The wait wasn't good for anyone, they had been waiting back behind the warehouse for the better part of 3 hours in the dead of night. This was shaping up to be one of the most pivotal moments in the war against the League of Villains. It had taken them near on four years to get to this point, but at last, they had pushed the League back and now they had cornered Shigaraki and the last of his forces. They had made a seemingly normal rural town their headquarters, but in reality, the entire town was comprised entirely of League members. The attacks had to proceed carefully, they needed to surround the entire town and launch a simultaneous attack to maximize damage and minimize losses until they drew out Shigaraki and his lieutenants. They were the first to get into position, and now the wait had been making them jumpy.
Todoroki glanced over their squad's leader, one of the six angels. One of the angels was each spearheading one of the key six squads that would be responsible for springing the attack. Their powers, enhanced by the QUEESS, made them the only ones capable of unleashing the sheer destructive force needed to throw the enemy into a complete panic. Not to mention that they were the only ones who could actually fight Shigaraki and have a chance of winning. Without the six, they never would have regained the initiative and reversed the tide of the war. Until they had appeared, the enemy had been making steady unstoppable progress in subjugating Japan and crushing heroes under their boot.
Then he heard a small ping in his ear and he heard a countdown start from 60 in an automated voice. The time had come, he got up and along with the rest of 1A got into position. Their leader walked up to the warehouse wall and lay a hand on the cinderblocks. He imagined he could feel the pulse as their leader's quirk rippled outwards from the touched point. The entire building shuddered and started to vibrate subtly. Then the buildings nearby started to vibrate too until eventually, a hum started to be heard from all the nearby buildings.
Todoroki for his part started coalescing fire in his left palm, focusing all his power into a single point, the light obscured by the warehouse. Bakugo was filling his armor with his sweat and pooling a large majority of it in his gauntlets. Ashido filled her acid guns with the most caustic stuff she could produce. Momo created her combat gear and loaded her newly invented gauss rifle. Kirishima hardened to his maximum, his sheer mass creating an indent in the ground, while Ashido created a thin layer of sticky acid armor over top of him. Tokoyami flew into the sky, virtually invisible to any observer, quirk, and technology. Shinso merely stood in position and affixed his helmet to his combat suit. Jiro was much the same as Shinso, her jacks plugged into his combat suit that been specially crafted for her quirk.
The countdown steadily ticked down, a bead of sweat born of nerves trickled down Todoroki's forehead. Then the countdown hit zero, and all hell broke loose. Their squad leader released their quirk and all the quivering buildings exploded outward, a massive wave of destruction arcing outward and obliterating everything in its path. Buildings were ripped apart by the collision of the other building pieces being flung into them. The swath of destruction giving them a clear field and easy path to advance into the town proper. The squad charged forward, as, at other strategic points, similar massive displays of destruction took place.
A massive explosion of golden light at the other end of the town lit up the night sky for an instant before the massive explosion sent bits of molten earth flying into the sky, only to rain down on the city from above. The very earth itself ripped itself apart as the entire town was subject to a colossal earthquake of unparalleled magnitude. Buildings were pushed aside into large piles as psychic walls created a corridor for another squad. A literal tornado formed at another point and ripped entire buildings from the earth along with any enemies and flung them into the distance. The sixth point didn't have as much as an extravagant display as the others but it was always bizarre to watch as the terrain became malleable and bouncy. Flinging anything wasn't tied down to the ground in random directions, only to be flung again as the objects collided with more of the elastic terrain.
Todoroki took it all in, then launched himself into the air with a jet of ice from beneath him. He saw from the corners of his eyes as others did the same, but held back waiting for him to go first. As he reached the peak of his height, he looked down at the town below him. He could see the villainous bastards running around in a panic as the surprise attack threw everything into chaos among them. He aimed his left hand at the earth and unleashed the building condensing fire. The rush of the fire roared in his ears as a stream of red light launched into the earth and broke upon it, splaying out in an arc from the impact point and washing the area in front of them in a torrent of fire so hot it turned the enemies he hit into blackened husks in but a few moments. They were far beyond mercy at this stage in the war, and none of them would have graced them with mercy anyway. These inhuman bastards had taken far too much from them.
