Izuku was sitting in a corner on the school fields during recess, his gochizos by his side as he wrote on his hero book, however this was a different one then the others he had done before, as this one was solely about his quirk and the hero persona he was trying to develop, and currently struggling with a name for it

"Treat master? Meh, kinda lame. Maybe Snack former? No, how about Food-fighter? Sounds a bit off, then-"

"Yo bush hair!" Shouted Bakugo as he approached Izuku, in the years that followed he had become much more short tempered and aggressive, not to mention a bit of pride in his quirk. But while most feared him because he was quick to lash out that was not the case with Izuku, the two were still good friends and although Bakugo was more aggressive in the way he talked, Izuku knew what he truly meant when he spoke out an angry remark

"Ah! Kanchan! What do you want?" Izuku asked as the brash blonde came closer and sat by his side, letting out a sigh as he laid his back against the wall

"Heard what happened from my mom, you really fought a villain?" He asked as his mother and Izuku's were gossiping buddies, so he knew what happened, Inko felt like venting some frustration out at times and Mitsuki was good company to talk to, she didn't give the whole story, just that they were attacked by a villain and Izuku held him off until a hero showed up

"Yeah... Got my butt handed to me at the start but I got the upper hand thanks to my gochizos" Izuku said as he wasn't lying, he just omitted the fact he transformed and gave the guy one mean kick. Bakugo simply believed that Izuku had used his physical might and his gochizos to distract the guy as his mother called out for help

"Can't believe there was just a fucking cannibal in our town, and if he gave you a beating then he was a strong one at that" Bakugo said as he reflected on that, Izuku was the strongest none hero he knew from their town, for him to get beat up badly when he could tank falling down a flight of stairs was no thing to gloss over, and the villain's endurance must have been great as Izuku hit like a truck. At least the fucker was arrested, he hoped the guy gets the chair, no one threaten his aunt and best friend. It was then that he noticed the book Izuku was working

"What is this?" Bakugo said as he picked the notebook away from Izuku, the boy tried getting it back but Bakugo just pushed him back as he flipped and read the pages

"It's nothing! I was just doodling and-"

"Are these your hero costume designs? They look good for stuff based on frickin food" Bakugo said as he pointed at some of the designs, like chocodan and popping gummy, as he went back to flipping through the notebook "Though you might be overdoing it with some of this, potato chip blades? That's just ridiculous"

"Ah yes... I'm just planning out my persona you know? I heard that a lot of heroes take great care when developing their hero identities" Izuku thanked the heavens for his luck at the moment, Bakugo completely misunderstood what the notes and drawings meant! Probably because he hadn't filled them with too many long descriptions like he usually did, as he was more focused on drawing the suits as accurately as possible

"So your plan is to use a bunch of support items and armors to make it into the big leagues? I don't think that's going to work out" Bakugo said as he gave a few more looks on the note book before giving it back to Deku, he had to lay down to him on why this idea wasn't going to fly, he was just being realistic here, having a suit or tool for any occasion and fight was good on paper but it would need resources to develop and that would require funding "Sorry but you don't have the money to fund this tech, and I don't think hero agencies would make the investment for someone with such a weak quirk"

Izuku took no offense from what his friend had said, it was a logical conclusion to come to from what he knew of his quirk currently and what meaning the drawings and notes in the notebook had, specially when it all sounded absurd with the whole armor made of lollipops or ice cream, but o how wrong his friend was, he didn't need much to make those equipments as just a bag of candy would suffice

"Uh actually..." Izuku stopped to think for a moment, should he really tell Bakugo about this? Only his mom and Dente knew of it for now and he didn't know if this is just a thing he should tell and show. Especially if he was going to do "illegal" hero work, by no means did he plan on going out a lot to fight villains before getting his license in UA, he could get into serious trouble if caught but he just couldn't help it after making up his mind

But to tell Bakugo, show him that the quirk that most people in their class dismissed as nothing much could make him a powerful and versatile hero with his own equipment and suit, was it the right choice to make at this time? He knew Bakugo wouldn't snitch him to the authorities but how would that affect their relationship as friends?

