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Chapter 2: A Caretaker’s Work
🕑 Added 2024-04-08 16:08:38 +0000 UTCThe standard issue I have is that I am planning stuff for a chapter but need to cut or, in this case, move it all to the following chapter. As this was written when it was, there's no real-time feedback from chapter one. Still, I hope you enjoyed it regardless, including my changes to the universe.
“Text” – Normal speech
‘Text’ - Thought
“Text” – Radio/Communication lines
“Text” – None Japanese speech
(text) – Subtext/meaning behind a spoken word
Chapter 2: A Caretaker’s Work
"Endeavour!" The number 2 was quick to arrive on the scene, along with his sidekick, when they got the news of this most recent incident that had been in transit and flown the rest of the way, using their flames to fly over traffic and buildings.
"What's the situation?" Looking up, the man saw that the police had set up a barricade and were keeping people back from what looked to be the strangest case of a localised snowstorm he had ever seen, as high-speed winds seemed to encase the area beyond. Still, strangely, the cold didn't move towards them as he didn't feel any different standing this close to when he was halfway there. It must be part of the quirk of the villain causing this.
The police detective in a trench coat explained the situation. “Someone spotted a figure covered in ice and thought it was just a kid goofing off,” Burnin cursed for the both of them for the idiocy of whoever that was, as they must have known a dangerous ice-based villain; they should have stayed back and reported it. "When they confronted them, things quickly turned violent, and now the entire block is covered in ice." He finished as they saw people who must have been caught in this, shivering as they were being taken care of by paramedics and locals with fire quirks to warm them up.
“Civilians?” Endeavour asked, not liking that the detective was grim-faced.
"There are at least 50 dozen people trapped inside. We tried forcing our way in, but the cold is insane." The pro's eyes narrowed, as truthfully, if this villain was strong enough to leave behind literal inches of snowfall from short bursts of their quirk, then the chances of surviving for anyone caught inside of this latest attack were low, to say the least. They could only hope that the menace had kept them safe as hostages or that they had found somewhere to stay safe from the freezing winds and ice.
“Winter rescue?” He asked.
"They've been prepped, but even by chopper, it'll be another 20 minutes before they arrive." The detective replied that it wasn't helped that this region of Japan wasn't known for extreme weather events, even in the winter.
"We'll make an entry now; we'll put a stop to this farce. Be ready to send in people." Endeavour ordered as this had gone on for 15 minutes now, 14 minutes longer than he would have liked. The detective didn't fight him on this, understanding the situation as instead he called over anyone in the force that could help, along with 2 local heroes with minor flame quirks. One could light their hands on fire, and the other could create 3 tails from fire.
Along with them, the detective managed to get them several cops with flame quirks or quirks that offered some level of resistance to the cold, such as one who looked like a polar bear. With the team assembled, Endeavour aimed for a spot in the wall of frigid winds and snow, and along with his sidekick and the other flame hero, they blasted it with intense flames, creating an opening that quickly started to close.
"Go!" Endeavour shouted as the group rushed through the gap. Immediately, they could feel the change as if it were a typical warm spring day outside. Still, inside this frozen zone, the temperature instantly dropped from 20 to 5. It seemed to only get colder as Endeavour and Burnin had to flash their flames to keep themselves warm.
Almost out of curiously, Burnin reached for the now repaired barrier of wind and had to retract her hand almost as fast, seeing that even just touching the barrier for a few seconds left her near frozen over, trying to flex it to get the blood pumping didn't work as she had to reach it into her bright flaming emerald hair, taking a relaxing, if chilly breath when her flames did the trick. Having seen that, Endeavour knew that help wouldn't be coming for them anytime soon, but at least in such conditions, he didn't need to worry about overheating as much.
But with lives on the line and a villain to take down, he focused on that as he led them forward. The street seemed physically and metaphorically frozen, as it was a weekday, and schools had let out a couple hours ago, so there was no doubt plenty of food traffic. Signs of that were all over the place, from dropped belongings and shopping to how many storefronts were left as they were, open for business. Passing by a small café, they could see meals, some not even touched, had been left where they lay.
