Couldn't have ya'll thinking this story was abandoned, could I?

Rough year, as I'm sure many of you can relate. But I wanted to thank you all for your kind comments of encouragement. I went through and read them since it's been so long and they really cheered me up and lit a fire underneath me to get this chapter written. So thank you, so much. I hope I haven't lost you after all this time. Here's chapter 9.

The three of us took off toward the entrance. The right way, this time, since I had an uncanny way with directions because of my quirk. But it wasn't long before Bakugou caught up with me, and then completely overtook my jogging pace.

"Hey, wait up!" Kirishima called to his disappearing back. Whereas I knew it was hopeless to think he might listen.

"You're wasting your breath," I warned. "He doesn't care if we can keep up or not."

He looked over at me. "You're probably right, he's too fired up to wait for us." He grinned optimistically. "But I think it's more because he trusts us to take care of ourselves. You know?"

I didn't. Never once did that interpretation cross my mind, and I didn't know what to say to that.

The place was huge, but after a little while, we came upon the center of the USJ where all of the zones met, which we had all seen when we first walked in. It was empty, not a villain nor hero in sight, but I was still wary after our encounter with the camouflage villain.

I slowed down before we breached cover. "We should be careful from now on, in case we make the situation worse by just running in." We still didn't know what the villains' goals were for sure, even though the fog villain had mentioned All Might. Maybe it was us, in which case, joining the fray would be a bad idea.

Bakugou glanced back at us. "You two, stay here. I'm going on ahead. Aizawa's probably fighting a bunch of goons on his own."

I thought for a moment, then nodded, actually agreeing with him. Thirteen was hopefully long gone with the other students, on their way to get help, leaving a whole army to defeat for our sensei. I didn't want to doubt his skill, but one vs. one hundred would be concerning for any pro-hero, unless you were All Might tier. Besides, Bakugou had just proven that he could hold his own, at least with these small-fry villains.

I would just be a liability to Sensei, but Kirishima was no easy target, so I said, "You two should go. I'll go look for Midoriya and the others." My quirk could keep me out of trouble, so I wasn't too scared about being by myself.

Bakugou nodded, and I wasn't sure why I was expecting him to object. Maybe Kirishima was right, and he thought I could take care of myself.

I squashed the thought the moment it came up.

"Stay safe," Kirishima told me, frowning. He probably didn't think it was a good idea to split up, but with only three of us and Bakugou so determined to fight the leader and me so determined not to, it was going to happen anyway.

"Will do," I reassured him, and then the two took off for the entrance.

I turned around, closing my eyes. Okay, Karma, find Midoriya.

The ruins zone was the only one that didn't alert to pain when I ran through each option in my head. I took off, using my quirk to find the right path like I had done during the entrance exam. Maybe it was leading me to my stranded classmates, or maybe it was leading me to the safest part of the USJ, but I followed it anyway.

The ruins zone presented a challenge, though, because it was made up of dozens of turns and buildings, meaning I had to take things slow with all the options. Any villains would have plenty of cover, too. I took a deep breath and let my quirk guide me.

I heard the fighting first, so I had plenty of warning to approach with caution, peering around the corner with my back to the building for cover and getting out my staff. I saw movement through one of the glassless windows but didn't run in yet. I didn't want to burden my classmates, either. But if I thought I could help, then I would try.

There were dozens of villains hanging out the window, wrapped in white tape. I didn't know how much tape Sero could use before his limit, but he had to be getting close.

I saw a flash of green; Midoriya with a baseball bat, which I assumed he had either gotten from Yaoyorozu or off a villain. She came into view seconds later with what looked like a bazooka, shooting a villain right in the chest. I winced for them but that was as far as my empathy went.

My classmates seemed to be holding their own, but there were still a lot of villains, and they were trapped in a hallway. If I could flank the enemies from behind, it might make things go a lot quicker, and then we could all go somewhere easier for us to get rescued.

