CYA: What Defines A Hero: Bad Path

by lumpeistbark3

this story revolves around the Entirety of Class 1A being isekai'd into the one-punch man world. The story contains light spoilers post-season 6. The story goes up until right after the psycho sister's arc so I guess spoilers for one punch season 3 as well. the alternative path on A03 is to be uploaded later here.

13. Month 1: Week 1-4: Where's The Waldo's?

To answer one of the anon's questions, The MA raid starts at exactly in the beginning of month 3, how far away is that in terms of our time? well your looking at march 2023, 7 months from now, I will reiterate that this story is(mostly) updated twice a month, there could be a potential 3rd chapter in the month depending how far I am in writing so the 7 months is longest you will have to wait until the MA raid but there chance(if however small) that it could come faster so yeah.

with that out of the way Enjoy the chapters of the Two MIA people from month one and what there month looked like with their respective teachers.

All aboard: Council of sword masters, and their disciples, sero

Sero was currently running towards his meeting place, he couldn't believe that he let himself be late for this important assignment. Sero used his tape shooters to swing through the streets of A-city before arriving at the bay, he marveled at the aircraft carriers lined up next to each other.

"Bout time you got here." Okamaitachi said, causing everyone to turn towards the new arrival sero took in the new individuals he hadn't met before there was the first he noticed was a bald man with many scars on his face , the second was dark skinned man with braided into cornrows and tied in a high ponytail, the third was an elderly man with wrinkles and white hair, the next was a man with flowing black hair and a Sprouse mustache, the last one was a man with black hair and a widows peak and if sero didn't know any better he was sure he saw a flash of anger go through the man's eyes as they met with his.

"Who is this?" the man asked to atomic samurai. Who casually waved him off.

"He's the reason we got the information in the first place, consider him just a stowaway." atomic samurai said before walking towards the one of the aircraft carriers. Sero was surprised by the associations choice of transportation he thought they would get like a medium sized yacht or something more luxurious but he guessed they want to project power and authority wherever they go instead.

Everyone began to proceed up the ramp to the main deck where the captain would show them all to their living quarters, the council members were separate from their disciples and sero . as he expected it wasn't much for luxury, mostly practical. It was a large room with numerous beds that lined the wall, some being even triple bunk beds. Sero chose the bunks near the corner of the room and he noticed that all of atomic samurai's disciples took the direct opposite approach, being as far away from him as possible. They really think I'm some sort of threat to them, sero cursed himself. The closest person to him was the guy with the Sprouse mustache. Sero decided to introduce himself.

"Hi, my name's sero and my hero's name is Cellophane, '' Sero said, offering the older gentleman his hand.

"Hello, You can call me spring mustachio or just mustachio for short." the olderman replied, shaking his hand. Mustachio started to examine the boy a bit more closely and then observed around him.

"You seem to have misplaced your blade?" Mustachio asked curiously.

"Yeah, I don't really fight with a sword, I mostly fight with these." Sero said, launching some tape from his elbow, he noticed that the other disciples noticeably tensed in reaction, all three reaching for their weapons. Sero let out a sigh before cutting the tape off and setting it down in the trash bin.

"Are you a hero too? What rank are you?"

"I'm A-class rank 33 " Sero immediately shook his head.

"woah man, That's crazy good, compared to me you're like a god.'' Sero said, chuckling to himself a bit.

"Oh? What's your rank in the association?" mustachio asked

"C-class rank 125." it wasn't sero that said it but Bushidrill as he came walking up towards them followed by the other two, sero was somewhat surprised by how bold they were behaving but perhaps a reminder how far below them he was increased their courage not that he had any thought of trying to tag them in the first place.

"Yeah he's a total weakling." the girl nagged after bushidrill.

"Oh come on guy's." sero complained

"There is nothing wrong with speaking the truth once you face that reality, you can focus on improving it." Iaian replied, sero only continued to sulk in response.

"What rank are you guys in the first place?" sero muttered

"There among the top 5 of the A-class, 2nd Iaian, 3rd Okamaitachi , and 4th bushidrill respectively." mustachio said pointing to the disciple in question when reading out their rank.

"Woah, who's number one?" Sero questioned, before Mustachio could reply Okamaitachi let out a high pitched squeal of excitement, that Sero never would have even thought he would hear from the brash girl.

"None other than the handsome hunk himself, super star, fashion model, movie star, you name it and he's done it. Handsome sweet mask!' the girl finished realizing the questionable stares pointed her way. She pretended to cough in her hand before speaking with a much calmer tone.

"Umm.. I mean handsome sweet mask, he bars anyone attempting to go into the S-class."

"Huh? Why would he do something like that?" Sero asked.

"He seems to have taken an issue with the association recruiting puri-puri prisoner directly to the S-class and to prevent other such incidents he retains A-class rank 1 to prevent others he finds unworthy from rising up." Bushidrill said.

"And he does hold the power to indefinitely hold the position along with his long career outside of hero activity, in terms of battle prowess he is no doubt S-class material." Iaian finished

"I…see , well I hope there won't be too much of a problem with my friends then, two of them were rated S-class from what I remember." Sero said somewhat troubled by the news, this garnered all of the disciples attention.

"What? Two more new S-class heroes already. That seems highly unlikely." bushidrill rubbed his chin in thought.

"Yeah and how could that be if they're friends of yours?" Okamaitachi said

"Well I guess you could say that I didn't win the genetic lottery like some others did so you shouldn't base my friends abilities around me." Sero said with a sly grin.

"Fascinating. Well I hope to meet them one day after we're back." Iaian said.

"Oh I'm sure I can introduce you to them if we have the time." Sero said happy to finally have something to talk to the disciples about.

Discussion quickly came to a close after that and once the group had unpacked the rest of their things, the captain took them to where the cafeteria was. It surprisingly had decent food in their well, at least it smelled decent sero notes. The third place the captain took them was the baths which were communal baths separated by male and female. The tour finally ended with numerous safety procedures in case of certain events and other things. With that said out of the way the ship took off from the bay and began their journey towards wherever they were going, having thought about it he really didn't know where they were going but I guess that's part of the adventure as well, he took a couple of pictures and sent them to his class group chat receiving numerous farewells and good lucks from his friends in class.

Sero than realized that his phone was on a limited resource given that none of the ship outlets he's seen so far had a compatible charging port, so in that case he put his phone in ultra power saving function before storing it, he probably wouldn't need his phone for the trip but he never knew what could happen so it was better to be safe than sorry. But that now left him with a conundrum: what was he gonna do for the rest of his time until they reach their objective?

He began to pace around the ship looking rather aimlessly for anything to do; this eventually gained him the attention of the crew of the ship after some small talk they asked if sero could help them around the ship since he had nothing to do and not seeing any alternatives he decided he might as well, they were being generous after all and allowing them passages on this sick battleship the only thing that sucked about the experience is that most of the aircraft weren't actually on the ship during their trip out to sea. He found that ironic given the name of the ship class I guess they should just call it a carrier instead he thought before mentally kicking himself for such a bad joke.

After helping the crew with finishing most of their chores they all left to go play a few games in the room they resigned as the play room. Sero made a mental note on where that room was; he was curious to see what type of games they would have on this boat. Where he decided to go now was the deck without the jets and aircraft. It was a lot of open space and fresh air which he really needed right now. Everything seemed to sink in all at once, abducted and possibly stranded on a separate planet or even an entire separate universe from his home just in the midst of a huge conflict. He hoped his parents were doing ok and didn't miss him to badly, it feels awful that there a possibility that they think he's dead for whoever knows how long but he's just here in this new place, then his mind began to wonder about even crazier things happening like what if time moves differently in this place? If a day here equaled a year in their world or what if this place was all just a microscopic universe and all of us were just shrunk to be able to be inside of it. His mind continued to spiral and spiral down more admitted ridiculous thoughts before he was brought out of his thoughts by a rough voice.

Sero turned to see the captain.

"Ayy captain." Sero remarked, making the sailor briefly roll his eyes.

"You seem to be thinking pretty heavily over here, care to share?" the captain asked

" nah, just feeling a bit homesick is all." Sero remarked it was mostly true but the captain probably wouldn't understand what home he was referring to.

" My boy we just left, but I can understand it's not everyday people can spend their time out at sea." the captain said, which made sero think, this world only had one continent right? So why did they have a fleet in the first place?

"That begs the question, umm why do you guy's exist? Umm no offense by the way just curious is all.`` Sero said.

"None taken my boy, it's a common question for civilians to ask but as you are a hero I thought you would have known better. Anyways monsters don't just come from inside the continent sometimes the bastards come from offshore from somewhere out in the deep, without human intervention they are allowed to grow there by themselves and even with all that they still attack us. They somehow sneaked under our noses and attacked J-city not too long ago." the captain said, spitting off the ship.

"I see and we're …venturing out to where they live…." sero said with a gulp of concern.

"Sadly yes, we're venturing out pretty far. I hope what we're after is worth it, all I was told was for some artifact."

"Well you got me. You know more than me, I'm just the new guy and unwanted at that. Got to talk to one of those council members.
Sero mentioned.

"Ah I see so you're just a pawn in all this as well, be that as it may my boy, there is a likely chance that this ship will come under attack the further we get to our objective so I expect you to defend this ship with your life just like the rest of the crew."

"I'll try the best I can sir." Sero said, giving his best salute.

"I'm sure you will, although with an S-class on board I'm sure you won't have too much to worry about." the captain said with a soft chuckle. Slapping sero on the back, before heading back in telling sero that he should get some sleep as well. Sero was slightly worried about the current predicament but decided to heed the captain's request and go to sleep for the day.

The next couple of days at sea were mostly the same as his first, sero would help out the crew with their tasks and occasionally join them in their game room where he found a weird mix of indie games and board games. The video games they had were mostly of the quality of the earlier PlayStation era with 2D fighting games and pixel animations, he never got to really experience this era of gaming so while most of the controls were stiff by his standards and the moves were not very flashy. He was so curious how this world works now that this was supposedly some of the top tier gaming entertainment around, if the sailors' comments were anything to go by.

They have the ability to create and use warships but couldn't improve their gaming sphere? he guessed it wasn't as important when you could compare the two especially when he was sure that the humanity of this earth probably was more concerned with protecting themselves from monsters than people just relaxing in their own time, the one thing he could comment on however is the VR systems they had were really advance able to read your body movements and put them right into the game and get you really immersed in the game.

At the weeks end sero eventually got bored again, the captain said that they were half way there to the desired location, the ship seemed to come up with its first roadblock. There was a towering rock structure that was in the ship's direct line of travel, the captain said it was a simple matter of simply going around it but the council master ugh….. Sero didn't know his name now that he thought about it. But the small wrinkly one had summoned spring mustachio to the forward of the ship, sero was for a moment confused about what the guy was planning. He noticed that spring mustachio had his rapier out he brandished the weapon in front himself and watch as the blade coiled and wrapped circular spirals towards the hilt before the man announced his technique Tomboy barrage and in the blink of an eye and what sounded like a rolling storm of violent crashes and thumps the rock structure that was 200 meters ahead of the ship seemingly collapsed on itself.

