Chapter Fifty-Two: Madness

Izuku looked down on the small form of Eri, who was still tucked into bed and far away in her dream world. He brushed a strand of hair out of her face and smoothed his hand over her cheek, stroking the soft skin with his thumb.

Behind him, Katsuki was seated in his desk chair, watching the two of them silently. Izuku had called him up as soon as he was awake. They technically weren't supposed to tell anybody about the raid taking place in just a few hours, but he trusted Katsuki and he needed someone to watch Eri while he was gone. She would panic if she woke up without him present.

"I might be gone all day," Izuku told Katsuki quietly. "Early afternoon at the very earliest."

"I'll keep her busy," his best friend replied. "I'll get Momo to help out, too. She likes Momo."

"Yeah," he fell silent for another moment before kneeling down and pressing a kiss to the child's forehead. "Sweet dreams, love bug."

Izuku stood back up and turned to Katsuki, who rose with him. Before Izuku could say anything, the other teen pulled him into a gruff hug. He squeezed back tightly against Katsuki's firm grasp.

"Be careful, nerd," Katsuki muttered.

"I will."


For once, Hisashi found himself grateful to see heroes around. That might've had something to do with the fact that they were escorting Inko around until the Eight Precepts were dealt with, but it was still a first.

He was keeping an eye on her from afar. Seeing as Izuku and Eri were safe in U.A, Inko was the only one really at risk from the Yakuza. Granted, with Ectoplasm, Cementoss, and Midnight around, she was about as safe as she could be, but Hisashi wasn't one to take chances.

Of course, he made sure to stay out of sight. The heroes probably wouldn't appreciate his presence, and he wasn't really in the mood for a fight at the moment.

He watched as Inko and Midnight got into her car, then drove off to U.A with Cementoss and Ectoplasm driving a separate vehicle behind them. Hisashi leapt onto a roof and casually pursued them, but he kept his distance.

The League was plenty satisfied after raiding the Yakuza. Tomura hadn't been in this good a mood for quite some time, and it showed. Granted, they would still be moving locations before too long due to their prolonged stay at the current base, (not to mention their high activity as of late) but it hadn't put a damper on the Successor of Evil's day.

Hisashi had been impressed with how Tomura handled their collaboration with Wolfram. He knew that the thief wasn't an easy villain to work with, but Tomura had risen to the challenge and established a clear victory. Wolfram was definitely an ally now to the League, even if they wouldn't work with one another directly for a while after this latest heist.

It was the first substantial achievement Tomura had claimed as the new leader. The young man was growing well into his role.

Perhaps it was time to bring another powerhouse into the fold, especially now that the League needed to disappear for a while once again.

Gigantomachia was the obvious choice, Hisashi reflected. His fellow Chimera had been All for One's personal bodyguard for a long time, although their master had sent the behemoth into hiding when All Might rose to power.

Machia was a juggernaut. Ridiculously fast, powerful, and with ungodly stamina to boot. Against the average hero (or even top heroes) he was more than a match for them. But All Might had been something else. In his prime, he likely would have defeated Gigantomachia, albeit with some difficulty.

It had been an investment for the future; All for One's decision to send Machia into hiding until All Might was either dead or retired. The Symbol of Evil had never been one to put all his eggs into one basket. Gigantomachia was to be Tomura's secret weapon on the off-chance something happened to his master.

In hindsight, it had been a good choice, Hisashi reflected, though it would only bear fruit if Tomura could actually bring Machia to his side. The Juggernaut was loyal to a fault to his former master, and nothing less than a true successor to All for One would satisfy him.

It would be up to Tomura to convince Machia he was worth following; Hisashi would not battle his fellow Chimera. Not for any kind of sentimental reason, (frankly, he and Machia had beaten each other into the dirt more times than he cared to remember) but Hisashi doubted the Juggernaut would actually respect Tomura if he had another Chimera do all of the hard work for him.

No, Tomura would have to bring Machia into the fold on his own power or not at all.

Was he ready for that? Maybe. It was hard to tell—Tomura honestly stood no chance against Machia in a one-on-one battle, but with the rest of the League backing him…perhaps he could slowly chip away at Machia's supernatural stamina until he was able to force the Juggernaut to acknowledge his strength. Even that would be an incredible achievement for Tomura.

If he managed to bring Machia to his side, Tomura would be operating at a whole new level. The kind of firepower he'd have at his disposal was absurd.

Hisashi blinked as he realized U.A wasn't much farther off. He glanced down to the car carrying Inko to the secure campus and decided to follow just a bit more, if for nothing but his peace of mind. He'd be more relaxed once she was actually past the gates.

