36 Illusion

"Hello there Mayeda!" Oni greeted as he strode through the door. "Wonderful night tonight, isn't it?"

"Oni." Mayeda grunted from where he was leaning up against the counter, head propped up on one hand. "Thank you for using the door properly this time."

"Why of course, Mayeda! I'm nothing if not an upstanding, model citizen. I'm not going to disrespect someone's property like that. What kind of person do you take me for?"

"A vigilante that could tear this city to the ground if he really wanted to, and who knows that there's basically no one who can stop you." The man muttered.

Mayeda took a deep breath, before pushing himself up off of the counter. "Whatever. As it turns out, you've got some pretty good timing. That special order of yours came in last night."

"I had a feeling it'd be ready soon." Oni said. "I would've come by to check last night, but yesterday was my day off."

Mayeda huffed as he started walking away. "Since when do you take days off? What could be important enough for a demon like you to take a break from terrorizing criminals?"

"For your sake Mayeda, let's hope you never find out. Because if you did, I would not hesitate to start removing body parts."

The man just grunted in response, stopping at the door that led to wherever he stored everything.

"It's through here." He said, gesturing with his head. "It's too heavy for me to carry it."

"Oh~?" Oni said as he moved to follow. "Now doesn't that sound interesting."

The door led to a room maybe twice the size of the shop, filled to the brim with neatly stacked boxes of every size. Mayeda walked to the only one in the room that seemed out of place, set carelessly right next to another door that, presumably, led outside.

"Y'know. I'm really tempted to charge you extra for this." He said, groaning slightly as he knelt down in front of it. "If for no other reason than because I'm pretty sure I pulled something just trying to pick it up."

Oni grinned. He was starting to like this weapon already.

"That heavy, huh? Just what did your supplier do?"

"Fuck if I know." Mayeda replied as he pulled out a key to unlock the box. "All I know is that they were really excited to work on it. Not sure if they're a fan of yours, or if they were just excited about the prospect of making a weapon and not having to worry about the weight at all, but they went all out with it. They all but guaranteed that you've never used anything sharper or stronger than this, and said that you shouldn't even have to worry about damaging it. Ever."

Oni was getting more and more excited with every word he was hearing. He was itching to get his hands on it.

"Sounds exciting." He said, flexing his fingers. "Let's see if what they said holds up, shall we?"

"Have at it." Mayeda said, standing back up and stepping out of the way. Oni immediately stepped closer to take a look.

The kusarigama was pitch black, with a shiny, metallic sheen. It had gold inlayed into the handle. From where Oni was standing, it looked like an incredibly detailed design of thorns wrapping around the handle, all the way down its length.

The handle itself looked to be about the length of his forearm, from his elbow to his knuckles. The blade was just a bit shorter than that, curving out to one side. He couldn't tell how long the chain was, as it was coiled up in the box, only that it was far longer than any traditional kusarigama. The weight on the end of the chain took the form of a skull of some kind. A traditional Oni, if he was correct.

Oni smiled as he knelt down. It was beautiful. He didn't have much experience at all when it came to weapons, and even less with making weapons, but even he could tell that this particular weapon was a work of art.

He reached out, taking the main piece and the coiled-up chain in one hand and the weight in the other. He went to pick it up, only to stop, eyes wide, when he couldn't manage it. Oni, of all people, wasn't strong enough to pick it up. He only had one strength quirk active at the moment, but still. Everything he learned about this new weapon only further excited him.

Additional strength surged through his limbs as he pulled on a few more quirks, and with each one the strain on his arms lessened, until he was able to pick it up.

Standing up, he looked down at the weapon, smiling in absolute delight as his arms trembled ever so slightly from the effort of holding it. He could fix that of course – he had more strength quirks to spare – but it wasn't often at all that he needed to strain himself to do anything, he was fine with enjoying the novelty for a few seconds.

He shifted his grip from the weight to the chain it was attached to, before letting the weight drop to the floor. It landed with a dull thud, and a few tiny cracks spiderwebbed from the point of impact.

"Oh well this is just fantastic."

Mayeda grimaced, clearly not pleased about the damage to his floor.

"They had a lot of freedom in the material they used. Because this particular group has a specific set of quirks that lets them handle pretty much any material they want, and because they didn't have to worry about weight." He said. "They used grade five titanium alloy for most of it, and then the main piece and the weight have osmium cores."

"Now, normally that alone wouldn't make it nearly as heavy as it is. But one of the quirks they have access to lets them play around with stuff like the density of the material used, and from what they told me, they pushed that farther than they ever have with this one."