Sero only stared with his mouth a gape along with the rest of the crew, he never saw the sword or the impact, only heard it and saw the sea below become seemingly spread slightly from the wind pressure of the strikes. He was blown away from the demonstration. The ship sailed over where the former rock structure was located, the ship passed with no difficulty whatsoever but there was a minor rumble that could be felt by the ship but nothing to major the captain assured. Sero went to the back of the ship to look just in case.

nothing was apparent but he noted that from the position where the rock structure was smoke began to rise out of the ocean a thick fog covering the area the ship had once been moments earlier he could have sworn that something large emerged from the water he saw a shadow that was in the fog now in the sky flying away he couldn't tell if if was because of the fog but the shape almost resembled a dragon and someone was riding it? There was a red dot that shined through the fog, the sight scaring sero enough to look away to go and tell someone only to look back and see that everything was gone. The fog, the shadow, and the red dot all just disappeared as if in thin air. Was he going insane or was he just still shocked about what he just saw with mustachio. He decided to go take a nap and rest his head just in case.

---

?

"My queen, the human vessel, has passed through the divide." an eel creature remarked

"Can you identify their trajectory, where they are headed." the queen remarked.

"It's obvious they're headed here, we should have attacked them sooner. It was inevitable that- " an octopus creature piqued up.

"I do not remember asking for your council" the queen barked out.

"I'm sorry my queen but I must speak, we should have expected this, retaliation for the deep sea king's brash assault on their world." The octopus creature continued before a blade was held to his throat.

"Do not speak of my husband's actions as if I have no knowledge of them. But your assumption is preposterous. How would they know where we live? Unless you suggest that we have a traitor in our midst leaking our enemies' intel." the queen remarked dismissively, the blade retracted from the octopus's neck.

"They could have taken potential prisoners my queen and tortured them for answers or some may having willing gave the information to save their own lives. " octopus said with a hint of anger

"Humans also have technology to locate things, I have personally seen them find things that were not seen by normal people. And if our estimations are correct if their course lies here it will be in the perfect opportunity where we are exposed to the sky. " the eal added on. This gathered murmures from the audience in the room. The queen raised her hand silencing all of them.

"If you are wrong and they are headed elsewhere you would only expose us further, are you prepared to take responsibility in such a case?"

"Yes my queen." the octopus stated.

"Very well send the sirens to derail them if they retain course for three more days. And bring all soldiers up to combat readiness."

" Yes, my queen." the octopus replied. Before leaving the room along with a number of other creatures behind him, leaving only the queen left.

She grew worried as the sack that was extending from her body began to shift and bubble, the future king is just about to be born and now this, the world was playing tricks on her it was all his fault but none of that will matter even if their destination was here the king will be born stronger than his foolish father ever could hope to be. She thought as she began to rub her sack gently.

---

Two more days at sea passed and sero was starting to get bored again and little bit of envious due to seeing what was happening with his friends back on land, apparently mineta had been turned into a girl which he was crazily mad he wasn't there to see in person, kaminari said that he would get him with a couple of videos and things to show him but the experience wouldn't be the same. He guessed that the monsters of this world had strange abilities similar to them which would explain why the association would not just let them run free.

Feeling a bit adventurous and curious sero decided what he was going to do for the day, he approached near the edge of the ship and as a safety precaution he used his tape to anchor himself to the ship and decided to go fishing, he had gotten himself some bate or what he could scrounge up from the ships cafeteria. He tagged some on the end of his tape before casting it out into the sea, given the size of the ship and the speed at which they were moving he doubted anything would actually bite but maybe the fish in this world acted differently than theirs. He waited for about 30 minutes before cutting it off. He was glad that his tape was biodegradable so he didn't have to worry about it going into the ocean or pollution. He prepped another line before casting it out again; he decided to give it another 30 or so before calling it quits and finding something else to do.

After 10 minutes of waiting a voice sounded from behind him, he turned to see none other than mustachio behind him.

"Yo man, up here trying to get some air?" Sero remarked.

"Indeed, this ship while magnificent on the outside could use some adjustments to be of my liking."

"I know what you mean, it can get pretty cramped down there, Oh and dang I didn't know a sword was capable of stretching that far out." Sero asked in wonder, he looked towards spring mustachio's waist and noticed that the sword in his hands was much different than the rapier type weapon that he had seen before.

"Is that a different sword? You have two of them?" Sero asked, pointing to the sword in question." spring mustachio let out a small laugh. He pulled out his sword and took the shape of a more saber type weapon but before his very eyes morphed into the rapier he had seen previously.

"This is the benefit of my sword, it uses shape-memory alloy that allows it to change its shape according to what fighting style I'm currently using. As you have witnessed with your very own eyes the power of my rapier's penetration, in the cities during my hero work I usually take the saber form to reduce collateral damage." spring mustachio explained , sero whistled.

"I believe it." Sero said.

"I'm curious about your…."weapon" as well. How does it work? Did you replace your arms with cybernetics?" spring mustachio noted as he approached sero and analyzed sero's elbows..

"Um…nah nothing like that I was kinda just born…with these, a mutation you could say. ``Sero explained.

"A very strange mutation at that, No offense."

"None taken."

"So your friends also have these mutations? If I recall you mentioned that you didn't hit the "genetic lottery" so there are some that are even better than yours." spring mustachio inquired

"Oh definitely there are probably tons better than mine- I mean among my friends there are some crazy ones like the ability to control Ice and fire, an ability to create explosions, super strength and speed, and more." Sero said.

"Fascinating and how did these mutations come to be?" Sero thought on that question not sure on how much he should or could share so he defaulted to a generic phrase.

"Sorry but the association said that information is classified. I can't tell you that." Sero replied, earning a suspicious look from Mustachio before he returned to a neutral, more understanding face.

"Hey what's this artifact we are even going for anyways, I'm completely lost." sero asked

"Oh guess you wouldn't know but one of the leading goals of the council of swordsmen is to bring the sun and moon blades together. According to mythology it is said that once the two swords are joined with a worthy swordsman then that man shall be undefeatable." spring mustachio said in wonder

"Ok I kinda get it so which one is this quest for?" sero asked

"According to my master Nichirin, we are after the sun blade, supposedly the information that the association has given us is that it is on an island that constantly rises during the day and falls back to sea at night, most likely due to the sun blade's effects." spring mustachio remarked

"Woah, that sounds cool." sero remarked

The two chatted some more mostly about sero questioning the history and lore surroundings the council of swordsman he learned the name of each individual current member and that there was a slight grudge between Haragiri and the rest of the council members, he believed that the council should spend more time practicing their swordsmanship instead of chasing after fairy tales and legends like their doing currently.

He had a lot to learn about the people he's traveling with, he thought. He was about done with fishing and predictably didn't have much luck he did however got 1 bite, the fish wasn't to different than from their world it looked like a bass but it's scales were far more colorful almost red and orange in color, he smiled to himself before lowering it back into the ocean, he didn't want to just throw it off the side of the ship just in case it got hurt because of it. After that he called it a day and went to go eat and hang out with some of the sailors for the rest of the day.

Two days past and something strange began to happen, the ship jerked hard as if it started to move in a new direction at a rapid pace than jerked again back, the disciples immediately left their barracks and went towards the captains quarters, the group began to notice something was up with the crew they were acting strangely almost like they were possessed their movements was all to rigid and straight making abrupt twist and turns to leave the hallways. The ship jerked hard again this time almost shuttering to a complete stop.

The group of four finally got to the captain's deck and were about to enter when the door suddenly burst open, it was one of the female sailor officers.

"Oh thank god you guys are ok, quickly we need your help ." the sailor requested.

"What's happened?" Iaian asked

"I don't know, some said that they started hearing voices and began to act strangely. The captain was about to steer the ship into a nearby landmass and I think we saw some of the crew begin to jump off the ship." the girl said with a desperate voice.

"Could this be the effects of a monster?" Bushidrill questioned while rubbing his chin.

"Well worry about that later first we have to protect the civilians." Okamaitachi remarked, turning around and walking towards the deck, the other three came following her, once they got to the doors to the deck they realized that it was already be barricaded to stop people from going out a mob of 10 people including sero where crashing into the barricades attempting to push through. The four disciples made quick work of the mob knocking them each out and disposing of their bodies in a pile restraining them using some spare rope that they found around the ship. The group of four finally made it outside towards the deck, there they were shocked to find the council's members already outside, some unconscious crew members scattered about the place as others that were not affected by whatever voices the crew was hearing, attempted to help them back inside. The four disciples ran up to and bowed in front of the masters. Atomic samurai were the first to turn and notice them.

"Ah, Iaian good to see you didn't fall for this mess." his master complemented.

"Thank you master, Have we located the cause of this problem sir?" Iaian replied.

"Not yet, Nichirin already sensed something was up but Haragiri didn't believe him but as we went to check we saw our helpers here abandoning the ship." atomic samurai commented.

"Good to see you did not fall for their charms as well spring mustachio." Nichirin said

"You honor me with your praise master but who do you mean by them?" mustachio asked

"I assume that who or whatever is behind all this is coming from over there." the old man pointed to a small island 4 kilometers away.

"How will we deal with such an attack sir?" mustachio questioned

"We have no boats to make such a trip possible and under these circumstances we have no way of moving the ship closer." Iaian backed up.

"Nothing is impossible as long as you try hard enough. As Haragiri will demonstrate." atomic samurai said slapping the back of the person in question earning a death glare in return.

"Don't order me around like I'm one of your little minions, Kamikaze." the man said through gritted teeth.

"Lighten up now, You were the one complaining about being confined on this ship in the first place." Amahare claimed

"You also seemed to dismiss the threat immediately upon Nichirin warning as well, so I think it prudent as forgiveness to fix the issue yourself." Zanbai stated, calmly looking towards the small island. Haragiri let out a grunt of frustration before proceeding towards the edge of the ship and turning his head back over the shoulder.

"If nothing is there I expect a prostrate apology for wasting my time." Haragiri said before leaping off the boat, the disciples looked on with worry before a sudden splash of water rose up next to the boat and then several more columns of water began to rise further and further away from the ship. The disciples were stunned at the display.

"Even if he is a bastard, a true swordsman wouldn't let something like water slow him down, keeping your foot light it's the very foundation of what makes you a sword fighter, remember that." atomic samurai said to his students, which answered with a resounding yes master from all three.

Haragiri made it to the island, letting out a breath as his feet made contact with solid ground, the voices were noticeable now even to him, he marched to its source finding 10 mermaid like beings singing in complete harmony with one another, he silently cursed himself that somehow that old geezer was right again, that man had to be mystical in some nature. But that didn't matter now the mermaids had just spotted him emerging from the shadows like a vengeful spirit, the look on his face one of pure anger and joy at the same time.

He unsheathed his sword with a speed that surpassed sound and instantly cut off the arm of a sea creature that attempted to blindside him thinking it fooled him with its camouflage. The creature grabbed at its stomp of an arm in pain but before it could release a sound his head was separated from its body, a backswing of his sword performed a similar feat of the fish creature behind him this one similar to a jellyfish attempting to tase him with its tentacles but being bisected by the horizontal swing. The mermaids made to escape but Haragiri gave them no quarter so he had cut down 8 of them before stabbing the nine through the eye, the sword exiting out through her skull on the other side. The last mermaid begged for mercy and Haragiri made an attempt to consider it but just as she believed he would let her go free a sword was thrusted through her abdomen, he twisted the blade back and forth before raising it upwards splitting her in two from the stomach up. Haragiri looked at the carnage he caused around him and laughed before a sound caught his attention.

