Monday morning found Izuku sitting in his classroom, phone in hand as he played his favorite mobile game while he waited for class to start.
"Oh, dude, you play Hero/Great Mission too?" Kaminari's voice said from behind him, where he had been talking to Mineta about something Izuku wasn't paying much attention to except for the fact that it involved girls.
Izuku turned to look at the sparkplug with a smile on his face. "Yeah. Then again, there aren't that many teens that don't, as far as I'm aware."
"Even I do, though I'm strictly free to play." Uraraka said with a giggle from the seat next to Yaoyorozu's, who she'd been asking for some advice with something in one of their textbooks. Said heiress was looking somewhat bemused by the conversation, apparently one of those said few that didn't play the game they were talking about. "What's your favorite hero you've managed to pull? I have a Four-Star Thirteen I've taken very good care of. I'm so glad she got a strengthening recently."
"I know he's not rare, but I love my Three-Star Crimson Riot!" Kirishima exclaimed with a big grin. "He's an amazing tank, especially for his rarity."
"Summer Event Swimsuit Mirko." Mineta said, looking extremely proud of himself, prompting a 'Nice!' and high five from Kaminari.
"Five-Star Gang Orca." Asui chimed in, a small smile curling her lips.
Iida blushed even as he sat as stiff as a board. "...Three-Star Ingenium…" He muttered, seeming embarrassed.
"My pride and joy is my Five Star Limited All Might from the Den of Devils chapter's release draw event." Izuku said with a smile, turning his screen to show said unit off. "I spent so much money to get him, my mom grounded me for a week." He said ruefully as he studiously ignored Bakugo's jealous glare. He remembered hearing the blonde shout about not getting All Might no matter how many times he pulled back when the event happened.
"That's awesome, man! That's the best unit in the game. Bosses are probably a cakewalk to you." Kirishima said with a grin.
"Something like that." Izuku said with a nod of agreement before glancing at the time on his phone and raising his voice to be heard by his classmates. "Alright everyone, get to your seats. Aizawa-sensei should be here any moment now."
Everybody quickly raced towards their seats, none of them wanting to possibly incur Aizawa's wrath by not being ready for even an instant.
Almost as though summoned, the door opened just as the last person, Sato, took their seat, letting the perpetually lethargic Aizawa into the room. He glanced around the classroom, seeing all the students seated silently and staring forward attentively, before grunting in approval and making his way to the front of the class. "Today's Heroics class will be a bit different." He said without fanfare. "Fighting villains is all well and good, but there's another, likely more important aspect of being a hero that you all need to be prepared for." He said before picking up a card sitting on his podium, turning it to show the class that it had 'RESCUE' printed on it. "Today we'll be doing rescue training, with All Might, myself, and two others supervising." When his class started murmuring to each other excitedly he flared his quirk, prompting them all to shut up very quickly. "The facility we'll be using is some distance away, so we'll be taking a drive." He hit the button that prompted their costumes to slide out of their spaces along the wall. "It's up to you if you want to wear your costumes for this. Some might not be suitable for the job." With that he turned and proceeded to walk out of the room. "Be out front in fifteen minutes."
Once he was gone Izuku got up and made his way over to the case holding his costume. "Alright everyone, you heard the man. Let's get going. I, for one, don't want to find out what he'll do to anybody that's late."
Nobody needed any further urging, and they were all soon rushing for the cases.
Fiddling with his web shooters while leading his classmates out of the main building, Izuku looked around to find two long busses waiting to take them to the place they'd be doing their rescue training at. Making his way toward the one Aizawa was standing next to, he glanced behind him to make sure everyone was accounted for before addressing his teacher. "Class 1-A, reporting for duty, sir."
Aizawa simply nodded once he looked over the group to confirm the class rep's words. "Alright. We'll be leaving once the rest of today's class shows up."
"Excuse me, sensei, but what do you mean by 'the rest of class'?" Iida asked from where he stood near Izuku, his helmet under his arm.
"I think he means them." Asui said, pointing back toward the school building, the rest of 1-A following her finger to find their sister class approaching, all of them dressed in their costumes as well.
Aizawa grunted as the 1-B homeroom teacher, Vlad King, approached him. "You're late."
Vlad King rolled his eyes at his collegue's words. "By half a minute, at most."
"We're sharing rescue training with Class 1-A, sensei?" Tsuburuba Kosei asked his teacher, obviously surprised.
Vlad King nodded in answer. "It was a last minute decision by the Principal. He thought it might be a good idea for you all to bond more than the two Heroics classes usually do. Think of it as an experiment."
"We're wasting time." Aizawa cut in. "We should get moving. 1-A in this bus, 1-B in the second." He said while indicating to the bus he was standing beside, his students promptly doing as told.
Once they were all seated and on their way to wherever it was that they were going, Asui turned around in her seat to look at Izuku, who was seated behind her, next to Uraraka. "Midoriya-kun, I tend to be blunt and to the point, so I'm just going to come out and say it. Your Quirk doesn't make sense."
Izuku couldn't help but sweatdrop at the frank appraisal, especially when he noticed all other conversation on the bus had stopped as everyone, Bakugo included, turned their attention to him, inquisitive. Even Aizawa cracked open an eyelid out of apparent interest. "Oh? How so, Asui-chan?"
The frog girl let out one of her adorable croaks before continuing. "First off, call me Tsu. And you have too many different, unrelated abilities. There's your superhuman physical stats, for one, like your strength or flexibility."
"There's also that gun you carry, which you mentioned is part of your Quirk, even if we've never seen you use it." Yaoyorozu, who was seated in the window seat next to Uraraka, added. "Along with the fact that you seem to be able to create items in a similar manner to how I do."
"You've also got telekinesis." Uraraka continued. "Like during the ball toss of Aizawa's assessment, or when you levitated. You can even stick to stuff to climb walls."
"There's also your martial arts abilities, though I'm assuming that's not necessarily related to your Quirk, but it's still amazing just how skilled you are at our age." Ojiro put in.
Izuku wasn't really surprised that his classmates were curious, but apparently he'd underestimated just how much. Looking around and finding everybody laser focused on him, waiting for an explanation, he let out a small sigh as he prepared himself to give them the story he'd been cobbling together ever since he'd woken up after obtaining One for All and everything that came with it.
"Yeah, I'm not surprised it seems weird to all of you. It does appear like I have a bunch of different Quirks instead of just one. But all of my abilities are actually born from a single source." Seeing he had everyone's attention he continued his explanation, hoping it was believable. "I call my Quirk 'Focus', and the first thing you should know is that for almost my entire life, I was thought to be Quirkless. I had no idea I had a Quirk at all till only a few weeks before the entrance exam."
"What, really!?" Kirishima blurted out, shocked. "No way, dude. You've got to be the strongest guy in our class!" He didn't seem to notice Bakugo's growl at that statement, though Izuku was surprised that the blonde kept it at that. He must have been very interested in Izuku's explanation.
Izuku shrugged. "It's true. I had no idea I had a Quirk. My doctors, my mom, they all thought I was Quirkless too." A somewhat bitter smile appeared on his lips. "It made for a… difficult… childhood." His classmates all looked sympathetic, which he appreciated. "Anyway, the reason for that is because my Quirk actually needed to build up enough power over time to activate, but because I had no clue that was the case, I didn't do anything that could hurry it along, which is why it took so much time. On the other hand, that was a blessing in disguise, since once it did activate it was a lot more versatile than it otherwise would have been had I been younger."
Hagakure, who was leaning on the back of Izuku's seat, shifted in a way he thought meant she was tilting her head. "What do you mean?"
Izuku took a breath. "I call my Quirk 'Focus' because it's essentially energy that I can use in various ways by focusing on what I want to do. And since I didn't have any idea I had it, my 'focus' was scattered throughout my entire life, which left me with all my passive abilities." Seeing that none of them was getting it, not that he was surprised, he explained. "Even before I was diagnosed as Quirkless, I fantasized about what my Quirk would be, and how I'd use it. I imagined it could be super strength, like All-Might, or something that would let me access places others couldn't, or an emitter ability, or something like Yaoyorozu's Quirk, and so on. So, since those had all been things I 'focused' on, when my Quirk activated it modified me, giving me versions of all those abilities, if not at as strong a level as it would have any single one."
