Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia
Chapter 204:
Class at U.A. started for the day, and all of Class A noticed a strange absence from their class. All Might came into the room showing their classmate was not going to arrive just on time, and it was strange for any of them to arrive late to class too. "All Might," Uraraka began when their teacher stepped in and looked to Sato's seat but seemed to know something. "Do you know where Sato is?"
"Do not worry, class," All Might said as his students all had some strange looks on their faces for just a classmate being absent. "I received word from Recovery Girl that he is sick today."
"He's sick?" Mineta wondered, surprised as he had seen Sato the night before and did not notice his classmate coughing or anything. Maybe he's faking it.
Sero kept his mouth shut, but his eyes did linger over on his friend's seat again. He knew better than the rest of his classmates, because he had left his room to use the bathroom early that morning and saw his neighbor already. Saw Sato leaving his room looking ready for a fight. He saw me and acted normal, just using the bathroom and going into a stall until I left, but he must have left his hero costume with Presto Change-o already. Sero turned his head and looked out the windows with an intense look.
Todoroki spotted what his other floormate besides Sato looked like, and he frowned deeper himself at All Might's response to their students. May not be a lie from him. Recovery Girl could just be in on it, the principal too. I knew something was up over the weekend with the call I overheard between Burnin and Presto Change-o. Endeavor and Olympia were still overseas for the ADTF, but Burnin took charge of the agency in the meantime. Once I heard Presto Change-o mentioned I knew why Sato had been acting strangely recently. Not strangely, but just more focused than usual. Todoroki focused on All Might as their homeroom teacher started teaching, but he thought to himself, What is going on right now?
Most of the class just accepted All Might's explanation, but a few who had seen how Sato had been acting recently had doubts in their minds too. Yaoyorozu spotted Todoroki's expression on her side and worried about her classmate, but she paid attention to their lesson with a simple reminder to herself. Sato is strong.
Rikido Sato stood in his yellow hero costume that covered his body more muscular than any of the others ready for the raid to begin with him. He stood stacked up behind a corner of an alleyway, while a mobile base drove past looking like a normal truck and pulling onto the side road next to the warehouse. Sitting on a chair in the mobile base was one person…ish hero who Sato wished had not come. Principal Nezu was keeping a close eye on his student though who he allowed to leave the campus only after coming to an agreement with Presto Change-o who requested Sugarman's help on a daytime raid in the middle of the school week.
Standing behind Mr. Principal's seat in the back of the truck was the section chief of the Police Force in Higashine City in Yamagata-ken. Chief Otoshi was a tall woman at seven feet tall with a large bust and rounded curves, somewhat hidden under her modest police uniform. The pink-haired officer nodded as Mr. Principal kept the dozen screens on his side of the mobile base's wall covered in traffic cameras from the surrounding city he had been granted access to. The small mouse-bear-man's eyes darted all over the screens showing he was keeping up with everything and everyone that moved in the city. She turned the other way, and Otoshi snapped at the young man with spiky orange hair sitting on the other side of the mobile command, "Keep up, Roady."
"Yes ma'am," Roady said, trying not to seethe in through his teeth. How the hell am I supposed to keep up with him? Roady thought with a dart of his eyes behind him at the insanely smart and dexterous principal of U.A. And why am I not out there? This new leg's great! Not reliable enough my ass. How am I supposed to show- Here we go. Roady's annoyed thoughts switched instantly as he heard Presto Change-o's orders come out of the screens in front of him and into his headset he wore over his head.
"Warehouse is isolated from the west," Roady reported in, as the truck came to a stop on the far side of the road as the warehouse. It had its hazard lights on and the disguised cops up front arguing as if confused on the directions.
On the opposite side of the warehouse, a white van with ladders on the roof stopped too. The women in the front seats each had tablets out, Keiko pulling hers out only when they stopped as she had been driving. She and Daisy checked the area around them, and Daisy reported as the lead support of Bikergang's agency, "East side secure."
"Get ready boys," Keiko said with a glance behind her at two nineteen year olds in the back of the van.
Rylo and Nagiso, wearing the hero costumes of Herobro and Jelloman, nodded their heads and awaited the signal as they each held onto handles of the van's two back doors. The red-skinned teen who had been in Nagiso's class at U.A., and in Fantasma's, had a pair of horns sticking out the back of his skull that pointed upwards. He wore a bright uniform countering his scary appearance though, with flowery patterns on his chest and back, white highlights all over it, and a big grin on his face even if it looked a bit scary like that as friendly as he tried to make his expression out as. Jelloman stood next to his friend with a calmer look on his face and taking in steadier breaths, his eyes narrowing as he focused solely on listening for Presto Change-o's voice.
"North and south sides are under close watch-"
"The shipment is arriving from the north," Nezu said, as he watched the truck he located several blocks away that he believed the weapons to be in. "However it will likely go around the east side of the warehouse and pull in from the southern entrance."
"How can you be sure?" Captain Iona wondered from the south side where she had been ready to lead their own disguised blockade forward in preparations to set up a perimeter as soon as the raid began. She held off on it, but her question alone showed the difference between her and the hero team on the east side who immediately pulled out and around a corner away from the warehouse.
