This chapter is thanks to a close friend of mine sitting down with me to write the damn thing from noon to eight. Tony, you're awesome.
"I don't like the idea of making the little listeners fight with us pros doesn't sit well with me" President Mic responded to All might's idea. The staff at UA were having their conference at the moment, about how to tackle the League of Villains. Fiara stepped in to sway the argument back to the student's favor.
"We wouldn't make them do anything; we are granting them the option to assist in securing the area and evacuating if things go south. They are not going to fight unless we deem it so bad us heroes need more hands. They have the nomu and those walking cadavers on their side, and we need to put that into consideration." Snipe joined into the discussion in a neutral position.
"How can ya even be sure they'd even want to help at this point? I don't think I'd be willing ta fight after the dangers they had if I was them." It was a valid point; trauma was a real threat after what they experience, and freezing up in the field was a death sentence. The werewolf simply pulled out his phone and pressed on a recording.
"You don't understand the severity, Midoriya-san. If they so choose, we can be expelled, or even arrested!" there was a voice that many teachers knew was Tenya's. Everyone understood at that moment that Fiara had actually talked to the kids about the prospect.
"And?" Eraserhead groaned at the familiar voice of his most headache-inducing student. "If they expel me for trying to save a life, then I don't think I want to be at UA. getting arrested doesn't matter to me either; I always wanted to help people, I don't care about the consequences." the teen's voice startled everyone but the most unflappable. For anyone to say such thing was courageous, but to hear those words from a child…
"You sure? You could be in the wrong for doing this." All Might looked at the martial artist with suspicion for trying to hold their student back; neither he nor his fellow teacher cared about rules much. Izuku's next words told him the result of that question.
"It's never wrong to save someone. My path is the Bahou de Lujing, and to not follow it is impossible for me." Fiara paused the audio as the room went dead silent. There was nothing anyone in the room could say against that kind of raw conviction without sounding like a hypocrite.
"Bahou de Lujing?" Nedzu picked up the conversation with the simple inquiry.
"Chinese for 'path of the protector'. It's the name of the martial arts path Izuku made for himself. Basically, he decided that he'd use anything I taught to be a hero that protects those who can't protect themselves." the silence pervaded until the principal brought up another flaw in the plan.
"We still have to deal with our public image." Fiara cringed at the phrase. He never cared much about his image, but in this age, a hero losing face was almost as bad as a crime boss losing face.
"I may have an idea on how to deal with this…" Eraserhead admitted. For all the problems the idea had, it was very practical.
Fumikage was nervously twitching in the back area, waiting for the signal to present himself. His nerves were acting up, but he pushed through. This was going to help his friends and make saving Jesse easier. The woman had risked her own well-being to ensure his safety; this was the least he could do to help in her rescue.
The buzzer above the exit went off, telling him it was time. Pulling down his suit's edges to remove any wrinkles he could, the raven-headed teen walked out to the conference table. When he came from the left of the stage, he had to squint at the powerful lights and flashing cameras. After bowing to the crowd of reporters, he took a seat by his homeroom teacher.
"Due to the appropriate actions of our staff, our young student here was able to escape capture from the Villains who attacked the training camp. He is one of several students that have volunteered to help in this crisis." Nedzu spoke calmly to the crowd. A reporter stood up to ask a question.
"And what of the student's well being? They say that a hero urged the students to fight, but the collateral that transpired from that decision had many students injured and even some that are still not conscious. What can you say in defense of the students when you are urging them back into a fight that hurt their classmates, or even themselves?" his words were meant to get a rise out of them, but Fumikage didn't let the words ruffle him.
"It is true that many of my classmates are injured, but before we are students, many of us like to believe ourselves as heroes in the making. The idea to assist in this event was actually instigated by my friend and fellow classmate, Midoriya, and not the staff in any fashion. His words that had inspired us freshmen to act were that 'it was never wrong to save someone'. Because of our held beliefs in the preservation of our society, we decided to convince the heroes to let us aid in this endeavor." while he did recite the speech, nothing he said was false.
Togusa Soichiro was usually a calm man, but upon hearing the report of the League of Villains and their recent activities, he decided to call to his contact his superior in the International Bureau of Quirk Rights and Regulations.
"Jack Harkness speaking." the other person on the line answered in English with a dull British accent.
"Sir, It's Togusa Soichiro. I have a report; The League of Villains have staged a kidnapping on UA. one student and one staff member." The office worker's English was a little fractured, but he was concise in his delivery.
"While unfortunate, I don't see a reason this could turn international. What were the victim's names?" Jack seemed to be an old hand at knowing when things were off, otherwise, he wouldn't bother to ask.
"The student was a Tok- sorry, Fumikage Tokoyami. The staff was a… Jesse Cacciatore." after the woman's name was mentioned, the line went dead silent.
"S-sir?" the government worker's voice dropped in volume by a fair piece.
"What of Jesse's husband?" the question was so out there for the man, it took a small time to search the spouses' file.
"Anima Cacciatore is a licensed hero since three months ago under the hero name Fiara. He's part of the rescue team for Jesse." not that he would blame him for wanting to save her.
