his personal space. His cheeks lit up in a fiery blush, "And my heart." She reached her hands up and hooked them around his neck, pulling him up so she could kiss him.
Izuku totally crashed, his face lighting up lobster red and steam practically erupting from his ears. He backed away, "W-W-W" he babbled, making her smile widen, "L-Lady Nagant!"
"Call me Kaina…" She said huskily, "My name sounded good in your mouth…"
His face was still purple from how much blood had invaded it, but he was able to speak with some awe in his voice. "Kaina…" he breathed, and she kissed him again. This time he kissed back, one arm hooking around her waist and the other around her shoulders.
She broke it this time, "Oh, was that your first kiss?" She asked teasingly.
He blushed, "That bad?"
"Could use some work, but that's normal. Not that I have much experience myself." She licked her lips, making him stiffen up, "I'm glad I get to be your first.~"
"W-Would this be a bad time to say you were my Hero crush when I was younger?" He mumbled, and a delighted look crossed her face.
"Well, looks like dreams do come true, don't they?" They kissed again, deepening it, and starting to tentatively include some tongue as well. Kaina even hooked her right leg around his left.
"You know, when we told you to capture any escapees you could, this wasn't what we had in mind." And then someone coughed, and they broke apart with a bit of fright.
"Hawks!" Izuku yelped, "We were- That is-"
"Yeah, don't bother." Hawks was smirking like a loon as he stared at their blushing faces. His wings were fully repaired. Something that had only been possible via an Order from Izuku speeding up his recovery. It had allowed him to patrol farther away than he otherwise would have. "I saw the whole thing." He found it pretty telling that neither had fully let go of the other even as Kaina adjusted her hair.
"Were you just sitting there the entire time?!" Kaina asked incredulously.
"Since Deku called All For One a potato." He laughed, "And let me tell you, it took everything I had not to interrupt." He leered at Kaina, "I gotta ask, were you always a cougar, senpai?"
Nagant refused to blush like a schoolgirl, "Senpai?"
Hawks' smile dimmed, "Yeah. Your replacement, I guess you could say."
'And you still have that glimmer in your eye? After all they no doubt put you through?' Kaina thought incredulously.
She didn't have a chance to respond though, because Izuku stepped forward, shyly taking her hand, and wrapping his fingers with her. She hesitated for a moment, but squeezed back, "Hawks." Izuku said. And it was his serious voice. Something Hawks caught immediately, "The Commission."
"Ah." Hawks let out a sigh. Just two words, but it was enough to make him be serious.
"Are they as awful as Kaina told me?" Izuku asked, staring at him without blinking.
A roar filled the air along with light, and then Endeavor dropped down, "Sorry I'm late. Rain and I don't get along." Kaina blinked at how different, how human the man she remembered as a fanatic looked. She didn't even get a chance to question Izuku on what the hell he was doing partnering up with the asshole because she was so befuddled. "And I'm sure as bad as she made them sound, they're probably worse." He sat heavily on the ducting, same as Hawks.
Izuku flinched, and Kaina gave his hand another reassuring squeeze, "Explain."
"I didn't have as many assassinations as you." Hawks sighed again, looking at the ground, "If anything, I almost would have preferred it. My last mission forced me to infiltrate the Meta Liberation Army. And you know how dangerous those can be when you start to sympathize with some of them."
She looked at the ground, "Never really had much chance for that." But she turned towards Izuku, "But I know what you mean, now."
"Endeavor!" Toshinori yelled from way down below, having been only following his flame trail. They all blinked. "Is Midoriya-shōnen alright?!"
Izuku let go of her hand with a muttered, "All Might!" And jumped off the roof.
"All Might?" Kaina blinked, "That didn't sound much like him."
Endeavor chuffed, "You were under a long time, Nagant. You're about to get one hell of a surprise if you didn't bother catching up on the news."
Izuku flew back onto the roof, helping another man. She gaped, "That's All Might?!" She sputtered, "What the hell happened?!"
Toshinori looked at Izuku and then Nagant quizzically, "Midoriya-shōnen… explain?"
"Uhh, well?" Izuku rubbed the back of his head bashfully again.
"No, back the bus up! All Might, what the hell happened to you?" Kaina pointed at him incredulously.
"All For One happened." All Might replied flatly, drawing a flinch.
