Chapter Two:
It had been difficult to decide if they should leave Hisashi and Yoichi behind or take them along. Their mission was not safe, but clearly neither was this city. All Might had suggested that Izuku stay with the children, but Izuku had threatened to follow All Might if he tried to ditch him. In the end, they'd given Hisashi and Yoichi a burner phone that All Might had purchased off the street, strictly instructed them to stay inside, and barricaded the door.
Izuku had climbed onto All Might's back for the trip. All Might was still much faster than him when using One for All, and time was of the essence.
All Might leapt from building to building in a blur, so fast no one noticed them. He landed in the forest and kept going, jumping from tree top to tree top. His hair tufts twitched, pointed toward where he could apparently hear the truck. Izuku clung on tightly, arms around his neck.
Below, Izuku spotted a flash of movement, then two small figures. He tapped All Might's shoulder. "Down there."
All Might followed his pointed finger. "Well-spotted, my boy." He bounced down a giant tree and landed on the ground. Izuku leapt off his back.
Two dirty boys crouched on the ground. One had spikey hair and red eyes. The other had his hair pulled up in a high ponytail like a pineapple. He clutched a bleeding scrape on his right arm. They both looked around nine years old, a little older than Yoichi and a little younger than Hisashi. Izuku wondered if these two escapees were the two survivors from the original Great Tokyo Disappearance.
The spikey-haired boy snatched a stick off the ground and waved it in front of him. "Get back!"
All Might raised his hands. "We're not with the police."
"You're not?" The spikey-haired boy's wary eyes darted over their costumes. "Are you villains?" It was difficult to tell from his tone if he considered that a bad thing.
Izuku said, "Yes, but we want save you. We came here on behalf of two white-haired boys to rescue their friends." He had no idea if these kids knew Hisashi and Yoichi, but it was worth a try.
"Zeroth and First?" the pineapple-haired boy whispered. "Nah, it couldn't be."
The spikey-haired boy asked, "Were they a bossy, bad-tempered chuunibyou and a crybaby hero fanatic?"
Izuku snorted. "That sounds like them, yes. The older brother gave me a password to prove to his friends that we were trustworthy if we met them: The Three Musketeers." The boy lowered his weapon with a sigh of relief. It had worked. "Then you two must be Second and Third?"
The spikey-haired boy nodded. "I'm Second. This is Third." He didn't offer their real names, and Izuku didn't ask. He knew he still needed to build trust first.
Izuku held up the first aid kit they'd brought along. "Can I bandage your injury?"
Hesitantly, Third nodded. Izuku knelt down in front of him, taking out a wet wipe and an antibiotic cream. He cleaned the filthy cut the best he could. Third winced, but didn't make a sound. Next, Izuku took out a roll of bandages.
All Might said, "We've reached an agreement with your leader to rescue you. Can you help us find the trucks with the other children?" He winked at Izuku. Without words needing to be exchanged, Izuku understood that the children would have difficult trusting anyone who claimed to help them for free, so they were pretending to work for Hisashi.
Second laughed. "If anyone could hire a pair of adults, it would be Zeroth." The tension eased out of his shoulders.
Third muttered, "I knew there was a reason we kept that brocon around."
"The convoy should be close," Second said. "We leapt out of the truck as soon as the guards turned their backs. Got some scrapes because the truck was moving, but it wasn't going too fast. The truck stopped when they sent soldiers after us. We lost them in the forest. We heard the truck start moving, so we think they gave up on us. They should still be headed down the road out of town."
All Might knelt down in front of the children. "I'm All Smite. My partner and I are going to save the other children. Can you two please hide and wait here? We'll be back soon, I promise."
Both kids nodded.
Izuku felt a bit of warmth at being elevated to All Might's partner. He also realized he was going to need to think up a villain name, because "Deku" would not strike terror in anyone's heart.
The two of them took off through the forest again. The truck was close enough that Izuku could hear the roar now. A convoy of a dozen trucks barreled down the road, with a tank in front. All Might whispered, "I'm going to cause a big, flashy distraction. I need you to sneak in and rescue the kids."
Izuku nodded. "Our biggest risk of mission failure is if they get taken hostage."
"Exactly, my boy." All Might shot forward and landed in front of the tank. He stopped it with one hand. He boomed, "I, the legendary villain All Smite, am here for the children—and your heads." Even Izuku shuddered a little at the menace in his tone. Admittedly, in Izuku's case it was mostly fascination with a new rare type of All Might to add to his impersonations.
