MY HERO ACADEMIA AU - The Spectacular Spider-Deku

Chapter 11: Reptiles on Campus, part 4.

Elsewhere that day at a local police station, the door to a private office was pushed open so fast and vigorously that it was almost torn clean off its hinges in the process.

"I HAVE ARRIVED!" All Might declared as he stood dramatically in the doorway, the door's window-blinds rattling in place from the sudden movement.

"Ah, All Might. How good to see you. Please come in."

The person seated inside the room who had responded so nonchalantly despite the Hero's grandiose entrance was police detective Tsukauchi Naomasa, a well-groomed yet normal (if not 'plain-looking') man with short black hair, squarish features, and a mellow and friendly-looking expression.

"Ha-Haa. Don't mind if I do, old friend!" All Might replied as he closed the door behind him and confidently strode over to take a seat in front of the man's desk. "Now, about the things you wished to discuss with me-"

"Ah, wait. Before that..." the man calmly told him as he finished putting aside his paperwork and rose to his feet.

After walking over and locking the door to his office — as well as making sure the blinds on both the door as well as the windows were properly adjusted and closed — the detective turned back to the seated Hero with a relaxed smile.

"We should be good now, so feel free to 'unflex' while you're here, Toshinori."

The muscular and constantly-grinning Hero stared back silently for a couple of seconds before smoke erupted from and clouded his form, revealing the gaunt and skeleton-looking state the Top Hero was now left in whenever he powered down.

"Haah... Thank you, Tsukauchi-kun," Yagi Toshinori sighed lethargically, adjusting his now-oversized uniform while the other man returned to his desk. "With how little time I can remain active as 'All Might' these days, every little break I can spare helps."

"Don't think about it, my friend. As you know, your secret's safe with me," the detective replied as he sat back down across from him. "What's important is for you to conserve your strength for when it's actually needed, after all."

Nodding at his words, Toshinori coughed lightly into his fist a few times before looking up to face the man proper. "Well then... You said the police had made some new findings that you wanted to discuss with me?"

"Why, yes," the man nodded matter-of-factly. "While it's now been a couple of months since it took place, I'm certain even a busy Hero such as yourself still remember the 'Quirk Berserker incident'."

"But of course. That was what the media dubbed the gas-attack at that mall I did a public appearance in a while back," Toshinori nodded with a serious expression on his face. "While it's quite a tacky naming-sense, 'Quirk Berserker' is indeed an effective and descriptive moniker for that heinous gas that was used..."

"That's putting it mildly," Tsukauchi responded as he leafed through some papers on his desk. "Once inhaled, it supercharges one's Quirk-factor to the point of going out of control while simultaneously making the victim loose their senses to uncontrollable aggression and paranoia; ultimately causing them to go on a violent and destructive rampage with their abilities. ...That is, as long asthey possess a Quirk."

"Though those who weren't naturally born with theirs might have a semblance of resistance to it, it seems... To a certain degree, at the very least..." Toshinori admitted quietly under his breath, prompting the man across the table to nod at him in understanding.

"Indeed... Though even after all this time, we have yet to untangle all the ins and outs of this mysterious gas — aside from the fact that it appears to be man-made, and not the product of someone's Quirk."

"Yes. I've had the opportunity to discuss the matter a few times with one of the Hero community's leading Toxicology experts-"

"I assume you're referring to Hitokage Maruza, A.K.A. 'Professor Fire Salamander'?" Tsukauchi interjected.

"Correct," Toshinori nodded. "She and her husband, Professor Lizard, are still working on examining samples of the gas in their private labs at U.A., and even esteemed scientists such as themselves are to this day still coming up short on determining just how exactly it is able to affect Quirk-wielders they way it does."

"I see..." the detective said, leaning back in his seat while dragging a palm across his forehead. "That's honestly quite disconcerting..."

"Even in this day and age, there are still many mysterious surrounding just how Quirks work after all," the Hero said with a light shake of his head before looking back up. "She confided in me this, however...: In her own words, the person who designed this gas, whomever they may be, has to be an amazing genius, or completely insane...! Or perhaps both."

