"A good first day." Rikiya Yotsubashi, the leader of the JTO, said with a polite smile, while offering Kiruka a glass of champagne. The VIP Lounge was still quite crowded, despite the tournament having ended for a while. Not unexpected, given that many of the people here were rich individuals from other worlds that were enjoying the experience of meeting either alternate version of themselves or alternate version of people they knew almost as much as they were the betting.
"I suppose it was." She replied in the same vein. In reality, she didn't agree. She didn't have anything against fighting sports, but the Arenaverse tournaments went all out. They had even had a few people show up with guns loaded with rubber bullets, the logic being that they were simply proving their own strength.
She didn't really understand the mentality of this world. While strength of arms was considered the most important, they were just happy to watch people fight, no matter the weapon or abilities they used. Using Quirks, shooting guns, or throwing around magic spells were considered one and the same.
'Well I guess in a sense they are…' She thought, shaking her head. Maybe it was coming from a Quirk world that made it so weird. She just hoped the other Wanderers that arrived at the Arena were having an easier time.
-x-
"So, you are my distant successor." Hikage Shinomori said.
Izuku nodded excitedly, and he felt something stir inside One for All. He wondered if the Vestige of Hikage Shinomori could feel the other version of itself. He had certainly felt One for All when he had come close enough to Shinomori, and the man had done the same. "That is correct." He finally answered.
"Amazing." Shinomori smiled, the man observing the Nineth. "I really wish to know more about you. Did you defeat All for One?"
"It's… an ongoing effort." Izuku replied sheepishly, not knowing how else to put it. Epsi chuckled on his wrist, but what else could he say? There wasn't an easy way to tell someone that it was taking generations after their own passing to defeat their worst enemy.
Shinomori just nodded though. "I see. I hoped that it would prove a faster success, but I suppose there is a reason we fight." He looked at him, "I hope you will be the last to face him, and not for failure."
Izuku nodded back. "Thank you. I hope you can succeed too. But… Can I ask you why you are here?"
"Why, of course. You see, it's because of you. Or well, him." He pointed to a tv screen, one of the many that dotted the corridors of the arena they were walking through while heading outside. On it, the other Izuku – one of the four Izuku had met or seen in this world the announcer of the tournament – was giving a review of the first impressions on the various fighter. He was clearly excited, and Deku admitted that he seemed far more relaxed in public than the Hero in Training was. Sort of a necessity, he supposed. "He came around offering training for One for All. Given I have opted to cultivate the power rather than wield it to not attract All for One's attention until I grow stronger or find a successor, it seemed a good idea."
It was, Izuku could only agree since he was doing the same. Not only that, but maybe it would allow Shinomori to pass down knowledge about the Multiverse to his successors, if he had Teleport within One for All. He didn't ask yet, though. Instead, he raised the question.
"Would you help me train Danger Sense?" He asked.
"It would be my pleasure." Shinomori smiled, "The existence of the Vestiges within One for All is a surprise, but knowing that even in death I – no, we – can help our successors is a comforting thought. I will gladly help you." He yawned, "But not today, if you don't mind. It's rather late, and we have a long tournament ahead."
"You think I can win?"
"I don't know." The man chuckled at Izuku's astonished expression, "What else can I say? I don't know if you can, in a world like this where anything is possible." He smiled, "I certainly hope you do though, Nineth."
Izuku smiled, and extended his hand, "Just call me Deku. I would say Izuku, but there are a lot around."
Shinomori smiled back and took the hand, "Very well Deku. I'm Hikage then. Let's work together to become stronger." As they exited the arena, Hikage smiled, "I shall see you tomorrow. Let's meet at the training grounds." And with that he walked away, marching not towards Heights Alliance Hotel but outside. He must have had a different place to train at.
Izuku smiled, finally feeling the tiredness for the long night took over. With a yawn, he turned around to his room.
That had certainly been an interesting day.
-x-
Isaac sat down with a tired sigh, enjoying the Coffee Zuzu-9-Delta had provided him when he had entered the room. With a tired sigh he glanced at the clock. Eight in the morning. He had spent quite a long time jumping from one Universe to the next, and even if he was well trained at it, there wasn't a way to make it feel less tiresome. Using Guide was safe, but it made jumps extremely tiring. Still, it had given him what he needed, even if not what he hoped to find.
