Inko examined the man briefly, before showing a smile.
"Oh dear, I wasn't expecting visitors! Could you give me just a second to tidy up?"
The man seemed apprehensive, but shrugged. "If it would make you more comfortable, Ma'am"
Inko closed the door, and quickly walked over to where Mitsuki was sitting down.
"So, what did that brat want?" Inko's foul-mouthed friend asked.
Inko grabbed her friend and started pulling her away, towards the back exit, down the fire escape.
"Inko, what the hell are you doing?" Mitsuki said, as she resisted her friend's pull.
"That man was not one of Izuku's friends!" Inko stated forcefully.
"And how the hell do you know that? I don't know about your son, but mine has become friends with plenty of shady people before"
"Izuku isn't your son, Mitsuki," Inko quickly retorted. She wasn't blind to all of Katsuki's past actions.
"And besides, think about it. Why would one of Izuku's friends be here, instead of at the Sports Festival? And don't you think it's a bit odd that he got here right after it was announced to the world that he was quirkless?"
Mitsuki looked at her old friend, begrudging acceptance of their situation forming on her face. "So what's the plan"
Inko looked at her sternly.
"We run"
Ms Joke was sitting in the announcer's booth as principal Nedzu walked in.
"Ah, the representative from Ketsubutsu. How wonderful to see you. I have to thank you for filling in for Aizawa here"
Ms. Joke nodded. "No problem Sir, but about that… Shouldn't we notify the HPSC about this, if one of the students' parents is in danger?"
Nedzu climbed up onto the other announcer's seat, and sat, his small head not even reaching the top of the seat's frame.
"Here's the thing. If we announce this, then the HPSC will "investigate" and claim that this happened due to a security leak. They'll take it as an opportunity to gain control of UA"
"And what will not speaking up do? If it's a public attack, the truth will come out!"
Nedzu sighed. "Ms. Joke, how do you suppose they got the information in the first place?"
Ms Joke didn't have an answer to that question.
He continued. "The most likely answer is that the HPSC president stole it while he was in here"
Ms Joke stood up from her seat. "But sir, that would be way too reckless! Imagine the consequences if he was caught!"
"But he wasn't," Nedzu stated. "And there are no security cameras here, as you may have noticed. Unfortunate for us, but we can still get out of this predicament"
Nedzu smiled. "If we can convince the media that whatever attack is about to happen actually happened about 1 or 2 hours later, then…"
"You can play it off as an attack from someone in the neighborhood who found out that Midoriya was quirkless?"
Nedzu nodded. "So you figured out that Midoriya is the most likely target?"
Ms. Joke nodded. "I mean, who else would be a target? The rest of this year is pretty much the same as last year, the only thing that's changed…"
"Is a quirkless student amidst their ranks" Nedzu finished the sentence for her.
He sighed. "The best chance we have is to play it off as a direct result of the HPSC's earlier interference. We just have to hope that anyone who witnesses the attack can be paid off. But I'm not worried about that. Every human has their price"
He hopped off the chair, falling for a second before landing on the floor. He walked out of the room quickly and quietly.
"Good luck, Ms Joke, I hope that your comments will be as entertaining as my two student's bickering"
That statement rattled around in Ms Joker's head.
"YOU TAUGHT ERASERHEAD?" She yelled in surprise. But he did not hear the exclamation, as the principal had already left the room.
The air was chilly, and the crowd was silent.
Anticipation hung in the air, as Izuku and Ochaco sized each other up, waiting on the countdown.
They had been waiting for quite a while now. Was there some sort of problem?
But then an unfamiliar, feminine voice rang out from the intercom.
"Sorry about the intermission, we were having some technical difficulties"
A range of groans and whispers rang out from the crowd. Izuku couldn't blame them. UA was supposed lets get it going!to be the best of the best, and the festival was already well behind schedule.
"Hey now, don't worry, there's gonna be no more dawdling! We're gonna get straight into it. Are you ready for the final round, folks?"
The crowd roared. The cheering was deafening, and left Izuku wishing he had brought earplugs.
"Alright!" The lady on the intercom cheered back. "Let's get it going! Say it with me now!"
"THREE"
The crowd roared. Ochako shouted over it. "Good luck, Midoriya!"
"TWO"
"You too, Uraraka"
"ONE"
"GOOOOO"
Izuku and Ochako rushed forward in tandem.
Ochako reached out once she was in range, attempting to float Izuku quickly, in order to quickly end the fight.
But Izuku didn't let that happen. He quickly stepped to his right, grabbing her forearm and pushing it in the opposite direction.
He attempted to punch her in the face with his other hand, but she leaned her head to the side, dodging the hit.
Izuku spun in place, bringing his arm out for a wide backhand hit, but Ochako ducked under it, and once again reached forward and grasped the Ua tracksuit that Izuku was wearing.
But Izuku threw it off as her effect took hold. The tracksuit floated in the air as the two continued a dance of punches, blocks, and dodges.
Izuku took a couple of steps back, trying to create some space to breathe. Ochako used this as an opportunity to release his tracksuit jacket, which fell to the ground.
They were both breathing heavily. They were both quite fit, but fighting was more draining than anything else.
Izuku unsheathed his sword. He needed to end this quickly. That fistfight had been incredibly risky, and he knew that in a prolonged one, he would lose. After all, all Ochako needed was one hit.
He deepened his stance, as crackles of lightning could be heard, if only barely.
He took a deep breath in, and readied himself with an internal countdown.
"Let's do this!"
Her house was burning. Inko held back tears as she kept running. Her life there, the last few reminders of Hisashi, it was all gone.
But she had to keep moving.