"We'll circle back," Daisy reported back to Nezu.
"Listen to Mr. Principal," Presto Change-o ordered, not going to go against the super-intelligent mouse man if that was what he predicted was coming.
Heroes and police all around the warehouse watched from windows, rooftops, alleys, and vehicles as a large truck approached the warehouse. It turned onto the road on the north side but did not pull into the short driveway in front of a locked gate. Some people looking closely from the north did spot a signal the man in the passenger seat gave towards the warehouse though. By the time it had pulled around the east side and onto the road to the south, two men in construction workers' outfits had walked out the southern entrance to the gate and were letting the truck inside.
"Move."
A force of over sixty people moved at once. They each followed their own specific orders Presto Change-o had given them before the raid. They moved forward together in teams or as individuals, some running forward straight on while others moved for exits they suspected the villains would use as escape routes. Many used Quirks right away, as the force of more than five dozen attacked a warehouse owned and operated by the Jazz. The base was suspected to be the headquarters of operations for all of the Touhoku region, which consisted of the northernmost collection of prefectures on the main island of Honshu.
Miss Management herself had only been confirmed as a member of the Jazz recently during the preparation for this raid, as she had been believed to be unaffiliated beforehand. Her designation as a Jazz executive did not change her independent actions however, and since the raid that resulted in the deaths of four of Japan's top 10 heroes, villain activity rose in Touhoku more than in any other prefecture. Her former gang, BOSS, was incorporated into the Jazz's forces, but there were other Jazz villains at the base at the moment that numbered between forty and sixty-five based on their surveillance.
Three of those 40/65 were taken out within seconds of the "move" order, as the heroes did not wait for the weapons to go inside the garage and potentially be distributed to the gang members inside before they attacked. The fake construction workers and the villain in the passenger seat who came out with his hands turning into fists of water were all taken down by the fastest two who moved in on the south entrance. The driver of the truck smashed through the windshield however and straight towards the opening garage door that was automatic and still rising as the other three were taken down. He was about to fly through the open door and into the safety of being surrounded by comrades, when he vanished and appeared in front of Presto Change-o.
Presto Change-o jabbed forward his wand that he just waved around to make the villain appear before him diving his way instead of into the building. The villain was unable to react fast enough, as the wand's white tip popped open to reveal the stun gun below that the hero jammed into his chest.
As Presto Change-o led one primary assault force through the southern entrance of the base, Ryukyu landed down on the north side and released a dozen of her sidekicks who rushed forward with Popfire in the lead flying at the second floor windows and punching a glowing orange fist through them so glass shattered all around her. Her eyes glowed orange while her black hair waved behind her, and she swung her head to the right at the woman who had received the signal from the truck that approached initially from the north and who Popfire had spotted give a signal back from the rooftop they were waiting on. Two beams of orange shot out of her eyes which made that villain dive away right before the explosion of orange blew up behind her and sent her flying twice as fast as she dove.
Ryukyu swung her tail forward and hit the growing man who just burst through the north wall sending the door flying forward and almost hitting some of her sidekicks running at it to knock it down. They had dove in time to dodge it, and to get below their hero's dragon tail that hit the villain before he even reached his full height. Her tail sent him flying farther back into the warehouse, which was their intention as they wanted to corner all of the villains in the center of the building by surrounding them on all sides.
Gran Torino stood up after zip-tying the two "construction workers" he had flown at in a second after the order to move came in. He looked to his side at Bikergang who finished tying up the passenger with water-fists who he had taken out after Gran Torino's despite only going after one himself, and the younger hero who actually looked older than Gran Torino now nodded his head back at the veteran. Presto Change-o ran forward past them with twenty others behind him, letting one of his sidekicks tie up the man he had zapped back there as he needed to lead the team forward. "Sameko. Sugarman. Guard the garage exit. Rubbergirl and Elitist get the front door. Everyone else split and push inwards."
The team of twenty divided in half, with eight rushing through the opened garage doors where other villains had been waiting to unload the trucks and were now running forward yelling about fighting the heroes. Eight others ran between Rubbergirl and Elitist- who was one of Presto Change-o's oldest sidekicks and who was leading the inner perimeter of heroes on the south side exits as the most experienced of the four. Each of the four stood to the sides of one of the exits and prepared for the villains who would try escaping as heroes cornered them inside. They had another perimeter of cops forming outside of the warehouse's property on all the streets surrounding it, but this team was to ensure that the officers never had to face the villains and could just focus on getting out the already captured ones and keeping civilians away from the raid.
"Nejire-chan. You have the north," Ryukyu ordered behind her, as she shrank down and then ran through the hole in the northern wall to join the rest of the heroes inside where it was harder to use her Quirk without making the building fall down on her.
