We didn't end up playing bait for the reporters since the police thankfully removed the media from the street because they were blocking traffic, so we managed to return home without much trouble. Still, I had Izuku pack up and I prepared a change of clothes for mom as well. Apparently Mitsuki was delighted to have her friend live with her. It took a bit of tears to make mom let Izuku go, at least until this entire mess with relocating our home is sorted out, but I had the secret weapon called All Might.
That night Izuku, me and All Might went to the Bakugou household to meet with mom.
Thankfully, Katsuki was out training so I didn't have to deal with that situation. then explained the whole situation to mom, sort of. I told her that All Might's time as the Symbol of Peace was up and that he needed to retire soon. All Might even showed her his injury and I doubled down of the fact that the world needs a symbol and that I was the only one who could do it.
A bit pretentious, but she only knew that Izuku's
'quirk' hurts him since we told her he developed it during the sludge incident and that he was currently training with All Might in his spare time in order to harness it. In a way, it was true. I was the only one strong enough to compete with All Might and that made me the only one capable of taking on the likes of All For One and Izuku was chosen by All Might to be the next bearer of One for All.
No matter what All Might says, I don't believe that All For One's dead. They never did recover the body and a man that lived for over 100 years must have some sort of contingency plan, otherwise he wouldn't have survived this long.
In the end, I gained my independence and was emancipated as a child, a necessity for implementing my contingency plans and establishing a sufficient financial reserve. Izuku went with me and All Might while mom remained with Mitsuki and a police detachment would watch over them.
After that it was relatively easy to pull Izuku out of school since he had to go into one of the hero association's protection service programs. Those were ways for the family members of high-ranking heroes to be hidden and protected from villains, something that was very much needed in the days when All For One still reigned over the underworld and was out and about prowling for powerful quirks to steal. Normally this wouldn't have been done for a UA student, but since All Might himself decided to take me up on my plan to succeed him it was deemed a necessity.
That's another thing I'm not so sure about. It seemed to me that All Might was all too willing to help me ascend to the title of Pillar of Strength. I honestly thought that he would be more reluctant, but instead All Might himself offered me this opportunity. Though this only means that the situation is even more serious than I originally thought. All Might needs to retire soon, and I need to build up my reputation so that whatever transition of power there is between us is done as smoothly as possible to prevent mass panic.
It's been two days since that day and I'm finishing putting on my suit and mentally preparing myself for the first hero patrol of my life. I never imagined that it would happen like this. Whenever I imagined myself as a hero I would always have in mind the image of Batman. Now I must take up the image of Superman.
Heh, I just realized that All Might could be called discount Japanese Superman.
That's sad.
I'll top now.
Thad to do a few adjustments to my hero suit. My original designed had a bit too much black and dark colors. If ladd to that the planned hood and mask it would be a bit too scary to the usual citizen. ladded a few pieces of white cloth to make me look less like an overly dark Batman and more like a normal hero.
"Young Madara, are you ready?" asked All Might
nodded
"Well then, let's go" he said
All Might buffed up and shot up in the air. I followed him by jumping from rooftop to rooftop with the aid of Chakra.
I really need to find a way to fly with chakra.
It was early morning in Minato, the place where All Might had his agency, Might Tower. For the duration of this week I roped Aizawa-sensei into teaching Izuku hand to hand combat. Aizawa did put up some resistance at first, but I managed to convince him of the necessity of my request. I did teach Izuku some things, but I didn't push it that much. I thought that I had the time to take it easy and teach Izuku properly.
I no longer have that luxury. Because of my actions and statements, I have placed my family in the path of villains and while it's relatively easy for my mom to go into hiding and vanish, izuku is a heck of a lot more stubborn. He would have stood out one way or another with that hero complex of his and just like I didn't tell him that he couldn't be a hero before he got his chance with All Might, I most certainly couldn't do so now. It would be the height of hypocrisy to prevent Izuku from following his dream just because it's too dangerous.
That's the sort of thinking that mom would have.
I knew from the beginning that I might one day come home to a dead brother if he went into heroics. But I couldn't fault him for that, especially since his death would have at least served some meager purpose. He would have died doing what he loved and not in a meaningless way.
Not like I did.
"Young Madara! Are you paying attention?" asked
All Might
I snapped out of my thoughts and nodded. We were on the roof of a building and down below a few thugs were holding a bank hostage. The media and the police were already there.