Oni hefted the weapon up, admiring the gold design going down the handle.

"Well, please convey my compliments to the chef." Oni said. "Because this is no longer a weapon to be used with skill and precision, but a tool of destruction."

"That's not even the best part." Mayeda continued. "When I said that they were excited to work on this, I mean they were really excited. They added a particular feature that most people would pay an arm and a leg for, assuming they even learned about it in the first place, for free."

"Oh~? There's more?"

"Yep. Take your gloves off and use your quirk, those claws of yours."

Oni complied, shifting the kusarigama around in his grip to pull his gloves off, dropping them to the floor, and then undoing the buttons on his sleeves. Then, keeping a close eye on the weapon, he pulled on his claw quirk.

His eyes widened once more as the weapon began to change. Starting where his hand gripped the handle, it transformed, taking on a scaled appearance down its length. The blade lengthened, becoming more jagged, and a sizeable spike appeared, emerging from the handle in the opposite direction. Down the chain, each link was sprouting spikes of their own, almost like thorns.

On the opposite end of the weapon, where his other hand held the chain just above the weight, the same change was taking effect. When it reached the weight, it actually increased in size, the skull design becoming sharper and more jagged.

"You're joking…" Oni whispered, taking in the weapon's new appearance. "This thing can manifest quirks?"

"Yep. Thanks to one of their quirks. It's not something they advertise very openly, but the few people that learn about it end up paying a small fortune for just a single weapon. Well, usually. Like I said, for whatever reason they aren't charging you for this particular addition."

Oni was already running the possibilities through his head. How many of his quirks might be compatible with something like this? If something like his claw quirk, a transformation, could manifest, then he would think that any elemental, or any other quirk with a similar effect, such as 'Air Cannon' should certainly be possible.

Deciding to test that theory, he pulled on his newest fire quirk, the flaming head one that he acquired on the same night he found Tamako. He felt heat bloom across his head as the flame burst into existence.

Immediately, the weapon in his hands underwent another change. Glowing lines appeared along the material, originating from where his hands were gripping it, taking the appearance of glowing cracks, and smoldering like embers. Small flames danced along the length of the blade as the change reached it, and the skull weight on the other end of the chain took on a similar appearance, with flames pouring from within.

Oni let out a small laugh. "I am going to have so much fun with this."

Mayeda just stared at the now-flaming weapon, looking far more exhausted than he already had.

"Y'know what? I don't even want to know why you're suddenly on fire." He said, turning to walk back the way they came. "Come back to the main room when you're done playing with that so you can pay the final balance."

Oni didn't react, instead just continuing to stare down at the kusarigama, mind racing with the possibilities.

"Oh yes. This is going to be so much fun."

---

"What do you think, Tamako? You ready to have some fun?" Oni asked as he walked towards what looked to be an abandoned restaurant. The windows were all boarded up, and everything was covered in a fair amount of graffiti.

"Ready when you are." They replied, practically radiating excitement. Oni could almost feel them smiling.

Rei hadn't adjusted her sleep schedule back after the festival, so it was just Oni and Tamako tonight. It wasn't an issue though. It wasn't like it was his first time going out without her watching over him, and he wasn't even leaving Musutafu tonight. Besides, with Tamako accompanying him, he still had someone watching his back.

Oni smiled in return. "Then let's get things started, shall we?"

His target for the night was some new group that had popped up in his city out of nowhere. From what he'd gathered so far, it seemed as though they were getting into dealing Trigger.

The reason he was jumping on this new group so quickly after their appearance, aside from the fact that they were introducing another source of Trigger to the Musutafu underground, was that they didn't seem to be associated with any preexisting group.

It was fairly uncommon for a group to have no ties whatsoever with anyone else. Most of them were either associated with, or offshoots of, another. So to see one sprout up out of nowhere raised a few red flags.

There was, of course, a chance that it was indeed completely new and not associated with anyone. Just a couple of entrepreneurial criminals looking to band together to achieve more than they could alone. But it was just as likely that this was someone from another city looking to expand their operations into his.

Though it wasn't as if it mattered much either way. Whichever one it was, he would crush them just the same. He would make them realize that it was a mistake to try that in his city.

Flexing his hands, he pulled his brand new kusarigama from its place in 'Hotbar.' This time, he also pulled on enough strength quirks to make it next to weightless in his hands. With them, he also picked out a few more quirks.

Once more, his claws flashed across his hands, and flames burst to life across his head and his horns. As the quirks were pulled into place, the same changes took hold of the weapon in his hands. Oni wasn't satisfied with just that though. With this new toy of his, tonight was a night to do a bit of exploring with his quirks.

