Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this modern fantasy AU of MHA x Goblin Slayer, along with a bunch of other fantasy and sci-fi tropes from franchises and ideas that I love. If you have any recommendations or characters that you'd like to see, please feel free to reach out and speak your mind.
Author's notes are at the bottom, and please enjoy!
After a grueling five days of vigorous training exercises and sacrificing their free time to take part in Endeavor's internship program, the students of the Hero Academy had finally reached what all students their age looked forward to: the start of their weekend. During their homeroom period earlier that day with Shoto Aizawa, none other than the most disciplined of the students, Tenya Ida, had mustered up the courage to invite his fellow classmates over to his house for a game of 'Dungeons and Dragons'.
Having known that students like Bakugou and Momo were going to be turned off by the idea of participating in a board game that they would otherwise see as juvenile, or even nerdy, Ida made sure to emphasize that dungeons and dragons would be able to reinforce principles and strategic thinking that would translate into their lives and future careers. As for Midoriya Izuku, or how his close friends called him, 'Deku', none of that really mattered to him.
In all honesty, all Deku really cared about was being able to have an excuse to roleplay as his hero, All Might, and being able to spectate and live out one of his many fantasies of him, even if it was just pretend. Beside the fact that Deku had actually written several fanfictions of All Might, revolving around the idea of the hero helping others in a fantasy-world, the young man really just wanted to have a reason to show off his new All Might figurine.
So when it finally came time for Deku to be greeted at the door by Ida's tall and petite mother, he was filled with excitement as he followed her downstairs into the basement that Ida was using to host his game session. In comparison to how white and monotone the modern aesthetic was of the furniture and even the way the family's three-story tall home was itself, the basement was a complete opposite to how the rest of Ida's house was.
Although the stairs were still black and sleek in a way that they still reflected back to the modern feng shui of the upstairs levels of the house, the basement had been decorated to look in what Deku could best describe as 'cottage core'. The ceiling above had decorative hanging moss and fairy lights strung along the room, various plastic flora surrounded the large wooden circular table in the center of the table, which existed for the sole purpose of giving off the notion that whoever sat at the table was in a forest of some kind.
All-in-all, Deku had to hand it to Tenya Ida: he really did go out of his way to create an immersive environment. '… Maybe he went out of his way this much, because he wants us to come back to do this again?' Deku thought to himself curiously, as he made his way to a leather couch that was placed beside a mini fridge, so that he could set his overnight bag down.
Counting the overnight bags that had also been thrown on the large couch, Deku couldn't help but to feel bad for Ida, after counting a grand total of four other overnight bags strung across the leather cushions. 'I hope this doesn't deter him from wanting to continue playing this game… I wonder if four other players are enough for us to even-'
Interrupting his own internal monologue was the mere sight of a green-duffle bag that Deku himself immediately recognized the moment his green eyes laid upon it. Worried about how the rest of the night would be, now that he knew Bakugou had actually decided to show up, Deku let out a nervous groan before turning around to make his way over the large circular table.
Sitting at the opposite of where the stairs leading up to the house were, Tenya Ida welcomed Deku with a friendly smile and a wave, all while wearing an expensive looking red-robe and gold chain around his neck. "At least, 'All Might' has arrived to participate in our adventure tonight!" Ida said out loud in a theatrical voice.
Although he knew he was looking like a dork, Deku couldn't help but to smile like a goofball and blush a bit out of fanboy embarrassment, after having been called 'All Might' himself. "Hello Ida, I really like the outfit you got on! It really adds to the feel of everything down here." Deku replied back with a friendly voice of his own, as he sat down beside Mineta and Jiro.
Similar to how Ida had been cosplaying, Mineta himself had decided to dress up, but unlike Ida, the short young man had decided to go a step further than him. Donning a white cleric robe that was obviously made for women, due to it having a long flowing skirt that draped enough to cover the stool behind Mineta, but not enough to cover his exposed thighs, it didn't take long to realize that the boy beside him was cosplaying to look like the anime-figurine that he had brought along with him.
"Ahh… H-Hello Mineta, h-," Deku tried greeting, but was quickly cut off the moment Mineta whipped his head to the side to give him a disapproving glare.
"Deku…! Don't call me by my actual name…!" Mineta scolded in a hushed whisper, before pointing an immaculately clean white-gloved finger over to his petite figurine, who appeared to be a young woman herself, no older than sixteen, and who had long blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes. "You're going to be 'All Might' for this session, right…? Well, I'm going to be my priestess character; her name is 'Willow', so call me that for the rest of the game, mmkay…?"
Although everything so far had been uncanny and very abnormal since he first stepped foot into the Ida-Clan's household, Deku himself couldn't help but feel entertained, and even liberated at the idea of being whatever and whoever he wanted, while in a secluded area and away from too many judgemental eyes.
Even Jiro herself was cosplaying, even though her mostly indifferent personality would have led Deku to think otherwise. Wearing a black cloak and even a leather harness around her torso that had an empty arrow-quiver resting on her back, Jiro appeared to resemble what Deku would assume a 'rogue' would look like. "Hello Jiro; I like the outfit you got on," Deku complimented, before being met with a bored-looking expression on the girl's face, as she shook her head momentarily at him.
"… The name's 'Kiko'; I'm a high elf archer, and I'll be respected as one while we're immersed in the game," Jiro lectured back at Deku with a mildly annoyed tone, before letting out a sigh and smiling as much as her facial expressions would allow her to. "… But since this is you and Bakugou's first time playing Dungeons and Dragon, I suppose that we should take it easy on you two," Jiro reasoned aloud to not only herself, but to the other two veterans in the room; all of which nodded their heads in agreement with her statement.
"T-Thank you, I'd appreciate it if you guys took it easy on me… I'm nervous, but very excited to get started," Deku admitted aloud, as he placed his All Might figurine down on the table, before reaching across the table to take a character reference sheet from Ida. "I take it you're the 'Dungeon Master' of this session, Ida. It would explain the robes, and why you've got that booklet over there," Deku reasoned, and muttered a quiet 'thank you', before being handed a pen from Mineta to begin filling out the sheet.
