CHAPTER 34: MERCY

Three weeks had passed since Allmight was forced to flee the country with Torino and Bakugou in company. The Prime Minister had to call off the search when Midoriya and his organization failed to find him. That didn't worry Izuku much, who knew that the former hero wasn't a threat anymore and was sure that wherever he was he would stay hidden for the rest of his days. He would still keep his eyes and ears open though. The only one of those three that would make any noise was Katsuki Bakugou and he'd deal with him when he inevitably did.

Society resumed, without the hero Allmight. A few people were broken up about it, but mostly people were grateful that someone like Izuku Midoriya was taking charge of the heroes and holding them accountable for their actions and behavior. In a strange way he had become a new symbol. A symbol of fairness and balance.

Izuku had also started talks about a potential new hero program that he wished to eventually implement. The program involved giving quirkless kids who truly wished to be heroes a chance to try. The program would teach them hand to hand combat, strategy, investigative science, digital science and various other hero related skills. The program would also implement new technology that would help the quirkless operate on the same level as those with quirks. For those that lacked talent in these areas but still had the passion and drive to be a true hero Izuku himself would grant them a compatible quirk using the power of the soul stone.

This would all take quite some time to go into effect. Probably a year at most. The program could only start if all the hero schools were on board and more than half the senate were on the same page. Sadly most of the schools were being stubborn and rejected this proposal. U.A was surprisingly in support of this proposition, most likely Nezu was agreeing out of his fear of Midoriya, but it was still progress in the gauntlet wielder's eyes.

Sir Nighteye got back to work investigating the Shie Hassaikai. He had to continue business as usual as to not arouse suspicion. He was however keeping tabs on everything that Midoriya was publically working towards. Mirio kept working Nighteye, but also started to learn about politics in effort to find some sort of loop hole that could potentially take away Midoriya's influence over the government. Sadly he wasn't finding much luck in that route as Izuku's authority was air tight and absolute.

It was around this time when the dust finally settled that Midoriya started getting messages delivered to him at the city based H.R.D office. People and families making important requests that left him feeling uneasy, but he still went ahead and replied. Now here he was paying a visit to the first request he received.

'This is the place.' Izuku looked out the window of his limousine as the vehicle came to a stop. There stood an average looking house, not rundown, but not fancy looking either. He opened the door and walked out. Izuku didn't bring any Titan's with him this time, as he would rather keep this a private affair and not draw attention to this little meeting.

Glancing towards the sky green eyes spotted a figure with metallic wings hovering high up above him. Originally he was to come to this house alone, but Uraraka insisted on following him, eager to get some more field practice with her wings. Giving her a wave and a smile that signaled for the girl to go patrol the area, Izuku steeled himself and walked up to the door. Ringing the bell he waited a bit until a middle aged woman opened the door.

"Hello. Director Midoriya" The woman greeted politely.

"Good day mam." Izuku nodded.

"Thank you for coming, please come inside." She held the door open for him to enter. Izuku walked inside taking a look around at the home as he did.

"I apologize that it took so long for your message to get to me. My department is still new and the offices are rather swamped lately with reports and calls." Izuku kept a neutral demeanor.

"Can you help my son?" The woman cut right to the chase.

"I can." He told her honestly. "However I hope you understand what you're requesting me to do. Your son will be quirkless."

"Yes I know that and we discussed it together." She sighed sadly. "We've seen that quirkless people are being treated better lately thanks to you, so it won't be as awful as a life as some might think."

'Really.' Izuku face remained skeptical despite the truth to her words. He just couldn't understand why anyone would rather be quirkless.

"He's twenty five years old and has been confined to a bed and wheelchair ever since his quirk manifested at the age of four. Please. This isn't a way someone should live." The woman practically begged him to help her son.

"Can I see him? I would like to speak with him privately about this." She nodded and led him to her son's room before leaving for the kitchen. Izuku slowly opened the door, not prepared at all for the distorted mess of a human body that laid upon the bed.

OUTSIDE

Uraraka hovered around the city keeping a close distance to Izuku's location. She knew why he was here and she knew why he was uncomfortable with what the family was requesting. Her scouter suddenly detected a level thirty active quirk in her vicinity.

