Alrighty! Another week another chapter. And so many reviews! We have over a hundred and fifty now! I say this a lot but you guys are amazing.
Speaking of which, review time:
skystar99: Thank you. I'm a fan of the parental tendencies that some of the teachers have.
Twain apprenntice: I think that's the approach I'll take. I'm glad you like the characterization. I certainly have plans for Endeavor.
Colinpop5: Thank you!
RandomDude: It was indeed sarcasm. I absolutely have plans for Toga. I know that canonically she isn't with the League until after the Hosu incident, but I think she just has so much potential, especially if we assume there is no traitor. I'll figure something out for her.
No worries dude. You don't have to force yourself to write long reviews, just like I'm not forcing myself to match the absolute titans that were Chapters 10 and 11. Every review is appreciated.
SillyEmber: My apologies, I didn't mean to make things awkward. I can just do my updates on Sundays from now on, since it's what people seem to have come to expect. It's really no sweat off my brow.
I was aiming to surprise. It surprised me too actually when I tallied the votes! I'm happy with it though.
On the subject of the school being on-board with the M&M stuff...that's an interesting idea. Maybe one of them sits in on a session for shiggles and thinks "Holy crap there might be something to this." That could make for an interesting development so it's not just games all the time. Could also give Yamada something else to post online.
Even with the events that essentially follow canon, I will always try to make them feel at least a little different. I'm glad that I managed to do that here.
On the subject of TvTropes, serious talk for a moment. This is me putting my serious hat on.
I would be honored, BEYOND honored, if that ever happens. To me, having a TvTropes page is like, the ultimate proof of success when it comes to a fanfic. Just below that, but still awesome, is having it in the recommended fics section.
I just wanted to convey how seriously I take TvTropes, in spite of the fact that it will ruin your life. Thank you again.
Hektols: Perhaps. I am not sure if they would have had the time to do both (let alone the skills to hack U.A.'s system), but the mics/cameras are a very real possibility. This also brings with it the idea that Nezu probably would have thought of that and stripped-searched the place afterwards.
God only knows what poor Shoto imagined. When he does a post-mortem of the incident, Izuku might very well decide that he finally found a place where he can actually cut loose and practice with his Quirk to his heart's content. It practically has infinite fire!
Primordial Vortex: Thank you for this praise. It always makes me happy to hear things like this.
xCinderAntx: I am glad you enjoy it and I hope you enjoy the new chapter.
The 0bservanc3: Thank you for your input on this topic. I appreciate it.
Basically, Izuku is more confident now, but he hasn't changed completely. He still has a tendency to see himself as less worthy than others and still has a shy streak to him. You are pretty much correct. As for Katsuki, "elitist" doesn't necessarily mean "rich." He certainly suspected it, but didn't have enough concrete evidence until now.
I did think that him silencing everyone so easily in canon was a bit odd. I am glad you agree. I also enjoyed writing Nezu a lot more than I thought I would. I am glad that I was able to flesh him out like I did. You pretty much hit the nail on the head with what I was going for there.
The deal with Thirteen is that, while I was re-reading the manga and looking over the wiki, I found an interesting discussion. I had always thought that Thirteen was male, but I found that was a mistranslation in the manga, and that the intent was for their gender to be ambiguous. I have decided to uphold this, though I still occasionally slip when writing and refer to them as "he." To actually answer your question, I would go ahead and call them non-binary, because why not?
I am not pushing for a TodoShido ship at this time. She just canonically thinks of him as the most attractive boy in class and, to be fair, she's kinda right. I don't think it's a secret that Mina's a total flirt. Some even go so far as to suggest that she's bisexual and/or polyamorous, which I could see in all fairness. Don't worry though, the last thing I want any of my characters to be is shallow.
Regarding Kurogiri's Quirk, I believe he produces it from his body, though the exact distance he can control it from has never been specified. My reasoning for this is the confrontation with Stain at the bar, where he redirects weapons with portals that are clearly coming from his hands. Judging from his performance at USJ, I believe he set up those portals in advance, even if he did so rather quickly. I think it's safe to say that his Quirk is INCREDIBLY versatile.
He saw Izuku spit fire and automatically assumed that he had immunity (or at least resistance) to fire, since that's the norm with that kind of thing. As for Nezu, it's worth noting that Present Mic was the first to present that idea (that we are aware of). He may have just accepted it as the most likely scenario at the time. Nezu is, however, like every sentient creature with an ego, susceptible to personal bias. Once he accepted this idea as the most likely, his mind, consciously or not, compiled a list of evidence to justify his belief. And Nezu very clearly does have an ego, even if he has been shown to be very good at keeping it under control.