"...Hmph. Well, I believe she might be quite right," Tsukauchi frowned. "As you know, the case has been consider a black mark to the authorities, as even after all this time, neither the police force nor the Hero community have managed to uncover who was behind the attack in the first place. There's been no declaration or statement of intent from the guilty party — which is unusual following this sort of Villain attack — leaving us no way to track them down or even hint at their identity, save a few dead-end leads."

"Indeed... But I assume this conversation of ours means that the situation has changed, huh, Tsukauchi-kun?"

"You assume correctly, All Might," the detective admitted as he turned in his seat to fish out a folder from his desk drawer. "One such dead-end lead has finally resurfaced, you see."

Straightening up in his seat, the Hero waited patiently as the other man opened the folder upon his desk and pulled out a photograph.

"Do you remember this man, Fukuyama Yuuta?" Detective Tsukauchi began as he held it up before him, causing Toshinori to crane his neck forward. "He was the owner of a small moving service that had been declared missing by his family just a few days before the attack took place."

"Ah, yes... He was deemed a 'person of interest' in the 'Quirk Berserker' case due to the nature of his Quirk, correct?"

"Right," the detective nodded. "Fukuyama-san's Quirk allowed him to shrink non-living objects for a temporary period of time. Having attained a license to use it for his work, he utilized it for quick and easy transport of his clients' property when moving things back and forth from his truck. However, despite possessing no real criminal record, the resemblance between the effects of his Quirk and how those gas canisters suddenly appeared all over the mall during the attack made it a high possibility that he was somehow connected to this case."

Toshinori eyebrows furrowed upon his forehead. "You keep talking about the man in the past tense. Does that mean..."

"Yes, I'm afraid so," the detective said solemnly as he fished out another picture of the folder. "We've located what we've identified to be Fukuyama-san's corpse."

Looking at picture now lying before him on the desk, Toshinori grimaced slightly. The staggering amount of death and horror he'd experienced in his career as a Pro Hero may have granted him a metaphorical iron stomach when it came to such matters, but he still didn't exactly care for them.

"Goodness, the state of the man," he breathed, referring to the mangled and decomposed sight. "Where did you find him?"

"He was one of nearly a dozen corpses recently discovered at a local landfill, having been buried deep beneath tons and tons of trash for several months already," the detective stated as he placed similar photos out across his desk. "While we have yet to identify all of the bodies we found after combing the place, we believe them to be related to the incident as well due to traces of the Quirk Berserker gas detected in their remains. Many of them show signs of having fought one another to the death, and we believe a few of them even died from critical overuse of their own Quirks, which can, depending on the nature of certain Quirks, prove fatal."

The pupils of Toshinori's sunken-in eyes glowed with an electric blue light.

"...They were the Villain's test-subjects. Guinea pigs...!" he declared with disgust.

"Yes, we believe that to be the case as well," the detective agreed with a nod before pointing back to the first photo. "However, while Fukuyama-san test-results matches the signs of extreme Quirk-fatigue, there were no traces of the Quirk Berserker gas in his systems. He instead tested positive for more common Quirk-enhancing drugs, as well as several blunt force trauma injuries across his body that were received before death. All signs point towards that he was an unwilling pawn in the Villain's scheme; targeted simply for the sake of his Quirk and then coerced into aiding them before being subsequently disposed off."

Toshinori nodded. That made sense.

"Cause of death?"

"He appears to have been stabbed in the back and pierced clean through by a large and cylindrical metal object, going by the minute shavings found inside the wound. The damage doesn't seem to match up with any conventional weapons we know of, so we're currently looking into if a metal-related Quirk could be involved or not."

"If that's the case, we might even get a lead to the culprit's identity by referencing it to the public Quirk registry."

