Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 170 MUSCULAR FORGE

As soon as I didn’t sense anyone around me I did a transformation jutsu to turn into Kakashi. Taking on my Villain Slayer guise I was back to running. I knew where Muscular was going. I had the general idea of which direction he ran and I knew that the kid whose parents died was unlucky. 

Moving through the trees I jumped up to the branches to use my ninja traveling skills. It didn’t take long at all to find who I was looking for. The young kid Khota was sitting back on the ledge I had randomly ran into him the day before. He and I hadn’t had much interaction since our last discussion. It had apparently affected him since he was sitting out in the open, crying. 

I had to wait longer than I would have liked. Purple smoke began extending out in the forest like a smog. The smell of real smoke went out into the air as well. The other members of the League of Villains had stuck to the plan at least. 

“I was looking for a place with a nice view of the area,” a deep voice said from the ledge. I knew the voice. Climbing up the cliff face of the ledge I moved closer. “And what do I find waiting for me? Someone that we aren’t targeting.” 

The man was wearing a black robe that hid his face. Khota got scared by the large man. Turning to run, Muscular jumped faster than a normal person’s eyes could follow. Blocking Khota’s path. 

“Don’t be like that, kid. I was just talking. But now, I have the urge to kill,” Muscular said. The body below the robe began to writhe. His hood fell back, revealing his face. Khota recognized it. It was the very man that had killed his parents. 

His mouth twisted in a scream as he cried louder and Muscular made a move for him. Trying to push him off the ledge. Happy to just kill. Uncaring who it was. 

I made my move then. Jumping up I grabbed Khota, kicking Muscular in the face. The big man was thrown back as I moved Khota and I to the edge of the ledge. I set the small kid down. He was crying uncontrollably as he stared at Muscular. 

“You?! I know you!” Muscular said. 

“Good, then you know what I’m all about,” I said, moving to stand in front of Khota. I poured chakra out of my body. Water coalescing in 8 different points in front of my chest I froze the cone shaped water bullets instantly. 

“You killed that Stain guy. Jeez my crew would fangirl over kill-” Muscular said but was cut-off as my ice bullets shot through him. Piercing into his body, then deep into the rocks past him. Causing the path leading from the ledge to explode out from the force of the ice bullets. One of those bullets stabbed through Muscular’s forehead. Killing him instantly. 

And it was over. Anticlimactic to say the least. The man was probably strong, but I knew I could have beaten him. So there was no point to test. He wasn’t worth a page in my book. He was worth barely a paragraph. 

As he took his last breath I let out a sigh. “That’s 3 down,” I whispered. 

Shingo Kaneko, aka Landslide had told me 2 names of men that had been there when my mom was killed. 2 men he worked with doing bank robberies when he was younger. Goto Imasuji, aka Muscular. And Kai Chisaki, aka Overhaul. One of those was dead, and I only had one to go. 

There were others that helped him of course. Eiko Tamari had helped the trio escape justice. I had killed her for her actions. And of course Kaneko’s Uncle had helped Landslide escape justice. But he would be trickier. Heroes were more of a pain in the ass to kill. Muscular? No one would miss him. 

I turned to Khota. “He is dead,” I said. The boy was still delirious. Not understanding. I was considering sending him off, but I needed to save chakra for the other fights. I walked over to Muscular and tried to pull the item out of my Status Screen. 

I was tempted to use this on other people of course. But I wasn’t sure how it would react. I decided on Muscular because I had planned to kill him and his quirk was interesting. He could make himself stronger. I thought it would be interesting to see if I could strengthen myself if my quirk evolved with it. 

I clicked Y. Staring at Muscular as I did so. At first nothing happened, but then the excruciating pain assailed my body. 

I thought I had been desensitized to it by now, but no. It was Kuma’s pain test all over again. I cried out before I could stop myself. Where it felt like dull needles were stabbed into my body when my World Lasting Physique kicked in. Currently my body felt like flaming needles dipped in lemon juice stabbed into me. 

I passed out from the pain. But I was only out for a moment. Breathing in and out I was fine once more. Surprised, I had received a notification, but not the one I expected. 

“Great,” I mumbled. I had hoped for an explanation on how my quirk evolved, but no such luck. Another costume meant one for the Villain Slayer persona at least. And I was getting quests again, so that was good to see. 

“Weston,” a small voice said. I turned quickly, fear gripping me. Sensing the chakra around me I knew my transformation jutsu had ended once the Forge had done whatever it did. “Did you kill him?” The small boy had stopped crying. He stared at me and Muscular wide eyed as he stepped closer. 

I was tempted to kill him, but I didn’t want to be that kind of anti-hero. Letting out a sigh I nodded. “I did,” I admitted. “I told you my mom was killed, right? He helped kill her.” 

Khota sniffled. “He-he killed my parents,” he got out before crying again. I extended my hand and the small boy ran to me. He wailed as he pushed his face into me. All I could do was rub his back, allowing his tears to soak up into my shirt. 

It took time but he eventually calmed down a little. “Are you the Villain Slayer?” He asked. 

“I am,” I said sadly. “Like you, I was angry about someone being able to kill my mom without worry. Where most turn to be a hero to do good. I did it to seek revenge. Revenge against these monsters.” 

He nodded, still sniffling as he hid his head in my chest. “I-I won’t tell anyone,” he whispered. 

“I know, kid,” I lied. I didn’t know. But if it got out that I was the Villain Slayer it wouldn’t affect my plans. I would simply move them up. “What you need to know though, is this isn’t okay.” He looked up at me confused. “It’s not good to kill, Khota. That’s not what heroes do.” 