"... I already have most of it taken care, I'll show you one of this days" Izuku said, he just needed more time to wrap his head on the matter, then he would tell him when it felt right, maybe before the exam, he was definitely going to use his Gavv powers on UA so before or after could be better

"Let me guess, at the entrance exam? You're a dick head if you plan on making me wait that long" Bakugo said as he gave Deku a playful hit on the elbow, honestly he was impatient and wanted to see what that was about but he was going to give him the time to prepare, hoping to see if it would be worth

Izuku nodded and soon the bell rang, symbolizing for them to return to class, the rest of the time in school was uneventful, and soon they were out as Izuku went straight to home, greeting his mother and grabbing a quick snack as he entered his room

"Alright, gather around everyone" he called out as the Gochizos began to come out from various nooks and crannies around the room, joining up to lay on his bed

"Listen everyone, I want you all to go around town in patrol, looking for people that might need help, but only if it is a villain activity and there's no hero nearby, got it?" Izuku explained, as much as he would like to help out as many people as he could, it was absurd to believe that somehow he could help five people at the same time, plus he still felt a bit worried about the whole thing so he would just suit up and fight if it was something that it would need a hero and none were available in the moment, the Gochizos made sounds of agreement and nodded

"Then scatter!" Izuku said as the Gochizos in bed jumped and went to his window, jumping out from it and spreading as they were determined to fulfill their orders. Izuku sighed until he heard a notification from his phone, he grabbed it from the desk and saw he had a message from Dente

'Meet me at the beach full of thrash, bring snacks'

The only beach full of thrash Izuku knew of was the Dagobah beach, a place that had become a ilegal dumbing ground, people kept throwing thrash there even though it was punishable by law, it was done so much and with a the thrash pilling up on itself, the local government just gave up. Why his grand uncle wanted to met him there was a mystery for the young hero but he had to go see it, so after filing a bag with some cookies and chips, he went to the beach, going through the piles of thrash until seeing his uncle atop of a rusty and busted fridge

"So um Uncle Dente, what are we doing here?" Izuku asked as he looked around, this area seemed to have been cleaned a bit as to be a small clearing from the surrounding scrap, he also saw some strange assortment of things that seemed man-made using the scrap metal around

"Getting to training, you said that the heaviest things you could lift weighted 1 ton right?" Dente said as he snapped his finger at Izuku, who complied with a affirmative nod

"Well, here's your training weights! Each side weighs 2 tons!" Dente said as he pointed to a frankly absurd sight, two big misshapen balls of metal tied together to a thick steel bar for construction sites with below it being a bench made of flatten car and a busted up bed. It was as impressive as it was weird that his uncle made those from the thrash around here, but Izuku could only wonder what exactly was people thinking when throwing things here "And if you tire from that, we can have you do some cardio, grab this fridge I'm sitting on and run some laps!"

"I thought we would work on my transformations?" Izuku said as he thought he needed to improve on those before anything, he still had trouble using the lollipop mech form weapons, his aim with chocodan could always be better and he needed to better handle swordsmanship to use the potato chip form

"Ah but we are, this is just to strengthen you to not rely on them too much" Dente said as he jumped down from the fridge he had been using as chair

"From what I got from your mom's account of the fight, seems like you're weaker than the average Granute normally, only matching or overpowering them when transformed" Dente said as from Inko's explanation of the events that awoke Izuku's powers, he was losing bad the fight up until he transformed, and seeing that his strength was far less than the normal Granute his age should be. A side effect of being only half Granute most likely, a weaker base state but with access to plenty of transformations to even the odds and adapt in a fight

"That's bad no? Others won't just let you transform during a fight, you have to get stronger in your natural state before relying on that power. Plus it will help you build up that stamina to use finishers" Dente finished his explanation, he was by no means an exercise guru but he knew of the limits of a Granute's body, so he had some knowledge on how to better develop, if he accounts for Izuku's weaker human side then he could most certainly make some basic health tips for the boy to improve.

"Right, it makes sense, thanks Uncle Dente" Izuku nodded as he took in his grand uncle's words, seeing the truth in them. He couldn't just rely on his transformation all the time as a crutch, heroes didn't always go all out in a fight with any common villain for various reasons, Izuku didn't want to be just good when he was transformed because then he would be unprepared for a situation like a surprise attack or when he ran out of gochizos to use

"Nah don't thank me yet, at least not without something to eat first" Dente said as he came in and placed a hand over Izuku's shoulder, the boy caught on what he was implying with this and his previous text message. He lifted up the bag and gave it to his uncle as he looked at the contents marveled "OK! Now go do ten sets on the bars"

"Yeah, we are going out this weekend! Can't believe he finally asked me out! What no of course I wasn't the one that asked him-" A young woman said as she spoke to the phone with her friend, crossing a tunnel as a man in a track suit was doing a jog past her. The man stopped and turned around as he lifted his tracksuit to reveal a month in his stomach that shot out a long tongue that wrapped around the woman almost instantly as her body glowed and compressing it as in place of the woman, a sort of acrylic stand wrapped in a cut off tongue was on the ground, as the jogger went and grabbed it

