Chapter Text
Shoto was, in the moment, grateful for his quirk.
Not the fire of course, but his mother’s ice. Hosu was, by and large, already on fire, and all of the running around he’d been doing probably would have overheated him by now.
“Look out!”
CRASH!
Shoto huffed as a miniature glacier sprung into existence in between a fleeing civilian and a smattering of scattered brick and concrete. He nodded his head at the man, now scrambling off the ground, and pointed him in a…less unsafe direction.
Ice was pretty good for rescue, too.
‘You’re going to be a great hero.’
Yagi’s words replayed in his head. Had anyone ever told him that before? Sort of. Endeavor always insisted that he would ‘surpass him’ and ‘rise to greater heights than All Might’, but he had never actually said words like that to Shoto.
“Shoto! For the last time, PAY ATTENTION!”
He had certainly never praised Shoto for rescuing someone before.
Endeavor had saved people. Probably a lot of people, but Shoto couldn’t help but wonder, deep down, if it was just something he did for the cameras and his PR team. The man constantly bemoaned rescue-oriented heroes, citing their ‘pathetic quirks’ and ‘lack of combat proficiency’. If you weren’t burning villains to a crisp, you weren’t cutting it, in his opinion.
Endeavor did not seem like a hero to Shoto, but that was nothing new. Nothing new at all.
Regardless, Shoto ignored his father’s words, as usual, and sprinted towards danger and death yet again. This section of the city had been pretty thoroughly trashed; most of the buildings were on fire, and the ones that weren’t were mostly collapsed into piles of rubble. Explosions were going off somewhere close by, probably within a handful of blocks. He could vaguely recognize the distinct poppoppops of Bakugo’s quirk, along with the deeper, longer booms of the small bomb-nomu they’d gotten reports on.
Up ahead, a small cluster of heroes appeared to be in dire straits. They were, best he could tell, all pretty low-ranked, and frankly they looked beat to shit. He spotted numerous injuries, ranging from scrapes to…oh, that man had been impaled with the bottom of a stop sign. He’d bleed out if he didn’t get help soon. Shoto could freeze the wound shut, buy him a little time…
CRASH!
Ah. That was a big nomu.
It was like some unholy amalgamation of a scorpion, an alligator, and the creature from the USJ. That was unpleasant. Shoto watched as its form flickered, like it had a bad signal or something, allowing it to dodge the stream of pressurized water and…was that a mattress pad? Weird quirks. Even so, they clearly couldn’t cut it.
“Hell Spider!”
Endeavor, boosted by his flames, condensed streams of white-hot plasma across his fingers, drawing lines of scorching heat across the battlefield. The nomu managed to flicker around a few of them, but eventually got caught by the attack. It screeched as black burns were imprinted across it’s body like a hellish web, while Endeavor landed next to the water hero, a man in a blue jumpsuit.
“Pathetic. Manual, what’s the status on the creature?”
The man-Manual, he presumed- wiped sweat from his brow, condensing it into a small ball of floating liquid in his hand. Gross, but useful.
“Multiple quirks. Aside from the obvious, it can grow, has strength and durability, that strange short-range teleportation, and…regeneration.” Endeavor glanced up as the creature’s skin healed from the burns it had just received, audibly scoffing.
“Tougher than it looks, then. You lot stand back, I’ll handle this. Shoto, with me.”
Shoto had, to his displeasure, seen Endeavor fight villains plenty of times. Either in person or through a screen. Once you were familiar enough with it, his fighting style, while well-honed, was relatively simple by concept.
“Hell Curtain!”
He’d start off with either a wide-range attack or one of his precision finishing moves, depending on the quirk of the target. He aimed to finish fights as fast as possible, both because it wasn’t worth his time, and to avoid the backlash of his own quirk.
