MHA: Dark Matter (EvilPen)

[ThierryScott]

Chapter 51: Echoes of the Past (Part 1)

"Thank you."

I glanced back at Jiro, who was running slightly behind me. I put on a smile. My emotions were conflicted. I did not like doing anything that resembled playing the hero. It reminded me too much of my childhood dream.

"Anyone here would have done the same."

"The same? I did not even realize what was happening right away. That villain went 'whoosh,' and you jumped, 'bang,' and then you started choking him out like Aizawa sensei."

One of the "waiter" duo accompanied his words with pantomime. I waved my hand in feigned embarrassment.

"I just had a good teacher. Besides, we do not have time for talking right now."

"You are right, Ken san. We need to focus completely on the mission."

The "robot" got fired up. Damn. Where were those "nightstand" robots?

And as if on cue, behind the next door, we saw dozens of security robots. Though, I had my doubts about whether our "train" could handle all of them.

"My turn! TWO MILLION VOLTS!"

The "waiter" decided to short circuit all the mobs. Cool, epic, not particularly useful, since they rebooted after a few seconds and immobilized the guy, whose IQ had dropped to near zero after such intensive use of his Quirk.

"Full Cowl: Thirty Five Percent."

And Midoriya took them all out. I looked at the boy intently with my "Gaze." His power, shimmering with nine colors, blazed brightly. The realization of how much power it could grant took my breath away. The level of power that allows you to set your own rules for the world itself. The power of the Symbol of Peace.

I want…

I shook my head and focused on the path. The floors flew by, but without robots or closed partitions. This only heightened my sense of foreboding. I glanced at Melissa and frowned. Covered in scratches, tired, and running barefoot because her shoes would not let her keep pace with the others, she was making me anxious.

Damn. Why was I so emotional today?

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[Kyoka Jiro's Pov]

The girl with short purple hair glanced at the friend of Midoriya who was running next to Shield. The black haired boy in a classic suit ran calmly with everyone else, clearly having no trouble breathing during their current sprint. He evoked mixed feelings in Jiro.

She had only learned his name today, but she had seen him before. Which was why, when she met him today, a question had occurred to her.

"What is that stalker doing here? He did not fly all the way here to spy on me, did he?"

And she had good reason for such thoughts. She had spotted that black haired head more than once when it was following her father. And, as the girl had recently realized, she had only noticed him because the stalker, in his excessive enthusiasm, had forgotten to mask his attention at all. His gaze in those moments sent chills down her spine.

After she had caught him for the tenth time, she had decided to tell her father everything. So the next time, Kyotoku Jiro himself decided to talk to the boy. From the look of their conversation, the girl firmly identified the status of the nosy observer: a fan of her father. This Ken, at the start of the conversation, looked as if he had just met his idol and had somehow produced her father's albums from somewhere. Why had he been carrying them around? Had he wanted to ask for an autograph but been too shy?

After that conversation, she never saw him again. But the occasional feeling of being watched sent a chill down the girl's spine. The memory of his crimson eyes caused her unease.

Today's events had made her see Ken Hoshino in a new light. They had also reminded her that everything around them was not just another U.A. heroics lesson. The girl smiled bitterly.

"It did not work out, Midoriya."

She saw the concern in her friends' eyes. As they joked and cheered each other on, they occasionally threw worried glances back. And the girl herself had not fully recovered. The feeling of death passing close by made everything inside her clench. Which made the reaction of Hoshino all the more surprising. He seemed just as worried as the others, trying to hide it with jokes. That was normal. What was abnormal was what he had done.

In less than a minute, in close combat, he had defeated a villain who had easily shattered Todoroki's ice, one of her strongest classmates. Defeated him using only bandages. That was abnormal. Any mistake on his part could have ended with broken bones or death at the villain's hands. He had not even hesitated. Or…

The girl's eyes widened in surprise.

…he had assessed the risk and found it acceptable.

"Koeti… ko…"

Pain in her ears interrupted her thoughts as they ran past one of the doors.

"Stop."

"What is it, Kyoka?"

Frowning at the strange sound and wincing from the pain in her ears, the girl pointed at the door.

"There is someone in there. But the sound is strange."

Frowning, Iida approached the door and reached for the panel to open it. Ken, standing next to him, twitched his nose in a funny way, then his eyes widened, and he stepped in front of Melissa.

Iida opened the door.

The girl gagged. Then again.

What the students of U.A.'s hero course saw would haunt their nightmares for years to come. The heavy smell of blood and something else made her lunch rise in her throat. In the middle of a room full of corpses sat a heroine. Slowly rocking back and forth, she howled softly.

"Koeti… Koeti… Koeti… Koeti… Koeti… my love… Koeti…"

Covered in blood, the heroine stared at…

"CLOSE THE DOOR, FOR KAMI'S SAKE!"

