Third update of the day!
I couldn't get back to sleep after that nightmare. I knew that my lack of sleep would affect me throughout the day, but I couldn't find it in myself to care. For me, the worst kind of nightmares were the memories because I knew they weren't just figments of my imagination. I knew that Hisashi was fully capable of doing the things I saw in my memories because he had already done them. At least with the nightmares that were caused by my overactive imagination, I could convince myself that he would never go that far. But I knew I was lying to myself. Hisashi was a sick, twisted man who would go to any length to make my life a living hell.
Kacchan and Todoroki both woke up around the same time. It was around 7:30 when they both sat up and started stretching. I ignored them in favour of staring out onto the beautiful cityscape and texting my dad. I had told Shota about my nightmare/ memory over text. He called me almost immediately and made me confirm verbally that I was ok and that if my nightmares got too bad I would wake up Kacchan. I must have reassured him at least 10 times before he was satisfied and hung up.
After the two boys woke up, we all decided it was best to get dressed into our hero costumes and wait for somebody to come and get us. There was no indication as to what we were supposed to do after we were dressed. Endeavour hadn't said anything the night before and none of us could find any sort of note. We sat and talked for about 30 minutes before one of Endeavour's sidekicks came in and lead us to breakfast. We ate a modest breakfast of eggs and toast in the staff dining hall. It was a bit awkward being surrounded by fully grown adults rambunctiously jesting with one another. I felt tiny. To be honest I was probably the shortest person in the room. I was 156cm tall (5ft 1), I'm sure I would have been considerably taller if I had gotten sufficient food in my early childhood. I didn't really feel like talking, so I just listened in as Kacchan and Todoroki talked to each other. I was surprised that they were getting along so well. They seemed like opposites. But then again, Kacchan and I were opposites. The two boys spoke about all sorts of subjects. Jumping from the best heroes in their opinion to how much of a dick Endeavour was. I don't think Kacchan could really say much on the subject seeing as he had only met the flame hero the previous day, but he was more than willing to fuel Todoroki's angry rants.
When we finished breakfast, a different sidekick led us to Endeavour's office, where we encountered the hero staring resolutely at a map. He barely acknowledged us when we entered the room, he just made some vague hand gesture towards the three chairs in front of his desk, presumably telling us to take a seat. When Endeavour was done ogling at his map, he looked up at us and finally directly spoke to us. "Tonight we'll be going out to Hosu again. I've marked down all of the hero killer's crime scenes on this map. As you can see there is no clear pattern to his attack, but we can guess it will be in the general area of either Hosu City Plaza or the shopping district." Endeavour explained gruffly. It was like he didn't want to explain it in the first place, which I doubt he did. I stared down at the map and scanned over the mentioned areas, I was nervous to say anything, but if it stopped a murderer being on the streets than I would speak up. "Umm... Sir? I think he's more likely to attack around the plaza because there are more alleyways and such. Also, the few alleyways around the shopping district are more likely to be used by people taking short cuts than those by the plaza." I whispered. I wasn't sure if he could hear me considering I could barely hear myself but he seemed to get the message. Endeavour appraised his map once more before nodding somewhat reluctantly. "Yes, that makes sense." he grumbled. I could feel Todoroki looking at me with respect. I had just gotten Endeavour to acknowledge me, kind of. He didn't praise me or even look at me, but he had listened to my theory and not shot me down, so that counted for something. We spent the rest of our day being lectured by Endeavour about public safety during villain attacks and how great Todoroki's quirk is.
Night had descended like a blanket over Hosu by the time we arrived in the city. Nothing out of the ordinary was happening but I could sense some sort of tension in the air. A sense of anticipation for an unknown event was building up. I think Kacchan could sense it as well because he seemed to be on guard. We roamed the streets around the City Plaza, keeping alert so that we didn't miss a single detail which could point us towards the hero killer. I thought I caught the flash of a blade and was about to turn around to see what it was when an inhuman screech echoed through the alley we were in. My head whipped around to the direction which the noise came from, I saw that the sky was full of smoke and dancing with firelight. It all seemed to be stemming from the centre of the city. "Follow close behind me! The city is under attack!" Endeavour shouted back at us (Todoroki, Kacchan, me and the three sidekicks with us). He was already running towards the plaza, towards the unknown danger. I was about to follow behind him when I saw the flash of a blade in the low light and the faint smell of blood wafted through the air. I'm sure I was the only one who could smell it, my sense of smell was enhanced after all. I couldn't stop myself, I spun around began sprinting down the closest alleyways, following my nose to the scene.
