A-humble-random-reader: All in due time, my friend. I'll let you know now that you'll get most of your wishes, but you have to be patient.
Here's the next part of the USJ arc. We begin with the last few zone battles, and then move on to where things begin to fall inward.
Here we go.
Yuga Aoyama stood trembling on the precipice of the ship, watching the villains get closer and closer. They cannot be serious about this plan!
But they were. Midoriya put one foot up on the railing, and let out a roar of rage, meant to intimidate. The villains hung back a moment. One of them manipulated a pillar of water and threw it at the ship. The structure buckled, and Yuga stumbled, trying not to trip over his own cape. Asui kept her footing, watching carefully.
Midoriya leapt off the railing, into the air. Below him, the villains gathered, and he seemed to charge up his fist.
"Ready?" Asui asked, wrapping an arm around Yuga. "One second for launching, one second for attack."
"Understood, mademoiselle." It was all happening too fast to argue.
Midoriya flicked his fingers in a snap, and a tremendous amount of energy erupted downward into the water, striking the villains and creating a whirlpool.
"NOW!"
"Ribbit!" Asui hopped upward with her legs, but both of their weights were too much. That was where he factored in! My time to shine!
Though he was sweating and shaking and terrified, Yuga let out his laser for one second flat, propelling them further into the air and bolstering Asui's jump. Her tongue wrapped around Midoriya in midair, and as they passed over the villains, Yuga shot again.
"ARGH!" one screamed in pain.
"MY EYES! MY FACE!"
They were all getting knocked together in the middle of the whirlpool that Midoriya had created.
Yuga let out a shaky exhale as they shrunk in his vision, as the three of them flew through the air towards the edge of the lake. He allowed himself to giggle, and then, slowly...returned to his former angular smile. "You're both amazing!" Asui declared, as their trajectory turned downward and they splashed into the lake close to the water's edge.
Yuga came up quickly, sputtering. The villains were not in pursuit. But ahead of them in the central plaza, something horrible was happening.
...
In the collapse zone, Katsuki Bakugo and Eijiro Kirishima were just cleaning up.
"DIEEE!" the former shouted, blowing up in a villain's face. Behind him, Kirishima chopped another with a Hardened hand.
Is that all of them? How puny! thought Katsuki.
"Is that all of them? How puny!" said Katsuki. He wasn't the type to keep such things to himself!
Tsk. Stupid fucking villains. They had a lot of nerve trying to pull this shit, although Katsuki had to admit that this was more interesting than rescue lessons.
"All right!" Kirishima turned to his comrade, breathing hard. "Let's hurry up and go save the others!"
"Huh?" Katsuki gave him a bewildered look.
Kirishima closed his fist. "They must still be in the building, and I'm worried about the ones who don't have as much combat ability. Besides...when the two of us went charging in on the portal guy like that...we got in Thirteen's way. We've got to take responsibility for that as men."
What the hell is he talking about? Who's we? "If you want to go so badly, then go, Shitty Hair," Katsuki told him, pretending to not know that his name was Kirishima. "Meanwhile, I'm gonna finish what we started and kill that portal guy." Currently there was some extra with a camouflage quirk crawling on the ceiling towards them, but what the fuck was he gonna do?
"Are you really gonna go for revenge at a time like this?" Kirishima demanded.
"Shut up! It's not revenge! I'm cutting off the enemy's escape route! The portal guy is there way in and out!"
"But we can't even hit him..."
The chameleon dumbass made a leap at the two students, but Katsuki simply caught his face with his hand and blew it the fuck up. "...as I was saying, we saw his physical body for a second there. He had some stupid ass collar on. So we CAN hit him. And besides..." he held up the unconscious villain as an example. "If THIS is the caliber of fighter that has been assigned to kill the students, then the others will be fucking fine."
Kirishima smiled nervously. "Since when did you get so rational? I thought you were more like...DIIIIIIE...DEKU, YOU PIECE OF SHIT...I'LL KILL ALL YOU DAMN EXTRAS, and so on, and so forth."
