Chapter 6: One Foot in the Grave (Patreon)

As the wind swept past Izuku while he flew through the air, he made sure the bodies strapped to him wouldn’t fall to their deaths. He couldn’t help but reminisce about the time he spent fighting in The Lands Between compared to the enemies he faced in Japan.

It was surreal. He still remembered his dream of wanting to become a hero back when he was still young with an arrogant, but still normal Katsuki. The time when the two would play heroes as they vowed to be partners when they grew up.

They drifted apart when he found out Izuku was quirkless, and society deemed him a social outcast. Come to think of it, it wasn’t just his fault Katsuki became the way he was the last time he saw him.

They fed him the concept that quirkless were lesser than their quirked counterparts. The more he thought back to it, the more it made sense.

Hell, it all started back when they were in kindergarten! Kindergarten! They would be no older than six years old at that point, and every adult knew that a child’s mind was as malleable as clay.

And as they continued drip-feeding him those discriminatory thoughts all the way into his teenage years, he grew worse and worse until the moment where he thought that discriminating quirkless people was the norm.

It was fucked up.

So yes, Katsuki didn’t shoulder all the blame. Was he blameless in the entire fiasco that was his hellish life? No. In fact, he held the topmost seat of Izuku’s most hated. It was funny. Izuku only realized that Katsuki was never his friend the moment those parasites managed to get in his head when he died.

Chuckling morosely, Izuku wondered if Katsuki ever got into U.A. If they did a background check, they either would’ve found the skeletons in his closet - to which Izuku would be happy to have the blond Pomeranian placed inside a mental ward or get therapy until he could get over himself - or they would’ve found nothing.

Izuku couldn’t put it past the teachers and the principal of that school to sweep under the rug the harassment and borderline criminal acts - suicide baiting was not to be taken lightly - to present their model student to the hero scene with roses and diamonds. They have, after all, the book on Meta-Liberation in their curriculum.

Idiots, the lot of them. The idea behind the ideology was wonderful, quirks being used to help society or better one’s life without restriction, but not all people have equal quirks.

Some are blessed with extremely powerful quirks, like for example, No. Thirteen’s black holes. While others were gifted mundane abilities, one of his former classmates could attest to that.

One of their core concepts was to better their quirks to further enhance their lives, but what if it couldn’t? What if said quirk have a hard limit that no matter how much time and effort you put in, there was no way to increase the cap?

It just takes a little divide between a group to create an imbalance. And as history has shown time and time again, those with power are able to take control of the weak like pawns on a board.

But this time, instead of a weak person in charge forcing a strong front, the person in charge was a literal walking nuke. There was no way to oppose him, other than another walking nuke, and if they happen to have previous unsolved discourse?

The end result wouldn’t be pretty.

The phantom burns he felt every now and then was a reminder that, for all that society failed Katsuki and him, Katsuki was the one who failed the most. His pride and arrogance are what made him the menace that he was, and he couldn’t look past it to see whether or not something was wrong.

Sighing, Izuku his head. No need to dwell on the past. It was all over and done with, and he wasn’t too keen on leaving the Lands Between. He still had his duty to become Elden Lord, whatever that meant, and Japan - and by extension, Earth - looks like it was still cohesive enough to not need another helping hand.

His feet landed on the ground with a loud thud, dust kicking up in the air on impact. Dropping the bodies of the villains - he remembered the term again. Been too long since he thought of the term. - on the ground without any kind of delicate care, Izuku looked to Torrent. His steed was keeping watch on the unconscious teens sprawled on the ground with their battered and bruised bodies, making sure that none that come near may harm them.

He was a good boy like that.

Smiling underneath his helmet, Izuku beckoned his steed over, the horse-elk hybrid giving a whinny as he trotted over. Rubbing his gauntleted arm over its head, Izuku gave Torrent a rowa fruit, a personal favorite for his steed.

He happily munched on the delectable fruit before he was dismissed by Izuku, turning motes of light as he vanished into thin air, although he was able to get a lick on Izuku’s face before Torrent lost his corporeal form.

With the area silent as the grave for now, Izuku decided to wait by the teenagers and make sure that no villain got their hands on them. Before that though, he needed to drag over the black-clad man - maybe a hero if his guess was correct - so they could share the warming stone aura.

He may have a lot, but it was still limited in quantity. Izuku was a hoarder by nature - in no thanks to the influence of the Lands Between - and damn him if it ain’t heart-wrenching to see his supply stocks go down.

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If one were to describe what All Might felt right now, it would be pure, unadulterated rage. There were only a few things in this world that could bring him to this point - one of which being the man who destroyed nearly all of his organs - and now, one of those lines were crossed.

The villains would pay dearly for attacking children inside their own school.

His feet left holes as he rushed faster and faster through the empty roads leading to the USJ, the giant domed facility looming over the horizon slowly growing bigger as he got closer.

