A/N: Been a while since I've done this, just wanted to say that the official 100th Chapter isn't for a while still, despite what Fanfiction says, got a good chapter planned for that. Anywho, Review Time.
To Maniacalharp747: Love the reference, if not utterly random but like it nonetheless! And yes, there will be bloodshed.
Enjoy
Chapter 94 - Perfecters of Promises
The dark skies above filled with a strong, acrid stench that Yuki could smell through her mask, slowly, her eyes closed briefly atop a large, flat rooftop of a warehouse relatively clear of busier streets, though a few were only a road away.
"He'll come straight for me if I give the signal, more importantly, we have to do this before any Heroes show up," Yuki closed her fists together, as if pensive. "We can't let that happen."
"Wouldn't that be a bad thing?" Izuku inquired, worried about their half-thought-out plan.
"Yeah, but..." Yuki shook her head. Endeavor would burn her if he heard this, what she was plotting, a small part of her relished that look on his face. "I have to do this, just like how Kovik is my problem to ultimately deal with, whenever that may be."
Yuki smiled slightly, "But Endeavor's right, I've been... distant, from all of you," She held their gazes this time. "Old habits, I guess, or a part of me still hasn't forgiven myself for Kovik spying on our lives-" Izuku put his hand out to stop Shoto from speaking until Yuki was finished. "-so tonight, I'm going to need all your help, we're saving Hansuke-"
When Yuki looked straight, a helix of venomous light dripped in the air, Hansuke staring back at her with his sharp teeth stretched into a smile, eyes lazy and joyous.
"-By defeating Halimaka."
"You came alone, you're confident, huh?" Halimaka hummed, picking at his neck. "You're very strong, but you're not the first strong hero I've dealt with, but not all of them were like you. They'd ramble about justice and peace like some awful buzzing in my ear, even as they bled out."
Disbelief filled her mask, Yuki held her ground. Slowly, her fingers adjusted her mask to her temple again, so that her forlorn expression could be seen, "What happened to you, Hansuke? Why do all of this to innocent people that never did you any wrong?"
His right hand started to pull at the skin below his shoulder, irritation on his face mingling with a psychotic stare of jubilation. "All people care about is their looks, their strength. People like me are left to rot beneath them, so I fix that, I'll gouge out impurities, skin them until their ugliness is shared with the world, that's how I see it," His fingers dug into his body, drawing blood. "Why should I be treated differently than someone who's famous, right? We're all ugly humans deep down, right?"
Yuki drew her swords to her sides, talking him out of this was a slim probability, but she tried. "I can't let you do that,"
He stopped picking at his skin, kama down by his hips as his tattoos began to glow, dripping a fountain of venom onto the ridges of his sickles until they were drenched in poison. "I'll massacre anyone who thinks highly of themselves," To Yuki's shock, his wounds... they closed up with a red tint. "Time to peel out their ugliness? That's for me to decide - but you, of all people I'll ensure to inflict the same amount of suffering you've put me through," His frown flashed momentarily, drawing up a whirlwind of venom alongside his kama. "Because I am Halimaka!"
He threshed his sickles toward Yuki, missing her by a few strands of hair she rolled and slashed at the explosion of venom, only to be knocked back toward the sickles doubling back. Diving over their poisonous edges, Yuki drew her swords forward, banishing two crescents of venom as Halimaka slashed relentlessly, creating a helix around them that Yuki was forced to evade through.
Her blades collided with his, blocking every thrust and slash to the best of her ability, blue and green sparks reflecting in the night. With two wide horizontal strokes she threw Halimaka away, feeling blood roll down her cheek, she had been cut by the kama. He grinned, bending his middle and index fingers toward the machinist. "Bend Venom Lashes,"
"He can manipulate them now!?" Yuki's head spun around at the air, the arcs swirled like an angry swarm of bees, sharpening as they honed in on her location. Tossing her swords up, Yuki spun onto her back. "Perfected Burst!" The various blades of poison exploded against her spinning barrage of plasma, tremors shaking the building's foundations.
"What happened? Oh, she countered my cage? Impressive," Halimaka leaned forward, grinning once the girl left the red smoke, his sickles drawn to his left to tear out her guts. Unfortunately, Yuki's armor dripped with crimson, gashes formed on her hip, right bicep, and stained the left side of her mask, her forehead bleeding.
She warped through the slant, slamming her shin against Halimaka's stomach as he slid backward, two large crosses forming from his torso for her to guard against with a barrier. A second later, his sickles tore through, parried by her swords again a second before impact.
"Grr, this is starting to piss me off," Halimaka sneered, peeling his neck again. "You're good-looking, you're strong, and I bet one of those guys from earlier is your boyfriend too," He cocked his head side to side. "You've been special since you were born - 'no quirk', why did that matter? A Chosen One, that infuriates me, you know?" His sickened smile stretched. "You need to die, for leaving me, for everything you are!"
