"How are we getting this costume made?" Izuku asked innocently.
"I have a contact," Dabi said, pushing a trash bag out the front door.
"Of course you do," Izuku grumbled.
"Armoured hoodie?" Stain said.
"Armoured," Reiki agreed. "We don't want you getting shot."
Stain dived across Izuku again to try to get the pencil back and Izuku dropped his head onto the back of the couch with a heavy sigh as, once again, he got smashed between them. "I hate all of you."
"Awww," Reiki said, giving up the pencil so she could hug Izuku's head, the only part of him she could reach with Stain in the way, "we hate you too."
Nezu frowned at the letter in front of him.
Midoriya Izuku had rejected his acceptance to U.A. It was frustrating because Nezu had genuinely liked Midoriya, and had wanted to offer him one-on-one lessons. But the other members of the school board had insisted on being quirkist, so they'd sent him a probably offensive letter and now Midoriya wasn't going to come to U.A.
It made Nezu nervous.
Being a vigilante was tricky business, a fine line to walk on. It only took one incident for a person to slip and fall from vigilantism to villainy, and Nezu sensed that Midoriya was already dangerously close to the edge. All he could hope for now was that nothing would push Midoriya to the breaking point.
Sensei was interested in the new vigilante and Tomura didn't like it.
For one thing, Giran recognized the vigilante and confirmed that he was the one who had turned the fire quirk guy's interview in the wrong direction. He said this vigilante was tricky, smart, and untraceable.
Sensei thought the new vigilante would make a good ally.
Tomura thought the new vigilante was a nuisance.
Kurogiri said he could be both.
"Entropy" was the name spiraling around. Tomura had to look up the word the first time he heard it. Entropy. Gradual decline into chaos. It was a good name, Tomura thought, if a little pretentious. It was an adaptable name. The vigilante could use it to describe how he interacted with villains, or heroes, or even himself. If he ever did decide to join Tomura, it would mean the destruction of society. Tomura liked that idea. Society deserved to fall into chaos, and if this "Entropy" was the one to bring that destruction, then Tomura wanted him on his side.
But for now, with the uncertainty around the vigilante's motives and actions, Tomura wanted to just sit and watch to see what he did next.
Sensei didn't want to watch passively. He said Tomura should be trying to twist Entropy to his side now, while he could. He said Entropy wouldn't be tameable forever, and the longer they waited the less likely it was Entropy would turn. But Tomura didn't want to waste his time on someone who didn't want to work with him. Why would he, when he could get a team of loyal people in the same amount of time?
So he decided to wait.
Wait until the new vigilante showed his intentions, showed some kind of sign that he could be swayed to villainy.
And then, pounce.
Chapter End Notes
I don't even know if I need to put this here but no I do not own batman or the concept of a bat cave
I've decided for nanowrimo I'm going to write a teenager Eri fic.
And the only reason I'm telling you this is so that I actually have to do it (because otherwise I'll make an excuse and back out of it). I'm determined! All about Eri and her own personal U.A. experience.
Goodbye
Avoidance
Chapter Notes
I'm SO EXCITED for USJ, but we have to wait for next chapter before we start thinking about it. HEAVY, HEAVY sigh.
So I had to think of a villain for this chapter and wow it's a little harder than I thought it would be coming up with villains. Like it should not be so difficult to come up with a realistic criminal.
Anyhoo cw// murder/assault, implied abusive relationships, minor injuries, minor violence, minor blood
Although he would never, ever admit this to Stain or Reiki, Izuku's costume was super cool. Somewhere along the design process they'd decided to just do away with the sleeves of the hoodie and now his well-toned shoulders were just out all the time. It was honestly the coolest thing he'd ever owned. The moment he had gotten the costume--and had managed to convince Stain and Reiki he hated it-- he took it home and fanboyed all over it to his mother, who kindly pretended to be excited.
He didn't ever want to take it off. He bribed Dabi into getting him an extra so that he could wear it as often as possible. He put it on display in his room. He had to restrain himself from sleeping in it. It was awesome.
Tonight was not the first time he was wearing it out, but it might as well be, because he was just as excited to put it on tonight as he was then.
It hadn't been long. He'd been in costume for about three days, long enough for him to realize he should have started wearing a legit costume the moment he started going solo. It gave him so much more protection than the old hoodie had. He probably could get hit by a car and still be fine, at this rate.
He was completely on his own on the streets now. Right after he rejected his U.A. acceptance, he'd told Stain he wanted to start working independently. It wasn't because he was mad at Stain or anything, more that if he ever wanted to be respected as a vigilante, he'd have to stop looking like some kid Stain had to babysit. So he and Stain were getting a little more distant, still sort of seeing each other when they crossed paths, or for the costume design fiasco, but not nearly as much as they'd been seeing each other a couple weeks ago. He was getting a lot closer with Reiki than anyone else, since he kept getting hurt as a vigilante. When his mom realized that Reiki was healing Izuku's injuries before he came home, she was so relieved she almost started crying. She said she was so glad Izuku had friends who would do that kind of thing for him. He neglected to tell her that Reiki did that for everyone.