On a corner of the tunnel, a gochizo shook in place scared after witnessing what happened as it then slapped itself in the face with its stubby little hands to put forth a courageous bravado, as it began trailing the man in a track suit from a distance

Later, Izuku returned exhausted to home, he never did training in his life before and it showed, though most would consider running several laps across a block carrying around 2 to 4 tons worth of weight in trash would be considered well beyond exercise, it supposedly should be light work for a Granute by Dente's statement. After thanking his mother for dinner, he fell on bed inclined to sleep the night away

Unfortunately, a repeated tapping in his window took him off from the dream express, he went to see one of the Gochizos he sent on patrol was the one causing the tapping as he opened the window to let it inside

"Uh? What is it little guy?" Izuku said as he lowered his face to get closer to the Gochizo, as it began retelling what it saw in sounds only Izuku could understand

"A woman was kidnapped?!" Izuku shouted in shock before covering his mouth, hoping that didn't wake his mom. He refocused on the gochizo "Can you take me to his hide out?"

"An old warehouse, should have expected that" Izuku said as he observed the rusting building, clear signs that it hadn't been used in official capacity in a while. He took a popping gummy Gochizo and placed it on the stomach belt, turning the crank and hitting the button as he transformed

He entered the warehouse through one of the broken windows, trying his best to remain silent and hidden as he and his gochizos made their way inside. He peaked through the corner of a wooden crate as he saw a man in a tracksuit hold up a acrilic stand wrapped on something, seemingly very pleased with it

"Already starting the week good, this should be worth a great amount" the man smiled as he rolled the compressed young woman in his palm as he thought how this one would make a fine dark treat. Izuku took a step forward to get a better angle, only for his feet to make contact with a puddle from the leaking ceiling, making a relatively loud splash sound on the otherwise quiet warehouse

"Who's there?!" The man asked as he almost fell backwards from his chair, Izuku cursed under his breath as he stepped out of his hiding spot to face the villain directly. The man looked at him angered but then took notice of what was in his stomach"Wait is that... A red Gavv?"

"Release that woman villain! Or face gummy justice!" Izuku said as he pointed at the man, realizing that what he said wasn't as cool as he thought it sounded, adding a mental note to practice one liners after this. The man got up from his seat as he laid the compressed woman inside a box before closing the lid

"What? Wait, are you a turncoat? A Granute playing hero? You have brain damage?" The man asked and sent a look of confused indignation at the young hero, baffled that a member of their kind was going around pretending to be a hero or some shit, maybe he was a rival gatherer and was trying to steal from him, but then why the stupid theatrics?

"Whatever, I will just deal with you" the man said as he took off an item from his stomach mouth, transforming from a human into a monster with various tentacles, two in the place of his hands and four coming out from his shoulders, two on the back and two on the front, though he retained his mouth full of teeth in his stomach "Be honest, you're here to grab my goods so you can give it for a dark treat right?"

"Huh?" Izuku just tilted his head at that, once again a villain talked about a concept he had no idea of but they spoke like he was supposed to know about it

"Well too bad! I'm not letting anyone get in between me and my dark treats! So find your own humans to compress!" The Granute said as he waved a tentacle at Izuku to shush him away, he was not willing to allow some weirdo get his hardworking product to ease his way into getting a dark treat, o how he would savor each and every single one he would gain, certainly if he meet his quota and brought high quality spice he would receive a extra as a bonus

"Dark treats? What are you talking about? I'm here to save that woman!" Izuku exclaimed, he wasn't here for some treats! Whatever they may be, he just came here to rescue that woman and stop a villain

"... Oh shit, you aren't doing this for dark treats? You genuinely want to help out these horrible pathetic things? Haha! You're a traitor and a fool!" The tentacle granite laughed for a good solid minute as Izuku stood there baffled by why this guy cared so much for some treats, the Granute wiped a test from its eye, before flinging it's tentacle arm at Izuku, the thing extending a few meters as he rolled out of the way

Close the distance, that's what he thought as he decided to run towards the Granute, who retaliated by making a few more swipes with its tentacles as Izuku narrowly avoided them, he tried to go in for a punch but the granite reacted first and wrapped a tentacle around his arm

"Oh oh" Izuku exclaimed as he was flung across the warehouse, hitting a stack of wooden boxes, he picked himself up and looked just in time to roll out of the way of a tentacle slam as the Granute approached him