There was a slight shift in the water, something got away, oh well that only means they will return later and let them this was not enough bloodshed for his sword. He shook his sword free of the blood and sheathed it before preparing to head back towards the ship. As haragiri returned in a new explosion of water next to the boat everyone had already evacuated the airpad and went back inside, the ship was already preparing to get on the move again.

---

?

"My queen! My queen!" an eel creature burst through the doors into the royal chambers, he was immediately halted by sea anemia that jutted from the walls of the structure. The queen's sack had grown and mutated within the past days, she could hardly move from the chambers anymore.

"Speak!" the queen yelled not looking at the eel.

"My queen, the human ship continues on their voyage, the sirens have failed." the eel squeaked

"Their destination?" the queen inquired

"There can be no doubt anymore, the sirens were killed two days ago, the messengers just arrived today and it is clear that the human ship is headed in this very direction. The timing of their arrival was delayed slightly but they will still arrive when our home is exposed to the sky." the eel commented. The queen let out a notable shiver of agitation and rage before calming herself.

"Very well, we will assume the humans are coming to threaten our very home and exterminate us. Send the advance guard and call for all to become warriors in preparation for the coming conflict. ." the queen remarked.

"It will be my pleasure queen." the eel creature said bowing and leaving the queen chamber.

---

Three more days pass out on sea and two days since the attack on the ship from whatever it was that attacked them sero thought his head was woozy from the incident. Probably because someone most likely one of the disciples had whacked him upside the head with their weapons. When he asked about it why. he was not surprised it was the girl that had suffered him the blow, she seemed to dislike him the most out of the three, but she did save his life apparently, given that he would have been throwing himself off the ship so a little pain in the back of the neck was something he could deal with.

He was getting nervous though that was the first attack on the ship and the captain alluded to there being more as they closed in on their prize, monsters were able to grow out here without human interference. could there be a literal moby dick in this world? Or maybe a kraken monster or something that could just sink the ship whole? He was worried that in such an event that even if the heroes could kill such a beast their transport would not survive the battle and leave them stranded.

They only had one day left until they made it to their objective anyways so if something big was going to happen it was probably gonna happen today so he was mentally preparing himself for such a possibility and the others must have believed so as well. The disciples and even the masters were all just waiting around on the top deck, well waiting around was not the term he should use; each swordsman was equally spread out on the deck. in some sort of meditative position, sero didn't really know where he wanted or what he should do, he considered joining them but thought better of it, they would probably see it as an insult. So he decided to go up towards the captain's deck, he had gotten to know most of the sailors on the ship and thanks to his kindness he was usually allowed anywhere he wanted to go. The captain greeted him.

"Sero my boy, I almost expected you to be out there with the rest of them." as he gestured out the window towards the swordsman, it began to lightly rain but none of the nine seemed to mind it.

"Nah, I may be with them but I'm not a samurai like them." Sero said with a chuckle.

"That haragiri said that it will be likely that we would get attacked again before we reach our objective so I assume they are out there just in case of said event." the captain guessed.

"Yeah that's what I believe as well, speaking of the attack, were you affected by it as well?"

"Ah, I was my boy, my vice captain had to restrain me to my chair to keep me from crashing the ship" he said with a laugh

"I heard some of the guy's weren't affected by it. What was up with that?" Sero asked. It was the vice captain that responded to the question.

"Me and some of the others have been talking about that as well, we came up to the conclusion that none of the girls were affected and that guy's that weren't affected were homosexuals." she relayed.

"Although the disciples and samurai put holes in that theory, but they are superhuman so they could have just ignored it all together." captain remarked additionally.

"Huh, I guess that makes sense." sero reckoned, I guess all those jokes about the navy were true after all and that inadvertently saved them from all being mind controlled, what a disaster that would have been he thought.

Suddenly the sailor on the radar deck called the captain over, sero joined in looking over the captains shoulder, he noticed multiple dots heading towards the one in the center, at first sero was worried that those were missiles and the captain had seemingly read his mind asking if those were missiles or bombs but the radar expert calmed him saying that the targets approaching were organic in nature and would make contact with the ship in 30 seconds and just as he finished talking multiple column of water exploded all around the right flank of the ship but just as suddenly the columns of water were cut directly through bisecting a humanoid figure hidden within the water. It fell towards the deck cut in half and leaking blood, not moving.

Similar scenes could be seen with the other columns of water, before even more columns of water and fish humanoids began to rise up and try to get on the ship before being cut down completely. Every time water would rise up next to the ship a sword slash would follow it from one of the swordsmen cutting through it and the creature inhabiting it. Sero would have thought the spectacle was cool if it were not for it being incredibly brutal, the swordsman would cut and slash their way through the fish man creatures none of which being able to score even a single blow against any of them.

Surprise struck the command crew when suddenly another large explosion of water happened from their left flank, A humanoid fish creature with claws for both of its hands blasting out of the water straight for the captain's bridge and shattering the glass to get inside. Sero yelped but thought quickly using his quirk and shooting out tape to wrap the monster up before the monster could use its claws to rip the tape off. Another one of the crewmen shot the creature in the head with a compact shotgun, its lifeless body dropping to the floor. Sero was stunned for a moment at the now headless creature before the ship started to vibrate and rumble, the captain asked for an explanation and the officer explained that they had multiple breaches down in the lower decks, possibly some invaders along with them. The captain turned to sero.

"We can handle ourselves here and your friends are busy holding off the rest of the assault on the pad, you go and help the sailors in the barracks." the captain demanded, sero only nodded his head before leaving the command deck and heading towards the sounds of disturbance. It didn't take long for sero to here the sounds of gunfire from the battle going on within the ship, following the sounds to the natural source he found a group of 8 sailors unconscious on the ground under a fish tentacle creature, unlike the ones on the deck it didn't have a human shape body, it was like a starfish that moved, it turned towards sero and shot out ink through it's center forcing him to duck, sero used his tape to wrap around the creatures legs and hoisted it up with all the power he could making it hit the ceiling and fall unconscious , he checked on the sailors thankfully all of them were still alive and after finding them a comfortable place left to more sounds of actions.

By the time he got to battles most of them were over, the captain had sounded an alarm through the ship and had been able to prepare for the borders. The last place he had to check that still had gunfire was being assaulted by an octopus creature it had multiples eyes around it' head and a strong crystal like shell on each of its tentacles, it was currently choking out two sailors with its tentacles before noticing sero and the large group of sailors behind him enter the area, it turned to face them some had their guns trained on the creature demanding it set their friends down, the creature did the opposite and squeezed harder making the ones with guns clinch their trigger finger harder threatening to shoot the creature but it remained undeterred, the sailors faces in its clutches turning purple from a lack of oxygen and before sero or the rest could do anything the octopus creature let out a sonic screech that crippled everyone in the room, everyone immediately began to clutch at their ears and writhe on the floor in pain, while it's voice somehow telekinetically sounded in their heads.

"Pitiful creatures, your hesitancy makes you weak." it boomed directly into their heads as it began to get closer to the writhing humans making its effects worse.

"You will not threaten the sharki or the queen, You will all die now , just like these two within my grasp." octopus said before slowly closing the grip in his hands or he would have if he suddenly didn't feel its tentacles. It turned to look and was surprised to witness that both of its tentacles were cut clean off, and a girl with pink shirt and skirt was in front of him suddenly holding both of the victims he previously held in his grasp.

"When did you, how were you not affected like the others?" the octopus said

"I don't owe you an explanation. Squid " the girl said, moving her hand over her blade.

"I'm an octopu, the royal servant of-" his rant died in his mouth as he was suddenly cut to pieces using Okamaitachi airblade technique. After some time the rest of the sailors were finally able to move.

"Thanks for the save." Sero said.

"You should have been able to take care of something like that yourself." Okamaitachi replied.

"Sorry, what are you doing down here? Is everything ok on the deck?" sero asked

"Of course it is, we were doing a final mop up of the rest of the ship and I found you just lounging around." the girl said with a bit of annoyance in her voice

"Wow, well I guess that means it's over huh?" Sero said.

"Not quite, From some of the captured ones we had lying around we now know our destination is their headquarters so be prepared for anything tomorrow."

"Do you need help guarding the captives?" Sero asked.

"No need, they told us all they had to know and we had no further use for them. So we got rid of them" Okamaitachi said coldly, sero was disturbed by the news, he knew these guys were brutal but to kill a monster that just surrendered was… he didn't know. They did attempt to just kill them after all but from what that octopus and Okamaitachi just said the monsters were defending their home from a clearly dangerous threat, maybe if they just sat and talked about it they wouldn't have to be fighting or at least none anymore. He'll talk to atomic samurai about it, he finally concluded.

Why the hell did he ever think of going to atomic samurai of all people on this ship to discuss things, he basically blew him off the entire time when he tried bringing it up. Was the guy really serious with not acknowledging him until he was able to tag one of his students? Even when he finally got annoyed enough to actually listen to him he still decided to be totally dismissive of his request, even laughing at the aspect of talking with monsters. It was clear that sero wasn't going to have any luck with him and having going to some of the other council of swordsman left him with fairly similar result most of them deferring to atomic samurai's judgements when dealing with monster the one council member he didn't turned to talk to was haragiri, that man seemed outright repulsed by sero's mere presence anytime he would catch the man in the hallway or in his general vicinity. Sero came up with another idea: he would instead go to the disciples; maybe if he could get the disciples on his side then he would have a better chance at convincing their masters.

He eventually tracked the disciples down, to a bottom layer of the ship which was made into an impromptu training arena, by time that he got there the disciples were apparently sparring against each other, sero was pretty surprised that they still had the energy what with the fight that just took place the other day and the upcoming fight that they would think they had later on, but the current combatants intrigued him it was Iaian which was the the top student of atomic samurai and spring mustachio which he learned was the top student of Nichirin, well he was the only student so it wasn't something to exactly brag about, sero thought. But it was going to be an interesting contest nonetheless, he noted that the form that his sword was in wasn't the rapier but the saber so he was holding back somewhat but he guessed that he wouldn't want to use such a deadly technique against a friend.

The two disciples took their stance each of their swords outstretched and closing in on each other sero harkened their movements similar to professional sword fighters each slowly getting closer to each other before they would lash out with their blades to score a quick and decisive blow that will finish the match in an instant, and just like that in a blur of motion both swordsman were off a slash, a parry, followed by a counter. Mustachio and Iaian were a blur of motion as they collided against each other Iain would try and bluff with a lateral cut high to force his opponent low, mustachio didn't take the bait switching the form of his sword to the rapier and performing a thrusting action towards his chest, Iaian moved quickly bringing his sword down on the rapier blocking it downwards before rising it just as quickly to displace the counter attack towards his shoulder the attack skimming of his shoulder pualdron.

Iaian took the opportunity to attempt a cut towards his chest, mustachio managed to pull his blade back in time transforming into its saber form before blocking the strike with the flat of it's blade and pushing the attacking sword away. The two continued this back and forth for some time ultimately culminating in a final clash between the individuals Iaian using one of his best techniques the Iai slash , the attack reached its target bypassing mustachio's defenses before stopping just short of cutting off his head. Sero could only stare and gawk at the sight he didn't catch much of any of the battle. He only slowly caught up as the sounds got to him but by that time the fight was already over it seemed. Spring mustachio held both of his arms in the air as a sign of his loss.

