"Look at that, people!"

A bystander was streaming the scene through his phone.

A large plume of thick green gas was coming from the mall.

"Please evacuate the area everyone!" The local heroes had arrived to do crowd control. "The trigger gas is still circulating, so please get as far as you can!"

Upon hearing that it was trigger, the whole crowd scurried away like a disturbed nest of ants.

While it was well known that the gas was used as a quirk stimulant, enhancing one's abilities far beyond the normal level. It was also known to be weaponised as a powerful gas that would overload one's quirk, killing the user almost immediately.

"Wait! Look over there!"

Whilst everyone was running away in a frenzied panic, pushing and falling over each other in the crowd. The heroes never expected anyone from the crowd to go against the current.

There was a single boy who ran back into the mall filled with the deadly gas.

"Everyone it's going to be alright! The emergency exits are open, so please head out quickly!" An invisible girl yelled, ushering the terrified mall goers.

Thanks to Aoyama Yuuga's warning, Hagakure Tooru and Midoriya Izuku managed to escape the wave of gas before it covered the floors of the mall.

"Hagakure-san!" Izuku ran over.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. If not for Aoyama-kun's warning I may have ran in to investigate instead."

"Speaking of which is he alright?"

"He said he was safe, but I'm going to call him just in case."

Hagakure quickly dialled Aoyama on her phone.

"Aoyama-kun? Are you ok?" Quickly putting him on speaker, as he picked up.

"O-O-Oui… I w-will be s-safe f-for now…"

"Aoyama-san, are you really ok? You sound like you're freezing." Izuku inquired.

"A-Ah, Midoriya-san. Vous avez raison, I h-have taken shelter i-in le r-restaurant freezer."

"Wait what!? You're still in the building!?" Hagakure screamed.

"I h-had peu de choix, m-mademoiselle. The g-gas was too quick…"

"How cold is it in there?" Izuku asked.

"N-Not sure mon ami, but the produits here i-is still f-frozen…"

"Oh no, he's not gonna last long…" Hagakure recalled the chilling pain of being frozen into a block by Todoroki.

"Can you adjust the temperature?"

"N-non, the thermostat is outside. But I d-do not wish to r-risk letting any of the t-trigger in…"

It was far too dangerous to risk. Aoyama could be frozen and frostbitten, possibly losing appendages to amputation. But a single whiff of that dense trigger gas was sure to kill any quirk user.

"Can you hold on for 20 more minutes?" Izuku asked.

"Midori-kun?"

"O-Oui, m-maybe?"

"I'll be there." Izuku pulled up his phone looking up the mall directory for all restaurants large enough to house a freezer.

"Wait! You can't be serious Midori!"

"This trigger gas was aimed to kill by overloading someone's quirk right? So I should be safe, even with this." Izuku waved his right hand.

"But what if you were wrong? What if the tests were wrong and it is a quirk?"

"What if's are just what if's, a mere possibility. But Aoyama-san is definetely running out of time, and I'm not risking his life for just a slight chance." Izuku ran off toward the entrance of the mall.

"Izuku!" Hagakure yelled, but it was too late.

Midoriya Izuku had entered the building.

Thankfully the gas wasn't overloading Imagine Breaker, so at least he had confirmation on that.

Izuku checked the surrounding shops and whipped out his phone. There were only 2 possible eateries that were large enough to house a freezer, so Izuku headed for the closest one.

The problem was that Izuku didn't know where the source of the gas was, where the bomb was set off, or if anyone was even present to set it off. It could very well possibly have been remote controlled and no one was present.

But the real problem was if it wasn't, that meant there were villains on the ground that manually set it off. Facing off against a regular villain Izuku would be absolutely screwed. Even the power of his right hand would be null and void considering the circumstances. Because any villain that would be able to set the bomb off and live would either be quirkless or have some sort of protective measure, but most certainly have a firearm or some other form of non-quirked weaponry.

But this battlefield where quirks weren't a factor, was one where Midoriya Izuku reigned.

Izuku coughed and checked his surroundings once again, although the gas wasn't toxic to him it still was irritating to navigate through.

'Damn this green fog, I went the wrong way! Such Misfortune, I'm just hoping that I'm not gonna bump into-'

*Thud*

"Oof! Pardon me!"

"Sorry!"

"…"

'-anyone.'

The villain adorning a hazmat suit immediately attacked, diving head first into Izuku.

"Oof!" After Izuku was head-butted, the pair collapsed to the ground.

"Argh! Damn it!" The villain reached back.

Recognising the danger Izuku immediately kicked his assailant off of him, and a *clunk* noise could be heard.

"Damn it! You fucking brat- OOF!" Izuku socked him in the face before he could recover.

Izuku dove toward the noise and kicked his enemy's firearm away from his grasp.

"Oh, I would swallow you whole and shit you out if it weren't for this stupid suit!"

"Maybe take it off then?" Izuku suggested.

"Ha! Nice try you- WOAH!"

Thankfully the gas was dense enough that the villain did not notice Izuku sweep kick him, causing him to lose his balance-

*CRACK*

And conscience once Izuku took the opportunity the drop kick him while he was down.

"Whew…" Izuku paused to breathe.

At least that confirmed his theory, that there was a villain who manually set the trigger bomb off.

*BZZT*

"Oi, Tabe! What's taking you? It's just a stupid perimeter sweep."

There was a voice coming from the villain's suit, a walkie talkie it seemed like.

"Calm down Setsuno…"

"Even Hojo is done already!…Hello!?"

"It's possible he got bored and ate the stupid thing."

"For fucks sake, why does that not even surprise me!? Even in this stuffy ass suit!"

