Chapter Five
A Moment
The television had barely been discernible over the noise of the small electric fan perched above the counter as she'd paid for her smoothie, but Nomi had still taken interest in the old program they were running on the Hero Channel.
"Cadaver?" she said aloud as she handed her money to the cashier. She peered over his balding head at the screen that displayed a handsome young man dressed in all black with a red cape. The byline underneath his picture read CATCHING UP WITH THE HELLISH HERO: CADAVER! "Odd name for a hero."
The cashier looked over his shoulder, following her gaze. "Huh? Oh, yes, him. I heard he's going into retirement soon. Must be why they're actually doing a program on him."
"Retirement?" Nomi echoed. Her receipt printed with a dry wheeze, almost lost to the air when the fan oscillated toward them before the cashier pinned it down with a stubby thumb. "But he's so young!"
The cashier shrugged. "Age isn't necessarily the most important thing to pros. Cadaver was never that popular anyway due to all the controversy surrounding him. I mean, Hellish Hero? Cadaver? Those don't seem like hero names at all. And his Quirk and costume don't help."
"What's his Quirk?" Nomi asked, her eye transfixed on the hero.
"Infernal Surge, is what they call it," he said, not-so-subtly shoving the receipt in her hand when she kept staring. "Something about shadow-flames? Definitely hellish if you ask me. More like a villain than a hero."
Nomi touched a finger to her eyepatch. "Right…"
She'd rushed home from the store to flip on her television at home, her smoothie all but forgotten as she caught the tail-end of the program on the pro hero Cadaver.
"Before we let you go, Cadaver, is there anything you'd like to say to any potential future heroes watching?" asked the interviewer.
The hero Cadaver sat across from her in the studio chair. His costume truly reminded Nomi of a knight from Hell. His black hair and black eyes lined with even more black added to the effect, but his smile was kind, even rueful, as he spoke to the camera. Nomi felt like he was speaking directly to her through the screen.
"Sure," he said. "I'd tell any kid to embrace their Quirk. Society will push back against those whose Quirks aren't necessarily considered 'good' or 'heroic', but I say that's crap. Anyone can be a hero no matter what their Quirk is. The only thing that truly matters is how you use your Quirk. You can choose to protect others or harm others. That decision is what makes a hero."
Nomi sat on her living room floor, stunned, as the interviewer signed off. She looked around the small apartment she and her father had just moved to, at the unpacked boxes that contained their belongings, her mother's conspicuously absent. She then looked out the window to the bustling city, and beyond that, the endless blue of the clear sky. It was only then that she realized a tear had leaked from her eye.
"Anyone can be a hero no matter what their Quirk is."
"You can choose to protect others or harm others. That decision is what makes a hero."
"You still think you can be a hero with a demon eye like that?" her mother's cruel voice mocked. "Don't make me laugh. You'll never be anything more than a curse to others."
No, Nomi thought, her hands fisting in her lap. I'm not just a curse. You're wrong.
Maybe this was what she needed. A new start in a different part of the city, away from her mother and the venom in her breath. A reminder from a pro hero with a frightening power like her own that she didn't have to settle for anything less. She wanted to be a hero. Even after her Quirk manifested, she'd clung to that faint hope, cradling the small flicker of it in her heart for years. Maybe she didn't have to accept the fate that her mother had condemned her to.
Maybe she didn't have to be cursed anymore.
The screams multiplied as she swept her gaze over the advancing villains. One by one, they froze in place after looking into her demon eye. Some screamed while others only whimpered, but it was evident that each one was witnessing the unfolding of their worst fears from the paralyzed looks of fright on their faces.
When the advancing villains had been immobilized, Nomi spun on her heel and took off running as fast as she could. The effect of her Quirk wouldn't last long, and she needed to find a safe place to hide and think of a plan before they snapped out of it. She'd briefly thought of taking the villains down while they were still frozen, but the numbers were hardly in her favor—she didn't think she could keep the others at bay long enough to fight one of the villains on her own. No, she needed time to think of how to escape this place, especially as the fire continued to rage around her. She was already slick with sweat, and her mouth tasted like ash. She wouldn't last long here no matter if she fought or not.
The fake cityscape blistered with heat and flames as she ran through the smoke-filled streets, keeping her hand pressed firmly over her nose and mouth to ward off the majority of the smoke. It did little to help her breathe, but that became a low priority on her list when she heard the villains begin to shout and roar behind her as they pursued, her Quirk having worn off.
She spotted an office building that looked untouched and dashed to it. She tested the door handle as fast as possible before ducking inside when she determined there was no fire on the other side. She moved quickly through the mock reception space and lowered her hand, gulping down air yet untainted by the smoke. The villains still sounded far off, but undoubtedly, they would find her soon. She pressed deeper into the building until she heard a muffled scrape behind her, like a shoe scuffing the polished tiled floor.
