Chapter Text
Duck. Sweep the three in front. "The only one here with a strength Quirk, not stronger than me but I need him out of commission now." Axe kick one on the head. Touch the other two to taze them. 14 down, 16 to go. The smoke from her earlier grenade was starting to disappear.
She turned to the green blur jumping between opponents and mowing through Pokemon and people alike beside her. "To your right!" Razor jumped up, narrowly avoiding a Rhydon's Smack down. "Behind you! Dual Wingbeat!"
Usually, Dual Wingbeat should be executed from... well, his wings. But he would never be a basic bitch like that- therefore, tapping into his Technician ability, Razor the Scyther flipped mid-air, immediately slashing with his scythes and sending out two blades of raging wind to cut at the Toxicroak headed for him.
Razor landed from his backflip on the ground (She knew he will never admit that the really cool pose he landed in was from a manga.) and immediately rushed into a high-speed Close Combat towards some poor Crawdaunt. To the overgrown lobster's credit, the guy at least tried to cancel out the momentum with an Aqua Jet. Didn't stop both the lobster and the frog from falling into a growing pile of KO'd Pokemon. The Eviolite hanging around his neck shined as part of the damage he took was absorbed into it.
Before she could warn him, Razor dodged the Rock Blast aimed at his back, before turning around and retaliating with a Close Combat against the Rhydon he had ignored. The intangible constructs of Swords Dance circled around him as he prepared to attack his stunned opponent once again.
"Showoff." The trainer scoffed as she chopped a grunt on the back of the neck. "Armor Quirk, doesn't protect joints." She muttered as she punched him in the gut, throwing him into two of his comrades, "Too skinny to have any strength Quirks between them, Armor guy should keep them stuck until they pass out." before kneeing a second one, "Electricity absorption, big problem for my taser gauntlets." in her stomach before throwing her at the guy with the electricity Quirk. "The absorption is a passive, probably needs to target it away from her teammate consciously, so both are now effectively out of the game. Plus, I hit the electricity guy in the head."
This Trigger bust... was honestly kind of boring. Every single Villain here was a low-tier grunt. She had already cleared out a warehouse and was somehow almost finished with this one in 2 minutes. Dabi and Blink were probably done with the other two as well. She sighed as she threw down another smoke grenade at a grunt's face, both knocking him out and renewing the smoke. At least these grunts could have valuable information, considering just who they worked for.
She paused. Her thermal vision showed only one person. "Wait, shit. I wasted that one." She facepalmed. "There's only one dumbass in the smoke. Fuck."
"Wha- what the fuck!?" The final remaining grunt yelled. "How!? There were 30 of us and only one of you!! All of us had three or more Pokemon! How did you and that fucking insect win!?"
The air stilled. The grunt realized just who he had pissed off as Razor threw a grunt missing his wrist at the guy's feet. The quivering man looked up at the Pokemon he had just called an 'insect' and fell to his knees as he saw the Scyther had a scar running through its right eye, leading to a missing horn.
A normal Scyther would've been bad enough. But no, this wasn't any ordinary one.
This was the monster known to the underground as simply 'The East Wind'.
And that meant the Vigilante- no, the demon that just beat his men to a pulp was...
"Skill issue." The Revolutionary Vigilante: Pyromaniac said in a bored tone as she grabbed an incoming Mightyena's snout and threw the rabid dog right at her flying companion- Who proceeded to swiftly strike it down in one hit. "Also, I don't take kindly to fucktards like you insulting what's mine. Razor, you have free reign. Try not to kill him." With that lackadaisical line, she doomed the poor guy to his fate of being an angry flying mantis's personal punching bag.
"W- Wait- STOP NO-" He was effectively silenced as Razor kicked the guy up into the air, "That's a shattered ribcage." Pyromaniac whistled as Razor sent a single Wingbeat to slam him into the concrete wall of the compound.
Razor flew down, rapidly regenerating health through Roost and fell into step alongside his trainer. "Scy! Scyther!" He seemed quite proud of his handiwork. He preened as his trainer scratched the back of his head.
The grunt stilled as he saw Pyromaniac's boots walk into his field of vision. He looked up slightly. To his horror, he saw the demon reach inside her coat and pull out a claw hammer. "Hm. You're still conscious. Makes my job easier actually." She squatted down to the man's level. "Look up." The grunt obeyed, but not before considering banging his head on the floor to spare her the trouble of knocking him out.