Impressed with the fact that it sounded like Deku knew what he was talking about, Ida couldn't help but let out a chuckle while crossing his arms over his chest. "Ah, I've seen you've done your homework, 'All Might'; I wouldn't have expected any less of you," Ida complimented, before giving a side glance over to Bakugou, who had been surprisingly quiet since he first arrived.
"What say you, Kacchan? Have you finished filling out your character sheet yet? Or did you need some more help?" Ida asked with a patient look in his eye, although truth be told, he couldn't help but feel a little bothered that Bakugou had been uncooperative and hadn't asked for much help since he arrived at his house; something that Ida chalked up to being a result of the hot-heated young man's pride and ego.
Having chosen the fully-armored knight as his hero, merely over the fact that Bakugou thought the figurine looked cool in comparison to how nerdy he thought the rest of Ida's collection were, the blond man gave an annoyed glance at the Dungeon Master, before looking back at the character sheet he had filled out. "… I'm pretty sure that I got it right… Couldn't think of a nerdy ass name though, so uh… Here," Bakugou muttered with his brows furrowed and his head hanging low, as he half-heartedly reached out to give Ida the character sheet he had made.
"That's fine if you haven't named him yet; he already has one, and I'll be assigning it you, 'Goblin Slayer'," Ida replied back to Bakugou, as he motioned toward his favorite armored knight figurine that he had lent out to him. "Goblin Slayer, unlike most of the characters we've accumulated here, is special… He's what we consider to be the main protagonist, Kacchan, and I trust that you'll play the role honorably," Ida said with a hollow tone in his voice, before handing the character sheet back to the confused blond man.
"… The main character?" Bakugou repeated back with an arched brow, as he stared back at Ida with a look of skepticism on his face. "If he's the main character, why doesn't he get a name like the others?"
Adjusting his glasses by pushing the rims up the bridge of his nose, Ida thought for a moment about how he would best explain his answer to someone who was a novice like Bakugou. Rolling his twenty-sided and eight-sided die in one hand while thinking, soon enough an idea popped into Ida's head the moment after he glanced idly at where Deku was sitting.
"… Think of it like 'All Might,' Kacchan," Ida said, after finally coming up with an idea on how to best describe his favorite character. "His real name is actually Toshinori Yagi, but no one other than those who knew him before he took up the name of 'All Might' would call him that, right? Instead, he's known as 'All Might' to almost everyone, because that's the persona he's chosen to become. 'All Might' is his name, and 'All Might' is what he is, therefore, he is 'All Might', and not 'Toshinori Yagi'…" Ida stated, before giving Bakugou a few moments to digest everything he had just explained to him. "… Does that make sense?"
Blinking once while trying to sort through the redundancy of Ida's explanation, Bakugou needed only a few moments to finish processing everything before coming to an understanding. "… Your explanation is… Repetitive," Bakugou said with an withheld amount of annoyance in voice, to which Deku chalked up to him trying to be on his best behavior, since he was a house guest after all. "But yeah, I guess I see what you mean…" Bakugou followed up with a sigh under his breath, before grabbing the pen that was near him to quickly write in 'Goblin Slayer' on his character sheet.
With every one of his players readied up and prepared to be at the mercy of his home brewed adventure, all that was needed was to begin rolling the dice in order to finally finish up Deku's and Bakugou's characters. Once that had been accomplished, Ida used the app on his phone to dim the fairy lights above, and played atmospheric slow orchestrated music to immerse everyone in the basement into the world he wanted to take them into.
Opening his booklet up, Ida cleared his throat before beginning his narration of the start of their adventure. "… Our story tonight follows another one of Goblin Slayer's adventures through the bowels of an underground fortress, guarded by hordes of goblins who are prepared to lay down their lives for the sake of protecting their chosen leader and prophet, Yoshimura: a powerful sorceress who has been reported to be close to enacting her evil plot: completing an invoking spell that was rumored to give her God-Hood."
"… Guarded by her own personal follower and trusted servant is none other than Graham Aker: a master samurai who follows the code of bushido, and who is capable of spells and incantations of his own…"
Due to All Might and Goblin Slayer being the most tankiest and physical capable of the party of four adventurers, they were the ones who took the lead while both the Priestess and High Elf Archer, Willow and Kiko respectively, stayed closed behind them; making sure to keep their sharp eyes out and their weapons readied, as they watched their six.
The stone-brick corridor that they had been using to traverse into the underground fortress eventually led to an open ravine within a large cavernous area. Due to the goblins having been born and raised in the underground, the only lights they had on them was the torch that Goblin Slayer had on him; a method that had been questioned by All Might before they had even entered the dungeon to begin with.
However, as Goblin Slayer had previously explained, the hordes of small child-sized green-skinned humanoids were perfectly capable of seeing in pitch-black darkness, so having a bright source of light would only help them in terms of obstructing the goblins' eyesight, due to them easily being temporarily blinded by light.
"… I'm trusting that you're as capable as they say you are, All Might," Goblin Slayer said in a deep, monotone voice, as they approached the stone bridge that arched its way over the ravine, and toward the stone fortress where their enemies had already spotted them. Raising his torch up rather than his shield, Goblin Slayer was able to disrupt and severely reduce the accuracy of all six goblin archers who had positioned themselves on top of the fortress walls, causing them to misfire and fire blindly at them.
With all their shots having been missed, the high elf archer, Kiko, smirked confidently and sprinted past the two men before taking out six arrows from her quiver. "Yeah, it'd be a downright dishonor if your reputation ended up exceeding what you're actually capable of doing, big guy!" The short elven woman with long mint-green hair shouted, as she fired all six arrows into the foreheads of the goblin archers. Samursalting and rolling back onto her feet after having leapt over six meters in the air, Kiko let out a victorious cheer as she watched the bodies of the rival archers land on the cavernous river bedrock with a sickly wet-splat.
