"Welcome, senior agent Stormshadow."
Tokoyami Raito dismissively waved at the guard as he proceeded into the depths of Tartarus, where the worst villains and criminals within superhuman society were imprisoned. He barely gave the bleak, white-painted metal walls or the quiet musings of the prisoners any heed; he had been in here more times than he could count. He had interrogated many villains over the years, directly leading to the acquisition of intelligence that would then go towards operations that degrade the capabilities of groups like the Creature Rejection Clan and the Meta Liberation Army. Raito held a special hatred for the Creature Rejection Clan, of course, being a heteromorph himself, and had personally participated in many fights against them. Unfortunately, he could feel his back aching nowadays, so he didn't go to the field anymore. Usually.
"How is the latest prisoner doing?" Raito asked as two guards escorted him inside. The walls were all extremely white and bland, lacking any kind of variety that might spark any activity in one's neurons.
"Surprisingly well," came the reply. "But that's just Stain for you."
"Mhm."
"Right this way." Raito was led to what might just be another cell in Tartarus; a steel door, reinforced with regenerative nanotechnology and electronic locks. Sitting in there, however, was the erstwhile Hero Killer, Stain. Or, if one were to go with his real name, Chizome Akaguro.
Raito hated Stain. Dark Aura was already stirring within him, wishing to come out and engulf the interrogation room with shadows to chew at the Hero Killer's mind.
The HPSC agent entered the cell. A partition made out of electromagnetic shielding was already in-place inside, ensuring that Stain wouldn't be able to try to attack him. The Hero Killer, who had been reading a book on his boring bed with boring white sheets, turned to look at Raito with undisguised disgust.
"Ah, an interrogator. No doubt the false heroes sent you," Stain said with no small measure of disdain.
"I am the one that will ask the questions here," Raito looked at Stain with equal amounts of animosity, though his voice was unemotional and cold. He grabbed the nearby chair and dragged it along the metal floor with a horrible screeching, though Stain didn't appear to be disturbed by it. "I must say… you're one deranged lunatic, and that's saying something when the cannibal Moonfish is in the cell next to yours. What exactly drove you to kill all those heroes?"
"None of them were heroes," Stain spat, literally. "They were all selfish fakes, only claiming to be heroes for the recognition and the fulfilment of their greed."
"Uh huh," Raito nodded, scribbling on his notebook as he recorded what Stain just said. "Care to elaborate?"
"A real hero must be truly selfless, never working for money, protecting the innocent- why are you laughing?"
"Ahahahaha…" Raito rubbed at his eyes as Dark Aura began to crawl its way out of his body. The nearby shadows in the corners of the room began to extend like tendrils, exerting a small but increasing pressure on Stain's mind. "I'm sorry, that is just… ahahahaha… are you serious?"
"I am serious. You dare think that I'm not?" Stain warily eyed the shadows in the room as they began to writhe and churn. "The heroes of this day and age are greedy…"
"Oh yes, I'll give you that, some of them can be real bastards! Yoroi Musha for one is obviously just in it for the fame, but he at least still does work that benefits people." Raito threw up his hands. "But really? Heroes aren't allowed to get financially compensated for heroism?"
"If they're real heroes they'll turn money down. If they take money, they are corrupt fakes."
"AHAHAHAHA! You're actually serious!" Raito nearly choked as he laughed at Stain, who was getting more and more annoyed at him with every second. "You're saying that heroes should just volunteer their services full time?! Pray tell, how are heroes supposed to pay their rent without getting paid? How will they eat? This is not a damn charity. Heroes aren't the… Dominican monks, or whatever, and monasteries still get donations and business income." He pulled out a sandwich from within his coat and began eating it. "Did you know that the purple root jam that's in this sandwich is made and sold by nuns in the Philippines so that they can maintain their convent?" Raito took another bite, as if to taunt Stain with the fact that he has food and the latter did not. "I got a whole box of jars a month back when my wife went there as a tourist for a bit. Said the people were hospitable and nice. Though their Senate has to guard against getting eaten by a crocodile again."
Raito narrowed his eyes at Stain as he took another bite. No response. "People in UNICEF and the Red Cross also get paid. People in the JDSF and emergency services get paid. The police get paid. But heroes shouldn't get paid… because, what, they have costumes? Strip away the quirk use and the costumes and the marketing… and what you have is basically a police officer, except that they let the actual police do the arrests."
Stain didn't seem to have an answer to that. He remained silent. Perhaps he didn't think about that one.
"You murdered 33 people that just did their jobs," Raito continued. "Because you think heroes shouldn't get paid. You killed Ingenium, one of the nicest people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing, and the brother of my son's classmate. Did you know he donated half his total income to charity? You don't, because he never bragged about it, it's just something that you find out when you track where his bank assets go." The HPSC agent let out a tired sigh, like he was disappointed that he even went to this place to begin with. "But then, that is to be expected. A serial killer like you is either batshit insane or just a total moron. Now…"
Raito swallowed the last pieces of the sandwich and stood up from the chair, which made a terrible screeching noise as it pushed backward on the metal floor. Dark Aura intensified tenfold, making Stain visibly stressed by the tendrils of darkness now touching his body. "Did you ever have contact with any villainous organizations like the Meta Liberation Army, the League of Villains, the Salem Seven, or the Creature Rejection Clan?"
"I will… never tell you… anything…!"