Green eyes, filled with nothing but cold, calculated fury burned into his soul. He could not see the rest of her face, covered by the voice modulating mask as it was. He could catch a few almost black locks of hair poking out of the hood covering her hair. Her intimidating visage was made worse by the fucking demon bug from the 7th circle of hell staring at him while brandishing its scythes. He gulped as the vigilante tapped the hammer on his fingertips. "Give me everything you have about the Shie Hassaikai. I will know if you lie."
"You wanna call it a night? It's like, 4 AM. We got the info we needed and stopped a major drug ring. Sounds like a productive enough night, no?" His trainer asked. Razor just yawned.
"Alright. We'll just be on the lookout on the way home. You wanna get in the ball or do you want to get some flying exercise in?" In response, the mantis simply flapped its wings and rushed away into the sky. Once high enough so the Vigilante couldn't jump and catch him, he stuck his tongue out and started flying overhead in circles.
"Scy~ther Scy~ther Scy~ther!"
Pyromaniac's eyes narrowed behind her mask. "Fucking asshole. One day I'll finish that jetpack just you wait... What is he even saying?"
Suddenly, the Heavy Ball resting on her utility pouch wiggled aggressively. She looked down. "Shit. I'm sorry you didn't see any action tonight buddy. You wouldn't have enjoyed beating up those fodders anyways. I didn't even need to pull out my knives, claws or fire gloves the whole fight."
The wiggling stopped. And without warning the voice of the ball's dweller ran through her head. "You are correct. 37.6 seconds of sweeping inferior opponents with feeble combat prowess is hardly more satisfying than chilling in this personalized living quarter. I was simply letting you know that the troublemaker just declared that 'Pyromaniac is a bitchless hoe with mommy issues.' I do not see any problems with this statement."
Pyromaniac's jaw dropped. "I do not have mommy issues!" The vigilante whined into the sky.
"Blatant falsehood." There was a pause as the Vigilante processed the sheer disrespect in that statement. Before she could say anything, the voice continued. "He has amended his previous statement." She let out a sigh of relief. "Pyromaniac has a mommy kin-"
Her jaw dropped again. "Okay shut the fuck up this is not what I meant by practicing the first amendment guys c'mon- wait." Her eyes narrowed. "How do you two know what a mommy kink is?"
Dead silence. Absolutely no response. For a Psychic Pokemon that had learnt how to speak the human language just because he wanted to talk more, he sure knew how to practice the fifth amendment when needed.
"Banned. Both of you are banned from using my laptop oh my god-"
Her conversation was interrupted as a rough voice cut through the air. "Oi, brat!" She turned to her right and saw Dabi walking towards her. The Blueflame Vigilante gave her a mock salute. "The other two warehouses are done. You gonna call it a night?" His Ceruledge, Blink, manifested out of his shadow and sent out a moving Bitter Blade towards her, which she easily dodged. "Hello to you too, Blink."
She pulled out a poffin from her pouch, "Here, have this." and threw it directly at Blink. The blade spirit successfully caught it in its mouth. On chewing it, the Pokemon lit up in happiness. "Yeah, you like the sweet ones, right?" The Pokemon nodded, busy chewing the poffin.
"Weren't those meant for Razor?" The psychic voice invaded her head again.
'Yeah, but he's busy being a little shit so, fair game.'
"At this point Blink is gonna start liking you more than me." Dabi muttered.
"Not my fault you can't cook for shit." She retorted. "As for you earlier question, yeah. Same time and place tomorrow?"
"Yeah, I don't have anything better to do." Dabi paused, before leaning in. "Did any of those fuckers spill anything about the eight piles of horseshit?"
Pyromaniac snorted. "Nope. But I did get the name of the guy they were selling all this Trigger to. Do you know anyone by the name of Masuda Soichiro?"
Dabi hummed. He looked at where Razor and Blink were having a stare down. "Yeah. That's the guy who used to fund the CRC. You want me to look into him?"
Pyromaniac blinked. "Funding...? So, he's at least some level of rich. If the Shie Hassaikai allies with him then we'll have a major problem." She scratched her head for a second. "Try to find his current areas of interest. Mark every single place he has visited and every person of interest that has met him in the last month. I'll try to dig something up from his CRC days."
Dabi turned back towards her and opened his mouth, but before he could voice his agreement, a metallic clang rang out on the field.