With how cocky she had been, Kiko didn't notice until it was too late that there had been a seventh goblin below where the end of the stone bridge was. "Ah, damn it all to the nine hells…!" Kiko muttered in a panic, as she tried her best to raise her bow up to take aim at the equally nervous goblin, who was trying to take cover behind the chain mechanism that was pulling up the retractable metal door of the fortress. During an arrow at her target, Kiko muttered a swear under her breath, as she watched her shot hit the metal mechanism, instead of the goblin operator, who in turn cackled at spat insults at her aim as he finished rolling up the gate.
With their first window of opportunity wasted, the priestess herself, Willow, was forced to take to the front with her holy staff held tightly in her hands. Now that they had made their presence known throughout the entire dungeon, the entire goblin army was at full alert. Sending their most skilled archers armed with crossbows, and a small platoon of two-meter tall and bulky hobgoblins to carry heavy cannons up to the top of the fortress wall, Willow was questioning just how effective her protective light barrier would be against the heavy fire that awaited them within mere seconds.
"-PROTECTION!!!" Willow shouted in her anxious voice, as she summoned a wall of blinding yellow light between her party and the hail of crossbow bolts and canon balls that pelted her magical barrier. Almost immediately, the petite priestess was assaulted with a head-splitting headache, as she struggled to keep her protection barrier steadfast.
With Willow's barrier beginning to crack in areas were the goblin archers had been coordinating to concentrate their fire upon, and with Goblin Slayer and Kiko having trouble landing their arrows after a squad of goblins carrying large shields arrived to protect their archers from them, the two options that were going through the three of their minds were simple: accept defeat and retreat, or die trying to prevent an evil sorceress from obtaining unfathomable power.
In the face of hopelessness and despair, All Might's ever present smile just widened, as he calmly started walking past Goblin Slayer and Kiko, until he was beside the priestess herself. Placing a reassuring and comforting hand on her shoulder, All Might gazed down at the confused blond woman, and told her, "You're doing good, young lady. No matter how much it hurts, how much pain and anguish you're suffering from right now, just remember why you're here… And what led you down this righteous path to begin with…"
"… And don't worry, I'm here with you and your friends; there's no need to worry," All Might said in an inspiring voice, before taking a moment to look over his own broad shoulder to flash his smile at Goblin Slayer and Kiko. "… As for you two… Allow me to demonstrate what a true hero is capable of… What it means to go beyond," All Might said in a powerful voice, as a righteous aura of burning yellow light enveloped his body.
Confused at not just what he was saying, but why he was deciding to say his heroic speech in the middle of a crisis, the high elf archer opened her mouth to scold him, but instead all she could do was echo out a gasp, as she watched him sprinting past the priestess' protective barrier, and out into the hail of bolts and cannonballs. "W-What the actual-"
"-PLUS… ULTRA!!!" All Might shouted in a powerful voice that was heard over the cannons going off, as he created a shockwave that shook the foundations of the cave itself, the moment after he had leaped toward the closed fortress entrance. Shrugging off the cannon fire and speeding bolts like they were nothing, All Might cocked back his fist as he zeroed in on the top metal frame of the fortress itself; the part where he knew he could cause the most collateral damage.
"-TEXAS SMASH!!!" All Might bellowed out in a righteous voice, as he used the destructive power of 'One-For-All' to not only obliterate the entire front of the fortress into smithereens, but was able to create an explosion of concentrated energy that caused a large fraction of the goblin army to disintegrate into ash. The light of his mighty attack had stunned the rest of the surrounding goblins.
With their second window of opportunity having been opened up to them by their newest party member, the three other heroes wasted no time in taking advantage of the miraculous moment. Turning the tides of the battle, Goblin Slayer had dropped his bow on the floor, in favor of using his short sword and one of the iron shields that had been dropped by a deceased goblin, and begun brutally slaying any goblins that were unfortunate enough to come across his path.
Armed with her staff, and the holy powers of the Earth Goddess, Willow was aiding her companions by constantly ensuring to cast miracles that would heal their minor injuries; especially to All Might, who was punching and smashing his way through the dwindling hordes of mortified goblins, while Kiko made sure to pick any cowardly goblins off who tried to retreat.
Although All Might wasn't one for killing his opponents, he knew what was at stake, and that his hesitation would potentially cause one of his party members to die, and that wasn't something he was willing to let happen on his watch. Through the power of All Might, and the inspiration he brought onto the battlefield, it was only a short matter of time until the four heroes were treading across a sea of bloodied goblin corpses.
Knowing fully well that their presence had already been detected, and that the powerful sorceress and her deadily young samurai guardian were waiting for them within the tall-spiraling tower in the center of the massive cavernous dungeon, the group didn't bother masking their footsteps as they approached closer toward their journey's end; their march towa-
"-I thought Goblin Slayer was supposed to be the main character of your guys' campaigns," Bakugou interrupted, as he couldn't help but to glare enviously at Deku while voicing out his issue to the Dungeon Master. "Why is it that Deku's overpowered hero is stronger than the main character? That doesn't seem right…"
From how hard Bakugou was trying to refrain from swearing or losing his temple, Deku couldn't help but to silently applaud the usually hot-tempered teenager for not immediately escalating the situation into a shouting match. However, as a die-hard fan of All Might, Deku couldn't allow Bakugou to discredit his hero, even if it was a dungeons and dragons version of him that he himself designed.
"I mean… Come on, Bakugou; it's supposed to be an accurate representation of just how powerful All Might is! Wouldn't it be out of character if some regular ol' guy in iron armor could outperform All Might?" Deku asked with a slightly condescending voice, as the mere thought of a regular human being able to keep up with the likes of his hero seemed preposterous to him.
Scoffing at Deku's reasoning, Bakugou put his hands out in exasperation before turning to give Ida an annoyed stare. "That's exactly what's wrong with this campaign…! All Might is overshadowing the rest of us schmucks, and we're just taking a back seat to his 'greatness'," Bakugou said with his fingers up to mimic quotation marks, while Deku frowned and squinted his eyes from hearing what he considered to be slander.
"Well, Kacchan… It can't really be helped if All Might just so happens to be full of 'greatness', can it?" Deku replied back in a low voice, which instantly gave off the impression to Bakugou that he was trying to challenge him.
