Chapter 9: A Conqueror Awakens
Katsuki, on one hand, was having the time of his life. He could finally let loose on the villains like he had always wanted to. On the other hand, he was now stuck in the ruins portion of the USJ with Shitty Hair, Racoon Eyes, and Invisibitch… He was workshopping that last one. And to top it of the group of four was now here instead of dealing with misty-fuck and that was pissing him off to no end. He would get even with the bastard before they ran away. If they could.
"Think you're being a little rough Bakubro?" the redhead sheepishly asked, looking at a villain who was planted face first on the ground and bleeding.
"They're trying to kill us and you're worried about me being rough Shitty Hair?!" The other three could practically see puffs of steam coming from the blonde.
"W-why don't we h-head back t-towards the plaza?" the invisible girl asked, clearly shaken up by everything that was going on.
All they heard in response was a grunt, they couldn't even tell if he was agreeing.
—-
Ice slowly crept up one of the still conscious villains, "I suggest you answer her questions, ice is not something to mess with. And that's when she's having a good day." The greenette advised the villain.
"What's that supposed to mean?" The girl turned to face Izuku as she deadpanned, the ice temporarily stopping its growth.
The boy put his hands up in defense and chuckled, "I saw what you did in the battle trial and let's just say that if that was a decent day, I don't want to know a bad one. But I also mean," he continued, turning to face the villain, "Frostbite sets in rather quickly and it is not a pretty process, so I suggest you answer questions if you want to keep your extremities."
Seeing the man's eyes widen in fear, Izuku leaned in, "So what exactly was the plan? I mean apparently their plan is to kill All Might, but how? They obviously wouldn't try something like this if they didn't think it was possible."
The villain only shook his head and shivered, seemingly more in fear than from the cold.
"Wrong answer." the icy girl answered as the ice began to travel up the man's chest once again.
"I-it's the Nomu!," he cried out, causing the ice to stop once again, "That big black and purple behemoth! Supposedly it's as strong as All Might in his prime and can take his punches!"
The student's looked at each other seemingly thinking the same thing, 'big black and purple behemoth?' There was not such thing when Izuku looked down into the plaza originally, but considering Kurogiri had a warp quirk, it wasn't impossible that it was just teleported in during or after warping the students.
The villain would later be found knocked out, his skin deathly pale and with most of his fingers still intact.
—
Iida was sprinting as fast as he could. After his classmates and Thirteen had managed to get him past Kurogiri he had been running to the UA campus. He was almost within range for his Recipro Burst, he was just waiting to be close enough before forcing his engines to stall.
Once the campus was in sight he revved his engines just a bit more, not quite enough for the Recipro Burst to activate, but enough for the final sprint. He ran through the gate and straight into Midnight, literally.
"Ara~ I wasn't expecting this from you Iida-kun~" she began in her usual sultry tone, before her eyes hardened in realization, "Wait what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be training with your classmates at the USJ?"
The boy used the time from her questions and realization to catch his breath and attempt to lose the embarrassment, "USJ… Attacked… Phones…. Jammed…" he wheezed out, "Trying… to kill… All Might." he finally finished and tried to continue regaining his breath.
Midnight immediately grabbed Iida by the back of his collar and tore through the campus to get to Nezu's office once she heard this. She would do her damndest to make sure her students and nephew would make it out of this.
She knew he was strong, she saw the footage from his trials, but beating someone who could take on the number one hero? She shoved those thoughts away almost as quickly as they came. She wasn't nearly as proficient as her nephew, but she had gone through similar training with her adoptive father. Trust in yourself and your dream and you can do the impossible.
—
The closer he got to the central plaza, the more the feeling intensified. He couldn't shake and couldn't figure out why until he laid eyes on the plaza.
His teacher was pinned to the ground with blood pooling under him. On top of him was a hulking beast that seemed to do all the damage to his sensei.
Something was off. Why couldn't he feel it? Why didn't this thing have any presence?
"Something's off." he whispered to Shoka. "I'm gonna get that beast off of Sensei, you get him out of there."
Izuku quickly bolted in front of the beast apparently called a 'Nomu' before she could say a word. His Haki covered fists slammed into the Nomu and knocked it off of his teacher. The reaction shocked everyone around, the same Nomu that was supposed to be able to take punches from All Might was recoiling from Izuku's punches. He threw a punch to the right shoulder, causing the Nomu to twist as such, then a punch to the gut, the Nomu doubled over. Then his fist slammed home into the Nomu's jaw.
Punching its jaw seemed to be the wrong move, as the Nomu then swung a massive arm at Izuku, sending him flying into a wall. He had managed to block it, but was alarmed. Sure the thing was strong, he could see that just from looking at it and seeing the state of his teacher, but what scared him more was the realization of why it had no presence, the monster had no intent. He couldn't read it. There was nothing to read.
