(Authors Note: Hoo boy, penultimate chapter. That's right, ending it next week, so get ready for that. There'll be an afterword too, so don't worry about an abrupt ending either. Thanks for reading!)
Tadano stood outside the school building, arriving just after the meeting with the higher-ups was concluding. He stood nervously for a moment before starting to pace anxiously around the gate. In the distance, he could see fires smoldering, the aftermath of the attack on Musutafu as the creature continued on to it's destination. He was waiting for his boss to give him the signal so that he could enter the premises and make contact with the Eri girl. He stopped and tapped his foot.
His phone buzzed as he watched a high-rise collapse. Fumbling it out of his pocket, he checked for messages. There was one urgent.
"No go. Make the choice."
He stared at the message for a moment, before he broke out into a sweat.
0 (Twenty minutes following the attack by Tomura.)
Tadano felt his ears ringing as he watched more and more people being dragged from the disaster zone. His eyes glazed over at the sight of the blood.
"...ano...Tadano!" He snapped back to reality to see his injured superior clutching his wrist-stump, stopping the profuse bleeding as Yui bandaged it grimly. The man looked oddly unbothered by the events that just occurred.
"Y-yes sir?" Tadano stammered out as Itsuki flinched slightly, a pulse of blood staining his left pant leg as he got it together.
"This failure, we need to go with the auxiliary plan. I need you to take the research team and head out to U.A, they were far enough from the danger that they weren't evacuated. That should be where they're keeping the girl." He grimaced as Yui finished, her immediate next action to check him over for injuries. She'd pulled the both of them free from the blast after all.
He still blushed a bit though as Itsuki continued: " Wait for my signal. I'll keep you updated." Tadano shook his head.
"Sir, they're not going to agree with us. We couldn't get the All- the Izuku boy officially either, even if we fudge the numbers, even if we don't tell them about what the buzz means, they won't agree. I don't agree-"
He was interrupted. "They might. After this? I think they'll have to listen. It's our best shot at fixing this. You-"
He put his hand on Tadano's shoulder. "-are our best shot at fixing this. Which is why what I'm about to say next is off record."
"Your research team will need to sever contact with home base. The heroes are going to have to take immediate action following this upcoming meeting, and they won't have time to verify and account for everything. Whatever message I send to you while you're there, you make the call. Whether or not to enlist the Eri girl's help...or to trust in these heroes." He shook him once before removing his hand.
"Can you do it? Can you be the one to make that call? I can't, I'm too biased, too close to all this. Yui would refuse, and she has every right to. That just leaves you, Tadano."
He lowered his head. Before he had joined the SDF, he had been a medical student in the field of Quirk-related studies. In the years that he'd spent in the system, he'd come to resent the by-the-books nature that everyone shared, the utter "Safety" that so many colleagues embraced. It was that same safety that would have him kicked out of school, following a disastrous drug trial he proposed for those suffering from Quirk-induced illnesses. While it had a 60% cure rate, those that failed lost the use of their limbs. An unexpected tragedy which he took the blame for. He was still coming to terms with it, and making another decision like this was a nightmare for him.
Who would do it if he didn't though?
Breathing in deeply, he steeled himself. "I'll get going then. Before I do though..."
He turned to Yui, "Do...Do you want to do something together after this is over?"
0
Walking briskly into the school building, he stopped at the empty secretaries' desk. There was a bell, and he rang it.
0 (much earlier)
"Are you sure?" His voice cracked slightly as the voice was translated over from Europe.
"I wish I wasn't. The readings reached even here, our homeland. It's not a gate or portal. It's a crack in our very reality, and it's going to start growing and soon." The voice came over.
People in the room immediately began making phone calls, Itsuki in the corner, eyes wide as he heard every word.
"Any conjecture on what the effect will be?"
"Pure conjecture? More monsters. A LOT more. Sudden triggers across all of Japan before it spreads out to the Asian continent." There was a rustling noise as papers were shuffled.
