The Quirk Thief

by ChaoskingXD

Izuku Midoriya wasn't strong, he wasn't big, and he wasn't particularly intimidating. What anyone can say though, was that he was terrifyingly intelligent, and an idealist. When was attacked trying to save a girl from a group of muggers, he awakened his Quirk and began his climb to the top.

The Quirk Thief Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at /works/40446003.

Rating: Mature Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Category: F/M Fandom: 僕のヒーローアカデミア Boku no Hero Academia My Hero

Academia Relationship: Midoriya Izuku/Toga Himiko, Dabi Todoroki Touya & Midoriya Izuku,

Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku, Bakugou Katsuki/Uraraka Ochako, Midoriya Izuku & Uraraka Ochako, Midoriya Izuku & Mustard, Midoriya Izuku & Shinsou Hitoshi, Midoriya Izuku/Yaoyorozu Momo, Hatsume Mei & Midoriya Izuku, Kirishima Eijirou & Midoriya Izuku, Ashido Mina & Midoriya Izuku, Ashido Mina/Kirishima Eijirou, Midoriya Izuku & Shigaraki Tomura Shimura Tenko, Midoriya Izuku/Original Female Character(s)

Character: Bakugou Katsuki, Midoriya Izuku, Shinsou Hitoshi, Dabi Todoroki Touya, Toga Himiko, Uraraka Ochako, Shigaraki Tomura Shimura Tenko, Ashido Mina, Kirishima Eijirou, Hatsume Mei, Mustard (My Hero Academia), Original Female Character(s)

Additional Tags: Vigilante Midoriya Izuku, Vigilante Shinsou Hitoshi, Vigilante Bakugou Katsuki, Vigilante Dabi Todoroki Touya, Vigilante Toga Himiko, Vigilante Uraraka Ochako, Vigilante Shigaraki Tomura Shimura Tenko, Vigilante Ashido Mina, Vigilante Kirishima Eijirou, Vigilante Yaoyorozu Momo, Vigilante Mustard (My Hero Academia), Bakugou Katsuki is a Good Friend, Midoriya Izuku Has All for One Quirk, BAMF Midoriya Izuku, Scary Midoriya Izuku, Smart Midoriya Izuku, Bakugou Katsuki is a Little Shit, BAMF Bakugou Katsuki, Sensei All For One is Midoriya Izuku's Parent, De-Aged Shigaraki Tomura Shimura Tenko, Yandere Toga Himiko, Midoriya Izuku Has A Gun, Manipulative Midoriya Izuku

Language: English Stats: Published: 2022-07-20 Updated: 2022-11-17 Chapters: 10/? Words:

34686

The Quirk Thief by BeefBouillon

Summary

Izuku Midoriya wasn't strong, he wasn't big, and he wasn't particularly intimidating. What anyone can say though, was that he was terrifyingly intelligent, and an idealist. When was attacked trying to save a girl from a group of muggers, he awakened his Quirk and began his climb to the top.

(I will attempt to upload every Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. School got me fucked up./users/BeefBouillon/pseuds/BeefBouillon

Notes

See the end of the work for notes

Inspired by Dead on Arrival by /users/Mirrond/pseuds/Mirrond

Baby Steps

Izuku Midoriya would've been your typical student, albeit on the weaker side. He was smart, smart enough to skip a grade or two. But he was thin. And small. He was built like a tiny baby rabbit, even his white hair and red eyes made him more rabbit-like. And made him stick out like a sore thumb. Among the browns and blacks, with the occasional blonds, he was the black swan of the flock. And he was bullied for that. Especially by Sho Arata, who decided to make his entire life goal making Izuku's existence hell. God, some people just didn't have any hobbies. Then again, neither did Izuku, but at least he wasn't hurting anyone. Fuck, he didn't even have a superpower! He just had his stupid hair and eyes!

Izuku gritted his teeth while curled up on the ground, a kick slamming into his back. "Fucking freak!" Sho said, practically spitting the insult out. "You and you're kind aren't welcome here, so why don't you just fuck-" The boy wound up for a heavy kick, "-Off!" And his shin came into direct contact with a sharp rock, the momentum of his would-be kick digging the stone right into his leg. "AUGH! YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" He screamed, falling over and clutching his injured leg. Izuku took that moment to pick up his bag and run off, running away from him made Izuku pretty damn fast. It added more to his rabbit motif, Izuku thought while vaulting over the school gates.

He sighed, patting dust off his school uniform. This kind of beating was an almost daily occurrence, but Sho was a dumbass and always fell for the same tactic. Izuku turned the corner towards his home and was stopped in his tracks. There were hundreds of…people? Oh, OH. Those were meta-humans and a lot of them too. Thousands of them. Izuku swore one of them had a crocodile head. Well, it wasn't any of his business. He'd need to find a new route though, he can't get through the crowd- "Help me! Someone, Plea-" "Shut it, dumb bitch! Just hand it over!" Izuku was frozen, the voices were close, it was coming from an alleyway just a couple of steps away. Should he intervene? Izuku looked around, there weren't any police around, and no one else seemed to notice or care about it. Maybe…maybe someone else might come and help?

Izuku shook those thoughts from his head. No, that was stupid. He would've committed the biggest case of Bystander Syndrome if he just walked away. But what was he supposed to do? He only had his bag, but other than some books and pens he didn't have anything to help. He looked around again, checking if anyone else heard it before letting out a sigh. "HEY! SOMEONE HELP OVER HERE!" He yelled, a couple of gasps of surprise coming from the alleyway. Izuku ran in immediately, grabbing a stone off the ground and throwing it with all his might. It hit someone in the face, bruising them but not doing much else. "You little shit!" The biggest one said, and the first thing Izuku noticed was the hair. A striking orange, like a blazing flame. And just now, Izuku's eyes flicked to his hand. A ball of fire. They were meta-humans.

'Well,' Izuku thought, a little fear starting to seep into his bones, but he picked up another rock nonetheless. 'I guess this is where I die, at least I did it to help someone.' He threw another rock, this time, he hit jackshit, his target just dodging the airborne projectile. One of the men ran at him, Izuku noticed that his eyes were slightly dilated, and seemed to grow and shrink. He was either on drugs or a meta-human. The boy was lifted from his collar before being thrown onto the ground.

"You dumb little runt," Their leader, Fire Guy, growled. He walked over, looking angry. His hands were coated in fire, but not burning somehow. "You just HAD to stick your nose where it didn't belong, now did you? Well, congratulations, idiot, you're going to die!" The man stepped on Izuku's chest, before grabbing him with a hand not covered in flames. However, Izuku's face was about to make contact with the hand that was on fire.

The boy tried to shrink back, gritting his face. That didn't work, the man was holding his head in place. He grabbed the man's hand and pulled- Suddenly, red sparks ran off Izuku's hand and he felt his entire body tingle for a moment. Fire Guy let out a scream, but Izuku kept pulling. Then, suddenly something came loose, like splitting two legos apart. Fire Guy fell back, flames smothered and very much unconscious. "You fucker!" One of them screamed, running at Izuku with a rusty metal pipe. The boy just barely managed to dodge the blow, before grabbing the man's exposed arm and pulling again. Once more, red lightning began to spark through the air, and the man let out an agonizing scream before falling unconscious. Izuku felt…something. He didn't know what it was, but he felt it rest in his hands.

Now another guy was running at him, screaming his head off while he charged at Izuku with a knife. Oh shit. Izuku put his hands in front of him and- The man nearly tripped when he was suddenly pulled forward, the knife in his hand flying towards Izuku, and rested handle-first into his hand. Izuku was now holding the knife, somehow. "What the hell…?" Izuku said, confusion clear on his face. What in the world was going on? Did he….did he just awaken his meta ability? "That…That's Shino's power, you motherfucker!" The guy with the weird eyes said, running at Izuku with his fists up. Jesus, maybe it really was just drugs. Izuku narrowly slipped through the punch before driving the knife into the back of his elbow, making the man scream. He clasped his hand on the man's arm, red sparks flying out as he pulled on something. 'Their power!' Izuku realized. He just thought about what that guy said. That pulling ability, the one that stole his knife, was that Shino guy's power? Something came free, before resting in Izuku's eyes. So it was a meta ability, weird.

The last guy…well, it was a kid. The last kid was scrawny with unnaturally grey hair for his age and seemed to be scared. Izuku felt pretty bad for doing this to the kid, but he might call for back- up, and the girl they were mugging was still here. Izuku walked up to the kid and snagged his arm before he could run away, pulling on his power. It came loose easily, flowing into him like mist as the kid went limp and fell unconscious. He looked over to the girl, she had blond hair tied into a messy bun. Izuku was almost certain that she was a meta-human. Her mouth was agape, Izuku noticed that she had her canines were rather large, like fangs. He looked at her eyes, an unnatural shade of yellow, almost cat-like. "T-Thank you…" She said, her voice could barely be heard. Izuku waved it off, "Whatever, make sure to wear contacts, you're eyes stick out like a sore thumb." He said, exhaustion clear in his voice. She let out a little yelp, "W-What are you talking about?" She said quickly, making Izuku give her a side-eyed glance. "You're meta human, don't even try to pretend. The tells are pretty obvious." He said, standing up from the unconscious kid, he just made sure he didn't kill these people. "You're eyes are slitted and unnaturally yellow, like a cat. And you're teeth are bigger, meaning you've got some sort of mutation ability or something. I don't care, but watch yourself." Izuku said, gesturing to his hair and eyes. "I'm meta-human too, but my tells are pretty unique." He stood up and picked up his school bag resting in the mouth of the alley, about to make his way back on his new route home. "W-Wait!" The girl said, "C-Can you give me your name?" She asked, and Izuku looked at her curiously. "Is it important? I'd rather

not give my name to strangers." He said bluntly, before walking off. Just because he helped strangers, doesn't mean he was gonna go out and throw his personal information like that. He was an idiot, but it was never safe to mess around with your privacy. That's why he has Nord VPN.

The next day, the events from yesterday finally hit Izuku like a speeding truck.

He had a superpower. That revelation alone was enough to almost render him comatose in his room. After that brief…was it even worth being called a scuffle? Izuku was just getting beaten up by meta-humans and accidentally stole their abilities. The most notable one he stole was the fire creation one since he could feel it all over his body. It felt like he was sitting in a sauna, but the heat refused to go away. His whole body felt odd, like something was begging to break free. Izuku figured right now would've been a good time to run a couple of experiments, since his mother was out for the day, work and errands would keep her out till sunset.

First up, he needed a place to test out his stuff, stepping out into the city once more. This time, he was skulking around with a hoodie, a face mask, and his hair dyed black. Red eyes and white hair were the main reason he got bullied in school, so logic dictates he should probably hide them now that he's got an actual superpower. He looked around, the little paranoid whispers of his mind constantly on the fritz because now people had a reason to be afraid. He quickly slipped into the abandoned office building, a massive slab of cement and glass in an abandoned part of Musutafu.

There were a couple of homeless people, but he sent them on their way with some cash. The first meta ability he tried out was the Fire Ability he had stolen. Izuku pulled the power forward like he'd done this his entire life, and suddenly his entire arm burst into flames, burning through the sleeve of his hoodie. Panic filled his body, the natural fear of fire kicking in and he immediately tried to smother the flames, to no avail. It took a while for him to calm down enough to turn it off. The next attempt at it, he'd thrown his hoodie aside, and this time he managed not to panic. He stared in awe at the flames flickering off his arms. He saw the original user throw it around, so Izuku figured he could too. He swung his arms, but nothing happened. Maybe it was something else? Izuku tried focusing the power into his palm, he'd heard that in a comic book, and to his surprise, the flames on his arm started slithering into his hands into a condensed ball of flame. A smile began to grow on his face, and he chucked the fireball like a baseball, the flaming projectile flying through the air with surprising speed before exploding into a small explosion against the floor. That'll warrant more experimentation for sure.

Next up were the unknowns. He'd stolen 4 abilities in total, and only fire breathing was shown. One of them was connected to his hands, he could feel it when he looked around for it, and it made his hands tingle a bit. He pulled it forward and the Quirk snapped into place, it wasn't a physical meta ability, that was for sure. For the next 10 minutes, he just stood there like an idiot with his hand out, trying different ways to test what the ability does. Finally, he felt a small amount of pressure in his hand, and the rock he tried to pull in with telekinesis flew into his palm with surprising force. So it's telekinesis. He tried pushing, levitating, or moving the rock to no avail. So he can only pull things towards himself, rather limited but it could be useful. He tried other tests to confirm more things about it.

It had a weight limit, it was a struggle to try and bring anything more than his body weight towards him. Still, it didn't seem to have much versatility but he could make due. Next was the one in his eyes, it felt like a little itch behind his eyelids. He pulled it forward and it snapped into place, then the world suddenly shifted colors, everything around him was a shade of gray or red. Infra-red vision. That would be useful. Next up was the one that felt weird, like a cold fog across his skin. He tried to pull on it, but his metaphorical hand would phase through it like smoke. Strange. He tried to push on it, and his vision was blinded, smoke clouding his sight. It was a smokescreen. It's a deadly combination alongside Infra-red, no one would be able to see through the smoke except him unless they had an ability for that…

Wait, could he even use multiple abilities at once?

Izuku tried it out. It was a bit of a struggle, like trying to write with both hands, but he could do it. Well, that sounded like a goal to work towards.

He came home to the sound of his mother's gentle voice singing, the mouthwatering smell of her signature Katsudon made his stomach gurgle, hours of practicing his meta abilities used up a lot of energy. He'd managed to be able to keep up two meta abilities at once, but it seems the more powers he has active, the quicker he reaches exhaustion. Izuku would keep that in mind in the future. "Hey mom," Izuku said, a genuine smile on his face. Inko turned around, giving her son a smile of her own. "Welcome home, Izuku. Dinner will be ready in a minute, we're having Katsudon, you're favorite." She chirped happily. Izuku gave her a thumbs-up before retreating into his room to change out of his clothes, and it seems god was on his side since his mother didn't notice the burnt hoodie over his shoulder somehow. Well, he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Izuku sat down at his desk, contemplating his future plans. He was planning to get a job as an analyst, or somewhere in STEM, but the awakening of his Meta Ability had opened a million paths. On its own, his ability wasn't very powerful, if it wasn't for those people attacking he might've never found out about it. But, he could gain power. Fast. And if he didn't have an upper limit of the amount he could carry, he could gain power as long as he could find people with supernatural powers. That thought made him excited, but also scared. He had the capability of becoming the most powerful living thing in Japan, given enough time and effort. That made him a target. A really valuable target. That'll mean people will come for him when someone eventually finds out about him, and that means amassing as much firepower as possible before it's too late.

"Well…" Izuku said to himself, a small smile on his face when he pulled out his trusty pocketbook. "...There goes my plans for a mundane future."

Izuku was scrolling on his phone atop a 4-story apartment building, taking a small break. He was doing a bit of research, looking for any signs of other ability holders. There seemed to be a few in his area, according to rumors and speculations. One that caught his attention, in particular, was the case of Gojo Imasuji, nicknamed the Carnal Murderer. He was arrested about 8 months ago, racking up an impressive kill count that reached the double digits. Reports say he escaped last

week, leaving behind a trail of destruction that made the investigators scratch their heads in confusion. Entire buildings were demolished like something big went on a rampage. No survivors were ever found, and the corpses were basically turned to paste. The police had no idea what could've caused this, but Izuku suspects it was Gojo's meta ability. It seemed to be powerful, extremely so. He would look into it later, Izuku wasn't strong enough to take on someone like him at the moment.

Instead, he found several other leads with promise. There were rumors of a gang of "freaks'' roaming a couple of prefectures away. Apparently one of them had the ability to shrug off getting hit with a baseball bat, it sounded like some sort of defensive or resistance ability. He noted that down, Izuku didn't have any powers revolving around physical or impact attacks, so his fire ability should be good for him. He spent a couple more minutes looking for other Meta Humans before turning his phone off.

The night was short, and Izuku isn't gonna find anyone with powers through research alone. Sometimes, getting your hands dirty was the only way something would get done. Izuku pulled on…he couldn't just keep calling it his 'fire ability.' Sure, that's what it was, but giving it a name would make it easier to remember…Fire…Combustion? No, it didn't match, his ability created fire, not explosions…Ignite. Ignition. He smiled, Ignition was a fine name.

Izuku stood back up, pulling the hood of his scorched hoodie over his head and slipping the cloth mask back on. He pulled on Ignition, the warm heat of his meta ability coating his arms and feet, the flames of power igniting off his body. He found a couple of small-time gang hideouts relatively close, maybe he might run into some ability users there?

He pooled the energy into his feet, before taking off into the air with a burst of flame, propelling himself into the air like a rocket. God, superpowers were the best.

It was a quiet night for Nakahara and his crew. They were lounging around, doing whatever. They didn't have anything up tonight, so today was just a day to relax from various crimes and illicit activities. "Oi, Chuuya! Go get me a beer, why don't cha'!" He barked, getting a grumble of protest. The nerve, it's not like they could do anything to him with his superpower! Nakahara's eyes followed his underling going to fetch him a beer, before looking back to admire his forearm. A small smile grew when scales began to grow from nowhere, the gray keratin plates of armor giving him a sense of invulnerability. With this, he could probably rule the whole precinct- no, the whole country!

It's been 3 minutes, and his beer hasn't arrived yet. What the hell was taking Chuuya so long? He let out an exasperated sigh before he got up from the plush armchair he was draped over, tapping the cigarette out over an ashtray. "Oi! The hell is-"

He was thrown back with an explosion of force, and he slammed onto a wall. "What the hell?!" He

shouted, clutching his aching head as he got back to his feet, his men doing the same. The whole room was on fire, did some psychopath throw a bomb in here or something?! "Takashi, Kodachi! Stop pissing your panties and get something to beat someone with!" He ordered, scales growing from his forearms. "Get behind me, I'll go in first!" He said, confidence still flowing through him.

"You'll go first? For some two-bit thug, you're pretty brave. Though, that might just be stupidity." A mysterious voice said before the room was suddenly filled with smoke. "W-what the hell?!" Someone yelled, the nasal tone of voice…sounded like Takashi. "N-Nakahara! Where are you a- AHHH-" He screamed, his pleading voice cut off. Shit, Takashi was down for the count. "Fuck! Kodachi?! Kodachi, are you still there?!" Nakahara said that confidence was draining from him quickly. "Y-yeah, I'm still-"

Sudden silence, other than the crackling flames around him before he heard a heavy thump. Kodachi was gone too. Were they dead? Shit! Who the fuck was this guy!

Izuku was a bit nervous at first. It was Izuku's first mission, and it should be pretty easy. Apparently, the leader of the 4-man squad had some sort of armor meta-ability. Not a strong one, according to the internet, but it was still an ability nonetheless. He took a deep breath in, using Attraction (His telekinetic power) to pull a relatively large rock into his palm before he took aim at one of the windows and gathered some flames around the stone and-

With a burst of fire, the rock shot off like a bullet, shattering the window. Someone screamed, but Izuku was already through the window and he used the same tactic to knock him out, the propelled pebble striking the…gangster? No, maybe a thug? Yeah, a Thug. The small rock struck the two-bit thug to the back of his head, knocking him out immediately. That was pretty loud, and Izuku could hear loud music blaring from the other room, so at least that eased some work off. He charged up a big fireball, the blazing sphere was basically a miniature sun in his hand. Izuku backed up a couple of steps and chucked it at the door-

Nakahara dove out of the way of a small fireball, but even then the resulting small explosion sent him sprawling. What the fuck! This guy's power was crazy strong! Taking over a precinct? As if! If people like these were regular, he wouldn't make it past his little neighborhood! Fuck! The man stood up from over the couch, grabbed a dented baseball bat, and charged towards the hooded figure with a war cry, he swung down hard and landed a solid hit on the guy's arm, sending him back a couple of feet. Satisfaction flowed through him, before being replaced by horror when a storm of fire suddenly surged towards him and burnt his arms to a crisp. Nakahara dropped the baseball bat and fell to the ground, tears streaming from his eyes. His arms fucking hurt. It hurt so damn bad. He saw the monster who did this to him, he saw him get to his feet and walk towards him. Damn it, was he gonna die here? He still had so much to do, it couldn't end here! It couldn't!

"Fucking…bastard…" He spat out, before being knocked out cold with a kick to the face.