"Hey! Nice day for a flight isn't it!" Uraraka turned to see a hero hovering in the air a few yards away from her. The hero like her also had wings but his were granted to him by his quirk.

"You're Hawkes." She stated. This was a surprise. One of the top ranked heroes was approaching her. Uraraka should have been star struck, but with everything that happened with Allmight she was now warry of any hero that tried to talk to her.

"So what brings you to the sky?" Hawkes asked in a carefree tone.

"Just keeping watch and getting practice in." Uraraka answered quickly, keeping her distance. Hawkes noticed this.

"Hey relax. I'm not here to cause trouble." The winged hero tried to ease her. "You know what your boss will do to me if I caused trouble for him."

"What's that supposed to mean?" The browned haired girl looked at him funny.

"I think you know what I mean." Hawkes returned her look with his own. Ochako was really getting tired of some of these heroes speaking out against Izuku. Ever since he exposed the former heroes Mt. Lady and Uwabami on live television, the opposition against him had decreased significantly. However there were still some who condemned his actions and behavior.

"Is it because he's quirkless or a former villain?" She asked.

"Excuse me?" Hawkes seemed taken aback by the question.

"I just want to know your reasons for disliking Director Midoriya. It's usually out of bigotry like some of the off handed remarks that Detnerat was saying." She still couldn't believe the nerve of that company. The executives making mocking comments publically about being quirkless. When Izuku found out he just dismissed it, claiming to have heard every insult his whole life. However she could see the small amount of hurt reflected in his eyes.

"Look I've never had nothing against quirkless people." Hawkes told her honestly. "If they want to get stronger and become heroes, then good for them." He was one of the heroes who publically supported Midoriya's new program after all.

"Then just what is terrible about Izuku Midoriya trying to change society?" Ochako asked indignantly.

"It's fear." The winged hero finally told her. "I and others are afraid, not just of what he's done, but of what he can possibly do. All that power in Midoriya's possession and we've already seen what he's willing to do to achieve his goals. Who wouldn't be afraid?"

"Maybe you wouldn't be so afraid if you just got to know him and understood why he's doing this in the first place." Ochako argued. "Midoriya is actually a very kind person who cares a lot about our world and only wants what's best for everyone."

"I'm sure he is." Hawkes still sounded skeptical, but he had his orders. "Still though there may come a time where he'll have to make a hard sacrifice to get what he wants and I just hope for your sake you're not on the chopping block when that time comes. Have a nice day." And with that the winged hero flew off, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

'As if he could understand.' Uraraka dismissed his words as nonsense. As far as she knew Izuku didn't sacrifice close comrades and friends. That was something he would never do. Rather than continue to think about this she decided to return to the house. Izuku had to be finished by now. Landing gracefully next to the limousine she spotted the green haired boy in the car and he appeared to be having an argument over the phone.

"Look I don't give a damn what their insurance says." Uraraka opened the door to catch the tail end of the conversation. "He's going to get his physical therapy fully paid for and that is the end of it." He practically yelled into the phone before hanging up. "Sorry you had to hear that." Izuku had already noticed her reappearance.

"Did you take that man's quirk?" Ochako asked quietly.

"Yes." He replied without looking at her.

"Did you give him a different one to replace it?"

"I offered him one, but he turned it down." Izuku finally turned to look at her. "Apparently he doesn't much like quirks, which I could understand, after so many years of being handicapped because of his own. He told me that he'd rather be quirkless." He said dejectedly.

"It was for the best though. The guy couldn't even walk or function in society thanks to his quirk." She tried to assure him. "What was it called?"

"Origami." Izuku's eyes turned to the soul stone in the palm of his gauntlet. "I'll hold on to it, but it doesn't have any practically application. Like I said it's more of a handicap than an actual quirk."

"You did the right thing." Uraraka knew how uncomfortable he was with robbing the quirk of someone who didn't deserve it. He always thought of it as a punishment for villains who misused their quirks and corrupt heroes underserving of their fame and power. "Think of it as an act of mercy."

"I'll try to remember that." Izuku sighed. "I'm going for a drive for the rest of the day to clear my head. I'd like to be alone." Ochako nodded getting the message.