But as he readied himself to stop, his sharp eyes spotted a flicker of movement behind the walls guarding U.A that had him squinting curiously…


Katsuki sat across the table from Momo and Hanta, each of them drinking a cup of tea while Eri had her juice in the seat next to him. It was a quiet, albeit tense morning—they all knew something was going on. Izuku, Ochako, Tsuyu, and Eijirou had all left early that morning together for their internships, and the absence was noticeable. The rest of the class was still waking up, but those who were already back in the waking world were aware of something going on.

Granted, only Katsuki knew exactly what was happening, but Momo was always quick on the uptake and Hanta was smart enough to recognize that Katsuki was more tense than normal—something that rarely happened when Eri was in his direct care.

Momo did her best to break the ice, though. She offered Eri a smile. "Did you sleep well, Eri?"

The child nodded quietly. "Mmhm."

"How's your breakfast?"

"It's yummy," she replied, a little shyly. Momo beamed at her. The croissants and omelets were all made by her. Katsuki had contributed to the sliced fruit platter currently being raided by Hanta in the middle of the table.

"I'm glad to hear it," Momo thanked Eri. She then glanced at Katsuki. "Shall we put off our training for today?"

Katsuki paused and glanced at the child beside him, then shrugged. "Probably. I was thinking of doing some artsy stuff with her."

Eri brightened a little and looked up at her surrogate uncle. "Coloring?"

His lips quirked up into a smirk. "Coloring."

Eri's smile lit up the room and she kicked her little legs in the air above the floor for a few seconds in a rare display of excitement. A few seconds later, though, and she was trying to hide it out of embarrassment.

Katsuki wasn't having it, though. Getting the kid to smile without Izuku around could be a bit of a chore, and he liked making Eri happy. Not that anyone with a brain cell would dare accuse him of actually enjoying his efforts to make the little girl smile.

"Who're you trying to hide from?" He grinned teasingly, leaning towards Eri with his hands raised. The child stared back with wide eyes and slowly started to remove herself from her seat.

Katsuki darted after her the moment she leapt from her chair and made a run for the lobby, his hands raised for a tickle attack. "Get back here, squirt!"

"Momo! Help me!" Eri shrieked, giggling, and ran as fast as she could for the living room.

Momo and Hanta exchanged amused grins as she got up. "I'm coming, Eri!"

Momo ran over to Eri as the child ran a circle around the couch in an effort to escape Katsuki. The girl started running for Momo the moment she looped around and then—

A woman simply materialized behind Eri and reached for her.

Momo and Katsuki had all of two seconds to process the stranger's manifestation before they exploded into action. Katsuki propelled himself over the couch, aiming for the stranger's head while Momo reached to grab Eri. At the table, Hanta aimed his elbows at the intruder—

The stranger laid one hand on Eri's shoulder and they both vanished in an instant.

"ERI!" Katsuki roared as his hands swiped through thin air, but he spotted a blur of motion just outside as the stranger materialized with Eri still in tow. He rocketed for the window.

"Katsuki, catch!" Momo shouted, creating and flinging a device at him.

He caught the object with his left hand while blowing through the glass window, pressing the communication device into his ear. The roar of the explosion, followed by the shattering of glass, set alarms off all across the campus.

Momo bolted for the door. "Hanta! Get me on the roof!"

"How did they get in here?!" He shouted as he followed her. His gaze watched Katsuki blurring across the campus grounds as he chased the intruder and Eri, the former of which seemed to be capable of warping only short distances. Katsuki was almost able to close the gap each time they warped, but he was always just a little short.

"I don't care how! Get me up there!"

Without missing a beat, Hanta shot his tape to the roof and then grabbed Momo before reeling both of them to the top as fast as he dared. Momo scrambled to the roof and immediately created a scoped rifle, tracking darts, and a receiver.

"Go get the teachers! I'll try to help Katsuki drive them to you!" She ordered. Hanta practically dropped back to ground level fast enough to give Momo a heart attack, but she didn't have time to worry. She lined up her sights with the scope to watch Katsuki chasing the intruder closer to the walls of the campus. They had readjusted their grip on Eri so they were holding the child with a single arm, but the instantaneous warping kept them one step ahead of Katsuki's furious chase.

She was quick to make another communication device and stuck it into her ear. "Katsuki! Drive them towards the gates! Hanta's getting the teachers!"