Izuku was pretty irritated. He walked out of the building, clutching his arm that hurt like hell. Was

it broken? Man, he hoped not. Breaking an arm for that guy's meta ability wouldn't have been worth it. At least the injury made one fact clear: Izuku needed to work out. He lifted his uninjured arm, finding something new. It felt cold, like stone. He pulled it up and scales sprouted from his forearm. Neat. Now he had some way to tank some hits, so stuff like today doesn't happen again.

On that note, one mission was enough. Izuku was dead tired and in pain. He was heading home.

Unwanted Eyes

Chapter Summary

Izuku gets a troublesome person on his trail

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Izuku could hear the chirping birds beyond the tiny rays of light coming from his closed window. He was still in bed, almost completely immobile. Everything hurt, but that was the consequence of years of inactivity. Suddenly jumping into superpowered brawls wouldn't bode well for his muscles, they were practically atrophied at this point. His right arm hurt the most though, that baseball bat dealt a number on him. Fuck, could he even get up? Izuku tried, his sore body laid out loosely over his bed but to no avail. All he could manage was to raise his arm a couple of inches from his bed before the strain got too much and he couldn't go any further. If stuff like this was going to be an issue, then he needed to do it in situations that couldn't get him killed and somewhere safe, like a gym or at home….Thoughts for later, Izuku would ask his mother to call in sick today, he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to move for a couple of days, plus being away from that idiot Sho was a pretty good deal too.

He spent another 10 minutes in bed, and by that time some of the soreness had dissipated, not enough to walk far, but enough to walk over to his computer desk. If he couldn't go out and collect Meta Abilities, then the next best thing to collect would be information. Comfortably in his plush chair, he slowly inched over to his desk on his rolling chair and got to do some research.

It was late afternoon now, the blue sky turning orange, and Izuku had recovered from last night's excursion enough to be able to finally move relatively normally. Everything still ached though, Izuku would bet good money that would stay for a couple of days. He stood up from his chair, stretching his stiff body. He'd make good headway in finding some points of interest, some far and some close. Reports of Meta-Humans started becoming more and more common, with varying degrees of stranger descriptions. There were tales of a lake monster nearby, a humanoid frog, or at least that's what the rumors started. Sounded like a new kind of Meta-Human. Well, he wasn't interested in frog powers that much, plus it was pretty far away. Instead, Izuku opened his pocketbook and looked over the list of points of interest. He wasn't anywhere near fighting health at the moment, but he recovered enough to do a little recon. If things got dicey, Izuku would pack up and leave. Right now though, he needed to get his right arm checked, if it was serious then he'd have to skip out on his hunting tonight. A shame, but it was better than dying because he got too enthusiastic.

Thankfully enough, the baseball bat hadn't broken his arm, just a light sprain. Unfortunately, that still meant it would take 2-to-3 days to fully heal. He could still exert his arm though, so that recon mission was still on schedule, Izuku just had to be extra careful this time. "Izuku? Are you sure

you're alright?" His mother asked, bringing Izuku's attention back to her. They were in a train cabin, and Izuku had been lost in thought while his mother had been looking at him with a concerned expression. He gave her a reassuring smile, "Yeah, just fine. It's only a light sprain, no need to worry yourself." He said, it eased her concern a bit, but his mother was always a worrywart. "Are you sure? Do you need more days off school?" Oh, Izuku would love more days off school. Izuku would take any opportunity he could to sink himself in his hunt, but school was essential in not drawing suspicion to himself. Someone could connect it back to him, and that's a risk he'd rather not run, considering the Government's been getting a little more hands-on with the Meta-Human issue. "No mom, I already told you I'm fine! See!" Izuku rolled his right shoulder a bit to prove his point. His injury was on his arm, not his shoulder, but Inko gave her son a little smile, "Well if anything bad happens, tell me immediately." She said, then nothing else. That seemed to satisfy her worries for now. Izuku didn't like lying to his mom, but everyone had secrets they wanted to keep.

Izuku was back on the rooftops again, looking at his phone's map and comparing it with his pocketbook. His target was just a couple of blocks over from where he got that Scale Armor ability from. Apparently, some witness reports said someone in a hoodie was going around robbing people, then mysteriously disappearing. They called them the Phantom Thief, which was a name too cool for a mugger with some sort of invisibility or teleportation ability. Izuku weighed his options. If it was invisibility, then Infra-red would find them easily. However, a teleportation or warping power would be an issue. An ability like that would be infinitely useful, but catching someone with something like that would be pretty much impossible. Predicting where they'd come from would be one hell of a challenge since they could be anywhere at any time, plus he had no clue how they'd think. Perhaps catching them off guard would be good? Using himself as bait sounded like a risky plan since he'd be putting himself in a vulnerable position. It'd only take a couple of seconds to take their power, but if he somehow manages to react in time, then that was a Quirk out of his grasp for now. He'd take that risk.

He flew down into an empty alleyway, taking off his mask and hoodie, making himself look like some lost kid in the wrong neighborhood. He walked down the sidewalk, a fake expression of fear on his face while he looked around with mock paranoia. As expected, he was almost immediately pulled aside and into an alleyway and had gotten a knife held up to his throat.

Izuku must've used up all of his luck yesterday or something because he knew that face. The strange, cat-like eyes. The big wide smile with large canines that were all too familiar. The blond hair tied into messy buns. "Hey there, little Hero~!" She chirped. It was the girl he saved that one time. Looks like she knew his Meta Ability was focused around his hands because she was holding his wrists together with a surprising amount of force for someone her size. "I was looking A~LL over for you~" There was something in her voice that he definitely didn't like, an edge that implied that she wasn't all there mentally. "Uhm…" Izuku wasn't sure what to say, since everything in his mind led to being brutally stabbed to death. All this potential for power, only to get killed by someone half his size, wouldn't that be a cruel twist of fate? It would've been the end... if Izuku was an idiot.

He activated his Telekinetic ability, the knife's handle flying into his hand and throwing it aside,

before suddenly jumping against the wall and kicking both his legs into her stomach and forcing her to let go. It was enough to make her loosen her grip on him, but other than knocking the wind out of her? she was practically unharmed. The girl still had that wide smile on her face, her hand reaching under the skirt of the…A school uniform? It wasn't familiar, so it wasn't from here. She pulled out another knife, it was big, almost bigger than her hand. Not good, This was getting ugly, fast. Well, it was time to make a break for it. "Oh, you wanna play rough? I can play rough!" She said, the glint in her eyes definitely implied that she was going to play rough with him alright, rough enough to put him on a missing persons' poster. She began charging forward, Izuku immediately flared up Ignition, the spray of fire was a shock, enough to make her back up. He threw a small bottle of gasoline on the ground, he had started carrying these just in case, and lit it on fire, creating a small wall of flames between them. Izuku focused the raging inferno of energy into his hands, before releasing it as a burst of fire, strong enough to send him onto a rooftop. From then on, Izuku went straight home without completing his mission. It was better he ran now, instead of engaging while he wasn't in good shape. Izuku was already physically weak, he couldn't get into an exchange of blows with someone clearly physically superior to him.

Toga looked at her beloved fly away, the awe on her face was clear. Her hero was able to do so many cool things! She tore her gaze away from the retreating form of her white-haired savior, quickly picking up the knife he'd managed to take from her with some weird power and picking it up by the blade carefully, almost reverently, like a sacred item. He'd touched this knife, his fingerprints were on this knife. She stared dreamily at it, before her tongue slowly inched from her mouth and ran itself up the handle, then up to the tip of the blade, where a small amount of his blood dripped onto. She almost buckled, it was the best blood she'd tasted! Like ambrosia from the heavens!

She looked to where he had her so deliciously close, seeing a sleeveless hoodie and a face mask. It was like a reward for being such a good girl. Like an angel coming down to bless her. Like a god, blessing her with a divine gift. Like a god… a god…

HER god .

The flames that propelled Izuku all the way home died down once he touched the ground. It felt like he was stepping on hot cement for hours, and he really needed an ice-cold bath. He slipped back through his window, using his Telekinesis to help pull himself up the building and back into his room. He reached for his hoodie…only to realize it was gone. He'd left his hoodie back there, god he was an idiot. He had his phone in there! Thankfully his pocketbook was safe in his pants pocket. Still, now that weird chick had all his personal information. Looks like he'll have to be extra cautious. It was a bit irritating, all his data was on that phone and he hadn't set it up to the cloud. He'll just start using his old phones instead, that way he wouldn't worry too much if he lost them…Man, that thing was expensive …

Whatever. he'll think about it tomorrow…

Tomorrow came quicker than Izuku thought, but he felt way better than he did yesterday. He wasn't sure if his abilities gave him naturally increased regeneration, but his arm was already feeling way better than it did. Good enough to come to school today. Back to being treated like a

freak and having to outsmart Sho again. Joy. A sigh escaped his mouth, he really wanted to stay in his warm and comfy bed, away from people, but he had an image to keep up, so he got up nonetheless and started his usual slug through school.

As expected, simply existing elicited some weird looks and quiet whispers. Apparently, being Meta-Human meant being deaf too, because these people seemed to think he couldn't hear them. Though honestly, Izuku couldn't care less about what these people thought of him. They were cowards, afraid of the unknown. If not knowing something was enough for them to shrivel up like dried fruit, then whatever, he couldn't bring himself to be interested in their opinions. However, Sho was at it again, having snuck up from behind him and snaked his fat arm around his neck. That look on his face didn't imply anything good.

Izuku hit the ground hard, all his breath leaving his body upon impact, but he wasn't given the chance to breathe when a hard kick slammed into his stomach. "You thought chickening out for one day was enough to make forget, huh?!" Sho said, anger clear in his voice. Only then did Izuku notice the heavy bandages around where he stabbed a rock into his ankles, and it took considerable willpower not to laugh and point it out, he just wanted it over with. "You think I'm stupid, don't you?" He hissed, grabbing Izuku by the collar and lifting him off the ground, that took some considerable strength, even if Izuku wasn't that heavy. "You're always looking down on me, ever since the day we met. I'll show you just how better I am than you," A fist slammed into his solar plexus, knocking whatever air he'd gotten in that short break. Izuku didn't know what he was raving about, but he'd had enough of this farce. Izuku threw his own punch, sloppy and untrained, but the scales around his arms acted like gauntlets.

It slammed into the side of the boy's head like that baseball bat, and Sho dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes, out cold.

Wait. That's it?

Izuku nudged the kid with his foot a bit. Yep, he really was unconscious. Seriously? He was letting someone like Sho pick on him? The fuck. He either was able of way more force than he thought or Sho could dish out the pain but couldn't handle getting hurt himself. Whatever, he looked around quickly, the scales on his arm slowly sinking back into his body. Izuku should get out of here before someone sees.

As Izuku snagged his bag off the ground and took off in a hurry, someone did see. Yellow-slitted eyes looked on dreamily as her god ran away once again, he seemed to do that a lot, but she didn't mind. Gods weren't meant to be seen by mere mortals after all.

Class was a drag as usual. The teacher spouted shit he already knew, he answered questions he already answered, he did homework he's already done. It was almost enough to give Izuku brain

damage. Izuku knew very well he should have already graduated High School by now. He had the highest grades among the whole school, he was ranked 1st in all of the national tests, and he's even won several academic awards from this school. He knew why he was still here though, it's because he was a Meta Human. It was obvious. The looks teachers gave him, they thought he couldn't see them. Scorn, fear, disgust. They were the same as the children they saw as naive and foolish, how ironic. Izuku's already frayed temper was starting to run short, and he couldn't stand being in this classroom anymore. "Can I go to the nurses office? My stomach hurts." He said with his hand raised. The teacher paused, clearly thinking of just ignoring him and continuing like he always did, but it was a chance to get him out of his class. And so, Izuku went down to the nurse's office with a permission slip to basically just take a nap until school was over.

He let out a sigh of relief once he was out in the hallway, the empty and quiet halls were a godsend. No whispers, no looks, and no barely disguised scorn for something he didn't even control. He made it to the nurse's office, giving her the slip. She gave him a once over, an eyebrow raised from the mysterious lack of injuries. "Stomach ache." Was all he said. He liked the Nurse, no questions asked. Plus, she was the only one that couldn't care less if he was a meta human. Hell, Izuku thinks she wouldn't care if a dog on two legs walked in and started talking. "Whatever, just don't cause too much trouble." She said, waving him off and going back to doing nothing for the rest of her days. He set his bag down beside an empty hospital bed, getting on the mattress and closing his eyes. He would do some research, but today was mentally exhausting, and a nap seemed pretty enticing at the moment. With his eyes closed and body relaxed, he drifted into a fitful rest.

Izuku woke up to the horrifying realization that there was something warm and breathing pressing down on him. The moment he felt it, his eyes snapped open and he jumped off the bed. He immediately started assessing his situation. His gaze flicked over to the window outside, it was the afternoon, meaning the Nurse should've left by now. Without any witnesses around to see, he activated Ignition, his hand bursting into flames. With one flaming hand out, ready to blast this person into ash, he used his open hand to check his pockets. Nothing was stolen. Izuku looked over to his back, it hadn't moved an inch.

A groan came from the other side of the bed, it appears whoever this person was is waking up, and Izuku was ready for a fight.

From the ground, rose a girl with blond hair and-

Izuku immediately threw a fireball at her, forcing her to dodge out of the way. He grabbed his bag and flung it at her, her eyes focusing on the bag. He let a wave of fire loose on the ground, and the girl leapt back, a smile on her face. "You almost got me!" She said happily. This girl was really creeping him out. She flicked out a knife and was at his throat in seconds, Izuku managed to jump back, but not without suffering a rather nasty slash to his forearm. That was gonna leave a scar. Izuku gritted his teeth, reaching for the emergency molotovs…only to realize he didn't bring them to school. Fuck. The blond girl seemed to notice too, since she tensed up when he reached for something, and smiled when she realized he didn't have them right now. Izuku narrowly dodged a slash, throwing a kick that barely even moved her. It did throw her off-balance though, so that was enough. He used his Telekinesis to pull a bottle of isopropyl alcohol from one of the cabinets, the

bottle smashing through the glass pane and landing into his hand.

The girl's eyes widened, realizing her mistake. She lunged at him, but was too late when Izuku had smashed the bottle to the ground. She leapt back just in time before a wall of fire roared to life, creating a barrier between them. "The same trick, huh?" She asked, amused. "It worked once, why not do it again?" Izuku quipped back, before slowly backing towards the window. With one hand behind his back, unlocking the window, he kept his open hand trained on the girl. "Why are you following me?" He asked, "Are you trying to kill me for my ability or something?" That got a laugh from the girl. "Kill you?" She asked, like it was the stupidest thing she's ever heard. "I don't wanna kill you! I love you!" What?

The hand Izuku was using to unlock the door froze for a second, before going back to it. He gave her a narrowed glare, "You're trying to throw me off." He said, sliding the door open. The girl rolled her eyes, "No, you're just paranoid." Izuku couldn't tell if she was lying. With the window finally open, he reached out and pulled his school bag towards himself. "Better being paranoid and alive than inattentive and dead, follow me again and I'll fight to kill." He said coldly, before climbing up the window and leaping out, the flames that burst from his feet burning through the soles of his shoes and slowed his descent, letting him land on the ground safely. Izuku looked back at the nurse's office, hoping to god that girl puts out the fire, otherwise the whole building would've burned down. With a sigh, he took off his destroyed shoes, dumped them into a garbage can outside, and walked home barefoot.

Chapter End Notes

I felt like I was using the lines too much, so I tried using *

Now I feel as though I'm using those too much as well.

Taming Vampires

Chapter Summary

Izuku confronts his stalker and obtains a few new abilities

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!"

His wings pushed against the air, sending him into the sky with only a few beats of his wings. Desperation and fear ran dripped through every orifice on his body as sweat. He could hear it, the sound of a roaring enginnd him. He took a quick glance, and that was all he would be able to do.

The hooded figure launched themselves toward him with incredible speed, jets of flame propelling them like a human ICBM towards him. They landed on his back, the added weight had made him too heavy to keep flying and they both fell. He landed face-first into a wall as the mysterious figure had suddenly grabbed onto a window sill to break their fall, instead, he was the one who had broken something. His nose, and probably a couple of his teeth. His vision swirled, everything spun and blinked with dark spots, before finally falling unconscious.

Izuku sighed in relief, unclenching his thighs and letting his winged target drop to the ground, landing hard on the cement below. Luckily he'd broken their fall, or both of them would end up broken. He let go of the window sill, landing on his prey. Izuku examined his hands, they were covered in a layer of keratin armor that had absorbed the impact of their fall. The scales over his hands had shattered completely, but they'd already started regrowing.

He deactivated the armor, then looked toward the unconscious boy. Izuku felt somewhat bad… kinda…no, not really. He didn't care, it was the kid's fault for doing it out in public, even if it was during the night. Didn't he know scary things lurked in the night? He strolled over casually, grabbing the limp arm and pulling. The strange opaque bird wings on the boy's back had faded slowly, and Izuku felt it rest at the small of his back. He pulled on it, and it snapped into place. A pair of angel wings burst from his back, but this time the color was different. It was a heavenly white color, but Izuku could see a couple black feathers. Strange, did it mean anything?

Maybe, but that's something to think about later. Izuku started to try and experiment with the wings. It felt a little strange, the wings were like two extra limbs, except Izuku couldn't touch them. He took off with 3 flaps, allowing him to reach the top of a 7 story building with ease. Well, that's convenient. He shook his wings, finally starting to feel comfortable with them. He walked over to the edge and peered down, then walked a couple of meters back.

Izuku took off into a sprint, his wings raised and ready. He leaped off the building and took off with a few flaps, he activated Ignition, the flames adding a massive burst of speed. He flew around the city at ludicrous speeds, he was probably about as fast as a motorcycle going at top speed. It was a little unwieldy, the speed making it hard to turn, but Izuku found out by adjusting his wings that he could make tighter turns. He practiced high-speed flying. It was pretty risky to do it in the city since a single mistake could result in him being splattered all over a building, but Izuku figured that was just part of the experience as a rocket-boosted bird.

From that night on, there were rumors and urban legends of a mysterious figure, coated in brilliant flames with a pair of astral wings. An Angel of the night.

Izuku sat in class, bored out of his mind. He spun the pencil in his hand absentmindedly. Last night was quite the harvest, having gotten his hands on three more abilities. He'd experiment on them after school in his usual spot, but that is if he can get through this period without plastering the teacher's brains all over the whiteboard. He stared blankly at the teacher, following his movements but not even bothering to take notes. He knew all this already, he could solve this with his eyes closed. He was smarter than everyone around him, and they knew it. God he fucking hated this place.

He skipped class again, he'd pretty much finished most of the homework for this year, so he didn't even need to show up for anything that wasn't tested. Once more, he had asked to go to the nurse's office, except this time he headed straight for the school roof. The nurse's office was still under repair since there was a mysterious fire that broke out and destroyed the room. Who could it be? Izuku chuckled to himself as he made his way up the stairs. He reached the door leading to the roof and found himself staring at a chain and lock. Like a cheap lock would stop him.

He sat down, leaving behind a melted lock and an open door. He admired the sight as he leaned against the metal railing. The sunset ahead was pretty, though Izuku wasn't one to care much about sunsets, he was more interested in the city. A place full of crime and disorder, still trying to get its bearings after the 3rd world war, and the emergence of superpowers didn't help with that. Well, that just gave Izuku more opportunities, didn't it?

Right now would be a good time for a thematically appropriate cigarette, but he didn't smoke, so sadly he couldn't. It would be pretty funny though. And instead, the bell rang, he'd be here for two more periods, so he should sift through his collection. With that, he sat down and slipped the pocketbook out from his breast pocket, a pen magically appearing in his hands as he began to write.

Last night he'd gained four more powers. He didn't have a name for them, but they were pretty simple. One of them was those weird wings. It seemed they didn't have a physical and tangible

surface, instead being made up of something more akin to energy, meaning it couldn't be destroyed using physical attacks. The wings did have quite the short flight time though, only allowing him to fly with them for maybe a 100 feet before it gives out, luckily they act as a parachute too. He didn't know how that worked, but Izuku wasn't complaining. Breaking a leg wasn't on his bucket list.

