I don't own MHA. I only own OC's.
Sorry if you find any grammar mistakes. I'm still learning English because it's not my first language.
Haruto: Glad you liked the chapter. Hope you'll like this one as well :)
1. I don't really know what you mean by this question. If you're asking about the hero squad which will go against Gareth, then no spoilers. Keep in mind ambush Gareth would be heard, though due to him being in a constant move.
PAC13L: Thank you once again for leaving a review :)
1. Alright. That sounds cool. Now I'm really considering using it when Gareth and Overhaul will face each other again :)
2. Yeah. They're definitely having a hard time whenever they are right now. Perharps it will be shown at some point of this arc :)
Kingdom of Kin: Thank you for leaving a review and I'm glad you liked the chapter! :)
1. Glad you liked the stuff you learned about Alice in the last chapter. You may learn something new about her in this chapter as well :)
2. Yup. Alice definitely did her best on trying to lift Gareth up from the mental state he is in right now. However, Gareth is still far away from reaching his more stable state again.
3. Yeah. The stuff with Overhaul is something I had plans for over a year now and changing it right before I was about to get to the boss part of it seemed like it would be too drastic move regardins my plans for Overhaul's role in this story. You should have seen my face when I saw the part with Overhaul's boss living just as I was about to start working on the chapter where it is confirmed he had passed away in this story, lol.
4. You'll have to wait and see where his and Kurono's arc will go from here :)
5. Yeah. Kuruno definitely has some karma ahead of him.
6. Glad you liked the part with Geten and Dabi. I was looking forward to getting to it as soon as I decided Geten to avoid getting captured in the war. Honestly, he is one of the most wasted characters in the manga in my opinion.
7. You'll have to wait and see what I have planned for Geten in the Final War :)
8. Glad you liked the parents talk. I really wanted it to be a normal scene between adults before the bomb in the form of Gareth's parents being killed would be thrown at them. I wanted to use it to set up Akihiko being into engineering as well :)
9. From some of the other reviews, I can say you're not the only one shipping them now :)
10. Yeah. The Okuda's are going through some hard times now.
11. You'll see some of the stuff with Lady Nagant in this chapter as the chapter will be focused on it :)
12. You'll see Izuku again soon :)
13. You'll see what will happen with Alice's character from here :)
EternalEmperorDmitri: Thank you once again for leaving a review :)
1. Glad you liked the chapter and I hope you'll like this one.
2. Yes. This woman is Lady Nagant. :)
shadowlight27: Thank you once again for leaving a review :)
1. Yup. This woman is Lady Nagant :)
2. You'll have to wait and see what will happen with Overhaul :)
3. Yup. If there's one person Overhaul should blame for everything falling apart, then it should be him and him only.
4. You'll see something with Izuku soon :)
5. You'll have to wait and see what will happen with Bakugo :)
Lothen: Thank you once again for leaving a review and I'm glad you liked the chapter! :)
1. You'll have to wait and see what will happen with Alice and Gareth. The support Gareth has in the country at the moment might give you a hint of what will happen later on, though :)
2. Yeah. Dabi has one messed up family. At least now he has someone by his side to talk about it.
3. Probably. Only time will show what will happen with Overhaul from here :)
4. Yup. At least Akihiko has a new friend by his side for this tough time for both him and his family.
5. You'll have to wait and see what will happen with Nagant from here. You'll see some parts of it in this chapter :)
Guest: Thank you for leaving a review :)
1. Yup. Gareth's traveling party is slowly growing :)
2. Yeah. Overhaul is out for some blood :)
3. You'll see Izuku again soon :)
NEWTON RYBACK: Thank you once again for leaving a review and I'm glad you liked the chapter! :)
4. It doesn't change the fact that ODM is a gear. Not a weapon. Not to mention no one would know how to use it straight away as AOT characters trained using it for three years.
5. No. She was concevied through in vitro fertilization.
6. Yeah. The almost fallen army is slowly growing back.
7-8. Perharps something like that will happen at some point of this story :)
9. Yeah. Talk about finding yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
10. Probably Overhaul.
11. Yeah. I was looking forward to getting to it as soon as I decided Geten to avoid getting captured in the war. Honestly, he is one of the most wasted characters in the manga in my opinion.
12. No spoilers.
14-15. No. They haven't met before. Geten was adopted by Re-Destro when he was a kid. There was no way he could have met Rei or Shoto before.
16. Yeah. You're not the only one.
18. She told them about it. It happened off-screen.
19. You'll have to wait and see what will happen with Nagant from now on.
20. Who knows :)
21. See ya.
22. Life happens.
THE-Twilight-BlazeKnight: Thank you once again for leaving a review and I'm glad you liked the chapter! :)
1. Yup. Alice definitely did her best on trying to lift Gareth up from the mental state he is in right now. However, Gareth is still far away from reaching his more stable state again.
2. Glad you liked the stuff you learned about Alice in the last chapter. You may learn something new about her in this chapter as well :)
3. Alice was concevied through in vitro fertilization. Coincidentally the donor was American, like one of her moms and she ended up becoming a full American even if she was born and raised in Japan.
4. The stuff with Overhaul is something I had plans for over a year now and changing it right before I was about to get to the boss part of it seemed like it would be too drastic move regardins my plans for Overhaul's role in this story. You should have seen my face when I saw the part with Overhaul's boss living just as I was about to start working on the chapter where it is confirmed he had passed away in this story, lol.
5. No. The boss passed away in his sleep without anyone playing their part in it. If his death happened after the PLF War, then maybe someone would play a part in it. However, the boss death happened before it.
6. Yeah. Poor Hinano found herself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
7. No. I have no plans for her family to appear. I gave her a full name as I felt like her death will have a bigger impact on the reader if she had a name instead of being a nameless OC.
8. You'll have to wait and see what will happen about Hinano's death from here.
9. I had them talk about the history of the Himura Family as Dabi needed to learn the history of the said family before he and Geten could get to the conversation on how they and their organization can benefit from it. I wanted Toya to have a normal interaction with someome from his family as well and it seemed like the best moment for me to do it.
10. Glad you liked the conversation of the parents. I had the parents talk about their jobs as I wanted it to be a normal scene between adults before the bomb in the form of Gareth's parents being killed would be thrown at them. I wanted to use it to set up Akihiko being into engineering as well.