He didn't respond verbally, but she watched as he fired a daringly close explosion to dissuade the intruder from their current path and redirected them towards the gates. Momo watched the warper carefully, noting the maximum distance they seemed capable of teleporting. It was maybe ten meters tops for each warp, and there was only a brief delay between warps, but it was there.

She leaned into the rifle and lined the scope up as best she could. They were going to get away and she knew it, but that didn't mean she couldn't do anything about it. She was following their progress and as fast as she could, calculated the most likely position for them to be in once they reached the gates.

Stay calm, she repeated to herself. This shot is mine.

She counted down as the warper was chased to the gates, took a breath, and pulled the trigger. I'm sorry, Eri!

The shot was fired between warps and practically the instant the warper materialized with Eri once again, it hit the target.

Momo felt her heart break as she watched Eri gasp in shock the moment the tracking dart struck her right leg, forcing a microchip beneath the child's skin. It would only sting for a bit, but the fact that she had to target Eri at all hurt.

"I got them," she told Katsuki. "There's a tracker on Eri."

Not that it stopped his rampage, but Momo felt some relief as she checked the receiver that went with the microchip and got the signal feedback immediately. Regardless of whether this was a kidnapping or a delivery, they'd know where Eri was now, she told herself.

She created another receiver to match the first and then made her way for the stairwell to get downstairs. She needed to reach the teachers immediately, even if they managed to stop the kidnapper before they got too far.


Mugetsu remained calm even as Katsuki rampaged after her, roaring in fury. She'd expected Hisashi's boy to be here, but he didn't seem to be around. Just as well, she figured. This was irritating enough to deal with.

Granted, there wasn't even the slightest chance Katsuki would catch her at his current speed, but this job was already risky enough now that the explosive teen had set the alarms off. She could already see heroes rushing out of the buildings and closing in on the gates.

She glanced at the top of the gates and warped there in an instant, then began a chain warp to get as far away from the furious heroes as possible. She heard a shot go off, but felt nothing, and thus assumed the shot had missed. Katsuki let out a scream of rage behind her as she shook him off.

She touched her earpiece and pressed the button to speak to Ras, continuing to warp away all the while. "I have the child. Tell them to get ready to go. The heroes will be on my tail."

"Oh? Even as elusive as you are, you can't shake them?"

"There's only one group of people determined to get this girl," Mugetsu replied dryly. "It won't take them long to put two-and-two together."

"Fair enough," Ras purred back. "I'll have Hellscaper prepare a surprise for them."

Mugetsu snorted, but was distracted by a blur of motion on her left—

Hisashi's enraged face so close to her was honestly the last thing she was expecting.

"GIVE HER BACK!" Viper roared, reaching for Eri and missing as Mugetsu hastily warped to the side of a building. He didn't miss a beat and unleashed a blast of fire from his feet to lunge after her.

"What are you doing here?!" Mugetsu snapped, still warping to put distance between herself and her fellow Chimera.

"That's my line!" Hisashi snarled, swiping and missing again. "You're with Chisaki now?! Is that what this is?!"

"Business is business, you know that!" She shot back, silently cursing Chisaki for putting a target this big on her.

"Give the girl back or I'll turn you to ashes!" Hisashi spat. "Your client is already as good as dead, Shuri! I'll rip his spine from his torso and set his blood afire! You get NOTHING out of this!"

"My sole goal is to retrieve Trigger from the Yakuza," she retorted, warping out of the way of another shot. "You want the girl back?! Let me get what I want and then take her back! Kill Chisaki for all I care! He's not valuable to me!"

"This is not up for negotiation!" Hisashi blazed, slamming into the side of a building a second after Mugetsu warped out of the way. "Put the kid down!"

Mugetsu scowled and focused for a second. Hisashi realized what she was doing and lunged even faster—

The chain-warp Mugetsu initiated an instant later was too fast even for Hisashi to keep up with. He let out a furious howl and launched himself to the nearest rooftop, whipping out a phone as he set a course for the Eight Precepts' home base. The call only rung for a few seconds before it picked up.

"Hisashi?" Kurogiri answered. "What's—"

"Chisaki has Eri," Hisashi snarled. "Get Tomura! Have him set the League on the warpath! Mugetsu was hired to take the girl!"

The other villain was quick to respond. "It shall be done."


Izuku took another deep breath as he and the rest of the heroes prepared themselves as quietly as they could just outside the Yakuza compound. Nighteye was fixing last-minute details with the police force that had joined them.

He felt Ochako nudge his shoulder and glanced at her. She offered him a reassuring smile, which he managed to return even though his stomach was tied in knots.

