Chapter Text
~~~~~ Killua’s PoV ~~~~~
Killua wandered down the well-kempt concrete dotted with buildings, his eyes narrowed. He didn’t let a single detail of the surrounding area escape him. The civilians littering the sidewalk of the shopping plaza, the foreign writing scrawled across each establishment, none of it made sense to him at all. He was stranded in a foreign country, unable to pick his foe out from the crowd.
The ex-assassin had been on a mission from the hunter association. He usually didn’t take those kinds of jobs, preferring to earn his money at a poker table instead, but he was far too intrigued to let this one slip. A mysterious figure had been prowling around Yorknew, not too far from where he and Alluka had been living for the past year. Nothing was known about them besides their ability to create warping chasms anywhere they pleased. Ordinarily such a person wouldn’t have caught his interest so firmly, but one single fact had made him drop everything to chase that lead.
They weren’t a Nen user.
He was unsure how exactly those portals of theirs were created, and that was exactly what had drawn the albino in. More experienced hunters were either far too weary of the unknown or wrote it off as a myth that was worth little note. But Killua was different.
He loved his little sister with all his heart, but a part of him detested the monotony of an average life. Killua had always yearned for normalcy, for a chance to live life as the average man. But now that he had that plea answered, the boy had found himself desperate for something exciting to fill his time with.
After living a life wrought with constant danger, living every moment pushing both his body and mind to the brink, the sudden silence was far too unsettling. Just the thought of spending a full day simply lounging on a couch watching Alluka’s favorite TV show filled him with such discontent. The news of something never heard of before captured the adventure-deprived hunter’s attention immediately.
And that, precisely, is how Killua got into this predicament.
Facing off against someone with the ability to transport themselves anywhere at will was quite a pain, especially since he couldn’t use Gyo to locate the target. Killua’s eyes dragged across the billboards and advertisements jutting out haphazardly along the buildings surrounding him. He couldn’t read a single word of the language used, but he was fairly certain most of them were movie advertisements.
He couldn’t imagine much else of a reason for that many renditions of the same grinning man to be plastered everywhere. Not to mention, he was always striking an odd pose in that same blue and red outfit, like a comic book character.
I didn’t get a single look at that bastard’s face. They could’ve discarded their cloak and vanished.
Killua realized with a sharp grind of his teeth, his fingers clenching around the cool metal of one of his prized yoyos. The albino had forseen being transported to an unfamiliar location as a likely possibility, so he’d made sure to bring a backpack filled with necessary supplies. But it had been torn off his back during a skirmish, leaving him with nothing but a single weapon he’d concealed in his pocket.
As Killua strode down the plaza with a purpose, he noticed something else. There were words every now and again that peppered conversations that the boy didn’t understand. Or at the very least, he couldn’t quite grasp what it meant in such a context. Before he could ponder for too long on that issue, a shriek caught his attention. The sound was followed by a roaring of metal rending. The noise caused Killua’s muscles to tense instantly. It might’ve been brief, but Killua recognized the tone in an instant.
It's the same voice!
He’d only heard that voice once, but he knew for sure it belonged to his target. A flood of people began to retreat in his direction, presumably from whatever chaos was ensuing. Metal rending apart wasn’t exactly a pleasant sound, nor one that spoke of peace. There were far too many people attempting to escape from the danger for Killua to go against the grain, so instead the boy took to the infrastructure
A single leap took him from the street to the fourth-story window of what appeared to be a mall. From there, the path to the incident was much easier. He leapt from one rooftop to another, eyes zeroed in on his target’s location. It wasn’t very long until he could see them, standing in the middle of a half-wrecked plaza. There was a man standing across from them, decked out in a glimmering silver suit. Killua paused for a moment as he took in the situation, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
The man facing off against his target held himself high, arcs of steel undulating behind him as if they were liquid. The cloaked figure stood atop a roof, a single hand outstretched towards the man controlling the liquid steel. Despite the hundreds of people who had fled from the scene, there still remained a dozen or so civilians watching the fray from a relatively safe distance.
A fight, huh?
Killua thought, his finger slipping snugly through the hole on his yoyo as he prepared to strike. He’d been chasing that figure for far too long to just let someone else bring them down. His eyes narrowed on that figure clad in metal, a frown crossing his features. Killua was sure that man wasn’t a hunter; he didn’t stand like one. But at the very least, he was a Nen user.
What ever happened to Nen being a closely guarded secret?
Killua thought in exasperation, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. Even if that man didn’t abide by the same rules he did, the boy would be sure to keep his own Nen concealed. Killua eyed a traffic light that was placed to his left. With the right angle, such a structure could help him end this battle in mere seconds. His eyes narrowed, and a stuttering rumble of anticipation began to blossom in his gut as he silently slipped into just the right position.
And then just like that, it was over.