"Make sure the rescue team gets any resources they require." Togusa heard the other phone hang up, and decided to get to work.
Fiara was waiting for the hero Edge Shot to arrive. Most of the other heroes could feel his fury, and gave the werewolf a wide berth; some idiots, however, thought it would be a good idea to do otherwise.
"It seems you don't have confidence in other heroes, Fiara." Endeavor taunted. He didn't like Fiara because of his removing Todoroki from his 'possession' and found this a good time to get a little petty revenge.
"I do have confidence in heroes, but then there are people like you joining us." the martial artist's unsubtle barb pissed the flame user off even further.
"And what are you implying by that? I had my license longer than you." The number 2 "hero" tried to use his experience as leverage, but it didn't phase him.
"And I've been saving lives since I was in my mid-teens till now, and I'm older than you. I don't think of you as a hero because you don't do what makes a person heroic." the werewolf's voice was clipped and held no respect for the flame "hero".
"Why you-" Endeavor didn't get any further as he laid a hand on Fiara's shoulder. The werewolf grabbed the Flame user by the center of his shirt with his left hand before pinning him to the nearest wall and a foot off the ground. Endeavor tried to make Fiara let go but was noticeably weaker than the infuriated martial artist. The room seemed to heat up as the literal monster projected and manifested his aura. Behind Fiara's shoulder was, what appeared to be, the black spectre of a wolf's head with golden eyes and gleaming fangs. The werewolf's manifested wrath made the area go cold, despite the rising temperature.
"I do not care for your inflated ego, nor do I have the patience for your petty bullshit. If you are here to do your job, then fine. If you are here merely to aggravate me, then leave!" Fiara dropped both his manifested chi and the man that was slightly larger than him before picking up the swords he brought and storming off. Out in the corner, Nitro gave a small whistle.
"Gotta hand it to ya, Deku. your teacher can be scary as shit when he's pissed."
"I've only seen him do that once…" the aforementioned Deku shuddered with a pale face. Soon enough, Nedzu called that everyone had arrived.
There was another scream from Jesse. The Anima Look-alike had been hearing them ever since he started collecting data from her. He now had several skin, blood, flesh, and bone samples from her. His master would be pleased. The she-wolf's bonds kept degrading from her attempts of chi, but a quick spell fixed that issue. The puppet was about to take a large sample of ocular tissue before there was an explosion above.
"What on earth…" the Anima clone had started to wonder, but decided against investigating. When he turned back to the table, he realized his mistake; when he lost focus, the magic that bound her had weakened. Jesse's bindings broken, she attacked.
While All Might, Kamui Woods, and Gran Torino moved in to capture the villains, Edge Shot and Fiara went to search for the hostage. The werewolf found her scent and rushed to the lower level. When he and his temporary partner kicked the door down, the younger hero went pale.
"Good god…" there was an operating table covered in blood with several tools by the wayside similarly coated. Following the trail of blood had Jesse kneeling over a corpse.
"Tempesta!" Fiara's voice echoed on the walls, making the other hero wince at the volume. Running at full force, the werewolf kneeled by his wife's side. Her flinching at his approach hurt him far more than anything physical ever could. Putting his hand on her shoulder, he spoke as softly as he could in his current form.
"Are you alright? What happened?" he could see the silent tears falling on the ground.
"I-it was using your voice…" she pointed at the corpse in the room. Fiara was shocked to see someone look like him, but it was secondary.
"Edge Shot, go back up. I've got this." the ninja hero didn't argue and left the bloodstained room. Fiara, without another word, grabbed his wife's sword from his belt before giving it to her. Her hand carefully wrapped around the scabbard as the she-wolf calmed down instantly; nothing was quite as comforting like having your sword in hand.
"Thanks, Mi Caballero." her smile made Fiara's heart soar knowing she was feeling better. Jesse started to transform and the monstrous couple made it back up to ground level to see the heroes fighting several nomu. Without hesitation, Fiara jumped towards the nearest abomination and kicked it into another one trying to grab Kamui woods from behind. He called over the earpiece he had.
"Mandalay, let the kids fight."
"Mandalay to all UA students: you all have authorization to engage." the students came in from the perimeter and started laying waste to several of the nomu.
Tail Man and Invisible girl were working together to trip and bind one with capture tape while Froppy and Grape Juice disabled another. Nitro and Thermal shock decided to make it a contest of who got how many opponents while Real Steel and Red Riot were plowing through nomu together. Mimic was switching between quirks left and right as many of class 1-B and 1-B gave him samples to copy from. Binder and Glue Man were subduing many opponents together and Scyther was trying to keep the nomu from spreading out. With all of their proper hero equipment, better organization, and more prep time, if they weren't able to take on the abominations by themselves then they could more than hold their own.
"There's a problem at the nomu base! It seems that the creator of both the nomu and corpse puppets are over there! Fiara, Endeavor, All Might, get over there as soon as you can!"
Again, thank you Tony; you made me stop procrastinating and put the whole chapter together. The next chapter is on its way soon, as I now have gotten through the roadblock and have a solid plot to lay out. As always, leave a comment for me to read and I'll be more than glad to read it. Till next time!