The Bright Hero, Cobalt
Chapter Thirty-five
An Undisclosed Day, Post Chapter Thirty-Three
Izuku pinched his nose in exasperation, a foreign sensation reminding him that he should always respect people with female plumbing. Living together as a class has caused his female classmates' and Koda's (He hadn't even been aware the boy was trans) cycles to synchronize. Normally, this wouldn't bother him outside of feeling sympathetic for them on really bad days, but he was psychically linked to one of them. Ochako had it rough, and so right now, so did he.
And wouldn't you know it? They were out of several important products. He wasn't going to have Momo head out if she didn't have to, so as the Vice Rep, and somebody who's done this before, it was his duty to obtain the aforementioned supplies. The most embarrassing part was mostly alleviated, since he didn't need to specifically ask which of his classmates needed what, only actually knowing what was going to his own partner due to their Bond. The boy knew well enough to also obtain chocolate and some other sweets.
The cashier gave him a look of sympathy as the empath made his purchase. They knew who he was by now, and it was very possible they'd had to make the same supply runs before. With a jaunty salute, Izuku skedaddled with the supplies. Now, he just had to make it back to…
What. The fuck.
A villain with a gigantification quirk was just down the street from him. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue, however they were between him and his destination. With a roll of his eyes, Izuku ascended, taking advantage of the Z axis to get to eye level with the villain.
"Would you kindly stop, Villain-san? I need to get some urgent supplies to U.A., and I'd rather not deal with you on top of this headache I've got," the freckled teen said tiredly, a glare marring his normally cheery face.
The villain threw a punch, which Izuku blocked, then grasped with his green aura, turning the block into a grapple. "So, you've chosen death. Okay, come with me," the teen said, startling the crowd below and the villain by dragging it with him to the campus.
It didn't take long for the villain to realize what Izuku was doing, and that they couldn't escape his grasp. "Come on, kid! Just let me go! You don't have to take me to U.A.! They'll kill me!" the evildoer pleaded.
Izuku grinned a little, sensing his male classmates, sans Koda, emerging from the dorm to meet up with him. "Don't worry. They'll only kill you a little bit," the greyed hero said with a little too much mirth in his voice.
Izuku rounded the corner, and saw his bros on approach. With a flourish, he tossed the villain to them. "Have fun with the extra credit, guys! I've gotta get these supplies to the dorm!"
As Izuku flew past them, he heard his explosive friend let out a roar. "Come get y'all respect women juice!"
The cries for mercy from the villain made him chuckle a little. What really made him smile was the relieved look on his partner's face upon seeing the chocolate in the bag with the supplies. He happily fed her some himself when she demanded he do so, even if he couldn't get his blush down as he did so. Being her boyfriend in general just made him happy.
Summer Of Their Second Year
Ochako frowned slightly as she gazed up at the azure sky. She had really wanted to go up against Izuku again in the Sports Festival. She wanted to properly fight him this time, no Ao to interfere, and no confused feelings to get in the way. However…
Izuku had lost in the second round, a ring out. He'd gotten too into the fight that he forgot where he was, and in his euphoria, touched the wall circling the arena to rebound at his opponent. She wasn't upset at either him or Mina for that. They'd both been having a good time in their match, and Izuku needed to learn to pay attention to his surroundings even when he was high on his own dopamine.
It still bugged her, though. She didn't even know why she wanted to fight him. Some part of her mind was convinced it'd be really fun. She didn't have to ask him, it seemed, however.
"Wanna spar?"
Honestly, she loved that the two of them could just feel when the other wanted something sometimes. The brunette pulled her legs back and kicked herself off the ground, using a bit of One for All in her hop. She turned to see her boyfriend digging four of his armor's shield bits into the ground, to form the corners of their makeshift ring. From the concentrated look he was making, the rosy-cheeked teen assumed he was making their ring the exact same size and shape as the ring they'd fought in prior. With a confident grin and a nod, the four shield bits created a construct between them, the ring now complete.
Mei, who had been testing one of her gadgets nearby, came running when she saw what was going on. "Ooh! I'll be the ref! My goggles will record the match in crazy high def, and they'll inform me if one of you rings out!" the rosette called out excitedly as she ran to them.
