The Protagonist System

182 The Traditional Timeskip

Even though I was dating all five of the girls, no one at the school ever found out. The girls took turns dressing as Yuzuko each day as the outrageous fashion icon and no one gave the other four girls a second glance. It was the best undercover work I had seen in a while, hiding in plain sight, and it made me laugh that no one ever caught on. Who knew that teenage girls could be that sneaky?

After I bought us all top of the line cell phones, because I didn't want to annoy my girlfriends by cheaping out on a more generic brand or less features, our lives became a routine over the next few months. They were full of studying for middle school exams and hero school entrance exams.

I also slowly enhanced their powers over that same length of time. I had thought about giving them everything right upfront and didn't, because Rin had been right and going slow and steady would win the race without dumping all that power onto them and trying to train them to use full power right away.

Working at their own pace and using the trash beach as a training ground, one that we were cleaning up and I was repairing things to sell, gave all of us the best of both worlds. The girls became more confident in their abilities, we earned a lot of money selling everything, and they grew stronger as we grew closer together.

We still hadn't had full sex yet, although Hibiki Yuzuko was almost desperate to take that last step. We all agreed that she would be first when the time would eventually happen, because if it hadn't been for her calling out to me that first day and making her friends sit with me at lunch, none of them would be where they are now. Counted among the more popular kids in school.

We were all 15, going on 16, and the girls were becoming buff as they worked out. It wasn't too much, since they all wanted to keep their womanly figures, and their muscles only hinted at how strong they were becoming. The five of them were going to cause a huge scene when they applied at the same academy and were already experienced with working together as a team.

There were a few times that All Might showed up in the area looking for me and I greeted him and introduced him to my girlfriends. He was shocked at me wanting to put them in danger like that, with All For One out there hunting for the holder of One For All. His worry about that made me laugh, because I had been training the girls to be real heroes and showed him the training regimen.

Needless to say, All Might was very interested in my lesson plans and he spent more time talking to me about the best teaching methods than he did trying to impart his knowledge about how to use the power he was planning to pass on to me. No, he still didn't figure it out that I already took it.

I still listened to his stories, as did the girls, because they loved having access to the Number One Hero in Japan. It was a huge ego rush for them to know that such an important hero would take time out of his day to spend it with their boyfriend and them, then giving them tips that helped them work on their abilities even more.

We were about five months into our training for the hero school exams when I finally got a hit on the search spell I cast every morning. Tomura Shigaraki had finally appeared in Japan, and we all knew that wherever he was, All For One wasn't far behind.

When I told the girls it was finally time to start planning an offensive to go after the League of Villains, they had hungry looks on their faces. Was it because we were going to be breaking the law as we broke the villains, or was it because they were finally going to test their skills against actual opponents and not just each other? In either case, they were now very happy girls.

Between training on the weekends and the planning for the takedown, it was another month before we were ready. I did not tell All Might about his old foe appearing, because he was busy doing hero work and also making lesson plans (aka copying mine) for the upcoming school year at UA academy. I also didn't want him trying to interfere and possibly ruining things by calling in the cavalry and making a mess of everything.

This was going to be a nice and quick operation and only we were ever going to know about it and what really happened. At least, that was the plan anyway. We gathered together for that day's training session and brought our hero costumes. It had been really easy for me to make them whatever they wanted, thanks to transfiguration magic and my armor enchantments working again.

I even rebuilt my old Hestia Hearth armor set that was an orange-yellowish color that I had lost a very long time ago. Let me tell you, if the girls hadn't already been worked up because we were taking down a group of villains today, watching me put on my fully enchanted armor set would have had their panties soaked if they weren't already.

We went over the plan again and agreed to scout out the location, the bar where they had their main base, and then we would assault the place from two directions to take down everyone inside. Since the villains were just starting out and hadn't fully established themselves as the League of Villains yet, there should only be two or three people inside the building.

I handed out cloaks to my teammates that would make people ignore them and the girls looked horrified. I laughed and said it was only for today because we didn't want to draw any attention to ourselves.

They relaxed and put them on and Hibiki commented that she liked the style but hated that no one could see her in it. I laughed again and showed them on a map where the bar was and we used our powers to do parkour running and jumping across the rooftops.

The girls looked extremely happy as we moved like professional heroes across the city and they kept exchanging knowing looks with each other. I didn't ask what they were thinking about or planning, because whatever it was, I was sure I was going to like it.

We arrived at the location and cased out the entire block instead of just the bar and let Rin do her thing. She closed her eyes and told us everything that was going on and pinpointed the bar. She whispered someone was making drinks for a customer and someone else was cursing as they played a console game. There was also a lot of scratching of nails on dry skin every few seconds.

