A/N:
The plot is definitely moving along! I'm publishing this around halfway through chapter 10, and things start moving pretty quickly for a bit (but of course we'll go back to some slow fluff and stuff. At least I won't be drawing this story out too long— I hate it when fanfic authors take over 150k words to reach the Sports Festival arc unless there's a VERY good reason for it and it doesn't feel like a drag getting there. I intend to reach sports festival around chapter 14 or 15, though my outline is nonexistent and the story is just writing itself. Either way, Sports Festival should start sometimes around the 100k mark, which I feel is a nice pace for the story.
I also just started my separate akuma planning doc, and Oh Boy™️ do I have plans for some characters ;) There are so many things I want to touch upon or include that would just absolutely bog down this story, so we might be getting some one-shots of side characters in the future that I think need to be expanded upon outside the main fic? I don't know what I'm talking about, expect Shinsou one-shot in a few months whenever he comes up here.
Chapter title is from Amsterdam by Imagine Dragons.
Next chapter May 21st.
Chapter 7:
Nino stepped from side to side in anticipation as he waited for his teacher to tell their class to get on the bus.
He was standing next to Kaminari and Ashido, the electric boy and the acidic girl about as impatient and energetic as he was. They were supposed to go on some sort of field trip today, and hero course at U.A. was going on a field trip then it had to be something fun.
Of course, it usually only got fun when they actually got to where they were supposed to go.
"What's taking Aizawa-sensei so looooong?" Kaminari whined. "Can't we just get on the bus anyways?"
Nino shook his head. "The class presidents are stopping us until the teacher gets here."
The three of them looked at Yaoyorozu and Iida standing next to the bus doors, and pouted in a similar fashion.
Moments later, their teacher finally left the building and said to them, "Why are you standing here and wasting time? Hurry up and get on already."
Everyone filed in, their president and her vice making sure they were getting on in an orderly fashion, before they finally had everyone situated and the vehicle started to move.
Nino tugged at the rough material of his costume. They had the option of wearing that or their gym uniforms, but almost everyone took the opportunity to wear their costumes. His was of a dark green color, with some patches of lighter green spread throughout. He wore arm guards that evoked the shape of a line of bubbles (though they weren't as bulky as Uraraka's or Bakugou's) and a domino mask with a hood completed the set.
It wasn't anything flashy, by any means, and he didn't have any support gear yet— though he was sure that he'd get something sooner or later.
He was sitting in the front of the bus, where there were seats along the sides facing inwards, rather than the typical bus-style seats (though there were some of those in the back as well).
"So, Lahiffe-kun, are you looking forward to doing rescue simulations?" Asui— no, she wanted them to call her Tsu— asked him.
"Always!" He grinned. "I mostly want to be a rescue hero, so I'm super excited for this!"
"Kero. That sounds nice. I'm not really sure what kind of hero I want to be, really. I think rescue sounds nice, because I can swim really well."
"Well, I know that I want to be un héros brillant." Aoyama flaunted and sparkled (Nino still wasn't sure how a belly laser translated into sparkling all the time, but maybe it was part of his costume? No, he sparkled in uniform too.)
Nino didn't want to be mean, but he couldn't resist sending a jab at the only other French-speaker in his class. "Sorry, Aoyama-kun, but you can't shine when tu as mal au ventre."
The blonde boy pouted, and though nobody else really understood what they were saying they got a vague idea, so Ashido gave him a pat on the back to comfort him.
"At least you guys have flashy quirks. Don't get me wrong, Hardening is pretty useful against villains," Kirishima hardened his arm to demonstrate, "but it's not a super showy quirk."
"I'm in the same boat as you bro," Nino agreed. "My bubbles are super useful for protecting people, but it's not a media-ready quirk by any means. If we're talking about flashy quirks, I think we should be talking about Todoroki-kun or Bakugou-kun."
"Yeah, but I don't think Bakugou-kun will ever be popular," Kaminari said. "He's too aggressive and angry all the time."
"Hah?" The teen in question turned around when he was mentioned. "The fuck are you saying about me?"