He was also staying close with Dabi as an offshoot of being friends with Reiki, since Dabi was almost always at the bar when Izuku came in for Reiki's help. Dabi clearly enjoyed making fun of Izuku after his most painful injuries, like two days ago, when he'd gotten a knife stuck in his hand. And meanwhile, Izuku was building up quite a pain tolerance.
The pain tolerance… wasn't really a good thing. Well, it was good in the sense that he could fight with a broken arm without even thinking about it, so his injuries didn't distract him in fights. But it was bad because he sort of… naturally assumed that other people also had an incredible pain tolerance too. He was a pain tolerance snob. There had been a couple days already where he'd really, seriously injured someone and then had told them to suck it up when they cried about it. It made him feel bad when he thought about it afterwards, but what was he supposed to do? Go back and apologize?
Izuku would be the first to admit that he sometimes went a little overboard. Stain had trained him to go all out, so that was his default mode of fighting. The second time he went out alone, he almost cut someone's arm off. But then he caught himself and pulled himself back. He was really glad his mom didn't know exactly what he did in his patrols because if she did, that would be the end of it. All of it. She would pull him right out of vigilantism and burn his beautiful, beautiful costume. And he couldn't give her any motivation to do that, because if she did that then he wouldn't be able to save the dumbasses who managed to get themselves into fights.
Like the people who he was watching right now.
He'd wandered a lot closer to Eraserhead's patrol route today, still staying out of view of it, but much closer than he was usually comfortable with. And it was probably a good thing he did, because directly below him was what looked like a fight between lovers. Or something.
"You've been cheating on me, I have proof," one of them was yelling, brandishing her phone in the air in front of her.
"I haven't--"
"Don't lie to me! I brought you all the way out here to get a confession out of you before I--"
"You told me we were going on a date!"
Izuku yawned. Everything was fine until one of them tried to punch the other and then he was going to be all over it.
"Well, I lied, didn't I?"
"See, this is why I've been looking into other options--"
Wow, a confession so early into the argument. How original.
"Oh, so you have been cheating on me!"
"Only because you're such an intolerable bitch!"
Izuku leaned forward. It was going to get nasty, right now.
Sure enough, the person with the phone threw it away and glowing swords extended out of her hands. The other person, the cheater, gave a little gasp of surprise and started to back away, eyes wide.
"I'm going to kill you, right now," the person who now had swords instead of hands said, voice triumphant, almost.
Immediately, the cheater turned to run, sprinting down the street as fast as they could. Izuku couldn't blame them, he probably would too. He burst into motion a second after Sword Hands started after the cheater. Dropping down into the street, he watched as the potential victim, tailed closely by Sword Hands, ran straight into Eraserhead's territory.
Ah. A moral crossroads of sorts.
It only took a moment's hesitation to decide he would risk getting caught if it meant stopping a literal murder . Eraserhead was usually a little less unforgiving to vigilantes than spotlight heroes, so he felt relatively safe. Exposed, certainly, but still safe enough. And just because he was running headfirst into Eraserhead's patrol route didn't necessarily mean he was going to run into the man. Right?
He made up his mind and ran after the two into the alley, keeping his footsteps light and quickly slipping from shadow to shadow, gaining on them. Sword Hands lunged just as he caught up and, yanking out his katana, he jumped right in between them.
He'd made a mistake.
He'd only moved to block one sword, the one he'd seen moving, but the other one was moving too. It slid up his forearm. Luckily, Reiki and Stain had known what they were doing when they made his costume, and the sword slipped on all the padding Izuku had from his wrist to his elbow. It barely nicked the spot just over his elbow joint, but before any real damage could be done, Izuku pushed his katana roughly into the sword he'd clashed with, and Sword Hands stumped back a few steps, reeling.
"Dude," Izuku said, frowning at his arm, which was now dripping blood. "Not cool."
Snarling, Sword Hands jumped forward again, fully focused on Izuku. Reflexes kicking in, Izuku rolled to the side, hopping to his feet to Sword Hand's right and kicking up a foot, which Sword Hand's momentum threw her right into.
The victim, thankfully, had the common sense to keep running and not stop to witness the fight, so Izuku didn't have to protect anyone now. He could go all out.
He ducked under Sword Hand's next jab, pulling out several knives. As he ducked, he tried to hook his foot behind her knees, but she saw it coming and kicked him away. He rolled back to his feet and chucked a few knives in her general direction.
