Izuku and Stain stared at each other in silence as they waited for the other to do the first move.
Stain knew he couldn't underestimate that child, the speed and strength of his attack was not normal at all, it had even cracked the floor underneath him. If it had actually hit him then he would have been badly injured or even worse, he would need to give it his everything for this fight.
Izuku was in his younger body and only with the strengthening quirks could he use about three percent of OFA but now he could not only use the other vestiges quirks but also the ones within AFO and he had decided to wait for a better time to begin testing them out and now…
It seemed like a perfect time to test a few combinations that he had in mind.
In short, he was going to fight not with quality but with quantity.
He was the first one to move as he shot towards the villain in a zigzag pattern using the walls to boost his own jumps.
Stain was no half baked villain, he had already fought and killed multiple heroes so his senses were top notch so when Izuku finally reached him with a fist ready he was able to dodge it with a backflip but the kid then did something that shocked him.
From his knuckles, he send out two long tendrils of black energy that wrapped around his leg and just as he was about to twist it to get out of its grip did they begin to shine with red cracked lines and from the tendrils another bunch of them shot out like thorns that dug into his leg making escape impossible.
Blackwhip and Rivet Stab!
Then with a swing Stain was dragged through the air and smashed to the ground face first but Izuku wasn't done as he pulled again dragging the villain against the floor and with a boosted jump, flew into the air dragging him along before spinning in the air and throwing him up.
He then chased after him with great speed almost as if he was running on air and then went for another swing at him.
Float and Airwalk!
Seeing the incoming attack, Stain twisted his body making the fist only scratch his cheek, with another great display of flexibility did he contort his body to then use Izuku's as a propulsion board as he jumped away landing on the roof of another building as he began to run away.
Izuku send out balckwhip and latched onto the building as he chased after the villain, the clouds of smoke they passed by filling his nose with ash and dust, in the distance he could hear the cries of people and the laughs of rampaging villains.
Stain quickly turned around and grimaced as he saw that Izuku followed closely, he then took out three of his knives and threw them at the boy but this proved ineffective as he easily dodged them.
Things like that were easy for him to dodge when compared to Stain's future self and All For One who were on completely different ranks than this version of the villain so fighting him was nothing more than a chore for him.
Izuku's legs then suddenly were the main focus of the red lighting as he suddenly released a sudden burst of kinetic energy to fly forward and tackle Stain making them fall back down into the streets.
Fa jin and Springlike Limbs!
Izuku jumped back as Stain tried to swing one of his swords at him but managed to evade it thanks to danger sense, he then quickly use smokescreen to create a moment for him to breath but it didn't last long as the villain threw more knives at him which Izuku was able to dodge with danger sense or catch with blackwhip.
The villain then rushed at him from the smoke and barely dodged his strike which managed to cut a bit of his suit but thankfully didn't penetrate his skin.
Izuku followed Stain's movements thanks to Infrared and Search making the smoke barely a problem for him, then rushed at the villain making him go on the defense but with a kick he managed to break one of his swords and make him take a few steps back.
Stain could barely believe his eyes, this kid was already a threat to him with that strength and speed but adding every other trick that he just kept pulling out he started to think that his chances to win were becoming slimmer and he had yet to even get a single cut on him making his quirk completely useless.
And now that there was a cloud of smoke he had to rely fully on his other senses to try and figure out where the next attack would come from.
Izuku and Stain seemed to reach a stand still as the villain kept on the defensive as he only dodged the attacks from the vigilante, both fighters having reached a middle point as they both tried to land a single strike on the other.
When the smoke finally dispersed, both villain and hero were tired, Izuku had been using danger sense multiple times to dodge all of Stains slashes since he knew that it would be his end if even one of them reached him causing him a pounding headache, Stain had already lost two more of his knives as they were shattered to pieces and even with his own stamina, he could feel how the injuries he had sustained were already taking a toll on him.
They both stared at the other, anger clear on their expressions, Stain couldn't believe that he had been cornered like a rat so easily, Izuku on the other hand just wanted to finish this off as quickly as possible as memories of Iida and his brother flashed in his mind, he needed to remember that his fight wasn't just for him.
Izuku rushed forward jumping from wall to wall again around Stain leaving only a trail of red sparks but he didn't immediately attack as he tried to confuse his enemy.
Stain was barely keeping up with the vigilante as he bounced around him as he waited for a moment to strike, he was trying to purge this world of those corrupt heroes so he wasn't going to be stopped by a mere child.
A black tendril shot forward aiming at his leg once more but he managed to dodge it with a jump but Izuku appeared behind him in sparks of red and black just realizing that he had been tricked.
Izuku then pulled back his legs as it expanded and cocked back his muscles making the red lighting center around it as he delivered a quick and powerful kick to his back that released an immense shockwave that made the ground around them shake and the windows burst thanks to the explosion of energy that sent the villain flying into the sky with a sickening crack from his back.
This was Izukus most powerful combination as of now...
Fa jin, Kinetic Boosters, Springlike limbs, Hypertrophy, Though Muscles and Air Cannon!
Stain could barely breathe as the kick had expelled all of the air in his lungs and the pain that shot through his body made his mind go blank for a few seconds but when he finally came back and tried to move he discovered something that made his face pale.
He couldn't feel his legs!
That bastard had done something to his spine and no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't make his legs move and he could only glance back at the ground as he crashed against the ground with a loud splat.
