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Published:
2022-01-03
Updated:
2022-09-25
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33/?
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My Villain Academia

Summary:

Tomura couldn’t understand, while they lost to the heroes just a few weeks ago, All for One successfully baited the No. 1 American hero and took her reality-warping Quirk. Technically speaking they should’ve already won…
So why did his adoptive father turn him into a UA highschool student???

Or

All for One thinks his adoptive son needs to learn a few lessons and used New Order to fling Tomura into an alternate reality where all the villains from the real world are flipped around as heroes.

Notes:

This is still subject to change but planned major characters will be Shigaraki (obviously), Spinner, Mustard, Curious, and Nagant.

Chapter 1: My Villain Academia

Chapter Text

Day 1, Monday

 

 

 

 

Tomura Shigaraki slumped in his seat, raising his right gloved hand to scratch the side of his cheek, his mind in full bewilderment on what’s really going on.

 

He’s currently wearing the official UA physical education uniform. It was a perfect copy, right down to the stylized U and A right in front. It was early in the morning, the wall clock visible in the nearest hallway saying it’s not even past 8. The bench he’s sitting on is just only partially shaded, but his sheer confusion alone is preventing him from feeling any sort of discomfort.

 

Not only he’s stuck in UA, in full uniform, he’s also aged down 4 years from 20 to 16. There were some students nearby minding their own business just as him. He discreetly scanned their faces but could not recognize a single one. Not a hint of his best friend Spinner, nor anyone familiar to him. As for his gloves, AFo said to make sure to wear them as often as possible in this brand-new world.

 

Everything is peaceful, normal, and boring. All for One wasn’t lying when he said he’s going to make a parallel universe and send him in.

 

But the real question is why is this parallel universe even needed? Why is he sent here? What’s the meaning behind all this nonsense?! They have New Order in their grasp, they should have already won. There’s literally no reason why this is ever needed. But asking AFO would only yield responses about he needs to learn something.

 

Tomura took a deep breath and sighed. It seems like it was just yesterday when AFO asked him if he could temporarily take over and use his physical form to help him fight the Buff American Hero Lady with renewed vigor. And he accepted, thinking it was going to be an epic father-son moment. He thought it was going to be awesome, a sign for heroes to give up, an intense back-to-back multiplayer coop boss battle…

 

Yet everything just went to black, and he only returned to consciousness when AFO returned his body to him after taking the reality-warping Quirk he so badly wanted. No epic fights, no intense scenes, no glorious victories, nothing at all, not even a single Nomu was brought in. All for One himself didn’t say much about the fight either, but he successfully took the Quirk it seems. He was glad, he was happy, and showered him praises even though Tomura didn’t really do anything. Spinner was very happy as well.

 

So the next step is using that Quirk to bring down society once and for all, right?

 

Right…?

 

No. AFO went to have a talk with him. He first thought it’s gonna be a plan for a one-last picnic before everything goes down, fishing, or maybe camping perhaps. But no, he said he plans to have him turned into a highschool student to learn about his mistakes.

 

What mistakes is he talking about? Yes he steamrolled through an army like there’s no tomorrow but lost against heroes. But does that even count as a mistake when there’s a literal reality-warp Quirk in their possession now? That alone invalidates all the reasons why he’s even in this little alternate universe!

 

They should have been gearing up to beat Midoriya and hero society in one fell swoop now, not this… stupid highschool thing! What is even there to learn?

 

“Oh you’re up this early, never expected this from you, Tomura…” came the gentle voice of All for One as he approached from behind the bench Tomura is on, the clacking of his shoes against the marble floor clearly audible. He was wearing his usual fancy attire and now-fixed breathing apparatus in a form of a Darth Vader-esque helmet as usual.

 

Despite him standing out in the scene like a sore thumb, everyone went on their merry ways as if he’s completely invisible. And he is – to other people at least. As much as Tomura would like to have his adoptive father join him in this new world, he wouldn’t – with the man’s reasoning being that he needs to further understand and fine-tune New Order so they could have an easier time beating their enemies once he returned… or whatever he meant by that…

 

Tomura’s adoptive father sat down beside him.

 

“Am I really gonna do this? What can I even learn from being a highschool student? What does villainy got to do with being a highschool student??”Tomura asked, leaning back against the armrest nearest to him, looking at his adoptive father with the same confusion that plagued him since this morning.

 

“Son, I got to tell you something. Something about your villain performance in the past few months… about the PLF…”

 

“The PLF? Yeah I lost but you got that reality-warp Quirk now, it doesn’t matter.”

 

“No son. While I appreciate your skill in holding off against powerful enemies that day, what’s more important are the events before that, before the birth of the PLF itself… That faithful day you fought the MLA…”

 

“The Meta Liberation Army…?” Tomura drifted off and remembered that day. Early morning... Call from that stupid long-nosed idiot challenging him, and the League going there and wiping them out despite having less members than they have during the kidnapping of the explodey kid. He somehow won, and he simply chalked it as them being just that good, especially him and his vastly-improved widespread Decay he can suddenly do out of nowhere.

 

All for One faded off for a bit like a ghost being caught in video. A few static-like hiccups here and there but he went back to being stable.

 

“I won against stupid long-nosed idiot and took over his army, isn’t that pretty cool on its own?” Tomura said, shrugging. His left gloved hand once again scratching the side of his cheek. “That makes me a good villain, right? I lost them all now but is that even relevant at this point?”

 

“So you didn’t notice one thing that somehow none of them hit you? None of them had any Quirks that can fight back against you like how easy it was for Sand Hero Snatch to pin you down?”

 

Tomura’s mouth slowly hung open. “Huh? So you got something to do with it? I thought you’re in Tartarus?”

 

The main in the suit nodded slowly. “Tartarus is… not really up to the current standard when dealing with some Quirks I have. I communicated with you back when you emerged from Dr. Garaki’s laboratory vat and they detected nothing. The truth is that, I’m the one who helped you through your fight against the MLA, also with your comrades as well.”

 

“Really? Well gee thanks I guess?“

 

“No… it’s not that. I’m sad to say this but for someone who will eventually become my successor, your performance that day is really lackluster.”

 

“But that’s the past! Those events happened already, why is it even relevant? While yeah I appreciate you helping us out but… making it such a big of a deal is just… weird…”

 

“But without me, you would have died in less than a second. Throwing your life away in a call you’re not even sure if true is really not the best of critical thinking. What if it’s a setup by the heroes? I was itching for a good fight that’s why I didn’t just warn you to not go there. I thought you would notice eventually but it seems you wouldn’t if it weren’t for me telling this to you right now.”

 

Tomura blanked out, his gaze lingering onto his adoptive father’s mask for a good five seconds before he realized… The call Re-Destro made towards him could easily be just a prank call by some kids and he would still fall for it.

 

For the future successor of AFO, that’s beyond embarrassing.

 

“Er… sorry but- Why do we even need New Order again if you can just help us fight against an ENTIRE army while being imprisoned?”

 

“It’s a combination of synapse dampeners, electrical impulse maskers, data distortion, and a bunch of other similar Quirks on my side just not to get detected. Then I directed a maximum strength Neural Degradation Quirk towards you and your team and then quickly inverting them and extending their effective range.It took a lot of effort. New Order is just here to make things a lot easier for me.”

 

“A neu-what?”

 

“I uh…” All for One leaned down for a bit, right hand stroking the bottom of his mask. “I casted a Dumb-Down spell onto you and your party and added an Inversion modification to it so it only works against your enemies.”

 

“Hey! Where did you get those terms?” Tomura asked with a wide smile. “Since when did the old man become a gamer? I bet it’s Spinner! It’s got to be Spinner! You’ve been playing MMOs now?”

 

“With a little dash of Grand Theft Auto, thank you very much… can’t seem to find any powerful guns but it’s not really the main point-“

 

“You’ve got to rank up your character level… so what is it? Why didn’t you get out of Tartarus? When you’re clearly powerful enough to help us against an ENTIRE army? And why only now would you make this a big deal?”

 

“If I escaped, then heroes would be instantly alarmed and would try to take you down as soon as possible instead of letting you off the hook.”

 

“Off… the hook?”

 

“You’ll see what I’m talking about soon. This alternate reality is not simply for show. This time you’ll defeat your enemies without my help. You’ll learn to pick your fights. Try to challenge this alternate world’s villains again without any plan and you’ll be instantly annihilated.”

 

“But you wouldn’t just let me get pummeled, right?”

 

“If you manage to complete this mission, and by mission I mean defeat Midoriya, then you win.”

 

“What do I get?”

 

All for One sighed. Tomura noticed the man’s fingers twitching about. It could only mean that there’s a silly grin behind that mask, and it made him more excited at the surprise. He hoped that it would involve fishing-

 

“Hmmm… During your further upgrade sessions before I fought Stars and Stri-“

 

“Who?”

 

“Buff American Superhero Lady.”

 

“Oh, carry on.”

 

“During your second upgrade session, I managed to get Mr. Chikazoku-“

 

“Mr. who?”

 

“Always-pissed-off IT guy.”

 

“Oh, carry on.”

 

“I managed to get my hands on my very own high-end laptop.So you, me, and Spinner can finally play along, how do you think about that?”

 

“Woah…“ Tomura just couldn’t believe it. All for One has always seemed so busy to whatever evil schemes he’s planning at the time. But him, Spinner, and his Dad can now play games? Well that changes a lot of things! At least he can enjoy some quality time with him before they go out again and challenge the heroes, or until the heroes recover and attack them again, whichever comes first.

 

“Yes I have Minecraft installed.”

 

“Alright! That settles it! What do you want me to do? Don’t worry Dad! I won’t fail you this time!”

 

“Defeat Midoriya.”

 

“In this school? He’s enrolled in this school, right? Are we classmates?” Tomura immediately went into planning mode, his lips moving on their own without any sounds coming out. He thought about all the stupid cartoon traps he could use to defeat, heck even KILL that stupid green-haired idiot once and for all. Maybe a spike trap, or a bucket of corrosive acid perhaps? Maybe poison his drink? Maybe just kick his ass? Decay?

 

“Tomura, he’s not enrolled here. I switched up a few things to keep everything fresh. Now I want you to make it out your first week normally, I will be visiting you randomly in your dreams in the next few days. Make sure to ask all the questions you need to ask because like I said, it’s random.”

 

“RNG eh? Carry on.”

 

“As for now, I want you to just wait on this bench for a little while longer. Get a good view of your surroundings, immerse yourself in this new world, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. When you finish your mission, you’ll be back to where we exactly left off. Heck maybe even go fishing-”

 

“Screw world domination, let’s go fishing first!”

 

“Once you finish this quest, we’ll go fishing.” All for One slowly stood up and stretched his arms, cracking noises coming from his back a little too audible. A short grumble about getting too old, one last wave to his adopted son, and he walked off, disappearing into mist like nothing happened at all.

 

‘Everything here is meant to represent something in the real world,’ came in AFO’s disembodied voice in Tomura’s head, fading off eventually towards the end. ‘Consider discovering them as bonus objectives.’

 

 

The young man-turned-teenager turned back to face whatever direction the bench is facing, and began thinking about all the possibilities aside from gaming all night, killing people, and gaming about killing people all night.

 

‘So the main quest is defeating Midoriya huh? I bet killing him will do just nicely. So where could he be? Is he out there? Is he in this school? All for One didn’t say anything more than a short description of this little highschool-universe ‘plan’ before me being sent here.

 

What about Spinner? Where could he be?’

 

Thinking about his best friend made him remember his other teammates. He was badly beaten during that day, A bunch of heroes arriving too many at the same time made it an absolute hell to focus on just one target, with him getting flung around on all directions like a dog’s chew toy. When he recovered, they’re now in a cave, with maybe just Dabi, Toga, and Always-Pissed-Off It Guy there, along with Spinner, AFO, and some Nomus.

 

‘All Spinner told me is that the PLF lost to the heroes, and they had to evacuate on Machia. Compress was captured by the heroes as well…’

 

And when news of the Number One hero of America arriving to get them came in, All for One calmly asked him to take over his physical form. It was direct, simple, and straight-to-the-point. AFO took over, Tomura blacked out, AFO returned with New Order in tow just like that. He remembered even Spinner  being absolutely flabbergasted how can an old guy casually going in and going back from defeating a top world hero without any scratches at all.

 

‘Or maybe Dad used New Order to heal himself back up? But the woman’s a reality-warper! How did he win?!’

 

AFO didn’t mention anything more about the fight, no matter how much Tomura asked what happened. He just shrugged it off as some super secret technique that he shouldn’t learn until he leveled up enough.

 

‘I wonder what happened to the rest… Twice, Dr. Detnerat Doofenshmirtz, Bluepill Ultimate, and Ice Climber Deluxe? Were they captured as well? IT guy never said anything about them, nor could even be bothered to tell the rest of the story. Nah it’s not like I even care… As a villain, I should only care about the very important people, and outside of AFO and Spinner, nobody matters at all. Everyone else is cannon fodder for the greater evil.’

 

Tomura stopped thinking as a cool early morning breeze wafted in front of his face. What lesson will he learn here? He’s not into learning things and would rather find the quickest way to finishing things, just like a gamer grinding for the rarest monster drops.

 

‘But the promise of fishing… I really wanted to go fishing… I really wanted to see if I can catch boots in lakes… I gotta do this! I should do this for Fishing trips! Camping Adventures! And Minecraft! Do it for the best evil Dad in the universe!’

 

Tomura looked down and glanced upon his gloved hands. He remembered All for One saying his Decay will get a rework so he couldn’t just kill everyone in this little alternate universe. What he DIDN’T tell him is what his new Quirk would be like, and what he DID tell him is that someone very familiar will arrive to explain his new abilities for him.

 

So who could that familiar person be-?

 

“Shigaraki!” said a very familiar voice from behind the bench Tomura is on, he turned around and his eyes widened in what he saw. The gray ruffled hair, the small rounded spectacles, the way the person carried himself with the UA faculty uniform he’s wearing. “Right on time!”

 

‘You’ve got to be kiddin’ me…’

 

It was Giran… and he looks like someone who would be in a high-ranking position here at UA- WAIT!

 

‘Giran… UA… Must defeat Midoriya… I’m probably a hero student… Ah yes, the good ol’ switcheroo… gotta love it...’

 

Tomura briefly glanced at his gloved hands. He’s a hero student now, so could that be tied to All for One saying that he reworked his Decay? So that he could fit better as a hero student? What could he replace it with?

 

Giran eventually got up to him, standing behind the bench, with a warm fatherly smile – his teeth somehow lacking the almost-iconic gaps in it. Thoughts of him offering black market deals flashed by the teen’s mind for a while, but he suddenly snapped back to reality, or in this case, warped reality.

 

“Taking a fresh breath of air, are we? The teachers saw you talking to a non-existent person here just now, figured out you’re still hallucinating after all this time.”

 

“Hallucinating?”

 

“Since you can get up on your own now, let’s give you a quick tour. You would make a good candidate to UA’s brand new SpecProCourse!”

 

Tomura’s mind went blank for a brief moment, his face contorting into a mixture of curiosity and confusion. So he IS a hero student! So everything must be switched! And what’s this SpecPro?

 

“I have a lot of questions…”

 

Giran gave him a gentle pat on the back and nudged him to go forward with him, straight to the UA hallways… hallways that would look so much better crumbled to dust. Add in the cries for help from desperate people escaping the chaos, and it’s like a symphony of villainy.

 

Even though Tomura is wearing the standard UA uniform, people passing by them still gave him stares. Must it be because of his dry-looking skin? Well that doesn’t make sense when there are people with literal monstrous heads nearby them as well.

 

They would fit better as villains in the real world, and now there’s a bunch of them looking like students here. Strange…

 

“Can you remember anything? Like anything at all?” Giran asked, keeping a hand placed on the boy’s back as they walked.

 

“Do you remember being a notorious underground information broker?”Tomura countered back, sarcasm reeking in his response, hoping to get a kick out of Giran, but got nothing but pats on the back instead. If he wanted to piss him off, he would have to up his game.

 

“It seems that the drugs are still affecting your head. The dean of UA would never do such a thing!”

 

‘Giran is UA’s dean… nice…’

 

“Nah… I really can’t remember anything…” Tomura said, completely faking a dizzy tone. What All for One said is to simply defeat Midoriya, although he also said something about discovering things as bonus objectives… Knowing his adoptive father, AFO would surely take him to activities more than fishing if he managed to figure out everything – and maybe the ol’ man would even forgive him for being too lousy during the MLA event! Win/Win!

 

Now if only he could figure out the most efficient way to find them all…

 

“I need a backstory…” Tomura said, he himself not knowing why.

 

“Remember anything about a drug factory? You and a bunch of other kids were rescued there last week from being test targets for some new hallucination drug.”

 

“That’s a very nice excuse for me knowing a lot of things in this new world…”

 

“But that was last week ago? According to all tests, you should be up and running as a normal kid right now.”

 

“Nah, I came from another reality,” Tomura said with a light giggle afterwards. He wondered a bit if ‘hero’ activities in this alternate universe would involve him disintegrating things… but heroes already do collateral damage every time they fight so…

 

‘Heh… this could be fun…’

 

“Giran, what’s my Quirk?”

 

“Giran huh? Looks like the science lab would still need to run more tests on the neural effects of the hallucinogen used on you…”

 

“Nah I’d like to call you Giran now, it makes a good nickname. So what’s my Quirk?”

 

“Based on some Quirk info on you, your abilities are listed under Wasteland, specifically Wasteland 27.”

 

“Why the number?”

 

“There are 26 other similar Quirks to yours. And since you’re not listed under the national Quirk registry list, it’s got a temporary name given to it. If you want you can suggest a better name, if it’s not taken that is.”

 

“What does Wasteland do? Does it decay things and disintegrate them?”

 

“Yes, but not people-“

 

“OH COME ON!”

 

“Hey now, Shigaraki. You’re an up-and-coming hero student, killing people is a complete no-no. And while you can’t disintegrate people. Tests of your Quirk while you’re still unconscious showed some other interesting things,” Giran said with a nod to a passing adult Tomura doesn’t know. “People making skin-contact with all five fingers of your hand simultaneously, will get instantly dehydrated for quite some time like they were instantly transported in the middle of the desert for the entire duration. While you were being rescued, you flailed around and accidentally made contact with two of your rescuers.”

 

“What happened?”

 

“I was not there to witness such an event but reports say that the fluids on the eyes dried up and made it a real pain to see for the remainder of the operation. Good thing it has no effect on internal fluids but they’re both gulping down water even two hours after being touched.”

 

“So I can’t disintegrate people, but send them into excruciating pain?” A wide menacing grin appeared on Tomura’s face. Pain versus instant kills sounds way better. He could already imagine All for One rubbing his hands and laughing like a lunatic comic book villain, just like he always wanted. He planned the Quirk to have this new effect! He had to!

 

“So what about the bunch other kids?”Tomura asked, hoping it’s the rest of the League.

 

‘I hope Spin’s in there, couldn’t care about anyone else.’

 

“Alright, let’s get you settled-“Giran continued, not answering Tomura’s question.

 

“What’s SpecPro?”

 

“Special Program. It’s a placeholder name for the new hero course UA’s cooking up at the time, but it just stuck. It’s for people with villainous Quirks to show those non-beleivers that they can be heroes too.”

 

“Sounds religious if you ask me.”

 

“Try not to kill your classmates, will ya?”

 

“Oh don’t worry, these hands are perfectly safe and are entirely incapable of inflicting horrible horrible damage!”

 

“Makihara’s pretty tough, but he’ll be able to handle this group…” Giran muttered to himself as he walked, eyeing up a poster with a lot of listed words on it far too long that he almost bumped into a metal pole.

 

Tomura thought for a bit for about 5 seconds, which is very long for his standards, before replying back. “Who the heck is Makehoro?”

Chapter 2: Familiar Faces

Notes:

I edited a couple of things at chapter 1 and just decided to follow canon.

Chapter Text

Day 1 - Monday

 

 

 

After the short briefing from no other than the former underground information broker himself, Tomura is allowed to take the whole day off. It made him quite uneasy when the dean said he’ll be under monitoring by school cameras, reminding him of being watched by heroes and making him paranoid for a bit, but he quickly got used to it as this is AFO’s alternate world built just for him, threats can’t come in with no logical reason.

 

 

No threat from the heroes… No sleepless nights panicking of those strange tapping noises outside the cave could be Midoriya…  No worrying if ever their little nightly gaming sessions are being tracked by heroes…

 

Tomura felt a strange sensation of relief, something he never felt in a long time. Ever since he’s become one with villainy he’s always on edge. But now? Completely safe in an alternate universe created just for him… there’s no threat at all, no chaos, no destruction... There is only peace.

 

And it felt strange after a good while.

 

Tomura took a deep breath and slowly gazed into the heavens. It was a nice sunny day, the patches of white puffy clouds almost making the entire thing worthy of a painting, the cool gentle breeze whispering sweet nothings into his ear. The atmosphere is overall positive. People having fun, and as much as he’d like everyone just dead and dying, thoughts about playing with them entered his mind.

 

His childhood was rough. The Shimura household did nothing to curb the nonstop abuse on him by his own biological father no less. Sad, depressed, racked with suicidal thoughts as he cried himself to sleep almost ever night, he never really experienced childhood the way normal people did.

 

And then there’s AFO, who believed in him like no one else ever had. Allowed him to exact revenge, and gave him the necessary Decay Quirk to do so. He taught him to never become a push-over, because people will only take advantage of him. He showed him multiple proofs of bullying only stopping when there’s force involved from the victime. He taught him the value of standing up for oneself, to straight-up killing your bullies – which is his favorite lesson out of all of them.

 

His attention went back to the happy scene before him. It was serene, it was peaceful, it was absolutely…

 

Beautiful…

 

He’s so used to running away from heroes, hiding from potential threats, planning the next step in case of emergencies, that he’s completely stumped and doesn’t know what to do next. Should he get to his room and play some video games while waiting for Spinner to show up? Should he join a group of students just in front of him kicking a ball around? Or should he just lie in bed all day?

 

Despite endless complaints earlier, he stopped to wonder what’s this new world going to feel like. Would it be enjoyable and fun? Would he gain new friends? What mysteries would he discover along the way? What about Midoriya?

 

‘Man… I’m getting delusional… This must be part of AFO’s tricks… think villain thoughts…’

 

Tomura took another deep breath and focused.

 

 Destruction.

 

Death.

 

Despair.

 

 Cities toppled over, people dying, explosions, lots and lots of explosions-

 

The loud chirping of birds instantly removed them all. It’s like no matter how much he channeled all his energies into villainy, they’re instantly evaporating out of his mind like steam from boiling water. Everything is just so peaceful, bright, and happy, as compared to his usual hiding spots being dark, dank, and full of smells far stranger and bizarre than your average dumpster.

 

‘Maybe I need to go take a walk elsewhere, there’s too many positive vibes here. My villain energies are going whack… If I’m going to defeat Midoriya, I need to get my evil levels evened out…’

 

Walking around, Tomura couldn’t help but notice the same group of ‘villain-looking’ students at the eastern side of the field. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that there are only two girls in class of what looks to be twenty – One is a floaty humanoid being with a digital theme, and another is a fairly petite girl with distinctive red hair tied into stylized pigtails.

 

‘That’s interesting… Even in the real world there’s like a thousand guy villains compared to the girl villains… AFO got this little fact right. This must be one of the Easter eggs he’s talking about, gotta file this up in the ol’ noggin to ask him when he visits.’

 

He then observed the guys, which none of them he can accurately recognize. But if there’s one thing similar across all of them is that they look like standard villains in the real world. The ones with the physical mutations look monstrous, ones with glowy Quirks are all in dark colors, and actual Quirks themselves have a villain theme to it – one summoned a zombie, one split the lower half of his head to spit an acidic projectile, and another one can just out bones as spikes all over his body.

 

‘I wonder how much is switched around in here…’

 

He looked at his hands for a good while, all gloved up as to not accidentally dehydrate anyone. He wondered a bit if they’re ever going to get used. While he can’t disintegrate people anymore, he can now dehydrate them, isn’t that still a villain’s Quirk? What if I accidentally touched someone’s clothes, would they get stripped naked?

 

‘Oh god that would be disgusting!’

 

His thoughts went to those silly fanservice animes and made him shake his head. He can never understand the concept of figurines, barely-clothed anime girls, and endless fanboying and drooling over the latest waifu trend. He sees beyond that, beyond that stupid ‘personality’ thing other people say, straight to the very concept of their Quirks. Don’t these people know that a woman’s true beauty is in her innate abilities to kill and destroy?! His thoughts then drifted towards Nagant, who can pop people’s heads like melons-

 

Just as he was thinking about the cold sniper with the ability to deploy deadly armaments out of her arms, there’s a person up front, not too far from his current location, back turned towards him, with the same familiar short purple hair with blue streaks.

 

‘I hope this switcheroo covers every villain in the real world, that would be sick. I wonder if I manage to recruit Nagant here, she would join me in the real world…’

 

Steering himself to walk towards her in order to confirm that the person is really Lady Nagant, Tomura couldn’t help but think about her, about her one and only mission to kill Midoriya that ended with her being blown up by AFO because, in his adoptive father’s own words, she had guns with aimbot installed and still managed to miss every shot.

 

‘Yeah I agree that’s embarrassing. Good thing people are absurdly tough nowadays or else she would have popped like a balloon.’

 

He walked ever closer, eyes trained in the familiar figure when something along the left caught his eye – somewhere along the cafeteria. It was a person, wearing the only cyan-colored T-shirt in the entire campus, who looked more like he belonged in a warehouse stacking crates than being a UA student.

 

‘Stain…?! The oh-so-popular Hero Killer is stacking boxes at the cafeteria?! What the f***?!’

 

Tomura couldn’t believe what he’s seeing. It was Stain, despite having a nose, still easily recognizable by his angular jaw and dagger-like hairstyle, carrying a box and placing them down near a cafeteria stall.

 

‘I swear it’s got to be an easter egg with some hidden meaning behind it. AFO is not the one to put in some random nonsense especially in this little alternate universe designed for me.’

 

And then some distance towards the right, playing basketball with a bunch of other big guys, is obviously Muscular. He seemed to be enjoying himself, very different from his ‘I-Have-to-Fight-Something-Or-Else-I’ll-Die’ persona in the real world. But thinking about those isn’t important, since it’s basically guaranteed for them to meet later on anyways.

 

His focus right now is on Nagant. If he’s gonna be a good villain, then he has to get the person with literal arm cannons and maybe this time he’ll teach her how to actually hit her targets or risk getting blown up aga-

 

Nagant, still with her back turned to him, is talking to a rather tall young man – who seemed like he’s too old to be a student, and too young to be a teacher, wearing a dark-colored UA-themed outfit reserved for the staff. He’s got a hood on and Tomura couldn’t tell who he is if he’s even a real-world villain instead of an original character.

 

Beside Nagant is another guy just a little taller than her, with non-stylized hair, and wearing a blindfold. Nothing about this particular person stands out, no discernible mutations or anything, just a regular human with a blindfold wearing the typical UA uniform.

 

‘Hmmm… are these new guys or people Nagant knew in the real world-‘

 

Another kid with short brown hair came in running to the tall young man, handing a folder of sorts. Tomura immediately recognize the new guy as Overhaul.

 

‘Of course…  Nagant went out with Overhaul… I wonder if she’s connected to the Yakuza and these are Yakuza people…’

 

Tomura got ever closer, walking on the corridors beside them, almost bumping into people as he kept his gaze trained upon the mysterious people. Only then upon turning on a corner and getting a good view of her face, did Tomura confirmed, it WAS Lady Nagant. Compared to her old photos where her hair was longer, her hair here is exactly the same as it was in the real world when he met her – short and clean.

 

Also there’s another girl beside her with wavy green hair. Instantly alarmed, the villain-turned-highschool student narrowed his eyes onto her face, for wavy green hair have been nothing but trouble for him, every darn time.

 

‘I swear if this is Midoriya’s sister I’ll have her tied up to be ran over by a steamroller… But if people can survive super punches to the head, I wonder what it felt like. And I had to try it out myself first in case it actually felt good. I don’t wanna go torturing people with a good time.’

 

Tomura giggled in his thoughts, both in amusement and sarcasm. He wondered if it even makes sense to be ran over by a steamroller, but he just shrugged it off as such thoughts normally enter his mind because he’s not the best on the brains department, or so he says.

 

The only people there he can reliably recognize are Nagant and Overhaul. Mentally noting the appearances of the remaining people, especially the Midoriya look-alike, Tomura went on into the winding UA corridors.

 

As he walked, the image of Nagant popped into his head again, and the very few girls in the campus. He knew that’s how it is in the real world, but why couldn’t AFO switch things up a bit and add more girls? How can he live out his fantasies as a ladies man if there’s too few of them around?

 

Not that he cares about attention from the girls, but it would be nice to just have them flock to him, and him scanning them to see if some have very destructive Quirks. It’s like a free recruitment agency! No need for Giran and his stupid upping rates!

 

‘Hmmm… I wonder where’s Kurogiri? What about Spin and the gang? Where are they?’

 

He wondered a bit if those worthless MLA idiots are also here, but since other villains are here like Stain and Muscular, the MLA is also guaranteed to be here as well.

 

‘I wonder if good ol’ Dr. Detnerat Doofenshmirtz would let me copy his homework if I boss him around enough?’

 

After some more walking around, familiarizing himself with the location of UA’s facilities and being amazed by the architecture of the building, some other thoughts went into his mind, such as who is this world’s counterpart of All Mi-

 

He suddenly stopped as a tall shadow loomed in before him, it took him a while to set his gaze to the uppermost portion of the thing. It was statue, bronze, shiny, and very intricately designed. One can clearly see the effort went in here to carefully carve out all the creases on the cape…

 

Or maybe they just had a sculpting Quirk…

 

The statue had the same build as All Might, the same heroic pose, the same ‘I am here and ready to kick some villain ass’ aura around it, that even though it’s just a statue it’s more than enough to make anyone in the general vicinity to feel safe.

 

Oh how Tomura hated how people can feel so safe by a simple statue, now who could this person be-

 

‘You’ve got to be kidding me…’

 

Gigantomachia, scaled down, and looking majestic in flowing All Might colors of yellow, blue, and red. There is a small garden around it, filled with small round bushes with not a flowering plant in sight. Upon closer inspection, there appears to be small houses on the ground where they’re planted on and stylized to look like a small city of sorts, symbolizing that one hero is enough to defend a whole lotta area…

 

And oh boy did All Might almost single-handedly ended crime in his heyday, one super punch at a time…

 

‘Machia?! Seriously?!’

 

Tomura observed the way the sun shone upon the statue, creating a perfect outline of its shadow casted upon a nearby wall, that seemed to be intentional in a way people could pose in front of it – and have their picture taken from the position of the shadow, to have a fancy effect of the bronze statue of Machia standing behind them complete with a magnificent ray effects behind.

 

And it was super badass-

 

Tomura shook his head. It was stupid. Choosing Machia as All Might is definitely stupid, and reeks of silliness. Since when is Machia enough to pose as All Might? AFO should have asked himself multiple times if this is the right choice because Machia is the farthest thing from All Might! Anyone can tell!

 

‘Hmmm… I gotta get a poster of this in my room…’

 

Shrugging off the thoughts and hoping AFO is not snooping into his mind about planning to get a Machia-Might poster, he went on his merry way to his room, located in a tall blocky building on the western side of UA, close to the exits.

 

Entering the building and going up a few flights of stairs, he eventually got to his room. It was a plain-looking one, devoid of any fancy decorations. Room number 567, third floor, two floors above the SpecPro classroom Giran’s talking about -  in which classes will be starting tomorrow.  Based on his observation, there’s a high chance he’s going to be classmates with other villains here.

 

Without even changing his clothes, he plopped down to his bed, and stared at the ceiling. For some reason, he’s not in the mood to do anything today, even though his room came with a full PC gaming set just located right beside the door. Maybe tomorrow, hopefully Spinner could arrive soon.

 

Now where is he anyway?

 

Where’s the League?

 

Where’s his personal black fog butler?

 

 

 

 

…Day 2… Tuesday

 

 

 

Day 2… Tomura lied down on his bed and stared at the ceiling once more, carefully tuning into the sounds coming from outside his door. According to what little tidbits he could remember as Giran told him yesterday, this building he’s currently in is reserved for the SpecPro Hero Course, and the side of UA he’s in is filled with such people (or so the bits he could remember), explaining the absurd amounts of villain-looking kids outside. And by absurd he meant more than ten.

 

A couple of seconds pass, and Tomura began mentally counting to three.

 

‘1’

 

‘2’

 

‘3’

 

And almost instantly, there’s mumbles coming from outside the room he’s in. According to his dream in which All for One visited him (because apparently he always wanted to be that mysterious NPC in video games now), he’ll be bringing back his associates to spend time with him in this little alternate reality he’s created.

 

‘Wow, what a twist… Such a shame he only visited in a couple of seconds… didn’t even get to ask any easter eggs…’

 

A few minutes later, he got up, hastily washed his face and did his typical morning duties with as little enthusiasm as possible. He got into his UA uniform, because that’s the only thing he’s got in his wardrobe, and out he go into the corridor, already hearing familiar voices coming out of the nearby doors.

 

It was the League members.

 

‘Just gotta be here to ruin the fun huh?’ he thought to himself as he ran a hand on his now-youthful-looking-yet-dry face, hoping Spinner will be the first to be out. As much as he hated them, having cannon fodders is always good (because that’s what his Real-Time Strategy games told him about).

 

The first out was Compress, or what seems to be like him. Overall, the magician-turned-villain still looked like before, albeit a lot younger, and his previous robotic hand now fully restored. But then again, Tomura never knew how old he was in the first place, especially with that stupid suit he’s wearing all the time.

 

Plenty of times he hoped Compress would take them off so he could try it out and maybe increase his magician skills just by wearing them.

 

“All for One wasn’t in the mood for lying that time huh? Took you guys long enough but at least I’m out of prison and my arm and lower half’s successfully restored,” Compress said, wearing the typical UA outfit, as he leaned back against a wall just beside his door. “I thought I’m going to rot in jail until that night when he did the ol’ visit-by-dream thing…”

 

Tomura merely nodded, he never really liked anyone in the team except for Spinner anyway, and another part of him is really envious of Compress’s long-ranged ‘insta-kill’ Quirk that Decay never was. When he heard he was imprisoned, the sick little twisted thing inside of him was very glad. “Glad to have you back, Mr. Expand,” he said back.

 

Next it was that ever annoying son-of-a-hero Dabi, looking weird due to the lack of scars, glancing around looking like he just gotten out of a hundred-year beauty sleep (which had no effect on him seeing how ugly he still was).

 

Next up was Toga… who’s still de-aged even further despite already looking like a highschooler herself, making her look even sillier. And out came Twice, and both Compress and Toga immediately went to him, saying things that made it look like he died in the real world and now he’s back.

 

‘Did he die or something? I don’t remember him being back at home base. Eh, at least he’s back for now. If he really died, will he come back after this little event?’

 

And finally it was no other than Spinner, still looking exactly like himself, must be that lizard Quirk in full effect on his age. Tomura immediately went in and high-fived with him, after his best friend also making a big fuss on how Twice is suddenly here after missing for so long.

 

‘So Twice… really died…?’

 

As for Dabi, he’s still in his own little dumb world. A perfect representation of how dumb he is.

 

‘If you hate the team, then why the f*** are you still here?? It’s not like you even need anyone here.’ Tomura mentally said to himself, narrowing his eyes on his most obnoxious teammate. Dabi had always been that guy who never followed orders, feeling like a rebel all the time like he thinks it makes him look cool.

 

“Hey Spin!” Tomura waved towards Spinner as the lizard arrived in. “What do you think huh? We got isekai’d!”

 

“Did AFO put leveling mechanics here? Because that would be great if he-“

 

Almost suddenly and out of the nearby corner, Giran appeared, sending a wave of surprise to the rest of the League team. It took a whole lot of talking, mumbling, ranting, complaining, and for Twice – crying for some reason, until everything cooled down, allowing the former underground information broker-turned UA dean to successfully take them to their designated room – located at the ground floor of the building they’re in.

 

After a few minutes of zoning out for Tomura while following Giran, the entire group arrived at their classroom. He was confused for a while on why Giran never said anything about his League members only appearing now, nor even referenced anything about it. Asking about it is simply met with a response that they’re the group of kids that got saved by Machia (much to the other League members’ surprise) from a hallucinogenic grenade factory, and that they only appeared now because they’re asleep this whole time… somehow...

 

The classroom was fairly simple, if not quite reinforced; with metal braces adorning the walls and making it look like some sort of prison for those with super strength. It was designed in such a way that no one would notice it at first glance, but for Tomura and his insane fear of prisons and tight enclosed spaces, they’re one of the first thing he noticed.

 

“These walls look like we’re in prison…” Spinner muttered beside him amidst Toga’s screaming and yelling about being isekai’d in All for One’s little fanfiction world… as well as hoping it’s some harem… and she’s the main shoujo protagonist… and then everyone will become tall sparkling prettyboys with huge hands… or whatever she meant by those…

 

“The six of you should get yourselves familiarized with everyone, these students will be your classmates for the entire course,” said Giran, or whatever his real name is that Tomura wouldn’t even bother to learn about. “I’d like you all to sit nearest to the door for that matter, make sure to greet everyone coming in. I’ll just be standing right outside, waiting for your homeroom teacher. And making sure whatever commotion’s stirring here will be culled in no time.”

 

All six of them sat where they’re told, except for Dabi – who began walking to the very far back ever the rebellious teammate that he is, as expected by Tomura.

 

“No,” the obnoxious son-of-a-hero said, crossing his arms and shaking his head as he readied to sit at the back right portion of the classroom. “You can’t tell me what-“

 

Dabi suddenly stopped for a moment, as if he instantly forgot what he’s even saying. Tomura was confused, and Giran made a small nod afterwards, was it his Quirk? What the hell is his Quirk anyway?

 

“You were about to sit here with us because someone marked that seat to be a target of a flying cockroach,” Twice said while pointing at the seat next to him, the vacant one at the farthest right nearest to the door, in his usual exaggerated manner like he was never gone in the first place… if he really did die that is.

 

Tomura couldn’t help but nod. He may be the second coming of the apocalypse but there’s nothing scarier than the sight of a flying cockroach making a beeline towards your face.

 

“AFO told me he gave your room a gaming PC just like mine? What are your specs?” Spinner asked his friend amidst Toga’s more yelling about the absurd lack of sparkling ‘bishie’ boys in the campus.

 

“I don’t care about specs, as long as I get to play what I want, that’s all that matters. What are good  graphics for if it weren’t for that stupid bloom and motion blur ruining everything!” Tomura said as he shook his head. As a natural gamer who plays late into the night, there’s nothing more upsetting than the constant bloom games nowadays try to shove in as an alternative for better textures and graphics.

 

“You do know you can disable those, right-“

 

“Quiet, kids!” Giran peeked into the room, silencing Toga up from blabbering about fun facts about the common clichés of highschool shoujo mangas to Twice. “They’re coming, on your best behavior now will ya?”

 

“I swear the lack of teeth gaps is very concerning. ‘Good hygiene’ Giran is getting on my nerves…” Tomura muttered, channeling his inner hate energies All for One kept on talking about (And totally not because he’s envious of Giran’s superior oral hygiene). What is this about Quirk and hate anyways? He didn’t remember Dr. Garaki talking about those at all. Must be some of those easter eggs perhaps?

 

“I hope they sell cheap mealworms at pet shops nearby,” Spinner muttered, rubbing his hands together. “The one nearest to our old base was expensive as heck.”

 

“Hey I know a-“

 

Tomura never finished and in came a tall red-headed girl with an athletic build, her bag slung onto her left shoulder like what one would expect a tall red-headed girl with an athletic build would do. One thing Tomura would say about her is that she’s very ugly-

 

Both Twice and Toga erupted into cheer when greeting this new kid. Apparently, this person’s Magne… and she’s a girl now… as well as being alive. If Tomura was being honest, he’s already forgotten about Magne at this point, might as well let her… or was it him…? Rest in peace… She/He did die, right?

 

“AFO wasn’t really joking when he said he’s gonna include everyone in the gang…” Spinner muttered once more as he clawed the wooden armrest in drawing a video game character. He wasn’t really good at it but nobody’s perfect.

 

“Huh?” Tomura leaned a little towards his friend. “What else did he say? He visited me by dream last night but only stayed for a couple of minutes before saying he has to do something urgent. So what about this ‘Whole Gang’ you’re talking about? I already knew this is one big switch since yesterday.”

 

 “Nothing much really, there’s some things about a total reverse and some other crap, but bringing Magne back is quite an achievement.”

 

“I too, didn’t expect Magne to make an appearance. But I don’t think she’ll live after this, we’re just in some kind of dreamworld after all. Once we’re done, we’re probably be back like nothing happened at all.”

 

“I dunno, Shiggy,” Spinner said, shaking his head and shrugging. “Quirks are basically magic. Who knows? Maybe once we get back, Magne will be already there ready to greet us? AFO has so many powers, bringing people back from the dead is guaranteed to be one.”

 

Tomura nodded as he pondered. If he can disintegrate people with a single touch, Quirks that can somehow bring people back from the dead could be just around the corner! And AFO could steal those Quirks from the right people! All he needs to do is find Magne’s grave and boom! Where’s Magne’s grave again? She did die of natural causes… right?

 

‘My memory’s not really registering unimportant people…’

 

Sooner or later, while Twice and Toga literally pulled girl-Magne to sit behind them, another kid entered the room, this time looking all big and burly.

 

‘Muscular…’Tomura said to himself, as Spinner whispered the same thing.

 

And in came another one, with a clean-cut head. The dead giveaway that this guy is Moonfish is by the way he hangs his mouth open, revealing his crooked teeth. And then there was Mustard… or is it Mustard? He looks like a kid as young as de-aged Toga, and nothing else to show he’s really Mustard aside from the fact that he came in after Muscular and Moonfish. Also he’s currently plagued with acne.

 

‘Next up would be Overhaul… and then those stupid MLA idiots…’

 

His thoughts drifted to Nagant whom he saw yesterday… and she wasn’t really wearing a school outfit… Wait a minute…

 

“Oh crap!” Tomura whispered out loud, just enough to be masked amidst Toga’s loud talking to Magne about yaoi mangas and Twice saying they all have good plots. While wearing a UA-themed uniform, Nagant’s not really wearing the same style of uniform as them, which could only mean that she’s not going to be classmates with him.

 

“What?”

 

“Nothing, I’m noticing an absurd lack of girls in this class, Spin. I’m been stuck in sausage fests since my day-one in villainy!” Tomura complained, smacking his gloved fists onto his wooden armrest. “I want to see more real-world pretty villains…” he leaned closer to Spinner with a very disgusted expression, “all we have is that ugly bastard Toga.”

 

“We got Magne as a girl now…” Spinner leaned back in his seat. “On the other hand, I could finally get to see Ryukyu’s sexy dragon form as a villainess now! That alone makes her ten times sexier than in the real world.”

 

 “You and your lizard tastes… You just made me remember to research on female Final Fantasy villains tonight…”

 

“AFO said he’s just going to repeat the real world, and there’s really not that much girl villains in the first place, Shigs.”

 

“I know, it’s pissing me off…” Tomura gritted his teeth as Toga keeps on telling Twice and Magne about the legend of sparkly bishie boys fighting for her attention… what the hell is she even talking about?!

 

As Tomura kept on thinking about the absurd lack of pretty girl villains like Nagant (to offset the presence of handsome-as-heck villains like himself), here comes the people he’s expecting: The Shie Hassaikai – Namely Overhaul and three people behind him. He knew the Yakuza had more members, so maybe AFO just thinned them down for this class? Or maybe he’s planning to ‘recycle’ them later?

 

“Hey there, wonderful class of SpecPro!” said a young woman with who peeked through the doorway. At a moment’s notice, Tomura began analyzing who this newcomer might be based on her most defining characteristic – her short white hair with the ends that seem to be levitating in a smooth motion-like manner like they’re perpetually underwater. Her outfit doesn’t ring any bells, or can’t ring any bells for it’s just a standard UA outfit for the teachers.

 

“I can’t recognize her, can you, Shigs?” Spinner whispered to Tomura as he, too, eyed the woman who’s greeting every single student there currently present. “I know a female villain when I see one but I haven’t seen this person before.”

 

“Me too, Spin, what are the chances that she’s a-“

 

“Miss Kamikaze, don’t you have a tour today with Mr. Shinryaku?” Giran said as he peeked, tapping the young woman at the back two times.

 

‘Hmmm convenient name drop is convenient… and I still don’t know if there’s ever a person with that name in the real world… Wait… are those their villain names?’ Tomura thought, his mind swirling into an endless abyss of guesses as he tried his best to recognize the names, or the woman up front.

 

“Welp, I dunno this lady, how about you?” Spinner asked, only to meet with a shrug from his friend. He then turned his attention to the woman again and tried recalling all the MLA troops he could remember during his two-month stay with them. The closest thing to short white hair is the Parka Guy with ice powers, or what Re-Destro likes to call as ‘Get Them’, or what he could hear at least.

 

Tomura gave up trying to figure out the woman and instead focused on Overhaul. The former Yakuza capo is not wearing his signature bird-beak mask. It was only then he suddenly remembered that the Yakuza has this… what’s it called again? Nine Precepts of Destiny…? Or is it Six Precepts of Despair…? Five precepts of Destruction…? But what he DOES know is that the three people with him are not original characters by AFO, since they have the Shie Hassaikai symbol on ther respective backpacks.

 

Meanwhile, the white-haired young woman (Who may or may not be an original character) gave Overhaul’s group a thumbs-up and went off. Maybe she’s the Yakuza boss in the real world? Tomura shrugged off the thought, just her surname alone meant-

 

‘Wait… Kamikaze…? Divine Wind…?’

 

‘Air Cannon?!‘

 

“Hey Spin, the lady’s name was ‘Kamikaze’, how much are you willing to bet she’s Air Cannon?” Tomura whispered, barely containing his excitement. Air Cannon was THE Quirk, All for One’s favorite for its sheer destructive force with minimal boosters needed. Meeting the person who it originally belonged to could easily be the best thing that could ever happen to him. What is it with Air Cannon?! Why is it AFO’s favorite?! He wondered if she would accept autographs- Heck, he should get a poster of her inside his room!

 

“Hmmm… Interesting… If Magne’s back alive again, then the chances of her being Air Cannon is quite high. Now all we need is Forcible Quirk Activation and there you have AFO’s two most-used Quirks.”

 

“Man I do hope so!” Tomura slammed his armrest with a gloved fist, loud enough to turn all attention to him for a brief moment, before letting him just do his thing. “So now that the MLA’s guaranteed to show up, has the IT guy ever played games with you and Dad? He’s always has his nose buried in his laptop right?”

 

 “Nah, Sir McGrumps generally likes to be left alone. While you’re preparing because thought you’re the one’s going up against buff American hero lady, we tried to invite him on our games. He just  got pissed as usual, nothing special, you know how villains work.”

 

“He ain’t a man of culture then,” Tomura said with a smug grin. “So who do you think the next batch of kids’ gonna be?”

 

Spinner nodded before he even answered, “Meta Liberation Army.”

 

Tomura was about to nod as well when a kid entered the classroom, with black spiky hair and a slouched standing posture. Who could this be-

 

“STAIN!” Spinner yelled, instantly stopping Toga amidst her talking to girl-Magne about different isekai techniques aside from Truck-kun or whatever she’s talking about.

 

‘Hmmm… now he’s wearing a UA uniform. I wonder if he’s the same person I saw yesterday. Stain looks really weird with a nose on…’

 

Stain, or whatever his real name is, simply looked at them with a confused expression, prompting Giran to tell him about their little hallucinogenic grenade factory backstory, in which the former hero killer shrugged in response. It seemed like for a huge operation featuring Machia-Might, everyone might have already knew about it in-universe.

 

‘Okay, it’s got to be Mr. Doofenshmirtz MLA now…’

 

In came in another person in which Tomura thought to be that MLA politician dude, due to the uncanny resemblance of his hairstyle-

 

“Oh hey Gentle!” Compress said out loud, making Tomura look to his right in utter confusion. Gentle? Gentle’s the politician dude’s name now? Well that’s certainly unexpected… “Hey Compress-“

 

“Oh you know me?” said this ‘Gentle’ person.

 

“Gently Antics! From Youtube!” Compress said out loud. “Of course I know you,” the magician-turned-villain turned both to his left and right, “Guys! It’s the Gentle Criminal himself!”

 

“Kids, absolutely no troublemaking, okay? That includes you, Mr. Gentle…” Giran said with a stern voice towards him, lightly shaking his head. “Your Youtube shenanigans will most certainly not work in here.”

 

Tomura, not getting the answers he wanted from Compress aside from simply knowing this Gentle guy has some pretty popular Youtube prank channel, turned his attention towards Spinner. “Do you know this guy?”

 

Spinner shook his head. “But Stain’s here! We could invite him for games!”

 

“But I don’t think he even has a PC in his dorm room-“

 

“I could share mine with him! AFO gave me a console as well! I’m sure he gave you too and you just didn’t look hard enough!” Spinner said in an excited whisper, utterly fanboying that he’s now classmates with his former serial killer idol. Tomura simply nodded, he may not like Stain at all, but maybe he could be a gamer too. It’s not like he’s still killing heroes in this little alternate universe, or is he?

 

“Heh… I hate classes…”

 

Both Tomura and Spinner turned when they heard the ever familiar voice of the eternally-pissed off IT guy just as he’s about to enter the classroom.

 

The Meta Liberation Losers are here…

Chapter 3: Unfamiliar Faces

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 2 - Tuesday

 

 

 

 

Uniquely, the eternally-pissed-off IT guy went in first, wearing the UA uniform but without packing any backpacks or anything at all, not even his iconic laptop. His hair is slightly shorter, but he still looked like a complete rip-off from that Gorillaz album poster in Feel Good Inc.

 

 

‘Wait isn’t that the company where he works…?’

 

 

“Oh, the losers are here too huh?” the IT guy said in sarcastic tone as he swiveled his head onto the direction of Tomura. Meanwhile the person he narrowed his eyes to simply nodded and crossed his arms in preparation for retaliation.

 

 

 “Oh so you got your memories too huh? Where’s the rest of you MLA numbskulls?” Tomura retorted, raising one mocking eyebrow. “Would be better to beat you losers the second time in actual heroics.” He pretty well knew he only won because of AFO, but what matters is that he won – and that automatically grants him bragging rights over those who lost.

 

 

Tomoyasu gritted his teeth, the only feature visible from his half-covered face, before muttering something inaudible and walking away towards the right side of the classroom nearest to the windows.

 

 

“Did they retain their memories too or not?” Spinner asked the computer expert, but was responded with a grunt in return, the person he’s talking to not even looking at him. If the MLA was with them before everything went down, then they should retain their memories too right, since they're still part of the team and just imprisoned?

 

 

“Nah, you know the IT guy… Once pissed off, always pissed off. He went in first, I doubt the rest of those losers even retained a brain cell from the real world.” Tomura shrugged, his thoughts instantly going to the rest of the MLA crew. And just as he opened his eyes, here comes Dr. Detnerat Doofenshmirtz walking into the room like he owned the place. Well based on his untold riches in his past life, he might as well be the same here. His nose is still as long as ever, his ears still looking like an elf’s, and his hair not balding yet. He strode into class without a care in the world.

 

 

Tomura nodded, ‘Not a care in the world, exactly how he is after I bested him that day. I killed a lot of his people? Nah he doesn’t care about them at all. AFO definitely got this one right.’

 

 

“Hmmm looks like you’re right, the IT guy is the only one with memories from the past world,” Spinner muttered, just loud enough for Tomura to hear, discreetly observing their ‘teammate’. “So AFO made a ‘Only People In This Cave’ rule huh?”

 

 

Tomura nodded, setting his vision upon the former leader of the MLA and noticing that he too, doesn’t have a backpack of any kind. While he and the League also don’t have any, it’s because they’re still not to be trusted with standard school supplies, or so what he could remember Giran say to him yesterday. Either way, he didn’t care one bit about his situation, but seeing Mr. Detnerat over there and IT guy lacking one as well is definitely something. Could it be one of AFO’s secrets I need to find out?

 

 

“Mr. Skeptic! Loosen up! We’re not in gradeschool anymore!” The former leader of the MLA said as he marched to sit beside him with the grandeur like he’s starring in a commercial.

 

 

‘Gradeschool? Must be one of those warped histories AFO put him in… like that hallucinogenic grenade factory for me and the League… But shouldn’t IT guy be grouped with us, and appeared the same time as the League, with his room situated near ours? He IS part of us now, so why is he still grouped with the MLA. Interesting… He seemed okay to sitting with them too…’

 

 

 “Hey Spin,” Tomura whispered to Spinner, keeping his gaze onto Chikazoku the IT guy.

 

 

“What?”

 

 

“Yesterday, AFO told me that everything in this world is meant to represent something in the real world, did he tell you guys something similar like that too?”

 

 

 “What? Representation?” Spinner scratched his head, pink hair getting all loosened up. “He didn’t say anything more than ‘Help my son’ and ‘Try not to kill everyone’ and some other similar things. Why?”

 

 

Tomura was about to respond when only then he noticed that Mr. Boring-As-Hell Politician Dude is already standing beside his original group, alongside ‘Ill-Freeze-To-Death-If-I-Take-My-Parka-Off’ (Who’s not wearing a Parka but similar-looking heavy jacket like he’s still in the middle of winter). Once again, he asked himself why is IT guy still grouped with them when it’s obvious he should be part of the League now.

 

 

‘Looks like AFO did a lot of balance and bug fixes eh?’

 

 

It makes good sense to ask the IT guy why is he grouped with his original team, but knowing how closed-off the guy is, he decided it’s better to just leave him alone. It MAY be an easter egg, but a minor one. His main goal is defeating Midoriya after all, not figuring out why are certain people grouped together-

 

 

Tomura stopped thinking as he saw, at the corner of his eye, IT guy seeming to be bossing his team around. Remembering the MLA, he clearly well knew it was Long-Nose Idiot who’s the boss, not IT guy and his… what’s his Quirk again? But try as he might, he can’t remember anything the IT guy ever did aside from mashing the buttons of his laptop.

 

 

‘His Quirk must be electronics related I guess…’

 

 

“Spin, care to explain to me why is IT guy bossing his team around?”

 

 

“Shigs, he’s the only one who retained memories from the real world, let him do what he likes. At least we can finally get away from that obnoxious idiot. He reminds of Dabi a lot and I don’t like the both of them, thinking like they’re the best in the world, I hope AFO’s got a special present for them. Would be fun if there’s a person here who could show him his place.”

 

 

Both Spinner and Tomura discreetly looked at Dabi, who’s just leaned back in his seat, arms crossed, and looking half-asleep.

 

 

The two were broken in their observing spree when they heard the loud clacking of shoes entering the room. It was a lean middle-aged man with short gray hair. Compared to regular outfits for teachers and staff, his uniform has no sleeves at all, leaving his arms exposed covered in brown bandage-looking cloth. Tomura immediately recognized this one as one of Nine’s lackeys, whose name he just couldn’t remember.

 

 

At this point, Toga finally shut up. If it weren’t for girl Magne enjoying being told yaoi stories, she would’ve stopped ages ago and everything would be so much better and peaceful for everyone involved.

 

 

“Okay class, now that there’s twenty of us here, I’ll allow you guys to get familiar with your classmates while I get myself ready-“

 

 

“Makihara, in case you don’t know, these are the hallucinogenic grenade kids from last week. I do suppose I can trust you being able to handle them?” Giran said as he gestured towards the League just at the front row. “I’ll arrange a raise for you if you made it past the first week.”

 

 

Makihara, or what Giran calls this homeroom teacher as, gave a weak sarcastic laugh, making a mocking face towards the dean as well afterwards. Meanwhile, Tomura is very pissed off about how come Nagant is not even his classmate at all, about how he’s stuck with annoying-as-hell Toga and her puke-worthy thighs she’s so proud about.

 

 

“Okay class!” Makihara said out loud as he stood up from his teacher’s desk he just sat on moments ago, straightening his tie for a little bit. Meanwhile, Giran did one last wave towards the entire class and left, closing the door as he did so.

 

 

“All 20 of you here are SpecPro Class A. Don’t be too proud about it, the ‘A’ in the name means nothing, it was there not because you’re the best of the best, it’s not there because you passed difficult exams, it’s not there as any sort of status symbol, it’s there merely because it’s convenient, got it?” the teacher said, undulating his fingers upon the desk, bandages slightly unfurling and tightening in a grand display of ‘I-Hope-You-Got-The-Point-Because-I’m-Not-Repeating-Anything’… or so Tomura thought.

 

 

’20?’

 

 

Tomura knew that particular number pretty well. It’s the same as Midoriya’s class. But if all the villains he encountered are all here, is there anything left for Class B? Is Nagant in Class B?

 

 

“Now before we really start on some training exercises I would like to say that this program will have heavily reduced academics-“

 

 

A wave of cheer erupted from the class, disrupting Makihara from continuing. Tomura tried to join in the fun but his natural dry throat only made him go a few seconds before coughing uncontrollably.

 

 

“Now now, students of SpecPro, don’t cheer too early into the course. Just because you will have heavily-reduced academics doesn’t mean you automatically scratch it off the list. The drawback is that we will spend most of our time training, controlling, and mastering our Quirks instead of academics to make sure you kids will not cause more havoc outside in the real world, and that means you will be under-qualified in any other jobs other than this once you graduate. On the contrary, Class B will attempt to maintain a balance between the two. But on the bright side for Class A, all of you will be instantly assigned to an agency after graduation so no need for the hardest part of searching for them. If you have more questions about it, feel free to ask me.”

 

 

“When can we beat up bad guys?” It was Muscular, and it made Tomura raise an eyebrow at how casual and polite he sounded. “We’re still going to beat up bad guys, right?”

 

 

“About that, since a lot of you people here have unconventional Quirks, we can’t do regular hero activities or else people might mistake us for the villains. I will get the UA Big Three to aid us in this department…”

 

 

Makihara’s voice trailed off as Tomura thought about the UA ‘elites’. Who could they be? As far as he knows, his classmates over here are basically all the villains he ever encountered in the real world (except the Gentle guy, but Compress seem to know about him already). Could they be AFO’s other Quirks like Reflect, or maybe even Forcible Quirk Activation?

 

 

‘Nagant…?’

 

 

Tomura wiped the thoughts off his head, looking back to their homeroom teacher once more.

 

 

“All in all, Class A is the one more focused on heroics while Class B will follow the conventional hero routes. You people will get access to outside activities, internships, and official licenses faster than them. Questions?”

 

 

“Do we get paid?” It was Stain, which was really odd for Tomura. If there’s a person who would seem to ask about money first, then that would be the rich-ass MLA losers, not Stain. But then again, him wearing a cyan-colored shirt yesterday delivering boxes might have something to do with it?

 

 

“Your allowances will be arranged in the following days. Right now we’re still handling the ongoing controversy of having people with ‘Villainous’ Quirks enrolled at a hero course. Any more Questions?" Makihara raised his right hand, his gaze sweeping across the room. Noticing the silence, he continued, “I will get this class separated into groups. Fortunately, our dear dean already prepared them beforehand. Class will be divided into three parts, people with physical Quirks, people with non-conventional Quirks…”

 

 

The homeroom teacher pulled out a small laminated piece of paper from his pocket and looked at it for a good while. “Shigaraki, Todoroki, and Chisaki for the final group.”

 

 

“Just the three of us?” Overhaul asked as he raised a hand, glancing over at both Tomura and Dabi.

 

 

“You three have the most potentially lethal Quirks in this class. Mr. Chisaki, Ms. Kamikaze is really counting on you, don’t let them down, okay? Your scholarship depends on this.”

 

 

“Will do!”

 

 

‘People here are weirding me out… First there’s Muscular, and then there’s Overhaul being overly positive. AFO must be testing my limits on positive vibes. No worries, if I keep on thinking evil thoughts, I’ll still be a villain once we get out.’

 

 

“Any more questions? The sooner the start the sooner we finish, kids!” Makihara said as he stood up, tapping his wooden desk twice. “And if you please, if you have any fancy tricks up your young sleeves, I suggest you let them all out. Heroes are always accompanied with flashing lights, not gloom. And the founder of UA will be watching the upcoming tournament next month, it’ll be a plus as well.”

 

 

“How come Overhaul’s already a scholar?” Tomura suddenly asked out loud, turning all attention to him.

 

 

“Over… haul…? You mean Mr. Chisaki over here?” Makihara slowly nodded his head to the direction of Chisaki while eyeing up Tomura. “He and his fellow companions are completely funded by Ms. Kamikaze herself, didn’t you hear- oh right my bad.”

 

 

“Why do I keep hearing that name everywhere? Isn’t she the person who visited here a while ago?” Tomura said as he looked around, scratching his head. “Who is she? Is she a hero? If so what rank is she?”

 

 

“Ms. Kamikaze doesn’t want her rank to be known to the public. As for who she is, she’s popular enough that you’ll know all about her in a few days, provided your hallucinogens don’t act up again-“ 

 

 

“Is her Quirk Air Cannon?”

 

 

“…Yes-“

 

 

“HAH! I KNEW IT! IT’S AIR CANNON!” Tomura immediately stood up on his seat, balancing one foot off the armrest. “THE ONE AND ONLY! AFO’S FAVORITE QUIRK! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! SHE’S REAL! SHE’S ACTUALLY REAL!”

 

 

Spinner joined in the fun as well and rose up to his seat and danced with him while balancing on his seat as well. The entire class, including the rest of the League, just looked at them funny.

 

 

“Nice to see you two already coming to your senses,” Makihara nodded, a light smile on his face. “A typical reaction from people who accidentally met a famous person without realizing it. Now calm down, you two. She’s still within the premises of UA, if you can catch her before she leaves this afternoon you might get an autograph.” The teacher then turned his attention to the whole class as the two sat back on their seats, looking like children who could barely contain their excitement over a new toy. “Remember class, you will carry the name of UA wherever you go. As SpecPro, be prepared of critics, but stay calm and try not to get offended. At the end of the day, you’re still the ones attending the greatest hero school ever to be built in Japan.”

 

 

Tomura instantly thought about being a star, winning the tournament, confetti being showered onto him, people cheering all over, Ms. Air Cannon personally handing him the first-place trophy, and Machia then picking him up and Spinner to parade all over the school, AFO congratulating him, fans taking pictures, being famous…

 

 

And being loved by everyone…

 

 

‘No…’ Tomura thought to himself. He’s a villain. He’s a bad person. He will bring down hero society from within, not being cheered upon. He WILL be feared… He WILL kill everyone… He WILL be the apocalypse once more…

 

 

 

 

Tomura sighed. “Hey Spin, do we have a time limit here…? To defeat Midoriya?”

 

 

“Hey, why the mood swing? We met Air Cannon!” Spinner whispered out loud, making sure Makihara didn’t hear him as their teacher continued to talk about his expectations from the class. “Something wrong, man?”

 

 

“I’m just wondering if AFO told you guys if I must rush and kill Midoriya or take my time? I’d like to maybe extend my time here to uh… to get a better feel of the place, to better plan more stuff in taking down Midoriya in the most embarrassing way ever.”

 

 

“Heh…” Spinner shook his head. “If there’s ever something your Dad told me, and to me personally, and that is to take your time, no rush, time passing here have no effect on the real world. He said it wouldn’t matter even if we take years here. Mark my words for it, your Dad wants the best for his successor. At least you had a father.”

 

 

“I thought you’re not personally affected by having no parents?”

 

 

“Nah not at all. We lizards are not into this whole parental care thingy. I don’t remember much of my childhood but I do remember I grew up in the dumps. I see people having fun with their parents I just shrug it off, I’m not a mammal like you guys. Don’t’ sweat it, bud, I’m cool with no parents.”

 

 

“Okay then, whaddaya say we-“

 

 

Multiple loud knocks came from the direction of the doorway, disrupting the two, and the entire class with it. Twice leaned towards it and opened the door.

 

 

Tomura shook his head upon seeing the person. Just like the people around Nagant he saw yesterday, he’d never seen this person before. He thought it would be a lot better if AFO just stuck with people already present in the real world and not keep on adding new ones.

 

 

“Hey Spin,” He whispered to his friend beside him, discreetly pointing a gloved finger towards the newcomer. “Did AFO say anything about NPCs he’s going to add? Because he didn’t say anything to me regarding that matter.”

 

 

Spinner took a quick glance towards the newcomer and scanned from head to toe. He can confirm, he’d never seen this person before. “AFO plans for a full total reverse, and there’s only so much villains he can pull from the real world, of course he’s gonna need a lot of original characters!”

 

 

“Heh, this world really needs more villains. More evil. More destruction. More yada-yada-yada…” Tomura grumbled, tilting his head forward and narrowing his eyes onto the newcomer. It was a girl who looked like she got blasted by a huge load of unicorn vomit and turned her into a chaotic cacophony of colors obnoxious enough to make eyes bleed: Blue skin, short dull pink hair, weird freakish eyes with black sclera like an alien’s. Tomura could only roll his eyes, expecting the person to have yellow teeth the moment she spoke.

 

 

“Is this the SpecPro class?” she asked. A frown appeared on Tomura's face, as the girl simply had regular-colored teeth.

 

 

Hideous colors aside, Tomura noticed the girl’s unusual height. Judging from the distance of her head from the top of the doorway alone, the girl is clearly taller than him. He had never seen such a girl with that height before, maybe she's a basketball player? But what could female basketball players add to the whole 'turn into a high-schooler to learn things' thing? Is AFO referencing that I need to do basketball tricks to finally defeat the heroes?

 

 

Tomura rolled his eyes, shaking his head. ‘AFO… this is not how you make original characters stand out… this is just absurd…’

 

 

“It’s okay sir, she’s with us.” Tomura was snapped out of his thoughts by the voice of the IT guy talking to their homeroom teacher. It was only then when he noticed Miss Rainbow-Puke’s carrying a set of huge backpacks on her back, and looking like she’s about to pass out from exhaustion.

 

 

It was delightful for the young villain to see such poor souls in misery, whoever this person is-

 

 

Tomura was snapped out once more as he saw tall Rainbow-Puke girl walk over to the MLA side of the classroom, just as their homeroom teacher is double-checking the list of students he has in his class. “Has there been a mistake? I do believe there’s only twenty SpecPro students under my-“

 

 

“No worries, I was just uh-“

 

 

“YOU’RE LATE YOU LAZY BASTARD!” came in the loud yelling of the IT guy across the room. It was such an odd sound for Tomura as he’s normally reserved and silent. The entire class fell silent and simply stared at him for a good couple of seconds as he casually pulled out a laptop straight from one of the huge bags the girl put at his feet. “I’M GOING TO TELL ‘EM YOU’RE SLACKING IN YOUR JOB!”

 

 

Tomura, amidst his thoughts about the IT guy acting weird, noticed their homeroom teacher running a hand through his face and sighing shortly after like he knew things like this could happen.

 

 

‘How is the IT guy suddenly bossing around a person I have never seen before if he retained his memories along with us??’

 

 

“Mr. Yotsubashi, just because your father has a say in SpecPro doesn’t mean your friends can take advantage of aspiring people from other courses… What your friend is doing here cannot be tolerated.”

 

 

“What do you mean cannot be tolerated?” The IT guy spoke in a uniquely calm way, quite unlike the way he talks back in the cave in the real world - akin to that to someone holding onto a huge dump, or so him and Spinner would like to imagine he always is. “What I’m doing is perfectly normal. She wants to become a hero, therefore she has to do what needs to be done.”

 

 

“Miss, I know you want to become a hero but please, have some dignity. I can talk to-“

 

 

“It’s okay, I already to talked to him, he said I just need to-“

 

 

“Stick around with us!”

 

 

Tomura mentally took note of the event. Aside from planning to talk to the IT guy himself some time later, he also noticed that despite the teacher trying to talk to Dr. Detnerat Doofenshmirtz, he never responds and instead the IT guy replies for him. Is it because he’s the boss, or is it because he’s the one being bossed around? Is this another of AFO’s mysteries?

 

 

“How are you going to balance your studies alongside being their-“

 

 

“His father said he’ll handle everything, you should go talk to him after class!” The IT guy interjected once again, the fakest smile plastered onto his face. “The system works as is; if it’s not broke don’t fix it.”

 

 

Makihara could only make a face synonymous to annoyance and disgust at the same time; both at how the boy’s acting towards him and the other at the extent of this random girl from general studies would go through just to get here. “Are you sure Mr. Yotsubashi said this system’s fine?”

 

 

“Talk to him, he’ll tell you everything.”

 

 

Blinking twice, Tomura discreetly tapped Spinner’s shoulder, “can you understand anything about their exchanges? IT guy is transported at the same time as you guys and he seemed to have already established… something…”

 

 

“I’d ask the guy but, you know… What he’s doing is unlikely one of AFO’s implanted secrets. Let’s just leave him be and just… you know, chill…” Spinner said as he leaned back in his seat, arms cushioning his back. If there were a foot rest in front of him, he would’ve put his feet on them already. “No rush, we’ll find those secrets in time. For now, we bask in absolute peace. Who knows? Maybe this world will be fun.”

 

 

Tomura shook his head. “I went to Dr. Garaki to get my needed improvements a week after the Deika City event, you guys are the ones who spent time with them for two months straight.”

 

 

“If you’re planning to ask who’s the girl, sorry man, I dunno really. Like you said, we spent two months there and not a single person even remotely looked like her. She stands out from a whole lotta people by colors alone, and trust my lizard brain – I haven’t seen her until now,” Spinner said, glancing at the ongoing argument between their homeroom teacher and the IT guy, with the girl in question just sitting there like she doesn’t even know a single thing of what’s going on. “She’s with the MLA group, if she’s someone important, I could at least get some references about her back in the mansion HQ, but nah. Maybe one of AFO’s tricks, maybe not...”

 

 

Tomura shook his head again and turned to Compress, who’s busy twirling a pen on his hand with god-like skill like the magician that he is. “Hey there Mr. Magician, who’s the chick?” he asked.

 

 

Compress did a quick nod, fully knowing who his boss is talking about. “I was wondering about her for quite a while now. Backtracked on our stay and all, can’t remember anyone. Re-Destro’s happy, everyone cheered, and everything’s fine and dandy for two months straight. If she’s someone important, then we should have seen her once or at least referenced by them.”

 

 

“See? It’s an original character, don’t get worked up about it,” Spinner muttered from Tomura’s left. “You know how the IT guy likes bossing everyone around, must be some random kid he picked up somewhere. Come on Shiggy, she’s not even in the SpecPro course…”

 

 

Tomura slowly pulled back in his seat. Maybe his comrades are both right. Maybe he’s just overthinking things. But the thought of going fishing with his adoptive father  and catching a boot on the promise of discovering hidden secrets within the alternate universe is enough motivation for him to keep asking questions.

 

 

“Hey Toga, do you know that perso-“

 

 

“Nope!” came the quick reply from the only girl on their team amidst her chatting with Magne about all the magical girl anime shows she’s watched, and then ranking them from one to ten in order on who has the hottest male love interest characters, in her own words.

 

 

“No one knows, forget about it,” Spinner said as he tapped Tomura’s back. “If AFO’s going to leave some secrets in, then it’s surely Midoriya-based.”

 

 

“Hmmm… maybe you’re right… Mr. Homeroom teacher! I would like to ask a question!”

 

 

“Oh come on, Shig, don’t-“

 

 

“Spin, I’m not asking about the chick okay?” Tomura then turned to their teacher. “Mind if I ask about the League of Villains? There IS a League of Villains here, right?”

 

 

Tomura saw their teacher nod at him once, and to the IT guy, and back to him again. “The gas seemed like it hasn’t settled yet but anything to take my mind off of this… situation…” Makihara said as he glanced to the out-of-place general studies girl one more time. “How much information do you need about the LOV?”

 

 

“I just wanna know if a villain named Midoriya is one of them.”

 

 

Makihara shook his head. “If you’re talking about the notorious Midoriya Izuku, then no, he’s not with them.

 

 

“WHAT?!”

Notes:

What is this?! Midoriya’s not in the League? The IT guy is bossing around a person no one knows? Stain is a box stacker? Overhaul is a scholar? Air Cannon is a person?!

Jokes aside, tall Curious is inspired by the way she's drawn during her little flashback with Young!Re-Destro. I dunno about you guys think but she's clearly above-average height there. Maybe she just got shorter over time like what happened to Inko?

Chapter 4: Lady Dragunov

Notes:

I can make the fic more flowery in terms of overall description and storytelling, but so far the events have all been light and I don’t want to go all out on Tomura describing how he’s a big fan of 'Machia Might' or something.

The fic will turn serious soon once Nagant and her ‘crew’ get their scene, maybe in a couple of chapters I dunno yet.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 3 Wednesday

 

 

 

Nothing exciting happened yesterday. Tomura waited for Miss Air Cannon all afternoon by the UA faculty room with Spinner, but to no avail. The two waited for stayed where they are for a good two hours, eager in their quest to get her autograph, yet ended with nothing. Thinking that she left early based on the fact that Overhaul is missing as well, they abandoned their mission and decided to just put it in the backburner for now. Autographs can wait, Miss Air Cannon will not be leaving anytime soon.

 

 

All for One did not visit that night…

 

 

Back to the current time, Tomura kicked a small stone as he stepped forward. It’s early in the morning and Toga has done nothing but blabber nonstop to girl-Magne about how she should totally join their little group and that she has absurd stacks for yaoi mangas in her room for both of them to read and squeal about, as well as something-something related to shopping and shoes, typical girl stuff.

 

“Hey Shigs, I saw Dr. Garaki in the clinic with blindfold guy,” Spinner said as he kept up with their walking, tapping Tomura at the back as he reached them.

 

Tomura nodded. AFO said it multiple times that they’re the only ones to be retaining memories in this alternate world from the real world, and specifically said that Dr. Garaki will not be joining in and giving them access to Nomus to make the Midoriya fight infinitely easier from the get go. “Any strange things about him?”

 

“Nothing, but the new blindfold guy is with him. I was gonna ask what his name is but Doc’s very busy with tending to some kid’s cut. Blindfold guy too is busy with some huge science machines. Before you ask, yes, there are huge science machines at the clinic… which only made the kid with the cut cry harder upon seeing ‘em…”

 

“Hmmm… I don’t remember UA specializing in science stuff… I wonder if those are related to Overhaul’s drugs? Maybe his own version of Nomus in this world, perhaps?” Tomura asked, stroking the bottom of his chin with a gloved hand. “Any other weird things?”

 

“Aside from glowy stuff and vials of strange blue liquid, nothing really, can’t smell anything strange there either.”

 

“No sign of Kurogiri?”

 

Spinner glanced at Toga’s little ruckus as the entire League team walked through the well-lit corridors of UA straight to the intended meeting place as Makihara said yesterday before dismissing the class. “I dunno Shigs, but Kurogiri looks like a purple ghost. What if he’s technically a dead person and everyone being de-aged meant that he’s back to being human?"

 

“Don’t be silly, or else I’ll decorate our Minecraft base in full neon pink wool blocks.

 

Exchanging a quick laugh at each other’s nonsense, the group continued their walk to the meeting spot, with Dabi nowhere to be found.

 

They eventually reached the spot, a wide open area at UA’s leftmost corner. Decorated with whole lines of trees, potted plants, marbled sidewalks, and a bunch of lamp posts, the entire area looked more like a park than a hero school’s training ground, with the only thing that makes it even remotely close to being a training grouns are cameras stationed at every corner, automatically tracking the area with little swiveling motions atop the poles they’re bolted on. Now if only Toga could shut her mouth from her endless blabbering about fanfictions, then everything would be so much better.

 

“Oh hey! You’re that freaky kids from the freak-show factory, am I right? No offense,” said a voice that came from Tomura’s right. Short, face laden with acne, hair in a dull shade of pink, looking undecipherable from mocking to serious, it was someone he definitely knew before.

 

“Oh hey Mustard, fancy meeting you so early in the morning,” Tomura said back with a bored expression, not even bothering to actually care about the incoming conversation. “No, I’m not going to give you a raise-“

 

“Mustard? You mean the one’s paired with ketchup? If a gas kid’s gonna give me nicknames like the rest of ‘em, I’d like it to have a little more pizzazz, ya’ know what I’m talkin’ ‘bout?” Mustard scratched the bridge of his nose before continuing, “so is it true that they pumped you guys full of gas until you see things? Because that’s the word coming out from everyone’s mouths the past few days.”

 

“Uh yeah? Why do you care?”

 

“I’m just wondering since you asked about Midoriya Izuku, and he’s the one responsible for it. I mean the gas thingy…”

 

Tomura and Spinner instantly focused their attention on the small boy at the mere mention of that dreaded name. “Midoriya Izuku? How sure are you about that?” the teal-haired one asked. “I won’t accept anything 99% below.”

 

“It’s plastered all over media outlets last week. To be fair you and your group’s having your needed shut-eye during that time so you wouldn’t know. What’s up your thing with Midoriya? Got a bone to pick?” Mustard asked, blinking twice and never letting his stare go. “I’m just curious since for some people, me included, think it’s because of a deal gone wrong… with fake heroes and fake villains and all that crap.”

 

“Fake heroes? You’re sounding like Stain right now, Mustard,” Spinner butted in, pointing a clawed finger on the boy, who took one quick look at it and back at them again.

 

“I like to delve in conspiracy theories, thank you very much. So… notice anything weird? Anything before you blacked out? Anything before the mess?”

 

“Well I remember hanging out in a cave, getting all excited to conquer the world, and then getting flung into this whole highschool mess,” Tomura said as he rolled his eyes. “I think I should be fishing right now.”

 

“Wow, you really ARE messed up. Consider yourself lucky, not everyone of Midoriya’s victims ever see the light of day again.” Mustard nodded. “Well I’m open to conversations if you guys are up for it. Can’t have better info than the ones who’s been there.”

 

“No thanks we- oof!” Tomura recoiled down in shock and surprise as Spinner elbowed him at the back.

 

“We’d love to! Check up ya real soon. Me and my buddy here just need to get our heads cleared up. Maybe we can remember anything if we take long enough!” Spinner patted Mustard twice and sent him off, waving away as the boy walked the opposite direction.

 

“Spin! Why-?”

 

“Shigs, he’s literally about to help us discover this new world! Midoriya! The Gas! Everything! Next time think about what you’re about to do or else you’ll regret it forever! This is our chance, toxin boy is gonna help us get there.”

 

“Huh…?” Tomura slowed down and thought. “Maybe I guess you’re right. I never knew Mustard’s into conspiracy sh** and stuff.”

 

“Well that’s because you never talked to him once. But we’ll get that fixed up for you. You never know how good these people are to hang out with! I bet AFO would be so proud to see his son casually interacting with people not involving trying to kill them!” Spinner said as he patted Tomura twice at the back. “I’m the last one to enter the portal to here and trust me, AFO literally emphasized on that.”

 

“I thought he wanted me to be evil and a villain?”

 

“You know what? Nevermind, it’s a joke!”

 

“You two are hiding something from me, huh?”

 

“You’ll know it soon enough. It’s too much of a spoiler. But I can assure you, it involves fishing.”

 

“So he told you the entire reason why we’re here? Why instead of going to the nearest countries and destroying them too… we all got sent here-?“

 

A loud clap echoed across the halls. Turning around, the group saw Makihara walking towards them, folder in one hand. Beside him is a huge bulky person also wearing the official teacher uniform of UA, his head resembling a blue-furred dog in which Tomura immediately recognized as another one of Nine’s lackeys.

 

‘But where’s Nine himself? I think the only one left is that lady with red hair. How come the extras get to appear first and the main boss is nowhere to be seen?’

 

Focusing too much on the two minions of Nine, it took a while before Tomura noticed the three other people behind the two teachers. It’s the same group he saw back in day one in this world, consisting of blindfold guy with his arms casually placed on the back of his head, maybe Midoriya’s sister mashing some keys on her phone, and Nagant… being Nagant, and doing Nagant things.

 

‘The Big Three? UA’s big three? Nagant is one of the three?’

 

Behind the three is a huge group of people, making all sorts of noise that irked Tomura a bit that he only noticed them now. And only then he saw the red-hair lady – the last of Nine’s minions, shooing them away before herself disappearing as she walked off into the corridors out of sight.

 

“So like I said yesterday, you guys will be separated into three groups. Now everybody listen up, I will only repeat this once!” Makihara yelled out loud, just in time Tomura heard shuffling and footsteps. Apparently, the rest of his classmates already arrived while he’s observing his surroundings, namely analyzing that breed of dog the dog-man is, and wondering where the heck is Nine.

 

As with the separations said yesterday, the class of twenty got grouped into three – code-named Physical, Unconventional, and Potentially Lethal, where Tomura was grouped along with Overhaul at the far right of the ‘training grounds’. It is only this time when Dabi, alongside the IT guy, appeared from the corridor where they all came from, with the ever-obnoxious-son-of-a-hero walking towards them nonchalantly.

 

What made him even more annoyed is that he’s not the one doing the segregation and being the boss who orders everyone around. So is this meant to piss him off so he could unleash pure villainy when he gets back and order everyone around with impunity, or is this just a random school activity? Maybe if he gets pissed a little more then the entire accumulated hate energies would make Kurogiri appear?

 

His gaze then went over to Mustard (who despite literally having toxin gases for a Quirk, is somehow grouped into the Unconventional group, alongside Toga and Stain. Conspiracy theories, fake villains, and Midoriya? The kid definitely knew something despite his memories not carrying over. Spinner was right, this time he needs to think first before barging in situations head first.

 

‘For a future successor of All for One, that’s beyond embarrassing…’ The thoughts lit up in his head once again. His adoptive father said he’ll not win by lunging forward at any opposition this time around. If he’s going to win, then he must use all the tricks up his sleeve.

 

“Day two of school and you’re already late, you lazy bastard,” Tomura said to Dabi as he stood beside him, clearing his mind off the thoughts of being an embarrassing successor of All for One.

 

“You’re really into this school crap, huh? Suits a man-child like you quite well.”

 

“What did you say you fu-“

 

“Okay class! I have here with me, UA’s Big Three. They’re gonna set you guys up a lil’ pep talk before we can officially begin training!” Makihara then turned around and ushered the three to step out into the sun, with the one with the green hair the only one being bombastic. “And I am not totally using this as an excuse to pad my work hours doing nothing but observing!”

 

Meanwhile, his blue-furred down companion audibly countered him involving threats of his raise going somewhere else especially him, and about how he owes him premium dog food. But what little infor Tomura got from their bickering is that the huge dog-person is SpecPro Class B’s homeroom teacher.

 

‘But how could that be? Are there any villains left for Class B?’

 

Tomura was about to think about whether if there are even any villains left for Class B when he noticed it was Nagant herself who started walking to their group of three, only stopping midway to talk to their homeroom teacher again. Maybe it was because Overhaul’s here? Is this AFO’s way of representing their stories beyond the real world? Will Miss Air Cannon show up again-

 

“Hey Overhaul, are you with Miss Air Cannon yesterday?”

 

Overhaul was surprised and glanced at his direction at the sound of his Quirk’s name, pointing at himself as if to ask if Tomura’s really talking to him and not some person in his mind. “You talking to me?”

 

“No, despite you’re the only person in front of me- Of course I’m talking to you! So uh, you with Miss Air Cannon yesterday? I really want an autograph.” Tomura himself was impressed of what came out of his mouth. It was surprisingly normal, for a person with an absurd lack of social skills such as him. He began tapping his pant pockets in excitement. “If she wants I can pay her-“

 

“Hold your horses Shigaraki, no paying’s gonna be involved! If you want I can contact her for you!”

 

A huge frown appeared on Tomura’s face. Did Overhaul just reply to him normally? Without asking for a fight? Did he just do regular conversation with some other person other than Spinner? Did Overhaul just say he’s glad to contact Miss Air Cannon for her?

 

Just because he asked… nicely…?

 

“Uh…” A million different replies played itself within Tomura’s mind. What should he say back? “Thanks!” he blurted out. In the corner, he heard Dabi audibly scoffed.

 

“You know I gotta say you’re not the first person who asked me if I could contact Miss Kamikaze. But since I’m in a good mood today-“

 

“Know anything about a person with a Forcible Quirk Activation Quirk?” Tomura asked. Dabi scoffed yet again but didn’t faze him this time.

 

“Strange, you’re over here obsessed with an autograph from her and yet you’ve never heard about him? How could you not know about him?” Overhaul said out loud in a joking tone that somehow tensed up Tomura. Is he going to suddenly attack him or what? “Not a day one of them gets to be a highlight without the other getting mentioned.”

 

“What? Are they…? You know?”

 

“Heh… I don’t know myself. Not even GigaMachia knows. The two went to an interview once, and they’re fully aware little girls are out there pairing them together in fanfiction-“

 

“WHAT?!” Tomura blurted out loud and coughed up a few shortly after. Air Cannon… is with Forcible?! Holy hell?! AFO… SHIPS HIS QUIRKS?! Such travesty! Just because he uses the two the most means he can just go in and pair them off!

 

Well actually it’s quite nice as a representation of his two most-used Quirks… Or is it a representation? AFO have been using the two for as long as he can remember. Is this their true story? Are they… really together…? If so, what’s the benefits of him learning the story behind them?

 

“Mr. Shigaraki, I’ve been informed that you zone out a couple times a day. Never expected to see it first-hand as your first impression to me.” It was Nagant, who’s now standing in front of them, hands on her hips and her head lowered to his level. She still had the same toned arms he could very well remember from the real world. The only thing he doesn’t like is that Nagant’s a little shorter than him.

 

“Oh hey Nagant! I was 97% expecting you’d be the one to come to our team! My natural magnetic forces brought by my natural handsomeness ensured that to happen!” Tomura said as he straightened himself up in a matter of a second, earning looks from both Nagant and Overhaul, and making Dabi make yet another scoff at him.

 

“Anyways… I know you guys already know about me but…”

 

As with what Nagant said a moment ago, Tomura began drifting into his thoughts again while facing her, indirectly staring while a whole series of images began appearing in his mind. He’d always been fascinated by Nagant, her extreme coolness, lethality, and skill (even though she failed to hit Midoriya even once). Everything went into slow motion, it’s almost like the animes he watched as a kid when a character falls in love, but Tomura knew that things never going to happen to him in a million years.

 

No matter how many times Twice left his porn magazines for all to see, Tomura never gave them a second glance (except that one time when he discovered that one of the nude models can summon psionic bolts of energy).

 

Nagant would really make a good addition to the team again, if he could convince AFO to let her in the second time. Maybe if AFO sees how important she is to him, maybe he’d change his mind? Now how could he show to AFO (if he’s really watching) that Nagant’s important to him?

 

“Any questions?” Came in the voice of Nagant. She’s done with her speech, or whatever she said that fell onto Tomura’s deaf ears.

 

“Nagant! Are you single?” Tomura said out loud, but not loud enough to be heard by the other nearby groups. It never mattered that he just embarrassed himself, what mattered is that he successfully popped the question.

 

“N… Nagant…?”

 

“Yeah that’s you right?”

 

“Er… must be that hallucinogen gas or something but…” Nagant said as she leaned back a bit and propped herself by two flesh rifles that suddenly burst out of her elbows, supporting her entire weight. “I never really considered World War 2 rifles for my Hero name. I go by Dragunov, if you’re wondering-“

 

“Dragunov?! The heck?! All for One changed hero names?!” Tomura spun around in confusion. This can’t be happening! Well technically Dragunov does sound better than Nagant but-

 

“I bet you’re not Overhaul too!”

 

Overhaul immediately stepped aside in surprise from the guy next to him lashing from hero name choices, “chill out! We’re not even picking out our hero names yet!”

 

“Oh yeah? I bet you’re not planning to go Overhaul!”

 

“Actually I have no idea what my hero name’s gonna be yet-“

 

“You guys over there alright?” came in the booming voice of the blue-furred dogman beside Makihara. Nagant immediately turned to face him and did some strange hand signals involving crossed fingers and thumbs-ups, and based on the dog-man nodding back, all seemed well.

 

“Shigaraki, right?” Dragunov swiveled around and pointed a finger onto the boy, keeping her balance and re-adjusting the length of her flesh rifles when necessary.

 

Tomura snapped back to his senses when he heard Nagant’s very very very evil voice (Well at least for him). It’s no different from her regular voice but it’s fun for him to imagine it that way. “Huh?”

 

“Pay attention guys, you three possess potentially lethal Quirks. Especially you, Chisaki, Kamikaze’s expecting only top tier performance from you…”

 

And Tomura heard the name again, Kamikaze. Air Cannon. The one true Quirk to rule them all. Will Overhaul stay true to his word and contact her for him? Did asking nicely actually got him what he wanted? Is it a secret manipulation technique?

 

“-We’ll be having up a couple of exercises for the next few weeks about the proper usage of-“

 

“Question,” Overhaul suddenly spoke up. “How could you be part of UA’s Big Three if you have guns as a Quirk? Why would UA pick a representative who can spawn killing machines out of her elbows? Is that a SpecPro thing?”

 

“Good question, Mr. Chisaki. Glad to hear someone immediately pop the most obvious question. As you can see, we here at UA, specifically us three, is to show that no matter if you have a villainous Quirk, you can still become a hero.” Nagant visibly had a cringe on her face as she finished, muttering something in what Tomura immediately recognized as Russian.

 

‘Woah… I never thought she could speak Russian… That makes her ten times cooler! A real Russian sniper! I wonder if she knows how to ‘Quickscope’.

 

“It’s a GUN… it’s a tool for killing… What hero work do you really do eh? Point a gun at the enemy and hope they surrender? That’s SO totally a hero thing to do-“

 

“Mr. Chisaki, have you ever seen me actually do hero work? You do know I can do more than just shoot people, right?”

 

“I can put things back to normal if ever I accidentally disintegrate them, can you heal your victims too? Have you ever caught a villain before? Last I heard about your track record is that you use them more as tonfas than they are as guns. Wasted talent, don’t you think?”

 

‘Tonfas…? Can Nagant swivel her guns forward?’

 

“Mr.Chisaki, you’re getting it wrong…” Nagant said followed by an exasperated sigh. “Compared to the ol’ Big Three before this SpecPro thing, we have dedicated roles and don’t just go around punching everyone into submission, got it?”

 

“Guns are not versatile, Dragunov. Those are killing machines. You can guide your bullets as long as they maintain sufficient speed. I won’t be surprised if you soon turn out to be a child soldier working for the government doing assassination things.”

 

‘Because that’s what she is, dumbass…’ Tomura thought to himself, ignoring the biggest fact that Overhaul has absolutely no idea what’s going on in the real world. He was about to correct him when he remembered that he had to keep nice or else he could change his mind on contacting Air Cannon for him.

 

But some other thing suddenly entered his mind. Something about the two’s verbal spat.

 

He observed a few seconds more before confirming the entire thing. Nagant and Overhaul were having a heated discussion! He watched far too many animes and he could easily see where this is going, real world or not, he has to do something! Or else he wouldn’t have a super cool sniper girlfriend to kill people with!

 

“Nagant! I have another question!” Tomura raised a hand, making Dabi nearby simply roll his eyes. “What do you think about M1 Garands?”

 

“Shigaraki, I have no idea what kind of gun are you talking about, and stop calling me Nagant, it’s Dragunov.”

 

“Are you Russian? Miss Nagant?” he asked, even though he already heard her muttering things in Russian in between her arguments with Overhaul.

 

“Enough games, Shigaraki…” Dragunov sighed once more, face looking like she’s already regretting her role in being their supervisor. “I’m going to ask one more time, are there-“

 

“Nagant! Who’s the other chick?” Tomura asked again while pointing to the other Big Three member who reminds him of a female Midoriya, not a care in the world whether he’s pissing her off or making himself look embarrassing or not. “Satiate my curiosity, Dragunov-senpai!”

 

“As for the three of you, I’ll be personally supervising your progress. Anyone of you who even dared to try and injure innocent people will be expelled immediately and go straight to prison. This is a very controversial course as it is, and being 16 will not save you guys from being behind bars. I trust you three to not kill anyone, right?” Dragunov said in a stern manner, completely ignoring Tomura’s question.

 

Tomura rolled his eyes as he observed the other two Big Three members, currently having their own pep talks in the other two groups. Who are they? Where’s Air Cannon and Forcible? Where’s Midoriya if he’s not part of the League of Villains??

 

“Most of our activities will take place outside UA, under my constant supervision. We will do things differently than them, so please behave yourself,” Dragunov briefly glanced at the two teachers bickering on whose class is better. “Anyone who disobeys the rule I’ll kill you personally.”

 

“You heard ‘er guys, she’ll kill us!” Overhaul said while rolling his eyes.

 

“Oh come on, can’t you people tell if a statement is a joke?”

 

“Telling a joke involves matching expressions, Miss…”

 

Dragunov was about to answer back when Tomura raised his hands again. “Miss Nagant! Will you supervise us for the whole year? It would be a pleasure to work under your command!”

 

“Da.”

 

“Holy crap is that Russian? Did you just say ‘Yes’ in RUSSIAN?” Tomura said in wide amazement. Nagant can gun down his enemies while spouting all sorts of Russian profanities while doing so, and those stupid heroes will not understand a thing! The perfect villainess!

 

“Stop fanboying, Shigaraki, you’re embarrassing yourself…” Dabi muttered, just loud enough for Tomura to hear, followed closely by a cough.

 

“That’s the difference between you and me, Dabster, I’m a man with no shame.”

 

“Don’t call me Dabster, you f***ing smoothbrain.”

 

“Are you challenging the true successor of AFO, Dabster my man?” Tomura taunted Dabi, stomping on the ground in front of him and aiming a gloved finger right up the taller person’s nose. “You’ve always been an extra and always will be-“

 

Tomura didn’t even finish talking when Dabi suddenly burst into laughter, something he had never seen him do before. It was a combination of fear and confusion for him as to why he would spontaneously laugh like that, not just an ordinary laugh, and more like he’d toast him right on the spot if he wanted to. It was loud, long, and enough to get the attention of the entire class.

 

Out of the corner of Tomura’s vision, he could see the IT guy being the only one with a smirk. He was, after all, very very very similar to Dabi. He took a mental note to berate the guy once they get back to the real world.

 

Then it was done, Dabi laughed and finished just as fast as it started. It was a surreal experience.

 

“Are you okay there, Mr. Todoroki?” Nagant asked, looking chill as ever, fully expecting sudden outbursts from the hallucinogen grenade factory kids. “Do you need to go see Dr. Garaki again?”

 

“Nah, I’m fine, just got a little gassed and all, carry on…” Dabi said in between light giggles before setting himself straight once more. Looking at the other League members and nodding, Tomura could easily see that even them, don’t think it’s normal.

 

‘Maybe Dabi’s just enjoying his highschool time in a different manner… Can’t wait to do some activities with Nagant- Oh wait she’s Lady Dragunov now…’

Notes:

I’ve always been interested in ‘Villain Dekus’ but out of the many I’ve read, only one of them got beyond ‘Deku joins the LOV but the plot still happens as normal’ – and by that I meant Stain is still forgotten after his arc just like canon. Trigger is never explored again just like canon. Curious is still the only one who dies just like canon, and many more.

I'm not saying they're bad. In fact, over a half of them are written so well it's just kinda disappointing that they're almost exactly like all the other 'Villain Dekus' I've seen.

I was about to go write my own when I decided that, screw it! I'll just go flip everything XD.

Chapter 5: Sandstorm

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 4 – Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Spin, I don’t like what’s going on here, care to explain?” Tomura gritted his teeth as he asked, fighting the urge bring up his gloved fingers and chew upon his fingernails. “AFO didn’t visit me again last night, did something go wrong? We could still go back to the real world, right? He’s not the one to take mishaps lightly… I mean his successor’s here for crying out loud! He can’t just leave me out here!”

 

 

“Calm down man, the guy’s pretty busy! Who knows? Maybe he just wanted to get some silence for himself? I mean we’ve done pretty much nothing but GTA all night, and not a lot of people wanted hear about endless parked digital cars getting ran over by digital trains.” Spinner said as he patted his best friend’s back, tugging his own red jacket closer to himself. Being born with a lizard Quirk, cold mornings are a natural bother to him, slowing him down due to the lack of heating mechanisms regular humans have. “Why don’t you just take your mind off of him and just enjoy yourself here.”

 

 

“Spin, is there something wrong with Dad?”

 

 

“Dude! The guy can finish the country any moment he wanted to! Calm down!” Spinner replied as he walked forward and unlocked the door to the huge worn-down gymnasium located on the right side of UA. Tomura requested permission to train yesterday and Giran allowed him to do his training in this specific place.

 

 

Word is that this gym’s about to be demolished anyways, so why not let SpecPro trash the place down? Same result.

 

 

Tomura tried to shake off the thoughts. Ever since AFO casually took New Order, he’s been quite secretive on some things. What if the American Hero Lady actually beat him, disguised as hi, and then flung Tomura and the rest of his gang into this new world? But AFO’s pretty powerful on his and and he can beat her, right?

 

 

…Right…?

 

 

The thoughts were dimmed in his head at the sight of Nagant, and the other Big Three girl walking over to their direction. He knew she’s going to supervise his progress here and prevent him from tearing the whole place down. What’s not normal is Miss green handed Miss rifle a small folded sheet of paper, in which Nagant slid it into her purse. A few quick exchanges toward each other and green-hair girl walked off from where they came.

 

 

“Nagant! I’m glad you came! I was really worried sick yesterday and I thought you’d never come and watch me tear this place down – I mean, train to be a good student!” Tomura hopped forward in excitement, indirectly shoving Spinner aside to greet his supervisor with glee. “I was really hoping you’d drop by and see my progress!”

 

 

“Mr. Shigaraki, you’re not going to be allowed anyways without a supervisor watching over you here, and stop calling me Nagant,” Dragunov said, pulling out her phone from her purse as she walked past by him, heading towards the now-unlocked metal gymnasium door and going in while gesturing for the two to follow her. “I saw you two standing by the staff room yesterday.”

 

 

“Yeah me and my buddy Spinner over here, who’s only the best teammate this part of Japan by the way, were trying to get Air Cannon’s autograph since Mr. Mummy Man said she’s still around yesterday. Turned out, she’s nowhere to be seen.” Tomura beckoned for his friend to follow him and his supervisor into the gymnasium.

 

 

Dragunov nodded as she pushed aside a dusty stack of wooden chairs a few feet into the gym, coughing a bit as a cloud of dust got swept up to her face. “I do suppose I introduce myself, Ts-“

 

 

“Tsutsumi Kaina, codename N- I mean Dragunov. You don’t need to tell me your name, miss, I know everything, courtesy of getting gassed! Pretty cool right?” Tomura said loudly, amazed by his own voice’s echoes inside the worn-down gym.

 

 

Dragunov just stood where she was with a hung jaw and a dumbfounded expression as her student went past her. People normally call her by her hero name, with her real full name not being a massive focus in her career. But as it was the gas kid who suddenly knew her name, it’s only a little bit concerning, maybe he heard it once before being gassed? If he starts knowing things more than her name, only then will it become an issue.

 

 

Shrugging at the sight of his shocked supervisor, Tomura continued to make his way past the mountain of junk clogging the entrance area of the gym, carefully treading along and minding any strange things cluttered at ground level. Dragunov’s here, the last thing he needed is an embarrassing moment.

 

 

Soon enough they reached a wide open area at the center-most part of the gym. It was dark, with the only light sources being the tiny gaps up the roof, allowing sunlight to pass through and penetrate the building, generating an overall eerie feel. It instantly reminded Tomura of his fabled meeting with Overhaul some months ago. A few moments later, rows of light bulbs turned on one by one, providing sufficient illumination even though over a half of them suddenly going out a minute later, some in loud electrical spazzes.

 

 

“They should really get this place down…” Tomura heard Dragunov mutter something as she passed by, her gaze locked onto the screen of the phone she’s holding. “I do suppose Mr. Okuta already gave you a rundown of your Quirk?”

 

 

“Quirks, Miss Russian Sniper. Quirks. Plural. I got two Quirks now!” Tomura said, placing gloved hands onto his hips and repeatedly raising his eyebrows at the girl, whose back is currently turned to him. Meanwhile Spinner simply stretched his arms as he awaits a demonstration of the new Quirks his friend’s been talking about since yesterday.

 

 

Tomura swiveled around and faced Spinner. “Hey Spin uh… Are you sure AFO didn’t say anything about upgrading you as well? Seems a bit too unfair I’m the only one who’s getting a tune-up.”

 

 

Spinner simply shrugged in response. “I guess I’m going to stay weak for a good while.”

 

 

“You seem awfully ignorant of the fact that you’re weak in a world where power dictates everything, Mr. Iguchi,” Kaina walked up beside them, eyes still locked onto her device, muttering something in Russian afterwards as she mashed the screen of her phone in barely-held frustration. “But look on the bright side. If you win the inverse Quirk genetics, then you’r eligible for Stratonite enhancements.”

 

 

Dragunov walked up to the other side of the gym, still mashing the screen of her phone, before leaning up to the wall. It was only then Tomura realized ‘Stratonite’ is not a thing he knew in the real world. “Strato-what?” he asked, yelling towards her as he approached.

 

 

Kaina looked up to them, one eyebrow raised. Her face seemingly a mix of confusion and curiosity. “You guys don’t know Stratonite? You two ever watched TV? Like any at all? What kind of kid doesn’t- nevermind. It’s a mineral yada-yada-yada that adapts to Quirks yada-yada-yada and forms the basis of most hero costume construction materials. If you want further details, then I’m not the person for you.”

 

 

“Well that’s certainly a term I’d never heard before…” Tomura’s gaze slowly went up to Spinner. He was about to continue when his friend talked first.

 

 

“Stratonite… does that name ring a bell…?” Spinner crossed his arms, shaking his head in his attempt to recall a long-forgotten memory. He heard the term before, some time before he even met the group, sometime before he knew Stain, some time before All Might’s rise to fame. “I heard it before… I can’t just seem to remember…”

 

 

“If you want to know more, consider consulting Sci- I mean Revenant. You know him? The blindfold guy?”

 

 

“Oh you mean the original character?” Tomura tapped Spinner’s back. “I think Miss Nagant just gave us a quest. I’m not in the mood to do it yet, but feel free to tell me when we’re gonna do it-”

 

 

“How many times do I have to tell you I do NOT go by Nagant, nor I plan on going Nagant, clear?” Kaina rolled her eyes before taking a deep breath and sighing. “Now I suggest you two go out there and do a little ‘training’, just make sure you don’t tear the place down, will ya? Other kids in your class would like to have their turn too.”

 

 

“Are you single, Miss rifle?” Tomura asked, devoid of any shame, straight into his superior’s eyes.

 

 

“Why would you want to know that?”

 

 

“Because I think you’re awesome and cool and badass and…” Tomura’s voice drifted off, his eyes going everywhere desperately looking for that one word that escaped his tongue. It took him a good while before he found it. “And you’re the perfect contrast to my endless handsomeness!” Tomura finished his sentence, doing an unnatural pose. Spinner, on the other hand, emitted a loud ‘Woohoo!’ a few seconds after said posing.

 

 

“Can you just go train and be done with it? You’re wasting precious time.”

 

 

“Okay! Let’s go Spin! I’ll go show ya some cool moves!” Tomura spun around, gesturing for his friend to follow him to the center of the worn-down gymnasium, leaving the girl behind as he did a quick recall to the mechanics of his secondary Quirk. He noticed that he’s being more and more childish as the days go on, but that’s the last of his worries, if he’s going to become a highschool student, then childish is the name of the game.

 

 

They eventually reached the middle section. “My Quirk is now called Wasteland 27. Temporary name I know but lemme show ya its new mechanics!” Tomura said, rubbing two gloved hands together and making a sinister grin on his eternally dry face, fully aware that he sounded 10 years younger than he actually is. “AFO really took this one seriously…”

 

 

The villain-turned-highschooler narrowed his eyes at one portion of the gym floor, the section where they originally came from before, especially the part most covered in dust, debris, junk, and overall clutter. The only thing he shouldn’t do right now is tear the whole place down, and if he’s going to impress Kaina (to hopefully convince AFO to let her back and be his magnificent sniper queen), then tearing the whole place down is the last thing he should do.

 

 

Tomura readied up an attack stance similar to that of some of the RPG games he played with Spinner, involving swaying back and forth and hands like he’s about to throw some knives. He was told he had a secondary Quirk, confirmed by AFO in his only visitation that lasted only a few minutes. He practiced this Quirk beforehand, even though doing it in his own room involved a lot of half-disintegrated bedsheets. Good thing he can excuse being a slightly unstable’Gas Kid’ or else he should have been sent to Giran or whoever’s in charge of student counselling many times already.

 

 

Tomura closed his eyes, channeling the activation of his secondary Quirk. He can feel it bubbling within his very core, in the same manner he could feel all the stocked-up Quirks infused into him during his fabled fight with Midoriya just around a month ago. In a matter of moments, multiple plumes of black smoke began appearing all over him, enveloping his entire form in a small vortex of spinning gas on where he stood, making Spinner take several steps back to marvel at such a sight of Tomura’s secondary Quirk.

 

 

A few seconds later, the smoke dissipated as fast as it formed, leaving Tomura surrounded by hands clinging onto him in the same fashion as his ‘villain attire’. But before Spinner could comment about it, he spoke first. “No, Spin, these hands are not here for show. These pack real serious punch!”

 

 

“I knew you were working on them! So that explains all the half-disintegrated bedsheets…”

 

 

“Heh… check these out!” Tomura swung his right gloved hand and plucked one of the clinging hands from his left arm, reared back and threw the detached limb towards the pile of junk he’s aiming at, harmlessly bouncing off of the objects and landing palm-up on the floor.

 

 

In mere moments, the hand seemingly came to life and righted itself so that all fingers are touching the ground. Just as the last finger came into contact with the floor, cracks began to appear on the marble floor surrounding the hand, the dust rising up from them and starting to spiral around the hand in a dome, creating the illusion of a localized sandstorm. Just as the field of dust intensified, faint red lights commenced repeatedly flashing from within the storm, taking on the appearance of small crimson lightning bolts.

 

 

Nearby objects within the cloud slowly crumbled down into nothing but dust, while keeping the floor relatively intact except for the cracks it made the moment it activated.

 

 

“Don’t go ham with the disintegration, Shigaraki! The other groups would like to destroy some things too, you know!” came in the faint yelling of Kaina from the side of the gym. Looking at her direction, the two noticed that girl-with-green-wavy-hair is back there again.

 

 

“So there you have it. I got a bunch of extra hands on me now, no pun intended. Each and every one of these babies can generate their own little crowd-control sphere. I have no way to recall them and they generally last around ten to fifteen minutes before they magically appear back to me again.”

 

 

Spinner turned his attention back to the ‘sandstorm’. “The area of effect is a little too small. It’s like uh… 3 meters I guess?”

 

 

“Yeah I noticed that too.” Tomura observed the sphere of ‘destruction’ crumble down the nearest objects to it. As much as he liked the effects, the effective area is just too small. The rate of disintegration itself is far too slow to be of any threat. Back in his room he threw crumpled papers across the field to see what would happen, and they made it past through with barely any ill effects aside from light disintegration on the tips.

 

 

“Doesn’t feel like a cool secondary Quirk to me. It feels like… I dunno-what does it even do that you can’t do as is?”

 

 

Tomura walked to a nearby rusty metal pole to his left, removed the glove covering his right hand and gently held onto it. Sure enough like what his Quirk does, Decay started to spread through the pole at an alarming rate, in which Tomura manually deactivated before the disintegration reached the floor. That, when compared to the abysmal effects of the throwable hands he has all over him, is just overall much more effective.

 

 

“Maybe it’s got to do something with UA’s motto of going above and beyond? Maybe the range will get bigger over time?” Spinner asked, walking up to the localized sandstorm the hand created but just staying out of reach. “But seriously how are you going to do do hero work with this… Quirk?”

 

 

“People normally panic in times of a villain attack…” Kaina’s voice echoed throughout the gym as she walked up to them, yawning a bit upon going into the light. At a second glance, green-haired girl is gone once again. “A Quirk like that is perfect for directing the flow of people. Think of it like herding sheep.”

 

 

“But wouldn’t other heroes be better instead of scaring civies to go the other way?” Spinner asked, keeping his gaze on the hand on the floor still creating a vortex of disintegration. “Counter-productive, I must say.”

 

 

“We’re SpecPro, we do with what we have. We’re not conventional heroes, if it’s going to take fear to make people fall in line, then fear we will use.”

 

 

“How do you do hero work? Don’t you have guns? Aren’t guns supposed to kill people?” Spinner asked, despite fully knowing what the girl did in the real world.

 

 

“Oh god here we go again. For short, apart from saving people, heroes also fight villains. And I mostly fight villains, my Quirk is no good use for rescue operations,” Kaina stretched her arms and briefly checked her phone before putting it back in her purse. “If you want we could do a little sparring. No guns involved.”

 

 

“Yeah! Spar! Fight! You can do it, Spin! Defeat Lady Nagant!” Tomura yelled before being disrupted by his superior saying she can take them two on one since none of them possess any appropriate counters to her.

 

 

Tomura agreed. He’s a simple guy, if there’s a fight, then sure as heck he’s going to get involved.  ‘Overhaul says she uses her guns as tonfas, then she’s no better than a person with sticks jutting out of her elbows.’

 

 

“Hey just because you’re a girl don’t think I’ll go easy on you!” Spinner yelled back, cracking his knuckles on Dragunov.

 

 

“No holding back please. Do I need to lecture you guys on the ‘Cornstarch principle’?”

 

 

“Huh?”

 

 

Kaina shook her head. “After the onset of Quirks, human bodies generally got tougher, although the true nature of it is still under research. For short, it’s the same reason why people survive super punches but still get crushed under falling buildings. Get hit hard enough in a short time span, and you will barely get hurt and feel any pain, only get knocked out. Doesn’t work with sharp-pointed stuff however…”

 

 

“I never knew there’s a term for that…” Tomura muttered, glancing at Spinner, who simply shrugged back. So all these times there’s an official term for people surviving extremely strong hits with mere scratches like what happened to Overhaul in the real world?

 

 

“I forgot the term, I just call it ‘Cornstarch Principle’. So what, you boys ready?” Kaina threw her purse on the ground, the expression on her face barely changing. “Also after you inevitably lost, don’t make requests asking me to fight other students, some of you guys counter my Quirk very well.”

 

 

The girl lowered her stance, hands in front as if she’s about to take them on by hand. Both Tomura and Spinner knew her Quirk makes her sprout guns on her elbows, so both elbows not remotely pointing at them is a good sign, she’s not about to shoot them both, right? How does tonfas even work anyway?

 

 

“Prepare to lose, Nagant! We’re not holding back this time-“ Tomura didn’t finish when both him and Spinner were swept off their feet by a 5-meter long metal-flesh hybrid of a rifle suddenly sprouting off of Kaina’s elbows and swiveling forward towards her wrist, making the two hit the ground on their backs. They were not given any chance to recover as the same makeshift polearms came crashing on both their faces at such an impact that the ground below them cracked, dust being kicked up in a cloud that signified the fight is over.

 

 

As with the ‘Cornstarch Principle’ Kaina said earlier, and as Tomura experienced first-hand during the beat down by the heroes after his upgrade merely a month ago, he felt little pain at all, just a lot dizzy.

 

 

“What the hell?!” Tomura rolled over to his side to glance over at the girl, who’s just there in the middle of picking up her purse again, guns pulled back and now nowhere to be seen. “You can swivel your guns?! Since when?!” What Tomura could remember of Nagant is that she had to position her elbows forward to aim properly, and now her guns swivel forward in a fashion similar to-

 

 

‘Tonfas… well that makes her infinitely more badass…’

 

 

“Now I suggest doing a little more training, maybe next time you two could actually last two seconds against me,” Kaina said, chuckling as she walked away to the direction of where she originally came from.

 

 

Tomura was about to respond when he remembered what AFO said during the first day. ‘This time you will pick your battles, or else you’ll get annihilated Ha ha ha!’ No that’s not what he said, but very familiar. Maybe they’re just not meant to win against Nagant? But is that intended or just part of a challenge?

 

 

“Spin! Teach me how to do fancy sword moves!” Tomura immediately tapped Spinner’s back with his other gloved hand. Maybe learning some fancy sword moves can help circumvent the inherent weakness of the disintegration spheres.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 Hours Later…

 

 

 

 

‘If Midoriya’s not in the League, and the League exists in this world, then where could he be? Who are the League members?’ Tomura thought to himself as he tagged along his little group consisting of Overhaul and Dabi, all three of them following Dragunov. It’s been two hours ever since his little ‘training’ at the gym finished, and the he’s been doing nothing but thinking about how is he able to kill Midoriya if he doesn’t even know where his target is.

 

 

His blood suddenly ran cold at the thought of a possibility to the REAL reason why AFO sent them here. What if he really got bested by Buff American Lady Hero and used New Order to contain him and his League here forever? All the points connect: Midoriya is not part of the League, so he has no idea where to find him, AFO being unusually secretive about his real plans for the alternate reality, and Spinner saying they could take their time here and not a second will pass.

 

 

What if…

 

 

They’re stuck here forever…?

 

 

“Mr. Shigaraki? Are you okay there?” Kaina asked him from the front of the group, gesturing slightly for Overhaul to move out a little to the left to not obstruct her view of her subordinate having whatever mental crisis he’s going through at the moment. Since a few seconds after they’ve stopped, people are now beginning to crowd around them, seemingly at awe at one of UA’s Big Three.

 

 

They’re not even some distance away from the school itself and Kaina’s popularity is already showing in full force, and it was enough to get Tomura way from his thoughts, at least for now.

 

 

‘Spinner is not telling the whole story… But what if even he’s replaced with a fake alternate reality version?! What if we’re all dead and this is the afterlife?’ Tomura shook his head off the thoughts, trying to prevent subsequent visits within seconds by focusing his eyes up front and forcing himself to just observe his surroundings instead of lingering in his head for longer.

 

 

Nagant, Kaina, Dragunov, or whatever other nickname she wants to be called as, is in the middle if a crowd of people, signing autographs, shaking hands, and patting heads. To his right, Overhaul is doing the same, scratching the back of his head with one free hand as if he doesn’t know how to deal with such fame. To his left is a group of girls giggling at clean-Dabi.

 

 

Meanwhile, Tomura himself slowly straightened himself up, noticing that he too, has quite the number of people interested in him, some are asking questions about being ‘Gas Kid Prime’, some are asking questions about him being under supervision of Dragunov, and some are just plain fans.

 

 

Surrounded by such copious amounts of positivity, Tomura doesn’t know what to do. Should he thank them? Should he smile at them? Should he kill them? He knew pretty well he shouldn’t, but he had to channel negative energies somehow-

 

 

“Overhaul! You said you’ll contact Miss Air Cannon for me yesterday!” He said in a light joking voice, being indirectly affected by tons of happy people around him. He realized it too but it was too late.

 

 

“Oh I forgot to tell you. I called her yesterday but you know how she’s always busy so maybe next time I guess?”

 

 

“Oh, ok then,” Tomura shrugged, at least he didn’t say with a smile. That would be a very un-villain thing to do-

 

 

The action of Kaina waving a hand at them snapped him out of his thoughts and all three of them continued following her, the crowd around them thinning and thinning the more distance they get away from UA. “Mr. Shigaraki,” she asked after all the people are gone. “May I ask what’s going with you since we got out?”

 

 

“I was remembering stuff, very horrible stuff, very very very horrible stuff!” Tomura waved his gloved hands around, deliberately trying to over-act and maybe prevent Overhaul from asking more gun-related questions to their supervisor. Dragunov should not be bothered by such a lowly Yakuza capo such as himself!

 

 

“Hmmm… Meet me up tomorrow morning, we got some important matters to discuss…”

 

 

“Does this have anything to do with Midoriya?”

 

 

“More important matters than Midoriya.”

 

 

“So like a date? Like a real date? Not a calendar date?”

 

 

Kaina visibly gritted her teeth, her mouth then making shapes as she’s talking without any words coming out. Then after bouts and acts of confusion from her and then finally a facepalm, she replied, “yes, it’s a date, now make sure to meet me at your homeroom at 8 in the morning tomorrow, okay?”

 

 

“Oh heck yeah I’m going there,” Tomura said, nodding so much that he actually made himself dizzy.

 

 

A quick nod in response, and Dragunov led her little group across the street. The sun is rising higher and higher into the sky as they walked along the sidewalks in their glorious little ‘hero patrol’, people are starting to get busier and busier and generally starting to leave them alone and just regard them as regular heroes-on-patrol. Although there are still some people recognizing Kaina here and there, they’re generally left alone.

 

 

“Okay guys, this is what we’re going to do…” Dragunov said as she pulled out her phone from her purse again. It was only at this time Tomura noticed her phone is decorated with assorted stickers of chibi animals, mainly dogs. He can’t help but shake his head, for badass Russian snipers shouldn’t deal with cute things.

 

 

“Since the quirks of you three are very different from each other, I can’t teach you the same way the other two can. So for short, I’ll just be supervising the three of you if you’re making right use of your Quirks, got it?” Dragunov said as she hopped over a covered manhole and almost hit a lamp post in front of her as she’s busier texting someone on her phone than actually paying attention to her surroundings. “Now we could just wait a little while longer, villainy is sure to come around any time now. According to my data files of gathered intel, something should happen right about… now-“

 

 

Kaina deliberately stopped her own talking just in case crime did, in fact, happen just as she ended. But it didn’t. Crime didn’t appear until ten minutes had past, in which a loud explosion was heard just some distance away behind some buildings, followed closely by screams of panicked people.

 

 

“This area’s part of a patrol route on a decent amount of hero teams, so there might be other ones already here, perfect for beginners like you three!” Dragunov swiveled around and turned to them, one hand pointing over to the chaos. “Now go! What are you waiting for?”

 

 

The three just stood where they are, looking beyond the chaos. It took a good while before Tomura spoke out, “uuhhh what are we going to do? Our Quirks are lethal, remember?”

 

 

“Just get there and use your brains! You got that mushy mass in your heads, right? Now move!” Kaina rushed on their backs and shoved them forward, before running towards the site of the crime itself. “Just don’t kill anybody!”

 

 

Tomura ran ahead faster than anyone in his group, stopping shortly of crossing the street and diving to one side as a car got hurled in his general direction, exploding in a fiery blast upon impact at a building. It was a move out of surprise and car wouldn’t have hit him with or without the evasive action.

 

 

“Knew it, the League of Villains, always up to no good-“ Kaina didn’t even get to finish her sentence when she got to his location, as Tomura got up and ran ahead some more, hoping to see who this League member really was, maybe he could get at least a hint on where Midoriya really is.

 

 

It was a towering behemoth of a person standing at around 2 meters tall, thrashing around and creating a whirlwind of chaos. Lamp posts, parked cars, business establishments, even the fire hydrant is not spared, everything is eventually destroyed in its wrath. Tomura noticed that it appears to be a standard super-strength villain until it turned around.

 

 

‘…F***ing what…?’

 

 

Shiny gray skin, the ridges around the eyes, the overall metallic look…

 

 

‘Holy crap it’s the villain-version of the metal man from Class B! The Class B is the League!’

 

 

Tomura observed some more as he positioned himself at a safe distance, ignoring Dragunov’s orders to help people. It appears that this world’s version of metal man is edited and fixed to look more villainous. He was visibly older, metal jagged metal spikes run up the length of his right arm, getting blockier and blockier until they appear to be crystals as they reached his back. His entire left arm is nothing more than a giant battering ram. Overall, he looked like a standard villain from the real world.

 

 

‘Are they villains because they looked like that? Or is there a more serious underlying reason? Is this one of AFO’s learning stuff for me, provided he’s real and not some New Order doppelganger-‘

 

 

“Shigaraki! MOVE!” Dragunov went up to his back and shoved him towards the direction of a group of people whose exits are blocked by a huge boulder from a ruined segment of a building above. A small fleshy outgrowth of a gun sprouted from the tip of her right elbow and swiveled it forward in the same manner like she did earlier, smacking Overhaul’s back as she directed him to go save another group of trapped people as the giant metal man continued his rampage. “WHERE’S TODOROKI?!”

 

 

Following the orders of his superior as much as he hated being ordered around, Tomura ran off to some trapped people and briefly glanced at Overhaul’s position. The former Yakuza capo was disintegrating rubble and letting people out.

 

 

‘Well that shouldn’t be a problem… But how is Nag-‘

 

 

His thoughts are instantly shattered by the repeated sound of clashing metal. Looking over, it appears that Kaina is single-handedly holding off the giant metal man to- wait a second…

 

 

‘Where are all the other heroes? I thought there-‘

 

 

Tomura shook his head and ran off to his first rescue mission, removed the glove on his right hand, and disintegrated some rubble, allowing the trapped people to help themselves free. It was a good one for his first mission until he noticed that one of the guy who got out has a jet pack pre-installed on his back as a part of him. The rubble they’re trapped in didn’t block any areal means of escape, and Mr. Jetpack Guy didn’t even use his Quirk.

 

 

‘Had to do a double-take there. I’m sure that guy is no Gran Torino-‘

 

 

Another series of loud metal clanging ensued. Turning around, he can see that Kaina is still in the middle of barely evading metal man’s attacks by way of pole-vaulting around by flesh rifles jutting out and extending to almost twice her height, trying to get the villain to move away from the area. She doesn’t even shoot, no less try to shoot even though Tomura knew it wouldn’t even dent the enemy, at least she can look cool doing it.

 

 

He can also see that Kaina’s doing her fancy acrobatics in the middle of frantic button-mashing on her phone, her face a complete  and accurate caricature of ‘I’m-Going-To-Die-And-I-Would-Like-Help-ASAP’. Tomura couldn’t help but wonder, where are all the heroes? Kaina’s having a tough time even though she wiped the floor with them earlier, and while he can understand her bullets won’t do a thing on some armored person-

 

 

What if…?

 

 

Taking a quick glance to his right, he saw Overhaul once again freeing another group of people. “OVERHAUL!” he shouted, “SAVE THOSE PEOPLE FOR ME!”

 

 

He’s not sure if the person he ordered even heard him amidst the chaos but he can’t just stand here while his future girlfriend is about to get-

 

 

There was a loud crack as the rampaging behemoth easily tore one of Kaina’s elbow rifles in two, before sending her flying with a direct hit from her own weaponry careening towards the road, creating a horizontal crater, with her unconscious body at the end of it. If she received that level of damage form the Pre-Quirk era world, she’d be nothing but a bloody mess of broken bones.

 

 

Tomura nodded and went in straight towards the enemy, who’s now continuing his rampage from earlier, fully ignoring the hero he just managed to beat.

 

 

Its entire body is made of metal. In fact, he IS forged into metal as one which means his disintegrate will not tear him apart and only do the instant dehydration effect… hopefully… He’s sure AFO would fix his Quirk so he can’t accidentally kill someone by way of loopholes.

 

 

But no matter, no one casually bashes Nagant and gets away with it!

 

 

Tomura, in his usual technique of just running blindly and hoping for the best, ran straight ahead. He’s just in an alternate reality, there is nothing to fear, AFO (if he’s even the one to send him here) will not let him get pummeled for no reason. Propelling himself with one last dive, arms outstretched and aiming towards the target, he successfully made contact with the enemy’s back, five fingers hitting their mark.

 

 

If only his ‘throwable hands’ secondary Quirk actually worked earlier, it would have been a far better alternative than going into range of a raging tin can. He decided against using them as a distraction for the beast, it would have been a double-edged sword if it saw where the hand came from.

 

 

Tomura was ready to get flung the same way as Nagant was when he noticed the huge mental man is just continuing his rampage, back turned to him as if he didn’t even feel getting hit except-

 

 

The patch he successfully made contact with is now nothing more than an open gaping hole, the metal layer completely torn away revealing a regular white T-shirt underneath as the villain continued his rampage, completely ignoring him.

 

 

‘Well this is convenient…’

 

 

Tomura shook his head and dove in again, all five fingers grasping on the exposed shirt amidst the metal armor, easily disintegrating it and allowing him to reach in and make skin contact, immediately halting the entire villain attack.

 

 

Hopping off to one side, and as much as he actually defeated the person, he couldn’t help but wonder how hard it is for him just to beat a single armored villain, let alone actually defeat Midoriya this time around. The metal villain dropped to his knees, hands on eyes as it thrashed around on the road. It took the villain a good while to make his way to the nearest fire hydrant, break it open, and shove his face in.

 

 

“Well technically that guy is still not down…” Tomura muttered to himself as he stood beside some ruined buildings, staring onto the villain drinking his fill on the geyser created by the torn-out fire hydrant, actual heroes nowhere to be found. There were faint sounds of Overhaul disintegrating rubble on the other side of the street, unaware the fight is ‘done’.

 

 

It just so happens that Nagant’s first fight is against a villain with total invulnerability from her Quirk, Tomura shook his head in the ever-magnificent Lady Dragunov losing her first serious fight. But what about this metal villain? Why did he ignore his presence? Why did he fight Kaina and completely ignore him? Is it part of AFO’s tricks? A secret perhaps?

 

 

“Anyone? This guy’s not defeated yet…” Tomura muttered again, too weak for anyone to even hear him. Overhaul is on the other side, Dabi’s nowhere to be seen and Kaina’s-

 

 

“I can’t believe…” It was her familiar voice going up behind him, finishing her sentence in complete Russian as she dusted herself off. She had light scratches but overall just knocked up in the head. A little lost footing here and there but she’s about as fine as she gets. “I see you’re done, good work Mr. Shigaraki…”

 

 

Tomura was about to respond when a loud impact is heard from behind. It was a grey-skinned man standing as tall as the metal villain himself, dressed in standard hero attire featuring colored gloves and boots in themes of blues and whites. What’s most distinct about him is that his cape has a gelatinous waving look like water continually cascading downward without drenching anything

 

 

The newly-arrived hero aimed a hand at the metal villain, his right arm convulsing as if quickly turning into a liquid-like state, before sending a surge of goo forward, knocking the villain out of the fire hydrant he’s drinking into and straight towards the nearest building and crashing onto it.

 

 

“Dragunov, this better not be a waste of my time…”

 

 

“Yeah-yeah deal with him…” Kaina waved the hero off, muttering the rest of her sentence in Russian.

 

 

Tomura, normally impressed by Kaina’s ability to speak two languages, noticed one specific word that stood out from the rest, amidst the heroine further dusting herself, amidst the noise of the rampaging metal villain, amidst the taunts of the new hero.

 

 

‘Midoriya…’

 

 

‘Nagant knew something about him more than just a notorious evil-doer-‘

 

 

He felt something tap his back, it was Kaina ushering him away from the scene. The goo hero – or whatever his name is, started wrecking the entire building the metal villain is hiding in, indirectly causing more damage in one second than the entire fight earlier.

 

 

“Who’s the grumpy dude?”

