I do not own My Hero Academia or Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
"Hey, Yagi-San, have you ever heard of something called a Quirk Arrow?" Midoriya asked while the two of them were walking towards the train station. They wound up meeting after a villain fight as usual, and found themselves to be heading in the same direction afterwards.
"Can't say that I have." Toshinori replied after a moment of thought.
"It's an urban legend, if you can even call it that. Honestly, I could barely find any info about it." Midoriya grumbled slightly before perking back up, "Basically, it's suppose to be this arrow, and if you get shot with it you won't die or get hurt like you should. Instead, you develop a second quirk."
"I've seen plenty of bizarre things over the course of job, but that just sounds like pure fantasy." Toshinori said. While he was reminded of All for One, due to the whole quirk giving part, the idea of an arrow giving quirks was just too outlandish, "Where did you even hear about this?"
"I was reading some theories about All Might's quirk. As I'm sure you know, it's one of the biggest mysteries in hero culture out there." Midoriya said.
"And, one theory was that he got his quirk... from an arrow?" Toshinori asked, genuinely confused. He had heard all sorts of wild theories about what his quirk might be, from solar powered strength to him being a genetically engineered superman, but it was still odd. Mostly because he couldn't see why it would matter if he got his quirk from some weird arrow.
"Well, the reasoning behind the theory was that All Might's quirk isn't exactly normal. It's way stronger than any other quirk out there, he's pretty much invincible!" Midoriya said excitedly.
'Oh, how I wish that were true.' Toshinori placed a hand over his wound, able to feel the bumpy scarred tissue through the material of his t-shirt.
"And apparently, the quirks that you get after getting shot with the arrow aren't like normal quirks." Midoriya continued, "I was only able to find one example of what a quirk caused by this arrow did though, every other one was too vague about what they actually did. But this one quirk was super weird. It supposedly belonged to an assassin from almost a hundred years ago. He could combine the genetic material from a man and a woman in order to create an homunculus that would track down and murder the people who's D.N.A. it was created from. And keep in mind that quirks used to be simpler and weaker back in the day, so that makes it even weirder than it already is." For the first time since he started talking, Midoriya finally took a breath. Seriously, the lung capacity on this kid.
"If I hadn't thought it was outlandish before, a baby assassin quirk would've done it." Toshinori said with a small chuckle. Midoriya chuckled as well, though he sounded oddly nervous, much to Toshinori's confusion.
"I mean, ah, i-it does sound pretty crazy." Young Midoriya gave another small, awkward laugh, "But you, um, you know, I can't help but wonder if there might be a grain of truth to it."
"What part specifically?" Toshinori asked, raising an eyebrow. Midoriya never really struck him as the type to buy into such outlandish conspiracy theories. The boy stopped walking, and grew silent. Pausing as well, Toshinori watched him with a small amount of concern as he waited for the boy to speak.
"When I was four years old, I was diagnosed as quirkless by a doctor." He said at last, "I had the extra joint in my pinky toe and everything. When I got the disaster sense part of my quirk a year later, my mom and I were super confused. We just figured the doctor we saw was a quack... But, a couple months after that doctor's visit, I was shot with a bow and arrow." Toshinori's eyes widened at that, but Midoriya wasn't finished with his tale, "I had to be rushed to the emergency room of course, and then I got an infection and nearly died from that. So obviously, it doesn't match up with the story online perfectly, but I got my quirk about a year after that, far later than most kids do. And I do have an extra joint in my toe. So, I just can't help but wonder if maybe there's actually something out that can give people quirks. I mean, we still don't know where quirks come from, what if someone figured it out, and how to replicate it? Like, maybe that arrow did something to awaken the quirk I would have had if I hadn't been born quirkless?"
Toshinori grew quiet. There was a way to give someone a quirk, he knew that. Now, he couldn't help but wonder if this whole quirk arrow thing was possibly related to All for One in some way. That monster would have still been alive when young Midoriya was four, and he had also been alive a hundred years ago. While the mere idea of a quirk giving arrow still seemed crazy to Toshinori, the mere idea of an immortal crime lord who could steal and give quirks also sounded crazy. So, he couldn't completely rule it out as a possibility.
"A-ah, I'm sorry. I m-must have sounded like a conspiracy nutjob." Midoriya stammered quickly, having noticed Toshinori's silence. His face went red.
"Oh, no. I was just thinking about what you said." Toshinori responded, "I do have to wonder now."
