As villains poured into U.S.J from the dark mist, narrow strips of yellow light glowed from within the shadowy clouds. Izuku soon realized that those were eyes in the mist.
Then the mist started to speak.
"Thirteen and Eraserhead, is it?" the mist mused, voice neutral and almost pleasant, like they were discussing the weather. "According to the staff schedule I received the other day… All Might should be here as well."
Aizawa mumbled something under his breath as Izuku felt his pulse stutter. These villains were here for All Might.
It wasn't hard to figure out what their goal was.
They wanted to either capture or kill All Might.
Izuku felt hatred, toxic and dark as pitch, burn inside of him. It was something that raged more fiercely than anything that he had ever felt for Bakugou.
All Might believed in me when no one else would even treat me with basic human decency. They are not going to do anything if I have any say in it.
I won't hesitate to kill them.
Izuku didn't even consider brushing off those thoughts.
"Where is he?" asked a villain from the plaza who was covered head to toe in… were those hands? "We've come all this way… I brought my whole party with all of my best players and the Symbol of Peace isn't even here? Maybe killing one of his precious students will bring him out?"
All of the students were clamoring about how the villains had gotten in the building and what their obvious objective was and just how smart or dumb they must be. What they were saying didn't matter. What mattered was taking them out as quickly as possible. Izuku couldn't afford to underestimate them or pull any of his punches.
If there was ever a time to not fuck up, then this was it.
And if some of the villains died in the process? That would be their own damn fault for even thinking of hurting All Might.
"Thirteen!" Aizawa's unusually sharp voice cut through Izuku's thoughts. "Begin evacuating the students! Try calling the school! One of these villains must be jamming the sensors, most likely one with an electrical Quirk of some sorts. Kaminari!"
"Yes, Aizawa-sensei!" Kaminari snapped into a tense and expectant stance, poorly trying to conceal his nerves.
"Try using your Quirk to signal for help," Aizawa ordered.
"Got it!"
Aizawa began stalking towards the steps leading down into the plaza.
Wait.
Killing—or, more likely in Aizawa's case, stopping —the villains was important, but this was such a dumb decision on Aizawa's part.
"Aizawa-sensei!" Izuku barked, "You can't fight them alone! Your Quirk can't effectively erase against that many opponents. Eraserhead specializes in short ambush attacks! Head-on fights is not where you'll have the advantage!"
Aizawa only turned to briefly glance back at Izuku. "No hero worth their salt is a one-trick pony."
Izuku blinked. It was such a different attitude when he compared it to the one that had resulted in Izuku 'rescuing' Bakugou from the slime villain. A whole crowd of Pro Heroes had claimed that no one had the appropriate Quirk to save a middle school boy.
And here was Aizawa, ready to fight a whole horde of villains to protect his students, despite knowing full well that he was not suited to do so.
Izuku's respect for Aizawa skyrocketed.
"Thirteen, take care of them," Aizawa said.
Then he leaped down to confront the villains.
With the kind of graceful, fluid strength that Izuku could hardly believe was real, Aizawa quickly restrained three villains with his capture weapons and bashed their skulls together with a dull thunk. That got the rest of the villains to realize that this wasn't going to be an easy fight for them.
Regardless of their new estimation of their opponent, Aizawa managed to use his capture weapons to fling one particularly nasty-looking brute into a cluster of other villains, knocking them over like bowling pins. Aizawa's movements were efficient and agile, almost hypnotizing to watch.
Izuku couldn't help but think that Aizawa could easily become a top-ranking hero if he wanted to. Or if someone gave him a gun. He'd be unstoppable.
"Even on his own against that many opponents," Izuku muttered, uncaring of the awe coloring his tone, "Aizawa-sensei can hold his own."
Suddenly, there was a hand gripping Izuku's arm and pulling him back. Izuku got ready to fire up Burst and deck whoever was trying to restrain him in the face.
He let his pulled-back arm hang awkwardly in the air when he recognized Iida's face.
