Chapter 38: Abduction
"Wait. What are we doing back at the warehouse? Why are the nomu here, too? Kurogiri, what the hell did you just do?!" The words floated over Izuku's conscious mind, but found no purchase. Distantly, he recognized the voice as belonging to Tomura Shigaraki, the blue-haired leader of the League of Villains. Izuku's focus, however, was on escaping the grasp of the nomu around his neck and avoiding Stain's grisly fate.
The edges of his vision were starting to fuzz out to darkness due to the lack of air, and Izuku's head felt as if an ice pick were driven between his eyes. The sounds of nails scratching harshly on skin remained in the background. One For All raced through his veins as Izuku punched, kicked, and clawed at the nomu's arm, but nothing he did loosened the vise grip around his throat. He didn't have any Fa Jin charge in any motion that would be remotely useful right now.
Izuku was prepared to increase One For All to levels that would injure himself, just to get another breath of air, when a deep, sonorous voice rang out. "Drop him." All at once, Izuku fell to the floor, gasping as he drew in deep breaths of air. Slowly his vision returned, and it took him a moment to understand exactly what he was looking at.
The unseeing eyes of Stain looked back at him from where the nomu had dropped the corpse as well. What had been the man's chest was now dominated by two large holes that were still draining blood onto the floor. Izuku scrambled to his hands and knees before the body in front of him, doing his best not to gag and retch at the sight.
"Sensei…" It was only at hearing Shigaraki's voice again, recognizing it as the voice of the man who had invaded the USJ and nearly killed him and his classmates, that Izuku finally realized that there were other people around him.
Tearing his eyes off of the carcass in front of him, Izuku took in his surroundings. He was in a very large room, a warehouse of some sort, although the light was low enough that he couldn't make out exactly how large it was. In the distance, eerie green light filtered through a number of glass tanks of some sort of liquid. A handful of the tanks had vaguely humanoid figures floating in them, but they were too far and it was too dimly lit for Izuku to pick out any details.
The nomu that had grabbed him towered over him, awaiting further instruction. Another nomu, with red stripes on white skin and a rebreather built into its face, lay on the floor gently steaming, twitching occasionally. To Izuku's left stood Tomura Shigaraki and Kurogiri, Shigaraki looking past Izuku in petulant dismay. Izuku looked over his shoulder and dread filled his entire body. It was as if the air itself had turned solid and weighed down on him.
A man sat in a high tech wheelchair, a pitch black metal helmet encasing everything from his neck on up. The mask connected via various pipes and wires to the chair itself and seemed to assist his respiration, if the rhythmic, mechanical breathing noise coming from his direction was any indication.
As for the man himself, he lazed in the chair in an immaculate black suit, perfectly clean white button up shirt underneath left unbuttoned at the collar. One hand propped up his head and Izuku could nearly feel the sardonic smile hidden underneath the mask.
Izuku's mouth went dry. There was no doubt in his mind as to who this man was: All For One.
"It is so nice to finally meet you, Izuku Midoriya." Izuku was frozen. He couldn't see the man's face but he could feel the hate and malice radiating off of him as clearly as he could feel the floor under his feet. Was this a quirk? Or was one man capable of so much enmity?
"Sensei! Why did you call off the attack on Hosu? It was going so well!" Shigaraki pouted. That much, at least, hadn't changed since the USJ. All For One glanced in Shigaraki's direction, and Izuku swallowed a deep breath of relief at no longer being the focus of his attention.
"Why, my dear Tomura, it succeeded beyond my wildest expectations. Now, Kurogiri, why don't you return your charge to the bar for the time being? And the nomu to the Doctor. I would like to speak with Mr. Midoriya here." Kurogiri bowed as a portal swallowed Shigaraki, too stunned to say a word. Even as the two nomu also disappeared, however, the shadowy villain remained.
"Now then, unless I am mistaken, you have something of mine, young man." All For One slowly approached Izuku, who was still on his hands and knees. As the wheelchair grew closer, he pushed onto his feet, backing away from the ancient villain. His voice was smooth, but made Izuku feel unclean, like a slick of oil on water. "Something that I have been trying to reclaim for quite some time."
"It's alright, though. I don't blame you for that. I'm sure that All Might fed you some line or another about how the quirk is meant for great, heroic things. Am I right?" Izuku didn't respond, but simply continued to back away, one small step at a time. "But take it from someone who was there: it was meant for me. It was meant to show my brother just how foolish he was. It failed, so now I have come to take it back."
Izuku's back hit something. He didn't dare turn around to see what it was, but stared at the approaching villain, attempting to will his body to move, his voice to function. "And now I have you here, able to correct a great injustice. Simply return the quirk to me and you will be free to go." Izuku couldn't say anything, but managed to jerk his head side to side to reject the man in front of him.
"No? I suppose that's fair. After all, what sort of trade would that be? How about a compromise then? You give me One For All, and I will give you any quirk that you desire. You could have the perfect quirk for heroism! Endeavor has done quite well with Hellfire, I'm sure you could do even better if it came to it. No?" Izuku realized he was still shaking his head. "If you wanted to be like All Might I'm sure I could find a super strength quirk that would let you play at being a hero like you have been. I won't stop you so long as you give me One For All back."
"L-Liar." Izuku was surprised to hear his own voice call out the villain in front of him, even in a whisper.
"What did you say?" There was an edge of venom in All For One's voice that hadn't been there a moment ago.
