Hello again, everyone. Today I begin my official foray into this story's version of the Eri Rescue Mission. My primary challenge when it comes to adapting this arc so far is managing the pacing and differentiating certain battles enough to justify playing them out in their entirety again. Hopefully this first chapter covering the first of the battles can help serve as a sample for you all to decide whether or not I'm doing a good job of this so far.

A round of heartfelt thanks to my beta readers Mizu and Jonny; all currently contributing DA fan artists: Syyndev, Akane Kahomi, Suki-Chan2509, AliceKuroCross and Effasempai; and last but far from least, every one of you that continues to show your support by reading this story each day after all this time.

My Hero Academia is the property of Kouhei Horikoshi and Shonen Jump. I only own my original characters and the original events surrounding them.

A/N: [[]] indicates that characters are contextually speaking Russian. Any quoted text in this specific format later on in the chapter indicates present day narration over flashbacks.

Chapter 93

Vitality

(Жизнеспособность)

Yuuei Academy, Tuesday, September 16th

For the first official day of school to come since Nikolay had returned to Yuuei with his friends, it had quickly proven to be a rather low-key, restrained one right out the gate. With Cementoss' literature class and Ectoplasm's math class having already come and gone, so far the only non-general education class the students of 1-A had gotten before lunch break had been announced, was simply Aizawa giving them a hypothetical rundown of how non-flight capable Heroes were best able to navigate and organize mass rescue of civilians in a primarily vertical disaster environment, such as burning or at-risk skyscrapers, or in the most intense-sounding case, racing to intercept a free-falling aircraft.

But even for as intimidating and exciting as that scenario sounded, it was all still merely conjecture and physics lessons, and as Nikolay made his way with the rest of their class to get their lunches, he could just sense the mixed airs among his classmates around him, as Kyouka stated bluntly: "Well, it may not be the same as actual training, but after what we just got back from, you're not gonna hear me complaining about some more grounded lessons for now."

"Well, yeah; like, even Aizawa-sensei wouldn't force us to actually try and stop a plane from falling outta the sky for practice, but just sitting around and being talked at for hours is still SO BORING! If they could at least give us lessons at the training grounds to work with tomorrow, I'd be so happy!" Mina halfheartedly agreed before immediately delving back into the usual complaining she did when they didn't get to do real physical Hero training together.

Now that all of their injuries had finally finished healing over the previous night, Nikolay could hardly say he was surprised her energy had come rushing right back. He could easily imagine that getting back to working with the rest of their classmates undoubtedly played a huge part in that as well, especially since he could hardly deny he was feeling the beginnings of the same urges as well.

By now they had already gotten lined up at the serving stations so that the school chef, Lunch Rush, could hand out their meals; but that was just about the last thing on any of their minds right now, as upon listening to Mina's childish complaints, Tenya immediately replied: "You really shouldn't be in such a rush to get right back into the fray, Ashido-san! If you would apply your focus to our teachers' lessons just as well as you apply your physical prowess during training, perhaps you wouldn't find them so dull."

To complement his straightforward and authoritative response, Momo subsequently echoed: "Yes, and besides, by now I can hardly imagine your internship agency hasn't already gotten fully rebuilt and your Pro teachers haven't fully healed like the rest of us. It may not be too long before we'll be able to get back to our internship duties once more."

Unfortunately, while the idea of going back up to Hokkaido to continue working with everyone from the Kapenta Hero Agency was indeed one that should've gotten Nikolay, Mina and Kyouka all especially livened up, there was one main problem with that so far, which Nikolay was quick to point out:

"Well, I know we'd all be hoping you're right about that, Yaoyorozu-san. The only problem is that we haven't gotten any word from anyone up there as to whether they're ready for us to come back for work or not. I personally don't want to make any assumptions by just going up there unannounced, but if we do have to keep interning regardless, I'm not too sure what we could do in the meantime."

Of course, even as he, Mina and Kyouka all tried to maintain the same all-around mood, the fact was that there was suddenly another, much heavier-hitting reason why the subject of internships was such an uncomfortable one to talk about right now: the fact that bringing up internships had gotten only the slightest momentary flinch out of Tenya next to Momo, which she and the rest of them only felt the guilty brunt of, a second too late. In the overwhelming sensation of relief they had all felt to finally be back in Yuuei, it had allowed them to just momentarily forget that, even in such a hopeful scenario, Tenya didn't have that same benefit after what had happened to his teacher, Knightfall, for his sake.

Already, their shoulders had dropped while he tried to maintain a strong front, before Nikolay finally spoke up: "I don't think any of us want to be presumptuous or anything, Iida-san, but…well, if what happened to Knightfall-sensei would make it too much to go back to your original Agency in Sapporo right now, and if Blast Beat-sensei hasn't fully recovered yet…if it's any consolation at all, we could try contacting our teachers back at the Kamuron Hero Agency in Erubi City, and see if they would want to take you and Kyouka-san on as interns."

The fact that they'd already gotten a genuinely surprised and curious look out of Tenya and Kyouka both like that, immediately emboldened Mina to eagerly follow Nikolay's offer in kind as she suddenly leapt onto his back, eyes wide and smile beaming: "Yeah, that's an awesome idea! Those guys are all so cool and awesome, they'd be great teachers for you guys, just like they were for us! I could totally throw in tons of good words for you to them if you want! Willow Light-sensei would love you both right off the bat! Just say the word, Iida-san, Kyouka-chan!"

While Nikolay's strained grunts of having to suddenly carry her whole body weight on his back finally spurred Mina to get back on her feet with an embarrassed giggle; so too could Kyouka giggle at her enthusiasm, and Tenya could already form a deeply appreciative smile: "Your kind offer is indeed appreciated, but it's really not necessary, Bezpalov-san, Ashido-san. Besides, I would ask that you at least let me have some time to decide before you go off doing anything rash. Thank you, though."

The fact that Tenya wasn't completely rejecting their idea was an all-too inspiring one, as Nikolay and Mina were both smiling with encouragement, looking to each other and already realizing they both had the same idea for later to help their class president out, no matter what he said.

But before they could act further on it, their group was quick to spot Izuku, Eijirou, Ochako and Tsuyu just a little ways outside the exit of the lunch line, all four of them clearly having spotted them long before and waiting patiently, for as soon as they too had exited, both groups quickly merged; an air of bristling anticipation building up in all their chests. "Hey, glad you guys all could make it. So…are you ready? I promise we'd understand if any of you said no."

Even as he asked, Izuku could tell he didn't need to, just from the looks in his five friends' eyes. Just as had been ultimately agreed the previous night, it was officially time for him, his three former partners and Tunguska together to ultimately share what all exactly had happened to them the same fateful Saturday that Nikolay and his fellow interns had fought for the sake of all Gagaringrad and countless others back in Russia. And just judging by the barely noticeable tension still prevalent in Izuku's body as he tried to prepare himself to go back to it, Nikolay and the others could all just feel that this was going to be a lot to take in.

Of course, anyone with a shred of common sense knew they couldn't possibly talk about this in the throngs of activity and side-chatter echoing across the dining hall; hence why the nine students were quickly making their way outside, not to one of the major courtyards of Yuuei, but actually to a thankfully out-of-the-way little bench in a smaller side yard under the shade of a single tree, where Tunguska's towering white-gold-clad form was already sitting in patient wait for his students and son's arrival.

"Kolya, everyone, it's so good to see you all here. I can only hope you all haven't been building up too much expectation since we decided on this approach," the large Russian greeted the new arrivals to this secret little reflective gathering, as the students and Nikolay all happily greeted their teacher and father, and took their places around the table underneath the comfort of the shade; the young Russian boy immediately answering: "I'm not about to speak for everyone else, but I've been at least trying to temper my expectations, just working with the headlines everyone in class showed us yesterday."

With a smile and nod of relief, Tunguska continued, looking to his four experienced students: "Unfortunately, there's only so much time we have to be able to tell you what there is to know, which naturally gives the problem of how exactly we tell this all to you."

Echoing their teachers' concerns, Tsuyu continued: "Yeah, just like your guys' whole story about what you did in Hokkaido, our mission had a whole bunch of stuff happening all at once, too. So we've honestly been trying to figure out how exactly we would decide to tell everything that happened and when-kero."

To this, Momo immediately answered: "If we're being completely honest, I'm personally still amazed we ourselves were able to tell our experiences that day to you all as straightforwardly as we did at all. I can't imagine anyone would object here if we simply asked you all to just start at the beginning."

With the ponytail-wearing vice-president once more providing just the perfect voice of reason for such awkward gatherings, their five hosts all looked to be in total agreement. And so, going all the way back, Tunguska proceeded to begin; all the while hoping his students would likewise remember to keep the most sensitive details of their mission going forward a secret, as they had promised:

"I suppose then we should start on that day last week when malenkie Midoriya, Kirishima, Uraraka and Asui all had to leave for their internships together, only to come back with Aizawa-san halfway through the day. You see, the reason for that was because they, along with malenkie Togata, Amajiki and Hadou, myself and all other respective internship teachers like Fatgum-san and Ryukyu-san, and several other Pro Heroes I didn't know yet myself, had all been called together by Sir Nighteye-san for this penultimate mission of ours.

"The reason was because all the recent incidents we had each respectively worked on during internships earlier that week, all had a suspected connection to one major criminal organization that had recently been growing in power; a remainder of the old yakuza organizations that was calling itself the Shie Hassaikai, led by a young man simply calling himself 'Overhaul.' Sir Nighteye-san wanted us all together, because for a while he had been conducting a thorough investigation as to their operations, what they were potentially hoping to accomplish, and where they were hanging their hats so that we could ultimately make a move of our own against them with the police."

To this, Ochako interjected: "Nighteye-sensei believed that the drugs we and Kirishima-san encountered on our first days from our respective Villains, had come from this yakuza group, along with that bullet that hit Amajiki-senpai back then that made his Quirk stop functioning."