Izuku took over, "All Might and All For One fought before you killed the president, Kaina." All Might mouthed 'Kaina' at Endeavor (who was clueless) and Hawks (who smirked and made a 💕 with his hands, which got a flat 'what' in response) in confusion. "It was basically a double knockout, and All Might surgeries… well…" he pointed at Toshinori.
"And you want to fight him too?!" Kaina demanded, "You've got to be fucking kidding me." She growled in both anger and fear.
"Midoriya-shōnen is a lot less hot-headed than I was." Toshinori replied, "And he will be stronger too." He said passionately.
Izuku walked over, "We'll be fine." He said in what he hoped would be a comforting manner, "I've got tricks All Might didn't." She still didn't look convinced, so he threw her what he hoped was a confident smirk, "Besides, I'll have you watching my back, won't I?"
"…" She glared, "Smooth talking little basta-" He kissed her, interrupting her small tirade.
They totally missed All Might coughing up a fountain of blood and Endeavor choking like he had swallowed a whole cigar. Hawks could only cackle like a maniac. "Oh my god, Midoriya-shōnen!?"
They broke their kiss and Izuku's face was flaming as he faced them. He cleared his throat and turned a stony glare at Endeavor, "What did you mean when you said the Commission was probably worse than she had told me?"
Endeavor looked down to his feet, "We're in the mess we are in now partially because of the mess I made with my own family. Did you think no one ever found out?" Izuku's eyes hardened, "How many other decently ranked Heroes do you think ever did illegal things that got swept under the rug by the Commission?" The man sighed, "I suspect if she had remained loyal, they may eventually have ordered me killed as well, to sweep it under the rug."
Kaina gave the man a hard glare, "What the hell did you do, Endeavor?"
Endeavor gave her a half-broken stare, "Something inexcusable. Something I'm trying to atone for, and earn forgiveness." He looked away, "It's all I can do, now." She stared at him, again struck by how different the man was.
Izuku ground his teeth at yet more confirmation, and turned to All Might, "I never really had very much interaction with them." He replied, "I was the poster boy, of course, but I was so powerful and had such a good record they generally left me alone. I liaised with them on occasion, of course. I'll have to defer, Midoriya-shōnen."
'This is what we meant, kid.' Isamu spoke up, 'Heroics was such a different thing back in our day. These jumped-up public figures sicken us. Why do you think we were so hesitant on interacting with you, at first?'
Izuku took a deep breath, "…" He started to pace, letting go of Kaina's hand as he did so. He prowled around the rooftop like a predator, just mumbling to himself under his breath.
"Does he do this a lot?" Kaina asked as she took a seat opposite from them, bemused.
"He used to be worse." Toshinori snorted, "At least he learned to keep his mumbling somewhat under control."
"Maybe he should get a voice-canceller on that mask of his?" She suggested with a wry grin.
"Not a bad idea." Endeavor responded, before calling out, "What are you thinking, Deku?"
"That we can't just allow the Commission to regain their full power when this is over." Izuku responded, glaring at the roof, "The system is broken, and it was broken for a LONG time. The entire commission must have been completely mired in corruption. One organization can't have that much power."
Kaina smiled, and Hawks sighed, "That's a big ask, Deku. Do you know what you're getting into?"
"Probably not." Izuku shook his head, "But everything I've learned since starting at U.A. is screaming at me that if we just let it go, things will just get worse. There are laws on the books that need to be updated. Protections that need to be put in place, and archaic and stupid laws removed. The people know now how inept the Commission was, and how…" he hesitated, before growling, "…and how fragile the system was." They worriedly watched as Izuku clenched his fist, and then surprised them all by slamming a fist into the ducting, denting it with a metallic groan, "Fuck, I can't believe I'm somewhat agreeing with Stain of all people! There were too many people using Heroics as nothing more than get-rich/famous-quick schemes! Look at how many Heroes just quit when all of a sudden the public no longer loved them! When the public started criticizing them! When the public actually needed them the most!"
Toshinori looked down, "Part of that is on me." Izuku looked to protest, but Toshinori held his hand up and shook his head, "No Midoriya-shōnen, don't make excuses for me. I accomplished what I wished to do. I set out to become the Symbol of Peace and I succeeded at it. Look where we are now? I wasn't wrong to do what I did, but there were unintended results. I was too unapproachable, and once I was gone, there were very few people who had the will to even try to step into my shoes." He eyed Nagant for a moment, but Izuku seemed to trust her, and he was usually a good judge, "One For All had me too far ahead of everyone else. Something you'll experience as well…"
"What? What is that supposed to mean?" Kaina interjected in confusion.