"Yeah, I sense 6 hostiles and 10 hostages. Three are in the front and two are in the back presumably loading up on money. The last one is on the last floor. All the hostages are aligned in front of the windows" I said
My Sharingan was already on and busy dissecting the target environment.
"So, how do you wish to get on with your debut?" asked All Might not taking his eyes off the situation for a moment
"I'll go fist and use Earth Style: Underground Walk to infiltrate the back of the bank and take out those two and the one on top. Wait a few minutes and drop down" I said
All Might nodded. Earth Style: Underground Walk was a jutsu I developed as an infiltration technique. It allows me to pass through earth and concrete with relative ease and is especially useful for ambushes. Sadly, it's useless against high grade steel or other metals.
I body flickered to the roof of the bank. If these robbers were smart, then they would have taken over the security system and CCTV network. They didn't seem smart, but it's best to not underestimate them. I flashed through hand signs and fell through the rooftop like it was liquid.
Using chakra, I stuck myself inside the ceiling and crawled over to the secondary power generator.
The robbers were smart enough to post a guard next to it. Thankfully the white fabric I had to add to my suit to cover up the armor beneath it came with a neat color shifting function. It wasn't anything fancy since it just shifted the color from white to black. Still, it was more than enough for me.
I landed silently behind the guard
"Hey" I said in my most raspy voice
He turned around surprised, but he made a mistake as my blood red Sharingan eyes locked on to his and the tomoe begun to spin. The guy went slack and dropped his gun. Suddenly his radio crackled.
"Hey, what's going on up there?" asked a voice over the radio
Well, time to test this out. Sharingan: Hypnosis
The guy brought the radio to his mouth with vacant eyes
"Nothing boss, just dropped something" said the guy
Apparently, that was enough for his boss and I saw no reason to keep him awake.
Sharingan: Genjutsu: Sleep
I caught the crumpling body and set him down gently on the floor. I tied him up and removed his weapons. A shame that I won't be able to disable the generator without giving away my position.
Stealth is paramount in my situation. Still, there is something I can do.
I reached into one of my pouches and removed a small EMP device I've built, or more specifically I designed. I had Power Loader build it, since only he had the necessary authorization to build support equipment, something that I hope to get for myself. I could remote trigger the EMP and I don't have to worry about damaging anything other than the generator and maybe the camera in the hallway. My equipment was EMP proofed anyways.
Running through hand seals again I disappeared in the floor. Thankfully this time it was thick enough for me to move through it relatively easily. I quickly arrived in the vault at the back of the bank and exited the roof. I could see the two crooks in their stuffing duffle bags with money. They were far enough apart that I couldn't take them down simultaneously. I dropped down near one of them and waited for a moment before triggering the EMP making the light in the room flicker and die.
"Hwb? What's going on?" asked one of the guys.
I quickly ducked out of cover and snatched him by the throat while muffling his voice. He still managed to let out a muffled yelp of surprise but a quick look tightening of my arms around his throat and he was out like a light.
This is surprisingly easy
"Hey, man are you ok?" asked the other on
He was shaking a bit. I let my clothes rustle as I ran around to get behind his back. He tried to train his gun on me, but he wasn't effective in doing it.
I can see why Batman liked doing this. This is surprisingly fun.
Now's not the time.
FOCUS
"Is anyone there?" he asked "Come out and I won't shoot you"
He activated his quirk, making his hand glow with what appeared to be fire
"I'm here" I rasped
The guy jumped up and crashed into a table trying to turn around and shoot me. He didn't manage to do that since he had the unfortunate luck of looking into my eyes, allowing me to cast Genjutsu on him.
I really need to up my genjutsu training. I never really understood just how limiting using only visual genjutsu really is, especially for taking down large numbers of people.
I tied the two thugs up and went to the door only to find it locked. Lovely.
Suddenly there was a tremor outside, and a booming voice proclaimed
"Have no fear. Because I AM HERE!"
"All Might!"
"We're saved!"
Other such exclamations rose from the hostages.
Dam it, All Might. I really didn't want to bulldoze though this situation.
Charging chakra through my leg I kicked out the steel door sending it flying and smacking into the three thugs that had clustered in front of the entrance with enough force to send them flying though one of the windows and into the street. I quickly body flickered on the window seal and locked down on then with my arms crossed and Sharingan blazing wile manipulating chakra just enough to give the edges of the white over armor robe covering my legs a slight sway in the nonexistent wind.
What? This s my debut I had to look cool doing it.
The entire street was looking at me, or I should say that they were also looking at me. All Might still took the spotlight.
