Chapter 30 - Hero Menagerie Pt1 (2/2)

It was a lot to take in.

”So, Jiro, want to get a latte or something? My treat.” Denki offered Kyoka with a grin on his face. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, not seeing why he was offering this to her.

She shook her head.

”I just want to go home and relax, I'm still a little shaken from yesterday.” Kyoka denied him swiftly. She wanted that latte, but she wanted to spend time with her family winding down as well.

He pouted and nodded.

Why did that never work?

”Mina, want to hang out with me?” Toru asked with a upbeat jump.

Mina waved her off with a smile.

”I'm going to go home and change clothes, then I'm coming back here to visit Naruto. I want to be there for him when he's recovering. So see you guys later.” Mina used that as her time to leave, finishing packing up all of her stuff. Sue her, she wanted to be there for her injured boyfriend, instead of just hanging out. As much as she wanted to spend time with Toru, some things had to come first.

Tenya stood in front of Izuku.

”Midoriya, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, I wish to ask for your ȧssistance with something.”

Most of the class was doing whatever they could to try and not thing about what happened yesterday, though some of them didn't seem the least bit affected either. Strangely enough, Todoroki was actually smiling a little, which never happened in class.

'I feel like something good happened...' Todoroki thought to himself with a smile.

He didn't know what happened, but something good happened.

”Mina, can I visit Naruto with you? I have something I need to ask him about.” Momo asked Mina with a concerned expression.

Something weird about yesterday, a question she really wanted to ask Naruto, and she was sure that Naruto wouldn't answer it if he was able to walk away from her. Now was her only chance to ask the question.

”Sorry Iida, but I actually wanted to speak with Naruto about something too. Ashido, Yaororozu, can I join you two?” Izuku kindly denied Tenya, and he walked over to the two girls. Mina didn't really have a problem with it, and Momo wasn't in a position to judge him for asking, seeing as she asked the question to.

Surely, Naruto would be willing to answer their questions.

-With Naruto-

'Gotta get stronger...' Naruto grit his teeth in pain as he did push ups with a single finger, his broken arm still in a sling. After his healing, which he didn't know how many times she had to heal him while he was out, he had been able to move his body once more. 'I'm not going to lose like that again...' Naruto honestly didn't remember anything but his own defeat.

Defeat.

Not being beaten while training with Ryuko or his uncle, no, a real defeat against a villain. It wasn't a non-serious issue, he had actually lost a fight. A fight with the lives of others on the line, and it was just amazing that nobody else had gotten hurt.

”Child, you're trying my patience... I leave for 5 minutes, and I come back to see you exerting yourself.” Recovery Girl stated as she lectured Naruto the second she came back into her office. She knew this much was going to happen as soon as Naruto could move his body.

Naruto moved too much.

”Gah!” Naruto let out a pained shout, and he fell to the ground.

”You're body is still incredibly injured right now... just because you can move, doesn't mean you should. As soon as you recovery more stamina, I'm going to heal you again. Get in that bed, and stay there until I tell you to.” Recovery Girl told him as she sat a bowl of ramen at the table next to his bed. It was a food that was great for restoring stamina, a food Naruto loved, so she would give him this. The quicker his stamina was restored, the quicker he could be healed to a better condition.

She frowned to herself as she looked at her computer, and saw she was getting a flood of emails again.

Naruto stared down into the ramen's broth, seeing his own reflection.

'... I can't hear that voice anymore either... and I feel like I'm forgetting something... damn... these drugs are making it hard to think...' Naruto rubbed the side of his head. He was on so many painkillers, and he could STILL feel pain, that it was extremely hard for him to form most complex thoughts.

He felt like he was forgetting something important though.

”Bastard.”

”What?” Naruto asked when he heard somebody walk up next to him. He was surprised when he saw Bakugo, but he didn't make anything of it. He saw Bakugo glaring, normal, and he saw the boy look like he had swallowed a lemon... also normal for him.

He was a generally unpleasant person to be around, but it was surprising that the boy who seemed to hate him, was visiting him.

”Tell me something...”

