"Bakugo! Kirishima!"

Shota Aizawa was forced to watch helplessly as his two most hot headed students were swallowed by the mist before it lashed out at the rest of class 1-A faster than they could react. With his vision obscured, the pro hero focused on his immediate surroundings. He reached out and pulled the nearest students, Ochako and Mina, to his side.

"Don't move." he commanded the frightened students. His head swiveled; he listened carefully for the sound of anyone else who hadn't been transported elsewhere. Once he found what he was looking for, Shota sent his capture scarf into the mist.

"Whoah!" Mashirao and Tsuyu slid along the ground, pulled by their midsections toward the pro hero. "Aizawa-sensei!"

"Calm down. You're fine." He couldn't hear any of the others. That worried him. 'The villain with the mist… he's a transport-type. Definitely the one who got them in. If I can't hear the rest of the students, they must want to split us apart, take us down in smaller groups.'

This amount of premeditation was worrying. Shota had already figured that All Might was their goal, but the number of villains willing to pick a fight with the symbol of peace these days were slim. Did they expect to overwhelm him or was the large creature that waited in the courtyard their trump card? Probably the latter. That meant the rest of the villains were there to hold back the students. Make sure they couldn't interfere.

"A-Aizawa-sensei, the mist…"

It disappeared as quickly as it had come and left Aizawa standing at the entrance to the USJ with only the students he'd corralled and a barely breathing Thirteen. The villain himself was nowhere to be seen. Marching up the stairs was a veritable army of criminals.

'Running's not an option.' He looked back at the entrance, considering for a moment sending Ochako, Mina, Mashirao, and Tsuyu to follow Tenya and search for help. He quickly scrapped that idea. Even if they weren't openly guarding the exit, surely this 'League of Villains' had something up their sleeve. He didn't want to think about it, but the possibility that there were enemies outside of the dome was still on the table. If Tenya had been successful in leaving, the others wouldn't catch up to him, but if he'd been captured by a perimeter guard, any other students sent out would meet the same fate.

"Everything will be fine. Stay here and guard Thirteen. Remember your training. Disable any villain that makes it up the steps." Shota ordered, handing each a roll of capture tape he procured from one of his many pockets. 'Well, it seems like I don't have another choice.' He tugged at his capture scarf and looped the excess fabric around one of his palms before purposefully striding toward the stairs.

"W-Where are you going, Aizawa-sensei?" Ochako seemed to be the most nervous of the bunch he had with him. Her voice teetered on the edge of full-blown panic. Shota took one last long blink and turned back to his students with a yet unseen expression of closely concealed fury.

"I'm going to teach them a lesson."

He'd barely finished growling the words before he leapt from the first stair and into the crowd of villains marching toward the entrance.

'These ones are amateurs.' He judged; unlike the handful gathered around their leader in the courtyard, none of the villains in front of him seemed prepared for him to bring the fight to them.

Shota landed boot-first atop the villain leading the pack. Using the man's face as a springboard of sorts, he kicked off of the criminal's nose and flipped back a few steps. The criminal, nose broken and balance disoriented from the sudden impact, tumbled backwards into the crowd, tripping his compatriots in a chain reaction that cleared a line down to the bottom of the staircase.

"Watch out, this isn't one of the brats!" One villain shouted, a lanky, shaggy-haired man who then pulled his arm back as if to throw a baseball. Shota turned to face him with eyes glowing red beneath his visor and tossed a strand of capture scarf his way. The villain made as if to pitch, obviously attempting to use his quirk, but nothing came from his hand. "W-What the hell!? My quirk-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the scarf had reached him. The dense, heavy-duty cloth wrapped around the villain's shoulders and compressed his arms to his sides. The men who flanked him, thinking that they had an opportunity with Shota's hands occupied holding their compatriot in place, rushed forward with a yell.

Shota frowned. He did his best to spy who had erasable quirks out of the crowd and found significantly less than he would expect from this many gathered villains. He pushed that thought to the back of his mind, however, in order to counter the wave of enemies that charged him.

With a grunt, he yanked on his capture scarf and pulled the villain attached to the other end off his feet. Shota spun as his prisoner reached him and slackened his hold on the scarf, allowing it to unravel a bit more from his neck. A chorus of cries and grunts reached his ears as the scarf-wrapped villain was turned into an improvised flail and crashed among his peers to send the rest tumbling down the stairs.

Shota took the opportunity to blink before he took a leap down to the bottom. None of the villains' initial forces remained conscious; most lied in a small mountain on the final step created from his initial attack.

Unfortunately, they seemed only to be the vanguard. When he arrived at the bottom, Shota was met with another duo of villains. One appeared to have springs for calves, likely used for jumping great distances and increasing kicking power. The other was some sort of human-spider hybrid. Both smirked menacingly and lunged for him the moment his feet touched the ground.