They were as prepared as they could be. He'd studied each and every Quirk that the Yakuza could possibly have up their sleeves. He knew the layout of the building, the most likely place for Chisaki to hide, and plans upon plans upon plans to fight the criminals no matter what happened.

This was it. This was the moment Chisaki would pay for what he had done.

The commissioner in charge of the police side of the investigation left Nightye's side and faced the gathering of individuals waiting to move in. "Once I read off the warrant, thing's are probably going to get ugly fast. Let's do our best to end this as quickly as possible."

Everyone tensed as he walked to the gates and reached up to press the doorbell.

Ding!

A surge of morbid heat rolled over them a second before a series of explosions went off, and Izuku had all of two seconds to look up and blanch as a rain of molten rock came down on them.

"Get to cover!" Nighteye shouted in alarm.

Everyone scrambled to dive behind cars or put their backs to the walls as the lava bombs came down on them. They weren't very big, but there was a ton of them, and each one was absolutely lethal.

One of the officers held up a riot shield to try and block one, but it melted through the guard almost immediately. Despite frantically throwing the ruined shield away, his arm caught fire and he screamed. Izuku bolted over and transmuted the flame in an instant before forcing it to vanish. "Hide!"

He grabbed the officer and managed to drag him behind one of the vans with Mirio and Nighteye, both of whom were stunned. Mirio quickly set about treating the injured cop while Nighteye peeked around the car to watch another rain of lava bombs come hurtling towards them. They were scattering all over the place, hitting buildings, cars, anything they could reach. Fires were starting to spring up everywhere, and even the vehicle they were hiding behind had taken so many shots that it was starting to just melt down.

"What the hell is this?!" Rock Lock shouted at Nighteye from behind another vehicle. "None of the Yakuza have a Quirk anything like this!"

"They must've called backup from someone!" Nighteye called back, his brain working overtime. "But there aren't any known villains capable of this!"

"So we're dealing with an unknown?!" Fatgum grimaced, peeking around the corner of a building where he, Eijirou, and Tamaki were sheltering. "Fantastic!"

"No time for that!" Ryukyu told him. "We'll have to work around the compound and come at it from a different angle! Nejire, can you get into the air and see what's happening?"

Nejire was quick to launch herself high above the rain of lava bombs and position herself where she could get a good look at things. The sight that greeted her was even more shocking than the situation outside—she could see a huge fountain of lava in a vaguely humanoid shape, although it seemed to be covering the actual villain beneath it. A series of massive tubes that seemed to protrude from his back and shoulders were launching the lava bombs out, but they weren't aiming at anything in particular. In fact, they were melting through the buildings of the Yakuza stronghold.

"There's just one villain! But he's—he's destroying the compound, too!"

"What?!" Eijirou shrieked. "Isn't he their ally?!"

"His allegiance is irrelevant right now!" Fatgum said. "Nighteye! We've gotta evacuate these buildings! Commissioner, call the fire department!"

Nighteye didn't hesitate. "Ryukyu and Fatgum, your agencies deal with the evacuation! Rock Lock, Eraser Head! Take the police to the other side of the compound!"

"If I get up high enough, I might be able to shut his Quirk down!" Eraser Head called back. Izuku couldn't see him, but his teacher wasn't far away.

"It won't work!" Nejire called down from above. "He's covered in lava! I can't see any of his body!"

Nighteye bit back a curse. "Of all the Quirks…Where did this one come from?!"

Before any of them could put the new plan into action, they were interrupted by a familiar, black warp gate opening up just a few meters from Izuku. Everyone froze as a blonde head tumbled out, and Izuku had to yank her out of the way before a lava bomb could hit her. Kurogiri's warp gate closed a second later, the space where he'd been now splattered by molten rock.

Izuku jammed Himiko between himself and Nighteye before hissing furiously. "Are you insane?!"

"Debatable!" She yelped as another lava bomb crashed into the wall just ahead of them. "Who the hell is doing this?!"

"Nighteye?!" Ryukyu spluttered in shock as she, Ochako, and Tsuyu stared at Himiko along with a handful of stunned police officers. More than a few of the officers had their weapons hesitantly raised.

"She's with us!" Nighteye called back to put them at ease, though he glared at the girl a moment later. "What is the meaning of this?"

"It's Eri!" Himiko whipped her gaze back to Izuku, eyes alight with panic. "Izuku, they have Eri!"

He felt his heart stop for a few beats before he heard Tsuyu shout. "She's at U.A! There's no way they could've—"

"Chisaki hired a Chimera with a warping Quirk!" Himiko cut her off. "They broke in and took her!"

