Quirk Details
Quirk: Liquid Manipulation - Can control any liquid within a 100-meter radius, including changing its viscosity, temperature, and pressure (no bloodbending yet if you're wondering)
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The rain fell in sheets across Tokyo's industrial district, each droplet a potential weapon in the hands of Shino Mizushima. He crouched in the shadows of an abandoned warehouse rooftop, his dark coat blending seamlessly with the storm-darkened sky. Three years. Three years, two months, and seventeen days since he'd lost everything that mattered, since his world had been torn apart by bureaucratic lies and institutional corruption.
The HSPC—Hero Public Safety Commission—had destroyed his family with the same methodical precision they claimed to use in protecting society. But tonight, that precision would work against them.
Shino pulled out his phone, checking the encrypted message one more time. The convoy would pass through this route in exactly fourteen minutes, transporting what his contact had described as "Project Deep Current" documentation. He didn't know the specifics yet, but anything the Commission felt necessary to transport under such heavy security had to be worth investigating. More importantly, it had to be worth disrupting.
The rain intensified, and Shino felt the familiar tingle of his quirk responding to the abundance of his element. Liquid Manipulation—a quirk that had once been praised by his instructors at the HSPC academy, back when he'd believed their rhetoric about justice and protection. Back when he'd thought heroes were actually heroes.
"Shino-kun, your control is remarkable," his sister Yuki had told him during their last training session together. "You'll make an amazing hero someday."
He clenched his fist, feeling the rainwater around him respond, forming into tight spirals that danced around his fingers before dissolving back into the storm. Yuki had been the real hero between them—gifted with a truth-detection quirk that could pierce through any deception. That's exactly why she'd been dangerous to the Commission. That's exactly why they'd killed her.
The official report had been a masterpiece of fabrication: "Hero candidate Yuki Mizushima killed during villain encounter while investigating suspicious activity." They'd even staged the scene, complete with fake evidence and witness testimony. If Shino hadn't been there that night, if he hadn't seen the HSPC operatives leaving the building where her body was found, he might have believed it too.
But he had been there. He'd seen them plant the evidence, heard them discussing how to "handle the situation" with clinical detachment. And when he'd tried to report it, tried to tell the truth about what really happened, they'd quietly drummed him out of the program. "Psychological instability following traumatic loss." Another lie, another cover-up.
That was when Shino understood the truth: the Hero Public Safety Commission wasn't interested in justice. They were interested in control. And anyone who threatened that control—even their own people—was expendable.
The sound of engines cutting through the rain snapped him back to the present. Right on schedule. From his vantage point, Shino could see the convoy approaching: two escort vehicles flanking an armored transport, exactly as his intelligence had indicated. The vehicles were moving slowly due to the weather, which would work in his favor.
He stood, feeling the rain respond to his movement, streaming away from his body in controlled patterns. The water around him began to take shape—thin, almost invisible tendrils extending from his fingertips like liquid marionette strings. This was what three years of solitary training had given him: precision. Control. The ability to turn the most common substance on Earth into something deadly.
Shino closed his eyes for a moment, centering himself. Yuki's face appeared in his mind, not as he'd last seen her—broken and lifeless—but as she'd been in their childhood, laughing as they'd practiced their quirks together in their parents' garden. She'd always been able to see through his tough exterior, always known when he was putting on an act.
"You're not as cold as you pretend to be, Shin-kun," she'd said once, using the childhood nickname that only she was allowed to use. "Your heart's just buried under all those walls you've built."
Maybe she'd been right then. But that was before they'd killed her. Before he'd learned that walls weren't just useful—they were necessary for survival.
The convoy was directly below him now. Shino took a deep breath, feeling the familiar chill settle over his features, the mask of emotionlessness that had become second nature. Tonight, the Commission would learn that their actions had consequences. Tonight, they would face the monster they'd created.
He stepped off the roof.
The rain caught him, responding to his will, forming a controlled waterspout that guided his descent. He landed silently on the armored transport's roof, his impact absorbed by a cushion of pressurized water. Immediately, he felt the liquid within the vehicle's cooling system, the hydraulic fluid in its mechanisms, even the coffee in the guards' thermoses. All of it was his to command.
Shino pressed his palm against the metal roof, and the water in the vehicle's systems began to freeze. Hydraulic lines seized up, electrical systems shorted as ice crystals formed in impossible places. The transport lurched to a halt, its engine coughing and dying as its cooling system crystallized.
The escort vehicles screeched to a stop, doors flying open as HSPC security forces emerged with their quirks already active. Shino counted six agents, each one trained to handle villain attacks. They would be good. But they weren't expecting Undertow.
"Unknown villain! Step away from the transport immediately!" The lead agent's voice was steady, professional. He held himself with the kind of confidence that came from extensive training and successful operations. Under normal circumstances, he would probably succeed in apprehending a single villain.
These weren't normal circumstances.
Shino raised his hand, and the rain around him stopped falling. Instead, it hung suspended in the air, thousands of droplets forming a barrier between him and the security forces. "I'm afraid I can't do that," he said quietly, his voice carrying clearly despite the storm.
