The three of them charge out of the collapse zone as they run as fast as they can towards the center of the arena. Bakugo is unable to use his explosion Quirk to get him there faster, as a part of him worries he will make the failing structures unstable, leaving Katori and Kirishima at risk while he presses forward. He knows that he will have to wait until they are in an open area before he can launch himself towards the villains for a fight.
The three of them hear explosions and feel the tremors of a fight, and Katori cannot imagine that it's Midoriya fighting those villains on his own. Despite having a powerful Quirk that resembles All Might's, the boy is still extremely timid and she doubts he has the courage to stand against them.
They jump from the collapsing building when they look forward to see it is not Midoriya that is responsible for the tremors and explosions, but All Might himself. The three of them freeze for a brief moment at the sight of him fighting the three main villains. They watch as the warp gate begins to suck in All Might with the largest villain, holding down his body in a way that seems painful.
Bakugo looks back at Katori, red eyes on her purple ones, "Try to keep up, Copy-Paste!" he commands her and she nods, understanding what he is asking of her. She quickly takes his Quirk and they launch themselves towards the fight with his explosive powers.
She looks down to see Midoriya running towards All Might with his hand outstretched towards the blonde hero. She looks away from him to see the warp gate blocking his way. Midoriya tries to back away from the charge, but his momentum is too strong and he will not be able to avoid running in.
Before he can run into the gate, Bakugo releases an explosive attack at the purple vapor. "Get out of my way, Deku!" Bakugo demands with a wide grin on his face. He grabs hold of a metal piece within the vapor and she notices the body within the cloud. "Guess I found your body that time, you smoky bastard!"
She lands harshly to the ground, blinking and losing his quirk as her black hair falls in front of her face. She looks around when she notices Todoroki has joined the fight, freezing the large villain that holds All Might. "One of your poorly trained thugs told me that you were here because you think you could kill All Might," Todoroki tells them in a cool tone.
All Might is able to pry himself out of the large villain's grip as Kirishima joins the fight, attempting to smash into the duplo-hand villain that Bakugo named, but misses as the man dodges him at the last moment. "Damn that was going to be cool," he grumbles to himself.
"The Symbol of Peace will not be defeated by the likes of you," Todoroki promises them as they all take their fighting stances.
Bakugo looks at the warp gate that he holds down by a metal plate near what appears to be his neck. He begins taunting the villain on how he figured him out and noticed the body when he and Kirishima made their attack. "If you didn't have a body, you wouldn't be wearing this neck armor. Which means that you're not immune to physical attacks if they're well aimed." The warp gate grunts under his grip and Bakugo presses a few dim explosions from his hand, making the foe grunt in pain. "Don't move," he calls out to him. "You try anything funny and I'll blow your ass up so bad that they'll be piecing you back together for weeks!" he threatens him with wide excited red eyes.
"Oh, that doesn't sound very heroic," Kirishima teases him and Katori rolls her eyes, knowing that she could never say something that villainous without being questioned severely.
"Kids these days really are amazing," the voice of the duplo-hand villain rasps as he watches them carefully. Katori tries to look into his eyes but she cannot see them beyond the hand that grips his face, making it hard for her to read what his Quirk is and take it for herself. "They make the League of Villains look like amateurs, can't have that." He turns to the larger villain frozen by Todoroki's ice.
Katori's eyes flash to the large villain that held down All Might, seeing the dead eyes laid atop an exposed brain. She reads his Quirk and she is taken aback by what she feels. He has countless Quirks all piled together messily and it is clear to her that he was not born with these Quirks, and she is all together questioning if he was born at all. He was clearly manufactured to have these Quirks and when Katori attempts to take them for herself, to her horror she finds that she is unable to take any.
The large Frankenstein beast begins moving, breaking off its iced over limbs as it struggles to stand. It begins regenerating and All Might staggers back a bit while the raspy voiced villain informs the blonde hero that this creature holds many Quirks. "Nomu has been modified to take you on even at one hundred percent of your power. He's basically a highly efficient punching bag that hits back."
The Nomu begins approaching the students and they take their stances to fight. "I can't take his Quirk, All Might," Katori informs him and he tightens his jaw at this information, not expecting the young girl to do so, but wouldn't have been opposed to the idea.
"First we need to clear our method of escape," his voice rasps and Katori turns to Bakugo with wide eyes who looks up just as shocked. "Get him, Nomu!"
Katori's body moves faster than her mind allows her. She quickly looks onto All Might, taking a bit of his Quirk and running towards Bakugo. She launches herself at the blonde, tackling him to the ground as she pushes him out of the line of sight from the monster that charges at him with a fist ready to obliterate him. A loud explosion is heard as the Nomu's fists impacts against something.
