Chapter Text
Musutafu >>> Kofu city - 18:32
Izuku started to run, as if the world was about to end. The world was frozen solid around him, locked in place by the cosmic power he had acquired thanks to the mentor who was now in danger. Streetlights were suspended mid-flicker, and cars were stuck halfway through turns on his way, their lights blurry in his peripheral view, acting like a glowing tunnel. He pushed One For All to the limit, his whole frame wrapped in green lightning, his body protected only thanks to his Freeze Dimension, and his armor didn’t tear itself apart from the friction.
Musutafu literally vanished behind him, as his mind was able to react to the road at his incredible speed. All the scenery blurred in milliseconds, and thanks to his control over the frozen surroundings, no collateral damage was left behind. The frozen world remained intact as he crossed the prefecture lines instantly.
Once he arrived in Kofu City, he slowed down, not because he was tired, but because he was not mentally prepared for what he was about to see. He approached the location carefully, growing sick with worry as he saw the media already arriving at the scene. Police cars were parked at awkward angles, forming an improvised perimeter, and an ambulance sat closest to the alley, its back doors open as a medic stood frozen mid-step while going inside the alleyway.
As the teen approached, he could only mumble for the second time that day, “Be alive, be alive…” The moment he turned to enter the alley, he found the scene blocked by a cascade of red feathers. Then he noticed the suit and who was wearing it, the Number Three Hero, the Wing Hero: Hawks.
AI Inko then said, “Most probably, he was the first one to find it, since communication on our systems was blocked by U.A. systems.” Something Luist and SteLL had said to him before was that the barrier that blocked the signal of the Haltron suit was something strange to them, but it was most likely set after the cyber-attack SteLL performed during the entrance exam.
“This is going to look really weird to them once Luist… oh… God.” Izuku’s stomach turned upside down, and he had to hold his lunch in.
Luist was literally nailed to the concrete wall. Red spikes of organic origin had pierced straight through his armor and were keeping him pinned in place. The metal plating was torn open in multiple places, bent inward as if it had been punched through from the inside out. One spike went straight through his left shoulder, and another had pierced his chest, missing his heart by what looked like inches. A third had gone through his thigh, anchoring him like a display. His mask had been torn apart, and his face was exposed.
“Please… be…” Izuku looked up at the face of his mentor, and then he saw it. He was still there. The blue eyes still had some spark of glow, his pupils looking blurry.
“He is alive,” the AI analyzed as she sent some of her own nanobots to conduct a system scan. “Cardiac activity was detected a millisecond ago, but it is fragile. Massive internal bleeding and damage detected. The armor is the only thing keeping him alive… but only barely.”
Midoriya stepped closer. From there, he could see the cracks running through Luist’s armor, glowing faintly red at the edges where the spikes had forced their way in. Luist’s face was pale, jaw clenched even in his weakened state, as if his body refused to relax.
Then Inko’s scan discovered something terrifying. The HUD of the teenager showed the next warning.
POWER SOURCE STATUS -CRITICAL-
CRONOMIUM -ONLINE-
DIARIANOMIUM -OFFLINE-
ALFEDARNOMIUM -OFFLINE-
AI Inko stopped her data reading. She knew that the crystals could be taken out to fight against Chosen Ones. Diarianomium had the ability to suppress the powers of red and green Chosen. She hadn’t suggested it back at the USJ to avoid exposing other people to the side effects on normal humans. As SteLL had said, it made non-Chosen people obsessed with power, encouraging greed and bringing out the worst in them. But this situation was terrible. “That’s troubling...”
“What!?” The eyes of the hero student flicked over the readings again to make sure he wasn’t misreading them. “Where are the other crystals?” he said, looking around the alley. If they were close, the sensors would be able to sense them, just like the first time they met.
AI Inko scanned the area with no luck. “No missing crystal signatures detected. Only the Cronomium is flagging the scanner, and obviously the one inside our Haltron unit. I recommend immediate extraction. The armor is only being supplied by one crystal. You cannot resume time with him like this without proper medical installation. It will be too risky. Snick-01’s medical wing is already operational. The Izu Peninsula is the optimal destination. The probability of survival decreases sharply if we leave him to the local authorities.”
Izuku agreed and stepped closer. The smell of blood was strong, even for him, with time stopped. He held the spikes, preparing to break them with his enhanced strength. “Woah… these are warm…” Then he saw it. The moment he broke one, his hands were stained with a red substance. When he smelled it, he realized why they were of organic origin. “Blood… this is blood…”
The solid structure wasn’t as weak as he had thought before. It felt like breaking titanium, but with the consistency of a glass spear. “This is like Vlad King’s quirk… but this isn’t a quirk… right?” he said as he managed to pull Luist out of the wall, holding him gently.
“Affirmative. There is a lot of residual Chosen energy on them, and I doubt Luist’s powers affected them to that level,” the AI commented. Whoever did this knew how to fight dirty, because the surroundings of the alley didn’t tell a pretty story.
The teen then looked at the paramedics, police officers, and Hawks, all still frozen in place. “Sorry. I know this will look weird to you all… but I’m not going to let my mentor die in a hospital.”
Then he did what he had done before. Green lightning flared brighter as Izuku prepared to move again, time still frozen around him. He went full speed out of the alley, heading toward the Izu Peninsula, to the only place that had the technology necessary to save Luist’s life.
Same place a millisecond later
Hawks looked to the side at the paramedics coming out of the ambulance that had just arrived through the police perimeter, then he moved his head back toward the body. “… Huh?” The scene had shifted out of nowhere, and he was not the only one who realized it.
“The patient! Where is he?” one of the paramedics shouted, rushing forward next to Hawks. “He was just here… where did he go?”