"Who the heck are you?" asked one of the thugs
"You can call me Rikudou and I'm the guy that captured your three friends" I said
This surprised them. I saw that only one of them looked human. The other ones were a wolf-human hybrid and a pink ball of something. Honestly, I can't even say he looked human anymore. He was bipedal. But that's about all I could say as far as him looking human.
"So are you going to surrender, or do we need to take more drastic actions" I said
I flashed my Sharingan with chakra, making my eyes illuminate an eerie red I preparation to cast genjutsu on them.
"Speak up, villains!" said All Might
They flinched as they finally recognized their situation and wisely surrendered. After they've been cuffed by the police the media swarmed.
"All Might, is there any relation between you and Madara Mydoria?"
"Is Rikudou, Madara?"
"Is there any truth to the rumors about you?"
The same happened to me and while intellectually I was prepared for this, and I have had previous experience with the media I did not expect them to swarm like they did. Thankfully All Might took pity on my situation and placed a hand on my shoulder while asking for the media to quiet down.
"This is my new intern, Rikudou whom you might have known from the UA Sports festival as Madara Midorya. Excuse us, there is still much to do today" said All Might
It was a bit degrading being picked up like a sack of potatoes and having to deal with the air pressure that All Might was creating as he leaped out of the crowd of reporters.
Thank god that I decided to leave the Gunbai at home. Speaking of which, I really need to up my training. I may be powerful, but this situation showed that Ilacked true finesse in using that power. Sometimes, stealth isn't an option and all my techniques have so far proven to be highly destructive to the point that I never actually used them outside of training. I can't roast people alive like Endeavor because even with All Might endorsing me that would turn popular opinion against me and that is very much needed if I want to offer the world a stable alternative to the Symbol Of Peace.
We ended up on the rooftop of another building and to my eternal shame I had to sit down
"Are you ok young Madara?" asked All Might
"Yeah, just give me a moment" I said panting
"Jesus, I never expected the media to act like this. I honestly thought that they would attack me if I even so much as spoke a single thing"
All Might looked at me with sympathy in his eyes
"It's the price you pay for being famous, you'll get used to it" said All Might "So what did you think of your first case?"
"It was interesting" I said "I just realized that I have very few non-lethal techniques at my disposal and those that can be made non-lethal are just too damaging to the surroundings"
All Might nodded and I continued
"I have to work more on my Genjutsu. Being able to cast illusions with eye contact is all well and good but I could have knocked out all the villains in one go if I had other types of genjutsu. Besides, using Fire, Earth or Water styles in a confined environment is dangerous for the other people and especially the civilians and they would have been out to a much greater risk if I had engaged the villains in hand to hand combat, to say nothing of the fact that I don't know what their quirks are" I finished
"Don't beat yourself up too much, Young Madara.
Nobody expects you to be perfect in every situation with barely a month of training" said All Might
True, but few had the expectations placed on them that I had, even if I could bear it was still frustrating. I've had chakra for close to 11 years now and I still haven't managed to get all five nature transformations under my belt. True, this was an impressive Skill even by Naruto world standard, but then again, I don't have repositories of jutsu and weapons to use. I don't have the almost 1000 years of knowledge that the shinobi of the Narutoverse had. I also don't have access to fuinjutsu or even the slightest idea on how to recreate it and that makes my overall battle efficiency decrease even further. Especially given the delicate situations that I would more than likely find myself in since I doubt there will be any big battles between heroes and villains any time soon that can help me fine tune my techniques.
In the end all I had was my wit, a somewhat secondhand knowledge of chakra and stubbornness. But then again there were people with less that have become great.
"Ok, let's continue with the patrol" I said
We patrolled the streets for another two hours. I solved some more cases, even if they were mostly purse snatchers, and the occasional robber. All Might did nothing most of the time and just sat there looking proud and cheering me on. The media ate it all up and I tried to keep a happy-go-lucky front on the entire time and not brood like an edge lord (*cough*Sasuke*cough*). Being faced with all that media, using the Uchiha Secret Artof Brooding was very tempting.
After those two hours were up All Might and I went back to his agency which was by now swarmed with reporters. had training to do and All Might had paperwork and PR.
I must get Wind style down in a month or so and create some jutsu for it until the final exams this semester. If I'm lucky I should be able to make some progress with lightning style by the time the Provisional License exam rolls around.
One more week of this. Hopefully nothing bad happens.
I just jinxed myself, haven't I.
Fuck.