"It just… changed you?" Sero asked, confused.
Izuku smiled sardonically. "I was actually training myself by cleaning Dagobah Beach when it activated, since even without a Quirk I wanted to try the entrance exams." He smiled when he saw his classmates were impressed by his guts. "It hurt, a lot, and the next thing I knew I woke up in a hospital room, being told I'd been in a coma for a week."
"A week!?" Mineta asked, gawking.
Izuku nodded. "That's how long it took my Quirk to modify my body to fit the many abilities it was giving me based on what I'd 'focused' on. I'm told All Might just happened to be passing by and noticed me passed out on the beach, so he brought me in.." He smiled before continuing. "Anyway, while I was out, my Quirk changed my body to be stronger, more durable and more flexible, along with my ability to stick to surfaces, as you all noticed. It also created my gun, since having a ranged combat option would be a good addition to my close combat skills. It also increased my intelligence a bit too, though I'm not sure by how much, along with having had the effect of giving me my telekinetic abilities, though those took a bit of experimenting with, and I'm still learning how to wield them." As he explained he made sure to leave out any mention of his Spider-Sense. It was too big a trump card for him to let out, even among those he thought he could trust.
"What about your ability to create items like you did during the lesson you gave us?" Yaoyorozu pressed, obviously very interested in the answer to that particular question.
"That's an extension of why I call my Quirk 'Focus', because I can temporarily increase my abilities using the leftover energy that my Quirk didn't use to modify me." He explained even as he hoped they would buy what he was selling. Of all his lives, the only ones that had any particular acting ability were Jesse and Peter, and even then they hadn't been great at it. He only hoped he would pass the skill check for this little performance. "If I focus on it I can increase my physical abilities several times over for a short time, or I can create temporary weapons with various effects that will fade after a certain amount of time. I can also increase my telekinetic abilities to lift heavier things or launch them with more force." Seeing that his classmates were looking at him with a bit of awe he tried to bring them back to earth. "Doing that is dangerous, though. If I push my abilities too far I can damage myself. Like forcing too much air into a balloon. Eventually it can't take any more."
Several people winced at the comparison. "Still, that's an amazing Quirk, Midoriya-kun!" Iida exclaimed, chopping his hand. "You must have worked extremely hard to get enough of a handle on it to do what you did during the entrance exam!"
Uraraka nodded vigorously at that, though she was blushing at the memory. "Yes! You were so amazing then. I can only imagine how much better you'll be by the time we graduate!"
"I'm sorry you had to think you were Quirkless for so long though, Midoriya-kun." Ashido said with a small, sad smile. "I'm guessing you must have been bullied a lot."
Izuku let out a sigh at the memories. He glanced over at Bakugo, who was resolutely staring out the window, a scowl firmly on his face. "Some days were harder than others." He admitted. "But I got through it. I imagine others in my position weren't so lucky…" He said softly.
There was a moment of silence in the bus for a moment before the vehicle came to a stop and Aizawa got up. "As interesting as this conversation has been, we've arrived."
The students filed out of the bus, finding their sister class doing the same, and once both classes were gathered they were led towards the large dome shaped building that sat in front of them, the letters 'USJ' stamped above the entrance.
As they walked in they found an expansive space apparently divided into sections that Izuku assumed were meant to simulate the various environments rescues would need to be performed in. Off to one side he could see an area that looked like a cityscape in the aftermath of a severe earthquake, or other such catastrophe. At the opposite end was a lake which had a decently sized ship on it, likely for aquatic rescues. Asui should be right at home there.
"Whoooa! What is this? Universal Studios Japan?" More than one student asked in awe as they looked around the space they'd been led to.
"Not quite!" Said a somewhat muffled voice as a hero in a costume that seemed to be reminiscent of a space suit approached the group. "This is the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, or USJ, a facility of my own creation meant to train aspiring heroes in how to best perform rescues."
"So it is Universal Studios Japan…" Someone muttered, making Izuku smile in amusement, though his attention was taken by Uraraka when she started bouncing in place next to him, which did some rather interesting things to her upper body.
"Ohmygosh it's the Space Hero, Thirteen! She's my absolute favorite hero! I wanna be just like her!" The brunette practically squealed with joy at meeting her idol.
The heroine chuckled lightly at seeing Uraraka's excitement, feeling flattered.
"Thirteen." Aizawa said softly once he was near her, making sure that the students wouldn't be able to hear him. "Where's All Might?"
The woman sighed as she held three fingers up to illustrate what she was about to say, something which Izuku easily caught on to. "He went over his time limit this morning and is resting in the teacher's lounge right now."
Aizawa immediately began to grumble irritably about 'foolish, irrational showoffs' as Vlad King just sighed in irritation. "Fine, let's get on with it then." The Blood Hero said.
"Before we begin, I have a couple of points to go over." Thirteen said, addressing the students. Then she paused. "Or three… Maybe four…" There was more than one sweatdrop amongst the gathered teens as Thirteen cleared her throat. "As I'm sure many of you are aware, my Quirk is called Black Hole. With it I can suck in and tear apart anything I encounter."
Izuku smiled fondly as Uraraka nodded excitedly. "Mhmm! And you've used it to save hundreds of people from all sorts of disasters!" She practically squealed.
"Indeed." The heroine said, a smile audible in her voice. "However, something that many people seem to forget is that my powers could be used to kill instead of save with horrifying ease." That seemed to take the wind out of Uraraka's sails, along with many other students who had been looking at the pro with excitement.
Izuku nodded in understanding, well acquainted with the point Thirteen was trying to get across. It was something that he was sure some of his schoolmates hadn't considered. Even some of the most gentle members of the first year classes could do some horrifying things if they put their minds to it.
"It is easier to destroy than it is to create or preserve." Tokoyami said, his voice thoughtful.
Thirteen pointed to the bird headed boy, nodding. "Precisely. In a society like ours, where the usage of Quirks is restricted and monitored heavily, some people even say excessively, it may seem like things are stable. But never forget that all it takes is one wrong move with an out of control Quirk for people to die."
The forty students were silent as they let the impact of Thirteen's words sink in, several looking introspective, or even worried.
Once she was certain that her words'd had the appropriate effect, Thirteen continued her speech. "During your teachers' physical tests you learned what you're currently capable of, and what your potential could be. In All Might's Battle Training you saw what your Quirks can do when used against other people." She panned her gaze along the students gathered in front of her. "Just like then, this class is meant to give you a new perspective. In this case, how to use your Quirks to save lives."
Izuku smiled in approval at the last words of her little speech. "Your powers are not meant to inflict harm. I hope that you will leave here understanding that you're meant to help people."
As the Space Hero bowed, indicating the end of her lecture, the class clapped, many of them seeming to have a new appreciation of their newest teacher, especially the exuberant Uruaraka.
Aizawa was standing off to the side with Vlad as Thirteen spoke, looking at his watch, counting down the seconds with a bit of irritation, much to his coworker's amusement. "You know this is an important point that she's making." Vlad said idly.
Aizawa grunted. "Doesn't change the fact that it's eating up precious time, especially since we have two classes here instead of just one, with one less teacher than expected." He shook his head irritably. "I wonder what possessed Nezu to make such a last minute change…" Once the students finished clapping he looked up at them. "Alright then, first off-" He paused as heard something off come from the central plaza behind him. Turning around, Vlad doing the same, they saw a swirling spot of darkness begin to grow in front of the fountain. When a grey haired young man with severed hands attached to his body, including one on his face that acted as a pseudo-mask, stepped out of the spatial distortion, the eternally tired teacher's eyes sharpened as he turned, shouting an order. "Huddle up and don't move!"
As the students caught sight of what was happening the hand covered man was joined by several other individuals, with more coming out of the now much larger portal every moment.
"The hell's that? Are those more battle robots for us to deal with, sensei?" Tetsutetsu asked his homeroom teacher, confused, even though he and all the rest of the students could already tell that this wasn't anything so simple.