"I think he's right, kero," Tsu agreed. "He can't be popular with people if he can't be nice to them."
"Oh yeah, Frogface? I don't need to be nice! I'll always win, just like All Might, and be the strongest hero! You're just a second-rate extr—" Bakugou's rant was cut off when Aizawa-sensei turned around to cancel out his quirk.
"Tone it down— you don't have to be so loud all the time." He raised his voice so that everyone would hear the next announcement. "We're almost at the USJ, so get ready to leave."
"USJ?" Kaminari wondered. "Like Universal Studios Japan?"
"Really?" Ashido perked up. "We're going to Universal Studios Japan? Wait…" She thought about that for a moment. "How are we going to do rescue simulation at Universal Studios Japan?"
Nino sniggered at their banter. "Aizawa-sensei already explained that USJ stands for Unforeseen Simulation Joint," he corrected. "Though Universal Studios Japan also sounds fun."
Iida cleared his throat, clearly about to say something, but before he had a chance the bus jerked to a stop and the doors opened, so he was left behind as everyone else hurried to get out. Of course, being their class's vice president, he recovered quickly and began to attempt to enforce an orderly dismount— which was promptly ignored by everyone.
Nino stood outside in the sun, stretching his limbs after being cooped up in the bus. He was hyped for this. Yeah, he knew that heroes had to be proficient in every area, but being a rescue hero was what he wanted to do most. His quirk let him protect basically anyone, and he intended to do so. Even if he hadn't gone to U.A., he would have applied to a university in France that would have allowed him to become a hero who could protect everyone. As he stared at the giant dome comprising U.A.'s rescue training compound, he felt a shiver of excitement— he made it. He was pursuing his dreams to the fullest.
He grinned and followed his classmates inside.
His first impression outside didn't do the building justice. On the inside, he could truly see how much money was invested into the USJ. The space was split up into multiple zones, and he could see two mountains, a ruined city, two smaller domes, and a whole lake with a huge cruise ship floating in the middle. To put it lightly, he was impressed. It was unlikely any other hero school in the world could get this sort of facility constructed— he wondered just how much money U.A. had, and where they got it from.
Standing in front of the stairs that led down to the main plaza was someone wearing what looked like an astronaut's suit, helmet included. They waved at the group, and leaned in close to Aizawa-sensei to whisper something he couldn't hear.
Aizawa-sensei's face grew even more exasperated, if such a thing was even possible, and he sighed before turning and addressing the group as a whole.
"Alright, everybody listen up. Welcome to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint. This facility is designed to train our hero students for disaster scenarios. It was designed by U.A.'s resident rescue specialist, the pro hero Thirteen."
Now that Nino had a name to put with the costume, he vaguely recognized them from when he was younger and researching rescue heroes from around the world. Thirteen was one of the foremost rescue heroes in Japan, and had even been called to France at one point to help deal with the aftermath of an attack by the supervillain Vulcain, who'd destroyed large portions of Toulouse in Southern France and covered the surrounding countryside in volcanic debris— exactly the sort of thing that Thirteen's Black Hole quirk was useful for.
Uraraka was fangirling off to the side, and as a fellow fan of rescue heroes he could see why. Thirteen, thanks to Japan's sensationalized heroics industry, was a giant in rescue throughout the entire world, and certainly the most popular rescue hero in Japan.
They cleared their throat and introduced the students to the USJ. "Hi there! As your teacher just explained, I am the rescue hero known as Thirteen. I helped design the USJ in order to give the hero students at U.A. the most realistic setting possible for dealing with various natural and unnatural disasters. Before we start, I do have two things to say."
They thought for a moment, then corrected themselves. "Make that three. Maybe four. Anyways, we'll be doing a quick overview of all of the zones here. Going clockwise, we have the Ruins Zone to your left, which simulates the ruins of a city— whether that was because of a villain attack, that's up to you and your imagination!