11. The Izuku and Gareth stuff will be brought up by Grace at some point.
12. Glad you liked the babies scene. I can imagine how it worked on the shippers, lol.
13. You'll see some of the stuff with Lady Nagant in this chapter as the chapter will be focused on it :)
14. Hmm. Alright. Maybe I'll bring this up in the next U.A POV scene.
15. Hmm. Alright. It would be interesting and could work for some interesting scenes. Like Gareth wanting to keep his distance from Izuku whe the island stuff would go down or the students trying to strike up a conversation with him before the Mellisa stuff would came up, seeing how Gareth sounds like a good person underneath his mask.
Alaster Hemlock: Thank you once again for leaving a review and I'm glad you liked the chapter! :)
1. Glad you liked the stuff you learned about Alice in the last chapter. You may learn something new about her in this chapter as well :)
2. No. It wasn't meant to be an easter egg.
3. You'll have to wait and see what will happen with Overhaul.
4. No spoilers for the Final War regarding Geten and Dabi :)
5. Yeah. I knew I will use it as soon as I read your review :)
6. You'll see some of the stuff with Lady Nagant in this chapter as the chapter will be focused on it :)
7. When it comes to the ambush, keep in mind Gareth is constantly on the move in this arc and the heroes have no idea where he is right now. Planning an ambush for so who constantly changes his locations is hard.
8. No spoilers when the rematch between Gareth and Overhaul will happen.
9. Yeah. Gareth really needs to get out of the mental state he is in right now.
10. No spoilers when it comes to Stain.
TheGreatGodzilla: Thank you once again for leaving a review and I'm glad you liked the chapter! :)
1. You'll have to wait and see what will happen with Overhaul and Kurono from here :)
2. You'll have to wait and see what I have planned for Geten.
3. Yeah. I saw the chapters. I don't think the old lady knew the boy she had refused to help all this ago became Tomura Shigaraki. Otherwise she would have bring this up to the villain when she had approached him and offered to help him.
4. No spoilers regarding Dabi and Geten :)
5. No spoilers for the Final War :)
6. Yeah. Kuruno definitely has some karma ahead of him. If Gareth will find out about this, then his damaged mental state would definitely worsen.
Everyone on the roof was silent. Gareth was silent. Alice was silent. Cyborg was silent. Neither Gareth or Alice knew what to say to this woman or what to make of this situation. The woman who just appeared out of nowhere was silent as well, waiting for them to reply to her presence in any way. No matter how they would reply to them, she kept herself at ready if their reaction to her was not a friendly one.
Cyborg shifted his gaze from the unknown woman to Gareth, waiting for his orders and being ready to dispose of her as soon as he will order him to do so. Alice shifted her gaze from this woman to Gareth as well, keepingkeeping herself at ready to do whatever the situation would require her to do as she wanted to know his view on this situation. Upon laying her eyes on him, she noticed Gareth was not suprised by this woman appearing out of nowhere. She saw him with his eyes narrowed, looking more like he was trying to remember something right now.
Gareth kept his eyes narrowed at the unknown woman, feeling like she was familiar to him in some way but he couldn't wrap his head around where. He knew he saw this woman before. Just where? He knew he had to figure this out and knew it had to happen quickly. If this woman was someone who didn't have any friendly intentions towards him and the others, then he knew thinking about it for too long would put him and the others at risk.
Did he really have something to worry about when it came to this woman, though? If she really wanted to attack him and the others, then would she approach directly and making herself known to them without attacking them instead of attacking them straight away? He kept trying to recall who this woman was for the next few seconds until it finally clicked. He really saw this woman before. Only she wore an orange prison jumpsuit the last time he saw her.
"Alice. Cyborg. Stand down." He shifted his gaze between the woman and the Nomu in question as he told him, "I know she doesn't mean any harm for us and isn't here to fight us."
Alice looked at him questioningly, "How do you know that?"
"Because I saw her before. I know she's working for our side. I met her shortly after I attacked Tartarus with Tomura-kun." Gareth explained as he glanced at the unknown woman and explained further, "You're the woman who was carrying Overhaul out of Tartarus before she dumped him after finding out who he was and what he did from me, Origami and Magne."
The unknown woman crossed her arms, lowering her guard a bit as she could tell Gareth had no intention of fighting her after figuring out who she was, "I see you remember me."
"I'll never forget anything from that day." Gareth replied, letting out a sigh as the unknown woman nodded in understanding with an almost sorrowful look on her face. From what he heard about the said day ever since she escaped Tartarus, she knew this statement was true and couldn't blame for Gareth thinking like that, "Now, what are you doing here?"
The unknown woman quickly provided him an explanation,"I happened to be passing through this area a few hours ago when I saw one of your Nomus on this roof. I thought I could stay here for a day or two to see if anything will come out of it as I doubted a single Nomu staying here and unmoving from his place and just like I said, I'm glad my suspicion paid off in the end."
Gareth raised his brow at her words, "Why? Do you want something from me?"
"You could say that. We can help each other." The unknown woman gave him a nod of confirmation, "I have a job and you can help me with it. I can do something for you in return. How does that sound?"
"It depends on what you need my help with." Gareth gave her an honest answer, "What do you want me to help you with?"
"I would like to discuss this in private with you before we'll decide how to proceed further." The unknown woman explained as she shifted her gaze from Gareth to Alice. She looked at her questioningly upon laying her eyes on the blonde haired young woman, "Who is your friend?"
"My name is Alice." Alice introduced herself to her.
The unknown woman nodded in understanding and shifted her gaze back to Gareth, "Is she someone new? I haven't seen her in any of the stuff you and the others released into the world after everything went down so I assume that's the case here."
"Yes. I just met her yesterday." Gareth confirmed it to this woman with a nod of his head, seeing no point in lying about it.
"I asked him if he can tag along with him about an hour and he agreed." Alice added her own part to the explanation.
The unknown woman once again nodded in understanding, allowing herself to process this information and confirmation from both Gareth and Alice. It only made her want to talk with Gareth in private more. With Alice being someone new to Gareth's crew, she didn't want to explain it in front of her. If she was someone who was with him for a long time, then maybe she would be willing this information out in the open.
"So? Are we having this conversation or not?" She asked Gareth a second later, "I assume both of us have no time to waste here so I don't want to drag this out if you're not interested in it."
Gareh nodded at her. It wouldn't hurt him if he at least listened this woman out, right? He shifted his gaze to Alice, "Alice. Could you leave us alone for a moment? It won't take long."
