Rebirth and Blood

His cheek vibrated and rocked to the right in a hard, brutal fashion as his larger opponent struck him with a cross that caught him right on the face. Izuku glared ice at the man and strolled forward, throwing punch after punch at his raised guard until he saw the brown hair goliath move his right shoulder back. Dropping low on his hindlegs he delivered a blow to the man's solar plexus which momentarily disoriented him as the shorter combatant threw an uppercut to the chin. Which was swiftly dodged by the bulkier fighter stepping away and striking low when his guard was done, knocking the green haired man on his back with a groan.

Izuku got back on his feet almost instantly, but was halted by the sound of a bell going off. It was the third round and they were done for the hour. Sighing in frustration he leaned against the stool in his corner and watched as Rikido's chiseled back flexed from him working out the soreness of his muscles. The hero turned to him and smiled, obviously satisfied with today's progress.

"You've gotten a lot better Mop Head, three months ago you wouldn't have even lasted five minutes in the ring."

Izuku waved a hand at his employer, content to sit silently in his sweat covered seat. Picking up on this the Sugar Hero continued to fill in the blanks of the conversation.

"Hey man, don't let that stuff about the last case get you down. Shit happens and that's a fact everybody has to live with."

The sidekick shrugged half heartedly, not really caring anymore.

"I'm over it."

A pop came from the crimefighter when he heard that, he wasn't used to silence when other people were around so it unnerved him to degree, especially when the person who helped keep his dying agency afloat was practically a statue who made the paperwork vanish if you placed in the correct room. Izuku didn't strike him as a bad person, much less a villain, but the man was like a stone wall at times. It was strange to think this guy had literally nothing going on in his life aside from his day job, his mother and that weird maybe girlfriend who might enjoy seeing him hurt.

Frankly that concerned him more than anything else because he had seen the bruises on his arms and legs whenever they spared, but it looked more like fighting marks rather than someone getting beat. He didn't want to bring up that fact to the quirkless guy since that could lead to him outright quilting, which would burn his life's work to the ground and put this poor guy without any connections. 

Though he never told Izuku this, the big guy had furnished one of the little rooms in the place for him in case he ever needed somewhere to stay if things got rough at home. Regardless, he had to think of something to get the little guy talking, if only to kill off his boredom. Then it hit him like a freight train.

"So what exactly went on last week at the bar? You just upped and left without an explanation."

Izuku pursed his lips at the question and began to stretch, easing out some of the pain he felt after such a workout.

"I can't handle crowds. That and...let's just say a gentleman never kisses and tells."

There was a spark of interest in Rikido's eyes when he heard that. 

"So she did offer you a good time then? That...doesn't sound like her at all. Uraraka was always the class angel. You sure you didn't misinterpret what she said?"

Izuku shrugged once more.

"Maybe, maybe not, but it's a secret either way. Though...Sato, what's the deal between her and...Dynomight?"

The sweets hero flinched at the question, looking as if he was reminded of something very unfortunate.

"Bakugou and her are...complicated. They broke up two years after graduation, which was a year after the war ended and reconstruction began. Financially they were on top of the world and they were set to rise to top ranks at the ages of twenty…"

A sigh left the man as he grit his teeth with emotion.

"But the shit he'd seen in the conflict messed him up big time. Bakugou wasn't the most mentally stable of dudes to begin with and once his family started getting threatened it all went downhill."

Izuku balked at the statement, his mother never told anything about this. The Bakugous were family friends to her at the least. Yet he couldn't add to the conversation since Rikido continued on with a haze of anger and regret in his soul.

"The League just constantly fucked with us, him in particular because their leader saw something in him, called him a rival or an archenemy or the true boss or whatever. He saw figures in shadows all the time and was consistently paranoid. That's why Uraraka got with him in the first place since she wanted to help him get better and to his credit he did try to improve, but after the war, he just got worse."

He shook his head at whatever he was seeing in his mind.