Gritting his teeth, All Might pushed even more energy into his legs. Faster. Faster! He needed to be faster!

His students were in danger!

Blood leaked down his mouth as the exertion caused his body to rage in protest, but the pain didn’t make him stop, for if he did, other people would pay the price. And he wasn’t ready to tell their parents about what happened to their kids if the worse-case scenario did indeed happen.

The trees behind the sidewalk blurred, his muscles bulging even more as he continued to output even more energy into his already screaming legs.

This was all his fault. If only he just let the other heroes handle the lesser crimes like they normally do, he would still have enough energy to meet with his students during their field trip.

It was supposed to be taught by three of them, after all. Him, Shota, and Anan, or Thirteen since she wasn’t too keen on revealing her identity to even her students. A special case for a professor, to be sure, but one Principal Nezu respected.

Finally, after what seemed to be hours, All Might finally arrived at the USJ, the giant door leading inside left hanging open. Steeling himself, All Might donned the face he knew would make regular villains shit bricks.

Time to make an entrance.

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Tsuyu’s eyes twitched, her vision a mix of inky darkness and fading light. A groan left her lips as she felt her whole body twitch. And then the pain came in.

She hissed, eyes shooting wide open as her hand clamped down on the gash that dotted her side… Only to look confused when the gash felt… smaller than before.

“… What…?”

“Oh, you’re awake, good.” Her head twisted to the sight and the figure she saw nearly made her squeak. They were a head taller than her and decked out in sturdy looking armor. The scary part? The giant, fuck-off sword they were holding.

“W-who are you, kero…?” Even when nervous, her verbal tic still remained, a shiver of fear coalescing down her back as she beheld the intimidating figure before her.

“Me? A dead man walking.” The figure chuckled to themselves for a bit. Tsuyu’s eyebrows furrowed at the self-depreciating tone but wasn’t too keen on asking questions with the figure that could literally cleave her in half. “Jokes aside, a portal sent me here when I was busy… with my task. And I have an inkling as to who the perpetrator was.”

“Then… What a-are you doing here, kero?” Tsuyu tried to compose herself, but whenever that soulless-looking helmet gazed in her direction, she couldn’t help but cower at the sight.

“Making sure you aren’t villain-food.” Izuku gestured towards the unconscious villains who looked like they had seen better days. “You’re lucky - you and your friends - that I decided to visit the sinking yacht. Would’ve been ugly, otherwise.”

Tsuyu winced. Yeah, she could see what would’ve happened had the mysterious figure not saved them. Fear slowly simmering down, Tsuyu gathered the courage to speak her mind.

“T-thank you… for rescuing us, kero.” Tsuyu bowed towards the figure, whose chuckles felt like a soothing balm amidst the crisis.

“It’s what a hero would do.” Their tone sounded like they were… reminiscing… Like there was something hidden deeper within the bundle of steel and iron. “Anyway, just keep your friends and that man next to this stone. It has healing properties.”

It was only then that Tsuyu felt the warmth that had been cocooning her for the past few seconds she was awake like a comfortable blanker in the cold winter. Looking at the ‘stone’ the figure pointed at, Tsuyu noted that it looked like a rock painted yellow with glitters shaving off.

It was also warm. Like, very warm, warm. It was a nice feeling.

“It’ll heal your wounds and stabilize those with critical conditions until you can get professional medical treatment.” The figure turned away, their back broad like a thick wall. “I’ll be heading my way now.”

Tsuyu was about to protest when all of a sudden, the door leading outside the USJ burst open, the large pieces of metal getting thrown out of their hinges and grating on the concrete ground.

It was hard to see from this angle, but she could also spot some of her classmates holding the high ground.

From the smoke and dust cloud, a figure emerged, and Tsuyu’s heart soared.

“FEAR NOT, MY STUDENTS.” All Might’s signature smile was nowhere to be found. In its stead, a frown so deep it was enough to cause even high-ranking villains to cower took its place. He gripped at his sweaty shirt and teared a portion of it off, showcasing the rippling muscle underneath. “FOR I AM HERE.”

The villains still awake to cause mayhem around the USJ - at least, those she could see from here that tried to take the high ground from her classmates - stood frozen as All Might’s glare zeroed in on them.

In the blink of an eye, All Might vanished from his spot before reappearing to the side of a villain who was dressed in some sort of BDSM leather strap. The villain squeaked before All Might conked her in the head, the villain going down like a sack of potatoes.

This repeated for the other villains as they tried desperately to fight back to no avail.

But then All Might went for the figure who saved her, and she quickly tried to voice her protest, only for the figure to dodge All Might’s fist with a quick sidestep.

“All Might…” The figure sounded broken… Like all joy was sucked out of him… “Strange seeing you here…”