"Wrong answer!" One of the shadow tendrils shot downward, pinning Stain against the floor. The Hero Killer only grunted, but that combined with the mental pressure that Dark Aura exerted was painful. "Again! Did you ever have contact with any villainous organizations like the Meta Liberation Army, the League of Villains, the Salem Seven, or the Creature Rejection Clan?"
"The… League of Villains…" Stain croaked.
"Oh? Please do continue." The shadow tendril lifted from Stain's back, allowing him to breathe normally again.
"They proposed an alliance. Our.. goals… were fundamentally opposed. They wished to kill All Might. All Might is the only hero that is allowed to kill me."
"Oh, now you admire a hero?" Raito narrowed his eyes at Stain. "What's different about All Might?"
"He is a true selfless hero."
"But all his merchandise, the best-selling merchandise not just in Japan, but in America and the entire collective West would make him one of the richest people on the planet through royalties, yes?"
"..."
"Whatever. Do tell about this meeting with the League of Villains," Raito continued.
"I was met by a recruiter on their behalf. One who called himself Giran. I immediately rejected it upon hearing of their goals. In my mind, they are fools. They have no real purpose. I, however, do."
"Hm, hm, alright…" Raito pocketed his notebook while Dark Aura continued to exert its oppressive pressure on Stain, not letting up for even a second.. "Where did you meet this recruiter?"
"I had just slain the fake hero Germinator when he suddenly appeared behind me," Stain replied. If he had proper eyebrows, then Raito would have twitched them. Must have been Kurogiri warping Giran there.
"Hm, I see," Raito nodded. He then withdrew Dark Aura, letting the shadows in the room's corners recede to their normal state. As Stain panted from his quirk's effects, Raito bent down on one knee, looking at Stain in the eyes. "But, anyway, you'll rot here in Tartarus for what you have done, Stain. Enjoy your 426 cumulative years of life sentences."
As he exited Tartarus, Raito would fish out his phone as it began to ring. There was a cellular dead zone around Tartarus, so anyone trying to call him would only reach him once he had crossed the bridge that separated Tartarus from the mainland. "Oh, hi, Keigo!" Raito greeted in a happy tone. "I trust that Fumikage is doing well under your tutelage?"
"He's trying his best to keep up," Hawks looked behind him, where Fumikage was running with Dark Shadow's help. The sentient quirk had wrapped around Fumikage's body like a suit of powered armor, allowing the two of them to work together as one. He didn't get tired as fast as before while trying to keep up with Hawks, since Dark Shadow was doing half of the movement. "Well, emphasis on his best… hey, Tokoyami!" Hawks called out to Fumikage, who was beginning to get winded by all the running. "It's lunchtime, let's take a break!"
A distant and tired voice replied with a "Yes, Hawks." "See? He's doing his best! He'll be fine with me, Pops."
"Please don't call me that," Raito shook his head as he got in his car and started the engine. "I know that I basically watched you grow up since you were ten, but… it's just weird."
"Sure, but you were my nicest handler ever. All the others though… eh! So harsh!" Out of all the handlers he had in the HPSC, Tokoyami Raito was easily the one that he liked the most; probably the only one he liked, really. While everyone else told him to forget his old name, Raito still called him Keigo when they were speaking in private. Even now, that habit never broke. He didn't call him Keigo Takami, though; Hawks would rather forget that he was ever connected to his abusive biological father.
"Yes, as I've been saying for years, I don't like aliases when it comes to addressing people I know."
"Whatever you say, Pops."
"For… heaven's sake… ugh, fine, I know I can't stop you, Mr. Number Three Hero. Take good care of him, alright?"
"Yeah, you can count on me. I'll be going now. Pops."
"Stop call-" Raito looked down at his phone and saw that the call had been put down. Raito groaned as he put the phone back in his pocket. "Pops… seriously Keigo… you never change."
Hawks is a strange man.
That is what Fumikage could glean from the past three days that he had spent under Hawks' tutelage. He was a fun guy, for sure, happily bantering and joking with his sidekicks and Fumikage (though he found most of the jokes not really funny… but Dark Shadow laughed at them), but keeping up with him was impossible. While the interns were not really supposed to get into any action against villains just yet, as they were just shadowing the pro heroes, Fumikage would infinitely prefer actually seeing how takedowns happened as opposed to just seeing the aftermath. Hawks' sidekicks were usually relegated to tying up villains and petty criminals while Hawks blasted off to stop yet another crime.
There was also the previous day when Fumikage came face-to-face with the reality of bureaucracy. Because of the nomadic nature of Hawks' agency, all their records were digital, with paper copies only being produced whenever they settled into a place for more than a week. So, Fumikage and Dark Shadow were, much to their collective chagrin, stuck copying incident reports from the digital records to Microsoft Word 2250 so that they could be printed out to be later kept in a file cabinet in the HPSC HQ. The accursed Microsoft Tool, however, kept messing up the format of the reports once they were copied and pasted. The problem got even worse when pictures were included, which were in most of them.
Fumikage now understood why Aizawa-sensei railed against bureaucracy and paperwork during the day of the Quirk Assessment Test. If this is what heroes have to deal with every day, he wonders why no one has gone insane yet.
To compound that sordid affair even further, there had been a long backlog of records that hadn't been turned to paper yet, so there… was… just… a lot to copy and sort and fix.
Today, however, was going to be a little different.