The other ones he'd obtained were fairly simple. He'd gotten an ability that lets him set up invisible barriers. Upon further inspection, it was less of a barrier and more of a repulsion field. He could feel it when touching the surface that his hand was being actively pushed back by something, how nice. He didn't know the extent of this power, however, so he shouldn't rely on it to block bullets. Another ability he'd gotten was a resistance ability. Incredibly simple, but that was what made it so good. Impact Resistance was a powerful ability, but it didn't work against fire. The next he'd gotten had incredible potential, given he was creative enough with it. It allowed him to create an exact copy of any non-organic item, but it was only limited to one copy. He tried it out on his pen, and now he had an exact copy of his red pen. He used Ignition to burn the pen, and it quickly melted into black gunk, before fading into dust and being taken by the wind. He burned the original pen, and both of them took about the same amount of time to burn. This wasn't a very good test, but it worked for now. The copy wasn't created out of nothing, instead, it was made of a strange black energy that was converted into the matter used to assemble the pen. It had the exact same properties as his pen, down to the most minute details. Interesting. He scraped the goop off his hand against the cement floor of the roof, pulled out an extra blue pen from his pocket, and was about to start writing, until-

His head immediately snapped to the footsteps coming from the stairs. Someone was coming. He quickly snapped his book shut and slipped it back into his breast pocket, and shoved the pen into his pant pocket. He placed his hand against the railing, ready to jump off at any sign of trouble. Blond hair, yellow eyes. Annoying fucking gnat.

Izuku clicked his tongue as the same blond girl from before suddenly entered the school roof with a big smile on her face. His eyes zeroed in at her hands, there wasn't anything in them, but he couldn't be too careful. "You again," Izuku said coldly, his hands erupting into flames. "Me again~!" She said, her smile only growing bigger. "Didn't I tell you that I'd kill you if you showed yourself again?" He said, irritated. He was sick of her following him everywhere. "That wasn't just a threat, you know." The fire in his hands began to grow restless as he started to dial up the power. "You did, buuuut~" She pranced over to him, only to stop mid-step when Izuku threw a fireball at her. She had to leap out of the way, narrowly dodging the resulting explosion. "Woah Woah Woah! Chill out, I'm not here to hurt you this time! Promise!" The girl exclaimed, raising her hands up. Izuku wanted to keep his word, but internally he didn't want to kill anyone. He'd do it in a heartbeat if she proved to be a threat, but Izuku would rather avoid staining his hands in blood. "That's what you said last time, before trying to stab me." He reminded her, and all she did was wave it off. "Water under the bridge, look, I'll even disarm myself." She said, staring at him. He nodded his head, allowing her to slowly lower her hand underneath her skirt and pull out a rather large knife. She dropped it on the ground and kicked it over to him.

Izuku knelt down and picked up the knife, his hand bursting into flames and turning the plastic and metal knife into a pile of red-hot mush on the ground. "Hey!" She cried out, "That was expensive!"

Izuku glared at her, and her complaints shut down immediately, although she didn't seem to be scared. Instead, Izuku felt a little uneasy. She looked a little too happy after he glared at her. "What do you want? If you don't answer in the next minute, I'll cremate you." He warned, and she immediately started running her mouth. It was a lot.

"Godyoursofuckinghotpleasesteponme…." She said underneath her ramblings. Izuku couldn't help but be taken aback, was this chick alright? "Get to the point." He growled, and she let out a shiver with a disturbing expression on her face before she cut it short. "Alright, long story short, I want to be you're little pet, or maybe you're slave, if you're into that~" She purred.

Izuku looked at her with confusion, "Why? What would you gain from that?" He asked, clearly confused. That just made the girl giggle. "Because I like you, silly!"

…..What? Did she like him? Was that some sort of trick?

"What?" He asked, genuinely confused.

"I like you, silly."

"Is that…is that some sort of threat or something?"

"No! I like you, silly!"

The blond looked pretty concerned, while Izuku started to spiral into his paranoia. Was this some sort of trick? It had to be.

Izuku glanced around, there was no one around. At least, no one he could see. He then redirected his cold gaze onto the girl. She didn't seem to show any signs of lying. "If you're lying to me, I'll end you-" He was cut off by the girl's exasperated groan. "I'm not lying to you! Jeez, you're so paranoid!" She said, walking over casually and giving Izuku a light punch on the shoulder. It took all of Izuku's willpower not to freak out and burn her into ash on the spot.

"Please don't do that again, I might freak out and kill you." He said, the flames on his hand sputtering out as he began to shiver, rubbing at the spot she punched while backing away. The girl laughed, believing that to be a joke. It really wasn't, Izuku really was about to kill her right then and there, but she didn't need to know that. Her laughter suddenly cut out as a look of realization

dawned on her, "Oh right! You don't know my name!" She said, clearing her throat. "I'm Himiko Toga! Please call me Himi-chan!" She announced.

"Alright, Himik-" "Himi-chan." "...Toga-" "Himi-chan."

Himiko glared at Izuku, and Izuku glared back. "I'm not calling you that." He said bluntly, and she let out a huff. "Just do it!" She said childishly, pouting and crossing her arms. A few silent seconds hovered over the two, and Izuku gave in with a sigh. "Fine, 'Himi-chan' " He said, voice dripping with sarcasm, "What do you plan on doing now that you've gotten my attention?" He asked her, and she smiled. "Well, I want to help you with whatever you're doing!" She answered cheerfully. "You seem to be looking for people with superpowers, and then beating the crap out of them, so I wanna help!" Izuku gave her a strange look. "And how would you do that?" He asked, his eyes full of doubt. "I don't know anything about you, let alone what you could do."

Himiko gave him a blank look before realization dawned on her again and she gave herself a light facepalm. "Oh yeah, right." She said, getting a little nervous. "This'll sound a little weird, but I need a little bit of your blood." Himiko pulled out a small pocket knife, which made Izuku realize that he should've suspected her to have more weapons. Whatever, that didn't really matter. Izuku took the knife using telekinesis, the handle resting gently in his hand. He pressed the tip of the knife onto his index finger, then made a small incision. His finger bled quite a bit. He offered it to Himiko, who looked at it with barely controlled hunger. Her eyes seemed to have dilated, and she'd started drooling like a madwoman. It was clear it took all of her strength not to pounce on him, if her entire body trembling was a sign. Her unfocused eyes flicked towards Izuku's face, and he nodded. "Go ahead." He said, starting to feel a little apprehension at her reaction. She rushed him, almost pulling his arm out of his socket when she shoved the finger into her mouth. It felt a little odd, feeding a teenage girl like this, but if it was necessary to see her power, then it's whatever.

A few minutes passed, and Izuku was starting to get light-headed, yet she wasn't stopping. "Hey… Hey!" He smacked her upside the head, and she suddenly jumped in surprise. "O-oh, sorry…." She mumbled, wiping some spit from the corners of her mouth while staring intensely at his still open wound. He jerked his arm out of her grasp, applying a cute pink bandage on it. That seemed to have gotten her attention. Maybe her ability is being able to focus on the least important thing possible. "Pink bandage?" She asked, a sly smile on her face. "It was all that was left." Izuku said matter-of-factly, "Anyway, you've gotten the blood. Do it." He ordered. She nodded and stood there for a bit. A couple of seconds passed and her face began to morph into something different. Her blond buns came loose and fell down to her hips, before shrinking and slowly changing pigments. Her eyes began to change in size and color, her yellow cat-like eyes shaping into Izuku's round and almost child-like eyes.

Izuku rose an eyebrow at the sight in front of him. While Izuku was leaning against the metal railing, wearing his black school gakuran, in front of him was a clone of himself. It was an odd sight, seeing a copy of himself wearing female clothing, but honestly, Izuku had to admit. It looked pretty good. He shook the jokes from his mind, then nodded. "So you can shapeshift into anyone as

long as you've consumed their blood?" Izuku asked, and the clone nodded. "Interesting. What about abilities?" He asked. "Sadly, I can't copy another person's ability when I transform." His clone said. A little disappointing, but this was an extremely useful ability nonetheless.

"Alright, just make sure to not be a burden," Izuku told her noncommittally with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Sir, yes, Sir!" She shouted suddenly, saluting jokingly. She gave him a mischievous smile, and Izuku let out a sigh. It seems he's gotten a troublesome ally.

Chapter End Notes

Sorry for being 2 days late, I had to rewrite the whole chapter because I didn't like where it was going. This one's shorter than the other chapters, sorry about that too. I was in a rush to get this out since I had been two days late on chapter 3, which is pretty bad. I'll try to avoid this issue again.

Live Target Practice

Chapter Summary

Izuku learns the basics of punching people, then proceeds to go punch people.

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Izuku turned the corner at a sprinting speed. Ahead of him was a masked figure, blinking in and out of reality. He'd spent an entire week searching for them, the teleportation ability user. His eyes followed their movements, before suddenly snapping up. They were on the roof. Astral wings sprouted from his back, and with a single beat, he was sent flying up. Ignition roared to life as it boosted him up at high-speed. His target's eyes widened, barely teleporting out of the way. Izuku landed and skidded to a stop, his wings fading away. The teleportation user seemed exhausted, judging by how they were breathing. Izuku was proven right when, instead of running, they pulled out a small pocket knife. In response, Izuku shifted into a runner's stance, his hands to the ground, when the flames that had been licking at his hands exploded with a sudden intensity. Like a rocket, he went faster than the eye could see and was in front of his target in a blink of an eye. They couldn't react in time before an armored fist slammed straight into their stomach, the force was enough to break several ribs. They threw up in their mask, before falling to the side, unconscious.

The white-haired boy let out a sigh as the flames sputtered out, sat down with his legs crossed, and brought out an ice pack. He pressed it against his arms, his body heat alone was enough to melt through the plastic of the pack. Well, that sucked. He picked up an ice cube off the ground and gently ran it down his arm, the ice cube melting the moment it came in contact. Izuku did that a couple more times until he was out of ice cubes. It provided a little relief, but not enough. At least his temperature had gone down enough to be able to touch stuff without immediately melting it. He walked over to the fallen figure and peeled off the vomit-soaked mask. The teleporter was a woman, probably in her mid-20s. Sucks for her. He took her meta ability and left her there, making his way down with his new power.

Izuku had noticed something while preparing to go to school. It was just the normal morning ritual. Wake up, brood in bed for a couple of minutes, clean himself up, then eat breakfast before going to the dump of a school he went to. Except, something was odd around the 'cleaning himself up' step. Izuku had gotten out of the shower, the ice-cold shower felt great in the morning. He was toweling off his messy hair when he'd noticed it. A glance at the mirror and Izuku had noticed that he'd gotten pretty fit. Well, obviously. It would be pretty weird to not gain any muscle while running around, beating the shit out of people with superpowers. The baby fat on his face was slightly melting away, extenuating his teenage charm. His arms had gotten a bit bulkier, not by much, but enough to be noticeable. The area with the most progress was his legs. All that running, flying, jumping, and kicking people into half-death had granted him strong and muscular legs. This wasn't why he was thinking about it though, instead it brought upon a sudden realization.

Lately, he'd been slowly noticing an increase of people with meta abilities in the city. When he'd first started 2 months ago, Izuku would've only been able to find an average of 2 or maybe 4 Meta Humans per night. Nowadays, however, that number has gone up to 3 on average. Not only that, but the strength of their powers seemed to be increasing exponentially. It'd gone from simple body armor and fire manipulation to people who could teleport and fly with magic wings. Izuku wasn't complaining, not at all. This was only a good thing for him. More people appearing with stronger, more potent powers meant Izuku could gain strength at a ludicrous pace. In fact, he'd wager he was already strong enough to take on Gojo Imasuji, the Carnal Murderer. He'd gotten four new abilities in recent memory, and they were quite powerful. Well, he'd think about that later. "Maybe I could ask Toga for help with combat training, she seems like a capable close-quarters combatant…" He thought out loud as he walked out of his bathroom.

Izuku was sent crashing into a wall for probably the billionth time that day, he wasn't sure since he'd lost count after the 5th time he was thrown on his ass. "Jeez, you've got all those abilities, but you're kinda useless without them!" Toga laughed, giving the prone Izuku a smug smile. A twinge of annoyance made his eye twitch a bit, which was unusual for the normally stoic and near expressionless Izuku. "And yet, I'm lasting longer and longer, aren't I?" He shot back, Toga's signature smile wavered a bit. She knew he wasn't wrong. They'd just started training a month ago, and Izuku was already improving at an insane pace. He absorbed information and knowledge like a human sponge, soaking in what he learned faster than any normal person should be able. "Again, I'll beat you this time." He said, determined. Toga let out a small huff, "Don't get too full of yourself!" They both got into position and took their stances. Toga, as it turns out, had no formal training. Instead, she incorporated aspects from several different martial arts she'd learned off the internet and created a mixed-martial arts style that was heavily centered around evasion and quick heavy strikes. Meanwhile, Izuku was already learning her style while molding it into something that matched his crazy intellect. He seemed to be thinking 10 steps ahead of his opponent, his fighting style was full of feints and false openings, it was like getting into a fist fight with a massive minefield. One wrong move and everything blows up in your face.

Toga had stepped on one such landmine. She'd gone for a sidekick, believing it to be truly open. She quickly realized her mistake when a fist was closing in. It had been a false opening, one so convincing it even tricked Toga. The punch had sent her reeling, and the follow-up kick to the stomach didn't help. The girl was sent sprawling onto her back, gasping for air.

Now, it was Izuku standing over her. He wasn't smiling, instead, she could taste the vindication wafting off him. "Taking a nap?" He said, offering a hand up. Toga let out a small frustrated sigh, before taking his hand and letting herself be lifted up. "It's not fair! You're already so good!" She complained, bopping his shoulder playfully. "It took me so long to learn what I know, and you already had learned it in a month!" Izuku shook his head, giving her a sympathetic pat on the back, "That's not true, when it comes to a fight involving weapons, I'd be easily outmatched by you." He said. It didn't really make her feel better, Toga would bet a whole blood bank that he'd surpass her in a blink of an eye in that too. Instead of speaking her mind, she just rolled her eyes, "Psh, yeah right…" She said half-heartedly, walking off to change out of her sweaty workout clothes. Izuku gave her a confused look on her way out, but shrugged his shoulders and went to change too.

He entered the dark and quiet locker room, opening his locker and conveniently finding his boxers

missing. In its place was a pair of boxers that clearly wasn't his, but still fit. How subtle. At least she gave him a replacement pair. Izuku sighed but went on with it anyway.

Toga and Izuku left the rundown dojo, the owners have long since abandoned it in the wake of the 3rd World War. They had been using it to train Izuku in martial arts for a while since the previous tenants didn't have a chance to pack up their stuff and had to leave ASAP. Toga was clutching her head, small beads of tears pricking the corners of her eyes. Izuku had just whacked her over the head with his fist, as atonement for stealing his personal things.

"It's not very nice to hit a woman, y'know!" She whined, making Izuku roll his eyes. "And? I happen to be an advocate of equal rights. I hit whoever I want." He said, dismissing her complaints. After all, Izuku never prided himself in being a gentleman. His fists had met the faces of several men and women during his nightly hunts. Plus, he felt not hitting someone because of their gender was inherently more sexist than holding back, Izuku wasn't someone who believed in gender roles. He was a Meritocrat, someone who believes in the system of Meritocracy.

"Whatever," She huffed, but let a small mischievous smile spread out on her face and tried to snuggle closer to Izuku, only to be gently pushed away. "You're such a buzzkill!" She cried out when he suddenly started speed walking away, deaf to her complaints.

Izuku adjusted the cloth mask on his face, making sure it wouldn't come loose in the coming fight. He was in front of a ratty apartment building, where a rumored drug operation was ongoing inside. He decided to use this as an opportunity to apply the combat skills he'd taken a month off to learn. Of course, he wasn't really going to fight fair. It was just practice, so he activated the Telekinetic barrier around his body, like a suit of armor, as well as Impact Reduction. He was just learning after all, and it'd be pointless to end up dying because he went into a dangerous place ill-prepared. He'd do that once he was more confident.

He silently opened the door and slunk into the building, quietly stalking the halls like an ambush predator looking for unsuspecting prey. He was about to round a corner but froze in place when he heard footsteps. Judging from the noise, Izuku could tell it was only a single person. And so, he waited until the guard turned the corner and-

Izuku struck like a snake, delivering a devastating palm strike to the man's chin, sending him tumbling back, then followed it up with a low leg sweep. His target fell to the ground with a painful thud, letting out a wheeze as all the air in his lungs was knocked right out. Izuku pounced on him in his vulnerable and disoriented state, grabbing him by the hair and slamming it into two punches. He dropped him, the man's head limply hitting the ground, unconscious. One down, a whole building to go.

A fist impacted right into the man's solar plexus, doubling him over. Izuku took that chance to grab him by the head and slam his face directly into his knee, the man falling over. However, Izuku

didn't get the chance to recover when a metal pipe slammed into the back of his head. It didn't hurt, or even do any damage. His barrier and Impact Reduction nullified any damage he would've taken, but that was minus a point, he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings. Izuku stumbled forward, recovering quickly. He turned to his assailant, before narrowly dodging a sloppy swing. He ducked underneath a baseball swing and quickly swept his feet from under him. The man fell over into a rough heap and started getting up, only to be sent skidding across the floor when a soccer kick slammed right into his stomach. Izuku ran over and kicked him again, exposing the terrified expression on the man's face, before digging the sole of his shoe right between his eyes, knocking him out. Izuku let out a sigh of relief, he could feel the exhaustion weighing down on him like a sack of bricks, and it was making him sloppy. He'd already cleared out 3 floors, including this one, and there was only one left. He couldn't afford to get careless now.

He picked up the metal pipe and inspected it. It wasn't in good shape, it was old and rusted, but the blow that hit him certainly didn't help. It left a dent, but it'll work as a weapon. He looted the other man, finding a gun, a knife, and a handful of ammo. He added it into his bag, which was full of the same stuff. Izuku wasn't sure what he'd do with 18 revolvers, but it was something Izuku thought was worth collecting. And with that, he slung his bag over his shoulder and went up the last flight of stairs.

Immediately upon reaching the top of the stairs, he had to jump away from a hail of bullets. It looks like they heard everything that happened downstairs. Well, since they were using guns, Izuku didn't have a single hope of making it through with just his martial arts. A shame, but that's how things usually went. He wasn't bulletproof, after all. He swapped out the barrier with Ignition, his arms bursting into a coat of flaming. The fire gathered into his hands as a ball. He condensed it, to make the initial explosion more powerful, then shot it up the stairs, the fireball firing out like a bullet. It landed in front of their feet and exploded. They were sent back into the wall, with concussions, and burns. Izuku rushed them, kicking the ones that were still groaning in the face, making sure they were knocked out. He stopped at the door. Izuku was certain there were more of them waiting beyond it. The moment it opened, he would be pelleted with lead.

Luckily, Izuku was quite the smart cookie, and he swapped Ignition out with Smokescreen. He let it go until the entire room, from the top and going all the way to the bottom floor, was filled with smoke, before shutting it off. He activated Ignition, the fire building up in his palm into a strong explosive force. It was the size of a pinprick, barely smaller than a small marble, but it had enough force to destroy walls. Compression should make it stronger.

Izuku backed up, then threw it at the door and-

Izuku staggered out from the smog, coughing and limping. Man, was he a dumbass? Letting out a fireball that strong, in that small of a space? Jesus, he almost died! Thank god he managed to activate his barrier and Impact Reduction, or he'd have snapped his neck!

Well, the plus side was that everyone in the hall was probably not getting up. He hoped no one died, that really was an unnecessary amount of force. He limped through the smoke-filled halls, Infra-red active. Everyone he saw still had heat signatures, and they were still breathing, so everything should be fine. Unfortunately, he couldn't see anything other than heat signatures, so Izuku couldn't tell if anyone had some serious injuries. He'll call the nearby hospital for this one. It'd risk exposing his existence, but it was better than having a kill count this early into his career as a vigilante/domestic terrorist/local wackjob with a bunch of superpowers. He reached the final room and kicked it open, revealing a man in the most abhorrent clothes Izuku has ever seen. Like, it's revoltingly bad. Purple leopard print hat with three multi-colored plumes. He wore an equally gaudy leopard print bathrobe he used as a jacket, over his disgustingly bright neon business suit with a red and purple striped tie. Izuku couldn't help but look away from the cowering man for a second, the sheer sight of his clothing made him want to vomit. "What the fuck are you wearing?" Izuku said, reluctantly looking back, not even hiding the sheer disgust on his face. The man didn't answer, instead just flinched and started crying. "Ugh, whatever." He walked over, the man letting out a scream of terror and scrambling back, only to get hit in the head with a metal pipe, and knocked out. Well, that's that. Izuku spent the next half an hour scouring the rooms for drug- making equipment, before promptly chucking them out the window and onto the street below. He did make sure to leave some evidence for the police to find, in a ratty backpack, Izuku had found a piece of paper and taped it onto the bag with 'Evidence' scribbled onto it.

