Chapter 23: Streets and Rooftops
Two pairs of hero-and-students ran into each other as they came around a street corner.
"Kiri?"
"Pinky?"
The two childhood friends laughed and ran to each other, clasping their hands together. Both of them had been the last person the other had expected to see.
"Oi!" Tetsutetsu snapped. "It's the alien girl! You 1-A bastards are always around, aren't you!"
"Hey, that's my class you're talking about, bastard!" Kirishima snapped back.
"That's right! You better have pride in your class, or else you're not a man!"
Mina sweatdropped. "What's up with the relationship between the two of you?"
"Good to work with you, Fourth Kind," Switcheroo said smoothly, flipping his orange hair and giving the other pro a handshake.
The four-armed hero clicked his teeth and scowled. "There's no time. We need to get going."
"Huh? What's that?" Mina gave him a confused look.
"Strange creatures have been sighted," Switcheroo explained. "Their appearance resembles that of the Nomu, which attacked your school under the League of Villains."
Mina's eyes widened. Kiri had already known, it was written all over his worried face. "It took All Might to beat the Nomu last time!"
"Yeah, well, All Might isn't here right now, is he?" Switcheroo asked somewhat testily. "The citizens of Hosu are going to have to make do with us."
"Endeavor is here too," said Fourth Kind as they began running toward a lit-up street. Screams and sirens could be heard in the distance. Mina could see smoke as well. Oh no.
Switcheroo clicked his teeth. "I know. He's going to make a royal mess of things."
Kirishima gave Mina another look. "Did you know about that?"
The pink girl pursed her lips. "Doko and Todoroki are interning with Endeavor," she said.
"What the hell? How many of you Class A freaks are here?" Tetsutetsu grumbled.
"Huh?" Both Kirishima and Mina's phones buzzed at that time. They took them out in sync.
"It's Midoriya..."
"Midoriya sent his location! And it's nearby, too!"
"GAAAH!" Tetsutetsu clutched at his hair. "You've got to be kidding me!"
"Maybe he's interning with a hero that's responding to this as well?" Kirishima wondered aloud.
Mina punched the air excitedly. "This is good for us! Us Class A members know how to fight villains!"
"Grrr..." Tetsutetsu clenched his fists. "I can do it too!"
"None of you will be doing any fighting," said Switcheroo. "The three of you will stay back and help any civilians clear the area. This is a crowded street up ahead."
Mina looked forward and gasped quietly. The light of flames was rising up from behind the nearest buildings.
"But hey, anyway..." Kiri tapped her shoulder lightly. "We got split up at USJ, but this is our chance to work together! And Tetsutetsu, you too! We've got this!"
"Yeah!" The steel boy responded with equal fervor, somehow switching moods on a dime.
"Yeah..." Mina started to tuck her phone back into her boot, since her hero suit had no pockets. But then it buzzed again.
It was Doko. He'd sent messages in their group chat.
Doko: just letting you all know that in my internship, ive come into contact with the villains from the usj. the two of them we didnt catch.
Doko: midoriya sent his location to the whole class. he's here and in trouble too, although with what i don't know.
Doko: todoroki is with him. i am about to come into contact with these guys with no backup. if any of you are close by, any at all...i may need your help.
Doko: they're on the water tower in hosu city. goodbye.
.
A shadow fell over Mina's face. "I have to go," she said quietly.
"Huh? Yo, Ashido, wai..." Kirishima called after her, but she didn't listen.
Just as the two boys and two pros came onto the fiery street, Mina ran her own way. The rest of them aren't in the area. It has to be me.
Doko...I'll work towards your level of strength...by saving you.
...
When he finished sending the messages, Doko tucked his phone away. At the very least, one of them might be able to tell the hero they're interning with, or...
He didn't know how to send his location to the whole class like Midoriya had done. His knowledge of technology was still limited.
It doesn't matter. I cannot let them escape this time!
Doko flashed onto the last rooftop, and then took a running leap off the ledge, forcing all his energy into warping upward onto the water tower.
His boots hit the surface with a metal clang.
Shigaraki and Kurogiri turned around.
