Izuku sighed as he left Aldera for the day. Another day of being stared at, feared, called a future villain in whispers…Honestly at this point he was disappointed the students didn't even try to come up with new insults; he literally kept track of some of them!
Last he recalled it was 4,392 for 'villain scum', 355 for 'Quirk Thief', 190 for 'waste of space and life', 190 for 'Cain' and…oh yeah, 12 for 'dead man walking.'
At least the teachers had cracked down on the insults, asking the students if they wanted to go down as the straw that broke his back and made him go into villainy. Yeah, it was insensitive and cruel, but hey at least they were acting like teachers.
Izumi and Katsuki had gone off with some of their friends to the arcade to kill time but Izuku wasn't really feeling it, so he headed off to a special spot in Musutafu that had been made into a makeshift hideout for him and his own group of friends.
While Aldera was a pain in the ass in terms of interacting with folks his age (minus Izumi and Katsuki), here Izuku had some true blue, honest to God friends. They didn't see a villain in the making with him and he didn't see the 'punks', 'losers' and 'freaks' their own schools and neighborhoods.
Rejects gotta stick together, and when they did they made the best of friends.
He'd met a few of them through his vigilante misadventures; most he'd gotten into tussles with when they (understandably, Izuku felt) lashed out and caused a ruckus, only for Izuku to beat and then listen to them..often because they'd seen his face and couldn't believe a 'baby face' was such a badass. Sometimes he'd given them a Quirk to help out and tried to leave, but somehow he ran into them again and they in turn asked about him.
Izuku had saved a few of friends from Creature Rejection Clan members or muggers as well.
But honestly, he'd met the majority of them at…
"Hey, Izuku!"
Izuku smiled when he felt a blonde blur jump into his arms and hug him tightly. The one who had embraced him was a cheery-looking girl with blonde hair tied up into two stringy buns, cat-like eyes, and cute sharpened canines.
"Hey, Himiko."
The girls' name was Himiko Toga. Izuku had met her six years ago when she was sucking blood from an injured bird. Izuku was initially worried she might have attacked the bird but she reassured him that she didn't and that it was already hurt, she was simply admiring its blood and trying, in her own way, to heal it.
Of course, her parents were disgusted when they saw her doing this. She and Izuku continued to see each other but when he learned that her parents and even her guidance counselor were telling her to suppress her desires for blood, which was affecting her mental health since her Quirk required it, Izuku immediately got his father on the line.
The Toga Family was quite wealthy and had a lot of resources but Hisashi Midoriya was a relentless force in court. Eventually, he managed to get the Togas indicted for child neglect, abuse, and withdrawing Himiko from something she actually needed to properly function. The guidance counselor also found themself out of a job for criminal neglect and unethical practice.
Ever since then, Himiko and her siblings had been taken in by the Blood Hero: Vlad King AKA Sekijiro Kan, and life had been much better for her since then. However, many people still were put off by her fascination with blood and often avoided her, though some girls did take a liking to her at her school and accepted her into their friend group, she found herself closer to Izuku and his group.
"So, how have you been? How was school today?" Himiko asked, swinging around and hanging on Izuku's back like a koala.
"Eh, could've been worse." The green-haired boy sighed as he walked, another person soon making himself known.
"Yo, you heading to the place, you guys?"
Izuku and Himiko beamed when they saw a boy with gravity-defying indigo hair and black bags under his eyes with a slouch to his walk approaching them. This was Hitoshi Shinso, a boy Izuku befriended after bonding with him over having a 'villainous' Quirk.
See, Hitoshi's Quirk was called [Brainwashing], and it allowed him to mind-control anybody who verbally responded to him. Many of his peers had teased him for having a Quirk that was well-suited for a villain, which fed into his insecurity due to his desire to be a Hero who helped people. Thankfully, Izuku reassured him, even showing off his own Quirk to prove that he didn't have to feel alone.
"Yup, the rest of the gang texted me on the group chat." Izuku smiled, showing his phone, Himiko doing the same.
"Heh, man, I can't believe it's been almost five years since we first formed our little band." Hitoshi chuckled.
"Good times, huh?" Himiko giggled, swinging her legs back and forth while clinging on to Izuku, who nodded in agreement.
"I wouldn't take back those times for anything."
Returning to the anecdote before Himiko had interrupted him; Izuku, Himiko and Hitoshi had met most of their friends at a summer camp when they were seven years old:
Inko, deseperate for her baby boy to have some kind of connection with kids his age that were not his sister or Katsuki, had found a camp for 'Quirky Quirk' users. After Hisashi and her made sure it WASN'T some kind of conversion or 'reality check' camp (Inko had told her children their father was put in one when he was younger), Izuku had spent a whole summer on a campground with others like him.