She spun around just as a large force slammed into her side, knocking the precious air she had just inhaled from her lungs and sending her to the ground with a grunt of surprise. She rolled instinctively, leaping to her feet and raising her hands, ready to swing, but before she could, her attacker said, "Katsuragi?"
"Ojiro?" she said in disbelief as her classmate came into view, his thick, fleshy tail lashing behind him. "You're here too?"
The boy nodded, his blond hair sticking to his forehead, the rest of his face covered in sweat and soot, along with his white martial arts-type costume.
"I thought I was the only one from our class here," he said, gesturing to the dome of the conflagration zone they were trapped in. "That shadowy guy…he must have some kind of a Warping Quirk. He transported us here and split us up."
Nomi nodded, her gut clenching. "We're not the only ones here. There are about a dozen villains out there. They were ready to attack me, so they must have orders to harm us."
She didn't say her other thought aloud, remembering the villain covered in hands and his words about a couple of dead kids: Or to kill us.
Ojiro swallowed thickly. "Are they really here to kill All Might?"
"I don't know," she admitted after a long moment. "But I don't see that happening."
"What about us?" He glanced around the abandoned building, and she ignored the sharp note of fear in his voice. "What are we going to do?"
"We need to get out of here," she said. "Find the others. Regroup with them and Thirteen or Aizawa. If that guy warped us to this zone, he must've warped everyone else to the other zones to split us up and make us easier to pick off."
"How?" he asked. "There are two of us and a dozen villains, from what you said. How can we go up against them? This was just supposed to be training!"
"Ojiro, hey," she said, grabbing his arm. "This is no time to panic, you hear me? Save it for later. Right now, we just need to think of a way to get the hell out of here."
"This is so messed up," he said, his voice small.
She laughed weakly. "Yeah. Yeah, no shit."
"O-Ojiro?" a tremulous voice called out. Ojiro and Nomi were instantly on their guard again. "K-Katsuragi?"
"Aoyama?" Ojiro said, lowering his fists as the boy decked in shiny silver armor and glittering purple cape peered out at them from behind a pillar. His blue eyes were wide and dilated behind the red lenses of the stylish glasses he wore. "Are you all right?"
Aoyama nodded with a gulp, edging further into view. "Yes. You two?"
"Fine," Ojiro said at the same time that Nomi declared, "Could be better."
"Sorry," she said when the two boys gave her strange looks. "I joke when I'm under pressure."
Ojiro snorted. "That's one way of putting it."
"What are we going to do?" Aoyama squeaked.
He and Ojiro looked to her, and she realized with a painful squeeze deep in her gut that they were deferring to her. She shook her head before panic could set in; of course, they were. She was the oldest, the most experienced out of the three of them.
And now it was up to her to keep them alive.
"There has to be a back entrance to this place, right?" she asked, swiveling to face Aoyama.
The frightened boy nodded. "Yes. That's how I got in."
"What was the area you entered from like? A street? Was it on fire?"
"A street. The flames hadn't spread there yet, but there was a lot of smoke."
"That's our best bet, then." Her gaze traveled between the two boys, though it was impossible for them to see it behind her mask. "We make a run for it. Try to find a way out without engaging the villains in a straightforward fight."
Ojiro turned to Aoyama. "Aoyama! Your Quirk is Navel Laser, right? Do you think it could penetrate the walls of the dome?"
"Navel Laser?" Nomi repeated skeptically while Aoyama nodded.
"It'll take a while, but yes, I think it could," he said.
"Then we'll buy you time," Ojiro said, facing Nomi with a new glint of determination in his dark eyes. "However much we can."
"Agreed." Outside, the villains' taunting voices grew louder. "Let's go before they find us."
She took the lead, once again uncomfortably aware of the responsibility that settled on her shoulders like the world's most stifling blanket. Aoyama directed her to the back entrance, and she peeked out for a moment before determining they wouldn't be seen. "Come on. Stay quiet."
The heat somehow seemed hotter than before as they sprinted through smoke-clogged streets and alleys, though the roar of the fires around them muted their footsteps and labored breaths. Sweat rolled down Nomi's face and neck, from both adrenaline and heat. She led them toward the curved wall of the dome just ahead of them and prayed that Aoyama could get through it with his laser. Otherwise, she feared which force would take them out first: the villains or the fire. She wasn't sure which one she would prefer at that point.
They came to the wall without incident, though the jeers from the villains hadn't faded. She and Ojiro took up defensive positions as Aoyama walked uncertainly to the wall of the dome.
"Your time to shine, Aoyama," Nomi said over her shoulder as she faced the street lined with fake apartment buildings.
"Yes," he said weakly. "Shine. Yes…"
He put his arms behind his head, and the belt at his waist that she just thought was a blue orb for effect began to glow before releasing a searing burst of sparkling light—a laser that emitted from his bellybutton, just like Ojiro said. The laser pulsated and wobbled against the thick metal of the dome's walls, but little by little, the edges around where Aoyama's laser touched burned red and began to melt. The sparkling boy's knees quaked, but he kept directing his laser to the same spot.
