Merry Cristmas and Happy Holiday to all. For Cristmas Eve another chapter! I hope you like it and I hope you have a good time wherever you are!


The Essence

"I gotta pee!"

Enji cringed physically as one of the boys yelled across the entire museum floor. Some of the other visitors looked at him with a mixture of amusement and indignation. The kid was jumping up and down, his raised arm and short-cropped rose-coloured hair popping up every now and then among the gaggle of children. He was probably the shortest kid in class.

Fuyumi smiled, somewhat embarrassed. "Okay, Ikkaku."

Ikkaku dashed off before Fuyumi could say anything else. Another boy announced that he needed to as well, and ran after Ikkaku before waiting for permission. Enji thought that this might be Izumo the asthmatic kid, when he saw the pale, blond hair.

"Stay together!" Fuyumi called after them.

Before Enji could do anything else, Yuri called him over.

"Endeavor, Endeavor, over here. Come help me!"

The scene in the parking lot was already two hours ago, but Yuri hadn't yet gone back to calling him Todoroki. Enji didn't have the energy to correct him, and really, he minded it less than he had thought. The boy's ginger head was poking out of a wrongly put on Touseigusoku, a samurai armor from the late Muromachi period as Enji had just learned through the helpful young tour guide.

A black girl stood next to him, trying to help Yuri put on the chest plate. She pulled and rattled at it, until she accidentally hit his nose with the metal piece.

"Ouch, Susume!" The boy cried out.

At that, the girl threw her hands up in frustration and crossed them with a scowl. "You asked me for help, now stop crying!" she muttered. She wore a big All Might sweater. The former number one's broad grin shined brightly at Enji both from the front and back. When he first saw it after she took her jacket off, Enji had been inclined to burn it.

He walked up to the two kids and tried to see what Yuri wanted his help with.

"Endeavor, please help! Susume's not strong enough." Yuri held his hands up demandingly, as if expecting Enji to just pull the piece of armor correctly over his head.

"I am strong enough!" Susume cried out, pouting. "Stupid!" Then, she gave Yuri a vindictive little push and the boy, still with the armor half-way on his body, toppled over helplessly.

"Ey!" Yuri clamored, before trying to fumble his way back to his feet.

Before Enji could do anything, Susume had wandered off to try wearing one of the helmets herself.

Enji helped the boy back on his feet, before righting the surprisingly light armor. Maybe he shouldn't have been surprised at the weight. It was made for children to dress-up, and the normally metal parts were made from plastic— although they looked real and had a varnish that made them feel metal-like. He also helped Yuri put on the other parts of the armor. Just as the kid slipped on the sandals and stood up awkwardly trying to find his balance and bracing his weight against Enji's shoulder, a different boy came up to demand that Yuri take it off again because he shouldn't hog the armor for so long. The new kid took a picture with Yuri's phone, and then Enji had to help the boy out of the armor again.

He shouldn't have helped, he thought, when the new kid walked up to Enji and the pieces of armor were haphazardly thrown into the box next to him. Now, the other kid wanted to be dressed up as well— and before he knew what was happening, a growing line of children had formed behind Enji.

Forty minutes later, he was just about to lift the chest plate over the head of Mt. Lady's niece – Masako had told him that while he was helping the boy before her take off his armor. By now, Enji had enough practice with dressing tiny third graders in fake samurai armor, that every step was almost routine. With the first three, he had still fumbled a little— but now, he was certain that he'd be all done with this girl in just five minutes.

"Masako, you're the last one," Fuyumi said to the girl walking up to them. "We need to move on. They will show a short play in fifteen minutes."

The three kids who still stood in the line for dress-up complained at that, until Fuyumi crouched down, patting one of their heads. "You wanted to see the play, remember?" she told one of them, and then looked to the other two. "And in the next room I'll make sure you're first at the activity program, okay?"

It only seemed to cheer them up a little, but Enji didn't pay further attention to them as he continued to dress up Masako in the 16th century style armor.

"Do I have time to pee, still?" one of the boys who still stood in line asked Fuyumi. It was the same blond-haired boy Enji had seen leave for the toilet almost an hour earlier. Enji wasn't the only one who noticed that.

The girl with the fish mutation quirk snickered mockingly. "You've gone to pee three times in the last hour," she laughed a little too loudly for Enji's taste.

The boy blushed at that.

"Are you alright?" Fuyumi asked with a worried frown.

Izumo smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, I just gotta pee." He tapped from one foot to the next.