Vlad had followed in suit for Himiko and Hitoshi's parents had done the same for their son.
For the first time, the trio were not seen as monsters or villains in the making, at least not by their cabin-mates and most of the staff: A few had begged for their quirks to be taken away and while Izuku did do that for a few and gave much better Quirks, he offered alternate ways of using their Quirks that made life easier. Himiko met kids with scary Quirks as well and Hitoshi was welcomed with open arms.
It was a pretty great summer for the kids: Yeah, the other campers may not have been all that nice to them; there'd be that one blonde boy who seemed to think he was God's gift to…something and all around him where trying to out do him for attention, and the head of the camp was clearly only in it for the money…but they DID have the best cabin mantra:
"CABIN 9 WEIRDOS WALLOP WOSERS!"
Hey, they were seven, it sounded cool at the time.
Speaking of time, the trio found themselves at their location:
What had once been the remains of a larger, almost mansion like house that had apparently 'dusted' overnight (according to the papers at least, Izuku and Izumi hadn't been born back then) now was a large fort made of tarp, a cabin like build and a satellite to receive beamed power and electricity. Our hero could also see a brook of fresh water and with a [Super hearing] Quirk he'd taken from a blackmailing creeper, could already hear a TV playing.
Seems they weren't the first to get here yet again. Oh, well.
Finally opening the tarp, Izuku waited for Himiko to jump off and saunter on in, Hitoshi waited a moment, admiring the pep in her step before he hurriedly wandered in when he saw Izuku smiling knowingly.
"There they are!" An excitable girl's voice chirped as a young woman with wild red hair, a black open jacket, a white sarashi covering her large modest breasts, rounded monkey-like ears, a red-furred monkey tail protruding from her backside, and zori sandals popped out in front of them.
"Hey, Sona." Izuku greeted.
Sona Hou was a transfer student from China and about as wild and wacky as they came, which fit her appearance. She was also a huge fan of the story Journey to the West, fitting considering her Quirk, [Wukong], made her just like the main character from that book.
"Heeeeey, guys…." Came a smooth, contemplative and teasing voice from above. The trio looked up to see someone let go of the roof and land perfectly on their feet.
They were a lean figure, almost feminine in build, wearing a choker with a bell on it around their neck, black eyeliner that contrasted their sleepy looking blue eyes, and wore clothes one would expect a goth to wear; a black hoodie with a raven on it, Lolita style gloves on clawed yet delicate looking fingers, a shirt with an old man with a vulture eye on it, and dark sneakers. What stood out however from the Goth look however, was their orange, almost hairy pants and the cat ears and tail this person possessed.
"Bonjour, Quasi." Izuku smiled with a bow.
"Izzy, my favorite greenie." Quasi beamed, nuzzling against Izuku before leaping over to Himiko, who chuckled warmly, and Hitoshi, who tried in vain to run away.
Quasi M. Felidae was a 'fem-boy' with an interest in PROPER horror literature like Stroker, Poe and earlier King along with gothic architecture and woodcarving, so long as the tree had already fallen. His Quirk [Black Cat] made the superstitious wary around him and a victim of CRC harassment, but Quasi often laughed off the fear or hate he got, mostly because he had people who knew the real him; his baby sister, girlfriend (who was busy with her squad today) and his pals in this group.
"Toshi, buddy! I've missed you too." Quasi smiled as he continued to chase Hitoshi, who was laughing the whole time but otherwise refusing to let the cat boy hug him (Hitoshi wasn't a hugger).
"Down, boy." Said a girl with chalk white skin, short black hair with a red rose pinned in it, bright red eyes with darker red eyeliner, and a thin, slender frame with eight spider legs protruding from her backside
"Hey there, Fen. How're the stories coming." Hitoshi said.
"I'm just about done with the third chapter of Era of Dusk. That's where the story starts picking up." The spider girl, Fen Su, said
"Yo, I ordered us pizza!" Greeted a boy with curly black hair, glasses, hazelnut brown eyes, and wearing the typical black school uniform of most middle school boys. "Figured we'd camp out here for a while, so why go hungry?"
This was Benjamin Torekuroshi, a boy who was raised in America for the first few years of his life before his parents moved back to Japan. The poor lad felt like an outcast in a strange land but at camp, Izuku and the others welcomed him in with open arms.
"Hope nobody minds, but I ordered pineapple on mine," A girl with chalk white skin, amber eyes with snake-like slits purple eyeliner, long flowing black hair, and snake-like scales decorating her neck smirked.
"Boooo! You always gotta pick the gross stuff, Yami!" Himiko pouted as she hopped off Izuku's back. Yami merely laughed, revealing fanged teeth and a snake-like tongue.
