Deeper and deeper they went into that underground maze. Toga ran beside Izuku as they searched every corner. Izuku felt a change of pressure in the air behind them, and barely had the time to get Toga out of the blast as a soldier in some sort of battle armour shot at them with a rifle. From the ceiling were rappelling two other soldiers and three commandos in skin-tight sneaking suits, similar to the one Toga was wearing. It felt like slow motion as Izuku reacted, snapping two fingers in the squad´s direction. A safe amount of One for All was more than enough to send them crashing against the wall, breaking the bones of one or two.
Beside him, Toga was already moving, leaping into a somersault under one of the soldiers´ arc of fire and going for a disarm with knife and stick. Izuku was not lagging behind, with a leap he was in their midst, and before they could switch their aim to his new position, he slammed his foot down, breaking the metal floor and sending all but two of the enemy unto the floor. The closest one was in kicking distance, so he kicked through his rifle, smashing it in two, before bringing the leg down momentarily to propel himself into the air for a Tae Kwon Do flying kick Tenya had taught him, connecting square in the soldier´s chest, his armour breaking on impact and sending him crashing against the wall, breaking the white light panels.
He sidestepped and closed in on the second one, who ditched the rifle and put up his hands on a boxing stance. Izuku tried a simple kickboxing combination; a jab, a haymaker, an uppercut, grabbing the head and bringing it to his swinging knee, but the man was quick and strong, with some sort of resistance enhancement, as his skin turned purple where hit, but didn't seem to cause damage. The enemy was fast enough to get away from the uppercut and the knee, so he kept going with a spinning leg sweep. As the soldier leapt to evade, Izuku snapped a Delaware Air Force Smash at his head, knocking him out with the strength of a punch.
Toga had disarmed her opponent by cutting his arm in a few non-lethal places, then smacked his unprotected privates with her kali stick. As he squirmed, Toga smashed his head with a two-handed swing, sending teeth flying and the man falling down. With some lightweight wire she carried around a weighted ball, she wrapped his hands and his feet together. He was out of the fight. While Izuku turned to fight his third opponent, a man twice his height in a sneaking suit, Toga took the initiative against a female soldier in the process of standing up, cartwheeling into distance and kicking with both feet as she swung them down, her sound dampening boots connecting with the woman´s helmet and bringing her down.
Before the woman could turn over and fight from the ground, Toga got hold of her arm, twisting it hard at the wrist, her foot at the shoulder. A sickening snap accompanied the arm dislocating at the shoulder, and a loud crack as she twisted the wrist past its breaking point. The female soldier would not be fighting with that arm, but she couldn't let the job unfinished, so Toga straddled her back and placed her arms around her neck. On another moment she might have giggled at the attack´s name, a rear naked choke; at the moment, she just did what she had to do. The woman squirmed and resisted, bringing her left arm up to try and claw at the choke, try and loosen Toga´s grip. It didn't work, and she soon stopped resisting. The female soldier went limp, and after kicking her to see if it wasn't faking, Toga moved on to the next enemy, a dazed commando on the ground, who only took a hit to the head to knock out.
Meanwhile, Izuku had used a Muay Thai flying knee against the tall commando, opening his guard for a short combination of punches to the head that left him out of commission. It had been the third group of people sent against them in the maze, all around the same quality. It took every technique Izuku knew, analysing their Quirks at lightning speed, and fighting ruthlessly. Izuku had blood on his gauntlets, and he didn't know for sure if some of the goons he had beaten were knocked down or if he had gone too far and really hurt them. The dead eyes some of them had broken his heart. He knew what they had been through and he knew that they were victims. Victims hell bent on killing him and his girlfriend, but victims in the end.
Izuku took a second to rest and catch his breath, sitting down next to two knocked out guards. Toga slid down next to him, cuddling up to him. "We keep going in a minute?" Toga nuzzled her nose against his cheek, her hair tickling his face. "Yeah. We can go stab a fucker in a few, sure."
With a sigh, they got up after a minute, and started running again. They found a heavy steel door, they were in the right direction. Speakers on both sides of the door sparked to life, with a voice Izuku recognized from his nightmares. Pestilentia. "You two finally made it, good. I expected my children to at least last a bit longer. I´m surprised you didn't kill them, it would have been easier for you, it seems. Come on in, you two. I am waiting." The door opened with a metallic screech, showing a corridor that soon turned to the right.