Even though Nejire-chan was no longer a sidekick of Ryukyu, the former Big 3 member of U.A. called out to her former pro, "Got it!" She was an established pro on her own now, despite only being 20 years old. "Get in there, you two," Nejire ordered Shishikura and Utsushimi who looked back at their blue-haired pro who gave them an encouraging nod forward. The two Shiketsu alumni who graduated the year before rushed in after Ryukyu without any further encouragement. Meaty and Mirage sprinted forward after the rest, and they entered the fight with ten villains who started fighting as soon as the heroes busted inside, even the one Ryukyu hit back with her tail standing up with a bloodied face but ready to start fighting his smaller opponents for real.
Sameko ground her sharp teeth in annoyance but stood firm at the garage entrance with Sugarman to her right on the opposite side. The two of them stood between the truck and the garage, preventing anyone from getting out of the warehouse to the weapons or to the escape route behind them. Sameko had her hands open and curled down, her knees bent, her sharp teeth clenched, and the girl with a dorsal fin sticking out of her back darted her gaze to Sugarman for a second to see if he was as frustrated about being left out here as she was.
Sugarman's head started turning fast though. He looked inwards but past Sameko and back at the front of the truck behind him he swear he just heard a clanking noise from inside of. The front of the truck moved a bit too, despite it being parked just outside of the garage. He saw the truck shake as if something moved inside it, and he yelled for the other three just outside the building with him, "In the truck!" His warning came just in time, as a glowing orange light could be seen through the steel dividing the front seats of the vehicle from the back carriage. He and Sameko's eyes opened huge as the sight of the melting steel, and they dove to the sides right before a bright orange beam shot out of the wall and out through the gap of the shattered windshield. If flew past the dodging sidekicks into the garage where it hit a parked van and made that van explode in a blast so huge the whole property shook.
A hero and five officers whose job it was to remove the truck from the premises during the raid itself, were behind the vehicle and had a bolt-cutter on them ready to break the lock and force open the doors. The truck bounced backwards with the recoil from the beam though, and the hero back there who had dragged away some of the unconscious villains outside first before joining the officers with this yelled at the cops with him to get back. They had just broken the lock though before Sugarman yelled his warning, and Calm Fire feared the villain inside had prepared for them to break the lock first. He was right, and he slammed his hands together in front of him creating a purple flame that did not flare or anything but would be hot at the touch. As quick as he was to react though, the villain inside the truck who was meant to guard all their powerful weapons was one Calm Fire was not expecting.
A well-known member of the Radians, Castro, did a flip off a small blue platform that appeared as he said in Spanish, "Up." He rose over the purple flames then said, "Down." The much darker red platform appeared above his head, more solid than the translucent blue one that just gave him a small bounce up. He shot off the 'Down' platform ten times as fast as the lighter blue one, and he slammed his knee into Calm Fire's face which had the officers running off behind him calling out his name in panic to see the hero smashed into a crater on the ground with one hit.
CLANK! Castro spun his head, and he jumped to his right with a spin in midair as the truck he jumped out of just slid across the driveway from a powerful punch from Sugarman. Sameko had a more direct line at Castro as the truck was moved, but she had to turn and dart to where Castro jumped as Sato made the loud noise with his punch. The punch was less for Sameko though, as it was for Rubbergirl who came running faster than Elitist at where Castro was going to land on the other side closer to her. Elitist was staying farther back, keeping his eyes both on the exits behind him and on Castro who Rubbergirl told him to let her take care of so as to let him focus on their initial mission.
"We're fine!" Elitist reported at the yell he heard from Presto Change-o wondering if they needed anyone to come out to assist. Get it, Rubbergirl- His eyes bulged and his head started turning back around, as a gunshot rang out across the lawn.
Rubbergirl was moving too quickly towards where Castro was coming down. He had two enemies in front of him too he still needed to deal with, and so the Radian drew a pistol from underneath his shirt from the back of his waistband. He fired it twice into Rubbergirl while pointing his right hand forward and yelling, "BACK!" Sameko ran into the blackened-yellow wall that just appeared in front of her and sent her careening halfway across the lawn where she rolled across the dirt for several meters before flipping onto one hand and one knee to skid back on.
Sugarman leapt up over the yellow wall, and Castro started moving the gun to point up at the muscular teen who was bulked up even more and looked dangerous with his fists rising like they were and getting put together like that. His eyes darted back to his side though and grew huge at the girl he saw running towards him, her green hood falling back and her long blonde hair dropping behind her. Her face changed its bone structure and her appearance changed as well, making Castro see a ghost as Fantasma grinned at him in the same confident way she had near the end of her fight against Raijin. "Imposs-" he started, and both Rubbergirl and Sugarman took that moment of hesitation and destroyed their opponent with simultaneous blows from different sides.
As Rubbergirl heard the cracking of her opponent's ribs from Sato's smash of both arms around into his front, while she slammed him in the side with a punch of her own near his kidney, her grin lowered down into a more grateful look than the one matching Fantasma's final one. You were younger than me, but I don't think I'll ever match up to the hero you were. I'll make sure that I make you proud though, as someone with a similar Quirk. The young woman with the Quirk: Stretchy Cells, put the villain who was famously at the Nara Raid with Intanzo into cuffs, then she glanced up at a jacked-up Sugarman panting from his sugar intake. Couldn't have been a better person here to take him down-
"Assist!" Elitist yelled for his comrades who spun back towards the building. The three younger heroes rushed back towards it at the same time as a group of three were heading out after slipping by the main assault…
"You need a warrant-"
"We have a warrant!" Popfire yelled at the villain trying to act innocent in front of her.
