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"Ship sighted off the port side!" Izuku called down from his post up in the crows nest. “Estimated to be less than one nautical mile out.”
"What’s their standard?” Shota asked from where he stood on the deck.
“A black octopus in a red circle against a field of black.” Izuku replied.
“That’s them! All hands prepare to engage!” Shota confirmed with a nod.
“All hands prepare to engage!” Hizashi yelled out, repeating Shota’s order.
Everyone on the ship burst into action as the low-high-low whistle call soon followed Hizashi’s shout. Izuku quickly abandoned his post to slide down the mast, using Blackwhip where needed so that he didn’t break either himself or the ship when he landed on the deck. He ducked around a pair of Jin as he headed to where most of the crew was gathered on the port side.
As their ship drew closer to its prey, Yuga carefully climbed up on the railing. Once they were in position, he fired off one of his signature Supernova blasts aimed to pass just in front of their target. A warning shot. And as clear a sign of who the target ship was facing as the Jolly Roger proudly waving in the breeze.
(Un)Surprisingly the other ship didn’t heed their warning. Either out of sheer stupidity or just plain fear (after all, they more than earned the reputation - and bounty - they had) the targeted ship decided to try and run instead of striking their sails. It wouldn’t work of course. The Drunsk was a marvel of ship building engineering and more advanced than pretty much anything else out at sea (in most part thanks to the mad genius who’d set herself up as their primary shipwright. Not even being stuck with primarily steampunk technology was going to stop the great Hatsume Mei from building her babies no siree!), and with Keigo at the helm, the other ship had no chance. Oh, they tried. Oh how they tried; juking left and right as best they could as they tried to lose pursuit. If it had been anyone else their maneuvers probably would’ve worked. But quick action from Yuga saw their sails cut clean in half.
Once the two ships were close enough, Izuku and the others leapt into action. As part of the vanguard and one of the heavier hitters (at least among the students), Izuku was one of the first to board. He landed and immediately ducked the swing of a panicked sailor before following it up with a strength enhanced punch to the face. And then he was off.
They had to work quickly. Innocent lives were on the line. The Drunsk family had been a small up and coming merchant family two generations ago. They’d made a decent living trading in both spices and cloth with the occasional foray into other ‘exotic luxuries’ and were considered to be upstanding citizens. Fifteen years ago, they saw an unprecedented increase in their wealth; something that the current head of the family attributed to getting in the antiques market. That was, of course, a lie. The truth of the matter was much uglier and hit way too close to home for Izuku and the others (quirk trafficking had been a terrible problem back home and even if they all couldn’t agree on a lot of things - like the law and other societal issues - they could all agree how heinous that was. Sure Himiko, Jin, and Dabi (Shoto was the only one who could get away with calling him Toya, although it was widely thought that Keigo would be able to soon enough) had been involved with kidnapping Katsuki but that had been more of a really fucked up recruitment attempt than kidnapping him to sell as a slave on the black market. And it’s not like the League of Villains had gone around kidnapping people on a regular basis (apparently All For One had kept that side of his operations completely separate from the League)). Drunsk actually made most of their money through human and non-human trafficking. And they knew from both their own horrible experiences and stories from other pirate crews that [Name]’s crews had absolutely no problem ‘getting rid of the merchandise’ if they thought they were caught.
It wasn’t so much a battle as a slaughter. The crew of the captured ship were normal humans with a mix of mostly merchant sailors with a few thugs scattered throughout to keep the ‘merchandise’ in line. Shota’s crew was composed of a mix of pro heroes, heroics students, Villains, and Mei; all of whom had fairly powerful quirks and actual combat training of some level or other (Mei being a bit of an exception. She’d been a support student with a quirk that wasn’t combat oriented before coming to this world, and had only started to learn basic fighting after they’d all taken to the seas as a crew). Izuku, Eijiro, Rikido, and Katsuki focused on clearing the deck while Hitoshi, Nemuri, Shoto, and Kyoka (chosen specifically for their quirks. Kyoka to find the living cargo and the others to incapacitate any of the crew they happened to run into. Shoto’s ice half of his quirk was also good when it came to plugging any possible leaks; it wouldn’t be the first time some brain child would decide to hole the ship and sink it rather than let them capture it or rescue their ‘merchandise’) headed below deck in search of any potential kidnapped people.
