Chapter 1: Deku

The setting sun's rays streamed across Deku's face as he stepped across the door of Sir Nighteye's agency and into the bustling street outside. Even after the gruesome death of the incredible hero and the unfortunate loss of Lemillion's quirk, Deku had started returning to the agency to train and patrol with Bubble Girl, one of the sidekicks. Bubble Girl claimed that it was an honor to help Deku achieve his dreams in Nighteye's stead, and noted it seemed fitting that she did what she could with the experience she had had under Nighteye's supervision at the agency.

Things were going well; after a few days getting back into the swing of things, as much as he could given the circumstances, Deku was continuing to learn the ropes of a hero's job, was getting to know Nighteye's former sidekicks better, and was finally on his way to celebrate a night in with his friends, playing board games and hopefully having a great time. The loss of Nighteye had weighed heavily on many of their hearts, and they needed this time together to heal.

Deku turned to face the agency as he shut the door behind him and offered a wide smile to the building, stretching up before him and reflecting the sun's rays in its pale stone facade. He couldn't help but reflect back with fondness and warmth on the day he won Nighteye's approval. He turned and started strolling down the street, keeping a steady pace to try to ease the excitement he was already feeling at the thought of spending time casually with his friends. He, Uraraka, Kirishima and Tsu-chan had all been working so hard at their internships (if Deku could still call his experience that), so a break was definitely in order.

Still wearing his hero costume, Deku opened pocket after pocket in a scramble to find his phone and reach out to the others.

Hey Uraraka! I'm done for the day. If you're finished, want to walk back to U.A. together?

He waited a few moments, expecting to see the tiny dots appear on the screen which would indicate that Ochako was typing a response, but nothing came even as he made it to the corner of the street.

Huh. She and Tsu-chan must still be working. Ryukyu's agency is on my way back anyway, so I'll walk by and maybe they'll be done by then.

Deku typed off a quick message to Kirishima, Iida, Todoroki, and some other members of class 1-A saying he would be back at the dorm to start their festivities soon, then continued his shuffle down the street. However, it wasn't long before he was stopped in his tracks.

Uraraka and Tsu-chan together came barreling towards him from down a side-street, both dressed in their full hero costumes. To Deku's surprise, Kacchan, dressed in street clothes, was trudging slowly behind them.

"Deku-kun!" Uraraka shouted before stopping briefly to check for traffic, then pulling Tsuyu across the street towards him. "I just got your message! We just finished work for the day and Ryukyu let us leave straight from the last area we were patrolling."

The two girls reached Deku's spot on the street corner, Tsuyu struggling to catch her breath after having been yanked along excitedly by Ochako. Ochako turned to look behind her at Kacchan, who was waiting for cars to pass on the other side of the street with a large grimace.

"And if you can believe it, we came across Bakugo coming out of a store with some yummy-looking snacks!" She beamed as she whipped her head back around to face Deku. "We can all head back to U.A. together now."

"Hi everyone," Deku smiled and nodded to the girls as Kacchan made it to their side of the street.

"Damn Deku," Kacchan grumbled, and began walking in the direction Deku had been going, towards U.A.

The rest of the group quickly made up the distance behind him as they began to chat. Uraraka and Tsuyu described the general outline of their day at the internship, then let Deku have a chance to sum up his time working with Bubble Girl. They began discussing their plans for the night, starting with what meal they hoped to cook and quickly moving onto the order of board games they would be playing.

Despite Kacchan's miserable attitude, which was really nothing new at all, Deku was looking forward to spending time with his friends. He glanced over at Uraraka and could tell by the light in her eyes that she was just as excited. There weren't many days since many of them had received their provisional licenses when they had downtime to spend together. The hefty bag of snacks that Kacchan was holding proved that even he would be participating, and was excited for the night's events. There were things in there that Deku had never even seen Kacchan eat before, but had seen Kirishima or Kaminari scarfing down like crazy more than once. Deku smiled.

As they continued walking and the girls began discussing feedback that Ryukyu had given them for their work that day, Deku took the opportunity to reflect back on his own experience. Working with Bubble Girl was definitely different than going on patrols with Mirio-senpai, but he was appreciative that he was able to see another type of quirk in action. There had to be something useful for his own quirk that he could learn from her if he applied himself enough in the coming days...

"Shitty Deku!"