"Y-You're lying. If I give you the quirk, y-you'll just kill me and be done with it."
"I could always just take it from you." All For One lifted one of his hands, displaying the prominent hole in the center of the palm. "I really am trying to be fair and equitable here, Mr. Midoriya."
"N-No, you're not." Izuku slowly regained some of his confidence. Simply speaking was enough to disrupt the spell that the ancient villain had over him. "If you could just take it from me, you'd already have done it. You want to convince me to hand it over as soon as possible, before All Might finds me. And you." The mention of All Might caused All For One's malefic aura to flare for a moment, but Izuku pushed on. "Because you know how things will end if he finds you again."
Silence stretched between the two. Izuku considered activating One For All and attempting to escape, but between Kurogiri's portals and the complete unknown that was All For One, he decided instead to bide his time, at least for now. His decision was influenced some by the terror from the man's presence that he was just barely holding at bay.
"Kurogiri, bring us to the tower." Izuku stumbled as another black, misty portal engulfed him, but managed to keep his feet. As his vision cleared, he could see that they were no longer in the warehouse. Instead, they appeared to be in a skyscraper on one of the higher floors, looking out over the Tokyo skyline. No furniture impeded the view from where they stood, and Might Tower itself loomed in front of them, still illuminated on the upper floors.
"I have owned this building for the past five years. I purchased it entirely for the view. Despite being literally under his nose, All Might has no idea." All For One wheeled up next to Izuku, looking out the window with him, despite the mask covering his face. "You think All Might will find us? He has nothing . I have been very careful to ensure that there is no piece of information, public or private, that can be tied back to me. On the off chance that he finds one of my hideouts, I have dozens, all across the country and beyond."
"Let me make myself very clear, boy ." All For One snarled. "The heroes will never find you. You will never walk free again unless I allow it. More importantly, if you want to have any hope of seeing your dear Kyoka again, you will give me the quirk."
Izuku's breath caught in his throat. All Might had warned him that dating Kyoka would make her a target, but how had All For One found out about it? "Oh. Surprised?" The villain sounded amused. "Don't be. I know everything about you, boy . Just know that the longer you hold out, the worse it will be for those you love."
"Y-Y-You're bluffing. I-If you could kidnap Kyoka, you'd have d-done it already." After all, she had not been very far from him when Kurogiri had kidnapped him. If All For One really knew that much about Kyoka, why hadn't she been snatched as well? Izuku slowed his breathing as he reassured himself; he wasn't sure if he'd be able to remain steadfast if All For One had a hold on Kyoka as well.
"Perhaps." Once again the silence stretched between the two of them as All For One continued to stare at Might Tower. Izuku considered his options, and decided that even if he was stopped, attempting to escape while here might still cause enough of a commotion to give All Might a lead.
One For All flooded his body and he shot forward, towards the plate glass window. Just inches away from it, however, a portal opened. Not one made of black mist, like Kurogiri's, but one that Izuku could feel tearing at space itself. He tumbled through, unable to stop his forward momentum, and came to rest on a hard, concrete floor.
Immediately Izuku regained his footing, looking around to try and figure out where he was now. The only lighting in the room, however, was spilling in through the portal back to Tokyo, and Izuku had no way of knowing which way was best to escape. He settled into a simple defensive posture for now, pressing down against the ever increasing pain in his head and the terror that suffused his body.
All For One rolled through the hole in reality, Kurogiri following close behind him. "I really would have let you go, you know? It's just good business to keep your word. But now, now I can let the Doctor have his way with you. One For All is already changing you, after all. You can control two quirks at once, nearly three or four, and with no change to your mental state. I would dearly like to know how. Who knows, perhaps you will be the first of our next line of nomus. It would certainly be poetic: the last holder of One For All and the first of a new species."
The portal began to close behind All For One, pitching the room deeper into darkness. The last thing Izuku saw was All For One raising a hand to point at Izuku. "Now, sleep."
Izuku was asleep before he hit the ground.
---
Manami Aiba had not been particularly busy for the past several months. Gentle Criminal had been falling into a depression recently, and no matter what Manami did, she couldn't seem to pull him out of it. It hadn't been an immediate thing, but something that he had slid into over the course of months. Even if Manami had been pushed, she wouldn't have been able to pick a single day or event that had precipitated the change.
As part of his increasing depression, though, Gentle had been producing fewer and fewer videos. The times he did even pull together enough to stage another heist, he was far from the engaging and driven man that she had been so happy to film when she met him. Instead, he seemed wooden and unenthused on video.
His followers had noticed, too, with the number of comments on any given video dropping to the single digits. Even if a slight majority of the comments that Gentle used to receive were making fun of him, they were still people watching, helping him become famous. Now, though, he was just one more content creator in a sea of mediocrity. Manami was working her best to help Gentle rekindle the flame that had driven him and first attracted her to him, but it was slow going.
In the meantime, however, they still had to eat.
And so most of Manami's time was, unfortunately, spent on freelance hacking jobs just to make sure the two of them had enough money to keep the lights on and food on the table. Manami didn't begrudge Gentle the fact that she was bringing in essentially all the money. She had expected that would be the case until he really broke through into the mainstream, after all. It just disappointed her that she was too busy to do more to help the man she loved.
Her current job involved liberating some sensitive government documents for her client. She didn't know anything about who she was working for, and that was how she liked it. It didn't matter to her exactly who was prying into JSDF troop deployments and base locations, and the less she knew the less she could reveal on the off chance she was caught.