The stool beneath Bakugou scraped the wooden floorboards as he shot up out of his seat. Grabbing the sides of the round table and hunched over slightly while standing, Bakugou's fiery orange eyes glared menacingly at Deku, who in turn would have back then, had it not been for All Might's honor that was on the line.
"How's about I shove my foot up your ass, Deku?! Let's see just how much 'greatness' is inside you, ya littl-," before he could escalate the situation any further, a quick look around the room made Bakugou suddenly feel himself reflecting on his own outbursts. Other than Deku, who was glaring right back at him with an unflinching look on his face, the other three students had worried expressions, and it became apparent to Bakugou that he was ruining what was supposed to be a fun night.
Mumbling a quiet apology under his breath to Ida, Bakugou let out a frustrated sigh as he forced himself back into his seat, before scooting the bar stool closer toward the round table. Not wanting his session to be ruined by Bakugou's outburst, Ida immediately thought of a way to make everyone happy and to ease the tension in the room. That's when an idea popped into the Dungeon Master's noggin; an idea that would satisfy Bakugou's desire to be on even grounds with Deku, and would satisfy Jira and Mineta, who were content with being support characters.
"… Kacchan, what if I told you that you were right?" Ida asked with a cautious tone in his voice. Hearing Ida standing up for Bakugou, Deku suddenly felt himself becoming regretful for being so willing to fight Bakugou over what should have been a game, and that feeling of self-criticism made the green haired boy feel a twinge of guilt.
'… Maybe I shouldn't have insisted that All Might be so strong… God, I feel so awkward now,' Deku thought to himself with a sinking feeling of dread bubbling up in his gut. 'Gah… I should have known that this night was going to be ruined by him…'
Seeing Deku losing focus from himself, Bakugou turned his attention toward Ida, and gave the robbed young man an ashamed look of his own. "It's… It's fine, Ida; you don't gotta change anything mid-game on my behalf, man. I don't wanna start more shit than I already did, ugh…" Bakugou muttered in a regretful voice, as he rested his elbow down on the tabletop to bury his forehead into his palm.
In that moment, Mineta wasn't really seeing himself staring at Bakugou, but rather he envisioned himself as Willow, who was in the face of Goblin Slayer; someone who he shipped his own priestess with. "No, I agree with you too! All Might's really strong, and if you think about it, Goblin Slayer is the only one of us who doesn't have something equal to a quirk of some kind!"
Humoring the cross dressing student, Bakugou raised his head up and rested his chin on his palm instead of his forehead, as he arched a thin eyebrow at Mineta. "You mean, kind of like how Willow has a goddess on her side? Or like, how Kiko is somehow able to control physics and bend it to her will?" Bakugou asked with a slightly sarcastic grin, as he glanced over to Jira, who in turn felt sort of called out.
"Uh… Are you talking about how Kiko can fire homing shots, can detect traps and enemies using her incredible hearing alone, and how's able to pull shots off that would be otherwise impossible?" Jiro asked with her arms crossed, and paused while processing her own admittance to how powerful her character actually was. "… Yeah, okay, now I see your point, Bakugou."
Seeing how supportive everyone was of wanting to validate Bakugou's issue, Deku felt as though that he himself should say something to his childhood friend. "Kacchan, I… I'm sorry if I was being kinda smug. It's just, uh… I-I really wanted to play as All Might, and I… I got kind of defensive when it sounded like you were talking bad about him, so… I-I'm really sorry, again," Deku apologized while sounding like he was on the verge of tears.
Knowing just how emotional the young man could be, and as well as being more than aware of his idolization of All Might, Bakugou let out a quiet sigh before raising his hand to reassure Deku. "It's fine, man… I get it, you have a lot of respect for the dude, and just wanted to see him kick ass in this game," Bakugou said with a slight smile on his face, which seemed to ease Deku's mind. "And uh… S-Sorry about the whole 'me threatening to stick my foot up your ass' thing; I'm trying to work on my anger; and shit, ya know?"
"Ah, don't worry about that, Kacchan; it's water under the bridge," Deku replied back with a forgiving smile, as he took a moment to think about suggestions for which quirk would best suit Goblin Slayer, for the kind of play style Bakugou would want. "… Say, Kacchan, what if Goblin Slayer could manipulate and create explosions, just like you?"
While the idea of seeing his quirk being used to its full potential within their session, especially since he himself was always curious to see just how much damage his power could do without him having to hold back on it, Bakugou played around with the idea before shaking his head. "Nah… That's a bit too self-inserting of me to respectfully do; especially since Goblin Slayer technically belongs to Ida, and not myself," Bakugou reasoned, before looking over to the aforementioned student. "Why don't you choose, Dungeon Master? I think it's only right if you get the honors to give Goblin Slayer his quirk…"
Shocked at first to see Bakugou behaving in a much more cooperative manner than his usual self, Ida had to admit, he wasn't expecting the hot-headed young man to have said that, let alone address him by his alias. "Hmm… Very well," Ida said with a confident smirk on his face, as he felt up to the challenge. Reaching his hand toward Bakugou, Ida used his free hand to adjust his eyeglasses before saying, "Come, 'Goblin Slayer', it's about time we finish this, with you on the helm…"
Leading the group with All Might, Willow, and Kiko marching behind him, Goblin Slayer made sure to keep his party along the spiraling staircase circulating around the unfathomably tall ivory-white tower that stood in the middle of what they all presumed to be inside of a mountain.
Using her long elf-ears to pick up on the indistinguishable sounds of powerful aetheric magic manifesting behind the walls of the large tip of the tower above them, Kiko gritted her teeth and readied her bow. "… We're getting close to the front entrance of their summoning chamber… I can hear where they're standing," Kiko whispered, as they came toward the final step of the staircase.
Walking over past Goblin Slayer, Willow flashed her sapphire gaze at him before smiling gently at him, before stepping in front of him with her staff at the ready. "Whatever happens from here on out, just know… That I'm glad to have met every single one of you," Willow said with as much courage as she could muster, and decided to take one last look upon Goblin Slayer's visor-covered face. "… Especially you. Thank you, for saving me, and allowing me to be at your side."