"My parents live a few miles from here. I think I'll pay them a visit." She spoke in a cheery tone hoping that might lift his spirits. She also made a mental note to have his schedule cleared for the rest of the day.

"Tell them I said hello." Izuku despite his melancholy smiled a bit. He'd spoken with them before. When he hired their company to construct the city based office building for his department. The gauntlet wielder liked them. They were good honest people. A rare trait in this world. Izuku watched her fly off before ordering the driver to take him through the city with no specific destination in mind. Maybe he'd see something interesting to take his mind off the fact that he just made an innocent person quirkless.

DOWNTOWN-LATER

Kirishima grimaced as he continued to chase down the criminal that just shot Amajiki Senpai. He finally cornered the guy in a back alley. It was here the guy distracted him with a sob story long enough to inject himself with a drug that amplified his quirk a hundred fold. He went from generating small razor blades no bigger than box cutters from his skin to shooting out countless tentacle like blades with such rapid force they appeared almost instant.

'Dammit!' The red head nearly collapsed to his knees having to put his quirk into overdrive to defend against this relentless power. It was times was like this that he used to wonder what Bakugou would do. The spikey blonde used to be his shining example of what a manly hero should be. That was until Eijiro learned the truth about him. He didn't hate Bakugou, but he was disappointed that the explosive boy wasn't who he thought he was. In the end Katsuki was gone, he ran off with Allmight and were both now enemies of the state.

First Uraraka was unjustly expelled and joined up with Midoriya's cause. Then Todoroki and Iida dropped out of U.A to work for him too. Class 1 A was now down four students. A fact that their rival class 1 B liked to mock them for. Well mostly Monoma taunted them about it and got chopped in the back of the neck for running his mouth.

It got Kirishima thinking about Midoriya and what he stood for. At first he thought the guy was just another unmanly manipulative villain like all the rest. He fought him first hand at the junk yard with his friends and had seen how dangerous he was up close. However Kirishima started to take a look at everything Midoriya was doing for society.

Midoriya implemented new changes to the hero profession in how they operate and behave. He created new technology, robots who defended innocent civilians at all cost. The only scary part about Midoriya was what he does to people that oppose him. Anyone who stood against him was crushed and humiliated. Made sense that he'd do that. From what he learned about his history with Bakugou, he suffered through similar humiliation and oppression his whole life.

Midoriya was a weird mix of good and bad things. It honestly confused Kirishima to the point that he didn't know what he thought about him anymore. Some of the things he was saying made sense though. Like when Midoriya talked about how students need to think long and hard about what kind of hero they want to be in the future. The red head took that advice and thought about the kind of hero he wanted to be. Did he want to be nothing more than a façade like Allmight, or a hero that picked on others to make himself feel stronger like Bakugou?

As the villain kept trying to impale him with his quirk Kirishima realized that he wanted to be an unbreakable hero that never fell or faltered. Someone that wasn't just hiding who they really were inside with a fake surface. Someone that protected others and didn't harm the innocent.

"HAHHH!" The red head screamed as he pushed his quirk to the thickest and hardest density possible, then went beyond even that. With a mighty swipe he shattered the numerous blades that failed to pierce his armored form. He could only hold this state for a few seconds but that was all he needed to run up to the frightened criminal and deck him in the face. The bladed man fell to the ground crying and holding his bleeding face.

"Please wait!" He sobbed. Before he could say anymore one of those large Titan robots landed directly behind him, having leaped down from one of the nearby buildings. Its mechanical arm wrapped around the man's neck, keeping him a choke hold until he passed out. Kirishima was shocked by the turn of events. These machines were supposed to assist heroes but how did this one get here so fast? His question was answered when he heard a single person clapping from behind. At the end of the alley stood Izuku Midoriya himself with the hero he was interning with Fat Gum by his side.

"Wow! That was impressive!" Midoriya complimented as he continued to applaud him. "Very well done."

"Sorry Red. He ordered me to hang back." The BMI hero apologized awkwardly.