"Eraserhead!" The spider-woman hissed, swiping a chitin-covered claw at the hero that he ducked under. "You can't erase our quirks! Surrender now and our leader just might let you live!"

'Generic villain lines… where did they even find these amateurs?' Shota shook his head and didn't bother with an answer. He rose with a hand on her arm after it passed over his head and pulled, lining up a punch that would have assuredly broken her nose if it weren't for the chitinous plating that covered her skin. As it stood, she reeled back with a whine, but Shota wasn't left with time to follow up. A wobbling sound behind him reminded him of his other opponent.

Shota spun and brought his arms up just in time to block a flying kick from the spring-legged villain. However, instead of his momentum being stopped, the springs in the man's calves compressed before releasing their pressure in Shota's direction. The effect was something like being hit with a hammer; the pro hero was launched to his back and stumbled along the ground until he could find his bearings.

'So I can't block him directly, then?' He should have expected as much, but there was no doubt that he would be nursing a nasty bruise before long. Shota rose to his feet and tugged at his scarf. The spider-woman circled to his left while the spring-legged man did the same on his right, obviously seeking to divide his attention. He prioritized who he decided was the more dangerous of the two and rushed to the right, catching the male villain off-guard.

The villain raised one leg and compressed the other, preparing to launch himself at Shota for a counterattack. The pro hero, however, was ready for this. He tossed his capture scarf towards his opponent, wrapping it around his outstretched leg and pulling it taught. The villain, seemingly unable to cancel the momentum of his compressed leg, launched forward.

Shota tugged at the scarf while simultaneously throwing himself to the dirt. The change in momentum sent the villain head-first into his partner, where the two impacted with a painful crack, no doubt the sound of the spider-woman's hard outer shell breaking from the sheer force.

The pro hero only stayed long enough to ensure the villainous duo was out for the count before he moved on, carving a path to the center of the courtyard and defeating any villains he ran into along the way. When finally he reached the USJ's central fountain, the rest of the villains that had previously been in the area had cleared out, leaving only two behind.

"Argh, the level boss isn't supposed to be mingling with trash mobs! What the hell do you think you're doing!?"

The leader of the so-called 'League of Villains' stomped his feet in frustration and pointed an accusatory finger towards Shota as he approached. A manic gleam shined in his visible eye. The other, along with much of his body, was covered by severed hands.

"This ends now." Shota looked warily between the leader and the hulking beast at his side. The being with tar-like skin didn't move a muscle. It stared blankly ahead as if lacking higher thought, but Shota knew that even something like that could be dangerous in its own way.

"No, no, no! It can't end yet; we haven't even seen the main character's first appearance! You're sequence-breaking!"

'Main character? Sequence-breaking? Is this all some game to him?' The man was obviously unhinged and in Shota's book that made him dangerous. The pro hero instinctively took a step back and prepared to throw his scarf. The League of Villains' leader opened his mouth in a sadistic grin.

"Oh? You want a taste of the endgame, huh? I see. I see!" He laughed maniacally and scratched at his neck. "Fine! But this boss is too high level for you, just so you know! Nomu!" As if the word were a trigger, the hulking beast beside the villain seemed to stiffen in alert. It chattered a strange noise from its beak-like mouth, but otherwise waited for a command. The League of Villains' leader bared his yellowed teeth in a bloodthirsty snarl.

"Kill!"


Izuku and Fumikage encountered little resistance on their way out of the Conflagration Zone. It seemed that whatever forces the villains were planning on sending to their area had been done entirely frontloaded, with a mere four stragglers having warped in by the time they'd reached the zone's exit.

'All four of their reinforcements had quirks, unlike the initial group that attacked us.' It hadn't made sense to Izuku at the time and he still wasn't sure he had any idea why their strongest fighters hadn't been sent in first. 'If their goal was to keep us busy, it'd make more sense to try to win the first fight outright than to wear us down.'

No new ideas came to mind, so Izuku pushed the topic out of it for the time being. His eyes took a moment to adjust once he'd opened the doors to the USJ's main thoroughfare, but when they did, they widened in surprise.

"Aizawa-sensei…"

The pro hero Eraserhead circled around the massive fountain in the courtyard's center, barely dodging ruinous blows from the Nomu that cracked the earth and kicked up clouds of dust in their wake. His right arm hung limply at his side, his goggles had been knocked from his head, and his costume was covered in dirt and tears, but the cold determination in his bloodshot eyes never faltered.

Izuku's legs tensed; every bone in his body practically begged for him to run to his teacher and help.

"Midoriya-san?" Fumikage's voice reminded him that he had more to worry about than just himself this time. Izuku took a calming breath and quickly took stock of the situation.