In fact, the man who moments ago was bleeding, barely alive, had just disappeared out of thin air. The only thing left in the alley was the broken pieces of the objects that had nailed the hero’s body to the concrete.
A police officer stepped forward and began studying the surroundings on high alert, suspecting this was the work of a villain. Holding his radio, he said, “The Energized Hero: Tormenta has gone missing. Stay alert. Check the perimeter in duos.”
Hawks watched the officer remain in the alley as the other patrol cars started checking around the block. The mood began to grow tense, and the Number Three Hero was no exception. He hadn’t sensed anything coming. No blood trail leading out, no drag marks, no sound of warp teleportation. Nothing. It was as if all of this had been a dream or a hallucination.
But the broken concrete was still there, and the object in his pocket was still there.
“… Okay. That’s still there.”
“Sir, did you see where he went? Or hear what evacuated him?” the police officer asked, looking around the alley with clear panic in his voice. This was going to be a nightmare worth of paperwork later.
“Nope. Nada,” Hawks replied, unable to help the officer with anything. He hadn’t placed a feather on the body, which would have been a truly paranoid move at the time he found the wounded hero. “And I would have noticed if someone had come and moved him. Kind of my job.”
The officer lowers his head and keeps looking for clues on the ground, but there are not even footprints noticeable. The number three hero let him do his job and fly up to the rooftop of the nearest building. There he takes his phone; he might not like how the call will go once he has to tell what happens, but there’s nothing he can do to fix it now.
The name of the contact was ‘Madam Bossy,’ funny any other time, but he could only sigh and press call, and to his luck it was answered immediately.
“… Report,” Madam President’s voice came through the speaker, cold and impatient.
“Yeah, so… you are going to laugh about it, believe me.” Hawks tries to act casual to make the blow less impactful. “The guy you’re so interested in… he just disappeared.”
There’s a long silence, and the voice of the leader of the HPSC had lowered a few degrees more. “I’m not laughing… what do you mean disappeared!?” On the other side of the call, he can hear her typing fast on her computer; she is pissed and busy, a bad combination of things, especially for a certain hero reporting his given case. “Explain…”
“Look, I was following him like you say I have to do, searching for a good time to befriend him, and not intervening if a fight started… well,” he rubs his neck as he is frustrated to stay at the side seeing how Tormenta got his ass kicked, “he ended as a body pinned against a wall; once I arrived at the alley, I called the cops and requested an ambulance. Then when the medics arrive, just before they could move in, he just poofs. One second, he was there; the next, he’s not. No footprint of a speedster, no warp usage I could hear, no quirk involved; he just vanished out of sight.” He does the best he can to explain the bizarre situation.
“That’s doesn’t make sense… he does not have that kind of quirk or whatever he has.” The older woman's voice came mad; she had so many plans once they had the alien in their custody.
“Well, I just told you what happened; nothing I can do could bring him back.” Hawks looks at the police cars doing rounds around the block, still looking for the missing hero. He sits on the rooftop looking at Kofu City. “Still not liking this passive mission; I could go ten times better if I help him out; we could have some progress done already.”
“That’s not for you to decide!”
“Yeah, well, at least we know if I had moved earlier, maybe we’d have answers instead of an empty wall.” Also, he was a bit unsettled with not being able to help; that guy was jumped by two dangerous villains.
The line went quiet for some seconds; most probably Madam President was just as frustrated as he. After some long seconds, she breaks the silence. “At least… do you have anything of value? I don’t know a piece of his armor, for example.”
Hawks reaches into his pocket for a cylindrical pocket hazard container the I+D had developed to store those crystals found in Osaka, and they have given him a couple of them. He sees through the protection glass to the glowing green crystal inside. “Actually, yeah. Found something before the cops showed up.” He examines the object more closely; he had heard what the ones they already have can do, and he was glad this one didn’t make him a zombie from being exposed to it.
“… I’m listening.” The woman sounds more interested now; he sighs in his mind that at least he will not end up doing embarrassing jobs this month.
“It seems like those crystals we found in Osaka, but they are green, small, and less sharp, but keep the same intense glow pattern as the samples back in HQ. I placed it on the hazard container you had given me. It appears that the crystal falls on them; the inside of the armor didn’t have an effect on me, but I still place it in the container just in case.”
“You have been exposed?” The woman asks, sounding dead serious.
“Yeah, I even grabbed it with my hand and all, obviously not; I used a glove to pick it up, but there was no reaction on my body.”
“Well… not all is lost; bring it in immediately. We need to conduct some studies on it. Also, this confirms that Tormenta was indeed connected to Osaka…” She hung up the call, and the number three hero just looked down at the officers to secure the alley and block the entry to it, also the other police cars drop the chase; now it's the work of the detective units, and there’s nothing he can do here, starting his flight to the Commission HQ.
Izu Peninsula 18:32
Izuku arrived after just what feels like a blink; he was still impressed how fast OFA made him at the highest point, not to mention the simple fact that his mind could keep up with this speed was frightening, but the teen was still too focused on saving his otherworldly mentor that was still frozen in time, resting on his arms.
“W-woah…” The green-haired teen looks at the construction site in awe.
The project is only eight days in, and already the base was finished. The plan was to make it float high in the sky and to have it a domelike shield system; from where the teen was, he could see drones flying around.
The Snick-01 project was mildly elevated on a metal platform of thirty-nine ft in height. Soil was placed on top of the platform to serve as artificial ground to plant grass or a diversity of trees.
Izuku jumps on top of the platform and sees that even in the evening this place was still being worked on. Floodlights glow bright, illuminating the area in white light, casting shadows over steel frameworks, half-built structures, and heavy machinery as the evening was turning into the night. The day shift workers were already on their house units built around the construction site.
