Chapter 23 Deku: The Telekinetic Hero by sremiehzla

Stain

Edgeshot attacked the Nomu, but it was quick enough to dodge to the side. Then the beast fired some small black pellets from its mouth at the hero, who used his Quirk to zip through them. Good thing he did, since they detonated in a massive explosion behind him. Edgeshot then attacked the villain again. But this time, since he anticipated the Nomu's speed, the attack hit its mark at the neck and disabled the creature.

After he landed, Edgeshot glanced behind himself, prompting Deku's eyes to follow. The explosive pellets that the hero had dodged had blown apart the side of an apartment building, and bodies littered the flaming debris. Some were injured, but others were clearly killed upon detonation. Maybe they were near the windows to watch the hero do his job.

"... Shit..." Edgeshot sighed. "Should've been more careful."

Deku's mind was accelerating. What was a Nomu doing in Hosu? What about Tenya? He was supposed to be in Hosu, so where was he? What about the Hero Killer? If the League was here, then was he partnered with them as well? The explosion and deaths he'd just witnessed weren't helping his mind calm down.

"Deku!" Edgeshot shouted, grabbing his attention. "There was another explosion nearby, follow me!"

"Y-Yessir!"

"And calm your mind, worry about the losses later!"

"Yes sir!"

The two of them made their way to what appeared to be a battleground. Fire everywhere, heroes everywhere, civilians everywhere, and, oh yeah, two more Nomu. Deku was just processing everything when Endeavor, the last person he expected to see, came from nowhere and hit one of the Nomu with a blast of flames.

"Deku, assist the heroes with evacuating civilians!" Edgeshot instructed him. "You can help that way while I assist in dealing with the Nomus. And in case a villain does attack you, I give you full permission to defend yourself and others!"

"Okay!" he replied. Really, his mind was still moving too fast to do anything other than follow directions.

He moved to a collapsed building, where heroes were trying to remove people from underneath some rubble.

"Hey, I can help!" he called.

"Huh? Hey kid, evacuate!" one of the heroes told him. "This is an emergency, leave it to the professionals!"

Deku didn't reply, and instead began lifting the debris from on top of the injured civilians. The heroes saw, and then began moving the injured. It didn't take too long to clear everyone with his Telekinesis helping out.

"Hey kid, I knew I recognized you!" one of the heroes said after they finished. "You're that Midoriya kid who showed out at the U.A. Sports Festival!"

"Oh yeah," another hero said. "Now that you mention it!"

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm interning with Edgeshot," he quickly explained. "Isn't this kinda a bad time to talk?"

"Ah, now that you mention it..." the hero said as they all looked up at the fight that continued in front of them.

"TENYA!"

Deku's head immediately snapped to the side upon hearing his friend's name. He recognized Manual, the hero that Tenya chose to intern with, who was looking around almost frantically.

"Damn, where could he run off to at a time like this?" he asked audibly.

'Iida is gone? He's missing during such an emergency?' Deku thought. 'Where could he be? What would—'

His mind screeched to a halt at the thought of the Hero Killer. Tenya was probably hunting him down there in Hosu. If he wasn't helping out in such a time of danger to the public then he must have been held back by something pretty important, and Deku couldn't think of much else that he would prioritize.

"Damnit!" the teen cursed under his breath before sprinting up the street that Manual seemed to have come from.

The heroes called after him to ask where he was going, but they quickly had to continue working without him. Since the professionals had it handled, Deku quickly tried to focus his mind on the task at hand. He couldn't have any distractions if he was actually going to face the hero killer, although he really hoped that wasn't the case. The Nomus? League of Villains? He assumed they would be handled. All he could worry about was finding Tenya.

Alleys—he remembered that almost all of Stain's attacks took place in those. He glanced back and forth to each side of the street as he ran down, until he caught the familiar glint of Tenya's armor on his left. He ran up to the side of the dark passage between buildings and peered in. His plan was to survey the scene before jumping in, but when he saw the tall man start to plunge his sword down into his friend, he didn't hesitate to act.

He grabbed a tool from one of his pockets—a small steel ball—and fired it at top speed down the alleyway. It collided with the blade and, in spectacular fashion, broke straight through it and knocked the rest of the weapon from Stain's hand.

