Chapter 25
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Sorry about the delay, I'm not at home. Here's 3,500 words.
Everyone seems to forget that Tanya was a normal and loyal soldier for her adopted country as she rose in the ranks, until she gained command. It was then that she started showing everyone what she was really like.

Izuku woke up about twenty minutes after collapsing in the arena.

“Hey, sleepyhead. You're finally awake.” Tanya said from the bed next to him.

“I feel like crap.” Izuku said and tried to sit up, let out a groan, and laid back down.

“By the way, don't move.” Tanya said with a laugh.

“You couldn't tell me that before I tried?” Izuku asked.

“No. You wouldn't learn not to.” Tanya said.

Izuku laughed a little. “Ugh, even laughing hurts.”

“Well, you are nearly completely covered in Tanya administered fist-sized bruises.” Tanya joked.

Izuku laughed. “You're not much better.”

“I can take more punishment than you any day, you wuss.” Tanya said with a manic grin, then they both laughed.

“I'm glad to see you're both feeling better.” Recovery Girl said.

“You mean relatively, right?” Izuku asked and the old woman laughed.

“You both have quick recovering abilities. I won't bother using my full quirk on you.” Recovery Girl said and kissed Tanya's hand, then walked over to Izuku and kiss his hand as well. “That should take care of your aches and pains for a few hours. When you got to sleep tonight, use the bruise ointment.”

“Thank you.” Izuku said and sat up without groaning. “I think we can make it to the award ceremony without falling sleep.”

Tanya nodded and sat up as well. “We need to find you a replacement track suit first. You are not going out there dressed like that.”

“They've already seen it.” Izuku said with a grin and Tanya smacked his arm.

“I have a suit for you.” All Might said as he entered the room.

“Hey, All Might.” Izuku said and took the track suit. “Thanks.”

“You were very impressive out there today.” All Might said, proudly.

“It was Tanya's idea to show off all of our hard work.” Izuku said and finished getting dressed.

“I think you both have garnered a lot of attention.” All Might said and looked at Tanya. “Especially Miss Degraff.”

“Only because everyone assumed I could only fly and use toy guns, even though Izuku has been telling them differently since the start of the school year.” Tanya said and stood up.

All Might nodded. “Yes, we have all underestimated you.”

“You have no idea.” Izuku said with a knowing smile and took Tanya's hand. “Shall we?”

“We shall.” Tanya said and walked out of the room. They were soon outside and the crowd started cheering as they appeared on all of the jumbo screens around the arena. They walked over to the stage with All Might behind them and saw Todoroki on the second place spot with Bakugo on the third place spot.

Izuku and Tanya exchanged looks and then looked at All Might.

“Don't worry.” He whispered and waved at the stairs behind the first place podium.

“Wait, both of us?” Izuku asked, surprised.

“Shut up and don't question it.” Tanya whispered and he nodded. The both of them went up the short stairs and Izuku let her hand go to put an arm around her waist before he waved to the crowd. They all cheered and hollered, so Tanya did the same thing and hugged Izuku with an arm and waved. The crowd cheered even louder.

“That's right, everyone!” All Might said into a microphone and pointed to the both of them. “Congratulations to the winners of this year's UA Sports Festival, Izuku Midoria and Tanya Degraff!”

The crown roared and applauded loudly.

“In second place is Shoto Todoroki!” All Might said and the cheers were lessened. “Third place is Katsuki Bakugo!”

The cheers died even further.

“Would you like to hear from the champions?” All Might asked and the crowd cheered loudly. He walked over to the podium and handed Izuku the microphone. “Have at it, Young Midoria.”

Izuku gave Tanya a look and she nodded. He took a deep breath and put the microphone by his mouth. “I want to thank my partner in all things for her help in making me what I am today.”

There were a lot of 'aw' sounds from the crowd.

“As you saw, she can kick my ass if I don't listen to her.”

That made a lot of people laugh.

“It's been a trying time the last while, ever since I developed my quirk.” Izuku said. “It took meeting a special someone before I manifested for the first time and I can never thank them enough for what they've done for me.”

The crowd cheered and All Might successfully hid his proud smile behind his normal beaming one.

