"Your life literally is as valuable as a summer ant. I'm just gonna stomp you and you're gonna keep coming back"
Kacchan's words echoed throughout Izuku's head, as the greenette walked the streets back home.
"Your life is nothing- you serve zero purpose"
It was almost dream-like, with how incomprehensible it was. Izuku could intellectually understand all of the words being said, but to even suggest… It was unbelievable.
"Give somebody else a piece of that oxygen so that we can breathe inside this blue trash bubble."
The fact that he gave an entire speech, off the cuff like that, only served to make matters worse too! If it was a single sentence, then maybe he wouldn't have really meant it, but…
"Cause what are you here for? To worship me? I've never seen somebody so worthless in my life. I'm deadass."
Tears welled up in Izuku's eyes. Kacchan… how could he say that! It was unthinkable, that not only would he put his hero career in jeopardy by suicide baiting him, but that he truly would have meant it.
"I've not seen such a more worthless-"
"Oof!'
The boy's train of thought was cut off by the feeling of something- or somebody- crashing into his legs.
"Huh?"
Looking down, Izuku is met with the sight of a small girl clinging onto his legs. The child looks up at him with red eyes, filled with an inscrutable emotion. Blinking the tears from his own eyes- ah. Her eyes were looking on with fear.
"H-hey, it's going to be alright." Izuku said, crouching down. What the hell happened to her?
The girl clutches onto Izuku's shirt, burying her face in it- alongside the single horn attached to her head. Well, guess this was happening now. Grimacing a bit from the horn poking into his chest, Izuku picks up the child. "O-okay, so- do you have any like parents or something I can take you to?" Alright Izuku, it's game time. You can panic later, but now it's time to help somebody out!
And then, a black-haired man in a green jacket walked around the corner.
"Ah, I see you've found my wayward daughter." He said, voice slightly muffled by the beak-like mask he wore.
The girl, who had been trembling the entire time so far, froze. This was a good thing, because now her horn was no longer attempting to jackhammer its way through Izuku's ribs. This was also a bad thing, because when the child did eventually move, it was to stare right into Izuku's eyes.
She was terrified.
"Come along now, Eri," The man, who Izuku had now mentally labeled 'Beak-Creep', spoke in a chilling voice, "Tell the nice young man thank you, and then we can leave."
"...I don't want to go back…" Eri whispered, almost inaudible.
Alright, that settles it.
"Excuse me, sir…" Izuku said, a bit of steel creeping into his voice, "but you wouldn't mind if we went down to the police station, would you? So that we can confirm that this is your daughter?"
Beak-Creep sighs. "That won't be necessary, because Eri is going to willingly walk back to my side, right now."
Eri shakes. Izuku narrows his eyes. Beak-Creep stands there.
The sludge villain hiding in the sewers bursts out from a nearby manhole cover.
"Well well well!" The voice of a giant glob of green goo breaks the existing tension, causing both Izuku and Beak-Creep to turn. "Looks like I'm just spoiled for choice right now! Which one of you lucky bastards wants to be my new skin suit?"
Beak-Creep glares at the new arrival, "And just who do you think you are?"
The pile of ooze chuckles, facial features moving in a nauseating manner. "Don't you recognize me? I am Doku!"
(Translator's note: Doku means Toxic)
Izuku coughs. "Ah- that name is taken already. The 385th ranked hero already has it." Oh god why did he say that- why is he still here he should've run off while they were distracted.
"Oh. Guess you can call me Dokudoku!"
"...A vigilante in Nanao is already going by that name."
"...Is Sandoku taken?"
"I don't think so? I'd have to check."
"Okay, cool. I am Sandoku!"
A silence nestled itself right in the middle of the 4, as awkward as a 15-year-old attempting to sound older in a discord chat of mostly young adults.
Beak-Creep cleared his throat. "Eri. Return." Oh, right.
Eri only clung on to Izuku harder. The silence turned tense, the situation turning into a three-way stand-off.
"Ooh! What are you guys doing?" A voice comes from behind Izuku, causing him (and the other two) to turn.
Skipping up the sidewalk was a blonde girl, about Izuku's age. Her messy hair was done up in buns, and her gold eyes had cat-like pupils in them.
Also, she held a bloody knife, which splattered said blood onto her school uniform with every step she took.
All in all, not somebody you want coming up from behind you. Especially not if she was going to look you up and down while circling around you.