Izuku's face had blanched to a bloodless white, but he grabbed Himiko's shoulders desperately. "Are you sure?"

Himiko opened her mouth again, only for Nighteye to spin her around and look into her eyes. "I'm going to use my Quirk."

"Do it," she agreed without hesitating.

Nighteye's Quirk went active and tense seconds passed as he looked into Himiko's future. Around them, the temperature was started to get unbearably hot from the growing quantity of lava.

"Sir?" Mirio urged hesitantly.

"…" Nighteye pulled away from Himiko and looked from Izuku to Ryukyu grimly. "She's telling the truth."

Izuku let out a snarl and almost spun around the car to charge straight into the compound, but Himiko grabbed his arm and yanked him back. "No!"

"Let me go!" He roared. Eri was in danger, the Yakuza had her again, he'd promised, he'd promised and they'd taken her anyways, Chisaki had Eri he was gonna kill that sonofabitch, he'd rip him apart and burn the ashes

"Kurogiri can warp us directly inside!" She told him. "Chisaki has an underground tunnel system he'll try to escape through! I know where the entrance is—I can get us in!"

"Nighteye, trusting her is one thing, but we can't trust the rest of the League!" Fatgum protested. "It could be a trap!"

"It's not," he replied tightly. "My Foresight saw enough to tell me that. This is a hostage situation now, we'll have to change our tactics. I'll take a small group into the compound while the rest of us focus on evacuating the surrounding area."

"Then who's going to deal with this villain?" Ryukyu demanded.

Above them, Nejire suddenly yelped. "Heads up!"

They had all of half a second before an emerald blur rocketed over the buildings behind them and slammed into the lava-covered villain with devastating force. The impact was enough to crack the concrete walls surrounding the compound and blow the doors clean off.

The heroes and police all had front-row seats to gape in disbelief as Hisashi snarled and shoved his hands through the thick lava to attempt to grasp the villain below the coating. "Get out of there so I can kill you!"

Lava bombs were still going off, but they slowed by a fair bit as the villain apparently decided to focus more on thickening the lava coating. No one could tell if Hisashi had actually hurt them or not, but they were clearly focused more on defense now.

"We'll take advantage of this to infiltrate the compound and retrieve the hostage," Nighteye decided, peering around the melting van to watch Hisashi's attempts to grapple the strange villain. "No one in our group is equipped to deal with either of them. Attacking would only result in casualties. My office and Fatgum's will deal with the hostage situation! The rest of you evacuate the area and call in backup!"

Ryukyu grimaced. "I hope you know what you're doing! Nejire, Uravity, Froppy! We'll evacuate the buildings closest to the battle!"

"Got it!" Nejire called down. "I'll start from the top and work my way down to you!"

While Ryukyu's office and the police force went to go and help with evacuations, Nighteye glanced back at Himiko. "Tell Kurogiri to open the gate."

She nodded and grabbed her phone, sending the text with blinding speed. Not ten seconds later, the black warp gate was opening up again in front of them. Nighteye went in first, followed immediately by Izuku, Himiko, and the rest of the heroes assigned to enter the compound.


Chisaki and his Eight Expendables had already gone into the tunnels, leaving behind the rest of their forces to hold the heroes off and ensure the Boss was kept safe. That, of course, was made exponentially harder given that one of Mugetsu's allies had apparently decided to create a new volcano on top of their base.

Mugetsu emerged from the shadows at the end of the tunnel with Eri in tow, looking irritated even with only the upper half of her face visible. "The Trigger. Now."

Chisaki scowled beneath his mask. "That can wait until we're in a secure location. Eri is—"

"—an unnecessary risk that has U.A and Heat Viper on our tail," she retorted. "You've jeopardized this entire extraction by insisting on the retrieval of this girl. Do not forget that you are no longer in charge, Overhaul."

"She's important to our plans."

"Your plans," Mugetsu snapped. "Not ours. Yours. And your plans do not matter. You want to keep the girl? Do it on your own power. Clean up the mess you've made and get her to the extraction site. But you owe me the Trigger. Give it to me or I will take her outside and leave her to the heroes."

Chisaki's face went red with anger, but he gave in and snapped his fingers at Shin, who was carrying the box containing the most valuable Trigger data and samples they had. "Fine. Take it. Just give me the girl."

Mugetsu snorted in exasperation before accepting the Trigger, releasing the girl so Shin could bring her over to his leader. Eri's face was bloodless with terror as she stared up at her former captor, now once again at his mercy. Chisaki glared down at her as he snatched her arm from Shin, causing her to flinch. "We will be having words about what you've done, Eri."