"From there, infinite potential. Anyone with a quirk, everyone with a quirk, is at risk. We're starting to view it as a potential end of the world. We're trying to stall here, and so is the West but..."
"You've gotta be fucking kidding me, they wouldn't!" Itsuki yelled as Tadano turned to face him. The voice came over.
"They're going to probably destroy Japan completely if you can't fix this. Insurance that the event isn't given a proxy close enough to cause the spread."
0
Tadano walked towards the man with the muzzle. "Excuse me, sir? I need to speak with someone in charge. I'm a representative sent to explore possible solutions to the Giant issue."
"Yes? Is that so?" The man narrowed his eyes as Tadano stood his ground.
"Yes, it is. I need to speak to an..." He pulled out the tab of paper.
"Eri...uh...is that her full name then? Hm..."
The dog-man leaned in close, as if intimidating him. "On what grounds do the SDF think that they can come and talk to our charges, hm? Do you have official permission from the staff to do so?" The man was obviously very biased towards their group, and he couldn't really blame him.
"Most of your colleagues, I'm sorry if you aren't yet aware, died out on the battlefield moments ago. We've reached the point of desperation I'm afraid. Speak with them if you can get a hold of them, but I need to talk to the girl." He just stood silently as the man leered over him.
"Sensei, who is this?" a voice came from behind him.
He turned to see a student, blond hair and big smile as he looked at Tadano.
"Ah, uh, hello! I'm a researcher with the SDF. I'm here to talk to Ms. Eri about a possible solution to our current...Titan problem, and you are?"
"Ah, nice to meet you, I'm Mirio Togata. So...you're here to talk to her then?" His smile somewhat melted as the older man nodded. "Come with me then." Mirio motioned for him to follow. He straightened his tie.
"Are you aware of her issues with other people? Especially adults?" He spoke to him as they both walked out towards the dorms.
"No. I was briefed on her circumstances though. I can't imagine how terrifying her childhood's been."
Mirio seemed to acknowledge that. "Well you should know that she has a very...sharp eye for character. She's convinced that she can tell evil from just looking at someone, and refuses to speak to anyone she deems such. I...don't know what that means for you, sir."
Tadano bit his lip. "Well that's just great. I doubt that she'll even look at me then." He miserably thought to himself as he was ushered into the dorm building.
Meeting the girl was a bit of a shock. He'd been told her age, but she still seemed small. Almost like she'd been starving herself before getting professional help, no signs of physical abuse, but still very fragile. He could see the recovery too though, the clothing and disposition a sign of healing and identity as she smiled at Mirio. Then she saw him, and shrank back.
Sure enough, she wouldn't even meet his gaze as Mirio approached her.
"Eri. This is a friend of the heroes. He's here to talk to us for a bit, ok?" She looked over at him, and nodded. They both entered the dorm room.
Sitting down, Mirio actually offered to make tea, which Tadano actually took. They were settled in as he tried to think of how to convince them both of the importance of what he was going to ask.
"So, Aizawa-I mean, Eraser Head is your guardian? Is he, uh, is he nice?" He smiled at the girl. She nodded back at him, head still down.
He was in over his head. "My boss and Aizawa are a bit...uh...opposite. Always fighting over stuff, you know?"
She was silent as Mirio raised an eyebrow at him.
"Hahh, look, I don't want to freak you out, or make you uncomfortable, but we've got a problem and we'd like your help in trying to solve it." He took a sip of tea before Mirio spoke up.
"What is it that you need Eri for?"
"Well. The giant, when it arrived, so to speak, it wasn't a gentle process. It somehow tore it's way into the real world, and the tear is..." He paused. "It's made of people? Sort of. We need it closed, and the only way we can think of closing it is if Ms. Eri uses her ability." He let the words hang for a moment. The poor girl seemed to tense at the very thought.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Tadano, Eri's quirk is-" He indicated to the girl's forehead, where a small horn was poking up out through her hairline. "-it's currently unfunctioning. She could probably get it to work, but the effectiveness of it, on top of her not really being in the right mindset to even attempt what you're talking about. I mean, the idea that they let you get this far, it's kind of unbelievable." Mirio shrugged his shoulders at him.
