C10: Bank Heist - Beginning
Finishing up the final test subjects and letting Ina's eating their corpse, Izuku looked down at his stained hands. The hands were smaller yet in the same condition as his previous life, had done many dirty things for survival and for personal gain. Knowing the danger and power-scaling of this world (looking respectfully at All Might), Izuku were determined to become stronger through dishonest means if he could survive. He could feel himself being empowered from the murderers' death, his level rose by 5 and the EXP Gauge stopped at 56%. Looking at the stats, those had increased by a few points with some free points, in this case 25, allowing him to allocate them and choose his future path. He kept them for now. He even got a new skill called [We Dance In The Music Of Chaos (LV.1)] that allowed him to roll two dices to determine the amount of buff he would get based on the sum of them. The 1-day cooldown really forced him to use the thing in emergency.
After checking the skill, Izuku was now very fearful that the efficiency would drop later on and he would need to commit mass genocide with his own two hands to even raise a single level or get another skill. That would be too evil if the traditional method could provide the same benefits. This had led him to growing through training and learning as the actions were inherently less detrimental to the world. However, the same could not be said for Ina. Looking back at her, Izuku knew that her path of growing would be inherently evil in all reference frame of morality. He was not confused by the situation or emotions, he knew she would face many hardships and he would be there to support her.
He asked if there had been any major changes in her. The black monster grunted, nodding her head at the boy's question. Its finger doing a flicking motion, as if shooing Izuku to stay away from her before she showed him the changes. Izuku nodded and gave the stage to Ina. She began to morphed into an egg right in the middle of the bloodbath on the ground. The egg was humongous, 3 meters tall, its shell translucent and slimy to the touch. The egg was bioluminescent, shining a sickly yellow light from the fleshy base and tentacles driving themselves deep in the floor to stabilize the thing.
Seeing that nothing else could be done for Ina, who was in a fetal position inside the murky yellow liquid, Izuku could only collect all the chairs and wiped the floor clean of bloodstains. After an arduous 6 hours from around 8 AM to 2 in the evening, Izuku managed to clean the mess, cook himself a pack of ramen for lunch and plan an attack with one of his customers toward an opponent's base. He was now chilling on the sofa, stealing glances at the egg once in a while. The movie showed on his phone was a Conan film numbered 97 ( he did not know how the producer could milk one IP to this extent) and he was watching it to the point of the dam's control board exploding when he heard a sound from the egg.
The thing busted open afterward, releasing an improved Ina with new features. A pair of sharp and thick bull horn had grown out of her edgier head. The things looked sharp and sturdy enough to skewer the pillars supporting the heavy roof on top of the two's heads. Her torso grew longer and wider, allowing her to reach a staggering 4 meters standing up straight and her tail had spitted in the middle into two smaller ones, each with more thorny protrusion and a unique organ at the end. Her arms and legs had grown more muscular and lean, and she had grew another pair of arms and hands, much smaller and closer to the chest to allow for finesse movement and tinkling with small details. Ina had to still be getting use to another pair of limbs as he could see the thing moving wildly and the joints colliding. A few minute was enough for her to grasp the finer movement as now the hands were now the same as normal human hands.
Ina seemed to have something else to say but she had to wait for the day after to transform back. To give her something to release her pent-up boredom, Izuku bought some expensive beef and threw it at her like training a dog. Her eyes clearly looked unamused with the joke but she seemed to digress at the end and eat the meat with contempt. She spent the majority of the time sleeping, only waking up to Izuku's lie to his mother that she had urgent business and wouldn't be able to stay over. Oh how smooth of a liar she had raised herself, Ina thought before drifting back to sleep.
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7 AM the day after
Ina had finally able to turn back into her naked human form. Izuku gave her a towel and the clothes she put beforehand. She was now wearing a long sleeve shirt covering her hands and reaching her knees akin to a dress and a pair of short jeans underneath. Wiping away all the acidic fluids from the egg would have been a hassel if not for Izuku pulling out a modified vacuum cleaner to ease the task. When asked where did he get the thing, he blankly stated that she was the one that had bought the thing back a few weeks ago using his account to fasten the floor sweeping process. Ina seemed to forget anything related to her past activity of purchasing items.
Ina gave Izuku a detailed description of what she got from eatimg 50 bodies. Her primary skill, the transformation one, increased to level 2, reducing the cooldown time to 18 hours. Another upgrade was the addition of the fourth sub-skill Adaptation and a fifth locked one with red underline. The fourth sub-skill allowed for increased immunity to diseases, bio-attacks, drugs and poisons. It seemed the ability forced the body to quickly develop the cure or antidote for the external factors, leaving her body clear of them. The skill raised some concern over which drugs would be death with and which would be allowed to stay. The juicy part came from the Absorbted Abilities she had gotten. The minted abilities were from the quirks of those she had devoured and with around 10% of acquiree without head and 15% with the head. She was unlucky enough to only get 5 quirks from the 50 whole bodies, a rate of 10% for each corpse on average. Her System had a function of dismatling a quirk and adding the component to another quirk to strengthen it. She had to dismantle 4 of the quirks due to their questionable usage scenario and low usefulness and upgrade the last one, a waterball creating quirk ( the water is fresh water, could be used for washing and boiled for drinking with a limit of 3 balls per hour as anything over that left her panting for dear life). The size of the liquid drop grew from a baseball to a basketball, allowing her head to be submerged in water fully.