All of it was abandoned, as the block had been taken by a malevolent
with ice spikes forming on lamps and the guardrails, while some of the trees, which had been in bloom only an hour ago, were in varying states of ice as some had branches where the leaves had been blown off, others showed leaves that hadn’t even had the time to fall and instead froze still connected to the tree.
Looking around, the number 2 could barely see what was before him. Inside the blizzard, the winds and ice made visibility a challenge. "Use your quirks. Throw fire when you want to see!" He ordered as he waved his arm in front of them, sending a wave of intense flames out, which managed to clear their vision, but only for a few seconds. Following this, the other heroes do the same, but to lesser effect; it does give them a better view of the place.
“I think I see someone!” Burnin called out as she saw a person laying on their side, a car close to it with an opened door hinting at how he got there. Rushing over, she flared her hair, even pulled some off her head to try and warm him up as she gently moved them onto their back, only to see her effects were in vain. The man's lips were already blue, his face frozen with bloodshot eyes speaking to burst blood vessels.
Endeavour, in a rare moment, placed a comforting hand on her shoulder as she took a breath and got up, leaving the corpse to be collected later, praying that his death had at least been quick. Venturing deeper in, they didn't see any signs of life, a worrying prospect as with the temperatures being this cold and unexpected, they doubted that most could last that long, and with confusion and panic as a factor, that time was even lower.
It wasn’t long before they found their second and third bodies, a woman and a child, maybe 3 years old. Both had been exposed to the cold for so long that ice was forming on them, with their final moments being the mother hugging her child close in an unsuccessful attempt to keep warm. Trekking on, the fired-off fire went into the distance to help light the way, each new body they found being another soul they had failed.
"There!" One of the cops, the polar bear-looking one, pointed towards a mid-sized office building that was nearly completely covered in ice. "It seems to be strongest over there!”
“Then that’s where this bastard is.” Burnin’s hair flashed with her rage.
"Keep calm; if this is just the outer reaches of their quirk, you'll be a fool to charge in without thinking." Endeavour reminded her that the man was using his quirk to keep the others warm, as their approach had only led them into colder territory.
His sidekick took a chilled breath as she knew he was right. As much as seeing all those bodies pissed her off, she couldn't face this half-cocked. "Yeah, sorry, boss." Her boss didn't respond with words, merely letting out a huff as he approached the iced-over entrance; placing a hand on it, he activated his quirk, generating flames on his hand, though it was concerning when instead of melting instantly, it took time to melt through, giving them entry.
Stepping inside, they found another oddity of this event: rather than stepping into a glorified freezer on high, the inside was cold but a far cry from outside. Also, they saw people, living people, huddled together close to the stairs.
“H-heroes!” One of them cried in relief when they saw them.
“We’re saved!” The flame heroes quickly approached to warm them up.
Holding out his hand and lighting a fire which the people, at least 20, all huddled towards while the rest went towards Burnin. “What’s going on here?”
"We don't know. One minute, this crazy-looking lady runs with," One of them started but was interrupted by one of the cops.
"The villain just ran in?" The man, in response, shook his head.
"Not them, but they were chasing her. She seemed terrified. She had some other people with her. They looked like hired thugs." She looked like a mafia boss or something. He didn't get a good look, but she looked like death was chasing her, and with the situation as it was, he couldn't fault her.
Pointing towards the stairs, they saw that, like the rest of the lobby, it was free of ice, but there was a feint icy mist flowing down them. "They went that way, we heard fighting, and then…well, everything froze. I think whoever did it didn't want her to get out, as all the windows were also frozen over."
Endeavour's eyes narrowed as this was weirder by the minute. He stood up, tossing his fire towards some furniture; it quickly caught the light, giving the survivors a source of heat for the time being, which they quickly moved to. "Remain here for now. Outside is a blizzard." There were no complaints there, and the group walked up the stairs, keeping their eyes and ears open for anything that could be waiting for them.