"I'M ALWAYS RATIONAL, SHITTY HAIRED PUNK!" You've got to be in a battle situation like this, personal problems be damned. With that being said, don't you DARE bring up Deku's wet blanket ass. "Like I said, if you wanna go help the others, go ahead." Katsuki turned to leave the building.
"Hey!" Kirishima yelled. "Believing in our friends to handle themselves, are you?"
"Shut up! That's not what I..."
"That's manly as hell, Bakugo!" He clashed his hardened fists together. "I'll do the same! Let's go with your plan, and take out their escape route."
...
The yellow eyes flashed at him, and suddenly all sound was gone, and Doko was surrounded by a deep violet void.
"A warper." Kurogiri's voice reverberated in every direction, as if he was completely surrounding Doko, as if Doko was INSIDE him. "You have summoned the energy of the void. You. A teenager."
Just run with it. "Technically I was a toddler. My Quirk manifested when I was four, after all!" As he finished the sentence, Doko warped forward towards the border of the purple soup, and then sideways. He swung an experimental punch, to see if it connected with anything. But the void swirled, the yellow eyes flashed again, and he was spun around, falling to the floor, disoriented.
"As cliche as it might sound, resistance is altogether meaningless. I can sense your energy, warper. Your powers are still in the larva stage. You can't even bring others along, can you?"
Doko growled in frustration and tried to escape again. In three warps, he saw the outside platform and the bright light of the dome, but Kurogiri opened another portal beneath him, and he fell...sideways, the change in gravity nearly causing him to puke as he slammed into the floor once again, surrounded.
"I received no orders to keep students alive, or to bring any back with us. But that was only because we did not know your Quirks. The boss will be quite pleased with you. Quite pleased."
Doko teleported in a circle, trying to get a read on the space. Everything looked the same; he had no depth perception.
"You can't recruit me, sir. Being a villain is sort of cringe, if you catch my drift."
"A warper working for the heroes is such a waste." Another portal opened beneath him, and then several more, making Doko fall with increasing velocity through a loop, until he was allowed to hit the ground hard. He ground his teeth in pain. He thought he might have felt one of his ribs crack.
"Do you know why there are so few of us, boy? In the great quirk wars, most warpers fought for the villains. We were cast out as being lazy, unpredictable, too frightening with our potential. And when the war was lost, our kind nearly died out."
"Seems like we picked the wrong side then." Doko struggled to his feet, holding his fists up to fight. He could feel bruises forming on his face. "I'll be the first one to remedy that. Starting by kicking your ass."
Kurogiri laughed deeply. "Who is kicking whose ass, exactly?"
Doko grinned, hoping they'd figured something out by now. "I didn't say I'd do it by myself."
...
Mina Ashido couldn't believe her eyes. One moment, they'd had Kuro-what'shisname surrounded, and then all of a sudden he'd had them surrounded. There were DOZENS of portals, dozens everywhere, but before they could react, they all seemed to close in on...
Dokkun.
The portal villain had formed a sort of dome of dark energy around where the boy had been standing, and suddenly it began slashing and spinning around. She could hear grunts and shouts, as if they were fighting in there.
Uraraka looked down at her own hands frantically, realising they were clasped together. "Oh no! I released my Quirk!"
"Hurry!" Sato stepped toward the spinning mass of portals. "We've gotta help him out! Especially before my sugar rush runs out."
Mina blinked, dazed. Everything so far had been so hard to take in. The villains arriving, Aizawa going in to fight, the scattering of the students...and the worst, Thirteen's defeat. Her brain felt like it was sinking, and she couldn't stop trembling. Dokkun's in there. Dokkun is getting tortured, for all we know.
She held up her hands.
"We've gotta find the neck brace! It's gotta be in there somewhere!" Sero dashed forward. "Come on!"
Uraraka and Shoji broke past Mina. She couldn't bring herself to follow. I could have beat Todoroki, but I held back...because my Quirk is so DEADLY. I mean, I want to be a hero, but I can hurt people so badly with this!
Bad memories flashed through her head, from preschool and beyond.
Mina closed her fist.