The blue-haired villain's eyes narrowed. He scratched at his neck compulsively. "You."
"Me," said Doko, breathing hard, getting into a prepared stance. His warping energy was crackling, eager to get going. How do I turn it on all the time, Endeavor? How does that work?
Behind the mask, Doko's glowing eyes fell to Shigaraki's shoulder, which carried a bloody gash. A sword? "You're wounded," he observed.
Shigaraki made a low growling noise. "Kurogiri, I've changed my mind. I don't want to watch the carnage anymore. Take me home." He took a step toward his companion's purple portal.
"No," said Kurogiri.
Shigaraki took pause, clearly shocked. "What did you just say?"
Kurogiri was silent for a moment, his shimmering yellow eyes unreadable. "We should capture this child and take him back to the master."
"And who might that be?" Doko asked him. A gust of wind blew across the water tower, rippling his and Shigaraki's hair. Kurogiri's foggy body also shimmered in the breeze.
"You'll find out soon enough," the portal user replied.
"Grrrrrr..." Shigaraki rubbed his shoulder and stomped his foot up and down. "Kurogiri, this isn't the kid I care about! Forget about him! We should go now!"
"But he's right in front of us," Kurogiri responded plainly. "And clearly has no plans to run. Are you afraid?"
"No," the hand villain responded, his voice suddenly dripping with malice. "Have YOU forgotten which of us is in charge? What the task that Master has given you is?"
They're bickering. Doko wiggled his fingers slowly, coursing the energy through his arm. Shigaraki freaked out when All Might knocked that hand off his face at USJ. If I can warp it off of him...
"My...task is to protect and guide you, Tomura Shigaraki," said the gateway. "But...I do not believe you require protection in this instance. This is only a child. He has no backup. We could easily capture him."
It's resisting me...he has a lot of willpower to keep it on...but right now it's SUBCONSCIOUS power. He's too focused on arguing and isn't noticing me...just a little closer...just a little longer...
"But I don't feel like fighting right now!" Tomura complained. "That's why I asked for the Nomus! Besides, if I were to fight, there'd be no capture! We'd destroy him!"
"I cannot allow that."
"Why not? Has Master told you something he hasn't told m..."
Doko flicked his wrist, and pulled the hand off of Shigaraki's face with his Quirk.
"GAAAH!" The villain's hands shot up to his face, covering it, while the hand clattered to the surface of the water tower and began skidding downhill toward the edge. Shigaraki scrambled after it.
Doko warped toward him quickly, one, two. Kick him off the tower go go go! As he raised his foot to hit the villain's defenseless back, purple fog enveloped him.
"Naughty boy," Kurogiri growled.
For a split second, Doko blinked and thought he saw some kind of...bar...? But then he warped out frantically, returning to the water tower.
"You're such a nuisance," Doko snarled into those yellow eyes. "I'm not getting stuck in your nightmare world again."
"We shall see about that."
A portal opened at Doko's feet. He flashed out of the way, slightly tripping over the uneven surface of the water tower. He flashed again behind Kurogiri, but then the villain opened a portal behind him. They warped and circled each other, trying to gain the upper hand.
Doko flashed out from between two portals that the villain tried to crush him with, and threw his left hand up, pumping energy through it. He shredded a piece of metal off the water tower and tried to drop it onto Kurogiri. The villain simply opened a portal and let the metal vanish somewhere far away.
He's wearing a suit, meaning that's his real body, but I...
Kurogiri opened a portal below Doko while he collected his thoughts, and this time, he fell through. Panicked, Doko spun in midair, feeling wind rush by him faster and faster. He saw the villain's yellow eyes zoom by over and over. He got me into a two-portal trap!
Doko felt his velocity increase more and more. Get out...now!
He warped sideways, refocusing his velocity, and threw a hard punch right at Kurogiri's chest. The villain sailed away with him with a pained shriek, and the two of them crashed into the water tower near the edge.
Doko grabbed the villain's tie and tightened it, cutting off his circulation. "I'll ask again," he snarled. "Who is your ma..."
