"Hey Manual, we gotta roll," a hero -- who Tenya didn't know the name of -- called from the agency entrance.
"In a minute," Manual, Tenya's mentor, waved for the other hero to go on, then turned back to the boy. "Iida, I know you really wanna go with us to search for the Hero Killer. I know that's why you're here in Hosu anyway. But as your supervisor, I can't let you go. You have to stay here at the agency."
"I'm not going to hurt myself," Tenya seethed, "Please, Manual. The demon responsible for incapacitating my brother just hurt another hero. How can I sit here and wait?"
Manual sighed, but his eyes remained kind and patient, "From what the agency told us, Endeavor's here at Hosu, too. Surely you can trust the number two hero to bring the villain to justice?"
Tenya didn't get why Manual was so determined not to let him join the search, and the image of his brother lying helplessly on the hospital bed flashed in his mind again. But he forced a deep breath. "If Endeavor's for sure going to find and capture the villain without any of our help, doesn't that make it a safe environment for me to practice searching?"
"Outsmarting me by answering my questions with your questions isn't going to change the fact that you might be in danger."
"I can handle danger."
Manual shook his head in defeat, "Fine. Since I can't stop you, I may as well keep you in my sight. Let's go."
This moment might've felt victorious for Tenya if he wasn't already thinking about how he would make the Hero Killer pay.
But after he stormed in front of Manual for a couple of minutes, ignoring the hero's intermittent warnings to slow down, it occurred to Tenya that he had no idea where the Hero Killer was or where he would be. Begrudgingly, Tenya finally slowed down and trailed behind the pro hero, who redirected them back to their usual patrol route.
"Wandering around only makes the search more inefficient," the hero taught, but Tenya barely listened.
He followed the hero until the sun set and the streetlights turned on but there was still no sight of the villain.
"It's getting a little late," Manual said, "I don't think the Hero Killer is in this area, so... I won't keep you, then. You should go back to the agency."
A part of Tenya wanted to keep looking for Stain, but his hope had dwindled, so he agreed.
"You need me to take you back?"
"No, I'll be fine on my own."
"...Alright, then. Have a good evening, Iida."
"You, too, Manual."
The walk back was somewhat peaceful. The sky was a dark purple, and moonlight shined through a sheet of clouds. But again, he thought of his brother. Since his anger had dimmed, only sadness remained. When his thoughts finally tired him out, he noticed that he had unintentionally strayed away from the path back to the agency, then heaved a sigh and started back.
But only moments later, he heard a series of clattering in the distance that sounded like metal falling to the ground. He squinted in the sound's direction but couldn't see its source, and a bad feeling crept into his stomach. Adjusting his helmet, he jogged toward the street where he heard the clattering. Suddenly, he saw something glinting in the dim streetlight near the mouth of an alley.
"What is that..." He slowed down and took a couple more steps, and when the object's outline became clear, a guttural sound spouted from his throat.
A blade.
His engines whirred to life, and the next moment he was sprinting towards the alley where the blade was sticking out from. The inside of the alley came into view, and with a jolt, Tenya saw him -- the Hero Killer, back facing Tenya, with swords of different lengths strapped to his body.
Amazed that he caught the villain off guard, Tenya's engines shifted to a higher gear, his kick flying towards Stain. Too late did Tenya realize that his engines weren't exactly the quietest things in the world; the villain spun around and slammed a foot in Tenya's sternum, making him crash into the ground.
Shaking, Tenya looked up at the villain, whose crimson eyes pierced through the darkness and solidified the air around them.
But Tenya wasn't afraid. He shoved himself back up to his feet as Stain's gaze simply followed.
"Hero Killer!" Tenya spat, "I come in the name of Ingenium, and you will pay for what you did to my brother!"
A blade whizzed past Tenya's ear as Stain twirled it in his hand in a smooth motion, then held it still. The villain's gaze was fixed on the boy as if considering where to stab him first. Suddenly, Tenya didn't feel as brave anymore, but he hid it with a clenched fist.
"I remember your brother," the killer said, his voice reverberating through the alley, "Foolish. Proud. Not too different from you."
"What?!"
"You come here for vengeance!" Stain boomed, "This hero society is rotten to the core, seeing what this new generation has become! But it's fine. I'll kill you off one by one if it means eradicating fakes from this world."
For a brief moment, Stain turned his head slightly over his shoulder to look at something behind him, but Tenya only cared about taking advantage of the enemy's distraction. Spinning around, Tenya attacked with a kick propelled by his engines, the whirring noise echoing in the shadows.
With an eerie speed, the Hero Killer batted away the kick with an elbow, and then there was a longsword slashing at Tenya.
Before Tenya could react, a figure blurred in front of him and slammed the killer against the wall. The newcomer's head was hidden under a hood.
