Chapter Text

Shouto had been excited to go on the field trip that afternoon. They were going to the USJ: Unforeseen Simulation Join. When they arrived there, the first thing Shouto noticed was all the varieties of different landscapes that simulated disasters. There was the earthquake zone, the rainforest zone, the flood zone, and many many more. Rescue work was one of the few reasons Shouto genuinely wanted to be a hero. He'd always wanted to save lives and inspire others. But he wanted to do it in a very different way than Endeavor.

When Thirteen, a fairly popular rescue hero, began to discuss the dangers of quirks, Shouto tuned out. He knew firsthand how dangerous quirks could be, and he'd really rather not think about the memories associated with that knowledge. Because he was not paying attention, Shouto was the first to notice the growing purple swirling vortex taking shape in the center of the USJ.

He was not, however, the first to voice his observation. "Mr. Aizawa, what's that?" The girl with a gravity quirk asked. He was pretty sure her name was Uraraka.

"Whoa! Has the training started already!?" Another kid asked as the first person appeared out of the portal.

"Stay Back!" Aizawa yelled. He never yelled. "Those are real villains."

The class began to shift nervously before Aizawa started calling instructions out towards the class to try and contact the school. He was pretty sure one of the students yelled back something about the connection being down. More panic ensued.

Shouto was much too preoccupied with observing who was coming out of the warp gate to feel panicked. That was, until he saw the last person to come through the portal, being dragged by another. Shoutos heart stopped when he recognized the reddish green of Izuku's hair.

Izuku was thrashing around, and was putting up a large fight against the villain who had their hand secured tightly around his wrist. The two were playing a sort of tug-of-war with Izuku's arm and seemed to be growling words back and forth at each other. The villain had blue hair, and... hands all over his body. Were those real? It didn't matter.

Shouto didn't have time to process what he was doing before he was running to stand next to Mr. Aizawa and shouting: "IZUKU!"

Said teen's head whipped up towards where the class of 1A stood, his struggling stalling. Izuku's eyes widened in shock, his face and arm going slack, as he took in the large building he was in before his eyes settled on Shouto.

"Shouto!?" Izuku screamed in a half question half panicked way. Shouto was about to sprint over to Izuku and attack the villain with a fist full of fire when Mr. Aizawa's hand blocked his path. A meaningful look from his teacher was all it took for him to understand. He was not to move without proper cause. That did not make Shouto any less frightened or angry at the situation.

The villain, using Izuku's momentary lapse of concentration, was able to yank the teen into a standing position in front of them and place their hand around Izuku's neck. His body locked up as soon as the four fingers (one was still in the air?) were placed on the fragile skin.

The villain whispered something in Izuku's ear, and Shouto noticed his friend's eyes flash in defiance before spitting something at the villain. The villain sighed and turned their attention onto the unmoving teachers and still panicking students.

All of this had happened in mere seconds, but it felt like hours to Shouto.

"Greetings herolings!" The villain holding Izuku shouted. The noise of the room died instantly and all that could be heard was the whirring of the air vents. "We have come to kill All Might!" A small scoff from Izuku broke the silence, echoing across the room. Aizawa tensed up at the same time as Shouto did at the defiant noise from his friend's mouth before the teacher leapt into action.

Mr. Aizawa quickly rushed down the steps dividing the heroes from the villains and began to fight his way through that massive hoard of evil grunts. No matter how fast his teacher was, and how many people he took down, there seemed to always be more to replace the fallen.

Shouto was much too preoccupied with Izuku's situation to spare much worry for his skilled pro hero teacher. He was watching for how the villain would react to Izuku's blatant disregard for their plan, but the man had simply let out an angry huff of breath while shaking Izuku back and forth surprisingly lightly before turning their attention to Aizawa's fight.

"We apologize for the intrusion, not that it matters. You will all be divided and killed momentarily anyways," The voice did not come from the villain everyone had their attention on, but from behind the group of students. Shouto whipped around to see a purple man made of mist. Before he knew what was happening, black voids were swallowing up his classmates.

Then a black void was swallowing up Shouto.

