Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia, Overlord, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
The Sorcerer Hero: Deku
Chapter twenty-nine: Festivities with friends
Gentle Criminal and La Brava, to an even mix of relief and surprise, were not killed. Instead, the man who can create Black Paladins, Ainz, had decided to make them swear themselves to him, pledging their loyalty to him. He apparently saw use in Gentle's record of carrying out crimes that he has La Brava film and post on the internet; Ainz can use such tactics against businesses that had struck a nerve with him.
Long story short, Gentle would be allowed to do as he had been doing, but now couldn't carry out crimes against people and places that Ainz said are off limits.
La Brava had also proven to have some value; she was quite the tech wiz, and not just managing the filming and uploading of Gentle's crimes. Ainz had some tech experts in the second New World among the lesser grunts of the Shie Hassaikai, but none were as good as La Brava. He even had La Brava do a little 'field test' against a party in the second New World to see how good her skills were. La Brava, after completing the task, asked why she was made to do something so easy.
If any of Ainz's top subordinates from Nazarick had heard such attitude from La Brava aimed at Ainz, they'd of killed her on the spot for it. But Ainz was actually amused enough to laugh a bit at it, partly because it gave him the feeling that with La Brava, he can do some effective frying against the big fish that he intends to go after eventually. Despite the scary recruitment effort done to get them, Gentle and La Brava were now a part of Team Ainz.
A team neither planned on betraying, given Ainz can make Black Paladins.
Ainz still had to allow Gentle to attempt to infiltrate U.A., given he'd already pledged to what viewers he had that he'd try to do so. But it had to be done earlier than during the school's festival, and although Gentle and La Brava technically succeeded, they were caught in the process by a green haired student who immediately knocked them out and caught them. The student in question was praised for his ability to take initiative in defending U.A. from invading villains.
Gentle and La Brava were rescued from custody before they could be sent anywhere, and said springing from custody painted the police and several lesser pro heroes in a bad light as all of that business had gone down on their watch. Although Gentle had no video to post of his success in infiltrating U.A., word of his success was spread via the news. His viewers got the idea of what he did, and he actually gained some positive renown for actually getting into U.A.
...
"Yes, I've a passing familiarity with the boy who stopped you and your accomplice," Ainz in his usual illusion said to Gentle after getting him and La Brava back to the League of Villains mansion in the forest, "He is one that I shall deal with personally. Until then, don't even try to confront him."
"Respectfully, I wouldn't want to try anyway, even if you weren't barring me from doing so," Gentle replied, "I wasn't expecting such power from a boy his age. U.A. truly is the top heroics academy in Japan, if they can produce such students."
Ainz nodded in understanding; his acting against Gentle and La Brava while in his guise as Izuku Midoriya had been sufficient to convince Gentle from trying to go after the green haired boy. "Now Gentle," Ainz began, "I have your next target to carry out your next act out against." Ainz handed him an index card on which an address and the name of a business was written. It was a small, family owned store that irked Ainz personally because the patriarch of the family that owned it was very vocal against U.A., only ever saying bad things about it.
Gentle did not know why Ainz was setting him against that small family owned store, did not know about the personal beef that Ainz had with the patriarch of the family that owned and ran it. All that Gentle knew was that the family owned store was the next location of a crime he'd carry out and have La Brava film and upload onto the internet later. Gentle could only hope that he'd do a proper job of carrying out Ainz's will.
He was a bit worried about what Ainz would do if he failed.
Despite the mild hiccup with a villain technically getting onto U.A. grounds, the school festival went on without a hitch, just with amped up security. Every class had been able to wow, and the message of the play Class 1-A threw was an inspirational piece that reminded pro heroes who heard of it to not give in to any manner of temptation. That play was especially popular as Izuku Midoriya, the student who caught the villains that infiltrated U.A., played the hero of the play's story.
Ainz's character was shown going down into Hell, overcame seven demons each representing a different one of the deadly sins, and rescue someone before getting the both of them out of Hell. Ainz himself wasn't sure of playing the role of the hero (he was planning on recommending Tenya for that honor), but Ochaco and some of the others insisted given that Ainz was the biggest name that Class 1-A had to offer.