"This isn't the time for analysis!" Iida hissed, tugging Izuku towards the class and Thirteen, "We need to evacuate now!"
"We can't just leave Aizawa-sensei!" Izuku insisted. And I want a chance to annihilate these absolute bastards with my own two hands!
"Aizawa-sensei is a Pro Hero!" Iida kept pulling Izuku, "He can handle himself! We need to get away!"
In the next moment, the dark mist was looming over all of Class 1-A and Thirteen. "I'm afraid that I am not allowed to let that happen," the mist said in a strangely polite voice. If Izuku didn't know any better, he would say that the voice was tinged with something akin to reluctance.
Izuku quickly came to the conclusion that this person—because Izuku had realized that this definitely a person and that this weird mist thing was definitely his Quirk—was the most dangerous out of everyone else present. Able to bypass Aizawa with no trouble, transporting an absurd amount of villains into what was supposed to be a secure area… Izuku had no clue what this villain's limitations were, but his abilities were unquestionably terrifying to consider.
"Greetings," the villain said. "You are currently being attacked by the League of Villains. You must forgive the audacity, but the reason that they've come here today to this bastion of heroism is that they wish to end the life of All Might, the Symbol of Peace."
Yeah, no shit, Izuku thought even as surprised gasps rippled from his classmates.
"We were all under the impression that he would be here today, but it seems that his schedule was revised?" the villain asked, like he expected any kind of answer. After a beat of silence, he went on. "Well, I suppose that doesn't really affect me. My role in this remains unchanged."
And then he was expanding, dark mist trickling towards them. Thirteen held out a finger to use their Quirk on the villain. That's an effective way of dealing with it, Izuku thought. Maybe not the most heroic, but he doesn't deserve to be treated heroically if he wants to harm All Might.
That was when Bakugou and Kirishima rushed at him. Bakugou launched an explosion at the mist while Kirishima slashed at it. The mist started dispersing from where they had attacked. Idiots! Thirteen can't fire off Black Hole when there are students in the way! Fuck!
"Not if we end you first," Bakugou snarled.
"Betcha didn't see that coming!" Kirishima taunted.
Almost as quickly as the misty villain had been drifting apart, he reformed. "That was close," he said, voice calm and still unfittingly cordial. "You truly are the best of the best, even though you're only students. It's very impressive."
"Get back!" Thirteen shouted. "Both of you! Now!"
"I apologize for this," the villain said, and yeah, there was definitely some amount of regret in what he was saying. "But you're going to have to leave now."
And then, suddenly, Izuku was engulfed in dark mist along with the rest of the class.
"I hope that your deaths, should you encounter them, are as quick and painless as possible."
Izuku found himself plummeting into the waters of the Flood Zone.
Izuku was soaked to the bone, but that hardly mattered.
I have to get back to the main area, Izuku thought, I need to go and start taking out those pieces of shit before they overtake Aizawa and Thirteen.
"It seems that we're in some trouble here, kero," Tsuyu commented idly. Mineta was curled up against the rail of the ship, shaking. Whether it was from fear or being drenched in water, Izuku didn't know or care about.
"That mist villain said that they know our schedule," Izuku muttered, mind racing. "The simplest explanation that makes the most sense is that they were the ones that caused the media rush yesterday and obtained that information during the chaos. They were looking for a chance and they were prepared enough to get this many villains together on short notice. They're a serious threat. We can't afford to underestimate them."
"But there's no way that they could kill All Might!" Mineta declared. "He'll come and trash'em!"
… How did someone so fucking stupid and disgusting get into the hero program at U.A? Izuku wondered, not for the first time.
"They must have figured out a way to kill them," Tsuyu said. "They wouldn't have come here otherwise. They're not dumb enough to try that, like Midoriya-chan said. That one guy said that he wanted to kill us, too, kero. Who says that we can even hold out long enough for All Might to get here? And even if we do, who's to say that they won't kill him."
Mineta stood there with a comic look of horror across his face. He then grabbed at Izuku's arm and wailed, "Midoriya-kun!"
