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THE-Twighlight-BlazeKnight: Yeah, it might seem weird to consider killing Saiko, but Re-Destro is not a stranger to murder, and he knows how to cover his tracks. Remember his assistant that he killed with almost 0 hesitation in the anime? Also, even with the trouble of hiding the murder from such a massively influential corporation, Re-Destro considers it well worth keeping Junjima's quirk secret. Remember, Junjima can be the key to toppling the government if he is managed the right way. And yeah, Re-Destro is hoping he will have broken and indoctrinated Junjima by the time he's in high school, so that he can control him without much fuss.
As for Izuku, all I'm going to say is wait and watch, I have plans for the little green been. And...huh, I hadn't really thought of the similarities between Hawks and Junjima.
Yeah, I kinda meant Marvel Loki, not Atreus, but the supportive/utility aspects of Atreus' powers are interesting.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the works associated with Studio Bones, Shonen Jump, or Horikoshi. Please support the official works.
"Young Master... we need to talk."
When I had fallen unconscious, one of the last things I had expected to wake up to was a nervous-looking Rampart, who... wanted to talk for some reason. Not that we never talked, it's just he was never the most talkative person. He almost always had an air of seriousness about him too, so I'm not really used to seeing him so uncertain.
"Sure, what is it?"
A moment of silence passes as he stares at the floor, as I try to get a read on him, I realize he's working up some courage. It takes a while but my patience is rewarded me when his gaze rises to meet mine.
"I want you to know, I am on your side. Not the MLA's. Not Re-Destro's. Yours, and only yours." he declares, voice thick with emotion.
Oh, um. What? Is my head still working okay? Wasn't he SUPER dedicated to the MLA in the anime?
"Why?" I ask, cringing inwardly as he seems hurt by my distrust, but the man doesn't seem deterred.
"When..." he sighs, "When I was younger, your mother was my mentor. She had meant so much to me, I don't even know how to put it, except that she was like a second mother to me. She was the only person who reached out to me when I was at my lowest, she wanted to show me what I could become."
Wow, I knew they had a connection, but I didn't know it was this deep.
"Your mother introduced me to the MLA, she joined it for the same reason she helped me. She saw the potential the movement could have."
"She liked the idea of a quirk supremacist, might makes right society." I quipped. "That doesn't sound like Mom." I still remember the fights she would have with Dad, hell, even Uncle, about the whole quirk supremacy thing.
Rampart chuckled, it was fond laughter, and he sounded happy. "No, it doesn't, because that's not what she saw." he smiled wistfully. "She saw potential in the removal of quirk laws, and all the ways it could benefit society. She wanted to use the MLA to reach that goal."
"Why?" I ask, and he quirks his brow. "Why not just take inspiration from that and make her own movement?" It doesn't make sense, all she'd be doing was empowering a harmful, borderline villainous organization.
"Because she also saw potential in the people within the MLA." he explained, then he grinned. "You know I asked her that same question back then? You know what her answer was?" He leaned forward, pausing for effect.
"She despised seeing so many people, being so hateful. She believed, no she knew that humanity was better than how the sorry lot of the MLA were behaving. She wanted to make a positive influence on what might have been a negative influence in society."
He leaned back in his chair again, looking of into the distance.
"And she was successful, for the most part. She had gathered a group of people that thought like her and began making moves within the MLA to change the hearts of more and more of its members. For years she had without halting, rapidly expanded the support for her cause within the MLA."
His gaze returned to me.
"She only slowed when she had you. You see, she did love your father, she complained about his stubborn ass every day, but I knew she loved him just as much as she loved you. She only regretted she could never change his heart. When you were born she was hoping that having a baby would soften him a little, and it worked for only a little while."
He pointed at me with his finger, a sad smile on his face.
"But you see, you were special, REALLY special. When you spoke, she had texted me almost immediately to brag about it, and she would continue to brag about you, for the next few years. She told me about the potential she saw in you, she saw you as someone who might become a symbol to those in the MLA, to lead them out of the dark influence of Re-Destro's cult, and into the light."
He sighed.
"She also told me how terrified she was. When Re-Destro found out about you and began sticking to you like glue, she was worried sick. She had been worried the man might take you away, to mould you into another him." his face fell to the floor. "There was no one who had foreseen what would happen that day. When she died I spe-"
He choked on the word, visibly biting back tears. I tried my hardest not to relive that moment.
"I spent hours, days on end trying to find out why. In the end I couldn't find anything conclusive, whoever did it was a professional." he sucked in a deep breathe. "When everyone had finally processed her death, it caused panic among the restorationist movement within the MLA. People were worried Re-Destro had figured out what was going in. They started dropping like flies, but I stayed. I know it wasn't Re-Destro, because I know your Mom was too good at what she did for him to have found out.
"You see, I had promised myself two things. Both of which I have largely failed at thus far." he clenched his fists. "The first was to try and rally the restorationists up again, so that your mother's legacy wouldn't fade so that I could keep her dream alive."
"But I failed, I don't have the natural leadership skills your mother had, I don't have a presence that can lead. I'm destined to be a follower. I tried, yes, I tried very hard, but I couldn't manage it." he sighed, fingers rubbing his eyelids.
