Crimextar06 - LOL, that would totally work in any other of my fics, not gonna lie. Alas, here Kurogiri is... slightly more... canon, I guess.
TheGreatBubbaJ - Well, he still has to find him. That might take a while.
The Archivist of Nyx:
1. Huh. Did I miswrote it? maybe.
2. Also, yeah, just wait. He is yet to start beating people up with power of friendship and chaos gremliness. He is still rather tame thus far.
3. Dadzawa :D Let's just say that Aizawa has it hard until certain even which makes him... a bit less... uhm... tired with life.
4. Well, they had to get Eri from somewhere, right?
5. I'm like 99% sure that he already got his blood sample and compared it to All for One :P Alas, no match.
6. F
Detrametal - YEEEEES, Chaos Gremlin for the win.
(***)
Once Nedzu knows that the jamming is there, he manages to fight through it with little effort. The school was prepared. It's just the automatic measures that were somewhat dealt with by whoever was bold enough to attack the UA.
As the faculty hurries to the USJ, Nedzu analyzes the available data (and he isn't touching the part where Inko Midoriya's quirk oddly resembles the one of Mischief, it's not important now).
He can detect Thirteen and a handful of students fleeing from the building. Unlike Tenya, they were still within the jamming range, but out of the direct threat. Nedzu isn't sure why a hero is fleeing with only some of the students.
No student was killed or heavily injured. He knows that much. He detects the life signature of the person who can tell him more, and sees no hostiles near it. So he makes a phone call.
"Principal Nedzu!" He hears from the other side. Izuku Midoriya sounds relieved. "Did Iida make it?" Because of course it was his plan to have Tenya rush for help. Should Nedzu even be surprised?
"Yes, he did. Izuku, talk to me." Nedzu says, and he can see Inko being visibly relieved. Her son is alive. Whether he'll stay like this until his father's arrival remains to be seen.
"No less than seventy villains. Arrived through a warp quirk." Izuku replies. "Their leader is Overhaul. Ask my mom who that is. Only three villains seem to be dangerous, the rest are losing to the students despite numerical advantage. It's Overhaul himself, the warp quirk user resembling a black mist and some big, black thing with an exposed brain."
Nedzu moves the phone aside for a second. This is the first time he ever heard the name Overhaul and he intends to amend this immediately.
"Please, write down everything you know about a villain known as Overhaul, Ms. Midoriya." She freezes lightly at the mention, and Nedzu has a lot of questions but not enough time to ask them. He returns to the phone. "Go on."
"They knew the original schedule for the day." Izuku continues. "Every major villain was picked to be a counter to one of the teachers. Overhaul to Eraserhead, Black Mist to Thirteen and whatever that black thing is… to All Might. Black Mist stated that they are here to kill him."
Oh, great. That's the height of audacity, even when you have a powerful warp quirk at your disposal.
"Principal Nedzu, the threat is real." Izuku says and Nedzu freezes because he really doesn't want to hear those words. "Overhaul is practically a triple S villain in the making, and I had Thirteen flee because considering the match-up, she would die the second she used her quirk in front of the black mist villain. I have no idea what they prepared to face the Symbol of Peace, but it's certainly something dangerous."
Nedzu shifts the image on the screen to the one showing the central square. Just in time to see the 'big, black thing with an exposed brain' smash Eraserhead face-first into the concrete floor.
The only way to leave the USJ was through the central square. He can see a lot of students making their way towards it.
This isn't going to be good.
Then Inko Midoriya shows him the summary about the Overhaul's abilities and Nedzu amends his opinion. 'Not good' is an understatement.
(***)
"You know, Eraserhead, that I somewhat like your disease?" Overhaul says, while the noumu (whatever that is) is keeping the hero pinned to the floor. "You just have to look at someone to alleviate their symptoms. This is a really handy power to have."
Eraserhead activates his quirk and looks at the hand of the noumu. Its strength doesn't falter. It's not a quirk? Is it a mutation quirk? This sheer physical power is damn close to All Might's.
"Overhaul." The black mist villain returns to them.
"Kurogiri." Overhaul replies. "Is Thirteen dead?"
"No." Eraserhead feels relieved. Noumu being right above him stops Present Mic from attacking, but at the very least Thirteen is still alive. "She managed to escape together with close to half of the students."
Escape? A hero did, despite there still being students around? What exactly did Midoriya tell her to do?
"I scattered the rest around the building." Kurogiri continues. "But I fear that the enemy reinforcements will arrive soon."
