Well the summer and summer vacations are over and it is September. Here, have a chapter to cheer up.
Some people have wished for more villain side or at least wondered where it is. Here is a bit of it. I admit it has been a while since the last Shirokuro chapter. The next one will be in just a couple of chapters. It has been already written.
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Comments:
kaonei: The answer is absolute, eh maybe. Much of the story and especially Izukusquad members/students that have gotten attention have large chunk of of improvisation/seeing how the characters work out / where they go organically. The only ones that were really preplanned to have important roles are Hitoshi, because last major story I read and loved before starting to make this had great Izuku Hitoshi friendsip, and Todoroki because Sports Festival / Endeavour.
Tenya for example only got as prominent role as he has because his previous school was name dropped in the anime and indicated to be an elite school. Then his judgemental but not bigoted attitude worked great for this version of Izuku. Never really was interested in the character that much before adapting him to this story.
In terms of the girls in the class none have really popped up. I quess the most likely ones would be Asui or Mina for mutant aspects of their quirks and discrimination in this world, though Mina seems to be getting pulled in more through relationship/feelings towards Eijiro than as primarily Izusquad member. Ochaco might come up at some point trying to correct Izuku's view on her motivations but has not fit anywhere yet.
Psy-Kick: Considering the number of fanfics that exist I'm sure you cold find those too.
Miqila: Basically too many students to give proper attention to all and the story is already massive full of all kind of interactions and friend-scenes with the limited number of people that have gotten major roles. Those who don't have major roles just never have really organically came up / had interesting opportunities that I would have identified, like how with Tokoyami he got fasttracked even past other mutant quirk users because I realized Dark Shadow might be a tad suspicious of Izuku's quirk giving the story conflict or with how Eijiro has had focus because he is Eijiro and not having him be friendly enough to attract Izuku's acceptance would be an offence to his character. Unlike Tenya I really liked him even before writing this story.
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Proofread by 3DPhantom
Chapter 58: Hunting the Hunter
Izuku made sure his helmet was properly on before Shirokuro stepped into the dark mist of a warp gate. Tomura had taken to bringing in more people at the bar, trying to recruit them. It was a wonder the police or heroes hadn't already caught on to where he was despite USJ making sure they were looking. Merely going to the place felt like a risk, but Izuku felt he needed to keep an eye on his adoptive brother and the people he sought to recruit. At least it gave him a breather between training sessions.
As he stepped out of Kurogiri's warp gate, he encountered yet another new, but this time distantly familiar, face. Giran; he was the man Shirokuro had done business with for his father, one of his first missions. The man had his back to Tomura, who appeared to have destroyed another barstool, and was walking towards the door as Shirokuro appeared in his way.
"Ah," Giran said, smiling. "Finally, some civilized company."
Tomura's hand inched towards another stool until a strand of dark mist slapped his fingers. Kurogiri standing behind the bar counter poured him a drink. Shirokuro took a nearby stool, never turning away from the visitor.
"It has been a while," Shirokuro said. "Did Tomura seek to recruit you, or ask your help to find people?"
"The latter. Tying myself to a single customer would be bad for business."
"So, you are keeping busy?"
"I've had worse times. From what I've heard you haven't been sitting idle either. Caused quite the stir at the hospital. Have to say it was impressive. Most people won't get away from All Might, let alone after he already got a hold of you."
Shirokuro had to focus to not have a reaction his mask couldn't hide at the mention of the so-called hero. He tilted his head towards Kurogiri.
"I had good help."
"Hmm, still valuing those working for you… Are you perhaps also seeking help? People are getting curious about the masked man who outplayed All Might. Some parts of the underworld talk more about you than Stain. I can think of some powerful people who would not last an hour with Shigaraki, but might be interested if your interests happened to align profitably."
In a way Shirokuro was glad he had been successful in working for his father, but couldn't help but wonder what most of the people he cared about would think about that. It had been less than an hour since he last saw them after finishing evening training, but it all seemed so distant.
As much as he loved the fake life of Izuku Midoriya, it was still only pretending. The truth came up as soon as the sun went down at the latest. Shirokuro looked at Giran to politely refuse the offer, at least for now.
