In today's society, there are very few things that a man like Hanji could do to make a living. Japan was still a country that prided itself on a large and skilled force of labor to make it one of the top economic powers in the world. This can be seen in the hero industry with the country not only containing some of the best heroes in the world, but also top-notch support, business, and administrative branches to support it. Hero culture was so ingrained into Japanese society, that people developed a rather warped perception of what it means to be apart of it.
In Hanji's case, he had the unfortunate luck of being born with what many would deem as a 'villainous quirk'. It wasn't anything impressive really, just a quirk that made someone cough uncontrollably, nothing really scary in the face of something like a brainwashing quirk. Yet, it was enough for some asshat to make the connection that he could suffocate a person, and just like that he was now forever deemed a villain in the making by his peers and teachers. At first, he tried to fight against the villainous image he had been given, but it seemed everywhere he went he just couldn't shake off that image. Years of discrimination eventually he worn him down to the point in which he just embraced the image. Afterall, if they couldn't see him as anything more than a villain, then why should he even bother in the first place.
But one look at Hanji and one wouldn't expect him to be a villain, a little shady looking, but he doesn't look like not is portrayed in the media. No, Hanji is not one of those one-and-done losers who get their fifteen minutes of fame fighting a hero before being forgotten by all but the hero fanboys. In fact, Hanji likens himself as a hunter or a predator if you wish, and he was simply trying to make a living at the expense of whoever was unfortunate enough to cross his path. Hence why he is hanging out in a long alley way where most people leave the world of Mustafu's night life. This route serves as a pathway, a game trail more like it, for people who are easy pickings for a man like Hanji. Drunks, teenagers, depressed salarymen, lonely 30-year-old women; you name it and Hanji has probably robbed them before. But don't blame him for trying to earn another pocket full of yen, it was natural for a predator, such as himself, to hunt the prey.
Speaking of prey, what did that show say about animals? That a good predator goes for the sick, old, or young animals because they are the easiest to take down. That notion of survival of the fittest is what Hanji likens his job as. It makes no sense for someone like him to mess with someone like All Might, especially when he could take on a downtrodden salaryman without the threat of him fighting back. A smart hunter knows the best way to get his meal.
Speaking of meals, the sound of disheveled high heels begun to head in his direction. It was show time! Without making a sound, Hanji sunk into a crouched position in the confines in the shadows of a couple garbage cans as he waits for his prey to get into striking distance. A minute or two passes before Hanji's prey wanders into the alleyway completely unsuspecting of danger. The lights from the streetlights illuminate the appearance of the person walking into the alleyway. It was a girl of about college age who was dressed in the outfit of a stereotypical 'sexy librarian'. Red form fitting turtleneck sweater, plain black skirt that goes to the knees, high heels, thick rimmed glasses, and with her hair done into a tight little bun. However, unlike those librarians from those films, this girl had a quirk that gave her elephant like-tusks, ears, and a trunk as well as a look and face that screams 'heartbroken'. Perhaps her boyfriend broke up with her and was with someone that didn't look like a poacher would come and shoot her to make a quick buck on the ivory market. Whatever the reason, Hanji was about to make her night a whole lot worse.
The thug waited until the woman had passed his hiding spot and deeper into the alley before he quietly emerged from his spot and blocked the closest route of escape.
"Hey! behind you" Hanji said whispered while snapping his fingers.
The girl turned to look and see who was behind her. Big mistake. She held a perplex expression for a moment before her eyes bugged out and she began to cough uncontrollably.
"Works every time" Hanji said out loud in a manner that was self-congratulatory
The street thug kept his gaze squarely on the woman as she continued the coughing fit, with each one getting hoarser and hoarser. Hanji wasn't sure if he liked it when his victims were under the effect of his quirk. But he couldn't deny the fact that it made his job some much easier, it didn't matter how physically strong they were, one look and it was over. You can't do anything if you can't breathe, an evolutionary advantage that made him a predator and not the prey. The coughs of the girl were growing hoarser and her face was beginning to turn into a shade of blue and she begun to sink onto the ground. A strange sense of satisfaction emerged in Hanji the more he stared at the girl slowly being strangled by his quirk. It was a high that was better than any drug, it was it felt like to be powerful to be among the strong. This woman like all the others was at his mercy, he was the master of her fate, and he could do whatever he sees fit with her.