"Game over," an excited voice tittered next to his ear.
Doko warped backward on his toes, his heart skipping several beats as Shigaraki's deadly fingertips missed his head by milliseconds. The hand was firmly back on the villain's face, and he helped his foggy partner back to his feet.
"You've made a mistake, boy," Shigaraki said. "Before, I was prepared to leave you, but now that you've tried to separate me from Father..." He reached up and stroked the hand on his face. "You'll PAY!"
Doko reached up and tried to warp the hand away again, but as the purple glow lit up, Kurogiri rushed forward. A portal opened up around Doko's hand, and his Quirk's energy discharged far away. Doko gasped and tried to back off.
Unaffected, Shigaraki dashed forward, as Kurogiri opened up a portal behind Doko, trapping him. The warping boy ducked as the hand villain reached out toward his face, and punched Shigaraki in the stomach.
As the villain got pushed back from the impact, he reached forward to Doko's elbow with his hand, laughing maniacally. Doko hissed inward and pulled away, but Tomura's fingertips grazed him, and he screamed in pain as a long grey cut slashed across his forearm. Decayed skin rained away.
Kurogiri reared up behind him. Clutching his arm, Doko warped sideways...and fell off the water tower.
His heart jumped in fear as he went soaring downward through open air. Frantically, he turned himself over and managed to warp sideways again, somewhat breaking his fall as he crashed messily onto the lower rooftop.
"Aaaarrgh..." Doko grimaced as he laid on his back, clutching his arm. Everything hurt. His heart was racing. I'm such an idiot. Why did I try to fight them?
As he got to his feet, Kurogiri re-formed at the edge of the roof. Shigaraki jumped down next to him, landing lightly. The two of them stood side-by-side.
"Any regrets, Doko Katayama?" Kurogiri asked. "Now would be the time to make them known."
"Uhhh, well..." Doko stammered, smiling nervously. The chattery side of his Quirk began to act up. "I think I could have handled this better and probably would have stayed alive if I'd just stuck with Endeavor and them but at the same time I didn't want either of you to get away and if I had to say a regret it would probably that I didn't tell the girl I like how I feel about her but that seems kinda stupid to say to a villain, doesn't it? I mean, I tried to get some backup but it seems doubtful that any of them would be in a position to help but maybe just maybe I've stalled you long enough for a pro to get here but I guess that doesn't really matter if you can just portal away..."
"GAH! Shut up!" Shigaraki clutched his neck in agony. "I hate unpredictable character types like you!"
"Isn't that your character type, too?" Doko thought. Wait, no! He'd just said that out loud! His Quirk was crackling in his throat, his vocal box!
"Kurogiri, bring him to me. I'm going to kill him."
"No. We should take him alive."
"Don't care. Just capture him so I can finish him off. I'll just pretend he's the Hero Killer so we can get this miserable night done with."
Kurogiri sighed. "Fi..."
"FLOAT!" A feminine voice shouted.
Both villains gasped. Doko's eyes widened, and he went pale.
First, their clothes lifted up as if they were being pulled. Then, Shigaraki and Kurogiri slowly levitated off the ground, flailing and shouting in confusion.
Behind them, standing on the ledge, was Ochaco Uraraka, in her cute pink-and-black skin armour, and her spacelike helmet.
"Ura...URARAKA?" Doko had never been so surprised to see anyone in his life.
"Katayama-kun! Where's Deku?" Uraraka called to him, not taking her eyes off the villains as they lifted up higher and higher, bickering.
"I...I don't know!"
"Is he not with you? Gunhead and I were patrolling to the north, but I got his signal and thought he might have been in trouble, so I floated across the rooftops and then saw these guys...I assumed that's who he was fighting!"
"No, I haven't seen Midoriya. I saw his signal, though. Todoroki is responding to it. I've been fighting these guys alone!" That explains why she found me, though...she's not in the group chat and couldn't have seen my message.
"Todoroki's here, too?" Uraraka's big brown eyes grew even bigger. "What the heck is going on?"