Ahead of me is a man who DESERVES to be hurt. And a boy whose life is worth saving. A boy who is WITHIN MY POWER to save.
...
"BOW DOWN TO YOUR QUEEN, STARGATE!" The peppy shout penetrated the depths of the void, and Kurogiri screamed in pain, the yellow eyes suddenly widening where Doko could see them. He teleported sideways, then forward, and he was free, the purple soup dissipating, the portals closing one by one around them.
He was back on the platform with the other students and the unconscious Thirteen. The portals continued to disappear, until it was just a single purple pillar with yellow eyes and a metal collar. An arc of acid was being sprayed onto it by Mina Ashido. Kurogiri buckled to the floor, steam rising from his "body." Shoji and Sato jumped forward, holding him down properly this time. Sero quickly leapt forward and trained his elbows onto the villain, ready to shoot. Mina had stopped her attack, but still held her hands up threateningly.
Doko looked at her, stunned. She turned her pink face toward him, and gave him the brightest, most authentic smile he'd ever seen. "That's two you owe me, idiot," she said.
Doko felt his heart skip a beat. He swallowed, and felt heat rush to his cheeks. She's...she's amazing...
Sero raised an eyebrow at Mina. "STARGATE? Seriously?"
"It was the best I could come up with at the time!"
"Sorry for taking so long, Katayama," Shoji said, still holding down the struggling villain with most of his arms. "We had to locate the metal brace again amidst all the false portals, and he kept moving around. It must have been hell in there."
"I'm sorry too, Katayama-kun!" cried Uraraka. "If I hadn't released my Quirk, he would still be floating, and wouldn't have been able to swallow you up like that..."
"It's fine, guys. Really. Thanks for saving me at all, to be honest."
"W-well..." Kurogiri stammered, struggling under the two boys. "This is an unfortunate outcome. I suppose it's time to get Shigaraki and pull out."
"And how do you plan on doing that, huh?" Sato taunted.
Kurogiri stopped struggling so suddenly that all the students froze cold. "Like this, you pathetic children," he snarled. And then...he simply sank, melting into the floor. Gone.
...
"Midoriya, we shouldn't get involved with that, ribbit," Asui told him as they popped up at the edge of the lake.
"I know, it's just..." Izuku gazed ahead. "We'll run away if it seems too dangerous, okay?" But part of me thinks...no, KNOWS that Aizawa-Sensei can't hold out. How could he for much longer? It's been nearly twenty minutes...
The pro hero Eraser Head was currently locked in battle with many villains, bobbing and weaving gracefully between them, spinning his scarf like a thread, capturing them one by one. His hair rose and fell periodically.
Putting aside the question of whether he NEEDS your help, another voice in Izuku's head said, does he even DESERVE it? His ideals run contrary to All Might's, and he meant to shame you during the Quirk assessment. How is this battle a problem of yours, especially when he explicitly told the students to evacuate?
Because if I'm going to become the greatest hero, EVERY problem will become mine.
Izuku's eyes panned to the right, where the blue-haired man in black with the hand-mask was standing, watching. "24 seconds," he heard the man say. Aizawa's hair rose again. He dashed between two more villains, kicking one and punching the other. After a brief moment of battle, he had captured them as well. "21 seconds," the man said.
What is he doing? Izuku wondered...and then, as he recalled all he knew about the pro hero Eraser Head, he realised it...horrifyingly too late.
The hand villain was dashing forward to Aizawa, crouched low to the ground, arms outstretched. "17 seconds," he half-whispered, sounding almost giddy with excitement. Aizawa moved to counterattack, twirling and throwing his scarf around the hand villain with one arm, and driving his other elbow into the villain's stomach.
The villain reached out...and caught Aizawa's elbow. The two of them skidded to a stop, locked together.
"You do well to hide it, but...there's a moment when your hair falls." The villain's grip on their teacher's elbow tightened. Izuku's eyes widened in shock and fear.
"And that's when your Quirk becomes inoperable." Aizawa's hair fall, and he gasped in surprise...and pain, as the villain's touch suddenly began to turn his elbow to dust.
