Chapter Twenty-Five

~Shina's POV~

The night air smelled sweet and slightly damp due to rain from the distant parts of the city to the East. The strong breeze was a nice and comfortable sensation as Shina sat atop one of the buildings in the busy downtown district, high above the shopping citizens of Kyushu. Inhaling the air through her mask wasn't as good as doing so bare faced but she was on an assignment. Tonight, in approximately one hour, the League of Villains, led by Dabi, would attack the Hero Course class while they did night training. Shina hoped her kids kept their cool and didn't do anything to make themselves suspicious to the UA teachers. That would completely blow their cover that the last few months had managed to create.

For her part tonight, Shina was supposed to set up a diversion to keep the nearest heroes from going to aid the UA teachers once they alerted everyone that they were under attack. It wasn't her usual job but since her contract specifically stated she wanted nothing to do with kidnapping minors, Shigaraki said it would be the best fit for her and honestly, she was a bit surprised he had her doing this. She figured he was going to tell her to lay low for the next few days while they did this mission. Guess her opinion and work with the League was something 'valuable'.

In all honestly Shina didn't think she made that much of a difference to the League. She wasn't a Villain or even a Vigilante. She was a thief. This kind of work was really pushing at her morals, especially since they were also working to kidnap the bomber kid tonight as well as any others that the League found interesting. Of course while the thought of kidnapping children made her blood boil, she couldn't really do much about it as Shigaraki was essentially her boss. Shina sighed as she sat down on the ledge to watch the civilians down below. She hated having to navigate the fine lines of this job. Shina didn't move for the next twenty minutes as she simply watched everyone as they lived their conflict-free lives. Of course, her peace was interrupted when she caught the sound of wings and a faint whistle that let her know who was intruding on her peaceful evening.

"Must you ruin my night?" Shina sighed, not bothering to look away from the view. "I'm not doing anything criminal."

"Not yet you mean." Eh, Shina had to give it to him, he was right about that. She didn't have to tell him that though. "What did you rob before I arrived?" Hawks asked.

"I find your insinuation hurtful. If I had robbed anyone I wouldn't be sitting here thinking. Am I not allowed to simply enjoy the night air? It is a nice night. Can't very well enjoy it cooped up in my den now can I?" Especially not with Shigaraki watching constantly. Whatever motivation he had found last week seemed to have brought him much needed clarity. The fact that he had one group moving on the fledgling heroes while she was also doing her duty here spoke as much to his plans.

"That would depend on where your den is. And who's to say you aren't simply staking out your next heist?" Shina forced a laugh as she turned to see the serious look in Hawks face.

"Oh you're serious? Sorry, first off, I think that would be a bit awkward to plan a 'heist' for a clothing store. Second, the store down below is a Forever 21. Forgive me but I find their collections to be a bit pretentious and not at all my style."

"I could have sworn there was a bank down there." Shina glanced back at the street down below.

"Hmm, no banks. But there is a bookstore. I mean, I wouldn't mind stealing from them. Can never have enough books in the world." The libraries around the world in their multiple hideouts spoke as much.

"I didn't have you pegged for a bookworm." Shina hummed. "Let me guess, you enjoy the thrilling romance novels that have spies?" She snorted.

"Discrimination. I enjoy a good murder mystery or fantasy. Anything with dragons." Or hot Fae royals, dark brooding anti-heroes and quite possibly blonde rouge agents with hearts of gold. That would be the usual type of fictional character Shina usually read about. But back on track here...

"Anything to get away from the real world huh?" Hawks asked. Shina wasn't going to lie, she enjoyed talking like this with him, with anyone over the age of 18 if she was being honest. She was always working with the kids or in the last year's case, she was vacationing with the kids. It had been so long since she'd done something as simple as this. Of course, deep down she was on high alert. No hero talked just for the sake of talking. She didn't hear him move closer to her but the feeling of his eyes on her remained. She kept her relaxed pose as her eyes stayed on the civilians below, she didn't want to cause him to attack. Not yet. "Why are you still in Japan? I thought thieves 'hit it and quit it' so to speak." Shina thought about his question and the possible answers she could give before she decided to be truthful, as much as she could be anyway.