Then, with a sickening flash of silver light, Stain's dagger slashed upward and Tenya could see that it was now tainted dark crimson. The hooded figure winced but held tightly onto Stain. Grotesquely, Stain lifted the bloody blade in front of his mouth and glided his tongue across it. Instantly, the hoodie figure stopped moving.
That's the killer's quirk, Tenya realized with a shiver.
Stain shoved the stiff body off of him and kicked it away like a soccer ball, the spikes on the villain's boots making more drops of blood spray on the alley floor.
"I'll finish you first," Stain hissed, turning to Tenya.
The villain's tone riled Tenya, and the sound of engines grew until it seemed to rattle the walls next to them.
Then, in the blink of an eye, Tenya zoomed past Stain, landing a punch hard enough to break a brick wall. He then spun around and kicked at Stain's exposed flank, but the villain knocked the attack away despite the neck-breaking speed.
The Hero Killer looked disappointed.
"A person just risked his life trying to save yours, and is now in a position where I can deliver a fatal blow whenever I please," the Hero Killer stated, "And you, hero intern, did not even try to rescue the poor soul."
Tenya glanced at the person sprawled in the shadows further in the alley. The hooded figure was trembling, clearly trying to resist whatever effect Stain had caused.
A sudden wave of guilt washed over Tenya.
...How in the world did he simply overlook another person's existence?
The rage burning like a furnace in him suddenly died down. He had failed the basic concept of what a hero was.
Then, Tenya's shoulders tensed as Stain raised his sword to his lips, a drop of blood balanced on the sharp edge.
Instinctively, Tenya looked down at his own right leg and saw that the fabric of his costume was torn, revealing a small cut.
He looked back at Stain, but before he could do anything else, his body froze.
"I want you to watch this next part closely," Stain said with a disgusted frown, raising a knife and aiming it at the hooded figure behind him, "This is the consequence of being driven by selfishness."
The knife flew down at the immobilized figure.
"No!" Tenya cried through his stiff lips.
His brother would've saved the hoodie person. But Tenya didn't.
At that moment, all of the Hero Killer's words finally sank in, and Tenya wanted to rush to protect the figure but his body wouldn't budge.
The person was going to die because of him. And he didn't even know what that person looked like.
Then, without warning, the temperature in the air dropped and the knife stopped in its tracks. Starting from the mouth of the alley to Tenya and the Hero Killer and the knife, the alleyway was covered in ice. The villain struggled to no avail as all four of his limbs were frozen.
"Thank goodness I didn't come too late."
"...Todoroki?!" Tenya breathed.
A warm hand pressed against Tenya's back and the ice sizzled, then melted.
"Sorry I froze you, Iida," Todoroki stepped forward and came into view, his white and red hair ruffled, "It was the only way I could stop that knife." He turned his gaze to the frozen weapon that was centimeters away from taking a life.
The hooded figure was still sprawled on the ground, now behind a wall of ice that kept the knife in place.
"Who's that?" Todoroki stared at the hoodie guy.
"I don't know," Tenya replied, still immobilized despite being freed from the ice.
"You can't move?"
"It's the Hero Killer's quirk, and I think it's triggered by ingesting a target's blood."
"Understood," Todoroki uttered in a low and cautious voice, "I already texted Endeavor; he'll be coming soon."
"How did you find me?"
"I was lucky to be close by, and your engines aren't exactly the quietest things in the world."
"I'm aware."
"I'm gonna go get that hoodie guy over there. You, uh... Stay here, I guess."
As Todoroki made his way to the hoodie person, a fissure suddenly appeared in Stain's ice cage and dozens of flying knives mixed with ice shards exploded in all directions.
Todoroki raised an ice barrier in front of him and tried to cover Tenya, too, but it couldn't stop a knife from lodging itself in Tenya's right shoulder.
The force tipped Tenya back as he cried out in pain, but his body was still unable to move as he crashed to the ground.
Now, with his eyes facing the sky, he could only hear the clamor of fighting and the sound of his own beating heart. Blood flowed from his shoulder and pooled at the base of his helmet.
Waves of coldness and heat rolled past, and a blast of fire flashed in the corner of his vision.
That's weird. Todoroki started using his fire in combat? That was probably thanks to Midoriya.
Despite being immobilized on the ground and having a knife sticking out of his shoulder, Tenya's mind wandered, remembering how the green-haired boy came up to Tenya before students left for the hero internship week.
"You know you can always talk to me if you need it, right?" Midoriya said.
I said I was fine then, Tenya thought with a sad smile, but I wasn't. I was blinded by anger, desperate for revenge, and I was diverging farther away from the hero I wanted to be.
Tenya's body refused to move, but he clenched at his muscles and prepared himself. The moment Stain's quirk releases him, he will dive straight back into battle and do whatever he can to protect Todoroki and the hooded victim.
Because he promised Midoriya. He promised that even though he lost at the sports festival, he would try his best to improve and catch up.
Because that's the kind of hero Ingenium should be.