The so-called New Masquerade was being held in a large facility that had likely been an underground parking lot on the edge of Tottori once, but apparently, that was in the past. Now, the place had been not only modified, but also enlarged – likely using a burrowing Quirk of some kind – to include changing rooms for the athletes, a resting area for the wounded and not one, but several cages for the fight, a large central one and a few smaller on the sides.

'They probably have a lot of skilled Quirk users to do all this.' He thought, 'Someone that can either resize or easily carry the cages, someone that can burrow into the ground, and since we couldn't hear anything outside there must be some sound dampening Quirk in effect… It's a lot of work, so this must be profitable.' He thought. He was fairly sure this time they could afford to slip some information on the place back to the Police, since it could be an anonymous tip from anyone in the crowd.

And it was quite the crowd at that. There had to be at least a few hundred people, all masked in ways that made it impossible to recognize someone. Although, some people had Quirks that made their body stand out.

Izuku followed the man that was directing him toward one of the side rings. As he did, he suddenly bumped into a man with a white cloak and a bird mask. He stumbled back, and the other man did the same.

Izuku looked up to see two guns, a knife and a long braid of hair shaped like an arrow aimed squarely at his face. He gulped, glad he had his gasmask. It covered the nose, and mouth and had extensible goggles that could be moved to cover the eyes, and right now they were on. As a result, Izuku should have been a bit less unreadable.

"You want to fuck with us kid?! Looking for trouble with the Hassikai?!" A puppet-like man… no, the large, muscular arm emerging from the body seemed to indicate it was actually a puppet. Probably some sort of possession Quirk, they were rare but existed.

"Sorry! Sorry! I was just distracted!"

"Nemoto. Mimic. Let's not cause a scene." The man standing behind the one he had bumped into said. He was tall, with golden eyes and black hair that seemed to be analyzing Izuku deeply and clinically. "You are a fighter?"

"Y-Yes." Izuku said, pushing himself back up the moment the two guns retreated back to the pockets of their owners.

"You don't look like much of one." He said, matter-of-factly, "At least not like one of the habitues."

"I…"

"Akatani!" Hado suddenly appeared next to him, sprouting from the crowd, "Come on, your fight is about to start!"

"Yes!" He stood up, and bowed, "Uhm, sorry again…"

The two that had aimed their guns at him snickered, and the one with blonde hair ad the knife actually chuckled, but the one Izuku assumed to be the leader just kept looking at him for a long moment, before shaking his head. "It's fine. Just leave."

Izuku nodded and rushed off with Hado, reaching the cage. It was one of the smaller ones, of course. The guy that had been accompanying him shook his head, whispering something about 'newbies', and Izuku walked in. Him and Hado exchanged a glance, nodding. This was where they went their separate way.

Facing him was a tall man with broad shoulders, wearing a red bandana and a pair of sunglasses. Izuku breathed in and activated the Replica Orgue. He couldn't use his other weapons, but the Orgue was clearly a Quirk to anyone unaware of Quirks. He activated it in an instant, the Piercer extending into a trident. There were several surprised shouts from the crowd.

"Ooooh, and Akatani starts first with his Quirk, Orgue! He has a good power, but is he also skilled enough to face Yashamaru?!"

His opponent took position and a pair of short horns appeared on his forehead, while his muscles swelled up a bit. Some mild strength enhancement, then. Izuku took a deep breath and rushed forward.

He still had never touched Hado in training, so he wasn't completely sure of how they fight would go, until Yashamaru punched. His fist was quick, but not nearly as fast as Hado was when evading. Izuku easily dove to the side, rotated the trident and slammed the butt of the weapon in Yashamaru's stomach. Without stopping, he led the weapon upward, the stick slamming against the chin of the main, finishing with a final follow-up in the form of a vertical downward attack that slammed on Yashamaru's cranium and slammed the man in.

Izuku stared at him for a long moment, unmoving on the floor.

'… Eh?' Izuku blinked.

"We have a winner!" The announcer declared excitedly, stepping in the middle of the cage and draggin Izuku close, the Orgue retreating back toward the bracelet. "Damn kid, was that luck or skill? Eh, who cares, keep it up."

Izuku nodded. No, this wasn't it. According to the Aliens, the pathogen was transmitted in a few ways, touch and fluids – especially blood and saliva – being the chief ones. But no one around, including people like the announcer that would have interacted often with him, seemed affected by the sense of loyalty it should have created.

That was the theory at least. They didn't have any way to test someone, so he had to do what he could. He was accompanied out of the ring, sat down, and sighed, then looked at the Orgue on his wrist. 'I defeated him so easily…' He thought, confused. Sure, the other guy likely wasn't a strong fighter himself, but… Well, he hadn't expected to win so easily.