Despite that incredibly dumb blunder with the fireball, Izuku thought he did a really good job. He made off with 6 revolvers, the rest he left in the evidence bag, lots of knives, and money. He looted every man in the building and took the money from the safe. After all, a metal safe couldn't stop him, since melting through it would be a simple task. All in all, he made off with half a million yen and a bunch of weapons he could incorporate into his arsenal.

Chapter End Notes

I want to make future chapters shorter. Reading back to previous chapters, everything seems so disjointed and weird. I was trying to shove too much information into one chapter, so, shorter chapters. Cleaner chapters.

Cult of the Lamb I

Chapter Summary

Izuku goes hunting for a cult and meets an old acquaintance.

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

The flurry of needles bounced right off Izuku's barrier, and he responded with a downward swipe with his armored hand. The brown-haired woman gave him a fearful look, running away while firing storms of needles all the while. The projectiles barely even managed to pierce his barrier, the sharp spines simply stopping the moment they came into contact before falling to the ground. In Izuku's personal opinion, her ability was very good. With enough skill and precision, that power could practically mean a near-infinite amount of throwing projectiles. Someone like Toga would've killed for something like that. Unfortunately, Izuku had several defensive abilities that completely nullified hers. Swapping Scale Armor out, he blinked out of existence in rapid succession, getting right behind his opponent in a single instant. He stabbed her with one of her own needles, the sharp object piercing the back of her knee like paper, making her crumble to the ground. She let out a cry of pain as she fell, tears in her eyes. "It's nothing personal, you just have something I want." He said, before kicking her in the face, knocking her out.

He had obtained a very useful ranged ability and wasn't as destructive or as flashy as Ignition. He tugged on it, and the sensation flowed into his arms. Like gross hairs, spines grew from the tips of his fingers and into his arms. Judging from how the woman did it, he just had to make the same motion as throwing a knife…

He flicked his arm forward, and the needles shot out into a flurry. They pierced deep into the concrete wall. It looks like they weren't as weak as he thought, that only made them more useful. However, Izuku felt a little tired. Did it use stamina as ammunition? No, otherwise she'd have gotten weary way faster. He walked over to the needles embedded into the wall and pulled one out with a little effort. They were really stuck in there.

He examined the projectile. It was made of bone, so it probably used calcium as fuel. Izuku wasn't sure, he'd look into the effects of calcium deficiency later. For now, he had to figure out how that lady managed only to throw a few needles instead of an entire arm of them.

By the time morning came, Izuku was dead tired. He'd gotten out of bed and immediately walked over to the fridge, taking out the carton of milk and downing it all in a single gulp. He began to feel better, the fatigue plaguing him had slowly begun to dissipate. Izuku had gotten plenty of live target practice, figuring out how to only fire 3 needles. It used way less calcium and was more effective. He didn't need to fire a whole volley every time. Izuku had obtained several other useful

abilities during his practice. The one that caught his interest the most was a fire ability not unlike his own, instead, the fire had a shade of black, and seemed to burn hotter. Maybe through combining Ignition and that black fire, he could create and manipulate much hotter flames? That prospect excited him greatly.

He threw out the empty milk carton and quickly made himself breakfast. Mother had gone out early for work today, so he'd have to make his own food today. It was just a simple egg salad, he'd eat it during his train ride to school.

Izuku found himself at a familiar place, the abandoned office building he first used to test out his abilities. He hadn't been here in a while, since he tested most of his powers during his expeditions. However, he wasn't sure how strong this black flame was, so he didn't want to risk burning someone to death. He pulled Ignition and Black Flame (He started naming his abilities since remembering them based on their effects pain in the ass) and they both snapped into place. However, this time, Black Flame and Ignition seemed to have combined before resting on his whole body. Fascinating.

His entire body burst into a cloak of vanta-black fire, the flame consuming the light around it like a black hole. A small smile arose before he pointed his open hand forward and focused the fire into his palm. Slowly, the flames slithered from his arms and into his hand, coalescing into a flickering ball of darkness. With an encouraging breath, he shot the fireball forward and was sent flying back. This was way, way stronger than he first thought. Like, 5x stronger than a normal fireball. The flaming projectile was around the same size and intensity as just a regular fireball. It should've only exploded with the force of a small bomb, yet this was more akin to a c4 charge or something. Izuku didn't know, he hadn't even seen c4 in person, but he thinks that's what the explosions would've looked like.

In its wake, the fireball left a gaping hole in the concrete floor that could fit a whole car. Izuku stared in disbelief. Yeah, thank god he didn't try it out on some random schmuck. Looks like he'd save this combination for more serious fights. He put the two abilities away and looked at the 4 other powers he'd gotten last night.

He pulled a random one forward. This one felt like pure energy, that spun and spun. It snapped into place, and immediately two yellow energy disks formed beside him. He looked at them with fascination. The moment they were formed, Izuku felt a lot of his energy being sucked out, but not enough to incapacitate him immediately. They used his stamina to form the disks. He gave it mental commands, but it didn't move. Instead, he tried something like selecting a target, then to his surprise, the spinning blades of light shot off. They flew to his designated target, a poor mannequin he'd stolen from a supermarket's garbage bin. The blades cut through it like butter, before curving like two boomerangs and returning to his side. So they were homing, and once they cut their target, they'd return to the user. Dangerous, he'd use this for more serious opponents. He didn't want to run the risk of cutting a bunch of poor souls in half.

The second to last ability he'd gotten was a defensive one. He pulled it forward and it clicked into place, then, his entire body got really heavy. At first, he thought it just made him heavier, a really situational and not that useful ability, but upon further inspection, he realized something odd. After a bit of a struggle, Izuku managed to only activate it in his hand. He nearly fell over, it weighed a lot. He tapped his hand, and it felt like metal. He activated Throwing Quills (the needle ability he'd gotten) and took one of the sharp projectiles, then stabbed his hand without hesitation. As expected, it snapped in half the moment it made contact with it. At first glance, it seemed like all it did was add weight, but that was because it didn't affect the skin. Instead, it affected the muscles instead. Maybe it made it harder? Or turned it into metal? He didn't know, but it was definitely a defensive ability. He deactivated it and sighed in relief when the weight disappeared. He rolled his wrist to try and relieve the aching.

The final power he'd gotten that night was a strength multiplier. From Izuku's rough estimation, he guessed it was multiplied by a factor of 5. He activated it in conjunction with Metal Muscle, and he could throw it around like it was just his normal arm. A powerful combination in close quarters. He'd be punching with the force of a semi-truck, only if that semi-truck was made entirely of steel and packed into the size of a small fist. Izuku threw a jab at a concrete wall, and it broke apart like glass in a single blow. He could use this against stronger opponents, and maybe the strength multiplier alone could work against his normal targets.

Time had passed, and Izuku saw the sun setting. He'd called in sick today since he wanted to try out his abilities before night came. It was about time to get ready.

A hooded and masked figure stalked the rooftops, his red eyes watching the shifty man like a hawk. His target was dressed in strange clothing, something vaguely religious. It was something similar to a priest's robe and only went down slightly over his knees. He wore a pair of baggy harem pants, along with sandals. Among the thugs and gangs, he stuck out like a sore thumb. Of course, there was a reason for that. This man was Yataro Shinsato, a member of the Followers of Mammon. It was a satanic cult that worshiped the concept of greed and sought to mold society into a world where those with strength take what they want and the weak suffer. It was a typical radical cult. They curry favors from their scores and create a sense of obligation, forcing them into participating at least once. They disguise themselves as a seemingly innocent and innocuous gathering of people, then swallow up anyone who walks into that church. Of course, Izuku wouldn't have cared if that was all they were. He was an advocate for freedom, and if they desired to give up their sovereignty, then they were free to do so. After all, who was he to dictate what was and what wasn't allowed?

No, he had no issues with them. What did catch his attention was the chance of snagging himself another meta ability. The odd thing about that cult was that anyone who walked in, walked out praising their god. That reeked of superpowers. Izuku wanted it.

Funny, the cult who worshiped greed was going to be torn apart by himself, a greedy individual. The irony wasn't lost on him. Maybe he was Mammon?

Izuku chuckled as he jumped from roof to roof, following Mr. Yataro to their church. The Followers of Mammon were a secretive bunch. The followers were not allowed to leave the building, and only certain special people were sent out at a time. Today was such a case, with Mr. Yataro being sent out to recruit more members. Their leader probably didn't expect anyone to interfere, so wasn't too big on security and making sure their outside liaison wasn't followed. A foolish mistake. Greed finds a way, after all….

Yasamu Shizue had always gotten what she wanted. Always.

She had the unconscious power to bend the minds around her to do her bidding, and she'd noticed. At a young age, she exploited this power. Her greed grew, and grew and grew. She wanted everything. And with her power, she would make everything her own.

It was a bright and sunny morning, and little 8-year-old Shizue had gone out to play with her friends. Of course, as usual, everyone around her started vying for her attention.

"Shizue! Shizue! You should stop bothering with these idiots and come play house with me!"

"No! That's stupid! Shizue obviously wants to go on an adventure with us!"

"Shut it! Don't listen to that dummy Tatsui, you should play doctor with me!"

She didn't want to do any of that, but she couldn't get to say anything, since every time she tried, someone would cut her off. They offered her toys, snacks, money, and almost everything within the grasp of small children. But she didn't want that. Her young age was not indicative of her greed within her. She didn't want just that, she wanted everything ! And she couldn't get anything if they kept cutting her off, so instead, she walked away. Shizue was smart enough to have a basic grasp of investment, despite not knowing what the word was. She could always collect her rewards later.

They all called for her, but she blotted them out. They all ran after her, but she walked past them. They all wanted to be hers. They were all hers.

Just as she thought that she saw a boy with a strange appearance. He was small. Very small. He could've been mistaken as someone a few years younger than herself. The boy had white hair that gleamed underneath the sunlight, delicate porcelain skin, and wide crimson eyes. He was, in all considerations, incredibly adorable. However, despite his appearance, all that took was brief eye contact to notice that this boy was not all he seemed to be.

He was deep into a book several reading levels higher than someone at the age of 8, not even noticing her existence. That irked her. Why wasn't he paying attention to her? She walked over with malicious intentions. She would grab the boy's attention and talk to him, then he would surely notice her, and become her possession, just like everyone else here. However, when she walked up to the boy and tapped his shoulder, they made eye contact, and all the wind in her lungs was knocked right out.

Within his deep crimson eyes, was greed. It was unlike the small girl had ever seen. The greed that ran so deep, so boundless, so insatiable. There were other things too. The shine of passion, the glow of idealism. But what scared her was something else.

When their eyes met, it was like he saw right through her. Like he knew her thoughts, like he'd just searched through her memories. The way his eyes scanned her face was almost robotic, like a computer analyzing data.

However, that moment didn't last long. He sighed, a slight hint of agitation in that breath, then closed his book and walked off into the forest. She was in a trance, but broke out upon the snap of the closing book. Her gaze snapped back to the boy's back, who was quickly fading into the shrubbery. "W-Wait!" She almost cried out, reaching out. She wanted him. More than anything else, she wanted that boy to be hers. That boundless greed that surpassed her own. That was her one wish. However, the boy didn't respond, and instead, faded into the forest.

That day, the boy never came back.

Shizue let out a sigh of displeasure as she lounged on her throne-like chair. It was a plush velvet chair made of the finest silk. Her lackey, Jun Yuma, looked at her with concern. "Shizue-dono? Is something wrong?" The woman asked, concern clear. Jun Yuma. She was a gutless and pathetic person, but she also had a strong power. She could fire high-intensity particle beams from her palm in short bursts. It used the electromagnetic field of the earth to accelerate and direct charged particles. The woman was a coward, an idiot, and obedient. The perfect pawn. That is why Shizue made the fool her right-hand woman. She had no respect for her.

That was not the case for her left-hand advisor, Tanaka Ritsuko. Tanaka was a close friend of Shizue's, having met the girl in her early days as a child and becoming a close confidant. She was highly intelligent but lacked any knowledge outside of numbers and textbooks. Her ability matched her personality well, one that boosts all of her mental capabilities. She could enhance her mind's thought-processing speed by a factor of 100, she could run through every possible scenario and almost accurately predict enemy attacks, and she was really good at doing taxes and paperwork.

In a short amount of time, with Yuma being the brainless muscle and Ritsuko being the brains without muscle, Shizue had built up a relatively sizable organization of mindless drones to do her bidding. They offered her everything. She had pronounced herself as the Embodiment of Greed, Mammon. These morons would give her anything she wished.

Shizue popped a piece of White Rabbit candy. She tended to like this brand specifically, it reminded her of the boy that never left her mind.

"I wonder where he went…" She muttered to herself, shifting the candy around in her mouth, coating it with sugar and the stinging sweet taste. "Is it that white-haired boy again?" Ritsuko said bitterly, "You're always thinking about him. Shizue, it's been 9 years since you've met him, he probably doesn't even live in the same prefecture anymore."

Shizue snorted at Ritsuko's blunt statement. She was well aware of the girl's feelings but wasn't interested in her.

"Relax, Ritsuko. No need to get jealous over it, I just wanted to see what he became. That's all." She said, attempting to soothe her confidant. However, all she got was a frustrated huff. Yuma looked about ready to punch the other girl in the face. Can't she go two seconds without trying to beat someone up? For such a spineless person, Yuma quite an arrogant individual. Shizue sighed, and the two clammed up immediately, like a pair of dogs trained to follow certain orders.

There was a small air of silence for a while. Just Shizue eating her candy and the two women were silent like statues before Shinsato entered the room. "Shizue-dono," He said politely, bowing. The person in question waved her hand dismissively, and he started his report. He had convinced 18 more people to come and visit the Followers of Mammon, where they were ripe for the taking. She didn't care, and the glare she gave him made it clear. He quickly rushed through everything else, before arriving at the topic she always asked about.

"The boy in question was nowhere to be seen." He said dejectedly. Shizue let out a groan. Another bust.

"What a letdown, I guess this place has nothing, too." She grumbled, before biting down on the candy and grinding the sweet treat into powder. She figured there wouldn't be anything here, but she would look anywhere as long as there was a small chance of finding him again. Well, looks like it was time to-

The swirling black fireball flew from his hand like a grenade launcher, and the flaming projectile flew up into an arc, before landing right in front of the thick steel door. The resulting explosion

shook the entire neighborhood, and the entire front of the building was blown off. He could see the people inside in a panic, dragging away the injured from the site of the initial explosion. Oops, hopefully, no one died. Izuku shrugged to himself. Even if they did, it was whatever. This time, he was planning on avoiding any deaths, but he would enact deadly force if needed. Judging from the hallway and the size of the building, it continued down into a large underground facility. That'd mean more cramped spaces and long narrow hallways. Ignition and Black Flame were ruled out. God knows what'll happen if he lets loose a fireball like what he just did inside an environment like that. Throwing Quills were out too, he'd probably be in more close-quarter situations. Obviously, Energy Saw was reserved for emergencies.

That only left a couple of defensive and three abilities centered around CQC. He activated Personal Barrier, Impact Resistance, and Strength Multiplier. With these two defensive powers active, he'd practically be immune to all non-firearm attacks. With preparations finished, Izuku leaped into the fray.

He entered the building and was immediately rushed by someone holding a machete. His opponent swung the dull blade down, and Izuku slipped past it with a side step. In a single smooth motion, Izuku performed a round-house kick that slammed right into the man's head, sending him flying into a wall. Luckily, he was still alive. Izuku had only activated Strength Multiplier to double his base strength. Next were two people, one held a small knife and the other a baseball bat. Izuku prioritized the knife first, since in this situation that was the bigger threat. Personal Barrier (The telekinetic barrier power he'd gotten) would negate it, but there was still a small chance. He rushed the knife man, delivering a right-handed jab to the face. The strike was faster than the human eye but had enough power to knock him out in an instant. Seeing his opening, the remaining cultist swung down with the bat and-

It broke in half against the figure's small frame. Despair was all he felt before he was sent flying with a sudden left hook.

Izuku walked over the unconscious bodies and progressed deeper into the facility, fighting hordes of enemies, tearing through crowds of cultists like a hot knife through butter.

This was starting to get ridiculous. Izuku stopped trying to knock them out and just made them hurt enough to stop fighting, it was faster and more efficient.

Izuku ducked underneath a sloppy right hook, grabbing it then pulling the arm out of its socket with a snap. The man screamed, falling to the ground. To make sure, Izuku stomped on his leg with a Strength Multiplied attack, snapping it in half. He wasn't getting up any time soon. Next, two people charged him with weapons. The fear on their face was obvious, yet they decided to face him anyway. How admirable. Izuku didn't know if that was bravery or an ability causing it. Two weapons came down at him at once, but that didn't pose a threat.

A billy club was coming from above, and a katana swing was coming from the side. Izuku swapped out Personal Barrier for Armor Scales. The billy club bounced off Izuku's skull, Impact Resistance negating the attack. At the same time, he caught the katana with his scale-covered hand and clenched it hard. The blade broke into shards. Time for his counterattack. Izuku grabbed the katana wielder's wrist and, with a quick clench of his hand, it broke like a twig. While that guy was distracted, he turned to the person with the nightstick and delivered a devastating front kick into his knee. It bent backward at an uncomfortable angle with a snap, and the person let out a scream. They both fell to his feet. He made sure the fully place the katana user out of commission, grabbing his arm and breaking it with a quick jerk, pulling the joint out of its socket.

Two quick jabs made contact with a force comparable to getting hit with a cartoonish wooden log trap. Izuku's target flew into the wall with a lot of force and was 100% certain that the man had just gotten a concussion. Next, Izuku back stepped away from a crazed swing, avoiding getting hit in the face by a nailed baseball bat. He sidestepped a downward swing, then took that chance to grab the woman's head and smash it into the wall, knocking her out quickly. Next, a person ran at him with a stun baton. Normally, that probably would've worked for regular people. But Izuku wasn't a regular person. The baton bounced off his armored scales, and Cultist Goon #128 got a mouthful of whoop ass. He tried to swing again, but Izuku swatted the baton aside and it slipped from his grasp. The man tried to run after it, but Izuku grabbed the collar of his shirt and proceeded to beat him senselessly without abilities.

After a minute or two of mercilessly pounding this man into dust, he let him go, his face a blubbering mess of blood, bruises, and tears.

Izuku was starting to get very, very frustrated. He'd been in this godforsaken facility for who knows how long and he was sick of beating up goons. How the hell did they even get the funding to fit all these morons in this place? It was like a clown car that kept spawning clowns out of thin air. Maybe he should start fighting without powers from here on out, that would be more interesting than this. Izuku walked over to the poor soul he took his anger out on, and continued down the corridor, with all of his meta abilities turned off.

He leaped back, avoiding a reckless knife slash, before having to duck underneath a metal pipe. Izuku was engaged with three people, with no powers. One had a knife, another had a metal pipe, and a pair of knuckle dusters. The one with the knife, a stout woman with brown hair, lunged forward with the tip of the blade pointing forward. Izuku sidestepped the attack, before grabbing her arm and pulling it into the way of a metal pipe barreling down for his skull. With a snap, the woman dropped the knife, screaming. "You fucking moron!" She screamed, tears streaming from her eyes. Izuku put her out of her misery, grabbing her by the hair and slamming her face into his knee, knocking her out.

The person with the metal pipe, a tall and lanky blond man, was hesitant, having injured his own teammate by accident. Looks like these people had terrible coordination. All he had to do was wait

for an opening and that wouldn't have happened. With the other two distracted, Izuku plucked the knife off the ground and charged. Metal pipe guy barely managed to react, getting a deep gash on his arm before dodging. He clutched his bleeding arm with a grimace.

"You guys fight like children, are you really adults?" Izuku taunted, causing the person with knuckle dusters to charge forward, enraged.

"What the fuck did you just say, bastard?!" She bellowed. And quick to anger? Man, they were garbage. She charged forward with reckless abandonment, blinded by rage from a playground taunt. Izuku ducked underneath a jab, then responded by reversing his knife grip and driving the blade straight into her thigh. She let out a shrill scream before falling to the ground, groaning in agony while clutching her bleeding leg. "Pathetic." He said condescendingly, standing above her, his gaze full of pity. "Remember this lesson when you wake up in the hospital." With these parting words, he delivered a truly devastating soccer kick straight into her cheek, knocking her out along with a couple of teeth.

He turned to the last man, the one with the metal pipe, and glared down at him, "Scram." Izuku commanded, and the man obediently obeyed, seemingly having broken free from the mind control. How curious. Looks like intense emotional or mental stress breaks the effect. Izuku jotted that down in his mind for the future.