Vlad, glaring down at the ever growing gathering by the fountain, answered his student. "Not even close."
"Those are villains." Aizawa finished grimly as he put his goggles on.
The villain that appeared to be made of the same smoke as the portals narrowed the twin slits of yellow light that made up his eyes when he saw the teachers and students. "What's this? There are more students here than there should be, according to the schedule I obtained. And-"
"Why is Vlad King here instead of All Might?" The grey haired, hand covered villain said in a voice that was both lethargic and most definitely unhinged, beginning to scratch his neck in a compulsive manner. "You can't add a miniboss and more mobs and then just not have the final boss here."
"I guess now we know who's responsible for the security breach." Vlad said seriously as he cracked his neck, preparing himself for a fight.
"This isn't fair." The villain continued, still scratching his neck as an enormous villain with a bird-like head with an exposed brain took its place next to him, staring blankly. "Our purpose is to kill the Symbol of Peace. He can't just not be here after we've come all this way and gathered all these playmates." He said as the large gathering of villains glared up at the heroes and heroes to be. Izuku tensed when the villain stopped scratching, becoming unnaturally still. "Perhaps a few dead kids will make him appear…"
Izuku only vaguely listened as his classmates discussed the fact that the intruder sensors weren't going off, along with the fact that it would be difficult for help to get to them considering how far from campus they were as his eyes darted along the mass of enemies, analyzing, considering. He reached into his coat, drawing the Service Weapon and holding it in a half ready position as Aizawa and Vlad King prepared to take the fight to the villains. He could already tell that, despite the apparent ringleader's seeming immaturity, this was a very well thought out attack. Now the only question was who was actually behind it, and if they had any aces up their sleeves. They had to, if they planned to kill All Might in a straight up fight.
With a call to Thirteen to watch over the students, Aizawa leapt into the fray, Vlad King right behind him. Izuku nodded with satisfaction as he watched the ranged combat villains become completely ineffective under Aizawa's gaze, allowing the homeroom teachers to get an early advantage in the battle.
Izuku turned from the fight and focused on his classmates. As much as he wanted to dive in and deal with the invading villains as well, he needed to focus on keeping the other teens safe. "Time to go."
"Indeed." Thirteen said with a nod, beginning to make her way to the doors. "We need to evacuate you all and contact the rest of the teachers."
"I'm afraid I can't allow that." The warping villain said as he appeared in their way in a swirl of darkness. As the gathered students all stopped in front of him, several taking battle stances, he continued to speak. "Greetings. We are the League of Villains. We have come to one of Japan's bastions of heroism for one purpose: to end the life of All Might, the Symbol of Peace."
Izuku didn't wait any longer, lifting his gun and firing, barely taking long enough to aim. The shot impacted against the villain's gaseous body, producing a clanging sound from somewhere within, which made the villain grunt with pain, flinching slightly. Before he'd even finished the movement Bakugo was there, taking advantage of the situation, Kirishima and Tetsutetsu launching themselves forward on either side of him to keep their opponent pinned. The two hardening fighters slammed a kick and punch, respectively, into the villains body, showing a bit of what Izuku had taught them, though it was unpolished, with Bakugo following up with a blast that seemed to obscure the villain from view briefly.
"Not if we take you down first!" Bakugo said with a smirk, his palms crackling slightly with small explosions.
"You…" The villain growled, pained and angry. "Students you may be, but you're definitely skilled." His eyes locked on Izuku, who was still aiming at him. "And more than a bit ruthless, it seems."
"Get away from him!" Thirteen yelled out to the students a moment too late as a wave of darkness swept out to envelop the teens.
"BEGONE!" The villain shouted.
Even before the wave had begun to move past a surprised Bakugo Izuku was moving, launching webs at students and pulling them away from the wave. He had managed to get seven of them away, though he wasn't focusing on who, before he was enveloped by the dark fog as well and felt himself be transported somewhere else.
"Dammit." Thirteen growled as she looked around to see the amount of students that remained was small, yet more than expected. She saw Yaoyorozu, Koda, Uraraka, Shoji, Sero, Tsunotori and Iida were all getting up from where they'd landed after being pulled away.
"Where is everyone!?" Tsunotori cried once she got a good look around. "Itsuka! Setsuna!"
Shoji extended his multiple limbs once he was on his feet, forming ears on most of them. "I can hear fighting going on throughout the facility, not just in the plaza, so they're still in the building."
"What do we do now, sensei?" Komori asked Thirteen, staring nervously at the warping villain, who was gazing at them calmly, waiting to see what they did, apparently recovered from the initial attack.
"Iida, you need to run back to the main school building and alert the teachers as to what's going on here." Thirteen told the speedster.
"I can't just leave you all behind!" Iida exclaimed as he glared at the warping villain, who was apparently waiting to see what they'd do.
"Iida-kun, I understand how you feel." Yaoyorozu said as she approached, a bo staff in hand and held at the ready. "But you can do more for us by leaving and getting help from the pros than by staying here and adding another combatant."
Iida grit his teeth but eventually nodded as he got ready to run. "I understand."
"It is foolish of you to speak of your plans so openly in front of me." The villain said condescendingly. "Now you have even less of a chance to succeed than you already did."
"It doesn't matter if you could hear our plans. It's not as if you'll be in any position to stop us." Thirteen declared as she pointed at him, the cap of one of her costume's fingertips popping open as an intensely strong force began to drag the warping villain toward the pro hero. "Go, Iida!"
Even as Iida began to move the villain reacted. "Useless!" He declared as a portal appeared in front of him, shielding him from Black Hole's effects. "It seems a rescue hero can't measure up when it comes to a fight." He declared as the exit point of the portal appeared right behind the Space Hero, prompting her own Quirk to rip her costume and body apart.
"Thirteen!" Uraraka screamed as the hero fell to the ground in critical condition, having managed to shut Black Hole off in time to keep the damage from being immediately fatal, but still out of the fight.
Iida hesitated when he saw what happened to the teacher, but immediately began to run at Yaoyorozu's commanding shout for him to go even as she fell to her knees beside the hero, beginning to produce bandages as Kinoko moved to help.
"I don't think so." The villain said. "We only need to wait for All Might to appear." He said as he appeared in Iida's way. "The rest of the teachers aren't part of the equation." He was distracted, however, when two horns flew at him, barely missing but drawing his attention long enough for Shoji to leap forward and envelop him in his appendages.
Iida kept running frantically, as fast as he could, gaze locked on the doors leading out of the facility. The villain wasn't going to give up, however, warping out of Shoji's grasp before beginning to open a portal in front of Iida. Before it had fully formed, however, Uraraka was there, eyes narrowed in determination. "I don't know what this metal thing is…" She said as she reached into the dark cloud that made up the villain's body to grab and cancelled the gravity of a metal cylinder which was slightly dented. "But I imagine if you're protecting it, it's important!" She tossed the cylinder away, the villain's gaseous body following. "Sero!" She called.
"On it!" The boy exclaimed, launching his tape at the cylinder, taking hold of it before heaving it around and launching it as far away from their position with a yell of exertion.
Kurogiri watched as the speedster opened the doors and escaped. "It's a race now." He said as he began warping back to the main plaza. "Who will succeed first? The villains, or the heroes?"
"Hey, watch it!" Ashido cried as she dodged a large rock thrown at her by an even larger villain with a move that showcased her flexibility, skating away on a trail of acid through the Landslide Zone. As she drew the villain's attention, Shoda Nirengeki approached him from behind before leaping up as high as he could, launching a punch at his enemy. Two resounding smacks rang out upon impact, the villain dropping to the ground, knocked out.
Not too far away from that little encounter Rin Hiryu was firing the scales on his arms at a small group of long ranged attackers, keeping them pinned down and occasionally dodging counterattacks.
While Rin kept them in place, none of the villains noticed the ground underneath them beginning to soften at first. It was only when they began to sink in that they noticed, and by then it was too late, as hands sprouted out from under their legs and dragged them down up to their waists in the now quicksand-like substance. Once they were helpless and panicking, Ojiro dropped from above, giving them each a smack with his tail and sending them to unconsciousness.