The teen sprints around the area searching for the medical wing, passing through groups of workers and machines, all of it frozen like a picture. “Almost there…” Izuku mumbled, his heart still in a state of panic; he said to calm himself because only his AI could hear him, “You’re not dying today… not like this… not after everything you have been through…”
Tears start to form in the teen's eyes, as the idea of Luist dying was really tragic; the man survived being killed once in a universe full of wars and suffering, all to find a peaceful life here.
AI Inko spoke from the speakers, “We are almost there, Izuku. Please breathe; he will be okay… just follow the arrows.” On his HUD appeared a guide arrow, and he soon found the building he had been searching for; it was near the central building under construction, but the medical wing looks like a fully operational hospital by size enough.
The reinforced doors were open, giving him access as further indications appeared on his HUD, most likely indications sent by SteLL the second she had called him. The arrow on the HUD of the teen guides him inside an ICU room that contains a half-tilted pod, its crystal doors open, and a liquid is on the foot of the machine.
“… Please,” Izuku muttered anxiously as he lowered Luist inside the open pod; the teen closed his eyes for a second and closed his hands as he did a little prayer to any god that can hear him, holding onto hope that this will work. “Just please… be okay.”
One step taken back.
Two.
Three…
Time resumed…
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” A feral scream came from a now awakened Luis as the spikes that were holding his internal organs were now missing; the pain had woken him up as he tried to grab anything as he was dying from his reopened wounds.
Then the pod closed, muffling his screams behind the thick glass; liquid started to fill inside the chamber. Luist’s body convulsed and gagged as the fluid forced its way into his lungs, designed to be breathable, but the human brain mistakes it easily for common water, making it react to a drowning reaction.
The clear liquid starts to darken by the blood coming out; the filter soon starts to recollect the blood and put it safe for reinsertion, and small mechanical arms move at an incredible speed inside the pod; they cut the shattered armor and extract any fragments of hardened blood spikes that were stuck deep in muscle and bone. Other arms sealed ruptured vessels and injected stabilizers directly into Luist’s spine and chest.
Luist's head thrashed on the pod once more before going unconscious; his eyes closed and his body stopped moving.
Izuku stood frozen, his eyes glued to the whole live surgery; he could not take his eyes from the pod. He was too focused on it; he didn't hear anything around him, like when he froze time, even though he was sure he resumed time. This was a problem he was unable to punch or freeze; this was beyond his help, and that tormented the teen mind, especially since he knows that his second mentor was really strong, and it makes him sad seeing Luist like this.
Then the screen next to the pod shifted.
VITALS: STABILIZING
HEART RATE: STABILIZING
NEURAL ACTIVITY: NORMALIZING
INTERNAL BLEEDING: CONTROLLED
CRITICAL CONDITION: IMPROVING
“Izuku!” Sound comes back, and he hears the two synthetic voices of the two IAs that are worried about him. “Please breathe!”
Midoriya then exhaled and resumed his breathing; he hadn't realized he was holding his breath as his hands were also trembling.
“You are feeling a panic attack, Izuku,” SteLL's voice can be heard from the speaker system of the room. “Please sit-down kid, he will be okay… this isn’t the first time he…”
“I KNOW… I know… it is just,” Izuku couldn’t help it; he had seen some recordings and logs from the Servick war, how young Luist was when it started. Izuku sat down, his holographic hood turned off, letting him breathe fresh air as he managed to calm a bit.
The fluid on the pod cleared more, turning from murky red to blue, which indicates that external bleeding has been patched up. Vitals blinked on the side screen, changing constantly, getting from red to green slowly.
“Look, kid, I know… I was also afraid he… but the fact now is that he is okay and that I will make sure to update the design of the armor so this won’t happen again.” SteLL also sounds stressed.
The room fell into silence as Izuku wasn’t really in a good mood to joke or distract himself; he just kept staring at the pod’s screen with angst creeping inside his chest. “SteLL… what now? What can we do now?” The tone of the still anguished teenager was cracking a bit, “we can just do nothing.”
A soft whir filled the room as the ceiling light projector hummed as it produced the frame of the digital avatar of SteLL; the hologram body flickered into existence. The fairy-sized AI floats next to the pod, her usual sassy self, absent for now; she just touches the glass on the pod and sighs, “Talk like a true hero, kid… yeah, we don’t wait; we will figure out who did this and make sure to be prepared next time.”
The voice of AI Inko was heard next: “Agreed, the attack was made by someone at the level of a space war veteran; this was not a kid’s work; they know how to find weak points and be able to pierce right through it.” The soft-spoken AI said her own conclusions “and the scanners show some residual chosen power usage on the spikes, not to mention the absence of the Alfedarnomium and Diaranomium crystals on the power core.”
“So, our sneaky Kofu chosen one reveals themselves, and we can know who they really are… in the armor has a Black box independent from the core energy. In it, there are logs of everything: combat feeds, sensor data, energy spikes, and even storing the lesser AI that makes the armor work properly.”
“Then what are we waiting for? Open the files.” Izuku was eager to know who was the one that almost killed his mentor and friend.
“Not here , kid; it will need the ship’s systems to unpack the data right,” she said while snapping her holographic fingers.
And right on cue, the wrecked armor on the floor of the pod starts to shift form. The metallic cut chunks compress with difficulty into the familiar collar shape. The metal was battered and not entirely repaired, but intact enough for extraction. The pod's filters ejected it through a slot, landing it on a tray with a dull clunk.
Izuku grabbed it; the weight was lighter than his wrist, most likely because Luist doesn’t like heavy armor since his power can absorb energy from hits. “…” the teen thinks, How do the spikes even tear right through if Luist has that power? He really needs to know. “I got it… let’s move.” He looks one last time at Luist hanging on the breathable liquid; ‘Hang in there’ was the last thought of Izuku as he headed out.
