Chapter Text
Ryuko was sitting in the office of her agency, going over multiple reports of the incident that happened a week ago. To say what happened a week ago was a clusterfuck would be an understatement. 20 heroes dead, 14 wounded, and one MIA, not to mention the extremely high civilian casualties. All because a strange portal had opened up in the middle of Musutafu prefecture, releasing a horde of disfigured monsters that just started killing everyone. If it wasn't for the acts of Miruko, who defeated what looked like something that came straight from a horror novel. She knew that the whole prefecture would have been wiped out before reinforcements arrived.
The creature was somehow holding the portal open, but when it was defeated, the portal became unstable, and it ended up sucking everything in, which included Miruko. Now there was a manhunt going on to hopefully find the culprits behind this, as well as to see if they could find the rabbit heroin. They could not capture any of the creatures, but if she were right, they weren't going to get anything from them anyway. From the reports, they were nothing but mindless beasts with the sole focus of destroying anything in front of them. The HPSC had deemed it too dangerous for them to be kept alive anyway. So, at this point, keeping them alive was a moot point. But because of this, very little information was gathered about these strange creatures that appeared out of nowhere.
Ryuko hated herself for not being there. If it wasn't for that goddamn hero rankings ceremony that she should have skipped, just like her friend Rumi did. She would have been there right beside her, and she would not have ended up missing. Ryuko rubbed her tired eyes as she attempted to shake those thoughts away. Ryuko knew that Rumi would have slapped her already for thinking those stupid thoughts. God, she needed sleep; if it wasn't for her draconic stamina, she would have collapsed from exhaustion by now.
So, getting up from her desk, she went to the bedroom that she had in her agency for occasions just like this. But just as she opened the door, alarms went off in her agency. So with a growl of frustration, she ran to her secretary's desk to see what the fuck was happening. But it was as she was crossing in front of a window that she spotted a large red and black portal that was twice the size of the first one in the exact same spot as the original. Wasting no time, she rushed out of her agency, then transformed into her dragon form and flew off.
It was a good thing, too, because a horde of disfigured monsters was just starting to rush out of the portal. Landing on the ground, she immediately started hacking through the horde. HPSC already declared these creatures to be killed on-site, and even though she did not agree with most things that the HPSC does, she could agree with this decision. These monsters were way too dangerous to be kept alive and way too strong to be contained by conventional methods.
At least the heroes did not need to worry about civilian casualties this time since the whole area was quartered off and declared a crime scene. And since the buildings in the area were practically beyond repair already, she did not need to worry about property damage either. This allowed her to deal with these monsters with no restraint, which was nice for a change. Usually, she had to be very careful with her dragon form and rarely was able to cut loose like she is right now.
Her thoughts were cut off by a superheated ball of plasma smashing straight into her side, which sent her through several buildings. She knew any other hero would have died due to such an attack, but thanks to her Draconic armored scales, she was luckily able to tank that blast. But she knew she could not do it again. Getting up, she looked at the creature and saw that it was the exact same thing that Miruko had fought before.
The creature in front of her had cybernetic augmentations that were extensive, with the only visible remnants of the original creature being its head, right arm, and half of its upper torso. The rest of its body is mechanical, including a large cannon, a twin-bladed chainsaw arm, and a set of thrusters that allow it to move through the air. It was interfaced with a sled, a hovertank-like apparatus equipped with dual heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, and a shield generator that protected the main body from harm.
Guessing that this creature was the one holding the portal open, she charged forward in the attempt to end the fight quickly. But the creature fires its arm cannon again as well as the rocket launcher that was attached to its lower half at her, forcing her to swerve out of the way. But with a twist of her body and a swing of her tail, she was able to smack the creature into the side of a building, covering it in smoke. But before the smoke could clear, the creature fired another barrage of its arm cannon, as well as machine guns and rockets, at her, causing her to take flight in order to dodge. But that was a mistake since a second one of the creatures slammed its arm cannon into her side, causing her to crash back down into several buildings.
Attempting to get back up, she could not help but notice that there weren't just one or two, not even three, but four of these monstrosities. And all of them were aiming their weapons at her, preparing to kill her. Knowing that there was no way she could dodge their next attack, she braced herself for what was to come. But before the creatures could fire their weapons, she saw a blur of movement and a figure impacting one of the creatures on the side of the head, causing it to explode in a shower of gore. The creatures turned to the newcomer. But the figure just jumped in front of them and slammed what appeared to be a big-ass double-barreled shotgun into the side of one of its heads before pulling the trigger and blowing its head off. And with the flexibility of a gymnast, she roundhouse kicked the second one, which ended up decapitating the creature. Which left the only other one remaining, which ended up being tackled by a giant armored behemoth right into a building. Getting up, she could finally make out one of the figures that had just saved her.
