phoenix: A shit ton happens in this chapter!


Warning: graphic depictions of death, as well as trauma. Enjoy~


They ran into the hallway, Ace the only one able to hear. Immediately the feeling of being sick and dizzy came. Luffy was on his own steps that moved with him so he wasn't hindered by losing his footing on the floor. Luffy climbed his steps to the ceiling, where the drunken Sakaki Deidoro was.

They didn't expect him to be drunk even if he had a history of DUIs, according to his records. Luffy heard nothing he said as he kicked his leg up and into his chest, flipped and slammed him down on the ground. It broke his mask and Luffy chopped the back of his neck with a haki covered hand in a move that would have him out for at least two hours.

Suddenly, the other two were just fine. But Nemoto Shin was already speaking to Ace. "How did you get here so fast?" It was a wasted question, and he noticed Mirio and Luffy had ear plugs in. Ace shot fire at him quickly, but he dodged.

"We defeated your wall guy and snuck around," Ace answered, not even trying to fight it since he knew he couldn't. He demanded what his power was, but Mirio punched him in the face, breaking the mask and then Luffy brought his metal knee guard up and yanked the guy's now uncovered face down, breaking his nose against the metal and knocking him out from the overwhelming pain.

The two of them took their ear plugs out and the three advanced slowly. Luffy gave Eri the blinding smile, a true one. "We've come for Eri and we're not leaving without her," Luffy said, voice full of hope for Eri but disgust for Chisaki. It was an interesting mix that actually worked out.

A gun was pulled on them, but they weren't nervous. Ace hadn't given away Luffy's quirk, they didn't know about the invisible air shield separating them from the three. The extra put Eri down, who Chisaki held on to. The poor girl looked lost, not knowing whether to be happy or upset.

They were baited, but the three of them didn't join the conversation. They stayed silent, and then they were shot at, but the bullets crumpled against the invincible shield. Luffy walked forward and put his hand out of the safety wall, blasting air at the hand with the gun. Ace was there in record time, kicking Kurono Hari in the neck. It made him choke and collapse, and Ace kicked a haki covered boot right into his left temple. That would give him a concussion at least and brain death at most. Just depending on how well Ace's kick was aimed.

Chisaki looked angry right now, furious and frightened. Luffy and Ace ran forward and Mirio disappeared from sight, coming up behind chisaki to take Eri. Chiski was in a bind. Whether to take Eri or fight back. One or the other but not both. Luffy landed a hit on Chisaki's mask, breaking it. Then he was pissed and his presence became stronger and scarier.

"If you're not gonna talk, then I'll just take care of you right now!" He grabbed Luffy's leg, but he had a strong armor of air on. The gloves were off and he was holding onto the invisible armor, which splintered apart from his power to destroy it.

"Ace!" Luffy shouted.

"Right! Got it!" his twin replied. Luffy stopped his next attack, whimpering.

"His power got my ankle!" Luffy lied, eyes full of fear. Ace had a hand reaching out and then looked behind like he was distracted. It fooled even Mirio, who shouted Ace's name. Chisaki grabbed onto his arm, he was too slow. His arm was going to be blown to bits, but it was covered in haki and when Chisaki attempted to destroy it, his own hand and arm took the impact, blowing it to pieces and spraying blood all over Ace.

Luffy stood up and rushed forward, pinning Chisaki's head with an air wall as he screamed. But his other hands was there and grabbed the floor. Spikes came out of the stone, but Luffy had made a floor for them that the spikes didn't break.

"How did you do that!? My powers can't be defeated by some kid!" he screamed, his face looking like it was growing pimples or blisters. He had said he wasn't fond of filth, maybe he had a medical condition.

Ace didn't answer. Luffy was quickly passed Eri. The hall was now a room with broken stone everywhere, cracks on the walls and flooded with Chisaki's blood on it. Luffy said, "Did I promise there was a light at the end of the long, scary tunnel?" She was crying, and flinched when Chisaki screamed. Luffy put the ear plugs in her hand. "You don't need to hear his voice ever again. We're escaping. Okay?"

