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Chapter 31: Rumblings in the Dark
🕑 Added 2024-07-24 14:25:46 +0000 UTCChapter 31: Rumblings in the Dark
The morning after the mess that was Hosu, All Might remained at U.A. He might have wanted to leap over to the area to check on his successor, especially since he had been out of time when the fighting started. But he held himself back and kept to his duties, grading tests and helping the rest smooth out any issues with the curriculum and assignments their students would need to take before finals.
“A phone call…is here! A phone call…is here!”
At least, that was the plan before his phone started to ring. As he didn't have any friends and didn't get robot calls or advertisements, he figured that it had to be important, so he answered without looking at the caller ID.
“Hello?” He turned a little for privacy, missing how Present Mic and Eraserhead looked at him in amazement at his ringtone choice.
‘How can he set that as his ringtone with a straight face?’ They both thought to themselves that they were Present Mic ringtones, but he didn't have the ego to use them for his personal phone. Though Aizawa suspected it was less ego and more All Might being too useless with phones to either know or bother to change it as he had been around enough people to understand that All Might was, sadly, an increasingly common factory-setting ringtone.
“Uraraka Ochaco is just as much a pain in the butt as you were, Toshinori!” A terrifyingly familiar voice carried through the phone, All Might’s non-existent stomach dropping to his feet as he shot up. “Thanks to her, I'll get a pay cut with my teaching license revoked for the next 6 months!”
“M-my deepest apologies, sir. I would have thought she wouldn’t be so reckless.” The number one and strongest hero started to bow repeatedly, whispering fearfully into the phone, leaving the rest of the staff to wonder who he was talking to.
“Hmf, well, it couldn't be helped, as the situation was a high-stress, high-stakes mess, to put it mildly. If anything, I should have known she would disobey my direct orders to stay put. She and you are too much alike!” Gran Torino continued the man standing in the more private part of the hospital, having just finished speaking with Uraraka and filling the children in on how complex the situation was.
"I-I had no intentions for her to give you trouble, sir. Truly, I recommended her to you because I trust that you could aid her in her journey to be a hero like you helped me." All Might continued to apologize, starting to sweat a little.
‘Just who is he talking to?’ Aizawa asked as All Might gestured towards the door, the underground teacher nodding. The man smiled in appreciation before his smile faded, and he made a hasty retreat to handle whatever it was that got him, of all people, scared.
Gran Torino wasn't as angry as All Might thought, but he was more irritated than anything as he waved off his student's efforts to appease him. “Well, I could care less for the teaching license; I only got it to keep my promise to your master, and my friend, Shimura, then renewed that thing because I heard from Nezu about your teaching job and figured you would be picking your successor soon enough.”
“And I’m truly grateful for that, as I wouldn’t be the man I am today without you and your training.” All Might told him, walking down the halls of U.A., empty at the moment as most hero course students were still away on internships or work studies, while the remainder of the student body was still in class.
“And yet, when was the last time you called just to see if I was still alive or visit my old ass?” All Might froze mid-step, stumbling to catch himself from that verbal smack to the face.
"Forgive me, sir, but it's just that my-my life and work keep me very busy-" He tried to explain himself. However, some of him knew his words were hollow as, shamefully, he had just been so busy with things that he forgot to check up on the man like he did his own mother.
Gran Torino figured that out and cut through the toothless apology. “Of save it, we have more important things to discuss than you being a shitty student.”
"That is true, so if I may, could I ask about-” All Might started as he reached the faculty room; opening the door, he found that it was empty. Good, it assured privacy as he closed the door behind him and sat down.
“The Todoroki boy would be just fine, though I imagine he'll be irritable after that embarrassing loss. Though, don't expect to see Iida in school for a while, and I know you suspect why.” Yes, yes, he did. He had seen it much like the rest of the country.
“Young Midoriya.” He stated that it was one thing to hear the reports, to read what he did after the fact from the police and pro records, and even the medical reports of those he sent to the hospital. But it was another way to see if it unfolded in real-time. Watching someone with such a bright future continue to fall ever further from graze and revel in it. He shuddered to think what would have happened if he and that Mummy fellow hadn't been forced back when they were.