Overall, the school festival was a rousing success. And U.A. remained a beacon of inspiration in Japan as they have proven to be capable of dealing with whatever any villain attempts on them. Things seemed to be going well for Japanese hero society as a whole. But not everything was all squeaky clean, as the students of Class 1-A were going to find out one day near when November began drawing to a close.
...
"Kota is missing?!"
The students of Class 1-A were shocked by a visit from the Wild, Wild Pussycats near the end of November; time really does fly. But they were further shocked when Mandalay revealed that Kota had gone missing. "He left a note saying he was going to find where his parents' killer had gone off to," Mandalay said, worry in her tone and expression, "He even left his favorite hat behind. He said that leaving his hat behind is why he'll succeed in finding who he's looking for and come back after he takes something from said killer."
"Do you have any idea where Kota may have gone off to?" Aizawa asked, "Because a kid his age going off on a quest for revenge can't end well, especially since he's gunning for Muscular from the sounds of it."
Mandalay gently shook her head in the negative. "I have no clue where he is, no clue where to start."
Turning to look at Tsuyu, Ashido said, "Hey Asui, speaking of young kids, do you know how your little siblings are doing?"
"I haven't spoken with my family for a while due to how busy we've been as of late," Tsuyu replied, "So I have no idea kero. But last I heard from my family, Satsuki and Samidare are both fine."
"I don't think either of them have a reason to seek revenge unlike Kota, so we ought to count that as a blessing," Ochaco remarked.
"It's sad that Kota is missing," Pixie-Bob said, "Even though he's not fond of pro heroes all that much, he still enjoys watching the televised broadcasting of the Hero Billboard Charts JP. He's watched every one since he was old enough to do so, according to Mandalay."
"Oh!" Dark Shadow said as he was popped out of and hanging next to Tokoyami, "The next one is gonna air tomorrow! Who do you think will be the number one hero?"
"My dad, no doubt," Todoroki said, sounding and looking not all that amused by the idea, "He's been clamoring for the title of Japan's number one hero since before I was born, and now he's finally going to get what he wants."
Folding his arms over his chest, Sato said with a grim expression, "A lot of top name heroes have been killed as of late, thanks to those Black Paladins and the other undead looking quirk forged monsters that the League of Villains have at their beck and call. The ones still alive and able to serve as pro heroes have a lot of weight to pull."
Pounding a hand into his fist, Bakugo said, "That's all the more reason for us to hurry the hell up and get out there as pro heroes! We're needed in the field, damn it!"
"An excellent rallying cry, Kacchan," Ainz remarked, making Bakugo and the others turn to face him, "A lot of hero effort will be needed to fight those monsters. But not ALL hero effort ought to be focused on that. There are other things heroes ought to have a hand in." Turning to look at the Wild, Wild Pussycats, Ainz went on, "Such as finding missing children."
Mandalay let out a small but sincere touched smile. "Thanks, Midoriya."
"I believe that when we find him," Ainz went on, "Not if, when, and we will be finding him alive and well, after we explain things to him and scold him a bit for running off for revenge, we ought to treat him because he's a young child who's confused and upset. What's Kota's favorite food?"
"Chicken nuggets," Mandalay replied.
"Heh, a typical favorite food for squirts like the kid," Bakugo remarked, amused by the answer that Mandalay gave.
"Then I suggest that we throw a chicken nugget banquet for Kota when we bring him back safely," Ainz recommended.
"Dude, we better hurry up and find Kota then," Kaminari said, "Because a chicken nugget banquet sounds friggin' awesome." The rest of Class 1-A all shared a good laugh, and spirits were raised a bit higher then they were at previously. Everyone felt that things were going to be turning out just fine and dandy.
...Ainz felt that way especially so.
The next day, the Hero Billboard Charts JP dropped. To a lack of surprise to the Class 1-A students, Todoroki's dad Endeavor was officially ranked as the number one hero in Japan. Hawks follwed at number two, and surprisingly it was Edgeshot who was voted as the number three hero while Best Jeanist was the number four hero. Best Jeanist had a lot going for him, so to see him not rank up was a rather big surprise.