It was a woman of around 153 cm tall wearing white armor with purple highlights. Blue runic symbols decorated it as well as the blood and gore of the monsters that she just Slayed. The woman bounded over to her and tackled her into a hug while she was still in her dragon form, and to her surprise, the force was strong enough to bring her to the ground. This happened so fast, and due to her injured state, Ryuko had no time to react to it. Shocked at the hug from this random woman who just saved her and the strength behind it, Ryuko did not move. But it was what the woman said next that shocked her even further.
Drawn By Rowen6
"Ryuko, oh my God, I'm so glad to see you!" The armored woman said as she cried out in relief. This caused Ryuko to freeze up because she recognized that voice.
"Rumi, is that really you?" Ryuko asked as she attempted to hold in her tears. Jumping off her friend, the armored woman took off her helmet and revealed that indeed it was Rumi. But she was slightly older and more rugged than before. Rumi's long white hair was now cut short into a bob cut, and she had a noticeable scar on her chin.
"It's great to see you too, Ryuko, but are you okay? You took a pretty nasty hit from those bastards." Rumi said, now seeing the scorch marks on her clothes and scales as well as the blood that was dripping from the corner of her mouth. She knew how hard those bastards could hit, and the fact that she wasn't wearing anything specially designed to handle such abuse made her worried.
"I'm fine, just a couple of broken ribs and burns, nothing I can't handle. But where have you been for the past week, and why do you look older?" Ryuko asked, confused.
"Ahh, a week, huh? I guess VEGA's calculations were right." Rumi said to herself, amused.
But before Ryuko could ask what she meant by that, the sounds of a large explosion grabbed their attention, and before Ryuko knew it, Rumi was dashing off towards it. Taking to the sky, Ryuko attempted to follow her friend, but Rumi was moving five times as fast as she had before. Looking where she was heading, she could see the portal widening as a massive figure stepped through that was twice the size of All Might. The creature's appearance consists of a reddish-pink complexion, muscular, hairy goat-like legs ending in hooved feet, a muscular upper body, a goat-like snout, two black outward-curving horns located on the sides of its head, and some type of device on its back.
But what truly scared her was the fact that it just punted Endeavor with a force that shattered the buildings around it. Endeavor's mangled body flew through the air as she caught him. Luckily, she could tell the man was still alive but unconscious. She could also tell that there was no way that she could take an attack like that. Hell, she doubted that even All Might could take an attack like that and not come out unscathed. So it was to her great surprise that a mountain of a man wearing green armor caught the Beast's punch and proceeded to throw him over his shoulder towards Rumi. Who pulled out a machine gun and started shooting at the creature's neck, which weakened it enough for her to decapitate it with a single kick to its forehead. As the creature died, the portal became unstable.
But thanks to the man being seemingly not affected by the pull of the portal's power and Rumi's new speed. They both were able to prevent any other heroes from being sucked into the portal before it closed. But the sight of the absurd amount of brutality that her friend and that man were dishing out shocked her. Especially when it seemed like the two had been fighting for decades together, which, in her mind, couldn't be possible. As they proceeded to brutally kill the rest of the creatures until there was nothing left but piles of gore. Ryuko could not help but wonder what the fuck happened to her friend.
One Week Earlier
Rumi was barely able to defeat that cybernetically enhanced creature. After she defeated the fucker, she ended up in a place that she did not recognize after being sucked into that portal. Rumi was quite stupefied by the sight in front of her. The place was strangely beautiful; it had a lot of rocky terrain with a climate similar to her home. There was a lot of craggy landscape with numerous mountains and rocky formations. The sky has a blue-green hue, sometimes lit by streaks of green lightning. A city in the distance that was composed of various structures with unique architecture that seemed to be extremely old and were obviously abandoned long ago dotted the landscape. The area around the environment is dominated by conifer trees, grasses, and moss-covered rocks.
But what made it worse was that everywhere she could see were the same creatures that attacked Musutafu. As soon as she realized this, they spotted her and began to charge. Not one to ever back down from a fight, the rabbit hero Miruko decided to meet them head-on. She fought, kicked, and smashed her way through the unending horde. But since she was already exhausted as well as injured from her previous fight, she really couldn't do much before she was forced to retreat. After finding a cave in the mountainside, she rested and let her wounds heal. After she was all rested up and healed, which took a couple of days. She went out again in an attempt to get past the unending horde in the hopes of getting into the city. But yet again, she was forced to retreat back to her cave. It was her third attempt, where she realized that she might have bitten off more than she could chew.