Yuki's bloodied smile returned, "'Chosen One', really?" She laughed a little. Halimaka lost his smirk at her bold tone. "Look at me, Hansuke, do I look 'chosen' to you? I'm quirkless without Siva, hell, I lost my whole family thanks to Kovik, I've lived in constant fear I'd hurt someone with a power I stole. There are people around me I can never compare to, that can do amazing things I'm envious of,"
Yuki swung her right blade down sharply. "I'm not chosen so don't give me that crap! Just how many do you think I abandoned back then? You, Jura, school, my own sister I didn't realize survived? Tell me, do I look like I'm gloating?" She pressed, glaring daggers at Halimaka."That's right, I'm a thief who clawed her way to a place where those with real talent stand," Her mind fogged over with an image of All Might. "I could never be like All Might,"
"Then explain how you're still standing?" Halimaka pressed, drawing blood from his neck again with how quickly he scratched. "You know my venom's soaking my sickles, right? So how the hell are you not dead yet, Huh!?"
"Siva's been analyzing countless fights I've had over the years, so it's natural I've dealt with people with similar quirks and developed antivenom for," In reality, that was a bluff, she was doing everything in her power to appear fine. SIVA was still working. "I'll need all the time I can get to beat you, sorry."
"Tch, hehehahaha..." He bent forward with a sardonic expression. "What? Are you trying to save me, huh? Going against your friends' backs? Well, you would, you've always done things on your own, that's why you leave everyone behind you, right?"
Yuki sighed, staring at her reflection in her blades. "Yeah, I guess that's true... but I've learned a lot since then, I've matured I guess, I left you and Jura behind out of selfish fear, I let them torment you until you couldn't take it, right?" Her question made his hands tremble against his kama. "I can never call myself a hero if I go back on my own word, so I swear, I will defeat you!"
"But not alone!" From above, someone slammed into the ground before Yuki, fists clenched as a burst of mint energy pierced the dust. Izuku's eyes were glowing in the dark. Izuku was panting slightly, something was wrong, where were Katsuki and Shoto?
"Izuku...?" He met her gaze and smiled.
"It's alright, they'll be fine," He stood with her, feeling his power mingle with hers. "I've got your back!" That caused her heartbeat to quicken, and a tiny smile to stretch into a confident grin.
"Now that's an entrance, Deku!" She commended, her heart ablaze.
Elsewhere...
"Would you sit still already!?" Katsuki yelled, flying above the streets to roll up his right hand against his left palm. "AP Machine Gun!" His smaller burst fire tore across the now evacuated street thanks to Shoto, below, a shimmering form avoided his attacks like they were mist.
The lamppost shook as the figure appeared, wire rifle charged to ricochet off Katsuki's left gauntlet, shattering it instantly as the force threw him to the tarmac. Drevis remained hunched on the post, rifle charging again.
"Bakugo!" A wall of ice surrounded the pair as chunks flew past their heads, her rifle was useless here so Drevis vanished again.
"I can handle her just fine, Icy-Hot!" Katsuki 'thanked' as the pair watched the streets for movement. "Why is that lizard-face here?"
"Probably to keep us busy so Midoriya and Yuki have less backup," Shoto guessed, himself confused as to the assassin's surprise ambush. "We should keep her busy encase that's not her only intention."
"Don't order me around!" Katsuki huffed, dodging back on his left as a line of static grazed his cheek, splitting the ice barrier in half. "Clever bitch."
Shoto smirked, flames erupting from his palm. "But she's horribly outmatched."
A wall of flames caught the edge of Drevis' cloak as she emerged in the air, tossing a stasis mine at their feet, forcing the two apart for her to try and pick off Shoto, his small blockades of ice doing very little to ward off her powerful shots.
Several explosions rang out through the air, Katsuki had built enough sweat to properly maneuver through the sky as he tore apart the corner of the building Drevis once stood upon, herself diving over his head and a shelf of ice that formed under her feet, using it to anchor herself and grab the blonde, slamming his back into the ground as she trained her pistol on Katsuki's glare. "Pop."
His plans blasted him into a spin, sweeping her feet as the Fallen skated down the ice, diving underneath before Katsuki could blast her face, seeing the static from her cloak disappear. "Bakugo, keep pressuring her!"
"I said not to order me around!" He roared, disintegrating the ice under him as Drevis was forced to flee the collapsing structure, chunks striking her back while attempting to keep her distance. Of all orders she received, this one was by far her most stressful.
"You again..." Halimaka glowered, cocking his head with a leer. "You're 'him'. aren't you? Hehehe, you're all gonna die anyway, so quit staring with that twinkle in your eyes!"
"This guy's aura is completely off, Danger Sense is throbbing," Izuku never let his eyes leave the man, his own body shaking slightly. "Just the smell alone is making my stomach twist. No-" His arms rose into a defensive stance. "-Even if I'm afraid, I - we can do this!"
