In Another's Shoes

by JKrlin

Neito Monoma would tell his friends and classmates that in the world of Quirks and Pro Heroes, he has accepted his role as a side character. In the realm of aliens and the supernatural, however, Neito is gifted an otherworldly watch that thrusts him into the center spotlight. Whether as the Phantom Thief or the Wielder of the Omnitrix, Neito vows to be an exemplary hero.

2. Well Played

THEN

SOME WEEKS AGO

Tenya Iida was bleeding, pinned to the ground by the horrid Hero Killer Stain.

Tenya couldn't move a single inch of his body.

He was going to die.

"Goodbye child," Stain said as Tenya watched the faint shadow of the killer raising his blade. "May your death bring about a better world."

Tenya could do nothing to prevent the tears from slipping down his face. "Say whatever you want to about me! You're still just a criminal who hurt my brother!"

But Stain failed to fully bring his blade down to finish Tenya. Instead, Stain turned to his side and swung his sword, cutting something that flew too fast for Tenya to see.

Tenya looked down the alley. There stood someone whose skin appeared to be composed of bulky, light green, diamond-like rock. Extending from his back were at least two similarly colored crystal shards that resembled stalagmites. On the center side of his chest was some sort of round emblem. His arms were large, perhaps of comparable size to that of All Might's, and they were stretched forward and aimed at the villain.

"The Hero Killer, I assume?" the stranger pondered as he kicked with his feet to launch himself toward Stain. The Hero Killer, as fast as the wind, jumped away as Tenya listened to the stranger smash his rock-like fist into the ground near Tenya's head. "Just want to confirm who you are. Fanatics like you have a tendency to inspire copycats, and I'd rather cut off the disease from the source tonight."

"Mon… Diamondhead," Native weakly said, the rest of his body just as unmoving as Tenya's. "Grab the kid. Get both of yourselves to safety."

Suddenly, a wave of crystal-like material matching the newcomer's skin tone rose from the floor and shrouded Native's body. More of that same crystal material was summoned around Tenya and surrounded him as well, though Tenya was still able to see through the material. It was much like looking through glass with a light green tint.

"I think I'll settle for saving you two," said the aptly named Diamondhead, "with subduing the Hero Killer as a bonus."

Stain tossed a few throwing knives at the new arrival. The brief distraction allowed Stain to bring down his sword against the crystal covering Tenya. Although most of it endured the attack, the swift and persistent hit created some notable cracks. Before a second blow could be made, Stain moved back to avoid another assault from Diamondhead, one of the rock man's hands now transformed into a large singular spike.

"Another interfering hero," Tenya heard Stain say.

"Legally, I'm a vigilante," Diamondhead said, surprising Tenya. "Morally, I think it's obvious what I am, but I'll give you a hint: I'm not the one slicing up pro heroes and high school freshmen in the midst of a villain attack."

How could the vigilante immediately tell that Tenya was of high school age? Was Tenya's performance tonight so pathetic that his amatuer state and immaturity were as clear as day?

"Did you at least send a message to other pros?" Native spoke again.

"One of those Nomus was built to kill All Might," Diamondhead said, his eyes trained squarely on Stain. "Best to assume these other ones are of comparable strength. The pros can focus on them. I can resign myself to cleaning up the scraps."

"Mon– Diamondhead! Now isn't the time to–"

"I have a duty," Stain cut in, "to kill the boy and this so-called pro. When the child chose to fight me, it guaranteed that the weaker of us would be culled. Tell me, do you believe you have the strength to prevent me from carrying out what I am required to do?"

"If you need to ask," Diamondhead began as he stretched his arms forward again and fired crystal shards from his wrists at Stain, who rapidly flung himself back and forth between the two buildings of the narrow alley to avoid being hit, "then your judgment really must be so base and simple-minded. Embarking on a sanctimonious crusade and failing to recognize the capability of your opponent."

When Stain gripped the window sill on the side of one building, Diamondhead stomped his foot on the ground, generating a crystal stalagmite directly below the Hero Killer. Stain sprung out of its way, receiving a sharp cut along his leg, though Stain remained on the move to avoid Diamondhead's continued assault of projectile crystals.

"As a vigilante," Stain called out, "you claim to be a hero regardless of the law, but is your conviction that of another glory seeker or that of a true hero?"

Diamondhead snorted. "As if the opinion of a deranged serial killer matters to me."

Soaring above Diamondhead, Stain released a rainstorm of knives. Diamondhead created a domed crystal shield to protect himself, Native, and Tenya. As Stain landed, ducking underneath the dome that Diamondhead slung at him, he said, "I once resigned myself to the moniker of vigilante, until someone helped me realize true resolve is needed to truly–"

"I don't need to hear it."