The strangled sound that left her throat was one of pure fear.

Mugetsu eyed the child for one more second before looking at Chisaki. "Get her to the extraction point. If you lose her again, I will not retrieve her for you a second time."

"Fine," Chisaki snapped. "We'll meet you there."

The Chimera glared back at him coldly as she disappeared with the Trigger. "See that you do."

"Let's move," Overhaul ordered, letting Rikiya take the lead while the rest of the Yakuza fanned out around him and Eri.

Eri was in too much shock and terror to do anything but let Chisaki tug her along. Her mind was frantic as her body trembled. Izuku, where's Izuku they have me again he said they wouldn't get me again where is he Izuku please I need you please please please—


Dabi was waiting for them when Himiko led the heroes out of Kurogiri's warp gate into the office of the compound—the room that had once held the Eight Precepts' main computer system.

He was eyed suspiciously until he raised his hands in surrender. "Leader sent me here to juice up the kid if he needs some extra kindling. He can totally negate my Quirk, y'know. I ain't gonna attack ya."

Nighteye only nodded slowly and waited for the rest of the heroes to emerge before he glanced at Himiko. "You know where the entrance to the underground is from here?"

"Yes," she said. "I spotted them using it when I broke in here the other night."

"Lead us there," he ordered, then looked to the rest of the team. "We'll have to move quick since the compound is already on fire. And stay alert. The rest of the Yakuza are probably lying in wait to hold us up."

"Leader's got the rest of the League in the tunnels already," Dabi added. "We'll trap them between our groups."

Himiko nodded and took point, slipping the door open while Dabi fell in just behind her with Izuku hovering close by. Nighteye, Mirio, and Bubble Girl took the center while Fatgum, Centipeder, Tamaki, and Eijirou rounded out the back of the group.

Unfortunately, they only made a single turn when they found themselves facing a hallway packed with Yakuza, who quickly took notice of them.

"Intruders!" One of the yelled, getting the attention of the dozens of other criminals. "Get them! For the Boss!"

That rallied a war cry from the rest of the gangsters, who prepared themselves to fight to the bitter end to stop the hero/villain collaboration from reaching their leaders.

Dabi scowled and raised his hand, which flickered with blue fire. "We don't have time for this."

Nighteye opened his mouth to object to Dabi's clear intention to incinerate the entire hallway, but there was no need.

A green blur lunged ahead of the group, past Dabi and Himiko as Blackwhip exploded from his arms and emerald flames raged over his body. Izuku was nose-to-nose with the gangsters in an instant, and every single one of them momentarily froze as a sense of utter murder radiated from his entire being.

"Get out of my way." He snapped coldly, then unleashed a wildfire of fury upon the Yakuza.

Lashing Black Whip around like infernal chains, Izuku absolutely crushed everything in his path, slamming the gangsters against the walls and each other with vicious force. He attacked in a frenzy, uncaring if they were unable to get out of the way in time as he forcibly carved a path through the Yakuza horde.

Dabi hesitated a moment, then lowered his hand, realizing quickly that Izuku didn't need any help. Nighteye reached out to grab Himiko's shoulder when she looked ready to join the fray and she shot him a questioning glare, but he just shook his head. "Let him lead, just point him in the right direction."

Himiko frowned, but accepted the order and turned back to Izuku, who had just hurled one of the gangsters with his infernal whips straight into four others, sending them sprawling to the ground. "Izuku! Clear out that turn on the left!"

He apparently took heed of her words, because the next Yakuza he entrapped in the blazing tendrils of Black Whip found himself thrown, screaming, through the wall of that corner and into another one of his fellow gangsters. Another Yakuza tried to push through his crowd of allies, holding a handgun up, but Izuku locked onto the danger and lunged again.

He blitzed through the group in the way, grabbed the gangster with the weapon and threw him to the ground. Before the Yakuza could aim the firearm at him, Izuku absolutely pulverized the man's hand and the gun with a single stomp from his superheated, iron sole boots, splintering bone and metal.

The man screamed, but Izuku knocked him out with a well-placed punch to the temple, then looked down the hall at the next knot of unfortunate villains waiting to fight a one-sided battle in a desperate bid to give their boss time to escape.

It was a futile gesture.

Himiko led the rest of the group through the compound as they raced after Izuku's trail of carnage, calling out directions for him to clear the path. "A right, then straight!"

A small group tried to attack them from behind, only for Mirio and Eijirou to absolutely demolish them with a few quick, but heavy blows. There weren't many trying to get them from the back—Izuku was cleaning most of them out.