Eijirou's follow-up still sounded notably shaken at this reminder: "That's right, and he even believed that those same bullets that hit him, and that I barely deflected, were just prototypes, since Senpai's Quirk eventually came back. But Nighteye-sensei and Fatgum-sensei both believed they were close to making bullets that could outright destroy Quirks permanently." Just the very sound of that kind of weaponry in the hands of Villains and criminals altogether had Nikolay and his whole group visibly shuddering together.

But despite that, though, already this far in; they could all feel their skin starting to likewise bristle with intimidation and wonder as to just where this apparent mission of their friends and teachers was going to go. With that, Eijirou continued: "It was precisely because of what an extensive and sensitive mission it was bound to be, that we weren't allowed to tell anyone about it after that meeting. We're really, really sorry for keeping all you guys in the dark about it and making you all worry about us, by the way. To be honest, we weren't even really allowed to discuss it with each other afterwards, either."

With that, he and his three comrades all quickly clapped their hands together and gave an apologetic bow, regardless of Nikolay and his friends' instinctive attempts to try and brush off any need of theirs to apologize.

From there, Ochako went on: "We were told to just wait for the call when Nighteye-sensei would want us all to come together again, because that would be when we would finally go into our mission. But when that next Friday rolled around, and we all heard about the Villain attacks you guys went through in Hokkaido, I don't think any of us would've wanted to just leave you all without some kind of help if it were at all possible, even if we did get the call…which we obviously did, late that same night."

Following up on her point, Tunguska admitted with notable shame in his voice: "It's true. Even if I'd sworn to uphold my duties as a Pro Hero again, just the idea of you all being in the situations you were, and none of us being able to go out there and help…I'm embarrassed to admit it took Aizawa-san and the other teachers a fair bit of effort to keep me from just storming out the school and rushing all that way up north. If anything, the fact we all got that call when we did was ultimately for the best.

Sir Nighteye's office, Saturday, September 13th

It was in the latest hours of that Friday that Tunguska, Izuku, Ochako, Eijirou and Tsuyu had finally received the long-awaited message from Sir Nighteye, calling for them to come to his office, where Aizawa, Gran Torino, Ryukyu, Fatgum, the rest of the involved Pro Heroes and The Big Three of Yuuei would all likewise be waiting. And it was in the earliest hours of that following Saturday that all young Heroes, the three third-years included, and the older foreign Hero, his fellow teacher and acting Pro, and the diminutive and elderly Pro Hero all finally found themselves in the same meeting hall as two days ago, with every one of the other Pros all looking similarly as restless, yet prepared, with Sir Nighteye himself and his two sidekicks loyally at his sides, standing at the head of the room.

Given the troubling news of his son and their friends and classmates' circumstances up in Hokkaido, and the burdening weight it was continuing to weigh over their shoulders, the call to action truly couldn't have come at a better time, as many of them were reluctant to admit to themselves and each other that their worry had made it difficult to actually get to sleep beforehand. Even now, they couldn't stop thinking about what was possibly going on up there without their knowledge.

However, they couldn't begin to dwell on that old feeling for long, for nearly as soon as they had arrived, all of the side-chatter from everyone else had come to a stop as Sir Nighteye cleared his throat to begin the meeting at last.

"Thank you all for coming in such a timely manner at such an unpleasant hour. Were it not for the critical information we now have at hand regarding our investigation into the Shie Hassaikai, I wouldn't have called you over with so little sleep behind you all. However, we've finally managed to pinpoint the location of their headquarters, so we can't afford to bide our time, lest they do anything unexpected that could cause us to lose their trail again."

At the drop of a hat, the whole atmosphere of the meeting hall had fired up; everyone's anticipation and apprehension alike spiking at the thought of their having to go into action so soon already, with some of the more hot-headed members among the Pros already proclaiming their efforts in investigating their targets' whereabouts to be a complete waste of time, while Sir Nighteye himself continued to play the stalwart peacekeeper among the lot.

"No, nobody's efforts were at all wasted. Having multiple eyes open across the country was always going to be the best means to catch any one of them when they would eventually slip-up. In all honesty, we simply managed to catch a lucky break, to be able to get a substantial clue this soon." To hear such an admittance from someone who always carried himself so professionally, and especially from someone once good enough to be one of All Might's sidekicks, was especially surprising, as Tunguska instinctively asked: "So how were you able to find where they're hiding without them noticing you or anyone else here?"

Clutching the podium tight in one hand, the bespectacled Pro answered as he suddenly reached his other hand down and pulled out a large pink box for what was immediately clear to see was a little girl's toy: "I was keeping watch undercover at a nearby department store yesterday, and a member of the Shie Hassaikai came in, purchasing one of these very toys. I found it strange that such an unscrupulous-looking man would buy something like this."

To nobody's surprise, all of the tension in the air had immediately diffused, as now everyone could only look at their host and the box before him with complete confusion, until Fatgum finally broke the silence: "That sounds like a really big leap there, Nighteye-san! I mean, maybe the guy just has some really weird personal hobbies, y'know? It takes all kinds to make a world, after all."

While he continued muttering his confusion as to why Nighteye had to go and buy one himself under his breath, Tunguska couldn't rightfully disagree with his Pro Hero partner: "Fatgum-san does make a good point; it could just as likely have been some kind of sharp-dressed businessman buying a late birthday gift for their kid as well. You can't truly say it's not possible, Nighteye-san."

However, despite this, Sir Nighteye remained unmoved from his original position here: "Normally I would agree with you both, but you've both had enough of your own experiences with different kinds of organized crime in your respective parts of the world over the years. Surely you must both agree that those types of people all have a universally unsettling air about them that Heroes and law enforcement alike are supposed to be able to pick up on, no matter where you see them, even in public. Even if I hadn't gotten that vibe from him right off the bat, the way he was simply speaking about the product was nothing like what a genuine fan or even a remotely decent father would speak with, which was what prompted my suspicions even more so."

Just as he'd expected, he could see the doubtful looks on both Pros' faces quickly fade, and took that as a clear-cut sign to continue with his point: "My gut instinct felt absolutely positive, which was why, even despite the inherent risk, I decided to use my Foresight on this man when he wasn't looking. I ended up seeing this very same man standing alongside Chisaki Kai himself, and every step he took from that store and into the Shie Hassaikai's headquarters in the process in order to get to that point. That was all the proof I needed to finally contact you all alongside the police so that we can finally enact our mission in bringing the whole organization to justice!"

Like clockwork, the confusion and doubt had now fired up into a universal sense of readiness all over again, as Bubble Girl and Centipeder proceeded to announce their intention to stake out the address Sir Nighteye had provided them as a result, and Gran Torino likewise answered that the police were gathering up all the necessary search warrants they would need to be able to carry out the mission at all. All of the students similarly looking visibly tensed up yet ready in their own rights, had Tunguska feeling a bristling of a teacher's pride, as well as that heavy sensation in the chest that only a truly experienced Pro Hero could feel when simply knowing that something huge was just over the horizon.

There wasn't a shred of doubt in his heart that this organization needed to pay for the crimes they had committed; the father inside him wouldn't accept any less, knowing the truth like everyone else in this room did. But on that very same level, this mission finally being put into action was exactly what he, Aizawa and all four of these kids at their side needed to be able to alleviate a fragment of their shared concern over Nikolay and his fellow interns up in Hokkaido right now.

Present Day

"Wait a second, so not only were you, Fatgum-san and Ryukyu-san all there with a bunch of these other Pros, but Midoriya-san's old Field Training mentor was there with his internship one, too?" Nikolay asked in total surprise at what a huge reunion even this very scene sounded like, looking to gauge any kind of reaction out of Izuku, nostalgic or otherwise.

At the same time, Tenya likewise couldn't hide his own curiosity: "I recall Gran Torino-san being there fighting alongside you and All Might-sensei that night at the Kamino Ward as well. With the kind of power he likewise exhibited then, I struggle to imagine how this mission couldn't have gone any way other than smoothly with so many Heroes involved, Tunguska-sensei."

However, Tunguska and the four students' expressions reflected no such wonder or reassurance, as the older Russian answered: "I have no doubt that could've been the case if he'd actually gotten involved then, malenkii Iida. Unfortunately, Gran Torino-san was still heavily involved with the police's investigation into any and all activity regarding the League of Villains…and as luck would unfortunately have it, a new development had reached him not too long after that meeting, which forced him to have to part ways from us in order to provide them assistance of his own."

Like always, any mention of something having to do with the League of Villains left Nikolay and his classmates shuddering with fear; so much so that they ended up missing the similarly uneasy looks exchanged between Tunguska, Izuku and his three partners regarding the subject.

"That sounds so cool, a Pro Hero with a future-telling Quirk! How could your mission have gone any other way than totally perfect, you guys?" Mina went on to ask with total wonder in her eyes, with Nikolay and Kyouka unable to hide their own childlike amazement at the thought, themselves.

Just the mentioning of Izuku and Mirio's internship mentor immediately prompted Tunguska to interject before the curly-haired boy himself, or any of his partners for that matter, could risk letting their simmering emotions get the better of them in front of everyone: "Unfortunately, Nighteye-san's Quirk only really applies to the single person he uses it on, so he could only see that one person's future to a certain extent. It did help us put together an idea of the layout for their headquarters so we could navigate our way through, and form ourselves into designated teams accordingly. With that, and the police even managing to get us information on the Quirks of as many of the members as they could, it should've been more than enough for all of us. However, it ultimately did nothing to prepare us for the fact that, somehow, Overhaul and his people actually knew of our arrival in front of their headquarters later that same morning."

The further Tunguska had gone to explain all of the preparations they had made, it indeed had Nikolay and his friends looking especially confident by proxy, only for the last statement to bring them right back down to reality, as Mina immediately asked: "Were any of you guys nervous at all before it all went down?"

Looking to Tunguska behind him, Eijirou couldn't help but still smile with considerable confidence. "In a small sense, yeah. But since Tunguska-sensei and I got teamed together, while Amajiki-senpai was with Fatgum-sensei; after how well we'd managed that last incident we were in, I was also feeling really good about our odds, too."

