Izuku rolled underneath Muscular's fist, swinging his blade and slicing the older man's side. The man roared, stumbling away. Izuku turned and slammed his heel into the side of the villain's face, knocking him onto his side. The teen then leaped on top of Muscular, stabbing him through the shoulder.
Muscular screamed, but he quickly recovered. He grabbed Izuku by the arm and body slammed him over his head and into the stone floor behind. Stain's Apprentice gasped as all the air was forcefully removed from his lungs. Stars popped in his vision, his mind going blank for a moment. Muscular jumped atop of Izuku, muscle layers rippling across his arms and pushing Izuku into ground with increasing strength. Izuku pulled a knife free as he fought for breath, plunging the blade into the villain's arm and twisting. The man shouted, but refused to let up.
Tears were pouring out of Izuku's eyes, stress and pain catching up to him once again. "Any time would be great kid!" He grunted out, black spots appearing in his vision. He pulled his knife free and continued stabbing Muscular wherever he could.
Muscular leaned down, blood still pouring out his shoulder and other wounds, and looked down at Stain's Apprentice with an insane glee. "You're becoming a real pain you know." He lifted one hand off of Izuku's shoulders, roughly tearing off the boys mask. The metal tore, cutting Izuku underneath his eye, across his freckles. He screamed in pain, a hint of fear giving Muscular infinite pleasure.
Izuku's eyes cut to Muscular's own. His hand flew upwards, giving the villain a much deeper cut under the eye of his own. Muscular roared and jumped off of Izuku, clawing at his face. Izuku jumped to his own feet, hastily pulling out a healing cloth and, tearing it in half, pressed it against his cut tentatively.
Muscular huffed, holding a hand to his face. The blood from his cut poured out between his fingers, giving a bone chilling sight as the two faced each other. Izuku was still standing between the villain and Kota, refusing to allow harm to come to the boy.
"He trained you pretty well." Muscular admitted, smiling eerily. "But come on, you won't use your quirk on me?" He leaned forward, prepparing to rush his opponent. "I wanna know you're doing your best when I see you bleed to death!"
They rushed each other at the same time, Muscular reaching to grab Izuku, and Izuku flashing his blades to slice Muscular somewhere-anywhere vital. The older man covered his neck with muscle layers, his infuriating quirk protecting him from Izuku's sword. He, however, managed to grab the child by his shoulder again, moving to throw him into the stone wall. Izuku's move to cut Muscular's throat wasn't his only move however. In the split second before he was flung with bone breaking force into the immovable stone wall, he thrust his other hand upwards, grinding a fistful of blinding powder into the man's face.
Izuku crashed, his head colliding with a painful crack. If it wasn't for his protective coat, his spinal cord and skull would have surely been severely damaged, not to mention his ribcage. Regardless, stars were blinking before his eyes and he was certain he had gained a concussion. Izuku knelt on the ground, breathing heavily, while Muscular stumbled about and screamed, clawing at his eyes.
"Progress kid?" He wearily asked of Kota, who was still cramped up in the tree.
"I - I am almost t-there!" He stuttered out. Kota wasn't completely sure why he was following the teen's wishes, but he followed them nonetheless.
Izuku reached into a pocket (he has a lot of pockets) pulling out a small container of pain killers, shaking two out onto his palm. Had it been three hours since the last ones he took? Eh, it didn't really matter much to him anymore. His kidneys were probably going to give up and die by the time he was 20 at this rate anyways. Izuku knew this was bad, and he was probably going to cause serious damage to himself sooner or later, but he tended not to care at moments like this. He threw his head back and swallowed the pills dry, facing his recovering opponent. "For your information, my quirk is none of your buisness, so it shouldn't bother you whether or not I use it."
Muscular screamed, his misshapen eyes red and pouring out tears. He lunged at Izuku who increased the speed of his own flurried attacks. Almost as quickly as Muscular regrew muscle, Izuku sliced it off. Almost, being the key word. He was slowly losing ground. Muscular realized this, growing frenzied and increasing his muscle to the point where he was an singular lump of muscle with legs. Izuku was pushed backwards, his blades slicing into layers of muscle.
"I'M THERE!" Kota practically screeched as he ordered the drone to drop the mechanic Izuku had given him in an empty hallway.
Muscular looked upwards in surprise, giving Stain's Apprentice a momentary window of opportunity. He took it. He pulled his knife back out of the flesh, throwing it to the ground haphazardly and wrapping his hand around what he could of the villains neck. He charged a shocker disk on his palm to 100% of its power and blasted Muscular a short distance away. Izuku spun on his heel, grabbing and throwing a portal marble on the ground near the tree that Kota sat in. He spun right back around to fend off Muscular, but he was too late.
The man crashed on top of Izuku, pinning the boy to the ground with the sheer force of his mass. Izuku was barely able to put one hand up in time, gloves amplifying his strength to far past what was safe, and he was hardly able to keep the hulking man from crushing him. Izuku's sword was thrown out of his hand by the impact, clattering some distance away. His other hand scrabbled to the side, clawing for his dropped knife.
"GO!" He screamed as Muscular laughed and pressed harder. "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?!?"
Kota hesitated.
"NEITHER OF YOU ARE GOING ANYWHERE!!!" Muscular bellowed, blood pooling around the two.
Izuku felt the tips of his fingers brush the handle of his knife. A hint of hope tingled through him. Perhaps he could get out of this alive still.
A faint splash, accompanied with a whimper, caused the older villain's attention to be dragged away from Izuku.