I think Kacchan and Todoroki must have called out and told me to stop, but I couldn't. Somebody was in danger. I heard their heavy footsteps following me, but I didn't care. I had to help whoever was in danger. By the time I arrived at the scene, the smell of blood almost made me gag. And the scene didn't make it any better. The hero killer, Stain, was stood above Iida's seemingly paralyzed body. His sword was raised, ready to claim Iida's life. He didn't realize we were there. I acted without thinking. My knife was flying through the air before I could even process that I had just thrown a knife at somebody.
I had no idea how the man atop Iida knew that the knife as whizzing towards him, but he managed to jump out of the way before it could impale him. The knife did, however, cut his cheek shallowly. My knife landed in the wall with a thunk. I wasn't aware that my knife was sharp enough to stick into bricks. "Another wannabe hero?" the man rasped. His voice made me on edge, it sounded like nails being dragged down a chalkboard or a dentist's drill. As much as I would have loved to stop and talk with the most wanted man in Hosu, I thought it was probably best that I tried to take him down. I knew that I wouldn't be able to take down the hero killer. He had killed dozens of fully trained pro heroes, what was one first year going to do? I couldn't give up though, because otherwise Iida, the pro hero who was slumped against the wall and I would all die.
I launched myself towards Stain, drawing my other knife as I went. Stain attempted to use his sword to cut me, but I deflected it with my knife. I didn't give Stain the chance to attack again, I punched him directly in the face and ran over to my other knife, yanking it from the wall. I spun around to see Stain's sword about to slice into my face. My heart rate sped up as I watched the serrated edge of the sword move towards me in slow motion. Adrenaline coursed through my body as I reacted without thinking. I transformed into a dragonfly to avoid Stain's sword. I saw shock flicker across his face but he didn't have long to wrap his head around the situation because he was blasted away by an explosion. "OI! GET AWAY FROM IZUKU YOU BASTARD!" Kacchan screamed from the opposite side of the alleyway. I transformed back and saw that both Kacchan and Todoroki were stood at the end of the alley. Just looking at them made me scared. Kacchan always looked scary, but at that moment, the look in his eyes could have turned somebody to stone. Todoroki didn't look any less intimidating. The fire which wreathed his face and glowed in his eyes made me weak at the knees. "Midoriya, pick up Iida and come over here." Todoroki ordered. Ordinarily, I would have challenged him, who was he to order me around? But the look of anger in his eyes and the fact that I was in no position to argue compelled me to follow his instructions. I scurried away to Iida and pulled his arms over my shoulders before dragging him over to Kacchan and Todoroki.
I gently placed Iida down, careful not to aggravate his wounds. "You shouldn't have come here Midoriya. This is my battle. I need to get revenge for what he did to my brother!" Iida ranted as I wrapped his wounds with some bandages I had made. "I don't want to be rude Iida, but shut up!" I snapped at him. The sounds of Todoroki and Kacchan fighting behind us accompanied me as I chastised Iida fro his reckless thinking. "I understand that you want revenge Iida, he hurt your brother. But doing this won't help. You're not ready to take on a serial killer. You've barely just started UA. You're a first-year in high school. Your 15! What do you think would happen to your family if you die. Not only will they have to face the tragedy of what happened to your brother, but also your death! So get your head out of your ass and call the police on my phone!". I had noticed that Iida was starting to regain some movement in his arms so I passed him my phone and stood up to help my friends.
Somehow, it wasn't going well for Kacchan and Todoroki. Despite the fact that they both had powerful quirks and were both very smart people, Kacchan and Todoroki couldn't take down the hero killer. He as a very good strategist and amazing at wielding his swords and knives. "You are not worthy of being heroes in training! That word has lost all meaning. Heroes only want fame and money! The only true hero is All Might!" Stain preached as he fought. He tried to cut Todoroki but was forced to jump away because Todoroki set his left side on fire. "SHUT UP!" Kacchan shouted, firing an explosion directly into Stain's face. Through the smoke which was caused by the explosion, two knives came whizzing out and landed in Todoroki's left arm. I flinched in pain for Todoroki, I can't imagine having two knives thrown into your arm is very nice. "Don't just stand there, Izuku! Fight!" Kacchan shouted at me. His attention wasn't fully on the hero killer, which turned out to be a mistake. The hero killer slashed into Kacchan's arm and licked the blood from the knife. Kacchan's eyes widened in horror. His entire body seized up and he collapsed to the floor, paralyzed.