The happy couple agreed, then got into their positions. Before they could begin, a quirk-enhanced voice called out to them. "WAAAAAAIIIIT!" Present Mic called out, then took his place to the side and, with a grin, called the start of the match. "READYYY? CLASH!"
The two heroes in training hovered above the ring for a couple seconds, layering their bodies with green aura while simultaneously activating One for All, green and pink lightning sparking off of their forms as bright red power surged beneath their flesh.
CRACK! BAM! THOOM!
The pair connected thunderous blows, each attack as loud as a gunshot, and carrying enough force to mess up the hair of their spectators. Present Mic and Mei, being the closest, were actually pushed back a little by the force. While their attacks were fierce, Mei was noticing something...interesting.
"They aren't dealing any damage to each other," she remarked thoughtfully. Knowing those two, they were completely aware of this by now, so each would be looking for an opening to try something new.
With a burst of speed and blue aura, Izuku disengaged, moving further skyward. Glowing with a matching azure light, Ochako followed. The two began slamming into one another, completely forgoing the green aura now for its cobalt counterpart, going for more powerful attacks that should have done damage. And yet…
"Hey, you mind sending a copy of that recording to the staff later, Listener? Shota-kun and Nezu-san in particular are gonna wanna go over it with a fine-toothed comb," the voice hero commented with a grin. Mei merely nodded. She was glad she was recording this with one of her better pairs of goggles.
"They're gonna be at it for a while. It's literally a match of attrition if they stay that high up. I get the feeling they don't want it to end, though," another voice said from nearby. Himiko, along with Eri and Jin, had wandered over, the powerful clashes quickly attracting more and more students and faculty.
With a chuckle, Mei reached out behind her to where she knew her friend was and pulled her into a side hug. "You might be right, Ko-chan. It'd explain why they've been grinning this whole time, at least!" A beeping indicated something unusual happening, and a bit of text ran across her HUD. "Oh, looks like Midoriya-chan's pulling out the big guns! I wonder how Uraraka-chan will respond to this!"
Stretching out her senses, Himiko soon figured out what her friend meant. "Oh. I keep forgetting he can do stuff like that," she said as she gazed into the distance behind Ochako, sensing more than seeing the pipes and other such junk that her brother had pulled out of one of the training grounds as it approached at high speeds. It did not take long for the wave of improvised projectiles to arrive, a few of them slamming into Ochako's back as they flew past her to surround her boyfriend in orbiting rings of metal and concrete. The grey-haired teen gave his girlfriend a challenging grin.
In response, the brunette gestured with her hand, and off to the side, a young tree was uprooted, flying to her side where she grasped it with both her quirk and her aura. With a smirk, she pointed the oversized melee weapon at her partner, making a 'come hither' gesture with her free hand.
"Your move."
The rings of junk began spreading out and moving swiftly, orbiting in more and more rings faster and faster around their current wielder as Class 2-A's Dark Lord of Smiles hovered ominously closer to his opponent, who readied her weapon as she flew at him, smashing past his defenses as they simultaneously whittled down her arbor-based bludgeoning implement. Soon they collided, Izuku's projectiles all flung far away, even if they were still under his control, and Ochako's tree reduced to a piece of trunk in her hand.
With elation in their hearts, the two separated one final time. Izuku began focusing his blue aura behind him, prepping for a high speed attack, while Ochako applied her quirk to the piece of tree trunk, the wood giving off an eerie black and white glow as it was charged with gravity.
Before any of the spectators realized it, it was over. A loud blast heralded the final attack, which Himiko shielded them all from, surprising herself when her aura turned green as she did it. Both combatants were flat on the ground, the ring having dissipated as soon as Izuku realized the fight was over. The two young lovers began laughing like loons, their hair and clothes messed up as they rose from where they fell to embrace one another. Eri, glad that nobody got hurt, ran over to her aunt and uncle to hug the two of them.
"I and many of the voices in my head are curious. Who won that?" Jin asked curiously, hovering over Mei, who was going over the footage to figure that out.
With a laugh, Mei thrust her goggles upwards. "It was a tie, HA! Ochako's attack got knocked up by Izuku at the last second as he flew at her, but it still went off and slammed them both down! That looked friggin' nuts in slow motion!" the mad mechanic announced.