"Happy to see that even with one less arm you remain as sharp as ever. Although if this was fencing I would have one with that glancing blow I had earlier "mustachio commented

"A glancing wound like that wouldn't be able to stop your opponent from continuing to attack you but It is unfortunate that you didn't use your tomboy attack against me." Iaian replied, mustachio shook his head.

"It is very dangerous, even though I acknowledge your skill. It is a technique I prefer not to use against someone I'm not trying to kill." mustachio said with a bow

"I can't blame you. I don't like using my air blade in sparring as well." Okamaitachi

"I thank you for your understanding." Mustachio said with another bow.

"It seems we have a new spectator." bushidrill commented looking up towards sero followed shortly by all the others in the room, he was slightly surprised. He thought he was quiet enough that they wouldn't notice he was there but he guessed he should have known better when he was concerning these guy's.

"Well are you just gonna sit up there and stare or did you come down here for a reason?" Okamaitachi said with her hand on her hip. Sero recovered from his stupor and made his way down towards them.

"Oh, Um..I wanted to talk to you guy's about the mission coming up in a few hours actually…" he said rubbing the back of his neck.

"You want an opportunity to speak with the seafolk, yes?" Bushidrill commented earning a shock gaze from sero in return.

"Yeah…..yeah. How you'd know?" sero asked

"I overheard you discussing the topic with Amahare, and given that you spoke with other members of the council I can only assume you spoke with atomic samurai as well." Bushidrill commented. Sero nodded his head.

"And he said?." bushdrill asked

"It would be foolish to talk with monsters." sero muttered out.

"Then there you have it. If our master forbids it he speaks for us as well." bushidrill said

"But you don't understand, we are headed directly to their home, they see us as invaders when we don't have to be, they could help us search the island for the thing since they will know everything about it. ``Sero tried to reason.

"Our master has spoken, he and the council probably already have discussed such a possibility and deemed it unnecessary to commit to." Iaian remarked.

"I'm sorry, sero But I must agree with them, from what My master told me these are the same fish people that launched the attack on J-city not to long ago, their leader the deep sea king critically injured multiple heroes' including two S-class heroes as well as almost killed a child in cold blood if it weren't for the combined efforts of the heroes their tiring the creature out allowing for a lucky C-class to finish it off than it would have went on to kill the entire shelter full of civilians." spring mustachio said.

"O-oh…I didn't know ….about that." Sero said, thinking again.

"Listen kid, I know you seem new and all to the hero thing but some things can't be saved and some people don't have normal reasoning for what they do that goes double for monsters. " Okamaitachi said

And just as the girl finished talking the alarms began to blare on the ship, and the captain had called for full alert status, that was the signal the big battle was finally upon them as all of the disciples began to leave towards the deck of the ship, council of swordsmen were already there and waiting and just off the from them about 10 kilometers away from the ship everyone could see a structure begin to rise out of the water the island was around the size of the largest sports stadium, what became noticeable visible was the coral structures scattered around the rock island decorated by algae and some type of crystal like material that was towards the center, it glowed with an golden aura before as if collecting the sun energy.

"Well I guess we don't need to worry about where to go." atomic samurai jested.

"Yes but there are many in our way to get there." amahare gestured to the little and large dots that dotted the landscape, no doubt seafolk that were all centered around protecting the crystalline structure. As the ship drew closer to the small island, the captain sounded a warning over the alarms stating that a massive creature was approaching the ship and just as the warning reach them on the ship a giant lobster creature emerged in front of the ship it's giant pincer raising and grabbing on to the sides of the ship causing it to shake and stir, sero yipped back hiding back behind the disciples his thoughts fluttering a mile a minute between ways out of this scenario and utter doom. But over the sounds of the alarm and raging sea that the huge creature committed one voice sounded above all the rest, calling to him specifically.

'Tapeboy, you got Five minutes make it count.`` Sero recognized the voice of none other than atomic samurai announcing back as he took his hand off the hilt of his blade and just as suddenly the giant lobster in front of the ship, disappeared in nothing but a spray of small body pieces and yellow blood. Sero was so shocked from the spectacle that he didn't respond to what atomic samurai said before Mustachio had nudged his shoulder drawing him back to reality as everyone began to look at him. He was so amazed that he almost forgot what was said.

"Well are you going to go or what?" Okamaitachi said

"What? By myself?" Sero asked.

"You're the one that wants to talk to them." atomic samurai said off handedly

Looking towards the approaching island that was nearly in reach.

"Ugh…But …I" sero began to stutter.

"Don't you dare refuse our master's generous offer now, kid." Okamaitachi said as she and the other two disciples shot him death glares, sero weighed his options and fear of the fish people and the swordsman in front of him and he was definitely more scared of the swordsman currently so he gulped down his reservations and let out a sigh and bowed.

"Thank you for the opportunity." Sero said , atomic samurai didn't turn to respond, only looked forward towards the raised landmass.

The ship steadily approached the landmass and anchored itself a couple of feet away from it, atomic made a forward motion with his hand which sero took as his chance to go and off he went using his tape to repel down from the ship and run off towards the many fish type monster that lied on the island. The swordsman's watched as the boy ran off.

"Tch, are we seriously going to try diplomacy with monsters? Wouldn't the hero association have words for such an action?" haragiri taunted

"In fact do you not find it weird that the supposed location of the sun blade is here the headquarters of a monster's base? Are you sure they are not just using you kamikaze?" Haragiri asked.

"Please , even when the truth looks you in the face you still try to deny it? The island rose from the sea and the center structure clearly is different from the rest and looks to be absorbing solar light." Zanbai rebuked.

"The association also never said that the sword was confirmed to be here but they speculated it to be so. Your thoughts Nichirin?" atomic samurai commented.

"Yes I can feel the sun blades power originating from the crystalline structure but it is hard to be sure, are you sure it is wise for the boy to go in alone?" Nichirin asked atomic samurai.

"He was the one that wanted to talk to them, so he should be the one to go. If anything it should teach him something about monsters, hero's like him don't usually last too long out there in the wild and I don't expect to be babysitting him forever." atomic samurai responded.

And the group watched on as Sero took to the field, he was immediately surrounded by creatures as a large one approached him. There was a brief amount of discussion and sero had pointed towards the crystal like shelter which seemed to have anger the fish man, the large one attempted to stomp down on the small human with it's foot only for sero to have dodged out of the way using his tape to attach to the large creatures face and swing away, he never launched an attack back at the seafolk and kept trying to reason with them even as they kept trying to attack him with blades, fists, or tentacles. He continued trying to avoid everything he could but ultimately time was up and none of them seemed like giving up so the council began to disembark the ship.

"Guy's please just listen to me, we don't need to fight, we're not here to hurt anyone!" sero screamed as he rode the back of a tall goliath-like creature that had the head of an octopus using its many extra appendages to try and grab sero, which narrowly avoided each one using his small size and tape to maneuver around its body. The creature suddenly stopped moving , sero had originally thought that it was a sign that he was getting through to them but taking a glance again, the creature had been gored straight through multiple times with an extremely long sword, he looked over to see the swordsman slowly make their way across the field. Sero shook his head in disappointment.

"I tried to warn you guys." Sero said with a sorrowful tone before the creature he was crawling on simply flopped over forward. The other fish creatures on the island gnawed and turned to face the new arrivals before letting out a warrior's cry and charging towards the new humans, leaving sero behind and it was nothing but…. A blood bath.

---

Royal chamber

"My queen I suggest we, retreat and find a safer place for you, the soldier are attacking the invader bu-" the eel monster had stopped talking as he turned to witnesses the former queens lifeless husk laying their in her throne, her body was viciously mutilated, her birthing sack busted wide open, at first he thought one of the intruders had done this but than he saw it, hovering above the carcass, it was …..the new king.

---

Everything that happened was a blur of motion and blood, the council of swordsman were even more amazing than sero first realized even the small older man was incredibly fast and deadly his cane opening up and revealing that a blade lied underneath that he used to cut through multiple fishermen at once at blinding speed. The bald guy waved his hand so fast that sero couldn't really see what happened but everywhere he went a monster dies in pieces, the same went for the other two, haragiri was a bit different however he would be slower more methodical in his kills almost like he found enjoyment in them, sero made it his mission not to watch him if possible but all the other action was simply to fast for him to really keep up with.

the one thing he did notice however was the progress they were making towards the crystal structure near the center of the island they were almost halfway there when suddenly the fish creatures all started to fall back and bow down, they all began to make room for someone that exited out of the structure it was 7 feet tall seafolk his face reminded him of a humans with gills on either side of his cheeks his eyes sharp and colored red which contrasted with his pale and green body, he also had a sharp tail that lagged along behind him with vicious claws compounded by a trident in one hand and some type of wrist blades in the other, he had a decorate crown on his head denoting his royalty.

"The king fish finally arrives." atomic samurai said. With a smirk.

"You're not a fish person, therefore you will die." the king said with a foreboding tone.

"Oh yeah? I dare you to-" atomic samurai was cut off as the king had dashed forth with blinding speed, his trident thrusting forth towards atomic's chest but the blow was completely deflected by atomics' sword. Surprising the king slightly, his eyes widening.

"Finally someone that's worth at least playing with." atomic said with a laugh.

"You will die with that look upon your face." the king replied before he stroke out with his razor sharp tail and separating their weapons, the next 3 minutes wasn't visible or even noticeable to sero or the disciples only the chaos of the battle between the king and atomic could be felt as parts of the island began to be chopped into pieces or disappear entirely the battle was finished by one last sentence atomic beeline slash a giant gust of wind blanched out from where the killing blow was struck which was 50 meters away from where sero last saw the two combatants. A spurt of blood raised into the air as the king fell to the ground on the floor dead.

The fish people were shaken but in their shock haragiri continued his killing spree, shaking them from their thoughts before they began attacking again even more viciously then before almost as if they didn't care about their lives anymore, sero thought as he watched everyone get back to fighting and in the next 5 minutes the fighting seemed to be over, the council tasked the disciples and sero to wait outside and pick off any stragglers and watch the ship while they investigated inside the structure. They followed his command to the letter, killing any other seafolk that was still thrashing around on the ground. A scurry object caught Iaian attention, it was a small shark creature trying to flee the scene next to the edge of the island before he could end the small creature however he turned around immediately and cut down some tape that sero shot his way.

"No, no way man, that's just a kid, it's completely harmless to you." sero said, shooting out another piece of tape that was effortlessly cut aside.

"The sins of the father will only pass down to the sons, especially after this." Iaian said beginning to turn around again towards his target until sero shot more tape his way, he continued to fire and fire as he moved to get between the two..

"If it lives you will only doom future victims to pain and suffering. Could you take that on yourself?" Iaian said as he tore through the spray of tape leaving the boy, the ground was unstable and shaky combined with his fatigue from the former battle, proved the scenario more tricky then it otherwise would be and he didn't want to take that chance given his master ultimatum.