"But hurry, the play starts soon," Fuyumi instructed.

"Be back in five," the boy grinned and dashed away.

Fuyumi shook his head after him. Enji saw it when he turned, having finished dressing Masako. Asami was holding Fuyumi's right hand. She hadn't left Fuyumi's side all day, Enji knew. Now the girl was tugging on Fuyumi's hand, until Fuyumi crouched to listen to what she wanted to say. After that Fuyumi left with Asami to talk to the tour guide.

Masako was now pulling at his shirt, trying to get his attention back.

"You need to help me pull it off." She was fumbling with the chest plate, trying to get it off her shoulders. Absentmindedly, he pulled her helmet and chest plate off and was about to help her get rid of the protective plating around her thighs when sheer instinct made him freeze.

"Ey, what's up?" Masako called after him as he went to the big window front to peer out into the sky. The sun was blinding. The window was to the south and the sun had just reached the zenith. "I need your help! Hey, Todoroki-san!" Masako stumbled after him trying to walk, tugging at his shirt to get his attention and pulling off the thigh armor simultaneously. "What are you looking at?"

He didn't answer, as he wasn't sure himself yet. There was nothing. He walked along the window front to the corner, where there was a much smaller window to the west. He saw a bird circling in the sky… No, not a bird, he realized, as it suddenly fell and then appeared again. It came closer, steadily growing in size and jumping over the roofs of Musutafu. Enji had a terrible sense of Déjà vu.

Masako walked up to him, peering out at the window with a frown and trying to find what he was looking at. The black blob in the sky was still small— still very far away. But Enji knew that sight, and he immediately knew its trajectory. If that Nomu didn't land here, it would land very close by— and in any case, they would be in the evacuation zone.

He grabbed Masako's wrist and pulled her with him as he hurried to the alarm device. There were two buttons, one in orange casing for the fire alarm, the other in a bright red casing for a villain attack. Without giving it a second thought, he smashed the glass and the button of the orange one.

A shrill alarms rang out. The siren blared through the entire building in long intervals of three horns, followed by a short pause, before it started again. Exit signs flared to light, guiding the way from every floor to the main exit.

"What's going on?" Somebody screamed in sudden panic, looking around themselves. "Is there an attack?"

Others were screaming too. From the floor above, they could hear the trampling sounds of people rushing to the stairs or elevators. One of the kids was yelling over the sirens, while two were holding their ears shut, crouching down and hugging themselves tight. Their tour guide and a security guard of the museum were swarmed by people. They both were trying to get some information through walkie-talkies, but of course, the museum administration didn't know what was going on.

"What's going on, Todoroki?" Masako screamed at him over the siren.

Apparently, that got the attention of everybody else in the room. They turned towards him first in confusion, then in understanding as they saw the smashed glass of the alarm button next to him.

"You!? Why did you—?" The security guard yelled, pushing past the people around him to march up to Enji and shoving him violently away from the button. "What do you think you're doing?"

"You all need to leave," Enji said in a serious tone. "There's an attack—"

The security guard decked him in the face before he could say anything else. The man wasn't a trained hero, but he was strong, nonetheless, and Enji who hadn't expected to be punched. He stumbled to the side.

"Bullshit! There's no attack! Just a false alarm. That's not funny!" The man growled at him, and some of the other visitors agreed audibly. Many were already calming down, now that they knew that somebody on their floor had triggered the alarm – clearly certain that it had to be fake as none of them saw anything. From the upper and lower floor, they could still hear the panicked attempts to evacuate the building. It was a twenty-four-story high rise, after all, not the kind of building you wanted to be trapped in in an attack. But not as bad as Yaku Insurance building right next to it, a forty-one-story high rise. Enji feared that might be the target of the attack.

"There's nothing," a man said, peering out the window front with narrowed eyes. "It's just a false alarm. Shitty move, man!"

Himatsu breathed in relief, holding her hand against her chest. Several of the kids looked at him in confusion. Only Fuyumi didn't look at him. Enji saw her hands tremble as she counted the children, trying to call them all together.

"There's an attack incoming," Enji said, as the security guard was about to reach for his radio to signal an all-clear to his superiors. Without thinking about it, Enji grabbed the radio and ripped it off the guard's uniform before he could do that. That would be the worst thing that could happen now. If the museum shut the alarm down, announcing that it was a fake alarm over the speakers – or worse, even to emergency services, that could cause terrible confusion.

He dodged and pulled Masako with him when the security guard made to grab for the radio.

