Zenos was, if he was honest, disappointed. Either All Might had to choose between speed and strength, or he was getting weaker and compensating by moving faster. Either way, while each punch early on in the fight could have broken the dragon's scales, the ones he was unleashing now could break Zenos's bones if they hit. Oh he was moving fast enough that Zenos had been reduced to dodging and parrying each punch as quickly as he could, don't get him wrong. But when this was supposed to be the strongest man on earth, he wasn't particularly impressed.
Tossing out Storm, he grabbed Swell at his waist and closed his eyes, breathing in. Stepping around one punch, then the second, Zenos unsheathed the sword and slashed for All Might, who dodged in a blur, before letting go of the sword and letting it fly into the air. Rushing for Storm, he closed the gap just as quickly and swung again, only for the attack to be dodged a second time and the blade to join the first in the air as he rushed to where they both were falling… just to find All Might waiting there for him with an earthshaking punch. The scales of the dragon formed on instinct along the impact point, dulling the punch to a mild sting.
Juking around All Might, Zenos caught Storm and struck his arm, only for the blade to bounce off harmlessly. Zenos lept back and caught Swell, swinging both blades for All Might. The Number One Hero's eyes flashed blue as he caught both blades with his hands, pulling back a foot. The scales of the dragon hardened over his gut milliseconds before impact.
Even with them, he was fairly certain something ruptured when All Might drove a superpowered kick into his gut, the scales definitely shattered under the force. Zenos went skipping away from the hero, flipping as he did so and grinding to a halt with both swords in his hand. Feeling whatever had ruptured writhe and began to heal itself, he pushed the strength of the dragon into his arms, scales crawling out from his heart and along it until they were both a smokey black-grey. Sheathing Swell, he drew it immediately after, a blade of wind swinging out and curving for All Might.
The Symbol of Peace didn't flinch, just raised one hand and snapped his fingers. The air around him exploded into a tempest of wind that forcibly dispelled the slash from Swell. A small smile flickered across Zenos's lips, "Yes, that's what I have been looking for, All Might. Show me your all."
"You won't escape, Zenos," All Might said.
"That you think you could stop me," Zenos drawled, before closing the gap between them and swinging Storm and Swell at him in a pincer move, "is quite amusing."
— X Hizashi X—
Hizashi stepped into the USJ alongside the other teachers, watching All Might and, oh fuck was that who he thought it was? Shit, they were gonna be lucky if this didn't turn into even more of a media shitshow than it already was. Zenos the Hunter was on their school grounds, had basically disemboweled one of their students-
Didn't Shouta have Drusilla's kid as one of his students? Please tell him it wasn't them, please- oh, who was he kidding, none of the students would be good, but if it was him, Endeavour's kid or the Yaoyorozu daughter there was gonna be a special hell to pay, even if they pulled through. Hizashi didn't even want to consider the hell if they didn't. Just a break-in was gonna feed the media for months, a death and especially the death of a hero kid, would see heads roll.
Snipe pulled out his gun and aimed it at the blue haired man with a hand across his face at the exact same time Hizashi inhaled. All Might was in a lock with Zenos, blood leaking down a pair of cuts on the sides of his neck as he pushed back the swords crossed at his neck with his bare arms, blood leaking from them too. The bang of the gun was drowned out by Hizashi's scream, "HHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYY!"
People all over the USJ staggered and clutched their ears as the shout hit them hard enough to cause cracks in the glass dome above. Ears bled, villains staggered. And Zenos? Just glanced up at him with pink eyes. He broke his lock with All Might, turning and walking towards the blue haired man as shadows blossomed around them both, leaving nothing but drops of All Might's blood left behind and the Symbol of Peace sagged and began to shrink. Crap, he was that close to being out of time? Thank goodness they had got here when they did, All Might dying would have been the end of the world.
— X Alphinaud X—
Alphinaud was busy sketching another design onto a piece of drafting paper when the door to his classroom was slammed open by Alisaie, causing his pencil to skip across the straight edge he was using. Alisaie scanned the room for half a second before finding him, marching past the gathering crowd and hosting Alphinaud to his feet by the front of his uniform and beginning to drag him towards the door, "You're coming with me. Now."
"There's a lockdown going on!" Alphinaud yelped, digging his heels into the ground in a futile effort to stop moving. Alisaie just tugged him harder, forcing him into movement, "Miss Midnight said to wait for- wait, why are you wearing your Hero outfit? Weren't you supposed to be on some field trip today- is that blood?"
Sure enough, staining the lap of Alisaie's outfit was a red liquid that filled the room with the sharp, distinct smell of blood.