“Roasted him alive. Frankly, he only survived that hell because the brat wanted him to, but while he might not be guilty of attempted murder, you’ll need your head examined if you classified his actions last night as anything less than numerous grievous assaults on pros.” Gran Torino was nothing if not blunt, but blunt was needed in this situation, as no matter what he felt about it, he needed someone to remind him of such facts.
Sighing into his hand, All Might felt as old as he looked. “Believe me, sir, I’m well aware that the best we can do for him is take him down, then try and seek psychological help for him.” That was the best he could give the boy, as anything less would be an insult to the many victims the boy had left in his wake and would continue to do so till he was finally defeated.
“More than that, there was something else about that boy, Toshinori. I didn't fight him, but I did get to look into his eyes.” All Might paused as Gran Torino was a veteran with much more experience fighting the worst of the world than even the symbol of peace. That experience had shaped him and his ability to judge others to a fine point.
“And your thoughts?” He asked him, eager to hear his thoughts about it. The elderly man took a moment, seemingly thinking about how to phrase it, but whatever it was, All Might didn’t expect what his answer would be.
“He had me shaking.”
“Shaking, you?” All Might frowned as he could count the number of times his teacher had ever said such a thing, and it was a small number.
Gran Torino let out an old bark of laughter at that disbelief in his student's voice, though he felt little humor. “I've gone up against plenty of criminals, Toshinori. Many of which could have easily killed me if I slipped up, but I've only ever faced off against a hand-fill that gave me such a twisting, deep pit in my gut. The last time I felt like this was when we faced off against him.” His words were grim, as both recalled the last time he had said he had been shaking and what that meant-who that was the cause.
"I understand that the boy's burned bridges and needs to be handled like a villain, but perhaps you're exaggerating to say he can be anything like that monster." All Might suggested, though he suspected, that he was merely grasping at straws with this.
“That’s the thing, Toshinori, I’m not.” All Might was confused by that response, which Gran Torino seemed to pick up on as he continued to explain things. “This wasn't the same as back then, not even close. That monster didn't feel, didn't empathize, and sure as hell didn't love anyone or anything but power and himself.” All Might's eyes narrowed as he recalled that devil's face and how he seemed to enjoy toying with, manipulating, using, and discarding people for whatever goals he had, no matter how petty and self-serving they were.
Gran Torino took a breath. “But Midoriya, he seemed to love people, humanity, and the world. I could tell from that one look that he cared for the world, but his manner of showing that was the issue. Someone who loves so deeply and sees arson and fire as expressing that love is a walking disaster waiting to happen. That's why he had me shaking; I knew he cared but would torch us nearly to the bone anyway.”
All Might was the one that took a moment to digest that response now, as…as he lined up with that he had been told about the boy from his mother, how his reality was a warped one where burning things was how one showed love, and how as if by a cruel twist of fate, Midoriya was an extremely caring young man, someone that sought to be a hero at one point. Maybe he still did, but he felt like he could 'help' more than he was now.
“That…that is deeply concerning, for more than one reason. I had spoken with his mother before, but this…this is an escalation of things." He rubbed his face, knowing their plans would need to change. "But I assume there's more to this than just Midoriya as a person."
“You're right; it's about what he stands for and what he and those Thunder represent. The pressure I felt from him came from his strong compassion, convictions, and will to destroy this world. Not to compliment the boy, but it's a similar feeling as to what you have as the 'Symbol of Peace'.” Gran Torino explained.
“Like me?” All Might asked. He had a good idea of his effect on people, so he always smiled when he was in hero mode and stayed optimistic even in the most dire of situations. This was a means to bring hope to the masses and instil fear in those who would do them harm and break the law.
“Another way to say it would be charisma.”
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On Gran Torino's end of the conversation, his eyes were facing out the window towards the city that, not even 24 hours ago, had been set alight by such a small group, yet a group that seemed comprised of compelling people.