"The next two zones are the Landslide Zone and the Mountain Zone, which simulate different types of rocky terrain— the Landslide zone is more unstable, for example. The smaller dome you see over there contains the Conflagration Zone, which is constantly on fire! Almost all of you will have to deal with villains who use fire at some point in your careers, so it'll be important to learn how to lessen damage to yourselves and your surroundings. The Flood Zone looks like a lake with a ship in it, but various sequences can be activated to simulate various water-related disasters, and the last zone on the list is the Downpour Zone, which simulates heavy rain and wind, like a very strong storm."
The Conflagration Zone sounded particularly dangerous to Nino, though he supposed that it was true that he should be prepared to deal with fire-users as a pro, since those were some of the most common quirks.
"The second thing I want you to remember is to always listen to one of us," they continued. "Many of these zones can be dangerous, and it's important to realize that while you don't have any experience in these, both Eraserhead and I are pro heroes with many years of experience dealing with rescue situations. If something is wrong, always defer to one of us."
Their tone darkened. "Third, you all need to realize something. We have some very dangerous quirks here. I know that while mine, Black Hole, has saved thousands of lives by disintegrating debris and freeing trapped civilians, it could just as easily be used to harm people."
They swept their gaze across every student. "Some of you may have similarly dangerous quirks, which could be used to harm others. However, I believe that it is not the quirk that is important, but the way in which we use it. I'll be working with you all here to ensure that we can all use our respective powers safely, without any chance of causing harm."
"And finally, I want you to have fun!" They clapped their hands together. "This is hero training, and even though we'll mostly be going through some exercises today, that's no reason to make it boring! As we like to say, Plus Ultra!"
Everyone cheered at that ending, and Aizawa-sensei stepped to the front. "Right, we'll be dividing in two groups, so—"
"Sensei, is the exercise already starting?" Ojiro pointed towards the fountain at the center of the plaza, where a small point of darkness was quickly expanding to form a portal.
The teacher's eyes narrowed. "No. Those are villains." He glanced at Thirteen. "Have everyone evacuate. Have you contacted the school yet?"
Kaminari shook his head. "I tried, but nothing got through."
"The alarms aren't going off, either." Todoroki spoke up. "One of the villains must have a quirk shutting down the communication systems."
"Well, then focus on getting out of here. I can handle the villains." His focus had never left the center plaza, where a crowd of villains was forming, surrounding who were likely the leaders— a smokey mass that looked like what the initial portal was made out of; a person with hands attached all over their body; and a large, muscular thing with a beak and an exposed brain.
"What's this?" The hand-villain muttered, loudly enough for the students to hear. "Was our info wrong? No, that's Eraserhead, so the class is right. But All Might—" he spat out the name with disgust, "—isn't here. And to think, we're supposed to kill him today."
"Well then," he narrowed his eyes. "Seems like I'll just have to kill some of these kids to lure him in."
"But Sensei! Surely, you cannot expect to fight every villain down there?" Iida was quick to point out. "There are far too many for one person to handle!"
Aizawa looked back at them. "I'll be fine. What's important is that you get out and contact someone at U.A. to send help."
Thirteen raised their voice to get everyone's attention. "Right! Everybody, follow me!" Behind them, the class could see how Aizawa-sensei leapt towards the villains who began approaching them.
Nino looked at him, wondering if there was something he should do, because leaving their teacher behind to fend for himself just didn't seem right, but it wasn't like he could do anything. Besides, the hand guy had to be crazy. Kill All Might? Yeah, right. That wasn't ever going to happen.
He sighed and made his way to the front door, before suddenly the group was stopped by the purple mist man appearing out of thin air.
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that I can't let you leave."
Thirteen moved in front of the students, ready to protect them. "Stay back, everybody. Don't engage him."
"I know it might be impolite to come here uninvited, but we have important business to do here," the man spoke. "Allowing you to alert the rest of the facility may hinder our objective."
Nino stayed back near Kaminari. "Merde. What do we do now?"
"Why are you asking me?" Kaminari glanced at him, panic clearly visible in his eyes. All of a sudden, they heard Thirteen yell, "No, don't!"
They watched as Kirishima and Bakugou ran headfirst at the villain, letting loose a vicious attack that covered the entire area in smoke. A few of their classmates started coughing, and as the smoke cleared everyone was shocked to see the mist man still standing, a metal bracer that might have concealed his physical body quickly covered up by smoke.
