Izuku's first reaction to seeing a literal swarm of villains facing down his unprepared class and two pro heroes was to laugh. Thankfully, he had gained a little more brain to mouth control and did not laugh in the face of the tragedy that was about to unfold, but it was a very near thing. Because of course this was happening. Wasn't that just Izuku's luck? Hadn't he just been thinking that he needed some kind of traumatic event to wash away the lingering doubts he held about the strength of Kaminari's friendship? Izuku had asked for this. He had actually asked for this, and the universe, being the caring yet unforgiving entity that it was, seemed more than happy to oblige him by giving him exactly what he had jokingly thought he needed.

The villain with the hand covering his face stepped forward, and Izuku seriously hoped that he wasn't the type to monologue. Or if he was that he would at least remove the hand from his face to do so. Did that make it hard for him to talk? Was it a purely aesthetic choice, or was there more significance to the hand than Izuku could glean from a distance? A distance quiet part of his brain told him he was probably going into shock, but Izuku shoved it down. Now wasn't the time to be hit with the reality of their situation. Not if Izuku planned to do anything about it.

"I wonder," the lead villain said, the words muffled by the hand. The swirling mass of smoke the villains had appeared out of twisted in the air, taking the vague shape of a man. The villain seemed content to let the words linger as he looked over them, and Izuku took the chance to size him up as well.

His hair hung at shoulder length, but the strands were stark. Not just white, but as though they had been bleached of their color. They framed his face in greasy swathes, lining the edges of the hand still covering the man's features. If it was intended to hide his identity, Izuku didn't think that it would do him any good. The hair alone would have been distinctive for the utter feeling of wrongness that Izuku felt looking at the lack of color, but his skin… Izuku had never seen skin crack like that before. There wasn't much on display with his long black sleeves and pants covering his arms and legs, but his own hands and the edges of his face not covered were grey and brittle looking. Izuku could almost imagine that if he touched the villain's skin it would crumble under his fingers.

Izuku couldn't get a clear read on the rest of the villains, only that they were severely out numbered. There were maybe twenty-five to thirty of them beside the leader and the person who had warped them all in. Some of them had weapons. Some of them didn't. All of them looked ready to swarm the students if given the chance, and Izuku didn't want to think about the odds on how that encounter would go. Yes, the students at Yuuei were supposed to be the best of the best, but they had next to no real fighting experience. The only real experience they had was fighting each other, and there was a big difference between combat with a classmate and combat with a mob of villains who would have no qualms about hurting children.

"All Might was supposed to be here," the villain continued. Something in his voice sounded almost like a petulant child. "I don't see him. That's disappointing. After all, we came all this way to play. Do you think he would come for the children?"

No one answered him as Aizawa readied his scarves. Izuku couldn't see his face, but he recognized the tension in his shoulders. Thirteen stood protectively in front of the class, but Izuku couldn't see what they would be able to do if the villains really wanted to get to the students. They acted as a rescue hero mostly, and the kind of close fighting this could easily become wasn't something they engaged in often.

"It seems like the kind of thing that would draw All Might," the villain continued. "Dead children and dead heroes. A Symbol of Peace surrounded by so much death and bloodshed. So many broken little bodies. Yes, that seems like just the thing to bring him here, and then the real fun can begin."

The villain smiled then, a grotesque grin breaking around the edges of the hand. Izuku could tell it was only a matter of seconds before he signaled the rest of the villains, before the villains would be on them. Aizawa knew it too.

"Get them out of here, Thirteen," his mentor said. What followed next was the dumbest thing Izuku had ever seen Aizawa do. Without looking back, trusting that Thirteen would do as he asked, Aizawa took a deep breath, tightened his grip on his weapon, and jumped straight into the fray. Within seconds he had two villains on the ground, scarves wrapped tightly around them, but even as Izuku watched him nullify a quirk and punch a third villain in the face, Izuku knew that it wouldn't be enough.

This wasn't how Aizawa fought. He wasn't All Might. He didn't get involved in long, drawn out melee fights. Aizawa clung to the shadows, taking out his targets before they ever knew he was there. He was quiet and cunning, not brash and forceful. He chose his battles carefully, and if the conditions weren't to his liking then he changed them. He did not throw himself into situations that he wasn't prepared for. That had always been the golden rule. Be smart. Be careful. Don't rush in. Except that was exactly what Aizawa had just done, and it was going to get him killed.