"Get out," Tomura seethed as Kurogiri yanked a stool away from the reach of his hand. Giran waved his hand to Shirokuro as he walked to the door.
"Let's talk some other time."
He left, leaving Shirokuro with a seething Tomura to deal with. Even after dealing with Tomura for more than a year Shirokuro could never really feel relaxed near him, even less so when his adoptive big brother was angry. Shirokuro measured the distance between them with his eyes to make sure there were at least a few arm's reaches between them.
"What's wrong?" He asked, trying to sound as calm as possible without coming off as arrogant or condescending in any way. Though you could never be sure how Tomura would take things.
"Stain, everyone talks about Stain and not the League. The only ones that have wanted to join are some scums no better than those who already showed how useless they were at the USJ. What do people see in him that I don't have, that they want to follow him instead?"
Shirokuro thought about answering, but he hadn't had enough time to study the killer and he didn't want to poke the walking death seething across the room. Tomura started scratching his neck with both hands and a shiver went through Shirokuro's spine.
"If they want to follow him," one could hear gears turning in Tomura's head, "then he should join the League and bring his followers."
Shirokuro resisted the urge to ask, why would Stain work with Tomura considering he seemed to work alone? Even his followers didn't care to work with each other.
As it seemed like there wasn't major development with rebuilding the League, Shirokuro decided his time would be better spent training. Tomura wasn't the best conversation partner at the best of times, let alone in his current state. He raised his hand to call for Kurogiri and the Nomu arrived in a few seconds.
"Thank y…" Shirokuro started.
"Kurogiri!" Tomura called. "Go find Stain for me."
The Nomu pulled a bottle of mineral water and soda from under the counter.
"Do not forget proper hydration. Which do you prefer today, young Shigaraki?"
"The water," Shirokuro responded and got the bottle from Kurogiri.
"Kurogiri!" Tomura shouted. "Get over here before I'll turn you to dust."
A switch flipped in Shirokuro. The bottle was left on the counter as he got up, holding his hand up to keep Kurogiri behind him. His nails grew longer, poking out of small holes on his gloves with venom shining in their tips.
"What did you say?" He seethed in a cold voice that made even Tomura have a pause; only a pause though. Tomura started scratching himself even harder than before.
"Stay out of my way. The League is mine and I won't let you interfere."
"I couldn't care less about 'your' League, but you will not lay your hands on Kuro."
Tomura tsked, disgusted. The face of an explosive blonde flashed over him in Shirokuro's eyes. Drops of venom fell off his shaking fingers.
"Still acting like a Nomu is a friend. Seems to be all you can think of. Here I am trying to bring down this rotten system while you are playing around with the people that are being pushed to the top of that system, or perhaps you would rather join them and betray sensei?"
Tomura was lucky he couldn't see Shirokuro's… Izuku's death stare.
"Whose side are you on anyway?"
Now it was Iz… Shirokuro's turn to have a pause. Tomura, now just Tomura, stepped closer. Shirokuro moved to keep himself between his brother and Kurogiri.
"Right… right now I am on Kuro's side. If that is against you, that depends on you."
"You brat."
"Children, children," their father's voice came from a speaker. "Tomura, don't threaten MY most valuable Nomu, and Izuku, have we talked about anger management?"
The mocking tone made Shirokuro grit his teeth, but at least Tomura would not cause trouble with their father present, even if it was only through a screen.
"Now, let's talk about something that appears of interest to everyone present: The hero killer Stain."
"Somehow that killer has everyone convinced he is some kind of big deal or someone to follow."
"And what are you going to about that?"
"If he joins the League, I can use his name to make the idiots that follow him join us, but first I need to find him and this brat," he waved his hand towards Shirokuro, "started getting in the way."
Father remained silent behind the black screen, and had no eyes to begin with, but Shirokuro could still feel his stare. It carried a wordless question.
"He threatened Kurogiri," Shirokuro stated like listing a historical fact.
"Still so feral," his father said similarly. "It isn't necessarily a bad thing if it doesn't cloud your judgement, but…"
Shirokuro kept staring at the screen, Kurogiri by his side behind the counter.