She was sobbing but nodded and put the ear plugs in. "Go all out! He shouted and Ace shot hot air through the ceiling that burnt through floor after floor until they were outside, Luffy running up his steps like no tomorrow. Eri looked scared when they were outside and not on anything solid. He got them higher and higher until they couldn't be reached by anything, and then made a longplate. He sat down and pulled her to his chest, pulling the ear plugs out.

"I'm sorry we left you," he said simply. But then she started to glow, and Luffy felt weak before his whole body was encased by haki. "Is that your power?" he asked. She nodded, and said she was scared and couldn't control it. "I'm fine, see? I have a power that bypasses quirks. That's what my brother did just now."

Golden air was coming from her single horn. Nothing affected Luffy and his quirk wasn't either as he had managed to cover every millimeter of that air block with haki.

He took both of her hands like he had the first time, and put his thumbs in their palms. "You can't control your power right now. But just think of what you did. You went through such horrible things, and now you're free. I think that going through what you have makes you stronger than many, many pro-heroes. They can't compete with you. Going through that is nothing compared to reeling in your quirk."

He put a hand on her head. "You're free now. You can cry as much as you want and no one will shame you," Luffy said firmly. She erupted into tears, her power getting stronger before it ebbed away and she was just a little girl sobbing in Luffy's lap, face against his chest. He rubbed her head and hair.

Luffy wasn't a good singer, but he hummed the first song he and Ace had heard after being rescued on the street. It was actually a good choice, even if he didn't remember the lyrics. He kept her focus all on her while his haki focused all on his brother and Mirio. He wouldn't go down until Chisaki was defeated.

"Eri! GET BACK HERE!" Chisaki screamed. "You're a curse, you're going to kill them all!" he roared as he had more and more spots on his face. Mirio held his ear plugs.

"Manipulation won't work anymore on her," he said firmly. He had unfortunately fixed his hand through it seemed to be unable to be used at the moment. Chiskai was driven into a corner. He seemed afraid of Ace, though. Now that his power was useless against him, and Ace was clearly stronger and fitter, he had no way to fight back besides make the floor into spikes and unstable.

He covered himself head to toe in armament haki, extending it to his head and face. None of the spikes of stone hurt him, they bounced back or were crushed by the superior haki. All of the spikes went through Mirio's body.

Ace noticed Chisaki kept looking to the side, as the body was the man unconscious that Ace kicked in the side of the head. And there was the little case that no doubt held the real powerful anti-quirk serum.

He walked towards it. "Don't you dare!" Chisaki said, distracted long enough for Mirio to take advantage of. He got the villain in the knee, kicking it in. He screamed but healed it in an instant. He was running out of options. The only real chance he had was if he could destroy their quirks, but the gun had been crushed and he had no way to get to the bullets.

Ace held up his hand, and he flinched. Chisaki was powerful and confident when he had the upper hand. Now that none of his attacks worked on Ace, and he had no other weapons, and nothing to merge with, he was hopeless and possibly afraid. He was never in danger. He had his overwhelming quirk along with body guards of all sorts.

Those body guards were gone and his quirk nullified. Ace picked up the case and flipped the lid. He turned his hand on fire and burned it into nothing, not a single piece of that case or anything of it was left. "NO!" he roared.

"Make it easy for yourself and give up. Your reign of terror is over, Overhaul. You've been completely defeated. If you don't give up, then we're gonna have to make you."

"No, give Eri back! Right now!" he roared and tried to grab Ace, though this time, he did what Luffy originally planned, who he could sense in the air high above. The moment before his hand gripped Ace's, he turned it into fire, and instead of pushing that hand down to destroy his leg, he pushed it up, not even meaning to, and it hit his chest, blowing his chest and upper body into splatters of blood and guts. His lower half was fine.

Ace recoiled, and started to shake before he turned to the side and threw up. Mirio was there in an instant, kneeling in the blood splattered all over the wall. He hugged Ace as he shook. "It wasn't you that killed him. It was his own power. This is not what was planned, I'm so sorry, Ace," he said, rocking Ace back and forth as he retched again.

They were both covered in blood. "L-Luffy! I need to see Luffy!" Ace sobbed. Mirio said he'd be back, and took his cape, wrapping it around his front to hide the blood.