Pulling on another of his newest, 'Steam', also from the night he found Tamako, had steam rising from his arms and his weapon alike. Surprisingly, it didn't have any effect on the fire that was dancing along the blade or pouring from the weight.

Following the same pattern, he pulled on the bladed earring quirk as well, 'Threaded Lobes.' With it active, he felt a pulling sensation at his ears, followed by a weight settling on his shoulders and hanging down in front of him. A quick flex of the newly activated quirk had the bladed appendages floating up and wrapping loosely around his neck like a scarf. Watching the weapon for changes revealed that this particular quirk didn't yield any. It was a tad disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. It was a mutation-type quirk after all, one that added something entirely new to the body.

His electricity quirk, 'Taser', came next, sending arcs of energy sparking across the metal.

Deciding that-that was enough for the moment, he stepped forward, loosening his grip on the chain as he did. Letting the weight drop just a bit, he started to spin it.

As it began to pick up speed, the terrifying momentum behind the weight causing it to sing through the air, the fire that poured from the skull motif traced a circle in the dark.

With the weight picking up speed, the anticipation for the fight ahead of him causing his heart to do the same, he pulled on one last quirk.

As 'Air Cannon' settled into place, the little bit of wind that was being kicked up from the spinning weight exploded into a full-blown gale.

Oni's grin stretched wider. "Time for a party!"

He took a step forward, planting his foot. Raising the spinning chain up over his head, he threw it forwards, letting the weight fly. It crashed into a wall – because why on Earth would he aim for a door when he could create a new entrance wherever he wished? – creating a rather sizeable hole.

Oni stepped closer to his new entrance, tightening his grip on his kusarigama. He spoke to Tamako as he stepped into the hole.

'Alright, when we get started, go off and do your best to cause as much chaos-.'

He blinked, and all of a sudden he was surrounded by light and noise.

'-as… you… can.'

'…What?'

Looking around him, he didn't see the ruined interior of an abandoned restaurant, trashed beyond all recognition. Instead, he saw a brightly lit, perfectly maintained – as if it was all brand-new – establishment.

More than that, there were people here. They filled the tables and booths, eating and chatting away without any care in the world for the masked vigilante that just burst through the wall, or that it was just after two in the morning for that matter.

Oni tilted his head, looking around at everything. He could see the people, could clearly make out their facial features, their clothing, and the food they were eating. He could hear the cacophony of noise that one would expect a restaurant to be filled with, from the clinking of utensils to the snippets of conversations, and even the harsh sizzling of the kitchen somewhere in the distance.

"What?" Oni asked again, out loud this time.

He and Rei had looked into this place not too long ago, and it was definitely a condemned building. It's appearance from the outside certainly matched up to that.

Looking over at a window, he saw that there was light pouring through it. Just on the other side was a bright, sunny day. Glancing back at the hole he'd made with his entry showed an almost pitch-black night.

Oni shook his head. Not only was it dark outside, but every window had been boarded up when he was outside, not to mention that there hadn't been any cars anywhere near the building.

'An illusion?' He wondered. 'Tamako, are you seeing this too?'

"I am." They responded. "But… this isn't… This doesn't seem right."

'It isn't. Something is definitely going on.'

He stepped closer to one of the booths, storing away his kusarigama and reaching a hand out towards one of the people that had yet to react to him. Before he could get within a foot of them though, they moved.

Where just moments before the seemingly normal man had been chatting away with the woman that sat across from him, now his face displayed pure anger, and the fork he held was darting towards Oni's outstretched hand.

Frowning, Oni reacted instantly, grabbing at the wayward utensil.

Only for a piercing pain to explode from his neck.

He doubled over immediately, grasping for the foreign object that he could feel was lodged in his neck, even as he started coughing up the blood that he could feel pouring into his throat.

"Izuku!"

'Yep. Definitely a fucking illusion.'

Feeling around, Oni finally found the handle of what was no doubt a knife, yanking it free a moment later. He coughed up the last bit of blood as he felt his skin stitch itself back together.

Glancing down at his hand, he couldn't see the offending knife, despite the fact that he could very clearly feel it in his grip.

'Total control of the senses.' He thought. 'That's what I'm dealing with. Making me see, hear, and smell this fake restaurant. But…'

His grip tightened on the knife.

'They either can't, or aren't, controlling my sense of touch.'