After creating another layer of crystals over Native and Tenya, Diamondhead charged at Stain. Tenya watched as they traded blows and continued their conversation.

"Society requires a purge of-"

"What it requires is more heroes."

"More real heroes."

"And it could do with less psychotic villains. Case in point," Diamondhead waved a hand toward Tenya and Native, "these two heroes could be helping deal with the Nomu attack and saving lives instead of bleeding out here in the dark. If you're such a believer in heroics, why aren't you helping?"

"I never claimed to be a hero. I aim to find and cultivate true heroes. My actions will incite the necessary change our society sorely needs."

Stain licked at a piece of crystal that had broken off from a larger shard. He grimaced as Diamondhead punched the ground, sending a directed wave of shards sprouting up from the floor down the alleyway toward the villain. The move was reminiscent of Todoroki summoning forth a line of sharpened ice at an opponent.

Sidestepping the flow of crystals, Stain asked, "You don't bleed normally, do you?"

"And those aren't normal blades, are they?"

Unexpectedly, Stain forewent the evasion, ending his attempts at maintaining his distance from Dimaondhead. Now he lunged directly at the vigilante.

Diamondhead raised one arm that summoned a circular crystal shield. Stain's sword embedded itself in the rock but could not penetrate past it to hit the rock vigilante on the other side. With his other arm, Diamondhead formed a sharp spike and clawed it at Stain.

However, although Stain was stabbed in the shoulder, he managed to… to plunge one of his daggers into Diamondhead's mouth.

Gasping, Diamondhead backed away, sending another torrent of crystal shards in front of him. Stain jumped over it all, over Diamondhead, and Tenya had a perfect view of the Hero Killer closing in on him and Native. Blood gushed in the air, flowing from Stain's shoulder wound as he reached behind him and pulled out two more knives to attack them with.

Tenya's instincts screamed at him to move, but he still couldn't. He was completely useless. Useless.

And then, another unexpected event occurred.

Midoriya appeared from out of nowhere, flickers of green lightning following him, and slugged a solid punch across Stain's face.

Flames spawned from Todoroki's Quirk reached far enough to singe Stain's hands, causing him to drop his blades as the force from Midoriya's punch sent him away. A layer of ice followed after Stain, pushing him even further back.

"Midoriya?!" Tenya exclaimed. "Todoroki?!" How on earth–

"Don't worry, Iida," Midoriya said, his determination shining through. "We're here to save you."

He quickly elaborated; in the midst of dealing with the terror of the Nomu, Midoriya had overhead Manual and deduced that Tenya had gone to search for the Hero Killer. Midoriya had encountered Todoroki, who had been accompanying Endeavor and his agency to Hosu, and the two had set out to find Tenya together.

"Wait a second," Midoriya said, turning slightly toward Todoroki. "You're using your left–"

"Stow the gossip!" Diamondhead yelled, fallen to his knees.

Blue ice and green crystals littered the entire alley. Stain was some distance away near the end of the narrow path, wearing far more wounds than when Tenya had first encountered him tonight. As the villain seemed to be catching his breath, Diamondhead summoned more shards below himself that allowed him to slide backwards to Tenya and the rest. The vigilante was coughing, obviously still struck by Stain's very unusual yet most effective move against him thus far.

"Make yourselves useful and knock this guy down a peg!" Diamondhead ordered as he created another defensive wall of crystals. With Stain rushing in again, Todoroki and Midoriya had no choice but to comply, dashing over the wall to meet Stain's charge with either fists, flames, or ice.

Diamondhead was still choking and struggling to breathe.

"What's wrong?" Native asked.

"Not sure," Diamondhead coughed out, continuing to summon protective barriers around them that were repeatedly attacked and chopped up by Stain when the villain wasn't being preoccupied by Tenya's classmates. "Not a normal knife. It's–It's burning my insides or something."

"It's what?!"

"It's alright, mostly. I'm made of crystals inside, too. Just," Diamondhead sputtered out another fit of coughs, "just give me a minute."

In spite of whatever damage Stain had done, Tenya was able to see that Diamondhead would not submit. He wouldn't stop fighting.

Midoriya received a wound on his arm. He became paralyzed like Tenya, but he warned Todoroki that Stain's Quirk must rely on the villain tasting his target's blood. Tenya, Native, and even Diamondhead had failed to warn Midoriya and Todoroki of this. Tenya internally kicked himself for this potentially lethal oversight.

Todoroki received wounds along his arm, courtesy of a pair of daggers thrown by Stain. Regardless, both Todoroki's flames and ice did not relent, still forcing Stain to stay on the move without a chance to stop and think.

All of a sudden, Midoriya was moving again. Stain's Quirk only lasts for so long on certain blood types, Midoriya speculated aloud as he rejoined the fight.

