Hello, hello, my wonderful peeps! Klyju is back with another chapter of SoH! I hope I didn't keep you all waiting too long for this; I mean, I did start this chapter early since I don't have much work this week! Anyways, before we get started, I want to thank all of you wonderful readers and commenters for giving me the motivation to write 10 WHOLE FREAKING CHAPTERS OF THIS! You have no idea how good it feels to write to this point and not let this story die, unlike some of my lesser entries. So, because of that, I want to announce that there will be a date chapter soon, a special dating chapter, though sadly, there won't be lemons as of that moment. I want to make the first one special, alright?
Another thing I have to point out is the fact that I may have confused you all when I announced the Blessings of the Goddess version of this story that another person is writing. First, nobody on FF Net knows what that story is since Mack never uploaded on that site, he's exclusive to AO3. Imagine Total Command, except women are extremely busty amazons, men are treated like breeding cows, and Izuku instead goes to the Support Course because he never gets OfA. Secondly, I talked with the author writing that version, and they said that it would most likely come out around the same time as the DOOM Eternal Ancient Gods DLC, so be patient. Speaking of which, I might take a break from writing the Ancient Gods Arc for this story to play both parts since I want it to flow together. Who knows, I might focus on the Spin-offs while you wait.
Another thing you all pointed out is how sympathetic I made Katsumi. Well, that was kind of my intention this whole time. I've realized that, maybe, Katsumi should be able to get her chance to shine in these kinds of fics, since most of the ones I've read seemed to relegate her to Izuku's girlfriend, and while some do make an effort to make her likable, they don't add a new spin on her.
Anyways, enough of my rambling. You all know I don't own anything here, nor the references I put in! Without further ado, OPEN THE GAME!
"So, we only have five minutes to plan a defense…" Momo muttered as she looked at the bomb before turning towards the rest of her group. "Does anyone here have a plan?"
"Why bother?" Shoko questioned, raising her right hand as the group turned to look at her. "I can handle the situation without any issues. Just leave this to me."
Izuku let out an argumentative grunt, getting the attention of his team before he began to sign towards them, which Momo thankfully translated. "Don't count the other team like that, Todoroki. They may have something up their sleeves to counter your quirk's power. Even if you freeze them, Katsumi could use her explosions to thaw her group out. She may be cocky at times, but she is intelligent. I haven't seen her in a long time, so it wouldn't surprise me if she found a way around her weakness to the cold, not to mention, she seems to have gotten stronger in some way."
Shoko's impassive face gained a slight scowl at the statement while the other girls gained pensive looks on their faces. "Well, Jirou has those ear jacks, so what can we do against that?" Ochako asked before Momo responded, opening up her outfit, something that freaked out Ochako and Mina while Izuku turned away out of politeness, before she activated her quirk, creating flashbang grenades that dropped to the floor and clattered into a small pile. "We could use these to disorient them for a few moments, and if Jirou does have enhanced hearing, then these could be especially effective on her."
"Alright!" Mina cheered before she continued. "Anyways, what about Iida? Anything we can do against her?"
The Slayer let out a grunt before he began to make hand gestures, first represented by someone running, then one of a bowling throw, and then a gesture of someone slipping and falling. The girls stared at him before Momo realized what he said. "That's it! He's saying that Mina and Shoko could use their quirks to trip up Iida. She can't run on slick surfaces if she goes too fast, and we can freeze her while she's down!"
The Slayer nodded at the explanation as Mina gave him a mock salute. "We'll do our best, Cap!" She said with a grin. "Oh, before I forget: Kiri is pretty strong, especially with her quirk, but if we hit her hard enough, her hardening should drop."
Izuku nodded and gave the pink girl a thumbs-up before he pounded his chest a bit, in a gesture that said: "Leave it to me."
"Now, all we have left to deal with would be Kaminari…" Ochako began, but before they could formulate a plan against the electric girl, they heard All Might announce the match's beginning, eliciting some panic from the other girls.
But the Slayer merely let out a grunt as he brought out the Combat Shotgun, cocking the barrel as he pointed towards Momo, Ochako, and Mina, gesturing them to come with him before he pointed at Shoko and gesturing to her to stay guard. "Excuse me?" The peppermint-haired girl asked indignantly, but to no avail, as the Slayer and the other girls left the room to enact their plan.
