They waded through the water as the boat and villains alike groaned. Mineta giggled from where Asui was dragging him along by the scarf. "Hehe, I had a good poop this morning. That makes my balls stickier. They're not going anywhere."

Izuku ignored him as he got caught up in his habitual muttering. "Can't believe we managed to get all of them at once. It took everything I had to keep my composure. It was such a gamble. What is they'd had hidden reserves underneath the water that we didn't know about? They could have shot us out of the air-"

Asui took the liberty of breaking him out of his muttering this time by saying, "You're creeping me out. Stop it. Please."

He finally stopped and looked over at her. She continued after they all stopped walking, "Instead of second guessing what we already did, shouldn't we be thinking about our next move?"

Izuku nodded, "Yeah, you're totally right." He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "We should make getting help the top of our priority." He pointed to the grayish looking building next to the lake, "If we follow the short of the exit, then we can avoid the central plaza entirely." And Shigaraki, he added to himself.

"Good idea," Asui said, "That way we don't run into the villains Mr. Aizawa is facing off with there.

Izuku's mood darkened as he thought about that more. Yeah, but can he handle them on his own? How long can he hold out against a big group like that?

"If he doesn't get some backup, then he's just going to over exert himself. He'll ended defeated by those villains because he was trying to keep us safe."

Both Asui and Mineta looked at him in surprise, but Mineta's quickly turned to worry. "Wait, don't tell you're suggesting..." His worry quickly turned to anger. "Are you trying to get us killed or something?!"

Izuku turned to look at them, "I'm not saying that we should just jump into the middle of a battle, but maybe we can figure out a way to take a few of those guys out and lighten his load."

Asui seemed to think about it before answering, "What if we scope the situation out first? We should at least see what we'd be up against before deciding if we should interfere."

He was surprised. Why hadn't he thought of that? "That's a good idea. That way we can see how Mr. Aizawa is fairing without putting ourselves in danger." He smiled at her, "You really clever, Tsu."

She blushed a little, "Ribbit, thank you."

Izuku nodded at her before turning back to the central plaza, "Let's go."

They edged closer to the edge of the lake, which connected with the central plaza. Rye fighting was going on not too far from the end of the lake, so they made sure to be as quiet as possible as they snuck closer. It seemed to work, as none of the villains attacked them or noticed their presence.

Mr. Aizawa seemed to be holding his own, but Izuku could see the signs of exhaustion weighting down on him. His teacher wouldn't last much longer at this rate. Though the number of villains seemed to be decreasing by the minute. Maybe Mr. Aizawa didn't need their help after all.

Reaching the edge of the lake, Mineta took the chance to remind him of why they were there, as if he needed reminding. "Remember, Midoriya, we're just here to see how things are going, alright?"

Midoriya nodded as he climbed up the ridge to see better, "Yeah, I know. We'll get out of here the second it seems dangerous." He didn't want anyone to get hurt. they watched from their relatively safe position as Mr. Aizawa fought the villains. Their teacher flipped through the air gracefully, even though he was clearly tired. His hair constantly flipped from raised, to normal, to raised again. It was almost comedic, how his hair acted almost on its own free will. Izuku wondered if it had something to do with his quirk.

He was currently resting on the unconscious body of one of the villains. Izuku worried for his well being. His teacher seemed to be having trouble.

Something moving in the corner of his eye caught his attention and he turned to look at it. To his horror, he saw Shigaraki running full speed towards where Mr. Aizawa is sitting. Er, well, was sitting. The black blur that was none other than Mr. Aizawa was running to meet Shigaraki. Izuku nearly revealed himself in his panic. Luckily Asui noticed and pulled him back before he could give away their position.

He watched helplessly as his home room teacher sent his scarf to attack mid-run. It did nothing as Shigaraki grabbed it before it could restrain him, and Mr. Aizawa was in a precarious situation with his elbow in Shigaraki's grasp. Izuku knew they only reason it wasn't crumbling was because of his teacher's quirk. His previously raised hair settled back onto his shoulders. Shigaraki was saying something.

"It was hard to see when you were jumping around, but I found your tell. It's your hair." Mr. Aizawa was clearly surprised, along with the trio in the water. "When it falls it means you've stopped using your quirk." Damn, when did Shigaraki get so good at observation? That's supposed to be Izuku's thing.

"You're having to blink more often." Shigaraki continued. The shoulder Mr. Aizawa had trapped in Shigaraki's hand started to crack and crumble away. "Don't push yourself too hard now, you might just fall apart." The skin fell away, "Wouldn't that be a shame."

Mr. Aizawa finally pushed away from Shigaraki, though his shoulder was now badly damaged. Izuku could see the muscle of his elbow.

The other villains took the chance to converge on him again, and Mr. Aizawa was soon fighting the minor villains again. Only this time, he was an arm down.

"That annoying quirk of yours isn't suited for drawn out fights against big groups, is it?" Shigaraki said from his position on the ground. "Don't you think your a little out of your element here, Eraserhead? You're much better at working stealthily. You're known for surprise attacks, not fighting head-to-head."