His part done, the others behind him shot forward to clean up any survivors and to engage reinforcements that started to emerge from bunkers and tunnels under the town. The resulting fighting went without much incident, they forced the enemy to hold up in their bunkers and tunnels funneling them and preventing them from reaching the surface. They were all waiting for the sign though, and fire enough after about 10 or 15 minutes they saw it. An explosion of dust of ash exploding into the air from a point at roughly the center of town and expanding outward at a frightening pace. Shigaraki had finally unleashed his Decay. The rush of the deadly quirk terrified him and his adrenaline spiked, but they had been expecting it. The squad formed up around the angel commanding them just in time, as a wall of psychic energy formed in a column around them centered on the angel. The rush of decay rushed up to then split around the column, rushing past them and into the distance behind them.
The wave of destruction ended shortly after it began, leaving a barren wasteland in its place. Only in the spots where the psychic barriers were located did any life remain. The barriers faded as soon as the wave stopped and Todoroki and the rest of his friends dived for cover as the angel blasted forward, the shockwave generated from the sudden explosion of movement sending showers of the earth in all directions. They all watched as she rocketed towards Shigaraki covering the distance in a heartbeat. Then she and Shigaraki were both gone, the angel having grabbed Shigaraki and continuing forward towards the nearby mountain. Then there was an impact on the side of the mountain and they knew Shigaraki had been successfully relocated away from his base and forces. While the angels attempted to kill Shigaraki, they would focus on invading and taking down the League of Villains once and for all.
As they all rushed forward towards the hatch Shigaraki had come out of, Todoroki said a silent prayer.
"Good luck Ochako, we'll be waiting for you."
A few hours later, after the final fight with the league's defenders had ended, Todoroki stood above the body of who had once been his older brother. He had long since discarded any remnant feelings he had towards his once brother for Dabi was not his brother. He stared at the hole he had made through Dabi's heart with an ice spike for a moment longer before turning and leaving the last remaining fortress of the League of Villains.
Eventually, the class reconvened on the surface. Todoroki was relieved to see they had suffered no casualties, though Bakugo had a couple of nasty lacerations that would definitely scar. After they had all caught up with each other, they all turned to watch the final fight of the war taking place on the mountain.
The mountain (if it could even be called one anymore) was missing pieces and was partially on fire. As they watched they saw the shockwaves emanating from a point above the mountain. Flashes of golden light would periodically light up the mountain, just as the mountain would occasionally bend and twist with the elasticity that been put upon it. The fight seemed to stretch on for eternity. As the entire class watched and prayed for the victory they so desperately sought and for the survival of Ochako.
Ochako floated in the air panting, the fight had started out fine but eventually, Shigiraki's power started to bleed through their onslaught. Eventually, it had degenerated into a six on one brawl with neither side giving an inch. The six of them had him surrounded and both them and Shigaraki were starting to show signs of fatigue. Shigiraki's defenses had started to slow down and his power decrease as even his supernatural body began to feel both his physical and mental strain.
"We're running out of time, eventually one side is going to give and we can't take the risk that it's us. We've already pushed ourselves to our limits but so has Shigaraki, his defenses are collapsing so now's our opportunity. We're going to go with the final gambit, get yourself ready, you're only going to have a few milliseconds at best to get the timing right. On my mark." Came Hikari's voice over the comms.
The final gambit, their plan to end Shigaraki once and for all. If this didn't work then Shigaraki would likely kill them all. Then the military would get their green light to throw everything they had at him. Either way, he was going to die today but all parties involved preferred not to have to launch a MOAB or three at him. If the gambit failed, then protocol dictated that they would do everything in their power to restrain Shigaraki so that the MOAB(s) hit the mark. They'd all die in the process, but to kill Shigaraki it would be worth it. He could NOT be allowed to live.