As they ran, the Slayer signed towards them. "Split up. We'll be able to ambush them from other angles." With that, he split away from the other girls to find the Hero Team, leaving the others to look at where he went with shocked expressions.
In reality, he separated from the group to find Bakugo, for he knew that she would actively look for him as well, and with that new power she has, he knew that it would be a bad idea to get them caught in the crossfire. Fighting off the others would be the safer bet for them.
Meanwhile, the others kept running with aghast expressions on their faces before Mina spoke up. "Did he seriously just leave us?!" She exclaimed, earning some bumbling gibberish from Momo and stammers from Ochako before the ponytailed girl spoke up to respond to the pinkette.
"I- well, he probably had a good reason to do so!" She stammered out. "As he said, we would have a better chance at victory if we ambush the others!"
"That doesn't mean he should've left us!"
Before they could continue complaining, however, they skidded to a stop when they came face-to-face with the other team. Of all the things to happen now, they didn't expect running into the other team so soon. Everything was quiet for a moment before Momo yelled. "Improvise the plans!"
The Slayer
As the armored man ran through the halls, he kept his eyes and ears open for anything out of the ordinary, aside from the screams of combat from the other girls, though he noticed that Katsumi wasn't among those screams. That quickly rang a number of bells in his head, since she isn't the quietest of people when it came to fighting.
As he ran through the hall, he heard the familiar explosion that was followed by the whistling of a body flying through the air before he ducked down, sliding under Katsumi's kick as she landed, skidding to a stop while he quickly got back up. He took aim with his shotgun, replacing the live rounds with relatively harmless rubber pellets before he fired. Despite the pellets making an impact with her skin, however, Katsumi ignored the pain and dashed towards him, sending an explosion in his direction, which he managed to avoid with minor scathing.
As he dodged the flames of the explosion, the dueling duo made their way towards one another before they swung their fists towards one another, charging up their power as their attacks made contact. As the fists made impact with one another, time seemed to stand still before the shockwave pushed the pair away from one another, but due to his arsenal, the Slayer was able to quickly fire off ranged attacks in quick succession, the fake rounds hitting Katsumi as she ran towards Izuku and charging up One for All through her fist. Throwing the punch, she activated her explosion quirk alongside it, and the resulting explosion extended far enough to overcome the Slayer's form.
This did little to stop him, however, as the Eternal Warrior pushed through the heat and flames, reaching his opponent to swing his DOOM Blade at her, which she blocked with her gauntlets, charging up One for All to stand her ground. For a few moments, everything stood still before the floor cratered, winds whipping around from the impact. The pair tried to push one another off balance before the Slayer aimed the shotgun at the young woman's shin, firing and knocking her back, but the sudden attack caused her to activate her Explosion, though not from her hand, but her forearm gauntlet, knocking the Slayer back and surprising him. She was never capable of doing that before.
He wasn't given a chance to think about that for long, however, as Katsumi used the momentum from the attacks to accelerate her roundhouse kick, which he dodged with only a light grazing from her attack. The Slayer grabbed the extended leg before he swung the body towards a wall, the impact eliciting a pained yell from the blonde before it was silenced by the Slayer ramming into her and crashing the two through the wall.
Main Team
As they felt the building rumble, the other two teams tried to regain their footing, the shockwaves caused from their leaders' fight shaking the battlefield. However, Momo and Tomoyo didn't let this deter them as they turned to their respective groups. "Mina! Try to glue Iida!"
"Kaminari, try to knock out Uraraka!" The white-armored woman exclaimed to the electric blonde as she and the other girls ran back to a corner to avoid any splash damage from Doi's attacks. The blonde grinned before she charged up electricity. Seeing this, Momo quickly opened up her outfit and created a shock-proof covering to cover the blonde with, who was unable to react as she tapestry fell on her just as she released the electricity she charged up. Sparks were seen from under the tapestry before it was quickly silenced, until the sounds of random gibberish were heard from underneath it as Kaminari's form began to waddle around.
Disappointed by the failed attempt to take out the group in one shot, Iida sighed before she turned the corner and positioned herself towards Mina. However, instead of running towards the pink girl, she let Eiko leap over her, surprising the opposing group as the redhead crashed into her friend, screams emanating from the pair as they tumbled down. Momo turned to her comrade before she narrowly dodged a kick from Iida, who dashed past her before tackling Uraraka as Jirou threw a punch towards the pony-tailed girl.
