MosesArk Reborn2000 - Awakened Copy has its downsides and negatives when compared to All for One. In the end, I'd argue that AFO is better than Awakened Copy, but... the potential for kicking ass in 1on1 is comparable, and Monoma ISN'T a dummy :v
Shahryar - Scary, hmm?
(***)
For as much as Midoriya was furious at Neito Monoma, launching an immediate assault on his hero agency and painting it with his co-workers blood would be a bit… too… hasty. Revenant has thus returned to his normal, day-to-day operations.
For now.
He had a clear goal. The Marukane Ward. He wasn't sure how to tell Tsuyu that she was going to have to return to that accursed place once again, but…
In the meantime, he was working.
The Paranormal Liberation Front's forces were finally fully equipped, courtesy of the Hatsume Industries. The factory on Okinawa - led by Mechanist - was churning out new equipment, Cloud and Eclipse warping them back to the mainland.
New cells of their subsidiary groups were getting organized nationwide. They had equipment for those and some bonuses to drop at everyone who wanted to shoot some heroes or police officers.
Even the Five Under - previously the Armageddon's Tomb - was now operational, Hatsume moving a certain very special project there.
In short, everything aside from Eri was getting better and better. And even Eri's situation - if Midoriya was right about Neito Monoma being the one who held her right now - could be argued to be an improvement.
If not for his attack, Eri would most likely be unmasked as Revenant's daughter on arrival at Chronostasis laboratory. All that Kurono had to do was to ask how her father's doing nowadays, and his caretakers might have figured things out before Eri would manage to sign at him to shut the fuck up.
Worst of all, Nejire Hadou might have then learned of her presence there as a result.
This didn't change the fact that Midoriya Izuku was deeply interested in dismembering Neito Monoma, but he was ready to stop himself from doing that depending on what sort of deal that tuxedo-fanatic was going to try to broker up.
There was also going to be another raid very soon, because to be honest, the governmental reaction to the Paragon Program being annihilated was irritatingly scarce. Aside from the propaganda pieces claiming that Midoriya Izuku killed even more hero students.
It was getting fairly stale at this point.
Of course, there were also the perks.
"So…" Izuku says, his fingers running on Tsuyu's very well-developed thigh. "... did I mention that I absolutely love your legs?"
They were taking full advantage of their free time. Izuku was sitting on his couch, Tsuyu sitting in front of him, with her back towards him.
His hands… were wandering, his chin resting on her shoulder, giving him a nice view of said wandering.
"You did, ribbit." She replies. Despite her straightforward answer, it's rather clear that the atmosphere is getting to her. Izuku can tell that from her breathing alone. "The day when you told me that you love me. It included my 'frog legs', ribbit."
… of course she remembered such a detail.
In Izuku's opinion, there was no greater power in this universe than Tsuyu's deep seated need to hear compliments from someone she trusted to not be bullshiting her. It was, when you thought about this, extremely sad.
She was looking down on herself so much that she needed external validation to believe that she actually was worth something.
She deserved better. Much better.
Izuku was more than ready to help in that to the best of his ability.
"Well, that's good." Izuku says, his fingers grabbing the edge of her skirt and pulling it upward, revealing even more of her legs. Despite it being such a simple act, it still draws a quiet if surprisingly lustful ribbit. "I mean, look at this. It's basically a work of art."
"Flirt, ribbit." Tsuyu replies. Despite her words, it's clear that she was really enjoying the attention.
"I'm not flirting with you, I'm just stating the truth!" Izuku replies, running his hand over her leg. "I mean, look at this. So much muscle, so much hard work, and yet the shape is somehow perfectly feminine and delightfully soft… from the surface, because you just have to do this…"
His hand stops wondering, instead pressing down on her thigh. She inhales deeply. Someone's really sensitive.
"... and you can feel steel underneath." Izuku concludes, Tsuyu ribbiting quietly but with a clear hint of happiness and satisfaction to it.
Does that count as being smooth? Or is he just that good when helping others believe in themselves is involved? It didn't take him that long to help Eri conquer her fears, although it was still a lot of hard work on his side.
Then again, he had a good teacher.
He still remembers being on the receiving side of similar treatment from Re-Destro. That man was always ready to compliment - just not in a cheap way - whatever achievements others made. Izuku included.
Bit by bit, he made Izuku start believing in himself, by making him realize just how much he was actually capable of. Somehow appearing genuine throughout the whole process. It was a gift that Izuku wasn't really sure if he inherited perfectly.