However, Tunguska instead began shaking his head in response: "While you were indeed very brave and enthusiastic, you don't need to downplay the other side of your emotions at any point, malenkii Kirishima. When I was starting out, I too was especially nervous on my first few field missions. There's no shame in admitting it."

Assured by this admission on his part, Ochako meekly nodded her head. "Sensei's right. I mean, Tsu and I had only really done a small-scale patrol and intervention in an incident before, so to suddenly be in a full-scale police operation like this felt like a huge leap way too soon, if I'm being honest."

"But fortunately, Hadou-senpai and Ryukyu-sensei were there to help keep us reassured-kero. Sensei even admitted that she didn't even get training for something like this as a student, either. I know that'd seem like something to be worried about, but it was actually really comforting-kero." Tsuyu just as quickly added, the looks in hers and Ochako's eyes when thinking back on it clearly showing how much they'd needed it then.

Finally when it came to Izuku, his hands were instinctively starting to clench into fists. "Of course I was nervous…but I also knew that the consequences if we didn't succeed were too great to ignore. So since I had Nighteye-sensei, Mirio-san and Aizawa-sensei as my group, I just needed to keep reminding myself to keep my thoughts on the task at hand, from that meeting two days before, all the way to when we were finally ready."

Saturday morning, 8:30AM

No matter how thoroughly the Heroes and the police had organized their respective teams and where exactly they were going to go within the Shie Hassaikai's compound once the search had begun; it did nothing to alleviate the palpable tension in the air when the time had finally come, everyone had been given their orders, and they were now gathered en masse in the middle of an empty street so early in the morning, standing before the gates of what already from the outside looked like an extensive compound, doubly so when considering that there was a sprawling underground tunnel network, thanks to Nighteye's Foresight.

As the Heroes and the police all stood shoulder-to-shoulder like an old-fashioned army ready to stand their ground or charge the enemy ranks, nobody dared say a word out of turn, as a single middle-aged man with a messy black pompadour hairstyle marched diligently at the head of their formation, standing readily at the voice box on the wall next to the gate. This was the member of the police that had been specifically picked to head their involvement in this mission by Sir Nighteye himself.

"Remember, everyone, once I read off our search warrant, things are gonna start moving really quick. So let's all try to end this just as fast." Such words were fairly straightforward and unmistakable.

And yet this didn't stop a particularly bitter-sounding aside from the African-featured Pro Hero mere feet away, whom Tunguska and the students had all by now come to recognize as Rock Lock: "Yeah, yeah, we get it. You don't trust us."

"You know that's not what he meant. Stop being such a jerk." Fatgum just as quickly replied with a sharp hiss, trying to diffuse even the beginnings of any break in the whole team's symmetry as a result of the gruff Hero's cynicism. Likewise, Tunguska had to fight to keep a steady and prepared composure, not just for the sake of the police, but for those of the students here that he knew, despite their own readiness, were still counting on him to do his part and keep everyone here safe, and see this mission through to the end.

But even despite knowing that, as the head officer finally began to reach to speak into the voice box; Tunguska could still feel his heartbeat growing stronger the longer he looked upon the compound on the other side of this wall, swallowing a dry lump in his throat and clenching both hands into ready fists.

"Just the fact that things had started out so quiet and peaceful that morning should've tipped me off that things were going to get far uglier than we'd expected. Nighteye-san was right; in that even though their power, influence and ranks had been severely curtailed by the advent of Quirks and the return of the Union back home, I'd still had my fair share of experiences fighting against the remnants of organized crime back in Russia in my earliest years. And one thing those experiences had cemented in me was that, even without Quirks; such criminals can quickly prove to be just as dangerous as any ragtag bunch of haphazard Villains. And with these criminals all having Quirks by comparison, I should've acted then and there on my unease. If I had, perhaps things would've unfolded much better for all of us."

The moment the head officer's finger even met the big red button to the voice box, everything unfolded from there in the blink of an eye, as without even the warning rumble in the ground to signify the approach of a major threat, the gates before the whole contingency practically exploded outward with enough force to send the two nearest police officers flying, as a booming voice punctuated this suddenness with a vicious-sounding: WHAT'S GOING ON?! IT'S A BIT EARLY FOR SO MANY GUESTS, ISN'T IT?!"

Just outside of Tunguska's line of sight, Aizawa and Izuku both were immediate to act in saving the two flying police officers with their neck wrappings and Full Cowl respectively. All the while, the rest of the students, police and Pros all now found themselves facing off against an utter behemoth of a muscular man in a beak-shaped full-head mask that, with his attire, made him look like some kind of Quirk-possessing professional wrestler; currently in the middle of bellowing while rearing another devastating fist back: "YOU'VE GOT ME ALL WORKED UP! OH, MAN…WHAT THE HELL DO YOU PEOPLE WANT?!"

"He was one of the members we were fortunate enough to get information on beforehand; a criminal named Katsukame Rikiya. While his sheer size and speed would've been bad enough, what made him a real threat was his Vitality Draining Quirk. From the way the police described it, he was able to absorb it right out of anyone unfortunate enough for him to get a grip on simply by breathing, and thus be able to grow to such a freakish size. When he tried to attack us then, my first instinct was to try and catch his fist with my fake arm so he couldn't use his Quirk on me through it, and then hit him with a square kick to the face, mask or no mask."

Indeed, Tunguska was already springing forward off his feet, rearing his mechanical left arm back in preparation to either catch Rikiya's fist, or take the brunt of it and counter; either one was preferable to him landing another successful blow on anyone else here.

However, Ryukyu to his right proved just that split-second faster, as in a blur of red and blonde, her small feminine form burst forth into that of a similarly colored but fierce-looking dragon, catching the hulking criminal's fist in her claws with a resonating shockwave that barely sent her an inch back, catching Rikiya, Tunguska and the rest of her allies alike by surprise. "For now, there's no sense in splitting our group up any more than it has to be. Everyone, the Ryukyu Agency will take care of this one…so you all go on in and finish the job!"

With her urgent words coming out of her draconian form, that was all the urging the police and the Heroes young and otherwise needed, as with a resounding "LET'S GO NOW" from the head officer, everyone else proceeded to charge en masse through the now open gates, while Ryukyu continued to hold Rikiya's fist in order to immobilize him from chasing after them, all while Ochako, Tsuyu and Nejire hurried to rejoin her side.

Mere feet down the stone walkway from the gate towards the compound, the charging horde of police and Heroes quickly found themselves being confronted by three unassuming-looking but unpleasant men, none of whom looked remotely pleased to see so many people coming their way. "WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON?! YOU PEOPLE AIN'T WELCOME HERE, GET IT?!"

However, the head officer's professional declaration of possessing a search warrant as they continued to charge forward was ultimately wasted, as Tunguska's heightened alertness quickly made out the sudden sight of the numerous leaves of the few trees lining the walkway all starting to fly with increasing speed towards them like a hail storm of razor-sharp projectiles, thanks to the Quirk of the very same man who'd just told them off.

And it was with just as much swiftness that Tunguska reacted in kind, firing off two of his prosthetic fingers like a quick shooter from the hip, nailing his target straight in the solar plexus before clothes-lining him with his massive right arm, while Fatgum and a ninja-clad other Hero just as quickly took out the other two before they could even react. Their momentum was running strong right now, and they weren't about to let anything stop it. Too much was at stake for them to allow such a thing.

"Wow, you guys got to fight a Villain like that, and even see Ryukyu's Quirk in action all up close and personal-like? A Hero that can turn into a dragon, that sounds so AWESOME! What was it like?" "Yeah, was she actually able to fly and breathe fire, too?" Mina and Nikolay were both trying so hard not to start flying off the handle with all their excited questions, while Ochako and Tsuyu both looked clearly troubled as to exactly how to answer any of them, before Tunguska cleared his throat to regain everyone's attention.

"Indeed, this is where we come to the real conundrum of us telling you all about this, because as we said before, a lot of things happened nearly simultaneously from that point forward, so it now comes down to how we decide who tells whose share of the mission from there." Looking each of his accompanying students from back then over to see who was the most willing, Tunguska quickly spotted Tsuyu once again looking to be deep in thought.

"Well, Tunguska-sensei; since Ochako, Hadou-senpai and I were the first ones to engage in battle, why don't we just finish talking about that, and from there you, Midoriya and Kirishima-san can go forward again." With neither Izuku nor Eijirou showing any objection to that approach, and with Nikolay's whole group looking especially eager to hear how the first battle of what sounded like many ultimately ended, Tunguska gave a final approving nod.

With that, Ochako and Tsuyu both now officially had the floor.

As initially intimidated as Ochako and Tsuyu were upon first seeing Rikiya come out swinging with all the rage of a bull; the fact that Ryukyu was so quickly able to step in and stop him in his tracks was especially emboldening, even more so when she just as quickly proceeded to apply her leverage in her Dragon form to slam his captured fist straight into the ground.

However, this did little to deter him from trying to keep fighting further, as he just as quickly tried to counter by swinging his right foot straight upward for her jaw, slamming into it with a resounding WHAM that sent her upper body reeling back just enough for him to just as quickly jab his left fist for her sternum. "IT'S GONNA TAKE A HELL OF A LOT MORE THAN SOME OLD HAG LIKE YOU TO KEEP ME DOWN!"

THWIP!

However, his punching momentum came to a sudden stop when he suddenly felt something wrangle tight around his forearm, pulling back with exceptional strength. Looking back with angered surprise, he immediately spotted Tsuyu, perched on the face of a nearby wall and pulling his attacking arm back with her tongue, while still trying to communicate with her allies at the same time: "Now, Uravity, Nejire-Cha-!"

However, Rikiya's surprise hardly lasted after that, as Tsuyu couldn't even finish calling out for the other interns to try and take him down, before feeling the same hand she was trying to restrain quickly clutch onto her tongue, with all of her built up energy and liveliness quickly fading from her body the moment after.