Silently, Goblin Slayer stared back into the loving gaze of the priestess, before turning away from her to stare back at the white-metal door before them. "… The honor was all mine, and it'll still be once we put an end to their scheme," Goblin Slayer said with a determined voice, and unsheathed his short gladiator sword before turning his head over his armored shoulder, so that he could stare back at All Might's powerful grin. "… What was it you said earlier? Go beyond, go plus ultra?"
Nodding confidently, All Might cracked his knuckles and punched his own palm as an aura of pure righteous light enveloped his body. "That's right, Goblin Slayer; it means to go beyond your limits, and never stop, even once you've reached the 'top'," All Might said, as he crouched down on one knee, to prepare himself for leaping forward at his enemy before they could see it coming. "… I demonstrated that to all of you earlier… Now that we all know what it means to go beyond, and plus ultra, I think it's time we show these villains what it means as well."
"… Yeah. Let's," Goblin Slayer said, before turning around to raise his sword up above his shoulder. Summoning his newfound power of destructive magic that All Might had awakened within him, Goblin Slayer's short blade became illuminated in a powerful orange light. Slashing down at the door and using his blade as medium for an explosive spell, Goblin Slayer's right eye glowed in burning red light from behind his metal visor, as he blew the door into a million pieces.
"-PROTECTION!!!" Willow shouted as fast as she could, and closed her eyes while summoning a barrier of light that managed to protect her and her party from the projectile-blast of shadow magic that had been casted by the dark samurai, Graham.
Standing at average height, donning a full suit of black-samurai armored that covered his body and only revealed his emerald eyes and lockets of his golden bangs that rested on his half-mask, Graham glared menacingly at the party of adventurers who were hidden behind the priestess' barrier. "… You've gotten stronger, Priestess," Graham said in a voice that would have been considered attractive, had it not been for the fact that it carried a sense of violence in it.
Not wanting to credit herself for her own powers, Willow snarled her teeth at the samurai before shouting back, "What you're seeing is the divine righteousness of the Earth Mother Herself! She's always been strong, and She's brought us here to stop you two; HERE, AND NOW!!!" Willow roared back in a furious voice that didn't at all match just how gentle and innocent she dressed and acted.
"… We'll see about that," he scoffed quietly under his breath at the religious girl's words, before Graham's emerald eyes turned toward his armored rival, and a sense of excitement and passion washed over him. "Ah! You appear to be in battle-ready condition, Goblin Slayer! It would have been a shame if I would have had to kill you while you were injured…" Graham said with a smirk on his face, which faded as the moment he looked back to see Kiko and All Might behind Goblin Slayer; both appearing ready to mercilessly attack. "… And you've brought friends; how disappointing."
Looking past her bow and where Graham was standing, Kiko squinted her eyelids as she gazed upon the large sphere of white and blue light hovering behind the powerful samurai. "… Behind that thing, that's where the sorceress is standing," Kiko spoke quietly to her team, before giving a quick side-glance to All Might, who was still kneeling behind her. "I'm going to help Goblin Slayer take on Graham, and you're going to have to go up against Yoshimura with Willow… Think you got that, big guy?"
"… Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to her on my watch; we'll make quick work of that villain," All Might said in a reassuring and brave voice, as he quickly scanned the circular-walls of the chamber to calculate where he would need to leap from, in order to try and catch the sorceress off guard. "On your mark, Goblin Slayer; we'll follow your leader," All Might said to the armored knight, whose burning red eye continued to glare back at the samurai who was standing twenty meters away from where he was at.
Tightening his grip, christening his motive, Goblin Slayer kept his eyes on Graham, and felt the tension burning away along with the aetheric magic filling the damp-cavernous air, as he slowly parted his lips. "… Go," was all Goblin Slayer said, before using his newfound physical power to close the distance between him and his opponent.
Although he was faster than he ever had been before, Goblin Slayer's blink-step-speed still wasn't enough to catch Graham off guard. "Parlor tricks won't save you, Goblin Slayer!" Graham shouted with an overzealous grin on his face, as he parried the knight's explosive-enchanted sword swing by countering it with his own dark-magic infused katana. Voiding Goblin Slayer's spell through his dark-ebony black, Graham moved his wrist again to parry the armored man's follow up attack, and gritted his teeth the moment he saw six glowing-white arrows shooting past him.
"Parry 'this', you filthy casual-wannabe!" Kiko shouted in a taunting manner, as she withdrew six more arrows from her quiver before using her quirk to enchant them with a homing-spell. "SHADOW-FIRE!!!" Kiko roared out with fury, as she began repeatedly shooting glowing arrows upwards, and smiled cockily as she noticed the look of worry on Graham's face, as he turned to look behind him.
Unable to see the glowing arrows that had seemingly vanished into thin air, Graham was beginning to question whether or not Kiko's attack had been merely illusion magic. But that assumption quickly disappeared the moment he felt several invisible arrows piercing into his back. Had it not been for his powerful black-samurai armor, the arrowheads would have punctured his spine, and left him immobilized. However, the constant hail fire of being shot with invisible projectiles still caused the samurai to lose his balance, and in turn he suffered a fire-enchanted slash from Goblin Slayer that split his half-mask into two.
"D-Damnit!" Graham shouted in frustration, as he rolled to the side before using his shadow magic to launch a powerful blast of black-and-purple glowing energy directly at the high elf archer. "DIE, YOU FOREST MONGREL!!!" Graham shouted with his hand outstretched toward her, before immediately having to side-roll the moment Goblin Slayer tried slashing his burning short-sword at him.
Having suspected that she would be a target for the samurai's dark magic, Kiko had already anticipated Graham's attack. Using her supernatural agility, Kiko was able to leap up in the air before air dashing toward a nearby wall to catch herself. "Tch…! Predictable!" The high elf shouted back, as she watched from her side view as All Might bounced beside her on a wall, with the incredibly short priest held underneath his arm.