Her Inventory seemed to come alive, its teeth and tongue out for any food. Ina found that by letting the beef cut her Inventory closing, the thing would be digested by the space and returned a part of the nutrients to Ina. " Basically you get another selective, hungry stomach without any tastebuds" Izuku whimsically said. The space seemed to endure living beings and Ina could designate which biomass the Inventory can digest, saving Ina the issue of corpse and emergency rations storage.
The Note function remain the same, keeping up with her life with the latest log had began when she exited the egg. It appeared the time in the egg had not been cataloged or written down. She paid the matter no mind.
Luckily for her, the changes mostly manifested in her Charlotte form, leaving Ina slightly grew up. Her height grew by a few inches leaving her at the same height as Izuku. The clothes would need to be lengthened but that was simple enough. She could simply explained the height change as her growing phase to her family.
" So you can randomly absorb quirk factors from bodies and use their quirks. That's a game changer for you as you will have a wider arsenal to use during a fight. You can wet the floor to give electric quirks a disadvantage or blinding them using a water ball right at their eyes, so a lot of things to do. That would require trainings..."
" But we already have training partners don't we? The villains and criminals we hunted, can we train on them. "
" Not necessarily, the secrecy of the quirk is what will bring you to victory, letting others know and develop a counter strategy is not. So if we by chance find some really evil ones, we can test on them before killing them. "
"So continued vigilante? "
" Continued vigilante"
They agreed on their future nightly activity, knowing full well the attention they could get from other forces.
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Hero Public Safety Commission (HPSC) headquarter
In a boring office room ar the highest floor, amidst the stacks of documents and booklets left on the table sat the president of the place, her callsign Director. Kaina Tsutsumi, the pro hero Lady Nagant sat opposite the woman, her face dreary and her eyes sunken. She had been called this late at night to put aside her current mission trailing a "traitor to the hero cause and image" to focus on this new one, the one detailed in the files in front of her. The Director signaled her to open them, and she did. They were about two vigilante, Mastermind and Beast. It seemed the Director was interested in the latter's quirk, a universal boost to every aspect of a human body. Their ages were still small enough for them to be sent to the Academy, the place Nagant wished she could rip apart.
" This is a top secret mission. Capture them using any means you can. Our cause needs these talents and saving them from the grip of Nezu is of utmost importance. "
Rolling her eyes in her mind at the facade the Director was weaving, Nagant could not help but be amazed at the pair as she read more into their activity. Successful interventions of local gangs and criminals groups, even stopping a trafficking system with connections to many key figures in the government and other departments (she thought the HSPC had redacted some names in the list) and hiding from the eyes of the system for over a year. The names had only been recently knew from those they managed to capture. The duo had already been engraved in Musutafu's crime history as a sort of Baba Yaga figure. They had helped more people than many heroes had and the Director wanted to train them, mold them into her lackeys for the greater good often spewed from her mouth.
" Oh and come to floor 12 room 31, we have something that will helps you. "
"Yes, do I set off now? "
" No, take your rest, tomorrow will be time. "
Lady Nagant stood up and escorted herself of the office. She quickly entered the old creaking elevator and punched in the 12th button. The thing went down, playing a meaningless, stereotypical elevator music. In that environment, Lady Nagant was thinking how to deal with the task at hand. She knew the areas they were commonly seen in, and their methods. She could foresee the sleepless nights patrolling in the dark. Her contacts with the underworld could help her out in this case. They might watch a larger area than even the HSPC.
The elevator's doors opened to the side, notifying Nagant of her arrival. She exited the thing, took a left turns and started walking.
"28, 29, 30, 31 Ah here it is"
She thought as she entered a barren room with only a table, two chairs and someone waiting for her. He signaled her to sit and began taking out a black suitcase, opening the thing and show her a 1-liter bottle of a purple fluid.
" This here is the latest version of our anesthesia drug, 1ml is enough to knock an African elephant out cold. My suggestion is to dip your bullet in the vial and then shoot. Your hair will retain enough to immobilize Beast. Mastermind can be captured using normal bullets, do not leave too much of a wound on the boy. We still need him, but not as urgent as Beast. "
The man stood up and left Nagant with the bottle. He was yawning his way out, thinking about the sleep he was finally getting after finishing up the biannually Hero License Exam. He was cursing the lack of staff for forcing him to overwork when Nagant called him, asking a question.
