Author's Note: The following chapters are an extra set added to the original fiction's story. If you are absolutely happy and satisfied with the original's ending, it's recommended that you stop reading at this point. Fair warning~

Mutual Lie, Extra Story: Mirage, Erased

"The other side of the building is toppling! We need –"

"On it!"

"Then I'll escort the hostages into the safe zone. We'll regroup back there!"

"What about the villains?"

"We can't handle them right now! Secure the area first!"

"But Deku –"

"Deku wanted us to push the rescue effort! So let's get this done fast. I'll make sure the ones here can escape – you have to make sure no one else gets caught in that collapse. We can worry about Deku after we're done here."

Uravity stares in my direction for an unnerving amount of seconds, then nods in unwilling agreement. "Take care of them," she says to me as she waves her hand towards a small abandoned home.
Two sets of families and one injured individual limp out into the open. Crowding themselves near the heroine, Uravity checks on each of their well-beings and gives them a short set of instructions, before sending them my way. Confirming that all of them merged comfortably into my group, Uravity exchanges glances with me, then turns away and runs towards a disintegrating building. Large pieces of shattered debris begin floating off the ground – signaling the use of the heroine's Quirk.
She's doing her job, now I've got to focus on mine.

"Attention, everyone! We'll be relocating ourselves to a safe zone set up by the military police! It's an area west of here, and it's two blocks of burning walls and cars for most of the way there! I'll be blunt – It's going to be very hot, extremely dangerous, and if you don't stick close to those in front of you – you will get lost! Right now – neither the heroes nor the police can spare the manpower to send out any more search parties! That means once we get there – that's it! If we lose any of you at any point – there's no guarantee we can find you again!"
Murmurs of distress spreads quickly within the crowds of people in front of me. With half of them rescued by Deku and the other half found by Uravity, there's no doubt that they'd be off-put by my way of speaking. My speeches have never been the type to build up optimism or comfort. That's not what I'm known for anyways – especially when my teammates are the ones known to overuse those appeals. No, I'd much rather be known for my honesty. And the honest truth is – I'm not confident that I can keep all these people safe by myself.
Waiting for assistance isn't an option for me. I couldn't even spare myself Uravity's help. Right now, with nearly a hundred villains on the loose, we're severely lacking the numbers to handle this emergency. All around us, shattered buildings shatter even further with explosions and loud impacts, Quirkfire zips and flares through the smoke-filled air, the ground shakes with the rumblings of titanic battles, and cries for help can be heard by stranded civilians hidden throughout the half-demolished city. If I wait for help in this maelstrom, then the chances of losing one of these people beside me increases exponentially. I can't risk that. And I can't risk losing myself here either. There's still one person waiting for me.

"We're moving out! Link in pairs and keep only a few feet between you and the next pair!" I yell over the anxious crowd's murmurs and turn towards our destination. The hard tone of my voice prevents them from arguing, and the cold shoulder shows that I have no time for negotiation. It's now or never.
Slowly, and without stopping, I lead the civilians through the rubble, and into the fire-maze. Our unhurried, ceaseless pace ensures that we can avoid most falling debris – while at the same time, we can gradually increase the distance between us and the major danger zone.
The only factors left to concern myself with are the citizen's adherence to my directions, and their current physical conditions. A strong, clear command will be enough to encourage the former. But the latter depends entirely on their uncovered injuries, and our proximity to the flames. Those are much more difficult to supervise. Especially when your own condition needs just as much attention.
Heat – from flames, ashes, and hot weather – claws at my skin and throat. My body-born, aquatic-preferred Quirk makes me very susceptible to dehydration and heatstroke, so this sort of environment really isn't ideal for me. The people and scenes around me shake and blur. My vision is starting to haze, and I can feel my sense of balance tripping over itself. I'll be in an awful spot if I continue in this condition.
Thankfully, I won't have to. Every Pro Hero that's managed under a competent Agency is always equipped with countermeasure items – especially heroes like myself, who have innate weaknesses.
With a click of a button, my support item activates and releases a light mist throughout my body. It's not enough to satiate the terrible thirst in my throat, but it's enough to hold back the heat-rashes. For the moment, this will do – and I'll just have to push myself to work with only this much.