"I will, a child doesn't deserve to die for someone else's mistakes." Sero protested.

shooting out a bunch of tape from his shoulder some distance away, and lifting up a chunk of the earth to throw at Iaian but it stopped suddenly when the whole island shook and began to vibrate and begin to sink back down into the sea. Bushidrill called for everyone to head back towards the ship, Iaian took one last look at sero before sheathing his sword and running back, sero let out a breath as he turned to look over his shoulder at the shark kid scurrying away into the ocean. He at least saved one he thought as he too returned back to the ship. Atomic samurai had announced that the mission was a success and that the sunblade was in their custody and to his surprise Iaian never mentioned what he did on the island to anyone as they never brought it it up to him so either they simply didn't care or he didn't want disrespect to befall him for letting something get away no matter what the cause. Well at least he was going to be able to get home now back to his friends.

---

His home sunken down towards the body of the sea, his loved one's and families bodies lay scattered amongst the debris, he could already see other predatory fish drawn towards the blood as if a supper had been served for them. A slight twitching caught his attention as he was about to swim away, hoping to just forget this horrible day from ever occurring.

He swam towards the movement to find the king, he was barely breathing but his eye still seemed filled with life, his voice spoke into his mind softly and weakly.

"You…..you are the last of the seafolk. What is your name?"

"I…..I don't have a …name." the tiny shark said, swimming closer to the nearly dead king.

"Then I shall give you a title, you are now lord great white, the new king."

"Me? A King? But I am too weak, I can rule over no one."

"As you are now? Yes….but eat me and the others and you shall become more powerful. Eat us and take revenge on the atrocities that were committed here."

"As you wish….my king."

It's either kill or be killed: Flashy flash, Iida

Iida met flashy flash in front of the training room just as instructed, he had a backpack full of items hopefully ready for anything this world could throw at him, he didn't know what climate of weather this mission would take place in so he decided to pack a mixture of clothes for the trip, although he mostly focused on weather conditions that revolved around his current enviorment, believing that weather conditions shouldn't fluctuate that much on a single continent also when looking at weather reports for all the different cities. He found it strange how the cities were mostly named after the alphabet instead of actual names but He guessed it was more efficient for identification, he thought.

"So you came." Iida was stirred from his thoughts by flashy flash's calm and collected voice.

"Yes sir, after having some deliberations with my fellow classmates I have decided to join you on your quest. I thank you for having me." Iida said with a bow. Flash flash simply turned away and continued walking .

"No need to thank me, this mission for you carries a high mortality rate as long as you understand that." Flash replied as he walked.

"I understand and as a hero danger shall not deter me." came Iida immediate reply, he looked up to see the hero walking away and began to power walk to catch up to him before slowing down once he finally caught up, he looked around the hero and noticed that he wasn't very packed for the mission at hand, other than his hero costume he only had one brown sack for presumably his materials and belongings.

"Sir, are you sure you're properly packed for the mission?" Iida asked.

"I am thoroughly prepared." was flash's simple and confident reply, Iida nodded in understanding.

"Mind telling me of our destination?" Iida inquired.

"Our target lies on the outer edges of U-city, the uncharted segment most likely." Flash replied.

"Our target? This is an…acquisition assignment?" Iida asked.

"Elimination." was all flash said in reply his tone still as calm as ever as he continued to walk, the tone and ease of how he said that word made Iida freeze for a moment, he wanted to argue against such an action maybe capturing their target would be better but he had to come to terms with this new universe and the rules this universe has for its heroes.

"Well what caused him to draw your ire for this….mission." Iida asked.

"He keeps sending assassins after me, I'm tired of it." flash said simply, shocking Iida.

"Wait? Assassins? So that prisoner in the cell."

"Was, I believe, the 14th? Don't really remember." flash remarked so oft handily that it stunned Iida into silence, Iida was concerned about what such a person had the capability to hire 14 different assassins but he was more concerned about what did this hero do that warranted such a response but even more than that what type of person was flash that having a person sending assassins after you was just considered an annoyance to him that he finally decided to act after the 14th attempt?

"Will there be any other members apart of this assignment?"

"No need for anyone else, I was fully prepared to leave alone if you did not show up."

"I…I see." was all Iida said.

he was slightly worried about this mission now and could understand why flash reiterated his chances of survival on such a quest their target whoever it was had to be in some sort of position of authority to command at least 14 different assassins to try and kill flash and these assassins must have been no slouches if they believed that they would be able to kill an S-class hero it would be like someone trying to assassinate the top ten back in their world, it could also just be some low level thugs that our hoping to jump start their careers by killing off a bigshot. Either way he needs to be sharp if by flash's judgment the threat to his life on this mission is suspect. He doesn't want to weigh the hero down and potentially get him killed if he had to protect him too often.

The two left the association and got into a car, it was a long drive Iida noted, he tried to strike up some casual conversation but flash wasn't a very talkative individual he only answered in brief sentences or a couple of words each time which told Iida that he should just stop trying. He decided to instead look out the window and marvel at the cities they passed through while mostly not to dissimilar from their own in terms of architecture it did have very strange cultural differences in some of the buildings and surroundings like it was and hodgepodge of different cultures coming together some things would look familiar to him like they were back in japan but directly next to that would be something that look like it would be from America or Europe, maybe even India although he was not well versed enough to say.

Maybe this world was similar to their own and something caused them to migrate to this supercontinent. It explained some of the culture clashes he saw as this wouldn't be possible if they originally all started on this continent.

The car eventually came to a stop near the outskirts of the last city in a large mostly barren field. The only thing that was noticeable in the field other than the tall grass that came up to his knees were these large rock spires that rose out of the ground, almost 10ft high and 3ft wide.

"We walk from here the trip to the location should take a little over three weeks." flash said.

"Couldn't we have driven a little closer?"

"No, they would have known we were coming if they didn't already and a vehicle would only draw attention and be a death trap…besides I said that you barely met the qualifications of joining me on this mission." flash threw the brown sack he had slung over his shoulder at Iida, the surprising weight of it causing Iida to nearly fall over as he caught it, he looked into it to see what it was to find blue collared clothing inside it was dark navy blue, he took one out and lifted it taking more effort than he thought he needed for some clothes.

"What is this?" Iida said as he took out what looked to be an armband that went over most of his arm.

"Weighted clothing, we will be training in our journey to the target. While I might not care if you died on this mission others might and I would like to save myself the headache. Your training starts once you put those on." Iida needed a moment to process all that flash just said, because it made him completely question about going on this mission with someone that did not care if he survived but as the car drove away he guessed that it was too late for regrets now. He began to disrobe before stopping and looking at flash.

"Could you turn around?" Iida asked, at the pro hero just staring at him. The hero rolled his eyes and did as asked turning around and waiting for the teen to put on the uniform, along with the long armbands, the sack came with a T-shirt, and long pants along with even boots, each piece of clothing weighed much more than he thought they would but he managed to finally complete putting everything on and discarding the bag.

"How…how much does this stuff weigh?" Iida asked, barely being able to stand up with the clothes on.

"I started you off with something light, in total the weighted clothes weigh 400 kilo." flash said casually. Iida was shocked by the assertion that this was somehow "light" to him but made no effort to waste energy on arguing with the hero on the subject.

"You will refrain from taking that clothing off until the mission is complete. Understood." flash said with a finality tone to his voice, Iida simply nodded his head in understanding.

"Your first test is to run 5 kilometers to that far rock tomb. I have marked it with my sword. Then return here and repeat the process. Do not use your ability to traverse this with your own power." This got a reaction from Iida.

"Surely you jest, without my quirk? That would take far too long with me encumbered like this" Iida argued

"Which is why you are doing it, you rely too much on your power which from my estimate only lasts a short time approximately 15 minutes so your opponent would simply have to outlast you to defeat you if you rely on that power to fight. It should be an additive bonus to your skills, not the entirety of your skills." flash reasoned before gesturing to the rock tomb from before. Iida took one exasperated sigh before nodding his head and running along towards the designated rock, hopefully he would be able to see the mark, he didn't remember seeing flash move that far away from him to even do such a thing but he didn't seem like the person to joke around with such talks so he did as instructed and after 15 exhausting minutes of running he finally made to the rock in question. The mark was the large rock being completely cut in half.

He started his run back towards flash taking another 15 minutes but the blonde waited for him in the same spot he had somehow materialized what seemed to be tea in his hands and was taking a sip by the time he returned.

"again ." was all flash said as he took what seemed to walk by and stopped approximately 100 meters from when they first arrived, which meant that he would have to complete this run approximately 50 times before they would be able to proceed to wherever it is they were headed.

"Sir, is this really necessary? Isn't our mission time sensitive?" Iida asked.

"No, again." was all flash said in response as he sat down using mostly his cape as a cushion to keep himself from touching the ground completely.

"You're smart enough to realize that I required you to do 50 laps which combined totals 250 km from both trips, this is mostly just to get you accustomed to the new weight so complaining now seems fairly premature of you." flash continued before gesturing him off with a shooing motion. Iida did as instructed he ran and ran continuously sometimes he would be able to dig deep and finish a lap in 20 minutes his body would pay for that however in future laps where he would take nearly twice as long as before. At the 20 lap mark he was restless lounges gasping for breath with every step he took his body sweating profusely in the heat compounded with his weighted clothes he couldn't run anymore even if flash threatened him to.

Flash wasn't completely unreasonable however seeing him in the state he was in offered him a break, it would only last 30 minutes however before he would demand that he get started again, Iida wanted to argue but at that point he would take what he could get. Iida went into his bag and pulled out some snacks and juice he had stored away and immediately began to chomp down in the grass. He didn't want to unpack any of his camping equipment that he brought with him as he assumed that flash actually wanted to make some progress towards their destination. The next couple of hours were completely tortuous even when asking flash for another break the hero refused him stating that he shouldn't have taken his break all at one time, how was he supposed to know that that was all he was going to get!? Iida thought but he didn't verbally voice his displeasure, only followed along as best as he could.

He began to feel overheated and stuffy. He couldn't feel his legs and he could hear his heart beating through his body. Eventually it became too much for him to take and he collapsed from exhaustion; he had only finished about 38 laps a total of 380 kilometers traveled just back and forth, by the time he came to it was the peak of morning, checking his phone it was 3am, he was unconscious for nearly 6 hours? He looked around for flash but couldn't see him anywhere, he then looked around for his backpack and found that it was being dragged off by some small critters. He reacted quickly, getting up and snatching his bag up into the air and scaring the small little animals off. Thankfully he made sure his bag was super secure other than some superficial scarring on the outside, the contents of the bag was completely fine at least he hoped.

Now as he finally got his bearings again he searched again for flash but no one was in sight he contemplated on what he should do at first he was worried that something may have happened when he was unconscious that something or someone may have attacked an flash left him their in the grass to take the battle away but nothing of the surrounding area indicted such conflicts. He finally found some clue upon what happened where the grass seemingly separated into a sorta of passage, Iida looked at the passage and hesitated it could be flash but he had no way to know for sure, it progressed farther than he could see and he couldn't make out flash's form but given the precision it would take to make this pathway he figured it had to be him, it couldn't be a trap since the perpetrator could have just attacked him when he was sleep. So he decided to follow the trail power walking down the lain, coming across numerous rocks that similarly had been cut in half like the one he used for his landmark which further energized him into believing that flash was the one that created this trail after a brief run of 15 minutes he finally saw flash white cape billowing in the distance, slicing his sword to in frow in the grass to create the path he found. He sped up his pace to catch up to him and got in front of the swordsman.