"Ceru."
"Scy."
Both trainers turned to the side and saw both of their Pokemon's right blade-arms locked against each other. The two Pokemon nodded once, before Razor flew back into the sky and Blink retreated into Dabi's shadow.
They both stared in silence, until Dabi broke it. "Was... was that their version of a perfect dap up?" He asked.
"Yeah, they do this every time. Anyways," Pyromaniac pointed her arm at the rooftop fence of nearby building, took a look at her watch, then pulled the trigger on her grappling gun. "How fast can you run?" With that, the madwoman was off without even getting an answer.
As he saw her land with not even a flinch on said rooftop, Dabi remained confused. 'Really random question... and she didn't even wait for the answer. What?'
His confusion was promptly dispelled by the sound of incoming sirens.
His legs immediately started moving at record speed. "AT LEAST WARN ME YOU CALLED THE POLICE YOU BITCH!!" He then saw his shadow running away from him. "BLINK GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE DON'T JUST LEAVE ME BEHIND!" The shadow started moving faster. "BLINK, YOU FUCKING TRAITOR!"
She was in a field. No- not a field. She remembered this place. The mountain biome of the Pokemon lab on I-Island.
In the corner of her vision, she saw blond spiky hair... rapidly moving towards a nest.
Fuck. She has been here before. Please, not this dream again. The night had already been tiring enough.
The scene started playing out, the same as it did back then. Words slipped out of her mouth unbidden, her mind unable to do anything but watch (why was she stuck here again!?).
"Kacchan! Don't go there!" Please stop.
Red. Blood Red eyes that stared at her with hatred anger. "Shut up! Stupid Deku, you think I can't handle it!? You think I'm weak!?"
"N- No-" But you're a fucking 8-year-old about to invade the nest of a dragon.
"THEN STOP YOUR WHINING AND BE USEFUL FOR ONCE!! C'MON, FOLLOW ME! This is MY chance to get a strong Pokemon, and I'm not letting you stop me!"
.
.
.
Fire. Fire was circling around them. The heat should've done them in already, but somehow the two children were still conscious and standing against the humongous dragon in front of them.
"Kacchan! Kacchan move!!" She could hear someone scream. Was it her? Was it someone else? She didn't know. All she knew that Kacchan was frozen right in front of that dragon. The Pokemon that was about to swing her massive claw to skewer Kacchan. (She knew the mother was nearby- she warned him-)
She felt herself move. Her body worked faster than her mind. She saw Kacchan's terrified face right below her, before claws pierced through her (tiny, tiny- this is the past, she cannot do anything- she's stuck-) stomach.
And as she was lifted into the air and slammed down (She remembered the sound of bones crunching and shattering-), the world turned to pain.
"AAAAAAHHH!!"
Midoriya Izumi clutched at her stomach as she shot out of bed. She could hear distant screaming.
'Wait no, that's me.' She scrambled out of bed and towards the door. Before she could touch the doorknob, pain exploded in her stomach and her legs gave out under her.
The pain intensified and all she could do was writhe on the floor in agony.
'I- I'm waking everyone up in the house- God, I'm patheti- IT HURTS! PLEASE - AGH- SOMEONE MAKE IT STOP!! MAKE IT STOP!'
Her torso arched off the floor as tears filled her eyes. 'Fucking useless! Crying on the floor and burdening everyone with your existence! What kind of hero are you gonna be if you can't handle even handle imaginary pain!?'
'Why does it feel so real then!? it's been 10 years! why do I keep waking up like this!?'
Before Izumi could degrade herself further and descend into a panic attack, Midoriya Inko burst through her daughter's bedroom door.
"Baby!?? What happened. Did someone break in- Oh my god." Her mom was looking at her, eyes full of panic and grief as she kneeled down to her level. Izumi could only continue crying as her hand was held. "It's gonna be alright... Shh... Mom is here. It's gonna be okay."
She couldn't see! All she could do was whimper and grip the hand tighter. All she could feel was her mom's hand being crushed in her grip and the floor beneath her. All she could hear was her mother's whispering. "You're safe, Izumi. It's alright. I am here." The whispers continued as the pain in her stomach and face dulled.
As her vision focused and she could see something else other than fire surrounding her and green grass stained red by the blood of her 7-year-old body, her grip loosened, and she heard her mom letting go with a hiss of pain. Her eyes landed on her mother's hand. The hand that was bruised purple and looked deformed.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry for hurting you- I'm sorry-" She cried. 'I'm sorry for being a Deku...'