His head turned to the side as if listening for something, "But despite knowing that, you didn't hesitate to jump into the middle of this fight; to put your students at ease."

The villains rushed at Mr. Aizawa once more, and yet again, he somehow managed to knock them all down and still be able to turn at face Shigaraki.

Shigaraki was on his feet now, and he raised his hands to his sides in almost a shrugging gesture. "And look at you, you're still standing. You really are so cool!" He leaned forwards, "Oh, and by the way hero," Mr, Aizawa turned around to see the Nomu behind him, "I am not the final boss."

It happened all of a sudden. Mr. Aizawa has been standing there, but now...

Now Izuku wondered if he was even still alive. Maybe it would be better if he wasn't. The amount of pain...

Izuku almost puked at the sight, and he could tell his fellow classmates weren't fairing much better.

The Nomu had Mr. Aizawa pinned to the floor, one hand twisting his now broken arm back and the other crushing his teacher's back.

He almost didn't hear when Shigaraki started talking again, "What do you think of him, Eraserhead? Hmm?" His eyes squinted as if he was smiling, "He's the bioengineered anti-Symbol of Peace. But you can call him Nomu." The Nomu let out an ear shattering screech.

Mr. Aizawa wasn't unconscious, no matter how much he must have wanted to be. Izuku knew this because he cried out when the Nomu twisted his mangled arm even more.

"So you can erase people's quirks," Izuku wished Shigaraki would just shut up for once, "That's irritating, but nothing impressive. When faced with true devastating power, you might as well be a quirkless child." He started to laugh at that.

Mr. Aizawa tried to turn around and erase the Nomu's quirk, but it stopped him by stomping down and crushing his other arm.

Izuku squeezed his eyes shut at the sound of his teacher's agonizing scream. But he soon forced himself to look again. No matter how much he wanted to look away and ignore what was happening, his teacher deserved better.

The Nomu grabbed Mr. Aizawa's head and lifted it up. Izuku got to see his contorted face clear as day before the Nomu slammed it back down, creating a small crater. Mr. Aizawa didn't move again.

Izuku felt tears fill his eyes and his lungs struggled to bring in air. He wanted nothing more than to run to his teacher and protect him, but he couldn't move. His legs wouldn't listen to him and his entire body was paralyzed from fear. He could do absolutely nothing and he hated it.

"No, no." He faintly registered that Mineta was talking. "I c-can't watch this anymore. We should be getting out of here super fast, shouldn't we?" He whisper-yelled. Izuku was still staring forward, only able to focus on the deathly still figure of their teacher.

Asui only responded with a remorseful, "Ribbit."

A black mist formed next to Shigaraki and it took a moment for Izuku to realize that it was Kurogiri.

"Tomura Shigaraki." He said.

"Kurogiri." Shigaraki said in return.

Izuku found it strange that they were addressing each other in such a way. Was it to keep up appearances?

"Did you manage to kill 13?"

"The rescue hero is out of commission," Oh, Izuku did not like the sound of that. "But there were students I was unable to disperse and one of them got outside of the facility." Hope soared like a rocket through his body. One of them had made it out!

Shigaraki was obviously not happy to hear that. He started doing that thing where he started scratching at his neck furiously. It usually ended with his neck bleeding heavily and a very upset Sensei and Kurogiri.

He started shaking and making angry noises. "Kurogiri," Izuku felt a shiver run up his spine, "you fool. If you weren't our warp gate, I'd tear apart every last Adam in your body."

Suddenly he stopped, "There's no way we can win if dozens of heroes show up to stop us. It's game over- back to the title screen." His shoulders slumped forward, "And I was looking forward to finishing this today, damn it." He looked towards Kurogiri, "Let's go home."

Mineta gasped, "Huh? Did I hear that right? Are they really going to just leave?"

"That's what it sounded like to me." Asui said.

Mineta started crying in relief and 'hugged' Asui. "Yes! This is amazing! Now we don't have to fight!"

"U-uh, yeah. But..."

There was a splashing sound and Izuku glanced over to see Asui casually drowning Mineta. He didn't stop her.

"I have a real bad feeling about this Midoriya." She said, still holding Mineta's head under the water.

Izuku turned back to where Shigaraki, Kurogiri, and the Nomu still were. "Yeah, it's weird that they'd just retreat at this point, even if help is on the way."

All Might's probably coming. They definitely want to kill him, and Yuuei was definitely going to beef up their security after this. Now's their best chance. After all this time, why was Shigaraki choosing for this to be game over? Ugh, Izuku really wanted to know what was going on inside Shigaraki's head right now.

"Oh," Izuku's attention snapped back into Shigaraki, "before we leave, let's make sure the Symbol of Peace is broken." He looked Izuku directly in the eye. "Let's wreck his pride."

Before he could even blink, Shigaraki was in front of him, hand inches away from touching his face.

Izuku was completely frozen, paralyzed from the hand that he knew all too well. He knew exactly what was going to happen when that hand connected.

He was going to die by Shigaraki's hand. Literally.

And he had no way of stopping him.