"Don't care," Alisaie started, answering each question in a machine gun candace, "because of that field trip, it went very, very wrong which is the reason for this lockdown, and because one of my friends is about two steps away from death, now hurry the hell up before I decide to carry you to him."
Alphinaud's jaw dropped and he stopped fighting, walking behind Alisaie even if she didn't let up her grip on him, continuing to drag him through the halls of UA. Finally, Alphinaud said, quietly, "You want me to heal him?"
"I wouldn't ask you if I didn't think it was the only way," Alisaie said, "but he doesn't have the stamina to go through Recovery Girl's Quirk right now and- and- he's going to die, Alphinaud. If we, if you, don't do something he will die. I know you don't want to go into the medical profession but you're the only person I can trust and-"
"I'll have to see how he is," Alphinaud said, "but if he's as hurt as you say, of course I'll help. 'To ignore the plight of those one might conceivably save is not wisdom─'"
"'-it is indolence,'" Alisaie finished alongside him, "I don't think Pepere ever expected us to… face that so literally."
"He probably expected you to at some point, with wanting to be a Hero since you were a kid," Alphinaud pointed out as he continued to follow her along, "and he's always been a strong supporter of more lax Quirk regulations."
"Yeah," Alisaie said as they stopped in front of the nurse's office, a sign on it declaring surgery was in process. Well, that added more credence to her claim.
"E-excuse me?" Alisaie and Alphinaud turned to see a girl standing next to a blond haired boy in the hallway leading to the Heroics wing. She wasn't the most memorable person Alphinaud had ever met. Short, with neck length, puffy brown hair that covered her eyes, hands wringing in front of her. What did stand out, was the pair of white horns poking through her hairline, just barely. A padjal, here? "There's, there's someone really hurt in there, isn't there?"
— X Kinoko X—
Kinoko sat ramrod straight as a heavy presence entered the room, passing by each of her classmates without noticing and settled in her head. Something old and powerful, which had only visited her a couple of times before. It had mostly been content to let her live her life, be who she wanted to be. A hero who was also an an idol, not a druid-
Rise. Kinok-O.
It was just Kinoko. She wasn't, she didn't-
The voice rumbled like an ice shelf grinding against itself, sending Kinoko doubling over with her hands over her horns.
Hunter. Dying. Still useful.
Where? She couldn't just leave UA because-
Here. The voice like an earthquake said, causing Kinoko to swallow bile from the strain. She wasn't used to this, she wasn't-
"Kinoko!" Monoma called suddenly through the haze and was leaning over where she was curled on the ground clutching her head over the small white horns that grew among her hair, "Are you alright?"
"I, I need to go to the nurse," the girl said, the grinding in her head dulling at that declaration. Did they realize they were hurting her? Or was it something else?
"Can it wait?" Kendo asked softly, crouching down next to Kinoko, "one of us can bring you if you have to go, but we're technically in a lockdown…"
"I need to go," Kinoko insisted.
"I'll take her," Monoma offered, helping Kinoko to her feet, "Come on, Komori, we can use your Quirk if there's an actual break in."
Would the spirits even let him borrow her powers in an emergency?
Leaning on Monoma, Kinoko followed him out of the classroom and down the halls towards the nurse's office, the tension in her head lightening with each step. Finally, they turned the hall to a sight that caused her stomach to flip as Monoma stopped dead with an open jaw. A pair of twins were talking in front of the nurse's office, where a sign was plainly declaring a surgery in process. One of them, a girl, Kinoko thought, wearing a red dress also had on a pair of red stained shorts that carried a heavy scent through the hall. Blood.
"E-excuse me?" Kinoko called, getting their attention and stepping forwards, ""There's, there's someone really hurt in there, isn't there?"
The girl glanced back at the door with a nervous look on her face, before nodding. Well, here came everything.
"I can heal them, I think," Kinoko offered, and the last echoes of pain faded from her skull, replaced with a rush of calm, "I'm a-"
"Pajal," the boy said, nodding to her horns.
"Padjal?" Kinoko asked, "You mean Tsunomikoto-?"
"Now isn't the time to discuss language barriers," the girl said, pushing open the door and storming inside, the boy following behind her. Kinoko, after a second, followed behind him to see the boy laying on a bed with Recovery Girl suturing a massive gash on his side shut. She looked up, eyes narrowing behind her visor and opening her mouth, "I brought some people with healing Quirks."
"I thought yours let you grow mushrooms?" Monoma asked Kinoko, staring at the boy laying there with a stitched up injury across his face and a blood feed running into him.