The villain was, expectedly, surprised by the sudden intervention, and not on guard when Deku fired another tool at him. It was a steel-wired bolas, and Deku wrapped it around the villain's arms and torso before pushing him all the way back until his back hit a trash can. Deku looked to the side and saw the pro hero Native, covered in blood and sitting against the wall.

"Are you okay Native?" he asked.

"Y-Yeah," he got out. "Kid... The kid from the sports festival? What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to save both of you."

"M-Midoriya?" Tenya asked as he squinted at his friend.

"It's Deku!" he quickly responded as he ran up to his side. "Are you okay Tenya?"

"It's... Ingenium..." he panted. "And stay out of this, it's my fight!"

"No, shut up!" Deku shouted. "You almost died! Are you alright?"

"H-His Quirk... it paralyzed me after he cut me with his sword," Ingenium said. "But I'm fine otherwise. Now just go Deku, I don't want you here! That bastard ended my brother's hero career!"

"I know!"

"Then stay out of it!"

"Ingenium, you don't understand," Deku insisted. "Would a hero go out for revenge? Fight this guy while there's a crisis going on just down the street?!"

"You can't understand," he grit his teeth.

"Listen, kid," a harsh rasp skitted past Deku's ears, emanating from the villain himself. "I don't like hurting children, so I'll give you a chance to get lost. But I need to put down these two imposters."

"I won't let you!" he said firmly as he stepped forwards.

"They say they're heroes, but they don't save people just because they want to help. They want fame and fortune, or revenge. And I'm sure neither of them go too far out of their way to help people." Stain stood up and cut through the bolas' metal wires with small blades that Deku hadn't noticed before, as he continued, "They bring a bad name to heroes, and as long as they're just allowed to do whatever it is they call 'heroic', then other heroes will also become complacent! I must pull out the weeds before they spread!"

"No!" Deku said as he took his phone out behind his back. "Whatever someone's reason for being a hero is, all heroes improve society!"

"Ehh, you're naive, brat," Stain said. "A few dedicated heroes do a lot more good than a hundred false ones. And there's only one real hero in Japan these days! All Might, who has turned down rewards and recognition many times in the past! That kind of hero, who doesn't think of themselves above other—"

"Shut up!" Deku shouted, throwing another steel ball which hit Stain in the shoulder. Part of the reason he cut the villain off was because he was starting to make sense. And that hurt him in a weird way. Also he was done sending out his location and didn't need to stall for time anymore.

"Midoriya, please, leave this place while he'll let you," Ingenium coughed. "This... This doesn't concern you!"

"It's a heroes job to butt in when it doesn't concern him!" the green haired teen snapped at his friend. Then he had a thought, and grinned slightly at the corniness of it as he pulled his hood over his head and lifted the metal respirator to his mouth. "And I told you to call me Deku!"

There he was, all heroed up and taking big, but when he looked back at Stain he was met with a wild and intimidating manic smile.

"Hehehe," he chuckled (if it could be called a chuckle) in a hoarse rasp. "That's a good line kid. Maybe you aren't so bad... But those two are, and I still have to get rid of 'em."

"You won't!" Deku said with finality. He was honestly surprised he had found his voice, let alone that it came across so strongly.

"I really don't want to hurt you if I don't have to kid," Stain said, crouching into a squat and grabbing one of the knives on his side. "But even if you're sincere, you aren't unique enough that you are the only one out there with hero potential. I can afford to sacrifice you for the greater good."

"Are you insane?!" Deku asked. "Like I'd leave them when they need help!"

"Heh... Yup, you're a good one."

Stain flung several knives at the teen hero-to-be, then started running at him at full speed. Deku caught all of the projectiles and sent them back at the killer. He knew where to send the weapons to incapacitate and not kill, thanks to his studying with Edgeshot, but the weapons never made it there. Stain knocked them all out of the air with his unbelievably quick swordsmanship and continued his lunge at the teen.

'His Quirk somehow paralyzed Iida after he got cut. Even if I don't know exactly how it works, I have to avoid getting cut by those blades!'

Deku grabbed the sword with his Quirk and tried to yank it out of Stain's hand, but the villain had an insane grip strength and got through. Deku jumped up and over Stain with help from his Telekinesis, and then a lot of stuff happened really quickly.

One of the tools in Deku's tool belt is a capture net. He was able to deploy it and spread it open really quickly with his Telekinesis, and pushed it down onto Stain. Stain, anticipating the jump that Deku had taken, had a knife hidden in his hand and had thrown it straight up. It went through the net, and stuck itself right in Deku's torso.