Outside the medical wing, Izuku can hear the construction sounds around him, now that the time is not paused. Drones fly low as they bring materials to the workers, who wave the teen ‘hi,’ and he politely waves back. not far away from the building, Luist’s ship's rugged, modular frame was docking on the ground.
The cargo bay ramp is lower down. “Come in,” SteLL's voice echoes on the ship speakers. The inside was really different since the time they met Eri. “I change things a bit; it is easy to shift things around when the metal is made from smart metal. This way.” The AI opens the door leading to the ship's cafeteria to his right was a ladder up; climbing it, he went through the comms room on the second floor and finally reached the recreation room on the third floor.
“… this also looks different,” Izuku said, as the room doesn’t look like last time; there’s a pool table, some exercise machines, a large screen on the wall, and a circular couch section. “Your design?”
“Luist likes training muscle occasionally, and yeah, I place some of the hobbies and likes,” SteLL said as she makes the nanobots of the collar float weakly out of the hands of Izuku to the table in front of the couch. Data was starting to get read by the ship systems.
The screen on the wall comes to life, and a video recording starts to play on the monitor. It was recorded in Luist’s POV two hours ago; he was floating near the location he was found, and as a yell was heard, Luist lowered down to the alley.
“What was Luist doing there anyway?” Izuku asks, as he knows that in the morning he was in Musutafu helping out around the city.
“A scanner we placed on the orbit of Kofu detected chosen power, so he flies there to investigate the area since the chosen there was silent for too long,” SteLL said as they kept seeing.
The monitor continues playing the recording; the first-person feed shows Luist dropping on the entrance of the alley. Shadow stretched under the buildings thanks to the afternoon sun; 16:35 can be read on the bottom left of the screen.
The recording stops and zooms in; laid slumped against the wall was a pro hero, Izuku cannot remember ever seeing; a label can be read on the HUD recording showing the name of the hero Troyan (34). Blood was pooling from a gash on his arm; his breathing was quick in panic.
And standing over him was a tall, intimidating man with muscular arms covered in tape, armed to the teeth with all kinds of blades. The main weapon, a katana dripping red, the villain's tongue moved across the blade to taste it.
Izuku gasps as he recognizes the villain, and his skin crawls as he gasps, “Stain… that’s the hero killer!” the mind of the teen starts to go to the worst scenarios, ‘is Stain the chosen one? Did Stain almost kill Luist? ’But he continues to see the recording.
Stain raised the blade to finish Troyan off, his eyes focused on his mission. But before he strikes down with his blade, the villain dodges the sneak attack that Luist attempts by jumping back. The palm of Luist shot a lightning bolt where Stain was. “Good try… but you’re interrupting something important here.”
Luist walks to stay between the villain and the paralyzed hero behind, as he keeps his focus on the killer that keeps his guard up. “Can’t let you do that; you better surrender now; do not make me do this the hard way.” Luis's voice is calm and steady, not wanting to escalate things further.
Stain looks at the hero up and down, his eyes narrow as he recognizes the hero in front of him. “You… Tormenta, I’ve seen your work. You took down that underground human trafficking ring three days ago, yet no press conference after, no endorsement, no spotlight seeking. You’re not like scum like him,” the villain points with his katana at the paralyzed and scared pro hero on the ground. “This one is a fake, in it for fame and a big paycheck, letting real villains slip through for some stupid photo session and an interview, six dead civilians because he wasn’t there on time.” The hero killer gritted his teeth in anger. “Society’s rotten because of fake heroes like him. I’m fixing it; move aside.”
Luist keeps his ground with his guard up; his armor systems start to absorb electromagnetic energy, and the HUD on the recording shows some recharging data. “I get you are frustrated by this, heroes chasing the attention and greed instead of saving lives.” Luist starts to make time as on his HUD the scanners show Troyan body paralysis still up, “Yeah, I know it's messed up; the system’s broken, too many in for the wrong reasons.”
Stain’s eyes lit up, grip tightening on his katana hilt, “then you see it! The decay of heroism, the way their greed makes a mockery of the true heroes.” The villain starts to rant with a vile tone, “Only the true heroes, like All Might, those who are selfless, unbreakable, and willing to sacrifice it all to help others, those are the ones that deserve the title. And killing these fakes will force a change, waking people up from this illusion!”
The video recording of Luist HUD shows that the energy field around him was fully charged but didn’t attack, most probably wanting to wait until the paralyzed hero could move. “Agreed on the idea, but this isn’t the way to do things. You aren’t fixing it; you’re just killing people who don't have other options. Some of them have remarkable quirks, but the only legal way to use them is for hero work. You didn’t see the person behind the mask anymore; some of them have families and responsibilities but no other way to bring food to the table,” Luis starts his own rant.
Izuku is on edge as he holds the couch tightly; the tension of the scene can be cut with a knife. SteLL was also analyzing the data and working on a statement for later when the media calls for it.
“This hero society and the worship of it is the problem that stranded us on this planet,” Luist said, keeping Stain focused on him. “So many ways to use these abilities and overhype law officers was the best thing society came with, so yes, I agree to some degree, but that isn't an excuse to murder a person who is only doing what they had been through all their lives.” The tone in Luis's voice was filled with spite and frustration. “I’ve teamed up with heroes that you will most likely label as fakes, but they work great once they forget rivalries. The change starts once we start to work together, not against each other.”
“Yet, nobody helps you on that hostage factory siege.” The hero killer said it seemed that the villain had kept an open eye on Luist for the short time he had been a pro. “You talk like a true hero; you have that fire and determination to help and change things. You are worthy of the title of hero. But I cannot back down; this mission I have is a necessary one; every yin has its yang. If you are willing to serve on the light, I will work on the dark.” Stain readied his blade, unwilling to change his mind.