“Now that I have made a fool of myself, you can listen to my better half.” Izuku said and gave Tanya the microphone.

Tanya whacked the back of his head and everyone heard the 'ow' Izuku let out, which made everyone laugh again. “If you don't already know, I was a quirk birth.”

The gasps across the entire stadium echoed around the entire place.

“I had it great for the first ten years of my life, until the Hero Massacre and the masked villain killed my mother and his henchmen killed my father.” Tanya said.

The entire crowd was completely silent.

“I was only ten at the time and reacted in anger. I did something that the government deemed bad, namely killing my father's murderer and trying to kill the masked villain. They tossed me aside because of that and pulled my automatic recommendation to UA and gave my scholarship away.”

A collective 'no' came from them, which kind of surprised Tanya, so she went with it.

“They also kicked me out of the military academy that I was the top student of and cut off my family's government funding, leaving me all alone with no family, my parents to bury, and my life completely wrecked.”

There were a lot of crying people in the audience now.

“Don't worry, they'll pay for what they did.” Tanya said and saw a lot of people nodding. “It took some hard work after that, and things kind of worked out.” She could almost feel everyone's attention on her. “I started my delivery service and eventually found a great woman to take over being my guardian.”

“I love you!” A lone woman's voice shouted from the visitor's stands and a few people laughed.

“Thanks, Miss Jusina” Tanya said and waved to her. “I also started in a normal middle school and met a very special someone. He was shy, bullied, and was so afraid to talk that he always mumbled.”

“DEKU!” Bakugo shouted and a few people booed him.

“He's gotten better, thanks to therapy.” Tanya said.

“Which one?” Someone shouted.

“Both of them.” Tanya said and more people laughed. “Anyways, I started making money and my life changed again. Is it for the better? I don't know. If I still had my parents, I might not have met Izuku until UA, or at all. Things could have been so different... and now they are different in another way. Izuku and I have been through a lot together. After Izuku and I cleaned up Dagobah Beach...”

“Thank you!” A bunch of people said at the same time.

“We kept training and working hard to get into UA. I was always motivated to do well and I found someone else who was as well. I knew we could kick ass and get in to our chosen hero academy, then we did.” Tanya said and a lot of people cheered. “Our knowledge and experience grows every day and we dealt with the USJ incident like pro heroes that are twice our age.” She said with pride. “Now look at where we are. First place in the Sports Festival!”

“YEAH!” The crowd cheered.

“Where will we be tomorrow? Next month?” Tanya asked and let them think about it. “We're going to keep getting better, more powerful, and no one is going to stop us from showing the world what we can do.” She looked up slightly into the sky. “No. One.”

The crowd cheered and Tanya handed the microphone back to All Might. He looked stunned and she refrained from giving him a manic grin, because she knew what he was thinking. She had admitted to killing people, on live television, and no one was disgusted by it. Some even cheered for her.

Tanya and Izuku waved at the crowd and they cheered and cheered.

*

That night, the government agent that had previously handled Tanya's case, Annuni, stared at the television at the replay of Tanya Degraff's little speech. He had known it was a mistake to get rid of her after her casual threats to himself and the people he worked for. Her also admitting that they had pissed off someone that had no problem killing them for it, made him shiver then, and he shivered again right now.

His cell phone rang and he checked the ID before he answered it. “I thought I made it clear to never call me.”

“Yes, and I normally wouldn't.” The man's stern voice responded. “I need you to...”

“I've been retired for five years.” Annuni said.

“No one retires from our job.”

“I did. Very specifically.” Annuni said. “I'm not even allowed inside the national bank that's government run after what I did.”

The stern man's voice sighed. “You have to get her under control.”

Annuni barked a laugh. “She could have been.”

“Annuni...”

“She literally told me she would have been our best operative if we hadn't cut her loose. It's my fault that I didn't realize that until long after I left the hospital.” Annuni said. “If you just watched what I did, you saw her physically tear apart an entire stadium of concrete and fight, hand to hand, with a kid that could put All Might to shame in a few years.”

The stern man let out a low hum.

“I warned you that if you tried to interfere with her at all, she would come for you.”

“There's no way she would know who I am or who worked for us.” The stern man responded.