At this point I am working under the assumption that there is no traitor, which supports the concept that the Villains are just that much more clever and dangerous, which I dig. Villains should be scary.
zZ Sky Ninja Zz: I am indeed familiar with Fairy Tail. I actually like it quite a lot. He does have some similarities to Natsu, but I suppose that with how many anime powers are out there, especially fire-based ones, that he was going to end up resembling somebody. He could do worse than Natsu for sure XD
LioPyro7890: Thank you! I hope this doesn't disappoint.
otakuficwriter: You bet! I respond to all my reviews and value all my reviewers. The theory I find the most interesting and well thought-out is actually the one that states that Kaminari is the traitor. It boils down to him faking his derp-factor when he uses his power. There's a lot of other stuff but I don't want to take up space going over it here. Theories are neat though.
You must be experiencing a glitch, my friend. The only tags I have ever applied to this story are General/Friendship, the fact that it is an MHA fic, and the four character tags of Izuku M., Ochako U., Katsuki B., and Enji T./Endeavor. Perhaps your device formatted it strangely?
On another note, it is great to know that there are people who enjoyed this enough to re-read it!
Partsu: I actually got pinged in real-time as you were working your way through the story. It made for a fun day, so thank you for that (no sarcasm I actually did enjoy it).
I am glad you are enjoying the story so far. Thank you especially for your review of Chapter 10. I consider that to be my best chapter to date, though I am hoping to at least get a close second within the next chapter or two. As for Mineta, I understand your mixed feelings on the matter. I really had to pro-con my decisions regarding him, and it just so happened that this one won out.
Kurogiri's mistake will have repercussions in both the short and long-term for sure. He will regret bringing the Conflagration Zone to Izuku's attention.
Thank you for your reviews and I hope you continue to enjoy!
Now, let's get on with USJ!
Chapter Fourteen: Showstopper
It wasn't supposed to be like this.
This was the overriding thought in Minoru Mineta's head as he narrowly escaped injury or death for the second time in less than five minutes.
Well, that and a combination of inarticulate screaming, swearing and half-formed prayers to whatever god would listen. In then end though, it all boiled down to one thing:
It wasn't supposed to be like this.
It was supposed to be like normal high school, only cooler. With hot chicks.
Sure, maybe it would be a little harder, but he was smart! He managed to get through the entrance exam by using his head and capturing the Faux Villains. He had proven that you didn't need a big, destructive, flashy Quirk to make it at U.A.! Given a bit of time, he could have gotten even better and really shown his stuff when it was time to make his debut! Then everyone would see how great he was! Especially the hot chicks!
But this…this just wasn't fair! They weren't even through their first week of school and now they had to deal with Villains?! They had come out of nowhere, split the whole class up, dropped Minoru in the freaking Flood Zone and within three seconds of entering the drink he had been face-to-face with a Villain whose Quirk apparently turned him into a shark-man. Luckily, Asui had shown up in time to rescue him and get the pair of them onto the large boat that was one of the zone's set pieces.
Once the pair had boarded the vessel, the Villains (it turned out there were several) had surrounded them but not pressed the attack for some reason. Minoru took the opportunity to have a panic attack because there was no clear way out of this and there was no way in hell that they were ready for a situation this serious.
As far as he could tell, Asui agreed with him but was somehow able to keep her cool. Didn't she understand that they had zero chance of survival? His Quirk was useless in a situation like this and while hers was good, they were just way too outnumbered.
It was at that point that one particular Villain, who seemed to have some form of aquakinesis, decided that the stalemate had gone on long enough and proceeded to cut the boat in half with a high-pressure water sword. He made a follow-up stroke but Asui's quick thinking saved both of them as she took hold of him with her tongue again and leapt clear of the now-wrecked vessel.
"We have to get away from the water!" was the only plan Minoru could come up with before they started descending.
It wouldn't matter, of course. Even if they did manage to escape this particular group of Villains, he knew there were more. He had seen them come in. There could have been as many as a hundred. The truth was, there was no escape. Not from this. Not with their abilities.
Damn it, it wasn't supposed to BE like this!
He could see the shark-faced Villain below them. His teeth shone white in stark contrast to his gray skin. There were so many. Too many. Even as Minoru started to hurl his grapes as rapidly as possible towards the Villains, he knew that it was no use.