Ryukyu pulled another surprise by being ranked as the number five hero, while Mirko was the number six. People were NOT expecting the Dragon Hero to surpass the Rabbit Hero in the rankings, but Ryukyu had proven useful, especially as she is credited for training the hero student that had vanquished multiple Black Paladins. Mirko vowed that she'd kill the first Black Paladin that she came across in the field.
The next heroes in the latest top ten were Shishido at the number seven spot, Tenya's brother Tensei aka Ingenium at the number eight spot, the Magic Hero Majestic at the number nine spot, and Fat Gum at the number ten spot. Mt. Lady was the number eleven hero; not in the top ten, but given how recently her pro hero career started, being at or around the number eleven spot this soon was one hell of an accomplishment.
Near the end of the part of the ceremony ringing in the new top ten, Endeavor as the new number one hero gave a short speech that was just him saying, "Just watch me." It excited the audience a good deal, the short but sweet message that their new number one hero had given.
...
It certainly made Hawks excited as he met up with Endeavor backstage after the ceremony, while Endeavor was talking to Majestic. "You sure know how to send chills down the spines of others, Endeavor-san," Hawks said, "That line of yours, 'just watch me', made me shiver!"
"Yeah, I felt the same way," Majestic said.
Arching a wry eyebrow at Hawks, Endeavor said, "You're being awfully chummy, Hawks."
Getting a bit more serious, Hawks said, "That's because there's been a sighting of a more advanced breed of Nomu in my usual stomping grounds of Fukuoka," Hawks said, "I'd really like it if I had the number one hero in Japan to back me up. There's this chill restaurant where we can discuss things privately while we have lunch. Oh, Majestic can come too if he wants, another fellow top tenner can up our odds if we do find the Nomu."
"Well those Nomus are rather threatening," Majestic said, "With some I heard being comparable to the Black Paladins. Count me in."
"Great!" Hawks said, "Oh, let's avoid telling other heroes about it, we still technically have no clue yet if there even IS a Nomu, we can't go and worry others for nothing.
"Fair enough," Endeavor replied with a nod, and thus the lunch meeting was set. Endeavor hoped that the food at least would be good.
The next day, Endeavor and Majestic met Hawks at the restaurant in Fukuoka, a chill place located on a high floor of a tall building. As the food they had grilled on the mini grill in their table, Hawks and Majestic talked about how, on the way to the restaurant, they stopped a nudist from showing his glory as well as save a dog from getting hit by a truck and help an old lady.
Now they were in their private dining room, letting their food cook on the grill in their table. "So aside from the Nomus," Hawks began, "The League of Villains have a variety of quirk forged monsters at their beck and call, all of which resemble kinds of undead monsters in modern pop culture. There's ones who look like simple skeletons, simple zombies, skeletons in varying degrees of armor, the Black Paladins, and now a vampire."
"The one that All Might let get away," Endeavor scowled.
"I got it that blunt force strikes are effective on at least the simple skeletons," Majestic said, "Maybe they'd work on the armored skeletons if their helmets are yanked off. But let's try avoiding yanking off a Black Paladin's helmet."
"There's a grand total of four persons confirmed to have killed Black Paladins," Hawks said, "All Might who is retired and effectively powerless now, a student at U.A. who's still a first year, Fat Gum who needs to unleash a lot of kinetic energy he's stored also he'll be utterly useless afterwards, and you Endeavor-san. You're the best bet as you can take out a few before needing to cool off."
"Do we have any information on the vampire quirk forged monster?" Majestic asked.
Taking a piece of meat that was grilling, Hawks said, "All Might saw her display multiple quirks, such as teleportation and conjuring a doppelganger. She also wears red armor with white feathery wings on the back, and she wields a lance like weapon."
"She and All Might fought to a draw," Endeavor said, "And All Might before his retirement was able to vanquish even Black Paladins. That tells me that the vampire is far stronger than the Black Paladins, so we ought to make finding her our number one priority."