"I'll tell you later." Izuku told her, sitting next to her, and putting his arm around her. She leaned into him.
"I've heard many times how no one ever tried to catch you, All Might." Hawks said, "I saw it myself. Even other Heroes would just cheer you on. Everyone looked at your back and thought it could hold the world up. The only one I ever saw even try to follow you was Endeavor-san."
Endeavor snorted, "And what a mess I made doing it. I was so obsessed with rankings I never saw who you truly were. I was such a fool…" He sucked his teeth unpleasantly, "And no one looks at my back the way they looked at yours. I failed, time and again; and then my crimes came to light."
"But you're still here." Izuku cut him off, "You're still fighting. You're trying to make things right. That's a lot more than we can say for a lot of Heroes. You made mistakes. We all do." He rolled up his sleeve to emphasize his words, and Kaina gasped in shock when she saw how littered with scars just that one arm was, "All of us, and they were painful lessons. But we learned them. We can't keep looking back at past mistakes and spiraling. We have to make a brighter future for everyone! We have to keep moving forward. And that starts with defeating All For One and his goons."
"Right!" All four of them responded to his words, smiles of different sizes on their faces. Kaina could hardly believe how good of a leader Izuku was becoming that he had grown men ready to focus due to his words.
"Kaina, if you had taken me in, All For One must have given you further instructions."
"He did, but I doubt it's relevant information." She scowled, "Looking back at it and our conversation with the potato-" Toshinori sputtered like Uraraka and started to laugh, hard, "I don't think he meant for me to capture you. That bastard is smart and charismatic and always had plans within plans. He said the explosive Quirk was a failsafe but now that I've had time to think, I'm pretty sure he meant for me to lose. I think he wanted you to succeed in making me return to being a Hero, only to explode me in your face."
"That sounds just like him." Toshinori growled, "One of the biggest dangers of All For One is how good he is at enraging his opponents. Both times we fought; he constantly insulted my master. Said she begged for her life before he killed her." Izuku heard Nana growl in his head, "And it worked. I fought like an idiot, and he gouged my side out. In our second fight, he revealed that Shigaraki Tomura's real name was Shimura Tenko… my master's grandson. Something he knew and did specifically because he knew it would wipe the smile from my face." This the other two pros hadn't known, and they looked at him with wide eyes. "He excels at breaking his opponents mentally as much as he excels at breaking them physically."
"But why bother with such a convoluted scheme?" Izuku asked, "That would have really pissed me off, yeah, but despite, well…" He blushed, and Kaina smirked as he cleared his throat and moved on, "We didn't know each other at all."
"To break your spirit." Hawks said, immediately. They turned to him, and he shrugged, "Potato-" They all smirked, "-wants to steal One For All doesn't he? How else is he going to do it if Shigaraki doesn't pan out other than taking it from someone so broken they can't fight back?"
"One For All?" Kaina asked, "Am I going to know what you're talking about? Isn't that All Might's Quirk? That was what he called it, right? Why can't All For One take it like any other Quirk he's taken?"
"Because One For All can't be stolen." Izuku replied, "It can only be given willingly. I'm the ninth person to hold it, after All Might."
She choked, "You have All Might's Quirk?! How the fuck-?! You two fight nothing like one another!"
"Long story. We'll have time later." Izuku pecked her on the cheek. She pouted.
"I am astounded by how well that's working." Toshinori deadpanned, "In any case, we're not getting anything done with Nagant's information. I have little doubt that it was another trap, and even on the off chance it wasn't, I HIGHLY doubt All For One wouldn't have run the hell away as fast as he could after you foiled his plans with Lady Nagant so well."
"Then we keep hunting." Izuku said, standing… and then letting out a loud yawn, "Damn, that fight tired me out more than I thought. Is there room for both of us in Hercules, All Might?"
Toshinori shook his head, "I was ambushed as well. Hercules needs some repairs."
"As much as I hate to say it, we'll have to help ourselves to some of these empty apartments. We should scatter so we don't make a big target. We don't all need to be getting sick off this cold rain." Endeavor said, "Just make sure to leave phone numbers for the owners to be reimbursed. I'll take care of it on my dime."