Izuku hastily jerked his arm out of Mineta's grasp. He didn't bother to keep his tone from being harsh. "Get off of me and pull yourself together. We're surrounded by a group of villains whose Quirks give them an advantage in this area and they won't hesitate to kill us. We need to come up with a plan to beat them and get back to everyone else. We need to defeat them before they can hurt All Might or Aizawa-sensei or Thirteen or anyone else."
Oh god. Iida and Uraraka.
They better be okay.
I hope that they're okay.
I'll kill the villains if they're hurt.
"But why are they doing this?" Mineta whined.
"Who the hell cares?" Izuku snapped. "It doesn't matter why they're doing it. The important part is that they may have a chance of beating All Might. That means we can't afford to lose. We have to win."
"How can we possibly win, you dumbass!" Mineta cried, voice pitiful and disgusting. "You just said that these guys are strong enough to kill All Might! You're—"
Izuku couldn't bring himself to feel guilty for backhanding Mineta across the face. His only regret was that he didn't try to add the Burst technique to it.
"Just shut up and think," Izuku hissed. "Panicking is of absolutely no use to us right now."
"So mean !" Mineta gasped. Izuku ignored him in favor of turning to Tsuyu.
"Those guys down there all have Quirks that are suited for aquatic combat," Izuku pointed out.
"So the ringleaders must have recruited their teams while knowing what the areas of U.S.J. are, kero," Tsuyu said.
"Exactly," Izuku agreed. "They must have had information on that much at the very least. But they were sloppy in gathering their intel."
"What makes you say that, Midoriya-chan?" Tsuyu asked.
"Because they send you, Tsuyu-san, to the Flood Zone," Izuku said. "If they knew what all of our Quirks were, they would never have done that."
"You're right, kero," Tsuyu said. "They would have warped me anywhere else if they knew, probably to the Fire Zone."
"Exactly. That must be why their plan was to scatter us around U.S.J. and overwhelm us with numbers rather than choosing which terrains we'd be the worst off in," Izuku concluded. "They have us beat when it comes to numbers and experience, so we'll have to exploit the fact that they don't know our Quirks for all that it's worth."
What followed was a brief synopsis of what their Quirks were and how they worked. Tsuyu's Quirk was more powerful than Izuku had originally thought, but it wasn't surprising. Mineta's had been almost exactly what Izuku had guessed it was, though he hadn't known that overuse would cause Mineta to bleed. Izuku took note of it in case he ever needed to exploit it in the future.
Just as Mineta was crying over how useless he was, Izuku felt the boat rumble and pitch to the side as one of the villains used their Quirk to breakit.
"So strong!" Tsuyu commented. "He split the boat in two."
We're really on the clock now, Izuku thought, We have about a minute before we're completely underwater, and that's being generous.
Mineta was full out blubbering and crying by this point. Izuku didn't have time for him.
"… Tsuyu-san," Izuku said after about five seconds.
"Kero?"
"Would you be able to catch me midair and get me to safety?" Izuku asked.
"Yes," Tsuyu said, "What are you planning?"
"Something really dumb," Izuku admitted. Loathe as he was to do so, Izuku turned to face Mineta. The plan would be more effective if Izuku could utilize all of their Quirks. "Hey. Stop crying. You're in the Hero Course, aren't you? All Might isn't always going to be here to save the day. Real bravery is pressing on even when you're afraid. If you ever want to be a Pro Hero, you can't let fear stop you from doing what needs to be done."
Izuku didn't bother to see Mineta's reaction. He turned back to observe the villains. "Tsuyu, catch me the second I call for you. Mineta, once everyone is clustered together, start throwing your balls."
Let's hope this works, Izuku thought to himself.
With a shout of "Go to hell!" Izuku leaped off of the boat and fired up One For All fully in two of his fingers.
Two broken fingers and some evasive maneuvers later, Izuku, Tsuyu, and Mineta were wading their way through the shallows of the Flood Zone towards dry land.
