Apologies for the wait! The author's notes will be at the bottom for those who want to read them.
Thank you, and please enjoy!
Standing in front of the mirror mounted at the bathroom sink, Haise stared at his own reflection while trying to adjust the black tie he was wearing to his liking. With his raven-blue hair straightened with gel keeping it slicked back and out of his forehead, Haise stared back at his reflection with a satisfied look on his face.
'The skin care rejuvenator is working great… Goodbye dark circles, and hello overnight restful look,' Haise thought to himself with a soft smile spread across his lips, as he felt proud of himself for creating the synthesized biogel cream that he had made within the first two days of staying at Mei's apartment. 'I probably could be a millionaire overnight if I found a way to mass produce this stuff without needing to harvest the main ingredient from my body…'
'… At least if I ever get into a sticky situation with money, I'm positive that there's someone out there who's willing to pay quite a bit for just a vial of this stuff,' Haise thought to himself as he wrapped his fingers around the large glass tube containing the blood-red biogel, before somewhat feeling ashamed of himself for having such thoughts. 'Mr. Iroh wouldn't approve of me profiting over something that could help the general public. "One for All, not All for One," as he used to say… I wonder if he's okay, or if he's...'
Letting out a sigh, Haise thought back to better times when he and Iroh would take coffee and tea breaks in the lounge area of the community center. Depending on the weather, the breaks they took in between their time spent at the workshop were sometimes held outside, at a nearby oriental-themed garden, where both Haise and Iroh would feed the koi fish while chatting over different subjects.
Feeling saddened yet content with his sweet memories that felt somewhat bitter in the absence of his mentor, Haise recomposed himself and wiped away the tears from his eyes before staring back at himself in the mirror; it was then that he felt his heart nearly skip a beat the moment after he saw Mei standing at the door, wearing just a turtleneck sweater and her underwear.
Turning around to face her with a perplexed look on his face, Haise stared cautiously at the smiling young woman before asking, "… How long were you standing there?"
"Long enough to see you looking like you were having an existential crisis," Mei replied back with a bit of playful sass in her voice, before walking up to him until she was less than an arm's length away from Haise. Scowling slightly while focusing in on the details of his face, Mei took her time analyzing the surface of his skin before letting out an impressed whistle.
"Gotta say, Ishimura, with you having been gone for so long, I almost forgot just how amazing you were when it came to the whole 'prodigy savant' thing you got going on," Mei said with an enthusiastic smirk on her face, before leaning in closer to Haise to reach past his body to grab a hold of the vial that had been resting on the bathroom counter.
"Mind if I have the rest, Ishimura? Unlike you, my burn marks and scars don't heal themselves instantly, and I've got quite a lot of places on my body where this stuff could go," Mei said shamelessly with a goofy smile on her face, before pointing directly to her covered cleavage. "There's a reason why I don't wear tank tops anymore, after all…"
Having never been phased by the human body due to his studies and familiarity with it, as well as being used to how up-close-and-personal Mei tended to be without knowing it, Haise didn't think anything of it as he watched his friend pull up her turtleneck sweater to expose her bra to him.
"What do you think, Ishimura? Think this stuff will work on these bad boys?" She asked whimsically, while patiently watching as Haise leaned in closer to inspect the various burn marks and deep scars that covered the tops of her breast.
"… I didn't exactly make the bio-gel for anything else aside from having the body create an instant surplus of hyperactive platelet-rich plasma for the covered area, and I've only tested it on myself… With that being said, hypothetically it should work, but I think further testing should-" But before Haise could finish giving his two-cents out to Mei, she had already uncapped the vial and was pouring the blood-red cream over her own cleavage. "… Or you could just do that; I guess that works too."
Using one hand to keep her sweater pulled up, Mei freed her other hand by setting the near-empty vial back on the kitchen counter before beginning to rub in the cream over her scarred tissue. "Is it working, Ishimura? It feels all tingly…!" Mei said aloud with an intrigued tone in her voice, while Haise spectated with a careful eye as he kept focused on the crimson-covered scars.
"… Actually, yes; it seems like my concoction is more akin to stem cells than I gave it credit for," Haise said with an unsure look on his face, before reaching over to the towel rack to pull a small hand cloth off of the metal bar. Running the sink to get the cloth wet before shutting the faucet off, Haise raised the hand towel up over Mei's breasts and paused. "Hatsume, do I have your permission to wipe the bio-ge off?"
"Yeah, go ahead! You know already that you don't gotta ask me!" Mei said with a wide smile, before bracing herself as she felt the stinging cold water of the towel making contact with her newly rejuvenated skin.