"Drop the formalities," Miss Management's voice announced through the speakers filling her base. "Heroes are weak. Kill them all."
"Heroes are weak," the man who had just been defending himself to Popfire said as if realizing that Miss Management was right about that, and there was no reason for him to be trying to avoid fighting here.
"We should kill them all."
"Take us off the leaderboards will you?!"
"JAZZ BABY YEAHHHH!"
Miss Management dropped the microphone she had been handed to make that announcement through her base. She was on the lower level cellar that had been transformed into the main base area, and she snapped over orders at some of the most reckless Jazz members who she had requested from Duke Dread. The closest-knit allies of hers from the former BOSS had joined up with her too, yelling about how the heroes were all over the place upstairs.
"Through the escape tunnel-"
"Get away from there!" Miss Management yelled over, a second too late for the idiotic Jazz villain who did not think first about why it was the others had not all rushed towards that exit.
A green cloud of gas pushed out the cracks on the door's sides and under and above it. The green gas surrounded the villain Underguard heard on the other side, then he stacked up against the wall on the side of the door. He pressed a button that detonated and blasted the door off its hinges and over the man who just fell to the ground. The man in a black mask with tubes connected turned and sprinted through his green gas cloud and out the other side, "Another powerful piece you've lost." Underguard called it out in a deep voice that seemed to echo through the basement as he emerged from the gas cloud with a menacing expression and scary appearance. "Through your poor mismanagement of these thugs."
Miss Management got a tick mark on the side of her forehead but she yelled with a smile, "They're not a crew another else could manage!" She pointed her hand forward and made every one of the villains around her smirk and glare furiously towards a charging Underguard. "This crew of psycho powerhouses can only be managed by me! MISS Management-sama!" Her voice rose louder, and she slammed her left foot down forward in a stomp that seemed to echo around the room. "Attack Underguard together. Battle Formation 1!"
Much more united than we thought, Underguard released a mass of gas around him and jumped backwards into a thicker cloud of it. "I'm drawing them in, but they're well situated down here."
The southern entrance was their main entry point, Miss Management thought after her comrades had all started attacking in one of the battle strategies she had ingrained into them. She backed up, and she turned and darted away when none of them were watching her. Which means it's the least likely position they'd expect the raid's primary target and most dangerous! Miss Management-sama! She thought it, but sweat dripped down her face as she heard the shouting on all sides of her of her allies inside their shaking base that was no longer under her control.
Presto Change-o heard Underguard's warning from below, and as Underguard's assisting team moved in on top of the forces he got focused on him, he stopped what he was doing with the rest of the assault team to look behind him instead. Considering how we found them, I didn't expect them to be so organized or willing to fight to the end here. Miss Management's power is stronger than I thought, and yet, I prepared for it to be stronger… I still have a bad feeling through. "All perimeter teams hold steady at the exits."
"We could use an assist back here," Elitist finally called to Presto Change-o in response to that warning.
His pro hero did not waste a second, and he turned and darted back himself to be that assist they required. Numbers were closer to 65, yet what is with the report of Castro being out there? Are the Radians and Jazz working together? Or is it just weapons from a Radian facility that the Jazz were purchasing? If we could track down the Radians- Presto Change-o turned his head to the right as a secret wall panel opened up not far from the front entrance that he could see through to the sidekicks fighting three villains together. His eyes opened as wide as Miss Management's did as the two of them came face-to-face only twenty feet away from each other.
"You're under arrest!"
"Die! HERO!" Miss Management pulled a hilt out from her waist of a weapon she had been sent first to test out before the rest were being sent to her. The hilt extended out into a blade of flames that started off blue right out of the hilt and then turned white higher up. The blade stayed thin, but it burned so hot that Presto Change-o could feel it from a distance as Miss Management charged him, sweat forming on her own face too.
Miss Management was running towards Presto Change-o, whose Quirk she knew well. When she disappeared and appeared behind him running the wrong direction, her thumb pushed up on the hilt of her blade that extended the length of it while she was spinning a hundred and eighty degrees and swinging it out in front of her. Presto Change-o had predicted that she would spin that fast, but that was why he teleported her even farther from him so that after she spun like that he could run past the finished swing and hit her with his stun-wand. The length of the flame blade extending was not part of his precautions, but he reacted fast to drop down on his knees with his back snapping down closer to the ground as he skid forward on his knees.
The blade of white and blue flames passed right over the magician-looking hero, then when Miss Management stopped right after swinging past and tried to cut down into where Presto Change-o was still sliding, she found herself five meters up in the air and swinging the opposite direction. Her blade was still as long as it was before though, and Presto Change-o had been more concerned about his own health so he forgot to take into account the closeness of the wall. Flames ignited across where Miss Management slashed her blade, then as she was dropping and spinning back to Presto Change-o, the woman with a backdrop of fire spotted two of her members outside fighting against sidekicks struggling against them. A third had just been taken down, but the two she saw were closer to the building than the sidekicks whose priority was keeping them from getting out.
