Chapter 56: Time to Breathe 1
Nedzu loved humans. They were delightedly funny and entertaining. In a universe full of wonders they still managed to create an amazing notion such as boredom. Truly, they were impressive creatures and he loved to raise them, to help them reach greater levels.
As a result, Nedzu loved to listen to them, understanding their issues and designing solutions to the best of his abilities. Sometimes, it needed him to listen to them without being noticed. Sometimes it needed him to aim a weapon of mass destruction in the right direction.
As a result, Nedzu loved to think he could solve any issues.
Tenko Shimura hiding in one of his secret vents wasn't something he could solve.
"...I am sorry, young Shimura, but… What are you doing here?"
Tenko sighed, as he looked timidly through the shaft if he could get out safely.
"I am currently being hunted by three people," Tenko explained, shivering. Good lord, he wasn't that scared when All For One chased after him in Exegol! Did a new threat rise when he wasn't looking?
"Who?"
"...Well, to start with the lesser evil… Inko Sako."
Nedzu shot a look at Tenko, his mouth still open, trying to process the fact that Tenko was hiding from Inko.
"I swear, she almost broke three of my ribs with her hugs !" Tenko cried, unused to things like that. He was a lone wolf for years! Also, All For One wasn't really a hug guy. Same for Kurogiri.
"... Fair enough. Who are the other two?"
"... Did you know I have a sister?" Tenko asked suddenly very still as he seemed to hide his presence.
"... Hana Shimura, yes? Isn't she dead?"
—--
A few hours after the Exegol Crisis, in Gentle's House.
"TENKO, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Hana said while pulling out her shotgun with a rubber bullet from her stash.
Tenko often wondered what would happen if his sister somehow came back to life.
Her yelling at him was surprisingly high in his dream.
As a result, the blue-haired man managed to dodge the first shot. Tenko then began to run for his life as he was chased by his angry sister… While the LoV wondered what the hell was happening.
"... Can… Someone explain?" Loony asked, before being answered by Nejire, who was eerily calm.
"Considering the name she used, Tenko, it means she knows him from before he got separated from his family," Nejire said, still utterly calm while Mirio was helping La Brava giving some first aid to the LoV. La Brava was doing her best to not think about Gentle's state, hoping for the best.
Loony thought about it for a second, before closing her eyes and sniffing the air for a second.
"Oh. You right. Considering their smell, they are probably brother and sister."
Nejire seemed to relax for a second before looking at the rabbit.
"You know, I still haven't forgotten the fact you once made me crash into a wall by making me think it had a hole."
"Yep! It was hilarious!"
"Not when you destroy a wall with your head."
Loony, as a result, was cackling madly while Hana Shimura was still chasing her brother across the house.
—--
"And you think your sister might be here?" Nedzu asked while pouring a cup of tea to the scared blue-haired former criminal.
"Well, considering that I saw two Midnight and one of them suddenly pulled out a rope when she saw me…" Tomura explained…" I mean, if she was alone, I was still going to run because I am not into that. But…"
"You fear that your sister might be a master of disguise and still out for your blood?"
"Either that or crushing my poor spine with a hug. Or both. Honestly, I am not sure." Then, the young man finally drank the cup of tea given by the mysterious animal that was the Principal. "But I' am not willing to bet on it."
"You know that delaying the inevitable will not make it better, right?" Nedzu said while Tomura nodded.
"To be honest, it is the third one that scares me the most."
"... Nejire?" Nedzu was aware of it after all.
"Nejire. She' is kind of upset that I was the Boss and… Well…"
"Considering she is your girlfriend, she is very angry at you, especially as it almost got you killed by your former boss but also as you kept such a thing secret from her." Nedzu said while sipping from his cup. "So her anger is born both because of worry about you, disappointment because the whole criminal life was the reason why you never officialized anything with her, and of course the fact she failed to catch you several times."
Tomura nodded, surprised. "Yes, it is exactly that! … Wait, how do you know that?"
Nedzu smiled at Tomura while he pushed a button, sealing off Tomura's exit and before the wall exploded. The vent too. As a result, both of them fell into the corridor where an angry and livid Nejire was there.
"Oh, mainly because she explained everything to me and I proposed to help her solve her issue of hunting you." Nedzu said while sipping his tea. Truly, he loved to solve issues for humans… By making them suffer.
