Chapter 47:

Tensei had told Tenya time and time again that it only took a moment for a situation to deteriorate right in front of you. Something as routine as a person accidently losing control of their quirk could turn into a hostage situation in the blink of an eye, and you had to be ready for it. Ready to react. Ready to de-escalate the situation. Ready to do something, anything, to end the conflict with as little risk as possible.

Tenya had always believed his brother. He took note of every scrap of advice his brother had to give him, squirreling it away for the day when that advice would probably end up saving his life or the life of some poor civilian. Sure, he might have come on too strong with Midoriya. In his haste to help others, he hadn't really thought about how condescending that advice would have sounded, and he hadn't known what type of training Midoriya had undergone. His brother's words had been sound, even if Tenya had gone about expressing them in the wrong way. He would have to make it up to Midoriya later though, when they made it out of the mess they found themselves in now.

Because just as Tensei had warned him, the situation had fallen to pieces right before his eyes, and there was nothing that he could have done to stop it. Half his class had vanished in a swirl of smoke to who knew where, Aizawa stood in the middle of a mob of villains fighting alone, and Thirteen had been left responsible for getting the remaining students to safety while a separate villain blocked their only exit. All happening within a blink of an eye.

The vanished students couldn't be dead. Tenya refused to believe that. If this villain had the ability to travel with his quirk, and it looked like he did considering how the villains had gotten into USJ in the first place, then they were probably transported somewhere else. Somewhere in the building since the villain had said something about wanting to kill All Might. They would be alright them, Tenya thought. They would be able to fight their way out of whatever trouble they had landed in. For the moment, all Iida needed to be concerned with was his role in this fight. Not paying attention had cost him and Midoriya the practical. The stakes were much higher now.

"Iida," Thirteen said, their voice betraying none of the panic that Tenya himself felt. That made sense though. Thirteen had been a pro hero for several years. "I'm going to cause a distraction. I need you to run. Head straight for the main building. Stop anyone you see and tell them what's going on. We need backup, but under no circumstances is All Might to come here. They need to know it's a trap. Do you understand?"

Tenya nodded. "I understand, Thirteen." He couldn't fail at this. Not like he had before.

"Be ready."

Tenya shifted, ready to move the moment Thirteen gave him the opportunity. The smoke villain must have been watching them, but seeing as he didn't have a face in the conventional sense Tenya could tell nothing about what he thought of the remaining students and their teacher. If Thirteen said he would have a chance, then he would have a chance. Thirteen moved, stepping back between the students and the villain, shielding them from view as best they could.

"You should leave," Thirteen said, and Tenya had to be impressed once again at the way their voice gave away nothing of what they were thinking. "You've already taken this too far. Leave now before you make this worse for yourself."

The shadow chuckled, and it was a sound that send chills down Tenya's spine. So cold and unbothered despite the fact that he was attacking children. Tenya refused to be affected by it though. If Thirteen could be calm in the face of this danger, then Tenya could too.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple," the villain responded, the smoke around him swirling again. "I have a role to play, as do you."

"Well, I'm afraid I'm not much of an actor," Thirteen shot back, releasing their quirk. Tenya took that as his sign to run, activating his quirk just as Thirteen's black hole began pulling at the villain. This was his chance! Tenya could slip around the villain while he was distracted with Thirteen's quirk, and then all he would have to do is find someone on the ground and let them know what was happening.

As Tensei said though, it only took a moment for everything to go wrong. It happened between one blink and the next.

The pull of Thirteen's quirk reached the villain just as Tenya made his way around him. He had just reached the door, his back to his classmates, when he heard the scream. He turned, skidding to a stop in the entrance way, and froze. The villain had opened one of his shadow portals, redirecting Thirteen's quirk. But not at the pro hero. The villain had let loose Thirteen's black hole on the remaining students, and it didn't look like Thirteen had managed to stop it in time.

Sero was on the ground clutching his arm. Ojiro had collapsed next to him, along with Sato and Shoji. Hagekure had been the one to scream though, starring at the blood splashed across the tiled flooring.