"Ribbit!" Asui exclaimed, and Aoyama submerged himself, whimpering in fright.
"You're tired, hero. The time between hair falls has grown shorter and shorter." The teacher's elbow had worn down to bare red tendon. "Don't push yourself, Eraser Head."
Aizawa pushed the villain away from him, scrambling back frantically, as more villains came at him. He took them out one-handed, but it took him too long, and Izuku could see his chest rising and falling. Oh no. Nononono. What happened to his elbow? What on Earth is that power?
"Long fights like this are beyond you, aren't they?" the villain taunted from a safe distance. "You'd rather attack an opponent by surprise and get rid of them quickly. But today you had to go outside your comfort zone to protect your students. It'd be admirable if it weren't so foolish."
A shadow fell over their exhausted teacher. "Oh my god..." Asui put a hand over her mouth. Izuku gasped, his blood running cold.
The hulking bird monster was bearing down upon Aizawa.
"Earlier you called me the final boss," the hand villain said. "You were wrong, I'm afraid."
Izuku's entire body froze in horror as the monster grabbed Aizawa by the head and slammed him into the floor, blood and debris spurting everywhere.
"The final boss is him." The villain's voice had slowly been filling with sadistic joy, but it threatened to burst forth now. "He's the symbol of war, of chaos. Built, not born. My glorious Nomu."
The thing opened its beak and squawked, showing sharp teeth. Its exposed brain jiggled. Izuku was vaguely aware of Aoyama puking next to him.
Aizawa's head was slammed into the floor again, and again. He managed to turn and flash his eyes...and the monster broke his arm.
"GAAAAAAH!" Aizawa was crushed toward the floor again, punished for the attempt.
The hand villain began to walk over. "You can erase quirks, hero. Seemingly an overpowered ability in our world, but meaningless...in the face of true natural power."
"Midoriyaaaa..." Asui sounded sick, croaking. "We need to leeeave..."
But Izuku couldn't. He couldn't move. Aizawa-Sensei erased the monster's Quirk, and it still snapped his arm like a twig. It's as strong as All Might.
As strong as All Might...
A purple portal shimmered into reality next to the hand villain. Narrow yellow eyes appeared near the top. "Tomura Shigaraki," the portal said to the hand villain.
"Is Thirteen dead, Kurogiri?" Shigaraki asked.
"Out of action. There were a number of students I did not manage to scatter, however. They fought me into brief submission, and one was able to escape the dome."
Shigaraki turned. "Huuuuh?" He began to scratch his neck, compulsively. "Kurogiri, you..." the scratches went faster and faster. "If you weren't our way out, I'd..." he drew blood from his own skin, scratching so intensely. "I'D CRUSH YOU TO PIECES!"
He relaxed, pausing. "We aren't prepared to fight more pros, not when Eraser Head alone took out most of our troops. It's game over, unfortunately." He sighed and slumped his back, defeated.
Aoyama picked his head up slowly out of the water. "Did...did the monsieur say they were giving up? Are they departing?"
Shigaraki seemed to pick himself up a tad. "It's a shame, too. I really wanted to get rid of All Might for good. But, hey, before we leave..." he began to turn in a new direction, one he hadn't turned once in the past few minutes.
Towards the three students in the lake.
"...let's ruin his pride, and kill some of his students."
And suddenly he was upon them, hands outstretched, distance closing fast, with a rush of wind.
The world seemed to slow down as Izuku's eyes widened in horror, following Shigaraki's hand as its shadow fell upon Asui, bony fingers closing toward her frightened face, the power of disintegration contained within...
Shigaraki grabbed the girl's face, and nothing happened. He made a tsk sound of disappointment. "Damn. That was impressive..." he turned. "...Eraser Head."
Izuku whirled. Aizawa had barely lifted his head up, his gaze sharply focused on Shigaraki through his pained face, his eyes glowing red. Then, the monster slammed him down again.
He bought us time! Go, now! Frantically, Izuku burst out of the water, charging up a smash through his fist, one hundred percent power. He leapt toward Shigaraki.