It was a testament to her incredible reflexes that she knocked aside three of the four knives in midair. The fourth one stuck in her shoulder and she hissed in pain. She was smart enough to leave it in, but now she was fighting with one arm and Izuku had two.
He was winning. He was fully capable of taking her out by himself , but just as he moved to kick her in the head, Eraserhead swung into the alley and kicked her into the wall.
Talk about going overboard.
Entropy was a lot shorter than Shouta would expect. He knew he was probably a second or third year high school dropout, in his teens, but the kid was short even for that.
After rather violently slamming who he assumed was a criminal into the brick wall of the alleyway, he turned to the kid. Only Entropy's green eyes were visible, and they were flashing with annoyance. The kid popped out a hip. "Don't you think that was a little much?" he asked, tone dripping in exasperation.
Ah, so it was Hacker Kid. Shouta would recognize that voice anywhere. "Says the kid who stabbed her in the shoulder," he snapped, filing that information away for later. Hacker Kid and Entropy. Same person.
Deciding now was probably a good time to activate his quirk on the kid, he reached for it. Nothing happened. His quirk… would not activate.
What the hell?
"I have an excuse," the kid retorted, oblivious to Shouta's growing panic. "She was trying to kill me."
Heart rate speeding up, Shouta tried to activate his quirk on the kid again. It didn't work. His quirk wasn't working on this kid-- why? He'd never experienced this before, his quirk not activating at all . Is this what it felt like for people when he removed their quirks?
"Hey, pro tip-- your quirk would be a lot more effective if you had a hair tie," Entropy said, slipping his sword over his shoulder into a sheath there. He looked like he'd had some costume upgrades. "It's really obvious when you use it."
Well it wasn't obvious now because it wasn't working. How was he doing that? Was it sight based? He shot out a length of his scarf and the kid dodged it easily, looking almost bored. His quirk still wasn't working.
"You're Entropy?" he asked, resisting the urge to strangle the kid. Attacking this condescending vigilante wouldn't do anything, but it would be intensely satisfying.
The kid's eyes narrowed. "Going to murder Dabi," he muttered, turning and sprinting down the street. Shouta moved to run after him, but then the lady with the swords-instead-of-hands groaned and he turned toward her, instinctively reaching for his quirk. It worked without a problem, and the swords vanished into the woman's arms. He glanced down the alley, but Entropy was gone.
As Shouta called the police department for pick up, he had to wonder-- who was that kid, and what on earth was his quirk?
"Quirk nullification?" Naomasa suggested. Aizawa had come back with quite the story, and now they were puzzling over Entropy in Naomasa's office.
"But he didn't look like he was trying to use a quirk at all," Aizawa sighed, looking very tired. He'd apparently been trying to find Entropy again all night. Trying and failing.
"Just that good?"
"He's literally a child-- he can't possibly have had that level of training. I'd be surprised if he was anything over 16, and even that's a stretch. He had these noodle arms, I'm telling you. Noodles." He scowled at the table, adding in a low mutter, "Very muscular noodles."
"Maybe he's immune to all quirk effects," Naomasa suggested. "Involuntary, maybe."
"Then why on earth was he fighting the perp with a sword? If her swords weren't going to work on him, why try to block them at all?"
"It's tiring?"
"He was having no trouble keeping my quirk off."
"And you've never felt anything like this before?"
"No." Aizawa slumped forward and put his forehead on the desk. "It's making me feel guilty about all the times I've erased people's quirks before. It really, really sucks, missing a quirk."
"Don't feel guilty," Naomasa said, reaching out to pat his back and then, on second thought, drawing his hand back. Eraserhead wasn't a big fan of contact. "We'll figure this out."
They would figure it out. Eventually. Probably.
Hopefully.
"We need to have a talk," Izuku said, sitting down at the table and looking up at Inko seriously. Suppressing a sigh, she sat down across from him. She was tired of these talks with Izuku. He somehow kept finding ways to keep surprising her. "I did some digging," he said, when she was seated, "and I figured out the quirk of the detective in charge around here-- Tsukauchi, you heard of him?"
"No." How on earth would she know the name of some obscure police officer? Sometimes the brains of her kid surprised her.
"Okay." He looked a little confused, but he moved on, kindly. "Well, Detective Tsukauchi is the guy who pretty much runs the police department here. Captain Tsuragamae is technically in charge, but he's mobile and isn't around often enough to be an issue."
Inko did not like the implications around Izuku addressing a police captain as an "issue," but she chose to accept it. She was finding herself doing that a lot more with Izuku. It made her worried, but she'd realized recently that there really was nothing she could do to stop him but turn him into the police, and she didn't want him to go to jail. Jail changed people, and Izuku still had the dregs of hope in there somewhere. She didn't want to drain those completely.