"Assist me first! Then we'll go out together!" Miss Management yelled out towards them.
"Yeah!"
"The boss is with us!"
The two in the middle of fighting both spun without finishing the sidekicks who hesitated before following them. "Stay out here-" Elitist called as Sameko and Sugarman decided to give chase. He and Rubbergirl were not doing as well as the other two who decided to run for the building after their targets, which was bad news if Miss Management decided to rush out of there while leaving her goons to face the others. The building was starting to smoke near its southern entrance too, Presto Change-o yelled out in agreement with Elitist towards the sidekicks, but Miss Management took that moment to charge the other direction right past the two who attacked Presto Change-o.
Neither of the other two villains looked weak, and Presto Change-o yelled, "Switch!" Unable to use his Quirk to bring Miss Management back towards him and give her the three-on-one with his teleportation-type Quirk needing a fresh recharge, he teleported one of the other two eight feet to his right and charged at the other who found himself on a one-on-one with the pro in charge of the raid. It was going to take Presto Change-o a few seconds to take care of the two, or so he hoped. And he also hoped the two young heroes just outside were able to hold off Miss Management for as much time…
In Shiketsu High School, Zach sat in class looking towards the front of the room where Enorma-sensei was teaching a history lesson on the Braizos as an introduction for the next two days of class where she would be doing individual lessons on Sonic and Meta. Zach had done all this research on his own already though and knew everything about the Braizos that Enorma was going into today. Instead, he was studying up on Japanese heroes while pretending to focus on his teacher's lesson.
...It's difficult to just assume Presto Change-o would know how to best utilize his Quirk with me though. And it would be difficult to get in sync with him in the middle of a battle. Should he teleport me using Replace, there's also the possibility of it knocking him out if I'm shrouded in Death in that moment. Still, he controls a space of six meters and I could punch in any direction and suddenly be facing the enemy not expecting me. It's a better support Quirk than one to use in combat, and yet Presto Change-o's a great combat-type hero, and rescue too. He's an all-around, but he doesn't use it often enough to support other pros which is a waste. Combo moves with other heroes would be the best utilization of his Quirk, rather than Replacing his enemies. Light-Taker is similar, however less powerful. If Tokoyami had Light-Taker as a sidekick instead of Endeavor though, it'd be a perfect match. Little pockets of darkness where it wouldn't matter the time or lighting but just how close he is to his sidekick…
Zach felt a fourth buzz in his pocket in the same minute and he frowned deeper still. I'm in the middle of class. Felt a few notifications before, but these vibrations are messages- Someone's calling. Feels like an emergency. Can I, fake it? I don't want to. What he did the last time to get out of class made him feel sick to his stomach already, and he did not want to try. Yet he knew if he looked at his phone and did it again, Kotsumura would catch him for sure as he already had once. Everyone would know too. I can't get away with having PTSD twice and both times just happening to be when big incidents are happening. Do I check?
Checking will only hurt. I'm in school right now. That's my excuse! I have this excuse, not to have to go out there and bring people back…
Zach's right hand went down to his pocket and he started tapping his fingers on his phone over his pants. He tapped down over and over, once a second, and his breathing calmed down with his eyes focused on the front of the room and his teacher discussing Braizos' command structure. He got another call, and his fingers continued to just tap aimlessly down on his phone. His taps were starting to change though, with each drop of his finger starting to shift his phone around inside his pocket. The next time his index finger came down he flipped his phone over, and the time after that his finger dropped down on the part of the screen that he had to tap to answer the call… but through his pocket, nothing happened. The screen didn't register, Zach thought, even as he tapped his finger onto the part of his screen where the 'Speaker' option would be just to check if maybe he was wrong and he had picked up.
The phone just buzzed again though showing him it was still ringing and he had not picked up. He stopped tapping anyway. Then his phone buzzed, and it vibrated a few times with text messages, and Zach grit his teeth but pulled his phone out quickly when Enorma turned around and faced the board. Zach looked down at his phone screen and the missed calls and text messages he had gotten, while a couple others in the class glanced down at messages they had just received too but had not looked at while Enorma was watching them.
The Shiketsu students who got texts saw they were all from the same group of people, their Class A friends who had their numbers. They all looked towards Zach with their eyes opening huge, and Zach stood out of his seat that scraped on the floor as he shot up like that. Shit. Zach's teeth bared so hard that when Enorma turned to question what her student was doing, she just froze instead at the huge-eyed and panicked look on Sazaki's face. "I'm sorry, Enorma sensei," Zach started. He stepped away from his seat to the windows and he slid one open.
"Wait- What are you doing?" Enorma called out, while other students jumped up with confused and nervous looks on their faces.
"My friend just died," Zach said, his phone vibrating on top of his desk with more messages yelling at him in all caps still appearing one after the other. "I'm going to go bring him back."
Zach hopped up onto the windowsill, then he jumped outside and flapped two wings down behind him that sent him soaring across the sky a hundred miles per hour. Wind flew back into the classroom and picked people's papers up and threw them around the room, blowing their hair around and messing up the classroom at the same time as it knocked Zach's own phone off his desk.