Tadano didn't speak. In truth, he didn't know what he was doing. He came here under false pretenses, to try and trick a kid into saving Japan? He must've been losing his mind. Looking over at the girl, he wondered if she could see some sort of hidden part of himself that put her at unease. Pierce his soul in a sense. Then it dawned on him that maybe he didn't have to lie in order to get their help.
"5%." He spoke, not to Mirio, but to Eri.
"Excuse me? 5% what?"
He shook his head. "5% chance of death, 10% chance that you'd mutate into a new monster. We weren't going to tell you, even if you agreed."
Mirio's eyes widened as Eri shrunk back further, whispering a short "I knew it." under her breath.
"Why would you-" Mirio started to get angry as Tadano set down his tea.
"They're going to destroy us. All of Japan in fact. It'd be instant, the technology designed to just-to kill us all." He sighed shakily. "The crack, the thing we need you to fix young lady, it's dangerous. But if you don't, at some point, it'll start to spread. Like a virus. It'll consume everything, and no hero will be able to save us. They don't want to risk it." He got down on the floor.
"I don't have any right to ask you to do this. I-I know you can tell that I'm not a good guy. But if we can save them, I have to try. Please, please consider it." He bowed his head.
Mirio seemed to freeze up before responding, "You, you can't just put that kind of responsibility on a kid. How do we even know that this isn't a trick?"
Tadano, head still bowed replied, "No trick, I'd never lie about this. We have to try."
"She's been-her whole life, she's just been used! Over and over, by people like you, for ideals and-and-god, you can't! We-we-"
"I'll do it." Eri spoke up, slightly hushed as Tadano raised his head. The girl seemed almost stubborn.
"This will-it'll save people? Help them?" She said unsteadily.
"Everyone."
"Then I- I can do it." Mirio leaned over, "Eri, you don't-"
"I-I've been used a lot. To do bad things. Even if it isn't just my decision, even if I think that I'm cursed, I still want to try and do something good. Just once. Like him, and-and you." She put her head down.
Mirio seemed to deflate as he sat back down. "I could stop you, you know. Forbid it. Would you listen?"
Eri nodded. Mirio closed his eyes. "I'd be like them though, wouldn't I? Making decisions for you."
He sighed. "Gah, I wanted you to show more independence, but I never expected this! Honestly." He put on a big smile as Eri fidgeted. "Well, I guess we're doing this then. But I won't let you go alone, got it? If you're going to have her close to danger, I'll need to be there too, got it?" He pat her head. She nodded, and then the two hugged for a good bit. He noticed that the girl wore gloves, and didn't touch him anywhere. Tadano opened his phone, and made the call to the team outside to get ready.
0
Deku watched as the Pants-golem flung itself onto the monster, the threads tensing as they wrapped around it's legs. From there, several enhanced strength-users smashed into the thing, dragging out huge pieces of armor as others tore through it. Aoyama shot his lazer, the hard light punching into the exterior as more fire concentrated on it's midsection.
Steadily, they were wearing it out. By focusing on a single point on it's body, they were crunching it down to the point that they could most likely capture it after sawing it in half. Edgeshot rushed in, slicing off the faux arm it had grown after Thirteen had mulched it.
He felt a sudden tingle in his stomach as someone barked into their comms, "Back!"
Heroes left the fight as metal plants sprouted around the creature, shielding it once more from the lazer fire as it staggered upright. Another pillar flashed into existence, the explosion rocking the Jeep Deku sat on. As debris settled, he jumped off and got to work, dismantling the metal as several others carted away the excess.