Soldiers leapt out of the trucks. The tank fired. All Might caught the canon. The soldiers stopped dead in their tracks.
All Might threw the canon back at the tank. Its front smashed in. "Your puny weapons are nothing before my might! A hundred men could not defeat me! I spit on the government! I answer to no one! Especially not petty, corrupt bureaucrats who are actively out to sabotage my career just because I wouldn't take their sketchy black ops mission that one time. They've been sending me extra paperwork ever since. I will use their paperwork to wipe my ass!"
Whoa, it sounded like All Might had a lot of pent up resentment toward the Hero Public Safety Commission that he was working through with this villainy shtick. Izuku only wished he could custom-order a new villainous All Might figurine on the spot. It would be such great rare merch. While the monologue continued, Izuku snuck toward the grey truck in the middle. It was the largest vehicle and the only one not painted in military cameo, so he presumed the children were likely inside. Peering through the window, he saw the kids standing up and packed closer together like cattle. His temper spiked. The driver was staring at All Might with his jaw open. Izuku grabbed him from behind and threw him out of the truck. Then he took the wheel. It wasn't too hard—he'd played driving arcade games before. He drove the truck off the road and around the convoy.
A soldier shot at them. All Might leapt in front, grabbing the bullet and grinding it to dust. A moan of terror went up among the troops.
Izuku shouted, "I've got the kids."
All Might sprang forward. He moved so fast that Izuku couldn't even see him, snatching the guns from the soldiers and breaking them in two. He grabbed their handcuffs from their belts and fastened them all together. Izuku got out of the truck to help, but it was over before his feet touched the ground.
The soldiers stared in awe and terror. Several muttered prayers under their breaths. In the early days of the dawn of the age of quirks, none of them would have seen power remotely like All Might's before. No regular solider had the ability to stand against One for All. No one did. Izuku had already understood that, intellectually. It was another thing to see just how far All Might stood above the current food chain. This hadn't been a battle: it had been a curbstomp.
"Hooray!" Second and Third jumped out from behind a tree. They leapt in the air and clapped their hands.
With starry eyes, Third said, "Zeroth was right! Villains are awesome!"
Izuku glared. "Didn't you two promise to wait for us?"
Ignoring him, Second rushed forward and opened the back of the truck to free the other kids. The children chattered as Second and Third loudly bragged about how their leader had hired the two strongest villains to save everyone. Izuku had to admit that it was helpful to have the two kids along to vouch for them to the other children. The terror left their faces, replaced by joy and celebration. The kids swarmed All Might, feeling his muscles and climbing onto his shoulders.
Children surrounded Izuku as well, chattering. He shouted, "Is anyone injured?" He waved the First Aid kit over his head.
Fortunately, he didn't find any serious injuries. One girl had a broken arm that had already been put in a cast. She said she'd been injured during her capture and treated before the trucks left the city. The officer who'd done it was not present, which might have been lucky with the mood Izuku was in. He handed out bandages for minor scrapes.
All Might appeared next to him, muttering, "I broke all the communication equipment, giving us a limited window of time to get out of here. I gave the leader a quick interrogation. He seemed sincerely horrified at the idea that anyone might massacre the children. I told him that I could detect lies, and he believed me. If there was a conspiracy, he didn't know about it. I didn't find anything incriminating in the trucks either. The GPS seemed to be taking them to the experimental facility."
"Someone else might have been coming to attack the children, then." Izuku bit his lip. "Should we get out of here before they arrive?"
All Might frowned. "We're already approaching the time when the caravan disappeared in the original timeline, but no one is here. My enhanced senses should be able to detect it if a large group was headed this way. It's very odd." He shook his head. "We'll take more later. I want to get the children out of here. I'm bulletproof, but they're not. I could handle any threat in the current Japan, but we can't risk them getting caught up in the fight. If the original enemies don't come, then the government will."
Izuku and All Might shuffled the children back into the truck, then set off. While All Might drove, Izuku spoke to each child, asking for directions to their home. As he'd discussed with All Might, he made sure to ask each child if they wanted to go home and if they felt safe. Two dozen children told Izuku that their parents had been arrested trying to stop them from being taken. Izuku had a feeling about where he and All Might would be headed next.
