Chapter 62: Varying Experiences

As internships continue, Midoriya, Tokoyami and Todoroki have different experiences as they spend more time with their respective interns. And while 2 learn, one...

“Text” – Normal speech

‘Text’ – Thought

“Text” – Quirk Spirit speaking in the human world

“Text” - Attack

“Text” – Radio/Communication lines

“Text” – None Japanese speech

(text) – Subtext/meaning behind a spoken word

Chapter 62: Varying Experiences

With another day coming to an end, the students all returned to their mentor agencies or their lodgings for the night. Some opted for night work if it was offered, including Iida, though his brother had been shifted to work with the support teams as he and the rest of the pros handled increased patrols.

Sadly for them, they wouldn't locate Stain, nor would they locate his latest victim. The killer stood in the alley's darkness, the setting sun casting longer shadows. At his feet had been one of the pros who had been searching for him. Stain had followed him for hours, and with help from Dabi, they were able to catch him off guard right as he reported he hadn't seen anything.

Right as Native closed the radio on his end, he was approached by Dabi, the woman acting like a rude smoker who didn't know who he was. As he handled her, she smiled, and years of experience clocked the malice in it.

But it blinded him from the source of malice which came from above. “And with that, you’re done, right?” Dabi asked as she leaned against the wall, looking towards Stain with some boredom as he stood over the downed Native.

“Don’t rush me, or you wish for us to be discovered?” Stain asked her, his blade in the man's back, piercing into his stomach. Native being able to call for help as Stain had already paralysed him. Dabi found his quirk to be an interesting one, but she didn't ponder much else.

"Relax, I'm not gonna stab you in the back. I haven't even gotten what I want, and neither have you." She joked, though Stain wondered if she was more serious than she let on. Despite what he could tell about her, there was more he knew he was missing that he couldn't see.

No matter what it was, he'll use her as much as she's using him. With that, he pulled his blade clean of Native and, with a swing, parted his head from his body.

Pulling a cloth out, he wiped down his blade as he glanced towards Dabi. “So, where are we going next?”

Dabi's face lit up with excitement, the sort that only came from the pain of others. “We’re going up north, word to the wise, pack for the cold.”

Line Break

An hour later, with the sun set, Ingenium would arrive at the scene. Beneath his helmet, he was not happy at what awaited him. The alley had already been blocked off to the public and media, and drapes were in place to prevent anyone from looking inside it.

His arrival sparked some greater interest, but for the moment, he ignored it and marched up the police line, being let in without any issues. Stepping into the alley, the smell of rot and trash was thick, courtesy of the trash bags and bins around the place that hadn't been moved. But underneath this was a sharp sense of iron. The source was the headless body of Native, his head having rolled to the side and looking up at the sky with glazed-over eyes.

"How did this happen?" he asked the police officer taking notes on the scene, the middle-aged man clearly sickened by what he had to analyse.

The officer was slow to respond, needing to breathe through his mouth; otherwise, he tossed his lunch. "We're not sure. His radio was…found in his ear, working normally. We already called up the heroes he was working with, and they say the last time they heard from him, he had just broadcast the all-clear. They noticed something off when, 10 minutes later, he didn't respond, and so they searched the part of town he should have been at."

“So, he was probably attacked right afterwards. Stain had to have been close. Who reported the body?" Ingenium commented before he asked, though he didn't like the implications that Stain had gone that close to listen in and not been spotted. Native couldn't have seen him. He knew the man; he had worked with him in the past. He was humble and knew his limits.

If Native had thought he was in danger, he would have called it out, or the scene.

The officer pointed to the side, where a young man, no older than 30, was shivering. He was a heteromorph with the head of a dolphin. Still, one could see the horror on his face as he was questioned by another cop, who was making a point of standing between the civilian and the body.

"He did. He runs the candy shop and had come out to toss some things when he noticed the blood and well." He gestured to the blood, which was flowing towards a low-laying crack in the ground that happened to be close to the store's back entrance.

Ingenium’s heart pained at the man’s distress, at the fate of Native, and their inability to stop any of it. "No one should ever chance upon something this horrible."