"Maybe I liked the persistence of some of the heroes here." She paused before a wry smirk twisted her lips. "Mirko looks amazing in her leotard. Especially those legs? I'd give anything to know her workout regime."

"No love for me there? And all this time I thought we had something special." Shina chuckled as she fully turned to face him. She kept one leg up on the ledge while the other dangled below. She kept her arms around her knee in a relaxed manner as she took in the winged hero who simply stood there. His hands in his pockets while he leaned back on one leg casual-like. She didn't doubt for one moment that he wouldn't attack at a moment's notice if possible.

"Don't get me wrong here bird boy, you certainly have your own flavor I'd like to sample, but I thought you didn't go for criminals like me? What changed?" Shina tilted her head making note of his body language as he gave a too wide smile.

"You just keep showing up and blindsiding me. Literally and figuratively." Shina hummed in question. She didn't fully trust that answer from him. His body language was too exaggerated for her to feel comfortable with it.

"I'm sorry about blinding you when we first met." Shina said, noting how he twitched just slightly. "I don't like going 'Supernova' in such close quarters, but I figured it was the best plan at the time. Especially since your feathers kept getting in my mouth!" The look she gave him had him jolting as he smiled.

"I accept the apology. Truth be told I don't get a lot of apologies from criminals, so you've caught me off guard here sunshine."

"Don't call me that." Shina snapped out. She regretted her outburst a second later as he had no doubt caught onto something he didn't know about yet. Everything she'd collected in terms of Hawks background revealed that he was fast on the uptake. Anything she let slip, he would probably remember and use against her later.

"Sunfire." He stated slowly. Shina sighed, looking at where she assumed his eyes were. His glasses deflected light so she couldn't tell where they were. "You dodged the question. Why are you still here? Not many places you can steal from at this point." That was true. She was going to have to do jobs out of town if this job took much longer.

"My departure has been delayed due to the recent influx of villains." Shina stated firmly, answering his question. "I'm sure you're aware of the League of Villains?" The immediate tension when she said the name of the League seemed to draw an aura of discontent around them.

"Isn't everyone? I didn't realize they would have an impact on someone big time like you."

"You flatter me." Shina snorted. "I'm not big time like the older generation."

"Just more cautious." Hawks ventured. "I've done more research on you and your clan."

"And?" Shina prompted him to continue when he trailed off. "Did we meet your expectations of 'criminals'?"

"Not fully." Hawks stated. "I'll admit there are discrepancies. I don't know of any criminals who would steal the Vatican Pope's ring and then return it days later." Shina nodded before she chuckled at the memory.

"Eclipse got too brash and wanted to do a high stakes mission. I allowed it because I was curious." Half-truth, Shina had wanted to try and get into the Vatican's files to read their 'spiritual texts'. "We didn't want the karma or 'negative vibes' so we took it back."

"Unusual for a group of thieves who also stole the infamous Hope Diamond necklace." Shina had to smile at that.

"I wanted to know what it felt like holding something that valuable. The hype wasn't worth it. But the money? Yeah that was better."

"So you steal these priceless objects and what? Just use it to continue to live your fun, free life without consequences? That doesn't seem right." Shina rolled her eyes at his judgmental tone.

"I don't have to explain myself to you Hero." Shina stood up. "I may not be saving people's lives or being used as a front for a 'caring and strict government' like your Commission."

"But?" He asked when Shina fell silent. She blinked.

"Huh? Oh no, that was it." Shina smiled when he seemed agitated at her response. Her watch beeped making her tap it to see her time was up. "Ah, as much as I want to continue to talk about this, I have to go."

"Are you working with the League?" Hawks asked. Shina tilted her head.

"Why do you want to know so badly Hawks? Are you working on a case regarding the League?"

"No." She didn't believe him. Shina sighed as she took a step back to sit on the ledge again. As much as she would have liked to continue this conversation, she was on a deadline. "Don't you dare think of leaving." He ordered as he saw her leaning back. Shina winked at him before she indeed fell backwards. Or at least she would have if Hawks hadn't used his feathers to fly at her and grab her arms.