They would be back in the water soon. Back amongst the Villains who clearly wanted nothing more than to kill them. Then there would be nothing he could do. It would be all up to Asui.
In a pinch, that was always what it came down to, wasn't it? The tactical types like him were only useful when everything was going according to plan. When shit really hit the fan, it came down to the ones with the most powerful Quirks. People like Todoroki, Bakugo, or Midoriya. There was a reason why the Top Heroes were always ones with raw power and versatility on their side. All Might, Endeavor, Hawks, Best Jeanist, the list went on.
Minoru had never harbored any illusions that he would be a Top Hero. He knew that he would have to settle for a respectable, middle-of-the road position. Maybe he would occasionally be called in for a team-up with a big-shot when they were in need of extra manpower or his particular Quirk, but for the most part he would be locally-known and nothing more.
He was fine with that. Local Heroes were actually better off in a couple of ways. For one, they rarely had Villains come in from out of town looking for a fight just for the hell of it. For another, they built closer relationships with the people they helped to protect, since they saw them over and over again. This part in particular worked out great for Minoru since it would give him the chance to build a rep with any local beauties.
He knew that it wouldn't be all sunshine and rainbows. Such a job never was. But that came later, after he had training and experience under his belt. It didn't come on his third fucking day of school!
IT WASN'T SUPPPOSED TO BE LIKE THIS!
Then they hit the water.
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Izuku Midoriya was falling.
More precisely, he was falling towards a cityscape that was more on fire than not and he was still holding on to Kirishima.
"Oh shit! What the- Midoriya?!" the Hardening Quirk user seemed to have grasped the situation just a bit after Izuku had.
"Kirishima-san, we need to find a way to break our fall!"
"I mean, I can use Hardening and that should protect me just fine but it won't do much for you!"
"That's fine! Do that! I'll think of something!"
Easier said than done. One step at a time, first he needed fire. Luckily, there was an abundant supply.
"Do it, Midoriya!" Kirishima yelled as his Quirk activated with an audible *chink*, "My Quirk protects me from heat and stuff!"
That was extremely valuable information.
"Sorry about this!" Izuku quickly apologized before he fired up Flame Magnet and began to inhale.
Falling towards a sea of flames was one thing. Seeing said sea suddenly shoot upwards towards you while you were falling towards it was on its own separate level about three orders of magnitude higher on the scale of "Shit That Is Legitimately Terrifying." Nevertheless, it did the trick almost immediately. When Izuku had taken in as much as he could, he cut off Flame Magnet and the remaining flames that were in the air dissipated, revealing that they were that much closer to the ground.
"Monsieur, could you use a hand?" suddenly Aoyama was there, armor shining and cape billowing wildly as he fell. Though he was in the same situation as them, his unflappable smile was the same as ever. "I would be more than happy to oblige!"
"Where the hell did you come from?!" Kirishima's surprise couldn't be faulted. Izuku was surprised too, but his mind was currently in overdrive trying to prevent his imminent demise.
If he could use his trick from before, but focus it into a stream, then use Aoyama's Navel Laser to add stability then maybe…but that still left Kirishima. No time. This was the plan he was going with.
"Kirishima-san, will you be okay on your own?!"
"Don't worry about me, Midoriya! Do what you have to do!" not a second of hesitation. It would have gotten Izuku choked up if he wasn't currently under the mother of all time-constraints.
So he threw Kirishima to one side and immediately grabbed Aoyama, turning him perpendicular to himself and mashing the small of his armored back into his stomach.
"Aoyama-san, I need you to fire off the most forceful blast you can right when we're about to hit!"
"Oui!"
Izuku took a deep breath, focusing the flames into his throat like before. He needed to be careful with this. Ten percent or thereabouts. Any less might not be enough and any more and he ran the risk of injuring Aoyama, not to mention himself.
Focus on the feeling of five percent…then double it and don't let up!
No time left. It was now or never.
Izuku pursed his lips, contracted his diaphragm, and spat a stream of fire towards the ground below them. He could feel his gut cramping up, his ribcage shifting, but he couldn't afford to let up. His fire was half-gone now and they were still going too fast. In a last-ditch effort to give them just a bit more of a chance, Izuku opened his mouth as wide as it would go and expelled all of his remaining air in a single burst, resulting in a sudden surge of flames.
"Art of Seduction: Full Power!" Aoyama had evidently decided that the time was right to play his part as he fired off a short-lived, but powerful blast from his abdomen that was easily double the size he usually used.
