Also, this is the last "detective" or "spy" arc, because after this we move into the main part of My Hero Academia.
***
Itsuki never thought of himself as either a heroic or villainous person. Every act he did, every investigation he carried out, was purely out of his own volition. He had always believed that empathy was an important part of being human.
That didn't mean he would go around protecting people or beating up anyone who hurt a girl. That wasn't his responsibility. It wasn't his job. At least, not yet… not unless he became a hero.
But soon enough, he would learn what it truly meant to lose control.
To not be in control of what he did.
It happened on a random Tuesday night while he was heading home from his friend Shinso's house. A man suddenly appeared and attacked him. He was clearly much bigger than Itsuki, dressed entirely in black, with even his face covered.
The man probably thought he looked intimidating.
Itsuki disagreed.
It was more of a nuisance than anything.
Although he was mentally much older, a grown man targeting a fourteen-year-old kid was simply pathetic.
The man demanded that Itsuki hand over his phone and all his belongings.
Itsuki calmly replied, "No."
That clearly didn't sit well with him.
The man muttered something under his breath about it still being a test product, not fully released, and whether or not he had been scammed.
Then, without hesitation, he pulled out a gun and fired.
Itsuki usually scoffed when people attacked him. In most cases, he wouldn't even need to adapt anymore. Bullets were something he had long since adapted to.
But this time was different.
The bullet lodged itself into his right arm and stayed there.
Itsuki jolted in pain.
He had felt that.
Before he could properly react, his senses began to distort. His vision started to disintegrate, his wings stopped responding properly, and his hearing became unstable. Different frequencies and hertz flooded his perception, completely out of his control.
"What the hell is going on…" he muttered, touching his wings.
They felt… wrong.
Almost deflated like they were lumpy.
The man rushed in and threw a series of punches. They all connected, but they didn't do any real damage.
Unfortunately for him…
Itsuki's wheel turned.
Click.
In an instant, Itsuki retaliated with a divergent fist, a two-in-one strike where the physical blow lands first, followed immediately by a surge of reinforced cursed energy.
The impact sent the man flying into the distance.
Itsuki exhaled and dusted off his fists with a light blow. Then he walked over to the dropped gun and noticed a small code engraved on its side.
Using his initiative, he pulled out his second phone and scanned it.
It redirected him to a website.
The site was selling specialized bullets. From what he could gather, they were still prototypes. They didn't completely erase a quirk, but instead forced it into a suppressed or unstable state, effectively making it far less usable.
So that's why my adaptation didn't work instantly…
Without hesitation, Itsuki placed an order.
The instructions told him to arrive at an abandoned industrial dock on the outskirts of the city.
***
The next day, Itsuki arrived at the location.
He had a hoodie pulled over his head, the darkness hiding most of his features. Sitting on a bench nearby was a man holding a case, watching him carefully. He had a strange, unsettling aura, and a cloak partially obscured his face.
The man didn't speak.
He simply showed a screenshot on his phone.
¥1,000,000.
Itsuki assumed that was the price.
"Nah, I don't have that kind of money," Itsuki replied casually.
"Then why are you wasting my time?" the man said, clearly annoyed as he turned to leave.
"I just wanted to confirm whether those bullets were legit," Itsuki responded.
"Yeah? I can test them on you."
In an instant, the man pulled out a gun and fired.
That was easier than expected. If he thinks I'm incapacitated, he won't suspect me of following him.
BANG.
Itsuki fell to the ground, pretending to writhe in pain as the man walked away without a second glance, convinced he had taken him out.
After a few minutes, Itsuki got back up.
He heightened his vision and located the man within seconds, maintaining a distance of roughly 300 to 400 feet.
The man made several stops along the way. A bar, a shop, and a few other locations. It seemed like he was intentionally taking a complicated route.
Eventually, he arrived at a place that looked far more suspicious.
A hidden facility.
It was located underground.
The man passed through multiple layers of security before entering. Itsuki carefully observed everything and memorized everything
Recklessness, when paired with certainty, often leads to consequence.