 

 

“Number 2. Sludge Hero Geyser. Don’t get in his way and he won’t get in yours…”

 

 

‘Sludge Hero…? Like the Sludge Villain he heard once before? Who tried to kidnap and held explodey-boy hostage? So he’s like… a human now that turns into sludge? Well to be fair, metal guy from Class B over there is turned into a more villainous-looking person to fit the world better…

 

 

‘But how come you had to look the part first? Is it coincidence? Or being ugly turns you into a villain? But I’M a villain! Am I ugly?! Sure as heck NOT!’

 

 

In another tidal wave of goo, the Sludge Hero tore down another building in his attempt to corner the metal villain. And another was brought down behind him until the only way out is towards his opponent. It was a terrible way ot handle crime, but Tomura remembered Endeavor is exactly the same thing… and he’s also the Number Two Hero in the real world…

 

 

Kaina pulled Tomura farther and farther from the scene, gesturing for Overhaul to come near them as she caught sight of her other student. The heroes have arrived, there’s no need to continue their little hero mission. It was a beginner’s quest, not a fully-loaded one.

 

 

“Where’s Mr. Todoro-“

 

 

“Dragunov,” Tomura asked, “do you know anything about Midoriya?”

 

 

“Of course I know things about Midoriya! Every hero knows who he is. The biggest mystery right now is why would he have a special interest to you as compared to the rest of your group. So far, not a single ounce of progress was made on why. Investigations have been fruitless and fertilizer’s very hard to come by.”

 

 

“Question, Tsutsumi…” Tomura slowly leaned to one side and discreetly pointed at the destruction the ‘Number Two Sludge Hero’s causing. “Let’s just conveniently ignore that hero causing more destruction than the villain but… I couldn’t help but wonder… how come you lost against the guy?”

 

 

“I got overpowered, that’s all. Don’t think too much about it.”

 

 

“Oh really? I find it hard to believe that such a high-ranking Big Three student would lose THAT easily on a basic armored villain. Yeah I know he’s immune to your bullets but you going in there face to face instead of maintaining distance is clearly something… Did you just… deliberately lose?” Tomura asked, looking at his superior straight in the eye. While he knew he’s not the best at tactical fights but when other people are being as dumb as him on the field, then that’s something else.

 

 

“No Shigaraki, I was over-powered-“

 

 

“We’ll continue this talk tomorrow, just like you said. I sure do hope you have as much info as I have on the guy…” Tomura dismissed her just as Overhaul arrived in time to diffuse the situation away from him.

 

 

Dabi, on the other hand, didn’t show up until half an hour later and wouldn’t tell anyone where he came from.

Notes:

About Tomura simping for Nagant, don’t worry they’re not going to get shipped. It’s more of a "Tomura’s a massive fanboy of powerful Quirks" than "Shigaraki really wants the booty" kinda thing.

Chapter 6: From the Past to the Future

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 5 – Friday

 

 

Dizzy and feeling like a disembodied cloud, Tomura opened his eyes to find himself, or rather his core – represented by a glowing spec of gray, floating around in small patch of light amidst a dark abyss. Black smoke billow around the perimeters like a hurricane, with him at the center of the eye.

 

 

Tomura knew what this meant, he knew what’s going on. There’s only one explanation for this…

 

 

He maneuvered his core to turn around, and in an instant he was bombarded with confetti, sounds of party horns, and a floating cake.

 

 

“Congratulations, my boy!” It was All for One, wearing his iconic mask strapped with a little red party hat on top, walking and slow-clapping on his way to him. It was at this time, Tomura’s core began emanating a glowing black aura that morphed into the shape of him, before actually manifesting into himself.

 

 

“What time is it? I mean in the real world?” Tomura asked, brushing the fanfare aside and tugging onto his shirt just to check if his hands are still ethereal, and they weren’t. “I got a lot of questions and I would like to know beforehand just in case this dream world in a dream world’s got more time warping shenanigans.”

 

 

All for One slowly shook his head, turning around and beckoning his adoptive son to stand by his side. The swirling black smoke around them gradually faded away, revealing a beautiful hillside scene, all made complete with a stream flowing right in front of them, birds flying overhead, grass covering the landscape, as well as a big overgrown tree behind them, giving them adequate shade against dreamworld solar rays.

 

 

“Uh… I don’t think this is all required. I got a lot of questions and I couldn’t really… you know… enjoy all this,” Tomura said as he went up a boulder located beside the big tree and sat on it, tapping onto the stone first to make sure his Quirk’s not present in this realm, and they’re not.

 

 

“Shoot,” All for One responded, walking beside his adopted son and, with the flick of a finger, generated a fancy-looking wooden bench in one brief flash of light before sitting on it. One quick leg cross and the prime evil leaned his back onto the backrest after muttering something about being old. “We got all the time in the world here.”

 

 

Tomura crossed his legs as well as he sat on the huge boulder. “First of all, where’s Kurogiri?”

 

 

“Kurogiri’s introduction will be much sooner than you think. I did not forget about anyone, I added all the villains you ever encountered and some new ones to even out the odds. It’s a lot of temporal reconstructing, weave interlocking, and the usual things on the basics of reality-warping.”

 

 

Tomura raised an eyebrow. Never before All for One casually warped reality. “How did you know about that?”

 

 

“I fought quite a few reality warpers back in the day. None of them are nowhere near as powerful as New Order. Taking their Quirks, I noticed similarities in their innate function. The science of Quirks is very much my hobby back then, before I tossed it away in favor of straight power-fighting Quirks. I made sure to keep the most versatile ones around but you know how my fighting techniques nowadays are just simply overpowering anything in my path-”

 

 

“You took reality warping Quirks? Why haven’t you used them yet? You tossed them away?”

 

 

“You already know I don’t have unlimited capacity on Quirk Storage. Shed no tears for the Quirks long gone, they’re merely reality-waping in a smaller scale, I tossed them out decades ago. All of them can only do at a maximum range of about one room, one of them actually needed a room with a specific size before she could start warping. Quirks back then are very different from what we have now. Years of merging made quite a number of them very powerful indeed.”

 

 

“About that,” Tomura slightly shifted on his boulder seat, trying to stifle a laugh. “What’s up with Forcible Quirk Activation and Air Cannon? You ship Quirks now, old man?”

 

 

“I knew you’d ask about them soon. It’s about time I told you about their original wielders,” All for One said, groaning as he exerted a mountain of effort just to stand up. Doing one last stretch of his back, the prime evil turned to face the peaceful horizon in front of them. “Everything about those two are portrayed as close to their original incarnations… or so what New Order thinks about them…”

 

 

“So are they…?”

 

 

“That I couldn’t answer. I used their Quirk traces stored within me as a basis for New Order to hopefully re-create them as intact as possible. I use those two Quirks constantly not only because they’re both powerful and versatile, but to honor the two people who almost defeated me back in the day, and to remind myself of my failure to adapt to them. One good thing about failing is that you get to learn from your mistakes, and I-”

 

 

“All for One?! Defeated?! How?! It’s clear you can bust out of Tartarus anytime, but those two? You can warp or block them or whatever! How did they even come close to defeating you?”

 

 

All for One gently turned his head to face his son. “Two hundred years ago... I was foolish back then, relying too much on combat-based Quirks. Sure enough, it worked quite well on the general population. People, law enforcement, heroes are scared of my presence. I was inches away from standing ontop of Japan when those two went in… and costed damages lasting to the next two centuries up to now.”

 

 

“Woah… I hope you’re not bluffing…” Tomura tucked his legs to his chest. All for One still haven’t got to the part he’s most interested in – how did he get defeated?

 

 

“Once I defeated them, I did all I could to get those two erased from history. Books, Newspapers, Memorials, everything… Including from the internet. I may lack the Quirks to do all that, but instilling fear onto the general populace is enough to do the trick. I don’t want the story of those two inspiring people yet again to rise up against me. When your enemy’s united, then they’re more than just a tough nut to crack.”

 

 

“Can you tell me more about them?”

 

 

“Agreed. Air Cannon, Kamikaze Tatsumaki, is a special woman born with a special easy-to-use yet destructive Quirk, too powerful even for a hero. While powerful Quirks are commonplace now, back then such a Quirk brought awe and amazement to the people who witnessed such power. Turns out, there was something with her Quirk genes that allowed it to happen. Forcible Quirk Activation, Seigyo Shinryaku, is a man with such similar genes, born literally on the other side of the country. Many people thought the two are the result of a scientific experiment as they’re almost the same age-“

 

 

“And then he got discovered as well and people were quick to get them together?”

 

 

All for One nodded. “My knowledge on their life story ends there. I have no idea on them being heroes, especially someone as destructive as Kamikaze.”

 

 

“Wait… names are influenced by Quirks even back then. So why is Kamikaze so powerful? What about her parents? What Quirks mixed to produce such a daughter? What are her parents’ Quirks?”

 

 

All for One shook his head. “Like I said, my knowledge of their lives is not that great. I trust New Order on creating this reality for you. But if you ever discover more about them, feel free to tell me their entire tale.”

 

 

“So how did you get defeated?”

 

 

“Overconfidence. Simple as that. I already won in my mind, I took down hero after hero after hero that’s sent to stand in my way as I marched closer and closer to the capital city. Just as the final stand disbanded by the mere sight of me, in came the two. Forcible Quirk Activation shut me down in a single hit, and I was blown all over the place…”

 

 

“Just like what happened to me after my upgrade? With Midoriya rag dolling me everywhere?”

 

 

“Make it ten times more helpless. It was a long drawn-out fight, and the only thing giving me any sort of advantage is that Shinryaku can’t pinpoint any specific Quirks to use from me. Long story short, I timed one mistake and used that centimeter of a second to launch an electric shockwave aimed at his neck at maximum force.”

 

 

“Forcible dead I presume?”

 

 

“He stretched his neck with Forcible Quirk Activation, narrowly avoiding losing his head. The only thing I managed to do is stun him for a short while and draw Air Cannon’s fury of a thousand suns upon me, thinking he’s dead. It was a long time ago, and the memory’s still vivid in my mind. She destroyed more of the city than I ever did.”

 

 

“So how did you win?”

 

 

“I didn’t win at first. It took another 2 years of cat-and-mouse with me hiding wherever I could, collecting any Quirks that could possibly counter Forcible Quirk Activation and shield myself from Air Cannon. The prime evil everyone knew today was crawling in sewers, sleeping in dumpsters, and eating garbage, just to escape their wrath. If there’s a villain report, they’re there almost in an instant. They were determined, they wanted to end me, they took it upon themselves to remove this filth of a villain from the face of the planet once and for all.”

 

 

“Woah, they’re awesome… No offense but seeing how everyone’s scared of you now and those two were whooping your ass all over the place back then is just… prime stolen Quirk material…”

 

 

“It took long, but after two years I finally found a counter and killed them both. In a desperate last stand, I got stabbed by Forcible and messed up a huge deal of All for One. It was because of him I can only use at least 40% of a stolen Quirk’s maximum potential now.”

 

 

“200 years later… the effect is still there?”

 

 

“Never left, never will. He literally re-arranged my Quirk genes. I lost my counter-Quirk. I lost a lot of Quirks. I lost my self-made regeneration Quirk. I lost the ability to create pre-packaged Quirks. That’s why I had to rely on Dr. Garaki for keeping me alive. But they put up a good fight, I will not let those Quirks go to waste-“

 

 

 

“ARE YOU SAYING ALL THOSE AIR CANNON DESTRUCTION IS JUST ONLY 40%?! HOLY COW?!”

 

 

“I had to combine a lot of Quirks just to copy her original power output. But no matter how good my combinations are for Forcible, I couldn’t re-create the things he used to pull off. Yes they bested me, yes they sent me running, but that experience taught me to never rely on one Quirk for anything. Be prepared for anything. Notice I took a full All Might punch and nothing happened to me? That’s the power of defensive Quirks, my boy.”

 

 

“Umm… but people regularly take heavy hits on the regular? Nagant herself got flung on the road and nothing happened to her-“

 

 

“You’re under-estimating the true power of One for All… A Quirk so powerful is negates all natural protection. If you didn’t have hyper-regeneration during your fight with Midoriya, you would have been vaporized in a single hit.”

 

 

“Sooo… New Order only at 40% now…? You used New Order to reverse the genetic damage, right? You turned it back to 100% right?”

 

 

All for One paused for a bit, a bit too long for Tomura’s tastes. He could see his adoptive father’s fingers twitching. If he had a face visible right now, his lips would be moving on their own. “It’s going to be a full-scale fight. I want you to learn-“

 

 

“Is there… something wrong? Spinner said he’s the last one to enter the portal. He said you said something to him. You two know something I don’t. Why is that? Is it such a big deal that if I know it some magical mystery’s going to be unlocked…? You’re out here talking to me like New Order didn’t fix the 40% thing.”

 

 

“Lies, my boy. New Order is a new magnitude of power. How about this. I tell you how I fought and won against New Order and you will stop asking questions about genetic damage.”

 

 

“Are you okay, Dad?

 

 

All for One visibly shook his head. About New Order. You must be curious how I won against such a reality warper. Well it was easy as pie!” he said with a swing of an arm. It was to lighten up the mood yet Tomura could see there was something off the way AFO’s voice cracked once during the middle of the sentence. “One thing about very powerful Quirks is that they make their users very overconfident, just like what happened to me with Forcible and Air Cannon.”

 

 

“Are you okay, Dad?” Tomura repeated, his adoptive father’s words going by his head without taking anything at all.

 

 

“I knew New Order’s not going to be skilled at all, but you don’t really need skill when you have a literal reality-warping ability. So I went there and used Spectral Grapple to instantly snap her neck. Do it too fast and the natural ‘Cornstarch Principle’ will apply, so I made sure I cracked it at the right strength-“

 

 

“We’re still going to win, right? This highschool thing has a real meaning, right? I mean I haven’t seen Midoriya yet but-“

 

 

“Son,” All for One went up to the boulder he’s sitting on, and propped himself with his elbows planted on it. “I want you to be the best you can be. You won’t beat Midoriya nor anyone easily this time around. Get the right allies, forge bonds, lead them to victory, do what you’re best at doing.”

 

 

“But… I’m not really the best leader around. I barely order anything! You’re speaking like you’re dying!”

 

 

“No I’m not dying!” All for One scoffed and shook his head, his voice sounding more solid and annoyed, rather then the creaking one he had earlier. “I’m already planning on re-taking Dr. Garaki back. I got spare life support for the next 100 years! I only wear my mask because I look cool!”

 

 

“Well at least I’m sure on that. But you’re talking like something’s really wrong.”

 

 

“This matter’s for grown-ups. You’re a highschooler now, Tomura.”

 

 

“Nice joke, Dad.”

 

 

“A real villain knows how to spot jokes! I’m leaving now, make sure to know about Forcible and Air Cannon, any ability they can do that I don’t is always a good help. Maybe if I know enough I’ll be able to replicate their original power!”

 

 

“But-!” What about Stratonite? About Nagant somehow looking like she deliberately lost to Metal Man?

 

 

All for One instantly disintegrated into black smoke, the serenity of the scene replaced with soot and ash in a motion synonymous to burning away into nothing. Tomura himself is not alarmed one bit, All for One always had a habit of ending dream-talks in the most ‘villainous’ way possible. He should be waking up in three… two… one…

 

 

----------------------------------------------

 

 

Tomura’s sleepy eyes sprung wide open, gaze darting around everywhere to check if AFO left some reference of him, or anything really. The way he spoke is very concerning. While he’s sure his adoptive father’s not on the verge of dying (Which AFO already cheated several times with his numerous survival-based Quirks), he’s sure that’s something’s wrong.

 

 

For a person who calls himself as the Prime Evil, he’s bad at concealing emotions, especially to his adoptive son. Tomura hoped that it’s not a big of a deal. What's the sense of going fishing if his Dad is not there to see him get his first catch?

 

 

Glancing over to the wall clock hung over at the top of his door, he suddenly remembered Nagant saying she wants to meet up with him in the next thirty minutes.

 

 

Grumbling under his breath on why the sniper girl didn’t make their meeting closer to 9am, he haphazardly went to get dressed, did the fastest basic hygiene he could do, and went out. He stood there, slouched in front of his door. The sun shone on the windows, creating a comforting array of light as the young villain thought about waking his friend up before deciding not to.

 

 

Spinner’s the one who said he was sleepy last night as they pushed their gaming session into the midnights, yet he pushed on. Tomura nodded to himself, the lizard deserved some shut-eye for his damn good performance in carrying a losing team last night.

 

 

Walking his way through the corridors and finally downstairs, he eventually reached the door leading to his classroom.

 

 

He thought for a moment, what if he pranked Nagant? It’s stupid, it’s nonsensical, it’s got nothing to do why she called him in. But what matters to Tomura is that he thinks it will be funny, and that’s all the motivation he ever needed.

 

 

Deciding that pranking Nagant will be such a sight to behold, the highscooler slowly crept up and peeked on the glass pane on the top part of his classroom door. The plan is to check if she’s there, and then slam the door wide open. What did he aim to accomplish? To surprise Nagant and maybe make her fall off her chair, because there’s nothing funnier to him than seeing Russian sniper ladies fall off chairs.

 

 

Slowly rising up and peeking on the door’s built-in window, he peeked in, only to discover someone’s back is blocking everything.

 

 

‘The heck?! It’s that Midoriya’s maybe- idiot-sister! I’ll show her what she gets for blocking my perfect prank plan!’

 

 

Tomura grabbed hold of the doorknob and tried to pull it out with as much force he can muster, only to realize it’s locked from the inside, making his retribution against the failed prank even more of a failure.

 

 

Defeated, he knocked on the door. After a couple of indecipherable verbal exchanges inside, the back blocking the view inside the room moved aside, revealing the other two members of UA’s Big Three.

 

 

‘All three are in there… I wonder why…?’

 

 

Tomura immediately noticed the blindfolded guy, seeing as he forgot to ask AFO who he could be. But he’s sure on one thing, he’s the one Nagant referenced yesterday. Seeing as he seemed to be talking to Nagant while holding onto a folder, then he’s probably the group nerd. There’s always one in a group.

 

 

Soon, the door opened, with ‘maybe’ Midoriya’s sister walking out as fast as she could, leaving Kaina and the group nerd inside the room.

 

 

“Uuh… I am here…?” Tomura awkwardly waddled into the room, weakly raising a hand to greet the two of them. “You said I meet you at-“

 

 

“Shigaraki Tomura? Gas Kid Prime I suppose?” Blindfold guy asked, eyeing up Tomura from head to toe as if his blindfold didn’t bother him lacking any sort of conventional eyesight. He then turned to the girl beside her, “I dunno Kat, you’re giving me the heeby-jeebies-“

 

 

“Scissors, we need her, go get her, understand?” Kaina responded to her fellow Big Three member, hands clasped and eyes closed as if she’s at the end of her patience.

 

 

Tomura saw Blindfold guy made a head gesture as if he rolled his eyes, before turning his attention to him. “Hey kid, no using that fancy hand trick inside the classroom-“

 

 

“Scissors, Mr. Shigaraki doesn’t have his bolt-on hands deployed, get your eyesight checked,” Kaina said as she stood from her seat in a frustrated manner, before placing both hands on the guy’s shoulders and hastily pushing him out of the room as fast as she can. “We got one shot at this, move!”

 

 

Tomura stood as he watched the scene unfold. He knew there’s some super secret stuff these guys are up to, but what could it be? But knowing their position as UA’s Big Three, it probably has something to do with Big Three things, which Tomura is not interested at all – unless it involves Air Cannon-

 

 

“Dragunov?” Tomura suddenly blurted out just as Kaina locked the door behind the person she just pushed out. “I want to know if you know about Air Can-“

 

 

“Air Cannon can wait, we have some top secret business to deal with. Before you ask why am I so blatantly telling this to you, that’s because you’re a Gas Kid, and that means no one will believe you if you ever tell other people I told you something supposedly top secret, got it? And if some people suspect you know something of my plan, they’ll just chalk it up to Gas Kid wonders-”

 

 

“Hmmm I like where this is going!” Tomura rubbed his gloved hands and took a seat on the teacher’s desk slamming his backside onto the backrest with noticeable force. “Does this have something to do with your… *ahem*… deliberate losing against big metal man? Don’t worry Dragunov! You can tell me anything! As long as you could answer my question!”

 

 

Kaina stared at him with a bored expression for a solid two seconds, before planting both hands onto the table in front of him. “What?”

 

 

“Are you single?”

 

 

“Yes. But it’s not-“

 

 

“Will you go out with-“

 

 

“No.”

 

 

“Okay, carry on. I just wanna ask. But what about Spinner! Will you go out with my buddy Spinner? He’s way better at video games than me, you’ll like him a-“

 

 

Kaina slammed the table, instantly stopping Tomura and forcing him to stare at her. “Okay okay okay! We’re serious!” he exclaimed as he rolled his eyes. “But-“

 

 

“You’re Gas Kid Prime. Midoriya’s little pet project, Midoriya’s most special, if there’s someone who knew about him more than the rest then that would be you.”

 

 

“Now we’re talking!” Tomura leaned back in his seat as he recalled Midoriya, his appearance, his Quirk, and his stupid heroic ideals that make his skin crawl with disgust. But the pet project thing? Since when is he Midoriya’s little pet project? “You mean that midget twenty-year old with a super punch?” He assumed that since everything is switched, then Midoriya would probably be at around 20 years old.

 

 

Tomura leaned back further and would have crossed his arms if it weren’t for his favorite sniper lady shaking her head. “Mr. Shigaraki, just in case your head’s still a little too cloudy. Midoriya’s around 40 years old-“

 

 

“FORTY F***ING YEARS OLD?! WHAT THE HELL?!” Tomura leaned back so hard in his seat that he fell and hit his head on the wall behind him as he went. “You serious?! Or else this is some next level trolling!”

 

 

“Mr. Shigaraki, the more you help us the faster we could go on with this. Midoriya’s been a menace to society for so long and heroes are doing nothing about it! Yes I know it’s not right to put the law on your hands but if no one will do it, then I’ll do it! Now let’s have a deal, tell me all you know about Midoriya, and I’ll help you meet Ms. Kamikaze.”

 

 

“Um Dragunov?” Tomura said as he stood up, one hand holding onto his head. “Overhau- I mean the guy with the other disintegrate Quirk has direct contact-“

 

 

Kaina shook her head. “Mr. Chisaki won’t do a difference. Miss Kamikaze is way busier than your average hero. She’ll think you’re just an average fan. Yes you may be Gas Kid Prime but without someone of high enough status recommending you, she wouldn’t have the time.”

 

 

“So you’re not really a UA Big Three eh?”

 

 

“I am, I don’t like it. You may not know that Midoriya’s a 40 year old villain mastermind, but you might have other information we could use… Do you have any idea of what kind of Quirk he uses in his super-powered punches? He hits harder than I’ve ever seen in my entire-“

 

 

“Hmmm… so you’ll accept anything I say? More or less, and then I get to meet Air Cannon. So tell me, what’s the acceptable level of participation for me in this little Midoriya quest? Because I got a personal bone to pick with him and I want him DEAD.”

 

 

Kaina stepped back, one hand going up to her lips as if in gasp. “I’d watch my words if I were you. If Midoriya catches one whiff of those, you can say goodbye to your entire respiratory system because you won’t be getting them back any time soon.”

 

 

Tomura’s eyes widened. Midoriya ripping people’s lungs out? He might have killed a lot of people, but not once he thought about turning them inside out, even HE would never do such a thing. He let out an involuntary gulp. AFO is not kidding when he said Midoriya would be a lot tougher here. But it’s not the only thing he said.

 

 

‘Pick your allies…’

 

 

That’s right! He fully remembered his adoptive father saying those things to him. And what’s happening right now is Kaina literally trying to insert herself into his group. He wanted to have her abilities in the real world and now she’s offering her help here.

 

 

‘Take the shot!’

 

 

“Miss Dragunov. I want to see Midoriya dead as well. Would you accept a partnership with me?” Tomura said with a maniacal grin that put Toga’s to shame. It made Kaina’s blood run cold for a moment. The person in front of her wasn’t joking, he’s not asking for a date, he’s not asking stupid questions, and he’s not being nonsensical. He wanted Midoriya dead.

 

 

Kaina extended a hand in an offer to shake. “Tell me what you know, and I’m yours.”

 

 

“Really?”

 

 

“Shut up, idiot, we’re all getting ready to do some secret assassinations and now’s not the right time to crack jokes dammit…” Kaina pulled back and hurriedly procured her phone from her purse, mashed the screen with numerous taps, and held it close to her ear, talked in full Russian for about ten seconds before hastily putting it down again. 

 

Tomura didn't understand a thing she said except he's in.

 

 

“Can I be the boss?” Tomura asked, raising a hand.

 

 

“No you can’t.”

 

 

“Bummer… I’ll only allow it because the boss would be you.”

Notes:

Don't think too hard about the Blindfold Guy, he's just an OC. Don't worry he's not gonna get shipped to anyone.

Chapter 7: Stain and Mustard

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 7 Sunday

 

...

 

Tomura crouched down and inspected a box in front of him. It was quite large with various labels written in a handwriting so atrocious he can’t, for the life of him, decipher what it meant. But overall it’s just a regular box to be sent to the cafeteria. Thinking about the handwriting will just be a complete waste of time.

 

 

He stood up and stretched his arms, stroking the bottom of his chin, deep in thought about what Dragunov-Nagant said to him two days ago. Does she really mean what she said? About working together to take down Midoriya? So far it’s the weekends, and the sniper-lady is nowhere to be seen. Asking her as to why that is will only result in her evading everything.

 

 

Just as the thoughts slipped away from his head, in comes Stain coming back from delivering a box for the leftmost cafeteria stall with Spinner. He stayed back at the thought of box-carrying being a boring menial job. And he thinks of himself as being far above such people. A real villain’s got to have standards after all.

 

 

But what if he tried? Spinner and Stain looked like they’re having fun. But what could be so fun in carrying stuff and being a servant?

 

 

But it wouldn’t hurt to try, right?

 

 

Tomura glanced at the clock that hung by the wall to his right, 7:30 am. There’s no threat in being seen by the rest of the League and judging him on being a lowly box-carrier.

 

 

“Hey Shigs! Stain said he’s willing to learn the way of Minecraft!” Spinner said as he ran towards him from being beside Stain on their way back to collect more boxes. “Well too bad he doesn’t know about it all but he’s willing to learn, how cool is that?”

 

 

“The serial killer’s willing to learn the art of crafting? Well that’s not something you see everyday!” Tomura said as he stretched his arms again and did one quick look around to see if there are any League members nearby. He’s really close to considering helping around and the last thing he needed it to have other League members seeing him and making fun of him for it.

 

 

“Oh hey Shigaraki! Come help us out! We could use more hands!” Stain waved at them, giggling to himself, causing Spinner to laugh as well. Tomura mentally admitted, that was a very lame joke, but since they looked like they’re having fun then-

 

 

“Very well then!” Tomura pointed at the stack of boxes, minding one of the people dressed in a cyan shirt just like Stain as he walked past and picked up a bigger box before heading off. “What are we carrying today?”

 

 

“Since it took you so long before you change your mind, we only got three left, just enough for the three of us!” Stain said, pointing at the stack of three boxes just to Tomura’s left.

 

 

‘Everyone is very positive here. I forgot to ask AFO about that… is this designed to throw me off or is it something else?’

 

 

Shrugging off the thoughts, Tomura picked up a box from the stack Stain pointed at, and waited for the two to pick theirs before walking off with them. At this moment, Spinner started chatting up Stain about all kinds of video games they could play back at the dorms, ranging from basic Role-Playing-Games to Real-Time-Strategy to Sandbox types.

 

 

It took a good while before a thought popped up in Tomura’s head. “Hey Stain?”

 

 

“I swear you guys keep calling me Stain? What’s up with stain?” Stain asked, slowing down his walking pace to match Tomura’s. “Is that a Gas Kid thing?”

 

 

“Stain is a cool name after all, think of it like a gamertag. But I was thinking, why are you lifting boxes when Mr. Mummy Man said we’ll have some sort of monthly allowance if I recall correctly? Is this like a ‘saving for the future’ kind of thing?” Tomura asked, glancing at another one of those cyan-shirted people clumping up near a truck parked by the cafeteria parking lot. “Why be a working student when you can just slack off and get money via SpecPro course?”

 

Stain shook his head, a smug smile on his face. “No no no no you’re getting it wrong, Shigaraki. Yeah I know we’ll be getting this fancy easy cash for basically doing nothing but… think about it, are we really going to become heroes?” he said, earning a light ‘huh?’ from Spinner beside him.

 

 

“But we’re in SpecPro, what are you talking about?”

 

 

“Can you really imagine people going ‘Oh look! Stain! What’s his Quirk again? He licks blood to paralyze the villain! Wow!’? I’m just being a realist here guys but we’re not really going to make it past one year before we get called off and cancelled. Do you know how many ‘SpecPros’ already happened before? Many names have been thrown around and none of them worked. At the end of the day, our Quirks are NOT designed to be seen as heroes. WE are not designed to be heroes,” Stain ended his sentence with a light chuckle. “At least I’m starting earning cash earlier. Gotta save up for the hard times, am I right?”

 

 

“Woah… here I thought you’re going to ramble about fake heroes… must be a different Stain in my head…” Tomura replied, his voice trailing off, trying to make sense of what Stain just said. SpecPro is useless? How come? Why did AFO send him here if SpecPro is nothing more than a controversial hero program?

 

 

“Care to tell us more about this… not being a hero thing? Being gassed kinda messed up my head.” Spinner muttered from beside him, narrowly avoiding bumping into a pole.

 

 

“That’s easy! We have villainous Quirks, people don’t like villainous Quirks, the people decide what heroes to stay and what heroes get kicked! From our entire class of twenty, I think very few would actually become heroes. Do you guys know anyone without a villainous Quirk in our class? From your Gas group perhaps?”

 

 

“Well there’s Compress the magician dude aaaannnd… No really I can’t think of any, what about Spin?” Tomura said, pointing at his friend. “How do heteromorphs fare?”

 

 

“The only heteromorphs I know that can fare well are the ones with cool-looking mutations. I’m sorry Spin-was-it? But I don’t think you’d become a hero too.”

 

 

“How sure are you on that?” Spinner asked, once again narrowly avoiding a lamp post in his way. “Well back in the real world I don’t recall any villainous-looking mutations on the hero side, remember Dictator?”

 

 

Tomura nodded in agreement. Dictator, the mind-control villain is way uglier than hero heteromorphs like Selkie or Gang Orca. Physical appearance dictates everything in the hero world, which is not at all surprising.

 

 

“Real world huh?” Stain shrugged. He was about to ask them a question about the feeling of being gassed but decided not to as they already reached their destination,ordering the two of his companions to drop off their boxes in front of a stall that sells barbecue on sticks. “Okay we’re done, am I getting invited on anything? I’ll be totally free in a minute.”

 

 

“Why of course you’re getting invited!” Spinner gestured for the two to follow him out of the cafeteria. “Whatever you’re gonna do, you gotta make it quick!”

 

 

Stain nodded and pointed towards an unloading truck, with more of those cyan-wearing people wandering about. He said something about telling his superiors about something, but the sound of reversing vehicles and their loud audio warnings filled the air too much of unwanted reverberating clutter.

 

 

“What do you think eh? We’re being friendly here and making friends! Isn’t that great?” Spinner tapped Tomura’s back twice. “Although I-“

 

 

“Spin… Stain. Fake heroes. He didn’t say anything about fake heroes. So what news on Mustard?”

 

 

“Guy’s a huge nerd on everything signifying society’s gone to sh**. He knows too much I think. I blanked out on the third minute of him talking non-stop about something like fake heroes and the like. Mustard has this full knowledge on fake heroes too,” Spinner said, keeping his focus on Stain talking to some other people with cyan shirts like him. “I wonder what Stain had to say about the topic...”

 

 

“Did Mustard say anything else? When can we talk to him?”

 

 

“He said we can talk to him anytime, time’s not an issue.”

 

 

Tomura nodded and made up questions in his head and picked the best one to ask just as Stain came back, waving towards them. The sight of the former hero kiler with a fully intact nose bothered him for a bit.

 

 

“Stain!” Tomura said out loud as he tapped Spinner’s shoulder once while mouthing ‘Mustard’. The lizard person nodded in response and began walking towards the corridor to his left, Tomura following shortly behind him. “I want to ask you about your opinions on something.”

 

 

“I hope this doesn’t involve super top secret Gas Kid stuff-“

 

 

“What’s your opinion on fake heroes? Heroes only in for the money and not about saving people?”

 

 

“Well truth be told, when I was younger I didn’t like them very much. Back then I think heroes should be doing their duty for free and all that comic-book justice crap, but times have changed. Now, I couldn’t blame ‘em at all,”  Stain replied with a light chuckle. It was unusually light, as Tomura thought. Is AFO flipping everything including their original motivations or what? Is this a hidden secret perhaps?

 

 

“What?” Tomura asked again.

 

 

“Heroism, as with this society calls it, is a JOB. These are not your cape-toting people in comic books saving people because it’s the right thing to do. Heroes are merely an extension of the original police force. And since it’s a JOB, then it’s just normal they get paid. And since it’s a very easy job mostly just about walking everywhere in bright outfits, everyone wants to be one.”

 

 

“So are you mad about them? Like the slightest? Heroes just in for the money?” Tomura asked, glancing once towards Spinner leading the way towards Mustard’s room.

 

 

Stain shook his head. “Why should I be mad? They’re just doing their job. They go in, beat up bad guys, leave, and get paid. If they’re pretty good at their job and keeping the streets clean, why should I be mad?”

 

 

Tomura, now extremely confused on highschool-student-Stain’s differing opinions from his original counterpart, asked again, “How about you? What are your plans on being a hero? At least before we get kicked out like you said?”

 

 

“I dunno, get enough money to start my own business I guess? I do suppose your buddy Spinner already told you how my Quirk works, right?”

 

 

Tomura simply nodded, but deep in the back of his mind he wondered if AFO also added additional abilities on Stain. But since Spinner didn’t get anything, he doubted it almost instantly.

 

 

“People always say I taste foodstuffs better than others. Must be a side-effect of my tongue?” Stain said, sticking his tongue out and made shapes with it, suddenly sprouting multiple bumps as he compressed it, and disappearing into his tongue again as he turned it back to normal.

 

 

‘Can Stain really do that in the real world?’

 

 

“So you wanna be into the culinary field, Stain?”

 

 

Tomura snapped out of his thoughts as he heard Spinner’s voice. Did he really just ask Stain if he’s going into the culinary field? Stain wants to be a cook? He couldn’t help but chuckle a little, imagining the hero killer wearing a chef’s hat and assassinating his targets by drowning them in condiments.

 

 

“It’s a God-given talent, I say why not use it, right? I mean we’re not really going to last long as heroes anyway so why not?”

 

 

“Hey not bad!” Tomura heard Spinner casually respond. Does he not see how strange this entire thing is?

 

 

“I thought about it ahead. I start work early, get the cash bonus in this entire program, graduate as a hero and earn some more before the inevitable crash-and-burn, and use that cash to maybe start up my own little canteen, or maybe apply as a cook. I mean come on guys we’re not gonna become full fledged heroes anyway.”

 

 

 “Why so negative?”

 

 

“I’m just being a realist here. When I say everything about SpecPro is doomed to fail, I mean EVERYTHING, ALL these ‘villain Quirks’ program failed before for the exact same reason as the last.”

 

 

Tomura raised an eyebrow on Stain’s words. He went form a raging serial killer obsessed with his own definition of righteousness into a money-loving kid, which is the exact polar opposite of what he was.

 

 

But then again, he made sense. He has a ‘villainous’ Quirk, and the way he’s acting right now is just thinking ahead. Maybe this is what he could be if he’s a level-headed person instead of a anti-hero freak? Is this Stain an alternate interpretation-?

 

 

“Hey Stain uh-“ Tomura was about to ask if a Hero Killer exists in this universe when something caught his attention as he swung his head to face Stain.

 

 

Blindfold Guy. One of the Big Three. Revenant. Nagant’s team’s token nerd. Original Character. Walking just up ahead in an estimated distance of around 20 meters.

 

 

And not only that. He seemed to be chatting up this other mysterious blue-skinned girl. The same person who made a big deal entering their class some days ago, who’s not part of the program yet trying to get in, the same person he couldn’t make out if she’s a real person in the real world or not. Compared to her initial introduction to them, this time she’s not carrying bags and all kinds of things almost as big as her.

 

 

Almost as if his body moved on its own, Tomura spread out his arms and stopped his little group. Thankfully, the people he’s focused at didn’t notice him.

 

 

“Oh look, it’s Revenant! What seems to be the problem here?” Stain asked, calmly walking around Tomura’s made-up barrier. Ignoring the stares they’re getting from nearby people. “Did you cross the guy or something?”

 

 

Spinner, seeing that Tomura’s currently in a stuck state which could only mean he’s in the middle of thinking about something but just couldn’t make it out in word form, asked the most obvious question to Stain. “Do you know her? I mean the blue one?”

 

 

“Hmmm…” Stain took a while to observe Revenant and his companion. The two people he was asked about seem like they’re just walking around and enjoying themselves. But the Gas kids are known to be spontaneous and a bit out of the loop so he let it pass. “I forgot her name, but she’s with me one time at the principal’s office.”

 

 

“Huh?” Spinner asked, taking one quick glance at Tomura – still stuck to whatever stance he’s trying to do.

 

 

“SpecPro is only limited to twenty students, both on Class A and Class B. On choosing the final student for A, it’s either me or her. We were both interviewed, one at a time, and I’m picked.”

 

 

“Why?”

 

 

“Well actually Mr. Okuta said my reasoning is way more on point,” Stain said, shrugging, noticing the person they’re talking about turning her head and noticing them as well before completely moving out of sight. “I don’t really know what he thought was on point about my reasoning but I simply said my points from earlier. I mean all those heroes, money, and SpecPro graduates not really making it past one year.”

 

 

“He believed that?”

 

 

“I don’t know what the girl said on her answers but uuhhh…” Stain shrugged again. “She came out of the interview room with her head down and walked away as fast as she got there. Seems like she got rejected on the spot, which is odd since he specifically said each of us will be getting three interviews.”

 

 

“Strange… I wonder why?”

 

 

“Eh it’s not like SpecPro’s bound to be successful anyways. So we both lose in the end.”

 

 

“Well at least we get some money out of it?” Spinner shrugged, one eyebrow rising. “Hey Shigs, how long are you going to… whatever the heck you’re doing there?”

 

 

Tomura stood there, arms outstretched for complete minute, before slowly coming to his senses again.

 

 

“’Bout time you moved-“

 

 

“Where are they? We should ask Blindfold Guy about the Stratonite! And now he’s gone!” Tomura snapped back, falling to his knees in the same manner Twice would do when he’s over-acting about something – which is every hour of the day for some reason he never quite understood.

 

 

“They moved on, we could just ask them sometime later. We’re not in a rush, remember?” Spinner said as he walked past Tomura, gesturing for his friend and Stain to follow him once more. “We got all the time in the world.”

 

 

“Stratonite? The Quirk mineral?” Stain said as he kept up to Spinner, hands drawing squares in the air.

 

 

“You knew about them?” Tomura asked before Spinner could utter a single word. “So what is it about this Quirk-adapting mineral?”

 

 

“Quite a common thing for you guys to not know about it but… a mineral that adapts to Quirks. I can’t really think of any meaning other than that. It’s just that simple, really… You know how Giga-Machia’s outfit hardens almost as tough as he is?”

 

 

“Ooohh…” Tomura said, his voice trailing off as his lips hung in an ‘o’ shape. “Like Endeavor’s fire proof costume…”

 

 

“Mount Lady’s bodysuit too…” Spinner added, currently thinking of other heroes with adaptive suits. “Explosion Boy’s gloves as well…”

 

 

“How about Midnight? But how is that related to her Quirk?”

 

 

“Guys…” Stain stopped the two. “It’s hard to explain but the quickest one would be – A thing that doesn’t conform to regular laws of physics… and heroes use that crap a lot.”

 

 

“Is it used outside of heroics?”

 

 

“Not that I can think off. It’s only used in heroics for some reason. Seems shady if you ask me.” Stain shrugged, minding the people walking towards his direction.

 

 

“Are you not going to change clothes? People might mistake you for the cyan delivery guys.”

 

 

“I’ll just go change them once we get to the dorms. I mean we ARE going there, right?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

The trio continued their little morning walk, taking them a little over ten minutes to reach their designated dorm building. Along the way, Tomura’s eyes caught sight of the two mysterious people again. And as with earlier, Blindfold Guy is still chatting up blue girl, but this time both of them are carrying huge backpacks. Dragunov said they need to speak to him if they want to know more about this Stratonite mineral, so this person must be very important to whatever plot AFO is planning this world would get to.

 

 

His thoughts went to mysterious blue girl, whom he and Spinner couldn’t figure out the identity of. But seeing that she normally sticks around the MLA group, she might be tied to them as well. But she’s not really that important to figure out since she could be just an unimportant original character AFO made.

 

 

Should he stop comparing this world’s plot line to that of a typical anime show? He will when he feels like it. Right now the best course of action is to follow his gut instinct, and his gut instinct tells him to keep comparing everything to either a video game or an anime show.

 

 

“Any plans after graduation? I’m not saying you two to take my word on this ‘SpecPro ends up quitting after a year’ thing, but-“

 

 

“We’ll see as it goes. I’m not really that much of a planner anyway,” Spinner shrugged, waving a hand on Stain’s way. “But between you, me, and Shiggy over here, there’s an impending war coming up and-“

 

 

“Yep, war. Very big war. Full-scale war,” Tomura added with a giggle. “But don’t take the Gas Kid’s words for it.”

 

 

“Not sure if you two’re-“

 

 

Tomura and Spinner cut him off and laughed to themselves. It was an unsure laugh shared by the both of them. Is the War going to happen once again? Is Midoriya going to take over the MLA this time around? But he doesn’t have AFO backing him up. Is All Might acting as AFO in this world? Very likely.

 

 

After a few more minutes, the small group reached the Dorm areas. Unlike the ‘Gas Kids’ who have an entire floor reserved for them, other students’ rooms are scattered throughout the building. Tomura forgot about most of what Giran told him, but he could clearly remember one side’s reserved for Class B, and that’s about all he could remember about this building.

 

 

Following Spinner’s lead, they eventually reached Mustard’s room. It’s located at the second floor of the Dorm building farthest to the left. One thing that stood out most in that specific door is that it’s unmarked, with the metal plate that’s normally bolted near the door signifying its number torn off. Based on the markings left, it must have been empty for quite some time now.

 

 

Spinner raised a hand, stopping the two from asking questions, and knocked on the door three times, with each knock hitting three times in quick succession. Based on the tone of the knocking, Tomura guessed that it might be some sort of secret knock code of some sort.

 

 

“You there? We’re ready to talk Nomus-“

 

 

“Nomus?” Tomura spoke up, interrupting Spinner, who only responded to him with a nod and a smug smile plastered on his face.

 

 

Tomura’s mind spiraled into itself once again. Nomus? Those giant biological war machines? Based on what little he knew about Dr. Garaki, no one in the entire world can come even close to replicating them, outside of people with natural copying Quirks like Twice. If Midoriya is not affiliated with the League in this world, then what’s this Nomus Spinner’s talking about-

 

 

“Shiggy!” came the voice of young Mustard, now standing before him, door to his room now open and both Spinner and Stain already inside. “You’re floating again-“

 

 

Nodding once, the teenage villain-turned-hero walked inside.

 

 

For such an acne-laden young lad like Mustard, Tomura fully expected his room to be almost as messy as his, junk making themselves at home at the various nooks and crannies around the room.

 

 

Mustard’s room is the complete opposite of that. It was clean, squeaky clean, organized, no strange smells and sights to be found. Tomura hated it but he had to admit he liked the way his cabinet is full of random neatly-aligned folders, if he ever returned back to the real world, the first thing he will do is get his own filing cabinet. He never knew what it does, but he simply liked the look it would give him – a villain with so many plans.

 

 

What matters is what he looked like, a true gamer knows that fashion is the true endgame.

 

 

Overall, the room was very simple. There was not a chair in sight, but everyone there already simply sat down on the wooden floor.

 

 

“So what is it about these… Nomus?” Tomura asked, interrupting the three from discussing the best ramen flavor.

 

 

“Nomus huh?” Spinner turned to Stain. “We’re going to discuss some top secret villain stuff, you-“

 

 

“Not at all,” Stain shook his head and leaned back, propping himself with his arms. “I’m always open to new knowledge.”

 

 

 

 

Tomura sat down and initiated the discussion, in which Mustard gladly continued.

 

 

According to the kid, Nomus are this bio-mechanical constructs built and maintained by an unknown villain organization – in which Mustard suspects as Midoriya’s himself, to be sold to other criminal organizations. They come having multiple augmentations that enhance their natural durability and strength, with some also capable of using Quirks, confirmed by genetic analysis of tissue masses from defeated specimens.

 

 

Tomura kept on nodding as the kid went on; mentally comparing this universe’s Nomus form the real ones. Turned out, not much is different, even to their appearance as Mustard showed images of the techno-beasts from his phone. The main ‘difference’ is that these Nomus – name still unchanged, are robots infused with fleshy outgrowths all over them akin to that of Nagant’s rifles.

 

 

And for the iconic exposed brains of Nomus from the real world, these technorganic constructs have a, what seemed to be, a glowing blue sphere on their heads, with a hexagonal pattern.

 

 

Mustard said they’re not weakpoints but more of a trademark so the criminal organizations know they came from the right supplier. He had no idea if he’s really right but conspiracy internet forums all agree on it, or so he said.

 

 

Spinner asked if he can confirm the blue spheres are really some sort of trademark, and Mustard shook his head. He was really not that sure if it’s true, with his only proof is that the government always evades questions pertaining to it. The blue spheres are never discussed for such an easily-identified trait of a common enemy, which made him to believe it was Midoriya who’s building and selling them.

 

 

“So what do you know about Midoriya?” Tomura asked, eyes narrowing on the small pieces of text on a folder Mustard’s holding. “Where is he? How is he? What is he? What’s his Quirk?”

 

 

Mustard shook his head. “Midoriya’s Quirk is never said. Not in the registry, not in TVs, not anywhere…”

 

 

Mustard continued, saying what little he knew about it is that he can deliver extreme amounts of damage in a single blow, capable of destroying people into smithereens even through the ‘Cornstarch Principle’. The claims are disputed, with some people saying his Quirk allows him to spawn black tendrils, others say his Quirk gives him smokescreens.

 

 

Tomura nodded. What Mustard is saying it sill in line with Midoriya’s real world counterpart. But this time around, no one knew if he REALLY has multiple Quirks.

 

 

‘Hmmm I wonder if it’s a good idea to tell it to Nagant first before Mustard…’

 

 

The topic of Nomus went up again. This time Mustard saying that it annoys him to no end that the government is not even analyzing them that much. All Nomu attacks are normally written off as random villain attacks, and the prison they’re sent into is not even shown no matter how many people are demanding to know how they are imprisoning such monstrous mechanical beasts.

 

 

‘Fake heroes…’ Tomura thought to himself, casually glancing at Stain’s position, who seemed curious but not really that interested.

 

 

“What’s your opinion on fake heroes?” he asked.

 

 

Mustard was quick to respond, saying that heroes didn’t even put a dent on the overall villain activity rates, and crime is still happening on a nationwide scale at every hour of the day, way more than the days before the onset of Quirks. According to some statistics brought about his his online internet pals – or so he says, crime actually got worse when heroes arrived.

 

 

He said that heroes and those everyday villains people see on the street are actually collaborating with each other in an endless cycle on the quest for more profit.

 

 

“Everyone already knows that,” Stain casually said, face with a blank expression. “Gas really knocked up your heads huh? But of course the government duds will deny that so don’t waste your time asking. Heroes never really did anything to curb the growing crime rates…”

 

 

Tomura nodded. Fake heroes are a constant. Nomus could be from Midoriya even though he’s not affiliated with the League-

 

 

“Can you tell me about the League? I mean the League of Villains?”

 

 

“Like that Stonewall you guys fought?” Mustard asked, stroking the bottom of his chin. “Real villains. Dangerous. Don’t mess with them. Good thing I heard Geyser made it there in time.”

 

 

Tomura nodded in response. Dangerous? But he defeated Metal Man that easily! In two touches no less! Maybe the heroes are only ones fake? But what about the villains they’re collaborating with? Are they fake too?

 

 

Maybe Nagant will clear some things. It’s best that Mustard knows less, or so he thought.

 

 

“By the way, don’t ask the Big Three about fake stuff, they’ll just deny it.”

 

 

Tomura nodded again. He may not believe it fully but could it be some of AFO’s secrets he talked about or is it a parallel for the real world. One glance at Spinner and he could tell that friend is also thinking the same thing as he is.

 

 

After all, if heroes are so abundant, why is crime still everywhere at an absurd rate?

 

 

‘This world is full of damn fakes...’

 

 

 

Notes:

I made Mustard a conspiracy theorist because I can’t think of any other personality for him… so yeah…

Chapter 8: Kaina Tsutsumi

Chapter Text

Day 10 Wednesday

 

 

Kaina raised both arms up, stretching up her limbs to combat the boredom on the task she’s placed on. Normally, she doesn’t have important matters to attend to in such early hours into the morning, but if the boss said she needs to do something, then that something becomes of utmost importance.

 

 

And if she wanted to keep her respiratory system completely intact and inside of her, she had no choice but to agree.

 

 

The dawn’s unusually warm, but not one bit bothered her on her mission as she stood on the rooftop segment of a derelict building, careful on where she’s stepping, fully knowing anything can give way on a building this old.

 

 

She soon settled and leaned against a rusty railing on the eastern side of the building, taking notice on the weeds that’s growing intertwined with it. A warm wind blew upon her face at the same moment the phone from her purse vibrated.

 

 

‘Right on time…’

 

 

“Scissors,” she said, brushing some hair off her face. “Still active I presume?”

 

 

“Yep, we’re good. Landmines still active. I see no traces of them deteriorating in quality, if they can even do that in the first place that is,” said a very familiar male voice from the other side of the line. “By the way, if my eyes are not fooling me, she has an insane amount of stacked-up explosives loaded up in both of her gloves.”

 

 

“What about it?”

 

 

“She said she can only lay down 5 of them at once, and can not put one within 5 meters of another. I didn’t say anything and agreed. Maybe she just doesn’t see any mine past 5? I dunno really… But based on the glow of it she could be walking out there with the explosion yield of a small nuke and she just doesn’t know.”

 

 

“Well that’s interesting.”

 

 

“You never know how Quirks work these days,”the person nicknamed ‘Scissors’ said, ending his sentence with a light chuckle, before clearing his throat. “So what’s on my list?”

 

 

Nodding her head as an involuntary gesture, Kaina brought her phone down and fished a small piece of paper from her purse. It’s a crudely folded paper with names written on them, a vast majority of them had a line going through. “Three are bullet-immune, two could slightly reflect my shots, but nothing much you can’t handle.”

 

 

“Copy, so what do I do now?”

 

 

“Duration. I need full data on how long those landmines last. No deterioration yet, right?”

 

 

“N-nope.”

 

 

Kaina let out a sigh. “Look pal, it’s for the best. Let me go finish my last task and I’ll talk to you. How’s Beros?”

 

 

“She gave me her list. I’ll take ‘em on tonight…” Scissors’s voice trailed off for a brief moment, making Kaina roll her eyes. She knew what’s going to happen next, and a thing that repeats for far too much is more of an annoyance than an important matter. “Katie, come on man. We’re dealing with an innocent person here-“

 

 

“I’ll talk to you when I get there.” Kaina immediately ended the call, gritting her teeth in frustration. What’s wrong with her plan? Her plan is perfect! It’s the most sensible plan there is! There’s little chance of it failing (If all her expectations are all in line) and it will ultimately save the lives of a ton of people, and maybe even stop Japan’s economy from crashing down.

 

 

 

 

At the cost of one life that is…

 

 

 

 

Shaking her head, she went off to prepare for her mission, positioning herself on the other side of the building, the area where the railing is have long been rusted off into oblivion, unable to withstand the test of both time and the elements.

 

 

And there she waited.

 

 

 Silent.

 

 

But not at all devoted.

 

 

 A few minutes later, her quarry neared, entering the nearby derelict building completely unaware that one high caliber sniper round is about to blast open his head, make it explode at the opportune moment. Kaina kept her gaze focused on her target, her dark grey trenchcoat providing excellent camouflage upon the dark dawn sky.

 

 

She raised up her right arm and grabbed hold onto her left shoulder, a fleshy gunbarrel jutting out of the slit on the elbow section, with the entire thing extending up to two meters long. With her free left arm, she held onto the gun, stabilizing it.

 

 

Her target was a heteromorph with a very unpleasing mutation. Rows upon rows of horns protrude out from his body, one even through his right eye. He was a monster no less, a person no more. According to the person who ordered to have him killed, people like him are better off dead – with his reasoning being that if society is just going to shun them and treat them like monsters for it for a mutation they cannot control, then they’re better killed off.

 

 

Alongside his other reasoning involving ‘Villain genes’ and all those things she couldn’t comprehend. She knew it couldn’t be the real thing, that motivation to have heteromorphs killed off for basically no reason is just too silly an excuse for someone who’s a genius mastermind all things criminal, it must be some kind of cover-up for something much worse…

 

 

But why does he want these innocent people killed? What plan requires these? He never harvests them or anything, just completely abandons them to rot. But questioning such things is just going to get her into trouble, and it’s the last thing she needed right now.

 

 

Taking one deep breath, Kaina lined up her shot, barrel pointed at her target’s head dead center. One last check to see if she got the silencer created over the cover and she started her mental countdown.

 

 

3… 2… 1…

 

 

Closing her eyes, she fired her weapon.

 

 

And after that there was only silence. Her target is dead, his head blasted off by the sheer impact of the bullet going through it, tearing a blood-soaked hole on the wall it went in.

 

 

As much as the ‘Cornstarch Principle’ is true, it only protects against hard impact hits. Getting punctured by bullets and slashed by knives doesn’t count.

 

 

Kaina immediately turned around. As much as she’d been doing the same thing over and over again for the last 5 years ever since she turned seventeen, she never did get desensitized for taking the role of the grim reaper on marked targets.

 

 

Re-absorbing her fleshy firearm back into her right elbow, she heard a light thud behind her. Before she turned around, she made sure to reach into her purse and fiddled with her phone, her fingers moving on their own on a pre-determined pattern she memorized days beforehand.

 

 

“Scissors will handle the rest, the job is done,” she said as she turned around, “Midoriya.”

 

 

And right behind her is a sharply-dressed man, clad in hues of green and black, and aura of fear, casuality, indifference, and terror emenating from his very form, which is a stark difference of his outward appearance of a soft round face making him look up to 15 years younger than he really is, and curly green hair that looked more like it belonged in a music album than a criminal mastermind.

 

 

“Katie! You’ve done it again!” he said in a cheerful manner, both arms up, his menacing aura completely disappearing in the blink of an eye. “Always knew I could rely on you! Beros is getting a bit rusty on the edges but you on the other hand, is just a whole new level of headsplitting prowess.”

 

 

“Sun’s almost up, I gotta be at UA before 7, are you adding more to the list?” Kaina asked, tilting her head to one side.

 

 

The man shook his head, his iconic bushy green hair waving along. “I’m a man of schedule. I’ve been congratulating you three after every successful mission for years now. I can see I’m doing a great job in boosting morale! Look at those kill counts!”

 

 

“Midoriya, SpecPro is having an activity early in the morning today, I can’t be late,” Kaina said, her voice light.

 

 

Midoriya shrugged, one hand going up to his mouth as he yawned. “By the way I know this job’s been taking a toll on the three of you so I uh… I got a person who’ll soon to be your replacements.”

 

 

“Huh…?”

 

 

“He’s fast, he’s powerful, he can do all of the things you three can do combined. I say this is a win-win, yes? You three retire from your killer ways and live life the way you always wanted to be.”

 

 

“With all these inflation because of your activities I don’t think-“

 

 

Midoriya chuckled. “So you’re basically trapped here with me then? Going around shooting down people after people after people… It boggles my mind to no end that UA, out of all schools, would get you three to pretend to be the Big Three for this nonsensical SpecPro course… choosing people with actual kill counts, what’s wrong with this world?”

 

 

“Can I meet this replacement?” Kaina couldn’t help but think why none of the SpecPro students asked why the Big Three looked so much older than actual graduates nor have any history, or maybe because they’d all rather have fun as heroes instead of thinking big.

 

 

“Nah not yet, my wife would yell at me for showing my elite hitsquad my newest weapon first instead of her,” Midoriya chuckled once more, leaning up to one side of the building, a spark of lightning-like green energy briefly appearing around him. “Found some seven new tracking Quirks today. With all these mysterious disappearances of babies born with tracking Quirks, one would think they’d name them something… a little more different, but gotta follow the rules right? Ha Ha Ha! Gotta love the big guy calling the shots, he really is the best!”

 

 

Kaina knew Midoriya’s just talking about himself, which he usually does. For now he’s unusually bragging far longer than expected, then that could only mean one thing. “You need that there fella?”

 

 

“The guy you just downed has a spike going right through his eye. I need to find the genetic data that specifically caused that. I don’t want Scissors to break down even further,” Midoriya said as he walked past her and looked down at the bloody mess of a murder scene below. “I don’t want my second greatest creation suddenly shutting down for a mistake on my end.”

 

 

“You serious…? About Scissors?”

 

 

“Yes, now I’m not in the mood for answering more questions, I gotta go now,” Midoriya saluted her and jumped down off the building, green electric sparks coming out of him the moment he landed, and on he went to inspect the corpse.

 

 

He looked one last time at Kaina, who’s currently exchanging stares with him, and nodded, before carrying the dead body of the heteromorph off into the dark alleyways nearby, disappearing into the darkness.

 

 

Now on to her next task…

 

 

 

 

The train ride back to UA didn’t take too long, thanks to the ever punctual Japanese way of things. And in a span of around half an hour, she got where she wanted to be.

 

 

Still in her full disguise and making sure none of her iconic blue-and-pink hair slipping through her bonnet, she walked into UA without as much as a single person recognizing her. She then went towards the rightmost side of the campus, through the corridors, until she eventually reached a wide open field lined with trees that leads to a huge metal gate embedded onto the rightmost wall of the school grounds.

 

 

 “Beros, what time?” she asked a familiar green-haired accomplice leaning against the left side of the metal gate, looking like she only arrived there a little earlier.

 

 

Approaching ever closer, Kaina could hear the loud sounds of cheering coming from the other side of the gate. The clock’s not even striking 7 in the morning yet, and activities are already starting and kids on the other side are already having fun it seemed.

 

 

“Around 5:30.”

 

 

“It appears he just doesn’t want to clone hi-“

 

 

“Can you just leave me out of this? We’re not dealing with ordinary villains. We’re dealing with Midoriya over here, and he’s the last villain I want to mess around with. I want out, you and Scissors can go do your little quest.”

 

 

Kaina looked around before getting closer and leaning on the wall beside her fellow Big Three member. “Never did once you think about all those lives you took? People casually existing and being told by Midoriya they shouldn’t exist?”

 

 

“Katie, I’ve been in this business 2 years longer than you two. I’m desensitized at this point. I can look at them dead center before putting an arrow through their eye socket. It’s time to accept that fact that this will be our jobs forever, it’s not like you two are literally created to fulfill this specific purpose…”

 

 

“Yeah I know I’m sick of it but I’m trapped-“

 

 

“This will probably the most lucrative job we will ever get. We earn just as much as the top 50 heroes in the country. I suggest you put an end to this nonsense. It’s not like your plan is any better.”

 

 

“Hey my plan is perfect!” Kaina exclaimed, flailing her arms around and narrowing her eyes at the oldest member of their group. “Now hand over the file, will ya?”

 

 

“I trust Midoriya’s sense of judgement on this one. I will not rat you out. But if he ever figured out your little crusade against him, then it’s not my problem anymore.”

 

 

“Beros, just give me the file. As long as you don’t rat us out, everything will go smoothly.”

 

 

“As long as I don’t get involved…” the green-haired young woman said, one hand going to her back and handing over a small folder to the other. “Good luck, I guess? Just gonna warn ya, never fully trust blue people, they’re always up to something shady…”

 

 

“Awww… did Flect Turn unplug your phone from the charger again?” Kaina leaned in closer and bobbed her head in mockery. “You’re talking like I would never even accomplish at least 5% of this goal-“

 

 

“No one else did in his entire 40-year existence. Midoriya is here to stay. You wouldn’t want to get your lungs ripped out like the rest of ‘em do you? “

 

 

Gritting her teeth, Kaina snatched the folder straight from the other girl’s hand and marched into the gate, involuntarily stomping her feet in frustration before she reached for the button to open it.

 

 

Pressing said button, metallic cranking noises began sounding from the bottom part of the gate, deep below the soil. Moments later, the metal barriers blocking the path parted off from the middle, with each moving off to their respective sides.

 

 

With a huge frown plastered on her face, Kaina took one last glance at her fellow Big Three member before going in. Seeing the response to her glare is a simple eye-roll, she mustered up all her restraint to not walk up to her and re-explain herself yet again for the thousandth time, and just walked right in. She made sure to press the button to close the gate before she left to the activity area.

 

 

The area she’s in is suddenly transformed from the grassy tree-lined path a few meters ago to a rocky hillside overlooking a made-up city, meant to be a training ground for UA’s future SpecPro hero course graduates. In a distance she could see a row of metal seats arranged in an ascending order, with another row being higher than the one in front, akin to that of the ones at a cinema, with SpecPro A cheering on as they watched a live recording of the event of the activity happening in the middle of the fake city through a huge TV screen in front of them.

 

 

To the right side of the commotion, she could see Scissors chatting up with her target, exactly like the way she expected him to.

 

 

She also noticed that Scissors’s entire right arm is completely covered up, the end also ending in a glove. She remembered what Midoriya said about him earlier and shrugged it off, he wouldn’t let his second greatest creation just simply die out for no reason at all. As of now things are still in place for her plan.

 

 

 She brought up the folder and inspected its contents.

 

 

It was a student file, of a very specific person.

 

 

Kaina did one more glance towards the blue-skinned girl, deliberately slowing down her walking pace as she compared the person’s features to the one on the portrait on the folder she’s holding on to. Everything fit perfectly.

 

 

Speed-reading and confirming everything is in order, Kaina’s gaze landed on the girl again and mentally counted to ten. Just as she started counting up to 9, the girl stood up from sitting on an ice cooler and ran to the right side, completely disappearing from her vision as the metal seats obscured all traces of her.

 

 

Running up ahead, she met up the other Big Three member present, tapping the blindfolded boy’s back, making him turn around – a frown already present on his face. “Scissors, I got the files, we’re ready to start,” she said.

 

 

Before the boy could speak, a huge wave of cheering erupted from the students. And from the screen the two could see Tomura hanging from a tall raised-up road segment by his foot, complaining loudly that Chisaki’s cheating over and over and over again.

 

 

“Katie, I got a really bad feeling about this.”

 

 

“Scissors…” Kaina shook her head, slightly noticing no one in the class knew she’s there yet as she’s still in her full disguise. “I got the files, everything is in order, we’re taking down Midoriya using this method. It’s fool-proof, cheap, and we’re not going to worry about having our lungs ripped off!” she nodded afterwards, deciding to not tell the boy about what Midoriya said.

 

 

“As much as I’d like to stop being Midoriya’s hitman, we can’t really do anything about it-“

 

 

“He visited me earlier just after I sent you your targets tonight said something about a replacement for us three. He actually asked me if I wanted to retire and live life normally. I’m afraid the killing spree will continue on a much more massive scale if we got replaced, you don’t see Midoriya bragging about something if it’s not something big.”

 

 

The blindfolded boy nodded slowly.

 

 

“We really need to put an end to this nonsensical purge.”

 

 

“So what about this replacement…?” The boy called Scissors said as he briefly glanced towards the huge TV screen still displaying Tomura complaining about Chisaki. “Did he-“

 

 

Kaina shook her head. “Nothing about Mr. Shigaraki… But he said something about this replacement being better than all three of us combined.”

 

 

Scissors shook his head, sighing loudly. “Nothing good is going to come out once we get replaced. More people are just going to get killed. I would not be surprised if top heroes start to go missing one by one as he test drives his new pet.”

 

 

“It’s obvious that’s going to happen. That’s why we’re putting an end to it. Now where’s little miss blue? How’s the status on her landmines?”

 

 

The boy turned his head to the left, to the area away from the group of students, at a nearby blank-looking rocky cliff. “Mines still active at a hundred percent, no sign of deterioration. I think she also said something about her vision have a range limit on her own mines but I forgot. I dunno Katie, but are we really reeling in an innocent person for this? You do know what he does to people who dared to track him down right…?”

 

 

Kaina’s gaze immediately went down. As much as how light her conversation was with Midoriya this morning, behind that façade is a brutal person notorious for ripping the innards out of people who dared to cross him. People who try to track him down get special treatment, or so by his own words. “If we win, then it’s all good. If we lose, at least we tried. We could learn more about him, his weaknesses and all those things. Mr. Shigaraki could probably tell us even more, I’m still surprised he’s not scared of him at all.”

 

 

“Then what about her?”

 

 

Kaina raised up the folder she’s holding onto and pointed at a portrait of a blue-skinned girl with short lilac hair, green eyes, and black sclera. “Chitose Kizuki will either be a bloody pile of organs rotting in a dumpster or the true hero of this grand operation.”

 

 

“She’s about to get her limbs torn off. Yeah I know we killed lots of-“

 

 

“Scissors, we’ve killed hundreds… hundreds!” Kaina whispered as loud as she can while making sure none of the students nearby heard what it is. “Simply because Midoriya said he wanted them erased from existence! And you’re out here being concerned about some random person who’s going to act as bait? Seriously?!”

 

 

The boy glanced down to his feet, clasping his hands in front of him, part of him wanting to say how hypocritical his superior sounded. “At least the people we killed are criminals-“

 

 

“Don’t give me that crap! Midoriya’s gassing most of them, making them act out, and using that as an excuse to have us kill them! It’s so plain obvious that you should have been the first one to notice it!” Kaina flailed her arms around, on the verge of jutting out a flesh rifle to slam onto the ground in a tantrum. “Stop pretending you don’t know…”

 

 

“Is there really a better way instead of killing Midoriya?”

 

 

Kaina shook her head. “Cut off the head, and the body will fall lifeless to the floor.”

 

 

Scissors took one long good look into her eyes, before slowly nodding.

 

 

“Don’t worry Scissors, what matters is that we tried. I don’t want to regret having a perfect opportunity and blowing it just because petty morality got in the way,” the girl said, finishing her sentence with a nod.

 

 

Seeing the boy turn around to observe the activity once more, Kaina took a couple of steps backward and checked the folder. “If she comes here, tell me I’m just a school staff alright? I’m going to do some reading.”

 

 

The boy nodded, not even bothering to look back.

 

 

Kaina rolled her eyes and brought up the folder and began inspecting the contents. It’s the student file for Chitose Kizuki from General Studies, with the bottom part of the paper riddled with all kinds of pen scribbles about little notes about her Quirk. She looked once more to the boy, and then to the side of the SpecPro Class A to check if blue-skin girl is about to arrive. Seeing it’s still clear, her gaze went back to the folder again.

 

 

‘What’s so bad about my plan? It’s perfect!’ she thought to herself, skimming the portion of the paper containing general information about the girl. ‘Midoriya will be tracked down and eliminated in no time!’

 

 

The thought of tracking made her gaze into the ‘Quirk’ section of the paper.

 

 

‘Landmine’ she read. ‘Turns touched objects into explosives.’

 

 

Kaina noticed the strange name of the Quirk, a sign that the more appropriate names for it are already taken. Going by the description of her ability, it should have been named ‘Antimatter’ or ‘Prime’ at least, and certainly not something like ‘Landmine’, which makes everything all the more better. Landmine is the last thing Midoriya would check if it can track.

 

 

While she doesn’t know its full mechanics nor potential, what matters more is that this Kizuki girl can somehow ‘see’ her own ‘mined’ objects, when no other person can, except for Scissors. She could prime objects for detonation and no one would know, this gives her insane tracking potential, provided she can see them at range and not blow it up accidentally. Can she put it on people? Even better! Now all she needs is more knowledge on how Landmine really works.

 

 

Kaina’s thoughts drifted to Midoriya’s paranoia to being tracked. The villain is notorious for scanning the Quirk registry for hours on end, reading the names of the Quirks, finding the ones whose names signify tracking or something to it, and personally going there and killing the person, age never factoring to his brutality.

 

 

But this Quirk, Landmine, has a name not related to tracking, yet has significant tracking capability. This Quirk slipped past Midoriya’s ever-watchful gaze for so long that the girl actually lived to be sixteen. Even better, in a world where Quirks can have some effect on the physical appearance of the person, Kizuki’s alien-like features had nothing to do with her Quirk, not to mention her unusual height. Even her name doesn’t point to Landmine one bit. One could say her powers give her extreme night vision during full moon and it’s still way more believable than ‘this person can explode things’.

 

 

She’s perfect. The ability to hide in plain sight had never been so impressive.

 

 

‘But what about her as a person?’ she thought to herself, that was always’s Scissors comment about letting her be killed if the plan failed.

 

 

Kaina shook her head, a smug smile appearing on her face. What makes Kizuki even more perfect in this situation is everyone’s negative reaction to her.

 

 

Her gaze went down to the scribbles at the bottom portion of the paper. It’s her own handwriting, listing down all the traits why Kizuki’s the ideal person for the job – if she can track down her own mines which she could. Compiled over the span of two days, it’s more than enough information.

 

 

As what Kaina could gather by talking to her classmates as well as the manager of the store she works at as a cashier, she’s usually tired, a lot of times sleeping in class and failing all sorts of tests. Her clear lack of self-respect for agreeing to be a pack mule for Mr. Yotsubashi’s son’s friends made everyone disregard her. For short, she doesn’t have acquaintances, generally hated by everyone, and if she died, everyone would just remember her as that weird kid and be forgotten two minutes later.

 

 

Due to the nature of her Quirk, it made it clear why people don’t want to be friends with her. Even while all of SpecPro is all there cheering ahead on the activities, she’s sitting 5 meters away from them. Even the three potentally lethal students have some sort of caveat when it comes to killing: Chisaki can turn them back to normal, Tomura just dehydrates, and Touya’s can be easily avoided due to how bright his flames are. With Kizuki, no one would know if she marked a thing or not.

 

 

Kaina’s eyes then went to the middle section of the paper, eyeing up a specific segment.

 

 

Kizuki is an orphan, abandoned by her parents after developing her Quirk.

 

 

The smug smile on the girl’s face turned into a menacing one, almost reaching ear to ear. Everything is perfect, lined up, waiting to be shot. This Chitose girl would be the perfect sacrifice for everything. The plan is simple, have her touch Midoriya at least once and if she lived for a week, then the rest of the plan will be laid out.

 

 

If it failed, then life will go on while she’s no more than a rotting torn-up corpse outside Midoriya’s compound, completely forgotten. It’s evil, yes, but risking the life of a generally-hated person for the greater good of many more is just the right way to go, she thinks. If everything went well and Midoriya is dead, then no one would be shot ever again. Japan’s economy will return to normal.

 

 

Scanning the paper one more time and closing the folder, Kaina turned her attention to the blue-skinned girl, who’s now visible standing a good two meters near Yotsubashi’s kid and giving water bottles to them.

 

 

‘It’s like they don’t even care she could prime them…’

 

 

It made her shake her head. It’s a complete lack of self-respect, but all the more better for being that disposable pawn in the grand scheme of things. The only thing more important right now is can Scissors still see her mines long after she’s dead… if she would even die that is.

 

 

Finished reading the last bits of information, Kaina walked up back to her acquaintance again and tapped his back with the folder she’s holding into. “I made up my mind, we’re going through the plan. Now I just need a little more info outta Mr. Shigaraki over there…”

 

 

Both Big Three members glanced towards the TV screen, showing Tomura still not finished complaining as he’s carried away from the arena for being the first student who got captured by the rival team. “Who knows? Maybe he can-“

 

 

“Psst! She’s coming,” Scissors said, nodding his head over to the direction of Kizuki fast approaching towards them.

 

 

As she drew close, Kaina couldn’t help but notice how tall the other girl is, a good estimated 6 inches higher than her, and she’s already wearing elevated shoes. As she drew close, she could easily see the other girl’s obvious eye bags from her lack of sleep.

 

 

“So I thought about what you said in trash compact-“ Kizuki suddenly stopped as her gaze went to Kaina, who’s still in her full disguise.

 

 

Scissors turned his head on towards his companion. “Oh this is uh-“

 

 

“Tsutsumi Kaina, Dragunov, I-“

 

 

“Oh I uh- I think there’s all just a big misunderstanding-” Kizuki walked a few steps closer, scratching the back of her head with a gloved hand. “Now with the second Big Three over here I’d like to clarify that I’m still not a fully-fledged student in the SpecPro course and I-“

 

 

“There’s no need to apologize, little miss blue! For we’re here to make you a real one!” Kaina walked up to the taller girl and tried to sling one arm on her, but failed because of their innate height difference. “Now all you need to do is to cooperate with us, we’re on some top secret mission and I’d like to invite you to be our MVP!”

 

 

“Woah, really? That’s great! When do I start? What do I do?”

 

 

“For this one your main goal is to stay alive as long as possible!” Kaina said out loud, but not loud enough to be heard by the SpecPro class in the middle of their cheering. She could hear a scoff coming from Scissors at the moment she finished. “Easy task, don’t you think?”

 

 

Yawning once, Kizuki grabbed hold of the handle of the metal trolley parked nearby them, a cooler sitting on top. “Yeah I suppose that’s pretty easy,” she said, her smile disappearing. “What-“

 

 

“Don’t worry, if you pull this off, we Big Three will get you into the hero course in no time! As for now you’re free to do whatever you want. I’ll have Scissors over here inform you when you’re starting. I’ll go deal with Mr. Yotsubashi’s kid on the way there. Don’t worry about them,” Kaina said with a nod, finishing her sentence with a thumbs-up on the taller girl.

 

 

“Okaaaaay… I really need to get going now- oh and by the way Scissors,” Kizuki leaned to the side and waved a gloved hand on the blindfolded boy’s direction. “You missed the genetic order Quirks go by. Plus Birds and reptiles don’t develop powers.”

 

 

“Oh of course! How could I miss that!” Scissors responded, smacking his forehead as the girl left.

 

 

“What’s that all about?” Kaina asked after the other girl went out of her vision range. “You talking about birds and bees now? Can you not creep out our potential MVP for once? What have you two been talking about all this time?”

 

 

“I’ve done no creeping on my part. At least for once someone actually knew about Terranite’s innate unique characteristics for molecular division and ability to combine with hydrogen to-I should probably stop now.”

 

 

Kaina nodded. It’s good that Scissors can now limit his nerding out up to two minutes when she’s around, and that’s actual progress. “I’ll notify you when I’m done with Mr. Shigaraki, just make sure she can still track down her mines. No use in taking down Midoriya without it.”

 

 

“Will do.”

Chapter 9: Unforeseen Simulation Joint

Chapter Text

Day 15 Monday

 

 

...

 

 

“Miss Dragunov I can explain…” Tomura waved his gloved hands about, making a square outline shape with his fingers as he traced the air in front of him. “In the past few days there’s this event going on at Exergis Online and they’re giving out lots of free loot and cosmetics and-“

 

 

Kaina waved a hand in front of him in response and nodded her head to one side before walking off to the well-lit corridors further away from the student dorms, beckoning him to come along with her. “You just said you want him taken down ASAP… It’s been days Mr. Shigaraki… days…”

 

 

“Because unlike you I actually have hobbies. Hobbies! Know that word, Dragunov? H-O-B-B-I-E-S?” Tomura leaned down onto her as they walked, trying to be menacing and badass at the same time, which to him is very villain-like, and everything villain-like to him is all good. “By the way, me and Spin’s been stuck on a boss in Exergis so uh we watched this streamer and you look exactly like her.”

 

 

“Do I look like I stream PC games to you? I’d rather go shopping…”

 

 

“I mean you have the same nose, eyes, face, make-up, and those chibi dogs on your phone are all there surrounding her subscribe button. Should I call you Stardust? That’s your streaming name right, Stardust?”

 

 

Kaina grumbled under her breath and gritted her teeth. “Mr. Shigaraki, I do no stream games-“

 

 

“How are you repeatedly landing headshots with shotgun slugs at 50 meters?! Holy crap!”

 

 

Running a palm down her face, the older girl pressed on forward. “You guys should be at USJ before 3 in the afternoon right?”

 

 

“Yep, why? When are we going to plan out the plan? After you stream? What time are you streaming? I wanna see some more sick headshots plus there’s this level after I leave Dunehold and there’s a floor tile puzzle-“

 

 

“For the last time, I. DO. NOT-“ Kaina’s face instantly went blank as she recognized some people by the UA southern exit. Both Beros and Scissors were waving at her, standing in front of the bus that will take SpecPro Class A to USJ for some training exercises this afternoon.  Before she could respond with hand gestures of her own, her phone suddenly rang, playing a short happy tune that Tomura immediately recognized as from this other new Animal Crossing game.

 

 

“Yeah I remember Stardust said something about this new Animal Crossing being her next game. Spin’s been telling me about it-“

 

 

“Shut up, Mr. Shigaraki,” Kaina spat out as she brought up her phone to her ear. “What now?”

 

 

‘Katie, Mr. Green said there’s an emergency over at his gas facility,’ came in the distorted voice of Scissors. ‘We got a hundred bogeys running about, we need to get there ASAP.’

 

 

‘Yep we already talked to Mr. Makihara about it. Ms. Hasaki will accompany the class instead of us,’ Beros added. Her voice faint as she didn’t even bother leaning in closer to the phone, nor speaking louder.

 

 

“DAMMIT!” Kaina indirectly said out loud, adding some swearing in Russian afterwards.

 

 

Tomura recognized some of the words, in his free time of gaming, he learned a lot of swear words across different countries. He thought about shouting them while fighting heroes, but since they will probably not understand, he refrained from doing so.

 

 

“You know you should change your chibi dog stickers to chibi bears… because Russia… just sayin…”

 

 

Sighing, Kaina planted one hand on the boy’s shoulder and tapped it once. “You know what? Meet me tomorrow after class…”

 

 

Before Tomura could respond, the girl walked off, joining the rest of her team shortly afterwards and moving out of sight away from UA, on a simple black sedan parked nearby the buses.

 

 

‘I hope she tells me if she’s really Stardust…’

 

 

Shrugging off the thought as to why she seemed to be so eager in taking down Midoriya as fast as possible, Tomura walked back to the dorms and to call Spinner out. The entire class have some training to do at USJ this coming afternoon and the thought of being the first ones on the bus is just exhilarating – for him at least.

 

 

His mind eventually drifted off to the place. It’s been so long since he last been there. Is Midoriya going to show up too and fight them? Is he going to bring a Nomu there with him? Is Kurogiri going to show up? The dates on the calendar don’t align, as well as the time of day, but he could clearly remember he attacked Midoriya’s class on their first USJ outing, and this is SpecPro’s first USJ outing.

 

 

‘Maybe? I should’ve told her that green idiot will show up…’

 

 

Soon after, he got to the dorms and got his best friend out with him, the two walking out towards the parked bus under the fine afternoon sun.

 

 

“So I talked to Twice, and he said he can only remember up to the moment heroes showed up at HQ. He remembered he’s in a room, and Hawks showed up.”

 

 

“Hawks who?”

 

 

“Number two hero, the guy with red wings? Ring a bell?”

 

 

Tomura thought for a bit. He knew very little about heroes beyond their most defining characteristic. “Hmmm… The short guy with the yellow jacket?”

 

 

“Yep. Toga already told Twice he died, and he can’t remember who killed him.”

 

 

“I thought he got killed by Hawks?”

 

 

“Yeah but his memory’s a bit backtracked for some reason. Even Compress could clearly remember he requested a hot cup of tea with 2 random leaves floating on top of it as a joke to his captors before he got warped into this.”

 

 

“Only Twice huh? Maybe because he died?”

 

 

Spinner shrugged, tugging his jacket closer to him. “Maybe… maybe… so any ideas about this little USJ trip? Is this aligned to some event in the real world I just don’t know?”

 

 

At this point the two already reached the exit of UA, the yellow-white-red themed bus just parked right up ahead. “Yeah it’s my first official introduction to the heroes. Frankly, the entire thing sucked. I lost my Nomu, and literally ALL MY GOD-DAMNED army to some barely-trained kids in a matter of minutes!”

 

 

A few people walking in and out of UA stopped to glance at them, before continuing their own respective businesses realizing it’s just Gas Kid Prime acting up again.

 

 

Spinner nodded, barely any reaction from it all. “I understand.”

 

 

“You’re not even going to react that I once had an army? Did Dad tell you all about this already? I have a feeling he did.”

 

 

Spinner nodded. “AFO specifically marked this event as a primer for change. I’m not sure if we will still follow the timeline from the real world but you should be better from here on out. Show him you’re deserving of All for One, show him you have the capacity to defeat the heroes, show him what you’re made of!”

 

 

“What about allies? Getting powerful allies like Nagant?”

 

 

“That too.”

 

 

“So why did you even bother to ask?”

 

 

“Just testing,” Spinner said as he turned around, eyes hovering over to the wall clock hung on the top-right side of the UA side gate. 2:30pm, it’s going to be another fifteen minutes before the bus leaves for their intended destination. “Let’s board the bus I guess?”

 

 

Tomura glanced towards the bus. It was only at this time he realized the bus door is slightly open, the hydraulics a little loose as he checked when he got close. Is it intended or not? He can’t even remember the last time he went onboard a bus.

 

 

The last time he boarded one he and AFO were the first one there, with the intention of going to the nearest shopping mall to steal a pair of shoes he wanted for his 14th birthday. Why did they bother riding a bus? Because Tomura wanted to. Why did they bother stealing just a pair instead of trashing the whole place? Because AFO promised it would be fun, and sure enough the ensuing chase had them having a good time running all over the place, portalling in and out and generally making the heroes going after them a confused mess.

 

 

He remembered stealing a single ‘Number One Dad’ Mug in secret, in which he gave to AFO when they got home, right after adding an ‘Evil’ before the ‘Dad’ with a marker.

 

 

AFO was holding onto that mug the day they were sent into this alternate reality.

 

 

The two got in, only to discover the existence of the ever-mysterious tall blue-skinned girl sitting in one of the seats closer to the front, snoring away while having her arms draped over huge travel bags positioned on her lap. In front of her is the metal trolley with an ice cooler sitting on it. So far she’s the only person there.

 

 

“What did the IT guy say?” Spinner quietly asked as the two passed by her and walked to the very back end of the bus.

 

 

“He said she looks so much better as tomato paste, nothing else,” Tomura shrugged as he sat to the seat closer to the window. He was teamed up with the so-called IT guy from the little activity yesterday, as well as the one they had last week, and no matter how many times he asks about the blue-skinned girl hanging out with them, IT Guy just repeats the ‘Tomato Paste’ quote over and over and over again like some kind of joke.

 

 

“That guy is really pissing me off. If I was in charge of our base lair back then, I would’ve kicked him out long ago,” Spinner gritted his teeth as he spoke, gaze scanning the windows on Tomura’s side if he could even catch a glimpse of the person. “AFO just ignored the guy. I think he thought IT guy was one of your chosen people or whatever.”

 

 

“Was he always that insufferable? Even at the MLA HQ?”

 

 

“He was literally in charge of the satellites. And then for some reason a week into our stay with them, they all died. All connections lost. Even Detnerat Dude is already getting pissed off at him for not fixing them. If only they were online at the time we should have seen the heroes gearing up! And not only that, when we’re on the way to you while on Machia’s back, the satellite’s back on again! How convenient!”

 

 

“And he’s the one who stayed huh? I was busy training for Buff American Lady back then. Remind me to disintegrate him the moment we came back. As for tomato paste, he’s just trolling at this point, no point in asking-“

 

 

Spinner stood up, instantly gesturing for Tomura to follow him and sit behind the girl, who’s still in the middle of her sleep. “I got an idea. Let’s sit here, wait for the MLA to arrive and let’s see their interactions.”

 

 

Tomura shrugged, pushing Spinner aside just to sit at the side closer to the window once they chose their seat. Based on what little he can see of the wall clock hung on one of UA’s gates, won’t be long now until their homeroom teacher would call the rest of the students in preparation for this little trip.

 

 

“I got another idea! I dunno how accurate this world is compared to the real one but… what if we looked around in bookstores and see if they’re selling copies of the Meta Liberation War book?” Spinner spoke to himself, stroking the bottom of his chin and nodding. “Yeah… that would work…”

 

 

“What? They made a book about me stomping them?”

 

 

“No. Apparently, this book is how they push their propaganda about free-Quirk usage or whatever…”

 

 

“Free Quirk usage…?”

 

 

“You got a meeting with Nagant right? Maybe I could go out, go to the nearest bookstore, get a copy, and make her read it. Let’s see what she has to say…”

 

 

“I think it’s too early for that. I’ll go with you when you buy that book, I want to see them for myself if there’s ever a counterpart in this world.” Tomura wondered for a bit. “But what about Stain? He abandoned his hero-hater ways in favor of gathering up cash for the future and becoming a chef! If AFO switched things up to the point where he’s almost unrecognizable from his original counterpart, how would your plan work?”

 

 

“Stain supported heroism, and claimed it’s just work and money, turning him into a more logical but exact opposite of what he is. If Miss Blue over here read the book and countered it as well, then she’s probably part of the MLA… Just sayin…”

 

 

“A longshot, not sure if it would work but-“

 

 

“Wouldn’t hurt to try. She could agree, she could disagree, she may just be an original character here and all that but at least we tried.”

 

 

Tomura nodded, sometimes it’s just best to let Spinner decide on such things. “By the way, it’s been a long time but you haven’t really told me how the fight went in the mansion?”

 

 

“We got stomped. It never mattered how much planning I put into my regiment, heroes are just so powerful they literally steamrolled us! Them with their end-game gear walked all over us! It was insane!”

 

 

“Seal-clubbing smurfs aren’t they?”

 

 

“Why are we so serious on figuring out this girl again?”

 

 

“She’s with Blindfold Guy. Blindfold Guy is with Nagant. Nagant is a UA Big Three. Nagant has access to Air Cannon and Forcible Quirk Activation. If Nagant thinks she’s important, then sure as heck it’s because she’s got something we can use to fight Midoriya.”

 

 

Spinner nodded. “Good point. I dunno if she’s an original character or not but very good point. So what do you think? Is there a villain attack going to happen today?”

 

 

“I bet there’s gotta be. But if my army’s too pathetically weak they can’t even put a scratch on any kid back then, then sure as heck they’re nothing against us as well.”

 

 

“But how can you fail if you have powers of your own? How can street thugs fail against beginner-level kids? How is that attack accomplishing nothing still even possible?”

 

 

“I have no idea myself. I finished that one and never looked back. Whatever it is, I don’t care about it anymore.”

 

 

“But don’t you think it’s a good idea to look back and reflect? As to why it happened? Are hero kids nowadays really that powerful now? Well to be fair we ourselves as villains… never actually did anything to the heroes and we just… ran and ran and ran…”

 

 

Tomura nodded. “Yeah I know. Now that you said that to me I think it’s one of the reasons why AFO sent me here. This time, once we get out, we’ll be an even bigger threat for sure! Now if only AFO let me keep Nagant this time around.”

 

 

“Yeah, once we get out. Let’s hope you can keep your word.”

 

 

The two’s conversations eventually drifted onto the gaming world, and wondering if this new streamer they’ve been watching could be Nagant. I won’t be another ten minutes before students slowly come pouring in.

 

 

Soon after, both Stain and Mustard-whose name is still unknown to Tomura, entered the bus and sat behind them. Just as Spinner started to chat with them, in came Dr. Detnerat Doofenshmirtz casually walking in, grabbing one of the bags off the sleeping girl’s lap and heading off to the back of the bus where they originally sat. The rest of the MLA crew walked in as well and took their stuff. It will take a couple more minutes before both IT guy and Dabi enter the bus.

 

 

Spinner’s still in the middle of his conversations about onions to the two kids behind them, but Tomura kept his eyes trained on the newcomers, hoping that something will-

 

 

IT guy raised up an already rolled-up newspaper and smacked the girl across the face, the sound loud enough to be heard across the bus, and everyone immediately went silent and turned their attention to the commotion.

 

 

“Drool…” The IT guy said, holding up his laptop, which he also got from the girl’s lap, and pointing at the top-right corner.

 

 

“I know I’m… sorry…” came the weak reply.

 

 

“What the hell is your problem, dude?!” It was Muscular sitting just right on the other side. Tomura couldn’t believe it at first, seeing the ever-violent potato-for-brains Muscular is the one calling the other guy out. If this was anything like in the real world, he would gladly charge in and pummel both IT Guy and the girl into oblivion without any second thoughts. A light ‘huh?’ went out Spinner’s mouth and Tomura couldn’t help but nod in agreement.

 

 

“Do you have any idea how much this thing is worth? It’s not even released into the public yet!” IT guy turned his attention to Muscular, completely ignoring the fact the other kid could snap him in half if he wanted to. Meanwhile Dabi just stood behind him, all silent.

 

 

“Hey chill down dude!”

 

 

The conversation between the two continued. Spinner turned around and discreetly waved his hands about. “He always does this to everyone in the mansion like some kind of intimidation tactic, doesn’t matter how big the person is. His Quirk must be very powerful…”

 

 

“What’s his Quirk?”

 

 

“Honestly I don’t know. In the entire span of being in the mansion and all the way to the point before we all got thrown in here I never once saw his Quirk-“

 

 

“ENOUGH!” IT guy yelled out and swiveled back to face the girl again, readying up the rolled-up newspaper for another smack. “YOU F***ING MORON! YOU-“

 

 

“What’s all this commotion?! What’s going on?!” in came the loud voice of their homeroom teacher barging into the bus. “Chikazoku, what is it this time?!”

 

 

“This idiot doesn’t know how to take care of things she doesn’t own.”

 

 

“And what’s with the newspaper?”

 

 

“He hit her on the face with it, real strong too-“ Muscular muttered before getting yelled at by the IT guy.

 

 

“ARE YOU BLAMING ME FOR THINGS I DIDN’T DO-?!”

 

 

Tomura saw a single brown string of brown fabric stretch out from the end of their homeroom teacher’s right arm sleeve and gave the IT guy a loud smack across the face. As the perpetrator began being scolded, Tomura couldn’t help but giggle to himself. He never knew if it’s because he’s a full-blown villain or not, but other people’s misfortune had always been funny to him.

 

 

Spinner looked like he’s delighted as well, crossing his arms and just watching the scene unfold.

 

 

At the end of it all, IT guy got kicked off the bus.

 

 

 

 

The bus ride to USJ is fairly short, as the trip had them enter an underground tunnel devoid of any traffic. All in all Tomura couldn’t help but wonder how is UA doing all of these things, how are they getting all these huge robots back in the real world, the tunnel itself seemed to be like it’s made for UA and UA only.

 

 

USJ is exactly like what he can remember, the huge training dome reaching high into the sky, trees surrounding the entire area, and not a single house in sight. Since he just warped there back then, he had absolutely no idea what distance are they from civilization.

 

 

The bus parked right in front of the metal gate and off they go inside.

 

 

Tomura immediately looked around, trying to find anything different, but overall it’s still the same. His attention immediately went to the absurdly high staircase that leads all the way down to the ‘ground floor’ of the training ground. He didn’t see it clearly back then and it’s very apparent now. Why is there no elevator that leads down? Why the stairs? Not everyone has super strength Quirks!

 

 

He was about to complain some more when he noticed that red-haired woman again, part of Nine’s crew (despite the main guy still missing).

 

 

‘Hmmm so Astronaut Lady really is a lady huh?’ Tomura thought to himself. If this woman is in here in place of Astronaut Lady like back then then it could mean the same thing. Kurogiri may just be his personal assistant but the smoke man just wouldn’t stop for a good two days about she’s the most attractive person he has ever laid his glowing eyes on.

 

 

Tomura couldn’t shake off the thought. Kurogiri kept talking about Astronaut Lady like she’s also a smoke being. Any sane person would already know that women don’t develop mutations the same way guys do, it’s literally impossible that she’s a smoke person…

 

 

Which his butler thought she was, off the basis of cutting off her entire back and there's nothing on the other side…

 

 

Tomura never saw Astronaut Lady again.

 

 

‘Yeah he killed her… was she at the UA Sports Fest? I don’t remember.’

 

 

“He contacted me last night,” Tomura heard the red-hair lady talk. “Said something about making a surprise visit on the Sports Festival.”

 

 

“Yeah he told me that too,” answered their homeroom teacher.

 

 

‘Ok now THAT cold be Nine, it’s got to be-‘

 

 

A loud thunder-like boom is heard from the top-most portion of the dome despite the sky being very clear, turning everyone’s attention to it. A few seconds later, a cloud of black smoke came crashing down, easily breaking the top segment like footsteps onto withered leaves, and heading straight towards the fountain located at the middle of the dome.

 

 

‘Yep that’s Kurogiri alright… took him long enough… but if all villains are allies, what’s he doing there?’

 

 

The black thundercloud-like smoke exploded onto all directions upon making contact with the ground, revealing a large army of villains all poised to strike and attention turned onto them.

 

 

“What now?!”

 

 

Tomura could only hear the first segment of what his homeroom teacher said before a tendril of smoke burst out from the mass near the fountain, flying high up in the dome and heading straight towards them at speed. The figure eventually slowed down as it reached them, levitating closer and closer to the ground until it’s effectively blocking the metal gate entrance, trapping the students within the Dome.

 

 

It was a middle-aged man wearing a bulky steam-punk themed outfit in hues of brown, white, and gold. On the person’s back is what looks to be a rectangular backpack with smooth round edges with tubes going all the way to some cannon-like structures bolted onto his metallic gloves. It was only then Tomura noticed that he’s levitating via hoverboard with the exact same design aesthetics as what he wore.

 

 

But the person’s most defining trait is his wavy cyan hair, all spiked up like there’s a bonfire lit on his head.

 

 

“Sorry to interrupt your training, guys…” the villain said in the most casual voice Tomura ever heard from a person like him. “But this is temporarily Midoriya property!”

 

 

“Shirakumo, what now?! Can’t you leave these kids in peace at least for once?!” Makihara yelled out, stepping forward and placing himself in front of his students.

 

 

“You’re targeting innocent children now?” added the red-haired woman from the back Tomura don’t know the name of just as the mysterious villain hopped off of his steam punk hoverboard.

 

 

“You two acting like we haven’t done anything short of picking on kids…”

 

 

“Psst, Shigs, who’s this guy?” Spinner whispered to his friend beside him, discreetly pointed at this mysterious ‘Shirakumo’ person.

 

 

“This bozo had the audacity to copy Kurogiri’s entrance… the nerve of this guy. Aside from that, I dunno who he is,” Tomura answered back, trying to recall every person who at least slightly resembled this villain.

 

 

“What do we do? You’re the guy who knew this event, right-?”

 

 

This ‘Shirakumo’ person hopped back up in his hoverboard before letting out a stream of black clouds to seal off the exit, as well as generating waves upon waves of dark gray fog off of his arm-cannons and effectively reducing visibility by over a half.

 

 

“Good luck guys! Hope no one accidentally kills themselves!” said the villain before doing a series of mid-air hoverboard flips and slowly ascending upwards, generating a solid cloud through his arm-cannons and effectively blocking all ranged attacks coming from red-hair woman in the form of launched crystalline vermilion shards straight from her own hair, which Tomura already long-forgot she can do.

 

 

‘This guy has both solid and gas clouds… If this was Kurogiri he would’ve portalled all of us to be thrown to random places by now…’ Tomura thought to himself, eyeing up the amazing design choices of the guy’s hoverboard.

 

 

Not a moment too soon and out stepped an ominous figure from the smoke, in the direction of the exit. It’s wearing a tattered and rusty armor with hues of dark blues and blacks and had the build of a young man. As it went on forward and closer, it inevitably got into range where its features became clearer, revealing its vacuum cleaner siphon-like head, complete with the bag on its back and the back of its head connected to it.

 

 

‘Wait if Class B Metal Man is part of the League, and this is theoretically a League attack, then this could be-‘

 

 

The villain reared up and spew out semi-transparent gray clouds which instantly formed into dark-hued solid cubes of air around each of the students.

 

 

“Wow, why am I not surprised… it’s the villain version of air cube dude…” Tomura stared at the villain with a blank expression before realizing he was with Spinner encased with a single cube when everyone else got their own little container. Not only that, but everyone, aside from the rest of the League members, look very scared.

 

 

The two teachers, who are somehow not encased in solid air, were about to take action when this mysterious ‘Shirakumo’ guy came back in and let out a lasso of solid cloud and entangled itself onto the remaining solid air cubes not already broken down by physically-stronger students and hurled them across the USJ.

 

 

Tomura swore this Kurogiri knock-off gave him a wink before they’re thrown. Could it be related to being Gas Kid Prime? Well to be fair he’s the only one trapped with another person in these little personal cubes.

 

 

“Spin!” Tomura yelled as the two flew over the battlefield and heading straight for an abandoned building, still in their little cube container.

 

 

“WHAT?!” Spinner yelled back, back turned to him.

 

 

“Prepare to get your hands dirty, there’s a fight coming up after we land!” Tomura said with glee as they hurled across the sky. As much as he hated the impending landing would be, he got a very nice view of the entire training dome. “Hey Spin! We’re having a fight!”

 

 

“You don’t say?!”

 

Chapter 10: Unforeseen Simulation Joint - Part 2

Chapter Text

Day 15 Monday

 

 

The cube of solid air containing Tomura and Spinner crash-landed right onto an old derelict building, shattering harmlessly upon impact, or what it’s constructed as, or so Tomura thinks. Some things at UA are just too much for his brain to process. Where in the world do heroes do missions around old derelict buildings? Is it supposed to represent the aftermath of a villain attack? Maybe? Maybe not? Is this a part of AFO’s secrets? Heck no.

 

 

But the gamer in him thinks thinking about secrets earns him extra points, so think about secrets he will.

 

 

The room was overall spacious, if not a little too rocky, rusty, dirty, and looked like it would come crumbling down the moment he stood. The interior is a whole mess, and Tomura thought whoever built this area did not care about aesthetics at all.

 

 

“Ugh… my head…” Tomura heard Spinner shuffling around nearby, appearing shortly after behind some rubble with one hand on his head.

 

 

“Uh Spin? You gotta clear that head o’ yours fast ‘cuz we’re gonna have company,” Tomura said as he stood up, a bit shaky and wobbly at first, but he eventually found his balance. “If this is going to be a repeat from the real world then you shouldn’t worry-“

 

 

“I thought AFO said fights this time around would be way more difficult?”

 

 

“Woops… I think I forgot about that one-“

 

 

Tomura didn’t even get to finish when a small group of villains immediately came in from behind Spinner and tried to choke him out, he was about to lunge in and dehydrate the foolish fools when his friend flew into a state of panicked frenzy, knocking out his assailant and flailing his arms around in an attempt to clear all nearby enemies.

 

 

It took him only half a dozen seconds, but every villain there is knocked down and unconscious.

 

 

“Is… that it…? They’re still weak…?” Tomura muttered, looking at all the knocked-out villains from Spinner’s little rampage. Now that he thought of it, Metal Man from Class B he fought some time ago also went down in a few hits, and completely ignored him. It was certainly very strange, but there’s a time to think about weak enemies, and now’s not it.

 

 

“Yeah I thought they’d be a little harder-wait what?!” Spinner involuntarily raised his voice making Tomura walk by to check. Two of the villains looked like they have mutations on their arms turning them into arm-cannons, very different from the one installed on the ‘Shirakumo’ villain but if they have such abilities, shouldn’t they attack from range?

 

 

“These fellas failed to even scratch a kid back in my own attempt so…” Tomura muttered, glancing at the two arm-cannon-equipped villains lying on the floor unconscious.

 

 

“Shig, your explanations don’t make sense. We got saved by AFO during the MLA attack, there’s absolutely no reason AFO is helping these kids survive against you!”

 

 

“I know… It’s getting more and more mysterious the more you bring it up. Midoriya and his classmates are powerful, yes, but ranged Quirks are also present in my army and still no one received as much as scratch? Suspicious…”

 

 

Before Spinner could reply, in came the next batch of enemies through the doorway that leads to the lower levels of the building. Like earlier, one of them has missile pods on his back but is stanced like he’s about to beat someone up with a wooden stick instead of launching an explosive barrage.

 

 

Spinner turned to Tomura and shrugged before lunging forward, confident in his natural scaly armor, fists at the ready and slamming them with maximum force upon each of the villains’ faces. All of them went down again, in a single hit no less.

 

 

“Come on man, this is just begging to be asked to AFO…” Spinner said, doing little hops and stretching his arms like he’s on some workout routine and not surrounded by enemies on all directions. “This is worse than tutorial mode! I can easily see why these guys can’t scratch a kid!”

 

 

Tomura was about to reply when it’s his turn to have a group of villains appear from a door on a room behind him. Turning around and crouching low, he ran towards them, arms outstretched.

 

 

It was almost as if he’s back at Deika City on how easy it all was. In a matter of moments, all his enemies are down writhing in pain, bringing him great joy to see such pitiful humans beg for mercy thinking he could control his new dehydration powers.

 

 

Cheating or not, bringing destruction and pain just fills him with a nice fuzzy feeling, must be that villain energy AFO’s always talking about.

 

 

“Let’s get outta here…” Spinner walked past, noticing Muscular on the other end of the Dome trying to punch his way out of USJ’s walls. Seeing a guy with muscle augmentation as big as him still having a hard time on those walls meant breaking through it is not an option.

 

 

But it’s not like the villains are even a threat-

 

 

A loud explosion-like sound drew his attention to the fountain area in the middle of USJ. “Uh Shig? There’s another one out there that looks… just like you-“

 

 

“WHAT?!” Tomura immediately rushed to his side and looked at the person being pointed at. Sure enough, beside one of those Mecha-Nomus Mustard talked abou- complete with the glowing sphere, is a young man in black with a bunch of things sticking out of his exposed skin on his sleeves, like it was melded into them.

 

 

“Binder dude from Class B… I looked ‘em up during the Sports Festival. I’m Binder dude now, hooray…” Tomura said, rolling his eyes at his counterpart. As he observed some more, Binder dude, or what he calls him as, is just standing in front of the fountain, doing nothing as of yet.

 

 

“How are you still remembering them months later? Aren’t they irrelevant information?”

 

 

“I never forget the Quirks of my enemies, that’s just how villains do, Spin.”

 

 

There was another explosion-like sound, turning their attention back to the fountain area. This time it turned out that the Mecha-Nomu is now suddenly having a heated fight against Nine’s red-hair woman member’s unrelenting barrage of crystalline hair shards while their homeroom teacher can be seen slinging around tall outposts and collecting students he can find, sending them to Muscular, who’s still going at it on the wall, cracks forming as if he’s about to finish punching his way through.

 

 

And then Re-Destro came in and straight-up charged through a nearby wall, the one not being worked on by Muscular, nor even close. It left a huge hole and everyone went through. Seconds later Makihara arrived in the student group bringing Overhaul, who then proceeded to smoothen out the jagged edges of the wall left behind by Re-Destro’s charging.

 

 

“Woah, Destro’s son can literally flatten you if it weren’t for AFO… holy crap…” Spinner muttered, a chill going up his spine. But on the back of his mind he still wondered how come the big guy didn’t even as much put up a good fight against the heroes back in the PLF HQ attack.

 

 

“Now that you said it… I wonder if Overhaul’s also affected by AFO’s dumb down spell. If he’s not affected here, I wonder how powerful he is.”

 

 

“Don’t ask just them, wonder about everyone else… just how powerful the rest of our classmates are… like Moonfish perhaps?”

 

 

“Hmmm… AFO really emphasized getting powerful allies,” Tomura said as he nodded, remembering Nagant’s gun-tonfas. “But why do we need powerful allies- wait… why is Makihara going around and collecting students when he can theoretically take control of that mechanical thing?”

 

 

“Enough questions, bud, we better get outta this building.”

 

 

“But I wanna see Machia! If All Might arrived here, then he’ll come too!”

 

 

“We’ll see him on our way there-“

 

 

A loud slam is heard outside, shaking the building they’re in and making small rocks and all kinds of debris fall to the floor form the ceiling. Following through the main events of the real world, Mecha-Nomu is successful in catching red-hair woman and is now slamming her head onto the ground repeatedly with maximum force, exactly like he did to Aizawa back then.

 

 

Tomura remembered what Dragunov told to him about the ‘Cornstarch Principle’ upon seeing the blood splatter on the impact zone of the woman’s head, which is exactly how Aizawa survived. It never mattered how powerful those bio-engineered creatures are, if they can’t pass through the ‘Cornstarch Principle’, then their damage stops there.

 

 

“Welp, we gotta save the lady, you in? Those Mecha-Nomus should be no match from you,” Spinner said as he began to walk out the room towards the stairs down.

 

 

Tomura nodded. The thing might be a hybrid of flesh and metal, but since he knew his Quirk auto-filters so it couldn’t kill, he can at least theoretically disintegrate the metallic parts of the beast and effectively destroy it. Can biomechanical war machines get dehydrated? Perhaps it’s time to find out.

 

 

“You’re the one who knows how things will go, is the lady going to make it out?”

 

 

“Did Aizawa die?”

 

 

“No?”

 

 

“She’ll make it out. I got spoilers on my head right now, I know what’s going to happen. Machia, if he IS this universe’s All Might counterpart, will be appearing in a few minutes. If we’re going to change something and fight off that thing, we should be moving now.”

 

 

“I don’t think I can beat a Nomu-“

 

 

“Well I can, let’s go! I got 11 hands at the ready! Help me throw ‘em and we should be able to beat this guy! Move!” Tomura ran down the stairs, arms out front and dehydrating any random villain who made contact with his wide open palms on the way, once again none of them actually even hitting him, either by misplaced attacks or just simply missing.

 

 

Out they went out the building, ony realizing that they’re the furthest thrown away from the starting point. Tomura thought about whether it’s linked to the ‘Shirakumo’ guy winking at him maybe for being Gas Kid Prime. Based on very little he can see while hurling across the dome, he and Spinner were the furthest ones thrown, almost double the length of the second longest.

 

 

At a distance they could see their homeroom teacher trying to get away while carrying his co-teacher, the last remnants of the students fleeing the dome. Tomura thought about why the rest of the League didn’t even bother to stay and fight.

 

 

“Are you sure about this? I think we should be going now, we’re just going to inconvenience Makihara more if we failed-“

 

 

“Impossible! Spoiler Alert! This Nomu didn’t kill a single student back then! And it’s designed to kill All Might! All I have around me back then are nothing but clowns! Useless! Useless I tell ya. If I’m going to make a difference, then I’m acting now. Impulsive is my middle name!”

 

 

Spinner just shrugged it off and off they went, sneaking in ever closer to Tomura’s in-universe counterpart. The Mecha-Nomu, huge hulking humanoid mass of metal and flesh combined, is still trying to block off their homeroom teacher from trying to escape, rescue in tow.

 

 

Binder dude, or what Tomura called his counterpart as, has his back entirely turned to them, seemingly standing still and watching the monstrosity playing with its prey, completely unaware of his predicament.

 

 

Upon getting ever closer, the resemblance Binder man has to Tomura’s original form is just too much to ignore. Same hunched-forward standing posture looking like he hadn’t slept in weeks. Pieces of tube-like metal embedded within patches of exposed skin from his arms and back due to torn clothing jut out in prominence, and his face is completely obscured by a bluish-white cuboid metal helmet that looked like it was hastily bolted on as a makeshift head protection than an actual villain attire.

 

 

Too bad, nobody copies me without paying for it!’ Tomura thought to himself as he walked out of their hiding place, their target still unaware of their presence. He turned to face his friend and nodded his head as a gesture to make him follow his lead, in which Spinner did, albeit quite slowly.

 

 

Channeling his powers, Tomura engulfed himself in puffs of black smoke as has iconic hands appear all around him.

 

 

“Help me unleash a barrage of hands, we got a villain to take down…” Tomura said as he plucked off one clung hand from his left arm and gave it to Spinner, mindful of the position of the palm, and another, and another, and some more, keeping his sights trained upon the unaware enemy.

 

 

Tomura raised up one hand to head level, three fingers jutting out, and then closed one, and another, and finally the last one.

 

 

The two students unleashed a hail of hands, bombarding and throwing everything they’ve got, their target only realizing once a hand actually hit him in the back, making him jump out a little in shock.

 

 

The hands landed on the ground, righting themselves up and generating a localized Decay field within a few meters around them, the globes interlocking with each other to form much more potent disintegration fields, or so both thought because of the overlapping.

 

 

Binder dude let out a soft raspy voice, almost in the same manner as Tomura’s, commanding the Nomu to attack them instead, in which the beast immediately abandoned its original goal and went for them instead.

 

 

‘This copycat has NO PERMISSION TO COPY M-‘

 

 

The huge mechanical behemoth charged through the clouds of concentrated Decay manifesting as a swirling sandstorm of dust particles, some clinging onto its metallic parts and beginning to corrode them. But it was to no avail, the thing moved too fast and most of the disintegrating dust fell off it as it slammed its fist with maximum force onto Tomura’s location, who only managed to avoid it by a thread, sending the both of them flying off from the shockwave.

 

 

“CRAP! That wasn’t supposed to happen!” Tomura lunged again, narrowly avoiding being hit. While he can’t die if the thing just kept unleashing its powerful attacks on him, he will get knocked out, and the last thing he needed is to be unconscious and become a monster’s plaything.

 

 

The monster turned its robotic head to face him, and in came the next smash, in which he also narrowly avoided again, throwing another summoned hand in desperation, yet harmlessly bouncing off the armor plates of the beast before they can take hold and generate a Decay field.

 

 

“HELP ME!” He yelled, leaping onto one side and avoiding yet another ground slam, the strength of the crash sending him flying into Spinner’s location.

 

 

He never remembered Nomus were this savage. They were always toned down in case of them being suddenly going rogue and taking down the entire cloning facility they were born in. It made them weak, yes, it made giving them sentience much more sense than endless rage, but it prevented such cases.

 

 

Spinner was about to point at an open area in which they could run to when tendrils of brown fabric wrapped themselves along their midsection, pulling them up the roof of a derelict-looking building before the two could even react.

 

 

It was Makihara, the tendrils of fabric currently entangled on his left arm holding up a human-sized cocoon high above him like he was capable of levitating things, in which Tomura didn’t know if it was new or not. “Next time when you see those things, kindly head for the closest exit and find the nearest Pro hero, okay?”

 

 

His voice was dripping with sarcasm and barely contained frustration.

 

 

“I told you so…” Spinner muttered to Tomura beside him, his mouth going off to one side.

 

 

“What? I didn’t know they were this savage!”

 

 

“Well now you know, any other-“

 

 

A loud mechanical roar drew the attention of the three of them towards the source. The Mecha-Nomu is rearing up to jump right onto them.

 

 

A brief moment of a swirling mass of brown fabric coiling onto the floor of the derelict building’s rooftop, Makihara hurled himself through the air, carrying all three passengers, onto the direction of the hole in the wall Re-Destro made earlier.

 

 

Using the same coiling technique to slow his descent down, all four made a safe landing.

 

 

“Go! I’ll hold him off!”

 

 

Being told by their teacher to leave, in which they had to or else they’d have to face this savage beast of a mechanical construct, both had no choice but to obey.

 

 

“I thought Machia’s going to appear here? Where is he?” Spinner asked loudly as the two sprinted towards the open hole created by Re-Destro earlier as fast as they can. Compared to the entrance they went into on their way inside the compound, which is only accessible via a tall staircase with no elevator to make things easier, the hole in the wall is only up a hill near the rocky zone.

 

 

Strangely, there are no villains on that area, as far as both can see as they continued their running. All around them, on various different zones there are ones scattered about. They may be just easy-to-fight villains but not a single knocked out person was even remotely close to the rocky zone as if it was empty from the very beginning.

 

 

“Shigaraki, are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Spinner asked out loud.

 

 

“No villains, I know!”

 

 

“Care to explain?”

 

 

“I have no clue! No clue at all! I don’t remember anything that happened here after I got warped out by Kurogiri!”

 

 

“So you don’t know what happened to your own army? You just abandoned them all?”

 

 

“What do you think I can do against the heroes? I was literally gunned down! What the hell do you think I can do against guns back then?”

 

 

Spinner shook his head as they ran. “Before joining you guys you’re all over the news. Like almost every single crime is painted as doings of the League of Villains, is that true or not?”

 

 

“What the hell are you talking about?? I only attacked USJ and maybe released a bunch’a Nomus on the city, what are you talking about?”

 

 

“You have no idea how big the League is on the news? Literally every single crime is attributed to it!”

 

 

“Okay that’s just stupid, you’ve got to be joking! Every little thing I did to the heroes before being upgraded have been nothing but total epic fails! And now everyone’s blaming me for it?! What the hell-“

 

 

A large dusty explosion happened right at the location of the entrance gate, and Tomura already knew who it was despite everything being clouded in smoke.

 

 

Both stopped in awe, rays of the afternoon sun flooding into the dome through the busted metal. Seconds later the villain from earlier, the person with the vacuum cleaner for a head, came hurling down from the smoke and straight into the Mecha-Nomu going after their teacher, in a crash that sent the two ten meters on the ground.

 

 

“Told ya Machia’s coming…” Tomura muttered under his breath as the iconic silhouette of his former gigantic superweapon entered the scene. As with the statue he saw some days ago, he’s on the same size as All Might’s big form.

 

 

Clad in the same attire as the former Number One hero in the real world, with the only difference is that this one has a cape on, Machia leaped up into the air in hues of white and red, landing in front of the savage Nomu briefly shaking up the entire Dome and kicking up dust.

 

 

They were about to watch some more of the upcoming fight when Machia himself went to them in the blink of an eye and carried the two straight out of USJ through the hole he went through in.

 

 

Tomura was about to complain to let them just watch but Machia took them even further and on to the main road, where some of the students were still there. He immediately left without even as much talking to them once and back to USJ.

 

 

 “His face looks weird…” Tomura muttered to himself, within earshot of Spinner, who nodded in response.

 

 

And in fact there is something different about Machia’s appearance this time around, only more noticeable in person than being a sculpture. His face, compared to the rocky monster like he always is, is a bit more smooth and human-like. His two jutting teeth are also absent. For short, he looked less of a villain and more of a hero.

 

 

Stain’s words showed themselves within Tomura’s mind, the one about physical appearance and heroism.

 

 

‘Looks like he was right all along.’

 

 

His attention went straight to the remaining students, none of which he could reliably recognize. One is the ‘Gentle’ person Compress talked about, and the rest are three of Overhaual’s lackeys, no Muscular nor Magne to be found. The people there looked quite shaken up, with the ‘Gentle’ person repeatedly looking towards the Dome in case more villains would come after them.

 

 

After all, who wouldn’t be shaken up with the close encounter with the most powerful villain group of Japan?

 

 

…Despite both Tomura and Spinner so effortlessly carving a path through them…

 

 

“Psst, I don’t think they encountered anyone there…” Spinner whispered to Tomura. “Cloud dude tossed us pretty far away.”

 

 

“Just want you to know that Cloud dude should have been Kurogiri-“

 

 

Just as Tomura finished, a black thundercloud appeared from atop the Dome and went into it, before leaving the area again.

 

 

“-And that should have been Kurogiri evacuating me from the mess…” Tomura whispered, glancing towards the other students there looking ever more nervous.

 

 

“Where’s everyone?” Spinner asked the group, no specific person in mind.

 

 

“UA bus currently in use, told us to wait here,” it was the ‘Gentle’ guy, speaking with a spooked-out tone, likely from seeing the return of the Cloud villain.

 

 

Both Tomura and Spinner nodded at the person, before turning their attention towards the USJ Dome again, seeing Makihara already coming out, still holding up a human-sized cocoon by a single string of cloth.

 

 

“Spin, do you think I should tell Dragunov everything? Seems pretty sketchy that we’re on a quest to kill Midoriya and here she comes inviting herself.”

 

 

“This may just be AFO’s little world but you can clearly see that Mecha-Nomu back there. I haven’t seen a wild animal like that in ages! He really ramped up the difficulty this time around. But with sniper lady demanding information, I’m sure there’s nothing bad about telling her everything.

 

 

“Let’s hope you’re right…”

 

 

 

 

Later that night. 10pm.

 

 

 

 

“Spin! Revive me! I’m dying!” Tomura yelled, despite having two gaming computers in his room and Spinner’s the one occupying the other. “I finally figured out how to beat this boss, there’s a lever right on top of the-“

 

 

“Yeah I see it!” Spinner yelled in response, tapping the spacebar repeatedly and making his character double jump to reach a hidden lever on a platform ontop of the boss. “Knock it down again, maybe this’ll drop some rocks-“

 

 

A series of loud knocks came from the door. It was loud and in random intervals, which means that Twice is not the one knocking on it for the tenth time to complain that they’re yelling too loud and he can’t hear his marvelous singing voice (which he says gets even more marvelous the clock ticks closer to 12 midnight).

 

 

“Mr. Shigaraki,” said a very familiar female voice from outside the door.

 

 

“Man talk about the timing!” Spinner couldn’t help but complain out loud, eyeing up the boss’s health bar, which is just almost a few pixels before completely empty. “Can you be even more worse?”

 

 

“I do apologize for the disruption of your gaming session, but we need to talk. Can I go in?”

 

 

“DRAGUNOV, YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED IN MY KINGDOM- AAARGH SPIN I FELL OFF THE CLIFF!”

 

 

“AAAARGH I FELL TOO! F*** THIS BOSS!”

 

 

The two heard Kaina cough outside the door despite the noise they’re making. “You guys fighting the Dune Wyrm? You know there are two levers on either side of the area where you can use to lure the boss to its location, before activating the lever on the other side to make head towards it… and then you drop the rocks along the way-“

 

 

“HOLY SH** STARDUST YOU’RE RIGHT!” Tomura yelled out, eyeing up the two hidden levers on either side of the boss arena while waiting for his character to re-spawn. “Yup she’s totally that Exergis streamer we’re watching…”

 

 

“You betcha-“

 

 

“Guys… I play Exergis doesn’t mean I’m the-“

 

 

“Aight, that settles it!” Tomura hurriedly closed out the game and shut down the computer, Spinner also doing the same, before standing up and heading towards the door, opening it only a little so the girl wouldn’t see the whole stinking mess of a room.

 

 

“Hey there, what took you so long?”

 

 

Kaina whispered something in Russian and gestured for Tomura to come out of the room. “So about this villain attack in USJ-“

 

 

“Yeah those villains sucked-“ Tomura was disrupted by Spinner coming out of the room, talking as well.

 

 

“But you said those are real, right? Back in the real world? Why did they suck there too?”

 

 

“I have no idea Spin. I’m a man of the present, you know that! Once things are out of the picture, I forget about them!”

 

 

“What are you two talking about?” Kaina interjected, pushing the two apart. “Real world? What real world?

 

 

“Gas world, princess, only the top guys like me get to know it, plus Spin as well.” Tomura nodded for Spinner to come out of the room so he can close it fully. Despite being 10 in the evening, they could still clearly see the bustling night life at the UA school grounds. “So yeah, despite what Mustard said about avoiding the League, we literally stomped them.”

 

 

“Mustard?” Kaina asked, gesturing for the two to follow her down the hall.

 

 

“The other gas kid, with the pink sleeping gas?” Spinner answered.

 

 

Kaina nodded. “I do apologize for the time, lotsa things happened today. I hope I’m not interrupting anything too important because I really need some information right now.”

 

 

“Despite losing to the Dune Wyrm over and over I don’t think we got anything important to be done tonight,” Tomura said, nodding. He’d never thought he would find a video game boss fight so irritating and hard in his entire life… all because of some hidden lever on some rocky cliff. “So what would it be? Is this related to this USJ nonsense?”

 

 

“Are you two separated form the rest?”

 

 

“As a matter of fact, you’re right… Me and Spin are the only ones thrown the farthest out. We we’re about to get down from the building and everyone’s already evacuated out. We’re literally the last ones there.”

 

 

“What about the rest of the gas kids?”

 

 

“Uuhhh Twice really wanted to try if he can p-“ Tomura was smacked on the back of the head by Spinner. As much as the real reason why the rest of the League had to get out was because of Twice really wanting to test if he can relieve himself and wipe up with leaves, he just couldn’t say that out loud for obvious reasons.

 

 

Kaina was about to talk when the sound of shoes hitting wood turned her attention towards the corner of the corridor to the right. And in a matter of seconds in comes Scissors hurriedly walking up towards them. Despite having a pair of thick goggles covering his eyes, his expression looked worried.

 

 

“She’s not there,” he said.

 

 

“What? It’s 10 in the evening! Did you ask?”

 

 

“I asked Mr. Chikazoku and he assured me she came home with them, walked him to his room even-“

 

 

“Excuse me,” Tomura suddenly spoke, gloved hands up. “By ‘she’ are you talking about that tall weirdo blue chick?”

 

 

“Blue?” Scissors was about to talk more when Kaina raised up a hand to his mouth and spoke up. “Yes, tall weirdo blue chick,” she said.

 

 

“Chikazoku wasn’t with us at USJ. Makihara was pissed with him acting out on the bus and had him ejected. Why ask him? He clearly hates her,” Spin said, raising one confused eyebrow.

 

 

“Mr. Yotsubashi’s kid’s buddies are the closest ties she has to as far as I know. She’s needed for Midoriya purposes and it is of utmost importance we know she’s safe.”

 

 

“Ah yes, now we’re talking! If we’re going after that green idiot we need all the people we can get! Now where could she be?” Tomura rubbed his hands. “Could it be that she’s still at USJ?”

 

 

“About that…” Scissors said weakly, pulling down both sleeves of his shirt so they now cover up to his wrists. “I checked up on the student evacuation list for USJ and she’s not listed. Makihara was busy rushing Ms. Hasaki to the infirmary when he got here, all this League tension must have-“

 

 

Kaina raised up a hand and walked towards him, leaning in towards his ear. “50% chance she’s a pile of dismembered organs and another 50% she’s still out there, let’s move.”

 

 

The girl turned around. “You guys can go back to bed, we got a little rescue mission to-“

 

 

“Can I go, if this tall chick is really important in this anti-Midoriya operation, I would like to meet a future member of this group,” Tomura said before turning to Spinner. “You coming?”

 

 

“Hmmm… Looks like a good idea…”

 

 

The two best friends continued their chat.

 

 

“Scissors… are you okay with the 50% chance they’ll see a mangled body?” Kaina whispered to the boy beside her, ending her sentence in full Russian about blood and guts.

 

 

“Landmine is the farthest thing from a ‘I can use this to track people’ Quirk. It’s impossible Midoriya’s already got her. My only problem is the villains at USJ. I don’t even know if she’s still there or…”

 

 

“Midoriya’s villains at USJ will be the least of her problems. She’s probably running around and crying before hitting one with a stick and realizing how weak they are. We’ll split up, all four of us, see if we can find her. If all else fails, we can just go back tomorrow.”

Chapter 11: Chitose Kizuki

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 15 Monday

 

 

Everything is dark. Rocks, dirt, and piles of rubble litter the surroundings, the air cold and dry, it is only then when a figure, lying unconscious on the chilly hard cement on the bottommost floor of a fake derelict building, stirred to life.

 

 

Chitose Kizuki slowly sat up, instantly feeling that she’s not on her cheap worn-out and barely-maintained apartment building sitting on her sleeping mattress splayed out on the floor. Bringing a hand to her face and rubbing her green eyes, she began to inspect the place.

 

 

Dark. Even if her eyes are not even fully receptive to the dim light levels yet she could tell she’s still in the middle of nowhere. She recalled the earlier events. Bus to USJ, Villain attack, trapped in an air bubble and thrown across the training dome, hit head pretty hard, and got knocked out unconscious. It was at this time her eyes have fully adjusted to the dark, with her gaze settling a little too long on the door just to her right, the way out this fake dilapidated building.

 

 

One look at her wristwatch confirmed that she’s been sleeping here for over six hours now.

 

 

‘At least I got actual sleep out of it…’ she thought to herself, planting her feet firmly on the ground and standing up, hitting her head slightly on a low-hanging piece of rock jutting out from the ceiling.

 

 

She then tilted her head to the left, then to the right, a light cracking sound coming out from the back of her neck.

 

 

‘Now what? I’m stuck here? So much for being part of a Dragunov’s oH sO iMpOrTaNt quest…’ She gritted her teeth, remembering the event. It’s all so light-hearted… so simple… and in the back of her mind she knew it’s all got to be a joke. Rejected, picked on, abandoned, it’s been a part of her life for so long she’s actually desensitized from it, or so she thinks. Her best interactions with people and the closest thing she has to friends are those who take her into their group, shortly before being kicked out and completely forgotten the moment her use expires. While they were not real friends, nor there’s nothing friendly to that gesture at all, but their gestures of fake friendliness are all enough.

 

 

‘After all… beggars can’t be choosers,’ she thought to herself. Why does everyone hate her? Is it because she’s repulsive? Is it because she’s blue? Is it because she doesn’t have people skills? Is it because she can’t stand up for herself? Is it because she’s very tall? She shook her head, self-pity is the last thing she needed here.

 

 

‘My Quirk’s got to do something with it… it has to be…’ She thought, her mind drifting back to the ‘little quest’ Dragunov wants her to be a part in. It’s all following her past interactions with people pretending to like her to get her in a group. It’s so blatantly obvious.

 

 

She felt her way through the darkness and on to the nearest door, minding the rocks jutting out high and low everywhere and forming uneven terrain to navigate onto.

 

 

She shook her head, her thoughts backtracking. They left her there, they cannot be trusted. Her chats with Revenant is really something else, like the boy is trying to get her to explain Landmine’s full potential, especially the ‘ability to see the mines’ portion.

 

 

‘Yeah they probably want me to blow someone up and blame me for it… do they think I cannot see that?’

 

 

Kizuki stopped as she grabbed gold of a doorknob. ‘No… What if I play along? Are they really serious is turning me into a hero if I accepted her little quest? It’s too good to be true, but there’s still a chance… I’ll be a hero, I’ll get enough money, and retire early, never to be under someone’s shoe ever again…’

 

 

She stifled a laugh, her dream had always sounded stupid and selfish, but a dream’s a dream, and she’s sure as heck she’s not going to share her success to anyone if she ever made it… if she ever made it.

 

 

Turning the doorknob, she slowly opened the door. Her night vision’s already adjusted to the dark surroundings and she could easily see that she’s still at USJ, the crisscross pattern of the Dome just visible beyond. One thing that stood out is all the light seemed to be coming from outside the dome, at some hastily patched crack at the side of the wall, high up from her position. Not a single lightbulb was open inside, it’s completely dark for some reason she doesn’t know.

 

 

She was about to just walk there when she heard shuffling noises about, making her instantly walk back into the door she came from. Ghosts? Aliens? Illegal drug trades going on?

