Chapter 29: Blood Types and Shovels

The patrol in Hosu started in the morning which was nice since he grabbed street food during lunch time. He hurried through eating halfway through his takoyaki since Burnin' warned them of an incoming car of robbers.

And he tracked the gif of his brother licking sauce off his cheek on every social media he had. It just kept popping up with hearts and comments about how hot he was during battle.

Of course he was, blue fire was the hottest flame that exists.

But he can only assume they meant hot as in the type of way they see his brother in the fanfiction links that Mina sent through the chat. He barely saw the tags before closing it right away, but the words still haunted his mind.

Other than surprising comments from his brother's fans, the rest of the patrol went as normal according to Burnin'. In her words, 'Anything ranging from purse thief to robbery is normal stuff. Endangerment to attempted murder is more like once every week.'

And bigger cases are more dangerous to a point where Dabi doesn't want him to be very heavily involved in it. When he asked, Dabi said, "I don't want someone young like you or one of your classmates to handle something like that. Cases like those should be meant for the adults to take care of."

So he expected possibly running into Stain or some mention of Stain on patrol since he knew from Izuku he would be there. But the sight of the eye bulging monsters like the Nomu from USJ was not something he thought would happen.

His brother immediately started instructing Burnin' and him to redirect their fire and guide the civilians to safety. It didn't help that a fire was spreading more to a point where he didn't know if it was their own or a disaster the Nomus started their own selves.

Dabi's blue fire really helped burn through the Nomus' skin, leaving a hole in their chest each time. But with every single one he killed, another two showed up around the corner making the civilians around them run away.

Gritting his teeth, Shoto tried to guide the civilians away from the incoming Nomus. But his work was interrupted with a vibration from his phone that was tucked into his utility belt pocket.

He waited until all the civilians were out and checked his phone. And right where he expected it, Izuku sent him a GPS location in their group chat.

"Dabi, grab shovels and meet me in the alleys," Shoto said, rushing past his brother who was looking around for more Nomus to come his way.

"Got it," Dabi said without a pause. Then he paused in confusion. "Wait. Where—?"

"You'll find it!" Shoto called out to him.

His brother screamed out as he pulled up the location to find out which alleyway he needed to take to get there. "Hey, intern, I give you permission for whatever you need to do!"

"Thanks!"

He passed by a dumpster full of pizza boxes and empty pro hero ramen figurines. Then somehow after running past a flickering streetlight, he found himself right at the mouth of an alleyway.

And from what it sounded like, he could pinpoint an unfamiliar man talking with Izuku and Tenya. He shot his ice to the ground, making the ice curve down the alleyway towards where his friend's voices were coming. Ice and fire rose up from his body in preparation for the fight that needed to happen.

Hopefully they were close to the end of the plan already with Stain wrapped up in rope so they would just need to knock him unconscious. Would they be able to get to the forest on time with this Nomu attack going on?

"Don't worry! Dabi is bringing the shovels and—"

Okay, he must have misunderstood whatever plan they were going with since Tenya and Izuku were still fighting him. Stain was not unwrapped and there was another pro hero peeking their face around the other side of the alleyway.

From the feathers sticking out, he can only assume it's the one from the gym commercials since no one really uses feathers in their costumes...except for Hawks since his entire wings are made up of them.

Shoto paused at the sight. "Oh. Did I miss my big entrance?"

He hurriedly spread his ice further up Stain's body before he could break out of it with his swords. Shoto skated over the ice to them. "Sorry it took me a while. There are Nomus everywhere. Dabi should be coming as backup after he's done."

"Don't get stabbed or sliced by him," Iida advised.

"Don't let him get your blood!" Native called out to them. They all turned towards the fallen pro hero, but their attention was quickly broken when Stain started to break out of his ice prison much to Shoto's annoyance. "I can't move because of it!"

"Interesting. His quirk must be blood based like Vlad King's," Izuku said, jumping back with Iida as Shoto put up an ice wall caging Stain in. Stain cursed at them, jerking his upper body to chip away at the ice. "The only problem is finding out how it works."

"Dodge!" Native called out towards them like he was determined to not be a backseat watcher to this fight.

The three followed orders right as Stain's sword banged against the cement beneath their feet. With a roar, Stain smashed the ice holding him back, using the dull end of his swords to get the last of it off of him.

"No more distractions. It's time for this to end," Stain ended his words with authority like he was ordering them to surrender. The light from the street bounced off his swords as he dragged two out from behind his back.