"Yes, but truth be told, I doubt that it's going to be that easy," the detective sighed as he collected the pictures and placed them back in his folder. "Whoever this Villain is, they've gone to great lengths to cover their tracks so far. Despite going as far as hacking the mall's security system so that they could obscure whoever had planted the shrunken gas-canisters throughout the main-hall in the first place — as well as watch their own sick handiwork unfold in real-time — every attempt to trace the signal back to its source proved utterly futile."

Toshinori shuddered a little as he was reminded that the Villain responsible must've had a front row seat when the mall descended into chaos, as well as to his own actions as All Might to counter it. Thanks to the onslaught of active Quirks being thrown around having compromised several of the nearby security cameras, as well as the thick gas obscuring him from the more distant ones, the Hero had avoided by a hair to have his 'powering-down' caught on tape, something that was confirmed when his friends in the authorities had gone in to maintain damage-control.

Once they'd realized the situation, the fact that a Villain had nearly received the Top Hero's greatest weakness on a platter had caused a shiver to run down most of their spines.

"As dreadful as this all is," Toshinori summarized, "hopefully ID'ing these victims might give us something regarding the Villain's motif and identity so we can at least prevent them from creating any more victims."

"Yes, I agree," the Detective nodded. "But truth be told, among the bodies that have so far been identified, there was another disturbing discovery that I felt I should alert you of."

Rummaging through the folder, he then pulled out and placed yet another photograph onto the desk, this one attached with a file about a young man wearing hospital scrubs.

"This person has been ID'ed as a medical assistant working at the local hospital who was reported missing not too long ago by his coworkers. However, the timeframes don't add up. You see, according to our examinations of his body, the man must have died months ago, long before he even went missing in the first place."

"What? Are you absolutely certain there hasn't been some sort of mistake?"

"Positive. We've even called in several forensic specialists with Quirks that allows them to roughly verify our findings, and they've all backed up our initial results. And yet, both witness accounts and surveillance tapes confirm the man's continued presence at the hospital up until just a few weeks ago."

"But doesn't make sense," Toshinori said as he peered closer at the file and photo. "How does someone continue to show up for work like normal for several months after their own murder?"

"At this point, your guess is as good as mine. However, I felt I should warn you of this specifically, because during this timeframe, the man was assigned with assisting the doctors overseeing the boy who helped you during the Quirk Berserker incident while he was kept under observation at the hospital. The timing of his disappearance coincides with the boy's transfer into U.A.'s care as well."

Toshinori's eyes widened in shock as he looked back up at his friend.

"You think the Villain might be targeting young Midoriya?"

Detective Tsukauchi's mouth was a flat line.

"Considering the overall role the boy played in this whole case, I think we should assume that they have their eye on him at the very least. And if this Villain is anything like the deranged scientist the complexity of the Quirk Berserker gas and our findings seem to suggest," he said, tapping the folder on the desk containing the photographs, "then I wouldn't be surprised if they're interested in finding out if and how their gas played a part in Midoriya-kun's subsequent mutation as well."

The meeting concluded with the decision that they would inform the U.A. principal of both these findings and their concerns, allowing the small man-animal to take any appropriate security measures as he saw fit, both for Midoriya's sake as well as that of the school's students.

Speaking of which, as Toshinori marched out of the police station in the towering guise of 'All Might' once more — giving a small wave or nod to the smiling or awed on-lookers along the way — the Top Hero decided to pull out his cell phone to give the boy in question a quick text message.

'Hello, Midoriya, my boy. How are you doing?' he started typing as he walked. 'I hear from Principal Nedzu that both your studies and training seem to be coming along well. Or rather, that they are doing so now at least, as I've been told that there were a few initial hiccups.

'I apologize that I haven't managed to personally visit lately. I'll try to rectify that in the near future.

'- A.M.'

Re-reading his message and finding it satisfactory, the large man pushed 'Send' as he exited the building and then made to pocket the phone away as he started descending the stairs in front of the entrance. However, before he even managed to let go of the device, the cell phone buzzed in his hand, prompting him to pull it up once more.

"HOLY MOLEY, THAT WAS QUICK!" the Hero spat out in amazement at the discovery that he'd already received a proper response from the boy. "ALSO, IT'S DAMN LONG TO BOOT!"