As he was about to turn to leave, he heard a new set of footsteps and let out a groan. He slapped his cheeks and turned to the newcomers-

Only to have to narrowly dodge a bolt of ice. His gaze snapped over to the suspect. Cyan hair, yellow eyes, female. Her hand had been frosted over. Izuku smiled, this was finally getting interesting.

"Send the Special Brigade," Shizue ordered, much to the surprise of the panicking crowd. Those four words had frozen them all stiff. The Special Brigade. It was a company-sized unit created specifically out of others with sufficiently powerful special abilities, despite the members only numbering in the 100s, they had the overall strength of 3,000 well-trained soldiers. It was their trump card. It was meant to be in reserve if an outside organization started to interfere with them directly, however…

"S-Shizue-dono! You can't be serious!" One of her executives cried out, along with the rest of the crowd. "It's just one person, if we send more people then-"

"-Then, they'll get wiped out. Again. And again. Ueda, you haven't gone insane have you?" She

asked calmly, her gaze silencing the room. With order back, she looked to her military liaison, "Send them, this is a threat too dangerous to ignore." With that, the scrawny messenger scrambled off to deliver her verdict, unaware of the feast she brought to the maw of the evil dragon. However, this person was dangerous. No one, not even someone with powers, should be able to fight through that many armed enemies in that short amount of time, and yet, here they are. This was the correct response. A single highly dangerous individual, against their most dangerous unit. Now, Shizue could only hope for victory.

"Oh, you dodged that? Not bad for pond scum." The girl growled, distorting her cute features into something not very cute, raising her hand, a glowing blue orb swirling in her hand. It flew towards Izuku, who countered by activating Ignition and letting loose a massive torrent of flames that stopped the attack in its tracks. From the flames was a boy not much older than Izuku, but was certainly taller and bulkier. His arms, legs, and face were covered in plates of stone. He threw a punch at Izuku, who evaded it. The attack was decent enough, so that means they were trained. However…

That wasn't going to be enough. Izuku used Metal Muscle and Strength Multiplier, boosting his strength exponentially. The resulting punch broke right through the stone, sending the boy flying. "Not bad, for a bunch of newbies." Izuku hadn't even been doing this for a year, but there was no reason to tell them that. His provocations worked a bit though.

"No way, Takuji was-" One of them exclaimed in clear disbelief. It was an older boy with striking orange hair. "Bastard! You'll pay for that!" He shouted, his hands morphing into a strange, bright orange liquid. Magma. He charged forward, ignoring the shouts of his fellow teammates, and swung his arms, splashing lava everywhere. However, it had no effect. Izuku had turned on Personal Barrier. The lava didn't have the speed nor weight to break through the repulsion field surrounding Izuku, so it merely slid off him. Thus, this person's ability was of no concern. He turned off Metal Muscle and toned down Strength Multiplier to avoid killing him, and threw a nasty right hook that struck the opponent's jaw, knocking him out instantly.

"Pathetic, is this all you've got?" Izuku taunted, sidestepping another bolt of frost.

"Like hell! Satomi, Matabei! Go in, I'll cover!" The frost blast girl ordered. "Right!"

With that, the battle of Izuku vs The Special Brigade began.

Chapter End Notes

Sorry for the inconsistent chapter lengths, I just went crazy on this one. I almost had to

delay it because I thought it was gonna go on for longer lmao.

Cult of the Lamb II

Chapter Summary

Izuku takes on the Special Brigade

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

'It would be easy,' They said.

'Just go and rough him up a bit, then retreat,' They said.

Well, it certainly wasn't easy, nor are they in a position to retreat.

Mitsui Yojiron was the squad leader for the Blue Fairy 03 squad. They had 5 members in the squad and were supposed to be one of the most elite squads within the Special Brigade. They had herself, the squad leader. She had the ability to freeze and manipulate the moisture in the air. Next was the second in command,

"Squad Leader, everyone is ready to move out." A young boy with tan skin and rocky hair said, wearing a military-Esque uniform. This was Takuji Gesshin, second in command of the Blue Fairies. He's a serious and stoic man, with a stone-cold heart and an even colder sense of duty. He used to be within a scummy low-run gang and was an enforcer, before he encountered Shizue-dono and was immediately enraptured by her vision. Now, he would do anything to gain her favor. Matching his almost wall-like demeanor was a power that reflected his personality well, allowing him to generate stone plates from different parts of his body like armor.

"Yeah, let's go! I'm getting impatient!" A rough voice bellowed from the background. The origin of this was her idiot brother, Hara Yojiron. He was a hot-headed and easily provoked young man and was Mitsui's complete opposite. He specialized in close-ranged fighting and brawling and had the perfect ability. He was able to turn his arms and legs into magma that burns at temperatures up to 2,000 degrees. Within the group, he was the only one not blindly devoted to Shizue-dono.

"Hara, can you stop yelling? You're getting on my nerves…" A softer, more mellow voice said at an almost whisper. This was Satomi Keiki. She had a cute appearance, being the youngest in the group at only 12 years old. However, despite what her calmer and gentler personality may suggest, she was extremely quicker to anger than Hara. Her ability had come to match her attitude, allowing

her to create a substance that could either freeze into something harder than stone or melt through almost anything like an acid.

"Pfft, yeah. You better stop yelling, or Satomi-chan will melt you into slag!" An upbeat man exclaimed with a wide smile. Morai Ikku is the oldest and most positive of the group. He was a cheery man and was something like Satomi's caretaker. He had a strong imagination and was the most creative in the group, and had the power to match his creativity. He was able to create solid light constructs using the surrounding light sources around himself to make his creations.

"Alright alright, calm down. We're not Elementary school students…" She said dismissively, getting up from her chair and grabbing her jacket from the coat hanger. "Tell everyone to gather up in the Living room, we'll discuss the details of today's mission there." She ordered, and Takuji nodded before walking out.

Today's objective was simple. Locate and eliminate the intruder that had invaded their sacred church. They were sending the entirety of the special brigade over to subjugate that one threat. But before that, Blue Fairy's mission was to act as both an assault and recon team, attacking the opponent to show what ability they have before retreating. This was a bit of a disappointment to the rest of the squad since this was only one of the few times they actually had the chance to be deployed.

"Seriously? Laammeee~" Her brother groaned like an indignant child, then promptly shut his trap when Mitsui gave him a glare that froze his blood in place.

She glared at him for a few more seconds, before letting out a sigh of disappointment, "Anyway, that's the mission. A quick in and out. In the unlikely case that we are defeated and don't come back within 30 minutes, the entirety of the Special Brigade will be dispatched to deal with the threat." She said, much to the surprise of everyone in the room.

"Is it really that big of a deal? I get that this guy took out hundreds of goons but is all that really necessary?" Takuji asked, uncharacteristically worried. Mitsui walked up and gave him a small pat on the back.

"It'll be fine! It's just one guy, right? How much trouble could he give us-"

A lot

The answer was that one guy could give them a lot of trouble. Mitsui was on the verge of a panic attack. He took out Takuji and Hara without breaking a sweat, and was currently pushing Satomi and Matabei into a corner. Mitsui tried her best to provide support, firing any time an opening was

presented, but somehow the fucker would dodge every single one, then give her that smug look that made her want to mash his face into paste.

Matabei's smile was gone, replaced with a tight line of concentration and a hint of worry. He rushed in and jabbed a solid spear of light, only for it to bounce off the boy with nary a scratch, then smash the spear back into light.

"The hell is this guy made off?!" He complained, light gathering in his outstretched hand and forming into a longsword. Satomi wasn't doing much better either, her attacks being completely useless. She threw globs of highly potent acid, only for it to slide off him like he was covered in a hydrophobic barrier. The same went for her hardening substance. They just couldn't seem to get through his defenses.

The opponent suddenly blinked out of reality, before reappearing in front of Matabei, his arm reared back to deliver a devastating punch. He only just managed to avoid it, and even then he was thrown back by the wind pressure caused by the sheer power behind the attack. This guy even had them outclassed in the offense division. All in all, it was an impossible endeavor for them to take on this enemy on their own.

"Mitsui! Go back without us!" Matabei shouted, being thrown back a good couple of feet after he took a punch with a thick shield of light that shattered like glass in a single strike. "We'll hold him off, go and get back up!" He got back to his feet with a stumble, a crossbow forming in his hands.

"But-" Mitsui started, wanting to protest.

"Just go!" He yelled at her, the crossbow bolt coming loose and bouncing off when their target raised a scaled forearm to block the attack. She was hesitant. On the one hand, she knew he was right. They, alone, couldn't even hope to beat this enemy. But on another, she wouldn't be able to bear abandoning them.

"Fuck…I'm sorry!" She cried out, turning tail and retreating. Tears ran down her face as the sounds of battle slowly faded away.

Izuku was in deep thought as he casually tanked the spear strike with his body, absentmindedly grabbing the handle and crushing it within his hands.

Did he leave the stove on? No, he couldn't have…but he couldn't be too sure, right? Should he just deal with these people and go back, then come back after dealing with a stove? His mom would be beyond pissed if the house blew up because he was being an airhead and forgot to turn off the stove. Wait, he shouldn't be thinking about this right now, he was in a fight.

He didn't even move when the little girl tried to splash some strange liquid on him. It didn't affect the barrier, but it melted right through the cement floor. Acid? How strange. How does her body make it? Does it modify the user's sweat to create something similar to acid? If so, how is she immune to it? He was barely paying attention to the other guy and was more curious about the little girl's ability. She threw more liquid, of a different color, and it bounced right off his barrier too. But instead of burning the ground, it hardened into something like cement. And a hardening liquid too? Interesting. Very interesting.

She seemed to be very proficient at using it, being able to swap from the different liquids at a drop of a hat. However, she wasn't too creative with it, unable to use her abilities to their fullest capabilities. He'd deal with her later.

Izuku turned his attention to the young man, somewhere in his late 20s. He was young, and was currently running at Izuku with a sword made of light. Quite cool, it was like Green Lantern's superpower, but without the ring. He swatted the sword out of the way with casual ease, the sword flying from the man's grip and fading into light particles before Izuku had to catch a battle axe with a scaly hand. The man's face twisted into shock, but Izuku couldn't care less. He examined the axe.

It was made entirely out of light, no other solid materials. Interesting. Maybe he affects the photons in the area to induce a strong interaction, thus making a solid photonic object? Interesting. He clenched his grip on the axe, and it broke into dust. The man backed up, but Izuku pushed the advantage, using Blink to get in front of him in an instant. He threw a powerful right hook but missed. However, Izuku did get him with the air pressure, so that was still a win in his books. They were having a conversation in the middle of a fight, and the man produced a crossbow and bolts from light. Izuku blocked one of them with his arm, then swatted the rest out the air. These people were quite good, it was just unfortunate that Izuku was immune to most weapons apart from explosives and firearms. If the guy made a gun out of light, then Izuku would be in trouble, but he only seemed to be limited by simple weapons.

The blue-haired girl had run off, and Izuku figured she was retreating to go call for back-up. Izuku wasn't going to let that happen. He swapped Scale Armor with Throwing Quills and flicked three needles at the running figure with deadly accuracy, only for a shield of light to block them before they made it to their target.

Izuku clicked his tongue, well, that sucks. It was about time he took care of these two.

He blinked out of existence, teleporting in front of the little girl with the weird liquid ability, grabbing her face with his hand. Red sparks flew as he activated his ability and started pulling at her ability. He felt bad using his power on a little girl, but it was the only way to take her out without seriously injuring her. Izuku beats up grown men or people his age, little children are out

of the picture. The girl screamed in agony, and it was a bit of a struggle to tear her ability from her, but it soon flowed into his body, and she fell unconscious.

"YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" Someone screamed, and Izuku turned. He easily avoided a sloppy sword swing, grabbing the sword by the blade and snapping it in half. "I'LL KILL YOU FOR HURTING HER!"

Oof, looks like there was a misunderstanding. Sure, he did hurt her, but physically she was unscathed. Whatever, he'd just deal with him too. He rose a fist, and the man instantly reacted. Even filled with rage, he was still able to think rationally. He backed off and created two tower shields, and Izuku's fist broke straight through them and into the man's chest, the blow sending him back several feet. Izuku didn't give him the chance to recover, and instead teleported to him and drove his foot into his stomach. The man let out a gurgle, blood spurting from his mouth, before trying to create a small knife from light. That wouldn't do. Izuku stomped on his wrist, crushing it beneath his foot and breaking it with a sickening snap. The man screamed his lungs out in agony.

However, that wouldn't last long, when Izuku wrapped his hands around his face and pulled. The man's screams intensified, and he started flailing around in agony. "Relax, it'll only take a minute," Izuku said in a very not relaxing voice as he pulled someone's powers from their body.

With one last pull, it came loose and flowed into his body, resting within his soul. That was finished, but when he looked up, the girl who'd retreated was nowhere to be seen. Looks like a much bigger battle was in Izuku's future. For now, though, he'll try and get comfy with his new powers. First, he tried to make a sword.

He pulled on the hard light ability, and it snapped into place. He focused on the image in his mind, and on the light around him. Slowly the room got dimmer, and the light started to converge in his palm, slowly shaping into a handle, then into a handguard, then into a long blade. It was a little sloppy. The blade was warped, a quarter of the handguard wasn't even there, and the handle was shorter than he wanted it to be. Still, his first attempt went better than expected. He spent another minute or two rubbing the kinks out of the sword, and after a short while, in his hand was a sword made out of solid light. It was an O Katana, but it was closer to a Nodachi for Izuku, considering his small stature. He found that a little funny, so he decided to try and use that type of sword when the opportunity arises.

Next was that weird power the little girl had. It could make acid and instant-hardening cement, or something similar to that, so Izuku would deal with it later. More complicated powers would take more time to even get a hold on, so that'll be a future project, so right now he should probably leave. Sure, Izuku could fight against a couple of goons, but if they end up sending something like an army with guns, then he'd be dead meat. The correct decision here would be to retreat, then come back later once he's figured out a way not to instantly get pelted with rifle rounds...

However.

Living life without risk will leave you with nothing. Sometimes, making an uncertain gamble is the correct decision. And so, Izuku prepared for battle.

Mitsui ran and ran, her throat burning. Every breath felt like acid down her throat, and every step was weighed down by guilt, the guilt of abandoning her team. She knew it was the correct decision, that was the only way to eliminate the intruder, but she couldn't help the gnawing feeling that refused to stop. A failure, that's what she was. She hadn't experienced anything like this in years.

She'll take her revenge, and restore the honor of the Blue Fairy squad. But now was not the time for that, instead, she needs to reach everyone else, asap.

Finally, she had reached the rest of the squad leaders, falling to her knees, thoroughly exhausted. The first person to react was Takata Kenzo, the leader of the Black Dogs squad. He had messy black hair tied into a sloppy ponytail. He quickly rushed to her and helped her back to her feet. "Mitsui?! What happened?!" He said, clearly in shock at her current state. The normally stoic, serious and scary leader of the infamous Blue Fairy had been reduced to this…

"Everyone was…they were taken out…" She said in between gasps for air. That got shocked gasps from almost everyone present.

"Everyone from that squad was…" "No way, even Matabei was defeated…?"

"All of you, quiet down. White Owls, get into formation, we're moving out in 5 minutes." Someone suddenly shouted, and the chatter immediately cut out like a speaker is unplugged. The person who spoke was the leader of the most powerful unit in the Special Brigade, Daniel Grant.

He used to be an American Special Operative, having left the military after 37 years of service before moving to Japan with his wife, who unfortunately died during a domestic terrorist attack from a disgruntled co-worker. He's had 47 confirmed kills under his belt and was a tyrant on the battlefield. To match his war-mongering personality, he wields an immensely powerful ability. The ability to absorb the strength of the dead, and he's absorbed a lot of dead people during his time on the field. He alone had the strength to man-handle everyone in the Brigade with his eyes closed. And if that wasn't enough, everyone in his squad was almost as dangerous as he was. If it were them, then that white-haired menace would stand no chance.

The White Owls were objectively the most powerful fighting group the Followers of Mammon have. While lacking in experience, every single one of the members was personally selected and trained by Daniel Grant himself. In every mock battle they would have, the White Owls would always come out on top. They were an unstoppable group of monsters.

"Ugh, do we really have to?" One of the squad members groaned, getting a cold glare from Grant that could freeze lakes. However, he didn't react, instead just rolling his eyes. The Mad Dog, Hiro Noda. He looked to be no older than 16, and usually came off as one of those slacker types. However, looks can be deceiving. He had gotten his name after the battle they'd had against a gang that took issue with their presence way back in Hosu city, and they had tried to attack their home base. The only person close enough to respond at the time was Hiro.

When people were sent to assist him, it was already over. All 34 attackers were dead, and Hiro was left with nary a scratch on his pale skin.

"Shut it, Hiro, get ready before Grant kicks your ass again." A tired voice croaked from behind. Hiro turned towards it, flipping the bird.

The person had just stepped out of a cloud of flowing black smoke, his baggy eyes staring blankly at Hiro's raised middle finger. "How mature of you." He snarked, slapping it away. This was Satoru Nobira. He was dressed in a regular suit and tie, the type you'd see the typical Japanese businessman wear. It was rolled up to his elbows, showing off his toned and well-defined forearms. Upon his arrival, a sudden wave of fear washed over the entire room.

Satoru Nobira, also known as the Black Death. Despite his rather innocuous appearance and serious attitude, he was a stone-cold killer, and his ability lent to the silent and unseen style of modus operandi he enjoyed. He had the ability to emit a wave of black smoke that extended from up to 20 meters away from him, and within that range, he was unbeatable. No one but Daniel Grant himself had managed to defeat him, with Hiro having tied in almost every fight with him.

The aforementioned person sneered at Nobira, "At least I don't dress like a corporate wagie." He snapped back, slapping the slap away with his own backhand slap. The two glared at each other for a second, before someone spoke up and they both immediately stood to attention.

"Nobira, Hiro. What did I just say? Shut up, and go get ready." Grant growled, his cold glare suddenly heating up with anger, and that was enough to send the two men scrambling away. The sight was incredulous to anyone not within the White Owls. The two most feared members here were being ordered around like a bunch of pencil pushers.

"Those two again… jeez, they never could get along…" A sultry feminine voice purred as the high clacking of heels echoed through the crowded room. The gaze of both men and women snapped towards her, and they were immediately tranced. The woman walked in a strong and confident manner, wearing jeans that were a little too tight, with a crop top shirt that was almost a little too small, and long flowing platinum blond hair.

Araya Yori, the Living Weapon. Only second to Grant in raw skill and strength, and the only person to ever have fought him to a draw. Araya Yori was a monster beyond comprehension, with her ability granting her massive advantages when it comes to information gathering, or when it comes to combat. Her ability was to shapeshift her body down to the atomic level. That granted her to do almost whatever she wanted with her body. She could become any animal, become any person, turn into any weapon, into any item. Her imagination was truly her only limitation.

Suddenly, a pair of delicate arms wrapped around Grant's shoulders, the man barely reacting. "And you're still so grumpy, c'mon, aren't you happy to see me?" She said, a smile gracing her beautiful features, and that alone almost made every person who could see over the crowded rear back in shock. It was like looking at the sun, but if the sun was so beautiful it blinded anyone with its radiance.

"Unhand me, lest you wish to spend today's mission prep regenerating your missing arms." The man growled, pushing her off in a single movement, a feat usually impossible for anyone else.

"Oh don't be such a downer, I'm just saying hi!" She fake whined, running up to hug him again, only to stagger back when her arm was suddenly torn off, blood spurting from the torn stump.

Faster than she could even see, Grant had torn her arm off, his apathetic gaze freezing her in place. "Heal that before we leave." That was all he said, tossing the arm aside before walking off toward two other Squad Leaders. Once he was gone, Yori managed to get her breath back, letting out an agitated sigh. Quicker than it was torn off, a new and uninjured arm sprung to life from the bloody stump. She flexed her fingers, making sure no unwanted mutations slipped through her careful hands.

"What a violent man…" She muttered, picking up her severed arm and sauntering off, leaving behind an utterly gobsmacked crowd.

"Sir yes sir!" The two Squad Leaders suddenly shouted, before motioning to the rest of their squad, and they moved out ahead of the White Owls.