"Today, we'll be going through close combat," Hawks idly said as he led Fumikage to a closed-off section of the covered court that the Hawks Agency (also known as the Flock) had co-opted for the week. "You could have won back at the Sports Festival, you know, if you just knew how to beat people up at close range."
"That is… a concerning choice of words…" Fumikage said though Dark Shadow was all for it.
"Hah! Lighten up. Unfortunately, I don't like using my delicate fists. I'm a sword kind of guy," Hawks pulled out one of his larger flight feathers, which sharpened itself to a crimson blade as he held it in his hand. "And you?"
"I… do like swords as well," Fumikage replied, remembering how he received a Buster sword for a birthday present last year. He paused for a few seconds. "Dark Shadow says he also likes swords."
"Great!" Hawks handed the feather sword and pulled out another one. "Ever gone into martial arts classes? Anything?"
"...no."
"Well, there's a first time for everything," Hawks squatted and prepared a combat stance. "Now, copy what I'm doing… footwork and stance are really important before you even start swinging."
Fumikage squatted too and held the astonishingly light feather sword over his head. Before he knew it, he was copying Obi-Wan Kenobi's stance, mostly, anyway. "Like this?"
Hawks chuckled and walked over to Fumikage. "You're squatting too much… here, this is how you do it…"
As the day began to come to a close, Fumikage exited the covered court. He was still winded from the… what was it, four hours of sword training with Hawks? He had already showered and changed, rested for thirty minutes and he would be on his way home now.
If not for the fact that Hawks insisted that he, along with Iida and Manual, should get fried chicken together. Fumikage wasn't going to turn down free food… or Dark Shadow would get very upset.
"You know," thirty minutes later, Hawks was chewing on a fried chicken leg, "Sometimes, people call me a cannibal. Because my favorite food is fried chicken."
"But you're a hawk," Fumikage commented, making Hawks turn around to face him. Manual watched with interest at where this conversation was going, while Iida was visibly trying his best to participate in all the talking. "Hawks do eat chickens all the time."
"Clever one, isn't he?" Hawks pointed the half-eaten chicken at him. Manual nodded and let out a chuckle. Iida laughed too.
"It is just the truth…" Fumikage shook his head. "You're a hawk, a predatory bird. I am… a crow?"
"Oh, but crows have black beaks, don't they?" Iida spoke up this time. Fumikage was encouraged that Iida was speaking and participating now. He had been afraid that Iida would stay quiet all the time, thinking about criminals to kick in the head… "And Tokoyami's beak is yellow and curved, so… he's half eagle, half crow."
"Or half hawk," Manual butted in.
"See, this is why your dad told you to go to me," Hawks waved the chicken leg at the slightly embarrassed Fumikage. "We're practically the same-"
"Hi! Hawks!" A group of high school girls approached, giggling and laughing as they did. "We're big fans! Can we have a picture with you?!"
"Yeah, sure," Hawks nodded. The girls were most delighted and grouped up behind Hawks as he held up the phone that they were going to use. Fumikage respectfully moved his chair away so as to not be in the picture in any shape or form. "Say cheese!"
"Cheese! Thank you so much! We love you!"
As the fans left, Fumikage moved his chair back to their table. "It must be difficult being so popular," Manual said, scratching the back of his head. "I mean, they didn't even know who I was…"
"Oh, trust me, it's a pain in the ass," Hawks shrugged. "But I appreciate the love nonetheless. I just wish my fanbase expanded from beyond women aged 16 to 30…"
As the two pro heroes talked, Fumikage turned his attention to Iida, who was sitting opposite him. "Iida. I trust that you are not up to any revelry?"
"Wh-what?"
"That is what you said to me before."
"Of course not, then! How is interning with Hawks?"
Fumikage shrugged. "He has begun to teach me close combat. Before that, I came face-to-face with the greatest demon of all: bureaucracy. Microsoft Word 2250 is, as Dark Shadow is describing it right now, a pile of hot garbage."
"You too? I had to sort papers on my first day."
"At least you didn't have to repeat all your work because the accursed program decided to crash," Fumikage sighed.
"That is such a terrible fate, Tokoyami."
"Either way, it is difficult keeping up with him on patrol, but it is what it is. What about interning with Manual?"
"It is… alright."
"Anything new other than our shared hatred for paperwork?"
Iida seemed to hesitate. "Well…"
That was when Hawks suddenly stood up, knocking over a glass of water. "We've got company."
"What?" Manual stood up too, though he didn't knock his glass over. "Where?"
"Everywhere," Hawks' eyes widened as the feathers he had scattered all around the area fed information back to him. "Nomu…?!"
Katsuki yawned. Best Jeanist was… quite something else to intern under. Even now, his hair was still flat and stylized, which annoyed him to no end. He changed out of his hero costume once it was time to return home; now, he was wearing civilian clothing. "I'm home," Katsuki called out. "Mom? Dad?"
No response. The house was completely dark and quiet, the only sounds being Katsuki's shifting footsteps and the creaking of the front door.
"Tsk… did they go to sleep already?" Katsuki got up the stairs to his room. There was no one. This was unusual. His parents were usually home by this time of the day…
"Hey, Kaachan~"
Kaachan?!
