76: 𝙸𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚞𝚖
The city was quiet.
Zel was gone and Nova had climbed the stars to the balcony of her house in Hosu. The sky was a dark navy blue, with the occasional star peeking through the light pollution of the world around her. The buildings of the city Nova sat on the edge of was alight with different shades of light. From red to gold and everything in-between.
Nova lit a cigarette. The last in the box she had snuck to her internship. Which was the final box from her interaction with that black haired fellow a week or so ago. But Nova needed a cigarette now more than ever. She felt the stress of the day leave with every puff of toxic smoke that left her lips.
She hoped Zel wouldn't show up and spot her, she wasn't sure what the woman's views on smoking were... But she was sure she wouldn't approve of the action.
The cigarette burned down until Nova could feel the heat of the ember between her fingertips. She stomped it out and waited until it cooled before tucking it into her pocket. Planning to dispose of it somewhere safer.
There was an echo. Nearby the house that just barely caught Novas attention. It seemed to be the muffled sound of talking in the distance. She could just barely hear with sounded to be human dialogue, but wasn't nearly close enough to know what the words actually were. They grew and shrank in volume, like a passionate voice changing from a whisper to a yell. Nova frowned slightly as the voice reached it's peek. Three words breaking through the muffled layer of distance.
"I am Ingenium!"
Nova glanced in the direction of the sounds. Suddenly interested.
Ingenium? That was the name of Iida's father... And his brother. Their hero name that was passed on, but... Both of the men were retired. At least the older brother was close to it after that attack...
That attack in Hosu...
Nova suddenly had a strong feeling of unease. The attack in Hosu... This very city... The same city...
"Iida is going to one in Hosu with a hero called Manual!"
She remembered Midoriya's words suddenly. Iida took an internship in Hosu... The same city his brother was attacked in a few days prior... The same city Nova was in, listening to a strong voice declare himself to be Ingenium...
No it couldn't be... She must have misheard. These thoughts that Nova was having... This idea of a fictional revenge plan... This was nothing like Iida at all. Iida was a stern rule followed, he was loyal to heroics. To helping people, To... To His family...
To defeating villainy...
No... He wouldn't. He wouldn't seek out revenge. He wouldn't break the rules in such a way, he loved rules. He wouldn't hunt down a villain and execute vigilante justice all on his own... Maybe he brought his mentor with him, that sounded just a little more accurate...
Nova's stomach turned in worry and fear. Her throat burned, and it wasn't just from that final cigarette.
She stood, trembling. She knew she must've misheard, but she figured it wouldn't hurt to check things out... She walked off the balcony, in her surprise she hadn't noticed that a new light had started flickering over the city of Hosu.
The light of distant fire.
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The streets of Hosu were alight.
Fired started from the mysterious nomu attacks spread everywhere. Any pro available was dedicating their time to these incidents. But somewhere farther... Deeper in the shadows away from the fire were two individuals.
Stain...
A hero killer of bloodshed, his hands stained by the blood of countless victims. A simple interpretation of the name.
And Ingenium...
A boy taking the name of an adult. One that didn't quite fit him in this moment. A boy with a name meant to inspire hope and relief. Spoken in a time of shallow revenge.
They both in this moment had the same idea in mind. The same vendetta with very different circumstances.
Each wanted to cleanse the world of what they viewed as evil... As stains in this society. Each set in their ways and willing to get their hands dirty...
Each very... Very wrong.
But as Ingenium laid on the ground, the paralysis of Stains quirk in full effect, with his sword implanted In his shoulder...
A third player entered the scene. One innocent and more afraid than either vigilante. One who could very possibly be The type of hero Stain was seeking and...
The hero Ingenium needed.
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Panic coursed through Nova's veins. She didn't know what to do, the moment she had gotten close enough to the fight to hear what was truly going on... To hear that her outlandish assumption was actually right...
She called the police.
She told them that the hero killer was attacking a student, and where they were. Unfortunately there were other attacks happening throughout Hosu, who had a notably limited police staff. Which was one of the reasons there was so much crime there.
The operator didn't seem rushed, but Nova had heard about several false reports of people thought to be the hero killer. Who were merely fakes or very minor villains. Nova likely didn't stand out from the panicked citizens of the city.
She hung up the phone, hands trembling. This was bad, so bad. She didn't know what to do, her quirk was extremely weak. Although her body was on painkillers her quirk had yet to bounce back. Of course it wouldn't, it hadn't even been an entire day since the incident with the buildings.
She called Zel next, running back to the house. She hated herself for leaving Iida for even a minute, but she couldn't do this all on her own.
Zel didn't answer.
Nova stuffed her phone in her pocket with the two burnt out cigarettes and ran to the closet area. She couldn't stop shaking as she threw the door open, her gear hung inside. Nova quickly snapped a part of it off. Taking the two swords from the rest of the gear.
She couldn't just run in there with no quirks or weapons or backup. That would doom them both, but maybe... She'd had a fighting chance if she was armed.
She found herself wishing Zel had a firearm or something. Though even if she did Nova would have no idea how to use it. But she did know how to wield swords. Even before Zel trained her with it, she had taken a fencing class in one of her middle schools. Though it was fairly brief, as were all of her attempts to join extracurriculars and fencing obviously didn't always translate to real life sword fighting... it still taught her how to handle a long blade. Besides Nova seemed to have a natural inclination to weapons like swords and knifes, the same way she was so good at fixing engines. It possibly had something to do with the metal she was so drawn too.
She darted out of the house again, not even closing the door in her haste. She adjusted her hold on the swords and slowed her pace as she grew closer to the alleyway. She pleaded mentally for some sign of life from Iida. Even just his voice, to tell her she hadn't left him to his death before even laying eyes on him. She ran and made the calls the second she heard confirmation on what was happening, fearing Stain would hear her and cut her off before she could get help.
But now she feared she made a mistake. Iida could be dead already and it would be all her fault. She stood and slowly peeked into the mouth of the alley. She saw three figures, two in the ground and one standing over them... The standing one had a blade, stabbing into another with familiar armor...
Iida.
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