"So Tsukauchi's quirk is called Lie Detector, so I'm going to tell you some things and you're going to repeat them back to me, okay? I'll explain all this in a second."
"Okay."
"When I go out at night, I'm leaving to save people."
"When you go out at night, you save people."
"What I do is totally legal."
Inko kept her chin from trembling, but she couldn't stop her voice from wobbling a little when she said, "What you do is totally legal."
"Almost done, Mom, one more. It's none of your business and you didn't want to pry."
"It's none of my business and I didn't want to pry into it," she whispered.
He relaxed. "Great! So if Tsukauchi starts asking you questions, you say, 'Izuku told me…' and then choose one of those options. That's in the event I get caught and you get interrogated."
Surprised, once again, by the head her kid had on his shoulders, she nodded.
"Okay, thanks Mom! Love you." He hopped to his feet and bounded out of the room.
A tear slid from Inko's eye and she wiped it away. What was he doing to himself?
Daylight
Chapter Notes
'Sup.
tw// minor violence, fire
See the end of the chapter for more notesIzuku hadn't ever tried doing vigilantism in broad daylight before, but based on the scene he was looking at through the window of his mom's car right now, he thought he might have to. It looked like a standoff between a villain with a simple rope quirk, and Kamui Woods and Mountain Lady. Surely, though, surely two major heroes would be able to stop that villain. Surely they were capable.
The villain was holding up traffic, and they were inching lazily by, trying to get to the mall.
Mountain Lady got stuck trying to step in an alley with not enough lanes for her big feet. Izuku suppressed a sigh. It's not like she didn't have hands and fingers-- she could literally just reach into the alley. Or she could walk in and enlarge halfway…
Kamui Woods got pinned to the wall.
"Mom, we have to stop," Izuku said, face practically smashed into the glass of the car window now. The villain was good, honestly. They had a level of skill beyond just the usual riff raff. Izuku wondered what they'd been caught doing. "They need help."
"Izuku--"
"Mom, please…"
With a heavy sigh, she pulled the car over. "Do you have your costume," she said, tone dripping with displeasure.
Izuku scoffed, opening the glove compartment of the car and pulling out his gloves. "Like I'd go anywhere without it." His knives were in the middle console and his pants and hoodie were in the seat pockets.
Mom gave him a look that clearly said they would be unpacking that later and then unlocked the car door.
"Meet me by the mall, okay?"
"Okay." He tugged his hoodie over his head and pulled up his mask.
"Do not get caught."
"I won't," he said, strapping his knives to his chest and arms.
"Call me the minute you're safe.
He grabbed his bo from underneath the back seats. "Yep."
"Love you, sweetie."
"Mmhmm, bye!" he hopped out of the car, pulling his pants on as he tumbled out.
Yanking his hood up, he extended the staff and hopped over the car, weaving through the crowd. He didn't have his katanas with him because he wasn't quite good enough to hide swords from his mom in the car, but he felt pretty secure in what he did have with him.
This was his first time going out in broad daylight, and while it was terrifying, he felt more than ready. He'd spent months preparing for daylight heroism. This was a piece of cake.
Of course, it would be easier if he was sure he wasn't going to get attacked for illegal vigilantism, but he'd take what he could get.
It looked like the villain had a simple rope quirk where their fingers could shoot out ropes, which the user could manipulate at will. Izuku seriously doubted the person could feel through the ropes though, based on the way they were flailing around, which meant they could cut them off without feeling any pain.
Rope would be bad when matched up with a fire quirk. Which meant Endeavour would be the best person to contact for this mess, but like hell was Izuku going to do that. He didn't need to give Endeavour a PR boost, not when he could give himself one instead. Hopping over cars, he locked eyes on a nearby convenience store.
He ran in, avoiding the police line. "Hey, got a lighter?" he asked calmly.
The storekeeper gave him one look and sprinted out of the shop.
"Oh, right, the mask," he said, suddenly realizing why that would probably have been a terrifying experience. "Sorry!" he called after the poor person.
He started going through aisles and found a lighter.
Clicking it on, he ran out of the store and sprinted straight for the fight, ducking under the outstretched arms of police officers. He had to punch one of them in the face, but he was in a hurry. He ran straight into the fight, where it looked like Kamui Woods was about to get his arms ripped off, and held the lighter up to the ends of one of the ropes, which lay forgotten next to him. The villain was busy taunting Kamui Woods, and didn't even notice Izuku lighting the rope on fire. They didn't notice until three of their rope fingers were on fire. Looking vaguely panicked, they started trying to cut off the ends of the flaming ropes.
Taking their distraction as an opportunity, Izuku turned and scaled a nearby wall. The movement must have caught Kamui Woods' eye because he locked eyes with Izuku and opened his mouth to say something. Before he could, Izuku dropped down on the villain's head and flattened them to the ground.