"My, you students really do live up to the expectations. Unfortunately for you, I must send you out to meet your deaths." Tendrils of inky darkness shot out of his gaseous body, quickly surrounding the group even as people tried to get away.
Nino could see Thirteen get out of range with their superior reflexes, and Iida used his superior speed to grab a few of his classmates and push them out of the way. Nino tried to grab Kaminari and make a run for it, but suddenly his vision was flooded with nothing but the void that the villain was made of. In his panic, all he could do was bubble himself as he sank into the abyss.
The best way to describe Eraserhead's feelings at the USJ would be to say he was annoyed.
Oh sure, he was certainly angry that the hand villain even had the audacity to say that they would try to kill his students, but at the moment he was just absolutely done with every participant in this mess.
He was annoyed at All Might for overdoing it that morning and not being there for the first villain attack on U.A.'s grounds in recent history, he was annoyed at Nedzu for not realizing the true purpose behind the breach in security the day before (because regular reporters wouldn't have been able to get past the gates without some sort of help), and he was annoyed at himself for taking a moment to blink that allowed the mist guy to get away.
Off to a great start, in terms of fights that he'd been in.
The underground pro ducked under a four-armed villain's fists, cursing not for the first time in his life his inability to cancel out heteromorphic quirks, like the massive rhino villain charging right at him. He quickly jumped as high as he could, using some less dangerous criminals as platforms to get up, and landed directly on the man's forehead, driving his body into the ground with considerable force. He reactivated his quirk on a woman who seemed to be creating knives to throw at him, and grabbed a different villain with his capture scarf to catapult in her general direction.
He wasn't feeling too hot— he didn't need to have Nedzu's High-Spec to know that if things continued at this rate he wouldn't be able to defeat all of the villains, and that assessment didn't include the three leaders— or was it two? The massive one with the exposed brain hadn't moved an inch since it was warped in, and he wasn't keen on finding out how much damage it could do with a physique that rivaled All Might's.
Unnoticed by him, Shigaraki Tomura watched Eraserhead fight. Contrary to most people's first impressions of him, he was actually fairly intelligent and had an analytical mind that he liked to say was because of his video-game playing habits. He just occasionally allowed his emotions to control him, which meant that his decisions became rash and impulsive.
Right now, he was irritated, but knew that it was important to calm himself down if he wanted a chance to face down All Might. Eraserhead was just the first obstacle to him achieving his goal, so he paid close attention to the times the fodder's quirks got nullified.
It took him a while, during which about half of the forces in the courtyard got taken down, but he eventually noticed the way that the hero's dark hair floated whenever anyone's quirk stopped working.
A grin spread out onto his face. He could work with that.
Nino appeared in the sky, and although he was disoriented it didn't take him long to realize that when gravity took hold and he plummeted. He was still confused when it looked like he was falling to the sky, but it quickly wore off when he found himself dropping into the lake of the Flood Zone.
Thankfully, his bubble would float, but he had to refresh his air supply at some point. He looked around for some of his classmates, wondering if any would have ended up near him, when he saw the villains circling him. Most of them had mutations that allowed them to breathe or take advantage of water for mobility, though he could see a few with no obvious changes.
They wouldn't be able to force him out, unless they stalled him for long enough that he had to dispel the shield just to get some air to breathe.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" A man with an octopus- or squid-mutation quirk said. "A baby hero thinks he can hide in his little bubble." He smirked at Nino.
Before he could say anything more, he was interrupted by a yell from above. "Lahiffe-kun! Grab me!"
He looked up to see Tsu hanging onto the side of the cruise ship, and Nino immediately understood what she was going for. He gave a thumbs up, and she sent her tongue out. Right before it would have hit the bubble and done nothing of use, he dispelled it and allowed the tongue to wrap around him and toss him up onto the deck of the ship, much to the vocal dismay of the villains in the water.
Nino got up from where he was lying and did his best to dry himself by wiping the water off of his costume, though he didn't find much success. Tsu hopped back on to the deck from where she'd been hanging, landing next to the much shorter Mineta, who he hadn't noticed before.