She'd already reactivated the false credentials she had inserted into the government servers months ago. Those credentials certainly didn't have high enough security clearance to access army documents directly, but they did give her an idea of where said documents were stored and what exactly she'd have to do to access them.
Now, though, she was taking a break from the job. The longer she focused on coding at once, the more likely she was to make a mistake. For a job like this, a mistake could mean losing everything, possibly being locked away for the rest of her life away from Gentle. Manami wasn't going to risk such a grim fate.
The main reason that she was taking a break, though, was that what seemed like the entire Japanese side of the internet was blowing up over whatever was happening in Hosu. Details were still sparse, although things seemed to be calming down now. The vast majority of the information was coming from citizens on the ground recording the attack with cell phones or tablets. Only a few snippets of video, such as the finale to Gang Orca's battle on the docks, had been taken from actual news organizations.
Manami was entranced, for a variety of reasons. First, on a professional level, she had to admire how effectively the League of Villains had kicked up a media storm. Even if she and Gentle would never have the power to threaten an entire city like this, nor would they want to even if they could, there were still lessons she could take about how to craft an effective villain attack.
Second, she could not help but to feel for the people of Hosu. The current reports had confirmed at least fifteen dead heroes and sidekicks, at least double that in civilians, and thousands still missing or unaccounted for. Estimates for how many dead they would find in just the collapsed apartment complexes were well into the triple digits. No matter how you looked at this, it was a tragedy of the magnitude the country had not seen in decades, since the early days of All Might. While Gentle and her were villains, they had never aimed at causing the sort of widespread death and destruction as had been on display tonight.
While the news networks had not released much footage out of Hosu, there were plenty of cell phone videos flooding the internet. Many were not particularly interesting, showing plumes of smoke in the distance or the faded sounds of explosions. Manami found herself drawn, instead, to the videos taken by braver souls: the ones that featured the nomu.
Most of those videos were only a few seconds long, although there was one that was nearly a minute long, showing Endeavor and Machina teaming up to bring the white skinned nomu to its knees in a tornado of fire before the villain suddenly disappeared. Manami watched that video at least half a dozen times.
For her own sanity, at least, Manami was almost ready to turn her attention back to her project when a new video popped up, claiming to show both a nomu and Stain. She hadn't realized that Stain had been in Hosu as well, and wondered if he was there working with the League of Villains. Figuring that her hacking could wait another little while, she clicked into the video.
She very quickly figured out that Stain was not, in fact, working for the League of Villains. She figured it out somewhere between him stabbing the nomu in the brain and, in turn, being impaled through the chest.
But before that, even through the video, Manami could feel the intensity of Stain's convictions, could see the way his very presence shot terror through the heroes and sidekicks gathered on the street. And how there had only been one of them, a young, green haired hero, who had stood up to face the serial killer.
Apparently that young hero was an intern, the first-year winner of the U.A sports festival. Manami hadn't watched this year because of an important job, but her understanding was that he was quite skilled. Not that his skill had done Bastion any good, as he was attacked by the nomu a moment later and teleported away with the beast.
Some of the comments on the video were talking about how Stain might have a point, that too many heroes did seem to only be in it for the fame or the money. Others praised Bastion for standing up to the serial killer, something that even the heroes on scene were obviously reluctant to do, and how Stain proclaimed the boy a true hero. A few of the commenters, however, were going on about how all of this meant that the boy was a mole, working for the villains and taking this opportunity to escape. These commenters generally used Stain's proclamation as just another nail in the coffin.
Manami, though, had her thoughts dragged in another direction by the boy. He tickled at her memory, and she went through her old videos to see if he showed up in any of them. Half an hour later, after rewatching nearly all of her raw footage from Gentle's last dozen heists, she found him again.
Bastion was the boy that had stood up to Gentle in Musutafu, who had prevented Gentle from murdering the hero Takeha. Everything that he had said that night months ago in the heat of the moment only reinforced Manami's belief that he was not a villain. She logged into one of her burner accounts to post the raw video, with enough background to show exactly what had led to that moment.
After she posted it, though, her stomach was still roiling with stress. Everything she and Gentle had done for the past months, all of the heists and crimes, what had it meant? Gentle always claimed that he was trying to fight for the little person, to shine a light into the gaps of society that people would fall through.
But was robbing convenience stores for mislabeling their products really the best way to go about that?
Manami wasn't sure any more.
But there was something here. Between Bastion's words to Gentle outside the J Store all those months ago, his actions against Stain, and Manami knowing Gentle's history of wanting to be a hero, a plan was forming in her mind. Something that might be able to drag Gentle out of his funk.
She was so engrossed in her planning that she didn't immediately notice the number of hits and comments on her video growing faster than any other that she had posted.
---
Just like the rest of the country, Inko was glued to her television watching as the events in Hosu unfolded. She found herself surprisingly calm throughout the entire disaster. It was horrible and she felt for the families involved, those that had lost their lives or their loved ones, but there was a tickle of relief in the back of her mind that her family wasn't involved.
After all, while Izuku was interning in Tokyo, he was in the Roppongi district in Minato. It wasn't the furthest district from Hosu, but it wasn't right next to it either. Even if Gran Torino was called in for support and decided to bring Izuku with them, it was likely that they would arrive after the major danger had passed.