Unfortunately, his laser was too bright. It garnered the attention of the villains, and in no time, their footsteps were sending vibrations through the ground right under Nomi's feet. She shared a hard look with Ojiro.
"Stay behind me," she ordered. "Or if you can't, then just don't make eye contact with me whatsoever, or else my Quirk will get you, too."
He gave a curt nod. "Anything else?"
"Yeah." She tapped the spot on her wrist, and her mask retracted behind her ears as the villains swarmed into view. "Don't let the screams get to you."
The first one to make eye contact with her was a stocky man clad in leather, like a biker. He froze in place with a gurgling scream, the blood draining from his face instantly. Her Quirk wasn't enough to deter the other villains behind him, though, and they split around him to come at her and Ojiro from both sides.
She swept her gaze over them in panic, momentarily shocking them just enough to slow their advance. "Ojiro!"
Luckily, the boy understood her desperate cry. "On it!"
Taking advantage of their foes' temporary lapse, he leaped forward with his tail and took down a woman with bright red hair with a swift kick to her chest. Nomi kept her eyes roving, stunning the villains with her Quirk in time for Ojiro to nimbly slip past their defenses and take them down with an impressive array of martial arts attacks, but they were losing their element of surprise.
"Don't look at the girl!" the biker man from earlier roared. "Keep out of her line of sight!"
The villains pressed forward, their eyes downcast, and Ojiro narrowly missed being burned by a sudden flaming projectile that hurtled his way. "Whoa!"
"Fire-related Quirks?" Nomi gasped as the villains readied their arsenal. "You've got to be joking."
The biker man sneered as he readied a pair of flaming iron chains in his beefy hands. "What a shame we got stuck with you lot. We were promised a real challenge from U.A. students, not you pathetic little twerps playing wannabe heroes."
"Aoyama, how much longer?" Ojiro called, his voice laced with fear as he and Nomi were backed toward the wall.
"H-halfway t-th-there," he said weakly. Nomi spared him a glance and realized how violently his body trembled from the use of his Quirk. Ojiro was panting, his breaths hoarse and shallow from the smoke, and she wasn't faring well, either; her demon eye was already smarting and twitching, and she could hardly breathe.
No, she thought, panic seizing her limbs. No, not like this. I don't want to die like this, please—
"Now!" the biker man shouted, just as the entirety of U.S.J. rocked.
"OJIRO!" Nomi screamed. "THE HOLE!"
The villains' Quirks that had been released flew—arrows formed of smoke, flaming chains, red-hot pieces of metal—and Nomi saw her chance. She slammed into Aoyama's back, bringing him to the ground as Ojiro jumped over them, leading the projectiles to the hole Aoyama had half-melted into the dome. He ducked at the last second, and the Quirks ripped through the rest of the hole with ease. Smoke billowed as fresh air from U.S.J. rushed in, stinging Nomi's eyes, but she dragged Aoyama to the opening, calling for Ojiro. "Come on!"
They raced for the opening, the villains on their heels. Nomi shoved Aoyama toward the hole and Ojiro caught him, holding him upright as they half-ran, half-limped. He tossed Aoyama outside of the dome like a ragdoll before reaching back for Nomi. "Katsuragi!"
"Go! I'll hold them off!" she said. "That crash earlier could've been the teachers. Get help!"
A burning chunk of asphalt slammed into the back of her knee, and she crumpled.
"Go!" she screamed at Ojiro, but still he hesitated.
You idiot, she thought as tears stung her eyes. You're going to get killed too, just go, please, don't die here with me—
A memory flashed across her mind, as briefly as a single blink.
"You can choose to protect others or harm others. That decision is what makes a hero."
She could be a hero if only for a moment, this one moment.
She screamed, whipping around to face the oncoming villains. "STAY AWAY FROM THEM!"
A blinding pain that she had never known exploded in her demon eye, and all she saw was white. She clapped a hand over her eye as it spasmed and burned, hardly even registering the hands that had wrapped around her shoulders and dragged her out of the conflagration zone until she could finally breathe again.
"Ojiro," she said between gasping breaths, "we need to keep moving—"
"No, we don't," he said from above her. She cracked open her normal eye and found him staring at her in amazement. "Katsuragi, we don't have to run. You—I—look—"
He pointed to the hole in the conflagration zone dome. They were outside of it, laying on the normal concrete of the U.S.J. floor, but the villains remained inside the dome, unmoving. They stared out with blank eyes, and a horrible, creeping shiver crawled up her spine.
What had she done?
"Ojiro," she whispered. "Did I…?"
She wiped at her demon eye and was horrified when her glove came away soaked in blood. The last thing she saw before she passed out was the bright stain of crimson against black.