He was walking down the hallway with a casual air around him, like he was on a morning stroll instead of inside a cultist base with who knows how many goons with who knows how many guns

and weapons. Maybe they had more fellow meta humans? That'd be pretty cool. Although he preferred not to fight, it was fine with him if they did. After all, that'd only make him stronger if they lost. And speaking of fighting, he hadn't encountered anyone in the past 10 minutes, which was odd since he had been running into goons every second. Maybe they had run off? Izuku hoped that wasn't the case, that'd be a lame end to a mission.

Like God himself answered his concerns, Izuku narrowly dodged a glowing projectile, the light whizzing past his head. He looked towards the direction it came from, and saw 8 people standing at the end of the hallway. How nice, they came to him instead of the other way around.

Immediately upon realizing that he dodged their opening attack, four people engaged, abilities flaring to the surface. The first to attack was a shirtless man with a pair of nasty knuckle dusters. He threw a punch towards Izuku's head. It was a nice clean punch that cut through the air, and the force behind it was unnatural, so he had a strength enhancing ability. It wasn't as strong as his own, but would still be trouble if he landed a hit. Izuku effortlessly deflected the punch with a flick of his wrist, that simple action was enough to nearly pop the man's arm out of its socket. He stumbled back, but never got the chance to regain his footing before a punch to the chest broke his ribs like twigs, before his feet were swept away and he was sent tumbling to the ground. A kick to the face was his parting gift as he was sent to sleep.

Two other enemies pounced on him, Izuku narrowly dodging a lance that was a good 3 feet taller than him, before having to leap away from a pair of long claws that tore up the cement floor that he was standing on just earlier. He turned to his new assailants. Both were women, taller and older than him. One had strange eyes, and two pairs of translucent wings on her back, and the other had three blades sticking out from her knuckles like Wolverine. How strange.

Izuku's leap had made some distance between them, the two watching his movements like a hawk, and Izuku did the same. They weren't bad at all.

He moved first, Blink and Hard Light in activation. He appeared before their eyes, faster than they could even react, and lifted the bug lady a good foot off the ground using a Kanabo made up of light. She was out in an instant, and the woman with the metal claws barely managed to avoid the bo-staff that was coming down on her. A bead of sweat rolled down her face as she watched Izuku in slight fear.

"This guy's got more than one Quirk…" She said shakily, and Izuku's ears perked up a bit.

"Quirk? Is that what you guys call the powers? Hm…." Izuku thought about it. So far, every person he's met had completely different or somewhat similar abilities….Quirks refer to peculiar behavioral habits, and some of the stuff he's seen certainly was particular…Yeah, he likes that better than Meta Ability. It was more catchy and less of a mouthful.

"I like that name. Well, yeah, I've got more than one Quirk." He said, a smile on his face, before the air around him, started to stir and distort. Suddenly, two spinning disks of energy appeared out of thin air. "And you've got an interesting one, mind showing me what you can do with it?" And with that, the blades flew from his sides, spinning through the air like buzzsaws and converging right to where she was standing.

He swapped out Impact Resistance with Smokescreen and activated Infra-red along with it. This way, no one but he can see what's happening inside the smoke. Two glowing entities flew around in the smoke like buzzing flies, while one vaguely humanoid blob desperately tried to dodge the saws, failing miserably.

One of the saws suddenly made a sharp turn and cut straight through her claws, and one of them suddenly came from below and cut her Achilles's tendons. "I call them Energy Saws, you like them?" Izuku said, the smoke dissipated while the spinning saws returned to his side, before those faded away as well.

"Sugihara-dono! Please help me!" She yelled, and the result was instant. Izuku was thrown back as a sudden force sent him flying, but the boy landed on his feet just fine.

"A pitiful display, Nara. You shouldn't lose so easily." The woman said, walking in front of the injured Nara. She was dressed in dark military garbs, the type you'd see on someone in the SWAT team.

Nara cringed at the insult, "Sugihara-dono, he's got-"

"More than one Quirk? I'm aware, I saw how your fight went down." The woman, Sugihara, cut her off. "I'm not sure how many abilities he's got, but he won't be much trouble, just sit and watch." She said, confident in her abilities.

"Oh? Looking down on your opponent? Whatever just make sure you don't eat your words." Izuku said, a small smile blooming underneath his mask. He wasn't sure what the woman did, but it had to do something with her Quirk. Something that had to do with some sort of force, maybe a pushing force? Like the opposite of Attraction? No, that didn't seem right. Telekinesis had a distinct feeling, and that didn't feel like it, so it was a physical phenomenon. Hm… could it be…?

"Shockwaves, am I right?" Izuku said, and his small smile grew wider at his enemies' shocked expression.

"How did- Ugh, whatever. It won't do you any good!" She shouted, thrusting her arms forward and letting loose a wave that tore up the cement. Izuku stood his ground, Metal Muscle making him weigh several tons and he barely budged from his spot. This would be a fun fight.

Chapter End Notes

I almost missed today's deadline because of too much Warframe, sorry. I'll try not to be such a baller next time.

This chapter was meant to have actual progression regarding Izuku's character and motivations. Unfortunately, the way the chapter went didn't allow for that since the doc would be like 30 pages long, so you peons will have to wait a little longer for some juicy character development.

Cult of the Lamb III

Chapter Summary

Izuku continues his push into the Followers of Mammon.

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Izuku attempted to rush in, his hand engulfed in a massive cloak of black flame, only to be thrown back by a powerful shockwave. He clicked his tongue as he skidded to a stop. That shockwave Quirk was simple, but that's why it was so troublesome. It was incredibly versatile, and the way she used it showed her prowess with it.

Two small knives formed in his hands, Hardlight using the surrounding light around him to form weapons. In a single smooth motion, both knives were thrown with Strength Multiplier adding an extra kick to them, only for the knives to be deflected by a shockwave that threw them off course. So getting close isn't an option, nor are normal attacks. Sugihara could use the shockwaves as a small shield that deflects projectiles. He drained his stamina to create two swirling energy saws, sending the two blades made of pure energy to chase down his target. She tried to blast them away with shockwaves, to no avail. So pure energy wasn't affected, good to know.

Realizing this, Sugihara quickly dodged the saws by launching a shockwave at her feet, sending her flying, then started to hover. Izuku was a little surprised, but he saw through it quickly. It was quite a show of skill. She used small and rapid bursts of her Quirk to keep her in the air and fly.

The woman flew around the room like a gnat, making sharp turns and sudden stops. It was really, really annoying. Dealing with a skilled opponent would never not be a troublesome experience, but Izuku was slowly seeing through her thought process and developing counters to her techniques.

She was barely able to keep up with the energy saws as is, so just a little more should push her over the edge. The fire began to gather in Izuku's hand, the roaring ball of flames striking her dead on.

The sudden blast of fire threw Sugihara from the air and crashed into a wall, her arm and one side of her clothes were scorched.

"Fucking…bastard…" She hissed, stumbling to her feet. Izuku wasn't fazed by her insult. This was a fight, and the winner is the one who decides who was right, and who was wrong, no matter how

dirty the methods were. Of course, Izuku himself has his own lines, like involving hostages and whatnot, but he hoped would never run into a situation like that.

A shockwave washed over Izuku like several dozen tidal waves at once, but he didn't budge. Metal Muscle, Strength Multiplier, and Impact Resistance all used together turned him into a walking fortress. He could see Sugihara getting more and more desperate, now firing shockwaves in an attempt to buy time to escape. "Shit! Ryosei, I need a little help!" She shouted, getting a sigh from the now-named Ryosei.

"Man, and after that speech, you gave poor little Nara, what happened to all that bravado?" He said, taking jabs at her, raising a finger, before flicking it downwards.

How absolutely annoying.

Izuku gritted his teeth as he pushed with everything in his body to move even a couple of inches. "E…Energy Saws…" he manages to growl out. He couldn't mentally summon Quirks at the moment, not while he's trying his best not to get crushed into a paste.

He had nearly succumbed to the immense pressure when he had felt his energy being drained, forming into a pair of swirling blades of energy. He targeted Ryosei, and the man barely managed to jump to the side as the saws flew past him and blew apart the wall behind where he once stood. With his concentration broken, the increased gravity wore off and Izuku staggered to his feet. Right about now was when his gamble is starting to backfire, and leaving was undoubtedly the best option.

Ryosei was running around like a madman with his pants on fire, narrowly avoiding the energy blades, not noticing Izuku's escape.

Izuku warped in and out of reality, Blink letting him fly through the halls without too much effort. He can't fly in his current condition. Judging from the pain… a broken leg, broken foot, sprained arms, and the entire upper half ached like hell, having to support so much weight all at once. It fucking sucked.

He had thoroughly lost. He needed a counter or more enhancement Quirks. Luckily, he'd made out significantly more powerful than he'd gone in. From nowhere, Izuku suddenly felt an immense pressure pressing down on him like a massive hydraulic press, his teeth gritting as Strength Multiplier worked overtime to stop him from getting crushed like an insect. "S…shit…" Izuku swore under bated breath, his arms screaming. With immense effort, he raised his head to glare at the person responsible. The person in question was a tall, lanky man dressed in loose casual clothing. His purple and cyan hair ran from the crown of his head down to his hips, all dotted with cyan dots like stars in a galaxy. With a simple mental command, the energy saws revealed

themselves once more and tore through the air, forcing him to jump back and release Izuku from his Quirk.

Instantly, Izuku activated Throwing Quills, predicting the direction his target would go and pelting him with needles. The projectiles made their mark, Ryosei letting out a scream of pain. Before he could do anything else, Izuku used Blink to teleport right in front of him and clamped his hand around the man's head, mercilessly yanking his Quirk from his body, causing him to fall limp. With a sigh of release, Izuku tossed the unconscious man aside like a used tissue, deeming it safe now that the main threat was dealt with. He never figured out what that ability was, but being immobilized was a big issue. Izuku thrives on being slippery enough to dodge anything they throw at him while having some defense to make sure he doesn't instantly die. Removing his movement would essentially make him completely vulnerable.

He then moved on to Sugihara, the woman having fallen unconscious from the blood leaking from her injuries. With the woman being asleep, tearing her Quirk from her was no issue. He looked for that girl with the claws, only to find her nowhere to be seen, having run off back to the rest of their group. He had to leave quickly because there was no way he could fight anymore in the state he's in.

Today was shocker after shocker, it was getting tiring very quickly.

Both the Red Hawks and Purple Snakes were sent out to try and take out the threat by Grant himself. They thought that those two squads would definitely be able to deal with the intruder. After all, Sugihara was only 5th in terms of power, and Ryosei wasn't far behind. If those two couldn't do it then the whole Brigade would be sent. They hoped that wouldn't be the case. However, Izuku was known for crushing the hopes of his enemies and now was no different.

"Someone's coming through!" One person in the crowd cried out, immediately grabbing the attention of the rest of the Brigade.

"Really?! How many?!" Someone else asked.

"J-just one!"

A wave of gasps. They seemed to be doing that a lot today. Only a single survivor? That means the Red Hawks and Purple Snakes, the two second most powerful squads, were almost completely wiped out by a single person…

"Grant-sama!" Nara shouted as she collapsed beneath her own weight, her entire body covered in bruises and injuries. "Grant-sama! It's bad, really really bad!" Again, Izuku and his tendency to squash the hopes of his enemies came into play. That announcement didn't bode well for their side of the conflict.

"I can guess what happened, considering that only you got back." The man grunted, having left his quarters in the wake of all the commotion. His expression was dark. He turned to Nobira, who froze beneath his gaze. "You, go deal with it." Grant ordered, before waving at the other squads present. "Take whoever you want, I'm sure their leaders would agree." Was all he said before he returned to his quarters. Nobira let out a held breath the moment Grant closed his door, the fear that had clutched his heart having loosened a bit. However, now a desire to impress his squad leader took place.

"I will go by myself, a single opponent will not pose a threat." He announced to everyone in the room, "However, I do ask for some of you to go ahead and probe for his Quirk." With that, black smoke consumed his body, before collapsing into itself and leaving nothing.

The crowd was left there, shifting in uncertainty.

"T..the Yellow Canaries will go ahead." Someone suddenly announced, turning to see a boy in high-school age, his golden hair shining slightly underneath the white fluorescent lights.

"As will the Green Vipers." Another person said loudly, now the crowd shifted its attention to a man in strange attire. He had long black hair that extended out of his top hat. "We will assist the Yellow Canaries in their endeavors, and help Nobira-dono eliminate the enemy." The man adjusted the gleaming golden monocle, before, with a tap of his black cane, he disappeared from sight.

Chapter End Notes

Hey, sorry for missing my deadline multiple times. School's got me fucked up, and also I wanted to play Warframe so yeah. I had to whip this up quickly, so it's WAY shorter than the other chapters, but I'll try my absolute best to balance school and writing.

Errand Girl

Chapter Summary

Toga does Izuku's work while he's Out of Action

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Izuku managed to just barely jump away from the rapier's thin and sharp point, swinging his katana to smack the point away from him. The rapier's blade plunged straight through the wall behind him with scary ease. He cursed under his breath as he took that chance to deliver an overhand swing down to his opponent's head, only for them to abandon the rapier and jump back, now a spear and shield in his hand.

This situation was really the goddamn worst. He was basically fighting with half of his limbs against someone who is proficient in most weapons. And he had some sort of Teleportation Quirk to add on top of it because there is no way he got there without Izuku noticing.

A speartip came rushing towards him with blinding speed, but Izuku blinked from existence and reappeared behind him, the tips of his fingers and all the way down to his forearms covered in a layer of quills. He threw his arm forward, releasing a maelstrom of sharp projectiles. The man hid behind his shield, the quills dug into the shield but it held firm.

Taking this moment of blindness, Izuku cast a wave of fire that blew away the smoke around him and heated the shield. The effect was immediate when his opponent suddenly threw the shield away, a barely noticeable grimace on his face.

"Teleportation, Fire manipulation, Hardlight creation, and a Bone Projectile Quirk? What don't you have?" He mocked.

"Yours," Izuku responded coldly, all the joviality from his voice gone. He seriously needed to find the opening to escape, otherwise, he was done for. He flicked his finger downwards, and the man suddenly fell to his knees, the cement around him breaking and cracking as a sudden weight enveloped him.

"What…the fuck…!" He gritted out. So this is how Izuku must've looked. The boy didn't say anything as he kept the weight on him, tentatively using his broken arm to secrete the hardening

liquid from his fingers and start coating the man in it. "Stop….it….bas…bastard!" He tried to yell, only for Izuku to splash some of the cement on his face, the liquid instantly freezing over and shutting him up. It was petty and childish, but any noises he heard felt like a cheese grater to his brain at the moment, and this guy screaming while he immobilized him wasn't going to be helping. "Sorry," Izuku huffed, dropping the sword. It shattered into dust the moment it hit the ground, "I don't have time for a dramatic fight."

At this point, The man had already passed out and was completely covered in the stone-like substance from the heels of his feet to the tips of his fingers. His head was still free though, to prevent him from suffocating to death. Unless they got a hammer and chisel, he wasn't getting out any time soon. He glanced at his hand, seeing bits of cement crumbling off. The surface of his skin started turning into stone. It looks like he was starting to overdo it. Izuku swiped up his Quirk and kept going, warping through the opening he'd made and escaping into the streets. He was just about to hit his limit, and really needed a place to shut his eyes that wouldn't get him stabbed to death by a homeless bum.

Himiko Toga wasn't having a good night. Not at all.

For one, her victim for tonight had gotten away from one lucky accident. Who even put that banana peel there?! Trash cans exist for a reason! That was annoying, but she would have always found more prey, and if she couldn't, then a homeless person would do. Secondly, she hadn't been able to find her Izuku anywhere. Usually, she'd see him flying around the city, like an angel of justice and bravery, but she hadn't seen him at all. It was depressing. She hadn't gotten her refill of his smell in days, and she was starting to go feral!

Toga laughed to herself lightly at that, slightly lifting the rain cloud over her head. If she ever went feral, she could always count on Izuku to calm her down. Her dear Izuku. Her lovely, lovely Izuku. She couldn't wait to see him.

Of course, she wasn't expecting to see a familiar hooded figure collapse on the ground, face on the cold and dirty sidewalk. Familiar white hair stuck out from underneath the hoodie. It was Izuku.

Looks like the other gods above answered her hopes in the most concerning way imaginable. If she ever saw one of those sky dickheads, she'll-

"Toga…?" Izuku rasped, having seemed to have regained some of his consciousness. He struggled to get to his feet, tearing his mask off his face, and taking deep breaths. She couldn't help but stare and drool. He was so hurt. Her mind was concerned for him. He looked half dead. But on the other hand…

She'd need a change of underwear and a lot of private time. A lot. For now, though, she needed to

help Izuku out. She rushed over to Izuku's side, helping him to his feet.

"What happened?" She said, having to hold back the massive tsunami that was the temptation of licking the little drop of blood on his face.

"Got hit with a Gravity Meta Ability, messed me up good." He told her, voice straining as he hobbled on one leg. "Get my pocketbook from my left front pocket." He ordered, and she obeyed. She may or may not have purposefully skimmed her fingers near his crotch. Who was to say?

She got the small book from his pocket. It was a bland and unassuming leather-bound book roughly the length of a smartphone and only a few dozen pages in length. "Touch near my crotch again, and I'll break your fingers." Shit

Izuku sighed. "Flip to the second page. My address is there, I need you to help me get there. I'm out of energy and I feel like I'm going to croak at any minute so please hurry." That little pleading tone of his was so hot… or, it would be if it wasn't so out of character for him. At least she doesn't have to break into his house again.

"Fuck!" Izuku hissed under his breath as he roughly smacked his broken leg into the trim of the windowsill, sending a sharp and agonizing pain arcing through his whole body. He shot Himiko with a sharp glare that made the girl wither beneath his gaze.

"Sorry…" She said meekly, making sure to enter the window slower and being extra gentle with Izuku. Though, he couldn't help but notice how easily she navigated his room. Like she'd done it before. Maybe…. No, probably. Himiko's probably been breaking into his room while he was asleep. He has had these feelings that someone was watching him, or randomly hearing a noise in his room. Usually, he brushes these off as one-off incidents, like the air conditioner knocking down a pen, but Himiko snooping through his room and doing god knows what makes equally as much sense.

"...You seem quite adept at navigating my room. Have you been in here before?" It was said in a way that wasn't an accusation. More like a statement than anything else, yet it sent chills down her spine when she turned to face Izuku and his red eyes seemed to glow in the dark as they pierced through her very soul.

"I have no clue what you're talking about." She exclaimed defensively. Obviously, she knew it was pointless, once Izuku caught you, there was no way to wiggle free. Both in sparring and stalking.

"Whatever, just set me down on the bed and open my closet. There are medical supplies in there." He said dismissively, letting out a low groan as he was lowered gently onto his plain white bed.

Toga quickly opened his closet and- wow. That is a…copious amount of medical supplies. Where did he even get these? Several med kits, bandages, tourniquets, and even a box full of different injections, all color coded and sorted on their effects.

She was a little shellshocked, but quickly regained her composure and took the bandages and wrappings, and quickly got to work on making a cloth cast on Izuku's broken limbs. Her hands moved expertly as she quickly and efficiently wrapped his broken arm and leg, and had a little trouble containing herself when she took off his shirt to wrap his torso for his broken ribs.

Now that he saw how many bandages he needed, that Gravity Quirk really did a number on him. He wallowed a bit in his failure. Izuku could've handled that way better. For one, he reacted way too slow. The moment that man rose his hand, Izuku should've been on the move. Instead, he stood there like a moron and had taken unnecessary damage. If he hadn't taken that hit, then he probably could've gone farther. But he wasn't in a rush. It'll take a while for them to rebuild, especially with the damage he caused while also permanently taking out some of their more powerful pawns.

However, unless he gets a Regeneration Quirk, he'd probably be out of the game for a week or two….wait.

Izuku looks to Toga, who had finished wrapping up his injuries and was now very openly digging through his room without restraint, and was currently piling his dirty laundry onto herself. "Looks like you're enjoying yourself," Izuku said, the tone of his voice freezing Toga's blood solid.

A little muffled groan came from beneath the hill of dirty clothes. "Just let me have this…" She said as she rose from the pile, picking a filthy shirt off her head and folding it before tucking it into her pocket.

Izuku rolled his eyes, "Whatever, I'll pay you in the dirty laundry if you do me this favor." She immediately got to her feet and saluted. He could almost hear her thoughts as she smiled giddily at him. "Remember my pocketbook? Get it and turn to page 15." He instructed, and she did.