"Perhaps there is a way to practice that. Shirokuro, you were also interested in Stain. Perhaps you would like to have a chat with him."
"He should stay away from this," Tomura complained. "League is mine, you said."
"Yes, the League is yours." While his voice was as calm as ever there was a notable tiredness in the statement. "Stain is not part of the League, at least not yet, and you do not know where he is. Let Shirokuro do the searching. It plays to his strengths. Best case, he brings you a new valuable recruit. Worst case, were Shirokuro to let other motivations cloud his judgement, Stain won't be distracting other potential recruits anymore."
Shirokuro could think of worse case scenarios, this guy killed professional heroes on the regular. If someone could find a way around the regeneration it would be someone like him, but his father's intent did not pass Shirokuro.
He was still not sure how to feel about Stain. He hadn't had much time to research the man, with more important people around him for the past few days, but some of the heroes he had killed had come up before as Shirokuro, or Izuku, researched the shadows of hero society to better know what he was fighting. Ingenium was a questionable case, others, maybe not. Still, killing them in the shadows had done nothing but turn them into martyrs. Nothing had been exposed about the dead heroes by Stain's rampage, except maybe their incompetence in failing to stop him.
He still wasn't convinced Stain would ever be interested in the League, or Tomura.
"So, son, you think you are up to the task?"
Shirokuro blinked under his helmet, it was really a blessing.
"It's not easy. He keeps on the move."
"But?" His father led him on.
"His victims don't seem to be completely random," Shirokuro continued "at least most of them, and there is usually more than one case in one area before he moves elsewhere. He last appeared in Hosu, and his victim doesn't appear to fit the profile."
He hesitated for a moment, trying to separate his feelings and facts.
"There are other heroes he is after in that region. Identifying them means finding Stain, maybe."
"See, both of you, it is not that difficult when you know what you want and think calmly about solutions. Just don't forget to also consider several steps ahead. Go ahead and take Kurogiri with you, but do try to not steal all my Nomus this time."
"Yes master," Kurogiri said mechanically.
"Good. Tomura, if you intend to take advantage of Stain to recruit people, you must convince his followers the League serves their interests."
"If they follow someone who kills heroes, they will follow me once they see past Stain."
"You need more than that," Shirokuro muttered.
"Shut up. Finding him is the only thing you need to worry about."
As if he could ever worry only about only one thing. That would make his life so much easier. At least he was smart enough to not add to that by starting another argument with an already irritated Tomura.
"I'll keep my training short and start researching."
He got up, ready to go, but stopped to take one more look at the irritated Tomura, then glanced at Kurogiri.
"Kuro, come with me. If Tomura thinks he can k… decay you then clearly he does not need you to stay here." Shirokuro fell quiet, realizing he had given a direct command. "Unless you have something else you need to get done?"
"No young Shigaraki. Laundry will take another hour to complete."
"That is mostly Tomura's. He can take care of it himself."
"Yes, young Shigaraki."
"Anything else dad?" Shirokuro asked. If he didn't want to increase things he needed to worry about from Tomura, then the same certainly applied to their father, if for different reasons.
"I'd like to hear what you are planning for the number two hero, but we can discuss that later. Considering how enthusiastic you are about that little side project I am expecting something spectacular."
Shirokuro nodded and stepped into a warp gate that handily appeared by him. He had to change clothes to not stain them with blood while training with the large Nomu. He only reset his limbs a couple of times before finishing and sat down in a nearby room with a laptop to make a list of heroes active in the Hosu region, sinking himself into the task as soon as Kurogiri fetched an empty notebook to be dedicated for this project.
He had quite an impressive list to start weeding down by the time the yawning started getting disruptive.
"Perhaps you should return home and rest young Shigaraki," Kurogiri offered. Izuku stopped writing and considered it for a moment.
"No, it's not yet that late, but it is getting harder to stare at the screen," he fell quiet for a moment longer. "Maybe we should take a look at the place. See if we can find anyone on the list. Can you get us to Hosu?"
"Yes, I have coordinates there. Will you go as Shirokuro or Izuku?"
Izuku had a pause, then reached for Shirokuro's helmet.