Katsuki wheeled around to see a girl in a high school uniform. She had yellow, cat-like eyes, which dilated under the dim light of Katsuki's desk lamp. She was smiling creepily, baring a pair of wicked fangs. The crazy girl also had a knife in her hand and wore some kind of support item that consisted of a strange mask and syringes with cables.
"Who are you?!" Katsuki let sparks erupt on his hands. "What did you do to them?!"
"They're not here, Kaachan~" The girl licked her lips. "But you are! You are so cute, Kaachan!~ By the way, I'm Himiko Toga, and I want to be your girlfriend!"
"Why are you calling me that?!" Katsuki hissed, all but prepared to send this bitch to hell. "Did that shitty nerd Deku set you up for this?!"
"I don't know who that is," Toga shrugged. "But it doesn't matter! We've kidnapped all your parents, you see! Yours, your classmates, all of them! That way, no one is going to interrupt us, Kaachan!~"
Now that set Katsuki off. No one touches his old hag and old man! "I'll kill you, you crazy bitch, unless you tell me where you sent them!"
"Aww, can't we have fun?!~" Toga's syringes flew up, some of which were filled with fluid. Katsuki didn't care to find out.
"I'll show you fun! DIE!"
"Who is that? Doesn't the green brat only have his mother?"
"I don't know… let's grab her either way."
"Can't I just burn it all?"
"You know what we're supposed to do. Hostages are useless if they're dead."
"I mean just the house."
"AFTER."
Dabi and Magne entered the Midoriya apartment through one of Kurogiri's portals. The objective was simple enough. Tie up Inko Midoriya, grab her, and get to Kurogiri's portal. As they checked each of the rooms, they found Inko in a deep sleep. Tying and hoisting her up was easy enough for Magne. As for the strange white-haired girl…
"I got the weird girl," Magne said as Dabi looked around the apartment. Dabi tilted his head as he gazed upon the pointy-eared girl. She was still sleeping peacefully. Magne didn't even need to put chloroform over her nose.
"Alright," Dabi turned to one of the bedrooms, which was filled with All Might merchandise. "Oh, look at all this! Would be a shame if it all… burned to ash."
"Oh, I like how you think, Dabi."
Dabi and Magne would leave the building on fire, not caring whether the flames spread or consumed more than just the Midoriya apartment.
When Frieren woke up, it was still night. She could track the time with her magic… and she only had 3 hours of sleep so far. That was too little.
That, and she was tied up.
"Oh," the ancient elf muttered as she realized what had happened. She had been kidnapped, tied up, and dragged to a dungeon. How annoying. This had happened three times already, and it was all just a complete irritation to have to deal with being in prison. She looked around, trying to get a sense of what exactly was happening. She would see that there were several other people as well, including Inko. There was also Mitsuki and Masaru, the angry blonde child's parents. Inko was awake now, and by the looks of it, had been for a while now.
"It took you a few minutes to wake up," Inko said as she struggled in her bindings to no avail. "You have to do something!"
"I need to know more about our predicament… and who did this, and why," Frieren replied.
Inko sighed. "This isn't your first time, isn't it?"
"This is the third."
"I expected a lot more."
"Hmm."
"I suppose we should get to know our fellow prisoners before you inevitably break us out," Inko said. She spotted Mitsuku and Masaru, who looked like they had been drugged. There was also a pair of white haired siblings that had been tied up together by rope. Those two were awake, at least. There were about 17 people all in all, though Inko didn't know any of the others. Raito and Kaguya were noticeably absent.
That is when Inko realized that these were all the parents or guardians of Class 1-A.
"Who are you all?" The white-haired woman asked. She then looked at Inko, mostly at her green hair. "Wait, are you… Shoto's classmate's mother?"
"I am," Inko replied. "Are you his…?"
"I'm Fuyumi, his sister. This here is Natsuo, our brother," Fuyumi replied with a sigh. "I was just having a good night's sleep then I suddenly woke up here…"
"I suspect it is the same for all of us," Frieren said, looking up at the ceiling. "Now, I just need to find out why…"
"And I'll tell you why!" A man with a theater mask and a ridiculous formal get-up announced as the heavy metal door. "Greetings! Pardon for the poor accommodation, but we are the League of Villains! Yes, the very same that attacked your children in the USJ! You see, we just want some payback, to get our name in the headlines… and our leader wants us to make an example out of you! How? Well, I won't tell, but it won't be pretty, that's for sure!"
"The heroes will come for us. You will be destroyed," one of the imprisoned parents said.
"They can try," said another man, this time with a severed hand covering his face. "We'll just execute one of you for every hour they don't meet our demands…"
"Which are?"
Frieren wasn't alarmed at all. Oh, she can destroy these morons any time she wanted, but she knew for certain that this idiot with a hand over his face isn't the highest leader. There is no way his man-child self could lead an operation capable of creating a bioengineered monstrosity supposedly able to kill the strongest person in this world.
She needed to know who was behind this operation. She needed to know if there was an equivalent of the demon king here.
"Simple! Your heroic brats are to hand themselves to us, or you die! Countdown starts soon."
With that, Shigaraki Tomura turned around… just to be interrupted when Frieren spoke.
"So, who's your benefactor?"
Shigaraki turned around. "Why, my Sensei, All For One, of course! The greatest villain the world has ever known! Not that you'd know about him. No one even believes he exists. He's the boogeyman… but let me tell you, he is very real. And he will help me destroy this rotten society. "
"Hmm."