Of course, the main reason that they'd all been able to have such a relatively easy time of it was that most of the villains had been engaged and defeated by 1-A's class rep. Izuku stood not far from the group, surrounded by unconscious villains and fighting one that appeared to be made of blocks, his angular body hard and moving oddly.
"Come on!" The villain said, roaring with laughter. "Is that all you can do? You're barely tickling me!"
Izuku huffed, annoyed. The other villains had been easy to deal with, generally small fry that showed how much the leaders of this operation underestimated the students. That or they just recruited whatever two bit thug they came across. This guy was tougher, but only in that he was more durable.
He didn't have time to deal with this. While he was confident that his classmates could deal with anything that came their way if this was the caliber of opponent they'd be encountering, something told him that the villains had something up their sleeves for All Might himself. Which meant it was a danger to everyone in the facility, if not the school. So it would be best if he dealt with it ASAP.
He'd been holding back in order to not use excessive force, but it looked like this guy merited a bit more effort. As the block villain opened his mouth to taunt him again Izuku appeared in front of him, fist against his stomach. "Kachū Tenshin Amaguriken." He murmured, inaudible over a loud sound similar to tearing paper which rang out over the area. The block villain immediately went from laughing at Izuku to hunched over, vomiting up the contents of his stomach before falling over, unconscious.
Izuku turned towards the other students, who were finishing up their own fights. "I'm going to run for the plaza." He told them. "Catch your breaths and head for the entrance to regroup with the others. And stay together." Without waiting for a response he began to run, something telling him time was of the essence.
Ashido bit her lip, a bit worried. "I hope he doesn't have any trouble."
Ojiro patted the pink girl's back reassuringly. "He could probably beat everyone in both our classes on his own with his hands tied behind his back. He'll be fine." He said as Honenuki finished climbing out of the ground.
Shoda nodded in agreement. "Probably. Still, we should do what he said and get moving."
The others nodded and began to leave the area, wary of any further attacks even as they each hoped the rest of their classmates were doing alright.
"Get back here, punk!" A lizard-like villain yelled as he chased Awase through the Ruins Zone, his large mouth open and ready to bite down on the teen's head.
The hero-to-be ducked into a shadowed area as he ran, the villain following with some difficulty. Awase abruptly paused as he reached for the steel logs he was carrying. The villain almost overshot him in his surprise, allowing Awase to weld the logs to the villain's leather clothing before moving away, out of striking range.
His work wouldn't hold the villain for long, but it gave Kuroiro enough time to emerge from the shadows above the enemy feet first and at great speed, striking his hard head with a crack and making him drop as much as Awase's welding job allowed, unconscious.
Elsewhere in the same area, Kodai and Sato were watching a group of villains approach them, the villains laughing and jeering as they prepared to butcher the teens. As the villains charged at them, Kodai picked a long pipe up off the ground and tossed it at Sato as he finished downing some sugar. Before the burly teen caught the pipe Kodai pressed her hands together, making the pipe grow in size till it was closer to the size of a telephone pole, which Sato held with ease thanks to his boosted strength. The villains paused in their charge, surprised by the sudden change, which was all the opportunity Sato needed to swing his new weapon horizontally, catching all of their opponents and launching them into the wall, where they slumped down, out of the fight.
While that was happening, Yanagi was holding another group of enemies off using a variety of rubble that surrounded her, unable to hit them due to most of the remaining group being speedy and/or agile, but making sure they couldn't get close to her. What the villains didn't notice was that she was keeping them distracted as Tokage approached from behind them, split into a multitude of body parts that were approaching separately in order to avoid attracting attention. Once they got close enough the greenette immediately launched parts of her arms and legs at the villains, the ones not taken out by her initial assault becoming distracted enough for Yanagi to finish them off. Tokage's disembodied head gave Yanagi a grin, the white haired girl nodding in satisfaction even though her expression didn't change.
"What the hell is with these brats!?" A mouse-like villain cried out in terror as he ran through the Downpour Zone, wiping the rainwater from his eyes to keep his vision clear.
Unfortunately for him, he wasn't fast enough, as the screeching of a demonic bird coming from behind him was the only warning he got before something grabbed his leg, making him fall to the ground. He desperately clawed at the muddy ground, screaming in fear as he was pulled backwards into an area shadowed by an overhang where an entity seemingly made of writhing darkness was waiting. Then there was a thud, and the screams stopped.
Aoyama watched his classmate's back while he made sure the bird headed boy didn't lose control of himself, ready to use the brightness of his quirk to weaken him if needed. The chuunibyou was keeping control of himself with difficulty, the gloom of their current area increasing Dark Shadow's power while reducing Tokoyami's control. When the half-French blonde spotted a villain trying to sneak away from the conflict, apparently deciding these teens were too scary, Aoyama helped reinforce the impression by nailing the unfortunate man with a pinpoint shot of his Navel Laser, his eternal smile taking on a distinctly satisfied edge when the villain let out a particularly girlish scream before falling silent.
Elsewhere in the zone, a particularly intimidating looking villain was stalking through the dark, soaked streets. He was wearing some light samurai armor which was filthy with dried blood and other stains, his dark beard tangled and knotted, and his smile revealing crooked, filthy teeth. All in all, he looked like a deranged bootleg of the hero Yoroi Musha. Around him hovered half a dozen bloodstained blades, ready to defend or, preferably, attack at the first opportunity. "Come out, come out, little heroes…" He called with a dark glee.
He caught sight of something approaching him just in time to move one of his blades in place to block the attack, which turned out to be Kamakiri's bladed fist. "What's wrong, gramps? Forget the rest of your toys at home?" The mantis-like boy taunted.
The villain smirked as all of his weapons aimed at the teen. "I single blade against all of mine? I think you overestimate yourself, brat."
Kamakiri swung a roundhouse kick at the villain, who moved another weapon to block and hopefully take off the student's foot, only to be surprised when the sword was cut in half by the blade that suddenly appeared out of the sole of the boy's foot, which disappeared an instant later as the mantis-like teen planted his feet on the ground, a smirk on his face. "Try to be more than a warmup, gramps." He taunted before launching himself at the villain.
A street or so away Kendo was holding off five villains on her own. The villains were obviously family, as they looked alike and had similar Quirks, which were essentially clawed hands and/or feet. They were fighting as a unit, which made them troublesome, but were obviously relatively unskilled, little more than barroom brawlers, which let her hold her own.
She was actually rather amazed. Not at the fact that she was holding them off, she expected that considering their skill levels in hand to hand compared to her own. No, it was the fact that she was finding that the pointers Midoriya gave her were very effective. He hadn't had much time to dedicate to working with her, which was understandable, but he'd given her feedback on what he'd seen during their spar. It was mostly relatively small things, but they were surprisingly numerous, which told her even more about his skill than the actual fight, because some of the things he was pointing out were small enough she doubted most masters would notice or care. But she found, as she put his advice to use, that those myriad little corrections and insights added up. It wasn't like she was suddenly leagues better than before, but the difference was noticeable, and it made her very eager to see what else he could teach her once he had more of an opportunity to focus on her.
Still, that could come later. First she needed to get through today and make sure her classmates did the same. The problem was that her assailants were just good enough to keep her from taking any one of them out, prolonging the fight as they remained at a stalemate.
Thankfully that all changed when a mass of thorny vines suddenly erupted out of the ground underneath three of her opponents, wrapping around them and binding them more effectively than most chains. Kendo didn't hesitate despite her own surprise at the occurrence, striking as though she had expected it, taking out the unbound villains with precise strikes to their heads before turning at a bit more sedate pace to do the same to the ones Shiozaki was keeping prisoner.
"Thanks, Shio-chan." Kendo said with a smile once the job was done.
The vine haired girl nodded back to her class rep, hands clasped in front of her. "Of course, Kendo-chan. I could hardly let such sinners continue as they had."