"Arigatou gozaimashita, Tsu-chan." Nino thanked her profusely.
"Kero. Don't worry about it." She turned back towards the water after making sure he was okay, clearly thinking about the problem of the villains.
Mineta was sitting with his back against the railing, hugging his knees and generally looking as if he was about a second away from having a breakdown. He was muttering to himself, too softly for Nino to hear, but he felt as if he got the message.
He sat down next to the boy. Sure, the past few days he'd been behaving a bit inappropriately towards the girls, but that didn't mean he should be shunned. "Hey there, you doin' okay?" He asked as gently as possible.
Mineta slowly turned his head towards Nino, tear tracks visibly running down his face. "No. No, I'm not okay. None of this is okay! I came to U.A. to be a hero! To get trained in heroics! But the universe decided that we had to get attacked by villains on our third real day of school in what was supposed to be one of the most secure facilities in U.A.! Which part of this is okay?" This was said very quickly, and Nino had a bit of trouble following it, but by the end he was pretty sure he got the gist.
"When you put it like that, then sure, it seems pretty bad," Nino did his best to comfort him. "But all we need to do is either wait for the teachers to show up or get back to the rest of class by ourselves!"
"And how are we supposed to get through the villains in the water?" Even while panicked, he still managed to look indignant.
Nino gave what he hoped was a reassuring smile, even though he felt more like Mineta did than he wanted to admit. "We just have to find a way past them! I'm sure that we could come up with something if we used all of our quirks together."
Mineta buried his face in his hands for a few seconds, breathing heavily, and finally forced himself up. "Yeah. Yeah, we can do this." He turned around and blanched at the mass of villains in the water. "Nope. We cannot do this."
Nino joined him and Tsu at the railing and looked down. The various invaders hadn't approached the ship, content to wait them out. But if they had such a huge numbers advantage, then why wouldn't they approach?
"I don't think they know our quirks."
"Kero?" Tsu glanced at him in confusion.
"I mean, if they knew our quirks, then you wouldn't have been sent here. Your quirk is best in the water, so you would have been sent to the Conflagration Zone or something. The villains down there aren't sure what we can do to them, so they're unsure if they should come to us."
Mineta looked doubtful. "It's not like we can do anything to them. Best case, you might be able to bubble us but that only stalls our deaths, and it doesn't do anything to them."
"Tsu-chan, could you jump all the way to shore while carrying us?" Nino checked.
She shook her head. "Maybe, but not all of the way, especially not with the villains being able to chase us if we do make it."
Nino rubbed his chin, trying to think of a plan. "So we need a way to slow them down or trap them." Admittedly, he wasn't the best at this plan stuff, and he didn't think he could make enough bubbles to trap everyone, much less get near enough to use his quirk in the first place.
Mineta absentmindedly popped one of the grape-like balls off of his head and tossed it at the villains. Everyone in its trajectory swam away from it, and they all stayed as far away as they could. He stared at it, knowing that there was something they could do.
"Mineta-kun, does your quirk work in the water?"
The short teen looked surprised at being asked a question, then shrugged. "Yeah, it should work normally. Why do you ask?"
"I might have an idea."
Several minutes later, they were ready to put their plan into action. The villains were starting to get antsy and a few had begun to approach, so they couldn't afford to spend more time preparing.
Mineta had been stockpiling balls to the point that his scalp was raw and bloody, though he kept going even through the pain, which struck Nino as particularly brave of him. He would be throwing as many balls as he could towards the villains, while Nino could create as many small bubbles around debris and adding those to the mix.
Once they had the villains surrounded, with some of them stuck to the orbs (and consequently each other), Tsu grabbed the two of them and took a flying leap off of the front of the ship.
Nino bubbled the group just before they landed, softening their impact and allowing them to drift to shore without getting soaked (or in Nino's case, more soaked than he already was).
"Kero. That was a good idea, Lahiffe-kun." Tsu said.
"No kidding," was Mineta's response. "Let's get out of here!"
"Right!" They made their way back to the center plaza and the staircase, not knowing what they would encounter there.