Wherever the thing went, the metal followed, but it was just a sheet. In order to deny it access to material, they were physically taking a majority of it, the remainder used to shore itself up with armor. They'd finally figured out it's weakness. The metal wasn't infinite, not technically. While the sheeting it stood under grew at a steady rate, it was actually stealing from the coating, teleporting masses of material from the terrain to create the pillars it was dropping on people. Without the sheeting, it was just a big monster. At the rate they were going, they wouldn't even need Godzillo's help.
Deku was a bit sad that he wasn't getting his chance to shine, but he'd gladly concede it if it meant this nightmare was coming to a close. Best Jeanist rushed in again, the empty pants once more flinging themselves onto the thing as Izuku made it to the destroyer team.
Mina and a few others were steadily destroying the excess material, melting it in acid, burning it, disintegrating it. Apparently once it got far enough away from the thing, the material lost it's anti-quirk properties. Thank goodness for that.
All in all, it was a smooth operation. Deku working in tandem with everyone else to stop the thing.
Then a pause hung over the battlefield. Everyone, including the monster, stopped moving as a sort of hushed noise whispered to him. His ears popped as there came a sudden headache that passed just as quick. Looking around, he could see the slight confusion on people's faces as they too had felt it.
"Huh, buzzing's gone." Mina said, tapping the side of her head as the rest got back to work.
Then a voice came in over comms: "They just closed the portal! Thing can't regenerate anymore!" There was a bit of a cheer as the rest dove back into the fray. Deku smiled, before frowning. How'd they close it? Didn't they say that they weren't going to risk Eri?
A sudden yell diverted their attention. In the middle of the blast zone, the creature had grabbed someone. People moved in to rescue them as the fight continued. It let the hero go, only to hold it's arms out to it's sides, clapping them together with the sound of a clock striking midnight.
"Back off! New strategy!" was the sound over the comms. Apparently the thing didn't like whatever they'd just done.
They were just a hair too late as the creatures rose out from the metal. Homunculi made of the material, all similar in shape to the thing as they got to their feet and lashed out. People used to flying and dodging were struck out of the air as more and more swarmed out, an army of nightmares to overwhelm their dwindling forces. The heroes made a line, and the creatures rushed to overtake them.
"Deku! Help them shore up defenses!" His mentor's voice gave him the go ahead. He bound forward, reaching the fray just before the creatures broke through. With a punch, he toppled six of the golems as others sawed through them with their quirks, the metal shattering as they stumbled forward. Someone was dragged away as the creatures endlessly poured forward. Deku threw punch after punch, Endeavor torching the things as they piled atop their dead. Izuku watched as the endless tide began to swell somehow, the gut feeling returning as he and the rest moved to retreat.
A moment too late, as the creatures broke apart to reveal the tree cluster formations that had appeared prior. They darted out, and grazed him as they struck out at heroes. Deku moved the blackwhips to throw people back, and then-
-and then nothing, because a razor-thin tree pierced him somewhere towards his stomach. He immediately threw his punch down, shattering it before it could seal him in a prison, but the damage was done. In fact as he watched Endeavor fall out of the sky, he realized that the thing had again for the third time today, had taken them all by surprise.
But that wasn't stopping them. Endeavor was down, but not out as he spun in mid-air to re-orient himself, casting a wide net of fire that pushed outward through the line of heroes. The fire struck the creatures like a storm of punches, the metal turning white hot as they melded together, stalling them. Heroes jumped back and shifted positions as they prepared for the plan to adjust.
"Izuku, you took a considerable hit just now. Are you ok?" All Might's voice cut in as he felt the spot the metal had punctured.
"I'm fine! Just grazed. I think the material took most of the damage. Thank god for U.A's costume department." He played it up as his ribs screamed at him, the prior damage taking it's toll on top of the hit just now. He held it back though, even though he knew it was a bad idea.
People zoomed off while switching tactics, same plan, but with a different approach. Tethers shot out and grabbed onto the half-melted creatures, pulling them away from the swarm before mulching them with lasers. Those turned into trees were immediately set upon by Edgeshot, who minced them as they continued to try and grow around people.