I extended my staff and gripped it tightly, making up my mind. That didn't mean it was easy to just jump back into the fray after the mess I'd been during the fight in the mountain zone, but it was a little different. I had been woefully unprepared at first. Now, I had the element of surprise and experience, even if it was just from minutes ago.

I'd beaten more villains than villains had beaten me. So maybe I wasn't doing as badly as I thought.

I circled the building until I found the entrance and made my way inside, keeping low to the ground as if that made me stealthy. I took the stairs next.

They were easy to find. Within seconds, I found the backs of dozens of villains. They too were impeded by the narrow hallway, probably getting in each others' way and unable to use their numbers advantage since they couldn't all attack at once. I noticed with a swell of pride that more of them were on the ground and out for the count than were up. I heard grunting and swinging and a whirring up ahead.

No one heard me stalk up and raise my staff in the commotion.

I was no longer scared to swing with all my strength, cracking the two nearest villains on the back of the head and dropping them. And even better for me, the others were so concerned with the other three that they didn't even notice

I took out two more before my quirk warned me to dodge.

I disengaged and a meaty arm narrowly missed me. I swung without even looking for a target, and something hit the ground.

"Hotaru-chan!"

I knew better than to try to find Midoriya's face over the crowd, even though their numbers were thinning. I did. But I still did it out of reflex.

Something whacked into my side, knocking the wind out of me and slamming me into the wall. I had sensed the attack coming and everything, I just hadn't been quick enough. My staff left my hands and someone kicked it away, whether on purpose or just because it was crowded I didn't know.

I tried to catch my breath.

"Nice try," a villain chuckled, closing in on me as I panted against the wall. "I hate wannabe-heroes. They're pathetic." He raised his fist, sneering. "What are you gonna do without your little stick?"

I had been avoiding using my quirk because I was scared to be unarmed, but now that I didn't have a choice…

"Try it," I hissed, eyes narrowed.

My egging apparently pissed him off. He lunged at me with a snarl.

The moment his fist connected with my chin, I didn't hold back.

I had a lot of juice saved up from the previous fight, and I still couldn't control how much I let go at any given release. The results were that I sent out everything I had in me, a golden blast that knocked the villain flying into the other wall, crashing through to the other side. It wasn't just him, either, and when the dust cleared, there were only five villains left standing.

It took them a few moments to realize four high schoolers had taken out the bulk of their army, but by then Sero had three of them taped together and getting dragged out the window, and Midoriya and Yaoyorozu had taken out the other two will they were distracted. Midoriya's bat snapped from the force of his blow so he tossed it aside sheepishly.

"Well," Sero grinned, dusting drywall off his hero costume. "That was easy."

"Speak for yourself," I muttered pushing off the wall a little unsteadily. Honestly, it had been the biggest attack my quirk had ever released. The outside wall looked like a demolition team had just had a field day. I was lucky it hadn't hurt my classmates. I found my staff and quickly collected it. "Is everyone okay?"

"Yes, you?" Yaoyorozu asked. "If anyone needs medical treatment, let me know and I can make something."

After we determined no one was hurt (not even Midoriya, who had successfully avoided using his quirk), I noticed the giant hole in the ceiling. I hadn't made that.

"What happened in here?"

They filled me in, that it had been Midoriya's idea. They had first been warped to a room on the top floor and were quickly getting surrounded, so they led the villains into the hallway to squeeze them. Then Midoriya had Sero secure the three of them to the wall with his tape while Yaoyorozu planted a bomb and blew up the whole floor. The mob I'd run up on was the crumbs they were finishing off.

I looked at Midoriya with wide eyes. "Brilliant."

His face went red.

Sero looked contemplative. "Clearly they wanted to split us up to finish us off. And that one guy mentioned All Might."

Midoriya nodded solemnly. "Yeah. Since All Might was supposed to be with us today, my guess is that he's their target."

"And we're just collateral," Yaoyorozu hummed, nudging an unconscious villain with her boot. "Clearly, they thought these guys would be enough to defeat us. If I were them and I thought we were this weak, I wouldn't bother separating us. It would have been better to use us to disadvantage All Might."