“Well, we have the villain and the woman they’re after.” One of the cops spoke up.
“Yes, but why keep the inside warm enough to not freeze? Sounds like they want her dead, so why not ice the place over?” Another asked if it might have been callous. Still, it was a necessary question as the amount of death they saw didn't paint the image of a person who cared for collateral.
"We'll find that out soon enough," Endeavour replied as they continued, getting to the second floor, where the ice was more prominent; more concerning was that they found one of the bodies of what were the other villains, and unlike the rest who had merely fallen to the cold, this person met a much more violent end, that being that they had been pinned to the wall but a wall of spikes, their eyes, absent still showing fear and shock at the attack.
Going forward, they saw that they weren't a one-time thing as they found a second and third body soon enough. One seemed to have been impaled by a blade of ice and seemed to have died crawling away. In contrast, the third seemed to have been running away when their legs were severed, and what looked to be a heavy object struck them repeatedly, as their back was nothing but broken bones and blood. Such a grisly sight, even for a veteran pro like Endeavour, was hard to see as the man had to look away, a choice one of the cops didn't make in time as they threw up in the corner.
“When they said the target of this sicko had others with here, I didn’t think it was this much.” Burnin, not looking at the bodies, noted.
"Protection detail, most likely, though I doubt they put up much of a fight." Endeavour guessed that if this woman being targeted was a villain, she was meaningful or influential if she had people willing to die for her. Getting to the 3rd and 4th floors, they kept finding more, as it seemed like whoever was chasing them was as relentless as they were brutal as bodies looked like it wasn't a person, but a force of nature that did them in, with torn limbs and spilt guts, all chilled thanks to the cold, being the norm. More than that, as they went, it progressively got colder, telling them they were on the right path.
Soon, they reached the stairs that led to the roof and heard a commotion on the other side, followed by a woman's scream. Moving into action, Endeavour, followed by Burning, flew up the stairs and burst into the opening, just in time to see a man's body being thrown to the side, their torso filled with needles of ice as they struggled to breathe for a moment before they stilled. This just left one person, a woman, facing off against the monster of ice and snow.
Endeavour didn’t pay much mind to her, only noting she was an older woman and dressed in a style that said she had people who did her dirty work. Instead, his gaze shifted to the beast at the heart of it as it seemed to glare at her, not even noticing them, a mistake on its part. "Secure the hostage!" He ordered as he flew towards the villain, coated in flames. It punched it right in the face, knocking it back. Landing, he felt like the villains were coating themselves in ice as his attack sank into the snow. Shaking off the impact, the villain finally turned its attention from its prey to them.
“Go away." They spoke, but Endeavour didn't bother to entertain it. He decided to end this quickly, increasing and compressing his heat into his fist, preparing one of his signature moves.
“Flashfire First: Jetburn!” He called, unleashing a blast of hellfire that melted all the ice build-up on the roof and hit the villain straight on, melting through their entire body as most of it fell in on itself, but instead of seeing a body inside, he just saw more snow and ice, another oddity was its' recovery as he had faced off against ice and snow-based villains in the past. Still, this one was by far the strongest as its body formed new ice in seconds; in fact, it grew even more prominent and fiercer looking, appearing less like an overgrown fox and more like a mutant.
“This will be a little harder than I expected, but nothing I can’t handle.” Endeavour surmised as he launched more attacks against the villain, who didn't just take it and started to dodge around them, pouncing around like a fox in the snow, bending its body to avoid the worst of his fire.
"Boss, we got her!" Burning called out as she helped the terrified woman to her feet; the woman looked like she had seen death itself and latched onto the sidekick like a baby to its mother.
"Get her out of here!" Endeavour yelled back, as they had been too late to save the others, but now that he was here, he'll be damned if he let someone else die.
The villain didn’t seem to like that, as its glowing, piercing sky-blue eyes tracked Burnin with the woman as she went for the exit. “I won’t let her get away. She needs to pay.” They fired off a breath attack to stop them, which Endeavour countered with a flame blast, allowing the two to escape along with the cops who didn't have a flame quirk.