Inko felt a small spike of anxiety at hearing that at least four U.A interns were confirmed to have been in Hosu prior to the attack, according to publicly posted patrol schedules. None of the heroes in question were Izuku's supervisor, so again, Inko was not worried for him. If she remembered right, though, Izuku had said that Jiro was going to intern with Gang Orca, one of the heroes confirmed to be in Hosu during the attack, both by his schedule, and the network footage of him defeating one of the nomu at the docks.
She was worried for Jiro, of course. The girl had always seemed like she'd had a good head on her shoulders and had been good for Izuku. Thankfully, Gang Orca seemed to have things under control.
When her phone rang, though, she nearly jumped out of her skin. Even if she wasn't as anxious about the situation as she might otherwise have been, she had still been focusing on the television and news out of Hosu to the exclusion of all else.
It was Hisashi, and her stomach sank. Her wayward husband had not called in weeks. The only reasons he could be calling now were unpleasant to think about. She let the phone ring four times before picking it up and answering. Even if Hisashi was the bearer of bad news, she still wanted to hear it directly from him.
"Inko." Her husband didn't even say hello. "Are you seeing what's happening in Hosu?"
"What's happened to Izuku?" His question was stupid; there likely wasn't a single person awake in the country that wasn't aware of what was happening in Hosu.
Hisashi sighed. Presumably he had wanted to ease Inko into whatever he was about to say. "There's a bystander video that was posted online ten minutes ago. Among other things, it… it shows Izuku getting snatched by a nomu before being portaled out of Hosu. We have no idea where he went or what condition he's in."
The phone dropped from Inko's suddenly weak fingers. Izuku wasn't supposed to be in Hosu, and if he was there, he was supposed to be staying with his supervisor. What sort of professional hero would allow their intern, a child in high school, to get captured and not do everything possible to stop it?
That probably wasn't fair; Inko hadn't even seen the video yet. Part of her knew that whatever had happened wasn't what this Gran Torino had wanted, likely up to and including the very fact that they were in Hosu when this all happened.
However, Inko didn't really care about what Gran Torino had wanted right now. All she knew was that her son, her only child, had been snatched by a villain while he was supposed to still be in school. Practical experience was all well and good, but a fifteen year old boy should never have been in a position like this to begin with.
Distantly, she realized that Hisashi had still been speaking. Inko gingerly picked up the phone and cut him off. "What are you going to do about it?" She could cry later. Right now, all she needed was some promise that something was being done.
The pregnant pause that followed did not fill her with confidence. "To start with, we're revoking Gran Torino's authorization to take on interns. In all honesty, it's something that should have…"
"That's not what I'm asking, and you damn well know it, Hisashi!" Inko found her voice growing louder and louder. "What is the commission, in all their power and glory, doing to find our son ?!"
"Right now, dear, we're gathering evidence, leads to where the League of Villains might have safehouses." Condescension dripped from Hisashi's voice, but there wasn't even a speck of concern for what might have happened to Izuku. Inko took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, to not bite Hisashi's head off.
"And do you have any leads yet?" Yes, perfectly calm, perfectly reasonable question.
"You know that I can't tell you anything like that." Hisashi sounded as if he were talking to an elementary school child.
"So no, you're sitting on your hands while our son has been kidnapped or worse! Perfectly willing to let your own child suffer at the hands of villains without a care in the world!" Maybe Inko hadn't been quite as calm as she had thought. On the other hand, Hisashi was being incredibly dismissive of the danger their son was in.
There was a pause, and Inko briefly thought she had hit a nerve. Maybe she had made him realize that it was his own flesh and blood in danger. She was quickly disabused of that notion. "You're obviously not being rational right now. I have work here to make this less of a disaster than it already is. I'll let you know when we have something new I can tell you." Without even so much as a 'goodbye', Hisashi hung up, leaving Inko with her jaw hanging at his arrogance. She hurled her phone across the room in a fit of frustration, only feeling mildly better as it sunk behind the couch.
Inko sighed and ran her hand down her face. A quick glance at the television showed that the networks still were not covering anything about a kidnapping, so she retreated to the laptop in her bedroom to try and find out what had happened to Izuku.
It was all too easy to find the video that Hisashi had mentioned; it was splashed across social media without a care in the world. Inko found it difficult to watch, but she was glad that she did. From her son standing up to Stain (when had he gotten involved?!) to the nomu rushing on scene to Stain of all people trying to save her son, it was all frightening and so very Izuku. Of course he would be the one to try to protect others from Stain; of course he would somehow impress a serial killer enough to try and save him in return. Before she had realized it, Inko had watched the video at least ten times. She could probably quote Stain, the only one who had spoken in it, verbatim at this point.
It was at that point that she noticed a second video including her son was trending as well. She clicked into it, expecting to find footage from the sports festival, but was instead surprised to find a video from months ago.
Inko instantly recognized the J Store as being the one Izuku was injured in front of in a villain incident months ago. She had heard a rough outline of what had happened from Izuku at the time, but seeing it in action was something else. That he had been so determined, so driven to do what was right even before unlocking his quirk and being accepted to U.A, it made Inko's heart swell.
It also made her even more worried about the situation he was in right now. Her son, with all his boundless drive to help people and do what was right, could very easily find himself in an extremely dangerous situation when kidnapped by villains.
Inko wanted to scream. She was a mother. Her job was to protect her child, no matter what. And now, not for the first time, she was stuck at home while Izuku was in danger. She trusted him, but she very much didn't trust the villains who were holding him captive.