"I assumed as much, but still, it's good practice and is expected from any one providing care to another to ask them permission before touching them," Haise explained while carefully wiping away the red gelatinous cream from Mei's cleavage. "In fact, another good practice that I highly recommend you doing when you're dealing with test subjects is to explain what you're doing before and while making contact with them. It's actually also expected from medical professionals to do that."
"That's a whole lot of talking that I don't need to be doing to my test subjects, and I doubt they'd understand anything I would tell them anyways." Mei argued. "Besides, I've tried doing that before, and you know what ends up happening?"
"I'd imagine that those who share your knowledge in aerospace and physics would be able to understand you, but considering that you probably work with pro heroes and not fellow support scientists, my guess is that you're used to them not understanding a majority of your explanations," Haise assumed, while using the tip of his cloth to try and wipe away some of the bio-gel that Mei had careless rubbed into her soft and velvet bra.
"Exactly! That's exactly what happens! So you can imagine why that'd be a waste of time on my part," Mei added, while biting slightly down on her lips as she felt Haise's fingers pressing in against her breast, with only the wet towel separating his skin from hers.
Letting out a quiet sigh, Haise shook his head slightly while being oblivious to how sensitive Mei was as he did his best to wipe away a particular crimson stain on her chest that was rather difficult to clean up. "You don't have to educate them about the technical aspect, all you have to do is just ask them permission to touch them, and put into layman's terms over what you're doing while making contact with them."
"That's too much work, Ishimura. They're coworkers, not my patients; they're getting paid to put up with me," Mei said jokingly, while managing to earn a chuckle from her usually reserved friend. "Finally, you laughed! It's been like, forever since I heard you actually find my sense of humor enjoyable! And here I thought that you didn't find me entertaining anymore…"
"… Who said I ever thought you were funny to begin with?" Haise said with a bit of sass in his voice; chuckling a little more after Mei playfully smacked his head in retaliation for his remark.
"Shut up, nerd!" Mei said with an amused scoff, as she kept her free hand resting on top of Haise's raven blue hair.
Finding the endearing insult to be ironic, Haise let out another soft laugh as he finished up wiping away most of the bio-gel cream from Mei's cleavage. "A bit hypocritical of you to say that, no?"
"Nah, I'm way less of a nerd than you, Ishimura! You're way too hyper focused in your own research and interests…! In fact, I bet you don't even know much outside of anything scientific, or if it pertains outside your field of study!" Mei accused as she playfully squeezed her fingers tightly around a handful of the young man's hair; something that he wasn't too fond of, but remained silent about it.
"Oh? How so?" Haise asked with a frown, while being hidden from Mei's gaze under the protection of her uplifted sweater.
"Well for one, how well do you actually know about hero society?!" Mei asked with a challenging smirk on her face, as she gently shook Haise's head back and forth to jostle him. "During the entire time I've known you, you've hardly ever mentioned any of the heroes or sidekicks that made headlines in the news… Aside from All Might, I want you to name five pro heroes on the top of your head, go!"
Frowning a bit, Haise took a moment to rack through his memory for the names of heroes who weren't All Might; a pro hero whose fame had made him a household name across the world. "… There's your boss, Endeavor. And, well… Statistically speaking, I'm sure there's people somewhere who are using the names Spider-Man, Iron Man, Megaman, and Superman… So technically, I DO know more than you think I do about hero society."
"… Are you kidding me?! Those were cheap-ass answers, Ishimura! You were just naming off made up aliases that ended with the word 'man'; those last four didn't count!" Mei argued with an accusing tone in her voice. "Admit it, you're way more of a 'sweaty, try-hard, no life' nerd than I am!"
"… Say what you want, but my 'sweaty, try-hard, no life' knowledge is what just cleared your skin of any previous signs of scarring," Haise said with a slightly sassy look on his face, while once again silently patting himself on the back as he stood up and away from Mei's breast, and watched proudly as she marveled at her reflection.
"Holy shit, Ishimura…! They're just like how they used to be in High School…!" Mei muttered under her breath, as she ogled at her breasts before pulling her sweater off of her and tossing it in the hamper. "I'm gonna shower real quick and wash off the rest of the gunk that your little towel couldn't wipe up. Just go ahead and wait for me here or wherever; just as long as you don't leave for your interview without me!"
Although Haise had his own reservations about Mei possibly making him late to his interview he had with a potential employer, he kept reluctance to himself. 'She's the one who got me the interview in the first place, after all; it'd be crappy of me to prioritize that over her…'
"… Of course, take your time, Hatsume. I'll be in the living room if you need me," Haise announced, and made sure to respectfully turn away as the young woman proceeded to unhook her black velvet bra.
"Don't worry Ishimura, I'll make it quick!" Mei reassured in her usual optimistic tone, before taking her panties off and turning on the hot water in the shower just as Haise nonchalantly exited the bathroom; leaving the excited woman by herself as he headed to the living room that also served as his temporary bedroom.
