"Ayatsuru!''

Ayatsuru turned at the sound of his name. Below him was that blue-haired boy with the engine legs. Iida, wasn't that his name? The brother of Ingenium?

He hopped down from the rooftop, slowing before he hit the ground, then dropped to the street from just a few feet up.

"I don't think he'd be looking for a fight, so then it's not actually him, is it? It's you," Ayatsuru said, arms folded.

Iida made finger guns at him. "Got it in one!"

Ayatsuru sighed. "What did you want me for?"

"Don't know how to take him out," Iida pouted.

Ayatsuru turned away. "You know what the rules say. Can't help each other."

"Oh come on! If you just happened to see one of the other side and took him out, and then later it turned out that I was using him, no one would say anything, right?"

"They wouldn't, definitely, but as it happens that is not what happened, and I won't pretend that was it."

"You're no fun!"

"I'm plenty fun. Just not when it comes to things like this. Now either take off that body or keep using him."

"I can't do it without letting him go! And I want to have someone down on my name!"

Ayatsuru shrugged. "Knock yourself out."

And with that, he blasted off, trailing yellow behind him.

Iida looked thoughtful. "Knock yourself out…"

=0=

"Sero!" Shoji whispered. Sero looked his way.

"He's coming! Get ready!"

Sero nodded, and signalled to Sato and Aoyama to move into position.

Shoji kept wary of Fukusei moving their way as the two followed suit.

"My, my," said a voice from behind him. He whirled, but there was nothing there.

"Oh, don't fret," came the voice again. It was unmistakably Fukusei's, but… Shoji could still sense him farther away.

"You know ventriloquism? Think of this as the Plus Ultra version of that," Fukusei told him. "You've gone to all this trouble of setting up a trap… I suppose I might as well oblige, yes?"

Shoji breathed out. He may have known he was walking into a trap, but that didn't mean he was any better prepared for it other than being wary. He nodded to himself. This changed nothing.

Fukusei walked onto the road in front of them. He smiled at them.

"Get on with it."

Sero flung out his arms. A spiderweb of tape wrapped around Fukusei and he was dragged forward three steps, then stopped. Sero strained, but couldn't get him to move any more.

"What's happening?" Shoji whispered urgently.

"He's heavier," Sero gasped, a light sheen of perspiration visible on his brow. "He was fine just now, but it's like he weighs a ton!"

Shoji looked at Fukusei. The ground beneath his feet had cracked, and it could have been Shoji's imagination, but it looked somewhat dented.

He pointed at Sato. He took the hint and walked forward, pouring sachets of sugar into his mouth as he came. His face changed as he came, and he bulked up, now a towering mass of muscle. There was no way Fukusei wasn't reconsidering some things right now.

Sato roared, and launched himself forward with a punch.

His fist hit Fukusei's face, and stopped.

Fukusei smiled at him from under those knuckles, and then Sero's tape started melting off him.

"Aoyama!"

"Oui!"

Aoyama posed, and glittering blue burst from his navel, speeding at Fukusei as Sato stepped back, wringing his hand.

It exploded in a flash of bright sparks, splitting around him and continuing as many individual streams of light.

Aoyama cut off the laser with a pained expression and doubled over.

"Thanks," Fukusei remarked casually. He picked a piece of melted tape off his sleeve and flicked it away. "Really saved me the trouble of doing it all myself there."

Sato leapt at him with a flurry of blows ready.

Fukusei darted underneath all of them and delivered a single strike to the chest.

Sato flew back, smashing through a concrete wall.

"Well?" Fukusei asked, a haunting smile on his face.

"Are we ready to play?" he whispered.

Shoji swallowed, acutely aware of the action.

Fukusei stamped.

The ground surged forward in a wave, concrete cracking as it warped to reveal electric blue light underneath. Shoji, too slow to move, was flung away. Sero, at least, had managed to grapple to safety. Aoyama, with his stomach ache, probably wouldn't be able to avoid it.

Shoji oofed, gasping as Aoyama landed on top of him.

Sato staggered out of the hole he'd made and raced at Fukusei.

Fukusei blurred.

Sato was crushed against a wall with Fukusei's gloved hands against his face.

"Hmm," Fukusei said. "Hang on a minute."

He took his hand away and removed the glove, then put it back. Sato lost consciousness, and Fukusei took his hand away, letting him fall.

Pink mist drifted through the air.

Midnight's quirk.