Part of her just wanted Izuku home so she could watch after him herself, but she knew that was untenable. Another part of her wanted to rain hell down upon U.A and Gran Torino for allowing this to happen, but she knew that neither of them were fully, or even mostly, to blame in this situation. Part of her wanted to find the villains involved herself so she could see exactly which body parts counted as small enough for her quirk, but knew that would end in her own injury or death and wouldn't solve anything either.
Having so many competing desires that were all bad ideas for one reason or another was just fueling her stress and frustration further.
A faint buzzing drew Inko out of her ruminations, and she realized that her phone had been ringing for quite some time. Using her quirk to retrieve it from behind the couch, Inko saw that she had dozens of missed calls. Some were from U.A, some were from the HPSC, and a few appeared to be from Gran Torino himself.
Inko took a deep breath. She'd need to be calmer to deal with these calls. And she did want to speak with these people, if only to know more about Izuku's situation.
Before she could dial, however, the phone rang again, this time showing the HSPC's director of education on the ID: Katashi Oh. He wasn't anywhere near the top of the list of people she wanted to speak to right now, but he may have some information for her. Somehow Director Oh always seemed to know more than he was supposed to.
Inko answered the phone.
---
Unlike some of his classmates who had also undergone Mr. Yagi's training before U.A, Sen had never become much of a morning person. As soon as he didn't have to wake up at the ass crack of dawn, he stopped doing so. Therefore, the fact that Best Jeanist had required him and Aoyama to be dressed in hero costumes and ready to begin at six in the morning was just one of the several things that annoyed him about his internship.
So far, the internship had been heavy on presentation and image, less so on the actual details of patrolling and working as a hero. Sen knew that reassuring civilians and victims was an important part of hero work, one that he certainly needed to work on. On the other hand, though, it felt like something that could be taught after he knew how to actually work as a hero.
It was especially infuriating because Best Jeanist seemed to focus on just surface level changes that would apparently make him more 'approachable.' Sen sincerely doubted that simply changing his hair style and incorporating more denim into his costume would make any difference at all. The fact that Best Jeanist apparently gave this suggestion to everyone, including and perhaps especially his own sidekicks, made it feel like he was more interested in creating an army of clones than actually doing what was best for those under him.
Surprisingly enough, Aoyama had actually seemed to enjoy the internship so far. He appeared to truly relish talking fashion and style with the jean hero. The feeling was not reciprocated, given Aoyama's staunch opposition to wearing anything made of denim. The only time that Sen had seen Best Jeanist actually upset was when Aoyama tried to bargain on the point of denim, saying that he would only wear it if he was allowed to bedazzle it with a sufficient number of rhinestones. Sufficient in this case was somewhere in the thousands.
Aoyama ended up not wearing denim.
Even if Best Jeanist was disgusted by Aoyama's fashion sense, the boy himself still had seemed to enjoy himself during the three days of the internship so far. However, this morning he appeared to be feeling even worse than Sen was feeling. There were deep bags under Aoyama's eyes, and his hair hung limply, not styled or sprayed as it normally was. Even beyond that, there was a certain energy and exuberance that was missing from his eyes (there was no way Sen would call it a 'sparkle').
And honestly? Sen could relate. He'd been up far later than he should have been for such an early morning ahead of them. What had been happening in Hosu had been incredibly worrying, especially since he knew Yo had been heading there for a patrol last night. Beyond that was Midoriya's enigmatic GPS ping to the group chat shortly after the disaster had begun. In all honesty, it was that ping that got Sen to check his phone and realize that Hosu was under attack in the first place.
Midoriya's lack of response to the class's questions if he was ok had been explained as soon as the video of him standing up to Stain hit the internet. The fact that Todoroki, Jiro, and Yo were also in the video made it far more disturbing, as both Todoroki and Yo looked like they had been injured.
After that, though, there had been essentially an information black out on what they could find out about their classmates. Sen had managed to get in touch with Yo's parents to find out that he had been brought to Hosu General Hospital, injured but alive. Nothing beyond that, however.
"You look like shit." Sen decided to break the silence. Best Jeanist was already a few minutes late and if Sen didn't have a distraction he was going to fall asleep.
"Last night was… difficult." It was very odd hearing Aoyama speak in a relatively normal cadence, rather than his preferred affect. "I… knew people in Hosu."
"Kaminari was there, right?" Aoyama hesitated for a bit longer than normal before nodding.
"Yes, but I knew other people in the city last night."
"They all ok?"
"It took me a while to get in touch with them, but yes." Sen had thought that some of Aoyama's deflation was due to knowing someone who had been injured or killed, but perhaps it was just sleep deprivation after all. "Did all of 1-A make it out alright? Aside from Midoriya, I guess."
"Yo is in the hospital, but all I know of the others is that they're alive." A profound look of relief crossed Aoyama's face. Sen didn't have an opportunity to follow-up on that before one of Best Jeanist's sidekicks, a man with the hero name of Double Down, stuck his head into the room.
"Oh, you two are here." Of course they were. That's where Jeanist had told them to be every morning of their internship. "Best Jeanist is still in Hosu, helping with rescue and recovery. We need the room to plan how we can help as sidekicks, but he told us that you two could have the day off. It sounded like he didn't expect you to have much to do for the rest of your week here, honestly."
Oh. Well, it sucked that they wouldn't be learning anything more, but it wasn't like Sen was learning much of any use either way. This way maybe he'd be able to actually get in touch with Yo at some point today
But first, sleep. Precious sleep.