“You have bigger problems, villain!” Endeavour added as he fired another attack, aiming for the villain's construct's feet. They jumped to avoid it and, to their shock, didn't land on the roof but on quickly formed ice sheets several meters above them. When they jumped about as if on another level, the previous sheets fell back to earth.
“I was weak then. I am strong now.” The villain's voice carried through the air, steadily growing colder as the storm around them grew more violent. “Strong enough to make her pay.” Jumping towards them, they got out of the way as the villain slammed into the roof, sending massive spikes of ice through it and into the lower levels, piercing through the steel and concrete like it was nothing.
“Dammit, Burnin, are you alright?" Endeavour called out his com-link, down below his sidekick, rubbed the back of her head, getting up and inspecting the path before them, which was blocked by a shard of ice nearly as wide as the hallway.
"We're fine. That last attack nearly got us!" She replied as she worked to melt through it, not trusting that they could fly out when the area outside was still under the control of the present threat.
"Keep moving, keep that woman safe!" Endeavour ordered her as he engaged in a furious melee with the villain. He used its size and speed to his advantage, flying around it faster than the villain could react, striking at wherever he could to keep it off balance until he forced it to the edge.
"Is that how you want to play? Then so be it!" Endeavour raised his temperature, grateful that the sheer cold meant overheating wasn't nearly as big an issue. “I’ll incinerate you and arrest whatever remains! Prominence Burn!" He swung his arm around, and a wave of hellfire shot out from his body, so concentrated it was closer to the wave of water than fire. The villain tried to jump out of the way, but its legs were caught in it, while the other pros, who had been acting as backup, smacked it right back into the flames.
When Endeavour ceased the attack, what was left was a miserable puddling of partially melted snow, no larger than what a wheelbarrow could carry. “That handles that,” one of the pros said, cracking his neck after that engagement in which they barely did anything.
“Thank God, that was getting annoying.” The other said, but Endeavour didn't celebrate yet. Despite their win, he looked around and saw that the situation hadn't changed.
“Something’s off here. The storm hasn’t died down.” His statement killed any excitement or relief at knowing they handled the issue. Then, he noticed the snow pile shifting and moved to handle it. Still, to his shock, it didn't so much as shift as it exploded, the force of which was so great that it knocked him back a distance and sent the others flying as they landed on their butts and backs. Looking through the frost, they saw something that should have been impossible after he landed a Prominence Burn. The villain getting up.
No, it was like that pile exploded with the full force of a winter storm, as the ice and snow came back together, forming more of it and growing more significant than before till it was nearly trice the side it had been at the start. More than that, the ice that made up armour only increased until the beast was almost encased like a war elephant. Its eyes, which were always glowing, were now much brighter, with the number two being able to pick up hatred in them, an ironic desire to burn whatever the villain was looking at.
"Heroes in the way, so they have to die so she can pay." The villain thought aloud before they opened the jaws of the giant fox, a bright blue light emanating from within which Endeavour's instincts screamed at him was bad news. Trusting in that, he answered the attack before it was fired with his own counter. "Hell’s Curtain!” Swinging his hand, he spewed out flames from his palm that crashed into the rook's surface, creating a massive wall of intense flames between the two.
But that didn't prove enough as it wasn't just a blast of ice but pure cold that crashed into it, the flames robbed of their heat froze over; Endeavour was stunned by that, as he had faced many ice users but never one this powerful, one that could so easily counter his flames. The next moment, the frozen barrier shattered as the blast raced towards them. On instinct, Endeavour raised his temperature as high as he dared, becoming a small star with how much heat he gave off as the beam of cold smashed into him and sent him back, crashing right next to the entrance to the roof.
Blinking away the stars, he saw that the ice had still got him despite that heat, with most of his body encased in the stuff and pinning him in place. "Endeavour!" One of the heroes screamed in shock at seeing the flame hero iced over, but their foe wasn't letting up. With its jaws still open, the villain prepared another blast of pure cold.