Katori looks down at Bakugo as she lies on top of him, panting heavily with adrenaline flowing through her limbs as All Might's power pulses through her. "Are you alright?" she calls out to him.
"Get the hell off of me, you damn nerd!" he growls at her as a blush takes over his face. She staggers off of him, offering her hand to lift him up, but he doesn't take it and lifts himself on his own.
"Damn Katori, that was fast!" Kirishima swoons, "How did you react like that?"
She widens her eyes, figuring All Might must have moved in as well. She turns to see the cloud of smoke clearing with the blonde hero emerging with crossed arms blocking his face from the attack. While Katori took the power of All Might to launch Bakugo out of the line of sight, All Might worked with the girl to take the brunt of the attack.
"These are kids, and you didn't hold back!" All Might scolds the villain.
"They didn't give me a choice. He was threatening my companion," the pale blue-haired villain begins. He turns to the raven-haired girl. "Interesting Quirk you have there," he says hungrily. "You came in with the boy's Quirk, and you were able to assume All Might's with no issue." She blinks and her hair falls down her back. "How many Quirks can you hold at once?" he says approaching her with ravenous force.
"Stay away from her!" All Might calls out heroically, but staggers a bit from his drained body.
"You didn't even touch him, so you don't have a generic copy Quirk," he says with a smile stretching his cracked lips behind the hand that hides his face from her.
Katori catches a glance of a red eye and quickly takes his Quirk from him, she frowns as she sees that she will have to get close to him to use it. "Decay?" she says with a cock of her head. "Not really much of a heroic Quirk if you ask me. Really got dealt the shit end of the stick with that one," she says taking her stance as the blue haired man looks at her with thirsty eyes. "No matter, I can still use your own Quirk on you and show you how it feels!" she yells at him, feeling the hate of what they did to Aizawa lift her chest.
"You kids are no angels," he says now suddenly disappointed in her. "Threatening on using my decaying Quirk against me? And the plain looking one, attempting a maxed-out punch on me," he says speaking of Midoriya. "What kind of 'hero' does something like that? You think you can get away with being as violent as you want, if you say it is for the sake of others. Well, you know what, All Might; that pisses me off," he says reaching out around him. "Why do people get to decide that some violent acts are heroic while others are villainous? Casting judgement as to what's 'good' and what's 'evil'. You think you're the Symbol of Peace?" he laughs, "You're just another government-sponsored instrument of violence. And violence only breeds more violence. I'll make sure the world understands that once you're dead."
Katori watches him carefully with cautious eyes, understanding his words and hearing them hundreds of times in the underbelly of the city. Her father is one to preach the same and she wonders if this group was brought here by her father, though finding that to be difficult since he would not knowingly send villains to her school and compromise her identity. Her father has deeper ties within the underground channels of villainy, and would not have sent such low-level thugs their way if he were to send someone in for an attack. She decides these people have no affiliation with her father, but cannot help but sympathize with their sentiments.
The government did everything in their power to coverup her mother's suicide after All Might arrested her, believing it to be bad for his image, yet they will not stop to censor the daily doings of villains that they deem evil.
"We've got them outnumbered," Todoroki says pulling her from her thoughts.
"And Kacchan found the mist guy's weakness," Midoriya affirms with a nod.
"These dudes may act really tough, but we can take them out with All Might's help," Kirishima hardens his arms. "Let's do this."
"Don't attack!" All Might calls out to the kids, "get out of here."
"You would have been in trouble earlier if it weren't for me, remember?" Todoroki reminds him. "You need our help."
"I thank you for your assistance, but this is different." He powers himself up, feeling the effects of Katori's draining Quirk lifting from him. "But this is going to be different, now sit back and watch a pro at work."
"But you're too hurt, and bleeding." Midoriya tells him with worry building in his tone. "Plus, you're almost out of ti—" he stops before he can finish and Katori's eyes turn to him, but she allows her body to remain directed at the villains. She presses her brows together in confusion at his words and watches him carefully as he panics internally, wondering what he meant by that.
"Nomu, Kurogiri. Kill him," the light blue-haired duplo-hand man says. "I'll deal with the children." He begins running towards the kids at a full sprint, and they enter their fighter's stance.
"Heads up, looks like we are fighting after all," Kirishima says with a grunt. Bakugo glances at Katori and she looks back at him, taking a bit of his Quirk for herself, however, before any of the kids can fight, All Might quickly jumps in, launching himself to the pale blue-haired man.