"Relax, Himi, we got chu your favorite." Said a short boy with a cute childish face with a rabbit-like nose, a pair of long rabbit-like ears, a dextrous otter-like tail, a pair of digitigrade legs with cat-like paws, and a pair of dextrous paws with four digits for hands was walking back to his classroom. His small child-like body was covered in soft fluffy fur which was mainly silver in color with a patch of gold-yellow fur on his chest and abdomen, curly dark-white hair on his head, and three white cat-like whiskers on each cheek.
"Awwww, Yoshi, you're the best!" Himiko cooed, running up and hugging the adorable boy.
A snore got everyone's attention as several doves moved out of the way of their resting place to reveal they had been sitting on a large humanoid creature with digitigrade feet with clawed toes, long arms with clawed fingers, a whip-like dextrous tail and a long thick neck which supported a bald humanoid head which had holes in place of human ears, a pair of slits in place of a human nose and a wide lipless mouth akin to a reptile's.
"Rise and shine, Mira."
"Oh, you guys are here." The beastly-looking young man, Mira Kunaku, said, rubbing sleep from his eyes before yawning widely, revealing an impressive set of pointed canines and even molars.
"Heh, about time you guys showed up. Everyone was wondering if you'd get here before the pizza arrived." Chuckled a boy with the head of a skeleton with blue flames surrounding it. "Of course, I remained calm because nothing gets under my skin!"
"Ugh...Really, Gani?" Groaned a young man with a pitch-black head and no features on his face sans a pair of glowing, glaring red eyes and ethereal black hair that floated like flickering flames. "You know only my minions find your jokes humorous."
"Don't you mean HUMERUS?" Gani Morcorba said, pointing finger guns at the other boy, Renji Fangei, who could only facepalm in annoyance.
"Ugh, it's too early in the afternoon for this..." Sighed a young man with raven black hair, red eyes, pale skin, pointed ears, and retractable fangs for canines who was hanging upside-down and wrapped up in a black blanket like a vampire bat.
"Hi, Chi!" Himiko beamed, waving to the man as he flipped off his perch and landed gracefully on his feet.
"Hi, Himi..." The vampiric boy smiled with a small wave back.
A huge muscular young man was sitting nearby while reading a book. He had a bone white mask seemingly fused to his face, short dark brown hair, and wearing only a black jacket, a large pair of tattered blue jeans, a black leather belt, and a large pair of brown leather boots. The mask hid the man's face, showing only his sunken red eyes and a pair of oval fleshy vents in place of cheeks which was producing fog with each exhalation.
Sitting in his lap and reading with him was a rotund and tattooed young woman in black garbs with red trims. Her black hair was tied in a tight chignon secured by twin obsidian needles, bright red eyes with black sclera, and a facial mask resembling that of a Noh mask covering her mouth and nose.
"Hey, Tenshiro! Nanako!" Izuku greeted the two.
Tenshiro Nogra, the big hulking young man who wouldn't look out of place in an 80s Slasher Film, looked up from his book and waved to Izuku silently while the plump girl on his lap, Nanako Mori, got off and walked over.
"How goes the Vigilantism, Izuku?"
"Nothing really interesting to report. Just stopped a few crimes, and took a few Quirks. Keep a few but also give some to others." Izuku smiled back.
"That's our Izuku, always giving to those in need." Chuckled a young man with short brown hair with milky white-blue eyes. A black mass suddenly formed on his body before stretching out to reveal a creature's head with sharp white eyes and dagger-like teeth.
"Hehehe, yup. So, did you make those creeps suffer?"
"Down, Kiri..."
Kuro's Quirk was [Symbiote], which came in the form of a sentient parasitic being known as 'Kiri'. Kiri could extend himself from Kuro's body, creating shape-shifting tendrils to attack and even cover Kuro's body in a powerful suit that had the two of them work in perfect sync, similar to a certain anti-hero from the Marvel comics.
"Well, they'll be living the rest of their lives without the Quirks they prided themselves on so...yeah?" Izuku awkwardly answered the symbiote's question, rubbing the back of his head.
A silent grunt came from a well-built tomboyish girl with short dark brown hair, a white tank top, camo cargo pants, and black boots. This gave many a sight of the battle scars covering her face, arms, and chest.
"Oh, Mom is doing fine and so is Izumi, Samio-Chan." Izuku said to the girl, Samio Arima.
"And what about your gorgeous sister, Izu-Chi?" Asked an excitable voice belonging to a tall, muscular young man with bronze skin, wild golden blonde hair, pure white eyes with no pupils, and seemingly no mouth. He was wearing a tank top in the colors of the Pansexual Flag, shorts with pink hearts on the buttocks, and black cowboy boots.