Native beckoned for Diamondhead to grab the pro hero's flare gun, stored on his belt hidden by fabric. Stain had destroyed Native's phone and spare communication device, but since the flare gun had been overlooked, Diamondhead obliged and fired a ball of fire into the sky, hopefully helping the local heroes sooner converge at their position.

Tenya watched all of this unfold right in front of him.

And felt nothing but shame at his own inaction.

"Stop it," he said. Too weak-sounding or too far away for Todoroki or Midiorya to hear, it seemed. Their attention was entirely on Stain, but Diamondhead did glance at Tenya. "His fight is with me," Tenya insisted. "I inherited my brother's name. I'm the one who should stop him. The Hero Killer is mine!"

Of all the things Tenya expected the vigilante to respond to him with, he hadn't quite expected a scoff. "Well, that's hardly a heroic thing to do."

"You don't understand. None of you do. I took the name Ingenium to… avenge my brother. He deserves justice. A hero like Ingenium should be able to achieve that! I should be able to accomplish that on my own!"

"It's a hero's job to save people from maniacs like the Hero Killer, not to let deranged murderers have their way. Or to let misguided children get themselves killed on some half-baked quest for revenge."

Native let out an audible groan, wincing. "Diamondhead," he said in a warning tone. "Please."

The vigilante turned his back to Tenya. "I won't claim to fully understand the line between vengeance and justice," Diamondhead said, "so I can't completely empathize with your plight. I can only tell you that protecting people and defeating villains go hand-in-hand. Even you, the hero, are among those people. Because if you die, even if you sacrifice yourself and actually defeat the villain in the process, your death will mean there's one less hero in the world."

Tenya's thoughts went to Tensei, of his scars and injuries. He hadn't died, but his fight against Stain hadn't saved anyone. "I wanted to make things right for him, my hero," Tenya murmured. "He is still alive, yet he can't be a hero anymore."

"Obviously not. He still can be," said Diamondhead. Tenya blinked and stared at the crystals pointing out from the vigilante's back. "Ingenium can't be a hero? I don't have any siblings either, but I do have people I would call family. They're no pros, and they'll never stop being my heroes regardless. Neither will your brother for you, I'm sure. If you've taken his name, Ingenium, then you better put more effort in honoring it."

Listening to the vigilante's words… He wasn't wrong, Tenya admitted. If Tensei saw him now...

Diamondhead made an odd noise that Tenya couldn't quite make out. Then he realized what it was as a knife dropped down on the ground in front of Diamondhead. As the vigilante continued to cough and spit, Tenya felt control of his body return. Though unsteady, though still bleeding, Tenya steeled his nerves and managed to push himself to his feet.

"You can stand now?" Diamondhead asked. He didn't wait for an answer. "Good. Is your Quirk still usable? Can you fight?"

Tenya watched as Todoroki's ice sandwiched Stain against a layer of Diamondhead's crystals. As Stain cut through the ice to free himself, Midoriya arrived below the villain and punched him in the gut, sending him higher than the surrounding buildings. Then Midoriya moved back to allow Todoroki to unleash fire that traveled up the wall and chased after Stain. Stain looked as if he had run out of throwing knives, but he threw a broken sword with its jagged edge down at Todoroki, forcing himself to switch to releasing ice to shield himself.

"I can," Tenya told Diamondhead. His engines puffed out smoke. Yes, his Quirk was still usable. He could still fight.

"Time your moves with the kid with the broccoli hair," Diamondhead said. Tenya presumed he meant Midoriya. "He'll come in from the opposite side of the Hero Killer, the only side he can. You approach him from this direction. Stain will be distracted by the son of Endeavor. Then I stun the Killer, so that you and broccoli hair can land your hits."

But Diamondhead's crystal generation didn't seem as fast as Todoroki's ice half of his Quirk, so wouldn't Stain, still keeping up a fair amount with his speed and agility, avoid whatever stunning move Diamondhead had in mind? Tenya wanted to get a good hit in, to finally contribute something meaningful to this fight, but he has already made terrible mistakes tonight. He couldn't go in half-cocked again.

Before Tenya could voice his doubts, Diamondhead gestured with the hand still dripping with Stain's blood taken from the villain's shoulder wound. "Now's the time. Go, go!"

Stain held more daggers in his hands and was running vertically down a building, straight for Todoroki. In the distance, the air around Midoriya was crackling with more flashes of emerald lightning, his own skin glowing a bright hue. He was preparing for another Quirk-powered punch.

Tenya saw his moment. He seized it. He moved.

In a single, nearly unnoticeable moment of time, Tenya perceived Stain's body freezing during his run down the wall. Tenya couldn't see where exactly Diamondhead summoned the crystal shards to restrain the villain, but he did notice Stain's red eyes dart toward the vigilante in great surprise.