Not long after the fighting on deck was done, and the last of the crew secured (they were perfectly capable of killing during a fight - and had in the past - but they were still (mostly) all heroes and preferred to use non-lethal tactics), the rescue party returned leading a small group of mostly human children, all around the age of four or five. Katsuki growled and reflexively popped off a couple of low powered explosions in anger at the sight, an act that garnered low level glares from the rescue party as it had scared the children. No one really blamed Katsuki for his outburst though. They knew he had a bit of an anger problem, and they were just as angry as he was. Bad enough that Drunsk had been trafficking in people, but this time it had been fucking children. Children who, had they still been back home, would’ve been at just the right age for their quirks to be coming in.
“Burn it all down to the waterline.” Izuku ground out in a hate filled hiss as he caught sight of the still healing scars on the tail of the teal haired mermaid Hitoshi was carrying.
It wasn’t quite as simple as sooner said as done. First they had to herd the kids over to their ship and get them settled in. Then they had to strip the captured ship of every single thing of value. Captain’s papers, supplies, legal cargo... If it could be either used or sold and wasn’t bolted down (and that meant bolted down by Mei’s standards. If she could somehow pry it up - and she was the queen of inventiveness - then it didn’t count as bolted down) they took it. Nothing was left behind (which was a bit of a departure for their usual modus operandi. Usually they’d leave enough in terms of supplies for the crew to survive long enough to limp into the nearest port; they might’ve been pirates, but they weren’t cruel. This time however, the subdued crew wasn’t going to have to worry about staying alive long enough to see port.
Dabi and Shoto handled setting the ship ablaze without a word.
---***---***---
Izuku didn’t bother to look up from the table as Keigo slid into the seat next to him. Now that everything had been said and done, and the utter rage had ebbed away, doubt and recrimination had flowed in to fill the emotional void. Izuku was very much a product of his environment; a hero down to his core from a soft world where killing was seen as a horrid act that merited strict punishment. Villains killed. Heroes didn’t. A child’s view that painted the world into a strictly held dichotomy. (Izuku wasn’t stupid and he was too old to hold to such black and white thinking. Heroes were not supposed to kill. Were supposed to find some other - any other - way. But when you had innocent lives on the line and every second mattered, you did what you needed to do.)
“It was the right thing to do.” the former Number Two hero said, “People like that... They just don’t stop until someone makes them stop.”
“What we did... It was revenge and rage; not justice.” Izuku muttered darkly. And maybe that was the heart of the matter. They’d just killed an entire ship’s crew - and not in a clean, painless way. Burning alive was an ugly way to go (just ask Dabi) with little provocation beyond they didn’t like what the other crew had done. It was, Izuku felt, an escalation and he wondered if having done it this time, it’d be easier to do it next time. And what ‘justification’ they’d use for that next time.
“We aren’t in the business of justice. Not here anyway. Besides with all the evidence we found in the captain’s quarters and the kids’ testimonies, I can’t think of anyone who’d blame us for what we did. We saved some lives and made sure that there’s one less monster out on these waters. We did good today. You did good today.” Keigo pointed out.
“How are they?” Izuku asked, changing the subject slightly. He still had his doubts about what they’d done; he probably always would. (Sometimes late at night, when he just couldn’t seem to fall asleep, he despaired over what this world was doing to them.)
“Traumatized? A bit cut and bruised but [Doctor] couldn’t find any signs of broken bones, internal injuries, or burns luckily enough. Eri’s watching over them in her quarters with Asui and [Jin]. I’m sure one of the others like Shota or Hizashi’ll pop in once they start having nightmares.” Keigo said, cocking his head to the side. Izuku hated to think about it; the last thing those kids needed was more pain. But after what they’d been through, nightmares were inevitable.
“What’s going to happen to them?” he asked quietly.
Keigo shrugged, “The usual. We’ll drop them off at the nearest safe port with a note and copies of the paperwork from the ship. From there... I think it’ll depend on if their families can be found. If so, great; they’ll be reunited. If not, they’ll probably either end up in an orphanage or be adopted out.”
“I hope they’re able to find their families; they must be so worried.” Izuku said earnestly.
“You’re a good kid. You know that right?” Keigo said with a soft smile. He got up and ruffled Izuku’s hair as he left (much to Izuku’s annoyance).