Izuku hadn't even realized he had taken a step forward, his eyes locked on his teacher as he sent another villain crashing through the crowd, until he felt a tug on the back of his shirt. Kaminari stood behind him, grip still tightly clenched on the fabric. His face looked as stricken as Izuku felt.

"Don't," Kaminari said, as Thirteen started ushering them back, away from the fight. Izuku could still see the villain with the hands over their shoulder standing frozen in the midst of the chaos. He didn't look concerned by Aizawa's intervention, but he made no move to follow after them either. The smoke man wavered in the air beside him.

"Izuku," Kaminari said again, harsher this time. He tugged on Izuku's shirt again, forcing Izuku to take a few stumbling steps back. "Don't." It was as though everything was happening in slow motion. Thirteen continued to gesture them towards the exit, glancing over their shoulder to see if they were being followed. Later, he would be grateful to Kaminari for holding him back, but in that moment all he wanted to do was knock his friend's hand aside, pull out his weapons, and join his teacher in what they all knew was a losing battle. He couldn't leave Aizawa alone to face all that. He couldn't. Not when Aizawa was basically sacrificing himself to save them, and the only one who seemed to care was Izuku.

Izuku trusted Aizawa. He believed in him more than anything or anyone else, but he had also spent the last two years training with him every chance he got. The only person who knew Aizawa's weaknesses better than Izuku was Hizashi, which meant Izuku knew just how much trouble they were in for Aizawa to make such a drastic move.

He could die. Aizawa could actually die from this, and they were just going to leave him.

When he was younger, his mother had an old record player. It was ancient, and always smelled like dust no matter how much they cleaned it. The few records they had were just as old, and Izuku always refused to touch them because he was so sure that if he broke one his mother would cry, and the last thing he wanted was to see his mother cry. Sometimes when it rained they would turn off the lights, place candles around the room, and bundle up in blankets on the couch to listen to the record music. Every once in a while, the needle would stick though, the song caught on the say word over and over again until his mother made her way over to fix it. Izuku felt as though his thoughts skipped like the needle on the record, the same phrase repeating in his mind over and over again in an endless loop he couldn't break himself out of.

He could die he could die he could die he could die he could-

"Izuku!" This time Kaminari pulled harder, and Izuku tripped into his side, knocking him out of his thoughts. "You need to focus! We have to stay with the others. Aizawa wants us to leave, so that's what we're going to do!"

"Kaminari-"

"I know," Kaminari said, his grip shifting from the back of Izuku's shirt to his hand. "But you can't think about that now. We need to get help. The alarms should have gone off as soon as someone without a name tag stepped on campus, but they didn't. One of these villains has to be blocking the signal."

"Keep going," Thirteen said, "Iida-kun, you have to go ahead. Run for the main building. We're too far out for there to be anyone close by, but stop if you see anyone and get them to try to call it in. As soon as you get there, get Principal Nedzu!"

Izuku's eyes had been trained on the scene below, on Aizawa and the villains, but even he didn't see the shadow figure move. One moment he was on the floor with the others, and then the next he was looming in front of them. His shape stretched until he towered over them, tendrils of the smoke lashing out. The students at the head of the group skidded to a halt to stop from coming into contact with him. Iida stood out farther than the others, edging carefully around the group. He had to be waiting for an opening to bolt for the door, but Izuku couldn't see the villain in front of them giving him the chance unless someone did something first. He had stood at the leader's side as the fighting started, and he had come after them without a word. Izuku would bet that he was one of the more powerful villains there.

"This really is nothing personal," the villain said, his figure still looming over them. "There just isn't any other way. When one is trying to kill the Number One Hero, one simply doesn't have many weak points to target." His voice sounded deep and tired, as though he were bored with the whole situation already. As though he hadn't just admitted that their goal was to kill All Might.

"Kill All Might?" Kirishima repeated, stepping away from the group. Bakugou was right behind him with Uraraka coming up beside him. "Not if we stop you."