Luist sights and clenches his fist, making an energy blade on his left arm and powering up his right on lightning, getting ready for this fight. “I guess we are done talking then?”
“Indeed, we have, but my mission must be done.” The villain looks up with his expression hardened, “so sorry to not be willing to waste time fighting… hold him down.” Luis turns around and sees a girl jump down from the nearby building.
Izuku's eyes widen. "SteLL, pause the recording. The tips of the blonde girl's hair were glowing red, and the irises of the catlike eyes were also glowing a dim red tone; she was surfing down on a red table made of a familiar material, “that table! It looks like the spikes!” then the screen shows what the japan database shows the information on the girl.
Missing/Wanted: Himiko Toga (16), Crimes: Animal cruelty, assault with a weapon, burglary, vandalism, serial killer, mutilation.
Izuku's face got pale; this was the other chosen one, and it was a monster already. He had thought he and Luist could save at least one red one, but she was already doing bad things, and she is responsible for leaving Luist almost dead.
SteLL resumes the recording. Toga surfed down with the intention to stab Luist with two jagged scythes made from solidified blood. When the war hero jumped back, the platform that Toga was using dissolved into multiple spikes that shot towards him; he managed to deflect them using his electric blade and hand.
“Whoa, who’s the cutie with the glow?” The girl giggles as she stands before the armored hero, keeping away from the paralyzed hero on the ground. The teenage girl reforms the two scythes into a large one and swings it in a wide arc.
The HUD flashes a warning as one of the floating spikes manages to pierce a side of his armor, ‘Edge sharpness: atomic level. Armor integrity at 92%’ Izuku and SteLL can read with panic that this will mean the sharpness can cut the smart metal plate. the data start to come out of the HUD; ~1 nanometer edge scale, blood is forced into a glass-like frame, near atomic sharpness.
“This girl is dangerous,” SteLL said, saving the data to work on a countermeasure material to reinforce the new armor for Luist.
“Kid, stand down,” Luist said, most likely wanting to stop the red chosen before she keeps this villainous path. “This doesn’t have to…”
But the girl ignores his words, and she keeps swinging her scythe, aiming at his feet; the hero dodges by jumping back again, firing a quick bolt from his palm that she dodges with a twirl, laughing like it was just a kid’s game, “Ha ha ha, you are fun, Stain-sensei. Show me videos of your fights; I love how your quirk is so flashy and shiny. Now, now, Sparky, maybe I will want some of your blood.”
Stain takes advantage of the distraction, and while Luist is blocked by the teenage girl. The hero killer brings his katana down into the neck of Troyan; the eyes of the grounded hero flash fear and despair before shutting down. Stain straightened, wiping his weapon clean with a swing before sheathing the katana. “It’s done, one less fake in this world.”
Izuku gasped as Luist couldn’t stop the murder and wondered where the body of the hero was when he arrived at the alley; also, that explains where the spikes were made from.
Luist focuses on the killed man, who starts to be drained by Toga powers, turning all the blood extracted into large long spikes; the speakers of the monitor burst, “NO! damn it!” the HUD asks for confirmation for something.
“No… the idiot opens the battery hatch!” SteLL said angrily, as she doesn’t like where this is going.
“What does that mean?” Izuku asks; he really doesn’t understand what the AI means.
“The crystals can have multiple reactions on chosen or non-chosen people.” AI Inko said, as she knows how the crystals work since she lives inside the armor of Izuku and had to know this. “Cronomium ones are dangerous to humans, giving a cosmic illness called Pestilent Dawn; the more a person is subject to the radiation of the crystal, the more a person will decompose alive.” A small pause makes Izuku make mental notes to never take that thing out of his armor: “Alfedarnomium has some neutral reaction, nothing bad for humans, can even be worn as jewelry, and finally, Diaranomium can produce megalomania and greed thoughts, as well as heal Pestilent Dawn on normal humans and… can nullify red and green chosen powers.” That made Izuku focus back on the recording.
Luist chest plate open the hatch where the Diaranomium crystal comes out on a container before opening; once the small battery container is open, the alley lights up blue as the electric hum of his powers dies down, and the spikes of Toga she holds mid-air with her powers simply fall down, clattering across the pavement like hard glass.
The girl tilted her head, curious, and realizing the crystal on the chest of the hero had turned her power off, said, “Aw, that’s not nice, Sparky; that’s not fun!” She frowns with a giggle as her eyes sharpen; her eyes and hair still light up, but she has to crouch low, her fingers brushing the fallen spikes. “Guess we’ll do this the old-fashioned way.” Toga grabbed two spikes and held them like javelins.
Luis takes his two pistols from his back holsters; he shoots plasma rounds, the hot, bright projectiles hitting one of the spikes; it melts the structure and vaporizes the blood after, but he almost gets stabbed as one grazes his shoulder plate and strikes the wall behind him. “Stand down, kid, you don’t have to be like him, you can…”
Again, the teenage girl didn’t listen as she rolled down, scooping up one more spike as she dodged the shots. “Hehehe, you are so serious, Sparky; I bet your blood tastes like thunder!” She slashed low with a spike held like a dagger, forcing him to dodge back; he felt the wall behind.
Stain just watched the fight from the shadows, arms crossed, like this was some kind of lesson for his protégé.
Luist keeps firing warning shots, not wanting to kill the kid, just trying to keep her away from him, and still trying to convince her, “This path, you will regret it the more you go further.” Luist tries to leave his compromised position, but she throws another spike to stop him.
