Shigaraki and Kurogiri told me to stay away from the battle.
Curiosity got the better of me.
Now I pray it doesn't kill me.
I'm hiding behind rubble as I take in the scene before me. Aizawa-sensei is missing. Some strange creature is trapped between Kurogiri's double warp gate, clutching All Might-sensei with one hand. Todoroki-kun has frozen the leg and arm of that creature with astonishing precision. All Might-sensei breaks free and assumes a fighting stance as he faces Shigaraki. At the same time, Bakugou-san leaps and pins Kurogiri down by his metal brace. Kirishima-san and Midoriya-san have assumed fighting stances. I take this to mean that the criminals Shigaraki hired were useless; the students defeated them, which would explain why I saw incapacitated criminals as I made my way here. My anxiety rises, but Shigaraki keeps his cool.
"You pinned down our revolving door. Well now ... this is quite the pinch," is his reaction.
Meanwhile, Bakugou-san gloats. "Just as I thought! This prick was never all that sharp! That bit on your body you use to get all misty and warp-gatey just got sealed, bastard! You gonna tell me you don't use that warp gate to hide your true body? Huh!
"If the shadow-mist were your true form and you had no actual body, then why would you have called any attack 'dangerous?'" Kurogiri groans a little, to which Bakugou-san shoves him again. "Don't you move! The second you so much as twitch, I'll load with you with a nice little explosion, right here, right now."
My eyes dart frantically between Shigaraki, Kurogiri, Bakugou-san, and All Might-sensei.
"We've been cornered, and what's more, you're nearly all unscathed. Man, I have to hand it to the kids these days. At this rate, the villain alliance will be a laughingstock!" Shigaraki says. I told you so! You should have accepted my offer and received details about their quirks! But now isn't the time to complain. Especially after Shigaraki says next. "Noumu, go ahead and finish explosion boy over there. We're rescuing our revolving door."
To my astonishment and horror, the creature breaks free from the portals and ice capsules. I finally get a clear view of what that thing is. Almost 200 centimeters tall, bulging muscles, a ridiculously large brain - why can I see its brain? - eyes almost popping out of their sockets in the brain - in the brain! - blue-almost-black thick skin, a long, yellow, and bird-like beak, and large, heavy hands and feet, and a pair of beige pants that look more like shorts on it. When it finally pulls itself out, its right arm and leg are missing. But immediately it starts regenerating. Muscle, sinew, and bone stretch out from its body, replacing the missing arm and leg. Todoroki-kun is understandably terrified. All the while, Shigaraki praises his creation. "I never said that was the full extent of his abilities. As you can see, he's also got 'super regeneration.' Noumu is a human sandbag artificially crafted to the height of physical fitness in order to withstand your 100%." Also? Just what did I miss? Is this the secret weapon Shigaraki was talking about? I'm utterly perplexed. As an afterthought, I mentally plead with Shigaraki. Don't reveal the strengths of this noumu. You're giving the heroes ammunition.
The noumu charges for Bakugou-san, who is still keeping Kurogiri pinned down. Just as the noumu is about to kill him, All Might-sensei dashes in between, taking the brunt of the attack. The impact causes a tremor that causes debris to fly all around. I take cover behind the rubble. Todoroki-kun and the others fall back. As the dirt and debris settle down, I can see that Kurogiri is free now and Sensei is standing in front of the noumu meters away, but not uninjured. The arm he used to block the attack with is badly bruised. He pants out, "Do you not know mercy?" I scoff internally at that.
Shigaraki takes him no seriously either. "We had no choice. We had to save our ally, didn't we? And not long ago one of your kids over there ... which one? ... the plain-looking one." I look at where Shigaraki is pointing. He's referring to Midoriya-san, who hasn't gotten up yet. "He tried to beat me up with all his strength, hear? And for whom do you think he mustered such touching acts of violence? Hmm, 'hero?'" His voice drips with mockery as he enunciates the word "hero."
"Now listen here, All Might!" he shouts as he raises his arms. "I'm very ticked off! We're all categorized as either heroes or villains, but at the end of the day violence is violence. And who gets to decide right and wrong? Society does! The 'Symbol of Peace!' Give me a break! You're nothing more than a bludgeon of oppression yourself! Violence only breeds more violence. And once we kill you, that'll be made known to the world!"
