AN: Alright everyone, I'm planning the next couple of chapters before the 'Final Exams' to be split between Izuku's new patrols and some character development/bonding with other characters. If there's something specific anyone would like to see let me know.
What Doesn't Kill Me
Chapter 39
-Endeavor-
"Just ask already." Endeavor rumbled as he and Dauntless worked on their patrol. Ever since he'd picked up his son's friend that morning the boy had seemed tense, like he was trying to decide whether or not to ask a question that was bothering him.
"Why did you offer to help me?" Dauntless finally mustered up the spine to ask as they did their patrol.
"Because of what you did for my son." Endeavor shrugged, not seeing any reason to lie or beat around the bush "You helped support him when he was in a bad place. You Defended him in front of the world at the Sports Festival. You helped him in his training. Not to mention you've been his friend when he didn't have any before."
"That's it?" Dauntless looked surprised.
"Do I need another reason?" Endeavor raised an eyebrow as they started walking towards the last leg of the morning patrol before they'd start making their way back to UA.
"It's just…" Dauntless trailed off uncertain.
"Not what you expected given public opinion." Endeavor wasn't fazed, he knew how everyone saw him, "Not to mention what Shoto might have told you."
"He hasn't really said anything." Dauntless admitted as they rounded another corner to a road full of pricey shops, "I've noticed he always looks confused when he talks about you, but he never explained why."
"My family is…complicated." Endeavor shook his head, "But it seems to be having some improvements. Regardless this time is meant to be used to help your ability as a Hero. Now, I've heard you've been showing promise in patrol organization with Gang Orca. What-" his planned quizzing of the young hero was cut off by an explosion, glass flying from the windows of a shop ahead.
"Dauntless, start escorting civilians to safety!" Endeavor wasted no time rocketing forward, hearing the sound of heavy pounding footsteps as Dauntless followed suit. As he approached the store, he saw a group of villains wearing, of all random things, American Biker style outfits. The wild bunch were laughing as they ran out of the store, sacks full of stolen goods over their shoulders.
"Oh fuck, it's Endeavor!" one of the thugs had a look of terror on their face as he rocketed towards them, his speed bolstered by the power of his flames.
"Use the thing! USE THE THING!" another screamed as they scrambled to pull some canisters out of their belts, ones he couldn't just melt in case they were explosive and made the situation worse.
Endeavor reached them and threw a hard punch, knocking out the first thug as he shot a blast of fire at a second. Unfortunately, the third managed to smash open a canister as gas filled the street, expanding far more rapidly than other he'd seen. Endeavor doubled over, coughing from the gas filling his lungs, his vision starting to blur even as he fought to get back on his feet and reach the last villain.
His vision started to darken as he found himself in some sort of void, the sounds of the panicking civilians and the coughing villain still reaching his ears.
"WhY FaThEr?!" hearing a distorted agonized voice that was oh so painfully familiar, Endeavor's head snapped to the side. He saw Toya, his boy, crawling from an alley. Toya's body was covered in burns, the flesh that wasn't blackened rotting away and filled with maggots, "WhY DiDn'T yOu SaVe Me?! YoU LeFt Me To DiE! yOu RePlAcEd Me! WhY?! wHaT dId ShOtO hAvE tHaT i DiDn'T?!" Endeavor felt his breath growing heavy and rapid as he saw the shambling corpse wearing the face of his son crawling towards him.
"YOU'RE NOT REAL!" Endeavor roared his flames flaring with his rising heart rate even as he heard others nearby starting to scream and shout in complete and utter terror.
"GET AWAY!"
"GET THEM OFF ME!"
"MERCY!"
"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"
"ENOUGH!" Endeavor tried to summon a fistful of flames only for the lingering gas nearby him to detonate, sending him flying against the wall even if the visions seemed less solid now.
"Heads up number two!" a voice he vaguely recognized as a local hero shouted, a man in firefighter garb ran in, firing pressurized water at the road to make a faux rain to start washing the gas from the air. The cold of the water further helped Endeavor snap out of what he now recognized as hallucinations. Remembering the third villain who'd started this whole mess Endeavor whirled around only to see the man unconscious by a panting Dauntless. The giant grey skinned student was panting, eyes wild and frightened at the mental assault.
"Dauntless, get those canisters bagged and sealed now!" Endeavor barked, pointing at the three metal cylinders, the partially opened one possibly having more gas to let out when not wet.
"Backdraft, keep that water going until the canisters are put away, the gas is from those." Endeavor turned towards the local hero who nodded, still keeping up the faux rain as Endeavor made sure there weren't any more villains in the area, Backdraft's partners finishing up with clearing the area of civilians.
"Sweet mercy." Endeavor actually allowed himself to collapse against the wall once the area was confirmed clear, HPC clean up crews arriving rapidly.
"Report." One of the HPC agents demanded as they noted Endeavor slumped against a wall, Dauntless not looking much better.
"Chemical weapon." Dauntless answered before Endeavor could, "Hallucinogen gas. Containers were high quality, not cheaply made or quirk produced. Means money and intellect backing." Endeavor realized the kid was rambling out analysis just to not focus on whatever the gas had made him see, "Gas moved quickly too, expanded and the containers didn't show any sign of leaking. They were made by an expert. Designed to incapacitate any heroes who came after them. Found gas filters in villain jackets, thugs too panicked to use them." Meaning they'd just gotten lucky.