The door closed. Everyone stared at Frieren, who turned her gaze to the ceiling and remembered that Raito nor Kaguya were not there. "I wonder how that bird man is doing…"
The Tokoyami home was a rather large place. It had walls laced with barbed wire on top and a particularly enormous white-haired dog guarding the front door. However, Twice would never go as far as to kill a dog, so he had carefully avoided the canine's attention. It took a lot of convincing for the Dabi clone he brought with him not to just go burn that dog because that would set off the fire alarms. As for the Toga clone, she was constantly thinking and talking about 'explosive ass'. As far as they knew, this was going to be pretty easy, too. Tokoyami Raito was just some bureaucrat. Tokoyami Kaguya, meanwhile, was a psychologist.
When the trio finally came upon someone, it was Kaguya, who had been apparently been having cravings for sushi at 10 pm. When she saw the three villains, the little red dragon on her hair immediately flew forward. "OH YOU WANT SOME OF THIS HUH?!" The dragon yelled, only for him to hit Twice in the chest with absolutely no effect.
"Game's over, lady," the Dabi clone smirked. "Come with us now before I burn off some of that perfect skin of yours."
"I'll get some of that blood, too~" the Toga clone chimed in.
Kaguya smiled back as she kept her distance. "Oh no, I don't think you know who you're dealing with."
That was when the ceiling burst open. A shadowy, avian figure dropped on the Dabi clone, biting off his hand. The injury caused the fiery villain copy to melt into the sludge that made up Twice's clones. The Toga clone turned around to try to stab the newcomer, only for her knife to be captured by the man's hand.
His hand, it appeared, was made of metal beneath those gloves. He crushed the knife in his hand before punching the Toga clone in the face, making her stagger back before getting hit by a frying pan in the back of the head by Kaguya, causing her to dissolve into sludge. Twice could only run into a portal that Kurogiri summoned before he could get grabbed by what was apparently a very scary man.
Just some bureaucrat, my ass.
"He'll be fine," Inko replied to Frieren. "I hope Izuku is okay, too…"
"WAKE UP SUNSHINE!" Stars and Stripes banged on Izuku's door as the latter yawned. It was six am. "Come on, we'll get some chow! You like McDonalds?!"
"Coming…" Izuku could barely even move. Standing on a moving jet was… really tiring.
"Oh, he tried to make Shoto use his fire? That's… I don't know how to feel about that. None of us have a great relationship with our father."
"My son wanted to help your brother but then they didn't get matched against each other, so…"
Nearly an hour had passed since the League of Villains had deposited most of the parents, siblings, and guardians of Class 1-A in this dimly lit prison. Inko and Fuyumi had been talking about the ambitions of their son and brother for most of that hour to kill time, while Mitsuki had been loudly cursing and saying what she'd do to the villains once she's free in very graphic, violent phrases. The other parents began to understand why Katsuki talked and screeched the way he did. He obviously got it all from Mitsuki, who raged on and on while Masaru simply watched on with slight concern.
"Frieren," Inko turned towards Frieren with a whisper, who had been staring at the wall for the last hour. "When are you making your move?"
"I'm still thinking about what spell to use…"
"Use any of them!"
"That's the problem… there are so many… can't decide…"
Inko sighed. Frieren could very well get every person out of here, but she had been taking her sweet, sweet time. All because she couldn't decide what spell to use.
"Alright, why not just the ones you taught?"
"People will wonder why we have the exact same attacks…"
Inko nodded at that. It would indeed seem strange if Frieren used "basic magic" here in front of them when Izuku was already known for it. The other parents (and Shoto's siblings) will start wondering why they had same magic circles, the same blue beams, and the same hexagonal shields, and start piecing the puzzle together, or worse… the entire world will. Too many people will start asking too many questions.
"So, got anything in mind?"
Frieren thought about that for a few moments. "I'm thinking of something big. I wish I had the potion that removes clothes and a duplication spell to then use it on these unintelligent villains."
Inko opened her mouth but then shut it. It took a whole twenty seconds to speak again. "A potion that does… what?"
Fumikage had just enough of the Nomu.
Fortunately, these ones were weaker than the one in the USJ, which made sense. These smaller, gray-skinned Nomu would probably be the mass produced models (models, really, Fumi- it is the proper term, Dark Shadow!), built mostly as cannon fodder, as far as you can use bio engineered monsters that can squish most people they come across to a pulp as cannon fodder, anyway. These weren't like the villains that attacked the USJ.
They also looked almost just like the Yao Guai, Dark Shadow mentally reminded Fumikage as he, Iida, and Manual directed the customers of the restaurant to a safe path out of the general area of the chaos. Above them, Hawks dueled a flying, winged Nomu. After holding the Nomu in place midair with several feathers, the Winged Hero sliced off its wings with a single fluid motion of his feather sword. The Nomu fell to the ground like a stone, cracking the concrete as it made its impact.
The Nomu's eyes were looking straight at Fumikage, who couldn't help but look at them. They were blank and devoid of life. The Nomu stank of industrial chemicals and the rot of death, a fetid smell akin to vinegar mixed with decayed meat spreading as a pool of its strange purple blood began to spread underneath its dying body.