"It's charging another one!" Someone cried out, to which Endeavour flashed his quirk, melting most of the ice, freeing his arm, which he formed a flaming spear in, throwing it as hard as it could towards the construct, striking it right in the left eye, the construct acting like an actual animal as it howled in what must have been pain, its attack missing him and instead piercing the eye of the storm. Unknown to them, it crashed into a nearby building, covering its upper floors in several inches of frigid ice. It sent people gathered outside into a frenzy.
“Just what will it take to handle this?” Endeavour thought aloud, freeing himself from the ice. That question was answered when they spotted a bright object coming in from above. Looking up, they just saw it crashing into the construct, revealing itself to be a blast of fire which melted all the way through, and unlike almost every other attack, this one got the construct to scream in pain. Following that blast, they saw the shooter coming in hot, both metaphorically and literally, as they were encased in flames.
“Flame Charge!” The figure crashed into the construct like a meteor, its foot melting and smashing through its entire body, exploding out the centre of it. Again, it seemed to scream in pain as it tried to swipe at the new figure, but it slid under it and jumped away, backflipping towards them, gently landing like a dancer.
Looking at this new figure, Endeavour didn’t know what to make of them. They weren’t the tallest person he had seen, as they must have stood shorter than all of them, but still average height. They didn't appear to be a civilian either as they dressed like a pro, wearing a light orange full-body jumpsuit with a dark orange belt with several pouches, the same colour as the belt; their elbow-length gloves and knee-high boots were all covered with long, silky dark orange fur, along with their collar and a waist length fur cape. They couldn’t make out their facial features as they wore a mask covering their entire face, with large, expressive, opaque eyes and long rabbit-like ears.
A final detail was that, like Endeavour, their form was cloaked in flames, but where he limited that select parts like his boots and arms, this mysterious figure was covered in bright orange flames. "Thank you for keeping him busy. It took a while to handle the rest." The figure spoke, their voice muffled by the mask, but that was definitely a man under there.
"Wait, who are you? What do you mean, the rest?" one of the heroes asked. Endeavour kept an eye on both their ally and the threat, which seemed to regenerate slower after that attack. Was the villain growing tired, or was it something with the newcomer's flames?
“Call me a caretaker. As for the rest, I meant the civilians. I had to secure them a place to stay while I handled this.” The answer lifted that weight off the number 2's shoulders; even if he hated that he wasn't the one who saved them, he wasn't petty or short-sighted enough to refuse that, though that meant that 19 people were dead then.
“You think you can handle this alone?” Endeavour asked, narrowing his eyes as the flames around this…caretaker seemed to pulse with power as the figure got into a stance similar to a specific Rabbit hero.
"I have to before any more lives are lost." He jumped towards the villain, who seemed to react more aggressively than it did them. He fired a blast of that cold ray at the caretaker, who bent his body around it like a pole vault would clear the beam. As they did so, their hidden hand revealed itself to be holding a basketball-sized fireball, which they threw at the villain's face, the flames melting into its face and getting another roar of pain.
Endeavour didn't just stand around, as he got involved with this fight as well, the two pouring their flames across the body of the villain, which reacted in kind, turning into a dance as caretaker seemed to quickly adapt to Endeavour's fighting style, a rarity among people he didn't directly employ. While the number two was power, the caretaker was speed. While he preferred to attack from a medium distance, the caretaker could get in close and engage in a melee using his flame-covered limbs. While Endeavour used wide-range attacks to hit as many of the villains as possible and keep them back in, caretaker used precision shots aiming at specific spots.
The villain grew increasingly desperate and angry as they fought, though its soft voice never faltered. It grew in intensity as they told them to leave, to allow them to take justice, which Endeavour ignored in favour of weakening the villain.
“Flashfire First: Jetburn!” Sliding underneath the construct, Endeavour punched upwards at its chin, sending a blast of superheated air and flames careening into it, melting off most of it. Using this chance, the caretaker jumped over the construct, using what Endeavour had long realised was their rabbit-like physic to achieve this. When they were directly overhead, the blasted flames out the soles of their feet, sending them towards the villain like a human missile; in front of their face, massive jaws and teeth made from flames appeared, open and ready to bite.