For a moment, Tenya couldn't move. Then he shook himself and turned his back on his classmates. There was nothing he could do to help them if he stayed. The only way they were going to get through this was if he could alert the rest of the school that they were being attacked and get help. As much as he wanted to turn back and fight with his classmates, he had a job to do.

The last thing he heard before the doors to the USJ closed behind him was the villain asking, "Have I gone too far now?"

One moment Katsuki had been preparing to beat up literal smoke with his bare hands, and the next he found himself lost in a swirling vortex of that smoke. In hindsight, he might have rushed into the situation without fully thinking his actions through, but it was too late now to do anything about it. That villain had to have some kind of physical form underneath all of that smoke, and if Katsuki had the chance he would find a way to reach it.

When the vortex opened up, Katsuki quickly realized that he probably wouldn't be getting that chance. Someone else would have to deal with that on their own. It seemed that they were going to have their hands full, from the looks of things. When the smoke cleared, Katsuki found himself in what looked to be an abandoned building. Of course, the burning building was on fire, but that was a minor detail. The bigger problem was going to be the villains clearly waiting for them on the floor. Uraraka coughed on smoke next to him, along with his red-haired rock-like classmate whose name Katsuki hadn't taken the energy to remember yet.

"That didn't go as planned," Uraraka said when she had finally caught her breath. "But we have to still be in the building somewhere."

"How do you know that?" Red head asked. Katsuki didn't understand why they were wasting time on conversation when they could be dealing with the problem and getting back to the entrance to help.

"This was one of the areas we could see from the entrance, if you looked. I think this fire has to be controlled somehow," she explained, covering her mouth with her sleeve as she spoke. "If the fire wasn't controlled this whole building would have come down already."

"Can we talk about this later?" Katsuki snapped, as the villains edged closer to them. "Or, ideally, not at all?"

Uraraka huffed, but she did nothing to hide the smile on her face. Katsuki resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Their classmate watched the exchange with a confused expression on his face.

"Uh, sure," he said, still looking between Katsuki and Uraraka, but he didn't press with his questions. Instead he activated his quirk, and Katsuki watched as his skin rippled before hardening. Now it was Katsuki's turn to grin. That was more what he had in mind from the beginning.

"What's your name?" Katsuki asked.

"Kirishima Eijirou?" He didn't sound sure about that, but Katsuki didn't want to waste the time checking.

"Kirishima," Katsuki repeated, because after this and the way Kirishima had moved to confront the smoke villain Katsuki had a feeling he was going to need to remember his name.

Momo had barely registered the rocky terrain she had been deposited in when something knocked her off her feet. She landed hard, sliding across the dirt, and she was once again glad that Aizawa had requested a change in her costume. Momo hadn't been comfortable with the original design either, but she wasn't sure she would be able to ask for a change. Aizawa had taken all of the pressure off of her. If he hadn't she would probably have been wearing that design instead of her gym uniform right now, and the hit would have had rock digging into her bare skin rather than the fabric of her uniform.

"Are you okay?"

Momo pushed herself up on her elbows to see Jirou crouching down beside her, her eyes focused on something across the terrain.

"I'm fine," Momo said softly, wobbling as she stood up. She had landed on her arm wrong, but she felt fairly certain that it wasn't broken. Jirou stood with her, not taking her eyes off the distance.

"That mist or smoke or whatever must have dropped us in one of the terrains," Jirou said, "and we've got company."

Momo looked where Jirou pointed. She was lucky that she hadn't been more injured when the smoke cleared, because standing in the space between rocky ledges were four villains. How many villains had been snuck onto campus? Had the rest of their classmates been whisked away to an ambush?

One of the villains laughed, twisting a metal pipe into the ground. Momo didn't want to find out whether that had anything to do with his quirk or not. Someone must have made a move against her the moment they landed, but the villains seemed content to wait them out now, watching and laughing as Momo tried to think. A rock wall lined the area around them, creating a clearing that effectively had them trapped. Retreat wasn't going to be an option, which was why the villains were probably fine with letting them sit for a minute to enjoy their position.