" Is this thing lethal? I mean can it kill? "
" Toxicity depends on the amount ... Ahhhhh ... best not use 50ml or more per dosage. "
" Thank you"
Lady Nagant turned silent, contemplating her plan. The night was ending and the preparation would need to be done as soon as possible.
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Knuckleduster, a renowned vigilante was sitting in his barren room, in his hand a phone connected to the vigilante and underground hero network app. His account consisted of his name, his area of hunting and quirk. The app required the user's outer appearance so he could only comply while whining about the lack of trust and privacy. Currently he was on a phone with his friend, the hero Eraser Head.
"Eraser, how is it on your side? Any luck finding the killers?"
A bored and tired voice answered in a monotonous tone. The owner's was a man with unkempt hair, sore eyes and a low voice.
"No, nothing. These killers just disappeared without leaving a single clues or trails behind. Nezu tried to hack into the surrounding's cameras but found that the footages had been deleted without any luck of recovering. He suspected vigilantes getting over the line. His reasoning is a sightings of two vigilantes going around in the last year. He is still cross checking for facts. "
"Ya are shit, Sherlock. On my end, I get more details from the villains themselves. The two are newcomers to the business, one male one female. They seemed quite young, at the age still sitting in classes. The boy wears black armor from head to toe, the girl only a tight bodysuit the same black. They seem to call themselves Mastermind and Beast. Mastermind is the boy, who seems to know hacking well enough to play with Nezu, and use a stun gun and string traps. Beast is the girl who is responsible for the recent rise in hospitalized villains. She has a super quirk or whatever they call her quirk. She is fast, strong, durable and knows how to throw punches around. Mastermind is more merciful, only shocking people to unconscious level and then calls the heroes. Only when it come to push will he use the string traps. They are sharp enough to cut bones, don't ask. And Beast ... she often drags the villains into the darker area of the city, breaking their bones before letting Mastermind do the calling. If not for him, the broken men would have been left to die from blunt trauma and blood loss as the bones pierced the skin. Just last month they attacked a gang meetup and most of the member were scared shitless to even sleep alone at night or going out. They keep saying "watch the shadow". "
Hearing the other side's response, Aizawa could only shake his head while rubbing his nose bridge. A pair of teenage vigilante committing unarguable cruel acts against villains was something he was not expected and loved to hear from. They were inching closer to villainy without any correction from outsiders like teachers or parents (they would likely ignore them) to chase those illegal heroic acts (he doubted that they thought their actions were evil) in such an over-the-top mannerism. He was contemplating whether to report this info to Nezu the rat when Knuckleduster spoke up.
" I have a terrible feelings about the pair and the number of disappearance cases rising. I believe the two could be behind the trend. The figure rose with their arrival. "
What Knuckleduster was referring to was a jump in missing people cases in the area, around 10 went missing per month, most were small villains belonging to different groups. That sealed the deal. Aizawa MUST talk with Nezu.
" Let me check with Nezu. He might find a lead in all of this. "
" Ok, now I must patrol the district here."
Knuckleduster shut the call before getting up, going out of his shabby apartment and starting his nightly patrol around the blocks. Aizawa could only get to Nezu's principal room and started detailing everything to him personally for privacy reasons. Listening to the whole thing, Nezu only drank his tea and used his computer before saying.
" The emergence of a genius and a powerful quirk user as vigilantes with a possible connection to missing people cases... What a troublesome situation. I will put some thoughts on Okuga's intuition as he has proved how sharp it was. About Mastermjnd, I have found his account on a villain social app. Cracking the thing's security was moderately hard. He goes by the name "A" as he orchestrated many plans throughout his tenant there. The reason I know it is him comes from the transaction history. A few kilogram worth of carbon fiber, Albertos-Fabri strings and electronic components, sounds familiar? I have contacted him for a bank heist with a small group of villain in Musutafu city as that seems to be their main area. I have arranged with the police, especially Naomasa to evacuate everyone and to drop the security level. I have also called All Might to join you. How about you two stalk the bank and wait for the young children to come? "
" Really, you are asking this sleep-deprived person to do that. I have classes at this school too, so no, please ask another person! "
Aizawa exclaimed, his tired red eyes stared at Nezu and Nezu returned the stares with his black bead eyes. It seemed Aizawa lost the battle as he sighed and left the room, taking with him the file on the table. The rat promised to trace the kids' location and not reported them to the government. He was quite interested with the boy's intelligence and the girl's quirk. Oh how wonderful if they could become heroes.