"Oh great- another kid." Sandoku grumbled, as the girl took her time inspecting Midoriya from all angles. "Looks like this one's already got some heat on her too- I can't use her."
"Oh! I've been pretty rude haven't I? I'm Himiko Toga! Who are you?"
"You can call me Sandoku! Now, If you'll excuse me, I have a new skin sack to disguise myself with." With that, the ooze slides towards Himiko, Midoriya, and Eri.
"You will do no such thing." Beak-Creep snaps, stepping forward.
"Oh relax, beaky. You can have the girl, I'm just after the green kid!"
"Wait, really?" Toga gasped, hugging the green kid in question. Despite being covered in blood, the fact that Himiko was in fact a girl around his age caused Izuku to freeze up. Damn his social anxieties!
The girl wasn't done yet, though, "But he's so cute!"
"Weh." A pitiful noise escaped Izuku's mouth.
"Although, I suppose he would look cuter covered in blood…"
"Weh?" A confused, yet still pitiful noise escaped Izuku's mouth.
"Oh no you don't! I need my disguise to be perfectly intact when I get to it!"
With that exclamation, Sandoku drew himself together. With a surge of motion, he-
"What are you assholes fucking doing out here? I'm trying to sleep."
A man emerges from a nearby alleyway. Most of his skin was covered in burn scars, and the nearly purple flesh was attached to the unburned skin by numerous staples.
"You can go back to whence you came." Beak-Creep suggested. He hadn't moved from his position, merely twitching whenever Himiko's knife came too close to Eri. "Our business won't take long."
"Yeah!" Sandoku agreed, "Just as soon as I take over this kid's body!"
"You can't do that!" Himiko argued, gripping her new crush a bit tighter, "Not until I see him bleeding all over!"
"Uoough." Izuku groaned.
"I have a better idea." Burnscars said, gritting his teeth. "You all leave and take this somewhere else, and I don't send every last one of you on a one-way trip to hell."
"Hey, just who the hell do you think you are?" Sandoku, incensed, whirled around to face Burnscars. "Go crawl back into whatever hole you came out of!"
"Weren't you the one who climbed out of the sewers?" Oh hey, Izuku's mouth was in working order again.
"Listen here you little shit-"
"Oi, how long is this cutscene going to take? I get that you NPCs have the entire "Destined Battle" dialogue gimmick going on right now, but it's shit game design to railroad me onto a different path during my time trials."
Everybody, save poor Eri, rotated around to face Beak-Creep. Or, more accurately, the blue-haired young man standing behind him. The newcomer scratched at his neck, flecks of comically dry skin falling off of it. Noting the stares, he paused.
"What? I didn't freeze the game did I? Keep going."
"Right…" drawled out the sludge villain, turning back to Midoriya, "Anyway- wait is that Stain?"
Almost immediately, Himiko perked up. "Oh my gosh, that is Mr. Stainy!"
Izuku's eyes popped open, as they landed on a disheveled guy who had just trudged out of an alleyway- a different one than the one that Burnscars came out of. "The- The Hero Killer?"
Sure enough, Stain was the newest member of the multi-car pileup that Izuku's walk from school was quickly becoming. The swordsman looked up and down the street, eyes narrowing as he took in his surroundings.
"How… did I get here?"
Well, that was concerning. Did he have amnesia, or knocked out and moved here? Perhaps it was a quirk effect- and that could also explain why so many people were showing up at this specific part of the road at this time. What kind of quirk could do that though?
"Ooh, you think a quirk brought us together, Midori-cha~n?" Alright, well, Izuku was once again checked out. Having a pretty girl whisper into your ear will do things to a growing boy.
Meanwhile, across from the trio of kids, Beak-Creep sighed. The very frame he opened his mouth to actually say something, though, he was interrupted by a dark chuckle. The laugh echoed throughout the street, causing everyone who was here for more than two introductions to slump over in slight exasperation.
"The fool, flaunting his gallantry…" The voice came from the skies. From above, descended yet another man, wearing an elegant red robe, and a set of blue disks that floated behind him. Also, his skin was tinted blue. "...Reaches none with his vanity."
…
After a beat of silence, Burnscars looked upwards, and, very deliberately, began speaking. "What the fuck does that mean?"
"Damn, who decided to go for the 10-pull today?" The guy with dry skin muttered, although his voice carried pretty well down the road.
The rejected member of the blue man crew pointedly ignored the both of them, instead opting to continue his monologue from the few meters he hovered above the road. "You may call me Flect-Turn. Failing that, I shall be known as the Savior of Mankind."