Sensei ignores all of this by telling Shigaraki to keep his "antisocial viewpoints" to himself. But I feel differently. What Shigaraki said was not entirely wrong. As stupid as society may be, it holds the most power too. And it misuses that power, both intentionally and unintentionally. People as young as children are constantly surrounded by the media, friends, families, celebrities, and all the other members of society who say that heroes are saviors and morally perfect whereas criminals are evil and heartless and have no morals. Lying is wrong, and telling the truth is right. Revenge is wrong, and forgiveness is right. The brainwashing begins at birth. And besides, isn't morality a social construct? A concept created by those who had power and wanted to keep it? In another world, lying and vengeance for survival wouldn't be such a crime. In another world, natural emotions like pride, greed, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth wouldn't be labelled as sins. In this world, though, no matter the reason, victims of society are maligned. Victims like me. I know that if I reveal the truth about myself, my quirk, my "profession," my revenge, this society won't let me live. Its citizens will condemn me. They'll attack me with their curses until I kill myself. Maybe they'll kill me themselves and walk away unscathed. After all, society loves to accuse others and forget its own mistakes.
Shigaraki's mockery of the title "Symbol of Peace" isn't false, either. It's ironic, really. Japan's Number One Pro-Hero has to use violence to keep peace within a community. And even then, that community remains cruel. Pro-Heroes fight to maintain order but fail when chaos persists. And history is witness that humans crave violence. Battle after battle. War after war. I'm certain even the first humans on the planet had fought each other. This fact is known to the world, but the world just wants to deny it. All humans enjoy violence, even if they say they don't. But even though I lie to everyone on a daily basis, I won't lie to myself. I enjoy it, too. I relish it. I revel in it ...
Wait. What am I doing? My alliance with Shigaraki is purely business. My opinions do not matter. I'm completing my end of the deal, and he is completing his. That's all there is to it. So why are my emotions coming into play? Get a hold of yourself, Selene. Keep emotions out of business. You know that much from living amongst the rich.
I'm so caught up with my thoughts that I almost miss the conversation happening between the students.
"It's three versus five," Todoroki-kun mutters.
"And Kacchan exposed the shadow guy's weak point!" exclaims Midoriya-san.
"These guys are outrageous but if we give All Might-sensei some support, then we'll send them packing. No problem!" bursts out Kirishima-san.
Looks like I'll have to get involved now ...
But before I can do anything, Sensei stops them. "NO! PLEASE ESCAPE!"
Todoroki-kun refutes him. "But if I hadn't come to support you earlier, it'd have been bad."
Midoriya-san expresses concern. "All Might, you've got blood." I can't make out his next words. Something about being "out of time."
Sensei ignores their pleas. "Right you are, Todoroki my boy! Thanks a ton! But now I'll be okay! All you need to do is watch a Pro show you how it's done!" He curls his fists.
Shigaraki tells the noumu and Kurogiri to do what they must, while he will take care of the students. He charges toward them, shouting, "Let's clear the game and return victorious!" Sensei and the noumu run towards each other and land a punch to each other's fist. But it's useless. The noumu is unfazed. So is Shigaraki, after a moment of surprise. "I told you before. He has shock absorption," he grumbles.
"I'm aware." And with that, Sensei proceeds to launch a barrage of punches at the noumu. They're landing so fast, his arms are a blur. The noumu can't do anything to defend itself. "It's shock absorption, not total nullification! It must have a limit, no? He was made to stand my 100%? In that case, I'LL JUST GIVE IT MORE THAN 100%!" Not unless I do something about it ... I turn myself invisible and edge closer to the noumu and Sensei. As expected, Sensei launches into a grandiose but redundant speech of valor and heroism in the middle of a fight. "A hero is someone who smashes through every obstacle life puts his way! DO YOU KNOW WHAT I SPEAK OF VILLAIN!" I am just about to activate Aizawa-sensei's nullification quirk and use it on All Might-sensei, that All Might-sensei lands such a powerful final punch, the noumu is thrown into the air and breaks through the dome. Thrown hundreds of meters. In fact, the noumu is still facing the impact of the punch. I can't see its figure through the hole in the dome. Not hundreds, Sensei threw him kilometers away.
Sensei buckles over, panting. His ugly yellow suit is torn to shreds, and he looks like he will topple over any moment now. A large cloud of dust has formed that will take a long time to settle down. I can hear him mutter, "I really have gotten weaker. In my heyday, it'd have taken five good punches, tops. Now I threw more than 300 of the suckers."
Hearing that gives me an idea. He's weak right now. He's in no shape to defend against another attack. That means he's vulnerable. Open. I can do the job. I can kill him. Here and now. And no one will be the wiser. I inactivate the invisibility quirk and instead turn on my illusion quirk, camouflaging myself and what I'm about to do as part of the scene. I unsheathe one of my knives from under my sleeves, now all coated with golden viper venom, and I creep behind Sensei as silent as the shadows. Just one nick. The poison will do the job. He can withstand all the punches and kicks he wants, but he's powerless against such deadly poison. I stand just behind him, only a few centimeters away. I lift the knife and angle its blade to slice his nape.