"Meep." Tenko said as Nejire appeared, a bolt of energy around her body and with as much mercy on her face as during a tournament of "Hero!" The Card Game.
"... Meep indeed, Tenko. We are going to have a loooooong discussion."
Tomura tried to run but fell flat on his face. He was a former criminal and knew when to run away from death.
"Oh, by the way. I laced the tea with sedatives." Nedzu said while cackling madly.
"... Doesn't that mean you are immobilized too?"
"Yes, but I have an Aizawa to move me around."
—--
It is said that it took three days for Tenko to hear anything again once Nejire finished yelling.
They also officialized their relationship.
On a side note, Inko did crush Tenko's spine with a bear hug.
—--
Students from the 2-A class were scared. They saw an abomination coming from the depth of hell itself, as they knew their doom was coming. No way they could escape it. All omens announcing the end of the world were reunited and they knew they shared their final hour.
Aizawa was smiling and beaming with energy.
"Good morning students!"
Oh god, they were going to die.
"Today is a great day!"
Probably horribly.
"Let's start with our first exercise: escape from this labyrinth with these fake civilians on your back."
The students looked at the deceivingly simple exercise, but they knew better. It was Aizawa "Abandon all Hope" Eraserhead, after all.
"...The civilians have a bomb and we need to find it before we rescue them?"
Aizawa beamed kindly at the student who said that but shook his head.
"Good thinking, but no. They are real fake civilians."
"... We have a time limit of three minutes and anyone failing to do it has to follow Togata's training for a month?"
"... I might use that one for another classroom… But no."
The students were weirded out. Was it… A normal exercise? Then, one girl with an armadillo heteromorphic quirk raised her hand, meekly.
"There is a monster in the labyrinth ready to hunt us?"
"That's correct!"
Suddenly, from a hole in the floor emerged Loony, who pulled out a chainsaw.
"HI KIDS! I AM AIZAWA'S ASSISTANT!" Loony was happy with her new job. The scared looks of the children in front of her? Priceless. Ok, she had to abandon her vendetta against Miruko… But! Nedzu promised to organize a fight between her and the bunny hero if she tortured enough students! So it was perfect actually. "Pleased to torture you!"
Every student considered the situation, the fact that civilians were across the room and Loony was in between them. Then, they looked at their teacher.
"Do we have a head start?"
"Sure! You have until Loony counts to fifteen."
Aizawa felt pride for his students as they all began to move before he finished his sentence. They have gotten better now. Meanwhile, Loony was counting on her paws.
"One… Two… Three… Eight…"
"Hey! You skipped a bunch of numbers!" A boy said, unwisely. Someone was going to get a scolding afterward.
Then Aizawa considered Loony who pulled out from the ground her chainsaw and activated it.
"TO BE FAIR, I AM A RABBIT. WE' ARE GOOD AT MULTIPLYING, NOT COUNTING! FIFTEEN!"
Then the horror movie began.
The screams of his students sounded like a symphony played by the highest caliber of musicians to Aizawa. Pure bliss.
—--
"... May I say I hate math!?" Himiko said for the ninth time, as she had to relearn how to do equations. Sadly her teacher didn't let her catch a break.
Tamaki was surprisingly severe as a teacher and he was tasked by Nedzu to mentor Toga with additional lessons until she had a satisfactory level compared to the rest of the 2-B.
Yes, it was decided to put her with Vlad for a very simple reason: that way she was with a teacher who could correctly understand her quirk and her attraction to blood.
"You can but you won't get a break until you do these thirty exercises. Then, we will study Japanese." Tamaki was extremely serious about his role as a teacher for Himiko.
"But I am going to miss P.E.!" Still, the Vampire/Kitsune/Yokai Otter (the Jury was still out on the subject) tried to escape her version of hell.
"Himiko, we both know you can still beat anyone physically speaking." Because of the HPSC's training went unsaid.
Thankfully, between a deal made by Nedzu and the President, Himiko had a shot, an opportunity to live. Agent K was also part of the deal and the official liaison between Nedzu and the President. Meaning he often exchanged threats between the two top personalities in the hero industry.
Still, Toga appreciated meeting her former handler once in a while. He never failed to bring her some food and ask how her school life went.
"You know, Tamaki. You would be more popular if you were nicer." Toga pointed out while scribbling down more numbers on the paper.
"Most people don't deserve my kindness nor do they need it." Suneater answered quickly, "And me teaching you is the best I can muster."