He could feel the knife in his grip, despite the fact that he couldn't see it. He could feel the blood on his skin and soaking through his shirt. Obviously, he'd been able to feel the moment it was stabbed into him. He was able to perceive, through touch, things that his opponents didn't want him to. Things that they were obviously capable of hiding from him in every other way.

And now that he was paying more attention to it, he noticed that 'Proximity' wasn't reacting to the 'people' around him, which made sense as they were all illusions.

Oni felt the handle of the knife deform in his hand as he tightened his grip around it, smirking as he looked around at the seemingly lively space.

"Whoever you are," Oni announced, "whatever you're here to do, you really should've finished me off with that one hit. Because now…"

His smirk widened, and he dialed up his bloodlust with it. He pulled his claw quirk back, exposing his hands.

"Now you won't have that chance again."

Oni took a deep breath, shutting his eyes, they weren't doing him much good right now anyway. All he had was his sense of touch, but so long as he had that, he could push through. He also pulled 'Proximity' back into his chest. If he wanted to, he could use that quirk as a second pair of eyes, but he was far too excited for that now. This situation, where he was getting tested by fighting enemies that he couldn't perceive in any meaningful way, was getting his heart pumping. It was for that same reason that he didn't pull on 'Metallum' to make himself next to impervious to whatever they might come at him with.

Moving forward, he had two options for how he could deal with this situation. The easier, and certainly quicker method would be to simply unleash a massive explosion of air with 'Air Cannon.' As he was right now, it wouldn't take much effort to simply knock the building down, which would more than likely incapacitate the criminals, including the one that created the illusion. The second, more entertaining option would be to slowly and methodically break free from the illusion, by breaking one criminal at a time until he found the correct one.

'Go.' He thought. 'There are definitely people here. See if you can jump to them. If you can, try to cause as much chaos as possible.'

"You'll be alright?"

'Of course. In fact, I think this'll be quite fun.'

Tamako vanished from his head without another word.

'Now.' Oni thought. 'Who's going to be the one to try first?'

He did his best to let everything around him, everything that he knew was an illusion, fade away to nothingness, focusing only on the sensation of air against his skin. There wasn't much he could do to ignore the smell of food all around him, but with each passing second, the sounds faded away, until there was nothing but his heartbeat pounding away

Several long moments passed like this, until for the briefest of seconds, he felt something in the air change, somewhere to his right. His hand darted out at the exact same moment that he felt a knife slip between his ribs.

Ignoring the pain that exploded from his side, he grabbed at where his instincts were guiding him to, grinning when he felt an arm in his grip. As soon as he felt that, he tore their quirk from them, despite not having the faintest idea what it might be.

For good measure, he also tightened his grip, his smile widening as he felt bones break and the pieces grind against one another just beneath the skin. It was almost too bad that the illusion was blocking out his hearing, without it, he couldn't enjoy the screaming.

"Anyone else?" He asked, spreading his arms out. "Come now. We've only just begun! Let's keep this party go-."

Before he could finish speaking, the same instinctual feeling that warned him last time flared up again. Oni jerked his head to the side just in time for something sharp to fly past his face, slicing into his cheek.

"Really?" He asked, licking at the little bit of blood that dripped down his face before his healing quirk healed the wound. "Was that a throwing knife? You don't even have the decency to attack me in a way that'll allow me to catch you and then break whatever I can get my hands on? How rude."

Getting a feeling in his gut that another knife would quickly be following the first, Oni made use of 'Threaded Lobes.' At his command, the chains lifted into the air, stretching out and looping around to loosely encircle his head and neck. They looped around enough to ensure that a knife wouldn't be able to make it through. He wasn't currently using his eyes anyway, so it didn't matter if he couldn't see.

As he expected, he felt another knife coming a moment later. It planted itself in his shoulder, bringing with it another source of piercing pain.

"Oh wow. That one felt pretty good. Maybe you should toss a few more my way and see if that does any better."

As he spoke, he poured a bit of focus into the steam quirk, feeling pressure build up in his arms. The knife in his shoulder, along with the one in his side, were slowly pushed out of him at the same time as the healing quirk worked.

As if waiting for his permission, he felt more knives flying at him. Several of them.

Oni's smile widened further, even as the knives started hitting him. With each attack he felt coming, through the disturbances in the air and his instincts, the feeling came sooner and sooner. It was improving as he fought, with each attack he took.

Eventually, he'd taken enough knives, and felt them coming, to get an idea of where they were being thrown from, and at the same time the pressure building in his arms reached its peak.

One hand darted out to catch a knife, while his other arm thrust towards where he thought the criminal was and released the pent-up steam. It exploded out of him, tearing through the air.