"I wasn't going to leave! I was merely leaning backwards!" A loud boom in the distance went off making Hawks look that way as Sunfire went Supernova again. Hawks flinched backwards but Sunfire took this chance. Sunfire flicked her hand to the side, a rope of light formed that Sunfire used to whip out to Hawks body. The rope bound his wings against his body turning him into a mummy with light instead of gauze. Hawks fell over with a grunt. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry about this Hawks. Orders are orders, I'm sure you of all people can understand that right? What with the Commission always ordering you around?" Sunfire tilted her head to the side as more booms went off. "If it makes you feel better the bombs your hearing aren't deadly. Just distractions. I rigged them myself. Why don't you stay here and reflect or meditate? I promise no civilians are going to get hurt."

"You expect me to take your word?" Hawks asked.

"I mean, I did say I was just leaning backwards." Sunfire stated with a shrug. She activated her invisibility as she hopped onto the ledge. She narrowed her eyes, using the new prototype contact lens to zoom into the bombs going on. Luckily there weren't that many civilians out, but it would be good if she kept an eye on things. After all, the next three bombings were supposed to go off in 20–30-minute intervals after this one. Sunfire sighed. "This is going to be a long night."

~James POV~

The training camp continued with its merciless workouts. Everyone in Class 1A and 1B were worked tirelessly, pushed to their limits until they practically fell over into their beds at night. James himself had never been able to make more than 3 Chaos Spheres in an hour but now he was pushing himself to make a fifth sphere at the 50-minute mark of his hours. His Chaos claws were the same way but those he found he could push to hold active for about 20 minutes if he really pushed it. Otherwise, he was only able to activate the claws for 10-15 minutes if he needed to use them on a target. His own physical form was pushed in the afternoons as Aizawa had him training on his balance and speed.

Considering all the in depth training he was having to do; he was surprised that the League's infiltration didn't occur until the third night.

"Any idea what kind of training this is going to be?" James asked Iida once everyone had finished eating and the cleanup process had begun.

"I'm not sure. However, whatever it may be, I'm sure our teachers have prepared the best training for us possible." James hummed at that.

"Bellies are filled up and plates are put away!" Pixie-Bob announced. "It's time for…"

"The test of courage!" Mina yelled in excitement. James had to give a soft smile despite his want to remain stoic.

"Simp~" Yuto sang softly under his breath as he passed by James. James hissed lowly at his cousin brother. Yuto and Kana had taken to teasing him about his feelings for Mina for the last few weeks. It was annoying but, looking at Mina's freak out as Aizawa told her and the others who had failed that they were going to be doing extra lessons with him instead of the 'fun walk in the woods', it was almost worth it.

"NOOOOOO!" James sweat-dropped as he watched Aizawa literally drag Mina, Denki, Sato and Kirishima away with his bandages.

"You wanna go save her?" Kana asked standing beside him. James scoffed.

"No. She failed fair and square. She needs additional training if she's going to be a good hero." Mina's Quirk was strong on her own, it was just the strategy that Mina needed help with. James hoped that additional training with Aizawa helped her get some techniques.

"Right, everyone listen up!" Mandalay called, getting everyone in Class A's attention. "Class B will be on the offensive first. They're already in position and standing by. Class A will head into the forest in teams of two, one team every three minutes. You'll find name cards at the halfway point. Grab yours and head back here. It should only take 15 minutes for each team, start to finish."

"Revelry in the dark." James heard Tokoyami say.

"You ever play hide and seek in the dark Tokoyami?" Yuto asked. "I think you and Dark Shadow would have a lot of fun."

"The scarers aren't allowed to make direct contact. They'll just be using their Quirks to startle you as best as you can."

"SO GET CREATIVE!" The Pussycats all chimed in. "Whichever class makes the other wet their pants more wins!"

