Stormy Petrels

44

    Well, that lasted all of not even a whole chapter. Happy Monday! - T.A.L.A.

     He was tugged further out of the way and behind one of the larger chunks of rubble by a hand on his sleeve. He turned about quickly to see who it was only to freeze. For several long moments all that he could do was stare, much longer red hair framed a very familiar face, with two short horns, and red eyes that had white pupils and black filling the whites of her eyes.

The person grinned cockily at him before tugging him into a tight hug.

"Malvolia," he breathed, barely daring to believe it. She wasn't just alive, but she was awake! She was awake and alive and okay and most importantly, she was here. She was here and everything was going to be alright.

"Aw, come on kid, you didn't think I'd leave you to cause all this mayhem on your own did you?"

     He pulled roughly back from her grasp to stare at her again, scrutinizing her face closely. Her brows furrowed in response and she tilted her head to the side and cooed, "What? No welcome back? I missed you, didn't you miss me at all?"

      His mouth worked, trying to find an answer or better yet wrap his mind around the situation as something just wasn't right. In fact, he was so busy that he didn't notice the gleam of the metal knife fast approaching his side until it was almost too late to do anything about it.

Pushing with all his strength he shoved her away as the blade cut deeply into his side. While his actions kept her from retrieving the blade and from cutting any deeper, damage had still been done.

        "Awww, no fair! I wanted to see what you really looked like Eu-dae-monnnn~" the painfully familiar face melted away to leave behind another one. This one painfully familiar in a very different way.

     "Or is it Izuku? Can you imagine that, switching from being an inspirational vigilante that so many of the League still talk about to a measly little hero in training. But you didn't really quit did you? Naughty, naughty," Toga pouted at him as she shook a new knife back in forth in what was meant to be a scolding gesture, "I don't care which name you want to go by though, Izu~ I just want to see you bleed!" 

    The ash blonde girl leapt forward slashing with the knife again and he stumbled back, hindered by the wound, barely remembering to keep a careful eye on his cover from the other fights and his general surroundings. He remained focus on the battle going on all around him, he had had too much training and practice to do anything except that, but something inside of him slowly was cracking the longer he stared at the person who was not Malvolia after all, who had taken Malvolia. Something was cracking like so much glass microseconds before it shattered. And he didn't know if he would be able to pick up the pieces once it had done so.

      He didn't bother asking questions.

     He didn't question about what could have led someone to this.

        Like so many times before in his life, he didn't think, he  just acted. His body decided and moved before his buzzing mind could keep up and he also lunged forward. Tearing the knife from his side, he blocked hers with his free hand, used it as leverage to spin her around to face away from him and force her to her knees, then stabbed downward into her dominant arm.

       She screamed.

         With the voice changing scarf on, it was rare that he recognized his own voice, but this was the first time he wasn't able to recognize the tone of it also. "Where is Malvolia?"

        "Tee hee hee hee heh," she giggled despite the pain that clearly showed on her face, her voice was cruel when she spoke, "I killed her, her face was so delightful! Once it had been rearranged a bit that is. Her bl-" the next words were cut off as he slashed with the knife again, purposefully aiming at the same spot.  This time the knife struck bone and he pinned her down to the ground with one knee to prevent her thrashing from giving her an escape.

        "What did you do with her!"

        "I threw her corpse in a ditch once the boss was done with her!"   This time he aimed to kill. 

        A hand wrapped around the hilt of the knife he held before he could bring it down and yanked. Izuku was shoved back from the downed villain in the same moment as the knife left his shaky hand. He realized too late he had made the fatal, rookie mistake of forgetting his surroundings. His blood froze inside his body and he collapsed, unable to move.

        "You don't want to do that kid, I know you might have been trained by the Red Ripper, but you're no murderer. I could tell the moment I saw you, and once you go down that path there is no coming back." 

     Izuku wanted to scream back at Stain. She was keeping him from Malvolia, he wouldn't care, he didn't care if it changed him so long as he could fill this aching, cracking hole that was forming inside of him

       Stain just shook their head slowly as they rolled him over, overly long tongue flicking one final time across the knife that held both Izuku and Toga's blood. "Killing isn't the answer, it doesn't give anything to anyone, not satisfaction, not solace, not answers, not comfort. All it does is take.  Take from you and anybody else around until there is nothing left. Taking a life is not something so easy, and it is not something I'd wish upon anyone else. Especially you. You have the heart of a hero, now the hard part is to keep that heart beating in your chest."

        Stain shook his head once more before scooping him up, "We need to go now, the heroes are just about finished wrapping everything up here and I don't think your friend will be all that impressed if you got yourself caught for vigilantism now of all times."

         Izuku wanted to kick and scream. To wail and to vent.  To keep on fighting and forcing it down, until all that emptiness had been screamed right on out of him. But he couldn't move, and some distant part of him knew Stain had a point.   Doing all of that would only channel out his emotions instead, leaving him with still more emptiness and none of the rage that fueled him to keep going once his anger had dried up.

      It felt like he was back where he started directly before meeting Malvolia all over again in some ways, knowing what he wanted more than anything but utterly helpless to do a thing about it, being swallowed up by something inside himself as all around him people told him it was impossible and to give up and leave it to those actually capable. Except this time Malvolia wasn't around.

     From the position his still frozen form was left in, leaning propped up against a ventilation system, he was able to see the remainder of the villains get rounded up and the heroes slowly clear out to return home as the police took over.

      Unable to move due to Stain's quirk, he slowly drifted off into a blank sleep.

So... sad cliff hanger anyone? This is the last chapter of part four, meaning there's going to be one last Intermission now before the story continues.

    Anyway, hope you all have enjoyed the story so far, part five is going to be the last part where everything gets all wrapped up, but it's also going to be a pretty short one. At least I'm planning on it being that way, but this part ended up being over seven chapters more than what I had planned so who knows. 

Oh, and one last thing, I changed the cover photo recently; what do you think?

I'm going to get back to writing and see you in about two weeks (if I manage to exercise self control in posting schedules) for the exciting conclusion! (Look at that; this time I didn't even self promote my other stories which I think you should absolutely... go... check out.... oh. Never mind. So close.) 

See you next time, (except not really but you get the point).

      -T.A.L.A.