"We stopped the broadcast a while ago, but things were so chaotic that it was allowed to play nearly endlessly through the night, and now there are thousands of clips of it online, and each time we take one down, another 3 seem to crop up." He could search for it now and find the entire thing in a minute top if he so chose, and that didn't even factor in all the people sharing the video and everything else on group chats.
"That charisma, combined with these repeating showings, is going to have an effect on things, Toshinori. Not just the regular folk but villains as well. Since you came to the scene, you've managed to create a system of suppression, and with him gone, the underworld has lacked a true leader that could unify them." He warned his student as he recalled the worst of the pre-All Might days, where the underworld all but ran Japan, with its shadow ruler holding more power than any politician or busy figure ever could.
“You don’t think Midoriya could-”
"No, the boy lacks that drive or desire to rule as he once did, but that doesn't mean that his actions and strength of character won't inspire people, for better and worse." He was thankful for that part that Toshinori had been right that there wasn't an evil bone in that boy, not from what he could tell. But seeing the people he ran with didn't mean that he couldn't play a key role in someone else taking the vacant throne.
“Perhaps that is true, but such people would probably appear sporadically and be easily handled by the pros, just as they've always had.” All Might replied, sure of the experience, power, and raw numbers the heroes could bring. Granted, Midoriya and the rest had managed to last long against them, but surely, if they faced off against a pro from the top 100, they'd be bested at long last.
Gran Torino felt something like that as well. But this wasn't an issue that could be answered the same way as before. He suspected it hadn't been for a while now, even if Hosu had never happened. “Not this time, not when the 5 Thunders are still active, along with the League.” He rebuked his student’s claims.
The man looked out at the people, then at the birds in the sky. There weren't many, and he saw one struggling in the unique wind patterns that came from being in a city with dozens of tall buildings, many using the AC and venting hot air into the world. But then he saw that same bird join a flock and how easier it was for the group to fly. “Even if the malice of a single person is small, take the malice of 100, a 1000, 10,000 even, all under one banner, under one will, and you have a crisis.”
Gripping his cane, he wished to impart just how dangerous the situation was, as things turned into a pressure cooker. No, they had been a pressure cooker but one with no heat and no reason for things to boil. Well, that had long changed. "Toshinori, we might have stopped crime, but you didn't destroy it; it's merely been forced underground, but I feel it in my old bones that it will resurge and that the League will be waiting for it with open arms.”
He didn't wish to see how things would be should they boil over, not when All Might was too injured to just repeat what he had done in the past. His chosen successor was still far too weak and inexperienced to step in for his predecessor.
But with that said, something about this left him with a bad taste in his mouth. "I would bet that the League's true mastermind knew this would happen from the start."
“So, you know.” Gran Torino would have smacked the man's shins for thinking he could be fooled by merely keeping information from him.
“I’ve been around a lot longer than you, and as much as I wish to pretend, once I saw those abominations in person, I knew that only one person would have the means and depravity to create them. but it does tell us more about things.” Gran Torino stated though he could thankfully say that these…beasts had been the first time he had seen it used in such a manner. As in the past, it was more mindless in that those who worked for that monster sought out more power than they could handle, the overload of quirks rendering them near brain-dead and highly aggressive.
“What is that?”
"That he can't be nearly as powerful as he once was and that it would appear that you wounded each other badly enough that he has to remain in the shadows and use such tactics." Their old, resented enemy was someone that, while ruled from the shadows, was a loud kind of silent, almost theatrical at times. This more subtle approach didn't suit him.
Perhaps he could have changed things up, but he doubted that, not when the League seemed to have an idea that All Might was weakened thanks to what they heard during the USJ attack. No, Gran Torino knew that if he had been capable, that old villain would be nearly flaunting that he was ready for a rematch that neither thought All Might could win in his current state.
“But with the League and the Thunders acting as rallying figures for villains and criminals, he could rebuild; he could regain that power.” Gran Torino nodded as it seemed that his student was catching onto things.