---
Kyoka woke up in a hospital bed, perhaps more exhausted than she had been the night before. Unlike Awase and Todoroki, she hadn't been injured at all in the fight with Stain. The only concern for her was hearing damage from being so close to the explosion at the docks, so she was kept to ensure that there was no lasting damage to her ears or her quirk. The fact that Gang Orca was also in the hospital for injuries he sustained while fighting the nomu may have also influenced her decision, as she didn't want to return to his agency's annex alone.
Due to the sudden influx of injured heroes and civilians from Hosu, she'd ended up in observation with three other sidekicks who had seen combat the night before. The other three had more severe injuries and doctors and nurses had been in and out of the room all night. Even if they hadn't, Kyoka still wouldn't have slept well knowing that Izuku had been kidnapped right in front of her. She had been on her phone trying to get the most recent news up until she had passed out due to exhaustion.
Seeing the months old video of Izuku facing down Gentle Criminal was a bit of a trip, though. He was so much smaller in that video, even if it did remind her of just why she had fallen for him in the first place.
It didn't help her feel any better, though. After all, Izuku had been right in front of her and she had let him be grabbed by the nomu. She was supposed to hear things like that coming.
She had let him down.
She was the reason that Izuku was still missing.
While sleeping, her dreams had just reinforced these beliefs, replaying their last encounter with Stain and the nomu over and over. In her dreams she was frozen, stuck in place as Izuku put himself between her and Stain, as Izuku was snatched by the nomu. No matter how far away she could see the nomu coming from, how much she yelled at him to move, to dodge, to do anything to help himself, he never did.
It took Kyoka a minute to realize exactly where she was upon waking. She wanted to get back onto her phone to see what new information there was about the attack and if Izuku had been found, but as soon as she tried, a nurse came in to fetch her for another hearing test. Thankfully her hearing was back to normal; the tinnitus that had been plaguing her following the explosion had cleared up entirely.
Surprisingly, the nurse led her back not to the room where she had been staying, but a small consultation room and told her to wait there. Inside sat Todoroki and Awase, although Awase was in a wheelchair due to his leg injury.
"Either of you know why we're here?" Kyoka decided to be the one to break the silence, as neither of the two boys would ever say more than they had to. True to fashion, neither responded in words, simply shaking their heads no. With nothing better to do, Kyoka sat at the table with the two of them and took out her phone to check the news.
Unfortunately, the moment her phone was out of her pocket, the door opened once again and two men entered the room. One was obviously Gran Torino, at least based on Izuku's description of him. There were precious few shrunken, elderly heroes weaning gaudy yellow costumes, after all. The other was Aizawa, already glowering at the three students and appearing to have not slept at all the previous night.
Even as they entered the room, though, there were two more men standing just outside finishing a conversation. If Kyoka hadn't had her quirk, or if her hearing were still damaged, she might not have heard what they had been saying. As it was, however, she managed to catch the tail end of the conversation from a very annoyed sounding dog-headed man in a suit and tie.
"...have had enough, ruff. The law is the law. There is no reason and, in my opinion, no need for legal paw-nishments. I assure you the Chief Prosecutor will agree with me. We will speak no more on the matter." The speaker turned to enter the room just a moment after Aizawa and Gran Torino, leaving the last man standing in the hallway.
Kyoka only got a glimpse of the last person before the door shut, but he was as unremarkable as they came. The only thing that stood out as unusual or noteworthy about him was the intensity of his glare at the dog-headed man's back as the door closed. For some reason, though, despite nothing jogging her memory, Kyoka felt like she had seen the unknown man somewhere before.
"Pay attention, hell spawn." Aizawa drew the students' attention in his typical manner. "This is Chief of Police Kenji Tsuragamae. Pay him the respect he deserves. He wants to speak with you about yesterday's incident with Stain."
Kyoka stiffened slightly as she realized that such a high ranking police officer was here for them, but reminded herself of what he had said in the hallway. This wasn't just about punishing them, at least not legally.
"So," The police chief began. "You're the U.A students who got caught up with the hero killer, ruff."
"There's one more who's not here." Gran Torino grumbled, sullenly from what Kyoka could tell.
"Yes. According to Rock Lock, he's the one that deserves to be here most. But we are working on that, I promise you all. First, though, I have something I need to say to all of you, ruff." The chief of police stepped towards the table, towering over the three teens. Even if none of the three had been seated, he would have still been at least a head and shoulders taller than each of them.
"Eraserhead has already assured me that you have all been taught the history of the hero paw-fession. Therefore, you all must surely know of the strict, impartial laws regarding public quirk use, especially when used to cause harm to another person, ruff." Tsuragamae looked directly at Awase. "There are exceptions for those using their quirk to protect their own life, so long as they did not put themselves in danger in the first place. My understanding is that Rock Lock told you to run, Synthesis. You had a legal obligation to do so, ruff."
"That's bullshit." Awase responded, anger hot in his voice, even if it didn't show on his face. "If I didn't do anything then Rock Lock would be dead. If I had delayed Stain even one second less, then Rock Lock would have been dead before Midoriya could have shown up."
"If Jiro and I hadn't shown up, then all three of them would be dead." Todoroki spoke up as well. Kyoka considered telling the two boys what she had heard outside, but figured that it might be good for them to let out a little stress. It wasn't like she had the opportunity to either way, as the police chief jumped right back into the conversation.
"So it's alright to ignore the law because everything turned out alright? Is that what you two are saying?" He glanced at Aizawa. "Ruff, apparently you'll need to offer some additional lessons focused on hero and quirk law, Eraserhead."