"Bakugou was a literal mortar shell at that point. Never holding back in fights, blasting whole buildings down to get to villains, injuring other heroes in the crossfire. It got so bad that most of us voted to have him removed, but the HSPC wouldn't have it. We lost so many old greats in the war that he was literally one of the last powerhouses around so he got a pass."

A roll of the shoulders came and went as Rikido began to move in order to ready himself for another round.

"To give him his due however, Boom boy did at least listen to most of us and elected to stay in the background unless things went really bad. Honestly Uraraka is the only one who keeps in contact with him since he actively shuns most others and the few that he doesn't...let's just say he's a hard man to like."

Izuku withheld a scowl as he got back to his feet and took a boxing stance. "Good to know that hasn't changed at least." He thought to himself as he waited for the bell to ring, then he suddenly stopped.

Looking at the clock Izuku's eyes went wide before he turned to Rikido with panic on his face.

"Today's the fifthteenth, right?"

The hero raised an eyebrow at his sidekick, still keeping his boxing stance up just in case.

"Yeah, what's the matter?"

Without another word Izuku hopped out of the ring and began to throw his head off like it was burning.

"I gotta go see my mother tomorrow. If I don't get my house in order she'll kill me."

He turned his head apologetically to his employer while his hoodie slipped on and he was practically racing towards the door.

"Sorry Sato, I got those liability waivers put away like you needed and managed to get a few city forms filed away too, so you should be good until next month. It's been great hanging out again, but I gotta go. See ya next weekend."

Then without another word he grabbed his backpack and left, leaving the Sugar Hero by himself. Rikido sighed at the fact he was barely getting anywhere with his latest hire. Izuku was a tremendous help even if he only showed up two or one day a week, that helped him sleep way easier knowing the paperwork was handled, but it was a disservice to him. The kid barely knew anything about fighting and his support gear was still being back logged along with his costume(though he wasn't sure if letting that sword idea fly was the wisest idea for liability reasons).

Rikido wanted to at least give the guy a taste of heroism, even if it was the most bare bones version of the type people like him led. Izuku had the look of somebody with a good heart that the universe shat on one too many times, so he deserved a break. Gripping the barrier ropes of the ring, the man eased himself out of the square and undid the straps to his boxing tape once he touched the floor.

It was a hard, dangerous world out there and he chose this life. Sure he originally wanted to be the best like All Might, who didn't when they were ten? With a quirk like his, it was like a gift from heaven where he could eat all the sweets he wanted and became stronger from it. But ever since that invasion at the USJ years ago, he began to realize how badly heroes were needed and the ugly truth about the work.

Gently he tapped against the scar of the slash wound above his right pectoral. He was the only one to get injured back then and the bastard who did it meant to kill him, a kid of just 15 at the time. Rikido gloated about it after the fact, but he was scared. They all were when that creepy fucker with the hand on his face swore he'd be back. If only they knew how bad things were going to get because of that slimey fucker and his gang, maybe the whole war would have never happened.

His fists clenched at the memory of so much death and carnage being played out while the world went mad. All that because one evil, remorseless monster lived long enough to burn it. In a strange way, he hated how his predecessors placed all this on his generation while they were still kids. Maybe if All Might just killed the original scumbag, this would have never happened. Maybe if they snapped Shigaraki's neck the first time they encountered him, the world wouldn't have burned. Maybe if Uraraka levitated that crazy blood bitch up to the sky and dropped her when they attacked the training camp then maybe those people would still be alive.

He froze at the recollection of that woman. They had never met face to face, never fought one to one, but despite that, Rikido was horrified. He had seen the bodies, watched the gore, witnessed the aftermath of everything she did. Even before the war when he had to familiarize himself with the habits of the league to keep an edge, he'd seen the photos of what she had done to those poor souls.