Shoji shoved Aoyama off him, and got to his feet. Tape descended from the sky and yanked Fukusei off his feet. Shoji watched as Fukusei disappeared over a rooftop. He looked to be enjoying it.

One shockwave later, Sero dropped screaming from above.

Shoji scrambled to catch him, but right before he hit the ground he jerked back, hovering.

Then fell on the floor.

Shoji looked back up. Fukusei hovered above at the roof level, bare hand outstretched. He still clutched the glove in his other hand. He arced downward, and hit the road with enough force to make a crater. A blast of wind hit Shoji, not enough to bowl him over, but it still made him take a couple of steps back.

Sero got up, and aimed. Fukusei flashed under the expelled tape, spinning, and delivered an impressive roundhouse kick. To the air.

Shoji would have been more impressed if the kick had actually landed.

Fukusei snapped his fingers.

A violent burst of wind exploded in their direction, and they all flew backwards under the onslaught, skidding in the street. Shoji gasped as his arms slid across the rough surface and grew immediately hot and painful. Fukusei followed them slowly, calmly. He walked with such leisure.

As he neared, Shoji was painfully aware of the fact that he hadn't even broken a sweat.

"How'd you like that?" he said cheerfully. "The kick had all that in it, but I thought come on, let's be surprising, like, you kick in the air and there's all the blowing people away and stuff? That's so obvious, it feels like you're an All Might fan. So nah, just froze it there for a second, then released it. The snapping was just for show, to be honest."

Shoji looked up at him, bunching all his arms together and extended them, putting fists at the end. He swung, whapping Fukusei from a few meters away. Fukusei, taken by surprise, almost toppled under the blow, but stayed upright, bent over but managing to keep his balance on one leg, arms wheeling to throw his weight elsewhere.

Aoyama took advantage of the momentary vulnerability to fire a laser, redirected by his support gear out through the elbows. Both beams hit Fukusei directly in the eyes and he fell back.

Sero took that opportunity to wrap Fukusei in tape and swing him into a building. Shoji hoped that would be enough to knock him out.

Fukusei slammed into the wall, making a Fukusei shaped dent.

The tape caught on fire. The flames raced downwards over the outstretched white lines to Sero, who quickly cut them off and hurried backwards.

Fukusei got rid of the rest of the tape with an explosion of flames, which enveloped him in a ball of orange-red. He hovered there like a god of fire, magnificent in his burning glory.

As Fukusei slowly touched down, the flames reached down and spread hungrily over the asphalt, turning into a lake of fire which leapt at them.

Shoji panicked and began to run backwards, slinging Aoyama on his back as he retreated. Sero reached out and was pulled up by lengths of tape, which always found something to latch on to.

The flames roared, and Shoji felt their blistering, sweltering heat.

Just as the fire caught up and Shoji began to think about giving up, they leapt at him. Shoji closed his eyes.

He opened his eyes again.

The fire was launching itself into nothingness. It darted straight at him, evaporating right before it reached any part of him. Slowly, the flames extinguished themselves, little by burning little.

"Come now," Fukusei said. "Did you really think I'd burn you?"

He looked up, to the side.

"You'd better come on down as well," he sighed, and caught the tape in one hand. He pulled, hard, and Sero toppled down, yelling.

Fukusei reached out, and Sero slowed, then dropped.

Fukusei raised his hand to the air, then brought his closed fist down.

Shoji gasped and fell to his knees, feeling like Aoyama would fall through him at any second.

Weight.

Crushing weight.

He felt so much heavier than before. It was like he'd been possessed by the spirit of an entire mountain range. Instead of shouldering the rather light weight of Aoyama now, he was burdened with a planet's worth of flesh. It was a wonder they didn't fall through the ground to consumed by the core of the earth.

He was afraid of Aoyama's weight puncturing his frail body, leaving him dead.

"Sorry, boys," Fukusei remarked. "Needed you to stay still. Here, I'll just move him off you, shall I?"

It was like he grasped the air with both hands, straining, and Aoyama moved off him with all the speed of a tectonic plate. Shoji wheezed gratefully as the weight was gradually removed. Aoyama was deposited by his side, and the road gained a new depression.

"Now then, how did it go?" Fukusei murmured to himself. Struggling to move, Shoji managed slowly to turn his head upwards, and saw Fukusei frowning with an outstretched hand.

"Ah, there we go."

Shoji woke up to see Midoriya peering at him, a greyish white tiled ceiling above him, and looked around, bewildered.