-A Hidden Location-

”Ah... look at this collection... I have Midnight in her debut costume. Eraserhead, a hero who stays out of the spotlight. Then there is Hound Dog, a popular hero with animal Quirk users. Endeavor, the Number 2 Hero... and Ryukyu, the Number 9... not to downplay Gang Orca, or the Wild, Wild, Pussycats... and I have the complete collection for them.”

All these powerful Quirks, added to his collection, and to be used as he saw fit. He had spent such a long time building up his massive fortune, using his own Quirk to allow him to control others. With it, he was able to subdue a young man with a Quirk that gave him near-unrivaled intelligence. He had then spent years, quietly observing the Pro Heroes with interesting or powerful Quirks, taking apart their battle styles, and trying to locate any weaknesses in their Quirks.

”Do you see Tsuyu... I can change the world, change it how I see fit. I don't want to have to hurt you... with the Hoshi no Tama that I got from you, I've been able to do great things. When the boy's mother died, I had thought I would never lay my hands on one of these... but alas, I couldn't have been more plelased when my sensors picked up one moving around... in the open so freely.” The man draped by shadows, wearing a cloak over his body so that Tsuyu didn't see his face, spoke as he held the white ball in his hand.

Tsuyu was free from his control, but her hands were tied behind her back, and she was being dragged around on a leash like an animal.

”What use is that to you, it belongs to Naruto.”

”All will be revealed in time, until then, be a good pet and just follow your master around like an obedient creature.” The man yanked on her leash and pulled her behind him, as she was forced to gaze at the growing collection of heroes the man was amassing.

Tsuyu made sure to memorize everything she saw.

The interior of this place was massive, and it was filled with such high tech machines that she didn't know where to begin. She had also seen the man's robot army, the men in the suits, coming and going through those portal coins. They would leave to capture a hero, after getting suited up with the appropriate gear for their target, before they could leave. The heroes were almost always brought in with little to no injury, which was terrifying to the girl.

This man wasn't a villain.

He was a super-villain.

”Why keep me around?” Tsuyu asked, and the man glanced back at her.

”When my final machine is ready, I'll use this Hoshi no Tama to cleanse this world, and then I'll use my collection to create the perfect world. If I want to enjoy the perfect world, I'll need a lowly creature like you, to remind me how far I've come. Since you practically handed world domination to me on a silver platter, you will be the lowly creature I keep as a pet.” The man coldly spoke to her, all of the niceties before were gone as he looked down at her. Despite what was thought, he had no interest in her body. She wasn't going to be used as a breeding tool for his new world, and she wasn't going to be abused either.

She would just exist to remind him just how he had succeeded in creating the perfect world.

A portal opened up.

Two more portals opened up.

”Ah, Best Jeanist, Ms. Joke, and Mirko... what amazing additions, please, quickly place them in stasis. Good work.” The man was excited to see two more of the Top 10 had been so quickly captured, while another excellent pro hero had been brought along with them. His plans were going as smoothly as possible, and none of the heroes had caught onto his plans just yet.

Even if they did, it was impossible for them to track him down, he was using portals to make sure nobody could find the location of his base.

Then again, his base was always moving, so not that they would ever find it, until it was too late.

”My friends will stop you, even if the pros can't.” Tsuyu tried to sound calm, but it was hard.

Seeing so many captured pros was horrifying.

”Why should I worry about some worthless, no-name students? I've created plans on how to capture every pro hero that is worth anything, some children are nothing to me.” The man dragged her along with him as they went back to his throne, and as she was forced to sit on the ground, he took the throne. A platform started to raise his throne up high into the air, taking them to the control deck.

Tsuyu looked out into the blue sky.

This wasn't good.

-Later-

”Reports say that several pro heroes, including those of the Top 10, are currently missing, and unable to be reached. If you have any information on the whereabouts of these heroes, please contact the police with haste.”

Nezu turned off the TV, with all of the teachers on his pro hero teaching side, in his office with him. All of them had watched the news report, report the missing heroes. All of the heroes had vanished without a trace, which was odd on it's own, and none of them were answering their phones, or responding to texts. It had become practically impossible to track them down, and the fact that their teaching staff was included in the missing heroes was frightening for them.

It started when Shota went to check up on a lead for the missing Tsuyu, and it continued to spiral from there.