"What was actually surprising is why Kurono-san accepted their offer."

"I fucking know right!? Even if Chisaki-san is gone, I can't believe that clock-head would stoop to grovelling beneath them."

"Indeed, we initially assumed that with All Might and the boogeyman of the underworld out of the picture that there would be a return. But sadly…"

"But sadly our boss got taken out by god knows fucking what, the old man's still in a damn coma, and we're left with clock-head and mini-me to take the reins."

"But in that case wo-" *BZZZT-CRRRK*

"Ah!" Izuku rubbed his ears as the signal suddenly cut.

That meant that there were two more villains around the mall he needed to be wary of. Damn it, and he was running out of time too. While he was over here dilly-dallying Aoyama was being frozen into a French popsicle, Izuku had to move quick.

Before he set off, Izuku dragged the villain into a nearby janitor's closet and shut him in. At least he definitely had one enemy down.

He also grabbed the both the walkie talkie and the pistol he kicked over, just in case things went south.

Which considering him, was always.

"Aoyama-san? Aoyama-san!" Izuku yelled from outside the freezer.

"M-Mon ami!"

"Oh! Thank god, I got the right one. Just give me a sec, I don't know how fast it'll work but I've cranked up the temperature on the thermostat."

"Mer- Non. Arigato, Midoriya-kun! "

Why could he hear that? "Just hang on ok? The heroes should be coming in to clear the gas soon." That just left Izuku stranded next to this freezer, avoiding two armed villains he could barely see in the green fog of trigger.

But hey, at least he was lucky enough to find the right one first...

Wait, how did he get to the correct freezer first? Something was off, Midoriya Izuku was never this lucky!

"And what do we have here?"

Izuku looked up to see the two villains standing right in front of him, geared up in their hazmat suits.

"Seems like one of our mall-goers here, doesn't have a quirk."

"Guess those cultists were right after all."

*Click* The suited man cocked his gun.

"Too bad…"

"Wait Setsuno!"

"Huh?" Why did he stop him?

"Our orders were to let the quirkless go."

"And since when the fuck do I listen to them? Kurono-san can kiss their asses for all I care."

"But that isn't what the boss would have wanted either!"

"Huh?"

"This boy here is pure and uncontaminated, free from the disease known as quirks!"

"And? Why the fuck does that matter!?"

"Why shouldn't it matter? Why do you have to let this boy die?"

"Because it'll make me feel better! Fuck this shitty day, fuck this shitty job and fuck that shitty cult! I've lost enough already, so why the fuck can't I just have this?"

"Are you so clouded that you cannot see? He represents hope! Hope of a new age without heroes! Chisaki-san would hav-"

*BANG*

"…Blegh-" *Splat* A mouthful of blood stained the front of his suit.

"Chisaki is gone, Hojo… And so is all my hope…"

*Click*

"I don't want to be used as garbage by anyone else…"

"No wait stop-" Izuku tried to yell-

*BANG*

As Setsuno pulled the trigger, finally able to do what he wanted to do so long ago. And there were no longer any heroes around to stop him.

"What the…" Izuku tried to process the sudden turn of events.

Izuku suddenly remembered the weapon was kept in his back pocket and immediately threw it out, almost in disgust.

"M-Midoriya-san? I-Is it over?"

"…Yeah, it's over." Izuku declared as he watched their bodies slowly bleed out, still shocked by the unexpected outcome.

He may not have known the full story behind the villain, but why he broke down only as he approached Izuku…

Was just unfortunate for the both of them.

The heroes had arrived and the gas was finally cleared.

Apparently some loud guy with a wind quirk just came in and funnelled it all up into a tank using a tornado.

"Midori-kun! Aoyama-kun!" Hagakure waved her arms at the boys.

Izuku had taken off his jacket to give Aoyama some needed warmth, a sight which made her slightly blush.

Only slightly.

"Hey, Hagakure-san!" Izuku exhaustedly replied, while Aoyama simply trembled in response, still looking blue.

"I'm so glad you guys are ok!"

"We almost weren't…" If it wasn't for that sudden turn.

"V-Vraiment…" Aoyama chattered out.

"Midoriya-kun!" The trio were interrupted by a man in a trench coat.

"Are you alright? The report said you actually ran into the mall during the evacuation!"

"Eh?" Did Izuku know this guy? Was he part of the police force? "I-I have no idea what you're talking about…"

The ordinary looking man simply deadpanned. "You do know I don't need a quirk to tell when you're lying right?"

"!" Crapsicles.

The man sighed already knowing the answer. "Guess I have to do this again…"

"Ano, Tsukauchi-keiji?" Hagakure stopped him. "If not for Midori-kun, Aoyama-kun would have probably died in there."

The detective nodded. "I understand that shoujo, I really do. I know this idiot means well but we both know he violated the law when he went against the evacuation order."

"I…I see…"

Tsukauchi patted her on the back. "Don't worry, I just need to ask him a few questions before I give him his usual punishment."

Eh? Usual?

*Click* "Eh!?" A strange cat man handcuffed him from behind.

"Easy on him Sansa-kun."

"Nya, he already knows the drill."

'Nya?' If Izuku wasn't petrified from the shock of being arrested, he would have found that absolutely adorable.

"Come on Midoriya-kun, the katsudon is already on it's way."

'Katsudon?' Maybe an interrogation wouldn't be the worst thing…

"Also we already informed the school about this, I don't think your teacher is very happy about this."

'Teacher!?' He suddenly pictured the terrifying image of a sadistic woman coming after him with a whip.

Never mind, Such Misfortune!