"Shirokuro, I cannot move as freely, but Izuku has no excuse to be in Hosu, especially at this time. Be ready to pull us out quickly if there is any trouble."
They stepped through a warp gate to a rooftop of a building in a densely built area. The sun had gone down a good while ago and even the twilight was long gone. Shirokuro moved to the edge to look down towards the street. Everything seemed calm, people still going through their evenings on well-lit streets without much worry. He opened a slit in his helmet to see without anything in the way and focused.
Suddenly he could distinguish every detail on the face of a woman talking on a phone by a bus stop far below and down the street. If he was better at reading from lips, he could have known everything she said. Yes, he could make this quirk work. Maybe he should have paid Hatsume more.
He yawned, losing his focus on the woman. Every little twitch and eye movement threw him off from whatever he was looking at when zoomed in this far, and it wasn't even the most he could do. It was getting dizzying.
Even with so relatively simple a quirk he still had plenty to learn.
He moved to the other edge of the roof to look at the alley behind the building. It was dark, but relying on his helmet's night vision instead of a quirk revealed two people sitting against a wall, apparently eating something. Looking at their sizes and head shapes at least one of them had a mutant type quirk, pretty significant at that. He wasn't surprised about someone in their situation having one, unfortunately.
There was a rapid movement on the other end of the alley. Someone ran into it, carrying a bag of some sort. It didn't take long to recognize someone running away. Shirokuro made that connection just before another person entered the alley well behind the first one and this one had a cape and some kind of headgear. He was shouting something ineligible from the rooftop. They quickly approached Shirokuro's building and the two people in the alley.
The escaping man moved quickly, bouncing between walls of the alley, some kind of quirk for the legs. The chasing hero was fit and fast compared to an average person, but nothing special for a hero and fell behind with every step. He could only shout after the thief as if that did something.
The thief was now almost upon the two people that were moving and looking around. The larger one with a strange, elongated head bounced up as the thief was almost upon them. The noticeably smaller thief slammed into the large guy and got trapped in a bearhug.
Even from far above it was clear he wasn't about to give up without a fight. The large guy jolted backwards more than should have been possible considering the smaller size of his catch, probably a quirk enhanced kick. The big guy's more 'normal' sized friend got up and approached, pulling off a glove. Now that the person was on the move it appeared to be a she.
The woman slapped the thief with an open palm. In a few seconds the thief stopped struggling just as the hero reached them. He basically pulled the thief from the bigger man's hold so soon there would not have been enough time to exchange many words. The hero worked a few seconds to get the unconscious thief over his shoulder, but after that his gestures turned more aggressive as he seemed to talk to the helpful duo.
The woman stepped closer, pointing at the hero and shouting something. Suddenly he pushed her with his free hand. She stumbled back and was saved from falling by her large partner catching her. They were on the brink of a fight and while Shirokuro wasn't dismissing the duo's ability to defend themselves, they would just get labelled as villains if they did so. It was no different than if the police tried to violently arrest you without a reason and you defended yourself in kind, good luck defending your right to self-defence in court with zero evidence or witnesses.
Shirokuro's hand twitched. Dark mist floated across the air to touch it and the motion eased somewhat. By then more people had arrived in the alley, including a police officer.
The hero backed away from the duo, waving his hands at the thief. One of the police stepped past him, approaching the duo, most likely talking to them. The woman shouted back. Things seemed to be escalating again until the police turned to the hero, then left with him. By then the police were carrying the thief. One of them turned briefly towards the helpful duo as they left. The duo then stepped back, and the man picked up something from the ground. He brought it to his mouth. Shirokuro grimaced.
"Kuro," he said, "drop me down there and go get some food. Drop some money in with it."
"Are you sure young…"
"Yes," Shirokuro said. "Don't worry. I'm also collecting information, not risking it just to hand out food."
"I understand," Kurogiri responded and waved his hand, opening a warp gate next to Shirokuro.
"Thank you."
Shirokuro stepped out of the warp gate a little way down the alley from the duo. Far enough to be covered by the darkness of the alley so that he couldn't be seen without the use of night vision, but close enough to hear what they were saying. The woman was talking.
"I know. That doesn't make him any less of a dirtbag. How can you be so calm after he called you that?"