"Don't worry." Aizawa ground out through clenched teeth. "That will be part of their punishment. Apparently my earlier lessons did not sink in." Kyoka's stomach dropped a bit at that. Even if they weren't being charged with anything, Aizawa still had broad freedom to punish them as he saw fit inside U.A.
"Good, ruff." Tsuragamae seemed indifferent to the slight panic on the students' faces. "All of that being said, we have no official record of what happened in that alleyway. The only hard evidence of your encounter with Stain is a video that began after all of you exited the alleyway. Rock Lock refused to say anything on the record, and there were no recording devices inside."
"That man has a soft spot for children a mile wide." Aizawa interjected.
"Indeed, ruff. Of course, the facts that Stain appeared to be suffering from severe burns and that his boots were found permanently affixed to the ground in the alley are, of course, circumstantial pieces of evidence at best." Tsuragamae fixed first Todoroki then Awase with a meaningful look. "As there is not any hard evidence as to unauthorized quirk use, there is nothing for us to do, ruff. Understand?"
"So what you're saying," Todoroki spoke slowly, putting it all together. "Is that you're not going to punish us for this?"
"You won't have any legal paw-nishment, ruff." The police chief said. "You'll have to deal with your supervisors' reactions, and I'm sure that Eraserhead will put you through your paces, ruff." Aizawa's face stretched into a manic grin at that statement, and Kyoka made sure to avoid eye contact with him.
"However, as a man dedicated to peace and safety, allow me to give you my humble thanks." Tsugaramae bowed deep at the waist towards the three of them. "Your bravery and quick thinking helped save several lives. And despite how it happened, Stain is now off the streets, which would not have happened tonight without all of you."
"And Izuku." Kyoka added. It seemed important to point out that without Izuku sending out his position, she and Todoroki never would have shown up. Not to mention saving Rock Lock's life in just the nick of time, if Awase was to be believed.
"Of course." Tsugaramae straightened. "I believe Eraserhaed and Gran Torino have updates for you on that front. I will take my leave, ruff. Thank you all for your time." Kyoka's breath caught as the police chief saw himself out of the room.
There was news about Izuku. She stared at Aizawa, willing him to speak sooner so she could know the latest. Unfortunately, the man appeared to be immune to her stare, even after Tsugaramae left the room.
"I guess I'll start then." Gran Torino huffed at Aizawa's silence. "I know you three were all there when Midoriya was taken, so we both had things we wanted to say. As his supervisor, what I want to say is this. It Wasn't. Your. Fault." Gran Torino gave each of the three students an icy glare as he said this, spending the longest time staring at Kyoka.
She did everything she could not to squirm under the man's gaze, but knew that he was just saying that because he had to. Everyone in the room knew it was her fault that Izuku had been taken. After all, she had been right there, right next to him, and hadn't done a thing to get him out of the nomu's grip.
"As soon as that nomu saw Midoriya, it was after him and him alone. The only thing that would have stopped it was killing it. Sir Nighteye and I tried, but we weren't successful, and now Sir's here in the ICU. None of you would have been able to stop it, so don't go thinking that you failed him or that this is your fault. This is the villain's fault, one hundred percent. And it's something that we heroes are going to fix, I promise you."
Kyoka finally looked Gran Torino in the eyes as he said this and saw a grim determination deep within them. She could tell that this man was willing to do whatever it took to get Izuku back, no matter the cost to himself. It was possible that he was also blaming himself for Izuku being taken, and was saying these things as much for himself as for the students.
Possible, but not likely, at least according to Kyoka.
"While we know that nomu was aiming for Midoriya in particular, we don't know if any other students are targets." Aizawa spoke up, drawing Kyoka's attention from the elderly pro. "As such, we are ending internships early and requiring all first-year students to return to campus. Our anti-warp security upgrades are complete, so this will ensure your safety until the League of Villains has been dealt with."
"Todoroki, Jiro, you have both been cleared for release with a clean bill of health each. Awase, you will still require visits with Recovery Girl on campus, but the doctors here are sure that you will make a full recovery if you follow her instructions. Understood?"
"Yes, sir." Awase responded instantly. "How is Rock Lock? Will I be able to see him before we need to return to campus?" Kyoka wanted to see Gang Orca as well, but knew he was in far better shape than Awase's advisor. Impalement wasn't something you could just walk off, after all.
"Rock Lock is stable and responding well to healing quirks. We may have time for you to visit for a few minutes before leaving, but I won't make any promises. As for you two," Aizawa turned his attention to Todoroki and Kyoka. "We will be receiving detailed reports on your behavior from your supervisors. Rest assured that we will take that into account when determining your full punishment for running off in a disaster situation."
"Yes, sir." Kyoka responded, willing to accept the punishment as the beginning of her penance for failing Izuku. Todoroki glared at Aizawa for a moment or two before echoing Kyoka.
"Good. And just so you all know, U.A is taking the lead on the search for Midoriya. We will bring him back. I promise."
---
At two in the morning, on the seventy ninth floor of Might Tower, Toshinori was poring over all of the information that they had managed to scrounge up on the League of Villains. It wasn't much. Shigaraki and Kurogiri were information black holes, with nothing more known about them than what they had shown at the USJ. Something about Shargaki tickled Toshinori's memory, but no matter how he wracked his brain, he could not make the connection.