"Student!" Thirteen called, voice sounding strangled through the filter in their mask. "Step back!"

"Now I can't have you do that," the villain said, and although Izuku could see no face it sounded as though the man were smiling. "Bright little heroes. Good luck."

Izuku had just enough time to process the words before the swirling tendrils around the man exploded into movement, expanding as they whipped around the group. Kaminari's grip on Izuku's hand tightened as everything went dark, the smoke blocking out the light completely. Izuku couldn't see anything, couldn't feel anything but Kaminari's grip on his hand as they were battered around in the darkness for a moment before they were thrust back into the light a few dozen feet above water.

It didn't matter that Izuku didn't have a chance to catch his breath because the impact would have knocked it out of him. Kaminari's hand was ripped from his, and Izuku struggled to blink around the water and figure out what was going on. His lungs burned, but kept his mouth firmly closed as he looked around.

They must have been dropped into the boat rescue area, because Izuku could see a dark shape in the water on the other side of the pool. Kaminari was a few yards away from him, looking at Izuku with wide eyes, movements frantic as he pointed away from the boat. The villains must have planned to separate the students, because there were several other people in the pool on the opposite end as the boat, the distance between them not far enough for Izuku's liking. He pointed up, to the surface and Kaminari nodded.

Gasping as soon as he breached the water, Izuku scanned the area around them. The villains hadn't started moving yet, but Izuku figured that it would only be a matter of time. If the villains were here, that must mean that their quirks were water based somehow. He and Kaminari would be at a disadvantage.

"We have to get to the boat," Izuku said, trying to look over his shoulder while keep an eye on the villains.

"Izuku!"

One of the villains must have had a shark related quirk. When Izuku had turned to look at the boat the water had been calm, but now there was a fin racing towards them. The other villains had started to swim closer as well, the distance between them closer with every second. Izuku's mind raced through what he had at his disposal. Could he get a pocket open without losing any of his gear to the water?

Beside him, Kaminari flailed, trying to reach for Izuku again. His expression tight, eyes wide, Izuku knew what he was about to do. It was his turn to yell, "Don't!" It had to have been an instinct. When in danger, use quirk.

Kaminari looked startled, shaking his head. "Right, right. Do you have a plan?"

Izuku was the plan guy, of course he had a plan. It wasn't a very good plan, but it was at least something. He was about to explain, when he felt something slimy wrap around his waist, and he was yanked out of the water, back towards the boat. He collided hard with the metal, the breath knocked out of him again as he sputtered. A second later, Kaminari landed beside him.

"That was close."

Looking up, Izuku saw Asui sitting on the boat's railing. "You're welcome," she said, hoping down. "Now do either of you have a plan to get us out of here."

"Izuku has a plan!" Kaminari blurted out, as he sat up.

"That plan might need a little tweaking now that we're out of immediate danger." Izuku wasn't about to explain that his plan had been to punch the shark in the nose and hope that factoid that he had learned by watching nature documentaries applied to shark people as well.

"You jinxed us, Izuku! You made that joke earlier, and now! I almost…" Kaminari trailed off, and Izuku suddenly felt awful for what he had only meant as a teasing joke. Another way the universe was cursing him today.

"You didn't though. Everything's okay. I'm okay. I'm sorry, Denki, I didn't know that was going to happen."

"No, no, I know," Kaminari groaned. "I'm just going to be no help here. Even if those guys are villains, I don't want to kill them. Besides, this boat is metal, and I have no idea if it's insulated correctly considering it's inside a building. I can't risk using my quirk and frying you two in the process."

Izuku shook his head again, looking down at the water. There were six villains that he could see below, including the shark. Using Kaminari's quirk would be the easy solution, but there was no way that would work without killing anybody.

"They don't know your quirks," Izuku said slowly.

"What?" Asui asked.

"Think about it. If they knew everyone's quirk, they would have been more careful about where we were dropped. Water is an advantage to you, and if they were smart the last thing they would want is Kaminari around a large body of water and metal. Which means they didn't know."

"So how does that help us?" Asui asked. "Kaminari can't use his quirk. Do you have anything in that magic belt of yours that will get us out of here?"