While Haise was patiently waiting for his friend to finish her prompt-to hour-long-shower, there was an ongoing emergency taking place kilometers away from where Mei's apartment was located.
Towering at the height of fifteen meters, there stood a large dark-furred bipedal beast with the head of a warthog and the body of a bulky man, who had dug through the Earth and the sewer line system underneath Musutafu's streets.
Erupting through the ground at the gates of U.A. High School, the beast which was promptly dubbed 'Warhog' was met with immediate resistance from a platoon of heroes and law enforcers who had been tracking his movement through seismic readers. Amongst the heroes who had been tracking Warhog were Deku, Bakugou, and Shoto.
With the U.A. High School's staff and students stationed above the massive beast, standing along the tops of the bordering walls and behind cover, the three heroes were provided support fire against the massive hybrid. Unfortunately for them, not only was Warhog's thick fur and hide proving to be more than a match for the amount of resistance he was being met with, but the tunnel he had tugged up served as an entry way for the beast's army of villains to use as well.
Within the span of ten minutes since Warhog had first emerged from the Earth like a demon out of Hell, the fortified entrance to the hero academy had become an active battlefield.
Armed with a suit of sleek steel-blue power armor that had been gifted to him by his father's tech company, Firestar, Shoto was able to hold his own against the swarms of villains who were using everything at their disposal to thwart him and his agency's forces from getting to Warhog; who was now using a large chunk of bundled-up rebar to repeatedly chip away at the heavily reinforced wall beside the closed-off entrance.
With Momo taking the lead of his team while actively creating a barrier of solid steel to create a line of defense for her teammates to cover behind, Shoto ordered his appointed law enforcers who had been assigned to him to line up directly behind the barrier his girlfriend had created.
With his auxiliary forces using their BARBATOS sidearms, Shoto's team was able to force the swarms of villains advancing towards them to take cover behind whatever they could find, in order to not be shot at with Q-Gear and everything Shoto and his sidekicks were hitting them with.
"Creati, remain posted. Enforcers, remain covered and keep the pathway clear, and shoot anyone who comes within your crosshairs!" Shoto commanded in an authoritative voice, before turning his head over his shoulder to address his sidekicks. "Everyone else, follow behind me! Engage with anyone who's stuck behind cover; I'm going to clear the path and take out that fat bastard!"
"Affirmative, Shoto!" His most promising sidekick, Rize Yukari, shouted before any of her colleagues could respond to their boss. Armed with a full suit of reinforced knight armor and a helmet that could stop a heavy caliber bullet in its track, Rize had taken up the position as being the one Shoto relied on to lead his sidekicks whenever he nor his girlfriend could do so.
Raising her sword over her shoulder, Rize gripped the steel claymore in her gauntlets and signaled for her teammates to stand back behind her, as she positioned herself between them and Shoto. Giving Rize a nod, Shoto charged up his quirk's ice ability within his hands, and knelt down to aim his projected leap's arc; making sure to calculate his jump to ensure that he would land exactly behind where Warhog's back was turned to.
"On my mark… Get set… GO!!!" Shoto shouted as loud as he could, so that his voice could be heard through his team's communication headsets, and over the roaring of gunfire and battle. Using a concentrated blast of built up ice that was immediately counterattacked with an explosion of fire to propel himself at an angle, Shoto made sure that most of his quirk's heat exhaust was absorbed directly onto his star pupil, who's quirk allowed her to endure heavy amounts of damage that would have been enough to demolish large structures, so that none of his other teammates could be injured.
Getting the propulsion he needed, once air bound, Shoto made sure to rain down a fury of hellfire down on the villians beneath them as he headed toward Warhog; blasting those underneath him with his own quirk's version of napalm, as to cause as much damage to his opponents as he could to allow his sidekicks to safely apprehend them without facing much resistance.
While most of Shoto's sidekicks had to carefully dance around the leftover flames in order to avoid being burned alive like most of the villains who had tried attacking them, Rize sprinted through the fire and flames a full set of heavy-metal armor.
"FOR MUSUTAFU!!!" She roared out in a warrior's battle cry, as she tackled a fully grown man to the ground before bisecting him from the head down to his groin in a single swing of her claymore. Ruthlessly, Rize made sure to duck underneath a bolt of lightning from a man who had been covered in fire before rolling toward him to get to his feet, where she then severed his legs before penetrating him through his stomach and up through his chest with the blade of her sword.
Needless to say, not only was the feared 'Red Saber' a frightful sight for the critically injured, and very unfortunate, villains who she chased down like a merciless hound, but her atrocious acts in the name of justice and her city made even the most hardened of Shoto's sidekicks terrified of her.