"Experience."
The simple answer, no more than a sigh, was enough to silence the woman. It gave Shirokuro pause too. He could imagine old Izuku saying that word in the exact same tone after letting some bully do whatever they felt like, and wouldn't be surprised to hear the same from some of the people around Izuku.
The large man continued.
"Trying to respond only makes things worse," he said. "It is easier to get away staying quiet in general, let alone when it is a hero. You are lucky he didn't get us arrested for quirk use."
"That's just because he didn't want us telling what really happened, as if anyone would believe us."
"I believe you," Shirokuro said. The duo jumped and turned towards him. The large man seemed to tower over him even from some distance away and stared into the darkness with his lizard-like head reminiscent of dinosaurs, and his skin didn't appear 'ordinary' either. The woman looked more 'ordinary' except for some shapes in her skin, some special colouring that wasn't very distinguishable in the darkness.
The man stepped between her and Shirokuro.
"Who are you?"
"Someone who was watching," Shirokuro responded. "Who was that hero?"
"Why do you want to know?" The man asked slowly.
"I came here to research local heroes and how they really are. Didn't expect to discover something so quickly.
"Hold on," the woman said much louder, "you want to know what local heroes are really like? Are you… are you Stain?"
"St… you aren't serious," the man gasped. Shirokuro too got taken back, but managed to keep quiet past the initial surprise.
"They say he is somewhere in this area," the woman whispered. "Did you hear about Ingenium?"
"Of course," the man said, now staring towards Shirokuro, standing even more protectively and perhaps angry. "Encountered him once. Might be the only hero worth the title here."
"I am not Stain," Shirokuro finally corrected. "Though I'd like to meet him."
The large man lowered his arm a bit, but remained wary.
"Why?"
"Because of what just happened. Heroes aren't nearly the pure protectors people want to think they are, and the system is even more rotten. Stain seems to understand this at least in some manner. His response is brutal and simplistic, but I still want to know how exactly he views the world, why he does what he does."
"Who are you?" The woman repeats the question, now speaking more quietly and carefully.
"You don't need to know that. Actually, it is best you don't."
The man backed away a few steps, pushing his companion along behind him.
"Even if you aren't Stain you don't sound like a hero, so are you a villain?"
Shirokuro stared at him for a moment.
"Seems you too can't quite see through the lies of the system that keeps you down if you think things are that simple."
Neither of them responded.
"If we talk legally, yes, I would be a villain, but that is because I refuse how things work and want to change what others don't want to be changed. I am not here to harass or rob you."
As Shirokuro spoke he gestured with his open empty hands, trying to act as calming as possible while in a full black costume with a black helmet in a dark alley.
His best efforts were ruined as the duo suddenly looked behind him and jolted back.
"Kuro?" Shirokuro asked.
"Yes," a comfortingly familiar voice said and raised a full plastic bag next to Shirokuro who took it, never turning away from the duo.
"We aren't here to cause trouble. I just wanted to know who that 'hero' was, and if you know anything else about heroes like him around here, or about Stain. If you can answer my questions and forget we ever met, we'll give you this bag of food and money. Seems you could use it."
"I don't know…" The man muttered.
"I think we should do it," the woman urged. The man turned to look at her. Shirokuro could not see how, but he could guess.
"Don't look at me like that," the woman said. "We can't afford to refuse an offer like that."
The man continued to stare until the woman sighed.
"Yes, I remember what we agreed to, but… This doesn't feel like that, I mean he doesn't. Don't tell me you disagree with what he said. I really feel it is okay to tell him, it's not like we have any big secrets. At least we could have full stomachs."
Now it was the man's turn to sigh in a strange, slightly inhuman high pitch. He nodded.
"Okay. I have my doubts, but I feel the same." He glanced at Shirokuro. "I think we can trust his word."
Shirokuro wanted to say they shouldn't, but he was already used to constantly silencing and squashing that internal voice that kept screaming in the back corner of his head.