On the page was a long list of locations for suspected Meta Human sightings. They were labeled as targets with their corresponding number. "Target #38 has a suspected Regeneration Quirk. If you go and bring them to me, alive. I'm not sure if I can take them off dead people and I don't want to waste a valuable Quirk to test. Anyway, bring them to me, and you'll be rewarded."

Toga nodded, licking her lips. This deal was an all-round win. Not only does she get to be useful to her beloved Izuku, but she also gets paid for his sacred artifacts. She'd take that deal any time of the day. "I won't disappoint you!" Toga exclaimed. She basically ran out of the room after Izuku had dismissed her, jumping out the window and running off, cheering all the while. It was a good thing his mother was a heavy sleeper. Now, how to explain his injuries…

Toga was overjoyed. Ecstatic. Absolutely jumping for joy. A personal request? From Izuku himself? She was on the verge of going on a killing spree out of sheer excitement!

The blond girl skipped down the hallway, humming a disjointed tune as her butterfly knife practically flew around her hand. She absolutely couldn't fail him. She has to find the target at all costs. If she failed this, then she didn't deserve to live.

Though, she was sure Izuku would cry over her death. The very thought of his crying face made her all hot and bothered. She giggled to herself. Look at her, being a little naughty girl. She didn't have time to fantasize, she had a mission to do!

Pulling out the pocketbook (She was so going to make a photocopy of it and put it on her shrine) she flipped to the page with the target's location. It was a prefecture away, a bit far, but not an issue. Though, a Regeneration Meta Ability sounded like trouble….

Eh, she'll figure it out when she gets there.

She paused mid-step as her flip phone rang in her pocket. She flicked it open and saw it was a message from Izuku. They were moving so fast! At this point, they'll get married in a week! And buy a home! And raise a family! Oh, she couldn't wait for that to happen!

"Missed me so soon~? I've only been gone for a few minutes~!" She teased, getting a couple of seconds of silence and a sigh.

"Be thankful I didn't just hang up on you right then and there. Come back, I've got something to help with your little hunt. I've had a little epiphany." Izuku said, hanging up before she could say anymore.

"Meanie…" she huffed, pocketing her phone, and went back to Izuku's place.

Honestly, Izuku was pretty embarrassed in himself that it took this long to think of it. How to give Quirks, he meant. The hadn't ever even entered his mind. Usually, taking Quirks was a simple matter. The only difference was how hard the person struggled against getting their Quirks taken. It felt like reaching into the person with a third arm and grabbing a part of their soul, before tearing it out and adding it into a little piggybank of Quirks that he can call upon at any time. But for some reason, reversing the process never came to mind. Though, he wasn't sure if this would even work nor does he know if it'll have any negative side effects, but Toga should be able to handle it.

Not even a couple of minutes after he'd called her back, his window was slid open and Toga slithered through, expertly entering his room with silent grace. "I'm here Izu-kun!" She cheered quietly, waving a bit. Izuku gave her a grunt in acknowledgment and waved her over.

"Grab my hand, I think I figured out a new aspect of my Quirk." He said, offering his left hand, the unbroken one. She looked at him for a bit more information, not willing to be a test dummy if she doesn't even know what she was getting into. Izuku gets that. He should start explaining things more, maybe that'll stop him from being so socially stunted.

"I've already explained how I think my Quirk works, right? I'm able to take the abilities of others upon physical contact?" She nodded, now curious. She hadn't heard anything other than the basics. Toga only knew a few of his Quirks, and Izuku would keep it that way. "Well, I think I figured out how to reverse that and instead give Quirks."

Now she understood. He wanted to test it on her, to see if it'll even work. "Alright, I get it. Just know that this'll cost you extra. I want a dirty sock AND a shirt, got it?" Izuku gave her a look that clearly conveyed the message of 'You're a fucking weirdo.' But she didn't mind, honestly, that scornful look made her spine tingle even more.

She took his hand, stopping the squeal that nearly jumped out. This was the first time they'd ever held hands! Sure, she was basically being used as a Guinea Pig, but that didn't matter!

Meanwhile, Izuku had closed his eyes and called upon his current base Quirk. Red sparks flew as it whirred to life, and Izuku could feel both his and Toga's Quirks. Her Quirk was strange. It was unlike any other Ability he'd seen. Most had a distinct shape, color, and feel. For example, Ignition felt like a flicker of flame, glowing a beautiful orange and red. Attraction was small, and if he were to describe it, it was about the size of his fingernail, but it had a faint pull to it like it was pulling you in.

Toga's on the other hand was completely colorless and shapeless. It felt like nothing, like air. An empty canvas. Its shape changed constantly, always shifting and distorting like slime. It was

colorless, transparent actually. It was like her Quirk was actually nothing. Izuku had almost missed it, but caught it when he detected its constant shifting. Interesting. His first thought was to tear it out of her, but the goal wasn't to take, it was to give. And so he gave.

He pulled Throwing Quills forward. It felt spikey and pointy, like a ball of needles. He took it and began to push it into the empty blob. The red sparks began to intensify, and Izuku continued to push. It was taking a lot of effort to give a Quirk, but if he could, then…

Then the world would be in his hands.

Sweat ran down his forehead, and Toga began to whine in pain.

In an instant, the light cut out. Throwing Quills had been absorbed by Toga's Quirk. There was something else to the empty Quirk. It started to gain shape. Not much, but it was noticeable. The surface was a little more prickly, a little sharper. Toga now had two Quirks.

He let go of her, nearly having collapsed from exhaustion. The girl quickly held him up to stop him from landing on his broken limbs and gently set him down. She wasn't feeling too great herself. Getting a new Quirk really, really hurt. It was like someone was pressing down on her head with a hydraulic press. But she felt something. Something new. It felt spikey, like a ball of tiny pricks. She tried to think back to a time when Izuku described how it felt to use other Quirks…

Izuku's leg snapped out in a kick that slammed into Toga's raised arm. Her hand quickly grabbed his leg, then swept his legs from under him in a single smooth motion. The boy was sent falling, but he caught himself before suddenly spinning in her grasp, the grip she had on his pant leg slipping as another kick hit her side, sending her stumbling.

Toga leaped back to gain her footing, while Izuku got back to his feet, sweating but clearly having fun. She was enjoying this too. With a devilish smile, Toga charged forward, and Izuku responded by throwing a punch. A feint! Her gaze quickly snapped down to his knee which was quickly rising. She dodged, and-

Thwack!

-was sent flying into the padded wall as she dodged right into an attack and a sharp kick slammed into her chest, sending her a good foot across the room. Classic Izuku. A feint of a feint. She bet that kick was a feint too.

Toga got back on her feet, panting heavily as she tried to regain her lost breath.

A shadow loomed over her, and she looked up to see Izuku, his expression still blank as he handed her a bottle of water. "Thanks…" She gasped, cracking it open and downing the water in a single gulp.

"What does that make it now? 19-18?" Izuku asked, cracking open his own water bottle and sitting next to her. She let out a small snort as she sat down, grabbing his water bottle and downing that too.

"I'll even out the score, just wait and see." She teased.

"Sure, just not this week, I've got plans." He said, pulling another bottle of water from the plastic cooler they set up. The bottle flew from the cooler and landed in his hand effortlessly. Toga watched it happen curiously.

"How does your Ability even work? Like its crazy broken, but I'm still not entirely sure. Isn't it a pain to have to manage all those abilities?" Toga asked, and he put the water bottle down, his face slightly creased in concentration.

"Not at the moment, but it'll be a problem in the future." He agreed, raising a hand. Fire erupted from his open palm, a sustained flame crackling like a campfire. "Using Meta Abilities, at least to me, is like having a table of tools. If I need something, I just grab it off the table and use it. Though, it's more pressing down buttons." He said, the flame sputtering out as he turned his hand to show his forearm. Instantly, keratin scales grew from his arm into a gauntlet of armor, then long sharp quills grew over that gauntlet. "It's hard to keep more than four Meta Abilities active at once though. It's like having to learn how to use all my fingers to press more buttons at once. I have to concentrate on holding down multiple buttons at once, and if I don't, the machine doesn't work." He explained, using buttons as an analogy to using Meta Abilities.

Toga didn't fully understand, but she gets the basic idea. It's like trying to focus on 5 different screens at once. It's a wonder how Izuku managed to get to 4 so quickly. He's only had his Meta Ability for a few months, yet he uses it like he's had it his whole life…

"Like a button…" she mumbled to herself, shutting her eyes and looking within herself, searching for the button. She felt it. It was spiny, like a small cactus. She imagined it as a button, and she reached out with a mental hand and-

She jumped in surprise as her whole arm began to tingle. She watched in awe as razor-sharp Quills began to grow from her arm. "Woah…" she breathed, admiring the layer of keratin needles that grew across her arm. She's seen him use these before.

A groan broke her out of her stupor, and she looked over at Izuku, who was coming back to the world of the living. "If you're gonna try and experiment, my usual spot is in the pocketbook, don't fuck up my room." He said groggily, apparently deciding to go back to sleep. "And don't forget the target, it'll be good practice for you." With that, he went silent, seemingly having given into exhaustion and passed out. Toga shook her head.

She walked over, taking a deep breath of his hair (He used coconut shampoo today) before stepping out of the window and going to begin her hunt.

Chapter End Notes

Was supposed to post on Monday but it completely slipped my mind, sorry.

Breaking and Entering

Chapter Summary

Toga goes hunting, and Izuku shows some compassion for once

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

A shadow loomed over the derelict building, cat-like yellow eyes staring at the little ants buzzing about below. It was a gang that was on the rise ever since the start of the Government's gradual collapse in the wake of World War 3. They mainly dealt in drugs and human trafficking, specifically Meta Humans, and were damn good at it. According to Izuku's pocketbook, they exported at least 20 million yen worth of cocaine and other illicit substances out of the country, and only god knew how much they made on Human Trafficking. Simply put, they weren't a group to be messed with. She knew that. Her mission was just to capture one person and leave, not to cause a commotion. Toga adjusted the hood of her crimson zip-up hoodie, making sure it wouldn't fall off. She checked all of her knives. Three on both her thighs, one on each arm, six on both sides of the hoodie, and two on her hips. 20 knives in total. Good, it was time to get started.

The goons below were barely on guard. It was a surprise that they lasted this long with that kind of security, but Toga wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. She expertly scaled down the building without attracting attention, hitting the ground and quickly scurrying behind objects to avoid detection. She pulled out one of her knives. It was a beautiful sapphire switchblade, the length of its blue blade shining beneath the moonlight as it shot out with deadly force. She inched closer, knife ready to slit their throats, all the while they talked about their mundane lives as thugs.

"Yeah, so I says to her, 'If yer wants yet poor little hubby back, then yet better strip and-" It was disgusting to hear them talk casually about such atrocities, but luckily, Toga shut him up quickly. Quick as a python, the knife was draped across his Adam's apple, and with a quick flick, the man fell to the ground, gurgling and desperately clutching his bleeding throat.

"What the fuck-" The other guard screamed, reaching for his gun, only for a throwing knife to plunge into his head and through his skull, piercing the brain matter behind the thick bone like butter. He fell to the ground face first, driving the blade deeper into his skull, solidifying his death. With that done, Toga turned to the last guard. He was limp, not dead but was pretty close. His eyes were glazed over, and he didn't move an inch as the blood continued to pour out of him. She put him out of his misery by once more plunging that same sapphire knife into his temple, piercing the brain. That was easy.

She ran her tongue along the blade of her knife, taking in the blood. She was used to doing this

already, so she slipped into an alleyway and stripped down to be completely nude, before activating her Quirk. Instantly, sludge began to envelop her, shifting and molding itself until she looked exactly like the man. Instinctively, she adopted his gate as she grabbed his corpse and dumped him into a dumpster, along with his friend. She waltzed into the hideout, with anyone none the wiser.

Infiltration was a generous word for this mission. In Toga's opinion, she was just taking a stroll through their little hideout with no one stopping her or caring. She traveled from room to room, looking for where they kept the 'merchandise.'

Her target was around 11 years old and had a passive regeneration ability. It wasn't anything too impressive, the kid wasn't gonna be sprouting new arms or legs, but Izuku wanted something to quicken his recovery time. It was something about Meta Abilities appearing faster and faster as time went on, she honestly didn't care much about them. She just wanted to make Izuku happy.

She shoved through yet another pair of doors, and a hand suddenly rose to stop her. "Oi, whaddya think yer doing, jackass?" A big burly man said, a hand shoving her back while another hand was at his holster. Toga noticed it and backed off.

"Get yer shit-covered hands offa me, bitch! You ain't gotta be such a bitch 'bout it!" She yelled, her voice coming out as deep and gravelly, backing up and stalking off.

The guard scoffed, "Braindead moron…" He readjusted his holster and went back to guarding the door, unaware of the nude figure descending from the vent behind him…

With a grunt, Toga finally managed to stuff the goliath of a man into the janitor's closet, making sure not to leave a single drop of blood on the floor. She took the rag she used to catch the blood and sucked on it, her Meta Ability activating once more as she shapeshifted into the guard and continued into the building. She made sure the gun was firmly attached to her hip. If anything went wrong, this would be a good assurance.

She navigated the hallways, looking into every room and closet. She was sure to be reaching the important stuff if they wouldn't let her in this specific part of the building. That means either the higher-ups or the merchandise was here. She licked her lips, looking forward to running into the big wigs of this gang. She would surely get a bonus for taking them out, Izuku was all about his vigilantism shtick, even though they both knew that he could care less as long as he got the things he wanted. He was trying to build a reputation for himself, someone who should be feared in the prefecture. He didn't explicitly tell her that, but she could tell from the way he was doing things.

Purposefully leaving behind people, leaving them powerless or with egregious injuries to build up

his reputation as a powerful yet forgiving enforcer, all the while targeting gangs and scum to make his cause more sympathetic. Toga smiled to herself as she passed by a group of men who didn't even look her way. Her Izuku was so smart.

Somewhere else, Izuku let out a sneeze that made the broken bones in his body shift in such a way that left him on the verge of tears. Never in his life had he ever cried from pain, and he wasn't going to start doing that now. He swallowed his tears, taking deep breaths. Fuck, broken bones suck. He managed to give his mother the excuse that he hurt something during a workout while she was at work, and managed to get a week or two off from school. More than enough time for Toga to find that suspected regeneration Quirk.

Unable to even attempt to stand due to his broken arm AND broken leg, he reached out with his good arm and pulled his laptop towards him with Attraction. Even one-handed, he typed at lightning speed. It's a shame he didn't have proper telekineses, otherwise, he'd be able to write and type at the same time. That'd make searching for Quirk Sightings way easier.

But even while he was, in all accounts, bedridden, that didn't mean he couldn't get anything done. He had a second window opened to a writing document that he would use to compile his findings and transfer them to his pocketbook. He really should start digitizing this stuff. He'll do that when Toga hopefully gets back. For now, however, he had research to do.

[Before the Mission]

"What's this?" Toga asked, holding the makeshift ampule in her hands. It was strange. Inside wasn't solid nor liquid, but instead a gaseous substance. It was blacker than the night, like bottled darkness.

"An entrance," Izuku said plainly, scooping up the molten glass into a bowl of light. He handed it over to Toga, who dumped the liquid out the window. "It's from a Quirk I just got, it'll let me teleport inside. Just break the glass and I'll take it as a signal to either bail you out or to make my entrance."

Toga hummed curiously, shaking the ampule. "Hm…Alrighty! Thanks, Izu-Kun!" She chirped, before walking over to him and leaning uncomfortably close to his face, wetting her lips sensually. "Mind if I get a little…advance before I leave~?" She purred and puckered her lips. Instead, she was sent tumbling into the laundry pile as Izuku threw her back with Attraction.

"Like hell. Now scram, I need some sleep." He said, waving her off with his good hand while yawning.

She huffed again, taking in a deep breath of his unwashed undies, before crawling out of the pile and making her way out the window.

"Good job, you're…. payment is waiting on the bed," Izuku told her, trying to figure out a better way to tell her that the dirty laundry she risked her life for is on the bed. She let out a squeal of excitement, rushing through the warp gate. Obviously, she stopped to lick him without permission, before jumping through the portal before the spears of light could impale her.

Izuku scoffed before continuing to hobble down the dark hallway of cells and prisons. Within them were children ranging from Elementary to High School. Strangely enough, he noticed no adults. Was it more common in Adolescence? Whatever it made no difference to him. All he knew was that every one of these children has a useful Quirk of some sort, otherwise they wouldn't be kept specifically for Quirk Trafficking (He coined that term while researching this particular gang. Give him some slack, he's a borderline psychopath and a vigilante, not the Giver of Names.)

He flinched a bit as he took an unconscious step with his broken leg. God, he needed to find that healing Quirk as soon as possible, being bedridden sucks.

With the promise of getting better faster, Izuku's injured hobble sped up. If the information he… kindly punched out of that gang member was right, there should be a girl with a decently powerful passive regeneration Quirk. If he remembered correctly she had…

Izuku froze mid-step, staring down at the small girl. No older than 11 years old in ragged clothing, curled up in the corner. She had green hair with frosted tips, but the color faded due to the filth and grime caked on her. He found his target. Something inside him quaked a bit, a little spark of anger. Strange, it wasn't often he got angry. Well, with that aside, it was time to get his regeneration Quirk.

The girl seemed to be asleep, curled up in a protective position. Izuku knew that well. He sympathized with her, and honestly, the girl would be better off without her powers, especially during these times. He grabbed onto the iron bars of her cage, and his hands became engulfed in flame. Immediately, the metal within his grasp melted into a molten puddle at his feet. He stepped over it as one would do with a puddle. The small girl has yet to notice him approach, either that or she didn't think of him as a threat.

He activated his Main Quirk and the world around him changed. He could feel it all. The girl was covered in an iridescent green glow, the energy wafting off her like a gentle mist. He gently reached out and grasped her arm, then pulled as gently as he could. There wasn't any point in causing her any more pain. The girl stirred but didn't move. Her blue eyes stared into Izuku's own emotionless red gaze. So she was awake, and seemed to trust him enough to not run away. That was a nice thought.

With a touch, he began to assimilate her abilities into himself. It was a strange sensation. Her Quirk felt like a soft mist, a gentle hug. Izuku's Quirk began to vacuum up that mist and store it within himself, and the more he took, the better he began to feel. He could slowly feel the soreness that ached him fade away, the mild yet constant headache that pounded against his skull began to dim and disappear, the heaviness that weighed him down began to lift from his shoulders. Finally, as he absorbed the last dregs of her Quirk, he almost let out a cry as his bones snapped violently into place. It was agonizing, and he was curled up on the ground, the small girl watching in horror as his body forced itself whole again. The pain was intense, yet he couldn't help the smile on his face as the healing was complete.

With a deep breath, he stood on newly fixed legs. He still walked with a limp, but that was just from the residual pain from getting healed in such a violent manner. At least he hoped. Either way, with this Quirk, his time needed for recovery was drastically reduced. Injuries that normally wouldn't have taken weeks now only take mere days, but the way it healed just now was a bit concerning. It might just be the Quirk being new to his body and adjusting itself. He could tell from the slight disturbance in the mist that it was still getting used to him. That'll all be in due time, right now was a good chance to get more Quirks while freeing the victims.

In front of him, sniffling and hugging each other, were 54 kidnapped children, now freed from their confines. And Izuku had no clue what to do with them. Obviously he wasn't just gonna leave them here, especially since he had already taken his payment. Izuku had a dozen or so new Quirks buzzing beneath his skin that he couldn't wait to use. He couldn't take them in either, since he would be gone almost all the time and plus his mother wouldn't be anle to deal with all of them on her own. He needed to find a caretaker for them, and a place for them to stay. Preferably one with already working electricity and running water. Maybe he should just wipe out that trafficking ring and take the building for himself? Hm… decisions, decidions…

He sat himself down, looking up to the ceiling as he thought for a solution. He couldn't just take out a gang that large in a single night, especially since he has school tomorrow and he'd been gone for too long. Izuku was sure no one would be rushing to get him back to school, but if someone were to ask around then Izuku could be a possible suspect. The government had started a so-called, "Meta Rehabilitation Center," and was essentially kidnapping "dangerous" Meta Humans and forcibly placing them there. Izuku had no interest in being part of a government-funded concentration camp, and he wasn't about to let these kids go through that too. They'd been through enough, but…

Izuku let out a long sigh. It was time to use the money he'd stolen from gangs to good use. A shame, he was planning on using it on better equipment in the future, but it wasn't like making that money back was going to be difficult. He'd just have to raid a few more hideouts, especially since those places have supplies he'll need….fuck, was he really going to do this? He hadn't even found an adult or anything. He looked over the children in fromt of him. Some looked to be as old as him, that gave him some hope. He stood up, readjusting his improvised mask made out of solid light, "Is anyone here experienced in taking care of younger siblings? If you are, please kindly raise your hand." He asked the room. There was a moment of hesitation, before a girl with dirty, matted blue hair rose her hand.

