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Izumi Miyamura: Xover - Chapter 80
🕑 Added 2025-04-12 01:27:35 +0000 UTCAuthor's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
Izumi Pov .
Looking at my scroll in my new hideout, I can't help but think about the call I got from Azula a few minutes ago. How the hell did I forget about Hosu and the Hero Killer?! Or rather, HER! Luckily, everything was resolved, and it seems Canon hits hard. A female version of Iida who didn't attend UA because of Taylor and instead enrolled in Shiketsu was interesting. But even so, she, Todoroki, and Midoriya found themselves in the same alley as the Hero Killer with the exact same result.
I was able to get more details from them through texts; Azula's presence is only a minimal change. It certainly helped the fight, but the outcome was the same. The only thing that changed was the entire mess Shigaraki caused. Raining Grimm all over Hosu along with three Nomus was a complete shitshow. Luckily, somehow, there were no deaths, only injuries. Truly, the heroes and hunters acted quickly.
The aftermath was already being felt, at least on social media. Stain's video and her ideology were spreading. And the worst part was that they made sense. Leaving aside her well-known opinion on heroes. To my surprise, her ideology also targeted hunters. She believed hunters were an extension of the heroes themselves. That they had to meet certain standards.
And even though he didn't want to admit it, she was right. There was a group of hunters, a group of people who had certain thoughts.
The gates created a global crisis when they began to emerge. The hunters are the ones who enter the gates. If the hunters don't close the gates, the world will be destroyed. In other words, without the hunters, civilians can't survive, but the hunters can survive without the civilians. Therefore, civilians should be grateful to hunters.
It is thanks to them that civilians can live a 'peaceful' life.
These kinds of toxic thoughts generated a wave of people who could be called "supremacists," to put it mildly. Hunters who believed themselves to be messiahs, who believed themselves better than other civilians, and sometimes, they took or did whatever they wanted, without repercussions.
Obviously, they were stupid. Many of those people either completely ignored heroes or they took them into account but firmly believed they weren't on their level, so they certainly didn't care, even though there were heroes like the Triumvirate in the United States or All Might here in Japan. Or in other cases, the presence of heroes was minuscule or nonexistent. Like Africa.
Africa was practically a walking war zone. It was a destroyed and desolate patchwork. Oh, there were places where things were as good as the rest of the civilized world. But it was best known for being areas of multiple warlord-led groups fighting each other over territory.
People united under the banner of these Warlords because Warlords were truly strong individuals capable of entering and closing the gates that appeared all over Africa. They were capable of 'protecting' them. Or they simply had no choice; most Warlords took things by force without a care in the world.
For example, Moord Nag, originally from Worm. Her Quirk was a monstrosity. One of the few sentient Quirks in the world. It's similar to Fumikage Tokoyami 's Dark Shadow from the Boku no Hero Academia canon.
Moord Nag's Quirk is called Aesdier, a living shadow. A shadow that could grow larger every time it ingested dead or living humans. It is said that it started out the size of the palm of her hand and was very weak, but now, it has grown large enough for the Moord Nag herself to ride it without any problem.
No one knew if she had an upper limit to how much she could grow, from what he remembered from Worm canon, each absorption only increased an extra teaspoon of mass and she could lose mass under certain conditions, so while her upper limit was theorized to be National Rank Hunter, the increase was slow, currently she was at the upper end of Rank A.
And like Moord Nag, there were dozens, if not hundreds, more examples. It was just ridiculous. But there was nothing I could do at the moment.
Back to the topic. It was a surprise to read Ruby's messages. Their confrontation on Merlot Island was truly unexpected. I had ruled out most of RWBY canon simply because Salem and Ozma weren't reincarnated, so it was unlikely that any of their canon would even happen.
But it seems I was wrong. Some parts, like Merlot, had nothing to do with them. It was simply Merlot's actions and his madness. Hearing about a Nomu grimm abomination made me shudder. Truly, putting Merlot and Garaki together was the most horrible thing All For One could have done; they were a match made in hell.
The next thing that completely baffled me was the existence of Sung Jinwoo. Seeing him announced as Korea's tenth S-Rank Hunter almost made me pee my pants, and I was confident in facing him head-on.
His presence didn't bode well, especially since he was demonstrating his powers, and they were Ashborn 's powers, or at least a part of them, since he only showed them to his shadow subjects, and only a part of them. The only time Sung Jinwoo had power was in the cycle where he inherited the power of the shadow monarch. But if that was still true, it meant that the other monarchs existed, and that was something I didn't want to think about for my own good.
There were few ways to verify this. National Hunters like Christopher Reed or Sung Il-Hwan didn't seem like the governors' vessels. But I certainly couldn't verify this simply by researching them online. So, even though I was genuinely worried about it, there was nothing I could do but prepare for something to happen.