~~~~~ Izuku’s PoV ~~~~~
Izuku’s arms ached.
Despite the fact that the grocery bags he was currently carrying weren’t exactly light, that hadn’t been the reason for his fatigue. Allmight’s training was pushing him harder than he’d ever imagined, leaving his body aching almost every waking moment. But that’s good! He told himself, smiling down at his trembling arms. Such aches during vigorous exercise were a sign of growth, he’d already witnessed it with his own eyes.
Unfortunately for him, his mother had been extra busy lately and needed him to fetch some items from the store, putting a dent in his schedule. Izuku couldn’t exactly refuse, especially since she had been incredibly stressed out lately. A pang of guilt settled in his stomach at the thought. Deep down, he knew he was a large contributor to his mother’s stress. She’d always worried about him, especially after they’d received news of his quirklessness.
But I won't be quirkless anymore soon!
Izuku thought, his chest tightening with both pressure and excitement. Not only was his dream of becoming a hero finally within his grasp, but under the mentorship of his idol as well. He still wondered occasionally if this was some sort of dream and he’d snap out of it and be plunged back into his old hopeless life.
In the midst of his internal monologuing, a booming sound drew his attention. He briefly wondered what that nose could be, it was fairly loud. But soon after, the screams began. Izuku’s breath hitched as he spotted a horde desperately scrambling in his direction. His head whipped around frantically as he tried to grasp the situation from the words of those fleeing.
“Villain attack!”
“Get to safety!”
“Baby? Baby where are you?”
“Mama I’m scared…!”
The brief pulse of fear was replaced with anticipation as he began to push his way towards the fight. Ordinarily, one would run away from a villain attack. But he, along with a pretty decent chunk of the community, waited with baited breath to watch the incredible fight between hero and villain come to pass. As he finally reached the commotion, Izuku’s eyes shone.
He’d never seen a portal-based quirk before in person, they were incredibly rare. And the villain was facing off with none other than Steldar, the steel hero. He stood just behind the caution tape, words tumbling from his lips uncontrollably as the fight between villain and hero commenced.
“Seldar’s quirk is so amazing I mean the ability to manipulate the structure and properties of metal is so useful it has all sorts of functions but against a portal quirk he has to be careful with how he uses it this is so amazing I never thought I’d see something like-”
Izuku’s words cut off abruptly as something in the fanboy’s peripherals caught his attention. There was a boy around his own age standing on a nearby shopping center, watching the fight intently. His messy white curls just barely hovered above his eyes, strangely enough a yoyo dangling from his grip. It immediately struck Izuku as odd, how on earth did he even get to such a place?
It can’t possibly be safe up there. Unless maybe it’s his quirk?
To Izuku’s dismay ,the white haired boy took a running leap from his perch on the building, hurling the yoyo in his pale grip at a traffic light not too far away from the scene. His jaw went slack as he swung from the surprisingly durable toy, if it even was one at all, sending him hurtling in the direction of the villain. Both Seldar and his opponent were taken by surprise as well, freezing in place as if they were rooted there.
A shocked gasp tore its way from his throat as the momentum of the teen sent his heel directly into the villain’s chest, knocking them from their perch and sending the pair crashing to the rubble below. He leaned forward, desperately trying to catch a glimpse of the two. His excitement was replaced by a thundering anxiety, fearing for the boy who was trying to play hero.
I know I shouldn’t judge him, I did something similar. But still…
Their situations were entirely different. Izuku had rushed in to save an injured classmate. Despite his recklessness, his motives were clearly pure enough, and he lacked a quirk, so he managed to avoid severe punishment. But with the way that teenager surveyed the situation, Izuku knew in his gut that this wasn’t a one-time incident. His practiced movements, his calm demeanor. Someone had clearly trained him. If he used his quirk at all during this skirmish, he could receive legal repercussions. The handful of hero fans still spectating voiced similar concerned thoughts for the boy.
However, when the dust cleared, the villain was being pinned to the floor with the string of that yoyo constricting them tightly, a single triumphant foot placed on their head as that white haired boy held him down with a startlingly fluid posture. He raised a hand to the watching crowd, a gesture that struck Izuku as very similar to a pro hero announcing their victory.
“No need to panic, I’ve got this handled. Sorry, I should’ve taken care of him before this plaza got wrecked.”
Steldar was just as speechless as the crowd for a moment, hesitating for a split second before advancing on the kid with a stern scowl. He spoke in a voice too low for Izuku to hear over the flashing of cameras from his right, but he could tell from the postures of the two that they were having something of an argument.
He turned and began to trudge his way back down the street, hoisting those bags a little higher as he did so. Even though Izuku had turned his back on the abruptly ended villain attack, the gears in his head continued to frantically turn, still reeling from the display.
Who the heck was that guy?