A turn around a collapsed building, a slow walk down a closed-off street, a crawl under a nest of twisted traffic lights, and… the worst kind of obstacle decides to block our way forward: a blazing wall of stacked cars. A villain must have built this to shield themselves from a hero's attacks… it's too bad for them that it was Deku that appeared on the scene… And it's too bad for us that he didn't 'Smash' his way through this barrier.
Looking behind me, I confirm twice that none of the citizens with me had gotten lost or separated during our travel. At least that's encouraging. The distraught looks on their faces, though, tell me that none of them have Quirks that can help with this fire-problem – that's discouraging. We'll have to walk all the way back and find another route. My mist-maker might run out of water by then… I don't –

"Hey! What're you standing around for?!"

A deafening BOOM! shakes the air, and a superheated gust of wind forces us all back a step. The sudden increase in temperature caused my mist-maker to spray an excessive amount of water to compensate – now I definitely won't have enough to make the trip back.
Not that I need it anymore: The area in front of us, once a flaming car-pile barrier, is now an open road with busted vehicles lining its sides. Standing defiantly at the opening's center is the hero Bombing Run – agitated in his disposition, like always.
My disposition is one of surprise. I was aware that Bombing Run was also involved in this operation, but I never expected him to break away from combat just to help another hero. His hot temper and violent streak always paints him as a bad boy with no regard for others, but I guess that's a pretty shallow assumption to make. There are times when he does things like this – heroic, selfless acts that puts others before himself. I really should reevaluate my opinion of him.

"Get yourself and those idiots out of here, frog face! You asking to get cooked?!"

… but it's hard to change your opinion of someone when they never fail to insult you. I sigh with disappointment – I can reevaluate him another time.
"Thanks, Bombing Run." I respond as I lead the scared citizens through the opened path. "I'm getting these civilians to the MP zone. Uravity left to go handle the buildings to the south."

His eye twitches at the last sentence. "Tch. That's where those three muscle-villains are. Is she looking to get killed?" Before I can respond, he detonates the ground with his Quirk and launches himself into the air – heading south towards the crumbling buildings.
Mentioning Uravity in a danger zone always gets his attention. Dealing with him afterwards is a real hassle, but I still baited him with her location. I'd rather have Uravity get out of this situation alive with his help and deal with the annoyances later, than worry over her safety until I see her again.

With that end taken care of, and the area in front of me opened, I pick up my pace in leading the groups towards the final destination. There's still plenty of rubble and obstacles ahead of us, making this trek no less daunting in its length, but at least very little fire can be found on this side of the city. We've finally passed the perimeter of the fire-villain's attacks – and now half of the dangers we've faced are gone. This makes it much easier for us to move around.
We travel through the concrete labyrinth, twisting and turning around the similar-looking corners and climbing mounds of rubble when we can. Now and again we would run into tall, impossible to climb dead ends. Some, we turn away from and find another path. Others, I use my Quirk-enhanced kicks to tumble down. The air's still too dry for my tastes, but without the intense heat of fire threatening me – I can spare enough energy to make some shortcuts for ourselves. And we need all the shortcuts we can get – we've spent over an hour and a half trying to navigate our way through this broken-down labyrinth.
But by the end of this struggle, we had safely reached our destination – with no casualties and no losses. A definite victory, in at least this task. But the tasks left unfinished become more apparent from here on… The rescued citizens are relieved to finally be outside of the warzone, but many among them are voicing their worries for family and friends still out there – stranded somewhere in the chaos, or unknowingly placed into another secure location. Their concerns are piling on top of their rescuers'. It is, after all, our job to save them.
The panicked citizens were starting to beg the military police, they began begging me, to find their missing. Accepting these kinds of requests is impossible, however. Hero or not, there were too many tasks already at hand for the rescuers here – securing safe zones, securing paths to safe zones, preventing further environmental-based disasters, preventing further villain-based disasters, preventing further villain incursions, locating fleeing and hiding villains, keeping the Agency communications up to date, securing invasive journalists, securing meddling vigilantes, securing injured heroes, securing any stranded civilians we run into, and most important of them all: taking down the still-threatening, still-attacking villains that are attempting to make these conditions worse for us heroes.
That last one's my job, specifically. If I, or anyone else here, were to ignore our given orders and make time to find just one of these people's lost relatives… that would only ensure that more relatives are lost in the process.
So though they ask, and beg, and grieve… I have to remain unfazed. I'm not like Deku. I won't make flimsy, unwarranted promises just to bring hope to people. I wouldn't ever want these people to think that I can solve all of their problems. That would be irresponsible. Instead, what I can at least promise is…