It's lucky that we managed to get all of them, Izuku thought, That was definitely a big gamble. If they had been smart, they would have had a few of them remain hidden under the surface of the water. I guess they just weren't thinking ahead. Still, from here on out, we need to be careful.
"Stop it, Midoriya-chan. That's scary," Tsuyu said.
Right. I need to work on keeping my internal dialogue internal.
"So what should we do now?" Tsuyu asked.
"Right." Izuku rolled his shoulders back, doing his best to ignore the pain in his fingers. "Our top priority right now is calling for help. If at all possible, we should make our way along the shoreline towards the exit and steer clear of the plaza."
"Okay, kero," Tsuyu said. "It looks like Aizawa-sensei is drawing them all to the plaza."
Izuku let his gaze be drawn to the fight. "… There are too many of them. Of course he's holding his own out there, but it's too much for him. Heknew that but he jumped in anyway to protect us."
Izuku felt something swell in his heart. He hadn't known Aizawa long and his opinion of the man had been one that was largely indifferent. But here he was, risking his life just to make sure that his students were safe. Aizawa hadn't even hesitated before jumping into the fray.
Aizawa wasn't on the same level in Izuku's heart as his mom or All Might or Iida or Uraraka, but he had definitely secured himself a place on the short list of people Izuku cared about.
"We need to look for an opening for us to start helping Aizawa-sensei," Izuku said.
"Are you stupid, Midoriya-kun?" Mineta asked, voice trembling.
"I'm not saying that we should dive right in," Izuku told them, though he was mostly talking to Tsuyu at the moment. "We should keep an eye out for when we can jump in to lighten Aizawa-sensei's load."
They all watched as Aizawa continued to take down the villains one-by-one. Izuku soon noticed the man covered in hands start approaching Aizawa. He seemed to be saying something, but Izuku couldn't tell. Then he grabbed Aizawa's elbow.
Aizawa' arm started to disintegrate where the villain had grabbed it. Izuku felt his heart stutter. What kind of Quirk is that? That seems way too powerful! But no, of course a villain would have such destructive Quirk. Maybe if I play my cards right I can get him to go after Bakugou…
Aizawa soon punched the villain and put distance between them, dodging two other villains as he did and quickly putting them out of commission, restraining them with his capture weapons and delivering blows strong enough to knock them out cold.
"Oh god," Izuku hissed out as he noticed the giant monster start lumbering towards Aizawa. It could have been a person with a mutation Quirk of some kind, but Izuku had a hard time of equating that thing with an exposed brain to a human. "If that thing gets Aizawa he's screwed."
"What should we do, Midoriya-chan?" Tsuyu asked.
"… We do what we came to this school to do," Izuku said, pulling himself out of the water. "We be heroes."
Izuku started running as quickly as he could towards the fight. He heard two tell-tale splashes behind him but he didn't bother to slow down and let them catch up.
That monster and that man are not allowed to hurt Aizawa, Izuku thought, I won't let them.
That's when the monster pounced on Aizawa. Izuku watched in horror as it slammed Aizawa's head into the ground and snapped his arm like it was nothing more than a twig.
Head-on confrontation right now would probably lead to Aizawa being hurt even more, Izuku realized as he changed course and ducked out of sight behind the short wall of the fountain. Tsuyu and Mineta quickly joined him. Izuku held a finger to his lips in the universal signal for silence. Izuku peeked over the divider.
The villain covered in hands was standing there, posture slack but very much favoring his left side. Soon, a cloud of dark mist began forming next to him.
"Shigaraki Tomura," the mist villain greeted, slowly taking a more humanoid shape, complete with a tie and a vest. The outfit reminded Izuku more of a waiter than a villain.
"Kurogiri," Shigaraki returned and wow Kurogiri must have been a codename because that name literally meant 'dark mist.' "Is Thirteen dead?"
"They're incapacitated," Kurogiri answered, "However, there were some students that I was unable to warp away and one of them managed to escape."
Izuku noted with no small amount of interest that Kurogiri didn't sound regretful about that at all. He must not want to kill any children, but he won't stop it from happening, Izuku thought. We might be able to use that to our advantage but I have no idea how yet.