Jolted out of his reverie, Deku jerked his head up in time to be hit square in the forehead by the plastic bag filled with Bakugo's snacks. As it fell to the ground, Deku's vision cleared to reveal Bakugo standing with his left arm stretched back towards Deku, the other raised defensively. Less than ten feet away, a group of around ten men began to spill onto the street from behind buildings and off of other streets, congregating directly in front of them. Some began to fan out to either side as Bakugo backed towards Deku and the girls moved closer together, raising their arms as well. Even more men began to crowd around them. Each had their own unique clothing, but all had the same black bandana covering their mouths and a strip of black cloth running across their eyes, small slits revealing their varied irises. Some carried knives, others guns, and even more flexed fists boasting brass knuckles. It was foolhardy to rule out quirks just because they were armed.

Fortunately, three of us are in our Hero costumes, Deku began to analyze the situation in his head. But Kacchan doesn't have his Provisional Hero License and will definitely face some repercussions if he fights these guys. Plus there is no way he'll sit back and let us handle this if it does come down to fighting and even if we all fight, there's so many of them…

Thinking was obviously getting Deku nowhere, as the men were beginning to press closer and Bakugo began making slight adjustments to his positioning, a sure sign that he was preparing to fight.

Rapid motion to Deku's left made him realize that he was not the only one who had noticed this. Uraraka quickly dashed over to Bakugo and slammed her hand hard into his back, then grabbed his wrist as he began to float gently into the air. As Kacchan wriggled into the air and began to bellow in protest, she turned and slammed her body into Deku's and locked her fingers between his, instantly making him feel weightless and pulling his feet off the ground. He and Kacchan both began to rise higher and higher, pulling Uraraka between them. Tsuyu grappled onto Uraraka's waist with her frog-like tongue and pulled herself upwards just as the group of villains began to converge on the spot where the four had been standing.

"Uraraka!" Deku yelled as they climbed above the height of the nearby buildings and the wind began to whip around them. "Can you handle this?"

She looked up at him, grimacing slightly with Tsuyu's full weight suspended below her.

"Yes! I should be able to hold out for a while. I didn't use Zero Gravity on myself so I won't get nauseous quickly!"

Deku gave her a firm nod in response, then began to scan the nearby buildings for a place they could land safely. Not far off, there was a two-story apartment building with a short powerline post protruding from the ground behind it.

"Tsu-chan!" Deku gazed down at the frog-like girl who was beginning to swing from Ochako's waist in the wind like a pendulum. "I have an idea, but it's risky! I'm going to need you to climb all the way up to me and sit on my shoulders, do you think you can do that?"

Tsuyu, unable to offer a verbal response, instead offered a shaky thumbs-up. As they continued to rise into the air, she gave both arms a firm shake, then gripped her own tongue as securely as she could manage. Then she began hoisting herself up inch by inch, retracting the discarded parts of her tongue into her mouth as she passed them. She managed to get to Uraraka's feet in only a few seconds, then climbed up to her waist in only a few more. Once there, Tsuyu wrapped her arms tightly around Uraraka's waist and her feet around Uraraka's legs, pausing to regain strength before beginning the more dangerous part of the task.

"Great, Tsu-chan!" Uraraka beamed down at her. "You're halfway there!"

Uraraka's praise seeming to renew her energy, Tsuyu was on the move once again. She pulled herself up until she was eye-to-eye with Uraraka, then pushed off her shoulders and made a daring jump towards Deku, just barely avoiding a fall to the ground while connecting her arms around his stomach. She slowly inched around to his back, careful to avoid his hand straining to hold tight to Uraraka's, and crawled up to land gracefully on his shoulders, hands gripping deep into his hair to keep herself steady.

"Nicely done!" Deku exclaimed, wincing slightly at the strength in her grip. He looked down again, trying his best to keep his head as still as possible. They were much higher than the last time he had spotted the apartment building with the powerline post behind it, but if they moved quickly enough, it was still within their reach. "Okay, Tsu-chan. If you can grapple onto that powerline post right over there and pull us in that direction, Uraraka can use Kaijo to release Zero Gravity and we can land on the building."

He felt Tsuyu's grip transition from his hair to the hood of his hero costume as she prepared to extend her tongue, and also felt a hand gripping the arm he was using to support Uraraka. Kacchan had twisted closer to him in the air and had gripped onto him with the arm Uraraka was grasping onto.

"Damn Deku, I can use my free hand to blast us towards it once she's got a good grip!" He locked eyes with Deku, his gaze seeming almost desperate to help in some way. Surely this wouldn't get him in trouble with the Heroes, he's not actually engaging with the Villains. Deku nodded.