Stain lunged at them before they could fully react to how quickly he was moving especially after being stuck in freezing ice. Fortunately, Iida jumped back from his attack with Shoto protecting himself with an ice shield. Izuku didn't have time to pull out a weapon to defend himself when Stain sliced across his upper arm.

Shoto watched as his friend grasped his wound then immediately fell to the ground with a gasp.

It was like a burn when Stain's sword swiped across his flesh. But everything in his body froze up when he heard Stain lick the cold metal of his knife.

It's blood. It has to be the blood he thought to himself as he collapsed to the ground. He heard Iida call to him as Stain's sword clanked against the alley's brick wall. Shoto started to use his fire as a hand clasped on the back of his costume's gray hood.

"Stay here, Izuku," Iida whispered to him as he gently set him against the wall with Native waiting around the corner. Izuku didn't have time to say anything in return before Iida took off to run towards the hero serial killer.

"Those are my best friends," Izuku mumbled as he watched Iida kick Stain's head while Shoto was intent on setting his ragged clothes on fire.

"I would offer medical attention, but I'm in the same position as you, kid," Native replied.

"It's fine," Izuku shrugged off his concern. "It's only a flesh wound. I probably won't even need stitches.

"You three shouldn't have been here in the first place and gotten yourselves into this mess," Native commented.

"But you would have died, Native," Izuku said honestly. If Iida hadn't been there, Native could have died from Stain.

Native shook his head with a serious expression, "It's better for me to die than have three kids risk their lives to save me."

Izuku pouted at his phrasing, "Hey, we're teenage AND heroes in training."

"Yeah. Kids," Native breathed in when he saw Izuku roll his eyes. "AND basically babies in the pro hero work."

"Hmm," Izuku redirected his attention onto the fight again. He narrowed his eyes to see any weak points in Stain's fighting style. But there was no clear weak point or opening he could see because the fight was going so fast. He paused his lip and turned to Native. "Do you have any information about what his quirk might be?"

"I was paralyzed after he sliced me," Native shrugged in response.

"Did you see him lick your blood at all?"

"He did," the pro hero replied after a moment. Iida could be heard from only a few feet away as he skidded to a stop and went right back into fighting. "But I just thought it was to make him seem more threatening."

"There must be a time limit or something. If his quirk is based on blood, there could be a time limit that could be based on how much blood he ingested or what type of blood." Izuku started to ramble. He could already see the images forming in his head with words flying around his head as he started to analyze. "How much blood did he lick from his blade?"

"Just one lick like he did with your blood."

"So there wasn't a difference in how much he ingested," Izuku hummed in response, making native's eyes dart between him and the fight between Stain and the his two friends. "That just means it should be based on blood type of blood. But who knows how long each type could be affected by it? Andifitidabloodtypehowwouldoneknowwhichoneis—"

Native mumbled, "Kid, you're rambling. I can barely understand you."

"Good," Izuku mumbled before raising his voice so it could reach his two friends that were fighting for their lives against the terrifying killer. "Don't let him ingest your blood! His quirk must be based on blood type!"

Stain laughed at his yelled advice until he looked at him like he approved how quickly he came to that conclusion. Was the serial killer commending him on his intelligence or just taunting him?

"Got it!" Iida called back to him. Then Stain threw a sword into the air drawing their attention until Iida shouted again. "Shoto!"

Shoto narrowly avoided Stain's knife skimming across his cheek. The small blade flew right past them, leaving behind a paper cut slice on his left cheek. Stain jumped towards him and all Izuku could see was Shoto's disgusted face before he covered Stain's face in flames.

Stain roared in pain from the hot flames as Shoto adjusted himself, wiping the blood off his cheek with his sleeve. Stain laughed. The deep, bellowing laugh leaned more into a taunting tone as Stain looked almost unharmed from their attempts to attack him. "I recognize your strength. But you need more than that if you ever think you can defeat me."

He barely looked injured apart from his singed clothes and mask along with a forming bruise on one of his arms. Other than that, he didn't seem to be slowing down at all.

Minutes passed while Iida and Shoto fought against the hero killer, not letting him get away from them. And he wasn't letting them get away from him either. There were too many close calls with Izuku instructing them on when Stain was about to slice them through with his sword.

It was in the middle of this that Izuku started to get feeling back into his fingers and toes. He tried not to draw attention to it as he slowly started to feel around how much he could move. Native kept his voice down as he started to whisper about his blood type compared to his own.