First, All Might and Izuku drove around town, dropping off those children who had parents or other guardians to look after them. Then All Might ripped off the front gate of the local prison, and they retrieved the parents locked inside. All Might promised them "in the name of the number one villain" that he would ensure they faced no legal consequences if they returned home with their children. Izuku did not yet know how All Might planned to ensure that, but he had a few ideas himself.
When they'd finished, Second, Third, and six other children remained.
Third said, "I don't have parents."
Second crossed his arms. "I do. They threw me out for being a metahuman. I wouldn't want to go back if they'd let me. I miss my siblings, though."
Izuku already knew from talking to the other six children that they had similar stories. "Don't worry. We'll look after you." Not that he'd ever babysat before. He glanced at All Might, hoping for direction.
All Might held up a credit card. "Government cards have no credit limit! We'll obtain better lodgings, fitting for villainous masterminds."
All Might rented out an entire hotel. The children cheered as they poured into the penthouse suite. Two started bouncing on the bed.
Taking Izuku aside, All Might whispered, "Please look after them while I fetch Hisashi and Yoichi."
Izuku nodded. Turning to the children, he asked, "Who wants room service?"
Everyone did, as it turned out. Izuku suspected he would regret letting them all order milkshakes later when the sugar rush kicked in. But he couldn't bring himself to turn down the pleading eyes from kids who'd been through so much. He ordered two extra meals for Hisashi and Yoichi. Hopefully they both liked hamburgers.
Shortly after the food arrived, All Might returned and ushered Hisashi and Yoichi into the room. Hisashi's eyes darted around. Rubbing his hands together, he said, "Very fancy. We're going up in the world already. Can I be in charge of renting out rooms to customers?"
Snorting, All Might said, "This is our villainous base. I rented out the whole building so we'd have privacy."
Hisashi nodded. "Fair enough. Then can I suggest a bank robbery next?"
Pointing at the crowd of kids, Yoichi screamed and ran forward. He tackled both Second and Third, dragging them into a group hug. Third sputtered and spewed soda out his nose.
Sobbing, Yoichi clung to them tightly. "I'm so happy that you're okay!"
Eyes gentle, Second patting him on the back. "You're such a crybaby, First."
"My name is Yoichi! I don't care about the stupid rules any longer. I want you to know. You don't have to tell me in return if you won't want to. But you're my best friends in the whole world."
Something flashed across Second's face. "It's not that I don't trust you. I'm ashamed of my family name. My parents…they're heavily involved in hate groups that persecute metahumans. I didn't want you to know."
"I don't care!" Yoichi clung to him even tighter. "You saved my life! I was sad when you sacrificed yourself for me but also grateful! No one but my brother has ever cared about me before! I swear that next time, I'm going to protect you two in return."
Hisashi walked over. "I'm truly grateful to both you for looking after my little brother. You're good minions, and your loyal service won't be forgotten when I'm Japan's greatest villain." He stuck out both his hands for handshakes.
Third snorted. "Spare us the blah-blah, you snooty Demon King Wannabe." Then he dragged Hisashi into the group hug.
Hisashi squirmed, wailing, "As your leader, I demand that you let me go! This is not dignified!"
"The minions are rebelling." Second mussed up Hisashi's hair.
Yoichi sobbed as he clung to his friends and his brother. "I'm so happy that we're all alive and together again! Villains rule!"
"They do." Hisashi grinned. "I'm prepared to offer you each a two percent cut of our profits if you continue to work under me. This is a rare and valuable deal that only I can swing for you."
Yoichi said, "He's not in charge, All Smite is. And he negotiated for a thirty percent cut of the profits, don't let him underpay you. Either make him give you more or negotiate directly with All Smite yourselves."
Hisashi wailed, "Little brother! This is a cruel and foul betrayal!"
All Might waved at Izuku. "May I speak to you alone?" he whispered. "Let's go while the children are still distracted eating."
Izuku followed All Might into the hallway. "Is this about how we're going to stop the police from coming after the children again?"
"Yes, but there's also another major issue that affects their safety." All Might took a deep breath. "It bothers me, a lot, that we don't know how the children died in the original timeline. I was hoping it would be the government, because that would be easier. Then the kids would be safe now that we've rescued them."