“Preaching to the choir.” The officer replied, his hand twitching as he needed some nicotine, but couldn't contaminate the crime scene, well, more than it already was. “Initial findings show it was 3 strikes. One to the cheek, one to the black, and lastly, the one which killed him.”

A mercy, if a twisted one, as it would have been a quick death, but with a time frame of 10 minutes, they'll need to wait till the lab gets their hands on the remains to confirm how time from the moment of the attack to when it concluded.

But that wasn’t the biggest thing on Ingenium’s mind. "This isn't good. If Stain follows his pattern, then he's gonna vanish after this. There are five other cities he could appear in." Stain always followed a pattern: at least four victims per city, then he moved on. This would be his fourth since he came to Hosu, and with Native slain, he would move on, but where? He wasn’t working off any criteria they could predict.

His targets' specialities, quirks, experience, personal and work history—nothing matched. Yes, they were all below the rank of 300, but that was merely opportunism. At times, they wondered if Stain was purposely being random to throw them off, or if this only made sense to the madman.

"It won't just be him, I fear," Ingenium glanced towards the officer, who pointed to a set of bloody shoe prints, next to it an evidence marker. The footprints we discovered belong to 2 different people, different sizes and stride spacing. Best case, someone happened to find the body, panicked and fled without reporting it, most reasonable."

Ingenium caught what the man was implying. “An accomplice, it would explain how they handled Native without so much as a call for help, but we know nothing about them. Any witnesses, cameras?”

“We’ve canvassed the area, but it doesn't look like anyone was around or even noticed a problem. We're deep in an alley, and there's plenty of trash between us and the street." He shook his head, as the officer seemed tired, and not just from the long work day. “Cameras are also a bust; the only ones aim at the store's back door and the street, and we've already checked both.

Line Break

By day 3 of the internship, Hawks had decided against having them chase after him on patrol and to train once more. Both Tsukuyomi and EV would have hated this, but with their new understanding of their quirks, they found that they could keep up.

But only keep up.

"How long have they been at it?" One of the sidekicks asked as they watched the training progress with no signs of stopping, feathers being shot all over the place, adding to the chaos that was Dark Shadow's screams and lunges, along with seemingly random and sporadic blasts of fire, ice, darkness, electricity, and some other element they couldn't identify.

The second sidekick looked at his watch before he responded, "An hour, maybe more. I showed up, and they were already hard at it."

"Have you ever seen someone giving him this much trouble?" the first whistled, as Hawks wasn't just dominating them; these kids were putting in some work.

The second scoffed, a chuckle leaking past his lips. "No way, he's just going easy on them, it's training after all." Hawks was a top hero, and would be higher if not for the insane work ethic of the number 2 and the raw power and charisma of the number one. He wouldn't be so pushed by a couple of college freshmen.

“I’m not so sure about that.” The second didn’t think it was that simple.

With the 3 fighters, they didn't pay the sidekicks any mind. Hawks noticed them first, but hadn't so much as glanced their way since. He made note of their presence and place in relation to him, and that was it.

He focused on this sparring match as he folded his wings into a razor-sleek silhouette and dove before either student could fully pin him down, using the array of obstacles and barriers to mask his approach.

EV’s boots hissed with Flame Charge as he blurred forward, fire licking his calves as he jumped onto the elevated platforms, bouncing off them, their sides, and even the walls to try and better position and evade their mentor. Tsukuyomi rose Dark Shadow like a living glider, his quirk wrapped around him, keeping his hands free, his quirk also acting as a barrier against Hawks, whose feathers shot out from his blind spots to try and hit him, most getting intercepted or bouncing off Dark Shadow's contractor shadowy, yet dense and flexible body.

With a bounce and a flip, EV spotted Hawks for just a moment, the winged hero on the move, as he always was. With no time for hesitation, EV fired off a Will-O-Wisp as fast as he could, sending a fireball careening towards Hawks like a missile. Haws felt it coming before he saw it, his wings vibrating from the intense heat release and shrinking distance.