"His good at the middle range, I need something to work against the tentacles" Izuku whispered to himself, he focused on a feeling in his stomach as his Gavv glowed and popped out the Gavvgablade as he grabbed it and ran to the Granute

The Granute attacked with its tentacles but Izuku reacted by slashing them with the blade, cutting them before they could get to him as he closed the distance, the Granute shrieked as his cut tentacles retreated, Izuku took the chance and leapt above him while making a vertical slash, sparks coming from the Granute's body from its contact to the blade as he fell to the ground

"AAAAH! My god, oh fuck! My arms! You cut off my arms!" The Granute said while letting out a visceral scream before starting to whimper faintly

"A-a-a-ah! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! I'll call an ambulance and-"

"Sike" the granute said as the tentacles regrew almost immediately as he used the one of them from his back to grab the Gavvgablade and flung it away and the rest to grab Izuku, as he got up "Man, you hero types always fall for that? I got two the same way"

Izuku fought as he tried to free himself from the tentacles as wished his plate mask had a hole so he could bite one of these things off himself, the granute softly chuckled as it planned to watch him struggle further, until he was hit in the eye by something

"Ouch! What did-" he saw on the ground a little weird box with eyes and picked it up as he brought it close to his face, only for the Gochizo to reveal its arms and mouth as it popped out of his hand and into his head "Gah! What the heck is this thing!?"

With its attention elsewhere, Izuku's restraints faltered and he was able to free himself as ripped one of the tentacles from his right arm before doing it again for his left. Landing and performing a roundhouse kick on the Granute away as he grabbed the Gochizo mid air

"Potato chips? I could do with some salty weaponry" he said as he placed the chip Gochizo in his Gavv belt after the gummy Gochizo... Well, died after evaporating, Izuku being pretty sure he heard it let out a happy cry as its spirit flew away

Snack!

He started to turn the crank as the Granute got up dizzy, watching confusedly at Izuku and the strange musical jiggle that was made as he transformed

Eat a snack! Eat a snack!

He pressed the button and the Gochizo was deployed as his gummy armor evaporated and various potato chips flew in and covered his body in layers, his visor was two potatoes that split in half into chips to match the rest of his outfit, energy formed in his hands as two blades formed, being made of chips and having its handles look like bags, with them being wielded in both hands

Zakuzakuchips! Zakkuzaku!

"What the? A change of uniform won't help!" The Granute said as he sent out all of his tentacles again, Izuku stood still as they approached, reacting last minute as he cut four of them in an quick and fluid motion, the other two got too close for him to cut so he just lifted the blades to block the blow, succeeding at it as the tentacles simply pushed him back as his feet dragged across the ground

The two blades cracked as pieces of them fell to the ground, the Granute was about to laugh at his opponents broken weapons only for them to have a glow appear and a new set of chips forming the blades to appear

"You're not the only one with regenerative weapons anymore!" Izuku said triumphantly as he pointed at the Granute, though his physical attributes were halved in this form and it was weak against hard impacts, the weapons it made, the Zakuzakuchipslashers more than compensated for it, not only could they cut through things the Gavvgablade couldn't but even though they broke if struck at the right angle, their ability to simply regenerate almost instantly helped a lot

Izuku went and ran at the Granute, who tried to attack again with its tentacles just for Izuku to cut them again and again, closing the distance as the two began to exchange blows as the Granute half hazardly threw around its meaty tentacles as Izuku did his best to avoid with his diminished speed, countering it by cutting the tentacles with his blades while using them block some blows

They were in a struggle that would be ended once one of them had their stamina drained, and although Izuku wasn't used to doing too much physical exertion for long periods of time, the Granute was beginning to pant and sweat the more he kept regenerating his missing limbs, a clear limitation to his powers.

Izuku noticed his opponents worsening condition and took advice of that as he started to also slash at his main body, and interesting the cuts weren't regenerating as he deduced it was characteristic of only the tentacles. He did a jump over the Granute and struck it with a kick that sent him to the ground Ashe began to turn the crank of his Gavv

Charge me! Charge me!

"I will give you two options, give up now or have me beat you up, what will it be?" Izuku offered rather coldly as he felt the empowering energy as his body and gochizo in the belt were getting energized

"Huff...Go to... Hell!" The Granute said as he got up and tried to lunge at Izuku, he simply gave it a roundhouse kick to send him back as he prepared to use the finisher

Zakuzaku Chips Storm!