"You're awake." flash said casually

"I am and where are you going? Did something happen that caused you to leave me in the dirt?" Iida asked, beginning to look at their surroundings for any sign of battle again.

"No, you fell unconscious so I carried on towards the mission." flash said again with that calm collected tone of his, the response made Iida do a double take at the hero.

"Are you insinuating that you just left me there because I passed out!?" Iida yelled

"Yes." was all that flash replied with before moving on around the frozen teen, Iida shook his head then got in front of the hero again.

"What if I were attacked by something in my emancipated state I would have been easy prey for a predator, monster or who knows what! How could you be so careless?!" Iida said angry red eyes meeting cold indifferent blue eyes.

"If you failed to fight off some beast then you wouldn't have been on this quest to begin with." flash said coldly continuing to walk, it was a backwards compliment to be sure Iida thought but that did not just forgive him for such an inconceivable action. Flash pointed again towards a ridge line, again 5 kilometers away.

"Your next target lies the same distance that way, you failed before so you will continue from where you left off but at a slight defecate 10 of your previous laps will have to be redone again. ``Flash said in a monotone voice as he stopped moving again. Iida had half a mind to not follow through with this man after the stunt he pulled but he only gave a glare towards the hero and did as instructed he had done 38 laps but with this handicap he now had done only a little over half of what he needed to do, so he began again he thought more carefully of his break time this go around however and separated his thirty minutes into three separate 10 minute breaks to divide between 8 laps, doing things this way allowed him to better pace himself his legs still felt like jelly and by the time he did his final lap he fell to the ground tired it took him 5 hours to finish and now he had to walk all the way back towards flash as that was the direction they were headed in. he took a moment to grab his bag and drink some water as he sauntered over the 5 kilometer walk as flash waited there, he offered no remark of approval or appraisement only giving a slight nod of his head before carrying on through this barren open field.

Iida attempted to keep up with the blonde hero but after all that running the continued prospect of walking completely made his body begin to clamp up and drop like a sack of rocks towards the ground. Flash only took one quick look back before continuing forward, he began to swing his sword back and forth creating that similar pathway for him to follow just like he had done before and Iida took that to mean that he should be able to take his time and catch his breath which he did he took a solid 1 hour long break where he was able to finally able to fully reorganize himself and get the feeling in his legs again. He packed up his things and continued forward, he began to jog down the trail that flash made for him trying to catch up he finally was able to do so after 20 minutes. Their flash was just waiting for him to arrive, he was simply laying his back against a rock with his eyes closed. At first Iida assumed he was sleeping but as he drew closer his eyes slowly opened to stare right at him.

"It took you an hour to get here so for the next four you will be doing this next exercise." flash said calmly. Iida just facepalmed he was having it with this guy's challenges but just nodded for him to continue.

"You rely too much on your specialty with your kicks, you ignore your entire upper body in a fight leaving your attacks predictable and easy to read. Observe. " Flash remarked, Before he elbowed the rock that he was leaning on, completely shattering it and sending a burst of wind that billowed behind it. This shocked Iida to fully pay attention to what flash was saying.

"Even I must admit that without my sword Instakill, that my ability would slightly be diminished but it is by no means the only source of my ability, like you are with kicks without them it seems like you have nothing else, we will change that. Now you will punch that rock multiple times until it is destroyed. You have four hours before you have to run the same length again. " Flash said, pointing to a similar rock he was just leaning on.

Four hours to destroy that monolith with just his fist without his quirk no less? That seemed almost impossible but having just witnessed what flash did maybe the rocks were a lot more flimsy than their appearance would give them. So he was going to go into his bag and dig out his armor while he wasn't going to put the full thing on he was going to be safe and put on the arm portions to help better protect his hands.

"What do you think you're doing?" flash asked.

"Umm putting on some protection to not break my hands sir?" Iida said as a question, surely he wouldn't want him to punch solid stone with nothing but his hands right?

"No, barehanded." flash replied simply, ok so he did want him to break his hand Iida thought as he stopped digging into his bag for his armor, he dropped the bag and stepped up to the rock in question just like the others it was 10 ft high and 3ft wide, he hoped it was more fragile than it looked as he took a swing at the structure and pain immediately flashed through his feature as his mind just spammed the words no and nope over and over again as he held his hand in pain. The rock didn't even have a scratch on it, flash made it look so easy or in fact flash was just that strong Iida considered.

"Again, do not slow down, continue." Flash said so casually like punching stones was somehow easy and natural for him and not excruciatingly painful. He punched the rock again and again without getting any luck. He alternated between arms to save himself some of the pain. Unlike previously where flash was distant and didn't really offer much in terms of criticism or feedback but now was completely different he was intimately observing Iida's punching and technique offering his own improvements that can be made such as the direction of impact, when he should extend his elbow, the different types of strikes one should go for to inflict a certain type of damage, even down to how his fist should land against a target depending on the targets body type. He was so thorough in his remarks that Iida considered taking down notes to keep them in mind for later but flash stopped him saying that he should let his body remember. Whatever that meant, all the pointers in the world didn't make a difference in what he had to do the rock barely budged.

He made a few good impacts, being able to dent the thing with flash's advice but it looked like it showed no signs of breaking anytime soon. And as the four hours finally went up, flash gestured to the five kilometers, Iida just sighed and took a breath and began to run. Lucky he seemed to have mercy and only required him to run half the amount as last time but that still made things kinda difficult for him coming off his punching the stone, he eventually managed to be done as night fell both his legs and arms were on fire and he just managed to get his sleeping bag out so he could have some proper sleep. As morning came, flash was gone again as a pathway was made to lead the way to where he went. Iida guessed this was going to be an everyday occurrence then he thought as he made his way towards another clearing he found flash leaning against another rock just like before he only made a gesture towards another rock just like the one he was punching before this one was brand new however meaning all the progress he made previously as little as it were was reset. Iida could still feel that his knuckles were incredibly sore from the other day and now he had to do that all over again.

Just like the previous day he failed to break the rock in the time limit that flash set for him, which meant he had to run again, this routine constantly happened for the next couple of days which gave him very little time for breaks in between. His hands were shaky from no doubt the nerve damage they sustained in his time training with flash. He had gotten several texts from sato about what had occurred with todoroki and bakugo and how their teacher attacked them and probed their minds for information which lends credence to how flash was treating him currently but he didn't want his classmates to worry about him so he just replied that he was fine and that flash was treating him….fairly, he didn't like to lie it was unbecoming of a hero to do so he stretched the truth as best he could and it wasn't a lie once Iida would catch on to his terms when dealing with his training methods and strategies he didn't pass inconsistent judgment, every time he failed a task meant that he would have to endure an even harder task afterwards followed by more running.

By the weeks end Iida could see his results he was actually starting to be able to deform the rocks he was punching slightly and by the middle of the second week he was finally able to break the thing, not as wholly as flash demonstrated but he was able to cause enough destabilization in the pillars to cause it to topple over. Iida raised his bloody fist into the air and screamed. He did it, he actually did it.

"That's sufficient enough to be considered destroyed, now pick up the piece that fell and not let the piece touch the ground or your lap will not count. Flash said , earning a shocked look from Iida, his head switching back from flash and the stone that was on the ground, his hands still shook from the damage they sustained from just punching the stupid thing now he wanted him to lift this structure that is almost as tall as him and just lug it around? How could he possibly have any running posture while carrying that it probably weighs more than the suit he was wearing.

"H-how many laps." Iida remarked with hesitancy.

"Same as before, 25 laps the same distance. By my calculation the rock you made would weigh around 973kg." flash offered casually before pointing in the direction of the symbol he made. Iida looked at the ground before crawling over to the down rock. It was in the solid sheet of 10in thickness and about 5ft in length. He stood up and began to the giant monolith and struggled for a moment to grasp the thing, for a moment a memory flashed through his mind when he believed midoriya had lifted a similar object at the sports festival except he didn't have explosion to propel him forward and he couldn't use his quirk for this test. He finally managed to lift the rock and began to march his way forwards towards his goal he balanced the rock on his shoulder as he moved, due to having to keep the rock balanced he couldn't really move as fast as he would have liked, the rock essentially doubled his weight again, he made was able to perform 4 laps before it was simply to much he lost his grip on the rock before it tripped out of his hands and fell, forcing him to start over from scratch again. He cursed and tried doing the run multiple times holding the rock at different angles to try and mitigate some of the weight but nothing he did seemed to work. He would be able to perform some laps and then had to start over again because the bloody thing hit the ground.

His greatest source of anger was during one of the one time where he made 15 laps without it falling and due to some small squirrel getting in his way he dropped it, he never in his life had the urge to kill an animal as in that very moment but he calmed himself down, it was late at night and perhaps flash didn't see him drop the rock but that hope was dashed as flash was right back where he began when he started. He threw the rock on the ground in frustration and decided to just call it for the day he would accept whatever punishment flash would give him tomorrow for failing the task. Hopefully it wasn't too much. The next day came and just as before flash was nowhere to be found, he didn't know if flash watched over him through the night or that he just left immediately once he fell asleep so he made some traps around him just in case something would try and surprise him after disarming said traps he looked towards the lane that flash left in the field than back towards the rock he discarded on the ground and how flash operated so far and thought it would be best if he took the rock with him.

He struggled his way for 30 minutes carrying the rock down the path that flash left for him finding flash again waiting in the shade, he was curious if he used this time to sleep as he never actually saw the man take a nap before or even eat for that matter now that he thought about it. He sat the rock down which caused enough noise for flash to finally open his eyes to look at him, he took a brief glance at the rock in his position before looking back towards Iida. he gestured for the distance again.

"50 laps or (he gestured to another rock) destroy a second rock and do 25 laps." flash said simply and even at just the option made Iida's hands shiver and go cold he immediately took the first option. He wanted his hands to actually recover before starting to go punching stones again and essentially tripling his weight just for the option to half his run time did not seem like a worthwhile trade. After eating his breakfast he would finally get to it again. He had to take a moment to get the rock in the correct position so it wouldn't fall and once he deemed it properly secure he was off, he began at a pretty good pace faster than before and by the time night fell he was able to fully complete the set, he was extremely proud of himself, he was finally able to git rid of that stupid rock and finally take the rest of the day off not that there was much day left. Flash made no remark of him finishing but waited around. Iida created a fire next to the hero and offered him some of his food that he had in his bag but the hero declined the offer.

"So who is this target you're after?" Iida asked.

"Since you've progressed this far I guess it would be wise to tell you, his name is skilfish he's know as the king of human trafficking in the underworld. Flash remarked, nearly making Iida spit out the water he had in his mouth.

"Human trafficking!?" Iida remarked astonished, maybe him being flash's target wasn't such a bad thing after all Iida began to think, before shaking his head no he couldn't think like that no matter how awful someone was it wasn't up to them to decide whether someone should live or die, he learned this lesson before as a certain hero killer popped into his mind, god that bastard was able to run free again thanks to all for one while his brother was still paralyzed, just thinking about it made his blood boil.

"Yes, he's notorious for such crimes probably using the borders of U-city too transport slaves by boat to other cities around the continent. he holds an entire secret organization at his beck and call."