"Huh," James chuckled. "Should just give us the win now. Between Tokoyami and Yuto we win easily." James glanced across to Yuto who had an eager look on his face. Yuto didn't get excited about many things. The only time James ever saw him excited to do something was when it included pranking or scaring someone. And Yuto was really good at scaring people from the shadows. Tokoyami on the other hand, James hadn't seen him try and be scary but he hoped Yuto was able to make a plan to help them win this. James had a score to settle with the loud blond from the other class.

"If we're going based on teams, who's on mine?" Kana asked.

"For the team placements we'll be drawing lots." Mandalay announced holding up a bowl with paper in it. "Who wants to be first?" Naturally James and Bakugou both stepped forward. James stuck his tongue out at Bakugou when he glared at James for his 'audacity'. The hostility was put to rest thanks to Ragdoll and Pixie-Bob who each took a paper from the bowl for them and just tossed it at them. James took one look at his partner and sighed.

"Deku you're with me." Midoriya's face scrunched up in confusion that cleared into a smile as James showed him the paper with his name on it.

"Oh cool. You know I've never really had a conversation with you alone." James raised an eyebrow as he thought back to all their encounters. James realized that Midoriya was right of course. Every interaction they'd had, there was usually someone else with them. Well, Shina had said Midoriya had 'main character' energy. He may as well make buddy-buddy relations if he hoped to stay in good graces. You know just in case he managed to win against Shigaraki and All For One later on.

"You're right. Hey do you mind me asking, what's up with you and the muttering thing you do?" Midoriya's face turned pink.

"Uh, sorry it's a bad habit of mine." James settled into listening the bean stalk nervous babble about his 'hobby' of essentially extreme people watching and analyzing their quirks. They'd found his notebooks in the beginning of the school year fascinating and had even stolen a few and made their own copies but it never hurt to see if Midoriya had added anything to them, or learned of how he'd gotten into the habit.

"You sure this extreme observation isn't a Quirk?" James asked as they walked into the forest. He'd interrupted Midoriya mid-ramble and it took a second for him to think about the question.

"Oh no! No it's not a Quirk. I don't have- I mean, I know my Quirk but it's not that." Midoriya nervously laughed. James narrowed his eyes as he caught that slip of the tongue. Midoriya was too innocent.

"What is your Quirk?" James asked.

"Uh, it's super punching and kicking. Not to mention the uh, air force." James nodded.

"I remember a while back Tsu mentioned you and All Might having somewhat similar Quirks."

"Uh n-no! A-All might and me? Psh, no. She must have gotten them m-mixed up." James could see the light sweat on Midoriya's face as he tried to get James to forget about the conversation a couple weeks back. It was supposedly impossible take on another's Quirk but then, James knew about All For One thanks to the info Shina had found. Quirks were like skittles to that monster. If he could forcefully take Quirks, then what was stopping logic from allowing a Quirk to be passed from one person to the next? Like a goblet that was drunk from and then passed on? Well if he was going to be thinking that then he supposed that it would be nice if those who drank from the goblet also refilled it, or maybe left behind a piece of themselves.

James shook his head from his confusing thoughts. He didn't know what the heck he was thinking about anymore and this whole conversation was having him thinking absurd things. Apparently Midoriya had fallen silent as well. James blamed his silence on the 'creepy, dark forest'. There were sounds of shrieks from a few of the girls a head and behind but James was more in tune with whatever was possibly following them.

"James?" Midoriya whispered.

"Yeah?" He asked, hearing a snap of a branch. His ears twitched on top of his head.

"There's someone behind us."

"There's someone on either side of us as well." James informed him. James honestly felt bad for the other class, their scare tactics were weak compared to Yuto and Shina's usual pranking. He was more scared of Shina's rendition of the Yuki-onna she pulled. "And they're not too quiet." This he spoke in a louder tone.

"ARRCCGGGH!" One of the Class 1B students yelled as he popped out of the forest. James raised an eyebrow at him.

"Really? That was weak."

"Hey!" Midoriya squeaked as he bumped into James back. James turned his head to see two girls giggling at Midoriya's scared face.

"Dude, I told you there were others." James stated.