He shook his head. It probably wouldn't last, anyway.

-x-

"And the winner is Akatani!" The announcer shouted the moment Varanus collapsed to the ground, his hunched form sprawled on the field. Izuku panted again, eyes wide. That was three fights in a row he had won! What was going on?!

Izuku panted, and the announcer grabbed him by the shoulder again. "Kid, I don't know where you learned to fight, but you are doing great, keep it up. Go take some time off, grab your wins and get ready, we are moving you up a tier."

Izuku gulped, but nodded and was quickly pushed out, two other fighters stepping out. Several people slapped his back, thanking him for their wins, and by the time he had made it away from the ring entirely, he had a drink in hand – he wasn't sure if it was a soft drink or an alcoholic one until he took a sip and felt his mouth burn. Nope, alcoholic.

He was pondering where to dump it discreetly, when someone else put an arm around his shoulder. He turned to see a girl, though he could only tell due to her physique, considering she had her black hoodie pulled up and a white mask covering her face, with only two opening for her eyes – both covered by mirror lenses – and what looked to be a respirator of some kind covering her nose and mouth.

"Great work out there, greenie!" She said with a wink, "Hair color match for the win."

"Hair color match?"

She chuckled and moved her hand in her hoodie, pulling out a strand of dark green hair, "Hair color match, greenie." She nodded.

"Ah, I see…" Izuku nodded, and made to leave, but she didn't let go, "Uhm, can I… Help you?"

"Nah. I was just curious. Have you been doing this for long?"

"I started today, actually…"

"Mmmh…" She tilted her head, "Then can I give you a suggestion?"

"Sure, I…"

"Leave." She said.

"What?"

"Leave this place, now." She said, patting his back, her tone suddenly serious.

"But…"

"No buts, Greenie. I like you already, I wouldn't want you to get hurt." She said.

"I… Can't, yet."

The girl made to say something else, when a different figure came forward and put a pitch-black hand on her shoulder. The hooded figure was at least two meters tall, and had a canine face covered by a muzzle mask that extended to cover his face. "Miss. I found something." The man said in a deep, almost growling voice. For some reason, Izuku found it… strangely familiar, like he should have known who this person was.

"Awww, but I had just found something interesting too." She shook her head with a sigh, "Welp, I have to bounce, Greenie. You heard me though, right? Bounce fast."

"Miss…" The growl became deeper.

"Yup, yup, we gotta go too. Sorry, he is a bit of stickler for rules." She stepped off, moving next to the giant, and the two walked off. He managed to follow them for a bit with his eyes, but eventually they moved far enough they disappeared in the crowd despite the other man's height.

Izuku shook his head, and only then did he notice his drink had disappeared from his hand. In a panic, he checked for his phone, and found it along with a note someone had slipped in his pocket. "Eyes on the hands, Greenie." He read.

'What?' He thought, before shaking his head. He didn't really have the time to do this. He pulled out his phone. "Hado?" He said the moment someone picked up, "I think we need to accelerate."

"Really? Did something happen?"

"I'm not… sure." He admitted, "Just a bad feeling about this. Did you find something?"

"Maybe." Hado replied, "I asked around, and there is a fighter that has been… weird, recently."

"Weird how?"

"Just a lot more violent. Well, he was always violent, but he went from 'beating his opponent in the match' to 'keep pummeling until they are bodily dragged away by three people'." She replied.

"Sounds promising. Who is he?"

"A guy that goes by…" She sighed, "Parappa the Rapper…"

Izuku snorted, "Parappa the Rapper?"

"Yeah. He is having a match soon in the central cage, so…"

"Got it, I will be there." He replied, hanging up. If he was more violent, it likely wasn't a host, but even if he was just a sub-host, this Rapper should have known who the real host was. Assuming they were right and weren't just wasting time.

He started to walk, when someone grabbed his arm. "There you are!" One of the Masquerade's employee said, dragging him in another direction, "Come on, your next match is up."

"But I thought I had more free time!"

"Orders from above. Sorry kid, you had a good career."

"What?!"

Izuku got almost bodily shoved in the ring. It was larger than his first one, though not the central one. He took a deep breath, as his opponent entered the arena.

"Alright, let's get pumped up!" The teenager said. He had to be around Izuku's age. He could hardly tell since the teen also wore a mask that covered his face, leaving only his black hair, trained physique and general demeanor to identify him as such, but it was enough.