"Too many scars, ribbit." Tsuyu decides to be, well, painfully herself about it. Yes, she has one or two nasty ones on her legs, but…
"Hey, I like your scars." Izuku replies, before kissing her cheek. She ribbits quietly, looking away from him. "I have a lot of them as well, it's like wearing matching outfits."
"Flirt, ribbit." Tsu repeats her earlier words. "I don't dislike it, though."
Please don't go tsundere on me, Izuku thinks. Then he decides to start moving over to something more… interesting, his hands beginning to wander where they didn't earlier, Tsuyu clearly enjoying this with a mixture of anticipation and growing lust and…
… then someone knocks on the door.
Izuku and Tsuyu sigh loudly in unison. This really brings back the wrong type of memories. Worst of all, there goes the mood.
"Yes?" Izuku asks loudly, pulling slightly back from Tsuyu.
"It's urgent." He can hear Uraraka's voice coming from the other side of the door. "Not 'Armageddon is here' urgent, but…"
Great.
"I'll be there in a moment." Izuku replies, before giving Tsuyu a tight hug. "There goes the mood, eh? Why is it always in moments like this?"
"Ribbit." Tsuyu replies. It's… yeah, he has no idea what that meant. His fiancee corrects her skirt a little. "You can't be surprised when someone knocks on our door when you aren't at home. And aside from sleeping, sex is the most common thing that we do when you're at home."
…
He actually isn't sure how to reply to it. But Tsuyu is probably right.
"... I think it's just a way of dealing with excess stress." Izuku eventually admits while Tsuyu stands up from the couch. He stands up right after her. "Probably a healthier outlet than doing that with the bloody murder of the people that angered me."
"I know, ribbit." Tsuyu replies, before leaning in to kiss his cheek. "I'm the one initiating it almost as often as you do. Now go, it might be about Eri. I'll be waiting."
That she most certainly will do.
Izuku would probably prefer it if it was about Eri. Because he can scarcely find worse news than what they just told him.
He knew that it was going to happen. He just…
"... how much time he has left?" Izuku asks, feeling… drained. Another loss, and… that person of all people.
"Few hours, at best." Incense replies. On her face, a look of sadness. She is a doctor, probably used to giving people bad news. Does it actually hurt or… maybe she just learned how to fake it convincingly enough? "If you didn't move Trumpet to my hospital, he wouldn't have even that. We've managed to react fast enough to his heart attack, so he is stable and conscious for the moment, but…"
She sighs. Uraraka gives Izuku a worried look. Yeah, he felt like he was crumbling inside.
They were so close.
A few hours. If they had attacked the facility a few hours earlier, if he hadn't wasted so much time making sure that the attack was going to be flawless, Eri would be here. And with Eri, Trumpet wouldn't….
"... I think it's time to say your goodbyes." Incense says, drawing him out of his little despair and self-depreciation streak. "Skeptic and Jetstream are with him right now."
Of course they are.
"Uraraka." Izuku says when they arrive in front of the Trumpet's hospital room. "I have something I need to ask you to do. Something important."
He isn't sure if he likes the aesthetics of this place. The Creature Rejection Clan has all but monopolized the hospital. A lot of their iconography everywhere, like some particularly obnoxious product placement.
Then again, does it really matter if they are competent about it? PLF has the best healthcare of all of the villainous organizations in the country. That's what is really important to him. The staff could as well eat the corpses of the patients that died in some cannibalistic feasts and his reaction to that would be 'please don't do that in front of me'.
"Sure thing, Izuku!" Uraraka smiles. "What do you want?"
"Make sure that Jirou isn't in a position to overhear what will be said during my meeting with Trumpet." Midoriya replies.
Uraraka salutes him and leaves.
Now, it was time to wait.
Skeptic, as Izuku expected, left the room first.
"Of course you're here." Skeptic groans when he sees Midoriya sitting on the bench in front of the hospital door. Izuku gives him a tired stare.
"Why would I not be here, when one of my last remaining uncles is dying?" Midoriya replies dryly.
He used to have a lot of those. Mr. Compress was there, Kurogiri in some twisted and short-lived way, the rest of the MLA leadership. He also had some aunties, most of them similarly dead nowadays.
Skeptic was someone he never truly connected to, but he still thought of him fondly. It was Tomoyasu Chikazoku that taught him how to use computers properly, at Re-Destro's request.
Skeptic was painfully, irritatingly condescending while doing so. But Midoriya still learned a lot. By the end of their lessons, Chikazoku actually stopped looking down on him, a rare achievement.
That left just Stain. The unsinkable Hero Killer. Izuku isn't sure if there is anything that could truly end that man.