Speeding through the air and towards his large target that he had mentally envisioned on the sweaty and furry back of Warhog, Shoto was suddenly knocked off course after a stray bullet hit the chest piece of his power armor. Although his hardened armor was able to protect his chest and absorb the shock from the bullet itself, it still was enough of a distraction to cause him to veer too far towards the laser defense system that was preventing anyone from actually crossing into the property of the High School.
Quickly, Shoto made sure to activate his power armor's aerial propulsion thrusters, and was able to use the mini thrusters located on his shoulders, heels, and hands to correct his course.
Meters away from the large and ignorant beast's back, Shoto was charging up his hand with his quirk's frost ability, when all of a sudden he caught a glance from the corner of his eye at the large ball of white fire heading his way.
"Damnit…!" Shoto muttered under his breath and into his headset, before immediately moving his hand up to release a massive blast of ice to counterattack the intense heat of the projected fireball.
Picking up on her boyfriend's distress while still actively maintaining the steel barrier to protect the law enforcers, Momo cursed under her breath, before pressing down on her headset piece. "Shoto?! What's going on, I can't see you with this barrier in the way…!"
"Dabi's here," was all Shoto had time to say, before immediately using his suit to thrust himself out of the way from the large gaping maw of a giant serpent made entirely out of ice, that was flying towards him in the air. "… So is Iceman," Shoto added with a stressed out sigh, before using his other hand to land a direct blast of fire that shattered the ice serpent into a massive cloud of snow; a thick cloud of snow, that made it impossible for Shoto to see his older brother flying at him at mach speed.
"Well, well, well! Look who's following in Daddy's footsteps!" Dabi shouted mockingly with an eerie grin spread across his face, while also taking absolute pleasure in the shocked expression that was plastered across his little brother's face the moment he spotted him.
"Dab- NGHH!!!" Before he could finish speaking, Shoto was cut off immediately as Dabi took advantage of his ambush to strike a flashfire fist straight into his younger brother's abdomen.
"TOO SLOW, YOU SPOILED PIECE OF SHIT!!! TOO SLOW!!! JET BURN!!!" Dabi screamed in psychotic deight, as he felt his hot-white fist crushing Shoto's armored abdomen plates.
Although Shoto's armor was able to tank an attack that would have blown him apart into a cloud of ash, the sharp pieces of metal and plastic wiring that had managed to pierce through his protective weave were stabbing him. Feeling his own warm blood trickling down his undersuit's weave, Shoto let out a muffled grunt and endured the pain the best he could, as he cocked his fist back to launch his own flashfire fist at his brother.
Unfortunately, Dabi had been predicting his brother's counter attack and immediately reached up to grab a hold of his wrist to wrestle against Shoto's white-hot fist. Planning to execute Shoto by breaking his little brother's neck from the impact of their fall, Dabi was suddenly caught off guard the moment he and his younger brother were suddenly encapsulated by a ball of fire.
"WHAT IS THIS?!" Dabi demanded, as he closed his eyes to avoid his eyeballs from being burned, while Shoto grabbed on tightly to him to prevent him from fleeing.
"R-Reverse Flashwave Freeze…!" Shoto grunted out through the agony he was feeling, before suddenly using the same fist he had used to coat him and his brother in fire to instantly cause a blast of freezing air to engulf them. Not only were the flames extinguished in an instant, but the sudden shift in temperature was enough to cause a massive explosion created from air pressure between the two brothers.
Not only was Shoto able to launch his older brother away, after causing Dabi's body to go into shock from the sudden shift in temperature, but the young man was able to once again correct his aerial course and towards the rampaging Warhog's back.
Being kept focused and awake solely from the adrenaline coursing through his body, Shoto had only seconds to prepare his flashfire fist as his damage suit did its best to cool his body down to counteract the blazing temperatures building up in his fist. Keeping his eyes on the prize, Shoto wearily muttered, "Jet Kindling," under his breath, before finally slamming his fist directly into the beast's spine.
Upon being hit with everything that Shoto had, the giant hybrid abomination let out an ear-shattering cry of pain as it's spinal cord was ripped to shreds from its own displaced bone shrapnel tearing straight through it. Having been killed in an instant, Warhog's hefty body fell forward and was sliced into strips of crisped gore after landing straight through the High School's laser defense fence, that had been the only thing stopping the beast from entering onto the premises in the first place.
Unfortunately however, due to size of Warhog's massive body falling down onto the fence itself, the charred remains of flesh and bone that went through the laser fence were enough to crumble a twenty meter wide opening into the wall; crushing several students and a staff member who had been caught in the debris as well.