"Weak," he said, when they didn't get up again. "You can get out of that by yourself," he said to Kamui Woods, scowling. "Tattletale."
He turned and hopped for the wall, climbing up to the fire escape and using that to launch himself over the top of the building.
And there was Mountain Lady. She swiped at him and he flattened himself to the roof of the building, gasping as he felt her hand pass right over his back, so close it brushed his fluffy hair. He scrambled to his feet and ran for the edge of the building, jumping right off it. He managed to land on the next fire escape over and, praying silently, tried the window behind it.
It eased open. It was a miracle, honestly.
"I am so sorry," he muttered, crawling in through the window. It looked like a living room. Some people were talking somewhere in the apartment. He slipped quietly through the rooms until he got to the front door, which he eased open quietly and then ducked through, apologizing again silently.
After a quick check for security cameras, he pulled off his hoodie and folded it neatly over several rows of knives. Carefully adding his mask to the stack, he tucked it all under his arm and started walking confidently through the apartment complex, pretending like he knew where he was going. He heard a bit of a commotion by the front entrance to the apartment complex, so he took the back, walking straight out.
A moment later, he was lost in a crowd. No one would find him.
He made his way carefully back to the mall and met with his very worried mother. "I'm fine," he said when she hugged him, distraught. "Honestly. Totally unharmed."
"Don't do that again," she scolded, letting him put his stuff in the car again.
"No promises."
A couple hours after the mall, he found several articles on a "new vigilante." To his immense pleasure, no one called him Entropy in the articles, they just called him the "green vigilante." It was only a matter of time before they discovered the name of course, but he would enjoy these few days of freedom while he could.
His phone lit up with an incoming call and he shut his laptop, picking it up. Dabi.
"Hi, hi," he answered, standing up and closing the door to his room.
"Deku, hey. I got a call today-- do you have any way to contact U.A.?"
"U.A.? Why?"
"Someone's planning an attack on the first years, and I don't particularly want it to work."
Oh, duh. For obvious, if unspoken, reasons, Dabi didn't want the first years of U.A. to get attacked. Made sense.
"Okay, one sec." He launched himself into his chair and spun it around flipping his laptop open. "What details do you have?"
"They just wanted me to meet them at ten o'clock tomorrow. They didn't say this specifically, but I think they're bringing a lot of people with them."
"Location?" He started making a new email address, removing tracing as he clicked through.
"The old warehouse down the street from the bar."
"Meeting off-campus? That's weird. Who's setting this up?"
"Remember that broker I brought you with me to talk to?"
"The guy who was obnoxiously smoking through a gap in his teeth?" He started drafting some code to make the email as protected as humanly possible, since this was going straight to Nezu.
"You got it. The group is called 'The League of Villains.'"
"Dramatic," Izuku said saltily, before adding, "Wonder if they have a warper. Anything else you have?"
"They're planning to kill All Might."
He froze, fingers hovering over the keyboard. "How would they do that?"
"Dunno. Magic."
Izuku glanced over his hastily made code. "Okay. I'll shoot Nezu an email. Thanks for the heads-up."
"No problem. Thanks for caring."
"Hey, Dabi?"
"Hmm?"
"Where did you say your location was?"
"The warehouse--"
"Oh, down the street from the bar. Okay, do me a favor and don't give the cops a tip-off. I'll handle it."
"Sweet. Be careful."
"Yeah."
He hung up, opening an email draft. It was now programmed to instantaneously be erased two minutes after Nezu opened it, which he hoped wasn't enough time to break through the arguably weak defenses of the code he'd written.
Nezu,
Some information has recently come to my attention that you might be interested in. Tomorrow, at 10:00, expect an attack on your school. It's from a group called the League of Villains. They might have a person with a warp quirk on their side.
I don't know numbers, I don't know specific location, I don't know motivation or skill levels. Their target is All Might.
Watch your first years closely.
Regards,
Entropy
Hoping that was vague enough to not give too much away about himself, but enough that Nezu could take some precautionary measures, Izuku hit send and watched his computer anxiously, as though it would tell him when Nezu answered. Nothing happened, predictably, and after a minute he closed his email and put his head on the desk.
Tomorrow, he decided, he was going to pose as a villain and go save some stupid teenagers.
What fun.