The creature in the distance had made progress, but the tide of the golden blood seemed to disintegrate as it poured free from it's wounds. It seemed lethargic too. As it's gait slowed, people began to cheer. The thing was obviously dying. Izuku saw people pumping their fists as it collapsed to the ground. This had to be it.
Then, as if just to spite them all, metal beams shot out of the ground and spilled onto it's dying form. The metal seemed to shift and warp until the remainder of the exposed flesh vanished beneath the material. Endeavor and the other strike teams laid the fire thick on the now cocooned creature.
Deku watched, still at ready in case any problems. They knew by now that this thing had the tendency to drop the hammer, the only question was "How?".
0
From behind the veil, Fledgling Network observed his surrogate hosts' actions through a heavy mist of perception. The 11 node indicating the growing connection to this new creature was stronger now, the dire situations deepening their bond as host and shard. From the view that Node 11 was showing, the host would require both the hyper-durability of Node 3 and the perception-alteration of Node 6 to survive the attack by it's cousin-shard, the glowing nimbus of energy surrounding the cocoon telling of emergency functions being invoked within the Metal Gardener/Bloom shard.
The most frequently used and strongest of the abilities overshadowed the others, the enhanced strength from 3 and durability from 6's information shining from their respective nodes. The newly formed connections to the still un-integrated Reaching Darkness and Incoming Fire shards were not co-operative in Fledgling Network's superstructure, but the host's were. Fledgling Network reached out to touch each one respectively. Except for One. Node One could not be reasoned with, and attempts at influence over the greater network had recently had Fledgling Network re-evaluating the usefulness of keeping host consciousness intact. However, the benefits outweighed the risks, as while the creature did not respect the survival methods One pushed, it still acknowledged the viability of them.
Node 10's spot was still empty, it's host still functioning despite the wounds it took in combat. Fledgling Network lamented that it could not tap 10's combat data to provide 11 with better tactics, but it would make do.
A nudge within the host's neurons activated the connection to Incoming Fire, prompting them to seek shelter along with a few other hosts. Sure enough, a hail of metallic spheroids, similar to the shotgun pellets that had taken Node 8's life, peppered out as though it were a rainstorm. After checking the host for critical damage, Fledgling Network moved away from the host's brain, re-calculating optimal survival scenarios.
The options were quite grim for Fledgling Network. While it had spent a long time away from Parasitic Conqueror, it had yet still to activate it's original abilities despite the inordinate amount of hosts it had gone through. This was in part via influence from the Nodes, an error that altered the line of reasoning that all Shards were set to follow. Selflessness was not something that Fledgling Network, nor any Shard within the Entity had conception of. They were all part of the same whole, therefore naturally in a state of selflessness. Any deviation was purely for information gathering. The nodes however, were a different kind of selfless, often ignoring their connections nudges for survival in favor of sacrificial reasoning.
The Bloom Shard returned to it's original combat position, it's body now completely metal, the core-self wrapped deep within. Fledgling Network took note that the creature 11 fought was indeed completely invincible to all present hosts attacks, and nudged 11 to feel a deeper despair. This helped the connection to 7's Ideological Fallacy Shard to begin to form, before falling away. Not enough stimulus. Fledgling Network somewhat rummaged within the host's mind to see if it could deepen the connection, and without warning-
An alteration had occurred. Within the thoughts of the host, a new priority formed around destruction of the Bloom Shard. Fledgling Network reached out to each node, including One for council on the matter. 8/10 agreed to the strategy. With that, conveyance of the shift in power would need to be made. Reaching once more into the host's brain, Fledgling Network began the steps to cannibalize a majority of brother/sister/familial connections to re-spark the original ability that Parasitic Emperor had severed.
0
"Deku, Oi Deku!" Mina shook the boy, his sudden loss of consciousness worrying her. Then, with a gasp, he re-awoke. He knew what he needed to do.