22 Threat

"So let me get this straight," Izuku said tersely, "you want me to join your little yakuza, rather than have me in a consulting role as was the agreement when I showed up here."

Overhaul simply looked unimpressed, "You've done a few impressive things in your short career," he said, scratching at his wrist, "But with the recent defeat of All for One, villains will be looking for a leader to fill that vacuum of power. Your actions strike fear into people's hearts, but you have no vision. No plan for society beyond making a quick buck. I have a plan, and a vision of the world without the infection of quirks. A vision you no doubt agree with, being quirkless yourself, if the rumors are true." He clenched his fist. "Put yourself under me, and I'll show you how well I can use you."

"I think you deliberately misunderstand me, Overhaul," Izuku grit his teeth, "I have no intention to join any group, nor do I particularly care what happens to society , as you put it. I'm not even trying to be the leader of the underground! I am more than happy to let you or Shigaraki or whoever the hell else has the desire for the throne take it. What I value is having the freedom and power to do what I want when I want to, and that sometimes means working with rival groups, so joining any organization would be counterproductive to my goals."

He leaned forward, "And as for the issue of quirks, don't presume that you know what I want. Quirks are tools, nothing more, nothing less. I don't hate them or see them as an infection that needs to be eradicated, unlike you. What I do hate, though, are people who act like the world belongs to them, simply because they have a powerful quirk. In other words, Overhaul, I hate people like you." Izuku stood up, and walked toward the door, fingering his throwing knives and getting out of the range of Overhaul's quirk, "So, no. I will not be joining your yakuza, and this meeting is over."

Chronostatis tried to follow Mastermind as he left without being dismissed, but Overhaul simply held up a hand, "Don't worry, Chrono. I have ways to convince him." He glared at the door where Mastermind had disappeared, "Find out everything you can about Mastermind. He will be my disciple soon enough."

Inko walked home carrying a bag of groceries in each hand. Normally, she wouldn't go to the store so late, but they were out of milk and she'd had a late shift at work, so here she was, walking back to the apartment an hour after dark. Hopefully Izuku would be home by the time she got there. He had been spending a lot more time out with his friends lately, which made her really happy, even though she hadn't met any of them yet. Lately he'd even been texting a boy named Shouto almost constantly, something Inko had never seen him do before, not even with Katsuki. Maybe she should ask what Shouto's favorite food was and have Izuku invite him to dinner? Maybe Himiko or Tomura would even join them! It would be nice to finally have faces to put to the names. All she knew about them so far was that Shouto was sweet, Himiko was high energy and Tomura was a little too into video games.

Maybe she should ask Izuku when their birthdays were? They could shop. For the perfect gifts together, maybe even make a day of it! It would be the perfect excuse to hang out of her son now that he was finally thriving and out the weird depression that had taken hold of him for a few months almost a year ago.

Inko couldn't help but be proud of her son and how he was finally living his best life because he gave up on that impossible dream. She had always done her best to discourage him from being a hero because it just wasn't a realistic dream for someone quirkless and she didn't want him to be disappointed. Above all, Inko just wanted Izuku to be safe, and that included him not trying to face down villains who were so much more powerful than he could ever hope to be. Inko didn't know what she would do if Izuku ever got hurt. After Hisashi's work transferred him shortly after Izuku's fourth birthday and his quirkless diagnosis, her baby was all she had. It was important that he stayed safe!

She knew that it had hurt him when he finally came to terms with the fact that his dream was impossible, but he got past it and now look! Izuku had friends now and he was so much happier than he had ever been while he was still trying to be a hero. And now that Izuku was finally happy, that meant that Inko could be too!

Suddenly, Inko felt a rough hand on her collar and she cried out as she was yanked backward into an alley. She tried to run but was suddenly hit by a wave of dizziness and nausea and it was all she could do to stay on her feet.

"Give me your money!"

"Ok!" She cried, dropping her groceries and taking out her wallet. What with both the darkness and the dizziness, she couldn't see her attackers clearly, but it looked like they all had bird mutation type quirks. No wonder they turned to mugging, it had always been difficult for obvious mutation types to find good jobs.

"Alright," a bored sounding voice said, "let's finish this up."

Inko flinched back as a hand reached for her, but the hand grabbed her anyway and suddenly she was engulfed in red hot pain. Inko didn't know how long she was in pain, but then it was over. She briefly realized she'd collapsed at some point and could hear her attackers' footsteps retreating. Once they were gone and she'd recovered a little, she felt around for her purse and grabbed her cell phone, which was miraculously still there.

"Hello, police?"

"Mom?" Izuku cried out as he saw his mom sitting on the back of an ambulance talking to a police officer as a paramedic looked at her, "Mom, what happened?"

"I'm fine, Izuku." Inko said. "The paramedics say I'm better than normal. Even my old root canal somehow fixed itself up."

Izuku paused, "What happened?" he asked lowly.

"Midoriya? I'm Officer Sansa. Your mother appears to have been mugged," an officer with a cat head said, "although we're not sure what their motivations were. All her cards and cash are still in her wallet. We think they might simply enjoy causing pain, since one of their quirks seems to be causing an immense amount of pain without permanent damage."

Izuku was practically vibrating with rage at this point, "What did they do to you Mom?"

Inko shook her head, "One of them just touched me and everything kind of exploded in pain for a minute or two until everything was fine again and they left. I'm fine Izuku!"

Izuku did not think that this situation was fine by any stretch of the imagination. He didn't care how long it took, he thought as he started to run his hands through his mother's hair to comfort her, he would track down the thugs that hurt her and make them pay.

"Midoriya-san," Officer Sansa asked, "can you give us any physical descriptions of your attackers?"

Izuku perked up as Inko shook her head, "It was dark and one of them had a quirk that made me really dizzy. The only thing I noticed was that they all had bird mutation quirks, so I assume they're related."

Izuku stilled. Bird mutation types, or just bird masks? A dizziness quirk, or a drunkenness quirk? A quirk that caused immense pain, or a quirk that was able to disassemble and reassemble matter to the point that even a decades old root canal was suddenly gone to the point that it seemed that it'd never been there?

Izuku wrapped his arms around his mom as she finally broke down and started to cry. This wasn't a mugging, this was a threat. Be careful, I know what's important to you and I'm not afraid to kill to get what I want.

Izuku's eyes took on an intimidating fire. Overhaul had just made a huge mistake.