I nodded and laid out the assault plan and where we would enter. Mai would knock the side wall down to give the girls entrance. Hibiki would then light the walls on fire with her Bluebell Flames to distract them. Rin would confirm where they were in the room and Keiko would douse the guy playing games with her water jets. Akari's job was to subdue the guy behind the bar with her elastic powers.

It would then be my job to take out the gamer guy while he was distracted. His decay quirk was much too dangerous for the girls to handle on their own. They agreed after my cautious warning to never let the guy touch them anywhere.

We used hand signals to position ourselves around the bar and Rin signed that they were still in the same spots and we all nodded. She held up three fingers and dropped one, then another, then the last.

All five of the girls dove through the ruined wall Mai had made and I went in through the front door at the same time. The loud crashes shocked the three people inside and the customer screamed as the walls were instantly covered in bright blue fire. Shigaraki yelled as he was flooded with a deluge of water and the portal guy named Kurogiri was knocked out after being double-punched in the chest by giant fists and he smashed into the shelves of alcohol behind the bar.

I ran across the room to Shigaraki as I formed a black sword of disintegration magic in my hand and it easily slid through his chest and his heart, because of my intention to sacrifice him. It reminded me of the last time I did it, which was way back in the first world I had entered, High School DxD.

I had retaliated against Serafall Leviathan when she threatened my mother and I had gained a lot of Karmic Debt and power from her at the time. As I twisted the sword, everything greyed out and time came to a stop.

World Paused.
The being known as Tomura Shigaraki has been mortally wounded by your hand. You have gained 1,200 Karma Points for defeating a villain before he could retaliate with his power.

Blessing of Fortune activated. Do you wish to harvest Tomura Shigaraki's power as his corrupted soul is consumed and sacrificed?
Chance of success: 100%

Yes, take everything, including his Karmic Debt. I have plenty to cover it, thanks to the previous soul fragments I sacrificed.

Previous file accessed and repaired. Note of Karmic Acceptance found. Reinstating auto-accept option when target is successfully killed.
Soul sacrifice is still optional. Make Permanent? Yes / No

Yes, there's no real reason to not accept the buy-out. Free points are free points.

Choice entered and saved. Soul consumed.
Power absorbed and converted to skill: Instant Decay
A debilitating drawback has been negated and removed by Minor Regeneration

Oh, thank god. Having itchy skin because the power wasn't natural would have sucked. I thought and mentally nodded at the 'Resume World' option. The world faded back into full color and the flow of time resumed.

I let the sword of disintegration go and it quickly consumed the human body. Apparently, it took a lot more energy to consume a devil's reinforced body and that had allowed me to stop the effect and give Serafall's body to her sister, Sona.

“Portal guy is getting up.” Akari said. “I've got the customer restrained.”

“Thanks.” I said and apparated across the room and grabbed the golden collar around Kurogiri's neck. I dug my fingers into it and formed a dagger of black disintegration energy and held it over his heart. “Is there anyone else going to show up here to be recruited by All For One?”

The portal guy gave me a sneer through his purple smoke face. “I'll never tell you anything or open a portal to his hiding place, so go ahead and kill me!”

The girls around us laughed and his head turned to each of them and then ended on me.

“Why are they laughing?” Kurogiri asked.

I slid the dagger into his chest and he gasped. “You actually told me to do it and I lost the bet.”

The girls were still laughing when Kurogiri disintegrated and his portal power became a part of me. I didn't have that weird nebulous form, either. That was just him obscuring his identity with his power to stop his old classmates from easily identifying him. The basic skill was only good enough to cross the room, so I'd have to work hard to level the thing up.

I turned to look at the customer that wore a labcoat and I recognized him. “Hello, Dr. Kyudai Garaki. It's been a long time.”

The older man wearing glasses stared at me and looked confused.

“Eleven years ago when I was four, you told me that I was quirkless.” I said and his eyes widened.

“This is the guy that caused you so much pain and now this asshole is having a drink in a villain's bar?” Hibiki asked and the flames covering the walls glowed brightly and were almost blinding.

“Ooo, I think she's unlocking the next stage!” Mai said and clapped.

I watched the flames as they changed from bright blue to white and the heat increased to almost blisteringly hot. I agreed with Mai's assessment as all of the flames were pulled away from the scorched walls. Akari dropped the doctor to the floor and stepped back as the flames flowed through the air and attacked the man.

“No one hurts my Izuku and gets away with it.” Hibiki said as Akari's extended arm hugged her shoulders.

We all stood there and watched as her upgraded flames burned the man to ash in only moments. It had happened so fast that he didn't even scream in pain as he was immolated. Tears came to Hibiki's eyes and we all gathered around her to hold her.