Chapter End Notes
Disclaimer: I know nothing about hacking or like. coding or anything. I know html i guess and css and like super basic programming language but that's it so please forgive me if this is inaccurate
Hi! At this time you have read a hundred pages in google docs, which translates to around 200 pages in novel form! If you are binge reading, it might be time for a break! Perhaps sleeping! Or taking a shower! Or eating a snack or drinking water! Especially since USJ is next chapter... take a break! Be kind to yourselves! :)
<3 sabertoothhousecat
Infiltrate
Chapter Notes
Hi, happy Thursday, have some USJ :)
CW!!!!! (please pay attention this time!!) I don't usually write gory chapters, but this is probably the closest to gore I get, so please be careful! Blood, major violence, major injuries
Izuku didn't tell his mom where he was going, for a number of reasons, but first and foremost because he honestly didn't know if he was going to make it out of this. He was about to launch himself into a fray of villains with no idea what his back-up would look like or even how many villains were going to be there. The so-called League of Villains seemed to know what they were doing, keeping information from individual members to reduce the possibility of betrayal. If Dabi hadn't been so close with Izuku, and Izuku hadn't known how to contact Nezu, their plan would have been perfect.
He told his mom he had an assignment he needed to work on with a friend from school, hiding a wince when she congratulated him proudly on making friends. He walked with his backpack until he was out of view from the apartment windows and then ducked into an alley, pulling on his costume. Running to the bar, he stuck to the shadows and the sketchy streets, using height to his advantage because no one ever thinks to look up. He ran right past the bar, closed at this hour of the morning, headed straight for the warehouse, checking his mask, his knives, his shoes.
Dropping down in front of the warehouse, he rolled his shoulders a little and walked in.
There were two probably-villains in there, so Izuku hid in the shadows and waited, not wanting to be seen earlier than he needed to be. He was about two minutes early.
At exactly ten o'clock, a swirling purple mist appeared in the middle of the warehouse. The other two villains eagerly walked right through it and disappeared. Checking himself over one last time, Izuku followed them.
He stepped through the mist into a huge space, with a glass dome over the top. The USJ, he realized suddenly. He'd found out about this place during his research of the school. It was supposed to be a top-notch training facility. It was also probably the best place the League of Villains could have chosen to make their attack. They could use the environment against the students…
Purposefully sticking close to the back of the group, he tried to get a sense of the situation. The students were all crowded together at the top of the USJ, near the entrance. He frowned when he saw that there were just students and two teachers, Eraserhead and what looked like Thirteen. Had Nezu not upped security at all? Or maybe he'd expected a frontal attack… Or maybe he thought they wouldn't attack USJ, since it was an offshoot of the school, reasonably far from the main campus. Even Izuku hadn't expected Shigaraki to attack somewhere so isolated, but he guessed it made sense.
All Might wasn't there either, which meant he'd either used up all his time for the day, or he was somewhere else on campus, trying to defend something that didn't need defending.
Izuku pulled out his phone and typed out a quick email to Nezu, with subject line U.S.J. and no content. It wouldn't send, so he put his arm back through the portal and pressed send again. He waited for a moment, hand through the portal, looking curiously around.
There were probably over fifty villains standing down in the middle of the simulation joint, in a sort of courtyard. The leader of the whole group, a crusty looking blue haired dude, was saying something or other in a whimsical tone of voice that he clearly thought made him sound scarier than he was. All it did was make him sound really, really creepy, or like he was sleep deprived. Next to him was a big purple monster thing that Izuku didn't want anywhere near him. Izuku suddenly wished he knew how to use guns.
The crowd of villains started walking forward, and Izuku pulled his hand out of the portal and looked at his phone. The email had made it through. Smirking to himself, he carefully crept quietly to get behind the warp portal, which was shrinking to something resembling a humanoid shape.
Unless he was completely misreading the situation, there was a person hidden beneath all that mist, a body to attack.
"All Might… the Symbol of Peace…" Crusty Boy was saying. Izuku ignored him, focusing on the warper. Take out the warper, and a huge problem becomes significantly less of a problem.
Eraserhead dived down into the fray and Izuku winced. Eraserhead wasn't good with drawn out fights. He could fight multiple people at once, but not so many, and not all at the same time like this, in the open. Izuku just needed a moment to figure out a strategy, though, and then he could play back-up.
He didn't have a moment. Misty Person tensed up, like he was about to move, probably to attack the students and Thirteen.
Not today.
Shaking out his hands, Izuku pulled out his katana and jumped right for Misty Person's back. His feet connected with something solid and Misty Person stumbled forward a few feet. Wrapping his legs around their waist, Izuku grabbed their shoulder with one hand and jabbed the katana straight in, aiming for what he hoped wasn't a crucial part of the body. The sword slid right in and he winced as blood came spurting out.
"Oof, sorry about that," he apologized as Misty Person groaned. "I can't see through all the mist." He yanked the katana out and flipped it in his hand, jabbing down with the handle. It went right through the warper's head. Huh.
"Kurogiri!" Crusty Boy shrieked, focusing on the two of them, instead of his insane rambling.