"… at least in this." The man turned back towards Shirokuro. "We accept your offer. That hero just now was Native. He's a local hero, I don't think he is well known nationally. Pretty average hero as far as I can evaluate, but a lot of people on the streets have warned us to avoid him. It is easier to accuse people in trouble for something and collect rewards for arrest than try to find real big-time criminals; if he can find mutants even better from what I hear. Just now he threated to arrest us for illegal use of our quirks, as if I could choose to not use mine."
"But I sent him packing," the woman declared.
"He didn't want us around trying to tell people what really happened."
"And what was I doing then?"
The man shook his head.
"We should move away from here in case he comes back," the man added.
"I'll watch your back when you do," Shirokuro offered before even thinking. The duo looked, then bowed at the same time.
"Thank you," they said.
"Shadow-sama", the woman continued.
"Shadow-sama?" Shirokuro asked.
"Well, you didn't tell us your name. I have to call you something."
"Sorry about her," the man said.
"It is okay. About the other heroes around here?"
Sometime later Shirokuro watched from the roof with Kurogiri as the duo left, the woman holding the plastic back against her chest like a national treasure.
"How much did you put in there?"
"Enough to feed two average people for three to four days, though considering his size they might not last that long."
"How about money."
"Only hundred thousand yen, at first."
"At first?"
"They had useful information and it seemed you would want to give them more, so I added four hundred more."
"Good." Shirokuro looked back at the alley they had met in. A new form had just entered it. Native had come back. They had left just in time, or perhaps a little too early. For a brief moment Shirokuro could understand Stain a little better as his fingers twitched. After Native looked around, moving like he was frustrated, he left. Shirokuro turned his back to the 'hero' and ran forward to leap on the next roof, making sure to keep an eye on the duo.
He followed them for several blocks, using Kurogiri's warp gates to cross the wide street when they did. He could have crossed it with his jets, but those belonged to Izuku Midoriya. Shirokuro could not be seen using them or anything like them for that matter, and with that distance he might have needed regeneration afterwards. A while later he watched them settle behind a store hidden by its dumpsters, the sight only making Shirokuro more frustrated.
"Young Shigaraki. I believe they are sufficiently far to be secure."
"Maybe, but…" Shirokuro paused as there was a warning sound in his helmet. "Check the house."
Kurogiri disappeared momentarily in a spiral of mist, then reappeared from another.
"Your classmate Todoroki just arrived at the house. He's already at the door."
"Shit," Shirokuro said. He took one last glance down at the duo behind the store. They seemed to be fine. He looked at his own black gloves and sleeves. He had to change, but if Todoroki was already at the door and something was clearly wrong… Would Todoroki wait? How was he feeling? How'd Izuku…?
"Take me to my basement, quick."
He was hit by a front of mist before even finishing the sentence. The mist disappeared, leaving him in a room just as dark. He first noticed the familiar smell of a swimming pool. The sound of the doorbell was the second thing.
Izuku pulled off his helmet and started tearing off his suit as fast as he could, not slowing as Kurogiri turned on the lights. Not worrying about the Nomu, Izuku tossed away the last piece of clothing and ran to the largest pool.
"Take those away quickly. I'll be okay then."
He jumped into the pool making sure to submerge entirely, getting himself soaked. By the time his head re-emerged on the surface all of the clothes were gone with only a strand of dark mist left and then even that was gone. Izuku pulled himself up from the pool with a single yank and picked a towel from a nearby shelf. He rubbed off worst of the water as he walked and tied the towel around his waist by the time he reached the door. There was no time to wait as the doorbell had been quiet for a while now. Izuku yanked the door open and was immediately hit by a chilling cold front as he faced Todoroki's back.
The walking weather front of a classmate didn't even have time to fully turn back around as Izuku grabbed his arm, pulled him closer and upon having him close enough, trapped Todoroki by bringing an arm around his back over the backpack, not caring about the frost that developed on his wet arm.
They were already inside and the door snapped closed behind them before Todoroki caught onto what was happening. Only then did Izuku realize he might have risked being burned by surprising Todoroki like that, but he hardly cared. Todoroki's whole body was still unnaturally cold even though he wasn't cooling everything around himself anymore. Izuku walked him towards the living room.
"Sorry I took too long. What went wrong? I thought you were staying with your sister." Izuku whispered, hoping to not add to the tension he was feeling under his arm. Todoroki took a few seconds to breathe before he answered.