"Right." Izuku said, "Hawks, Overhaul is unconscious over there. Can you get him to the precinct?"
Hawks nodded and took off with All Might, but not before the two smirked at Izuku, "Don't have too much fun, Deku." Izuku went bright red and hid his face behind his hands.
Kaina laughed, "What was that all about, anyway?" Kaina asked as she grasped his hand and they both rose into the air. The two took off, racing away from the site of the battle to find an apartment they could break into temporarily take possession of. "I knew you had a history with him, but he never went into details."
"Overhaul? He took a traumatized little girl with a unique Quirk and constantly experimented on and tortured her in order to harvest her Quirk factors to create bullets which would erase a person's Quirk." With every word, Kaina had slowed in horror, but as soon as he finished, she stopped dead and reformed her (now healed) rifle arm, whirling around and taking aim at Hawks and the bastard who was still in her range. Izuku quickly grabbed her arm and forced it up, "If I was going to let you kill him, I would have just let you kill him." He said dryly.
"Damn it, I'm already stained red! A bastard who actually deserves it won't hurt!" She growled out, trying to force it out of his grip, but he was too strong. "Stop being so damn noble!"
"You love it." He said, smiling at her. He whirled her around and gave her a cool down hug, "And he's not worth it."
"Damn it!" She snarled, releasing her Quirk, and leaning into his embrace, "That's not always going to work! I can't believe I worked with that creep!"
"Forget it. He's going to rot for the rest of his days." He pulled back and reached up, cupping her cheek, and brushing her hair out of the way. She eagerly met him for another kiss. He really was a quick learner, and it was already way better than their first. But they were both starting to really freeze with the adrenaline fully gone, so Izuku pulled them to the closest building. As they neared, Izuku used Blackwhip to open the veranda door from the outside to get them in. By the time they landed, her hands had already worked his suit's zipper, baring his muscular chest to the world.
-]|[-
'A phone call is here! A phone call is here!'
Izuku jerked awake as Kaina groaned in his arms, fumbling for his ringing phone.
"Okay, I'm putting my foot down. That has got to go." Kaina groaned into his naked chest, and Izuku blushed hotly.
"Note to self….de-fanboy my room." He mumbled, getting a snort out of his new girlfriend. "Deku." He said seriously, upon seeing it was Endeavor.
"We have problems." Endeavor's voice was grave, making both of them stiffen. "Big problems, Deku. In two hours, we're all gathering at one of the warehouses for a meeting. You need to be there."
"I assume that's both of us?" Kaina asked, "What the hell happened?"
"…You work fast, Midoriya." Izuku blushed like hell again, "I only want to explain it once, so just be there." He hung up, and a second later his phone pinged with an address.
Kaina groaned and dropped back down on top of him, nuzzling into his chest, "He's still an asshole."
Izuku rubbed his eyes. "He… has gotten better, but… yeah."
She ran her finger across his chest, smirking as he twitched as she lightly brushed it against a nipple, "Still can't believe you really were Quirkless." It hadn't all been sex last night. She was still incensed and had called him a 'cheating bitch' over his Order preventing her bullets from hitting him. "Shit, I feel like a bitch calling you one of All For One's experiments."
"You technically weren't wrong, even if it was for the wrong reason. That asshole created One For All unintentionally. He gave his brother who he thought was Quirkless a stockpiling Quirk. Turned Yoichi-san's useless Quirk into a powerhouse when they combined."
"Hah! Villain creates his own worst nemesis. Tale as old as time." She laughed as he started running his fingers through her hair, turning slightly, and pulling her close so they were chest to chest. He kissed her forehead as she smirked and ran her heel gently behind his knee. Surprisingly, he didn't react, beyond a small widening of his smile. She smiled back, though after a few minutes of them just staring and enjoying each other's company, she asked, "What?"
He blushed a bit more, "C-Can you grow your hair out again?"
She coughed lightly in surprise, "What, don't like it now? You certainly had fun with it last night."
"No, no, I do! It's just…" He got all bashful, amusing her, "I love your old style."
She started to laugh fully, "Oh man, you're a riot. Long hair is a pain, even if it's useful for your Quirk. Especially when you're in prison. It's why I cut it." She smirked, "I'll grow it out if you really want it, but you gotta brush it."