As their battle quickly began to escalate, Mina and Eiko got back up from the ground and began to wrestle for control of their struggle. Despite how much physically stronger Eiko was, Mina was determined to earn a victory for her team, until the redhead reared her head back to butt Mina's forehead. The pink girl stumbled back in pain before an uppercut impacted her chin, followed by a number of other punches that sent her tumbling to the ground. As Eiko went to go and stick the capture tape onto the fallen girl, Mina quickly spun around into a breakdance maneuver, catching the redhead by surprise with a roundhouse kick that knocked back quite a bit as the pinkette began to retaliate with some strikes of her own, adding in some low-powered, adhesive acid to stick her opponent to the ground.
Meanwhile, Momo had created a bo staff, expertly blocking Jirou's strikes as the earjacked girl tried to hit the taller woman, her attacks almost coming into contact a couple of times. The violet-haired girl kept trying to land a blow on her opponent before she got lucky with a low kick, tripping her raven-haired enemy. As the creative girl's back hit the ground, Jirou quickly got on top of her to get the capture tape on her, but Momo grabbed the young woman's wrist and began to push back, the pair struggling to gain control of the fight. Then, a metal cylinder popped out from Momo's abdominal region, surprising Kyoka before her opponent grabbed it and pulled the pin before tossing it to the side and closing her eyes. It was then that Kyoka realized what it was. "OH, WHAT THE FU-!" She cried out before she was interrupted by the flashbang going off, blinding her, though the damage to her ears far surpassed it, at least, until she felt herself getting tossed to the ground and having capture tape used on her instead.
She wasn't the only one affected, as Tomoyo and Ochako, who were trying to gain the upper hand from one another, also got distracted by the flashbang and turned to look when it went off, blinding and deafening them. The pair waltzed around the room for a bit, trying to strike at one another, though they barely grazed one another with their punches.
And then things quickly began to go downhill from there.
When their hearing began to recover, Ochako heard the crackle of ice coming towards her, but she was too slow to react when she found her feet stuck to the ground, leaving her unable to move around. "This is why you all should've left this to me," Shoko stated matter-of-factly as the scowl on her face deepened a bit. "We could've solved this a lot sooner by now."
As she looked around the room, Shoko took account of the other girls that weren't on her team, spotting Kirishima frozen to the ground before she broke out of her icy prison, the sudden drop in temperature having made the glue holding her down brittle enough to shatter. Jirou was frozen in an iceberg with Momo, their expressions being that of surprise, and Kaminari was stuck to the ground underneath the tarp, still babbling without a care in the world. However, the peppermint-haired girl felt as if Iida still had a trick up her sleeve, and she was proven correct when the armored woman began to overclock her engines. "RECIPRO BURST!" She yelled out as the force of her engines broke her out of the ice as she rocketed towards Shoko, who raised her hand in an attempt to freeze her opponent again.
She would have succeeded, had it not been for the arrival of the Slayer crashing through a wall, knocking her, Iida, and Kirishima to the ground as Bakugo flew towards her opponent, electricity sparking over her body.
As he fell to the ground, Izuku planted his feet and skidded to a halt before he launched himself towards Katsumi, firing off rubber bullets from the Heavy Cannon at her to push her back away before he took out the Combat Shotgun and used the Grenade Launcher to fire off a slug round towards Iida, knocking the wind out of her as she tried to get herself back up. Falling back to the ground, she was unable to do anything as Izuku picked her up and slammed her onto her back, eliciting a pained yell before she was suddenly wrapped by the capture tape, immobilizing her.
Quickly moving on, the Slayer intercepted Kirishima's punch, maneuvering her arm into a lock as she hardened her body. It was for naught, however, as Izuku grabbed her by the head and brought her upper body down and kneed her in the solar plexus with a charged kick. The force of the impact knocked the wind out of her, forcing her to drop her hardened skin as she was quickly wrapped in capture tape by her green-haired opponent.
Shoko blinked at the sight of the man taking down two members of the other team, her eyes widening as it dawned on her how quickly he did so. She barely had time to see it happening, and men were quirkless! Just what was he?!