In the moment after, Tenya and Midoriya landed their attacks on Stain: a kick and a punch, holding nothing back.

They all fell down. Assisted by Todoroki, Tenya and Midoriya slid down on a slide made of ice to land safely. Meanwhile, Stain was entrapped in a makeshift ice cage.

Stain didn't resist. He stopped moving entirely.

The heroes won. The criminal lost.

The next few minutes were mostly a blur for Tenya. Native was able to move again. Included among Native's equipment was rope, which was tied around Stain after he was deprived of the remaining blades still on him. Everyone's wounds were treated and bandaged as much as Native's medical supplies allowed, except for Diamondhead who claimed his body would regenerate and heal its wounds naturally.

While Todoroki patted down Stain again for more weapons as a precaution, and Midoriya sat down to recover from the extended usage of his Quirk, Tenya's attention was drawn to Diamondhead and Native. The two were speaking to one another in quiet whispers. Diamondhead was holding the knife he had spat out and eyeing it intently. The grayish steel had an almost crimson glow to it.

"This material..." Tenya could hear Diamondhead murmur. "I think I recognize it. Not quite the medieval style, but it's the same stock they've used before."

"Are you sure?" Native asked. "I know there's word of them operating in Japan, but I don't see the Hero Killer associating himself with that lot."

"Could be surplus on the black market, or a knight gone rogue trying to make a quick buck. Maybe they got in Stain's way and he retaliated, taking the spoils. I recognized the, uh, taste, too."

"The… The taste of the knife? You mean from one of your other forms?"

"Yeah." Diamondhead gave a few practice swings with the knife. By doing so, he finally realized that Tenya was standing behind him.

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop," Tenya said quickly.

He looked between the pair. Tenya was aware of instances in which pro heroes and vigilantes cooperated with each other long-term, not just because of immediate circumstances like tonight. It only made sense for a hero to make connections and contacts with a variety of criminals, whether they were malicious or benevelot or somewhere in between. In any case, Tenya had no desire to interfere with Native's investigation or criticize his association with a vigilante, least of all this vigilante.

"I just wanted to thank you again, Diamondhead, for saving us from Stain." With each heartbeat that resounded in his chest, Tenya could feel the guilt threaten to overwhelm again. "I was foolish, and I–"

"You're grateful," Diamondhead interrupted, handing Native Stain's atypical blade. "I get it. You throw yourself into a deadly situation, thinking you can take on whatever's thrown your way, only to get your butt pulled out of the fire by a hero." Diamondhead regarded Tenya, namely at the engines on his legs. "You've got a speed-based Quirk, right?"

"Correct, sir!"

Diamondhead didn't have natural human lips, but Tenya suspected he was smirking now. The vigilante patted him on the shoulder. "I'd usually like to make a jibe about learning how to walk before your run, to be able to think as fast as you can sprint, that sort of thing. But for you, I'll tell you this: keep moving forward, and maybe one day you'll be more than just a walking prop for a support gear advertisement."

For a moment, Tenya had no idea what he was talking about. Then, Tenya recalled his match against Mei Hatsume during the Sports Festival. While that had been an embarrassing event, Tenya was more bemused than insulted by Diamondhead's words.

Releasing his hand from Tenya, Diamonhead created a pillar of crystals that rose beneath him, raising him up just high enough to allow him to hop onto the roof of an adjacent building. Red light began flashing around him, accompanied by some sort of timer beeping, before Diamondhead was no longer in sight. Tenya could hear the rumble of stomping feet as he ran away, along with the sound of engines. Police cars must be approaching, accompanying the heroes that Tenya now saw were arriving from the street and appearing at the end of the alley.

"Sorry about him," Native told Tenya, offering him a sympathetic grin. "I've only known… Diamondhead for a short while. He can be a little difficult to work with, but his heart is in the right place, like I'm sure yours and your friends' are, too."

Tenya simply nodded. Vigilantes usually remained in single neighborhoods and wards, so unless Tenya was obligated to return to Hosu for whatever reason, he doubted he would ever meet Diamondhead again.

"What are you doing here, boy?!" suddenly said an elderly man's voice. Tenya saw such a man of short stature in hero garb stomp his feet against Midoriya's face. He must be the hero Midoriya was interning under. "I didn't know what to expect when I saw that flare, but I'm glad you're not dead, at least."

But they could have died. All of them.

Tenya almost did die, if not for Diamondhead stepping in. And then came Midoriya and Todoroki.

They all found the strength and mustered the resolve, in spite of Tenya's careless mistakes, to defeat the Hero Killer.

Privately, Tenya reaffirmed his resolve to become a worthy successor to the Ingenium name.