Suddenly, just as Oni was contemplating how to go about finding the next one – assuming he was even successful in hitting that one with his steam – everything around him shifted.

The smells of the restaurant vanished, along with the sounds, pushed to the back of his mind as they were. They were replaced by more than one ear-splitting scream and, beyond that, the sounds of a struggle. Through his closed eyes, Oni saw the bright light that surrounded him fade away to darkness.

Opening his eyes, and pulling the chains around his head back to their proper place, Oni took in the new scene around him.

The first thing he noticed was the criminal lying on the ground next to him, screaming his head off as he cradled his mangled arm. A quick exertion of 'Conqueror' silenced him. Next was the other criminal that was screaming at the top of her lungs, hands holding her face. Tilting his head, Oni could see where her exposed skin was covered in burns. Next to her were a few scattered throwing knives, oh-so-helpfully identifying her as the one that had filled him with knives.

Rolling his shoulders, a number of the offending knives that had found a new home in his torso clattered to the floor. Raising a hand, another shockwave from 'Conqueror' silenced her as well.

Which brought him to the next interesting sight.

Two criminals seemed to be fighting one another. One had his hands wrapped around the other's throat, while said other criminal tried to dislodge him. Oni noticed that the one that was being strangled had trails of colorful light coming from his fingers, tracing through the air.

Now, Oni could very well be mistaken, but seeing those trails of light gave him the impression of an illusion quirk.

One way or another, he smiled at the sight of the two criminals struggling against one another, recognizing the reason for it immediately.

'Fucking superb, you chaotic little conscience.'

Directing his attention to the only other criminal that was still standing, Oni surged towards them, clamping his hand over their mouth and lifting them into the air. Smiling at the fear in their eyes, and about to throw them through one of the boarded-up windows, Oni froze when something caught his attention.

On the face that was currently in his grip, just above his thumb, was a tiny triangular tattoo.

He scowled. The Triad.

Following through with what he was about to do, Oni threw the criminal off to the side, straight through the wood that covered the broken window, probably using more force than was strictly necessary. With them out of the way, he directed his attention towards the still-ongoing struggle.

Scowl still in place, Oni made his way over to them. "Come back." He announced as he moved. Almost immediately, Tamako returned to his place in Oni's head.

'Sorry about that.' Oni said. 'But I need the one with the illusion quirk to remain conscious.'

"Is everything okay?"

'That remains to be seen. We'll know in a few minutes.'

Darting forward, Oni planted a foot on the chest of the criminal that Tamako had been controlling, kicking them into the nearest wall. Before turning and latching a hand onto the remaining one's throat. He lifted the man up into the air, enjoying the way his feet kicked helplessly beneath him

"You." He said, pouring as much venom into his voice as possible. "Triad. Here's how this is going to work. I'm going to ask you questions, and you're going to answer them. Are we clear?"

The criminal didn't respond, choosing instead to simply stare Oni down.

"Just in case it wasn't explicitly clear," Oni said, giving the man's throat a warning squeeze, "that was a question. And this isn't a request. You will answer my questions."

"Fuck you!" They growled. "I'm not afraid of you! They kill people like me for saying anything!"

Oni shook his head. "First, the fact that you feel the need to say that at all implies that you actually are afraid of me on some level. And second, I think you'll find that I'm far worse than whoever you think would kill you. Because while they may end up doing that, I'm not nearly so nice."

"No. I won't kill you. I'll simply make you wish you were dead."

With that, he tore the man's quirk from him, as slowly as he possibly could. As expected, the man unleashed an earsplitting, throat-rending scream, thrashing in Oni's grip all the while.

It only lasted a few short seconds, but for the criminal, it no doubt must've seemed like hours, and when he spoke again, his voice was already hoarse.

"Fuck you." He said, much quieter than the first time around.

Oni let out a low laugh. "You seem to be under the impression that I can't keep doing this for as long as it takes. If you really want to, we can keep at this all night."

The man gulped, but remained silent.

"Well, if you insist."

Oni picked the man's quirk out from where it had settled in his chest, forcing it back into him. Just as he had before, he screamed with the action, fighting against Oni's hold on him. This time, Oni didn't let up until the quirk was safely back in his chest once more.

"Alright, alright!" The criminal shouted before Oni could even say anything, holding his hands up. "This was meant to be a trap for you. Someone's noticed you poking around and disrupting our work, so they set this up to try to deal with you."

"There." He said. "I told you. Now can you please let me go?"

"Oh you poor fool. We're nowhere even close to being done. I haven't even asked you any questions yet, what I did to you just now was nothing but a demonstration of why you should feel motivated to answer my questions. What you told me just now, while helpful, was of your own volition."