"Nonsense! It's okay Izumi. I know you would never hurt me on purpose." That didn't quite convince Izumi as she saw her Mom trying to hide that hand. Her mother continued to smile warmly at her, not a hint of pain on her face.
'I- I've hurt her so much that... She can't even register it...? Every time... Every time she holds my hand, I hurt her...'
For a second, her mind flashed back to the blond boy who used to hold her hand as they frolicked through the forests of Musutafu.
(Red eyes looked at her bedridden form. Guilty. Apologetic.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU LISTEN TO ME!? WHY ARE YOU COMING HERE NOW!?" She had yelled. "GO AWAY!! I HATE YOU!!" She had declared. Never for a second meaning those ugly, ugly words. But the damage was done.
Because those ruby red eyes never looked at her again.)
She couldn't bear to look at her mother anymore. She turned her head to look at the Snorlax plushie sitting on her bed.
"Why- why do I keep hurting everyone I love...?" She muttered, far too lowly for anyone to hear.
Her mother somehow picked her up from the floor in a bridal carry, even with her broken hand. 'Hatterene is gonna be so mad with mom for exacerbating an injury like that...'
Really, it was quite fortunate that her mom had a Pokemon with Heal Pulse just... chilling in the house. Maybe- maybe that was why she didn't think twice before holding the hand of someone who kept hurting her without fail...?
Or maybe it was just because her mother loved her enough to face any pain as long as she could help her daughter- but- but why? Why did she still love a worthless Deku like her? Izumi couldn't understand.
She looked at her clock as she was carried out of the room. 5:04 AM. A whole 34 minutes of sleep. She could work with that.
Izumi sat on the roof, her legs dangling off the ledge as she rested her back on the fence she had climbed over.
The breeze on the roof of her apartment was quite refreshing. Almost let her forget the absolutely abysmal start to her day and the events that followed. Keyword being almost.
The image of Gliscor trying to hand her mom a fucking Toxic Orb thinking everyone had Poison Heal as their ability was too memorable to forget this quickly in her honest opinion. (It really helped take her mind off the fact that she hurt one of the only people who cared about her again.)
Really, the scorpion-bat had been with Inko since he was an egg, logically he should've figured this out by now. But apparently not.
Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard the almost imperceptible sound of sharp wings cutting through the air.
"Did I wake you up, Razor?" She looked back at the Scyther that landed behind her. "I'm sorry. You can go back to sleep. We both had a long night. You need the rest."
Of course, she knew that he would not obey her in this instance, but honestly it was worth a try. The mantis landed next to her on the ledge and sat down.
"Alright, but I better see you sound asleep when I get back from school." She muttered as she started scratching him on the spot of his missing horn.
Instead of leaning into the touch like he always did, Razor started shaking his head.
"Huh? What do you mean, no? You need the sleep, Razor. You can't drink coffee." She frowned. Razor simply raised up one of his arms and pointed towards...
Her fingers abruptly stopped moving. "Hell no! You're not coming with me to that hellhole! You know you can't go to Aldera High with me, Razor. They will make up some bullshit and try to get me in trouble."
And it was true. She did have a permit for holding up to 6 Pokemon. The exam was pretty easy, just a 3v6 battle against a Pro Hero Gym Leader's single badge team. She got that permit when she was 10. (She ignored the fact that going up against 6 Gym Pokemon, regardless of badge level, with just 3 of your own was extremely hard for any sane person.)
(Her mom had been very proud of her- even though the Gym Leader she beat was herself. Which, what the fuck, her mom never told her she was a retired Pro Hero. (Possibly Underground, considering that even after the reveal her mother just told her to figure out which one she was. So far, she has had no luck on that front.) Maybe that's why she was so efficient in beating her ass in the name of training.)
Regardless, Aldera was a shithole, and the staff would absolutely throw a fit over her having a Pokemon outside their Pokeball. After all, they didn't even want to give her a starter. Something that was legally required for every middle school!
Razor opened his mouth for the first time that morning and, to her surprise, held out his Net Ball.
Izumi groaned. "Absolutely not. I know you hate being in your Pokeball. I am not putting you through something you hate for 6 hours just because you don't want to sleep."