Knowing it would be pointless, he dodged the attack, his right wing scattering to avoid the fireball. However, he lost several feathers, which all got badly burnt. He might have been off balance with just the one wing. Still, Hawks was well-versed for such an unconventional fight and kept moving without real issue, vanishing out of sight before he reappeared behind EV, having used the obstacles as cover to mask his approach, 2 feathers in his hand, held like swords with arms pulled back for the swing.

EV didn't have time for offense, but he could defend himself as he quickly used Shelter Aura, creating a green and brown dome around himself just in time for Hawks' wing blades to clash into the barrier, making a sound close to steel against stone.

“Got you!” Dark Shadow cried as he swung at Hawks, having used the sound to pinpoint him as Tsukuyomi attacked from behind an obstacle wall, Dark Shadow's arm crashing through it on its way to Hawks.

The winged hero saw the attack coming and disengaged, adding a quick double-slice attack at Dark Shadow's outstretched hand. As Hawks fled from the attack, shifting and dodging around the obstacles, Midoriya used Betterment on Dark Shadow, increasing its destructive power without risking Tsukuyomi losing control.

Another wave of feathers came around, aimed for his partner, but a sudden burst of ice-etched jaws formed and chomped down on them, leaving just a few to reach Tsukuyomi, who could manage them. Without a word, the two split off again, each heading to where they believed Hawks would be. EV turned a corner in the aerial maze, bouncing off the wall to get the clearance, only to meet with a boot to the face, which threw off his momentum, sending him spinning into another barrier with a thud and pained groan.

Tsukuyomi arrived in time to force Hawks back yet again, buying EV time once he had fallen back to the mat to get back up. Electric light flickered across Midoriya's veins as he surged through it, and his flames, his muscles bulging but not breaking or bursting, punched the air, sending bolts of fist-shaped lightning towards Hawks. Dark Shadow hissed through the impromptu light show, which Hawks took advantage of.

From above them, he slammed into Tsukuyomi, sending them to the mat along with Midoriya, a blade to the Avarian-headed boy's neck. Midoriya was about to counter and free his teammate, hoping his speed would be enough to stop Hawks. With only two feathers to tag his shirt and trip him up, he was quick to place his hands in front and catch himself, but when he looked up, he saw he was surrounded by another twelve feathers, pointed towards him like loaded guns.

“Well, enough of that,” Hawks called it, calm and almost amused as he stood up, his feathers returning to his wings. “You two are improving, not that long ago that you couldn’t keep up at all.”

"Yet we didn't manage more than destroying some of your feathers," Tsukuyomi said as Hawks helped him up, Midoriya picking himself up now that he wasn't in danger of being made into a pincushion.

“Well, I would be concerned if some freshmen could tag me, speed is kinda my whole thing.” Hawks joked, though at least now it didn’t feel as biting. Was it painful to know they couldn’t touch him? Yes, but they could see their progress.

"You're getting the hang of it. Your strength is great, and you both have much more than I do, but with speed? Well, you can end 9 out of 10 fights before the other guy knows what him em." Hawks reminded them, as they had been forbidden from using their larger, flashier attacks and moves during this training session, that the point was to improve how fast they moved and reacted.

In fact, the Hawks had only managed to knock them back to the mat a couple of times; others, they caught themselves or caught the other. The pro liked their teamwork.

"It is effective, and with this new form, I don't lose any time swapping into my others, and it feels like…I can use more of its power." Midoriya noted as he left the form retreat back into himself, which, as he was coming to expect, always came with a big jolt as if his system was swapping to a new nervous system.

"I, on the other hand, need to improve the way I handle my powers. Dark Shadow can still strike, but perhaps another approach would be faster." Tokoyami observed that his attacks hadn't been as fast as they could be, and against an opponent like Hawks, that was a problem.

"Well, we've got time to work on that, or you two will start calling me a liar to all your friends," Hawks joked as he looked at the clock and turned to walk off. "Well, you two hit the showers; I've got to do an evening patrol."

"Evening?" Midoriya asked. As it was close to 6 already, wasn't that when Hawks would end patrols?