'A-A-A-All Might! T-Thank you for your text. It's been a little while,' it read, and the Hero was once again dumbfounded by the fact that the boy's nervous stutter even transferred into his text-writing. 'I saw the video about your takedown of the Villain 'Big Wheel' who was rampaging through the streets the other day in that big... wheel-contraption of his. It was pretty awesome! T-The takedown, I mean, n-not the Villain.

'A-As for me, I'm doing pretty well these days. I struggled with some reoccurring problems with my spider-sense for a while, but after M-Mr. and Mrs. Professors Hitokage adjusted my medicine to my current prescription I've been doing much better. U-Um, yeah, I take it to mean you've heard about it already, but I got yelled at a bit by the Professors and Dr. Shuuzenji (who got really, really mad) for trying to keep quiet about some of the headaches my Quirk was still causing me, as well as deviating a bit from the training-plan they'd made by working a-a little too hard in my spare time without getting proper rest and stuff.

'I-I'm really, really sorry and all, and I didn't mean to cause a commotion, but, um, when I think about the upcoming entrance exam that are just a few months away, I just couldn't help but feel that I needed to give it everything I have and more if I want to be able to pass. I-I want to become a proper Hero as soon as possible so that I can live up to your expectations as well as repay you all for e-everything you've done for me.'

...

'A-A-Also, t-there is absolutely no need for you to apologize,' the message updated. 'You're the Number One Hero after all, so of course I perfectly understand how busy you must be every day with your work and s-such. ...H-However, if you should find the time to visit, w-w-would you perhaps, just maybe, like to have d-dinner with us one day? I-I'm aware that it, um, might be much to ask considering how little TIME you have available these days, so there would probably need to be some planning involved, considering my Mom and such, but maybe you could, I d-dunno, at least think about it? I-I also know you, u-um, d-don't have much of an a-appetite and all, but I s-still thought it might be a little nice, and I'm sure the p-professors would like to join us as well (they're actually having dinner with us today, you see) a-a-and, and I think I'm rambling now so I'm just gonna, um... yeah.

'- Izuku.'

Appreciating the boy's attempt to be subtle regarding the time limit of his 'muscle-form', as well as his stomach-injury, All Might snorted good naturedly as he set out to reply to this monster of a text-message.

'I should've expected that you'd kept yourself up-to-date with my recent endeavors, including my 'fight' from the other day. It's perhaps sad to admit, but that guy doesn't even rank in my top-ten of the weirder Villains I've faced throughout my career,' the Hero wrote with a snort. 'But yes, I have indeed been informed about how you'd been pushing yourself and even gone as far as pulling all-nighters, training secretly on your own until you collapsed during one of your classes from overworking yourself. That's no good, my boy! I'm certain you've already been told this by your teachers, but you need to stick with the training-plan they've developed for you as they set it up that way for a reason, and that includes the resting-portions.

'I can sympathize with your anxiety about making enough progress in time for the entrance exam and all, but your teachers are also your doctors who've designed a training-plan for you while specifically keeping your health and limits in mind, so you need to understand that overdoing things will only end up having the opposite effect and hurt your chances instead! While your sentiment is commendable, for now you should focus most upon your own needs, you know, as well as try not to worry your mother too much.

'As for your generous invitation, I'm flattered, my boy, but I...' All Might paused in his typing and stared blankly ahead in thought for a moment before he went back and deleted part of the text to instead write 'I'll... I'll think about it.

'- A.M.'

Giving a weary, but good-humored sigh as he looked at his phone, the Hero pushed 'Send' once more.

"Take care now, sweetie," Midoriya Inko said as she tightly hugged her son goodbye for the evening, while her son took care not to hug her too hard back as not to risk hurting her with his now enhanced and still-growing strength.

Seriously, he'd already lost track of how many door handles and taps he'd accidentally ruined ever since waking up at the hospital.

"Mom, t-take it easy," Izuku lightly pleaded, all too aware of the female professor who stood waiting in the doorway, smiling at their display. "We'll be seeing each other tomorrow evening, right? You don't have be like this every night."