The moment Tsuyu lost the strength to be able to keep herself on the wall, Rikiya was just about ready to use his grip on her tongue to use her like a human wrecking ball against everyone else here, but with a deafening and fierce roar, Ryukyu recovered from the uppercut she'd just taken, and proceeded to clutch both his arms within her claws and flip the blindsided criminal in a devastating German Suplex, driving him head-first into the ground in order to force him to release his grip on her intern, while Ochako had just as quickly rushed in to apply her Quirk to Tsuyu as she got pulled along, so as to keep her from getting violently thrown along with him.

The moment the police knew Ryukyu had managed to stun their assailant, they just as quickly proceeded to fire a handful of especially powerful sedative rounds into Rikiya's mass. To all of their relief, the effects of it seemed to be kicking in immediately, as his aggressive voice was soon growing slurred, and his movements much more sluggish. This didn't convince Ryukyu to release her grip on him, though, as she instead called out to the attending officers: "There's no telling how long those will slow him down with the energy he just took from Froppy! Get the restraints on him, quickly!"

In nearly no time at all, the police had a whole set of heavy-duty full-body metal restraints clasped tight around Rikiya's arms, legs and center mass, leaving the currently unconscious thug helpless in a kneeling position under their ever-watchful eyes, while Ryukyu let herself change back into her human form, and Ochako and Nejire were busily attending to Tsuyu, providing her some small nutritious snacks to help build her energy back up.

"Vehicular backup is on the way, Ryukyu-san! They'll be able to hold him with little trouble," one of the officers quickly explained upon getting off his radio, while Ryukyu was just then finishing making sure all three of her interns were okay before addressing them in return: "If he's remaining this size, he'll still have a great deal of strength once he regains consciousness, though. Make sure you keep him restrained, no matter what. As for us, we've gotten a late start, but we may still be able to catch up with the others, so long as you all feel good to keep going."

However, even as she'd been helping Ochako tend to Tsuyu, Nejire had an entirely new and much more serious demeanor about her, standing resolute in her Hero suit of a green and mint-colored bodysuit with spiraling green wrist guards that perfectly matched the upward spiraling locks of her light blue hair on the sides of her head that almost resembled a pair of drill-shaped horns.

Over the last couple minutes, she had been keeping her ears open for any and all signs of trouble from within the compound, and now that she knew for certain both her fellow interns and juniors were good to go, she had her full attention upon the cacophony of what were unmistakably fights echoing. "It sounds like things are getting really crazy in there, Sensei! We should hurry!"

Needing no further convincing, Ochako and Tsuyu were quick to follow after their upperclassman, even as Ryukyu was instinctively calling back to them to wait up. However, they weren't even through the gate before all three young Heroes found themselves quickly growing dizzy and weak in the joints; the sensation of which was immediately familiar to Tsuyu. "What the-?"

Seeing her three interns start losing their balance and energy, Ryukyu felt her heart leap up into her throat as she immediately looked back, just to see the two police officers watching over Rikiya had likewise fallen to their hands and knees…and the muscular criminal himself had already regained consciousness, breathing in deep before letting out a mocking: "Ow…that stung, you meddlesome bitch!"

And with that, and the end of this deep inhale, he proceeded to grow his muscles to nearly twice their original size, enough to easily snap through every one of the restraints around his body, standing free once more. "It's about damn time that Quirk Booster I took finally kicked in! I don't even have to touch any of you dumbasses anymore! All I gotta do is breathe, and all your energy is mine! Now…I'M FEELING GOOD AS NEW!"

As though to simply punctuate his cruelty alongside his strength, Rikiya proceeded to throw his first newly strengthened punch straight for the very same two police officers kneeling helpless at his feet, but he was only stopped through a combination of Ochako and Tsuyu combining their Quirks to throw one of the dislodged gate doors right into him, and Ryukyu changing back into her Dragon form and swooping in to pluck the officers out of the immediate danger zone.

As soon as she knew she'd dropped them off at an area she could only assume was out of range of Rikiya's boosted Quirk, she immediately went flying right back to the battlefield, using her momentum through her wings to send a backwards swinging kick right into the brute's midsection before he could try to charge at her interns, sending him crashing backwards through the wall and into the building on the other side.

Fortunately, it was thanks to the diligence of Bubble Girl and Centipeder's staking out, that they knew ahead of time the buildings immediately outside the Shie Hassaikai compound had long been left abandoned, so this last-second move on Ryukyu's part didn't pose any immediate danger to any civilians, especially now that the rest of the Pro Heroes from her Agency were finally starting to move in to try and distract or beat Rikiya down.

However, with his Quirk now being able to do what it was, and with his clear disregard for people getting caught in the crossfire of their battle, she knew she couldn't leave his trying to take their fight into a more publicly occupied area to chance. As she and her three interns all began to rush in to try and assist in the fight, she called out to the three young girls:

"Nejire-Chan, Uravity, Froppy, your Quirks all give you a distance attack advantage! If you get close to him to fight, you're only going to risk him sucking out your vitality. The rest of us can at least alternate to keep him distracted from you and any civilians! Use your Quirks together to try and help us beat him down from a distance, tire him out long enough for that Quirk-boosting drug he took to wear off so we can restrain him! If this is the same potency as the drug Fatgum showed us, it should take less than a half hour on its own, but maybe even shorter if we can wear him out!"

"But Sensei, won't he just end up taking your energy too?" Ochako immediately asked worriedly, looking between Ryukyu and her partners to see which approach they thought was best, while Ryukyu herself only began to flap her wings even harder, giving herself an immense speed boost.

"Don't worry about me, Uravity! My Dragon form gives me a much bigger amount of energy to act with; more than enough to wear this guy down!" With that and another echoing roar to emphasize the greater power she had, she proceeded to fly in low to the ground as Rikiya was continuing to throw blindingly fast and devastating punches and kicks at all the other Heroes trying to get potshots or lucky strikes on his blind spots; all of them either getting grazed or just barely managing to get out of the way in time.

The moment her roar reached his ears, spurring him to turn around to try and take her head on, Rikiya found himself getting uppercut straight up into the air as Ryukyu drove her entire mass up from ground straight into him. With his ears ringing and his senses momentarily thrown into disarray, Rikiya was just as quickly taken into the full grip of her claws, just for Ryukyu to then send herself and her opponent dive-bombing straight down into a nearby empty lot near another abandoned building, resulting in a devastating shockwave that she felt all too sure would be enough to take him down for the count.

As her mighty winged form soon rose from the dust in the aftermath, though, Ryukyu too began to find her normally extended amount of physical energy beginning to slip away from her as her sight began to go dizzy; with a pronounced heavy breathing and gloating chuckle emanating from underneath her to emphasize it, before she took a point-blank powerful punch to her gut from right below that sent her up and crashing back into the ground several feet away.

Rising back to his feet, Rikiya continued to laugh: "What exactly was the plan? To just keep pecking away at me, tiring me out and hoping for the best? Bullshit! Sapping your energy with just my breathing ain't the only thing this Booster gave me! I can take even more in a single breath than I normally could, too! That all-powerful Dragon form schtick of yours ain't gonna make a difference against me now!"

To his encouragement, and her subsequent dread, Ryukyu could already feel her Dragon form starting to fade away as she tried to get back on her feet, and her enemy began to threateningly approach her, ready to deliver the killing blow in another blind charge. Even with her fellow Pros all currently rushing in to try and stop him, just a couple of seconds was all he knew he would need to put Ryukyu in the ground.

"WAVE MOTION!"

Suddenly, the sound of Nejire's voice echoing from mere feet away drew Rikiya's attention for but a moment, just long enough to be met by a dual pair of powerful air-rippling corkscrew-shaped shockwaves to come driving straight into his center mass, sending him flying up and back through the air, while the third-year intern stood at the ready with her hands extended his direction in the aftermath, the last ripples of her recent attack emanating from her spiral wrist guards.

"Whoa, whoa, hold up! You're saying Hadou-senpai's Quirk revolves around shockwaves?! She's got, like, exactly the same Quirk as you, Kolya-kun!" Mina immediately exclaimed the moment Ochako had finished describing Nejire's rescuing action, catching everyone around her by surprise.

"Well, my Quirk is all about absorbing vibrations from every movement around me and converting that into pure kinetic energy, remember?" Nikolay attempted to explain when she began leaning in close in her excitement, while Ochako just as hurriedly detailed: "Yeah, and Hadou-senpai's Quirk is about turning her own vitality into that same kind of energy, but more in the form of corkscrews than the shockwaves like Kolya-san makes."

Despite this, however, Mina's eyes were already wide and sparkling with a new touch of inspiration. "OH, I'VE GOT AN IDEA! Kolya-kun, why don't you ask Hadou-senpai if she would wanna help train your Quirk even more?! If you're both so similar, she might be able to help you learn even more awesome tricks! That sounds like a cool idea, right?!"

Nikolay could hardly even find the words to answer such a random idea. While the thought of one of Yuuei's Big Three personally training him to strengthen and diversify his Quirk and its uses was a very enticing one, the thought of being subjected to Nejire's inevitable non-stop barrage of even more questions as a result was far less so. Not that there was any way he could say such a thing to dampen his girlfriend's eager imagination.

Thankfully, Momo and Kyouka were able to help get Mina back in her seat, even despite her blind eager rambling, which was about as good a sign as either Ochako or Tsuyu needed to continue on.

The moment Rikiya had gotten blasted into the air by Nejire's quick action, her fellow interns were finally able to put their ends of their desperate plan into action. While he had been busy fighting against Ryukyu, they had taken initiative in using their Quirks together to set up the ultimate gauntlet in order to try and break away at his stamina and strength.

As such, the moment he was airborne, Tsuyu (perched and camouflaged against one of a number of floating pieces of large rubble) proceeded to latch onto several collected clusters of debris with her tongue, and go hopping from one floating chunk of rubble as a platform to another, throwing, latching and throwing again one projectile after another, with each one slamming hard against Rikiya, sending him flying this way and that through the air before he could even get close enough to start trying to drain away her energy again.