"THIS IS WHAT BEING A VILLAIN IS ALL ABOUT!"
A wicked smile crossed his face as he stared onto the woman in front of him. Her body wasn't that bad looking, well developed and almost super modelish even. Perhaps he could have a little fun after he helps himself to the contents of her purse, provided he covers that ugly face up first.
Then in a motion that was akin to turning off a switch, the girl stopped coughing. She then took a desperate breath air and released a series of small haggard coughs before the sound of her breathing pierced the alley. The girl then collapsed fully on the alley floor, seemingly knocked out from Hanji's attack. Hanji stared with eyes the size of dinner plates at his victim's sudden ability to breathe as he was in disbelief on what he had saw. It was as if someone had turned off his quirk, in fact, he felt hold on librarian girl completely disappear.
"What?! That's impossible! As long as I have a line of sight of their face then they can't break out of my quirk!" Hanji frantically thought
The street thug had forgotten one of the most important absolutes in nature's conflict between predator and prey. One animal's predator is another's prey. As such, Hanji wasn't prepared when an invisible force had punched him squarely in his exposed and unprotected chest. Normally an attack of that type was not enough to knock someone out, but when said punch was a solid as stone while also delivering enough electricity to stun a horse on a target that never once had ever experienced anyone who fought back. As such, there was little for Hanji to do except feel the air leaving his lungs as his nerves and muscles spasmed from the burst of electricity. In the brief moment that Hanji had before hitting the ground and passing out, he caught the glimpse of the air simmering and a small figure dressed in white appeared out of thin air in the motion of the blow that had taken him out.
Hina Kiba was what one would call as an average college girl, albeit with some quirks that she wished she didn't have. For one, she was rather insecure about her own attractiveness in due part of her quirk "pachyderm". Combine this with her staunch work ethic and nerdy interests, and you have someone who sticks out significantly among her peers who would rather have a good time above all else. She tried so hard to keep her high school boyfriend, but all her efforts were in vain as she lost him to a girl that suited his desire for a more easygoing frat lifestyle. So, she did the thing that anyone her age and gender could've done, and that was to drink her sorrows away alone. It was in that alley way, on one of the worst days of her life that she thought she was going to be another nameless victim of the crime that riddled the streets of Japan….
"Ma'am? Ma'am?" said a strange voice whilst the feeling of being lightly slapped was happening.
Hina groggily opened he eyes to the image of a large white hood dominating her vision. Hina groaned as she was helped into a sitting position by the mysterious person. She could feel the cool and rough texture of bricks on her back, he must have moved her to against the wall, but she didn't even feel momentum of being moved.
"I thought I nearly lost you their ma'am" said the mysterious person, "It's a good thing I made in time, other wise you would've been worse off. But I want to ask you, are you feeling okay?"
When her head was finally feeling clearer, she took a look at the source of the voice. The belonged to a small figure dressed in a set of white robes that looked way too big for him. His face was mostly obscured by a white hood, but what was visible was a mouth filled with sharp teeth. Such a feature would be intimidating, but the mouth was etched into a friendly smile that made Hina feel at ease.
"I-I think I am okay." Hina said with a little bit of uncertainty, "What happened? I just remember seeing a man and then I couldn't breathe?". It was strange. She was getting strangled and yet, she somehow felt only a little winded.
White Hood replied, "You appeared to be being mugged by a villain with a quirk that makes you cough uncontrollably. But don't worry, the villain is currently restrained and bound. I also already took the liberty of alerting the authorities."