It was Beak-Creep's turn to object. "What I will call you is a fool," He called out, taking his eyes off of Midoriya and Eri for the first time since this entire shebang kicked off.
"You can not claim to save mankind unless you are willing to get rid of the curses that run rampant through humanity. Quirks are a disease that are slowly killing off the human race, and I intend on being the cure!"
Instead of being insulted though, Flect-Turn looked at Beak-Creep, and grinned. "Well then, you and I may not be so different in the end, then. I too wish to put a stop to the malignant growths that will end the world. Tell me, what is your name-"
"Hold on, you what?" Sandoku interrupts the two, incredulousness rolling off of him like it was parts of his sludge. "Do you know how fucking insane you assholes sound?"
"Right." Stain agreed. "The real corruption lies within the false heroes that our society so erroneously places its faith into."
"Err, yeah… Anyway, just what the hell are you two saying?"
Both Flect-Turn and Beak-Creep give Sandoku a condescending look.
"Of course, a brute like you, so completely taken over by such a blight, wouldn't understand our goals."
The fact that the same sentence came from two different sources at the same time was quite uncanny.
Burnscars sighs, running a hand through his hair. "I've changed my mind. I'm leaving. See you never, hopefully- shit."
As soon as he turns around, he bumps into somebody. Much to his chagrin, it's somebody new. Again. The person blocking the alleyway had on the odd combination of a lab coat and a black suit. Half of his head was covered up by a silver gasmask, and his one visible eye stared out at the gathered villains (and the Izuku/Eri duo) with contempt.
"So this was their plan, then?" He asked nobody, "To hew me in with a group of no-name thugs?"
Burnscars visibly deflated. "Look, I'm just trying to leave so I can go back to sleep. If you'll excuse me, I just have… to…"
A giant metal wall blocked off the alley he wanted to go into. And also the road. And the alleyway that Stain came out of.
"God. Damn it."
"Well well well," A smug voice called out, "What do we have here?"
Guess who- it's another man. This one has red paint on his face! He sat atop the roof of a building, next to a dumpster. Said dumpster was stretched out around the entire area, forming the metal walls that blocked Burnscars from his probably well-earned nap.
"Looks to me like a bunch of unlucky schmucks. Do you wanna do this the easy way or the hard way?"
Dry-Skin whistles. "Damn, the devs really jacked up the encounter rate in this area. I got a raid in like half an hour though so I'm gonna head out."
That was, of course, the moment when somebody blasted a hole into one of the walls of the impromptu cage.
"Oh yeah!" Blue jumpsuit, orange rocky growths on his hands and feet, and good ol' fashioned lava dripping from said limbs. This guy was fuckin' ready. "Who's ready to get their ass kicked!"
Izuku gulped. He really should've picked a different way to walk home today.
一一
"-while there was a fortunate lack of civilian casualties, the massive battle left an entire road's worth of buildings demolished, melted, or in some cases, disintegrated. All-Might's appearance has likely stopped the damage from spreading over a much wider area of the city."
The sound of a door opening stole Inko Midoriya's attention away from the TV screen.
"Mom, I'm home!"
Upon hearing her son's voice, exhausted as it was, Inko shot up from the couch, and rushed her way over to the entrance of the apartment.
There he was- her baby, safe and sound! But he was dirty, covered in scrapes and bruises and burns, and was that a bite mark-?
"Izuku!"
Inko practically leapt forward, enveloping her son in a tight hug. Before she knew it, both her and Izuku were bawling their eyes out- Izuku from the sheer stress of the day, and Inko from worrying about Izuku.
"Himi-chan, why are they crying?" A young, female, and unfamiliar voice asked.
"I think those are tears of joy? Maybe?" An older female, though still relatively young.
Inko looked over Izuku's shoulder, seeing the silver-haired girl and the blonde, standing awkwardly within the doorway.
"Ah, come in, come in!" She invited, waving the two inside her home proper. They were letting all of the good air out just standing there!
"Thank you Midoriya-san." "Thanks Midoriya-san!"
"Make yourselves home in the living room, please. I'll be right there."
Finally letting go of her son, Inko affixed the boy with a curious look.
"So, who are those two?"
"Oh! The blonde haired girl is Himiko-chan, and the silver haired one is Eri-chan."
…chan, hmm?
Izuku felt a shiver run down his spine. Looks like his day wasn't over yet.