After five consecutive direct hits with these debris balls turning him into a human baseball, it was finally time for Tsuyu to enact the (hopefully) last stage of the plan by swinging the last one directly into him head-on, sending him flying directly toward a waiting Ochako, who was currently watching his approach intently through the pink visor of her helmet, with a large steel street light pole floating just within her hands like a makeshift baseball bat.

She could feel her heart instantaneously start racing once she knew Rikiya was finally within range, and with all the physical strength and leverage she could have in this Zero Gravity position, she proceeded to swing that whole street light directly downward into his center mass, finally using all of his collected momentum against him as he was sent plummeting and crashing hard into the empty ground below.

Seeing their plan finally play out to the fullest, Ochako kept a watchful eye from above while Tsuyu cautiously came hopping back down to ground level, with Nejire quickly rejoining her side; all three interns universally hoping this had been enough of a pummeling to tire him out.

GRRMMMBLLL!

Unfortunately, with both ground-bound young Heroes hurriedly backing away, the collected rubble on the ground suddenly exploded outward, forcing Ochako to desperately try and redirect herself in the air to keep from getting hit by any. Looking back down, she and her partners could quickly see Rikiya was once more back on his feet, looking no smaller than he was before, but heaving for breath as he stared daggers at her, Tsuyu and Nejire altogether. "Not a bad attempt…but you brats are seriously starting to PISS ME OFF!"

With exceptional speed, he sprung up with a fist already reared back and ready to swing right for Nejire before she could even blink. It was only Tsuyu's quick thinking to wrangle her with her tongue and pull her back alongside her in a quick retreat that kept her from getting utterly annihilated in the ensuing explosive punch straight into the asphalt.

But this was hardly able to even annoy the masked thug, as he just as quickly used his enhanced strength to launch straight up into the air after Ochako herself, forcing her to bring her fingertips together to bring herself and all the other floating debris around back to the ground in order to avoid getting swatted right out of the air.

With another deafening crash, he came landing back on the ground on the other side of the destroyed empty lot, and even as more of the other nearby Pros came rushing in to try and aid in the fight, his focus was entirely on the three interns, as he immediately continued giving chase to any of the three he could get close to, all while knowing that his boosted Quirk would force them to continuously try and maintain distance the entire time.

"It went on like this for what felt like a good several minutes. We kept trying to think up a way to try and maintain a continued distanced attack on him, but he was too fast and persistent for us to even have that much time to think. Even the other Pros were having trouble, and not just because his attention was solely on us."

"That's right. In our desperation to try and weather him down and keep him away so we could keep fighting, our battle was slowly getting closer to areas we knew civilians were-kero. Plus it seemed like the area of effect for his Quirk was growing as well, because it wasn't long before the other Pros needed to start retreating from the actual fight so they could evacuate everyone that was getting their vitality drained by him…and with that, of course he was just continuing to get bigger and faster with every minute."

After a continued several minutes of this desperate cat-and-mouse chase, Ryukyu and the rest of her fellow Pros had been forced to redirect their attention towards rescuing the civilians unfortunate enough to get caught in the area of Rikiya's Quirk, while it had all fallen now to her interns to try and keep the criminal himself busy. Unfortunately, just like for the Pros and civilians alike, their heightened adrenaline was only proving to keep them going for so long, because slowly but surely, they were starting to feel that vital energy of theirs starting to dwindle bit by bit.

The moment she knew she'd gotten him far enough away from the civilians nearby, Nejire's first instinct was to once again send another Wave Motion attack straight into him the moment he was recovering from another landing, only for the brute to bring up a massive muscled arm like a natural shield, taking the full brunt of it and barely getting pushed back a foot.

"You starting to get tired there, cutie? That one didn't hit nearly as hard as the last few. Honestly, in all this excitement, I've lost track of time, myself. That Booster I took might not even be in effect anymore…but I still feel incredible! Why don't you let me touch you so we can find out?"

THWACK! THWACK! TH-THWACK!

The moment he began to menacingly approach the defiant third-year before him, Rikiya suddenly found himself getting pelted by several fast-flying loose bricks from his left, forcing him to turn and come face-to-face with a visibly shaken, but still determined Ochako floating barely two feet off the air, with several more of the little nuisances floating at her sides.

Just like that, his mocking excitement quickly turned into red-vision levels of anger as he began to madly charge right for the rosy-cheeked girl now in front of him, ignoring anyone and anything else around him, while Ochako continued to bravely stare his approach down…

…right up until he was halfway to her, and she once again brought her fingers together, and in the very next instant, a whole collection of different floating rubble and other debris that had been slowly but surely collected and gathered in the air above came raining down en masse on top of Rikiya, instantly burying him underneath in a deafening cacophony.

"It was a desperate move on my part, one that I knew easily could've gone wrong in so many ways. I really needed Tsu and Hadou-senpai to try and keep him off me for as long as possible so I could make enough debris float to make a difference against him. At least…that was what I'd been hoping for."

BKOOOM!

Before Tsuyu or Nejire could even begin to congratulate Ochako on her last-second plan, the whole pile of rubble suddenly exploded with Rikiya's infuriated war cry, sending so much of it flying at terminal velocity in numerous directions. Ochako had been caught so completely by surprise at his recovery, it once more fell to Tsuyu to wrangle her out of the way with her tongue while likewise hopping for her life; while a combination of Nejire's Wave Motions, Ryukyu's interceding Dragon form and several of her fellow Pros desperately rushed in to destroy all the flying debris in the air they could reach before it could risk flying into further populated areas.

As Rikiya proceeded to repeatedly hammer his fists into the ground in his anger, resulting in numerous rumbling shockwaves; Tsuyu had managed to hop herself and Ochako up to the momentary refuge of a nearby abandoned rooftop, looking back worriedly while trying to regain what energy of theirs they could, just to see Nejire, Ryukyu and the others continuing to try so hard to keep up the fight and not let themselves get grabbed. Needless to say, both first-years were visibly very worried as Ochako muttered: "We gotta try and keep him weighed down or tire him out so much that he can't keep fighting…but I don't know what else we can use against him; he just keeps getting back up. I was so sure that last trap would've been enough."

"That doesn't mean we can afford to just stay back and wait for an opening. If he ends up getting any closer to the populated areas, it could be a disaster-kero." Tsuyu noted, already beginning to squat down on the edge of the roof in preparation to spring herself back into the battlefield.

However, in Ochako's momentary look around for some means to once more try and beat Rikiya down enough for the others, her eyes soon fell upon the road below that they had previously gathered on at the start of this mission. The only difference now was it was severely cracked and fragmented, to the point it look like it was near ready to collapse inward to the sewers below. If that were to happen while Izuku, Eijirou, Tunguska or any of the other Heroes were still working their way through the underground tunnel network beneath the compound, it would be the worst possible scenario she could imagine…or at least one of them.

However, with that dread suddenly came the spark of the single clearest idea she'd had yet, as Ochako swiftly grabbed Tsuyu by the shoulder, forcing the frog-like girl to look back worriedly, only to see the inspired light in her brown eyes. "Tsu, I may have something surefire this time! We might not be able to beat him in terms of raw strength or even Quirk power…but if Tunguska-sensei's training has taught me anything, it's that with just the right kind of leverage, even smaller Heroes like us can make all the difference! We both just need to get in the right position around him."

Back on the ground, after he'd just managed to send Ryukyu rolling back across the ground just short of a small cluster of police, Heroes and civilians nearby, Rikiya now found himself in the process of having to either block or deflect a multitude of sizable pieces of debris getting thrown all at once his way by another of Nejire's attacks.

And it was at that moment that his arms were up in a defensive position, that Rikiya's field of vision was blocked just enough for Tsuyu to come diving in, shooting out her prehensile tongue once more to wrap tight around his left forearm, catching him by surprise. "What the hell, don't you brats ever learn?!"

However, Tsuyu was keeping her mind focused solely on her current course of action, as the moment she met the ground with her hands and feet, she just as quickly sprung herself directly forward just above the ground, reaching Rikiya's other side before just as quickly launching herself up and over in a perfect back flip, looping her ever extending tongue around his right forearm and then diving forward the moment she was on the ground again, tightening her hold on both his arms and nearly pulling them along with her. It was honestly sheer luck that her tongue was wrapped around his arms at just the right position to where he couldn't grab it with either of his hands.

Thankfully, Nejire was especially quick on the uptake of just what Tsuyu was trying to do, since this distraction was keeping him from continuing to attack. If anything, she was simply trying to restrain him; something she knew she could be able to help with. While Rikiya's attention was focused on Tsuyu in the moment, Nejire proceeded to use her Wave Motion once more, this time to send several more elongated pieces of rubble flying forward like arrows and spears, aiming the direction of her attack just right to where they wouldn't risk skewering the criminal himself, but rather the ground around and between his legs as he tried to resist Tsuyu's pull.

As soon as the multitude of rebar poles came stabbing into the ground all around his feet, thus limiting his ability to actually move around for that moment, Tsuyu took action once more and sprang herself up and back right over Rikiya's head, pulling his arms right along with her, forcing his whole body to start leaning back as soon as she landed behind him, calling up behind her back: "NOW, URAVITY!"

Rikiya didn't even have time to process what the amphibian Hero was talking about before a momentary flicker of movement up above drew his attention, only just long enough for him to see a fiercely determined Ochako diving in and maneuvering her body enough to where, upon impact, she was able to hook her arms and legs around his head and arms respectively, before using her momentum and leverage to roll her whole body over, ultimately managing to flip Rikiya's entire body up and over with her, before slamming him mercilessly into the fractured ground below with a resonating SLAAAAM!

"NEJIRE-CHAN, EVERYONE, HAMMER HIM DOWN WITH EVERYTHING YOU HAVE!"

That was all Ochako needed to cry out to convince Nejire, Ryukyu, Tsuyu and all the rest of the present Heroes to start using their Quirks to start weighing Rikiya down with all the heavy debris they could get their hands on while he was completely stunned. Every second during which, Ochako was frantically praying in her head that this would finally be enough.