Kendo turned and began to walk, Shiozaki following her, both of them seeing Kamakiri giving a downed old man in armor a kick in the head before turning to them with a grin as the two members of 1-A approached. "Let's hope everyone else is having as easy a time of it as us."
Todoroki glared with narrowed eyes at the group of villains trapped in his ice. Letting out a foggy breath he glanced around at the students that had been transported to the Mountain Zone with him. Jirou had just finished making a group of villains pass out after they were trapped against a wall of onomatopoeia created by the 1-B student with a speech bubble for a head, while the big, furry boy with glasses finished knocking out another group that had been trapped by the liquid of the boy with a glue bottle for a head.
Todoroki likely could have handled every villain in the zone on his own without breaking a sweat, they were such small fry, but that didn't mean he didn't find seeing how his classmates leveraged their Quirks to their advantage mildly interesting. Not to mention it would likely be useful information for the Sports Festival that would be starting in a month or so.
He turned his attention back to the nearest villain, who looked like he was made of a bunch of twigs, and approached him slowly and steadily. The shivering villain eyed him fearfully. "There is no way a bunch of weaklings like you could possibly hope to even bleed on All Might." He said coldly, vaguely aware of his schoolmates approaching behind him as he kept his eyes locked on the villain's. "So either you're incredibly overconfident, or your leaders have some sort of trump card up their sleeves, and you're just cannon fodder for the other pros and the students."
The furry boy, Shishida Jurota, chimed in during Todoroki's pause. "I find it highly unlikely that whoever could plan an operation like this, which includes stealing information from an institution such as UA and finding the most opportune time and method to isolate us, would truly expect for such weak fighters to be able to deal with the likes of Aizawa-sensei and Kan-sensei, much less All Might. Which means they most definitely have some sort of plan."
Jirou crossed her arms as she gave the twig villain a glare of her own, her earphone jacks lifted up in a threatening manner. "In that case, we need to find out what it is so we can warn the pros."
Todoroki wasn't sure whether to be irritated by the other teens' interruption of his little interrogation, or approving. He disliked receiving help from others when he didn't need it, but the villain was definitely looking more than a bit regretful of his life choices under the gaze of five teens that had wiped out a much larger force of villains without appearing to even be really trying. Focusing a bit, Todoroki made the ice, which currently reached up to the villain's torso and had his arms trapped, climb further up his body, making the stick man look down with a bit of panic. "So, anything to say?"
The villain couldn't seem to talk quickly enough after that.
"Tch, what a bunch of useless weaklings." Bakugo grumbled while wiping the sweat from his brow as the last villain dropped, though the explosive blonde had made sure that his enemy wouldn't fall into the flames of the Conflagration Zone. "These guys think they can kill All Might? How high on his own shit is their boss? They obviously didn't even know what our fucking Quirks are, or that warping basterd wouldn't have sent me here, of all places."
"At least it makes things easier for us." Tetsutetsu said with a grin as he banged his fists together with a clamoring sound.
"Yeah! Now we can go help the others!" Kirishima said. "If we're here, they must be in USJ too. And not all of them have combat Quirks."
"Like me." Tsuburaba said from near a collapsed wall that wasn't currently on fire, where he'd been using his Solid Air Quirk to cover the three fighters from anybody trying to flank them as they took the mooks out.
"Besides, we gotta take responsibility for rushing in like that and not letting Thirteen-sensei just suck the villain in." Tetsutetsu added as he cracked his neck with an odd, metallic sound.
"If that's what you want, you extras can do it without me." Bakugo said with his eyes narrowed at the general direction of USJ's entrance. "I'm going to kick that warping bastard's ass."
"Are you still pulling that immature crap at a moment like this?" Kirishima asked, surprised. "Our attacks didn't do anything to him before."
"Deku's did." Bakugo grumbled angrily before speaking louder. "Think, Shitty Hair. He's how these guys are getting around. We take him down, they'll be trapped here and unable to run. The pros will mow through em like fucking rice paper, if we dont' get to them first. It's not like these assholes even rate." He said as he began walking.
Kirishima and Tetsutetsu glanced at each other before Kirishima grinned, prompting his chrome clone to do the same. "Sounds like you've actually got a plan and aren't just rushing in for the sake of a fight!" Kirishima said, looking amazed and inspired.
"Of course I've got a plan, dumbass!"
Tetsutetsu slammed a fist into his palm with an enormous grin on his face, not seeming fazed by the blonde boy's yelling.. "We're in."
As the three left Tsuburaba sighed before following along. There was safety in numbers, after all. Besides which, it wasn't a bad plan. He just really doubted it'd go as smoothly as they seemed to think.
Asui, Mineta, Kaibara, Kaminari and Monoma were all frozen on the shore of the central plaza that led to the Flood Zone, staring at their defeated teachers in horror.
They had managed to deal with the villains in the waters of the Flood Zone by working together. Asui had managed to get them all onto the boat after a couple of trips, first bringing Mineta and Kaminari up, then retrieving Kaibara, who had used his limbs as propellers to keep away from the villains, and Monoma, who had copied one of the more aquatic villain's Quirks in order to do the same. After a bit of panicking, mostly on Mineta's part, though the others weren't exactly feeling great either, they managed to come up with a plan to get away.
Asui lowered Kaibara down to the water, where the teen waited as the villains approached before spinning his leg faster than he ever had before, enough that he'd likely need medical attention before he could walk without issues again. His actions created a small whirlpool that drew the surprised villains in. It wasn't large or strong enough to be more than a momentary inconvenience, but that's all they needed.
Once all the villains were in a relatively small area of the lake that made up the Flood Zone, Kaminari and Monoma, who had copied the blonde's quirk, both conducted as much electricity as they could down some metal wires they'd thrown into the water, electrocuting their enemies and incapacitating most of them. The ones that weren't taken out by the electrical attacks were then hindered by Mineta, who threw his Pop Off balls at them with surprising precision, sticking them together as the short boy thanked his lucky stars that he'd been practicing his aim with his Quirk with diligence of late.
Once all of that was done, Asui managed to get her schoolmates to the shore, though it definitely wiped her out. Unfortunately they found a disaster rather than safety when they reached the shore.
Vlad King sat defeated against a wall not too far away, a leg broken and his chest covered in blood. If not for his Quirk, he'd be dead. As it was, he was using his control over his own blood to essentially plug his wounds and keep himself from losing too much more of it for even his Quirk to compensate for. He was conscious, at least, giving a smoldering glare at what was happening in front of him.
The enormous, beaked villain with an exposed brain had Aizawa pinned against the ground, one of the underground hero's limbs broken in his grip, and skin and some muscle missing from around his elbow. As the teens watched the huge villain shifted his grip, snapping sounds ringing out in the plaza, though the teacher did little more than grunt, his teeth gritted as he glared at the villain covered in hands, the apparent leader of the entire operation.
"Cancelling Quirks is a pretty cool ability." The silver haired villain said as he stood over the downed pro, his voice just as deranged as when he first showed up to declare he was going to kill All Might. "But when up against Nomu's crazy strength, it's nothing special."
There was a loud crack as the beaked villain broke Aizawa's remaining intact arm, leaving him completely helpless now, the students all shaking in fear.
"This is bad." Mineta whispered. "We need to run away. If he could do that to two pros, we have no chance."
Monoma was gritting his teeth, sweating in fear. "I hate to admit it, but he's right."
Before they could discuss anything else the warping villain appeared in a whirl of dark mist. "Shigaraki Tomura."
The now named Shigaraki turned his head slightly towards his subordinate. "Kurogiri. Is Thirteen dead?"
"Incapacitated." The humanoid mist said. "Unfortunately I was unable to warp away some of the students, and one of them managed to escape the facility with the others' help."
Shigaraki was silent for a moment, considering that. "Oh…" He said after a moment, once it seemed to dawn on him that his plan had failed. His hand reached up to his neck, and he began scratching incessantly, actually drawing a bit of blood. "Kurogiri… If you weren't our ticket out of here, I'd turn you to dust. We stand no chance against dozens of pros, even if we'd likely take several of them down with us." His scratching suddenly stopped. "This is game over." He glared down at Aizawa. "For now." Then, after giving that ominous promise a moment to settle, he spoke again. "We're leaving."