"AAAGH!" Deku cried as he crashed down onto the ground and clutched the handle of the knife currentlyimpaling him.

"Smart... But you lose kid."

Stain was able to cut through the net and stood up. Deku mentally berated himself for throwing a net on someone holding a fucking sword because it was a really, really stupid spur-of-the-moment idea and he was hurting and it was easy to yell at himself. He looked up at Stain, and saw that he had turned towards Ingenium again.

'NO!'

He didn't have many tools left, and what he had probably wouldn't do much other than slow Stain down. So what did he do? What was his natural knee-jerk desperate move to stop the death of his friend and the pro hero Native? Well remember the dumpster he knocked Stain into at the beginning of their confrontation? Well he picked up that entire thing and launched it at the villain's back. It would have instantly knocked him out and maybe broken his skull or back, but Stain was apparently expecting something as he quickly turned to, with his sword, cut the dumpster in half and send each half careening down either side of the alleyway. By the time Stain turned back around, Deku was standing again.

"You've got a good Quirk kid, but it's a problem," the villain said before he jumped at him once again.

Deku fired another bolas at the killer and wrapped up the hand holding the sword, then used his Telekinesis to bend the wrist back. Stain scowled and leaned back, before kicking his foot forward and driving it into Deku's chest. Deku fell back and coughed, as the wind had been knocked from his lungs, and tried to get up. But before he could, Stain firmly planted his hand on his chest then roughly removed the knife. He brought the weapon up to his mouth and licked blood off of the blade, and instantly Deku felt all strength leave him as his muscles went limp.

"I wonder if you can still use your Quirk or if that's paralyzed as well," Stain mused. "Well?"

"Ahh... Y-You... You licked my—!" Deku stuttered, still unable to move.

"Yes, and now I'll have you watch as I kill these fakes," the villain said with a sadistic smirk.

Deku's eyes widened in horror as Stain stood and walked back to his allies in heroism. "N-No, stop! Please!"

He desperately tried to call on his Quirk, but it was somehow also frozen by Stain's ability. He couldn't do anything. All he could do as Stain approached Ingenium was watch, beg, and cry for some miracle.

And then a miracle happened to drop by.

—

After another hard day of training, Ochako Uraraka had showered and changed out of her sweaty hero costume. She was on her way to the mess hall in Gunhead's agency when she remembered that she had a phone and that she hadn't checked it since she was busy. So, as she whistled a tune, she took out the phone to look at her notifications.

At first she got excited because she saw that Deku had sent a message, then she became confused as she noticed that it was just his location. Why did he send his location without any context? She sent him a quick question mark, by which time she had just made it to the mess hall.

"My God..."

Ochako looked up and saw Gunhead and his other students huddled around the TV that was on the wall.

"Hey, what's up?" she asked as she approached the group.

"There's... There are villains attacking Hosu. There's so much damage," Gunhead said.

"Eh?!" she gasped.

Ochako suddenly got a little worried. Tenya was interning there, wasn't he? What if something happened to him? It did look pretty bad on television... She decided to send him a quick text asking how he was. She didn't expect a reply, but it was just for him to see after the fact, so she knew he'd be safe.

But she had never exited the conversation with Deku, so that was on her screen when she opened her phone. And she noticed that he was in Hosu. And then she started realizing why he would send his location without any context when he was in the middle of a crisis. And then she started to have a slight mental breakdown.

What if he needed help? What if he was hurt? What if he was fighting someone, or fighting to save someone? What if he was fighting to save himself? What if he was dying?

Gunhead thankfully noticed her hyperventilating and rushed to calm her down, along with several other students. But Ochako barely registered what they were saying. All she could think about was Deku.

—

Stain recoiled as flames burst to life in front of him, leaping away from the immobile fake heroes and Deku. He looked up and scowled at another teen as he walked up, his heterochromatic hair and eyes shimmering between shadow and firelight.

"Damnit Midoriya," Shoto sighed. "You really have to give me more information during times like these. I would've come faster."

"T-Todoroki!" Deku cried as he saw his friend. "You came! Are you're using your left side!"

"You're crawling out of the walls like damn cockroaches," Stain grumbled. "I just want to end these fakes and get on with my night. Is that too much to ask?"