"As she fled from the scene of the raid on the Shie Hassaikai compound," Hawks began, "She gave her name as Honyopenyoko. At least we have a name to pin to her."
"Yeah, but how do we get a hold of her?" Majestic asked, "Much less combat her. She fought All Might, when he still had power mind you, to a draw and was able to flee. Not even the big bad villain from the Battle of Kamino Ward could stand up to All Might before he died, and yet Honyopenyoko was able to fight All Might to a draw and still be in good enough shape to flee afterwards."
"Maybe we can discuss that," Endeavor began as he and the others all immediately noticed something getting close to their window from outside, "After we have taken care of our uninvited guests that I see coming."
"Yeah, I'm seeing them as well," Hawks replied as Majestic nodded in agreement.
A server lady came in at that moment, unaware of what's about to happen. "Do you men need anything else?" asked the server, "I can bring more-"
"MA'AM GET DOWN!" Majestic yelled as he quickly tackled the server lady to the floor, covering her right when something crashed through the window. Endeavor and Hawks were already standing ready, and Majestic sent the server lady out to find and take cover so he can join Endeavor and Hawks in combating the rude guests. However, what the men saw was not quite what any of them could have expected.
Dabi, the leader of the League of Villains, was riding on the back of a winged Nomu. Dabi's second in command, Spinner, rode on the back of another winged nomu but it looked lessed advanced than the one Dabi rode. "Well now!" Dabi said in clearly sarcastic cheerful surprise, "What do we have here but the new number one hero in Japan?"
"Dabi!" Endeavor barked, "You have a lot of nerve! You and your right hand man showing up on flying nomus!"
"Yeah!" Hawks said, looking a bit surprised, "Just what are you up to?"
Shrugging, Dabi said, "I'm here to run a field test, and using the newly minted number one hero as a means to measure progress sounds like a pretty good idea!"
"Let me guess," Majestic said, "You're gonna have your nomus fight us."
"No, we're rides for Dabi and his right hand man," said the nomu that Spinner was riding.
"Great, they can talk now," Majestic said dryly.
Gently shaking his head, Dabi said, "That's besides the point." To the three present pro heroes, Dabi went on, "Now luckily for us, there's three of you, three of the boys who needs testing, and three of the girls who needs testing. I'll let you pick, Endeavor! Will you and your buddies there want to fight the boys or the girls? If you don't pick within ten seconds or any of you heroes tries anything else, I'll assume you guys wanna fight all six of my new big bodyguards at once! Imagine the chaos and vast destruction all six of them can unleash here in a densely populated area!"
Endeavor, Hawks, and Majestic all looked alarmed, none of them knowing the exact nature of Dabi's threat. "Endeavor, make a choice now," Hawks said, "Majestic and I will back you regardless." The Magic Hero nodded in agreement.
Growling a bit, Endeavor turned to look at Dabi and Spinner on their flying nomus. "...Fine. We'll fight your female bodyguards."
"Ooh, good choice actually," Dabi said, "One of them is better in the daytime hours, and a fair chunk of the day has already gone so her peak performance for today is on a time limit. The girls will be easier for you to deal with." Dabi then pulled out some item that Endeavor, Hawks, and Majestic were not able to see, but they figured it was a communication device of some kind as Dabi said into his hand that held it, "Please send in Nekohime, Usagi, and Frieren to my location."
Down below on the ground, giant portals of black swirling energy appeared. Three in total, and out of them stepped one being each. Endeavor, Majestic, and (especially) Hawks all looked shocked beyond all belief as they saw three giants all step out of the portal, their very appearances in the city already sending citizens into a panic.
The first giantess had a golden steel transformation quirk active that made her solid metal with a golden coloration, she had a pair of lyre shaped horns growing out of her head and had hooved feet as opposed to having regular human, long pointed ears, her hair seemed two toned with one half being darker gold, and she wore a long-sleeved shirt, a pair of shorts, and a pair of tights under the shorts (her clothes were all transformed with her due to the special material that they were made from), and she was immensely fat.
