Sometime late in the evening, Izuku had left the hideout with Toga. He looked at the paper Kurogiri handed him earlier, noting down their instructions. Izuku tapped on the paper, before placing it into his coat pocket.
"Our leader has made his intentions pretty clear," Izuku said, turning to face the girl beside him. "I thought we were supposed to kill them, but now I understand what he meant."
They were tasked with finding two heroes and bringing them back alive to the organisation, regardless of what state they were in. Izuku had heard one of their names in the past, he remembered writing down a detailed explanation of the hero's quirk.
Toga ran up to Izuku, hugging him suddenly. "That's the first thing you say to me after we haven't seen each other in a long time. Especially when we're finally alone?" She nudged her face into his shoulder.
Izuku pushed her forehead away with the tip of his finger, causing her to pull back. "As much as I appreciate you showing affection towards me Himiko. Now isn't the best time."
"I thought I told you already to call me Toga," she replied with puffed cheeks. "What's with you all the sudden, you know… changing the way you act and speak?" Deep inside her mind, she was thanking the gods for letting her be on a mission with him.
Izuku paused for a moment, resting his hand in front of his lips. "Yeah, sorry about that. When you first met me, that was me putting on a front semi-unconsciously." He gave off a fake smile. "Mostly so that others did not get suspicious of me."
"That sounds, sort of complicated," Toga said. "But you're still as cute as you were before. Your eyes really give off a menacing look now."
Izuku initially saw Toga as an annoying and unstable person, but over time had come to not mind her presence. Even though she flirted with him at any given opportunity, he still had to keep a watchful eye on her. "Her fascination with blood and people getting hurt is beyond extreme," he thought to himself. "She might actually stab me and call that a love tap." He scoffed at the idea of her hurting herself from his quirk, "She'd probably actually like that."
"So, did they want me to do anything specific?" Toga asked, twirling her hair.
"Actually yes. I don't really understand, but it asks to collect a sample of blood from one of the heroes."
Toga's eyes lit up, her cheeks blushed even harder. "Finally! I'll have you know I love watching people bleed!" She then shifted her hands nervously in front of her cardigan. "But it will kind of be embarrassing with you watching me do it."
Izuku let out a surprised look, not knowing how to respond to what he had heard. "What the hell is she even going to do?" he thought nervously. "And why did she say it like that?"
Toga noticed the slight change of character from Izuku's usual cold appearance. She was not going to let her chance of teasing him get away. She took a few steps forward and turned around to block him.
"What? Is this going to be your first time?" She asked with a timid look.
"I… Uhm…" Izuku hesitated. "Like… W-what did… what?" His face flustered even more upon glancing at her face. He shouted inside his head, "This is not right!"
Izuku was interrupted from Toga bursting out with laughter. She pointed at him while trying to cover her face with her other hand, barely being able to keep her legs straight from what she had seen. "Ha-ha, the look on you just now! And what was up with the way you talked?"
Izuku turned his face away from embarrassment, "Seriously, what's with this girl," he said to himself, regaining his composure shortly after. He shook his head in disappointment, thinking about how ridiculous he let the situation unfold itself.
"It's better that we keep on moving," he said, passing by Toga who began to wipe away tears from her eyes. "They'll be running through their scheduled patrol soon. We won't get another chance."
"Aww come on, I only wanted to have some fun," Toga retorted.
He looked towards Toga, paralyzing her movement. She had never seen Izuku's eyes stare at her that way. Toga had heard from Kurogiri what the boy beside her went through during training. She only saw bitterness and the eyes of somebody that did not give off a normal human appearance.
"We don't have time for this right now," Izuku said. He took out black leather gloves. "I believe I have made my intentions clear about wanting to get this task done without any problems. There is no room for error."
Toga gulped with unease as Izuku began to walk away, not waiting for a response from her. "Hey, wait up!" Toga cried out, running after him. She was curious and scared at the same time to find out what was coming.
"You know, with all things considered. I did not expect us to be doing this daily Miss Uwabami," said a young man, treading along behind her. He carried several shopping bags, barely keeping up. "Can you explain the reason for us doing this?"
"To catch villains of course," Uwabami said with a laugh, waving her long blonde hair away. 'I've got to keep my popularity afloat, otherwise modelling and just doing commercials won't be enough."