Then the impact came.
The rebounding force sent Izuku bouncing away from Aoyama, feeling as though he had just been hit in the gut with a cinderblock. He had the presence of mind to roll with the next impact and came to a stop shortly thereafter. He was having a hell of a time trying to get his breath back and he was very glad that he had eaten a light lunch that day, but overall he seemed to be okay, if a bit battered.
Thank god for all of those sit-ups All Might had made him do.
"Ugh…merde…but this is what being such a chevalier gets me, non?" it sounded like Aoyama was alright too. His armor must have helped soften the impact somewhat. Or maybe he was tougher than he looked? Lord knew Izuku of all people shouldn't be judging a book by its cover.
"Jesus Christ are you guys okay?!" and that was Kirishima. Good. All three of them made it. Mission Success and all that nonsense…
…God he wanted to vomit right now.
Deep breaths, Izuku…okay, inhaled a bit of ash with that one, but you've got the right idea. Maybe use that respirator next time? You did buy a new one, remember? It's around your neck and everything.
As Izuku felt a pair of strong arms helping him to his feet, his brain suddenly caught up with the situation at hand.
"They knew U.A.'s schedule."
"What's that, Midoriya?" Kirishima asked as he helped his friend steady himself.
"They knew that All Might was supposed to be here today. They must have caused that media rush the other day and gathered their intel then." Izuku was only half paying attention to what was going on around him, "They said they're here to kill All Might!"
"Come on, Midoriya," Kirishima had moved on to Aoyama, "that's crazy talk! Nobody can beat All Might. He's the Number One Hero for a reason."
"Au contraire, Kirishima-san," Aoyama was futilely attempting to shake soot from his cape, "if this was so, then why would they come here only to be beaten? All Might's reputation proceeds him in the entire country, so surely they knew what they were getting into, oui?"
"It's like Todoroki-san said," Izuku continued, "this was premeditated. They planned out every single step. After all that, it wouldn't make sense for them to do this unless they really thought they had a way to beat him."
"But how?!" Eijiro was clearly beginning to become unnerved by this conversation, "And why All Might? Why now?!"
Izuku honestly didn't have the answer. He had a few ideas, but there wasn't time to go over them in detail. There was only one thing that mattered right then.
"If there's even the slightest chance that they have a way to beat All Might, then…" Izuku's sentence was interrupted by the appearance of several Villains who had apparently come to investigate the commotion caused by a burst of fire and a laser blast, "…we've got a job to do. We need to beat these guys back and meet up with everyone else as quickly as we can!"
"That's a plan I can get behind!" Eijiro's fighting spirit had ignited and he smashed his hardened fists together.
"Oui…" Aoyama agreed, "…but unfortunately I will have to stay back for a few moments yet. That blast took a little more out of me than I had planned on. I will provide ranged support when I am able."
"In that case, I'll play middle." Izuku took a moment to absorb some of the nearby flames, bringing himself back to about a quarter tank before replacing his respirator over his mouth, "I'll take care of anyone who gets past you, Kirishima-san, so you can fight without worries. Let me know if you need a breather and we can switch."
"Roger that, Vice-Prez! Simple and effective so even I can understand it; this is my kind of plan!"
Then the first wave of Villains drew level with their perimeter and the Heroes-in-Training went to work.
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Shoto Todoroki was rather pleased with his landing strategy. As soon as he had realized what was going on, he shot an angular pillar of ice at the ground, gradually twisting and levelling it out until it shot him onto the ground like the mother of all slides. He was a bit scuffed, but overall it was a win. Bonus points for style too.
Sure, it would probably attract any Villains in the area too, but he didn't have a problem with that. His specialty was dealing with crowds after all and it would be over a lot more quickly then if he had to track them all down himself. He would freeze them, interrogate them and then regroup with the others to share the intel. It would go off like clockwork.
What Shoto hadn't been expecting was a female voice crying out moments before a body impacted him from behind, arms and legs wrapping around his torso reflexively. He would have been knocked over if the figure had not been so light.
At least, this was what Shoto assumed had happened because, while he could feel the limbs, he could not see them apart from a pair of gloves and shoes. This left him with three guesses who he was currently wearing like a human backpack and the first two didn't count.
"They sent you here too, Hagakure-san?"
"Todoroki! Man, Mina is gonna be jealous when I tell her about this! Oh!" apparently remarking on her current situation had made her aware of the fact that she was currently pressed flush against Shoto's back, "Hang on, I'll get off."