"Right." Skeptic sighs. "Looks like Jetstream's going to be the next 'proper' Grand Commander, with me holding the post in the meantime, because he still needs time to grow and learn. Unless you…"
"I'm leading the Paranormal Liberation Front." Izuku cuts in. "Mastermind is already grumbling about me favoring the MLA before CRC, let's not make things any worse than that."
Skeptic groans.
"So many years, and you're still being a melodramatic ass." He announces. "I don't buy that explanation for a moment, it's way too rational for you. What's the real reason?"
Skeptic got almost weirdly better at reading people. Good to know.
"I have a daughter…" Midoriya replies. "...that will probably end up growing up to be Re-Destro's intellectual equal AND she's already referring to quirks as meta-abilities nine times out of ten, unless in public. And despite all that happened, despite my genuine belief in the Meta-Liberation cause, I think that I'd prefer her to become a doctor or a lawyer once she grows up."
"Wow." Skeptic says, sarcasm almost dripping from his tongue. "Yeah, I can totally imagine someone with the political views aligning with Japan's most powerful political extremist group and a brain to equal the best masterminds of modern age settling up on being a law-abiding civilian."
"Skeptic." Izuku replies softly. "Do you want to die so much?"
Skeptic instantly realizes that he went a bit too far, and ends up sighing painfully.
"You do you, Midoriya." He replies, before walking away.
"You know he is right." A voice says. Izuku, for all his skills, found himself surprised by it. His eyes find Aiko standing next to the bench. She probably approached him under some presence suppression song.
She's in her actual age form, wearing a navy blue robe of the Ascending Path with some golden trimming. Her eyes, as always, are slightly unsettling to look into.
"You're not excluded from death, Aiko." Midoriya replies dryly. "Why are you here?"
"If you wanted her to live a normal life, why did you teach her how to outthink the heroes, how to kill them without being caught and how to commit almost any imaginable crime while at it?" Aiko asks. "Shouldn't you…"
It's a simple move. Simple but fast. For all her incredible - almost divine - power, she has the reflexes of an average person. She failed to even follow it, her eyes reaching the knife only when it fell off the wall behind her.
It flew right past her head. If he actually tried to kill her… Tsuyu wasn't the only expert knife thrower in the vicinity.
Worst of all, he might not have tried to do that, but… a temptation was there. This was really a berserk button to him.
"I…" Midoriya replies. "... do not want her to become a villain. I've been one for almost ten years. Do I look happy to you? And I want her to be happy." Their eyes meet. "But I had nothing else to teach her. Also, I don't want to talk about this anymore."
"Fine." Aiko relents.
They remain quiet for a few minutes.
"Why are you here?" Izuku asks. "Are you trying to sell him immortality?"
"No." Aiko replies. "Becoming exalted is a process, death is only the final moment of it. I'd have had to start doing that weeks ago. And I never asked him if he wanted that."
Izuku glances at her.
"I'm done with being used by people, oniichan." Aiko replies. So many years, but she still used that word. Huh. "I discovered back then that I was born simply because All for One wanted to make All Might suffer by having a child with his dead mentor's daughter. Then I spent years losing people I loved because they fought for the causes I didn't believe in. You think this left no impact?"
He says nothing. She still didn't answer his unspoken question.
"I'm tired of being used, I'm tired of being betrayed, I'm tired of losing people." Aiko replies. "Exalted are my answers. They can't die. They worship me as their goddess, and what sort of believer manipulates or betrays their goddess? Trumpet is a good man, but he's no worshiper of mine. And, especially after Armageddon, I'm done with using my powers to help people that aren't my worshippers. That I can't trust wholly."
Hah. That explains a lot. He is honestly unsure if Trumpet would even agree to that. In Izuku's opinion, if he wanted immortality, he would simply ask Aiko for it.
Why? Who knows.
"I think…" Aiko continues. "... that I showed up to see how you were doing, and if you were going to ask me to exalt him. I didn't expect you to throw a knife at me."
Great, that's just what he needed now. A guilt-trip. At least Aiko doesn't stay around for long.
Eventually, Kouta leaves the room. He looks like he cried, probably a lot. But he is doing his best to not make it visible. It's not working, not with someone as observant as Midoriya, but he is quite good at pretending.
"He is waiting for you." He says towards Midoriya. "Don't make him wait."
"You look like shit, Trumpet." Midoriya says the moment the door behind him closed. The present (but not for long) Grand Commander of the MLA is lying on the hospital bed, still missing his face and still connected to a lot of machinery.
"My apologies, Notebook." Trumpet says, his voice sounding more strained than usual. "I asked them to let me wear my suit to my hospital bed, but Incense vetoed that."
