Megumi does not like involving civilians to battles. He had pushed Itadori aside when they first met, telling him to grab his classmates to leave. He was ready to prioritize himself over them because that is the right thing to do. Protect those who are weaker than him because his is the one who is privileged enough to have this strength. He thinks it can be compared to 'noblesse oblige'—Gojō Satoru is an arrogant man but his arrogance is not out of place because among every single one of them, Gojō Satoru is the strongest among the strongest, and if you asked certain people, they might even call him a god. The first thing that Megumi knew about his Ten Shadows is that it has the potential to even compete against the Rikugan of Gojō-sensei, that it appears once in a few generations which is why Megumi is a special existence. And Megumi just cannot stand letting people be when he can do something. He is not the reckless martyr-like individual that Itadori is or Kugisaki who is out of place in a land of heroes when she struggles with empathy despite her technique. Megumi is Megumi.

And Megumi dislikes being protected.

He grew up with his older sister doing more than she had to do, getting taken care of, getting protected, until Megumi's world and pride shook—his arrogance of himself when he beat down one delinquent after another shattered when Tsumiki collapsed and never woke up again. Megumi dislikes being protected. He has his own strengths and though he might be caught up in the image of the purple mist flitting from one corner to another, and though his heart is pounding so loudly that he feels like it is going to come out of the confines of his ribs, Megumi trusts his instincts and before he knows it, he ditches everything. He thinks Tsumiki would have wanted him to do this, that that annoying Gojō-sensei would have raised his eyebrows at his unmoving figure, that Itadori would have done this first before he did, and that Kugisaki would have shouted at him because he even hesitated in the first place. Jujutsu Sorcerers exist because no one else can protect the normal humans from the threat of curses. They exist to protect, not asking for anything in return. (Megumi resists a grimace of disgust when he realizes that they can be called heroes. And in a way, they are. But heroes do not dress themselves in clothes as dark as theirs, and heroes are not as morally gray as they are.) And Megumi is surrounded by civilians.

These children cannot protect themselves and he hates sounding like a pretentious prick but as Megumi searches for Aizawa in the crowd of Villains, he is overwhelmed with guilt. Why is he hesitating? Has he become a hypocrite like them too? Megumi is a sorcerer who exorcises Curses but he is not a hero who beats up Villains but did he not set those delinquents straight too? And for what? Because they were disobeying the rules, because they were hurting people, because it was the right thing to do. Megumi exhales loudly and deeply, and he becomes overwhelmed with resolve. The portal makes him shake and it makes him remember the feeling of emptiness as the oceans swell deep above him but is he really going to let that consume him? Megumi moves and he urges the twin hounds to get to Aizawa before the Villains do, and he shouts, "Sensei!" He ignores his cover for now, and ignores how hypocrital he must seem to Kugisaki after he had been so strict about her actions.

Aizawa snaps his head to his direction and clicks his tongue openly. He narrowly dodges the punch aimed for him but does not take notice of another incoming Villain. The hounds, having been ordered to support the Pro-Hero, quickly jumps to said Villain and bites their arm. Aizawa, however, stays true to his words. "Get back there, Fushiguro! These aren't robots! These are actual Villains!" He shouts, pulling a capture tape and easily putting down yet another Villain with an efficient maneuver. When he spots Megumi pulling out a weapon from his shadows, he yells again, this time, angrily. "Fushiguro! Listen!"

Megumi holds the 'Playful Cloud' in his palms, having been unable to return it from their battle against the Kyoto students. Tōdō Aoi did not get a chance to return it to his cousin, Zen'in Maki and asked Megumi return it for him. Megumi, getting stuck in a mission right after, found no time to give it back to his cousin and he thinks this must be one of the best mistakes he has ever made. Playful Cloud has neither cursed energy nor actual curse imbued in it, only relying on the physical strength of the wielder and though Megumi only has average strength for a sorcerer, this is more than enough against mere Villains.

He lets the weapon dance in his arms, containing his Cursed Energy inside of him. "I can help," he growls back to Aizawa.