 

 

Turning around, she quietly closed the door and saw a metal trolley just sprawled two meters from her position. She immediately recognized it as Kosetsu’s cooler. She was immediately engulfed with fear and went to it as soon as possible. It was only then she remembered the thing was also encased with solid air alongside her and flung into here. And it’s already around 10 in the evening and she hasn’t returned it yet.

 

 

‘I am soooo going to be screwed tomorrow…’ She was slightly glad it wasn’t Yotsubashi’s stuff, or worse Chikazoku’s, that’s sent in here with her, only the cooler and the metal trolley. At best, she would receive a good smack on the head and maybe a minute of being told how useless she was, but nothing too bad.

 

 

Letting out a sigh of relief, she was about to reach into her purse – that’s luckily wasn’t blown away nor its contents actually damaged since it landed on her, when she suddenly froze.

 

 

‘Should I call…?’ she stood still, gloved fingers already grasping her old worn-out phone within her purse. She very well knew UA’s contact number. But what she has here is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

 

 

She raised up her right gloved hand and took the cover off, before blinking. In an instant after opening her eyes, everything is covered in a dim hue of blue, with objects nearby up to her own clothes being covered in faint white grids like those of an engineer’s blueprint. While the entire room is covered in a visual overlay only she can see, the only lines she can see on herself are those located on her hands, which have special brighter grids with a line going through them akin to that of a sonar system, but from her wrist going up to the tips of her fingers instead of spinning around on a spiral from the middle.

 

 

She turned her attention to her two gloves, both of which have a glow to them, signifying they’re loaded with explosives through her Quirk.

 

 

‘Landmine detonation mode, those Big Three idiots should NOT know about this…’

 

 

She always thought the name is lame. For her, Landmine should have been named Anti-Matter or Prime Explosion, but since those names are already taken and redundancy is a very big deal on the Quirk registry, hers had to be named something farther than her original name plans. While she can still change it if she found a more suitable name, it would take too long with too much paperwork that it would just be a hassle in the big picture.

 

 

She peeked outside again, her vision still in hues of blue and grids of white, and she could see faint silhouettes of people walking about, walking mindlessly like mind-controlled humans, zombies of the living sort.

 

 

“Villains…” she whispered, slightly disappointed they’re not aliens.

 

 

Being used to getting locked up outside her original barely-managed orphanage by mean kids back in the day, and running errands late in the evening by Chikazoku out of all people, she’s used to villains at this point. And despite the term and the negative connotation to them, she couldn’t really call them as villains, as they’re more akin to that of soulless human-shaped beings.

 

 

As if there’s something controlling them…

 

 

She’s used to seeing them, always in groups, standing still among one another normally in dark alleyways between buildings in the dead of night. This eerie description of ‘villains’ is very different from the obviously faked and staged fights happening in broad daylight all the time, and is a popular topic in conspiracy theory internet forums.

 

 

People know about them, yes, but most people just let heroes do their job on the case. Plus the biggest thing about them is that they rarely attack if anything, not even commit any crime as far as things go. For short they stand around and look like ‘villains’ and that’s it.

 

 

She always wondered if it’s some kind of mind control, but how come it only affects them? As far as she knows they’re all guys and 90% heteromorphs. People think it’s Midoriya’s doing, but then again people blame Midoriya on a lot of things that it all lost meaning.

 

 

In terms of violence, they’re easily provoked, but also easily dealt with, with random hero patrols at the same wee hours in the morning. Chitose shook her head on the matter, she was once quite a known figure among those patrolling heroes back when she was 5, always getting saved from them for being locked up outside.

 

 

For short, if there’s one thing to describe such people in zombie-like state, if they’re even people at all, is not much of a threat.

 

 

She remembered just using a stick to pummel them down. She might be tall for her age, but she’s been whacking ‘villains’ since she was 7, and people are still labeling these ‘zombies’ in the same group as those obviously-faked daylight villains.

 

 

The government is clearly hiding something, but finding that out it is the last thing on her mind right now.

 

 

Peeking through the door, vision still locked in Mine Detonation Mode, or so she calls it, she could clearly make out humanoid shapes outside, shuffling about and minding their own business, in exactly the same ways she had seen them all these years.

 

 

‘I should probably go home now… but…’

 

 

Should she? She deliberately didn’t call UA for help seeing as there is a once-in-a-lifetime event right here in front of her.

 

 

Chitose looked at her hand, sonar-like grids moving up from her wrist up to her fingertips in such an alluring manner that just screams ‘use us’ to her. She could hear them calling, calling out to her, blast these fools to oblivion, just one time…

 

 

Just one time…

 

 

She was never able to use her Quirk normally. All these years she can see people using their natural inborn talents, playing with them, impressing people with them, while she sat on the background, always a minor irrelevant character, just forced to watch because she’ll never be able to use Landmine the same way kids can float around or generate force fields and have people impressed by it.

 

 

Explosives only look good on paper, maybe if you’re an anime protagonist perhaps. Real world? Where in the world is having the ability to blow things up actually helps in everyday life? Where in the world is that going to be seen as ‘awesome’ and not ‘destructive’?

 

 

She was effectively Quirkless, with the innate mechanics of her Quirk only making people scared of her, with the other half realizing it’s far easier to boss her around because they know full well if Quirks come into play, she’s the one who’s going to get in bigger trouble. It was never a blessing and she quickly learned to deal with it because nothing’s going to happen anytime soon.

 

 

Until tonight…

 

 

She had never slept this good since the past year, and she’s completely surrounded by test targets just out there waiting to be shot. Yes they’re explosives, all she can do is make things explode, destroy, ruin, wreck, and annihilate, but thanks to the ‘Cornstarch Principle’ it’s completely safe to hit people with it and they’ll only be sent flying.

 

 

Unless at the right explosive force, and she knew that all too well…

 

 

‘Maybe just a little? No one will see me here anyways…’

 

 

She knew using Quirks in public is illegal, especially for destructive people like her.

 

 

But not tonight. As far as she knew she’s in USJ, a good 10 kilometers to the nearest civilization. A good enough measure for her to assume ‘there are no cops here to apprehend her’.

 

 

‘Good enough for me…’ she thought to herself, biting her lip and thinking about maybe blasting a few of these ‘villains’ on her way out. ‘Maybe if people caught me I’l just say self-defense?’

 

 

She knew the self-defense excuse will not work, it never did. She did try blasting a few, but the difference is that she’s in the middle of a city during those times, and right now she’s as far from civilization as possible, literally in the middle of nowhere.

 

 

Nodding to herself in utter confusion in her predicament, she turned her attention to the metal trolley, specifically the ice cooler. She went in, emptied the now-liquid contents of the cooler, put it back on the trolley, and began pulling it towards the door, before switching hands so that it was her left hand that’s grabbing onto the handle.

 

 

Taking one last peek through the door, the girl raised up her right un-gloved hand, her face now sporting an evil menacing grin that could rival real villains, the light green emissive glow in her eyes glowing ever so slightly brighter. Moving her left hand over to a small red button on the base of a light grey metal armband worn on her right wrist, she pressed it to make the entire thing transform into a small rectangular metal box covering her right arm.

 

 

She remembered the day it was given to her by Chikara Yotsubashi a year ago, alongside the promise that if she stayed nice to his son, he’ll maybe get her in the hero course. So far nothing’s happened yet in her little personal quest to be a hero and earn money and retire quickly, but the gear itself is nothing to tell people about. As much as it looked like the tip of a hammer, this piece of magical transforming equipment doesn’t really do much. She knew in the back of his mind this thing is probably just meant as a joke, since Chikara doesn’t like her as well.

 

 

She could see the grid lines on the palm of her hand within, the metallic works of the ‘equipment’ molded around it. It was meant to allow her to fire her blasts forward, but the amount of Stratonite used is laughable, making her explosions weaker than they should be. She could fire the thing right on her face and the best it would do is blow her dandruff away, and maybe make her a bit dizzy.

 

 

Chitose shook her head, this pathetic equipment would do more damage bashing people on the head instead of actually using its intended purpose of firing her explosive blasts on the other side, which would just result in ultra-weak explosions. It doesn’t even look like a hero’s equipment!

 

 

But everything’s fine, she won’t be using its intended purpose after all.

 

 

Raising up a leg, she kicked the door wide open, the sound echoing across the dome. She knew ‘villains’ normally get alerted by such loud noises, and will attempt to ‘take down’ whoever did it. There may be lots of them, but that’s never a problem for someone armed with Quirks that allow for huge area of effect knockback attacks.

 

 

And there was the rapid sound of footsteps to her right. Turning around still with ‘Mine Vision’ on, she could see the faint outline of three people, one with a speargun yet looked like he’s trying to impale her with it.

 

 

‘Ranged Quirks going melee… typical…’

 

 

She steadied the metal trolley and brought up her left hand and bit off the gloves covering it, feeling all like an action hero about to kick massive amounts of ass, before slamming it towards the tip of the heavy metal box covering her right hand. And there it was, a small bright green orb glowing at the site where she slammed her hand that only she can see.

 

 

‘This is what the Big Three are after, it’s got to be…’

 

 

She aimed the box right at the location of the three and detonated the glowing tip she planted at the edge of the gear, letting a blast stretching up to 6 meters in length, launching the three unfortunate villains even further at the cost of attracting the rest of the horde.

 

 

And after another quick slam of her hand on the still slightly-hot tip of the gear and she’s all set to blast another group of unfortunate fools who dared to get closer to her. And sure enough another group came in. Same as the previous one she aimed the gear at them, but this time set the explosion radius to be narrow, as represented as a red cone at the frontal areas of the ‘mine’, a stark difference from her all-blue Mine Vision world.

 

 

She successfully hit the middle person out of four, while not even scratching the surface of her equipment. She never put her Quirk into practice but did a lot of two-and-two’s about it, and she’s now putting them to the test. The mine is placed on the surface of the gear, which meant that the explosion only fired outwards, thus not damaging the thing it’s placed on.

 

 

Due to the innate law of physics people call the ‘Cornstarch Principle’ her explosions are harmless, all the more better. To her surprise it even slightly affects the clothes of the 'villains', as those she blasted only had light singes on their clothing.

 

 

Now the plan is simple, have fun blowing up villains while marching up the broken wall segment, and then call for help after exit, and then pretend she got ambushed.

 

 

And then there’s the next batch of fools running up to her. Touching the tip of the metal again, she aimed towards them and detonated with the same force, but setting the brightness of the explosive high enough to illuminate the dome in a fraction of a second, allowing her to see just how many ‘villains’ are still out there.

 

 

And another blast… and another batch… and some more…

 

 

It was all too easy. Her Quirk is activated by touching, with no cooldown in between. She could theoretically blast away till the ends of time if she could keep up.

 

 

She turned around and blasted another group behind her, minding the trolley she’s pulling.

 

 

Her Quirk was always known as weak, despite her 6 meter long blasts capable of knocking people at twice the length at maximum strength.

 

 

‘I can’t believe even the doctors missed the loophole…’

 

 

Chitose ducked as she anchored the trolley on her left arm, and began dashing forward towards the direction of the broken wall segment, left hand planted firmly on the tip of her gear.

 

 

‘It was obvious! I thought at least one of them would have noticed by now! Not that I would like to be more of a walking war crime but- I think the Ottawa Treaty could use a more thorough update…’

 

 

Looking down onto the front side of the gear she’s wearing and noticing the ‘mines’ she put there to be a lot brighter now, she turned back, aimed the makeshift arm cannon at some 'villains', and let loose an explosion directed forwards stretching over more than 20 meters, kicking up enough dirt to cloud the entire darkened arena in its wake.

 

 

Chitose’s jaw was left hanging after her own display of sheer power. Her mines have always been able to stack multiple times in a single point, and following the logic of real-world explosions of more equals stronger, she knew they’re going to be powerful. She never expected her blast force is actually that powerful.

 

 

And she has the power to make them even bigger if she wanted to. She can destroy the entire USJ in a single hit if she wanted to.

 

 

“Wow… never thought being left alone and abandoned surrounded by baddies would be the best thing that’s ever happened to me…” she said to herself, seeing the damage she caused as well as the legions of knocked out villains in the aftermath.

 

 

Heavily breathing, her green eyes still in Mine Detonation Mode drifted towards her ‘arm cannon’.

 

 

‘One more…’ she wanted to try again with bigger numbers, bigger explosions, bigger damage. The appearance of the next huge wave of villains is very inviting. Surely she can’t just let these beautiful targets go to waste, right? It’s not everyday these chances to use her Quirk presents itself.

 

 

Her heart was throwing itself hard against her sternum, her mind telling her to do it again one more time. Her fingers were twitching, sweat forming on her forehead. The next wave of villains is fast approaching, what would she do? Should she run and be done with it or should she stay a little longer?

 

 

‘What’s the rush? You won’t have another chance like this in years… you’ll be back being the pack mule of an obnoxious group of kids that never gave a crap about you in the slightest, in your desperate attempts to become a hero for some easy cash.’

 

 

‘But I really need to get home… they’ll yell at me and-‘

 

 

‘Kizuki, you only get to do this once, you’ll be back to being a Quirkless loser the moment you step out. Stay a while, have some fun, you’ve been a punching bag your whole life, take a break.’

 

 

‘But being a Quirkless loser is how I plan to go by and-‘

 

 

‘You’re the farthest thing from a Quirkless loser tonight. You are destruction incarnate. You’re born to destroy. Your explosions make music, and these ‘villains’ call for a song…’

 

 

‘Okay that’s just stupid.’ Chitose shook her head off the thoughts. Despite wanting to have some more fun, the future is something to prepare for, not the present.

 

 

 It was only then she looked down.

 

 

She was holding onto the tip of the ‘arm cannon’ for quite some time now, laying down explosives after explosives after explosives without even thinking about it, all stacked up into one area just begging to be detonated. How many did she lay down there? Based on the overall brightness of the entire explosion point, she estimated it to be around 20 or so.

 

 

And here they come, the next wave of villains. A lot of beautiful targets just waiting to be blown up.

 

 

‘This could be your last chance to use your Quirk, think about it…’

 

 

Chitose turned around and turned her attention to the hastily patched hole in the wall-her escape route, just right up ahead. Behind her is a huge army of ‘villains’. And on her right hand is a fully loaded arm cannon with the rough estimated explosion yield of a horse-drawn cart full of TNT barrels. She's never once pushed her Quirk to be used like this and estimating such an unpredictable destructive force has never been her forte.

 

 

‘One more blast…?’

 

 

Her fingers on her left hand twitched in anticipation, her vision locked forwards seeing movements on the grid world she’s seeing. They were coming for her. They were ready to attack, they’re enemies, and enemies should NOT be kept closer than friends, but it’s not like she even had any friends in the first place.

 

 

‘Self-defense… Yeah that would make a great excuse!’

 

 

The enemies drew closer. Lots of them than ever before. The girl’s left hand involuntarily went to the arm cannon again, laying down a couple more and backing off a few steps again, all without her noticing.

 

 

‘Take your shot… pull the trigger… send them flying… Plus Ultra…’

 

 

Chitose raised up the cannon, aimed dead center at the group of ‘villains’ up ahead.

 

 

‘Would you do it? You don’t even know how many you put down there!’

 

 

‘But it’s gonna be one hell of a blast I tell you! The shot of a lifetime! This will be in headlines for the next few days! Mysterious crater found in USJ, WHAT CAUSED IT?! WHAT BEING OF SUCH POWER CAN DO SUCH A THING?!’

 

 

‘You’re sooo going to get in trouble for this…’

 

 

‘Ascend with the strength of a thousand, Chitose, that name was given to you, give them the reason why you own it. Fire…’

 

 

You’re going to scratch your arm cannon! You’re gonna get in trouble with Chikazoku again! He’s gonna tell! He’s gonna snitch you out! Leave and be done with this! You’ve already fired once, it’s more than enough-‘

 

 

‘Chikazoku can go ROT IN HELL!’

 

 

Chitose closed her eyes, the detonation point of the arm cannon, as well as some other things she put explosives on still emitting a faint glow indicating their position. She put down so many explosives this time around that she lost count, and detonating them eyes open would just lead to temporary blindness by the amount of light it will emit, no sense risking it.

 

 

The trigger is pulled, sending a mental signal straight from her mind towards the group of stacked explosives on the tip of her gear, commanding them to explode with maximum blast force forwards and outwards. The resulting shockwaves from the explosion rocked the entire arena, its reinforced glass walls shaking under the force, like over a dozen high-explosive artillery shells detonated all at once. Rocks got blown out of the way, the ground carved in, ‘villains’ flying all over the place, with a lot of them hitting the other end of the arena in a grand display of unfathomable power.

 

 

All that firepower from the palm of some nondescript sixteen year old girl…

 

 

And then there was silence, as it was on the outside. Inside, Chitose’s ears were ringing, her vision blurry, and her breathing heavy. Smoke was still coming out of the arm cannon despite being undamaged, and to her surprise there are still quite a few explosives left on it.

 

 

But it is done, she’s satisfied, all enemies knocked out. A maniacal grin on her face. It was a show of force, a fireworks show she never thought she could do, a one-man destruction squad.

 

 

Chitose shook her head, trying to clear away the dizziness from the overall excitement of it all, ringing still loud in her ears.

 

 

“KIZUKI WINS!” she yelled out loud, raising her right hand encased in ‘hero equipment’ and firing once from it – doing its purpose of transferring the explosive force up front. It was a small blast, barely even enough to knock a person off its feet. Pathetic, weak, useless in an actual fight, but makes damn good fireworks… only once, before it reverts back to its wristband form.

 

 

That’s literally all it could do. Fire once, revert back for a minute, and only then it’s allowed to be pressed and turn into a cannon again. She knew Mr. Yotsubashi Chikara doesn’t respect her very much, saying this metal box is the best he can do for her in ‘gratitude for fair treatment of his son’, which translates to ‘good pack mule in hopes of becoming a hero’.

 

 

Dignity aside, what is there to lose if you don’t have any friends? All she needed was a portable surface, and that portable surface sure did make one hell of a show tonight.

 

 

“Back to being a loser I guess?” Chitose sarcastically chuckled to herself as she made her way to the hastily put-on wooden barrier plastered on the broken wall segment of USJ, surprised it didn’t get blown away by the immense shockwave from her explosion earlier. While she did put on a good show, her Quirk is only useful in combat, not in everyday life.

 

 

‘At least I get to actually use my Quirk…’

 

 

Reaching up the hole in the wall, trolley in tow. One last villain showed up, armed with a chainsaw – that’s suspiciously being held like the villain would rather attack with his elbow than slice a person with it, one of the strange things these ‘villains’ do.

 

 

Having had her fill and not in the mood for blowing up more people anymore and sending them flying, she let go of the trolley and rushed the villain, ungloved hands forward…

 

 

And shoved the person tumbling down the hill, not bothering to activate Landmine and prime the person's clothes, the chainsaw not even making a difference.

 

 

Going back, Chitose rammed the wooden wall, a bit too hard that it sent her down to the ground. Apparently the wall is not even bolted on, just haphazardly placed down like it’s meant to block these ‘villains’ she encountered within.

 

 

And based on her current knowledge on how these ‘zombies’ work, the chances of them being stopped by a wooden plank is certainly 100%. Will the government finally explain anything about the phenomenon? It’s been years and only silence.

 

 

They won’t be getting explained anytime soon. They’d rather keep putting heroes on a pedestal like they always did, or so she thought.

 

 

She blinked, setting her vision back to normal, her ears still ringing. The blue hues and grids disappeared and instantly replaced wih the regular evening scene. Crickets, cool winds, leaves getting blown by said wind, everything is normal.

 

 

She turned around one last time, checking to see if there could be ‘villains’ coming out of the Dome. Seeing nothing for a whole minute, she turned her attention to her purse and pulled out a phone after hastily placing the wooden barrier back..

 

 

‘Heh... That would make an incredible headline…’ she thought to herself as she typed in UA’s contact number. ‘Mysterious crater at USJ? Who made it-

 

 

‘Did I actually make a crater…? Nah it doesn’t matter…’

 

 

She sent the text message and put the phone back to her purse, double checking if the trolley is still with her. She was about to walk when she saw a figure move fast in between the trees lining up the road. The figure didn’t make a sound, and looked like it knew how to avoid detection.

 

 

‘Okay… that’s not a standard villain…’

 

 

She switched her vision back to her Mine Detonation mode in an attempt to make out the physical features of the person, but the area where the figure could be hiding is very dimly lit and dark, at the end of the day she still needs sufficient lighting in order to make out shapes.

 

 

But the figure moved again between the trees, as if it knew she was watching its every move.

 

 

‘Crap…’

 

 

Chitose, still setting her gaze towards the general area of the mysterious shadowy figure, reached over and pressed the button to transform her wristband back to arm cannon mode, her left hand already planted on top of it afterwards. She took one step to the right, and another, and another…

 

 

There was faint rustling in the leaves, and she could make out two appendages waving.

 

 

‘Sh**…’

 

 

Grabbing hold of the metal trolley holding an ice cooler, the girl turned her attention towards the road and ran forwards, pushing her legs to the limit as hard as she can in the shortest amount of time. She’s not the best runner out there but what do you really do when there are creepy things late into the night trying to stalk you?

 

 

Fortunately the streets are empty, which is not a good thing in the big picture since there’s no civilization within 10 kilometers.

 

 

‘Maybe if I keep running until my rescue team arrives this creep will go tired of mehopefully…’

 

 

She swiveled her head to the back, and sure enough the mysterious figure is heading straight towards her. Even in her Mine Vision she still can’t make out the whole detail. Everything is all in a blur with her running as fast as she can along the empty road.

 

 

“GET AWAY FROM ME!” she yelled at the top of her lungs, aiming her weapon backwards and detonating 4 attached ‘landmines’ at the same time in a narrow cone towards her pursuer. A huge cloud of grey smoke then exploded from the tip of the makeshift arm cannon, completely engulfing the person.

 

 

‘Some recoil would be very handy right now-‘

 

 

“HEY WAIT!” a young male voice called out from within the huge smoke cloud.

 

 

‘Wait… ‘villains’ don’t do that…’

 

 

Chitose quickly recalled all her past encounters with thes so-called ‘villains’. These ‘zombies’ can only do ‘evil-speak’ at best, and anything going other than ‘I’ll Kill You’ is generally just a regular person.

 

 

…Hopefully…

 

 

As far as she knows civilization is 10 kilometers away, what could a person be doing here so late in the evening? She made sure to keep her arm cannon at the ready, planting a few more extra invisible landmines on the tip before putting it down, just in time before the smoke from her previous explosions wore off.

 

 

She began slowing down, but still on high alert.

 

 

“SpecPro Class A!” the voice said again, the figure of the person becoming clearer as it stepped under a lamp post.

 

 

“Huh…?”

 

 

The figure got ever closer, both hands up and looking very aware of the thing attached to her right hand. It was, if her memory serves right, Shuichi Iguchi, the lizard kid who seemed to be best friends with Gas Kid Prime Shigaraki.

 

 

“We’re here to the rescu- GAAAHH DON’T POINT THAT THING AT ME JEEZ!”

 

 

Chitose’s eyes widened at the event. This kid looked like he was really shaken up that he panicked when she’s only bringing up her armed hand to scratch her head. “What took you so long?”

 

 

“Well actually uhh... but since it’s been a long day and there’s an emergency going on at the time with some things related to the USJ attack earlier and uhhh… Chikazoku’s really adamant that you’re already there and just in your room. Yeah I know he’s not included in the trip but you know how he’s the spokesperson-“ Spinner was disrupted by the girl raising her left hand. As long as the armed right hand is not at all pointed at him, all is well.

 

 

“Chikazoku convinced the ENTIRE school that I’m still not there…?”

 

 

Spinner’s eyes darted around, but mainly focusing on the strange equipment currently installed on the tall girl’s right hand. Her voice suddenly changing tone sent shivers up his spine. “Er… Ms. Hasaki was it? Was hit really bad and UA made her top priority for a bit but uh- Well he didn't really convince everyone per se but-

 

 

Chitose took a deep breath and sighed, clenching her left fist and making the boy back up a few steps backward in fear of being shot. “Nevermind… I want to go home…”

Notes:

Man this chapter took several re-writes over the week!

This chapter is originally just going to be ‘Kizuki fires weak explosions towards her enemies’ before I realized… what’s so weak about her explosions? If Bakugo wants bigger explosions, he just releases more sweat… Which makes sense in the real world, the more gunpowder you put the bigger the explosion…

Kizuki is not limited by dehydration the same way Bakugo does, and she can (theoretically) plant down an infinite amount. As for the smoke bomb, it’s inspired by her last landmine being nothing but pure smoke. Can she change the settings of her mines in-universe? Can she combine them to create bigger blasts? I dunno. But here let’s assume she can.

Chapter 12: Shuichi Iguchi

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 15 Monday

 

 

Spinner, in full alert and eyes glued towards the girl’s equipment installed on her right hand, took a few steps back. “I-I’ll go call them…” he said, voice trailing off, as he brought up his right arm showing a small elongated arm band that looked more like a wrist watch at first glance, he was about to press the single red button in the middle when he turned his attention back to the girl. “Kazuhiko was it?”

 

 

It was also at this time he was regretting the scatter-and-search method they’re using. He saw what happened, he saw the huge explosion rippling through the building. On top it all off the weak makeshift barrier he was peeking into did not even budge, as if all the explosive force is only directed forwards and not anywhere else. Overall it reminded him of Bakugo for a moment, minus the ‘I’ll go fly around and yell DIE every two seconds’ kind of thing.

 

 

“Yes,” the girl responded, slowly lowering her right hand in such a manner that Spinner just had to lock eyes back to it once more. The moment is as much pointed to him he’d dive to the nearest bushes in the blink of an eye.

 

 

 “Y-yeah… I’ll call them…” Spinner pressed the button on the wristband and spoke into a mesh-like structure jutting off to one side. “Dragunov, I found Kazuhiko.”

 

 

“Gotcha, coming to pick the others up… be there soon…” came Kaina’s reply through the device, but was manually cut short on her side.

 

 

“Y-You may want to put that ‘thing’ down…” Spinner’s gaze instantly went back to the girl’s weapon, that’s still equipped on her, as he maintained distance. He also only noticed now that she’s pulling a metal trolley with an ice cooler placed on it. “Promise I’m not a criminal in disguise!”

 

 

The girl stared at him for a good few seconds, sending chills up his spine, before double-tapping the underside of her arm cannon, in which it emitted a faint glow and morphed back into some kind of gray bracelet on her right wrist. “Shuichi Iguchi was it?”

 

 

“Uh yeah! See, you know me! You’re not going to pull that thing out again right? Being blasted straight to the Stratosphere is really… not my kind of thi-”

 

 

“How long have you been here?” The girl asked, tilting her head and her gaze narrowing.

 

 

Spinner, who’s at most unnerved by the girl’s green eyes looking like they glow on their own, took a few steps forward, but still aware the arm cannon could come up and be fired again. “About quite some time now, I saw you blast those villains with that arm cannon of yours. I would never expect someone looking like you could shake the whole damn thing! Man if Shigaraki was here he’d be extremely impressed! You do remind me of a certain kid with explosive sweat though-“

 

 

Kizuki’s eyes widened a bit, her lips moving on their own seemingly at a loss for words. “Uh, this is just my support equipment. Nothing really fancy.”

 

 

“Well that’s some damn good support equipment! Holy crap! How are you not with us anyway? Akaguro said you were kicked out of the program, can I ask why?” Spinner asked, thinking he should just keep mixing praises for the girl for the time being.

 

 

The girl shook her head. “How much did you see?”

 

 

“You nuked the entire zone… with a little black box… Do they make more of those things at UA?”

 

 

“No-I mean yes. As far as I know, you SpecPro will get your own hero equipment at the same time with your hero outfits, if you want arm cannons, you can go add it as a request. Mr. Yotsubashi is really good when it comes to equipment,” came the lighthearted reply.

 

 

‘Yotsubashi eh? Hmmm… Detnerat-grade hero equipment… I wonder what those are like?’ Spinner thought to himself, even though he’s fully aware that despite owning a huge manufacturing company, Re-Destro did not really equip his army with equipment that much back in the real world. “I’d keep that in mind!”

 

 

Kizuki nodded in response.

 

 

“You’re not going to blast me with that thing… are you?” Spinner nervously chuckled afterwards, once again looking at the girl’s bracelet on her right wrist. “Good people don’t blast their rescuers.”

 

 

“Relax, I’m not blasting anyone,” the girl replied with a weak voice, her face seemingly blank. “Where are we going?”

 

 

“Dragunov will be arriving very soon, I assure you that.” Spinner pointed at the road straight ahead, leading away from USJ. “So what’s your Quirk? Something about the dark? Water perhaps? I mean you look really blue.”

 

 

Spinner walked up beside her, with the two of them walking towards the direction away from USJ. The lighting may be a bit dim but he could now get a good look at her features. She just looked like any other girl her age, only a whole lot taller than him, and all the other girls her age. Nevertheless, she looked familiar, but not too familiar, he quickly recalled all his memories of the past world and checked to see if she was in one of them but he just couldn’t piece together that one string of information.

 

 

He knew he’d seen her somewhere, somewhere at the PLF Mansion, or was it in Deika City? Is there someone blue there? As far as he can remember not a single MLA/PLF member had any sort of odd skin color.

 

 

Maybe now’s not yet the time to think about such things. Although he’s still noticing her pulling the trolley for some reason.

 

 

“I can make objects weakly explode, that’s it.”

 

 

“Then what the hell do you call that nuke earlier?” Spinner turned his head to face her, one eyebrow raised. “You call that weak? Aren’t hero equipments just an extension of your Quirk? If your cannon can make an explosion that big without anything much of an enhancer, then that’s your Quirk’s natural explosive force, right? I mean the thing can fit right there… as a bracelet…”

 

 

 Spinner made sure there’s distance between them, as far as he can remember this girl usually has gloves on, so her Quirk may be touch-based like Tomura. It’s in his best interest to keep himself out of reach.

 

 

“Nuke? Are you sure there’s a nuke?” The girl asked, tilting her head off to one side again, this time it was her who’s raising one eyebrow. “Quite a lot of different Quirks in there, are you sure it’s not some illusionist casting something?”

 

 

“Well yeah that too but uh… I took a peek in that hole over there once I start hearing explosions and I can clearly see you there having a great time blasting everyone to smithereens. If ‘Cornstarch Principle’ is not in effect you would’ve killed every single one of those.”

 

 

“Hmmm interesting… could’ve sworn there’s an illusionist there…” Kizuki shrugged as the two continued walking forward. “I’m pretty sure that person’s also the one amplifying my shots to be more brighter or whatnot…”

 

 

“Me and Shigaraki also fought our way out just this afternoon, good thing they were more like ‘zombies’ than actual villains!” Spinner stifled a laugh, trying to lighten up the mood. Is there really an illusionist down there? People with supposedly ranged Quirks didn’t even try to make use of them as him and Shigaraki made their way out of USJ a couple of hours ago.

 

 

Can illusionists explain the entire Dome shaking with the sheer power of the blast? Why would a random villain make her Quirk far more flashy? Do some people down there need to see flashy explosions first so they could power up? As much information he could gather, it’s either the girl’s fight down there is very different from his and Shigaraki’s, or she’s somehow hiding the fact that she can nuke the entire place.

 

 

But why would she do that?

 

 

But before more and more questions pop into his mind, he remembered the ‘Grouping Mechanics’ in this world, where people tend to hang out with the people they were originally part of in the real world, and since this girl seemed to be hanging out with the MLA then-

 

 

“Ever heard of the MLA?” Spinner asked, walking in the middle of the road just a couple of feet by Kizuki’s right side. “Meta Liberation Army?”

 

 

“The terrorist group? Yeah I know about them, why? Got an assignment on it?”

 

 

“No- I mean ye- I mean no, we SpecPro kids don’t really get homework. I was just wondering since uh… no really it just popped into my head. What do you think about free-Quirk usage?” Spinner quickly recalled all what the MLA stood for. “I think it’s pretty neat. Everyone’s entitled to use their own God-given talent.”

 

 

“Do you have an assignment on the topic? Why are you even asking me that?”

 

 

Spinner shrugged as the cheapest excuse he could come up with suddenly sprung into his head. “I’m a Gas Kid, weird ideas just come and go to me just like that.”

 

 

Kizuki looked at him weird for a few seconds, which triggered Spinner’s response to instantly lock his vision up to both of the girl’s hands, just in case he accidentally pissed her off and she’s about to send him to the moon.

 

 

After what seemed to be a tenseful eternity of staring, which only actually lasted four seconds, the girl let out a sigh. “I’m tired… I want to go home…” she said, head lowering down. “Both my apartments need a thorough cleaning...”

 

 

“Okay then… You know what? I’ve been seeing you with Blindfold Guy Revenant in the past few days, you two going out or what-"

 

 

Kizuki instantly stopped walking, and slowly turned her head towards Spinner. While the dim light of the lamp posts nearby helped to obscure it, Spinner could clearly see the girl is clenching her fists. Eyeballs going to the left and to right, Spinner is ready to dive for cover once the ‘support equipment’ comes into action.

 

 

“Mr. Iguchi? People are only nice to me if they want something. Let’s skip the pleasantries, what do you want?”

 

 

“Huh…?” Spinner was dumbstruck, he was ready to dive for cover but instead got asked a question. “No! I don’t want to-“

 

 

“Come on, spit it out-“

 

 

“I was just really wondering why you’re with Revenant… and that’s it really… Me and Shigaraki got this big quest coming up and Dragunov’s involved in it. And I just put two-and-two together that she, Big Three, Blindfold Guy… And you’re with Blindfold Guy…”

 

 

“To be honest, between you and me, since we’re the only ones here, they probably just want me to do something. Been living this way for a long time now it’s become really obvious. Now let’s not pretend I don’t know what you’re trying to do here. Do you have an MLA-themed assignment or what?” Chitose said as she began walking ahead once more. “A real bunch of interesting folks, they were.”

 

 

“Like I said SpecPro doesn’t have homework, I was just really wondering if-“ Spinner was about to continue when a moth flew by his face, which he instantly caught by the wings. “Hmmm… moths are pretty big tonight,” he said, showing his catch to the girl. “Japanese Lantern Moth, you can tell from the iridescent purple eyespots on its wings-“

 

 

“They’re Morningstar Moths, if you can see they also have a smaller spiral-shaped iridescent pink dot in the middle of the main wing eyespot dot,” the girl instantly replied, her gaze swiftly focusing on a moth perched up on a nearby lamp post they passed by. “Quite a lot of people confuse the two, but this species is actually a rarer and an actual beneficial one compared to the potato pest it so closely resembles. Compared to the Lantern Moth, that one spends its time as a larva two months and a half longer, with its predatory caterpillars preferring to eat aphids, ants, or whatever creature it can get its nasty jaws on. If you look closely at the abdominal section you can-

 

 

 “Holy crap, here I was thinking you’re tired,” Spinner joked, one free hand doing a friendly pointing gesture. “Energy restored by nerding out eh?”

 

 

And it was at that instant, the mood is immediately lightened up for the first time since their meeting earlier. Spinner can rest easy as for the time being, knowing that arm cannon will not be pointing at him any time soon. He could see the girl giggle to herself and scratch the back of her head.

 

 

“Hey now Kazuhiko, don’t leave me hanging! Tell the ol’ lizard what bug it this before I eat it!”

 

 

“Well actually it’s Kizuki, Kizuki Chitose,” the girl replied with a light smile and a nod, hands clasped behind her.

 

 

Not deciding to ask more about Revenant nor the MLA out of respect, Spinner nodded in response. “Morningstar moths you say?” he turned his attention back to the moth he just caught, remembering old tales back in the real world. “Yeah I heard about those, people say they’re a bad omen.”

 

 

“Yeah… know that story about how it got the nickname Black Death?”

 

 

‘Black… Death…?’ Spinner knew of the word very well but this is the first time he heard it being attributed to such a small dull-colored insect. Never once in the real world it’s called Black Death. It may be sometimes referred to as a bad omen in the real world, but it’s just because of their innate coloration of being dark brown with bright purple eyespots, looking like ghosts with the moth’s triangular folded wings. As a whole, the moths are just harmless things, insects just trying to make a living and trying to not to get eaten and reproduce. “Might be the ol’ gas in my head, but why is that?”

 

 

“Oh you don’t know? Some time around 25 years ago-“

 

 

“Pfft… thirty years ago, your brain must be pretty good at storing a whole lotta info!” Spinner nodded as he praised the girl, trying to lighten up the mood even further. If she’s going to be a part of the ‘Midoriya Hit Squad’ if Tomura’s guess is correct, then the last thing he needed is to pick a fight with the girl who can blast people straight to the moon. “Must be a pretty nice thing to have.”

 

 

“I’m curious about a lot of things, tend to read stuff no one’s interested anymore.”

 

 

“Well call me interested because I too, got curious about this whole Black Death thing, why is it called that way? Why is this… this little creature…” Spinner carefully put the insect on his palm and let it fly away into the night. “-got such a devilish nickname?”

 

 

“Morningstar Moths go on a huge migration every 40 or so years moving up and down the country. It just coincided that a huge swarm is passing by just as All Might was killed by a mysterious person with green lightning surrounding him. There are many myths and legends saying it could be Midoriya. Some people say All Might just couldn’t handle the pressure and faked his death. Some people think it was all for show for his upcoming movie… but he never came back after that…”

 

 

Spinner’s jaw dropped. Midoriya? That stupid All Might-loving midget? Midoriya killed All Might? But if all heroes are switched around as villains, then is All Might a villain here? Did Midoriya just kill another villain? Then why would that little event became a nickname for such a harmless moth? Villains killing other villains is never a big deal back in the real world. In fact, the government tends to ignore that a whole lot and compared it more as the trash taking out the trash.

 

 

“Who’s All Might?” Spinner asked.

 

 

“The number one hero back then, before being replaced by Gigantomachia. I can understand you don’t know the guy since he’s really not that popular compared to his successor. You know what Iguchi-“

 

 

“Call me Spinner, all my friends call me Spinner,” Spinner chuckled, walking closer as two continued their little night walk. “Let’s keep it light shall we? If things align, we would be working together in some grand plan to change the course of society for the better, or so Shigaraki says.”

 

 

“Hmmm… so Dragunov isn’t joking? I thought she just had a homework she wanted me to do for her. You serious?” Chitose asked, tilting her head off to one side again. “Like 100% serious? Like some big quest or something?”

 

 

“That I can’t be sure of but we’re already in the planning stages. Now I’m going to respect your boundaries for now but I can tell that trust issue of yours is going to be a major roadblock in the future if we don’t get it remedied.”

 

 

“You’re talking like this is going to be really huge. Revenant didn’t really say anything and more like we just chatted around. We talked about the overall genetics that lead to heteromorphism. Do you know that there’s a third chromosome, not the one that causes genetic defects, but a hidden one that determines the fate of the resulting child? Well technically it’s not really a ‘third’ chromosome’ and more like a placeholder title like that ‘Cornstarch Principle’ people keep talking about. Revenant said he’s done his own research on the genetic codes that allow scientists to predict the resulting appearance of the child, but he kinda messed it up by including the Kamazana Rule 57, resulting in a failure of calculations because birds and reptiles don’t develop Quirks on the same manner people and mammals do.”

 

 

“Huh? What about me? I hatched from an egg as far as I can remember. I was a lizard that happened to have a Quirk.”

 

 

Chitose shook her head. “Lizards and Birds have this gene scientists call the Blocker Extension- Hindrance Extension…? Or is it Genetic Block-whatever, the point is that it’s an extension of the genetic code that renders those two groups unable to harbor any Quirks. Resulting science experiments always prove fatal to the creatures. Mr. Igu-I mean Spinner? You’re not a lizard.”

 

 

“I’m a… person…?”

 

 

The girl nodded. “You’re a person… that happened to look like a lizard.”

 

 

“Woah… I’m not sure if I should believe you there but… You know what? Let’s just talk about more important stuff, like the death of All Might.”

 

 

“First you ask me about the MLA, and now we’re shifting back to All Might? Tell me, how much can you remember before you were gassed?”

 

 

“Not very much. Just a few days ago me and Shiggy had to get a full briefing on how the world really works. We’re technically back to being babies in terms of knowledge. If you can spare some details that would be nice.”

 

 

Chitose tilted her head again, one lilac eyebrow raising. “For a sixteen year-old student your topics of interest are very… questionable…”

 

 

“Says the girl that knows things from moths to gene stuff…”

 

 

“I have a lot of things I don’t know yet, calling me smart is a complete overstatement. I’m just as dumb as the average person out there. But if you really want to know more about those Black Death moths, I can-“

 

 

A light shone in a distance. “Ah, they’re here…” Spinner muttered to himself, nodding to the girl beside him. “We can talk about those moths tomorrow if you’re available. But then again, based on the current events, we will be working together soon enough, it’s a grand project after all.”

 

 

“Can you tell me about the proj-“

 

 

“It’s a secret for the time being. Looking forward to working with ya, fellow heteromorph, I mean you’re a heteromorph right? It’s a term for all mutations male and female.”

 

 

“Yeah but girl heteros don’t develop mutations the same way guys do. There’s this genetic mutation that manifests after the union of the parental Quirk genes within the developing embryo, which starts at around 2 months. If Quirks are not compatible, it will change the gender of the baby to create a male heteromorph. Female heteromorphs are exceedingly rare, and even then they don’t grow enough physical outgrowths to be considered a full-on mutant.”

 

 

“You here speaking to me like you’re never allowed to nerd out before. Say all you want, I’m willing to listen. Do take note that my mental level is not the same as yours though,” Spinner said, nodding. Being a villain with a weak Quirk, his only chance of making it out is to get powerful allies, and that requires good people skills. The League of Villains may not require that level of people skills to get in but it’s best to keep those skills polished from time to time.

 

 

Friends are always one’s greatest allies, no matter as a hero, villain, or just a plain civilian.

 

 

“Yeah I know. Don’t worry about the head level, Revenant makes a good chat partner.”

 

 

“Now I dunno if you still don’t trust us too much yet, but hopefully you can get over that as soon as possible-“ Spinner turned to face the car heading their way, a simple gray sedan, exactly what he hoped for. He got out of the way to stand beside Chitose and waved at the vehicle. “I’m gonna go introduce you to-“

 

 

“Oh hey tall blue lady!” Tomura instantly yelled out after lowering the windows at the back side of the car before Kaina could even open hers. “You look like a Twi‘Lek minus the lekku! I sure do hope you’re not sent here as a prostitute cuz’ that’s gonna be awkward once we start-“

 

 

Kaina’s yell interrupted him, her voice could clearly be heard even through the back seat windows at a noticeable volume for those outside.

 

 

“What’s he talking about?” Chitose whispered to Spinner beside him, eyeing up this ‘Shigaraki’ person, or so Kaina called him as.

 

 

“It’s a Star Wars reference. His Dad introduced him to it-“

 

 

“Don’t worry, I don’t find Twi’lek’s hot. I will though if they have razor-sharp spiked headtails they could swing around, think of it like a demolisher flail on the tips… that would be really hot…” Tomura continued, gesturing towards his head as if he has two long fleshy outgrowths attached to it.

 

 

“He has an odd sense of beauty. Being Gas Kid Prime will do that to ya. But I’m sure you’ll like Shiggy,” Spinner nodded, walking towards Tomura, noticing the girl waving at Revenant inside the car for a few seconds. “Into the car I suppose-“

 

 

The front door on Kaina’s side opened. “We’re really sorry for the inconvenience, Ms. Kizuki, UA’s pretty banged-up after the little fight. I apologize in behalf of the school, I hope you didn’t change your mind on your upcoming quest-“ Kaina then immediately turned to face Scissors, sitting just beside her on the front seats of the car. “Get off, we’re letting the lady take the front seat.”

 

 

Without saying a word, Revenant-who instead of his usual blindfold is wearing black thick-rimmed goggles still obscuring his eyes, quietly got out of the car and gestured for Kizuki to enter. Meanwhile, Spinner entered the car as well, instantly raising up a hand in which Tomura immediately knew as a signal to not speak yet as  he discovered another potential AFO secret.

 

 

“Okinoshima, did you blast through the wooden patches?” Revenant’s faint voice could be heard outside as he loaded up the trunk of the car with the trolley and the ice cooler, just after Kizuki made her way in to sit beside Kaina at the front seat of the car.

 

 

“They weren’t properly patched up, just hastily stacked wooden planks,” Chitose answered back. Meanwhile Spinner discreetly pointed at her multiple times, mouthing ‘wooden planks’ to Tomura over and over for three times. A massive ‘villain attack’ happened at USJ, why would they just patch it up by wooden planks?

 

 

“Katie, I’ll go patch that up, I’ll call you when I’m done,” Revenant said with a nod, facing Kaina, who nodded back and started reversing the car almost in an instant, and turned around once they reached a certain distance to drive normally down the road.

 

 

There was silence for a few moments. It was only then when the car’s speedometer is pushing 40 kilometers per hour as they drove on the straight empty road away from USJ when Kizuki broke it. “What took you guys so long?” she asked.

 

 

“Big Three stuff… very important stuff…” Kaina answered, keeping her gaze on the road in front of them. Quite a number of moths have been slamming on the windshield and based on her voice she seemed noticeably ticked off by it. “We only got back in UA at around 10. Been asking around and everyone just assumed you went home with them. Scis- I mean Revenant went on and asked Chikazoku about it, and he’s very adamant that you’re already in your dorm-“

 

 

“Yeah that dumbass is saying that you’re home, despite being kicked off for being a dumbass. That dumbass needs to learn some lessons for being such a massive dumbass…” Tomura muttered, crossing his arms. For some reason, even if he retained his memories of the past world, IT guy-or whatever his name is, just hates this girl for some weird reason both Spinner and Tomura couldn’t understand.

 

 

“Chikazoku… yeah… I expected him to-“

 

 

“GUYS! ONLY GOOD VIBES TONIGHT! Can anyone just stop pissing her off?! Geez!” Spinner yelled out, one hand automatically going for the door handle closest to him as if he’s about to jump out at the slightest provocation.

 

 

Everyone in the car immediately went silent. Kaina even slowed the vehicle down to a stop as she too, turned her head around to face Spinner.

 

 

“In my opinion, it is of everyone’s best interest to NOT piss of the girl who can fire nukes out of her hands! I want to get home in one piece dammit!”

 

 

As Tomura’s mouth was about to form an ‘O’ shape in sheer amazement of what he heard from his best friend, Kaina spoke out, “Kizuki’s Quirk is not that strong…”

 

 

“I thought we’re already past that?” the blue-skinned girl added, before turning to the driver. “He mistook my Quirk to be disproportionately powerful. I chalked it up to some random illusionist in the dome. Or maybe you guys are just tired, I mean it’s almost 12 midnight. Why are there so many villains there in the first place?”

 

 

“Hmmm… you mean druggies?” Kaina asked back. “Do they act like zombies and such? Lotta folks just call them druggies, don’t pay them too much attention, they’re pretty much harmless. It doesn’t matter if they’re employed by Midoriya, the League of Villains, or just random bad-guys. They tend to hang out in all the most random places…”

 

 

“Druggies? Back when I was younger heroes cracked down on drug dealers pretty hard, yet those ‘druggies’ you called persisted for years! Plus aren’t those villain-grade drugs just a tweaked version of the same thing heroes use, and as far as I know those are not addictive at all, nor you can make it addictive as it interferes with the electric signals the brain uses to activate your Quirk. And most importantly it doesn’t turn people into mindless zombies…”

 

 

“Y-yeah… I know, where did you read that?” Kaina’s face slowly contorted into a look of confusion as she turned to face her seatmate. “Most of those drug informations are classified.”

 

 

“The internet. The not-addictive part I just figured out since drugs normally use neuro-inhibitors as one of its innate backups to prevent users from going all out with it with all the skills they already have… I just guessed that it’s also one of the reasons it can’t be addictive… I dunno how villains do it… am I right?”

 

 

“No, you got everything wrong.” Kaina then turned to Spinner. “Landmine can’t make nukes, it just cannot.”

 

 

“But-“ Spinner was about to respond when he saw Chitose, her face serious and her eyes narrowed at him, making a gesture in which she zipped her lips. Spinner suddenly stopped and quickly glanced over at Tomura, who’s just looking outside and minding his own business, and even then the front seat’s headrest are not low enough for his friend to see the girl’s gesture.

 

 

‘But I thought- so that nuke was really HERS?!’ Spinner thought, he’d seen what explodey-boy they kidnapped once can do, but as far as he knows his requires nitroglycerin sweat and that meant he’s only limited to the amount of water he drank. What does this girl use to create her explosions? Air molecules?

 

 

‘Dear God… unless she’s lying and playing mind games…’

 

 

“You know what? I take back my overreaction. As long as this car remains intact, I’m fine. And I’m specifically talking to you,” Spinner crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes back on Chitose, who simply nodded in response and turned back to face the front of the car in complete silence.

 

 

“Good, I don’t want any more overreactions in this car. And guys can you please keep your feet on the mats? This ride’s not mine-“ Kaina was interrupted when her right bracelet vibrated three times, a small green dot flashing and beeping repeatedly.

 

 

“I’m done, how far are you guys on the road?” It was Revenant’s voice. “Don’t tell me you guys left ME alone here…”

 

 

“Yeah we left the guy alone there. Good thing, because he’s very suspicious. And I’m always suspicious of original characters. I mean he is an original character, right?” Tomura muttered from the back, in which Spinner replied with a simple shrug. It’s been days since they both got warped into this world, and they still can’t figure out who he is, alongside Kurogiri’s true whereabouts.

 

 

“We’re just on the road near to the exit, you’ll get here in no time,” Kaina said to her wrist-mounted device and leaned back on her seat’s backrest. “I want everyone to get some shut-eye right after we get home. We got a big day tomorrow and I don’t want anyone looking all tired, especially you Mr. Shiggy.”

 

 

“Wow, you just called me by my nickname, you must really love me.”

 

 

“We got the same goals here, love, don’t disappoint me.”

 

 

“Will you be my girlfriend now?”

 

 

“No.”

 

 

“Can I ask tomorrow?”

 

 

“Yes.”

 

 

“Will you finally agree? Will the mighty Stardust finally reveal her true feelings for the greatest vil- I mean hero, ever?”

 

 

“Maybe. Maybe maybe maybe if we actually finished this whole damn thing I could actually garner a single percentage of attraction for you-“

 

 

Both parties were interrupted by Chitose’s loud snoring from the front seat. Looking over to the only other female passenger, Kaina could see her head down and drooling onto her own lap, seatbelt still slung over her. “You know what? Scratch that. Mr. Shigaraki, let’s just re-schedule our meeting tomorrow night, I’ll give you the schedule and address after we get home.

 

 

“What about me?” Spinner asked, pointing at himself. He was about to continue when a bright light shone up ahead. “Uh guys? What’s that?”

 

 

Kaina immediately turned around and raised both hands in exasperation. “Oh come on!”

 

 

“Are we in trouble?”

 

 

“Nah, only me…”

 

 

The light got brighter and brighter, accompanied by engine sounds of what appeared to be a black high-performance motorcycle going their way. There was nothing else, no other vehicle nor person on the road, just this one. Spinner could clearly see Kaina’s reflection on the rear view mirror, being more annoyed than actually worried.

 

 

The mystery vehicle drew closer and closer until it stopped right beside them. The rider pressed a button attached on the tip of the right handlebar which caused struts to jut out from the sides and stabilize the entire thing, allowing the motorcycle to stand on its own.

 

 

“Heyyyyyy… We’re just uh… saving our MVP…?” Came in Kaina’s weak and embarrassed voice after she brought down the mirrors on the driver’s window. “Nothing to see here, we’re not planning on anything yet! I even brought these two over here!”

 

 

Spinner could only watch the entire event, sitting back on the backseat and hoping the noise wouldn’t wake up Little Miss Walking-Apocalypse sleeping on the front seat. The rider slowly lifted up her helmet, in which Spinner instantly recognized as the third member of UA’s Big Three (despite looking around 5 to 7 years older than her team), and who’s also a person he didn’t know.

 

 

He slumped back as the argument got more heated up. With Dragunov saying over and over that they’re treating ‘her’ fine, which to him might be referring to their still-sleeping extra passenger-

 

 

“I’ll take her home, where’s Scissors-“

 

 

A loud thud is heard as if something big landed on the roof, shaking the entire vehicle and instantly waking up the sleeping passenger, making her flail around that Spinner just had to quickly open the door on his side and jump out as far as he can, pulling Tomura with him.

 

 

While he pretty well knew explosions and big hits don’t cause harm the same way they did long ago, the last thing he needed is to be in a car with someone, who can make such explosions, in a really bad mood. It’s not any ordinary explosion. There’s no illusionist in there, she herself made the ‘zip lip’ gesture which could mean that she did it.

 

 

While Tomura may be a lot deadlier in the real world, along with other villains, none of them are able to fire off nukes without any ill effects. The closest he can remember, outside of AFO, is Re-Destro, but even then he couldn’t fire off a single one when the PLF HQ got sieged, and this person is rapid-firing off multiple powerful ones in quick succession.

 

 

Even Dabi, the so-called powerhouse of the team, could never match that. He overheats very easily.

 

 

“Yeah I know I didn’t get the Exergis Emerald loot box too, but this is not an excuse to go rage against the Gods because of some filthy RNG!” Tomura yelled at him as he stood up. “What’s going on with ya?”

 

 

“Gaaah! Can anyone just stop pissing off the Nuclear Time Bomb for one second?!” Spinner yelled out. He was about to continue his rant when he saw Chitose get out of the car, walk towards the motorcycle, hop on to sit behind the rider, and rode off, with her head down the entire time and not even bothering to look back.

 

 

Revenant appeared behind the car from their vision. And based on the looks of things and the way Kaina spoke to him, it was him who fell right on the roof of the car… somehow…

 

 

“You okay there, man?” Tomura asked again as he pulled his friend to stand up. “I’ve never seen ya panic like that before.”

 

 

“I want to go home in one piece, dammit!” Spinner got up and dusted himself, thinking if he should tell the entire thing to his friend, but deciding against it for the time being. “By the way did someone tell her it was the League that sent the villains there?”

 

 

“That’s okay, I’ll go tell her tomorrow!” came in Revenant’s voice as he walked closer to them. “Good thing she didn’t encounter much than a bunch of druggies.”

 

 

“Druggies…?” Tomura turned around, scratching his head. He can clearly remember his own attack at USJ in the real world and absolutely none of them even used any sort of drugs. He was about to ask what is he talking about when Spinner patted him on the back.

 

 

 “Stay quiet for a while… I have an idea…” Spinner said, in which his friend instantly nodded in response.

 

 

Both went back to the car and drove home. More mysteries popped up, more mysteries to solve.

 

 

‘All Might is real, why did Midoriya kill him?’

 

Notes:

I've always wanted to write a Spinner-centered fic... I guess this'll do for the time being.

Chapter 13: Tatsumaki Kamikaze, Air Cannon

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 16 Tuesday

 

 

Kaina reached over to her bag of chips and grabbed the biggest one jutting out from all the rest. Cheese flavored, basic, generic, and nothing standing out to it compared to all the other chips available in the market, which is exactly how she likes it. The more devoid of personality a bag of chips has, the more it’s got novelty to it, as to her t least. Many people don't agree with her to it, but who are they to dictate what bag of chips a person should like?

 

 

Her attention then went to a small nondescript wall clock hanging on a wall nearby, prompting her to grab her phone from her sling bag and check its own built-in clock, and then her wristwatch. It is only then she can confirm that, yes, the person she’s waiting for is already around 20 minutes late.

 

 

“What’s taking her so long?!” she indirectly said out loud, ending her sentence with swearing in Russian, mashing the screen of her phone to send the fourth message she can towards Tatsumaki Kamikaze, the person she’s supposed to wait for. She remembered the heroine said repeatedly to meet her in the underground dojo of her mansion at exactly half hour before 5 pm, and that time is exactly 20 minutes ago.

 

 

Her frustration was somewhat interrupted by a loud slamming noise directly in front of her.

 

 

Kai Chisaki.

 

 

It’s only been a few months prior to the launch of SpecPro when both Kamikaze and Shinryaku took him in upon seeing his potential, on the logic that people as powerful as him needed to get aligned with the so-called ‘good guys’ of society and not stray into the ‘wrong path’ or so they both say.

 

 

‘Something tells me they just want a son…’

 

 

As a matter of fact the two of them seemed fully aware to the full extent of Chisaki’s powers, who’s able to morph into an amalgamation of flesh, absorb biomass, spawn limbs big and small, and all kinds of black magic trickery that can only be described as demonic in nature. For short, his abilities are seemingly limitless, with a small genetic analysis of his powers showing he can also utilize Quirks of people he absorbs, if he can even absorb people in the first place.

 

 

Overall, it’s an extremely powerful and versatile Quirk, it is no wonder he got chosen.

 

 

Will he be able to beat Midoriya? Maybe. Will he agree to it? Probably no.

 

 

Another loud slam occurred, lightly shaking the underground dojo.

 

 

“Mr. Chisaki, stop showing off, I’m here to wait, not observe…” Kaina said out loud, crossing her arms in front of her. It’s been a few days she’s been visiting here for other reasons and this kid has done nothing but show off every time she’s there, and he’s not even trying to hide it. Right now he has both of his arms morphed up to huge tentacle masses and he’s slamming training dummy after training dummy into the ground at such force that he’s shaking the entire room.

 

 

“I’m not showing off, you’re just assuming I’m showing off, because everything’s got to be about you,” the boy replied sarcastically. Ever since they first met, Chisaki has done nothing but try to rile her up. She thought if that’s his attempt at flirting, then it’s not working.

 

 

Kaina rolled her eyes and took steps back nearer to the door before checking her phone again. Kamikaze texted back – a full message composed of only three dots, and that’s more than good enough for her.

 

 

She estimated the person she’s waiting for will arrive at approximately 2 or 3 minutes. In the meantime she observed what other adjustments have been made to the dojo now that her mood’s lightened up. So far nothing’s changed except for the walls now painted off-white from a dull brown color last time. It’s still mostly empty except for a bunch of exhaust fans on the ceiling beside the lights, and a stack of training dummies on a corner.

 

 

Word is that Kamikaze had this entire underground dojo is built just to accommodate Chisaki, which is not that big of a big deal for her seeing as how rich she is and how easy buildings get constructed in the modern age of Quirks and all, but it’s definitely something.

 

 

Just a few more seconds later, she received another text message, this time only a single dot.

 

 

‘Well it’s about time… A little early than expected.’

 

 

Instantly turning around, heading out the door, and making her way to the nearest elevator and up to the helipad located at the top of the mansion, she made sure she zipped her cheese-flavored chips up and stashed it back on her sling bag, muttering to herself in Russian how useful ziplock is these days.

 

 

The helipad was a new addition, built just to accommodate Kamikaze’s newly bought helicopter-whose brand name embedded on the tailfin Kaina couldn’t understand due to being written in a foreign language outside her range. The aircraft had a sleek modern design, although she thought the metallic coloration of blues and whites could use a little toning down, as the reflection is too much on certain angles despite the entire thing loaded on a hangar just jutting to the side of the helipad itself.

 

 

Why does Kamikaze need a helicopter if she can fly? Kaina thought of it as the same reason why rich old people tend to buy huge amounts of sports cars and never use them. When you’re this rich, you can spend your money on such useless and trivial things and it would never matter.

 

 

This entire mansion itself was already rebuilt several times over, and at least four times this year alone. It went through several redesigns until settling on a modern blocky-style architecture painted mostly white. Not only rebuilt on itself several times, but also relocated to location after location as if to search for the best spot. And right now it’s located on a mountainside overlooking the Pacific Ocean. But if memory serves her right, this is the only time her mansion came pre-equipped with a underground dojo.

 

 

Yes it’s got a splendid view, but very lonely. In fact Kamikaze rarely uses her own home and would rather rent an overpriced luxury apartment in Tokyo above all things. If it weren’t for Chisaki she would only visit her home at least twice a year.

 

 

Earning huge amounts of money while not being a ‘true’ hero is certainly a very interesting case, and both Kamikaze and Shinryaku are the only ones doing so, outside of those ‘heroes’ with ‘questionable’ acts like she and others like her.

 

 

Sure enough a few seconds later a faint white streak appeared in the clear afternoon sky, parting the clouds as it went past, indicating the sheer speed it’s going through them.

 

 

The projectile-like streak started a downward arc which, based on the direction it’s going, will land onto the helipad in a matter of moments, with Kaina knowing full well to take a few steps back if she doesn’t want to be blown off and tumble down the cliffs below.

 

 

Moments later it landed straight towards the center part of the helipad, sending a powerful gust of wind in every direction. If the chopper is not stashed in its own custom-made hangar and instead just parked there, it would be cleaved clean through in half.

 

 

Tatsumaki Kamikaze, clad in her hero attire resembling the modern portrayal of the Japanese Sun Goddess Amaterasu in a twist of irony. It had a color theme of reds and whites, and complete with all the floating silk fiber strands the Goddess is normally portrayed with, as well as the decorative halo around her head.

 

 

The heroine stood up and composed herself, her short white hair, the loose fibers, and her stylized kimono all moving as if they’re all underwater, creating a mesmerizing appearance.

 

 

“You’re late…” Kaina said as she crossed her arms and leaned onto a pole behind her. “I got some real headway over here-“

 

 

Tatsumaki raised a hand to her direction as she walked towards the nearby glass door housing the elevator that leads to the main living room of the mansion. “Ishiyumi and Setsuzoku already told me everything, you don’t need to explain. Based on what little information I got from them, I don’t think this ‘Kizuki’ person even knows the whole mess she’s about to be part in.”

 

 

She ended her sentence with a sigh, not even bothering to look at her as she made her way towards the elevator. “You and I? We need to talk.”

 

 

Kaina shrugged it off as she also went into the elevator as the older heroine. She predicted it’s going to be another of those ‘Your plan sucks and it’s endangering the life of one person’ kinda of thing, even though they agreed for her to do it in the first place and they’re the only hope at actually ending Midoriya’s reigns in the underground society.

 

 

A frown formed on her face at the thought of them suddenly backing out just as she got a willing volunteer for her plan.

 

 

It was only then when she got closer, the difference from their heights became more profound. Tatsumaki, despite a good 3 years older than her, is only slightly taller by a mere two inches, very different from Chitose’s towering height of over 6 feet despite being only 16.

 

 

As they went down, Kaina noticed how eerily quiet the heroine beside her is. She was normally jovial, excitable, always glad to see any improvement Chisaki’s doing, although that’s not the image the public know her for. Even the loose fiber threads that are part of her outfit started drooping, until eventually she looked less of a hero and more like a random impersonator.

 

 

“When…” Kaina muttered after the elevator opened, revealing a luxurious well-lit living room. “It’s been uh… It’s been years since that happened, but I think you guys just need a good make-out session. Like real hot and steamy just like what I do with my ex-boyfriends whenever we have arguments.” She finished her sentence with an awkward laugh. Tatsumaki glared at her as she stepped out, both because what she said is completely nonsensical and ignorant of the whole situation, and that Kaina herself never even had a single boyfriend before.

 

 

“I’m not talking about him. Me and Seigyo are on good terms for a long time now, stop bringing it up, this has nothing to do with that,” Tatsumaki said as she stepped out of the elevator and on to the right side of the living room, where an indoor bar is located, manned by a small robot that’s nothing but two arms connected to a pole connected to a single wheel.

 

 

“So uuhh… so there’s word going on around that you and him are gonna be co-hosts at the upcoming UA Sports Festival.” Kaina asked as she stepped out, minding the indoor ‘wind chimes’ located on either side of the elevator exit. “Some folks at UA are talking about it, real excited they are too.”

 

 

Tatsumaki had a seat on the rightmost part of the bar, and sent some hand signals towards the robot attending the whole thing, specifically to its one glowing red eye, and swiveled her seat around, a light smile now on her face. “Yep, we’re ready for that sweet sweet publicity, real important these days now that there have been reports of Ingenium running around again. Gotta keep the real information out as usual.”

 

 

“Ingenium, huh?” Kaina walked closer and sat near Tatsumaki, one seat in between them. She very well knew the codename of the so-called Hero Killer. Armed with a Quirk that allows him to go from a standing start to a speeding blur, he’d always managed to evade authorities trying to hunt him down as he continues to go around killing whatever hero he likes, saying something about purging the system. “Where?”

 

 

“Hosu.”

 

 

“Why would Ingenium pick that place?” Kaina raised an eyebrow. As a villain who’s talent allows him to reach insane speeds but not a good enough turning ability, he naturally avoids such areas with narrow alleyways, busy streets, and cramped areas. Him being sighted there is certainly a cause for concern, seeing the person is a real villain and not like those ‘Druggies’ at USJ.

 

 

Tatsumaki shook her head. “Whatever goes in his head are his thoughts alone, and reading thoughts are beyond my abilities. So far, we made sure people and heroes stationed there are not alerted yet.”

 

 

Kaina nodded. While it may sound stupid to not alert people and heroes around the vicinity of a notorious serial killer, it made sense in the big picture, the big picture that’s too distorted by Midoriya’s endless meddling. Right now society’s so unstable and heroes are looked up to in such an almost religious-regard that people would oftentimes riot at their slightest mistakes. But that same religious regard is the same thing how the same heroes are earning so much money, and that’s what matters in the grand scheme of things. “So what are we talking about? About my plan? I dunno if they already told you but we’re making real headway, Kizuki can see her own mines, even through walls, with enough-

 

 

The older heroine raised a hand as she had her other free hand to gulp down her ordered drink. “Did you ever stop for a moment and thought about it all? Midoriya’s grasp extends onto all corners of the country. Your plan to eliminate him will just bring more ruin than we initially started with. What do you think will happen to heroes? And the society that’s built around them? To me? To you? To all of us?”

 

 

Kaina rolled her eyes again. While she definitely knew Midoriya’s system offered far easier alternatives under the guise of heroism, what she herself thinks is that the problem will only get worse from here on out, especially since he referenced he already has a possible replacement for a hitman that can do things better than all three of them combined. And Midoriya tends to be a little trigger happy on his hitmen, and she knew it. “If we don’t act now, the problem will only get worse, you know that,” she said.

 

 

“Yes I know, but what do you think will happen if he died? If you can even kill him that is? The entire society will fall. He shaped the country, molded everything so that everyone he’s too important to get rid of. His influence is just that too huge to ignore, take him out of the picture he’ll bring everything down with him.”

 

 

“Which is exactly how is he still left standing after all he’s done. If everyone acts now, the impending collapse could be easily remedied. I don’t want to kill innocent heteromorphs anymore.”

 

 

“But no one wants to make things a lot harder if there are way easier alternatives. Drop the plan, get Kizuki out of this mess, I changed my mind, Midoriya will stay.”

 

 

“WHAT?!” Kaina said out loud she almost fell off her seat. Kamikaze was one of the very few people who even agreed to to help her in her quest to take down Midoriya once and for all, and her suddenly backing down just as she’s already making headway is just too much to take in. “But if I quit and get replaced, that would lead to more trouble! And you know it! You’re just backing out because you’re benefiting a LOT! Is your comfort more important than the lives of innocent people I had to take??”

 

 

“If you’re in my position you would’ve acted the same…” Tatsumaki sighed, running a palm down her face. “You know, Tsutsumi, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Don’t go playing hero if you’re just going to regret it in the end.”

 

 

“Tell me, Kamikaze, what am I going to regret after this if I succeeded?”

 

 

“The downfall of society among other things. Heroes are not that skilled as they were a few generations ago, hero schools admit anyone these days. If an actual powerful villain arrives and Midoriya is nowhere to defeat it, then everyone’s done for.”

 

 

“Says the living superweapon…” Kaina crossed her arms, rolling her eyes. “Where’s Mr. Crimson? At least he agrees to me about it! Unless you convinced him to back out.”

 

 

“Crimson will be arriving shortly, he’s going to be needed to unlock Chisaki’s full potential. And no, I will NOT allow him to-“

 

 

A loud whistling was heard by the two coming from the staircase that leads downstairs, just right beside the elevator.

 

 

“HONEY I’M HOOOOMMMMEEEE!”

 

 

‘Shinryaku…’ Kaina thought to herself, gaze drifting a little too long on the staircase, just in the case the hero in question appears. Despite being at the level of popularity as Tatsumaki, Seigyo is not a registered hero, no matter how much people like him to become one, and maybe share the same rank as her, if ever her real rank is revealed – which Kaina knew it will never be.

 

 

“She’s here!” Tatsumaki replied, turning around her seat and crossing her legs. For all the negativity earlier, she’s back in a good mood, or so what Kaina could see.

 

 

“You two should just get married at this point…” Kaina muttered to herself, even though she fully knew the real reason why they can’t be together. “I see no reason why you two won’t do it.”

 

 

“Pffft, as if you don’t know!” The older heroine joked, standing up straight and levitating towards the staircase and peeking down, the strands on her costume now resuming their almost underwater-like movement once more. “Over here!” she called out down below, levitating unusually high like she’s so excited to meet him.

 

 

Even though they see each other everyday.

 

 

Meanwhile Kaina was left on the bar, the robotic barista right behind her standing standing very creepily and staring into the back of her neck. It was programmed to wait for orders from people sitting there, and nothing else. If there are no other people on the bar, then stare it will do.

 

 

‘Here I was expecting these living superweapons of society to work with me, when in the end they pulled back out as well.’

 

 

She shook her head, it’s been quite some time now she’s having these chats with the two of them about her upcoming plan, and both agreed with it until she actually got someone who can track who flew under the radar for sixteen whole years, as well as Gas Kid Prime Shigaraki. Did they only agree because they didn’t expect she’ll find someone who can actually track him down?

 

 

Kaina involuntarily gritted her teeth. Tatsumaki Kamikaze is just right in front of her peeking down the staircase looking like a levitating lovestruck 14 year old girl waiting for her crush to make his way up her dreamhouse. It was like yesterday when all three of them are discussing their respective plans, really serious in taking Midoriya down.

 

 

‘And now they’re just backing out? Just like that? Seriously? Just because one person nobody likes is in the line of danger?? Can’t they make that one sacrifice??’

 

 

Kaina crossed her legs as well as her arms, her head bending down and contorting into all sorts of faces reflecting her frustration on the matter. Without the help of Japan’s living superweapons on the case, the chances of taking Midoriya came from barely manageable to outright impossible.

 

 

‘At least there’s still Machia…’

 

 

 A few seconds later, a sharp crimson spire jutted out from the bottom floor and up in front of Tatsumaki, who seemed overjoyed by it. The spire then bent down and made contact with the floor just right in front of the bar and started manifesting as a barely humanoid shape starting from the foot as if it’s transferring biomass from its position downstairs and into this.

 

 

It’s a good thing Shinryaku’s wearing his usual Stratonite-infused casual clothing, allowing him to transport whatever he’s wearing as well, or else he’ll appear here fully naked. Kaina estimated the closeness of the two and it wouldn’t surprise her if he does this thing without clothes on sometimes.

 

 

Or maybe she’s just thinking too much.

 

 

Seigyo Shinryaku was a fairly short guy, just over an inch taller than Tatsumaki. Now despite being the literal physical manifestation of the genetic mutation that gave rise to superpowers, among other godly feats he’s able to do with his natural-born abilities, there’s nothing that stood out to him, except his short spiky hair having crimson tips. He doesn’t have claws, colored blotches of skin to indicate his abilities, strange-looking eyes, huge muscles, nor a distorted voice, he’s simply normal.

 

 

Although Kaina had to admit he’s got that youthful pretty-boy look going for him, so there’s that it seems. Just observing the two for quite some time now and she could see Tatsumaki’s gaze always tending to linger on him a little too long every time he talks. While she doesn’t know if the feelings between them are equal, on the outside it looks like she likes him more than he likes her.

 

 

Or whatever ‘ship tease’ flavor these two are cooking up for the day, which is basically their entire gimmick. Over half of their earnings come projects resulting from it.

 

 

“Dragunov! It’s a pleasure to-“ Shinryaku spun around, arms up, and turned to her with one hand pointing like he’s an announcer in some kind of game show, which is his favorite past time. “Aaaand no… we have decided to you are NOT going to proceed with your plan!”

 

 

“Why not?! We’ve been planning this for weeks! You two just didn’t expect I’ll actually find someone who can-“

 

 

“You will NOT throw away one innocent person’s life for a plan you don’t even know will work. At least Crimson here had some semblance of sense-“ Tatsumaki was about to continue when Seigyo interrupted her.

 

 

“Of course I have semblance of sense, you wanna know why Dragunov’s plan sucks?” Shinryaku cranked his head to face Tatsumaki, his head outright spinning around 180 degrees without an audible crack, patches of crimson lines appearing on his neck before his entire body turned to face her, in which the lines disappeared.

 

 

“Why?”

 

 

“Because I didn’t have a major role in it.”

 

 

“And what’s that’s supposed to mean?”

 

 

“I will still continue to support it, Tsutsumi,” Shinryaku said, stepping a few steps back to lean onto a pillar nearby before turning to face Kaina again, “if you can get Miss Beautiful over here. What purpose am I? The Great Shinryaku Seigyo, if there’s not a single pretty woman in the team?”

 

 

A huge frown appeared on Kaina’s face, and went even further down when she saw Tatsumaki behind him let out a light girly giggle, her face clearly tinged red from blushing. “Every week Midoriya asks me to take out at least 10 random heteromorphs around the city and that’s the deal I had to agree on? Are you f***ing serious?”

 

 

“Look pal those people never mattered, their lives-whether they’re living or not, never made a difference in the overall picture of society. Stop playing goody-two-shoes against an enemy who could vaporize you in a single hit.”

 

 

“So there’s that huh? The two most powerful heroes in the country, just letting these things go by?” Kaina responded, with one raised eyebrow. “More and more people die the more this lets on-“

 

 

“There’s a fine line between bravery and stupidity. If this is just some 'rando' villain then sure, go ahead. But it’s Izuku frikkin’ Midoriya we’re talking about! Only people with a death wish would go against him. To be honest Kizuki does have an unconventional tracking ability, if what Scissors’s information is true - well that depends if he’s as smooth around ladies like me.”

 

 

“If you as much stayed with us for a good two hours you’ll see how much attention from girls Scissors get… and he gets that all while covering half of his face…” Kaina lowered her head, tightening her crossed arms and glaring at him. While what she said about her team member is very much true, a thing not apparent with the almost all-male SpecPro Class A, Shinryaku treating dying people as some sort of joke is really getting on her nerves. “Beros gets hit on a lot too, and she’s older than your pretend-girlfriend over there, will you join us now?”

 

 

“Oh yeah? What about you?”

 

 

“That’s none of your business-“

 

 

“Chisaki seems to talk about you a lot, you two need to blow off some steam,” Tatsumaki said from behind Shinryaku, with a sly joking smile as she threw back Kaina’s own joke back at her. “You might want to consider him since he’s gonna be next in line as the country’s superweapon after all, can’t get a guy with a higher status than that!”

 

 

“Are you guys going to help me or what?”

 

 

“No,” the two both said in unison. A moment later Tatsumaki added, “unless there’s some serious world-ending crap or anything, we won’t join you.”

 

 

“We’d rather preserve what we already have instead of trying to meddle and… you know the rest.” Shinryaku nodded, stroking the bottom of his chin. “I suggest you cut that out, it will get you nowhere. OR! You can just blow Midoriya’s brains out, and I meant with your bullets. Yourself… But I know you can’t do that, because you yourself don’t even know how to properly kill the guy, and you’re scared of being found out and have your lungs ripped out. But you have absolutely no problem when getting another person eviscerated, no?”

 

 

“You guys are delusional.”

 

 

“See? Even you know that Midoriya could have some black magic tricks up his sleeve to survive that. I heard he even gave you the chance to back out, and yet you denied it. If you’re worried about your mental health, then let the guy put his new hitman out jeez! The guy paid you enough! You’re set for the rest of your life! You’re letting pesky morality ruin you.”

 

 

“Whatever…” Kaina waved him off, standing up from her bar stool, muttering something in Russian and re-adjusting her sling bag. “I’ll finish the job myself.”

 

 

“Yeah I’m sure that Shigaraki kid can help you with that,” he heard the sarcastic reply from the guy. “Let’s not let this become regret and back off while it’s early-“

 

 

“Nah, I’m leaving you two to sit on your fat stacks of money while I go end this thing.”

 

 

“Good luck…”

 

 

Kaina walked right to the elevator and nodded once before closing the door, and made her way back to the helipad. Now with absurdly diminished chances of ever hoping to take on Midoriya, what is she supposed to do now? Go back and be the cause of hundreds of dead innocent heteromorphs?

 

 

‘Why can’t they see it would be better with him out of the picture?!’ she screamed internally, her face contorting into a mixture of worry, anxiety, and frustration. She fully well knew Kamikaze and Shinryaku are more than capable of taking him head-on, something no other hero, including the invulnerable Gigantomachia, can do.

 

 

‘They backed out so easily because they’re not the ones doing the killing… at least Machia understands me.’

 

 

A few moments later she reached the helipad portion of the mansion, before reaching onto her sling bag and pulling out her phone and dialing a number onto it.

 

 

“Scissors, Point A, now,” she spoke to the phone, after seeing the little symbol on the top right of the screen depicting a rotating satellite dish lock into place.

 

 

“Gimme a minute…” came in a hurried reply before quickly disconnecting.

 

 

Kaina felt all her toes inside her right shoe, her ring toe-the term she called the toe next to the pinky, feeling a bit stranger than the rest, which is all good in her book. If she wanted to go places quickly, then the odd feeling of one of her digits meant she’s ready to go.

 

 

A few seconds later her vision started being greenish, tufts and pillars appearing from the corners of her eyes. It was also at this time when the entire scenery began warping and stretching before her, looking like a very heavily-distorted photo, but one that could make a person puke if they’re not prepared for it. And then a quick flash of black, back again to the stretched images, and black again, before her vision normalized.

 

 

And the next thing she knew, she’s at a dimly lit alleyway behind a dumpster.

 

 

‘Out of all the places he can put them to…’

 

 

She wiggled her toes on her right foot and there’s the familiar feeling of a complete set of digits.

 

 

“Dragunov,” said a familiar voice just right beside her. A man in casual wear, with nothing standing out except his beanie with goggles in front of them, is just leaning on a wall. “I was expecting you’d be here a couple of minutes ago. I heard Scissors’s available, why can’t he just go here and take his shots?”

 

 

“Got a lot of school activity, Loud Cloud, you have absolutely no idea how Makihara likes to extend his classes.”

 

 

“Even just after our little USJ gig?” The man said with a smug smile, raising an eyebrow along with his voice, his face looking very much pleased as he reached into his left pant pocket and pulled out a small package. “Nah as long as you do your thing, by the way there won’t be any targets for a good while.”

 

 

Kaina reached over to grab the package. “Why?”

 

 

“You know that villain Lemillion? Togata Mirio? Ring a bell?”

 

 

“You mean the one who eats things?”

 

 

“The guy who phases through things, you’re mistaking him for Suneater. He called Midoriya yesterday and wants to challenge him just a few kilometers off the coast. I dunno when, but it’s coming.”

 

 

Kaina nodded. She very well knew about this notorious solo bank-robbing criminal, famous for humiliating any hero that dared to go against him and his insanely powerful and seemingly un-counterable Quirk of being able to make things pass through him harmlessly. He was last sighted on Hokkaido but that was weeks ago, news and reports about him stopped by then. “Midoriya will take him on?” she asked.

 

 

“He’s gonna give me a brand new house if the fight goes past 10 minutes.”

 

 

“Why am I not going to get new assignments if the fight’s just going to last ten minutes?”

 

 

“Other reasons I cannot tell ya, see ya soon I guess?” The man shrugged and turned around, twirling his right hand and summoning a cloud of smoke which soon materialized into a solid state in which he hopped onto it and flew straight up. It is only then when Kaina saw 4 badly beaten up heroes just right up ahead.

 

 

‘Shirakumo and his… unusual proficiency with blunt weapons…’

 

 

As with any other hero, she went there and propped all of them on the wall. Based on the fact that they’re still unconscious, they must have been only attacked recently. While they looked like they’ve been ragdolled to hell and back and slightly bleeding from the head, they’re pretty much fine, just knocked out, ‘Cornstarch Principle’ in full display once again.

 

 

A quick call to the nearest agency in this part of the city, and Kaina went on her way. Those heroes need no more aid from her.

 

 

The thought brought her back about the USJ incident just yesterday. Ms. Hasaki was slammed onto the ground and beaten up by a Nomu hard enough that she actually started bleeding profusely from her wounds, something that regular hits don’t do.

 

 

‘New and improved Nomus… Midoriya’s planning something… this can’t be normal. It would take an entire apocalypse before those two decide to lift a finger on the matter…’

 

 

She shook her head, holding up the small package given to her by Shirakumo. It was a brown envelope, bloated and and full. She brought it up to her ear and lightly shook it, the feeling sloshing liquid within, making her involuntarily nod her head.

 

 

The streets are relatively quiet, very much unlike what would happen in a few hours’ time. Her disguise is the only thing preventing her from being surrounded by fans and other people who recognize her.

 

 

Opening up the package, she peeked inside and saw around five huge syringes that looked like they were designed to inject something inside car tires than to poke people with it. Each of the things was disproportionately huge, far bigger than the standard ‘Trigger Injectors’ criminals normally use. Inside each one is filled to the brim with purple liquid, and ready to be used.

 

 

A small smug grin appeared on her face as she grabbed one of them, carefully concealing them in case people saw her with a huge syringe with a silly grin on, and get mistaken for the ‘infamous serial killer’ Kinoko Kimori. She walked faster and positioned herself so that she will pass right beside a trash can, in which she quickly emptied the entire thing, before shoving the syringe back. She did the same things to the other two until only two loaded syringes remain in the package.

 

 

Kaina immediately went to the nearest dark alleyway, behind another dumpster, before emptying the contents, all five syringes rolling onto the ground.

 

 

Using one of the full ones, she distributed its purple fluid across the other three. The other full one she stashed inside her sling bag. Looking left and right and making sure no one saw her, she shoved all four syringes back into the envelope and stood in the middle of the alleyway, looking up.

 

 

Kaina then immediately deployed both fleshy arm rifles and swiveled them so they face the ground, before extending them to absurd lengths, using them as pole vaults to launch herself up to the rooftops.

 

 

Landing gracefully, she looked up again and checked the buildings around her. There is a huge building up to her right, another tall one with a tower on top, and a wide rectangular one to her left which means-

 

 

“Over there!” she said out loud, launching herself up again to the next building using rapid extension of her flesh rifles. She was propelled high into the air, the late afternoon sun given her a spectacular backdrop.

 

 

‘Now if only things went smoothly earlier, this would’ve been epic.’

 

 

She eyed her landing spot and aimed her feet forwards. The moment her feet made contact with the next rooftop, she pushed her legs up with all her might to cushion the landing, making her look like she just fell normally when in reality she just came down from an over twenty-foot tall jump. It’s an advanced technique taught only on the final year of heroics, and only possible due to the physical meddling brought about by Quirks. She remembered she’s one of the few students back then in her old school who got it right on the first try.

 

 

Partly because she’s been falling over and over again ever since she realized she can pole vault using her rifles.

 

 

That proud feeling became even more intense because both Beros and Scissors, even though they’re elites on the same level as her, never bothered to learn it.

 

 

 

 

Because Beros can effectively fly…

 

 

And Scissors never needed to learn in the first place by nature of his Quirk…

 

 

 

 

Rolling her eyes and sighing, she made her way through the rooftops until she reached her intended destination.

 

 

‘I’m ending Midoriya, one way or another…’

Notes:

Nagant’s going to be the focus of another chapter after this since she’s got the important connections in the alternate universe. We’ll get back to Shigaraki soon.

Chapter 14: Artificial Human

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 16 Tuesday

 

 

Kaina walked straight-ahead on the rooftop she’s on and positioned herself so that a huge air conditioning unit is standing between her and the late afternoon sun, with the shadowed area she’s on giving her some form of concealment as she looked down on the crowd below. It was a huge gathering of people who all seemed to be facing one direction and their backs all turned towards her, all looking ahead as if there’s something about to happen right in front of them.

 

 

The crossroads right ahead is huge, in terms of potential road space consumed, in order to accommodate the statue of the Number One hero Gigantomachia right at the middle. Kaina saw nothing different about the statue and her gaze went back to the crowd, and it was only at this time that she saw three hero-like figures standing in front of them, judging from their brightly-colored outfits.

 

 

‘Fake villain activity perhaps? What’s going on?’

 

 

Just as she was in the middle of her thoughts, a hero, whom she instantly recognized as the Number 4 Hero Carbonator, slid into the scene from the left side of the crossroad in a huge tidal wave, enveloping the Gigantomachia Statue and clearly knocking down the various decorations surrounding it.

 

 

Kaina’s gaze once again went up to the statue, seeing as everyone's acting like there’s something important currently going on with it. It was only this time she noticed there’s actually a person there, a villain perhaps, clinging on the statue’s raised-up fist. Based on the villain’s Quirk, she recognized him as the Shield Villain Crust.

 

 

She rolled her eyes on the entire thing. It was obviously staged. What villain would willingly come out NOT under the cover of darkness? Almost 95% of ‘villain’ activity happen in broad daylight, almost often in the middle of a bustling city environment, with heroes coincidentally catching them every time. If villains are getting caught again and again, why would they even bother to go with the same tactics that caused their predecessors to be ‘jailed’.

 

 

The answer is clear, as to her but not to the masses. All these villains are faked. With the rise of heroes came the downfall of criminals. With so many of those caped crusaders patrolling the streets, there’s now little sense to even show yourself out there as a bad guy without hordes of said caped crusaders going down on you like rabid dogs in their eternal quest for fame and fortune.

 

 

Heroes have all the power. Heroes have too much power, too much in fact that almost half of taxes is spent on preserving that power, mostly on making stages fights more and more grand. Vigilantes are highly frowned upon, and even going as simple as impersonating a hero can land someone in jail.

 

 

A small scoff escaped Kaina’s lips. Aside from her usual heteromorph targets, she’d also shot dead quite a number of vigilantes herself. And compared to the innocent mutant humans, vigilantes usually get what’s coming to them.

 

 

Or so she thinks. Vigilantes, especially those blessed with powerful Quirks and thus are not caught earlier, normally think what they’re doing is right, but what they really are are a bunch of arrogant narcissistic jerks who think their word is law. They’re all inspired by the staged heroic acts of modern heroes and don’t know the difference yet trying to re-enact it. They oftentimes break things and make problems even worse.

 

 

Kaina’s thoughts drifted over to the two notorious ‘Vigilantes of Naharuta’, or so what those two think what they are. Except they’re nothing but delusional Trigger-addicted junkies who beat people up for the simple reason they have black tongues, or just beat people up they suspect to have black tongues.

 

 

Due to the nature of the Quirk of one of them, efforts made to apprehend them always fail. As a result, the two are allowed to send their fists crashing on the faces of unsuspecting targets day in and day out for years straight. Why are people not leaving the area yet? Kaina doesn’t know but she’s sure it has an explanation.

 

 

‘Nah, it’ll solve itself out…’

 

 

Her eyes drifted to the crowd. Scissors is supposed to be here, and the tell-tale signs of his presence are-

 

 

On the back part of the crowd is a group of giggling girls and sure enough there he is.

 

 

‘Those girls must be really into flesh golems…’

 

 

Reaching back to her sling bag, she pulled out a small pinky finger belonging to a right hand and walked back to the center part of the relatively silent rooftop, amidst the loud cheering of the crowd below.

 

 

She placed it on the warm concrete which caused it to twitch a little. She then pressed on the finger with her own and quickly stepped back when the thing started twitching in greater intensity than before, but still following the joint movements of a regular human finger.

 

 

A minute later a rather weak flash of green light, made even weaker by the afternoon sun just right behind them, flashed on the location of the finger in the shape of a standing person.

 

 

Scissors appeared, wearing red-themed casual wear with long sleeves but still retaining opaque covers over his eyes.

 

 

“Uhh, got the stuff?” he asked, lightly scratching the back of his neck. ”Did you tell them the last four batches were not enough?”

 

 

‘Okay… here we go again.’

 

 

Kaina sighed, her head lowering as she fished out the same envelope she received just earlier and handed it to him. “I don’t know how many syringes are there this time around. This time I repeated four times that you really need extra. I haven’t checked the contents yet.”

 

 

“Do you think I’ve been abandoned? You did say there’s a new hitman around, right? And Mr. Green is just waiting for us to retire?” Scissors asked, looking around as he took the package.

 

 

Kaina nodded. “High chance your syringes are not enough again,” she said, her gaze lingering on the envelope a little longer than it should be. Sure enough Scissors opened it and peeked inside, and in an instant his face went from blank to one of what looked like despair – a little too overdramatic for someone who just didn’t receive his gloop of unknown liquid.

 

 

“These syringes are barely full! This is way less than last time-“

 

 

“Pike down will ya? People could hear us!” Kaina immediately went over to check the same syringes she just drained earlier. She got two syringes and pretended to inspect them very carefully. “Are you sure there’s not some hidden button in these? You press and the thing fills up like some good ol’ Strato-tech?”

 

 

“No?”

 

 

“Well this is certainly bad. How long have this been happening?”

 

 

“A month and a half ago? Why?”

 

 

“That was the time we’re just getting prepped up for SpecPro right? It appears Midoriya’s got a new set of hitmen a long time ago and just announced it to me only recently. You know what? I fully expected it. You know how the guy works. He ditches old stuff quite frequently.”

 

 

“Huh? I should go ask-”

 

 

“Midoriya set you to me. I handle all talking with him. You should be glad you’re not the one going face-to-face with the guy. Do you have any idea how many executions I witnessed because of that? And no I’m not forcing you to go attend them, so just let me handle the talking, I’m always pretty good with talking.”

 

 

“Okay then, so what am I supposed to do when this runs out-“

 

 

“Heh, I got that covered. I knew this day would come, let’s go home, we got better things to do.”

 

 

“Covered how? What’s gonna happen to me?”

 

 

Kaina nodded at him, smiling. “Let’s go home, I think I have an idea how to remedy your syringe issue-“

 

 

“I don’t really know how much you knew about my condition but I really need a full dose of-“

 

 

Kaina raised up a finger up to the boy’s lips. “When I say I got you covered, I got you covered, let’s move… it’s gonna be a looooong night ahead of us!” she finished her gesture with a joyful arm swing and then pointing both fingers towards the sky. “Let’s go!”

 

 

She mentally cringed upon doing the gesture. It’s too childlike, too carefree, too unfitting for her. But if the plan is to succeed, if people are to be saved before Midoriya launches his new hitmen, if the nonsensical heteromorph purge is to end, then what needs to be done will need to be done.

 

 

“Bring in the blades! We warp before sundown!” Kaina exclaimed, but not loud enough to be heard by people down below. In a short notice she heard faint splattering noises from Scissors’s direction which she didn’t mind one bit. Seconds later, a 2-foot long blade, with the width of a broadsword and glowing with a faint green emissive glow, impaled itself sideways on her head. “We really need to get going, no delays! Chop chop!” she said.

 

 

Once again just as she finished talking, her entire vision warped and stretched backwards, streaks of light appeared on the corners of her eyes in the exact same manner before she was transported earlier. In the blink of an eye she instantly founded herself inside a house.

 

 

Her house.

 

 

Given to her by no other than Midoriya himself after she reached her one hundredth heteromorph kill. The interior is a mix of whites, blues, and yellow trims, giving the entire room on overall regal feel, exactly like the way Midoriya likes his properties, based on her very few visits to his own mansion in his own private island fortress

 

 

It was not only built with style in mind, but also for maximum comfortability and space. But that was only in the interior, on the outside it just looks like any other building in the residential area it’s built in, perfectly disguised, throwing people off on the real resident within.

 

 

Kaina heard shuffling behind her, only now realizing the blade impaled on her head is now completely gone. It was Scissors walking towards the TV and turning it on. “Heard about the USJ crater?” he asked as he was holding onto a syringe with his left hand, his entire right arm now covered through a stretched-out long sleeve, visibly stained red. “Did Kamikaze and Shinryaku said anything about it?”

 

 

“USJ What? A crater…?” she asked, watching Scissors, with his back turned to her, inject himself with the full mass of the syringe’s purple fluid straight to his left arm with his covered-up right hand, the size of the needle not even making him flinch nor appear to be in pain despite the injection leaving a noticeable bleeding wound in which he simply wiped it off with his shirt, ignoring the bloodstain. “Was there a crater?”

 

 

The question went unanswered for a while as Scissors picked up the remote once more and changed channels on the television until he came across a news channel, but it’s reporting something completely unrelated. “Lotsa things happened today, you didn’t check the news one bit? Much more happened than Shirakumo’s little stunt at USJ. Did Chisaki say anything?”

 

 

“Too busy pissing me off.”

 

 

“Last night when I went to seal the hole at USJ, I noticed that the ground below was carved, as if something was fired off. Think of it like some meteorite crash or something… let’s wait and see if the news of the USJ event’s gonna pop up again. What do you think are the chances that Landmine did it?”

 

 

“Yeah Iguchi’s pretty shaken up last night,” Kaina nodded, walking to the nearest sofa facing the television and hopped there with no regard to the overall durability of said sofa to carry her entire weight down, but minding the 2 huge dog plushies sitting on the other end. She’s not the one to easily believe peple so easily but since it was Scissors then he gets a pass. “But we gotta believe the registry on this one. If she’s that strong then we can just barge in with her as a battering ram and have her blast everyone to the stratosphere. She reminds me of Bakugo now that I think of it, did Midoriya tell you about him?”

 

 

“The one with the explosive sweat?” Scissors asked, his back still turned to her. “Beros told me he’s the first Mecha-Nomu, right?”

 

 

“Yep, now don’t fret too much on the syringes, I tell you about my plan for that later, so what’s going on there? Are there any USJ news yet-”

 

 

“Katie, check this out…” Scissors slowly stepped out of the way, allowing the girl to get a good view of the television.

 

 

Kaina squinted her eyes on the television. As big as the screen of her flatscreen TV is, she couldn’t help but instantly recognize the areal shot of USJ, where it’s shown that everything is perfectly fine and not a single crater was shown. Based on the level of lighting on the shot, she could estimate that it was taken at around 2 in the afternoon. “So… what crater?”

 

 

“Exactly, they removed the crater…“ Scissors immediately leaned in front of the screen, staring into the central part of the TV as if seeing something despite his eyes being completely covered. He then pointed a finger and started tracing something.

 

 

“What?” Kaina immediately hopped up and went to the screen to stare at it, especially at the area Scissors is tracing. It took her a while but she eventually saw that something is indeed covered up, but too faint for the regular viewer to notice. She was about to talk some more but all that happened is that her face kept contorting into a whole mix of confusion, with not a single word coming out of her lips. She’s not new to doctored images, but this one seemed like it was covered up by soil and not by digital tampering. UA must have hid it themselves. But why?

 

 

 “Are all the news like that? Everything about the crater’s covered up?

 

 

“Yep. Can’t go wrong with Takeyama,” Scissors said, lightly tilting his head in reference to the news woman currently speaking on the screen. Kaina’s gaze went to the side of the areal shot of the USJ, where she instantly recognized the person narrating the scene. She knew the person quite well. Yuu Takeyama, a regular reporter who made quite a name for herself for moving insanely fast in her field of work in journalism up to being an executive at Shoowaysha in only a span of around one and a half decades.

 

 

It was like only yesterday when Kaina could remember Takeyama celebrating her 40th birthday and people on the internet were out there drooling over her pics from twenty years ago.

 

 

As much as there are only positives she could say on the person, she couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Kaina knew that a huge part of her ability to rank up so fast is because of her good looks. Physical appearance is a very important aspect of life after all, and that even extends to heroics.

 

 

“Alright, so looks like I’m just going to take your word for it. That’s another mystery for us to solve.” Kaina said as she stood up straight and stretched her limbs, before gesturing towards the entire living room. “Shall we?”

 

 

Scissors slowly got up and stretched his limbs as well, with the covered right arm with red stains still covered, before turning off the TV and staring at Kaina with a huge frown on his face. “Alright… let’s get going…”

 

 

“If you want me to help you with your syringe issue then you gotta help me on this first,” the girl also frowned, even bigger and more expressive than her companion, before walking back to the sofa, and pointing at the 2 huge dog plushies sitting on the far left. “Determinator and Exterminatus will stay in your room for the time being.”

 

 

“You can’t be serious…”

 

 

Kaina nodded, a smug grin on her face, before pointing at the cabinet located on the other side of the living room. It was a fairly tall cabinet, with its shelves fully stocked-up by rows upon rows of dog wobbly heads, especially of the shibu breed. “All these will stay in your room too!” she said, repeating what she said in full Russian.

 

 

“Oh come on…”

 

 

“I said what I said, now get your ass over here and start carrying these, I need to finish up some things before I call them.”

 

 

Sighing, Scissors walked over to the coffee table in front of the sofa facing the television and pulled out a small wooden tray-like slab of wood, its exact purpose unknown to him, and started collecting the wobbly-heads as much as the thing can carry. Off he went to the door just behind the television stand.

 

 

Immediately Kaina skipped off to the other door on the right side of the living room. Ignoring the current state of her bedroom at the moment and almost diving under her bed and pulling out a small wooden box. She then looked behind her, listened for a moment, and then back again to the box. Reaching inside, she pulled out a huge syringe filled with the same purple liquid inside, replaced it with the one she stashed on her sling bag earlier, before closing the entire thing and shoving back under the bed where it belonged.

 

 

She slowly got outside her bedroom, peeking out before to make sure Scissors didn’t see her exit. She also made sure she held the syringe behind her back.

 

 

‘One flesh golem maintenance wonderdrug comin’ right up!’ she thought, a menacing grin creeping up her face.

 

 

Kaina went over to the sofa and picked up the yellow dog plushie, the one she named Exterminatus, with her free hand and walked right to the door Scissors went into.

 

 

She slowly peeked inside. The room is fairly small, undecorated, no windows on all directions with the only air circulation coming from a small ceiling fan exhaust installed on the ceiling, beside a small weak lightbulb on its left. The walls are plain gray, in some parts dusty and peeling off, devoid of any paint. On the side farthest from the door is a small white bed just placed on the floor that can’t even fit a single person. Beside it is a small bookshelf filled to the brim with books, with the rest of them stacked on top of each other.

 

 

“How long is this interview going to last, we can’t just pile all of those in my room-“

 

 

“It won’t be long, besides, check this out!” Kaina said as she showed the syringe to him, the boy’s face immediately lighting up with joy as he took it. “I knew Midoriya’s going to stop supplying you with it since he’s got this new hitman and all. But me, thinking ahead, got you a reasonable stash to a last a couple of months. Surely at least we can find out a way to fix that in time…”

 

 

“Woah… I didn’t know what to say uh-“

 

 

“You can thank me for that. That’s one of the very few I managed to nab back at Midoriya’s island fortress. If I keep up my hitman performance, I can maybe request some more but we can’t really rely on that tactic. Can’t think of a more stable source at the moment, but we’ll just cross the bridge when we get there.”

 

 

“Knew I could rely on ya! Thanks!”  Scissors said, turning around and carefully placing the syringe on top of the pile of books, before walking over to the one corner of his room and placing the dog wobbly heads in a neat little line.

 

 

Kaina nodded. “That’s what friends are for, am I right?” she said, shrugging before tossing the huge plushie straight to Scissors’s bed, taking up over a third of the entire thing. “Times like these we need to work as a team, you and I, Shigaraki, and Kizuki, everyone to take down Midoriya. To stop the killing we must kill him first, you know that, right?”

 

 

“Uh… yeah…?”

 

 

“Good, now help me clean up my room. I want to be professional in this,” Kaina said as she pushed the boy out of his room. “I want the interview room to be spotless, no chibi dogs in sight, got it?”

 

 

“Yeah gotcha!”

 

 

“Ok, let’s get moving!”

 

 

It’s almost 5 in the afternoon, the plan is to go back to UA as soon as possible, fetch Shigaraki, and maybe Iguchi with him to keep his weirdness in check, and then ask them all the questions she needs to know for this quest. And for that she needed her house to be devoid of any personality, or so she thinks it should so the entire thing would go more smoothly.

 

 

Why didn’t she just talk with Shigaraki at UA? Some other things more important are worth addressing, and those things are inside her house at this very moment.

 

 

The process of ‘professionalizing’ her house is quite quick, with everything all stashed up in Scissors’s tiny room until there’s almost no more space there. It took them a good while, but nothing much to be called as too much time wasted.

 

 

“Good job! We finished cleaning up in record time!” Kaina said, making her voice unusually more cheery than she normally goes, looking around the cramped room making sure all the wobbly heads are neatly arranged in a corner, her plushies all piled up on his bed, a poster of both Kamikaze and Shinryaku hung up on the wall farthest to the doorway, and sofa pillows with a pink pola-dot design all accounted for.

 

 

Turning around, the entire living room is clean, unusually clean even for her standards, devoid of any personality, and nothing to distract Shigaraki, and his weird Gas Kid Prime mind.

 

 

“Finishing in record time… heh… just like what heroes would do…” Scissors commented, dusting off his hands with his back turned to her.

 

 

Kaina turned around and faced the room again, grabbing a nearby sharpened pencil she deliberately put on a nearby table just outside the door earlier and hid it behind her. “Okay, you’ve done a good job, now go to sleep.”

 

 

“Sleep? I haven’t eaten din-“

 

 

“I said go to bed,” she calmly said, launching the sharpened pencil towards Scissors’s back aimed at the upper region of his torso before the boy could even turn around. In the blink of an eye, the pencil’s tip found itself lodged on his back, with her experiencing the familiar feeling of graphite hitting metal.

 

 

Scissors dropped down to his knees, completely unconscious, with the pencil still sticking from his back. For someone who instantly went out of normal motor control, he was posed as if he’s kneeling only with his head down, which Kaina shrugged off, for Scissors dropping to his knees when shoved a sharp object in his back is the norm.

 

 

“When I say you’re going to bed, you’re going to bed…”

 

 

She quickly removed the pencil and jammed it in again, feeling the thing lodge up in the same socket it went into earlier, counted mentally to three before removing it and putting it back on the table beside the doorway where it originally belonged to.

 

 

Kaina then went in and shoved her hand down the back of Scissor’s shirt and felt around until her fingers made contact with something metal, on the same area she shoved the pencil in. Spreading her fingers to cover the entire metal part, she pressed five buttons scattered on it and held down for at least five seconds, which caused the device to pop off and fall through the other end of his shirt.

 

 

It was a fairly small device, dull grey in color, with a shape like that of a triangle with rounded edges. It’s flattened to such a point that it wouldn’t protrude off of Scissors’s back even if he’s wearing light clothing like what he’s wearing now.

 

 

On the top side of the miniature machine it’s nothing but smooth and featureless with a few bumps to recreate the continuation of his spine, but on the bottom side it has the appearance of a motherboard, complete with a CPU and all the circuitry associated with it, as well as a row of needles that is uses to attach itself onto the boy’s back, where it resides on a specially-made socket.

 

 

Kaina never knew what the socket nor the entire thing meant or does except shut the boy down as what Midoriya told her, but she always assumed it’s directly connected to his spine, but even that she has no proof of.

 

 

‘Whatever, as long as it gets the job done…’

 

 

She carefully placed the device on the table beside the pencil, with the motherboard side facing up, turned off the lights in Scissors’s room but heightened up the ventilation, and tipped the kneeling person over and left him sprawled unconscious on her pile of plush toys, before closing the door.

 

 

Walking to the center of the living room, she picked up a spare phone just placed on a nearby now-empty shelf, before turning the TV on again, cycling until she reached another news channel covering what happened to USJ last night.

 

 

Soon enough she found another channel reporting the USJ villain attack, and once again the faint outline of what looks like a crater is faintly visible, as it is to anyone who knew what they’re looking for. Kaina nodded once, what Scissors said is definitely true and UA hid something, if they’re the ones that even hid it in the first place.

 

 

Looking down on her phone, she opened up an application and sent a message straight to Tomura’s e-mail address, something that he wouldn’t stop bragging about on their trip home last night.

 

 

‘Never thought his endless blabbering would be so useful…’

 

 

She was about to turn her attention back to the television when her phone rang, completely catching her off guard.

 

 

‘Since when did this app have the ability to make your phone ring?! Did I miss an update notice-?’

 

 

“Oh hey Stardust!” came in Tomura’s voice form the other side, who seemed to be in a good mood. “How are you calling us and streaming at the same time.”

 

 

“I told you I’m not Stardust-“

 

 

“But she looks exactly like you!”

 

 

“Shigaraki that’s a Vtuber avatar that happened to look like me, I’m standing in the middle of my house calling you.”

 

 

“You have a house?!”

 

 

“Yes… we Big Three… receive substantial amounts of cash… so to speak… I’m picking you up, meet me up at the-“

 

 

“Can I ride shotgun?”

 

 

“Yes you can ride shotgun. Yes you can bring Iguchi with you, yes you can wear your newly-bought Machia hat.”

 

 

“Yeah but-“

 

 

“I’m still single, Shigaraki.”

 

 

“Okay, what do you wanna know? Everything?”

 

 

“Everything you know. Everything in your little gas world. Everything to help is in this little quest.”

 

 

There was light static on Tomura’s side for a little while but it eventually righted itself. “Do you want me to narrate everything in chronologicalization order- I mean chronologollium? Hey Spin what’s the correct pronunciation again- I mean chronological order? Because after USJ there’s gonna be a Sports Festival in two weeks and uuhhh…”

 

 

Kaina nodded, holding the phone in front of her and increasing the volume as she turned off the TV after hearing it’s being blamed on the League of Villains again. She knew Shigaraki never listens at school, nor has any idea of any future events, him knowing all about the not-announced-yet upcoming Sports Festival in two weeks is definitely something within the realm of being Gas Kid Prime, at least in her line of thinking.

 

 

“Uuuuhhhh… then there’s the Hero Killer of course-“

 

 

“What?! You know about him?!” Kaina almost yelled into her phone. While somehow knowing about future school events is still plausible even for people like Shigaraki…

 

 

But The Hero Killer? Outside of the HSPC, the top 10 heroes, Kamikaze and Shinryaku, she and the rest of the Big Three, alongside some of Midoriya’s other hired hitmen, no one knew about him. His presence cannot be known outside of those few select people for reasons regular people outside of ‘Heroics’ wouldn’t understand.

 

 

“Wait… who’s the hero killer?” Kaina asked again, eyes narrowing to her phone.

 

 

‘While he can guess the Hero Killer’s already out and about… but can he guess his name?’

 

 

“Wait… Hey Spin, who’s the- Oh? The degenerate guy with glasses eh? Of course that makes sense!” Tomura continued muttering on his line for a good few minutes before the answer came. “Super Jet Engine Guy, Iida Tenya, Ingenius- I mean Ingenium, am I right?”

 

 

“Dear God…”

 

 

“Soooo… am I right…?”

 

 

“Damn right you are! Meet me up at the entrance… we got lots to talk about!"

Notes:

So I just started reading MHA Vigilantes and Knuckleduster is apparently a former hero, and yet his entire schtick is punching first and asking questions later… I think he’s unhinged or something.

Also I’m not portraying Nagant in a bad light because I hate her. She’s just… really really really goal-oriented… yep it’s intentional.

Chapter 15: Izuku Midoriya

Notes:

The villain!Dekus I’ve read all portray him as a mustache-twirling genius chessmaster. I decided I’m going to portray the guy as equally smart but with the air of a bumbling buffoon who can annihilate you in a single hit. I think he’s more human that way.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 23

 

 

Izuku Midoriya soared through the skies, high above the west Japanese coastline, flicking his fingers every few seconds and sending out powerful shockwaves of air to propel him forward at insane speeds.

 

 

He went in only one direction for a few more seconds before stopping in mid-air, where he’s suddenly surrounded by a swirling vortex of green lightning, its magic seemingly allowing him to levitate now that he stopped his flying method from earlier.

 

 

‘Now where could he be?’ he thought, looking around. His target should be here any moment now. It wasn’t until over 5 minutes have passed and only then he noticed a small white dot rapidly approaching to his location. Moving ever closer, it soon revealed itself to be Oboro Shirakumo, his assistant, dressed in his usual steampunk-inspired outfit riding on a cloud-themed hoverboard and carrying an oversized camera.

 

 

 “Equipment at the ready?” Midoriya asked, swiping his wavy green hair off his face as a cool ocean breeze blew upon it. “I haven’t got a trophy this month yet. We only got one shot at this.”

 

 

“One? You mean two?” Oboro replied with a wink before laughing to himself, setting up the camera on the back side of his hoverboard, attaching the stands on hooks to keep it in place and not fall several kilometers straight to the ocean below. “Oh come on boss! You’re not that powerful!”

 

 

“Yet!”

 

 

Both shared a laugh, before shortly disrupted by the sight of clouds parting in a distance as if something insanely fast is going through them. Both locked eyes on the approaching figure, now suddenly going into silence and preparing themselves for the battle yet to come.

 

 

 “Don’t let us down, boss! Our lives depend on this!”

 

 

Midoriya couldn’t help but let out a giggle at Shirakumo’s comment, and then quickly going into a loud genuine laugh that threw him off of his concentration, allowing his enemy to get the first hit on him, sending its fist crashing into Midoriya’s face with maximum force, sending him flying through the clouds around him.

 

 

Shirakumo followed closely on his boss’s trajectory, all while making sure the camera’s still stable and functional.

 

 

“Cloud! I didn’t order Artificial Challenge today!” Midoriya yelled out in a joking tone as he composed himself and steadied his levitation, completely shrugging off the hit like nothing happened. Not even a single drop of blood escaped through his skin.

 

 

“No can do, boss! Uraraka said you’re slacking off on your morning workout routines. I did what I judged to be right.”

 

 

“Fair enough. Do you think I’m getting fat-“

 

 

“Midoriya!” came an echoing voice loud enough that it seemed like it came from the heavens above.

 

 

Izuku looked around, his eyes going around on all corners of their sockets trying to find a small floating person amidst the sea of clouds. It took him a few seconds until his vision finally locked onto the only other person there with him aside from his assistant.

 

 

“Lemillion,” Midoriya nodded, only now fully acknowledging the other villain’s existence. Did the other person hear him? He doesn’t know and he doesn’t care. In a few minutes, only one of them will be left alive, and Midoriya’s sure it’s going to be him, it’s always him.

 

 

 Lemillion, as villain called himself as, is a notorious criminal hellbent on stealing from up to a million banks over the course of his lifetime, which to Midoriya, is too much of a dream. As of now this villain’s already pushing 39 years old and only managed to steal from around 3 thousand. While impressive by itself, it didn’t even reach a quarter of his intended goal, and for Midoriya it’s beyond pathetic on so many levels.

 

 

He’s currently wearing what seemed to be a standard hero uniform consisting of a cape, boots, and oversized gloves, all looking old and tattered. Fitting because based on what little facts Izuku knew about him, is that this particular villain is a former hero who discovered he can do more than saving people, just like what happened to his original team of three.

 

 

Lemillion’s Quirk allows him to phase through objects, and that makes him suited for such robberies, the only thing limiting him is that there’s only so much he can steal from.

 

 

What is not part of his original abilities is his ability to fly, which he’s doing now. Based on what Midoriya can see with the light glow emanating from his rival, he deduced it must be Quirk-enhancing drug related.

 

 

Midoriya chuckled to himself. This villain had such big dreams, such huge potential, they could have been working together. But no, this guy decided to challenge him, he dared take him on. People are normally wise enough to avoid challenging him for no good reason, so why did this particular person do so? Midoriya doesn’t know, but he does know one thing and that is this person must have a death wish of some sort.

 

 

 “Is the Midoriya Izuku losing his touch?” Lemillion taunted. “I mean what’s with the outfit?”

 

 

A frown appeared on Izuku’s face and made him look down to inspect his ‘battle attire’. It was a plain T-shirt, short shorts, sandals, and overall he looked like a dad one would find slouching on the TV with a beer in one hand, not that Midoriya would deny it.

 

 

He’ certainly not dressed for battle.

 

 

“Cloud!” Midoriya yelled, turning his head to face Shirakumo and pressing up a button on a small earpiece hanging on his left ear. “Ready the cameras!”

 

 

Right after the last word made a beeline out of his lips, Izuku is immediately enveloped with a huge swirling mass of green lightning and launched himself towards his enemy, fists at the ready.

 

 

As expected, both by him and his current rival, he went straight through Lemillion and into empty sky.

 

 

And as Midoriya himself predicted, the villain laughed at his efforts.

 

 

“Oh come on, you can do better than that!” Lemillion taunted, maintaining his flight levels against light turbulence from being so high in the sky before turning his attention to Shirakumo. “How about you? Care for a 1v1?”

 

 

Midoriya turned around, his vision slightly blurring for a few seconds from a lack of oxygen. If it weren’t for his own experiments on himself, he should have been dead by now.

 

 

And as for Lemillion’s death wish…

 

 

“Cloud! Time for the killing blow!” Midoriya yelled to his assistant with a huge smile, refusing to use his earpiece to signal him altogether. He waved both hands about, both forming peace signs with his fingers, even though peace is the farthest thing he will do today, much less this instant.

 

 

Floating high in the sky, he readied his second punch, same swirling energies resembling green lightning came crackling around him with a greater intensity than before, somehow darkening the skies with each pulse of power and creating a spectacular effect as if a localized lightning storm is manifesting around him, complete with swirling high-speed winds.

 

 

It’s almost cinematic, like that of a protagonist about to deliver the final punch on his opponent. It’s flashy, bright, and completely unnecessary, but Izuku didn’t care.

 

 

After all, when all your enemies go down in two hits, better make it count.

 

 

In the blink of an eye, the lightning intensified several times over, forming a whole spectrum of colors all from being simply green earlier, now illuminating the entire sky and making the clouds cast long shadows stretching far and wide all around them.

 

 

 It was also at this moment when Izuku accelerated towards Lemillion at such speed he broke the sound barrier several times over, creating waves upon waves of sonic booms before sending his fist crashing down onto the skull of his target, all in a nanosecond.

 

 

Lemillion didn’t stand a chance.

 

 

There was a blinding flash of light, the punch sending powerful shockwaves on all directions, blasting the clouds away and carving the ocean below. And with that, everything is over, Lemillion is no more, his ability to phase never even making a difference.

 

 

The ocean waves caused by the extreme levels of power Midoriya’s punch carried could reach tidal wave levels if allowed to reach the mainland, and it’s only common sense even for a villain at the level of him to not make it happen. It will bring too much destruction, and destruction is bad for business.

 

 

Using the same green lightning to propel himself to speeds that ended Lemillion right then and there, he zapped around the edges of the expanding wave and punched the air to send a shockwave to knock it back, blowing a whole through the wave and completely shattering the entire section. He then went and did the same to the rest of the circle until it finally crashed down into nothing.

 

 

Izuku went back to his assistant, who’s still in his hoverboard levitating just near the fight area. Upon arriving, he could clearly see a faint spherical force field rippling around him. Shirakumo is sufficiently shielded from the entire attack which is a good thing, Izuku really wanted the footage.

 

 

“Good shot boss,” Shirakumo nodded, his attention all turned towards the back part of the camera where he’s inspecting something on a control panel. “Let’s see if we got the footage right.”

 

 

Izuku floated above him, minimizing his own electrical effects just so he can see clearly from his position. Shirakumo pressed a bunch of buttons on the side part of the camera until a panel flipped-down open revealing a miniplayer, he then skipped a good deal of their fight but accidentally went too far forward, showing a still-shot of Midoriya’s punch halfway through shattering Lemillion’s head all from sheer power alone.

 

 

Midoriya involuntarily nodded, it was a good work on his part, even though it’s the farthest thing from an actual challenge. In the footage, as Shirakumo was searching for the perfect frame, Izuku saw a glimpse of the moment his hit registered on Lemillion’s head. It never mattered if he can phase through it or not, he penetrated through it, and allowed him to vaporize his opponent in a single hit. There was no blood, no entrails flying about, no blasted fabric of clothes, in fact nothing at all was left of his enemy. And all he ever did was punch harder.

 

 

He chuckled at the thought, in his many years as a villain he came across his fair share of challengers. People with an invulnerability Quirk, people with a redirection Quirk, people with a reflection Quirk, people with an invincibility Quirk…

 

 

The memories are still clear in his head.

 

 

‘They all shared one misunderstanding… they actually thought I have a weakness…’

 

 

He punched through them all, all his tactics have been nothing but punching harder, and it worked. They all worked.

 

 

Every.

 

 

 Darn.

 

 

Time.

 

 

Which is exactly how he wanted it to happen. His Quirk is the only one that can do that as far as he can knew, the ability to hit so hard and so fast at such a level that the target will be erased from existence altogether. Armed with such power, he has zero competition and nothing can beat him on a head-on battle.

 

 

He turned his attention back to Shirakumo’s tinkering with the camera. “Stop! It’s perfect!” he said out loud, surprising his assistant a little.

 

 

Right there displayed on the camera’s miniplayer is the moment Izuku’s fist is about to make contact with his enemy, right in front of Lemillion’s smug face. “There! Have it printed and hung up on my wall beside my other latest achievements!” he said, patting his assistant’s back several times.

 

 

“Will do boss!”

 

 

“Now if you may excuse me, I got a meeting to attend to, good luck with the printing! Make sure there – by the way you did that USJ attack?”

 

 

“What?” Shirakumo slowly turned around, adding to it with a light shrug. “You said to dispose of them, and since I’m not the killing spree type o’ guy like your elite hitmen, I brought it there so the kids could have a semblance of a challenge. For extra fun I abducted some of those League members as well.”

 

 

“And they fell for it?”

 

 

“Boss… you should’ve seen the panic in them. Teachers literally had to scamper ahead to get those kids to safety or else they’ll notice. By the way I threw your Gas Kid trophy farther off just for more extra fun.”

 

 

“Ahhh so they knew?”

 

 

“Maybe yes? Maybe no? As much as I wanted the entire event to be a big deal, everyone just shrugged it off. I mean they’re just druggies after all. Plus no sane mind would dare go against the League of Absolute Terrors!”

 

 

Midoriya just stared at his assistant for a while, steadying himself for a few seconds until he just couldn’t hold on for much longer and let out a loud laugh which lasted for quite a while, even longer than his usual. “Day 500-whatever and still going, man those guys are just soooo hard to catch! So anyways, I better get going, do your thing, maybe take the day off, and please tell Ocha I did some real serious workout this time around, capisce?

 

 

Shirakumo nodded, and Izuku nodded back in response before turning around and speeding off back to the mainland. Upon seeing the coastline littered with a whole lot of people who probably saw the lightshow he did earlier, he turned right and kept going further and further along until he caught sight of his own island fortress.

 

 

Now despite the current abilities people can do nowadays, his fortress is not the fancy mechanized steerable type like that of I-island, the exact function Midoriya long forgot. It had no giant walls like a standard supervillain’s lair, it had no watchtowers, searchlights, airfields, nor even a heavily-guarded entrance. If one were to describe his island base, it would be a paradise, or maybe an oversized park at best. A huge mansion with a modern architectural design stood in the middle, gardens sprawled everywhere, a small shipyard to the east, and another small helipad on the west, line the entire thing with trees and that’s about it.

 

 

At night the various lamps lining up the road will light up, creating a spectacular effect when seen from above.

 

 

Overall, it looked like just your typical island mansion, typical of ultra-rich folks like him.

 

 

Midoriya pressed and held onto his earpiece’s button for a few seconds longer, his gaze locked onto the helipad portion of his mansion. A few seconds later the entire vacant helipad started going underneath, retracting to the mansion itself.

 

 

Speeding along, he landed straight in the middle, or so it seemed. Looking down he noticed he’s a little bit to the left, stinging the perfectionism within him.

 

 

The helipad-elevator descended deep below the entire mansion itself, with the walls ultimately being replaced with thick bullet-proof reinforced glass, giving him a good view of his huge underground lab. Now compared to the island fortress above being nothing one would expect as a supervillain’s lair, the underground lab is stock-standard.

 

 

Metal walls are everywhere, rivets jutting out of them in places where doors could be optionally installed. Exhaust fans litter the ceiling and industrial lights on maximum power to provide sufficient illumination right down to the deepest crevices.

 

 

Standing on the elevator as he descended, he could see the sections of his lab, neatly aligned in rooms, where each is specialized in developing something. It never mattered what they developed, what’s important to Midoriya is that they’re moving forward.

 

 

Like some old mentor told to him.

 

 

Go beyond… Plus ultra…

 

 

Midoriya chuckled to himself, the old fart really got the taste of plus ultra right in the face.

 

 

The helipad-elevator eventually reached the ground floor, the familiar sound of the reverberation of metalworks coming from the multitude of workshops is like music to Midoriya's ears.

 

 

‘The sound of progress!’

 

 

He got out, instantly getting greeted by some of his workers, all dressed up in their neat and futuristic-styled outfits with all the colors of blacks, white, and greens, exactly how he liked it. How would they know they’re Midoriya’s employees of there’s not a hint of ‘Midori’ anywhere?

 

 

Izuku nodded at them as he walked along the metal plate floors, and waving along at any more employees he came across. As he made his way deeper and deeper into the lab it became increasingly apparent that he’s the only one there who looked like a drunk homeless person stumbling inside a futuristic workshop based on his lack of formal lab clothing, and that he doesn’t care one bit. If he decided he wanted to look like a drunk homeless person, then drunk homeless person he will look like.

 

 

A drunk homeless person that can annihilate a whole bloodline in a single punch.

 

 

On he went towards the back part of the lab, entering a huge metal door and going into a world of silence. Compared to the heavy lifting going around earlier, this second part is eerily quiet. The wall separating the two sections is made of top-secret materials to filter out all sound coming from the other side.

 

 

There is no other reason for that other than Izuku liked it to have the two sections of his lab completely different.

 

 

He started walking down the empty metal halls, making sure his feet were kept on the bright red carpet. On the right side of the dimly lit walls are framed photographs of all the other villains who tried to challenge him over the years, pictured right before his fist delivered the second punch.

 

 

It was a whole long line of photos, all with a small light below them like that of museums, along with their names at the bottom.

 

 

To the left are other photos, this time of heroes who tried to challenge him over the years, and all framed the exact same way. The only difference this line had compared to the list of villains is that there are pieces of paper tacked in below them, perfectly preserved. They were the scribbles he made as a kid, back in the day when he anlayzed Quirks. Way back then before he realized all he ever needed to defeat them was just punching harder.

 

 

Walking towards the end of the list of the still-empty picture frames on the left side is one frame with four lights centered around it instead of the usual one. While the other empty frames still have no names on them, this one already has one.

 

 

‘Shinryaku Seigyo’

 

 

Midoriya narrowed his eyes on the name. ‘Forcible Quirk Activation’

 

 

Izuku simply nodded at the name. Someday, maybe he’ll defeat him once and for all. It’s going to be a long time, but if Midoriya couldn’t beat him at 10 years old, it’s going to take more firepower to bring him down now that he’s older and more skilled.

 

 

‘Soon…’

 

 

But today is not that day. Maybe next year, maybe in the next decade.

 

 

He picked up the pace and reached another huge metal door embedded on the right wall. If one doesn’t pay attention to it, they might have missed it altogether.

 

 

“Powerloader! How’s it going!” he said as he pushed open the door, never even bothering to knock. But it never mattered in the big picture since the first thing he saw is a huge screen in front of him showing himself going through the door.

 

 

And not a moment too soon in came a man in his early fifties riding a wheeled office chair sliding to his position, all dressed up in blocky armor plates in all the colors of rust. If it weren’t for the person’s short shorts revealing his lanky lower legs, he would have been mistaken for an automaton.

 

 

“Boss we got uh…” the person called Powerloader instantly spun around in his office chair and turned to the screen in front of him, before pulling out a keyboard from underneath the wooden platform it’s on and making the entire thing go up into the ceiling to be replaced with a couple of smaller ones, with each having a blueprint of an arm-cannon displayed. “Six. Six new people with tracking Quirks.”

 

 

“Enumerate,” Izuku, standing out in the entire high-tech environment he’s in with his homely clothes alone, stepped inside to inspect the weapons displayed.

 

 

“4 kids with super senses. Kid 5 has Backtrack. Kid 6 has Investigate. Care to know how each one operates?”

 

 

“That won’t be necessary. Eliminate them. How old are them?”

 

 

“All of them below four.”

 

 

Izuku nodded. “Good, take them out. Preferably before sundown.”

 

 

Powerloader nodded. But before he could speak, Izuku left the workshop.

 

 

The villain began walking down the hall again, thoughts swirling in his mind. Those are 6 people. 6 people that will never even have a future just because they’re born with the wrong Quirk. The parents of those children will be devastated of course, and he knew how it felt personally, but it had to be done. Those lives he took will just be replaced, preferably with those who are unable to track him down.

 

 

Izuku sighed. It’s been a long time since he started the purge. It happened so fast and so hard that in a span of one year, that tracking Quirks are thought to be lethal genetic defect. Over time, kids born with such Quirks gradually went down as parents get wiser, choosing to partner up with lesser chances for the offspring to be born with one. But still, random mutations are inevitable, and he had no choice but to exterminate them as well.

 

 

At the end of the day, his safety is more important.

 

 

But what’s really important are the huge amounts of mutants that seem to be popping up everywhere at an alarming rate. People should still somehow be baked in the oven for 9 whole months, but these things are everywhere! They seem to be making more and more of themselves faster than he can exterminate them. It’s like a hydra’s head, but instead of just two more heads popping up, there would be hundreds.

 

 

But so far investigating this strange phenomenon is the least of his concerns. They’re overall harmless, and even verging into the comically evil territory, but as long as he has hitmen to take them out, all is well.

 

 

What he does know is that not all heteromorphs are part of the endless multiplying horde. So how does he know which heteromporphs are part of the endless multiplying horde and which are not? He doesn’t. He orders the extermination of both. Both is bad for business.

 

 

And society never cared about them anyway.

 

 

He shrugged off the thoughts and went on his merry way, walking all the way through the dark empty halls until he reached a control panel on the right side of the wall. It was the only one there, with no other similar control panels in sight. It featured a fingerprint scanner and a push-to-talk button.

 

 

He sent his entire hand to be scanned, waited for the machine to beep twice, and then pushed the only button there.

 

 

“Aizawa, don’t forget to stare down the bots, they don’t like it when you don’t do that.”

 

 

“Ha ha… very funny…” came in a bored reply, before the device suddenly beeping, signifying the other line dropped out.

 

 

Izuku nodded, and went even further down the empty silent hall. Eventually he reached another of those huge metal doors. It wasn’t locked at all in the slightest and he pushed through inside, revealing a wide room that’s stylized to look like a standard living room, although a lot more fancier. Chandeliers, unlit candles, flower vases, an overall wooden theme of browns, and furniture that looked like they belong more in a home from two centuries ago.

 

 

Izuku was never about the past, the past did nothing but slow him down. For every second he spends thinking about things that he could’ve done, he’s wasting precious time on moving forward.

 

 

So what is this room for? Special occasions, such as now.