"What hope you have is slowly being crippled by poison, look at you," Halimaka cackled. "You say you've developed antivenom but my quirk's easily affecting you, right?" He was, Yuki was panting slightly, and veins were visible on her bloodied forehead, even her eyes appeared hazy.
"Poison!?" Izuku snapped his head toward her, but she shrugged, brandishing her swords.
"What's a little poison to make this more exciting, right!?" She was crazy, or plain stupid. "Is that all you got!? Come on, Hansuke! You're finally showing me some teeth so I want to see all you got with that amazing quirk of yours!"
"My friends are at their best with their backs to the wall, if anyone can beat you it's them! No matter what happens, they'll grit the bear the worst of this world! That's what makes them amazing!" Her statement left Izuku feeling speechless, staring into her eyes that lit a fire under his feet.
"You shouldn't hurt others the same way you were," Izuku spoke up, understanding some of Halimaka's pain from what Yuki told them of his life. "The people back then may have done horrible things to you, but you alone can change that without resorting to the same viciousness as they inflicted."
Halimaka grinned, his eyes filled with hatred. "So what? Don't lecture me on what's right and wrong, brat!" He raised his right sickle forward. "Where do you get off telling me how to live, you ugly rat!?" His veins bulged as his venomous tattoos glowed, mingling with what Yuki suspected was the red glow. SIVA was infused into his body, Kovik had done something to him.
"The horrible things I've endured, that I had to suffer with for years, I inflict on others since I cannot make up for my own misfortune alone, not unless the world of the blessed suffers too!" His gashes turned red, and the outline of his tattoos was etched a dark red as he glared back bitterly. "I will slaughter any that level false accusations against me, I will expunge the blessed from this rotten world!"
"He is just like me, or, a version of me," Yuki realized this a few hours ago, how big of a parallel there was between them. "If I gave in and left this world in ruins with Siva, to exact my own revenge on a world that saw fit to destroy my life. I helped create Halimaka, an echo of a monster I could've become,"
"So much bloodlust! Just like Stain was!" Izuku felt he could collapse at any moment. But his feet didn't buckle, he had to get a grip now! "Of course, I'm afraid! Against a villain as dangerous as he is, but Yuki's been poisoned, Kacchan and Todoroki are too busy to help us now, I have to protect her!"
His Danger Sense was primed, the second Halimaka moved an inch he'd sense it, if nothing else, Izuku would lessen the burden on Yuki's shoulders. He didn't even blink before a rotten stench flooded his nostrils, a sickle closing in on his left eye. "Evade it! Evade it! Evade-!"
Izuku's feet left the ground, Yuki tossing him back to take the sickle straight through her right palm, using the prosthetic to bend Halimaka's form away while reconstructing her hand. Now out of harm's way, Yuki could focus her swords on disarming Halimaka, sickly green and cool blue locked in a frenzy of attacks Izuku couldn't penetrate.
"What are you doing, trying to be a hindrance to her now!?" Mentally slapping himself for his hesitance, Izuku watched on as Yuki was forced to defend against an onslaught of attacks, both venomous or otherwise. His head suddenly swelled with pain, and Izuku dove backward from two venom blades that sunk into the ground. More swirled through the air. "Help her, protect her until it's over!" His muscles tensed with blazing heat. "Don't ever leave her side again!"
Yuki summoned two extra arms, increasing the tempo of her attacks to better suit Halimaka's wide strokes, a few cuts appearing on her body as the poison blades swept toward her back. She couldn't dodge this time, instead, Izuku drew his left arm forward, Tekres' bracer tanking three separate blades.
They were unbelievably heavy, abrading the surface of the bracer as Izuku steadied his movements, something abnormal burning through his knuckles. "I have to use it! Unlock the door, control it or you're dead!" Forcing his eyes to harden, several black whips unleashed from his gloves, snatching up loose rubble from the rooftop to slam into the venom blades, causing them to either propel elsewhere or explode. "There!"
Without hesitating, Izuku threshing his body around on a heel, the web of whips snaked around Halimaka, himself snarling as a whirlwind of venom erupted from his skin, disrupting Izuku's attack as Yuki slid back, conjoining her blades into a polearm, extending it as she spun it around to widen the air between them and the venom lashes.
Yuki's lower arms expelled several bursts, pushing Halimaka back as small fires erupted amongst the rubble, tinted blue as the rooftop groaned in some places from the abuse. Through the smoke, a sickle parted the smog with a maddening grin. "You can die now!"
She blocked the massive cross slash, feeling her legs tear through the concrete as her staff was spun around in a haze of blue flames, banishing the venom as her blade connected with Halimaka's kama, the pair's growing intensity fueled by the flames as both sent forth a wave of plasma and poison to explode upward, the force of the blast tossing Yuki backward.
