Hound Dog, or Ryo Inui, sighed as he walked through the forest. "I really hate the festival. Too many sights and sounds and smells, it drives me wild." He technically had restraining orders on most public events entirely. "What about you?" He asked his current partner, Ectoplasm.
"I'm impartial really. I don't mind it, but I can't really enjoy most of the rides. Having no arms at all to hold on." Ectoplasm shrugged. "I'm way too far behind on paperwork to enjoy it either way. All these attacks have made teaching a nightmare. I'm surprised any of the students this year have been able to learn anything."
"I think the attacks are the least important thing to worry about for student mental health." He shuddered. "I may have to retire after this year, look for another side job. I doubt I can fix these problems if the generations are only going to get worse."
"Oh yeah, you retired from the counselor position." His partner raised an eyebrow. "What's the story behind that?"
Ryo shuddered. "I thought this year was going to be fine. The most I had to deal with near the beginning was Mononma Neito's inferiority complex, something that could be dealt with genuine compliments and companionship. Then I was told to council Bakugo and Suzuki, and I nearly thought about ending it all right there."
"Was it that bad?"
"Somehow the angry pomeranian was the least of my worries. A superiority complex that was cultivated by a terrible social group and education system to the point where he thought suicide baiting was normal for people he precieved to be weaker than him. And now the fact that the main victim went missing gave him a guilt complex after an introspective that somehow fused with the superiority complex to create a raging asshole that thinks weak people should run and strong should fight to the death."
The math teacher froze in disbelief. "I…I have no idea how to take that." Yeah, that was a minefield to navigate, ironic considering his quirk.
"And then there's Suzuki, who's so used to danger he doesn't realize that putting himself in danger is anything serious, as he's way too used to surviving, and he has no qualms about villains so long as they have a single shred of dignity. Which is only because his parents are so terrible he latches on to any form of kindness he can find. That's not even getting into the brainwashing, where he'll do anything just as long as people use the right triggers. I had to shut myself up half the time so I didn't force him to do or admit anything against his will, and there's the frankly HORRENDOUS amount of bad jobs he's been doing ever since he was three. Seriously, what kind of mining company hires a five year old!?"
"One we should probably look into when this is all said to and done." That seemed reasonable. "So what, they're unfixable messes?"
"No, just a raging bundle of trauma I'm not qualified to handle at this point." He sighed. "From what I've heard, Suzuki has learned to at least say no. Granted he can't do it without throwing up, but it's something. And Bakugo…can work with people, so that's a step in the right direction." He groaned. "What about you, anything interesting happening?"
"From what I hear, Toshi's helping Miriko with an adoption." Oh, good for the rabbit woman. Pretty sure she was gonna die alone if it wasn't for Hawks being an asshole of a friend. "And Nedzu is placing a lot of faith that nothing crazy happens during the festival."
"Well so far the coast is clear, nothing-" He cut himself off with a sniff. "Wait, something smells like … tea?" Smelled pretty fancy too. "It's coming from the woods."
"Nothing has triggered the alarms, but we should look ahead regardless." Didn't need anything going wrong.
==
Luckily fighting Gentle when he was powered up was actually EASIER than before. Now he got this low buzzing due to all the danger that was in every attack. Who knew the way to make a fight better was to make it less fun? Maybe that's why Bakugo and Nighteye acted the way they did.
However, the barriers that came up whenever Gentle defended himself were still pretty hard to get around. Maybe if he was better at math he could figure out how to bounce his attacks around like the triangles shown, but as a D-C student he didn't really have a chance there. All he could do was wait for openings and land hits there. Leftovers would just make the bounce worse. "Gentle Sandwich!" Oh, so he named his attacks after food too?
"Super Shove!" He raised his hands above his head, stopping the air from crushing him, but now it was pushing his feet into the ground. "What good is a sandwich if I can't eat it?!"
"I'm sorry I can't be more accommodating, but sacrifices have to be made." Gentle bounced on top of the bouncy air to bury him deeper in the ground. That was a mistake, because while bouncing around in the air was hard, pushing against the ground was super easy!
He shoved the disks of bouncy air away, now jumping at Gentle. "Right Hook Punch!" He swung his attack straight ahead, barely being blocked by the criminal, even if he looked strained.
"You need to work on your naming sense, it's too easy to read your movements." The villain swung their arm back, as it bounced on the air for more force. "Ricochet Flawless." The man shouted as Iruma had to move his body, barely getting grazed.