"This is actually beneficial to the Paranormal Liberation Front's goals, Kurogiri." Overhaul replies after a second or two of silence. "If All Might is anywhere on the school grounds, he will most likely appear first. This gives us a window of opportunity to excise him before other teachers arrive. We're staying until then. In the meantime…" Eraserhead hears a faint chuckle. "Let's end the life of one irritating radio host, shall we?"
No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
He hears an explosion. And then (and for the first time in his life, Eraserhead is ecstatic to hear it), the loud shout.
Fear not, for I am here.
All Might has arrived.
Noumu slams his head into the pavement once again a second later, and everything goes black.
(***)
Inasa Yoarashi would have a blast with the whole 'fighting real villains' thing if not for the fact that, to be frank, the enemy is winning the battle badly. And this means that he might lose classmates.
This is bad. He likes his classmates.
Worst of all, he might have just lost his teacher. Right after he decided that despite looking like he was half-dead, Aizawa Shota was a capital H Hero. Because jumping into a crowd of something like fifty villains with nothing but a scarf and a quirk that's honestly kinda weak on its own is the peak of awesomeness and passion for heroism.
He finally understands why Izuku said that Aizawa is pretty much a Number One Hero for the underground heroes. He also knows (he read about it on the internet after finding out that underground heroes exist) that many limelight heroes look down on their less publicized cousins.
After that day in the USJ, Inasa Yoarashi knows that he will never do such a thing. Because underground heroes - the men and women who ignore the press and popularity to focus on saving people - are absolutely, capital letters even in his mind, FUCKING AWESOME.
Then All Might comes. A bit too late for Inasa to have a chance to witness the Number One Limelight and Number One Underground heroes teaming up, but quick enough to fly past Inasa and Present Mic, pull Eraserhead from under that Noumu thing, take down the few remaining thugs, and deliver Aizawa-sensei's unconscious body to Inasa's English teacher.
Aizawa-sensei needs medical help. Inasa wants to witness the battle, but he needs to help carry him to safety. He just hopes that the cameras are recording the battle and he gets to see it.
(***)
All Might realizes that Izuku's message (relayed to him by Nedzu) was spot on. It isn't going to be pretty.
Because the Noumu refuses to sustain any damages from All Might's punches. The only positive part of the situation is that his hits carry enough air pressure that Overhaul cannot approach him. Because if All Might had to deal with a death touch quirk AND whatever that groaning monstrosity in front of him is, it would be worse than bad.
"Personally speaking, Noumu disgusts me." Overhaul announces. "It's a diseased wretch that I'd have euthanized without a second of doubt. But it's quite useful against a disease vector like you, All Might. It carries a Shock Absorption quirk, alongside its already inhumanly powerful physique." He chuckles menacingly. "Come on, All Might. Show me how you deal with something like that. Be a hero."
All Might does just that. And he does a backdrop slam, with enough strength to make it look like an explosion.
He realizes immediately that it was a mistake when he feels Noumu's fingers drill into his sides, including the wounded one. At least the One for All-enhanced muscles stop it before it reaches the damages underneath them.
"Right according to the plan, All Might." Overhaul sighs. "You totally forgot that we still have Kurogiri, the living warpgate, right? And it seems that you really are weakening."
All Might struggles, but the Noumu's sheer strength is simply tremendous. Close to his own. In any other position he could try to push through and would probably succeed, but his backdrop slam left him hanging in a way that makes him unable to exert his full strength.
Noumu begins to pull him towards the warpgate.
"Cleaning my insides up will be a touch displeasing." All Might hears an unfamiliar voice. It has to be Kurogiri. "But I'll endure it if it means ending the Symbol of Peace."
"Noumu was supposed to restrain you, letting Kurogiri sever you in half." Overhaul continues gloating. "It's a nice thing when your plans go just right, isn't it?"
All Might, the Symbol of Peace, gets a last minute save by his own students. Izuku's group, Endeavor's son, and the hardening boy alongside Tenko and Izuku's old bully arrive at almost the same time.
Shouto freezes Noumu. Bakugou's blast pushes the black mist away, letting Tenko grab whatever solid part of it there was and slam it into the pavement, all but one finger on it. He is no longer wearing gloves.
"Great job!" Izuku shouts. "Even you, Bakugou!"
"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, SHITTY NERD!" Bakugou shouts back and All Might realizes that his son had to time their arrival and plan it. "I PLANNED TO DO THIS ON MY OWN!"
Of course Izuku did that. Nedzu told him to not engage unless Noumu turns out to be a threat to All Might. So he gathered whoever was coming to the central square (using now working comms) and reacted when he saw that All Might was threatened.