"Yuki! Gah!" Izuku leapt away, evading Halimaka's relentless assault now that Yuki was out of the way. His eyes focused on Izuku, lashing out at the boy without a weapon, only a series of air force strikes that were easily thwarted by venom blades. "I can't keep this up forever, my moves aren't suited for a fight like this!" He kept trying to evade, twirling through the air as dozens of venom slashes converged on his body. "Crap, I can't evade this! I'm gonna be torn to ribbons! Think, think of something, anything!"
"Get out of my sight, you disgusting thing!" Halimaka clenched his fist, and the venom spun around like a green cage, closing around Izuku's frightened state.
"That's it!" Twisting his body, Izuku had one idea. Moving without a thought, he used his air force, unaware his body was refusing to fall as he spun faster and faster, mimicking Katsuki's own move. With enough wind pressure, Izuku's body released a strong enough gale force to throw the poison off-course, but not all of it.
*BAM!*
Izuku froze as a hand pulled him back to his feet, away from four pillars of concrete that provided enough cover from the venom. When the pillars lowered, Jura stood firm within his armor. "You've done amazingly well, Midoriya!" He beamed.
"Nakami!?" Izuku was surprised he was here at all, then he remembered what Yuki said, she must've called Jura to help them! "Thank you!"
"Anytime! Now then-" Beside Jura, Yuki warped in, shaking her head clear. "-Let's see to our old friend, Yuyu!"
"Jura too, huh...?" Seeing the armored man speak with that same, boisterous tone made Halimaka's skin crawl, peeling at his collarbone in rage. "Send as many as you like, the result's the same!" His grin pulled at his cheeks. "Die, die in the most painful way imaginable!"
Gathering a dangerous storm, Halimaka sent forth a massive torrent of strikes that slit through the rooftop, leaving holes in the floor around the trio that were lifted away by Jura's pillars. They leapt forward, Yuki acting as the vanguard in striking down the series of large venom blades while Izuku ramped up his quirk to over fifty percent, utilizing wide swings of his arms and legs to destabilize the villain's attacks for Jura to swat with his pillars.
"Follow me!" Yuki ushered, striking in a wide spin to bash three more blades from her sight, Izuku right behind her as pillars stretched across the sky, covering the pair that sped across the collapsing rooftop toward the monster slashing the air constantly. Just then, Yuki dove over an arc with Izuku, while he ran forward still, Yuki pressed her feet against an arching pillar. "Siva, Augment, Cutlass!"
Using the metal from the shredded factory ceiling, Yuki conjured dozens of smaller variations of her swords, waving her arms as they bore down on Halimaka. "What's this, swords? So what, not like I can be killed with something that simple anymore," Then he narrowed his eyes up at her determined face as it followed after the blades. "No, would they really try something so useless? Something's up,"
Twisting round to face the barrage of steel, Halimaka swung his kama in a frenzy of green slants. "Venomous Cutting Cage!" He had deflected her onslaught, only to gasp as Izuku tore through the splashes of poison, his eyes tempered with anger. "Hey now, what gives? You're still coming at me!?" One blade had pierced Izuku's left shoulder, another to his hip, and shin too. "You've been stabbed, what kind of crazy endurance do you have?"
Rolling his shoulders, Halimaka lunged with his kama, only for a smaller pair of columns to disarm him in a flash, Jura keeping close, his once obscured form emerging behind one of his crumbling pillars. "He used the debris I created as cover too?"
"What the... why am I... dizzy?" His body stumbled a little, now that he thought about it, why did Yuki swing so many blades. One of them had slashed his lower back. "Gah, she figured me out? Anti... venom in those damn blades? I can't... feel my arms...!"
"Maine Smash!" Izuku cried out, his right fist inches from Halimaka's face as he stumbled, grinning with one eye closed. Jura was reaching out too, his fist closed tightly, Yuki was still falling toward them, brandishing her twin swords.
"Hey, hey, not too bad! You guys got into sync so quickly!" Halimaka praised, but then green droplets sprung from his tattoos, his kama appeared in both hands again with a red flash, a long, scarlet chain connecting the pair.
"He's recovered that quickly!?" Yuki's eyes dilated, had she miscalculated? Or was Halimaka getting stronger as they fought? "Evade!"
"Heh, too bad, I'm not gonna be outdone by some wannabe heroes! Venomous Cutting Cage!" He gargled, spinning his chained kama into a massive vortex around him, before any of them could move, a dark green wall of poison left them gagging on air, followed by a powerful gust of wind none could escape.
"Watch out!" Jura swung his left hand, summoning two pillars to reach out for his friends, the tornado of venom widened, shredding across their armour.
The whole factory suddenly caved in, dust and blue flames scattering in the air under a dispersing whirlwind of emerald light as nearby streets heard the chaos rumble far and wide.