If a vigilante of all people managed to stay true to the core values of a hero, then Ingenium will have to set the better example in order to bring noble characters like Diamondhead to the right side of the law fully, and to keep the heartless criminals cut from the same cloth as Stain from claiming any more victims. Doing any less would make him less of a hero, and this world deserved better than that.

---

NOW

"Excuse me!" Tenya said, raising his hand as he felt a bead of sweat roll down the side of his face. "We don't know how many villains there are. Shouldn't we have as many fighters in play as possible?"

Mineta gave him an incredulous look. "You can't seriously want to face the bad guys."

"Iida gets it," said Kirishima. "Even Mr. Aizawa said to fight."

Despite their pleas, Vlad King remained steadfast. "Only for self-defense. He meant the students in the woods. The rest of you are to remain here."

Tenya kept himself from giving another objection. The more he thought about it, the more that he could see the sound logic in keeping them here. Though they were heroes-in-training already with firsthand experience with combating villains (except for Monoma to Tenya's knowledge, unless he had encounters during his internship), the students themselves were now the primary targets instead of the pros. Better to keep as many of the targets of this attack out of the field of play if it could be helped.

Tenya still remembered Hosu. Remembered Diamondhead saving him. Their party of four defeating Stain. Stain saving Midoriya and proclaiming his will to the world before his arrest. Being both praised and reprimanded by the police chief.

Tenya had acted foolishly that day. Tonight, he had to be smarter about this. He had to be better. He must act only when necessary, and right now, he had to trust the judgment of the true heroes, their teachers and the Pussycats.

As the class representative, Tenya took another head count of his fellow students. Ojiro, Koda, and Mineta were still beside him. Kirishima was still appealing to Vlad King near the door to allow them to help fight the villains. Ashido was trying to calm him down. Kaminari, Sero, and Sato were on their feet beside their desks, looking just as pensive as the rest of them.

Monoma from Class B was also standing, still carrying himself with an air of self-assurance despite the circumstances. He was near one of the windows and appeared to be trying to glimpse outside, though the glass had been tinted and darkened according to the Pussycats' designs in this state of emergency. Although not a fortress per se, the pro hero team had put in some defenses and deterrents against intruders at the main building of the training camp.

"Stay away from the windows, Monoma," Vlad King spoke. Monoma visibly cringed when his name was called. "In fact, we should barricade them as a precaution. I'll watch the doors."

Vlad King nodded at Tenya. He returned the motion. As class representative, he was well-suited to oversee the barricading of the classroom, just as they had done during the prerequisite drill at UA. Some of the class had carelessly played with their phones or had been talking too loudly during the drill, but he was sure no one would practice such rebellious insubordination now.

Before Tenya could begin instructing everyone, however, all of their attention was drawn to the door behind Vlad King. Someone was trying to turn the knob.

The door suddenly exploded. Blue flames rapidly raced into the classroom. Vlad King grabbed both Ashido and Kirishima and shoved them toward the rest of the students.

"Everyone! Get back!" Tenya shouted, however fruitless as the warning may have been since they were all already doing just that. Desks and chairs were thrown around by the force of the invading flames. Crowding together, Vlad King protectively held up his arms in front of them.

As the blue fire died down, in sauntered someone who just had to be a villain: a young man with patches of purple-colored burnt skin across his face and arms. Staples were placed along the edges between his burn scars and his normal skin.

When Vlad King pounced at the villain, there was another explosion. One without fire, but one of the windows burst open, as did part of the wall, as another villain entered the facility. This one was dwarfed the first, bearing multiple arms protruding from his giant upper body. On the ends of most of these arms were chainsaws. And his face, his head – the top of his brain was visible, so much like the various Nomu that have previously wrought terror elsewhere in Japan.

This chainsaw Nomu tackled Vlad King. Although the hero successfully released a fair amount of hardened blood with his Quirk to shield himself, the Nomu continued onward past the first villain and thrust Vlad King into the hall and further into the building. Tenya and the students were left alone with the fire villain.

More blue flames appeared along his arm. The scarred man coldly smiled at them.

Tenya readied his engines. In the absence of Vlad King or any of the other proes, now was the time to act.

But before Tenya could charge and kick the villain's arm so that his flames would be sent to the ceiling instead of at Tenya's peers, he heard the sound of a slap and Kirsihima letting out a surprised yelp. Then Tenya received his own slap on his temple. It was strong enough to push his glasses off his face, but Tenya's eyes were still able to make out Monoma stepping in front of him.

Monoma had just copied their Quirks. Engines appeared on his calves, and his arms had hardened into the same pattern as Kirishima's Quirk. Without hesitation, Monoma stepped into the blue blaze unleashed by the villain.