"We have a real special fight this time! On one side, the newcomer that has been winning his way up in no time, the mysterious Akatani!" The crowd cheered, though he noticed not as much as they had done earlier, "And on the other, he is the Masquerade's Shield! The Fifth Son, Riotbreaker!"

The teen roared as the crowd cheered loudly, and then his skin seemed to turn stiff, almost like a rock. "That's such a cool Quirk!" Izuku said, activating the Orgue.

Riotbreaker seemed surprised by the reaction. "Thank you." He finally said, "Your weapon is manly too." He said, and dashed forward.

Izuku was almost too stunned to block the fist, but recovered in time, putting the pole of his weapon in the way, the impact ringing out and pushing him back a few steps. "W-Weapon?" He asked, before bringing up the butt of his polearm into Riot Breaker's chest. He was really thankful he had sparred with Hado so much, because his partner was a chatter box outside of the missions, and he was used to opponents fighting and talking.

"Come on, don't try to 'it's my Quirk' me." Riotbreaker replied, barely losing a step before he recovered his footing and pushed forward, "You know, if it's yours, we would pay some good money for it. Are you an Industrian kid that arrived recently, or are you a Half that got it from his parents?"

Izuku panted, doing his best just to block and parry each blow without getting driven into the walls of the cage. This guy knew about the Orgue, clearly. By itself, that didn't mean anything dangerous. A lot of Aliens lived on Earth, and even more Half-Aliens. But the fact he was so brazen about it was what caught Izuku's attention.

"Sorry, it's not for sale." He replied, switching form from the Piercer to the Slasher and bringing it flat upward. The sudden change sent the Orgue slamming against Riotbreaker's jaw, his teeth slamming together and his mask cracking at the bottom, exposing more metal around his chin. Izuku pushed forward, but Riotbreaker in response grabbed him by the seems of his clothes and pushed him down to the ground. Izuku had a second to realize what was happening.

He was almost trapped in the chokehold, but he switched back to the Piercer and managed to jam the polearm right between his neck and his opponent's arm, stopping him from completing the hold… But completely losing his only weapon, something he realized rolling to the side. The result was only halved, as Riotbreaker's free fist hit him on the side of the head rather than on the face. Izuku felt a bell ring in his head at the blow, and knew he couldn't take another, so he did the only possible thing: he put all his strength into trying to unpin himself.

Izuku wasn't a pushover, not after months of training. He wasn't super strong – and likely never would be – and was aware that, between his Quirk and his own physique, Riotbreaker outplayed him. In response, therefore, he used the one advantage he had: his weapon.

Grabbing with both hand at the pole arm, he pushed it, using it as a fulcrum by planting the point in the ground, and using said fulcrum to pull himself to the side. Sure enough, a moment later, him and Riotbreaker were rolling on the ground, the momentum picking up thanks to their own weight as they tried to stop each other from regaining the upper hand.

And then the ground shook, and people started to shout. The chokehold suddenly stopped as Riotbreaker jumped on his feet. "What the…" He murmured, looking to the central ring, where the commotion apparently was. "The heck is that."

Izuku gasped for air and pushed himself back up, looked at the central ring… and froze.

The floating figure of a caped girl without legs stood atop the crushed remains of the central cage, her long green air clearly visible around her face now. And below her, surrounded by screaming spectators running away, stood someone – or… something – over two meters tall, with a long, canine snout open. The man wore nothing but long pants and a tattered black hoodie, that had fallen apart when he had apparently grown larger inside it. And on his head, a long black mane surrounded an exposed brain that made him look utterly inhuman, if his shining yellow eyes with red irises didn't do enough.

"The League…" He heard Riotbreaker whisper, and he noticed something in the eyes he could see behind the lenses of his mask.

Fear.

"You know what's going on?"

"Dammit!" Riotbreaker grimaced, "Why are they here?! Oh, Dad will be furious…"

"You know them?" Izuku asked, but the teen ignored him, rushing out of the cage and directly toward the commotion. Izuku stood up, looked around to make sure no one was focusing on him still, and then rushed after him. Hado was there, after all.

-x-

Making his way through the crowd proved hard, and the moment Izuku reached the area around the central ring, he got grabbed and dragged behind an upturned table that had once been used as a seat to collect the bets on the fights. "Where were you?!" She paused, "And why are you bleeding?!" She added, pointing to his head. Izuku touched his hair and felt a sting that made him pull back. The hand came back red.

"I think… I think it was his fist." He managed to say, looking at the Riotbreaker guy. He was shouting at the floating girl, but she didn't seem to care. She had moved to sit on the broken-down cage.