Her train of thought was interrupted when Bakugou launched herself towards the Slayer, the palm of her hand glowing with electricity before she fired off an explosion that enveloped the Slayer, bruising her hand in the process. It did no good for her, as Izuku charged through the flames to slam a punch on her face. Time seemed to stand still for a few moments before the Blonde Bomber quickly maneuvered her body around her opponent's extended arm, twisting herself around to wrap her legs around his back, reaching for the ground before she felt One for All charging through her body, allowing her to suplex the Slayer with her legs and cratering the ground, shattering the nearby ice in the process.
The Slayer reoriented himself, twisting his body and getting back on his feet before he grabbed Katsumi's leg and began to repeatedly slam her into the ground before he punched her away. The young woman retaliated by firing an explosion behind her, redirecting her path to headbutt the Slayer's abdomen, though this proved ineffectual if the sound of bone clanging against metal were of any indication. Quickly falling back, Katsumi rubbed the wound on her head before she ducked down to avoid a punch from Izuku, retaliating with one of her own as he countered her strike.
This began to repeat multiple times before the dueling pair engaged in rapid-fire fisticuffs, neither side giving up as their fists quickly became blurs, wind picking up and pushing Shoko, Tomoyo, Kirishima and Kaminari away, none of them able to grab a hold of anything to avoid getting flung back away from the fight.
As their duel continued, both Slayer and Heroine managed to get a couple of hits in on one another. Katsumi fired an explosion from her knee at his stomach. Izuku delivered a strike that cracked her ribs. Katsumi blew up his equipment launcher. Izuku shattered her left gauntlet with his DOOM Blade.
The pair ended the clash with a headbutt, the sheer force of their impacts knocking them back in pain before they dashed back for one last punch. Both of their fists were charged up with their respective power before they collided once more. Everything stood still for a moments before a shockwave erupted from the strike and Katsumi felt her arm break from the impact before she was sent flying back as Izuku finished his punch.
Falling to the ground, Katsumi rolled for a bit before she stopped to a halt. She picked herself back up and saw Izuku striding towards her, the helmet's visor forming a glare that seemed to direct pure indifference towards her. "That's it, huh?" She muttered. "Even with all this power… I just can't stop you from being a hero… All that work to keep you safe… All for nothing…"
Hearing that, the Izuku Midoriya halted his tracks, surprised to hear those words from Kachaan. What did she mean by that?
The explosive blonde noticed the lack of movement from her opponent and looked up to see the Slayer staring at her, looking at her through his visor with a glare.
No… it wasn't a glare…
He looked… concerned?
"What?" Katsumi questioned. "What are you waiting for? Just wrap me in the capture and get it over with. You'd beat me anyways… I don't stand a chance… I worked so hard to keep you safe from stuff like this, did all those cruel things... Hurt you so much … It was all for nothing."
The Slayer stayed motionless for a few moments before he made his way towards Katsumi. When he made it in front of her, he reached his hand towards her… and picked her up to her feet. What happened next shocked her even further.
He gave her a hug.
She was shocked by the sudden act of kindness from him. All this time, she felt horrible for what she did, regardless of the reasons she did so. And yet, he's hugging her, after the last words she's told him before he left were for him to kill himself to achieve his dreams. She felt as if she didn't deserve to be forgiven, and yet, a part of her swelled with hope at the thought that maybe… maybe he's forgiven her.
Her heart soared as he slowly pulled back from her. She didn't even care about the feeling of capture tape being wrapped around her wrist. Tears slowly swelled in her eyes as she looked at the green-haired man.
And then, before she knew it, everything around her went dark.
The Slayer caught the unconscious woman's body as she fell, picking her up in a bridal hold as a concerned expression formed underneath his helmet. Izuku realized that there was a lot to catch up on with her… and a lot of bridges to cross.
Even as he heard All Might call out the victory of the villain team, he maintained his focus on Katsumi before he began to walk towards the main building to take her to Recovery Girl, as well as to figure out a way to talk to her.
Meanwhile, Shoko stared at where the Slayer once stood, a shocked expression on her face as her breath shuddered. All her life, her mother told her that men were only good for sex. That they were weak, pathetic. Incapable of being strong.
How could Midoriya shatter that belief so quickly?