Silently commending Monoma's swiftness and quick thinking, Tenya moved and ran around the inferno. He had to partially shield his eyes due to the intensity of the fire, but he successfully positioned himself immediately behind the villain. Thus, Tenya dug his leg into the villain's spine. For good measure, Tenya followed through with the spinning motion of his attack and landed a second kick on the villain's neck.

With that follow-up hit, Tenya felt his leg make a full arc in front of him rather than meeting resistance when making contact with the villain. He widened his eyes. Some sort of brown muddy residue stained his leg, and that same mud-like substance in the silhouette of a human now stood and fell where the villain had been. This was the same material that Mr. Aizawa had been standing over at the front of the building when Tenya and some of the other students had arrived here. Was this the doing of a villainous Quirk able to make duplicates of other individuals?

As the flashing fires faded, Tenya could see someone whose hands were clutching the air where the villain's face would have been. That someone was a figure who looked as if he was composed of fiery yellowish energy with a cracked red-hot magma outer shell. His entire head was a fluttering flame surrounding a face with a magma-like texture. More fire spewed from his shoulders, and he wore some evidently heat-resistant, skin-tight black trouers which mimicked the cracked lava pattern. On his face was an expression of confusion.

"Guess he was made of weaker stuff," said the new fire-based arrival, almost shrugging.

"Another villain?!" screamed Mineta.

"No," Tenya corrected. He stared at the white and gray hourglass symbol on the stranger's waist like it was a belt buckle. "You're one of those American vigilantes!"

He had put some research into the emblem Diamondhead had worn. Various vigilantes with mutation-type Quirks and bearing that insignia had debuted in America over a year ago. Collectively entitled the Hourglass Vigilantes by the media, they had begun making regular appearances in Japan a few months afterward. Diamondhead was a member of this group, and so must this vigilante.

"You are Heatblast," Tenya noted. Each vigilante had often made it a point to provide their name to the public whenever they appeared. They clearly wanted to be known unequivocally as unsanctioned public servants. "You must be here to assist us in pushing back against these villains!"

"Where's Monoma?" Tenya heard Sato ask.

"He's safe," said Heatblast. He turned to the others, holding up his hands in a calming gesture, though Tenya knew that Heatblast could unleash his namesake from his palms very easily. "I pulled him out in the hall, told him to go find a first aid kit in case anyone gets hurt."

"You told him what?" Ojiro asked with suspicion. "During the second or two when that villain launched his fire and then melted in your hands?"

Well, Monoma did copy Tenya's Quirk, so he theoretically could have made a quick exit.

"Where'd you even come from?" Kirshima added, his hardening Quirk fully active. "How do we know you're not with the villains? No one except the pros are supposed to know we're here!"

Tenya sped into defense for Heatblast. "This man may be a criminal," Tenya admitted, ignoring the frown Heatblast gave him, "but he and his lot have been known to do nothing but conduct heroic deeds! In the middle of this crisis, I must advocate that we accept Heatblast's support!"

"I'd take the offer."

It was neither Tenya, Heatblast, nor the other students who spoke those words.

They all turned to the hole in the wall the Nomu had made. Standing in the middle of it was a boy who couldn't be any older than Tenya, most likely a year or two younger. He was wearing a black middle school uniform and teal gloves. He had a black eye and a bloody bruise along his cheekbone. Another villain, Tenya concluded, because held against his chest was an even younger boy – Mandalay's nephew, Kota, his lips shivering and his face covered with tears.

In the villain's other hand was a revolver.

"Introductions might be in order," the villain said with a pained frown. "I'm Mustard. This kid's name is Kota, right? The Pussycat's grandson or whatever." His arm firmly placed over Kota's shoulders and around his throat, Mustard pressed the gun against the boy's head. The child had already been crying, and now the tears and shaking worsened considerably.

"Let him go!" Tenya shouted. Every instinct in him screamed for action, but he couldn't risk Kota getting hurt by that cowardly slime of a villain.

"I didn't mean to put the kid in the line of fire," Mustard said, "but I had to improvise. If Eraserhead hadn't broke my helmet–"

Mustard was silenced by the binding cloth of Mr. Aizawa's capture weapon. At the same time, the cloth wrapped around the barrel of Mustard's gun. The young villain was pulled outside, releasing Kota. Tenya dashed forward and caught the boy in his arms. Kota hugged him tightly and buried his face into Tenya's chest, crying without abandon.

"Everything's going to be alright," Tenya said, trying to placate him.

Someone clutched Tenya's shoulder and pulled him backwards. He watched as Heatblast stepped in front of him. The vigilante raised a hand forward and let out a stream of fire from his palm. However, Heatblast abruptly ceased his flames as Tenya saw what looked like some sort of compact spinning objects embed themselves into the vigilante's upper arm. From his brief glance, Tenya identified them as shuriken. They glowed an electrifying yellow, a different shade than that of Heatblast's bodily energy.