"Yes, it is," Shoto said sharply. He blasted ice forwards, lifting up the three paralyzed heroes onto a ramp, then fired his flames at the killer again. That also melted the ice and let the three immobile heroes slide towards him. "The pros should be here soon. I told them to come, at least."

"Shoto, don't let him cut you!" Deku said. "His Quirk paralyzes when he ingests your blood!"

"That explains all of his blades," Shoto mused. "That's fine then. I'll just keep my distance and—"

Stain threw a knife that grazed Shoto's cheek, then charged the teen. He swung his sword, but Shoto erected an ice barrier that blocked it from hitting him. A quick look up revealed that a knife was in midair, falling to collide with him.

"Damn, he must've thrown that before when I was distracted!" Shoto said as he blocked it with ice as well.

Stain appeared from behind the ice barrier and grabbed Shoto's collar. He was about to lick the blood from his cheek, but the heterochrome ignited his flames to force him back.

"Hehe, Ingenium has some good friends!" Stain said before attacking again.

"Why...?" Tenya asked as he watched his classmate ward off the killer. "Please, stop this! I've inherited Ingenium's name so... I have to do it. It has to be me..!"

"You've inherited it? That's funny!" Shoto called as he blasted another mountain of ice at Stain. "The old Ingenium never had that look on his face. I understand that you have family issues though."

"Todoroki..." Izuku strained.

"Cutting off your view of an opponent with superior speed?" Stain chuckled as he cut the ice into innumerable pieces. "That's a stupid plan!"

"I wonder about that!" Shoto retorted as he prepared to launch his flames at the killer.

But Stain had thrown two knives that stabbed into Shoto's arm and shocked him out of using his Quirk.

"Above you kid!" Native shouted as Stain dropped down towards the teen.

But then, all of the pieces of ice that Stain cut through began to glow a soft green. They all quickly moved and impacted Stain from all sides, before Deku pushed them all down to the end of the alley where he smashed it into the ground.

"I can move again!" Deku declared to his companions.

"A time limit?" Shoto asked.

"But he got you last kid, you should be the last one to get free!" Native said.

"I can think of a few explanations," Deku said. "The time limit could work differently depending on how much blood he ingests, or it could be shorter if he already has more people frozen. Or, it could rely on blood type."

"I like you kid," Stain called as he stood up. "Not only do you have a hero's drive, but you're a smart one too! It's blood type!"

"It's two on one," Shoto said. "With the two of us, we can at least hold him off until the pros get here."

"We should be able to," Deku replied.

Before they could talk anymore, Stain was already sprinting at them. Shoto blasted his fire at the villain, who leapt up onto the side of the alley before jumping forwards again. Deku had unwrapped a steel wire from around his wrist, which was connected to his glove on one end and had a metal weight on the other, and fired that up at Stain. He would've used another tool, but those would've been less effective as long as the villain had his weapons. Speaking of, Stain did attempt to slash the wire but failed since Deku could just use his Telekinesis to dodge. The weighted ball went several times around Stain's neck, wrapping it up with the wire, then Deku yanked down on it. He pulled Stain into the jet of flame, but Stain quickly cut the metal wire and jumped back out.

"Damn kids, that hurt!" he snarled.

Shoto slammed his right foot down and a large glacier erupted up at Stain. The villain, more wary of Deku's Telekinesis than before, leapt on top of the ice instead of cutting it to pieces. Then, he jumped up onto the roof of the adjacent building.

"... Where'd he go?" Deku asked after a moment of eerie silence.

"I... don't know," Shoto said.

"Please, both of you..." Ingenium said softly. "I... I have to..!"

"Ingenium!" Shoto shouted finally. "Don't look at your obstacles, they'll only distract you! Look ahead at what you want to become!"

"What I want to become..?" he asked.

Deku looked over at Ingenium for a second. But that second was all it took for Stain to recognize the opening and make his move.

"AAAAHH!" Shoto screamed as Stain's sword dug into his left shoulder.

"TODOROKI!" Deku yelled.

He used his Telekinesis to shove Stain against the wall, but not before the villain had gotten a taste of Shoto's blood. The heterochromatic teen tensed before falling flat on his face, groaning from the pain.

"GET AWAY FROM THEM!" Ingenium shouted as he shot forwards and drove his leg into Stain's face, sending the villain flying down the alley.

"Ingenium, you can move!" Deku exclaimed.

"Yes," he nodded. "And I'm sorry for my shortcomings as a hero, Deku. I was so short-sighted..."