Landing hard onto the ground after falling from twelve meters in the air, Shoto's damaged power armor was able cushion his fall. Even after being able to defend himself from Dabi and slay Warhog, Shoto wasn't necessarily out of the clear just yet.
"SHOTOOOOO!!!" A thunderous battle cry erupted from the air, which alerted the injured man of the massive snow serpent hovering over him like a mythical dragon.
"For God's sake… Give me a damn break…" Shoto exasperated with a very annoyed tone in his voice, as he struggled to get back up to his feet. Spitting out a wad of blood that made its way up from his stomach, Shoto did his best to remain conscious as he tried with all of his might to build up a concentrated ball of fire to blast Geten's proxy out of the sky, but was forced to react to frosty beam of ice being shot down at him from the serpent's mouth.
Firing upward to have his projected embers collide with the beam of ice that was a mere three meters above him, Shoto was breathing heavily under his breath and his vision was beginning to become blurry as he shot out a continuous blast of fire from his hands. With his limbs and eyelids growing unbearably heavy, it was nothing short of a miracle that Shoto was able to overpower Geten's second ice serpent; once again causing the controlled creation to disperse into a cloud of snow.
Shoto's victory was short lived, as the moment he took down the second ice serpent, he was suddenly blindsided by a flurry of icicles that were shot at him as though they were being fired from a heavy machine gun. Once again, Shoto's damage power armor was able to protect him from the fragile, yet deadly, projectiles being fired upon him, and was even able to shatter them on impact.
However, that didn't stop Geten from targeting his suit's compromised abdomen area, along with being able to slice Shoto's face up with a few well-aimed shots, while also knocking his opponent down to his feet from the sheer amount of ice he was hitting him with.
After having endured so much damage and using his vast amount of stamina to defeat so many powerful opponents, Shoto had finally succumbed to his fatigue and his blood loss, and had lost consciousness as he watched Geten walking towards him after enduring his barrage attack.
Standing over Shoto's body, Geten felt glory in his cheaply won victory, and smiled devilishly at the critically injured young man, before stomping down on his bloodied abdomen. "You're nothing more than a reflection of your father: a dog of the state who answers the call to his master like a good and obedient bitch…" Geten boasted with a self-righteous tone in his voice, while aiming his gloved hand down towards Shoto's bloodied face.
"… Sayanora, Shoto; take comfort knowing that your bastard brother is the next one to di… What the hell is that…!?" Geten muttered with the color of his face draining, as he was suddenly caught off guard by the sight of a ground-mounted giant rail gun emerging from a bright purple light in the distance. By the time he realized that the cannon had been aiming directly at him, it was too late.
"I-IMPOSSIBLE-" Geten screamed in absolute terror, and was only able to turn around an inch or two before suddenly exploding into a cloud of red viscus that coated Shoto and the area around him in gore. With the only thing remaining of Geten being the lower half of his body, the deceased man's legs manage to carry what was left of him a few more steps, before finally collapsing on the ground near Shoto's unconscious body.
Off in the distance, having watched the entire scene unfold behind the telescopic sights of her self-created rail gun, Momo let out a weak sigh of relief as she released her grip from the controls she had created alongside her accurate magnetic cannon. Frail to the point where she appeared skeletal underneath her red-light armor, Momo collapsed onto the asphalt road and behind the protection of her agency's auxiliary fire squad.
"Shoto… You better survive… Goddamnit, please…" Momo muttered as a weary prayer, before using what strength she had left in her arms to pull up the electronic visor she had over her eyes, so that they were resting on the top of her head. Without the interface of her visor to obscure her blurry vision, Momo did her best to remain focused, bobbing in-and-out of consciousness as she reached into her beige utility belt to retrieve a snack, as the armed men formed a protective barrier around her while one of the police officers decided to take up the controls of the rail gun, to provide heavy fire to any and all large targets left on the battlefield.
In the midst of the ongoing battle, Dabi had managed to recover from his younger brother's surprise counter attack and was flying back towards the direction of where Warhog once stood. Figuring that the beast's demise was due to Shoto's intervention, Dabi deduced and had calculated the area where his younger brother would have been.
Sure enough, Dabi's keen mind had led him to where his younger brother was, and it was then that he saw the bloodied state that he was in. Believing Shoto at first to be dead from seeing just how damaged his power armor was, along with the fact that he was laying down on the sidewalk covered in thick bloody viscus, it was then that Dabi noticed the familiar pair of boots connected to the pair of legs laying beside his brother's body.
"About goddamn time…" Dabi chuckled in childish delight, after finally realizing that his disliked colleague had been the one who was dispatched by the booming rail gun when it first fired. "Glad that I'm not too late then… Maybe I'll be able to call myself a good older brother if I can say that I put my baby brother out of his misery…" Dabi muttered sadistically to himself, while finding the hypothetical situation in his head amusing as he walked over to Shoto's body.