She took a steadying breath and reached out held out her hands as if holding a ball in them. Then she pushed with her quirk. The gravity in the center of her hands warped and twisted and then it began to spread outward like a whirlpool. The gravity being inexorably twisted and pushed towards a singular point. As she focused on this, she watched as everyone else sprang into action.
Inasa started first, focusing all his power into a final blast he sent a pillar of air towards Shigaraki just as Shindo punched the air and sent a super focused shockwave to Shigiraki's other side. Shigaraki tried to dissipate the attacks but a pillar of psychic energy blocked him as it materialized around him invisibly. The pillar cracked and three more barriers formed around him as he broke through the first one. Then the barriers dropped just as the twin attacks reached him and they hit him at once. His defenses held against them but he suffered a tremendous amount of damage. The churning and twisting pillar of air turned his entire left side into near literal ribbons even though it packed enough power to punch a hole through a mountain. The shockwave meanwhile turned his bones into near dust and his flesh was pulverized and compressed into his side despite the shockwave having enough power to shatter a small island.
Gentle bounced in an instant after the attacks and punched Shigaraki with his full strength and sending him flying backward into an elastic piece of air and bounced him forward. Meanwhile, Hikari had backed up and materialized a tower shield of golden light and then blasted forward in a flash of golden light, perfectly timing the bouncing of Shigaraki so that he intercepted him.
The following explosion of golden light was immense, the shockwave nearly knocked Ochako out of the air and disrupted her focus. Shigaraki was turned into a jet of golden light for a second as he was sent backward before slamming into a twelve layer thick barrier made behind him that broke ten of them and nearly broke the last two, then Hikari blasted forward again and turning his shield into a massive two-handed Warhammer smashed it into Shigiraki's chest. This impact was even stronger, it was so bright that it was like looking into a second sun. Shigiraki went flying backward and hit a supermassive wall of elastic air, which barely managed to send him careening forwards. Right at Ochako.
She wasn't ready though, the process to rip open a black hole and then maintain it long enough to engulf something the size of a human was beyond imagining. She had managed it once as Shigiraki was about to crush her skull and that had erased almost his entire chest in a nano-second. At the time she had felt... something, lend her power. It hadn't felt like a person was helping her but neither did it feel like it had come inside herself. Whatever had happened had been one hell of a fluke. When asked if she could replicate it, she had said yes and had been practicing it every second of the day and night. She had come close once or twice, but never fully replicated it. She didn't have time to screw up though, she poured her entire being into the whirlpool of twisting gravity between her hands. As Shigiraki got closer though, she knew she wouldn't make it.
Then she felt it as if someone or something had laid a strong hand upon her shoulder, power surged through her blood like lightning and fire. The gravity of everything around her was pulled into the singular point between her hands. Shigaraki came towards her and she roared, thrusting the point forward she reached into that minuscule point and ripped it open. She felt her entire body being torn apart as she fought to maintain it, it was only for a second but that act alone was enough to nearly kill her outright. It took all her focus to just stay floating, her combat suit's biometrics nearly flatlined and she saw everything hit the red. she coughed up a lungful of blood and tried to blink away the blood seeping from burst blood vessels near her eyes. Her hearing in one ear seemed to be dead as well and she could feel the blood from a burst eardrum dribbling down her left ear. The suit however expelled the blood to prevent her from drowning.