"…I'm… not seeing a downside here." He smirked as it was her turn to blush, "Wash it, brush it, play with it, whatever you like." She started to steam, and then leaned forward and chomped on his collarbone, "Ack! Kaina! Let go!" She replied with a muffled 'no,' and Izuku poked her in the side, and she jumped.
"No!" She said, grabbing his wrists.
"Oh, is someone ticklish?" Izuku got an uncharacteristically devious grin on his face.
"Don't you dare, Izuku!" She yelped, backing away, before sputtering and flailing as he started to tickle her, "No!" She squealed, bursting out into laughter as he attacked her sides, "S-Stop!" She cackled, trying to push him away, but was pinned by his stronger frame. He was between her legs and after a few seconds, an entirely different sort of heat started to rise between them. Izuku stopped, grinding into her, and pinning her arms around her head. She moaned as he kissed her, and she turned her head to break it, "Ah~" She moaned as he started sucking on her neck, "Sh-shit! Izuku, we have a meeting in two hours! It's a hundred miles away!"
"Good, that gives us an hour and fifty minutes." Izuku replied huskily, lining himself up and thrusting. Her lewd moan in response sent a shiver down his spine.
"I've awakened a monster~" She moaned again, managing to free her arms and hooking them around him before digging her nails into his back. Moans once more filled the once-empty apartment.
-]|[-
Izuku and Kaina landed, her hair looking windswept. "You weren't kidding. That only took us five minutes. Was that your top speed?"
"Not sure. I've never tried to fly as fast as possible before. Hard to react to changes at that speed when you're trying to collect Villains." He knocked on the door, and a slit opened up and confirmed the both of them visually, before opening the door, "Deku. Nagant." Best Jeanist greeted them, welcoming them inside, "May I say what a pleasant surprise it is to see you back, Nagant."
"Good to be back." She smiled as they walked, "Never thought I'd say that to be honest." She took in the sights. It was a standard warehouse, so they must have just commandeered the place for their purposes. Not uncommon in Heroics. There were two Heroes she didn't recognize, and Izuku quickly introduced them as Kamui Woods and Mount Lady. The others in there were Endeavor, All Might, Edgeshot, Hawks, and Jeanist. "What's this about, Endeavor?"
The large man looked down, and instead it was Toshinori who responded. "We received news a few hours ago." He said gravely, "We were just set back by quite a bit." He looked at Izuku in a way Izuku had never experienced before: pity.
Endeavor spoke up, his tone grave and almost defeated, "Three hours ago, the Commission informed All Might and I that several of the Villains we had captured simply vanished from incarceration."
"WHAT?!" Mount Lady was one of the loudest, leaping to her feet from where she had been sitting on a crate, "HOW?!"
Izuku on the other hand, after a moment of sheer anger and frustration, understood, "FUCK! All For One had his OWN Warp Quirk! It wasn't as good as Kurogiri's in some respects but in others, it was better." Toshinori nodded, and explained that they all started vomiting what looked like black water before vanishing into it. The same thing that happened in Kamino.
Edgeshot tried to be calm, but it was difficult with the sheer frustration in the room, "Who?"
Endeavor let out a sigh, "A large number of them do not matter… but Muscular is at large again." Izuku let out a groan, "It gets worse." Endeavor looked like he didn't want to reveal this, but grit his teeth and did so anyway, "One of them was Gigantomachia. He simply vanished, the same as the others."
Stunned, horrified silence struck the room. Mount Lady whimpered and backed into a crate, hugging herself. "Y-You've got to be kidding me!"
Kaina didn't know who that was, so she asked, "I don't know this one." Her voice sounded a lot louder in the stunned silence.
Izuku replied gravely, "Gigantomachia was the monster that singlehandedly destroyed every single city between the Gunga Mountain Villa and Jaku city." His response completely stunned his lover.
"There is one upside, though I hesitate to call it that." Toshinori replied, "Due to the Quirk suppressors on Garaki Kyūdai as well as Aizawa-kun's Erasure during the Raid, there will still not be any more Nōmu. Nor will he be capable of speeding up Shigaraki's development. He finally succumbed to his age in custody when his Quirk was no longer active a hundred percent of the time." They were hesitant on something even approaching celebration regarding someone's death, but the sigh of relief sounded like a harsh wind.