Three people gone in three different universes, all three One for All wielders, one killed and two disappeared. A very problematic track record, and not just because those people were in danger. He – no, the League – was in charge of their safety, and now three of them were gone, and from what Zuzu-9-Beta had showed him the moment he had entered the room, there were five total people missing from this one. Less than they feared, more than they hoped.
Camie Utsushimi was the obvious outlier. She was an illusion user, and a skilled one, but she wasn't a One for All user.
This was bad. One or two could be a coincidence, but eight lost Wanderers? That was a trend, and one he didn't want to see continue.
Zuzu-9-Gamma had already readied accommodations for all the people they wanted to send to the Star Tower, but that wasn't a permanent solution. The only way was to figure out how their hunter or hunters were doing this.
He stared at the other people sitting at the table. Once upon a time, they would have had the ability to bring together the entire League, but it had been a long time since all ten founders had come together at the same time. With two of them dead, Richard Satter busy with his search deep in the Multiverse, Kiruka looking after the Tournament, and Itsuka still in the Swordverse, only him and four other Founders, half of them, were left to man the fort.
Uraraka and Mariah, of course, both resided in this world. Mariah had sealed away Teleport and Guide within All for One, capable of using them in conjunction with magic if needed but rarely doing so, and Uraraka had given away her own a long time ago.
Jiro, whose spaceship, the One for All, was still the highest peak of technology the League had seen, and yet was frustratingly hard to study.
And finally Mel, who was here by sheer luck: the fact she decided to come back a bit earlier than usual from her home universe was quite convenient.
A few other people had been invited of course. Shoto Todoroki from the Crimeverse, Izuku Midoriya from the Suitverse, Himiko Hatsume from the Shambleverse, Melissa Shield from the Shieldverse. The first was here because of his involvement with the attack on Yu Takeyama from the Giantverse, Power Suit was an expert in tech and his insight could be useful, Hatsume was the same, and Melissa… He frowned, but glancing at Uraraka he realized she had been the one that invited her. He wasn't quite sure why, but decided to not ask questions. This wasn't a secret meeting anyway, and Zuzu-9-Delta would record it either way.
"So, what do we make of this?" He asked, his hands set on the table.
"Someone knows about the League and isn't happy. Someone with the ability to travel the Multiverse, clearly." Jiro started, "As for who this is, we all agree I suppose that it's hard to say."
"Well thank you for stating the obvious." Mel replied with an acid tone, waving her hand, "Can we also get something worth knowing?"
"Actually yes, Mel, we can." Jiro replied with a forced smile, "Here, read my report on my latest visit to the Cloneverse."
Isaac grimaced, realizing what she meant, but Mel didn't know yet. She grabbed the document and started going through it, before gasping. "What do you mean 'dead'?!"
"What I wrote there. It's gone. The Cloneverse is completely empty. Bubaigawara must have died at some point in the past two months."
"Jin was always wary of the League." Isaac interjected, "we had agreed to leave him and his people alone, so we wouldn't have known either way."
"What is the Cloneverse?" Lissa asked, her question stopping the conversation. Everyone turned towards her and she yelped, "Uhm, I just figured that we four wouldn't know since we aren't Patrollers…" She looked at Hatsume and Todoroki.
"You are right. Well, to explain, the Cloneverse is a universe that was ravaged by a terrible illness. I believe it's a Quirk version of the AIverse, though that theory is difficult to prove. Either way, in the chaos of humanity's extinction, a clone of a man named Jin Bubaigawara ingested One for All. As it turns out, in that specific universe that ended up powering the clone so that it could survive on its own. And being a clone that wasn't quite human, he turned out to be immune to the virus." Isaac shook his head, "To cut a long story short, he created a bunch of clones of himself and anyone he knew to repopulate the world, and he was basically making them survive by passing One for All from clone to clone when the weight of the Quirk became too much for a body to sustain."
"Couldn't he have just mistaken the time of transferring?" Shoto asked.
"After a century and a half? He was good at it. And if he wasn't able to sustain it, he'd have the time to ask for help at least." Mariah grimaced, "No, this is the result of our dear 'friend' too."
"We are making a lot of assumptions." Mel warned the others, "We don't even know if all the murders and disappearances are connected."