Izuku was freaking out. Shouto and a bunch of other teens had just been portaled away to gods knows where. Thirteen, the rescue hero, had just been injured by Kirogiri who had used his portals to reflect Thirteen's quirk back at them, and was possibly dead. Eraserhead was in the midst of fighting an endless sea of villains, all the while Shigaraki kept a firm grip around his neck and ranted about how All Might wasn't present and how could Shigaraki kill the man if he wasn't here to be killed by his ultimate weapon? So, yes, Izuku was rightfully freaking out.

The weapon Shigaraki had been talking about wasn't a real weapon at all, but a giant hulking beast of a thing. The creature was huge and it's muscles seemed unnatural and like they were about to bulge right out of its skin. It was a deep purple and three times the height of Izuku with a beak and soulless black eyes. But, the most disturbing part of its appearance was the exposed brain in its head.

"Do you see it, Player Two?" Shigaraki asked gleefully.

"See w-what?" Izuku managed to choke out over his panic. He had to calm down. Shouto would be fine. Endeavor was probably ten times worse than any number of these villains. And Izuku was not in any immediate danger… except for the hand around his throat, but he was pretty sure that was just to keep him from fighting back or running away.

"Look," The blue haired man replied, gesturing to the fight still going on between Eraserhead and half of Shigaraki's 'party members', "his quirk is slowing down."

And now that Shigaraki had mentioned it and Izuku's attention wasn't focused on Shouto, he noticed Eraserhead's quirk was slowing down.

"It's probably a side effect from trying to keep his eyes open for too long. Generally, people can only keep their eyes open for about fifteen seconds max, and that's if they are actively trying! It's really quite impressive that he's able to keep from blinking for so long. I wonder why he doesn't tie his hair back, it's a dead give away to his quirk-"

A chuckle stopped Izuku's mumbling (Dang it! He'd said that all aloud again!). "You're quite right Player Two, although it could have been said in less words." Izuku bit back a retort. "The hero is slowing down which means...Nomu!" The villain yelled. Izuku stiffened. The man had given the beast orders only twice before dragging Izuku to the USJ, but both times the creature had followed them to a tee while looking completely mindless. The teen hated to think what this weapon was capable of doing while under the sadistic mind of the man-child.

Izuku couldn't let anything happen to Eraserhead. He was one of the few good heroes out there, him being an underground hero and all. Underground heroes usually patrolled at night and avoided any media spotlight. They worked as heroes to save, not to garner attention or be the best.

Izuku couldn't do anything to stop the boss, but maybe he could stop the player controlling it. Damn Shigaraki's game terminology for getting to him. And Izuku was in the perfect position to do just that.

Before Izuku could really think to consider his recklessness, he slammed his heel down hard against Shigaraki's knee. The villain let out a howl of pain, his hand flying to his knee, releasing Izuku from it's deadly grip. He'd have to remember to thank Shouto later for that lesson on how to get out of deadly holds.

With the villain distracted, Izuku went to give a kick at the man's head to hopefully knock him unconscious, but before he could, a portal was opening up and swallowing him whole. Izuku cursed in his head. He'd completely lost track of the portal villain.

Two seconds later had the teen falling face first on the concrete at the feet of Kurogiri who was but a few paces away from Shigaraki. Said man was slowly regaining his composure.

"Oh Player Two, that was very naughty of you." Shigaraki began to walk forward towards Izuku. That presence was back, the man having yet again "I think it's time to really put those skills of yours to use." Izuku quickly got into a fighting stance. He would not help these villains hurt anyone. "Nomu! Grab Eraserhead!"

Izuku was helpless to stop the Nomu as it moved too fast for the eyes to see. In a blink, the beast had Eraserhead's arm in a death grip, the hero barely fighting to free himself as he was already half unconscious from fighting the now beat up horde that were Shigaraki's lackeys. The time the man could keep his eyes open and quirk activated truly had been slowly lessening. By the time the Nomu got to him, he could barely keep his eyes open for more than a few seconds at a time.

"Now Izuku. Since you seem to care ever so much for this hero, tell me the best way to get All Might over here right now or Eraserhead will get very hurt. Let's start, say, with a crushed arm?"