"It's dark." Midoriya offered as an explanation. James rolled his eyes.

"Come on Deku." James dragged the green stalk onwards.

"Do you think anyone else will try and scare us?" Midoriya asked.

"I don't hear anyone else." James announced. True to form no one from Class 1B was around them. Anyone James heard from up head he warned Midoriya about and they either ran past them or called out to them to have a better scare with whoever was behind them. When they reached the halfway point, there were some cards hanging from strings on the trees.

"This was surprisingly easy." Midoriya smiled as he found his card.

"Hm. Let's head back." James said as he grabbed his name card. "This was way too easy, I'm a bit bummed."

"Well there wasn't really that much scaring going on." Midoriya stated. "You heard everyone before they had a chance to scare us."

"Excuses, excuses. We need to do better than them when it's there turn. My pride as a Professional Prankster won't stand for this injustice."

"You do pranks?" Midoriya asked.

"Eh, I'm not as adept as Yuto but I can do my own jump scares. You'll see what I mean when it's our turn to scare the others." James stated plainly.

"Cool. I'm not very scary myself."

"All you need is some fake blood and that crazy look in your eyes when you start muttering about a new Quirk you've analyzed. You'll be able to pull off psychotic easier with that."

"Oh, uh, cool?" Midoriya nervously smiled. James nose twitched as he came to a stop. Midoriya stopped beside him. "Uh, James? Why'd you stop?" James didn't answer as he was too focused on sniffing the air. There was a slightly too sweet scent in the air that made the back of his throat gag. The wind shifted the smell away from him thankfully but then came the scent of burning wood. "James?" James tuned back to stare Deku in the face.

"We need to run. Now." James didn't give Midoriya any chance to ask any questions as he grabbed them and started to haul them forward out of the forest. The League of Villains was on the move. He had to warn Yuto and Kana before they got caught in the fight.

~Yuto's POV~

"I mean I know you guys aren't professionals, but you should at least be able to take some tips on how to better scare us." Yuto was giving some of the Class 1B kids tips on how to better scare Class 1A while his partner, Bakugou waited impatiently on the side. He was glaring at the 1B students making Yuto's point stick unintentionally. "No offense guys but we've had to go up against real villains so you guys in comparison aren't really scary. Use your Quirks to pull of something! This is just sad, I'm sorry."

"And what would you do?" One of the 1B students asked. Yuto grinned as he turned to them. He heard the slight 'eep' as he kept the smile on his face.

"I would show you, but then it wouldn't really be scary now would it? I suppose you'll have to wait until your turn. But I will warn you, I don't play around when it comes to scaring naughty children~" Yuto let the growl in his voice fade as he turned back into his usual bored self.

"Oi! We need to go weirdo." Bakugou barked.

"Okay!" Yuto happily stopped terrorizing the 1B students to follow Bakugou. The 1B students were frozen in place, no doubt processing how deep Yuto was able to make his voice drop. It did cause some concerns to those who had never heard it before.

"Did you have to freaking give them tips?" Bakugou sulked.

"How will they learn?" Yuto asked innocently. "If they can't scare us then I can't take them seriously."

"You freaking have those shades on. You can see in the dark." Bakugou growled. Yuto chuckled as he swiped across his eyes, forming his Shadow Vision again. Everything became so much lighter allowing Yuto to see in the dark easily. He'd been leading their walk as much as Bakugou allowed.

"Kana could do a better job at scaring me with these on. They have no chance if they're all out in the open like they are now."

"We were hidden!" One of the 1B guys called at them. He was ignored as both Yuto and Bakugou continued on the path.

"Tch. This is stupid." Yuto smirked.

"You're just mad because they scared you." Bakugou grit his teeth as he glared at Yuto before turning away from the still smiling Yuto. "Aw don't be a sore loser Bakugou. It's all in good fun." Yuto and Bakugou continued to walk in relative silence until Yuto grabbed at Bakugou's arm.

"Oi! Let go of me-"

"Katsuki stop." Yuto interrupted Bakugou's angry outburst. Before Bakugou could no doubt yell at Yuto for using his first name Yuto lowered his Shadow Vision. "I can see smoke up a head."