"I'll save them if I find them."

It's a stinging phrase. Partially relieving, mostly discouraging.
It says 'I might not find them', and brings their innumerable fears to light. It's harsh, terribly so, but it's the truth.

The heroine Hoplight is not known for comfort or softness. Maybe by my old name, 'Froppy', I was seen as someone more approachable and friendly. But now that my hero suit is covered with impact-proof scales and face-guarded with a glaring, emotionless helmet – it's difficult to view me as a positive pillar to lean on. Stack atop my stinging words, and I can only be seen as cold and distant.
My current looks and name weren't originally meant to convey this. Much like Bombing Run and many others from Class 1-A, I had only changed my hero appearance and name to fit my new approach as a Pro Hero. With years of experience and challenges behind us, each of us adjusted in our own ways to face the hero occupation. There were actually very few of us that hadn't changed significantly before graduation. Deku and Uravity being two of those who hadn't.
For myself, I needed a tougher exterior to face combat situations, and a name that matched the new purpose of the suit. The suit I had as 'Froppy' was too light and bare, equipped to mostly handle rescue and evacuation operations. Even the old name was better suited for that sort of heroism – making me sound cheerful and friendly. But as 'Hoplight', armored in scales, and armed with projectile devices, I'm absolutely designed and advertised for battle.
Meaning that this rescue-operation I was forced into really didn't suit me. But I went through with it anyways. Because I'm a hero. And because he asked me to.

It's been two hours since I broke off from Uravity. Though I had promised her that we would meet here, the anxiety of what we've left unfinished is bugging me too much. Hoping she'd find me eventually, I notify the MP of my leaving, and venture back into the danger zone.
I leap from building to building, launching off grappling hooks from window to window – ensuring I make the leap between large gaps. These hooks would've been handy in the fire maze, but I wanted to reserve their gas tanks for this return trip.
Firing off another pair, I weave them between two radio towers and swing myself upwards. The burning city streets below escape my view, and the sparking night sky fills the horizon. Flashes of light, from fire, lightning, and scraping metal, shine in every direction up here.
The destruction of the world below is merely fallout from the war in the sky.
To my right is the heroine Frequency, keeping herself aloft with a support hovercraft as she takes on two winged villains with her sound-based attacks.
To my left is Arm Hydra, using his massive wing-like arms to try and capture a gadget-geared villain.
And in front of me is someone suicidal enough to fight at this height without any flight-gifted Quirks or support vehicles… Deku is kicking off from one villain to the next, punching and trading blows with nearly ten criminals at once. Each of his strikes is enough to put one of these villains out of commission, but the danger of falling increases with each one knocked out of the sky. He has no other platforms other than them – he has nowhere to go but down, and it's far enough down that even his Quirk won't protect him from damage. The villains probably baited him all the way up here knowing that. And he most likely knew it too, and chased after them regardless – just so that none of them could escape.
The idiot.
Triggering the front gas valves of my belt, I launch myself backwards. And triggering the back valves at the end of the back-swing, I shoot myself forwards and upwards – removing the locks of my grappling hooks and taking off into the battle-ridden sky. I'm an idiot too, I guess.