“Fire Fang!" They called out right as those jaws bit into the construct's melting through its icy hide to its core, the impact of the caretaker sending the villain into its stomach with a crash that threatened to cave in the rooftop. Waving his hand to disperse the steam created, the flame hero saw that the caretaker wasn't encased in flames and stood tall. They reached for a pouch and pulled out what looked to be a marble, only for them to press a button on it, with the marble expanding to the same size as a baseball.
“I promise that I’ll find justice for you.” Caretaker sincerely said, speaking to the defeated villain as Endeavour waited for it to have a 3rd wind, as its body wasn't as totalled as the first time. But that didn't happen as the caretaker threw the ball into the air, with the pro being surprised when it seemed it hit something, opening up and sucking in what looked to be air before shutting closed and falling to the floor; it rolled about for a moment before the button atop flashed green.
The caretaker seemed pleased, and the reason was made clear when the storm started to dissipate, revealing the spring sun as it pierced through the fading clouds and snow. Picking the ball, it shrank back to its marble size as the caretaker returned it to his pouch.
“You’re not a hero.” Endeavour didn’t ask, with the other heroes being surprised that their help was registered, but he could care less for the dolts that sat back and let them do the work.
Caretaker turned to him, their face hidden from view, but they must have had the backbone to stare him down like this, despite the height difference and what must have been a 120lbs difference between them. “I’m not, but that’s hardly an issue at the moment.” Their response was short, quick to the point and slightly dismissive.
Endeavour didn’t like that. “Why were your flames more effective than mine? And what was that little ball thing? After you pulled that stunt, the storm cleared.” He demanded.
“My flames were effective because of their nature. As for the ball thing,” The figure chuckled, making air quotes with that last bit. “I captured the culprit, so the quirk’s effects ended.”
“If that is the case, then hand them over. They need to pay for their crimes.” Endeavour held his hand out, expecting the order to be followed, only for the caretaker to take a step back, away from him, and towards the ice-covered edge.
“I can’t do that.” They replied, sounding apologetic, but he didn’t have the time or patience for the idiocy of vigilante justice.
“I don't like repeating myself, vigilante. Hand them over while I feel charitable enough to let you go." Endeavour aggressively stepped forward, only to hear something to the side. When he glanced over, he didn't see anything other than the ice.
"Even if I wished to do that, it wouldn't be wise when you're not equipped to handle them." The caretaker's response was met with hellfire. Still, it didn't strike the vigilante as it did a glass mirror, shattering it as the pieces returned fell, turning into light and vanishing.
“I figured that the time to talk is over,” They all heard the caretaker speaking, but they didn't see them; when they looked around, they saw that the source of the voice was changing its location, meaning that the caretaker was moving around. Still, they were silent about it as they barely heard where they were and didn't use a predictable pattern. "Head over to the café, three buildings east of here. It has a basement. That's where I led the rest of the civilians." With that, even the faint sounds of the landing after a jump ceased. They wanted a few moments, but it was soon apparent that they fled, along with the villain…somehow.
“Boss, did you handle the villain? Great job! That'll show them not to mess with you!” Burning radioed in, sounding pleased, which irritated the man because he didn't beat that threat; despite his firepower, he barely kept it at bay.
“Have you made it to the ground floor?” He inquired.
“Un, yeah?” Burnin replied, confused that the big man was in a bad mood; normally, he handled seeing the dead better.
“Make sure you and the rest get to the police and have them set up a perimeter for a vigilante. He made off with the villain." Endeavour ordered, looking around at the icy field that had been left behind; even as the sun shined again, he'd be busy dealing with this; he just knew it.
“You got it.” Burning replied, cutting the line to get to it.