The second giantess was steel gray in color due to being transformed with a similar metal quirk, but she had a fine and slender form compared to her gold, obese counterpart. The second giantess had her hair pulled back in twin pigtails that were spiked at the ends, although she had two hair antenna sticking out over her forehead. She wore a sleeveless top, shorts, socks, and shoes that were all transformed with her. She also had four arms as opposed to two and her ears were long and rabbit like comparable to Mirko.
The third giantess had a rocky transformation quirk active as opposed to the metallic ones the first two gaintesses have active. She was also pink in coloration, but it didn't extend to her clothing which transformed with her Gigantification. The third giantess wore a light blue sleeveless shirt, tan shorts, blue socks, and red shoes. The third giantess's hair, skin, cat like ears, and cat like tail were all pink, but she had a pair of yellow horns growing out of her forehead. The third giantess, like the second one, had a slender build.
The metallic giantesses were estimated to be two-thousand centimeters tall while the pink rocky one was estimated to be two-thousand five-hundred centimeters tall. Smirking in amusement, Dabi said to the heroes, "Well, there's the girls, ready to fight you."
"The golden one is Frieren the Magic Collecting Steed," Spinner said, "The steel gray one is Usagi the Rabbit-Earred Giantess, and the pink rocky one is Nekohime the Sun-Hunting Feline Beast. You guys had just challenged a trio of JMMORPG world bosses. Have fun, Dabi and I will be watching."
Dabi and Spinner flew away on their flying nomus, right when the trio of giantesses down below began to attack buildings at random, with Nekohime spraying a blast of acid from her mouth on a row of single story buildings across the street from the building that Endeavor was in with Hawks and Majestic. "Shit!" Endeavor swore, "We need to stop them!"
"Given what we're dealing with here, back-up is bound to arrive!" Hawks said as he and the others flew out to fight the giantesses; Hawks flew with his wings, Endeavor flew with his fire he pumped from his feet, and Majestic flew on a disk he conjured with his quirk. Endeavor flew on in to fight Nekohime, whereas Hawks flew in to fight Usagi, and Majestic flew in to fight Frieren.
Hawks fired some feathers to try and get Usagi's attention, although she turned as soon as the attack was fired, as if she heard it coming among the other noises going on. The attack did nothing to the Rabbit-Earred Giantess, who still swung all four of her fists at Hawks. All four of which grew immensely large, became encased in spheres of rainbow colored energy, and the arms spun at speeds Hawks didn't think were possible.
Hawks barely had time to dodge, but Usagi's attack went on to strike the building behind Hawks, wrecking it up terribly. Hawks was clearly alarmed; each of the giantesses clearly had multiple quirks, and Usagi was using a lot of them in combination very well. He feared what the other two giantesses had, and there was still 'the boys' who Dabi mentioned; what were they like, what could they pull off? Dabi was playing to win here obviously.
Majestic as he fought Frieren struggled just to avoid being killed instantly. He saw it as the golden giantess used a quirk to telekinestically control loads of debris and sending it all flying at him. It took everything Majestic had just to block as much as possible with as many disks as he was able to conjure. He was able protect himself and the area immediately around him, but beyond a certain radius the cast debris flew into buildings and wrecked them up badly.
Frieren then telekinetically lifted a hunk of debris from a wrecked building, said hunk the size of a car, then flung it at Majestic. He was ready to block it, but then the hunk suddenly grew to the size of a building. Majestic had to fly out of the way, alarmed by what the golden giantess could do. She then fired all manner of attacks at Majestic who weaved in and out of them; blasts of lasers, large electricity arrows, fire and ice, and concussive blasts of rainbow colored light.
"Heh," Majestic said in a wryly amused tone despite himself "It's like she's throwing all sorts of attack spells at me, like she's a wizard. No wonder she's the Magic Collecting Steed."
Endeavor was weaving in and out to avoid being swatted by Nekohime. The Flame Hero tried to blast her with a concentrated blast of fire, but it did nothing to her. She tried swatting at him again, but he dodged and her swat hit the ground, leaving a crater with more impact than Endeavor would have guessed, then another impact happened there, twice as potent as the first and Nekohime didn't even hit that area again.