It's enough to draw a chuckle out of Midoriya, as he was sitting on the chair right next to the bed. He didn't expect that.
"That's the CRC for you." Midoriya replies, smiling faintly. "With all those robes of theirs, the value of a well-fit business suit is completely lost on them."
"What absolute barbarians, indeed." Trumpet shoots back. Then the awkward silence comes.
Izuku has no idea how to address that issue. The elephant in the room. Or, to be exact, a scythe-wielding hooded figure in the room.
"Can I ask you to do something for me, Notebook?" Trumpet asks. When Izuku voices his approval, the man continues. "Do me a favor and do not blame yourself for my death, alright?"
Shit, of course he figured it out.
"Trumpet, I…"
"Don't 'Trumpet' me." Trumpet cuts in. "Your tendency to blame yourself for everything didn't change. You couldn't have known that your daughter was going to be moved out from that facility on that particular day. You couldn't have known that my body was going to give up before you could locate her again. You've made the right call according to the information you had."
Izuku takes a deep breath. It's… yeah, not an easy thing to say, but…
"Alright." He isn't sure if he isn't lying, but… "I'll try, and… I'll also try to teach Kouta as much as I can."
"That covers the next thing I wanted to ask you for, yes. Just one last left. Please, don't kill Neito Monoma over this." Trumpet then says, surprising Midoriya completely. "We both know that his kidnapping of Eri didn't contribute to my death. From my point of view, this country has been run into the ground for years by nothing else than an endless revenge spiral. Especially after what happened to Deika. If he does something to your daughter, I can't nor do I want to stop you. But please, I don't want to be avenged."
He was right, wasn't he? Izuku knew that from the autopsy. His entire life ever since the Kamino Ward was him trying to take revenge on someone. On the Hero Society, on All for One, now on everyone who dared to lay their hands on Eri, and…
Momo was venting out her anger on people who put Todoroki in prison. Quicksilver was here because she wanted revenge on her father. Most of the PLF wanted a rematch, a victory to avenge those that they lost in the past. Revenge, revenge, revenge. Even All Might wasn't free from it, pursuing All for One his whole life to avenge Nana Shimura.
"Very well, Trumpet." Izuku replies. "I promise you that. I have enough revenge targets as it is, either way."
"Good, good." Trumpet sighs, sounding much more tired all of a sudden. Despite dying, he was still keeping up appearances. That old oaf. "In case there was something after death, do you have any messages for anyone?"
Wow, what a way of putting it.
"I always thought that apologizing for something is best done face-to-face." Izuku replies calmly. "And I don't think that I have any messages to those that we lost that aren't apologies."
"You're being way too sad, Notebook." Trumpet replies. "Cheer up a little, you act as if someone's dying or something."
Midoriya, against himself, chuckles. Even Trumpet smiles, however painful it must be to him. Unless the anesthetics have him covered on that front.
Alright, time to do it.
"Trumpet, you remember saying that you do not fear death, only dying while fearing that the cause you dedicated your life to was going to turn out to be a lost one?" Izuku asks.
"That I do remember, yes." Trumpet replies. "What about it?"
Then, Izuku tells him everything. His entire plan. His end goal. Even some of his contingency plans and alternative courses of actions. The reasons why he chooses that option rather than another, the assets he plans to use - and those he will probably have to discard. The reasons why he thought that it was going to work.
This part of the talk was the true reason why he had Uraraka make sure that Jirou wasn't anywhere close enough to try to overhead the meeting at Yaoyorozu's orders. He didn't want her to know. Aiko knew, but he trusted her to stay quiet. Trumpet… Trumpet wasn't in a position to tell anyone.
The rest was supposed to stay in the dark.
Koku Hanabata listens in silence, only the sounds of his strained breathing and the rhythmic beeping of machinery reminding Midoriya that he was still alive.
"... and that's the whole plan, Trumpet." Izuku finally ends his speech. It was… long. Almost half an hour of continuous lecture. He had… a lot prepared for the future.
"Ah." Trumpet lets out. He sounds… relieved? "He was right about you, wasn't he? Re-Destro always said that one day you were going to outgrow him. He was looking forward to that day."
Izuku was looking forward to that day as well. But he expected a lot more of familiar faces when that was going to happen. Including the one of Rikiya Yotsubashi.
"T-thank you, Grand Commander." Trumpet says weakly. "I can rest peacefully now, knowing that you have it all covered. If it's not too much to ask, could you…"
"I'll stay here until the end." Izuku replies, his hand extending to hold Trumpet's. The war can wait. No one should die alone.
Days until the Second Battle of the Marukane Ward:
16