Power Suit nodded, the tall Izuku speaking for the first time, "We can't assume every incident across the Multiverse was caused by our mysterious One for All hunter. Even in this universe there is an outlier that might very well be an ill-timed coincidence."
Isaac winced. He was right of course. No point in arguing over what might be, what they needed was a lead. He looked at Mariah, who shook her head. "It's too soon for the Police to have anything solid."
"Do you have a suspect?"
"Yuu Bakugo of course, the One for All user from this world. But that was only true for the first murder. She shouldn't be able to jump from one universe to another, because I have Teleport and Guide." Mariah gripped the closed fist with her other hand, "But that's just one person. We can't figure out who this is by assuming they come from this universe."
"Then we go after the leak." Uraraka pointed out.
"And how should we do that?"
"We ask him." Uraraka pulled out a stack of papers, "We made a mistake and got complacent about security."
Isaac looked at the name on the cover of the ten pages long document. Teruo Tokuda. "The journalist? He never had much to show for all his effort in 'researching' the League. He had a lot of pictures of us, you and Mariah, but that was it."
"That's the problem. I thought so too, so I didn't even bother to check his new material."
Isaac opened it, and immediately realized what she meant. The picture on the first page was that of Gran Cure's house, detailing the purchase chain that led back to Mariah. Back to the League.
Another page, another name. And another. And another. So on for half the pages. The other half thankfully were pictures of Patrollers – not so thankfully, actually, but still better than the alternative.
"How many?" Isaac asked, "And for how long."
"I don't know. I sent a mail asking him if he could send back a copy of his findings, making it sound like we were planning to give him some information and go public. He sent those ten pages but this morning he had a stack of forty or so, and hinted there are more."
Mel slammed her hand on the table, "That's absurd! We keep our contact with the Wanderers of this universe at a minimum exactly because we want to avoid unwanted attention to fall on them."
"And yet it did, which is what we need to focus on." Isaac said, "Did you ask him anything else?"
"I set up a meeting, I will go tomorrow."
"Alone?" Jiro asked, and everyone tensed. The question was obvious: would she be safe?
"I can accompany her." Shoto and Power Suit offered at the same time, before looking at each other in surprise.
"Both then." Jiro replied, "It's probably a good idea anyway. Todoroki has his Quirk and Power Suit his arm, they can take care of ensuring you stay safe."
"I'd like to say it's not necessary, but I won't argue." Uraraka replied, "Now we need to talk about Kiruka though. If this enemy is really targeting One for All, she is in the worst place. The Arenaverse always has a number of One for All users."
"There is a place like that?!" Shoto asked, almost jumping up from his chair.
"There is, yes." Isaac nodded, "Not a nice place, in my opinion."
"Yeah because they run things against your way to do it…" Mariah coughed, "But yes, the Arenaverse is a world whose culture is centered around fighting competitions, and some of those get even Multiversal fighters. Kiruka Yagi, one of us Founders, is there to ensure the people that get there then can go home, or failing that take them here."
Isaac nodded, "It's an important job, but if we really are dealing with someone going after One for All, Uraraka is right, she might catch unwanted attention."
"What about Izuku?" Shoto asked, before catching the questioning look half the table sent him, "Oh, I meant Deku. The one I arrived with?"
"He is safe with Izzzuku." Isaac smiled, "Let's focus on our issue. We might be overreacting, but we need to tell Kiruka, so I'll go quickly to inform her. If we are lucky, there is nothing to worry about. Everyone else will work on either reinforcing the Headquarters or inform our Patrollers. Hopefully this is just another Jack the Ripper."
"You met Jack the Ripper?" Shoto asked, surprised.
"Jack Midoriya, from UK-011, the Chapelverse. Not someone I suggest meeting."
"Of fucking course All for Deku was also Jack the Ripper."
"A Multiversal Jack the Ripper that liked to kill other versions of himself for fun." Isaac clarified, "We defeated him though. And will win here too."
Shoto nodded, and everyone else around the table nodded. Even Hatsume, who had been tinkering with some piece of metal for the entire discussion, raised a thumb up, and started talking with Power Suit about what he wanted to bet were extra defenses for the headquarters.