"He wouldn't leave us alone. He tried to contact all of us. We stayed in the hospital as long as we could but then he tried to get there. Security held him back but it's just because fighting them would hurt his reputation, but he knows where my sister lives. He's been there before. I couldn't go there, not if we can't keep him away. I needed to go somewhere…"
Izuku pulled his hand pressing Todoroki closer. The switch was shaking, begging to be flipped.
"Shh. You did right Shoto."
Shoto shook under Izuku's arm, but at least his skin was starting to feel like normal body temperature. Izuku sat him on the sofa.
"Better?" Izuku asked. Shoto let out a long-held sigh of relief and nodded.
"Yes, sorry…"
"Stop," Izuku interrupted. He didn't need to explain any more as Shoto nodded and didn't continue.
"So how was the rest of your family?"
"I think they are happy I got away from him. Natsu is still annoyed at some things I said to him in the past. I should have listened to him more. I don't think he's going to stop reminding me about that."
Izuku thought about Tomura, and to some extent Hitoshi.
"I don't think he will," Izuku said, trying to include some friendly teasing in his voice. A huff from Shoto sounded like it had worked.
"I wish everyone else listened to him too."
"No," Izuku corrected. "They should listen to you."
"How many are going to believe me?"
"Not as many as should," Izuku shook his head then remembered something, "at least you are lucky that you are a hero student with a powerful quirk that people seem to be actually interested in. Imagine if you were some poor person in an alley abused by a famous hero knowing no one would believe you. Compared to that it is actually easy for you to do what you need to."
Izuku's hand had started to shake a little as he spoke and squeezed Shoto's shoulder harder. Shoto glanced at it. Izuku yanked his hand away.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to," now it was Izuku's turn to apologize.
"You didn't. Eijiro's grip hurt more than that when we trained."
The name alone helped Izuku relax.
"Heh, it sure does, but don't tell him that or he might not train as hard."
"I don't want to worry him," Shoto agreed. Then he wiped his shoulder with his hand, catching some water.
As drops landed on the sofa Izuku glanced down at himself still only in his towel and mostly dripping wet. The spot on the sofa he was sitting on had turned a little darker from the moisture.
"Oh, right. Sorry, you… surprised me when I was taking a bath." A knife sunk into Izuku's heart as he lied and that was one pain regeneration did nothing to ease. "I'll go change. We can talk more then."
"Okay."
Izuku got up and walked to the stairs. He stopped to half turn around.
"Remember, it is safe here."
Izuku visited his room, well, adjacent walk-in closet, to dry and get new clothes. The clothes he had been wearing before dressing up as Shirokuro had appeared in the laundry basket and his Stain-notebook was on his shelf. Most people would not have noticed it, but Izuku's notebook shelf was as well arranged as their contents.
Once dry and in pyjamas Izuku headed down again. Despite previously dripping water and still noticing drops on the floor, there were no signs of it on the sofa or Shoto who was drowsing in the corner of the sofa. His eyes were half closed, looking towards the floor until Izuku got close and they rose to meet him.
"I think we should move upstairs," Izuku said, "before I have to carry you."
"Oh, sure."
As they climbed the stairs Izuku suddenly remembered.
"Does your family know where you are?"
"They know I'm at your place, like the weekend. They were surprisingly okay with that, with you I mean. I still didn't tell them where you live."
"Good. It's best that way. You should still at least call your sister and let her know you got here safely."
"Hmm… okay."
While Shoto sat on a bed to make his call Izuku went to fetch his own phone from the charger. Like any teen in modern times, he started scrolling through things, namely his new sell-your-quirk email inbox. He had set his expectations low from experience, not expecting too many offers, especially of very powerful or useful quirks, but he was still disappointed at the wave of spam, harassment and threats that had filled his mailbox from calling him an organ harvester to threatening his parents.
Izuku almost wanted the latter to go through with the threat just to see how that would end. With a new Nomu most likely.