"It's coming!" Enji confirmed again, but he didn't need to.

In that moment, the ground below their feet trembled and shook violently. They all heard a loud cracking sound. The security guard lurched, losing his balance and stumbling against the wall. Several children lost their footing and Masako only kept standing, because Enji still held her wrist.

Himatsu screamed.

"We need to evacuate," he added calmly, but he might as well not have said anything. At the moment the attack hit, whatever calm the people on this floor might have found again was immediately lost. There was running, yelling, and shoving for the door as everybody wanted to be the first.

"Where's Maki?" Fuyumi yelled, trying to make herself heard over the screaming and pushing.

"She left to look for Izumo when the alarm rang," Hayate said, running up to his teacher with wide-eyed fear. "She said she partnered up with him, and he's in the washroom."

The look of utter devastation on Fuyumi's face hurt Enji physically.

"Everyone! Come here! Come together!" Fuyumi yelled. Enji saw her trying to finally get a count of all the kids, but with all the running around, it was difficult. She tried to keep calm, but her panic was obvious, and it didn't do much to calm the children.

"Tobio! Tobio!" Himatsu screamed in a shrill voice. She ran through the room, looking for her child. Enji saw the crazed fright, as their eyes crossed for just a second.

"Mom, over here!" He heard Tobio's voice from the door, where most of the other visitors had already left. He had the hand of a girl clasped in his, and was – as far as Enji could tell – the only kid who had paired up with their partner already. The girl was closing her eyes tightly, lips pressed together, trying to cover her ears with the one free hand. Tobio seemed calmer, as he waved towards his mother from the exit.

Without further hesitation, Himatsu ran to her son, pushing past the people leaving the room. She took her son's hand and grabbed the girl's wrist, and then she was gone.

Enji heard Fuyumi's panicked cry calling after her.

He couldn't focus on that, though as in that moment, a hissing noise and sudden fire lit up the room. Yuri screamed in pain as his gloves went up in flames. The rose-haired boy who stood next to him jumped away at once. Then the crying started.

Enji turned around, trying to get a view over what was happening outside through the window. The angle was difficult, so he shattered the window and leaned outside, where he could crane his neck up, and…

He couldn't see the Noumu, but it had obviously crashed into the Yaku Insurance. The building was a horrific, smoldering sight. There was a massive hole on the top floors, where the Noumu must have crashed. The top five or so floors were disconnected from the rest of the building, and only precariously balanced on the ruins underneath. Then there was another loud crack. The Noumu smashed through a window, hurling itself through the air and vanished out of Enji's view. He must've landed on the roof of the very building Enji, Fuyumi and the children were in.

This couldn't have gotten any worse!

He shouldn't have jinxed it.

The loudest bang yet was evidence of the unseen destruction of the museum building. At least there was a silver lining, he thought, pulling back from the window. Kamui Woods was trying to stabilize the other building, he'd seen, right as a massive dust cloud made it difficult to make out anything else.

He turned back to Fuyumi and the children.

They were crying. Huddled together. Fuyumi was obviously trying to organize the evacuation, holding Asami up in her arms, who was now crying into her shoulder. The children were huddled so close, hugging Fuyumi tight in fear, that she was barely able to move. Yuri sat, crying in one corner away from the others, holding his violently shaking hands up to not touch anything. Some other children tried to remain calm and drag their friends away from Fuyumi, but they were failing and crying as well. Himatsu, Tobio, and the girl were gone.

He ran up to Yuri, grabbing him at his wrist.

"No!" the boy screeched. "Don't touch me! Don't!" Enji wondered if he could even see him through the massive onslaught of tears.

"Just keep your hands in the air," Enji retorted, dragging the boy with him to Fuyumi.

"They're all here, aside from Maki and Izumo." She tried to push one of the kids off her leg so she could move, but they were tightly holding on to her.

"Himatsu left with two," he said, knowing she already knew that.

"Yes, the other sixteen are here." Fuyumi said. As she stared at him, her pupils seemed tiny in her widened eyes. "I don't know what to do."

"Stay calm," he instructed over the noise of the siren.

At exactly that moment, there was another loud crack and the ground shook again, making the children scream and yell. The window front splintered. Then, it burst with another crack. Enji instinctively threw himself in front of the children, and Fuyumi pushed both Yuri and Masako in front of him. Glass shredded his shirt and he felt tiny shards embed themselves into his skin, but he could hardly feel the pain.

He didn't even think about what he was doing. His body moved entirely on his own as he slung his arms around Masako and Yuri.

