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Minoru, Momo, and Momo's father make a trip to the well-known Musutafu City as Momo's parents are putting the cart before the horse and looking for somewhere she can stay while she attends UA.

Unfortunately, a villain comes crashing through, and Minoru has to wrestle with some truths right before he has a fated encounter.

Warning: Plot

Chapter 6 - Defend the Faith

As far as Mineta Minoru was concerned, today was a great day.

The sun was shining, the wind was blowing nicer and cool, and he could spot some cute girls across the street giggling between themselves as they enjoyed some crepes from a nearby stand. And even better, when they'd spotted him, they'd been in a good enough mood to send him a wave!

Of course he'd waved back, and that only seemed to send the older girls into a fit of more giggling.

Yeah, the day was looking great so far.

And the view of the city also made things better. Minoru had to admit that Musutafu looked like it was a pretty pleasant place to live.

It was more packed with buildings than he'd become used to after living so long in Yamate, which had a lot more vegetation going for it. Still, this wasn't so bad, especially all the trees that ran up and down the hillsides of the city.

"Really gives it a nice green view to look at, huh?"

Momo sent him a nod as she looked around, her dark eyes wide with excitement even though they weren't really anywhere interesting. Part of him could get it, though. It wasn't every day that you were in Musutafu, the home of UA High School.

Now that he was actually getting a look at the place, it made sense. Musutafu had a lot of space, which UA apparently needed a lot considering all of the construction they supposedly liked doing.

The view was interesting, though. And Minoru couldn't help but look into the far distance to see the tops of UA's campus towering over the surrounding buildings like a lord of old overseeing his subjects. It had been the first thing he'd noticed as they alighted from the train, the school drawing in the eye even so far away.

If things worked out for him - for both Momo and him - they'd be able to see what it's like to be inside it.

For now, though? They were seeing if Momo could find anywhere to stay.

"Yeah!" She answered, giving him a look and nodding, "I'm surprised at how busy it is, though. Lots of bustle even on a weekend."

That it was. Despite coming in during their day off, both of them were surprised to find a lot of people out and about - heroes especially. While Minoru hadn't recognized that many, there were a few members of the top one hundred in the mix. He thought he even recognized Tiger of the Wild Wild Pussycats, but he couldn't be sure since the big guy hadn't been in costume.

If he was, though, he was definitely looking forward to seeing the other members in the future.

But it was a testament to how busy things looked to get here, and part of him wondered how much crime could actually be done in a town like this if there were so many heroes active here. After all, UA's faculty was made up of active heroes, too.

"Do you think the cities of the other hero schools are as busy?" He wondered out loud.

The city Shiketsu is in can also get quite busy," Came the response from Yaoyorozu Kimura, Momo's father, "It's a little more urban than Musutafu is, so the immediate area is significantly more… dense."

Minoru nodded his thanks, as the trio continued their walk down the street.

"Still," the older man continued, "it's about as close to the school as you're going to get so that'll be the main advantage of getting a place here, Mo-chan. What do you think?"

His friend looked about. They were close to downtown, which meant it was mostly shops and office buildings straddling the main thoroughfare that lead to the city center and, eventually, to UA's main campus. Several hero agency buildings dotted the street.

Actually, it looked like Mount Lady was based in Musutafu, too. Licking his lips, he was looking forward to seeing her in action sometime.

"Honestly, I'm impressed you two are keeping up so well." Kimura huffed as they slowed to a stop outside one of the office buildings. A fancy-looking thing made of bare concrete and covered with plants. "We've checked three possible places and all the walking's getting to me."

"I think all of the training's been helping, tou-san," Momo beamed. "Minoru-kun, too."

It definitely was. And he could feel it doing the same for himself, too. Momo's dad had opted to have them all walk around the city to go from each of the places they were checking out.

That one of them was a house on the far side of town from the train station may not have been the best idea, but Minoru hadn't been too keen on disagreeing with the man that had invited him to join them.

Because while he and Momo seems to be managing, Kimura the businessman wasn't doing so well.