Razor slumped down and started sulking like a kid. Like he hadn't beaten up more than 90 Pokemon just last night and wasn't saying he didn't need sleep after that. (She ignored the fact that he was doing exactly what she does on a daily basis.)
Of course, Izumi couldn't stand looking at him in that state. She sighed. "Alright."
Razor lit up, delighted that his blatant emotional manipulation had worked. "But!" He wilted a tiny bit. "You're not staying in your Pokeball." Razor tilted his head. "Just hang out with the birds or something man. Fly around. Be free. I'll whistle if I ever need you, not that I will at school of all things."
Razor thought over those terms. After a few seconds, he nodded.
"...And don't pick a fight with random people on the street." And there he went, sulking again. This time, she just laughed and shoved him. "C'mon man you can't keep picking fights just because you're bored, show some tact!"
Izumi resolutely looked away from her mother's bandaged hand as she worked on breakfast. Instead, she initiated a stare down with the snake sitting in front of her coffee.
"Snakespeare. Do not." She narrowed her eyes as the rowdy Servine continued to slowly lean towards the cup while maintaining eye contact. "I will set Quad on you, do not test me." That name got her to back off with a mild Glare shot her way. A glare that did absolutely nothing. Honestly, the fact that her glare couldn't phase Izumi was probably the reason the bratty Pokemon even listened to her most days.
That and the fact that she was a massive tsundere who would never admit to actually respecting someone, much less Izumi. Honestly, it was a miracle that she openly respected (or in this case, started running away from) someone who spent half the day sitting in his Heavy Ball and the other half ruining Izumi's digital footprint browsing the internet using her laptop.
Well maybe that one was because Quad was the equivalent of a veteran Vigilante who unfortunately took an interest in your sorry ass and hunted you for sport in the name of training.
Understandable, to be honest.
If she were hunted for sport by a madman built like a Greek God and clad in a black face mask and green trench coat in the name of combat training, she would try to run away on sight too, however unsuccessful the endeavor would end up being. (This was 100% a hypothetical scenario and definitely not something she actually did. Definitely.)
"Alright, breakfast is done!" Inko's voice rang out throughout the apartment as she started setting up plates for both Izumi and the Pokemon who could actually eat human food. Except Razor, he much preferred hunting in the morning to keep his aggressive tendencies at bay for the rest of the day.
Immediately, Izumi picked up her coffee cup and got the hell out of dodge as her mother's Gliscor rushed through the space she had been standing in previously. Said Gliscor was forcefully stopped from crashing into the wall by an unidentified Psychic. The user, her mom's Reuniclus, hopped on the air as she slowly approached her own seat.
Gliscor pouted as he was deposited on a chair. "Cor! Glis! Gliscor!" The scorpion-bat screeched angrily.
Now, Reuniclus was gentle when depositing Gliscor onto a chair. She was not nearly as gentle when she threw him straight out the window.
"Reuni!" Her mom cried out. "Bring him back! You need to stop throwing him out the window!"
Taking a page out of the other two Psychics living in the house, the multiplying Pokemon transmitted her thoughts to everyone in the room. "He called me an expired packet of Jello." And ethereal and distinctly female voice rang out throughout everyone's heads.
Her mother facepalmed. "You cannot throw him out of the window every time he insults you!"
"I can. I have. I will. You cannot stop me, mother." The blob replied, maintaining eye contact.
Inko sighed at her oldest partner's response. "Just- just bring him back." She begged.
"No need." Reuniclus said, before a loud smack was heard. Everyone turned to the source of the noise, which turned out to be Gliscor plastered on a different, closed window. "There he is."
After helping the scorpion-bat get inside, Inko narrowed her eyes as she looked around the room. She then turned to Izumi. "Have you seen Hatterene?" She asked.
Izumi thought for a bit, before snapping her fingers as she remembered. "I'm pretty sure I saw her riding on Quad when he headed into the forest. Quad was talking about some ruin he found yesterday. Maybe they went there?"
Her mom frowned, concerned. "Those two should at least warn me when they're going out. They know I worry for them."
Izumi snorted. Her mother raised an eyebrow. "What's so funny?" She asked.
She hid her smile with a fist. "Nothing. I'm sure they'll be just fine. Can you serve breakfast now please? I'm starving."
'Her concern for those two is pretty funny.' Izumi mused as she stirred her cereal. 'Oh well, Mom doesn't need to know that Quad would just wipe out four city blocks of the forest if he ever got into any actual danger.'