Katori blinks and in the instant, the man is flung in the air by a shockwave from All Might's punch intercepted by the Nomu's fist. She looks at the Number One hero with enlarged eyes at his sheer power and speed.
"Weren't you listening?" Duplo-hands calls out to the hero as he lands roughly to the ground. "One of his powers is shock absorption."
"Yeah, what about it?" All Might pushes as he begins fighting the Nomu, with every hit of his being caught and matched by the beast with a beak.
Their attacks are completely matched in speed and force, and shockwaves begin to emanate from their attack. Katori feels the blow of the wind from their resistance of one another. She covers her eyes as the boys plant their feet into the ground so not to go flying from the force of the two fighting. Katori falls to her knees next to Bakugo who places a hand firmly on her back to hold her from falling backwards. She grunts as she is unable to keep her eyes open to assume a Quirk.
"He's going to fight that brain guy head on?" Midoriya calls out over the sound of the whistling wind from the attacks.
"Woah, they're…" Kirishima gets blown back as he keeps himself from falling, "so fast!"
The kids watch in absolute awe at the blonde hero as his arms move faster than their eyes can process. Katori watches as All Might gives his all against the beast who matches his strength. A lump begins to grow in her throat as she thinks about the beast fighting All Might, wondering if the Number One will finally be bested. She felt All Might's power, and something was strange about it. Though he was undoubtably the most powerful Quirk she ever seized, something about it seemed incomplete. She can feel when a Quirk is at its full power, and with All Might, he feels as though he is running on the fumes of what his Quirk once was. Yet despite all that, he was keeping the Nomu off of them with calculated hits.
Katori gasps when All Might launches the Nomu to the ground with a thunderous force, causing the entire ground to quake at the force of the beast smashed into the ground. All Might powers up and the kids' eyes enlarge as he hits the villain with more than one hundred percent of his power. They all unhinge their jaws to the floor as the Nomu is launched into the air, shattering the dome of the USJ and sending a shockwave throughout the entire building.
"That was like the finishing move of a video game," Kirishima swoons, "He beat the shock absorption out of him! I've never seen that kind of brute strength!"
"Imagine having power like that," Bakugo thinks wide-eyed. "He punched him so fast that he didn't have time to regenerate." He glances over at Katori, wondering if she even held a fraction of that strength when she swiped him from the Nomu's war path, suddenly feeling in awe of her strength.
"You've been bested, Villains." All Might turns to the two remaining villains. "Surrender; we all want to get this over with quickly."
Katori watches as the blue-haired villain begins to internally panic at the realization that his monster did not best the Number One Hero as he expected him to. He begins to ravenously scratch at his neck as he considers another plan while All Might teases him and his lack of plan.
"Man, this is intense," Bakugo grunts as he watches the stand down between the two.
"As I expected," Todoroki speaks up, "There's no reason for us to fight, he'll handle this." The students nod, turning from the fight as they make their way towards the rest of their classmates.
"Come on Midoriya," Kirishima calls out to the boy that does not make a move to turn from the fight, "We should regroup with the other guys. The last thing we wanna do is get taken hostage or get in his way."
Katori turns towards Midoriya, noticing the stiffness in his posture as he watches All Might with a worried disposition. She watches him carefully, seeing clearly that he knows more about All Might's ability to fight them than he is giving off.
They stiffen as the underling villains begin waking up and surrounding them. "I think All Might can hold his own against those two main guys," Kirishima says glancing over at Bakugo as he hardens his arms. "Let's make sure these dudes don't hurt anyone else."
Katori takes her stance, grabbing pieces of Bakugo and Kirishima and preparing herself for another fight. She feels her hair lifting off of her shoulders when she feels a gust of wind coming from behind her. She turns to see Midoriya jumping towards the two main villains. She turns looking up at him as he launches himself at them, his legs flailing in the air as they break with his speed.
Katori panics, feeling her chest compress as her legs begin moving before her mind can tell her otherwise. She launches herself after Midoriya, using Bakugo's explosion to send a fiery attack at the warp gate. He is stunned and the blue haired villain places his hand through the gate, grabbing for Midoriya's face with his decaying Quirk. Katori closes her eyes, losing Bakugo's Quirk and quickly grabbing the villain's decay Quirk.
She pushes Midoriya out of his reach, having the villain grab onto her forearm instead. She lets out a wail of pain as he begins decaying the flesh of her forearm. She quickly pushes past the pain and grabs onto his own forearm, using his own Quirk against him. She snarls at him, glaring into his red eyes as she grips onto him with all her strength. He releases her from his grip with a wail of his own, having never felt his own Quirk against him.