"You again," Heatblast muttered, to someone Tenya couldn't see. The humanoid mass of fire winced as he tore out the shuriken off his arm and tossed them away. Heatblast said to the students, "Keep yourselves and the kid safe," before leaving the classroom and unleashing further flames at a target shrouded by the fire.

Moving quickly, Tenya had Kota be watched carefully over by Koda and Sato, the two largest of their group and the most capable to easily shield Kota from any potential attacks, except for of course Kirishima. Tenya requested they place themselves in the corner of the room farthest away from the broken or improvised entrances into the classroom. Mineta and Ojiro stood guard in support of them close by. Tenya asked Ashido and Kaminari to keep watch by the door in the hall, for Monoma, Vlad King, or the Nomu. At the broken wall, Tenya was accompanied by Sero and Kirisihima to check on Heatblast and for any sign of more villains or straggling students.

In the distance, Mr. Aizawa was moving fast across the empty field, the strands of his capture weapon moving wildly at his opponent. That foe was adorned head-to-toe in maroon armor; a villain, of course, who threw more shuriken at the underground hero. The villain was quite the athletic acrobat, moving just as fast as Mr. Aizawa. If Tenya was reading the situation correctly, then he would say that Mr. Aizawa was trying to maintain his distance while using his capture weapon to subdue the villain, but whenever the strands of modified cloth came close, the villain simply cut them apart.

The armored villain was wielding a sword, glowing the same red shine as the knife Stain had used to nearly incapacitate Diamondhead.

Was this villain somehow related to the Hero Killer? To whatever case that Native and DIamondhead had been investigating?

Speaking of the vigilante, Tenya could see his fiery compartriot holding up Mustard by the back of his shirt. Heatblast generated a small but nigh blinding swirl of fire in his other hand, holding it near Mustard's bruised face. The revolver was shattered into two pieces on the ground nearby. A little farther away was what looked like two halves of a metallic mask with gas filters attached to them.

"Tell me, child," Heatblast was saying, "are you affiliated with the villains or with the Red Knight?"

"He's called the Forever Ninja. And child? Don't act so high and mighty just because you're taller in that form."

Though Heatblast lacked eyebrows, he formed a countenance equivalent to narrowing his eyes. "The Knights, then. Does that make you some sort of squire? On loan with your so-called ninja to the villains?"

Mustard grinned, its shape crooked because of his injuries, and cringed in pain from the change in expression. "It makes me one of the few villains who know your secret. It's a wonder how none of your heroes outside the know have never come close to the truth."

Heatblast held his burning hand closer to Mustard's face. "Don't be smart now."

"Do you really think you have the guts to do something more permanent to me, hero?"

"I don't know," said the vigilante, and despite Tenya's earlier insistence on trusting him, he couldn't tell now whether or not Heatblast was only bluffing. Yet he must be, a part of Tenya reiterated. "Let's find out."

Tenya then heard Kaminari and Ashido simultaneously screech in fright. "Big muscled villain!" Kaminari shouted as he and Ashido scrambled away from the door frame. "Chainsaws everywhere! Coming at us!"

On cue, the Chainsaw Nomu barreled back into the classroom, charging on a course that prompted Sero to send his tape around Kirishima to pull him out of the way. Tenya stepped outside of the building to avoid getting caught in the monster's path.

Heatblast threw Mustard to the side. Firing flames from his feet, Heatblast moved to fly over the Nomu, but the creature was quick enough to grab his ankles, strong enough to resist the fire blown into his face and his exposed brain, and agile enough to smash Heatblast down to the ground. Fortunately, Heatblast was still able to release another forceful burst of fire that launched the Nomu into the air.

Tenya could see Mustard cover his lower face with a hand and stretch out an arm toward the fallen Heatblast. Purple gas seeped out of his sleeve, the same gas that had begun spreading around the test of courage area of the forest. This was the young villain's Quirk, Tenya assumed. Since Tenya was already outside and had the villain within sight, he scrambled across the field to deliver a knockout kick at Mustard.

He was only able to cover half the distance when the Forever Ninja, in spite of his sword and one arm becoming entangled in Mr. Aizawa's capture weapon, threw a small hand-sized object directly along Tenya's path. As he abruptly turned to avoid the foreign object, it suddenly exploded.

Not with fragmentation or fire, but with light and lightning. Some sort of flashbang and electricity-based grenade, and one with a wide range as it both briefly blinded Tenya and shocked his legs enough to cause him to trip and fall onto his front. If only Kaminari was out here to absorb the damage or power through its ill effects.

