Disclaimer: I own nothing
It's been about two months since Izuku's fight with Miruko. A couple of things have changed since then. Izuku and his vigilantes have been fighting the syndicates more. Giran gives Izuku any information he needs then scams the hell out of the members of gangs and syndicates who escaped. They're desperate and he offers them a job, they usually take it.
Another thing that's changed, Izuku's group has gotten a lot bigger. There are now eighty six vigilantes from around the world following Izuku. He's kinda the boss. He's not sure he's the guy to be in charge… but he brought them all together, he has more experience than most of them, he's also stronger than most of them. Maybe he's not the worst guy to be doing this. People are taking notice of his work. Heroes are trying to find him more than ever. Civilians however have taken more of a liking to his group.
It feels nice to know people believe in what he's doing. Sometimes he doesn't really know what he's doing. He loses faith. He finds himself drunk or high off his ass fairly often. He should probably work on that last part. He doesn't want to overdose again. Even though he is doing it more often he's more careful. Recently Izuku's been snorting PCP before fights to boost his pain tolerance. After fights he likes to smoke cigarettes or weed if Dabi has any. It calms him down. Speaking of drugs, Izuku currently felt like shit. He hasn't slept in about three weeks. He's been bouncing all over the world, meeting with vigilantes and throwing down with villains. He keeps his mind running with coffee, red bull, and cocaine. He's really not doing too hot.
The thing that really keeps him going is what he learned from his fight with Miruko. What he learned being he needs to keep up pressure and strike hard, strike fast, and strike with anger. Which leads him to where he is now.
"We strike now and we drive the serpent out of Europe." says Izuku.
"Should we strike now?" asks Victor, "I mean are you up for it. You look like shit."
"Would it make you feel better if I slept?" asks Izuku.
"Yeah. When was the last you slept anyway?" asks Victor.
"Three weeks ago." replies Izuku.
"Jesus man. Take better care of yourself. I really am worried." says Victor.
"I'm just missing out on a little bit of sleep. I'll be alright." says Izuku.
"Not trying to be that guy or anything. You smell like you've been bathing in whiskey, coffee, and cigarette buts. Also I can see the powder under your nose." says Victor.
"Come here." says Izuku as he hugs Victor, "I'm fine man. You know I'm not human. I'm a little more durable than you think. So what's gonna happen now is we are gonna wait until night to attack. Which means we take portals home, I get a good five hours of sleep before midnight and I round up a couple of good ol' boys and some great gals. We'll kick these snakes asses so bad they never come back to Europe."
"Alright man. Just get some sleep. I'm not gonna tell you to stop smoking or drinking. I'm not your boss. I just want you to know that I'm a little concerned." says Victor.
Izuku pulls him into another hug, "Come here Uncle. You're a helluva guy. I'm fine man. I ain't going nowhere and ain't nothing gonna happen to me. So quit worrying cuz everything's gonna turn out okay."
Izuku had a way of convincing people whatever he said was right. It was weird but all these adults, some of which are hardened criminals look up to him. Victor was no different.
"Alright. I trust you man. Let's kick some ass tonight." says Victor.
"That's the spirit, Uncle. I'll see you toning man. Keep yer claws sharp." says Izuku.
"See you." says Victor.
When Izuku got home he set an alarm and just knocked the hell out. It was easily the best sleep he'd ever had. Unfortunately it wasn't enough. He was still tired when he woke up but some whisky and crack woke him up like nothing else could. Seriously that shit should be illegal. He gathered about thirty or so vigilantes. The plan was simple. Izuku, Victor, Margarita, and the Johnson family would fight the syndicate members and draw them into a nearby park. In the park they'd meet up with the rest of the members to ambush the snakes. Dabi and Doc were gonna work as ranged support. Izuku can shoot well but he prefers to fight with his hands. He feels better sending a man to jail or to hell if he can look them in the eye.
"We gotta go over the plan again?" asks Izuku.
The general feel of the group was that they got it. So they got to it. They knew they'd need to be quick if they were gonna do this in the city. They were held up in a bar that sold a lot more than beer. The fight started as planned. They fought and they backed up. The syndicate chased them. It went as planned until they stopped attacking Izuku.
"So you're Ketsuiki? I thought you'd be bigger." says a winged reptilian looking man.
"You in charge here?" asks Izuku.
"Boss?" comes Victor's voice.
"I'll catch up. I think he wants to fight me himself." says Izuku.
"Oh I do. See for the last three weeks, you've been a thorn in my side. Literally every day. You've attacked my men and my business. Other region leaders are questioning my strenght. They don't think I can handle it anymore. But I can. Cuz I know something about you nobody else does. Both of us are quirkless you know." says the lizard man.