Nekohime got on all fours, then leapt up at Endeavor to pounce down on him like a cat. He dodged and her impact was stronger than he would have expected, even with all of the power she had just displayed. After she got away, a second twice as strong impact happened on the spot Nekohime hit with her pounce, without Nekohime actually being there. She then aimed her right hand at the Flame Hero, made scales grow on her person, and fired the scales at him.
"Just how many quirks do each of these giantesses posses?!" Endeavor exclaimed as he flew out of the range of the attack. He aimed a blast of fire at Nekohime's eyes, hoping to blind her and or score a critical hit. The fires hit Nekohime's eyes, but blinded she was not. She just hissed angrily like a cat at Endeavor, then used her left hand to cast a blast of acid right at him. Endeavor flew to avoid that acid, but was in the path of a blast of acid Nekohime sprayed from her mouth.
Endeavor cast a blast of fire at the incoming acid, burning all of it up. Endeavor looked to the fights that Hawks and Majestic were respectively having, and could tell full well that the two of them were not going to last at this rate. Hell, Endeavor was not going to last at this rate. The trio of giantesses were quickly proving to be far too much for just three pro heroes, top tenners or no, to deal with on their own. Even just one of the three giantesses would be a very tall order here.
Luckily for Endeavor and the others, a large number of pro heroes, albeit most of them were low ranking sidekick level pro heroes, came running in. Among the lesser pro heroes were several of Endeavor's sidekicks, including Burnin. "Holy shit!" one of the male Endeavor sidekicks with Burnin exclaimed, "Those are what we have to fight?!"
"Yeah, I think I speak for all of us here when I say that a trio of Black Paladins would have been much more preferable," said a female sidekick who didn't work for Endeavor.
"If it was just Black Paladins, then Endeavor would have killed them by now," said a second male Endeavor sidekick, "Even without help from Hawks and Majestic!"
"Look alive, everyone!" Burnin yelled, "Sure those three bitches are giants like Mt. Lady, but there's only three of them and a load of us! We got the numbers advantage here, so let's-"
"Hey, you're a notable sidekick of that flaming brick house bastard Endeavor!" Dabi called out, cutting off Burning as he flew in on his flying nomu and grabbed her by the waist, carrying her off and away from the charge towards the trio of giantesses.
"The leader of the League of Villains just kidnapped Burnin!" said a female sidekick not working for Endeavor, "We need to-"
"HIIIIISSSSSSS!"
The female sidekick was cut off when Nekohime hissed a spray of acid at her and the other sidekicks, making them all scramble to get out of the way. But most of them were still hit, and those who were all flailed about as the acid began to burn them. Nekohime, ignoring the blast of fire that Endeavor was casting to hit her in the back, swatted at where a lot of the acid-burned sidekicks were all prone, striking a lot of them with a powerful swat, with the area of impact struck by a second and twice as hard impact even though Nekohime's hand was long pulled away.
Endeavor counted at least a dozen dead pro heroes.
END, CHAPTER TEWNTY-NINE
Author's notes;
Gentle and La Brava get off VERY lightly for pissing off Ainz, and they're allowed to do what they have been doing but now have to go after only targets that Ainz specifies. The U.A. school festival goes on without interruption thanks to Ainz in his guise of Izuku, but sometime after the festival, the Class 1-A students learn from the Wild, Wild Pussycats that Kota went missing, leaving only his hat and a note suggesting that he's hunting for Muscular.
The Hero Billboard Charts JP drop next, and Endeavor is named Japan's number one hero. He's joined by Hawks the number two and Majestic the number nine as they are confront the day after the ranking ceremony by Dabi and Spinner, both riding flying nomus before bringing in a trio of giant villainesses that each have multiple quirks. Just one giantess alone would be a disaster, but all three there can spell certain doom if not stopped.
Things will pick up from here in the next chapter, where a certain hero will be seeking answers.