Before she can make a fatal move against him, she hears a gunshot ring out and she blinks at the noise. She loses his Quirk and turns from him as she watches the Pro Heroes enter the room. Her hair falls past her shoulders and she notices that it turns white from using his power too viciously. She turns to the blue-haired man as he cradles his arm, backing away with frantic eyes as the Pros begin fighting their underlings.
He jumps into the warp gate, turning to All Might to give him one last message. "I may have failed to kill you this time, but your days are numbered. All Might. Symbol of Peace. I am going to kill you!" he promises and Katori finds herself sneering at this, knowing that she has made a promise of her own and will not let some low-level thug change that.
She breathes heavily, panting as she holds her decaying forearm. "Are you alright?" she asks Midoriya who struggles to lift himself to his feet.
"I think so," he says carefully as he lifts himself up to a seated position with shaking arms. "You're hurt," he groans with glistening eyes as tears fill his green orbs.
"I'll be alright," she assures him.
Her eyes move to All Might when her attention is caught by Kirishima yelling out to them. "Midoriya, Katori! Are you okay?" the crimson boy shouts out to them as he runs towards his classmates.
Katori lifts herself to her feet, approaching the boy when Midoriya calls out, instructing the boy to halt. She turns towards him and before she can say another word, a wall of earth blocks Katori and Kirishima from Midoriya and All Might. She staggers back, falling into Kirishima as he catches her in his arms at the last moment. Her brows tangle in confusion as she glances over to see Cementoss creating a barrier between them and their classmate.
"For your safety, please stay back. Join your classmates at the front gate and leave the injured to us. We can take care of them," the pale grey hero tells them.
"What about Katori?" the crimson boy asks. "She's hurt pretty bad."
"She can take herself to infirmary, we will handle those unable to take themselves," he explains and she looks at him with a confused glare but doesn't press it.
Kirishima walks with Katori to the rest of their classmates. Bakugo and Todoroki watch her with wild enlarged eyes at how she could be so quick to jump into action and save Midoriya the way that she did. Todoroki is the first to approach her and ask if she is alright. She tells him that she is and he looks down at her limp decaying arm, knowing it will leave a nasty scar.
"Here," Todoroki says with a leveled tone, "Let me escort you to Recovery Girl."
"Thanks Todoroki," she says with a soft smile as her lavender eyes flash over to Bakugo's red hot stare. He seems angry with her and she is unsure what she did to have upset him, but she does not ask as Todoroki escorts her up the stairs with the rest of their class, while Bakugo and Kirishima follow behind.
Todoroki walks her to the infirmary where she takes a seat on a medical bed, cradling her decaying arm while she waits for Recovery Girl. She looks down at her arm, seeing the strands of muscle and cracking skin, but is unable to see her bone, so she figures she is lucky.
"You were really brave out there," Todoroki tells her, watching her arm with his two-toned eyes, not daring to look into her own. She glances down at her arm with a hot blush kissing her cheeks. "You saved Midoriya without hesitation while we were all frozen."
Before she can say anything, she hears the curtains of the bed next to her screech as they are drawn open. She looks down to see Principal Nezu peak out of the curtain barricade. He smiles up at the two students as Recovery Girl steps from behind the curtain.
"Oh my," she says examining the girl. "Looks like I have my work cut out for me."
"Todoroki, why don't you join the rest of your classmates and give us a moment?" Principal Nezu says with a wide close-eyed smile.
The boy bows his head and sends her a reassuring smile before leaving her in the room with the faculty. Recovery Girl begins working on her arm as Katori winces at the pain of her crumbling forearm. Principal Nezu looks up at the white-haired girl as she holds out her arm for the healer to do her job.
Principal Nezu brings his mousy hands together nervously as he approaches the snow-haired girl. "Ms. Satsuma," he begins as she looks down at him with concern tangling her brows together. "As you are aware, there was a breech within our school's security," he begins with a less cheery tone than he is known for. "We speculate the villains came in with the help of someone internally, as our security systems are top of the line in order to keep our faculty and students safe."
"You think someone on the inside let them in?" she asks and he nods hesitantly at her. She reads his hesitation and her heart flutters with building anxiety. "You think it was me?" she almost squeaks as her tone lifts an octave.
"It is undeniable that you have ties with an underbelly of a less desirable demographic," he says dancing around the accusation.
"I told you I don't have any communication with my father," she stiffens, holding her arm out for Recovery Girl to continue her work while she sits a few meters away from them. She watches them through strands of white hair, "Or these low-level thugs that attacked us."