Hina couldn't place her finger on why, but for some reason White Hood reminded her so much of All Might. Maybe it was the way he was so reassuring, it could be the way his presence put at ease despite nearly being murdered not too long ago, or perhaps it was simply because this was first time she had been rescued by a hero.
"Are you a hero?" Hina asked innocently
The smile of White Hood faltered briefly for a moment, but it would return to it previous luster.
"No ma'am, I am not a hero. I am just a concerned citizen just looking to help when I can." White Hood said with a tinge of hurt.
Hina suddenly became aware of the lights and sounds of police sirens in her ears, but she didn't care about them right now. She wanted to know more about her rescuer before he would have to leave. She didn't know why, but somehow, she knew that her rescuer would soon leave her. She needed something to anchor herself to him, especially after what had happened to her.
"B-Before you go, can you tell me your name?" Hina pleaded.
White Hood's head tilted to side, seemingly in confusion, it seems that her request had brought him to hesitate. The flashing of red and blue were getting brighter and the sound of sirens were now blaring, and Hina wondered if she had overstepped an unseen line. She hopes that she didn't offend him. Then, White Hood leaned his hooded face to the side her head towards her right elephant-like ear and whispered so faintly that Hina would've missed those words if not for her good hearing.
"My name is…Ma'ken Ris.", White Hood said softly.
Hina's body shuddered uncontrollably at the name like it held some great significance or power. Then, the air around the concerned citizen seemingly simmering like a pool of water, and Warlock vanished out of thin air from her sight. The next moments of her life came back to her in images, it was like Ma'ken Ris's presence was keeping her stable from the damage she received from the villain's quirk. But she remembered when a flashlight shone in her face from the first police officer to arrive. She remembered being loaded onto a stretcher by paramedics and hooked up to a portable oxygen machine. She remembered her attacker being loaded into the back of police car with his hands restrained by quirk suppression cuffs. She remembers being loaded into the ambulance and in the periphery of vision, she saw a familiar white figure on the roof of a building watching her like a guardian angel. She would never forget him, even after the doors of the ambulance would close.
Yagi Toshinori stared in disbelief I the documents that were laid out in front of him, but his friend Sir Nighteye didn't have a habit playing elaborate tricks on the number one hero. Unless you count the time, the detective had managed give Yagi a hair gel that turned his hair purple for his birthday. Yagi still remembers the small fad, in which people dyed their hair purple, because he unwittingly showed up to a villain fight with purple hair. But Nighteye knew that this was no laughing matter, especially with the possible implications of the documents.
"It seems that your Sludge Villain helper wasn't a one-hit-wonder", Nighteye said with his usual dryness, "In one night he was active in several locations, some of which are many kilometers apart, resulting in 18 villain arrests and 3 civilian rescues. Reports vary on some details, but the main commonality of them all is the vigilante's white costume and the presence of multiple quirks in said individual."
Yagi could feel the beads of sweat run down his face as looked deeper into the police reports. A Vanishing Quirk. An Electricity Quirk. A Teleportation or Warping Quirk of Sort. A Stabilization Quirk. A Quirk that Stabilizes emotions. And of course, a mutation quirk. At least three of these quirks are confirmed by Yagi because he saw them firsthand during the Sludge Villain incident a few weeks ago. But a person with two quirks was extremely rare, in fact Enji's boy was the first one he had seen that possessed two naturally, and it was even rarer for someone to have them of this supposed strength and caliber. In fact, it reminded him all too much of…
"It's like All for One." Nighteye said abruptly, "You think he had anything to do with this on the off chance he is still alive?"
Yagi turned his face away from the paper to look at his former sidekick.
"I do not know, but something about this doesn't sit well with me." Yagi replied, "Regardless of he is or isn't a remnant of All for One's sphere; this is something that cannot be ignored."
Nighteye nodded at the remark before his face stoned into a look of concentration. Yagi knew the look of his former sidekick formulating a plan of sorts.
"Do you have something in mind?" Yagi asked.
Nigheye's brow furrowed, "Nothing solid yet. I would like to have more information before doing anything. After all, your little helper is still quite insignificant in the underground; Heck Tensei didn't even have anything on him, and he's well versed on the world of vigilantes."