"Hehehe...the Hero Killer is out and about, while the Nomus wreak havoc..." Shigaraki said in midair. "This is just the beginning. You children can't even fathom the chaos that's coming."
"No, but I can fathom how hard your head is about to hit this roof," said Uraraka. Then, she released them.
The two villains began to plummet back downward. "Kurogiri!" Tomura shrieked, and the portal villain suddenly grew in size, enveloping both of them.
Doko teleported to Uraraka, getting to her side and slightly in front of her. The villains had teleported to the other side of the roof, both unscathed. Kurogiri's chest...or where on the suit that his chest would be...seemed to rise and fall, as if he was out of breath.
"Where's your pro hero?" Doko whispered to the brunette girl.
"Far away," she muttered guiltily. "I saw Deku was in trouble and kind of...ran off. But he should be coming this way!"
"We've got to lead them to the street with the Nomus and the other pros," Doko told her.
"Kurogiri..." Shigaraki clutched at his shoulder wound, which was bleeding again. "We really should be going. Neither of these kids are the one I want."
"They're not gonna take the bait," Uraraka whispered back. "See? He's trying to leave."
Those yellow slitted eyes narrowed again. "But both of them are ones that I want."
"Huh?" The two students went pale.
"You, girl who makes things float. You ruined my part of the plan during our attack. Your assault against me allowed the speedster to escape the facility." Kurogiri's voice had grown deeper, thicker. "Now that you are in front of me once again, that is something I am afraid I cannot forgive."
Uraraka let out a faint whine of terror. "Katayama-kun...we should run...it's not a matter of keeping anyone safe if they're planning on leaving too. There's no shame in it."
"Uraraka, you're a nice person, aren't you?" Doko asked her, more loudly.
"Huh, ahhh, yeS?"
"Then wouldn't you agree that it would be rude..." Doko got into a fighting stance. "If we didn't give this living witch's brew the rematch he wants so badly?"
Kurogiri snarled, and dashed forward to attack.
...
"BACK UP!" shouted Switcheroo, as he used his Quirk to drop a piece of rubble onto the largest Nomu. The thing batted it away effortlessly.
"Go, go, go!" Eijiro Kirishima waved his arms like a madman, ordering the remaining civilians out of the way. A blast of fire came at them, but Tetsutetsu jumped between it and two women, keeping them safe. "AAARGH!" he roared in effort as his steel body turned slightly red under the extreme heat.
Eijiro's jaw dropped. "You can take FIRE?! What the hell, I can't do that!"
"Hehe, I bet if I'd beaten you in the festival I could have taken out Bakugo! But hey, where's the fire coming from anyway? Shouldn't that Endeavor jerk be aiming it at the monsters?!"
"They can absorb and redirect attacks!" roared Fourth Kind, currently locked in a struggle with the misshapen Nomu. It was a weirdly curvy creature, with crooked posture and a leaner body than the one from USJ. The other two were being fought by Endeavor and Switcheroo in the distance. There was a massive USJ-like one, and one with wings.
Eijiro swallowed. Shouldn't Tetsutetsu and I do something? Most of the civilians had fled.
Switcheroo switched another piece of rubble into the sky, which hit the winged Nomu and made it briefly descend, confused. The pro hero leapt up and used his Quirk on it, bringing it to the ground, and then grabbed its wings, holding them behind it. "Boy!" he shouted at Eijiro over the din. "Where did Ashido go?"
"I don't know! She just..." Eijiro and Tetsutetsu split to dodge another fire blast that the Nomu had redirected from Endeavor. "...disappeared!"
"Watch out!" the number two hero shouted at Switcheroo.
The huge Nomu was lumbering toward the orange-haired hero, raising a massive fist over his head like a shadow.
Switcheroo threw something back toward Fourth Kind, and then used his Quirk on himself, warping back to where he'd thrown the object. The Nomu's fist missed him and accidentally hit the winged Nomu, who screeched in pain. Endeavor shot a fireball at both of them, and they scattered, the one with wings taking to the sky again.
"They! Just! Don't! Take! Blows!" Fourth Kind spat, punching the misshapen Nomu with each word.