It's from that motion that I realize just how tired the man looks. His upright, large and muscular physique is hunched over, he has a nasty five o'clock shadow and his eyes have dark rings around them. Just how hard has this man been working?
"And the second promise?" I poked, him having taken a moment to pause.
"Right, yes," he said, bringing his hand back down to his knee. "The second promise was about you." He gave me another sad smile.
"When your mom died, I knew Re-Destro wouldn't take long to swoop in and take you in under the pretence that having two father figures was better than having only one parent. I couldn't let that man decide what sort of person you'd grow into. I like your father, but the man has always lacked a spine when it comes to Re-Destro." he sighed.
As harsh as it sounds, Rampart is right. I hardly see Dad anymore, Uncle has effectively taken full custody of me.
"I volunteered to be your bodyguard with the hope that I'd be close enough to be a positive influence, but, oh I hope you forgive me Young Master, but I was just too much of a coward to do anything." His face turned into a grimace, filled with self-hatred. "I saw what you were going through, what was happening to you, but despite my promise, I never spoke up, I never reached out, and only now, after two years of your suffering am I actually doing anything."
He bows his head to me.
"If you can find it in your heart to forgive me, know that I want to help you at any cost. I believe your mom would have sacrificed the world for you, so I am fully prepared to do the same in her absence."
I barely notice the wetness on my face as I open my mouth to talk, tears welling up from the relief of finally having someone I can count on.
"Rampart." I manage, as I begin to sob, two years of pent-up fear and anxiety flowing out through my tears as I find comfort in the man I had least expected to find it.
"Thank you"
After the tears dried
"Rampart, do you know, as in actually know, what my quirk does?"
My sudden question causes my bodyguard, half asleep in his chair, to jolt awake.
"uh.. Oh, yes I do. Your mother told me, you can buy quirks with points you earn from various activities, like training or general accomplishments." I nod "Why?" he asks.
*Purchase Energy Saver*
"Can you pass me your combat knife?" I know he has it on him. The man always wears the same outfit, an all-black version of military gear, fully equipped with a knife strapped to his boot and a pistol secured to his hip.
I can see he doesn't like it, but he passes it anyway, fully trusting me that I won't do anything dangerous.
I clench my teeth, cringing from the pain as I make a quick and deep slice down my forearm. Immediately breaking the man's trust, who freaks as blood begins to spray out of the wound. However, before he can even snatch the knife away from me for my own safety, the wound begins knitting itself shut, and the blood stops flowing.
When he's successfully taken the weapon back into his possession, and about to start treating my wound, it's already fully healed.
"What the hell was that!? Huh, Young Master!? You just woke up from having fully passed out, you haven't even eaten yet, in your current state this wound is going put you in a coma until tomorrow morning!" he hurriedly begins preparing the glucose drip used to feed me energy while I'm asleep.
"I'm fine, Rampart, I was testing out my new quirk, it works like a miracle by the way."
It really does, Rampart was right. Healing that wound when I have just recovered from a mangled mess Re-Destro turned me into, even if I had eaten already, I could easily fall asleep again until the next day. Considering its mid-day right now is quite a long time. However, right now, while it did still drain enough to almost put me to sleep, it's the kind of tiredness that I can put off for another hour or two.
*Quirk Sheet, Energy Saver*
Energy Saver
Lvl Max
Original User: Deceased, Alive, Alive
Power: 10- Your bodily functions are 200% more energy efficient.
Wow, big number, I guess that 200% is being applied to my healing too. Weird, I had thought that maybe it would buff my endurance stat. Does my quirk consider quirk effects not part of my stat total? Maybe, unless it is direct, like my mutations from Quick Tempo? Interesting.
My thoughts are interrupted by a knock on my skull. It's not painful, but it's enough to shake me out of my thoughts.
I see the guilty party retracting their hand, still shaped vaguely like a fist. A playful grin on his face. "That's for giving me a scare. You should warn me next time you think of doing something crazy like that again."
"So that you can stop me." I quip.
"Yes. Exactly." He responds before his face turns more serious. "So? You were going somewhere before you mutilated your own arm."
"Oh, yes I was, thanks!" I respond, eyeing my now completely unharmed arm as I gather my thoughts.
"I want to fulfil Mom's dream," I say, turning my eyes to Rampart, who's looking at me, expectantly and with a little bit of curiosity. "I don't like the future Uncle wants, but I do like Mom's vision. I can't just run away, Uncle will hunt me down, and I'm too weak to fend for my own, even with your help. The man has too many resources and manpower, finding me will be child's play for him."
Seeing Rampart nod in agreement, I continue.
"It will take a long time, but I want to start finding allies I feel that we can truly trust." Ideally, I want to find a way to reach out to Hawks when he starts his eventual infiltration.
"I also want to choose quality over quantity, if Uncle finds us out because of word spreading outside of our control, it's game over. If that happens I'd rather have a smaller group of more capable individuals, than a larger group that can be picked off like prey."
Rampart nods again.