"H-hey. Get away from him." Kota stood at the base of the tree, looking terrified at the two combatants. Water dropped from his outstretched hands, the controller cast to the side. The portal's time limit reached its end, and dissipated with a fizzle.
"Oh," Izuku sighed, his hand now fully gripping the knife. "You foolish child." His gaze hardened once more, and he thrust his hand holding his long knife upwards.
The blade made its mark, sinking through the piles of muscle, and slicing the villain's heart and lung.
Muscular screamed in pure pain, throwing himself off of Izuku. Kota gasped and ran behind the tree, realizing how close he was to danger. Izuku stood slowly, catching his breath.
"Cover your ears, and don't look kid." He ordered, stepping calmly to his fallen sword. Muscular thrashed and screamed as Stain's Apprentice picked up his weapon.
"I'LL KILL YOU!" The older and weaker man screeched, trying to stand. "I SWEAR IT!"
Izuku stood over Muscular, pushing him down with one foot. He raised his sword and his prey saw not an ounce of mercy in this child's eyes. "You won't be killing anyone else."
Izuku swung his short sword downwards, and the body beneath his foot ceased it's movement after a few final twitches. He sent the rolling skull a weak kick and watched it tumble off the edge of the cliff.
Izuku let out his breath in a desperate sigh of relief. He tilted his head upwards, letting his body relax. The adrenaline slowly drained out of his body, blood soaking into his coat.
With a relieved groan, he slid his coat off, folding it on the ground. His cloves came off next, revealing his red and swollen right arm, the damage trailing up to his elbow. He slowly wrapped his arm in healing bandages, standing over the body in only his form fitting under-suit and utility belt. He dragged the dead body's old cloak over and draped it over the form. He looked down.
"Good riddance."
Izuku turned and started walking towards where Kota was hiding behind the tree. The boy was shaking, his eyes wide as he silently sobbed. Izuku didn't blame him. If proper actions wasn't taken, the boy would probably be heavily traumatized for life. Izuku knelt down in front of Kota.
"May I put my hand on your shoulder?" He asked, left hand outstretched, palm upwards. Kota looked confused, then slowly nodded. Izuku gently held the child, rubbing his shoulder with his thumb. "What's your name?"
Kota shuddered, prompting Izuku to move his other hand to hold the boy's cheek, wiping away tears with his other thumb. He shushed gently, doing his best to provide comfort.
"K-Kota"
Izuku smiled. "How old are you Kota?"
"Six."
Izuku nodded, looking kindly at the boy. "That was a very brave thing you did back there Kota. I appreciate it." Kota looked back with wide and scared eyes, still crying with shock. Izuku shifted his hands so he was holding both of Kota's shoulders now. He looked Kota in the eyes, in a benevolent seriousness. "Listen Kota. What all just happened, no child should have to go through that. When this is all over, promise me that you will go to whatever guardians you have, and get some form of trauma therapy, alright?"
Kota slowly nodded, his tears trickling to a stop. "O-ok."
Izuku smiled, casually dropping another marble.
Kota stumbled through with a small prompt from Izuku, and found himself in an empty hallway. He turned around and watched the portal collapse. It left behind a small frame which too collapsed into the same compact disk Stain's Apprentice had given Kota before the battle. Attatched to it was a small note.
'Please throw me away :)'
- back at the cliff -
Izuku sighed once again, standing wearily. He walked over to where he had laid his gear, tying his coat around his waist after folding it so it wouldn't drag on the ground. He picked up his gloves, the right one sparking, and folded them into special pockets in his jacket. He wandered around, trying to find his mask, but it turned up fruitless. Muscular must have thrown it off of the cliff when he had ripped it off of Izuku's face.
Izuku shrugged, covering his mouth with the simple scarf that usually rested on his shoulders.
He turned, and headed into the forest to find who he was truly looking for.
He really wanted to have a talk with a certain villainous fire wielder.
A/N
And another longish update, and another longish chapter. How'd y'all like that huh? Even though it took it's sweet time in getting written, this chapter had me excited as we get to see the truly darker side of Izuku. Yes he can show mercy, friendship, and even love, but he is still a cold blooded killer following another cold blooded killer without question. He really is a mini Stain, and I love him for that.
Also, Sombratheweeb. This is technically for you, but I'm going to put it out there as a general disclaimer since there seems to be confusion over this.
If you haven't read chapter 21 of Cruel Irony, or read Cruel Irony altogether, go do so. Technically you could read this here w/out doing so, but you're going to be pretty flipping confused. In chapter 21, which takes place a week before these events at the camp, Izuku goes to the mall and meets Shoto Todoroki. Shoto learns about Izu's wound and helps take care of it. Chapter one here of Cruel Fate, takes place two weeks before that, when Izu's would is still fresh and just beginning to grow infected. By the end of chapter 1, the meeting at the mall has happened, and now by chapters 2 and 3, Izu's wound has almost completely healed.
Got that? Good, as that's the last time in explaining it.
Canadianblitz, thank you for pointing that out to me. What happened was that as Izu turned to move Kota out of harms way, Muscular tried to pull a surprise attack on izu. Izu knew this was coming of course, and defended himself by attacking in return. I went back and added that in the chapter, and also fixed manor to manner as you said.
Frozenshadow56, *holds chest and cries* thank you! Seriously though, I am over the moon that you like this so much, and I'm glad I've made my intentions with Izuku and everything so clear. And I will take hugs any day!
Hoped that has cleared everything up my dears. Thank you for all of your lovely comments and support. You guys make my day :D
So long my wonderful Lovies!