"Any ideas?" She asked Jirou, her mind running through all the things she could make that might help them. If the other students had been taken too, then they needed to get free as soon as they could. There might be others more outnumbered than the two of them who needed their help.

"Can you make me a speaker?" Jirou asked.

"I…probably?" Momo shouldn't have been thrown by that considering Jirou's quirk, but the calm way that she asked felt at odds with the situation.

"And can you make something that explodes?"

"Definitely."

"Then yeah. I think I might have an idea."

The first time Izuku broke into Aizawa's apartment after officially becoming his student the pro hero hadn't been amused. Technically, Izuku didn't have to break in. He could have waited for his mentor to return, but Aizawa hadn't known that he was coming which made it a much more amusing chance to practice his lock picking. When Izuku stepped into the apartment the only ones who greeted him were Aizawa's cats.

Izuku couldn't remember if he had felt weird about being in Aizawa's new apartment without his mentor, but if he had the feeling didn't last long. Apparently, he had fallen asleep on Aizawa's couch. Aizawa had come home to find Izuku covered in all four of his cats who collectively hissed when Aizawa tried to wake him. Izuku couldn't remember that particular part of the event, of course, but the cats had always after that night so he assumed it had to be true. Soon after he had gotten his own copy of the key, with gruff instructions to use it rather than breaking in. Izuku had been able to sense the affection in the instructions though. His collection of keys had grown as Aizawa moved from apartment to apartment, but that first key would always be Izuku's favorite.

He had never been sure of why, but that night had been the first night that Izuku had really felt as though his training with Aizawa was going to last. Aizawa had been impressed with him tracking him down, but Izuku had been worried about pressing his luck. He had constantly been on edge for the mistake that would have Aizawa backing out of their agreement. That night, though, Izuku had broken into Aizawa's apartment again…and Aizawa hadn't kicked him out. He had called his mother and told her Izuku would be spending the night. He had made him breakfast the next morning before sending him off to school. Izuku had still had a few doubts. That was just who he was. That night though, he finally let himself hope.

As Izuku fled the water area followed closely by Asui and Kaminari, he couldn't get the image out of his head of Aizawa facing down that crowd all by himself. No matter what Kaminari had said or what Izuku knew Aizawa would want, Izuku still couldn't stop blaming himself for leaving Aizawa to handle it on his own. It didn't matter that the three of them had gotten a lucky break in dealing with their own villains. It didn't matter that Izuku would have certainly have been overwhelmed by them if Aizawa had barely been able to hold his own. Izuku shouldn't have left.

Adrenaline had pushed the panic from his mind for the moment, but Izuku could feel it creeping back.

"What do we do not?" Kaminari asked. They were far enough away from the water that Izuku couldn't smell the chlorine anymore, but that didn't make him feel any more comfortable about the situation. If those villains had been waiting for them there, there was no telling how many more were roaming around the facility on the off chance that some of the students escaped.

"We have to make it back to the entrance," Izuku said, stopping in a split in the path. They couldn't see the entrance anymore, and the ceiling and walls all looked the same. The worst thing they could do in that moment was go in the wrong direction. "We need to see if anyone has been able to go and get help yet. If All Might is really on his way, then we need backup."

Asui rubbed her hands against her arms as she looked around nervously. The chance of more villains seemed to have occurred to her too. "They said they were here to kill All Might, but they can't really do that. Right?"

"Of course not," Izuku said, proud that his voice sounded more confident than he felt. "If they think they have a way though, then it would be better to have other pro heroes on site anyway."

Asui looked relieved by the reassurance, and Izuku wished he could have felt the same. His friends didn't know about All Might. They didn't know that All Might had been trying to pass on his quirk before he got any worse. If those villains knew the truth somehow and were planning on using that to their advantage…No. There was no way that they could know that. Toshinori had been hiding his injury well. Izuku would never have guessed if he hadn't seen what Toshinori truly looked like. Besides, he hadn't found a replacement yet. He still had One for All. That had to push things in his favor.