"Tokoyami… Is… that… you???" The Nomu said in a slow, low pitched voice. It weakly held out a hand, almost as if a semblance of who it once used to be began to return
"You… know me?" Fumikage looked back at the Nomu in shock. Iida and Manual were shocked, too; Hawks, meanwhile, was too busy chopping up another Nomu with his feather swords to express his thoughts, though given the sheer chaos and mayhem happening all around them, even his feathers might not have picked up the fact that a Nomu was talking to his intern.
"Tell… Midoriya. Am sorry."
"Sorry?" Fumikage asked as the Nomu finally went limp. "Who…"
His eyes went towards the wings that Hawks had chopped off from the Nomu's back. They were leathery, red, and batlike. He finally remembered who this might be. While he hadn't seen any of the old classmates he and Izuku had back in the ancient days, there was only person he knew that had red wings that knew both him and Izuku. He used to accompany Bakugo back then as one of his followers, along with the kid with fingers that could go longer. "Tsubasa…?"
No answer, for the Nomu had truly died. Dark Shadow, enveloped around him as he was, tugged him along. "Nothing we can do, Fumi," Dark Shadow said.
"Right," Fumikage turned around as he heard that Manual and Iida were calling out to him to go with them. "Nothing we can do." He then mentally set that aside.
At the same time, Hawks found himself interrupted in his purging of the Nomu as his phone began to ring. Sure enough, Raito was calling. The man probably saw the news already; something like this would have become breaking within a few minutes at the very least. "Yeah, Pops? I'm kind of busy-"
"WHERE IS HE?! HE'S NOT ANSWERING MY CALLS!"
"Relax, your kid's fine," Hawks glanced downward to see that Fumikage, alongside Iida and Manual, were still going around helping civilians. "He's doing very well if I can say so myself. He's been so helpful! You should be proud."
"If there's a single wound on him I'll pluck out your feathers myself! Understand?!"
"Oh please," Hawks stabbed a Nomu through the neck just as it was about to grab a civilian woman, who bowed in thanks and ran away, "Do you doubt me?"
"No. But also, I must inform you that there was just an attempt to abduct me and my wife," Ratio replied. "I suspect that the League of Villains is targeting the families of Class 1-A."
"...well, what do you expect me to do about," Hawks paused as evaded a gray Nomu's clumsy attack before slicing off half of its exposed brain matter with his feather blade. "That? I'm busy fighting, you see!"
"Nothing, I simply felt compelled to inform you that there was an attempt on us."
"Well, consider me informed, then!" Hawks then directed a dozen feathers to float some civilians to safety before sending a few more to relieve yet another Nomu of its brain. "Can I go now, Pops?"
"You're never going to stop calling me that, are you?"
"Never."
"Just watch my kid, Keigo, and maybe I won't pluck you out."
"What's taking you so long, Frieren?! Mrs. Kouda is crying over there!"
"...who?"
That would be when Shigaraki entered the room again with a clang. Frieren could already see the demented smirk behind the hand covering his face. He had a poor sense of hygiene, that much was obvious. Aside from the fact that the manchild covered himself with the severed hands of dead people, his skin was also parched and cracked at places, hinting at some skin condition that caused dryness. At his side was a well-built man clad in a skintight suit, who was constantly mumbling something about a "scary birdman" that tried to bite his fingers off, much to Shigaraki's thinly veiled annoyance.
Ah. So this is the one that tried to abduct Tokoyami Raito and failed… because Izuku's friend's father tried to bite his fingers off, or something to that effect.
"Any minute now, we'll be showing you as examples of those sheep that follow this rotten society of heroes," Shigaraki said, sounding utterly confident in his victory. He turned his attention towards Inko and Frieren, for the former was the mother of the cheating AP builder user he hated so much, and the latter was just a total mystery. "I think you'll be first. Your brat is probably still busy waking up into the other side of the ocean. I wonder what he'll think when he sees his precious mother turn to ash on live TV… hehehe!"
"So, All For One, this greatest villain of all, what is he like?"
Shigaraki slowly turned his head towards Frieren, who was looking at him with a blank expression. "Why are you asking? It's not like you'll be alive for much longer."
"I suppose that I will be carrying whatever secret you tell me to the grave." If Frieren's shoulder were free enough, she would have shrugged. But then, she could free herself right here and now… it's just that she just wanted to know more about this Sensei, and why he was so important. Maybe this manchild could monologue his whole origin story to her.
Shigaraki looked at her like she was the bigger idiot in the room. "Hah? Like I'll tell you anything… I'm not interested in giving you a lore walkthrough. I already told you everything you'll need to know about him. Anything more is just boring. You know what, just for annoying me, I think I'll have you turn to ash in front of all of Japan first… just like your books and that brat's All Might merch. Oh, yeah, did we mention that we burned your house down for good measure?"
"You're not going to tell me about All For One, then?" Frieren asked. She hid the fact that her desire to send this moron to the afterlife had just gone to the roof, but she knew well enough that she probably shouldn't actually kill him if he isn't a real threat.
Inko, meanwhile, was horrified at the mention of the house being burned. Izuku's things. Her things. Frieren's things. Hisashi's things…
"I really don't care if you want to know more for some reason," Shigaraki growled, annoyed. "You'll be dead soon either way."
"Well…" Frieren sighed. "I suppose that means that, then."
The ropes binding her exploded into flames and then into nothingness. The spectacle of someone that was supposedly helplessly captured just ripping through their restraints made Shigaraki and Twice take a step back as they tried to process what was happening. With one look from Frieren, Shigaraki would then find himself suddenly flung from the chamber, denting the wooden wall that he crashed into. Frieren barely paid the defeated Shigaraki any mind as she conjured her staff and summoned a flying arrow of light that sliced through the bindings that kept the imprisoned parents and guardians bound.