Yagi Toshinori's already overflowing pride overflows even more. Noumu's grip is weakened and he manages to escape it.
"Well, that's what you get for hiring third rate goons." Overhaul says dryly. "They can't even stall a bunch of kids. The Council will be overjoyed to hear about it. I guess I picked the wrong time to say that the plan goes just right, didn't I, Kurogiri?" The warpgate mumbles something. "Oh well. Noumu, free Kurogiri."
Despite half of its body frozen solid, the Noumu stands. The ice breaks, practically severing its body in half. Which then promptly begins to regrow in seconds.
"What the?!" Izuku is shocked. "It's not Shock Absorption?!" All Might actually has the same question.
"Well, as I said, Noumu disgusts me." Overhaul, despite everything that happened, isn't moved by facing so many enemies on his own. "Even a single disease is bad enough, but he… he has several. Including Shock Absorption and Hyper Regeneration. An artificial human being carrying multiple quirks, a premier achievement of the Paranormal Liberation Front's scientific department."
Multiple quirks? Oh fuck no. Not this shit again.
Nana's grandson almost dies. All Might takes the blow in the last second after pushing Tenko away. There is enough punch left in the Noumu to send him back. Kurogiri is free again and retreats behind Overhaul.
"To not hesitate to kill a child." All Might is livid. "Have you no shame?!"
"Shame?" Overhaul chuckles. "Do you know what shame is? It's the reaction you have when you realize that what you are doing isn't perceived as 'normal'. But guess what?" He throws his arms around. "I REJECT NORMAL. This is what the name of our organization indicates. We fight to end the hero society, to end the world as you know it. Some of us just want to murder freely, others want to reign over those with weaker quirks and I…" He pauses for a second. "I want to heal the world from the diseases known as quirks, heroes, and villains. What makes you think that there is anything that I'd shy away from doing to achieve it? All Might?"
Overhaul is mad. There is no doubt about it.
"Bold words for someone who is just in to get some kicks out of murdering people." All Might replies and Overhaul freezes for a second. Someone is hurt by the accusation. "Young Midoriya, get everyone out of here. Now."
"What, but…" It's Kirishima, really rearing for some action.
"We need to listen to him." Izuku—oh how he loves his son—doesn't waste any time with it. "He can't go all out if it means that we can be wounded by it. We need to give him some space, now!" To All Might's relief, the kids listen to him. Although Bakugou, unsurprisingly, seems to hate it.
"Noumu, kill All Might." Overhaul reacts immediately. "I'll slaughter the kids!" He lunges towards Izuku and his friends.
All Might freezes his movement with one, singular glare. The pure manifestation of his strength and authority as a Symbol of Peace. Then, before he can try attacking the students again, All Might begins to exchange blows with the Noumu.
There are far too many air pressure changes for Overhaul or anyone else to intervene. This is now between the All Might and the being that was made to be his equal.
"Didn't you hear it?!" Overhaul shouts. "It has Shock Absorption!"
"Should have told me that it was Shock Nullification, villain!" All Might sniggers. Izuku might have been taught by All for One, but whose genes did he get? Did Overhaul take All Might for a dumb brute? "Absorption quirks always have limits."
And he promptly makes the Noumu reach it. It takes him almost two hundred blows in a span of several seconds.
The villains should have staged some emergencies earlier to weaken him. If they truly knew that he is getting weaker, as Overhaul stated. Instead, his meeting with Nedzu just made him arrive at the scene almost untouched. So, he sent the Noumu through the ceiling, while still having strength to spare.
By the time looks at Overhaul again, he and Kurogiri are gone from his sights. Seconds later, the rest of the faculty arrives.
(***)
"I believe that some explanations are in order." Nedzu announces to the room filled with Yagi Toshinori and his family members.
Okay, it's just Inko and Izuku, but still.
They are in the principal's office, which is just slightly damaged by All Might's… enthusiastic exit. Unfortunately, Nedzu doesn't seem to care about it, and instead his question was directed at something a bit more problematic.
"I'm not even going to ask why you married Mischief, All Might." Nedzu adds, and Yagi is briefly surprised. How did Nedzu figure that out? Then again, it was Nedzu. "I'll just assume that it was out of love, which is one of the human things that I struggle to compute, and leave it at that. What I really want to know is why a previously unknown supervillain just attacked my school… only for me to discover that my own student knew more about him than I did."
The sad part is that Yagi doesn't know the answer to that either.
"Toshi, do you remember how I mentioned that I adopted Eri after she was rescued from a villain?" Inko replies and Yagi suddenly understands. "That villain was Overhaul. I simply didn't think that it was important, because I thought that he was dead."