"Let's keep moving." Kaminari still looked shaken by the villains, but he was doing a good job of pushing through it.

They walked for a few minutes in silence, jumping at every sound. In the distance, they could hear fighting. Their classmates, maybe, dealing with villains of their own, but they couldn't see where the sounds were coming from. They crept closer to the entrance, and they could hear new sounds. Laughter and taunting. It made Izuku sick, but that was nothing compared to the sight that greeted them when the trio stepped out from around a corner and realized they were back at the entrance, only a few yards away from where villains surrounded Aizawa. Even as they watched, Aizawa beat them back. He seemed to be doing better than Izuku had expected considering how outnumbered he was.

Everything fell apart the moment the hands villain decided to take an active part in the fight. Later, Izuku would have to thank Kaminari a second time, because without his intervention Izuku would most certainly be dead. Izuku had been watching the fight carefully, ready to provide a distraction the moment it became clear that Aizawa was in over his head. Maybe if he could cause them enough problems he could last until the other teachers arrived. Assuming someone had been able to go for help. Assuming they had been able to find someone.

When the villain grabbed Aizawa's elbow and Izuku watched the skin and muscle on his arm dissolve, he froze. Izuku knew there were quirks that worked like that. Violent quirks like that were well recorded, but Izuku had never seen one first hand. Kaminari's quick hand over his mouth was the only thing that kept Izuku from screaming. Images flashed in his mind of Aizawa on the ground, dead, while Izuku watched.

"You can't get involved, Izuku," Kaminari said, struggling to hold Izuku back as he fought to reach his mentor. "Remember what Aizawa told you."

Asui was watching the exchanged confused, and Izuku couldn't blame her. As far as Asui knew he had no real relationship with Aizawa. Not one that would cause a reaction like that. "Kaminari's right, Midoriya-chan. We can't help. We don't know how to deal with a villain like that. We would just get in his way."

"Let me go!" Izuku said. He almost broke out of Kaminari's grip when the villain reached for Aizawa's face, fingers hovering over his eyes. Izuku had never seen Aizawa look like that, and he never wanted to see that expression on his face again. He didn't care what he had to do, Izuku needed to put a stop to this. He needed to get Aizawa away before that man could touch him again. Aizawa needed a hospital. He needed to stop fighting before his injuries got any worse.

Of course, that was when the monster appeared.

"What the fuck is that?" Kaminari asked, his grip on Izuku slipping in his shock. Izuku couldn't even take advantage of his lack of concentration to make a break for it.

That creature. There was something evil about it. Something that made his blood run even colder than the sight of Aizawa's skin disintegrating right in front of his eyes. He couldn't look away from the monster. He could barely breathe. Then the villain leaned, whispering something to Aizawa that Izuku couldn't hear. Then, like lightning, the monster moved, gripping Aizawa's head in its oversized hand and slamming it into the ground with an audible crack.

This time Izuku did scream, and Kaminari did nothing to hold him back. All three of them watched in growing horror as the monster lifted Aizawa's head. Aizawa looked stunned. Blood ran down the side of his face, and when he coughed red splattered the ground. Izuku's breath hitched. He couldn't move. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't get his body to listen. He was rooted in place, and he could only keep watching as the monster repeated the motion, slamming Aizawa's face into the ground again and again. When it finally ended, Izuku stuttered a breath as the monster released Aizawa's head and left him in a crumpled mess at his feet.

"Well, what do we have here?"

All of them had been so fixed watching Aizawa, none of them had noticed that the villain leader had moved. He looked even creepier close up, the cracked skin of his lips pulled back into a smile hidden behind the severed hand covering his face. Before any of them could react, the villain lunged, hand outstretched towards Asui. Izuku sprang into action, but Kaminari was closer. He shoved Asui out of the way to safety just as the villain's hand came into contact with the skin of Kaminari's face.