Ken's sharp voice cut through the horrible keening. Startled, Iida quickly pressed the panel. The doors closed. Silence fell over the corridor. Jiro, doubled over, noticed how the black haired boy had removed his hands from the eyes of the confused Melissa.

At that moment, Kyoka Jiro was overcome with the strongest jealousy of her life. Because she had not seen that.

Swallowing loudly, Midoriya lowered his head and said, stammering:

"W-we need to get her out of there."

His words made terror seize her insides. Because that would mean going in there.

"Koeti… my love…"

"I will take her to another room, then catch up with you. She is not in danger right now, and we need to save everyone."

The black haired boy's voice was calm. Midoriya and Iida, who had been about to say something, gritted their teeth and nodded.

Five minutes later, Ken Hoshino caught up with them. The boy's face was thoughtful. Jiro, however, felt ashamed. One of the two civilians in their group had taken on a task that they, the future heroes, had not dared to do.

[End Pov Kyoka Jiro]

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*Pov from the sidelines*

"Wait! I will do whatever you want!"

The retreating man in festive clothing instantly disappeared at the touch of a small hand. Dressed in something like a white cassock with a white mask resembling a burqa on her face, the short representative of Haijima took out her smartphone and began typing a message.

| All scientists have been sent to the rendezvous point. |

A minute later, a reply came.

| Excellent, My Love J. Everything is fine with my part as well. And my soul sings with happiness! |

| I am not your love. Proceeding to the next phase? |

| As soon as Mr. Wolfram gets his hands on the prototype, My Love. |

Staring at the last message, the figure in white typed a new one.

| I am not your love. |

*End Pov from the sidelines*

****A/N***

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[ThierryScott]

Chapter 52: Echoes of the Past (Part 2)

Following the others, I mentally reviewed my options. The corpses of the board of directors and their hero bodyguards completely changed the risk assessment for our group. What had I known before? There was a group of villains who had taken the entire island's population hostage but had not issued any demands. Among the hostages, they had taken some prominent scientists, not the rich moneybags from whom they could extort more money. Of course, that meant nothing; they could do that later.

These villains either had an incredibly competent and cunning leader who had pulled off this whole scheme unnoticed, while also taking All Might himself hostage, and most likely no one outside the tower even suspected what was happening. Or they had received help from a presumed traitor within I Island's administration. I thought both options were plausible.

And what could be their goal for taking such a risky, almost insane, coup?

The first thing that came to mind were the words of the Englishman Joseph Dunning:

"…at three hundred percent profit, there is no crime he would not risk, even under threat of the gallows…"

Profit from stolen technologies and developments could be a worthy reward for such a risk. Those who act for profit prefer to act rationally. Unprofitable deaths and even stronger public hatred are not in their interest. In that case, everything that was happening could be described as a one time operation to obtain research, kidnap some scientists, and give a little slap on the wrist to the figures responsible for I Island.

The brutal, public murder of the board of directors?

That was effectively declaring war on all the corporations and countries that had invested funds and efforts into I Island. That was madness, similar to the League of Villains' attempt to kill All Might. Those who would go that far no longer cared about public opinion, the pursuit of intelligence services or heroes, the deaths of civilians or heroes. They were either complete madmen, or… or they were those who had set out to change the world itself.

And I could not decide what to do. Tell our suicide squad "time out" and wait out the storm? They would not agree, not after what they had seen. Idealists, future damn heroes, representatives of the Light Side of the Force. And it was not certain that the villains themselves would leave us alone after we had been discovered.

Break away from the squad and use my Quirk to reach the control center, slaughtering every villain in my path before rebooting the security system?

First of all, I wasn't exactly a hacker. I'd probably destroy the entire system instead of fixing it.

Second, doing that would basically be me screaming to everyone involved: "Look! A mysterious third party was here! Admire his unmatched brilliance!"

And they would look. Then they'd compare the evidence with the list of suspects, a list that would definitely include me, considering I'd already joined this suicidal "save everyone" squad as an honorary member.

Sooner or later, someone would probably come knocking and politely ask, "And who exactly are you, sir?"

So what was I supposed to do? Abandon everyone just to avoid exposing my abilities… or worse, revealing my identity as Ticci Micc?

** "…I'm glad I have a friend like you."

The green haired boy said, smiling brightly.

"Hehe. I didn't even expect to have such a loyal fan as you. Your enthusiasm even scared my daughter. She's cute, isn't she?"

The blond man grinned foolishly, showing a picture on his phone of him and a little girl trying to push her father's face away from her, embarrassed.

"My name is Melissa, as you already figured out. I really did not want to talk to those guys. You probably aren't very happy about being pulled away from the exhibition, are you?"

The blonde girl in glasses asked, guiltily shrugging her shoulders. **

No.