Sliced open and tortured for days in a cold, dark pit away from any ears of those that could help, all while this demon sliced away at their body and laughed. Twenty people, no older than teenagers at the time, strung up and butchered with every ounce of blood drained. But that was nothing compared to what she did to those pros. Ten veteran heroes who had nothing to do with anything more than a simple rescue detail had their throats slashed by a person they thought was their friend. 

She had moved so fast, so elegantly it was unreal as the goop faded away from her body. The blood was everywhere as it splattered the concrete, the sound of the bodies hitting the ground mixing in with the sound of screaming from all around as she stood there with that murder in her eyes.

He had seen it first-hand and it was by a fluke he managed to survive. It was supposed to be a regrouping effort on his part after he got separated from Koda and Tokoyami, he was in an alley a few feet from the group and if he had been even a step closer, he'd be dead. She was too enraged to notice much else around her after the slaughter before moving on to the next unfortunate victim somewhere else. He had seen the still warm bodies of those men only a few feet from him and in that moment, he had pissed himself.

He could still remember her face exactly even after so long. It haunted his nightmares along with the other demons that bastard unleashed on the world, but there was a difference. All those monsters were gone, slayed like they deserved by everyone that lost their hope in the pointless hell they made. Nobody, not even the police or armed forces, was able to stop the lynchings because it was beyond that point. It was to say "Fine, if you wanna live outside the laws of society and act like a rabid animal then be prepared to get treated like one and put down."

They were all dead, except one. The one who could do the most damage in the long term, the one who knew how to blend into society and stab right at the arteries of the world without ever being suspected. The one who could wear the faces of the dead and lusted after suffering. She was still out there and free. 

The courts argued the death penalty, but her age brought it down to life, then the affects of her quirk came into play and little by little the bitch whittled down her sentence until she pleaded for a pardon. That evil little monster who snuffed out so many lives sought to get out without a scratch and rejoin society like nothing ever happened. Her victims were made null by her requirements for blood.

It was disgusting, but somebody vouched for her. One of his own, one of the group of people she wanted to KILL, took the stand and vowed to watch over this monster. Then ten months later, she was out. A new name, a new address, free housing, access to social benefits and even a clean record while the people she maimed suffered life long injuries and lost those they loved.

It was hideous and everyone agreed as such, but the government wouldn't budge. The hearing was private so public opinion couldn't come into play even if it was posted on social media and the judge, jury and even the person touching for her was made classified so nobody knew who was connected to it. Almost ten years went by without a hint as to her existence, like she just faded into the ether, but he knew she was still out there somewhere.

They all knew and instead of huddling in groups or jumping at shadows, they waited. Waited for the day when the very last of those beasts who ruined everything slipped up and exposed herself to the light. The courts wouldn't touch her this time. No, this time when, not if, that deviant struck again and sought to torture some innocent soul there wouldn't be a force on earth that would stop them from ripping her apart and casting her corpse into the sea like the rest of her ilk.

He exhaled slowly to burn away the anger. It wouldn't be this way, there was no point at the moment. Right now his life was on an uptick, he had a new sidekick, his license got renewed and he was caught up on everything government related. Burning himself in hatred for a person none of them could reach was a waste of time, so it was better to enjoy the little victories where he could.

One day they'd get the bitch, but for now he was content to simply lounge in his agency. Though as he did, the crime fighter couldn't help but wonder about his hire. Izuku was a strange guy, but he had a lot of potential to grow. Maybe he could even ship him off to one of his classmates to erase some of the unhappiness in their lives. Froppy needed someone to look after since her sister died and Ashido could use the connection to step back from the bottle...maybe Uraraka might be glad for the company. Lord knows she's been celibate since Highschool with how much Katsuki hounds her.

Then he recalled Izuku mentioning something about a girl in his life, a "friend" as he put it. Contemplating on it for a little bit, he figured maybe he'd get to meet this chick. If only to make sure she wasn't some sadistic psychopathic abuser like his instincts were telling him.

Regardless, he had a feeling deep in his bones that he and Izuku were in for an interesting life and that that kid was going to shake things up in a big way. He just didn't know how.