A wave of fire washed across the intersection. The remaining pieces of building caught fire, and heat shimmered through the air. The heroes scrambled for cover, Manual’s gathered water evaporating. Huffing, Shoto waved them over where he was standing- behind his father was typically the only way to avoid getting caught in the crossfire- and was already letting cool air flow from his right side.
The nomu launched itself upwards, using thick-clawed feet to scale up the side of a building, before pushing through the wave of fire and lashing out with it’s massive stinger. Flesh bubbled and burned, but seemed to regenerate just as quickly.
‘Not hot enough, huh?’ Shoto thought idly. He wondered what the limits of that healing quirk were. Endeavor usually didn’t hold back much.
“Flashfire Fist: Jet Burn!”
Shoto squinted his eyes as a geyser of white-hot flame erupted from Endeavor’s outstretched fist. The nomu…twitched? Flickered? Teleported out of the way in a blur, appearing close enough for it’s skin to sizzle a bit, but it wouldn’t receive any lasting damage. Was that the range of how far it could move at once?
Unfortunately for it, Endeavor was much faster than most people gave him credit for. Before the skin had even regenerated properly, Endeavor was in it’s face, batting a pincer aside with a flaming backhand and preparing another strike.
The creature’s tail lashed out from the side, but to Shoto’s surprise it wasn’t aiming at his father.
The melted husk of a van sailed through the air, right towards one of the downed heroes. Was it…smart enough to attempt a diversion? Could these creatures think?
“Jet Burn!”
Not smart enough at any rate. Endeavor probably didn’t even know that man’s name. Wouldn’t care if he did.
Another blast of flame connected with the creature’s torso this time, bathing it in light. Shoto erected a wall of thick blue ice, as much as he could in such a confined area, to block the nearly molten husk of car from flattening anybody as the nomu tossed it. His ice hissed and cracked under the force, but another burst of cold halted enough momentum for the man on the ground to crawl out of the way, assisted by one of the other heroes, some woman in green.
The cold sapped at his strength, building in his bones like a bomb ready to erupt. His left side ached, begging to balance his body, but he refused it again.
Focus.
By the time Shoto laid eyes on the creature again, it was still. It’s torso still glowed white-hot, the skin blistered and carbonized. It likely couldn’t regenerate from that kind of heat.
Assuming the task was done, Shoto decided to make himself useful. He moved towards the other heroes, smothering whatever flames were left in the vicinity with his mother’s ice while creating some colder air for the wounded.
“Thanks, kid.” Manual said. “Glad you two showed up when you did.”
Shoto choked down what was probably a rude remark, because it was his father that taught him field etiquette, and instead decided to do the exact opposite of what his father would do. He bowed his head respectfully, and said “You’re welcome. Glad we were able to assist.”
Being petty felt kind of nice. Or was it finally seeing an adult smile at him with gratitude, rather than selfish expectations-
Focus.
“Shoto! Enough, you’re embarrassing yourself.” Endeavor said, stomping up to the group. “Leave the rescue work to those not suited for proper combat. We’re moving on to find the hero killer.” A too-hot hand grabbed his shoulder, practically tearing him off his feet as he was led further into the still-burning city. Once they were out of earshot of the other heroes, Endeavor’s voice reached him, cold and dark.
“You will stop disobeying me this instant, or there will be consequences. This is not a game Shoto. In the field, my word is gospel. You are to engage in combat only when authorized, and otherwise are to stand there and learn. Do I make myself clear?”
Shoto winced as the hand squeezed his joint painfully, heating up just enough to be uncomfortable. He gritted his teeth, hard, but nodded. Anything else would just cause more problems.
Why did he have to be here? He hated it here.
He was released as his father stomped ahead, but Shoto paused when a soft crackle of static sounded over his earpiece.
“Psst. Hey, can you hear me now?”
Shoto paused mid-step. Whoever this was sounded young, maybe around his age? Was this a villain hacking into the hero comms?
“I’ll take that as a yes. I can see you on a camera! I need your help.”