The Villains seem to think otherwise and take this opportunity to gang up on Megumi and his rather scrawny frame. Megumi bursts into action, the staffs, as hard to control as it is, is familiar. Familiar enough that as he guides the edge of the staff with his elbow, and the other end with his free hand, he almost grins at the adrenalin. How long has it been seen he had to actually make effort in fighting? None of the Curses were strong enough to actually take time and whenever he sparred with Kugisaki, they had to watch out and not use their Techniques because Megumi does not want to be in the receiving end of her Curse but he does find it amusing when Kugisaki screams at him for using his hounds on her. But this—this fight gives him some sort of release. He ignores the Mist Villain and focuses on battling these third-rates instead, twisting the Playful Cloud around and pulling the Villain that was caught in it by their neck. Megumi pulls, dragging down the Villain to his feet before swinging his weapon around again, hitting yet another enemy right to their face. His wandering black dog runs to them, baring its teeth as it tackles them to the ground.

From the corner of his eyes, he spots the Mist Villain crowding his other classmates and flinches. He clenches his fist, watching from afar as Īda, as he faintly heard earlier, chases for the exit. He grits his teeth and puts his hands together, the form of the Playful Cloud clicking. "Nue," he mutters and feels the gigantic bird come out of his shadows, "Hurry. Carry Īda to the staff." With swift movements, Nue comes swooping down to Īda just as Mezō wraps his arms around the Mist. Īda panics before Megumi shouts, "He's mine!" Īda finally relaxes, and nods resolutely.

The sound of cracking bones suddenly resounds and Megumi's momentary attention to Īda and the others has cost him something. Everything happened so fast. Too fast that he barely captures what is happening because the next thing he knows, Aizawa is being held by a beast—a monster—a curse?—and as it roars defeaningly, something rises from the pools of near the fountain. The crunch of an elbow echoes and Megumi cringes, Aizawa almost lifeless under the palms weight of the beast. Laughter bursts out, the man with a Disintegration Quirk catching everyone's attention. "Tell the Symbol of Peace," he begins in amusement, "That he's wanted by the Artificial Human—Noumu."

As if knowing its name, the Noumu roars.

Noumu squeezes around Aizawa's arm as the blue-haired Villain continues to speak. "You can erase Quirks. A respectable quality, but there's nothing to it at the end. After all, when faced with overwhelming might, you might as well be Quirkless at that situation," which is not a lie but Aizawa is not alone and Megumi's instincts scream at him, and his hands meet together once again, rabbits rising from his shadows and rushing to where the Noumu is, climbing to its body and crowding them. "What—" The Villain is cut off as Megumi feels his Cursed Energy pour and pour, summoning Gama along with the Datto, whipping his hand and urging his Shikigami to pull away Aizawa.

Megumi easily catches his homeroom teacher's body, throwing him to the mouth of Gama. Aizawa groans. "Just go!" Megumi cuts him off with a clench of his fists, tightening the hold on Aizawa through Gama. His breath hitches.

"You're one of the few Pro-Heroes I respect, Aizawa-sensei. You can save more people," Megumi relaxes, "I think—you—you're a good hero."

The infamous Shigaraki Tomura from the small rumors around the red lighr district shrieks in surprise, throwing his hands in the air. "A—a summoner?! That's a cheat!" He exclaims accusingly as Megumi flicks his wrist and dismisses the rabbits before they can get destroyed the beast. "That's unfair! Unfair! Unfair! And from his Shadows? That's—" The Purple Mist suddenly returns and Megumi is frozen all over again, the whisps of smoke tickling the air softly. He grinds his teeth together. "Kurogiri... then is Thirteen dead?"

Megumi jolts. "I have incapacitated her, however. I'm afraid the students whom I could not scatter impeded me and he was therefore able to escape with his life," answers Kurogiri.

"Huh?" Shigaraki mumbles. He sighs, lowering his head and shaking in frustration. He scratches his hair furiously. "Kurogiri... you—if you can't be a proper warp gate, then our plans have crumbled. There's no doubt that if they throw dozens of Pros at us, we can't win. It's game over... It's game over for now."