"Hold tight!" he told them. Masako immediately slung her hands around his neck tightly, but Yuri was pushing away violently.

"No! I can't! I'll kill you!" He hadn't stopped crying once.

Enji crouched down, pulling Yuri back towards himself. "Who am I?"

The kid stared at him, probably failing to see anything through the tears.

"Who am I?" Enji repeated.

Yuri stuttered. "E-Endeavor," he sobbed.

"Right. Now just make a fist and keep your palms away from me, okay? You think I can't deal with a ten-year-old?"

Yuri didn't answer, but when Enji pulled him close he didn't object anymore. He also didn't hold onto Enji.

Enji turned to Fuyumi, speaking fast but clearly understandable. "We can't use the elevators with the beast on the roof. And the stairs will be jam-packed. And we're on the eighth floor. That would take too long, to be safe." Fuyumi nodded along with everything he said, her face pale and glistening with sweat. "I can carry three or four of them at a time to the ground. The heroes are already here, but I don't know how long they will take to evacuate both buildings. The other one will be prioritized."

Fuyumi nodded again, this time with more force. "Do it! Hurry! I'll wait here with them."

He furrowed his brows at her. Leaving her here would mean leaving her in danger alone with a gaggle of panicked children. He wouldn't be able to forgive himself if anything happened… But then he had to make the decision, and fast. Really, there was no choice here at all. He pulled one more child close to himself, holding him tight with the same arm he was holding Masako. He could only hold three safely, if Yuri wasn't able to grab onto him. So, without further hesitation, he jumped out of the window.

"Don't ever let go," he instructed them before he lost solid ground under his feet, tightening his arms around them.

He didn't hesitate about using his quirk. Didn't think about it being a definite legal grey zone. He didn't consider that he was supposed to be a regular civilian waiting for rescue— nor did he think that he was Endeavor, a hero doing his job. In that moment, when he activated his quirk, burning his shoes and socks to stinking cinders and singeing his trousers, he was only Fuyumi's father, helping her evacuate her class of third graders, because he had agreed to keep an eye on them for that day.

He landed on the parking lot, next to a police officer, who was trying to coordinate the evacuation.

"Keep them safe and keep them close!" he instructed the officer as he used a bit of force to disconnect Masako's arms from around his neck.

"Understood," the officer said, without even really looking at Enji. He gave each of the children a short look before turning back to the stream of people who were evacuating the museum. Suddenly, the man turned around, staring at Enji in surprise, as if he had only now caught up to who he was talking to. "You shouldn't—"

But by the time he finished the sentence, Enji was already back in the air, locating the right window back to Fuyumi.

"I can't leave without Maki and Izumo!"

Fuyumi pushed away from him when he wanted to grab her and Asami. All the other children were already evacuated, waiting with the police officer. Enji's nose was itching from the dust that polluted the air in a thick, scratchy fog. Not long had passed since he had evacuated the first kids; he had moved swift and fast. But the damage to the building was already so much worse. Fuyumi didn't know. She was still inside. The bangs and cracks and screeching of metal were all she could hear of the destruction. She couldn't see it. Enji had a better view from the outside. The upper four floors had crumbled entirely in on themselves, while Edgeshot and Gang Orca had teamed up to fight the villain. They were both trying to keep the fight up on the roof, as the buildings surrounding them hadn't been fully evacuated yet.

They weren't succeeding. The Noumu was stronger and faster than them, and mobile. Enji had hoped that they could maybe even out the destruction instead of causing devastating damage to the two buildings that were still full of people, but that hope was brutally crushed. With one massive attack and the loudest bang yet, the Noumu threw Gang Orca into the Yaku Insurance. The hero smashed right through it and into the wall of the building behind that— and the structure was split in half. Kamui Woods tried his best to keep the crumbling parts up and organize the demolition of the building, while Enji carried the last children – Asumi aside – down onto the ground. Enji could only watch helplessly as countless civilians plummeted to their presumed deaths.

When he'd carried them, the children had their faces turned into his shoulders. They heard the screams, of course, but they wouldn't see the people falling to their deaths. It was a sight that would haunt Enji forever. He didn't know about the kids on the ground though. He hoped they didn't see, that they wouldn't look.

"I'll take you with me." He grabbed Fuyumi's arm, which was trying to twist out of his grip.

"No! I need to find them. Just take Asami!" Tears were streaming down her face as she was trying to push the girl into his arms. "Just her, I'll look for Maki and Izumo."