Now, I didn't know where I was in the Solo Leveling canon in this world. When Sung Jinwoo was announced as an S-rank Hunter to the public, it was right before the Baran in the Demon Castle arc, before Jeju Island. I definitely couldn't verify the completion of the former. But the latter, I definitely could.
And that's where I was now.
"So the Jeju Island raid is completely decided?" I heard one of the S-ranks speak. I didn't care who it was, especially since I couldn't see them. I was completely hidden in a blind spot, and with my disinterested state, it was practically impossible for them to detect me with aura alone.
I hadn't meant to be spying. I'd wanted to continue hiding in a new place to escape Tawata, but obviously, I got lost and ended up here. I should thank my disorientation, but it wasn't something I would do. I still hated it, even though I sometimes got lucky like this.
"Yeah, Goto confirmed it this morning. Korea is in. They are anxious, apparently they are more confident now with a tenth S-rank." snorted the second S-rank Hunter.
"Huh? Have you decided who's going? Sounds like a lot of work." The first one hummed.
"Besides Goto? No idea. There's no date yet, it could be weeks, months, who knows. I think they're planning it for 5 or 6 months from now," the second replied.
"So long? Are you so afraid? " the first one replied mockingly.
"I have no idea what they're thinking. Let the higher-ups handle that."
And that was all I needed to hear. I slipped quickly out of the S-ranks' sights with ease. Six months was a long time, a ridiculously large margin. The question is, why the change? Why the rush? Canonically, Japan agreed to collaborate with Korea when the ants began mutating and gaining wings to fly long distances and landed on Japan's shores.
That the raid came out of nowhere like that was odd. Either Goto was more eager to become a national hunter than his canonical counterpart. Or there was something he wasn't seeing.
But it was good for me. I had time to prepare, certainly; the thought of fighting the Ant King made my blood boil. It was a shame it was unlikely I'd be included in the raid.
Well, I guess I have no choice but to keep an eye out and see if everything goes to hell in a few months. I pulled out my scroll and started typing some messages while I headed to Tawata. It's possible she's calmed down already because of the picture I posted online. Or maybe not, but it would still be fun to find out.
Or maybe he could go bother Sugimoto, harass Taylor into selling Shusui out? Unforgivable. Luckily, as long as she stays close to the old man, she'll have nothing to worry about. Ah... decisions.
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Taylor Pov .
"Jeju?" I asked out loud in confusion as I read Izumi's message, the name seemed familiar.
"Did something happen to Jeju?" asked the old man lying where he was.
"Maybe? Izumi just sent a text about a raid on Jeju." I said distractedly as I looked at the scroll, only for it to disappear from my hands. " Hey!" I exclaimed to the old man who was now next to me looking at the messages. He then snorted and threw the scroll at me.
"That idiot of a grandson of mine doing reckless things like spying on S-ranks," the old man snorted. "By the way, don't mention it to anyone. It's kind of a secret, or well, it will be until it's carried out," the old man added, and I frowned.
"What is Jeju? Is it something important? " I asked, confused. The old man looked at me and raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
"Jeju Island? South Korea? S-rank door broken? Huge mutant ants? " the old man asked incredulously, my eyes widening slightly.
"Oh yeah, that island," I said, finally remembering.
"Yes, that island," the old man said dryly. I rolled my eyes.
"Izumi took me to a monster insect exhibit. There was one of those ant things. Those things were really big." I said simply. The old man hummed. I frowned. That was over a year ago. "How long has that door been open?" I asked.
"Mmm, I think 4 years old at this point." The old man said simply, my eyes widened.
"So long?! They didn't try to get it back?! " I asked incredulously. the old man snorted.
"Of course they did, idiot. 3 raids. All failed; they decided to abandon Jeju when an S-rank hunter died," the old man said dryly, my eyes widening slightly.
"Wait, and Korea's national-ranked hunter wasn't present?" I asked, confused. The old man snorted once more.
"Of course not," the old man said with a sneer. "Listen, kiddo, National Ranks aren't all-powerful. Are they stronger than regular S-Ranks? Definitely. But they have their limits. All Might nearly died a couple of times—" my eyes widened, "—and the others aren't far behind."
"What?" I asked stupidly. The old man ignored me and continued.
"There were three raids on Jeju. Even after failing to close the gate before it broke, they didn't really think they would need Il-Hwan, so the first raid was just a very limited group of S-Ranks and A-Ranks, and they failed. They thought they were short on people. So, during the second raid, they sent even more Hunters than before. They failed again."
"Yet they were so stubborn and still believed that Il-Hwan wasn't needed for the recapture of Jeju, even though Il-Hwan was really vocal about wanting to participate in the raid. Unfortunately, during the third raid, everything went to hell. That's when one of Korea's strongest and most promising S-rank Hunters died."