Suddenly, his head whipped forward and collided with Kacchan's as Tsuyu's tongue pulled her weight away from him. The mass of floating people began to tumble through the air in circles, everyone doing their best just to keep Uraraka and Tsuyu from falling. Kacchan released a one-handed Blast Rush Turbo and let Tsuyu take over from there, but his explosive burst of energy proved to be more than enough to get them to and past the powerline post. They shot around it and came back like a boomerang, losing height as they went. Uraraka released her quirk just in time for them to clip the edge of the building, Tsuyu hanging from the powerline post while she and Bakugo rolled to a stop at the edge of the roof. They both held tightly onto Deku's arm as he slid off and dangled on the side, cracking noises and shooting pain rippling up and down the extent of his arm.

"It worked!" Deku screamed, even as he glanced below him at the crowd of Villains rushing down the street, knives pointed straight up. Several pulled back and shot their blades into the air, lodging them into Deku's lower legs, back, and shoulders. The pain was immense, seeming to consume his whole body, and he could feel his grip on Uraraka's fingers slipping. He tried to reach upwards with his free arm, but it had already been torn to shreds and the pain was like a deadweight.

She and Bakugo both lay with their stomachs to the rooftop floor, unsure how to get up without losing their grip on Deku's arm. He watched their terrified faces staring down at him for what felt like minutes, but was probably only seconds. He couldn't believe it; he could not recall ever seeing Bakugo show that much visible concern for him.

One of the projectile knives lodged itself into Uraraka's hand, causing her to yelp and pull back without thinking, leaving only Kacchan as Deku's connection to the safety of the rooftop.

"Damn Deku," he breathed hoarsely, "I'm not gonna let you fall. I'll kill you before I let that happen." Deku let out a nervous chuckle, already feeling Kacchan's fingers on his bicep begin to tremble. He gripped Deku's forearm with his other hand, allowing himself a slight margin to readjust his grip on Deku's bicep, and Uraraka provided what help she could with only one good hand left.

Deku could see Tsuyu over Kacchan's shoulder, carefully but quickly climbing down the powerline post. She made it down and halfway across the rooftop before she stopped cold, her eyes growing wide. He tried to turn his head below to follow her gaze, but it seemed impossible until the object of her horror was directly below him. A tall, pale figure in a black velvet suit, hair greased back, cheeks sunken, and eyes an electric yellow color. He stared up at Deku, smiling wryly as he locked eyes with the young hero-in-training.

"My boys and I are here on a little business deal," he murmured quietly so that the group on the roof couldn't hear, his voice deep and rumbling despite his soft tone. "We'll get good money for you, I should think."

He then winked at Deku and slowly squatted, placing one hand on the ground and the other on the side of the building.

"Enjoy your trip…" He trailed off as the ground began to shake, the vibrations seeming to pulse into the wall of the building. The vibrations almost seemed to feed off of each other, to the point where Deku's body began to bounce against the wall of the building and swing in chaotic circles, dislocating his arm and causing him to scream in pain.

This guy's quirk seems to mimic earthquakes, like that student Yo Shindo's from the Provisional Licensing Exam, Deku tried to keep himself lucid amidst the pain by analyzing. He returned his gaze upward to check on the group on the roof. They began to crouch low to maintain some semblance of balance, but nothing worked. Both Tsuyu and Uraraka toppled over, and Deku could see that more than half of Kacchan's body was leaning off the edge towards him and the group waiting below. He looked back down to see how they were faring with the continuing vibrations, and also to see if they had more weapons waiting at the ready, but they were all gone. They left us alone after going through this much effort to torment us? No, surely they had something more to achieve.

Suddenly, a crack appeared in the concrete street just below Deku's suspended body, spidering out towards and into the wall of the building, and reaching towards the street in the opposite direction. It quickly grew into a massive fissure as the vibrations continued. Deku looked up to meet Bakugo's eyes; he had also noticed the immense crack and began to pull on Deku's arm with all his strength. Deku tried to stifle the cry that came, but it was no use, the pain was much too great. The knife-ripped gashes in his arm swelled with pain and with blood that was coming quick and hot now, washing over Bakugo's hands despite how desperately he fought to maintain his grip. One more vibration from the ground below ricocheted up the side of the building, crashing into Deku and sending his center of gravity in the exact opposite direction. He swung away from the building so far that his body became almost level with Bakugo's, and the force of the come-down was finally enough. Deku felt Kacchan's slippery grip leave his body as his face slammed hard against the side of the building.

Then Deku fell backwards, his star-splotched vision barely distinguishing the faces of Tsuyu, Ochako, and Kacchan leaning over the rooftop edge in paralyzed horror. He mustered the last of his strength to raise his arms upwards as he saw Tsuyu's frog-like tongue slashing down towards him, but her reaction hadn't been quick enough and Deku had no strength or mental clarity to try to make up the distance. The fissure's stygian darkness overwhelmed him and he let himself fall until a sinister, black sleep consumed him.