This made Himiko blush a little, while Tamaki, totally professional, stayed near her to make sure she was learning correctly.
"Himiko. IF, and it's a big if, you do well enough, I will bring you to a restaurant my mentor recommended to me."
Suddenly, Himiko decides to do thirty exercises… That isn't too bad of a deal, right?
Besides, while she never teased Tamaki during their sessions, outside of it, it was a free game!
She loved to see him blush when they shared an ice cream.
To be honest, Tamaki also liked to see her smile because of his blushing face.
—--
Not unlike his cousin, Izuku Sako was currently busy trying to run away and hide from three people.
Namely, Tooru, who didn't appreciate that her boyfriend did something reckless without her by his side to play the enemy. Then again, Shouto did try to defend Izuku's actions by explaining that their enemy had vision that nullified completely Tooru's quirk (true) and that she would have been deadweight more than anything.
At the end of his speech, Shouto discovered the meaning of defenestration. Fortunately, they were on ground level and Koda had opened the window beforehand. It was needed because his rabbit asked so.
Then, came the second existential threat to Izuku's existence. Namely Katsuki.
"I MISSED A FUCKING EPIC FIGHT TO THE DEATH, IZUKU. WHY DIDN'T YOU WAIT FOR ME ?!"
Unlike Tooru, Izuku could clearly see how Bakugou could have been useful during Exegol and the green bean didn't have anything to retort.
As a result, Katsuki was still chasing around Izuku and the only reason why Joker wasn't the third person to reach orbit without mechanical assistance (the first being a quirked African that discovered he could fly without oxygen but discovered he could survive without an atmosphere, the other being a quirked otter famous to teleport across the world and swim in the air), was because Kacchan was still getting used to his new arm.
Being a vital part of I-Island's defense made Katsuki a VIP for all scientists there. As a result, if their first reaction was to create a mechanical arm, they had to admit they lacked ideas on how to allow it to perform on the same level as his real arm.
So, instead, they took what was left of Moonfish (not much left), some of his DNA, and finally decided to go a bit mad about it.
The final result? A new kind of prosthesis. If the 'bones' structure was made from metal, I-Island's scientists managed to "clone" the meat from Katsuki's DNA. The result was a new "biomechanical" arm, which could theoretically be stronger than his original arm.
Theoretically. Even now, Katsuki had a lot of readjustment to do. As a result, he went to Nedzu and Aizawa for authorization for a project.
To Izuku's dismay, Katsuki managed to convince the staff that hunting his friend with his quirk was an excellent therapy.
Hence, an explosive Katsuki was chasing an Izuku who had to hide fast.
However, Tooru and Katsuki were almost normal compared to the third and last person who was chasing him.
So, when Izuku was walking, trying to take his breath on the fourth floor, he didn't expect what he saw next.
Giant eyes, owned by the one and only Yui Kodai, stared at him terrifyingly.
"... GODZILLA. I WANT TO SEE GODZILLA!"
…Fans could be terrifying, right? The fact that Setsuna was also with her didn't make it less threatening.
—--
Yagi sighed. One For All was gone. Sure, Izuku's card gave him the last boost he needed to finish the job… But the familiar presence was gone now that his duty was done.
The old hero passed his hand over his wound, wondering if he did the right thing after Exegol. It had been an idea on the spur of the moment which could have gone badly.
However, it seemed it worked. So, now… All that was left was to announce his retirement, continue to improve as a teacher, and train his replacement.
But before all of that, Yagi had to do something.
See, young Sako had been kind enough to remember a certain card used by All For One during the events that happened.
Then, thanks to his and Nedzu's wealth, All Might bought several copies of that card.
As of now, he was in front of several "Potions from an old man" and decided to drink them all.
The pain caused by several organs regrowing at once was enough to make him fall on what was left of the red potion, making it as if someone murdered All-Might.
As Fate was a close friend with Irony and probably lover with Karma, the one who opened the door was Gran Torino, to check on his dumbass disciple.
His scream of terror sounded like a lullaby to Yagi's ears despite the pain. Only then did he allow himself to pass out.
—--
La Brava was with Gentle, near his hospital bed.
While she was busy on her computer, helping UA's system to be even more foolproof, she poured a cup of tea to her dear fiance and lover.
She wasn't dumb and knew that Hinata (it was weird to call the HPSC's President as such) gave them a pardon thanks to her familial relationship with Gentle. Her big dumb idiot.