The nomu were only a slightly more fruitful path forward. The nomu recovered from the USJ attack had taken some time to analyze, but in the end, each had shown combinations of DNA and quirk factors of at least two people. The hulking, bird-faced nomu had a combination of at least four people, with some hints that there may have been a fifth or sixth in the mix as well.
Armed with an idea of what to look for, the analysis of the two nomu that had been killed in Hosu had proceeded much faster, and Toshinori already had access to the preliminary results. Both the electric and the stone-skinned nomu had DNA sourced from at least three different people and the quirk factor of at least four.
The most worrisome part was where said DNA and quirk factors were coming from. The primary source of both DNA and quirk factor to the electric nomu was apparently a formerly E-Rank villain by the name of Tesla, who had been sighted at the USJ by students and cameras, but not captured in the aftermath. Similarly, the primary source of the DNA and quirk factor for the stone-skinned nomu was another E-Rank villain, this one by the name of Steel Bulwark. This villain had been defeated by Eraserhead in the opening minutes of combat at the USJ, but again had been unaccounted for when arresting villains afterwards. Each of the nomu's secondary sources of DNA and quirk factors could be tied to another villain who had escaped the USJ as well.
The only conclusion that Toshinori could draw was that All For One could produce nomus far faster than anyone had hoped previously. The DNA and quirk factors for the nomu at the USJ were all from villains or missing persons cases from years ago. The fact that All For One could go from living villains to nomu over the course of less than two months was deeply worrisome.
Nomu appeared to be something that could only be reliably combated by Top Ten heroes. In Hosu, even large collaborations of low ranking heroes and sidekicks ended up with atrocious casualty rates when attempting to contain any of the nomu. It was only Endeavor and Gang Orca that had any real success in combat against these brutes. If All For One could produce nomu of this strength so quickly, he had a real chance of overrunning Japan with these beasts within a year.
Unfortunately, despite the information about the nomu, Toshinori wasn't any closer to figuring out where All For One might be hiding. All of the villains that had been identified as being part of these nomu were involved in the USJ attack, so looking for where they had been active before the USJ attack was not necessarily useful. Even if it were, the villains were from all over the country, from Kyushu to Hokkaido.
Toshinori sighed, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his eyes. Things would be so much easier if Mirai hadn't been injured in Hosu; he had always been by far the best analyst Toshinori had worked with.
Unfortunately, the nomu that had managed to kidnap young Izuku had dealt Mirai a fairly grievous injury earlier, managing to spear him through the stomach with one of its arm spikes. Gran Torino had, appropriately, shifted his focus to making sure Mirai survived rather than keeping the nomu pinned down. It had probably saved his life, as if Mirai had been even ten minutes later to the hospital, doctors said he would likely be dead already.
As it was, Mirai was in the intensive care unit of the Hosu General Hospital, unconscious and on life support. The current prognosis was that it was more likely than not he'd survive, but not by much, and the exact long-term consequences of this injury were still not clear.
Gran Torino had not yet returned to Might Tower from Hosu, having taken it upon himself to begin working with the police force to ensure that any rescue operation for young Izuku could occur as quickly as possible. Toshinori was worried that Gran Torino was avoiding coming back for fear of Toshinori's wrath over letting Izuku get kidnapped.
That was a ridiculous worry. Toshinori was furious that young Izuku had been kidnapped, but he was furious with the League of Villains. Gran Torino had done everything right. He had delayed the nomu for as long as possible as soon as it was obvious that it was after young Izuku. However, once young Izuku had managed to escape and Mirai had been injured, focusing on saving the person that he could be sure to save was one hundred percent the right call in Toshinori's opinion.
It didn't make young Izuku's kidnapping hurt any less, though.
A glance at the clock elicited a groan from Toshinori. It was far later than he normally stayed awake. If he didn't head to bed anytime soon, it was unlikely that he'd have anywhere near his normal amount of hero time in the morning. He tried to shove down the worry that if they didn't have any leads on All For One and Izuku's location by now, it was unlikely they'd have any anytime soon.
Nine generations of bearers of One For All, and he'd let them all down.
A knock at the door to his office drew his attention. All of his investigative staff had gone home for the night. Only a handful of security guards and a skeleton staff for emergency services remained in the tower at night, and it was very unlikely that any of them would bother him in his personal office at this hour.
Slightly on guard, Toshinori walked to his door. He had used almost all of his hero form time today, but he had enough to defend himself if this were an attack, so he cautiously opened the door. On the other side stood young Hagakure, wearing her U.A uniform. At least, he was fairly sure it was young Hagakure; it felt quirkist to think, but it was difficult to tell invisible people apart at a glance.
"Young Hagakure," Toshinori decided to go with his first instinct, and the girl did not correct him. "Why are you still here? You were supposed to head back to U.A earlier today, and I know they're not letting students off campus."
"I came back," The voice was certainly young Hagakure's, but there was an edge to it that Toshinori had never heard before. "Because there are some things I need to tell you, All Might."
Toshinori froze. Young Hagakure should not know about this form of his. While it was theoretically possible that she could have seen him transform at some point, she was outspoken and he was fairly sure there would have been an outburst of surprise at some point.
Before he could reply, young Hagakure flickered into view, the invisibility that Toshinori understood to be permanent suddenly turning off. Iridescent hair fell to her shoulders and her eyes shifted through a rainbow of colors, but Toshinori could only focus on her scars. Even just her face was covered in a worryingly wide assortment of scars, making her look far older than her fifteen years.
"I need to tell you what I know about All For One."