That short momentary distraction was all it took for Graham to strategically throw his katana at Kiko, who realized that only after she raised her bow up while still holding onto the side of the wall. "Not predictable enough, it would seem…" Graham muttered with a victorious look on his scarred face, as he sidestepped Goblin Slayer's sword once again.
"S-Shit!" Kiko spat out with a panicked tone, before throwing her bow at the sword as a last-ditch effort of trying to not get cut-in-half. Through sacrificing her precious bow, Kiko was able to disrupt the spinning sword's trajectory enough to save her own life, but was unable to stop the handle of the katana from directly hitting her in the stomach. Losing all the air in her lungs, the high elf archer lost her grip from the wall, and fell down ten meters on the ground; losing consciousness the moment her head smacked against the brick floor below.
Over the blazing ball of spectral lights and powerful aetheric magic, the priestess would have rushed over to the high elf archer's side to heal her, had she not been too preoccupied healing All Might's gaping wound in his side. With her protection spell dwindling beneath the constant blasts of plasmic energy that the sorceress was casting on her.
"J-Just a little bit longer, E-Earth Mother," Willow begged out to her goddess, as she kept one hand around her staff to maintain the protective barrier, while using her other hand to heal All Might, by hovering her palm over his closing wound.
"I-I shouldn't have gotten so carried away…" All Might said with an apologetic tone in his voice, as he did his best to maintain his composure, even as his body was still writhing in pain after having gotten a chunk of his abdomen blown off. "Y-You need to leave me, and-"
"-The E-Earth Mother wouldn't allow me into her loving arms if I were to be so cruel…!" Willow interrupted suddenly, as she felt herself developing a concussion from just how much strain she was putting on herself. "… N-Nor would I forgive myself f-for…" She trailed off, as she felt her vision grow black.
Taking a moment to look away from Willow, who was seconds away from passing out while blood was pouring out of her nose and eyes, All Might looked down at his fully healed wound. Knowing that he had the power to save her and himself, All Might was able to practically teleport away with Willow in his bulky arms the moment her protective barrier exploded into a millions fading shards of light.
Impressed with the incredibly tall and muscular man's physical prowess, Yoshimura smirked widely as she looked down upon the blasted part of the stone floor where her prey would have died, before staring back up to look at All Might, who stood ten meters away from her with Willow still being carried bridal-style in his arms. "My, my…! Aren't you just a magnificent specimen?!" Yoshimura mused aloud with a wicked look in her blue eyes, as she raised a black-gloved hand up to fix one of her long, fluffy and pale-blond pigtails.
Adjusting the small golden and black crown on the top of her head, Yoshimura's pale blue eyes stared deep into All Might's shadow-obscured eyes; chilling him to the bone, even though the powerful sorceress only stood at around five-feet tall. "… So, what did they say about me, hero? That I'm some sort of evil and crazed bitch, whose way over her head? Dabbling in divine magic that no mortal should be interfering with?" Yoshimura asked tauntingly with a pouted lip, before breaking the fake-innocent demeanor with a cackling laugh.
Shaking his head while gently laying Willow down behind the white orb in the center of the chamber, away from where Yoshimura could possibly see her, All Might shook his head as he stood with his fists tightened, even in the face of someone as dangerous as the sorceress herself. "I know enough about you and what you're doing to say without a shadow of a doubt, that you're a villain; and I'm the hero who's going to put an end to your evil plan."
Scoffing at the way he spoke to her, Yoshimura shook her head at All Might. "Evil?! What's evil about wanting to obtain the power of the gods, who either ignore our prayers, or damn us the moment we're born into this forsaken existence?!" The sorceress asked in a ridiculing tone, as she raised and hand up to point a finger at the ball of divine light hovering about five meters away from her. "Not all of us are able to walk in the light as you; not all of us are blessed to have the gods' favor on our side… The outcasts, those who are left to fend for ourselves…"
"… We live in a twisted world that paints us as wicked and deprived, while so-called 'heroes' get to live in their blissful ignorance and have songs sung of their 'murder sprees'. You and your party members could never see just how unjust things are for those of us who aren't lucky enough to be chosen by fate to become champions," Yoshimura spat in a hateful and jealous voice, as her pale blue eyes slowly begun becoming enveloped in a burning white-light that hurt All Might's vision. "Not anymore though… That changes today."
Unimpressed with the woman before him and the reason she had for wanting to supposedly achieve godhood, All Might shook his head at her while chuckling. "So… You're going to become a god and use your power to do, what exactly? Become the goddess of whatever motive you're using to justify you committing mass-murder on the mage's college?! Just so what, you can become even more corrupt than you already are?!" All Might asked with an angered voice, after calling Yoshimura out for her crimes that led him to her to begin with.
Glaring defensively at All Might, Yoshimura gritted her teeth as she shook her head violently. "Do you expect me to shed a tear for those egotistical bastards?! The same self-righteous arrogant pieces of shit who ruined my life?!" Yoshimura asked before scoffing, as she raised her hand up to form a fist. "You wouldn't know what it's like to be made the villain… Blame them for what I've become, and what I was reduced to doing, in order to collect what I needed in order to save us all!"
Angered at the mere idea that Yoshimura thought of herself as a hero, All Might took a step forward and pointed a finger directly at the crazed sorceress. "Save us?! What you're doing could destroy us! How could you possibly think what you're doing is right?!"
"Well… We all gotta die sometime, don't we?" Yoshimura asked in a morbid voice, as a creeping smile began to form across her lips. "This world, this sick and twisted world we're forced to live in, is just a stage to those who we consider worthy enough of our worship… We're just performers to them; puppets that are used to entertain their sadistic eyes…"
"… This puppet's had enough of her strings; it's time for our retribution against those 'holier-than-thou' beings we call 'gods'," Yoshimura declared with a vengeful look in her eye, as she took a step while her body began to become enveloped in a white light.