"Which is why you said that it could be dangerous for me." Iida said earning a nod in return, he wanted to point out that he himself was just one man and such overconfidence could lead him to his death in such a venture but decided to focus on more important matters.

"That mean he could have prisoner?" Iida inquired

"Potentially."

"If we find some we should prioritize safely evacuating-"

"No, I'm going to kill an annoyance in my side, nothing more ." flash cut Iida off, making the boy just stare wide mouthed at the hero well at the supposed hero.

"Aren't you a hero, don't the lives of those being trafficked mean anything to you?" Iida asked incredulous

"Not specifically. With skilfish gone the organization will slowly dissolve itself into nothing. The slaves will probably rebel and take action themselves in time." flash said so coldly and apathetically that it made Iida skin crawl. How could he just not care about the lives of possible prisoners and captives? Who the hell was he?

"Well I for one will not sit idly by and allow such atrocities to happen on my watch. If I find some captives I will rescue them and escort them away." Iida said with conviction staring into the cold blue eyes of flash who simply shrugged.

"Do whatever you like, just don't get in my way." flash remarked before walking away into the night Iida watched as he went and stared back into the fire, now the mission held more importance to him then before he needed to make sure anyone civilians he encounters makes it out alive which meant he needed the strength to protect them to do so. He put out the fire, set up his traps and then went to sleep, fully committed to trying his utmost in the training flash had for him tomorrow.

The day started out just like normal after having a light breakfast and getting his things together before lugging his rock with him towards the next new location, flash was there just standing in the middle of the field the rocks that had dotted the landscape previously became scarce, leaving only tall grass, flash seemed to had cleared a space for him to rest his things a point he would have found to be considerate if he didn't know better from the hero and true to his thoughts the space allocated for him was training, this time however his training was a bit more traditional than previously but the main focus of the exercise always revolved majorly around his arms and hands such as push ups two handed and one handed variants in the absence of traditional weights Flash would have him use the rock that he carried and use as makeshift dumbbell where he would perform dumbbell row and punch exercises, given the sheer size of the rock it proved incredibly difficult to balance fully but he managed to get through it well enough after a couple of drops. By far the hardest test flash had him do that day was the running again but unlike previously had had to perform the 5 kilometer run on his hands with his legs in the air, thankfully flash had some sort of a conscious for him as he didn't have to do 50 laps like that but 30 sighting his poor performance in the traditional training as the reason he didn't get 25 laps instead Iida didn't complain realizing it was pointless at this point besides he was determined to get better not only for this mission but for his classmates as well. Doing the 30 laps took the rest of the day and his hands were completely filthy but he accomplished the task and after directing his hands had a meal and called it a day.

The couple of days after was mostly the same after that, focusing on upper body and arm strengthening training his handstand runs increased in difficulty however when he had to balance the rock he kept with him with his feet while he walked which caused a number of difficulties and even some instances of it falling directly on his back, injuring him greatly. By the middle of the second week he didn't even feel the weighted clothes anymore it became incredibly apparent when he took the suit off for the first time once he found a good stream to bath and wash himself and his clothes getting rid of all the mud, grit , and blood that had built up on the clothes, it was a break day as flash called it where he had the day to himself so he could do whatever he wanted. He tuned back to what his classmates were doing and found that Mineta had been turned into a girl by some sort of monster, after some talking in the chat. He turned his phone back off and began to wonder where flash was.

He almost never saw the guy during these days other than in the beginning and he never saw the man eat or even bathe but his hair and clothes stayed almost completely in perfect condition which made him curious of how. Perhaps he sleeps during the day and stays up all night just in case of an attack or ambush? Iida wondered. He came back during nightfall just to make sure that Iida had put back on his weighted clothing and then left again shortly afterwards Iida was curious about what he had in store for him next, he did say it would take around three weeks to meet their target so if they remained on schedule then the battle was almost upon them.

He began his trek through the trail before the tall grass began to slowly disappear as he walked and he came upon a tree line that led into a forest Flash emerged from the forest and directly towards Iida before disappearing from sight and appearing next to the boy. He heard the hero say.

"You won't be needing that anymore." Before the rock he held in his hands simply shattered into tiny pieces, Iida almost had no time to react to the event. In one moment he was holding a rock almost as tall as himself and the next it's just gone, reduced to dust and small fragments that rained down on his shoes. After his shock of what just happened finished he looked to flash for what he had planned for him to do now.

"In the trees I have marked for you an obstacle course for you to run through using your ability. you possess average speed but you don't have much control over it, you won't be able to survive like that in this world. Flash said, earning a smile on Iida's face, it was finally time for him to use his quirk again so he could kick the dust out of his mufflers before the battle.

"Sir, can I put on my armor?" Iida asked, raising his hand and to his non-surprise flash shook his no, it was the expected answer but it never hurt to ask he thought. he gathered that flash was trying to teach him something with these lessons of his, every time he failed a task they would get harder which meant he didn't like failing and you shouldn't accept failure as an option. And the lack of protection made Iida more aware of his task and cautious in his training with flash, than previously but he was prepared now well that's what he thought he was as he blasted through the forest he was almost immediately met with a right turn that was made from overturn tree trunks he nearly slammed directly into the overturned tree but corrected his course just in time but ended up slamming into the next one which was a left form just a couple of feet later which at the speed he was moving at was basically instantaneously.

And just like all previous of flash's tests he needed to complete the route flawlessly each time he failed or hit the sides of the course he had to restart all over again. the only benefit to anything was that His quirk had a time limit so he needed to take a break to recover but that meant nothing to flash perspective however, he would instead have to take the path running on his hands instead of his legs pushing himself through the obstacle course this served a dual purpose of him being able to visually see the course and get a layout of how it functioned, he saw that it was wind of twist and turns with very few straight ways and he found that the distance being traveled was 15 kilometers longer than he was traditionally used to at this point. he finally managed one lap and by the time he was through he attempted the course again, using his boosters to go through the course he first thought about going slower but flash seemingly thought of that and made him go faster by personally throwing kunai at him as he ran to motivate him into moving at nearly his top speed but even with that flash could always nearly tag him like he was just standing still. He progressed slightly through the maze of structure making it about ⅓ of the way through before he called it for the night.

The next day there was no active trail to follow so he just decided to follow through the maze it was after all 15 kilometers long so he assumed flash wouldn't have bothered with creating something more elaborate for him to follow, Iida traveled to the end of the maze before he finally spotted flash waiting at the end, he pointed to another maze of scuffed trees and and branches. Iida prepared himself to get through the second maze.

"There are additional obstacles for failing the previous test." flash remarked.

"I'd expect nothing less from you." Iida replied before stepping up to the gate.

He wasn't kidding; this maze was incredibly different from the one previously; it included pitfalls, log traps, and even darts. He was surprised that flash was even able to create so many traps in such a little time and he was even more surprised by the fact that most of the traps did not directly hurt him that much the darts would always fall short and the logs were light enough for him to get right back up and try again but that didn't mean he was more successful he still failed and had to run the course on his hands which proved even more disastrous than previously. He was only able to finish half the laps he could previously before his engine reignited but that didn't deter him he continued to try wanting to succeed just once but it wasn't today.

But it was the day he wanted to see if he could catch flash off guard, the guy didn't sleep or eat but still retained his almost perfect appearance and stature. He was curious to find out why so he tried to set up something to convince the hero he was asleep using his luggage he placed inside of his sleeping bag so he could follow the hero-.

"If you ever hope to trick someone with such a childish trick, you should at least spare a moment of thought to consider the height discrepancy between you and your luggage and the fact that no human remains are that still in one's sleep." flash whispered from behind Iida making the teen jump up from his hiding place.

"Flash , sir ugh…I was just curious where you went during the night." Iida said with a nervous chuckle.

"Is that all? I simply go to a local hotel to sleep, I will not dirty myself by living in the woods like some animal." he said so casually, taking Iida out for a moment he routinely just leaves him, while he lives luxuriously in some hotel?

"Why do I have to live in the woods then?" Iida asked

"The hotel is some 400 kilometers away, the time it takes for you to travel that distance isn't an issue but the terrain does not favor your straight forward style which is why I'm helping you get rid of such a weakness." Flash replied calmly.

"I guess that makes sense,'' Iida Said calmly. Flash only gave a slight nod of the head and was off just like that out of thin air iida made an attempt to follow behind the blonde hero but he was out of his sight in no time. That man was extremely fast, he couldn't imagine what he would do with that speed. Suddenly a loud thump was heard through the quiet forest. Iida concerned for the noise looked around in the dark before accidentally kicking something on the ground in the bushes, he moved the thing with his foot somewhat to get a feel for it before getting some light to shine through, what he saw freaked him out jumping backwards before heading back to his luggage and grabbing a flashlight he shined it over to the thing he believed he saw and no doubt lying there emotionless and a large cut across his body was a man, he was dressed up in some sort of pseudo ninja gear combined with fisherman wear. He was stunned by the dead body and nearly puked right there. He called into the night and began to grow hesitant and checked his surroundings, could flash have done that? Were they being watched the entire time? Iida quickly packed up his things and decided to move camp elsewhere just in case that man had some friends making sure to subtly mark trees so he could find his way back. They were likely spies for this skilfish guy and given that they were getting close to the hideout he should have expected things like this to occur.

Iida walked a kilometer away and off the track they were traditionally headed in before finally calling it for the night, making sure to set up some alarms around himself and camouflaging where he was sleeping. By morning woke up and continued on forwards checking his surroundings and making sure he wasn't being followed by anyone by the time he met flash it was mid-day already.

"You look disheveled." flash said with a calm voice

"You killed that person the other day didn't you?" Iida accused.

"Yes, what of it." flash said casually checking his sword.

"Did you know he was there? Do you think there were others with him?" Iida asked, looking around the trees around him again.

"Calm down, that should be the last one for the rest of our travels." flash replied.

"Last one? There were multiple!?" Iida asked with shock.

"Yes, I believe that was the 12th scout now? They have been attempting to track us since the week began." Flash said casually , Iida took a threatening step towards the hero.

"And you didn't have any thoughts about telling me!?" Iida yelled

"And how can you be so sure? There won't be others?" Iida demanded, flash simply chucked a piece of paper he got out of his pocket.

"That's why." Iida read the paper it was written in ink and had some blood stain on it no doubt from the man back in the forest, the message was essentially just a taunt to lure flash in to the facility, this skilfish guy said that there would be no more tricks and that he will await him with his full armory at his base.

"You believe this? He could be lying." Iida argued.

"He has no reason to lie about this. He's getting scared, he would dispatch his army to me if he believed that they could kill me but he wants the advantage of home terrain, like that will make much of a difference." Flash said offhandedly.

"How can you be so confident about this?" Iida finally asked if he was acting like this would be a walk in the park like the mission held no sense of danger for him.

"Because none of them compare to where I've come from." flash said, piquing Iida's interest about what he meant but he just gestured to another maze that Iida had to run in, he hesitated for a moment before doing as instructed.

The third week went by he was only able to complete the maze once and he felt like he truly didn't master it but it was more of a fluke but flash quickly made him move on from such training this time instead focusing on his reflexes and combat skills for the remainder of his time training before they finally got to the location, they were on a hill that overlooked a small village, directly below them was a rice paddy field as he observed the village he saw no movements or signs of life anywhere but that could just bee them lying in wait like they said they were going to do . Iida felt happy that he was finally able to wear his armor again. It felt unnatural wearing something so light compared to his weighted clothes.