"If you would enlighten me then, Mirai. How did you find out about him if his footprint is so shallow?" Yagi asked
"It was more an accident and a little luck I suppose." Nigheye said sheepishly, "One of my staff members asked for some time off because there was a family emergency. His niece, a Miss Hina Kiba, was violently assaulted by man named Hanji Kumo, a thug known for preying on vulnerable people, whilst she was returning home from a night of drinking."
Yagi knew all too well the dangers that the city streets possessed at night for the average person, and to think that Miss Hina was fortunate to escape a grisly fate. Most aren't so lucky.
"I guess my curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to look into the case of Miss Kiba. And I learned about the involvement of your little helper, but I also learned something else." Nighteye said with a neutral expression.
Yagi raised his eyebrow at statement, "And that was?"
"The supposed name of your little helper. Does the name Ma'ken Ris mean anything to you?"
Yagi's body shuddered subconsciously.
Hagakure was beaming with excitement because today was one of the few half days that UA had during its school year. So, what better way to spend her free time than with her friend Midoriya. It was true that she had made many friends among her peers at UA, none of them possessed the same level of understanding that Midoriya had with her. She can't really blame them, none of them has the vision quirk that Midoriya has, and it's always easier to understand someone when you can see them. In fact, it was really the first time in a while that the two could really hangout, between UA and Midoriya's seeming randomized schedule, the two could only chat via text or phone. But it was special enough for Hagakure to change out of school uniform into some casual clothes for their outing. In the meantime, she sat in swing set the same park that the two had met waiting for him to show up. She planned to eventually introduce him to her UA friends, but for now she wanted to have him all to herself.
When the blue haired teen arrived, he was sporting a white zip-up hoodie, a pair of cargo shorts, a t-shirt that said t-shirt in kanji, and his signature red shoes. However, Midoriya was sporting some bags under his eyes and tired looking expression that looked like he had stolen it from Mr. Aizawa.
"H-Hey, Hagakure-san. Long time no 'See'." Izuku said with his usual stutter
"Midori!", Hagakure said whilst jumping from the old swing set, "It's good to 'See' you again."
The two laughed at the cheesy sight jokes that had developed in their texts. Despite this, Hagakure knew something was up with the tired look that Midoriya was sporting.
"Um Midori if you don't mind telling, but why do you look like the Sandman skipped your house last night?" Hagakure said going straight to the point.
Midoriya looked like a deer caught in some headlights at that question, but it disappeared and was replaced with an expression made him seem genuinely happy.
"I managed to get a job, and last night was my first shift." Replied Midoriya, "I am working part-time as a security guard at a storage unit, and I run the suicide hours shift. So, I am…"
"So, you are getting used to those late-night hours?", Hagakure said finishing his sentence.
The Blue haired boy nodded his head at the statement. Hagakure felt her heart warm up at her friend managing to have something going for him, from what she understands, he not only failed the UA exam but also didn't apply to a different high school. He never explicitly said the reason for it, but she could imagine it being a rather personal affair that he wasn't ready to share.
None the less, Hagakure grabbed the wrist of fish boy and begun dragging him off as fast as she could pull him.
"Then let's go Midori! I know the perfect place to celebrate your new job!", Hagakure boomed with her usual bubbliness.
The invisible girl was unaware of the true nature of Izuku's job, but events would soon reveal the truth to the hero-in-training. In the meantime, she was also completely unaware of the red blush on the face of her friend or the sheepish smile of a hidden third member of their party.
Hello peoples itsa me with another chapter. I don't really have much to share aisde from the fact that it's the week of my birthday, so woohoo! Anyways, I am curious to know if any of you want more content like this (aka vigilante stuff) in between main plot chapter every so often. Like say a chapter of main plot then a chapter of Vigilantism, rinse and repeat. Be sure to let me know in the reviews, and I hope you enjoy this week's chapter.