"What someone finally giving you a challenge?" Yuto frowned.

"I can still see through smoke. This isn't normal smoke." As if on cue, the wispy smoke that Yuto was seeing leeched from the woods to their left. The path up ahead was completely covered from what Yuto had observed.

"So what? It's probably just someone's Quirk." Yuto acknowledged he may have had a point on that front. They didn't know everyone in 1B's Quirk and Yuto remembered finding the information out but that was weeks ago.

"Be careful." Yuto ordered. "If it's a sleeping agent I'm leaving your ass."

"How are you a hero?" Bakugou growled. Yuto smiled.

"I'm not a hero yet." The two boys continued to watch the smoke as it approached them. Yuto's surprisingly strong grip on Bakugou's arm kept him from going to close to the smoke. Yuto wished he had James sense of smell as he wasn't sure what to make of this. A moment later he was so glad he didn't have James smell as he caught a whiff of the smoke and Yuto's eyes instantly started to water. "Bakugou get back." Yuto called as he jumped backwards.

"Don't freaking order me around!" Bakugou yelled as he too stepped back. "Why the hell would those freaking cats put gas here?"

"I don't think it is them." Yuto coughed. Another voice coughing an weakly calling for help caught Yuto's notice. "You hear that?"

"Yeah. Someone's in there." Yuto hesitated to go closer. If this smoke was here then that obviously meant the League of Villains were acting tonight. Yuto wasn't sure if this was the originator of the gas luring them closer or if this was someone from 1B or 1A. Yuto swiped his fingers across his vision to gain any semblance of aid.

Through the smoke in the forest Yuto could see someone staggering towards them. Their hands pressed against their mouth. Yuto was certain about who this was as he called out to Bakugou.

"It's someone from 1B."

"Oi! You idiot get over here!" Bakugou yelled. Yuto started to use his shadows to form a makeshift mask that would essentially filter the gas out. He started to make two more for Bakugou and the 1B boy.

"Go get him." Yuto ordered as he tossed the original mask to Bakugou. "I'm not done making these masks." Bakugou caught the mask and latched it to his face.

"Don't give me orders."

"Then get moving!" Yuto snapped. Bakugou's grumbling sounded his location as Yuto focused on making two other gas masks. The gas by this point had reached him and was causing his throat to itch terribly. Yuto quickly put his mask on and waited for Bakugou to return with the classmate walking around in the smoke.

"I got him." Bakugou grunted as he and the other guy stumbled from the bushes. Yuto quickly moved to help support the 1B student and put a mask on him.

"Can you carry him?" Yuto asked.

"Why don't you do it?" Bakugou sniffed. Yuto sighed and explained patiently.

"One, I'm stick thin with lean muscles. Two, your muscle mass is bigger. Three, I can see in the dark. Four, you can throw him if needed while I can distract whoever which would allow you to use your loud and noisy bombs if we run into whoever made this smoke. And five, I thought of the plan so I shouldn't have to carry him."

"Grr, whatever." Bakugou growled. Yuto counted that as a victory and squinted at Bakugou. "We should get back to base." Yuto nodded.

"Let's go." Yuto had only taken two steps when a clear female voice called out in his head.

'EVERYONE! LISTEN UP!' Yuto flinched at the sudden scare as Bakugou froze.

"Is this that crazy cat lady?" He muttered under his breath. Yuto snorted.

"Which one? There's three."

'We're under attack by two villains! There may be more out there! All those who can, should get to camp at once! If you encounter an enemy, don't engage! Just retreat!' Yuto guessed the League was making their move tonight. Guess this wasn't another practice run then. It would have been nice to get a heads up before this but he guessed Shina wasn't able to do so without alerting the teachers. James had been ahead of him by about twenty minutes. Kana and Todoroki were somewhere in between. As long as Kana didn't do anything to attract attention she would be fine. James had Midoriya so he was screwed. Yuto had Bakugou and the 1B student and they were closer to the entrance as they'd only started about ten minutes ago. They would reach the entrance in no time.