Save Asui, run away! All in one!
"LET GO OF HER!" he declared, and Shigaraki looked up in surprise at the student bearing down on him.
"SMAAAAAAAAAASH!"
A rush of wind filled the dome, as the power of One for All reverberated over and over. The lights were blown out. The villains were pushed back.
Izuku looked down at his fist. Huh? My arm isn't broken? I managed to control it?
The smoke cleared...to reveal what his punch had actually hit.
It was Nomu. The monster. Standing between him and Shigaraki.
Unhurt.
The symbol of war, of chaos. As strong as All Might.
Asui's words...they've planned all this because they've found a way...they've found a way to kill him...
This was it. The way. This thing.
"A bold move," Shigaraki said. "And you even shouted SMASH, just like the great fool does. How touching." Nomu lurched forward and grabbed Izuku, lifting him up as if he were as light as a feather. "Such a shame," said Shigaraki. Izuku kicked and struggled. Beyond, Shigaraki was reaching for Asui and Aoyama, prepping to tear their faces apart. No! No, it can't end like this! Nooooooo...
The doors of USJ burst open, in a great explosion of smoke and dust.
The villains paused. Izuku let out a "Huh?" of confusion, still hanging in midair, but by Asui's tongue, not Nomu's grip. The monster and Shigaraki had turned to look up the steps.
There he was, imposing and glowing and...furious. "It's fine now," All Might growled, throwing his suit aside. "Because I am here."
Tears swam in Izuku's eyes. "All...Might..."
Shigaraki giggled. "Looks like we're staying for Round Two after all."
...
The exhausted students on the top of the steps watched in awe as he walked toward them, step by powerful step. Uraraka beamed, holding her fists closed. Sero and Sato both smiled too. Even Shoji's arm-mouths seemed to relax, breaking into grins. Mina's eyes filled with relieved tears, and she swayed. Doko caught and steadied her, barely believing his own eyes. They stood around Thirteen, watching the Symbol of Peace approach.
"Iida-shounen told me everything I needed to know," All Might said. "God, but does it make me angry. To think of how scared you've all been, how desperate you've all fought..."
"You could say that again," Doko mumbled. Mina let out a shaky laugh through her tears, sniffling. She gently lifted herself out of his arms.
All Might tore his tie off. "And how strong Thirteen and Aizawa have been, holding out against overwhelming odds. Keep protecting them," he told the six of them, nodding to Thirteen. "I will go get Aiza..."
"I've been waiting for this!" the hand villain sang from below. "To see you in person, Symbol of Peace."
The other villains were getting up. "That's All Might?"
"Come on, what are waiting for? Get hi..."
All Might dashed through all of them in an instant, effortlessly. Doko couldn't even keep up with his eyes. He's faster than me. It's unbelievable.
In another instant, he'd saved Aizawa, and a few more people that Doko couldn't make out. When All Might placed them at the bottom of the steps, he saw that it was Midoriya, Aoyama, and...
"There's Tsu!" he shouted, waving his arms. "Tsu! Hey!"
The frog girl spotted them. All Might told the students to do something, and then they began to pick up Aizawa and carry him up the steps toward the others. Midoriya seemed to protest for a moment, but All Might waved him off. Beyond, the hand villain was freaking out, trying to reattach the hand that had fallen off his face.
Mina seemed to slump next to Doko. "Yep, there's Tsu all right. You seem awfully happy to see her."
Doko gave her an incredulous glance. Her eyes were shining with humor.
"Seriously? You're pushing this right now? It's only because they're fellow classmates in a life or death situation! Speaking of which, we ARE in a life of death situation here!"
Mina giggled, still crying a little. "I finally managed to wind you up." Her face was messy with emotions, and Doko's heart skipped another beat. She looks...beautiful. Mina sniffled again. "It's fine now, see? All Might's here. There's nothing left to worry about."
"Ah. Right." Below, he had begun to engage the monster in a brawl. Many of the punches were sending rushing wind up to their level. I should really have followed the news more. I knew All Might was number one, but...is he truly so powerful that we no longer have to worry? All the danger, gone in an instant?