"Actually could we go somewhere before you'll have your conversation?" Alice replied to him with a question of her own, leaving both him and the unknown woman slightly confused.
"What?" The unknown woman asked her.
Gareth raised his brow, "What do you mean?"
Alice stepped closer to the edge of the roof, glancing ahead of them and pointed in the said direction, "There's a gunstore few streets away from here. I was planning to tell you about this once we would take off on your Nomu."
"Why?" Gareth wanted to know.
Alice turned around to look at him again, "I want something to defend myself with. I don't want to be a liability to you and having you keep your eyes on me if we'll stumble upon any danger out there. From what I've seen when I passed by it yesterday, it wasn't completely emptied so we can we safe to assume we'll manage to find something for me there. When I'll be choosing myself a weapon there, you'll have your conversation. How does that sound?"
"I wouldn't mind that, but I don't think that's up to me." Gareth replied. He couldn't help but wish Origami was with them now. This way they would be able to create a weapon for Alice on the spot. He sighed internally. The thought of Origami made him wonder what she was doing right now. He shook those thoughts away from him and looked at the unknown woman questioningly, "So. What do you think? Are you okay with this."
The unknown woman shrugged her shoulders at it, "If the gunstore is close to us like she claims it is, then I guess I'm okay with this."
"Alright." Gareth nodded in understanding and glanced back at Alice, "Let's go, then."
Alice nodded back at him, "Yeah."
Gareth shifted his gaze from her to Cyborg right after, "Cyborg. Get ready. You will be taking all three of us..."
"Actually I won't be going with you on the Nomu." The unknown woman cut in.
Gareth raised his brow, "What? How will you..."
"I'll use one of my Quirks to do it." The unknown woman explained. Gareth raised his brow at her choice of words. One of her Quirks? Did that meant she had more than one Quirk? He knew there was only one way for her to have two powers. She must have been related to All For One in some way. It explained to him why she wanted to talk with him right now.
Just as Gareth was about to ask her about it, she decided to explain to him what she meant by that by presenting it to him. She moved towards the edge of the roof and didn't stop there like many other people would definitely do. She instead moved forward, making it look like she was about to jump off the roof. However, she didn't fall down to her demise like many would expect and started walking along the air.
The unknown woman kept herself focused to make sure she won't fall down and will keep herself above the ground and glanced back at Gareth and Alice, "See? I'll be fine. Come on. Let's get there."
"Alright." Gareth replied. When he saw one of this woman's abilities, she couldn't help but think back to what All For One told him about Nana Shimura. The story of Shigaraki's past included his grandmother's Quirk as well. From what he remembered from this story, he couldn't help but feel like this power was similiar to Nana's power in some ways due to Nana's power having to do something with levitating. He pushed himself out his thoughts a second later and asked her, "How should I call you, by the way? I don't believe I got your name back when we first met."
"You can call me Lady Nagant." The woman introduced herself as Lady Nagant to him and Alice as she turned away from them and focused herself on reaching her new destination. Alice raised her brow at the name, feeling like it was familiar to her in some way and feeling like she had heard it somewhere before.
"Okay." Gareth nodded in understanding, making a mental out of it for the future as he glanced at Alice and nodded at her. She nodded back at him. Not wasting any time, both of them climbed on top of Cyborg's back with Gareth sitting at the front and Alice hugging him from behind. Cyborg took off into the air with them a second later, following Lady Nagant towards their shared destination.
Gareth and Lady Nagant watched Alice going through the remaining guns in the gun store, having arrived at the gunstore a few minutes ago. There wasn't much Gareth could say about this place. Even though he had never been in a gun store, it looked exactly what he expected a place like this to look like. Only with most of it's stock taken away. If he were to guess, most of the stuff from this place was either stolen by escaped convicts or was taken by the civilians as a way of defending themselves.
Upon arriving at the place, everyone from their group split up to do their own stuff with Alice going to look for a gun for herself and Gareth and Nagant going after her but keeping their distance in order to keep their upcoming conversation private and out of Alice's hearing range. Cyborg stayed close to the entrance to the gun store, keeping watching and looking ready to attack if someone unnivited had invited himself into the gun store.
Gareth kept his eyes in Alice for a moment, seeing the blonde haired woman going through the remaining guns in this place to find what she would consider a perfect gun for her. Letting out a sigh, he began to question himself if taking Alice with him was a good idea as he didn't want to put her in danger. Enough people he cared about got hurt by following him, after all and he didn't want her to join them. He pushed himself out of those thoughts a second later, trying to keep them away from his head and shifted his gaze to Lady Nagant.
"So, you work for All For One?" The black haired boy ended the silence between him and Nagant to start their conversation.
Lady Nagant glanced at him and gave him a nod of confirmation, "I see you already figured it out."
"You mentioning having more than one power gave it away." Gareth explained, "Aside from whatever power you used to reach this place, what other powers to do you have?"
"How about I'll show you?" Lady Nagant asked him in return as she wasted no time and presented him her other Quirk. Gareth's eyes widened slightly as she extended what appeared to be a sniper rifle from her right elbow. She continued her presentation by extending a tendril from her rifle that she curled up to form a scope, "As you can see, my other Quirk allows me to extend a rifle from my right elbow."
"I see." Gareth replied with his suprised expression fading away after a second as his mind flew to Asano and how similiar Nagant's Quirk was to him. He probably would have probably be more suprised if he didn't already met someone with a Quirk like that in the past. It was when he recalled something. Asano had actually mentioned Lady Nagant to him in the past once. It was when he explained his Quirk to him. Gareth didn't think much of it back then as it was his first time hearing about Lady Nagant.
Lady Nagant quickly took notice of his nonchalant reaction to her power. If she was honest with herself, it wasn't what she was used to. She made a comment about it a second later, "You don't seem suprised by it."
"A friend of mine mentioned you to me once when he explained his power to me." Gareth explained, "Let's just say his power was similiar to yours in some way."
Nagant raised her brow, "What do you mean?"
"He could change his hands into pistols." Gareth gave her another explanation.
"I see." Nagant said in understanding. She had to admit. It did sound similiar to her Quirk. She went straight to business a second later. She didn't ask him about his power in return as she knew what it was. She already heard more than enough about it in the TV, "We should get straight to business. I want to get this over with before you'll friend find whatever gun she wants for herself."