"We should get moving." Yuto stated. He formed his Shadow Vision glancing at the dark smoke rising up above. "Looks like something's on fire somewhere to the east of us."

"Hmph, I can't smell anything over this gas." Bakugou said. "No doubt it's a villain." Yuto nodded as he started walking. Bakugou followed behind him. Yuto continued to lead them towards the entrance to the loop but he paused after walking only a short distance. In front of him was a man that looked to be kneeling. "What'd you stop Nara?"

"There's someone in front of us." Yuto reported. "About 12 meters, give or take a meter. He's kneeling."

"Pretty, so pretty. No, this is work." The man spoke. His voice was even creepier than Shigaraki's voice. Yuto saw as the man started to stand, he left something pale on the floor. Yuto's shadow vision failed as his eyes widened in horror. It was a pale arm! This wasn't the first time he'd seen a severed limb. He'd seen a dead body before, but, this was supposed to be high school kids. Shina was going to be raging mad if this monster had killed a child.

"That's human." Was all he could manage to say.

"Pretty flesh. So enticing." Yuto grit his teeth. This man wasn't just a villain, he was a killer. Possibly a serial killer. In the back of Yuto's mind the voice that belonged to his Blackout persona spoke that Kana would have loved this. "Gotta do the job." The man spoke as he turned his head towards Yuto, Bakugou and the 1B student still unconscious.

"'Don't engage' huh?" Bakugou stated.

"In this instance, I believe they'll forgive us for this." Yuto stated in a hard tone as he formed his shadow daggers. Bakugou dropped the unconscious student to get into his fighting stance.

"Just stay outta my way." Bakugou ordered.

"Fat chance pyro." Yuto stated. The villain killer roared as jagged pieces of metal came flying out of his mouth towards the three students.

'What did I get myself into?' Yuto thought.

~Kana's POV~

"Kana!" Todoroki called out. "These should be the last of them." Kana nodded as she kept her portal open. Her hair was flying past, almost obscuring her vision of the gas, Todoroki, and the 1B students' they'd come across who had fallen to the gas. The winds from Commonwealth Bay were the only things keeping the mustard gas from getting close to them. It was their guess that whoever was controlling this gas was nearby but since they were told to 'not engage' they were simply doing rescue right now.

Kana grimaced as she felt the warmth in her hands fade. Her hands were shaking but thanks to the three days of practicing she'd been doing; they weren't too bad. Of course, Kana hadn't meant to keep her portals open this long but whenever she'd tried to close them, the gas seemed to rush towards them, hoping to overtake them in its fog once again.

"I can open a portal to the main house once I close this portal, but we have to be quick." Kana spoke.

"Can you open your portal directly underneath us?" Todoroki asked. "It's less likely the gas will have time to move in that way instead of throwing everyone in one by one." Kana could see the logic in that and mentally asked for their classmates forgiveness for the harsh treatment they were going to endure.

"I can but I'm going to need to concentrate hard if I don't want them to end up falling from higher up." Kana answered.

"Better a few bruises and scrapes than any further contact with the mustard gas." Todoroki stated. Kana couldn't argue with that logic. Kana quickly positioned her body to open the portal immediately after closing the current portal, however, another mental broadcast delayed her movements.

'Listen up Class 1A and 1B, Mr. Aizawa has given everyone permission to use their quirks to fight back. I repeat, if you are up against a villain, you have permission to fight back!'

"Could have made that suggestion a lot sooner." Kana grumbled.

'One of the villains targets has been identified! It's the student known as Kacchan! Everyone get that?! KACCHAN! Kacchan needs to avoid battle and not engage alone!' The mental update disappeared.

"Midoriya must have passed on the message." Todoroki stated. Kana agreed with him there.

"Bakugou and Yuto were behind us." Kana stated. "We've wandered pretty far off the beaten path but if we backtrack, or head for wherever the bombs are, we can meet up with them and help keep Bakugou out of the villains hands."