Shoto kept walking, shivering as a few raindrops hit his already-cold body. What a perfect way to continue this shitshow.
“You’re a UA student, right? I’m an intern too, don’t worry!”
Shoto frowned. This sounded like a lie, clearly. He reached up to mute his comms, but the voice sounded again, sounding more urgent.
“Do you know Midoriya Izuku? And a kid named Iida?”
Shoto’s arm paused. “Who is this? And why do you know those names?” If whoever this was knew his classmates, that might spell trouble-
“They’re fighting Stain right now, and they need back up! You’re the only one whose comms aren’t busted and NOT fighting a stupid nomu! Get moving!”
Shoto glanced at his father, still marching a few feet ahead of him. “Tell me where, we can-”
“Shit, look out!”
Shoto heard the cry just after the crunching of stone. He whirled around ice springing from his fingertips-
He shivered, clamping down tight as his quirk threatened to explode out of him again. The cold hurt-
Something massive slammed into his side, sending him tumbling through the air. He could barely see past the pain in his ribs, before he impacted something solid.
…
…
…
“-ke up. Come on, Izu needs you! The one person I manage to get ahold of-”
He blinked. He was on his side, laying on…ah, those were bricks. His body felt kind of numb. The rain had picked up, now a steady drizzle, and he was getting colder.
“Dammit, they’ll hear me if I yell. Come on, wake up!”
He blinked again, the spots mostly clearing from his vision. A flash of orange flames focused him. Endeavor was in combat again with the nomu. Apparently it had withstood that last attack, the only remnants of it being a sizeable scar of black, carbonized flesh along it’s chest. One of it’s arms was just newly regenerating as well.
Had it…played dead until they turned their backs? Oddly smart of it. It was faster than it looked, too, based on how hard a time Endeavor was having hitting it-
“HEY! Are you still alive or what?”
Shoto jolted, wincing at the tenderness of his ribs. Just bruised, best he could tell. His costume did have some padding in it, after all.
“I’m fine.” he muttered.
“Good. Listen, I need a hero, and that flaming garbage can over there isn’t any help right now. You wanna be a hero, right?”
…did he?
“Look, Izu really, really needs help, and you’re the only one close enough. Please!” The voice sounded desperate.
‘You’re going to be a great hero.’
‘It’s okay for you to be who you want to be.’
Shoto swallowed, staggering to his feet. He was shivering a bit, and his hair was sticking to his forehead. The rain was increasing.
Endeavor flared his flames, blinding the nomu as he sent it crashing into the building next to his. A plume of dust blanketed the area as the creature thrashed it’s way out of the debris.
Shoto turned on his heel and ran into the nearest alleyway.
“Tell me where to go.”
Izuku was not hyperventilating. He was not panicking. He was not. The adrenaline was suppressing pretty much every emotion he had, which was useful, but it meant he’d also have a panic attack about it later.
Frost Giant felt weird to use. He couldn’t actually detect temperature himself with it active, and his nerves were…different was really the only way to describe it, but dammit it was working.
Of course, Iida had seen everything, as had the hero in the alleyway behind them. Not to mention Stain himself, who had become increasingly more frustrated as Izuku used a combination of Frost Giant, Super Regeneration, Larceny, and Crystalize to make his entire combat style null and void. So overall, this was pretty close to a worst-case scenario for him. His secret, not to mention the secret of his existence, was a bad slip away from getting out. His options were limited.
He also might just die anyways, but he wasn’t that much of a pessimist.
“He asked for you alive, you know. I was inclined to agree for the moment, to await the right opportunity to strike.”
That answered a few of Izuku’s questions. Someone certainly knew he existed, and had, what, contracted the hero killer to capture him? He needed answers, and he needed them now.
Any words died in his throat as a horrible presence filled the air around him. It almost felt like a physical weight, but it brought to mind images of slit throats and rivulets of blood hitting the ground. His limbs locked, despite the hero killer not using his quirk, and Izuku fought for each intake of breath.