”What do you mean we can't help look for them!?” Vlad shouted as he slammed his fist into the table.

They were being told NOT to do anything!?

”Until we know more about this, we need to tread with caution. Every hero that went missing has gone missing without so much as a trace... for heroes like Midnight and Eraserhead it makes sense... but even Mirko and Endeavor were caught without signs of a fight... we're dealing with something we haven't dealt with before.” Nezu placed his paws up to calm down the unruly teacher. As it stood, everyone was on edge.

Midnight, Hound Dog, and Eraserhead weren't the only ones who had gone missing, even from their teaching staff.

Ectoplasm, who had heard the report earlier than others, had gone to investigate, and he had already turned up missing as well. They were done by almost half of their pro heroes in their teaching staff.

”If I go, I can make quick work of this.” Toshinori explained, but Nezu glanced at him.

”If they took Endeavor down without a fight, it makes sense they also know your weaknesses as well, and have created plans against you. If we lose you, we lose hope as well. This isn't the time to go rushing, we need a plan of action. As it stands, I doubt the villain has murdered them.” Nezu tried to explain, but the teachers didn't like it.

They didn't have to like it, what he said made sense.

Toshinori cupped his hands together, and frowned to himself. The only teachers they had left were Power Loader, Snipe, Cementoss, Vlad, and himself. Thirteen was out on an ȧssignment elsewhere, and the others higher up weren't fit for battle. As it stood, they wouldn't be able to protect the students.

”Are the students in any danger?” Vlad calmed down a little and asked.

He had been wondering about it to.

”This entity seems to be targeting only pro heroes who hold a reputation, are well known, or have a strong Quirk... the students status as students seem to protect them from this... but I wonder if Tsuyu Asui going missing has any relation to this.” Nezu remained upbeat as he analyzed all of the data they had so far. He didn't stay upbeat though, and frowned. ”So many heroes have been captured in such a short time, and we have no information other than guesses... if we make any unwise moves, it could spell the end for us.” Nezu didn't like saying it, but it was rather simple.

They were fighting an uphill battle right now.

They all went silent as they digested those words.

This wasn't good.

-With Gran Torino-

The elderly man stood with an unimpressed look on his face when a group of men surrounded him in his own apartment. He glanced around at them all, before he smirked and prepared for a fight.

”My Boss wishes for you to come peacefully.”

”Peacefully is for villains and the dead, I'll go down with a fight.” Gran Torino moved too quickly for any of them to see and kicked one of them in the head. Knocking him into a wall, before he moved around and kicked too more. As he was kicking them around, five more of them placed small square devices with holes in them around the room.

He kicked down three more of them in under a second, half of the villains knocked out with ease.

He went for several more, but his Quirk stopped working, and he could feel his airs popping.

'... The room's air pressure... it's too low for me to use my Quirk... so they came prepared... and they aren't human.' Gran Torino saw the men standing up, the skin on their faces having peeled off to reveal robot faces underneath. They replaced their masks and covered their robot features, before the got guns out and aimed at him.

They didn't look like normal guns.

It seemed these people were very prepared to fight him.

”You're a relic of a golden age of heroes, our boss will value you greatly. You will be unharmed if you surrender peacefully.”

Gran Torino raised his hands up in surrender.

”Very well, but I'm hungry, I want something to eat before I go. Wait for just a second.” Gran Torino's mind thought quickly as he was allowed to walk over to his fridge and microwave. Placing frozen food in the microwave, he accidentally spilled the ketchup. ”Ah dangit... I can't leave this place a mess, or I'll never be able to surrender peacefully.” Gran Torino was allowed to clean up the spilled ketchup, just as the microwave went off.

Smiling to himself, he placed his ketchup stained fingers in the microwave, and after a few moments, he pulled out his food.

He was allowed a few minutes to eat, before they opened up a portal, expecting him to walk in.

”Gran Torino, captured.”

'Secret message, sent... you better be as good at tracking people down as your grandmother was Naruto.' Gran Torino thought as he finished secretely typing a small messaging on the phone, hidden inside of his glove. Sending what he hoped was a decent text to Naruto, he willingly walked through the portal.

He couldn't win this fight without his Quirk, so he would entrust it to somebody he believed in... somebody with a Quirk that was nearly impossible to plan against.