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Itadori wished he could have gone on another path in life, but now was too late. He was a quirkless person in this world, with nothing special boast of. He had been unemployed for so long, his debts were catching up to him (the debt collectors had came to his shabby apartment and had forced him to hide beneath a bridge as a homeless man. They were hounds chasing after every pieces of clue he left behind). He had thought he turned his life around by joining a crew and commit robbery. The first few times were small convenience robbing, netting only a few thousands yens per store. He was still useful them but after they employed Viona who had a visibility, his role was reduced to that of a servant, a stepping stone for others to use and discard. He had overheard the leader, Redshot, discussing killing him to remove any leads point at the group. The boss lamented that Itadori had become redundant and how his role was only befitting of a lowly quirkless. Itadori was very angry, but he could not refute the statement. What could he do that had not been done better, quicker, better by those that had suitable quirk. He could only silently live on, preying on the leftover of the top dogs while doing small crimes on his own to support himself and his hospitalized mother.
He remembered his first murder. He still shook at the memory of the cashier who he threatened with an improvised handgun. Her terrified face etched deep in his mind, reminding him of the path he had walked down. Due to the stress of the situation and seeing the cashier inching her dingers closer to the emergency button, he snapped. He fired a shot right in the poor girl's head. Her body dropped with a hard thunk onto the floor, her eyes wide open, lifeless, staring straight back at him. He had not wanted to commit murder, but then he had. Later on, he reflected, he could not look at himself in a mirror. He had read somewhere that humans naturally despise something evil. They grew an aversion to the thing, lock it away from their sight, covered its mouth with duct tape to silence its pleas into their ears and burying it to stop its smell from entering their noses.
Now he could look at the mirror, now he could look at himself. A wretched 34 years old failure in this society. He broke down in despair. Everything he had done had been for naught. His money only spent on his sick mother in the hospital bed, keeping her in pain and agony as time passed on. He could not remember the last time they had talked face to face, just that she was too tired to even stay awake after the car accident. His time and energy used to be spent on looking over his shoulders, his eyes darting around to check if a hero had come too close or not. His ears listened to the finest movement at night, alerting him to any footsteps that stopped in front of his rented apartment. He was tired and wished for an end, but the responsibilities were like strings, controlling him like a wooden puppet on this deteriorated stage called life.
Now the crew was preparing for a bank heist, the biggest one in their history. With the help from the famous "A"-san, they were ready to earn themselves a vacation in Hokkaido. His role was just a getaway driver sitting a block away and missing all the actions. He knew the position was risky from all the old films he had watched: the driver would often be killed after a successful heist in a round of negotiation for more share of the pie. He knew a target had been put onto him as he was allowed to take a drastic part. But with his future being the wager here, he must go through with the plan.
As Itadori was contemplating life, a call rang out, it was from his sister. They had not talked for over a year now. The last time had been chaotic with him being punched by her husband for him mistaking Itadori as a pervert doing something with his wife. The atmosphere later after she had explained everything had been awkward. Reminiscing about the time, Itadori answered.
" Hey brother, are you free next weekend, we are hosting a birthday party for your nieces. The twin would love to see you here with them. "
His sister invited him. Itadori checked the timetable. The heist was on Thursday, enough time to buy a gift and ready himself. He laughed to himself, at his pitiful lifeless self. It seemed he had something to look forward to this weekend.
" Are you still working for your television? I have got some hot news for you. "
Hearing the question, his sister wondered what he meant. Itadori clarified with a cheerful voice, as if to bring himself some motivation.
" A bank heist at Musutafu, the one that you have your account in. Tell your team to be stealthy and call the cops or heroes. "
Itadori ended the call, his will now flared up like an amber catching a scare whiff of pure oxygen. He had a lot to take care of, for his nieces' birthday party a present, and for a crew a parting gift.
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A week later, at night on a rooftop near Musutafu Brach of a national bank.
Ina and Izuku was closely watching the bank robbery happening in real time from the place the chose. Izuku had given them a plan to successfully steal the money in the underground vaults and get away with minimal contact with the police and heroes. He knew that an ambush was in place as the friend account "Rat-Konig" had been suspicious.
" Ah Nezu, the principal of the best hero academy in Japan and one of the tops in the wolrd. "
Izuku had thought finding out the man. The heist was a bait for the Color crew and he would win this encounter. His plan had bene updated to account for an increase in hidden police and hero force. Ina and Izuku were there to ensure that the plan was followed and if not, the misbehaved would be dealt with. As the infiltration stage was happening, Ina could hear footsteps behind them. Tapping Izuku's arms and pointing behind, the two got up to welcome the intruder. The one in front of them was no one else but Aizawa in his hero costume: unkempt hair and beard, black clothing optimized for hiding movements and tailing missions, a long scarf from memory alloy for capturing and a solid visor hising his cone of vissions, only allowing a red glint passing through the gaps. The man stood there and activated his quirk aiming at the smaller one. The boy was manageable on his own, but the girl would be too much form her records.
"Mastermind and Beast ... what a troublesome pair. "