 

 

“Boss!” Izuku heard a synthesized voice from beside the door he went from. It was a small device very similar to the ones he used earlier, but this time composed of only the single speaker, with a neon green light surrounding it. “How’s it going?”

 

 

“We’ll talk about that later. How’s the damages so far?”

 

 

“Let’s see here…” the voice from the device replied, a little static interfering with the overall audio quality. “Villain sales went about 48% higher than last month, Mecha-Nomus were a wee little bit lower but overall everything’s fine.”

 

 

“Good, send in the guest,” Izuku replied to the device, which emitted a single beep in return before the light went out.

 

 

Izuku’s thoughts instantly went to the ‘villain’ sales. It going higher than last month is certainly a good thing. A smile appeared on his face, it was just like yesterday when he launched the program that would change the course of heroics forever, the program that ultimately pushed heroes away from just being glorified police forces and into stardom, the program that allowed heroes to go on full costumes instead of actual protective clothing, the exact same superhero world that his son would have wanted.

 

 

If only he lived this long…

 

 

Izuku shook his head, catching himself drifting into the past again. As expected, it only dragged him slower. He’s going to have an important meeting today and reminiscing about his late son is not the thoughts that should be involved.

 

 

He walked around and positioned himself on the only chair facing towards the wooden door located on the other side of the room, green eyes glued on the doorknob.

 

 

It took a while but it finally opened, revealing a middle-aged woman with long white hair and two huge curled horns attached on her forehead, clad in an all-black attire similar to that of a biker’s standard outfit. She stepped into the room, holding onto a small red handbag slung over her left shoulder.

 

 

Izuku knew the woman well. She’s the main go-to person for all villain Quirk-enhancing drug needs, from the weaker Booster and Trigger drugs all the way to Archons. She has connections all across the underground society from the lowest of street thugs to criminal masterminds at the top of the social ladder.

 

 

In fact, she was so connected to everyone, that she has specific callsigns for all of her clients to call her as, but she most commonly goes as-

 

 

“Eri, I eliminated Lemillion as you requested,” Izuku crossed his arms, a smug grin on his face fully remembering the event. What the woman lack in personal protection she makes up for it with her connections, and this Lemillion villain dared to raid one of her drug warehouses, which explains the villain’s absurd punching prowess and flight capabilities earlier.

 

 

‘Too bad none of those drugs even mattered,’ Izuku thought to himself.

 

 

The woman nodded in response to his words, walking closer and waving a hand in his direction, but not even looking directly at him. “Good.”

 

 

“Now it’s time for your part of the deal.”

 

 

“Not yet, I’m requesting another favor,” Eri eventually reached the table and sat on the chair facing him. “Kusanagi’s genetic code.”

 

 

“Kusa-what?”

 

 

“You heard me, the code and the Muramasa Precept.”

 

 

Izuku’s green eyes widened, his fingers involuntarily twitching on their own. “Such a grand request coming from a person like you. Do you really think I’d give away such breakthroughs that easily?”

 

 

“You got your sights on my Gravedigger project. If you give me what I want I may even let you have a sneak peek on its first test run later this day. Name your price. Whatever the amount, I’m willing to pay for it.”

 

 

“Nah. Whatever you’re paying, my wife can rack the same amount in a matter of minutes. Money’s not important here. Kusanagi’s not for sale.”

 

 

“He’s history, a project of the past, a relic from a bygone era, an outdated piece of artificial machinery, and you know it. The next generation is already here, bigger, badder, better in every way.”

 

 

Izuku shook his head. “Not for sale.”

 

 

“Not for sale?” Eri leaned forward onto the table, propping herself up by her elbows. “You know those same abominations will be thrown at you anytime, right? They already have a seat, they threw so much money I couldn’t say no but to install extra modifications to their end product. You don’t want to be left behind, right? You move forward, right? You want to best them eventually, right?”

 

 

“What are you trying to do here?”

 

 

“Kusanagi’s genetic code and the Muramasa System, now.”

 

 

“Okay what if we do this my way-“

 

 

“No,” Eri narrowed her red eyes at him. “My way.”

 

 

Izuku sighed and weighed his options. On one hand his scientific breakthrough is extremely dangerous when used in the wrong hands, which is guaranteed to happen once Eri sells her newest bioweapons to his rivals. On the other hand, he could get his hands on the Gravedigger project and reverse-engineer them to be even more powerful. “No can do, Eri, you get one.”

 

 

“One?”

 

 

“Kusanagi or Muramasa, pick one.”

 

 

“Okay…” Eri stood up, taking a deep breath with her head looking down onto the table. It was quick and all of a sudden, and Izuku was thrown off a little. “Come with me, I’ll let you oversee the testing phase, maybe you’ll change your mind. I’ll even give you a free one if you’re a good boy.”

 

 

“Whatever…” Izuku stood up and grabbed a nearby blue baseball cap lying on a nearby wooden cabinet. “Let’s go. I’d like to see what you’re cooking today-“

 

 

“Is that...? You’re visiting my lab in that…?” Eri glanced down and saw Izuku’s attire and couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. “The Shie Hassaikai has standards, and I enforce that rule on all my employees.”

 

 

“Whatever kid, I’m going to look like a drunken homeless slob if I wanted to, and I’m deciding that I’m going to cosplay as a drunken slob this instant. You want Kusanagi and Muramasa? You’re taking this homeless slob with you, let’s go” Izuku hastily walked towards the door where Eri came from and gestured towards it. “Ladies first.”

 

 

Eri rolled her eyes and off she went to the door, which leads to another hallway, this time more brightly lit and furnished with all sorts of décor like flower vases, paintings, carpets, and all the likes as compared to the mostly nondescript empty metal-walled hallways on the other side.

 

 

Izuku kept eyeing his companion as they walked. Eri’s now holding onto a phone and talking to someone on the other side using a language he doesn’t know. Being secretive is a standard trait among villains such as him, but he doesn’t like it one bit once people around him are acting the same, it places him on edge instead of being that someone who has the higher ground by default by virtue of being the most powerful person in the room.

 

 

The pair eventually reached the end of the tunnel, which led to an underground parking lot. To the right side of the mostly empty space is a huge motorbike.

 

 

“We’re taking my car, would you mind leaving your bike here? Promise I won’t do anything to it!” Izuku joked, trying to lighten up the mood.

 

 

“It’s okay. Dismantle it for all I care. Yaoyorozu can build me up a far better one in seconds.”

 

 

“Hmmm… Of course, now let’s get going.” Izuku walked ahead and went up to the only black plain-looking car in the lot amidst all the pink-colored sports cars. “You driving or me?”

 

 

“Don’t mind this thing to handle a few crashes? I’ll drive…” Eri said as she kept up and opened the door. She was about to get in when her right horn bumped on the roof of the car. It may just be a horn devoid of any nerve endings but it was directly connected to her skull and the experience is like nails on a chalkboard.

 

 

Izuku stifled a laugh. Such a mistake on the woman’s part clearly shows why she chooses motorbikes as her mode of transport. “Can you drive?”

 

 

“Last time I drove a car was years ago,” Eri said, holding the door of the car and staring into the cabin. A few seconds later she was enveloped in a bright yellow glow, making her age visibly regress until she’s back looking like a young woman on her late teens, the size of her horns now half the length they used to be, allowing her to fit comfortably in the car.

 

 

Izuku once again held a laugh. Eri’s Quirk allows her to rewind things at a previous state, and now that she’s older and more skilled she can now rewind even herself and go back again to being an adult. The main thing funny about this event is that she, in his opinion, lowered her age too much that she looked like she was barely past her teens, which is a side effect of her natural youthful looks making her look younger than she actually is.

 

 

“Shouldn’t you be at school?” Izuku couldn’t help it, and popped out a joke.

 

 

“Ha ha… very funny, now get in or else I’ll crash this thing to the nearest pole.”

 

 

“I wouldn’t mind,” Izuku got in and closed the door on the passenger’s seat. “Powerloader could use a time-waster. I swear the guy’s stashing nukes somewhere in his workshop. How’s Hikari by the way?”

 

 

Eri started the car and began driving all the way up the winding pathway to the exit of the underground parking lot. All this time Izuku couldn’t help but admire how adorable his now-teenaged driver is. In a way, she reminded him of his daughter, who’s currently at her rebellious phase and wouldn’t stay put to learn more about management. Important lessons about managing your evil empire.

 

 

“Hikari’s got skills, Midoriya. Let your daughter fight,” Eri said, her gaze not even once turning to face him. “Stop looking at your daughter with only one eye open. She can do way more than what you believe.”

 

 

“No one in this family fights. We’ve stopped going fist to fist a long time ago. There’s not much sense picking fights these days.”

 

 

“Not much sense for the person who can vaporize his rivals in two hits. While I don’t know how your routine goes but Usagiyama’s got nothing but positive praises for the little girl.”

 

 

“Oh? What about Glaive?”

 

 

Eri nodded, slowing down the car as she approached a huge metal gate leading to a bridge connecting the island to the mainland. “Mirko said Glaive is giving her the creeps, in her own words by the way. She doesn’t like blindfolded people standing still in the corner.”

 

 

Izuku nodded, eyes looking ahead and watching the metal gate automatically open by itself. The bridge ahead is unusually heavily decorated for such a structure, with trees lining up the road, white marble sidewalks adorn the sides despite almost nobody using them, lamp posts with such an intricate design stand tall to provide another layer of aesthetics to finish the entire look.

 

 

It’s just a bridge, but Izuku knows even bridges need to look their best.

 

 

“Glaive’s fine, she’s just… shy…”

 

 

“I have a weird tickling feeling you shouldn’t give personalities to your elite bioweapons.”

 

 

“It’s a side-effect of their natural inborn skill. It’s not like you’re doing the exact same thing with your Gravedigger project, are you upping the intelligenve of your Gravediggers?”

 

 

“While I agree it’s very tempting to add more brain-power to monsters and make them capable of basic thinking, tactics, and weapon skills. In the end, I decided it’s not worth the hassle. Backups or not, we’d rather not play God.”

 

 

“Good, because that’s my job,” Izuku chuckled, crossing his arms and taking a glance outside. “So are they there?”

 

 

“Of course they’re there, what do you expect? When profits are on the line, why would I say no just so one side gets the upper hand and defeats the other? Where’s the fun in that?”

 

 

“I hate you Eri.”

 

 

“The feeling’s mutual, Midoriya.”

 

 

The pair eventually reached the other side of the bridge. There was a wide pier-like area where huge metal cargo containers are a common sight, cranes jut the landscape, and lengthy levitating trailer trucks in crimson pink go around with their business, ignoring the diminutive vehicle just passing by on their way to the main road.

 

 

“Hmmm… must’ve been a big project. Those are not there when I got here.”

 

 

“Number Two Hero Geyser destroyed another row of buildings. Put two and two together and Ocha’s already working on it-“

 

 

The two didn’t even manage to go twenty meters away from the pier-like area’s exit when they’re instantly surrounded by a small group of people as they were about to go on a narrow stretch of road.

 

 

 And they’re no ordinary people.

 

 

“The League of Villains… Seriously? At 9 in the morning?!” Eri shouted out, slamming her small delicate hands onto the steering wheel.

 

 

“I say they’re right on time.” Izuku chuckled, earning a glare from the driver.

Notes:

I can’t believe Flect Turn’s fight ended with Deku just punching harder… well I took that idea and shoved it into this fic so hard that Deku now beats EVERYTHING by simply punching harder! Har har har!

Chapter 16: The Gravedigger Project

Notes:

I put some adjustments on this new Class B League of Villains, check the end notes for more info.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 23

 

                                                                                                                                                                    

“’Bout time you showed up…” The leader of the League of Villains, wearing his usual rectangular metal helmet covering his entire face with only narrow slits for his eyes, spoke, placing one rugged hand on the hood of the car. “Outta the car, now.”

 

 

He then quickly plucked out a metal tube that’s melded into his right arm and slammed it onto the hood, creating a noticeable dent. Meanwhile, the rest of the League were silently standing behind him, each with their eyes narrowed onto the two passengers of the vehicle, and looking like they’re ready to strike at a moment’s notice.

 

 

“Midoriya…” Eri’s grasp tightened onto the steering wheel, sparks beginning to dance around her horns as she glared towards the people at front, clearly annoyed by their trip being interrupted by a bunch of nobodies. “ What. Do. We. Do?”

 

 

“Don’t even try turning them all to fetuses. They’re my personal entertainment,” Izuku replied, making a light wave towards the leader of the League which promptly ticked him off to slam another one onto the car’s hood, creating a second dent.

 

 

“Yeah well get rid of them. Pissing me off will get you nowhere…”

 

 

“Okay, but because you didn’t ask nicely, I’ll do so in a very bored and non-flashy manner,” Izuku said, opening the door of the car and stepping out. He then locked eyes with the leader and his group of villainous twenty-somethings for a good one minute, at least hoping they would back down. In the back of his mind it’s awkward that a grown man would even dare mess with kids, but they’re the ‘country’s most wanted criminals’ after all, so it’s not like he has a ‘choice’.

 

 

“No,” Izuku said, deliberately cranking his head forward to look as bored and tired as possible. It seemed to enrage the leader and in he came, tube in hand, back arced backwards and ready to bash his brains out.

 

 

Only to get wrapped around with black tendril-like energies that emerged from Izuku’s right hand’s fingers, its grip extending and latching onto the rest of the League, completely holding them in place. Izuku then swung his right arm upward with such force that all six members of the villain group are launched high in the sky, straight to the direction of the ocean beside them. And in a matter of seconds, the streets are clean and quiet once more.

 

 

“Hey hey hey hey!” Izuku heard a very familiar voice coming from high above him, this time from the opposite direction where he flung ‘The Country’s Most Wanted Criminals’. He turned his attention to the location of the voice and saw a similar young man in his early twenties wearing a pale yellow jacket, flying low with his huge crimson-colored wings jutting out from his back. “Midoriya! I can explain!”

 

 

“Hawks…” Izuku said with a frown, seeing the young man land in front of him with two blue-colored ice cream cones on each hand as his crimson energy-like wings disappear into thin air. “You’re supposed to be on guard duty…” he said, pointing towards the patch of ocean he flung the ‘criminals’ to, his face a mix of annoyance and boredom.

 

 

“Ah-eh-uuuuhhhhh well I went out to get something to eat and uh…”

 

 

A palm found itself on Izuku’s face as he sighed. “Whatever, now go fetch those guys and set them somewhere else. The media can’t blame them if they spend their entire morning here.”

 

 

“Where are you going, boss- oh!” The person called Hawks turned around and saw Eri on the driver’s seat of the car beside him, tapping both index fingers on the steering wheel and glaring at them. “Hi Eri! Shouldn’t you be at school?”

 

 

A huge frown appeared on Eri’s face. It was intended to be this menacing ‘Don’t-mess-with-me-or-I’ll-turn-you-back-into-a-fetus’ frown, but Hawks just found it charming, as to which Eri found it even more irritating. It never mattered what kind of menacing face she pulled, threats she sputtered out, or hideous crimes she did as the brains behind the Shie Hassaikai Yakuza. As long as she stays on her younger form, she will only get compliments. People just find her adorable by default and it’s been getting on her nerves.

 

 

“Hey now, Hawks, I already said that joke earlier. You’re really bad at originality…” Izuku said, shaking his head and crossing his arms, stifling a laugh.

 

 

“Boss… Did you forget? I told you about that joke last week because I know Eri’s coming?”

 

 

“Huh? Oh! I almost forgot! Man I’m getting old, do you think I’m getting old-?”

 

 

The car’s horn blared at them twice, forcing the two to turn their attention to it. Inside, Eri’s forehead is just placed on top of the steering wheel, her grip on the steering wheel intensifying. “I’m waiting here, old man. Are we going or not?” she said between breaths.

 

 

Izuku shrugged it off. “Hey Hawks, make sure they’re at Tokyo before noon!”

 

 

“Will do!” Hawks turned around and crouched, two ice cream cones still in his grasp, revealing metal struts jutting out from his back and through his jacket. Elongated rods seemingly made of pure energy then appeared from the tips of the struts and formed a wing in the same fashion as a cutter’s blade sliding out of its container, one after the other. The wings glowed a dark red color and the young man finally took off to the skies with one leap, and into the ocean where the League of Villains went to, his energy-like wings creating a splendid crimson trail.

 

 

“How much Stratonite that thing used?” Eri asked just as Izuku went back to the car, her gaze lingering on the young man’s wing system.

 

 

“Classified.”

 

 

Eri nodded and started the car once more, her pair of horns being surrounded with a faint yellow glow, electricity-like energies arcing in between them, and restoring the dent on the car’s hood back to its original state. “You literally had to have your newest elite hitman bodyguard the League? Seriously?”

 

 

“Hey now, the League’s pretty bold these days. Awase’s really beginning to think the country’s scared of him. If it weren’t for Hawks there, they would have been picked on by kids!”

 

 

“You’re scared kids will defeat them?”

 

 

“Oh come on, what do you think those idiots can even do? You get Awase, who’s basically a nobody who might have forgotten I’m the one who gave them a Mecha-Nomu in the first place, you get Tsubaraba and his barriers, Tetsutetsu who’s the lamest iron man you will ever see, Fukidashi who does nothing for some reason, Kamakiri who’s a guy with a knife, and Kimori… who’s a girl with a knife…” Izuku’s face contorted into something of amusement. “They’re six people with mediocre Quirks in a country of millions, with millions of different far better Quirks… like Erasure, Creation, Rewind, and One for All of course…”

 

 

Eri could only nod, what Izuku said is definitely true. But how come the League is considered as the country’s Most Wanted criminals?

 

 

“The League is a Blame System that’s too good to pass. I would have exterminated them long ago if it weren’t for that fact. I dunno if you already know yet but-“

 

 

“Midoriya… I deal with the underground system. I’m a woman of the dark. Drugs, bio-enhancements, shady deals… do you think I have time to study whatever’s going on on the surface?” Eri concentrated on the road in front of them, with the car slowing down as it approached a crossroad with light traffic.

 

 

She was about to speak when she saw a group of heroes approaching their location. It was not an act of aggression as if they saw them and is most likely just part of their regular patrol route. She’s not wearing any disguise at all, but she can’t risk being discovered, not that these heroes have the necessary Quirks to beat her.

 

 

 Izuku quickly pressed a button on the left side of the radio ‘Play’ button and the windows instantly became dark-tinted. “Flect Turn thought of the system-“

 

 

“Flect who?”

 

 

“I don’t really remember the positions of people these days. The HSPC guy? Ring a bell? He once thought the League was my project since they’re just a delusional bunch of kids who keep blaming the system for whatever reason, and I was about to take them out of the picture for the heck of it but he thought about an alternative ‘What if we hype up the League as some dangerous group of criminals and then blame them for every un-solveable crime?’ That would instantly shut the people up!” Izuku said out loud, raising both hands to shoulder-level. “And what do you know? It worked! Only problem now are the vigilantes going after them, but I got that covered.”

 

 

“Geez, every day the more and more I believe heroes will save us…”

 

 

“The main problem with the ‘League’ is that they’re not really good villains. They do crime in broad daylight, their Quirks are mediocre at best and their way of teamwork is… even worse than a cat’s hairball… Might have gotten used to everyone being scared of them, so I gave them a bodyguard just in case.”

 

 

“How does the bodyguard work?”

 

 

“Aside from bodyguarding them, of course… Hawks transports them around every scene of un-solveable crime so they can be blamed for it. And based on his reports, Awase seemed to enjoy being blamed for all the evil in this country.”

 

 

“And what happens if some people figured out that these League guys are nothing but schmucks?”

 

 

“Don’t know don’t care. Hawks got that covered.”

 

 

Eri’s fingers tapped on the steering wheel, fighting away the boredom as she stared at the currently red traffic light that stood there unchanging for the past five minutes now. “Are you sure you didn’t accidentally gas them? You’re talking like they’re even worse than those bad guys I used to watch in cartoons long ago. What happened to the Gas Kids anyway? Heard they’re SpecPro now.”

 

 

“I don’t remember gassing anyone who looked like them. But to be fair I don’t remember the faces of some test subjects. Maybe I did? Maybe not?”

 

 

“And SpecPro Gas Kids-”

 

 

“I had to lend them 3 of my hitmen to pretend being the Big Three… I think Okuta’s planning to turn them SpecPro into superstars or somethin’ I don’t care about.”

 

 

“Aren’t they your latest-“

 

 

 “Nah I don’t need ‘em anymore. Got what I need already. Shigaraki can go frolick on the flower fields now for all I care.”

 

 

Eri slammed the gas the moment the traffic light turned green. Izuku was about to turn up the music volume when Eri spoke up again. “Was it your doing? USJ?”

 

 

“Nope, it was the League of Villains!” Izuku said with a chuckle, leaning back on his seat and cushioning his head with his hands.

 

 

“Blame them for everything these days…”

 

 

“But yeah it was me. En experiment went haywire that day and I tasked my elite hitmen to dispose of them all. But Shirakumo thought it was a great idea to make a faked-up challenge to the new SpecPro kids… and blame it on the League.”

 

 

“Midoriya, you’re in cahoots with the heroes, they knew everything, right?”

 

 

“Most certainly… I dunno… why would I care? I got a whole wall of proof why no one should mess with me.”

 

 

“Doesn’t stop Death Arms from doing so.”

 

 

“He must have a death wish then. In this case, death by my arms that is. I upped Ocha’s security just in case, you never know with those fools.

 

 

Eri nodded, turning her attention back to the road and eyeing up the buildings along their path, recognizing them. After three more crossroads, she turned right and went straight ahead until they came across a suspiciously-wide alleyway in which Eri turned the steering wheel as hard as she could and shoved the car inside, much to the surprise of nearby civilians.

 

 

“New place? Pretty close to mine… not bad…” Izuku leaned forward, inspecting the dull alleyway they’re in. Air conditioning units, rusted foldable metal stairs, clothes hanging by a clothesline, all the things associated with alleyways- at least alleyways near his island fortress off the coast of Chiba. The clearly-abandoned buildings on either side looked run-down and dilapidated, like they’re just waiting for the wrecking ball to drop on them.

 

 

He was about to talk more about the possible presence of ghosts in such derelict structures when Eri got out of the car, the car door almost hitting the wall due to how narrow their choice of parking area is. Izuku got out from his side and noticed Eri was suddenly back to her adult woman form.

 

 

“I gotta say the red handbag stands out like a sore thumb…”

 

 

Eri turned to face him, eyeing him from head to toe, “says the guy who decides to look like a drunken homeless bastard.”

 

 

“I have nothing to prove.”

 

 

Eri shook her head, sighing as she gestured for Izuku to follow her through the dark alleyway and to the only dumpster there, where she tapped her fingers onto it in a rhythmic fashion like it was some sort of code, a code Izuku couldn’t be bothered to memorize.

 

 

One minute later, the rusty worn-down door next to the dumpster tapped back with the same rhythmic code.

 

 

“You do know anyone with super strength can bust down that door, right?” Izuku leaned forward, tapping Eri’s shoulder with the crude re-enactment of the tapping sequence she just did earlier. “Right?”

 

 

“Correct,” came Eri’s quick reply. Direct, straight to the point, and which she refused to elaborate further. She stood in front of the door for another good ten seconds, doing nothing but standing still, until she went inside, ducking down to avoid hitting the top of the doorway with her horns.

 

 

The inside of the building is well lit, the interior neat and clean. While it’s just basically an empty concrete tunnel lined with ceiling fans and dim lightbulbs, there’s an air of simplicity to it, or so Izuku feels it has. While walking beside Eri on the empty hallway he could already hear noises coming from down below them that indicated that there’s whole lot more people there than just the two of them.

 

 

“We contacted Shuzenji herself just for this project,” Eri suddenly said, just looking straight ahead and not bothering to look. “Know about her?”

 

 

“The creator of the original Nomus? How could I not know about her?” Izuku joked, shoving his hands down the pockets of his shorts. How could he forget about the one woman’s work that led to the development of mindless hulking brutes in which he further tampered with to create the modern Mecha-Nomus he has today? “I thought she’s retired?”

 

 

“We negotiated with her, there’s highs and lows, twists and turns, but in the end I just decided to buy the whole damn thing. All her work, compiled, sorted, and classified, all the necessities and ready for playing God.”

 

 

Izuku raised an eyebrow. Last time he remembered, Shuzenji retired from her villainous ways to become a regular doctor at Jakku city upon seeing the further potentially-disastrous potential of her work. Even then, she kept a few of her creations as bodyguards, which proved useful against the numerous attempts of kidnapping by groups of people who want to take the genetic formula for themselves.

 

 

“How did you convince her?”

 

 

“While truly a master of playing God, she never did find a cure for her aging. She could only prolong her life, not find a cure to immortality. You put two and two together and I convinced her to hand everything to me.”

 

 

“What age is she now?”

 

 

“She requested to be turned 18 again. The moment we finished our deal and got out, she was quite the head-turner.”

 

 

A cringe escaped Izuku’s face, who cannot picture how a 100-year old grandmother be a stunner from her younger years. While he very well knew it was possible, he himself knew there’s no reason not to believe it was impossible, but he just couldn’t imagine it happening. “I have no f***ing clue why am I cringing right now.”

 

 

Eri chuckled to herself and on they went towards the end of the hallway, passing by multiple wooden doors, each with a random symbol carved onto the wood itself, with the one at the end of the hallway being blank. Said blank door is the one they went into.

 

 

It led to an elevator.

 

 

“Eri, on a scale of one to ten, how much did you copy my underground network?”

 

 

“Midoriya, not every elevator that goes straight down is copied from your… whatever you call yours…”

 

 

“I call it,” Izuku stepped inside and pressed the button to go downwards, or so he thinks as it’s the only button on the entire interior of the elevator, “The Tunnel of Wonders.”

 

 

“Wonders of what?”

 

 

“Classified.”

 

 

The tunnel went straight down for a good one minute, with Izuku looking around and trying to find any speakers of sorts as the ride is eerily silent when it should have been a little more on the lively side, even though his own elevator doesn’t have an installed sound system of its own.

 

 

The metal door in front eventually opened, revealing a metal platform suspended above a wide open empty rectangular space below. Izuku looked around, inspecting every inch of the place as he’s never been in this specific underground lab before, which Eri has in the dozens scattered across the country. Compared to the labs he’d seen, this one is completely empty, with only a single long table and huge panels of glass everywhere giving people a good view of the open arena-like area below.

 

 

The entire room is very similar to the ones where the announcers reside in at the UA Sports Stadium. If there was a mic there at the front end of the room it would have been mostly exactly the same. He was about to ask when Eri immediately said that yes, the same person worked on this.

 

 

But unlike the UA announcer area, this one is way more barren.

 

 

“Where’s Kusanagi by the way?”

 

 

“I entrusted him to Dragunov’s care. He’s done his role, he deserves a good retirement,” Izuku said as he walked towards the only table there and took a seat on one of its wooden chairs that’s nearest to him. Said wooden chair is also a drastically different color than the table it’s under and it’s slightly ticking him off. “Not that he really did anything but the genetic research breakthroughs are just too good.”

 

 

“Is this ‘Dragunov’ taking good care of him?”

 

 

“Yep. Cloud’s giving her the maintenance drugs but everything’s fine. I mean the guy’s technically her son.”

 

 

“You and your experiments are getting stupider and stupider over time…”

 

 

“Good villains have good tastes.”

 

 

Eri nodded at him and took a seat on the wide part of the table, directly facing the ‘stadium’ below them. “But let me introduce the guests first,” she said, a hand swinging over to her left side, highlighting the only door at that location.

 

 

“Of course… the guests…” Izuku spontaneously sported a huge frown on his face and crossed his arms, a little bit of green lightning leaping on his fingertips. He knew who Eri’s talking about and he doesn’t like them one bit.

 

 

“If you want to get discounts on the first batch, then behave.”

 

 

“Whatever.”

 

 

Eri’s right hand slid down on her handbag and tinkered with something there, causing a door on the left side of the room to open, revealing two middle-aged men, one wearing a tuxedo and the other one in a firefighter suit stylized to look like camouflaged combat attire.

 

 

 “Well if it isn’t Morning Wood and Wet Dream…” Izuku said as he narrowed his green eyes on the newcomers, his face shortly turning into a full blown scowl in a matter of seconds. These two are part of a huge organization threatening to bring down the hero society he created, despite said system bringing in an unprecedented era of peace for close to 2 decades now. While yes he agreed that the restrictions on Quirk usage went higher than expected, but that’s all part of how the system should work. Yes it brought out more corrupt heroes than ever before, but at the end of the day everyone’s happy with the overall structure.

 

 

But apparently not these Meta Liberation Army freaks…

 

 

Izuku very well knew they number over a hundred thousand strong, all united under one goal of taking down his ‘suppressive’ regime. They’re not even concealing it either, at least to him. And while he’s extremely powerful, he’s well aware of all the tricks these people can do. If it means the safety of his his family, his crew, and everyone close to him, it’s best to just grit his teeth and ignore these people as of now. As long as no one is moving, there is peace.

 

 

He can feel it. They’re ready. They’re more than ready. The first move could just right around the corner, no matter what side does it. Izuku’s sure the impending war between his side and them is going to cause a ton of casualties on both sides, and now they’re openly flexing in front of him about potentially buying Eri’s newest genetic abomination.

 

 

“This does not concern you, Midoriya. We’re having this… Gravedigger Project for reasons other than to throw them at you.”

 

 

Izuku’s glare, previously just aimed straight at a wall in front of him, now centered on the man who just spoke.

 

 

Shinji Nishiya, Liberation Codename: Kamui Woods. Hearts and Minds political party. A humanoid heteromorph looking like a person made out of timber. Izuku’s been keen on observing the pacing this specific person  as he moves through the hypothetical political ranks, and based on his notes he would be Prime Minister within ten years if he keeps his performance up. That would mean more trouble for him. Right now Izuku and the Meta Liberation Army are on a stalemate, a silent stalemate, with both sides knowing capable of utterly destroy one another. The last Izuku needs is a person from a rival team on such an absurdly high position.

 

 

“Then care to tell me what you plan to do with them?” Izuku asked, leaning back on the backrest of his seat, sparks of green lighting began appearing all over his form. It was subtle, but he made sure it was noticeable enough from the other side of the well-lit room.

 

 

“The Gravedigger project could prove useful in regressing physical mutations that prove more of a hindrance than an advantage.”

 

 

“People with physical mutations that cause them hindrance are better off with their heads not connected to their shoulders.” Izuku rolled his eyes at the two men on the other side of the table, quickly glancing and seeing Eri just sitting there unmoving. “So you’re not even planning to throw them at me one way or another?”

 

 

“After we’re done, we’ll maybe throw them at you.”

 

 

“Do you want me to offer you a demonstration on how to snap someone’s neck?” Izuku spat back with venom in his voice, despite fully knowing neck snapping wouldn’t work on a literal humanoid plant. With a smug grin, he turned his attention to Shinji’s bodyguard, one of the MLA’s pride and joy, one of the most powerful members there.

 

 

Backdraft.

 

 

Now if only the person would ditch the silly firefighter costume and get in line with actual combat-ready attire…

 

 

“Watch your tone, Midoriya,” Backdraft taunted, raising up his stump of a right hand shaped like a fire hydrant. “You wouldn’t want to be a dessicated husk in a fraction of a second would you?”

 

 

“Did you just taunt me? Did you just f***ing taunt me, Backdraft? Didn’t get your daily dog piss quota today, huh Backdraft?!” Izuku instantly stood up, his aura of green lightning intensifying. There’s one thing about standing your ground, but there’s another thing about preserving said ground. “You’re stepping out of the line there buddy, do you know what I do to people who dare step out of the line?!”

 

 

Backdraft’s empty stump of a right hand let out a stream of water which formed into an actual hand, albeit made of liquid, and ten times bigger than a standard human hand.

 

 

“You are cleared for-“

 

 

All three are suddenly interrupted at the sight of Eri standing up, electric yellow sparks of energy arcing from between her huge horns. There was silence for a while, the lights of the room flickering in time with the energy fluctuations of Rewind.

 

 

Eri stared dead center at the glass panel right in front of her for a whole minute, visibly gritting her teeth, before lifting up her right hand with two fingers raised and motioning them forward.

 

 

She uttered no words, no one part of her crew could have probably seen that, but the metal door right behind her instantly opened, making Izuku immediately swivel his head towards the direction.

 

 

“Look what we have here…” the villain said to himself as he went back to his seat, but still making repeated side glances on his rivals on the other side of the room.

 

 

Tatsumaki Kamikaze and Seigyo Shinryaku, both dressed in full casual disguise.

 

 

“Now that we have all the participants in this little screening…” Eri said in between breaths, frustration still apparent in her voice, and the glow of her horns intensifying as her left hand grasped the flat surface of the table it’s on. “I’m going to give you people 5 minutes of interaction, any more hostility will be met with a thorough payback from yours truly.”

 

 

Izuku saw both Shinji and Backdraft tense up a little, allowing a stealthy smirk to escape his lips. While yes Eri just threatened to turn them back into fetuses, death does not have a hold on him, unlike other people. He then narrowed his eyes even more at his rivals for a good while before turning his attention to the two ‘heroes’ who just entered.

 

 

“Oh hey, didn’t expect to see you two over here!” he said to the two, all hostility leaving his system.

 

 

“Did not expect? Seriously Deku?” Seigyo took a few steps towards him. “At the end of the day, once these monsters are out there, it’s going to be up to us to clean that mess anyways. More chaos, more money, and hey! More projects for Graviton!”

 

 

Izuku nodded, as much as he wanted Shinryaku’s head hung up on his wall of achievements, what the person said was right, and will provide more project opportunities for his wife’s construction company. Alongside the ‘fake villain system’ he organized to cause as much havoc and destruction, this new project can do even more damage, and together with some heroes’ obsession with causing collateral damage for ‘extra cinematic effect’, more buildings can get destroyed. And more buildings destroyed, the more money piled up at Graviton’s feet.

 

 

“Pfft, yeah we’re gonna be the clean-up crew anyways so why not have a sneak peek?” Tatsumaki added, walking over beside Eri and looking at the massive glass panels in front of her, observing the ‘stadium’ below. “Any other heroes know about this? The top ten? Machia? Geyser?”

 

 

“Not yet,” Eri replied. “But yes I agree you two are the ones going to be called for it anyways, that’s why I called you here.”

 

 

“You called them?” Shinji asked from the other side of the room.

 

 

“So now we have you Liberation imbeciles, this green control freak, and corrupt heroes. Don’t you just love it when it’s the bad guys who’re running the country?” Eri said with a light chuckle, a hand going up to her lips. “But anyways, let’s get on to the main event-“

 

 

“Uhm, Miss Kaeru?” Seigyo interrupted Eri, tapping on her back and holding onto a flare gun stylized to look like an oversized pistol, colored in hues of reds, whites, and yellows. “I believe you might want some of this.”

 

 

“Eclipse guns? They’re phasing out the old models just like that?” the older woman asked, carefully grabbing the weapon off of the hero’s hand and inspecting it.

 

 

“What about the old ones?” Izuku asked, walking over to check the gun. It’s twice the size of a handcannon revolver and about half the length of a standard shotgun. At this point, even the two representatives of the Meta Liberation Army went in to check.

 

 

“The old ones were found to have a loophole that allowed the order of flare colors to be faked, and got pulled back just yesterday,” Tatsumaki spoke out, raising the bottom part of her shirt to reveal her belt, and two other guns strapped to it, in which she took out and handed to both Izuku and Shinji. “Now keep in mind I’m not going to be your one-man demolition team all the time. I have hobbies too ya know?”

 

 

“Yeah like trying to calculate how many spoonfuls of cheesecake you can eat without getting fat?” Seigyo leaned backwards, crimson shards instantly jutting out of his back and embedding themselves into the concrete floor below to steady himself.

 

 

“Shut up Shin. I take my cheesecake seriously.”

 

 

“Mind if I fire this thing? Is it loaded?” Eri suddenly spoke, still inspecting the so-called weapon in her hands. Last thing she could remember is that Eclipse Guns have a special cartridge at the back that allowed it to fire four consecutive shots. This time around, the area where the flares are stored are nowhere to be seen. Is it now made to be internal to reduce tampering?

 

 

“Yep it’s loaded, you just gotta take the safety off first and fire in the hole to your heart’s content, if you even have a heart that is,” Seigyo muttered, shrugging. “Why don’t you guys take that off for a spin?”

 

 

Eri shrugged it off as well and tapped the table in front of her two times, the thick bulletproof panels of glass in front of her lowering, exposing the empty metal-walled space before them. She aimed the gun up ahead, noticing its increased weight unlike the last time she wielded it, and pulled the trigger, sending a red-colored flare out through the muzzle and impacting the wall 50 meters in front of them, resulting in a spectacular mini fireworks show.

 

 

“Is this a joke? Did you two seriously just pulled a prank on me?” Eri said, turning back, her face looking half-annoyed and half impressed at the audacity of a joke attempt.

 

 

Tatsumaki shook her head. “We opted for fireworks this time around since the flares sometimes won’t light up. I have no idea how Wolfram got it wrong in the first place but he admitted that’s a flaw in the previous build-

 

 

The flare fired earlier continued to burn brighter and brighter until it let out another fireworks explosion, this time a bit on the blue side.

 

 

“How much for the ammo on this thing?” Izuku, all being silent beside them, suddenly spoke, pointing to the gun in his hand, shortly before another set of fireworks exploded from the still-active flare on the testing ground down below.

 

 

“We can negotiate, Midoriya…” Seigyo, still tilted diagonally with the crimson spikes still jutting off of his back, leaned in closer. “But I’m thinking about a million yen each.”

 

 

“A million yen? I see no problem in that…” Izuku shrugged. A small price to pay for an extermination crew. “Eri, show us the Gravediggers, I ain’t got all day here.”

 

 

“Alright, please have a seat, ladies and gentlemen. Let me start the presentation.” Eri gestured for everyone to sit down, the reinforced glass once again rising up and locking themselves into place. The flare down below is now completely extinguished, automatically dying on its own.

 

 

The lights on their room slowly dimmed down, the row of lightbulbs lining up the ceiling turning off one by one until only a few was left. A huge monitor located on top of the empty area in front of them  suddenly sprung into life, displaying all kinds of static and a distorted audio for a few seconds before  lowering down,still connected to the ceiling by metal tubes, and facing them.

 

 

“Hiya! How’re my fans doing?!” It said in an excitable female voice, followed closely by more static before the screen ultimately going black with only the word ‘Eviscerator’ remaining in the middle.

 

 

“Hatsume?! The f***?!” Izuku blurted out, with every other person there except Eri looking extremely surprised as well, and for good reason.  Mei Hatsume, self-proclaimed one-man research squad of the Shie Hassaikai Yakuza and tasked with developing and understanding the innate properties of Stratonite to create new and improved support equipment, has been notorious in the underground society for almost a year now for reportedly being brought back to life several times automatically after dying repeatedly to pure Stratonite poisoning.

 

 

With the main cause of revival supposedly being the Stratonite mineral itself.

 

 

Completely refusing to wear any protective clothing and supposedly working herself to death just to discover hidden effects, it is speculated that her conscience is somehow transferring over to the machines she’s working on and using that to rebuild her human self with replacement robotic parts over and over and over again after each death... Or so that’s the story everyone in the underground talked about, with the real reason Eri refuses to say.

 

 

Working to the limits is a standard Hatsume trait, and Izuku knew of that fact very well. But as far as his knowledge goes, conscience transferring without Quirk intervention is beyond fiction. But then again Stratonite is the mineral responsible for the manifestation of Quirks in the first place, so things along that line could theoretically happen.

 

 

Last time Hatsume was even seen outside of her workshop is that she’s a head with parts of her upper torso still intact, with everything else nothing but machinery. Hearing her voice in a computer screen is just another level.

 

 

“I’ve been getting reports that she’s run out of biological parts to replace. What we’re hearing and seeing right now is her fully transferred into the digital world,” Eri said calmly, staring into the hanging computer screen in front of them. “I decided to leave her workshop alone, I had it locked tight and sealed off in concrete right after this monitor started talking Hatsume-ish.”

 

 

“If you only got reports, why seal it just like that?” Kamui Woods asked from the other side of the room. “Taking precautions?”

 

 

“If Stratonite poisoning did that to her, why would we risk it?”

 

 

“Can’t you just rewind her?”

 

 

Eri shook her head. “She was adamant on not getting rewinded, saying something like she’s about to discover the peak form of humanity or something around those lines.”

 

 

“Oh come on Eri, you know Hatsume’s way better as a human right?” Izuku spoke up, gesturing for Tatsumaki to slightly move aside as she’s blocking his view of Eri. “What can this new form do better than the old one?”

 

 

“On the contrary, her new form is single-handedly managing all the electronics here, and all my other hidden bases combined as if she’s somehow connected to them now. So far she’s been nonstop talking about making more of her ‘robotic babies’ and I can’t really have a one-on-one talk to her even if I wanted to.”

 

 

“How do you know she’s managing all your electronics…?”

 

 

“How do you think I knew it was Lemillion who just stole my latest batch of Archon drugs? Plus a few intruders here and there and she’s the one-“

 

 

“Guys! Are we ready to roll?!” Hatsume’s voice echoed throughout the room, the word ‘Eviscerator’ on the monitor’s screen moving up and down. “Shall we begin testing? We can’t just sit there and talk when there’s all this lovely data I can acquire!”

 

 

“Now that’s the Hatsume we- here I am worried she might start talking different,” Seigyo muttered, planting his hands onto the the table and leaning forward, crimson spikes on his back retracting. “No reverse-engineering on the Eclipse guns by the way. We strictly prohibit it”

 

 

Eri nodded. “I have no time for reverse-engineering. And Hatsume would rather make… whatever she’s making in her workshop-lair.” She then turned to the screen. “Let them out.”

 

 

“Will do!” Hatsume reversed the monitor, random mysterious symbols flickering on it at a rapid pace. “Gravedigger project. Beta phase, releasing test subjects X-2 Point B Specimen number 19 to the field. Requesting to record field performance?”

 

 

“You’re clear.”

 

 

The screen attached itself back to the ceiling shortly after the word ‘Eviscerator’ turned into a smiley face. All of a sudden, the huge metal door on the rightmost corner of the empty space below lowered, and in came a small brown ball rolling into the center of the arena-like space.

 

 

All eyes centered on the small ball, especially more so when the ball started mutating, or based on what little they can all see from their location. While still spherical, it’s now visibly a pulsating mass of purple flesh, growing and growing until it’s reached the size of a compact car before it burst open, splattering purple sludge within 3 to 4 meters around it, revealing an enraged hulking humanoid around triple the size of an average person, smashing its fist around and generally looking like a rabid animal on steroids.

 

 

Izuku observed the creature. It definitely had the look of Shuzenji’s original aberrations of twisted flesh, with the trademark exposed armored brain, but way more volatile, vicious, and dangerous by the way it flails its arms around like it seemed to be in constant pain.

 

 

“They’re designed to be dropped in situations and take as much out of the enemy with them before they inevitably die, which is about 5 to 15 minutes.”

 

 

“Seriously? 5 to 10 minutes…?” Izuku raised an eyebrow, with every other person there doing the same to Eri.

 

 

The Yakuza boss didn’t even flinch, and instead double-tapped the table in front of her. “Hatsume, take him out.”

 

 

Without the woman-turned-AI responding with any audio cues, a hole in the wall appeared, and in came a monstrous cannon which aimed and fired directly towards the enraged creature, instantly splattering it into a million pieces, but generally leaving the floor intact.

 

 

But before anyone can even react, the pieces began to glow a tinge of yellow, with everyone instantly recognizing the electrical effects as the same as Eri’s. The pieces began reforming back into a ball the size in which it came from, before mutating and enlarging again, until the creature’s back like nothing happened.

 

 

“The cycle of infinity. Short lives. Designed to deal as much damage as possible before exhausting all its resources and dying, and then turning back into a ball and starting the cycle all over again. If killed while in Nomu mode it will immediately cocoon and start rewinding again. The cocoon phase also causes Rewind to fire at random nearby places at short intervals, and has special interactions upon contacting with nearby Eviscerators – cocoon or not.”

 

 

“So they’re not named Gravediggers?” Tatsumaki asked, pointing at the still-enraged creature down below.”

 

 

“It’s just the project name. Yaoyorozu suggested ‘Eviscerator’ because it sounds deadlier.

 

 

“So how do we beat it?”

 

 

“I’m going to leave that to you people. As of now they’re just in the beginning phase, with only I and a select few people knowing the trick. But if you want to test them out for yourselves, I’m already selling them. Better buy them quick, I have contacts overseas ready to take them upon full release. And I’m talking large shipments over here.”

 

 

“How much?” Izuku asks, not taking his eye off of the creature below. He remembered Eri asking for Kusanagi’s genetic code alongside the Muramasa precept and thought about Eri maybe planning to use them as modular attachments to the beasts for more effective lethality.

 

 

“For people here I can negotiate prices. As for you Midoriya-“

 

 

“Let me guess…”

 

 

“Kusanagi’s genetic code and the Muramasa Precept, just like I said.”

 

 

Izuku sighed, shaking his head. He then turned to Tatsumaki. “Kamikaze, as of this very moment, is there at least one person out there trying to kill me?”

 

 

“So far no, why?” came Tatsumaki’s quick answer. “Unless you count these guys over here,” she said, pointing over to both Shinji and Backdraft to the other side of the room.

 

 

“The MLA can go screw themselves. I’m just asking since I’m not in the mood for dying yet, not that it will even matter.” Izuku turned to face Eri. “I’m willing to trade for 20 Gravediggers. Graviton needs more work to do.”

 

 

Eri narrowed her red eyes at him for a good ten seconds. “Deal.”

Notes:

Hawks only had to infiltrate the League instead of capture them so uuhhhh… Yeah… Hawks is the League’s bodyguard now.
...
So about the League, I can’t really put the Class B students perfectly in their place so I had to make some adjustments:

Awase = Shigaraki: Because they have the exact same ‘touch things and make something happen’. Decay is obviously better than Bind, but Shiggy still can’t kill major characters with it so I guess this is fine.

Kamakiri = Spinner: Kamakiri is faster, sharper, and better than Spinner in every way. But for this story to work, he had to be downgraded to Spinner levels.

Manga = Compress: Compress can finish any fight he’s in if he wanted to, so naturally he’s not allowed to use his long-ranged instakill Compression ability. For short he’s the MVP who’s not allowed to move because he’ll overshadow Shiggy. Manga here still has the same abilities as canon but refuses to use them. This will be explained later.

Tsubaraba = Dabi: The guy with elemental powers.

Kimori = Toga: The insane chick with a knife. Kimori obviously has larger area of effect and better versatility. She still disguises but expect her Quirk to be downgraded just like Kamakiri.

Tetsutetsu = Twice: Twice introduced himself making weak clones. In MVA, he spammed clones. In PLF, he died, so he never got to do it again. But since his MVA clone-spam is mostly just other Twices, I put in Tetsu for him since I think he’s equivalent to multiple Twices.

But overall, the Class B League will just be a minor threat in the story. This is mostly Midoriya, Eri, the MLA..

Chapter 17: "Mental Manipulation"

Notes:

Since Shiggy had massive help from AFO during MVA in this fic, he didn’t get to flashback or anything at all. He ran in, plowed through the army, and took down Re-Destro. His memories of some *very* specific things are kinda hazy.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 27

 

 

Tomura grabbed the pencil resting near his left elbow and slammed its tip directly on the sheet of paper in front of him, kicking up dust that accumulated nearby and chipping away a good deal of the graphite. He drew a triangle and added a bunch of squiggly lines on top of it and a bunch of curves everywhere in the shape of a person. He stared a bit on his creation, narrowing his eyes on some places, before slamming down his pencil and scribbling some more.

 

 

“Man I’m so good at drawing! I never knew I had some sort of hidden skill in this!” he said out loud, leaning down onto the paper and moving the pencil on any direction he can think of. He was never the artist, but looking down on his work, he couldn’t help but feel proud. It was such a masterpiece worthy of being displayed on art museums to be adored by thousands of people.

 

 

“What’s that…?” Mustard asked, one eyebrow raised and looking at Tomura’s drawing. “Is that even a creature?”

 

 

“Hey pal, don’t mess with my skills!” Tomura said, not even looking up to the person in front of him and instead further drew more and more lines onto the paper in an attempt to draw the USJ Nomu, the one back in the real world and not the savage beast they encountered here. “Ta-da! I’m done!”

 

 

“What… did you just draw?”

 

 

“Mustard, are you blind- You know what I’ve been calling you Mustard for a long time now, what the heck’s your name anyway?”

 

 

Mustard shook his head. “Mustard sounds like a secret codename. I like secret codenames. It’s Yudokuna Fujin by the way… “

 

 

“Almost a month in and we only knew your name, weird how that works huh?” Spinner said, currently with his back turned to them, also drawing something on a paper in front of him. “So… get it now?”

 

 

Mustard looked again at what Tomura’s drawing, a good long look that almost lasted a minute, before something clicked in his head. While the beak-like structure in front of the creature’s head is a nice touch, the exposed brain is a dead giveaway that the boy in front of him just drew a Nomu. “It’s a Nomu…” he said, double-tapping the paper.

 

 

Tomura nodded. “Yeah it’s a Nomu, know anything like this?”

 

 

“As far as I know, it’s the old version of the Mecha Nomus. Not one of them was spotted in decades now.”

 

 

“Hmmm interesting… So that’s it, we’ll meet up with ya this afternoon, you available?” Tomura said, standing up from his seat and crumpling his crude drawing of a Nomu and tossing it in the nearest trashcan, which is the one beside the door to their classroom. “Hey Spin! What’s next on the agenda-?”

 

 

“ I’m getting my new hat!” Spinner exclaimed from the back of the empty classroom, standing up and running straight through the door. “Let’s go! He should be out there right now!”

 

 

“Hmm… Good point,” Tomura responded back, seeing his friend run out the door. “So that’s it for today eh? Don’t forget to ask around at your online forums, see if they can find anything more about Midoriya, maybe they can maybe help us and tune down the difficulty of this quest a bit.”

 

 

“Gotcha, I’ll tell you my findings soon!”

 

 

Tomura nodded at the boy and saluted him, before walking off. It’s only then after a few seconds of walking through the well-lit corridors outside of the classroom that Tomura realized he’s once more feeling very good about himself, something he’s been trying to suppress ever since he got here, trying to keep negative thoughts swirling inside his head at all times.

 

 

Times have been getting tougher, All for One barely visits him anymore, and class activities have switched from just ‘Do this but with your Quirk’ to full endurance tests. They were a lot of fun, fun that he never had in years, and it detracts from his whole ‘store your hate’ thing his adoptive father told him.

 

 

It’s even more mysterious that AFO is deliberately evading questions pertaining to the ‘original characters’ of this world like the Blindfold guy, Maybe-Midoriya’s sister, Blue girl Spinner’s scared of, and Gentle… especially Gentle…

 

 

He was about to turn right on the way back to his room to get his Machia-themed hat when he bumped into Twice, holding up a spoonful of peanut butter. “I’m kinda digging this new world we’re in. I never knew you were good at making buddies, buddy. It’s making me jealous.

 

 

“Making buddies? Ya lost your marbles, Thrice?” Tomura extended his lower lip in a display of mockery, going up few steps towards Twice to assert his now-nonexistent dominance over him. “Do you think I would ever be good at making friends? I make enemies, lots and lots of enemies, fix yer brain or I’ll fix it for ya.”

 

 

“You are now, kinda,” Twice replied, not even flinching, which made Tomura all the more annoyed no one’s scared of him anymore.

 

 

“It’s called mental manipulation, dumbass. I don’t make friends.”

 

 

“Hey don’t say that, you know how to make friends. I think you suck at it.”

 

 

“Twice I gotta say this... get the f*** out before I befriend you,” Tomura said, once again trying his domination tactics, that is somehow not working on Twice anymore. Is it because his Decay is now replaced with Wasteland 27, that only dehydrates instead of disintegrates? Is it because he’s lost his touch? Or is it because Twice is almost double the size of his younger lanky form?

 

 

Either way, Twice shrugged it off and walked away, licking the peanut butter dangling off of his spoon. Tomura could do no more than stick his tongue out and walk off as well, going straight to his room, picking up the upturned hat lying on his bed and out he ran through the school grounds and out towards the exit, after making sure the three locks on his dorm room are secure first.

 

 

Spinner was already there, seemingly deciding if he should wear his Machia-themed cap forwards, backwards, or sidewards. The mood is once again unusually very light as to him, negative thoughts just keep getting flushed out of his mind every single time. The new world is peaceful, the new world is bright, everything here is vastly different from the real one, where he would spend night after night scheming about how to take down hero society and failing every single time.

 

 

But he has to keep going. Midoriya needs to die, and that’s what matters. He has to think negative thoughts. But what bad things can he think about? Especially when it regards to heroism?

 

 

The USJ attack, just like what happened in the real world, was only reported for 2 days, blamed on the League of Villains, before being forgotten and fading into the background of more current-yet-nonsensical news like what happened to this hero, what happened to that hero, and whatever’s happening to heroes as a whole.

 

 

Tomura couldn’t help but roll his eyes at everything, but at least that’s a negative thought to him. The whole society’s centered on heroes, and everyone’s relying on them for everything. He remembered back then after destroying Jakku city, people immediately blamed the heroes for not fixing the issue fast enough despite them clearly doing their best to stop the threat. It’s almost religion-like. The heroes are the benevolent gods, and heroism is the ultimate good that can do no wrong.

 

 

But is that right? Is what he said true in this new alternate reality? So far not a single major catastrophe’s happened. While Kaina could do no more than let her jaw drop upon hearing his entire explanation of the events from the real world, he couldn’t help but wonder if  the same entire string of events is guaranteed to happen here as well, in chronological order like last time.

 

 

The only one confirmed as of yet is Ingenium, the Hero Killer. But is there going to be a war? He only won because AFO helped them cheat. If AFO’s not here, then how could the current League of Villains win against the MLA?

 

 

Guess he will only had to find out-

 

 

He was about to ask a question about Machia’s whereabouts when both he and Spinner caught sight of Dabi, The IT Guy, and around three people with them walking around on the other side of the campus, barely visible from their current location.

 

 

“It appears those people are here as well…” Spinner muttered, one hand still holding onto his sideways Machia-themed cap. “I swear I didn’t see them fight once during the mansion raid…”

 

 

“Who? The people with the IT Guy?”

 

 

“Yeah, they were part of the combat regiments Twice assembled, but I didn’t see them once during the fight, including IT Guy.”

 

 

“Nah let’s not talk about those idiots, we got-“

 

 

“Okay kids, I’m gonna be frank with you. I’m just here to hang out, get to know with-“

 

 

Both Tomura and Spinner turned to where the voice is and found Machia, not the huge rock monster that he originally is, not the buff All Might-like superhuman in USJ, but a small lanky middle aged man. He has the same angular features as the original All Might, same slouched-forward posture, and the same bored look. The only thing different about him is his brown skin, upward-pointing spiky also-brown hair, and white eyes that completely lack pupils.

 

 

Machia is dressed into a simple white T-shirt and baggy pants. And based on the lack of reactions of people around them, no one knew that he’s actually the country’s number one hero. And if it weren’t for Kaina telling him everything about Shigaraki’s strange knowledge on a world beyond, they would have been meeting in secret, with him in his buff superhero mode.

 

 

“Hey Machia! Why are you not happy to see me? Want me to bring down another army?” Tomura walked up to the hero, repeatedly tapping the Machia-themed cap. “Or do ya wanna see me be a good kid so we can bring down that green idiot whaddaya say huh?”

 

 

Tomura immediately assumed a martial arts pose and started punching the air in front of him, until he got too into his air fighting that he reached down and started strangling his own foot.

 

 

“Dragunov told me to expect all types of weirdness, but this is definitely something.”

 

 

Spinner walked up to him. “Hey Machia! I like pizzas.”

 

 

Machia was thrown off by the sudden out-of-place comment of Spinner, but shrugged it off before gesturing the two teenagers to follow him as he started walking away from the direction of UA. “Come on, let’s have a walk.”

 

 

“Hey Machia, what’s your name?” Tomura instantly righted himself and got into walking alongside the hero, still discreetly pointing at his hat, trying to get Machia to take notice or at least comment about it once “You can’t just be a no-name Machia like in the other world, right?”

 

 

“Hmmm… Yamashita Mamoru. But I can go by GigaMachia or just Machia.”

 

 

“Alright chief, what do we do now?”

 

 

Machia shook his head, raising both hands up to head-level. “It’s up to you. Tsutsumi told me to familiarize myself to the two of you so I could at least smoothen things out before we go up the stage. We could really use more information on taking down Midoriya, and what better allies than those who experienced what he can do first hand… and somehow knowing all sorts of classified information as a result,” the hero said, just cutting himself off from letting out a light laugh. “What she told me on a phone call last night is very convincing indeed.”

 

 

“Ingenium and all that jazz huh? So anyways we’re gonna do a lil’ visiting on the crew- By the way what’s with the supernova thingy a few days ago?” Tomura walked ahead, raising one hand pointing forward. “Is that really Midoriya?”

 

 

“Yeah it does sound like a Midoriya thing, what do you think Machia?” Spinner asked the hero, tapping him twice on the back. While he doesn’t really know much on the so-called Green Idiot-or what Tomura liked to call Midoriya as, immense glowing super punches with extreme levels of firepower is normally his thing, which none on the villain side of things can even come remotely close to, with the exception of All for One, and even then Spinner is not sure on that one.

 

 

“He took down a villain, but the news didn’t cover that one. The real reason I’m afraid I cannot tell you yet.” Machia nodded once at Spinner and began to walk, following closely on Tomura. “But-“

 

 

“So what’s the villain’s name then?”

 

 

“Lemillion-“

 

 

“Hmm… Lemillion huh?” Tomura suddenly spoke up front, taking a single step to the left as to not hit the lamp post in front of him, but only hitting a nearby trash can. “So where’s the other two? I mean there’s supposed to be three of them right?”

 

 

“I don’t think you’re supposed to know about that…” Machia’s voice trailed off, walking up beside Tomura, who’s now staring at the trash can as if contemplating if he should disintegrate it on the spot or not.

 

 

On the upside, if Tomura let his fury out on the unsuspecting piece of cylindrical metal, everything would be disintegrated which means people will have to find a trash can farther away and inconvenience them. On the downside, he would be disintegrating all the plastics within, and helping out the environment, which is good and he definitely shouldn’t do that. He never thought a trash would make him think so much. But if AFO said he needed to be evil 24/7 while trying to be normal, then evil 24/7 he will do. “Let me guess, his true name isn’t shown?” he asked Machia, still giving the trash can a death glare.

 

 

“Oh so you know?”

 

 

Tomura scoffed at Machia’s question, deliberately slamming a gloved hand on the side of the trash can as if in retaliation for getting in his way earlier. “Togata Mirio, am right huh- wait I thought Lemillion’s supposed to make objects pass him? How did Midoriya beat him?”

 

 

“So you know not just the real name, but also his Quirk? A villain deliberately hidden from the public-“

 

 

“What’s up with these villains hidden from everything? First there’s  Ingenium, now there’s Lemillion? What’s next? Suneater and whatever the hell’s Nejire’s-villain-name-is is also hidden…?” Tomura softly spoke, just catching himself from blurting all those out loud in public. There’s a pattern forming here, and he’s not sure if those are meant to represent something else.

 

 

If the League of Villains are the ones blamed for the USJ attack, then why are everything else blurred out? Is there some kind of special McGuffin to reveal them or all those are deliberate parallels? He was about to rant some more about his utter hatred of deliberately hidden important video game mechanics but he stopped himself, seeing Machia just standing there with his jaw hanging open.

 

 

“Yeah we know stuff. Super freaky gas stuff I know… Suneater… Nejire… the works…” Spinner said in a joking tone, before tapping Tomura’s back. “Pet shop’s opening very soon, we gotta get there before all the good stuff’s gone, let’s move!”

 

 

“How… did you know…? Do you remember knowing all those before you get gassed? Anything?” Machia shook his head, snapping himself back to the present and quickly getting his hanging jaw back into place before even a single drool dropped out onto the sidewalk. “You’re currently possessing mind-boggling knowledge with no basis.”

 

 

“I’m a genius. Believe everything what Dragunov said about me, she knows I’m a sexy genius-I mean I’m sexy to her, not everyone else, that is.”

 

 

“To be honest, Young Shigaraki, over 50% of what she told me was about how… quite unusual you are…”

 

 

Tomura spun around, now walking backwards but making sure he’s right in the middle of the sidewalk in order to avoid more pesky garbage cans. “She’s just very amazed of my absurdly above-average looks. I am very aware of my effect on women. By the way what about Blindfold Dude? You know? The guy with ‘Nov? Haven’t seen the guy in a week now.”

 

 

“I was told he’s sick. But the more important thing right now is, do you have any-“

 

 

Tomura shook his head, gesturing for Machia to keep up his walking pace. “If you’re not going to believe that I’m from another reality, then I’m afraid you won’t get the answer you’re looking for.”

 

 

Machia shrugged, and gestured for Tomura to keep moving. “I’ll keep quiet from now.”

 

 

“Yeah. You’re about to get into the team, feel free to observe first and… be amazed by my skills…” Tomura said as he struck a dramatic pose like the ones he sees on the video game covers of all his favorite games. He knew it’s stupid and beyond childish, but he was sent to another world to become a teenager once more and he’s going to use every minute of it. So far he’s having a complete blast but if AFO asked about it, which he hasn’t yet, he has all his excuses lined up and ready.

 

 

He turned to see Spinner with a big grin on his face, hands on hips like he just accomplished something. Tomura instantly knew what it meant and he quickly walked up to his best friend and resumed their little trip to the nearest pet store.

 

 

“Looks like you’re getting the hang of mental manipulation faster than I expected,” Spinner said, quickly pausing before the next set of words escaped his mouth. “Remember to always act peaceful, let them know you’re not a threat before BAM! Throats cut! Woosh!” Spinner added, deliberately toning his voice down.

 

 

“You’re underestimating my capacity for evil, Spin. I have unnaturally high stats in ‘Chaos’.”

 

 

“Let’s hope you can keep your word. Being a villain is no easy task.”

 

 

Tomura rolled his eyes. What Spinner said is both silly and stupid, even to him. But if he knew one thing, is that Spinner and AFO seemed to be deliberately hiding something from him. He doesn’thave the slightest bit of an idea on what it is, but it seemed to be important, especially in this new world they’re now. Even as he hated secrets, just like Lemillion’s cover up, Spinner and AFO are very different.

 

 

Soon after, they reached the pet shop Spinner’s been talking about since yesterday. Despite his friend always saying it’s on the small side, it’s actually a full building, with Tomura estimating the entire floor area enough to fit four standard UA classrooms. The inside was what of expected a pet shop would be, with lines upon lines of aquariums housing all types of tropical fish on one side, birds on another section, and another for reptiles.

 

 

The shop is fairly full, with a sizeable amount of animal-based heteromorphs like Spinner who seemed to have the same idea as him, based on the fact that most of them are huddling up on the feeds section. As Spinner went to shop, Tomura hung back and observed, with Machia standing quietly beside him.

 

 

His eyes swung to the aquarium beside him, it was planted beautifully, and aquascaped to look like a grassy mountainside. Small red fish swim about the rocky peaks, circling about but mostly staying on the front side near him. The overall glass box, holding no more than 10 gallons of water, is kind of mesmerizing to look at. To the left side of it is even a sand waterfall which confused him as to how it really works.

 

 

Tomura quickly averted his eyes off the hungry fish begging for food, remembering an article he once read about aquariums and their tendency to give off feelings of relaxation to people who observe them. And since he peeled off his gaze, he noticed something else.

 

 

“Machia, where are the dogs?” Tomura whispered to the disguised top hero beside him, noticing the lack of mammalian pets in the pet store.

 

 

Machia let out a light sigh and responded, “Dogs, cats, hamsters, gerbils, rabbits, and the rest of the mammalian pets you spoke of have a tendency to develop Quirks. Quirks are not good for animals that can’t be trained the right usage of it.”

 

 

“So what happened to them?”

 

 

“Killed off.”

 

 

“Seriously?”

 

 

“The only dogs allowed today are purebred ones, those with no Quirks. Many years ago the rules surrounding Quirked animals were more lenient and those with harmless physical mutations were allowed to live. It was not until those dogs start breeding with other Quirked dogs and producing puppies with mutated powers-“

 

 

Tomura nodded. “Quirk mutations, been hearing about those for a while now.”

 

 

He once again looked ahead, noticing fancy dog cages and dog houses located at the far end of the shop. Even though they’re just regular dog houses, they seem to be made intricately and overall don’t look like standard dog houses back in the real world. By looks alone he could tell those are extremely overpriced dog houses.

 

 

His thoughts drifted to his own dog back in the day. The memories were still clear, it was moment before his Decay Quirk manifested. While he had forgotten the dog’s name altogether, with him being so young at the time, he could remember his Quirk had a hard time working on the dog’s fur, which allowed the creature to escape his grasp, and never to be seen again.

 

 

And then his family went next…

 

 

Wait…

 

 

Did he really have a complete family? He knew he had an abusive father but the rest of the family…?

 

 

 

 

He shook his head off the thoughts. “Hey Machia, how much are dogs these days?”

 

 

“No can do, Young Shigaraki. They cost yen in the millions, if you want a pet you should just settle for what you can see right here in front of you.”

 

 

“But what if I want a dog?”

 

 

“Then you’re going to have to pay for it, or obtain one illegally, the last one I don’t recommend. Lots of shady people selling ‘purebred’ dogs these days. It’s really not worth the hassle,” Machia replied, raising a hand in response to Spinner raising his as he paid for the things he just bought.

 

 

Tomura watched everything unfold, his focus now going to the unusual number of heteromorphs in the shop. “Hey Machia, does heteromorph discrimination still exist?” He remembered Spinner told him once about it, which Tomura never experienced once in his life considering his dry skin could be easily mistaken for a mutation, or maybe because he just doesn’t get out much?

 

 

“Only for the unsightly. But let’s not talk about it.”

 

 

“Personal, huh?”

 

 

Machia shook his head in disagreement, and slowly turned around seeing as Spinner got closer. “It’s not the right time to talk about that.”

 

 

“Whatever you say, Mach…”

 

 

Spinner eventually arrived, with things he bought wrapped up in white plastic bags with the ‘recycle’ logo plastered in the front. It was a mix of reptile pellets, mealworms, and some other feed brands with similar ingredients as the other. For Tomura, they’re just a regular thing with Spinner, and his strange appetite for pet feeds.

 

 

But apparently quite a lot of heteromorphs are doing the exact same thing.

 

 

Tomura instantly remembered something and turned to face Machia just walking beside him as the three exited the shop. “Hey Machia, Dragunov told us about… The Green Idiot… going out there launching purging campaigns against heteromorphs, is that true?”

 

 

“He’s been very quiet as of late, but yes, why?”

 

 

“Why is it not on the news?”

 

 

“News other than ‘What happened to heroes today’ don’t make it big. There’s a whole bigger picture behind it but-“

 

 

“Is it also true that Midoriya generally spares his previous ‘experiments’? I mean we’re all technically heteromorphs here, right? Is he going to spare us like what Dragunov told us a few days ago?”

 

 

“That I can be sure of,” Machia then turned to Spinner, who’s already in the middle of downing a small plastic cup of mealworms. “If Midoriya’s consistent about something, and that is sparing his past projects. The fact that you’re even out here existing is just more proof. He has hitmen all over the country, and yet you’re completely untouched.”

 

 

“You’re scaring me, Mach, I gotta say…” Tomura said. Midoriya’s very few descriptions he got from this world are already exceeding all his expectations of him. AFO is not lying when he said it’s going to be a tough fight, and this time he will get no help. “So is Dragunov a hitman?”

 

 

“No.”

 

 

“Good thing, now let’s move on to our next destination!”

 

 

As the three walked towards the next place in their agenda for today, Tomura noticed that ‘Gentle’ guy Compress once talked about, running away from a mob of three people while holding onto a small handheld camera, something he thought he’d never see in a hundred years seeing as modern phones do all cameras can do, but better.

 

 

He’s also with a rather short girl with long red hair styled up in pigtails. Tomura was about to shrug it off when just looking to his right there was Muscular, looking like he’s about to puke, holding onto a small plastic cup with greens inside them. He’s in front of a vegan-based café and it made a light chuckle out of Tomura, made even better seeing Moonfish beside him looking like he’s talking to him like going vegan is the way to go.

 

 

To his left are more of his classmates, notably Overhaul’s buddies, but without Overhaul himself, walking around and minding their own business.

 

 

A lot of his classmates are just scattered around on the general area. He forgot the real reason for that but he can slightly remember Makihara saying they came from across central Japan and are currently being housed here for SpecPro purposes.

 

 

The same SpecPro Stain said would never take off, no matter how many times it’s attempted.

 

 

It took them a while but all three eventually reached a sizeable mini-mart situated almost right beside a soon-to-be busy crossroad. Unique to all the other stalls nearby it, this one has a wide tree-shaded area in front of it filled with tables and chairs. Potted plants and lamp posts line the sides of the fenced-off section, surrounded by small patches of carpet grass beneath them.

 

 

 Tomura didn’t bother to look at the store’s name, but it’s likely to be a mix of a mini-mart and a fast-food restaurant judging by the exterior aesthetics alone.

 

 

There were employees in crimson red uniform scattered around it, but what caught Tomura’s eye are their headwear. It was nothing fancy, it was just a small black cap with a flat top. He doesn’t know the reason himself, but he found the simplicity endearing.

 

 

He looked around until he finally spotted their target, standing quite some distance away from the rest of the employees, gloved fingers tapping away on her phone while her other free hand is holding onto a huge neon green plastic bottle with a straw sticking out on top.

 

 

Tomura walked on, ahead of his two companions and straight to the person.

 

 

“Hi Eleena!” Tomura spoke out, raising a hand and waving. Other nearby employees of the mini mart before him took notice, but went back to their own respective businesses shortly after. “How’s it going?”

 

 

Tomura was never the bright and cheery person, and he himself knew that pretty well, but what everything Spinner told him about ‘Mental Manipulation’ is very convincing. It was a huge change in his usual interaction with people, instead of going after everyone’s throats as a conversation-starter, he’s going to act the exact opposite. Spinner assured him it was not about being friendly and more about being manipulative, like actual menacing and dangerous villains. He could forgive Twice for mistaking it for friendliness because he’s Twice, but in reality Mental Manipulation’s all part of a huge plan to get people to do nice things for them in exchange for him being nice to people.

 

 

That’s what Spinner said and he assured him it’s a new type of villainy-style he just unlocked.

 

 

Is Spinner right about that? Tomura wasn’t sure, but this mental manipulation technique is a nice change of pace. People are actually out there trying to help him out like Mustard, so he’s sure it’s working at least. He’s not sure if AFO would approve, but if something’s not broken, it’s best to not fix it.

 

 

“Are you seriously going to bother me everyday?” Chitose responded in a sarcastic tone, taking her gaze off of her phone and straight onto Tomura’s Machia-themed cap. “What is it now, Shiggy?”

 

 

Shigaraki nodded, pointing two fingers at the tall girl. It’s been around two weeks since the USJ incident happened, with Spinner telling him over and over on how this girl was like a nuclear arsenal on legs, which is in line why Blindfold Dude hangs out with her and Dragunov saying she’s important. He couldn’t help but be drawn to her allure of overwhelming firepower contained into one person.

 

 

As much as Spinner repeatedly says to keep at arm’s length to not risk detonation, Tomura kept himself close, completely ignoring all warnings. Tomura was never the one to self-reflect, but her Quirk alone reminded him a lot about himself, a person armed with the power to destroy and annihilate, and nothing else.  There’s no sense to move away from a person who’s basically exactly like him.

 

 

Overhaul is powerful, but he can reform his targets back. Dabi is powerful, but fire has so much more uses than incineration. All for One is powerful, but he’s armed with a lot more Quirks that are not destructive in the slightest. Machia is powerful, but his Quirk by itself is not destructive.

 

 

While Kizuki won’t tell anyone what her Quirk really does, nor does her name has any reference to it at all, Tomura could only think of something far more powerful than what Spinner saw that night. For short, it’s for destruction and destruction only.

 

 

Upon hearing the full story, he instantly felt an odd kinship with her, like a big sister of sorts. Her only existing here and not in the real world made him think she was deliberately added here by his adoptive father to provide and fulfill that role. At first he found it stupid and not something AFO would even do, but the absurd similarities of the nature of their respective Quirks, and the fact that the two of them are the only gloved students in class with Overhaul now allowed to not wear his, is just too much that she’s almost made for him. It may not be enough similarities, but that’s enough for him.

 

 

Tomura had always wanted a sister.

 

 

After the first one…

 

 

 

 

Does he even have a sister in the first place?

 

 

 

 

???

 

 

 

 

“You’re zoning out again, Shiggy, you’re forgetting your line,” Chitose spoke, bringing the boy back to the real world. She took off the straw and the cap of the drink she’s holding onto and brought it up to her mouth upside down, taking huge gulps of the liquid before bringing it down and hastily wiping off her lips by a free arm.

 

 

“Oh right, care to tell me what your Quirk does?”

 

 

“No. So what brings you here?”

 

 

Tomura turned around, gesturing towards Spinner and Machia standing quite a distance away from them. “Nothing really, just touring around. Don’t mind the big guy, he’s a surprise tool that will help us later. I hope you’re not forgetting the little quest we’re still doin-“

 

 

“Um young lady? Not meaning to interrupt but-“ Machia spoke, scratching his head, before instantly being cut off.

 

 

“6 foot one inch, and no I’m not into volleyball, basketball, baseball, or any ball game rather.”

 

 

“Woah, you actually told me your exact height. My reputation points must be improving!” Tomura took a step back, pretending like he’s fixing up a neck tie. “By the way have you seen Blindfold Guy? You two are always together, right? I haven't seen the guy in a week.”

 

 

“Haven’t seen him in a week too.”

 

 

“Pretty bad the USJ’s not reported once huh? Heroes all going up and down and ignoring such marvelous work. And in case you’re wondering? No, me and Spin didn’t leak out anything. If you don’t want others to know you can nuke things, then your secret’s safe with us.”

 

 

“Kinda odd that you two kept that thing going for so long.”

 

 

“You can trust us, Kiz!” Spinner spoke out loud from the back. Chitose could only tilt her head and give him a bored look. For her, Spinner’s always been a bit odd, obviously still scared of her even if the event took place weeks ago, as if she’s about to blow him up for good whenever she looks at least 10% annoyed.

 

 

Chitose turned her attention back to Tomura. “By the way you guys spend more time with Dragunov, could you ask her what’s taking my so-called super important mission so long?”

 

 

“What? She haven’t told you anything? She said you’re going to use your Quirk to track someone.”

 

 

“I knew it…”

 

 

“Good thing, what are you reading on your phone anyways?” Tomura said as his gaze went to the girl’s phone. He could see it’s clearly old and half a decade outdated, with the casing cracked in some places. The screen is displaying walls upon walls of text with not a single image in sight.

 

 

“Speculative evolution on what if a bunch of chickens are thrown into a brand new world. What would they evolve to? What niches would they take? What features would appear? Would they change or adapt to the landscape? The apex predator’s kinda dull and boring since it’s just a glorified dinosaur at that point but I’m mostly interested on the swamplands var-“

 

 

“I dun wanna hear it. I just wanna give ya a heads up since Dragunov did a lil’ switchin’ around two days ago. I didn’t tell you anything about it because I want it to be a surprise buuuuut… she relocated Stain so both of you would be working under a single roof now, isn’t that neat?”

 

 

“Who the heck is Stain?”

 

 

Tomura took a step back, and pointed at Stain, who arrived just a few moments ago and is now having a chat with Spinner right behind them. “Hey Stain! I’d like to introduce you to Eleena!”

 

 

Stain broke off from his conversation with Spinner and walked up to them, eyes instantly going up to the top of Chitose’s head, and thoughts immediately going to her absurd height. Fully aware he should not start talking with that topic in mind, the way Tomura called her as caught his attention. “Eleena?”

 

 

“It’s a Star Wars thing. Stain, you’re not a man of culture, so I can understand you don’t know Twi’leks.”

 

 

“I don’t know anything about Star Wars…”

 

 

“Like I said, because you’re not a man of culture-“

 

 

Stain interrupted him, eyes fixated on the neon green plastic bottle on the girl’s hand, breaking free from the conversation. “Are you aware of the absurd amounts of caffeine in that thing? There’s literally an ‘Athlete’s Choice’ sticker on the back of it.”

 

 

Chitose turned the energy drink and squinted her eyes on the sticker. “Yeah, so what? I’ve downed three bottles since this morning.”

 

 

“Your pupils are really dilated, just saying,” Stain said, eyeing up the way the girl is holding onto a half-empty bottle of energy drink on her left hand. As predicted, it was visibly trembling. He then turned to Tomura beside him. “So Dragunov arranged this?”

 

 

“I suggested to Dragunov to put the crew together. I dunno how she did it but-“

 

 

“For what?” Stain changed his attention to Chitose, her expression now turned into a joking one. “Are you going to help us reach the top shelf?”

 

 

“I’m just a cashier.”

 

 

“Are you going to help us get things to the top shelf?”

 

 

“What next, are you going to ask me how’s the weather up here?”

 

 

“How’s the weather up there?” Stain asked, stifling a laugh. “Hot and sunny down here, with mild rainshowers that have a high chance of occurring at 4pm every weekends.”

 

 

Chitose let out a weak laugh. It was a strange dry expressionless laugh, like laughing was a brand new thing to her until a few seconds ago. Both Tomura and Akaguro were not sure if that’s because she thought the joke was funny or she was annoyed. Her chuckles sound strange, which may or may not be influenced by the huge amounts of caffeine coursing in her system. Despite laughing, her facial expression remained neutral, and her squinted eyes just made it look like she’s about to push a red button to send nuclear missiles to all corners of the globe.

 

 

Or maybe Tomura’s just thinking too much, not that he wouldn’t like it.

 

 

A few seconds later, much to the relief of Stain who wanted to get out of the awkward situation he found himself in, the sound of ringing came out from the direction of the mini-mart, alerting all employees outside to come in.

 

 

Tomura, one hand on his hip and waving towards Stain and Chitose as they went towards their jobs, felt very good at himself. It was an unusually good feeling, like he just accomplished something big. It must that mental manipulation Spinner talked about, or maybe because he’s getting closer to beating Midoriya, even if the progress is still just at 1%, but all the more better than the real world where he’s not even sure if the final battle would even turn out in his favor. If AFO still threw him here instead of just using New Order to insta-kill Midoriya, then something must be a big deal.

 

 

It’s almost like he was never going to beat Midoriya in the real world anyway, might as well do it here.

 

 

He stood there, waving until all the employees are in, and only then he walked back to his group.

 

 

“You shoulda let her talk. When Kizuki starts talking random nonsense, let her talk-“ Spinner said as Tomura arrived. He was about to shove another mouthful of lizard pellets when Machia immediately pulled them out of the scene, taking the two quite some distance away, but with the mini-mart still in full view.

 

 

“What’s going on?” Tomura was interrupted as Machia immediately went behind them and discreetly turned their heads towards a nondescript coffee shop to their right.

 

 

“I’m not sure if this is Kaina’s doing or just the stars aligning but something’s about to happen to that mini-mart. Quite a huge coincidence that your friends are stationed there if I may say so myself… Anyways, digital wall clock, see it?”

 

 

“Yeah, what about it?” Spinner asked, bringing down his lizard pellets and looking at the wall clock Machia told him about. It was located inside a bookstore and looks fairly modern, time at about 9:02 am.

 

 

“5. 4. 3. 2. 1…”

 

 

An powerful explosion occurred from within the mini-mart, the sheer blast force blowing open the windows and doors, smoke billowing out the newly-created openings. A second much more powerful explosion happened almost instantaneously, blasting the entire lower floor of the building, sending the employees flying everywhere and causing the second floor of the building to go crashing down.

Notes:

Just a lil’ worldbuilding chapter, gotta set the other players first before we get to the Sports Festival Arc.

Chapter 18: Graviton Construction Company

Notes:

"Goofball Shiggy" is very fun to write. He may not be this in canon, but let’s just assume being turned back into a sixteen year old let out his inner childishness.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 27

 

 

“WOAH!” Tomura jumped back in surprise, seeing the explosion sending debris flying on all directions.

 

 

Spinner, on the other hand, almost choked on his lizard pellets as he dove backwards, yelling and shouting about why it’s not a good idea pissing off a person who can fire off nukes at a moment’s notice.

 

 

“Mach! Did you just rig the entire thing with explosives?! WHY-“ Tomura yelled out, going right in front of the hero and flailing his arms around. People nearby were already in full panic and running everywhere. He was about to continue when Machia grabbed his head and turned him around to face the destroyed mini-mart.

 

 

“Watch carefully. If you’re going to understand how this world works, then you need to see this first-hand.”

 

 

“You sure? I would really appreciate it if someone could just tell me what the hell’s going on instead of figuring it out like it’s some kind of grand mystery-“

 

 

Tomura’s eyes widened and he let out a gasp, hands flying to his mouth, remembering the people who just went to the mini mart a few minutes ago. “Where’s Stain and Eleena?! We got to go save them-“

 

 

“Watch…” Machia grabbed Tomura by the back of his shirt before he could run off and gestured for Spinner to follow them as he backed up a few steps, while still facing the scene and ignoring all the random civilians running by them. “Your friends are fine. It’s just a random explosive, and nobody gets hurt by explosives these days in case you don’t know.”

 

 

“Point taken. But they’re not my friends. More like temporary acquaintances… yeah… so what are we waiting for again?” Tomura asked, not taking his eyes off the scene, watching the smoke continue to billow out the ruined mini-mart. Seeing as there’s nothing happening yet in the next seconds, he began scanning the area.

 

 

He could see Stain slowly waking up from being knocked out, a little dusty and shaken up but overall fine. Other employees are beginning to stir as well, but Chitose is still nowhere in sight. Meanwhile Machia’s hand that’s still holding onto his head started tapping a finger in rhythmic succession. Tomura could clearly hear him starting another countdown in time with the finger-tapping. Is something going to happen again? Another explosion perhaps?

 

 

Exactly after around 10 seconds, with a few more seconds missed, a group of four cat-themed villains came out of the ruined building, each carrying a cash register and a loot bag on the other free hand.

 

 

Tomura couldn’t help but roll his eyes. The Rough and Tough Pussycats… or is it? Tomura couldn’t really remember the names of these people back in the real world, and they’re barely even relevant to the main storyline in which he’s the main protagonist, and remembering the names of irrelevant people is not really his forte.

 

 

The villain attire of the four, while they’re still the same group of annoying side-bosses like they are in the real world -  composed of three women and one big muscly man (or according to what his eyes can see), is very different. Their group was now crimson-themed, with ragged clothing looking like they’ve been living in the dumps for the last fifteen years.

 

 

“Mach? Should we still watch? I can’t see Eleena anywhere…” Tomura’s gaze went back to Stain, who’s now already beside Spinner and watching the scene unfold, still looking a bit on the ‘shaken up’ side. He was situated behind Machia, not really knowing who he really is, and attention glued to the villains currently making a scene.

 

 

One member of the cat gang, the one dressed in themes of dirty blues, started going back and forth into the mini mart and carrying out more and more loot outside into the waiting arms of 2 her comrades – who are looking like they’re cheering for her. The one in red broke off from the group after a few seconds and started going after people nearest to the scene, swiping at them with cat-like metal claws attached to her oversized paw-styled gloves. They stayed for another minute before running away on the road, off to the path with the least people, loot bags in tow.

 

 

But just before they got out of sight, a caped figure dropped down from the skies and landed right in front of the villains. The sheer power of the impact sent out shockwaves radially from the landing point, flipping over nearby parked cars and destroying the road outright.

 

 

“Number 2. Sludge Hero Geyser. Observe.”

 

 

“I’ve seen him before, he wrecks more things than villains ever do. But isn’t that what a majority of heroes do?” Tomura asked, recalling a way earlier event involving Dragunov losing to Metal Man. In the real world, heroes are all about who has the flashiest Quirks, and flashy Quirks are usually from powerful ones, so in the event they do fight crime, they normally destroy more things than villains do, who normally have weaker Quirks. He recalled all the times he saw All Might in the news crashing into some villain’s face and wrecking the road below them, and they’re far too numerous to be counted on two hands.

 

 

Sludge Hero “Not-Endeavor”, as Tomura thought, grabbed hold of a random member of the ‘cat squad’ using a grey gooey tendril extending from his right arm and swung it onto a nearby building, hard enough to break the wall and send the criminal flying inside. It was epic and glorious, and some people near them started cheering.

 

 

Meanwhile a random person came out of said ruined building and yelled at the hero for destroying his servers.

 

 

And he got swung too towards his own building.

 

 

“Hmmm that was… interesting…” Tomura whispered, hearing the same thing coming from Spinner beside him. He could remember the real world, while not the full picture of it, that some people are actually targeted by heroes on such simple things like complaining about something. As long as they looked the slightest bit hostile, they will be part of the hit list. And people are okay with that.

 

 

It was strange, and he could remember online articles talking about them. Even All Might sometimes hits non-villains just because they were getting overly hostile with each other. It was not a simple warning shot either, it’s a full blown pavement-destroying punch to the both of them. Endeavor, on the other hand, has way more. Either way, articles like those frequently appear on the web.

 

 

…And then disappear from the internet several hours later.

 

 

 He knew about it all along but he never gave it the time of day as he’s busy whatever evil scheme he’s about to do to take down hero society.

 

 

Maybe this entire event is a parallel on what the Sludge Villain did back then? If so, then what is it? Based on what little Tomura could remember is that he created mass chaos and heroes don’t know how to beat him. Or is that it? Then why didn’t they call heroes that can deal with him-

 

 

Tomura’s gaze landed on a pair of blue-skinned legs sticking out of a pile of rubble. Completely abandoning what Machia said about staying still and just watch as more and more people get near them and cheer on the hero, Tomura ran forward.

 

 

No one’s going to stop him from saving his literal female counterpart.

 

 

He sprinted as fast as his legs can take him, through the smoke, through the rubble, and through blasted bits of mini-mart items just to get there.

 

 

And there she was, sprawled all over the road, a bit dusty from the explosion earlier. But just like what happened to Stain, she was overall fine. The only thing not fine is the fact that out of all the blown-out employees that are currently recovering, she’s the only one still knocked out.

 

 

Tomura, who’s very much a villain in the real world doing nothing but scheming about evil things and killing people, know only two states people can exist in – Alive and dead, with the dead part being either bloody or nothing but dust.

 

 

Chitose right in front of him is clearly unconscious and unmoving. Is she dead? But no one gets killed by such a blast in the modern Post-Quirk Era world! Is she just unusually vulnerable to blasts? But isn’t it the default that people are naturally resistant to their own Quirks? Shouldn’t that mean she’s mostly immune to blast force and high impact?

 

 

Tomura held her up, propping up her head with one free gloved hand. He felt extremely stupid, how come he doesn’t know how to check for signs of life? What kind of person doesn’t know that?

 

 

Well actually he knew about checking for heartbeats. But all his video gaming gave him an irrational fear of rhythmic thumping sounds and he gets flighty and nervous the moment his ears recognize caught wind of them. On the other hand, he could check for breathing.

 

 

‘Yes! Of course! That would-‘

 

 

A loud explosion happened just right in front. Number Two Sludge Hero Geyser is still busy fighting the cat squad. Amidst the chaos he could clearly hear Spinner and Machia calling out to him, but he chose to ignore them. The battle’s far from him, he’s relatively safe here, even more so now that a hero’s already handling the case, with more arriving every few minutes.

 

 

His gaze went back to the girl’s chest, and then quickly averted his eyes. She reminded him too much of a sister to even let his gaze wander for two seconds on them.

 

 

“Shiggy! Get her here!” Tomura heard Spinner’s voice behind him.

 

 

“NO! I need help here ASAP!” he yelled back, his voice being drowned by the endless cheer of civilians nearby.

 

 

“Get her back here!” Tomura heard a familiar voice again, this time it’s from Stain. He ignored it, Stain obviously doesn’t know what he’s talking about when-

 

 

“Shiggy! She’s on bleedout! Return her here so we can revive her again!”

 

 

Tomura recognized that one as Spinner’s voice. How could he not think of that? He’s right! Eleena is on bleedout! Bleedout is a state where all party members are required to put the target back to life! That’s it! His video gaming is finally paying off! Who knew all those ‘nonsense’ could actually help?

 

 

Lifting Chitose up, a bit on the heavy side since she’s a lot taller than him, Tomura ran back through the rubble, rocks, and smoke, and back again to his original group, only now noticing Machia’s absence. But based on his status as the Number One Hero, he’s probably out there helping out-

 

 

He swiveled his head to face Geyser fighting the cat squad, and noticed Machia is not there.

 

 

‘He’s maybe fighting crime somewhere off…’

 

 

“Bleedout… seriously…?” Stain asked Spinner the moment Tomura arrived, brushing off some dirt that’s still clinging off the side of his shirt.

 

 

“You gotta speak video game to properly communicate.”

 

 

“A very… strange way of communication…”

 

 

“Being gassed will do that to ya-“

 

 

“Alright guys, I need you to lend me all of your energies to revive my sister!” Tomura walked by them and swung his head over to the relatively-clear sidewalk, prompting the two to follow him. He thought it’s a bit strange that not a single person is watching them – three highschoolers with one carrying an unconscious girl, but it’s for the best as of now, the last thing he needed is a false accusation from bystanders. It must be because Chitose is wearing her job uniform, or so what Tomura thinks the reason is.

 

 

 Away they got from the cheering crowd and set the girl on the wall of a temporarily-vacant coffee shop.

 

 

“Your sister…?” Spinner asked, genuinely confused by what Tomura said. He knew his friend’s always been fascinated by Star Wars but this is just pushing it. It sounds awkward, strange, and above-all stupid.

 

 

“I have decided now that she’s my sister, now anyone of you here know how to do some reviving?” Tomura asked, sitting beside Chitose and pulling her left eyelid up, seeing a green pupil that’s highly dilated. “Or is there some auto-heal mechanic I don’t know about?”

 

 

“She’s just knocked out, no need to revive…” Stain casually said as he stood beside them, pointing a finger towards the girl’s neck, a rapid up and down movement indicating a heightened pulse rate. “Now I don’t know how come she’s still knocked out but I can clearly see the byproduct of 3 energy drinks right there. She’s fine, nothing to worry about.”

 

 

Tomura didn’t know what Stain just pointed at and briefly turned his attention to the fight to check its current status just in case they’re getting closer. It’s mostly over and a bunch more costumed individuals are now present and moving rubble out of the way so vehicles can pass through. The sound of police sirens can now also be heard in a distance.

 

 

He was about to ask if the chances of a person with a healing potion Quirk is high when he felt an arm cling onto his side and an entire entity move up and hug him. He felt tense in an instant, and as his reflex he automatically sent his right arm up to grasp and Decay the non-existent threat but just found itself on Chitose’s back.

 

 

There was no enemy, the girl just hugged him - in which he assumed was a reflex of her own.

 

 

He could already hear the teasing he was receiving from Stain, or is it from Spinner? Maybe Machia? Is he back already? Or maybe was it from the civilians nearby. He couldn’t tell, their voices became weaker and weaker until they’re all blurred out.

 

 

There was something. A memory from long ago, triggered.

 

 

The dog, his dog, his long-gone pet dog that survived the manifestation of Decay.

 

 

Tomura shook off the thoughts, but still remained in his own little world. There was another memory… something at the back of his mind he just can’t reach. There was something else. Something more than just his dog.

 

 

He felt the girl’s hand move a bit, her chin now resting on his right shoulder. She ever so slightly tightened the grip on her hand that’s grasping on his shoulder and let out a light moan.

 

 

She was asleep, and lightly snoring as well. Stain was right all along, now if only they could stop with the relentless teasing. People do weird things in their sleep all the time, it was perfectly normal for a person to automatically hug the thing closest to them.

 

 

Tomura definitely knew how it is, it was the same for him as kid all the way up to now. Was it a byproduct of his upbringing? He couldn’t tell. The memories are hazy and foggy, the fragments all scattered out onto the cosmos of the mind, were they begging to be rediscovered? Maybe? Maybe not? Does it make sense to unearth it? Maybe? Maybe not?

 

 

The noise on the outside world grew ever more louder until it was more of an annoyance than a background ambiance, and Tomura was forced to move back out to the real world. It’s not good thinking out here within meters of a crime scene.

 

 

Both Spinner and Stain were still in the middle of teasing him. His mind wasn’t on the scene yet and he listened to their words. They were teasing him as if they think he’d developed an instant crush on Chitose, apparently all based on how he froze when she hugged him.

 

 

‘…The what…?’

 

 

A crush? That thing people call when a person is attracted to another in a so-called uncontrollable desire to procreate and bring forth the next generation? That thing people normally throw around everywhere that it lost all meaning? Him? Tomura Shigaraki? A crush? Seriously?

 

 

While he agreed in his mind that he wanted Dragunov to be his girlfriend, but it was not in a romantic sense and more like a ‘This Quirk is so useful and cool to fight side-by-side with’ kind of thing. Tomura Shigaraki don’t do crushes.

 

 

Kizuki triggered a memory, and not of a romantic tone. A memory lost to time. The simple gesture of a hug caused it all to come rushing back to the present.

 

 

He could remember a hug, a helping hand that brought him up everytime he fell, a hand that was always there in times of darkness… or maybe it used to, but not anymore.

 

 

But he knew there was definitely something. It was something maybe a supportive sister would do.

 

 

But that’s impossible.

 

 

Tomura Shigaraki doesn’t have a sister.

 

 

Was it something else…?

 

 

 

 

He shook off the thoughts from further disrupting his mind, such things are better off thought in a quiet place. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow, but definitely not today, now that the two are being more and more annoying.

 

 

Immediately, Tomura’s right hand went to Chitose’s head and gave her a series of taps, waking her up. His apparent lack of expression in doing so automatically caused the two to stop. For a moment, the person they knew who kept doing silly shenanigans and calling people by nonsensical names is nowhere to be seen.

 

 

“Wha…? Where am I…?” Chitose muttered, still half-adrift in the world of sleep. She quickly peeled herself off of Tomura upon realizing what she was doing. She muttered a faint ‘sorry’ afterwards and stood up at the same time as him.

 

 

Spinner’s face was now contorted into that of joking mockery, about to say something in relation to the earlier scene, but Tomura raised a hand, effectively stopping him.

 

 

“Wait… did our mini-mart just blew up?” Chitose asked, head facing the smoldering ruins while her eyes are locked onto Akaguro. Remembering something ,her right hand immediately flew to her waist, trying to grip something there. When she realized there was nothing, she ran off back to the destroyed remains of the mini-mart and, by the view from the rest of the three remaining teens there, seemed to be looking for something

 

 

“Shig, what was that…?” Spinner asked Tomura, who’s now standing beside him but facing the opposite direction, his face missing all sorts of expression.

 

 

“A memory. I need to think about it alone, where’s Machia?”

 

 

“Are you sure it’s not a-“

 

 

Tomura raised a hand, instantly stopping Spinner from asking whatever he’s about to ask, but based on his facial expression alone that looked like he’s about to let out a laugh, he already knew what it’s gonna be. “Stain, what’s gonna happen now? Mini-mart’s gone.”

 

 

Akaguro’s head instantly swiveled around to face him. “No problem, I’m just going to get switched to another one. All part of the contract in case you don’t know.”

 

 

“Hmm good… we’re leaving now, good luck on your new job I guess?” Tomura waved a hand at him as he moved past, in which Stain replied with a nod of his own. “Let’s go Spin, we need to find Machia.”

 

 

“Okaaaaayyyy… are we not going to wait for Eleena?” Spinner asked, now devoid of any plans to joke about the strange way Tomura’s starting at Kizuki earlier. He glanced back to check how the girl is doing, and she was still at the ruins, holding onto a small handbag and frantically looking for something inside it, all while now being surrounded by heroes looking around for any trapped people. “I mean you back there’s… gotta mean something.”

 

 

“Nah, Machia’s countdown is really suspicious, we need to talk to him-“

 

 

“Machia’s right around that building…” Spinner said as he pointed to a tall apartment building obscuring a parking lot next to it. Sure enough there was Machia standing just beside it, still in his ‘Small’ Mode talking to a a tall woman whose features are all but obscured, her hands are covered in silk gray gloves, her eyes shaded with aviator glasses, on her head is a rather thick bonnet with short white hair sticking out at the ends, and overall covering her is a dull brown trenchcoat.

 

 

If Tomura was to say something about her, is that she looked like a standard drug dealer.

 

 

“Hey, what the hell was that…?” Tomura asked the hero as he got nearer, lightly startling Machia and making him turn around and the woman eyeing him up as well. “Is that your doing?”

 

 

“Shigaraki?” The woman asked, her lips twisting into a visible smirk.

 

 

‘Wait… I recognize that voice…’ Tomura instinctively glanced over at Spinner, who seemed to recognize the voice as well. He can’t be wrong, that voice is known across the board in the real world, no one could mistake it for someone else.

 

 

“Y-yeah…?” Tomura replied as he got closer, noticing the woman hooking up an index finger on the bridge of her glasses and pulling it down, exposing her red eyes. “What?” he asked, eyes narrowing up on the woman’s bonnet, fully expecting two rabbit ears to spring up the moment she takes it off.

 

 

‘But if everything is switched around, then wouldn’t that mean she’s a villain?’

 

 

“Doing good in SpecPro I hope?” The woman asked again in a mocking tone. “Can’t wait to see how everyone’s going to perform in the Sports Fest in the coming days, bet it’s going to be exciting!”

 

 

“Leave the kids out of this,” Machia interrupted, standing in between the two conversing parties. “Call them, leave, you’ve done enough for today.”

 

 

“Hey it’s not my fault air traffic’s-“ The woman suddenly stopped and raised a finger to head level, her mouth hanging as if in a complete loss of words. “Nevermind, they’re here. Look up ahead ol’ timer,” she said, the raised hand pointing forwards on an upward angle in front of her.

 

 

Tomura and Spinner looked to see what it was. There were three rectangular floating figures just up on the horizon. At first glance, they seemed to be just your standard run-of-the-mill helicopters, but the lack of their loud distinctive rotor sounds is throwing both of them off their respective guesses.

 

 

A few moments later as the unknown flying objects drew ever more closer, the mystery soon revealed itself. It was an aerial convoy of three floating vehicles. The two on the sides surrounding the middle one looked like floating semi-trucks pulling floating trailers, complete with all 16 tires of each vehicle pointing downwards like that of any portrayal of a futuristic hovercar. Furthermore, to complete the entire look and feel of a vehicle from the future, even the wheels are glowing in a strange pinkish glow.

 

 

The one at the middle looked nothing out of the ordinary and more like it was plucked straight out of a sci-fi book set in a million years into the future. It was significantly smaller than the two trucks beside it, but nonetheless bigger than an average SUV. It had a sleek aerodynamic- yet-boxy-looking design, with the entire underside covered in a glowing pink pattern of horizontal stripes. Attached to the back of the entire thing are two huge thruster-like attachments leaving a faint pinkish trail, creating a spectacular effect as it cruised by.

 

 

And like the levitating semi trucks, it too is pulling its own trailer, also stylized like its own futuristic design, distinct from the other two.

 

 

The aerial convoy flew past, casting shadows upon Tomura, who instantly noticed the complete lack of sound the floating vehicles were making. What’s even more strange is that there’s nothing remotely resembling these things in the real world. While giant robots and physics-defying hero support equipment are rather commonplace in the real world, there’s nothing close to these gravity-defying mechanical behemoths.

 

 

He observed the vehicles again. They were light colored, more off-white than any other color, with accent lines of pink. And on each side of the trailer is the word ‘Graviton’ with the G stylized to look like a space station.

 

 

‘Gravity…? Anti-gravity perhaps…? Is there even someone in the real world with such a Quirk…?’ Tomura thought, recalling the Class A and Class B hero students, but there’s nothing he can recall with a similar Quirk except-

 

 

“Reiko Yanagi, anti-gravity…” he muttered, eyes glued to the word ‘Graviton’ etched to the trailer’s sides. He can’t recall some of the students’ Quirks but he can definitely say that this is Reiko Yanagi, based on the pinkish glows and the levitation abilities.

 

 

“Who?” Spinner asked, now noticing that none of the people present there, including Machia and the tall trenchcoated woman beside him, are even remotely interestd in the entire thing, like they see them pretty much everyday.

 

 

“Yanagi, Class B, Anti-gravity levitation.”

 

 

“Seems like it.”

 

 

Tomura was about to think some more about other possible heroes with an anti-gravity Quirk when he saw two individuals perched up on the rightmost trailer. They were two girls at around his age, to the left is just a random girl with green wavy hair, but the one next to her is-

 

 

“Uh Shig…? That one’s highly suspicious…” Spinner muttered, and Tomura could only nod.

 

 

Blindfold, the other girl has one. But the other most distinctive thing about her is a huge holographic-looking glaive on her back, seemingly attached to her but clipping on nearby physical objects. Tomura doesn’t know what this Revenant Blindfold guy can do yet but the blindfold thing is just too striking to ignore.

 

 

“Kids haven’t seen a Graviton truck before?” Tomura heard a smug comment from the woman, still sounding a whole lot like Mirko form the real world. She then looked up at the two girls sitting on the trailers and whistled at them, waving a hand, with the other making strange hand gestures.

 

 

The girl beside the blindfolded one jumped off of the truck, a good twenty feet drop. Tomura didn’t see what she did but the moment she landed, both of her legs are suddenly encased with futuristic leg covers that looked cybernetic in nature, colored in crimson greens. He was about observe where the green particles emanating from it are coming from when the entire thing disassembled itself into small cuboid shapes and flew around to the girl’s back, manifesting itself as a metallic backpack several times smaller.

 

 

Stratonite, or so what Tomura thinks it is. Just like what Dragunov said, the mineral that adapts to Quirks, capable of all sorts of physics-defying feats.

 

 

“What brings you here?” the girl, who Tomura noticed that she looked a fusion between Midoriya and Uraraka, quickly walked towards the tall trenchcoated woman and chatted with her.

 

 

In a brief flash of light that neither Tomura nor Spinner saw, Blindfold girl is instantly down on ground-level, appearing instantaneously on the other girl’s previous position.

 

 

“These things are getting weirder and weirder by the minute-“ Tomura was interrupted when the middle Graviton truck’s trailer opened on its topside, releasing a bunch of drones. The drones themselves are relatively normal-looking as far as he’s concerned. They’re pentagon-shaped with up to four dangling claw-like appendages on their bottom part.

 

 

The huge cluster of flying robots moved to the top sides of the trailers belonging to the other two levitating semi trucks on either side, circling around like birds of prey, and diving into them the moment their top hatches opened up in the same manner as the middle one’s, and going out again, now carrying metal rod-like things that stretch out at least 8 to 10 feet in length – all seemingly unaffected by gravity by the way they get pulled to the location of the destroyed mini-mart.

 

 

“The repair team huh? How come I’ve never seen one of these in the real world? Must be one of AFO’s easter egg gaming secrets I suppose?” Tomura muttered to himself, eyeing up the strange mechanical constructs hovering over the ruined building, arranging the metal like some kind of scaffolding, with one robot going around them looking like it’s drilling something onto them to hold them in place.

 

 

He could also see Chitose standing amongst the crowd, with her back turned to them. Tomura raised an eyebrow at how much she stood out from other people. If she really existed in the real world, he would have seen her, maybe at least once.

 

 

He shook off the thoughts, he’ll get another chance to talk to her soon.

 

 

“I’m… I’m at a loss for words…” Spinner muttered as he watched the repair team work their magic. It was a perfect combination of effectiveness and efficiency, with some people dressed in the same color scheme as the trucks inspecting the entire thing as the robots assemble the metal rods in place. There was nothing like it in the real world, construction companies still work in the most standard fashion of reconstructing buildings. This was very different. Amidst the admiration, he turned his head to face Blindfold girl, who’s just standing quietly in the general direction to his right. “Hi…” he said, making the least effort to raise a hand and force a wave.

 

 

The girl let out a light gasp as if she saw it, despite her head facing the direction of Machia, the holographic glaive on her back slightly emitting some kind of static distortion. “H-hi…” she said back, sounding all flustered.

 

 

“Do you have a brother? Because we might have met him a couple o’ times now,” Tomura asked, leaning back and asking from Spinner’s left side. “Also you look like 2B from Nier Automata just with black hair… and I really just gotta say that…”

 

 

The girl didn’t move for the first two seconds, as if she got stunned by the question. But after some slight twitching of her hands, she turned her head to face them and shook it in disagreement.

 

 

“Spin, now that I think of it, Revenant looks like 9S… but also with black hair-“

 

 

“Now that I think of it… yeah…” Spinner turned back to the girl. “Can you hear us-“

 

 

“You guys look like you’ve never seen a Graviton truck before, what planet did’ya come from??”

 

 

Both turned to see who it was, and it was the other girl who came here. Tomura didn’t just like the fact that she asked them like she owned the place, but now that he had a good view of her, he could really see the huge resemblance she has to Midoriya and Uraraka. “Your face reminds me of someone who needs a good s-“

 

 

“We really need to go!” Machia immediately went in to stand between the two of them, quickly backing off and deliberately shoving both Spinner and Tomura out of the way for a few steps before turning around and further pushing them some more.

 

 

“Hey wha-“

 

 

“Move… there’s nothing for us here…” Machia interrupted Spinner and kept on pushing them.

 

 

Tomura didn’t question the hero and followed suit, but kept on walking backwards, seeing the one that looked like Midoriya raise an eyebrow at him, the one with the holographic glaive on her back turning her entire body to face them, and the last one with the trenchcoat waved a hand at him, a smug smile etched on her lips.

 

 

She did not take off her bonnet, so Tomura didn’t get the confirmation that she’s really Mirko, but since she’s easily recognizeable from voice alone he didn’t need more proof.

 

 

The three of them eventually got to the other side of the road from the parking lot, a crowd of people still present watching and video-taping the criminals get apprehended and put into police vans. The general area around the now-captured villains look utterly destroyed, courtesy of Sludge Hero Geyser alone.

 

 

“Machia, why didn’t you attack them?” Spinner asked the hero, snapping Tomura out of his thoughts. “You’re already here, why wait for the number 2?”

 

 

“It’s a very complicated system. I’ll tell you the entire thing once we get back. For now, analyze the entire event. Don’t worry too much on either Akaguro or Kizuki, they’ll get transferred somewhere else soon- they might be even transferred to a new one already as I speak-“

 

 

“Entire thing’s weird… and I was at the real world for 20 or so years and I didn’t even once see a similar thing there…” Tomura muttered, eyes glancing over to the three still on the parking lot having a chat, with Blindfold girl standing quietly nearby.

 

 

“Must be an easter egg perhaps…?” Spinner added. “Well to be fair we spent months hiding from heroes, I can understand not knowing a thing about them.”

 

 

“Yeah I know I looked like a wannabe villain with no accomplishments at all. Maybe AFO’s right to send me here, gotta learn a few lessons before we get back-“

 

 

“I can’t understand a thing you two are saying,” Machia interrupted them, both lanky arms stretched forward and encompassing them as the three pushed through the crowd and away from the parking lot. “It’s a system involving heroes, villains, and the ones that take care of the aftermath.”

 

 

Tomura remembered one of the few times he had a chat with Mustard, especially the term fake villains. “You trust us enough to say those?”

 

 

“As what Young Dragunov said, no one would believe the Gas Kids anyways.”

 

 

“I’m not liking the term Gas Kids… makes me sound like I’m permanently holding a fart,” Spinner said, checking to see if Kizuki is still amongst the crowds of people just up ahead, but can’t find her anymore. “Holding a fart is not really my thing.”

 

 

“Yeah you blast it out ASAP,” Tomura giggled, quickly turning away. “But yeah the term needs a change. I’m seeing quite the internet articles talking about us also using the term… So uh… what do I need to observe again?”

 

 

“Process the entire event, let it sink in. Young Dragunov will report back to me once you got all the details. And please, stay away fro the parking lot for now.”

 

 

Tomura heard it all, his eyes going up to stare at the magnificent levitating trucks and their drones currently in the process of rebuilding the ruined mini-mart. “Yeah I think I got the basics…”

 

 

Truth is that he didn’t get anything. Everything is new, everything is confusing. What’s really going on? Why didn’t Machia act the moment a villain arrived? AFO said everything in this alternate universe is meant to represent something, but so far he’s found little to none except the entire thing flipped on its head.

 

 

Do heroes do something similar to this in the real world? He doesn’t know, he never interacted much with heroes anyways aside from them being the prime target of his evil schemes, all of which ended in failures of epic proportions.

 

 

But if really wanted to kill Midoriya this time around, then he has to adapt.

 

 

 

 

But that can wait… he’s got mysteries and schoolwork to go over first.

Notes:

Writing this chapter made me think just how similar Kizuki is to Shigaraki. They both have potentially lethal Quirks that are deployed through hand contact, capable of utterly destroying an area and removing all traces of everything. I didn’t think of this beforehand but I indirectly made them even more similar with the gloves and Shiggy’s new Wasteland Quirk acting like a pseudo-landmine.

Also I have decided against shipping them. It's not like anyone would even want that.

...

Now that I got the major players "Introduced" time to continue onto the main plot!

Chapter 19: UA Sports Festival - [Part 1]

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 30

 

 

Tomura leaned against a wall, letting the eerie silence of the scene wash over him. It’s been a few days since the explosion of the 7/11 mini mart, that’s somehow blamed to the League of Villains even though it’s clearly the doing of the ‘Cat Squad’ – or whatever their name is in the real world. Tomura made a mental note to be better at remembering names this time around.

 

 

Machia told him and Spinner how the entire ‘alternate universe’ worked and it was an absolute eye-opener, for him at least, Spinner was mostly emotionless the whole time. While it couldn’t be that easily tied to the real world, it does explain quite a number of things in the current world he’s in. At first he thought it’s just going to be another set of mysteries for him but it wasn’t. They were answers, but more on what this world really is than what he really needs such as ‘How To Beat Midoriya’.

 

 

The system, while a bit complicated at first glance, is rather easy to understand as a whole entity. Tomura recalled all the details, and even though he’s not that very good at detail-retention aside from general villain-related things, he could explain it properly should Dragunov ask him about it.

 

 

Heroes, who normally have flashy and oftentimes destructive Quirks, are given free reign on their powers as long as they solve the crime (either by incapacitating the villain, or beating them unconscious, or usually both), and the natural side effect of powerful quirks is collateral damage. Collateral damage means a system to repair and rebuild said collateral damage needs to be in place to take care of the aftermath. Said construction system is dominated by Graviton, rumored to be led by Midoriya’s wife.

 

 

It’s an endless cycle of destruction and construction, a cycle perpetuated by Midoriya’s system – who made the entire ‘costumed hero beats up ugly villain’ thing in the first place. Hero agencies would buy fake villain services to create made-up villain scenarios for their heroes to fight, exploiting the whole pay-per-crime-solved mechanic of the hero system.

 

 

It was a general win/win for everyone, and a delicate balance at that. Fake villains mean heroes can completely disregard personal safety and wear fancy costumes and still turn out fine, and they can use their Quirks to full flashy extent since everything they destroy will be rebuilt free of charge – even for the property owner. Heroes participating will also get a publicity bonus, with career-driven heroes purchasing huge amounts of fake villain services to pretend they’re doing a lot of work.

 

 

And since fake villain scenarios are so prevalent, with heroes left and right trying to out-crime the other, real criminals have no choice but to give up as there are too many crime-fighters about, no matter the location. While the outside world may be a lot more violent at first glance, those are merely staged fights, somewhat akin to that of a televised wrestling match than a street fight. Both hero and fake villain get paid afterwards.

 

 

And since heroes are stopping crime (Even it was just all for show), people feel safe, secure, and content. The entire system depends on people not questioning anything, it was like a building propped by no more than twigs, and the general solution to anyone who even dared to question it is simply blame the person for not believing heroes and label them all sorts of derogatory terms.

 

 

And for an entire society centered on heroes, it comes off as natural. Heroes don’t even need to intervene and the general public will already do that on their own.

 

 

But all the positivity, which greatly outweighs the negatives, comes at a price. Money is being piled more and more onto Midoriya’s feet, and the last thing Tomura needed right now is someone who’s not only extremely powerful, but also has access to huge amounts of resources now that AFO will not be helping him anymore.

 

 

Machia told more about the whole thing, but that’s basically what Tomura could remember. But what about the government? Based on Machia’s story it was them who’s paying Graviton to repair and rebuild things. Would taxes go higher over time if heroes are too careless on what they destroy? Just like Sludge Hero Geyser?

 

 

Tomura’s thoughts went to the real world and found a few similarities, such as heroes destroy nearby surroundings as they beat up the villain, the absurd amounts of villain activity even though heroes are everywhere, costumes with utter disregard for safety even though the ‘Cornstarch Principle’ could only do so much and doesn’t really protect from punctures and slashes…

 

 

Is the real world also using the same fake villain system? What about the League of Villains? Could it be one of the representations AFO talked about? It certainly seemed like it even though he barely interacted with the hero world aside from trying to destroy it or watching from afar, the latter which is the exact same thing he did to an event he’s now currently part of,

 

 

The UA Sports Festival.

 

 

Tomura knew he’s supposed to kill Midoriya, but one month had already passed and he still has zero progress, as Dragunov didn’t really give him any orders yet and Mustard hadn’t come up with something – why he’s even relying on a person with connections to some conspiracy theorists on the internet? He doesn’t know.

 

 

While Spinner assured him it’s very much fine to even take a whole year to finish it, he felt something was very wrong. It was just a simple quest to kill Midoriya, there’s no reason for it to take over a year. Why is AFO so lenient on him taking his time? Shouldn’t the Great Evil be hellbent on destroying hero society once and for all as quickly as possible and not letting his successor take his sweet time in an alternate universe he’s not even part of?

 

 

He got ‘lore info-dumps’ earlier than actual ‘killing Midoriya’ tips. But based on Machia’s wording a few days ago, he might be meaning something about the system being easily exploitable in order to get to the enemy, so at least that’s something.

 

 

He shook off the thoughts. While AFO told him he can stay in this alternate world as long as he wants, part of him wants to get this over with so he can return to the real world and finish the quest he started long ago.

 

 

The destruction of hero society… he was so close…

 

 

“Pfft… maybe I could finish that next year…” Tomura sarcastically muttered to himself, getting annoyed by his utter lack of progress. He crossed his arms and mouthed some words, but not a single sound came out of his dry lips.

 

 

He’s currently in one of the UA Stadium tunnels that lead straight to the arena at the bottom most level. Makihara told them everything they need to know on how the entire thing works, which he already knew most given he watched the whole show back then. The even is only starting, the row of lights above him are not even turned on yet. Their homeroom teacher decided it would be best for them to be present early, since they are SpecPro Class A after all and some of the hero agencies would like to take a good look at them to judge them for their oncoming internships.

 

 

“What’s taking her so long…?” He asked, his voice echoing across the dark empty halls. He’s been here for a good half an hour now, alone in his thoughts, thinking about how is he going to defeat a person who can punch through someone that can phase through objects, let alone down him in a single hit – or so according to Machia.

 

 

“Mr. Shigaraki. I do apologize for the delay but there have been a few hiccups here and there but I finally set everything straight. Quite a number of hero agency reps back there.”

 

 

Tomura nodded, hearing the familiar voice of Kaina coming from his right. He turned his head to see one member of the Big Three wearing a recreation of her original ‘combat dress’ – what Tomura called it as, seeing it’s the first thing that came to his mind when he saw it. While her suit still looked mostly the same, with her combat boots still fully unchanged, the entire thing was colored in light hues of white, a stark difference to the one she wore in the real world. Lines of cyan and purple trail around the sides and portions of the dress, creating a magnificent color combination very much pleasing to the eyes.

 

Slung on her shoulder is a simple handbag, not matching the attire of her costume at all. Overall it’s just a standard run-of-the-mill women’s handbag, but a very elegant-looking one at that.

 

 

Overall, she would have been ‘Nagant-but-with-a-white-themed-outfit’ if it weren’t for the bright red motorcyclist’s helmet with a very tinted face-hiding visor completely covering her entire head.

 

 

“What the hell is that?” Tomura asked, one eyebrow automatically raising on its own. The helmet is clearly not part of the outfit, and is disproportionately bigger than Kaina’s head. The only thing it’s accomplishing right now is ruining her entire style, which Tomura believes constitutes to over a half of a person’s identity.

 

 

“It’s my temporary top-secret face-hiding hero support equipment,” Kaina replied, her voice sounding like she had severe cold, which made quite some sense seeing she’s not present in the past three days. “Things are really complicated right now.”

 

 

“We’re about to be broadcasted in the entire country and you’re out here with a whole damn helmet over your head? Seriously? How are you titled as the ‘Beautiful Lady Nag- I mean Dragunov, if there’s that butt-ugly thing covering your whole darn head? On an event that’s about to be televised nationwide! Remove it will ya?”

 

 

“I got nothing to prove. Sometimes being shameless has its benefits too, you know?”

 

 

A rather loud sniffing is heard from within Kaina’s helmet, with her excusing herself and bringing up a black handkerchief up through her headgear, that’s made possible as the helmet’s several sizes too big for her head and looked like it’s just hastily shoved on. She seemed like she wiped something before putting it down again in a crumpled mess and stuffing it in a hidden pocket located on to the side of her hero attire, nearest to her waist-band.

 

 

“So technically you just wiped your nose drool and held it all… remind me to not shake hands with you today.”

 

 

“Yes, that’s technically nose-drool, and I will not hold your hands today... So I talked with Yudokuna last night-“

 

 

“Yudo who?”

 

 

“The tiny kid acne-laden kid with the sleeping gas-ish Quirk?”

 

 

“Oh, carry on.”

 

 

Kaina pulled out a phone from her handbag and brought it up to her face, staring at it for a while before turning the entire phone and showing the screen to Tomura. It was a series of little paragraphs, seemingly like a wall of text. “So like you said I had a chat with Yudokuna last night and he said there’s this new guy in their little ‘conspiracy website’ suddenly uploading a whole lot of information about Midoriya. I’m not sure if those were right but you had to check these out, we might find something.”

 

 

“Hmm…” Tomura cautiously took the phone with his gloved hands, minding the possibly-invisible remnants of ‘Nose Drool’ and making sure it doesn’t slip through his fingers. Upon making a closer look, the paragraphs appear to be highlighted points saying little tidbits about Midoriya.

 

 

The first one says that his favorite food is Katsudon. The second one says he killed All Might almost two decades ago. The third one says his Quirk is named One for All. The fourth one says the location of his island fortress (which he already knew thanks to Dragunov). The fifth one says that he’s married to Ochako Uraraka and had 5 kids, but all but one died over the course of one and a half decades, and many more…

 

 

Tomura’s eyes scanned lower and lower. The notes were next to useless, to him at best. They were things he already knew. With one of the only thing he doesn’t know is that Midoriya apparently likes Katsudon, because he’s not that kind of stalker. He already knew Midoriya killed All Might, according to Spinner. He already knew his Quirk is named One for All. And then the rest of the notes looked like just random things that they looked more like scribbles than actual information.

 

 

He was looking for things such as weaknesses, places where he can be ambushed, or any special notes…

 

 

But there was none. The final part of the paragraph is just a note saying that the entire thing above is written by an overworked Shoowaysha employee… whatever that meant.

 

 

“Dragunov… these things don’t make sense-“

 

 

“Yeah but do you know anything about them?”

 

 

“I know about All Might being the one who gave the One for All Quirk to him. I know who Uraraka is but I forgot what her Quirk can do… Dragunov, all these things are just stuff I already know… except the Katsudon part.” Tomura handed the phone back to its owner.

 

 

“In a scale of one to ten, how reliable is this poster? I’m gonna trust your ‘otherworldly’ knowledge on this one so please don’t mess around.”

 

 

“Dragunov, before that I’d like to ask you… how are we going to kill Midoriya? He just punched Mirio out of existence!” Tomura moved away from the wall he’s leaning onto and shoved both gloved hands onto his pant pockets. “We’re talking abilities that shouldn’t even be possible! He’s far too powerful!”

 

 

“I’m working on it.”

 

 

“Can’t you just shoot him?”

 

 

“The answer to that is no. Look pal, the guy’s a nationwide icon in the underground. Plenty of other people want him dead. People already tried to gun him down, each one a higher caliber than the last, and he survived every damn time, and I don’t know how. And since you said that he has multiple Quirks in one of our meetings…” Kaina’s voice trailed off, a hand going up to the top portion of her helmet. “This is gonna be tougher than I thought.”

 

 

“Where’s everyone?”

 

 

“If you’re talking about Mr. Iguchi, I got them all piled up outside, they’ll be here in a few moments-“

 

 

“Hey Nova!” a voice is suddenly heard from one of the dark corners of the hall, making the two instantly focus their attentions to it. “So there have been words going around at the agency…”

 

 

Tomura narrowed his eyes and leaned forward even more so than Kaina, who seemed mildly irritated at most based on the muffled Russian words coming out of her helmet. He’s heard of the voice before, it’s the other Big Three girl, whom Tomura never liked one bit. He had never once talked to her, interacted with her, nor even looked at her enough to get a good picture of her full appearance. All he knew is that she looked kind of similar to Kaina but never went beyond that, one look at her green hair and that’s more than enough for him to turn to the other direction and ignore her presence from that point on. Green is never good, never was, and never will be.

 

 

And since Kaina didn’t mention her once during their planning sessions, then that means she’s not important. Good. No green hair people allowed.

 

 

The figure soon revealed itself, casually walking into the scene in an exaggerated manner like she was parading in a sea of fans, entering with the toothiest grin etched on her face like she’s about to expose some dark hidden secret the world never knew.

 

 

“DON’T… say it…” Kaina immediately said out loud before the other person, who’s now staring at her and stifling a laugh, could even talk. “I know what I did.”

 

 

“Oh come on, don’t go all hostile on me. I just want to ask how’s your field trip to Naruhata! There’s nothing bad about that, is it?”

 

 

“Beros… stop testing my patience. Or else someone might get a gunbarrel to the face, and it’s not gonna be Mr. Shigaraki…”

 

 

‘So it’s Beros huh…?’ Tomura thought to himself amidst the bickering of the two girls in front of him. But instead of interrupting, he leaned back to the wall. It’s still quite a while before the show would actually start and what better way to pass the time than to watch real drama unfolding in front of him? It took him a whole two seconds before his curiosity got the better of him and he blurted out loud. “Is anyone here going to tell me what’s up with the silly helmet?”

 

 

“DON’T-“

 

 

“Dragunov here got ‘Knuckle-Dustered’! Real good one at that too!” Beros replied, barely covering her mouth with her gloved hand and still looking like she’s inches away from bursting into laughter. “Tore you up real good huh?”

 

 

“I DID NOT!”

 

 

“Knuckle what…?” Tomura asked, extending an arm towards Kaina’s side, silencing her up before she could even verbally retaliate.

 

 

Beros raised an open palm on the boy’s direction, while keeping her gaze on Kaina, her expression slightly softening. “I told you, if Six can’t beat the guy, what hope do you have? Bet your pearly whites aren’t complete anymore huh? Good thing your boyfriend can fix that up easily.”

 

 

“I. Did. Not. Lose. It’s more of a minor setback than anything,” Kaina said, crossing her arms, her voice sounding like a thinly concealed threat, and rather awkward-sounding threat since her voice itself doesn’t sound too good. “At least I’m doing something… unlike someone who’s content with just sitting around and attracting fanboys…”

 

 

“Fanboys? Mind you Nova that pumping iron doesn’t count as attracting fanboys. If people are impressed with my sick gains then that’s their business,” Beros said, leaning forward and flexing her right arm, that’s clearly more defined with more muscle tone than Dragunov’s. “Can’t believe the girl with the guns have no actual guns at all.”

 

 

“You seem awfully in a good mood today…”

 

 

“Hid my phone behind a toaster this time. Mr. Blue didn’t even notice it until it’s done. Got it fully charged. You know… the works-“

 

 

“Wait a minute…” the two suddenly said in unison.

 

 

Tomura leaned his head forwards upon hearing the sound. It was nothing big but both girls suddenly uttering out the same words at the same time, while both looking at each other’s outfits, quickly got his attention. What he thought was an imminent grand reveal of another hidden anti-Midoriya secret eventually revealed itself as the two just fighting over what seem to be that they both went to the same tailor who made the custom outfits they’re wearing today.

 

 

Tomura couldn’t help but roll his eyes before checking out their outfits, and they do look very similar in the theme of whites and other mixed-in colors appearing as lines around them.

 

 

‘So Dragunov has a helmet because she got beaten up bad? She pretend-lost to Metal Man and now she got beaten up by some person… has she actually won yet-?‘

 

 

A loud bell rang from the outside, the echoes instantly permeating the dark halls where they currently are and instantly silencing the two bickering girls beside him. The bell suddenly stopped after a few solid seconds and is instantly replaced with a long monotonous low-pitched tone, signaling the start of the Sports Festival preparation phase.

 

 

Tomura recalled what Kaina said about the entire event. Once the loud ringing ends, the general audience and the press will enter and fill the eastern side of the stadium. After that, another ringing will commence, signaling heroes to come in and fill the western side. Once that is finished, a musical tune will play, marking the arrival of the UA staff to sit in between of the two groups, accompanied by representatives of various hero agencies across Japan, ready to pick up potential new recruits.

 

 

Once everything is set up, the voice of Seigyo Shinryaku, Forcible Quirk Activation, will echo across the stadium. And when that happens, SpecPro Class A and B must come out of their respective tunnels and meet up at the arena at the center.

 

 

Tomura wondered for a bit why the other tournament games like the racing and ‘cavalry’ segment are both removed. Unlike the Sports Festival that happened in the real world, this one will instantly start at the final segment. While it’s good that they will immediately go to the interesting part, Tomura wanted to experience the other activities as well.

 

 

‘I guess some other time…’

 

 

“Mr. Shigaraki, you staying here? I’m calling the rest of the class.”

 

 

Tomura responded to Kaina by no more than raising a hand, sending her off, with ‘Beros’ following shortly after… before their loud bickering about fashion sense can be heard once more upon turning around a hallway out of sight.

 

 

He wondered who he will fight. AFO said everything is meant to represent something. Is his adoptive father going to force the circumstances to make him fight Overhaul and Re-Destro again? But without help this time around?

 

 

Tomura scoffed. He doesn’t know about Re-Destro, but if he can win against Overhaul once, then he can do it again. He’s surrounded by tons of people, all the more eyes for seeing the ultimate fact that Overhaul stands no chance against him.

 

 

‘Someone’s going to get dehydrated today… I can feel it… Sorry Air Cannon, sorry Forcible… your prodigy is no match against me!’

 

 

Tomura’s gaze went to the outside of the tunnel, looking beyond the arena and observing the audience slowly fill in the seats, he let himself be entertained, as it wouldn’t be for a little while before the rest of the SpecPro Class A arrive. But they eventually got there in a few minutes.