The lead agent's eyes narrowed. "You're Undertow. The villain who's been hitting Commission facilities."
Shino didn't reply. There was nothing to be gained from conversation with the Commission's dogs. He flicked his wrist, and the suspended raindrops suddenly accelerated, striking the agents' weapons and communication devices with surgical precision. Electronics sparked and died as water invaded their circuitry.
The battle began in earnest. The agents moved with coordinated precision, their quirks manifesting in bursts of light, force, and energy. One agent generated electromagnetic pulses designed to disrupt electronic devices—useful against most villains, but ineffective against someone whose primary weapon was water. Another created force barriers, seeking to contain Shino's movements.
But Shino had spent years perfecting his techniques. He didn't waste energy on flashy displays or overwhelming force. Instead, he used the environment itself as his weapon. The rain became a thousand tiny projectiles, moving too fast to see but too numerous to dodge. The puddles beneath the agents' feet turned to ice at crucial moments, disrupting their balance. The moisture in the air itself became a tool, forming temporary barriers or redirecting attacks.
One agent managed to get close, his quirk allowing him to phase through solid matter. Shino had encountered such abilities before. As the agent lunged forward, Shino exhaled sharply, and the water vapor in his breath crystallized into a cloud of ice particles. The agent materialized directly into the cloud, his forward momentum carrying him through what felt like a wall of frozen needles. He collapsed, unconscious but breathing.
The lead agent fell back, speaking rapidly into his backup communicator. "This is Transport Seven. We're under attack by the villain Undertow. Repeat, we are under attack. Requesting immediate backup—"
Shino gestured, and the communicator exploded in a spray of water and sparks. He turned his attention to the transport itself, placing his hand on the vehicle's side and feeling for the microscopic gaps where air could flow in and out. With surgical precision, he began to force water through the ventilation system, targeting the electronic locks on the transport's cargo compartment.
The locks clicked open just as the last of the conscious security agents collapsed. Shino pulled open the transport's rear doors, revealing several reinforced cases secured within. He quickly identified the one labeled with symbols matching his intelligence—Project Deep Current.
As he reached for the case, his enhanced hearing caught a new sound over the rain: the rhythmic thump of someone moving at high speed across rooftops. His hand closed around the case's handle just as a figure dropped from the sky, landing with perfect precision between him and the transport's exit.
"Villain, stop right there!"
Shino looked up to find himself face to face with the hero called Froppy. She stood in a combat-ready position, her large eyes fixed on him with professional alertness. Rain streamed down her green hair and costume, but her stance remained stable despite the slick conditions.
[Froppy upside down Image pls]
"Hero," Shino acknowledged, his grip tightening on the case. "Right on time."
"Put down what you've stolen and surrender peacefully," Tsuyu said, her voice carrying the authority of someone accustomed to being obeyed. "This doesn't have to end with anyone getting hurt."
Shino's expression didn't change as he assessed the situation. The case in his hand contained information that could expose years of Commission corruption. The hero in front of him was just another obstacle to overcome.
"I disagree," he said simply.
Tsuyu shifted her stance, preparing to move. "Then we do this the hard way."
She launched herself forward with a powerful leap, her enhanced leg strength propelling her through the air faster than most people could track. But Shino was ready. Water erupted from the puddles around him, forming a barrier that caught Tsuyu mid-flight and redirected her trajectory. She landed gracefully, rolling to absorb the impact, and immediately sprang back into action.
A long, powerful tongue shot out toward Shino, seeking to wrap around the case or his arm. He sidestepped, simultaneously sending a wave of water toward her feet. Tsuyu leaped again, using her wall-climbing ability to stick to the side of the transport vehicle for a moment before launching another attack.
The battle became a deadly dance of precision and power. Tsuyu's frog-like abilities gave her incredible mobility and unpredictable attack patterns. She could leap, climb, and strike from angles that would be impossible for most combatants. But Shino's control over water was absolute within his range, allowing him to defend against attacks from any direction while simultaneously creating new offensive opportunities.
Tsuyu attempted to use her tongue to grab weapons from the fallen agents, but each time Shino would intercept with precisely controlled streams of water, either deflecting her tongue or destroying the equipment before she could reach it. When she tried to get close enough for hand-to-hand combat, he would create barriers of ice or pressurized water jets that forced her to retreat.
"You're skilled," Tsuyu admitted during a brief lull, crouched on the transport's roof. "But you're still a villain. Whatever you think you're accomplishing here, it's wrong."
Shino formed a sphere of water in his palm, letting it hover there as a demonstration of his control. "Right and wrong are determined by those with power. Tonight, I have the power."
He launched the sphere toward her, but instead of attacking directly, it burst apart in midair, becoming a dozen smaller projectiles that approached from multiple angles. Tsuyu's reflexes were extraordinary—she managed to dodge most of them, only taking glancing hits that left her costume damp but unharmed.
But the attack had been a distraction. While Tsuyu was evading the water projectiles, Shino had been quietly forming ice beneath her feet. As she landed from her latest dodge, the surface gave way, sending her sliding toward the edge of the transport.