That left only going with the flow, hoping for "Plus Ultra" and the "Power of Friendship". Of course, there was a high probability that the villains would be too high level, and I would have to carry the raid myself, since there were no extra lives here. The game developers were all about hardcore. And after such exposure, our "rat dog bear mouse principal" would sooner hang himself from a perch with threads from a sewing kit than ignore someone as handsome as me. He would take an interest in me anyway, since I was an honorary member of the "save everyone" suicide squad. Damn.

"Guys, the server room is ahead. We cannot break anything in there, otherwise we will not be able to reboot the security system."

Melissa shouted, pointing at the doors ahead. I saturated a knife I had picked up from one of the dead heroes with Dark Matter for "Hardening," preparing for a possible fight. Just as I was about to run through the doorway into the room where massive, two meter tall black servers stood against the walls, I noticed some strange movement of either energy or a mechanism with my passive "Gaze." Sometimes I myself did not understand what I was sensing with my Quirk.

The next moment, the doorway was blocked by a DAMN DEFLECTOR SHIELD FROM STAR WARS, which almost cut me in half. I struck the blue, transparent field in front of me with my knife. A ring wave spread across it, like a pebble thrown into water. That was it. Great. But seriously?

How could such a breakthrough invention be used against those who wanted to save its creators? I was itching to beat up I Island's head of security, who had screwed up so badly.

"Damn it."

I turned my head and watched Jiro try to pierce the field with her earphone jacks. Next to her, Melissa was starting to panic. On the other side of the shield, the Class 1A students were looking tensely at the security robots that were appearing and at the doorway, which was blocked by another deflector shield.

"Guys, step back. Detroit Smash at forty percent."

A wave passed through the trembling blue field, and then everything returned to normal. Midoriya stepped back, grimacing in pain, and judging by the gleam in his eyes, he was about to strike "until his bones crunched." But the approaching "nightstand" robots decided to remind the successor of All Might of their presence by attempting to play some BDSM with him using black capture cables.

"Horse, you closed the trap too early."

"Who cares. The boss ordered us to catch Shield's daughter. These two kids won't get in our way."

"Can't argue with that. Hey, kids, you heard everything. So, no sudden moves."

Two mercenaries appeared behind us, aiming their assault rifles at us. The noise of the battle behind the deflector shield continued to grow. I glanced out of the corner of my eye at the frightened Melissa and the gloomy Jiro.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

I raised my hands.

"I surrender!"

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[Melissa Shield's Pov]

"I surrender!"

Ken said loudly, throwing his knife to the floor and raising his hands. Looking at the weapons aimed at them, the girl did not blame him. Shield felt regret and guilt for giving her new friends hope by saying they could reboot the security system, for agreeing to this venture that could get them killed.

"You, kid, have some sense. Girls, learn from this guy. He understands that going against men with assault rifles is sheer stupidity."

One of the mercenaries said. Midoriya's classmate standing nearby clenched her fists in frustration.

"I agree, the members of my suicide squad have no survival instincts, no logic, and no common sense at all."

At Ken's sudden words, the young Shield lost her ability to speak. Somewhere inside, resentment and sadness began to appear. Jiro, standing next to her, stared gloomily at the black-haired boy who had started walking toward the wall.

"Exactly, kid. They have no sense of self preservation at all."

One of the mercenaries said cheerfully, following Ken's figure with his rifle. The second mercenary continued to watch them.

"Kami, how tired I am of these idiots today. They have no brakes at all, constantly shouting 'Save everyone.'"

The black haired boy continued to speak, slowly gesticulating. Melissa lowered her head. The sound of teeth grinding came from beside her.

"Stop right there."

The second mercenary said sharply, still not taking his eyes off them. Hoshino obediently stopped but continued to speak.

"I was especially annoyed by their class representative, who looks like a cheap cosplay of a Star Wars character and constantly lectures me about manners, etiquette, and heroic truths. And her!"

He suddenly pointed at Jiro. The girl, slowly boiling with anger, shouted at the sudden accusation.

"YOU!"

A shot rang out.

For Melissa, everything blurred into fragmented frames, as if part of the film had been cut. Here was the barrel of an assault rifle, previously aimed at them, now pointing to the side, and a mercenary cried out in pain. Ken, who had been standing as if he were about to lie down on the floor, was now charging at the second mercenary.

Another shot.

The mercenary who had cried out in pain fell to the floor with a dull thud, while the mercenary aiming at Ken doubled over and fell to his knees. The assault rifle, previously held firmly in his hands, fell to the floor.

"E-e-e-e-e-e!"

Wiping blood from his cheek, Ken kicked the kneeling, groaning mercenary.

"That is, of course, unsportsmanlike and a very dirty blow. But men who unhesitatingly aim their guns at beautiful women do not really need their genitals."

Hoshino said, looking at the frozen girls. Shield could not take her eyes off his slightly smiling face. Kyoka did not have that problem.

"So, what were you saying about me?"

Hoshino sighed.

[End Pov Melissa Shield]



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