He'd have to thank Sana when he got home. She'd been the one to push for conditioning. She'd even talked his parents into getting him an instructor from within the company's contacts. It was going to be important he be as ready as he could be if he was going to pass those exams.

Monioru didn't think he'd be interested in moving here. He'd taken the train separately to meet with Momo and her dad, and it was so close the commute wasn't going to be much of an issue once class started. Provided he got in, of course.

Which really made this whole song and dance they were doing kind of funny since Momo's parents were also working on the assumption that they were both getting in. He supposed it was a testament to the amount of trust that they had in his friend. Of course, Momo had tried to talk her parents out of it considering how high the fail-rate was for the school.

A big part of him found the starry-eyed look in her eye pretty darn cute, and he wondered if she had the same look when her parents had told her where they were going to check first. Her dad had whispered to him that she'd folded immediately.

There was an appeal to this that seemed a little lost on Mineta. This was supposed to be some storied place, where most of Japan's top heroes attended. History walked through its halls before they became household names.

Maybe it was because his interests lay elsewhere. Sana suspected - usually while sending him a mischievous grin - that he was just more focused on something else because he'd found a new toy to play with.

Which Minoru couldn't really disagree with considering how much fun he'd been having with Ryuko as of late.

His blood sang at the memory, and he had to stop and take a few short breaths to make sure he didn't embarrass himself in front of his friend and her dad. There was something about exercising his powers that felt… good. Better than using his quirk even, but not as good as using both together.

The air felt more crisp, and the world brightened. And his blood would thunder in his veins. It was a rush almost as good as sex.

Even now, he could feel Ryuko and Rumi in the back of his mind. Ryuko more now that he'd strengthened the link. She was close enough metaphysically that he could reach out and touch her, taste her on his lips.s

Maybe after he got home he'd play with her this way, see what new things he could do.

"Minoru-kun?"

He remembered Sana talking about whispers at one point. Maybe that was something he could experiment with?

"Is… that and earthquake?"

Minoru really needed to have a nice long talk with either his caretaker or his mom about his powers. There were muscles in his mind, in his soul that he still needed to stretch.

Screaming… Rumbling?

Pain.

He heard Momo let out a cry as the world around him blurred and he felt his very physical stomach drop past his belt as the wind seemed to hit his face like a brick wall. It left him dizzy, and part of his mind clouded.

Unfortunately, it didn't spare him from the sensation of his body smashing against something hard. His whole body rattled with the force of it, and part of him worried that several things might have been broken.

"Minoru-kun!?" Momo's voice was distant, but the conscious part of his mind was thankful that it rang like a bell to his ears.

Good.

"Those damn heroes aren't really letting up, huh?"

Heat collided with his body with the force of a freight train as a gust of dust-filled air grated against his skin. It wasn't a familiar heat, not the kind he'd subjected Ryuko to, or what Sana could inspire in him. This wasn't the tantalizing heat at the base of his belly.

This was fire. A roaring engine that threatened to consume him. Minoru felt his body squirm, a sudden surge of indignation from the depths of his chest. Briefly, and despite the aching deep in his bones, his fingers clenched against the crushed concrete.

Bleary eyes opened as he tried to take stock of his surroundings. Momo looked okay. Bruised and a little dirty, but unhurt. Beside her was her father who looked a little more worried than injured. Good, good. They were okay.

Which let Minoru pay more attention to everything else.

Like the fear, the air was thick with it. Thick enough that he was beginning to be able to feel it on his skin. It lay over the street like an invisible fog, chilling his healing skin despite the fact that they were out in the afternoon in broad daylight.

Panicked locals ran away, some of the braver or more desperate ones bursting through the hole the villain had smashed through to get to this part of the city before dispersing. Even with his blurred vision, Minoru could spot the brown-red bloodstains spattered across the shattered tiles.

Dead. He could see no corpses, but something in that ruined building sang to him. Minoru wished that he could get up right now.

"Huh," The voice above him rumbled, loud enough that Minoru might have felt it if his senses weren't being overloaded, "I'm kind of surprised you're not dead. Sturdy kid, aren't you?"