"You're a basilisk aren't you." says Izuku.
"Yup. Nearly extinct. Just like you, vampire." says the basilisk man.
"Basilisks are real honorable from what I know." says Izuku, "You wouldn't take advantage of my vampiric weakness would you?"
"I wouldn't. But I don't need to. I'll kill you here and now." says the Basilisk.
"You're gonna get your ass beat." says Izuku.
This guy was pretty tough. He had Izuku pretty banged up. Then again Izuku had been in pretty bad shape for a while. Izuku won in the end. He couldn't keep up with Izuku's endless flurry of swings and jabs. The basilisk took off towards the park where his men went. He probably thinks they won already. Izuku chases him there to see him tackle Johnny. Izuku dives in there and begins to roll around with him. The two fought like animals. Nobody wanted to get close. Nobody could get a clear shot either. Basilisk was clearly stronger and bigger but Izuku managed to slip his mouth around his opponent's neck. His neck made a cracking noise and his body went still. Shit… Izuku didn't mean to kill him. This guy didn't even seem terrible. He could have fucked Izuku over but he chose not too. This makes Izuku's 12th kill. It's hard to avoid killing when they're armed and aiming at friends of yours.
"Well shit." Says Izuku, "let's get the hell out of here. I'll have portals to take us home soon."
After all that Izuku and some other vigilantes were chilling in Kurogiri's bar. All the main characters were there and a couple of less important vigilantes were there too.
"So that dude was a basilisk?" asks Victor.
"I don't think he was. He smelled like a human." says Izuku.
"You still think I'm a werewolf?" asks Victor.
"Yep." says Izuku.
"But I smell human right?" asks Victor.
"Sometimes. But sometimes you smell wolfy. Like a werewolf would smell." says Izuku.
"But I turn into a bear. The wolf thing is just a part of my quirk." says Victor.
"How can you be sure?" asks Izuku.
"My parents would have told me if I weren't a human." says Victor.
"Yeah, that's a pretty good point. You're probably right." says Izuku.
"See, I'm not a werewolf." says Victor.
"Yeah if you were a werewolf, you'd probably be stronger than me." says Izuku.
"Umm. I am stronger than you." says Victor.
"Pfft. No you're not." says Izuku.
"Dude. I'm way stronger than you." says Victor.
"Like physically, yeah. I'd still beat you though." says Izuku.
"No way you'd beat me." says Victor.
"Dudes." says Jay, "Not to be that guy, but Izuku's got the win."
"No way. Victors way stronger." says one of the unnamed vigilantes.
"I'm pretty sure there are only three vigilantes who could beat me." says Izuku.
"Well who are they?" asks Victor.
"Stendhal, Doc, and Dabi. Oh and maybe speed demon." says Izuku.
"I see Doc beating you. I don't see the others. Actually Dabi could incinerate an entire body in like a second. Speed demon maybe… if he surprises you. Stendhal though?" asks Victor.
"You've never seen him when he actually gets into a fight." says Izuku.
"I guess." says Victor, "Hey speaking of speed demon. Why doesn't he come to syndicate fights with us? Like is he still scared? We've kinda been kicking their asses."
" I honestly think his fear is valid. The Lizard dude from earlier tackled Johnny. If it wasn't someone with super strength, they would have died. Say that was Jay. Jay would've died. That's why I killed him like that. He was strong enough to lash out and kill any one of us." says Izuku.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." says Victor, "I never really thought about it."
"I feel responsible to protect these guys if I can. I mean, I'm their boss. I gotta protect them." says Izuku.
"Wait. Who made you boss?" asks Victor.
"... Hey guys. Victor's in charge right?" asks Izuku.
The general consensus was that Izuku was the boss.
"See." says Izuku, "What was I saying earlier. Right, I killed that guy. Poor bastard I honestly didn't wanna kill him. I just wanted to keep you guys safe."
"He deserved it. He's a bad dude and he deserves to die. He's not even trying to be better like Doc. He's just bad. You did the right thing." says Victor.
"I understand that morally speaking that was probably the right choice to make. But I killed him in front of his friends. I saw them smile when he showed up. I saw the look on their faces when I killed him. I get that he deserved to die, but I wish I didn't have to be the one to kill him. Jesus, I'm all sad now." says Izuku.
"I'm sorry I got you thinking about that stuff. I don't think of you as a kid. I think of you as an adult. I mean I've watched you drink and smoke and kill and die. But you're young, man. You didn't even really choose this life. It's out of necessity. You really don't deserve this." says Victor.