Thirteen stood defiant in the face of the villain. Some of their students had managed to avoid getting teleported to god-knows-where, and they hoped that none of them would be hurt.
"Stay behind me, everybody! This villain is dangerous!"
"Hmm," was his response. "It seems that some of you managed to avoid my attack. No matter. None of you will be leaving this location anyways, not until we have All Might."
"Iida!" Thirteen yelled out at one of the students they knew had escaped. "You need to get through the doors and make contact with U.A.!"
"But Sensei! As the class's vice president, it is my duty to ensure everyone's safety! How could I do that by abandoning everyone?" Iida looked truly panicked at being told to leave the group.
Thirteen shook their head, eyes still trained on the warper. "By getting to the school, you will be able to save everyone here, Iida. With your quirk, you are the only one who can get past him."
Iida had on him a conflicted expression, before it hardened into one of determination. "I see! Then I shall do the best that I can."
"You know, planning in front of your enemies isn't a good idea if you wish to succeed." If the villain had visible eyebrows, he would have been raising one.
"Go now, Iida! I'll distract him!" Thirteen popped open the cap on one of their fingers and felt Black Hole activate, sucking up anything in its path. It'd been years since it was used in combat, but Thirteen was sure that it would serve as enough of a deterrent to allow Iida an opportunity to run away.
"A fine quirk, Thirteen, but you are clearly unused to being in combat." Before the hero could process that, a dark portal appeared in front of them and a sensation of suction was felt behind them. They screamed, dropping to the ground as the back of their suit disintegrated under the power of their own quirk, leaving the protector incapacitated as Iida continued to make his way towards the door.
Before the villain could make another warp gate to get rid of the armored teen, a set of six arms wrapped around the neck brace he wore. With a short, ugly gasp, he was hoisted up into the air by none other than Shoji.
"Run, Iida! You can do it!" Uraraka cheered him on, and he crashed his way through the doors, escaping into bright sunlight.
The villain, still struggling, finally succeeded to make a portal under the student holding him, freeing himself in the process. He gave them what was likely his version of a dirty look before sinking into a portal in the ground.
Eraserhead was getting fatigued.
He was almost done dealing with the villains in the courtyard, but he knew that even if he could handle the rest he would be basically useless against the leaders.
He took a moment to blink, cursing his dry eye, when he felt something grab his elbow and an odd burning sensation. It quickly intensified, until it felt like molten iron was running through his veins and burning him from the inside out. He managed to stifle a scream, almost collapsing in the process.
He looked up to see the hand-wearing villain staring down at him, his face mostly obscured except for one of his maliciously red eyes. His hand was holding his elbow, and he could see that it was disintegrating from the point of contact. He activated his quirk on the man, stopping the pain from getting any worse.
A malicious grin was visible just underneath his face covering. "Really, Eraserhead, it's like you thought I was a fool. You have the same patterns and tells as the easiest mini-bosses. I thought you were better than that, but it seems I was wrong."
Eraserhead couldn't even muster the strength to form a reply, and he collapsed onto the ground.
Before anything else could be said, the portal villain from before rose out of the ground behind him. "Shigaraki Tomura. I'm afraid one of the students was able to get past me and leave."
"Why you…" The newly named Shigaraki started to fiddle with a silver ring, twisting it back and forth roughly. "If you weren't our way out, Kurogiri, I'd end you right here. What about the rest of the students?"
"Most of them have been scattered. The rest are attending to Thirteen, who has been grievously injured." Kurogiri responded, no change in his tone.
"Good. At least you can get one thing right. Stay back, and don't mess this up." He shook his head in frustration, and looked back at Eraserhead, considering him for a moment.
A raspy laugh echoed throughout the plaza. "Pathetic. I'd end you myself, but I think it would be much more fun to introduce you to Nomu."
The giant creature behind him stepped forward. "Eraserhead? Meet Nomu. This is the weapon that will be used to kill All Might. But for now? It's the weapon that will be used to kill you. Nomu? Kill Eraserhead."
It stepped forward and drew back its fist. The hero used his quirk on it, but even then he had a feeling that a punch from that thing would pulverize him.