From their position at the Conflagration Zone's exit, he could see the pile of students that seemed to have regrouped at the USJ's entrance. At least half of class 1-A appeared to be present already. A group making their way up the stairs appeared to be Momo and Kyoka carrying an overcharged Denki between them accounted for most of the missing students. That was good. What worried him, however, was the apparent absence of Katsuki and-

"Izukun!" The subject of Izuku's thoughts crashed into him with no warning and wrapped her arms tight around his torso. Manami wasted no time in pushing her face into his side and sighing, "I'm so glad you're okay!"

Izuku allowed himself a moment of relief to return Manami's hug and thanked whatever deities he could think of that she'd remained unharmed. It was brief, but more than enough to make him feel ready for what lied ahead.

"I'm happy to see you too, Manami-chan." He gave her one last squeeze before he gently pulled her away and leveled her with a grim frown. "But we'll have to save the rest for later. We need to make sure everyone else is okay and I'm worried about Aizawa-sensei fighting alone with those injuries."

"You want to go help him." Manami didn't sound surprised. Her eyes narrowed in determination and she brought a hand to rest atop her hammer. "I'll come with-"

"We were given permission to use our quirks to defend ourselves, but I am not sure that Aizawa-sensei meant for us to pick a fight with an opponent he himself seems to be struggling with." Fumikage interrupted, a nervous tremor in his tone. It seemed he was more shaken than he let on. "Were he with us, he would most likely order us to return to the entrance with our classmates and await reinforcements."

Izuku's hands balled into fists.

He knew that. He knew that. He knew that their teacher would never ask for their help. He knew that Aizawa would prioritize their safety above all else, even at the cost of his own life. He knew that even if he wanted to help, there was a very real chance that he would not win versus opponents who could go toe-to-toe with a pro hero and infiltrate one of Japan's most secure facilities. An image of Stendhal's stern gaze crossed his mind.

'What would you do, Sensei?'

"A real hero helps where they're needed, regardless of the consequences."

The words came to mind clear as day. Stendhal had told him that after he'd saved Manami, hadn't he? A real hero didn't have the luxury of picking and choosing where they were needed or what battles they took.

"There's no way that a hero can guarantee they'll win every fight." He whispered, just loud enough that his classmates could hear. Izuku took another look at the relative safety of the USJ's entrance but ultimately turned away. He faced Eraserhead's battle with determination etched into his frown and clenched his fists. "Tokoyami-san, your quirk is significantly better than mine or Manami-chan's for defense. You should meet our classmates at the entrance and help protect them and Thirteen."

"... I cannot change your mind?"

Izuku shook his head.

"Good luck then, Midoriya-san, Aiba-san."

Fumikage turned away and took off in a sprint, his cloak billowing behind him. Izuku and Manami were left alone.

"I'm coming with you." The red-haired heroine's tone left no room for argument, not that Izuku had been planning to in the first place. This was her choice to make, just as he'd made his.

"Okay." Any tremble Izuku's voice had held disappeared and had been replaced with cold resolve. She squeezed his hand once, for reassurance or good luck he couldn't tell. "Let's go, Manami-chan!"

"Right behind you!"


As she ran beside Izuku towards the USJ's center, Manami's eyes wandered, searching for a certain head of dichromatic hair.

'First he's colder to me than his ice, then he disappears on me. Great.' She was woman enough to admit that Shoto's absence from the area worried her. They'd been separated by a collapsed structure during a battle with some villainous stragglers, but when she'd made it to the other side after introducing him to the blunt end of her hammer the icy boy was nowhere to be found.

By some stroke of luck, the circular path around the USJ Manami took to get back to the entrance ran her directly into Izuku and Fumikage, but Shoto wasn't with them, nor did she spy him atop the stairs with the rest of their classmates. Was he hiding, held up, or injured? She shook her head and ruled out the third option. No way a guy like Todoroki let the caliber of villains she'd seen so far get the better of him.

"You haven't seen Todoroki-san anywhere have you, Izukun?" She asked, just on the off-chance her boyfriend had seen their multicolored classmate.

"I haven't; was he with you after we all got warped?" She saw Izuku's eyes dart back to the group of their classmates at the entrance for a moment, no doubt double-checking whether Shoto had shown up since he last looked.

"Yeah. We got separated though."

"Hmm." Izuku hummed. "We should keep an eye out, but Todoroki-san's strong, so I think he'll be fine."

No arguing with that. For every villain Manami had taken out it seemed Shoto had defeated four more. His ice was fast-acting and covered a wide area; it would be difficult for him to be overwhelmed.

Before she could open her mouth to reply, something moved in the corner of her vision.

"Izukun, duck!"

The two threw themselves to the ground just in time for a volley of wooden spikes to sail over their heads. Manami rolled with her momentum into a kneeling position with her hammer drawn and a finger on its extension switch. Beside her, Izuku pushed himself fully onto his feet with his hands balled into fists.