“But-”

“I am no hero, Khota,” I said. “This is not a good thing I am doing. This is bad and should be condemned. But it is the solution I came up with for me. To get my revenge and change the world a little.” I groaned, standing up as I looked out onto the land around us. “Sleep for now. Don’t tell anyone what you saw, alright?” My hand on his head he fell asleep with a simple Genjutsu. 

Letting out a sigh I made 2 shadow clones, regretting not making one earlier or putting him to sleep earlier. One of my clones grabbed Khota and headed to the campground. The other clone turned into Roronoa and ran off to get my weapons, and keep an eye on the extraction point for the others. I thought about what to do. 

I had wanted to run around as the Villain Slayer. I had told All Might I would be there to stop the villains. I ignored the Khota issue for now. Roronoa couldn’t disappear quite yet. He would have to make an appearance and get some cred with the League. And of course I had to show off my awesomeness to the class. 

I headed off in the direction where I heard yelling. In my normal form I would make more appearances later as I figured out where everyone else was. Moving toward danger I had dumped my weights already and was speeding through the forest. I came upon a surprising scene. 

Where I had expected to find villains fighting kids, I found one of our own fighting kids. It was Tokoyami, the shadow bird guy. The birdman himself was yelling for people to escape. Midoriya and the Tentacle arm guy from class were fighting him. 

“What’s happening?” I asked Midoriya as he was thrown away. Grabbing him out of the air I jumped us back out of his range. “A villain controlling him?” 

“No, his shadow gets stronger in darkness,” Midoriya said. “He lost control of it.” 

“Fucking amateur,” I spat as the arm guy blocked a hit. Taking the fight seriously I jumped to Tokoyami.

“Run, Weston!” The birdman yelled. I closed the distance dodging under a claw-like shadow. Hitting Tokoyami in the gut he spit up some bile and was knocked out. The shadow attached to his back disappeared as his owner lost consciousness. 

“Stop playing with shadow puppets,” I told the 2 as I picked up Tokoyami. Throwing him to the arm guy I ordered, “What happened? I thought Aizawa was getting everyone away?” 

“He tried, but the poison smog rolled in,” Midoriya said, pointing to the purple smoke. “Momo made masks, but we all got separated trying to escape it.” I nodded, hoping someone could deal with that bad guy. 

“I overheard one of the bad guys,” I said. “They are after me, Bakugo, and Ragdoll. Anyone seen the other 2?” 

“You? Why?” Midoriya asked. 

“No idea. You seen them? Questions later. Now is action time,” I ordered. 

“No idea,” Midoriya said but that was cut short as a huge glacier appeared behind him. 

“Let’s go bring Shoto into this crap,” I said. “Need to gather people up. You got Tokoyami, Tentacle?” 

“Yeah,” he said. I really needed to learn these peoples names. We ran into the forest to find Bakugo and Shoto fighting the Gimp. His name was Moonfish for some reason but he still looked like the Gimp. Black leather clothes and straps around his body only his mouth was uncovered. He could shoot blades out of his teeth, which was a pretty lame power in my book. But he was giving Shoto and Bakugo trouble. To each their own. He was currently way in the air out of range of the other top students from UA. 

“Bakugo!” Midoriya yelled, giving away our position like an idiot.

“Fucking hell, Deku,” I growled at him. Running to Bakugo and Shoto I didn’t hesitate. “Bakugo time for softball!” I yelled. 

“What?!” He yelled but I grabbed his collar and belt. 

“Blow that fucker up!” I yelled, twisting and throwing him at Moonfish. Bakugo cursed me as he flew through the air. But he grabbed on and started exploding the Gimp. Making him drop them to the ground as Bakugo kept exploding him. 

“Jeez, that worked?” Shoto asked as we ran to them. 

“Always does,” I said. “Can’t reach someone? Throw a motherfucker at him,” I said.

“Weston, I’m going to kill you!” Bakugo growled.

“Later, you and I are going to get kidnapped or some shit,” I said. I kicked the Gimp in the gut for good measure. He was good and knocked out as he spit up blood. 

“What? Why?” Bakugo yelled, but apparently it was his normal tone. He always yelled. He was as bad as Asta in Black Clover. I stopped thinking for a second. Black Clover sounded like a cool place to go to. I needed to use my World ID asap to see if there was one. It might be helpful to get a spell grimoire. 

“They got boners from us at the Sports Festival or something, no idea,” I said. “Let’s start saving people and work our way to the campground.” 

There was some more arguing but I eventually got us moving. Once we were going I discreetly made a clone and made him go with the group. Watching them leave I needed to make more appearances but wasn’t sure where to go. I decided it was time to heal. The night had only just begun. 

Clearing my mind I focused on the water around me. Back in the day I needed my Jitte to bring it out. After enough practice I learned to sense the moisture in the air around me. The serene and calm water entered into me, granting me a huge burst of energy as I was healed. Letting out a sigh the invincibility of Kame Mode filled me and passed. I was ready to go find another fight but was stopped as I heard Midoriya yell. 

“Give Kacchan and Weston back!” He said further away. I walked into the forest to see that the group I had left were yelling at Mr. Compress. The magician man held 2 small blue orbs about the size of a marble. I cursed, my fucking clone and exploding boy had been compressed into balls. I guessed my clone had thought he was safe with the group and hadn’t used Observation Haki. That or Mr. Compress was faster than I thought.

“I don’t think so,” Mr. Compress admitted. “Now good day.” He said and jumped away like a ninja. Leaping from branch to branch as he disappeared quickly I felt my hands tied. I had to go save myself.