"Stay here," Izuku whispered. "I'm going to try and get closer."
"Be careful, Midoriya-chan," Tsuyu whispered back.
Izuku started shuffling along the curve of the divider, keeping quiet as he did so.
Shigaraki had started scratching himself vigorously. "Kurogiri," Shigaraki whined. "I'd turn you to dust if you weren't our ticket out of here. We won't stand a chance against dozens of Pro Heroes. It's game over, man. It's game over… for now."
Izuku suddenly had a terrible feeling in his stomach as Shigaraki stopped raking his disgusting nails across his skin.
"We're leaving," Shigaraki said.
No, Izuku thought, shifting his stance so that he was prepared to move at the drop of a hat. They're not leaving that easily without meeting their objective. There's no way.
"But before that," Shigaraki continued, "let's leave a few dead kids to wound the Symbol of Peace's pride."
And suddenly, Shigaraki was in front of Izuku, hand outstretched. He was a lot faster than Izuku would have guessed. Had Izuku been less aware of his surroundings, then Shigaraki would have easily grabbed onto his face and completely disintegrated him.
Too bad I was ready for him.
Izuku activated Burst and punched Shigaraki right in the stomach. Shigaraki went flying backwards, grunting as he was hit. The villain hit the ground with a dull thud and rolled back for a good ten feet. He laid there, making no attempts to get up.
"… Okay," Shigaraki said, his voice muffled by the ground and the hand over his face. "That was a cool move, I'll admit it. I hate it when my Sneak Attack doesn't give me advantage on attacks and bonus damage, but still, cool."
Shigaraki shambled back to his feet. Izuku knew it was stupid, but he charged the villain while he was getting back up. Shigaraki, almost faster than Izuku could really see, was standing again and running past Izuku, far enough away that neither was able to attack the other.
He's trying to get to Tsuyu and Mineta.
Izuku turned as quickly as he could and used Burst to launch himself after Shigaraki.
He wasn't fast enough.
Shigaraki already had a hand on Tsuyu's face. Tsuyu screamed.
No. Please, no.
The moment Shigaraki's hand made contact with Tsuyu, her tongue shot out, slamming into Shigaraki's stomach—he's definitely bruised there by now—and throwing him back once more.
Tsuyu's face was bleeding everywhere from where her skin had been disintegrated. It sounded like she way crying. Hurt but alive, Izuku thought.Better than being dead.
Izuku raced over to where Shigaraki was still lying on the ground.
He hurt Aizawa and Tsuyu. He's going to hurt Uraraka and Iida. He wants to kill All Might.
He can't do that if I kill him first.
Today is the day he dies.
"Noumu," Shigaraki whispered as Izuku was on top of him, pulling back to punch this fucker.
Izuku fired up the full power of One For All once again, this time in his whole arm. This would kill Shigaraki. There was no way it wouldn't.
Izuku couldn't help but smile. Shigaraki's one visible eye widened ever so slightly. Then Izuku decked him.
It doesn't hurt. Why doesn't it hurt?
The thing I hit is too sturdy. Shigaraki isn't this sturdy.
Something is wrong.
Izuku looked up.
Izuku gaped up at the monster that had broken Aizawa. How in the love of fuck did this thing get in front of me so quickly? Is… is this how they're going to kill All Might? With is this thing ?
"That was… quite a move that you pulled off," Shigaraki said from behind the monster. "But that look on your face when you did it… are you really training to be a hero? That's interesting. Well, whatever."
Izuku then found his arm being seized by the monster and pulled forwards.
No. I can't die yet, Izuku thought, panicked. I need to make sure that Iida and Uraraka is okay. I need to save Aizawa. I have to protect All Might.
I still need to kill Bakugou.
Suddenly, the main doors flew off of their hinges with a loud boom.
All Might. He's here, Izuku thought as he saw the man coming through the hole where the doors had once been.
Izuku caught a glance of All Might's face.
The man wasn't smiling.
Izuku grinned.
Oh, these guys are fucked.