Izuku slowly approached the now disfigured body, that's right even now he was still alive but only barely.
His arms and legs were bent and broken that he could see the bones jutting out of his own skin, a puddle of blood began to slowly grow around him, his ribcage obviously also in bad condition as his skin fell into his body in some parts of his chest as it tried to go up and down only to fail multiple times.
His hair stuck to his head because of the sweat and blood that covered it, one of his lungs must have been pierced as he coughed up blood, his eyes looked at him in a combination of anger and fear at the person who had managed to toy with him like he was nothing.
Izuku's eyes, now cold and with a dangerous edge shone a ruby red as he looked at the pitiful remains of the greatest killer in front of him and when compared to the mad grin that past his past Stain had before he killed him after taking one of Iidas arms, than this was a very obvious downgrade.
"Can't feel anything down from your hips, can you?" Izuku asked as he crouched in front of the villain, his voice cold and monotone "That's poetic justice, I bet that's how he felt, useless, pathetic, scared , probably even worse as that was his quirk but look at you, the great hero killer, taken by- how did you put it… right, a mere child"
Izuku then took a deep breath ignoring the scent of blood as he mentally scratched a name off his list but when he opened them again he noticed something strange.
Right on Stains chest was a small ball of light, it was flickering in and out of existence as if saying that it didn't have long before it died.
For some reason, when Izuku saw the small light he felt…
Empty
Empty
Empty
EmptyEmptyE mpty
EmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmpty
EmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmpty
EmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmptyEmpty
That intense feeling of emptiness completely overcame Izuku and took over his mind as he panicked as the feeling only became more and more ingrained in him.
He didn't want it.
What was missing!? What was it!?
Izuku could barely breathe as panic began to overtake him as he tried to figure out just what that hole inside of him wanted as it made his sin itch.
And then… it suddenly dawned on him.
That light…
That's the answer…
And he knew just how to get it.
His hand was then sparked with black electricity as he put it on Stains head almost as if in a trance.
He saw how from his hands came multiple red strings that then wrapped around the small light and…
He pulled.
Stain with the last bit of air he had in him began to let out wails of pain as he felt himself be torn apart and his eyes locked with Izukus, their cold, emotionless red as he looked at him.
The screaming seemed to continue for hours as Izuku kept pulling at the light until finally more red strings wrapped around it until it was in his hands where it melted into him finally filling that hole that had scared him.
The feeling was ecstatic, it was as if a part of him had been missing for years and he had finally found it and he just couldn't help the stupid laugh that bubbled out of him in relief.
With all of this happening he had never even noticed the silence that reigned in the night, the screaming having ceased making his laugh the only thing filling the air.
Stain was dead.
Izuku had won.
And he had taken his quirk.
His eyes slowly turned back to the soft green they were but at the same time it all began to fall down on him.
He had taken his quirk.
He had taken his quirk!
Before he could fully process it, the sounds of sirens reached his ears, shit, someone must have heard their fight and called the cops, he couldn't stay, he needed to leave.
Izuku hurried as he began running away, not even giving the scene a glance as his mind tried to process everything only to go blank.
He only realized that he was home when he climbed through the window of his room and he finally fell to the floor on his knees as he felt both the exhaustion and guilt hit him at once.
"Izuk-" First tried to say but was stopped by the mental scream that Izuku released, he couldn't wake up anyone in his house or his cover would be blown.
"WHY!? WHY DID THAT HAPPEN!? WHAT DID I DO!?" He screamed in his mind.
"I didn't expect that kind of backlash…" Hisashi muttered, catching everyone's attention and when he realized he sighed, his usual smile was gone and replaced with a more serious expression.
"Until now, all you had done was use the quirks within my quirk, not AFO itself but today, you could say that it wanted attention and thus made itself known" He then put a hand under his chin as he continued "One of the backlash of my quirk was that it was 'greedy' it always asked me for more but to me, it was almost akin to normal hunger, just a small itch here and there, but when both AFO and OFA combined just like the other quirks, it was strengthened"
"My body was not fit to control quirks of the newer generations but you can and that, combined with the power boost from OFA, only made it want more, what you felt must have been that same backlash I went through only a few times worse, changing it from simple hunger to making you feel as if a piece of you was missing"
Izuku looked at his blood stained hands, they were trembling.
"How… How long will I feel like this? Like an unfinished puzzle?" he asked as he swallowed back the fear.
Hisashi only looked down with a sad expression "Until the moment you take your last breath…"
Izuku was horrified at himself but it wasn't because he had killed a man.
No, he had done that multiple times already.
What scared him so badly was just how much he had enjoyed it.
The feeling of happiness after taking that light, how relief had washed over him in such a dark moment.
Before any of the other vestiges could say anything he slowly stood up and with trembling legs carefully walked through the house until he reached the bathroom.
He looked in the mirror.
He didn't know who the person in the reflection was.
It was someone else entirely, someone who looked like him but wasn't. This person held darker eyes, his previous green eyes were now sunken and had dark lines among the creases and folds.
He ran a hand through his green hair. In the mess of it he could see a few new white hairs, so thin and almost invisible that if you weren't looking for them you would never find them. After a while, he was no longer looking at his hair but at himself.
Tears rushed down his face, he hated it, he hated it so much that he knew that this was only the beginning as he looked at the person who he had become and at the one he had yet to become.