"Hmph, decent reactions." The man across from them rumbled. His voice seemed to creak like a tree in the wind. Fitting, seeing as it seemed much of his body was covered in rough patches of bark and leaves. "Shigaraki-sama wishes for Eraserhead's punishment to be his own. As an initiate member of the League of Villains, I cannot let you pass."

"Damn…" Izuku muttered. His eyes were fixed firmly beyond their opponent. Aizawa was slowing down; that much was obvious. Blood now dripped from a gash on his forehead and covered one of his eyes. When he leapt back to make distance from the Nomu, he winced when he landed on his right leg. The hulking beast he was fighting hadn't so much as a scratch on it.

'You won't last much longer will you, Aizawa-sensei?' Manami bit the inside of her cheek. 'No! Positive thoughts! We still have time.'

But they didn't, really. If the villains were smart they'd have the stronger ones guarding their leader at the center. He could easily stall both her and Izuku until Aizawa had been finished off and then they would have to deal with two opponents, three if the creepy one with the severed hands joined in. Hadn't the mist villain pointed him out as the leader? If he was, then they would definitely need Aizawa's help; it would be too late if this tree-man was able to stall them.

'One of us has to stay behind.'

"Manami-chan, let's-" Izuku took a step forward, ready to charge.

Manami extended her arm straight out and stopped him with a hand on his stomach.

She felt Izuku's eyes on her. It wouldn't take him long to understand; the only question was whether or not he'd go along with it. After a long moment, he sighed.

"Okay." Izuku took a step back. Manami turned to face him, trusting him to keep an eye on the villain who seemed content to remain where he was as long as they didn't try to advance.

"Your quirk's run out, right?" She asked. Izuku's gloves were devoid of red, save for what was splattered on his knuckles; he'd long since drunk whatever he'd managed to procure from his opponents.

"Yeah."

"C'mere." Manami pulled Izuku close and kissed him gently. She lingered just long enough for him to respond before she pulled away and winked, smirking at the pink tinge on his cheeks. "That was for good luck, but this is for practical use." She pulled him even closer then and brought her lips to whisper in his ear, "I really, really like you, Izukun."

Similar to when Manami used her quirk on herself, pink vapor slowly started to rise from Izuku's skin. His already-generous musculature seemed to flex unconsciously as it worked to accept its newfound strength. The two heroes-in-training stood and faced the villain who blocked their path. He remained in the same spot he'd been in before they turned, eyes narrowed and stance tense. As one, Izuku and Manami charged.

"I'll see you after you're done."

"I won't be long." Manami punctuated her words with a flick of her fingers to extend her hammer.

"Neither of you will be leaving my sight. I, Ueki, will stop you!" The now-named villain held his arms forward. From his fingertips, wooden spikes emerged and launched toward the heroic duo. Manami and Izuku both rolled to the side to avoid the attack, but it was now obvious they wouldn't be able to charge the villain head-on.

'I need to get close and distract him so Izukun can slip by.' Manami's eyes moved from the splinters embedded in the dirt to Ueki, whose arms had returned to a readied position, 'Constant fire would be the best strategy to keep us at a distance, but he's not launching another round… is there a time limit between attacks?' She counted the seconds. Exactly half a minute after his previous throw, wooden spikes grew from his fingertips and with a swipe of his hand another volley of projectiles was sent their way. A light bulb lit up in Manami's mind.

"Izukun, launch!"

"Got it!"

The green-haired hero turned just in time to catch Manami by her boots.

"Go, Izukun!"

Izuku complied. He took a few momentous steps forward and spun, swinging Manami around once before he released her and sent her hurtling toward the villain like an Olympic hammer throw.

Manami was small in the first place and not exactly the heaviest person, but with Izuku's already above-average strength enhanced by her quirk it was almost too easy for him to throw her around like a human cannonball, a tactic they'd practiced during their training in an attempt to shore up their shared weakness in closing the gap on long-distance enemies. For the first time they'd ever attempted it against an actual person, Manami was surprised at how accurate Izuku's aim was.

Manami sailed towards Ueki with a determined frown on her lips. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Izuku abuse his boosted strength to sprint alongside her as she sped toward their opponent. The villain turned his focus to Izuku with a growl, but he would be unable to both defend himself and catch the hero before he got away.

"Don't look at him! I'm your opponent now!"

'I can do this. I am strong.'

Ueki's split focus would cost him. Manami landed on the ground a remarkably-accurate few feet away from the villain and immediately used the leftover momentum to launch herself forward with her hammer poised to thrust into his midsection. He didn't seem the type for speed, Manami had thought, so she was sure that he would be unable to dodge the incoming hit.