Mirio called Luffy's name, and the twin seemed to have calmed things with Eri down. She was crying in his chest, her powers no longer out of control. He made the long walk down the air stairs and on the surface. Mirio was able to climb up the remains of the spikes of stone and told Luffy to cover Eri's eyes.

Luffy took off his mask and tied it backwards around Eri's eyes. "I'm going to leave you to Mirio, okay? He was the one with us when we couldn't save you. Ace needs me, but you'll be safe." She protested. "I will be back, and you are safe with Mirio. He's smart! He's the reason I was able to come."

And he dropped down to see the mess of what happened. He hurried to Ace, who was sobbing. "What happened here?" he asked, wiping the blood off of Ace's face. He cried into Luffy's chest.

"It was an accident! I did the move you talked about but I messed up! His hand didn't go down, it went up. He blew himself apart because of me," Ace sobbed. Luffy rocked him back and forth.

Luffy said quietly, "This isn't the first time, Ace. We've both been there. Please don't let this destroy you. Chisaki… he killed so many people, ruined so many lives. We stopped that, you stopped that for good, even if it was never part of the plan." He rubbed Ace's back. "You did not pull the trigger, Chisaki did. It was his mistake."

Both he and Ace knew he wasn't heartless, but it was the truth. "Nobody will see you as the killer, Ace. And you shouldn't either. If my words don't help, think of yourself. Are you happy?"

"N-No," he whimpered.

"Did you mean to have this happen?"

"No…"

"Would you do the same if you had a second chance?" Ace shook his head vehemently. Luffy pressed his forehead to Ace's. "You're not evil or a villain," he whispered. "Now, Eri will be safe forever. She won't need to be in fear that Chisaki will break out and come to get her. There's no more monster for her."

Ace was still crying, gripping the back of Luffy's costume. "I love you Lu, I'm sorry!"

"I love you too, big bro. I thought you were the older one who needed to comfort me," he said lightly.

Ace grumbled, "I am the big brother. I'm allowed to cry."

Luffy said, "Yes, you are. You're allowed to cry, you're allowed to have regrets. You're not allowed to hate yourself, understand?" Ace smiled a watery smile and nodded, saying he promised.

"Now we're both messed up," Ace said quietly. Luffy knew what he meant. Luffy had been tortured and Ace was an accidental murderer. They were both messed up. Not counting the accident at USJ. They'd successfully moved past that one, hopefully this one would as well.

But this one was done by Ace's own hand, not a stray bomb from a bad aim. They'd get through it together, how they always did.

"We're messed up together, and we'll get back to normal together. The three of us took Eri back and defeated Chisaki and all of his goons. I think we deserve some hot chocolate." Ace laughed and nodded. "Let's go find a bathroom and rinse you off. How's that sound?" They both stood up and Ace nodded, shaky on his feet.

"Mirio! I'm going to get him rinsed off, we'll be back in a few. Eri! Wait for me, okay?" He heard a small, "O-okay…"

He and Ace walked to the nearest bathroom, which was broken as the wall guy had messed up the piping through the whole building. The water was still coming out of the shower head and filling the room. A bunch of water had spilled out and onto the floor. Luffy punched the mirror so Ace wouldn't see himself, and put Ace in the shower under the nozzle, helping rub the blood out of his hair and clothes.

The blood was fresh, so it rinsed off fine. He then dried himself with fire. "Wanna go see Eri? She gets to meet her saviors." Ace nodded, holding onto Luffy's arm tightly. His lower lip wobbled a bit, and they bypassed the bloody room and did their first tactic ever in practice. They made holes in the ceilings to get back to the top floor.

"Eri, this is Ace. He's my twin brother and best friend." Ace smiled brightly.

"I'm so glad we got to you in time," he sighed. All three of them were sitting on the concrete on the broken street. Nobody was around yet, which was good. They needed time to react and recuperate.

"Did… did you kill Chisaki?" she asked, though she didn't sound afraid of him or upset. More uncertain.

Ace looked down. "I did. It was an accident. His power was used against him-" and Eri was hugging him, crying again. Mirio said he was going to get the police attention and make sure it was safe to move Eri or if any bad guys were still around.