 

 

“What did she say?” Spinner asked, breaking off of the group and immediately going up to him. “Plan worked?”

 

 

Tomura shook his head, one gloved hand going up to scratch the back of his head. “Nah. No super secret one-on-one secrets. She talked with Mustard last night and got some info. You thought it’s gonna be super interesting but it’s just a bunch of irrelevant things and other stuff we already know like One for all and all that crap.”

 

 

“Bummer,” Spinner glanced a bit to the outside of the tunnel, he was about to resume talking when he immediately looked again, pulling Tomura with him and pointing outside. “Blindfold Guy is back!”

 

 

“Woah! Look at that!” Tomura agreed. Indeed, Blindfold Guy Revenant can be seen standing at the group of seats where they will eventually go to a few moments later. He was completely still, wearing a hero outfit that can only be interpreted as a simple white shoulder-padded cape covering him from the neck down, and revealing nothing but his head. Overall he looked like a statue, or for Tomura, an NPC that will only move once the main player character gets closer.

 

 

“Pretty sure that’s him, not that other blindfolded chick we saw last time…”

 

 

“Yeah a whole lotta blindfolded-WAIT!” Tomura said out loud, gaining the attention of the entire class for a short while. “Blindfolded… a face cover… no eyes… AFO has no eyes… Dad wants me to remember these guys? Is he what AFO looked like as a kid?”

 

 

“Hmmm… AFO didn’t really say to me that anyone’s meant to be remembered here... but he kinda does look like a young him… perhaps…?”

 

 

“Man the weather’s lookin’ mighty fine today! Pay no attention to the group of dark clouds forming up over there, the big guy up there won’t let ‘em come over here for a visit!”

 

 

It was Forcible Quirk Activation’s voice, which Tomura recognized from one of Kaina’s phone calls deliberately put on loudspeaker. For the first time, he’s actually going to see him in person after the tournament! What should he say? Should he shake hands with him? What if he accidentally disintegrated his gloves as he’s doing so and dehydrated him? Would he get mad? He shouldn’t let one of AFO’s favorite Quirks get mad at him! That would be really bad if AFO’s watching them right now.

 

 

There was a loud cheering outside, from both the heroes and the audience’s side, what could it be?

 

 

“For those who’ve been living under a cave for the past twenty or so years, not that I criticize your luxurious place of accomodation, it’s me! Shinryaku Seigyo here doing some… uuhhh… doing some whatever crap I’m doing right now!”

 

 

“Stop being stupid in front of the country, you’re just embarrassing yourself.”

 

 

“Dun worry Divine Wind, I’ll do you later!”

 

 

Tomura heard laughing and cheering amongst the crowd outside. Just like what Kaina said some days ago, both him and Air Cannon will be hosting the entire event, acting like Present Mic and Aizawa’s temporary counterparts in the real world, with their respective shticks also mirroring them – with Forcible being the loud energetic one.

 

 

Even though both are energetic themselves when not onscreen, and Tomura felt really good about himself on knowing that little fact. Kaina said the two always present themselves to the public with this persona, with Shinryaku trying his absolute best to repeatedly flirt with his partner, much to the enjoyment of their fans, and Tatsumaki either counters him or ignores him. Their system looked like a standard pairing mechanic in quite a number of TV shows, as Tomura thought.

 

 

Apparently the two have been doing this ever since they landed on their ‘top-secret’ job in the hero world and quickly rose up to fame. Their flirting shtick is repetitive, gets old fast, nothing ever changes, but people somehow enjoy them, or so what Kaina said, and Tomura remembered how annoyed she sounded as she uttered those words. Is she annoyed because she’s not as powerful as them, or is she simply just envious of the attention they’re getting?

 

 

Tomura shrugged the thoughts off, those are just better to ask Kaina directly for the answers.

 

 

 ‘AFO’s ultimate Quirks are really horny for each other… quite the symbolism I must say… I wonder why don’t they just get married and be done with it? Could it be that people will have nothing more to fantasize about anymore if it happens? Business first before marriage?’

 

 

“No sign of Kurogiri?” Tomura asked, amidst Forcible’s announcement that he’s eaten nothing but pancakes that morning and he’s ready to go, which he then continued with an advertisement of a certain pancake brand Tomura could not recognize from the real world, alongside comparing Air Cannon to pancakes and generally annoying her.

 

 

Spinner shook his head, glancing over at the rest of SpecPro Class A piling up behind them, with Makihara still at the back talking to someone from the other side of the hallway out of sight from them. “We’ll just see him along the way.”

 

 

“Hopefully. He’s be real good in this anti-Midoriya campaign.”

 

 

The two eventually went back to stand on the back side of their class upon getting called in by their homeroom teacher.

 

 

Meanwhile, the seats outside soon got filled, with plenty of people just standing at the back portions of the stadium, eager to get a glimpse of what’s going on first-hand. Fireworks soon launched themselves after some time, lighting up the nondescript morning sky in a multitude of colors, signaling the official start of the event.

 

 

Advertised beforehand as the revival of the original Not-A-Villain project – which focused on young people with villainous Quirks, a lot of money was poured into the entire event in an attempt to meet the expectations of the masses. Heroes from all over Japan, the top 10 of the country, Shinryaku and Kamikaze alike, are invited to boost the overall ratings.

 

 

SpecPro, as controversial as it is, is another attempt - UA this time around, to prove that ‘Everyone Can Be A Hero’. Not a lot of people agree on the entire concept, and all previous attempts have met nothing but failures after failures. This is UA’s first time on the matter, and as of now it currently stands the highest of chance of swaying public opinion – or so what the newspapers say.

 

 

“Remember kids, stay calm, don’t cheat, and enjoy yourselves!” Makihara said out loud to his students. “And if ever you meet a Class B from the lower brackets then please, ANNIHILATE THEM!”

 

 

“I heard that!” came a low rugged response form the other side of the dark hallway. The other voice then proceeded to repeat everything what Makihara said, only substituting the Class B to A.

 

 

“Hmmph, Chisaki?” Class A’s homeroom teacher turned his head to the right, raising his right hand with one pointed index finger. “Your mentors are watching, it would a shame if you didn’t get to be first place, yes?”

 

 

“Nah, the trophy’s already has my name etched on it as we speak,” Chisaki replied in a smug tone.

 

 

“Hey Makihara!” Tomura raised a hand. “What place do you think I’ll be?” He completely ignored Dabi’s comment about him failing his first fight, he just wanted a response. If Overhaul got one, why wouldn’t he?

 

 

“I have no previous statistics on your performance, Shigaraki. But hey! You’re cleared to use your dehydration abilities, give these people a show!”

 

 

“You hear that losers?! I WILL F***ING DEHYDRATE ALL OF YOU! HAHAHA well except you Spin but-“

 

 

“Shigaraki, save your tenacity for the field.” Makihara turned his head back and stared at the exit tunnel, the light outside outlining his broad-shouldered form. “Best performance only. Remember your Quirk training. And have fun above all else! Let’s show those people that everyone can be a hero!”

 

 

SpecPro Class A cheered on, everyone except the people that came from another alternate reality.

 

 

“Introducing SpecPro Class A!”

 

 

“Alright guys, you heard the announcer guy, move!”

 

 

And with that, SpecPro Class A went out of the shadows and into the view of hundreds of people, going up to thousands when counting people currently tuned into the event via other means. The crowd present on the stadium went wild, seeing the students walk out the dark hallway.

 

 

The concrete path the entire class took all the way to the middle part of the arena glowed a faint blue color, ultimately forming into a cuboid pattern. Pre-placed fireworks launchers along the concrete path fire themselves, resulting in a spectacular display of color, but mostly with a blue hue.

 

 

Tomura took notice of the choice of color, also seeing Blindfold Guy waving onto them, with Kizuki already beside him. He was about to wave back just in case he’s waving at them but noticed the huge splashes of red colors coming from his right.

 

 

And there was the Dog-Person, One of Nine’s comrades, Chojuro Kon, leading his own group of students just nearby in the red-themed area. Tomura already saw them before but didn’t really pay attention to them that much. And much like the entire theme SpecPro A is built on, SpecPro B also looked like they would be villains in the real world, but couldn’t piece together who they might be.

 

 

What stood out amongst the rest of the other class is a short kid with a black sludge-like hair that looks like it’s independently moving on its own. His hands look like it’s made of the same material, alongside some portions of his arms. All in all, he looked like the ‘human’ version of AFO’s ‘Warping’ Quirk.

 

 

Too bad that’s not how Kurogiri works, so it couldn’t be him.

 

 

Tomura scanned the other students, in case he could recognize AFO’s other Quirks in them. He quickly averted his eyes as they’re getting closer to the middle point. He could remember this segment from the real world, and this is where Bakugo- who won first place during the entrance exam, gave a speech.

 

 

But since there was no entrance exam as far as he can remember since he just spontaneously appeared in this other world and UA’s conveniently making a SpecPro Course, there was neither mic nor a wooden pedestal to speak from.

 

 

What did happen is both classes stood at the center, and both homeroom teachers waved at the crowd and said something once given a mic by a random UA employee. After that, both classes were sent up the stairs into their respective areas, separated by a wall, which is exactly how Tomura remembered it.

 

 

“Oh hey Revenant, you’re back from the dead!” Tomura immediately greeted the long-missing Big Three member upon sitting on the topmost part of the row of seats, with everyone sitting on the bottom most part. He couldn’t understand how he actually remembered the person’s hero name, but could it be because – now that he got a better look at him, he could a direct reference to AFO himself, his younger form perhaps?

 

 

“I dunno… I just woke up and I fast-forwarded seven days later… weird…” Scissors muttered weakly, bringing up a finger to his chin in thought, said finger is from an arm that came out of the slit in front of his hero costume. Tomura noted the strange way his costume is designed, like his Quirk is not hand-based at all. While it makes sense seeing he always has eye covers on, but why is he called Scissors in the first place? Can he cut things with his mind?

 

 

“Anyways, what did I miss?”

 

 

“My sister got really lonely!” Tomura responded, giving double thumbs-ups to Kizuki beside Revenant – with her usual cooler in tow. Kizuki responded with a scoff at him, but since she looked amused herself, then it’s all good. “By the way Scissors we met a girl that looks just like you some days ago, you have a sister perhaps?”

 

 

“No…? Are you sure it’s not just someone with an awesome sense of style? Or maybe a disguise Quirk?”

 

 

“She looks like 2B without the butt, and you look like 9S without the-“

 

 

“Who are those?”

 

 

“Nier Automata characters… the video game with the robot butts? How come you not know about them?”

 

 

“Robot… butts…?” Kizuki butted in, just as Spinner went up to them and took a seat beside Tomura. “People are getting weird each passing day-“

 

 

“Okinoshima, robo-butts have been fetishized even before the onset of Quirks,” Scissors interrupted her, making Tomura raise an eyebrow on the strange nickname he gave her.

 

 

“I never read about those. All I know is that what people find attractive on the opposite gender change over time. All the combined forces of internal urges, culture, and other outside forces shaping the way for everything… What do you think?”

 

 

“I think what is ‘attractive’ is already ingrained in the brains of people, unchanged over time even through the endless cycle of evolution ever since the dawn of humanity. While you may say there’s always one for everyone, let’s be honest there’s always a universal standard. How the universal standard even came to be? I think we all know how that works,” Scissors nodded at the tall girl beside him and turned his head towards Tomura, and missing a good few inches to the left. “It’s just gonna be a one versus one tournament, you guys ready?”

 

 

“We got an entire alternate universe to train, we don’t need practice!” Spinner replied, Tomura nodding along. “Me? I may not have any fancy Quirks but I got the skills.”

 

 

“Yeah me too, can’t wait to dehydrate someone.” Tomura was about to turn back and watch the ongoing starting ceremony when he remembered something. “Say… do know anything about All for One? Because you might be AFO in kid form.”

 

 

“It’s One for All… It’s Midoriya’s Quirk,” Scissors responded, his head still not directly facing him. “I thought you and Katie already talked about it.”

 

 

“No, I mean All for One. A-F-O, the other way around. Know about it?”

 

 

“No.”

 

 

“Why do you call Dragunov as Katie?”

 

 

“Kaina Tsutsumi, K-T. She doesn’t really like other people calling her by that though. Now you might want to watch the entire opening ceremony, wouldn’t want to miss the fireworks show, right?”

 

 

“You literally disappeared for a week, said it some illness you don’t even know, and now you’re telling me to go watch some opening ceremony I already saw in the past life?” Tomura raised an eyebrow. “We’re all in this little quest together, all of us here, in this little top segment-“

 

 

“Well to be fair the opening ceremony does look fantastic…” Kizuki butted in, pointing a gloved finger towards the event down below. It was only then Tomura noticed she’s holding onto yet another energy drink, with the exact same brand as usual. “They got actual fireworks shows compared to last year’s.”

 

 

“By the way what took you so long in taking back your handbag that day? I mean when the mini-mart go boom?” Tomura asked, not even once swiveling his head to check the ceremony, in which Spinner’s already spectating. “We were part of the crowd and you just disappeared.”

 

 

“My phone broke, I don’t wanna talk about it.”

 

 

“Okay then…”

 

 

The entire opening ceremony for the tournament lasted at least half an hour. With Forcible Quirk Activation and Air Cannon explaining the whole mechanics of the tournament, the goals of the event, and the morals people could learn from it, all of which are complete nonsense to Tomura’s ears. He’s just excited because he’ll finally get to dehydrate someone, not because ‘anyone can be a hero’.

 

 

The top 1 to 10 heroes of Japan paraded down below, something that didn’t happen in the real world. The closest thing comparable to this is that All Might appeared, but only in the final award-giving segment of the entire event.

 

 

More fireworks, more flashy lights, more upbeat music, and generally more noise, emphasis on noise. Tomura shook his head on the entire thing. All the people are just here to see kids to beat each other up, what’s taking the tournament so long?

 

 

“I can’t believe my track record’s been all whack…”

 

 

Tomura turned his head around and saw Kaina already there, most likely from the hallway behind them and still with her silly bright red face-concealing helmet from earlier, holding onto a newspaper. Meanwhile, Scissors and Kizuki were now standing on the middle section of the seats, on the stairs, and beside the rest of the Class A SpecPro students. “Come again?” he asked.

 

 

“Nothing, now remember guys, flashiness makes everything. I don’t know if you already know this but there are a lot of agencies watching on us right now.”

 

 

“Yeah I know about them.”

 

 

“It’s not about winning, it’s about making the biggest show in the field. Agencies these days don’t care about whether you can blow up entire blocks or nothing at all, as long as you look good in front of the camera all is well. Quirks don’t matter, just make sure you’re flashy and you’re good to go,” Kaina said, slightly adjusting her helmet and folding up the newspaper she’s holding onto. “This Midoriya thing is going to take a while, so I suggest you win… or at least try to win, okay?”

 

 

“But either way everyone’s going to get internships, right?”

 

 

“Yeah, but it would be better if you guys get to the good ones.” Kaina coughed a little and handed over the folded-up newspaper to Tomura. “It’s gonna take a while… but I’m already sorting things out.”

 

 

Tomura took the newspaper and inspected it, still minding Kaina’s alleged sniffles and the way she held onto her black handkerchief without any hand covers on. He may have gloves on, but those are for his Quirk, and not to protect against ‘Nose Drool’.

 

 

 It was just news about dead construction workers.

 

 

“Bottom-tier heteromorphs are now being targeted. Sooner or later this entire society will collapse once the bottom pillars are knocked completely off of its feet.”

 

 

“If this is some big issue, then how come none of the heroes want to fix it?”

 

 

“Everyone’s scared of Midoriya. Plus no one would object to easy money. Everyone knows what’s about to happen, but everyone’s just we’ll cross the bridge when we get there. And now there’s rising tension between him and the MLA. If what you said about them is really true, then we’re gonna have an all-out war breaking out in about a year. It is of our best interest to take out Midoriya out of the game before that time frame, and maybe fix the war before it breaks out… maybe…”

 

 

“I forgot about the MLA. You think the war I told you about has a high chance of happening?”

 

 

“Instead of the League of Villains, it’s going to be Midoriya versus them. I can feel it.”

 

 

“What about the League? So is it true that they organized the mini-mart explosion?”

 

 

“No, it was a cover-up. You shouldn’t be worrying too much on such worthless trash,” Kaina said, her voice tensing up approaching the end of her sentence. “They’re completely irrelevant to the big picture. Now let’s get back to the present. You may not win, but please, give them a show.”

 

 

“Will you go on a date with me if I win?”

 

 

“Yes.”

 

 

“Why do I get the feeling that you only said yes because I won’t win?”

 

 

“Because you won’t. While your story may have some sense on some areas, there’s no way you beat an army with only 6 people… even with divine intervention. But don’t worry I’ll meet you up with Kamikaze regardless.”

 

 

“Oh yeah? What if I win?”

 

 

Kaina raised up her right hand and pointed at one of the huge screens currently hanging in the middle section of the stadium, a hundred feet on top of the battle arena itself. “You won’t.”

 

 

Tomura’s eyes went up to the multiple screens, locking onto the only one with words on them. And there it is, the third names on the screen.

 

 

‘Shigaraki Tomura vs Yotsubashi Rikiya’

 

 

“Woah… that’s got to be the most blatant rematch I have ever seen! This gotta be AFO’s doing…” Tomura muttered to himself, leaning forward and inspecting the other names just in case he could see if there’s going to be a full League of Villains versus Metal Liberation Army rematch, but there was none. Him and Dr. Detnerat Doofenshmirtz are the only ones there, with the rest just being random names within SpecPro A but not a single LoV nor MLA member. Maybe they’ll fight in the next rounds?

 

 

“The names will switch up once the first five’s done. So this is exactly what you said happened in Deika City huh? Let’s see how legit your story is…” Kaina crossed her arms after uttering her words in a mocking tone, followed closely by some Russian Tomura couldn’t understand. “At least you keep predicting stuff…”

 

 

“You really convinced I’m going to lose?”

 

 

“Yes. No way you’ll win. Just try to show off to the people will you? Don’t feel too bad, sometimes the game is just rigged.”

 

 

“And if I win?”

 

 

“Whatever... just try to win. You'll meet your idols soon enough anyway.”

 

 

“Deal.”

 

Notes:

I’m taking back what I said about Scissors just being an OC. He’s gonna be tied to a canon character now, and no he’s not AFO’s younger form.

Chapter 20: UA Sports Festival - [Part 2]

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 30

 

 

“Bit of a shame these SpecPro guys were the ones at USJ when those villains attacked a couple o’ weeks ago but let’s not think about that too much! The past is the past, let’s put it behind us. It’s the first part of improvement after all!” Seigyo’s voice blasted through the speakers surrounding the stadium in his usual excitable tone. “The League will face justice soon! If we can get to them first that is, those slippery bastards are always getting away through everything…”

 

 

“Proceeding through the Sports Festival despite the attack will prove to all evildoers, that we heroes are not afraid of them! Try as they might, disrupt the system, mess with civilians, we heroes will never back down. The sun will rise the next day, and the circular system will still retain its shape.” Tatsumaki added, twirling her fingers around each other visible through the camera, prompting the next wave of fireworks to launch.

 

 

“I like circles, Makitatsu.” Seigyo turned to his side and faced his partner. “Your analogy is chef’s kiss perfect,”he said, making the gesture of a chef’s kiss.

 

 

“Other shapes deserve recognition too, you know?”

 

 

“I like squares too!”

 

 

The two continued to bicker on camera, much to the entertainment of the crowd. Tomura leaned back on his seat, but cannot fully ignore Overhaul right to his left. Why does he have to get up here even though there’s so much space down with the rest of the class? Why does he need to piss off Dragunov every passing moment? Why does he have to sit next to the greatest villain of all time? Why does-

 

 

Tomura’s eyes, despite completely narrowed just in front of him due to his annoyance, instantly locked onto Air Cannon as if they got magnetized straight to her. Tatsumaki was currently having an argument with Forcible Quirk Activation, disproving everything he says, and acting exactly like what Aizawa did in the real world. He wondered a bit if this is meant to represent Aizawa and Mic having a relationship behind the scenes, but quickly shrugged off the thoughts and continued observing Air Cannon.

 

 

There was an aura of oddness with her. Tomura couldn’t piece it together himself but she looked…

 

 

Beautiful…

 

 

A cringe appeared on his face. That was odd, and not normal for him at all. What beautiful to him looked monstrous to people, and he finds them beautiful for other qualities such as absolute firepower and not physical attraction. What is causing him to see Air Cannon as beautiful in a sense of a beautiful young woman, and not because of her power? Is this because he’s not filled with hate anymore compared to the past? Is this because he’s enjoying too much of his free time playing Exergis nonstop with Spinner? Is this meant as AFO’s challenge to try and distract him? What’s going on?

 

 

He looked at Tatsumaki again, eyes going lower and lower until he saw her low cut kimono-ish looking hero costume.

 

 

Well she had an amazing chest… a spectacular one at that…

 

 

Tomura felt weird about it. A cleavage is just a vertical line and nothing more, breasts are a natural part of women, there’s nothing attractive about it! And there should be nothing attractive about it! He liked power, evil, death, chaos, destruction, especially women who can do those things all at once, no matter what they looked like. And even then those women didn’t make him feel different one bit, yet Air Cannon here is different.

 

 

‘Well those are definitely something…’

 

 

“Uh… hey Spin…?” Tomura leaned to his right, tapping Spinner’s shoulder with a gloved hand. “Is there something wrong with Air Cannon? She’s giving me strange tingles.”

 

 

“Huh?” Spinner turned to face his friend, face looking confused. “Air Cannon? She’s talking about hero crap, what about it?”

 

 

“There’s something strange about her… chest…”

 

 

Spinner turned to glance over at Tatsumaki, who’s still not finished bickering with her partner. “Her kimono pattern? Yeah they look kinda familiar. I mean it’s a very nice pattern, I wonder where she got that?”

 

 

“No, I mean her…  chest.” Tomura leaned down and discreetly gestured to his chest. “They’re very… eye-catching…”

 

 

“It’s a generic human chest, Shiggy, there’s nothing wrong with it,” Spinner said with a bored expression, eyes also glancing over at the heroine’s chest. “Heroines in the real world also show theirs off whenever possible, you know?”

 

 

“Hmmm maybe I shouldn’t be talking about human matters to a giant humanoid lizard,” Tomura immediately turned around. Maybe Kaina will say something different and solve his miniature dilemma about Tatsumaki’s very attractive chest-

 

 

Kaina’s outfit, her combat dress as what Tomura calls it, apparently comes with a low cut very similar to Kamikaze’s – which he only noticed now that Air Cannon is drawing his attention to things he never cared about before. Tomura is sure the low-cut is not there in the real world, and then he remembered something in one of their meetings. This must have been what Kaina talked about when she mentioned she’s going to dress up for this event – an outfit completely ruined by her helmet.

 

 

But…

 

 

Kaina too has a very spectacular chest.

 

 

“Well that was certainly odd…” Tomura quickly averted his gaze and glanced over at Beros, who’s leaning up on a wall and fidgeting something on her phone. Perhaps she doesn’t have-

 

 

Her outfit also had one of those low cuts, and she’s also busty.

 

 

“The hell…?” Tomura shook his head and looked over to one of the display screens located at the side of the stadium where real licensed heroes sat. Sure enough, female heroes are all busty and most of them are blatantly showing them off, either by exposed cleavage, or skin-tight outfits. “Why is everyone so… big…?” he muttered to himself, he doesn’t remember anyone being this busty in the real world. Based on what he could remember, there are no busty female heroes, and even Kaina’s are rather on the small side.

 

 

He quickly checked up on Toga, but she’s now far younger and completely flat, so all is well with her.

 

 

“Hey Spin, did AFO make the new world filled with busty ladies?”

 

 

“Huh? Everyone’s busty in the last century, are you dreaming, man?”

 

 

“No… I just kinda noticed that everyone’s kinda… big.”

 

 

“Shig, your noggin’ okay there? It’s common knowledge that Quirks made the women busty and the men muscly. It’s everywhere even before we got here? Forgot about it already?”

 

 

“I never paid attention to them to be honest. I really don’t look. I have no time to look. I’d rather plan on how to kill heroes than look at… those…”

 

 

Spinner scratched his head. He’s been with Tomura for at least a year now, and all the video games they’ve been playing had plenty of busty women characters in them. How can he not notice them? They’re literally right in every players’ face! “But our video games had lots of-“

 

 

“Holy crap they do! I only realized now!” Tomura said out loud, getting the attention of the entire class, but quickly getting ignored in a few seconds.

 

 

“What’s going on here?” Kaina asked from the back, leaning over and planting her hands on the backrest of their seats.

 

 

“Shiggy just discovered tits exist… I know I’m surprised as well…” Spinner’s head-scratching intensified, looking at Tomura who looks like he just discovered the meaning of life based on his sudden pause.

 

 

“Discovered… what…?” Kaina leaned closer, tapping Tomura’s head twice.

 

 

“Sheesh Dragunov… get your melons off of me, jeez! Next time tell me you’re directly behind me before I look back! Go stand behind Overhaul, I’m sure he won’t mind,” Tomura said, quickly swiveling his head to face the tournament zone upon getting eye contact with Kaina’s chest, gesturing over to Chisaki beside him. “I’m sure you won’t mind Kaina standing right behind you, yes?”

 

 

“But of course I won’t mind!”

 

 

“Dragunov, if you don’t cover those up, I will NOT speak to you!” Tomura stuck out his tonge and crossed his arms, feeling all high and mighty just by the ‘threat’ he made. Those things are getting in the way, pulling his eyes down even though he never wanted to, distracting him from saying what he actually wanted. He’s not sure how come he was never affected before, but he’s somehow getting affected now. Maybe he had to be full of hate again? Get the villain vibes going? Is that what he needs to return to his previous state?

 

 

But damn.

 

 

He just got a celebrity crush on Air Cannon. He wondered how would AFO respond if he simply went ‘Hey Dad, I think Air Cannon is hot’.

 

 

And if he’s not careful he’s gonna have an actual crush on Dragunov, which he doesn’t like at all. He wanted a badass sniper at his side, not a girlfriend.

 

 

“Hey GigaMachia if those pesky villains realize you’re hanging out here, they’re gonna go out and do stuff!” Tomura was snapped out by Seigyo’s voice blasting through the speakers. “Damn I can smell their crime from here! I gotta tell ya the stench is-MAN! Stench is whack! Whole lotta crime out there bud, better go play janitor and clean them up, pronto!”

 

 

“Wouldn’t be that kind of stench if you actually took a bath this morning…”

 

 

“Hey KazeKaze don’t criticize my daily routines! Or else I’ll expose your… Gasp! Cheesecake eating routine!”

 

 

Tomura rolled his eyes and slumped in his seat, fully ignoring the cheering crowd amidst him. Based on the conversations of the other League members down below, especially of Toga, Twice, and Magne, looks like they’re enjoying the massive ‘ship tease’ going on, asking each other if they’re together – because they’re acting like they’re made for each other.

 

 

But Tomura himself couldn’t help but wonder. “Hey Overhaul, you’re their prodigy, right?” he suddenly asked Chisaki beside him, who also seemed bored out of his mind. “Are they uh…? You know? Doing the thing parents do when their kids are at bed?”

 

 

“I’m thinking 25 times a day,” Chisaki responded with a giggle. “Man you should see those two alone.”

 

 

“Tatsumaki’s really handsy… I’m thinking 50 times a day,” Kaina added, giggling within her helmet. “Probably going up to a hundred.”

 

 

“Me thinks they could go up to a thousand,” Overhaul turned around to face Kaina, placing an arm on his seat’s backrest. “Do you have any idea how much he goes inside her?”

 

 

“Nah, how many?”

 

 

“They’re not really telling anything to me but they’re doing this so-called fusion-move and he literally goes inside her, well more like fuses with her but yeah,” Overhaul said, barely containing his laughter. “Must be real top-secret stuff, they kept talking about these Eviscerators too.”

 

 

“Yeah Seigyo’s really going to eviscerate her alright-“

 

 

“Hey hey hey hey! Before we start I’d like to announce we’re having a very special guest today-“ In came Siegyo’s voice from the loudspeakers, shortly before being interrupted by the sound of rolling thunder overhead, stopping him from continuing and making people across the stadium look up in response. Dark clouds quickly swirled above, the music intensified, the fireworks launched in quick succession, thunder rumbled in louder than last time, sparks of electricity danced in the clouds above, lighting up the heavens in a spectacular lightshow rivaling the fireworks display.

 

 

Then all clouds combined into the central spiral and sent a lightning strike to the middle of the arena, burning away the topsoil revealing a white rectangle painted over concrete.

 

 

The tournament arena, as what Tomura could remember. What he doesn’t remember is the epic intro. In the real world, the Sports Festival started with very little showoff, a little introduction and everyone’s beating each other up as soon as possible.

 

 

The uproar of the crowd intensified over the course of the next few seconds, the multiple screens all showing a huge metal door. And then music stopped, all ambient audio suddenly went off, screens displayed static before going out as well.

 

 

Tomura wondered why everyone is acting so excited when what’s happening seems to be a standard villain intro.

 

 

He never finished with his thoughts when all sound come blasting back out of the speakers again, fireworks launching some more, people cheering. The screens suddenly lit up displaying a very familiar person.

 

 

“Nine… kinda forgot about him to be honest,” Tomura muttered to himself, fully ignoring the confused League members down below.

 

 

Nine, named as Inazuma Sashizu and labelled as the founder of UA on the multiple screens, is sitting on a high-tech wheelchair that reminded Tomura of what Re-Destro sat in during the announcement of the Paranormal Liberation Front.

 

 

‘But how is he founder of UA if UA’s been around for centuries? Maybe this world did something different? Nah, it’s not like it’s going to be important in this whole Midoriya-killing thing…’

 

 

It took a long while, but the Sports Festival officially began.

 

 

“Finally! It only took half an hour!” Tomura said out loud, but not loud enough to be heard by his classmates. “Hey Spin, you think you gonna fight MLA booster guy again? It’s too much of a coincidence that I’m fighting Stress CEO right now.”

 

 

“Hmmm… this gotta be one of the little things AFO deliberately rigged…” Spinner muttered, not keeping his eyes off the screens displaying the names of the students that will participate in the first five battles.

 

 

“You guys say AFO a lot…” Kaina spoke from behind them, arms crossed and shaking her head, her helmet swaying along. “Battles will switch between SpecPro A and B after every match. And then all the winners will go fight each other and so on and so forth. Remember guys… be flashy. Agencies are watching.”

 

 

“How am I supposed to be flashy? I don’t have flashy Quirks! I may even be Quirkless!” Spinner complained, turning around to face her. “What do you mean flashy?”

 

 

“Got some fancy martial arts moves?”

 

 

“No?”

 

 

“Got some fancy backflip moves?”

 

 

“No?”

 

 

“Got some fancy tricks?”

 

 

“No?”

 

 

“Then you’re screwed.”

 

 

“Whatever Dragunov,” Tomura interjected. “Watch us get out there. You and your amazing chest will be completely wow’d!”

 

 

“My amazing what?”

 

 

“Nothing.”

 

 

“Alright guys! Enough diddling around, let’s get started!” Seigyo shouted into his mic, slamming both fists onto the table before him, the sound booming across the stadium and surprising everyone. “Hey Miss Tornado! What’s up on the list?”

 

 

“Wait a sec, my files aren’t ready yet – wait, where’s the button where I can display these things?”

 

 

“On your left, next to your sixteenth strand, the one with the red stripe going up to your forehead, the one where – nah I’ll press it for you…”

 

 

Tomura thought it’s going to be another gag for the two of them, but Tatsumaki genuinely just didn’t see the button, at least no more cringe jokes for now.

 

 

 

 

[First Match: Shin Nemoto vs Nagaha Taberu]

 

 

Two students on the front row of SpecPro A stood up. Tomura noticed it’s Moonfish and one of Overhaul’s buddies, and then it suddenly clicked, as if something enetered his mind. The entirety of Class A is huddled up in front, even the League, and there’s 2 entire rows of empty seats in front of him, with only him, Spinner, and Overhaul all sitting up at the topmost portion together.

 

 

“Hey Overhaul, why are you not with your buddies?” Tomura asked, inadvertently leaning back onto his backrest.

 

 

Overhaul didn’t answer. Instead, he looked at Tomura, with one hand pointing to Dragunov behind him.

 

 

Tomura nodded at the response he was given. “You’re doing God’s work, Overhaul. You’re the one getting magnetized by Dragunov’s chesticles and not me. I will now allow you to stay a little while longer within my presence,” he said, nodding. He was fully expecting to not get along with Overhaul since day one, but he’s by far quite friendly to him, even to Dabi, in their little expeditions. If he could describe the situation, it would be ‘beyond strange’. Could this be another of AFO’s tricks?

 

 

“Chesticles…?” Dragunov spoke from behind them. “Chesticles…?”

 

 

“Hey ‘Nov, if you’re not going to cover those up, I will not stop calling them chesticles.” Tomura slumped in his seat, arms crossed, eyes trying not to look at the announcer screen and staring at Air Cannon’s amazing chest. If only he knew this beforehand, if only he paid attention before, if only he noticed, then he could have said to AFO to ‘Don’t Put Him In A World Filled With Busty Ladies’. He’s not enjoying it one bit.

 

 

But Air Cannon’s really gorgeous-

 

 

“I’m slowly going mad… When I’m done with this world, I’ll be turned into a boob-loving human…”

 

 

“Shig, you’re talking weird,” Spinner muttered beside him. As far as he knew, boys going through puberty normally go through this phase, and Tomura looks like he’s only starting now. Did he not go through this phase before? Or is it just because they all got turned into highschoolers? “Chill down, it’s just basic human anatomy. It’s just there!”

 

 

“Spin, you’re just talking like that because you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

 

 

“Point taken…”

 

 

A simple loud ring and all their attention are instantly latched onto one of the biggest screens pointing at them. It’s currently displaying the two contestants already facing each other on the ring, with Siegyo announcing their names – exactly how Mic did in the real world.

 

 

‘How did they get there so fas-‘ Tomura stopped mid-thought as he saw two circular panels located right below the stairs they used to get to their seats. Said flat metallic panels looked like they’re connected to a ‘railway’ that leads to the arena’s sides. The two must have stood there and got transported while he’s not looking.

 

 

“Remember guys… stay flashy…” Kaina muttered faintly behind them, to which Tomura paid no mind. He’s interested in the coming battle, thinking it’s symbolic of a former League member Moonfish, and Yakuza Shin Nemoto.

 

 

“That’s horribly unbalanced…” This time it was Overhaul who muttered faintly, and this time Tomura did mind. But instead of asking what’s unbalanced about it, he just doubled down on observing, maybe something’s up. Maybe he could at least learn something from it.

 

 

Siegyo started talking about the rules. It was the same as the real world’s. Kick the enemy out of the ring, or immobilize them. Tomura hoped there would be more, preferably death traps sprouting about, but that’s just him.

 

 

“BEGIIINNNNNNNN-“

 

 

The crowd’s cheering stopped, hundreds of people leaning forward in unison to see the entire thing. Silence suddenly enveloped the entire stadium.

 

 

In less than a second, Moonfish surrounded the entire battle arena with teeth, jutting in all directions and branching all the way towards his enemy, who’s forced to jump out to avoid the incoming onslaught.

 

 

And that was the entire fight.

 

 

Everyone was speechless for a while, including Tomura. The closest counterpart he could remember is Sero going up against Todoroki. But even then it resulted in a huge icy spire going up higher than the entire stadium itself, wowing the crowd in such an impressive display of firepower.

 

 

But here?

 

 

There was nothing.

 

 

“Well that was certainly something… What do you think MakiMaki? Isn’t that certainly something? Don’t you like it when kids know how to beat the enemy in a fraction of a second?” Seigyo’s voice blasted out of the speakers, breaking the silence. “Tactical and speedy, I love it!”

 

 

“Well it certainly had the air of tactical-ish I guess? But the rule’s the rule, Nemoto went past the line and he’s out. I’m afraid once you lost your first fight, you’re out of the tournament. SpecPro’s very different from standard Hero Courses in that regard. I’m very sorry Nemoto,” Tatsumaki added.

 

 

Tomura could tell she was just trying to lighten up the mood by the way she spoke but the fight is boring, incredibly so. He could also see Kiruka Hasaki – the name of the red-hair woman who’s part of Nine’s team that he only knew a week ago, just standing there at the outskirts of the ring, looking unsure of what happened. Meanwhile, Moonfish retracted all of his teeth, looking very proud and jumping around like he just won first prize.

 

 

‘Wait once you lose your first fight you’re out…?’

 

 

“I don’t have a whole day to sit here and get confused on what happened, NEXT!”

 

 

And just as what Seigyo said, both contestants walked off the arena. A minute later in came the next round, this time two students from Class B. And in an instant the student on the left side caught Tomura’s eye. Based on what he can see, the boy’s Quirk granted him upward-pointing spines in the same manner as-

 

 

“Spearlike Bones…? Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Spinner spoke, eyes not taking off of the very familiar Quirk.

 

 

“It’s got to be… no other Quirk comes close…”

 

 

Spearlike Bones’s opponent has a simple super strength Quirk, is it one of All for One’s multiple strength-enhancing Quirks? Tomura couldn’t tell, as super strength Quirks are not only relatively common but are also normally indistinguishable from other similar strength-enhancing Quirks.

 

 

Their fight is overall standard, albeit ended a little too quick as Spearlike Bones just got tossed out of the ring.

 

 

The people didn’t cheer, as it’s another boring fight.

 

 

Next round goes back to Class A, this time featuring Gentle – Danjuro Tobita, going up against Mustard – Fujin Yudokuna. Tomura’s gaze went up to the names displaying the ones who are going to fight next, and noticed that while there are no League names displayed there except his, MLA names are not listed as well – except him and Yotsubashi respectively.

 

 

It’s almost as if there’s going to be a rematch between those two groups. But the League has six members, while the MLA only has four, how is it going to happen?

 

 

‘Interesting…’

 

 

The fight began… and it was over in a few seconds as Gentle seemingly slammed Mustard with a solid gelatinous block of air, sending the smaller boy tumbling out of the arena, his innate ‘toxic’ gas abilities not even making an appearance.

 

 

“Guys… I know the rules are simple and all but… I gotta say the ‘tactical’ part of the tournament is getting… ya know… A little TOO tactical?” Seigyo spoke through the mic, his bored voice being heard to all. “But the rule’s the rule eh?”

 

 

“I see nothing wrong with tactical decisions,” Tatsumaki responded, “let the kids fight how they want to fight.”

 

 

“Can I ask why are we adults watching kids beat each other up?”

 

 

“Entertainment.”

 

 

The crowd had a good laugh at that one, which is technically true for the most part.

 

 

Tomura rolled his eyes, as much as what Air Cannon said is correct, the fights have been nothing but boring match after boring match that end even before 10 seconds could pass.

 

 

The next match is, oddly, a fairly entertaining one, it was between two similar super strength Quirks – both of which Tomura wasn’t sure if this was intended to be just like that of Rock Man versus Metal Man due to how similar their Quirks are, or is it just another two of AFO’s super strength Quirks having a go at each other. Unlike all the earlier fights before it, this one involved massive ground slams, rocks getting flung at all directions, and epic beat downs.

 

 

And for the first time in the entire event, Tomura saw Forcible Quirk Activation go full caster mode, narrating the entire battle without missing a single punch not being talked about. It would have been perfect if it weren’t for Air Cannon being silent for the entire time, not that Tomura cared too much as he’s too busy watching the fight unfold.

 

 

While no flashy Quirks are involved in the entire match, it was very much entertaining, especially when compared to the earlier fights being nothing but one-sided cures of insomnia.

 

 

Tomura was about to ask Spinner how the fight at Deika City went just in case it’s a full rematch coming up when the other Big Three member previously leaning up against the wall separating them from Class B, the one called Beros by Dragunov, made some hand gestures towards him and quickly pointed up to the biggest screen indicating the names of the students about to participate in the next match as the current one nears its end.

 

 

‘I wonder why Class B doesn’t have the Big Three managing them…’ Tomura thought to himself before looking up the screen. And sure enough there it is, in big bold letters – SHIGARAKI TOMURA vs YOTSUBASHI RIKIYA. He looked again at Beros and she nodded her head to the right as if she wanted him to stand up and proceed towards Revenant, who’s currently standing on the middle part of the stairways beside Kizuki.

 

 

“Alright, Shigaraki, do your thing…” came the obscured voice of Dragunov behind him, followed by some Russian he couldn’t understand.

 

 

“Alright…”Tomura swung both arms upwards and planted them on his seat’s armrest, and used that to push himself upwards. AFO may not be with him today, but if he can beat this giant idiot once, then he can do it again. He then walked off to Revenant, casually glancing over to the rest of the League like he’s about to end the fight in one hit.

 

 

But as much as he’d like to get acknowledged, no one did. Maybe a passing glance from Compress but that’s about it. Most of them look too invested on whatever they’re doing at the moment.

 

 

“Good luck out there, kiddo! We’re rooting for you!” Revenant spoke up from behind Tomura, saying more things to him about winning the fight all the while looking a little bit towards the wall and not to him at all.

 

 

“Yeah… what he said,” Kizuki added with a shrug. “But could you at least do with a little more flare? It’s getting really boring down there.”

 

 

“Pfft! Leave it to me to- why are you not sitting up there with us? There’s Dragunov, don’t you wanna go talk to her?”

 

 

“Nah I’m good. She said she’s already sorting it out, and we’ll be moving out soon.”

 

 

“Rest assured Okinoshima, no harm will be done to you on our little quest. For now, let’s just sit back and enjoy the show, I’m sure Shigaraki here has quite a few tricks up his sleeve to spice things up,” Revenant said, slightly turning to his left. He’s now facing Tomura, but still not directly forward.

 

 

“Yeah do watch me with that blindfold on. I mean I’d do that too if I have a cool blindfold!” Tomura stretched his arms as he watched Re-Destro walk up to him. He was about to go taunt him when he felt Revenant double-tap him on the shoulder and walk downstairs, his left hand gesturing for him to go follow.

 

 

Down they went, the fight in front of them looking like both contestants are entering their final phases, based on their speeds slowing down to a crawl.

 

 

At the bottom of the stairs are two circular metal plates, in which Tomura saw earlier. Almost perfectly concealed in the concrete, these platforms transport contestants all the way to the middle part of the arena.

 

 

“Fight’s pretty much over, now go stand on those plates. It’ll take you to the center of the arena after the current fight ends. Be sure to keep your postures straight, chins up, and most importantly, don’t think about this activity too much, it’s just a game after all. But if you got flashy Quirks, now’s the time to go ham! Good luck!”

 

 

“Sure do, young-AFO-lookin’ dude!” Tomura did a joking salute as Revenant walked up on the stairs, leaving the two of them. It took him a good three seconds before he couldn’t wait any longer, he has to taunt Re-Destro. “Hey,” he called out to his soon-to-be opponent.

 

 

“What?” Rikiya responded, looking quite nervous about the upcoming event.

 

 

“Remember this?!” Tomura raised his right arm and repeatedly made a swiping motion from left to right, imitating the same way he disintegrated through Re-Destro’s energy-based attack in the past life. “This will be my winning move!”

 

 

Rikiya just gave him a nervous laugh and then went back to minding his own business. As much as Tomura enjoyed he’s already scaring his opponent even before the battle even starts, he wondered what this is meant to represent. Is Re-Destro actually a nervous type of guy? Is this meant to represent why he’s got a powerful Quirk yet choose to stand back and waste so many of his troops? Maybe?

 

 

“Well that is a welcome turn of events! Amazing! Good fights kids! Now that is the battle everyone’s lookin’ for, am I right ladies and gentlemen?!”

 

 

The crowd cheered right after Siegyo ended his sentence.

 

 

“Heroes 1 to 10, how are you holdin’ up? Can’t afford to go to sleep! Wakey wakey we’re getting to the good part!”

 

 

“It appears we just need a little warm-up! I’m sure Mr. founder agrees with me!” Tatsumaki added, the camera immediately swiveling over to reveal Nine waving in response to it before nodding once.

 

 

Tomura stretched his arms and pointed at Rikiya in the most obnoxious way he could. “Alright Doc Doofenshmirtz, I hope you came prepared, because Perry’s not gonna be the one to take you down today!”

 

 

He got no response. Instead the platform beneath his feet shook a little, but not enough force to to trip him off of it. In a few seconds, it started moving along its premade path and took him and Rikiya to the middle part of the tournament zone, going through the sides of the arena before taking them to their designated zones.

 

 

“UP NEXT! SHIGARAKI TOMURA VERSUS YOTSUBASHI RIKI-YEEAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!” Seigyo yelled into the mic, followed closely by loud sighing of Tatsumaki, and light cheering from the crowd. “No offense Mr. Chikara sir I couldn’t help it!”

 

 

“Now remember kids, it’s either you immobilize your opponent or kick them out of the ring, got it?”

 

 

“Got it, Not-Midnight!” Tomura gave Hasaki a thumbs-up, before shortly making it a double once the woman gave him a weird look. Tomura noticed the woman’s not wearing Midnight’s outfit, which is a very good thing, he had enough of busty ladies for today. The last thing he needed is another busty lady wearing Midnight-levels of skintight-ness.

 

 

Tomura did one glance towards SpecPro Class A, especially towards Dragunov. He wasn’t sure she was watching him, with that helmet obscuring everything, but since she’s not talking to anyone then it could only mean she’s watching over him.

 

 

“BEGIIIINNNNN!”

 

 

Tomura immediately ran forward right after hearing Seigyo’s voice through the speakers, ditching his gloves and tossing them to the side. He kept his eyes locked onto young-Re-Destro all the time, re-imagining the events on that fateful day. There was absolute carnage, death filled the air, chaos ensued, and he managed to beat him with the help of All for One. And now he’s going to go for it without his help, without anyone’s help.

 

 

And he’ll win, because of course he’ll win. He and his buddy Spinner are the main characters of this little alternate universe!

 

 

He saw Re-Destro looking left and right, his right arm slightly enlarging and effortlessly tearing through his sleeve, now swirling with cracking purple energy that seemed to pull nearby debris to circle around it, in the exact same way it happened back in the real world.

 

 

Tomura drew closer and closer, propelling himself as fast as his legs could go. There was only around a ten meter difference between him and his opponent, but it almost felt like an eternity. He readied up his right hand and brought it to his left, ready to swipe it and redirect the explosion that’s guaranteed to happen somewhere else.

 

 

In the real world, this stadium did not come pre-equipped with any sort of barrier preventing debris from flying to the audience. He remembered Midoriya going up against Todoroki and Cementoss had to block their respective final hits. Blocks of hardened cement went flying everywhere, hitting a whole lot of people.

 

 

‘Let’s hope there’s none here too, it would a shame if a villain like me can’t replicate that!’ Tomura thought, already imagining the damage a deflected energy blast would do. He can’t deflect it to the left since the entire class is there, he can’t deflect it to the right because Forcible and Air Cannon would get hit, so where?

 

 

‘I can deflect it to Nine! That’s it! That would be fun!’

 

 

Tomura ran, eyeing up the energy ball as Re-Destro swung it towards him with his now-enlarged arm.

 

 

‘Wait for it…’

 

 

When everything is within range, Tomura swiped his hand onto it, making sure he pushed towards the direction of Nine at the very last moment.

 

 

And his hand went straight through.

 

 

 

 

‘Oh wait… energy cannot be disintegrated-‘

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomura’s eyes suddenly went open, immediately feeling a bit strange. He looked around, noticing the room’s white square-tiled walls, there’s a blanket now draped over him, and a bunch of familiar machinery just parked on a corner of whatever room he’s in.

 

 

“Woah! The adventure’s over? I’m back to being upgraded?” he said to himself. “Well that was a… a wild ride…”

 

 

“Oh you’re finally awake!” said a very familiar voice. “Good thing it’s only been around twenty minutes or else you would have missed the entire show!”

 

 

“Yeah I know Garaki it’s kinda- wait…” Tomura instantly sat up, noticing he was simply at some kind of medical facility, and not sent back in time during his upgrade after beating the MLA. There was Dr. Garaki, whom has no memories of the real world and is just acting as Shuzenji’s counterpart, with his back turned to him and looking up at a small television set hanging up the wall. There were a few nurses walking about but the place is overall empty.

 

 

“What happened? Did I win?” Tomura removed the blanket over him, noticing his torn-up school uniform. Strangely, he can’t feel anything more than light dizziness. He was sure he took the blast head on, and that blast is no joke back in the real world, and yet he can’t feel anything wrong other than a light easily-manageable headache. Could this be more of Dragunov’s ‘Cornstarch Principle’? Is it always like this and he just never paid attention? Just like how Re-Destro casually survived from falling down his tower, because nobody dies from powerful impacts anymore?

 

 

“Not quite, but yes-“

 

 

“I need answers now!” Tomura tossed the blanket aside and ran off outside the clinic even before the nurses could catch him. Turned out he’s still at the stadium, and not sent back to UA at all.

 

 

“Of course there’s a medical station here! Now where could-“ Tomura stopped mid-sentence, seeing the same pathway he took when he got in. He ran through the unusually silent crowd, some recognizing him and some not, found detours and eventually made his way all the way back to the seats where SpecPro A is located, entering in from behind them at some doorless hallway. “Dragunov! I won!” he yelled towards the helmeted girl standing with her back turned to him. “I won! HOW-?”

 

 

Tomura instantly stopped, seeing a sharp-dressed man looking like in his early fifties standing over Re-Destro – who’s now sitting back in his previous seat, and openly berating him for losing and generally making a scene, loud enough for even the Class B to peek over the wall separating them.

 

 

‘Must be his trainer or somethin’…’

 

 

He walked over to Dragunov. “Hey, did I win or what?”

 

 

“You got blasted 6 feet under the arena and Yotsubashi got flung away from the ring from his own blast force. Technically both of you lost since you got instantly knocked out but since there’s a rule that if things happen at the same time, the student left inside the ring wins.”

 

 

“What’s going on there?”

 

 

“It’s Re-Destro’s dad,” Spinner turned back, using a hand to cover up his mouth as he spoke. “He’s really pissed his son lost.”

 

 

“So… I won without doing anything…?” Tomura muttered to himself, observing the entire scene unfold before him. “So just like the fight at Deika City? Here I am thinking AFO would switch it up or something… So uuuhhhh Dragunov would you uuhhh you know-?“

 

 

“Nah not really. Since you’re qualified for the next matches, and the fights go so fast that the next round could be only a minute away from the last, you should stay here with the rest of SpecPro A in case it’s your turn in the ring. On the other hand, if Mr. Iguchi here loses his first fight, we’ll get the autographs for you. Seems like a good trade?” Kaina shrugged afterwards, her helmet bobbing along.

 

 

“Why is everything so quiet-“ Tomura scratched the back of his head, looking around and noticing the crowd seemingly minding their own businesses and the arena down below being all empty with no one fighting or even positioned to fight. Is it there a commercial break or what? If it weren’t for Re-Destro’s supposed father out there already berating him for losing, he would have gone up there and berate him himself.

 

 

“Forced commercial break, things are about to get messy… for now let’s get your uniform replaced.”

Notes:

I really don't know what's going through Tomura's mind when he decided to swipe at Re-Destro's energy blast. Maybe "I'M THE MAIN VILLAIN! YOU CAN'T STOP ME! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!" perhaps?

Chapter 21: UA Sports Festival - [Part 3]

Chapter Text

Day 30

 

 

Tomura observed the scene right after he came back from replacing his uniform. Forcible Quirk Activation, Seigyo Shinryaku, is still casually narrating the event, and openly flirting with Air Cannon every now and then, with the crowd somehow liking every minute of it, much to his annoyance.

 

 

Based on how the fight went, or so what both Spinner, Kaina, and Overhaul told him, Re-Destro’s energy-based attack directly made contact with him, blasting him straight into the concrete, sending debris flying everywhere and automatically activating the defensive bulletproof glass to drop down from the stadium roof and attach themselves to wall sockets surrounding the arena zone, effectively shielding the crowd from harm.

 

 

Tomura leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms, slightly annoyed not a single person got hit by a huge boulder. While he did technically win, in the same exact fashion as in Deika City which involved him simply rushing in and automatically winning because of certain circumstances, he thought All for One is going to mix it up. Is the twist already there and he just didn’t notice it? Why would AFO put in a ‘twist’ if he’s not going to notice it?

 

 

In the real world, he won against Re-Destro only because of AFO, and now AFO is not here and he still won by the nature of the tournament rules. Is there a lesson to be learnt here?

 

 

His eyes went up to the list of names for the upcoming fights, and so far it’s just a bunch of static. It’s been a few minutes since Re-Destro’s dad stopped quiet in berating his son and is now just standing there with his back turned to him, holding up a phone to his ear, his right shoe clacking onto the concrete floor in impatience.

 

 

“Hey hey hey we’re getting secret messages! I love secret messages!” Seigyo yelled through the mic. “It’s from Mr. Yotsubashi! Isn’t he the UA equipment-gear guy-? What’s going on here- oh wait I got another one from Mr. founder himself!”

 

 

“Shin, stop freaking out, this one looks important.”

 

 

Tatsumaki’s incoherent mumblings filled the speakers for a brief moment, with the display screen that’s supposed to show them suddenly going into static. For a brief while it stayed there, until a vaguely clear, “Um… is this even okay…?” emanated from the speakers.

 

 

Tomura leaned back, carefully making sure Dragunov’s not standing behind him or else he might accidentally bump her chest, and that’s the last thing he wanted right now. “Uh, what’s going on?”

 

 

“I don’t like where this is going… SpecPro’s already controversial as is… with the earlier battles being one-sided bore-fests and now-“

 

 

“You! Get in! No excuses!”

 

 

Tomura almost fell off his seat as he jerked up uncontrollably, hearing the sudden loud gruff voice of supposed Re-Destro’s father echoing across the area and startling the entire class and causing some students from SpecPro Class B to peek from the wall separating them.

 

 

Tilting his head to see the scene clearer, the father seemed to be aggressively posturing in and pointing a finger towards Kizuki, whose face is in complete bewilderment to what’s going on.

 

 

“Hey hey hey you can’t be serious!” Revenant countered, standing in between them. “She’s not even in the SpecPro course!”

 

 

“Why don’t we talk this out!” Beros immediately stepped into the scene, standing beside her fellow Big Three member. “You can’t just go shoving people into-“

 

 

Tomura just stared at the scene, with the exact same reaction as any other person in the rest of the class. He looked up to check the display screen showing the casters, now back online, to see both Seigyo and Tatsumaki with both their heads turned to the left, looking like they’re watching the scene unfolding as well through an unseen screen.

 

 

 “Dragunov, why are you not there-“ he never even finished talking when Dragunov walked off to join the rest of her team in trying to reason out why a non-SpecPro shouldn’t join SpecPro activities.

 

 

“I’m not understanding anything…” Spinner muttered, leaning to his left and propping his face on his arm. “Is this meant to represent anything or what? Entire tournament’s stopped and this guy’s making a big fuss on his son losing. Is there anything even remotely close to this in the real world…? Based on what I know Re-Destro’s father’s long dead.”

 

 

“Doofenshmirtz’s dad sure is a massive sore loser-“

 

 

“Alright folks I think we got ourselves a lil’ bug in the system but I’m sure you’ll like the new turn of events!”

 

 

Tomura looked up to see Seigyo back in his usual cheery tone, even though his voice sounded a bit too forced. He remembered even Mic sounded similar when certain events happened. Then all of a sudden the camera showing him and his casting partner displayed static for a second before going off, replaced with the same ‘Sound Only’ screensaver his old TV set had.

 

 

“Hey! Isn’t that-“ Spinner suddenly stopped, seeing Re-Destro’s father turn around and walk away, his son following closely behind him, leaving the entire SpecPro A quiet. “What just happened again? Is that meant to represent Endeavor or something? Did he even do something similar in the real world?”

 

 

“I don’t remember anything unusual-“

 

 

“Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to make an announcement!” This time it was Tatsumaki’s turn to talk, the speakers then repeatedly making strange noises similar to that of a pile of papers being straightened out on a table. “We’ll be returning live from our short little commercial break in a short while and-“

 

 

“We got a wee little shuffle, just a wee bit, no harm done, I’m sure everyone’s fine with it! But hey! The sooner we can continue the better! Is that right, MakiMaki?”

 

 

The screen that previously displayed the names of the next combatants re-displayed them again, the crowd taking a good while to read the names before cheering once more, a lot less than the opening ceremony. A loud horn eventually blared through the topmost speakers of the stadium, signaling the return of the cameras and live broadcasting. And same as the opening ceremony, another wave of fireworks launched from designated launchers scattered across the stadium. Also at this time a vastly-different fast-paced music started playing on the speakers lower to the ground floor.

 

 

“Oh would you look at that, a rematch!” Tomura said out loud, pointing towards the screen displaying the next few matches. “It’s Deika City all over again! And I already won my first match! This gotta be an AFO thing, it has to be! It’s blatantly obvious!”

 

 

“Yeah but you didn’t even do anything…” Overhaul muttered beside him, hearing his overreaction to the names displayed.

 

 

“Overhaul, I’m so good at winning I don’t even need to move.”

 

 

“People didn’t like it. Agencies didn’t like it. You went there, got slammed, and won without doing anything. It’s all within the rules, yeah I know, but people felt a little off about that,” Overhaul said, shrugging.

 

 

“Mr. Clean, you’re just jealous because I won.”

 

 

“I haven’t even fought yet.”

 

 

“Hmm point taken…” Tomura shrugged back at Overhaul and returned to looking at the list of names. First match this next batch will be Spinner going up against Hanabata Koku, exactly the same fight that happened in the real world based on what Spinner told him. Of course AFO’s help is blatantly obvious back then, with Tomura eyerolling everytime Spinner said he’s surrounded by people shooting their Quirks at him and missing every time.

 

 

Tomura knew the exact same thing happened to him, being supported by AFO and all and allowing him to disintegrate Re-Destro’s energy based attack. While he lost in the fight against him this time around, he still won. Maybe the lesson is, ‘You’re so good even if you lose you win?’

 

 

‘Seems a little too odd…’

 

 

The battle soon started, with Spinner and his rival going down the stairs, closely following Revenant. Based on what Spinner told him back then about this politician ‘Hanabata’ guy, he didn’t make an appearance during the mansion siege, not even once, which is very odd since he was told he has the ability to increase the physical power levels of people nearby which would have been a humongous help.

 

 

‘First the satellite didn’t appear… and then the guy who can power everyone up is missing… is this meant to be a revenge move against us? Against the League? Against me? But those guys are still their people,and  they’re still pretty much the MLA just under a new name. If it’s a revenge move, then why did it affect the PLF more than it affected me and the League? Over a half of them were captured that day while the League got off scot-free off of Machia. Did they deliberately try to lose? Is it because of a hero? A spy perhaps? Does AFO want me to figure this out to increase my bonus rewards at the end of this playthrough?

 

 

He eventually turned his attention to the battle arena, with Spinner posturing over and over like he’s taunting his opponent, except that there’s not a mic close to them and he couldn’t hear what he’s actually saying.

 

 

Soon enough the fight started, with both contestants rushing to each other. And in a matter of moments, Spinner went flying off of the ring by a single boosted punch from his rival, whose entire form now coated with a shining bright yellow energy glow.

 

 

‘Hmmm so he does boost himself- wait… so is Spinner going to somehow win like I did?’

 

 

Tomura glanced over to the screen displaying the names of the current combatants, and it eventually displayed that Spinner lost.

 

 

“Hmmm I thought he’ll win too…”

 

 

Spinner eventually got back, with some of the League making jokes about he didn’t even last one hit, while Hanabata is out getting congratulated by-

 

 

‘Wait… IT guy is gone again…? Seriously?’ Tomura looked about, only Ice Climber Deluxe was there, and Dr. Detnerat Doofenshmirtz went away after being scolded by his father. It’s been a few weeks after all of them being sent in this alternate universe, and IT Guy has done nothing but act weird and appear in random places along with Dabi – who’s somehow present unlike him.

 

 

“Welp, I lost,” Spinner said as he sat back in his seat, dusting off some dirt clinging to his mostly-still-intact uniform. “No, auto-win this time around. Now why is that Quirk not present during the mansion siege? It would have been a tide-shifter!”

 

 

“AFO’s parallels are definitely interesting… now is the League gonna lose now? One by one?”

 

 

“Fairly certain,” Spinner replied, completely ignoring his instant loss and instead deep in thought about possible theories as to why Hanabata is completely absent during the mansion raid.

 

 

“Yeah but I won.”

 

 

“Who knows? Maybe they’ll topple over in the next few rounds. Maybe they’ll win, let’s just watch.”

 

 

The next round is another one of those boxing matches between two very similar super strength Quirks from SpecPro Class B, in which both Tomura and Spinner theorized as another part of AFO’s stored Quirks. The fight is less intense than the first boxing match earlier, but nevertheless better than anything SpecPro A ever did.

 

 

Next round is between Twice and Magne, much to the confusion of the two, since none of them actually read the full list of the students about to fight in the ring.

 

 

“Magne? Since when is Magne part of the MLA???” Tomura quickly turned to Overhaul. “Hey you, did you revive Magne again and make her join the MLA?”

 

 

“ML-what?”

 

 

“Knew it,” Tomura replied and turned back to Spinner. “Oh wait, Mag’s not in the PLF, right?”

 

 

“Nope, but I think Twice is meant to go up against IT Guy, notice the names on the list… so you and Re-Destro already duked it out…” Spinner pointed towards the screen displaying the next batch of matches. Aside from the already- crossed out ‘Iguchi vs Hanabata’, there’s also another match between Dabi going against Ice Climber Deluxe, or what Tomura liked to call him as. If ‘IT guy’ is not present, then that should mean Twice should have gone against him, especially since Toga denied she went up against an elite that day.

 

 

And coincidentally, Compress is automatically disqualified even before the tournament even began since his Quirk would allow him to instantly win, or accidentally cut his opponent in half, neither of which look entertaining out in the field. Since both knew Compress didn’t go up against anyone relevant that day nor actually fought for some reason, it only makes sense he’s not part of this obviously AFO-rigged tournament as a parallel.

 

 

But if Compress didn’t fight anyone in Deika City which resulted him not being part of the tournament, then why is Toga present if she also didn’t fight anyone important, Tomura thought to himself. There’s inconsistencies here and there and he still can’t get the hang of things.

 

 

“What if Mag is really at Deika City and Twice is just too stupid to realize it?” Tomura scratched the back of his head, glancing over at the ongoing clean-up on the tournament zone after the two super strength students put massive dents everywhere. “I mean it’s still plausible, right? Twice’s a massive goofball, he prolly just didn’t notice?”

 

 

“I spent months with the team, I didn’t really talk to Twice that much, so who knows if he went up against an elite or not? But this here lineup is very suspicious. You can’t just go going toe-to-toe with Re-Destro, me with Hanabata, Dabi about to do battle with Geten-“

 

 

“Geten who?”

 

 

“Ice Climber Deluxe.”

 

 

“Alright, carry on.”

 

 

“We’re fighting the MLA again. I’m sure Compress didn’t accidentally kill or harm an elite member otherwise the MLA would be mighty pissed about losing a ‘bigshot’. Toga said she killed a bunch of people but none of those seemed to be important too. So that takes two out and only leaves Twice remaining, who has no idea if he even encountered an elite since his clones did all the work. I’m guessing he was supposed to go against IT Guy, but since he’s not present, he gets to brawl with Mag… I dunno, my head’s swirlin’ with all these confusions. Maybe it’s intended, maybe it’s not, let’s just watch, shall we?”  Spinner finished off his sentence with a nod to his own argument. “I’m not a hundred percent sure but it’s certainly possible.”

 

 

“I’m not going to think too far on that because that,” Tomura pointed to the names again, gloved finger directly on the names listed on the fourth match, “I can be sure on one thing, that match did NOT happen in the real world.”

 

 

Spinner narrowed his eyes on whatever Tomura is pointing at, and saw ‘Toga vs Kizuki’ listed on the fourth row of the list of names about to fight in the ring. While the earlier matches have some kind basis in the real world, this one has not.  As far as they both know, Kizuki is a made-up person AFO made to fill out some holes in this world. If Toga is about to fight a made-up person then that could mean Twice fighting Magne shouldn’t be that treated seriously.

 

 

Tomura shrugged, putting his arm down once he noticed Spinner already got the message. “I mean not everything has to be an MLA rematch-“

 

 

“HAH! I CAN’T WAIT FOR A REMATCH!”

 

 

Tomura stopped mid-sentence upon hearing Toga utter those words. Spinner beside him is stuck in a similar fashion. A rematch? How can Toga get a rematch against a person who never existed? Is she just messing around or is she serious? All AFO did is help them by dumbing down the skills of the MLA so they could have a semblance of a fighting chance. Them having ‘elites’ to fight is purely unintentional.

 

 

If Kizuki is supposed to be an ‘elite’ back in the real world, then how come both him and Spinner never saw her once? Tomura thought harder. Re-Destro, Detnerat Doofenshmirtz, turned out fine despite having a leg disintegrated, IT guy, Boring politician, Ice Climber Deluxe… nothing happened to them, if Kizuki is supposed to be one of them – one of the bigger higher ups, then she should have turned out fine too. Spinner is with the group for weeks, and there’s not a single mention of her, so who she is really? If she was killed – highly unlikely, then the MLA should have fed the League to the sharks instead of throwing a massive party the moment he left for his upgrade with Dr. Garaki.

 

 

So who could she be? A part timer? A mercenary-for-hire? Tomura thought about the last one, and in came the image of Kizuki with dual arm cannons with a apocalyptic armor set, dealing death and explosive destruction everywhere.

 

 

‘That would be f***ing sick…’

 

 

“We’re dealing with a rather different mystery this time around…” Spinner leaned back, eyes trained onto the tall blue-skinned girl in question. “If she’s real, then I guess Revenant is too based on his odd resemblance to your Dad. Or maybe Toga’s just fooling around and making stuff up…”

 

 

“Gotta ask Toga after this. Seems like Eleena’s not just a made-up person designed to act as someone with a very similar Quirk to mine. As much as I would be sad this ‘sister’ is not the real deal, there’s gotta be a story behind this. AFO-secret related or not, I’m solving this puzzle,” Tomura said as he leaned back in his seat, watching Magne casually throw Twice off of the ring by magnetizing a Twice clone to repel the original. A boring fight, but the earlier ones are not exactly exciting and thrilling either.

 

 

Next up is a simple match with a super strength Class B student going up against another super strength Class B student, making both Tomura and Spinner roll their eyes. The crowd too, is unusually quiet. Just how many super strength Quirks are at Class B, one could ask.

 

 

Next SpecPro A match is between Overhaul versus Muscular. Tomura wouldn’t have realized until his seatmate stood up to walk down the stairs.

 

 

“Hey hey hey hey! It’s our favorite little man down there! Hey Chisaki if you don’t win this you’re gonna receive a serious ass-whoopin-OW!” Seigyo got smacked mid-sentence by an annoyed-looking Tatsumaki, creating a laugh out of the hundreds of spectators. “Look pal, we didn’t go out there and personally pick you up if you weren’t overpowered.”

 

 

The camera panned over to reveal Overhaul with a smug smile as he stood on his side of the ring. His lips were moving as if he’s talking about something, but since there’s no nearby mic to record it, it wasn’t heard.

 

 

“Go win the fight for us, will ya? I’m sure you can do that, no offense Mr. Imasuji,” Tatsumaki spoke on the mic, looking over at their prodigy’s opponent.

 

 

The camera panned over to reveal Muscular, who seemed chill about the whole ordeal. Tomura wondered if it’s because if he lost, then it’s because he went up against the chosen kid of the two casters and not because he lacked skill and power – and said casters represent AFO’s two most powerful and most-used Quirks.

 

 

“Now remember Chisaki, win the fight, win it for yourself, win it for us, and win it for the rest of all heroes, win it for MISS DRAGUNOV! NOW WHERE IS THAT LOVELY LUCKY LADY- THERE SHE IS! EVERYONE SAY HI TO KAINAAAAA!!!”

 

 

A drone with a small camera mounted below it flew closer to SpecPro Class A, focusing specifically on the only helmeted girl standing behind the farthest seats once more.

 

 

“Hey Stardust, wave! Wave for the camera!” Tomura waved both hands to the drone and instantly forgetting the puzzle he’s thinking about earlier, with an increasing rate as to which he looked more like he’s a flailing beached whale than a cheering human. There was something odd, even to him, to wave at a device that could be used to record evidence of his villain activities in the past world, but Tomura doesn’t care. All that matters to him now is that he could see himself on the big screen, and that’s more than enough to him. It made him feel like a star, and a happy star at that. He knew he was supposed to build hate as a villain and not have fun, but there’s nothing bad a about a bit of lying. If AFO asked him if he’s still building hate, he could just say yes.

 

 

Kaina didn’t move, even after both Beros and Revenant went up and slung their hands around her, preferring to stand there and cross her arms no matter how much they shook her.

 

 

“Dragunov is not responding very well, must be the mind control helmet-ANYWAYS! Hey Chisaki if you don’t win this your soon-to-be girlfriend will be very disappointed. Do not disappoint!”

 

 

Tomura ignored the joke. He saw what Overhaul can really do at some of the video replays of his fight against Midoriya back in the real world. It was quite impressive, very impressive even to him. Why didn’t he pull that one off when he faced him, he shrugged it off as it could be yet another of AFO’s meddling.

 

 

‘Do I really need to be babysat that much…?’

 

 

The fight soon started, and Chisaki wasted no time in raising the entire platform and expanding it, increasing the overall area in which he and Muscular can fight. It took a while before Tomura noticed he only raised the part within the painted-on boundaries, exploiting a loophole. Since no one is countering it, it’s probably okay.

 

 

Looking to his left, he glanced over at the location filled by nothing but men and women in suits, a little too formal even for Tomura’s tastes. Hero agency representatives, ready to pick out their own little interns after the event, exactly like they did back then. It was obvious Overhaul can end the fight easily, and he’s just making a big show about it, and based on Muscular punching raised wall after raised wall in increasing levels of bravado instead of just jumping over them and trying to attack Overhaul directly, he seemed to be playing along with it, preferring more flashy moves than practicality.

 

 

Which is exactly like what Dragunov said about being flashy. The crowd seemed more receptive to them too.

 

 

There were a series of more raised platforms, Overhaul transforming himself into a strange fleshy abomination and having a punching match with Muscular, debris flying everywhere, booming noises of cracked cement really setting in the tone that these two meant business.

 

 

Even though both are just playing along and making themselves as flashy as possible.

 

 

“Hey Katie, why not remove the helmet?” Tomura heard Revenant’s voice from behind him. “Anti-mind control?”

 

 

“This is none of your business, Scissors, now get down there and get away from me. I’m not in a good mood today and I will be MORE of a not-good mood if you two keep pestering me.”

 

 

“I heard you got rekt by Stardust two days ago, must be fun going 8 – 3 on the losing side,” Beros giggled as she walked away, waving a hand as she moved past her group. “Also get your teeth repaired, he’s not gonna like that.”

 

 

Tomura ignored their continuous bickering, instead focusing on the tournament.

 

 

Overhaul versus Muscular soon ended, in a final hit from Overhaul’s side sending his opponent out of the ring. It was an epic final hit, and the crowd went wild, followed closely by both Seigyo and Tatsumaki bragging about their prodigy.

 

 

‘I wonder if both Forcible and Air Cannon are the Hassaikai Yakuza’s previous bosses? Or are they related to the current boss? I better ask about that too.’

 

 

But the relative excitement of that fight is instantly gone as the next one is yet another boxing match from SpecPro B. The crowd, who were just cheering on and on a few minutes ago, suddenly fell into silence, the previously full seats now slowly getting more vacant as more and more people leave.

 

 

‘Just how many Super Strength guys are there?!’

 

 

“Spin, can you tell me how many strength enhancers does AFO had?” Tomura asked just as Overhaul went back up to sit beside them –who’s deliberately flexing his arms to Dragunov as he went past. “This is getting reeeaaalll boring.”

 

 

“Remember that one move he used to punch down All Might? It’s on Youtube and he said it’s his ultimate combination – a bunch of combined super strengths. He prolly has a lot of them, and I mean a LOT. A LOT of super strength Quirks…”

 

 

“I thought he said to prioritize defensive and versatile Quirks over powerful-“

 

 

“Well to be fair Air Cannon already beats everything, why bother for versatility? You know what they say, offense is the best defense,” Spinner said, deliberately shaking up his accent as he copied one of the quotes of a random unit in one of their RTS games.

 

 

“Point taken.”

 

 

Next match is between Toga and Kizuki - who literally just got thrown into the ring as a replacement for Rikiya, or so what Kaina said to them. The crowd seemed off at the sight of a new player that’s not even part of the two SpecPro classes, even though her name is already there on the big screens above the tournament zone for quite a while now.

 

 

Many look confused, and they have all the right to be so. Over half of the crowd expected it to be some kind of joke, but they turned out wrong. It’s currently in the middle of the Sports Festival, how is someone not even from SpecPro got in without any hints beforehand? Why is a student losing and being replaced somehow allowed? Tomura only noticed now that the two girls are already standing in the ring, as he’s too busy watching one of the screens displaying Nine and Giran being surrounded by a massive group of reporters.

 

 

“They’re probably asking how the heck this happened…” Spinner muttered. “Because me too… I don’t know what’s going in. Is there something similar like this in the real world?”

 

 

“Nope. Maybe an AFO-forced circumstance to bring Eleena in? I mean Toga sorta-maybe knew her, and she’s not SpecPro… hmmmm…” Tomura leaned back in his seat, ignoring Overhaul’s endless bragging about his skills to the girl behind them, watching the screen on the leftmost side of the arena displaying a close-up of Kizuki’s face – looking like she has absolutely no idea what to do.

 

 

‘Hmmm… yeah I won but I got one-shotted by Doofenshmirtz… Spinner got one-shotted by Mr. Politician… If ‘Zuki ends this in one hit I wouldn’t be surprised…’

 

 

“So I hope people won’t mind we got a new contestant out on the field… but hey! Nice to see a surprise face from General Studies! – who are sadly not part of this tournament!” Seigyo’s voice echoed through the stadium, followed by strange wooden sounds like someone stepped into their booth.

 

 

“But just like the motto of the tournament goes – ANYONE CAN BE A HERO!” Tatsumaki added, and cleared her throat afterwards. “I need a drink.”

 

 

“Maki, I love you, but don’t do that again.”

 

 

“I think I sounded like a dying donkey.”

 

 

“Good thing you know you sound like an ass- ANYWAYS!” Seigyo shouted on his mic, the volume level automatically equalizing upon exit from the speakers to not blast the eardrums out of the people nearest to them. “Toga VERSSUUUUSSS KIZ- wait what-?”

 

 

“What?” Tatsumaki’s voice can be heard through the speakers.

 

 

“Isn’t this the…” Seigyo visibly moved away from his mic, holding a sheet of paper in his hands. The screen displaying them showed the two discussing something on the paper he’s holding onto, with both repeatedly gesturing towards the screen in a series of pointed index fingers every now and then. But before they took too long, the two returned to their usual positions. “Sorry about the delay laddies and gentlewomen, there’a a hiccup along the system but we got out in the end, so let’s continue the fight, shall we? Maki, if you would?”

 

 

“As you wish, Toga Himiko, Kizuki Chitose, you two are cleared to proceed bashing each other’s brains out.”

 

 

“Nice…”

 

 

Tomura leaned in right after Tatsumaki scoffed at Seigyo’s comment, eager to see how this League member would get launched out of the ring in a single hit. Would Kizuki nuke her out of the ring with the same firepower she has back in USJ, as what Spinner told him?

 

 

A flash of movement drew Tomura’s eyes to the screen displaying Kizuki’s side of the ring. Legs visibly shaking as her far smaller opponent sprinted in as fast as her legs can take her, the taller blue-skinned girl remained in place. And then after a brief moment of her just standing there, seemingly a by-product of panic and desperation setting in, she slipped the glove off of her left hand and stretched it in front of her, looking like a swordsman about to parry a hit.

 

 

Tomura was about to switch his eyes to focus back on the ring when a huge cloud of smoke erupted from Kizuki’s location, completely concealing her from onlookers, even the screen displaying her side of the ring went nothing but plumes of dust. Meanwhile, Toga just went straight into the cloud.

 

 

‘Hmmm she always tells me she’s an expert on being concealed and disguised… even though I never saw her disguise once…’ Tomura thought, remembering the one thing Toga always brags about. ‘Maybe she’ll win this round?’

 

 

Another weak-sounding explosion echoed from the ground arena, sending another plume of smoke outwards towards Toga’s side of the ring, and another, with every subsequent smoke explosion narrower and focused outwards than the last until the entire ring could be seen no more.

 

 

“Someone get the fans going because I can’t see a single thing-“ Seigyo muttered through the mic before being interrupted.

 

 

A loud explosion, relatively louder than the ones before it and a lot narrower, blasted through the smoke in a pillar of light, pushing away some of the nearby dust plumes along its general direction. And with it is a small figure that got launched out of the tournament zone.

 

 

‘Hmmm I bet it’sToga…’

 

 

“Oh would you look at that we have a winner!”

 

 

Tomura, with a smug look on his face, crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat, letting Seigyo ramble more and more about how cool the tall young lady was. It was Toga who lost, as expected seeing the rest of the League are getting one-shotted by the MLA left and right. While Tomura nor Spinner never knew if Kizuki’s even a real person in the first place, the good thing that mattered for them is that they knew it was Toga who’s the right person to ask after the tournament. Maybe then the two can finally solve her mystery once and for all, because unlike the other strange things happening around them, this one has multiple real-world bases.

 

 

“Spin, you said Compress didn’t get a bossfight, right?”

 

 

“Yep. I really think it was Chikazoku who’s supposed to have a go at Twice, not Magne. But he’s not here.”

 

 

“No, let’s not talk about that stupid always-missing IT guy,” Tomura said, waving a hand and shaking his head. “So Dabi’s the next one to get one-shotted, by Ice Climber Deluxe?”

 

 

 “Maybe?”

 

 

“But ice melts, right?”

 

 

“Who knows? Maybe Dabi’s the only one of us to actually win. I mean let’s face it Shig, you technically didn’t win because there’s simply no way you could win.” Spinner shrugged, earning a shrug back from his best friend in response. “But Dabi’s got a chance.”

 

 

“As much as I hate it, yep, that annoying stuck-up overpowered bastard has a chance…”

 

 

Tomura turned his attention back to both Toga and Kizuki climbing up the stairs back to SpecPro A’s designated area, with the far smaller blonde repeatedly mocking the other, who completely ignored her once Revenant came in and congratulated her, pushing Toga out of the way like she was nothing, much to Tomura’s enjoyment – it never mattered who they are, as long as misfortune happens to people, it’s always funny (except on very specific cases).

 

 

Looking down on Kizuki’s right hand glove, Tomura could see it looked normal like it was never used to throw clouds of smoke in the first place.

 

 

‘Interesting…’

 

 

 

 

The next match is another slog-fest between two super strength Class B students. At this point more and more people are beginning to adapt to the match-ups, that whenever Class B is about to show up, most would start minding their own businesses and totally ignore the fight.

 

 

For Tomura, they really ARE boring. So far no Spring-like Limbs or Impact Recoil bones yet.

 

 

 

 

“UP NEXT- oh wait who is this? Ladies and gentlemen we got an interesting case over here!” Seigyo spoke out, staring into a small folder in front of him in an exaggerated manner. “Todoroki? Really huh? UA’s got some real balls to get this guy in.”

 

 

“I’m sure this guy needs no explanation. I mean all his other family members are at varying levels of villain,” Tatsumaki added, now wearing eye glasses with pink rims all of a sudden. “But I’m sure this one’s more level-headed than the rest, I mean he’s in SpecPro for a reason.”

 

 

‘Dabi’s entire family are all villains… hmmm… quite an interesting-yet-obvious twist I must say…’ Tomura stroked the bottom of his chin, ignoring Spinner’s jaw drop. ‘First Midoriya’s ultra-powerful, and then there’s the rest of the top ten heroes… this is going to be one HELL of a tough fight… how am I supposed to beat these guys without my Quirk upgrades…?’

 

 

“Ah yes! Fire and Ice! Totally not rigged at all!” Seigyo continued speaking on his mic. “Well to be fair this thing’s just handed on to me to read ‘em and uhhh… on a scale of one to ten I’m giving this one a 7… 70% chance this match is rigged for the views.”

 

 

“We’re at a televised Sports Festival, of course it’s rigged!”

 

 

“Rigged and guaranteed to be entertaining, I’m sure the people won’t mind.”

 

 

Tomura narrowed his eyes on the screens displaying the contestants. Dabi looks like his usual smug self, while Ice Climber – who looked oddly feminine by face alone, is looking very serious, with small blocks of ice orbiting him at great speed giving him a blizzard-like effect. Spinner said this particular person made ice form into a dragon once, but since he barely has any ammo this time around-

 

 

“Okay guys, give ‘em an elemental showdown… BEGIIINNN!!!”

 

 

At the sound of Seigyo’s voice and Hasaki waving a green flag down, Dabi instantly threw the biggest flame blast he could muster without even moving an inch, engulfing his opponent’s zone in a sea of blue flame, earning cheers and amazement from the crowd…

 

 

Before a sizeable block of ice came from his right at high speed, knocking him off of the ring in a single hit. With the blue flames receeding, it’s revealed that his opponent’s orbiting ice kept fanning the flames away and preventing them from actually connecting. Based on the ice already melting rapidly just as Dabi was thrown off, Tomura concluded Ice Climber planned this beforehand, finishing the fight as fast as possible before he runs out of ammo.

 

 

“One hit… one frikkin’ hit…” Tomura shook his head. Dabi is phenomenally powerful, the powerhouse of the League even, but just like what All for One said about people with powerful Quirks, they’re naturally overconfident about their abilities and oftentimes lose skill – as seen here. Tomura remembered all the past times he saw Dabi fight, and he couldn’t help but nod to what his adoptive father once said – Dabi’s entire technique involved him just standing still and blowing ultra-hot flame towards his enemies, and because that normally does the trick, he never needed to improve it nor do something about it, and the consequences show.  The ice-user must have been observing his tactics during activities.

 

 

“Kinda funny actually. The guy who thinks he’s better than anyone else, no offense Shig, got thrown off in one hit.” Spinner crossed his arms, eyes trained in Dabi recovering from being thrown off.

 

 

“Serves him right for not following any of my orders. By the way Dabi once said he’s recruiting people right? Recruiting? Back in the real world? Did he actually get any?”

 

 

“No… not really… I think he just made excuses to not fight Machia because he’ll just lose.”

 

 

“Mayb-“

 

 

A huge blast of blue flame erupted down below, silencing the crowd and interrupting Seigyo in the middle of advertising a certain shoe brand.

 

 

It was Dabi, who’s now angrily standing outside the ring, flames randomly erupting on different parts of his arms, signing the uniform right off. He was slouched forward, sights aimed at his opponent, who’s now being escorted by Hasaki out of the tournament zone. Before anyone could react, he threw another his huge flame blasts towards his target, engulfing both people.

 

 

Dabi’s yelling taunts could be heard even to the seats above as the fire raged on, making both Tomura and Spinner raise their respective eyebrows. Both knew that Dabi never technically lost to anyone before, which threw them off seeing how much of a sore loser he really is – very much unlike his usual smug self.

 

 

‘Must have a side-effect from always winning too much…’

 

 

The blue flames cleared, revealing Machia blocked the entire thing, his hero costume all intact like it was completely fireproof.

 

 

“Um… can someone correct me? Is this meant to be staged or what-?” Siegyo was interrupted seeing his casting partner suddenly stand up to get a clearer view of what’s happening below.

 

 

What’s happening below is Dabi throwing flame after flame and yelling over and over about ice being weak, his opponent cheating, demanding a rematch, and all sorts of profanities simply because he lost. It was strangely odd, especially for the League.

 

 

Machia eventually calmed him down, or so what everyone saw, and sent him back up following closely behind, much to the amazement of nearby people seeing the number one hero of the country walking close to them.

 

 

Tomura and Spinner stayed silent and watched the entire scene unfold. The ice-user sat back in his original seat while Dabi, who’s still looking greatly pissed off while being accompanied by Machia, stared daggers at him as he went up the stairs. The number one hero scanned the surroundings for a while as he reached the area, giving a light nod to both Tomura and Spinner, the two then doing thumbs-up gestures back at him.

 

 

The hero raised a pointed index finger like he was about to say something to Dabi, but refused at the very last moment, preferring to walk down and making a series of hand gestures with his other free hand. Tomura deducted it must be some kind of secret code seeing both Dragunov and Beros staring at it, while Revenant just stared at the wall behind him – but knowing him, he’s possibly looking too.

 

 

After all, the possibility of Dabi literally blowing up again is still sky high so-

 

 

“NO ONE BESTS ME AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!!!” Dabi roared, loud enough to be heard across the entire stadium, even halting the ongoing SpecPro B fight down the arena. While Tomura never really knew how much of a sore loser Dabi really is, seeing he never really loses in the real world, seeing his team powerhouse being all mad got him tensed up. The possibility of him being scorched is far too high, and his eyes were already scanning for the nearest exit when Dabi’s screaming was instantly halted with Beros turning him around and holding him in some sort of arm lock he never saw before, in which the fire-user’s hands – arguably Dabi’s most dangerous weapons, were pulled to his back and pointed in the general direction of Revenant.

 

 

‘Hmmm is “young-AFO” gonna go steal his Quirk…?’

 

 

Turning his head to the other side, he saw Shimo Kosetsu – or Geten as what Spinner calls him as, looks like he’s ready to throw down as well, a sizeable block of fist-shaped ice that came from the cooler stationed beside Kizuki ready at his disposal, with only Dragunov standing between him and his target, elbow rifles swiveled forwards and effectively blocking the ice-user.

 

 

“Look pal…” Kaina spoke, her expression in complete utter boredom as she turned her helmeted head around. “Losing a tournament is not an excuse to go have a personal 1v1 outside the ring. It’s just a game-“

 

 

“DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO YOU-“

 

 

“Is everthing okay over there? Need some personal intervention?” Seigyo’s voice echoed through the speakers, making the entire stadium look up to him, halting the fight once more. Dabi seemed unfazed by the entire event and continued spouting profanity after profanity, his vocabulary expanding exponentially with every sentence.

 

 

Revenant casually walked over to stand in such a way that his entire backside is now blocking the view for everyone of Beros locking Dabi, not a hint of hurry in his entire form.

 

 

“I WILL NO-“

 

 

A faint flash of green swiped down from Revenant’s side, not seen by anyone, his cape moving along as it happened as if he briefly stuck his arm out and went back in again. Dabi was clearly stopped for a moment before continuing to taunt once more, smoke slowly coming out of some portions of his skin.

 

 

At this time Kaina moved one of her raised guns to point at something down below, just a meter behind Revenant’s cape, as to which Tomura couldn’t see. He was about to ask Spinner if he can see what Dragunov’s pointing at when a huge burst of flame came out of said area, which fizzled out as quickly as it came following a loud smack.

 

 

‘Wait what…? Dabi’s flame came from below-?’

 

 

“Warned ya!” Tomura heard Beros’s singsong voice from behind Revenant - who seemed unfazed despite portions of his once-white cape now charred and burnt. Meanwhile Dabi’s all incapacitated on the ground, completely unconscious.

 

 

“Aaahh!” Tomura swiveled his head to the sound of Kaina’s panicked squeal and found her raising up the rifle attached to her left arm with the tip completely burnt and melting. “He burned right through!” She eventually retracted it back into her elbow like it never affected her in the first place despite the obviously-burnt tip, but it did spur the other Big Three girl to bring out her phone and tap her fingers into it.

 

 

“Planning to murder people just because he lost?! Just what the f*** is wrong with this idiot…?” Beros said, mild annoyance in her tone, as she pulled Dabi by the back of his shirt up the stairs, never minding where his head hit.

 

 

Tomura scratched his head, and could tell from Spinner’s relative silence that he’s confused as well. The rest of the League is just silently staring at the entire scene, and Geten eventually sat back down, sending the remaining ice blocks flying straight to the sky, never to be seen again. Is this scene meant to represent something too? Or Dabi’s just a sore loser and no one knew until now?

 

 

A few minutes later, the people dressed up as the police came into scene, with Dabi being taken away.

 

 

“Uh… what’s gonna happen to the guy?” Tomura asked Kaina as she came up behind them, still eyeing up the authorities leaving the place and one hand placed below the affected elbow. “You okay?”

 

 

Kaina spawned two guns from both elbows, checking both flesh-like firearms before retracting them back. “The innate mechanics of my Quirk means my guns would automatically repair within, no harm done, but the guy’s clearly nuts. The way the muzzle melted off means he really means business.”

 

 

“What a sore loser… so what’s gonna happen to Dabi now?”

 

 

“Expelled, for attempted murder.”

 

 

“Well that was… totally expected…” Spinner muttered, making a quick glance at them before returning to observe the ongoing SpecPro B battle down below.  “By the way Shig, you’re up against Overhaul next.”

Chapter 22: UA Sports Festival - [Part 4]

Chapter Text

Day 30

 

 

Spinner stared into the empty open hallway just right behind him, moments after both Tomura and Overhaul went down the stairs in preparation for the next match. Dabi was taken, instantly pinned down and defeated, meaning they won’t be seeing each other anytime soon. But at the end of the day, he knew this world is just a temporary one, Dabi will be back again soon like nothing happened, and he’ll still be the powerful raging inferno he always was.

 

 

The only problem here is that there’s still this ‘kill-Midoriya’ quest going on, and both him and Tomura are not rushing anything yet. Would this mean Dabi will go to prison? Or will AFO bust him out? Spinner thought. If the Demon Lord managed to rig the entire match-up, then helping Dabi out of prison will just be as simple.

 

 

‘What’s the rules concerning minors going to prison again? Nah,Dabi’ll just prolly get out and run off to the woods. I find it hard to believe a powerful deranged lunatic like him can be restrained that easily…’

 

 

Spinner leaned forward in his seat, elbows propped on both armrests as he observed the fight about to happen between Tomura and Overhaul, with the two casters once again hyping up their prodigy to ridiculous lengths, much to the crowd’s enjoyment, partly due to the absurd vocabulary descriptions Shinryaku keeps throwing around.

 

 

The humanoid reptile narrowed his eyes further down. While yes he knew Overhaul’s capable of amazing feats, but the hype is just too overblown. By his firepower alone it’s obvious he will win in the entire tournament. Maybe people are just here for the show? Well some of the fights have been somewhat entertaining… well at least some of them…

 

 

“Chisaki don’t let us down, ‘kay?” Tatsumaki spoke through her mic, leaning far too forward that she accidentally pressed her lips onto it, followed closely by a snide comment by Seigyo about the mic not being him.

 

 

‘Is this going to be a one-shot too?’

 

 

The fight began.

 

 

Tomura was instantly thrown off the tournament ring with a sudden raise of the ground he’s standing on, basically losing before a second could even pass.

 

 

And that was it, Tomura lost again in a single hit. Spinner shrugged it off as another representation that Tomura couldn’t possibly win against both Overhaul and Re-Destro without AFO’s aid, but wouldn’t that mean he’s already helping out the team since the very beginning? What’s next? Tomura will lose against Stain too – if they’re going to fight each other, that is?

 

 

“Mr. Iguchi, they’re done, let’s move.” Spinner heard Kaina spoke behind him, her voice somewhat of a garbled mess. Since he lost the first fight, he’s automatically out of the entire tournament. He thought the rule is rather dumb, but it is what it is, there’s no way around it. One the other hand, since Tomura already ‘won’ once against Re-Destro, he gets to join the lower brackets if he lost his next fight instead of being completely kicked out, which is what happened to him as of this moment.

 

 

Spinner slowly stood up, ignoring Toga’s loud tantrums about her instantly losing without a second try, with Twice agreeing to everything she said. Dusting his UA uniform off, he nodded once to Kaina before moving up to the left side of the row of seats and into the stairs, before joining her.

 

 

“Mr. Shigaraki’s just gonna keep losing huh? I thought you guys were the most dangerous criminals of all Japan? What the hell’s that?” Kaina asked, with one raised eyebrow and a full confused look, tilting her head once to the tournament zone. “So what if this AFO guy is not there to save your collective asses?”

 

 

“This must be the moral lesson he’s talking about. Tomura must adapt to this and learn how to properly use his powers to beat his enemies… and we’re pretty weak.” Spinner stood beside her and shrugged, pointing one clawed finger  towards his friend – who’s now in the middle of an even bigger tantrum in the middle of the entire stadium, loudly shouting that Overhaul cheated, but not as aggressive as Dabi. “I mean he used to have full blown disintegration powers, but looking at how easily he gets one-shotted in this tournament without even touching anyone… ‘seems the big guy’s been helping us all along-“

 

 

 “You and your group barely did anything in this tournament…” Kaina sighed and raised an arm, getting Kizuki’s attention. “Oh well, that’s what the school’s for, training Quirks… hopefully your friend is willing to learn if he really wants to kill Midoriya, if I could even count on him making a dent on Midoriya…”

 

 

Spinner nodded, noticing Kizuki already walking her way to join them, waving once more to Revenant before leaving. And once more Spinner noticed the odd resemblance of ‘Scissors’ to All for One, based on the Demon Lord’s photos of his younger self.

 

 

“Is that there is all to your story? The alternate universe or whatever it’s called?”

 

 

Spinner nodded to Kaina’s question. While he did tell the story of the outside world, he deliberately left out some details as to make Kaina not question what’s going to happen once Tomura killed Midoriya. Spinner himself asked the same question to AFO before he walked into the portal that led to the alternate universe just a month ago, but AFO – being the mysterious evil overlord that he normally portrays himself as, didn’t answer the question of what’s going to happen to the people in the alternate realm.

 

 

But then again, these people are just artificial creations, and there’s no reason to get attached to them because it’s obvious they’re just going to disappear once this is all over. Spinner is okay with that fact but Tomura’s done nothing but ironically get attached to quite a number of people in the short time he’s been here. There was Kizuki, who he thinks is his sister – which might change now what Toga referenced she knew her in the real world. There was Kaina, who he seemed to have a ‘crush’ on. Machia, who he’s just simply amazed of despite harboring an extreme amount of hatred for All Might. Seigyo and Tatsumaki, physical representations of AFO’s favorite Quirks… even Overhaul, who’s strangely friendly despite being a Yakuza capo in the real world… and some others…

 

 

Spinner thought if that’s meant to represent something or the circumstances just made things this way, either way, they’re not important as of now.

 

 

“What’s gonna happen to Dabi really?” Spinner asked Kaina as the three begin to move towards the open hallway at the back side of the seats, which leads to a network of corridors, with quite a surprising amount of people walking around. Based on their outfits, they’re mostly civilians.

 

 

“Expelled, simple as that,” Kaina responded as she casually waved at some people in the halls that recognize her. “Got my gun burnt out real bad…” she said, adding a bit of Russian at the end which Spinner couldn’t decipher the meaning of. It’s been quite a while since they got more connected to ‘Lady Nagant of the otherworld’, and she just wouldn’t stop adding some Russian words and sentences randomly every time she talks. It was impressive that Kaina’s bi-lingual, and a tad bit annoying for Spinner as he just couldn’t understand Russian one bit, no matter how many times he and Tomura encounter Russian players in their video games.

 

 

They reached a section where the crowd eventually thinned out until there’s only the three of them left, the sound of their footsteps echoing across the halls. The lights are all turned off in this particular section of the hall, compared from earlier, with the only illumination coming from the light shining through the huge glass windows, outlining the three of them while giving them a good view of the ongoing event – with Shigaraki now being escorted back to SpecPro A’s seats “We’re getting your autographs as promised, and Miss Kizuki?” Kaina suddenly spoke.

 

 

“Yes?” he tall blue-skinned girl responded.

 

 

“Do be on your best behavior. Your chance at heroics is at stake here, ‘kay?”

 

 

Before Kizuki could reply, Spinner spoke up. “Hey ‘Nov, can you make a gun for a second?”

 

 

“Uhhh… Okay?” Kaina raised up her left arm as she walked, the elbow portion suddenly getting enveloped with a writhing mass of black flesh. A few moments later, a grayish metal pipe extended out of the fleshy mass and swiveled forwards, with said mass immediately extending to cover it up almost instantly before morphing into a shape resembling that of a standard-issue bolt-action rifle, with a significant biological feel to it.

 

 

The end result of the entire transformation sequence is a gun seemingly fused on the side portion of Kaina’s arm, with black leathery tendrils snaked around to secure it in place. She was not holding the weapon in any way and her hand is free to move around. “You said to make a gun, and you didn’t say what kind specifically so-“

 

 

“I didn’t really study the full transformation sequence the first time you showed that… interesting…” Spinner observed the biological-yet-man-made-looking weapon as they walked, remembering how Dragunov’s weapon worked in the past. “Back then your entire elbow would open up and out comes the gun… no swiveling and all that fancy tonfa-pizzazz… And I think only your right arm can transform…”

 

 

“My Quirk still works like that. This is a new trick I learned maybe around 5 years ago? These are more bullet-efficient and overall lighter, at the cost of having a lower caliber. But hey, at least I can still parkour with these mini-rifles,” Kaina said in her garbled tone, generating another mini-rifle on her other arm and extending the length of both guns, casually raising herself up to the ceiling despite the makeshift poles looking fragile at first glance.

 

 

Kaina retracted both guns after a few seconds and landed gracefully on the ground. She then deployed both arm-armaments again, this time looking a little different from the ones earlier, but still not looking like submachine guns. “Don’t be fooled, these things are surprisingly durable. Quirk training does wonders you know? Are you saying I didn’t train back then?”

 

 

“Me and Shig don’t really know you that much back then, so I can’t really answer that. What about your bullet-hair? The cyan highlights?”

 

 

Kaina shook her head, her helmet waving along. “The shooting part of my abilities is a Repeater-type Quirk, and those have the massive advantage of being easy to improve since they’re easy to repeat over and over and over again, leading to their inevitable improvement at a much faster rate than other types. Me? I don’t need bullets anymore… most of the time.”

 

 

“Woah… so you can gun everything down now?” Spinner joked, noticing Kizuki just staring at her gloved hands. “Nice!”

 

 

“No silly, why would I do that? Bullets are still biologically made. I may not need bullets anymore but I still get hungry.”

 

 

“So if you pluck it off, do you use special shampoo to grow it back?”

 

 

“Nah I’m not answering that, classified information.” Kaina stretched her limbs for a bit, retracting her twin rifles back into her elbow, muttering something about it’s a good thing Dabi’s flames didn’t affect them too much, followed by more Russian which made Spinner roll his eyes. Cracking her knuckles, she then reached up and removed her bright red helmet.

 

 

Spinner’s eyes widened at what he saw, hearing a light gasp come out of Kizuki’s lips from behind them.

 

 

Over half of Kaina’s face is bruised and swollen, her left eye barely open. “Went up against a powerful drugged-up villain a few days back…” she muttered weakly.

 

 

Spinner noticed Kaina’s deliberately not opening her mouth much as she spoke, but he could tell she’s missing quite a few teeth just based on how badly beat-up she is. “Helm’s pretty uncomfortable huh?” he asked, slightly wondering how it all happened in a world where ‘Cornstarch Principle’ exists. Tomura got hit with a powerful explosive blast from Re-Destro literally a few matches ago and nothing happened to him, so how did this happen?

 

 

“Cornstarch Principle does not defend from weaker hits, in case you don’t know-“

 

 

“Cornstarch…?” Kizuki butted in, interrupting Kaina. “Isn’t the correct term Backforce?”

 

 

The shorter girl raised a hand, mouth slightly hanging as if she was about to speak, but instead she turned around and gestured for them to continue walking. “Yes… Backforce, forgot about that.”

 

 

“I can understand if you guys call it Cornstarch, I mean-uh I mean everyone calls it that.”

 

 

“Hmmm Backforce?” Spinner glanced at the tall student beside him and back to the field, seeing two SpecPro B super strength students duke it out, much to the boredom of the audience. So Backforce is the official term for the inhuman toughness of modern people in the post-Quirk era? “Such a strange term I’ve never heard before.”

 

 

“Pffft the world you came from lack worldbuilding, I bet you don’t even have terms for female heteromorphs,” Kaina muttered as the three walked through the empty corridors, her tone still very low, “or maybe terms for green popcorn.”

 

 

“There’s no official term for female heteromorphs,” Kizuki replied. “Unless you call ‘Monster Girls’ a term.”

 

 

“Green popcorn?” Spinner asked the moment the taller girl finished, but was simply met with a light chuckle and a dismissing gesture from Kaina.

 

 

“Don’t think too much about it, so how’s the tournament so far? People left and right are getting bored outta their minds. The people back there we went past earlier? I’ve never seen that amount of people leaving!” Kaina waved one arm behind her, and accidentally hit the bump on her right forehead as she swung it in front, making her flinch a little and let out a light yelp of pain. “But other schools will also be having their own tournaments after this, so they might be just taking a break from the snore-fest fights, especially from SpecPro B. This entire event is meant to showcase how cool you guys are in the hopes of swaying public opinion but… no offense but people are not liking it one bit.”

 

 

“Just like the several tries before it,” Kizuki added, nodding. “People just don’t like unsightly Quirks in general public, unless you’re Chisaki and you got the two most popular heroes in the country backing you up.”

 

 

Spinner raised an eyebrow and set his gaze on to Tomura, who’s now back to his seat, openly throwing a tantrum towards Overhaul who’s one seat away, flailing his now-gloved hands around and looking like he’s throwing all the insults he can muster. His friend just called Dabi a sore loser, now he’s the one being so.

 

 

‘When you’re so accustomed to some Big Guy from Hell openly helping all your endeavors, then his lack thereof can really throw your off.’ Spinner thought to himself, seeing Beros walking up to stand behind Tomura for a few seconds before slamming a balled fist right on the top of his head, making quite the number of people laugh but instantly shut him up.

 

 

It was a casual hit, and Spinner instantly noticed Tomura’s indifference to it all like he’s not even hurt by the whole process, despite the hit sending Tomura down to his knees as he’s sitting. His friend then sat up straight, ran both gloved hands through his pale teal hair, looking like he’s confused as well why he didn’t feel a thing.

 

 

Beros’s arms didn’t glow or morph into anything, so Spinner was at least sure she didn’t use an ounce of Quirk in there. Or was there?

 

 

Now it was Toga’s turn to throw another giant tantrum, most probably linked to the way she got beaten by Kizuki in a single hit. Why she chose to suddenly spring into action right after Tomura got hit? Spinner doesn’t know. Nonetheless, she also got hit by Beros after walking down to stand behind her. And once again, she acted like she didn’t even feel anything.

 

 

They only got a few minutes into their ongoing conversation about the future of SpecPro when Spinner saw a small kid, long bluish-white hair with a red handbag happily skipping along the hallway adjacent to the one they’re in.

 

 

‘Hey isn’t that the kid Overhaul kidnapped in the real worl-‘

 

 

“Hello!” she suddenly spoke out to them, startling Kaina to disproportionate levels.

 

 

 ‘Quite an overreaction to a little kid…’ Spinner thought to himself, noticing Dragunov get startled by the voice alone, not even seeing the kid itself.

 

 

Kaina’s head slowly turn to face the kid, who’s acting all adorable and innocent, before making a hand gesture for the two to just stay there as she attends to the child’s needs. The two of them then walked out of sight, seemingly in a hurry.

 

 

“Strange kid suddenly appearing to us, must be an illusion-type Quirk…” Kizuki muttered to herself, green eyes staring to the hallway the two went to. She could hear garbled Russian words going fainter and fainter as they completely left the scene. “So it’s just the two of us again huh? A huge coincidence I must say.”

 

 

Spinner chuckled, clawed hands landing on his hips. He knew there has to be something with that ‘Overhaul’s kidnapped kid’ showing up, but he chose to ignore it for now. “Coincidence? We heteromorphs should band together, get that firepower rollin’, get jackets and all that she-bang, ‘know what I’m sayin’? Anyways, mind if I ask what’s up with Re- I mean Yotsubashi’s Dad getting you in the tournament? Nice smoke bombs by the way.”

 

 

“He holds an absurd amount of power in UA for being the only one who has access to top-secret Stratonite knowledge, or that’s what they say, but it seems like it. His word is law. I think he can already make his son an instant graduate if he wanted to,” Kizuki replied, walking over to one of the nearest glass windows and observing the fight below. It won’t be another few battles before she would return to the field. “It’s just Yotsubashi junior’s never into heroics. ‘Rather be an architect or an engineer like his father. But his Dad had other plans, and you put two and two together and that’s it.”

 

 

“Huh…?” Spinner raised a curious eyebrow. Never into heroics? Is this a possible reference to Re-Destro casually handing over the entire army under the guise of ‘Tomura is the true meaning of Liberation’? “So are you, like, a real player now or are you playing for him?”

 

 

“I’m playing for him. If I win, then he’d be the one given the medal.”

 

 

Spinner thought for a bit. Is there someone at UA with this insane level of power within the ranks? Powerloader – the resident gear expert at UA in the real world, is not like this. Is this an alternate universe-only twist or not? “Either way, why not try to win? You’re not going to lose anything and you could at least use your Quirk. I’m not saying you nuke them into orbit but-“

 

 

“These tournaments don’t really matter in the big picture. Heroes these days don’t fight real villains like they used to. They keep hiding it in the news, but it’s really obvious to anyone with a watchful eye…”

 

 

Spinner nodded, fully knowing what Machia told them about the concept of ‘fake heroes’.

 

 

“What matters here are the flashy Quirks. At the end of the day people are not that much invested in the tournament as a whole, because people with pushforce and knockback Quirks are at a natural and unfair advantage. They say and parade this like some kind of Olympic games-tier-tournament, but in reality it’s just standard entertainment and nothing more.”

 

 

“You have a knockback Quirk, why not try to win? What have you got to lose? Who knows? A hero agency could see you and take you in, and you could be a hero like us!”

 

 

Kizuki sighed, gloved hands falling limp to her sides. “Smoke bombs defeat the entire concept of heroes showing off to the public. Explosions are not good if wielded by someone who looks like a villain,” she said, her lips then continuing to make movements of their own but without any more words coming out, or at least audible enough words.

 

 

Spinner turned his attention back to the ongoing SpecPro B boxing match down below. Kizuki was partly right about villain-looking people getting disproportionately judged negatively for their Quirks. In the real world, Bakugo has a similar and highly destructive Quirk, but since he doesn’t look like a villain, he gets a pass no matter how overly violent he is to almost everyone around him.

 

 

What he doesn’t know is how society treats female heteromorphs, who are mostly just people with colored skin and light barely-noticeable mutations that don’t affect them greatly. Female ‘heteromorphs’, by all sense of the word, do not resemble their male counterparts at all by default, so whenever there’s a heteromorph issue up, it’s always about males. “Sooo I’m not sure how sensitive you are about this but uh… are female heteromorphs like you get treated on the ‘ugly’ side…? I mean you look normal to me-”

 

 

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

 

 

“Okay okay… okay…”

 

 

Eventually, Kaina came back and gestured towards them to follow her, saying the little kid is just lost. Spinner decided it’s best to not tell her about the girl yet, thinking it would be better if Tomura’s present in the scene. Kizuki, on the other hand, suddenly went quiet.

 

 

‘I hope I didn’t say anything offensive…’

 

 

The trio reached a more illuminated part of the hallway, with more and more lights being turned on as they approached closer and closer to the casters’ room. By the time they got there, it was already another commercial break, and a very long one at that, judging by the countdown timer that appeared on all display screens on the tournament zone.

 

 

“Aaand we’re right on schedule!” Kaina looked down on her wristwatch, feeling very good about herself on making the trip in time despite the disturbances. It was only then it was fully revealed that she’s missing over 7 teeth up front. “Now we go in! Now remember guys, keep your heads cool… be on your best behavior, the first impressions are always the one that last!”

 

 

Her hand grabbed the doorknob that lead to the room where Seigyo and Tatsumaki reside, noticing the door strangely unlocked. “That’s strange, they normally lock these-“

 

 

She opened the door, quietly peeking in just in case someone big is inside the room with them. Up in front she saw the glass, that normally gives a good view of the arena below, is now a bit blurry – a privacy system that activates at the press of a button.

 

 

“So I’m thinking if this is a good spot, or how about this? Oceanside or mountainside? I’m so confused!” It was Tatsumaki’s voice, oddly light and exciteable despite being a somewhat serious person just a while ago. “All of these come with an automatic free underground segment for Chisaki… might require me to do some photoshoot sessions but all’s well.”

 

 

“This one has blue trim lines on it. I’ve never seen a good blue like this one in years! You know what they say, you see good blue, you go for blue. I mean look at that, that’s a very nice shade of blue. Add in some yellow too to give that nice space empire feel-”

 

 

Kaina stepped inside and closed the door behind her, not even letting the two in.

 

 

“Well would you look at that, the heteromorphs are back at it again!” Spinner took a step back and waved his clawed hands over at Kizuki, hearing a light throat-clearing sound from within the room, followed closely by the sounds of both casters getting startled and asking what happened.

 

 

“So let me get this straight. If this is supposed to be some top-secret quest-whatever-thingy, how come I still have no idea on what am I supposed to do? All I know is I gotta go track someone, when? Who? What? So in a scale of one to ten, how… secret is this thing supposed to be?”

 

 

“It’s on a scale of ‘You Should Not Tell This To Anyone’. Look it’s very serious.”

 

 

Kizuki just stared at him for a few seconds. “Whatever.”

 

 

“Soooo uh are you planning on winning this thing? Exploit your natural knockback properties? You said it’s not gonna be that much of a big deal no matter what so why not just win the game? I mean there’s nothing bad about it.” Spinner immediately spoke out in an attempt to lighten up the mood, hearing the girl’s ‘whatever’ reply sounding ticked off got him on edge.

 

 

“Yeah I could do that. Current match-up meant I’m not going to be facing Tobita anyway.”

 

 

“Hmmm Tobita? You mean air-gel guy with the one fan from SpecPro B? You can’t breach through his shields?”

 

 

Kizuki walked over to the left side of the caster room, and back to the hallway where they came from, looking beyond the nearest glass panel and into the arena. “Next round’s not up yet. Can’t really see who I’m up against,” she turned around and leaned her back to the glass, crossing her arms. “Besides, you think explosives can breach through any shields? The guy’s Quirk has some insane elastic properties, and I saw that first hand in one of your SpecPro activities, explosives have no match against that. In a world of Quirks, nothing is actually powerful.”

 

 

“Point taken. But some Quirks are definitely weaker than others…” Spinner leaned his back on the wall as well, taking a quick glance towards the caster room, hearing noises akin to that of people getting frustrated. His thoughts went back to Quirks being all good at something and nothing is truly weak, but what about New Order? All for One? And One for All for that matter?

 

 

He was about to ask when he remembered how easy it was for AFO to beat New Order using Spectral Grapple, so maybe the ‘No Powerful Quirk’ is true to an extent.

 

 

Maybe…

 

 

“But what about my Quirk? I know for certain that my Quirk is kinda on the useless side.”

 

 

“Weak? You mean?”

 

 

Spinner raised a hand, stopping her mid-sentence, before turning around and casually climbing up the wall, and up to the ceiling, before hanging upside down. “Lizard sticking ability, neat right?”

 

 

Kizuki glanced up and noticed Spinner’s shoes sticking up the ceiling. “Your Quirk works through solid objects huh? Pretty neat.”

 

 

“It has maybe a two-inch limit on both my hands and feet. So even if I wear gloves I can still stick. You’re saying nothing is powerful but this is a weak Quirk. Call it weak all you want, I’m used to it by now.”

 

 

“Well it’s nice to have a Quirk you can use for your day-to-day life,” Kizuki shrugged. “There’s no reason to use explosives outside of heroics, and I might as well be Quirkless.”

 

 

Spinner nodded. “Point taken…” At the end of the day, it was him who can still use his Quirk in his day-to-day life, very much unlike almost any other League member back then, with the sole exception of Compress. His thoughts then went to the Class A students and their powerful Quirks, and just like Kizuki, most of their Quirks have not much use outside of hero work. Being on the topside for once and seeing how his weak Quirk gives him an innate advantage felt oddly good.

 

 

 “Question, do you trust us? I mean we’re gonna work together at some point.” Spinner suddenly asked, easily seeing how the girl got thrown off by his question.

 

 

“Why the question? I prefer to keep those things private. If you’re still scared I might blow you up, remember this. If the two of us fight, it’s going to be me who’s gonna get into trouble. Explosives versus Lizard Sticking Ability, who do you think will destroy more? No. I will not answer that question, both the one I just made and yours.”

 

 

“Okay, okay, okay-“ Spinner instantly turned around at the sound of the door opening up again, seeing Kaina, and the two casters stepping out of the room. He quickly dropped down from the ceiling and composed himself. He was about to speak when Seigyo quickly walked towards Kizuki behind him.

 

 

“You there, really really really tall young lady!” Seigyo said, casually walking over to stand in front of Kizuki. “So we finished up a deal with good ol’ beaten-up Russian sniper over there and I thought you’d want to know!”

 

 

‘Good thing she’s gonna be a-’ Spinner glanced over to see Tatsumaki, who’s standing beside Kaina, fidgeting with her fingers looking rather nervous.

 

 

“Okay here’s what we’re gonna do,” Seigyo gestured for Kizuki to follow him to a much more illuminated area near the rest of the people there. “So you know hero agencies are going to be pickin’ up people for internships, right?”

 

 

Kizuki nodded.

 

 

“And it’s gonna be after the game, right?”

 

 

Kizuki nodded again.

 

 

“Well truth is, the big guys over there are already picking you kids up as we speak, with Chisaki being the top pick, courtesy of us of course. There’s a digital panel there in our little ol’ room where we see the numbers ticking live. We’re going to enter your name up there and if there’s ever at least one agency that hired you, then that’s it. You’re an intern now and have an actual chance at heroics provided you impress the guys that pick you, and you’ll join to whatever crap Miss Aimbot is planning, m’kay?”

 

 

“We already spoke with Mr. Sashizu on the phone, he said it’s fine to go ahead and include you on the list, just for the funsies,” Kaina added, nodding intensively. “Do try to win for the greatest chances of getting picked! Man I’m so pumped up to see you win!”

 

 

“Don’t do that face, your lack of teeth is very disturbing. We’ll get you patched up with Chisaki after this don’t worry-“ Seigyo was about to continue talking to Kizuki when Kaina yelled back.

 

 

“My face is too precious for his hands! It’ll heal on its own! You’ll see! I don’t want someone blowing my brains out as a means of reparation. It’s like dying… for a moment. And I don’t like dying.”

 

 

“But you’ll remain toothless and looking like a swollen potato.”

 

 

“I’ll get fake teeth, or get someone who can grow it back… I have a lot of options-“

 

 

“If you want we’ll get Taberu to give you some spare teeth!” Seigyo laughed to himself, before turning back to his original chatmate, striking a pose. “So, Mochizuki, do we have a deal? Just one, at least one, perform well and you’ll be a hero in no time, just like you asked. No more fooling around hoping and waiting for Mr. Yotsu-Kara to get you in, because let’s face it, it’s never gonna happen.”

 

 

“R-really…?”

 

 

“You’re doubting the self-proclaimed most famous ‘pro-hero’ in the modern times? Miss?”

 

 

“No…?”

 

 

“Good! Now that we got that settled, I got some tips for ya. Tip number one is stay on the field as long as possible to get more people lookin’ at ya, and number two? Do try to get a tall boyfriend, don’t waste those genes on a shorter one. That’s it!”

 

 

“Is the last part really necessary?”

 

 

“YES!” Seigyo arched his back and bent towards Tatsumaki, his whole unnatural stance completely impossible for regular people to recreate without breaking their spines. “MakiMaki, tall girls should go after tall guys right?”

 

 

“And short girls should also go for tall guys…” Kaina muttered, nodding to herself.

 

 

Spinner stood back and observed the scene, eyes discreetly glancing over at Tatsumaki, and her strange aloof disposition. She was very bright and cheery earlier, although incredibly annoyed by her partner’s antics, why did she suddenly change?

 

 

“Now if you may excuse me, honey, I’m taking little miss blue out for a walk, be sure to get her name up n’ runnin’ for the ol’ hero folks out there to se her, toots!” Seigyo returned back from his back-breaking pose and back to normal again, one arm going to Kizuki’s back and slightly pushing her forward. The two then started walking away back from the hallway they came from. “Be back in ten minutes!”

 

 

“Now that we got that outta the way…”

 

 

Spinner, still confused on what just happened, turned to face Kaina, who currently has her arms crossed and leaning up on the wall nearest to the door that leads to the caster room, a huge smirk etched on her badly beaten-up face.

 

 

“The guy sure do know the right thing to do huh? Midoriya this, Midoriya that… society going down and all those crap. Don’t worry Kamikaze, we’ll get this fixed up as soon as it ends… Oh and by the way, you may want to talk to Mr. Iguchi over there, he wants your autograph…” Kaina said, ending her sentence with a light sinister chuckle.

 

 

Tatsumaki, who’s just staring at the leaving form of Seigyo all this time, slowly turned her head towards Spinner. “Best friends with Gas Kid Prime?” she asked, her voice a bit heavy.

 

 

“Er... I’d rather be called Midoriya’s test subjects than Gas Kid, the current term sounds like I got an award for the person who can hold the longest farts,” Spinner replied, an awkward smile on his face, trying to lighten up the mood yet the heroine is not having any of it, who walked up to him and kneeled on one leg.

 

 

“Go on, convince them, these guys are on a mission… a rather literal country-changing mission…” Kaina said, still leaning up on the wall, her mocking smile not a hint of being erased any time soon. “Your soon-to-be-boyfriend already changed his mind, he knows what’s gonna happen if this all let on.”

 

 

“You’re too young to be getting into this mess…” Tatsumaki sighed afterwards, her eyes going from left to right but never directly on the highschooler in front of her.

 

 

Spinner on the other hand, while he appreciate Air Cannon going all protective on them and not wanting them to get hurt, is half-confused and half-ignoring the entire event happening. Tatsumaki talked about the fallout following Midoriya’s death, if they ever get there and actually eliminated him, creating nationwide chaos due to the inevitable power vacuum, and the destruction of the hero system he and his associates control and maintain.

 

 

But would he care? Should he care? This world is temporary, nothing about this would stay, so there’s no sense to care about the impending downfall of society after Midoriya’s assassination. Machia-Might, Nagant, even Kizuki would not continue to the other side as is because everything would revert to the way it was before they all got thrown in, by All for One’s own words to him before he finally entered the portal to the other world.

 

 

But All for One also said another thing, specifically to him, and that is to let his son enjoy the new world. Spinner remembered that moment, he was completely thrown off by the self-proclaimed Demon Lord saying all sorts of casual things like giving him and his successor special online accounts already pre-made in the other world and pre-loaded with numerous ready-to-download computer games – and a sheet of paper containing their respective account informations. He was fully expecting an alternate universe just made for Tomura to destroy but they got something different instead, something drastically different.

 

 

This is no playground. It’s a training ground.

 

 

‘No time limit…’ Spinner thought to himself as he remembered more of AFO’s words. He knew he’s not in the position to question the most powerful villain of all time but that decision is just strange. AFO repeated it multiple times in their short little chat before entering the portal.

 

 

No time limit? Let his son enjoy? Taking down Midoriya is going to be a major hurdle, but AFO seemed to emphasize enjoyment more than training. Spinner was even more confused when he noticed that AFO said differing things to Tomura than to him, with his talks with his adopted son being more centered on training and not enjoyment.

 

 

 Is he giving Tomura one last chance to go out and have fun before going back and bringing ruin to everything? Why create a reverse-world for this? Why show the League actually being weak? Why enjoyment? If Tomura’s supposed to build hate, then why make a world there’s nothing to hate about?

 

 

Spinner couldn’t understand it one bit, but he would be lying if he said he’s not enjoying the new world, especially the endless video gaming sessions – something he never had the chance to experience back then.

 

 

AFO’s being all cryptic but the general message seemed to be ‘Let my son enjoy this new world all he wants, I don’t care how long you finish your task’. Spinner thought about it more and he hoped his whole’ teaching’ Tomura ‘how to be normal’ is the right thing to do. So far he managed to convince Tomura about ‘Mental Manipulation’ when in reality it’s just ‘be friendly to everyone so they’ll help you in return’.

 

 

Maybe AFO will just make Tomura build hate some time later after they return…

 

 

“What do you think?”

 

 

Spinner was suddenly thrown to the present, realizing Tatsumaki is still in front of him, now standing up with her hands clasped together, staring down on him. “Huh…?” he sheepishly asked, quite embarrassed he didn’t get to hear what she has to say.

 

 

“See? They’re in. Deku’s going down, we’re sure of it! Am I right, Spinner?”

 

 

Spinner’s eyes widened at Kaina calling him by his nickname, and his gaze darted to her. “Uh yeah, we’re in.”

 

 

Tatsumaki let in a deep breath and sighed, gently placing a hand on the boy’s right shoulder, her eyes still not on him. “You’re wading in dangerous waters, Dragunov. Does it really need your entire leg be bitten off before you learn?  Would it take your head ripped clean off your shoulders before it realizes this is all a bad idea?”

 

 

“As long as my lungs remain inside of me I’m all okay?” Kaina shook her head. “We had this talk before. Look, I just brought the kid here for an autograph, but rest assured you’re gonna see more of him.”

 

 

“I sure do hope no ghost vision is required the next time you kids visit me.”

 

 

“Tatsumaki, you talk like you know we’re right, and you’re just afraid of acting yourself. You out there ‘convincing’ Spinner over here in the mellowest grandma-like voice I heard. Face it, these kids are our key to success, they themselves are volunteering despite the risk!”

 

 

Spinner noticed what Kaina meant by her words and backed her up. “Yes, Miss Air Cannon, we volunteered. Shigaraki and I. The other gas kids are fine just hanging out, they backed off.”

 

 

“See? I didn’t brainwash them at all! Not that I have any sort of brainwashing powers and asking Shinso about it would make it- nevermind. The point is that they’re in, your boyfriend’s in, Machia’s in. Hop into the bandwagon Kamikaze, we’re waiting for you, or do you want Crimson to give you a special convincing?”

 

 

An obvious blush appeared on Tatsumaki’s cheeks despite her facial expression still unchanging. She narrowed her eyes on Kaina for a few seconds, before turning back to Spinner. A white fabric tendril, part of her always-levitating hero costume, extended itself and flew right back to the caster room, and went out snaked around a small black container. Inside is an equally-small black pen and a fairly tough square piece of paper, 3 inches on all sides.

 

 

Spinner noticed the obvious similarities of the levitating fabric to Eraserhead’s scarf, but chose not to ask about it.

 

 

“I’m giving you my autograph-“

 

 

“You may not change your mind, but the door’s always open!”

 

 

Spinner, face all blank, could do no more than observe the scene after being given the autograph. The two then continued talking back and forth about this whole anti-Midoriya campaign. Spinner stood there, holding onto two copies of Tatsumaki’s autographs on both hands, slightly disappointed he didn’t get Forcible Quirk Activation’s. As the two continued to bicker, he took his time to observe the autograph paper.

 

 

It’s unusually tough with a gold sheen on the sides when angled against the light correctly, and at the back there’s another pen-written note.

 

 

It was a series of numbers segregated by dashes and-

 

 

‘A phone number?’

 

 

And then a little ‘Let’s talk, don’t tell Kaina’ written below it. If this meant more progress on defeating Midoriya then all the more better. He quickly stuffed it in his uniform breast pocket and spoke out. “I think we better get going, I wouldn’t want to miss more of Shig’s fights.”

 

 

“You know what, my lizard buddy, let’s go. Let Divine Wind stew alone in her thoughts, she’ll be convinced soon…” Kaina immediately walked up to him and dragged him away by the arm straight to the hallway they came from. “See ya!”

 

 

Spinner could only look towards the older heroine as he went away, just standing there with her back turned to them, completely unmoving for a few moments before walking back to the room, the loud click of the locking mechanism echoing through the halls.

 

 

“Got the autograph?” Kaina asked, voice still somewhat distorted due to the damage to her nose, a mischievous grin still plastered on her face.

 

 

“Yep.”

 

 

“Anything else?”

 

 

“Nah nothing, I got what we need, let’s go.”

 

 

‘What’s up with everyone keeping secrets from each other?!’

Chapter 23: Winner

Notes:

I swear this is the last Sports Festival chapter…

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 30

 

 

Chitose walked through the dimly-lit hallways of the UA Stadium, making sure to keep her distance close to Seigyo, her ears tuned to the clacking of his shoes in case he already turned around and she’s still observant on the ongoing fight down the tournament zone.

 

 

She felt a light tingle on her left gloved hand, specifically the center of her palm, the same hand she used to prime her other glove and shoot out plumes of smoke, allowing her to defeat Toga Himiko with ease. Part of her is glad she got to use her Quirk again the second time after that night at USJ – which is already way more than the amount of times she used her Quirk last year, and another part of her is worried what will Chikara say to her if she failed – because she’s only playing for Rikiya and if she lost he also loses.

 

 

‘I hope Shinryaku can get me into an-‘

 

 

“Kizuki,” Seigyo said, one hand placed on top of his head like he’s measuring the distance between their respective heights, looking like he only now noticed that she’s overall taller than he is. “How good are you at seeing your concealed explosives?”

 

 

‘Everyone here really wants me to track someone…’ Kizuki thought to herself, clutching her handbag closer to her and finger-fidgeting intensifying from nervousness from being such a close proximity with one of the biggest hero stars in the entire country. What should she say? Should she say the truth? The real explanation? A mission with Kaina is one thing, but if Seigyo is involved then it must be some larger-than-life mission.

 

 

Or maybe they just want someone nobody cares about to throw off to the proverbial lion’s den and be forgotten about? Chitose could hear the pro-hero's barely audible ramblings about being confused as to how a swap even happened right in the middle of the tournament, and it made her tense up a bit, her senses telling her she's in big trouble-

 

 

She shook off the thoughts, she’s literally beside a hero right now, and thinking negative is not the way to go, at least in this very occasion.

 

 

“Not really that good…” she replied softly, ending her sentence with a nervous laugh. “I-I-uh…”

 

 

“Never had the time to practice on it, yeah I know. People are going on and on and on about Quirks being all cool and stuff,” Seigyo spoke, raising up his hand, coils of faintly-glowing crimson rising from beneath his fingertips. “And then there’s the Quirks from the other side – scary, dangerous, and terrifying. Catch my drift?”

 

 

Kizuki nodded, keeping her head down.

 

 

“Forcible Quirk Activation. Control and taking over. No one wants to be taken over. Things were tough as a kid. I still remember how people used to not go within 10 meters of me. But there’s this program that saw the potential to use me as some sort of power-limiter for then 8-year-old Tatsumaki’s phenomenally powerful Quirk, and what do you know? Look at where I am now.” Seigyo continued walking, upping up his pace as they neared the section where agency representatives sat. “But not all people are as lucky as I am. Quirks, in some way, are seen as an extension of yourself, and those with dangerous Quirks are normally either ostracized.”