Enorma rose her hand and pushed her hair back behind her head as some blew in front of her face with that blast of wind that flew inside. The rest of her students were on their feet now and talking loudly, but Enorma just stared towards the windows and frowned darkly at the black form shooting off through the sky. No pretext this time. He's not pretending, or lying to try and hide his reason. It's his friend. That's the reason. Which means he's letting the rest of our citizens die, because he doesn't care about them as much. And that's about as unheroic as it gets.
Enorma lifted her own cellphone as she felt a buzz on it. She looked at the breaking news she was seeing for the first time, and she just grimaced at the sight of it. And yet he needs to do it too. Anyone can see that. He didn't say because it's an emergency though. Stupid, stupid kid. Go bring back your friend, then get back here quick. Things are about to get rough for you. Rough-er, really.
In Higashine, a large town only on the border of being a city population-wise, though considered a city by its mayor already who often emphasized before his election last year that 'Higashine City' was very strong, a short-lived raid had just come to an end at a warehouse supposedly rented out by a foreign shipping company that investigators discovered was a shell. This raid successfully resulted in the capture of 68 villains, which meant the building itself had the 65 on the exact high-side of their estimate for the villains' numbers, with three more included in the three who arrived with the weapons in a now-confiscated truck. All of the villains were captured without major injury, though some had broken bones and were being treated before getting taken to jail.
Out of the heroes who joined the raid, barely any received more than superficial wounds. Underguard took heavy damage against a large force of some of the strongest villains, but he was still standing at the end and only felt regret despite the strong villains he had taken down. The man getting treated at an ambulance on the southern perimeter stared towards Presto Change-o, Principal Nezu, and a few others who were gathered around a teenager's unmoving body that had a deep burn cutting deep through his stomach and chest up across his left shoulder diagonally. I shouldn't have let her leave the basement, Underguard thought as he stared towards that figure in a tight yellow costume who he could just catch a glimpse of between others gathered around him.
Miss Management was unconscious after Sato had landed a powerful blow into the right side of her face at the same time as she was bringing up the heat blade she had been equipped with. The blade came flying out of her hand when his fist connected first, the teenager from Class A faster than the woman trying to escape the compound. Presto Change-o had his hand up running through his dark hair and his white top hat down at his side in his other hand that clenched so hard into the rim of it in his tightened fist. I should have teleported her back to me. I could have taken all three of them! Why did I leave it to-
"Everyone move back," Principal Nezu ordered the others around him. He was looking up in the sky already, and he motioned at the others to step away with him while backing up on his own.
Rubbergirl snapped her head up as she had been crouched by the side of a teammate she had fought side-by-side with during this raid. Sameko stood up too from the hood of a cop car she had been sitting on nearby with a frustrated and furious look covering up the grief she was feeling at being right next to him when Sugarman's torso got gashed by the scorching blade. The police officers around the student too yelled at other people around to move back, as some of them were already expecting this.
Roady turned from the computer he was sitting at still in a mobile base and looked out the back of it. Finally. Knew it wouldn't be long.
Jelloman humphed as he heard the commotion outside, and he shoved a villain in the back who he had already cuffed to get the man moving faster and stop dragging his feet out to the cop cars.
"Sugarman's going to be okay," Bikergang said into his headset to inform the rest of the depressed raid members. "Lifebringer's here."
Zach dropped down at the feet of the boy laying dead just inside the perimeter of cop cars. He stared down at Sato's body and lifted his head a bit, looking over him and across the dirt lawn separating the front of the building from his former classmate. There were scorch marks slashed into the ground all over, and he glanced back down at his friend who managed to just sustain one slash. Was it because she got too close to the perimeter? You had to go for it. I don't really know what happened here. Just that you're dead, Sato. Zach stared down at his old classmate whose insides were visible and who had a puddle under his body. There was nothing covering him up. No sheet, no blanket. They all knew I'd come for you. Or they hoped, at least.
Lifebringer stood without any darkness on him as his wings had sucked back into his body as soon as he landed. He was wearing his Shiketsu class uniform with nothing over it to disguise where he just came straight from. Cameras zoomed in on him from the other side of the perimeter where a few officers were trying to keep everyone back. It was getting more difficult though as so many of them were busy taking arrested villains to their vehicles. The perimeter was less necessary now that they had confirmed the success of the mission, and so there were fewer officers back around the streets, though the Police Force presence was heavy around where Sugarman's body had been lying.
Presto Change-o dragged his hand down from the top of his head over his face and then dropped it to his side. It's alright. I didn't fail him. Not yet. "Do it, Lifebringer," Presto Change-o told the teen in front of him.
A few heroes and officers continued towards the south gate of the property while taking the captured villains out with them. Others stopped and watched as Zach bent down and took the glove off his right hand. He got down on his right knee next to Sato's right side. The heat must have been intense. It cut almost completely through him. His body should have been stronger too, as I'm sure he ate a bunch of sugar cubes during the fight. And yet to cut this deep. And if it's that Miss Management, that means she used a weapon. His bones, his organs, it burned his insides right up. I wonder if he managed to feel it even for a few seconds after getting cut.