"Trust me asshole, no one's ever gonna think that about you!" A gruff and vicious voice called out from behind Dabi; alerting him and causing him to turn around to face none other than Bakugou, who was donning an armored black stealth suit with various orange lights lining up-and-down his sleeves.
Brushing his fingers through his white hair, Dabi let out an amused scoff at who he was looking at before letting out a condescending chuckle. "Ah, it's my father's little pet, all dressed up for-"
Dabi's snarky remarks were cut short the moment Bakugou reached down towards his black armored gauntlet to activate a hot-pink force field, that wrapped itself around his frame before going invisible. Not allowing himself to wait and find out what the device on his opponent's arm was capable of, Dabi immediately became serious and deadpanned as he lifted his arm up to fire a large blast of seering white flames that blew apart the rubble underneath Bakugou's feet.
The flames that were shot out of Dabi's hand were capable of melting steel in seconds, and they continued to flow from his hand and surround the radius in front of him for a complete minute, before the cautious villain finally relented; Dabi believing that the lava he had created from melting the rock and stew underneath Bakugou feet would be more than enough to kill him.
Low and behold however, at the bottom of the molten pit of lava was Bakugou, who was covered in a bright pink light as he climbed out of the crater, just before his force field finally wore off. "That was pretty good… BUT I CAN DO BETTER!!!" Bakugou roared out in a warrior's cry, before using his quirk to blast himself out of the large hole in the Earth and directly towards the somewhat fatigued villain.
"Cocky bastard…!" Dabi spat out in a worried voice, before using his quirk to fly upward to avoid being caught by Bakugou. Looking down to see that Bakugou was using the explosions from his hands to chase after him in the sky, Dabi immediately aimed one hand down and used his fingertips to create long beams of web-like plasma.
"Doesn't matter… You'll die just like my brother will…" Dabi muttered under his breath, as he prepared himself to use his spider-like webs to slice clean through Bakugou's and Shoto's bodies in a flurry of whip-like motions, but as soon as he cocked his hand up to finish both his opponent's off, he felt something powerful wrap itself around his wrist.
Looking up at the small black tendril wrapped around his wrist, Dabi was able to catch a glimpse of Deku standing off in the near distance before suddenly being pulled down toward ground with enough force that his arm had gotten dislocated from his shoulder.
"F-Fuckin' All Might Wannabe…!" Dabi cursed bitterly, as he looked up and watched his wasted spider-web-like attack go up into the sky before exploding into a cloud of white-plasma, that lit up the battlefield and was unable to end the lives of his opponents.
Seeing how Deku had one fist cocked back while using his other arm to keep his quirk's tendril wrapped around his wrist, Dabi lowered his unbounded hand and aimed his other palm down at the green-costumed hero, with the intent of blasting him with a cloud of white-hot fire.
Before that could happen, the bones in Dabi's left arm were suddenly shattered and splintered inside his pulped muscles, the moment after Bakugou's powerful fist made contact with him; causing the pyromaniac's charged up fire attack to go haywire, which accidentally caused his his left broken arm to catch on fire.
With the combined leverage from Deku yanking down on Dabi's wrist, Bakugou was able to grab onto the back of his opponent's neck before causing an explosion behind him to launch the stitched-up villian down towards the asphalt of the broken road, with enough velocity to cause a crater to form after Bakugou slammed Dabi into the ground.
As the dust settled from the air, Bakugou and Deku stood over the medium-sized hole in the ground, and peered down at the broken body of Dabi, who lay bloodied and covered in rocks and dirt. Both Bakugou and Deku took a moment to catch their breath while still carefully looking down at Dabi, to analyze whether or not he was still breathing or not.
After seeing his chest rising and falling in shallow intervals, Deku figured that he'd need to be taken to a hospital, but other than that Dabi would be fine for the most part. However, Bakugou had other plans for the pyromaniac in mind, as he lowered his arm down and aimed his palm directly at Dabi's head. Seeing this, Deku immediately hopped over the crater to push Bakugou backwards without trying to aggravate the hot-headed blond man too much.
"Kacchan, that's enough! Dabi's already down for the count; you don't have to rough him up anymore…!" Deku insisted, while trying to put himself between Bakugou and Dabi.
Glaring daggers at Deku, Bakugou let out an annoyed grunt and opened his mouth to protest, but took a moment to collect his thoughts before letting out an elongated breath. "… Whatever," Bakugou muttered to his childhood friend, before reaching into his utility belt to take out a specialized pair of handcuffs.