A maze within a maze, at every turn there were more speakers. Pestilentia taunted them as they ran. First, he attacked Izuku "Young Midoriya, look at you…a promising hero, on a government sanctioned assassination. Has that girl really gotten so far into your mind? You are not after me because I am a wanted villain…it is personal for you. And why even do all of this for the girl? She´s a murderer. On All for One´s behalf, for her own sake. You think you can change her?"
The villain laughed sardonically "You think you can save her, inside your head you feel you are the only one who can. You think as a hero you have the moral high ground, but deep inside you know you latched onto her because she depends on you completely. It is a power fantasy, Midoriya! Her feelings for you…if anyone else had given her the same kindness, it would have been the same, you are not special. You are nothing."
The words bit hard. Izuku´s feelings for Toga were not like that, it wasn't like that at all! "You fucking liar! You think you can just talk your way into our heads?" said Toga "Izu-Izu is a hero, MY HERO, you fuck! He´s good and he´s kind and he would never do that to anyone!" Izuku´s eyes crossed with Toga´s "Himiko, I…" but he was interrupted.
"And you, number 132798…I made you better than this. A woman who leaves behind everything her life has been for a man…do you think that is healthy? No, "Toga", you are not in a healthy relationship with him. Just look at yourself…you have made him your accomplice, accessory to two murders. You have brought him into harms way; that Nomu biting his leg, while comedy gold for me, is all on you. All the nightmares I have cultivated in his mind with extreme care, all the times he has seen his loved ones die while he sleeps…that is all on you, Toga. You are toxic, everything around you dies. Your family, the League of Villains, those agents we dispatched on your little plane…and you know why you are like that? Why you will never be normal, why you will never have the happiness you want? Because…" Izuku covered Himiko´s ears with his gloved hands, looking into her eyes, trying to reassure her.
Toga was losing it, doubt in her face, anxiety and fear clouding her eyes as tears started to run down her cheeks. Izuku turned her head so she would meet his gaze, then released one of her ears so he could speak over Pestilentia´s monologue "He is wrong, I know you and I love you. We´ll be alright, Himiko. Just ignore him, let him waste his breath. He has no power over us while we are awake, and he´s going down. The speakers replied after a short moment of silence "You were raised to be my successor, Toga. If you will not return to your real family, we will just have to break your mind again. You will be my heir, Toga, take the easy path." Izuku pulled Himiko in for a hug, whispering in her ear "He´s really pissing me off right now. Left camera?" Himiko whispered back "Yeah, I got the right." A second later, a throwing knife and a blast of concentrated wind blew up the speakers and cameras in the corridor. "Fuck that bastard" said Toga, flipping off the air around her.
They kept running, shaken, but they had no doubts about each other. They knew what they felt, and no villain would be driving them apart. At last, they came upon another steel door, larger and thicker than the last. Izuku kicked a hole through it. On the other side were three smaller doors. Two slid open, revealing a man and a woman.
The man was well over two meters tall, a mountain of muscle, suited up in an armoured-up battle dress uniform, black with dark red accents. He was blond and blue eyed, his eyes displaying only a slight bit of anger. He had a helmet at his side, it looked a bit like a pitch-black fencing mask. The woman was about Toga´s height and build and had dull green eyes and hair, pulled back into a bun. She looked like how Izuku would have described a "common" girl to look like. Her face seemed to shift under his gaze, seeming…unreal in a way. The "common" girl was dressed in a sneaking suit, its black and blue colours contrasting with Toga´s white and grey. Pestilentia had chosen some sort of mirror opponents, it seemed.
"Before I let my children begin, I will make you a final offer. Midoriya, you may leave unhindered if you swear to go and never oppose me again. "Toga", return to our side, and reclaim your rightful place as my heir, my Left Hand. What say you? I´ll even let you keep young Midoriya for yourself, if you wish to." Izuku replied first "I refuse, we will stop you once and for all!". Toga was next "Screw you, I´d rather die."
"I hoped we could resolve this amicably, sadly it was always an option with little chance of success. Allow me to introduce your executioners, then. On my right side is 42, the pinnacle of selective breeding, enhancement and training. With his strength and skill, I feel confident he will be more than a match for your One for All, Midoriya. On my left, 99, the finest student my academy ever produced. You were once before her, "Toga", as the Alpha. She is your Omega, the last opponent you will ever meet. Bring me their heads, children."