"Wait." Shoto had seen movement in his peripheral, "Stay right where you are. I don't have to aim this way."
"Aim wha- oh." at this point the Villains had started approaching from the front as well. Shoto felt a shift as Hagakure adjusted her grip and felt a weight rest on his shoulder that was confirmed to be her chin a moment later when her voice was closer to his ear than before, having dropped in volume as well. The whole situation struck Shoto as being very intimate before he told that part to kindly shut up while there was fighting to be done, "You sure you aren't taking advantage of the situation just a little bit?"
Not that he would ever admit to, no. If anything, he couldn't talk back to her without giving her presence away, so she was the one taking advantage. He settled for a low growl.
"Oh, relax. I'm messing with you. It's what I do when I'm nervous. By the way, there's three more coming in from behind. They're further away then the ones in front, but not as far as the ones to your left. They think they're being sneaky. It's kinda funny, actually."
Shoto made a show of wiping his mouth with his sleeve to hide its movement.
"Let me know when they get within twenty feet. I'll hit them all at once." a hum that he felt through his back more than heard with his ear told him that she understood.
"Heheh. Look at what we've got here!" a particularly ugly specimen to his front addressed the other Villains, actually making the rookie mistake of looking at the ones behind him as well. Well, if he hadn't known before, he sure as hell did now. Amateurs, "Just one kid all by himself! Maybe we should take him hostage?"
"You heard the boss," one to his right rebutted, "we're going for the kill here. You wanna be teleported into a meat grinder or disintegrated starting from your balls, be my guest."
"Don't even joke about that, man."
"Who said I was joking?"
Fun times. Apparently in addition to the teleporter, they had someone who could disintegrate people as well. These guys were dumb. It couldn't be more obvious that they were just hired goons doing what they were told. It was almost enough to make him feel bad about what he had in store for them…
"Sic 'em, Todo."
…but not quite.
Shoto had been focusing his Quirk into his right leg for the past few moments. He could still do some damage with a snap-cast as it were, but for the kind of precision he wanted with this, he needed to concentrate. That was another reason why he wanted them to be close; if he tried to cover too large of an area, it would chill him needlessly. Until the fight was over, he couldn't use his fire. Not even to warm himself. That was the vow he'd made.
A wave of ice suddenly spread from where his right foot touched the ground, covering a twenty-foot radius circle of ground around him and rapidly spreading up the legs and body of anyone it touched until it froze them in place, leaving their faces uncovered.
"What was that you were saying about 'just one kid'? You just got beaten in an instant by that kid, so as adults, what does that make you? Kind of pathetic, don't you think?"
"Geez," Hagakure whispered in his ear, "you ever considered 'Freezerburn' as a Hero Name? With quips like that, you seriously should."
"Whatever. You can get off now."
"Hell no! It's freaking cold all of a sudden! You're nice and warm…at least on the left."
"…You're going to get tired of hanging on eventually."
"I will suffer for the greater good! The longer I hang tough the better this story will be later! You might benefit from this too, you know? If I get her riled up enough, Mina might just glomp you out of sheer jealousy! Or are you saying I'm too heavy?"
"No. You're not heavy." Shoto knew better than to step on that particular landmine, especially when the girl in question could get him back in ways that he would literally never see coming. "Please don't start trying to get people to glomp me though."
"You know, you're one of the few boys I know who would actually say 'no' to that? I mean, you hardly seem bothered by this," she squeezed a bit harder for a moment, "in spite of the fact that I'm…well…you know."
Yes, he knew. He was quite aware of the fact, thank you very much. The evidence was currently pressed somewhere between his shoulder blades.
"Honestly, I gotta say thanks for being so chill about this. It makes it a lot less awkward for me."
"Can we not talk about this right now?" she was really starting to erode his formidable ability to ignore things though.
"Sure. Let's see…interrogation?"
"That works. Let's do that."
"Is that kid crazy or something? He's talking to himself!"
"Hey, I'm not saying anything! You wanna be frozen from the inside of your ass up, be my guest."
"…You've got issues, man."
Shoto had a pretty good idea of who to start with.
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"Eh?! What do you mean you don't know where he is?!"
"I mean-" *Kaboom* "-that I don't-" *Crunch* "-know where the fuck he is, Uraraka!" *BLAMM*
"If I might -TOH- interject, -HIYAH-!" *POW BAM* "I think that we should get out of this kill box they have us set up in."