All Megumi can focus on are Shigaraki's hands and the towering figure of the beast. He cannot move away from his position, not when he is not sure how his hounds can do against the beast and not when Aizawa is incapable, and for god's sake, those two—Asui and Midoriya are still there, sitting around and watching everything unfold like as if they're watching a drama—Megumi's chest tightens. Summoning Banshō will consume too much of his Cursed Energy and he is still unsure how well he can go against the beast when he is alone. And is that human? Is that a Quirk? Is an Artificial Human still a human in the eyes of this world's laws, or if he uses his black blade, the same blade that can cut even a Special Grade as Hanami, if he manages to cut that beast down, will his and Kugisaki's hardwork will be all for naught? And he knows the easiest way to defeat Shigaraki is to cut his hands and Megumi can easily do that but that would label him as problematic in the eyes of this society, eradicate his established position, wouldn't it?

But this is a life-threatening situation—

But Itadori—

But the reinforcements are coming—

But he can't count on anyone in this place to help him—

His thought boils down to distaste for these restrictions and wherever the hell Kugisaki is and his displeasure furthers as Shigaraki holds Asui's face. His voice dies in his throat when Shigaraki glares at their direction. "Ah. You really are a cool guy, Eraserhead—" Megumi hisses to his hounds to chomp on that arm, running to where Shigaraki is with the instincts he thinks will damn him. He dances with the Playful Cloud, swiping it at Shigaraki but find himself blocked by the gigantic form of Noumu along with Midoriya's infamous punch that does absolutely nothing like Megumi's pitiful attack. "Shit."

"Nice punch there. You called it smash? You a follower of All Might?"

Megumi lets his body move on its own, dropping the Playful Cloud to the ground and pulling his weight to on Noumu's arm. It struggles as expected but Megumi is faster. He might not be as fast as Maki-san and Itadori but he can catch up to them and that is more than enough. He pulls his darkened blade from his shadows, hitting the butt of the handle with the sole of his shoe, and pulling it from the back with his free hand and he says fuck it all, and digs deep into Noumu. His happiness is short-lived, however, when the Noumu reacts as expected, waving the same arm and flinging him to the fountains.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, Megumi feels his bones creak under his flesh, blood dribbling down his mouth as he hears Aizawa scream his name. This is nothing—the Noumu pulls out his most favored blade, throwing it to the direction opposite to him and Megumi cusses again. But he can still stand. He can still stand. He waves his hands to dismiss his hounds, and he tells himself that once Nue comes back or even that Kaminari, he can finally summon Banshō and he can knock that beast-curse-monster-whatever and it will ge game over, won't it?

And just as Asui pulls Midoriya out of the hold of the Noumu, as Shigaraki reaches out for her, Megumi practically throws his herd of rabbits again, an effort to distract but enough, it has to be enough, and these civilians are so helpless so he—

The doors shatter and the smoke arrives, and the signature line Megumi used to mock echoes like a ray of hope. A part of him dislikes himself for relaxing, for being relieved at the appearance of the man of the show—the Symbol of Peace, the savior, the man they call the Messiah—for All might arrives, shadows etched deep into his skin as if it has truly become his flesh, the smile that has never left in his face replaced by a deep, ugly frown.

And his voice becomes the trumpets of the heavens that Megumi has heard it is always compared to. He thinks it is not far off.

"Have no fear. For I am here."

...

Nobara was never the fastest person in her year. She can still feel the way Itadori held her when he ran through the forest, dodging each tree as Nobara watched his back. Trust. What they shared was, maybe, perhaps even more than trust, something that she now share with that idiot Fushiguro. As she runs to the place where she remembers she left Fushiguro and the others, she thinks that she hates herself for being slow. She did not have Itadori to carry her this time and she would rather die than ask Todoroki to carry her. Bakugō and Kirishima, who they stumbled upon along the way, are people she definitely does not trust. Especially Bakugō. In fact, Nobara dislikes Bakugō. And the moment the meet each other's eyes, Bakugō screeches like a madman, pointing accusingly at Nobara and the blood on her knuckles: "Pachinko!" Nobara cringes.