Enji stopped her from pushing Asami at him, holding Fuyumi tighter.

"No, you'll both go!" No way would he let Fuyumi here, searching for two children who could be anywhere.

"I can't."

He squeezed her shoulders hard enough that her eyes snapped at him in pain. "No, Fuyumi. There are sixteen children who need you right now. They are out of the building, but they aren't safe. The police are already broadening the evacuation zone. They will need to move soon, and the kids are all afraid and disoriented."

He slung his arms around both her and Asami, locking one hand around Asumi's wrist just in case either her or Asumi let go. "I'll carry you both out. You will keep your students safe and I will go back to look for the other two who are missing."

He thought she would object again, but then her free hand slung around his neck, keeping Asami safely between them. The girl didn't say anything, and it was only her jerky movements every now and again that told him she was still awake.

"Thanks, Dad."

He thought he might have imagined it. Fuyumi's voice was so quiet it could've just as well been the wind in his ear as he stepped out of the building, free falling for a few seconds before he activated his quirk to cushion the landing. Asami started crying when he landed more abruptly than he had planned, the force of the landing jolting his joints.

"Don't mention it," Enji muttered, letting Fuyumi and Asami down on the ground.

The police officer, who was still taking care of the evacuation and keeping an eye on the children, turned to them as Enji landed next to him.

"That the last one?" he asked, looking at Fuyumi with furrowed brows. The officer had given up on stopping Enji after his second landing. Maybe watching Kamui Woods' doomed attempt to bring the crumbling building under control had shut him up. Enji could practically smell the man's fear.

"Yes, for now. We're missing two, but I need to search for them."

"Good, the rest of the children have to leave. If you go into this direction, the evacuation line is just past the City Hall," he pointed east.

"Thank you," Fuyumi turned to him, maybe to bow, but instead she froze as she saw the two buildings from the outside. "Oh…" Her utter speechlessness was a fitting reaction, Enji thought.

"Take care of them," Enji said, clamping an encouraging hand on Enji's shoulder and nodding at the children. Some of them were already crowding around Fuyumi, some of them were holding hands, and some were staring shell-shocked to where a second Noumu was now wreaking havoc.

Enji looked at that other Noumu. Gang Orca and Edgeshot had to split up, with other heroes now arriving at the scene to lend support. Whereas he was seeing people helplessly plummeting to their deaths before, Avalanche had now created a massive snow field to cushion their falls. His former sidekicks would all be here, he knew. The agency wasn't that far away.

"Here," Fuyumi caught his attention before he could leave. She pressed something small in his hands and he needed a moment to realize it was a blue asthma inhaler. "I found that in his backpack. I think he has a second in his jacket— but just to make sure. Please find them. I tried calling Maki earlier, but the call didn't get through. I sent you her number just in case."

Enji nodded, closing his fingers around the inhaler so that he wouldn't lose it. He jumped a bit before activating his quirk to shoot back into the building.

His feet crunched over shards of glass as he ran through the exhibition room following the signs to the restrooms. He was shocked to see the amount of people still in the building— the floors and stairs must have been jammed completely further up. People were still pushing and shoving against each other, everybody trying to be the first on their way down. He could hear them push and yell and cry and trample all over each other as he passed on the way to the restrooms.

Enji didn't even stop on his way past the stairs to the restrooms.

He pushed the door to the men's room open. It was stuck, and he had to throw his weight against it. The wood made a horrible screeching sound against the floor.

"Izumo," he called inside, "Maki?" He didn't have much hope that they were here. Surely, they would have at least tried to leave the building with the alarm screeching. The alarm was off now, though— likely due to the electricity failing in the entire building.

He got no response, so he left the men's toilet and checked the ladies' room, even though the children had no reason to be here. And they weren't.

Enji scrolled through his phone to find the number Fuyumi had sent him in his unread messages. He tried to call, but it didn't get through— the phone network was overloaded. Cursing that he hadn't taken his old work phone with him, he sent her a short text and shoved the phone back into his pocket. With his work phone, he'd have access to emergency channels.

In the corridor outside the ladies' room, he tried to guess where the kids would have gone. He just hoped Maki had at least found Izumo, so he didn't need to look for two separate children. Back to the exhibition room, he thought, to reconvene with Fuyumi and the class— but Fuyumi had stayed there all this time, and they hadn't appeared. Plus, he had run the same way to the toilets and would have walked right past them. Surely, if they'd seen him, they would have shown themselves.