“Thank you for protecting me.” I whispered and kissed her. “I wasn't sure how I was going to deal with that and you handled it for me. Thank you.”

Hibiki cried and held onto me. The other girls also said the same thing, that she took care of it before they could, and they were proud of her.

“Taking a life is hard, even when they're evil and you know they've done or will do horrible things.” I told them. “The responsibility is heavy; but, we are all here for you. You are not alone and all of us would have ended him for his crimes.”

“We'd be crying about it, too.” Rei said and kissed Akari's cheek. “Sometimes doing good can hurt.”

“Does... does it get easier?” Hibiki asked as Akari wiped at her friend's wet face.

“Unfortunately, yes.” I said and gave her another tender kiss. “You can start rationalizing it immediately and it will barely register that you ended someone's life. But, we'll be here for you and we will make sure you never become numb to it.”

“You... you won't let me... become a monster?” Hibiki asked.

“Never!” The other girls almost shouted and then kisses were liberally shared.

“That's what friends are for. We protect each other.” I said and they all nodded. “Now let's raid the place for loot. I'm sure they have money and things stashed around. You can't start a criminal organization without it.”

All of the girls gave me bright smiles.

“Robbing the bad guys is like the biggest irony!” Mai said and the other girls let out laughs, even Hibiki.

“If you find any evidence of the heroes and villains they've already captured or killed, bring it to me. We'll let their families know what happened to them.” I reminded them and their bright smiles changed to a determined look.

“We won't let you down, Apex.” Keiko said.

“You never could, even if you chose to quit right now.” I said and she blushed. “That goes for all of you. If you change your mind about being a hero, none of us will hold it against you.”

“We know.” Hibiki said and took a deep breath and let it out, the death she caused still weighing heavily on her. “You keep telling us that it's our decision, and it is. We also made it and you're stuck with us now.”

The other girls nodded. I smiled and gave them each a kiss. We split up and searched the entire building and found their seed money, or more accurately their operating budget, and it was a lot more money than any of us had seen in a single place. The girls all exchanged knowing looks and turned to me to give me looks full of promise.

I had to hold in my laugh at how predictable their reaction was and I stored the money. “Let's keep looking. If we don't find anything, they should have it at their lab warehouse.”

The girls nodded and we finished searching the place. We didn't find anything except partially written out plans for creating the League of Villains and how to find prospective members. We copied those notes and bundled the originals into a bag to store it. We even found the address of the warehouse and the girls gave me kisses for accurately predicting that they had one. It saved me from having to cast the spell, too.

Another trip across the city brought us to the warehouse and I warned the girls about what we would find inside. Not surprisingly, they all chose to wait outside and I entered on my own. It was even worse than I suspected as I came across vats of biomass, grafting experiments, tanks of growing Nomus, and the remains of the heroes and villains they had captured. Their equipment and costumes were discarded in the corner like trash.

I went back out and gave each member of my team and sad look. “It's horrible inside and you are not going in there.” I said and a few of them shivered. “It's also going to be a while for me to catalogue everything, assuming we want to handle the cleanup ourselves.”

The girls exchanged looks and shook their heads.

“We should call an anonymous tip in to the closest Pro Hero business.” Rei suggested and pointedly didn't look at me. “I'm feeling sick listening to what's going on in there.”

I reached out and tapped her helmet. “Use background filter #6.”

Rei didn't move for a second and then sighed. “I forgot about that one, Izuku. Thanks.”

I took her into a hug and she cuddled in. A cushioning charm on my chest plate was great for things like that. “We have been a bit busy to study your suit manuals.”

“If you weren't the best boyfriend in the world, we would have stopped studying weeks ago.” Akari huffed and the others softly laughed. “What?”

“We've been at this for 6 months!” Hibiki said. “How would stopping weeks ago be any better?”

“Because we're just reviewing now and it's all stuff we've done before.” Akari answered and crossed her arms.

“It helps with retention.” I offered. “It's also designed to make it easier for you to remember things.”

“Like I said, you're the best boyfriend. I just hate wasting time.” Akari responded.

“We have three months to keep our studies on par for middle school exams and a month after that for the hero entrance exams. You can't be complaining about it now!” Mei exclaimed.

I caught a wink from Akari when the other girls stated arguing and I nodded. She was giving me a good distraction and I wasn't going to waste it. I entered the building once more and took out my cell phone. I called my mentor and told him what I had found during a jog around the industrial sector. All Might shouted he would be there as soon as possible with the cavalry and I wasn't to touch anything.

I hung up without agreeing, because I had something to do before he showed up. I took out a wand and held it in the palm of my hand. “Point me All For One.”

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