She clicks her tongue and sighs under her breath, continues jogging along. "If you have time to scream like that then you have time to run, don't you?" She spits.

This, as expected, riles up Bakugō and before she knows it, the boy is already speeding past her, the explosions in his hands blooming with the loud noise. She winces as Kirishima calls for Bakugō and only grows more annoyed when Kirishima scratched the back of her hair and mumbles, "You didn't have to rile him up like that, you know." She knows Kirishima is just trying to make a conversation but Nobara finds no need in it in battle so she shrugs, chasing after Bakugō.

And honestly.

Nobara dislikes how slow she is.

She doubts she will ever be as fast as Itadori or Fushiguro, and no matter how much training she undergoes with Panda-san and Maki-san, Nobara will never be as physically strong and efficient as them. But Nobara has no time to wallow on her insecurities because Nobara knows herself better than anyone, and she knows her strengths and her weaknesses better than anyone so when she sees Bakugō glaring daggers at the image before them: All Might bent backwards with a beast that clenches on his stomach area, Megumi too far away with his hand on his ribs, obviously breaking them again as he always does—Nobara's face turns red in annoyance and she jumps, pulling her weight as she grabs Bakugō's shoulders, using him as a lift, catching a better look at what is happening. In a quick motion, one she had done more than countless of times—she hears Bakugō scream about not letting that Pachinko Head one-up him—Nobara pulls on her nails and as she nears her landing, hovering just above the balcony of the elevated area, she drives as deep as could, forcing her Cursed Energy to entangle itself in her nails' metal.

She slams it down as she lands right on top of a body of a random villain, a stray that has long since been asleep. She watches the nail hit the beast before Bakugō does, but the intertwining explosions of both of their attacks unite, black-blues mixing with the vibrance of Bakugō's explosions. "Out'ta the fucking way!" Bakugō is as crude as always.

Before the beast-monster-curse can move, Todoroki sends a shrill of ice to the floors, wrapping around its body and leaving All Might out of the way. "We heard about you bastards' plan about each of your roles in your scheme to kill All Might," he announces as Kirishima swipes at Shigaraki Tomura. Kirishima cusses when the man dodges. "The Symbol of Peace won't go down as easily as you clowns."

Nobara snaps her eyes to Fushiguro who glares at her the moment their gazes meet. She grins from ear to ear, putting her thumbs up for the boy, despite knowing he was obviously displeased at her actions from earlier. Though he struggles to stand, Fushiguro manages to approach his side as Shigaraki Tomura begins to speak: "You pinned down our revolving door. Well, now, this is kind of a pinch."

Bakugō cackles as he pins down the Mist Villain. Nobara frowns. "Is that a Curse?" She whispers to Fushiguro who shakes his head. "Then a... human?" This time, he hesitates. Nobara cusses to herself. If it was a Curse then the automatic response would have been to eradicate it then and there but a human? Her hand clenches around her hammer unsurely.

"Just as I thought! This prick wasn't all that sharp!" Bakugō snarks. "That bit on your body you use to get all misty and warp-gatey got sealed, motherfucker! You gon'na tell me you don't use that mist-thingy to hide your true body, huh?" Nobara fingers her weapon in hesitation. If this was another situation, she would have had readily tried to hammer down the beast-monster-thing but her situation is fragile, and she has no idea what will happen if she tries to do more than she is supposed to. "If the shadow-mist was your true form, and you had no actual body, then why would you have called any attack 'dangerous'?"

The Mist Villain groans, attempting to pull away from Bakugō who only pushes him down harder to the floor. Nobara cocks her head to the direction of Fushiguro. "You let yourself get injured like that?" She raises an eyebrow. She expects Fushiguro to reply as he usually does, a scoff or a glare to rebuke her attempt in mockery but Fushiguro only lets his hair shadow above his eyes, the green of it looking much deeper than it usually does. Nobara shakes of her pretense of a better mood. "Do you wanna say something?"