Izuku reacted just as the two enemies closed in, smashing the ground and snapping a finger at each, the gusts of wind affecting their balance slightly. The assassin, 99, recovered with a pirouette and kept charging, a sword of some kind on one hand, a gun on the other, aiming towards Toga. But Toga had been faster, using the momentary interruption to throw a knife at her with deadly precision, slicing her left index finger, tearing away her nail and cutting a millimetre deep into her skin.
The super soldier, 42, charged like a bull, covering the distance in long strides aided by his enhancement Quirk, lagging a meter or two behind 99 due to Izuku´s first attack. 42 seemed to be moving in slow motion to Izuku, he intended to tackle him, to take the fight to the ground and pummel him quickly. With a step, a leap and a twist of the hips, Izuku met the super soldier´s head with a spinning flying kick, One for All powering his body at the threshold he could safely hold. 42 was thrown to the side, his helmet broken in pieces. He rolled and started getting up, he was relentless. That kick would have smashed through half a meter of steel reinforced concrete, the guy barely had a bruise.
But before he could keep fighting, the assassin was on him, having bypassed Toga. 99 had holstered her submachinegun and swung her sword with both hands with extreme speed. The sword looked like some kind of futuristic katana, and it hummed in a low tone. It vibrates, to cut through materials! It could cut through his armour, if it was what he thought it was. Mei would have gone crazy over a vibrating sword like that. A slash finally connected, he was too slow to jump out the way. It was a shallow cut on his lower back, leaving his hero suit torn and wet with blood.
But it wasn't meant to kill him. Just distract him long enough to use her left hand and bring a grenade up to her mouth. She bit the pin and pulled it off with her mouth, before tossing it right at Toga´s feet as she moved in to fight. Izuku knew what kind of grenade that was; a fragmentation grenade. The blast itself wasn't too big, but its shrapnel could injure severely at almost fifteen meters. 99 was a goddamn psycho!
He had a few seconds before the grenade exploded, some three if his head was counting correctly. His mind was going too fast, everything else was so slow. His own body was so slow, but fast enough. Izuku managed to activate the skeletonized helmet and back armour with the buttons on his gloves. He crashed onto Toga, shielding her as much as he could with his body, and then dashed away, crashing through the wall panels that lined the room. As he crashed, the grenade exploded.
The concussive force didn't hit him with full force, as he was now in some semblance of cover, but the shrapnel managed to graze him. He felt a deep cut in his shoulder, some shrapnel barely touching his thigh, and some getting stuck in the armour plates he had activated. In his arms, Toga was safe, but her ears were bleeding from the concussion. He tried to get up to keep fighting, but he was yanked by the back of the neck by the super soldier and tossed away before he could react. As he flew, he saw that 42 had lost vision in an eye in the explosion, a piece of shrapnel embedded in it painfully.
He rolled to his feet, narrowly evading a cut from the back. The assassin was unscathed by the blast! Another cut split his helmet´s visor, a pull on the sword tearing the helmet apart. She was very fast, agile and skilled. Her range was longer than Izuku´s, as she was armed, and he could use her gun on the same distance an Air Force Smash could be useful, and on the last one, she had simply danced aside. On longer distances, a grenade could further endanger Toga or take him by surprise.
But he had fought people with similar tactics before. She moved like Toga, and he knew Toga very well. 99´s sword had a bit less reach than Stain´s katana, her other weapons no deadlier than the Mountain Brigade commandos he had fought on a falling plane. She would dance around him, using her control over distance to stay safe, as any hit that landed could end the fight. She would try and use the sword to eliminate the biggest threats; his extremities.
If he could close the distance, he could disarm her and immobilize her, crush her bones with One for All if necessary. But how to do that? He had a plan.
Toga found herself whisked away from an explosion by Izu-Izu´s arms, then she saw that brutish looking asshole grab him by the neck and throw him back to the central room. The big guy turned to her, a glint of anger in his one healthy eye as he swung a fist to the ground, demolishing the area around the punch. Toga was gone already, jumping onto a side roll. She put away her kali stick and grabbed three throwing knives, already aiming at the weak spots in the armour with an eagle eye.
His face was open. The joint between bicep and forearm. A small section of the neck guard, torn by Izu-Izu´s attack. She threw, one after the other, all three knives. They found their mark. The neck knife was deflected by his movement, leaving a deep gash and bleeding. The face knife bounced off, tearing off a chunk of his skin. Thick-skulled bastard, that knife should have gone into his brain! The arm knife connected just as the soldier drew his arm for a punch, making it weak and inaccurate.