"I thought you said you'd help grow my fan base," the high school boy said. He wore a newly designed costume. "You told me this internship was going to be a lot safer."
Uwabami sighed. "Look, lately the media has been criticizing me, so I've decided to show the public that I truly care for their safety," she said with a mocking voice. "Deal with it for a few more days until we catch some poor fellow committing a crime. Afterwards, I'll show you around."
"Yes, Maam."
"Oh, and I'll be relying on your quirk to catch them," Uwabami said playfully, sticking out her tongue. She did not want to get her hands dirty.
They walked through the back alleyways in a poor district. Uwabami stared at the trash that was thrown across the path, this made her want to leave as quickly as possible.
"Uhm, Maam. Is it possible that we take a quick break? My arms feel like they are tearing themselves apart," the boy said with exhaustion. It was obvious that he had never trained extensively for any physical endurance.
"I don't mind, but just not in this filthy place." She stopped suddenly, the tips of her hair rose up. Sensing danger ahead of them, she raised her hand to alert the intern. "Wait Tsuyoshi. There is someone there, just standing and looking at us."
The intern yawned, "Where? I can't see that far away in the dark." He placed the shopping bags on the ground. "Are you sure it's not just your imagination or some kind of cat just passing along?"
He waited for Uwabami to reply yet was met with silence. "Maam, is everything alright?"
In front of her, she could sense a relentless murderous aura that seemed fixated on her, not giving up for as long as she waited for it to pass. She finally managed the urge to speak, her eyes shook in fear. "Who are you? What do you want?"
They could hear silent footsteps approach them, each step resonating with more sound. Uwabami looked up to see a young boy wearing a suit with a black vest. The deadly feeling she felt earlier immediately disappeared. "It was just a kid?" she thought, exhaling quietly.
"Hey, boys in your youth shouldn't be walking alone in the middle of the night," Uwabami said in a sweet voice. "Did you get separated away from your parents?"
The boy with dark green hair stood in front of her with his head facing down. He did not respond to her question.
"Is everything ok? It's ok to be scared. Come to me, we are heroes. I'll bring you over to the police so we can find your parents." Uwabami smiled, she thought to herself how lucky she was, "Maybe this will just work out better than finding a villain. It looks like he has rich parents, so they're probably freaking out about finding him."
"Are you doing this because you truly wish to help me? Or that it will help you maintain your quota?" the boy asked dryly.
Uwabami looked at him confusingly. "I'm not really sure what you mean by that. I only want to get you back home safely."
"Why are you lying?" Izuku asked, raising his face to meet with Uwabami's. "What did you say earlier?" He smiled, placing his palms together. "Oh, I think it was something about keeping your popularity afloat."
"Listen kid, I don't know what you heard me say but I suggest you leave before I do something about that mouth."
"Oooo, scary!" Izuku replied sarcastically. At first, he only planned to subdue them with minimal force. But the anger he felt after hearing them talk, made him decide on another alternative. "And do you intend on actually doing it yourself, or will you order your lackey to do it for you?" he asked.
Tsuyoshi stepped in front of his teacher, "Listen brat, we don't have time to play games with you. Run along before- "
In that moment, Tsuyoshi saw the glimpse of a shiny metal object fly straight into his face. Before he could dodge, it lodged itself straight into his left eye. Uwabami watched in horror as the intern in front of her collapsed down to his knees, crying out in agony. Tsuyoshi covered his eye; his face and hands began to drip blood from the knife's handle that pierced out from his socket.
Izuku found himself calmly taking out another blade, this time holding it out in the open. "I find it odd when hypocrites talk about selflessness. I'm disappointed to find out that you can't even defend yourself from a throwing knife." He began to slowly walk towards Uwabami.
"Aren't you a Pro Hero? Why are you just standing there?"
As Uwabami continued to look at intern beside her feet, the only thought that raced in her mind was to escape. To run away and call for help if she could. Uwabami turned around to face the way they had entered through, only to find a girl blocking her path.
"No no no. That wasn't the right thing to do," Izuku warned Uwabami. "Why is it that you try to run away when a person is right beside you, unable to move. Especially when they are being pursued by someone holding a knife?"
"It's because she's a harlot!" shouted Toga in the distance.