 

 

Kizuki nodded again.

 

 

“Or in the case of you, being bossed around by Chikara’s son’s friends. Kids are cruel, not gonna lie, but that’s the way things are. Your explosives are very weak on their own according to your ol’ registry entry, and that’s another point for bullies because you can’t theoretically defend yourself... unless there’s no limit to your stacking and you nuke them into orbit.”

 

 

Kizuki’s eyes widened at Seigyo’s statement, but chose not to react.

 

 

As for Tatsumaki, her Quirk is so powerful she gets picked on because other kids know she can’t fight back without destroying everything around her.” Seigyo ended his sentence with a light chuckle. “Some people thought I was just paired with her because she and I have super-powered Quirk Genes, but the truth is that she’s the only powerful one here and I’m just an extra… a very handsome extra if I say so myself.”

 

 

Kizuki responded with another nod to Seigyo’s story about powerful Quirks not fighting back. The story resonated with her.

 

 

“The point is that there’s always some use to a Quirk, no matter how destructive it might seem. Yours, on the other hand, can be used to track down people, or so what Set- I mean Revenant, says.”

 

 

“Y-yeah…”

 

 

“Now let’s get you in one of these agencies… Chisaki’s makeshift training area is just an underground extension of Kamikaze’s mansion and it’s not really suited to abilities like your explosives. And even if he accidentally ruined something, he can overhaul it back to normal. These guys have their own dedicated training facilities, you’re better suited here.”

 

 

Kizuki let out yet another nod as she walked along.

 

 

“At least one of these guys will take you in, I’m sure of it. I’m gonna be busy after the event ends and I’ll just get Dragunov to tell me if you got ‘hired’, sounds good to you?”

 

 

The girl nodded.

 

 

“Look I’m aware of the effect I have on women but you gotta loosen up! You still need to win a few games to get you more ‘screentime’ of sorts. These agencies need to see you, so keep your spirits up and your feelings light, whatever that means! Okay, let’s do this!”

 

 

Kizuki did yet another nod, keeping her gloved hands clasped in front of her. “M-more screentime…?”

 

 

Seigyo swing his left arm and placed it on the girl’s shoulder. “You have the advantage, use it. No one would care about this tournament in a few days anyway, the news would move on, everyone would move on, hero-this hero-that will continue, all that matters now is you out there getting seen by those guys…” the pro hero gently shoved the girl forward, his free hand pointing ahead at the group of suited individuals observing the ongoing battle, just barely visible from their location. “They’re your end goal as of this Sports Festival, got it? You wanna be a hero right? Well this is the shortcut! As long as you help us afterwards.”

 

 

Kizuki could do no more than to nod again. She already knew how shortcuts to heroics work, and all the different methods in order to get there, like getting personally picked by a top hero agency and greatly impressing the already-established high ranking heroes there, doing some real actual heroics enough to impress the government higher-ups, or deliberately ‘working’ for a person with enough power to maybe get you in.

 

 

She scoffed at the last thought. That last part was stupid, and incredibly so. It’s been almost a year of her being a personal maid in the hopes of becoming part of SpecPro when it launched, on the thought that if she just stayed friendly to the son of a powerful person in school, then she’ll be let in.

 

 

But that chance already happened and it blew right up in her face. She failed the interview, and she doesn’t know when is the next time she’s going to be given a second chance – not that she should count on it seeing Yotsubashi Chikara just treats her like some lost homeless dog that needs an occasional scrap every now and then.

 

 

But now? Now is different. She was just minding her own business and suddenly here came one of the Big Three saying her tracking ability is needed. It was highly suspicious, and she has all the rights and reasons to doubt it, after all, why would they be interested in a nobody?

 

 

“So about the tracking thing…” she spoke, a weak one at that. Seigyo being part of the same ‘big quest’ is really something. Part of her thinks is safe to trust these people, and another thinks it’s going to be another joke as she could just be in a random illusion world for all she knows. “How good should I be?”

 

 

“To be fair, according to Scissors’s words, you already did good. But you said you wanted to be a hero right?” Seigyo raised on eyebrow at her and made a mocking face. “That money sure is alluring. I won’t blame you by the way. Everyone knows money’s the driving force of literally everyone in the world, and I would be lying if I said that wasn’t the case for me.”

 

 

“…Thanks…”

 

 

“Fight’s just about to start. I’ll be giving you an official introduction to them afterwards.”

 

 

The pair stopped short of a green door, with Seigyo choosing to go to the nearest glass window to observe the ongoing tournament.

 

 

Kizuki was left where she stood, eyeing up the empty hallways. Based on the odd lack of decorations adorning the matte-painted walls, she concluded this must be the ones used by the staff or anyone who wanted a quick alternative pathway around the stadium without getting surrounded by fans. An odd feeling suddenly washed over her, it was not of nervousness, it was like relatively heavy burden was lifted off of her shoulders, and she wasn’t sure why.

 

 

“If you’re wondering why there’s a sudden feeling of lightness, it’s one of the backups systems,” Seigyo spoke, hands clasped behind his back as he stood in front of the glass panel, still and unmoving. “The higher-ups at UA knew people are not going to like this that much, and with the absurd amount of super strength Quirks at SpecPro B, people are getting bored and leaving. We contacted people who can put other people at ease, a whole bunch’a psyhics, and have them calm everyone down during these… stressful times… yeah we do business that way.”

 

 

Kizuki just stood there, eyes just staring at the young pro-hero, her thoughts going to the ‘bored people leaving’ segment of what Seigyo said. She failed her chance at SpecPro, and based on the negativity going on outside with people getting bored, the future of the program is at stake. What good are her shortcuts if it meant the program she’s trying to get into will not have a second chance itself? SpecPro and all similar things failed repeatedly in the past, and things are not looking to well at the current time.

 

 

She was about to ask Seigyo about it but decided against it, thinking the pro-hero will get annoyed by her selfishness at only trying to get into the program as an excuse to use her Quirk.

 

 

She could see Shigaraki down on the field, leaned forward with his arms just dangling in front of him. According to his facial expression on one of the cameras zoomed on his face, he looked like he’s either just done, or mighty pissed off at his soon-to-be opponent - which is a light-bluish-skinned levitating girl with some kind of futuristic machinery attached on her back.

 

 

“This won’t take long…” Kizuki heard Seigyo’s comment, all the while holding onto his phone and repeatedly pressing his thumb on the lower section at an unusual speed.

 

 

Chitose’s green eyes went back to the field and waited until the fight began.

 

 

In an instant, both contestants rushed to meet each other at the center, after which Shigaraki lunged forward with arms outstretched, only to meet nothing as his opponent simply levitated higher and completely evaded the attack. Based on what Kizuki could see on one of the cameras positioned to get the audience a good view of the contestants’ faces, the girl had a smug grin on, like she knew Tomura couldn’t possibly reach her.

 

 

Meanwhile Tomura instantly dropped on the ground and started rolling around, throwing an even bigger tantrum than he did when he got bested by Chisaki, and generally making himself a huge embarrassment. The levitating girl started hovering lower and lower, seemingly prompting Shigaraki to lunge upwards with a swipe of his hands.

 

 

Said hands easily went through the girl’s seemingly holographic body.

 

 

“Oof… talk about a bad match-up…” Kizuki heard Seigyo’s comment again, his face crumpled up in cringe. “Luck plays a big role in these games after all…”

 

 

Tomura started rolling on the ground once more, this time shouting all sorts of profanities so loud that his screams are getting picked up by Hasaki’s mic and being broadcasted to the crowd.

 

 

Kizuki noticed the teenager kept on yelling about ‘Back in Deika City’, ‘Flying idiots dropped down to fight him’, ‘This fight is so unfair’, and all sorts of related things before going on and on and on about possessing holographic bodies should be considered cheating in these tournaments.

 

 

‘Deika City…’ Kizuki thought as she remembered one of her conversations with Kaina in regards to getting transferred to a certain 7-11 convenience store. It was something about the so-called Gas Kids – especially both Shigaraki and Iguchi, always saying they came from another world, and one of the things they mostly talk about is the ‘conquering’ of Deika City, and the alleged events surrounding that, saying it’s their biggest achievement.

 

 

But all her thoughts instantly came back to the exploded mini-mart. Is she just transferred there as a joke because Kaina knew it’s going to blow up anyways, and knowing her old phone wouldn’t stand a chance? The chances are high, she’s sure of it, people are out there planning all sorts of conspiracies against her.

 

 

She shook off the thoughts, noticing the ‘Stress-Reliever’ effect now washed off of her system. She looked at the pro-hero beside her. Can she trust him? Is this not an illusion? This all seems too good to be true.

 

 

“Uh… Crimson… Shinryaku, sir…?”

 

 

“Yes, Kizuki?”

 

 

“I am part of this operation, right?”

 

 

“Right you are.”

 

 

Kizuki’s mouth hung open for a brief moment after the hero’s reply,and was  just about to ask if she really is an integral part of the entire ‘quest’ as what the Big Three say, and not just some fodder who’s going to be abandoned when the going gets tough. In the end, she backed off, thinking she’ll just sound stupid if she asked.

 

 

Soon after, Tomura calmed down, and he was escorted by Gigantomachia once more back up the stairs and back into SpecPro A’s location.

 

 

“With Todoroki’s meltdown earlier, this is going to be news for weeks…”

 

 

Kizuki stood there, amidst Seigyo’s incessant rambling about heroes, people with villainous Quirks, SpecPro, Eviscerators, and the impending collapse. It took a good while before Tatsumaki spoke on the mic once more, signaling the next match to start.

 

 

With a light nod, the pro hero beckoned the tall blue-skinned girl to follow him through the green door beside him. Said door leads to a small concrete-walled and simplistic room adorned with nothing more than row of seats with a ceiling fan currently pointed at them, with yet another door at the end. And beyond that door is the area where agency representatives are grouped at.

 

 

Kizuki was about to exit through the other door but Seigyo quickly walked ahead shut the door behind him, leaving her inside. With nothing to do at the moment, she turned the ceiling fan on and sat down, placing her worn handbag over her lap, hearing the commotion outside, with mostly the sound of grown women swooning over Shinryaku.

 

 

Her thoughts went over to the pro hero’s explanation of his villainous-looking Quirk just earlier. Seigyo is a handsome young man, and she would be lying if she said no. Other people with villainous-looking Quirks are not so lucky when it comes to their appearance, and more often than not it results in some unsightly physical mutations.

 

 

Chitose very well knew she looked like a villain, with her mismatched array of colors instead of single theme like most odd-colored girl and woman out there, and would instantly be judged if she ever unleashed significant amounts of firepower in one blow. She wondered if she looked different, maybe just blue or just pink, instead of what she is now, looking like a jumbled mess of colors like a toddler was given free reign over a coloring book, would people tolerate her more?

 

 

This desire for a cosmetic change in appearance, especially those born with unsightly mutations, caused those with physical-appearance altering Quirks that can be used on other people very invaluable indeed, charging absurd amounts of money for a simple change that wouldn’t even last a month, let alone a week.

 

 

Chitose’s gaze went down on one of the reflective buttons on her handbag, seeing her face.

 

 

‘Maybe someday…’

 

 

An instinctive reflex caused her right hand to automatically press the button, unlocking the bag, some of the contents spilling outside.

 

 

There was a folded up paper, in which she took and inspected. It was the hourly schedule of hero patrols around select locations at Japan, a task given to her by Chikazoku two weeks ago. She shoved it back hearing Shinryaku finished talking to the people outside that there will be a new ‘internable’ person on the list.

 

 

“Aaaand we’re done!” Seigyo came barging back into the tiny room, holding up a small red phone adorned with a pink fuzzy coating. He held it up to his ear, waited for a few seconds. “Okay honey, update the scoreboards, we’re getting blue lady in.”

 

 

Kizuki waited for an audio cue or anything that would indicate that fact, but she heard nothing.

 

 

“We’re in, now get out there and kick ass. Be seen! Be heard! Be amazing! At least one of these people should get you in. If you want you could peek out and see the current standing, go check on who’s leading the charge on getting ‘interned’ the fastest!” Seigyo said in a joking tone, quietly opening the door behind him.

 

 

Kizuki stood up, walked to the door and peeked out. Indeed there was a special display screen aimed right at the agency representatives containing names of the participants and a number beside them indicating how many times they got chosen.

 

 

Higher up on the list are Imasuji, Kosetsu, Taberu, and Tobita. On the lower section of the list there’s Iguchi, Shigaraki, and Yotsubashi  - all ranked at zero. Kizuki expected the list exactly as it is, the flashy powerful ones on top, and the ones below either have weak non-flashy Quirks, or simply look like a villain, or both. In the middle she could see her name surrounded by ones with various scores, with hers still at zero.

 

 

“Chisaki?” she suddenly asked, back out from the door, noticing the name not present on the list.

 

 

“I had Chisaki pulled back from the list. I’m going to get him interned by someone a little more suited,” Seigyo gestured for the girl to follow him outside of the room and back to the hallways they came from. “You saw me put you in, and you get instant results, now get out there and knock their socks off!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chitose stood on the tournament ring, amidst the crowd of relatively silent onlookers, her left ungloved hand clasping her right gloved one, stacking Landmine over and over again. She felt strange having to remove it when she took on Toga an hour ago, when just priming it and letting the explosion come out on the surface of her regular gloves can also do the trick. She chalked it up to nervousness, and hoped such delusional decision-making to not affect her attempts at trying to win against her next set of matches.

 

 

Part of her wished she could at least be allowed to use her ‘transforming bracelet’ to add some flair, but support equipments are not allowed at all.

 

 

Right now she’s about to go up against Hikiishi, the athletic girl with a Magnetism Quirk that allows her to push or pull her targets depending on gender. Based on her observations on the numerous SpecPro activities prior to this, her opponent can’t use Magnetism on herself and required another person for it to work, just like what she did with Bubaigawara – using the clone to launch the original off the ring. But since there’s nothing for Hikiishi to magnetize, she’s effectively Quirkless. Chitose knew she has the advantage in this specific fight, and if she’s going to be picked by at least 1 agency, then she has to try to win and stay as long as possible.

 

 

Her gaze went to her opponent, posturing and gesturing up ahead, saying things she couldn’t hear properly. A taunt, perhaps?

 

 

A few moments later the fight began, and Hikiishi wasted no time in charging in.

 

 

Chitose stood her ground and readied her right arm to her left, in preparation for a swipe and attempt to blast her enemy off the ring. When her enemy got close enough, she swung her arm to the right.

 

 

She saw Hikiishi duck down as if she anticipated her tactics.

 

 

But since the area of effect is just too big to be easily avoided, Hikiishi went flying off the ring in a single hit. It was clean, it was quick, it was full of smoke, and it was too much of a boring match-up and the crowd stayed relatively silent.

 

 

‘I think I may have overdone the smoke-‘

 

 

She then heard a loud cheering from the corner of SpecPro A. It was Tomura, who’s now tantrum-free and standing up on his seat, repeatedly swiping his right arm to the side over and over and over like it was some grand gesture he never before seen, before getting pulled down by the still-helmeted Dragunov.

 

 

 

 

Her next match is up against someone from SpecPro B, another of of those students with a Kinetic Booster Quirk – but since he can’t boost anything seeing how support equipments are not allowed, he’s just forced to boost his punches.

 

 

For short. Another super strength student, another easy win.

 

 

Chitose made sure she toned down the smoke, upped up the explosion brightness, but not to absurd amounts like what she did back at USJ. For villain-looking people like her, too much firepower becomes a negative faster than the other way around, and she made sure to just use enough blast force to push her opponent out of the ring.

 

 

Once again, people stayed silent at her victory. She knew she had to spice up the fight, but she won’t stand a chance on a battle of endurance against hero students that physically train everyday, so what now?

 

 

 

 

Danjuro Tobita, the person Chitose’s avoiding at all costs - knowing full well explosives will not do a thing to his barriers, lost to Chisaki. Her eyes widened when she saw the announcements, because that would mean her hard counter’s finally knocked off the upper bracket and into the lower brackets.

 

 

And then Tobita lost to someone with a Spectral Grapple Quirk. Said Spectral Grapple Quirk then lost to Taberu.

 

 

It is only then she noticed all her next possible match-ups have zero counters to her, and the only enemy who could possibly beat her is Chisaki.

 

 

“Umm…” Came an embarrassed voice of Revenant beside her, “I can’t see the next match-ups, who are you going to fight next?”

 

 

Chitose turned to face one of the Big Three, wondering how come he can see some things and not others. “Super strength guys from class B, the usual, why?”

 

 

“WE’RE COUNTING ON YOU KIZUKI! DO NOT DISAPPOINT!” came the loud yelling of Tomura from the upper section of the seats.

 

 

She gave them a small wave and turned her attention back on the ring.

 

 

“Are you going to win or not?” Revenant asked, head still turned towards the wall. “Are there going to be tough matches or are they just stock-standard blast-to-win scenarios?”

 

 

“Point and shoot to win, except Chisaki…”

 

 

“You know what, Okinoshima? If you win this imma take you out! What do you say about tha-“

 

 

“Scissors, I can hear you down there, stop messing with Kizuki.” Chitose heard Dragunov’s muffled voice from the topmost portion of the seats, followed closely by Tomura loudly complaining to her to ‘allow young-AFO to do what he wants’ – whatever that meant.

 

 

“Pfft, nice joke,” Chitose rolled her eyes and crossed her arms on Revenant’s offer. Having born with a jumbled mess of colors and a dangerous Quirk, she knew she’s on the range of ugly. Ugly people only get asked out as a joke, a fact drilled into her head far too many times.

 

 

 

 

Onwards she went on to her subsequent battles. The super strength opponents stood no chance, as stacked explosive pushforce is just simply stronger to knock them off the ring. Other matches against vision-based opponents required her to cover the ring in a smoke cloud, using her Mine Vision and allowing her to see the outline of her enemy within the cloud, due to the nature of her cloud being pure ‘magic’ and having no particles of dust to clog out her sight whatsoever.

 

 

She lost her next fight against Kosetsu, as blasting away blocks of ice simply resulted in more ammo to use for the ice-user. And since he’s plainly more skilled than her in every way, it was obvious he’ll win, which he did. What followed next after the fight is a series of name calling from him, calling Landmine weak and saying strong Quirks should rule over everything.

 

 

The next series of fights involved even more super strength Class B students. At this point, Kosetsu is now beaten by Taberu, making the next set of fights incredibly easy for someone armed with sufficient pushforce abilities.

 

 

Chitose began doubting the events. Everything is oddly going smoothly for her. It’s one thing to have an unfair advantage on the tournament, but to repeatedly win with all her counters being beaten by someone else and allowing her to mostly advance uncontested? That’s very different.

 

 

She continued on, blasting away all opposition until she finally reached the finals, which is between her and Chisaki.

 

 

“Didn’t expect to see a replacement moving up the final ladder, so it’s against you and me now, huh?”

 

 

Chitose just fidgeted with her hands and merely gave the boy a nod as the two of them waited on the transport platforms.

 

 

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, we reach the final round!” Tatsumaki’s voice blasted out of the speakers, prompting a spectacular fireworks show to occur, lasting a whole ten minutes as the final contestants get transported into the center of the ring. “It’s the undisputed king of overpowered Quirks going up against the rookie!”

 

 

“This is the final round, kiddos, give us a good show. Cameras are rollin’, people are staring, everyone’s waiting… The winner of UA’s segment in the Sports Festival will be decided once this round ends!” Seigyo added, deliberately lunging in and pulling his casting partner’s mic to speak on it.

 

 

“Must you really say that?”

 

 

“YES! Shall we begin?”

 

 

Chitose let the two casters chat some more. In her mind she already won, she already stayed long enough to be seen. There’s no need to actually win, and it’s not like she would even stand a chance against a person so powerful he can exploit the tournament rules’ loopholes to raise and terraform the arena to his liking. She let her mind go blank, but still making sure her left hand is holding onto her gloved right hand and stacking Landmine, just in case a sudden rule-shift happens.

 

 

She’s reached her end goal, she’s not going to win and she knew that. She had a good run, even though she’s not allowed to use her Quirk to its full potential or else it’ll scare off possible recruitment offers. Even her smoke clouds she made sure she only used it with the smallest ‘dust’ plumes she could do as necessary, as being covered in smoke goes against the general hero shtick of being seen while doing hero work.

 

 

Would getting to second place enough? Did at least one hero agency pick her? She would not know until this fight ends.

 

 

“BEGINNNN!!!”

 

 

Chitose instantly felt the ground shake. Chisaki started lifting up the ground, although not in the way she envisioned. Pillars of concrete rose up in alternation, covering the sides of the entire risen platform in some kind of fence, with each of those pillars’ tips jutting out all sorts of assorted spikes. Contrary to his earlier fight with Imasuji, Chisaki brought up the entire painted line representing the arena boundaries this time around.

 

 

As the ground below her continue to shake, up ahead she could see her opponent not even looking at her direction and just crouching with both hands planted on the ground. Based on the looks of things on how overly complicated his creations are getting, Chisaki must be focusing all his attention into crafting the greatest and most intricate battle arena he could muster.

 

 

Quickly ducking in order to preserve her balance and not fall over and seeing her opponent still not stopping in his creation and prolonging the fight, she took off her glove and started stuffing it with primed debris. It’s a stupid decision, and Chitose herself couldn’t help but smirk on the dumb thing she’s about to do.

 

 

Chisaki is fast, alert, skilled, and will not go down easily from such petty tricks. She could just jump out of the ring if she wanted to deliberately lose and end this nonsensical horribly unbalanced match but that would not look good to her potential watchers – especially hero agency representatives.

 

 

‘Here goes nothing.’

 

 

Swinging the stuffed wool glove around, she threw it straight to her opponent, and began detonating the contents bit by bit in an attempt to use the explosions to propel the next set of debris contained within with more velocity. Chitose didn’t see much of her handiwork as the debris stirred up so much dirt and it effectively blocked clear view of her opponent, very much unlike her smoke clouds having no debris at all.

 

 

She then saw a pillar of concrete extending outwards, with Chisaki on it, going even beyond the tournament ring and exploiting the rule that exclusively applies to non-flying participants in which they would only lose if a body part touched an area outside the ring.

 

 

But then Chitose remembered some kind of loophole that was also exploited by Tobita, but he somehow lost. If there’s an additional rule then she just assumed she didn’t hear it.

 

 

Shrugging her shoulders and assuming she’s just embarrassing herself by not stepping at all once from her starting position, she picked up a stone that rolled over to her and tossed it just as her opponent  returned from his stony pillar and back to the arena.

 

 

It was a fairly small explosion, just enough to maybe make Chisaki decide that it’s time to end the fight-

 

 

“You’re out!”

 

 

Chitose raised one eyebrow, hearing the voice of Hasaki through the smoke cloud. So she finally lost? It took a while.

 

 

She waited for a few seconds as the dust settles, and it is only then she saw the cameras, and Hasaki, are all pointed at her opponent. At this point the music stopped, the crowd went deafeningly silent. Chitose looked around, wondering why everyone went quiet. Is there a villain attack? Did someone cast some kind of time-stopping Quirk? Is there another surprise celebration to commemorate the fight already lasting at least 5 minutes long already?

 

 

“Is that…?” The muffled voice of Tatsumaki came through the speakers. “No, tell me. Miss Hasaki, what’s going on down there-“

 

 

“Oh well that’s certainly news… not a big one but it’s something. Wrap it up guys, we’re done here!”

 

 

‘What’s going on…?’

 

 

“Someone ready up the lightshow, tournament’s OVER!”

 

 

The music resumed, now playing something of a celebratory tune. The crowd – or what’s left of them, began cheering with arms raised. Confetti was fired from all directions, showering the entire arena with huge amounts of glittering pieces of paper the size of a fingernail.

 

 

“Congratulations, Kizuki! You won!” Hasaki said, arms raised while walking over to hug the winner of the tournament.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“What…?” Chitose muttered to herself, holding a plastic bottled energy drink on her right hand, standing back on SpecPro A’s area in the stadium, green eyes still focused on the awarding ceremony – with Rikiya being given a medal for ‘winning’. Comparatively very few people are cheering, with quite a number of them looking like they’re laughing just by the sheer absurdity of the entire event alone.

 

 

She won. She really did. She can’t believe it herself. It was a simple clean win. The stone she tossed, which she primed to explode using its relatively small overall mass, produced just enough blast force to stagger Chisaki backwards, and it apparently made him put one foot out of the ring just as he returned. And that was it, all luck and no skill.

 

 

She turned her attention to the remaining SpecPro A students behind her. Since the awarding ceremony only required the top 3 contestants, the rest are now free to go, not before some representatives trickle down from the open hallway behind the area, where students are urged to go talk to them and see if they’re to be taken as an intern.

 

 

The trickle of representatives is soon followed by the steady trickle of ‘now-hired’ students moving out of the area until very few remain: The Big Three, as well as Shigaraki and Iguchi.

 

 

And herself.

 

 

The entire wave of ‘hiring’ representatives came and gone, and not a single one interacted with her beyond a brief congratulatory statement.

 

 

“I’m sorry, Okinoshima. Smoke doesn’t really go well in an industry that requires you to look glamorous…” Revenant muttered beside her, holding onto a small piece of seemingly-hardened paper and signing on it, which he gave to two giggling girls from the SpecPro B side afterwards. “I’m sure one of them will gladly pick you up-“

 

 

“People’re gone, and would you look at that? In a very satsitfying twist of destiny, you, me, and my buddy Spin over here are the ones who didn’t get picked!” Tomura said as he casually walked over to the two of them, now looking all happy despite throwing the biggest childish tantrum in the history of the UA Sports Festival earlier. “That means when at least one agency comes here to pick us, then they had to pick us three!”

 

 

“You seem awfully fine after losing, got everything out of your system?” Chitose asked, wondering how Tomura is suddenly feeling good despite making a huge scene earlier.

 

 

“Well technically yeah I mean we’re not going to stay in this new world and all and we’re gonna go back once this entire thing is done so I don’t really care about what people think of me,” Tomura replied, repeatedly shrugging and scratching the back of his head as he went along. He then started talking more and more about everything in this ‘new world’ being irrelevant.

 

 

And Chitose understood none of it.

 

 

“Stardust! Pick us, please?” Iguchi asked Dragunov, turning around to face her. “I heard the Big Three can intern people too.”

 

 

“No…” came a quick reply from the still-helmeted girl standing on the top most section of the area, talking to a couple of hero agency representatives.

 

 

“Scissors?”

 

 

“The maximum amount is two, can’t hire more than that. Also I’m technically not allowed to get anyone here… but Daikyu could!”

 

 

“Okay…” Tomura shrugged at Chitose. “Looks like it’s just me and Spin then so uh… who’s Daikyu?” he asked back at Revenant, who’s now completely facing the opposite direction from them.

 

 

“Daikyu! Are you available to pick these two?”

 

 

Chitose turned to look at the person Revenant is referring to, and it turned out to be Beros, who’s still leaning on the wall separating SpecPro A from B, fidgeting with her phone and overall looking annoyed. “Yeah sure,” she replied, not even bothering to look.

 

 

Chitose could only stand there in silence, seeing now both Shigaraki and Iguchi casually got picked by Beros – which somehow annoyed Dragunov seeing the other girl swiftly turn around and loudly talk to her about it, despite the reps she’s talking to still standing there looking all confused.

 

 

So that was it? She got into the tournament, used her Quirk, won almost every single match and ultimately win? But not only it was Rikiya who’s getting the medal, but she was the only one not picked. All of SpecPro A now have heroes or agencies that picked them. Maybe because she was a last minute addition? Is it because of her villainous looks and Quirk? Is it because she’s not really part of SpecPro?

 

 

Based on the sounds coming from behind the wall, on SpecPro B’s side, there are also quite a number of SpecPro B students who seem to be complaining that no one picked them as well.

 

 

Before shortly being manually assigned by what sounds like, their homeroom teacher.

 

 

“I’m really sorry-“

 

 

Chitose raised a gloved hand on Revenant’s side, who instantly stopped talking despite not even facing her. “I’m going home.”

 

 

“But-“

 

 

She raised a hand again, stopping everyone there from talking to her as she made her way to the open hallway at the back of the seats, hearing meaningless congratulatory remarks to her made by nearby people as she passed them. So that was it? Was she just fooled by Seigyo into believing she actually has a chance-?

 

 

“Oh come on, you guys can’t be serious!” she heard the young man on her thoughts just nearby. Turning around a corner, she found Seigyo talking to a group od suited-up individuals and, based on his words, convincing said suited individuals to at least let her be an intern in their agencies.

 

 

Chitose stood back and observed. The pro hero didn’t notice her, nor did the people he’s talking to. After a brief moment, she eventually walked away, her head down and zoning out of all the noise form her surroundings.

 

 

‘Maybe some things are just not meant to happen.’

 

 

“So uh I’m kinda making progress with these people and uh- scrap what I said earlier, I’ll get you in! I’m almost there!”

 

 

Chitose walked on, ignoring the pro hero, who’s somehow now made his way to talk to her. In the end, all those wins must come to an end, and that end chose to show itself just as she was about to make real headway in her life. Seigyo didn’t follow her beyond the end of the hallway they’re in, and chose to disband.

 

 

But on the bright side, she managed to use her normally-hidden Quirk out and about, and did not get in trouble for it. She went out there, competed in the ring, and made it out with figurative flying colors, winning the UA Sports Festival – partly with the massive advantage her Quirk gave her. It was nervous fun. Yes she didn’t get into any hero agency, but for the most part, she knew at least she has a powerful Quirk.

 

 

A powerful Quirk that has barely any use outside of very specific scenarios.

 

 

‘Wow Chitose, way to break the good vibes all of a sudden-‘

 

 

She was stopped on her thoughts by the sound of clacking heels, growing in volume as it neared her. Her mind immediately went to assume those are just random people who missed to congratulate the ‘True Winner’ of the festival. Since there’s a high chance of a little chat to commence, she quickly faked up a good mood and turned around, bringing in the best smile she can muster – which is a tired-looking ‘Don’t bother me’ smile. It’s not the best, but it’ll do for now.

 

 

The person drew near.

 

 

“Can you spare a little bit of time for an interview? The UA Sports Festival winner couldn’t possibly just walk out without getting at least a little bit of real genuine acknowledgement!”

 

 

Chitose’s mind instantly blanked out, she recognized the voice.

 

 

Takeyama Yuu from Shoowaysha Publishing.

 

Notes:

Don’t you just hate it when the alternate universe forces you to talk to yourself? I know, it happened to me many times now.
Jokes aside, Kizuki will get another chapter before the gang starts on the next arc.

Chapter 24: Recruitment

Chapter Text

 Day 30

 

 

Chitose, mind still not fully on the scene and still in the middle of processing the event earlier – especially the win, mindlessly followed the publishing executive down the brightly-lit hallways and out to the certain roofed area on the western side of the stadium – the place where both SpecPro A and B originally were dropped off. It was relatively silent compared to the rest of the stadium and completely free from the general public as of yet.

 

 

It was just a vastly open area earlier that day, but now there seem to be stalls being set up, banners being hung around, and a group of people over at the far end looking all dressed up for a dance competition.

 

 

There will be other schools soon to be competing out on the stadium, with UA’s SpecPro A and B tournaments just going first since they technically own the entire building. Said other schools, very much unlike the SpecPro A and B battles, will be engaging in various activities beyond the classic beat-em-up, although in the end they will still eventually get to that path, as nothing’s gets the crowd more excited than seeing flashy Quirks being hurled around. And since they’re no SpecPro, the students participating will have brighter, more colorful, and acceptably powerful Quirks fit for hero students like them.

 

 

Chitose’s eyes glanced over to one of the hanging wall clocks scattered throughout the area, seeing it’s just only fifteen minutes past ten in the morning, still relatively early. Her right hand went over and automatically placed itself on her handbag, remembering the hero patrol routes she was meant to deliver a little later, but since it was not supposed to arrive in its destination until a few minutes later, whatever Takeyama’s planning, she still has time for it.

 

 

“You have potential…”

 

 

Chitose heard Takeyama mutter on, her mind not understanding what she’s talking about regarding Landmine (or her Smoke Explosives rather), being a powerful Quirk and she’s lucky to have such power on her hands. She nodded along with everything the older woman said, forcing out a smile every time she looks at her and pretending to know what’s going on, when in reality she’s very confused as to why a high-ranking executive would even bother with a person no agency wanted. There was certain air of suspiciousness about the whole thing.

 

 

She followed on and on, agreeing all the way until both of them reached the exit/entrance part of the entire area. It was now a highly-decorated path as compared to earlier, with a respectable number of workers and people there instantly recognizing Takeyama as she drew close and flocking in, only for her own bodyguards to shove them aside.

 

 

“Uh… Yotsubashi won, you might be mistaking me for him-“

 

 

“I’m not mistaking anyone for anyone. If that’s the case, then I would be talking to him right now instead of you. I ‘m referring to your smoke bomb capability despite your Quirk being listed as Landmine,” Takeyama responded, her words gone faster towards the end of her sentence. “There must be something more about that. You’re blasting smoke without even damaging your own gloves. It may not be talent, but Landmine certainly has some very unique properties.”

 

 

“Oh uh… not really… it’s just that I can just make things um… scatter around,” Chitose responded in a garbled mess, mostly by sheer nervousness around such a high-profile person and her unusual unnerving smile. “Yeah…”

 

 

“Oh I’m definitely interested in a Quirk that can make things scatter around. Say, Kizuki, has someone picked you up yet? Hero agencies interested?”

 

 

“No-“

 

 

“Well allow me to fix that for you,” Takeyama said before turning around and making a series of hand gestures towards her bodyguards, with each of the four of them responding with a nod back and slowing moving away. “Come with me, let’s get this over with.”

 

 

Chitose blindingly followed the publishing executive out to a location on the right side of the roofed area they’re in, the one where a sizeable number of other similar suited individuals linger, casually talking with each other and minding their own businesses. A majority of them greeted Takeyama as they went past, as well as congratulating Kizuki for winning the SpecPro tournament.

 

 

It took a while before Chitose realized where they’re going. A row of wooden doors lie just up ahead, entrances to seemingly small buildings resembling compact small-scale apartments, the place where agency representatives can interview their chosen candidates in privacy – which most tend not to do so. Scanning the area around, she could make out a few familiar SpecPro faces, but no sign of the Big Three, nor Tomura and his reptilian friend.

 

 

The interior of the establishment is, while cramped, is quite well-done for such a limited space. Away from the bustling and loud stadium outside, the inside silenced everything into light muffles.

 

 

Chitose sat on the wooden chair on the further end of the room, and quickly adjusted her uniform and removed any creases within seconds of sitting down. She straightened up her posture, careful not to arch her back too much. She checked her gloves, making sure they’re on and not slipping off. She wiped off the sweat forming up on her forehead. Takeyama mentioned something about turning her into a hero and she must not let the opportunity slip, she must not fail the answers this time.

 

 

Unlike that time when she was interviewed by Mr. Okuta and she answered everything wrong.

 

 

‘There should be nothing wrong on answering ‘because I get to use my Quirk’ to a question about why do I want to become a hero… stupid interviews and their stupid mechanics…’ Chitose thought to herself, but in the back of her mind she knew it’s the same thing as answering ‘Because I have no money’ to a job interview, and it’s equally stupid.

 

 

‘You can do this Kiz… just say what they want to hear…’

 

 

“Kizuki, tell me about Landmine.”

 

 

Chitose was instantly thrown off by the statement. She was fully expecting the usual questions when it comes to interviews and was already in the middle of coming up stock answers for the ‘Tell Me About Yourself’ questions but instead she got a ‘Explain Your Quirk’. “Huh? I thought-“

 

 

“Landmine, now.” Takeyama raised her phone and planted it on the middle of the table, slightly vibrating in rhythmic loops, as if currently in the process of calling. “I’m already calling a colleague of mine and I’m going to get you in. So you want to be a hero, yes? You want one of those agency reps back there to notice you, yes?”

 

 

Kizuki nodded, eyes wide and mouth slightly hanging. She had no time for words, she going to be a hero, and she’s going to be a hero now. No stupid conditions like Seigyo’s, no stupid waiting games like Kaina’s, this one goes straight to the point.

 

 

“Being armed with a touch-based explosive ability - with that glove and all, and a… a slightly villainous look… puts you at a disadvantage into getting inside the glamorous world of heroics. I can understand, but they won’t tell that straight to you to save face.” Takeyama leaned back, her expression now softer than earlier. “But not all is lost, there’s still a place for you.”

 

 

Chitose leaned forward involuntarily, full of anticipation.

 

 

“Not all heroes participate in this nonsensical destruction and contruction thing, ever heard of the coast guard?”

 

 

“Coast guard?”

 

 

Takeyama nodded. “Make no mistake, they’re licensed heroes too. But over there one cannot show off by nonsensically destroying buildings and pretending they’re taking out the threat. Cameras don’t roll there, the media don’t go there, just pure straightforward hero work… So what’s your tolerance to seasickness?”

 

 

“I-I-uh…” Chitose clasped her gloved hands, her fingers noticeably twitching. “I dunno…”

 

 

“There, you can blast all the smoke bombs you can want and they wouldn’t care. They’re not there to smile for the camera, they’re not there to please a crowd… They’re there for business. They’re there for work. So tell me about Landmine, how is that Quirk used on smoke bombs? How many can you lay down? Can you control the explosion radius? How explosive can you get?”

 

 

“Oh I uh I can make things explode-“ Chitose stammered, realizing she got the answer wrong.

 

 

“Higher mass higher explosive force I presume?”

 

 

“Yeah-“

 

 

“How powerful can you go? Depends on the mass?”

 

 

“Yeah-“

 

 

“How fast can you prime?”

 

 

Chitose tried to keep up. Takeyama’s questions just keep getting faster and faster, and it’s more and more about details on her Landmine Quirk’s explosive capabilities instead of its other more versatile abilities like stacking and tracking. She was ready to give out the most flowery description of her Mine Vision, but the publishing executive would rather ask about firepower, sometimes asking the same questions two and a row, seemingly without realizing it.

 

 

“I think I got too ahead of myself, how many can you prime?”

 

 

“Ah!” Chitose raised her head high, now overflowing with confidence. Yes her individual explosions are weak, yes it’s awkward to bend down every time she tries to prime the ground, yes she can’t just blast out explosions out of her palm, but if there’s one thing that she’s proud of her Quirk (despite not using it much in fear of being labeled as a villain), and that is-

 

 

“I don’t know yet!” she exclaimed, nervousness almost instantaneously leaving her system. “I’ve planted at least over 200 of them and I still can’t find hit a limit! Isn’t that cool?”

 

 

Chitose opened her eyes to find Takeyama just staring at her, speechless and mouth lightly hanging. It’s as if she was completely frozen by what she heard. It took a while, but she finally spoke again.

 

 

“Two… hundred… seriously…? That’s amazing… an amazing amount of firepower I must say…”

 

 

Chitose noticed a smile slowly creeping up from the older woman’s face as her words grew fainter towards the end until they’re no more than incoherent mumbles. Is she in? Did she finally win her over-?

 

 

“Hello?” A deep male voice emanated from the phone lying on the table, making the electronic device’s screen light up in response. “Mount Lady? You called?”

 

 

“I just got ourselves a candidate,” Takeyama responded to the phone, leaning in and winking towards Chitose.

 

 

“Oddly feeling good out there?” the male voice from the phone asked. “Got a solid interview with the founder himself?”

 

 

“Not only that and the whole SpecPro embarrassment thing... Agencies left a perfectly good Class A candidate for us. The real grand champion if you will.” Takeyama gestured towards the phone. “Kizuki, care to explain how your Quirk works again? Make sure you add in a little more flair. You’re technically in, now I just want you to impress this person for extra credit.”

 

 

“A kid…?” The voice audibly scoffed. “But I fully trust your instincts here, what have we got there?”

 

 

Takeyama gestured for Chitose to go explain her Quirk to the voice on the phone, followed by a gentle nod.

 

 

“Uh… I can make things explode. I can plant invisible mines on things to make them explode later. I can make a whole bag of marbles explode by just touching the container that contains them!” Chitose leaned in to the phone, realizing what she said towards the end of her sentence sounded very unprofessional, but nonetheless true. “I can prime so many objects to explode at once! I have 200 currently primed objects and I haven’t reached my limits yet!”

 

 

The phone went silent for a good while, about a minute or so. Chitose stared at the electronic device the whole time waiting for a response, her mind racing from so many thoughts that her vision went blurry a couple of times just from the intense staring alone. Is it enough? Did she impress this person? Her fingers twitched as a noise similar to that of a footstep came out of the phone.

 

 

“I find that hard to believe but I trust you on this one, Lady. I’m re-watching the Sports Festival right now, where is she?”

 

 

“Kizuki Chitose, skip to the end, you’ll find her there,” Takeyama replied to the phone. “Tell me what you see.”

 

 

“A fine Quirk indeed, we shall see it in the field.”

 

 

The phone beeped twice and the screen went black.

 

 

“You’re in.” Takeyama nodded to Chitose, clasping her fingers on the table. “Say, what do you feel about extended working hours? That Quirk of yours might need a lot more fine-tuning so to speak.”

 

 

“I can do extended working hours!” Chitose responded back, forgetting to smile. “I can do twelve-hour shifts! Just say the word!”

 

 

“My my, I’m loving the enthusiasm! You got the makings of greatness in you, Kizuki, I know it. So let’s get this settled then, shall we? Can I speak to your parents?”

 

 

“I don’t technically have parents anymore.”

 

 

“I’m… sorry for your loss-“

 

 

“They’re not dead. I was just uh… abandoned.”

 

 

Takeyama nodded. “A girl with a villainous set of colors that came in pre-equipped with explosive smoke armaments, not everyday you see girls with those… I’m not going to probe any more into your personal life,” the publishing executive said as she picked up her phone lying in the middle of the table. “But I’m going to do background checks on you in the next couple of days, here’s my number-“

 

 

“Uh-“ Chitose suddenly spoke, realizing she spoke too soon and mentally kicking herself for interrupting the woman. But since she already spoke, might as well continue, “my phone got ruined from an explosion at the mini-mart I work in.”

 

 

“You mean that one from just a few days ago?”

 

 

Chitose nodded.

 

 

Takeyama’s lips started moving, as if trying to grasp for the correct word. After a brief moment, she placed down her phone back on the table and gestured towards it. “You can have my phone if you want.”

 

 

“Oh uh- It’s not that of a-“

 

 

Chitose didn’t even finish talking when Takeyama slid her phone towards her with a flick of a hand. “Alright! Got everything except important bits deleted and ready to serve its new owner. Now no need to thank me, as long as you do your part, we’re good.”

 

 

“B-b-b-but what if-“ Chitose eyes stared at the phone, at the same time wondering how can Takeyama ‘delete’ everything so fast.

 

 

“Lies or not, nonsensical flowery descriptors aside, Landmine by itself is more than usefu- I mean good enough on its own. I saw what you can do, you make explosions, Landmine means explosions, I – we need explosions, we need raw power! We need people like you to truly shine! Take off your constraints! Show the world that the shackles it placed upon your wrists prevented you from discovering you true potential! And they were wrong they put the rules in the first place!”

 

 

There was immediate silence in the room, and Chitose found herself already half shrunken in her seat, with Takeyama staring at her with a menacing grin and her hands directly planted onto the table like she just finished a good scolding. It took a while before the executive finally spoke. “Plus heroes and explosions go hand in hand, what do you think?”

 

 

“That’s great!” Chitose let out a weak reply. She’s been hearing rumors about this particular publishing executive being an advocate for free-Quirk usage, and apparently the rumors have some truth in them. “I love free Quirk usage!” Chitose continued despite knowing full well that she will get no benefits from that whatsoever, just anything to make the woman happy to get her into the agency.

 

 

“Take the phone, I left my work contact number there…” Takeyama composed herself, turning back to her poised usual self. “Costly material possessions for a person like me are nothing, I can get a new one fairly easily. Take it, it’s yours now. Consider it a gift from me to you for accepting my offer.”

 

 

“R-really? I’m in-“

 

 

“You’re in, you’ll be on coast guard duty sometime next week.”

 

 

“N-Next W-week?!” Chitose squeaked, startled on the question. “Ah –er-uh-“

 

 

Takeyama chuckled as she went to the door. “You’re not going to disappoint a person like me, would you? Sometime next week, give me a call, and we’ll get you started on your internship. Perform well enough and you may even receive payment from yours truly. Perform even well-er and I’ll take you out of this restrictive institution and get you a license ASAP.”

 

 

“Uh-“

 

 

“I know it’s hard to take in such a huge amount of information in a short amount of time, so I’m going to leave you to your own devices for a while…”

 

 

Takeyama swiftly left the room, leaving the blue-skinned girl alone.

 

 

A few seconds later, still only half-finished on her thoughts on the matter, Chitose immediately inspected the phone. She knew there’s no reason to doubt a hotshot publishing executive known across the country, but what if she’s a fake? With Quirks everywhere and in all directions, the chances of Takeyama being an illusion or a double is far too high. What if she’s a criminal in disguise passing the phone containing evidence to some murder to her?

 

 

What if she’s still asleep and just dreaming? What if some person with a ‘Daydream’ Quirk just happened to test it out on her. The string of events are far too coincidental, a series of multiple wins, there’s no way this could be true.

 

 

Her green eyes went back to the phone. She flipped it about, tapped the screen, pressed her ear onto the back, primed it to explode…

 

 

But nothing happened. She waited a bit more, and still nothing happened.

 

 

Going to her ‘Mine Vision’, she removed the explosive set onto the device.

 

 

‘What the hell’s going on…?’

 

 

Chitose thought about the interaction as she stood up, is it all true? A quick inspection revealed that Takeyama did in fact leave one number saved to the phone and nothing else. The phone itself is still at around 97% battery and looks like it’s the latest model just released a few months ago. Did she just receive a brand new phone? Just like that? A reward from winning the tournament perhaps?

 

 

Legs still shaking, Chitose stood up from her seat, trying her best to process the entire thing. Her thoughts went back to the phone again. What if she called Takeyama? But the one encoded in is her contact number at work – or so she said, and since she just gave away her phone, high chance she won’t reply.

 

 

‘This gotta be a joke… I’m probably being recorded in some kind of prank video…’

 

 

Chitose walked over to the door and opened it, bracing for the inevitable.

 

 

 

 

There was nothing, just people left and right minding their own businesses, no sign of Takeyama nor her bodyguards. She stood by the door for a few minutes, and still nothing. She eventually shrugged it off. If she’s just dreaming, then she’ll just wake up soon, and since she doesn’t know the line drawing between the two as for the time being, then might as well do her ‘chores’ while she’s at it.

 

 

She pulled out a folder from her handbag, quickly inspected the contents, and then proceeded to plant an invisible explosive on it, on both the folder and the paper contained within.

 

 

Chitose made her way through the crowd, some recognizing her and some not, to the intended meeting place – located just at the drop-off point where SpecPro A and B arrived earlier. But before she could truly arrive to the area, she made a turn towards the left side of the entire parking lot, towards the only lamp post in that location.

 

 

Tomoyasu Chikazoku, dressed on casual clothes, leaned onto the lamp post with his head down and arms crossed, completely disguised. He slowly turned his head to face her, a visibly smirk etched on his lips.

 

 

“Well if it isn’t my favorite glop of tomato paste, glad to see you’re not being a roadblock for once, got what I asked for?”

 

 

Chitose handed over the folder, keeping her face neutral to the whole situation and not bothering to ask why the boy didn’t participate in the Sports Festival.

 

 

“Well this is some solid info. You know I already researched this myself over the week, good to see you didn’t make one single mistake, I’m impressed.”

 

 

“You mean… I don’t need to make that because you already did it yourself…?” Chitose said, trying hard to not make her voice crack. “I put in much of my nightly free time for that-“

 

 

“I don’t have any time to listen to complaints from irrelevant people,” Tomoyasu chuckled to himself as he firmly grasped the folder. “But on the other hand, don’t have to listen to my orders anymore, I’m leaving UA altogether.”

 

 

“Huh?”

 

 

Tomoyasu tilted his head to his left and onward he walked, gesturing for the girl to follow him. “You should’ve seen the celebration afterwards, it was glorious, it’s like a massive burden was lifted off of their shoulders seeing how they finally got rid of the stupid and worthless publisher, who did nothing but convince the spineless Grand Commander to postpone the day of the event over and over and over again thinking she could still get more recruits…”

 

 

Chitose raised a confused eyebrow.

 

 

“Not going to lie, she did get in a lot, but don’t you think over a hundred thousand is a bit too much? Smaller organizations have accomplished far bigger things with far fewer members… Whenever I thought the day is about to come, she’d butt in and say just a fEw tHoUsAnD MoRe ReCrUiTs… and rinse and repeat…” Tomoyasu grumbled some incoherent words afterwards. “I know she’s not going to stop, and that’s when I stepped in.”

 

 

“Hmmm…” Chitose muttered a reply, but in reality she’s not listening at all.

 

 

“The end result is just exactly what I envisioned.” Tomoyasu let out a light giggle. “Survival of the fittest, the strong will rule, people should be recognized by the power of their Quirks. And as for her and her pathetic weak… explosions… she has no place in the new world.”

 

 

“That’s a very nice story you got there…”

 

 

“I wasn’t talking about you, dumbass. I’m talking about an equally dumbass person with the power of pathetically-weak explosions. She absolutely refuses to train and power up her Quirk, because not only was she undeniably stupid, but also lazy as hell. In an organization where Quirk strength is prized, she’s the only one refusing to collaborate and actually take in the meaning. She’s a roadblock, and roadblocks are best eliminated,” Tomoyasu said, narrowing his hidden eyes at her, his lips curled up in a sinister smile. “And oh boy I do love me some strategic deletion…”

 

 

“Hmm…”

 

 

“Damn good tomato paste that is, really damn good-” Tomoyasu suddenly stopped and playfully punched the taller girl’s shoulder, making a chef’s kiss gesture at her afterwards. “That stupid publisher? The tomato past she made was legendary. I’ve never seen tomato paste that good! Not good enough for your standard spaghetti, but good enough for entertainment.”

 

 

“Are you done yet?” Chitose rolled her eyes. “So about this leaving UA thing…”

 

 

“Congratulations, loser, you won’t be seeing me anymore. Now go enjoy your pathetic little life here or else someone might go splat again,” Tomoyasu said before turning around and walking away, seemingly in a hurry.

 

 

‘F***ing idiot made me research hero patrol routes in the dead of night when he’s actually already done with them…’

 

 

She watched as the tall lanky boy walked away and disappeared into a crowd of people. Switching over to her Mine Vision, she could still see the explosive planted into the folder and its contents still active, as it should be.

 

 

So am I still dreaming or what? Got insta-hired, got a new phone, annoying f***er finally left for good, what else could go right?’ Chitose thought to herself, eyes lingering on the primed folders and slightly wondering if she should blow it up after she became a hero.

 

 

She eventually shrugged it off. The annoying lanky kid is gone, and that’s more than enough for her. She was about to leave when she stopped herself at the very last moment, opting to stay a little bit. There’s been nothing but a series of wins, maybe if stood here and did nothing another one will appear?

 

 

“Okinoshima!”

 

 

The familiar voice instantly caught her attention. It was Revenant running over to her, still in his full hero costume – the singes made by Todoroki from earlier still visibly apparent. He stopped short of her and caught his breath for a brief moment.

 

 

“Wha-“

 

 

“I talked with a lot of agency reps back there and they said they’re thinking about-“

 

 

Chitose raised a hand, instantly stopping the young hero, despite his head being turned to one side. “I already got an offer, but thanks for the effort.”

 

 

“Really? Well that settles it! By the way I think you would want to tell Crimson who picked you up, with his influence you could be a full blown here in a matter of months, license and costumes and all.”

 

 

“Nah, the string of good luck I’m receiving right now is too good to be true. I’m probably dreaming, and when I wake up I’ve got a story to tell you, do you know I actually won this tourney? Cool right?” Chitose scratched the back of her head with growing intensity, her face crumpled with uncertainty. “No seriously, am I dreaming or not?”

 

 

“Okinoshima, I can tell if there’s a Quirk active on you, and I can’t see anything.”

 

 

“Well to be fair you could just be a part of my dream… but if not then are you saying everything that happened today is real?”

 

 

“Certainly,” Revenant nodded before turning and facing his back onto her, nodding her head forwards and prompting the girl to look beyond. “Need a ride home? I could call in Daikyu if you want.”

 

 

“I suppose there’s nothing wrong with that,” Chitose said, shrugging.

 

 

Revenant remained still where he stood, his head slowly tilting over to one side for a brief moment before righting itself. “She’ll be arriving soon. By the way, how’re the mines holding up? Still operational? I hope they’re still active.“

 

 

Chitose nodded, only a few seconds later she responded a vocal reply. Looking at the nearest wall clock hanging from a lamp post to her left, she saw it’s almost half an hour past the ending of the SpecPro games, and at this time the introduction ceremeny of the other schools should be well underway by now. Judging by the lack of fireworks and loud music, other schools didn’t put in too much in this tournament unlike UA.

 

 

The sound of a loud revving of a motorcycle is heard, increasing in volume as it drew near.

 

 

“The fair maiden here requires a ride home, and ride home safely she must!” Revenant spoke out, turning his head to face the newly-arrived person, who lifted the visor off to reveal her identity. “No seriously, lotta hazards out there if you catch my drift.”

 

 

“Scissors, do you even know what myriad of colors Kizuki is?” Beros said, looking left and right, and back to the other Big Three student after making a quick glance on the tall girl. “Does Nova even tell you anything?”

 

 

Chitose furrowed her brows at Beros suddenly questioning Revenant about her color theme, as if the other girl got confused as to why the boy called her a ‘fair maiden’. She knew she’s not in the same level as the Big Three member, but Beros asking Revenant literally in front of her left a bad taste in her mouth.

 

 

But before Revenant could respond, Dragunov landed beside him seemingly from above, the light thud of her footwear impacting the ground drawing everyone’s attention. “I hope I’m not missing anything, fellas-“

 

 

“Scissors has no idea what Kizuki’s color pallete is, pretty ignorant coming from you, Nova-“

 

 

“I have no time for random descriptions.” Dragunov instantly took off her helmet, revealing her now healed-up face without a hint of damage, and haphazardly shoved the headgear onto Revenant’s hands. She immediately turned around, black mass forming up on both of her elbows and turning into strange-looking rifles with thick oversized barrels extended and already touching the ground. “Oh, and thanks for the head cover…” she grumbled without turning her head around, before extending the gun barrels and launching herself skywards, just enough to reach the low-hanging roof on one section of the bus parking lot. She then walked away out of sight.

 

 

“Helmet’s all clean from all the blood and gore?” Beros asked Revenant, who’s just holding the helmet on his hands and tipping it around, his head just looking straight forwards.

 

 

“Yup, can’t go wrong with Overhaul,” he replied before handing the headwear to Kizuki with a nod, who then proceeded to wear it.

 

 

“Alright,” Beros said after clearing her throat. “I got a photoshoot session in the coming hour and I don’t want to be late, hop on!”

 

 

Kizuki nodded in response and got on the motorbike, seeing Revenant whimsically skip away, his still-singed white cape casually billowing in the light wind. It was such a cool sight, and one of the few things Kizuki could still see as the two of them sped onwards, leaving the scene at such speed that most of it was a blur in mere moments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kizuki hopped down from the motorcycle and placed her helmet on the luggage rack. It was just an hour before noon and the streets surrounding her worn-looking apartment are now bustling with people, and it would be even more if it weren’t for Beros making a quick change at an acquaintance’s house, hiding her real identity.

 

 

“Thanks,” Kizuki muttered, making a light nod.

 

 

“You know, Kizuki, not everyone should dictate what you do. Revenant already told me some agency picked you up, isn’t that enough reason to just… not bother with whatever crap Dragunov’s coming up with? I can assure you you’re not gonna like it.”

 

 

“I’d rather take all the opportunities I can get, Ishiyumi, and I will not stop until one of those options makes me a fully-fledged hero.

 

 

“But don’t you think it’s just too much opportunities?”

 

 

“I have my reasons.”

 

 

Beros nodded. “So uh, I’m off now, see ya I guess?”

 

 

Kizuki nodded back, before heading towards the entrance towards her apartment, ignoring her neighbors who checked to see what’s going on outside.

 

 

Inside her cramped housing space are various things in which Chikazoku told her to hold, even before he got kidnapped and gassed. Stacks of papers on a table, folders containing various documents lie in corners, even a plank of wood for no apparent reason. Overall it has only around 25% actual usable space, with her dorm room at UA having more. She did all that for a chance to get into SpecPro. It failed spectacularly, but it won’t matter anymore in the coming days provided she’s not dreaming and Takeyama is not a double and she really meant what she said.

 

 

‘I hope that piece of sh** Chikazoku is really gone…’

 

 

Her attention instantly went back to the phone given to her, the sole reason why she went straight here and not in UA. If something bad happened and she’s at her UA dorm room, then it’s obviously going to be blamed on her, with the spotlight of the entire school shining in. Better make a mess here than at the most prestigious hero school in the country.

 

 

Chitose opened up her handbag and took out the phone that was given to her, immediately going through the files to see if there’s anything Takeyama left in aside from her phone number. The gallery is empty, downloads from multiple browsers are all empty, the inbox and all related things are also empty, everything is wiped clean off.

 

 

But before she closed off the phone, she checked the ‘All Files’ section. And there she found a single PDF file containing the full copy of the latest edition of the Meta Liberation War book, all 126 pages of it.

 

 

‘Interesting…’

Chapter 25: Tenya Iida, Hero Killer - [Part 1]

Notes:

I do apologize in advance if there are any grammar mistakes. English is not my first language.

Chapter Text

Day 32

 

 

“-And then All for One went in and instantly snapped Stars and Stripes’s neck before she could even talk, stole New Order, and threw all of us here… and here we are… yeah… sorta…” Tomura drew a huge black circle surrounding a crudely-done drawing of AFO, the whiteboard marker pressing on too strong and messing up the tip. “And then he said everything is flipped upside down… and this is my training ground… yeah…”

 

 

A single drop of sweat dropped from his forehead, and Tomura immediately threw away the marker he’s holding onto and grabbed the second nearest one resting on a wooden table on his left. “But so far I’m making good progress so all is well, I haven’t killed anyone yet and that’s a huge plus and uh… we just had our hero names today so you guys might want to check mine out.”

 

 

Removing the cover on the marker he’s holding on to with a resounding click, Tomura wrote ‘Sandstorm Hero: Kalahari’ in big bold letters right above the crude drawing of his adoptive father.

 

 

“In the end it’s still up to me if I should believe everything you said,” the gentle voice of Tatsumaki echoed in the room, the heroine ending her sentence with a light nod. She then turned to the lanky form of Yamashita beside her. “What do you think?” she asked the country’s Number One hero, who then slowly turned his head towards her with a visible frown.

 

 

Machia let out a shrug. “So it’s that long-retired American villain huh? Kind of strange young Shigaraki knows about her.”

 

 

Spinner was about to speak when Tatsumaki raised a hand, silencing the whole room for a few moments. “How accurate do you remember this whole ‘Hero Killer’ thing?”

 

 

“I remember everything, where we met and where we dropped him at off Hosu City. If you want we can take ‘im out for ya!” Tomura tossed aside the pen marker he’s holding onto, hearing it hit the wall and completely miss the trash can by a whole meter. Why did he decide to toss it towards the garbage bin? He doesn’t know.

 

 

“No, all you must do is tell us the needed information and that’s it. Ingenium is not like this ‘Stain’ person you’re talking about. Ingenium’s not just a lunatic with a sword. He’s a speedster who decapitates his victims in one clean hit.”

 

 

The whole room went silent, with the only noises coming from the chatters of people outside.

 

 

“Okaaaayyy… decapitation… that doesn’t sit well with me…” Spinner muttered, wiping off the sudden sweat on his neck. “But you guys said he’s such a menace right? I’m sure we can take him out.”

 

 

“Wait, so that’s all the information you have on the matter?” Yamashita suddenly spoke out, interrupting Tomura who’s just about to speak. “I just cooked up a plan, let’s see how well your knowledge holds up. You said he’ll arrive at Hosu tonight, right?”

 

 

Tomura nodded. “Yeah, why?”

 

 

Yamashita turned to the heroine standing beside him. “If Hosu’s going to be the main battleground, I say you and me wait there. Not bad huh?”

 

 

“And we’ll flush that idiot from my old base! If everything is a parallel from back then, then that means he should run straight towards Hosu, and you guys then beat the crap outta him!”

 

 

“Sounds reasonable to me,” Yamashita said, nodding. “Tatsumaki, I’m waiting for your word.”

 

 

“In my honest opinion, that plan is a disaster waiting to happen. How can we be sure if Iida’s going to follow the same path as he did in this real world you’re talking about? Not everything is going to be that predictable.”

 

 

“Tatsumaki, it’s just one night of waiting, it’s not like there’s more important matters to attend to,” Machia then turned to Tomura. “You said there’s also some sort of Nomu deployment? Also in Hosu?”

 

 

Tomura nodded in response.

 

 

Machia nodded as well before turning to Tatsumaki. “High chance those could be Eviscerators based on the amount of damage alone, if the story’s correct and all. I know it’s stupid to rely on some kid’s words, but there’s no shame in trying once right?”

 

 

“Yeah, nothing wrong with just one try, right?” Tomura immediately spoke out. “If I get it wrong, then there’s no point in working with me again. Just this one time, please? Help us?”

 

 

Tomura immediately gave a hand gesture to Spinner involving a closed fist and a pointed index finger. And in a matter of seconds, the two are giving Tatsumaki their best puppy-dog eyes. Both rehearsed for this beforehand, with the majority of the ‘training’ composed of just laughing at each other for how stupid they looked. And based on the facial expressions of the two heroes, the ‘look stupid’ part is definitely true.

 

 

“I miss my younger days when I used to pull that off on my parents…” Machia said with a light chuckle. “The boy’s right. Iida has killed far too many heroes, I’m sure you know what to do. A higher kill count would mean people would start doubting our effectiveness. It is of our best interest to end this now.”

 

 

Tatsumaki looked at the Number One hero, face looking unsure, before sighing and letting out a light, “I do suppose you’re right…” She then turned her attention towards the two highschoolers. “Just this time, okay? I’m leaving. Meet you up at Hosu in around 6 hours…”

 

 

Before anyone could speak, Tatsumaki left the room. The entire meeting is just held at SpecPro A’s room right after classes. If the heroine is not wearing her civilian disguise, the whole crowd outside would have went wild at the sight of such a famous person, same goes to Machia.

 

 

“I have high hopes for you, kids.” The Number One hero said, doing a finger gun gesture towards the two before leaving the room himself.

 

 

It took a few seconds before Tomura eventually spoke. “Machia as All Might’s really badass, don’t you think?

 

 

“I thought you hate All Might?” Spinner asked, going to the nearest chair in front of him and picking up his bag. “Don’t you want to destroy him?”

 

 

“Machia rocks the costume way better than that pathetic All Might loser,” Tomura said, contorting his face into a disgusted expression. “I’m glad Dad put him in retirement. The amount of people going ‘oH AlL mIgHt’S hErE, We’Re sAvEd!’ is just too absurd. I swear one of the main things I’ll do when I got out of this world is to disintegrate that living crime against fashion.”

 

 

“Or you’re just biased towards Machia…”

 

 

“Maybe I’m just biased towards Machia.” Tomura nodded to Spinner, gesturing for his friend to exit the room. As they went out, he glanced over at the nearest wallclock hung over just to the left of their classroom door. 1 pm, still a few hours more before ‘Stain’ arrives in the real world, plenty of time for their internship with Beros – whoever her real name is.

 

 

Just the thought of her green hair caused a little bit of rage to well inside Tomura, and he himself couldn’t understand it. How could be someone so easily triggered to anyone with green hair? He barely met with Midoriya in the real world, how is this affecting him? While he has to admit it’s messing with him in real time, it also increased his level of gameplay performance against green enemies, is it a positive or not? Tomura doesn’t know.

 

 

As the two walked the corridors all the way towards the exit, passing by other SpecPro A and B students preparing for departure for their respective interships, his thoughts went to the whole anti-Midoriya campaign.

 

 

When will the plotline diverge from the original? So far everything’s still following the original ‘story’. Would it be after this, or the entire thing would just follow the real world as is? So far he already has the assistance of Dragunov and Revenant, and now potentially Air Cannon and Machia, and also Kizuki for that matter – which he’s still not asking Toga about.

 

 

‘Nah, that could wait.’

 

 

“Ingenium’s very different from Stain…” Spinner muttered beside him as they walked, as if thinking the exact same thing Tomura’s thinking. “I’m thinking the plot would start to diverge here.”

 

 

“What made you say that?”

 

 

“Eviscerators, Machia said eviscerators, Overhaul said eviscerators… what could they be?”

 

 

Tomura shrugged, thoughts instantly going to the name ‘Overhaul’. The class just had the activity in which students chose their hero names, and Overhaul literally just went with Overhaul. While some other students also went with their original villain names, others like Moonfish chose to go with a drastically different one as Doctor Dentist. Tomura remembered giggling uncontrollably to himself upon hearing the name but he had to admit it does sound rather catchy.

 

 

And it was only at that time Tomura realized the IT guy already dropped out. Does that mean Kizuki could finally get in? So far there are two vacant seats at class, is that enough to get her in?

 

 

The two went back to their respective rooms and got changed, before heading out of the school, all the way to a certain ice cream parlor and sit in one of the free seats outside, under the shade of a bright blue umbrella built onto their table.

 

 

The two was busily talking about new tactics in Exergis while waiting for Beros to arrive when the sudden loud intro music of a certain news channel blared out of the speakers of the television set hanging off the sides of the door that leads to the main shop. It showed a crime scene involving a tipped over armored van, with an inch-big hole going clean through the front and into the back. Based on the newscaster’s words it resulted in the death of 3 heteromorphs, and the entire crime being caused by the League of Villains.

 

 

“Everything is League stuff now huh?” Tomura muttered to himself. “Are we that blamed for everything?”

 

 

“Sorta. If you get what Machia said about fake heroes and you put it in the real world, it makes sense. Why bother investigating a crime scene when you can just blame it on the League and be done with it?”

 

 

“Just like Stain-?”

 

 

A soft thud turned their attention to the road. And there she was, stanced as if she just dropped from the sky.

 

 

“Hey guys,” Beros called out to them, standing up and straightening herself, dressed in casual clothes – very different from the hero attire both Tomura and Spinner were expecting her to arrive in. “Sorry I’m late.”

 

 

“We’ve been here for a good ten minutes, what took you so long?” Tomura asked, annoyed, but quite glad their ‘temporary mentor’ is not wearing her eye-magnetizing cleavage-flaunting suit she wore back during the Sports Festival.

 

 

Before Beros could even speak, a flash of light to the left caught the attention of both Tomura and Spinner. It was a fast projectile-like streak of greenish-blue light heading straight towards the girl at lightning speed, which she successfully caught by raising an arm right to her left side before it impaled her clean through the head.

 

 

It was a piece of metal. A simple cylindrical piece of metal… which Beros promptly tossed away nonchalantly, one free hand quickly darting into one of the pockets of her loose yellow sweater and showing her hero license to nearby people shocked by her little stunt.

 

 

“Huh…? Should I be alarmed…?” Tomura spoke out loud, gloved hands firmly planted onto the table, thoughts swirling inside his head whether he should run or hide. “Is that-“

 

 

“Hey, don’t think too much about it,” Beros walked up to them, pulled a nearby vacant chair, and casually brought it to Tomura’s table. She then stood behind it, one hand planted on the backrest. “Ready for the activity, boys?”

 

 

“Okay, but what was that earlier?” Tomura leaned back and glanced at the metal tube Beros discarded from earlier and pointed at it, noticing the lack of an energy-like glow unlike earlier. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

 

 

“Nah,” Beros sat on the chair she got and planted both elbows on the table, resting her face on her hands. “For our activity, we’re going to wait at around 1 to 2 minutes. Oh and by the way,” she extended out her hands to both highschool students in front of her, “Tomoe Ishiyumi, or you guys can call me Daikyu.”

 

 

“Daikyu huh-“ Tomura was about to continue when Spinner spoke.

 

 

“With Daikyu you mean those huge-ass longbows?” he said.

 

 

Ishiyumi nodded, expression seemingly as excitable as Tatsumaki was during the Sports Festival. “And before you ask, I will not explain what Scissors’s Quirk is.”

 

 

“I think Scissors or Maybe-Young-AFO’s Quirk is maybe twin laser cannons,” Tomura muttered, nodding and crossing his arms, seemingly sure of himself. “Dragunov obviously has guns, Ishiyumi Daikyu literally meant bows, so that means the only thing left is a sci-fi ranged weapon… I hope his arms can transform into huge plasma shotguns that shoot out weird energy symbols.”

 

 

“On the other hand, it could be plasma blades because Scissors,” Spinner muttered, stroking the bottom of his chin and wondering as to why the only guy in the Big Three has such a nickname. “Not bad… I’m kinda hyped- why is his Quirk secret again?”

 

 

“Classified.”

 

 

“What’s his real name then?”

 

 

“Classified,” Ishiyumi said, crossing her arms and leaning back. She was about to speak when a bunch of miniature explosions echoed out just from a few streets away.

 

 

“I knew we shouldn’t piss her off! The nukes are inbound!” Spinner looked around, finding a way to escape.

 

 

“Hey calm down, bud. Eleena’s not going to kill you, Twi’lek’s are not that bloodthirsty you know? But thanks for reminding me we’re gonna ask Toga about her,” Tomura calmly said, reaching over and patting Spinner in the back and pushed him back down. “You gotta get the hang of that ‘allergy’ of yours.”

 

 

“Huh…” Ishiyumi looked behind her, seeing the panicked mass of people running away from the site of the explosion, before noticing that even more people nearby are staring at her, expecting the girl to go fix the issue. She raised a hand in response. “We got folks stationed there, I don’t need to-“

 

 

A huge musclebound villain appeared through the street where the noise came from, plumes of smoke masking its true monstrous appearance, shortly before a bunch of caped heroes came in and took it down. Roughly a minute later, two highschool-aged wearing school uniforms of another school showed up to restrain the villain altogether.

 

 

“Hmm internships… expect the streets to be a little too… busy. Dragunov told me Machia already explained the system to you?”

 

 

Tomura nodded. “Fake villains, fake system, yeah.”

 

 

“Villains in broad daylight, how obviously fake can you get? Seriously, at the middle of the street?” Spinner shook his head. “Back then I just thought some villains are just too stupid to live, and now I know quite many are staged. Quite an enlightenment, honestly.”

 

 

“Well you learn more everyday. Oh, looks like time’s up…”

 

 

Tomura and Spinner noticed Ishiyumi’s head focused on one direction somewhere to her left, her expression slowly turning more and more sour every passing second. Turning in their seats to inspect what it is, both saw Kaina, wearing the exact same casual attire as Ishiyumi, just with different colors.

 

 

“I’m taking you two, now,” Kaina said, an index finger pointing at both Tomura and Spinner, while both eyes are narrowed to the other girl in the scene. “And don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing.”

 

 

“All the more reason why we should NOT meet outside of work. I do not approve of your fashion sense, Nova.”

 

 

“Feeling’s mutual, Beros…” Kaina then turned her attention to the two highschoolders and gestured for them to get up. “I will not allow this idle freak of nature to poison your heads. She reeks of… idleness…”

 

 

“I’m not gonna be part of your little stunt, Nova. I want to be intact and complete and in one piece. I have a dream that one day, amidst these inflated real estate prices, I can settle down and have a family… IN ONE PIECE.”

 

 

“Then go ask your several hundred bajillion thirsty simps, preferably the rich ones. Come Iguchi, Shigaraki, we got work to do.”

 

 

Tomura and Spinner got up, and started following Kaina away from the ice cream parlor.

 

 

“One piece, Nova! One piece! Breathing is fun!”

 

 

“I think she already knew you’re coming to get us- I thought you could only have a limit of two people?” Tomura walked ahead and positioned himself in front of Kaina as the three continued to proceed away from the ice cream parlor.

 

 

“That’s not important-“

 

 

“But you rejected us for that same reason-“

 

 

“I know what I said, now I want everyone to keep quiet! I need to think dammit!” Kaina said out loud, visibly gritting her teeth and angling her head forward, a look of annoyance etched on her face, only being exacerbated upon hearing the sounds of people getting amazed the moment Ishiyumi took off her disguise.

 

 

“She showed her license earlier and people didn’t pick up her hero identity?” Tomura asked, walking backwards and seeing people crowd over to Ishiyumi. “The portrait must be pretty small.”

 

 

“Hard to think Miss Green over there got popular bonking you and Toga on the head,” Spinner muttered, scratching his head. “And successfully pinning down Dabi of course…”

 

 

“People are weird, Spin-“

 

 

Kaina raised a hand, shutting up her two companions instantly. She then led her small group over some distance away from their original location, the sounds of random obviously-staged acts of villainy being heard all around them.

 

 

Half an hour later, they arrived at a relatively quiet area, where an apartment complex stood with its own parking lot in front of it. Revenant, also dressed in casual clothes, can be seen at the far right of the establishment, talking with two girls who giggle at his every word.

 

 

And just like his usual stance, his head is once again not facing the two of them.

 

 

Kaina eventually raised her right hand and snapped her fingers, getting Revenant’s attention.

 

 

“By the way, is it true that the Hero Killer decapitates his victims? Don’t you think it’s uh… what do you call it?” Tomura muttered, deliberately raising the volume of his voice. “Not right…?”

 

 

“Iida doesn’t indiscriminately attack kids. No heads are rolling tonight,” Kaina responded, taking a deep breath afterwards as Revenant got to them. “I’m basing everything on your foresight on this, try not to make me look stupid, yeah?”

 

 

“It’s still early in the afternoon, shall we leave?” he asked, adjusting his black blindfold with a free hand. “Although the sooner we can set up the better.”

 

 

“Where’s Kizuki?”

 

 

Revenant pointed at one of the doors of the apartment complex. “She’s getting ready.”

 

 

Kaina nodded. “Shigaraki, you go with Scissors and Kizuki, me and Iguchi will try to ambush him at the bar. Might have to put that reptilian scaly armor to good use.”

 

 

“Lady, I’ve brawled with thugs bigger than this stupid degenerate Iida guy. You’re underestimating my reptilian superiority,” Spinner responded, placing both hands on his hips and giving her a huge toothy grin, showing off his spotless teeth devoid of any cavities. “I can handle the guy… maybe… I hope so.”

 

 

“Hey save some for me, I’d like to try my hands on that idiot!” Tomura jokingly said, repeatedly nudging his friend with an elbow. “Hy hands hunger for Stain Rip-Offs!”

 

 

The two was soon separated, with Tomura being assigned to Scissors’s team, or what he thinks is a team. He felt odd about the whole situation, with him being on the passenger’s seat instead of the driver’s one, and he doesn’t know what to feel about it.

 

 

Part of him is annoyed about the whole ordeal. On the other hand, Scissors looked oddly similar to young All for One, and now the team’s being supported by Air Cannon, Forcible Quirk Activation, and Machia, so in a sense he’s still supported by his supportive adoptive father. In a way, nothing really differed much from the real world, and this time he’s more important because of his knowledge from the alternate universe.

 

 

Now if only-

 

 

“Hey Scissors, do you like fishing?”

 

 

Scissors was visibly thrown off by the question, reacting despite not facing him. “Fishing? No, not really.”

 

 

“Do you like stealing powerful Quirks-“

 

 

“I’m not All for One. There’s not a thing like that over here. Whoever he is in the real world, he doesn’t exist here. You might be confusing him with One for All.”

 

 

Tomura rolled his eyes, leaning on a nearby wall just beside Kizuki’s apartment door. “No I don’t. Those two are very different Quirks.“ He was about to talk more when the door opened, and Kizuki stepped out.

 

 

Tomura knew he had to ask Toga about her existence, and he should have done that two days ago if he weren’t always getting distracted by the ongoing online event in Exergis. He knew asking about Kizuki has more importance in this world but this is the only time he gets to play his favorite video game without worrying about heroes barging into the scene, and he’s going to use every minute of it fully knowing he can never play them back in the real world.

 

 

“Hi Eleena, looking very nice today!” Tomura instinctively smiled a toothy grin and waved a gloved hand. He felt the connection is still there, even though there’s a high chance she’s actually a very different person than what he envisioned she is. But nevertheless, he has a dangerous Quirk, she has a dangerous Quirk, and that’s all the connection he needs. “Scissors, what do you think?”

 

 

“Uh… love the dark hues, by the way.”

 

 

Tomura looked at him odd, noticing the strange way he said his words.

 

 

Kizuki merely nodded at him.

 

 

“Hey Kiz, what agency picked you up?” Tomura asked, tapping a finger on the tall girl’s shoulder as their group of three began to walk away from the place. “I was just wondering.”

 

 

“The coast guard. But I won’t start until next week.”

 

 

“The coast guard eh?” Scissors spoke, gesturing for the two to follow him. “How come I didn’t think of that, of course it’s the best place for explosives!”

 

 

“What do you mean?” Tomura asked, wondering if he can transfer there so he can intern side-by-side with blue mystery person. “What’s with coast guards?”

 

 

“The world of heroic glamour become more and more intense the closer it is to the mainland, with the ones most obsessed with it being the heroes stationed at the biggest cities,” Kizuki answered in Scissors’s place, leaning down as she walked. “There’s no place for ‘heroic’ cameras on the national coastal patrols. And since no cameras, people with smoke clouds and explosives can work there without a care in the world about popularity. Yeah their overall rankings can get quite low, but that’s not the point.”

 

 

“Coast guards… aren’t the risk for working with them a little higher than usual? They deal with numerous foreign villains every month. The most dangerous Quirks on both sides of the coin are freely used seeing there’s nothing to be destroyed other than water.” Scissors cleared his throat. “Aren’t you concerned for your own safety?”

 

 

“Scissors… people are not going to send kids on the front line…”

 

 

Tomura butted in. “I fully remember in the real world when UA started their internships program, they sent kids in real crime zones- Oh wait they’re just staged sh**.”

 

 

“I keep hearing about these staged things, anyone here care to enlighten me about it?” Chitose asked right after the group crossed the road and stopped by the traffic light on the other side.

 

 

“Er, it’s a rumor. Not really a real thing. The information highway’s really cluttered these days,” Scissors responded with a shrug, before making a discreet head shake directly at Tomura, which threw the younger boy off seeing the elite actually face him.

 

 

Tomura quickly nodded in agreement. While Kizuki is the most crucial aspect of the mission, he was well aware of the fact that she needs to be kept in the dark for as much as possible. She was about to track the most dangerous villain in the country, and the last thing they need is her backing out as there are no other alternatives.

 

 

Tomura felt something’s not right, dragging an innocent soul off to their potential doom. He was a villain for years, and yet something does not sit well with him in this decision. But at the end of the day, nothing’s going to continue to the present from here, and whatever happens to Kizuki would mean nothing, Tomura will go back to the real world, and he could just find her again.

 

 

Wherever she is…

 

 

The train ride to Hosu didn’t take long.

 

 

Tomura felt strange the whole ride. He’d never been in a train before, let alone getting to a public transport without anyone running away from the sight of him. He saw people minding their own businesses, sitting quietly on the train seats, without an ounce of fear in their systems.

 

 

Among the other things he noticed is that Scissors, despite covering almost half of his face with his blindfold, seem to be quite popular with the girls. He wondered if it has to do with young AFO also being good with the ladies. A silly grin emerged on his face imagining his bald and faceless adoptive father surrounded by beautiful women, and it was beyond stupid.

 

 

 

 

The mental image of Tatsumaki appeared in his mind upon imagining of the beautiful women, but he shrugged it off quite as fast.

 

 

Chitose, on the other hand, is the exact opposite of what’s going on with Scissors. Tomura could easily see people discreetly trying to move away from her.

 

 

After a few more walking and talking after exiting the train, the three eventually got to the designated location.

 

 

“Okay this is it!” Tomura said out loud, immediately going to the nearest dumpster and checking its contents. The stench is overwhelming, but Tomura soon found what he’s looking for. “Aha! An armless Machia figure! Just like the armless All Might figure back in the real world!”

 

 

“Shigaraki, close the lid, will ya?” Chitose walked in, covering her nose with a gloved hand. “We’re here to catch villains, not dumpster dive.”

 

 

“Alright, my bad,” Tomura said as he closed the lid. He wiped his hands off his shirt, not minding the disgusted look of both Chitose and Scissors. “So this is the place where the Hero Killer got dumped after our meeting,” he said, walking over to stand in a very specific spot in the alleyway. “Right here.”

 

 

“Are you sure we’re not in the wrong alley?”

 

 

“Armless Machia figure. I got it back in the real world because I want to make a remembrance of that idiot getting utterly stomped by highschool students, just like what’s about to happen to him now. And because Ingenium used to be a hero, then it’s a double win for me.”

 

 

“So you had a meeting with ther Hero Killer? How did it go?” Scissors asked, head once again not facing him, and fully ignoring Chitose’s confused look in the whole situation. “Did it go swimmingly?”

 

 

“Yeah, he tried to pin me down but I managed to push him off. And then I beat the crap outta him with my bare fists,” Tomura immediately started punching the air. He immediately stopped seeing the time from a digital clock from a convenience store across the street. “It’s already almost 3 in the afternoon?! Man time’s flyin’ fast! We need to set up now!”

 

 

“The Shigaraki that threw a massive tantrum for losing in the Sports Festival, but somehow got a win on the Hero Killer, that’s the most believable story I have ever heard! What do you think, Okinoshima?”

 

 

Tomura spoke first before the tall girl could respond. “Her nickname’s Eleena, not Okinoshima, got it?” Tomura shook his head, placing both gloved hands on his hips. “So let’s get started here, what should we do?”

 

 

“I think we-“

 

 

“Um Scissors? I don’t think I should tell you this but uh-“ Tomura looked side to side, and gone all the way around. “But I managed to snag Air Cannon and Machia into this and they said they’re going to be part of the mission. Don’t tell Dragunov I kinda convinced them.”

 

 

“Why not?”

 

 

“She kinda gets pissy every time I get the one-up on her,” Tomura shrugged. “Not gonna lie she kinda reminds me of myself on that regard but – nevermind, let’s start.”

 

 

Tomura pointed down to his feet and explained everything he knew in great detail, going as far as his rough estimate of how many seconds there are between Stain’s next courses of action – in case Ingenium does the same thing. He knew he has to take into account that the two Hero Killers have vastly different Quirks and capabilities, but all that matters to him is that he said what needs to be said.

 

 

“Your version of the Hero Killer must not be the brightest bulb there is. Why didn’t he try to escape?” Chitose asked, both hands planted onto the nearby wall and running them along. “There are so many things-“

 

 

“I dunno. We dumped ‘im here and he got cornered by kids and he just got obliterated.”

 

 

“Your Hero Killer’s weaker than the students he fought, any sane person would know when to back out.”

 

 

“The guy goes around and kills heroes based on his own twisted perception of them, he’s not a sane person,” Tomura responded, walking around the alleyway and inspecting the windows just in case a person might look down and see them. “He’s good with his weapons, but kinda dumb.”

 

 

“Point taken…” Chitose paused for a bit, noticing she’s the only person there who’s visibly doing something. “Are you guys going to move or what?”

 

 

“Okinoshima, you’re a minelayer. Your entire schtick is about rigging everything with explosives without the enemy having knowledge of it.” Scissors pulled out a phone from his right pant pocket and started pressing onto its screen, his head not even looking remotely close to it. “Once Katie gets a visual confirmation on our target, I’ll inform the closest hero agencies in this area that the Hero Killer is spotted. They’ll pull back their heroes, evacuate people, and we can theoretically destroy everything here – but please do not try to do that.”

 

 

“You can call me Tomura, by the way,” Tomura spoke out before the girl can, “since you look like AFO and all and I miss him calling me by my first name.”

 

 

“This AFO person must be very important to you huh?”

 

 

“I wanna be just like him. I wanna be a good villain. At least a portion as good as him.” Tomura nodded, ignoring more confused looks from the only girl there. “The tournament showed me I suck and and I’m lacking in a lot of areas. I got stomped left and right and only won once because of a stupid rule. Yeah I know I’m really bad, but I’m willing to learn – oh and don’t tell Spin I said that.”

 

 

“You’re oddly saying those to me instead of your best bud?” Scissors gestured for Chitose to keep mining and priming.

 

 

“Spin might think I’m a massive loser. And you really look like AFO. Look, I miss the guy okay?”

 

 

“I bet he’s awesome.”

 

 

“Yeah. Imagine being the great Demon Lord and having to choose me as his successor? You would he think he wouldn’t have the patience to stick around with a massive loser like I am, but he did. He’s great, he’s like super great, he takes me camping, messing around supermarkets, and makes damn good BBQ… and when I say damn good BBQ, I mean DAMN GOOD BBQ, and he does without Quirk enhancements! Pretty cool huh? He’s totally the best.”

 

 

“Seems like a good Dad to me, I can understand you miss him. For an evil overlord he seemed like a nice guy.”

 

 

“Yeah but he’ll annihilate you if you cross him, and he’s got a thousand different Quirks to do so!” Tomura said, glancing over to see Chitose just nearby and minding her own business with her hand at a wall. “What do you think huh? Super cool I know.”

 

 

“Hmmm I think I read about those kinda stuff. Any idea how many evil overlords have the exact same story?” Scissors turned his head and faced the girl, “Okinoshima! What is it about those oddly peaceful evil overlords?”

 

 

“You mean like Stars and Stripes?” Chitose asked, eyes wide and full of interest. Meanwhile Tomura’s eyes widened, hearing the very familiar name. He heard it being uttered by Machia earlier, but SnS being referenced as an oddly peaceful overlord definitely intrigued him. “The super-powerful ones that eventually gave up-?”

 

 

“Gave up?! No! AFO would never give up his villainy!” Tomura instantly spoke out loud, crossing his arms and a huge frown formed on his face. “That’s simply unbelievable!”

 

 

“I’m afraid but this ‘AFO’ guy is definitely showing signs of it,” Scissors then muttered to Chitose about everything Tomura ever said about his adoptive father. “Damn good BBQ and going camping with his son? Something’s not quite right here... I know villains have hobbies too but come on! When is the last time he did something big? I bet decades ago.”

 

 

“Hmmm… Something’s definitely not right with the story…” Chitose said, nodding. “Super-powered villains getting bored with action and eventually ‘retiring’ to live in peace? This ‘AFO’ guy seems like he’s very close to full retirement.”

 

 

“Just like Midoriya…” Scissors muttered to himself.

 

 

“I bet Midoriya’s just living life on the low now,” Chitose giggled and shrugged. “He’s always portrayed as this big evil overlord but the guy hasn’t done anything in years now!”

 

 

Tomura was about to say who Midoriya really is but caught himself at the very last moment. The girl must not know anything about him just yet.

 

 

He’s about to ask about the signs a super-villain is close to retirement but the thought of Midoriya being a ‘retired supervillain’ as well got to him first. Kaina already told him the full story about Midoriya some time ago, on how he used to be a supervillain, albeit his ‘career’ being relatively short-lived. Midoriya quickly settled down in the upper echelons of villain society and just warped the country to his liking, ending up this weird world filled with ‘fake heroes’.

 

 

Tomura thought more. What if AFO is represented by Midoriya here?

 

 

‘But what if what they said about AFO is true? A villain at the brink of retirement??’

 

 

Tomura pondered on the fact. Should he believe it? Part of him says no, and another part of him says yes. But whatever it is, he hoped it’s not true. AFO is a villain, he’s the current evil overlord of the time! But what if AFO is just building him up because he wanted to retire? That shouldn’t be it, Tomura envisioned a destroyed world with him, his Dad, and his best friend Spinner sitting on top. Destroying the world without the ‘best Evil Dad’ in the world is simply not fun.

 

 

“Guys? Katie just called in,” Scissors suddenly spoke, one hand pressing on a small hidden device hooked up in his right ear. “I’m gonna leave for a while. I do suppose I can leave you two here?”

 

 

“Uh sure?” Tomura replied, shrugging. “I mean I have nothing to do yet. Go ahead, we’ll just be here, setting up explosives.”

 

 

Scissors immediately left after nodding once.

 

 

“You know, Eleena… don’t you like this whole campaign thing? You get to use your Quirks!” Tomura walked beside the tall girl, trailing along behind her as she primed the walls with multiple hidden explosives. “I can’t wait for that idiot to get here so I can get my hands on some serious dehydration!”

 

 

“Are we really taking down the Hero Killer here? The guy with a confirmed kill of over 60 heroes…? Decapitation…?”

 

 

“A dangerous and deranged individual, but your mines can handle him, right? As long as he’s on the ground you can blast him off, right? Can you do it at any location?” Tomura shrugged afterwards. “Besides Machia and Air Cannon’s here to support us anyways… and it’s not like Ingenium can even see you detonating explosives.”

 

 

“I do suppose I can try. I’m not gonna get punished if I failed here, right?” Chitose asked, a tinge of nervousness on her voice. “I don’t think I can reliably blast a speeder under his feet.”

 

 

“No worries,” Tomura shook his head. “But do your best. It doesn’t matter how stupid you’ll look in your first time, but what matters is that you gave it your all. I mean that’s the advantage of failing right, you get to learn from your mistakes?”

 

 

Chitose gave him a light smile and continued priming the walls.

 

 

Tomura wondered why the girl’s not priming the ground, until one good look at it revealed how awfully dirty it is.

 

 

‘After this, provided all my predictions are right, things will start to diverge from the main timeline. More and more unpredictable things could start to happen… There will come a time where I couldn’t rely on guaranteed events anymore. If I’m going to take out Midoriya, I better start improving.’

 

 

Tomura couldn’t help but smile to himself and shake his head. AFO may either be a supervillain on the brink of retirement or just taking a breather but his teaching ways are certainly to be admired.

 

 

‘What a clever way to teach a lesson…’

Chapter 26: Tenya Iida, Hero Killer - [Part 2]

Chapter Text

Day 32

 

 

“The way with super-powered villains is simple: they get to do so much chaos, get to the unbeatable stage, reach peak villainy, get bored, and eventually disappear. It’s kinda easy, really. It’s quite an interesting case! I’ve read so many studies about it!” Chitose waved a free hand around while keeping the other priming the walls as she walked. “Stars and Stripes, a very heroic name for such a dangerous reality-warping villain, actually ended her ‘career’ by robbing a, get this, a very small convenience store and returning everything a day later!”

 

 

“What…? Just like that?” Tomura asked, walking beside her. “I was expecting like lifting an aircraft carrier or something. If I was a villain with a reality-warping Quirk, I’ll go make a Death Star and obliterate the planet or something.”

 

 

“No! Isn’t that strange?” Chitose spoke back, eyes wide open. “It’s almost like the big bads are also human and they get burnt out as well. Now that I think of it, do big bads suffer survivor’s guilt too? Especially the not-so-deranged ones? What’s this AFO guy like?”

 

 

“AFO eh? The guy’s the best, like really the best. He’s got a huge arsenal of Quirks! And very powerful they are too!” Tomura answered, noticing the unusual bright mood the tall girl is in and remembered something that Spinner told him to just let her talk and try to get along.

 

 

Yet Tomura wasn’t so sure about the advice and sounded more like ‘Just agree to everything she says and try not to piss her off’ thing. He very well knew Spinner is not the most powerful person out there and might be just acting out of instinct to not tangle with people much stronger than him.

 

 

“Based on what you’re saying earlier it seems like he’s burnt out as well. Over the years some super villains actually came forth and admitted to their crimes. Naturally they got imprisoned, with a horde of people coming forward and saying they should be executed. I’m divided on that and it’s a very risky topic to discuss so let’s just not talk about it.”

 

 

“Wanna hear more of AFO?” Tomura picked up his pace. With Chitose’s mood getting better and better compared to earlier, her walking pace is getting faster as well, with the overall length of legs alone mean her strides are longer than his and Tomura had to keep up.

 

 

“Do tell!”

 

 

“Oh he’s gonna get sooo impressed when I tell him about this ‘The One Who Nuked the F***ing USJ’! The guy’s an absolute sucker for ultra-powerful Quirks! Although his first reaction is always stealing it but I’m sure you’ll be fine with a little pre-introduction. But to think about it… he’s not really stealing Quirks anymore, not like then when I was a kid we would go out almost every night on a stealing spree, sometimes 5 to 10 Quirks a night and making headlines about it a day later…” Tomura said, his voice trailing off. It’s been so long ever since he and his adoptive father went out on a Quirk-stealing adventure.

 

 

 “Interesting… The guy’s got a Quirk that lets him steal other Quirks, yet he doesn’t suffer the effects of overloading-“

 

 

“About that, there’s this other person, a Quirk geneticist expert-thingy, a cranky old man who obviously hates me, he did some enhancements on AFO that’s why he can gather even more Quirks. Without him, he has an upper limit of around twenty-thirty-forty I kinda forgot but it’s on the low end.”

 

 

Chitose hummed a bit. “Not unusual for enhancements to come into play before storing more Quirks. I think it’s the same case with the original Nomus.”

 

 

“Original? Not the robotic ones?” Tomura asked, remembering the same thing Mustard told him some time ago about the early Nomus. “By the way you’re unusually agreeable this afternoon. Are my stories getting more and more believable? About us being from an alternate universe?”

 

 

“Nah, it’s just fun discussing some things. I know New Order is a very powerful Quirk, but making a new universe is obviously beyond what it can do. No Quirk is that powerful.”

 

 

“Suit yourself,” Tomura said, shrugging as he hopped over a small rock in his path. “Say… I noticed people are kinda… moving away from you back there on the train.”

 

 

Chitose stopped, eyes locked on forward and face contorting into multiple expressions of confusion and wonder. “You know what? Since I’m in a pretty good mood this afternoon, I’m gonna tell you straight up since you seem to have no idea how the world works.”

 

 

“I came from another universe, of course I have no idea how the world works,” Tomura responded, lately noticing he didn’t feel the urge to add ‘dumbass’ at the end of his sentence. “What is it?”

 

 

Chitose turned to him and shrugged, wiping her right hand to a glove she fished out from her handbag. “I don’t look normal, simple as that. You, me, most of SpecPro? We’re villains. We have villainous Quirks. We look like villains. You know what makes those people stay away from me more than you, hmm?”

 

 

Tomura’s head glanced up as the taller girl took one step closer and towered over him, remembering the ‘edit’ that went into Machia to make him more human-looking. “You look like a villain? But don’t I look like a villain too? Wouldn’t that make us the same?”

 

 

“Physical mutations are extremely rare on girls, and even rarer are those with villainous features like me, even more rare are girls with villainous features with a villainous Quirk, guess where I’m slotted in?”

 

 

“That’s… interesting…”

 

 

“The history of villain-colored girls and women is… very colorful indeed. Do you know that with the very few female supervillains, over half of them are colored in the same way I do? A jumbled mess? Negative connotations aside, in case that you don’t know how modern beauty standards work, I am what people could call a very ugly person!” Chitose placed both hands on her hips, a smirk etched on her lips. “But I made peace with what I look like a long time ago so I don’t really care that much anymore-“

 

 

“You look like a regular girl to me… just really really really tall… You should be a basketball player-”

 

 

“There’s more to it than that. And no I don’t want to go around wearing sunglasses all the time.”

 

 

“Can’t you just dye your hair?” Tomura raised an eyebrow, remembering how Dabi dyed his hair white.

 

 

Chitose stopped for a bit, left eye twitching. “You really have no idea how this world works…? Hair dye stopped working ever since Quirks began. Anything coating the hair for prolonged periods of time will completely shrivel it. And now, 200 years later, it’s still inexplicable just like Backforce/Cornstarch Principle.”

 

 

“Huh… the more you know!” Tomura responded. Aside from Dabi, the only other person he knew who dyes his hair is Kirishima. Kirishima’s hair being resistant could be easily tied to his natural Hardening Quirk. Tomura then thought about Dabi and how he can dye his hair without ruining it, and then realized that Dabi burns himself every time he uses his Quirk – except his hair, so it must be unnaturally tough as well. His thoughts then went to Toga’s disguise, and wondered if it could be the same reason why the girl won’t stay in disguise mode too often. “Now that I think of it, beauty parlors are kinda rare now.”

 

 

“I don’t care what I look like, what matters is that I’m soon gonna be part of the coast guard, and earning money is all that’s important,” Chitose composed herself and replanted a hand on the wall next to her and started walking. “How about you-“

 

 

“I think Revenant doesn’t think you’re ugly at all.”

 

 

“It’s not like he can see properly anyways.”

 

 

“He looks like AFO but younger, took me a while to see the resemblance. AFO also has no eyes but can see clearly. As for women I don’t-” Tomura suddenly stopped talking, his thoughts instantly going to his adoptive father’s personal life. As far as he knew, AFO never talked about anything that happened in the past, about how his life was as a ‘Demon Lord’, or about how his life was before he became the ‘Demon Lord’. AFO kept talking about how comic book villains are his main inspirations yet Tomura never bought it.

 

 

Evil Overlords do NOT get inspired by comic books. There has to be more to the story, and the way Revenant is acting around Chitose made him think-

 

 

‘Did AFO have a female acquaintance? A female friend? A girlfriend maybe…? A significant other? Could he be married once? To a female supervillain of his time? Do villains even get married?’

 

 

“And we’re done!” Chitose spoke out loud, snapping Tomura back to reality. “I’ve primed this side of the wall. I’m gonna go prime the other side just in case.”

 

 

Tomura was left standing as the tall blue-skinned girl happily skipped along the other side of the wall, hand dragging along.

 

 

‘Supervillains are not simply evil beings, they were people too…’ Tomura thought to himself. ‘They’re not born, they’re made…’

 

 

A simple comic book is not enough, something definitely happened back then. Is it an outside force or AFO just decided to unleash his Quirk upon all for no reason? Did a person influence him? Tomura got more and more confused the further he tried to decipher the code he made up in his head.

 

 

He eventually shrugged off the thoughts, choosing to just continue following Chitose around and wait until Revenant comes back. With nothing to do until the main target arrives, he deliberately started talking about AFO again, specifically the main topic of supervillain retirement.

 

 

What he’s expecting is the girl enumerating all the possible causes and discussing about them individually, but she quickly swerved off-topic and got into supervillain creation instead, going on and on about all the possible reasons as well as the supervillains she read about in history books and from the internet.

 

 

Tomura just stayed quiet, trying to find an opening to butt in as an attempt to change the topic as Chitose already went past supervillain creation and into narrating the life of a commoner on such supervillain-infested areas. Try as he might, he could not find an opening, and instead he got full insight on the life before heroes and other similar things.

 

 

“Eleena… it’s been over thirty minutes already…” Tomura finally spoke out, letting out a sigh of relief. “I can’t handle you nerding out for that long. But if you happen to know about video game lore then I’ll be your guest, if not then can you stop for a bit…?”

 

 

“Huh…? It’s been over thirty minutes already? Then where-“

 

 

Revenant suddenly reappeared, dropping down in front of them, his blindfold now replaced with dark-tinted sunglasses. “Let’s go get something to eat for a while,” he said, tilting his head to one side and gesturing for the two to follow him.

 

 

Revenant immediately gestured for Chitose to stand back, choosing to have a talk with Tomura on the way.

 

 

“There’s been sightings and reports of Ingenium in this area for at least 3 days now, or so according to the agency I just went into,” the young hero said, scratching the back of his neck. “You already know how most hero activities are faked-up now, and it should be no surprise to you that they don’t want to deal with real villains. Crime’s slightly higher these times. Notice there’s barely anyone doing internships here?  On the other hand, Katie and Iguchi are already in position so that’s a plus.”

 

 

Tomura nodded. “Heroes so used to made-up villains they don’t know what to do when real villains come in.”

 

 

“Well not all of them. Point is that Kizuki back there can make some real knock-out explosions and civilians would be none the wiser – that is if Ingenium would go into that very specific alleyway.”

 

 

“But Air Cannon and Machia are already somewhere around here, so if we failed, we still win, right?”

 

 

“Already met with ‘em. Tatsumaki said she’ll just be on standby. Haven’t seen Shinryaku anywhere but he’ll probably be here too.”

 

 

Tomura nodded in response. It’s been a month ever since he got dropped in here with a mission to kill his rival and so far he’s not making real progress yet. But if he’s going to stand a chance, then more powerful allies have to get involved. He hoped everything would turn out exactly as he predicted it.

 

 

Revenant took them to a nearby popular fast food restaurant specializing on all things chicken, and took a little while before they actually got a seat as there’s so many people waiting in line despite the rising reports of Ingenium. In sheer luck, the seat assigned to them is right next to a window that gives a good view of the target alleyway.

 

 

“Pick whatever you want, I got some spare cash lying around in my pockets,” Revenant waved a free hand about as he flicked the menu off to his companions. “Katie will give us the go signal… or until Ingenium shows up there… whatever goes first.”

 

 

“If we’re really going after that Hero Killer… and I’m not just being fooled into coming here…” Chitose leaned forward, lowering her voice and looking around. “What if he came for us? You can defend us, right?”

 

 

“Yeah,” Tomura added, “we don’t even know what your Quirk is. If speedy idiot decides we’re better targets, what now?”

 

 

“I can handle the guy if he ever decides to fight. Besides, we got the big guys on our backs to fall on. You two? No need to worry at all. I can save your asses if ever the need arises.”

 

 

“You better keep your word, my ass is worth more than all the people here, as the one true successor of All for One no less!”

 

 

“Okay then… Mr. Successor…” Revenant turned to Chitose who’s sitting beside him. “Okinoshima, I heard about his new garbage disposal procedure involving a high-strength chemical strong enough to liquefy even the toughest of solids.”

 

 

“I heard about that, but it seems to be a little too wasteful. Liquefication instead of recycling certainly…”

 

 

A huge frown slowly appeared on Tomura’s face, his eyes getting a tired look as the two began discussing garbage disposal methods, which he has absolutely no idea of, amidst a popular fast food restaurant. When the waitress arrived, he checked to see if he can recognize her from the real world, which he can’t. After just placing her in the ‘Original Character’ category, Tomura immediately ordered a bunch of high-sugar drinks (that he based off of the illustration), much to the confusion of the two.

 

 

He doesn’t care, all he wants is to stay awake, which he’s having a hard time of seeing his two companions still won’t stop discussing about random topics he couldn’t understand. On the other hand, a part of him wondered if AFO is at this level of nerd, since he doesn’t have anyone to talk to back in the real world to really demonstrate it.

 

 

When the food arrived, he spent no time slurping in as much sweets as he can in the shortest amount of time until brain freeze kicked in. He stopped midway, highly impressed by the taste of his strawberry shake, before going at it again upon hearing Chitose talk about sugar and her ‘Two-chamber circulatory system’. He had no idea what it meant nor any interest in it, he’s just focused on getting the sugar-high just as to not fall asleep by sheer boredom.

 

 

About thirty minutes passed and he heard a very familiar name.

 

 

Takeyama.

 

 

‘Mount Lady…’

 

 

The mental image of the vain heroine immediately popped into his head. He stopped his aggressive slurping and tuned in on the conversation, hoping to figure out what villain she is meant to represent – even more important because there are no female villains in the real world that he knew of, except Toga and Hasaki.

 

 

‘Does Nagant count? But she’s a former hero so she doesn’t count.’

 

 

Based on what he can hear, Chitose was picked by Takeyama as an intern and will do coast guard duty starting next week. Not only that but she apparently also received a new phone, given by her no less. Slowly getting filled with suspicions, Tomura glanced up and tried to read Revenant’s facial expressions, but failed to decipher anything. It’s like he doesn’t know that Chitose just got recruited by a villain.

 

 

He was about to lower his head and tune into their conversation some more when Chitose said something that instantly triggered something in his mind.

 

 

“Also she left me this latest edition of the Meta Liberation War book, isn’t that neat?”

 

 

‘THE MLA?!?!?’

 

 

“WAIT!!!” Tomura yelled out, but caught himself before he can grab the phone from Chitose’s hands. The restaurant stopped for a bit and everyone turned to look at him, some of the staff members went to their seat but Tomura had stock answers as to send them off, saying he just got the biggest brain freeze of his life. Everything soon went back to normal.

 

 

“Revenant, got a minute?” Tomura asked, waving a gloved hand in front of the supposedly blind hero.

 

 

“Huh…?”

 

 

“We need to talk. NOW.”

 

 

Revenant shrugged in response and turned to Chitose to nod, before standing and gesturing for Tomura to follow him to the restroom.

 

 

 Surprisingly, the restroom is empty.

 

 

“Revenant-Scissors-whatever, did Eleena just say she got recruited by Takeyama?”

 

 

“Uh yeah? She’s gonna do coast-“

 

 

“Do you have any idea that Takeyama is a villain? She’s a hero back in the real world, that means she’s a villain here! And based on the MLA book thingy on the phone she supposedly gave, she’s trying to recruit Eleena to the MLA!”

 

 

“Huh? I mean the MLA technically exists but they can’t really do anything with Midoriya around-“

 

 

Tomura took a step forward and pointed a gloved finger straight to the hero’s forehead. “Listen here, pal. The MLA is a terrorist group, and now they’re recruiting Eleena over there, who has the power to do absurd amounts of damage via concealed explosives, that’s bad news no matter what angle you look at it.”

 

 

“Shigaraki… based on what I know about them, they recruit all kinds of people… Okinoshima being ‘taken’ is just a coincidence. She’s not that powerful.”

 

 

Tomura mentally shook his head, kicking himself for almost slipping out that Chitose can theoretically function as a walking nuclear arsenal. If the girl doesn’t want anyone to know about her power, then he shall respect it.

 

 

“What kind of dumbass terrorist group would not take advantage of that? It’s got to be deliberate!” Tomura recalled all the information he heard. Not only this Takeyama person gave Chitose a phone containing her number and a digital copy of the MLA book, but gave her numerous offers about being a paid intern, as well as being made a hero in a far shorter time than normal. “She was literally offered to be taken out of UA for cryin’ out loud!”

 

 

“How much did you hear, really?”

 

 

“I heard it all. Don’t you think it’s a little too much effort on their part just to get someone in? It’s obvious they don’t put that much effort on any random person,” Tomura said, keeping his red eyes centered on Revenant’s dark-tinted sunglasses. “You’re a hero aren’t you? Shouldn’t you get the hint earlier than me?”

 

 

Revenant’s eyebrows lowered, a frown appearing on his face. “I mean it was obvious but uh... There’s a part of the plan Katie told me not to tell anyone and that’s more than half of my reason.”

 

 

“Uh-huh? You and Dragunov hiding something huh?”

 

 

Revenant stepped aside, turning his head directly to face Tomura. “Are you saying I want to sabotage the plan?”

 

 

“Sounds like it… Revenant…” Tomura narrowed his eyes further. Revenant, unlike Dragunov, is an original character – albeit looking suspiciously like a young All for One with black hair, and thus he’s not sure if he’s really an ally. “You’re not really planning to sabotage us, are you? I don’t take kindly to backstabbers, kid. If anything I want them-“

 

 

“Shigaraki, I know Okinoshima is getting recruited by the MLA. Yes I also know a massive war is going to happen in the near future. I just want her to enjoy life for a bit.”

 

 

“That’s the stupidest answer I have ever heard!”

 

 

Revenant shook his head, frustration easily visible from his face. “Let’s just continue the scope-out and end this nonsense. If you want to get a hint of it, talk to Kaina, not me.” He then immediately turned around and headed for the exit of the restroom.

 

 

Tomura, instinctively gritting his teeth on the perceived lack of respect, removed the glove on his right hand and lunged in, aiming at the hero’s nape. If the other person is not going to answer, then he must be taught a lesson. And what better way to teach a lesson than suffering an hour-long dehydration?

 

 

The hand connected to its target, all five fingers going in and holding on tight. Tomura stayed in his position and Revenant stopped as well.

 

 

“Shigaraki…” Revenant spoke, voice calm and normal. “Assaulting a hero is a crime.” He then reached behind him and took off the hand, with Tomura’s grasp immediately lightening as he couldn’t comprehend his target being completely unaffected by the dehydration effect of his new Wasteland Quirk.

 

 

“H-h-how??” Tomura stammered, retracting his hands back to him and quickly disintegrating a nearby tissue roll to check if his Quirk is still functional. “Wha…?”

 

 

“Enough with this nonsense. If you fixed yourself up, I’ll let this one slide.” Revenant turned around and faced him again. “But if you’re really suspicious about something, then why not join Okinoshima and be part of the MLA for a bit? We can still continue our anti-Midoriya quest.”

 

 

“H-how did you not…?”

 

 

Revenant smiled at him and nodded. “Next time, work on your temper, okay?”

 

 

Tomura stood there, half confused on Revenant’s plans and and the other half confused on his strange immunity. Did he unleash an invisible Quirk-erasing beam like Aizawa? Or is he just invulnerable to dehydration? “Uh… okay…?”

 

 

Revenant raised a hand and pointed it at him, as if inviting for a handshake. Tomura was about to raise a gloved hand to shake it but the hero tilted his head down to refer to his ungloved one.

 

 

Tomura shook his hand with the young hero. Once again, the intended effect of Wasteland did not come through.

 

 

“Let’s go. We both know the girl’s being recruited, so let’s just keep that knowledge up our heads and go on with the flow. You may have knowledge of the future, but the amount we’re about to mess up here can really throw things off. If you’re really worried, you can just join her. You already know they’re terrorists, right? I’m sure they have no problem adding in another person with a similar destructive Quirk like yours.”

 

 

“…”

 

 

“What? Couldn’t comprehend your Quirk didn’t work?”

 

 

“Uhh… yeah…”

 

 

“Some Quirks just counter others,” Revenant ushered Tomura out of the restroom. “Remember how Chisaki just flung you out of the ring and that hologram girl you fought? Not everything can be solved by simply lunging in. Sometimes you gotta think too in case their Quirks counter yours.”

 

 

Tomura did not respond, and instead just exited the restroom and went back to their seat, with the hero following closely after.

 

 

Chitose was in the middle of talking with Takeyama on the phone. Tomura, who immediately went back to slurping up his drink right after sitting, pretended to ignore everything yet tried to listen in to everything the girl said. He noticed Takeyama’s voice sounding a bit strange, and definitely not from a young woman in her early twenties.

 

 

He listened in further. As expected from a terrorist group, the woman kept on asking about her explosives. His thoughts then went to what Revenant told him, about joining in-

 

 

“Hey Okinoshima!” Revenant spoke out, making Chitose hold the call for a bit.

 

 

“Shigaraki over here wants to join you on your little internship, why not ask Miss Takeyama to get him in?”

 

 

“Uh yeah!” Tomura immediately spoke out, his mind only registering what he said a moment later. He then went silent afterwards.

 

 

“Uh Miss Takeyama? A friend of mine said he also wanted to join me in on the-“ Chitose stopped, eyes wide for a short while, before leaning forwards to Tomura. “She said she’s not accepting-“

 

 

“Uh hey Miss Takeyama!” Tomura leaned in in response, lightly shoving away Chitose’s hand that’s covering the phone. “Tomura Shigaraki, you might recognize me as that whiny idiot from the tournament, so I have this very cool disintegrate Quirk that allows me to turn anything I touch into dust-“

 

 

Chitose pulled the phone back, mouthing ‘keep it down! My hero goals are at stake here!’ with her face in a look of frustration. She then immediately put it up to her ear and apologized profusely to Takeyama for a good five seconds before stopping midway, her face suddenly going blank. She then handed the phone over to Tomura. “She said she wants to speak to you.”

 

 

‘Bingo!’ Tomura, in the middle of mentally cheering for his decisiveness, cautiously took the phone with his right gloved hand. If he’s going to get inside a terrorist group, then he has to give the greatest description of his Quirk as he can muster, while dialing up the destructive aspects.

 

 

“Uh hello there!”

 

 

“Shigaraki?” Takeyama’s voice asked from the other side of the line. “Wasteland 27, is that it?”

 

 

“Yep! I didn’t get picked by an agency back at the Sports Festival and I was-“ Tomura stopped talking mid-sentence upon hearing sounds from the other side of the line akin to that of fingers clacking onto a keyboard. If his hunch is true, then the next question must be-

 

 

“Tell me about your Quirk.”

 

 

‘That’s more like it.’

 

 

Tomura immediately explained what his Quirk can do, ditching all the professionalism in favor of ramping up the threat level. He barely has any idea on what his secondary ‘Disintegration Sandstorms’ can do but he ramped-up their destructive potential as well.

 

 

As expected once again, this ‘Takeyama’ person never bothered to ask about versatility and rather asked questions in regards to overall power. They talked for a good ten minutes before finishing.

 

 

“She said she’ll think about it, but I’m sure I’m in the hook.”

 

 

“You sure? You just talked about disintegrating-this disintegrating-that…”

 

 

“Takeyama’s got really high standards if you ask me. But what can I say? I’m already top-standard,” Tomura said as he leaned back in his seat. “Get my drift?”

 

 

“Ooookaaayyyy…”

 

 

Tomura glanced once on Revenant, who’s just leaned back in his seat beside Chitose and minding his own business drinking whatever drink he ordered. Since the young hero always wears eye-covering facial wear, Tomura can’t really tell if he’s observing as well, although something tells him he is.

 

 

Turning his attention back to the tall girl, he planned to ask a question, fully prepared if ever Eleena starts nerding out again. “Ya read about that Meta Liberation War book she sent ya?”

 

 

Chitose’s eyes widened, almost sparkling, as her face lighted up alongside it. Tomura knew it’s about to get long and boring, but there’s something about her that lightened up his mood as well, as if her sudden happiness transferred over to him. He wondered if it’s the way she clasped her hands, or the way she pursed her lips. Either way, Chitose looked surprisingly adorable for a moment.

 

 

As of that moment, she’s still giving off big sister vibes, or so what Tomura thought it was. There was something special about her, but he can’t tell what it is as of yet beyond their similar Quirks.

 

 

“It’s a slog to be honest. It’s the autobiography of some guy advocating free-Quirk usage.”

 

 

Tomura raised an eyebrow. He was fully expecting paragraphs-long stories but instead got two lines. “Is that it?”

 

 

“Free Quirk usage. You, me, can we even benefit from that? In a world where people are free to use their Quirks, the more dangerous ones are still going to be monitored, that’s just how it works. We can’t just go destroying everything, right?”

 

 

“Hmmm, but what about the MLA being a terrorist group, got some info on that?”

 

 

“Yeah but if you’re here all worried if they’ll strike back, then you’re placing your worries on the wrong things. You see, the MLA did attack two times already, failing miserably on both occasions. In fact, the two events are so embarrassing - in terms of terrorism at least, that there are nothing but memes on that if you search the internet.”

 

 

Tomura’s thought then went to the PLF mansion raid. Spinner said it was a total stomp-fest, with heroes literally bulldozing their way through with barely any resistance. “They’re weak?”

 

 

Chitose nodded, a bit over-exaggeratedly. “You see, the people who normally call for free-Quirk usage are those with Quirks on the weaker side or those with simple enhanced senses and traits since they’re the group that will benefit the most. You won’t see the flashy and powerful ones being into it because they’re already famous or heroes. You won’t see the destructive ones like ours because we won’t be able to use it anyways. Since the movement is filled with mostly weak Quirks, the moment a clash happens, they ALWAYS lose.”

 

 

“Woah… it all makes sense now…” Tomura muttered, remembering what Spinner told him about the ‘Ice Climber Deluxe’ being some sort of ‘MLA Super-weapon’ despite being noticeably weaker than heroes armed with elemental Quirks. The ice-user’s power levels is supposedly beyond that of any MLA soldier, with the rest being simple ones. If that’s the case, then the entire army being utterly demolished is the only possible result.

 

 

But that still doesn’t answer where Kizuki is during all that- if she’s supposed to be part of them judging by her appearing within their group as they first arrived into the scene around a month ago.

 

 

“Yeah let’s not worry about those guys-“

 

 

“What if I tell you that Takeyama is trying to rope you into the MLA?”

 

 

“You believe those rumors, Shigaraki?”

 

 

Tomura nodded. “She’s a hero in the real world, she’s got to be a villain now.”

 

 

Chitose shook her head. “I’m not going to believe too much in your little world. It’s my chance to become a fully fledged hero. I will impress them. I will start earning early. I will get tons of money and maybe get a month-long makeover.”

 

 

“I thought you’re fine being ugly.”

 

 

“Hey I’d like to experience being pretty too, ya know? I’d like to see what’s life… on the other side,” Chitose said, her voice trailing off, deliberately for dramatic effect as she turned her gaze outside the window. “Admit it, you’re always curious about the other side.”

 

 

“Yep.”

 

 

The group stayed for another hour in the restaurant before moving out. The next hour is composed of Chitose priming more and more nearby alleyways and potential escape routes. All this time Tomura kept his distance on Revenant – who in turn, is generally ignoring him as well.

 

 

It was a very cloudy evening, and Tomura wondered where could Air Cannon and Machia be at this point.

 

 

“Guys,” Revenant spoke, holding up a phone. “Katie’s got a confirmed visual on the target. Get to your places now.”

 

 

Chapter 27: Tenya Iida, Hero Killer - [Part 3]

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 32

 

 

Kaina stood at a rooftop overlooking the bar Tomura told her about, watching the sun set, especially the way the sun’s rays illuminate the dull skies in vivid hues of red and orange. According to the information said to her, their target should be appearing shortly, and she couldn’t help but look at the target building every few minutes.

 

 

“Sometimes you just had to appreciate the simple things, beautiful isn’t it?” Spinner muttered beside her, sitting on the floor nearby and leaning back. “I may be a former criminal - if you believe my story and all, but strength is never really my forte. I was never tasked in big roles, and moments like this I just get to observe.”

 

 

“Observing is natural to me. It’s just… these things are not special, everyday occurrences like this is not special. There’s no reason for me to do it. There’s no incentive,” Kaina responded, brows furrowing in ever growing confusion as to why people can get enjoyment from such an irrelevant natural occurrence. “What are you on about?”

 

 

“I can understand if you don’t like it. Not all people like it.”

 

 

Kaina shook her head, pulling down her cap as to hide her iconic vibrant-colored hair. She may have re-dressed again in another set of casual clothes after seeing Tomoe’s outfit earlier, the cap should always stay. “We got work to do, stop distracting me.”

 

 

“Looking at clouds distract you?” Spinner shook his head, deliberately mocking the way Kaina shook hers. “You need to slow down.”

 

 

“Snipers don’t slow down.”

 

 

“You don’t seem to have the infinite patience normally associated with them. You order-this-order-that but never slow down. You run down your prey instead of letting them wander to your waiting scope,” Spinner said, shaking his head. He fully remembers Kaina’s story in the real world as AFO’s first deployed hitman after getting out of Tartarus. According to the Demon King himself, she spent the entire time trying to chase after Midoriya instead of finding a vantage point for one clean shot – which is why he gave her Air Walk in the first place.

 

 

And for that she got blown up for the stupidity she showed, or so what All for One said.

 

 

“I’m a flexible sniper. I don’t wait, I run them down.”

 

 

“Then you missed the memo-“

 

 

“Who are you to say what me and my Quirk have to do?” Kaina asked, her voice rising in frustration. “You’re talking mad sh** for someone who never accomplished anything.”

 

 

“I know my Quirk is not that good. I know I never really did accomplish anything. But I can tell you this, you’ve got to learn to appreciate the people who stick by your side, or else there could come a time where you need them the most and there will be no one to come to your aid,” Spinner said as he nodded. He never liked his Quirk. He never liked his physical mutation. He may be very close to AFO’s successor, but some part of him is still scared of asking the person for a Quirk.

 

 

He was not called a Demon King for no reason. He once thought about telling Tomura to go ask for him, but knowing about the stories of what AFO does to people he only got slightly irritated with made him hesitate.

 

 

…Especially after hearing about Nagant exploding.

 

 

 There was no news about her after that, or at least what he heard. Did she die on the spot? But explosions can’t kill people. But what about ‘Demon King level of firepower’ explosion?

 

 

“Wow, thanks for the therapy session… I reeaaallly needed that,” Kaina said, rolling her eyes.

 

 

“I have really damn good people skills. All low-tier villains got to develop one or else… it’s a villain-eat-villain world out there after all…”

 

 

“I find it really hard to believe you and Tomura are former villains. I’m not buying your story, not one bit-“ Kaina suddenly stopped, raising a hand. “But since we still have time… Come with me, I’m going to introduce you to the League of Villains…”

 

 

“Time?! No! We don’t know if Ingenium’s going to arrive here at the exact same time as the real world’s! What if he arrived early? What now??” Spinner exclaimed, instantly standing up. “I know you’re not buying the story but can you at least buy it just for this occasion?? I thought you wanted to take out Iida?”

 

 

“True or not, I’m trained in Shoot-To-Disable protocols. I can-“

 

 

“Here you go again, going head-first into-“

 

 

“I’m the boss. I’m in charge. I get to call the shots. I decide what we do and I decide we go down and have you formally introduced to the League,” Kaina said, adding extra words in Russian afterwards before jumping down from the roof of the four-story building they’re currently at.

 

 

Spinner gritted his teeth, eyes moving around and trying not to say anything offensive, but he had no choice but to follow. What Kaina said reeks of utter disregard for him, in a way reminiscent to the way Tomura talks to other League members other than him.

 

 

Standing up and mentally cursing in his head, he peeked down onto the alley below, seeing Kaina already waiting for him.

 

 

“You guys need to get a wake-up call,” Kaina said as Spinner climbed down. “I don’t think you guys really know what the League represents beyond an all-you-can-blame buffet.”

 

 

Instead of heading towards the bar using the more exposed central road, Kaina led Spinner through the dark unlit alleys and all the way to the back side of the bar. Numerous sounds akin to that of explosives going off can be heard all around them.

 

 

“With all these internships going on at the same time, expect these fake villain scenarios to persist for the whole week. Hopefully not too many buildings get destroyed this time. Do you have any idea how much Graviton’s profits surged last year? Heroes got too careless and hired too many destructive pretend-villains,” Kaina said, gesturing for Spinner to lay low and hide behind a dumpster, whispering in light Russian afterwards. “I remember Midoriya mentioning his wife literally sleeping on money one time.”

 

 

“Maybe just an exaggeration?” Spinner walked ahead and crouched behind the dumpster. “The fella’s rich but that’s too absurd.”

 

 

“Maybe, but it’s all too real for me-“ Kaina immediately raised a hand and dove onto Spinner’s hiding spot, shoving him aside. But before the reptile-person can complain she instantly shut him up and repeatedly made pointing gestures towards the other side of the dumpster.

 

 

In about two seconds, a light thump is heard from the other side of the dumpster, akin to that of leather boots falling out of the sky and hitting the ground.

 

 

Another few seconds later, a young male voice is heard. “I didn’t sign up for this!” he said, among other complaints about hating his current job.

 

 

Spinner slowly peeked out, seeing the Former Number Three hero Hawks, slouched forwards with his hands shoved into the pockets of his pale yellow jacket. He was wearing a near-perfect replica of his original hero costume, and Spinner could clearly see the striped armored vest he’s wearing beneath the jacket. The only thing unique about his current iteration is that his wings are no longer bird-like and looked unusually mechanized.

 

 

The ‘feathers’ are blade-like energy fields projecting out of metal struts, and overlapping with each other to form a wing structure.

 

 

“That’s our guy, resident League of Villains bodyguard. With the chances of Ingenium barging into the bar higher than normal, we’ve got to make sure he doesn’t kill any more people. The guy doesn’t kill kids, but he’ll not hesitate to decapitate us… adults… me and that guy.”

 

 

“You can pass off as an 18-year old and no one would even notice. Heck you can even pass off as 16 if you wanted to,” Spinner said, deliberately not asking why Dragunov is about to help a former Hero – which is this ‘reverse-world’ could only mean he’s a villain.

 

 

“Iida’s got logs on us. And just like that Stain guy you’re talking about, he’s… very meticulous on some things… he’s also kinda hot.”

 

 

A huge frown appeared on Spinner’s face. “Seriously…?”

 

 

Kaina shook her head. “I was just making a visual assessment, don’t worry about it. Now for this mission I’m gonna do a little convincing.”

 

 

Now it was Spinner’s turn to shake his head, briefly glancing over at Hawks, who’s now had his back turned to them as if waiting for someone to arrive. Meanwhile he could see Kaina quickly unzipping the top half of her sweater and lowering the neckline part of it so that the tops of her shoulders are visible. “What the heck are you doing? Now’s not the time for flirting!”

 

 

“I’m gonna seduce the dumbass, dumbass.”

 

 

“Can you just tell him to go away for a while-?”

 

 

Kaina immediately stood up, quickly dusted herself, and started walking towards Hawks while swaying her hips and talking in Russian until she caught his attention.

 

 

Spinner observed the whole thing, noticing Hawks’s bored expression barely changing as Kaina walked up close. It was only this time he noticed that the former hero has quite visible eyebags. Hawks was silent the whole time, and looking like he could barely keep his eyes open, so whatever Kaina’s doing with him now doesn’t seem to be working one bit, as what Spinner could see.

 

 

His gaze went back to Hawks himself, remembering him as that one high-ranking hero who’s part of the MLA for some reason. He remembered the IT Guy – or Skeptic as what Re-Destro calls him as, managing him and his ‘spying’ operations, saying something like he’s the most important member there and his gathered information are all valuable.

 

 

Looking back, Hawks never did say anything valuable nor important, just things they all could have seen if only the satellites were online (or if the other MLA heroes are deployed to scout as well). Since Hawks is still part of the heroes after the first wave of the PLF War ended, there’s a high chance that he’s the one who called the heroes in and pointed their location out.

 

 

And Skeptic is unusually proud of him all the time within the MLA mansion.

 

 

Spinner tried to remember more of the event. When heroes suddenly arrived that fateful day, he can remember ‘Skeptic’ going out to the front of the mansion and yelling everything is Twice’s fault, and then disappearing again and then suddenly resurfacing wanting to get away on board Machia.

 

 

His thought went to Skeptic blaming Twice. If there’s something suspicious to be said about that little fact, is that Hawks – Skeptic’s pride and joy, is the one mostly hanging around with Twice in the two months in the mansion.

 

 

‘Wait… what if Skeptic arranged Hawks so that Twice will eventually tell him the location of Tomura so the hero can tell the other heroes where we are? And then he can blame Twice so he now has reason to get him killed? Spinner thought, remembering how Skeptic tried to escape along with them, leaving his entire team behind (with not a single mention of wanting to free them again) so that any survivors of the war are now under his command.

 

 

Spinner peeked again. Skeptic is definitely suspicious: Hawks, blaming Twice, the mismanagement of the satellites, the willingness to escape, ignoring his old team, not wanting to free them at all…

 

 

And now Skeptic is even more suspicious by his sudden dropping out of school.

 

 

‘The guy’s certainly up to something… him saying Kizuki looks a lot better as tomato paste might be another hint too…’

 

 

“Who’s the guy?”