"Yeah. Let's get to it." Gareth nodded in agreement and crossed his arms before looking at the older woman questioningly, "What do you want from me?"
"I have a job from All For One and you might help me with it." Lady Nagant replied as Gareth raised his brow, looking like she needs more explanation from her, "You see. I met All For One shortly after I left Tartarus. It was before I met you and your friends. He hired me to bring him a boy by the name of Midoriya Izuku to him."
Gareth's eyes widened upon hearing Izuku's name from her, "W-What?"
"You heard me right." Lady Nagant nodded in confirmation, "I want to bring down the hero society and from All For One told me when he gave me this job, that's won't happen as long as he lives. If that's the case, then it will just give the people who still believe in the hero society a false hope and I don't want this to happen."
"What does that have to do me with me?" Gareth kept his brow raised, "How can I help you?"
"I think you already know. I saw your confession video." Lady Nagant provided him an answer as Gareth, "I did some research about him as well and I know you two attended the same school together before either if you ended up where you are right now. My deal is. You and your friend will travel with me and you will help me identify him. If you'll do what I want, then I'll do whatever favor you want from me. How does that sound?"
Gareth didn't have her an answer straight away, leaving himself with his thoughts as he processed her deal. She wanted him to help her capture Izuku and bring him to All For One. He didn't question himself what would All For One do to him as he knew what it would mean for Izuku. Especially with Izuku having the power All For One was interested in. Now the question bothering him was if he was going to go through with this deal with Lady Nagant.
If he was honest with himself, he didn't know what to think of him anymore. He knew all the respect he had for him faded away the moment he found out about Izuku's knowing about Endeavor's abuse and not doing anything about it. Defending an abuser was not something he could respect in anyone. Even in someone like him. What he saw back there was not the hero he imagined him to be and it was not the hero he thought he could trust Eri's safety with.
It wasn't just the stuff with Endeavor. It was everything else. The way Izuku talked with him just hurt him whenever he thought about it. Izuku kept talking to him about what kind of hero he could be. What hero? Izuku knew he never wanted to be a hero and knew he always wanted to be a baker. The way how Izuku reacted when Gareth refused to be saved by him made him think Izuku never considered something like this would happen as well. He must have expected Gareth will go with him after a few words with him, no matter what.
It honestly made him feel like Izuku was taking him for granted.
He knew he didn't hate him as well. He thought he hated him for the first few hours after their confrontation. He was angry at him for everything and he still was angry at him for it. However, there was a part of him which couldn't bring him to hate him. He didn't know why. If he were to guess it, Izuku being the only person who was there for him all those years must have been stopping him from that.
It was when the black haired boy recalled his own words from the past. He said how he can't allow his emotions get in the way of achieving his goals whenever something with Izuku and Bakugo came up back in the time when he and the League were living in an abandoned time. He nodded to himself, letting out a sigh as he knew he had to his younger self advice and follow his words when it came to Izuku. Even with his conflicted feelings regarding Izuku, he knew something like this had to be done.
The black haired boy bowed his head a bit, getting a raised brow out of Lady Nagant and looked up at her again a second later before giving her his answer, "Fine. I'll do what I can to help you as long as you will hold your part of the deal."
Lady Nagant nodded in a pleased manner, seemingly pleased by Gareth agreeing to work with her here as she held his held he hand out to him for a handshake, "Alright. We have a deal, then?"
"Yeah. We do." Gareth replied as he took her hand into his and gave it a firm shake, "I count on fruitful cooperation between us."
"The feeling is mutual." Lady Nagant nodded at him, pulling her hand away from him as Alice walked over to them, unaware of the conversation the two just had with each other with a gun of her choosing in her hand. She and Gareth shifted their attention to the blonde haired young woman and raised their brows at her.
"Are you two done with your conversation?" Alice wanted to be sure, having suspected them to have ended it after seeing them shake their heads. She knew she couldn't be wrong, though and this is why she was them this question in the first place.
Lady Nagant nodded in confirmation, "Yes."
"What about you?" Gareth asked, "Are you ready?"
Alice nodded in confirmation, "Yes. Even though there aren't many weapons left here, I think I found what I wanted."
"What gun did you choose for yourself?" Gareth asked her another question.
"This. As I said, I didn't have much choice here but I felt like this one was the best choice here." Alice replied as she showed off her new gun to him and Lady Nagant. The gun wasn't anything special. It was a normal B Nambu. Nagant crossed her arms upon seeing this pistol, muttering something under her breath about Alice choosing a classic, "It seemed like the smartest choice for me as well. I went through the remaining ammo in this place and the ammo for this gun was the largest amout for it here."
Gareth nodded in understanding, "Alright."
"I can use the extra ammo from this place to master my skills a bit as I never really fired a gun before as well." Alice added to her explanation as she shifted her gaze to Gareth and raised her brow at him, "Could you teach me a bit?"
Gareth shook his head, "I'm sorry. but I won't help you here as I'm not really much of a gun expert. If anything, I could teach you how to fight hand-in-hand."
"Alright. If that's the case then I'll teach mysel." Alice replied, not minding this as she knew this was a possibility as Gareth never seen using a gun. She knew his fighting skills was something she could use to improve herself and became less of an liability to him as well, "But your fighting skills. Could you teach me some moves?"
Gareth raised his brow, "Fighting moves? But I thought..."
"I know." Alice nodded at him and quickly explained to him, "I want to train myself in both shooting and fighting. It will be better if I knew how to do both of those things instead of knowing just one. Right?"
"I see. Okay. I can see teach you a bit whenever we'll be taking breaks from our usual stuff." Gareth promised to teach her how to fight as he found himself slightly taken aback by how Alice wanted to train herself in both fighting and using a gun. If he was honest with himself, it almost reminded him of himself when he first joined the League and wanted to keep improving on everything. Especially after whatever happened at the USJ with him messing up by allowing Iida get away and getting a headache shortly before they were forced to flee by the U.A teachers arriving at the USJ.
"I can show you a thing or two about shooting." Lady Nagant offered.
Alice looked at her with a slightly suprised look on her face, "Really?"
"Yes." Lady Nagant nodded in confirmation, "I'll be traveling with you and your friend for the next few days. We may as well make use out of the time we'll travel together in some way."
"That would be great. Thank you." Alice smiled at her gratefully. Having Gareth teaching her how to fight and having Nagant teaching her how to shot, she knew she would become less of a liability to them.