"Now then, villain. We both want to put an end to this dance of ours quickly, don't we."
Just as I am about to slice, Shigaraki's words make me hesitate. "You've gotten weaker? You lie! We're totally overpowered! How dare you lay a hand on my noumu! You used cheats!" Shigaraki's angry, and I'm irritated. Bloody saints of hell! I am here! I know you said I should stay away from the battle, but I'm your best weapon right now. Use me! And we'll end All Might, just like you planned! I need to signal Shigaraki somehow that I'm here. That there is still a chance we can win. I can't let him retreat. "There's no way you're any weaker now! Did he- Did he lie to me?" I lower my knife and edge toward Shigaraki. He just needs one glimpse of me, and he should understand. The dust cloud should provide enough cover for me in that one moment.
"What's the matter? Where'd your bravado go? What happened to clearing the game? Try it if you can," Sensei taunts. But it's all a bluff. I've almost reached Shigaraki. My joints are starting to ache as I maintain the illusion. Just a few steps more, Selene. Pull through. I make it close enough to hear that Shigaraki is grumbling to himself and Kurogiri is trying to soothe him.
"Shigaraki Tomura. Please calm yourself. If you look more closely, you can clearly see the damage noumu succeeded in dealing him." He's right. Sensei looks worse for the wear. Which is why I can kill him! "It would appear the children are rearing away. It's true that reinforcements are certain to make their appearance in mere minutes. However, I tender the proposal, Shigaraki, that if you and I combine our efforts, there might still be an ample chance to murder him."
Kurogiri's words work. "... Yeah ... You're right ... Totally, utterly on the nose. After all this trouble, how could we fail to defeat the final boss?" And there, I've made it. I release my hold on the illusion momentarily, giving Shigaraki and Kurogiri a clear view of myself and the long dagger in my hand. I incline my head toward Sensei once, hoping, praying, they understand. And thank the angels and demons, they do. They glance toward Sensei and nod their heads, and summoning whatever strength I have, I return quickly back All Might-sensei.
It's Kurogiri's and Shigaraki's turns to bluff now. "Above any other consideration, we must avenge noumu." Sensei braces himself, and Kurogiri opens another massive warp gate that rushes toward Sensei. They rush toward Sensei to distract him from me. Just as I am about to bring the knife down his neck, Midoriya-san literally flies in to punch Kurogiri. At the last second, Kurogiri contorts his figure to keep his metal brace away from Midoriya-san's fist. However, the punch causes another tremor and I lose my balance. I fall back and so does the knife.
In a fit of rage, Shigaraki extends his hand to Midoriya-san's face, but he's shot. There's a bullet lodged in his hand! Shigaraki and I look toward the source of the bullet, and there, at the entrance to the U.S.J, is standing Pro-Hero Gunshot with his gun aimed at Shigaraki. And so is Principal Nezu, Iida-san, and tens of other heroes. Ten bleeding hells! Gunshot doesn't stop there. He fires round after round, each bullet piercing Shigaraki. He'll die at this rate! At the same time, Number Thirteen, who miraculously found the strength to stand up again, is creating a black hole to suck Kurogiri and Shigaraki in. At the last moment, both escape into the warp gate. "For the time being, we've failed. But we'll get you next time Symbol of Peace, All Might!" are Shigaraki's parting words as he glares through the plaster hand at Sensei.
I stay in my position, on my bottom, hands and feet grasping the ground for balance. My cane and dagger are lying just a meter away. My heart is beating rapidly, and my breaths are coming out in pants. I'm asphyxiating. I'm panicking. I'm having another panic attack. What just happened? According to Shigaraki and Kurogiri, this should have worked. All for One himself approved of the plan. Weeks of planning. All Might was supposed to die today. Not Shigaraki. No, no, no. Shigaraki can't be dead. We had a deal. He has to meet his end of the deal. He'll stay alive for that. He must. I have just enough sanity to realize that while I am still invisible, my cane and knife are not.
I clutch them, spreading my quirk to hide them, and consider one last attempt at All Might's neck. After today, I can't think of him as my teacher anymore. But in front of so many Pro-Heroes, I'll get caught. My vision is starting to darken. I'm seeing solid shapes undulate. Thoroughly exhausted and agonized, I tuck my knife back and limp as far away as possible. I can see the outline of the Downpour Storm Zone curving and twisting before I collapse.
That's the last thing I see.
Note: I have copied some dialogue from one the English-translated versions of the manga. The link to the chapters are here: .online/manga/boku-no-hero-academia-chapter-19/ ; .online/manga/boku-no-hero-academia-chapter-20/