Squinting, Tenya observed Mustard covering his own eyes but otherwise unaffected by the electric shocks. Was he wearing insulated shoes or some other protection? Tenya tried to continue his run but found himself unable to get up, relegated to only being able to flinch his limbs as everything shook with static. Heatblast was on his feet, but his entire body was shaking. The grenade had obviously affected him, too.

"Where did you get that?" Heatblast cried out.

The hourglass emblem on Heatblast's waist began blinking a red color.

"Lots of spare parts you and your villains left behind in America," Mustard said. The chainsaw Nomu landed on the ground and entrapped Heatblast in a bear hug. "They've jury-rigged more than a few useful tools and toys."

There was a burst of brilliant red light.

The magma vigilante was gone. In his place trapped by the Nomu's arms was Neito Monoma.

What just happened? Did Monoma copy the real Heatblast's Quirk and transformed to resemble him? But then where was the true vigilante?

Unless Monoma somehow perhaps transformed directly into that fiery form without using his Copy Quirk? Was Monoma a member of the American vigilante group?

"Well played," Monoma said with his signature smirk before a violet mist began to appear around him. Evidently, Monoma had copied Mustard's Quirk and was now releasing a cloud of gas from his person. The purple clouds shrouded both Monoma and the Nomu.

However, the influx of gas quickly disappeared. When it did, it revealed an unconscious Monoma, his slack body still held in the Nomu's arms.

Mustard snickered. "Idiot," he said.

His mind racing, Tenya assumed that the villain wasn't immune to the adverse effects of his own Quirk. That was why Mustard had kept a gas mask as part of his own support gear. So when Monoma copied and utilized the Quirk, he simply knocked himself out. The Nomu's headgear must have been customized to not allow the gas to affect him, or he had some other immunity.

The young villain pressed a finger against the side of his head. "Vanguard Action Squad," he said, using an earpiece. "Still a stupid name, but the Nomu's got one unconsious blond ready for delivery. We'll make our way to the retrieval point."

So they weren't just targeting Bakugo? Monoma was also someone they wished to capture? Was it because of Monoma's apparently secret secondary Quirk of transformation? His affiliation with the vigilantes?

"I can't see any of my gas above the treeline, so my clone's probably dead. Dabi should probably spread some more–"

Tenya felt wind pass him by as someone sprinted near him and toward the villains and Monoma. It was Vlad King, who cut Mustard off, using one punch to knock him out immediately. As the boy tumbled across the dirt, Vlad King moved to confront the Nomu. Two arms extended out from it, one with a hammer and one with a chainsaw, but only two arms appeared. As Vlad King spewed out blood around Nomu's head and hardened the fluid to completely blind the creature, Tenya spotted Mr. Aizawa in the distance staring down the Nomu.

Unfortunately, the Nomu still managed to retain his grip on the sleeping Monoma and sliced his chainsaw down to cut the tube connecting Vlad King's gauntlet to the back of his neck. Streams of blood began to flow everywhere. To make matters worse, the marooned-armored acrobat sent more throwing stars at Aizawa, causing him to cut off his erasure of the Nomu's Quirk.

Being the pro that he was, Vlad King managed to halt the excess release of his own blood and used what had come out to create more restraints on the Nomu's body. However, the Nomu spawned more chainsaw arms that busied themselves with either breaking the makeshift restraints put on him or with breaking Vlad King himself. The teacher evaded the attacks as best he could, but it was clear he was hesitant to take a more aggressive stance in the fight lest Monoma, still held in the Nomu's normal arms, be caught in the crossfire.

Tenya heard his name be called. He turned his head to see Kaminari and Kirishima jogging to him. Kirishima slid across the dirt into a defensive stance in front of Tenya. Kaminari kneeled at Tenya's side. He looked over him for any visible injuries and tried coaxing him to move.

Tenya tried to speak or move the rest of his body, but he couldn't. His lips only twitched.

Again, Tenya realized that again, he was useless.

Before long, while Tenya was still under the effects of an electricity-induced paralysis, a different kind of purple cloud made an appearance. It was a dark fog that spawned over Mustard's unmoving body. It wasn't Mustard's Quirk this time. It was a fog generated by the League of Villains' portal warping member, the one that had been part of the attack at the USJ. These villains must be trying to escape directly from here instead of rendezvousing at their extraction point.

The Forever Ninja threw another grenade – no, multiple grenades. This time, real explosions accompanied the flashes of light. Tenya could feel the ground quake. Kirishima stood steadfast against the shock, keeping the fire and chunks of the ground from hitting Tenya and Kaminari. Aizawa used his capture weapon much like Sero would, latching onto a distant tree to pull himself out of the range of the explosions. Vlad King was too close, so he shielded himself in a sphere of hardened blood.

By the time the light faded and the explosions ceased, nothing more could be done.

The Forever Ninja, the chainsaw Nomu, Mustard, and Monoma were all gone.