"So All Might didn't know either, I see." Nedzu sighs. He is on his third tea in twenty minutes, and it's NOT a good sign. "Can you please go through it chronologically?"
"Two years ago Izuku was on a sightseeing trip with his uncles." Inko decides to go through it. "He was going through some hero museums, only for a little girl in a clear state of distress to suddenly run into him after leaping out of some alleyway. Soon after that Overhaul popped up, claiming to be her father." Inko sighs. "Izuku, of course, didn't buy it. And went into his little Hero Mode."
"Please don't tell me that Izuku faced Overhaul." Yagi can feel the coming headache. If half of the things he heard about his quirk are correct, Overhaul is at least a double S-Rank villain that would require more than one Top Hero cooperating to safely take down. Eraserhead holding him off for so long without anyone dying was achievable only due to several lucky coincidences (such as Present Mic being there, and the two heroes being extremely well trained in fighting alongside each other) and the specifics of his quirk.
"Well, not as much faced, as successfully evaded." Inko corrects him. Izuku looks down, probably wondering if he was in trouble. "Overhaul managed to track him back to where he was staying during the trip, and sent an assault party to retrieve Eri. It failed, because we had some… uncles and aunts present. Considering the situation to be troublesome, they might have launched a bit of a counterraid, which ended with Overhaul's base of operations collapsing on him." She sighs. "We did assume that he was buried there, but evidently he wasn't."
"Once again, I'm going to ignore something." Nedzu says after a few seconds. "This time it will be obvious vigilantism. And probably some murders. Still, All Might, you are straining my patience." All Might doesn't comment on it. He is Nedzu's most valued figure in his little war against the HPSC. The rat isn't losing him, even if he has to break the law a bit. He has enough connections in the police and among the journalists to smooth things out even if that was discovered. "What exactly was Overhaul doing?"
"Attempting to create a drug that can render people permanently quirkless." Inko replies. "Since he considers quirks to be a form of disease. All he managed to achieve was a drug that damages people's quirk, making them not work for a few days. He apparently almost managed to create the prototype of the quirk-destroying drug, but then we happened."
"Anything else?" Nedzu asks. He is probably going to drink another cup of tea after hearing about a quirk-destroying drug being an even theoretical possibility. This is something with a potential to overthrow the current society if it's mass produced.
And if it's possible to be produced, it probably will be. Somewhere,.somewhen, somehow.
"I'll write you a full report. About where and when it happened. And what sort of organization he was leading." Inko states. "I can reassure you, however, that neither quirk-suppressing nor quirk-destroying drugs are a possibility currently."
"Why?" Nedzu asks.
"Because he was producing them from Eri's blood." Inko replies and Yagi freezes. Why was he never told?! "And he isn't getting her back."
The look on her face reminds Yagi that his wife is a supervillain. A former one and not particularly bloody, but…
"Well…" Nedzu says after a few seconds. "I'd have probably looked into a way to arrest you, but I have a soft spot for victims of mad science." Plus he really doesn't want to ruin All Might's reputation.
Toshinori is going to have a serious talk with Inko about keeping secrets after this is over.
(***)
1-A Chatroom
ClassPresident: Everyone
ClassPresident: I just left the Principal's office. Official announcement: everyone got out safely. The only one injured (save for me breaking a finger) is Aizawa-sensei, but he will make full recovery. 47 F-Rank and 32 E-Rank villains were apprehended. The ringleaders escaped, except for the Noumu which has been secured (but it's yet to be ranked).
GravityGirl: YES! I was so worried about you all!
TurboMan: This is incredibly reassuring! I'd like to attribute this to our skills, but considering the circumstances, this is more likely to be due to the enemy underestimating us. And focusing their attention on the teachers.
CreativeSpirit: I agree with my fellow class vice president. The enemy clearly underestimated us, and we've managed to turn that to our favour.
Riot: Y E A H!
ClassPresident: I'd also like to say that whoever is feeling like they have problems getting over what happened (think nightmares, fears etc.) is welcome to schedule the appointment with Hound Dog.
GaleForce: eraserhead is alright? awesome
Froggy: I still can't get used to him not using capital letters at all in the chat.
GaleForce: ?
GaleForce: also who ended up fighting in the usj in the end
GaleForce: not want to discredit those who fled (those were teacher's orders) but I want to know with whom can I share the combat experience to do better the next time
ClassPresident: Well, I landed with Asui and Mineta in the Flood Zone. I also know that Todoroki was in the Landslide Zone (which he cleaned up on his own), but he isn't even in the chat.