"I swear, this isn't even the first time I've heard you describe doing this, and it still makes me so proud of you, malenkaya Uraraka! You really are the best kind of student for a school like this! You take every lesson you're given to heart, every last one of you does!" Tunguska couldn't help but exclaim with an unexpectedly hearty laugh, which just left all of the students around smiling to themselves with a real air of fulfillment, but none more so in that moment than Ochako herself, who was smiling almost as brightly as if it were Izuku himself complimenting her quick thinking like this.

"I agree, I wish we could've all been there to see it ourselves, Uraraka-san. But if this guy's Quirk was actually back to normal, and you knew he needed to at least touch someone in order to breathe away their energy, how did you know he wouldn't take away all of yours before you'd even get a chance to hammer him down?" Tenya asked with what almost sounded like bated breath, with the rest of his side of the table mirroring the same kind of enthusiastic curiosity.

With such a captivated audience and her own teacher and partners' admiration for her actions all together, Ochako looked so precious with her face turning light red with embarrassment as she thought of just what it was that drove her in that moment so strongly: "Well, I just tried to keep one of your lessons in mind the whole time, Tunguska-sensei: if the overall execution of a plan means keeping anyone else from getting hurt or put in danger, then the risk of even a momentary self-sacrifice is worth it."

While Tunguska was visibly trying to keep from getting too overly emotional again at how much Ochako clearly valued his teaching, she continued: "And besides, that wasn't even the extent of what I was hoping to accomplish to take him out of the fight. That was just what I needed to buy a little bit more time."

Not moving from hers and Rikiya's spot in the middle of the broken up road, she was just anxiously counting the seconds in her head as all of her group's members continued hammering the thug down with as much weighty debris as they could. The moment she had managed to reach 3, she immediately put the most vital part of her last strategy into action, planting all her fingertips to the chunk of road they were both on top of, as well as Rikiya himself, rendering both completely weightless and rising upwards.

Putting her fingers to herself so that she could float off the makeshift platform, Ochako was all but ready to start calling out to the others to help put the last step into motion: specifically having Ryukyu use her enlarged mass and momentum to flip the entire platform over, so that she could then deactivate her Zero Gravity and send it and Rikiya both plummeting back into the ground, so that Nejire could then hammer him further and further in with a barrage of her Wave Motion attacks. After all the punishment he'd taken up to this point, she couldn't think it was possible for any Villain, no matter how powerful, to be able to get back up from that.

Her fingertips were just millimeters apart as she began to inhale so she could call down to Ryukyu herself…before the unmistakable sound of Izuku's voice suddenly called up to her from the direction of the compound gate: "URARAKA-SAN!"

"Deku-kun?!" All of Ochako's focus went right out the window as she turned back in surprise to find the frantic-looking green-haired boy looking up her way, urgently pointing to his right, towards a nearby empty intersection. "We need backup! The target's directly under that crossroads over there! The Pros aren't making any headway in this fight! We need help!"

Just the very thought of Tunguska, Eijirou and all the other Heroes potentially being in trouble was enough to make Ochako's hair stand on end, and seeing the desperation evident on Izuku's face and in his voice was the final push she needed to finally turn back to address her equally attentive and ready partners. "FROPPY, PLEASE GET US OVER TO THE CROSSROAD!"

"Way ahead of you!" Tsuyu immediately responded before shooting out her tongue, wrapping it entirely around the floating chunk of road, and then swinging her head in the direction of the intersection, sending the whole thing flying in the same direction as she let go.

At the same time, having likewise overheard Izuku's call for help, Ryukyu and Nejire both took off after the flying chunk that carried Ochako and Rikiya on it. The moment Nejire launched herself up, the Dragoon Hero herself sprung upward like a bullet, throwing her momentum and weight into the back-half of the large platform just at the same time that Ochako got herself out of the way of it, causing the whole thing to flip completely over so that the now-recovered Rikiya now found himself facing directly down to the intersection with his back essentially to the sky.

"URAVITY, NEJIRE-CHAN, LET HIM HAVE IT!" At Ryukyu's command, Ochako finally touched her fingers together, landing herself back down on the nearby sidewalk, sending the whole collected floating mass and riding criminal plummeting back down to the intersection, simultaneously boosted and weighed down further by Nejire firing Wave Motion after Wave Motion directly into it as it fell, as well as Ryukyu dive-bombing into it upon impact, causing the entire crossroad to cave-in on impact, swallowing Hero and criminal alike into the now-gaping hollow maw.

Before the dust even began to settle, Ochako, Tsuyu and Nejire all hurried to the rim of the gaping pit, their hearts frozen with worry for their teacher all the while. However, all of that worry was quickly joined by a potent shot of total confusion as, the moment they could finally see inside, not only did they find Ryukyu standing triumphantly over a finally motionless Rikiya…but several feet away, they likewise saw Izuku, his whole body illuminated with the sparks of his Full Cowl, standing bravely against the frightening sight of the beak mask-adorned form of the man they all now recognized as the leader of the Shie Hassaikai, Kai Chisaki, or better known now as Overhaul; his arms looking to be pulsating in rivulets and veins of black.

"That's incredible, Midoriya-san! I knew that Full Cowl move of yours made you insanely fast, but for you to get from above ground at the gates all the way under to this intersection, and fighting this gang's leader in that little time? How fast are you actually able to go now?" Nikolay immediately asked, not even trying to hide how impressed he was.

And, naturally, Mina was much the same (Kyouka and Momo to a far lesser degree), as she was repeatedly jumping in her seat with a glimmer in her eyes as she looked at Ochako and Tsuyu like genuine all-stars. "Even besides that, that was such an awesome plan, Urara-chan! You may actually be able to give Midori-kun a run for his money soon! You're, like, two total genius peas in a pod when it comes to all that strategizing stuff!"

Unfortunately, the three girls' respective expressions of pride in her quick-thinking were not registering to Ochako's ears right now, as Nikolay's curiosity had left her and her partners looking visibly troubled, with Tunguska looking even more so. Finally, Izuku answered: "That's just the thing though, Kolya-san, everyone; I never went up to that gate. Once I'd started confronting Overhaul, there was no way I could've gone anywhere else, least of all because I didn't want to give him a chance to escape. That me which Uraraka-san saw up there...wasn't me at all."

Now Nikolay and his group's astonishment had turned to a very worried confusion…and from there it quickly turned into horror when Tsuyu finally followed up: "They made it very clear once we'd seen Midoriya down there…but this distraction tactic was actually the work of…the League of Villains."

Just like that; Nikolay, Mina, Kyouka, Tenya and Momo felt their hearts simultaneously drop at the revelation that those horrifying Villains were now a part of the whole situation, with Tunguska noting: "It wasn't all of them, mind you. Back there, from the reports afterward, it was that girl, Toga Himiko, and that man with the Copying Quirk, Bubaigawara Jin, or Twice as you might have heard him called on the news by now. The man responsible for malenkii Bakugo's kidnapping, Atsuhiro Sako, was apparently there as well."

"Were they the ones responsible for any of your wounds?" Nikolay immediately asked, his voice just barely keeping from shaking as he looked upon the bandages still adorning half of Tunguska's face, and simply thinking back on Eijirou having been wearing his own yesterday.

At his question, his father and classmates all exchanged very serious glances, before the older Hero finally breathed deep, clearly having been dreading this very question. "They and the Shie Hassaikai's forces both, I'm afraid."

However, such a straightforward answer clearly didn't match the look of hesitation visible in his own exposed blue eye, and that did not sit well with Nikolay or his group at all, and the young Russian student wasn't about to let any need-to-know details be kept from him now of all times. "Dad, what aren't you telling us?"

DING-DONG! DING-DONG!

The echo of the bell signifying the end of lunch period immediately followed Nikolay's clearly anxious question, and like the flip of a switch did Tunguska's demeanor become serious and resilient all over again. "I'm sorry, Kolya, all of you. That's all we have time to tell you about our mission today."

The fact that the students on his side of the table all looked equally apologetic to leave things off at this point did little to ease the sense of anxiousness and frustration that flared up in the chests of Nikolay and his group, as he, Mina and Kyouka all likewise exclaimed: "Are you serious right now? You can't just leave it at that!" "Yeah, what's going on that's got you guys all looking so freaked out?" "What the hell is going on that would have the League working with these yakuza?"

However, despite similarly wanting more information, Tenya dutifully stepped forward and motioned his arms to get his classmates' attention. "Everyone, please, compose yourselves! I understand all your desire to know more, but we all agreed to let Sensei and our friends recount this experience for us in this way for the benefit of staying on top of our education in the meantime, and we must respect this decision just as much as they do!"

As much as they knew their class president was right, and that they had a responsibility to respect their friends' decisions', it still didn't make this gaping void they felt inside, the desire for answers, feel any less painful. At the same time, gratefully nodding in response to Tenya's intervention, Izuku likewise answered: "Believe me, you guys, I want to tell you everything I can, but there's honestly still a lot about the whole situation as it unfolded we still don't fully understand. The police and the Pros are all still trying to piece everything together, and until they do, we're essentially just as much in the dark as you are. As soon as we know, we'll tell you if you still would want to know by then."

There was an unmistakable air of beseeching in Izuku's tone as he explained all of this to his desperate friends before him, and if there was one thing the green-haired boy had a natural talent for, it was getting through to the hearts of his friends with his honest emotions. That was what finally convinced Nikolay and the others to let this sudden stop in the story go; all the while knowing that, if nothing else, they would at least get to know more at the same time tomorrow.

But until then, it was time for them all to return to finish up the rest of the school day, and simply see what kind of assignments would await them afterward, and just what possible future lay ahead for them all as far as continued internships were concerned.

And as they all continued back to Class 1-A together, Tunguska followed closely on their heels, since his Quirk History class was in fact the next one on the roster. However, as he kept behind his son and students, neither Nikolay nor any of his group ever noticed the deeply troubled look on his face. Just like the very students he fought alongside that day, Tunguska knew all there was to know about how the mission had unfolded, but the details of how that happened were things he had every intention of following up on as soon as the last of his injuries had finally healed.