"You don't hate me?" Ace asked. He was afraid that they'd saved her only for her to be terrified of him. She shook her head against his chest. He put his hand on her head and Luffy's was on her back.

"He would always come get me… Anywhere I go, he'd find me," she said, shaking. "He was always there, when I slept, he was always there. He was everywhere." She was clearly traumatized from what had been happening, and it was no shock. Her body was continuously "donating" blood without her consent into terrible drugs.

Luffy said, "It's not the best outcome, but he'll never come after you again. And if he was still alive, we'd still never lose you to him again." He sat next to Ace. "If you ever lose control of your quirk like before, it's safe to be around Ace. We're safe, okay?"

Ace asked what he meant. "She can't control her quirk well, and if she uses it around anyone too long, they rewind in time. They'll lose their quirk and then slowly age younger and younger. But when I was covered in haki, myself and my quirk were unaffected."

The older twin said he understood and told Eri they were tough and super cool, so of course they'd be fine with her powers. "I don't understand how." Ace grinned and said they didn't either.

Luffy took his glove off and showed her his haki covered hand, which was like warm, moldable metal. "I was taken by bad guys once, too. They tortured me for four days until I was rescued. But, while I was being hurt, and was about to be killed, this happened. It covered my whole body and it kept me safe."

Eri looked shocked and horrified at hearing Luffy had been tortured. He said he was fine now, and answered it had been a couple months since it happened. "You are okay only after a couple months?" she asked in bafflement.

"Well, I have my brother. And I didn't want to make him worry about me. It's hard sometimes. I have nightmares sometimes, but I'm not alone. And now you aren't either. You'll have a home and a safe place to live. Someplace where you don't need toys to be happy, will have good food and a warm place to stay," Luffy explained.

"I can't control my power. It will kill others, I'll be alone forever."

"Well, I guess me and Ace will just keep you company until you can, then." Ace nodded in agreement.

He was still shaken about what had just happened, but Luffy was right. He didn't kill on purpose, and it wasn't his own power that did it. It was an unwanted outcome, but it fixed a lot of issues.

He would definitely have nightmares, but Luffy was there for him when he was there for Luffy. Mirio came running back with multiple heroes and police, as well as an ambulance. They stood and Eri held each of their hands. "You'll be safe now. Why don't we leave this place? It doesn't have good memories for any of us."

Both of them looked unharmed, though Mirio had blood and tears into his costume. Ace the blood rinsed off fine and the fabric couldn't be ripped on either of their outfits easily. Both of their masks were gone, one soaked in blood and one forgotten. They walked to the crowd, and saw many heroes and police, as well as captured villains. Luffy was holding Eri easily. She had her head hidden in his neck. She was scared. Of course she was.

It looked like nobody had died. Kirishima was hurt and one of those going to the hospital. They saw Aizawa running to them, looking angry. Then he slowed, looking not so angry anymore. "You three did it, huh?" he asked. "Just you two and Mirio?" They nodded. "How many enemies were there?"

"Three not counting the leader." Then Ace smiled. "Looked like studying helped, huh? We brought ear plugs for the one who get anybody to tell the truth, and Luffy stayed on his air block with the guy who messed up equilibrium. We knew everything about everybody. At least, enough to help. Chisaki… was a bit different." He lost the happy look and pressed his lips together tightly, swallowing like he was going to vomit.

"Well, as long as everyone is safe. You'll be going to get checked up at the hospital as well. After you're discharged, you'll be questioned. Most likely with Mirio as well. What happened to you after we got separated is a mystery to everybody."

Ace and Luffy nodded. "Well, looks we're all going to the hospital together," Luffy said. "It might be scary, but people at the hospital are kind and want to help their patients." Eri nodded, and they joined the group going to the hospital. Seeing nobody was dead or permanently injured was good. A real relief.

The visit to the hospital was a blur. They were checked out, but had no big injuries besides Luffy got a couple bruises but the two didn't know if that was even from the mission. Ace had one injury, and they only found out about it once they were undressed.