"Maybe," Izuku said, running through everything he had stocked in his bag. "What exactly does your quirk allow you to do?"

"Pretty much anything a frog can do," Asui said, shrugging. "Some of it's not actually helpful to hero work, but I can jump higher than normal. My tongue stretches to about twenty meters, and is stronger. That's how I got the two of you out of the water."

Putting the grossness of that fact aside, Izuku brushing his finger against one of the latches on his bag and opened it to see rows of Wonder Balls perfectly intact. Mei had been right, the name had stuck as much as he hated it. Asui and Kaminari both looked as though he was handing them live explosive when he placed two gently in each of their hands. In a way, he supposed he kind of was.

"Normally, I wouldn't let you touch these. It took weeks of practice before my mentor let me handle a live one, but I think this counts as extenuating circumstances. Don't drop them, and don't squeeze them. That will set them off."

Kaminari and Asui did not look comforted by the news, glancing at Izuku as he pulled out a couple for himself.

"The purple ones are explosives. They're on a time delay. Impact with the water should be enough to set them off. We're going to throw these first, and try to get them as close to the villains as possible. They're making it easy for us with the way they are huddled together." He waited for Kaminari and Asui to nod before continuing. "The yellow ones act as flash grenades. Once we throw the purple ones, close your eyes, look away, and squeeze these in your hand until you feel it crack then throw it in the way too. These should buy us about a minute, and by that point the explosions should all be going off. They won't sink to the bottom, so if we aim well that should buy us even more time."

"What next?"

"We're outnumbered, and we don't know what other abilities they may have. The best way to win this fight is not to fight. Asui, when they're distracted, can you throw us towards the shore? If we can get out of the water, they aren't likely to chase after us and give up their advantage. After all, they still don't know what we can do, and Kaminari will be free to zap them once we're clear of the water."

"I can do that!"

"Okay, so we just need to make sure that we all go at once. It will be more effective if the explosions are close together. On my signal."

"One!"

It wasn't the best plan, but they were short on options and time. While they were dealing with these villains, there was no telling what was going on with the rest of their classmates, let alone Aizawa.

"Two!"

This would work, and then they could get a better understanding of what was really going on.

"Thr-"

A wave roared through the water lashing out at the ship and cracking the hull straight down the middle. The boat lurched to one side, and all three of them stumbled, grabbing onto the railing to keep from falling back into the water.

"Now!" Izuku said. The villains didn't look concerned at the small drops that landed in the water beside them, more focusing on watching as the boat began to sink.

He watched as Kaminari and Asui shielded their faces before turning his own into the crook in his elbow and squeezed the lump of clay in his hand until he felt it crack. Without hesitating, he lobbed it towards the water as well. Instantly, there were screams of protest from below.

"Clear!" He called and heard two resounding calls of, "Clear!" follow.

Izuku had made the mistake of not covering his face before setting off one of the yellow balls before. The light was blinding, and it lasted a good minute before it faded. That had to be enough time for them to get away.

"Asui now!"

Asui tongue wrapped around Kaminari's waist again, slinging him off the surface of the deck and towards the shore. He landed with a splash only a handful of feet away from the water's edge. Izuku was ready for the same treatment, but Asui grabbed him instead, her arm going tightly under his shoulder.

"I've got you, Midoriya-chan! Don't let go!"

Izuku thought, surely she wasn't going to be able to make the jump with him in tow, but one second they were on the sinking ship and the next they were in the air over the water. They landed in the water beside a sputtering Kaminari with barely a splash. Almost as soon as they touched down a booming set of explosions went off followed by more yelling. Asui let go of Izuku, and bent down to pull Kaminari to his feet.

"Now, let's get enough distance between us and the water as possible," Izuku said, and set off in the direction of the front entrance.

Always be prepared. Always expect the unexpected. How many times had he told Izuku that? And Aizawa couldn't even follow his own fucking advice. As his hair fell into his eyes, he cursed again. It was a stupid mistake. A careless, thoughtless mistake. Because Aizawa hadn't planned on having to use his quirk today, at least not enough to warrant pulling his hair back to hide the obvious tell. It was just a rescue demonstration after all, a chance for them to see USJ's facilities. Now he was paying the price. He had to hope that his students wouldn't pay the price as well.