"If we keep fighting like this, none of us are going to get what we want!" He leapt from tree to tree, hoping to catch the man off guard with how fast he was moving, their speeds were too even with that boost.
"Which is why I need to win, I need to bring my goal into fruition!" He shouted, trying to use the bouncy air to further increase speed and power as Iruma was forced to dodge. "You're a UA student, surely you know what it's like to give everything that you have for a goal!"
"I do, It's only because of UA that I have a goal to begin with!" The two of them finally met, their hands clashing with one another, trying to push the other down. "It's because of UA that I have my friends, my determination, it's the only reason I've been able to stay happy!" He pushed Gentle back just ever so slightly. "And if you try to stop the festival, there's a little girl who will never learn how because I won't be there for her!"
"I have my own goal!" The man shouted, pushing back, but his sparks of pink energy were fading. "To be a hero I could never be before, to live in infamy as I bring forth how cruel the world is. To show people that they can be great even if the world doesn't think they are!"
Iruma growled, locking Gentle into a headbut. They would end this quickly, both were on a time limit after all.
==
It was running out. Despite Love, her quirk not their bond, getting more powerful the more she loved someone, which considering this kid was beating up Gentle as he is kinda scary, there always remained a problem. It was a temporary burst of power. It would run out after a few minutes, so they treated it as an escape trump card.
Which meant she needed to work fast. Bypass the security and signal Gentle when it was done. Even if it was for a minute, as long as they snuck in, Gentle would succeed. Everyone would know Gentle's name. The whole world would finally know just how amazing the man she loved was!
"I'm going ahead Gentle!" She shouted, the boy looking in her direction and rushing, only for that to create an opening for her beloved to send him into a tree.
"Just make sure to stay out of sight La Brava!" Her darling warned as she took out her laptop. The system was complex, filled to the brim with firewalls and passcodes, but she was certain it wasn't anything she couldn't beat.
After all, when you spend all of your time alone, you can only improve. She ran as she typed, getting multiple denials. She would have to plug in directly at this rate. They threw away their disguise too, maybe she could knock someone out?
"Stop, please!" Kettei yelled, only for Gentle to knee him in the stomach.
"A fight between two gentlemen should stay between two gentlemen! Never take your eyes off an opponent!" Even with everything on the line, her darling was risking everything to protect her. He would've made a great hero.
"I'm not a gentleman, I'm a student!" The boy ripped a tree out of the ground, breaking it in half and throwing it at Gentle, she could see him use it as a decoy to get behind and strike her beloved. She needed to work faster.
"Come on, come on…" She ran further and further. La brave just needed..
"The scents coming from here." Oh no..no no, no! "The commotion is pretty loud for an isolated area. NO! She had to run back. The pros were here, the heroes would come, and they would take Gentle away, the only one in the world that was capable of loving her!
"My pride, my honor, my dignity.." Gentle ricochet off the surrounding trees. "None of that matters as long as I succeed in making the one I love happy." For….her? "So I'm giving you everything that I got! Consider my gratitude!"
"I barely know what I'm aiming for at this point, but I have a lot of help and support from people that care about me for some reason, and I won't disappoint them by letting you take away their happiness!" Kettei stood still in the middle as Gentle shot himself like a missle."Rabbit AXE CANNON!"
With a quick flip, the boy brought his foot down on Gentle's back the moment he would've made impact. A loud crash that the heroes probably heard took place as smoke rose high. This was it … they were done weren't they? All the effort and planning, all the fun and happiness … gone in an instant.
==
That last hit really took it out of him. Gentle felt like something might be wrong with his spine, but that was the least of his problems. "Gentle!" La brave helplessly cried out, falling to the ground. "The heroes are on their way! It's over, it… it over…"
"Please…go…save yourself…" Gentle begged the girl before turning to the student. "Kettei, please let her go…she hasn't made any mistakes, she doesn't deserve to share my fate." The fate of an idiot who didn't know what the hell he was doing with his life.
"No, I won't leave you!" La Brava ran up to the boy. "He's the only light I have in my life! The first person to show me any semblance of kindness in this world! Let him go!" She pounded futilely on the kid's shoulders. "You're a fan, you've seen his videos, you know he isn't a bad person!"