Himiko rolled her eyes at how cliche the idea of the lovers tieing was, even as she gazed fondly at the green aura she was suddenly able to produce. 'I guess I have enough love in my heart to do stuff like this now. I'm glad,' she thought to herself fondly, even as her partner grasped her glowing hand in his.
"Marry me. You're already married, you goof! MARRY ME AGAIN, THEN!"
The woman couldn't contain herself. She drew in all of her nearby friends, and with mirth in her heart, called for a group hug.
A Day Or So After The Prosthetic Bodies Were Filled
Oboro Shirakumo wandered the halls of U.A., not certain where he really wanted to go. Being alive again was nice, however...the amount of time he'd been essentially dead was scarily long. Part of him wanted to find Hizashi, Nemuri, and Shota, but he was a little afraid that he would be too out of the loop to connect to them again.
He was startled out of his musings when a hand gently clasped his shoulder. Whirling around, the young man blinked back tears at the somewhat blank face gazing back at him.
With a somewhat creepy-looking grin (some things never changed, did they?), Eraserhead gestured his head towards the window. "How about we go on patrol, Loud Cloud?"
The young man grinned at his friend, nodding. "Sure thing, Shota."
It wasn't long after that the pair was outside of the gates of U.A., patrolling the neighborhood in the area. The comfortable silence was broken by comfortable conversation. "So, they tell me that they tried to replicate your quirk somewhat via technology. How successful were they?"
Oboro grinned at his friend, and began producing a thick mist from his body that encompassed an area of maybe ten cubic meters, before the boy emerged above the cloud, hovering via jets using green particles that were very familiar to the homeroom teacher.
"I can't ride my clouds anymore, and I can't control them once they're formed, but I can make a really efficient smokescreen that I can see inside of perfectly. Even better, I've still got my bojutsu skills, and they've given me a collapsible one that just pops out like so!" the teen exclaimed as a compartment in his wrist opened up, ejecting a short rod that extended into a bo that he whirled around with a flourish.
Shota nodded with a smirk. "Cool. I can work with that. Our combos will be different, but they'll still be efficient. By the way, I've got a present for ya," he said, fishing through his pockets for something, before extracting a very familiar pair of goggles. "I only repaired them initially, but when I learned you'd be coming back, I made sure to reinforce them properly. I guess it's not much of a gift, since they used to be yours anyway, but…" the scruffy man trailed off, extending his goggle-filled hand to his friend as he looked away with a bit of a frown on his face.
The goggles were quickly snatched up, and placed back whence they came from long ago. "Thanks, Shota. Really good to have these back," the cloud jumper said fondly, before grinning big and asking, "So, how are Hizashi-kun and Kayama-senpai?"
"They're both teachers at U.A., and decent heroes as well. If you tune into channel four oh one at nine on Saturdays, you'll hear Hizashi yapping on his own show. Sushi's still around as well, you'll be happy to know. I'm sure Kayama will be happy to let you see her later on. Hold on a sec…" the Erasure Hero put a finger up to the comlink in his ear, listening in on a situation. "This is Eraserhead. Loud Cloud and I will be there in two minutes. Eraserhead out."
With a grin, Loud Cloud locked eyes with his partner, already activating his hover jets. "Where to, buddy?"
"Three blocks to the east, just a little to the north. Former Yakuza punks with too much time on their hands. Easy enough for us. Try to keep up." With no warning other than that, Aizawa was already atop a roof.
Grinning even wider, Loud Cloud took off after his friend. "I always knew you'd make it, Shota," he said to himself softly.
Soon, the two found themselves nearing the scene of the crime. A trio ejected from the Eight Precepts were terrorizing a marketplace. "I'll get the handsy one and the hungry-looking fellow. You get that guy covered in diamonds. This won't take long," the erasure hero said confidently as the two of them dropped to the ground and sped into action.
Getting the bejeweled villain's attention wasn't difficult. The enhanced strength his mechanical body granted him wasn't anything on the level of a strength-enhancing quirk, but it was more than enough to pick his opponent up and throw him a couple meters further from the fleeing civilians. "Now that I have your attention, time for my second debut! I'm Loud Cloud, and you're toast!" he exclaimed, already ejecting a large cloud of mist, thus obscuring the vision of his foe.