Nighteye grimaced at the burns and broken bones he could see as he followed Izuku further into the compound. They weren't life-threatening injuries, but his intern definitely wasn't concerned about excessive force at the moment. The boy was a juggernaut, enraged and ruthlessly overpowering anyone in his way.

"Sir?" Mirio caught back up to his side. His voice fell so only Nighteye could hear him. "I'm worried about Deku."

Nighteye said nothing at first, but he caught Mirio's eye with a sideways glance. "It'll be alright. My Foresight has predicted it."

I hope, he thought to himself grimly. From the way Mirio's shoulders relaxed only a fraction, he apparently thought the same. Especially as they watched Izuku catch a Yakuza with a jumping Quirk in his Black Whip tendrils, flip forward in the air, and then slam his victim into the ground with enough force to shatter the wood floors.

"Izuku!" Himiko shouted after him. "That wall on the left, with the plant! That's the tunnel entrance!"

"How the fuck do you—gah!" The gangsters screaming at her was cut off as Black Whip coiled itself around his head and reeled him into Izuku's hand. With a vicious motion, Izuku ripped the Yakuza from the opposite side of the hallway and slammed him through the wall Himiko had pointed out, busting the entrance to the tunnel wide open.

Not missing a beat, Izuku released the now-unconscious criminal and lunged into the darkness with the rest of their group racing after him.

"Bubble Girl, Centipeder!" Nighteye called. "Stay here and make sure they don't follow us! Leave if the fire reaches you, but make sure no one can attack us from behind!"

"Yes, Sir!" The two sidekicks turned mid-stride so their backs were guarding the shattered tunnel entrance, ready to engage any of the Yakuza who were still able to fight.

In truth, looking into Himiko's future had Nighteye extremely worried. From what he'd seen, he believed they'd win this battle. But what would the cost be?

Eri shrieking, Mirio disappearing with the child in a blur of motion—

Chisaki cutting her and Izuku off from the others—

Violence, unspeakable violence—

Izuku, soaked in blood and laughing

And lastly…

Himiko's hand reaching for a pale, broken corpse.


Tomura was still scowling as Kurogiri warped them into the tunnel system utilized by the Yakuza. He'd been in a rather good mood after the raid, then U.A just had to go and fuck up their security standards by allowing Eri to get kidnapped.

Well, in their defense, they were up against a Chimera whose speciality was infiltration and assassination. Tomura supposed he'd give them some credit for making things troublesome for her, but it was still annoying. And normally, he wouldn't bother cleaning up their mess.

But Chisaki had pulled the final straw of Tomura's already questionable tolerance with this one. Finding out that the Yakuza had somehow gotten Mugetsu to his side infuriated the Heir to Darkness, and he immediately called his group to action. He didn't know where Hisashi was after the Chimera had set the alarm off, but Tomura doubted that he was sitting around with his thumb up his ass. Himiko was already out there with Dabi, getting Izuku on the trail and tracking the Yakuza to the site of the gang's inevitable demise.

Tomura would kill them all if Izuku didn't beat him to it.

"Find them," he snarled. "Get the girl first, but find every last one of these damned Yakuza and kill them. I want them to be declared extinct by sundown."

Compress hung at the back due to him still missing an arm. Spinner and Twice were on the frontlines with their leader, the former with blades at the ready and the latter looking as pissed as anyone could remember seeing him.

"I'm gonna break Chisaki's neck as payback for Magne!" Twice fumed, then clapped his hands together. "I promise I'll fix it afterwards!"

"Chisaki is mine, assuming Izuku leaves anything remaining once he's done with that piece of shit," Tomura warned, his fingers flexing like claws. "The rest of his lackeys are fair game, though. Don't be gentle. I want them all dead."

"Well, that's quite rude of you."

The League stopped dead at the unfamiliar voice, and they locked onto the lone figure stepping out of the darkness from deeper in the tunnel. The individual who emerged was a tall man in a red and black suit, with an elaborate, masquerade mask covering his face. His arms were crossed behind his back as he stopped and regarded them, but he clearly held a long, black cane between his hands.

"Dear me, the youth these days are so violent and uncivilized," he remarked with the uppity air of someone clearly belonging to the higher class of society. "I expected better of someone raised by an individual as impressive as All for One."

Tomura scowled behind the hand covering his face. "Will it matter how impressive I am when you're dead?"