The unpredictable idiot.

-With Naruto-

”... What the hell is this?” Naruto looked at the text he had gotten from Gran Torino, with a confused expression. He was still sitting in his bed, but he had been given his phone by Mina, as she, Momo, and Izuku all stood around him.

Nrrd jelp.

”What the hell?” Mina looked at his phone.

”So you're okay?” Momo asked him, glancing at Mina and Izuku, unsure if she could ask her question with the others around him. She saw Naruto nod, and she sighed in relief. ”You seem to be recovering well.” Momo looked at him, and though his arm was in a sling, he was doing much better than she pictured him.

Mina nodded.

She was happy that Naruto was already able to move this much again, getting multiple healings from Recovery Girl was having amazing results. Recovery Girl walked back into her office, and though she was a little surprised to see the other students, she made no comment on it.

”Thanks for healing Naruto Recovery Girl!” Mina thanked the elderly woman.

Recovery Girl wasn't paying attention to her.

”Well, I can walk again, so I'm going to go and find my thing.” Naruto said in the most confusing way he could have. Since he was sure the only ones in the room who knew what a Hoshi no Tama were, were him and Mina, it would be smart not to make that super public knowledge. Recovery Girl didn't even pay Naruto any attention when he got up and started to walk out of the room.

Naruto locked eyes with Izuku.

”Your thing?” Mina asked with a tiltled head.

”A thing? I can make a thing.” Momo then proceeded to make a small doll. She was sure that she could make a copy of whatever Naruto was missing. Mina grabbed Naruto and pushed him back into the bed, before she proceeded to jump up and sit down on his stomach.

He wasn't moving.

”I'm not letting you leave until you're all healed. With your luck, the second you leave here, a super villain will start raining fire from the sky from a flying fortress.” Mina said the most strange thing she could think of. With Naruto's luck the last week, it made sense for something even more weird to happen. ”Then, you'll be right back here. So my buŧŧ is staying right here, and your buŧŧ is staying right there.” Mina made herself comfortable on Naruto, until he got the hint and stayed in the bed.

She was sure that this would keep Naruto in bed.

'He's going to-' Izuku knew Naruto a little, and knew this wouldn't keep him in the bed.

Naruto laid back and grabbed Mina, pulling her into the bed with him.

”... I need my Hoshi no Tama... it's on the move...I can feel it.”

Naruto whispered gently into her ear so neither Momo or Izuku could hear them. Mina's eyes widened when she realized that Tsuyu was the last person to have it, and right now, Naruto's life was still in danger if anything happened to that little ball. Not to mention, if they found it, they could find Tsuyu as well.

”I totally forgot, we had that date thing planned, ahahaha!” Mina laughed nervously as she jumped up off of Naruto.

Naruto nodded.

”Yeah, so we better go... and get ready. We'll see you guys later. Izuku, I don't know what you need to ask me, but if you have questions, try and answer them yourself.” Naruto told his classmate, and he wasn't the only one that took the answer, Momo nodded her head, since she had a question to. She would go and think about it herself now.

Izuku just nodded with a downtrodden look, and though Naruto wanted to help, Izuku had to learn to help himself improve too.

You could be trained by a hundred skilled trainers, but if you weren't able to improve yourself, then you were placing limits on your growth from the beginning.

”What was that about?” Mina asked Naruto as they walked by.

Naruto would tell her later.

'It's on the move... that thing is too much trouble. The second I get that thing back, I'm going to lock it up again.' Naruto frowned as he thought on it. It was his key to unlocking the secret powers of his Quirk, but at the same time, it was his biggest weakness. He had never intended for Tsuyu to get her hands on it, he would have prefered if Mina or Kirishima were holding onto it for him while he was knocked out. Actually, he would have much prefered his uncle over everyone else.

Sadly, only a few people knew what it was, so he doubted that Shota knew how dangerous it was to leave with Tsuyu.

He couldn't afford to leave his weakness exposed, even if it meant he was sacrificing a large amount of his potential.

”Lets hurry and find that, and find Tsuyu with it.” Mina didn't like how much danger her friends were in.

They weren't in a good position.