Drevis kicked Katsuki in the face, shocking him with her pistol as he rolled across the ground, cuts, and bruises dotting his face as Shoto panted, keeping up his defense of both the street and any bystanders that hadn't fled. He was the defense, that was his job, relying on Katsuki to handle Drevis alone.
"What's wrong, worm?" Drevis taunted in her thick tone of voice, amused by the boys' attempts to defeat her. "Tired?" She rushed him with her cutlasses, striking road as Katsuki threw himself back on his hands, kicking her rebreather as she howled, swiping the air before an explosion struck her shoulder.
"Atleast I don't look like some failed lab experiment!" He mocked, taunting her with his fingers. "I'm the hero who's going to knock you on your ass, so try to make it look good for me!"
"Rat!" She growled, disappearing again as Katsuki listened to the buzz of her blades or the fizzle of her rifle before side-stepping two transparent blades, diving under another horizontal slash, blasting the invisible Fallen before yanking her hood back, spinning Drevis around and into a wall.
She flinched, dodging Katsuki's hand as the wall was charred black. "You're not even supposed to be alive, so who cares if I tear you apart while I'm at it!" That stare of his unnerved her, that same, uncaring look many Guardians have given her before she put them in the ground. Now, she wanted nothing more than to do the same to this human hatchling.
Continuing her close-ranged assault, Drevis had Katsuki block with his remaining grenade gauntlet, avoiding her vicious swordplay by a hair say for a few numbing cuts to his sides or arms. "She's like a completely different fighter with swords, come on, Icy-Hot!" Seeing his breath ahead of him being cut in two, Katsuki dove back with a blast, the tip of Drevis' sword skimming his nose. "Hah, you call yourself an assassin but focused on the wrong guy, lizard-face!"
She growled, noticing that was the blonde spoke of was true. The street wasn't just colder, the ground itself was covered in a thick, white mist, and her legs felt stiff, a thin layer of frost coating her barding. Drevis recoiled, wondering what the boy playing possum had been doing all this time.
"It isn't easy trying to lower the temperature of a massive area like this in the open, but, I think you should be feeling much more sluggish by now," Shoto answered her silent stare, Katsuki's palms crackling with sparks. "It seems Tekres was right about you, you're too confident in yourself,"
Drevis turned invisible quickly, avoiding Katsuki's blast, although he too appeared slower at building up thermal energy, his body didn't move like a lump of iron through water. Drevis's body couldn't handle the extreme drop in temperature, her equipment wasn't the same as when she fought on the mountain with Gin.
"You're done!" Katsuki spun around, slamming his left leg against her forearm, hearing an audible 'crack' as the Fallen was tossed through the mist, her cloak must less useful when her movements disturbed the mist. Katsuki landed, grabbing the Fallen's cloak to toss them up and land a solid punch on her chest, seeing her body bend against a pavement rail guard. "Pah, what the hell was Deku so whiny for!? You're not even a threat once all your tricks are expended!"
"You... know... nothing," Drevis huffed, leaning forward against the bars. "Humans... are so... gullible," That made Katsuki slow his approach, brow quirked as she chuckled. "Not beat you... stall you..."
"So you were a distraction," Shoto surmised. "And what makes you think the others can't handle Halimaka?" She chuckled again at that.
"Oh... our new... experiment?" Her tone and hand movements hammered home the last nail, they were played this whole time. "Hehehe... 'heroes', no... children, worms!" She snarled as Katsuki swung his hand toward her, the palm bright orange.
"Grah!" He heard the explosion, but it wasn't from him, rather, a sheet of ice blocked his assault as several arc grenades erupted behind the wall, the chunks nearly hitting Katsuki in the face as Drevis fled the scene. "We were used...!"
"Bakugo, go on ahead!" Shoto asked, using his flames to raise the temperature of the street. "I'll let any Pros or Endeavor nearby what happened,"
"Tch, I thought I said to stop telling me what to do, but just this once," He didn't have the time to argue, and his blood was boiling enough to make his hands clammy. "Build up sweat faster! Come on!"
Yuki coughed, rubbing her eyes as blood stained the left-hand side of her face. "Why didn't I see that coming!? Shit, shit!" She hissed as her joints popped atop the rubble. The whole ceiling had collapsed, alongside the front half of the building, now only a blue glow filled the night sky with clouds of ash. "Izuku, Jura, where are they!?"
Stumbling onto her feet, Yuki's breath hitched in horror at what stained her sight. Izuku was on the ground too, bleeding from the side and his own forehead, but what made things sink inside Yuki's stomach was Jura, his helmet was shattered, as well as several sections of his sturdy armor. But his left hand was severed beside him, blood caking the ground.
"I can't believe it ended up like this," Standing over the pair, Halimaka was smiling, enjoying the crumbling debris joining the mountains of rubble, the smell of blood and ash in the air surrounded by fire. Her grief had to wait, Yuki picked up her mask, setting it back on her temple with a firm expression. "I have to do what I came here to do! Jura, Izuku, I'll make it up to you both!"