"Damn fake," Stain grunted. "If hearts changed so easily, I wouldn't be where I am today."

"You're right," Ingenium said. "I'm not worthy of being called 'hero.' But if I stand by and let my friends get hurt because of my own mistakes, then I am as bad a friend as I am a hero. And I will have sullied not only Ingenium's name, but also that of Tensei Iida, my brother."

"You're hopeless," Stain sighed.

"Ah, no! My reciprocating engine is busted!" Ingenium exclaimed.

"What?!" Deku asked.

Stain rushed the heroes once again, and Deku looked up to make eye contact with him for a moment. Stain was desperate now. One of his swords was broken and the other was imbedded in Shoto, and his throwing knives were useless against Deku. He was desperate to take care of his mission that night, Deku could tell. So, the hero deployed another of his tools from his utility belt: caltrops! Which did absolutely nothing since Stain had steel boots. Great.

Stain jumped at them, and Deku fired his last metal ball at his face. He got him square in the forehead, which he promptly congratulated himself for, but Stain simultaneously and discreetly flung a knife at Ingenium and hit him in the chest. It went through his armor and into his flesh, causing the teen to yelp as he took a step back.

"Iida! Are you okay?!" Deku asked.

"Y-Yeah, it's not too deep," he gasped. "Watch out!"

Deku turned and stopped the knife that Stain had thrown, before dropping it on the ground.

"This way!" they heard a voice shout from outside the alley.

"I... told them to come," Shoto groaned.

"You damn kids," Stain said, glaring daggers directly at Deku. "I'll get those two!"

Stain quickly turned and jumped up to escape the alleyway, but Deku took out his last bolas and fired it at the villain. It bound his arms before pulling him down to the ground, where he shouted from the impact of his head on the hard floor. Then he went limp.

"Did... you just beat the hero killer?" Native asked. "Holy sh-crap!" (he self-censored since he was around kids, but at that point it shouldn't have been too necessary)

Pretty soon, the heroes had confiscated all of Stain's blades and tied him up. At this point, the other pro heroes found them in the alley and they all regrouped out in the street. It wasn't long before Edgeshot and Endeavor appeared as well, having taken care of the Nomu.

"You took down the hero killer?" Endeavor asked, somewhat taken aback.

"Really? Nice job kid!" Edgeshot praised Deku.

"Ah, well it was nothing," he blushed.

"Midori-ah, I mean Deku," Ingenium sighed, "it was more than nothing. You saved my life. You too, Shoto."

"Well all three of you saved mine," Native scratched his neck and laughed. "Which is pretty embarrassing since I'm supposed to be the professional here."

"But are you sure it's the real hero killer?" Endeavor asked as he approached the villain. "After all the trouble he caused, I doubt he could be taken down so easily."

"Easily?" Shoto asked, arching his eyebrows.

"Someone of such experience being taken down by mere children, I meant," he said.

"They did better than you would," Stain hissed suddenly as he cut his restraints with a hidden blade then shoved it up at Endeavor's throat.

"WATCH OUT!" Edgeshot yelled as he condensed his body and shot up into action.

He reached the blade before it hit Eandeavor's throat, cutting it in half, but he wasn't able to fully stop it. The broken blade cut through the front of the number 2 hero's throat, sending a spray of blood out before he clasped his hand over it and collapsed.

"He was the worst of them," Stain announced as all present hesitated to act. "This society is full of criminals, as well as scum like him who capitalize on the foolishness of the public... They are all targets of my purge! All of you... ALL OF YOU are fakes! The only way to reach a cleaner society... Yes, one of us must be stained with blood in order to clean the rest of society! I'll be stained with ALL OF YOURS! You can't kill me! Try it! The only one who I'd let kill me is a true hero, like ALL MIGHT!"

Endeavor tried to speak, but he was only able to grunt. That was enough to snap Shoto out of his shock at the events transpiring in front of him.

"NO!" he shouted as he fired a jet of flame which completely engulfed Stain.

The burnt body collapsed, parts of his clothes still flaming and his hair smoldering. Endeavor then began screaming, getting everyone's attention instantly.

"Endeavor, are you okay?!" Edgeshot asked.

"I'm fine," he grunted, rubbing his neck. "Just had to cauterize the wound."

True enough, he had burnt his own throat to close the slice put into it by the villain. It was scarred, definitely, but he would live.

"That's so metal," an unnamed hero said.