Was this the conviction Stain was talking about?
“No more. You die today, so the world may not cower beneath another demon masquerading as a man. I will cleanse this rotten society, and I have decided to start by ridding it of you.”
“Finally, we can agree on something.”
Izuku startled as a rough, gravelly voice sounded from behind him. He hadn’t heard anything at all! He twisted around, paling at what he saw.
The hero who had been slumped against the wall looked up at him, something between fear and resignation clouding his features. A wet, gurgling sound came from his throat.
The throat with a pale hand wrapped around it.
Grayness and dust spread like wildfire, the skin cracking and crumbling. Izuku reached out a hand in utter panic as the hand tightened-
The hero crumbled to dust, dead.
“You’ve been causing problems for me, mini-boss. And since you have type-advantage against the hero killer, maybe I’ll finish the level myself.” Shigaraki Tomura, leader of the League of Villains, looked almost the same as when they’d met at the USJ. He was dressed in dark pants and a hoodie, with a severed hand clasped to his face like a mask. Even so, Izuku could see the wicked smile behind it, and the hatred burning in his eyes.
“Iida, get up. Get up now.”
To Izuku’s utter relief, his shaky plea was headed as his classmate staggered to his feet. Izuku backed up, pressing his back against Iida’s.
The hero killer on one side, Shigaraki on the other. This was bad.
“Shigaraki. You’d go against your master’s wishes? Given your position, you’re either the fool I took you for, or that seed of conviction I saw has room to grow.” Stain said, leveling the other villain with an appraising look.
Shigaraki glared back in distaste. “Sensei doesn’t control everything I do. He said I’m allowed to destroy what I hate, and right now, I hate that brat,” he pointed a crooked finger in Izuku’s direction, “more than I hate you. More than almost anything, at the moment. Normally I hate team games, but today I’ll make an EXCEPTION!”
Izuku stumbled back, nearly shoving Iida off his feet as Shigaraki moved. An outstretched hand reached for his face, coming a hair’s breadth away from touching it as he ducked, lashing out with a kick. Shigaraki just hopped out of the way, lashing out with each hand once again, catching pieces of the alley wall and turning them to dust.
He forced Larceny back into his chest, yanking Helium back into place and kicking off the ground to get some distance. As he moved to the side, he saw Iida, currently using what speed he could build to avoid Stain as the man lashed out at him with a short sword (how many did he have holy shit-)
“Why are you doing this!?” Izuku yelled. “What do you have against me, anyways!?”
“Like you don’t know!” Shigaraki yelled back, a hand grasping at his chest. Crystals popped out, decaying instead of his ribcage. Izuku slashed out with a knife, severing them from his body before the quirk could spread to him. “See!? You have that quirk, and ask why you’ve been making my life harder! You’re nothing but free XP, quirk-stealer!”
A knife sank hilt-deep into his shoulder, from the back, making him cry out in pain. Stain was on him again, knives flashing and tongue hanging from his mouth, twisted in a facsimile of a smile. Where the fuck-
Iida was on the ground again, bleeding. Rain had begun, picking up over the last few minutes, running his classmate’s blood into a pink smear on the ground. Was he still breathing?
Fuck this!
Crystals bloomed across his entire body, ripping holes in his costume but blocking both of his opponents. Hopping from wall to wall, he lopped off the decaying ones, hoping to get some distance-
“FUCK!”
His right eye went blind as a throwing knife sank into it. He ripped it out, tossing it onto the roof of the building and regenerating as fast as he could-
Too slow.
A hand grazed his mask, decaying an entire section of it before it broke off.
‘This is bad. This is BAD.’ Was all Izuku could think as he abandoned offense entirely and focused on living. He was barely able to outpace Stain, him and Shigaraki together were a nightmare. He could regenerate past the latter’s quirk, at least until he ran out of energy. But if his head got decayed? He wasn’t sure how far his healing quirk went, but he worried it didn’t work on injuries of that scale. He couldn’t assume it did.