"So what is our plan?" Iida asked

"Attack." was all flash replied with before getting up and jumping off the cliff, Iida reached a hand out to stop him but it was too late.

The hero had already begun to slide down the cliff. Towards the muddy walkway, just as he landed and started to make his way into the the traditional village, Iida noticed the bushes of the rice fields begin to shift and move, Iida yelled a warning as he to made his way down the hill but it was too late the several assailants jumped out of the water towards the flash, Iida counted at least a dozen men prepping different types of weapons to attack the blonde hero who seemed undeterred as he just continued to walk forward in the next blink of an eye, the men were all flailing backwards through the air blood spurting out of wounds on their chest, some of their legs and and arms being cut off completely and flying in a different direction. The blood beginning to change the muddy water red as flash continued, Iida was so stunned by the incident that he stopped moving forward and just took in the gore of his surroundings before looking back to flash who continued to walk forward uncaring of the blood he shed. then the blonde hero simply disappeared from his sight again and all hell broke loose.

Iida heard the alarms blaring combined with screams of anger and pain rain forth from the village, he shook himself free of his stupor taking one last look at the bodies in the rice field before proceeding forwards he ran past numerous bodies as he ran through the village, some missing pieces of their arms or some even their entire heads missing he tried his best to block it all out, his goals was to find any captives and get them to safety. Iida began opening up door after door to numerous buildings finding either nothing or more dead bodies. Flash didn't care if the targets were male or female; he killed them all the same. He only hoped that they were all combatants at least.

He opened another door and he finally found what he sought as he slammed open the door and what he saw disgusted him. The people were all gathered in a huge cage, they're guardian lay dead in his chair, his neck slit open and leaking blood onto the ground. Iida shook his head the least flash could have done was free these people he looked around towards the cage and counted around 30 people most adults but a few kids as well all of their clothes were horribly scarred and roughly stitched back together and was marked with various fluids such as blood and other excretion's Iida noted he approached the cage slowly trying to ensure the people inside that he meant no harm and that he was their to save them. Seeing that cage was still locked he looked over the corpse again finding the keys and unlocking the door, he told the people inside to make their way into the rice paddy fields and into the tree line most of them looked at him skeptically before some of the men took hesitant steps towards the gate and then ran out and into the village at large they're courage slowly inspired the others some of the more level headed ones and began to file out of the cage thanking him for the rescue.

Then came the last person, Iida couldn't properly see what the person looked like as they were draped over with a cloth concealing their identity, as they neared the gate they collapsed into his arms.

"Thank…you…thank you…oh god your my savior." the person said the voice indicating it was a girl but he wasn't falling for the charade, just as the girl pulled her arm back and shoved it forward to stab the hidden blade she had on him, his legs fired up into action kicking the nife clear and knocking the girl back a couple of feet, she discarded the disguise and look at him with an sadistic grin.

"Aww what gave me away?" she said almost sarcastically.

"You're the only one that went out of your way to conceal yourself, and your hands don't show the harshness the other did, and the ultimate give away was how scared the others were to be around you." Iida remarked looking at the girl through his helmet.

.

"Well that's too bad, I thought I had my act down packed to, well…"Savior" care for a dance." the girl said brandishing more knives before throwing them at Iida he quickly avoided the thrown blades but they were just a screen for the girl to close the distance on him but she wasn't fast enough her thrusting attack had to be turned into a block as Iida performed a heavy roundhouse kick that broke the knives in the girls hands before she was pushed away, she recovered performing a flip in mid air to land on her feet again. She laughed before lunging back at Iida who recoiled backwards avoiding the strike he didn't want to fight in the enclosed cage with someone wielding blades.

The girl launched at him again two more blades coming into her hands as she tried to cut him, Iida blocked and deflected with his forearms armor before launching another snap kick up at the girl but she was able to avoid the blow by cartwheeling away. Iida tried to use his speed to blitz the girl and hit her with a side kick but she ducked the blow and rolled away. Iida quickly spent and knocked more flying knives out of the air with a kick. Before he could react the girl charged at him again getting in between his legs and striking upwards towards his neck with a knife he turned his face sideways narrowly avoiding the blow, the knife scraping off the side of his helmet leaving a mark and at the same time he prepared a counter punch that struck the girl dead center in the face sending her skidding backwards on her knees she rubbed the blood from her nose before looking back up only seeing empty air as a slam to the back of her head forced it to impact the ground. Knocking her out cold.

Iida didn't know what to do with her at this point he couldn't just leave her here but he couldn't just drag an enemy along with him and he didn't have any rope to tie her up either. He looked around for a second trying to find something that could hold her but he was distracted by three people that entered back into the building.

"Sir….please….my sister." a little boy said

"And my mom." a little girl asked.

"And my brother. They took them away." an older women said

Iida immediately turned his attention to the new arrivals asking them to lead him to them. He would find a place for the girl later, after everyone else they made suffer was safe. He exited the building letting the three lead the way towards a particular building, this one was different from the rest. It was more metallic than the other structures, but what made him pause was the monsterized sign on the building.

"Please I know that you're a hero but please….that's our family in there maybe we can talk to them they may not need to die." the woman said with tears in her eyes. The other kids say smiler things full on crying. Iida looked at the three of them, he…really didn't know anything about monsterfication. He read some stuff about it from the association book he read but he didn't know if that information was truly trustworthy.

"I'll try my best but just know they may not be the same person anymore." Iida said as he opened the door and walked in, unlike the human cage these were separated into stalls with giant metal doors separated in front of the hallway, only three of the seven stalls were occupied with 6 glowing red buttons, which he assumed were the three prisoners. He approached one stall and looked over the mechanism and understood that to unlock all he had to do was set both sides of the door to green. He did so before wrenching the door open a big creature came rushing out at him he put his guard up but was still knocked off his feet, as teeth snapped in front of his face the creature was some type of snake human hybrid, it wrapped its body around Iida and began to suffocate him.

"You will take me to see my brother!" the snake girl hiss out, tightening his body even harder. Iida couldn't speak, his lungs were compressed as more and more air was forced out.

"Sister!" The voice of the young boy spared Iida a horrible death as the creature's body suddenly stopped, allowing him to draw some breath. The monster quickly left him slithered over to the sound of the voice scooping up her small brother in her arms and cuddling him. Iida got up looking at the act before the snake girl noticed and was about to attack him again but the little boy stopped her telling her that he saved them. And after a moment of resistance the girl relaxed and reluctantly thanked Iida for saving her brother. Iida replied that it was his job as a hero to save people and now he had a different thought on how to approach these captives he took the people that the monster would know to help cox them out in a more peaceful manner. The little girl's brother was about her age and he had a tail along with horns. The older girl's mother seemed entirely human but he couldn't get this eerie feeling coming from her, maybe it was her face even though he had to admit it was a bit unsightly. Maybe that was due to monsterizing? He pondered but that was for another matter, he organized them and after ensuring that no one else was in the little camp sent them off towards where the other went.

Iida then got an idea , he went back into the human building and grabbed the unconscious girl before throwing her in one of the stalls, hopefully the association will deal with her when they get here. Speaking of the association he should call for reinforcements. He was sure that they put their number in their phone when they confiscated them. And to his luck they did. He called and radioed in for some assistance for 36 people and told them to use his phone for their location and the association will be there within the hour. An hour he thought they really could have just got here sooner he thought. As he began to make his way towards the civilians before continuing to hear screams coming from the main building no doubt flash was there at this point if the dead guards that littered the stairs was of any indication. He contemplated before deciding to go inside just in case flash needs help, countless hallways and countless bodies littered the halls leading up to a large doorway, he burst it open just in time to see a flash of silver cross his vision, he was suddenly pushed out of the way as he heard flash utter the words Flashy slash and the entire top of the building began to shift and slowly slide off revealing the sky, Iida was shocked by the sheer display.

Before turning his look down towards flash who was kneeling on the ground seemingly clutching something in his hands.

"Flash, are you alright?" Iida asked beginning to walk up to the ninja, he looked at him closely not seeing any blood but something was clutched in his hands. Something golden was that his hair? He thought.

"What…are you doing here?" Flash said with a cold almost heartless voice as he looked up at the teen, the stare he gave him was full of unresolved anger and hate, it made Iida nearly fall backwards on his but.

"I…I was just coming to help you…and …I …I found and freed some of the prisoners." Iida stuttered out taking another step back as if flash was going to attack him at any given moment, flash let whatever he was holding in his hand fall to the ground and he was right it was piece of his hair a couple of cm if he had to guess and as the hair landed on the ground flash let out a large breath and seemingly calm down before speaking to the hero.

"Very well, I assumed you notified the association?" Iida nodded, still scared to speak.

"The mission is accomplished." was all flash said walking away towards the doors he just came in from he noticeably bumped into Iida as he left and Iida took in the carnage before him a large man was completely eviscerated, attached to his hands were fishing hooks attach to some strange wire, that must have been the flash of silver he saw. He exited the building and approached where the civilians were he noticed that they kept a large distance away from the monsterized individuals as well. The association soon arrived and after a brief skirmish of what to do with the monsters and separating them from their human family Iida eventually was able to get everything squared away. Flash and Iida left in a helicopter while the others were on their own. Iida took one last look at the destroyed village and realized that flash wasn't bluffing that he could have done this himself, he turned to look at the man only to see that he was being glared at for a moment before the hero turned away.

Monsters in the snow: Stitch, Darkshine, Zombieman, Child emperor, metal bat

Sitch was looking at the line up in front of him in the S-class meeting room. He didn't like assigning so many S-class to a mission but the matter was urgent.

"Greetings to you all, I will try and make this brief, we have amazon for you all to exterminate a monster we named Bruinado. It is an above demon level monster that was found in the mountains of Z-city." stitch said.

"You are dispatching 4 S-class heroes to deal with just one demon level monster?" zombie man asked confused

"As clever as ever zombieman but not quite, while we believe that this Bruinado is the strongest monster in the area we have reports that many monsters have joined under it like some sort of society or hierarchy." stitch replied.

"What, like monsters roaming in packs or something?" metal bat simplified

"Exactly metal bat, this pack we presume has this monster as the leader. Hopefully if you eliminate it, the rest will scatter bonus points if you kill the rest as well." stitch said.

" Do we have to take the teens?" child emperor asked

"Your choice." Sitch replied

"Well I'm game, it's been a long time since I was able to test my muscles amongst the elements." darkshine replied

"I'm always game for whacking monsters." metal bat confirmed

"I'll lead the team as they'll probably need it." the child emperor said offhandedly.

"Might as well don't need to be the only one missing out." zombieman replied

"Great the mission will begin in a few days, pack for a cold climate." Sitch said dismissing the S-class heroes.

with this story I wanted to give a brief explanation to lord great white , he claimed to be the last of the seafolk and it always piqued my interest on how that actually happened I highly doubt there were only like 8 of them in existence so combining that with the back story of the sunblade we got at least my fanon answer. Flash and Iida story is similar giving some life to a throw away line he had with the ninja and trying to realize that, and I do find it interesting that in a place like OPM slavery and trafficking's can exist when monetarization can take place in anyone.

Month 2 officially begins next chapter, wooohooo!