He could only hope that time would come sooner rather than later.

Thankfully the rest of the school day had passed by rather quickly. Still no exciting training lessons, but that was what tomorrow was always for; or at least such was what Mina, Tooru and Denki kept reminding themselves of throughout the rest of the day all the way back to the dorms once the final bells had rung.

After washing up for the night and having dinner, everyone else continued to mingle until it would eventually be time for bed. But until then, Nikolay and Mina had decided to secretly take the initiative in a rather bold way they knew they would've been talked down from if they'd just outright explained it. No matter what Tenya said before, as their friend who had suffered a deep loss over the course of their previous mission, they knew they both had an inherent responsibility to try and help him out.

As such, in the privacy of Nikolay's dorm room, they had decided to strike up a much-anticipated video call to none other than Willow Light and the rest of her fellow Pros back at the Kamuron Hero Agency in Erubi City, with the absence of only Reflector himself. Of course, this quickly came to be no surprise when they had come to learn that, with the Kapenta Hero Agency being the one he'd directly trained and worked under in his early post-graduation years, he'd jumped on the very first chance to go up there to assist in all the reconstruction and peace-keeping efforts until the others would all completely recover.

Naturally nearly fifteen whole minutes had been spent right from the start with everyone giving their greetings and expressions of missing one another, but once that had all come and gone, the two students' original plan had once more gotten pushed aside once they'd been asked to give all the details they could about their mission that the newspapers and the internet had all managed to leave out.

Just as it had when they'd recalled the whole story for their classmates, the entire story had left their Field Training mentors visibly riveted, and just as emotional as Nikolay and Mina themselves when finally reaching the end. Having to talk about Volga and his sacrifice still hit Nikolay very deep, and that fact couldn't have ever been lost on Willow Light herself, when seeing the pain in his eyes, and the deep, wordless sympathy on Mina's face beside him.

"My God, you kids have all been through so, so much in so little time. I don't remember it ever being so crazy when I was your age, I don't think it was that way for any of us here. Yet you all still managed to power through it all, even the losses you had to take, in order to save so many people, and in so many ways, too. All this time I kept hoping that you two would one day come back through our doors to be our official interns again on a full-time basis…but seeing how quiet things are around here these days, I almost feel like we'd just be wasting both your time, you've both gotten so much stronger now."

"Aw, don't say that, Sensei! Getting to be around Pro Heroes at all is always exciting, no matter who it is or what's going on! That goes for you all, too!" Mina immediately answered with just as much enthusiasm as she had the very first day the two had first come through their doors, which just left the Irish-Japanese Hero onscreen smiling that much brighter.

"And besides, after all of what we just went through, I have to admit that interning somewhere that's much quieter actually sounds really nice right now. I don't care if that makes me sound old, it's true." Nikolay chimed in, earning an amused giggle out of Mina and the Pros alike, as she proceeded to hug him close with a sweet giggle escaping her large and happy smile.

"I know it may not exactly be our place to say so, not even knowing the kids ourselves, but I think we'd all just as much like to extend our sympathies to you and your schoolmates Iida-kun, Tetsutetsu-kun, Tsunotori-chan and Kodai-chan as well, for your losses. No matter who it is, to witness someone lose their life in the field of battle is never any easy thing to take, especially a teacher and a friend…or family, blood-related or otherwise," the black-clad Ninja of Valor chimed in from behind Willow Light's back, earning similarly serious but completely genuine utterances of sympathy and understanding from Willow Light and Big Trouble both; to which the two teens gave their own grateful bows in return.

"Actually, Sensei; that was another big reason we wanted to call you all." Nikolay suddenly admitted, immediately grabbing the three visible Pros' attention. However, before he could even say anything else, Willow Light herself quickly leaned in, ignoring the annoyed protests of her fellows as her watchful eyes took up the entirety of the small screen of his phone.

"Before you go any further, Bezpalov-kun, I have to ask you both something as well!" The unmistakable enthusiasm in her energetic voice caught both her former interns by surprise; neither of them willing to risk saying anything as her eyes looked their faces over closely. "Something between you two just…not necessarily looks different, but it definitely feels different."

Nikolay barely caught the visible flinch in Mina's body language; his pink-skinned girlfriend already having figured out just what was on their teacher's mind, and furthermore, Willow Light could tell from the look in her eyes that Mina had figured it out. "Yes, I knew something seemed different, a lot stronger feeling when seeing you two together."

Just like that, they could both see the light bulb ignite inside her head, as Willow Light's inquisitive gaze turned into an ecstatic smile going from ear to ear on her freckled face. "Oh my God, Ashido-chan, did you actually do it?! Are you two actually finally a…?"

With neither of them having to even wonder what Willow Light was thinking anymore, as well as Nikolay now realizing that Mina had likewise gone to her for romantic advice just like she had with Midnight before; his apprehension turned into a smile just as happy as her own, as they proceeded to inch even closer to one another, just for her to sneak in a surprise kiss on his cheek when he least expected it. Mina was even going so far as to vocalize how happy she was to finally show her love for the Russian boy by letting out a cheerful hum as she kept her lips pressed to his warming face, before letting out a punctuated "Mwah" the moment she finally pulled away; grinning cheekily to herself when seeing how red his precious face already was, all while Willow Light let out a squeal like a tea kettle when she saw it.

"Yes we did, Sensei! In fact…it was actually Kolya-kun who said it first!" This time, the joyous squeal the Pro let out on the other end of the call sounded like it was going to risk busting the speaker on Nikolay's phone; while the blushing young Slav could just keep smiling in immense pride and happiness to himself. "It's true. I mean, it was in the middle of that whole fight on the sub when I was trying to get through to Mina, but that didn't make it any less genuine. We even finally told each other properly at the hospital when it was all over, too."

With her slender arms thrown tight over her boyfriend's shoulders, Mina happily nuzzled her cheek to his before they both finally met Willow Light's ecstatic gaze again; both of them confirming in near perfect unison: "We're actually together, like a for-real couple now, Sensei!"

By this point, poor Willow Light looked utterly burnt out of energy where she sat, hyperventilating from the sheer adrenaline rush and accompanying dopamine hit in her brain that seeing her two beloved interns confessing their love and confirming her long-time mental ship, had given her. She hardly looked like she could summon the mental fortitude to even form words anymore, let alone get back to acting like a professional.

As such, Ninja of Valor had to awkwardly start wheeling her away from the screen in her chair, while Big Trouble decided to interject in her place. "Well, that's, uh…I mean, don't get us wrong, that's wonderful, you two. Civilian or Hero, everyone deserves to have that special person in their life, and to be fair, you two seemed like a real matching pair from the moment we saw you in the flesh. Púca-chan honestly saw it as far back as the Sports Festival, which was why she vouched for you as our interns from the start."

Nobody would've had any idea how to process the knowledge that one of their own mentors had specifically chosen them to be their interns as a pair, specifically because they saw their unspoken chemistry as something romantic to be nourished and encouraged; and obviously Nikolay and Mina were no different. It did nothing to remotely dim the fire of unbreakable attachment they had with one another from all this time, but it was still a very awkward thing to now know.

While Ninja of Valor was still trying to bring Willow Light back to reality in the background, Big Trouble nervously cleared his throat, hoping to turn the conversation back to somewhere less uncomfortable. "so, what was it you were both about to say about why you called?"

With his thankfully saying such, Nikolay was able to get his head back where it needed to be, answering with surprising vigor: "Well, we know it's not our place to do something like this, and he even asked us to not put ourselves out there. I can't even pretend to speak for his partners from Class B in terms of what they might choose to do, but he's still our president, our classmate and our friend, so it's only right if we—"Sensei's, would you guys be willing to take Iida-san on as your intern? If going back to Knightfall-sensei's Agency would make him too sad, then we wanna try and help him! He's easily one of the smartest and most dependable Heroes we know, and we think you guys would all be awesome teachers for him just like you were for us!"

There wasn't even time for anyone to look confused or ask the two students to repeat themselves, as Willow Light's already illuminated green eyes momentarily flared up with her excitement as she immediately shot back up to her feet, moving and speaking excitedly, as though she were running on pure nitrous oxide. "Are you kidding?! You two were such amazing students of ours; if he fought so valiantly beside you and shows such consistent promise, we'd be more than happy to take him in! I could call Reflector right now and run it by him, and I guarantee he'll agree for the exact same reasoning! No, no, wait, I can call Yuuei and see if they can give us Iida-kun's info so we can message him that we'd like to take him on! Wait, should I mention your references, or do you want me to keep your parts hush-hush, or would he actually figure it out already just from it being us? Oh, God, having an intern again would be so much fun! No, no, no, wait! Before any of that, what exactly did you both say to confess to each other?! I GOTTA KNOW!"

From there, the rest of the call on the Kamuron Heroes' end had devolved into Big Trouble now trying to calm Willow Light down from her excitement, primarily by trying to remind her how much smaller time of an Agency they were compared to someone like Knightfall's Agency, as well as to mind her own business on such personal things; which ultimately had to end with Ninja of Valor having to apologetically cut the call short. Nevertheless, the fact that their old mentors had accepted the task so readily had Nikolay and Mina both swelling with happiness that they could at least get the potential wheels rolling for Tenya to get another internship.

"So…you asked Willow Light-sensei too, huh?" Nikolay finally asked after a prolonged euphoric moment of silence of him and Mina simply sitting and resting shoulder-to-shoulder against each other with their hearts pounding and faces warm with overall contentment.

To this, Mina let out another irresistible giggle as she simply started shaking her head upon his shoulder, intentionally tickling his face with her frizzy pink hair. "Aw, c'mon, don't make fun of me, I was desperate for ideas, remember? I mean, it all finally got me to tell you in the end, didn't it, Kolya-kun?"

The tickling touch of her hair made it impossible for Nikolay not to start laughing in kind while she just kept staring at him with loving, yet mischievous eyes. "That it did…that it did. And thank God for it."