A more comfortable silence fell between the pair as they walked the rest of the way to the train. Before too much longer, they reached the station and waited until the train arrived. After a few minutes it showed up, and they got on it. It was less crowded on board than usual, so they weren't packed in like sardines, though there were still quite a few people in the car with them. As the train passed through a tunnel, Midoriya's head suddenly snapped up.
"What the-? Oh no!" The boy's face went pale.
"Is something wrong?" Toshinori asked, noting his expression and tone.
"Everyone, hold one!" Midoriya shouted, grabbing onto the railing with both hands, and Toshinori quickly copied him. Most of the other passengers simply shot the boy confused or annoyed looks.
"Is it your quirk!? Is something-" Toshinori was cut off as the lights went out and the train jerked suddenly to a stop. Fortunately, he was able to keep himself from falling thanks to the fact that he was firmly holding onto the railing, but same could not be said for most the other people on board, who spilled onto the floor.
"It's not over yet! Something's going on! We need to call for help!" Midoriya cried out. There was a rustling and Toshinori could faintly make out the silhouette of Midoriya pulling something out of his pocket in the darkness of the train car, "My phone won't turn on!"
Toshinori quickly fished his own phone out of his pocket and pressed the power button, only for nothing to happen.
"Mine isn't working either." He said, "Young Midoriya, you said somethings is still happening? Is it your disaster sense?"
"Yeah, something bad is definitely happening. It's not like when the train suddenly stopped though, this disaster's only going on near the front of the train, but its moving steadily towards us." Midoriya answered, "What's going on?"
"It sounds to me like this train is being robbed." Toshinori said as he leaned close, his voice dropping to a whisper, "We stopped inside a tunnel, so nobody outside will notice that the train is under attack. And they obviously have a quirk that turned off all the electronics on-board, maybe some sort of EMP quirk."
"A train robbery?! What is this, a western!?" Midoriya's voice started to rise in pitch as he began to panic. Quickly, Toshinori slapped a hand over the boy's mouth. However it didn't seem like anyone had heard him, the others were to busy talking with each other trying to figure out what was going on.
"Midoriya, quiet down. Everything's going to be fine, but we can't risk panicking the other passengers." Toshinori whispered, sounding a lot calmer than he felt, 'This is bad. I need to find a way to sneak off so I can turn into All Might. But how am I going to do that when I'm on a crowded train?'
"What? What do you mean?" Midoriya asked quietly, pulling Toshinori's hand away from his mouth. He seemed to have calmed down from his initial reaction.
"If the others know that the train is being robbed, some of them might panic and try to escape. The villains who stopped the train obviously won't want to let anyone get out of the tunnel and alert the heroes, so they'd try to stop anyone to tried to escape, possibly with lethal force." Toshinori answered.
"Ah, okay. I- I understand." Midoriya said with a weak nod that Toshinori could barely see in the dark, "But, we do need to get out of the tunnel and alert the heroes."
"I know that." Toshinori said, "Can you tell how far away the villains are?"
"Kind of. There's definitely something going on near the front of the train. The buzzing isn't too loud, so I don't think they've hurt anyone, they're probably just robbing or threatening them. At the rate their going, it'll be awhile before they reach this car." Midoriya replied, "But, if they have people outside the train in the tunnel, my quirk won't tell me unless they're doing something that would cause harm, like setting up explosives. There could be someone right outside for all I know."
"I see. That's a problem." Toshinori said, "But like you said, we need to alert the heroes. So, before the villains get any closer, I'm going to try to sneak off the train and get out of the tunnel." As soon as he was out of sight, he'd turn into All Might, and stopped the villains himself.
"WHAT!? You ca-" Midoriya shouted, before dropping back to a harsh whisper, "You can't! Yagi-san, if you get caught, you could be killed! Not to mention that you're already in bad shape, an injury could be much more serious for you than it would be for a normal person." His voice took on a more determined tone, "I'll go instead. I'll get help!"
"No!" Toshinori grabbed Midoriya by the shoulders as though he was going to run off at the very moment, "I can't let you do that. You're a twelve year old boy, I'm not letting you do something so dangerous. Everything you just said about me applies to you as well." However, Midoriya shrugged away from Toshinori's grasp.
"My quirk will protect me. It will alert me if something is going to happen that would harm me. I'll be able sneak past them easily and get out of the tunnel. Besides, I'm smaller than you are, that'll make me harder to spot." Midoriya replied, "Also, I turned thirteen last month."
"I don't care! There's no way in hell that I'm letting a child put himself in such danger." Toshinori said as firmly as he could.