Toga laughed louder as she jumped high and threw one spike with a rough throw at his left shoulder, the momentum and force behind the shove pinning his shoulder to the wall. Luist let out a gasp of pain and attempted to fire his gun with his other arm, but the girl didn’t stop and threw in quick succession two more; one impacted his right thigh, and the other one went through his chest, keeping him stuck against the wall.
The HUD flashed red warnings: ‘Smart metal compromised, Crystal ejected, power lowering down.’ SteLL and Izuku look to the monitor and see that the Alfedarnomium had been ejected from the fight and now lie on the ground without the two villains noticing, and probably neither did Luist notice.
Toga skips close to Luist and takes a blood drop from him and licks it. “Ooh, spicy! I haven’t tasted blood like this; indeed, you are special,” she said. It was most likely because Luist is a human from another universe and practically an alien, so his blood has another DNA coding.
Stain finally moved; he grabbed the limp, drained, husk body of Troyan and casually threw the dead hero into a nearby dumpster. “Okay, Toga, lessons over; we leave the worthy one alive; he will understand our mission once we are done.” And make her follow him out of the alley.
Toga pouted as she could not store some blood for later but finally nodded and, using a spike as a knife to extract the exposed Diaranomium from the armor, held it with a grin on her face. “Souvenir.” She tucked it into her pocket; she then skipped out, following her mentor.
Luist tried to raise his pistol, but his armor system uses the components on the gun to try to repair the armor and keep him alive. “Wait… kid…” his lifted hand falls on the recording; the feed starts to glitch and turn off. The HUD was still on, as the next text was displayed.
CRYSTAL COUNT: 1/3
DIARANOMIUM: NEARBY SIGNAL 93% 39ft away
ALFEDARNOMIUM: NEARBY SIGNAL 99% 10ft away
CRONOMIUM: ACTIVE
EMERGENCY BEACON: WEAK
ARMOR REPAIR: DIVERTED TO LIFE SUPPORT
SEND HELP REQUEST SENT
SHUTTING DOWN SYSTEMS…
Then the screen went black; the black box power was cut off.
The hero student stared at the black screen as if something else would show, but none did. His mind raced like it did when Shigaraki tried to catch him earlier today, “That… That’s it?” his voice came out anxious. “I… I have to go after them. Stop them before they kill someone else!” The murder of Troyan still fresh in his mind and the way they humiliate his mentor, he could not let others be harmed by them.
SteLL's small hologram form flickered in front of him, like she was physically blocking his path. “Whoa, whoa, hold on, kid. You’re not charging out there like some Small Might on a revenge kick. You’re fifteen. Sit your butt down.”
AI-Inko's voice also joined in, coming softly through his suit comms: “Izuku, listen to me, neither me nor your mom agrees with this,” which implied that his mom was listening to what was happening now from home by streaming, which made Izuku rethink this and sit down, but his AI didn’t stop there: “Toga has the Diaranomium crystal with her, and you know what that means.”
The teenage boy nods, feeling so powerless; he, who has the power to control time and also the power of the number one hero, cannot do anything. “But… my quirk, maybe it will…”
“It would still work, but you can still just use five percent without your freeze dimension; you haven’t trained it beyond that limit.” Inko's words made Izuku again look down, feeling so stupid for not considering that fact.
SteLL decided to make sure he didn't think of other ways to go with other ways to fight, like guns or swords; he had been trained also. “And before you tried to argue back and consider using some of the guns or blades you have, remember one can literally stun you in some way,” SteLL said as she remembered the way Troyan was unable to move during the fight or to flee once Luist came to help, “and the other could nullify your time powers and still use some of her previously made blood blades to cut through your armor; it is a bad matchup, kid…”
“But… Luist, he almost died. And Troyan, he was throwing it away like trash; we can’t let them keep getting away with that.” Izuku said, as he feels just ignoring the problem would be against all that he believes in.
“And we won't,” SteLL said, calming the teen. “But we do it the smart way; we have all the footage we can use against his cause, and once Luist is up, we will take care of this. Trust me, kid.”
“And that won’t be soon,” AI-Inko added. “The nanomachines send some updates on his state; the outside tissue regeneration is already done, bone and nerves will take a day or two, and his organs are already fully functional again.” This calmed the young Midoriya, but he knows that wasn’t all, “whoever the nerve damage will take him weeks to heal, he will be grounded until his muscle trauma is done.”
“Okay…” The teen just said he was willing to wait and follow orders; his mentor isn’t dead and will be fine, and that’s more than other Stain victims can say. “I need to go back to training. I can’t keep relying on my Chosen powers, not when there are people who can shut them down or turn them against me. I need to train my quirk more. Five percent isn’t enough anymore.” The eyes of Izuku fire up with determination to become stronger.
On the screen, the screen lit up as the medical system sent its report.
STATUS: PATIENT CONSCIOUS
VITALS: STABLE
POD OPENING IN 30 SECONDS.
SteLL sighed and smiled on her usual sassy grin. “It seems that Sleeping Beauty is up… let’s go see him.”
Izuku stands up, and in a quick subsection, he starts to go down the ladders and out of the ship, his heart pounding fast but no longer with panic but with joy, since his mentor and big brother figure is okay.
Somewhere in Kofu city 22:43
Himiko Toga was feeling really proud of herself. She had defeated a big, outstanding new hero like it was child’s play, and her mentor had even told her she did good once they arrived back at the hideout. That alone was worth celebrating. She rewarded herself properly: a long, warm bath until her fingers wrinkled, and a chocolate pudding she ate slowly because she deserved it.
Now she was back in her room, the one she always claimed as hers in every hideout they used. It was different from Stain’s room. More colorful. More alive. Even if he complained and said they would be moving to another safe house soon, she did not care. She liked customizing her space every time they moved.