Zach took in a deep breath, but it came out ragged as he stared down at Sato's body. What am I doing? Why is this taking me so long?! He's your friend! Just put your hand down on him. Zach's face scrunched up, and he breathed faster, but it did little to prepare himself. Waiting just makes it worse! He yelled at himself, while grabbing his right wrist with his left hand and forcing it down onto Sato's body. "AAaaaAAAHHH!" Zach felt his torso from his waist across his stomach over his chest and to his shoulder burn in searing agony. His insides below his skin, his muscles, his organs and bones, they all burned. "AEEE- AH- AHHH-" Zach's right hand lifted, and he shoved it back down. It's just pain! His eyes clenched shut and he felt the pain come back again as moving his hand gave him a moment of relief. FASTER! The pain became more condensed as he flooded Death out of his hand, taking all the pain at once instead of slowly which cut off his screams and made him just kneel there with one hand on his classmate.
Then his eyes parted open. He gasped out a breath and stared down at Sato's skin through his costume that had sealed up completely. He's- The relief Zach felt in that moment as his shoulders started slouching vanished. The heroes leaning forward started turning their heads slower than Zach moved. The teen down on one knee gripped Sato with both hands that were still down on his chest, and he threw his classmate off the ground and towards the warehouse. Sato's eyes snapped open at the sudden jolt- Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Officer Runodo Inezzi stood behind Lifebringer with a heavy pistol raised as he fired off a fifth shot into the teenager in front of him. Zach spun around and he snapped his right leg up off his knee to his foot with his right fist punching out, covering in darkness at the last second so a touch would not be instant-kill as he still had his glove off. The officer firing a sixth shot at him though ducked down below the punch and stomped forward at the same time, getting closer to Zach onto his right side that he moved to while pulling a blade out of his sleeve that he cut across Zach's turning chest. The blade that emerged out of his sleeve had no hilt, it was just a two inch wide blade two feet long that the officer with red skin and spikes all over it gripped hard enough that it cut through his palm and fingers, and that he slashed fast enough that it cut through Zach's school uniform and his chest.
The assassin slashed the blade past Zach after cutting the blade across him, and then Edward Murray's eyes shot open wide and darted to what he saw splashing out of his target's right side. Death. Black splashed out Zach's cut and out of his uniform as if it was blood coming out of it, but then all that darkness pulled towards the man still moving past him faster than Murray could change his momentum. The villain disguised as a cop stomped down and pushed down both feet towards Zach to jump away from him, but the Death wrapped over his blade and gun and touched his hands before he could let go of them.
The villain leapt away but when he hit the ground his legs gave out below him. Zach stood up straight and he glared towards the villain who fell to his knees and then rose his head to stare right back into Zach Sazaki's eyes. People were still yelling out in panic just outside the perimeter, with no press catching what happened after they caught a police officer suddenly drawing on and shooting Zach Sazaki several times in the back. Heroes and other cops could not start calming everyone down either, as they were too busy staring towards the teen who had swirling darkness around the cut in the front of his uniform as well as darkness coming out of holes in the back of it.
He looked like just another officer around here worried for Sato. I didn't even expect it, but I'm always ready for it. Zach stared at the man who one look at now and he could tell exactly who he was.
"Who is this man?!" Another officer who just noticed this figure dressed as one of them exclaimed. He had never seen the man before in his life, as Runodo Inezzi was an officer in Kyoto who no one in the Yamagata prefecture would recognize.
Rubbergirl recognized him though. Only now, as she stared at the figure down on his knees, did she recognize who he was from the day before. In Ryukyu's lobby. He was… Holy shit! She stepped back with her eyes darting from the officer with a scary dark expression on his tired face with drooping eyelids, and the teenager whose darkness faded to show no mark underneath on his chest where he had been slashed. There was no mark of that slash, at least. When she stared at Lifebringer who had his costume cut like that, she saw through the cut in his uniform that flapped a bit in the wind that just blew by, revealing his scarred-up body underneath. He's not League, not Jazz or…
Assassins. Presto Change-o thought it in shock as he stared at the man kneeling there who despite his failed assassination just looked right back at Lifebringer without fear of the teen's dark glare.
The fake officer whose arms went limp at his sides after he fell to his knees, resigned himself as he felt on the verge of passing out any second even from the minuscule amount of Death he saw touch him. Zach slid his black glove back onto his right hand while Sato was running over. The assassin started biting down, and Zach shot forward in an instant that had all the police and heroes tensing up and getting ready to draw. Zach gripped the man by the cheeks using his left hand, and Principal Nezu yelled, "Stay calm everyone!"
Sato spun to his principal and then back to Zach who just shoved his right hand into the villain's mouth. Then Rikido audibly gasped like a dozen others as Zach ripped one of the man's teeth out. He held it up in front of the assassin's widened eyes. "A fake tooth," Zach said to him smugly. "Cyanide capsule you were too slow to break." Zach tossed it aside and growled at the man while darkness came out of his left hand, "You don't get to die that easily." The villain knocked out and Zach pushed back with his left hand to drop him to the ground. "Asshole," Zach muttered, and he reached his right hand around his back and rubbed over a shallow wound that the first bullet had managed to enter before everything turned to Death.