Sidestepping the punch, she grabbed onto the knife embedded in the arm, slashing through everything she could, before he shouldered into her, pushing her back. It was a reasonable reaction to getting your right arm paralyzed from the wrist down, and with a good chance of losing mobility forever if he didn't get medical attention immediately. Taking two steps back, Toga took up both Kali sticks, against only one hand she might be able to control him and get to a good position.
As she expected, his first attack was a punch with the left fist, displacing the air similarly to Izuku´s smashes, but with less power; it was a side effect, not the expected result. Toga was not in the way for it, ducking under it to whack his fingers with a rising strike. She saw his middle finger break as she continued with a combination, using the second stick downwards, slamming the wrist, then the forearm, then a quick strike to the neck. On an unarmoured opponent, it would have crushed their windpipe. On 42, she hit on the spot her knife had slashed, further damaging his neck, but without bringing him down.
Toga was too close and could already tell he had the advantage now. She could only slip past to safety if she fought dirty, and she had been fighting dirty for seven years; she slammed both batons on his face, one in each eye. The healthy eye seemed to take the strike, the blind one had the shrapnel pushed in deeper. He bellowed in anger as he tried to grab Toga, to crush her, but he had an arm he could scarcely lift, and he could not close in around her quick enough.
Toga leapt backwards, and she saw him blink with his right eye, focusing on her. He tore a pouch from his armour, taking out a bandage, and he tied it around his right arm. He kept eye contact with Toga as he did so. He wrapped the bandage tightly, he couldn't make a full fist, but he could move the arm now. The bandage was getting filled with blood at just the rate Toga wanted. For a super soldier he is ridiculously predictable. It was a matter of ripping the bandage off now.
Toga switched to her knives, a Fairbairn Sykes dagger on her left hand, a WWI trench knife on the right. And she had just what she needed to get him even more predictable; trash talk. "You´re too slow! Your boss said you´re enhanced, does that mean you do steroids? Steroids make your balls little, you know? Or did your parts have such a tiny original size it didn't matter to you?" She laughed at him as she charged. A vein bulged in his forehead, it had worked a bit. Normally she could get people yelling at her with that kind of talk.
His punches were faster and harder to evade, but she kept laughing and insulting him. "Can´t catch me, Tiny Dick?" she said as she stabbed at his fingers, just out of his reach. "I would say that you´re nowhere near a match for my beloved Izu-Izu but come on! I´m like three times smaller and I´m beating you!" It wasn't true, she was getting overwhelmed. If he didn't overswing or make a mistake, he would get close enough to punch a hole through her gut.
"What is it? Wee eugenics baby can´t get a punch on this traitor to your cause? Oh yes, I´m a hero now! And you know what heroes can do?" Toga was risking it with this move, it was a deadly gambit. She stepped inside his guard as he punched with the injured, but still super powered, right hand, tearing the bandage, licking the blood and transforming as he moved his left arm into a choke.
Except the arm was now at shoulder height, not face height, and the person inside his grasp was a big man. A copy of himself, down to the injured eye and arm. A copy of himself, with the hips positioned to take him down, with an arm pulling on his own. 42 flew for a second, before landing heavily on the ground. His copy was trying to escape, so 42 got up, his back acting up slightly, the fall must have damaged his spine.
Toga moved as far away as she could, if she brought this brute back to the room Izuku was in, they could finish him off together, weakened as he was. She reached the glass panels separating the main room and the side spaces, covered in concrete and dirt, just before being tackled through, rolling with 42 towards the centre of the room. The brute tried punching with his left hand, but by the time his hand hit she was a foot and a half shorter, and already slipping underneath him. A second attack seemed to be ready to take her head off, and then she heard those words "Detroit SMASH!" and the super soldier flew back half a dozen meters.
He looked down to give her a hand up, saying "Himiko, are you…" as Toga instead kicked up with a capoeira move, kicking up 99´s hand and altering her sword´s trajectory from Izuku´s head. "Go get him, she´s mine" she told Izuku, as she got in her fighting stance, kali sticks up, between 99 and Izuku. Izuku probably nodded, as he rushed away, but Toga was focused on her foe.
