Kirishima turned to Vlad King and pleaded. "They're after our friend! Please let us out there!"
"Absolutely not." Vlad sensei was firm.
"Given that the villains numbers are unknown," Iida pointed out, "Wouldn't any extra help on our side be beneficial? Aizawa sensei himself told us to fight."
"Only in self-defense," Vlad snapped back. "Everyone should be making their way back here."
We heard footsteps in the hallway.
"Mr. Aizawa must be back," Eiji said quickly. "Let's just ask him then."
Vlad turned then shouted "Wait! That's not - "
And he jumped forward and pushed me and Eiji out of the way.
"Everyone, get back!" yelled Iida."
I sat up, groggy and unsure, and looked out at the doorway. A villain stood surrounded by flames and smoke, a villain in a black coat, with spiky black hair and a face that - will, it would've been handsome like Todoroki's if he wasn't burned and stitched back together, under the eyes, around the jaw, down the neck…
"Isn't that the villain who was already beaten?" cried Mineta.
The villain raised a hand full of fire, but Vlad King, with a shout of "Too Slow!" pushed him into the wall.
"You've got some nerve launching this reckless attack here," he snarled as he pinned the villain to the wall with his own blood. "Don't get cocky!"
Eiji's jaw dropped open. "Blood control…he's so strong!" he gasped.
"That's our awesome Vlad King Sensei!" cheered Monoma.
The villain, however, didn't look scared at all. He was smiling. "Why not get cocky? You're playing right into our hands. The second you lost the initiative signaled your defeat. You've got the top hero-training academy, U.A., and the symbol of peace, All Might…the two most trusted foundations of our hero-based society. But now, one mess after another is shaking that trust. Don't you think that loss of faith will spread like wildfire throughout society? Think about it. How your careless administration keeps allowing attack after attack. You're so weak, you couldn't even stop a criminal organization from abducting your students."
Oh no.
"You…did you…is Bakugou…?!" Eiji could barely stumble out.
Kaminari spread his hands apart, casting electricity. "So that's how it is?! Don't mess with us!"
"Take a look," gloated the villain. "Just a few of us have driven you lot into a corner."
He was readying more fire -
Sensei jumped through the door and kicked him in the head. "It's no use, Vlad," he announced, stomping on the villain's head - who somehow dissolved into a puddle of plasma.
"He's just here to rile us up. We won't get any intel out of him," said Sensei as he continued stomping the villain's head in.
Kaminari, staring at him, cried out loud "The erasure hero, Mr. Aizawa!" in awe.
Sensei had finally stopped stomping. "See? He's just a fake. I already dealt with one."
"Eraser, what do you think you're doing?" asked Vlad King.
"Sorry. I ran out to give everyone permission to fight, but I had to bring Kota here to safety first. Please take care of him, OK? I'm heading out to fight. Stay here and protect this place, Vlad." I noticed then that the little kid from before was indeed standing there, looking real scared.
"Hang on, Eraser. Who knows how many more of them might attack here?"
"You can handle it alone, Vlad. Look at this fake. He's tried the same trick twice now. I'm pretty sure those aggressive attacks were meant to keep us pros focused on this spot. It was a strategy designed to make us worry, despite their lack of numbers."
"If there're so few of them, then we should be out there!" cried Eiji, full of passion.
"Indeed!" added Iida. "They can't beat us with our numbers advantage."
"No." Sensei was curt. "You'd get in our way. Besides, they're targeting students. We know about Bakugou. There might be others too. We're overwhelmingly short on intel. In order to win, we've just gotta make sure everyone stays safe." He turned away and ran for it.
Eiji was grinding his teeth and looking backwards and forwards. He actually seemed to be panicking. Tel the truth, I was trying not to panic myself. I was scared. And frustrated and trying not to picture all my friends and what was happening to them.
But what I was feeling felt like nothing next to that look on his face. He looked like he could barely put two thoughts together.
"Kirishima?" I asked. The others were all talking fast as Vlad King told us to sit down.
"I should be helping," he murmured. "I can't just stand here, not again…"
He wasn't talking to me, but I realized what he was talking about. Back then, with the villain…
And we were 14 again, in my mind. It was last year, and we were facing that giant, looming thing that was about to hurt my best friends. And Eiji was still that same black haired kid who'd been too scared to help us…
And I was still scared. But this time…this time there wasn't anything either one of us could do.
We sat down at Vlad King's orders and just waited. Waited to hear what had happened to our friends and if everyone was ok.
That night never seemed to end. Every few minutes, it seemed, Vlad King was getting new reports from Mandalay that we couldn't hear. Every time it happened, Eiji jumped up to look at him, trying to get from his expression if our classmates were ok. Every time Vlad King told him to sit down and wait it out. And every time, I patted his hand and tried to look reassuring. I didn't know what else to do.
Truth was, I wanted to freak out myself.
At last - it felt like hours, but it was probably 20 minutes - Vlad King said,
"Get together and head downstairs. Stay together. The police are here."
We stood outside in a group. Some of our classmates joined us. The rest were being attended to in the medical vans. Our group stood together surrounded by cops and local pros. But none of us were paying much attention at the time to what was going on. Nobody had said a word since Aizawa sensei told us the bad news.