"The arrogance of a child has no place here."

Rather than attempt to dodge or brace himself for the blow, the villain instead turned his head to level Manami with a scathing glare. His right hand, which seemed to be entirely made of wood, started to rapidly grow in size. He grasped the head of Manami's weapon and closed his branchlike fingers around it; it seemed he aimed to disarm her before the fight could truly begin.

'It's not just projectiles! He can grow any of the wooden parts on his body like a tree too.' Manami quickly tapped the mechanism on her hammer's grip; the weapon shrunk out of Ueki's grasp and allowed Manami to jump villain quickly turned once he'd forced her retreat, but Izuku was already gone by then; her distraction had been successful.

'Right hand. Left forearm. Both knees and shoulders. Fingers on his left hand.' Manami's eyes searched the villain's frame for every wooden or leaf-covered portion of skin. As far as she knew, each could be a potential weapon. 'The spikes he threw earlier came from his left fingers. He used his right hand just now to grab my hammer, but didn't use its fingers for a second attack…'

Ueki charged forward with a frustrated yell, distracting Manami from her thoughts. Foregoing the use of his quirk for the time being, the villain opened with a punch that Manami blocked with a swing of her hammer. The sudden stop of his hand by the metal weapon prompted Ueki to wince, but he was not deterred. The two traded blows for a bit, testing each other.

Eventually, with a growl, Ueki jumped back and raised his right hand as it grew once more; this time the villain used the extra range to slash at Manami as if he'd grown claws. She used her small frame to her advantage and rolled under his swing. Now behind him, Manami spun and extended her hammer.

"I'm not so easily outmaneuvered!" Ueki rumbled fiercely.

Manami's hammer made contact, but unfortunately it was with a shield made of leaves and wood that sprouted from Ueki's left forearm. Though he'd successfully blocked the attack, the sound of creaking wood could be heard and the villain was pushed back several feet. His shoes ground harshly against the dirt, leaving divots in their wake.

"And I'm not so easily stopped."

The red-haired heroine used her opponent's moment of wide-eyed surprise to kick his exposed right side. He stumbled and wheezed, but did not fall. Before Manami could pull her leg back, Ueki grabbed it and used it as a means to hold her in place while he turned and hastily bashed her with the shield that covered his other arm.

Manami was sent tumbling to the dirt. She rolled once before she slid a few feet along the ground, her weapon determinedly clutched in her fingers.

'... He doesn't hit as hard as Izukun.' Considering the spars with her boyfriend as a baseline since his quirk did not alter his physical prowess, it seemed that this villain's mutation didn't extend to his musculature. 'That said, with his skin covered by wood he's got a weapon of his own on-demand. His right hand with claws or a big punch probably hurts way more than the left's shield.'

Manami rose to her feet and took stock of herself. She was a little scraped up. Nothing serious, though she'd no doubt be nursing a few bruises come tomorrow. A shrill whistle was the only warning she needed to dive back to the ground, narrowly dodging most of the spikes Ueki tossed her way. Two cut shallowly into her right arm and leg and left small but irritating cuts behind.

The tree-man was on the attack now. He chased after his projectiles with his right hand extended high above his head and growing at an alarming rate. When finally the appendage was almost the size of the man himself, he brought it down in an attempt to flatten Manami under the sheer weight of that much wood.

'I can't get out of the way in time!' The splinter barrage had done its job in forcing her to the ground. From this position, she would be unable to dodge to the left or right in time to completely get away from Ueki's attack. Her eyes darted from the incoming hand and back to her hammer. 'Well, here goes nothing!'

"Got you!"

"I don't think so."

Manami stuck the shaft of her hammer into the ground and ducked. Ueki's hand, instead of crashing to the ground as he'd expected, stopped atop the weapon's head.

"Arghh!" The villain howled in pain. His hand shrunk to normal size with a sizable dent in its bark shaped like the head of Manami's weapon.

'Success!' Manami smirked and stood, ready to take advantage of her opponent's moment of weakness. When she finally reached her feet, however, she stumbled. Her vision swam, suddenly overcome with vertigo. Her quirk's signature vapor rose from her skin in increasing amount. Her chest burned. She felt hot.

"N-Not yet…" she groaned. It hadn't been fifteen minutes yet. But Izukun. She was working herself overtime maintaining her quirk on two people at once. If she didn't finish this fast, well…

'Sorry, Izukun. I don't think I'll be quick after all.' Manami shook her head and concentrated. 'I just need a little more…' The heat dissipated, if only slightly, and the world stopped spinning around her.

But she was too late.

Ueki's enlarged first slammed into her like a freight train with all of his weight put behind the attack. He'd used her moment of distraction to advance and landed a decisive blow. Manami was sent flying. Something cracked when she landed and all the heroine could do was let out a sound halfway between a groan and a whimper while she continued to roll along the dirt until finally she came to a stop.

