U.A: Hero hunters

CHAPTER 23: WINGS

Itsuka was up and moving. She had been for a week. Recovery girl's quirk may be a slow acting one, but it works thoroughly. a small persistent bruise on her left shoulder was all that remained of her injury. Her quirk had not returned. She shot a quick text to her parents before dressing and stepping out for a walk.

The sun hadn't risen yet. The early morning air was cool and the streets were nearly empty. Despite how well the streets were lit, she kept her head on a swivel. She looked down to he hand, trying to force her quirk to activate.

"C'mon, please." She trembled.

She got nothing. She pushed harder, trying to force her hands to expand. She got nothing more than a few twitches. Her face twisted in pain as tears stung her eyes. Her quirk was never the best. It was a bit strange, it wasn't flashy and it didn't do much for her in a fight, but it was hers. It was hers and those bastards snatched it from her. It was as much a part of herself as her orange hair or teal eyes. That part of her was gone, never to return and with it, all her prospects.

Her head drooped, the realization just as poignant as it was the night she got home. Itsuka wasn't sure how long she had been walking before she heard heavy foot falls. She then heard a voice calling. She looked over her shoulder and was greeted with a soft smile from the last person she wanted to see. Midoriya slowed to a stop.

"Hey, Kendo. Could we talk?" He asked.

"About what? I'm not even going to be a U.A student anymore." She shuddered.

"It's true that your quirk is gone, but there is still hope."

"THAT'S RIGHT, YOUNG KENDO!!"

A large figure landed hard to Midoriya's right. Allmight, the second last person she hadn't wanted to see. He was dressed in a suit, while Midoriya was in simple athletic wear.

"I'VE GOT A PROPOSITION FOR YOU. A WAY FOR YOU TO STAY IN THE HERO COURSE."

"How? You gonna give me a new quirk?" Itsuka scoffed.

Midoriya and Allmight glanced to each other, then to Itsuka and smirked.

"Yuck!!" Itsuka sneered.

"That sounds disgusting, Allmight." Izuku shook his head.

"SORRY, BUT CONSUMING MY DNA IS THE ONLY WAY." Allmight explained, his booming voice still loud, despite his whispering.

Itsuka and Midoriya looked to Allmight, disgust etched on their faces.

"That still sounds bad, doesn't it?"

"Oh, we're well past that!" Itsuka spat.

She took a deep breath.

"But if that's what I've gotta do, I'll eat your hair." Itsuka cringed, her stomach churning.

"GREAT! I'LL HAND YOU OFF TO YOUNG MIDORIYA FOR YOUR PHYSICAL TRAINING. AFTER THE BARE MINUMUM OF TEN MONTHS YOU'LL BE ABLE TO RECIVE THE QUIRK."

Itsuka nodded, her resolve hardening. Midoriya looked to her.

"Swing by this address when you're ready." He handed her a slip of paper.

"The others are already beginning their training."

Canary scratched her head as she surveyed the hide out. She tapped sight, drawing power from the metal piercings on her right ear. Her dark surroundings now seemed aglow, adding precision to her movements. Canary cast ren and leapt several meters forward, crouching upon landing to minimize noise. Looking up toward the innocuous apartment building, canary made some mental measurements and tapped speed.

Rushing forward, Canary cast ren and leapt. Due to the two, sequential speed boosts, the height of her jump was high enough to clear the shorter city buildings surrounding the hide out. As she neared the building, she began to decrease her weight. Weighing practically nothing, she clung to the brick wall easily despite the pitiful hand holds. Pulling hard, Canary scaled the wall and landed softly on the roof.

Looking out from the roof top, Canary quit tapping her sight and tapped her hearing. The volume of noises around her was magnified by several degrees. Part of the nature of enhanced senses is not how much one can hear, but how well one tunes out all the input they're not looking for. Canary indeed find what she was looking for, the whistle of a thrown axe.

Tapping speed and strength, Canary ducked the incoming axe, gripped the axe's handle. The momentum of the axe pulled her off balance. Correcting for her oversight, Canary tapped weight and anchored herself for her counter. Heaving, she leveraged her enhanced strength and weight to fling the axe back in the direction of the attacker.

The axe flew off into the distance and no sound of an impact hit her ears, despite tapping hearing. Had she missed? Before she could discern that, three figures descended upon her. Angular forms, silhouetted against the dark sky hovered above the rooftop in a triangular formation, surrounding her. The clattering of coins rung the air.

Canary tapped speed and strength. In a blur of motion, she leapt and cast ren, then hatsu. In her hands, materialized a massive square blade. The blade was closer to an axe than a sword. Still tapping speed and strength, Canary swung her sword. The mass of nen reinforced steel whipped through the air, knocking aside coins shot at her from the three figures.

"They're allomancers!" She thought.

Using the momentum of her first swing, Canary pivoted, targeting the figure behined her. As she swung, she tapped even more of her speed. Canary's blade came down, but her target was too quick and her strike only caught their arm. However, her strike hadn't even severed the arm, instead her sword got stuck half way through the shoulder.

"They're burning pewter!" She realized.

Canary tapped her mental speed. With her mind working faster than normal, she took the time to think.

Coin pushing and now pewter enhancement? How many allomantic powers do they have? Now that Canary was closer to her attacker, she could see a metallic glimmer of a metal spike where the person's eyes should have been. They were inquisitors.

Canary shuddered. She had to get away, she had completely underestimated the difficulty of this mission. There was no way she could do it alone. She cast ren and pulled hard on her blade and severed the monster's arm before it had time to heal. She snatched the severed arm from the ground and tapped physical speed. She then drew on all the speed stored in her bracelet in one shot.

The world around her blurred, the lights of the city warping and speeding past her. A booming crack split the air and Canary dashed forward, the ground beneath her like a treadmill. Canary's skin burned from the drag despite her aura. She cast ren and kept it going and the burning subsided.

Canary tapped mental speed and the world around her slowed to normal, despite her speed.

"Inquisitors." She thought.

The league of villains are on another level if they're casually spitting out inquisitors. She had to report this to the association immediately.

"Hopefully those bastards can't tap speed." Canary thought.

With her mind working several times faster than normal, she had the time to make the connection. Her mission had been to do some recon on a supposed league of villains hide out following a series of missing quirks. Despite the number of cases, the victims all reported the same thing. A portal, a dark laboratory and a metal spike through the body.

Canary shivered. they were clearly looking for people with quirks that might accent alomancy or any of the weird and varied quirks the league's members had. Her stomach twisted with anxiety. Her daughter had just joined the Hunter's association a year ago, tasked with overseeing a new division. Was she going to be a target? Their quirks were very similar and her partner wasn't the most lucid man in the world.

"She'll be fine." Canary told herself.

"She'll be fine."

CHAPTER 23. END.

A/N: my bad for the long wait and short chapter, but I had no idea how I was going to connect a few of the plot points I was planning.