Was it getting colder? How much blood had he lost? He didn’t even have proper blood right now!
The implications of Shigaraki’s words weren’t lost on him, either. Izuku was just too fucking stressed, but a few things were clear.
Shigaraki knew what his quirk was. The fact that he recognized it meant that he was familiar with it.
He knew the other person with Izuku’s quirk. Which meant they were probably some kind of villain. Or IN the League of Villains. Leading it? He had referred to them as ‘Sensei’. Maybe an instructor, or a benefactor? They probably had Ingenium’s quirk, too.
He needed information. He needed a plan. He needed backup. It, legitimately, could not get much worse than this.
Cursing himself for tempting fate, Izuku immediately slipped on a patch of ice, hitting the ground painfully and rolling to his feet too fucking slow he was within range!
Stain’s newest sword stabbed clean through his foot and into the ground beneath, anchoring him. Shigaraki’s hand landed on his shoulder, quirk tearing through skin and muscle-
Izuku screamed, nearly blacking out as a quirk forced it’s way from within.
“Please hurry. Shit, shit shit! Second left!”
Shoto’s feet pounded the pavement, a cold fog wafting off him as his breath created small puffs of fog.
“No more cameras around, but I have a map up with your location on it. Second alley on the left, forward one more block!”
The hysterical girl shouting in his ear had given him directions towards…well, apparently two of his classmates were fighting the hero killer, and she had lost contact with them several minutes beforehand.
Why hadn’t he brought his father with him again?
Right, some combination of the nomu and pettiness. And besides, this sounded like a situation that required a bit of precision, not friendly fire.
Of course, there was always the chance that this was some villain that was luring him into a trap, but…Shoto didn’t think that was the case. The desperation in her voice sounded…genuine. Familiar.
His mother screaming apologies as she held him. His eye and face burning even as she used her quirk to cool the water from the kettle-
“-almost there! Next right, straight down that alley!”
Shoto moved as fast as he could, ignoring the cold that poured off him against his wishes, nearly falling onto his face-
A horrific scream pierced the air. It sounded like pure agony.
It sounded like Midoriya.
Shoto finally turned the corner, stepping straight from a bad dream into a nightmare.
Situational analysis locked onto details in less than a second. A man wearing raggedy clothes, holding a sword stabbed into Midoriya’s foot.
A man with his back to him, in a black hoodie. One hand gripped Midoriya’s shoulder, and he watched blue flesh decay away into dust-
Then Midoriya opened his mouth, and all hell broke loose.
Something came from within Midoriya’s mouth. They spread out almost faster than he could track, several scraping past the hooded man’s torso, causing him to curse and grab the objects, turning them to dust.
Shit, that was Shigaraki, wasn’t it? The other one must be Stain.
Shoto’s eyes widened further as the…blades? As the massive blades protruding from Midoriya’s mouth filled the rest of the alley, spearing towards him indiscriminately. He erected a thick wall of ice, grimacing as they punched through. Only ingrained reflexes and a quick tumble saved him from getting skewered himself.
Shoto blanked as the blades shifted, stabbing into the ground and lofting Midoriya into the air by his teeth? The boy twisted and writhed in the air, before slamming down onto the ground a few feet away from him. He heard something snap, and saw a splash of…water? Snow? Hit the ground.
Why was Midoriya’s skin and hair blue? Why did he look frozen? Did Shoto freeze him- why was his body regenerating like the nomu!?
Shoto stared as Midoriya clambered to his feet, opening his mouth again and sending another deluge of blades down the alley from his mouth. Shigaraki, bleeding but still upright, hopped backwards, decaying whatever blades got within arms’ reach. Stain deflected most of them, and simply dodged what he could not with a disgusted look on his face.
Shoto could only really utter a simple phrase.
“Midoriya, what the fuck?”