Her room was filled with mementos, little trophies from every time she had helped Stain stop a fake hero. And now, sitting carefully on her bed, was her newest spoil of war. A shiny blue crystal. Stain had folded it in aluminum foil after they realized it messed with her powers. They tested different materials until they found one that let her make blood weapons again. Aluminum worked best, and now she had unfolded it just to admire it properly.
“So shiny,” she whispered; the crystal pulsed faintly every time she held it, reacting to her touch. She stared at it longer than she meant to, mesmerized by how pretty it was. Eventually, she curled up in bed, clutching it close to her chest, and drifted off to sleep.
Moments later, she slipped back into her dream world; she had been having lucid dreams for months now, ever since her new friend appeared in her mind, “Crono-chan!” she called happily. “Today was a superb day. I beat a big-shot hero all by myself. I used the moves you taught me here, and I didn’t lose control either. Not only that, but I did fantastic!”
But something was wrong. Crono was not answering. The androgynous being sat on the other side of the table, their red skin looking pale. Pink, if you were being precise. Their six left arms lifted and pointed behind her. “You brought them here, kid.” Crono said even without a real mouth, its voice sounded scared.
That alone made Toga uneasy.
She turned around, following the direction of those raised arms, and the dream collapsed. The colorful scenery vanished, replaced by a thick, dark blue fog stretching endlessly in every direction. Up, down, side to side. She could not tell how big the space was anymore. “Who is them...?” Then she saw it. At first, just two shapes, long poles rising from the fog. As her eyes followed them upward, her stomach dropped. Legs, huge, long legs connected to a body her mind properly refused to understand. It had too many limbs, spider-like arms branching and folding in ways that made her head hurt.
It stood completely still; that somehow worsened it, her breathing sped up, she tried to force the dream to change, to make it disappear, but it did not listen, panic crept in as she realized she was losing control.
She turned back to ask Crono what was happening; Crono was gone. Left alone, she did the one thing she knew she would regret; she turned back toward the figure.
The legs were right in front of her. Her breath caught in her throat. She tried to scream, to run, but her body would not move; her heart pounded so hard it felt like it was inside her ears. Terror locked her in place; the only thing she could move was her eyes, and against her better judgment, she looked up.
IT LOOKS BACK AT HER
A hand moved toward her. One of many. Blood began to drip from her nose. In the real world, her body trembled violently on the bed, eyes moving wildly beneath closed lids. The Diaranomium crystal clenched in her palm glowed brighter and brighter, bathing the room in cold blue light.
Back in the lucid nightmare, she forced herself to stare only at the approaching hand. It was wrinkled, bluish, and massive. As it drew closer to her face, she noticed a bulge forming in its palm.
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Then it opened; an eye stared back at her, crystals identical to the one she held were embedded at both corners, the sclera was yellow, the iris was a dull blue, empty of light, and the pupil was wide and black, like an abyss.
Tears streamed down her face. She could not move, could not scream, could not even look away. Each fingertip, each one the size of her entire hand, closed around her head, pulling the eye right in front of her face. “You need healing, kid…”
She passed out; she passed out inside her own dream.
Shūzenji Onsen, Izu Peninsula – 22:50
Luist tried to get in a better position on the couch but immediately regretted it as he felt a pinch on the side of his arm that hours before was holding part of his body, and the bandages around his ribs and thigh pulled tight, sending a dull spike of pain through his body.
The nanomachines had done their job: regrow his lost and broken organs, stop the internal and external hemorrhage, the torn muscles were attached back where they needed to be, and his bones were put together, placing micro joints to keep the bone tight and speed up the natural healing factor of the body. everything else was left untouched; they had left the bruises, the strains, the deep ache that reminded him how close it had been. Some things are better to heal the slow way.
He could not stand on his own yet. His legs still felt weak, trembling after being hung for so long. The house of Nanami was quiet; outside, the night air carried the distant sounds of the forest and the faint rush of the river that cut through Shūzenji. Steam from nearby hot springs drifted lazily through the trees, clinging to the hills. Inside, the air felt heavy, like it was pressing down on all of them.
Eri was wrapped around him, clinging tight. Her small arms were locked around his neck, her face buried into his shoulder. She had stopped crying properly a while ago. Now it was just sniffles small, shaky breaths that still hurt worse than any wound. “Don’t go away again,” she mumbled into his shirt. “Promise.”
Luist swallowed, feeling how his throat got a bit narrow and dry. “I promise, kiddo,” he said quietly, one hand moving slowly over her back, doing gentle, careful pats. His other arm was useless, bound up and immobilized. “I’m here.”
Earlier, Izuku and SteLL had stopped by. They had given a rundown from the black box recordings before heading back to Musutafu. Stain. Toga. Troyan. The crystal. They kept the worst details away from Eri.
Nanami did not get that luxury; the local heroine paced around the living room, arms crossed tight. Small flickers of heat shimmered at her fingertips, her quirk reacting to her mood. Naomi Nanami, Fahrenheit when she was working, right now, she looked like she was deciding whether to set something on fire.
“You idiot,” she said flatly. She stopped pacing and smacked the back of his head. Not hard. Just enough to sting, “Charging in alone against the Hero Killer,” she continued. “And a psycho chosen kid with crazy powerful blood powers. What were you thinking? Or were you even thinking?”
Luist let out a small breath and rubbed the spot with a weak smile. “Fair,” he said. “Yeah. I messed up. Thought I could keep it quiet. Talk things up to handle it without dragging anyone else in.” He glanced down at Eri and chose his words carefully. “Didn’t expect the girl to be like that…”
Nanami dropped onto the couch beside him and wrapped her arm around his back, resting her head against his shoulder. “You should have called,” she said. “Me. Backup. Anyone.”
“I know.” He said softly, not wanting her to feel bad because of his errors.