“Distracting his enemies, removing obstacles, gathering strength. It’s all what I would expect from that devil.” Gran Torino said.
He sensed that his student was angry, no-furious, but also gravely concerned about this situation. “I had hoped that I was wrong, that we were wrong, and this chapter of our lives had truly been closed.”
Gran Torino hummed in agreement. "The man who killed my best friend and your master who held One for All before you, who put a hole in your stomach, is still alive. And he's on the move once again."
“It’s the worst possibility.”
“Yes, but it's not the only thing to worry about. Crime will rise, and the underbelly of society is rumbling, testing the limits of the barriers and keeping them in check, so we need to come up with an effective counter, as should that barrier fail, then we lose everything.” Gran Torino replied as this seemed like the start of something big, something unprecedented, something terrible.
His eyes hardened, thinking back to what he saw from them. The madness that was Midoriya Izuku, that was Pyre. “And that starts with capturing All for Ones's pawns in the League and the Thunder before they can do any more damage.”
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True to Gran Torino's concerns, things might have appeared to be expected on the surface, but there was movement in the underbelly. 2 days after the Hosu incident, videos and pictures of the Thunder's battle circulated, penetrating all walks of life and while mainstream sources were told to stop talking about it, the more sensational publications merely switched to highlighting previous incidents involving them, with an emphasis on Pyre because of how show-stopping he had been at Hosu.
Other sources didn't bother listening to the government's efforts to cover things up and ran with it as online forums, group chats, and other websites were filled with it, with one picture overall gaining notoriety. Even in the real world, people still talked about it, as was the case in a shady underground bar, the kind of place where the common cliental could easily find themselves spending a night in a police cell if caught but could smell a cop a mile away and be gone like the wind before they were so much as spotted.
A place where such people spoke freely about their activities and crimes, recruit and brag at the same table. "Business has been down for a while now, Giran. The buddies and me aren't able to sell as much product as we used to." A heavy-set middle-aged man with an eyepatch bemoaned. He sat at a booth across from Giran, who was fiddling with a pistol.
"Well, that tends to happen when it's a serious crime to develop, sell, use, or even have support items and costumes without a license," Giran replied, snorting a little as something came to mind. “And to add insult to injury to honest crooks like us, legit support companies are getting in on the game in the black market, selling their wares to whoever wants it, license be damned.”
"Come on, man, you know those are just rumors." His drinking partner countered before taking a sip of his non-alcoholic treat; it was still 11am after all.
Giran smirked at the man, amused but, at the same time, not. "Every rumor has a grain of truth to it; that's part of our business model. Even if just the one or two, that still takes a big bite out of the client list, not helped by the fact they can spend more on R&D and materials, where we gotta work with whatever stuff we can manage to get our hands on." Giran wasn't a support gear maker but a middleman. Still, he rarely worked with legit business, so just like his drinking buddy at the moment, he too stood to lose quite a bit of the hero's mechanics. Designers decided to dip into their side of the pool.
“True,” The fat man replied, sighing as he looked up to the disco ball that lazily spun overhead, recalling better days for people like them. "I missed the days before All Might, you know? I was just a young idiot back then, sure, but business was booming. The guild couldn't go 10 minutes without a new order. The boss used to complain that he had no time to enjoy all his cash." He smiled as he respected his old boss, who took him in, showed him the ropes, and promised him the world.
But that smile turned bitter and resentful at his old boss, sure, but also at the situation that turned that promise into lies. "Well, the old bastard got his wish. Business slowed, but he and so many other greats ended up thrown into the slammer by the symbol of justice." He's worked with 3 guilds at this point; the first was destroyed by All Might, the second fell to in-fighting, and his 3rd, one he's been with for 10 years now, was a shadow of what it once was, was alive. Still, it might as well be an old man on life support.
Looking into his glass, he saw that he had already drank most of it, leaving little actual drink and more just ice. Swirling it around, he wondered if their business was like his drink: exhausted, seemingly bigger than it was just close to the end. "To think, we went from a time where villains were wild and impulsive and the world was a buffet to now where we hide in the shadows like rats, with nothing but scarps.”