Despite the fact that they were in an active battlefield, Deku still found himself smiling a bit at the fact that Bakugou chose to spare Dabi, rather than unnecessarily killing him out of hatred. "… Thank you, Kacchan," Deku said with appreciation in his voice, while being blind to the fact that Bakugou had rolled his eyes at him while turning Dabi over to cuff his hands behind his backs.
"… I'm only doing this because he's worth more alive to me than dead," Bakugou announced in a prideful voice, while pressing down on the cuff's biometric scanner to activate its quirk-nullifying ability. Having pacified Dabi, who had already become unconscious from his injuries, Bakugou picked the older man's body up and slung him over his shoulder as Deku reached his hand down to help him out of the small crater.
"You'd be correct about that, nnghhh…!" Deku grunted out, as he pulled Bakugou out of the ground, before backing up to give him space to move from the edge of the hole. Looking over his shoulder while Bakugou aggressively slammed Dabi's body down on the shattered asphalt beneath their feet, Deku surveyed the horizon as the sounds of gunfire and battling dwindled.
'Looks like some of the villains who came with Warhog are retreating… Wonder how many of them were actually captured and didn't die… Makes me dread the thought of our own casualties…' Deku thought bitterly to himself, as he continued to scan his eyes across the dying battlefield. 'Although it's tempting to chase after them, especially after what they did to the U.A.'s property and the lives they took, I think that we should be more focused on treating the wounded rather than…?!' Deku thought, before suddenly tensing up, as he felt his quirk's foresight ability kicking in.
Making his way over to Deku's side to see what could have possibly caused the young man to let out a loud gasp, it didn't take Bakugou long to take notice of the distant black flare that had been shot into the sky. "… Oh shit," Bakugou muttered while feeling the color draining from his face.
"… They weren't running from us," Deku muttered under his breath, after seeing the black clouds in the air looming over them as a 'harbinger'. Feeling his lips becoming dry and his heart beating painfully in his chest, Deku let out a trembling breath while hearing Bakugou profusely swearing under his breath.
Their hesitation coming from their natural instinct to perverse their lives peaked the moment they saw several large lightning-bolts erupting from the ground and upward in different directions, over from the direction where the flare had been shot in the first place. Faintly, Deku could make out the silhouettes of what looked to be charred bodies being launched upwards from where the electric explosion had taken place.
"Son of a bitch…!" Bakugou cursed under his breath, before using his quick reflexes to tackle Deku's shell shocked body out of the way, just in time to avoid him being hit by a large bar of rebar that flew from the blast radius; a hazardous piece of debris that had unfortunately ripped the unlucky sidekick who had been trying to catch up with them in half.
Upon snapping back to reality, Deku was awoken by the sounds of screams and gunfire once more, and was greeted with the horrifying sight of one of Deku's young sidekick laying bisected from the waist down a meter away from where his feet were. "N… No…AKIRA!!!" Deku muttered with tears forming in his eyes, as he pushed Bakugou's arm off of himself so he could crawl towards the sixteen year old boy, who was bleeding profusely from his large opened wound beneath his torso.
Vomiting blood onto the asphalt beneath him, the young boy trembled violently as he lifted his head up to stare into Deku's widened eyes through his own bloodshot and tearful vision. "H-Here… Take it…" The dying sidekick stuttered out painfully, as he reached his hand out to present Deku a small circular shield that appeared to be made out of the same lightweight and sturdy onyx material that the BARBATOS sidearms were composed of.
"W-What is this… Akira, please…!" Deku spat out with a confused and heartbroken voice, as he gently took the shield from the dying young boy's hand before putting it aside to hold the sidekick's outstretched hand with both of his own hands.
Feeling a stinging sensation in his heart after getting up to see the scene before him unfolding, Bakugou let out a shaky breath before collecting himself. "… That's… That looks like Q-Gear… I haven't seen anything like it though," Bakugou explained as best as he could, before walking over to kneel down beside Deku to clamp his hand on the young boy's cold shoulder.
Swallowing back the lump in his throat as he fought off the urge to cry, Bakugou was met with the young sidekick's dreary eyes before doing his best to comfort the boy in his final moments. "… It's okay… W-We'll take it from here… Y-You can rest now."
Staring back at Bakugou, the young boy continued to make eye contact with him while muttering something incoherently before suddenly going completely limp.
While Deku shamelessly wept over the tragic death of someone who had their whole lives taken from them before it could even begin, Bakugou took a moment to mutter a few words of respect, as he raised his gloved hand up to wipe his tears away.
"H-He wasn't supposed to die…! He wasn't supposed to…!" Deku repeatedly choked out, as he slammed his balled up fist against the ground with anguish. "H-He didn't deserve this…! Akira… A-AKIRA…!!!"