"But of course!" The stranger cried, spreading one hand to the side while the other pointed his cane at the other villains dramatically. "Appearances matter, dear child! Would you rather follow a rag doll covered in severed hands, or a rich, well-kept master? The choice is clear, wouldn't you say?"

"I'm disintegrating your mouth first," Tomura decided. "If only to make you shut the fuck up before I kill you."

"Kill me?" The stranger chuckled, cocking his head to the side to regard Tomura from behind his mask. "I'm looking forward to your attempt. Try to make it last, will you?"

"An Immortality Quirk, is that it?"

The stranger paused as Tomura's eyes narrowed. "You're too chatty. 'Make it last?' You're either a fucking monster in no rush to leave, or buying time because you can't do shit on your own. My money's on the latter."

The odd villain was silent for a moment more before he lifted his hands and clapped, just twice. "An intelligent deduction, if uncouth. Perhaps I underestimated you. Dear me, you'd think I'd learn after living for so long not to judge off appearances…"

"How about you learn what it feels like to disintegrate?" Tomura threatened, stalking forward slowly with his followers close behind him.

He was sure the stranger was grinning as he extracted a long, razor-sharp rapier from his cane, holding the empty sheath in his left hand. "Well, that's a lesson I couldn't bear missing."

They lunged at one another.


A/N: And so the raid begins! This will span about three chapters, give or take, and conclude the arc on chapter 55. Work has kept me pretty busy, but I'm confident I'll be able to get the next two or three chapters out before March is up.

The discord is still open! Always accepting newcomers, just message me if you'd like to join!

Viridescent has a TV tropes page and I still have no idea how to use TV tropes to add to it! Please feel free to add to it!

Shoutout to Akiyamasamalamadingdong, Author of Purpose, and SkarletRevan for helping me beta these chapters!

Now, onto the review responses for chapter 51!

krakenator5: God, I've been loving this emotional novel for so long now! To hear that it will be going into the second year with so many mysteries and cliffhangers is an amazing fact to hear! Keep up the good work.

-I'm glad you're enjoying it! I plan on the story going through all three years at U.A, so of course I'll be taking plenty of creative liberties, but it'll be a wild ride! Look forward to it!

Scarease: Great now some purest Russain crime boss moving in on Japan. Plus Toga and Izuka like target by this old bat. Can't remember if you declined or accepted my Ocs offer or not?
It makes sense that some other country might have villains that are just as powerful and smart as AFO.
Hell, having some villains pop up that make the heroes of Japan have to team up with local villains to fight them off would be quite interesting.
Be a great opening for some anti-heroes, vigilantes, and interesting tension between the groups as they fight off the likes of Baba Yaga's forces and such.
Nothing like have work together with hated enemies, rivals and friends people you trust, those imprisoning yours, some who killed people close to you, and more.
Some redemption fights and such as well as tragedy. Keep up the great work the story is amazing looking forward to more.

-Yep, Baba Yaga's got some beef with the fact that Izuku and Himiko exist at all. More on that later!

I'm not accepting OCs, sorry! I have plans for bringing some OCs in later in year two, but I'll be designing all of those personally.

I think it's really interesting to explore more of the world of MHA, including the Super Villains of countries outside of Japan. All for One has made his name known throughout the world, but I think there are some villains out there who are just as notorious and dangerous as he is. This gives me the chance to kind of explore that idea!

AlphaMiner64: Hang on, how exactly did Ochako know that the defector was Himiko?

-Izuku told her about it a few chapters ago, after Sin Eater was killed! They had a little heart-to-heart because she was worried about him. He HAD just fought his father again, after all!

Ger0nim0: Maybe I'm lagging behind in the canon series, but I am SO pumped with this story. Top notch, my dude. I can see, clearly, the struggles that Himiko is going through. Now she, and Izuku, are gonna have problems with Baba Yaga. I have a feeling that when that time comes, and it will, they are not going to come out of it alive without possibly more scars (physical or mental). And that's not to mention anyone else that might get involved. I am curious as to why Baba Yaga would want Himiko and Izuku "sterilized", should they join her sketchy-as-hell team

-I'm glad you're enjoying it, but don't forget to keep up with canon! Granted, I'll pass up the anime again once I get past the next couple of arcs, but we're gonna get a bit of filler anyways before I get into the next major arc of the story.

Baba Yaga is a pretty serious threat to Izuku and Himiko, and that's not a fight they'll escape without suffering pretty badly. You'll have to wait and see to find out what's got her so determined to see them sterilized, but she's got her reasons. Her and All for One disagree on a few things, which is what has kept them from ever being allies.

That's all for now. As ever, please review and thanks for reading!