Turning to them, they could see the smile on his face, even with his collar masking it; it was all in his eyes. "Well, yeah, I stayed indoors since lunch helping you two, I need to get my…hmm, can't call them steps when it's me, let's call them flaps, I need to get them in and I'm feeling like I'll catch more villains out now since I wasn't around during the day, makes some cocky."

With that, the Winged Hero left them to his sidekicks.

Line Break

Far from Kyushu, after an accident rescue mission, things had just wrapped up. Frostbyte spoke with some police about the incident, which has now been resolved. “Nice work, Frostbyte.” One of them thanked her as medics saw to the injured from a small bridge collapse, the sight covered in snow and ice from her and Todoroki's efforts to save people before they could fall onto the street below.

“Any serious injuries? Collateral?” She asked, as while her snow wasn't too much of an issue, she could will it to disperse enough that it would melt on its own, Todoroki's ice would require a more…hot solution.

"None to speak up, and nothing that can't be fixed by the day shift repair guys," the second police officer informed them, though it didn't seem too big of a deal, as one of the support beams had collapsed, and if not for them, the second and third ones would have given way.

"Nah, it's more than this bridge needs maintenance to start; else it wouldn't have nearly collapsed like that, " the first police officer stated as they watched as Todoroki started to melt the ice he had created, blocking the road. With things clearing up, only the overhead would be closed for repairs.

“Whose the kid? A new sidekick?” One of the officers asked, as Frostbyte was well known to them and the community, including her regular sidekicks.

“An intern, from U.A.” She replied as she gestured for Todoroki to approach.

"U.A.? Oh, wait, now I recognise him, you're Endeavour's kid, aren't you?" One of them snapped his fingers, pointing at Todoroki with an excited fan, no doubt an Endeavour fan, though such only seemed to sour Todoroki's mood.

“Yes.” His response was blunt and cold, yet it went unnoticed by the police, who tried to start up a conversation. It often led to praise for his father and hopes that he'll be as good, if not better, than him when he eventually goes pro.

Frostbyte took a breath and released it as a small blast of chilled air. At times, she wondered how people could be so blind. Could they not see how little the man wanted to talk about this? How did he twitch each time they praised his father?

'Of course he's pissed, but at least it's not the worst reason, no one likes their achievements to be sidelined by who their father is.' She would give him a pass for this this time, but they had other things to worry about; just because it was close to the end of her patrol didn't mean they would slack off.

"Well, if that's all, we'll leave things to you, " she told them as they turned to leave, Todoroki being quick to follow. Leaving the street, she conjured a carpet of knowledge, and having grown used to her methods, Todoroki didn't need to be told to jump onto it. With a thought, she had the carpet float and fly down the street.

Given how late it was, it was mainly people out for a fun time on the streets. Many waved at them and kindly got out of their way as they casually moved through the place, heading towards Chuchi Park, a place she liked to end things with a good, relaxing rest and a hot meal before she would return to her agency.

After some time, Todoroki asked her something. "Was what they said about the bridge true?"

So he heard that, then? Well, she had no issue with it; good ears count for a lot in their line of work. “Correct, bridges and other infrastructure degrade over time, and improper maintenance or lack of maintenance can result in disaster." She got an idea for a quick lesson for him.

"Tell me, do you know if that is a bigger or smaller problem in larger cities like Tokyo?" she asked, to which Todoroki did not immediately answer. This was good, showing that he could see a complex situation when it presented itself. She kept her attention on where they were going, but she waited for him to think it over.

“Smaller, larger cities have more that needs to be done, so stuff like that would be repaired faster, " he answered.

She chuckled, as it wasn't a bad answer and one that seemed simple. However, with how she phrased it, he couldn't just take it but had to examine his options. "Yes and no. Yes, it's less in bigger cities, but no, it has little to do with just having more people around. It's more villains."

“Why would that be a factor? Wouldn’t they destroy more?” Todoroki asked, confused by the idea.

She snapped her fingers. “Exactly. More villain incidents lead to more damage. More damage means more repairs are done, so they accidentally fix a lot of wear and tear issues, at times replacing entire portions of it. There's a reason some cities don't have many buildings older than All Might."