Gareth, Alice, Lady Nagant and Cyborg left the gun store shortly after Alice choose a gun for herself, seeing no reason to keep themselves there for any longer after Alice choose a pistol for herself. After leaving the gun store, all of them traveled further into the city by their own means of transportation until the sun started to set and it made him realize they'll have to find a place for themselves to wait out the night.
Fortunely for the group of four, they didn't have to search for long as they stumbled upon an abandoned building in one part of the city and decided to check it out. Upon making their way into the building, Gareth, Alice and Lady Nagant allowed themselves to eye it to see if it was good enough for them to stay in for the night. Despite the place looking to be in a terrible shape and looking it was inhabited either by someone who wasn't taking care of it before or by homeless and hobos in the past, it was good enough to provide them a safe space for the night.
"Looks cozy enough." Alice commented upon seeing the state of the place. From the look on her face, Gareth could say Alice was not a fan of this place. The blonde haired young woman didn't voice her complains about it, though as she knew they had to find a place to stay for the night.
Gareth looked away from Alice and voiced his agreement with her comment, "Yeah. I slept in worse places."
"You and me both." Lady Nagant nodded in agreement as she shifted her gaze to Alice, "Do you have what you took from the gun store with you?"
"I have everything here." Alice replied with a nod of her head, pointing at her backpack, "Are we starting our lessons now?"
"Yes. The sooner we get to this, the better." Lady Nagant nodded in confirmation.
"I'll go grab some bottle and set them up as a target practice for you." Gareth added, wanting to occupy himself with something as he pointed towards the part of the building where he saw some empty alcohol bottles laying. Not wasting any time, he moved towards the said part of the building, "I noticed some empty bottles laying around here shorty after we boarded the train. This way we'll make a use of them."
"Can you move the create as well?" Lady Nagant asked as she pointed towards an old crate in the corner of the room. Gareth looked in the direction she was pointing towards right now to see where the crate was.
"Yeah." He nodded at her a second later, having just make his way to the place he was going to set up the firing range for Alice as he grabbed the crate with his red energy and moved it closer to him until it was pressed against the wall. Upon making sure the crate was ready, he grabbed a nearby bottle and placed it on top of it. He shifted his attention to Lady Nagant and Alice a second later, "Alright. Everything is ready."
"Alright. Let's get to it." Lady Nagant replied as she shifted her gaze from hm to Alice, "Ready?"
Alice pulled her pistol out of her backpack and gave Alice a nod of her head, "Ready."
"Alright. Aim your gun at the bottle in a way you think will be correct and I'll get to explaining." Lady Nagant ordered as Alice nodded in understanding and did as shew as told. She took what she thought will be a proper firing stance as Gareth moved out of her firing range while Lady Nagant shook her head a bit, making a mental note of telling Alicethat she will need to improve here. The older woman from the two started her explanation a second later, "I'll start everything off with a gun you choose for yourself. Alright?"
"Okay." Alice replied in understanding, keeping up her firing stance as she waited Lady Nagant to get to her explanation.
"Your gun is a B Nambu. A classic pistol in our country. It's got a unique feel and requires a firm, but controlled grip." Lady Nagant explained to her. She got to the other stuff a second later. She grabbed Alice, adjusting her posture with a gentle but firm touch, "First, your stance. If you keep standing like that, then you will make everything harder for you. Feet shoulder-width apart."
Alice quickly followed her instructions, "Like that?"
"Yes. Now turn your body slightly sideways to the target; we want a smaller profile to minimize exposure. Bend your knees just a little. You want to be stable but flexible." Lady Nagant instructed her further as Alice followed all of her instructions, adjusting her stance. The older woman observed everything closer, nodding in approval whenever Alice followed her instructions in the right way, "Now, let's talk about the grip. The B Nambu has a distinct design, so you'll want to hold it firmly, but not too tight."
"Okay." Alice voiced her understanding of the explanation, doing her best to concetrate and follow the instructions the best she can. She adjusted her grip on the pistol, making sure to do in a way it would follow her instructor instructions and looked at Lady Nagant with a questioning look to silently ask her if she did this correctly.
"Good." Lady Nagant nodded in approval, pleased with Alice following more and more of her instructions in a way she wanted it and started another part of her explanation straight away, "Now, for sight alignment. The sights are different on this model, so take your time. Look through the rear sight and line up the front sight post with the target. Keep both eyes open if you can. It helps in certain situations. But dont't think much if you need to close one to focus. That's fine as well."
Alice adjusted her stance again, raising her pistol a bit and aligning it to make sure it was pointed at the bottle on the crate. She let out a deep breath, trying to keep herself and concetrated as she kept her eyes on her target, "Should I fire now?"
"In a moment." Lady Nagant replied, wanting to explain the last part to Alice before she'll fire her gun, "At first, let's talk about breathing and trigger control. Inhale deeply, then exhale slowly. On the exhale, gently squeeze the trigger. The B Nambu has a lighter trigger pull, so be smooth and steady. Don't jerk it."
"Alright." Alice replied in understanding, taking everything like her life depended as it probably will in the future. She inhaled deeply, then slowly exhaled. She pulled the trigger and her pistol fired a second later with the sound of a shot filling the area around her and the others. The bullet hit the bottle a second later, cracking it into pieces. She smiled at the view of it, "I got it!"
"Well done." Lady Nagant praised her with a look of approval on her face, stepping away from Alice to see how well she will do when she won't be next to her during their next try as Alice shifted her gaze to Gareth who kept himself on the sidelines during everything. She smiled at him and Gareth gave a thumbs up with his right hand, keeping his expression blank and used his left hand to place the next bottle on the crate with his red energy. She shifted her attention back to Lady Nagant as the said woman uttered, "Now, let's try another shot. This time, focus on a smooth trigger pull and maintaining your sight picture throughout."
"Okay." Alice replied, keeping her smile on her face as she felt her confidence in her shooting abilities rising a bit. Now she hoped she'll improve like this when Gareth will be teaching her how to fight. She reseted her stance a second later, getting another look of approval the other woman and prepared for another shot, eager to continue learning under Lady Nagant's guidance.