"E-Even despite that…what do we d-do?" Mount Lady's voice trembled as she remembered the giant beast that had tossed her aside like a sack of flour.
Hawks finally spoke up, looking at the ground with no smile on his face at all, "We can keep capturing these Villains all we like. It won't make a difference. All For One's Warp Quirk appears to have no range, or at least not one that matters here in Japan. Probably due to his other "Quirk Boosting" Quirks, unlike the one Garaki used." A somber mood ripped through them as they realized what he was saying, "The Government and the Commission have come to an agreement. Capture is no longer recommended for any escapees. Lethal force has been authorized… and recommended." He finished softly.
But to Izuku… he may as well have screamed it at the top of his lungs.
-]|[-
Well, hope everyone enjoyed this!
All of the Quirks were canon except for the Second (which is unrevealed at this point and I made into Haōshoku Haki because fuck it) and the Third (because fuck Fa Jin).
I'll be perfectly honest, I REALLY wanted to write something closer to this end of canon due to the sheer amount of dissatisfaction I've been feeling over the past… I don't know, fifty or so chapters?
I hate the fucking 'save shigaraki' subplot. My biggest fucking fear is us getting another fucking "Obito is the coolest" moment. I hate that the pace has sped up to a point it barely makes sense because Horikoshi wants to end the series. I hate fucking Fa Jin and it's 'faux 100%' bullshit. It's like Horikoshi is physically incapable of moving past the underdog angle and has to then fucking CHEAT instead of letting him progress naturally. Waste of a fucking Quirk. The fuck use is it going to have once Izuku has mastered 100%?
I hate the fact that so many awesome characters are dying or getting extremely injured while Deus Ex Machina seems to get the Villains off scot free almost every time. I really hated MOST of the Grimderp Izuku arc. I hate the fact that Izuku didn't fucking ROCK Chisaki when he saw him again. I hate the fact that all the bullshit ALWAYS SEEMS TO FUCKING HAPPEN to the female characters! Miruko: Dismembered. Midnight? Dead. Nagant? All but dead. Star (even if she wasn't my favorite waifu-wise)? Sacrificial lamb in order to weaken Shigaraki because Horikoshi realized he made him too fucking powerful. And they don't even have to die either. In the latest chapter, Hatsume explained she would be unable to "perfectly" recreate Izuku's Mid Gauntlets because she didn't have the proper materials. So she gave him a replacement she explicitly said wasn't as good.
MOTHERFUCKING MOMO IS RIGHT THERE. HORI, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!
But most of all? I hate that this series which I've been in love with for years has been turning out what feels like L after L for over a year. We have little moments of awesome like Izuku vs Nagant, and then best Raifu gets exploded and Izuku speaks to Chisaki like he's a fucking civilized person and not a mass-murdering cunt waffle. It just keeps reminding me how much I fucking hated the end of Naruto because of the fucking Ninja Jesus bullshit.
I love Izuku and his idealism, but straight up, the moments where Izuku's rage escaped, and he became feral in his fights were some of my favorites in the entire series. He spent over a fucking DECADE getting mistreated, and I love that the series didn't shy away from hinting at some bits of hidden darkness despite the idealism. The Sports Festival Fight against Todoroki was one of my favorites. It was fantastic. And everything in the Izuku vs Shigaraki fight prior to the mindscape dive had me fucking salivating for more. And now this fucking Shigaraki bullshit?
Fuck this fucking recentish Shōnen trend of fucking saving Villains. The only saving Shigaraki deserves is being fucking put to rest. And if Izuku LOSES One For All after we were promised at the beginning that this was his story about becoming the greatest Hero, I swear to fucking god I'm never picking up another incomplete shōnen ever again.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk
…
Anyway, sorry guys, no lemon in this one. I really don't feel like I'm that good at writing them, and I frankly wasn't in the mood for it anyway. Just wanted to get this one out there. Lemons happen easy in my brain, but it's like I have a mental block getting those scenes to my fingers.
Regardless, I'm not really sure if I want to keep this strictly Izuku/Raifu, or if I want to branch out a bit. Kinda open ended at the moment. If I do make it a harem (which… I mean, kinda my brand at this point, LOL), it'll be Fuyumi, Star and Stripe (Though she'll look more like Captain Mizuki from One Punch Man. Canon Star was WAY too Bricc for me.), Ochako, and Momo.