"You're not going to get to safety with them?" Todoroki asked, indicating the unconscious 1B students. Kana huffed as she cancelled her portal to Commonwealth Bay. She then opened a portal directly under the 1B students allowing them to fall through to the outside dinning area back at the main house. Kana then closed the portal before she gave Todoroki a fierce look.

"I'm not going to abandon my friends, especially not to villains! Bakugou is a jerk on the best of days but he's still my friend the way a grumpy cat is." Todoroki nodded once.

"I understand. We should get moving before the gas starts to get close." Kana nodded and the pair of them started to run back towards the forest path. Kana hoped Yuto and Bakugou hadn't passed their breaking off point just yet. If they had and they went the wrong way then that was it.

"Oh, and if you so much as repeat what I just said about Bakagou, I will burn all of your soba." Kana panted as they broke free from the trees and landed on the forest path.

"Consider me warned." Todoroki acknowledged. Kana grunted as she and Todoroki ran along the path towards the entrance of the forest 'maze'. Kana was really hoping that Bakagou and Yuto managed to not run into any trouble. Her hopes were dashed as she heard bombs coming from up ahead.

"Of course they'd manage to run into a villain." Kana huffed.

"We can take them if we combine our Quirks." Todoroki stated. "Get ready." Kana and Todoroki saw Bakugou fly backwards before he used his bombs to fly into the air. Jagged metal rods hit the area he had just moved from. Kana opened a portal in front of her and Todoroki allowing them to get closer much faster. Kana's eyes widened as she suddenly realized Yuto and Bakugou were fighting a man wrapped in black. Metal rods were coming out of his mouth, trying to impale both boys as they continued to dodge with their Quirks.

"Any chance you can get your ice to entrap that guy?" Kana asked. Todoroki didn't answer as ice formed on the ground and ran to the villain. The villain was faster than they had expected as he dodged Todoroki's ice. Kana formed a disc of her portal and threw it at the villain hoping to transport the villain in front of them far away. He dodged it as the portal flew past his head and fizzled out.

"More, show me flesh!" The villain spoke.

"Icyhot! How about making some fire?" Bakugou called.

"It might catch some of the trees on fire!" Todoroki called.

"We won't be able to see clearly if everything around us is on fire." Kana added in.

"Why don't you flood the area then?" Yuto shouted.

"We don't know who's around us." Kana shouted at him. Kana saw the flash of metal coming at her just before a thick wall of ice formed in front of her. The metal was still able to shoot through the ice. Kana's eyes widened as one of the metal rods managed to cut her right cheek.

"Pay attention!" Bakugou yelled at her. Kana jerked backwards as the ice shattered from the metal rods going back into the villains mouth. Yuto came right up to her, kneeling down beside her.

"You okay?" Yuto asked.

"Yeah." Kana nodded. "I thought they weren't supposed to hurt us."

"Yeah seems this one is a little mentally disturbed." Yuto answered. "He's obsessed with flesh." Kana watched as Todoroki and Bakugou fought against the villain. She kept watching the villain as he literally wiggled away from both boys. Despite being in a straight jacket the man was hard to pin down. Every time the boys tried to get close he would use his metal rods to force them backwards or he himself would pull back.

"Yuto can you go into the shadows and hold him still?"

"I tried that. Too many shadows around and he moves too fast." Yuto stated. Kana groaned. "We're just too slow to catch him."

"Unfortunately." Kana stated. "If James was here maybe we'd stand a chance. He's faster than Bakugou."

"That furface is slower than my slowest attack!" Bakugou yelled. Yuto and Kana deadpanned as they realized Bakugou had heard them talking.

"What's that sound?" Yuto asked, turning. Kana frowned about to ask him what sound he was talking about, when a new voice came.

"There! I see ice. They must be fighting!" The voice that called out had everyone freezing in shock. Kana turned around. Her eyes widened as she realized that Shoji was running towards them. Behind him the trees were being uprooted and cast aside as a large dark shadow with red eyes roared.

"Bakugou! Todoroki! One of you please, give us some light!"

"SHOJI WHAT THE HECK!"

"KACCHAN!"