"Shigaraki!" Twice called out to the now stunned leader of the League of Villains, revisiting the terror he felt back at the Tokoyami residence, but around ten times worse. He tried to conjure up clones… only for the two Dabi clones he made to be immediately destroyed as Frieren sent out cutting gusts of wind that sliced right through them.
Who the hell is this woman?! Twice backed up, overwhelmed by pure fear. The shadowy birdman was bad enough… but this girl?
"What's the mat-" Magne rushed to the scene, only for her to be sent to the wall as Frieren made the concrete floor beneath the wooden veneer under her morph, slamming against the magnetic villain like a battering ram. Twice yelped.
"Please don't kill me! You'll never take me alive!"
"Pick one and I'll give you that," Frieren boredly replied. Behind her, the parents and guardians of Class 1-A were helping each other up, though they were a bit scared, and admittedly, annoyed that Frieren didn't do this earlier.
"...please don't kill me?" Twice's sense of self preservation won out, at least.
Frieren slowly blinked at the villain. "Tell me how we can get out of here then I'll promise to allow you to live. Then I suppose I'll turn you over to the police… but you'd be alive, so I'd still be keeping that promise."
"O… okay…"
As the villain cowered on the floor, Frieren turned around at Inko, and Fuyumi and the others. "Are you all alright?"
"We are…" Masaru quietly answered.
"Yeah."
"How come I've never heard of a hero like you?"
Frieren thought about an answer. "I'm… an underground hero." Oh, bother. Well, she lied all the time. To demons, mostly, but people sometimes.
"Oh, I see."
"Makes sense…"
She then turned her attention back towards Twice. "Are your friends in the building still?"
"Uh… yes? NO!"
Frieren decided that the first response was the truthful one. "Bring me to them."
"...why?"
Frieren's eyes twitched even as she maintained a neutral composure. "Do you know what my greatest drive in life is?"
"Uh… no?"
"Knowledge. I seek knowledge. And your friends burned precious knowledge. Do you know what that means?"
Twice tried his best to think of an answer as the staff pointed straight at him. "You'll be very mad?"
"I am. Now bring me to them." The part where she would say 'and I will teach them a lesson' went unsaid.
"They're being rough in there, huh?" Dabi idly commented as he heard crashing noises from the floor below the bar. "Serves them right…" He then looked at Toga, who was busy feasting on one of the hero brats, both visually and on his blood, though she had the basic common to just take a small bite. "You really had to bring him here, huh?"
"What a strange girl…" Mr. Compress, sat in front of the counter, not sure how to react to Toga's obsession with a specific hero student, but here they were. At least he was tied up and his hands covered in metal so that he wouldn't blow up this place when he woke up and realized that Toga had drugged him…
Kurogiri kept polishing the glasses, ignoring the fact that Toga had dragged Katsuki Bakugo here as an unconscious, drugged up heap and now had a vial of his blood. The First of the Nomu felt confused. Mostly. A tiny, tiny, tiny part of him screamed that this was all wrong. Kurogiri, however, pushed that thought into the back of his mind. He is Kurogiri, and-
The door to the bar flew out of its handles, flying with such force that it hit Mr. Compress and knocked him to the floor. As the faux magician groaned in pain, one of the people that the League had kidnapped, the strange white haired girl, stepped through with a cold, dreadful aura. Behind her was a quivering Twice, his usual cheerfulness replaced by overwhelming terror. Further behind them were all the other prisoners that were supposed to be shown before all of Japan as examples…
Dabi jumped up and tried to immolate her, only for the flames to be effortlessly blocked by a barrier shield that was eerily reminiscent of the one used by the green brat during the Sports Festival. Toga, who was most profoundly furious that her 'fun' was interrupted, pulled out a knife and charged the white haired girl. She would be sent flying to the floor beside the still recovering Mr. Compress for her troubles.
Kurogiri stared at Frieren. "Where is Master Tomura?"
Frieren didn't care enough to answer. Instead she held up her hand and summoned a…
Is that a black hole?!
True enough, Frieren had conjured up what was essentially a black hole, which grew and grew, eventually becoming as large as a basket ball, collecting gas and dust as an accretion disk in the middle of rhe bar. Quickly, it grew within the bar, though it didn't seem to do much other than be there and be ominous.
"You."
Golden chains came out a glowing orb on Frieren's staff, tightly wrapping around Toga, Dabi, and Mr. Compress.
"Burned."
Chains wrapped around Kurogiri. He tried to summon a portal for him and the other League members to escape through, but he found that the black hole was warping the fabric of spacetime around them. Kurogiri could only watch as his portals fritzed and sputtered out under the monstrous gravity of the singularity.
"My books."
A chain also wrapped around Twice, making him let out a sigh of disappointment in himself. As for the unconscious Bakugou, Masaru and Mitsuki came to him, quickly untying the restraints and pulling out his hands from the metal gloves.
"He's alright," Masaru pressed a finger against his son's wrist. "He's just unconscious…"
"I'm going to kill that little shit," Mitsuki glared at Toga, who struggled as Frieren literally dragged her and the other members of the League, making their bodies hit each other along the way. "I'm going to rip her to shreds, I swear. I'll strangle her and make her beg for air."