Wow, what an outfit , Izuku thought, noticing all the disgusting hands all over Crusty Boy's body.
Angry, the guy dived forward, hands outstretched for Izuku. Izuku got the feeling that he did not want those hands touching him, so he pushed lightly off Misty Person's-- Kurogiri's back and used it as a springboard to launch himself several feet away, landing lightly on his feet.
"You!" Crusty Boy growled suddenly, eyes narrowing under the hand over his face.
"Making a fashion statement?" Izuku asked. He bit his tongue. That was stupid, making an already enraged person even more angry.
"Entropy," Crusty Boy said, ignoring the comment and taking another step forward.
Izuku drew back a few more steps. "Um… Yes? Hi?"
Eraserhead was suddenly between them, hair levitating as he focused on Shigaraki, panting. "What the hell are you doing?" he spat at Izuku.
"'Wow, thank you Entropy, I'm so glad you showed up and are playing back-up against all these villains,'" Izuku grumbled. "'I don't know what I would do without you. Your actions are appreciated.'" He jumped away, trying to distance himself from Crusty Boy and taking the opportunity to attack Misty Person again.
Whatever he did, he had to make sure Misty Person didn't get to the other students. That was just asking for a disaster.
"Nomu!" Crusty Boy yelled, pointing at Izuku.
"That's… not my name, but--"
A powerful fist slammed into Izuku's side, cutting him off. He felt a few ribs break, heard them crack, and he went flying across the courtyard. He landed in a heap, coughing. "Shit," he spat, blood dripping out of his mouth. He must have bitten his tongue.
Something heavy landed on top of his back and he struggled weakly to get out, gritting his teeth against the pain in his ribs.
This was not fun.
Someone grabbed his arm and lifted it up. Intense pain shot up his shoulder and he screamed as he felt it pop out of its socket. Whatever was holding his arm expertly twisted and broke it in three places and Izuku screamed again, panting heavily. Blood started to drip out of his arm and he put his forehead on the ground, closing his eyes so he didn't have to look at it.
Nezu had to be coming soon. Please let Nezu be coming.
Katsuki couldn't believe this. He just couldn't believe it.
That was Deku . Down there. Fighting like a fucking pro. Katsuki had thought he'd recognized Deku's voice earlier, when the vigilante said something snarky, but he'd dismissed it. But now he was screaming and Katsuki recognized that with immediate surety.
Deku was down there, fighting for all of 1-A.
"We have to help them," Katsuki muttered.
Shitty Hair gave him a worried look. "Don't you think we should be trying to evacuate with Thirteen?" Most of the class was already at the door, and at least half of them had already left the building.
"You really think shitty Deku and one teacher can hold all those villains off?" Katsuki asked, watching Aizawa expertly dodge the blue haired guy's hands.
"I just don't think we could help…"
"Of course we could. We're heroes too, right?"
Shitty Hair shook his head. "That's not our battle, Bakugou-kun. Let's leave this to the experts."
"Bakugou-kun and Kirishima-kun!" Thirteen's voice came sharply. "Please move to the exits!"
Scowling, Katsuki turned away from the courtyard and shuffled toward Thirteen. It was annoying. Useless, shitty Deku was getting all the fighting glory and Katsuki was getting shepherded around like a fucking toddler.
Thirteen showed Katsuki and Shitty Hair out the door and they walked out. Outside, Kaminari was talking quickly into his earpiece, probably informing the pro-heroes of the situation. He turned to them, a smile on his face. "That green guy tipped them off apparently-- they're almost here."
Shouta had been in a lot of fights. It was part of the job, being a pro-hero. He had a lot of expertise on getting in fights, and more on getting out of them. Needless to say, he thought he could say reasonably that he had experienced most types of fighting.
He had never been in a fight like this. Completely outmatched, no communication with the outside, teamed up with a teenager who, admittedly, was extremely skilled, but was now screaming in pain.
This was not what he'd expected when he'd woken up this morning. Nezu had said they were expecting an attack on the school, but no one dreamed it would be at a location so far away from the main campus-- why on earth would the villains attack here? Because All Might was scheduled to be here now? How had they figured that out?
In hindsight, they should have seen it coming.
But there wasn't time for regrets now. Entropy's arms were so mangled at this point they looked like actual noodles, and the big purple monster was holding his face to the concrete. He wasn't screaming anymore, which was vaguely terrifying. Shouta would move over there, but he couldn't, not with all these villains and the blue haired guy chasing him around.
He just had to wait it out, hope Thirteen and his kids were getting help.
Entropy made a strange strangled gasping noise and Shouta glanced over to see the monster gripping the kid around the neck. But he couldn't get over there, he wouldn't be able to in time. There were too many villains around him.
He heard a sickening squelching sound and chanced another glance. What he saw almost made him stumble.