He smiled.
'I may not be able to feel its intent, but that just means I have a learning opportunity... Wait, it's listening to the handyman over there.'
Sensei was right. He had to be. The kid was practically a mini All Might just with green hair and lacking the antenna bangs. He had the strength to actually stand against the Nomu and on top of that… he smiled. Even though he was presumably near death, he was smiling. A big genuine smile.
With alarming speed Izuku bolted towards the pastel blue haired man. Before Shigaraki could even react, he had a fist driving into his chest.
He was sent flying across the plaza. Quickly getting up, unable to register what happened. "What ha-" was all he could get out before he saw the boy dash at him again. This time, aware of the kid's speed, he prepared to block and catch the boy.
"Let's see you do that again. Shall we?" He baited. Izuku answered with a right hook which he turned into an uppercut, feeling the man's intent to catch his punch. It would have landed squarely, likely knocking the man out, had a purple mist not appeared to teleport Izuku's fist elsewhere. Shigaraki used this to grab his other arm. Izuku, seeing this prepared for the pain as he began to wrench his arm out of the man's grip.
Shockingly it never came.
"You really are cool. Eraserhead." He said coolly. That was until he saw the man's eyes were not on him or the boy.
No, instead what he saw was the hero nowhere to be seen. There was some ice around where he was obviously the cause of the knocked out villains where he used to be. He looked back at the boy and was shocked to see that the black substance he had was still on his arm, but not decaying.
Izuku jumped back, freeing himself from the grip of the hand covered man. Finally getting the man's response. "You cheat. That shouldn't be possible." as he began to itch his neck in annoyance. 'What's with this kid? First he's abnormally strong, so he probably has a strength enhancer. Then he's slinging my Nomu around like it doesn't have absorption, then his arms turn black and block my decay?' Then the realization hit, his quirk was essentially a perfect counter. No, there's more to it if his interview is to be believed.
"THIS KID IS CHEATING!!!" he yelled in annoyance, "NOMU!"
The lumbering beast perked up in preparation for an order. "Kill this damn brat."
The beaked monster suddenly became a blur, appearing in front of Izuku once again slamming him away. This time following him to finish the job. The boy on the other hand was reeling from the speed of this behemoth. When he landed, he instinctively leaned his head to the left to dodge the fist rapidly approaching his face.
Just to see what seemed like the same punch being wound up by the beast.
Thanks to this he dodged the punch, allowing him to return the favor to the Nomu. Only for it to catch his fist. Upon catching the fist, the Nomu slung Izuku around like a wet rag, slamming him into the floor once, twice, three times.
When the Nomu was done, much to the horror of any onlookers, Izuku was seemingly unconscious in the rubble. Seeing its orders as fulfilled, the Nomu turned to return to Shigaraki. But once the monster made a few paces away it stopped cold as a devious chuckle made its way across the plaza.
"Oi"
A black and red energy filled the USJ. Villains and students alike were falling down unconscious. The boy that was just put into the ground was now getting up. His gym uniform now more akin to rags than what it used to be.
"Who said this fight is done?!"
Suddenly the greenette kicked the Nomu in the back with both feet, knocking it halfway across the plaza. Everyone was shocked to see the Nomu hit the ground and just tumble. Those who were close to it and conscious made sure to get away from it, but not before noticing something.
It was completely limp.
The hand-covered man could have sworn for a moment he saw the kid's usually green orbs glowing a bright red underneath his curly green bangs. He felt his arms shiver under the pressure the kid seemed to apply, only for them to stop and allow him to release a breath of relief. He noticed that it came and went with the red energy. 'Just what the hell was that?'
—
'W-what the hell is this?' Katsuki asked himself upon seeing the villains he was facing fall down as soon as he felt what could only be described as something trying to conquer his mind. Then all of the sudden the feeling left him, and he let out a breath he didn't know he had.
—
Melissa watched in mixed terror and awe, unable to understand what had happened. But she could only think one thing, 'Maybe Uncle Might should have given it to him instead of someone like me.'
—
In Shikoku, Tsuru noticed Garp gain a wicked smile. "He finally did it, didn't he?"
The man nodded, "Now his climb really begins."
—
"HOW ARE YOU STILL STANDING?! NOMU I TOLD YOU TO KILL HIM!"
"..."
"Nomu?" the monster in question didn't move an inch. The man child turned to see this and upon seeing it, whipped back around in shock to look at the only possible cause. And then he noticed something else.
The boy's arms were covered in the blackened armor like it had been for the preceding fight, but something was different. It had always appeared metallic, the way his arms seemed to harden, but this was different. The normally metallic pure black coating now held a dark jade sheen.
"HOW!? HOW COULD YOU BEAT SOMETHING MADE TO DEFEA-" a loud bang rang through the USJ, cut the man-child off. He turned to the source and saw what he had come here for.