In front of her was an average young woman. Ridiculously average. Brown hair tied up in a bun, dull brown fish eyes, devoid of all emotion. Simple, cheap makeup. It was a ruse. All of it. Underneath that mask, there was a different person. 99 wasn't some sort of Uraraka-ish grey man. Toga could see through her lies; an ugly nose, broken in so many fights, a scar on her right cheek, fiery red hair, icy blue eyes. Blue eyes with no mercy, no feeling but bloodlust.
"You were the best of us, 98!" she said, her passionate tone clashing with her dead eyes. "You were better than ME! And you throw that away? You selfish child!" 99 shot a burst with her submachine gun, aiming to cut her in half. Toga dropped to the ground, rolled back to her feet and zig zagged towards 99. A burst that long had to have drained most of her magazine; if she used the rest, she would need both hands to reload, or at least to lower her gun arm, another small opening she could use. "So, this is about who´s best?" she said as she fainted left before going right, evading a short burst of bullets like that. "It is not even the real you! They made you weak!" said 99, as she fired her last burst, one of the bullets grazing Toga in the collarbone.
She lowered her gun to reload, a fresh magazine strapped to her drop-leg holster. Drop-leg´s are unstable as fuck, sister! It´ll give you some trouble! The holster moved as the submachinegun snagged the magazine top, giving Toga the second she needed before the gun was brought up again. "Would a weak bitch do this?!" With surgical precision, she smacked the bones on 99´s wrist with the left stick, crashing the right stick on her thumb. Both bones broke, and Toga had a small opening to clock her in the jaw with a backhand strike with her left weapon as she leapt away.
The sword swung methodically, instead of the wild slashes Toga had expected from an opponent with a broken wrist and thumb. From using the sword with both hands, as early in the fight, using a Japanese style, she was now using cuts that made Toga think of Polish sabre techniques. A cut managed to clip one of Toga´s sticks, shaving an inch off its length. Fucking sword cut through the polymer! The sword needed to go.
"What are you, sister, a pirate?" asked Toga, trying to rile her up. "Do not call me sister, traitor!" Another near miss, Toga was feeling her luck running lower every swing. If she could make a distraction… "Wanna know why I did it? Put down the sword and I´ll tell you everything" said Toga, in false honesty. 99 lowered her sword ever so slightly from a hanging guard above her head. She seemed more curious than anything. And with a curious face she saw Toga throw her right-hand stick at her face.
As 99 moved her arm to defend against the thrown weapon, Toga reached behind to her belt, reaching for a weighted polymer ball on a rope, aiming at the right hand of her opponent. Her throw was so fast 99 had no time to react from her defence, finding her right hand entangled and yanked hard, she lost her balance, stepping twice as she was pulled. Right into Toga´s reach. Got her just like Uraraka!
As she got hold of her wrist with her right hand, she attacked her opponent´s back, hitting two times, fast and hard, at the kidney area. Then using her cable and the stick, she pulled back 99´s arm and forced her to drop the sword…
…only to be elbowed, hard, by her other arm. Moving like that surely dislocated the arm I was holding? 99´s right shoulder sagged slightly, but she attacked relentlessly, getting inside Toga´s guard and punching her in the face and the stomach, taking all air from her lungs. In pain, Toga had dropped her kali stick, and with the opportunity 99 had drawn out her own knife, a large Ka-Bar knife. It was a knife fight now.
Remembering the horrible Spanish dub of an anime she had once seen, Toga fell in the flow of the knife fight. Será duelo a muerte con cuchillos…duelo a muerte…con cuchillos? No se que será eso… She laughed, remembering that. A smile in her face, a knife in her hand, the blood dance of blades…cut by cut, Toga checked every strike, and all her attacks were checked as well. It was like sparring with a friend…a very fast friend, with a sharp knife.
The fight sped up. Strike upwards, downwards, diagonal caught, backhand, punch, evasion, checking a strike, moving away from a thrust…they were going down a path of no return. Toga knew that at this point it was to kill or be killed, and she had too much to live for to die to some girl with a number for a name. She still had to shank that bastard Pestilentia, meet that brother and uncle she supposedly still had, maybe grandparents? And she still had too many things she wanted to do with her Izu-Izu.
The first cut felt like a whip, sending a flare of pain up her arm. The Ka-Bar had cut through the synthetic leather of her sneaking suit. That´ll be a new scar for sure. But she gave as much as she took, and slashed 99 in the leg, a deep cut in her left leg.