'Usually, I would be more careful, but I haven't got time to waste. I've been investigating this for years, so I might as well.'
As curiosity killed the cat, Itsuki learned that sometimes, his paranoid behaviour was not implemented into him for no reason.
(A/N: This chapter would be 50 times longer if I did make him do it.)
Itsuki walked calmly through the base. He didn't even look one bit interested in hiding; he had his arms on his head, just looking about like nothing had happened.
But if you invite trouble, you get trouble.
"Hey, you there! I've never seen you around here," a voice called out.
Itsuki continued to walk on calmly.
"Hey, I'm talking to you—the one with the hoodie," the man repeated.
Itsuki turned back.
CRASH
A feather was sent flying towards his direction at breakneck speed. The man had no way to counter it, so it shot right into his neck and he dropped.
Itsuki turned right back and decided that maybe running was a better option, as there had been witnesses.
As he dashed around the base, he made a mental map of the place—every corner and every floor, he remembered it.
He was pretty much a flash in that place; not much anyone saw, but a beeping sound rang throughout the entire base.
They had caught him.
"Ehh, I need some excitement in my life," he yawned. "Mahoraga vs an army of yakuza, who wins?" he exclaimed as he skidded to a stop.
He was currently surrounded by a bunch of men in suits who looked nasty. They had guns in their hands and a variety of other weapons, but mainly just guns.
They snarled at him and took one step forward.
Itsuki wasn't bothered.
In fact, he smiled at them.
'What is with me today,' he thought as he stepped one step closer to them.
He yanked away one wing—an entire wing. He straightened it and poured a steady stream of cursed energy into it. His back was already regenerating and generated a new wing in place of the one he ripped out.
The stream of cursed energy that poured into his wing made it straighten up.
Itsuki took one swing with it and it blasted a section of the wall. This seemed to scare some of the yakuza, but they soon regained their footing and fired their shots at him.
BANG
BANG
BANG
So many different bullets were shot right at him, but he used his wings to effectively block all of them in one smooth motion.
The yakuza didn't seem deterred and kept on firing.
Itsuki decided to jump, and he hung onto the roof for a second before using that to accelerate. He pushed his weight against the wall and then out, creating a crater in the ceiling as he burst towards the mass of people.
Using his wing like a sword, he slashed at them.
Three of them dropped to the floor, slashes across their torso, wrists, and ribs. They all gasped in pain.
One of them, a broad man, tried engaging with Itsuki. He had an actual sword in hand and managed to keep up with him for a few seconds.
"Wow, you're impressive," Itsuki commented. "So I'm going to try a little bit!"
He parried one of the man's slashes. The man's brows furrowed, even though he looked like he was in his thirties. This made him look even older as fear entered his eyes, and Itsuki slashed his stomach.
It was a very light cut, but it hurt regardless.
"I need to get myself a sword, my wings can't keep compensating," he noted to himself. "Although I wonder where I'm going to get one."
'If it wasn't clear already, then this is probably one of the sources of the drug. The bullet doing something similar is obviously no coincidence. This might not be the top dog or the top of the food chain or whatever it is, but it's most likely a producer. Once I finish from here, my work is done,' Itsuki thought.
He looked to the other corner. People were rushing towards him, screaming.
He saw a bullet brush past his hair. His hoodie had been pulled down so that he could move his head more effectively.
"You there! Stop!"
"No."
Itsuki didn't want to go through the trouble of cutting them down individually, so he threw his wing at the ceiling, and it started slowly collapsing.
***
Alright, end of chapter. Kind of short, but I got hit with writer's block. I kind of need to outline the next chapter better.
Writing fights while not having enough time (I have four hours of free time in which I spend writing) is tough. I was not able to reach flow state like I used to before. Plus, I kind of have to re-do my outline, I went far too away from it.
I'm sorry. Also, I might redo that Hagakure chapter—I'm unhappy with it. I'll do it after we finish this. So if the chapter is gone, then… yeah.
I might be taking a day off tomorrow, I got tests and my sickness isn't getting any better, wish me well.
Power Stone Goals:
300 - 1 extra chapter
600 - 2 extra chapters.