This was an emergency. There was no other way to describe it. The truth was, the League was in a bad shape, worse than the other Founders realized. Only him, Mariah and Mel knew, but they had already started to cut spending where they could. There was a reason most of the training rooms only had the most basic of items, even if Mariah had masked them selling their old high tech training material as her being fed up with having to replace it when someone broke it, arguing they didn't need anything too 'fancy'.
They had made one hundred thousand Pounds from it all, and what they had gained from it had only sustained the League for two months. The treasure of the dragon they had beaten so long ago was there, but using it too much at once would make people question where they got so much of it, and if the fact gold was endless came to light, they would crash the market.
Midorikawa had been their savior for so long, but now he was dead, and Kota, his successor, while wanting to help had no way to do that with the same freedom his predecessor had. Being the leader of one of the largest tech companies in his world came with having to deal with a swarm of people that wanted nothing more than to look through the way the companies money were spent. Midorikawa had funneled millions to the League, but he was an established administrator. Kota… he was new. The board of directors didn't trust him, certainly not enough to not question him spending the same amount unchecked.
Maybe the League would pull through once Kota managed to hold a firmer control over the company. Until then, it was working with what they had.
That wouldn't stop him. Wouldn't stop them from doing the right thing. He was Star Might, the heir of All Might, Isaac Midoriya.
He wasn't going to fail to defend someone.
-x-
The early hours of the following day made Izuku feel excited. Deku stretched his arms, and thought at all that he had seen so far.
A version of him was Captain America.
A version of him was a tournament announcer.
A version of him was a shapeshifting sheep.
A version of him was, apparently, some sort of super soldier in their own right. He hadn't actually seen that fight, but according to Izumi and Huanli's comments it had been vicious.
"Good morning, Mister Izuku." Epsi trilled, and he looked down. The figure behind the screen smiled and waved.
"Good morning Epsi. You seem happy today."
"Excited, more like. It's… fun to think I can fight with you. I don't know how much I can accomplish, but I will do my best to support you." She smiled, "Still, you are the one that will do most of the work. How do you feel?"
Izuku didn't know, really. He had been skeptic at first, but what he had seen yesterday had changed his mind a lot on whether this was necessary. The Arena was proving to him that he was a small fish in a very, very large pond. He didn't know how strong All for Deku and Alien King were, but he wasn't going to let them win. And to accomplish that, he needed to train.
With that in mind, he started preparing. T-shirt and pants, and he rushed out of the room. He didn't find Huanli or Izumi waiting for him, surprisingly. And now that he thought about it, Izzzuku had been gone since the day before.
"He is probably investigating." Epsi explained when Izuku asked about it, "It's nothing unusual for him. He is an Izuku, and like all of us he tends to be curious. The Tournament is a great chance to find out more about the Multiverse."
'And a great way to find out if there is someone that can kill him.' Izuku thought, though he didn't say it. It wasn't right, of course. Izzzuku had also helped him, going out of his way to talk with both Captain Kamino and Argali. But Deku couldn't shake the idea that part of the reason was that he was looking for that way to be incarnated and die he wished for, or that violent death the other people inside him wished for.
He winced. Maybe thinking about his friend dying wasn't a good way to start the day.
Oddly enough, he felt a little light-headed that day. He chalked it up to the excitement, really. Once the tension for the match drew closer, he would feel better. Technically the stakes weren't that high – only recruiting Fuyumi, really – but he had also to think about the Battlemaster. He had seemed very curious to face him, and Izuku had the feeling disappointing him wasn't advisable.
Izuku put down the tray once he had finished his breakfast and finally headed for the training grounds, running a bit to warm himself up. The summer sun was shining down on him, and it was a bit of a backlash from the winter that was just ending in his world, the autumn of the Kingdom of Colfire, and then the varied climates of the Multiverse.
With a sigh to kick away the thought of home, he looked at the training field in surprise. It was normal to have a few people around them, but there was a rather large crowd surrounding one of them. From the cheering he could hear, the fight there was rather exciting.
Izuku thought a moment, then pushed through to get a view of the fight. The moment he made it outside, he finally saw what was so interesting.
On one side of the field was Chojuro Kon. Deku was fairly sure he was the same Chimera that had talked back to Huanli the day before. To confirm this, a look around made him spot Huanli, the martial artist's eyes fixed on the fight.
The other one, however, caught his attention more.