A second cut hit her right bicep, and she winced. A shallow thrust scarred her opponent´s cheek, the return motion opening her mouth into a Glasgow smile. A quick stab to her leg made her balance suffer, a crimson flower bloomed on 99´s shoulder, staining her black sneaking suit red. Toga saw 99 shift her right foot slightly, her muscle memory reacting to a move her mind did not remember ever countering.
99 attacked diagonally, downward from over her head, lightning fast. On Toga´s right hand, she switched to an ice pick grip on instinct, as her left hand rose up to catch her wrist, her body moving ahead to the intercept. On the last instant, 99 twisted her blade, sinking it into Toga´s hand. It was like fire burning her hand, her entire arm. But her counterattack had been deadly. She had stabbed 99 in the throat, the force of her attack bringing the assassin down to the floor.
As 99 died beneath her, she looked dead into Toga´s eyes. Between bloody gurgles, she managed to whisper "…Strong. You are stronger. Still one of us. Still a monster. Still a servant." She had even smiled in the end. Toga looked at her hands; her light grey gloves were covered in blood, her left hand even bloodier. Her left hand seemed to be cramped into a fist…she turned her wrist around, seeing more blood, fresh blood. Her hand was bleeding…her fingers…her pinkie and ring finger were chopped off, replaced by bleeding stumps. The pain and the sight made her queasy, she felt she wanted to puke.
She took a deep breath. Come on now…I´ve been cut and stabbed and all before. It's just two fingers, not the end of the world. Just get a bandage or something…Izu-Izu should know what to do. He´s a goddamn genius.
After making sure Toga was alright, Deku leapt into action, boot first into his foe. 42, already up, tried to catch it with his right hand on instinct. Right handed. The kick smashed through the weak defence, Himiko´s work, but he was caught by the leg and pulled to the ground. The super soldier loomed over him, pushing his broken, limp arm against his chest to try and keep him down while he attacked with his left hand. Deku wasn't about to let that happen and started punching, hard and fast against his chest, breaking his armour by stressing the ceramic plates till breaking point. Twenty punches before his enemy could even deliver a single punch, Deku brought up his knee with 80% of One for All. It would strain his muscles and give him horrible cramps for a week, but it would not break his bones, so it was enough.
And it was enough to break 42´s armour around his most valuable possessions. Kouta would have been proud! That was enough to get the super soldier off him, Deku kicked away with both legs, snapping air blasts for good measure. He got back up, the shrapnel and the cut from the vibro sword flaring in pain. He took a fighting stance, seeing his enemy get back up. A knee in that spot would have probably caused enough internal bleeding to kill a normal human, apart from obviously obliterating their privates. This man was obviously insane.
An insane man that punched hard and fast, felt Deku as he had fallen for a feint and caught a haymaker to the side of the face, swelling his cheek and his eyelids. It was remarkably similar to fighting All Might in that final exam…perhaps twice as hard, though. The enemy started using his legs as well, meeting Deku´s kicks with his own, shattering both their knee pads when both knee strikes collided. But he wasn't creative with his Quirk, too focused on his conventional fighting techniques, so Deku used the advantage, slamming the ground at an angle to propel the concrete floor against 42´s feet, then using the most power he could safely muster on a flying kick. His kick connected, snapping the super soldier´s head back with a snap, but 42 had kicked as well, slamming his shin into Deku´s ribs even as he fell.
Deku could feel his ribs shatter, the air being punched out of his lungs. As he caught his breath, carefully for his ribs, he saw 42 start to squirm. He needed to knock him out for good. As 42 got to one knee to try and wobble back to his feet, Izuku clotheslined him with a flying scissor choke, passed his working left arm around, and locked his legs around 42´s neck. He choked him to submission and handcuffed him with a pair of Hatsume Industries™ handcuffs, on both hands and feet. The magnetic cuffs attracted each other, effectively hog tying the man.
Izuku ran to help Toga. "Himiko!" he yelled as he saw her clutching her hand in shock, dripping drops of blood onto the corpse of the woman she had fought. An instant later Izuku was disinfecting the wound as gently as possible and bandaging the cut fingers. The bandages would sterilize the wound until she could receive proper medical attention.
Together, they slammed open the central metal door. A sleek, futuristic office inhabited by a man with red eyes. Pestilentia.