"Honey…"
"Ow! Stop hitting me!" Dabi complained as Mr. Compress' leg hit him in the face.
"She's doing this on purpose!"
"...deserved," a woman with white hair with a black thunderbolt on it said as she watched Frieren. That was definitely Denki's mom, Inko thought as she proceeded to follow Frieren down the stairs, along with everyone else. She then wondered how she'd leave the members of the League to the police when she was carrying them around in chains.
Well, in any rate, she and the other parents definitely needed to get to the police.
"So," Fuyumi suddenly came up beside Frieren, ignoring that the chained-up Dabi was staring very intently at her. "What should we tell the police about… you?"
"Just say you don't know me," Frieren replied as the other former prisoners started whispering among themselves.
"That… works… right?" Fuyumi turned to the others, who agreed. If Frieren said she was underground, then she's underground, even if she was freakishly strong…
The Nomu had been defeated.
As it turned out, knowing that the Nomu were basically mindless flesh golems that are really begging for release made it perfectly allowable for the heroes to go all out against them. Hawks cut them apart, while Mirko, who had been close by, bashed their heads in with her spinning kicks. Endeavour, who was also nearby, burned off their heads.
There really wasn't much left for the likes of Fumikage and Iida to do, not that they were supposed to do much. They're "just" interns. They were supposed to watch and learn, not do and learn.
Fumikage had also just heard an absolute earful from his father and mother. He had failed to respond to their calls… but to be fair, he and Iida had been busy fighting off Nomu, and Fumikage apparently had the vibrate turned off, so he didn't hear the ringtone.
Needless to say, he had saved Hawks from getting turned into a plucked chicken. Though his father sounded somewhat like there was something he was omitting out of the conversation. Like something very important.
"So," Fumikage began as the two of them watched the corpses of Nomu get dragged away by robots while first responders began treating injured civilians. "Your kicks… you're always aiming at the back of the head. And they are very forceful now."
"You noticed?" Iida stammered.
"Yes," Fumikage replied, handing the visibly thirsty Iida some orange juice. He knew that the Iidas fuelled their quirk with orange juice of all things, but he supposed that it is better than having them drink petroleum.
At least they've done well tonight. But Iida never aimed at the back of the head before. It just started when… the thing happened.
Iida shuddered. He was just tired.
"You are working very hard, Iida," Fumikage suddenly continued. "But you have to know that we are… concerned. You barely sleep, you fail to groom yourself…"
"Tokoyami, where is this coming from all of a sudden?"
"This is a conversation that was rudely interrupted by the Nomu's sudden appearance one hour ago," Fumikage replied. "But it is true. We fear for your health, both of the mind and of the body. Since we are in the same general area for our internship, I feel obligated to check up on you."
"I'm…" Iida looked away. "I'm not fine."
"Of course. Who would be?"
"It's just that… no one gets it, no one gets me. No one can understand just what I'm feeling right now," Iida shook his head. "I'm sorry, but you don't get it. It is like half of my heart has been ripped out of my chest. Has anyone else in our group or our class lost a sibling as I have?"
Fumikage thought about it for a moment. No one came to mind. "...no, as far as I know."
"That's just it, then. No one else can truly understand the depth of my pain at this moment. But…" Iida sighed. "Thank you, either way, for expressing that you're here for me. It means so much. I just need… time."
And you'll have plenty of time during internships, I suppose, at least until Uraraka or Izuku insist that we hang out, Fumikage thought as he then saw a red feather floating down to the ground in front of them.
"Heya kids," Hawks dropped behind them just on time. "So, look, I get it if you don't want to continue our little internship thing after this whole-"
"No, I will finish the whole week," Fumikage replied with resolution. "I still have things to learn."
"Oh, well, then, be my guest! By the way, we have to stay for a bit to give our statements, so… yeah. Why did that Nomu call out your name and who the hell is Tsubasa?"
Oh, he did hear. "Apparently… that Nomu used to be a classmate back in kindergarten, Tsubasa. He somehow still recognized me, but I suppose that my… appearance leaves an impression."
Hawks looked saddened by the revelation. "That is… terrible, but it tracks with what we know about them… poor kid, he would have just been your age, right?"
"Yes."
Hawks then looked down at his phone as it vibrated in his hand. "Hey… look at that. Someone just dragged the League of Villains to the Kamino Ward police station…"
All For One shuddered as he witnessed the rapid dismantling of his supposed successor and his League. This… wasn't supposed to happen. Who is that… girl?!
And now, for the first time in the ancient villain's life, there was fear.
Author's Notes: Yah, the League got themselves captured; Frieren didn't kill them. But there are still plenty of villains in the world besides them (and AFO).Last edited: 22/10/2024 Award Quote ReplyReport307Soylent Viridian22/10/2024Reader modeNewAdd bookmark Threadmarks namar1376622/10/2024Add bookmark#284Soylent Viridian said:All For One shuddered as he witnessed the rapid dismantling of his supposed successor and his League. This… wasn't supposed to happen. Who is that… girl?!
And now, for the first time in the ancient villain's life, there was fear.Click to expand...Oh, is someone working outside the 'rules' of supervillainy you imposed upon the world and treating you like an existential threat?
Will it lead to unforeseen social changes instead of being locked into the status quo of the eternal present?
My give a damn is busted.