"We're saved!" Mineta whisper shouted, almost in tears with relief as he hugged Asui, his hand landing on one of her breasts.
The frog girl stared blankly ahead as she registered the grope before dunking the now struggling grapehead under the water. "Something doesn't seem right." She said as though she wasn't trying to drown a classmate.
Monoma nodded, eyes narrowed as he looked at the villain. "Yes… He's giving up way too easily after all of this."
Asui let Mineta up when Shigaraki spoke again, a shiver going down her spine. "Before we leave, though…" The villain said, voice laden with dark anticipation. "Let's wound the pride of the Symbol of Peace..." And suddenly, with astonishing speed, he was rushing at the teens in the water, hand outstretched at Asui's face. "...By killing a few kids!"
Tsu couldn't react in time, only able to feel an immense amount of fear when she realized her death was approaching. Her eyes barely had time to begin to moisten with tears of fear as that hand grew to seemingly encompass her entire vision despite the remaining distance-
-and then Izuku was suddenly in the air between them, leg coming around in a kick, a look of utter fury on his face-
-after which came a resounding smack as the greenette's leg struck the unmoving body of the beaked monster, not managing to make it budge an inch despite putting enough force in that kick that there was a significant displacement of air upon impact.
"That was scary." Shigaraki said from where he'd stepped back in an instinctive attempt to get away from the attack before his subordinate stopped it. "You weren't holding back. I probably would have been crippled for life if that had connected." He tilted his head to look at Izuku, red eyes glinting from between the fingers of the hand on his face. "Nomu…"
Izuku prepared himself, feeling his Spider-Sense give him a completely unnecessary warning. "Get the teachers to safety while I hold them off." He ordered the teens behind him firmly, his tone leaving no room for argument.
"Kill him." Shigaraki said, finishing his command.
Almost before the order had finished being verbalized the beaked villain, which Izuku was now aware was called Nomu, had swung its fist at the greenette at shocking speeds. Izuku blocked the blow with his arms, focusing One For All and Reinforcement to help tank it, unwilling to dodge in case the attack hit his classmates as they scrambled to follow his orders, and even then he felt his arms close to fracturing just from that one strike.
He immediately leapt over Nomu, aiming a kick at its exposed brain as he passed, which was avoided. Immediately upon landing he had to contort his body in ways that would have broken a baseline human to avoid a barrage of strikes from Nomu, dodging, jumping and flipping around in a display of acrobatic skill that would put pretty much any gymnast, even a Quirked one, to shame.
That wasn't to say that he was fighting completely defensively. He launched more than his fair share of attacks, however Nomu didn't seem to register any of them. It went beyond simple toughness, as considering the power of his strikes should be enough to punch through steel plate with ease, his opponent should be at least registering the force of them. But it was like it was… absorbing the shock of the impacts?
Izuku's mind, already prodigious in intellect even before you added Ranma's Combat Genius and Peter Parker's sheer IQ, made the connections immediately. A Shock Absorption Quirk, combined with its enormous base strength and speed, likely would indeed give All Might trouble unless the Number One Hero could overwhelm the Quirk's upper limit of force it could handle at a time. A decent strategy.
Still, all Quirks had a weakness, and this one's was likely the fact that it was focused on blunt damage. And that wasn't the only option Izuku had available to him.
Within a moment and the next Kanshou and Bakuya were in his hands, the married blades he'd relied upon so much as Shirou being called forth for their first battle of his current life. Reinforcing the sword to the limit of what they could take without becoming Broken, Izuku dodged Nomu's latest strike and swung his blades at the extended arm, cutting through it and severing it above the elbow before backing off.
He didn't like being so brutal in his actions, but with the lives of everyone in the facility at risk, not to mention All Might and whatever pro heroes would be coming with him, he couldn't afford to hold back. Any fallout from his actions was future him's problem. Here and now he needed to focus on keeping everyone alive and well.
He was about to attack again, preferably to incapacitate Nomu's other arm, when he was brought up short when the stump of the missing arm began to regenerate at an extreme rate, flesh and bone bubbling out of it in a nauseating display before the exposed muscle was covered once again with blackish skin, leaving Nomu completely fine before it resumed the attack, leaving Izuku to dodge once again even as his mind began rushing at incredible speeds to make sense of what he'd just seen.
Was he wrong about Shock Absorption, and Nomu's actual Quirk was Super Regeneration? That didn't make sense. In this world nobody could have such immense durability naturally without a Quirk, as far as he was aware. Even in all his previous lives, some sort of external or extra factor would be needed to justify it. Even Ryoga, who was Izuku's standard for how ungodly tough a baseline human could get through training and sheer will, would not be able to just tank the kinds of blows Izuku was dishing out without even shifting his stance.
And if he was wrong about Shock Absorption, why didn't that durability translate to protection from cutting damage? Yes, Nomu was tougher to cut than most would be, but not to an extent that matched his protection from blunt damage. It was too lopsided to be natural.
Did that mean he had two Quirks? Maybe more? That should be impossible unless it was an extreme outlier such as One For All, and the likelihood of someone would not only have multiple Quirks, that also just so happen to be a combination that would be an almost hard counter to All Might's abilities, that would then also be found and used by the villains attacking with the intent to kill said Symbol of Peace…
Yeah, no. Someone had found a way to stuff multiple Quirks in a single person and bioengineered a weapon against All Might using those skills. And Nomu was definitely a weapon. The way it didn't seem aware of anything, only acted when following orders or when protecting its handler, and seemed to be unable to think for itself beyond how to carry out said orders, told him that whoever Nomu had been before, that person was either long gone or buried so far down there was little point in trying to reach them. Whether that was a purposeful result of the experimentation or a side effect, Izuku didn't know.
It wasn't his first time seeing humanoid weapons like this, and it never failed to leave a sour taste in his mouth.
All of that went through Izuku's mind in a few instants as he dodged Nomu's attack, landing in front of the surprisingly intact fountain at the center of the plaza. He tensed when Shigaraki spoke, sounding both annoyed and curious. "You're good, for a student. That makes you a threat. Nomu, stop playing around and kill him NOW!"
Izuku's Spider-Sense blared at him as Nomu drew his arm back, and he quickly leapt high into the air to avoid the absolutely absurd punch that hit the fountain and destroyed it in an instant, sending stone shards flying at dangerous speeds from the point of impact.
Izuku tensed even as he fell back towards the ground, ready to continue the fight, but his eyes widened in horror as he heard a sound he was unfortunately familiar with.
A girl screaming in pain.
"Huh?" Shigaraki asked, confused, before a malevolent grin grew on his face as he realized what that sound meant, his glee obvious in his voice when he gave Nomu a new command. "Change of plan, Nomu. Kill her instead."
"What the hell is he doing?" Sero asked from where he was watching the events down in the plaza alongside Yaoyorozu, Monoma and Shoji, the rest of the teens near the entrance tending to the injured teachers.
The reason for his question was the fact that, after spending the entire fight dodging Nomu's attacks with relative ease and managing to gravely wound the villain, Izuku had decided to now plant his feet in one spot and just tank all the strikes, which was not a winning strategy in any sense of the word. He actually seemed to be purposefully moving to take hits that would have missed him if he hadn't done so. Even from the current distance the teens could see that he was becoming battered and bruised, a trickle of blood escaping his mouth even though the green electricity that they thought was evidence of him actively using his Focus Quirk was likely boosting his strength and durability.
"It doesn't make sense." Yaoyorozu agreed.
"He was stalling that villain fine. What could he hope to accomplish by getting himself beat up? I thought he was better than that." Monoma said, his eyes narrowed as he glared down at the sight of Izuku taking a beating, looking disappointed.
"There's something we're not seeing. He has to have a reason." Yaoyorozu said before turning to Shoji, who had been keeping an eye and ear on what was going on below, relaying what was being said to them. "Was anything said before Midoriya shifted tactics?"
"I thought I heard a girl scream when the fountain was broken..." Shoji said slowly. "And then Shigaraki said to kill a 'her'."