His classmate’s gaze snapped over to him, blue (weren’t they green before?) eyes wild. For a split second, Shoto tensed, worried he was about to get stabbed. The look abated after a moment, replaced with fear, and a fair bit of resignation.
What was the phrase? Mood?
“Shit. Todoroki, listen, I- you can’t-”
“Stop.” Shoto put a hand up. “Some girl has been screaming in my ear for the last five minutes to get me over here. I kinda see why. Do you need a hand?” That was…reassuring, right? Well, it was a genuine offer, regardless. Shoto could get an explanation for what was going on later, once the two of them weren’t dead-
“Shit. Is Iida dead?”
Shoto’s curiosity peaked further when Midoriya’s eyes turned a dark yellow, tinged with blue sclera, before turning back to normal(?) blue. “No. Iida’s alive, but he’s injured, and Stain’s quirk stuns you after he drinks your blood. It doesn’t work on me, but he got Iida.”
Shoto catalogued the information, fully compartmentalizing the part of his brain screaming with questions. “Okay. We should grab Iida and leave.” This was outside their pay grade, to be sure. He just wanted to rescue his classmates.
“Not like they’d just let us leave.”
True. The rain had picked up, and it looked like the villains had regained their footing-
He nearly choked as a wave of…intent slammed into him. The hero killer took a step forward, seemingly covering Shigaraki’s injured form. Midoriya growled, throwing both hands forward. The blades Stain had been holding seemingly vanished of their own accord, appearing in his classmate’s instead. Without missing a beat, Midoriya opened his mouth wide, sending another torrent of blades towards their opponents now that they were disarmed.
CLANG!
“I stain myself, for the sake of a greater future.”
Shoto and Midoriya both gasped as Stain…changed.
Something sharp and jagged had emerged from his arm in a spray of crimson, blocking the blade about to pierce through him. With a sickening squelch, another object sprouted from his shoulder…then his leg…then his neck.
Shigaraki chuckled, clutching at his wounds. “About time. Sensei gives you a free 1-UP and it takes you this long to use it? Scrub.”
Midoriya looked aghast, actually stumbling back a step, not that Shoto was far behind.
Stain’s body was now covered in what looked like jagged, crimson scales. Blood trickled from between them, nearly glistening. His eyes shown a deep red in the dark, with each protrusion looking just as sharp as the swords he’d just lost.
He looked like a demon.
“You…you have two…who? Who…”
Stain stalked towards them, slowly but deliberately, like a panther cornering it’s prey. He spoke, his voice dripping with murderous rage and blood.
“Like I said. A demon, masquerading as a man. Perhaps you’ll meet him in hell.”
Shigaraki cackled behind him, the sound echoing through the rain. “And here I thought you were doing this on purpose! But you- you really have no idea, do you? Are you some kind of glitch? Or maybe cut content?”
“What are you talking about!? Who do you know that can steal quirks!? Who is Sensei!?”
Was that…was that what was happening? What was happening? Shoto was feeling lost.
“Wouldn’t you like to know!?” The villain continued his laughter. “Not like it’ll matter soon, anyways! Good on you for the sneak attack, but it won’t work twice! If you’re gonna keep partying up, so are we! KUROGIRI!”
A large purple mass swirled into existence above Stain and Shigaraki. Cruel, glowing eyes appeared from within.
“Yes, Shigaraki Tomura?”
“Kill them.”
Shoto tensed as the gate expanded, purple smoke pouring down the alley towards them. Stain took off towards them at a run, bouncing from wall to wall, the scales across his legs grinding together with the screech of metal and chitin.
Keep calm. Save the panic for later, Shoto. If you die, it won’t be your problem anymore. Cold surged from within as he glanced towards his classmate. “You seem to know what’s going on. What’s the plan?”
Midoriya met his eyes, dark and filled with fear.
“We fight, and hold nothing back. If we do, we might not die.”
That…was a terrible plan.