"What's this? You survived all that?" Disbelief filled Halimaka's voice as he scratched at his own gouged-out right eye, nanomachines slowly stitching up the wound instead of healing it. "Man, you really are lucky, Yuki, huh?" He put his kama against his hips. "Well, not like you had much else going for you, dragging your friends into your messes like always, huh?"
He leaned close to her face in the harsh heat, his grin in contrast to her startled frown. "I feel bad for you, I doubt they'll live after this, my poison's gonna tear them apart sooner or later, you'll be all alone again, how pathetic is that huh!?" He slowly slapped her face, side to side as her body trembled with anger. "Jura's gonna die because of you, losing a hand too, how sad! And that boy, 'Izuku Midoriya' was it? Yeah, he'll writhe in agony before long!"
His constant slaps stung her cheeks, then he grabbed her left hand, then, with a single twist, he snapped it like a twig, laughing as Yuki's voice snagged in agony, clutching her broken hand. "You're so pathetic now! You couldn't keep your word to me, why would it matter to them!? What makes them any less disposable than me, right?" He egged on, tossing her mask aside to pinch her cheeks. "Well? Does it feel horrible? Do you hate it, tell me, I wanna know how you feel now!?"
Breathing heavily made her lungs sting, his poison wasn't flushed from her system yet. So, with a scrunched-up expression, Yuki shoved past Halimaka, stumbling into a run toward her friends. He blinked, then cackled madly at her reaction. "You really did just lose your nerve there, huh!? How pathetic are you!? Bahahahahaha!"
In a single stroke, he stepped ahead of her, slamming his knee against her side so hard blood fell from her lips, seeing her body tumble toward Izuku's, landing next to him in a heap, coughing as she dragged her arm across his back. He stepped through the flames, grinning like a devil with his sickles.
"You're really pathetic, just like all the rest! Once you lose your strength there's nothing left to see!" He stepped closer, kicking Yuki in the stomach as she vomited blood, seeing her collapse next to her partner. "I don't hate you, now that I realize you've been suffering because of this world, so don't feel too bad!" He picked her head up as she knelt before him, he grinned. "Say, there's an idea! Why not come with me!? We could be friends again, kill off all those that think they have any right to judge people like us, sounds like fun, right, right!?"
He patted his bare chest, grin wide like a Nightmare's, but his eyes betrayed his murderous intent. "Dislike that and I'll kill them in front of you!" He warned her.
Yuki lifted her head, knitting her teeth. "I... felt bad for you..." He frowned at that, seeing remorse dissolve behind a fire reflected in her eyes. "...you were so kind... but that person's dead and gone now..." She tensed her muscles. "I'm sorry, Hansuke, for leaving you behind."
Her right fist clenched as her left finally moved again with what little strength she had. "Besides, I just... needed some time - hmph!" Her right fist struck his chin, throwing Halimaka backward with a stupid grin as Yuki stumbled to manifest a sword between her fingers.
"Is that it? A single half-assed punch? You must be desperate!" Then his world blurred, swaying side to side as he fell to his backside. "W-what the? Why is... a single punch that disorientating!?" Then his eye shook with rage, Izuku's head was lifted with a glare, his right hand pressing one of Yuki's short swords deep into his stomach. "A tinged blade!? He must've fallen on it, and she gave him an antidote to move while she kept my attention, that's why she ran!?"
"This is it! I'm ending this!" It took SIVA a lot of time, but they found it, the core of the nanomachines inside of Halimaka was the left side of his chest. "Hyraaaaaah!" Her blade hovered above his chest, Halimaka glowering up, unable to move at all. Yuki had frozen stiff. "At any point, I could've been like this, fallen into my own sorrow and anger, drowning in a twisted sense of what's good..."
In a way, Yuki saw it, herself standing where Shigaraki and the other villains stood, watching the world twist in her palm to what she desired, SIVA would be there, accepting of this. Maybe she and Kovik would see eye to eye then. Her arms were taut. "But... I know that someone, maybe one of my classmates, would do me the favor of defeating me."
This resolve made her grip tighten around the handle before plunging her sword through his chest toward the SIVA cluster. Halimaka clenched his right around the blade, roaring back at her as his left curled around Izuku's blade, his face contorted in pain, trying to hold the tinged blade in place.
"We're going to win! I promise we're winning!" Yuki was defiant, pushing against Halimaka's palm. "I promise you, Hansuke, I am going to sever that cluster from your chest!"
"Gr-r-r-raaaaaahhh!" His tattoos were glowing again, the antivenom was wearing off as he yanked the sword from his thigh, kicking Izuku away to grab Yuki's blade in both hands, the heat rising immeasurably around them, whisking through their hair. His venomous lashes were starting to surface around her body, battering against her armor.