"I got this!" Switcheroo took some device out of his utility belt, and pressed a button on it. Then, he threw a tennis ball at the Nomu. "Get back, Fourth Kind!"
The Nomu reached up to swipe the ball away effortlessly, but Switcheroo used his Quirk, switching the ball with the device...just as the device blew up in the Nomu's face.
The heroes had scrambled out of the way, as the misshapen Nomu became enveloped in toxic fire, screeching and sinking to the ground.
"Ugh," Tetsutetsu said.
"Portable detonator," Switcheroo said proudly. "Always carry some gadgets with you, boys."
The Nomu looked as if it was melting, its warped form becoming even more claylike. Eijiro gagged.
"Wait a second," said Fourth Kind, alarm rising in his voice.
The Nomu's eyes suddenly focused...and the thing split.
Suddenly, there were a dozen small Nomus running toward them, straight through the fire and rubble, fangs bared in attack mode.
"AH! I didn't know it had that kind of Quirk!" Switcheroo cried.
Fourth Kind swept one arm back to his interns, as the Nomus closed the distance. "Red Riot! Real Steel! I give you both...permission to fight!"
Eijiro and Tetsutetsu looked at each other, and grinned.
They leapt into battle.
...
Ochaco's heart was fluttering.
"Now!" Katayama called out, and she released the trash can, dumping it onto the villains. The rooftop was covered in junk and various objects, but they were slowly running out of options. The two of them made a good pair with their powers, but it wasn't enough.
Shigaraki decayed the trash away, as Kurogiri sent some of it through a portal. He opened another portal below Ochaco, but she floated upward off of it. Katayama warped a piece of scrap metal to her. "Activate!" he called out.
Ochaco floated it, and Katayama warped it over Shigaraki. "Release!"
This time, he didn't quite get his hands up in time. That hand-mask blocks his peripheral vision! The scrap metal hit the villain's head hard, and he stumbled back, dazed.
Kurogiri slithered forward, dodging more debris that the two student heroes tried to drop on him. He circled them, opening more portals that Katayama warped out of the way of. Ochaco slid backward to safety...and felt a dark purple fog envelop her.
Katayama's eyes widened. "NO!" he roared, and warped toward her, grabbing her and pushing her out of the way.
Ochaco stumbled, as Katayama disappeared into Kurogiri's portal. No, she thought. Not again! I can't let him go through that AGAIN!
Deep down, she'd still been blaming herself for Kurogiri's torture of Katayama and his subsequent escape at USJ. Maybe that was why she'd stopped to help him, instead of continuing to look for Deku? But in any case...he just saved me. But now he's trapped in there again.
Kurogiri had grown in size, forming a purple mass around where Katayama had disappeared. Ochaco growled, getting back on her feet. "GET AWAY FROM HIM!" she yelled.
Behind, her senses whispered at her.
Ochaco sidestepped just in time, as Shigaraki's fingers stabbed the air where her throat had been a second before. "GUNHEAD MARTIAL ARTS!" she shouted, grabbing his forearm and activating her Quirk to make him light, before flipping him over and deactivating it just in time for momentum to slam him into the ground with full weight.
Shigaraki's other hand shot out from below and grabbed her armoured leg, crumbling away part of her costume. Ochaco leapt back, and then stomped on his stupid face. "STAY DOWN!" she roared.
She ran over to where Kurogiri had enveloped Doko in the void. She could see his suit in that swirling mass, blinking dimly in and out of existence. She reached forward to float him...but Shigaraki had gotten back up, and was racing toward her. "Game over, little girl," he tittered excitedly.
Ochaco's body froze solid in fear...and then a spray of something hot and grey came between them.
"GAAAAH!" Shigaraki staggered, clutching his face and screaming. Ochaco whirled.
Standing on the ledge was a costumed Mina Ashido, her hands raised threateningly. "Don't be getting all handsy with my friend," she growled at Shigaraki, letting smoking acid pool up out of her palms. "There's more where that came from."
"Mina!" Ochaco pointed at the dark violet soup that was swirling up to their right. "Katayama's in there!"