The whole email service had even been offline from a denial-of-service attack over the weekend. All Izuku could do was to sort messages based on title: Possible offers, illegal threats, and spam to be deleted, and hope he'd get through the offers in a reasonable time. He kept doing it even after Shoto finished his call and they both sat on the edges of their beds. Well, until Shoto moved next to Izuku to look over his shoulder. It took perhaps ten seconds of him reading the titles of the messages before Izuku felt the chills.
"You are using your quirk," Izuku muttered, "again."
"Sorry," Shoto said and stopped. He looked at Izuku's phone for a few more seconds. "How many of those are you getting?"
"More than I can get through, though I think there are only a handful of people that are responsible for a good chunk of them, for what that is wor..."
Izuku couldn't finish the word as it was cut off by a large yawn. He had to blink to refocus on the screen.
"You should go to sleep."
"Probably," Izuku responded. "I don't like to go to sleep."
Izuku could feel Shoto's breath on his neck as the other boy looked at him.
"The nightmares?"
"Yes," Izuku glanced back at Shoto with a soft smile, "could be worse though. I'll just need to go wash my teeth.
Izuku moved to close the email, when he happened to skim the next message title: [Quirk Offer – Quirk Sleep Deprived. More useful than it sounds.] Izuku huffed and pointed at the title.
"Seems even my email is telling me to get some sleep."
"Seems like it, but why would anyone want a quirk like that?"
"Like what? We don't even know what it does."
"Right but," Shoto paused and withdrew away a bit. "Sorry, I'm judging people wrong again, right?"
"Just the quirk, you didn't pretend to know anything about the person at least," Izuku assured him, noting there at least hadn't been random changes in temperature. Izuku had a second smaller yawn. Yet, he was now curious and opened the message. Focusing on reading was already difficult, but it got easier with every second that he read the message.
"I need this."
.
.
Izuku/Shirokuro has gotten a new quirk and it has been a while since he got/used some of his quirks so here is a lit to help remember everything. Each quirk has letter P or V next to them. Those with P are public quirks people know Izuku has and Shirokuro cannot be seen using while V refers to villain quirks which Shirokuro might use but Izuku is not known to (and has no legitimate excuse to) have.
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All For One (P)
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Dragon Blade (P)
- This is Izuku's most used most defining quirk giving him flame swords manifesting from the back of his hands/wrists. Has improved the fire from orange kind of hot flame to blue hotter flame focused to the point the blades have been compared to light sabers from Star Wars.
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Vibration (V/~P)
- Izuku has integrated using this with his Dragon Blade improving its cutting power but people don't realize this and on its own he only uses it as Shirokuro. Handily touch based quirk can look to people like it is related to Tomura's quirk.
- Can cause vibrations from touch which can break locks, break guns, scramble people's insides to knock them out or kill them and has even stung All Might's wrist.
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Hellfire Arrow (~P)
- Izuku has integrated using this with his Dragon Blade / his its existence with pretending it is part of the Dragon Blade allowing him to launch firey shots from his hands. Has improved the flame similar to the Dragon Blade.
Regeneration (copy) (V)
- Super regeneration, broken bones or lost limbs are just momentary painful inconveniences. Already healed wounds don't dissappear and I guess same can apply to burnt shut charred wounds.
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Venomous Nails (V)
- His nails can grow and stiffen to stab people better and inject venom that causes paralyzing pain. It is very effective and incapacitating and torturing people.
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Calm Mind (V)
- Allows greater focus and blocking out stray thoughts etc. Can lead to focusing too much on one thing to notice things around him.
- Izuku often secretly uses this in emotionally hard situations to keep his cool, but as he has to eventually let go it can only make the crash after worse.
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Shoulder Mounted Jets (P)
- higher mobility and potential flight but he is lucky to have the ability to regenerate busted bones as control and balance are hard.
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Killing Intent / Bloodlust (V)
- Basically the anime concept of Killing intent that can in some depictions even paralyze people with fear but a literal power as a quirk making people around Izuku and especially if he focuses on someone to fear he is going to kill them. The more they believe he is able to do so the more efficient the quirk is so both his apparent threat and the target's confidence in their battle ability impact efficiency of the quirk.
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Zoom (P)
- Hatsume's quirk, gives Izuku's eyes a very high power zoom function.
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Sleep Deprived (P)
- tba