As she reluctantly released him from her embrace, she raised a hand to gently stroke his cheek.

"Oh, I know, honey. It's just..." she sniffed with a sad, but loving smile. "Even though I know you're now awake from your coma and doing well... it still feels so terribly lonely to have to return to an empty house every night, that's all."

"M-Mom..." Izuku muttered, feeling his heart twinge a little for what his mother must've been going through every day for these past few months.

Their near teary-eyed standoff was brought to a halt as a large, but gentle hand fell upon Inko's shoulder.

"Do not worry, Midoriya-san," Prof. Salamander said with an empathic smile as she stood beside the smaller woman. "If everything goes well, then you and your son should soon be able to live together like a proper family again."

"...Y-Yes," Inko blinked up at her over her shoulder before she whirled around and seized the large, gloved hand into both of her own. "B-But until then, Hitokage-san, please continue to watch over my son the way you have, a-alright?"

Though she was caught a bit off balance by the smaller woman's sudden and unhesitant grip around her hand, the dumbfounded salamander-woman eventually managed to reply to the earnest mother's pleading gaze with a reassuring smile.

"But of course, Midoirya-san," she said while carefully placing her free hand atop of Inko's own. "You have my word."

Standing at the sidelines, this time it was Izuku who smiled at the other two's interactions.

After yet another goodbye hug from his mother and a reassurance from the professor that, like always, she and her husband would be right downstairs if he needed them, the two women finally proceeded to leave his room and head down the hallway.

"It was a shame your husband couldn't stay any longer after dinner," Inko commented as they went.

"Ah, yes... I'm afraid my husband is just very busy these days..."

"Oh, goodness. I hope looking after my son doesn't interfere too much with his work then."

"Don't worry about it, Midoriya-san..." Professor Salamander reassured her. "You know, since it's gotten dark out, would you like me to personally escort you to the school gates?"

"M-My, yes, thank you. It's a bit of a walk across campus, after all, so that would be lovely."

With their voices fading into the distance as the two women disappeared down a stairway, a smiling Izuku finally closed the door proper and stepped back into his makeshift dormitory.

While the Hitokages were utilizing proper guestrooms inside the School Laboratory Building while they stayed with him on campus, his living quarters was more of a large, repurposed break-room that had already come with a small kitchen area and a TV-nook with a couch and table, as well as a door leading to a bathroom with a shower.

Walking past the kitchen bench where cleaned pots and pans were currently drying off by the sink, Izuku made his way to the coach where he proceeded to sit down and un-mute the small TV-set in front of him before resuming what he'd been doing most of that evening. While the professor and his mother had kept each other company with friendly chatter after dinner (which to Izuku's embarrassment had been mostly about him), he himself had focused on a new little training-exercise that the professors had devised for him after the mishap during this morning's training-session, namely to train the spinnerets in his wrists by pulling out and wind up the threads with his other hand like a ball of yarn while constantly trying to produce thicker and more sturdier webs.

After producing a certain amount, he held up the new web-ball and spent a few seconds studying the quality of the threads that composed it before placing it down on the couch table where several others from earlier that evening already sat, next to a pair of dumbbells, and picked up his cell phone instead.

Geeking out a little to himself over the text-exchange he'd shared with All Might earlier that day, his giddy smile slowly slid off his face as he went over a certain portion of the discussion, namely the whole debacle over his deviation from his teachers' training-plan, and just why he did so.

While it was true that he was anxious about making enough progress in time for the exams, he'd refrained from mentioning how one of the catalysts was how the husband of the Hitokage-couple seemed dismissive, if not directly against the notion of him applying for the next semester's entrance exam in the first place, which had caused Izuku to push himself harder than he should have in a bid to convince the lizard-man otherwise.

While the boy had now been properly reassured that the professor's cold attitude towards him wasn't out of anything like contempt for him and his dream to become a Hero (something he'd sadly experienced far too much of throughout his life), but rather out of a reserved concern for his safety and health, Izuku realized he didn't feel quite as put-out or high-strung in the man's company anymore.