Where Chisaki had grabbed and tried to blow Ace up, there was a black hand mark on Ace's forearm. Like an extreme burn. The doctor said it wasn't a burn, it was more like a stain on his skin. Ace looked at it and Luffy had barely had enough time to get the trashcan before Ace vomited.

"Cover it! Cover it!" he screamed, and Luffy ripped up a pillow case and tied it around Ace's burn quickly. Once it was out of sight, Ace was breathing deeply to calm himself. The poor doctor had no idea what had happened. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I don't want to look at it. When will it go away?"

The doctor looked worried. "It may fade with time. But you can't wash it off or scrub it away. It's deep in the tissue." Ace looked down, eyes shadowed.

"So. It's never going to go away, is it?" he asked quietly. The doctor said that he couldn't jump to that conclusion. They didn't know enough about it to determine. They'd find out as time progressed. "Okay. I'm sorry I freaked out."

"It's understandable considering the whole operation must have been taxing and stressful. You have mild bruising on your ankle. There are also heavy bruises on your forearms. Were you pushing against something hard?" Luffy looked at the back of his forearms, where he'd put up tha huge shield.

Luffy said, "I used my quirk to put up a wall. Something hard banged against it. Maybe it ended up hurting me." He was shocked. He wasn't as invincible as he thought. He didn't know it would take so much out of him. At least Eri's power seemed to have done nothing wrong to him or Ace.

She was in isolation with a fever. Aizawa would be staying with her since he could control her quirk. After a thorough check up and exam, they were deemed able to go home. And by home, they meant the police station to be questioned along with Mirio. They told each other they'd tell the truth. Everything. Mirio offered to explain the ending instead of Ace. He refused. He'd do it himself.

When they were there, Nighteye was as well. Since the three had branched off fairly early in the process, they weren't part of any of the other questioning, a whole empty part of the investigation. Like another chapter that no one had read yet.

Mirio said he'd ran through a couple walls before he heard it go quiet before Ace and Luffy were there. Then their reports all came together until after Luffy took Eri away.

"And how were you able to locate everybody and Mirio? You said you could tell there were two League of Villains members, as well."

Ace and Luffy held hands and finally explained to someone else about the haki. That tied into how Chisaki had been unable to hurt Ace, despite the marking he now had, covered by his costume's glove. Everything about their power, how the twins used it, and how they had no idea what it really was.

Mirio was in shock over it, having not known what it was. Only briefly given a flimsy explanation that was rushed on time. "Please, don't let other people know," Luffy said. The officer said that the general public didn't get their hands on information like this. Only the very higher ups saw this kind of stuff, and it was always confidential.

"And what happened after Luffy took Eri away?"

"Mirio and I fought him. He had blown away his own hand but it was fixed fairly quickly. The spikes he made didn't hurt me or Mirio. They went right through him and bounced off of me. We'd already knocked out the other three, and Chisaki was the only one left. He was panicking, and when I picked up and burnt the bullets with the drug in them, he tried grabbing me again. I-" Luffy got a trashcan ready. "I… I… he attacked me, and I turned my arm into flame so he didn't grab me.

"I tried redirecting his aim, thinking he might be able to blow his leg off and give us time to restrain him properly. But… his hand went up, not down, and he…. There was b-blood everywhere. All over m-" and he threw up in the trash can. Luffy rubbed his back. Ace's apology echoed in the plastic trash can.

He was given a tissue and wiped his mouth, face red in shame. "I'm sorry. It's h-hard to think of. I know… I know he was a bad guy, he was a villain. And it wasn't my power to do it. But, it was like, assisted suicide. Or assisted murder. But it's my fault. I killed somebody. It was an accident, I lost it afterwards.

"If there had been any other enemy left, I would have been killed. I was a mess, I needed Luffy with me. We left the room to look for a bathroom to wash me off. I couldn't - and Eri couldn't - couldn't see me like that. We found a flooded bathroom, since the piping had been messed up. I rinsed off there before we went out to see Eri and then everybody else."

That was the conclusion of a very hard conversation. They were sure the others were upset in some way, but hopefully none of them were burdened like Ace was. Luffy felt terrible for putting Ace in that position. If he had fought too. But no, it was Luffy's plan in the first place. And done wrong. It was supposed to blast his lower half away, not everything in the upper half.