Fushiguro takes a careful eye on the crowd, watching every inch of movement. "Nue is still with Īda and Gyokuken were never meant for as big as an offense against curses—mon—people," he fumbles, "As physically powerful as that. I don't want to risk them. Banshō is my last call but its water would be a waste if Nue is absent so—" He pulls out his blade again, whipping out the dark expanse of its metal. "I'll cut off an arm and you use Resonance."

"Resonance," Nobara confirms, crunching her nose.

"It's time to put your 'Voodoo' to use."

Nobara is not going to lie. She is not convinced at Fushiguro's suggestion—more like order—to have her resonance on what she thinks is a small fry. Sure, it had originally been in the verge of crushing All Might's ribs but call Nobara selfish but she thinks Itadori and going back to their own world are both more important than blowing their cover. At the same time, if she does not do this, all of these children might die, these civilians they are meant to portect as Jujutsu Sorcerer and that feeble and weak reasoning is what she uses for now. With an annoyed sigh, she rubs the back of her head, watching as the beast begins to break through the ice, standing on its two feet. Its missing arm and leg bubble with regenaration and Nobara clicks her tongue, bending both of her knees to prepare herself. "Reverse Curse Technique," she dubs it to make her processing easier, "Throw the arm at me as soon as you get him."

"Got it."

"I never said that was the full-extent of his abilities. As you can see, he's also got super-regenaration," Shigaraki Tomura beams and the gears in Nobara's head unconsciously clicks: more than one Quirk? Isn't that impossible? But as the Villain continues speaking, Nobara's resolve is further strengthened. "Noumu is a human sandbag artificially created to the height of physical fitness in order to withstand your one-hundred percent."

Nobara stretches her lips into a grin, a little deranged, satisfied, more than happy to now attack. The Noumu launches itself to Bakugō's direction, following Shigaraki's order but just as he does so, lifting his arm to aim, Fushiguro's speed, despite his broken ribs, is put to good use, his blade slicing cleanly through the beast's limb. As promised, Fushiguro skillfully grabs the arm and throws it to Nobara's direction.

With her hammer and her straw doll raised, she hits the three at once, pushing her weapon to the ground, arms flaming with the burn of her Cursed Energy. The Noumu roars, the familiar spikes of her Technique stretching through its chest. "Final—" Nobara cuts herself off when this proves to be useless, the beast's skin stitching back up, its heart nothing of importance with how fast its regeneration is. She hears Shigaraki's cackle.

"A witch-type! A summoner and a witch?! UA has too many cheats but—" The Villain throws his hands in the air. "My Noumu is the greatest boss of them all!"

Fushiguro luckily manages to jump away just as Noumu regenarates the formerly cut-off arm in an instant, swinging at him even before it was fully grown. Landing beside her, they both ignore the look of surprise sent to them by their peers. Angered and annoyed at their seeming useless, Nobara points accusingly at All Might, face bright red with how sick she is of this battle. Even Curses have souls! And that is exactly why she is the most suitable to fight them, able to injure and knock them out without actually having to get close to them and that was supposed to end that Noumu! The heart was supposed to burst, was supposed to stop that thing from functioning and yet—she growls at All Might. "You started this so you better end this too, you—you Maito Konpēto!"

Nobara has never felt so useless before. She was supposed to be stronger than this, supposed to be effortless with her battles and yet that artificial human has no soul. The brain is not as much of a weakness and the heart is even moreso. Her Technique targets the heart, the core, and what can they do against this beast who just keeps on regenerating and regenerating? Even Fushiguro is obviously struggling. As much as he is flexible with his Techniques, his Banshō takes too much energy and what will powerful gusts of water do to Noumu? The only thing that can potentially knock out the beast is with Īda. They mocked these people for ages and ages, looked down on their classmates as if they were fools playing pretend—which they honestly are but here are Fushiguro and Nobara, watching as All Might's temper finally snaps, launching the beast through the domes of the USJ, his form perfect and his stature confident, gaze brimming with uncontained rage.

"A hero is someone who smashes through every obstacle life puts his way! Do you know what I speak of, Villain?!"