"We simply ask that you submit yourself to further questioning so we can table this for good."
"I already answered your questions," she returns with a rising tone.
"About your father yes, but we would like to ask you more about this fraction of villains."
"Where is Mr. Aizawa, or All Might? Do they share the same sentiments?" she asks, feeling silly that either of them would vouch for her, but feeling desperate as her heart races and her body temperature rises. Principal Nezu sighs, pulling back the curtain he appeared from to show a fully bandaged Aizawa, laying still at his bed. "Mr. Aizawa," her voice hitches with anxiety at the sight of the damaged man.
"Katori," his voice is rough and weak at the same time, unable to see his mouth move as his head is completely wrapped in bandages. "Do as he asks."
She scoffs, rolling her eyes and figuring this to be the only way that she can gain their trust. "Fine," she says pulling her arm away from Recovery Girl as she begins tying her hair back.
"Keep your hair down, Katori," Aizawa says not needing to see her to know what she is doing.
Katori widens her gaze at him, wishing desperately that she could read his eyes through the bandages to see his expression and determine if he knows she falsified her initial test. If he does know that she did use her Quirk to cheat the test, why did he allow her to complete the assessment and stay within the school? Or was this something that he has just pieced together? Does he truly believe that she has ties with the low-level villains that attacked the USJ?
She begins panicking, knowing that if she keeps her hair down and takes this test she will fail. She has no allegiance or knowledge of who this league is, but it is without doubt that they will bring up her father again, and if they do, she will be unable to cheat the results without their notice.
She shakes her head, feeling hot as a growing lump builds in her throat. "No," she presses down the lump in her throat. "You told me that any prejudices would be left in that room. I won't submit to your test," she tells them firmly, snatching her partially healed arm from Recovery Girl. "I'll make the decision for you," she begins, lifting herself to her feet. "I'll just leave. You clearly don't want me here to teach me how to be a hero," she shrugs, "I guess I will just go back on the streets." She looks down at Aizawa with hate filled eyes. "For your sake, I hope a group of villains don't recruit such an impressionable girl into their league."
She pushes past them, shoving the door to the infirmary with a loud bang as it crashes into the wall. Todoroki waits in the hallway with his head down leaning against the wall with arms crossed over his chest. He jumps at the sound of the door slamming into the wall and Katori's dramatic exit.
"Hey, what's wrong?" he asks her as he jumps to follow her.
"Nothing, I'm leaving," she tells him between gritted teeth.
He stops moving after her, frozen in confusion as he looks into the room seeing the stiff bodies of the faculty inside the infirmary that stand struck with shock at her exit.
Tears fill Katori's eyes while she stomps out towards the courtyard. She wipes away the salty tears from her cheeks as she makes her way from the campus, trying to come up with an explanation to her father for her failure in this mission. After years of training for this, she cannot sit here with a smile on her face as she's accused at every turn.
"Hey Nerd!" she hears the unmistakable gruff voice calling out to her. She doesn't dare turn towards him, as he is the last person she wants to see right now. "Yo, Copy-Paste, you deaf now?" he calls out to her, his voice getting closer to her. "Where are you going, Loser!" he shouts.
"Leave me alone!" she cries out, tears now falling down her cheeks freely as she looks at the blonde boy.
He is shocked by the sight of her, staggering away from her as he sees the sorrow in her eyes. "Hey, what's wrong?" he asks in a softer tone.
"Nothing, I'm leaving," she tells him as she told Todoroki.
"Leaving? Why?"
She growls, looking at the stupid expression on his face as he doesn't comprehend what is going on. "You don't get it!" she yells at him. "You get to go around and talk about how you want to murder people and blow everything up and no one bats an eye. But because of who my father is, I can't even breathe without someone accusing me of something!" she cries, tears freely falling down her hot face. "I can't put on this fake smile and pretend I am excited to learn how to be a hero when I am accused for being a villain at every turn! It's exhausting so I am leaving."
"You can't leave," he says as his hard expression drops to a softer one.
"Good luck, Bakugo," she tells him genuinely wanting him to succeed here.
"Wait!" he calls out to her, grabbing the wrist of her good arm. He turns her towards him and she looks up at his red eyes with wide purple ones. He doesn't dare look into her eyes—gaze plastered on the ground below them as he says, "I want you to stay." Her eyes enlarge, glistening as they look at him with tears shielding her vision. He scoffs when he sees her swoon at his words. "It's not like that, Nerd!" he growls stiffly, "I want to fight you," he informs her and she huffs at this. "The only way to become the Number One Hero is to fight the best. And you're the best."