His smile widened, going even more sadistic as bloodlust practically poured from him.

"We've only just begun."

---

Oni sighed, dropping the throwing knife criminal, having taken an interesting narrow-focus telekinesis quirk from them.

'Well, that was fun.' He thought. 'At least until I found out who I was fighting.'

'Actually.' Oni thought, realizing something. 'How did you manage to get that criminal to attack the other one? That was fun to see.'

"He made it easy for me." Tamako responded. "He was already scared shitless because you showed up, and then because you were taking so many hits like they were nothing. All I had to do was give them the idea that it was their leader's fault that he was in that situation, that it was the leader's fault that he was at risk."

'Impressive.' He thought. 'That was a smart move. Good job.'

Tamako practically glowed at his praise, his very being humming in delight as Oni ran a metaphorical hand over the quirks in his chest.

Stepping back through the hole he'd created, he called the police to inform them of the mess that they needed to come clean up, launching himself into the air the moment he hung up. He flew some distance from the dilapidated building, coming to a stop on top of a tower.

Touching down, Oni set about pulling back some of the quirks he'd activated. The steam quirk, 'Taser', 'Threaded Lobes', 'Hothead', and 'Air Cannon' all settling back into place.

As he stood on the rooftop, he pulled on the illusion quirk he'd just taken a few times in quick succession. He was quite interested in how it functioned. Illusion quirks already had the potential to be exceptionally powerful, and were pretty closely regulated when they popped up, but one that could control so much could be extremely useful to him. In fact, if this particular quirk could affect the target's sense of touch at all, then it would be in contention for a spot as one of his most powerful quirks.

For now though, he'd have to start with just learning how to use it. He'd studied enough illusion quirks to know how they typically functioned. Most of them might vary in how the illusion is applied, whether that be through mental control, inhaled chemicals, or direct application of the illusion to the world around the target, as this one seemed to be, but he had yet to see one that didn't share the same method of creating the illusion to begin with.

Before the user could apply the illusion through their method of choice, they first needed to create a mental 'image' of the illusion, to then be carried out through the quirk.

The previous user of the quirk Izuku now held, for example, would've had to hold a scene of a restaurant in his head in order for Oni to see it. That meant that he would've had to imagine all the different appearances, sounds, and smells simultaneously.

Oni would save stuff like that for later. For now, he would stick with something simple.

Focusing on the newly acquired quirk, he pictured an image of grass in his head. As soon as the image was 'complete', light spilled out from his fingertips, pouring out across the rooftop. It spread out in every direction for several feet, but for some reason, it wouldn't take any shape.

"Huh. Color me impressed, random insignificant criminal number who-even-cares-any-more, you actually had some proficiency with a fairly complex quirk. Were you not a pathetic waste of space, I would almost be tempted to hold some small amount of respect for you."

Focusing a bit harder on the quirk, Oni gave it another try, watching more light spill out across the rooftop.

---

After a little while of practicing with it, Oni actually managed to use the quirk to create a rough approximation of grass across the roof. Nothing that would hold up to a close inspection, but something that almost looked good enough from where he was sitting. With a thought, he even added to the illusion by adding the smell of freshly cut grass to the air around him.

He admired the sight, and the complexity of the quirk that created it. He idly wondered if he could add the illusion of a bright, sunny day, or what it would even take to do something like that in the first place.

Oni was pulled from his musing by his phone buzzing in his pocket. A glance at the number that was calling him had him smirking. The illusion around him faded away as he raised the phone to his ear.

"Tsukauchi!" He called. "To what do I owe the pleasure of you actually calling me?"

A sigh. "Look, Oni, I wouldn't be calling you if I had any other option, alright?"

"Sure, sure. What seems to be the problem, officer?"

He could practically feel the man's exhaustion over the phone.

"We've got some villains, proper villains, not just some random idiots that're too full of themself, causing issues. They're holed up in a concert hall, a full one. Turned it into a massive hostage situation."

Oni got a bit more serious upon hearing that. "I assume they're making demands? Otherwise, I assume we'd be having a different conversation right now."

"Of course they are, but nothing that we can give them. At least not without time. Time that they aren't giving us. They want everything within half an hour or they said they'll start killing people. And it would take us at least until morning to get them what they want."

"Now, normally, our go-to would be to pretend to get them what they want while we send Eraser or someone else to either secure the hostages or take the villains down, but Eraser is at least an hour away, and no one else can respond quick enough. Not to mention there are far too many civilians in the way to make either of our normal methods viable."