 

 

Spinner went back to his senses hearing Hawks’s voice. Setting his gaze onto the former hero, he found out that Hawks is now facing him, a free hand pointing at his direction. He was about to make up a stock answer in the midst of bewilderment at being found out despite being hidden in the dark when Kaina spoke for him.

 

 

“Our newest agent! Only the best of the best of course!”

 

 

“Dragunov, cut the act, what do you want me to do?”

 

 

“Take the night off for a bit, yeah? Me and my agent over here got you covered-“ Kaina was twirling a finger on her hair mid-sentence before being cut off. “And after you got a good night’s sleep I suggest we-“

 

 

“Well then! You know I could-“

 

 

“If all goes well this evening, you could say I just saved your sorry ass… loser…”

 

 

Hawks stared at her for a good two seconds, his already narrowed eyes getting narrower. “You come barging in here, with your lowered sweater and all that pizzaz, trying to seduce me for whatever reason, before reverting back to your default state right after I agreed to take the night off. You know I don’t like being the bodyguard, I would have instantly answered yes if you opened up asking me if my spot’s open.”

 

 

“That’s none of your concern.”

 

 

“Whatever, I’m leaving now.”

 

 

Hawks crouched and immediately jumped up into the air, his energy wings extending at the very last moment. Without flapping or anything resembling real birds flying, Hawks soon flew out of sight, leaving behind a faint trail of crimson streaked across the sky.

 

 

“What was that for?” Spinner gestured his hands to Kaina, his head looking around. Hawks literally said all she needed to do was ask, and yet she went her way to-

 

 

“Oh that was nothing, told ya he’s a horndog,” Kaina twirled around with the grace of a ballerina, looking like she enjoyed what she just did. “All we need to do is get him out of the way and now we’re clear to take Iida down, what do you think, hmmm?”

 

 

“What happened to you?” Spinner asked, noticing the girl’s unusual light mood. It took Kaina a few moments to respond, in which her face returned to her usual scowl.

 

 

“Nevermind, let’s go get you formally introduced to the clowns of society…”

 

 

Kaina lightly shoved Spinner aside, stretching her neck to the left and to the right, cracked her knuckles, and twisted her torso, before gently knocking on the door that leads to the League’s current base-of-operations. “Pizza delivery!” she said in a mocking tone, before talking all sorts of Russian profanities Spinner couldn’t understand.

 

 

The door opened, revealing the lanky form of Awase, dressed in attire very similar to what Tomura wore in the real world, with the only difference being his metal headgear covering his entire head.

 

 

“Bold of you to-“

 

 

Awase didn’t get to finish his sentence as a rapidly extending rifle barrel with an oversized hammer-shaped muzzle hit him square in the head, sending his helmet flying clear across the room. What came next is a series of extended rifle muzzle hits hitting every League member inside, with Tetsutetsu being the last man standing in the room.

 

 

“Remember me?” Kaina taunted, her arm rifles swiveling forwards and being wielded like makeshift tonfas, with duplicate guns extending backwards as well in one strange amalgamation of weapons.

 

 

“Are you going to-“ Spinner was interrupted as the girl extended the right gun, going straight on the left side of Tetsutetsu’s neck. The previously hammer-shaped muzzle extended sidewards further, allowing Kaina to hook herself into range by retracting the entire gun and giving her a good shot of the enemy’s face – which she then started hammering by the gun on her left arm extending and retracting back and forth like a jackhammer.

 

 

All that happened in mere moments, and Spinner couldn’t believe it. All League members down and out.

 

 

“Don’t congratulate me too much, this is just the League, they’re leagues behind any villain anyways,” Kaina said, hopping off of the iron villain after successfully knocking him out cold through the armor. “We’re here because you might need a reality check.”

 

 

“Ingenium’s about to arrive and you’re gonna give me a-“

 

 

“Ingenium huh…? He’ll be arriving any time soon… and by that time and you two’re still here, then you have overstayed your welcome-“ Awase was interrupted by yet another hammer-shaped rifle muzzle slamming onto his face, instantly knocking him out cold.

 

 

“Ingenium’s called in, exactly like that Shigaraki said. And going more of what he said, Iida should arrive at around 7. It’s only a few minutes past 6.”

 

 

“What exactly are we doing here?”

 

 

“You’re the League in the real world, right? You and Shigaraki talking like you’re the most wanted criminals in the country, right? Well pal I have very bad news for you…”

 

 

Kaina was about to start her story but was eventually persuaded to tell it outside, and on they went back to the rooftop from whence they came, much to the girl’s frustration. The sun is now on the verge of setting, it’s golden rays saying its last goodbyes before they disappear into the night.

 

 

The story began. The League of Villains, contrary to popular belief as one big criminal mastermind responsible for the random acts of villainy across the country, is just a blame system set up by Midoriya. They’re not brainwashed, mind-controlled, or persuaded in any way, and more like a bunch of people stupid enough to believe they’re real villains.

 

 

They are a group of six people with barely any skill, six people that lose against virtually anyone, six people believing themselves to be the group to bring forth destruction to society yet never accomplished anything. They’re so bad Midoriya had to assign a bodyguard to them because they keep messing around with other villains and will get themselves killed if not carefully watched. The blame system relies on them being alive, and that’s the most important thing that matters.

 

 

“The amount of times they get utterly destroyed by some tough kids in highschool with ranged Quirks is far too many to count on one hand…”

 

 

“Are you saying they’re-“

 

 

“A joke in terms of villain threat level, but an absolute important pillar in which the faked-up hero society is built on. So tell me, Iguchi, did your group actually accomplish anything prior to this ‘Deika City’ thing?”

 

 

Spinner thought for an answer, remembering all the villainous activities he did with the League. “Losing… a whole lotta losing.”

 

 

“The group with the smoke dude who can teleport stuff kept on losing… If your story is to be believed, tracking heroes are literally everywhere in your world but the heroes still can’t get you guys huh? Did it ever cross your minds that they’re just letting you get away? A villain group so bad the heroes are letting them get away…” Kaina shook her head, frustration visible on her face. “I’m teaming up with the League’s equivalents… out of all people I could team up with-“

 

 

Kaina immediately stopped, raising a hand. She then dropped down and crouched in one of the raised metal fences of the rooftop they’re on, peeking over to the other side while gesturing for Spinner to drop down as well.

 

 

The sound of rapid footsteps is heard from down below, as well as light engine revving sounds. Peeking over from her hiding spot, Kaina could clearly see the distinctive form of Tenya Iida - Ingenium, and his worn-looking armor.

 

 

“Looks like a villain-ified version of his hero costume… Quite badass if you ask me…” she heard Spinner whisper nearby while also looking down, his eyes especially centered on the barely visible blades attached to the villain’s shins. “Told ya he could be early…”

 

 

“Sheesh… beginner’s luck…” Kaina muttered back, sarcasm reeking in her voice. Down below Ingenium walked into the bar, the window giving both a clear view of the event going on inside.

 

 

“I remember when Tomura told me about this scene. I wasn’t part of the League yet-“

 

 

“Shush! Better get yourself ready, we’re taking action now…”

 

 

Spinner looked down, and back up again. “You mean I’m going down there?”

 

 

“You’re a former villain, and you’re gonna fight a former hero. If you’re going to prove this time around that you’re not as useless as you are back then, then do it now, will ya? Once the window breaks, you get in and do whatever you want. But remember we’re going after Ingenium, not the League. Keep the League alone, okay? It is of utmost importance that the League is completely fine after this.”

 

 

Spinner, without questioning anything, immediately hopped over the fence and started his descent, all kinds of profanities circling his head. He’s only been here with Kaina for a few hours and she’s done nothing but project an aura of superiority every time she can, further amplified by her obnoxious random Russian sentences she keeps adding in between.

 

 

“This got to be what the other League members felt all the time… no wonder they all hate Tomura…” he whispered to himself as he quietly went down the walls. He half-ignored what Kaina told him about the story of the League, it’s too farfetched and outlandish to be applicable in the real world. Checking the window, he saw Awase’s hand pulling a curtain over it to cover everything. On the other hand, his voice went from low to high in a matter of seconds after doing so, telling Iida all sorts of things about ‘The Nightmare’ ripping Tsutsumi’s guts out the second time in full graphic detail, which are all quite audible from the outside.

 

 

‘The heck…?’ Spinner thought to himself, hearing the used-to-be hero student brag about his ‘ability’ but not once talking about how Dragunov somehow survived to be torn apart a second time.

 

 

He can hear Iida’s voice, a faint one at that, sounding exactly like the way Stain did in the real world. He then talked about his usual fake heroes thing. Listening carefully, Spinner could make out some of the words, and he’s talking about the way villains are obviously paid actors and a lot of hero activities are just staged scenarios.

 

 

Spinner knew that those are not what Stain said. Stain just mostly talked about how heroes just save people for fame and not for actual heroics. Here, Iida said the exact same thing Machia told them about the fake hero system.

 

 

And then it was Awase’s turn to reply, talking loud enough to be heard outside but not loud enough to draw more attention. He’s talking about how he wanted to tear down society and kill Gigantomachia - which is exactly what Tomura wanted, despite not even having a powerful enough Quirk to stand against the weakest hero students at UA, something he said himself as he narrated what happened in USJ back then.

 

 

Spinner thought for a while on how long AFO could have been helping them. Tomura said it was just around the Deika City massacre, but now that he realized how weak they really are it may have been they’re being helped by AFO all along.

 

 

The faint sound of metal hitting metal brought his attention upwards. Over there is a small rifle jutting out of the metal fencing, with a suppressor attached to the muzzle.

 

 

Spinner raised an eyebrow at what he saw. Kaina is preparing to shoot, judging by the little movements the gun is making. What he can see is a simple silencer, and he definitely well knew that silencers don’t work like those of movie-

 

 

It jerked a little and the window it’s pointing at instantly shattered, sending the nearest people screaming and trying to get as far away from the scene as possible. What was previously thought as a stealth mission suddenly made an announcement.

 

 

Spinner, wondering how can a gun be so silent, let go from clinging on the wall and barged through the door, knocking it wide open and rushing straight to the armored form of Ingenium and delivering a punch straight towards his helmet, using all the power he has in his now 16-year old form before the villain could even register what’s going on.

 

 

At the moment of impact his punch made, the sound of machine gun fire repeatedly hitting metal echoed throughout the small enclosed space, followed closely by the loud panicked sounds of civilians outside. And then there was a loud yelp of pain from Ingenium. Spinner turned to see what it was and saw Kaina now standing by the doorway, extending her modified arm rifles once more and slamming them to the faces of the League members, instantly knocking them out the second time this evening.

 

 

Amidst all the profanities Ingenium’s throwing out, Spinner managed to grab onto his back and toss out his stash of katanas, only noticing now that the villain’s right foot has been shot as well as both leg-blades being taken out.

 

 

“Maybe just don’t go out and trust other villains-“

 

 

Spinner was in the middle of removing the last katana when Iida yelled something incomprehensible to him before getting boosted to Kaina’s location, who quickly extended the rifle on her left arm and increased the size of the muzzle before hooking onto the table counter and successfully pulling herself out of the way.

 

 

“What do we do now?!” Spinner yelled out, trying to pull Ingenium’s helmet out but to no avail. The villain then started ramming him on to the walls, trying to dislodge the unruly passenger. But since there is no space to get a running start, as well as having a busted foot, Iida can only go so fast, and Spinner’s natural scaly hide is offering some degree of protection.

 

 

“Ingenium you’re under arrest for multiple-“

 

 

“I missed the part where that’s my problem!” Iida retorted back, charging into Kaina and swinging a leg aimed at her head, which the girl narrowly evaded again using the same technique she did earlier. But despite the sudden increase in speed, the lizard on the villain’s back still clung on. “Get off me!” Ingenium yelled, charging backwards and slamming Spinner onto the wall once again. He then started boosting across the little room, combining attacking the heroine and trying to get the student off of his back.

 

 

It was a chaotic scene, with the sprawled unconscious bodies of the League just scattered around, sometimes getting kicked by Ingenium as he sped by.

 

 

In a few moments that felt like an eternity, Spinner managed to dislodge the helmet and guide Ingenium to slam head-first onto a nearby wall. But what was intended to knock the villain out, only ramped up his rage, in which Spinner soon experienced as he was slammed onto a wall himself with far greater force as compared to earlier, knocking him out unconscious.

 

 

“Bringing in kids now? What the hell is wrong with you heroes?”

 

 

“I figured I’m going to need one to play with your inability to actually kill them,” Kaina responded back, now outside the bar and hanging by the side of the wall with an extended rifle hooked on the roof of the building she’s on, one free hand grabbing her cap and tossing it away. “He did great. He’s done his part.”

 

 

“Not above to using them as pawns huh?” Ingenium asked with gritted teeth, seeing the heroine casually ignore the now knocked-out Spinner sprawled on the floor in the same manner as the League.

 

 

“Everyone’s a pawn in my playground, pal. They’re just stupid to believe they’re not. Now let’s get this over with, we got a nice cell for you to spend the rest of your days in.”

 

 

Ingenium snickered, and then let out a short laugh. “Heroes, pffft. You out there talking mad sh** for someone who can’t even reliably restrain your enemy. Well that’s what they get for hiring someone like you. Like seriously… a gun?!”

 

 

“If we’re going to have a one-on-one I guess it’s about time you know that-“ Kaina immediately fired a small caliber round directly at the uninjured leg of Ingenium, causing the villain to let out another yelp. It didn’t penetrate because of the unnaturally tough armor Ingenium’s wearing on his feet, but the impact is enough to distract the villain for a brief moment, allowing her to keep her distance while maintaining her clinging. “My job doesn’t focus on heroics that much.“

 

 

Kaina’s gaze, despite centered on her enemy, quickly glanced on the villain’s right injured foot. It took her multiple rifle rounds just to penetrate it by just shooting down a specific spot. Since Ingenium’s now up and alert, it will now be hard to pull another one again on his left foot. Something in her mind told her she should have shot both feet earlier.

 

 

 

Despite being injured on his right foot, Ingenium boosted forward and shattered the part of Kaina’s rifle that she’s currently using to hook onto the roof, and if it weren’t for the heroine’s quick reflexes, the boot would have hit her square in the head.

 

 

The kick was followed closely by a swing of a broken katana Ingenium picked up as he boosted, managing to make a small slash on Kaina’s left thigh, tearing a part of her outfit clean off. He then went for an overhead slash but his weapon collided with two rifles with modified oversized barrels before it could connect to its target.

 

 

But the block was not effective, for the katana still managed to slice off a huge chunk on the fleshy parts of the firearm, sending Kaina reeling from the pain and falling on the ground, immediately retracting the weapon back into her.

 

 

Ingenium wasted no time and ran straight towards her, broken katana in one hand raised up high. The intent of impalement did not follow through as a crude-looking gun with an oversized muzzle jutted out of Kaina’s right arm and rammed itself up Ingenium’s armored chestplate, pushing both people out on either direction.

 

 

Kaina used this time to tumble backwards and get on her feet. The pain is still lingering on the sliced-off chunk of gun-flesh, but only a minute amount left. As long as she can retract her bioweapons back, the nerve endings formed onto it will disappear and be reabsorbed into her body, effectively removing most of the pain.

 

 

The only drawback is that it counts as lost Quirk Biomass and blood, things she cannot replace that easily.

 

 

Getting back on her bearings, she turned her attention forward, noticing the now-fleeting form of Ingenium.

 

 

Positioning her elbows back, Kaina jutted out two rifles with pole-like forms directly on the ground and then extended them, propelling her to the roof overlooking the bar. From there she extended her weapons further to land beside Spinner, before modifying their muzzles to lengthen beneath the unconscious student. Using all her strength, she retracted the rifles, carrying Spinner with them and successfully pulling him to the roof. The pain on her thigh intensified a bit, but better save a student from potential future harm than land in jail faster than the villain she’s after.

 

 

Kaina then wasted no time after getting Spinner to safety. Rifles directed downwards and with maximum extension, she began hopping onto the nearby buildings to the location he went to, landing with greater force on her right leg as to not amplify the slash wound on her left thigh.

 

 

She underestimated him, thinking the villain would go down and surrender after getting hit on his most valuable body part. She was wrong, the Hero Killer is surprisingly resilient, and now he's on the run straight towards the direction of Hosu. Mentally kicking herself for not preparing for the situation if ever the target escaped, she continued her pursuit.

 

 

Ingenium will not be escaping her tonight.

 

Notes:

I’ve always wondered if there’s a separate "Biomass Storage" for “Biological Quirks” like Rifle, Dupli-Arms, Creation, Pop-Off and other similar things…

Chapter 28: Tenya Iida, Hero Killer - [Part 4]

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 32

 

 

Heroes: specialized individuals tasked to keep the peace, bringing in feelings of safety and security to the average civilian at their mere presence. When they first arrived, the general populace thought they were a joke, bringing a comic book idea to life. Adorning their brightly-colored uniforms and a license from the government, the ‘early heroes’ immediately proved themselves out on the field, using their unmatched superhuman prowess to bring the evildoers to justice…

 

 

Or so what the people thought.

 

 

Heroes in reality don’t tangle with real villains, at least a vast majority of them. After all, why bother risking your life when you can just stage a fight and have the masses be amazed by your skill? Why bother tracking them down when you can use the time to advertise yourself instead and rise to fame? Why bother with dangerous serial killers when you can just call someone to take them out for you?

 

 

Kaina knew it’s wrong to kill people, yet the gift that was given to her made her very suited for taking lives. Not just Midoriya (who set up the entire ‘hero’ system in the first place), but quite a number of agencies hire her on the regular, either to take out a dangerous foe, or a random vigilante that’s being a nuisance, or people about to expose the system for what it really is. She’s killed so much people that her kill count far exceeds that of the villain she’s running down.

 

 

If there was a bigger murderer between her and Ingenium, it would be her.

 

 

‘Not above to using them as pawns huh?’ Ingenium’s words echoed through her head as she pressed a button on her phone, alerting Revenant that the villain they’re after is going straight to Hosu, before putting it back inside her handbag.

 

 

She shook her head as she used her guns to pole-vault through building after building trying to get the thoughts out, the pain on her left thigh intensifying every landing. She’s killed so much people she now has nothing but utter disregard to their lives. In the recent times, everyone is just a pawn to her. Yet she knew she can still change it. She’s still young. There is still hope to look at people more than just blood bags waiting to be punctured. Maybe…

 

 

‘I think I’m gonna need a LOT of therapy once I’m done with this nonsense…’

 

 

She doesn’t want to kill people anymore, but she can’t stop as of yet. The moment she retires, Midoriya will instantly replace her with a far more effective assassin, which would be an absolute disaster. At the moment, she’s the number one go-to person for strategic deletions. Agencies far and wide across the country hire her for it. Taking advantage of the situations, she deliberately stalls her missions to make them take longer than it would normally take, but not too long as to make her look too suspicious and hire other available hitmen. With her deliberate stalling, assassinations dropped significantly over the year.

 

 

Even if she can’t say no, for far greater reasons, she’s doing her part.

 

 

‘It ain’t much, but at least I’m killing less people now…’

 

 

The world will not change overnight, but she knew taking out Midoriya will be the trigger for things to shift. No more fake heroes, no more costumed individuals abusing their power, no more pretend do-gooders. Natural order will be restored… eventually… maybe…

 

 

Iida was right on them being fakes, but killing people is still wrong… most of the time.

 

 

 

 

Soon enough, just a full minute after leaving Iguchi on a roof of a building, she eventually caught up with the villain. Ingenium has slowed down, a normal reaction for a speedster after their right foot getting punctured. But despite the damage dealt, the villain can still outrun a car, befuddling his pursuer.

 

 

Noticing the target making a turn, Kaina immediately propelled herself and landed on top of a water tower. From there she could hear the sounds of panicked citizens as Ingenium made his way through the roads and into Hosu. Quite unlike what she heard how Inengium operates, the villain insists on running in the middle of the road.

 

 

‘Could it be the damage he had on his right foot? Most likely. Can’t afford to run through the back alleys and trip-”

 

 

It was only at this moment that Kaina noticed that her phone has been vibrating inside her handbag for quite some time now. But just a few moments after she looked at the screen, it automatically ended and just categorized itself as a missed call.

 

 

It’s from Tomoe Ishiyumi.

 

 

Kaina ignored it and instead focused on the small figure of Ingenium running away, slowing down even more so than usual. She deduced it could be that he might have thought he already managed to outrun her. Seizing the opportunity, she made her way closer and closer, carefully landing on every roof as to make everything as silent and painless for her as possible.

 

 

She doesn’t have the sound-muffling leather of her hero costume’s boots, but her casual shoes still managed to do the trick – with the panicked civilians masking the sound of failed landings. In a distance, she could hear the sound of police sirens, which meant Scissors already contacted them.

 

 

Kaina knew they’re not there to aid the fight, as no ‘standard’ hero would even dare to fight someone with a confirmed kill of more than 60. The police’s presence is just used to usher the people to them and nothing else. Policemen are armed with nothing more than pistols with extremely low-caliber bullets with flat tips – a standard Midoriya approved.

 

 

But what if villains decide to come to them? Police blockades are normally protected by two to three hitmen on standby, out of sight from any civilian. Almost all villains are wise enough to avoid them.

 

 

She may be a hitman, but since there’s no hit order on Ingenium (for reasons she herself doesn’t know), she can’t just shoot him dead on the spot. Midoriya may be able to bail her out without issue, but it is wiser to just not mess with an all-powerful supervillain.

 

 

Kaina turned her attention back to Ingenium, and got close enough to get a good view of her target – who’s now running on an empty stretch of road. In a flash, her vision blurred at the edges, and a neon blue crosshair appeared at the center. She knew it’s only a matter of time before Ingenium turned to one of the multiple available narrow alleyways nearby, so she has to make this count.

 

 

Lock-on, an extension of her Rifle Quirk. It gives the user the ability to mark a target, which causes bullets fired to home into it. But the description of it is rather misleading. Instead of being actually useful, it’s just a far weaker alternative firing mode, trading firepower for pinpoint accuracy.

 

 

First, it requires specialized ammo in the form of Kaina’s hair instead of the biologically-made “infinite” bullets her regular guns use. Second, projectiles fired under it will be severely slowed down. Third, its homing abilities are hampered by the fact that the bullet has a huge turn radius and easily evaded. Fourth, if the bullet as much made a maximum of 90 degrees in turning, it will stop homing. Fifth, Kaina cannot regenerate her bullet-hair very quickly, limiting her shots. Sixth, Lock-On requires a good visual on the target for at least 3 seconds. And finally, she’s limited to tracking down one target, which would disappear the moment she set her vision back to normal or after some time has passed.

 

 

Since Ingenium’s in an empty road, locking on would just be easy-

 

 

The villain immediately went side to side, knocking down all nearby lampposts with a single kick and darkening the road. What he thought was a brilliant idea to remain unseen as he ran made him an even harder target for his pursuer.

 

 

“DAMMIT!” Kaina yelled to herself before extending her rifles backwards and launching herself up again to try and zero in on her target. She jumped from building to building, spouting all sorts of profanities in full Russian as she did so.

 

 

At one point, she eventually kept up again, with Ingenium going even more slower than usual. As they approached a narrow stretch of road again, with lamp posts at the side being knocked down once more, Kaina tried locking onto the villain. But try as she might, she can’t Lock onto Ingenium properly as the villain continues to kick down lamp posts, darkening the area and preventing her from seeing him properly. The way the villain goes left to right in the dark is also too hard for Kaina’s eyes to follow, resetting her Lock-On ability every time the villain moves to kick down a lamp posts.

 

 

She scanned the area for alternatives and thought of another plan.

 

 

 Locking onto a lamp post up ahead, she plucked out a clump of hair, easily detaching under her hands, and rolled them around with her fingers in which the cluster automatically hardened and formed in a shape of a bullet. She felt an odd feeling on her fingers and only then realized she accidentally plucked out more than needed.

 

 

But not all is done yet. In order to use her bullet-homing abilities, she has to use a specialized gun instead of her usual ones. Instead of a black mass swelling up to turn into a gun and then swivel forward, this time she aimed her entire right elbow on her target lamp post. Multiple segments appeared on the joint, before the entire skin on her elbow pulled back, and out came a huge flesh-like sniper rifle, the weight alone almost making her lose balance.

 

 

One bullet loaded, aiming towards a certain lamp post, and lightly shifting her rifle to the left, she fired once. She was in the middle of reloading when she heard a loud crack. The bullet flew slow enough towards Ingenium’s next target lamp post to successfully hit the villain instead, directly on the thruster portion of his legs as he prepared to take it down. If it weren’t for the round being fired from her alternative firing mode, it would have missed or just bounce off the villain’s leg armor due to the inacuraccy, possibly making Ingenium sprint faster.

 

 

Ingenium visibly slowed down after the hit, allowing Kaina to deduce that the cracking sound must be from the internal structure of the engine exhausts. Looking closely, she saw it was a successful hit. The light shift of her rifle allowed the homing projectile to curve and get into one of the multiple angled exhaust pipes of the villain’s left leg. Blood visibly sputtered out of one of the exhaust openings and made Ingenium take away the outer bulkier armor surrounding both of his legs as an attempt to decrease weight. A smaller form-fitting leg armor was left in place.

 

 

In the midst of confusion, Ingenium pulled out a small syringe from his belt bag and stabbed it onto the unarmored segment of his arm. But what Kaina thought was Trigger seemed to be only painkillers, but still allowing the villain to ignore all pain and significantly boost up speed.

 

 

‘No point in using Trigger if everything is too painful. He didn’t use this one earlier, so this could be his only one…’ Kaina thought to herself, removing her Lock-On vision, retracting her homing rifle back to her right elbow and re-creating her standard ones. Swiveling them backwards and rapidly extending it, she lept high into the air, rapidly closing the distance between her and her target. There are more exhaust pipes to shoot, maybe she could get another homing round inside of them? She thought about getting close and unloading bullets onto the now-lightly-armored legs, but that would probably force the flight response of Ingenium if none of them went inside an exhaust pipe and that’s the last thing she wants to do.

 

 

In defeating speedsters, few powerful hits are favored over numerous weaker ones. Quality over quantity. Try not to force the villain to escape-

 

 

The villain suddenly turned around and launched himself onto the direction of his pursuer, successfully hitting her mid-air at her midsection, fully anticipating she’s going to raise her swiveling rifles to shield her face. The hit sent both of them careening onto the concrete roof a nearby building.

 

 

Even with full Backforce, Kaina felt the pain of the impact, but not as much as it would have been before Quirks manifested. What matters most is that she must not get hit in the face, as one knock-out while being hunted down by a dangerous serial killer would be the end of her.

 

 

Both hero and villain then found themselves facing each other on the top of the building they landed on. There are no open lights, but the relatively clear sky and the dim moonlight is enough for illumination.

 

 

Normally, it would be time for sane heroes to call for back-up, but not Kaina. She knew it’s stupid to not answer Ishiyumi’s call, and she knew she’s facing a dangerous opponent. But when you have not one but two biological firearms attached to your limbs, the only one to be scared should be her enemy. No help needed from any hero, no help needed from the nearby stationed hitmen, no help needed from anyone.

 

 

That’s the rule she goes by, no matter how many times Ishiyumi and Revenant call it stupid.

 

 

“Heroes are allowing all sorts of Quirks to get into the program these days,” Ingenium taunted, emphasizing the ‘Quirks’ part of his sentence. “A gun? How can you even do hero work with a gun?”

 

 

“I don’t-“ Kaina immediately extended both downward-pointing flesh-rifles to evade a boosted kick that went for her just as she was about to speak. While in mid-air, she swiveled it around and extended it downward in an attempt to hit her opponent, but missed.

 

 

In the end, the two just swapped positions.

 

 

“Let me guess, the camera crew’s already filming-“

 

 

Now it was Kaina’s turn to interrupt her enemy, raising a rifle and shooting two warning shots intending to hit the side of Ingenium’s still-bleeding armored left leg in an attempt to throw him off his concentration, but missed by a whole meter. Ingenium is fast, his reaction time is fast, he’s built for speed, it’s going to take more than a simple interruption to get some real damage in. Now if only he could turn around and have a round fired into one of the exhaust pipes…

 

 

The villain geared up for another kick, in which Kaina easily evaded by propelling herself upwards with an extended gunbarrel, at the cost of said gunbarrel completely breaking under the force of the kick. Ingenium wasted no time and jumped upwards, before being met with yet another extended gunbarrel to the face.

 

 

The impact seemingly didn’t faze the villain as he spun mid-air using his leg-thrusters, successfully breaking the two oversized gunbarrels Kaina used to shield her face.

 

 

The two eventually dropped onto the roof surface and engaged in battle, resulting more broken gunbarrels and an equal amount of said gunbarrels successfully hitting a person in the face. The engagement felt like an eternity, but it was just only a whole minute. After that, the two separated themselves within noticeable distance from each other.

 

 

Kaina leaned in forward with a menacing grin, pinkish eyes repeatedly darting downward to see the amount of bloodstains Ingenium has left all over the place. She may have failed repeatedly in shooting Ingenium’s weak point, but the amount of red on the concrete is more than promising. Good thing the villain is not planning to leave yet.

 

 

‘It won’t be long now before-‘

 

 

Her grin was almost instantaneously washed away as she noticed the broken pieces of metal scattered all over. Her bioweapons require biomass, and so far she’s used up quite the amount. She’s trying to wear down her enemy, thinking Ingenium’s taking the bait, but only now she realized the enemy must have been using the same technique against her.

 

 

‘Well he’s not called the Hero Killer for nothing.’

 

 

Amidst the observing, she instinctively propelled herself upwards just as a blur of an object rushed at her face at an alarming speed. It was the villain, holding onto a broken gunbarrel and using it as a dagger.

 

 

“The thing about having lethal Quirks as a hero is that you’re not allowed to use your full potential against your enemy,” Ingenium muttered after another missed swing, “and that means your options are severely limited.”

 

 

All the broken gun parts are not only threatening to slow her down, but now also being actively used against her. Kaina may be a hitman with a far larger kill count, but against someone who’s not part of the hit list (for reasons unknown), her guns cannot be used to inflict lethal damage to end the fight faster.

 

 

But so far all the hits Ingenium already took on his legs are not slowing him down, even though the left one is already looking mangled and all red due to all the blood pouring out of the damaged exhaust pipe.

 

 

Another boost, and there goes another gunbarrel breaking into pieces. And another. And another. Kaina kept her distance from him, trying to use oversized muzzles and extended gunbarrels to move around and hit the enemy, which she repeatedly did to little effect.

 

 

Ingenium then jumped high, boosted kick ready to hit its mark. It would have been blocked if it weren’t for the villain to use his thrusters to crudely maneuver around her back and boost again, aiming at the girl’s head, but only managing to kick the back of her waist as Kaina extended her rifles to propel her even higher at the very last moment.

 

 

But still, just about managing to avoid instant knockout, Kaina had no choice but to shove one hand to her handbag (one of the slings just barely hanging on and threatening to snap at any moment) and go straight to her phone, rapidly tapping the screen to send a distress signal to Ishiyumi and Revenant as she re-extended a gunbarrel to keep her as high from the threat as possible.

 

 

Turns out, trying to dance with the devil is generally a bad idea. And now that her entire back is aching, it’s really time to get some help.

 

 

“Come on! DAMMIT-“ Kaina was cut off by the sound of yet another boost. She was balancing off of one overextended rifle and standing on a grip she made on the side of the gun when a bright flash of light turned her attention to Ingenium. She was fully expecting him holding onto a broken gunbarrel and about to boost up to her, but instead the vllain kept running around, his innate high-speed automatically kicking up the broken gun parts into the air like dust on an empty road.

 

 

Fully shielding her face in case of any boosted kick coming her way, Kaina instead felt a sudden gash of pain spread all over her legs, like a multitude of bullets suddenly fired through them.

 

 

Looking down, she saw everything covered in blood. Ingenium ran around in such a way to lift up debris using his speed alone before boosting his thrusters to maximum power he could manage, sending them careening through the air towards Kaina’s unprotected lower half.

 

 

“I CAN’T LOSE! I SET UP EVERYTHING RIGHT! THIS IS NOT FAIR!” Kaina yelled in utter frustration as she lost balance and fell on her backside. Despite being painful, most of Ingenium’s makeshift projectiles didn’t hit, but the few that did caused deep wounds.

 

 

Part of the unnatural durability people gained as Quirks got integrated into their systems, aside from the known Backforce/Cornstarch Principle phenomena, is the unusual tolerance to pain. Kaina may be bleeding from her legs a lot, but the pain is greatly diminished compared to what they are before the onset of genetic mutations that gave rise to powers. Ingenium, on the other hand, cannot feel any pain with his injected painkillers.

 

 

But even then it’s still painful, coupled with the fact that she can’t stand properly anymore, and downed within meters of a murderous deranged individual, there’s nothing but panic swirling in her head. She came in here thinking her guns would do the job, but assassinating targets that aren’t aware of her presence is very different from actively pursuing them, and she got blindsided.

 

 

But there is hope. Beyond Ingenium, Kaina could see a small cyan-colored dot rapidly approaching her location, very clear in the cloudless night sky.

 

 

Tomoe Ishiyumi. But it would take a while before she could get there.

 

 

Now, there’s just her, her limited gun-creation ability, and her wits. If she could get Ingenium to gloat, she’s golden. Help is on the way, the question now is that will her enemy play along?

 

 

“Ready to be kill number 63, Dragunov? Or is it 65 or 68? I kinda lost track…” Ingenium dropped to his knees all of sudden, the painkillers seemingly wearing off, and picked up a sizeable broken gunbarrel. “You heroes are all the same to me, at least they can see me kill you on live camera.”

 

 

Kaina kept her outside appearance cool, but in reality sweat were running down on her face and getting into her eyes, blurring her vision as she tried to keep her gaze locked onto the small green dot. If it weren’t for the darkness of the rooftop they’re on, her trembling arms would have been apparent.

 

 

The dot is getting closer, but not close enough yet.

 

 

“Plot twist, I came in here alone. You don’t see any camera crew nearby, yeah?” Kaina spoke, trying her best to not make her words slip in her fear as she tried to slowly crawl backwards. “If there are, someone would have come to my aid-“

 

 

“Fakes don’t help people in need, unless they can get something from it,” Ingenium spoke, limping slowly towards her, holding a gunbarrel broken in such a way that it could be used as a makeshift dagger. “If it can get them more fame, yeah, but fighting a real villain? Fat chance.”

 

 

Kaina started picking up speed as she tried to crawl backwards while still facing the villain, especially the metal tube he’s brandishing. If ever he throws it, she’ll use up all her remaining Quirk biomass to push herself out of the way and then retract it to conserve her remaining reserves. On the other hand, she made it this far, and she should finish it once and for all. She thought about other alternatives, but everything required her to use her guns in various ways, most of which could trigger Ingenium to immediately attack her outright.

 

 

She glanced up again towards the small green speck in the sky. It’s getting closer.

 

 

While Ingenium kept looking around making sure there are no other heroes nearby, one place he’s not looking is up. Now if she could just get his attention to make sure it stays that way.

 

 

“We’re both out, you and me. One of us should die tonight-“

 

 

Kaina was immediately hit with a thrown gunbarrel, hitting her square in the forehead. Since it’s weak enough to not be affected by Backforce, it hurt immensely.

 

 

“You’re just trying to prolong your suffering, allow me to end this quickly.”

 

 

Kaina’s eyes widened at what she heard. Ishiyumi wouldn’t be arriving just yet and her enemy is already picking up the sharpest broken gunbarrel nearest to him. She tried her hardest to stay sharp, even though her vision is already giving away.

 

 

She could signal Ishiyumi to hurry, and that would mean either calling her or using a homing projectile – with its firing mechanism giving it a unique firing sound. There is only one drawback, and that possibly making Ingenium to act now.

 

 

In the midst of her looking around, desperately trying to lock onto any object that can give her an advantage, she instinctively pulled back after seeing a blur coming right at her. Rapidly extending her rifles backwards, she successfully hooked onto a ledge, allowing her to pull herself through the ground just as the sharp gunbarrel landed down.

 

 

Ingenium is directly aiming at her face.

 

 

The miss caused the villain to go limp and fall to the ground, the pain already catching up to him as the painkillers lose effect. One hand went to his back and pulled out another syringe of the same color as the painkillers he injected earlier and successfully plugged them in-

 

 

Moments before Ishiyumi directly landed her boots on his back at an insane speed, slamming him down to the ground and dragging him a good 6 meters across the cold hard rooftop concrete. The glowing object she used to hang on to get to the scene continued moving forward and impacted onto the next building, making a sizeable crack on its walls, and eventually losing its glow.

 

 

“Guess you guys are- the hell happened to you?!” Tomoe stopped to rush towards her comrade, noticing her bleeding legs.

 

 

Kaina was relieved, aid finally arrived, and that meant the fight is mostly over. She would be extra glad if it weren’t for Ishiyumi wearing the exact same clothing as she is, right down to the style and color. She got herself changed before she and Spinner went up to the nearby roof that overlooked the League’s bar, and now Beros somehow copied that.

 

 

“I uh… I got hit by my own bullets-“

 

 

“It’s now a two on one huh?”

 

 

The two turned to look at Ingenium lying on the ground, who managed to successfully shield his face from hitting the ground despite the hard impact, letting Backforce take care of the rest. “I didn’t come here just to get bested by heroes…”

 

 

“Then you shouldn’t have been a massive dumbass who just went in willy-nilly to the League hideout… loser…” Kaina retorted, quickly getting shushed by an annoyed Tomoe as she got pulled away from the villain.

 

 

“I went there to give the League a piece of my mind. Honestly between you two and me, I was planning on killing them tonight anyways.”

 

 

“Besides-“

 

 

“So you heroes can now finally stop pretending to be do-gooders and blaming them for literally everything as a scapegoat. It’s common knowledge in the underground that you people are just using them as puppets and the League’s the only one who doesn’t know that.”

 

 

Ingenium slowly rose up, much to the confusion of the two. He managed to inject the painkillers onto himself. But compared to the one he used earlier, this one somehow made the bleeding from his feet stop.

 

 

“Nova you got some explaining to do here…” Tomoe set Kaina down and stanced herself up for combat. “You go on more ‘missions’ than I do, what’s that?”

 

 

“Relax, they’re just low-grade Knuckleduster drugs. Painkillers laced with a little bit of Trigger and ultra-light Regeneration. He just gave me enough reason to shoot off his legs. Only downside is-“

 

 

A blast of blue light instinctively made Kaina raise up her swiveled arm-rifles to shield her face. But instead of the crushing impact of a lightly boosted-Ingenium, she found herself cruising through the air with something lifting up the back of her shirt.

 

 

It was a blunt-tipped arrow coated in glowing cyan energy.

 

 

From down on the empty road, brief flashes of blue light gave away Ingenium’s position, looking determined to catch her as she flew away from the scene. The drug Ingenium used is weak, low-quality and cheaply made, but if the villain is armed with a powerful Engine Quirk, even those kind of Trigger drugs can have great effect. And now with light Regeneration, all his wounds are sealed at the cost of one thing.

 

 

He cannot think properly. The drugs he used are made to be used as a last stand. It will block out most of the user’s general intelligence and replace it with rage towards the user’s target before it was injected (alongside anyone affiliated with the target). Not many villains use this kind of drug, mostly just basic street thugs, but Ingenium possessing one is certainly not a mere coincidence. Why go after the cheap ones when he has theoretically enough money and standing to go for more powerful concoctions?

 

 

She doesn’t know how it works, she doesn’t know how the condition works, but that doesn’t matter. She could theoretically unload all of her rounds towards the villain’s feet, but since Ishiyumi is already here, it opened up a whole slew of alternatives.

 

 

“I DIDN’T COME ALL THE WAY HERE TO LOSE!” Ingenium yelled at the top of his lungs as he charged up his legs and jumped up, reaching Kaina almost within a fraction of a second.

 

 

He would have hit his mark if it weren’t for the blunt arrowhead carrying his target to swerve aside.

 

 

The arrow carrying Kaina took her higher and higher into the now-cloudy night sky. She kept her gaze centered on Ingenium, boosting around the ground in random aimless directions, probably in an attempt to throw her off of her aim – which would be a big problem if she’s actually aiming for him. Her Lock-On vision is a very situational ability, and now that her target is a lot faster than before, what little sense there is to use it earlier is now gone.

 

 

“You guys got it right, huh? Early evening, Hosu, League of Villains… But you just had to go alone here huh? If I was a few minutes late I would be spending the entire night searching for your decapitated head.”

 

 

Kaina looked up to see Tomoe, hanging onto an arrow identical to the one carrying her by the back of her shirt, cruising through the sky with her. “I was winning! I was very close to winning! If only he used Trigger earlier, I would have blown off his feet!” Kaina yelled in frustration, repeatedly looking down to check on Ingenium, who’s still boosting around.

 

 

“Met up with Iguchi along the way, you really left the guy on a rooftop…?” Tomoe asked, rolling her eyes.

 

 

“Y-yeah-“

 

 

A bright flash of light and another quick swerve, both girls successfully evaded an Ingenium kick that can somehow reach high above the city skyline.

 

 

“Where shall we go?”

 

 

“We take this idiot down! He’s got drugs and that’s not part of Shigaraki’s story! Kizuki’s explosives will not stand a chance against this guy. It’s too risky to bring him there, we’re taking him down NOW!” Kaina yelled, with the both of them moving to the right and eventually circling around, still maintaining flight speed and evading Ingenium’s boosted high jump kicks.

 

 

“Whatever. By the way Scissors called me earlier. Eviscerators are already launched at his location. But Wind and Machia’s already there, and your boyfriend too.”

 

 

“Stop with the boyfriend thing, you’re trying to get on my nerves huh?” Kaina gritted her teeth, slipping quite a few Russian profanities as she did so.

 

 

“Oh and did you get Hawks out of the League base?” Tomoe took one glance at the bright flashes of light below them, the villain refusing to stop as it went from road to road.

 

 

“Yeah.”

 

 

“You didn’t try to flirt with him again, right?”

 

 

“NO! Why would I do that? You think I’m a weirdo?!” Kaina yelled and tilted her head to refer to Ingenium. “Can we just get him first? He’s drugged! He’s not thinking straight! He’s too risky to be brought to Hosu! We’re taking him down now, ya with me or what?!”

 

 

Tomoe stared at her for a full second before letting out a scoff and shaking her head, a light smile tugging on her lips. “That’s more like it!” The blunt-tipped arrow Tomoe’s hanging onto slightly lowered itself to be in level with Kaina’s. “Tonight, some guy’s 60+ killstreak is going to end! Is Stardust with me?” she asked with a mocking smile.

 

 

Another bright flash of light and both evaded another Ingenium kick.

 

 

“I’m not Stardust… dumbass…”

 

 

“DRAGUNOV? ARE YOU IN?!”

 

 

“…”

 

 

“I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”

 

 

“Beros, stop annoying me. I swear once my legs get repaired, kicking your ass in Exergis will be the first thing I do…” Kaina took a deep breath, letting the cool night air wash away the sweat on her forehead. “Okay, let’s do this.”

 

 

Both girls turned their attention to their pursuer, who despite his targets being sky high, never stopped him from repeatedly boosting into the air in an attempt to kick them.

 

 

“Nova, I don’t even play Exergis…”

 

 

“Yeah right…” Kaina yelled back, noticing her legs stopped bleeding on their own some minutes ago, once again an inexplicable phenomena brought about by Quirks. As long as she’s not exerting pressure on them too much, the bleeding can be effectively controlled. Reaching up to her head, she laid her fingers on her hair and plucked out a bunch, in which she rolled in her hands to automatically become hardened bullets for her Lock-On ability.

 

 

But she’s not the one who’s going to be using them this time.

 

 

“Beros, I swear if you hit me, I’m gonna kill you…” Kaina said as she gave the bullet-hair to Tomoe. “And then get Chisaki to resurrect you so I can kill you again the second time… and then I’ll get someone with a resurrect Quirk and kill you the third tim-.”

 

 

“Stop being such a drama queen and help me out will ya?”

 

 

Shaking her head and letting out a scoff, Kaina straightened out her right arm to her side, turning her elbow so that her hand is facing forwards. A black mass appeared on her elbow, making her skin peel off to make a rifle with an oversized gunbarrel, the one she uses to pole vault around. The gun swiveled forwards, but the black mass re-manifested again towards the back part, causing another gun to appear backwards, making a strange amalgamation of two fused guns looking like a tonfa. A much bigger one than what she used against Ingenium earlier.

 

 

“I’m gonna do an hour long Splinter Storm move after this but…” Tomoe chuckled to herself. “But it’s been a long time since we tried this. If only Scissors were here, but that doesn’t really matter.” She raised her left hand, twirling her unusual brown index finger. “We’re going to do some serious bowgunnin’ tonight!”

 

 

Kaina looked back to Ingenium, still trying to get at them as they continued to circle around the area high above the buildings. The drugs last long, but not long enough, soon the villain is going to come back to his senses and probably escape. Now only if Tomoe could go any faster and take the situation seriously instead of having some fun.

 

 

Looking back, she saw her teammate’s left hand’s thumb and pinky finger glow in the same cyan glow covering the blunt-tipped arrows carrying them around, before turning brown with a wood-like texture and extending outwards to form a bow, a tangible green light connecting the two tips upon finishing their transformation, acting as a bowstring.

 

 

“LET’S GOOOO!” Tomoe said out loud and let go of the glowing arrow she’s hanging onto, loaded up Kaina’s bullet-hair on her bow-hand, and fired it. The projectile automatically became covered in a cyan energy glow as it exited the bowstring. She would have plummeted downwards even further if it weren’t for the arrow she let go off earlier circling around and diving near her, allowing her to grab onto it and fly back to Kaina’s flying height. She made one wink at her comrade and flew higher.

 

 

“Show-off…” Kaina muttered to herself, eyeing up her now-glowing bullet-hair cruising through the night sky. Despite it belonging to her, it is now enveloped in cyan energy and under the full control of Tomoe – courtesy of her Guided Arrow Quirk.

 

 

In a few seconds of the glowing bullet-hair projectile flying about, it quickly turned and boosted towards her, slicing off the front end of her rifle in one fell swoop, before going around and effortlessly slicing off the back end as well. The bullet-hair quickly moved up to circle around Ishiyumi, who then dove down to collect the sliced-off gunbarrels.

 

 

While Kaina had many gunbarrels broken by Ingenium earlier, the move the two of them are about to execute now requires a clean-cut barrel in pristine condition.

 

 

“Got the hair, got the barrels, what next?”

 

 

“Ingenium’s right leg. I already got the left one. Drop a round straight through, got it?”

 

 

Tomoe did one last salute to her teammate, who responded with a massive frown of her own. At that point, the arrow carrying Kaina on the back of her shirt sped off. And as she plummeted towards the ground, she retracted her broken guns and re-manifested them on both arms, fully repaired and in the same tonfa-like design from earlier.

 

 

It was the same amalgamation of guns melded together back to back, but this time a lot bulkier than usual and extending up to four meters on each side, with a lot more metal, the flesh parts centered mostly on her elbow area. She’s almost out of biomass, but that doesn’t matter at this point. Ingenium’s done and tired, he wouldn’t be able to get out of this situation anyways after the drugs wear off, especially with Ishiyumi within the vicinity.

 

 

It’s time for the real final battle.

 

 

Kaina shifted the forward gun’s handguard to extend downward, creating an even bigger surface area, as well as adjusting the barrel to rise higher. Part of her Rifle Quirk is the ability make guns and turn them into any shape she wants as long as it’s still a gun. At the end of the day, she still had to make conventional guns to make them fire.

 

 

But she won’t be firing a single round anymore. The final act requires nothing more than pure straightforward bashing power.

 

 

A second later after completing the full transformation of her ‘melee weapons’, two glowing gunbarrels appeared out of nowhere and impaled themselves on the extended handguard portions of them, allowing her to regain flight as it pushed her through the air. Despite the impaled barrels being the farthest things from sharp, they easily went through with the impalement, the energy glow still persisting.

 

 

Part of Ishiyumi’s Guided Arrow Quirk envelops projectiles fired through her bow with cyan energy, greatly increasing their speed, puncture potential, and giving her the ability to guide them as they flew, at the downside that she can only control up to three projectiles at a time. Since the broken gunbarrels from earlier have razor-sharp tips, Tomoe’s Guided Arrow Quirk will just make them go past the guns instead of impaling themselves.

 

 

Kaina wondered, since they already did this move before, about Ishiyumi’s guiding ability. Both she and her have their own speed limitations on their projectiles, they drop out of control once they reach a certain speed. Ishiyumi, based on what Kaina could observe, can slow down her projectiles at a significant speed and still work.

 

 

‘Why am I getting the feeling that she can just use the broken gunbarrels earlier instead of cutting off new ones…?’

 

 

Kaina had always envied Tomoe’s superior homing Quirk. Hers has too many downsides to be even used. But at the end of the day she’s still the one with fully functioning guns with nearly unlimited ammunition.

 

 

‘Showoff…’ Kaina thought to herself, seeing the glowing gunbarrels jiggle a bit. She then re-encased the hole it made to make them stick better. She turned around to see a green speck high in the sky, making huge circles. Tomoe is ready.

 

 

She then turned her attention to the boosting form of Ingenium, igniting the roads in blue light as he zoomed past in an attempt to follow her through the sky. The final battle is upon them. Kaina knew Ingenium’s over, but to be on the safe side the villain’s leg thrusters need to be taken out first.

 

 

In theory, Ishiyumi alone could finish the fight, but Kaina got there first and she wants to be the one to end it. With Ingenium’s act of drugging himself, he lost the ability to critically think. And with the amount of damage he took, he’s not going to get anywhere anytime soon. Tomoe can just launch a guided arrow with a lasso and it would be all over.

 

 

But that would be boring. Kaina doesn’t do boring. She almost died earlier, but that doesn’t matter anymore.

 

 

Armed with the glowing impaled gunbarrels on each tonfa-gun, Kaina tilted her arms upwards, prompting Tomoe to move her projectiles higher and allowing her teammate to evade the incoming blow from another of Ingenium’s boosted high jumps.

 

 

Kaina then swung her right arm, a whole half-a-second passing before Tomoe boosted the projectile embedded on the right arm gun, giving her teammate a huge power boost and allowing her to deliver a powerful blow right behind Ingenium’s back armor.

 

 

As satisfying as it was to get a powerful hit towards a villain that was inches away from killing her a few moments ago, Kaina still had to make sure not to make her weapons directly hit an incoming kick. Ingenium may be weakened at this point, but his kicks are still formidable and powerful enough to shatter her organic weaponry.

 

 

Kaina tilted her arms to allow Tomoe, with her telepathic connection towards her projectiles, to move her where she wants, and that is to outspeed Ingenium through the air who’s still staggered by the hit from earlier, and deliver a spinning attack to hit him again towards the ground.

 

 

Kaina noticed a flicker on the projectile embedded on her left weapon, before glowing brightly again after speeding her up. Tomoe’s guided projectiles function almost similarly like hers, and will lose control when it goes under a certain speed limit for more than a few seconds. If she wants to keep flying, her teammate had to maintain speed of her projectiles.

 

 

Turning her attention to Ingenium, who somehow landed normally and about to boost up again, she directed her arms downwards and she flew towards him. A bright flash of light, and a quick swerve, Kaina delivered another spinning hit onto the villain’s back, the strength of her own boosted hits cracking the villain’s armor, which shattered completely in the next subsequent hit.

 

 

Ingenium’s abilities give him a massive advantage on the ground, but he doesn’t have controlled maneuverability in mid-air. Everytime he jumps he lets himself be at the mercy of his airborne opponent. He jumps, he gets hit, and does it over and over and over again.

 

 

What Kaina thought would be a simple battle of ‘Hit the Head to Win’ proved to be wrong. The drugs he infused onto himself seem to be different than the one she’s expecting. Ingenium is somehow taking powerful hits to the head without getting knocked out.

 

 

‘Pfft, all the more reason to beat the crap outta him…’

 

 

Ingenium jumps again, and as usual Kaina flew downwards and circled behind him and delivered a powerful boosted swing, in which she chained into a full spin of multiple rotations to counter Ingenium’s own spin attack, resulting in a lightshow of blue flames and sparks as metal clashed with metal.

 

 

A loud crack caught Kaina’s attention. Her left tonfa is already broken off. Luckily the embedded projectile is not part of the torn-off area.

 

 

“DO YOU THINK I”LL GO DOWN THAT EASILY?!” Came the loud taunt of Ingenium as he launched a boosted mid-air kick towards his opponent, who narrowly avoided it.

 

 

‘Strange, he’s drugged and his senses are already coming back to normal. Time to end-‘ Kaina stopped her thoughts and swung her arms sideward, doing a small arm gesture to get Tomoe to boost her into the direction of Ingenium. The villain is already looking downward and the tell-tale signs of smoke coming out of his exhaust vents meant he’s about to gun it and leave the area as fast as possible. It may just be that he’s just preparing for the next round of kicks, but better to be safe than sorry.

 

 

‘Not on my watch…’

 

 

Ingenium boosted downwards just as the same time Kaina redirected her flight towards the same location the villain is aiming for. Exploiting her enemy’s lack of mid-air mobility and cooldowns after boosts, she then tilted to the right to get some distance from her target before retracting the majority of her left arm bioweapon, and rapidly extending the mass of her right’s until it formed a long gunbarrel with a large hammer-like muzzle reaching up to twelve meters away from her.

 

 

With a swing, Ishiyumi’s boost greatly intensifying the speed, as well as the length adding a huge amount of velocity, it hit Ingenium in the face with such a force that it sent the villain careening towards Ishiyumi’s flight path.

 

 

Kaina immediately retracted what was left of her hammer-like gun on arm, plucked a sizeable bunch of her hair, and extended her homing rifle from her right elbow. The projectile embedded in it went free and sped ahead. Loading and firing, it created a unique firing sound.

 

 

And then within a second, a bright cyan light streaked across the sky from Ishiyumi’s flight path and directly pierced through Ingenium’s right leg on the armored portion surrounding his engines, before going upwards and losing its glow.

 

 

‘At least it’s finally-‘

 

 

Another bright cyan streak of light came from Ishiyumi’s location and dove down towards Ingenium’s falling form as fast as possible, hitting the villain and sending him careening onto the road, dragging him onto the asphalt and creating a dragged-out crater. It was Tomoe, using the arrow she’s hanging onto to effectively turn herself into an entire projectile as she planted down her boots onto the villain’s back at an insane speed.

 

 

At that point, the remaining projectile impaled through Kaina’s biological firearms slowly guided her back to the ground near the crash site.

 

 

“Rate my swing,” Kaina mockingly said. “But make sure to not rate it below ten or I’ll whoop your ass!” she giggled to herself afterwards before falling to her knees, the pain on her legs once again coming back just as she stood up with them.

 

 

“Heroes and their dirty tact-“

 

 

“The f***?!” Kaina squealed, adding quite a bit of profanities in full Russian. Ingenium, despite having a projectile pierce right through his leg and getting slammed onto the road in a powerful impact, is somehow still not knocked out. But judging from his inability to stand up with Tomoe’s one foot planted on his back, he’s not going to get back up anytime soon.

 

 

“The guy sure knows how to protect his head. I give you that… Might be the after-effects of the drugs, I dunno really…” Tomoe stretched her arms, the bow on her left hand still deployed, before striking a pose to a non-existent camera. “Hey Iida, I just finished a photoshoot session this morning. I can feel my popularity rising already!”

 

 

“I bet you hired a lot of fake villains just to get where you are now, what a f***ing cheat.”

 

 

“Stay down loser, your killstreak ends now! How does it feel to take an arrow to the knee?” Tomoe adjusted her pose to face her back. “Stardust, what do you think? I had fun ending a killstreak tonight, what about you?”

 

 

“I almost died,” Kaina said, trying to get back to her feet, propping herself up with a gun pointing downward. “I was INCHES away from f***ing dying! If you only got here faster-“

 

 

“You’re the one insisting to take down the Hero Killer with your very unsuitable Quirk. Don’t go blaming me when you deliberately put yourself in danger,” Tomoe responded, crossing her arms and her face turning into a scowl, her bow-hand retracting back. “What kind of sniper runs down her enemies?”

 

 

“Yeah I know, what a dumbass…” Ingenium muttered to himself.

 

 

Kaina gritted her teeth in frustration. “Losers…”

 

 

“Yeeeeaaaah you definitely tried to seduce Hawks … I can tell…” Tomoe said back, barely containing her laughter. “You gotta turn that thing down, your unhealthy obsession with guy villains is getting annoying.” She then turned to Ingenium and began pulling him towards the sidewalk with one arm, the other holding up a phone filled with dog stickers. “Let’s get you in a jail cell.”

 

 

“You guys twins or what? Or is that your hero attire?” Ingenium jokingly asked, unusually cooperating and pulling himself up to the sidewalk. He then turned to Kaina limping towards them. “I’m single by the way.”

 

 

“No, we’re not twins nor related in any way. I am or may not be just pissed because some idiot stole my thunder, I ALSO did NOT flirt with Hawks earlier, and I do NOT have a thing for guys like you, got it?” Kaina begrudgingly limped towards them and plopped down in front of Ingenium. “Hey pal, don’t try boosting now or else I’ll-“

 

 

“If ever you guys see Tensei, tell him I said hi. On one hand I think I’ll just go visit him, I know the system well enough. I’ll be out in two months tops after my entire kill record gets blamed on the League anyway,” Ingenium said, completely cutting off Kaina’s remark. “Also can you stop your annoying taunts? You sound like you’re compensating for something. I’m not gonna boost anymore. I lost, and that’s it. Why bother acting tough?”

 

 

“Dragunov is always compensating for something. If you’ve been working with her for so long you’ll learn to tune out everything she says-“

 

 

A series of loud wailing noises is suddenly heard from their left, sounding very humanlike despite the utter lack of people in the area. From a distance, in an area still with lamp posts, multiple silhouettes of humanoid creatures with short stature can be seen marching their way towards them.

 

 

Their skin-and-bones frame didn’t get revealed until a small group went under a lamp post. They look like ghouls, with their hunched backs and zombie-like mannerisms. But their most distinct feature is their four arms looking like blades connected to a small lump of flesh to act as joints.

 

 

“Hmm that’s new…  I thought they’re just the usual zombies,” Ingenium said to himself, sounding very calm on the situation. “What now?”

 

 

“Contact Scissors, NOW!” Kaina yelled at Tomoe, who immediately got to mashing the digital buttons on her phone.

Notes:

Can Nagant really pole vault with her guns?
Can Beros grab onto her own projectiles and control it like Hawks does?
Can Iida even jump as high as he does in this fic?
...
I dunno, let's just assume they all can.

Chapter 29: The Swarm - [Part 1]

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 32

 

 

The faint sound of an explosion set Tomura’s mind back to the present. The ‘Anti Hero Killer’plan was supposed to be just priming the walls with explosives, waiting for Ingenium, and then blowing him up, and maybe getting a dehydrate or two, yet none of those happened.

 

 

Another sound of an explosion rocked the ground he’s standing on, accompanied by sounds of broken glass and rapid footsteps.

 

 

He started scratching his neck, almost out of instinct. It’s been a while ever since he had the itch, but the intense feeling of stress is somehow triggering it again. Another explosion, and another, and another, he kept on scratching and scratching until there’s a light tinge of blood on his nails and a major ache on the sides of his neck.

 

 

“Shigaraki, calm down! What the hell are you doing?!” The loud panicked voice of Chisaki re-snapped him again away from his thoughts.

 

 

‘It wasn’t supposed to go this way…’ Tomura thought to himself, sinking into his thoughts again almost instantly as Overhaul finished talking. He knew that there will come a time that he wouldn’t be able to rely on his ‘foresight’ anymore, but her never expected that time would arrive much sooner than expected. No warning, nor a warm-up period of periodically-stronger enemies, he was instantly thrown into a situation without any basis on ‘actual’ reality and he has no idea what to do.

 

 

Ingenium didn’t arrive on the intended spot, and instead of three easily-dispatched Nomus, in came a massive swarm of small goblin-like creatures  armed with four blade-like arms, somewhat reminding Tomura of Mezo Shoji. While he was technically correct at guessing the time and place of the event, what he’s expecting to be easy turned out to be a nightmare.

 

 

Machia is out and about doing all he can. Tatsumaki is just standing around and doing nothing because she supposedly has no way of dialing down her power level without her partner. And aside from the two of them, there are no other heroes in the area, which is in line with what Revenant said about heroes not caring about dangerous criminals.

 

 

But these aren’t regular criminals... Nor Nomus either.

 

 

“C’mon! Do something!” Tomura heard Chisaki’s panicked voice once more as the student yelled towards Tatsumaki, who’s the person who brought him into the scene. The heroine only raised a hand on him and continued mashing the buttons of her phone.

 

 

As for their current location, Tomura is still in the designated alleyway Ingenium was supposed to appear in. Ever since Overhaul got in, he managed to raise up a wall on either side of them, containing them at the central part of the alleyway. The wall may be crude, but surprisingly effective as the monsters don’t have a reliable way of climbing steep walls nor breaking through them.

 

 

For a person who’s so good at using his Quirk back at the Sports Festival, Tomura found it strange to see the former Yakuza capo failing repeatedly at trying to impale the creatures, saying things like he doesn’t want to see people getting impaled and blood splattering around.

 

 

“Shigaraki, are you sure you have no more idea what’s next?!”

 

 

Tomura instantly turned his head as he heard the voice of Kizuki, who’s looking out on a small slit out of the Overhual-made wall detonating her pre-placed explosives as the creatures approach, successfully splattering small groups into red mist with each well-timed explosion.

 

 

“I told you I have no idea! This was NOT meant to happen!” Tomura replied and started pacing around the small concrete bunker. “So are they Nomus or what…?”

 

 

“Artificial beings are not affected by Backforce! These things are not human!”

 

 

“What?!” Tomura yelled back amidst the sounds of continuous detonations, genuinely curious.

 

 

“If I can splatter them then they’re not human, okay?!” Kizuki yelled back at him, before peeking onto the small hole in the wall and continuing her detonations.

 

 

Nervously gritting his teeth, Tomura walked about to the other side of the small bunker just two meters away, where Chisaki and Tatsumaki are. He was about to say something about the situation being totally unexpected but chose not to at the very last moment. On one side Kizuki is detonating her explosives, on this side Overhaul is launching them out of the area with timed platform raises, and Tatsumaki is desperately trying to contact her partner.

 

 

Revenant and Machia immediately left as soon as the monsters start pouring in, and since that point Tomura’s been the only one who’s not doing anything.

 

 

Tomura’s attention turned to the ceiling, or the lack thereof, and deployed his secondary ability, covering himself with hands.

 

 

The creatures, as far as what he can see, are not only drastically different when compared to the hulking behemoths known as Nomus, but they seem to turn into huge gelatinous sacs filled with glowing yellow liquid everytime they die – no matter what the cause. Said yellow sac is constantly fire out arcing lightning-like strikes directed at random points around it. And if it hit another monster, it would heal then from their own self-deterioration and effectively turn them back into full health, or so what Tatsumaki explained when the creatures first arrived into the scene. The explanation was far longer, but Tomura could only remember half of it.

 

 

Amidst the chaos, a random sentence suddenly popped into Tomura’s mind. It’s about something that Kizuki said to Spinner some time ago.

 

 

‘There’s no such thing as a useless Quirk.’

 

 

He was about to throw a detachable hand outside of the bunker when he remembered what happened with Revenant earlier, about some Quirks hard-countering each other.

 

 

Since the summoned hands have no drawback in case they’re lost, it wouldn’t hurt to try. Maybe he can now actually do something?

 

 

Tomura flung two hands outside, onto Kizuki’s side of the alleyway, but failed to right themselves as the girl detonated a nearby concealed explosive, effortlessly shattering them into clouds of black smoke in one hit.

 

 

He tried again, a lot farther this time around, keeping his gaze on the small slit Kizuki herself is using to peek out. Tomura couldn’t effectively see what’s going on, but since a Wasteland disintegration field generated from amongst the monster crowd, the hands successfully connected to the ground without getting disturbed. He hoped that the monsters pay no mind to it.

 

 

The creatures are seemingly unaffected, still going towards them like ravenous beasts.

 

 

Tomura shrugged. ‘At least I’m sorta helping… I guess…’

 

 

He then started throwing hand after hand after hand, easily regenerating them and flinging them beyond the bunker, not minding if Kizuki is shattering them on each of her numerous hidden explosives. The entire event kept on reminding him of how weak he is, especially after his embarrassing defeats during the Sports Festival. He used to be feared across the country, feared by villains and heroes alike, civilians run at the sight of his face…

 

 

And now he’s the weakest one in his current team… and arguably the weakest one in his class…

 

 

Based on how little he’s been doing ever since he dropped into this world, some part of him thinks that his adoptive father had been helping them all along ever since the beginning. What if it’s true that he’s just useless? Is he really this weak? Is this the reason AFO emphasized getting stronger allies because he knew that his adopted son is a freak who can’t do anything on his own…?

 

 

But All for One would never do such a thing! Tomura was sure he was sent here in a mission to kill Midoriya, to learn new tactics and techniques, to harness the maximum potential of his Quirk…

 

 

And not to be shown how utterly useless he is.

 

 

“DAMMIT!” Tomura yelled as he threw more and more hands, bombarding one side of the alleyway in a fit of rage.

 

 

All until the wave of monsters stopped coming from one side, which happened in a matter of minutes.

 

 

“… The what…?” Tomura could only mutter as he saw what used to be a swarm of small bipedal monsters with bladed arms now reduced to nothing but masses of severed limbs, and a whole lot of overlapping ‘Disintegration fields’ almost covering the entire alleyway. He waited a while for the monsters to turn into glowing yellow sacs but nothing happened.

 

 

“How…?” Kizuki muttered afterwards, keeping her gaze onto the last creature scrambling to make its way to them.

 

 

Compared to the vigor the small monsters have earlier, this one is acting like it’s in the middle of the desert, desperately trying to find water. It soon collapsed onto the ground. A few seconds later, it began emanating a faint glow before liquefying itself to morph into a crimson-colored gelatinous cocoon the size of a person, filled with bright yellow liquid. So far nothing strange happened yet.

 

 

Said cocoon is firing out random bolts of electricity-like energy to nearby severed monster parts and the hands Tomura threw earlier. The hands instantly disappear upon getting hit, but any arcing lighting that struck the severed monster parts cause them to become whole again. Once again it’s just how the monsters work, nothing strange again except for one thing: the visible fluid inside the cocoon kept draining when it’s just supposed to be full, its gelatinous skin seemingly drying to a crisp.

 

 

The monsters it repaired only lasted seconds before dying again, and they themselves turning into their own respective cocoons with half-drained fluids and firing their own electric bolts, only to create even more drained-looking monsters.

 

 

Based on their observation, the fluid inside the gelatinous sac that forms everytime a monster dies is the one responsible for turning the dead creatures nearby (That aren’t fluid sacs themselves yet) back whole again. But since everything happens within the numerous overlapping Wasteland disintegration fields of Tomura’s thrown hands, the fluid within them seem to evaporate into nothing, effectively powering down the entire thing and creating a chain reaction of deaths and failed rebirths until the entire thing is over.

 

 

“If that’s because of those-“ Tomura was about to say something how amazed he is with the effects of his new Wasteland Quirk, when a loud crack was heard by the two of them.

 

 

The numerous hands thrown earlier and their overlapping Wasteland fields essentially weakened the concrete of the nearby buildings, as well as Kizuki’s own explosions, and before one of them could tell Tatsumaki about it, the entire row in front of them came crashing down.

 

 

With a huge smile on his dry-looking face, seeing the destruction he can still do despite having his Quirk changed, Tomura turned to see the reaction of Tatsumaki, hoping she’s giving him a thumbs-up for the job well done.

 

 

Before he realized he wasn’t supposed to be destroying buildings since he’s basically a hero in this alternate universe.

 

 

“Uuhhh… Eleena did a lot of exploding too you know…” Tomura muttered weakly while pointing at Kizuki, and giving the heroine an awkward smile. “I uh…”

 

 

“How...?” Tatsumaki leaned to one side, attention more focused on the fact that the wave of monsters on Kizuki’s side of the alleyway is now completely empty while theirs is still at maximum amount no matter how many times Chisaki threw them away by suddenly raising a platform under them.

 

 

Tomura tried his best to explain his speculations, about his Wasteland Quirk having a passive side effect of dehydration, effectively draining the fluid inside the sacs produced by a dying monster and therefore preventing them from healing or reverting nearby monsters.

 

 

“Is that so?” Tatsumaki raised an eyebrow on the boy, one hand still mashing buttons on her phone. She then pointed a thumb behind her, referring to the wave of monsters trying to claw their way through Overhaul’s concrete barrier. “If you would?”

 

 

Feeling good about himself for being actually useful for once, Tomura began bombarding the other side of the alleyway, throwing hand after hand after hand and effortlessly regenerating them again, the human-like screeches of the monsters scrambling in a state of dehydration being music to his ears. His aim is to impress Tatsumaki, one reason is because she’s representative of one of AFO’s most favorite Quirk, and another reason is just because he finds her very attractive.

 

 

And she’s not even wearing her revealing hero outfit and and just a simple loose-fitting sweater.

 

 

A couple of minutes later, the wave soon stopped, followed closely by more buildings getting destroyed. The hands soon disintegrated themselves in a matter of seconds after getting crushed by the falling debris, very much like what happened earlier.

 

 

“Everyone stay calm, we don’t know if there’s a second wave-“

 

 

The sky suddenly turned red as if something bright exploded in mid-air. A few seconds later, the glow intensified as multiple bright explosions happened simultaneously. As Chisaki slowly lowered the walls, they could see multiple flares lighting up the night sky in a bright hue of red.

 

 

“Huh? Giving up already?” Tatsumaki yelled towards the sky, a visible smile on her face. “Well then, I guess it’s time for the Eviscerator clean-up crew.”

 

 

Tomur’s eyes instantly widened upon hearing the peculiar word. “Can anyone here tell me what Eviscerators are? I keep hearing about them,” he asked.

 

 

“You just wiped them out,” Tatsumaki said, hands on her hips as she watched the sky light up with more and more flares being launched from multiple various locations across the city. “Looks like there’s a mass deployment going on, never expected her to throw them around so quickly.”

 

 

“I really thought this is just going to be some minor Nomu release…” Tomura weakly said, observing the flares illuminate the evening sky. “So is something supposed to happen-“

 

 

A loud crashing sound is heard behind the group, kicking up a huge amount of dirt and lightly shaking the still-standing buildings nearby at the immense force of landing.

 

 

Mamoru Yamashita, Gigantomachia, suddenly clad in his All Might-esque hero costume, arrived on the scene, his face immediately drawn as if he was bewildered by the fact that the small group took care of the situation without the help of Kamikaze nor him.

 

 

“I helped too, you know…” Chisaki spoke, breaking the silence.

 

 

“It’s Gas Kid Prime and not me, in case you’re wondering why these buildings are ruined,” Tatsumaki raised both of her hands and leaned onto one side as if stretching for a warm-up. “So is it time for the big boom??? But be sure to take a pic of me will ya?”

 

 

“Can you tone down your destructive intent for just one moment?” Machia spoke, rubbing the bridge of his nose. But just as he was about to speak again, another batch of flares launched into the sky, the already existing ones changing colors.

 

 

Tomura, still in full confusion as to what’s going on, just observed as the two heroes continue to bicker, with Tatsumaki looking oddly excited at what she’s about to do, and Machia trying to talk her way out of it. It was also at this moment that he heard a light thump on his right. It was Revenant landing on top of a pile of rubble, with a stab wound on his right arm like he just got impaled with a pencil. Compared to Machia, the AFO-lookalike is not wearing his hero attire.

 

 

Disregarding their little ‘fight’ earlier that afternoon, he immediately tapped the young hero’s shoulder with a now-gloved hand. “Water tank just over there, can you see anything?” he asked, pointing towards the direction of the building to his left. Despite bringing down a noticeable amount of structures, the ones nearest to them stayed standing as they’re well outside the range of his overlapping disintegration fields, preventing him from seeing the water tower overlooking the area.

 

 

Without answering, Revenant dashed towards the other masses of downed structures and made his way up the tallest pile of rubble, with Tomura tailing after him. “What do you see?”

 

 

“Awase should be there, or at least someone or anything or-“ Tomura spoke, but was instantly halted as the other boy spoke.

 

 

“Machia! Hagakure! Water tower!” Revenant yelled towards the Number One hero, repeatedly gesturing towards the water tower Tomura talked about.

 

 

“Wait-“ Tomura suddenly stopped seeing Machia jumped up into the air and delivered a mighty blow towards the top portion of the water tower, deliberately missing the structure itself. Tomura was fully expecting the sound of a body getting hit, but he heard none. “Oh come on! Just because there’s nothing there you’d instantly blame the invisible chick!”

 

 

Revenant didn’t answer him and instead pulled out his phone and immediately put it up his ear. “Hey Daikyu what’s- Yes I’m aware they’re here-Yes I’m aware what they look like- Yes we’re onto it-Yes Kizuki is unharmed- Machia and Kamikaze’s here- Yes Chisaki asked me if Katie wants to go out on a date with him tomorrow...”

 

 

Tomura was about to ask when the hero raised a hand and continued talking to the phone. “A whole lotta flares launched here, what about there? Oh you got him? Okay talk to you later,” Revenant said to the phone before turning his attention to Tomura. “What happened here?”

 

 

“My Dehydration powers evaporated the magic liquid inside of them and uh… they died.”

 

 

“Yup, that’s what happened,” came a weak reply from Tatsumaki from the back, still fidgeting with her phone.”

 

 

 “Where’s the Hero Killer?” Tomura asked. “He should be arriving shortly.”

 

 

“Hero Killer’s down, Katie and Daikyu took him down.”

 

 

Tomura looked around, noticing the odd silence despite the sound of wailing sirens in a distance. “So uh… we’re done…?”

 

 

Revenant didn’t answer and instead tilted his head over towards Tatsumaki, who’s just leaning onto a wall and fidgeting with her phone with an odd smile on her face. “Wind, the guys down south need your help-“

 

 

“NOW we’re talkin’!” Tatsumaki immediately pocketed her phone and jumped, a tornado-like column of wind propelling her upwards. As she reached the maximum point of her jump, a swirling vortex of air immediately enveloped her entire form before flying upwards, parting the clouds as she launched herself high into the night sky.

 

 

Machia soon returned looking extremely confused to the heroine suddenly leaving. “I specifically said she’s not allowed to move! We talked about this!”

 

 

“It’s a mass deployment, not all of those places are going to have Dehydration fields like what happened here, and other things,” Revenant said, turning around to directly face the Number One hero. “Dragunov told me casualties are rising. Unequipped law enforcement going in and getting hit by the Rewind beams. If we let this up more and more people will lose their lives tonight. We don’t need population control. We need an exterminator ASAP.”

 

 

Revenant then ran off out of the alleyway and into the road, disappearing into the darkness of the unlit streets.

 

 

“Machia, shouldn’t you be the one making decisions here?” Tomura asked the Number One hero just standing nearby. While Revenant does have some sort of similarities to All for One, it’s odd that Machia – being All Might’s counterpart in this alternate universe, would stop and listen to a much younger hero.

 

 

“What do I know? This is an entirely new threat. Normally I just go in and smash the problem away,” The hero answered, scratching the back of his armored head. “I suggest moving out now before the next wave arrive-“

 

 

A series of loud thumps emanated into the night sky from the opposite side of the alleyway, attracting the attention from all four people there. Everyone stayed silent as the metallic thumps get louder and louder. A minute passed and a bright spot light is now shining at the end of the alleyway, amidst the rubble left by the ruined buildings. Machia positioned himself in front of the three students, as if out of instinct.

 

 

It soon revealed itself as a quadrupedal mechanized walker, with unusual biological features all over, the size of a car. Two spotlights mounted on the sides of its ‘head’ swiveled towards them. But just after taking one step, it suddenly froze as if it encountered a glitch in its systems.

 

 

As the thing stood still at the end of the alleyway, Tomura immediately went into his head and remembered all the things that remotely looked like a giant metal tick in the real world. It can’t be UA’s robots because they’re all blocky in design, and it can’t be Detnerat’s because they have no drones at all. This one has a smooth round body supported by four legs that can somehow cling at the side of a building despite having neither visible claws nor any clinging support. All in all, it looked both robotic and biological in design, which made him remember the Mecha-Nomu he encountered back in USJ some time ago.

 

 

And in terms of of rea-world comparison, there’s nothing even similar to it.

 

 

“I’m just here doing some field testing…” The spider-like mechanical being said in a static-loaded female voice with a lot of stuttering. “And you heroes just had to mess everything huh? Shall I show you how I deal with organic beings who mess with my data collection?”

 

 

“Young Shigaraki, a heads up would be nice,” Machia asked, taking on a combat stance, fist crunched up and ready to cave in whatever target it collided with.

 

 

“No… nothing on this one, shall we leave? I think we should leave-“

 

 

“GO!” Machia shouted at the top of his lungs as he swung his fist towards the enemy, sending a powerful areal shockwave crashing into it, sending it staggering backwards.

 

 

 

 

Tomura ran out the end of the alleyway as fast as he can, the other two students trailing behind him. The streets are empty and silent, lamp posts all blacked out, and numerous slash marks dot the stores lining up the surroundings. A light wind blew upon them, further emphasizing the ghost town feel.

 

 

Or so Tomura thought, he’d rather think this is just a ghost town than the aftermath of a release of a huge amount of small bipedal creatures with blades for arms – that don’t even remotely look like Nomus in the slightest.

 

 

And then there’s Revenant instantly blaming the Invisible girl…

 

 

“Overhaul, what’s taking it so long?!” he yelled at the teen to his right as they ran, who’s currently mashing the digital buttons off of his phone. “Where’s extraction?!”

 

 

“Machia should have just taken us out of here instead of immediately going head-to-head! That dumb fist-for-brains leaving us kids out on our own!”

 

 

Tomura was about to answer back in an attempt to defend Machia when he realized that it’s exactly what All Might also does in the real world. He doesn’t evacuate people, he just goes in and one-punches the villain and end the situation as fast as he came. All Might is not a thinker, nor an intelligent person. He’s just very strong, but that strength alone has certainly been more than enough for him to become the Symbol of Peace.

 

 

After all, why think when everything goes down in a single punch?

 

 

As they ran, Tomura could see mutilated bodies lying on some of the dark alleyways. He’s very used to seeing dead people, no matter what the cause of death is, but the dead bodies lying about are very strange. For a mangled mess of limbs, there seem to be an unusual lack of blood. Could it be the work of Eviscerators? But the things don’t even have visible mouths, despite them holding onto their throats and acting thirsty while under the Wasteland field earlier. It made him wonder if they’re based of Shoji, or are they duplicates of Shoji-

 

 

“WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE?!” Overhaul shrieked, almost tripping on a small stone on his path.

 

 

“What?! You heal people by splattering them!” Tomura yelled back as they ran, remembering his methods of healing – or so what Dragunov told him multiple times during their little outdoor activities back when school just started. “You splatter Kaina all the time and now you’re complaining?!”

 

 

“That sounds oddly sexual…” Kizuki muttered beside them, not looking bothered at all with the mutilated bodies littered everywhere.

 

 

“You seem oddly fine seeing a whole lotta dead bodies around.” Tomura’s head turned to the other side as the three of them ran, eyeing up the girl’s expression and an utter lack of disgust despite the amount of mutilated people.

 

 

“You shouldn’t be thinking too much about zombies-“

 

 

All three suddenly stopped as a powerful crashing noise occurred at the spot where they left Machia, and another, and another one sounding like shattering metal. A huge pillar of smoke rose upwards, at the same time a tall building on Machia’s location toppled over onto another nearby building, creating a short-lived chain reaction.

 

 

“I don’t remember ‘Might being that destructive-

 

 

Another loud crashing noise is heard, and a tick-like bio-mechanical being was suddenly launched high into the sky, completely shattered in half. It was about to be considered a win if it weren’t for the ‘machine’ to start glowing a yellow hue in mid-air and return itself back to normal before landing, exactly like how Eviscerators work. Another batch of loud noises and occurred as if Machia is breaking through it once again.

 

 

Meanwhile, some more strange noises turned the three students’ attention towards the road ahead.

 

 

A whole swarm of the small bladed creatures are marching towards them. Despite the hungry-looking stance they’re taking, they’re not running towards them like the deranged monsters that they are earlier. A few seconds later, more and more skittering noises surrounded them as more and more of the things appear from the dark alleys with the mutilated bodies.

 

 

“You know guys, I was previously the leader of the greatest criminal group in the country and uh… I suggest we wait for an outside force to save us.”

 

 

“Yeah as if a f***ing Deus Ex Ma-“ Overhaul didn’t finish his sentence as Machia appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the three of them. Using all of his strength, the Number One hero leaped over the huge group of monsters, as well as another one of the tick-like machinations.

 

 

He continued leaping over entire cities, kids in two, until he reached a relatively peaceful area still with people, far away from the chaos at Hosu but close enough to UA. People with worried looks came to greet him and ask about the situation, but since everything would just get more and more worse the longer he stays out of combat, he just said some stock answers about everything being under control and lept off again, kicking up dirt in the surrounding area.

 

 

Despite the Number One’s words, a nearby appliance store with multiple TV displays is showing an entirely different story.

 

 

The situation is far from being controlled.

 

 

There was silence for a while, as the people observed the three students the Number One hero just dropped off of their location. Just one look at either Kizuki or Tomura is enough for a noticeable amount to back off and walk away. If it weren’t for the presence of Chisaki, known for being under the direct supervision of both Kamikaze and Shinryaku, more people would have instantly walked off.

 

 

Tomura would be lying if he didn’t say he was slightly amazed by it, seeing people visibly scared of him for some reason. He didn’t analyze what caused it, but he felt like a villain for a good while. He turned to look at the spot where Machia landed them and saw a noticeable crater on the road, and wondered how did they impact the ground at such a force and not feel anything.

 

 

It made him remember how Beros smacked the back of his head back at the Sports Festival and he didn’t feel a thing.

 

 

“What’s going on with these people…?” Chisaki quietly asked, confused to the reaction of the people in the area. After a few seconds, he ushered the other two to the nearest sidewalk, with quite a number of people still moving away from them.

 

 

A loud booming noise is heard as if a powerful lightning strike happened in a distant area in front of them. But compared to the familiar booming noise thunder makes, this one sounds like a bomb just went off. The ground shaking slightly confirmed that there’s no way it could be thunder.

 

 

“Hmm looks like the clean-up crew has arrived…” Chisaki muttered, discreetly gesturing to the nearby appliance store showing Tatsumaki levitating in mid-air while posing for the camera crew.

 

 

As the famous heroine talked about her duties, Tomura kept noticing a violent vortex of wind spiraling around her right arm. Back in the real world, Air Cannon caused All for One’s entire arm to swell up before firing, but that’s certainly not the case here. Could this be how it originally functioned? Or is Tatsumaki just showing off?

 

 

“Don’t worry guys, the clean-up crew is here!” she said in a cheerful tone. The camera then panned downward to reveal a huge circular crater right below her, with some of the camera crew’s amazed comments being audible.

 

 

As more and more people slowly leave the scene, Tomura kept his gaze centered on the appliance store display still showing Tatsumaki on the screen, hoping to see the heroine actually fire Air Cannon for once. But instead of the destruction he’s in for, he instead saw another of those tick-like mechanical beings that they encountered earlier, being an easily-recognizable wreckage at the bottom right of the screen.

 

 

‘Looks like there’s plenty of them… and that one somehow didn’t Rewind…’

 

 

But before he could tell his other two companions to just go back to UA, the right group of TVs on the appliance store display changed channels and displayed a very familiar face.

 

 

‘The heck…?’

 

 

Yu Takeyama, Mount Lady, reporting live on a city far away from them. She was visibly aged-up to her forties, and not the vain youthful heroince she once was. She was dressed in an outfit representative of a newscaster.

 

 

‘But isn’t she supposed to be part of the MLA?’

 

 

He found it strange, as the only connection to the media the MLA has (or so what Spinner told him) is the IT Guy and his crew. The MLA doesn’t have a newscaster. The only thing he could make out from this is that this could be that being a newscaster is what Mount Lady originally wanted to do before she became a hero. Since All for One said everything in this alternate universe is meant to represent something, then that could be it.

 

 

“Oh look it’s Takeyama!” Tomura heard Kizuki speak beside him.

 

 

“Looks like the attacks are even reaching Fukushima… Strange times we live in,” Chisaki muttered as he saw the location Takeyama’s in. He was about to continue when the lights around them flickered. All display televisions went black. People nearby stopped to observe what’s going on, same thoughts swirling in all their heads.

 

 

“Let me guess, we’re still going to get attacked here? Why didn’t Machia just drop us off at UA-” Tomura didn’t get to finish his sentence as a wave of eerie human-like screeches is heard from a distance, greatly startling the citizens all around them and causing everyone to start fleeing .

 

 

“Okay… I dunno what to do… Overhaul, now would be the right time to call for help… just sayin’…” Tomura muttered calmly, red eyes focused on the sounds of skittering and broken glass rapidly approaching them. In a puff of black smoke that covered his entire form, latching hands appeared all over him. “Either way, we fighting or what? I mean we ARE hero students after all…”

 

 

“I don’t know okay?! Let me think!” Chisaki yelled as he stepped back, the inhuman screams getting ever closer.

 

 

More and more people are running away from the scene, with the environment being completely empty in a matter of minutes. The inhuman monsters screams continue to intensify, but not a single monster is seen yet.

 

 

“Guys, now what?” Kizuki asked, voice slightly trembling. “You know I’d rather be alive than dead.”

 

 

“Hey Overhaul, you’re Air Cannon’s favorite kid, are we fighting or what,” Tomura impatiently tapped his shoes and crossed his arms. As much as he didn’t like not being the leader, in times like this it’s best to rely on the most powerful member of the group. If it’s one of the lessons All for One wanted him to learn, then learn that he must do.

 

 

“Hey don’t look at me! I didn’t ask for any of this!”

 

 

Tomura was about to smack him for being such a wimp when he realized that Chisaki’s original firepower came from the  sheer skill that he has in the real world. He’s not capable of extremely powerful punches like Midoriya or Quirk combination like All for One, he’s just very skilled in using his versatile innate abilities, and that’s what made him tremendously powerful. Since he’s aged-down in this alternate universe, then that could mean he’s not very good at his Quirk yet. But how come he can raise the entire tournament floor quite easily back during the Sports Festival?

 

 

“I really think we should run.”

 

 

Tomura snapped back to reality once he heard Kizuki’s voice. And right in front of them just at the road ahead, is not only an incoming swarm of Eviscerators, but another one of the giant tick-like machinations marching alongside them – its dual spotlight shining and locked onto them.

 

 

“Okay okay. Overhaul, see if you can get in contact with anyone. If no one has a better idea then I suggest we get our legs going!” Tomura threw both hands he’s carrying and, using all of his strength, tugged a panicked Overhaul and started pulling him back until he started running on his own.

 

 

Now that all three of them are running from the threat, it is only then Tomura noticed that the swarm of Eviscerators are unusually slow-moving. Are they out of juice? Or are they just warming-up? Either way, they make good test targets for his secondary ability.

 

 

Grabbing a handful of hands, he began launching backwards them as he ran. Seconds later he could already hear the beautiful cracking noises of asphalt as the Wasteland Quirk began to function, sending Eviscerators that wander in the fields into disarray and once again removing the fluid inside the sacs they turn into upon dying (provided the Wasteland hands do not get hit by the random arcing lightning the sacs fire out).

 

 

It was mildly effective until the huge tick-like machination kept up with the swarm, still shining its dual spotlights onto them. It emitted nothing nor made a unique sound, but the Eviscerator swarm clambering over each other under its legs started going faster, their lightweight frame greatly contributing to their running speed.

 

 

Tomura was still in the middle of plucking and throwing the spectral hands backwards, until a sound akin to that of a huge boulder being shoved into place is heard. It was Chisaki, who stopped to raise the road between a set of buildings in an attempt to take advantage of the swarm’s inability to climb walls.

 

 

He then rushed into the other two and dropped down, raising a pillar under them to take them to the nearest apartment rooftops.

 

 

“Wh-“

 

 

Tomura didn’t finish as Chisaki immediately gestured for them to follow him to the other side of the area, at which the former Yakuza leader dropped down to touch the floor and gently lowered a platform he made to ground level, ruining the structure itself but successfully getting all three of them back to ground level.

 

 

“All I know is do NOT get hit by the lightning strikes those sacs make, at ALL,” Chisaki murmured as he slowly stood up, a free hand fidgeting some buttons on his phone. “And that’s everything I know about them. I’m not gonna go full flesh golem anytime soon.

 

 

“Actually I just remembered you can actually turn into a flesh golem…” Tomura whispered back, fully aware of the loud skittering noises coming from the other side of the alleyway they’re in.

 

 

“Why are you so… relaxed…?” Kizuki nervously asked Tomura, scratching the back of her head. “Are you aware of what we are facing now?”

 

 

“I have my reasons. Besides, I can just-“

 

 

A series of loud tapping noises is heard from one end of the alleyway they’re in. Moments later, the same spotlights and the same giant metal tick from a few moments earlier appeared, exactly in the same fashion it did last time. And just like last time, this one also suddenly stopped for a few seconds before resuming its movement.

 

 

The three instantly turned to the other side and started running, with the bio-mechanical beast just watching them flee.

 

 

It was all going well until they reached a turning point, blocked by a sizeable stationary horde.

 

 

Tomura was about to launch some more hands when he felt like something was plucked off of his back. He didn’t get to turn around when a huge explosion occurred at the middle of the Eviscerator swarm, launching the creatures on all directions and clearing a path.

 

 

“Whu-?!” He felt something tug on his right arm and pull him forward.

 

 

“They’re giving us an opening, move!” Kizuki yelled at the top of her lungs as she pulled her other two companions out onto the road. Right up ahead some distance from them is a moderately large group of people in the middle of running away from the chaos that’s following them.

 

 

Kizuki let go of Tomura as the boy got to his bearings and ran beside her. “Did you just pull one of my hands?” he asked.

 

 

“It’s the nearest ammo I can get! What do you think I’m supposed to do-?!”

 

 

Another loud crashing sound is heard behind them. It was another huge wall made of asphalt. Looking around, the two noticed that Chisaki is no longer with them.

 

 

“Where’s-?”

 

 

“The guy’s hand-picked by the most powerful heroes of the country! He can handle his own! Come on!” Tomura yelled as he grabbed onto Kizuki’s arm and pulled her forward until she started running on her own. “He’s making a distraction to save us!”

 

 

“I don’t like how those creatures are acting, they seem like they’re herding us.”

 

 

“Yeah I’ve been noticing that for a while now…” Tomura answered back as the two ran. The Eviscerators seem to have the ability to outrun them. If the monsters aim to kill them, they would’ve done so using their superior stamina and regeneration rate, but instead of that they appear in areas and act more like blockades than ambushes.

 

 

‘Maybe this is why Machia didn’t just land us in UA? Because he knew the monsters aren’t a real threat…? Is this another fake hero activity or what…?’

 

 

Both turned their attentions to the alleys surrounding them, noticing shadows of bladed creatures running about, clearly having the capacity to run faster than them.

 

 

‘What are these things planning on?!’ Tomura yelled in his mind, remembering why Dr. Garaki did NOT want complete sentience on his Nomus.

 

 

The two ran as fast as their legs can take them, up until another blockade of Eviscerators appeared up ahead, separating them from the crowd of panicked people.

 

 

“I don’t like where this is going,” Tomura muttered to himself as he eyed the only exit they could take that the monsters are deliberately letting open.

Notes:

Some useful notes for this chapter:

Tatsumaki Kamikaze (Hero Name: Divine Wind) – The human form of Air Cannon.

Revenant – Mystery person, identity not revealed yet.

Daikyu – Revenant’s nickname for Beros, the archer girl from the third movie.

Katie – Revenant’s nickname for Nagant.

Eleena - Tomura's nickname for Chitose.

Wasteland – a replacement Quirk for Shigaraki’s Decay. It allows Tomura to dehydrate any biological being he touches, and also allows him to summon hands (that arrange themselves in the same manner as his villain attire) that are able to detach and be thrown independently – with each creating a localized corrosive field (while still unable to Decay people).

Eviscerators – Eri’s own version of Nomus, looking like small Shoji-like creatures with four bladed arms.

Chapter 30: The Swarm - [Part 2]

Notes:

This chapter took too long to make! Anyways here’s the usual useful notes:

Eviscerators: Eri’s own version of Nomus.

Tatsumaki Kamikaze: The human form of Air Cannon

Revenant: Mystery person who looks like a young AFO with black hair. Real identity not revealed yet.

Dragunov – Nagant’s Alternate Universe Hero Name

Eleena – Tomura’s nickname for Kizuki. Based off of a Star Wars Twi’lek.

Cornstarch Principle/Backforce: A phenomena that allows Quirked people to survive powerful impact hits. (Basically this fic’s explanation for Anime Physics)

Wasteland – a replacement Quirk for Shigaraki’s Decay. It allows Tomura to dehydrate any biological being he touches, and also allows him to summon hands (that arrange themselves in the same manner as his villain attire) that are able to detach and be thrown independently – with each creating a localized corrosive field (while still unable to disintegrate people).

Chapter Text

Day 32

 

 

Tomura looked around, fear rapidly seeping into his system. This is just an alternate universe, why would All for One not only make Midoriya almost unkillable, but make a a huge swarm of Nomu-like creatures vastly different from the simple one-note hulking beasts that they are in the real world? Why make everything complicated? This is just a training ground, right? There’s literally no reason to-

 

 

“What n-now-?”

 

 

Tomura grabbed onto Chitose’s arm in response and pulled her to the only place the Eviscerators are not blocking, which is coincidentally a wide open road devoid of any obstructions like parked cars. He had a strange feeling the monsters are up to something, but deliberately leaving a whole road wide open? That’s more than obvious.

 

 

As he ran, he secretly hoped that one of the barely humanoid-looking monsters would stop and gloat to them despite having no mouths, so at least he can now finally know what they’re up to. But he knew it’s not going to happen anytime soon. Aside from them, the only other thing is a huge tick-like bio-mechanical contraption that speaks in an erratic digitalized female voice.

 

 

Tomura wasn’t sure enough but he definitely heard that voice before.

 

 

He re-summoned the grasping hands that surrounded him, before plucking them off and throwing them one by one towards the Eviscerators coming for them, greatly slowing the swarm down. That is until the giant metal tick reappeared in the middle of the swarming mass and emitted strange mechanical growling noises, causing the monsters to run faster and slowly encircle them.

 

 

“I swear these guys are planning something!” Tomura yelled as he kept on re-summoning and throwing hands behind them, noticing that Kizuki is also plucking them off and throwing them as well. “I should get a limited edition Machia jacket after this sh**!”

 

 

“A jacket?! Seriously?! Out of all the things to worry about?!“

 

 

A series of small explosions occurred in the midst of the swarm as they clamber over the primed hands, launching clumps of monsters towards the nearby buildings and killing them outright, forcing them to turn into the gelatinous ‘healing’ bags. The thrown hands that eventually went stable automatically righted themselves to generate localized Wasteland fields, slowing the swarm even more until the relatively few that managed to keep up eventually slowed down on their own.

 

 

But the two continued to run forwards, fully expecting some sort of trap the monsters are setting up, as well as hoping Chisaki would come back and get them. It didn’t take them a full five seconds after ‘outrunning’ the group coming after them when a loud digitalized scream is heard once again from a distance behind, accompanied by waving searchlights pointing towards the sky. Afterwards, a huge swarm came pouring out of the alleyways on all directions and instantly arranged themselves in a circle, trapping the two students in the middle of an empty crossroad.

 

 

At this point, the thrown hands - the ones that managed to right themselves up, are still going strong, generating small localized sandstorms around them and slowly corroding the asphalt, sidewalk marble, lamp posts, and everything within their effective range, albeit very slowly. All that time Tomura could feel Kizuki also plucking off the grasping hands on his back and throwing them out, but their combined attempts at swatting away the pests are nothing as their sheer numbers easily replace everything they manage to successfully kill.

 

 

The swarm just took it all, but remained at their place, not letting a single exit point undefended. Whenever a detonation occurs, the swarmlings from the back simply move up front to replace the lost ones, effectively blocking off all exits. Once again the monsters just stayed put, as if waiting for an order to attack.

 

 

“I-uh…” Tomura looked around, eyes eventually fixating on the girl, who looked like she’s on the edge her legs can take her. He may not be the most athletic guy around, but he’s still somehow not tired enough from all the running. Could it be the ‘training’ he got from the real world from running too much away from the heroes? But he got turned into a frailer sixteen-year old, so it’s not possible.

 

 

“I can’t run any further, what do we do now…?” Kizuki asked in the middle of panting, her legs visibly shaking as she panned her green eyes on the huge amounts of monstrous creatures about to make mincemeat of them any moment. “I never thought it would end like this-“

 

 

“No one’s dying tonight, especially not you and me-“

 

 

“Eviscerator Command Bot B11 connecting to central command.” A digitalized female voice is heard, turning the attention of the two towards the location of the base of the spotlights projecting into the sky. It was another of those giant tick-like bio-mechanical contraptions in a different coloration, located on the road segment they originally came from before getting surrounded in the middle of a crossroad. It was a bit bigger than the usual tick-bots, towering over the small Eviscerators and deliberately stepping on them to force them to transform into their sac mode, healing nearby monsters.

 

 

It positioned itself near a small localized sandstorm, full of disintegrated debris swirling inside of it, not minding the Eviscerators standing within the field dying by droves.

 

 

“Don’t pat yourselves on the back yet, heroes, every failure data tonight will be collected, logged, analyzed, and refactored to prepare for the next re-entry! All my babies scattered throughout the city, all doing their part collecting precious data for mommy! Everything that kills us now will make us even stronger!”

 

 

Tomura cringed from the huge robot’s way of talking, its synthesized girlish-sounding voice going higher towards the end. But the way it said ‘babies’ immediately reminded him of-

 

 

“That weirdo gadget chick from the Sports Festival…” he muttered under his breath, keeping his gaze centered on the foot of the robot closest to the sandstorm his phantom hand is creating. It was odd, with the mechanical being waving its foot near it as if taunting them to do something to it.

 

 

“I-I…” Kizuki’s legs gave way and she fell limp onto the road, trembling hands going up her face. She took one deep breath just as Tomura was about to pull her up by her shoulders, and shouted, “JUST AS I’M ABOUT TO BE A HERO, JUST AS I’M ABOUT TO MAKE IT, JUST AS I’M ABOUT TO BECOME A SOMEBODY, I’M GOING TO DIE FIRST?!”

 

 

“Hey uh-“

 

 

“ENOUGH! I REFUSE TO DIE!” The blue-skinned girl yelled back, aggressively slamming her ungloved palms onto the asphalt below her.

 

 

Before Tomura could even talk back, the ground below them erupted in a huge explosion, launching the two highschoolers high into the night sky, beyond the physical reach of the swarm.

 

 

From a standing start to being hurled upwards in less than a second, Tomura took a good few seconds to re-align himself. The blast was surprisingly painless, just like the Machia landing earlier and the hit he received from Beros during the Sports Festival. Looking over at his shoes, he noticed his footwear also barely received any damage.

 

 

Is the concept of blast damage always like this? Is this fully just because of the Cornstarch Principle? He then remembered every shot Bakugo did in the real world, and noticed that the explosive boy too, did not deal as much damage as he would expect. But how come his shoes are also unaffected? Shouldn’t his shoes be blown off already? He thought for a bit and remembered bits of the fight AFO had against All Might, and both sides are throwing hits at each other with their clothes barely taking any damage.

 

 

‘Cornstarch Principle also affects clothes too? How?!’

 

 

In the end, the only ‘damage’ he would count as he flew through the air is that he felt slightly dizzy a few moments after detonation. But he just shrugged it off as anyone would instantly feel slightly dizzy if they suddenly accelerated at an insane speed from a standing start.

 

 

“HA HA HA! KIZUKI WINS!”

 

 

Tomura instantly turned around to where he heard the voice, keeping his teal hair off of his eyes as he scanned around mid-air. But before he could see her, he heard another blast from the crossroad they launched from.

 

 

It was one of his planted hands near the base of the tick-like robot’s foot that suddenly exploded. But despite the explosion being small, the next thing he saw is a whole row of buildings toppling over in an expanding radius around the detonated hand. The resulting chain reaction of buildings getting destroyed would have collapsed on the robot and nearby monsters if it weren’t for the numerous building debris being instantly disintegrated before they could even touch the ground.

 

 

Tomura’s jaw instantly dropped. The spread of the disintegrating particles, the damage it caused, the resulting panic from the swarm, instantly reminded him of the way he destroyed over a half of Deika City in one go. But instead of everything being turned to dust like his original Decay did, this time only the buildings are disintegrated while the Eviscerators just looked like they just got dehydrated, judging by their panicked movements.

 

 

But even then, the amount of destruction he theoretically caused even if AFO specifically said he removed the Super Decay is just too fascinating to ignore. He tumbled through the air, his attention laser-focused onto the row of still-disintegrating buildings. The wind is already hurting his eyes yet for some reason he just couldn’t close them in sheer amazement.

 

 

‘How the heck did I do that…?’

 

 

More explosions happened, with each one generating out a wave of destruction that swept in another expanding radius around the central detonation point, easily disintegrating every non-living thing in its path.

 

 

“WAIT! THAT WASN’T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!”

 

 

Tomura heard the faint yelling of Kizuki high above him, yet his focus was still on the disintegration wave caused by the simple explosions. Despite the pain in his eyes intensifying, he stared down the entire thing, trying to analyze what happened.

 

 

Something tells him he’s not the main cause of that damage. There’s no way he alone did that. All for One removed all of his existing upgrades from the real world. Was it Kizuki? But the explosions were weak unlike the one that sent them both flying in the first place, and most the damage was because of the expanding dust cloud, not by the explosion.

 

 

It was at this time when Tomura turned his head to see Kizuki far above him, like she was blasted off even higher by her own detonation.

 

 

‘Wait… how am I supposed to land-‘

 

 

A sudden feeling of pain on his back, a brief tumbling motion, and a moderately hard impact on a hard surface, and he found himself on a rooftop of a building. He was confused for a total one full minute, before he realized he already landed, with surprisingly very little wounds that are no more than scratch marks even though he fell from a hundred feet in height.

 

 

‘Thank God for Cornstarch Principle saving my ass there…’ the boy thought to himself as he tried to stand up, the pain lingering for a brief moment before finally disappearing. No broken bones, no shattered noses, and no lasting damage. The same thing that allowed All Might to unleash his most powerful hits on villains and not kill them also allowed a lot of people to survive scenarios that would otherwise prove fatal for people 200 years ago.

 

 

Tomura felt extremely stupid not knowing how his OWN world works. How come he never heard of Cornstarch Principle (or ‘Backforce’ as what Kizuki told Spinner once) back in the real world, despite being shown proof of it again and again and again?

 

 

Dusting his clothes, he cursed silently under his breath. At least he’s finally learning more. “Hopefully, AFO would be proud of me when we come back…”

 

 

He was about to think about the destruction caused by the exploding hands earlier when he heard more explosions high above him. It was Kizuki, still soaring above, with explosions happening below her and propelling her even further through the sky. Right now the explosion transported both of them in a relatively safe area, but seeing the huge masses of Eviscerators being deployed all over the country, the chance of Kizuki landing into another danger zone is huge.

 

 

But just was he was about to go after her, a faint green flash of light caught his attention as it zipped past his face. Panicking for a brief moment thinking it’s Midoriya, he soon saw the now-blindfolded face of Revenant just meters at his left as if the young hero suddenly materialized there.

 

 

“Sorry I’m late.”

 

 

Tomura ignored what he said and instead his eyes focused on Revenant’s Quirk. The Eviscerators, the swarm monsters chasing after them, have four arms, with each arm having three segments. Each segment is just one blade, being connected to the other by small fleshy joints. And Revenant has the exact same thing, only this time the blades are glowing in a bright green hue…

 

 

That, and coupled with the fact that he looks like a young AFO…

 

 

“General Grievous!” Tomura exclaimed, his amazement unbearable and his grin almost reaching to his ears as he walked closer to inspect. He ignored the similarity Revenant has to the swarm monsters chasing after them earlier. What only matters now is the person that looks suspiciously like his adoptive father, who’s a MASSIVE Star Wars fan, has lightsabers for weapons-

 

 

“Young Shigaraki! Are you there?!” came the voice of Machia, startling Tomura and setting him back to the present.

 

 

It sounded like a phone call, and indeed Revenant’s left arm (that’s now back to a normal-looking arm despite earlier) is now holding onto a phone set to loudspeakers.

 

 

“Don’t be alarmed on the uncanny similarity of-“

 

 

“I KNEW IT! YOU’RE ALL FOR ONE! I CAN’T BE WRONG!” Tomura ran towards Revenant and repeatedly tapped his back, minding the young hero’s multiple segmented lightsaber-like weaponry biologically attached to him. “Now I know why they call you Scissors!”

 

 

“I think he’s got it, I’ll go-“ Revenant stopped talking to the phone as his head jerked up, locking onto Kizuki high up into the air, who’s still somehow propelling herself even further away from the scene with random objects exploding below her.

 

 

“Hey uh-“ Tomura didn’t finish his sentence as the hero ran off towards the direction of the longer side of the concrete roof they’re on, on parallel with Kizuki’s direction.

 

 

‘That’s got to be  AFO… it has to be…’ Tomura thought, eyeing up the hero’s Eviscerator-like blades, until he remembered their little spat early this afternoon. He remembered being so frustrated with him that he tried to grab onto the back of his neck in an attempt to dehydrate him, which somehow didn’t work.

 

 

 ‘He also has multiple Quirks! I can’t be wrong!’

 

 

Amidst his thinking, he suddenly heard multiple explosions from his left and saw smoke billowing out into the distance. It appears that Kizuki is still somehow detonating the hands she threw earlier despite hurtling through the sky at insane speeds. But before he could think about the explosions more, he saw a faint flash of flickering green light streaking through the night sky.

 

 

The flickering happened a couple more times, going rapidly towards the direction of Kizuki as if something is teleporting short distances in quick succession until it successfully reached her.

 

 

He was about to wonder if AFO really has a ligthsaber Quirk when he was startled with the sudden reappearance of Revenant right beside him. It took a few seconds for him to notice that the young hero’s ‘lightsaber arms’ are now back to being regular ones.

 

 

“Okinoshima, you’re on the ground now, you can stop doing that…” Revenant said, his tone sounding like he’s barely containing a laugh.

 

 

Tomura looked to see Kizuki suddenly there and lying down on the cold concrete roof floor just a meter from him, now having an obvious lack of footwear nor a handbag from earlier. The girl is locked into a fetal position and holding something securely to her chest. She looked slightly singed but nothing bad, which made Tomura double check his own arms and saw that, he too, is only slightly singed as well.

 

 

He looked at the girl again, and noticed her face looking all tensed up like she’s bracing for ground impact. “Eleena, you look like you’re holding a fart, and it’s kinda silly- oh hey AFO! Why do you call her Okinoshima anyway?” Tomura instantly turned his attention to Revenant, “I keep hearing about it.”

 

 

“The biggest Japanese minelaying ship in service during World War 2, cool nickname huh?” Revenant answered, his lips still indictaing the laughter he’s been holding onto. “Also can you stop with this AFO thing already?”

 

 

“Yep, very cool, Dad, very cool…” Tomura nodded, feeling very glad despite the surroundings being filled with the wailings of panicking people and structures getting destroyed. AFO is here all along, and that means Midoriya-“

 

 

“Dad…? What…?”

 

 

“I never knew you’re such a stud back then, you must teach me your moves! I’m planning to get Dragunov in the crew after we get back, and I could really use some-“

 

 

“Still confusing me as this AFO-guy?”

 

 

“Nice try, Dad, nice try. So are we gonna go fishing or what-“

 

 

Both turned as they heard some faint rustle of rocks. It was Kizuki, still with her eyes closed shut, having one trembling free hand randomly touching the floor in front of her as if unsure if she’s already on the ground or not.

 

 

“How did you two get here anyway?“ Revenant asked, tapping Tomura’s back. “I thought Machia took you three back to UA?”

 

 

“We got dropped off at someplace else, and then we got surrounded by some mobs, and Eleena got pissed off and yeeted us to the big blue-“

 

 

“What…?”

 

 

“We got surrounded, and then Kizuki planted some explosives below us and detonated them, sound better? Thank God for Backforce literally saving my ass there. Fall damage just received an ‘L’ tonight,” Tomura shook his head and crossed his arms, “F***ing fall damage, I always hated it!”

 

 

He remembered how he complimented Re-Destro for surviving a fall from such a great height when he disintegrated the tower the CEO’s on, and only now he realized that not only it’s more or less painless, it’s that everyone can easily survive it. He suddenly felt embarrassed, but it’s already a few months ago and it’s practically over.

 

 

“So if ever I get launched again, does fall damage exist? Just in case I fell from an even greater height. ”

 

 

Revenant shook his head. “Nope. But unless you protect your head, you’re gonna get knocked out. “

 

 

Tomura instantly pointed at Kizuki before the young hero could continue. “If you didn’t save her, can Eleena survive a fall?”

 

 

“Uhh… yeah…? I mean everyone can-”

 

 

“What about Spinner?”

 

 

“Of course.”

 

 

Tomura was about to ask why is Revenant’s name and Quirk supposed to be classified (Or so as Beros told them earlier) when another light rustle is heard from Kizuki’s spot.

 

 

“Congratulations, Eleena! You’ve come back to your senses-“ Tomura didn’t get to finish his sentence when a series of explosions occurred in a distance beyond them, followed closely by the inhuman cries of the Eviscerators, and then a high-pitched girly voice talking about ‘data’ and ‘babies’.

 

 

“What’s the plan now?” he asked as he watched Revenant help the girl up.

 

 

Kizuki now lacked footwear and her clothes have a light singe to them. Her handbag is gone, and it’s only now Tomura saw that the thing she’s clutching close to her chest is the phone Takeyama gave her. His attention went back to the chaos unfolding around them. But should he still care? AFO is here. The chase is over. He’s safe now.

 

 

Waiting for the two to finish their conversation, and hearing Kizuki’s still-shaky voice, Tomura took the time to walk to the edge of the roof to observe the surroundings. Staring straight ahead, he hoped he could still see the level of destruction caused by the simple detonation of his thrown hands, but soon realized that the distance they travelled is so great it’s now beyond his sight.

 

 

Or maybe it’s just nearby and the tall buildings are blocking the view…

 

 

‘Why are they so powerful…?’ He thought to himself, remembering the way the detonation kicked off the swirling dust particles, which somehow gave them the ability to disintegrate nonliving things rapidly. Why is it so powerful? Could it be because it was Kizuki who threw them? Could it be that the act of detonation pushed the disintegrating particles outwards, allowing them to disintegrate faster? Or the detonation itself empowered the particles? Or what if the swirling particles are already powerful enough to disintegrate anything and that the explosion just increased their area of effect?

 

 

The memory of the entire row of buildings crumbling to dust is almost like an artist’s masterpiece, perfect in Tomura’s eyes. There’s nothing more beautiful and relaxing than seeing people’s homes and all their precious belongings disappearing before their eyes, and it brought him great joy. It’s exactly the thing that would make AFO very proud.

 

 

But no. He was supposed to be a hero in this alternate universe. So did this event occur as a challenge for him to see if he can suppress his villainous emotions first and think that it’s bad? But isn’t he supposed to build hate in order to become the true successor of the Demon King?

 

 

Or maybe this is just some random event with no relation to AFO and he’s just thinking too much? Whatever it is, he shrugged it off and immediately thought of the expansion of the disintegrating particles that caused the brunt of the damage. It was not just because of him alone, the destruction resulting from the simple explosion is the byproduct of the combination of both his Wasteland and Kizuki’s Landmine.

 

 

‘Wait… she launched us high into the sky in a simple blast… if it’s really true that Kizuki can fire off even bigger explosives…’

 

 

He quickly made up a scenario in his head. After besting Midoriya and going back to the real world, he’ll immediately search for Kizuki – wherever she is, and convince her to join the team. She’ll prime a certain area to explode, and then detonate everything upwards once Super Decay gets hold of it, blasting everything high up into the atmosphere. He can almost imagine it, a deadly rain of disintegrating particulates killing and destroying everything it touches!

 

 

Midoriya… UA… those pesky heroes… the garbage hero society… everything will die!

 

 

AFO would be so proud!

 

 

And then he’ll be a REAL successor to the Demon King instead of the joke that he is before. And then his Dad would finally take him fishing! It’s a win/win scenario he cannot lose!

 

 

The Sports Festival has been a huge eye-opener, showing Tomura how weak he really is without AFO’s help. This time he’ll fix it. This time will be different. This time he’ll be more independent. This time he’ll be more self-reliant. This time he’ll require no help from AFO. This time he’ll prove he’s a worthy villain. This time Midoriya WILL die!

 

 

Now if only Dragunov could get any faster with the tracking part…

 

 

“Uh-Um… Uh… Thanks again….”

 

 

Tomura heard Kizuki beside him. Turning around, he found that the girl is a little steady now, although still visibly shaken up from the flight.

 

 

He was about to walk there and ask them what’s the escape plan when he suddenly remembered that Kizuki and him are going to be interns for Mount Lady sometime in the following week. Maybe he could convince her to mess around with their Quirks-

Even better! Mount Lady is part of the MLA! That means she’d rather see the destructive potential of their Quirks than other practical uses. What if he use the time to discover more possibly-lethal combinations of his and Kizuki’s respective Quirks? If a simple dust explosion could bring down an entire row of buildings, what would a concentrated one do-?

 

 

“Shigaraki, you’re zoning out again.”

 

 

Kizuki’s voice snapped Tomura out of his villainous planning, and he instantly straightened up his posture. “Me? No! I’m just… thinking… How’s the phone, still fine?”

 

 

“Phone’s fine,” the girl answered, making the device’s screen light up after she pressed a few digital buttons. “Phone’s fine, now what?”

 

 

“Good, I’m taking you two back to UA. It’s far too dangerous here. If we’re going to continue on our campaign, I can’t let the two of you get into any more trouble,” Revenant said, clearing his throat afterwards. “Now let’s get you two out of here-“

 

 

“Nice try, totally-not-AFO, but I’m going to help no matter what.”

 

 

Before Revenant could talk back, inhuman wailing noises once again permeate the air, followed closely by heavy metallic tapping, indicating that a wave of Eviscerators is nearby. Looking around, a moderately large group of emaciated humanoid monsters can be seen pouring out of a dark alleyway visible from their position.

 

 

“You two are not going to help, I can handle this-“

 

 

The sound of loud metallic tapping grew louder and louder until a huge ironclad foot of one of the tick-like robots clambered over the side of the building they’re on.

 

 

And once again, the robot doesn’t seem like it wanted to go on the offensive as of yet. Tomura wondered as to why it keeps on letting them run away. Is it because AFO created this world and he’s afraid to injure his adopted son? Is it because of other reasons-?

 

 

“Okinoshima, I can assure you I AM Scissors and NOT one of them!” Revenant yelled towards Kizuki before both of his arms explode into a bloody mess, making the girl shriek in horror and immediately rush towards Tomura. The split arms looked exactly like an Eviscerator’s, before the blades lit up to become the segmented ‘lightsabers’ that they are earlier. With a swinging motion of his right arms towards the climbing robot, some of the glowing blades detached from their connections and homed in towards the mechanical leg joints, effortlessly slashing through and sending the machine crashing down into the road below.

 

 

The thrown blades curved around and re-attached themselves to the segment they’re fired from.

 

 

As amazing as it was for Tomura, he definitely knew his adoptive father does NOT have such a Quirk. The sight confused him. Is Revenant really AFO in disguise? Or someone who just suspiciously like him? The young hero hates fishing, doesn’t steal Quirks, doesn’t plan all sort of evil schemes, and somehow part of the Big Three with Dragunov and Beros…

 

 

And yet he also has multiple Quirks, confusing Tomura even further.

 

 

“So we finally meet…” The strange synthesized voice of the robot, which Tomura re-confirmed to be Hatsume’s, emenated from the crash site below. A few seconds later Kizuki yelled towards Revenant to call in some heroes and take them back to UA.

 

 

Tomura, while he also mentally agreed he would rather be at UA than be in another round of running away, couldn’t help but be curious. Why is the Hatsume-bot saying such things and just seem to be taunting them than straightforward attacking them?

 

 

A long tendril-like piece of maroon-colored cable launched from the smoking crash site, and clung to the wall of the nearest structure. Another one launched and latched onto the wall as well, the claws at the end of the cables easily burrowing into the concrete of the building it’s attempting to cling to.

 

 

And up came a strange robot-like humanoid being standing 7 meters tall, with its lower half being nothing but a bunch of cables going downward, looking like tentacles. The figure on top of the cable mass looked vaguely female, with two futuristic arm cannons attached to her arms.

 

 

And judging by the shape of the head, Tomura finally confirmed that his suspicions are correct all along. It was a roboticized version of Hatsume, with her iconic goggles and thick pink locks of hair. She’s not human at all. All her mannerisms, the way she twitches, and her speech pattern all indicate a more mechanized form.

 

 

Tomura recalled all the failed support equipments she’s known for, and he couldn’t recall anything that looked remotely close to what she is right now.

 

 

But if a Mecha-Hatsume is inside one of the tick-like robots, would that mean every single one of them has a-

 

 

“He finally made an appearance tonight. I knew those blades had to come from someone…”

 

 

Tomura knew he’s just in an artificial world in which he’s the main protagonist, but the way Mecha-Hatsume said her lines without a single twitch, stutter, nor mechanical malfunction, sent shivers up his spine.

 

 

“I should have known,” Revenant replied back, albeit loudly, making Kizuki take multiple steps back to re-join Tomura at the back.

 

 

“How do you like my Eviscerator project? What does the progenitor think about his progeny? Amazing, right?” Hatsume spun her entire upper torso around as she clambered up the building and towered over the three, her six tentacle-like cables extending downwards and piercing through the concrete. “They were far from perfect of course, but where’s the fun in creation if you keep making perfect things from the start? But if ever there’s a mistake… we could always start from square one…”

 

 

“Psst-“ Tomura instantly stopped as the lower left bladed arm of Revenant pointed at him and twitched. As the Hatsume-bot talked more about creating the perfect genetic mold and that mistakes only serve to make her stronger, Revenant’s right arms twitched violently and reattached themselves back into one, all the blood that was on the ground from when the arms first split open earlier suddenly lifted up and re-inserted themselves back into the arms as it repaired.

 

 

All that was left is a regular arm. Despite the bloody transformation earlier, there were no scars, no wounds, and no sign of anything that could hint that it even happened in the first place.

 

 

Revenant’s right arm slowly went to one of his pant pockets and pulled out a finger, the severed tip glowing a faint green. Meanwhile Mecha-Hatsume continued to talk, not even once pointing her weaponry towards the group nor making threatening gestures.

 

 

Tomura couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. Is he even AFO or what? Fingers? Since when did his adoptive father collect fingers? AFO collected Quirks, not fingers! He was about to drift into his thoughts again when he heard even more metallic tapping, noises indicating more of the huge robots arriving.

 

 

“Erm… R-revenant…?”

 

 

Tomura heard the scared trembling voice of Kizuki calling out to the young hero, who responded with a raised finger on his fixed arm, before slowly lowering again. Revenant just stood where he is, staring down the enemy.

 

 

“Do it. Escape…” Hatsume said, her robotic voice returning to its mechanical synthesizing. “Or shall I force you to do it? Want me to start with Nullifier Gas Prime?”

 

 

Tomura suddenly found Hatsume’s right arm cannon pointed directly at him, the barrel glowing yellow, and with electricity arcing about the entire length of the weaponry every few seconds.

 

 

Revenant, on the other hand, refused to move.

 

 

“Er… Revenant-Scissors…? Are we going or what…?” Tomura nervously asked, his voice shaking under the pressure. He himself doesn’t know what to do. Should he run? Would the robots allow them again like last time? Would Hatsume allow them to escape or is she just taunting? Is the real AFO watching over him and ready to protect him or what?

 

 

“No-?”

 

 

A huge mass of flesh, shaped like a club, suddenly manifested in front of Revenant after a brief green flash, slamming onto the robotic form of Hatsume head on and toppling her over. The meaty mass then exploded into small bits of organic material, and then re-merged together to reveal Chisaki using a giant flesh arm to grab hold of the tentacle part of Hatsume’s robotic body and rip her apart, severing her humanoid-looking upper torso from it.

 

 

But before Tomura could comprehend what happened, Chisaki instantly got covered in green light and disappeared as fast as he came, taking Hatsume’s upper half with him.

 

 

“Let’s go!” Revenant yelled out as he turned to his two companions. “MOVE!”

 

 

“What just happened?!” Tomura yelled back, noticing a whole swarm of giant robots coming after them. Some are breaking through the alleyways, some are climbing over the buildings, and some are running at phenomenal speeds across the open roads just to get to them.

 

 

“I sure do hope you’re not about to feed us to them!” Tomura yelled out as he followed the young blindfolded hero, with Kizuki trailing behind him.

 

 

“I have a plan! Follow me!”

 

 

Tomura, completely unsure whether to trust his instincts and run away from the scene as fast as possible or follow the AFO lookalike that looks like he’s inches away from backstabbing them, chose to follow, eyes darting around for any possible escape routes if ever he decides to turn against them.

 

 

“Young Shigaraki! Young Kizuki! This is Gigantomachia speaking!” The Number One hero’s voice emenated form the phone Revenant is suddenly holding onto as the three of them ran. “The person right behind you is Revenant! The real-“

 

 

“Machia! I’m right in front of them!” Revenant corrected the hero speaking from his phone.

 

 

“The person right in front of you is Revenant! Machia out!”

 

 

“I sure do hope the person on the other side is real-“

 

 

“Tomura! I AM Revenant-“

 

 

A wave of tentacle cables suddenly rose up from ground level and threatened to block their path. Tomura mentally rolled his eyes at the sight of them. First there’s Hatsume, and then now Best Jeanist is coming in to ruin their night as well?! Can Revenant even defend them against-

 

 

The young hero quickly turned his arms into bladed segments in one bloody explosion and swung the upper halves behind him in a downward arc, easily slicing off the arms of the two students behind him caught within range of the blades.

 

 

Before Tomura could even process what happened, with the entire act of slashing not even resulting in any pain at all, his vision suddenly warped and distorted. The central part stretched away from him and pulled at the edges, in almost the exact same effect as Star Wars starships utilize when they’re about to go lightspeed – which is again another Star Wars reference from the AFO-lookalike person who doesn’t act like AFO at all.

 

 

After two flickers of white in rapid succession, Tomura suddenly found himself in a drastically different place. It took him a good few seconds to process the event before realizing his feet are not even touching the ground. Looking downwards as he noticed the cold evening wind intensifying from one direction, he found himself falling through the air once more.

 

 

He was about to assume he got rewinded from the point he got blown into the sky by Kizuki’s explosives when he heard loud mechanical tapping noises, proving that they’re still being run down by huge amounts of spiderbots pouring out of the metaphorical woodwork.

 

 

‘Just what is AFO planning here…?’ He calmly thought to himself amidst the panicked cries of Kizuki nearby. Turning his head to one side he saw that the arm Revenant sliced off earlier is now back and it’s the other arm that’s missing this time, the stump being nothing more than a faint green glow. ‘I wonder what kind of training he’s going after…?’

 

As he fell, he tried to move the sliced-off missing arm, and he can still feel it moving despite not even knowing where it is, or where it went.

 

 

 ‘I’m so getting confused if Mr. Lightsaber is really AFO or not…’

 

 

His vision stretched again until it’s covered with flickering white light. After another spit second, he suddenly felt like he stopped falling, and then started to fall again. Based on the faint sounds of the robots below, he deduced that he got teleported higher.

 

 

Could this AFO-looking guy be Kurogiri? But Kurogiri’s mode of teleportation is vastly different from what this one is using.

 

 

Moving the missing arm, he found that it’s now back to him again. On the other hand, his right foot is now the one that’s sliced-off and missing.

 

 

Numerous robotic screechings echoed from below. Turning his head downwards, he saw that some of the giant robots already have their tops opened up to reveal more of those cable-Hatsumes from earlier, trying to crowd below them as to catch them when they fall. For some strange reason, none of them are even trying to use their arm-cannons.

 

 

‘I really have no idea what’s going on… but at least Jeanist’s not here-‘

 

 

Tomura stopped as he suddenly felt a green lightsaber-like blade impale him through the back of his head. The blade easily pushed through and did not cause any pain at all, but instead he felt an odd almost-indescribable feeling of having something sliding through his brain.

 

 

Vision warped, light flickered, and he’s suddenly even higher. He can still hear Kizuki’s loud screaming, but his mind is not fully on the scene. He tried to think about the robots and all, but every warp higher is just making him even more confused.

 

 

Another bright light slashed on his midsection, once again without pain.

 

 

He looked down and noticed his entire lower half is gone. Out of curiosity, he placed his hands to feel around the missing midsection. It’s unusually soft, with a skin-like texture despite nothing but faint green light left. All in all, just like what he felt when a glowing blade stabbed him through the head, the sensation of touching around the missing area resulted in some indescribable feeling as if he’s touching his insides.

 

 

Tomura tried to move his legs, and he can still feel them as if they’re still connected despite being missing. But where could they be?

 

 

Another visual stretching and a flicker of white light, and he’s now even higher, but this time Kizuki is now beside him and bawling her eyes out in fear. Looking around, Tomura noticed that he’s actually complete for once, no missing hands, no missing feet, and no missing anything.

 

 

And then they started to fall again.

 

 

“CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT’S GOING ON?!” Tomura yelled out, flailing his arms around in frustration as he tumbled through the air. He was about to yell a whole barrage of curse words when he heard Kizuki’s crying suddenly stop just in time a semi-bright green light appeared nearby her.

 

 

It was Revenant, with his back turned to them as he hurriedly re-positioned his dark-tinted aviator sunglasses that he’s now wearing. The young hero then immediately turned around, all arm blades now back to normal, and wrapped his unusual still-bleeding arms around Kizuki, making the girl inadvertently clutch her legs to her chest, before letting go.

 

 

Tomura just watched, completely ignoring the fall and possible death by total evisceration. He is the main character of this alternate universe. There should be no way for him to die. He was mostly calm, collected, controlled, and a bit curious as to what the young hero is doing with his free hand being shoved into one of his pant pockets.

 

 

And why is both of Revenant’s arms suddenly bleeding profusely despite being able to warp the blood back into him like he showed earlier? Tomura couldn’t help but wonder, yet he chose to stay silent, maybe he’s just letting them bleed out as a strategy to deal with the swarm of Hatsume-bots?

 

 

“Everybody keep calm!” Revenant yelled as he threw something out behind them.

 

 

Tomura could see a faint flash of green light some distance above them. It seemed like it’s in the shape of a person. Said person immediately dove downwards faster than they could fall. He tried to turn around, twisting his body just to get in the right angle to allow him to swivel his head and see what it is.