"I…I have…" she said shyly. Izuku couldn't help but smile. With someone having stepped forward, the rest will have the bravery to do the same. Just as expected, a good amount of the older kids had raised their hands. "Good, good. Can any of you do any basic things? Like cooking food and the likes?" A couple put down their hands, but a significant amount was still raised. "Excellent. Would you guys mind being caretakers?"

There was a slight shock. "C-caretakers? But we dont have…" one of them started, only to fall silent when Izuku rose a hand to silence them.

"I'll take care of food, shelter, and water. I just need people who can take care of the children." Izuku said, and that was settled. "Alright, wait here." He said, pulling out his phone and sending Toga a quick message.

A few seconds afterwards, he felt a Quirk in his body shift slightly. The black smoke Quirk. Toga had broken the other ampule on the table. Izuku opened a gateway, a cloud of black smoke growing and expanding before engulfing Izuku. He re-emerged on the other side to see Toga sweeping up the glass shards with the small brush and dustpan he had in his closet. He liked to keep his room clean.

She looked up and smiled, "Hey 'zuku, sorry about your floor." Izuku waved her off, walking over to the closet and opening it.

"Its no big deal, you were a massive help tonight. Thanks." He said, pressing his hand against a spot in the wall. Activating Attraction, he heard a pin click into place. One down, four more to go. Next, he removed the now loose panel of his walls and revealed a thick metal surface. He swapped out Attraction for his Black Fire Ignition combo, creating a black flame that immediately rose the temperature of the room by a couple degrees. He pushed his hand onto the metal, the hard surface instantly melting and letting him fully reach his hand through. He turned down the heat and, again, used Attraction to pull on a pin. That was two, three left.

He solves the rest of the little puzzles he set for any intruders. As long as they didn't have a specific Quirk for it, it could only be solved by him or another person with multiple Quirks. Was it uselessly elaborate? Yes, and Izuku was now realizing it as he changed his muscle into metal to press down on a pressure plate that revealed a pin, before pulling on it with Attraction. He should've just gotten a fingerprint safe…

With the last puzzle complete, something clicked beneath the floor. He opened it and revealed the contents inside. It was a safe laying on its back. He opened the safe quickly, revealing a decently sized fortune inside. Probably about…3 million yen maybe? He wasn't sure. When Izuku raided

gang hideouts or drug dens, he'd just beat the shit out of them and take the money before leaving. He should've bothered to count it, but right now he had enough to afford a decently sized apartment building (building, not a room) and enough for a few months of food if he kept it cheap. He could also just steal food from gangs and what not, but that'd be a little tricky. Food can be ruined easier than money.

Toga walked over and curiously took a peek over his shoulder, letting out a whistle as she looked at the money on the ground. "Damn, thats a lot of cash. What are you gonna do with all that?" She asked curiously.

"Buy an apartment building, food, water, and some cheap futons. Those kids need a place to stay." He said. That got a genuine reaction from her. It was shock and more curiosity.

"For real? I didn't know you had such a bleeding heart!" Toga exclaimed, and she really didn't. Izuku usually was so cold, ruthless and calculating in the sexiest way imaginable, like a hot and hyper intelligent supervillain, but perhaps he had a hidden soft side…?

"I'm not completely heartless Toga, those kids deserve a chance for the better. And with the Meta Rehabilitation Centers opening up for business, the worlds about to go to shit at any minute." Izuku said matter-of-factly, indicating Toga to the rucksack on the table. She passed it over to him and stuffed 500,000 yen into the bag, before slinging it over his shoulder and opening another hole in space.

"I wanna come with!" She exclaimed, rushing over and clinging to his arm, "I'm curious to see how this goes." She told him with a wry smile. Izuku didn't smile back, instead just choosing to say nothing with that cold neutral expression on his face as they were both engulfed in black smoke.

Izuku worked like a well-oiled machine. In less than two hours, he had procured a rundown apartment building. It was old and clearly abandoned, but he'd bought it for cheaper than he'd expected. Immediately, he'd gotten work to set up the rooms. For now, while the other rooms were being cleaned, the children were placed in five rooms, with 10 children and 1 improvised caretaker in each room. The extra who weren't with the children were busy rebuilding their strength so they can help with cleaning the other rooms. Izuku was planning to raid the Rehabilitation Centers when he had gotten strong enough, so they needed as much space as possible. The apartment building had 4 stories, with around 50 rooms on each floor. That meant they had a lot of room, but a lot of stuff to clean. At the moment, it was just Izuku and Toga. Until the other older kids had recovered, they had to make due. The two had managed to clean a few rooms before it was getting way too late. Before they left however, he left them with some basic supplies. Some pots and pans, ingredients for food, and a portable gas stove along with some butane canisters.

The caretakers were a bit hesitant, but accepted their new roles without complaint. It was better

than being homeless and being taken again. As a portal opened, some of the children thanked them on their way out. It felt nice, though Toga still doesn't really understand why he's doing this. It seemed a little out of nowhere considering how ruthlessly he tears apart drug dealers and thugs, but she found this side of him to be hot in the way watching a mother care for her children would be hot.

….She really needed a shower. Long and cold.

Izuku collapsed into bed the moment he got into his room, the exhaustion pulling him deeper into the depths of sleep. "Thanks for today, close the window on your way out…" Izuku muttered, his face smothered by a blanket. Before Toga could even respond, he was out like a light. She sighed. Typical.

She walked over, kissing his cheek and licking the nape of his neck before climbing out. The night was still young, and Toga was itching to use her new ability on some unsuspecting victims.

Chapter End Notes

Guess who forgot to post the chapter even after it was finished? This guy!

You'll probably notice that the recent chapters have noticeably dropped in quality, and that's due to a couple of factors. The first reason is because of a lack of any free time to write, I've resorted to writing on my phone any chance I get. Luckily, my English teacher doesn't mind if I write in the middle of her lessons as long as I keep my grades up, so that's a plus. The second is because editing is a pain in the ass when Grammarly is barely fucking working. Like seriously, it just doesn't work no matter what I try so unless I manage to snag a Beta Reader and an editor, the future chapters are going to be chockful of overlooked grammatical errors and weird sentences. Sorry.

Birth of an Empire

Chapter Summary

Izuku becomes a mommy dommy and crushes someone's balls

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

An explosion blew straight through the Yakuza hideout front door, Izuku not even bothering to go in quietly this time around as he blasted the 1-foot thick door, weighing damn near 100 pounds of solid steel right off its hinges and sent it flying through the hallway. Miraculously, it avoided hitting anyone. Any poor sap hit by that would've been turned into human puree. Izuku emerged from the smoke, hauling ass. The black flames he used to blow open the steel door sputtered out before a new Quirk took its place and he felt his entire body begin to tense.

"Shit! It's one of them Meta-Freaks, hurry and pump 'em fulla lead!"

A cacophony of gunshots rang out, all aimed down at the hooded figure that started tearing through the underground building. The world was in slow motion as two of his newest abilities went into overdrive, Reflex Booster, and Thought Acceleration. He avoided the maelstrom of bullets with frightening ease before yet another one of his newest Quirks activated and he seemingly blinked out of existence. Without the option of even reacting in time, a fist slammed into one of the Yakuza member's chest with a sickening song of cracking bones, breaking half a dozen ribs in a single blow and sending the man flying into a (thankfully) padded chair, unconscious and probably on death's door. His mates barely had any time to panic before another two were taken out of the equation. Izuku grabbed one of them by the hair, slamming it violently through a wooden table and breaking it in half. The second was suddenly thrown across the room, hitting the wall, splayed out. Not long after, two knives made of black smoke stabbed through his hands and pinned him to the wall, screaming in agony as he was hung like a replica of Jesus Christ.

The world began to speed up as Reflex Boost and Thought Acceleration began to slowly wear off, bringing him back to a normal perspective of time. The Super Speed was turned off, and immediately he nearly fell over as the strain of moving at speeds not meant for his body hit him all at once. He groaned as he leaned against the wall. "Super Speed is handy but puts way too much of a strain on my body. Maybe Metal Muscle could help with the drawback?" He thought out loud, Passive Regeneration taking effect and began to heal the micro-tears in his musculature. He took a deep breath, and once he felt like he wouldn't fall over, he stood back up and patted the dust off himself. At least Super Speed came with an in-built Impact Resistance because otherwise, the particles in the air would've bruised him like crazy. Instead, they felt like tiny prickles, so that was nice.

He examined his work. One person was pinned to the walls, still screaming like a banshee. One half-dead on the couch and probably had one of the bone fractures piercing his lungs, considering he was gasping for air. The one who got his noggin slammed through a table would be fine, but they'd wake up with one hell of a concussion and a killer headache. He wasn't gonna wake up any time soon, so he left that guy alone. Izuku dealt with the others. He punched the screaming one in the face, before pulling out the knives jammed into his palm and shoving the Regeneration Quirk into him, healing his injuries before he bled out. Izuku wasn't sure if he was gonna suddenly wake up and try and stab him from behind, so he snapped his wrists and ankles just in case. Izuku did the same with the one whose ribs were broken, except without the whole ankle and wrist breaking part. He wasn't getting up any time soon either.

With the people closest to death healed, Izuku wiped his hands of the matter and continued into the hornet's nest, tearing off a much thinner metal door with his bare hands and tossing it aside like a candy wrapper. All that noise would've attracted a bunch of attention, so increased resistance was to be expected. He considered his options of entry, before smiling as he remembered one of his newer Quirks.

Oh yeah, that'll be fun.

The room was tense. No one thought that The Menace would've been able to find this place, but here they were, waiting for their deaths as it ran amok just outside that door, tearing apart their brothers. Takahashi held the assault rifle in his hands with a white-knuckle grip, beads of sweat running down his forehead as he sat in the dark room, the muzzle of his gun pointed at the foot- thick vault door. He didn't get why they even bothered going through all this. This raid had already proven that not even doors this thick would be able to stop it. His breath hitched, his ears barely catching the sounds of tapping shoes outside, getting closer and closer to the door. He glanced to the side to distract himself from the fear, seeing the moron next to him. He wasn't doing much better, the man looked to be on the verge of tears despite being in his mid-40s. Looks like fear even trumps age and experience.

A minute passed with nothing happening. The footsteps had suddenly faded, the door wasn't thrown off, and there were no explosions. Nothing. Dead silent. Did it run away? Pretty unlikely, since it could've easily just torn through that door and ripped them all to shreds. Was it in the vents? Were there even any vents in this room? Fuck if he remembered, he was too busy dreading the eventual end of his pathetic life. Being beaten to death by some mutant freak, what a joke. The tension was starting to die down as everyone started to realize that nothing was happening, until...

"What the he-AAAUUGGHHH!"

In that one second, the whole thing went tits up. The entire room was thrown into chaos, all the tension that was starting to leak suddenly releasing all at once as an explosion of manic fear and panic. It was infectious. Takahashi let out a bloodcurdling scream as he raised his rifle and blindly

dumped the magazine into the empty room, hoping that he'd at least hit it once or twice, the rest of these idiots be damned. The gun clicked, empty. Suddenly, from the darkness, a pair of iridescent red eyes peered into him, a hand shot out from the darkness like a snake and grabbed the gun's barrel, crushing the plastic within its grasp and wrenching it aside. Another hand shot out, grabbing his neck like a vice. He heard the monster clicking its tongue, "Friendly Fire? Naughty boy. It looks like someone needs a little...shock therapy." He heard a low chuckle, and with a jolt of volts, his consciousness faded into a world of pain.

Izuku tossed the fried goon aside, having just dumped enough volts into his system to cause permanent damage to his nervous system. He'd directed it away from the brain, but he wasn't ever going to be able to move anything from under his neck ever again. Some karma for shooting his teammates and giving Izuku some extra work. It was annoying, but he did not want to have their deaths pinned on him when some random idiot did the killing. And so, he gave everyone a dose of Regeneration before leaving, continuing deeper into the hideout.

He was going on a stroll through the hideout. Nothing and no one was able to even slow him down, even though he was already going pretty slow. Metal doors were simply kicked open, bullets simply dodged, and men were simply thrashed. At this pace, he was gonna wipe out the whole hideout before sunrise, and maybe even have time to go to school early for once. He'd been coming in late ever since he'd started his vigilante activities, but no one cared enough to even send a letter to his mom about truancy...actually, he never mind. If they weren't going to do anything about it, then what was the point of even going? Would they care if he just stopped showing up together? Probably not, but he wouldn't want to risk it. Someone in there might get bored shoving fingers up their ass and do something about Izuku. He was still a straight-A student, with a GPA high enough to get into any school he wanted. As long as he kept that up, then they wouldn't do a damn thing about him.

"H-Hey! Stop! Stop or...or I'll fucking cap you! Bitch!" Pretty ballsy, considering he just saw Izuku use one of his fellow gang members as an improvised weapon. He activated Reflex Booster, Thought Acceleration, and Super Speed. Immediately, he was in front of the poor guy. He looked like he did competitive cigarette smoking as a career. His eyes were sunken and tired, but now wide with fear. He was built like a branch, much like how Izuku used to be, though he looked to be thrice his age. Whatever, beating up the elderly with guns was the same as beating up someone his age with guns. He yanked the gun from his grip by the barrel, before using it to smack him upside the head. Seeing the impact slowly ripple across the man's face was hilarious, it was exactly like those slow-mo videos of people getting hit in the face. Izuku laughed, before sweeping his leg from under him for good measure.

He carried on to the three people hiding around the corner, their faces slowly turning into shock as they tried to comprehend what just happened. From what Izuku could deduce, they sent the old man to fight Izuku as bait, and while he was busy dealing with him, they'd come out of the corner and shoot him. Too bad, that probably might've worked before he had super speed, but Izuku doubted he would've been in serious trouble even back then. Their eyes slowly started to move to Izuku, but their bodies were just starting to crawl toward him. Izuku looked at the gun in his hands and changed his grip to the handle. These people were pretty scummy, making the elderly do their

work for them. That calls for some punishment.

He pulled the trigger, unloading one round per kneecap, before tossing the pistol aside and turning his super speed off. In sync, they fell to the ground and screamed in agony, their legs giving out from under them as the bullets tore through their kneecaps, piercing flesh and bone. He turned to see the old man suddenly flip in the air a whopping 5 times before slamming hard into the ground, being sent to sleep and counting gangster sheep or something. Izuku turned his attention back to the three men screaming on the ground, admiring his work. Guns and Super Speed paired oddly well. He walked over, the screaming was starting to get annoying. He waffle stomped all three of them into sleep, putting them out of their misery, before continuing into the hideout.

This was starting to get too easy, and the usual satisfaction he got from the feeling of making progress was starting to wane. Sure, he had grown way more after recovering. He had finally managed to break his maximum of using 4 Quirks at the same time to 5, leaving one slot open to always have his Telekinetic Barrier permanently active, while still being able to use 4 other Quirks at the same time.

He swatted away the knife heading to stab his face. He grabbed the thug's outstretched arm and gave it a rough tug. There was a spine-tingling noise as the bone was pulled right out of its socket, and he screamed. God, these people screamed too damn much, it was starting to get old. He shut him up with a backhanded bitch slap across the face that sent him flying a good 10 feet into a wall. He looked to the others, who were just gawking at the guy he slapped, now sporting a bruise in the shape of the back of his hand. He took a step forward, and they all took a step back, fear evident on their face. Izuku had to hold back from laughing out loud. Being scared of one guy? If these guys had more than one brain cell floating around their skulls, they'd be able to at least seriously injure him. Instead, the only strategy he'd seen was just blindly charging and hoping for the best.

Whatever, he couldn't care less about their tactics. Instead, Izuku rose a single open hand. At least they were smart enough to realize that he was about to try something and attempt to escape. They all turned to try and run, only to pause mid-step as they suddenly felt a tightness in their throats. It got tighter, and tighter, and tighter until they were desperately clawing at their necks, gasping and gagging for air. Meanwhile, Izuku watched in satisfaction from a distance. He activated Attraction, and one of his newest Quirks, Repulsion. The two had an interesting effect when combined together. It allowed him to telepathically move objects forwards and backward by adjusting the external forces he placed on them. He was able to rotate objects too, but unfortunately, it was limited to only being able to do in a 180-degree circle. Right now, he was creating two pushing forces on opposite sides of their throats, cutting off their airflow.

They were starting to froth at the mouth now, so he let the pressure go, and they all fell like puppets with their strings cut. If he'd gone any longer, he would've crushed their windpipe by accident. Wouldn't that be a lame first kill? Accidentally crushing someone's neck while testing out a new power on a human subject? Izuku thought so, so he'd like to avoid it. He'd rather have his first kill be someone impressive, like The Carnal Murderer. He stepped over the bodies, and-

Suddenly, Izuku urgently ran over to one of the bodies and hurled a devastating soccer kick at one of their family jewels. He loomed over the one whose nuts he just crushed, watching them intently. He swore he just saw him twitch.

He stood there for a solid 3 minutes, before shrugging and moving on. That kick to the balls should've been enough to keep him from getting up, both on his feet and in bed. Was he being paranoid? Probably. Was it professional to kick someone in the balls? Not in the slightest, but Izuku wasn't a professional, he was a high schooler pretending to be some caped vigilante like Batman. It was better safe than sorry. The last thing Izuku wanted was to be blindsided because of his own negligence. Plus, that was a kick that could've waked even the dead. If he was pretending, Izuku was 100% sure that ball dinger would've broken the facade.

In total, Izuku single-handedly tossed 79 men, armed to the teeth with weapons and guns, like children. He, a high schooler barely cracking his 17th birthday, was kicking around grown men with guns. Sure, he could probably topple buildings with a kick and outrun supercars, but still. Even without powers, Izuku could've run circles around them. Hunting down gangs wasn't giving the same satisfaction of progress anymore. It was like farming low-leveled mobs in a video game for so long that you simply stop leveling up. He needed bigger prey, bigger sights than just getting stronger. That ideal could only take him so far. In his case, what would it mean to 'get stronger? Most would say he'd already accomplished that goal, and logically he would agree. He went from struggling against some school-yard bullies to wiping out a total of 127 small gangs and Yakuza sectors during his few months as a wandering goody-two-shoes with superpowers. Small calibers and melee weapons bounced off him, it was the equivalent of fighting a steel wall with plastic baseball bats and bb guns. Rifle rounds were still a bit of an issue, but Izuku could still dodge them with Reflex Booster and Thought Acceleration. Other Meta-humans were a threat to him too, due to how varied and unpredictable they were. There's probably someone out there who could turn off his Quirks, and what if he fought that person and they pulled a gun on him? What then?

'Getting stronger' was too open-ended as a sustainable goal. He needed to be big, but focused, not some half-baked target. Right now, he was pretty strong. Most common conventional weapons on the streets, other than high-yield explosives, were pretty much useless against him. Izuku yawned as he absentmindedly pulled out his phone and started scrolling through the news, maybe that'd give him some ideas for his next goal...

He'd been walking down the Ghost Section of nighttime Musutafu before he froze mid-step. He read the article again, a small smile appearing on his face.

'Hisashi Shigiraki of the Democratic Party has been elected as the newest Japanese Prime Minister...'

Influence. Izuku needed more influence. Politics? Sounded boring, he's more physically inclined

nowadays.

He thought back to the gangs he'd crushed underfoot. All pathetic, lowlife scum. His smile grew wider, an idea forming in his head.

Oh yes, that'll work as a new goal.

Chapter End Notes

Hello, I missed my deadline by...several weeks and one day. Sorry. Hopefully, this story didn't die while I was out.

Around this time is when Ill try to write my most favorite kind of fanfic: Metaphorical Kaiju Fights. Aka, having to massive armies/organizations slam into each other in a big bloody war. Thank you, Mirrond and Fuse-san, for awakening my love of this genre of fic.

End Notes

This is probably the biggest fic I've made by far, and I don't have a beta reader. If there are any mistakes, and there probably are dozens of those, feel free to tell me in the comments.

Please drop by the archive and comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their /works/40446003/comments/new

The Quirk Thief

Baby Steps

Unwanted Eyes

Taming Vampires

Live Target Practice

Cult of the Lamb I

Cult of the Lamb II

Cult of the Lamb III

Errand Girl

Breaking and Entering

Birth of an Empire