For the next half an hour, Alice continued to train herself how to shoot under Lady's Nagant guidance and managed to shoot a couple more bottles. Lady Nagant could tell Alice did a good job, despite not landing all of her shots straight away and needing adjust herself. When Alice run out of ammo in her pistol after a failed attempt, she used it as her chance teach the younger woman how to reload a pistol correctly. Alice was a fast learner here and learned it straight away. It wasn't so hard to learn as well.
Gareth watched everything from where he stood, using his red energy to place a new bottle on the crate whenever Alice managed to land her shot and occasionally giving the young blonde haired woman some encouraging words whenever she was close to shooting down a bottle. As he continued to watch them train together, eh couldn't help but me reminded of Origami and Mustard and whenever he watched Mustard train Origami in shooting until she didn't need to trained by him anymore.
The black haired boy pushed himself out of his thoughts a second later after Alice managed to destroy another bottle. Not wasting any time as he knew what he had to do, he moved his hand in order to place another bottle on the crate. He raised his brow in confusion a second later when nothing happened. He quickly realized Alice must have cracked all of the bottles. He quickly made sure to tell the others about it.
He shifted his gaze between Alice and Lady Nagant when he broke the news to them, "That's the last of them."
"Are you sure?" Lady Nagant wanted to be sure as Gareth nodded in confimation. She shifted her gaze from him to Alice a second later, "Alright. We should call it a day. You did well for your first time. If you'll keep going like this, then we'll finish our lessons quickly."
"Alright. Thank you so much for instructing me." Alice smile at her gratefully as she bowed her head in a grateful manner. Just as she bowed her head, the hair on her forehead moved a bit and the blonde haired young woman panicked a bit. She quickly adjusted her hair as Gareth and Lady Nagant exchanged confused glances with each other at her action. She quickly tried to take her attention off her forehead by adding, "It's what I should expect from one of the top sharpshooters in our country, right?"
Lady Nagant's eyes widened at Alice's words, "What?"
"I knew you were familiar to me ever since you gave us your name." Alice began her explanation as Gareth raised his brow at their interaction. How was Alice familiar with Lady Nagant?, "Your name is Tsutsumi Kaina otherwise known as Lady Nagant. You used to be one of the top heroes and one of the best snipers in our country when I was younger."
"What?" Gareth voiced his suprise, having had no idea of this as he shifted his gaze to Lady Nagant with a suprised look on his face as he wanted to know be sure whether it was truth or not, "You used to be a Pro-Hero?"
"Yeah." Lady Nagant confirmed it to him, letting out a sigh as she saw no point in lying to him after Alice revealed this truth about her.
"But you were locked up in Tartarus. What made you become a villain?" Gareth asked her, looking to be really intrigued by it as Alice opened her mouth, looking like she was about to explain it to him. Her words died in her throat, though as Lady Nagant shot her a cold look, demanding her to stay silent about it. Needless to say. It was enough to keep Alice quiet.
"I don't want to talk about it." Lady Nagant replied as she turned away from him and Alice and walked off to the other part of the building, "Since we're done with the shooting lesson, I'm gonna get going now. One of you should start preparing us dinner if you have something to eat with you. If you do, then let me know when the food will be ready."
Gareth watched Lady Nagant walk away with a intrigued look on his face and with a raised bow, now beginning to wonder what was her history and what caused her to become a villain if she used to be a hero in this country. He shifted his gaze to Alice a second later, seeing she was looking slightly regretful about bringing this up. He shifted his attention away from Alice, leaving himself with his thoughts about Lady Nagant.
Everything was dark now with the sun having completely went down and the moon having gone up and the tense atmosphere from the mention of Lady Nagant's past as a Pro-Hero slowly died down within the group of four. All of them were doing their own stuff in the abandoned building right now, keeping themselves occupied until they'll decide to call it a day once they'll have their dinner and go to sleep to end this day.
Gareth laid on the ground with his back pressed against Cyborg, waiting for Alice to finish making him and Lady Nagant dinner as the blonde haired woman volunteered to prepared this for them. Neither he or Lady Nagant had any complains about it. He slowly shifted his attention to Lady Nagant as he saw her sitting in the corner with her back leaning against the wall and her hands resting behind her head. As he continued to stare at her, he couldn't help but ask himself what made her go rogue.
"Food is up!" Alice declared a moment later as Gareth and Lady Nagant glanced in her direction and saw her placing all of the cup ramens she had prepared on the table. Not wasting any time, they got up from the ground and moved towards Alice. Alice sat down on a chair, grabbing one cup for herself as Gareth and Lady Nagant made their way to her and took their seats as well.
Gareth grabbed his cup ramen upon taking his seat and looked down at it with an almost sorrowful look on his face. Letting out a sigh, he said,, "This brings back memories."
"What do you mean?" Lady Nagant asked as she took her seat across from him. Alice's seat was located closer to him.
"It was what me and the others have been eating before we merged with the MLA." Gareth explained, keeping his eyes on the cup ramen. How much he wished he could go back to that time. He and the League may have been suffering from poverty, but at least all of them were happy and Twice and Tengai were still alive. Despite it being a difficult time for the League, he was genuinely happy back then.
Lady Nagant played a bit with her noodles in her cup, "I assume whatever food you had after you merged was a massive improvement from whatever this is."
"Yeah. It was." Gareth gave her a nod of confirmation. He almost smiled as he found himself thinking back to those times, "Mr. Compress used to dream a lot about eating sushi back then. He finally got what he wanted after we merged with the MLA. In fact. It was the first food Tomura-kun ordered for us as he remembered how much Compress wanted it."
Alice smiled, "Really? That was really sweet of him."
"Yeah." Gareth almost smiled back at her.
Just as the black haired boy was about to smile, he found himself thinking back to Shigaraki's burned body and how it happened because of him. Gareth stayed silent after that, leaving himself with his food as Alice and Lady Nagant ate their food in silence as well. It didn't take them long to finish their food as they finished it only in a few minutes. Once they were done eating their food, Gareth and Lady Nagant began preparing themselves to leave.
Lady Nagant placed her empty cup on the table, "We should call it a day."
"Yeah. I was thinking the same." Gareth nodded in agreement, having just placed his empty cup on the table as well and looked like he was about to stand up from his seat.
"Actually can you two wait for a moment?" Alice asked, "I need to ask you something."
Gareth looked at her questioningly, "What is it?"
"Has any of you played sudoku before?" Alice asked, looking like she was really hopeful about getting positive answer from them.
"Sudoku?" Lady Nagant asked as Gareth raised his brow.