"'Her'? 'Her' who? There's nobody down there but Midoriya and those three villains." Sero said, confused.
Yaoyorozu's eyes widened in horror, and with barely a thought she created some binoculars, bringing them up to her eyes and focusing first on Izuku, then on the ground around him. It took her a moment to spot what she'd feared to find. Not even five steps behind Izuku, in the area he wasn't allowing the villain to even begin to approach, were several small puddles of blood. It was when she saw them slowly increase in size without any obvious reason that she confirmed her hypothesis. "He's protecting Hagakure-chan." She gasped, bringing the binoculars from her face and handing them absently to Monoma, who immediately looked through them as she continued to explain. "She must have been hit by the shrapnel from the fountain when it was hit, and now the villains are focusing on killing her in order to force Midoriya-kun to take the blows meant for her."
"Those rocks could have killed her!" Sero exclaimed in shock. "Goddammit, what was she doing there!?"
Monoma turned to Yaoyorozu. "Could you create a distraction?"
"That would draw their attention to us, and we have several wounded pros we wouldn't be able to defend if the villains decided to point that monster at them." Shoji said, sounding pained.
Yaoyorozu grit her teeth, feeling helpless, but before they could get too lost in worry the situation down below changed.
Izuku spat out some blood as he glared at his enemy, who was mindlessly continuing to try to get past him to kill the whimpering invisible girl laying behind him. He berated himself for letting her get hurt, even if there was no way he could have known she was there with as focused as he'd been on the fight.
He needed to stop Nomu permanently, but to do so he'd need to overwhelm the monster's regeneration, and he didn't have any way to do that at hand. He could have potentially removed the thing's head, but Kanshou and Bakuya had both been destroyed during the fight, and he was sure that it would be programmed to protect such a vulnerability at all costs in any case.
So if he couldn't overwhelm the regeneration, how about outlasting it?
An idea began to percolate in the greenette's head, but he couldn't put it into action while his opponent continued to relentlessly harass him. He needed to buy some time to work, even if it was only a few seconds.
Ask and ye shall receive, apparently, as Bakugo appeared out of seemingly nowhere with the sound of a thunderous explosion, aiming his palm at the back of Nomu's head and unleashing an enormous blast that engulfed the beaked abominations head. "How'd you like that, you damn skulless turkey!" The blonde exclaimed with a satisfied grin as the damage to Nomu was revealed.
The monster's head was charred black, obviously having received significant damage. Were it a normal villain it would be in critical condition, though Bakugo obviously took the Nomu's strength and durability in mind when launching his blast, not aiming to actually kill. Izuku had to hand it to the explosive boy, even if he didn't like the asshole, the blonde had excellent combat instincts and observational abilities. His loud and straightforward demeanour made it easy to forget his actual intelligence.
Of course, Bakugo was in for an unpleasant surprise when he saw the damage immediately heal over. Apparently even a vital point like the head, despite its exposed brain, would need a lot more than that to cause permanent damage. "What the fuck!?" The blonde exclaimed angrily before only barely managing to bring his arms up in time to take the backhanded slap the villain almost negligently hit him with, making the pomeranian go flying with a curse, his grenade gauntlets severely dented and likely the main reason his arms weren't broken. He began to curse louder when Tetsutetsu and Kirishima finally caught up and tried to help him out.
Izuku hadn't wasted the opportunity he was given, having uttered his aria the instant Nomu ceased his assault after Bakugo's attack. The weapon he was Tracing was almost done coming into existence, being on the 'Sympathizing with the experience of its growth' stage, but as Nomu refocused on him, or more specifically, Hagakure, he knew he would likely not be able to finish without further help.
Thankfully it seemed like whatever gods might have taken an interest in him decided to give him another helping hand, as a stream of ice streamed across the floor till it reached Nomu's feet, at which moment it spread at astonishing speed to trap the bioengineered villain in a cocoon.
Todoroki let out a misty breath from where he stood nearby, the students that had been in the same zone as him ready to fight. "That should hold him."
"It won't." Izuku said grimly as he hefted his now complete weapon, being proven right when the ice shattered, leaving an unscathed Nomu standing there.
"None of you brats can take out my Nomu." Shigaraki said, sounding amused. "It was specifically created to kill All Might. A bunch of children have no chance of doing more than slowing it down."
"You're wrong, Shigaraki." Izuku said strongly, radiating determination as he took an attacking stance with the weapon he'd Traced. "I'm ending this now, with a single attack."
"Arrogant, aren't you?" Shigaraki said, even more amused. "Nomu, kill him now."
As the various teens scattered around the plaza began to react, trying to do something to help Izuku, the greenette simply narrowed his eyes, focusing on the Noble Phantasm he was about to unleash, the attack that would stop the Nomu for good. As the monster swung its fist at him again, struck. "Gae Bolg!"
The gathered spectators weren't weren't entirely sure what happened. One moment Izuku was holding a barbed, ominous looking red spear pointed at the floor, the next the weapon was buried in the Nomu's chest, piercing its heart, with nothing appearing to have happened between the two events.
There was a moment of stillness, the two combatants locked in that tableau for several seconds, before Izuku pulled his weapon back, leaving a deep, bloody hole in the Nomu's chest.
"That's it?" Shigaraki asked after a moment as everyone watched the hole begin to bubble with nearly formed flesh in the disturbing way its healing worked. "Even if you pierced Nomu's heart, it can regenerate from that with ease. You've done… What the hell?" He finished as he saw something he hadn't expected.
The wound caused by Izuku's spear was continuously trying to heal over thanks to Nomu's regeneration, but the hole wasn't closing. All that was happening was that the flesh continued to bubble incessantly, Nomu unable to do anything as it waited for the grievous injury to heal.
"Why isn't it healing?" Shigaraki asked as he stared at the hole in Nomu's chest. "What did you do!?"
Izuku maintained his ready stance, prepared for any eventuality. "Your Nomu's Shock Absorption Quirk doesn't protect against bladed damage as effectively, so that part was easy." He began explaining, mostly to buy time for his plan to work, than anything else. "Super Regeneration has one primary weakness that I imagine usually isn't a problem, especially if you intend for the Nomu to face All Might, who fights bare handed. It obviously requires Nomu's energy to function, and likely a not insignificant amount. Gae Bolg is a cursed spear. Its wounds will never heal as long as it or its wielder remain alive. So what happens when Super Regeneration tries to close a wound that can't heal? It will keep trying, and trying, and trying, continuously using up Nomu's energy, until…" Almost as if on cue the monster fell, first to its knees, then to the ground, letting out the first sound it had made during the entire invasion as it did so, a long, low moan. "Its energy runs out, and it dies from a wound it can no longer hold at bay." Izuku finished with a frown on his face, looking sadly down at the monster this poor soul had been turned into. He only hoped whoever it had been was at peace now.
Everyone stared at what had happened, disbelieving, their eyes locked on the enormous form of the Nomu, a pool of dark blood growing underneath it, before their gazes turned back to Izuku, who let Gae Bolg fade into motes of prana before drawing the Service Weapon, aiming it at Shigaraki just in case, the villain not seeming to notice as he stood deathly still, staring at his dead weapon.
The students couldn't believe what they had just seen 1-A's class rep do. No one, from what they'd seen of his personality till now, expected that he would be able and willing to go for the lethal option so seemingly easily. Sure, several of them, especially those that had seen what Nomu was capable of, knew that it was a logical decision considering all other options had failed, but it was still shocking to teens that had never seen someone die before, especially at the hands of a hero.
Bakugo was especially shaken, staring with wide eyes at the lifeless form of the villain laying only a couple of feet from Izuku before turning his gaze to said greenette, who was holding his gun in a steady grip, focused on the remaining villains.
He'd known Izuku for practically their entire lives, and the mere idea that the bullied boy that could barely raise his arms to block a punch was not only willing but able to go for the kill with such a hard look in his eyes…
Something fundamental had changed in the boy. And it made the explosive blonde uneasy.