Izuku rolled his eyes but smiled. "She's fine, Ishida-Kun."
Isamu Ishida was a flamboyant young man and openly perverted as well as proudly pansexual, loving everybody no matter what gender, race, or appearance they were. Despite his perverted and eccentric nature, he was also quite gentlemanly and respected people's boundaries. However, that didn't stop him from being as extra as possible whenever he could.
"T-That's great..." Said a shy-looking girl with voluminous navy blue hair that reached her mid-back and bangs that covered one of her eyes, which were navy blue in color. "I know she's gonna be an awesome Pro Hero..."
"Do not sell yourself short, Yuriko. You also have what it takes." Said a boy wearing no shirt, revealing numerous tattoos of an unknown religion decorating various parts of his body, such as his stomach, left pectoral, neck, and arms.
He had blue-black hair with the left side of it shaved, allowing the hair remaining on the right side to sweep across his neck and over his shoulders. He also had scarlet red eyes with two piercings above the left one and more piercings on his left ear.
His name was Tadashi Akamatsu, a boy who was raised by a small religious group that embraced the virtues of both 'Order' and 'Chaos', stating that they needed each other to balance the other and as such, the natures of Good and Evil also needed to co-exist.
"Seems I'm the last to arrive. Apologies for that." A meliodous but cool voice said.
The final member of their gang had appeared: A pale, almost chalk skin toned girl with black, wavy hair with a red rose in her hair and an elegant black dress with a red speiderweb pattern on it. On her waist were four tiny, spider leg like limbs.
"Not to worry, Fen Su." Izuku smiled. "Izumi and Katsuki send their regards."
"As some Sammy." Quasi added, making a spot for his fellow 'scary animal mutate.'
Fen Su was the daughter of a Yakuza family, but longed for the more noble Yakuza stories she had heard of; Robin-hood like figures, or like Kiryu in the Yakuza games she had seen. She was feared by many for being a spider, but she paid most no attention, especially with her friends, most whom her family approved of.
"ZA! ZA! ZA!"
Everyone turned to see several small creatures walking into the hide-out, each carrying several boxes of Pizza atop their heads.
"Good work, fellas." Renji smiled at his minons, crated through Quirk, Minion Master. "Take 20."
The Minions dismissed themselves as everyone began to chow down and recount their days, Izuku smiling warmly the whole time.
Knightmare Lord A/N:
I wanted this chapter to introduce the rest of Izuku's friends. Not only is he close with Himiko Toga and Hitoshi Shinso, but he also has a few OCs that I made up, along with one of Mrotrax's OCs for an old story he never got around to making.
Fun Fact: Some of these OCs are actually based on plot bunnies made by wmtay2 in their story, Tales of Heroism, which depicted Izuku being born with different Quirks. Each of these OCs are based on the plot bunnies which I will list here:
Mira Kunaku: Tale 1 (Monstrous Hero)
Yoshimitsu Ono: Tale 2 (Fluffy Hero)
Kuro Sakamoto: Tale 3 (Symbiotic Hero)
Tenshiro Nogra: Tale 4 (Metamorphic Hero)
Renji Fangei: Tale 5 (Minion Master)
Isamu Ishida: Tale 6 (Hentai Kamen)
Chi Mikoto: Tale 7 (Vampiric Hero)
Gani Morcorba: Tale 8 (Ghost Rider)
However, Gani will not just be based on Marvel's Ghost Rider but also have tricks based on Sans from Undertale and Brook from One Piece. Yes, that includes all the cheesy skele-puns you can imagine.
Now, in regards to the other OCs:
Yuriko Lami belongs to a friend of mine, Rogelis. All credit for her goes to him.
Nanako Mori and Fen Su are both based on some AI art made by ChubbyBunnyAI on DeviantArt.
Sona Hou is basically a female Sun Wukong and Yami Hebijo is like a heroic female teenager Orochimaru.
Samio Arima is basically a Female Doom Slayer based on the art by FrancoTieppo.
Anyway, take it away, Mrotrax!
Mrotrax A/N:
Another great chapter, old friend!
Knightmare Lord did most of the work here; I handled backstory.
Quasi is the OC he mentioned; recycled from a story idea of a High school Rom-Com in which a Goth fem-boy and the head cheerleader fall in love, dealing with the expected societal disagreements and their own not entirely but still 'trope-specific' classmates. Knightmare Lord suggested using him here as a Cat fem-boy, mostly for another 'Mutation' type character in the hero ranks.
Next time, we'll see a little more action and the plot gets rolling!
Stay safe until then!