I dart at an unknowable speed, seeing the distant figures of the villains turn from tiny dots to fridge-sized monstrosities in only a handful of seconds. The villain closest to me, a beast of a man with cannons for arms, aims and fires both in my direction. At my speed, however, the attack was too little too late. His shots strike down one of his allies instead, as I fly and kick into another one. Something twists below my foot. I bounce off and leap towards the next villain.
Within three seconds, five villains are knocked out of the sky. One shot down by their own ally, one agonizing over the leg injury I gave them, and three launched down by a powerful air pressure.
The source of the air pressure looks back at me, and smiles.

"I've got the one behind you!" I yell as I jump away from a villain's chest and throw myself towards him. Deku immediately grabs me with one arm and spins us around to face the target.
There's a specific reason why I named myself 'Hoplight' by the time I graduated. And it isn't just for the obvious 'hop' or 'light'. A 'hoplite' is a Grecian armored soldier, who often fought with spears and shields. Armoring and arming myself the way that I have, and altering my occupational focus to a life of combat heroism, I've changed nearly every aspect of my identity as a hero – just so I could fight confidently by Deku's side.
Gripping firmly to a handle hidden beneath my scales, Deku aims, then throws me towards the villain furthest from his reach. I burst forward and kick hard into the fire-breather's stomach. A large gasp of flame belches from his mouth as he's knocked completely out of his flying craft.
Leaping off the craft, I throw one of my spare grappling hooks towards Deku. He catches it and reels me in immediately, bracing me close to his chest – as cannon-fire blasts into my back.
The cannon-armed villain is probably smirking in satisfaction, thinking that he just crippled the partner of his greatest enemy. If so, he obviously hasn't heard of how we work.
Cannon smoke dissipates, revealing Deku a few yards further up, but remaining untouched by the attack. The one in his arms is also untouched, with only slight burn marks on the steel-like carapace of my back. Spinning himself around, he blocks another blow – with me acting as his shield. And he counters by throwing me directly into the attackers – acting as his spear.
This is how we work. My gadgets, my gear, my Quirk, my training, and my looks – all are designed to convey my hero name. As the heroine Hoplight, I'm the living shield and spear of the strongest hero in the world.

Three more villains are blown out of the sky, and the rest begin in their retreat for the ground. With me equipped, the villain's projectiles no longer have the advantage against the close-ranged Deku. Now they can only hope that the fall from this height takes us both out. At this height, with no buildings near enough to swing off from, and nothing to cushion our drop – their hopes would be well-placed. Especially for Deku, who'd most likely try to take the brunt of the landing for the both of us.
But I wasn't optimistic enough to avoid preparing for this.

"Hold onto this latch!" I instruct Deku as I move his hand to a different handle – one located over my left shoulder blade. "And this one!" I pull his other hand to one located over my right shoulder blade. My legs and arms wrap tightly around his sides. "When I say 'go', tug those two hard!"
Looking at the ground below us increasing in magnification, I search its surfaces for the closest, open landing.
"There's a building to my left – your right! Momo's Agency, you see it?!" I call out to him through the deafening wind.

"Hero's Rescue? Yeah, I see it!"

"Turn the parachute there and we'll land on the roof!"

"Parachute? What para-"

"Go!"

Ignoring his last question and following the instruction, Deku pulls hard. Thankfully, without his Quirk. The two handles of my back snap from their positions, and a loud 'Flap!' is heard. Above, a large parachute bursts from the top of my shelled back and nearly yanks me away from Deku's chest. Deku grabs onto me in a panic, then twists us in the direction of the nearing building.
As the two of us slowly float down to our destination, with the sounds of battle still serenading the Quirk-blasted sky, Deku looks at me softly and smiles. "Thanks for saving me."

Despite the cold, my cheeks feel warm. "… I should get a 'thank you' for saving those people too. You know I wasn't authorized for that." I tell him as I turn my head away in a huff.

"Thanks. I'm really grateful." He pecks my cheek twice.

My face feels a little warmer. I bury it into his neck. "… I want more than just a kiss later…"