Shigaraki seemed to finally get over his own shock at what he thought was a practical impossibility coming to pass. His hands rose and he began scratching at his neck with such vigor that it was slightly surprising that he didn't outright rip out his jugular and bleed out. "You… killed… my Nomu…"
Izuku shifted his stance slightly, still aiming his weapon at Shigaraki, readying himself for some sort of attack.
"You… What are you?" Shigaraki asked, sounding both angry and baffled, the other hero students beginning to regain their senses and prepare themselves to fight as well. "You could hold your own against Nomu in a physical fight, you figured out his Quirks through just observing them, and you somehow have a cheat ability that lets you kill anyone you want…" He somehow managed to start scratching harder. "I call hax!"
"Shigaraki Tomura, the situation is not ideal. We need to retreat." Kurogiri cut in, speaking for the first time in a while as he eyed the students that were surrounding the two. "We can't fight a Nomu-killer and his comrades on our own."
Shigaraki stopped scratching as he glared balefully at Izuku. "This isn't over…"
"The hell it isn't!" Bakugo snapped, managing to get over his shock as he prepared to launch himself at the villains again. Before he could do anything, the doors near the entry burst exploded open, revealing a severely pissed looking All Might, his customary smile absent from his face.
"Don't worry, students! I am here!" The Symbol of Peace announced, eyes taking in the situation before landing on the villains Izuku was holding at gunpoint. Without hesitation he launched himself at Shigaraki and Kurogiri, the only remaining villains currently in sight..
The warp villain immediately created a warp gate an inch in front of the blonde missile that was All Might as he fell towards them. Izuku immediately fired on them, hitting Shigaraki in his right arm, making the villain cry out in pain, but he was prevented from firing further when All Might appeared from a portal that appeared right in front of him, his predecessor just barely managing to keep from plowing into the boy, or more importantly, the girl he was protecting.
Bakugo, Kirishima, Tetsutetsu and Shishida all launched themselves toward the villains in order to keep them from getting away even as Todoroki launched a glacial assault for the same purpose. Unfortunately Kurogiri had been faster than any of them, and even as All Might was appearing from the portal in front of Izuku, another portal had come into being underneath the villains, making them drop out of sight faster than a normal retreat would have allowed. By the time the teens and their attacks had reached the location the villains had been, the portal was almost entirely closed, allowing the villains to escape.
All Might turned, glaring at the place Shigaraki and Kurogiri had been. Once he was certain the opportunity had passed, he turned his attention to his students after a quick, concerned look at Nomu's corpse. He gave them all a quick look over to make sure they were all relatively intact before he looked at his successor, who even after a quick glance was obviously the one in worst shape, though that assessment rapidly changed when he saw the teen kneeling next to what the pro hero realized was the injured form of Hagakure, who was still whimpering in pain, a bit too much blood on the ground, outlining her body. "Young Midoriya-"
"Go and get Recovery Girl now." The greenette cut his teacher off, neither one of them noticing the wide eyed looks he was getting at doing so to All Might, of all people. "I should be able to stabilize her, but she has a better chance if you bring Recovery Girl here rather than waiting to take her to the nurse's office. And that's not even mentioning the teachers and anybody else that may be injured." He said as he pointedly ignored the blood still leaking from his mouth that indicated that he was in just as bad a shape.
All Might nodded in understanding as he turned to do as he was told, noting as he did so that the rest of the UA staff was arriving with an exhausted looking IIda in tow. "Do what you can." With that he left the facility with all his prodigious speed.
Izuku turned his attention to Hagakure, petting her hair, noting absently that it was very silky, as he Projected some bandages to use on her. "You're going to be fine, Hagakure-chan…"
"Thank you…" The invisible girl said softly through the pain she was feeling.
As the others either approached to see if they could help or let the shock of what had just happened set in, none of them noticed Izuku slip a small vial full of Hagakure's blood into his coat.
The greenette sighed as he worked, the small part of his mind that wasn't focused on his task going over the attack. All of his experience throughout his multitude of lives was telling him something clearly.
This was only the beginning of something. He'd need to make sure he and his schoolmates were ready.
I wanted to have this out within the first week of June… T.T
Two issues made this chapter hell for me. One was a block on how to do USJ with the sheer amount of characters involved. I can see why Horikoshi mainly focuses on 1-A. It made the chapter fight me for weeks.
The larger issue, however, is that I'm currently suffering from some pretty severe insomnia. I'm getting by with only a few hours of sleep a day, and whatever naps I can sneak in when I can. It's killing my energy and motivation to do pretty much anything.
I didn't even get to the other chapters that were voted on this month. And I'm going on a trip for the second half of next month, so I'll only have two weeks to catch up, if I can. Not to mention I wanted to post a chapter of Brightest, too.
Still, at least it got done. The USJ arc is complete, and it has sown the seeds of future events, some obvious, some not so much.
I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, even if the events in the individual zones were glossed over a bit. Much like the Battle Trials, I find I'm just not that great at writing scenes like those. I apologize.
Oh, and I've finally given Izuku's 'Quirk' a name and explanation. A lot of people recommended I use psionics or psychic abilities to explain his abilities, but I never found most of those covered everything he could do satisfactorily. In the end I came up with what I described here, 'Focus'. I thought it was relatively unique, and it let me bring in the fact that Izuku was 'thought' to be Quirkless. That will come back into play later.
Also, I hope you liked the way I had Izuku deal with Nomu. When I was considering how he could deal with a monster that was a decent counter to most of what he can do, I landed on his Noble Phantasms, and Gae Bolg struck me as a good choice. I hope you all agree.
So what's next? How will All For One react to the events at USJ? How will the public, and the teachers? And what is Izuku going to do with Hagakure's blood? Who the hell knows!? I'm excited to find out, and I hope you are too.
And now, to my customary announcements:
The first is that you can have a say in what I write when you donate to my Pat A Ron. Every dollar donated equals a vote in my monthly poll, and now I've made it so that the votes for the things that don't win in a given month roll over into the next, which is why some fics that haven't gotten much love for a while have been updated recently. So if you want to donate and see your favorite stories of mine updated more often, go to Pat A Ron dotcom /athanmortis. The current poll closes on July 3rd, Hope to see you all vote!
The next two reminders are more important to me, however. First is that my best friend has a Pat A Ron for their original fiction. Donate any amount you want and get access to some objectively excellent writing (far better than mine, if I'm being completely honest). Their first story, which is a supernatural steampunk detective thriller that I very much enjoy called 'The Curious Investigations of Mister Jonathan Scott', is currently at 18 chapters, the first of which is free, so you can see what his style is like. So if you like, say, The Dresden Files, but want it more steampunk, this is for you. And they've now started another story that will be updated while they build up more Jonathan Scott chapters, this one being a cyberpunk (the genre, not the game) story called 'Tales of Luminous City', the first chapter of which is now also free. And they're working on a third story, this one a space opera (at least from the prologue I've read. Might be wrong). You can find their stuff by searching for Grimm Tales in Pat A Ron. Unfortunately their updates might be a bit delayed seeing as their computer suddenly went kaput, making them lose all their stuff.
I would appreciate it a lot if you could help them out, as unlike me they've had employment trouble due to some disabilities, which this pandemic hasn't helped. Even a dollar to read what they've currently done would be a huge help at this point, cause they're in real need. Hell, if you were thinking of donating to me, give it to them instead. I would honestly appreciate it a lot more.
Second, my sister has also begun a Pat A Ron. She recently got her Bachelor's in Digital Animation. She's trying to make her own series to post on Youtube, but needs money, so she's making art and plans on accepting commissions. She primarily does tokusatsu themed fanart (Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, Power Rangers, etc.), and she plans to let people have a say in what she makes, much like I do. That's at Pat A Ron dotcom /linduarte. (Oh no, now you know my last name! The horror!)
Please keep in mind though that we've been made aware of a bug with the site that makes it seem like you can't donate less than $5. If you don't want to donate that much, to any of us, just put a zero before the number you want to donate, such as 03. That should get you going.
As always, thank you for the support despite the delays and issues I've been having. I promise I'm doing my best to improve. Hopefully we'll see each other again soon.
Till next time. Bye!