After being slammed into the ground harshly by a charging creature with pink scales and hide. She looked up at the incoming horde and the newcomer. Decapitating some of them with a single kick, she attempted to slam her foot down on the pink creature, but as she did, her foot nearly broke on the creature's armored hide. Jumping back in an attempt to get her bearings, she did not realize that a second one of those pink abominations was charging at her. Blindsided, she took the charge full on and was slammed into the rock face. Unable to move her body, she looked up at the incoming horde with a defiant glare and prepared herself for her death.
But her death never came, because a mountain of a man wearing green armor charged through the demon-infested horde, firing various weapons and tearing them apart from limb to limb with his bare hands. Rumi watched, amazed, as this man tore through the horde with such skill and brutality that she doubted even All Might could match it. As the Horde was finally cleared out, the last thing that Rumi saw before passing out was the green-armored warrior approaching her.
An Hour Later
The Doom Slayer was in his camp, preparing some rations for his guest. Thanks to his hammer space, the rations that he stored there before he was blessed by the Seraphim haven't aged a day and are still edible.
But it was as he was preparing them that his mind started to drift toward the woman that he rescued. Somehow, he recognized the woman, but he did not know where. Looking at her outfit, which was covered in blood, was when he remembered. Opening his hammerspace, he pulled out something he had kept with him since the beginning. Pulling out an old and ragged yellow backpack, he opened it, revealing multiple books and some pencil cases. Pulling out one of them, labeled hero analysis for the future v12, he opened it. Flipping through the pages very carefully, he got to the page he wanted and compared it. It was then that his mouth opened and he spoke up.
"Vega, analyze her." Doom Slayer said as he rasped out due to the lack of use of his vocal cords. Vega was quite surprised at the fact that the Doom Slayer spoke to him. For the past 200 years that he has been with him, not once has he said a word, but he did as he asked. After a few seconds of scanning, Vega spoke up.
"My scans are complete; the subject is 22 years old, an adult human. But her DNA has gone through some type of mutation that seems to be genetic. There are also trace amounts of Argent energy in her DNA. If my calculations are correct, one of her ancestors, at least 200 years ago, was exposed to a unique strand of Argent energy. That altered their genome, causing mutations that were eventually passed down to this individual. There's also evidence of temporal displacement, which means that she was recently transported here, and if I am correct, she is also from another universe." Vega said, which only confirmed what the Doom Slayer suspected. But he was quite concerned and curious that argent energy was somehow involved in the evolutionary process of quirks.
Memories of a time eons ago flashed through his head. A time when he admired heroes and loved to analyze them. A time when he was a boy before being whisked away to another dimension, where quirks didn't exist. A time when he was known as Izuku Midoriya, a quirkless middle schooler with dreams of becoming a hero. Other memories surged through his mind as he reminisced. But eventually, they were cut off by the sounds of rustling beside him. Quickly and carefully putting his stuff back into his bag and then into his hammerspace. He waited patiently for the woman to wake up.
Opening her eyes, Rumi quickly realized that she wasn't in the cave that she had been camping in for the past week, but instead in some type of ruined building. Attempting to move, she quickly realized that everything hurt. But that didn't stop her from sitting up. After all, pain was an old friend of hers, and like a good friend, it wouldn't stop her from doing what she needed to do. As she sat up, she was finally able to see the armored figure that saved her. The armored man looked like he was built like a tank, especially since he was armored like one. The man was sitting around the campfire, looking at her. But as she looked back at him, she could see his emerald green eyes staring back through the blue-tinted visor of his helmet. They looked at each other for a good minute as they stared each other down, neither one of them knowing what to say. But thankfully, it was the voice of Vega that broke through the silence.
"Slayer, I have analyzed her condition, and besides a couple of broken bones and a concussion, she is fine. I have also analyzed her DNA, and like you, if done right, she could gain strength from Argent Energy by slaying demons, which will strengthen her and heal her wounds. We will have to Mithridatism her slowly to Argent Energy by slaying demons and letting the Praetor Suit absorb some of the energy and stockpiling it. We will then slowly give that energy to her over several days until she builds up a decent immunity to it, so then she can safely absorb the Argent energy from slain demons. We're also going to have to find a way to stabilize her when the stockpile energy she absorbs reaches critical mass, though." The Voice of Vega spoke out, clearing the silence in the room and shocking Rumi. This caused her to shoot up from her sitting position into a standing one. Which she quickly realized was a terrible idea since her leg was obviously broken, causing her to fall back down onto her ass.