The doctors explained to her that his recovery was evidence of his incredible vitality. La Brava could only agree, as Gentle was so full of life and joy every time he moved.
The only thing, now, was to wait for him to wake up. She would be there, by his side.
The door to their chamber opened, revealing Hana, who was currently panting. She was still on the hunt for Tenko, but she never missed an opportunity to come by and see her friends. Well, best friends actually, since she continued to live in Gentle's house.
Hana took her duty to bring food and drink to La Brava very seriously. She took a break from her hunt only to do that, as the small woman was unable to leave Gentle even for one instant.
"Hey, girl. Don't worry. This man is too dumb to die. Also, he knows that if he died, it would make you sad. The result would be him trying to pass every angel to see you again."
Hana meant it, as La Brava hugged her tightly.
Still, she wanted to be here when Gentle would finally wake up. La Brava had faith that Gentle would rise again… Better than ever.
—--
Shouto contemplated his locker. Someone had written "Cursed blood," "Son of a fiend," and various other unkind things, alongside smearing shit all over it.
Around him, people outside of 1-A were partly snickering and partly afraid, looking uneasily at the boy.
Endeavor's affiliation with the Ashen King was now out in the open. No official statements, but people had connected the dots, considering their forms, quirks, and power. As a result, many people now saw Shouto in a certain way.
Katsuki saw (and smelt) the vandalism, feeling ready to explode until he saw something on Shouto's face. He was somehow happy to see something he hadn't seen in a very long time on Shouto's face.
"WHO… THE FUCK… WROTE THAT?" Shouto asked emotionlessly. Contradictorily, his quirk flared around him, creating fire and ice around him. It coated his hair and eyebrows in a thin layer, similar to Endeavor's appearance.
No one answered.
Maki put his hand on Shouto's shoulder. Being the son of an actual villain, thankfully in jail, he knew very well how he felt.
"What? Want me to calm down?" Shouto angrily asked.
"Nah. Just call me if you find out who did this. I would be happy to help." Maki said in a cold voice and tone that reminded Shouto of himself. Meanwhile, Katsuki made an explosion from his new hand.
"Bitch, please! He'll call me first! He knows that I'd be more than happy to help!"
"Bakugou! It would be UNMANLY… If Shouto didn't ask the whole class if we wanted to help." Kirishima said with a huge smile, flexing his impressive muscles behind Shouto.
Kaminari quickly joined, putting his arms around Shouto's shoulder. "Whoever hurt my friend hurt me. The hunt will be fun!"
"EVERYONE!" Momo appeared behind them, clearly not approving. "You can't hunt people willy-nilly. There are rules for this!"
Momo, prepared as always, pulled a stack of forms from her bag, handing one form each to the boys. "First, you need to fill out this form. Then, once the teachers or anyone else finds concrete evidence … Well, the hunt will begin!" Momo smiled widely, pulling a rifle from her arms. "Thankfully, Dad made sure I was a good shot."
Suddenly, some students knew they probably fucked up. On the other hand, Nedzu called that darwinism: if you were stupid enough to mess with :
a member of the 1-A, who was apparently very close to each other.
a top student who was friends with several powerhouse students.
his grandson, meaning that Nedzu had already approved the forms and checked the feeds to know the culprits…
Well, you deserved to be hunted and purged from his school. On this note, Nedzu activated the speakers.
"Midoriya, while I appreciate you trying to find who annoyed your friends, I would appreciate if you didn't summon monsters in the school."
Everyone looked at Midoriya who had several cards with a canine theme to smell whoever did this.
"... Fine. I won't use dogs."
"No cards. I know you have frogs, otters and I am half sure you might have some Space Marines cards. Also, I know you have other things than monsters to do your bidding. So, no quirk."
Izuku grumbled something that sounded like "Not anymore" since they were on his ban list (thanks the HPSC).
Kaminari, then asked something.
"Principal Nedzu? I thought speakers only worked one way. How are you able to hear us?"
"... Sorry, I am going under a tunnel. Bye bye!"
Everyone stared at Shouto.
"My theory is that he has micros everywhere in the building."
"... This one is less fun than usual. I hoped for aliens or something." Kirishima said, sighing as everyone was quietly forgetting the issue of the bullying, going back to their daily life.
Well, everyone except Bakugou, Shouto and Momo.
The legendary bullying hunt became a story for the years to come after all.