GaleForce: tsk
CreativeSpirit: I was with Denki, Jirou and Toga in the Mountain Zone. We defeated the villains next to where we landed, then I had Toga impersonate one of them and had the rest pretend that we were captives heading to the central zone.
ClassPresident: Ohhh, a good plan!
CreativeSpirit: Yes, I admit that I was initially disturbed by the ramifications of her quirk, but now I can fully see the potential benefits of it. Aesthetics do not matter when lives are at stake.
Vampire: Yay! Tell me when you want to play with handcuffs next time, I'm in!
CreativeSpirit: …
Mindhack: I'll just say that she is a bit of an escape artist and probably meant it literally.
Mindhack: Himichan, leave innuendoes to me.
Vampire: OK!
Vampire: Wait, innuendoes?
Riot: Well, I landed in the Ruins Zone with Bakugou and Shimura, and frankly, wow.
Riot: I didn't get to fight for real, because they crushed every villain between our landing point and the central zone.
Riot: MANLY!
BoomBoom: Spiky Hair understands
Mindhack: I landed with Tokoyami in the Downpour Zone. It was kinda nasty, but we've managed.
ClassPresident: So, Yuga, Ashido, Iida, Uraraka, Ojiro, Koda, Sato, Shoji, Sero and Hagakure managed to get out with Thirteen, right?
GravityGirl: Yes.
GravityGirl: Why did you tell Thirteen to flee and not use her quirk? She was (and still is) absolutely devastated by leaving people behind, but Eraserhead told her to listen to you, so… I kinda feel bad about it? she's my idol.
GravityGirl: I'm actually with her now. So I'd like to tell her something?
ClassPresident: Because the attackers prepared a perfect counter to every teacher that they thought would be there. Even All Might struggled against his.
ClassPresident: If Thirteen used her quirk in front of Kurogiri (the blackmist villain), she would die (or be incapacitated with heavy wounds) without achieving anything. And while Eraserhead had a chance with Overhaul due to Present Mic being there, Thirteen was absolutely outmatched.
GravityGirl: Huh?
ClassPresident: If I figured out Kurogiri's quirk mechanisms properly, his mist doubles as a warp quirk medium. The attackers expected Thirteen to try to pull his mist in to restrain him. If she did that, Kurogiri would have used the mist that was being swallowed by her black holes to open the warpgate connecting them to the space right next to her.
ClassPresident: Her own black holes would have killed her. And probably some of us if we were close to her at the time.
GravityGirl: OH
CreativeSpirit: And you figured it out by seeing Kurogiri for like… several seconds?
ClassPresident: I started analyzing quirks when I was four years old, so… uhm… I have experience?
ClassPresident: It was logical considering the fact that enemies knew the teachers, that Kurogiri headed out to engage Thirteen on his own, and the specifics of her quirk (that I know about because it's awesome and she is a great hero!) plus what I figured out after seeing Kurogiri warp in the villains.
CreativeSpirit: Well, it does sound like something to bring Nedzu's attention to you.
ClassPresident: Well, yeah?
Mindhack: Except it wasn't that.
CreativeSpirit: You knew?
Mindhack: I WAS THE REASON FOR IT.
ClassPresident: Toshi, no
ClassPresident: stop
Mindhack: I'm going to beat your ridiculous fear of being praised out of you before we graduate, Izuku.
ClassPresident: STOP!
Mindhack: ALSO CHANGE THAT STUPID NICKNAME BACK TO SMALLMIGHT
ClassPresident: NO
GaleForce: to paraphrase tenko shimura you are losing your reputation points as class president by the minute
GaleForce: heh
ClassPresident: Ugh.
ClassPresident: Okay, so let's just focus on getting through this, alright? It was nasty, but we survived, and we just got some actual, early experience about what it means to face villains.
Mindhack: The only reason why I'm not immediately posting the whole story behind you becoming Nedzu's favourite is because half of us are absent, probably due to being hugged by shocked parents and/or watching cat memes on the internet to deescalate stress. And I want everyone to hear it.
ZapZap: bold words for my fellow memelord
ZapZap: also I LIVED
ZapZap: and I can think again
LeadSinger: I literally didn't notice the difference.
ZapZap: :(
(***)
TEN CHAPTERS, I WAITED FOR TEN CHAPTERS FOR THE FIRST CHATROOM, THROW ME A BONE DAMMIT
The villains lost. Or did they?
Next Chapter might include trace amounts of Izuku forcefeeding Mineta with the Respect Women juice AND the Power of Friendship. Stay tuned for more