"Sazaki," Principal Nezu started.
Zach turned his head and looked at the principal who was the first to recover from witnessing all that. Nagiso was still gawking towards his former cross country team captain who just took getting shot a half dozen times in the back and cut across the chest like it was nothing. Even Sato stared in disbelief at Zach, though for shorter than most others who had witnessed it. Zach looked towards Nezu first though, and he thought of the last conversation they had right after he got out of Tartaros. He just looked away from the short mouse-bear hero after a second and over to Sato who had just whispered, "Zach."
Zach stared into Sato's eyes and the two of them were silent as Zach did not say a word back. We haven't really talked since the hospital. Never one-on-one. It's been a long time, Sato. He just nodded at his old classmate, and then a pair of black wings ripped out of Zach's back and he jumped twenty feet up in the air before flapping them. He shot back towards Yutapu, never saying a word to the heroes around him. The only one he spoke to after landing was the villain he had knocked out and left for them to deal with.
No one knew what the protocol for this was. Most of them had been hoping Lifebringer would show up to save Sugarman anyway, but none of them knew what to do about what just happened as there was no precedent for it. Principal Nezu tracked the events that transpired in his head, The emergency situation allows him to legally come here, though I am doubtful his teachers at Shiketsu feel the same way. His attack on the officer was in self-defense as well. Stopping the assassin from taking his own life… I did not even notice that that was what the man was planning. When I saw where Sazaki grabbed him I realized it though. Everyone else expected- no, I included, also make that assumption when he first moved.
Roady stared up into the sky from the back of the mobile base he had been working out of. No one was watching him, so he let the grin form on his face. Nice work, Lifebringer.
Sato stared up into the sky in the direction Zach just flew off. His jaw that had dropped before lowered again when Zach just flew away without a word to him. His hand snapped down to his waist after a second of disbelief, and he reached it down into a white pouch where he kept his cellphone. And then Sato felt the most regret he had ever felt in his life. And he felt worse inside than he had ever felt before, his stomach turning over and his eyes clenching shut while he bit down in agonizing pain. Presto Change-o quickly asked if he was alright as he saw Sato's physical reaction to what he just realized, and others around assumed that the teen was still hurt from his death. Nezu understood the expression on Sato's face though as the teen moved his hand out of the pouch, and he felt for his student whose head bowed so his chin touched his chest.
Sato felt like yelling out so he had to clench his teeth shut even harder, because he did not even have Zach's cellphone number to call him and thank him properly.
It did not matter if Sato had Zach's number anyway, as Zach's phone was back in his classroom where the rest of Class 1 were trying to keep up with the unfolding story in Higashine. Zach would not get back there for another half hour either, as he dropped into an empty forest between Higashine and Yutapu. Selfish. Villain. Using my Quirk for the people I care about alone. For a Class A student and not for all those heroes at the raid in the forest. Did Kaminari plan this?! Are they just fucking with me?! THEY'LL DESPISE ME FOR THIS! Zach put his hands up over his face and he screamed into them. Why does this keep happening?!
It's Eziano.
Zach's hands dragged down his face and lowered down below eyes hardened and cold, with irises flaring with red. His hands dragged across his mouth and over the scars on the right and left sides of his face. They curled in and ran under his chin and down his neck too before he dropped one down to his side, moving his other over to the cut in his uniform that went across the front of it from just past midway to around his right side. It's always been Eziano. Zach could feel the scar when he ran his hands over his throat. His fists clenched and his breath came out ragged as he pictured that villain's evil face. Norita. All the attacks on me. Showing everyone me after the explosion, and that I could bring back so many people at once which only escalated further and further!
"It's Eziano," he muttered, shaking his head and grinding his teeth in anger. I didn't want to believe that any of them could affect me like this. That any of them had this kind of power over me, but I- I…
"I want to kill him," he admitted. "I really, really want to kill him." A horrified look flashed over his face for a moment but disappeared. Want. I never "want" to kill anyone. Not sober- not without Death being… Zach's face twitched and the corners of his lips pulled far out into his cheeks showing his grinding teeth behind them. "It's all his fault. He's facilitating my defeat, which is helping the League. They're turning everyone against me… Not that I'm preventing it! I'm just making it worse." He shook his head and then muttered under his breath to himself, pacing forward between some trees before pacing back, "If I could find him though. I laid the bait. I called him out! What else do I need to do!? How many times will he attack me like this until he realizes he can't beat me this way?!"
One more. Zach stopped walking and he hummed to himself at that last thought. Probably. At the moment I was most off guard they see neither bullets nor blades can harm me. Their explosion failed. What will you try next? Powerful Quirks? Biological or chemical weapons?! Will you drag in everyone around me- and kill them all?! Should I just leave? …Should I? Zach closed his eyes and shook his head. No. That's how Eziano's facilitating their victory. By making me think it's better if I'm gone. And it's not…
I'm helping…
Aren't I?