For a moment, something flashed in Mina's eyes behind her white mask. "Okay," she said. "We'll..."
"I hate you all, so much," Shigaraki breathed. He was clutching his shoulder wound with one hand, and his lightly scalded face with the other. Part of his hand-mask had been melted away by Mina's acid...and the two girls could now see one red eye in its entirety, with countless weary lines under it and killing intent in its crimson glow. "You're going to die here tonight, hero wannabes. Painful and slow."
Ochaco let out a low whine of terror. Her feet felt rooted in place.
"Ochaco-chan, don't let him get to you!" Mina was skating forward, secreting acid out of her boots. "Let's capture this jackass!"
Ochaco nodded, and dashed forward with her.
Shigaraki flipped out of the way, surprisingly agile as Mina swept up a volley of acid at him. He reached out to decay the pink girl's face, but Mina went sideways. His other hand had aimed for her stomach, but she'd dodged that too, in a split second. She's moving differently from before!
As Ochaco arrived, Shigaraki went low and tried to crumble her boots again. She floated upward out of the way, and then fell back down in an attempt to crush his hand. He slid back, and Mina put up a veil of acid between the three of them. Ochaco went round and kicked him in the back of the leg, causing him to stumble. Mina sprayed acid toward his face, but he twirled around, sweeping his leg under Ochaco and tripping her.
Suddenly, one hand was at her throat, and his wiry legs had pinned her down. Four fingers touched her skin. His grim, yellowish, smirking face, draped in shadow, came down closer to hers. His breath was foul. Ochaco gagged, completely overwhelmed with fear and disgust.
Mina jumped toward them, her acidic fist raised threateningly, but Shigaraki held up a finger at her with the hand that wasn't around Ochaco's throat. "I wouldn't if I were you," he growled at Mina. "Try and attack me, and I'll..."
His pinkie finger was lifted off Ochaco's neck, ever so slightly. All he had to do was set it down, and she was dead. Just like that.
Ochaco held her breath, feeling as if she was about to pass out.
Mina stood there, terror and fury passing over her face. She didn't lower her fist, but she didn't move anything else either. They had arrived at a standstill. Both her and Shigaraki's Quirks could kill. If he killed Ochaco, she was in a position to retaliate instantly. But if she attacked first, he would just as easily have enough time to take Ochaco down with him.
"Kurogiri!" Shigaraki called across the roof. "Come take this acid girl out!"
"I'm...having...trouble..." the portal villain's voice came out strange. "He's...HE'S..."
The violet void exploded.
...
While the girls had been fighting Shigaraki, Doko had fallen into hell once again.
"I'll only ask once this time, boy." Kurogiri's voice surrounded him. "Come willingly, or unwillingly. It doesn't matter."
Doko tried to warp out, but Kurogiri opened a portal that just sent him back where he'd stood before. He tried again and again, but the villain sent him back into the center of the circle. The walls were impenetrable. Every one of them led back to where he stood now.
"I was somewhat hoping you'd progressed your powers a little since then," the villain purred. "I did watch the Sports Festival, after all. You excelled in that contest. Enough to catch the attention of the master, although he's still unsure about you. I'll fix that uncertainty."
"Who's the master?" Doko choked out, stepping in a circle. All around him was crackling, shimmering purple. His Quirk was snapping at him, trying to tell him something. The energy seemed to halt at the edge of his limbs, jumping at the chance to be released.
"Like I said before, you can easily find out...if you come with us. The master is of a forgiving and generous nature, as you'll soon discover. Your attacks against Shigaraki will not be held against you."
Do it, boy. Release it through your whole body. That was Endeavor's voice.
But I don't know what's going to happen!
Suddenly, in the distance beyond the void, he heard Mina's voice.
...Mina? You're here...?
She was shouting about something. She sounded desperate.
Mina, no! I can't be stuck in here while you're out there...if you and Uraraka are in trouble...
I want to fight with you! I want you to see me...as a MAN!
Instead of straining or flexing, like he'd always done to push his Quirk through a specific limb...Doko let go. All at once.