"Why would we do that, Tailman? They're right -DIE- where I want 'em! In face-exploding range!"
"Maybe because -RELEASE- our main goal here should be to find the others and not just waste time with these goons?"
Bakugo had to admit that she had a point. The Head Villain in Charge had said that their goal was to kill All Might, which his second-in-command had re-iterated just a moment before being introduced to one of his explosions. The only reason they were even bothering with the students seemed to be because they were intent on killing time (and the students) while they waited for him to show up.
Katsuki wasn't even going to begin digging into all the things that didn't smell right about this situation. One of which was currently sneaking up behind him.
*BOOM*
There. Taken care of. Honestly, he would have loved nothing more than to stay here and just keep cracking skulls until he ran out of heads. It was fucking liberating to be able to just go wild and not worry about getting into trouble as long as he didn't kill anyone. It wasn't like Deku was in any real trouble either if mooks like this were all that they had to deal with.
Except they weren't. With Deku's luck he would find himself right smack in the middle of the biggest, nastiest fight against at least two high-ranking Villains. At least he had Redhead with him, if the last position he saw the pair of them in was any indication.
"Fine." he made his decision and assumed command, "Uraraka, Tailman, on me. We're gonna take the party to them. If we run into anyone else along the way, all the better."
"Yeah!"
"Roger that."
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Denki Kaminari was doing his best to be presidential, by which he meant not breaking out into a panic as his first instinct was to do as they were surrounded by Villains with their backs to a rock wall. Instead, he had noticed that Yaoyorozu was producing weapons for her and Jiro. She had made herself a metallic quarterstaff and Jiro a machete. This got him thinking.
"Hey, Yaomomo, can you make me something blunt? The more conductive the better."
She thought for a moment before holding out her empty left hand, from which a handle suddenly emerged. He drew it out slowly to reveal a collapsible baton which, when he flicked it open, turned out to be a solid two feet long. With his best "let's get dangerous" smirk, he channeled his Quirk through his body and into the baton, causing it to dance with visible electricity.
"Nice."
It was at that moment that the first few Villains decided to charge them. Jiro blasted a few that were in front of them by plugging one of her jacks into one of her boots which, as it turned out, had speakers installed in them. The sound wave, which she had told Denki was generated by her heartbeats, brought them to the ground, clutching their heads. One or two looked like they might be bleeding from the ears. Sucked to be them.
"Eyes up, Prez!" she suddenly barked at him.
He spun around, instinctively lashing out with the baton. This was fortunate, as he caught a rather large Villain in the chest with it. He felt his wrist wrench a bit at the impact, but managed to keep his grip on the baton, which proceeded to do its job. The Villain's movements were momentarily halted by the electricity, giving Denki enough time to come back around with a blow to the head, knocking him unconscious.
"Gotta warn you guys, the Class President of 1-A is pretty strong. Unfortunately for you, that's me."
"Kaminari-san!" Yaoyorozu had taken the last member of the first wave down by bashing him across the face with her staff, "Didn't you say that your Quirk could be used in an area?"
"Yeah, it can, but I can't control where it goes! I'd hit you guys too and that'd be no good!"
"I can fix that! Just give me a moment."
Well whatever she was going to do, he hoped she did it quickly. The rest of the Villains looked pretty pissed and one or two of the first wave were getting back up. They were going to charge soon and overwhelm them.
What would Midoriya do?
Something stupid. Right.
"Hey, Jiro."
"What is it, Kaminari?" Denki took a brief moment to look at her over his shoulder to make sure she heard him.
"This is an order from your Class Prez: guard Yaomomo until she's ready with whatever she's cooking up."
"No shit, Sherlock! That's been the plan this whole time! Did you leave your earplugs in after the show or something?!" he started to walk towards the Villains, "Whoa! Where the hell are you going?!"
"These guys won't give us the time that Yaomomo needs, so we need a showstopper. I'm volunteering. Signal me when I can cut loose."
"Get back here you idiot!" but it was too late. Denki ran at the cluster of Villains, baton held off to one side.
"Come on! If you think you can take me on, you're in for a shock!"
The Villains were so surprised at his apparent stupidity that he was able to get off a clean hit with his baton before they reacted.
Things went steadily downhill after that. Denki used his baton to keep his attackers at bay and his free left hand to zap those who got too close, but eventually he found himself surrounded. He had taken a few hits in the process and he thought his nose was bleeding. He was starting to feel a bit woozy, if he was being honest.