She recovered quickly, her sticky toe pads finding purchase on the metal, but it gave Shino the opening he needed. He vaulted over her, landing near the fallen security agents. Without breaking stride, he grabbed one of their utility belts and extracted what looked like a smoke grenade.
"Nice try," Tsuyu called out, already moving to intercept him. "But smoke won't help you in this rain!"
She was right, of course. Normal smoke would be useless in these conditions. But Shino wasn't planning to use it normally. He crushed the grenade's activation mechanism and threw it high into the air. As it began to release its chemical payload, he reached out with his quirk, taking control of the moisture in the smoke and the rain around it.
The result was a dense, clinging fog that hung in the air despite the storm, obscuring vision in all directions. Tsuyu's frog-like senses were impressive, but even she couldn't track a target she couldn't see or hear clearly.
Shino moved through the fog like a ghost, his familiarity with water in all its forms allowing him to navigate by the subtle changes in humidity and air pressure. He could sense Tsuyu's movements as she displaced the moisture around her, but she had no such advantage.
When he emerged from the fog bank, he was already at the convoy's edge, the stolen case secure in his grip. Behind him, he could hear Tsuyu calling out warnings and attempting to pursue, but the fog would buy him the time he needed.
As he prepared to leave, Shino allowed himself one look back. Through a gap in the artificial mist, he caught a glimpse of Tsuyu helping one of the injured security agents, her immediate priority shifting from pursuit to rescue. It was... unexpected. Most heroes he'd encountered would have continued the chase, leaving the wounded for others to handle.
The sound of approaching sirens reminded him that his window of escape was closing. Reinforcements would arrive soon, and while he was confident in his abilities, he wasn't foolish enough to face an entire hero response team alone.
Shino melted into the storm, using the rain itself to mask his retreat. The water carried him through drainage systems and down storm drains, a network of liquid pathways that no conventional pursuit could follow. By the time the backup heroes arrived on scene, he was already miles away.
In his hidden safehouse, Shino set the case down on a metal table and allowed himself a moment of satisfaction. The mission had been a success. More importantly, he now had evidence that could expose another layer of the Commission's corruption.
As he began to carefully open the case, his mind wandered back to the hero he'd faced. Froppy—Tsuyu Asui. She'd fought well, better than he'd expected. Her tactical awareness and adaptability were impressive, and her quirk made her a formidable opponent.
But it was that moment at the end that stuck with him. The way she'd immediately moved to help the wounded agents instead of pursuing him. In his experience, most heroes prioritized the mission above all else. Catching the villain was more important than helping the victims.
Yet she'd made the opposite choice.
Shino pushed the thought aside as he opened the case. Inside were dozens of files, each one marked with classification codes he recognized from his time in the HSPC academy. Project Deep Current was even worse than he'd suspected—illegal quirk suppression experiments, unauthorized human testing, cover-ups of hero and agency misconduct.
And there, near the bottom of the stack, was a familiar name: Yuki Mizushima.
The file contained details he'd never seen before. Records of her investigation into the Commission's activities, documentation of the threats made against her, and finally, the order for her "termination" signed by high-ranking officials.
Shino's hand trembled slightly as he read the cold, clinical language describing his sister's murder. The water in a nearby glass began to vibrate, responding to his emotional state. He forced himself to remain calm, to focus on the larger picture.
This was exactly what he needed. Proof of the Commission's crimes, documented in their own words. With this evidence, he could expose them to the world, could finally get justice for Yuki and all the others they'd silenced.
But first, he needed to understand the full scope of Project Deep Current. The files mentioned other operations, other victims. If he was going to bring down the Commission, he needed to be thorough.
As dawn broke over Tokyo, Shino continued reading. The rain had stopped, but the storm he was building was just beginning. The Hero Public Safety Commission thought they were untouchable, thought their secrets were safe behind layers of bureaucracy and propaganda.
They were about to learn how wrong they were.
The hero Froppy had been skilled enough to make him work for his victory, but in the end, she was just another obstacle. The Commission would undoubtedly send more heroes after him, each one believing they were fighting for justice.
Let them come. He had work to do, and no one—hero or villain—would stop him from seeing it through.
The documents spread before him told a story of corruption that went deeper than he'd imagined. But they also revealed something else: the Commission's fear. They were afraid of exposure, afraid of losing control.
And fear, Shino knew, made even the most powerful organizations vulnerable.
He reached for his phone to contact his informant. It was time to plan his next move. Project Deep Current was just the beginning.
The Hero Public Safety Commission had created their own enemy when they killed Yuki Mizushima. Now they would face the consequences of that choice, one stolen secret at a time.
In the growing light of morning, Shino Mizushima—the villain known as Undertow—smiled for the first time in three years.
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AN: Heyyy! Check it out first, this would be the other type of novel I got the idea to do for Tsuyu and a villain love story, this is meant to be after she graduated from UA, and I know the HSPC doesn't get much mention but I'm trying to post here the dark parts that weren't mentioned in the story, also I'm making this up / guessing that the HSPC had an academy where they brainwashed / trained kids with potential quirks like those for Hawks and Nagant, which Shino would be another one of them.
What do you think?