He threw his hands back before launching them forward, the blade of both of the Zakuzakuchipslashers broke into multiple pieces, they flew around the Granute and began to rapidly slash at him, the blades reformed for Izuku as he went and performed a series of slashes along with the broken chips as he finalized with a spinning motion as he sliced through the Granute, knee screpping the ground as he blasted through the rusty metal wall of the warehouse as the Granute exploded. Panting as he fell to his knees

"Too... Weak, can't pass out yet" Izuku said as he held on with heavy breathing as he used the blades to support himself up, he looked back at the Granute he fought and found no body there, he probably had escaped while he wasn't looking or maybe he had killed him... Nah, he knew there was no way for that to have happened, though he felt a bit too neutral over the thought of having killed a member of his species... It was probably nothing

"Know... How do I fix you?" Izuku said as he went and retrieved the compressed woman from the box as he observed it in his hand, but his focus fell on the strange almost organic looking material that was wrapped around it

"This yucky rope must have something to do with it" Izuku said as he used one of the chip blades to cut all of it, the compressed form of the woman glowed as it practically flew out of Izuku's hand as it expanded in size, its glow stopped as now the woman's body was on the floor as she started to wake up

"Huh? What... Happened?" She asked as placed a hand to her aching forehead

"Are you okay miss?" Izuku asked concerned about her as he reached out a hand

"Ahhh! Monster!" She screamed as she dragged herself backwards on the floor

"No, no! I'm not a monster just a... Vigilante until I get a hero license I suppose" he admitted as he realized he just did a vigilante thing, making justice with his own hands while keeping a secret identity

"Why am I in a warehouse?" She asked scared as she observed the old and rundown place

"Ah, you were kidnapped by a villain and I was patrolling the region when I saw him enter this place and decided to investigate since it was very suspicious" Izuku explained his history, it was better to let out the more unbelievable parts, after all, saying to distress person he knew of what happened because he had dozens of minions on his control that were constantly on the look out around town looking for trouble would probably just freak her out

"...And where is he?" The woman asked with worry in her voice, Izuku thought about what to say as she clearly wanted to know where and what happened to her kidnapper, he couldn't just say that he let the guy escape as that would make her scarred and restless... Perhaps a little lie would be better, even if it might paint him the wrong way

"I kinda... Exploded him, you can see the ashes from our fight there" Izuku pointed at the scene of his fight as the woman looked at the destruction the two had made, especially the burnt ashes on the ground, she sighed in relief

"Okay... Thank you, do you have a name?" She asked and Izuku tensed up as he hadn't really decided on his hero name yet, so many options were flooding his head, he could change it when he made his official debut on UA but he couldn't think of anything in the moment as he didn't want to be known as Snack Former or something

"... I haven't decided on one yet, sorry" he said sheepishly as he bowed down apologetically as he turned to get away "stay safe!"

After making his way home, Izuku snuck inside and slammed himself in bed, he didn't know what time it was or how much sleep he realistically could get before having to wake up but that didn't matter, any sleep was good sleep for his tired body. With his only hope being that he could come up with a decent hero name in his dreams

[Author's Notes]

So there were two suggestions for who should be Valen, N00B7y suggested Koichi Haimawari from Vigilantes; and Thenewbiewriter2000 suggested Taneo Tokuda.

I'm going to be honest and say that though koichi could fit as a secondary rider, he technically doesn't need the Valen buster as his quirk even though first seeming very normal and even weak later becomes strong enough to put him in the top fifteen in terms of power (goes from being able to slide and glide through surfaces to manipulating repulsive force giving him projectiles, force fields and the ability to fly), and if I make him a reporter like Hanto... Then why not just use Hanto?

Taneo Tokuda does work a bit more in my opinion as his quirk is relatively weak and not combat focused (can make camera lenses come out of his body and take pictures with them he can print out of his chest) and as a reporter he could find out about the Granute and Izuku as he takes a interest in the matter but he needs a motivation to become Valen

I'm honestly thinking of maybe just using Hanto from canon Gavv, maybe change his motivation to be to find his mother's kidnapper/killer and he became a reporter instead of a hero because he has a non combat quirk. But what do you guys think? Should I just use Hanto?

Blakkneko: I noticed it! It was a left over of an earlier draft where he used the Zakuzakuchips instead of Chocodan and I forgot it when I changed my mind and made him use a different gochizo

Zeryo: I don't know about killing her, maybe kidnapped and slightly tortured but not killed, otherwise Deku could end up breaking too much too early. I have a different idea of what his realization of the dark reality he is involved in is but that's a bit later in this mini arc