Even her neck of the woods wasn't as old as people would like; buildings were merely built in past styles.

Her tone dropped, just a little, as she recalled something. "From what my father told me, those days…were bleak? Entire neighbourhoods could be wiped out without warning or consequence. Sure, some villains were caught and imprisoned, but it didn't stop the issues."

Todoroki didn't know it; she doubted anyone his age did. In fact, she barely recalled such a time before All Might, being 29 this year. As a kid, the world looked scary, but it got better and shockingly quick. She never had to live in it or face the realities of such. But as she aged and became a hero, she started to realise something most didn't think about and that some she feared didn't think possible.

That it couldn't last. All Might had been around for decades at this point. He was aging, which showed in how he'd been decreasing his hero time these last few years. Man had to be slowing down as Father Time continued to chip away at him. Even Endeavour was what? In his 40s?

"But I don't believe in just chalking it up to All Might, he's but one man. One mortal, it's because of all of us that we can look forward to buildings, roads, and bridges growing old enough that wear and tear becomes a thing." She stated that, as she didn't mind that she wasn't so high on the billboard, she only cared about doing all she could for those she could save and then some.

Which only made her all the more annoyed with her charge as she glanced at him. "All of us are working our hardest, and you still refuse to use your flames."

"I didn't need it now or throughout the day." Todoroki challenged that, as the rescue was done without issues. And when he assisted her with some arrests earlier, his freezing people in place had been the best move. What did she want him to burn them like his father?

"And yet your temperature has hardly spiked since you barely use it." She was done with this brat, she had told him repeatedly. She tried to instill the consequences and realities of heroism in him, yet he still chose to limit himself.

If she could, she would never allow such a man to become a proper hero, as the last thing they needed with an aging All Might was entitled brats half-assing this and allowing their country to slip back into the pit they had escaped decades ago. "I told you that such behaviour has no place at my agency, but if you don't shape up now, you can consider your internship ending early."

Todoroki glared at her, getting sick and tired of this talk. Why couldn't they just understand? He had gotten into U.A. through its recommendation exam with just his ice. He was among the best in his class. He could handle delays for quirk spirits and was already stronger than most pros.

And yet they couldn’t just let things be.

He would have reacted to that, maybe blown up, or declared he would just pull out now, as he knew she wouldn't drop this insistence that he use his father's quirk.

He would have, if not for an explosion in the distance, one far too big to be anything but a serious incident. Frosstbyte was always on the move, speeding up their snow-flying carpet as she reached for her earpiece.

“What’s happening at Chuchi Park? " she requested, as there were bound to be other pros close to it.

Before she heard a response on the radio, she heard what sounded like chaos on the other end. “We don't know; it's like it's under attack from invisible villains!”

"Invis—" She didn’t pause as she switched over to her agency's private lines. “Dispatch, can the new sensory suite reach Chuchi Park?"

One of her sidekicks had been learning how to use the new equipment, and luckily, she had been the one who responded. “Yes, but it’s not facing that-”

"Then change that. I need to know if there's any disturbance there." She ordered, as she didn't feel but heard the ground shake. With no other explosions, she could fear that it was some villain or other party with an earth-based ability, and a powerful one.

“Oh shit, y-yes, there is. I'm seeing at least 7 signatures in proximity to the park. I'm sorry, Frostbyte, I have no idea how we missed this. We scanned it 20 minutes ago!”

She would handle that later. Right now, she told the man who would get the police on the line and help them cut off the area. Turning towards Todoroki, she laid it out: “Kid, get ready. You have more experience with this. We’ll follow your lead here.”

“Don’t disappoint me.”

Line Break

Have you ever felt the heat, but then you look out the window and see a heavy rain cloud forming? I'm hoping that it's not for another area. But with the weekly uploads, there'll be a pause for Path of Storms, as I'll focus on writing two chapters for A New Britannia this week, which means something had to be axed. It could have been this story, but the request came in when it was half done, so I decided to complete it.