"Yes. My grandpa taught me how to play this when I was younger." Alice nodded in confirmation as she reached into her backpack and pulled out all the necessary equipment for a game of sudoku, "I thought we could use something we could use to relax whenever we won't be doing anything so I brought my equipment for it. So what do you think?"
Gareth rubbed the back of his head as he was left unsure whether he should play it or not, "I don't know the rules."
"So do I." Lady Nagant added.
"I can explain everything to you. It's actually pretty easy once you get to know the rules and get hang of it. So, are you up for a few games with me before bed?" Alice brushed their concerns off, looking like she really wanted to play with them as Gareth and Lady Nagant exchanged glances with each other, having a short silent discussion with each other before making their choice.
Gareth voiced his answer a second later, "Alright. Let's give this a shot."
"I suppose it will be better than sitting around and doing nothing." Lady Nagant added a second later.
"Great. Let's get to this, then." Alice smiled widely as she felt herself growing excited by having someone she could play with in person. Ever since her grandpa died, she didn't have anyone she could play sudoku in real life. The only people she played sudoku with for the last two years were some internet strangers. She didn't waste any time aftewards and set everything up for them.
Gareth and Lady Nagant glanced at the table as a large sudoku puzzle was laid out before them by Alice. Alice began everything by explaining the basic rules, speaking clearly and slowly to make sure both of them understood everything. She described how each row, column, and 3x3 sub-grid must contain the numbers 1 through 9 without repetition. As she continued her explanation, she glanced at Gareth and Lady Nagant who did their best to listen to everything she had to say to them and did their best to understand it.
Alice smiled to herself, seeing both of them trying to understand her explanation as she guided Gareth and Lady Nagant more by having them solve an easy puzzle together. They started by identifying the "givens," or the numbers already provided in the grid with Alice offering them advice and words of encouragament every now and then. One of her advices included telling them to look for the "low-hanging fruit" which was explained to them to be places where numbers can be easily placed due to limited options.
As Gareth and Lady Nagant continued to play as their progress was slowly becoming visible with each passing moment to Alice, the blonde haired young woman decided it was time to explain more to them and explained strategies such as scanning and cross-hatching to help them spot the correct numbers. Gareth slowly found himself smilling as he found himself understanding more and more of the rules.
He was having fun.
For the first time since his clash with the heroes happened, he actually found himself having fun with something.
All the fun he was having right now faded away just as he found hmself smilling, though as his surrounding became darker all of a sudden. He found himself in a complete darkness with Alice or Nagant or Cyborg being nowhere to be seen. He gasped, tensing up a bit as he felt someone or rather something standing behind him. He slowly looked over his shoulder and his eyes widened a bit as he saw a dark figure standing behind him.
He couldn't tell who this figure was straight away due this figure being completely dark. He managed to recognize who it was a second later. The silhouette of this person made it more than clear to him. It was him. It was his past self. The very same self which haunted him in his dream the day after his clash with the heroes. He could see his past self in this figure more clearly after realizing who it was. The longer hair really gave it away.
"Never forget that it's all your fault. You have no right to be happy or feel fun..." His younger self told him with a dark distorted voice as Gareth turned away from him to look ahead of himself with an unnerved look on his face, feeling a really cold chill go down his spine at the sound of his younger selves voice. Despite his voice being distorted, Gareth could hear everything he had to just to him pretty well. It was almost as if he was making his voice perfectly audible to him just to make sure Gareth heard all of this.
Gareth dropped his pencil on the table, feeling all the air leave in his lungs in an instant as he gasped for air. Alice and Lady Nagant immediately forget about their game and looked at him, taken aback by his sudden action. The black haired boy placed both of his hands on the table, feeling himself growing more unnerved and more out of breath with each passing. He did his best to steady his breathing to no avail as he continued to hyperventilate. Alice and even Lady Nagant looked at him in concern.
"Kid?" Lady Nagant asked with her brows furrowed with a mixture of concern and confusion on her face.
"Gareth? Are you okay?" Alice asked him with concern evident in her voice and on her face, completely forgetting about the game and the fun they were having right now as
Gareth stayed silent, not replying to either of the women in any way as he continued to struggle with his own breathing. He got up from the chair in a quick rough manner, knocking over his chair on the floor in the process. He kept his hands on the table, slowly managing to regain his breathing but it was still far from being steadied. He glanced at Alice and Lady Nagant again a second later, seeing both of them were still looking at them with their expressions unchanged.
"I'm fine. I just got dizzy here. I just need a moment alone to compose myself." The black haired boy excused himself, letting out one deep shaky breath after another as he quickly turned away from the two women and pushed himself into walk into the deeper parts of the building where he would calm himself down. He wasn't the only one who went there. Cyborg followed him.
Lady Nagant watched them leave together, waiting until Gareth was out of their view and shifted her gaze to Alice with her mixture of confusion and concern turning into a questioning look, "What was that all about?"
"Not again..." Alice shook her head in concern, keeping her eyes on the direction Gareth had just gone off into with Cyborg following him.
"Not again?" Lady Nagant raised her brow at her choice of words, "Did something like that happened earlier?"
Alice looked at Lady Nagant and let out a sigh. Despite Lady Nagant having just joined her and Gareth, she felt like she had to tell her about it. Especially after what just happened, "Yeah. It did. In my apartament about two hours before we left it. I went to check on him when he was about to have a shower and I saw him having some sort of emotional breakdown inside."
"I see." Lady Nagant said in understanding, letting out a sigh, "Do you know what's wrong with him?"
Alice sighed sadly, "He blames himself for what happened."
"What do you mean?" Lady Nagant wanted to know.
"Tell me. Do you know what went down between the PLF and the heroes all those days ago? With Hawks being the heroes spy and all." Alice wanted to know if Lady Nagant knew this before she'll explain everything to her as Lady Nagant nodded in confirmation, sucking in a breath at the mention of Hawks, "He blames himself for not doing anything about him. All bad stuff which happened to his comrades, he is convinced it's all his fault even after I tried talking with him about it. In fact. I think he is punishing himself for it. I barely managed to make him eat something while we were in my apartament. He passed out out of exhaustion and hunger when I first met him as well."