"I wanted to see how he would handle himself." Izuku explained as he approached the student. Kirishima seemed nervous, but remembered everyone got nowhere being afraid of him. He still wasn't sure what to think of Midoriya, but he wouldn't cower before him like so many others. "You were never in any real danger Kirishima, but it's good to see you can go 'Plus Ultra' when the situation calls." He made air quotes around those words. He didn't much care for how U.A was run, but he liked their school motto.

"Couldn't you have just used your gauntlet to turn that guy inside out?" Kirishima asked. It seemed weird to have all that power and not use it defeat every villain you come across.

"Not really. The prime minister has ordered me not to personally fight villains unless the heroes are in a situation that they can't handle and require my help. However I can order the Titans to step in for me." It was one of the few stipulations he negotiated in the terms of power and authority that the senate and Minister Toriyama placed upon him. A small sacrifice since Izuku had no desire whatsoever to play hero anymore. 'Note to self: can I turn someone inside out? Questions for later.'

"Well thank you anyway." The red head bowed politely. He took one more glance at the criminal still being held by the tall robotic soldier.

"No…thank you." Izuku nodded at the other boy. "I was in a funk today and seeing you acting like a true hero brought a smile to my face. You used yourself as a literal human shield to not only protect civilians but defeat the bad guy. Very impressive." He complimented him once again. "Have you decided what hero name you're going to be called yet?" It was here that Kirishima beamed his own smile at the intimating gauntlet user.

"Red Riot." He proclaimed.

"Oh! Like Crimson Riot." Izuku liked his name. "Well Red Riot, consider me a fan." He gestured for the other to follow him out of the alley while Fat Gum took the criminal off the Titan's hands.

"I want to apologize to you again Kirishima." Izuku said as he led him out to the closed off street where the police were busy keeping the public back. "Back when I was observing your class I didn't know that you didn't know the truth about Katsuki Bakugou. I honestly thought you were one of those people who ride people's coattails and turns a blind eye to their actions. You truly didn't know and I don't fault people for ignorance."

"Well you can't expect a guy like Bakugou to go around telling everyone that he bullied people." Kirishima added feeling very uncomfortable with the conversation.

"Person." Izuku corrected. "He didn't pick on other's just me. For some reason he found everything about my existence offensive." He didn't care much about Allmight escaping him. He wasn't a threat. However he really wanted to see Bakugou behind bars. Plus with his illegal actions Izuku finally had a justified reason to take his quirk. He just had to find him first. Something he was looking forward to, but the blonde menace slipped through his fingers unfortunately.

The two of them approached a team of paramedics who were checking over Tamaki Amajiki. He wasn't injured but something appeared to be very wrong.

"You alright Suneater?" Kirishima asked. "What happened back there?"

"Whatever he shot me with made it so I can't use my quirk." Tamaki pulled his hood down more to hide his face. He kept a wary eye on Midoriya though. 'So that's him.'

"Tell me everything" Izuku's attention was captured when the older student mentioned something about being shot and now he can't use his quirk. They two of them explained the events that transpired. Well Kirishima did when Amajiki couldn't get the words out. 'Just like the bullets that Stain is tracking.'

"What do you know?" Kirishima could tell by the thoughtful look on Midoriya's face as well as his lack of surprise that he knew something about this already.

"Don't worry. I have some people already on this." Yes he needed to call Stain and Toga and have them report what they have found so far. "Just rest for a day Suneater. Your quirk should return by then." He explained before walking away. The two wondered how he knew that, but weren't that surprised. Midoriya seemed to always know everything after all.

'I can't wait to get my hands on whoever is trying to disrupt everything I worked for.' Izuku scowled as he got back into his limousine. As much as it fascinated him that someone was able to produce a weapon that could erase quirks, it still concerned him greatly that such a thing was being passed around to villains. For his new hero society to work the heroes needed to be able to use their quirks. Pulling out his special phone that was rigged against tracking and bugs he called a special number.

"How sharp is the guillotine?" Izuku said the secret passphrase.

"Sharp enough to take the king's fat head." Was the response.

"Hello Guillotine, please tell me you have a lead on those bullets." He didn't waste any time with pleasantries and greetings.

"You're going to love this." The green haired teen could hear Stain's chuckle from over the phone as he explained everything he and his partner Chameleon discovered.