"This is the third case today." The agent scowled at the three villains being loaded into a criminal transport, "Hawks and Ryukyu also had to deal with similar situations. A group of villains dressed like bikers, all having these same cylinders."
"Only one of these three went off." Endeavor knew it would be miserable for the kid, but it would help Dauntless in the long run, "Is it possible for me to take one? I wish to get it analyzed, my flames detonated it and I need to make sure there aren't any other issues."
"Very well Endeavor." The agent nodded, having one of the two unopened canisters handed over, not questioning him due to rank.
"Come on Dauntless, let's get you back to UA." He wiggled the can once the agents were gone, "I'd rather Nezu take a look at these." Not to mention, if possible, this could let Dauntless get exposed to, and therefore build up resistance against, such chemical attacks in a controlled environment.
-Izuku-
Still feeling twitchy after what he'd seen from the gas, Izuku made his way towards the support studio to see what options the Support Course had developed for him. He needed something, anything, to get his mind off what had happened earlier.
"Ah, hello there." Hearing a voice he didn't recognize as he entered the workshop, Izuku looked in surprised at a tall balding man with a rather large nose.
"Um…hi?" Izuku looked over at Power loader in confusion.
"This is Rikiya Yotsubashi." The support teacher explained, "He's the CEO of Detnerat and has been looking at the work of my students to see about offering internships."
"Yes, I hope you don't mind but I was curious about seeing how their pieces work with the young Hero they're made for." The CEO nodded with a genial smile as Izuku nodded in hesitant confusion, wondering about the odd presence the man exuded.
"Well, Midoriya, we have a few options." Power loader took over, noting Izuku's awkwardness, "First is a simple collapsible staff." He pulled up the large rod which could shrink into a smaller form that could still fit on his back in his untransformed state. It was rather basic but looked serviceable.
"Maybe." Izuku frowned, it didn't really grab his attention, but he didn't want to be rude. Especially if it affected a student's shot of getting an internship with a big support company.
"Second, we have a collapsible scythe." Power loaded showed the heavily overdesigned weapon.
"It looks impressive, but I don't know if I have the time to focus on a weapon like that." Izuku admitted, the scythe looking like a weapon that would take an absurd amount of training just to not risk hitting himself or someone else he wasn't aiming at when swinging it around the way the notes attached implied it was meant to, "Plus I'm worried about that many moving parts with how many heavy hits I plan to take. It looks impressive but I don't think it's for me."
"Fair enough." Power loaded shrugged as he pulled out the last item "And third, we have this." It was a large pole arm with one half of the weapon had showing a gleaming axe head while the other showed a blunt hammer face. He noticed the haft was similar to the first weapon in the telescopic effect, "The entire thing is made out of hyper dense material and reinforced from within by a structure similar to bird wings, the reinforcement braces able to snap into place as you expand it. Izuku took the weapon, giving it a practice swing as he found the weight, while heavy enough to hurt if one got hit with it, wasn't as bad as he expected given the 'super dense' metal used in its construction. Probably done in such a way so as to keep it expandable.
"Some students tried making a handle that could create an energy weapon but that's still a work in progress." Power Loader shrugged even as he eyed Izuku testing the weight of the weapon "But either way it looks like we have a winner."
"Yeah…yeah, this one works." Izuku was still twitchy but caught the shared glance between the two adults. He hoped this blew over soon.
-Omake-
-Izuku-
Giving a roar, Izuku charged into the base of the League of Villains, his body crackling with black lightning even as his muscles and body dwarfed that of All Might. One for All, the most absurd offensive Quirk Izuku had ever seen was not only allowing him to hit harder than All Might could, but it had also supercharged his own ability.
Where before he could recover within twenty-four hours, extreme injuries taking that entire time, now it was more akin to hyper regeneration. His body adapted to things much faster and got more payout for each adaption he experienced.
"FUCKING DIE!" the lunatic from the USJ ran at him, near rabid with rage as he grabbed at Izuku's arms, the skin starting to decay and crack apart only for Izuku's healing to overtake it, the adaptation making it do less and less until the villain's quirk was near useless within seconds.
And so, it continued.
Dabi's flames gave no sense of heat to him.
Muscular's first broke against Izuku's jaw.
Toga's knife bent against his arm.
Then there were the hundreds of quirks that All for One sent at him. Each one doing little to nothing as he powered through, grabbing the ancient super villain by the skull. And there was nothing any of them could do to stop him.
AN: That right there was a look at why I never wanted to give Izuku One for All. It would make things too easy. We know it gives super strength while also super charging the existing quirk and so there was no way to let him have both without him becoming WAY too strong. Could this work for a story? Yes, but not the one I'm trying to write. A story like that would have to be either focused on character interactions, or focused on how Izuku handles a world without a challenge. This was my first chaptered My Hero fic and I didn't want to do something like that for my first foray outside of little one shots. To counter another train of thought could I have given Izuku a much weaker version of his quirk and let OFA boost it to the level we see in the story or a little above? Also, yes but that didn't feel right to me either.