Moving quicker than she could even comprehend or react to. The Slayer grabbed her before she could hit the ground and slowly placed her back onto the makeshift bed. He checked over her wounds quickly to see if anything was wrong, and when he found none, he moved back to the campfire and sat down. Once he sat down, Rumi got out of her shock, and once that happened, she asked the question that had formed in her mind after hearing Vega's voice.
"Who the fuck was that, and what the fuck are you saying?" Rumi said in accented Japanese, her tone aggressive. She did not like being seen as weak, and she definitely does not like feeling like it either. This was the part where Vega realized that this woman did not know English and only spoke Japanese.
"Slayer, it appears that she is speaking Japanese, and if I'm right, her accent and her vulgar speech pattern indicate that she came from either a poor or harsh background. This is further evidenced by her body language and her posture. Would you like me to translate for you, or would you prefer that I just converse with her and explain the plan?" Vega asks curiously, which seems only to make Rumi’s more anxious. But Izuku didn't really need him to translate since he already knew the language, even though he was a little rusty in it. So after the Doom Slayer waved off Vega's offer, Vega spoke up again.
"I apologize; we were not aware that you spoke Japanese. I am Vega, an artificial intelligence. I am also an assistant and voice for the Doom Slayer." Vega said in perfect Japanese, which caused Rumi to go wide-eyed.
"Wait, so you're a robot, and what do you mean you're the voice for the Doom Slayer? Does he not know Japanese or something?" Rumi asked, baffled and confused at Vega's words. She was no technical expert, but she was pretty sure making an intelligent robot was currently out of their grasp. And who was this doom slayer? She had never heard of that hero's name before, but she had to admit it fit him. But she was taken out of her thoughts by Vega speaking up again.
"I am unsure if the Doom Slayer knows Japanese. But the Doom Slayer rarely speaks, due to it being difficult for him due to the difficulty in using his vocal cords. But I have deciphered his body language and facial expressions so I may understand him." Vega said, causing Izuku to raise an eyebrow at that. Did he really decipher his body language so he knew what he was thinking?
"But it seems like the Slayer does know Japanese, and yes, Slayer, I did decipher your body language to know what you were thinking." Vega said, causing the Doom Slayer to grumble and to make Rumi laugh.
"He's got you peged, doesn't he? At least I don't have to learn a totally new language." Rumi said, still laughing, but her words caused Izuku to grunt in agreement. After she calmed down, she decided to ask a new question.
"So what's the plan? I can tell that you have been here for a while due to how your camp looks. This means you probably know what's happening more than I do and most likely have a plan." Rumi asked, tilting her head in curiosity, which caused one of her ears to flop lazily on one side. This action of hers made the Doom Slayer want to pet her adorable ears since it reminded him so much of his old pet Daisy. But he quickly stamped that thought process down as soon as it popped up.
"You are correct, we do have a plan, and it starts with us Mithridatism you to Argent Energy. You see, Argent energy is quite hazardous to organic life, but luckily for you, your DNA structure can adapt to it. The Slayer will have to go out and kill demons and harvest their argent energy. Which will be stored in his Praetor Suit, where we can safely administer small doses of argent energy to your system until you build up an immunity to it. If done correctly, this could increase your speed, strength, regenerative capability, and longevity. Even though you will never be on the same level as the Doom Slayer, you will be pretty close. This will take several years to complete, but only a couple of days to get your resistance up enough for it not to be a health concern. But within a couple of years, though, you will hit critical mass, and your body may begin to break down. But do not worry; I am calculating a plan for that as we speak." Vega said, causing Rumi to look at him in shock.
"Wait, are you telling me those things out there are demons, like, actual demons from hell type of shit?" Rumi asks, gobsmacked.
"Yes, that is correct, although we are not in Hell currently. We're currently on a planet that was colonized by the Argenta people eons ago. This planet was used as a military research and production facility. The Argenta people lost this planet to the demons, and it is now overrun with all of demonkind. Now I think you should eat since the Doom Slayer has taken great care in preparing you some rations." Vega said as Izuku handed her a bowl of soup. Rumi sat there in silence as she ate the food that she was given. But she could not help but wonder, what the fuck did she get herself into, and how does she get herself out of it?