Apparently, type O might be the fastest one to get out of paralysis, but his findings were just based on the fact that Native's blood type was B. More research would be needed for that kind of conclusion. Maybe he could look at the past victims cases to see—

No, he has no time for that!

He struggled to get to his feet as discreetly as he could while Shoto tried again for the third time to encase Stain in ice. Even though he escaped each time, it was slowing him down enough.

Stumbling to his feet, Izuku reached in his belt for the retractable staff he made for the sports festival. The staff opened with a clang, drawing his friend's attention to his stand-off game form. Unfortunately, Stain noticed as well.

"Ah, you're the universal donor blood type," Stain remarked, his arm bursting through the ice again despite Shoto's irritated groan. "That's disappointing."

With That, Izuku jumped into the fight with a swing of his staff blocking Stain's sword.

"Do you know what plan we are following?" Shoto harshly whispered to him as Izuku attacked Stain with his staff, using the staff to choke Stain like he was a hitman in a mission to take him down.

Iida shrugged as he ran forward, pulling Shoto behind him to avoid a wave of throwing knives in their direction, "I think there is no plan for us, but Izuku has something up his sleeve."

"Doesn't he always?" Shoto asked in return before lighting his fist on fire. He attacked Stain with fire as Izuku started to play dirty by pulling at Stain's hair to yank him back. Stain yelled when Izuku unleashed a cloud of painful mace directly into his eyes with a fierce grin.

Iida watched as Stain attacked blindly, two of his throwing stars lodged themselves inside Shoto's left side which caused him to groan from the pain. Izuku threw himself off Stain's back to protect his friend from another attack.

Iida rushed forward with a grimace, watching as Stain blinked his eyes open to determine where he would slash his sword. It could have been that bloodthirsty glint in his eyes. But all he could think about was his friends and how he didn't want their blood to be spilled any longer.

It was bad enough that Izuku got hurt. And now Shoto was stabbed.

He couldn't allow Stain to harm anyone else that he cared for. He skidded to a stop in front of his friend's and felt a warm feeling engulf his chest.

But it wasn't his chest vibrating from the warmth of his friends. Or a song playing from the end credits of a movie they watched. It was his arm that Stains' sword had stabbed right through. And the song was his scream that penetrated the air.

After that, he barely noticed how Izuku knocked Stain's sword out of his grasp before he could licked the blood from the metal. Or how Shoto aimed a fiery attack right into his red eyes.

But he did notice when the red fire quickly became a blue color.

"Backup has arrived. Now get the hell away from those kids!" Dabi yelled, his blue fire enveloping Stain in a solid wall of fire. Then, a shovel flew through the air and banged against the side of Stain's head. "I brought the shovels too, you damn—"

Manual interrupted Dabi's shout by rushing past Iida with Native on his shoulders. Izuku and Shoto took the reins while Dabi helped finish Stain off.

Manual returned with a frustrated huff. "I can't believe you would go against my orders—"

"I apologize for my actions, sir," Iida replied softly as the pro hero tended to his arm.

Iida watched as Manual's comforting woods faded into the background as his arm was wrapped in bandages. It wasn't until Manual tried off his injury with a bow that Iida rushed forward to land one more hit against Stain's chest.

All he could hear was Manual shouting after him and Izuku excitedly encouraging the violence.

Then, all he saw was Stain lying against a crater in a building wall with blood coming from his mouth and burns on his face and arms. His clothes were burned yet his pants were crusted with frost from Shoto's multiple attacks. The killer's mask fell from his eyes to reveal his lack of nose to the pro heroes and sidekicks gathered in the area.

It was a blur while Manual, Dabi and several other smaller heroes came into the area. Dabi immediately tied up the hero killer as quickly as he could before he gained consciousness. The medical team was pulled in to take care of Izuku's knife wound, the stars stabbed into Shoto's side, and the immense pain in Iida's arm.

But before the medical team could actually get started, a familiar inhuman-like screech filled the sky above them. Dabi immediately lit his arms on fire and stepped in front of Shoto who was busy getting his chest disinfected.

Izuku yelled and threw his staff directly at the flying Nomu that swooped down. His staff bounced off its brain which stunned them for a moment. Yet before Dabi could finish it off, a sword was thrown directly into its fleshy brain.

A spray of blood ejected out from the nomu's head as it crumpled to the ground, it's wings scrunching up when it collided with the hard ground. Then, all eyes were on the serial killing vigilante who was standing up with a slight wobble in his step.