Later
Katsumi woke up in the recovery room bed, her eyes focused on the ceiling as she slowly breathed in and out. Soon, she remembered how she got here. How she ended up being unconscious. Tears began to flow down her eyes, trailing down her cheeks before she spoke in a hopeless voice. "I guess it was too good to be true…"
"What is?" A robotic voice asked, causing the ash-blonde to sit up and look around, panicking for a bit before she saw a familiar virtual avatar on a nearby screen. "Greetings, Ms. Bakugou. I apologize for appearing out of nowhere, but Recovery Girl asked me to monitor you while she was dealing with something else involving All Might. She will return soon. Now please tell me, what was too good to be true?"
"Why should I tell you?!" She barked back at the virtual doctor. "What would you understand about me? You wouldn't get it!"
However, as her anger reached its peak, she caught herself, realizing her mistake before she calmed down. She needed to keep herself under control. "But… I guess I need to let it out somehow…" She said before she began to explain her situation. "When we were kids… Izuku and I dreamed of being heroes… the best in the world… but I knew that it would be impossible for him to do so… I quickly realized that he would've died out there without any power… so when I got my quirk, I… tried to veer him off that path… bullied him… pushed him down… the worst happened when I told him to jump off a building to be born as a woman… I realized that I fucked up at that moment… when he disappeared for ten months, I thought that he actually did it… I felt like it was my fault he was gone… I felt like shit… so, I decided to work harder to train myself… to be the hero that he would've wanted me to be… but then he came back, and… I guess a part of me wanted to apologize to him…"
Hayden stared at the blonde before his voice crackled through the speakers. "I may not know what it is like to feel like that," He stated. "But I know that wallowing in your despair won't fix anything… You can start fixing things by saying that to him."
With that, the monitor blinked out, leaving Katsumi alone before she was surprised by a curtain pulled back, revealing Izuku standing behind it with a pitiable look on his face. "Izuku?!" The blonde woman exclaimed in quick panic. "How… Did you hear… everything?"
The green-haired man nodded before he brought out a piece of paper and began to write on it. For a few minutes, the scritch of a pencil on paper was the only thing heard in the room before Izuku turned the paper towards Katsumi to let her read it. "I felt sad… I felt hurt… I felt like I was trying too hard to achieve an impossible thing. Because of you, I felt like I was worth nothing. I was angry with you." With each statement she read, Katsumi felt a pang in her heart, each one being worse than the last as she read how he felt from her treatment. "But," The writing continued. "Now I know why you did it… You tried to be a good person, trying to protect someone she cared about, even if she did it with the wrong methods. Now that I know why you did what you did… I am not yet ready to forgive you… until you forgive yourself. Please."
Katsumi stared at the paper in stupor before she spoke up. "Forgive myself, huh?" She muttered. "How am I supposed to do that? Everything I did… everything I've said… I don't deserve to be forgiven…"
She was torn from her mumblings when she felt the muscular man's arms wrap around her in a hug. He held her close in an embrace that seemed to last forever before he began to stroke her hair.
The dam broke as she began crying, wrapping her arms around Izuku as she poured out her emotions, which she had bottled up for far too long. In return, Izuku tightened his embrace, making a series of sounds to comfort her.
It was fitting that Izuku Midoriya came back home to save his friend.
And that is a wrap, everybody! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! So, this was an interesting chapter to write! As stated above, this is the 10th chapter of any story I've ever written for any story. Hopefully, I'll be able to continue this passion for this story as well as the spin-offs for the future!
Speaking of which, I am happy to give you all a teaser on the spin-offs, which are still being kept under wraps, though I'm pretty sure you'll get an idea of what they're gonna be about based on the titles, but I will give you a quick summary for them.
Heroic Life With A Human-Demon Harem! If you guys enjoy Monster Musume antics but want HDOOM Gals thrown in, you'll enjoy this comedic slice-of-life story!
Blessings of Beowulf! Taking place years after the Slayer goes to another universe, the Number One Hero, Beowulf finds himself fighting an old enemy, as well as former comrades!
The Slayer Meets Canon! Taking a page from ColdLuigi, the Slayer, plus his harem, end up finding themselves in the canon universe and now must find a way back home!
However, this now brings us to the bad news: Because I want to focus on these other stories, as well as lacking motivation to the other stories I made, I will be deleting them. I apologize to any readers who enjoyed these stories, but I cannot see myself writing those stories any further. I found myself losing any care I once had for them, and as such, I can't bring myself to write for something I don't care about.
Klyju, out.