Realizing what the mad sorceress' plan had been all along, All Might felt his fake smile flinching for a brief moment, as a newfound sense of dread coursed through his powerful body. "Y-You…!? Y-You can't be serious…?!" All Might muttered with a horrified tone behind his words, as he tried to comprehend the consequences of what she was trying to accomplish. "Y-You're going to kill all the Celestial Lord?!" All Might shouted back; disturbed to the core at the thought of what would happen once the most powerful god of them all, the one had questionably linked to their very existence, would be annihilated by his own cosmic aether.
"That's right; now you're finally getting it!" Yoshimura shouted with a self-righteous and arrogant voice, as her body began to levitate off the ground while developing an aura of aetheric magic that radiated off of her slim body. "The final process of invoking the aetheric cosmic plane to collapse in on itself is already happening… Within any moment, the ancient gods will be erased from existence, and our world will merge into the next universe; the universe that I will rule alone," Yoshimura said with a suddenly emotionless voice, as if she herself couldn't believe that her plan of retribution was actually working.
"You've already lost… You might as well just accept your fate, like how your gods expected us to accept the ones they've chosen for us," Yoshimura said with a hint of humanity and empathy in her voice; which only enforced the idea in All Might's head that the sorceress' soul was still savable.
"It's not too late…! I'm here now, and I can help you; you don't have to do this, young lady." All Might said in the most reassuring and warmest voice he could muster from the bottom of his heart.
A hint of reluctance and remorse made its way to Yoshimura's beautiful face for a split second; All Might's welcoming words and genuine kindness being the closest thing she'd ever gotten to acceptance and love. Yoshimura frowned, and opened her mouth while levitating a few inches forward, before suddenly pausing and stopping herself from gravitating toward All Night's outstretched arms.
"I-I'm sorry, hero; I'm too far gone to be saved… This is the path I've chosen, and it's one that I must see through until the end," Yoshimura explained in a cathartic voice, and smiled as sweetly as she could at All Might before raising her arm up to take aim at his large frame. "It was… Nice to meet you... Goodbye."
With the knowledge that he only had moments before Yoshimura would achieve her true goal, which was far more evil than simply wanting to become a god, All Might had to think fast. Glancing to his side, down at Willow's unconscious body and at where Kiko was laying face down several meters away from him, the hero knew that his options were limited. Knowing fully well to avoid making himself vulnerable to another plasmic blast of magic by being air bound, All Might decided that if he couldn't risk running toward her while she was tracking him.
That's when All Might remembered just where the chamber was, and how high-up it had been built upon a spiral tower. Needing a miracle in order to enact his plan, it seemed as though the gods above had decided to weave fate to his liking. On the other side of the aetheric orb, where Goblin Slayer and Graham were battling with one another, All Might sensed that there was something dangerous about to happen.
"-DARK SLASH!!!" The samurai shouted out in a battle cry, before using his backup tanto to propel a spell of pure-concentrated dark magic, that Goblin Slayer was able to dodge, but not without his sword getting turned to shrapnel upon Graham's attack making contact with its blade. The dispelled magic that sent metal flying across the room managed to shoot right through the orb, and straight into Yoshimura's exposed shoulder.
That moment of lost concentration upon getting a piece of metal impaled into her pale shoulder made the sorceress panic even more, after the projected dark-magic slash flew past Goblin Slayer, and hit the stone wall behind him with enough power to blow out the stone wall into a cloud of dust. That was all the distraction All Might needed, and in that moment he raised his foot before stomping down while shouting, "DOUBLE DETROIT SMASH!!!"
Stomping down on the ground to damage the foundation of the chamber, and to build enough momentum for him to crumble the entire structure of the tower into a massive explosion of rubble and raw energy that illuminated the entire cavern in a yellow-righteous light. Realizing what her opponent just did, Yoshimura tried firing a blast of blue energy directly into All Might's head, but the sudden drop of the chamber as it began to tilt off the top of the destroyed tower made her miss her target.
"N-No! What have you've done?!" Yoshimura screamed with a worried look in her blue eyes, as her entire god-complex demeanor dropped the moment she looked over toward the aetheric sphere. Without a stable foundation to keep its power stable, the magic she had been using to keep the aetheric orb stable enough to build up a powerful enough invoking spell had been disrupted by All Might, and was beginning to glow brighter-and-brighter.
Even as the crumbling chamber began to break apart underneath them, Goblin Slayer and Graham continued to battle using only their respective back-up weapons, as All Might took advantage of Yoshimura's panicked state.
Leaping from one descending brick to another, not paying any attention to All Might and Yoshimura, who were still trying to defeat one another while the sorceress tried fruitlessly to contain the unstable orb of divine power, Goblin Slayer made his way toward where he saw Willow's body free falling. Just as he was about two leaps away from being able to rescue her, he was suddenly knocked off the falling chunk of debris he had been kneeling one.
"-Ngh…!" Goblin Slayer groaned in pain, as he was sent flying directly into a large chunk of stone after Graham had blasted him in the back of his shoulder with a dark-energy missile. Following his pursuit of where he had sent his rival flying, Graham leapt past where Willow was falling; his tanto held tightly in his hand as he launched himself toward where the cloud of debris was.
"If this truly is the end for us, Goblin Slayer, then I shall not be deprived of my final battle with you!" Graham cried out fearlessly with a wide grin spread across his thin lips. Seeing a light of white light forming where he had launched the knight, the black samurai concentrated all of his dark energy into his physical form, and became enveloped in a bright-reddish pink light.
"-TRANS-AM!!!" Graham roared out, before using his dark energy to overload his abilities, and thus allowing himself the ability to create a pink-after image as he dodged Goblin Slayer's white beam of white magic. Smirking cockily the moment he flew around the beam and became face-to-visor with his rival, Graham enjoyed hearing the panicked gasp escaping from Goblin Slayer's unseen mouth.
"Tch-!" Goblin Slayer grunted again, before raising his forearm up to block the blade of Graham's tanto, which would have otherwise blocked the slash. However, with his power becoming unstable to the point where everything he did was superhuman, Graham was able to completely slash through Goblin Slayer's forearm armor, and cackled as he saw the blood pooling out through his chain mail and padded sleeve.