"Urgh…" Manami clenched her teeth and willed away the whine that ached to release itself from her throat. She opened her eyes to a once-again spinning world and quickly shut them. Reigning her quirk in was even more of a struggle this time. It left her gasping for air and aching in places she didn't even know she could ache.

'Need to move.' Right arm first. Then left—she couldn't stop herself from crying out the second time. 'I think it's broken...' Luckily it wasn't her dominant arm, but that didn't mean it wasn't inconvenient. She blinked away tears of pain—she could cry later—and struggled to her feet on three limbs, left arm hanging limply at her side.

"Stay down." Ueki had stayed in place where he'd attacked her, a smug, evil smirk on his lips. "We were advised against killing students for this venture, but I will not hold back if you continue."

"I can't do that…" Her heart thumped against her ribs like she was running a marathon. The heat from her chest had started to spread to her throat, her limbs. It terrified her. She wasn't sure she would be able to stop it if she tried. "... Because I'm a hero. If I let you go here, you'll help your boss hurt Izukun and Aizawa-sensei."

"Hmph. You'll die for those ideals."

Manami responded by taking an experimental step forward. Her legs were shaky and scraped up, but they would hold for long enough. Another step followed the first, and then another. When she reached her hammer lying on the ground half-way toward the villain she picked it up in her right hand and finally broke into a sprint with the weapon dragging in the dirt behind her.

'I'm not as experienced as Aizawa-sensei or as fast or strong as Izukun. My quirk isn't as impressive as Todoroki-san's nor am I some sort of prodigy like Tiny-eyes. But…'

"An-And if you think you aren't important to anyone, then you're important to me!"

"Being a hero isn't only about saving people when it's convenient for you. Sometimes it hurts."

"I have important people relying on me! I couldn't call myself a hero if I quit here!" She shouted. When Manami reached her opponent, she grit her teeth and twisted her weight to raise her hammer and swing at Ueki's left side.

"Useless!" His left arm once more took the form of a shield and he braced it with his right, ready to block her final attack.

"Useless, useless girl!"

Before her weapon made contact, Manami pressed the button on its shaft. Ueki's eyes grew wide; Manami had spaced herself so that her weapon in its shrunken form was just small enough that it did not reach the villain and sailed unimpeded past his shield.

"I won't let anyone call me that ever again!" Manami's body shook and her vision was going dark at the edges. She grit her teeth.

Before Ueki could readjust himself, Manami reversed her momentum and pressed the button once more. Her hammer grew back to full size, falling in a wide arc towards Ueki's temple. The villain took the full force of the blow; Manami's follow-through sent him practically face-first into the ground where he landed in an unmoving heap made tiny cracks in the earth.

Manami waited with baited breath for him to rise, but he did not. The villain was unconscious.

"I won…" She smiled and fell to her knees. The heat and pain had become unbearable. "G-gotta'… stop… quirk."

It was like fighting back a raging fire. For every bit it seemed she extinguished there was more ready to burn her. She had long since passed her limit.

'I… can't.'

She screamed. The vapor that had once enveloped her fists was now a cloud that surrounded her entire body. She could barely feel the pain of her broken arm past the fire that consumed the rest of her.

And then it stopped.

Manami collapsed into a ball in the dirt. Sweat clung to her clothes and skin, suddenly feeling cold as ice. She could breathe again, see, hear. But when she opened her eyes they closed again just as quickly, sensitive to the light.

'Move.' She told herself. It was difficult. The excruciating pain in her left arm had returned with the rest of her faculties. Besides for that obvious injury, she was scraped and bruised in more places than she'd ever been during even Izuku's harshest training sessions. She'd just barely managed to crawl to her knees when a rough, smug voice called to her from above.

"You look like shit, Shortstack."


Izuku encountered no more resistance after he passed the villain who called himself Ueki, leaving Manami to take care of him. He made a mad dash for the USJ's central fountain, around which Aizawa still did his best to keep away from the massive creature that had arrived beside the villains' leader.

As he neared the battle, a man stopped him, stood squarely in his way and shaking a finger at Izuku.

It was the villains' leader. Up close it was easier to tell that the hands that covered his body were real. One maniacal red eye peeked from behind the clawed digits that covered his face, matched perfectly with a sadistic smile that shook Izuku to the core. When the man opened his chapped lips, his raspy voice was strangely frustrated.

"How many times do I have to tell you people? If all of you trash mobs insist on interfering with my boss encounter, I'll be forced to waste time on the raid killing you!"

'E-Eh? Trash mobs? Boss encounter? Raid?'

Before Izuku could even begin to attempt to understand what the unhinged villain was talking about, the man charged with a manic cackle that sent shivers down his spine. Izuku's expression grew tense; he lowered his body and prepared himself to fight.