-Secret Base-

”Almost complete... soon, my precious army will finish constructing my cleansing machine.”

The man looked up at an incomplete machine with a smile. He had locked Tsuyu up in her cage, since this part of the base wasn't something she could see. He could just imagine placing the Hoshi no Tama into the machine, and finally powering it. He had already created his 15 core controllers for the machine, and he had them strategically scattered across his base. The machine was 55% complete, and he had begun constructing the second the location of a Hoshi no Tama was located and seen moving around.

He had almost lost hope that he would never be able to go through with his plan, but everything was falling into place.

After waiting for years, the wait was almost impossible to take. Not only would he have to wait for his machine to finish, but he needed to wait for the Hoshi no Tama to finish charging up the machine. He could have done this all years ago, but it had become impossible to use Kushina's Hoshi no Tama, or even her mother's Hoshi no Tama before her. Both of those had been shattered long ago, and even if he put them back together, it wouldn't restore their power.

”Boss, the machine's completion will be ready in an estimated 31 hours.”

”Very well... and the charging time?” The man asked his robot.

”15 minutes.”

”Then that is how long this world has, before the cleansing will start. Be sure to collect all of the heroes that are on my list before then. My new world will only accept the best, and the genetics of heroes can't get any better. I want a diverse gene pool at my disposal for cloning.” The man gave his orders. He wanted all of those pods filled, and he wanted to begin the process of creating the next, perfect, generation of humanity. Using his hero collection as a genetic base for his experiments.

The world had less than two days before he started to purge it.

”Understood.”

The man smiled.

”I have a-”

-With Naruto-

”-bad feeling about this. First Tsuyu went missing, and now everyone seems worried about something... and Ryuko won't answer her phone... neither will Rumi... and she never rejects my calls.” Naruto said as he tried to call anyone he could. Something was weird, civilians seemed like they were in a state of unrest at the moment, and nobody was willing to say why.

Did something happen while he was out cold, something that freaked everyone out so much that people were getting off of the streets as quickly as possible.

Why were people so freaked out?

”Who is Rumi?” Mina asked as she pinched his cheek. ”Also, where are we going?” Mina questioned further.

”Seeing Super Gramps, his text message is weird... I should check up on him. Considering how people are acting, and the weird feeling I have... something bad is going on. This is like the feeling I got yesterday...” Naruto mentioned with a frown. It was like the feeling, but there was no voice in his head this time. The feeling of imminent danger was bad enough.

Mina was silent at the reminder of yesterday.

”Think... think a big villain is going to show up again?” She wasn't sure she could handle that right now.

They got to a small house, and Naruto walked inside using his copy of the key. Frowning when he right away saw signs of a fight, Naruto looked around.

”Super Gramps, you here!... I smell... burnt ketchup... The microwave.” Naruto walked over towards the microwave and looked at the ketchup stain on the ground in front of it. The smell wouldn't be burnt though if it was just a stain on the ground. He opened the microwave, and he didn't see any ketchup there either.

Mina looked into it, and because she was shorter than Naruto, she was able to see the top of the microwave.

”Ah, a message... what does I've been taken mean?” Mina asked, and she spoke the 'I've been taken' in English, a language she wasn't super familiar with.

A language Naruto was familiar with.

”I'm calling my uncle.” Naruto stated with a frown.

-With Toshinori-

”All Might... captured.”

Toshinori laid on the ground, clutching his side as his body was covered from neck to foot in a highly dense material that was so heavy, even he had trouble moving in it. The material kept growing tighter and tighter around him, and when he tried to use his strength to get out, all it did was loosen up and jump off of his body, before it would get right back on it.

His phone started to go off, and one of the men destroyed it the second he noticed it, they surrounded him and placed him inside of a mobile pod.

”Not yet I'm not!” Going into his muscle form again, having been forced out of it, he broke free for a second. He managed to break out of the pod, and though he was free, it didn't last long.

His Quirk was erased.

A portal opened up, and Eraserhead came through with an emotionless face. His Quirk active, and forcing Toshinori to stop using his own Quirk. Before he could escape, he was shot with the capturing gel that got him before, and a second pod was placed around him.

”All Might, captured again.”

The Number 1 Hero... was captured.