Such answers were easily enough to inspire the young pink Hero to start inching in even more so they could feel that electrifying touch of each other's kiss again, but just as she started to, Nikolay suddenly spoke up: "Sensei did bring up a good point, though. We both know how smart Iida-san is. If he suddenly gets an offer from Kamuron, he's sure to realize we must've reached out to them even when he told us not to. You don't think he'd be upset by that, do you, Mina?"

Thinking about it seriously for a second, a genuinely confident smile spread across Mina's face. "I mean, yeah, he might at least get a little annoyed, but he's still one of our besties, remember? He couldn't possibly be such a sourpuss that he couldn't come to appreciate us having his back like that, I'm sure."

Thankfully, if she was able to sound so confident in that scenario, then Nikolay could just as surely feel that there really was no need to worry in the end. With that, they could both finally get back to resting together against the side of his bed, able to just bask in the overall air of accomplishment from the last few days again.

Suddenly, with that reminiscence combined with the fact they'd just called the Kamuron Agency Heroes for the first time in a while, Nikolay was suddenly overcome with yet another desire. "Hey, if Willow Light-sensei said Reflector-sensei is helping with all the work back in Hokkaido, what do you say we check on everyone up there again, see how things are looking?"

Just like that, Mina's already peacefully happy smile brightened with her eagerness. "Hey, yeah! Maybe we might be able to all go back up and continue our intern work sooner than we thought! What are we waiting for?!"

With nothing more needing to be said, Nikolay was already hurriedly pulling up the internet on his phone again, already preparing to look up the number for the Kapenta Agency to see if the phone lines had been re-established for them yet.

However, just as Mina was getting ready to hear the dial tone emanating from the speaker, she was instead met with a surprising silence…which was soon punctuated with the much more unsettling sound of Nikolay letting out increasingly shaky gasps for breath right next to her, before barely managing to utter: [[Oh…God…]].

"Kolya-kun? Hey, what's wro-?"

The moment she finally took her head off his shoulder and turned to look at his face, any words Mina had on standby had turned to dust in her throat. Before her, Nikolay's already fair face had gone as white as a sheet; his green irises contracted to near pinpricks in his widened eyes, and his mouth trembling with what could only be described as a horrified speechlessness, as beads of icy cold sweat beaded all over his face as he stared at the phone in his hand.

"Kolya-kun, oh my God, are you okay?! Hey, what's going on? C'mon, you can tell m-!"

In her desperation to know just what had the boy she loved looking so deeply horrified, Mina naturally looked to see just what was on his phone right now…and within moments of her looking over any one of the different news headlines running all the way down the screen, she could feel her worry turn into the very same kind of silent horror he had to be feeling, as her whole body began to succumb to immense shivering where she sat beside him.

From top to bottom and scrolling ever onwards, every major news network in Japan and even several others from different countries all over the world were bearing headlines describing major destructive incidents all over western Russia over the course of the previous week, primarily what was being described as a massive seismological disaster that had left nearly half of Moscow leveled and in flames, with death tolls already numbering in the thousands, with numbers of injured and missing both being even higher.

What was especially surprising, and for Nikolay distressing, was the fact that, within the samples windows for every one of these links, they were all talking about how these incidents were only just now being disclosed to the rest of the world with permission from the Russian government.

Even for as petrifying as the news and statistics of these incidents had immediately proven to be for Nikolay; what had his stomach twisting in multiple knots as he tried to find any words at all, was simply the realization that so many innocent people in his homeland had died, and it was only now that the people in charge were telling everyone else just what had happened, when they had to have known from the start that just saying something then could have at least brought in help from outside the country that could have potentially saved so many more lives, Heroes or no Heroes.

By now, just to try and make sure they weren't simply seeing things, Mina had chosen to get her own phone out just to try and confirm, and it was just as quickly as she had pulled up the internet on it likewise, that she was met by the very same despairing headlines all over the place, leaving her phone trembling in her unsteady hands as her tear-brimmed eyes looked imploringly to Nikolay. "Oh my God…oh, Kolya-kun…I'm…I-I'm so…"

The sound of Nikolay suddenly barely choking down the lump in his throat rendered Mina's attempts at expressing her sympathies dead silent, as his eyes looked on distantly, but with pain still clear as day in them. "Did…do you…do you think Dad…that he might've already seen this? I mean…h-he seemed kinda distant or t-troubled during…during his class today, didn't he? That wasn't just me thinking so, right? You don't think this…was the cause for that, do you?"

While Tunguska had indeed been surprisingly distant in thought during the course of his class today after lunch period, Mina had simply assumed it was because of his reluctance in keeping the rest of his and Izuku's group's story to themselves for the day. But now that Nikolay had brought up this horrible possibility, she honestly didn't know what to think.

It would've made perfect sense if it were the reason, though…although, considering how clearly emotionally attached Nikolay's father still was to their homeland for his entire life, this theory only then made it that much stranger that Tunguska didn't just go gung-ho on his own and go rushing all the way back to try and help the people in need of his assistance right then and there once the word had gotten out.

Desperate for more information of any kind at all, Nikolay and Mina both opened one of the first links they could find. Within, they were met with yet more information, ranging from numbers of theories from Russian officials that these self-described 'seismological disasters' were nothing more than long-delayed results of the Siberian Flash's deeply penetrating tectonic damage, to numerous reports that the Russian president Dmitri Zaitsev himself had gone missing alongside nearly the entirety of his administration in the midst of the Moscow disaster specifically.

The only piece of news amid these walls of texts and attached videos that came even close to uplifting was the recent announcement that, in the absence of the president and many of his replacements in the chain of command; that the current position of leadership had now officially fallen to none other than Konstantin Alexandrovich Khodamchuk himself.

Reading this in particular, Mina was able to let out a very shaky sigh of something resembling relief. "I-I mean, this is good news, isn't it? He…he seems like he might be a good leader to help everyone out with this…doesn't he?"

K-KLAK!

The sound of Nikolay's phone clattering to the hardwood floor snapped Mina to attention, and even the slight ember of optimism she was trying to fan into a flame had quickly dimmed when she saw the already-crying boy at her side start pulling his knees up, curling into a trembling ball as he stared off into nothing.

After having not seen Nikolay get this low for so long, the sight of him retreating back into it had all of Mina's worries come rushing out in force as she quickly held onto him, trying to urge him to look at her instead. "Kolya-kun, hey, look at me, okay? It's…it's gonna be okay, you know? The whole thing sounds like it's over now, you know? Please, look at me and tell me what you're thinking right now. Please."

Nikolay's green eyes continued to well, shimmer and flow with tears as he finally turned to look into Mina's imploring and desperate eyes; her up-close expression the very picture of loving concern. But none of that could reach him in the quickly-growing mental haze he was finding himself falling into even as they spoke.

"It's all over, Mina. It's our fault…me and Dad. We…we left, and…and…a-and maybe if we…we hadn't, we could've…we could've *sob* we could've done something to stop it! But instead we ran! *sniffle* *choke* We ran away, and all these people are gone when one of us might've been able to do something to help them! *sob* Even if…even if they never would've said it themselves, those people back home needed Heroes then…and nobody came! Heroes didn't come to help, and people are dead because of it!

"And to think this…that this all happened well before we even got attacked, before we even started our mission to stop Pietro's invasion! What were we…what were we even trying to save, if already so much had been destroyed before the fact?!"

Mina's own vision quickly grew blurred with her own pained tears as she saw Nikolay coming apart before her very eyes. His sense of reason would've easily helped him to know that, if he and Tunguska had stayed in Russia back then, any attempt to try and stop any kind of disaster would have only resulted in their getting arrested or shot on sight. With his earlier reluctance to even use his Quirk at all, let alone to try and be a Hero; any sense of realism would've made Nikolay realize that what he was saying was simply nonsensical.

But his sense of responsibility and guilt now that he actually was trying to become a Hero, and knowing that so many people were now dead when there could have been any possibility at all that they didn't have to be, was making Nikolay feel as though he were drowning, with no lifeline to emotionally or mentally pull himself back up.

It was only when Mina did the one thing she could possibly think of when hearing his previous words, and pulled Nikolay into the safety and warmth of her arms, that his mind was able to come back to reality; his body becoming lost in all of the sympathy and support his girlfriend could possibly give him right now as she tried to help get him at least back onto his bed, before ultimately laying down beside him, never once releasing her embrace on him as she leaned in, resting her head back upon his shoulder while gently running the tips of her fingers through his hair.

She wished she could've had any more profound words to try and ease his anguish, something that could directly relate to just what kind of pain he was going through right now, being so far from home and being unable to do anything to save or help those people. Hell, her natural sense of Heroism and empathy had her wishing she could've somehow gone all that way out there to try and save all those people, herself; so there was a sense of powerlessness she was reeling from as well, deep inside.

Alas, the only things that could come to mind as Mina continued to protectively hold Nikolay close, were the things she knew she could guarantee with everything she was in this one moment as they lay together: "It's okay, Kolya-kun…I promise, it's all gonna be okay. You can let it all out, as much as you want to, whatever you have to say. I'll be here…I'll always be here for you. You don't have to go through any pain alone anymore…that's my promise. I'll be here for you all night if you want me to…so go ahead and just let it all out to me, okay?"

Throughout the rest of that fateful night, all Nikolay could think to do as he lay there in the comforting and supportive warmth of his girlfriend's embrace, was to simply roll on his side so they could at least look each other in the eye, and ultimately hold her tight in return. Well into the night, he was crying into her shoulder on and on, with Mina soon doing the same into his own as she listened to his pain and guilt, before they both ultimately fell asleep; never once releasing this unbreakable heartfelt hold of support and love they kept each other in all the while.

And there you have it, everyone! The first chapter of my interpretation of the Eri Rescue Mission. I know I would normally be much more long-winded in my expressing hopes that you all enjoy what you read here today, but my new semester is already drastically changing my personal schedule, and it is indeed very late at the time I'm writing this afterword.

I hope you all like what you read here, I hope you all had a good summer, since we know autumn is fast approaching. and lastly, I will see you all with the next chapter on 09/10!