"That's just what I use it for because I like mushrooms," Kinoko corrected, feeling healing energy rise up at the same moment a small fox-like creature landed on the bed next to the unconcous boy.
"Normally I'd refuse on legal grounds," Recover Girl said grimly, "but I really don't have room to argue if we want him to live to see tomorrow, come on over."
— X Tomura X—
Tomura was beside himself with anger, wanting to destroy this arrogant team killing shit stai- "All Might would be dead right now if you hadn't killed Nomu!"
"Are you still on about that?" Zenos sighed, leaning against Kurogiri's bar and examining one of his swords and pulling out a textured rock, "I don't recall ever agreeing to the use of that Nomu in my hunt."
"Your hunt, your hunt!" Tomura spat, marching towards Zenos with an open hand, "This was my debut! My chance to kill All Might!"
The sword span suddenly, stopping in front of Tomura's neck as Zenos stared at him with dispassionate eyes. Tomura stopped moving, feeling the tip of the blade pressing against his trachea, "If you wanted to claim All Might's head for your own, you should have done it on your own instead of relying on trickery and other people. But you didn't, you hired me, and I do still expect my payment. You have no room to complain about my methods when you couldn't do the job yourself."
"Your methods killed Nomu! It would have beat All Might without your help!"
"Then perhaps you should have considered not hiring me," Zenos said, "if you were so confident in his ability to win, why did you bother to recruit us all?"
"I needed a party of cannon fodder to wear him down!" Tomura snarled, reaching for the sword, only to find the other one drawn in a flash and pressing against his wrist hard enough to draw blood. The blade pointed at his neck span until it was resting on his left wrist.
"So you thought me fodder?" Zenos said, sounding more amused than anything, "You really thought I, who have defeated multiple Number One heroes across the globe, was cannon fodder, Tomura Shigaraki? It sounds to me as if you underestimated my worth, and am now throwing a tantrum that I did not lie down and lose so your dead pet could claim the victory. Because hold no mistake, if Nomu had killed All Might, that is how the world would remember it. Nomu killed All Might, not yourself. Never yourself. You would be the leader of the League of Villains, but forever play second fiddle to your mindless pet. Just as you would to me if I had killed Toshinori Yagi."
"That's enough," Master's voice came over the speaker, "Stand down, both of you."
"But-!"
"There's no point, Tomura. Zenos merely did as we hired him for. To fight All Might and test his strength. That the Nomu died is unfortunate, but ultimately a price I am willing to pay. Would you say All Might has grown weaker, Zenos?"
"He weakened considerably over the course of the fight, beyond certain surges of strength, yes," Zenos drawled without moving the swords from their place threatening Tomura's hands.
"Very well, thank you for that information," Master said, "it's very enlightening. May I ask why you didn't kill All Might?"
"There is no fun in my hunt if I kill prey that is less than one hundred percent."
"And what about that boy," Tomura spat, "you wanted Kurogiri to warp him back to UA!"
"It is rare to find someone willing to give their entire being to stopping me," Zenos said casually, "he has earned my interest, and I wish to see him survive long enough to become my prey once again.
"Is that all you care about? Your damn hunts?"
"It's a spark of brilliance in this drab world," Zenos said, "You play your games, plot your plots, and I have my hunts. We all have our interests, Tomura."
"I do believe it is time for us to part ways, however," Master said, "it is clear that you and Tomura can not work together. I will uphold our end of the contract, of course, I merely request that you do not reveal our location to anyone."
"So long as I am paid as you promised, the location has already been forgotten," Zenos said.
"Very good, Kurogiri, bring him the sword," Kurogiri opened a warp gate behind them, a sword sheathed in a purple sheath fell onto the counter. Zenos finally let up his stance against Tomura to turn and pick up the blade, drawing it to examine it. It was far longer than the other swords he had, "the Ame-no-Habakiri, plundered during the golden age of Quirks, as I promised."
"And so our contract comes to an end," Zenos said, unsheathing the sword and spinning the red blade, "Kurogiri, open the portal, anywhere not immediately lethal in Japan will do, but if you know where some disposable peons are, that would be perfect. I have a sword to test."
Tomura clenched his fists as he watched Zenos disappear. He'd kill him, one day.
— X AN X—
Shrugs felt like a good place to end it, it was that or Izuku waking up to Inko and Drusilla and that just wasn't working. But yes, Izuku is no longer in immediate danger, though he's still gonna be out of combat commission for a couple of weeks. And yes, white mage has been revealed, bet you didn't see that coming, huh?
Thoughts? Good? Bad? Meh?