"I-I can't hold him, it's engulfing me! The air pressure's causing my blade to recoil!" A short second later, metal rang as Yuki was thrown back on her feet, the poison arcs dispelled as Halimaka grasped his kama, screaming with pure wrath in his tone. "I was so close to-!"
"YOU'RE DEAD!" His poison slashes circled around Yuki while she deflected their edges away. She couldn't give up now, they were so close! Izuku was recovering slowly if she could just hold out a little longer-! Halimaka closed the gap with a burst of poison, his kama disarming Yuki while he doubled back with a twirl, drawing his right under her chin toward her throat. His roar was feral and monstrous.
"I, I-" She couldn't warp, her only weapon was by her feet now.
*TING-Shiiing!*
Jura slammed his thick bicep against the kama, parrying it as he swung at Halimaka with a metal pillar, shoving the madman backward in disbelief. "He's still alive!? How? He wasn't cured by Yuki - what the hell is wrong with this guy's body!? He shouldn't be standing now!" Halimaka's teeth ground against one another bitterly.
"Jura!" Yuki felt her heart soar again with hope.
He cracked his neck, giving them all a crazy smile, raising his remaining hand. "I figured it out, so thanks for that, Bud! Now I'm in complete sync with the earth! I'm gonna clear the way!" In the week since his Work-Study began, he learned what it meant to take action, to rely on the moments others present you, and to hold your own without a moment to think otherwise. "Just you wait and see, Valstrax, I'm gonna show the world how I win!"
"Don't make me laugh!" Halimaka yelled, filling the remains of the factory with a massive web of venom blades, Izuku and Yuki stood by as Jura raced forward with one hand controlling a single, impervious pillar of manufactured steel.
"New Technique - Constant Shift!" He traced his hand through the hot air, guiding the single pillar along the bronze contrail, deflecting a straight line through the current of venom.
Jura ran through the chaos and flames, his body a catalyst as his hand swam through the venom like a current, the pillar bending its head toward the various points with a sudden increase to their velocity, weaving a reflective archway toward Halimaka petrified eye, the veins visible in his eye.
"He's controlling it like it were an arm, is it his blood? Did his blood infuse to the earth, that's how he's controlling it so fluently!?" His kama were drenched in venom, muscles shaking. "He only has one arm! This isn't possible!" "I've had it with your shit!"
He threshed his arms, bleeding a massive cross toward them as the head of the pillar collided with it, splitting down the middle into fours. To which Jura evaded the venom blades, closing his fist to converge the four smaller pillars down on the villain, shattering the kama as dust clouded his sight.
With a gust of wind, Izuku and Yuki swept through above Jura. Yuki with her right leg, and Izuku with his left, the pair intersecting their attacks together toward Halimaka's head. For Yuki, however, for a brief lapse, she didn't see Halimaka at all.
Just a small, timid boy who would smile behind his snood, hiding his venomous tattoos from the world. If only things had been different, if she didn't forget Hansuke, that she made an effort back then to not run from her old life. Maybe... this nightmare could've been different. That only steeled her resolve, leg tensed up.
"Perfected Divide/Smash!" Both their legs connected to Halimaka's temples, twisting his whole body around from the force until his face met concrete beneath them, the remaining venom slashes splashing to the ground in tandem.
Halimaka collapsed, his kama sunk into the ground as they dripped with lingering poison. The sudden drop of tension didn't register immediately, the trio forcing themselves to breathe again.
"Hah... hah... it's... over," Yuki gulped down a dry breath, suddenly turning once Jura collapsed to his backside, his face pale. "Jura! The poison!" He smiled weakly.
"Given my quirk, I... am a little resistant to it," Still, Yuki knelt beside him, applying her own dosage to his body. It wasn't perfect but it suppressed the worst of the poison until they all could be treated.
Izuku collapsed to his knees too, gasping for breath that stung in his lungs. He had pushed all of his strength out, now his left leg was broken, but they won, somehow, they beat a villain with the slimmest of chances. "Yuki, what... about him?" The pair followed Izuku's remorseful eyes to Halimaka, the boy unconscious.
"He'll be sent to Tartarus, but... at least now he can't hurt anyone anymore," Yuki lowered her eyes. In a way, it was their fault for leaving him all alone, if not, he might have become an amazing hero too, perhaps they'd be in the same class again. That dream, even if it was impossible now, Jura and Yuki would carry it for Hansuke.
The authorities swept the areas the students fought in, Katsuki had arrived in time at the factory to help, reluctantly, move Yuki and the others out of the burning factory as firefighters quelled the flames, and other heroes and sidekicks worked on damage control. Things went very well until Endeavor arrived on the scene to find his Work-Study students at the center of the catastrophe. He took it well.
"What were you thinking!?" To say Endeavor was pissed would be an understatement. Yuki, Shoto, Izuku, and Katsuki stood and let the man burn his words into their ears. "I told you to remain at the Agency, so what do you do, you risk countless lives in pursuit of a villain that I said I would handle personally!"