Although Bakugou didn't know Akira as anything more than Deku's only side, who had been working for him and Ochako since the Tartarus incident occurred over a month ago, the blond man knew enough to know how much the young sidekick meant to his childhood friend. The only thing that came to mind for Bakugou was that Akira, also known as 'Mighty Lad', was a good kid, and he had been quite popular and liked by those who he was in class with; which happened to be those who were working underneath Shoto and Momo.
Their solemn moment of silence was interrupted by the sounds of anguished cries coming from Shoto's other young sidekicks, after they had finally made their way over to their dead friend's side. Huddling over his torso, several of Shoto's sidekicks fell to their knees and wrapped their arms around Akira, sobbing uncontrollably while purposefully apologizing for not being able to save him.
Being the most level headed out of the group, Rize towered over Deku and Bakugou with her steel-plated helmet visor obscuring what facial expression she had, as she stared down at them. "All Might, Dynamite," Rize addressed respectfully, "That shield was given to Mighty Lad by the academy's support class."
Although Bakugou was still feeling upset over the fact that he had watched a young boy die, he was able to pick himself up and address Rize, while he allowed Deku to cry along with the sidekicks who had gone to class with Akira.
"… I see. I suppose you weren't able to get any information about how exactly U.A. High School was able to make that, did you? As far as I'm aware, only Firestar should be in possession of Q-Gear," Bakugou asked in a serious tone, as he was obligated to ask in lieu of Endeavor.
Rize shook her head before replying, "Unfortunately, due to the students and staff insisting how important it was for All Might to get this shield… Questioning them on it wasn't a top priority, and still isn't," Rize said in a somewhat defiant tone, before raising her large sword over her shoulder while using her free hand to point a metal finger over toward the direction of the black trail in the sky. "… That's my top priority right now; as it should be yours."
"… Fair enough," Bakugou muttered agreeingly with the armored young woman, before letting out another sigh as he reached his hand up to his earpiece. "This is Dynamite to Ingenium, do you copy?" Bakugou asked through the small microphone of his ear piece, before waiting a few moments before finally getting an answer back.
"… I-INGENIUM TO DYNAMITE!!! TEAMS DELTA A-AND FOXTROT ARE ENGAGING THE GOD EATER EXECUTIVE!!! I REPEAT, WE'RE CURRENTLY- NO, DAMNIT!!!" Tenya screamed out in anguish and despair, before ending the transmission the moment Bakugou could hear a thunderous boom off in the direction of where the black smoke trail was originating from.
Looking out towards that direction, it was at that very moment Bakugou watched as another blast of electricity shot out into the air and across the battlefield. "Son of a bitch…!" Bakugou muttered fearfully to himself, before reaching back up to frantically press on his ear piece. "Dynamite to Ingenium, what's your status? Ingenium? Ingenium?! Ingenium, you answer me right now, goddamnit!INGENIUM!!!"
Apologies for taking a while to release this chapter; I had written two versions of this chapter that I had to scrap, because I wasn't satisfied with how they turned out.
The first act of this chapter wasn't to focus on sexualizing Mei, at least that wasn't my intention. It was more about showcasing Haise and Mei's relationship, and about how comfortable they were with one another.
Mei is more down to Earth and doesn't feel the need to try and put on an esentric face in front of Haise, while Haise in turn feels comfortable with being able to have playfully banter and discuss whatever is on his mind to her. Again, it was mostly there to add character, and show how comfortable they are with one another.
The other act of the chapter was the showcase the new way the heroes would fight the villains, and how their battles became more akin to warfare than traditional good versus evil confrontations. It also was to show the reader the world as Mei told to Haise in the previous chapter.
Some heroes would adapt to the violence in their own ways. For example, Shoto and Momo were accepting with taking a life, it meant they could protect each other or those who entrusted their lives in them.
Bakugou's go to method is to kill his opponents, and it'll be explained more so in future chapters, other than just him being violent.
Midoriya, on the other hand, tries his hardest to maintain the legacy of All Might, and is against the idea of killing. Other than the fact that Deku would try to keep the old way of heroes alive to be a symbol of peace, it's also because he was the first one to kill out of his group of friends, and has conflicting thoughts for it that will be explored in future chapters. It'll also be explained later why Deku only had one sidekick.
The O.C. character introduced in this chapter, Rize Yuraki, is inspired by Rize Kamishiro from Tokyo Ghoul in the terms of her looks and ruthlessness, while her looks and armor thus far have been inspired by Mordred from the Fate series.
Again, if it hasn't been obvious this far, Haise Ishimura was inspired by heavily by Ken Kaneki, while also having inspiration from Code Vein and even Dead Space.
Anyways, thank you for reading this, and hope to post the conclusion to this arc soon!