He had still managed to tag most of the Villains at least once and his cocky grin had never left his face.
"What's the matter? Not having fun anymore? I'm having a blast!"
"What the fuck is up with this kid?! He's taken like three hits to the head and he's still standing!"
For some reason Denki found this to be incredibly funny and was overcome with a case of the giggles.
"Hee…ask anyone I know, buddy; they'll tell you I don't have much up top for you to mess up in the first place, so smack away!" he punctuated by smacking the speaker in the head with his baton, "You know, kinda like that!"
"Cut loose you crazy bastard!" Jiro's voice was music to his ears. Fitting.
"Well boys, it's been a gas," Denki raised his baton dramatically above his head, the electricity coursing through it and his body suddenly increasing in intensity, "but it's time for me to stop holding back!"
Denki put both hands on the baton and brought it crashing down onto the ground, pushing his Quirk to the limit and beyond to perform his ultimate attack, which sent high-voltage electricity out in every direction around him.
Of course I couldn't go down that easily, you punks. Didn't you hear me when I said I was the Class President? I'm their leader and everyone knows that the leader has to be the toughest one of them all! Now EAT SHIT!
"Indiscriminate Shock: ONE-POINT-THREE MILLION VOLTS!"
T – o – r – c – h – b – e – a – r – e – r
Mezo Shoji was watching very carefully.
Watching what? Everything.
His main eyes were focused on the swirling Mist Villain in front of his group. He had one Tentacleye focused on Thirteen, another swapping between the rest of his group, and two more scanning the area as a whole, trying to pick up whatever pieces of information he could. Of his remaining two tentacles, one was a mouth that he was using to relay whatever information he thought was pertinent, while the other was an extra ear because having an extra ear was always helpful. People always underestimated the Tentaclears.
Their current plan, which Thirteen had just finished explaining, was for Iida to escape on his own and use his superior speed to find more teachers ASAP. It was a good plan, as far as things went, but it had one flaw.
Namely that the Mist Villain had heard the entire thing and was currently telling them as much.
"I mean, really, even if you have no other choice and it is the best plan available, do you really think it's advisable to discuss your plans so openly in front of your enemy?"
"You misunderstand," Thirteen replied, subtly popping a cap off of one of their fingers, "I'm being open about this because it doesn't matter if you know! Black Hole!"
It was as if Thirteen had fired up the most powerful vacuum in the world and pointed it directly at the Villain. The mist started being sucked into their finger, the Villain's main mass being slowly dragged towards the miniature void.
Shoji noted that the amount of mist being lost was disproportionate to how much the Villain appeared to be comprised of. That, combined with his attack from earlier, suggested that he could generate more. To do that, he would require a main body from which to generate it.
Then Mezo noticed something that made his blood run cold.
A very small tendril of mist had crept around outside of Thirteen's range and was primed to create a portal behind them. That meant the Villain had a plan.
Furthermore, this Villain was a talker. The fact that he had been eerily silent since Thirteen's attack started meant that he was focusing, which meant that this was probably a good plan.
"You are truly powerful, Thirteen," the Villain praised, "but your inexperience as a Combat Hero is painfully obvious!"
Had Shoji's diving leap been just one second later, he would have been torn apart along with Thirteen. As it was, he had transformed all of his tentacles back into hands and bowled the Space Hero over just in time to prevent them from being hoisted by their own petard. The Mist Villain had turned his own body into a portal and attempted to redirect Thirteen's power back at them by opening another portal behind them.
"Unfortunately for you, Thirteen isn't alone!" a stream of tape suddenly shot towards the Mist Villain, tagging him on his odd, metallic neck brace.
"OORRAAAA!" the Villain was suddenly airborne as Sato wrenched at the tape, intent on smashing the Villain into the ground.
"Hmph, futile!" a portal opened up on the ground in the Villain's path, primed to send him who-knows-where.
"I do not think so!" the suction was back. Thirteen had read the situation and sucked up the forming portal, causing the Mist Villain to collide violently with the ground. The sound of the impact was less forceful than Shoji had anticipated, meaning that the mist had cushioned his fall somewhat. He was going to get back up!
"Don't move, creep!" Ashido was there. She was poised over the Villain, one hand pinning him to the ground by his neckwear while the other dripped with acid that sizzled as it fell onto the ground by his head, "If you do anything I don't like, I swear I'll melt a hole through your neck! I might not understand exactly what's going on here, but you've got to have a body under there somewhere if you were afraid of hitting the ground, right?"