Oboro's vision, on the other hand…It just swapped to heat-based vision. A small drone popped out of his neck, and began hovering around the clouded area, an override within his body swapping his voice output from his mouth to the drone. As the hero and drone confused their foe with sneak attacks and jeers, Loud Cloud realized his opponent wasn't really taking any damage. 'Oh well, time for my new attack,' he thought to himself as his voice drone returned, docking once more with his main body.
Sending a mental command to the generator within his body, Loud Cloud called out his attack name. "Finishing Move: Thundercloud!" he shouted, releasing the excess electricity into the cloud of mist around him and his foe. Blowing away the cloud of mist with his particle jets, the hero stood triumphantly over his fallen opponent, who Shota was already preparing to restrain, having quickly finished off his opponents as well.
Shota tossed him a bottle of water, having taken two from a stall and left money and a note. "Drink up. I know for a fact that that body of yours needs food, and I don't know if you can feel it or not, but overcharging your generator should make you hungry, not to mention the clouds of mist. We'll get lunch when we get back to the school," the schoolteacher slash hero ordered with a frown, before sitting down next to his friend and taking a sip from his own bottle, police already rounding up the trio of villains.
As the pair sat together, Oboro grinned mirthfully. 'Guess I was worried for nothing. We'll all be just fine.'
The Same Day
Returning to life was something Nana Shimura hadn't expected to happen. However, now, here she was, inhabiting an artificial body capable of replicating her original quirk. One for All had apparently been given away twice since her passing, and it hadn't really been part of her main repertoire anyway, outside of the really crazy fights, so she wasn't that bothered by its loss.
She kinda missed it right now, though, because she needed to punch something really, REALLY hard. Nearly all of her descendants had been slain in a freak accident, and her surviving grandson had been turned to villainy by her greatest nemesis.
Her apprentice had tried his best to keep the fate of her family a secret, but Toshi was just too honest, even in his old age. Oh, wow, it was weird thinking about how her apprentice is now older than she is. Nearly twice her age, in fact.
Now, however, she was seated in front of an incredibly thick window, gazing at the young man on the opposite side. Her grandson. Tenko Shimura. Villain Name: Tomura Shigaraki. He glared at her, clearly unhappy to see her.
"I'm sorry, Tenko-kun. I was wrong to leave our family. I...I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you," she said softly.
The white-haired villain snarled. "Sorry? You're sorry?! No apology will ever make up for what happened to me! But look at me, calling the kettle black. I killed all of them, Granny. My big sister, who I adored, my parents, my mom's parents...I even killed the dog! It hurt so much! And it all could have been avoided if you had just been there for us!" the man screamed, struggling against his bonds for a moment before settling down. "I wanted to meet you so bad when I was a kid, you know? Guess at least one thing I wanted in life came true," he commented in a more subdued tone.
Nana released a deep breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding in. "You're right. Nothing I do can ever make up for that. However...may I keep visiting you? I was a less than ideal grandmother before, but I'd like to at least make sure you're staying healthy," she said softly.
Tenko turned to look at the wall, refusing to meet her gaze. "Do whatever you want. I don't care," he said quietly, hatred still in his heart.
The seventh wielder nodded. "I'll see you soon, then, Tenko-kun," she said softly, getting up from her seat and exiting the visiting area. It didn't take her long to reach the parking lot, where Toshi had been waiting. She'd need to renew her driver's license at some point, so that the poor boy-no, man, wouldn't have to drive her everywhere.
Starting up the car, Toshi drove them away. "Are you going to be okay, Master?" he asked quietly.
The young woman answered despite the quiet tears. "I'll need something to take my mind off of this bullshit, but I'm going to come back. I'll get through to him someday, Toshi. Mark my words, I'll have my grandson back, even if he never leaves that place," she responded, face set with resolve.
Toshi nodded, a small smile on his face. "You'll do it. I have faith in you, Master. As for something to distract you, well, my students will be returning from their internships in a few days. I think you'll like them," the emaciated former pro said fondly.
Smiling a little, Nana turned to look at her apprentice. "Tell me about them, Toshi."
"Well, the first one I met was this quirkless fanboy with a heart of gold…"