Only then did Minoru look up.

And up, and up.

"Guess you'll make a good hostage."

As Muscular reached down, Minoru hoped that Momo and her dad got away.

~TtT~

Ryuko snarled as she crossed over the verdant hillsides that seemed to surround Musutafu. Even from here she could immediately see where the trouble was. It was hard to miss the rising smoke and the distant echoes of screams being carried to her by the riding winds.

She'd gotten the call only minutes ago. An underground hero had gotten a tip that Muscular was targeting something in Musutafu. Information or resources, they suspected, and it was enough that Ryuko wanted to be in the area - even if just quietly - in case something would happen.

The plan had been to check where he'd been sighted and maybe see if they could tap resources to see what he'd been looking for.

But what should have been a leisurely flight alongside her sidekick had turned into a mad dash across the sky when the Heronet turned hot with activity.

Muscular had resurfaced.

Muscular had resurfaced and things had gotten violent.

Details were sparse, and Ryuko didn't know what had happened to make things go loud the way it did, but there was already confirmation that he was in the overground of the city and engaged with heroes in combat. Mount Lady and several of the other local heroes were already engaging him.

But there was a bind. A hostage. Muscular had picked up some middle-schooler and was using him as a human shield so the heroes couldn't really engage him. Not without putting the kid in danger.

He was making his way to the northern hills now. Likely to try and make an escape, and Ryuko didn't have any good thoughts on what might happen to the kid even if Muscular did get away. Not with the villain's track record.

She was really going to push for the HPSC to bump his classification. He wasn't just robbing banks or picking fights with A-lister heroes anymore. This was active terror, and especially concerning if this continued to be a pattern.

"Nejire-chan!" She called into her comms as the building where the smoke was coming from had become more clear. A trail of destruction lay in the wake of it, and Ryuko could follow the broken street to see the bright-pink outline of Muscular standing out through the debris. "Keep the others back. I don't want any of you getting hurt again."

The answer had barely gone through her earpiece when she began to ascend into the clouds. Close enough still for her to see Muscular's rough location, but high enough that he'd need to be actively keeping an eye out for her to know where she was coming from.

Assuming he knew to look out for her at all. He'd managed to give her trouble the last time they'd fought, but Ryuko doubted that he'd be ready for one ton of dragon getting the drop on him.

"This is Dragon Hero Ryukyu, I can make a dive for the hostage." She announced into the HN call. "Do you have details for me?"

It was Mount Lady that answered, "I can probably try and get you an opening. Make him more preoccupied so he's not paying as much attention."

"That'll do, Mount Lady." She answered back.

As the flame of her quirk spread and her body grew, she readied herself for her opening.

Somewhere deep in the back of her mind, something throbbed. It throbbed with such intensity that a wave of pain washed over her mind as her quirk took over.

"W-What…"

~TtT~

Dammit.

Minoru was going to die. He was sure of it.

Could he even die, actually? His dad was a Dragonlord, his mom an Old God. Both were pretty much unkillable, and his dad had been around the block a long time before he'd met his mom.

But Minoru was also a kid. He was a human kid, and his mom had started out as human, too.

Sana had warned him that he was… durable, but getting smooshed underneath a villain probably might be more than his little god body could handle right now.

Damn. He probably could die, couldn't he? He was getting into so much trouble when he got home.

The heroes were trying to talk down Muscular. The mere fact that they were trying to negotiate with the guy - or even just pretend to - left him feeling more than a little bit nervous. Because even though Mount Lady - hot damn it was Mount Lady! - had given him a quick speech about being brave, there was a look in her eye that told him this Muscular person really wasn't someone he could trust with his life.

And it left him seriously considering some of his options.

Because the heroes couldn't really get too close. Muscular had already threatened to crush him, and whatever illusions Minoru had about the guy bluffing had disappeared the moment. Somewhere he was sure the bones that had just knit themselves back together had popped. He must have dislocated something in there, and Muscular hadn't even looked down to check if he was okay.

Ass.