She pulled Mitsuki along with her, but as she looked back, she saw him.
The man was outside her house again. He was staring right at her.
Her breath was short. No doubt he'd be able to catch up to the two of them eventually, even if he didn't have any sort of speed quirk.
But he didn't try to do that. He didn't chase after them. Instead, he stuck one arm out, hand outstretched and pointing directly at them.
From the center of his palm, a gooey black mass emerged, before violently flying towards the two women. The tendrils were dark black, and lightning fast.
They ensnared the two women quickly. Inko tried to escape the grasp of the dark tendrils, but they didn't budge. It was like being held by concrete.
Suddenly, they started moving backwards, towards the man. The tendrils were retreating into the man's hand.
And then suddenly, hey disappeared! It was like the flick of a switch, they were there one moment and gone the next.
Both women fell to the floor.
Inko looked over to the man, who was just as confused as she was.
And then she saw it. Above the man, was something else, obscured by darkness. All she could see was two glowing red eyes.
Suddenly, two hands grasped her shoulders. She screamed, and flung her fist towards whatever was grabbing her, hitting it in the face.
"Youch! Calm down, madam! We're here to help!"
The man in front of her was tall, but lean. He had bright yellow hair, and was wearing what looked like a dj outfit, with big sunglasses covering his eyes. His strange outfit left no question, he was a pro hero.
"We?" Mitsuki asked while Inko caught her breath.
He pointed over to the man who had been attacking them and the red eyes staring directly at him.
"You see those floating pair of demonic red eyes? That's my friend, he's another pro"
Mitsuki looked at him like he was crazy. "You sure he's a hero?"
The dj lookalike chuckled as he started jogging off towards the man. "Sometimes I wonder!"
Aizawa made sure to stay out of the man's line of sight.
Something was weird about this particular encounter.
Most people who were put under the effect of his quirk entered a state of confusion, but nothing quite like this.
The man's hair and eyes were rapidly changing color. The eyes were shifting from a blood red to an inky black, similar to his tendrils, and his hair… was starting to fall out?
The man was confused. He was looking around frantically, like he wasn't sure where he was.
Then he started screaming. The screaming was intense. A pure, visceral reaction to pain.
Aizawa panicked, which was very unlike him, and canceled Erasure. He had never seen this kind of reaction before. It was like the man didn't know how to exist without his quirk, and his body was breaking down.
But it didn't last long. The moment Aizawa deactivated Erasure, the white hair and red eyes overtook the man once more, and he leaped at Aizawa with inhuman speed.
His arm outstretched, ready to tear Aizawa's face off, when…
"YEAHHHHHHHHHH" A massive wave of noise blasted from Present Mic's mouth, crashing into the man and sending him flying away.
Present Mic stood beside Eraserhead.
"You alright?" He asked. Eraserhead nodded.
"I don't know what that thing is, but my Erasure isn't working properly on it. It's hurting him, but it's not permanently erasing it's quirk. It's like…"
"Like you keep flicking the power off, but someone else keeps flicking it back on?"
Aizawa nodded.
The man stood up and roared.
Eraserhead flared up his quirk as the man leaped forward, and the three men readied themselves for the brawl.
-
-
-
-
Ochaco prepared herself as she saw Izuku enter a deep lunge.
It was the same move he had used in the hero exercise, and was easily his most dangerous attack. She was smart enough to know that she needed to dodge.
She readied herself, as Izuku sprung forth, with ridiculous speed, bringing his blade along with him.
His sword was stretched out to his side.
Ochako jumped to the side, and only barely got hit by the tip of the sword slamming its way into her shoulder.
The impact was so powerful that it made her do a full 360 turn, and almost made her puke from motion sickness.
Izuku skidded to a halt just a few meters in front of her, and spun around, attempting to hit her with a swing of his sword, but she ducked underneath it.
She was under his sword, who's tip was now pointing directly upwards, to the sun. She stretched her hand towards his chest, and had already leaned too far in when she realized her mistake.
Izuku swung the blade down, and she could already tell that he was going to hit her before she could hit him.
She would be knocked out in a single hit.
But Izuku faltered. He remembered what he had overheard. About her family needing the money.
He just couldn't do it. He couldn't bring himself to take that away from her.
And in that moment, Ochako planted her hand onto Izuku's chest, and pushed him into the air, and out of the ring.
She planted her two hands together, and screamed. "RELEASE"
Izuku hit the ground, and it was over.
The crowd roared, and Ochaco Uraraka was announced to be the winner of the second year's Sports Festival.
Just ten minutes later, they were up on the podium.
Ochako in first place, Izuku in second, and Katsuki in third.
Ochako didn't seem happy. She seems lost in thought, and unaware of the world around her.
Katsuki was trying to restrain himself from attacking Izuku.
And Izuku?
All Izuku Midoriya could do was smile.
All Inko Midoriya could do was scream.
Aizawa had made the unfortunate mistake of taking his eyes off the assailant for a moment, and in that moment, two black tendrils had sprung from the man's body, aiming for his targets.
They impaled the two fleeing women in a second, both women screaming in unison.
Present Mic rushed over to the women as Eraserhead flared up Erasure once more. But this time, he didn't stop at the sounds of screams.
He didn't stop when the man began to burn.
He didn't stop when the man started to disintegrate.
And he didn't stop when the eyeballs of the man, one of which had been marked with the kanji for "five" crumbled to dust.
He only allowed himself to blink when there was nothing but dust left.
And as the ambulances arrived, sirens announcing their arrival, and Present Mic rushed the two ladies into the ambulances, Aizawa could only think of one thing.
"What the hell was that thing?"