"I'm afraid the villains were able to achieve their goal. They've taken Bakugou."
Sure, Bakugou can be a real pain, but he's our classmate. And kind of our friend. I found myself thinking back to the Sports Festival, when he'd helped us win second place against Monoma. Or how Eiji told me - he helped him study to pass his final exams, like Yaomomo helped me and Kaminari. And how much his loud mouthed, competitive attitude - as annoying as it could be - made us all wanna do our best too. Him and Midoriya both…
Oh man. Midoriya.
Midoriya and Momoyao were both taken away in an ambulance, alongside most of class B, Jirou and Hagakure, who had been taken out by a poison gas attack. Uraraka and Tsu had been stabbed, Shoji had lost a duplicate limb and was bleeding. But those two - Momoyao had been hit on the head and was still unconscious, and Midoriya's arms were both so broken he was in a coma. From what Todoroki and Shoji said later, he'd tried to the very last second to save Bakugou from being pulled away into the warp gate of that villain from the USJ, almost jumping into the gate after him, even with those injuries, and had done nothing but scream in pain and frustration until passing out.
Midoriya's known Bakugou forever…
And next to me, Eiji looked nearly as upset. Depressed, almost. I know he likes those two a lot. Bakugou's practically his best friend, and now he's been kidnapped. By super villains.
I had no idea what to say. We were surrounded by our classmates, and by emergency rescue people, and the situation was serious and stressful. Finally we were shuffled onto a bus and taken away from training camp, Sensei and about ten pro-heroes accompanying us. Only fifteen students left from Class 1A, 3 of us in bandages.
I sat next to Eiji, and he spent the whole ride with his fists clenched, glaring at the ground.
We were placed in a hotel under top security. Nobody slept that night. I shared a room with Uraraka and Tsu. They both looked terrified and there was nothing I could say to them either.
We spent the night watching the news. Reports were terrible. UA was getting stoned by angry anxious parents, accused of negligence from every corner and attacked by everyone. Nobody was even sticking up for our sensei, who had done everything to protect us - instead they were mad at Sensei for giving us permission to fight.
"Bakugou's kidnapped…Deku's in the hospital…" said Uraraka, who I had never seen frown this long before. Right…she's close to them too…
Two days passed this way. Our parents were contacted and coming to get us, and the fifteen of us left over were practically living at the nearby hospital, waiting to hear if our four sick classmates were any better, and hoping to hear - hoping every hour - that our fifth classmate had been found and brought back. No such luck. Bakugou had vanished.
Momoyao came up on the second day, but she was resting and we could only visit her briefly. And Midoriya came up halfway through day two.
So we went to visit him.
"Ah, Midoriya! You're awake now!" Kaminari waved at him as we arrived at that hospital room we'd been checking up on again and again. "Have you been watching TV? The media's all over UA. It's pretty bad."
"That time in Spring doesn't even compare," said Sato.
"We got you a melon!" piped in Mineta.
"I've caused you trouble, Midoriya," sighed Tokoyami.
"No, I should be saying that. Is everyone from Class A here?" asked Midoriya.
"No…" said Iida. "Jirou and Hagakure still haven't regained consciousness from the villain's gas. And Yaoyorozu suffered a serious head injury so she has also been hospitalized. She supposedly regained consciousness just yesterday, though. Anyway, those three aren't here."
"That still makes just 15 of us," said Uraraka, hesitating. Nobody wanted to tell him.
But Todoroki did. "Because Bakugou's not here."
"Hey, Todoroki!" I cried. Have a little tact, please? The look in Midoriya's eyes was really hard to take.
"All might was saying," he said, slowly, "You can't save people where your hands can't reach. So that's why you have to save anyone within your reach. But…I could reach him. I had to save him…that's why I have this quirk. But it turned out exactly like Mr. Aizawa said it would. My body couldn't move." And he started crying.
"Then this time around, let's save him."
I couldn't for a minute believe Eiji had said it. We were all silent. Then he went on.
"Todoroki and I were here yesterday….And we happened to overhear Yaoyorozu talking to the police."
Apparently, Momoyao put a tracker on one of the villains back at camp, and gave the receiver to the cops.
"In other words," said Iida. "This tracking device - you mean, Yaoyorozu could make us one?" Then he started shouting. "It's exactly as All Might said! This is a matter that should be left to the professionals! This is not a situation for students like us to be meddling in!"
"Damn it, man! I know that already!" cried Eiji, and he actually clasped his hand to his chest. "But still! I couldn't do anything! I heard my friend was targeted. And I just stood by! I didn't do anything about it! If I don't do something about it here, then I won't be able to call myself a hero or a man!"
"I didn't move back then"…The way he'd acted about failing to save my friends back then…
"Please calm down Kirishima!" cried Kaminari. "Your determination is good and all, but this time…"
"Iida's right," said Tsu.
"Iida's right, I know!" cried Eiji. But still!" And he turned to the poor boy on the hospital bed, throwing out a hand as if inviting Midoriya to take it. "Listen, Midoriya! Your hands can still reach him!"