I shrugged. "It's possible they panicked when things didn't go according to their plan. No All Might, and us students about to leave. I think they warped whoever they could grab back inside so that All Might would be forced to come and save us."

"Yeah. And that's what worries me," Midoriya frowned. We looked at him to elaborate further. "If they're trying so hard to get All Might to come here, then they must think they have a way to kill him."

The four of us exchanged worried glances. We discussed our next steps on our way out. It didn't seem like the best idea to join Bakugou and Kirishima on the front lines, wherever that may or may not have moved to, but it also didn't feel right just to sit still and wait to get rescued.

"Since we were warped here, the enemy knows exactly where we are," Midoriya said. "I think we should check out how things are going out front and decide from there."

We all agreed that moving was for the best, and getting out of the USJ was even better. It cut us off from the rest of society, meaning there were no witnesses and only one way for heroes to get to us, where the villains had unlimited exits and entrances with their warping quirk. Long story short, if they wanted us in the building, it was probably best to leave.

We made it back to the center of the USJ before everything went to hell.

I should have been thinking about the issue at hand.

I had just gotten into two fights. Real ones, life or death. Our sensei was likely in trouble, fighting the bulk of the villains and the leader all by himself. Our classmates may have been kidnapped or were off finding help, but had no way of knowing which.

For some reason, my mind was stuck on a memory.

I think I was about five or six, so right in the thick of the bullying. I never went to my parents for help about it, of course, but looking back, I think they could sense something was wrong, even if they didn't know what exactly. My dad set up a tent in our backyard that night after he got home from work, decking it out with cushions and sleeping bags and a cool color-changing flashlight. It was what we did sometimes when it was nice out, instead of vacation, which we could never really take because my mom and dad didn't get too much time off work. So we would pretend we were somewhere nice inside the little tent, snacking on onigiri, and I would pretend I was too young to understand that anything was wrong. I made paper cut-outs with my mom for my dad to make up some whimsical story with their shadow, because he was the best storyteller, but hand shadow puppets were too restricting.

And then, when it got just dark enough, and the cicadas were thrumming and the air was sweet, we slipped outside the tent to catch fireflies together. Never to keep in jars or to harm. We'd just catch them between our cupped hands and let them go. And I would pretend nothing else was going on, and that they were the only family I'd ever had.

And that was what was on my mind in the USJ.

"Alright," Midoriya said as we came upon the stairs. "It might be dangerous up there, so stay low and stick together."

We nodded.

Then a slit of a portal opened between us and the doors.

Immediately, I dropped to my knees at the force of a new premonition. I could barely breathe. It was the worst one I had ever felt. I had no choice but to drop and hold myself together.

"Ryuuzaki-san!" Yaoyorozu dropped beside me with a hand on my back.

Stepping out slowly from the purple void was a gangly-looking teenager.

"Are those… hands?" she whispered, horrified.

I didn't even want to count them, but they hung up along his arms, back, and most notably, his face and head. It was certainly a morbid costume, probably designed to intimidate. It worked on me.

Worse, though, was the figure behind him, a creature that would sear itself into my nightmares. Looming, with a beak and a visible brain. That was no person with a quirk. It was some sort of puppet. Monster. Nothing was going on behind those beady eyes.

I shuddered.

Midoriya and Sero stuck close, but their bloodless complexions betrayed their worry. Midoriya especially, since he knew a little bit more about me and what my normal was for my quirk.

"There's been a slight change of plans, kiddos," the teenager rasped, scratching at his neck like something was beneath his skin. "Since most of you got away and Erasurehead's not cooperating outside, we're going to destroy All Might in a different way."

So the bus managed to get away. The others were safe. I almost had the time to feel relief before it again hit me that the four of us with alone with some maniac and a monster.

"I'm going to wreck his pride," the villain announced with glee.

And with speed I wasn't expecting, he appeared between me and Yaoyorozu, both hands outstretched. I had just enough time to wonder if I was ever going to get to go camping with my family again.

Thank you for sticking around! If you have the time, let me know what you thought.

See you soon.