Her grip on his shoulder tightened. “Izuku looked destroyed telling us. SteLL too. She was glitching all over the place.”
Guilt settled deep in Luist’s chest. This wasn’t just about his duty anymore; he had to think of the things he could lose. Eri squeezed him tighter, a reminder that he now practically is the foster father of a kid. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “To you. To Eri. To the little family we’ve got here.” He looked at both of them. “I won’t do that again. Promise.”
Eri lifted her head. Her face was red, tear-streaked, and exhausted. She nodded once. Nanami leaned in and kissed him on the cheek and kept her head resting on his good shoulder. “You’d better. Or next time I’ll launch you into orbit myself.”
He let out a soft laugh. It hurt, but it was worth it; for him, this is what is worth fighting for. He tried so hard back in the war to save the little family he had left; now, he had formed another; he wouldn't be stupid and just abandon this second opportunity to be happy.
After a while, the room went quiet again. Eri’s breathing evened out as she finally fell asleep against his chest. Nanami stayed close, her arm still around his back. She was watching him, though. She always knew when his thoughts were spinning.
“Nami-chan,” he said softly. “This doesn’t end with me healing up and going back out there.”
She looked at him, flames dimming down to almost nothing. “Then what? Luikun”
“This won’t be fixed with more patrols or armor upgrades.” He shook his head slowly. “Troyan wasn’t a fraud; he was just a guy doing his job, paying bills, probably had someone waiting for him to come home.” Nanami stayed quiet as he continued, “This society leaves no other options for people with great quirks, no other roles to fix in, labeling them as heroes or villains since infancy. Stain’s wrong about the killing. But he’s not wrong about the rot underneath it. Too many pros treat this like a career ladder, not a responsibility.”
She squeezed his hand harder. “And you think you can fix that?”
“I have to try,” he said. “I’ve avoided the media since I showed up. I know that trying to fight and change things alone, I see the error in that now.” He stared up at the ceiling. “If this hero society is so fixated on public shows and social media, so be it; I will use it to make popular the idea that everyone has value and how to use it, not just by being a hero…”
“That spotlight… Once you step into it, you don’t get to step back out. You could risk all your secrets being exposed… it could go bad fast.” Nanami said as she pats the head of the sleeping child she is co-parenting with Luist.
“I know.” He met her eyes. “But doing nothing is worse. Kids like Eri keep getting caught in the middle, being used as projects or being labeled as villains or useless like Izuku...”
She leaned in and kissed him, this time on the lips; the two kept looking at each other in silence, but it was enough to say she was on board with his decision. Luist closed his eyes, a faint smile forming; change never started clean, but this world needed it, the sooner the better.
TBC.
Izuku War Hero Studies—Log 3 & 4
Lin T Chun
Child survivor, temporal traveler, bioengineered chosen, princess.
Age: 8
Status: Non-combatant, protected individual
Bio: Lin T Chun is an eight-year-old girl originating from Luist’s home universe, but from a divergent timeline. She is the daughter of Luist Chun and Jenma, born after a series of events unique to that timeline. When Lin was still a toddler, she was kidnapped by an M9-affiliated scientist. For two years, she was subjected to extreme and unethical experimentation. Due to her rare biological resilience to Sentiment Crystal extracts, the scientist forcibly injected multiple artificial powers into her body. Most humans can endure up to three crystal extracts with only minor burns, but Lin was pushed far beyond that limit. The procedures caused catastrophic damage to her organs and skin. By the time she was rescued, approximately ninety percent of her body had been replaced using advanced bio-printing technology. She was eventually found by her older brother, Juant, who led a search team to locate her. The scientist responsible had already fled and remains missing. After her rescue, Lin began traveling across timelines alongside her brother. Their goal is to prevent the same tragedy from happening again, both to her and to others like her. Despite her young age, Lin carries the physical and emotional scars of prolonged captivity, invasive experimentation, and survival beyond normal human limits.
Augmented Condition:
Lin has countless powers, but she is afraid of using them (for what Luist had told.)
Traits:
with doctors: quiet, emotionally guarded, resilient, observant, cautious.
with people she trusts: cheerful, gentle, polite, and cute
Portrait:
based on a photo SteLL made of her when they met her and her brother.
SteLL
Artificial intelligence, former human, tactical support unit.
Age: 21 (former human; current state as AI)
Operational Role: Strategic AI, medical support, logistics, construction, combat assistance
Bio: SteLL was once a human girl named Stella Gruddam. She was taken from her family at a young age to live in the palace of Alfa as part of an arranged marriage with Luist The Chun. Growing up alongside the royal family, she became deeply attached to Luist, and the two developed a genuine bond that slowly turned into true love as they reached their teenage years. Together, they enlisted in the military academy of Alfa, which operated under the M9 program. On the day of their graduation, at the age of 15, the war against Servik began. Many people died that day. Consumed by grief and anger, Stella secretly joined Luist and their friends in a counterattack, seeking revenge against the enemy forces. During that counterattack, Stella was struck by an illegal projectile that caused her body to disintegrate into digital fragments, effectively turning her into data. Locoft managed to recover what remained of her essence and preserve it within a constructed core, transforming her into an artificial intelligence. From that moment on, SteLL continued to exist alongside Luist, sharing much of his life, history, and war experience, now as an AI rather than a human.
Core Functions:
Advanced artificial intelligence with tactical analysis, strategic planning, medical monitoring, construction management, data warfare, and battlefield support. She operates Luist’s ship systems, manages drones, assists in combat calculations, oversees projects such as Snick-01, and provides emotional and psychological support to Luist and others under her care.
Traits:
Highly intelligent, analytical, protective, emotionally aware, pragmatic, deeply loyal.
Portrait:
Based on her display as a holographic construct.