"Actually, we made sure to draw him away from civilians," Yuki raised a finger, listing off with her hand. "The factory was abandoned years ago, and it was away from busy streets, plus, Katsuki and Shoto handled Drevis' interference without much property damage too,"
"I made sure to use my ice as a shield until all civilians were evacuated while Bakugo kept her from using any of her explosives near the buildings," Shoto reinforced. "You said to get some rest, but not once were we told to remain out of the situation,"
"Which we handled," Bakugo huffed. "We did everything a Pro would stop getting so worked up because we did a better job than you."
"K-Kacchan!" Izuku hissed until Valstrax laughed behind the Number One hero, rubbing her nose.
"The kid's got a point, Flame Brain," The silverette shrugged at Endeavor's glare. "Just tell them they did a good job, and stop being so grumpy - y-you do know how to do that, right?"
"One of them was injured," Endeavor reminded her sternly. "One of your students,"
"Oh, he's fine, he's right-handed," Valstrax downplayed Jura's lost hand, the boy sitting on a stretcher with paramedics ready to take him off to hospital for better treatment, the chipper boy raising a thumb back. "See? Sure, so much of this could've been handled with better tact, but that's the life we live, and the one we're teaching them, scars will happen, but that shouldn't be where a person stops moving."
Endeavor grunted, his flames simmering with his arms crossed. "Return to the Agency once you've filled in your reports, after that, do not leave until I say so, understood?"
"Sure, I think we're tapped out of adventure for one day," Yuki grinned, wincing as she still needed to recover naturally. "Woah, poison's still there," She leaned against Izuku, himself not faring any better.
"Come along now, heroes, I'll escort you back before meeting with Jura at the hospital," Yuki's Mother announced, ushering the four on while Yuki stared at the detainment vehicle containing Halimaka. "He'll be okay," She met her Mom's gaze, then nodded lightly.
"Goodbye, Hansuke," Yuki whispered, her hand taken by Izuku's to comfort her as she let her eyes fall to the road. "That cluster, what was it? I've never felt something like that before, it healed him, and his quirk was stronger..."
I do not know | A new variation but too little data | But it was linked to his quirk, changing it
"What on earth has Kovik been doing all this time?" It was an answer Yuki really didn't want to find out.
When Halimaka cracked his one good eye open, the vehicle he was detained in was on its side, leaving him discombobulated by the time some approached from the side of the torn doors. "You did well, for a human," Drevis clicked, dropping what appeared to be another red SIVA cluster at his feet.
"...what do you want?" He met this Fallen before, she gave him the SIVA cluster that bolstered his regeneration, but he never got a straight answer from her. "Come to kill me? Think you can do that will those trinkets of yours, huh?"
His smile grew when her foot slammed into his bruised chest, meeting his eye with a glare, her own face wrapped up with a black fabric still from her loss of eyes due to the girl with earjacks. It would be easy to kill him as he was, even with his cuffs broken, but Drevis plucked her foot back.
"No, but my Kell thinks you are... worth his time," She definitely didn't nearly vomit saying that. Tossing the last officer to the ground, Drevis slit the man's throat, tucking her hood up. "Take it, become his Baron, or rot with your ideals, your choice," With that, she disappeared, leaving Halimaka to decide as he stared at the cluster turning from red to a yellowish tint.
By the time reinforcements arrives, the bodies of the officers were all that remained. Halimaka was nowhere to be found, nor the cluster left by Drevis.
To Be Continued...
This was by far my favorite fight as of late, Hansuke's vicious quirk against three, and they barely survived. Jura's the MVP by far in this battle, not to mention Katsuki and Shoto handling Drevis themselves was trickier than they imagined. But this isn't the end of Halimaka, though we won't be seeing him for a while now, there's much more of him to come when he does return.
I hope you enjoyed, I appreciate the support as always; seeya in the next chapter, Heroes!
Next Chapter Intermission - A Night with Imperfect Hosts
"By the Great Machine... I'm so-so-so sorry, Jura!" Yuki bowed like crazy as the boy sweated nervously with a smile.
"It's okay, Yuyu, I'm still in top form!" He tried to reassure.
"B-but your hand, what if it was your right, you'd be screwed!" She exploded.
"Yeah, true, but it's not, so no harm done," He chuckled as Yuki facepalmed.
"You're an idiot sometimes," Shaking her head, she tapped her chin. "Gotta say, Hansuke's quirk nearly got the best of us,"
"Good thing we had you and Siva then!" Jura beamed, waving his stumped wrist.
"I guess it's not as bad as what's next, seriously, Shoto's family is... tense," She rubbed her nape.
"I'll tag out of this one, bud," Jura cleared his throat. "Coming up, A Night with Imperfect Hosts,"
Yuki deflated. "Go Beyond..."
"Plus Ultra!"