A lighter purple glow began to fill the void, replacing the darker purple of Kurogiri. The villain made a strange sound of confusion, like a stomach growl. Doko felt energy coursing through him. His entire body was singing out. The purple came from every vein, every bone, every muscle.
"I'm...having...trouble..." Kurogiri said in a strained voice. "He's...HE'S..."
Doko closed his eyes, and blew the villain away.
In a split second, all the portals had dissipated, and he saw the night sky again, the rooftop, the city. But...something else was happening.
Purple swells were erupting from his body, one after the other. Spheres of energy, emanating from him rhythmically, with a powerful humming sound.
Doko grimaced and focused it, pushing Shigaraki off of Uraraka, sending both villains to the edge of the roof. He'd warped them away...but Mina and Uraraka had been warped away too, in a different direction.
The purple sphere of energy shimmered and stopped moving, focusing around him in a ten-meter radius. All the loose junk and objects on the roof had been teleported away, scattered. His Quirk was now starting to pull pieces of the roof off and flash them out of the sphere as well.
He'd created a forcefield of warp power. Anything trying to enter would get pushed back.
"WARP FIELD!" Doko shouted, naming the move, feeling an ecstasy like he'd never felt before course through him.
Then, his body suddenly felt weary, and the energy faded.
Mina and Uraraka climbed their way back into the rooftop, having been blasted onto a different one by his Quirk. The villains were keeled over at the ledge, dazed.
Mina's jaw dropped. "Doko, you..."
He gave her a weary, toothy smile. "That was dramatic, wasn't it?"
Then, he collapsed.
...
Mina and Ochaco quickly rushed to protect Doko's unconscious form, as the two villains regrouped. Kurogiri's clothes had been blown off of him, leaving just his portal form, which was sputtering erratically as if it was wounded somehow. Shigaraki's face-hand was half-melted, and his shoulder cut was leaking blood again. He had bruises as well.
"Uravity-chan!" said a voice.
The two girls turned. "Gunhead-sensei!" Ochaco exclaimed with stars in her eyes. A pro hero and several sidekicks had joined them on the roof.
Mina looked back and forth between them. Oh right! It's the pro hero she's interning with! Guiltily, she wondered where Switcheroo was.
"Sir!" Ochaco declared. "That's the League of Villains over there!"
Gunhead took a step toward them, putting himself between the students and the villains. His sidekicks followed suit. "You there," he called. "Terrorising these students again?"
Shigaraki picked himself up, his voice dripping with venomous hatred. "Whatever do you mean? They attacked us. Without permission from the heroes, I assume."
Gunhead seemed to stumble over that information, and one of the sidekicks gave the students a funny sideways look. Mina felt heat rush to her guilty cheeks.
"In any case," Gunhead continued. "You're behind tonight's attack on the city. You'll be coming with us, villains."
Shigaraki sniffed, almost casually. "Nah, I'd rather not. Kurogiri."
Wordlessly, the portal villain enveloped them both, and disappeared.
Gunhead had begun to run toward them, but slid to a halt. "They got away..."
A sidekick clicked his teeth in annoyance. "We shouldn't have hesitated."
All the adults looked back at the three kids.
Mina and Ochaco exchanged an embarrassed look.
"We need to get him to a hospital," said Gunhead, pointing at Doko. "Come on."
Author's note
Wow, that was quite a chapter to write. Pretty much entirely battles, as you might have come to realise. The Doko/Ochaco/Mina vs Shigaraki/Kurogiri fight was something I'd had planned from the beginning. It's something of a leftover concept from the first iteration of this fic which would have contained a love triangle between the three. In this version Ochaco still likes Deku, but I still wanted to include her in the battle because it's fun to just toss in characters as wild cards.
It's also meant to be a parallel between the other fight that's obviously going on - the one from canon, Iida/Deku/Todoroki vs Stain. I apologise if anyone wanted to see Doko get involved with that fight, but it's really pretty much perfect the way it is in canon. Stain will probably be more heavily featured later on in this fic. I haven't really decided.
Next time, the students will deal with the aftermath of this long and harrowing night...and face some of the consequences.