That unconditional love he didn't deserve, that somehow stuck by him through thick and thin despite every horrible mistake he's made. "I know that! I understand what you're going through, believe me I know!" Kettei yelled back with his own tears. "But a good person can make bad choices, choices that can hurt others even if it's right!" He stared at Gentle's defeated state. "I fought you knowing it would take away your happiness, and I hate it! I hate it so much!"
"Don't..don't despair, young lad. You won. Your determination bested my own." Such a bright soul. A high spirited young man who would no doubt go far as a hero. Much farther than Gentle ever could've. "That little girl you mentioned? You did it all for her?"
"Yes." Kettei picked the man up on his feet. "As long as I'm here for her, I won't let Eri feel sad again."
"Then don't have any regrets about today, and make that girl happy." He launched the boy into the air, getting him away from the scene. He needed to make this as 'clean' as possible if La Brava was connected to him as his accomplice. A few seconds later two heroes showed up, Hound Dog and Ectoplasm. Ah, so they were doomed from the start, weren't they?
"What do we have here?" The man asked. "Two injured criminals laying on the ground … any chance you two want to try a bulshit excuse?"
"I lost my way and tumbled into this fine scenery." Gentle spoke immediately. "I'm turning myself into UA."
"You could at least make it more creative, the nose knows." Hound Dog sniffed the area. "There's three distinct scents here and you look like you were in a fight."
"Yes, my hostage tried to get away, I needed someone to film me after all." He sent a pleading look to his partner. "But it looks like all that did was create unnecessary notice, didn't it?" He weakly chuckled.
"Gentle…!" La Brava tried to deny it.
"There's no need to keep up the charade, Manami. You're going to be free soon." He silenced her. Free from his mistakes, his failures, from falling down the dark hole he was doomed to sink into.
"Let's see what the third party has to say about this." Ectoplasm gestured to some rustling bushes, and the disheveled Kettei walked out of it. "How did you get those injuries Suzuki?" The pro hero asked the boy. Great, here was the incriminating evidence, and here he thought he launched the boy far enough.
"I fell down some stairs." The boy immediately responded.
"... You fell down some stairs." The dog hero was voicing his own disbelief at a charade lamer than his own.
"Yes."
"In the middle of the forest?" With a notable lack of structures.
"It surprised me too."
"Kid, you really shouldn't lie if this is what I think…"
" It was stairs."
"....Try to be less clumsy in the future." Hound Dog made a wise choice.
"Yes sir, i'm going to be going now. I have to hand off some stuff to my class. We're going to be making a great performance." The boy glanced once more at him, before running off. He would have loved to hear the music that boy was involved in … someone so determined.
==
"So close…it was so close." Nedzu watched the entire display from the security of his office. With the wolf of 1-A out of the facility, Nedzu could finally feel safe within his own walls, even if it was only for an hour. The boy suffered greatly in his life no doubt, but he would never attempt to be alone in the same room as Suzuki.
And then he got a notice that the school was being hacked. So being a pragmatist, he checked the footage of UA. A couple of drones noticed a strong fight brewing within the forest, between Gentle Criminal and Kettei. The boy was a danger magnet of unprecedented calibur.
There were two things that intrigued him about the fight. First being Aiba Manami, the hacker that attempted to bypass the school's first three fire walls. Given enough time, she probably would've been able to get through the fifth to tenth before the eleventh fried his system entirely. She definitely had a bright future ahead of her given the right guidance.
Secondly was how Toshinori's successor handled the situation. Yes, the boy's naivety was a problem that needed to be quelled, but in this instance, it probably provided the best possible outcome of the fight. Just simply acknowledging the 'villain' as a person, someone who could be reasoned and understood was what ultimately made Gentle Criminal surrender.
It was probably what made the League so set on their recent 'crusade' angle, appearing as genuine people that want to get rid of the filth of society and remove the hidden villains that hide within the law. Their latest victim was a police officer that destroyed evidence, and the Commission was furiously doing their best to take down the videos.
The boy was sending ripples of chaotic change with almost every person that he's met since All Might. Whether it was for the better or the worse was still up for debate. How Miriko planned to handle all of it as his new guardian was beyond his vast intellect. For the moment, he would allow Iruma Suzuki to have his victory in silence.
Either way, the lad was going to be something truly extraordinary once he mastered One For All, a notion that both excited and greatly terrified him. He already got the bunkers planned.
Now for something a little more mundane… taking the footage of the entire fight … and deleting it. They were misguided people, as Suzuki would say.