Annuni laughed. “Are you kidding me right now?”

“What do you mean?”

“Everyone in the office that doesn't know her secret, uses her delivery service.”

“No, they wouldn't be that irresponsible to...”

“...especially your personal secretary.” Annuni interrupted. “How else do you think your deliveries get where they are going overnight? She uses the 'guaranteed delivery in twenty minutes or it's free' service at least once a week.”

“How do you know that?” The stern man asked, clearly angry.

“I'm retired, not stupid. I needed to keep an eye on how Tanya would find us all.” Annuni said. “Unfortunately, the company sent me my retirement and severance package by express delivery. She's actually getting pretty tall now that she's fifteen.”

“We need to immediately change our shipping policies. She can't track us if...”

“She already has our home addresses, safe house locations, and fake storefronts and businesses.” Annuni informed him and the stern man cursed for several minutes. “I told you, the office staff has been using her for deliveries for years. She has all of our addresses and can find any of us.”

“Then I'm retiring and moving.” The stern man said.

Annuni laughed. “Good luck telling your superiors that you're afraid of a little girl coming after you for what she admitted happening to her on national television.”

“She still can't use normal guns until she gets a firearm license, which we've blocked. Tanya Degraff can never own a firearm.” The stern man said with satisfaction.

“You are an idiot.” Annuni said and the man cursed at him. “Who told you that she would register the license, or the guns for that matter, under her own name?”

“She can't carry a firearm registered to someone else.”

“Ha! Have you even looked at the permits?” Annuni asked. “Carry permits don't have picture ID, neither do the licenses and firearm registrations. It's too expensive to implement because of all the police and guard personnel that would need them and also for the government to keep track of. As long as it comes back valid, she can do whatever she wants when she's of age and has a hero license.”

The stern man was quiet for a minute. “Then I'll start to...”

“SHUT UP!” Annuni yelled into the phone and cut the stern man off. “Do you want to create a worse villain than All For One?”

“What do you mean?” The stern man asked.

“It's bad enough she's going to kill us all for what we did to her, and the public seems perfectly happy with that, by the way. If you stop her hero license approval, she won't bother waiting until she is of age to get her firearms.”

“She can't legally...”

“She won't be doing anything legally, you idiot!” Annuni shouted. “Stop your whining and accept that you screwed up! I have!”

The stern man didn't say anything.

“She's coming for us and it's our own fault. If you do anything else to her, like you tried to do to her toy guns by blocking them at customs, she won't even bother doing it close and personal. She can use a long range rifle and scope to take you out from anywhere and you will never know when it happens until you're dead.”

“You've made your point.” The stern man said.

“I hope so, because I don't want to die before she graduates. I've got two and a half long years left to enjoy things and I'm going to. Don't you dare screw this up for me. You made me lose the rest of my life already. Don't take my last two years, too.”

The stern man sighed. “You blame me.”

“Of course I do! It's your fault!” Annuni said and the stern man sighed again. “It's your job to assess clients and their potential after we bring them to you, and all you saw was a little girl that we could get rid of because the press might have given her a bad reputation for what she did.”

“You didn't disagree with me.”

“No, I didn't. None of us did. We all assumed you knew what was best and we followed your lead. Like I said at the time, I didn't realize it until I was already back at headquarters and it hit me that we could have had the world's best operative and undercover agent long before she was legally allowed to be.”

The stern man was quiet for a while. “What if we lifted her government restrictions? She can't make her deliveries if she's not allowed to fly.”

“Are you even listening to yourself?” Annuni asked, disbelief in his voice. “She will KILL YOU if you interfere! What part of that don't you understand?”

“I can't let her kill us all when she feels like it!” The stern man spat.

“You. Can't. Stop. Her.” Annuni said. “You literally can't. All you can do is piss her off and make her kill you faster.”

“If she's going to kill me anyway, I'm going to make sure that she will never...”

*KABOOOOOM!*

The phone went dead and Annuni looked at the dropped call message. “I probably should have told you that she didn't need to wait for a real rifle to kill you.” He chuckled and turned off the cell phone. “Goodbye, old boss.”

*

...to kill you.” The voice said and chuckled. “Goodbye, old boss.