 

 

He immediately stopped trying as he felt his descent go slower and slower, same case for both Revenant and Kizuki. Something seemed to be holding them up.

 

 

“Never expected the swarm would reach this far…”

 

 

Tomura heard the familiar voice go closer and closer until it went past him. It was Tatsumaki Kamikaze, who is somehow now wearing the exact same outfit she wore back at the Sports Festival.

 

 

She was looking absolutely angelic, but despite that Tomura didn’t oogle her chest this time around. Air Cannon is one of AFO’s most favorite Quirk and staring at the heroine’s shapely chest would mean utter disrespect. She was very powerful, and that should be the only thing he should be amazed of. He had always been amazed by women from the sheer firepower of their abilities alone, and that is how it should be. It shouldn’t matter if they look like a giant centipede or a human goddess, what matters should be power alone. As a good villain, that is how things should be.

 

 

Tomura noticed that the falling now stopped, and all three of them are being encased in a swirling vortex of wind, levitating high above the sky. If it weren’t for Revenant making Kizuki clutch her legs to her chest, the wind would have blown her skirt in various directions.

 

 

His attention turned to the wind itself, lifting the three of them effortlessly. Tomura could clearly remember that the Air Cannon AFO has does not have the ability to do this, but could it just be because this is Air Cannon during her prime years? Or it is maybe because Forcible Quirk Activation messed up AFO’s Quirk down to 40%?

 

 

“What the-“

 

 

“No time to explain,” Revenant interrupted the heroine and pointed down below, where a massive swarm of giant robots have congregated below them. “She’s in her usual data-collection routine, much safer to go with conventionality. I stalled enough to lure them in, pretty sure you can deal with them from this point onwards.”

 

 

“So you guys know Hatsume?” Tomura interjected, crossing his arms. The two heroes just looked at him, and returned to their conversation.

 

 

The former villain could only observe the two, the sounds of metal clambering over each other audible from far below. The Hatsume-bots all have arm-cannons strapped on their arms, so far one has shown to have an idea how to use it, so how come none has fired yet?

 

 

From his angle, he could see the commotion below. The giant robots, as well as the Hatsume-drones deployed, are just looking at them aside from trying to clamber all over each other in a failed attempt to create a tower high enough to reach them.

 

 

Turning his head to the right, he could also see the destruction left behind by the ‘Decay Sandstorm’ being detonated. It was a total wipeout, as if a tornado picked up everything in its wake, even stripping off the top layers of the asphalt.

 

 

‘I wonder if we could replicate that again…’

 

 

“Alright everyone!” Tatsumaki said aloud, accompanied by multiple loud claps. “I suggest everyone to cover their ears!”

 

 

“Kamikaze… people are dying, can you please move a bit faster? Chisaki’s got the samples you’re asking, stop wasting time!”

 

 

“Whatever Scissors-“ Tatsumaki instantly stopped and pointed an arm downwards, a smaller localized tornado starting to envelope it.

 

 

Tomura stayed put and observed. What other differences can he make out between AFO’s and the original wielder’s Air Cannon?

 

 

The small localized tornado that’s wrapped around Tatsumaki’s right arm expanded into a much more volatile-looking vortex of wind, the dust it collected from the air around them giving it a defined and easily-visible shape looking like giant downward-pointed fist violently shaking as if it’s being overloaded with energy. As the fist got to its maximum size, the whistling of the wind also intensified, gaining the attention of all the Hatsume-bots below.

 

 

After a quick gesture the heroine did about covering ears, the fist-like wind fired off and slammed onto the ground below with tremendous force, expanding outwards for hundreds of meters and flattening everything caught in its wake. The Mecha-Hatsumes, giant tick robots, Eviscerators, everything is either blown to bits or turned into smithereens outright by the sheer amount of power.

 

 

Tomura’s jaw dropped. Tatsumaki didn’t even look like she’s serious about firing, and the resulting damage is already at the same power level as AFO’s Air Cannon with multiple Quirks stacked on top of it! What if AFO can fire that Air Cannon and stack Quirks onto it even more? Just how powerful it might be?

 

 

“The resulting blast would wipe out the moon! MAN, THAT WOULD BE SICK! A HUMAN DEATH STAR!!!” Tomura yelled out, making the two heroes stare at him, shortly before returning to their conversation. Tomura didn’t care how they looked at him funny, he just witnessed Air Cannon in its prime form tonight and he’s having the time of his life-

 

 

A swipe of green light arced at his right, and Tomura noticed that Revenant cut off his right hand before the young hero instantly disappeared in the same green flash that’s been happening in the past few moments. Once again he didn’t feel a thing.

 

 

“Kamikaze I gotta say that blast was the coolest shot of Air Cannon I have ever seen, can you do better?” Tomura turned to face the heroine, who’s trying to console a sobbing Kizuki. Seeing that she’s still kind of busy, he instead turned his attention to inspect the level of property damage the heroine caused. True to her name, it was like a gigantic tornado ravaged the land at the point of impact.

 

 

“Of course I could do better!” Tatsumaki suddenly answered with glee, all while giving the tall blue-skinned girl a hug.

 

 

Tomura happily nodded in response before turning his head once again to look at the damage the Air Cannon caused, when he noticed a very familiar structure not so far away, in which the green flickers of light can be seen heading towards.

 

 

“I never thought UA would be this close?”

 

 

“Yeah, Machia thought you guys would be safe here. It was an error on my part.”

 

 

“Yeah, but at least what I said is true! And I didn’t waste your time!”

 

 

Tatsumaki gave him a warm smile, filling Tomura with joy. As much as AFO said to build hate towards everything, pure acknowledgement from his adoptive father’s favorite Quirk just did the exact opposite. How could a villain like him be mad and filled with hate to witness such sheer firepower being unleashed in front of him, in which he has a spectacular view from?

 

 

“CAN I HAVE YOUR AUTOGRAPH AGAIN?!” Tomura yelled, trying to swim in mid-air towards the heroine, but failing to move an inch from his levitating position.

 

 

Tatsumaki put a hand up to her lips and giggled. “I do suppose there’s nothing bad about that. I mean you kids predicted this after all.”

 

 

“It’s a pleasure to serve you, Air Cannon!” Tomura said, involuntarily biting his lip. “Make it two please? Spin needs one too! I know you already gave us one before but pleeeaaseee?”

 

 

Tatsumaki flicked her right hand to her side, with one of the levitating strips of fabric of her hero outfit automatically placing itself on her palm, in which she ripped the tip off. “I do suppose you deserve something authentic today.”

 

 

Tomura noticed the heroine reaching in and plucking out a pen hidden within her cleavage to write something on the piece of hero outfit she ripped off. He didn’t question what is a pen doing there, he didn’t question why would the heroine hide a pen there, nor the strategic advantage of having a pen shoved in the middle of her breasts, what matters is that he got to have an autograph again.

 

 

He received the piece of fabric and noticed that there’s two names written on it. “Why is there two?”

 

 

Tatsumaki waved him off, busy writing off another one, a barely visible blush etched on her cheeks. “You’re going to ask about Crimson’s anyways…”

 

 

“Woah, you can replicate his autograph? Why is he not here again?”

 

 

“Reasons unknown, so here’s another one. Safe travels!”

 

 

Tomura got the second autograph and was about to say his thanks when his vision stretched outwards again. After two flickers of white, he’s suddenly found himself sitting in the middle of an empty well-lit UA corridor, both hands now complete again. Beside him is Kizuki, sitting silently and still holding on tight to the phone given to her by Takeyama and wiping her tears.

 

 

“Finally, we’re here…”

 

 

Tomura turned around to see Revenant, once again with bleeding-yet-complete arms, leaning onto a wall, his voice sounding heavy.

 

 

“So uuhhh-“

 

 

“We’ll handle everything from here on out, you guys should better get your rest…” he said, lightly stumbling forward until he eventually righted himself a few seconds later. “By the way Mr. Okuta wants to speak with you two-“

 

 

“Nice one Rev, you’re trying to Mind Wipe us?” Tomura asked with a huge frown, clutching the two autographs securely.

 

 

“Mind Wipe?”

 

 

“Look… I know how the guy’s Quirk works. I know you’re classified and all that pizzazz but... we’re gonna work together in the next few weeks and months or so so uh… why Mind Wipe us if we’re just going to figure out everything in the end?”

 

 

“M-mind Wipe…?” Kizuki asked weakly, trying her hardest to stand up straight without her legs giving out.

 

 

Revenant stopped, blood dripping from the numerous slash-like wounds on his arms in which the young hero seemed to be indifferent of. He stood where he is, silent and unmoving for a good while. A whole two minutes of silence pass, and both of his arms suddenly split into two in a bloody mess, rapidly mutating into the bladed form it has a while ago, before automatically returning into regular arms and re-fusing back without the blood getting automatically sucked in.

 

 

“I mean it makes sense, right?” Tomura asked, witnessing the strange sequence of Quirk activations coming from Revenant. “Me and Eleena over here will know of it eventually anyways…”

 

 

“Okinoshima,” Revenant turned to face the blue-skinned girl directly, “if we were to erase your memory of the events tonight, would you agree?”

 

 

“E-erase…?”

 

 

“Relax Eleena, it’s just Gira- I mean Mr. Principal Okuta, the guy knows his stuff. He never fails his mind wipes,” Tomura said, lightly nudging the girl. “We need your mental health in tip-top shape, not the traumatized one right now, but you gotta move fast because he can only erase - where’s Spin anyway?”

 

 

“He’s been safely transported here quite a while ago, he should be at his room right now.” Revenant then tilted his head towards the girl, one arm moving over and trailing along the bleeding cuts of the other arm. “Okinoshima, I’m waiting, should I call the principal?”

 

 

“I-if I get mind-wiped, would these things happen again…?”

 

 

Tomura took a step back and thought. The events that happened tonight, outside of Ingenium, definitely did NOT happen in the real world. He doesn’t know what he’s dealing with. The chances of a huge swarm of Eviscerators being deployed and running them down again is high. What’s the sense of a mind-wipe if the events are guaranteed to happen again?

 

 

“I cannot answer that one, but do expect this to happen again. We have our suspects and I’m afraid she cannot be dealt with that easily.”

 

 

Kizuki took a deep breath and let out a sigh. After a brief moment of silence, she spoke, “I’m going to bed…”

 

 

“I think I should go follow her,” Tomura said, scratching the back of his head before turning to face the hero. “I do apologize for earlier.”

 

 

“Don’t mention it.”

 

 

“Are you… really All for One?”

 

 

Revenant’s face turned into a soft frown. “For the last time, I am not All for One…” He then turned around, and lightly stumbled forward, head slightly swaying. “See ya tomorrow.”

 

 

Re-deploying his bladed arms, Revenant did a forward swinging motion with his right, one of the tips detaching and flying forward. In a split second, the hero suddenly disappeared in a faint flash of green light and reappeared to the location of the thrown blade. He then swung again and teleported again, and again… and again…

 

 

Tomura observed the hero’s method of locomotion. It was very different from all the warp Quirks he had seen in his life. AFO obviously can’t do that. Kurogiri’s warp can’t do that…

 

 

So who is he…? Tomura’s attention then turned to the bloodstained-floor, making him even more confused. What kind of Quirk is that?! Midoriya breaking his bones every punch is one thing (seeing how phenomenally powerful OFA can be), but the AFO-lookalike bleeding out every time he activates his Quirk?!

 

 

He shook his head, before noticing that a janitor is now cleaning up the bloodstains while talking to someone on the phone.

 

 

‘So maybe Revenant just does that? He bleeds out every Quirk usage?’ he thought to himself, seeing the janitor’s calm expression despite mopping up literal blood from the floor.

 

 

Walking off, he headed straight towards Kizuki and successfully caught up with her. “Are you sure you’re not gonna get Giran’s mind wipe services? Are you gonna be okay?”

 

 

Kizuki raised a hand at him, and continued walking away, her lack of shoes masking any sound she makes as he walked on the tiled floors.

 

 

‘Maybe she just needs some alone time…’

 

 

Tomura shrugged and looked at the time. To his surprise, it’s only 7:30 in the evening, that means more free gaming time if he and Spinner ate dinner early. Excitedly skipping towards his best friend’s room, thinking about the double exp event Exergis is giving out, he mapped out tactics in his head on the current rotation of possible battlefields. He has a lot of weapons that need leveling up and-

 

 

‘Are you gonna be okay…?’

 

 

For some reason, what he said to Kizuki earlier came back to him. He was in the middle of thinking about video games and yet it rang…

 

 

‘Are you gonna be okay…?’

 

 

And again…

 

 

He felt strange. Back in the real world, he never asked anyone that except AFO and Spinner that question, preferring to act all tough and boss around the League every chance he gets on the thought that villains should act that way to get respect.

 

 

Turning around, he saw the tall blue-skinned girl slowly enter her room.

 

 

He thought about the Exergis double exp event again, clenching his fists hard before finally deciding that it’s just a video game. At the end of the day it’s just interactive pixels being displayed on a computer monitor.

 

 

...

 

 

It's time to figure out who Kizuki really is.

Chapter 31: Suspicion - [Part 1]

Notes:

Some useful ‘terminologies’ in this chapter:

Backforce – An unexplained phenomena that rose alongside Quirks, allowing people to survive powerful hits and walk it off with minor injuries. (Basically this fic's explanation for anime durability)

Tomoe Ishiyumi – Beros’s Japanese codename that I just made up. In the early drafts of this story, she was intended to be written as close to her movie counterpart as possible, but that would just make her Nagant 2.0. They already have surprisingly similar Quirks and portraying the two as exactly the same is quite boring IMO. So I just flipped her entire personality around to have some contrast.

Revenant – Mystery person who looks like a young AFO.

Dragunov – Nagant’s alternate-universe hero name.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 32

 

 

Tomura angrily paced back and forth, scratching his head with more and more intensity mirroring his frustration in his current situation. Teeth clenched, he stomped his feet twice before finally letting go of his hair, successfully plucking out a few strands. His disposition then suddenly went calm, as if he abruptly discovered inner peace.

 

 

Taking a deep breath, he began to speak again.

 

 

“Toga…” Tomura said, lips trembling with barely-held frustration, “Nobody dies with fall damage, okay? In case you don’t know I fell hundreds of feet just an hour ago and only got minor scratches from that… BECAUSE BACKFORCE F***ING EXISTS, YA MORON!”

 

 

“You’re asking me, and I answered, and that is my answer…” Himiko crossed her legs as she sat on her bed, not even once flinching over the menacing presence of her former boss standing in the middle of her room.

 

 

“STOP F***ING WITH ME, TOGA! I WANT A STRAIGHT ANSWER, NOW! How can All Might punch villains without shattering all of their bones, huh?! How can Bakugo blast his classmates without disintegrating them? How can Midoriya deliver his strongest hits and just knock out his enemies… You out here blabbering to me that you got your insides blown up and then Kizuki somehow died with F***ING FALL DAMAGE?! WHAT KIND OF F***ING BULLSH*T IS THAT?!”

 

 

Tomura tried to pull off the most menacing face he could muster. Back in the real world, it’s the one thing he would always use to put everyone (except Spinner) in line. Deep down he knew he’s the weakest in terms of who can kill who in the team, with Compress being the strongest, and if he’s not shouting hard enough, the League might begin disrespecting him and eventually turn on him, and that is a motto he made and always followed.

 

 

Now, for some strange reason he couldn’t understand, no one is scared of him anymore. Not Twice, not Compress, certainly not Dabi, and now Toga. It’s like the moment they’re all flipped into this alternative universe, everyone suddenly found a reason to not be intimidated of him anymore. Is it because of his Decay being switched from instant disintegration to just dehydration? Is it because of his sudden lack of lethality? Or is it because the lack of AFO to back him up?

 

 

While he’s half glad he’s not supposed to be maintaining respect anymore, he’s also frustrated at the instant lack of respect from his former League members.

 

 

With a deep breath, he re-oriented himself back to the situation at hand.

 

 

He came in here just expecting Toga to tell him who Kizuki really is, but not only the little brat told him she apparently ‘killed’ her, but the tall blue-skinned girl’s cause of death was falling from a high place and exploding into a bloody mess. He found the story so nonsensical and unbelievable that his vision instantly blurred in rage, which he quickly calmed himself out of.

 

 

While he’s  well aware that AFO said he put a ‘dumb-down spell’ onto the MLA just to make him win, Kizuki’s Quirk is so powerful and broken (according to Spinner’s anecdote), that she could be the dumbest person alive on the planet and still blow a hole through a tank, if not said tank being flung halfway across the country.

 

 

He thought about Kizuki being part of the MLA group when they first arrived in this alternate universe, which could probably mean she’s also a high-ranking member. But if she’s really an MLA elite that got killed, then how come the PLF just threw a huge party instead of lacing poison on their food or just tossing them to the sharks? Things just don’t add up. She CAN’T be one of the elites, but just who EXACTLY is she? And how could she even die by falling? Is she sick? Does she have a strange genetic defect that renders her unaffected to the protective effects of Backforce? But Toga also said that every single one of her troops also exploded into bloody messes upon falling. What’s going on?

 

 

“Nothing is making sense!” Tomura yelled to himself. As much as he would like to dehydrate and strangle Toga on the spot until she turned blue, he would rather not have a knife impaled through him. And seeing the knife nut’s collection just deliberately positioned at her nightstand, he’d rather not take the risk. “DAMMIT!”

 

 

“It was quite amazing I managed to suddenly copy Uraraka’s Quirk, isn’t that cute?” The girl giggled afterwards. “I always like it when things always go right for me!”

 

 

“Toga I’m gonna ask you one more time… WHO. IS. KIZUKI?”

 

 

“Some blue butt-ugly delusional reporter wannabe who went splat and everyone ignored shortly after, that’s what she is.”

 

 

“People. Don’t. Go. Splat.”

 

 

“Yes they do.”

 

 

“You know what? Why do I even believe this midget anyway-“

 

 

“Shiggy!” came the voice of Spinner from the hallways. “I got him! The interrogator is here!”

 

 

“Finally some sense in this wacky little world.” Tomura let out a sigh and stepped aside to open the door behind him. Outside is a bespectacled boy of short stature, looking very confused as to what’s going on.

 

 

“Shin Nemoto! The right man for the right job!” Spinner said with glee, gesturing to himself as if he uncovered some hidden treasure. “It’s time for the truth! What did she say anyway?”

 

 

Tomura shook his head and crossed his arms. “A whole lotta nonsense.” He then tapped the bespectacled boy’s back, handing him over some cash he got from his own pocket, “I pay interrogators even before the interrogation because I’m just that good, now go ask this idiot if it’s true that she knew Kizuki. And if so, how did their encounter went.”

 

 

Nemoto asked what was told of him, small pink shockwave-like ripples coming out of his mouth. Based on Toga’s reaction, who looked like she doesn’t even know her lips are moving on their own, it seemed that the Quirk worked.

 

 

But it didn’t change the fact that the things she said earlier are still the exact same things she said now.

 

 

“Death…? By fall damage…? Kizuki… died…? Falling…?” Came Spinner’s confused reply before lightly pushing Nemoto away and entering Toga’s room, closing the door behind him. “How…? How is that even possible? Toga survived explosions and then fall damage is suddenly lethal? What? How…?”

 

 

“I don’t know. And this little idiot is somehow resisting the Truth Quirk-“

 

 

Tomura stopped, seeing his friend suddenly re-open the door and peek out, before going back again some moments later. “Nemoto said the pink shockwave thingy is the Quirk. It worked. Toga’s telling the truth.”

 

 

“See?” Himiko pulled her legs to her chest. “That’s all the truth I can give you. Believe the splat, for it will set you free!”

 

 

“You’ve got to be kiddi-“

 

 

“Now I want you two to be out of my room. Now.”

 

 

Tomura narrowed his red eyes at his former comrade for a good few seconds before slowly turning around, muttering silently to his friend to leave the room as well. There’s no sense arguing with someone who either clearly doesn’t want to cooperate, or is somehow immune to the Truth Quirk.

 

 

Fall damage? Death by splattering? How is that even possible in a world where super punches merely stun people? All for One should have been long dead seeing how powerful All Might punched him in the face back then. But not only the Evil Overlord is merely stunned, he didn’t even suffer any form of long term damage aside from losing the top half of his face! And All for One doesn’t even have a reliable regeneration Quirk that time! Nor shielded himself from the hit! And because of the Demon King’s multitude of Quirks, it basically amounted to nothing.

 

 

Hopefully…

 

 

He silently walked through the hallways, his mind filtering out Spinner’s random mumbles. There has to be more to the story-

 

 

“Eh Shiggy? Tsutsumi told me something earlier this afternoon, and you might want to know what it is…

 

 

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.[*]-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

 

 

The Next Day… [Day 33]

 

 

 

 

What Kaina told Spinner about the League rung true to Tomura. Despite the heroes having a multitude of tracking Quirks, the League of Villains somehow keep evading them. Tomura originally chalked this up to how good he is at finding hideouts and escaping heroes… Only to find out that the heroes are just deliberately letting them escape because they’re so bad and useless as villains that they make good scapegoats for everything.

 

 

“If I escaped, then heroes would be instantly alarmed and would try to take you down as soon as possible instead of letting you off the hook.” The words of All for One from a month ago suddenly echoed inside his head.

 

 

As a whole, the League never did anything significant that warranted them the title, they just kept on running away from heroes, fighting off other villains, and generally just being a nuisance instead of a crime syndicate that needs eradication as soon as possible.

 

 

Tomura remembered him threatening Midoriya a long time ago, but those threats never really amounted to anything. It took him getting helped by his adoptive father to plow through another villain army just to get recognized by the heroes (his intended enemies), over half a year after the fabled meeting with the OFA successor. Even then, how he won against the MLA is just him being a massive cheat.

 

 

He hated cheaters, he loathed them, getting achievements in video games without ever working hard for it. He would be lying if he said he didn’t watch online videos of cheaters getting what they deserved. It was funny seeing them glitch out, fall out of bounds, quit the game, or run around like headless chickens in full confusion why their controls are not working properly.

 

 

But in the end he was the cheater all along. The only joke in the room is him. This might be the exact same thing why Dabi laughed at him back then.

 

 

He wondered about how the MLA troops felt when he plowed through them. He wondered how powerful they thought he might be. He wondered how embarrassed AFO had been seeing his adopted son literally go on a suicide mission by his own stupidity.

 

 

‘Reports say the nationwide release of Nomus are coordinated by the League of Villains…’

 

 

There it is again, news reports blaming the League, when in reality they’re all knocked out by Kaina alone that night.

 

 

But remembering the way his Wasteland Quirk worked against the swarms of Eviscerators last night brought him up again in a relatively good mood. It felt good to be useful for once, it doesn’t matter if he did a heroic thing or not, he was not a cheater that night and that’s all that mattered… unless AFO rigged everything to make the Eviscerators weak against dehydration…

 

 

Either way, at least he got a second set of autographs from Miss Air Cannon. But if there’s one thing that’s obviously not rigged, then that is the way Wasteland and Landmine interacted. He remembered the way the buildings get reduced to nothing, the waves of dust scattering everywhere. If marvelous music can be translated to visual form, then that is it.

 

 

‘Landmine…’

 

 

His red eyes darted towards Kizuki at the left side of the room, minding her own business. The tall blue-skinned girl had been very quiet ever since the day began. Tomura wondered if she decided to deliberately get her mind wiped of the event last night.

 

 

His mind then went back to some things he thought about some time ago, about searching for her in the real world to help him lay waste to everything they encounter, like an awesome back-to-back brother-sister combo. But that’s not going to happen anymore, nor even have a chance of happening. Kizuki’s long dead, and that’s it.

 

 

As much as he thinks he should believe what a ‘Truthed’ Toga said last night, what the girl said is simply not possible. Death by falling and then splattering into a bloody mess is not-

 

 

‘I dunno who she is, but she looks a lot better as tomato paste…’

 

 

Tomura’s eyes widened as he remembered Chikazoku mutter those words over and over a few weeks back when they were all just new in this alternate universe. He seemed really happy too saying them, very much unlike his always-pessimistic state back then.

 

 

His fists involuntarily clenched, teeth slowly gritting on their own.

 

 

‘Tomato Paste…’

 

 

‘Splattering into a bloody mess…’

 

 

‘Tomato Paste…’

 

 

‘Splattering into a  bloody mess…’

 

 

‘Tomato Paste…’

 

 

Chikazoku… the person Spinner said failed to manage his satellites properly, causing the mansion to get sieged without prior information… Who then conveniently returned satellite access once he’s safe at Machia’s back… then ignored his old team and refused to free them at all, just so he and he alone can command the remaining PLF forces…

 

 

And now what he said could be attributed to him being part of Kizuki’s mystery death. Toga alone won’t cut it. People don’t die by fall damage. This IT Guy’s got to have something to do with it, especially with him suspiciously dropping out of school for no reason.

 

 

 ‘I better bring in The Truth again tonight… gotta ask that stupid knife nut some more questions, especially if she knew the IT Guy…’

 

 

“ALRIGHT! LADDIES AND GENTLEWOMEN!”

 

 

Tomura snapped back into reality once he heard the loud yelling of a bespectacled Ishiyumi, wearing standard UA uniform, accompanied by repeated slamming noises as the girl continuously smacked the teacher’s desk as if enjoying the loud sounds she’s making. “You heard the man! I will be your substitute teacher for the next few days or so!”

 

 

Tomura looked around and noticed their homeroom teacher standing by the doorway looking ready to leave. Reaching a hand to his right, he tapped his friend’s shoulder. “Hey Spin, what’s going on?”

 

 

“Makihara’s leaving for the next few days. Something-something Eviscerator ‘Nomus’, you get the gist.”

 

 

Tomura nodded, remembering Aizawa. While Eraserhead is Class A’s homeroom teacher, at the end of the day he’s still a registered hero. Could it be the same case here? How come he never heard of Makihara’s Hero Name? Or did he already hear it once and just not paying attention?

 

 

“Alright guys!” Ishiyumi spoke, still standing behind the teacher’s desk as Makihara left the scene altogether. “I’m sure you’ve all been watching the news ever since this morning or already heard about the events that happened last night…” she said, her voice trailing off as she marched to the left side of whiteboard and grabbed a marker.

 

 

“Mass Nomu release last night. Hundreds dead. League of Villains… you get the gist,” Ishiyumi said, drawing a crude drawing of the four-armed goblin-like creature that attacked in huge numbers last night. “I’m pretty sure you guys are already well aware of the curfew established all over the country just this morning, yeah?  Well too bad UA plans to get their students three hours earlier than the rest. By 3 pm, you guys should be within school premises, got it?”

 

 

There were random mutterings and ramblings across the classroom.

 

 

“Hundreds dead?” Tomura whispered to himself. How can there be hundreds dead if the creatures don’t even look like they’re planning on killing anyone last night? There are many chances for the creatures to turn them into mince meat but instead opted to just chase them around and gather data – or whatever the Hatsume bots are talking about.

 

 

Could it be the deaths resulted from the Rewind lightning strikes? Quite possibly. Unaware heroes got zapped to nothingness perhaps? He was about to ask Spinner if he also saw some big robots last night when Muscular loudly asked a question.

 

 

 “Hey Betty, where’s Dragunov?”

 

 

And with that question, most of the boys nodded.

 

 

Ishiyumi stood where she is as she faced the student who asked, her right eyebrow slightly twitching at hearing her hero name get pronounced wrong. After a few seconds, she straightened herself up and answered, “Miss ‘Campus Crush’ Dragunov will not be here for a few days. She and Revenant are both in some super top secret mission that-“

 

 

“Why are you not with them?” Tomura saw Overhaul ask in a deliberate mocking tone. And with that Tomura suddenly remembered the attack Chisaki did to the Hatsume-bot last night, but what it is and why did he do that is not of his interest.

 

 

“That is none of your business, Chisaki. I’m doing teacher work today. I even got this brand new pair of glasses just for this! By this you can tell I’m really serious about this whole teaching business,” Ishiyumi said, pushing up her glasses up the bridge of her nose before walking to the other side of the room beside the door. “Your teacher left me some stuff for you kids to do. Now come along, we have a whole day ahead of us.”

 

 

Tomura stood up and walked outside alongside the rest of the class. He knew he still needs to talk about Kizuki to get at least something in regards to her mysterious death, like a rare disease or a genetic defect perhaps? But so far he’s decided to just give her space for now. If it weren’t for the traumatic events last night, he and Spinner would have just asked her some questions outright.

 

 

She may not be from their original reality, but if everything is meant to represent something, then she has to know something… or so what AFO told him about.

 

 

So far the key suspect is the IT Guy, Tomoyasu Chikazoku. The main problem is that both he and Spinner had no idea where he even is, with him dropping out during the Sports Festival and never to be seen again. Tomura immediately thought of a back-up plan, and by sheer luck he instantly came up with one and discussed that with Spinner. It involves getting help from Revenant – seeing the young hero’s rather close connection to Kizuki.

 

 

But Revenant is not even present.

 

 

Tomura shook his head as he walked with his classmates through the spacious corridors to the designated training area. Revenant’s absence certainly dented his plan. But even then, can he even solve a crime that happened in another reality?

 

 

“What now? Revenant’s not here,” Spinner whispered to him. “Should we go ask Kizuki instead? Maybe she knows where he is?”

 

 

“We’re giving Eleena some space, we’re asking her sometime later, but now?” Tomura immediately locked his red eyes onto Ishiyumi, walking just in front of them and fidgeting with her phone while giving out random instructions to the rest of the class. While he knew Dragunov as Nagant, and Revenant somewhat looked like a young AFO (Despite being nothing like the Demon King himself), Beros is a complete mystery to him. Would she help? Wouldn’t hurt to try. “Looks like we just have to take our shot with the mystery person,” he said.

 

 

He immediately recollected data in his head as he began his approach, trying to piece together who Beros is, cross-referencing everything he knew… Yet he couldn’t find anything, no matter how hard he tried.

 

 

The only thing Tomura found strange about her, aside from her short pale green hair reminding him of Midoriya, is that she doesn’t look Japanese. But other than that, nothing else stood out.

 

 

“Hey,” Tomura said as he catched up to the mystery girl. “Can we talk for a bit?”

 

 

“Ah yes,” Tomoe slowed down her walking pace to align herself with him, putting her phone down as she did so. “’Bout time we had a little talk. I was gonna single the two of you out later on today but I guess there’s nothing bad with having conversation now. I may not have introduced myself correctly yesterday-“

 

 

“Tomoe Ishiyumi, Beros,” Spinner interjected with a smile, ending his sentence with a nod. Tomura gestured to point at his friend as if to say that they both remembered.

 

 

“So yeah can I ask where are Revenant and Dragunov ? Come on, you can tell that to us! Both of your buddies already believe us to their very cores!” Tomura tried to lighten up the situation, and the only way he knew is to copy Twice’s exaggerated mannerisms, and based on the light smile that tugged the girl’s lips, it might be working. “We already successfully predicted Sta- I mean Ingenium’s arrival and this whole Eviscerator release thingy. I got Machia and Air Cannon with me last night so you can tell we’re not jokes at all, so can we at least know where they are?”

 

 

Tomoe immediately shrugged right after the boy’s words. “Hmm I do suppose you’re right-

 

 

The conversation suddenly stopped as a shadow loomed over the three of them.

 

 

It was Chitose Kizuki, holding onto an extra-large energy drink on one hand, pulling a cooler on her other hand, and looking like she’s barely able to open her eyes. She silently passed by them without even paying them a glance.

 

 

Other UA students visibly moved away from her as she walked.

 

 

“Eleena, did you even sleep last night?” Tomura asked, startling the tall girl and taking her a moment to find who’s the person who even talked to her in the first place. “You really have to reconsider on the mind wipe services-thingy.”

 

 

“No,” came Kizuki’s quick reply. “I’d rather-“

 

 

“Whoop!” Spinner involuntarily yelled out as he lunged in and stuck his two hands onto Kizuki’s back before she completely fell to the floor. “What the heck?!”

 

 

Tomura dove down and managed to catch the energy drink the now-unconscious girl was holding onto earlier and checked up on her face. He could only place a free hand on his hip and shake his head upon seeing what happened. At the same time, Tomoe rushed forward and positioned herself beside Kizuki before gesturing towards Spinner to release her and pick up the cooler she left behind.

 

 

“Poor fella was probably too traumatized to sleep last night, I guess let’s get her to the mind w-“

 

 

“No…” Kizuki weakly replied, who suddenly woke up and barely steadying herself. “I don’t want any mind wipes… I had to…”

 

 

“Kizuki you’re clearly not thinking straight,” Tomoe said, assisting the taller girl to move forward. “Scissors told me everything last night, you really need to get-“

 

 

“I said I don’t want any mind wipes…”

 

 

“Look Eleena, Giran never fails on his mind wip-“

 

 

“NO MIND WIPES,” Kizuki grumbled loudly, enough to be heard by nearby nosy students. “I’m now part of this mess. This whole Eviscerator thing will happen again, and I want full knowledge of-“

 

 

“This full knowledge you speak off is taking a toll on you, I really suggest having a mind wipe. I know you’re afraid of wipe failure, but the wipe is Quirk controlled, it can’t be-“ Tomoe was interrupted by Kizuki weakly raising a hand and letting out a weak , “no”.

 

 

“Okay,” Tomura nodded. “But you really need to get some sle-“

 

 

Kizuki’s head immediately slumped down before she could even reply, light snoring instantly emanating from her.

 

 

“You guys go ahead,” Tomoe said as she steadied herself trying to assist the other girl who’s much taller than she is. “I’ll get her to the clinic. I’ll meet you up in a moment.” She then turned around and hurriedly left with Kizuki in tow.

 

 

“Hey, no mind wipes, got it?” Spinner said aloud and was responded with a raised thumbs-up gesture.

 

 

“What do you think about her, Spin? I mean about Beros?”

 

 

Spinner turned to his friend and gestured for him to continue on to the training area. “You know what, Shig? She actually managed to reach over five minutes without making a derogatory comment or anything, I’m liking her a lot already.”

 

 

Tomura nodded. He remembered Spinner telling him all about his scope-out session with Dragunov, and the former-Lady-Nagant basically did nothing during the waiting time except talk about how superior she is compared to anyone else. Yes she made sense with the League being a pathetic villain group that the heroes just deliberately let exist so they have something to blame, but repeatedly mocking his best friend is a very different thing.

 

 

In a span of a story, he instantly lost all attraction he has for Dragunov. But instead of rage, he was just massively disappointed instead. No point in being mad towards one of the biggest players of the anti-Midoriya team.

 

 

‘But don’t I do the exact same thing to everyone? Talking like I’m hot sh**?’ Tomura thought to himself. Looking back, every little bit of Spinner’s story about how Dragunov repeatedly bashed and talked down on him is exactly the same way he acted towards the other League members. He knew they can’t do a thing to him because AFO has his back-

 

 

He shook his head, clearing the thoughts off. He’s a villain. He’s the bad guy. He’s the successor of the Great Evil. Being a massive piece of human garbage to anyone but your closest friends is a major requirement of villainy. If he does it, it only makes sense because he’s already everyone’s enemy no matter what.

 

 

Right…?

 

 

The two eventually reached the designated training grounds for Class 1-A, with Spinner parking the cooler somewhere nearby.

 

 

“The IT Guy is really something, no?” Tomura muttered to himself, leaning backwards onto a tree behind him and crossing his arms. From the day he met the person he knew he couldn’t be trusted, but since he doesn’t trust anyone but a very few select people anyways, Chikazoku just somewhat went through his filters. He never knew that the person would be so much more; being instrumental to the downfall of the army he’s part of.

 

 

Tomura took a deep breath and let out a sigh, letting his red eyes scan the surroundings. In a brief moment he immediately noticed the absence of Dabi. “Hey Spin,” he said.

 

 

“What?”

 

 

“Dabi’s expelled, right?”

 

 

“What about it?”

 

 

“Him and the IT Guy are missing and it might be a clue but-... I gotta say, ever since the sports tournament and all the random crap we’ve been through in this little world, I learned a lot.”

 

 

“Yep, damn we’re horrible villains…” Spinner leaned back onto the tree beside him. “Imagine being in Midoriya’s shoes back then. ‘oH lOoK iT’s ThE lEaGuE oF vIlLaInS! The most powerful villain group in the country!’ and then realizing it just takes a baby with a ranged Quirk and we’re all toast. Thank you Japanese government, for protecting us!”

 

 

Tomura shook his head, a full smirk on his lips. “I don’t get it, if we’re so bad then why didn’t AFO say anything? Why send us in here to learn it rather than just say it to us?”

 

 

“I’m not gonna go over the minds of people who call themselves Demon Lords…” Spinner’s voice trailed off, a hand coming up to stroke the bottom of his chin. “But that doesn’t make any sense, none of us would even last two seconds against a standard Class A student, why would a Demon Lord bother pick up a weak group of villains? Shouldn’t he just break out a couple o’ Tartarus villains and call it a day?”

 

 

Tomura nodded in response, his face turning into a look of confusion. Even Dabi, the team’s powerhouse, would instantly get shot off by that annoying sparkling-belly-beam-boy from a mile away… and then there’s that stupid cowboy-wannabe with homing bullets…

 

 

“What is AFO planning here…?” Tomura muttered. “Why pick a weak group of villains…? Hmmm…”

 

 

“You know what, Shig? I gotta ask something… when is the last time AFO did something bad? I think he only stole one Quirk and that’s it. When’s the last time he killed someone or… whatever…”

 

 

‘When is the last time AFO did something bad…’ Tomura thought of an answer. He used to remember AFO and him going out and stealing a bunch of Quirks back when he was younger. It was their usual bonding time, wrecking the lives of patrolling heroes and getting them stripped off of their powers.

 

 

The thoughts of AFO ‘retiring’ entered his mind again but he quickly shook it off. That’s simply unbelievable. Evil Overlords don’t retire, their plans just take an absurd amount of time!

 

 

“Honestly Spin? When’s the last thing he did something bad? It was a long time ago….”

 

 

“I’m kinda noticing that for a ‘Demon King’, he’s oddly… passive… But is it a part of his plan?”

 

 

“AFO’s plans can wait. For now, we’re solving Kizuki’s mystery death… and I think the IT Guy’s definitely got something to do with it.”

 

 

“How can we even solve a crime that happened in another world?”

 

 

Tomura was about to respond when he saw Ishiyumi arrive into the scene, holding onto her phone. The substitute teacher immediately headed towards the bigger group of Class A students and raised her electronic device up. “Alright guys, here’s what Mr. Makihara left,” she said, clearing her throat for a bit. “Just your usual training exercises. As long as this Nomu issue persists, SpecPro A and B are NOT going outside. As for now, we’re gonna do a little rescue activity…”

 

 

Tomura gestured for Spinner to walk closer to the main group to hear what the girl is saying, but before they can get too close, Tomoe raised a hand on them and told them to stay away for a bit, before going back to reading about the rescue activity. The two were just halfway back to their tree when they heard a loud smack.

 

 

Turning around, they saw Geten – or what he’s called as in the real world, rubbing the back of his head while being scolded by Ishiyumi in regards to having Kizuki pull his cooler around.

 

 

“I never really understood why Eleena is carrying everyone’s stuff…” Tomura watched as he walked back to their tree. “Is it part of her childhood experience or is she just getting bossed around as part of the MLA?”

 

 

“Some of these ‘representations’ really seem off. I don’t even have any idea on who Ishiyumi is.”

 

 

“Me neither. But look on the bright side, Spin, she scolded Ice Climber Deluxe without even saying any derogatory remarks. I wonder how powerful her Quirk might be if she’s part of the Big Three.”

 

 

Spinner shook his head. “To be fair I didn’t understand a thing on Revenant’s Quirk either. The way you described it last night is just all over the place. Aside form having lightsabers for arms, is there really anything there is to him?”

 

 

“I told ya, I didn’t understand a thing either. Everything is just random teleports, missing limbs, more random teleports, immunity to Dehydrate- wait! Kurogiri can chop off limbs if he closes his portals, right? What if Revenant is Kurogiri?”

 

 

“Hmmm… then why does he look like AFO?” Spinner shrugged, causing Tomura to shrug as well.

 

 

“This place has no time limit, right? I swear if the IT Guy is the one who planned Eleena’s murder…  as well causing the downfall of the PLF… I’m gonna rip his guts out.”

 

 

“You seem really attached to Kizuki huh?”

 

 

“We’re both one-touch machines of pure destruction, I get attached that way. Man, you gotta see how we evaporated multiple buildings last night,” Tomura said, swaying his hands in front of him as if he’s sweeping through a line of buildings. “Marvelous, I tell ya.”

 

 

“Pffft… All I know is that I got knocked out by Ingenium and spent half the event sleeping on some cold rooftop until Beros picked me up.”

 

 

“Better than getting run down along the streets by monsters I have no idea what they’re even planning on. There’s also maybe Hagakure on a water tower… Mecha-Hatsume… Rewind strikes everywhere…” Tomura sighed at the end of his sentence, eyes focused on the giant metal door in front of them that leads to one of UA’s adjacent ‘hero training grounds’.

 

 

Said training grounds occupy huge areas filled with nothing but different city biomes. To think that UA has multiple of these makes one question where is the school getting all these resources.

 

 

Ishiyumi eventually finished her explanation and gestured for the two of them to come join the class, after which she walked towards the metal door and opened it at the push of a button. Inside is the entire ‘training zone’ looking exactly like the same way they left it before. Just a short walk through the tree-lined path and to the right is an out-of-place row of metal seats placed on solid rock, with a huge TV screen propped up on a wooden table facing them.

 

 

Tomura was about to speak when Tomoe shushed him instantly, and instead ordered ‘Team A’ and ‘Team B’ to get to their respective positions while waving her phone around. The rest of the students responded by raising their arms and showing all their respective bracelet-like wristwear before running off, one part to the right, and the other to the left.

 

 

“Okay, c’mere, let’s talk,” Ishiyumi gestured for both Tomura and Spinner to follow her. Compared to Team A and Team B going on separate directions on either side of the entire arena, the substitute teacher is taking them right into the direction towards the middle section. Walking a bit, the three of them happened to come across a parked car by the road, a regular red-painted sedan with white racing stripes.

 

 

“Can I ask a question?” Tomura suddenly spoke, walking beside Ishiyumi just before she could open the door of said car. “You don’t look like you’re from Japan, what country are you from?”

 

 

“You only noticed now?” the girl replied, not even looking back as she opened the unlocked car door and stepped inside.

 

 

“Well to be fair you don’t randomly speak some foreign language like Dragunov does.” Tomura shrugged. “So is Dragunov really Russian or she just wants to-“

 

 

“She’s Russian. Now get in the car, I need to ready up some challenges.”

 

 

“Russian huh? I thought Nagant is just a codename or something,” Spinner said to himself as he went to the backseat of the car after Tomura. “The more you know I guess?”

 

 

Tomura nodded at his friend. “What about you, where are you from?”

 

 

“Otheon, Portugal,” Tomoe replied as she fixed the rear view mirror to directly face the space between two passengers at the back.

 

 

“Huh? You’re from Portugal and the other is Russian so uuhhh…” Spinner scratched the back of his head. “Then how come the two of you have Japanese names? Got everything legally changed? Why?”

 

 

“It’s a very long story-“

 

 

“Do you speak Spanish, Beros?” Tomura asked, clinging onto the driver’s backseat as the car roared into life. “Can you say something in Spanish for us? Preferrably a curse word so we can impress some losers at Exergis tonight, I’m kinda collecting curse words from all over the globe right now.”

 

 

“No,” came a quick reply from the girl. “I’m not speaking any Spanish. Where I come from, what language I speak, and what I do back then is none of your concern.”

 

 

Both Tomura and Spinner went silent, both wondering why Tomoe suddenly raised her voice. If a nerve was struck, then it’s best to not continue pressing on the topic anymore.

 

 

A few minutes of driving later, the three stopped at the centermost part of the arena.

 

 

“Can anyone tell me why are there fully-functioning cars in UA training grounds?” Tomura asked out of the blue as Ishiyumi stepped out of the car. He was immediately responded by Spinner telling a joke about how UA is hoarding all the good stuff to themselves.

 

 

Tomoe cleared her throat, liveliness returning to her person. “Alright guys, you said something about needing Revenant, what for?”

 

 

Tomura immediately turned around, and was about to ask if the girl could speak at least one Spanish word when Spinner immediately gave him a light thump on the back of his head as if predicting he’s about to mess up. “Uuhhhh, so where are both Dragunov and Revenant?”

 

 

“Top secret,” Tomoe gestured for the two to follow her across the artificial streets of the massive UA training ground.

 

 

“But you said Revenant’s Quirk is classified, and yet I actually saw how it worked!”

 

 

“Tell me, Mr. Shigaraki, do you know how it actually works? If you can give me the full details of how his Quirk works I’m going to tell you everything I know about him,” Tomoe asked with a light grin, holding up her phone and looking at a digital map of the surrounding area, with red dots representing the location of both Teams A and B.

 

 

“Er… Slicing people up and teleporting around…? I’m right, right?”

 

 

“Not even close.”

 

 

“Can I ask why are you not with them? I mean with Dragunov and Revenant?” Spinner asked, keeping up with the two and walking beside Tomoe on her left. “Kinda odd that the Big Three is not being a complete unit.

 

 

“My abilities are more of a liability than an asset in regards to the particular mission they’re about to partake on,” Tomoe replied, her green eyes staring into the red dots rapidly approaching their location. “It is of utmost importance that the two of them remain unseen.”

 

 

“Liability, what do you do actually?” Now it was Tomura’s turn to ask, attention repeatedly going to the dots displayed on the girl’s phone.

 

 

“Demolition.”

 

 

“Woah, I never knew the UA Big Three are going in super secret missions,” Tomura muttered, visualizing Mirio, Nejire, and Tamaki all wearing stealth suits and shooting grappling hooks everywhere – wait…

 

 

But the UA Big Three never really did go out to do missions! Most of the time they’re just holed and cozy inside the walls of UA doing nothing but being popular for no apparent reason! But why is this universe’s Big Three actually going out for to do missions? Isn’t going out Class A’s thing, and not the Big Three’s?

 

 

 “Shig, I know AFO said almost everything is going to be a representation of some sort, he doesn’t mean literally everything,” Spinner suddenly spoke out, snapping Tomura back to the present, who’s half-impressed his friend guessed what he’s thinking.

 

 

“Yeah I guess you’re right. I’m just really confused on what’s supposed to be a representation and what’s not.” Tomura shook his head while he walked. What is AFO saying when he said everything is meant to represent something? Now they’re about to solve Kizuki’s mysterious death in the real world, is that also meant to represent anything?

 

 

“Beros, we really need Revenant right now…” Tomura continued.

 

 

“Hmm? For what, exactly? I’m gonna believe you guys for a bit, whatever ‘strange world’ you two came from, what is it?”

 

 

Both the two friends looked at each other, and then back to the young heroine. But instead of Tomura, Spinner spoke first. “It’s uh… If we tell you that Chikazoku, the guy who dropped out of school some time ago, is some high-ranking member of the MLA, would you believe us?”

 

 

“Uh, okay?” Tomoe shrugged, eyes still locked onto the screen of her phone. “Any more?”

 

 

“We pieced together some clues last night and uh… We think he’s the one truly responsible by Kizuki’s death, by proxy.”

 

 

Tomoe suddenly stopped a bit before resuming her walk. “What?” she asked, raising one eyebrow towards Spinner. “So Kizuki’s a dead person in this other world you speak of?”

 

 

“We got Nemoto to help last night, and we can confirm that while she technically did die but-“

 

 

“We’re still not sure if that’s a clone or anything, since she supposedly died by splattering onto the ground after falling from a high place, and only clones do that,” Tomura suddenly interjected, albeit finishing Spinner’s sentence.

 

 

“What…?” Tomoe repeated, her expression getting more and more confused every passing second.

 

 

“I know it’s unbelievable but hear me out. The IT Guy, Chikazoku, said something about tomato paste multiple times and I think it has to do with the splattering.”

 

 

“We’re suspecting the guy is a massive backstabber, shutting down satellites and all kinds of crap!” Spinner added.

 

 

“Wait wait wait wait… a murder mystery? Interesting…” Tomoe’s voice trailed off, her walking pace slowing down as they crossed an empty road.

 

 

“See see? That’s why we need Revenant’s help, becau-“

 

 

“Maybe I can help with that,” Tomoe said nonchalantly, attention going back to her phone. “Just fill me out with all the details you know.”

 

 

“Well actually, we’re gonna ask the Nemoto guy to do some more asking tonight on Toga, because she… she uh… she’s technically the one who delivered the killing blow, so to speak. About Revenant, we need him because aside from looking like AFO, he’s kinda close to Kizuki for some reason so I figured he’ll help and not back out in the middle.”

 

 

“Are you guys saying I’ll back out during the middle of the mission?”

 

 

“Not technically, but there’s always a chance. You never know these days.” Tomura sighed. “Look, this is very important to me. To think Eleena’s no more in the real world, and how effective corrosive explosives can be, and to think that it’s the F***ING IT GUY’S FAULT, I’m GONNA-“

 

 

“Hey hey hey! Tone it down!” Tomoe hurriedly calmed down the student to her right, only to find out the other one on her left crossing his arms and shaking his head. “And also who the heck is El-“

 

 

“That dumbass IT Guy, if it weren’t for those f***ing ‘mAlfUnCtIoNiNg’ satellites, we would have won! That bloody traitor!” Spinner yelled, raising balled fists skywards. “And all that just so he can keep the army to himself! No wonder he ain’t planning to release Mr. Long-Nosed Wimp from prison!”

 

 

“QUIET!” Tomoe shouted, her voice echoing across the empty roads and scattering a few landed birds. In a brief moment afterwards, she re-composed herself and took a deep breath. “Okay okay okay… I can help with that, I just need to think-“

 

 

“You’re unsure about it, that’s why we need Revenant here,” Tomura shook his head, his expression looking uneasy. “This is a very important thing. And you being a Big Three student means you can just back off at any time and none of us could even touch you. You’re making me remember ol’ Overhaul right now…”

 

 

“Am I supposed to help or what?” Tomoe asked, attention going back to her phone once more. “I’m getting confused on you two.”

 

 

“I still want to speak with Revenant…”

 

 

Tomoe took another deep breath and sighed. “Okay… I’ll go give him a call later, but do know that he and Dragunov are very busy today, I don’t know when he’s available, but I can fill you in if he’s here.”

 

 

“Okay then,” Spinner muttered from her left.

 

 

“Good, So how’s the Eviscerators last night, any knowledge on those?” Tomoe asked the two students beside her, attention going away from the screen of her phone and towards the tall 7-floor building up front.

 

 

“They look like Mezo Shoji?”

 

 

“Hmmm… so you somehow know a person who’s not been seen once in ten years… Not to mention a rather low-profile criminal who never even reached the news. You guys are simply fascinating if you’re not acting all silly,” Tomoe yawned and stretched her arms, still eyeing the building. “Team A’s comin’ up on us by the way.”

 

 

“What does that mean?”

 

 

“Team A’s supposed to rescue one person from Team B, but where’s the challenge if they’re just gonna walk there?” Tomoe then raised the phone she’s holding onto, currently displaying a map of the entire arena. Moving red dots litter everywhere, representing Team A. “A small group should just be ahead of us.”

 

 

All three looked ahead, and indeed there is a small group of students heading towards them. Who they are is concealed by the sheer distance they have from them, preventing each of the three to actually know who’s who.

 

 

“So guys, since I’m not gonna be part of this whole ‘Kizuki Murder Mystery’ schtick anyways but uh… care to tell me more about it? Sounds interesting,” Tomoe said, taking her time taking off her unusually small backpack and picking out a pen-sized black rod from within. “I’ve always wanted to be a detective back in- nevermind.”

 

 

“I think her ability to nuke things into orbit had something to do with it. Maybe Chika Guy had her killed so the mansion siege is a guaranteed loss…” Tomura’s voice trailed off, eyeing the way Ishiyumi stretched one of the rods to extend to over a meter in length. “But that doesn’t make any sense, Ice Climber Guy’s pretty overpowered too, right Spin? So why is he not killed off as well?”

 

 

“Based on what I know, Ice Climber guy needs a whole lotta water… and there’s no abundant water supply in the mansion…” Spinner’s voice trailed off as well, seeing the girl’s left thumb and fifth digit glow and stretch, turning into a decurve shortbow with a green energy line connecting them acting as a bowstring. There’s nothing surprising as it is for him knowing ‘Yumi’ forming a part of Ishiyumi’s name. On the other hand, Tomura has his eyes focused on it and his mouth slightly hanging.

 

 

“You’re talking about a backstabber-“

 

 

“Man that’s amazing! Concealed weaponry!” Tomura blurted out, seeing Ishiyumi aim her weaponry forward, using the extended black rod she got from her backpack as the arrow. He was instantly met with a confused look from the girl.

 

 

“You only saw my Quirk now? Not to brag but we three are pretty big on the internet right now.”

 

 

“Well technically I only do Exergis everytime I’m on my PC so uh… What are you gonna do with it?”

 

 

“Fair enough.” Ishiyumi turned her attention back to her built-in arm weaponry and fired the makeshift projectile. Upon exit from the bow, the arrow immediately got surrounded in a relatively bright cyan glow as it sped forwards at such speed that both Spinner and Tomura lost sight of it immediately as it went up into the sky.

 

 

“Huh? So that’s the rod thingy that was gonna impale you yesterday…” Tomura said, keeping his eyes up trying to find the missing projectile. He was then interrupted as the girl fired an additional two ‘arrows’ forward.

 

 

The three makeshift arrows converged together at the middle point of the building in front of them, before rapidly spinning around at a point like a circular saw and carving through the side of the building facing the road. After a few seconds, all three flew back and returned to Ishiyumi, who effortlessly caught them back one by one. For such fragile-looking makeshift projectiles, not a single plastic rod had any visible damage.

 

 

The building is still standing, despite the two predicting it would topple over in any second.

 

 

 “What was that for?” Tomura asked, still waiting for the building to topple over. “Nothing happened.”

 

 

“I weakened the side of the building facing the road, I’m gonna do a little roadblock,” Ishiyumi replied, the wood-like parts of her left hand extending further until the entire bow structure is almost at her height. “So what’s this backstabbing you’re talk-“

 

 

“I wanna see what that Quirk can do. I’ll explain later,” Tomura said, with Spinner adding a comment about ranged combat-based Quirks being fascinating on their own.

 

 

“Okaaayyy… Hard to believe you two are excited on basically the only thing I’m known for.”

 

 

“Like I said, we just got isekai’d here and me and Spin have no idea who you are, señorita.”

 

 

Shaking her head with a light smile, Ishiyumi aimed her longbow forwards, all three rods loaded and ready to fire at the same time, when she suddenly bent her arms and fired her weapon backwards instead, all three makeshift arrows flying straight until going upwards at the same speed. “I need to get a higher angle, in case you two think I’m showing off,” Ishiyumi said afterwards.

 

 

“If that’s not showing off, then what’s showing off to you?” Tomura asked weakly, too busy tracking the glowing projectiles across the sky.

 

 

“Nah I don’t really show off outside of my photoshoot sessions.”

 

 

All three turned their attention to the three projectiles cruising through the sky at high speed, maneuvering over towards the side of the building facing away from the road before suddenly accelerating forwards, the glow briefly intensifying as the projectiles sped off.

 

 

For such simple extendable plastic rods, the damage they caused to the building seemed like an entire car was hurled into it at supersonic speeds. Loud cracking noises emanated from the sides of the building sliced by the ‘circular saw’ earlier and it eventually toppled down, kicking up dust and effectively blocking the road.

 

 

Ishiyumi rapidly fired another three arrows she got straight from her backpack, aimed directly towards the nearby buildings near the destroyed one. “What about the backstab-“

 

 

“Woah… you can do… that…?” Tomura slowly said, witnessing the projectiles Ishiyumi fired effortlessly cleave through buildings like hot knife through butter. While he himself can bring down buildings by just touching them, Ishiyumi shooting guided missiles is on a whole new level.

 

 

Spinner is impressed at the display of power as well, suddenly remembering how weak the entire MLA is back when the mansion got sieged by the heroes. Seeing how easy Ishiyumi can rain down destruction from a safe distance, he deduced that she alone could turn the tides of battle faster than another of Twice’s Sad Man’s Parades.

 

 

But if Skeptic really is a backstabber, then the MLA being weak that day could just be Chikazoku deliberately pulling back the army’s most powerful troops just so they could lose.

 

 

Or maybe he’s just thinking too much about it. Maybe the MLA is really just that weak.

 

 

Ishiyumi continued shooting arrow after arrow, carving holes into structures if not destroying them outright in a single hit. In a matter of a minute, she turned the landscape in front of them into an apocalyptic movie set.

 

 

Ishiyumi loaded another another makeshift arrow. “Are you guys going to tell me-“

 

 

“Beros, forget what I said earlier! Will you reconsider helping us?” Tomura suddenly asked, wide-eyed in utter amazement. He had always been impressed with powerful women, and Ishiyumi is definitely not slacking off in the damage department. “Please please please please please help us?”

 

 

“Pfft!” Tomoe giggled, exhaling through her nose. “Alright alright, I’ll join your little investigation. But first let me tell you guys a lil’ something about this whole SpecPro Big Three nonsense…”

Notes:

Canon MHA: Curious (And her troops) are the only people in MHA who can splatter for some reason. This is a one-time event that never happened again. Everyone went back to usual anime toughness once the War Arc rolled in.

This fic: Curious went splat… and Tomura's gonna find out how and why!

Chapter 32: Suspicion - [Part 2]

Notes:

Useful Notes:

Tomoe Ishiyumi – Beros’s Japanese name. Real name will be revealed soon.
Dragunov – Nagant’s alternate universe hero name.
Scissors/Revenant – A person who looks like a young AFO. Real identity not revealed yet.
Exergis – An online first-person shooter game Tomura and Spinner like to play.
Backforce: A strange phenomena allowing Quirked people to resist powerful hits (A.K.A. Anime durability)

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 33

 

 

Tomura listened to the girl’s story, trying to take in everything she says amidst of holding back from blurting out praises out of sheer amazement every time Ishiyumi brings down another building in an attempt to slow down Team A from making contact with Team B.

 

 

The resulting scenes after every ‘bombardment’ are absolute masterpieces in terms of deconstruction. From the smoke billowing out of the ruined structures, the tumbling of debris, to the loud cracking noises of concrete, all combined to produce what sounded like music to Tomura’s ears.

 

 

The girl treats her impressive feats as a simple thing her Quirk can do, but Tomura doesn’t. Being surrounded by individuals on the weaker side, like the entirety of the PLF, and then seeing one with almost the same power output as the heroes is certainly amazing.

 

 

Ishiyumi is obviously a villain from the real world, but where is she? What is she? What happened to her? What crimes did she do? Tomura thought to himself. Is she a hired gun or just some random villain from another country that happened to find herself in Japan?

 

 

But even then, why is she here if he never met her once? Did she die too like Kizuki alongside the MLA? Is she part of the MLA too? Is she a villain only AFO knows? Is she a part of a relatively significant event in the real world?

 

 

“So really, what are you?”

 

 

Tomura snapped out of his thinking process upon hearing Spinner ask, promptly being answered by the girl saying she’s actually 23 years old and in no part of UA at all.

 

 

“What…?” Tomura asked, scratching the back of his head in confusion. He already can’t understand Ishiyumi’s mere existence and now she’s not even part of UA? But aren’t the Big Three: Mirio, Tamaki, and Nejire real UA students? How come this girl’s not? Tomura scratched his head with more intensity, his free hand involuntarily scratching the bottom of his neck, scars still present from his incessant scratching last night.

 

 

“What UA said to you guys back when you first started were all just made-up lies. We’re not real pros, we don’t even have real licenses, and we have not set foot in UA until the day we started ‘teaching’.”

 

 

“What…?”

 

 

“If you search us up in the ‘net, you won’t find anything much about us until this whole SpecPro fiasco,” Ishiyumi spoke, her voice trailing off as she waved a hand as if trying to grasp for the correct word. “We’re uh… underground heroes.”

 

 

“Like Eraserhead?” Tomura suddenly blurted out.

 

 

“The heck?! You know him too?”

 

 

“The tall edgy scarf dude with the overpowered Quirk-erasing eye beams?” Spinner interjected, earning a shocked look from the girl.

 

 

“Wait-wait-wait let me think for a bit, hold on…”

 

 

The three continued their walk, with some students from Team A passing by but overall ignoring them in favor of continuing towards their goal at the other side of the arena.

 

 

Ishiyumi, after a minute of silence, continued her story about the Big Three being underground heroes, putting a strange emphasis on the word ‘underground heroes’ as what Tomura noticed. He was about to think what could it mean when he heard Spinner ask if Ishiyumi started heroics at an early age, which the girl responded with a nod.

 

 

“Are you a government agent?” Tomura suddenly blurted out. “I’ve heard about ‘heroes’ in the real world starting very early because they’re picked up by the government. I dunno what it really meant but I can understand if they’re really taking kids off of homes because they have useful Quirks. It’s just like what some villains do when picking new squadmates… we can’t really let some abilities go to waste.”

 

 

Ishiyumi stared at him for a good few moments with a confused expression, in which Tomura didn’t mind once. Aside from being phenomenally overpowered in his mind, he also found the girl to have phenomenally beautiful green eyes – which he himself found weird since he normally hates almost anything associated with the color green.

 

 

“Ishiyumi, I think you have very beautiful eyes-“

 

 

Spinner suddenly laughed loudly at his friend’s sudden remark. “Must you seriously flirt with every powerful girl you see?”

 

 

“Well technically I’ve only seen three so far and I definitely didn’t flirt with Ki-“

 

 

“Enough about pretty eyes, I need more info on that freaky alternate universe stuff…” Ishiyumi cleared her throat as she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “Sounds pretty cool,” she added, gesturing for the two to follow her as she walked ahead.

 

 

Tomura slouched forward as he followed. Must Spinner really make fun of him like that? All he ever did is say a positive comment to Ishiyumi as some kind of ‘Mental Manipulation’ trick to make her help him later on, as well as because he really thinks the girl really has beautiful eyes. It’s just honesty concealed with a hidden villainous agenda, which is very different from flirting.

 

 

Flirting is what regular people do, not villains. Tomura is sure what he did is definitely not flirting, or else he’ll be a massive embarrassment to All for One, on top of his already-massive failures from the real world.

 

 

“So is it true what people say? About the government snatching kids with useful Quirks off the street?” Spinner asked, re-starting the conversation from the sudden stop earlier. “I heard some rumors back then.”

 

 

This time Tomura chose to stay silent, one half wondering about the things that were meant to represent something, and the other half wondering about what Spinner joked about him getting attracted to powerful women.

 

 

Attraction to the opposite gender is certainly new to him despite already being twenty years old in the real world. He could be surrounded by beautiful women and he would never even take a second glance at them, yet everything seemed to be starting to change the more he stays here in this alternate universe.

 

 

He suddenly remembered how he literally oogled everyone back in the Sports Festival like a massive creep, and even then he was just marveling about the physical shape of the girls and women around him, which is not the case as of this moment. Just last night he mentally described Tatsumaki as being angelic in appearance, something he found even more strange just thinking about it now.

 

 

Tomura wondered how could it be that he’s suddenly finding girls attractive. If it weren’t for him being mildly self-aware at the short moment Ishiyumi was staring at him in shock, his jaw would have dropped at how stunning the girl looked.

 

 

He felt something odd well up inside him. At first he’s just jokingly asking out Dragunov because he thought she would be a great addition to his villainous team back in the real world. And then at the tournament, he suddenly found curvy bodies attractive. And then he found himself visually attracted to Dragunov’s face (Which ended right after discovering she was very mean to his best friend)…

 

 

Now? A few seconds of staring at Ishiyumi’s eyes is enough for him to go speechless.

 

 

Something’s not right. He’s not supposed to feel this way. He’s a villain. He’s a monster. He’s evil personified. He’s Tomura Shigaraki, the Demon King’s eventual successor. He should NOT be getting attracted to girls, he should be building hate: hate to power the All for One Quirk. This strange feeling first manifested itself back at the Sport Festival, and it’s only gotten worse from there.

 

 

‘What’s going on…?’ He thought to himself, one hand involuntarily going up and scratching the back of his head as he walked beside the two. Why is he having such thoughts?

 

 

He took a quick glance at Ishiyumi again. She still looked pretty, and his gaze didn’t even need to go down anymore to confirm it.

 

 

No. It can’t be. It must be some random Quirk from a random person just affecting him – That’s it! The problem is not him at all! Because there’s absolutely no way he would find Ishiyumi visually attractive in a hundred years! He’s in a school known for training top-tier heroes and there are tons of possible Quirks out there, and one of them must be affecting him!

 

 

That means he’s not in trouble at all! After a few hours or so, he’ll finally stop thinking about Ishiyumi’s beautiful eyes! He’s still a villain! Nothing’s wrong with him! He still deserves the All for One Quirk!

 

 

“Hey,” Tomura suddenly interjected the conversation between the two. “Beros you’re in, right?”

 

 

“Uh… yeah…?”

 

 

“Good to know. So wanna hear the full story of the other side? About Chikazoku? About AFO? About Midoriya? About everything?” Tomura said before clearing his throat. “Now you better get some snacks, ‘cuz this is going to take a while. After this, we’re going to interrogate Toga further to get more information.”

 

 

 

 

The ‘interrogation’ never went into fruition. Right after the school activity, Himiko Toga went missing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

--------------------------[Day 38]----------------------------------

 

 

Tomura stood in front of Toga’s empty room. 5 days after since the girl’s mysterious sudden disappearance.

 

 

Despite SpecPro being a ‘big’ thing (although still highly-controversial), he found it strange that such an event would not make it in the big news. In fact, it didn’t even make it into the ‘small’ news, as UA decided it was best just to cover the whole thing while they search for the missing girl in secret as to not generate more negativity from the public… or so what Beros told them earlier.

 

 

His attention immediately went to the phenomenally powerful green-haired archer, who he still thought was facially attractive. It’s been five days and he still thinks of her the same. Shaking his head, he quickly dismissed it as the person with the ‘Attraction’ Quirk could be just nearby again.

 

 

“Toga’s story doesn’t make sense. It’s making me more and more confused the more I think about it,” Spinner, who was standing quietly beside him all this time, suddenly spoke. “The way she told us her story it’s like she’s some hypersonic assassin ‘floating’ everyone, when it’s obvious Kizuki can just blast her off in a single hit as we have seen her during the Sports Festival.”

 

 

Tomura nodded. “Even with AFO’s dumb-down spell, Kizuki’s explosives should never be underestimated.”

 

 

“Man you should have seen the nuke!” Spinner said, hands moving as if he’s trying to re-enact the explosion he saw back then. “Just imagine that thing firing on our faces back in Deika! We’ll be out in outer space in record time! That was an over-exaggeration by the way.”

 

 

“I know…. There has to be more to Toga’s story. Her killing Kizuki by splattering her on the road and Chikazoku mentioning ‘Tomato Paste’ is not mere coincidence…” Tomura’s voice trailed off, a gloved hand going up to stroke the bottom of his chin. “Now there’s Toga, the IT Guy, and Dabi who’s not part of us anymore… ”

 

 

“You think Toga’s got something to do with it?”

 

 

“Yep, and she’s avoiding us because we’re getting closer to the truth.”

 

 

“But that can’t be right, we barely even started yet-“ Spinner suddenly stopped, brows furrowing. “But on the other hand, if you’re right then that means we’re definitely moving closer to the-“ the humanoid lizard suddenly stopped again as Tomura turned the knob of the door in front of them and it actually opened.

 

 

“Oookay…” Tomura muttered to himself as he slowly stepped in, red eyes scanning around for any traps Toga could have left. “Room’s not even locked!”

 

 

Spinner pushed the door further, revealing the relatively normal-looking room. “She must’ve been in a hurry.”

 

 

“Do you think she got kidnapped? Twice seemed to be falling for it,” Tomura muttered.

 

 

Spinner shook his head. “Toga being kidnapped is the cover-up. She just went missing, have you been listening to Beros earlier? Or are you just staring at her again?”

 

 

“I was uh… thinking about the Kizuki murder mystery.”

 

 

“Riiiiiiight… Thinking real hard on the mystery…”

 

 

Tomura rolled his eyes at his friend’s comment and proceeded into the room, immediately noticing the missing knife-holder on the girl’s nightstand. “UA said they already searched for some clues here eh? Looks like they missed something,” he said stepping back and gesturing towards the empty nightstand. “Seems to me like Toga deliberately left and took all her knives with her-“

 

 

“Wait wait wait wait… IT Guy… Toga… and Dabi… I think I’m getting something here…”

 

 

“Yep, those three are missing. Does Dabi, by any chance, have anything to do with those two?” Tomura asked, now back to walking around trying to find anything sharp in the room on the notion that if everything’s gone, then their target really left on her own accord. “I can maybe deal with Toga, and Chikazoku-whatever, but Dabi? F*** no I’m not dealing with that deranged toaster!”

 

 

“Yeah f*** that guy, I ain’t gonna last two seconds against him. So got any more clues?”

 

 

“Nope… All I got is that all the knives are gone, and that the room’s suspiciously unlocked... unless the UA investigation staff just forgot to lock it back.”

 

 

Spinner quickly looked outside to check if anyone’s walking through the halls that might find them, and found no one. “Let’s get outta here before someone sees us.”

 

 

The two quickly exited the room and closed the door behind them, before proceeding back to their respective rooms. Passing by a nearby wall clock, the two found that it’s fifteen minutes before 10 in the evening.

 

 

“Hey Spin, do you think it’s fine if we talk to Kizuki now?” Tomura wondered, clasping his hands together. Ever since the Eviscerator incident some days ago, some students owning both a dorm and an apartment outside of UA like Kizuki are urged to stay within the school walls as much as possible, which means potentially more time for the two of them to talk to her after school.

 

 

But despite the convenience, Beros adviced against the investigation, claiming it’s too early to just drop in that Kizuki died in the alternate universe just days after a ‘near death’ experience.

 

 

“I dunno if we should follow Ishiyumi’s advice… it’s not like Kizuki would even believe that there’s an alternate universe in the first place…”

 

 

“Yeah… she might think I’m just a good storyteller,” Tomura said, nodding. “No matter how evil and awesome I made AFO in my stories she just shrugs it off.”

 

 

“Hmmm wait- Why not let’s just go with the best route? So Beros said we shouldn’t be talking to Kizuki about her supposed death this week, right? And there’s also the very high chance that she won’t believe us anyway. So why not we just wait around three days and then talk to her without saying anything to Beros, how’s that?”

 

 

“Hmmm that could work…  I mean it’s not really that of a real serious mystery anyways-”

 

 

“I dunno man but I think this mystery is a LOT bigger than you think.”

 

 

“Huh?”

 

 

Spinner raised a hand, making Tomura stop as well. “I think Chikazoku and Dabi are on the same team. I remember something when we’re escaping at Machia’s back…”

 

 

“What is it?”

 

 

“You know what, let’s just do some Exergis, maybe I could recall the whole event at a later time,” Spinner said, gesturing to yet another wall clock. “I’d rather tell the whole story than fragments.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

------------------------------[Day 40]-----------------------------------

 

 

Tomura walked through the empty hallways of their dorm room, the relative silence being occasionally broken with the sounds of Twice sobbing in his room. During the first few days of Toga’s disappearance, he thought it was funny hearing the guy cry over and over and over again, but over time he stopped caring about it.

 

 

In his mind he knew he’d probably do the exact same thing if ever AFO or Spinner disappeared.

 

 

But also in his mind, as long as he’s not talking to Twice about it, he’s still a villain. As long as he only cares about a very small group of people, he’s still a villain. Twice would eventually get over it, he’s sure of it. That is unless Toga has a much bigger role in Chikazoku’s grand plan, then it’s a different thing.

 

 

He eventually reached the corner that leads to the exit of their dorm building. Taking one last look at a nearby wall clock and seeing the time that it’s almost 11 in the evening, he opened the door. Surprisingly, there are still quite a number of people walking about, students, grown-ups, and even a few fully-costumed heroes.

 

 

“Lockdown’s pretty tough, don’cha think?”

 

 

Tomura turned to the right where he heard the voice. It was Ishiyumi, wearing yellow-themed casual clothes, leaning her back on a nearby lamp post, both hands shoved inside the pockets of her jeans. “You sure this is whole shebang’s not part of ‘the real world’?” the older girl asked.

 

 

The former villain shook his head. Back in the real world, he only deployed three Nomus, all of which were easily dealt with by the combined forces of the heroes and law enforcement. And then after that, people never talked about it again, and he made sure to tell Ishiyumi that very clearly during his re-telling of the past events to highlight the difference. “How many died, really? Is it true that they’re in the hundreds?” he asked.

 

 

A weak gust of wind blew upon them, making the girl shiver a bit before taking something from her left, hidden from Tomura’s view. It was a simple cup of coffee. “Deaths are all heroes. Not a single civilian was harmed that night. But of course we had to hide that and say there are more civilian casualties or else… you know what it is.”

 

 

Tomura nodded in agreement. Heroes being the defenders of society are so ingrained to the general population that in the event that heroes failed a little in doing their tasks, all hell would break loose. Everything heroes accomplish should always be hyped, and all their failures should be masked at all costs. “Revenant?”

 

 

Tomoe took a sip of her drink. “I talked to him just an hour ago, said something about being busy.”

 

 

“Did you tell him to-“

 

 

“Scissors told me he’s the first person Kizuki added to her phone. Based on what he told me of their nightly chat, little miss blue seemed fine overall. I dunno how she managed to get the near-death situation out of her head but I’m glad she did it.”

 

 

Tomura nodded again as he walked closer to her, the cold night air penetrating his skin. “Quite a lot o’ people outside eh? What’s going on?”

 

 

Tomoe chuckled to the boy’s question. “You and your lizard buddy’s gaming all night long, of course you won’t notice this. But actually me and some heroes have been keeping watch until late into the night for some days now. Can’t let those Eviscerators in at all costs.”

 

 

“How did the Eviscerator swarm end anyway?”

 

 

“They backed out on their own shortly after Kamikaze annihilated a whole bunch of them in a single hit. Revenant told me you’re there, yeah?”

 

 

“Oh! Yeah I was there. It was awesome, actually.”

 

 

“You know…” Tomoe put down her cup of coffee on a nearby wall. “With all this ‘knowledge of the outside world’, can you guess who’s the current Hassaikai boss? You said it was Chisaki in the other world, yes?”

 

 

“Yep! So if Overhaul’s the guy who’s in charge in the other world, then the current boss is LeMillion?”

 

 

“LeMillion’s dead-“

 

 

“Oh right I forgot. Nighteye?”

 

 

Tomoe shook her head. “Nope, although it’s kinda amazing you keep knowing names that regular people aren’t supposed to know. Go on, keep guessing. You can do it, sport!”

 

 

Tomura instantly got hit with a feeling of intense nervousness, inadvertently making him put up his hands – a reflex he developed as a villain. He himself couldn’t understand it, Tomoe just smiled at him, how can he be suddenly on the defensive? “Uh… Machia?” he suddenly blurted out without thinking.

 

 

“Oh c’mon don’t be silly.”

 

 

‘Machia? MACHIA? Why the f*** did I say Machia?!’ He yelled internally in his mind. How can he suddenly answer something so stupid? “Uh-Fourth Kind-Gang Orca-Uwabami-Ryukyu- Oh wait I got it!”

 

 

He felt even more stupid realizing the random names he just blurted out. But in the end, everything clicked on its own. “The little kid with pale blue hair? With the horn that rewinds people? Is that it? I kinda forgot her name but she was all over the news at one point.”

 

 

“That’s where it’s at.” Tomoe nodded, taking another sip of her drink. “So I heard Takeyama didn’t cancel the intership offer, you still in with her? By the way UA has the ability to take you back from her if ever Eviscerators attack again, same goes with the other kids who still want to proceed with their internships so maybe keep that in mind.”

 

 

“Yeah I’m still in. Is Kizuki still in too?” Tomura asked, walking towards the other side of Ishiyumi and sitting on the metal bench just beside her, mind still going about that one smile that instantly made him nervous.

 

 

Tomoe nodded in agreement. “She said something about the internship happening in the middle of the ocean anyway. Based on reports about the Eviscerator incident, those things can’t swim at all. Well what do I know? Is it real? Is it not? Hero culture these days are all about cover-ups and censorships-“

 

 

“Wait… cover-ups…?” Tomura’s voice trailed off, placing his elbows on his knees, suddenly deep in thought in a completely different topic. “Wait, so about the USJ crater… Spin said Kizuki nuked the place yet there’s no crater, is that a cover-up?”

 

 

Tomoe was in the middle of sipping her coffee when she suddenly stopped as she heard the question. It took her a good while before she answered with a small nod.

 

 

“How come Dragunov and Revenant didn’t know about it? Surely the heroes would get the scoop on that first, right?”

 

 

The girl paused for another while, green eyes just staring at the distance ahead. “For someone quite aware how the government ‘picks’ up powerful kids, you sure don’t know anything about… deliberate cover-ups.” Tomoe paused again, placing her right hand back to the pocket of her jeans. “Remember everything carefully. I was there, right?”

 

 

“Yep, you took Kizuki back here.”

 

 

“I can only base everything from the crater it made, but the thing is that crater’s no joke. I don’t know how Kizuki packed that much firepower, but that’s the same reason why we should cover it up, even to other heroes-“

 

 

“But aren’t you powerful too? You turn anything you shoot into guided missiles!”

 

 

Tomoe softly chuckled to herself, still not looking to the boy, and brought up a free hand to her chin, her index finger touching her lips. “My story is not important here. The thing is that-“

 

 

“You said something about starting early, right? That and having a powerful Quirk means that- are you just some kid picked up by the government too? Do things like those exist in Portugal too-?”

 

 

“Nope, we are not talking about the place where I grew up, okay? I talk about it when I want to talk about it. And I do not want to talk about it. Do I make myself clear, Tomura Shigaraki?” Tomoe said sternly, slowly turning her head to glare at him, her face now contorted into a scowl. “I already said it before and I do not want to say it again.”

 

 

“Okay…”

 

 

“Good.”

 

 

“… So what’s up with Kizuki and the cover-up?”

 

 

Tomoe slowly nodded, turning her attention back into the night sky. “With Kizuki’s case, her Quirk is far too powerful. When you reach certain power levels, two things might happen to you. A: The top bigshot villains will try to hire you. B: The top bigshot villains would want to take you out because they know other bigshot villains might hire you later. Also in case you’re wondering, us heroes can’t blatantly protect her or else the top bigshot villains would begin suspecting something. Chisaki is already under heavy protection, adding another one would just complicate things.”

 

 

Tomura raised an eyebrow. Kizuki’s USJ attack had to be covered-up because she might get the attention of villains. Is there even a similar case in the real world? But then again, heroes in the real world are way more powerful than what they are now, and they don’t really need to worry about bigshot villains in the first place.

 

 

He shook his head lightly, changing his thoughts. The more time passes the more stupider Toga’s story gets. Ishiyumi just confirmed Kizuki’s power level is out of the ordinary, and that means that literally no amount dumb-down spell can make her lose against a silly knife nut and then go splatter onto the road after being dropped from a high place.

 

 

The mystery continues…

 

 

Tomura was about to ask a question about government agents, but seeing the older girl’s now-crossed arms and sour expression made him hesitate.

 

 

‘Ishiyumi’s probably a government agent anyways…’ he thought to himself.

 

 

“So uh… I’m leaving now…” Tomura muttered weakly and awkwardly stood up from the metal bench he’s sitting on, placing both of his hands onto his pant pockets.

 

 

“Better go get some shut-eye, we have a big day tomorrow,” Ishiyumi said as the boy walked past her, keeping her gaze focused on the cloudless sky.

 

 

“Uh… by the way how did you smack me back at the Sports Festival without me feeling anything?”

 

 

“The wonders of Backforce, kid,” Tomoe replied, glancing once at him before turning around, picking up her now-empty coffee cup and walking away. “See ya tomorrow.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

-------------------------[Day 41]-----------------------------

 

 

Tomura paced around in his room, walking back and forth while occasionally looking out the window. He continued for a few more rounds before finally stopping and turning to face Spinner sitting on a chair beside his personal computer. “Alright Spin… you sure you have all the details now?”

 

 

“I got most of it,” Spinner said, shrugging. “I’m now sure that Chikazoku, Dabi, and Toga leaving are not just mere coincidences.”

 

 

“Okay shoot.”

 

 

“Okay, so picture this… us and the rest of the League leaving the mansion on Machia’s back…”

 

 

Tomura paused for a bit, imagining how Chikazoku tried to hang on after abandoning his entire team. “Go on,” he said, gesturing for Spinner to continue.

 

 

“Some time later, about halfway to Jakku City. Chikazoku suddenly set up his laptop alongside Dabi standing up, and that’s when I noticed the satellite’s now online and back to normal.”

 

 

“Dabi? I hope he’s not-“

 

 

Spinner shook his head. “I’m afraid but burnt toast’s part of the enemy.”

 

 

“How the heck are we going to last two seconds against Dabi-“ Tomura’s expression suddenly froze, his face contorting into a face full of malice. “Of course we’re not gona last two seconds against Dabi! That’s what our allies are for! Dragunov can pump him full of lead until he has more holes than swiss cheese!”

 

 

“As long as I’m not gonna be paired up with her again, I do suppose you’re right.”

 

 

“AFO told me to pick the right allies, and that’s what we’re doing right now. Of course we’re no match against Dabi, that’s why we have to get the best person for the job! Just like you calling in Nemoto some days ago!” Tomura said, standing tall and proud, already thinking about the praises to be showered to him by All for One once he gets back. “Okay, proceed.”

 

 

“Okay, here we go.” Spinner cleared his throat. “And then as we proceeded, Dabi starts speaking some random sh** I don’t understand, with all the yelling going on around us. But I do remember one thing, and that is all the billboards with huge TV screens suddenly displayed Dabi’s speech.”

 

 

“Damn… after the satellites not working for two months, here they come with solid connection?”

 

 

“You won’t believe the insane lack of lag!” Spinner raised both hands. “IT Guy’s technology is no joke! I can hear Dabi’s speech, and digital billboards playing said speech, at the EXACT same time. You would think there’s at least a little bit of lag, but no!”

 

 

“What else did you see?”

 

 

“Okay I’m gonna let you connect the dots here, so here’s what I know about the whole thing… The huge mansion raid started with Twice located in one of the upper rooms of the mansion, conveniently locked in. Hawks appeared in the exact same room without mistake. Dabi then conveniently walked into them and burnt Hawks, and said something until the hero stabbed Twice. All that is being recorded by Dabi’s very convenient video recorder. The footage gotten from this is the one broadcasted by Chikazoku later on with some minor edits. And get this: Chikazoku used to go on and on and on about how good of a member Hawks is, and how Twice is irreplaceable.”

 

 

“Wow... IT Guy’s really planned out everything… I wouldn’t be surprised if he really did plan Kizuki’s murder.”

 

 

 “Not only that, I remember Chikazoku even blaming Twice seconds after the heroes rolled in. He was literally yelling into the mansion loudspeakers about everything being Twice’s fault. The guy planned everything! I’m sure of it!”

 

 

“Is that it? What about Toga?”

 

 

“About Toga…” Spinner nodded before continuing. “Back in the PLF HQ, I could recall snippets of Chikazoku repeatedly ‘borrowing’ and ‘returning’ Toga’s bloodsucker equipment, it’s like he’s installing upgrades in them or something…” Spinner’s voice trailed off, one hand going up his chin. “Toga got a gear upgrade and the rest got nothing… something’s not right.”

 

 

“Man… What the hell… It’s like he’s the true leader all along…” Tomura’s voice trailed off as he began pacing back and forth in his room again, his mind randomly switching between topics. “Are you saying he still has his functional satellites and he’s still not helping us back when we’re in that cave? AFO had to use human spies while he had his satellites all along? Why didn’t he set them up?!  He EVEN DARED to go against All for One?!”

 

 

“Guy’s got balls of steel, I give him that.” Spinner shook his head. “Now that I see it… remember our Machia training before we went to Deika? Dabi’s always going away right? I don’t think he’s really recruiting, he’s probably already contacting the IT Guy… I wonder if he’s also already making contact with Hawks as well…”

 

 

“We got ourselves a massive mystery to solve, how come you’re just only piecing information now?”

 

 

Spinner shook his head. “To be fair, I’m not really the thinking type.”

 

 

 “Fair enough. The good part is that at least we’re done with some of the details. But even then, there’s still one piece of the puzzle we can’t figure out…”

 

 

“What’s that?”

 

 

“The reasoning behind Kizuki’s assassination.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

******************[Day 45]********************

 

 

Tomura walked through the mostly-empty halls of UA, fully remembering the words Spinner said to him about talking to Kizuki way earlier than what Beros intended. The date they set up for the talk is already 4 days ago, with nothing done on their part. He was fully expecting Spinner to remind him, but based on the looks of things, Spinner himself already forgot the exact date as well.

 

 

He turned his head to look at the wallclock hanging nearby, taking note of the short arm pointing at 5.

 

 

 

Raising up his right gloved hand, Tomura wiped his tired eyes. He hasn’t got a good night’s sleep ever since fully processing Spinner’s story about Dabi, Toga, and Chikazoku. While the tall lanky man’s possible plans of turning against them looked stupid and nonsensical at first glance, but it could also mean that Chikazoku had the means to defeat All for One. He doesn’t know if that’s even possible, but nonetheless he was terribly worried for his adoptive father.

 

 

The one fact that AFO already hasn’t visited him in weeks brought him a great deal of worry.

 

 

Tomura involuntarily brought up a gloved hand and bit on it, the other free hand once again beginning to scratch his neck. He knew he still needs to talk to Kizuki, who thankfully seemed fine despite looking horribly traumatized by the Eviscerator incident a week ago, but that can wait.

 

 

Tomura kept walking forward, not minding where his legs would take him. Normally, at this time he would have been gaming again with Spinner, but he doesn’t have the mood in the past few days.

 

 

His sight suddenly caught of Ishiyumi, still wearing school uniform, halfway up a tree and looking like she’s trying to snap off a moderately-sized branch. Ever since Spinner’s story, he’s quite thankful for the sudden loss of strange feelings towards the girl, but he’s not sure if it’s because the rogue Quirk affecting him is now gone, or his mind is just filled with too much worry he hasn’t got the space to feel anything else.

 

 

“Oh hey Shiggy-!“ He heard the girl call out to him shortly before the branch she’s trying to break snapped off, sending her falling down onto the grass. It got a chuckle out of Tomura, and he decided to change his direction and walk towards her.

 

 

“Got any developments on-“

 

 

“Just in time!” Ishiyumi said, her face in a pained expression as she tried to stand up again, still holding onto the stick. “I managed to get contact with Scissors just a while ago.”

 

 

“What are you doing anyway?”

 

 

“I looked up a video how ancient people sharpen arrowheads and I’m gonna try it.“

 

 

“You don’t know how to sharpen arrowheads? Not to be mean but your Quirk is literally all about archery and you don’t know how to sharpen arrowheads?”

 

 

Ishiyumi shook her head, holding up the stick. “Of course I know how to fabricate arrowheads, silly! I just wanna see how the early Quirkless people do it. See this rock?” the girl asked, bringing up a sharp rock to Tomura’s view. “I’m going to sharpen this stick!”

 

 

“I don’t think that rock is even as sharp as a dedicated carving knife.”

 

 

“Whatever,” the girl waved him off, one free hand reaching behind her and pulling out a phone, currently with a paused video on a tutorial on how to sharpen sticks with stones, before changing it with a few taps on the screen. “Lemme see if I can connect to Scissors again…”

 

 

“So I saw ‘Scissors’s’ Quirk and uh… does he really bleed when using them? It looks kinda odd for a Quirk.”

 

 

Ishiyumi slowly turned to face him, her face slowly turning into a look of confusion. “Bleeding? Like his arm-“

 

 

“His arm’s all bloody. I saw he used his Quirk to put his arms back to normal and all the blood went back in. But some time later it just won’t go back. Also Hatsume said something about Revenant-progenitors and called me Nullfier Gas Prime or something, and then there’s also Chisaki-“

 

 

Ishiyumi raised a hand, instantly stopping him, face still stuck in a frown. “Bleeding huh? Hold on a sec – okay I’m connected.”

 

 

“Ask him to-“

 

 

“Scissors. Shigaraki said your arms were bleeding during the Eviscerator incident, is that true?” The girl asked into her phone, immediately turning her back onto Tomura afterwards. “What? I thought- what do you mean it’s not working right? Where’s Tsutsumi? I want to speak with her, NOW.”

 

 

“Is there something bad? I mean Revenant looked kinda dizzy when he brought us back here but I just assumed it’s just part of how his Quirk worked-“

 

 

“Shigaraki, silence for a bit, okay?” Ishiyumi turned her attention back to the phone.

 

 

Tomura stood where he was, keeping silent while the older girl kept talking on her phone, her voice sounding like a mixture of frustration and confusion. With nothing to do as of yet, he walked some distance away and sat on an empty bench.

 

 

His mind drifted off to the planned conversation with Kizuki - that was supposed to have been done four days ago. So far they have substantial proof that Chikazoku is a backstabber, but a small piece of the puzzle still remain – who is Kizuki? And why did Chikazoku have her killed off? Why didn’t the PLF react to her absence? How did she splatter in a world of Backforce?

 

 

“Shigaraki!” Tomoe called out as she ran towards him. She eventually positioned herself on the right side of the bench he’s sitting on.

 

 

Tomura was about to say something when the older girl immediately handed him her phone, with a call from Revenant still ongoing.

 

 

 “Oh hey Scissors!” Tomura said after placing the phone to his ear, “so uh we’re gonna need your help with Kizuki and some investigations and stuff. It’s about something that happened in the real world. What do you say to that?”

 

 

“Shigaraki, we’re kinda busy right now…” Revenant answered back, sounds of ruffling faintly being heard. “But real world stuff, you say?”

 

 

“Uh yeah?” Tomura glanced a bit towards Ishiyumi and gestured to her that the call’s not yet finished. “We figured since you’re kinda close to Kizuki maybe you’d be interested.”

 

 

“I thought Dai- I mean Beros’s already in?”

 

 

“Well yeah but we could use some more people since uh… I think we’re gonna be facing up against powerful enemies… and maybe some pyromaniacs, especially powerful pyromaniacs… and I don’t like pyromaniacs.”

 

 

“Tomura, I’m really busy right now but I’ll inform Beros if ever I can drop by- Okay gotta go.”

 

 

The phone suddenly beeped twice, indicating Revenant ended the call from his side. Tomura slowly lowered the phone and handed it over back to the older girl. “He said he’ll inform you if ever he could drop by,” he said.

 

 

“Have you been sleeping, Shiggy?” Tomoe narrowed her eyes and bent down to get a good view of the boy’s troubled face. “Look, I may not know about your whole ‘Midoriya-alternate-universe’ thing-“

 

 

“Nah it’s not about Midoriya. Just a few days ago Spin remembered some things that added more proof that Chikazoku orchestrated the downfall of the PLF, as well as collaborating with Dabi… And now both are conveniently out of school, and Toga too.”

 

 

“Are you saying-“

 

 

“Beros, I don’t know if you really believe me on the entire ‘alternate reality’ thing but… those three? Dabi, Toga, and Chikazoku are definitely up to no good. I don’t care they’re only sixteen, when one of them has the gall to go against a supervillain, and that’s not to be taken lightly.”

 

 

“Intriguing, I must say-“ Tomoe nodded to herself, only halfheartedly taking in what Tomura said. She was about to speak again when the boy suddenly stood up and started walking away. “Hey where are you going?”

 

 

“I’m gonna find out how that narcissistic computer nerd connects to Kizuki’s murder.”

Notes:

It’s kinda strange seeing every villain in the final battle… and then noticing that Toga is the only one with a significant equipment-upgrade. This is my only explanation for that:

Skeptic: Hey Toga!
Toga: Hey Skeptic!
Skeptic: Thanks for killing Curious! Here’s your reward!
Toga: Hooray for no consequences!!!
Skeptic: Also I still have my satellites that I only activated after AFO left the cave! Har har har!

Chapter 33: Suspicion - [Part 3]

Notes:

Useful notes on this chapter:

-> Eleena – Tomura’s nickname for Chitose
-> Tomoe Ishiyumi – Beros’s Japanese codename. Real name will be revealed soon.
-> Backforce – A strange phenomena that rose alongside Quirks that grants Quirked people insane durability. (Basically just this fic’s term for anime durability)
-> Revenant – A mystery person who suspiciously looks like a young AFO with black hair.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Day 45

 

 

Tomura repeatedly knocked on his best friend’s door, making sure to keep the volume down as to not draw attention from the nearby students already lodged inside their respective dorm rooms. The last thing he needs right now are some nosy kids asking them what’s really going on.

 

 

The door eventually opened, revealing Spinner currently holding onto a bag of lightly-salted dried mealworms. “What?” he asked while chewing on a mouthful.

 

 

“Spin, it’s time, we’re gonna find out if the IT Guy really had Kizuki killed.”

 

 

Spinner gestured for his friend to wait a bit and immediately closed the door. Muffled noises akin to that of a person rapidly changing clothes can be heard inside.

 

 

Tomura took a deep breath, and turned his attention to the nearby wall clock, once again taking note of the shorter arm currently pointing at the general direction of 10. He’d wasted so much time in his head thinking about the time Chikazoku was with them, and about his role in the downfall of the PLF/MLA, about him and Dabi collaborating, about his refusal to help with his satellites, and his audacity to go against All for One out of all things...

 

 

And then there’s Toga and her weird story that just won’t make sense no matter how hard they tried to understand it, as well as her mysterious disappearance…

 

 

His thoughts eventually went to the present time. Right now he and Spinner are planning to solve Kizuki’s murder. But how? All possible proofs are all locked in another world. There’s literally no evidence to be found in this alternate reality.

 

 

How are they supposed to solve a murder in an entirely new made-up universe? The only thing that could go in their direction, and possibly aid them in figuring out the mystery, is the accuracy of the so-called ‘representations’. But even then it’s stupid to rely too much on them.

 

 

So how are they going to solve anything?

 

 

“Er… how are we going to solve anything?” Spinner said as he came out from his room, repeating the question already swirling inside Tomura’s mind on and off for some days now. “We’re just gonna talk to her? Just like that?”

 

 

Tomura nodded. The plan is to just go in and ask some questions. No strategy. No tactics. And certainly no Machia and AFO to help them out if ever things go sour.  A quick gesture and the two went on their way.

 

 

After a few moments, they reached Kizuki’s room.

 

 

“I have a plan… sorta…” Spinner muttered as Tomura prepared to knock on the door in front of them. “Ask her all the MLA-related stuff she knows. Maybe about the digital copy of the Meta Liberation War, I guess? Or maybe about Takeyama’s phone. Anything will do, as long as it’s MLA related. Hopefully I can remember something like last time.”

 

 

“Hmmm… makes sense…” Tomura nodded. If the ‘representations’ are right, then Kizuki being hired into the MLA by Takeyama could be a clue. “Okay, all MLA-related questions… here we go-“

 

 

The door opened just before Tomura could knock, revealing the tall blue-skinned girl they’re supposed to meet, peeking out from behind the door. “Uh… I can hear you two from behind the door… what’s going on?”

 

 

“Oh, so you must’ve already known that we’re gonna ask you some MLA-related questions then,” Tomura stepped back, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. “So uh, are you fine being asked with MLA-related questions for the next hour or so?”

 

 

“Is it about the internship?” Chitose asked. “Takeyama said we’re still on-“

 

 

“No no no no.” Tomura shook his head. But before he can continue, Spinner spoke for him.

 

 

“So Shiggy said that Takeyama gave you a phone, is that correct?”

 

 

“Hold on a sec.” Chitose raised a hand and immediately closed the door. After a few seconds, she reopened it again and hurriedly stepped outside, phone in hand, as if she doesn’t want the two to see what’s inside her room. “What is it about the phone? The digital copy of the Meta Liberation War? You want me to give you two a recap? Why?”

 

 

“No not a recap…” Tomura started pacing around, right gloved hand once again going up and beginning to scratch the sides of his neck. He went here without a game plan, and now he’s being bombarded with questions he has absolutely nothing to give for an answer. What to do now? “It’s uh…”

 

 

“Well you see, Kizuki,” Spinner spoke again, taking a few steps back to be able to look directly towards the tall girl without tilting his head too high. “We’re on an investigation mission, and part of that investigation is the digitalized copy of the MLW.”

 

 

“Am I in trouble?”

 

 

“No of course not!” Spinner chuckled to himself as he patted Tomura’s back, stopping his friend from his incessant neck-scratching. “It’s got something to do with the particular book, not the person who’s holding a copy. It’s just about the book, can I see it?”

 

 

Tomura let out a sigh. Part of him is relieved and impressed at Spinner’s ability to keep his cool despite being more scared of Kizuki than he was, and another part of him is embarrassed about his total lack of contribution. He feels like he has to do something, but what can he contribute if he spent more time hibernating inside a vat filled with mysterious liquid instead of actually being with the PLF?

 

 

‘Why the f*** am I always so useless?!’

 

 

“ Hmmm… I don’t see what’s wrong on the cover page…” Spinner’s words snapped Tomura out of his depressive state, and instantly got him curious enough to peek on the phone his friend is holding onto. Based on the sleek design and the semi-angular edges, it’s the same phone Takeyama gave Chitose some weeks ago, just now encased in a neon orange protective cover.

 

 

“I like it, it’s simple and eye-catching-“ Chitose said but was cut off as she saw Tomura discreetly waving towards her.

 

 

“I was wondering, how did you not get traumatized by the Eviscerators we ran from? How are you suddenly fine with that?”

 

 

Blinking twice with a blank expression, Chitose’s lips started making weird shapes as if she can’t find the right words to respond with. “Honestly?” An ungloved right hand went up to lightly ruffle her short lilac hair. “Honestly I can’t remember most of it.”

 

 

‘Giran’s Mind Wipe…’ Tomura immediately thought.

 

 

“Memory’s quite fragmented- Yes that’s it! Fragmented!” The tall blue-skinned girl ended with a small clap. “It’s like chunks are cut off. I dunno if that’s a good or a bad thing but hey at least I’m still alive I guess?”

 

 

“Nah you’re fine. Good to see you’re still kicking!” Tomura responded with a smile, briefly glancing over to Spinner still staring at the cover art for this universe’s MLW book. His thoughts then immediately went back to Kizuki’s protests against Mind Wipe, with her specifically saying she doesn’t want any of it since the incident could happen and again and she would like to have full knowledge of it.

 

 

But how did she-

 

 

He suddenly remembered Beros saying she’s the one who got people to cover up the USJ crater. Since she’s also the one who took a very tired Kizuki to the clinic some days ago, then she’s also the one who probably requested a Mind Wipe against Kizuki’s wishes to keep her mental health stable. While Tomura thought it’s nice of her to do it but how come she still lied to him about not knowing about Kizuki’s mental state just some days ago?

 

 

Well at least she made sure Giran kept some memories intact so Chitose would have some knowledge of the event.

 

 

‘How does Giran’s Mind Wipe Quirk work again…?’

 

 

Tomura shook his head. He never really cared about the information broker back in the real world to actually get to know his Quirk, but at least Mr. Principal Okuta did a splendid job at picking off enough memories but not completely removing everything.

 

 

“I can’t find anything strange on the cover, this looks exactly like the real-world book except the colors,” Spinner suddenly spoke, clawed fingers pointing towards the yellow middle part of the cover. “This one should be red, and the black-and-white pattern at the sides should just be black.”

 

 

“Are you saying Ms. Takeyama gave me the wrong digital copy?” Chitose asked, walking over to stand behind Spinner. “Highly unlikely.”

 

 

“No, it’s just some differences from the real world. Hey Shig, you sure you never seen an MLW book before?”

 

 

Tomura shook his head and shrugged. “Nope.”

 

 

Spinner proceeded to swipe the screen of the phone, minding his claws as to not accidentally scratch it. “I haven’t really read the entire thing as much as they wanted us to but… I can’t really find anything strange on these, what’s in this particular chapter anyway?”

 

 

“You’re on…” Kizuki leaned down to check the specific page Spinner’s currently on, and went back up again. “Page 24, the main protagonist is still in the middle of questioning why regular civilians cannot freely use their Quirks. Pay no mind to it, he’s gonna repeat that lots of times in the story.”

 

 

“Did you just say ‘Main Protagonist’ in an autobiography?”

 

 

“What? It’s an autobiography, you can tell at some points that the guy’s hyping himself up. Look at chapter 12 for example where he said he has this limited edition-“

 

 

“Are you going to write a report on this book? You seem to memorize a lotta points.”

 

 

Chitose paused for a bit, staring at the screen of the phone for a while before answering back. “Er… no? I just know a couple of things, that’s all. I’m not a savant.”

 

 

“The heck does savant mean anyway?” Spinner chuckled to himself, half-wondering if he accidentally offended the girl by dismissing what she said.

 

 

Meanwhile Tomura just stayed silent. He turned his head once to the direction of the still-empty Toga’s room, and then back again to the screen of the phone Spinner’s holding, seeing nothing but paragraphs after paragraphs of text, and not a single image in sight.

 

 

Spinner swiped the screen of the phone a few more times before giving up and just using the shortcut scroll feature to skip to the middle of the digital book, where there’s once again tons of paragraphs. But there’s one thing that stood out to him as he squinted his eyes on the middle of the page. “Destro is actually called Iron Fist here, kinda badass-sounding don’t you think?” he said, turning around so the two can get a better view.

 

 

“Destro?” both Tomura and Chitose asked in unison.

 

 

“Yeah, Detnerat Man Re-Destro soooo wanted to continue his Dad’s legacy. Words of Destro this, words of Destro that, every room back at the PLF mansion had Destro written all over it.” Spinner immediately skipped again at the end of the page, carefully reading the closing remarks of the book. He was about to hand it back when he noticed something at the bottom-most section of the page.

 

 

Shoowaysha Publishing.

 

 

Spinner’s eyes widened as he stared down the words, his jaw slowly hanging agape. “Waaaaait a minute…” the lizard-person muttered to himself, gradually swiveling his upper torso to face his friend, who’s also wide-eyed and curious as to what he saw.

 

 

“See something?” Tomura asked, repeatedly glancing over to the phone his friend’s currently holding onto.

 

 

Yet Spinner, still in shock, didn’t answer. Instead, he continued turning until he faced Chitose behind him.

 

 

“You’re not being mind-controlled, are you-“ Chitose asked, but was interrupted by Tomura saying Spinner normally does what he’s doing when he discovers something.

 

 

“Stay still, would ya?” Spinner said to Chitose before immediately backing off a few steps, phone still in hand. “Shiggy, move outta the way a bit?”

 

 

Now with the tall girl standing in front and Tomura away from his vision, Spinner slowly pulled up the phone, aligning it right above Chitose’s head before mentally connecting the girl’s appearance with the word ‘Shoowaysha Publishing’.

 

 

The dark eyes, the parted hair… and then it all clicked.

 

 

“What is it, Spin-“ Tomura didn’t get to finish as Spinner hurriedly gave back the phone to its original owner, pushed her back into her own room, and then grabbed him by the shoulders and made him run all the way back to the front door of his room.

 

 

“Into the room, now! I figured it out!”

 

 

Tomura quickly opened the door to his room and Spinner hurriedly shoved him inside and locked the door behind him, hands then flailing wildly all over the place and repeatedly chanting ‘I got it!’.

 

 

“We didn’t even have any proof-“

 

 

“I GOT IT! I don’t need more proof!” Spinner paced back and forth in front of the door, clawed reptilian hands repeatedly clasping and unclasping as his lips move on their own. “How could I be so blind? That Shoowaysha word gave it all away!”

 

 

“But we don’t even read mangas-“

 

 

“No! Not the mangas!” Spinner shook his head, pacing slower and slower until he finally calmed himself down. “So here are some details… it’s gonna take a little while and you might want to get yourself comfortable first.”

 

 

Tomura immediately pulled a nearby small wooden chair and sat on it, with the backrest in front of him. “Okay what will it be?”

 

 

Spinner took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay… so one time during my stay at the PLF HQ, I ran out of tissue paper-“

 

 

“Pfft! Seriously?! That’s the story you’re going to start with?” Tomura laughed so hard that he almost fell over. “What does you crapping had to do with Eleena? Did the stench of your own crap give you hallucinations? Did you wipe your ass off with something?”

 

 

“No no no no… this is more about Kizuki and less about me crapping. But I’m gonna start with the crapping story because it’s a VERY important part of the story okay?” Spinner said out loud with a face that looked like he’s holding back his laughter. Almost immediately after calming himself down, he proceeded, “So like I said, I ran out of toilet paper. So naturally, being the genius strategist that I am, I made the most rational decision mankind ever made.”

 

 

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

 

 

“I put my pants back on and went out the restroom! After flushing of course!” Spinner said and paired it with a grand gesture, but before Tomura could fully laugh out loud about it, the lizard-person raised two hands and continued, “Thankfully, since there’s a big meeting going on, the halls are empty. But of course I don’t want to be seen so I climbed up the wall and sneaked around hoping to find something to wipe my ass off.”

 

 

“That’s a very inspirational story you got there, Spin! I can already predict the ending!”

 

 

“Inspirations aside, I eventually got into a dark room, pulled out a bunch of newspapers stacked under a small table and hurriedly went back to the restroom – which is STILL somehow empty! I couldn’t believe my luck that day! And guess what did I see on the freakin’ front cover of the frikkin’ newspaper?”

 

 

“The IT Guy admitting his crimes?”

 

 

Spinner shook his head. “Little Miss Executive Director Chitose Kizuki of Shoowaysha Publishing, said to be found dead at Deika. The reason why I didn’t recognize her until now is that the newspaper’s printed in black and white. She’s also a lot older and with longer hair. And in case you’re wondering, yeah, I did wipe my-”

 

 

“Wait…” Tomura’s smile was immediately wiped off, before getting replaced with a blank expression that persisted for a whole minute of silence. “Kizuki’s a Shoowaysha Publishing Executive…? What…?”

 

 

“It’s the same company that handled all the publishing and distribution of the Meta Liberation War book. Kizuki’s part of that-“

 

 

“Wait! You said there’s a newspaper of her!” Tomura suddenly stood up, knocking down the chair he’s sitting on with considerable force. “That can’t be right! If that’s distributed, then the heroes would start snooping in on why the publisher of such a controversial book is suddenly found dead!”

 

 

“You make a good point…” Spinner’s voice trailed off as he started pacing around again. “I’m guessing that the newspapers were indeed made but were never distributed. Can’t have the heroes snooping in and finding out. But that raises another question, why are the newspapers even made in the first place?”

 

 

“A better question would be, who made those newspapers in the first place?”

 

 

Spinner suddenly stopped pacing, face quickly going blank. He then turned his head towards Tomura and spoke in a bored-yet-frustrated manner. “Chikazoku made those papers…”

 

 

“EVERYTHING’s just gotta be the IT Guy eh?” Tomura shook his head with growing intensity mirroring his frustration. “So I guess he just made them to show them off to Detnerat Long-nose and then deliberately not distribute them? But if he wanted to the mansion to be attacked, wouldn’t that mean he should’ve distributed them earlier?”

 

 

Spinner nodded. “Maybe he wanted some things to be ready first? A backstabber’s gotta be sure everything’s in working order, right? But enough about that for now, there’s more to the story...” Spinner took a deep breath before continuing, “so I said it was Kizuki who’s the publisher, right-?”

 

 

“She’s publishing the damn books! Why did no one react when she died? No funeral! No mention! No memorabilia or anything? Isn’t the publisher the second most important person in a cult that puts heavy emphasis on books???” Tomura exclaimed, ruffling his hair as he paced around in utter confusion. “Nothing at all?! Seriously?! Us stomping over them is one thing, but the publisher dying and then not a single soul reacting at all?”

 

 

“Nothing at all. Kizuki gets no mention nor anything. And guess what? Based on what I could observe back then at HQ, the books are now just being given away for free, with Hawks acting as a one-man delivery boy. It’s like they don’t even care about their publisher’s existence in the first place.”

 

 

“But wait, did Hawks notice Kizuki’s disappearance? The spy should’ve noticed something, right?”

 

 

“Nope.”

 

 

“Holy crap! The IT Guy has to do something with it! He’s the one managing Hawks!” Tomura said out loud as he began pacing around in his room faster, one hand once again going up to his neck and scratching. “Nothing is making sense! And about Toga?”

 

 

“No one ever rebelled against her. NO ONE. We were made as lieutenants and a huge party is thrown after that! You do remember that, right?” Spinner said out loud as well, one hand now also scratching his neck involuntarily. “Not a single backstab, nothing! The ENTIRE army’s fine with it! And about all those people you disintegrated? Nothing about them too! A lot of people died and they’re THROWING A F***ING PARTY LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED!”

 

 

“Aaargh! I don’t understand anything! AFO’s Dumb-Down spell is gone, they shouldn’t be acting like that!” Tomura shook his head, swirling with thoughts that barely connect to each other.  “The events are getting more and more stupider the more we think about it. The casual handing over of the army, the huge party, Kizuki somehow dying with fall damage and getting forgotten 2 seconds later… what’s next, the PLF mansion HQ’s electricity is being powered by a rotating cat with butter taped on its back? Or is the moon made out of cheese-?”

 

 

Spinner raised both hands up, instantly stopping his friend from continuing. “Okay, here’s what I suggest we do. We pile up all our ideas and let’s see how many points we can line up.”

 

 

“Hmm that’s not a bad idea…” Tomura’s voice trailed off as he sat down the floor and gestured for Spinner to come close. “We know that IT Guy is a backstabber, let’s see how much we can connect to him…”

 

 

 

 

The two then compiled ideas over the next thirty minutes or so, connecting points with a random detail they could come up with that’s still plausible in the long run. As the ideas get longer, they had to get something to jot down everything. The final product, while convoluted, made enough sense for the most part:

  • Tomoyasu Chikazoku, AKA Skeptic, wanted the MLA army for his own.
  • The League won at Deika, not only because they’re being provided aid by AFO, but also because the MLA troops called in to fight are significantly weaker. This is confirmed upon comparing the power level of troops during the mansion raid and to the Deika City massacre. Skeptic may have a hand at this seeing he’s the one who manages almost everything at the PLF HQ.
  • Chikazoku planned Kizuki’s murder because being a publishing executive, she has natural connections to the outside world, and he wanted the entire army to be in the dark of what’s happening outside. Taking out Kizuki also has the added benefit of recruitment going to a halt, preventing possible new recruits from telling them about the outside situation.
  • Hawks, despite being an MLA spy, is not present during Deika, nor other heroes were called in. This could be attributed by Skeptic’s ability to jam phone signals. About Hawks being the one-man distribution team, he somehow didn’t get a single new recruit (Which could be attributed with Skeptic managing him).
  • After the battle. Skeptic, alone, then started to create fake cover-ups with no help from the MLA to further his plans. He made fake news to show to the group that he’s doing all the cover-ups just fine, but in reality he made newspapers with headlines designed to get heroes suspicious enough to start preparing for a large-scale battle (But not too blunt that would force them to make a pre-emptive attack).
  • He then shut off all satellites so the entire PLF won’t see what the heroes are all doing. His goal is to have the heroes storm the mansion and beat the Re-Destro-aligned troops and other high-ranking leaders so only those loyal to him will remain as he escapes on Machia’s back.
  • He spent the next weeks organizing the take-over.
  • (Alternate Theory): Kizuki is killed because she’s too powerful. Geten is spared because there’s not a single reliable water source in the mansion to use and he’s rendered almost powerless anyways.
  • Seeing Twice’s ability to overwhelm anything as a threat, Skeptic planned for his assassination as well, locking him in a room before the heroes attack, and then getting Dabi to take him out alongside Hawks.
  • Chikazoku then deliberately hid his satellites in the aftermath of the war (Oftentimes saying they malfunctioned), forcing AFO to use human spies instead. This could be tied to his next plan to take out AFO.

 

 

Tomura picked up the paper and inspected the contents they wrote. “There’s so many things still not making sense… Like what’s with him and Dabi? Or Toga for that matter?”

 

 

“I’m afraid but that’s literally all we know,” Spinner replied, scratching his head. “What other ideas do you have?”

 

 

“How is Kizuki instantly forgotten? Not to mention died from splattering as well as her troops? How th f*** did that happen-“

 

 

‘Reconstructured beings are not affected by Backforce. These things are not human.’

 

 

The words of Kizuki herself suddenly crossed his mind. He remembered how the girl easily splattered Eviscerators with her explosives just some time ago.

 

 

‘If I can splatter them then they’re not human, okay?!’

 

 

“Reconstructured beings are not affected by Backforce…” Tomura suddenly muttered, lowering the piece of paper containing all the theories they have that Chikazoku is the real enemy. “You can splatter non-humans because they’re not affected by Backforce…”

 

 

“What…?” Spinner asked, taking the paper to look at the contents himself. “Backforce what?”

 

 

“What if Kizuki is not human, that’s why she can be splattered?”

 

 

“But that doesn’t answer the question why her entire regiment went splat too.”

 

 

“Oh, I forgot about them,” Tomura said as he immediately snatched the paper from Spinner’s hands and stood up. “C’mon, we’re gonna go ask some questions to Kizuki. If she’s portrayed in this universe as part of the MLA group, then that means we’re right and that she’s really a part of them, and we could have answers to the next part of the puzzle.”

 

 

“And what’s that?”

 

 

“What’s Chikazoku’s Quirk.”

 

 

Spinner raised an eyebrow and quickly turned to look at the clock behind them. “Shig, clock’s almost midnight. Kizuki’s probably asleep now.”

 

 

Tomura instantly stopped. What Spinner said made sense. But he really wanted to solve the mystery now. “Maybe we can wake her up!”

 

 

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Well to be fair I’m pretty tired too.” Spinner slowly stood up and stretched his back. “But look on the bright side, we’re already halfway-Heck You could say we’re almost done! We now know who’s the real enemy!” The lizard-person stretched his arms once again and walked to the door and unlocked it. “We’re gonna figure that out first thing in the morning tomorrow. I’m getting some shut-eye now.”

 

 

Tomura just watched in silence as his friend closed the door, leaving him alone in his room. Pulling up the paper, he stared at the points they made and analyzed every single line. While it made sense in the big picture, he’s still not sure if this is really the real story; it doesn’t have anything to do with Dabi, so how did he make that obnoxious fire-user help him?

 

 

“So many questions…” Tomura muttered to himself, hearing the door to Spinner’s room close. Pacing around some more, he eventually settled to look outside of his window and feel the fresh evening air. It’s been weeks ever since the Eviscerator incident and Toga’s disappearance, but so far there’s no development on those.

 

 

But in the back of his mind: Chikazoku, Dabi, and now Toga suddenly disappearing are not just mere coincidences. There has to be more-

 

 

He suddenly spotted Beros wandering outside their dorm area. Maybe she can answer if ever a person could lose all Backforce and splatter if hit with sufficient force! Brilliant!

 

 

Hurriedly leaving his room again, he ran past the entire length of the dormitory, but eventually slowed down as he neared Kizuki’s room. Despite the night being late, there’s still light shining through the door rims.

 

 

‘Could she still be awake?’ Tomura thought to himself, slowly stepping closer and closer. Carefully pressing an ear to the door, he listened carefully.

 

 

He can hear upbeat music inside, which he eventually recognized as one of the recently released pop songs just this month, made by no other than that earphone-jack woman herself. The lyrics are muffled from within the room but he would be lying if he said the tune isn’t catchy. As annoying as the earphone jack girl is for him (like the entirety of Class A and heroes in general), she does make make pretty good music. In fact all of her recent releases have all been absolute bangers, and are instant hits for the general populace.

 

 

While he’s wondering if Jiro is a villain masquerading as a music artist, he suddenly heard Chitose humming to the tune. She doesn’t sound like she’s tired at all.

 

 

Maybe it’s okay to ask her some questions now?

 

 

Tomura took one last look at the paper he’s holding onto, before shoving it into one of his available pockets. But before he could knock, he suddenly heard Chitose’s voice from within the room.

 

 

“Oh hey you called!” the girl’s excited-sounding voice could be heard throughout the silence of the halls, followed by the sound of a chair being shoved out of the way as if she suddenly stood up. “So I was uh-what? Oh okay want me to just send them to you? I’ve been working on this thing for about 3 hours now…”

 

 

Tomura wanted to hear more of it but something tells him he should back off the door and respect the girl’s privacy. But no matter how much distance he stepped away from the door, the girl’s excited voice could still be heard, but at least it’s better than snooping in and listening to everything.

 

 

He wondered a bit if it’s Takeyama. But why would she call this late in the evening? Shaking of the thoughts, he waited until everything went silent again before walking in and knocking on the door.

 

 

Once again, just like earlier, it took a few seconds before the door opened slightly, with the tall girl peeking outside. “Shigaraki?” she asked upon seeing him. “What are you doing here?”

 

 

“Oh hey uh…” Tomura took a step back. “You okay if I ask a few questions? There’s something really important I need to know and I was -uuhhh- wondering if you’re available right now. Also you’re talking so loud a few minutes ago and I can hear you from across the halls.”

 

 

Chitose stared at him blankly, lips slowly pursing and a visible red tint forming on her blue cheeks, before quickly stepping out the room and closing the door behind her, acting like she’s caught red-handed on something. “Er… what is it?”

 

 

“Can people go splat?” Tomura asked with a straight face, ignoring the girl still looking all flustered. “It’s for uh… it’s for an online essay I’m doing.”

 

 

“Why are you doing an online essay at 11:30 in the evening?”

 

 

“I’m Gas Kid. I do stuff no one can understand.”

 

 

“Okaaayyy…” Chitose slowly walked away from the doorway to her room, her blush slowly fading. “People splatting? As in splat? Splattering?”

 

 

“I’m talking limbs flying everywhere. Blood painting the walls. Tomato paste type of splat from falling from a high place.”

 

 

“You’re sounding like Chikazoku right now-“

 

 

“Chikaz- Wait what…?” Tomura immediately blurted out, taking a step back in complete shock. “What are you talking about?”

 

 

Chitose shrugged. “After the Sports Festival, Chikazoku talked to me some things about Quirk Strength, Grand Commanders being cowards, and a stupid worthless publisher with pathetic explosions. There’s also something about tomato paste splatting and something-something about nothing happening until he stepped in or whatever.”

 

 

“Dear God…” Tomura took another step back, one gloved hand quickly grabbing back the folded paper he stuffed in one of his pockets. “Grand Commanders? Publishers with pathetic explosions? Tomato paste? Holy crap… he j-j-just admitted it…” he said, wide-open eyes locking onto the list of notes they made just earlier. “Chikazoku did it… I dunno how he did it… but he did it… I managed to ‘solve’ it without any tangible proof…”

 

 

“Huh?”

 

 

Tomura immediately lunged towards the girl, both gloved hands landing on both of her shoulders, a huge grin plastered on his face. “WE SOLVED IT! THE NERD DID IT!” He then started shaking Chitose in sheer joy. It doesn’t matter that he’s directly talking to a girl who’s murdered in the real world, at least he did something and he’s not useless-

 

 

‘Murdered in the real world…’

 

 

“Okaaayyy… what’s going on…?” Chitose awkwardly asked as she noticed the boy suddenly freezing in place, the grin rapidly washing away from his face. He then looked up to her as he pulled his gloved hands back. “You’re dead…” he said, his voice trailing off.

 

 

“Huh?”

 

 

“You’re…” Tomura couldn’t continue. Just some days ago he witnessed the insane and potentially-lethal combination of both Landmine and Wasteland, but how is he ever to going to try it in the real world if the owner of Landmine has been long since murdered, with the entire army instantly forgetting her existence? It wouldn’t even surprise him if her remains didn’t even get buried in a grave.

 

 

She did so much for the Liberation Army, only to get forgotten within two seconds of dying. Yes Tomura knew he disintegrated hundreds, and possibly thousands, of other people that day, yet one death that wasn’t even by his own hands resonated louder than the rest.

 

 

Why is that?

 

 

“I’m sorry for what you’ve gone through,” Tomura said, much to the confusion of the girl who merely gave him a raised eyebrow in response. “Must be pretty bad believing you’re part of something for the longest time only to get instantly abandoned and forgotten just like that.”

 

 

“You’re not making any sense-“

 

 

“You know what?” Tomura took a deep breath, gritting his teeth and clenching his hands with rapidly increasing intensity. “Do you know where Chikazoku is? His face needs some rearranging with my fists…”

 

 

“Er… Are you okay, Shigaraki? You’re out here talking about Tomato Paste and solving something and now you’re asking me-“

 

 

“I’m gonna f***ing turn him into f***ing TOMATO PASTE! That f***ing piece of HUMAN GARBAGE backstabbed us, backstabbed his team, had you and Twice killed, and had the f***ing audacity to backstab my DAD!” Tomura said out loud, but not loud enough as to accidentally wake up the others. “He needs to be taught a f***ing lesson! That f***ing PRICK!”

 

 

“Woah! Calm down! You’ll wake everyone!”

 

 

Tomura, despite his vision already at the brink of turning black in rage and thoughts filled with all sorts of things he’d do to Chikazoku if ever he caught him, tried his best to calm down. Taking multiple deep breaths, he managed to do so within a minute.

 

 

So it was the IT Guy Chikazoku… And Dabi… and Toga… they’re all part of the same backstabbing team… He’ll get them… He’ll get them eventually… And they will all pay…

 

 

“Okay… okay… “ Tomura sighed before he started pacing around. “I’m calm now… so about the splat…”

 

 

“This splat thing seemed very important to you, huh?”

 

 

Tomura was about to respond but can’t spit out the words at the very last minute. Instead, he merely raised a hand at the girl. But before he could turn and walk away, he remembered something. “What’s Chikazoku’s Quirk?”

 

 

Chitose raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. “I thought you already had your Quirks discussed in front of the class some weeks ago?”

 

 

“No no no no. I wasn’t listening. So what does he do? He’s with us for the longest time and I never knew what he can do. I bet he’s hiding something very powerful to beat AFO…” Tomura’s voice trailed off as he began walking around in circles.

 

 

“Anthropomorph. He makes golems out of inanimate objects.”

 

 

Tomura suddenly stopped. “Golems huh? Like Mandalay? Or is it Pixie Bob? Who’s the blue catgirl again-Nevermind, so what kind of golems can he make?”

 

 

“Humanlike golems. He controls them… like any other summon-type Quirks out there, why?”

 

 

“In a scale of one to ten, how humanlike are these golems? Can they look like a person?”

 

 

“I’ve seen him make a puppet of me once, didn’t even spend twenty seconds before knocking the entire head off-“

 

 

“The f***?! How deranged could that guy be? He makes me look like a good guy- Wait WHAT?!” Tomura suddenly stopped, remembering about reconstructured beings, Backforce, and splattering. “I think I kind of figured it out…” he said as he began walking around once again, whispering to himself, “he killed you before, and made a puppet-“

 

 

“His golems don’t speak at all by the way,” Chitose suddenly spoke, leaning on the door to her room, gloved hands behind her. “I don’t know if it’s gonna help but…”

 

 

“Don’t speak?” Tomura stopped to look at her, his face instantly in utter confusion. According to Toga’s story, Kizuki went on and on and on about the knife nut’s backstory and how she lived prior to meeting the League. While Chikazoku’s golems can definitely splatter on impact (being reconstructured beings and all), they can’t speak – which immediately punctures a hole in his theory. “Well that changes things… so any idea where he is?”

 

 

“What for?”

 

 

“Eleena, I’m not kidding when I say I want to cave his f***ing face in.”

 

 

Chitose’s face turned from mere amusement into a blank expression. She pulled both of her gloved hands from behind her and clasped them in front. “Caving faces eh?” she said as she brought one hand to stroke the bottom of her chin, her face contorting further into what he could only describe as a villainous smug grin.

 

 

And at that point, Tomura could definitely say she does look like a villain. The face she pulled made the most intimidating villains he’d ever seen look harmless. He would be lying if he said it didn’t scare him one bit, and if he would compare it to he simple-yet-highly-intimidating smile of AFO, she’s easily a close second. “Do you know where he is-“

 

 

Chitose raised a hand on his face and immediately stepped one step to her right before turning around and facing the wall behind her. “Don’t tell him I told you where he is, yeah?”

 

 

“Of course not, why would I do that?” Tomura shrugged, cracking his knuckles afterwards. “Besides how can I even tell him you’re the one who told me when there’ll be nothing left of his stupid face.”

 

 

He was about to continue more when he noticed Chitose just staring at the wall, face still stuck with that almost-inhuman grin she had even before she turned around.

 

 

 “Uh… are you trying to copy Revenant on the wall-staring thing?”

 

 

“R- Of course not!” Chitose immediately replied, and muttered something more which Tomura couldn’t decipher. “Wait… okay I can see the paper now. I never knew it’s gonna end like this but hey! At least I managed to help.”

 

 

 “What are you doing?”

 

 

“After the Sports Festival,” Chitose spoke, still staring at the wall, “I gave a folder’s contents of papers detailing all hero patrol routes around UA to Chikazoku, but of course I primed it with an explosive first because why the heck not?”

 

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tomura took one glance at the wall the tall girl is staring at, but couldn’t find anything unusual on it.

 

 

“I can see it… right there. Placed on some uneven surface that’s making me want to straighten it…” Chitose finished her sentence with a sinister chuckle, one gloved finger repeatedly tapping the wall in front of her.

 

 

“How the heck are you even seeing it?”

 

 

“My Quirk allows me to turn anything into remote mines of some sort, and I can see them from great distances through solid obstacles. I haven’t found the range limit yet.”

 

 

“Woah, you’re definitely overpowered. I can see why the IT Guy really wanted to get you out of the picture as soon as possible,” Tomura said, nodding while placing his hands on his hips. “By the way, with all these Eviscerators up and about, are you still thinking about the internship?”

 

 

“Of course! Why not? I don’t think Eviscerators can swim anyway, not with their blade arms no. Plus do you really think Takeyama would just leave us undefended? She personally picked me after winning the Festival, I’m pretty sure that’s enough proof that she won’t let anything happen to us.”

 

 

“Let’s hope you’re right, make sure to tell me when it’s starting, okay?” Tomura stepped back a bit and yawned. “Well I guess it’s pretty late, see ya tomorrow then?”

 

 

Chitose was about to respond when Tomura immediately turned towards the direction of his room, and muttering another, “see ya tomorrow,” before proceeding to walk away.

 

 

He had a long day, filled with confusions and unanswered questions.

 

 

But at least he finally figured something out.

 

 

Everything is Chikazoku’s fault.

 

 

 

 

 

 

But how did Kizuki splatter in the first place...?

Notes:

Kizuki may be standing behind Trumpet during the initial stages of the Revival Party, but Tomura’s dead-tired and delirious at that time and Spinner simply didn’t care… So I just made the two completely forget about her existence there.
...
And yes. I f***ing love putting random f***ing asterisks on my f***ing swear words!