He was pale, and when he said that Izuku didn't mean pale like the other Izuku's pictures he had seen. That one, while pale, clearly had a circulation still. No, this one looked like he wasn't quite right, a pale skin that made him look dead or on the verge of losing consciousness.
He wielded an axe, though it looked like it was a training weapon, not, most likely, his usual. Izuku could tell by the fact that Chojuro blocked the incoming blow by planting both hands on the axe, something that would have most likely resulted in at least some blood pouring from his limbs if the weapon had an edge of any kind.
Instead, he was sent flying back. There was a sickening crunch, and for a second Izuku thought he had just watched a murder, before he realized that the crunch hadn't come from Chojuro, who just stood back up. Instead, he saw the arm of the Izuku had broken from the force he had put in the blow. The man didn't seem to care all that much, and just pushed the bone in place with an annoyed look, before sighing. "I give." He said.
The crowd clapped politely, and most of them started to leave. As they did, the man's eyes focused on him. "Oh god there is another one…" He muttered just loud enough to be heard, before jumping down next to Chojuro, who grinned.
"Guess that's a win for me."
"Only because this isn't my axe. Dulled or not, with that one I would have won." The other Izuku replied with a somewhat raspy voice.
Chojuro smiled, then laughed, "Well then, I guess I can be happy it wasn't. You owe me a cigar, zombie." He added, and the other Izuku – Zombie, he supposed – handed him a few banknotes, before sighing.
Izuku considered walking up to him and talking him about his issues, but it didn't seem the right time. Zombie was busy talking to Chojuro, and had a match to prepare for. Deku could wait until after his turn either way.
With that in mind, Izuku left the field and looked around. Sure enough, he spotted Shinomori doing the same, arriving to the training grounds. Izuku smiled.
Yes, this journey was definitely worth it.
-x-
Canary sighed. He loved his Quirk, truly. It given him hope once again that he could be a Hero. Had helped him push through his shyness. If it wasn't for it, he knew, his life would have been far different. Maybe not sad. Maybe not terrible. But different, and he could never imagine it being better.
But, as he scratched Siren's throat. The female canary tweeting happily at the gesture, he couldn't help but wish he didn't have to explain it.
"So what happens if you sing Starboy by The Weeknd?"
"I don't knoooow…" He grumbled.
Spidey was a fun guy. Smart too, and curious as one would expect from someone whose power's origin was a mystery. But why was he so insistent to know what each song could do?
"Want to try now?"
Canary sighed. "Look, Spidey, I know it's a fun Quirk, but it doesn't really work like that, or I would have found out I had it years before I did. I can't just sing a song and hope it will do something."
"You can't?"
"Nope. There are requirements. I already explained I have to like a song…"
"Yes, and you admitted not liking rap much. It's why I switched to other genres." He said, but Canary raised his finger.
"It's not just that. That is merely the trigger, so to speak. The real requirement is visualization. If I sing Merry Christmas, or Happy Birthday, nothing happens, because those songs don't make me visualize anything. All my Quirk does in those cases is making the people within earshot feel a certain emotion, usually happiness. It's nice, excellent if I need to calm down civilians during a villain attack, but you won't get anything interesting from it."
Spider-Man sighed. "Alright, I understand. Sorry, I guess I went a bit far. It's just… Your Quirk is amazing. Such a multifaceted power is rare to come by. I guess the Number One American Hero has something like it, but aside from that… Maybe Manga Fukidashi?"
"Manga's Quirk is what I usually compare it to, yes. Living Melody is good, but unless I use my absolute best Stars and Stripes would have wiped the floor with me." He paused, "Maybe she would with my best too, is not like we ever met before she..." He cringed. Yeah, not something to bring up, "Anyway, what I mean is that just throwing a song at me and asking what it does won't work. I have to listen to it, see if I can consistently visualize a proper effect, and only then it will work. Sometimes it easy. It doesn't take a genius to set fire to the rain by singing Set Fire to the Rain. But most songs aren't that direct."
Spider-Man nodded, and Canary sighed in relief. He could tell the other Izuku's mind was racing, trying to come up with more questions about his Quirk, and a small part of his mind was questioning if this was just being on the other side of the barricade. It wasn't like he didn't ask any question about powers while around the Multiverse.
Before they could speak further, though, Itsuka and Ojiro walked in the room. "Any news?"