"As I told you, S-ranks don't just grow on trees, so the loss of an S-rank affects the country greatly. The death of that S-rank affected the Korean government so much that they didn't even consider sending Il-Hwan. They were so terrified of losing their national hunter that they decided to abandon Jeju without trying again."
"Jeju was already lost at that point. They preferred not to risk losing their national hunter rather than reclaiming an island. A national hunter is more important; it's a deterrent, a show of power to other countries. So it's more profitable to keep him alive," the old man said contemptuously. I looked at the old man in disbelief.
"But wait, isn't Japan near Jeju? And China too. I guess. Couldn't they have cooperated much earlier? The Korean National Hunter, the Chinese National Hunter, and All Might should have been able to take care of the island alone." I said quickly. the old man snorted.
"Cooperate, kid? Are you an idiot? " The old man rolled his eyes. "National Hunters, they're not allowed to leave the country they reside in. Period." My eyes widened slightly. "Take All Might, for example. He studied in Japan for the first few years, went to the United States and finished his studies there, so he was forced to perform mandatory service there. All while being a man, which is really rare. But at the time, All Might was only listed as a Hero and an s-rank Hunter, though he didn't practice the latter."
"He only earned his National Level title once he returned to Japan and his fame and achievements increased. And since then, he hasn't been able to travel abroad in any way. National Levels are basically walking nukes, they make every foreign government nervous, letting one in is practicallyshooting yourself in the foot and sticking a grenade up your ass if the National Hunter decides to go crazy."
"So no, it's not illegal, per se, but it does require extra permission, permission that almost no one grants. Even All Might hasn't been able to receive permission from the US government for temporary travel to the United States despite having lived there for many years. It just doesn't happen."
"So no, neither All Might nor Liu Zhigang can set foot on Jeju, even though the former truly wanted to help Korea. Even if it's infested with monsters like it is now, if All Might wanted to set foot on Jeju, they could take it, and they would surely take it as a declaration of war."
"and that would only leave the S ranks, China is out of the discussion. Nobody wants to work with China. And not because I'm racist; it's just a fact. The Yangban, China's military branch, are made up of the majority of Chinese hunters, but there are also people from other countries, hunters and heroes who were trafficked or directly kidnapped and changed through brainwashing with a quirk."
"So no, no one wants them around. If you see a Chinese person, don't let your guard down. You never know when someone from the Yangban might try to kidnap someone," the old man warned, and I gulped audibly. This... this was what Azula's family was fighting against? Aside from general information, she hadn't gone into that much detail.
"And that would only leave Japan, which while Japan would be eager to participate, the Koreans were confident that their hunters could recapture Jeju, which didn't happen," the old man said contemptuously.
"And then? Why now? What changed? " I asked curiously. The old man wrinkled his nose before shrugging.
"I really have no idea. It could have been the new Korean hunter. definitely won't send Il-Hwan, and they can't send all their S-rank hunters and leave the rest of Korea unprotected. But now that they're more S-rank, they can easily split up, especially if they enlist Japan's help in the reconquest."
"On Japan's side, I'm sure it's Goto's fault; she must be driving the whole thing. The idiot has a clitoris erection while dreaming of national rank. She's strong, I won't deny it, but not strong enough; she doesn't think so. So, she's chasing achievements to increase her chances of promotion. Leading the successful raid on Jeju? It would definitely help a lot." The old man snorted. I blushed slightly.
"So, it's the same as with Shusui, everything ends at her national rank," I said with a grimace. The old man sighed, but nodded.
"Goto has changed considerably over the years; it's truly a shame," the old man said ruefully, and we both fell silent.
"Do you think... do you think I should tell Izumi to stop spying on Draw Sword's S-ranks?" I asked after a while. The old man froze.
"...you haven't done it yet?!" he asked incredulously. I blushed slightly.
"Sorry if I'm not used to my fiancé conducting federal espionage!" I exclaimed, embarrassed. The old man rolled his eyes.
"But you should be used to him doing stupid things. Just tell him to keep bothering that S-ranker; he seems to be having a great time," the old man said dryly. I snorted loudly.
"I really feel sorry for that hunter," I said, completely honest. The old man burst out laughing.
"Me too, girl, me too," the old man laughed. "By the way, how are your bruises?" the old man asked. I grimaced.
"Almost completely healed, and no thanks to you." I glared. The day before, I'd been beaten almost 40 times by multiple hunters looking for a discount, all because the old man wouldn't let me use my bugs to monitor them and track their movements. It was torture.
"Good, because that's what we'll be doing for the rest of the week. Now, get cleaning already." The old man said as he lay down once more. I could feel the vein on my temple twitch slightly. I just sighed and grabbed my scroll. I quickly texted Izumi before gathering the cleaning supplies while I imagined different ways to kill the old man.
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