The papers were put in the folder, and Ace was given a bottle of water. "Thank you for your service." The three nodded.

Nighteye took Ace in and hugged him and Mirio. "It must have been so hard to be on your own. But I'm so proud of all of you. You three alone carried out the mission for us. You took out five enemies on your own, even if the last was done in an unfortunate way."

Ace whimpered, "I'm a murderer. I'm not even a hero, I'm a murderer." Luffy hugged him from behind. Villains had made Ace suffer over Luffy. Now they would make Luffy suffer over Ace.

"You are not a murderer. Words like that go to a certain type of person. You're not that type of person," Nighteye said softly. Ace looked at his gloved hand.

"I will always have this mark to remind me of what I did," he said in a hollow voice. "It was all an accident, I got cocky. Or I just didn't think in that moment of what could happen. I was high on adrenaline. I thought ahead of every other action besides that one. It ended someone's life."

Nighteye said, "You're a kind person if you can still think somebody like Chisaki was a person. The accomplices are all in prison or being questioned and are about to be in prison. Ace, you did what was right. You fought against the villains, but something unfortunate happened. We expected casualties. That's how it is in every hero mission. There is always danger or risk of life. We just didn't expect it to be this way."

Ace nodded, and stared at his arm. Luffy looked concerned. "Don't worry, Lu, I won't cut my arm off or anything. Maybe I can get a tattoo to cover it," Ace said, trying to help Luffy not be scared. "Villains always fuck us over, huh?" Luffy took his hand.

"That's why we want to be heroes. So they can't do that anymore," the younger twin said quietly. Mirio said that they were heroes. They saved Eri, all three of them did it together. They were heroes, just not pros.

Nighteye said, "That will be put into question. The way you two pulled this off was incredible. You had plans for each enemy. And they all worked. And the studying you made the others do, it helped their own respective battles. Your actions were instrumental. Though I do know some of the information you must have learned did not come from anywhere accessible to the general public." He said it in a knowing voice. But not one of anger. "I won't tell anyone about that. It saved us lives in the end."

They exited the building and Gunhead was there, waiting for them. Ace and Luffy went running to him and hugged him, crying. They couldn't go home, so they stayed outside there, where nobody was around. It was better than in the car of someplace where people would see.

He was crying, too, but they couldn't see. "I'm so proud of you two. I knew you'd make fine heroes. And I'm so sorry, Ace. We'll get a nice covering for it, one made out of the fabric your outfit is made out of. That's the least they can give for your performance besides a large sum of money. Money you get to use in any way you want."

Ace and Luffy were smiling and laughing, before Luffy asked if they would get in trouble with how they got information. "I won't tell anybody."

Ace said, "When we lived with you at first, we learned some stuff online, too. Computer techniques. Anyways, we could find barely any information online or in the library in the legal way. We were able to get on the illegal internet. We got tons of info there! But we worried it'd get to our IP address, so… we sorta did it on a school computer and then immediately put a virus on it so nobody could see what the history was."

Luffy burst into laughter and Ace followed. Gunhead put his hands to his mask. But he wasn't angry. "Well, that's one way to get information. Wouldn't it have been safer to use your own laptop and get rid of the ip address? How would a school computer even let you get that far?"

Ace said that they didn't want to risk getting hacked or their personal information stolen. They used fake and disposable email accounts for everything. "We did our research and that virus would get rid of all history done on that computer, since U.A. computers run on themselves and not the wifi. It's weird."

Gunhead said, "You know the dark web isn't illegal, right? You can get on there for information, but like you said, your personal information can get stolen. Still, a school computer?"

The twins told them they couldn't use any other computer because they were trapped on campus and couldn't exactly go to the library. "It's their own fault for not letting us go anywhere. But we're gonna play dumb. We burned everything we used for this mission ahead of time in case we were asked to present it. So, we don't remember what websites we went on or what books we looked into," Luffy said innocently.

Gunhead sighed, "I do hope kids will be let out from school soon. It's not fair to them or their families." The two nodded. They spent until late afternoon with him, talking mostly about school things that weren't important enough to make a call to talk about them.