"We have a territory!" Riotbreaker shouted, "It's not manly to just encroach on us uninvited and by surprise."

"First, I'm a girl. Second…" She smirked, "I don't remember ever agreeing to that. Isn't that right, Hound?"

"We didn't…" The man growled, pulling up a wounded man, a large fighter that could only look short next to the towering opponent. The man punched, but even as the fist connected with the creature face, there was no reaction. "It's this one."

"That's the Rapper." Hado whispered, pointing at him. Izuku gulped. So, they had to… try and get him back? He looked at Hado, the question clear on his face. "We don't know what's going on." She said, shaking her head, "Don't even think about it."

"But the mission…"

"It's not worth dying for." Hado hissed back, "We aren't sure about this whole thing leading anywhere, and you can't fight that thing."

Izuku gulped, "What do you mean?"

"You didn't see it, but it's not like there wasn't a fight. He just kept tanking every blow and then returning them. I don't think we can harm that guy." Hado replied. Izuku looked back up from behind the table. There was no one left but them and the four people in the ring… Wait, four? Shouldn't there have also been an opponent, if the Rapper was fighting?

And that was when 'Hound' exploded. Izuku wasn't exaggerating. A moment he was there, the next he was a bit everywhere around the room, from the floor to the ceiling. Even the eyes of the other two teens went wide at the sight, as the head of 'Hound' rolled on the ground and landed next to the wall.

The man that stepped forward was the same guy that Izuku had seen earlier. He put back a white glove, and shook his head. "Ugh. Filthy." He said, ignoring the murder he had just committed. Instead, he knelt next to the Rapper, a clinical look on her eyes.

For a moment, the green haired girl said nothing, then she started to laugh. "Oh boy, now you have done it!" She shouted.

"You want to fight?!" The short puppet guy shouted, while his boss touched the Rapper. There was a flash, and then the man woke up, all of his wounds healed.

"Me? Nah, I'll pass. You just have to deal with my friend."

Izuku didn't understand. Her friend was in pieces, his head even… Wait, where was the head-

And then the Hound, back in one piece, appeared in a flash, rushing toward the group. The man with the bird mask in response slammed his hand on the ground, and stone spikes emerged, slamming against the Hound's chest. The thing growled, the wounds already recovering, but it was clear the man wasn't planning to defeat him, only to pin him down.

It wouldn't work for long, all of his men could tell as those that had guns started to shoot the thing to little or no avail.

"We need to do something!" Izuku whispered, "They will be killed the moment it gets out of those spikes!"

"I did something already!" Hado hissed back. He was about to ask what, when he heard it. The sound of police sirens echoed through the room.

"You called Kaniyashiki?" Izuku asked.

"Best choice we had."

The first to react was Riotbreaker. Izuku was sure that, for a long moment, he wasn't looking at the girl, but at the giant. Then, he cursed, shouted toward the masked girl, and rushed off, disappearing in the 'backstage', along with any 'workers' the place had left, most likely toward some secret exit. Izuku looked at the girl, and she seemed more hesitant.

"You should leave." She said, looking down at the man with the bird mask, who was creating new spikes to keep the Hound in place.

"So should you." He replied, "In fact, I think you'd have a far harder time getting out of jail, since I'm sure the police won't be short of testimonies saying you attacked first."

She grunted. "We want that guy."

"So do I." The man replied, and Izuku wondered why either of them wanted the underground fighter.

For a long moment, both sides glared at each other, as the sirens came closer and closer, engaged in an unspoken game of chicken.

The girl gave up first, pulling out her phone and typing something. A moment later, a shadow portal opened behind her and another behind Hound, who instantly stopped struggling and just turned around, stepping through.

"It's not over." She promised, and jumped through the portal as well, before both closed behind them.

"Who the fuck where they?!" Mimic, the short puppet guy, shouted.

"No idea, but I suppose we can take him then." Their leader replied, touching the man's shoulder. He exploded, and a second later was back to normal, with no visible injuries. "Nemoto, Kurono, take him. Mimic," He tossed a syringe of something at the man, "Make us an exit."

The man nodded, and Izuku looked at Hado.

"Now?"

"Don't. Their boss held back that Hound by himself. We aren't going to…"

"Oh, by the way." The boss suddenly raised his voice, making both of them freeze, "I don't normally do favors, but the Hassaikai repays debts." He tossed a piece of paper on the ground, "Call this number and mention the New Masquerade, if you need me to pay you back for the help."

"Even though they just called the police." Kurono said.

"It still helped." Setsuno pointed out, "I for one can't wait to get out of here."