From what he remembered, self defense was a pretty good reason for him to use his quirk, and he had gotten some practice in for it on account of prepping for the UA exams. Still, he doubted that Muscular would let him do anything that'd make him lose the one hostage that kept him from being dogpiled by the local heroes. Mineta was pretty sure he'd spotted one or two of the ones he knew as UA instructors, too.

Which meant that using his actual quirk to get out of this was a surefire way for him to get turned into god-paste.

Actually, that was an even worse idea on account of the fact that the meatier bits of him might be seen. They'd probably ask questions about that, though he'd be too dead for it to matter to him.

Yeah, definitely not a good idea for him to go for his quirk.

Which left his powers.

Blood thrummed in his veins almost as soon as the thought came to him.

At least before the air was suddenly crushed out of him.

"You'd stay back if you knew what was good for you!"

One of the heroes had been creeping closer. A wood-looking guy that Minoru didn't recognize, but had been threatening enough that Muscular had stopped the quick trek he was making into the city's borders to make sure he wasn't getting jumped.

They'd stopped at a small park between several office buildings and what looked like a housed neighborhood. The place had already been cordoned off and he could see some of the residents looking at them from a distance.

Gah. That's a lot of eyes on them. Not just the heroes, but the civilians, too. And Minoru wasn't too keen on testing how good he was at using his powers on so many people at once when he was still getting the feel for how he could use them on one person.

So he was going to need to be as subtle about this as possible and only hit Muscular with it.

Part of him still didn't like the idea of drawing a dude into his Den. Felt a little too intimate of a thing to do with someone he wasn't interested in.

Despite that, his blood sang to him at the idea of taking another creature. Besides, it was better uncomfortable and annoyed than dead, huh?

Power thrummed beneath his skin, his consciousness spreading to every part of him as he readied himself to strike. He'd use eye contact for this. Try and call the big lug's attention then shove as much of his influence into his eyes as possible.

Another wave of pain hit him as Muscular squeezed harder, the world blurred as he shook his fist at the heroes. They were being surrounded and the villain was not having it.

Focus. He needed to focus.

More pain. His ribs creaked within his chest, his heart pounded.

Minoru's world had never been more clear.

And then he saw her. Ryuko.

Then came the fire. And Minoru felt his soul roar in triumph.

~TtT~

The back of her mind throbbed.

"We have him cornered, Ryukyu-san!"

And that was all the signal Ryuko needed.

Her world narrowed, the corners of her vision darkening as she picked up speed with her dive. The clouds parted and she immediately corrected her course towards the park.

She could see the destruction left in his wake. Broken buildings, shattered streets.

Ryuko got closer. Muscular was almost entirely surrounded now, heroes on just about every side to make sure he had nowhere to run, and some of the higher-ranked heroes like Kamui Woods inching forward, trying to approach to keep the villain's attention on them.

Her lungs filled with fire as she readied herself. She could scald Musculars arm, let the flame run hot enough that the limb hidden beneath his quirk could feel it. Whether he let go of the boy or not, the surprise would be enough for her to yank the child out of his hands.

Three.

Throb.

Muscular was starting to panic. The child in his hands being waved back and forth in front of him like some sort of shield.

Two.

Throb.

Ryuko could have sworn that the boy in the villain's hand squirmed, winced. He might have broken something.

One.

Throb.

She'd gotten the drop on him. Her body and the strength of her impact sent him straight into the ground just as Ryuko had managed to get the boy out of his. Flames poured from her maw to cover what she was doing and get her the distraction she needed to retreat.

A roar of fury greeted her, pink-banded arms - charred as they looked - reached through the flames to try and grab her. She'd barely had the time to get out before all of the heroes were dogpiling him.

Ryuko let out a breath of relief, and did her best to ignore how the throbbing in the back of her mind only intensified.

"You're okay now, kid," She said as the two of them cleared the tops of the city's skyline, "I got you. Let's get you to the hospital, shall we?"

She looked to her charge.

And was greeted with slitted eyes of orange-gold.

I'd love to hear what you guys think of the story so far. Thanks for taking the time to read!

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