Nobara—Nobara can see why that face is plastered all over underwears now. She tightens her fists and lowers her head. She feels Fushiguro move a bit closer to her, a hand creeping on her own. He is as warm as hers, though terribly, terribly cold at the same time. They were useless this time around, mere children who thought to highly of themselves because of experiences they cannot use against humans. Against actual people. They were never taught to hold back which is why they struggled so horribly. Why would you even hold back against a Curse? Why would you even try to control yourself against them? Let it go. Let go of your anger, your sadness, the emotions that bottle up within you and make them into Cursed Energy so Nobara and Fushiguro—she heaves out a large breath. All Might's eyes become shadowed even further. "What's the matter? Where'd your bravado go? What happened to clearing the game? Try it if you can." And Nobara curses the goosebumps that travel down her spine.

Shigaraki Tomura begins to panic, scratching the sides of his faces with a single finger raised. The Mist Villain whispers something to him, stopping his chattering. The blue-haired Villain freezes. "Right. Right, you're absolutely right. If we just bring back the Noumu to this place—" He reaches for something at the back of his pants, pulling out a large syringe. "We can definitely beat All Might." The gleam or something familiar captures Nobara's attention. She feels the burn of the treasure they had kept of so long throb from her bag.

Before she knows it, she is already running to where the Villain is, urged by desperation. She hears Fushiguro scream something at her but all she can focus on is that syringe, the bubbling of something as it holds the bane of everyone's existence within its glass confines. She spots Midoriya appear right in front of the lunging Mist Villain, Shigaraki's arm stretching to disintegrate anything at its path and—

Nobara watches everything end.

Somehow, the Villains have disappeared, getting pulled into the void of the mist as the reinforcements appear a little too late, Nue accompanying Īda. She ignores the strange looks that her other classmates send to her as she follows Fushiguro to the infirmary, separated from All Might and Midoriya for some reason. She sits, staring at Fushiguro who remains silent as he stares at the ceiling. Recovery Girl had already kissed his injuries away in exchange for massive amounts of his energy. Nobara feels so small for once. For once, she felt useless.

She had been so caught up in keeping her act, making excuses why she cannot do this and why she cannot do that, why she and Fushiguro will not stoop so low as to help them—aren't they the hypocrites here? They talked down on their classmates for not being educated enough of their society when Fushiguro and Nobara, as the ones with more experience and strength, should have protected them instead. Fushiguro once compared it to 'noblesse oblige' just a day or two ago and Nobara ignored him, letting it be nothing more than a passing thought.

All Might saved them. (But that syringe.)

The same All Might Nobara mocked. And while it is true that All Might's celebrity status is unnecessary, does that give Nobara and Fushiguro the right to invalidate his status as a hero?

Nobara nudges Fushiguro with her foot, having taken off her shoe already. Fushiguro groans. "Scoot over. I'm tired."

"There's another bed. This is an infirmary."

"Do you think I care?"

"I'm injured."

"I'm mentally injured too so scoot over—"

The pair freezes as they hear Recovery Girl clear her throat abruptly. Both of their heads snap up, embarrassed at being caught acting like children. "Ah, Fushiguro-kun, Kugisaki-kun, it seems that your guardian arrived to check on you," she chirps, "I'll let her in."

Nobara gathers herself quickly when Recovery Girl leaves. "Why the hell is Yuriko-san here?" She makes sure to push strands of her hair away, pinning it behind her ear to look as proper as she can.

"I'm unconscious," Fushiguro announces. He goes back to lying on his bed, covered in the drapes of his blankets.

"Oi. Fushiguro—"

"Oh—it really is the two of you."

This time, Fushiguro and Nobara do not freeze like they are getting caught because they know that voice. They know that voice is not Yuriko-san's high-pitched and caring tone because as Nobara turns around, she spots the dark roots first, followed by its color fading to a much lighter shade and Nobara—Nobara feels like crying.

"Nitta-san!"

(She thinks Nitta-san did not change one bit.)

...

an apprentice near a temple will recite the scriptures untaught