Stain unleashed a powerful aura that Iida could only describe a blood red. His bloodlust filled the area as the vigilante declared into the air. "All of your heroes are fakes. They are shams of what a hero should be. And I am here to reform your view on this fake hero society." Stain's words chased everyone in the area to freeze in fear. Even when he was tied up, he still felt dangerous to be around. "And I will take all of you fake here's down with me!"

"The only ones worthy of being a hero are All Might and that smartass kid over—" Stain moved his finger to point just above Izuku's head before he fell forward into the cement. Dabi moved quickly to check on his condition, calling medical staff and police to arrest him and help the vigilante with his pierced lung.

The hospital was always like a blinding white or a somewhat calm cream color. Shades of white with no speck of dirt anywhere on the floor or blood on the curtain partitions near Izuku's bed.

Tenya was still laying in his bed with his curtain pulled back to watch Izuku and Shoto talking with two pro heroes and a police chief in the center of the room. But the talking went from an innocent recounting of events to something that could threaten their spot in school.

—"What do you mean?" Shoto asked

"You three used your quirks to take down Stain on your own without your mentors there to help you," The police chief said. "Woof received news that two of you got permission beforehand. But there is still the odd woof out that didn't have that and who moved on his feet first."

"On all counts, at least one of you could be charged with illegal quirk use," Chief Tsuragamad continued.

"Chief, back down," Dabi interrupted. "These three of them don't need to be charged with anything. Let's just call it off with a warning since, you know, they took down an actual serial killer on their own while rescuing another pro hero."

"I'm not finished," Tsuragamae said punctuation his sentence with a 'woof'. "You three are ultimately pardoned on the condition that you three cannot be credited with the glory of drafting Stain. The main credit instead will go to Dabi and some will also be given to Manual."

Shoto steadily blinked at the dog-faced police officer. Tenya watched as his friend started to bite on his lip like he was trying to hold back by saying something that could get them all in trouble.

"Thank you for looking the other way, Chief," Izuku said, stepping in front of Shoto before he could say anything that could get them arrested. "I'm glad that the credit will be given to Dabi and Manual since they are both respected heroes.

Shoto started to say, stepping out from Izuku's back, "You're a damn—"

Dabi rushed forward to camp a mouth around his little brother's mouth. His smile was stretched across his face as he tried to keep his palm over Shoto's mouth. "Thank you, Chief! You can leave now while we check up on the kids."

"Check out the new chew—"

"Shoto!" Dabi readjusted his grip on his young intern/brother with a strained smile. "Your mother and siblings would love to hear from you. You should go call them right now in the corner."

Shoto struggled against Dabi's hand that was pushing him away from the police chief while whispering about him not getting a police record before him. Izuku sighed as Manual led the police chief out of the room.

"I called both of your parents and guardians about what had happened. Iida, your mother, will be visiting soon. Izuku, your father is on the way here now," Manual said calmly.

Izuku looked down at the ground then back up at the pro hero. He felt bad especially after learning how connected the low level hero was to the people he protected. "I'm sorry about what happened, sir."

Manual raised his eyebrow, "The fact that you disobeyed orders or the fact that you probably only chose my agency to go after Stain?

"What?" Iida and Izuku said in unison.

"I assumed Iida only came from my agency's location," Manual answered. He sighed then ran a hand through his soft hair. "And I'm guessing that Izuku accepted my request just because of you since you seemed to have a very close relationship.

"...I will neither confirm or deny your claims," Izuku answered. He cleared his throat and looked at the pro hero honestly while he could hear Shoto trying to calm down Natsuo in the background. "But I will say that I, we, both learned a lot from you. I learned a bit more about having more versatility in my fighting style which I'm sad about since I won't get any more lessons from you for the remainder of the studies."

"I think the same," Tenya replied from his hospital bed. "I think that it's a shame that we didn't get the chance to learn more from you since we are too injured to continue."

"Natsuo, I'm seriously fine. Touya is exaggerating my injuries," Shoto's voice filled the room in silence. He hummed when Dabi flicked him in the head. "Tenya got the most hurt out of all of us."

Manual sighed, "I'm just glad you, all of you, are alright. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I let any of you get hurt under my watch."

"Speaking of that, how is Native?" Iida questioned from his bed.

"He is expected to make a full recovery," Manual replied with a calmer expression than he expected. "And he passed along that he also disapproves of your actions, but will send a gift basket to all three of you when he can."

"Gift basket?" Shoto's voice gained everyone's attention. "Can I send one to the dear old police chief?"

"No, I don't trust you," Dabi said.

Shoto looked up at his brother, "Yet you brought the shovel."

"Touché."