Izuku stopped, he moved his hands up, puzzled at what he heard. "Really? Really Toga? Is that what we were going for?" Izuku asked. "A harlot… What?" He adjusted his collar with one free hand.
Toga shrugged. "Eh, I don't know. Just seemed like the most appropriate thing to say."
"That has nothing to do with what I was trying to get across," Izuku complained, visibly face-palming. "As I was saying." He turned to look at Uwabami. "You trying to run away, only makes it worse."
In that short time, Tsuyoshi had regained his focus. He quickly jumped up to attack Izuku but was kicked into the face. He flew towards a dumpster, smashing into its side.
Izuku walked over to the person he had kicked, pointing at the body that lay on the floor. "See? Now that's a little bit better, but he's still just like you." Izuku lifted the boy's left arm, looking at Uwabami that stood frozen in fear.
"Let's teach him what it really means when you put your life on the line as a hero."
"Wait no!" Uwabami blurted out in terror.
Izuku placed his foot on Tsuyoshi's shoulder, breaking the upper bone with a swift motion to the side. He then quickly pulled the arm towards him, dislocating the shoulder.
Izuku smiled as the boy in front of him wailed in agony and fear, unable to move from what had happened. Izuku patted his head, releasing his arm. "Now that's a good hero. I would have killed you if I could."
"Please," Uwabami pleaded. "I don't know what you want, but please let me go. I'll stop being a hero."
"It's a little late for you to say that," he replied irritably.
Izuku wiped off the blood that hit his face earlier. He stared at the woman, until realizing that Toga had sneaked up slowly behind her, hitting the back of her head with the butt of the knife.
Uwabami fell to the floor, the hit rendered her unconscious. Toga crouched down, "Can't let you have all of the fun, you sadistic fluff-ball." She grabbed an empty container from her back, taking out a syringe and connected them together. Toga glanced over towards Izuku, before stabbing it into the hero's leg.
"Suck the blood, suck, suck," she said, letting out a cheerful hymn.
"So that's what she meant earlier," Izuku thought. He was glad it wasn't anything worse.
Izuku removed the blade he had thrown at the high school student earlier, afterwards taking out a small notepad. He moved over a small metal bucket and sat down on it besides the injured boy. "So, tell me. What kind of quirk do you have?"
Tsuyoshi breathed heavily, occasionally moaning in pain. He had no idea if his teacher had escaped or not, but he was afraid of what the boy in the suit would do to him next.
"Why are you so quiet all of the sudden?" Izuku asked. "Just a moment ago you were calling me off and talking about gaining a fan base." He grabbed a pen from his vest pocket and began to tap it on top of the notepad. "It's a little different when you realize that a real hero must always be ready to risk their lives to protect others. Granted that I saw you show a little bit of that towards the end."
"I am sure that all you did in your life since childhood, was think about how much money you would get, and how many people would fawn over you. But did you ever stop to consider helping a kid in your class that got bullied in school. Or help an elderly person cross the street? I'm sure you've had the chance to, but all you actually care about is reputation."
Tsuyoshi stayed quiet, not knowing if saying anything would make it better for him. He slowly picked up his head from the ground, only to see Izuku look at him with a bored expression.
"I'm only going to ask once more. What is your quirk?" Izuku demanded. He brought the pen closer to the boy's other eye. "Otherwise you go completely blind if you continue to ignore me." He said nonchalantly.
"I… I can imitate anyone's voice after I touch them," Tsuyoshi coughed. He was losing consciousness from blood loss.
Izuku was fascinated from what he heard. "This is all now slowly coming together," he thought, writing down everything he could analyse about the quirk. "I can see why All for One would want them."
He then felt a presence appear above them from one of the building rooftops. The figure then jumped down in front of Izuku.
"I take it you are Compress," Izuku guessed, standing up from the bucket. "We've dealt with these two, but one of them will die if they aren't given immediate medical attention."
"That will not be a problem," Compress said. "I will make sure that the boy stays alive until the boss is done with them."
Compress placed his hand on Tsuyoshi's back, instantly turning him into a marble.
"And now just for this lady behind me."
A/N: Thanks for reading the chapter and I hope you have a wonderful day. I've got one big assignment coming up soon, so I will be focusing on that a bit more. Expect the next chapter in around 3-4 days. Just want to say thank you once more to everyone who had followed/favourited, and left a review/comment. It always motivates to keep on writing.