All that could be seen was their muscular, golden haired teacher. All Might was here, his pure blue orbs were raging and ever present smile, absent.
"FEAR NOT… FOR I AM HEAR!"
As soon as it was heard, Izuku's body became limp, he no longer needed to protect the others. The boy had been grasping at straws for his remaining strength after the Nomu had acted like he was Loki and it was the Hulk. The large hero caught the boy before he fell and grabbed any other students near the hand man, seemingly appearing back at the entrance of the USJ, being laid down by the number one hero and their teacher.
"GOOD JOB HOLDING OUT AS LONG AS YOU DID, EVERYONE. NOW LET ME TAKE THE REST FROM HERE."
His normally confident and boisterous voice was unnervingly calm and filled to the brim with a seemingly endless rage. He may not be the best teacher, but he is the number one hero. He's here to protect Japan and its people. More than that, his new teaching obligations put his students as a priority and these villains nearly took them from him. On top of that, they attacked his niece. All Might rushed towards the only pair still standing, only for Kurogiri to warp the man's punch and following body to where the Nomu was in hopes of somehow waking it from its stupor. Upon seeing that the Nomu was now seemingly a lifeless husk, the warp quirk user made the only move he could that would keep them from complete failure.
He opened a warp gate beneath himself and Shigaraki.
All Might, as fast as he was, could not catch them. They were already below his grasp by the time he reached the villain pair, so he did the only thing he could think of after seeing the beaked beast and warp gate pair. He grabbed onto the beast just in case the warp gate user attempted to take their unknown creature back.
It seemed to be the correct decision since as he was picking it up a warp gate opened beneath where it once laid. Had he been in his prime and not nearing his already stretched time limit, he would have jumped right into the warp gate and taken on anyone there. But he was at his limit.
The gate closed, seemingly realizing its attempt at recapturing the weapon was futile, as the rest of the heroes came rushing in. Only to be shocked at not only the Nomu, that the big blonde was carrying, but also the sheer amount of villains that were unconscious on the floor.
It was later reported that of the 220 villains that had been captured, 67 of them had been incapacitated before the wave of black and red. The remainder had reportedly fallen suddenly after the wave had passed, and many of the students had also lost consciousness, only Melissa, Katsuki and the Todoroki twins had remained standing.
Aizawa was the only teacher who had been present and left conscious. He was able to corroborate the student's stories, but only he and Shoka seemed to be able to explain that Izuku was the cause of the mass incapacitation. Everyone else had either fainted or been too far to know for sure.
There was something else that startled them, if it weren't for Shota and Shoka's explanation any and all people who had lost consciousness would never have had a proper explanation as to how. Medical examiners could not find any physical signs that could lead to such a thing. To say that there was a safe fear of the green haired boy would be an understatement.
There were other, more pressing matters that brought fear as well, for one the Nomu itself. The beast never really seemed to regain consciousness, it was like it was put into a constant coma. That put some at ease, especially those who had seen it in action. What scared many was the fact that it did indeed have multiple quirks. But neither was a strength quirk.
—-
Shigaraki sat at the bar positively seething, while Kurogiri polished a glass that had undoubtedly been clean for the past half hour. "Not only do we get our asses handed to us by children but that damn Nomu couldn't even beat one of those children. How the hell was that supposed to beat a supposedly weakened All Might?!"
"Care to go into more detail Tomura-kun? The more details we have the more we can learn from our mistakes." Asked a voice from a television screen set to voice only. In all honesty he was growing tired of the man-child's ranting, but there were some intriguing and positively infuriating details. One such case was the boy Tomura had just mentioned.
"I don't know what his quirk is exactly but he's strong. Not as strong as All Might, but he was able to push around the Nomu like it was just a big, purple punching bag!"
"Hmm, interesting, anything else?"
"It seemed like his quirk is mainly hardening, he would turn his arms pitch black and be able to take hits that he otherwise shouldn't. And that isn't the end of it! It's like his quirk is the perfect counter to everything! It was like the Nomu didn't even have shock absorption when the boy punched it, hell I couldn't even disintegrate his arm when I caught it!"
Now this was interesting. A hardening quirk that acted as a counter? Maybe that would allow him to finally get his hands on one of those pesky logia type quirks. There was something else bothering him however.
"Which student was it that did this, Tomura-kun?"
"That damn successor brat! The one from the interview! Green hair and all!"
Things just went from interesting to positively fascinating. All Might's successor did this. It practically made it impossible in the man's mind that he wasn't the oaf's successor. That would explain the child's brutish strength. One for All is a transferable stockpiling quirk so that could also explain why the boy claimed he used to have the weakest quirk. Once the boy took OFA into his system it must have strengthened that hardening quirk and allowed it to reach the point of even countering other quirks. He may have to have a chat with the doctor about his theory.