"I'm going to need to get more involved with what is actually going on inside the core of the MLA, if I ever get in too deep, I want to at least have something I can hand over to the HPSC as negotiation material. We'll need to pass off my current interest as my accepting what my role will be in the future, Uncle needs to think he finally has me where I want him."
I can see Rampart isn't a fan, but he doesn't object.
"In order for that to work, I want you to treat the conversation we had earlier as if it had been a lecture from you to me if my sudden increase in zealousness seems to stem from your influence, and you are incredibly loyal to me, then Uncle will have no reason to separate us."
I finish with that, and Rampart takes a while to think, his hands resting under his chin.
"On one condition." he looks up at me, "If I call quits, at any point, no matter how crucial the moment is, we bolt. Your plan is good but there are a lot of risks, and if Re-Destro finds out, your life will be worse than if we ran in the first place."
My eyes still locked with his, my face breaks into a grin. "Deal."
A 15-year-old boy with long white hair and pearly eyes walks down the corridor of the esteemed UA high school.
Originally, Geten wouldn't be caught dead in a hero Highschool. He had been planning on skipping high school and just training his quirk constantly until he could take down members of the top ten.
But over the last two years, Geten had learned some things, as much as he hated admitting it, he too had learned things from the sparring sessions against that little Hanabata shithead. Even though it bothered him that the little weakling got much more attention from the Grand Commander than he deserved, he had to acknowledge the brat's skill.
It had been educational to see how well-crafted strategies often lead to the kid doing significantly better in their sparring sessions than Geten would have expected. Other than the kid's tenaciousness and regeneration, he wasn't anything special, but somehow he managed to get into advantageous positions. While those advantages never got him the win against Geten, Geten could feel how the strategies impacted the flow of the fight.
When Geten imagined how such strategies might be his downfall in the future, should he ever face a more powerful opponent who utilized such skills, he realized his best defence was to learn how to strategize and use powers in a more flexible manner. Alas, he couldn't find any good mentors in Deika city, all the powerful quirk users in the MLA seemed to prefer power over skill.
His need to learn and grow eventually led him to UA, where he took the entrance exam. He finished around 5 minutes ago.
Admittedly, he was disappointed in the show of power of most of the quirks in his testing area, the only three that were interesting were two guys, one with Laser eyes, the other with two weird eel-like appendages that were surprisingly strong, and a girl with green hair made of fire.
He hadn't been capable of counting their scores, but despite their decently strong quirks, he doubted they came anywhere close to him.
After all, he's half convinced 128 points might be a new record.
Kirishima was curious. Curious about the new boy sitting next to him. Nothing really stood out appearance-wise other than the fluffy green hair and viridescent eyes, but the way the boy has been shaking nervously ever since being introduced to class was worrying him.
Kirishima could kind of relate he wasn't the most sociable ever, but at least he didn't shake like a leaf. Could it be a side effect of the kid's quirk?
The bell rings for the end of the period, and just as Kirishima is about to ask the kid if he's okay, he's interrupted by a pink blob bolting into his vision, only to stop a hair short of seriously violating the green kids personal space.
"Hey there! I'm Mina Ashido! What's your name? Where are you from? I like your hair!" She says, slowly creeping further towards the boy, as he leans backwards in an attempt to get more personal space.
The interaction has caused most of the class to pause what they were doing and watch, which is something Mina is used to, so used to it she's likely unaware, but the boy seems perfectly aware of it if his rapidly accelerating shacking is anything to go by.
"Hi-i Ashido, I'm Izuku Midoriya, and I'm from Musutafu." Kirishima notices he doesn't address the compliment.
Mina barely lets him finish, following up his answer with, "You shake a lot, is it because of your quirk?"
Kirishima notices the cringe on the boy's face when the word quirk was spoken, damn, does he not have a good quirk? Kirishima really relates to this kid.
"Oh, I um, d-don't have a quirk." the boy half whispered, turning his head to the floor.
Kirishima can feel the temperature in the room go down. Quirkless. Kirishima knew what it was like to have a weak quirk, but he hadn't even considered what it would be like to be completely powerless. He looks around the class, it seems that tidbit of information has turned some kids off the prospect of making friends with Green already. Man, Midoriya's life is going to be tough here.
"Oh, really? I think you're the first kid my age I've met who's quirkless." Mina doesn't even bat an eye, instead, she leans over to Midoriya and pulls him into a side hug, the boy turning red from the familiarity of the action. Mina turns to the rest of the class, a wide grin on her face. "Hey everyone! Listen up, Midoriya here is my fluffy hair buddy! Be nice to him or I'll set the alien on ya!"
This causes a few kids to chuckle, as they move up to introduce themselves to Midoriya. Kirishima moves too, amazed at how Mina somehow managed to break the ice before it had even formed.
Author's Note
Hiya! Pumped this one out real quick because I won't be able to touch this for the rest of the week. I have Uni projects that are wrapping up now, so I can't divide my attention between this and that.
Yeah, so I've finally kicked off Junjima's and Rampart's alliance, things are about to get fun!
Geten is training to become a hero, to become a better villain. His training with Junjima made him realize raw power isn't the only aspect to a fight.
And Midoriya has a pink guardian who will fight off the quirkist kids with her infectious smile!