'The way he moves… that stance. It's familiar.' Head lowered, hands open, stance forward; of course Izuku would recognize it.

That was how he opened fights, after all.

'He wants to grab me!'

He knew better than most that no good could come from being grappled by someone who used it as an opener. Either his fighting style revolved around quick incapacitations through some sort of hold or his quirk required physical contact. Either way, Izuku was sure he didn't want to find out.

The two collided with an unmatched ferocity on the villain's end that Izuku had never encountered before. With a sadistic gleam in his crimson eye, the League of Villains' leader shot his right arm forward, fingers grasping for Izuku's neck.

'He's fast!' The green-haired hero wasn't sure if he would have been able to dodge such an opener if he hadn't been expecting it. As it stood, he barely managed to swing his arm up in time to swat the villain's wrist and sweep his hand safely out of the way. The grin on Izuku's opponent's face never faltered. He blocked Izuku's attempt at a counter-grab with a lightning-fast rising knee that connected easily with the student's chin and sent him reeling.

Stumbling back, Izuku had little time to react to the kick that followed. It landed squarely on his chest with a force he hadn't felt since his training with Stendhal and he was pushed even farther away from his goal of assisting Aizawa.

Izuku coughed shortly and shook off the pain. There was no two ways about it- this man was a league or three ahead of all of the other villains he'd brought in as backup. Unlike the others, he'd been formally trained. His reflexes were sharp, his strength comparable to a pro of Stendhal's caliber, and his eyes...

'He's analyzing my every move; planning ahead. While I'm busy trying to figure out his quirk, he's doing the same right back to me and looking for holes in my defense. What a scary opponent.'

If he was being honest with himself, he probably didn't have a chance. Good enough to beat Katsuki? Yes. Barely. Good enough to beat a villain who seemed like he could go toe-to-toe with your average pro? Not likely.

Well, it wasn't as if he had a choice any more.

Their next clash came soon after, with Izuku's opponent maintaining his role as the aggressor in their bout. This time, he tested Izuku's blocks, probing his defenses with a series of jabs now that he'd apparently decided the hero was too aware to be grabbed outright. He changed tactics soon after with a leg sweep that Izuku leapt away from, making distance.

If he could land even a single punch with Manami's quirk still buffing his strength, it would probably give him enough room to safely siphon some blood off of the villain. However, the man's guard was almost as good as Stendhal's from what he could see. He wasn't sure if the risk of allowing the villain to activate his own quirk was worth getting Hemokinesis working. At that point, Izuku would be gambling on his quirk being able to incapacitate the villain before he could be defeated himself, and he hadn't trained with it his whole life unlike most people.

'I'm running out of options.' He briefly flicked his eyes to check on his teacher, who dodged even slower than he had previous, seemingly running on fumes after having defeated almost half of the invading force on his own and taken a handful of hits from the massive creature he was fighting. 'Aizawa-sensei won't last much longer from the looks of it, and if I run out Manami's quirk, I'll really be in trouble.'

With no other option seeming to present itself, Izuku prepared to go on the offensive.

It was, unfortunately, just before he and the villains' leader were about to charge each other once more that a blood-curdling scream resonated throughout the USJ. Izuku knew that voice…

"Manami-chan!"

Against his better judgement, Izuku spun and spotted his girlfriend curled up in a ball in the dirt across from her downed opponent. Her quirk's vapors had engulfed her entire body like a bonfire. Her quirk! She'd somehow lost control! Feeling his strength fading, Izuku looked down to find that the pink mist around his own hands was flickering like a candle in the wind, yet simultaneously they were rapidly heating up until it felt he'd dipped them in scalding water.

Izuku grit his teeth, ignoring the pain. He wanted to run and help, though he wasn't sure what he could do about the situation. Before he could move, however, he was forced to dodge yet another attempt to grab his neck.

"Ooh, is that one special to you?" The League's leader cackled, smoothly dodging a retaliatory volley of punches and kicks that Izuku sent back his way, "It looks like that route's about to hit its bad end."

He was being goaded and it was working. Anger welled up inside of Izuku, but he stopped himself just in time to avoid making a terrible mistake. Instead of allowing the taunting to get to him, the hero made distance to clear his head.

Just as suddenly as it had started, the screaming stopped. What had happened? He made to turn and look, but a red glow in the corner of his eye caught his attention.

"Aizawa-sensei!"

The pro hero stared Manami down intently, ensuring that his quirk had activated long enough to stop whatever was doing so much damage to her body. It lasted only for a few seconds before his eyes slammed shut and he collapsed to his knees, breathing heavily and cradling his broken arm. Izuku watched helplessly as the creature Aizawa had been fighting approached with slow, rumbling stomps.