Right before the blow could be dealt, Eraserhead felt a touch on his arm and the world became a shimmering green. He realized what had actually happened was that Lahiffe had somehow jumped in and used his quirk on the two of them. For a second, he thought that the monster would break it, but miraculously it still held.
"What? Who— how did you shield Nomu? Are you kidding me?" Shigaraki was getting so aggravated that he could barely form full sentences. "I came here to kill All Might and a few students. I did not come here to get cheesed by someone with min-maxed defense!"
"I'm sorry, what?" Eraserhead could hear Lahiffe mutter to himself.
"Lahiffe, what are you doing here?" He asked his student.
"Oh, right! Well…" he looked sheepish. "I had escaped the Flood Zone with Mineta-kun and Asui-chan, and we were on our way to the stairs—"
"Which is where you clearly aren't." The man pointed out.
Lahiffe shrinked away. "Yeah, I was g-getting there. I saw you on the ground with the creepy villain standing over you, and I started running at you when I saw the massive dude come at you."
Eraserhead rubbed his forehead, muttering to himself about his stupid and reckless students. "Fine. We'll talk about this later, after everyone is safe." He glanced at Shigaraki. "What is the shield made of?"
"I'm… not really sure," the teen responded.
"Then get ready to run, because Shigaraki might be able to disintegrate it," he said, watching the villain stomp towards them in anger.
The hero-in-training's eyes widened in shock, and he braced for the worst as Shigaraki raised his hand. However, before he could do anything, a booming noise echoed throughout the USJ, followed by the words every student had been waiting to hear.
"I am here."
All Might himself ran through the USJ at light speed, collecting as many students as he could see and dropping them off near Thirteen at the front doors. The ones already waiting cheered in relief at being saved.
Tomura twitched. None of this had gone the way he had planned, and he was absolutely pissed. He still had a trump card, but he wasn't about to use it this early into the boss fight. He had to wait until the right moment.
All Might skidded to a halt in between Eraserhead and the Nomu, sending a look of pure wrath at Tomura.
"Shigaraki Tomura, perhaps we should go. All Might is here, and our troops have been rendered useless," Kurogiri tried to convince the younger villain.
"No. Not yet. We can still salvage this mission."
All Might stared him straight in the face. "You dare to invade this facility? You dare to trespass onto U.A. property, a bastion of strength and hope, in an attempt to spit on all that it stands for? And worse, you have the audacity to try and harm my students?" He took a step forward. "You will have much to pay for in prison."
"You're forgetting one thing, All Might." Tomura gave a predatory grin. "I'm not the final boss."
With a colossal wave of force, All Might was flung sideways into the Mountain Zone by Nomu's punch. He could hear the student in the bubble whisper "Holy shit," which sounded about right.
As All Might tried to recover from that hit, a crackling sound was heard behind him, and Tomura turned around to see Kurogiri frozen in place, encased in a glistening mass of ice— likely a product of the student who had just wandered into the plaza.
"How dare you attack my getaway?" He stalked towards the ice, intending to free Kurogiri, when Nomu suddenly got in his way and protected him from a punch courtesy of All Might.
Tomura was seething. All Might was still trying to get through Nomu, which was a fruitless cause, but everything was going to hell. At this rate, the rest of U.A.'s staff would make it back, and nothing would get accomplished. He might as well do what Sensei told him to do and call off the rest of the mission.
He rubbed the ring he was wearing on his left hand. He only had one chance to make this right.
All Might was sweating, not having worked this hard against a villain in years. His punches were having no effect, though he had no choice other than to keep going. Aizawa and another student were in a bubble and— was that Todoroki? How did he even get here?
He grimaced. His power was waning dangerously, and there was little progress to be had with this thing. It was matching him punch-for-punch, and after its initial hit All Might didn't think he had the strength to deal with both this monster and the other villain.
After hundreds of hits, he wound up one final punch, launching the— did he call it Nomu?— through the top of the dome, and wiped his brow before refocusing on the other villain.
Only to find himself being faced with a leather glove glowing with dark power.
"Cataclysm!"
End Notes:
:)