He recalled his younger days, when he would be busy close to every day helping the senior members finish products, learning all the while. Sure, he didn't get paid as much, but the amount of work he handled back then made it easy to forget. Now, he was lucky if he got any week for a week, and it was rarely anything significant. To think he was making more as an intern than now.
Putting his glass down, he decided to just say what he wanted. “Maybe I should just listen to the misses and retire, open up a legit buz, like an auto-shop or something.” He bitterly admitted as he enjoyed the game, but he was old, and it wasn't as lucrative as it used to be. He had toughed it out longer than most, that he could say with pride, but there came a time when a man had to admit that a battle wasn't worth winning anymore, not when he had to think about bills.
Giran remained silent as he vented, only raising the battle of his gun to the cigarette he placed in his mouth. Pulling the trigger, the weapon was revealed to be little more than a novelty lighter. Taking a drag from it, Giran breathed out the smoke, picking the cigarette from his lips and pointing it at the other man. "About that, you might want to put that retirement on hold."
"Between you and me, there's been an uptake in business, real business, for a while now." The man scoffed at that.
“You talking about the 5 Thunder? Sure, they're pretty powerful, like the gangs of old, but it's just one group, and I heard you already got people making their stuff for them; what could I get from it?" He asked, as he liked them, he did. It really showed that villains could be more than spineless gutter punks and could fight pros on an equal playing field like the good ole days, but they were just 5 people.
Giran remained calm, if a little smugger than normal, as he reached into his coat and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “It's a big job, actually, and I'm coming to you cause I know that you deliver some quality products."
The man thought about it, and while this could be a waste of time, that only really applied if this wasn’t anyone else as love or hate him, Giran was legit. “I’m listening.” Giran passed him the paper, which he unfolded and read, his one eyebrow rising as he read through the requested vehicles, from what upgrades they wanted him to put in, leaving it to him and his team, to even the fact that the budget they could work with would be the largest they got for a single project in years.
Letting a whistle, the man folded the paper again and passed it back to Giran. They'll have to wait to finalize a contract, but he would be lying if he said he was interested. “That does sound like a big contract, and when do they want them?”
Giran shrugged as he took another drag from his cigarette. "I didn't get a date, but the sooner the better. They were very liberal with the range they'll be willing to pay for it, so go nuts. Why don't you take your time and really make something worth a pretty penny or two?" The man smirked as he could think of ways to turn the van alone into an armored vehicle. In fact, they could even add some support gear to the car itself.
"Oh, what the hell? It's been a while since the entire team worked on a project. It'll be nice to get my boys in on this, it’ll be great bonding time.” He agreed, Giran smiling as he figured that the contract would be too enticing for the man to turn down, which made his job a little easier and meant he was in for a good payday when it was complete.
“There’s more to it, my friend.” Giran said as he pulled out his phone. It was already on a webpage with a video waiting to be played titled 'Pyre: Maiden of Purgatory’. "Have you seen the video?"
The man leaned closer to look at the thumbnail, which seemed to be a still shot from the Hosu incident of Pyre torching some pros who tried to fight him. "Who hasn't? That kid's insane but is crazy-powerful. I saw what those kids could do at the festival, and he and Mummy washed them like toddlers."
“Not that one, but another one that got uploaded yesterday and has been circulating around the web," Giran replied as he hit play.
“The Maiden of Purgatory, Apostle of Hell: Pyre. Real name, Midoriya Izuku.” The narrator started, the footage begins with grainy footage taken from the Tatooine incident, which many saw as the birth of the villain Pyre, when he showed up some local heroes, defeated a low-level villain, and escaped All Might. The video started from there, telling the story of the boy who wished to be a hero, inspired by All Might like so many others, yet cursed into a world that didn't accept his mind or his quirk.
Fictions were fused together with facts till one could hardly tell the difference, but the one-eyed man didn't even notice, as he was sucked in further into it, listening and watching as it spoke about how the boy saw a world in fire, a world of beauty, a world of ash. He found his calling in a shine, taking up the mantle of its sole caretaker. He seemed to pray daily to the fire god himself, singing his praises and moving ever closer to the inferno.