“His boss really was an idiot.” Izuku said as he looked through the old army viewfinder at the results of the shot. “That was one of their nicer safe houses.”

Tanya laughed softly as she quickly disassembled her heavily modified sniper air rifle. She had ten replacement barrels for it and she handed the one she just used to Izuku. He took it and twisted it, then bent it in half and half again.

“Thanks.” Tanya said and took it back, made it glow, and then threw it at the ground. After a solid thump, the crushed metal was long gone and she kicked the dirt over the hole it made before stepped on it to pat it down, then swiped her shoe over it to get rid of the evidence.

“How many more?” Izuku asked.

“Only three. They are working under previous orders from their boss and they're trying to decide how best to deal with me.”

Izuku frowned. “Are they together?”

Tanya smiled. “They're meeting at one of their fake businesses that they use as a spy hideout.”

Izuku lost the frown and smiled instead. “Are we raiding it?”

Tanya laughed and pointed to her back for Izuku to hook back up. “Momo gave me the EMP prototype you thought up.”

“It actually worked?” Izuku asked, surprised.

“Her mother was over the moon when Momo showed her your designs, so you better expect a huge check tomorrow.”

Izuku shook his head for a moment and then laughed. “As long as they don't put my name on it.”

Tanya reached back and pat his thigh. “They know that and are buying the idea to sell the devices to the military.”

“Okay, I'm secure. Let's go.” Izuku said and Tanya swirled the air around them, then took off. They were both dressed in solid black and no one saw or heard them, because she kept them just below the speed of sound as they went to the next location to scout out the best way to assault the place and to take care of the people conspiring to hurt Tanya.

“Are you sure you're okay with this?” Tanya asked and then felt a pair of lips on the back of her neck.

“We're removing villains that are trying to stop you from becoming a hero, and all because of their own fears and mistakes.” Izuku said. “I'm not really okay with killing every villain we meet; but, the dangerous ones? The ones that can't be redeemed or even show any remorse or try to change?” He chuckled. “Those I have no problem with getting rid of.”

“Especially if they are after me, right?” Tanya asked as they gently landed in a great area that overlooked the building they needed to enter.

“No one is allowed to hurt you anymore.” Izuku said and hugged her from behind. “They did enough to you already. I won't let them do any more, even if it costs them their lives.”

Tanya pat his hands and he let her go. “At least Annuni came to his senses and left them behind.”

Izuku helped her strip off the carry harness and her extra packs, then added his own to the pile and then camouflaged it. “We're down to pistols and knives.”

Tanya smiled. “It's okay. We're going to kick everyone's ass.”

Izuku chuckled and they snuck down the hill towards the street. It was late at night and no one was around, so Tanya used one of her normal pistols to shoot out two of the streetlights. Their passage across the dimly lit street after that wasn't seen by anyone or any cameras.

Tanya made the stop gesture and Izuku froze. She made the double motion forward gesture and pointed at the door, then held up three fingers, then two, then one.

Izuku jumped up and lunged just as the door opened and two men were coming out. He barrelled into then and sent them back inside the building as Tanya tossed in the miniature EMP. The thing went off and everything electric in a hundred foot radius was knocked out and shut off.

Izuku and and Tanya entered the building with manic grins on their faces, which terrified the three people on the floor. The two men had fallen on the woman and they tried to go for their guns. It was much too late for that to work and Izuku pulled the guns and the backup weapons from the men's belts. He also broke their wrists to stop them from interfering.

“You are going to tell me all your company's plans for me.” Tanya said and reached down to grab the woman by her collar.

“No! Let me go!” The woman screeched. “I don't know what you're talking about! I'm just a sales girl and...”

Tanya lifted her up as if she weighted nothing and shook her. “Lie to me again, Agent Lisben, and your cute little niece will be the next person I visit.”

The woman's face paled. “N-no, you... you monster! Leave my niece alone!”

“That's entirely up to you.” Tanya said and carried the woman into another room that the agents used for interrogations. “Izuku, if you would?”

Izuku grabbed the two men by their shirts and carried them inside as well. Tanya had been teaching him a lot more than just fighting techniques and tactics for the last five years. Much, much more.

The door was shut and no one but them heard what happened after that.

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