"Now I'm really sad. But also happy. You're a good dude. A good uncle." says Izuku, "Hey Kurogiri. Fuck the shot glass. Slide me a bottle."
Kurogiri does what he asks and slides him the rest of the tequila bottle he was taking shots from.
"That's some strong shit." says Victor.
"I'm a strong dude." says Izuku.
"Man. Are you okay? Like level with me for a second. Are you actually okay?" asks Victor.
"It's hard man. I don't even know if we can win. We hit the weakest link in the syndicate chain. The guys in the US have firepower that other groups can't get their hands on as easy. The Russian group is just massive. The Japanese group is where a lot of their strongest members work. We might just be fucked. We might be walking into a fight that we have no chance at winning. But… even if it was just you and me, we'd keep fighting. I'm sure we'd find a way to win somehow." says Izuku.
"You really think so?" asks Victor.
"..."
Authors Note
This chapter felt alright. It wasn't as fun to write as some of the others. It also doesn't feel like it was that good. Even if it isn't my best, I'm still content with it. I kinda feel like I'm coming out of my slump, because even though this isn't my best work, I was motivated to write it. So the next couple chapters are gonna be about the vigilantes and their fights with the serpent. It's gonna be about both the physical fight and the mental fight.
So Izuku's kinda spiralling a little bit. It'll get better and it'll get worse. His substance abuse got pretty bad and it will get worse. He's spending time away from his family so he won't be able to destress the way he used to. I think I'm gonna do a pretty good job of writing it. I think about it a lot so I've got some pretty good ideas.
So if I'm right and I'm getting my rhythm back, I'm not gonna switch to updates every other week. I'm gonna try to keep up with the weekly updates. I will be unable to write due to a trip I'm taking. I'll talk about that later. I'm kinda playing it by ear.
So a pretty cool thing I noticed is that this story has over five hundred followers. That's kinda cool. Like I honestly never expected this to be even remotely interesting. But here we are. I feel pretty good about this. It's just super cool. Thank you guys for following, it's a good feeling.
Also, and this is completely unrelated to the story, I caught a shiny Oranguru. It's a cool pink monkey. I might have mentioned this somewhere but monkeys are the coolest animals on earth.
Lightning blade 49: I could see that too. They could collaborate for merchandise. I like to imagine Izuku roping hawks and Miruko into doing a song with him. He could do a music video with them or something like that. I think they would take well to Toga, but as you said it could be a pretty interesting meeting with Dabi. Izuku could bust out some of that vampiric intimidation to keep them from fighting. Either that or they take Izuku's word on Dabi being all right.
Dinosaur Chicken: First, I really like your name and profile pic. I dig it. Second, thanks for the words of encouragement. I really appreciate all the input I receive. About you're advice. I've actually heard it a couple of times and I've been trying to work on it. There were a couple of paragraphs this chapter that I broke up and I think it kinda helps the pacing of the chapter so thanks for the advice. It was pretty helpful.
Amadeus Amadeus: It's true that Miruko respects strenght and she respects Izuku's strenght, but Izuku is not as strong as Miruko. Izuku lost their fight and if they fought again he'd lose again. The real reason Miruko respects Izuku is literally just because he kicks the shit out of villains. In her eyes anybody that kicks the shit out of villains that hard is a friend. So in part it is the strength but it's mostly his actions.
So I took you're advice and I went for the time skip. I think it was the right choice. It really did help the pacing. It would have sucked just making chapters introducing vigilantes that I don't really care about. Like I've got scrapped vigilante ideas. They're cool but I can't get behind them as much. Also fuck Clyde. Clyde is a dumb bitch. I'll kick Clyde's ass.
I think you're right about the schedule helping with motivation. Like if I haven't been writing and it's nearing the end of the week I just say fuck it and sit in my chair until I manage to get a chapter down. A lot of the time those are my best chapters. I'll try to keep to my schedule, not sure I'm gonna succeed. But I'll still try.
Dude having Eri say fuck like right in front of Inko would be like the pinnacle of an 'Oh, I fucked up' moment for Izuku.
You're right. Toga and Izuku aren't codependent. They're actually in a pretty stable relationship. Wish I could say the same. But yeah, they want each other and don't need each other. Someones partner should be their compliment and not their missing piece. They still have missing pieces but they don't use each other to fill them. I think that's the best way they could have grown as a couple and as people. I'm so proud of them. I really like imagining the two of them just doing normal house hold tasks together. Stuff they normally don't enjoy but they enjoy it because they are doing it together.