As the hole in reality formed for that brief second, Shigaraki went into it. His momentum stopped dead and he was absorbed into the miniature black hole. She watched as the twisted reality reset itself with Shigaraki nowhere to be seen. Then she heard screaming below her and looked down. To her horror, she watched as Shigaraki missing two/thirds of his entire body re-knit and re-build itself. She had time to briefly register the fact that they had failed when a small hammer of golden light flew into her chest and sent her hurtling towards the ground far below her. She tried to counter the force and momentum of the hammer but she was too exhausted from nearly killing herself to fight it. She hit the ground, hard and couldn't muster the strength to move. Instead, she activated her optics enhancers and zoomed in on the fight now miles above and away from her. She
She watched as Hikari and Gentle grabbed onto the reforming Shigaraki and then it became too bright to see. She turned off the enhancers and watched as Hikari became a ball of golden light, intermingled with bolts of blue energy and lightning. Then it exploded, the force of it blew the mountain apart and pushed her deeper into the ground, and a wave of heat passed over her. Her combat suit preventing her from being cooked alive. The wind pressure flattened trees and rocked buildings several miles away.
As the aftermath of the explosion dissipated, she just lay there trying to comprehend what had happened. She knew instinctively that both Gentle and Hikari were dead but the idea was so insane that she had trouble accepting it as reality. The two of them had been like anchors to the other four, they were older, more experienced, and tried to guide them as best they could. Now they were gone, she had again failed. Her one duty had been to rip Shigaraki apart in a ball of gravity so intense that he would be torn asunder down to his very atoms. For her failure, she had cost the lives of two people she respected, admired, followed, and cherished.
She felt in the very core of her being, something shatter, something she had been desperately trying to hold together, and at that moment she came to realize the purpose of her existence. She was truly born to suffer, to watch as all she held dear was taken from her due to her own failure and weakness.
Something was birthed inside her at that moment, or had it always been there? Merely lurking on the edge of her psyche. A figure seemed to drape its weight across her shoulders and she could imagine arms wrapping themselves around her from behind, embracing her.
"You don't have to keep going like this... If your weakness is holding you back then you need to abandon it. You have seen it in your enemies, and it made them strong. Give yourself to me, and I will fix it, they will know your pain, and by the time the work is finished so will yours. Just give yourself to me..."
And at long last, she did.
After the massive explosion of golden and blue light that sent a massive shockwave that Todoroki was forced to erect the biggest wall of ice in his life to block, they split up to search for any surviving members of the angels as none of them were responding at attempts to establish contact. Class 1-A went to go find Ochako via the locator in her headset, and their search took them far out into the countryside. As they searched, they eventually found evidence of a fight, then they found the bodies. The bodies matched descriptions and pictures of known members of the League of Villains lead by the lieutenant Re-Destro. Given Re-Destro had lost his legs, he hadn't been able to evac to the same location as Shigiraki's main force in time, instead, his group had hunkered down in a hidden safe house somewhere to the east of the Shigiraki's headquarters. Todoroki deduced that Re-Destro had likely been walking to meet up with Shigaraki to avoid detection for the last few days. The rest of the class agreed and continued on.
The devastation increased along with the bodies, and the blood. Todoroki started to get a sick feeling as the level of carnage only increased the farther, they went. Finally, they emerged into a clearing, and the class stopped dead.
Ochako was standing in a veritable sea of bodies, blood, and viscera. Her combat suit spattered head to toe in blood and gore. She had removed her helmet at some point and Todoroki saw it lying in the dirt next to her feet.
Todoroki stepped towards Ochako hesitantly, unnerved by her stillness.
"Ochako... What happened?"
She didn't respond at first but eventually, she turned her head towards him.
Todoroki stopped in his tracks and a feeling of dread came over him. He had seen a lot of faces during the war. The dying face was bad, but eventually, you became numb to it. The faces of those who failed and were dying were even worse but you learned how to deal with it through experience. The very worst though were the faces of those who had just... become empty. Inside them, there was nothing left. You never learned to deal with it, there was nothing you could do for them. Ochako was different though, he saw the emptiness in her but it was as if something had started to fill that emptiness.
"Justice." was all she said, her voice devoid of all emotion, cold, and unfeeling; then she simply rose into the air and flew off into the distance.