Line Break
Several blocks away from the battle sight, tucked away in an alleyway, the caretaker softly landed, having escaped Endeavour and the rest thanks to some help. That help being the person that landed moments after him. Like caretaker, they didn't dress like a civilian as their attire was a dark blue body suit, over which he wore silver and gold coloured armour over his entire upper body and pieces that covered his bots up till his knees as well as their gloves up till their elbows.
Over their head, they wore a medieval-style silver helmet with a gold finish that covered the entire thing, with what looked to be 3 thick slits over the front to see through, said slits filled in with an opaque red material to ensure the wearer's identity wasn't easily discovered. They completed the look with a shiny, reflective silver and white care that was around shin length and could cover their entire body.
"I think that's far enough, caretaker." The second figure spoke up, which froze the caretaker.
“He's right; law enforcement isn't within three blocks of your caretaker. They'll still be handling the clean-up and civilian recovery." A voice said over the line, but the caretaker groaned, as even they seemed to be making fun of the fact that he identified himself to the pros with that name.
"Cute me some slack," The caretaker removed his helmet, revealing themselves as an embarrassed Midoriya. "I had to think of that name of the fly! And I was talking to Endeavour; it took all I had not to fanboy out."
“We said that you'll need to work on a code name, code-name, as sooner or later, they'll happen upon one of our searches and recoveries.” The second figure scolded him in French, removing his helmet as well and revealing himself to be a smiling Aoyama.
“And what was his response again? ‘Oh, we work in the shadows; by the time pros show up, we'll be long gone. It's not like the media even knows about us’." Intelli joked on the line as Midoriya muttered that a girlfriend should stand with her boyfriend. "I would if you weren’t so hilariously incorrect.”
“You three have made fun of my angel's later lack of a proper code-name, Paladin, Oracle.” Inko spoke up, which only made Izuku groan. Even his mother was dunking on him before she quickly changed her tune. “Did you capture the Ha(Fragment)?”
Tapping his pouch, Midoriya pulled out the capture ball to look it over. The purple and white ball looks like a high-tech baseball. "I did. It was pretty strong but still a level three spirit, Gekiha(Enraged Fragments).”
“Losses?” Inko asked, having watched the entire situation devolve via one of the bots they sent.
“None on my end," Aoyama stated.
"Elderly couple. I didn't get to them in time, and even at full heat, they passed on." Izuku reported, his shoulders falling as he recalled that sight and how useless he felt watching them die, even if they smiled and told him that he had done all he could and that they could at least die with each other after a long life together.
Aoyama put a comforting hand on his shoulder as Inko replied. “We’ll pray for them later, but for now, return to the facility for processing.” She felt her son's grief; she felt it too, as things like this weren't meant to happen when they were around, but they just didn't have the numbers.
Both confirmed that they were on their way as they signed off. “Hey, I heard what you said to it. We will get to the bottom of this, and if that woman it was chasing is guilty, they'll regret it." Aoyama told him that his gaze was hard but also soft and comfortable, and he understood Izuku better than he sometimes did. But when one has been your partner for five years, you tend to develop a sixth sense for your other half.
"Thanks, Yuga," Izuku replied, his French friend nodding.
“Anytime, Izuku.” As they turned to get back, his tune shifted back to his regular flamboyant self. “Now, let us return so you may greet your love with a hug and kiss while I regale the recruits on our exploits as who else can say they managed to fool the number two hero with their mirror reflections?” Aoyama asked, flashing light particles around himself as Midoriya laughed, the two vanishing into the shadows.
Line Break
What did you all think of that? This was inspired, in part, by the first episode of Bleach, but with Izuku taking on the role of Rukia since he's in the know of what happened there and was the only one who could really handle the issue.
As I said, this will take the life of a Hero's spot, which should be reflected on my homepage if you're reading this on FF.net. However, I should have announced as much on my Twitter (head on over there, give me a follow, and follow some other links, wink-wink).
One last thing: I learned my lesson from More Than You Think, so you'll get the explanation of what happened there and what they were fighting in the next chapter. I can't leave you all in the dark on that, as this isn't a full crossover. The next chapter will be out on April 15th