"It's the best op-" Midoriya cut off suddenly, "Oh no. NO!" He screamed, horror clear in his voice.
"Midoriya, what is it? What's wrong?" Toshinori asked.
Then there was a bang. It was a noise that Toshinori recognised with ease, a gunshot. And the other passengers heard it too.
"What was that?!"
"Are we under attack by a villain!?"
"That was a gun!"
Suddenly, Midoriya took off running. Toshinori tried to follow after him, but due to the darkness, he ran straight into one of the other people on the train, knocking them both over. He tried to get up, but another panicking passenger bumped into him, sending him back to the ground.
"Midoriya! Stop!" He cried out, "COME BACK!"
-000-
Izuku jumped out of the train's exit and landed on the ground outside. It was pitch black in the tunnel, but he hoped that would only help him sneak out. He had to hurry and get help, before anyone else got hurt. That gunshot...
Someone had died to it.
Could he really do this? These were actual villains, people who were willing to kill to get what they wanted. Izuku's entire body was shaking, and we wasn't sure he could move.
A buzz sounded behind and above him, cutting through his thoughts. He whirled around. On top of the roof of the train was a man, he was holding some sort of glow stick in one hand, one that gave off far more light than a normal one, and a gun in the other as he walked down the length of the train. Driving underneath the train before he got too close, Izuku waited until the man passed by and the buzz of his quirk quieted. He didn't even breathe as he waited, and he was worried that the villain could hear how loudly his heart was beating. Before too much longer, the buzzing died down, and he climbed out from below the car. Adrenaline flooded through his body and started making his way down the tunnel.
'They've got someone patrolling on top of the train, probably watching out for people who might try to escape, like me.' Izuku thought to himself, then another thought occurred to him, 'What if they have someone guarding the exit to the tunnel!? How am I suppose to get out then?' He didn't have time to think on that though.
All of sudden, his quirk buzzed like crazy off to his side. Izuku turned to face the source of the buzzing, but couldn't see anything in the darkness. Squinting his eyes, he could just barely make out the wall of the tunnel, but he still didn't understand what was setting off his quirk. Did the villains actually set explosives and were about to blow up the walls of the tunnel!? No, that wouldn't make any sense, they'd crush the train and themselves if they did that.
Then he noticed two points of light, like cat eyes, appear on the wall of the tunnel. The silhouette of a person seemed to peel itself off the wall, and he saw a glint of metal in one of their hands.
Another gunshot rang out, and the muzzle flash illuminated the tunnel like a bolt of lighting in a dark stormy sky. In that moment, a familiar green arm materialised from Izuku's shoulder, and threw a punch at the air before he really registered what had happened. A sound like metal striking metal rang out, and Izuku saw a spark as the green arm knocked the bullet out of the air before it could hit him.
"That's pretty impressive, kid." The shooter said, her voice clearly feminine, "Not only did you deflect a freaking gunshot, but you also managed to spot me in total darkness. I don't think anyone's ever done that before."
"How did you come out of the wall!?" Izuku asked, his voice shaky with fear.
"I'm a wizard." She responded dryly, "It was my quirk, you idiot. What else. I can turn into a shadow and glide along objects. Normally, it's pretty noticeable, but when it's pitch black like this, well."
Even as fear gripped his mind, Izuku took note of that information. While it was a useful quirk for a surprise attack it wouldn't help out too much in combat. Thankfully, his own quirk would keep her from getting the drop on him, so he didn't need to worry. However, one of her allies undoubtedly heard that gunshot, and would probably be here soon. So he needed to get out of here.
Turning away from the villain, Izuku broke into a sprint down the tunnel.
"I'm not letting you get away, kid!" The villain called after him, and Izuku's quirk buzzed loudly again from behind him.
Look out, Shoto! There's a new conspiracy theorist in town who's coming to wildly inaccurate, yet reasonable conclusions.
I feel kind of bad for ending the chapter where I did, right at the beginning of an action scene.
Also, no. I'm not going to reveal Izuku's Stand next chapter. I feel like kind of a tease, but I've already decided when that'll happen and it won't be for a little bit. Sorry.
I really want to thank everyone for all the help with suggesting what Izuku's Stand cry should be. It's not set in stone, but "Hero!" is honestly the one I'm leaning towards. So, thank you to everyone who suggested that.
Kritcal K: While Danger Zone would be a good name for his Stand, the name I'd decided on is a bit... cheesier.