"Still not moving." Spider-Man instantly replied, "I think this is it."
"Either he found their base or he is dead." Itsuka agreed, "It will be twenty-four hours in ten. I will tell the Prince."
Ojiro grimaced, "I hoped to learn more, we have barely started. I understood the basics of the basics, but the rest…"
"You will have to do with this. And anyway, this is just the beginning. Hawks could fly, but unless Canary knows a song to make us just fly or teleport there, we are going to go by horseback. It's a six days ride, maybe seven. You'll have time to study on the road. I understand Urane has prepared a magic item to contact us, so you won't have to do so on your own either."
"And after that we will have to fight." The Green Scar added, "You will get to not only learn, but also test what you will learn. The same goes for Dekiru and Itsumi."
Canary glanced at Dekiru. It was true for the Fusion Hero too. He had less experience than Itsumi, in terms of being a Hero, so he needed as much training as possible. They would have only a few days to train.
He looked up at Siren, who chirped again. "Right." He whispered, "We'll make it through. Together."
The canary moved her head, and Izuku had no trouble thinking she agreed.
-x-
Hawks stood up as the door opened. The man that entered was none other than Lord Arkin, currently the most wanted man in Colfire. Behind him stood an elf dressed elegantly, and it didn't take a genius to know who he was. The freckles and green hair were universal, from what he had seen at his meeting with those League for All members.
"Can't say the welcome has been what I hoped for." He admitted with a smile. Truly, not what he had wanted. He had hoped Arkin would buy his lie right away, but it seemed the fallen noble wasn't completely dumb. He had thanked him for bringing back the Bell Witch, then brought him to another room and promptly locked him inside. Of course, Hawks could have broken out in minutes, but that would be against the plan to retrieve One for All and Kai.
"I'm sorry to admit I have reasons to doubt your. While your service in bringing back the Bell Witch was instrumental, I'm afraid I can't let you just join us without my exam."
Hawks nodded, and glanced at the elf-looking Izuku. He was probably the one that would read his mind, unless Arkin had been brutally underestimated by Urane and knew magic he shouldn't have from what she had seen him use.
"Izmird, examine his head. Any thought of attacking me, and we are through."
Hawks nodded casually, even if he knew this was gonna be hard to hide what the plan was. Still, worse case scenario he at least forced Arkin to change battlefield. For safety, he sent a feather with a camera to hide in a corner, all the way at the entrance of their main building. If he was killed, at least the others would know where to start searching.
Izmird stepped forward, and Hawks nodded. Privately, he tried to build a barrier, using what he had learned of magic to protect his real thoughts from the assault.
It broke apart immediately. The man basically stomped through his mind, taking any information he needed and leaving Hawks with no defenses.
Then, he stepped out, and bowed. Hawks was ready to fight, considering the elf had found out everything, but the humanoid just smiled.
"Well?" Arkin asked, and Hawks gripped one of his feathers tighter.
"He does not wish to harm you." Izmird finally said, "That much is clear."
Arkin smiled, and Hawks stared at Izmird. The elf had just lied. How could he do that? And why was he doing that? If he was found out, it wouldn't be pretty, but this Izmird shouldn't have cared.
It wasn't like he could ask, so he didn't. But the look Izmird sent him was one of curiosity and, Hawks shivered at that, focused attention. He knew, that much was clear. And suddenly Hawks felt like something else, something bigger was afoot here. His instincts were telling him that this guy was trouble. But right now, the Pro had a job. Retrieve One for All and Chisaki Kai. Possibly inherit the former.
And he would do so no matter the risks.
(xx)
Crossover characters:
Power Suit from Rejected Stones by FullParagon;
Dekiru from Dekiru the Fusion Hero by | Omega Infinity |;
The Green Scar from The Green Scar worldbuilding thread by Quantum01 and The Green Scar fanfic by Pro-man;
Spider-Man from Amazing Fantasy by The Infamous Man
Canary from Canary by cloud_nine_and_three_quarters
Sort of an in-between chapter to mark our passage from the first to the second day of the Tournament, with the match of Izuku, Huanli and a few others. We also get a glimpse of the final Izuku of the tournament, the so-called Zombie. Just a first impression, of course.
Meanwhile, the League is organizing and trying to figure out who is behind what seems to be a bigger conspiracy. We can only wait and see.