Aizawa hadn't been able to look back at Izuku before he jumped into the fight. He wouldn't have been able to handle to desperation on his face. He trusted that Kaminari would do what he needed to do to get Izuku back, because the last thing he needed was for his young charge to get caught in this disaster. He believed that Izuku would be a great hero someday, but this was too much for even Aizawa to handle, let alone his first year student.

Blood pounded in Aizawa's head to the rhythm of his heartbeat. His eyes burned. His lungs screamed at him that he needed to breath, and yet he pushed on. The wave of villains seemed never ending, and still the leader stood in the middle of the chaos unmoving, taking on the scene as if it amused him.

"You aren't suited for this kind of fighting, are you?" The villain mused, finally stepping towards him. "Eraserhead. My, what a tell you have. Your hair keeps getting in your eyes, are you sure you're all right? This must be quite the challenge for you. And yet you jumped in with no hesitation."

The villain moved slowly as Aizawa slammed two of his followers into each other and sent them rolling across the ground.

"You did it for the children, didn't you?" He asked. "So they wouldn't be afraid? So they would think and hope that they had a chance of getting out of here? So cool! So heroic!" The villain's tone had turned exaggerated, as though he were mimicking someone. "Well, I'm sorry Eraserhead. But none of you are getting out of here alive. I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill your precious students. When All Might arrives, it will be to the sight of your bodies laid out in front of him, your blood painting the floor, and once he's done coming to the realization that everything happening today is his fault he will join you in the dirt."

Aizawa didn't bother responding. He flung his scarves towards the villain, wrapping them around one wrist even as the villain jumped back. Aizawa tugged hard on the fabric jerking him towards him. This villain was the leader. The others were nothing. It was only their numbers that made them a threat. If Aizawa could take him out then just maybe…He threw another strand at the villain, encircling his other wrist as he fell into Aizawa's space.

In the moment, Aizawa wasn't able to tell what exactly had happened. He had the villain bound, but a smile broke out across his cracked face. The look registered a second before the strands of his scarf disintegrated in the villain's grip, but Aizawa kept moving, the villain's momentum bringing him in. Aizawa lifted his elbow, jamming it into his rib cage.

Pain.

It erupted.

Aizawa bit back a gasp as a pain unlike anything he had ever felt before lanced up his arm. From the corner of his eye he glimpsed his elbow and it was as though the skin and muscle had simple crumbled away leaving exposed bone and bleeding tissue in its place.

The villain wiggled his fingers at him before stepping away, two other villains taking his place. One gripped the open muscle in his arm making him hiss while the other punched him square in the face. Blood welled in his mouth as the world went black.

It took a moment for everything to come into focus again, but by that time the leader stood in front of him again, grabbing his face in a bone crushing grip. One finger drifted above his skin, not touching, simply hovering.

So that was the trick.

"My dear, Eraserhead," the villain almost cooed. "Did you really think that it would be that easy? Did you really think that I would come here, claiming I was going to kill All Might if I didn't have a solid plan? I'm not like them." He gestured at the villains around him. "But I'm also only the opening act."

The villain let go of his face, and Aizawa collapsed to the ground, spitting blood. His face hurt, his eyes still burned, he couldn't feel his arm which was probably a bad sign, and yet all of that paled in comparison to what he was seeing before him.

It was a monster. That was the only way to describe it. It stood tall over the villain, large and muscular, with beady eyes and a beak. Sharp yellowed teeth dripped drool, and Aizawa could just imagine what it would feel like to have those rip through skin. Worst of all, was the way the creature's brain was exposed, as though it wasn't necessary. Wasn't important. It was a creature made to follow orders and nothing else. The villain gestured towards Aizawa, and the monster stalked forward. Nothing that Aizawa did could have stopped it. It reached for Aizawa's head just as the villain had done moments before, it's hand significantly larger.

With one swift move, it slammed Aizawa's face into the floor.

"This is why none of you will ever leave here alive, Eraserhead," the villain said. "Meet the Anti-Symbol of Peace. Would you like to watch him rip your students apart limb by limb, or would you prefer to go first?"