Izuku said, "Playing devil's advocate: are you sure the government didn't do it? The soldier you interrogated could have lied to you. The soldiers weren't found dead in the original timeline. It doesn't seem like they were attacked."
All Might said, "I don't think they were attacked, either. I didn't see any sign of other people in the area, and besides, your standard cowardly hate group wouldn't have had the nerve to attack trained soldiers. Or the reason to, when they were taking the children away. But I still don't see how the government had motive. They wanted to study the children. I do think the government hid the bodies afterward, though."
Izuku frowned. "You think one of the children's quirks did it. All of them must have been terrified. A power could have gone out of control."
All Might's shoulders sagged. "That theory currently looks the most likely. I hate to think it, because all the people who posited that theory in the past were largely apologists for the godawful government in this time period. I despise the notion of blaming the poor children for their own deaths. It's cruel."
Izuku snorted. "I'd blame government even if it was a quirk accident. They stressed out the children and created a situation where some poor kid became so terrified they lashed out. But would any of their quirks be strong enough? I thought powers were weaker back in the dawn of the age of quirks."
All Might said, "I've heard that too, but on the other hand, All for One was born during the dawn of the age of quirks. Some scientists say that abilities were more unstable then and more likely to damage the user's body, but not necessarily weaker."
"All for One is unstable in many ways," Izuku muttered.
"I asked all the children about their quirks before we returned them home. None of them had particularly powerful abilities. But one of them could have lied to me."
"What kind of quirk would only attack children? Why wouldn't a scared child have attacked the people imprisoning them instead of their fellow prisoners?"
"A quirk that can only kill people under a certain age?" All Might made a face. "When I say that out loud, it sounds ridiculous. Quirks can be strange, but that's far too convenient."
Izuku paced the hallway. "What about a division in the government? The higher-ups want to isolate the kids and study them. Someone more hateful wants to murder them. Maybe that unknown person subverted some of the soldiers to kill the children."
All Might nodded. "That sounds like a solid theory."
Izuku shook his head. "No, no, I still can't buy it. If there was internal conflict, at least some of the soldiers would have died. But only children were found in the mass grave."
"The soldiers could have been buried separately."
"Yes, but why?" Izuku muttered more rapidly. "I'm still wondering if it couldn't have been a third group, perhaps using quirks to knock out the guards and get to the children…but why on earth would a powerful metahuman help murder other metahumans? Where's the motive?" Izuku shook his head. "We've got three theories: the government, a wild quirk belonging to a child, and third power. But every possibility has major holes."
All Might said, "It's a loose end. I don't like loose ends."
Izuku looked up. "You think the children are still in danger."
"As long as we still don't know who or what killed them in the original timeline, then it could happen again. We're sitting on a ticking time bomb."
"And we can't even fight back because we don't know where to start!" Izuku clutched his hair.
All Might's face was grim. "I have an idea. But it would be dangerous for both of us."
"Lay it on me."
"I want the two of us to become villains. Not just any villains. The greatest villains in Japan."
Izuku inhaled. "You want us to make ourselves into targets."
"Exactly. Whoever did this, the government or an unknown third party, they hate metahumans. Right now, the only metahumans they have to bully are young, innocent children. I say we give them some villains who can fight back." All Might's eyes blazed blue like the center of a flame. "If we become the greatest symbol of evil in the eyes of the bigots, then we'll draw all their enmity to ourselves."
Izuku nodded. "No matter who originally killed the children, they'll come after us first. So they'll have to go through us to get to the kids. Even if it turns out to have been a rogue quirk—which I still think is the least likely of the three theories—we can still prevent the incident from happening as long as we ensure that no one attacks or attempts to kidnap the children again. It's the only way to protect the children when we still don't know who is the threat. I agree."
All Might smiled. "I knew you would, my boy. Even if we become villains, you're still the most heroic person I've ever met."
Izuku flushed. "T-that's…not true…"
"Of course it's true."
"I—" Izuku wasn't good at handling praise. He tried frantically to deflect. "What crime should we start with? It needs to be something big and flashy."
All Might's smile turned into a smirk. "I already have the perfect idea. I promised the children that no one would take them from their parents again. And I know just how to keep that promise. First off, with the government credit card funding us, we're going to need even scarier costumes."
Author's Note: Chaoticdeer drew the amazing new cover art for this fic with Izuku and All Smite in their villain costumes:
chaotic-deerspirit.
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