"Which is where I come in, I assume?" Oni asked, already standing back up.

"Unfortunately."

Another sigh. "Look. My superiors are gonna be on my ass for calling a vigilante of all people to help deal with this, but I've got no other options and this guy is telling the truth about killing people if he doesn't get what he wants. So, as much as I hate having to ask this, can I count on you to take care of this?"

Oni cracked his neck. "How many people and how many villains?"

"Nine villains." Came the response. "And it was a fairly small event. Maybe two hundred civilians, and some of them got away when the villains made themselves known."

"That's a lot of people to keep track of." Oni said. "You're absolutely sure that it's nine villains? If I get there expecting to be going against that many, and it turns out to be more when the fighting starts, then that could turn the situation in a deadly direction."

"Everything we've seen shows confirms that. And I'm fully aware of the risks, which is one of the reasons I'm calling you. Your chances of adapting to the situation and dealing with anything unforeseen are much greater than anyone else I can currently think of. Also, we're not too sure what quirks most of them have, but the leader seems to have a fairly powerful fire quirk."

"Alright." Oni said. "Send me the location. I'll handle it."

"Sending it now. And please hurry. Our thirty minutes runs out in about ten."

This time, it was Oni's turn to sigh. "Then maybe call me first next time."

Hanging up, he smirked, checking the message that came in from Tsukauchi at that same moment.

'You ready for your first hostage situation, Tamako?'

"Ready when you are. What's the plan?"

'Save the hostages, defeat the villains, probably break some bones while we're at it.'

"Hmm. Simple. I like it."

Oni crouched, pulling on the rest of his strength and speed quirks that had been lying in wait. Time was of the essence. He couldn't really afford to waste time or slack off for the sake of entertainment with this.

His smirk took on a darker edge to it. "Then let's get going."

But that didn't mean that he couldn't still enjoy what was about to happen.

He launched into the air with a deafening boom.

---

Jirou cursed her shitty luck as she tried to make herself as unnoticeable as possible where she was huddled on the floor with some of the other concertgoers. Of course the first concert she had a chance to go to in months just had to be interrupted by villains. With this, and with the way that the trip to the USJ had turned out, she'd be lucky if her parents agreed to let her go anywhere else until after she graduated.

Glancing at the time displayed on her phone, she dry swallowed. Because of her quirk, she'd heard the conversation between the villain and the police detective on the phone. She'd heard him threaten to start killing people if he didn't get what he wanted within thirty minutes, and that was about twenty-three minutes ago.

She swallowed again, wiping her sweaty palms on her pants and doing her best to harden her resolve.

If nothing happened by the time the twenty-nine-minute mark came around, she would do something. She wouldn't just sit around while the villains started killing people. She couldn't. Least of all because she was one of the people that would be killed.

She was a student at Yueii, for shit's sake. Illegal or not, she'd do her best to stop them.

Jirou glanced down at her phone again. Twenty-four minutes. Six to go, five until she would make her move.

Suddenly, her enhanced hearing picked up a new sound. One that wasn't the nervous breathing of the other hostages around her, or the anxious, irritated mumbling of the villains, or the cacophony of noise that came from just outside the concert hall, no doubt from the countless police officers and heroes that probably surrounded the building.

No, this new sound was a faint whistling, and it came from… above?

She glanced upwards, into the night sky above the open roof of the concert hall. The whistling, it almost sounded familiar.

Out of nowhere, it hit her. The time or two that she'd seen All Might fall out of the sky, there had been a sound like that just before he did.

She felt a bit of hope spark through her. Was All Might coming to save them?

The whistling grew louder with each passing second, to the point that it was a wonder that the people around her didn't hear it.

Then the stage exploded.

Or maybe it'd be more accurate to say that it shattered? It was a cement stage, not unlike the ring that had been in the sports festival arena, constructed by Cementoss to go along with the coliseum-like appearance of the rest of the concert hall.

Either way, whoever had landed – as she couldn't see them just yet – had done so with so much force that she could hear the stage crack beneath them. Everyone seemed to be holding a collective breath as they waited for the dust to clear. The lead villain stared the dust cloud down, his throat glowing as he readied his quirk.

When the dust finally did clear, it didn't reveal All Might, as she had been expecting and hoping. Actually, seeing them, she wasn't quite sure whether to be disappointed or excited.

Disappointed because it wasn't All Might, or excited because despite that, she actually recognized who they were.

The newcomer wasn't even a hero, they were a vigilante. A vigilante by the name of Oni.