Alice went further into her words as Lady Nagant listened to everything she had to say to her about Gareth, "Even though I had just met him, I can tell he is someone who cares deeply about his comrades. If you were there in my apartament, then you'd know what I'm talking about. He saved me when he first met me as well as I got jumped by one of the escaped convincts. Even when the convict tried to convince him to let him due to both of them being villains, he still refused to let him go and killed him as the convict was going against what he believed in. He genuinely wants to create a better world for people like him or me or the rest of the League or people like them."
"I see..." Lady Nagant replied, looking down with a thoughtful look on her face as she looked like there was something for her to think about and Alice watched her without saying anything. The older woman nodded to herself a second later, looking like she had just decided on something as she glanced at Alice again a second later and called out for her, "Alice."
Alice raised brow at her, "Yeah?"
"Why did you decide to come with him?" Lady Nagant voiced her question to her.
"No. It's not just because of that. Because I believe him in him for all the reasons I just gave to you." Alice gave her an honest answer, "It was before he even saved me. I was openly showing my support of him before I met hm. When I first saw the confession of the Mask, for the first time since my grandpa passed away two years ago I haven't felt so alone. His video. It awoke something in me. I could relate so much to some of the stuff he said there..."
"What do you mean?" Lady Nagant grew intrigued at Alice's words.
Alice sighed sadly when he gave her the answer, "Let's just say him getting bullied at school due to you being a Quirkless person making you an easy target for bullies and people at school never doing anything about it was something I related to the most."
Lady Nagant sighed, "Oh..."
"Yeah." Alice nodded in confirmation, letting out another sigh as she pointed at her forehead, "Scars from that period of my life will stay with me forever."
"Scars?" Lady Nagant looked at her questioningly, "What do you mean? You look perfectly normal to me."
"It's because I'm hiding it." Alice explained as she kept pointing at her covered forehead, "Why do you think I kept my forehead covered with either my hair or hood?"
Lady Nagant looked at Alice with her expession growing more sad with each passing second. The older woman gently reached out towards Alice's head a second later and moved the younger's woman hair away from her forehead. Nagant's eyes widened a bit after seeing what Alice was trying to hide underneath her hair. She saw a few burned scars there. She could tell what kind of scars they were and what would create them. Someone must have burned Alice's forehead with cigarettes in the past.
Alice sighed sadly upon seeing Nagant's reaction to her scars, "I'm trying to hide those as much as I can. I outgrew my hair for this reaosn as well as I used to have a shorter hair when I was younger. I think you can imagine how people react when they see cigarette buds scars on my face."
"Yeah..." Lady Nagant sighed sadly herself, looking at Alice with a sympathetic look on her face as she felt bad for the blonde haired woman.
She pulled her hand away from her forehead a second later and looked in the direction Gareth had gone off into. Forming a thoughtful look on her face, she decided to go talk with him as she knew what could take his mind off of what happened. The talk she had received from Alice about him helped her make this choice of sharing this information with Gareth.
She got up from her seat a second later and pushed herself into walk in Gareth's direction, "I'm gonna go talk with him. You stay here."
"You don't want me to come with you?" Alice asked.
Lady Nagant shook her head, "No. This is something I want to do alone. I have something I walk to talk with him about, but I want to do it in private. If everything goes right, you'll find out what it was later."
"Okay..." Alice nodded with a look of sad understanding on her face.
The blonde haired young woman watched Lady Nagant walk off until the older woman vanished from her view, leaving her in the room all by herself. Alice looked down at her unfinished sudoku, going back to work on it as she wanted to occupy herself with something while Lady Nagant will have her conversation with Gareth. Just as Alice went back to working on finishing her sudoku, Lady Nagant found Gareth as she made her way to the other room in the building.
She saw him leaning against Cyborg for support, pinching the bridge of his nose as he continued to let out one deep breath after another in continous attempts of steadying his breathing. Even though his breathing was still not as calm as it should be, he was close to getting there and he didn't have trouble breathing anymore. Lady Nagant remained where she stood, watching him calm himself down as she didn't want to risk starling him and making him nervous again.
Gareth finally managed to compose himself a moment later and looked towards the doorway to the room where he saw Lady Nagant staring at him. He looked at her questioningly, "For how long have you been standing there?"
"I just arrived." Lady Nagant crossed her arms as she gave him her answer, "You left us quite worried there."
"If you say so. Looks like I just can't stop making people worried for me. Even if they are complete strangers.." Gareth sighed as Lady Nagant looked at him pitfully. He glanced at her a second later, "Do you need something."
Lady Nagant nodded in confirmation and stepped closer to him, "Yes. I want to talk with you about something."
"But we already talked..." Gareth began to say, thinking she wants to talk about her hunt for Izuku again.
Lady Nagant shook her head, "No. It's about something else."
"What do you mean?" Gareth raised his brow in confusion as he didn't know why she would want to talk with him aside from the Izuku related stuff.
Lady Nagant stopped next to him, letting out a sigh and voiced her question to him, "Tell me. Do you want to know why I ended up going rogue?"
You have no idea how happy I am that I managed to get this chapter out on the fifth of August and everything went according to plans in that matter as I started to work on this chapter a bit later than I planned due to me taking a few day break from writing due to a chapter for one of my stories having over 30k words and me needing some rest after finishing it.
My Hero Academia has come to an end and I'm conflicted about the ending as I feel like it could have been better. Honestly, I feel like Midoroya should've gotten the suit a few days after the war to help the others rebuild Japan instead of being forced to stop living his dream for 8 years. We didn't get a definitive answer to Izuku and Ochaco's relationship as well after all this built up as well.
Either way, I'm happy to have been a part of MHA's journey for the last three years and I'm sad to see it end. I'll definitely miss waiting for new chapters. Here's hoping Horikoshi will use this to get some well deserved rest.
Saw Deadpool and Wolverine and it was worth seeing this. It was a fun movie. The bromance between Deadpool and Wolverine was fun. All the cameos were fun as well.
We got the trailer and the date for the finale of Murder Drones and I'm really excited for it. Here's hoping V will be somehow alive.
Finished Frieren. I really liked it.
We got some new news regarding Hazbin Hotel and I'm happy with most of the stuff we've gotten. The Baxter stuff (I'm already shipping him with Niffty, lol.) and the confirmation of Alastor's backstory is all great news. The only thing I'm unhappy about is the eight episodes stuff again as I was hoping Amazon will allow more episodes this time. Let's just hope the episodes will be a bit longer to make the season feel less rushed.
Hope it wasn't so bad. See you in another chapter.