The ground shook, and Izuku watched as a new tunnel appeared on the wall. Was that Mimic's Quirk? That looked really useful.

They watched the group walk into the tunnel, and a moment later it closed back, as if it had never existed.

It was the first time in a while that Izuku had felt so useless.

-x-

After that, things calmed down. When Kaniyashiki, her police officers and a few Heroes broke in, they only found Izuku, Hado, and a handful of other customers that had tried to hide instead of fleeing, plus a large number of the wounded fighters that were still recovering in the backrooms. A good chunk of them were Villains, even if only low tier ones.

"… And that would be good, but now the New Masquerade itself will just swap cities and keep going." She said with a sigh, "They will have lost some money, but without taking down this 'Family' you heard about it will be a problem. And now there's also a League…" Kaniyashiki sighed, "At least we know who the Hassaikai is."

She let them sit on her car while she worked on organizing the investigation. Hado took the chance to turn toward him before Izuku could say anything. "I'm sorry."

"… For what?"

"For… this. I couldn't do anything, at all. I couldn't even think of a way around the situation. I just… I just let them get away with it."

Izuku shook his head, "I… I will admit, I'm not happy about it. But you were right. This League, this Family, and the Hassaikai… We couldn't compete alone with all of them."

She looked at him for a moment, and he was sure she was checking if he was serious. Hado was good at reading people. But Izuku was… Well, he was angry for letting them go, but he knew she was right, so he wasn't angry at her. She had made the right choice.

He remembered the very beginning of his training. The ironclad rule of the HASC was that they weren't Heroes. They were fighting to protect a secret so important that letting it escape would mean risking the life of a lot of people. They weren't Heroes, trying to save everyone by defeating Villains. Their job was to protect people in the shadow. They would risk their life for it, but not just for the chance of taking down a Villain that outranked them.

Izuku thought he understood what that meant, but today was the first time he truly realized the difference between a secret agent and a Hero. It was different from his bar brawl. For the first time, he had truly understood what it meant to be with his back against the wall and having to make the choice of letting go a criminal because they weren't a target.

He didn't feel happy about it. But he knew it was the right choice.

He gripped his new weapons, the ones Soga had green lit for him to use. He was starting to get a new appreciation for the weapons the League had given him, for the training he was undergoing. His hand moved to the Orgue. Today he had won three fights, and wasn't sure he would have lasted that long against Riotbreaker had he been fighting hand to hand. He was getting better. 'Who knows, it's been only four months. Maybe one day I will be able to stand up to someone like that Overhaul, without having to sacrifice a possible clue for our safety.' He thought. Even if it felt more like wishful thinking, he could still work towards it.

Izuku took a deep breath, and looked at Hado, who still looked dejected. She knew he idolized Heroes, and was probably worried he considered her a coward, but he didn't. For the first time, he truly understood that this job, this role he had been offered and he had chosen, had limitations.

So no, he couldn't blame Hado. He wouldn't do it.

He smiled at her, and she sighed in relief. "So, what about our next step in the investigation?" He asked, changing argument.

"I guess we will ask that Sato to…" She paused as her telephone buzzed, and she opened it, checking the message. As she did, though, his mind moved back to the events of the day.

What were the League and the Family?

Why did the Hound look so familiar, even if he had never seen him before?

How did the Family know so much about Aliens, and why were they interested in Alien weapons?

Why did the League want that 'Rapper' guy? Were they also after the pathogen, or did they all just happen to run into each other for different reasons?

The questions swirled in his head, as he tried to untangle them.

Then Hado smiled and interrupted, "We have been contacted by two other Agents. They have found our target, and are looking for support against him."

Izuku nodded.

He really hoped they could solve this fast. Following the girl's suggestion and getting out of there was, now more than ever, something Izuku really wanted to do.

(XX)

Izuku has a brush with the horizontal plot. He doesn't like it.

But more seriously, this one is our first look into the MHA meets MiB effect, and how that affected certain characters that we know from canon with negative ways. The Family and the League are mentioned for the first time, and I hope it was an interesting first introduction.
No OCs this chapter, though I wonder if some of those characters are harder to guess :p (Probably not, let's be honest).

Izuku is in an interesting situation here. He is an Agent, so yes, he is quite badass, as shown throughout this chapter, but he is still... Well, human badass. Put him against Overhaul and he turns into fine red mist just like most people would have. As for Hado, she has reasons to be at a disadvantage here. Neither of them can really... well, do anything to solve the situation, except what Hado did: call reinforcement and sacrifice the hint you had been looking for.

And now it's back on the mission for our dear Agents. I'm sure nothing can go wrong there, at least.
Right?