However, the desire to prove his worth and be acknowledged by the man had, if anything, grown even more at this revelation.

Getting back to his feet, Izuku made his way to the back of the break room where they had provided him with a bed and a work desk for his stay and pulled out a familiar scorched notebook from where his schoolbooks stood lined up against the wall.

Picking up a mechanical pencil as well, he made a small, deft leap trough the air and positioned himself sitting on his haunches partway up a wall, his back flat against it while his feet underneath him kept him anchored on the vertical surface.

As he'd long since reached the point where he'd been given permission to freely train this aspect of his Quirk (as long as it was in moderation and within safe environments), he was making an unconscious habit of clinging against various surfaces as he either went over his schoolwork or simply idled about in his room that was already starting to become second-nature.

Resting the notebook against his knees before him, he smiled as he leafed though the numerous Hero-autographs before reaching the doodles and drawings he'd since added to the later pages.

One of these was yet another drawing of All Might, which he had gotten quite adept at portraying over all these years. However, despite how much he had wanted to write down the new info he had learnt about his favorite Hero in these pages, if only to sort out and catalogue his own thoughts about them in the process, he was fully aware how phenomenally risky it was to commit the Top Hero's secrets down onto paper — anywhere — and therefore had wisely abstained from doing so.

Turning the pages further, he skipped over the multiple pages he'd dedicated to analyzing the Quirk-Spider and his own Quirk until he instead came upon a few rougher sketches portraying his two new teachers, as well as notes he'd made regarding both the similarities and the differences between their mutant-type aspects and abilities.

Clicking on his mechanical pencil, he went ahead and updated the title of these pages from 'Professors Mr. & Mrs. Hitokage' into instead utilizing their Hero-names, 'Professor Lizard' and 'Professor (Fire) Salamander', as the latter had brooked no argument during dinner over how he should be addressing the pair from now on (despite whatever annoyed protests her husband might've made at the time).

Once the changes had been completed, Izuku proceeded to turn the page over and started to leisurely expand upon his notes about them as he remained perched up on the wall, the TV-set buzzing lowly in the background.

As Izuku's days at U.A. continued, we cut one morning to a small apartment in the city instead where a man dressed as a campus security guard stood in front of a wardrobe mirror, seemingly getting ready for the day.

As his cell phone started ringing, the man finished adjusting his tie before fishing the device out of his pocket.

"Yes, hello?"

"Hey, I'm right outside waiting with the car," the person on the phone informed him, sounding somewhat impatient. "Hurry up and get down here already, so we can get going to U.A. before the morning rush hits."

"My apologies, Senpai. I overslept a little," the man smiled as he calmly replied. "I'll be right down in just a moment."

"You'd better be, or we might end up late for our shift because of you."

With that the two ended their conversation, leaving the man in the apartment to tuck away his phone and don his jacket.

However, before leaving, he leaned into the open wardrobe where the body of a perfectly identical man sat hunched over at the bottom of the closet, unconscious. ...or perhaps worse.

Helping himself to the ID-badge that was clipped onto the motionless man's shirt, the guard slid the wardrobe door closed and made his way out of the apartment while fastening the badge onto himself.

Locking the apartment door behind him, he gave his tie one last adjustment just for good measure.

"Now then," he smirked. "Time to get to work."

End of chapter 11.

Author's notes:

A lot of exposition was covered this time around, which honestly was harder than I expected to write, mostly on deciding what should remain as just text and what should be constructed into character-dialogue. Hopefully I managed to make it flow enough to make it easy to absorb.

The Villain "Big Wheel", mentioned by All Might, is a throwaway-reference to one of Spider-man's... less memorable villains. Believe me, there are quite a few of them.

Might be worth mentioning right from the get-go that no, the person at the end is NOT Toga Himiko, though their Quirks are pretty similar perhaps. If you want a clue for this impostor's identity, the hint is in the title of these last few chapters.

Next time, things end up going very, very wrong.