It was, however, the best guess he had, so he backtracked his steps more slowly and tried to look into the abandoned rooms along the corridor. There were still people on the staircase when he passed it a second time, but not many. It seemed the evacuation was almost complete. Where were the children? Enji ran all the way back to the exhibition room. He opened every door on the way, screaming their name. "IZUMO! MAKI!"

No reply.

He breathed heavily as he checked every room. Nothing. Damn, he had already wasted too much time here. They must have made their way further down.

Hopefully they had gotten away. Hopefully he was searching in vain because they weren't here anymore! Hopefully, an adult had stopped to help instead of trampling them on the stairs.

They weren't here anymore! With his shoulder, he pushed the door to the fire escape staircase open. He took four stairs at once, and then… He almost fell over the handrail, only barely catching himself as the whole building shook once more violently. One more huge crack appeared in the outer wall just in front of him. Further left on the other side, he could see part of the wall falling away. Screams from the inside.

He hurled himself through the door of the corridor on the ninth floor, just as the black creature landed right in front of him. Part of the building had collapsed under the force of its crash. Its big, ugly feet and long, chimpanzee-like arms braced against the remainders of the walls and the ceiling. Blue-ish black skin… One of the strong ones. But it wasn't the one who had attacked earlier, nor did it look like the one he had seen Gang Orca fight for a brief moment.

A third one?!

More importantly, three civilians stood frozen before it, uselessly staring into its monstrous mug. A young woman cowered against the wall next to Enji— she seemed to have run to the fire-exit when the Noumu attacked.

Enji grabbed her at the collar, heaved her up and pushed her through the door onto the stairs. "GO!" He yelled after her, seeing her stumble down the stairs as if in trance.

He turned back to the Noumu who was about to attack… But not him!

It leaped into the air. If it hadn't brought the ceiling of the upper floor down with it, it would have crashed into it. One of the civilians, an old man, screeched. A high-pitched whistling sound that made Enji's ears ring. The elder made a half-turn as if he wanted to run, but his feet never moved. Instead, he raised his arm as if that would help against the superpowered monster. The other two didn't move at all. They were frozen solid, big round eyes in pale faces staring numbly. Then, the Noumu crashed down on them.

Enji was there just in time. He pulled one of them away towards the fire exit, bracing for impact. He raised his arm in defense, ducking his head in. His body was rattled by the force— and for a moment, he was certain his arms must have snapped. The ground gave under him. He, the Noumu and the now-cowering civilians, all fell one floor— taking the ceiling with them. The Noumu stared at them as if in confusion, before his arms rose again, and Enji braced for another pounding.

"GO!" He screamed at the two civilians behind him, who were at least finally moving, picking themselves up from among the destruction. "For the stairs!" He made a half turn, kicking one of them just hard enough to make them stumble for the fire exit doors. The last civilian was an elderly man who couldn't run very fast.

Enji made his decision quickly. Instead of waiting for the man to move, he took one step forward into the Noumu, who was already swinging down again. He grabbed the beast around the waist and pushed him away with all his might. He just needed to buy a few seconds for the man to escape… He hoped there was some hero outside ready to pick the civilians off the fire exit stairs. The cracks branching out over the entire building now were worrying.

The Noumu tried to pull him off. He was stronger than Enji. Then the next attack hit him in the side. He tried to cushion the impact with his knees, but was nonetheless thrown through two walls, his body sliding all the way through the room, stopping against the outer wall. Another big tear formed where his back impacted.

He barely registered the blood at the back of his head and nose as he fought his way back to his feet. He had to get the beast out of the building. And he had to find the children. He turned back to the Noumu, ready to brace for the next attack, when he realized the villain wasn't even looking at him. The mindless beast was rampaging in the corridor. But it didn't seem to have a target other than sheer destruction.

And just then, he heard the screams. A child's voice, not far away. Next door, maybe two rooms over.

Just where the Noumu was heading. Good thing the beast had taken down almost all the interior walls separating Enji from the screaming child.

He couldn't see it past the dust cloud the villain's destruction had created, but his ears were working just fine. Enji ran, stumbling over debris and broken furniture. His feet almost slipped on the wet floor, where a pipe had broken, but then… there they were.

Cowering under a table.

They weren't looking at him, instead gaping at the Noumu as if they had never seen a creature like that. Maybe they hadn't. Izumo seemed to have difficulty breathing, as Maki was tightly holding his hand herself frozen in the moment.

The big, blueish black beast was staring right back at them. Then it charged.