"Oh, Nomu finally caught him?" The League of Villains' leader sounded childishly excited, seemingly forgetting Izuku's presence in favor of watching his lackey complete its mission, "Oh, yes! This is what you get for going straight for the end-game!"

"Aizawa-sensei!"

Aizawa responded to his name just enough to look up. One eye cracked open and then both widened at the sight of Izuku so close to the villains' leader.

"Run, Midoriya!" He commanded with narrowed eyes. Aizawa struggled to get to his feet, but his legs gave out on him and he was left on his knees once more. "Midoriya!"

"S-Sensei…" It was as if his feet were glued to the ground. Could he save Aizawa-sensei if he ran right now? The gap was so far, but there had to be something he could do, right? Something. Something. Something! Anything! Move! Move, Izuku!

But no matter how much his addled mind commanded his legs to move, his body refused. Pain crossed over Aizawa's features for a single, fleeting moment before they settled into something akin to acceptance.

The Nomu raised his fist.

"It's okay, Midoriya."

"Aizawa-sensei!"

It felt as if his scream was deafened by the crack of bones as the Nomu's fist came down atop Aizawa's head and forced it into the dirt. Not done, either out of sadism or an effort to ensure its opponent's defeat, the Nomu dragged a bleeding, moaning Aizawa up by his hair. It tossed his broken body across the USJ like a ragdoll until he crashed into the porcelain fountain in its center. The sturdy U.A. craftsmanship crumbled under the force and left the pro hero lying in a pile of debris. A waterfall cascaded over him from the fountain's remains that turned into a river of red as it flowed down the path in the dirt he'd created getting there.

"Sensei…" Izuku whined and collapsed to his knees with a choked sob. He strained his eyes to see if Aizawa's chest was rising but couldn't detect any movement. He knew. He knew that heroics required sacrifice. But this… this was… "I-I can't…"

Izuku didn't turn to see what made the loud noise at the USJ's entrance. His eyes were still glued to the scene in front of him. 'Manami-chan. Aizawa-sensei. I…'

He'd failed. He couldn't protect either of them.

He was weak.

"Young heroes of U.A. high, there is no reason to fear! Why?"

That voice. He'd know it anywhere. He'd played it on repeat all throughout his childhood. It was what motivated him; inspired him.

"Because I AM HERE!"


All Might is here to save the day! Big ol' cliff hanger that was almost way worse. More on that later.

Anyway, big apologies for not updating for a almost 4 months. The end of the year wasn't kind to me. Nor has the beginning been, really, but we truck through it. I spent a solid portion of that break taking time to myself away from writing, then a few weeks prototyping (AKA writing the first 20k words of) the story that I'll be starting once this one is finished to get a break from MHA for a bit. I wanted to try something where I deviate really, and I mean REALLY hard from canon. I think it's going to be cool, but we'll see. In definitely 100% unrelated news, how you guys feel about Naruto? ;)

As for this story, which I promise comes first and I will not be abandoning, I actually kind of like this chapter, surprisingly, considering I think my writing is weakest during fight scenes and this chapter is one huge fight. When I first started writing Manami's scene I think I liked it a lot less, but I've come to appreciate it and it's probably my favorite fight of the chapter. I think I've done a few things wrong with her development so far that I've kinda tried to fix in this chapter. Namely making her quirk's overuse less of a power-trip and more something like Katsuki's recoil where her quirk just starts hurting her after prolonged use to separate it from, for example, bloodlust quirks' out of control nature.

The other fights I think went pretty well. Aizawa's group battle is probably my least favorite. It's really hard to do multiple vs one especially with unnamed characters. Lord knows why I couldn't come up with a good way to namedrop Shigaraki. Would have made my life way easier. Ueki's just some rando I came up with as a one-off villain, don't worry about seeing him again. His villain/given name means 'Potted plant/planted tree.' I thought it was funny.

And the cliffhanger. Good god the cliffhanger. This chapter is 7650 words pre-AN according to the doc manager, but it was originally 5500 or so ending with Izuku meeting Shigaraki. I said, 'wow, that kind of sucks, let's write more' and then almost ended it with Midoriya screaming 'Aizawa' after he says it's okay. And then I thought that was way worse so I let All Might get his entrance in this chapter instead of next. I hope I didn't ruffle too many feathers.

Big ol' thanks to Archivist Nyx and SkittleKick for your reviews last chapter. I hope I continue to do you both proud!

Next chapter will be controversial I'm sure with big implications for the future of the story. We'll be deviating from canon after the USJ event with an entirely original arc based on the premise of this story. I can only hope it's as satisfying as it all sounds in my head.

As always, I beg of thee for feedback. What you liked, didn't like, anything helps to improve. Every review has a special place in my heart and motivates me to keep moving forward.