His convictions were steel, and his desire to still be like All Might shined through as pictures of clips of the boy dressed like a typical shrine maiden appeared, perfectly edited to align with the beautiful but eerie music playing, one that instilled a strong foreboding feeling in the illegal support engineer. Then came the attack on the town the boy called him and how he rose to meet that threat, the narrator calling him a divine guardian protecting the people, only for those people to turn on him.
“Stop that, it hurts!" The footage wasn't the best, with the feed shaking, but the man could hear that scream loud and clear, feel it in his bones, and wonder if that was what it would sound like if a volcano could beg. Such thoughts faded as he continued to watch as the boy fought back, only for lighting, seemingly from the heavens, to strike down.
It just kept going, talking about how the world he envisioned wasn't the world as it was now, and to achieve that, the present would need to be put to the torch. With images and incident reports detailing how the 5 Thunder would come to meet one another, each having a reason to hate, a reason to love. With each new piece building them up higher, each crime was committed, the trap escaped, and the hero was defeated. They grew stronger, and it all ended with a final clip.
Again, it was a video taken from a phone aimed at an alley, a familiar one. Pyre stood over the defeated Iida, Stain off to the side.
“But why destroy a damaged good when you can improve it?" An innocent question, followed by emerald hellfire as he saw for himself what happened to that kid, what Pyre did to him. A sound of bells and chimes could be heard as the Pyre and Stain talked, sharing their convictions and ideals before coming to an understanding. A horrific one to most as Pyre, even now, was compassionate and sought to build a better society, but saw the best way to do that was to burn away the old- both in ideals and in people.
He couldn't help but watch on in fascination, horror, and amazement as the video climaxed, with the battle between the students and the villains focusing on Todoroki vs. Pyre. He heard those chimes and bells the entire time and watched as the villain nearly danced as he engaged in combat, flames, and ice clashing as if winter and summer were given human form. All the while, Pyre seemed to be having the time of his life; it didn't matter if he still had eyes or not, for that emerald light scared him.
When it ended, it felt like his heart had been released from some deathly grip, allowing him to jump to his feet, sweaty and shaking. Giran ended it there before it could repeat, the video not even being four hours old. Already, it had well over 100k views on it, and more were following. "It keeps getting uploaded and taken down in a game of cat and mouse."
Giran’s glasses obscured his eyes, the light of his cigarette being the only thing that kept the worst shadows covering his face at bay. "Both sides have realized something big. How many people have been told their quirks and mindsets were wrong? How many were just born unlucky, my friend? Wouldn’t you say that watching something break that norm was soothing? That his way of life was watch to watch, infectious even?”
The man fell back into his seat, his hands resting on his knees as Giran continued.
"Scoundrels, felons, rebels, fighters, the unlucky, and all the big players, including me, have noticed. That passion, that drive and power, it means something. A game changer for us that have been scattered and forced into hiding to resurface."
"And it also is a rallying cry, as if any wish to join in on the fun and see this world burn to the ground…well, perhaps one should seek out the organizations that seem to be at the heart of it all."
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Well, I wasn't able to sort out my Grammarly thing, so yeah, once July ends, I'll be back to the free version of it till I can save enough for the annual package, as paying for 3 months is more trouble than it's worth.
As for the chapter, I had a lot of fun writing it, though you might hate me for how much I've just traumatized class A with this. But when they're not the main characters and you put an incredibly strong set of villains, ones that, aside from Mummy, pressured them all so much they either battled them to a tie or needed to rely on good ole MC power to best, yeah, it was a foregone conclusion.
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Wished to put this in the last chapter, but it was more than enough than I was comfortable putting in. Also, I changed with the last chapter, and I'm waiting for someone to notice that change. But with most of season 2 now done with this, we’ll been moving into stuff revolving around season 3 next, and as you can imagine, things will go off the rails with it.