A few years ago, Jirou had gone through a phase where she was obsessed with vigilantes. The concept fascinated her, that there were people out there that wanted to help so much that they broke the law to do so. She'd wanted to learn everything she could about them.

Oni was one such vigilante she studied. An endeavor made much easier by the fact that Oni barely did anything to hide what he did. Most vigilantes, at least in Jirou's experience, attempted to stay discreet, hiding their movements and their fights, keeping as much as they could in the shadows. Oni did none of that. There were numerous videos of him showing up, ruthlessly tearing criminals apart, then disappearing again.

Seeing the expression on his face as the dust fully cleared, Jirou felt a shiver run down her back, and knew with absolute certainty that this outcome was almost better than if All Might himself had shown up. With her research, she was familiar with how Oni handled the criminals he fought. He was ruthless, borderline cruel, seemed to take a great amount of enjoyment in terrorizing them, and more often than not sent them to the hospital with the severity of the injuries he gave them

Her fear from moments ago all but forgotten, she raised her phone to record him.

"Hello hello, useless piles of garbage!" He greeted. "I do hope I'm not interrupting anything important."

"Oni!" The lead villain shouted. "What the hell do you want? What are you doing here?"

Oni tilted his head in apparent confusion, his face morphing into an expression that screamed 'are you stupid?'.

"You didn't seriously just ask that, did you? You're a villain, starting shit in my city. You've taken some two hundred-odd people hostage and you're making unreasonable demands to the police. Do you think I'm here for any other reason than to break your legs?"

He took a step forward, and despite the fact that Jiro wasn't anywhere close to him, he seemed to grow many times over just with that one small movement.

"Stop!" The villain shouted, holding a hand out. "Don't come any closer, or we'll start attacking the hostages!"

Terrified exclamations rippled through the crowd at those words, but Oni barely even reacted, just smiling at the villain.

"Oh will you now? And who exactly is 'we'?"

He seemed to flicker out of existence for a fraction of a second. When he reappeared, he had a person held in each hand, holding them both up in the air by their necks.

"Could it be these two, perhaps? Or maybe-"

He dropped them, flickering once more and reappearing with two more.

"-these two?"

"Or these?"

"Or how about them?"

Every time he spoke, it was with a different pair of villains held in his hands. The last two were thrown at the leader's feet when he reappeared.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Oni said, not looking the slightest bit apologetic. "Was that all of your allies? Whatever will you do now?"

The villain's only response was to take a deep breath, his throat glowing white-hot. With a shout that almost sounded like an animalistic roar, he released the fire that had built up.

Or at least he tried to.

All that came out was a tiny plume of fire as Oni appeared next to the villain and punched him in the throat. He doubled over, grasping at his throat and coughing out smoke and fire. Oni didn't give him any time to recover though, appearing behind him and planting a foot on his back, launching him, only to reappear again in his path and stick an arm out to clothesline him.

Without pausing, Oni raised a foot up before bringing it down on the villain's leg with a very audible 'snap'. Jiro noticed a number of people cringe at the noise, just as the man started screaming. Almost immediately, Oni was crouched next to him, latching a hand around the villain's mouth and slamming his head down onto the stage, silencing him.

He stood, brushing his hands together, glancing at the fallen villains, before looking up at all the hostages. When he did, his hands went up a bit, as if in confusion.

"Well?" He asked, apparently addressing all of them. "The fuck are you all still doing here?"

He made a shooing gesture with his hands. "Go. Get out of here. Be free. Go do whatever it is you do when you aren't being held hostage."

Everyone took that as their cue to get up and run all at once, screaming as they did so. Jirou stayed for as long as she could to watch Oni, before the crowds pushed her along with them towards the nearest exit.

---

"Oni why are you covered in blood?"

"Oh, don't worry about all of that, Detective." Oni said in response. "It's not related to this. I just got stabbed a few times earlier tonight. That's all."

Tsukauchi sighed, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. "You're going to give me a damn aneurysm one day Oni, I swear to God."

He shook his head. "Whatever. Maybe some other night. For now, thank you, Oni, for taking care of this. I really do appreciate you saving these people."

"Of course, Tsukauchi. I'm happy to help."

Oni turned to walk away from him, wings shifting on his back in preparation. "But just in case you're not aware, you owe me a favor now. And you'd better remember it, because I certainly will."

He heard one final sigh from Tsukauchi, one that seemed to convey all the regret of not just simply staying in bed instead of going into work, before he spread his wings and launched himself into the air with a laugh.

"Have fun cleaning this mess up!" He called down below him as he flew away.