"Nngh! Curses!"
"Iida-san! Begone!" Mezo shouted, "Leave right now!"
"Ah, right! I will return with help, I promise!"
Iida shot off towards the exit, pried the doors open, and was gone.
"Haah…" Mezo let out a sigh. That had been a trying experience.
"Thank you for your assistance." Thirteen was patting him on the shoulder, having resealed their finger cap, "Had it not been for your quick thinking, I would be in a very sorry state right now."
"Not at all, Thirteen-sensei," Shoji replied, "I was only following your lesson from earlier and trying to think of the best way to use my Quirk to help everyone. I figured that having more eyes on the situation would be useful. I just happened to figure out what the Villain was planning in time to prevent it."
"You would be very surprised how many well-known Heroic acts have more than a small element of luck." Thirteen remarked gravely, "More often than not, tragedy can only be truly prevented when a Hero is in the right place at the right time. When a Hero arrives after the fact, it is always to perform damage control, rather than prevention. This fact is made all the more obvious when you deal exclusively with disasters, like I do."
Mezo had not considered this, but it made a great deal of sense. He felt a momentary pang of pity for Thirteen but shook it off at once. Not only was this not the time or place, but Thirteen had made a conscious decision to be the type of Hero they were. Not only that, but the number of people they had saved by doing what they had was far greater than it would likely have been if they had chosen a different path.
A fundamental fact of being a Hero was that you would never be able to save everyone. You just had to save as many as you could.
"What should we do now, sensei?" he inquired.
"We shall remain here." Thirteen said firmly, "This Villain is dangerous and we should keep him under close watch in case he tries to escape or anyone tries to rescue him. Additionally, we should be here to inform whoever comes to assist us so they can immediately go where they are most needed. Your Quirk should be quite useful in this regard."
Shoji nodded and resumed radar duty while Thirteen went to inform the others of the plan.
From what Mezo could tell, the Villains were getting their collective asses handed to them for the most part. The only exceptions, as far as he could tell, were the Flood Zone, where the Villains had apparently lost contact with their target and the Downpour Zone, which he could not see into. A massive ice pillar in the Landslide Zone in particular spoke volumes about what became of those unfortunate souls.
Then there was the plaza, where Aizawa was currently tearing through the Villains as though they were tissue paper with two notable exceptions. Namely, the Villain with the hands and his hulking, deformed bodyguard with the exposed brain. The pair of them had not moved an inch since this whole situation started…
…And Shoji didn't like it.
T – o – r – c – h – b – e – a – r – e – r
In the midst of howling winds and pelting rain, a shadow was running wild, spreading wrack and ruin to any and all who opposed him. His yellow eyes glowed with menace as his body, equal parts tangible and intangible, seemed to be both completely impenetrable and utterly unstoppable.
Fumikage Tokoyami could have done without all the rain, but other than that he was in his element. He and Dark Shadow could see better in the low-light conditions than many of the Villains who were stationed here and his Dark attire combined with Dark Shadow's dark…everything made ambush tactics the order of the day.
Koda was following him at a respectable distance so as not to alert any enemies. He had taken a couple down himself with his surprisingly powerful frame, but he was a pacifist at heart and left the major combat to the Darknamic Duo, which suited Dark Shadow just fine. He was having a blast.
"Come on! Who's next?! That can't be all of them, can it?"
"Actually, it may very well be. I can't imagine they would have sent too terribly many of them into a place such as this and we have already dispatched at least ten."
"Don't forget that one I beaned with a rock."
"Eleven then. I'm still not completely sure that didn't kill him."
"He's fine. Well, no, he probably has a concussion, but he's fine."
Fumikage felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see Koda, who was attempting to pantomime something to him…
…A door?
"Koda-san, are you asking if one of us knows the way to the exit?"
A thumbs-up accompanied by rapid nodding.
"…I must admit that I do not. Dark Shadow, did you notice anything of the sort while you were scouting for targets?"
"Fuck if I know. I was focused on finding more prey."
"…So none of us knows the way out."
"Seems that way, yeah."
Koda shrugged.
…This could be a problem.
We didn't get to the big stuff in this chapter, but we still got some scenes that I enjoyed. I feel like everything has been set up for next time.
Kurogiri is locked down! How will this change things? For the better, I would think. It should be obvious that he isn't out of the picture for good, since he's such an integral character and almost everything the League of Villains does wouldn't be possible without him, but it will at least change the events of USJ in a significant way.
As always, thank you for reading!