Todoroki acted quickly, making an ice slope to bring Kacchan to us. "Fucking bastard!" Kacchan cursed furiously. I glanced down at my helpless best friend, he hated being vulnerable, he said that if he was weak then he was a nobody. I could see Kacchan's insecurities shining through like a light. I had to help him. I took a deep breath before transforming into my dad and using my quirk on Stain. I wasn't sure if using Erasure on Stain would release everyone from his quirk, plus if I blinked, I wasn't sure if they would be paralyzed again, but it was worth a shot. When I used Shota's quirk, Kacchan immediately jumped to his feet and charged at Stain. I didn't get the chance to warn him that if I blink, he may become paralyzed again. I tried my hardest to keep my eyes open for as long as possible, I feared that if I blinked I'd place Kacchan in danger. It was inevitable that I would blink eventually. When I blinked, Kacchan continued to fight as normal. So it seemed that Kacchan was no longer under the influence of Stain's quirk. "Midoriya, the heroes should be here soon." Iida muttered tiredly. His fight against Stain had clearly drained his energy as well as injuring him. The bandages around Iida's legs and arms were soaked in blood, so I don't doubt that he would soon pass out from blood loss. I needed to actually do something instead of just standing around like a gorm.
I took out my knives and transformed them into guns. Why? Because clearly the best way to fight Stain was at a long distance. My dad had trained me with all sorts of weapons, one of which being guns. I wasn't the best at marksmanship, but I was confident enough that I wouldn't kill anybody. BANG! The first shot I fired went straight into Stain's left hand, causing him to drop his sword before it could slice Kacchan's head off. BANG! BANG! His right hand went next, then his right foot. I didn't particularly want to cause permanent damage. If I disabled someone I'd feel guilty for the rest of my life, even if they were a villain. "Wow, Midoriya, why couldn't you have done that sooner?" Todoroki asked. I felt myself blush slightly. I didn't get the chance to respond though. Pro heroes began to storm into the alleyway. They tended to all of our wounds and tied up Stain. It looked like the ordeal was over.
"Yes, I think if he licks blood he can paralyze his victims." I explained to a pro hero. We had just been walked out of the alleyway and pro heroes were questioning us before we were whisked away to the hospital. I was just explaining what had happened to a pro when a monster flew down from the sky. It looked like a variation of the nomu which attacked the USJ. This one was an ash grey colour and had wings. I could only freeze in horror as the beast swooped down and picked me and Kacchan up from the ground. I shouted in pain as its claws went directly through my right arm. My blood trickled down my arm and to the floor like rain. I noticed that the nomu was also bleeding, it seemed as if its eyes had been stabbed and burned simultaneously. The work of Endeavour. I looked over at Kacchan and saw he was struggling fruitlessly to get out of the nomu's grasp. "Kacchan, please stop struggling, the more you struggle the tighter he holds on." I gritted out through my pain. Kacchan looked at me apologetically. Suddenly, the nomu's wings stopped beating as if it were paralyzed. We began to plummet towards the ground.
The landing was rough, to say the least. We smacked into the ground with enough force to crack the concrete beneath us. Luckily for Kacchan and I, the nomu's body cushioned our fall. Unluckily for us, we had the perfect view as Stain brutally mutilated the nomu's brain then turned to us. He appraised us for a moment, I assume he was deciding on whether to kill us or not. He must have decided against it because he turned back to the crowd of gathered pros and began to rant about the injustice of society, all the while keeping the pros in place with the bloodlust which he was emitting. Stain slowly came to a stop. Frozen in time. I later found out that all of the adrenaline which was coursing through his veins made him have a heart attack. I don't think any of us wanted to move, fearing he might reanimate.
Once everyone had regained their wits everyone was rushed to the hospital. Iida was immediately taken into surgery when we arrived. Through my mind, which was fogged with pain, I noticed that I was being taken into a sterile room. A mask was placed over my face. The gas which was pumped through the mask tasted funny and made me laugh hysterically until I fell into a deep black abyss.
I really don't like the way I handled this. My mind just went blank trying to write this so it's really bad, sorry. Something I liked: I liked Shoto and Katsuki's developing friendship. Anyway, thank you for reading chapter 43 and I hope you have a wonderful day wherever you are.
Side note, I've just read the latest chapter for the my hero academia manga and I don't think you understand how excited I am. It's getting good! I'm not gonna spoil it but I cannot wait until it's animated, although that's gonna be in a long time. It might be in season 5 but I'm not sure.