Entropy had somehow managed to twist around and stab the monster through the face. He was now wriggling a little to fish out another knife, using his less-broken arm.
Shouta looked away for half a second to knock away three more people and when he turned back, there were three knives in the exposed brain of the monster and Entropy was working his way to his feet.
"Dickhead," he heard Entropy spit.
"No!" The blue haired guy yelled, glaring at Entropy with venom.
"Yes," Entropy muttered, staggering away from the purple monster.
He was suddenly surrounded by five villains, ones Shouta hadn't gotten to yet, and he sighed miserably. "Really? All of you?" He nodded at one of them. "How's your wife doing?" he asked that one, sounding absolutely exhausted.
"She'll be better after this paycheck," came the response.
Entropy gave them an annoyed look. "Yes she'll be so glad to know that you attacked a high school to bring money home."
Looking cowed, they looked at their feet.
"I'll handle this," said the guy with all the hands, brushing past people to get to Entropy. Shouta got distracted for a moment by a guy who looked reminiscent of an eggplant. When he looked back, Entropy was ducking and twisting around all of the guy's attacks, looking almost as graceful as a dancer.
Shouta wished that kid was in UA— he would be a wonder to train.
The guy with all the hands finally managed to get a hand on Entropy's back and the kid gasped, ducking away again.
There was a hand shaped hole in the back of his hoodie, and some blood was dripping out of his back.
What the hell? So his quirk wasn't quirk negation? Maybe it relied on eyesight? What the hell .
A villain took advantage of Shouta's distraction and punched him hard across the jaw. Snapping out of it, he ducked under them and started fighting with renewed vigor, mind whirring.
An analysis quirk maybe? Maybe he figured out a way to get around Shouta's quirk. That would explain why it looked like he was anticipating everything thrown at him.
Entropy was talking again, having a conversation with the blue haired guy while dancing around all his attacks. Purple mist suddenly obscured Shouta's vision and he scowled. In his distraction, he'd stopped paying attention to the warper.
As he got warped who-knows-where, all he could think was how much he hoped Nezu was coming soon. That kid wouldn't be able to hold out on his own.
Taken
Chapter Notes
Hi again :)
Okay so. You all leave really nice comments and I just wanted to say thank you? I love reading them so much :) They make me so happy. So thanks :D
ALSO! THIS IS IMPORTANT!!! I'm going to start updating on SUNDAYS now that EAwD is over. Sundays are better for me because if I'm behind, I have the whole weekend to catch up :) So the next chapter will be posted in a week and a half, not just a week.
And also, Nanowrimo is here! I'm writing another fic that will also be updating every Sunday, and that one is taking priority over this one, so if I ever miss a day because of that, sorry! I'm going to try to keep up with it all :)
ALL RIGHT. CW: blood, gore kind of?, major violence, major injuries, mentioned vomiting, sort of kidnapping
See the end of the chapter for more notesIzuku was in a lot of pain. His arms felt prickly, almost, like he was losing feeling in his fingers, and stinging pain was coursing through his upper arm. He was relatively sure his right arm was dislocated, which was extremely uncomfortable. His neck was sore from the Nomu Thing trying to choke him, his cheek was bleeding from when the Nomu Thing pressed his face into the concrete, several of his ribs were broken from when the Nomu Thing chucked him across the courtyard, and he was relatively sure one of his ribs had punctured his lung. Breathing was getting difficult.
Oh, and now Crusty Boy had slapped a painful handprint into his back.
He was not doing well.
He staggered a few steps and Crusty Boy caught his wrist, five fingers pressing down into his skin. In retaliation he smacked Crusty Boy across the face with his free arm, gritting his teeth as pain shot into his shoulder.
Crusty Boy made another attempt to touch him and, in his rush to get out of the way, Izuku fell to the ground, gasping as he landed on broken ribs.
Thankfully All Might chose this moment to make an appearance, slamming the doors to USJ open with so much force that Izuku could feel the blast and laughing maniacally.
Crusty Boy scowled upward and then grinned. "Ah, finally!"
"I hope you're aware," Izuku coughed, "that your purple monster thing is dead."
"Shigaraki Tomura," Kurogiri said, suddenly appearing next to them, clutching his shoulder, which was still dripping blood. "I believe we should depart."
All Might started throwing away villains in the courtyard, grinning. Izuku didn't understand why All Might smiled all the time any more. Why was he smiling when everything was wrong with the world? Why would he use his smile to make people think everything was okay when it wasn't? What else was he hiding…?
Pouting like a little kid, Crusty Boy-- Shigaraki-- nodded and turned to go.
Izuku wondered vaguely where Eraserhead was.
"You," Shigaraki said, pausing to scowl at Izuku. He glanced at Kurogiri. "Let's…"