Tsuyu and Midoriya and Aoyama were coming up the steps, carrying the unconscious Aizawa.
Uraraka looked up from the unconscious Thirteen, who she'd barely left the side of. "Oh? Is that Deku-kun?"
Doko turned to look at her. "Uraraka, let's go help them! You can make Aizawa weightless and we'll speed up the evacuation!" Thought of that myself, too. Maybe I'm improving at this.
"Huh?" The brunette blushed. "But...All Might told us to protect Thirteen...I can't just leave them..."
"Thirteen will be fine, Uraraka-san. We'll take care of it," Shoji said stoically.
"Yeah!" Sato echoed.
Uraraka reluctantly followed Doko and Mina halfway down the steps to meet up with their friends.
"He's hurt bad, ribbit," Tsuyu said when they were within range. Aizawa whimpered in their arms, one arm limp, the other with exposed flesh that made Doko cringe.
"Are you guys okay, though?" Uraraka asked. "Deku?"
"Huh?" Midoriya had been looking back at the battle. "A bit scratched up, maybe, but..."
"Uraraka, mademoiselle..." Aoyama pleaded through gritted teeth, struggling to hold up their teacher by the shoulders, "if you would..."
"Oh! Right." She made Aizawa float, and Aoyama relaxed, taking in an embarrassingly deep breath, his arms hanging limp.
"Wimp," Mina mumbled.
"Anyway, let's get him back up," said Doko. "Come o..."
Midoriya was watching the fight again. All Might's punches weren't directly affecting the monster, so he had picked it up instead...and suplexed it.
A huge explosion of smoke erupted from the impact, clouding their vision of the fight.
Midoriya made a whimpering sound, and suddenly turned to the others. "Handle Aizawa-Sensei from here, in my absence!" he cried. And then...he dashed off into the smoke.
"MIDORIYA!" Doko shouted. "NO!"
"Is he stupid? What's the point of helping All Might? He'll just get in the way, or worse, killed." Mina scoffed, unable to believe it.
Uraraka had frozen up. "Deku-kun..."
"I don't know what Midoriya-chan is thinking, ribbit. That monster is really strong, but so is All Might. He's a perfect counter to it."
"I agree with Tsu," said Doko. "Come on, let's go."
"But...Deku..."
"We've gotta get Aizawa up and out of he..."
The smoke had cleared, and Doko's breath left him.
Midoriya was still running towards the battle, where All Might...was now holding the monster between two portals. Beyond, Kurogiri loomed next to the hand villain, his yellow slit eyes narrowed. He had trapped All Might in his gates.
Doko's face twitched. Mina noticed it first. "Oh, no you don't," she said. "No, Dokkun, n..."
He never heard her finish.
...
Izuku raced towards the battle, heart racing. All Might didn't show up initially because his time was running out! He has little to no strength left, and that thing is designed to kill him! Ahead, the three villains had trapped him in two portals, the monster still holding on. Izuku felt the memories flash through his head. All Might...there's still so much I want you to teach me...
"ALL MIIIIIIGHT!" he shouted, reaching his hand out to save his mentor...and a dark portal formed in front of him, yellow eyes angled downward in determination.
"Foolish boy," said the portal, as he grew forward to swallow Izuku up. Frantically, Izuku tried to slow down...but he had too much momentum. He was sliding right into the trap.
A flash of purple erupted next to them, and a metal-padded elbow collided into the portal villain's neck with a CLANG. The brace was obvious for a moment, and then a human hand grabbed it, slamming the villain into the floor.
Doko Katayama kneeled over Kurogiri, masked, his violet eyes glowing with fury. "What do you think you're doing to my classmate and my teacher?" he growled, and his otherworldly voice filled the dome.
END OF CHAPTER EIGHT
Sorry about the cut off, but that seemed like a good stopping point if I want to make USJ a three-chapter affair. Next time, events will wrap up at the dome...and we'll see the aftermath.
Thanks for reading leave feedback