"I do not know where you obtained your sudden ability to cast spells, Goblin Slayer, but it's apparent to me that you're nowhere close to my level…!" Graham taunted, as he reached out to crush the knight's dagger in his hand, before reaching up to grab the knight by his white-fur collar.
"-You're beneath me, Goblin Slayer! Die knowing that you never stood a chance against me, your superior counterpart: Graham Aker!" The samurai shouted, before suddenly flying straight toward the orb of aetheric magic, that looked more like a star that was seconds away from exploding instead of the stable sphere that it had been not too long ago.
Using his ability to hover midair while causing powerful bursts of heroic energy throughout his muscular body to fly around, All Might narrowly avoided a conjured meteor from making direct contact with him, while pulling his fist back as he aimed his next attack at where Yoshimura was soaring above him. "CALIFORNIA SMASH!!!" All Might roared out, before somersaulting forward to build enough moment to create a concentrated burst of air pressure directly towards the sorceress.
Due to how wide the explosive attack was, Yoshimura raised her arms up and shouted back, "-WHITE BARRIER," as she conjured up a white and blue spherical shield around her body. Laughing from how painful it felt being launched back and having her ribs shatter after landing against the side of a heavy piece of falling rebel. Grinning maniacally like the madwoman she was, Yoshimura cackled in a high pitched voice as she watched All Night's golden form blazing directly toward her injured body.
"-UNITED STATES OF SMASH!!!" All Might cried in righteous anger, as he cocked his burning fist back while zeroing in on the young woman, who was still taking cover behind her barrier shield.
"-WHITE DRAGON!!!" Yoshimura screeched with an ear-splitting grin spread across her thin lips, and stuck her tongue out past her bottom lip as she used all of her power to summon an white-glowing manifestation of a Japanese dragon that flew directly toward All Might with its mighty jaws opened.
Cratered into the side of the inner walls of the crumbling mountain above them, Yoshimura's anxiety of her invocation spell becoming unstable faded away, and soon it was replaced by a morbid sense of curiosity as she watched Graham flying directly toward it, with Goblin Slayer held out in front of him so that his body would be the first to make contact with it. "My, oh my…! Gods be forsaken… I wonder what fate awaits us…?!" Yoshimura muttered quietly to herself, before looking away to watch as All Might punched straight through her conjured dragon.
The moment his fist made contact with Yoshimura's white barrier, it shattered into a million fading pieces; absorbing enough damage to cause All Might's closed fist to penetrate straight through her stomach and spine, without causing her to explode into a cloud of ash.
Levitating midair with her blood spilling onto his arm, All Might retracted his gore-covered fist from the hole he had made through her abdomen, and felt his iconic smile fading as he stared back at her widened eyes. "… I'm sorry that it had to be this way… I'm sorry that you're beyond saving." All Might apologized with an anguished voice, as he had a look of disgust and guilt on his chiseled face; clearly being horrified and ashamed that he had to resort to killing in order to neutralize the sorceress.
Unfortunately for All Might, he had only a few moments to lament over taking the life of a human. Hearing a trembling crackling of disbursing aetheric energy echoing loudly enough to tremble the entire cave around them, it was only then that All Might realized what Yoshimura had been smiling at. Looking over his shoulder with a devastated look on his face, All Might looked away from the quickly growing ball of aetheric energy exploding, and was met with a wide and crazed grin from the gravely injured sorceress.
"…. Hehe… Ah, haha… Y-You're… Y-You're not sorry," Yoshimura cackled, before vomiting up a wad of blood that sprayed on her own robes and on All Might's chest. "Y-You're not… You're n-not…" Yoshimura repeated through quiet mumbles, as she watched the aetheric light enveloping her slayer's body, before it finally reached her dying body.
Taken aback by the sudden feeling that something catastrophic was about to happen, Deku's quirk was the first thing to alert him that something wasn't right. Looking around with a paranoid look in his emerald eyes, Deku attracted the stares of his friends the moment he pushed his seat back to stand up.
Having gotten fully immersed in the final battle of the grim-ending within their session, Bakugou frowned and muttered under his breath as he glared at Deku with an annoyed look on his face. "Dude, what the hell's wrong with you?! What are you doing?!" Bakugou asked with bravado in his voice, which quickly faded away the moment Deku turned to look back at him with fear in his eyes. "… Deku?" Bakugou asked with a worried look to find its way onto his face.
Taking out an earbud she had put into ear canal since the beginning of the session, Jiro arched her eyebrow as she gave Deku a dumbfounded expression. Turning away from him, Jiro decided to read the room and found herself even more puzzled once she realized that everyone else besides her appeared mortified. "Am I… Am I missing something here?" Jiro asked in a bored-sounding voice, as she stared back expectantly at Ida.
Adjusting his eyeglasses, Ida calmly stood up from the table while staring back at Jiro with a dead-serious expression on his face. "… It would seem as though Midoriya's sensing that danger is approaching," Ida explained, to which made Jiro's seemingly indifferent expression fade away, and in its place there was an anxious look.
Sighing while quietly cursing to herself, Jiro crossed her arms over her small chest while nervously tapping her foot repeatedly against the hardwood floor. "Shit…! So, what? What the hell are we going to do then?" Jiro asked with an uncomfortable tone in her voice, as the thought of being sitting ducks under the predatory gaze of an unknown assailant shook her to her core. "We can't just sit here…"
Scared beyond his wits, all Mineta could wish for in that very moment was that one of their heroes could manifest into the basement, so that they had someone to protect them. But alas, swallowing down his fears as much as he could, Mineta scooted his stool hesitantly away from the round table, before standing up at eye level with the rim of the tabletop. "W-Whatever it is going on, w-we shouldn't split up…! That's what they always do in horror movies, and it always bites them in the ass…!" The short boy whispered quietly, as he reached up to the top of his head to pull off one of his sticky-purple clumps of hair into his hand.
Having just tasted what it was like to be an actual leader, and someone who everyone looked up to without having to prove himself to them, Bakugou imagined himself as the fearless Goblin Slayer, who even in the face of hopelessness was able to go out fighting and trying to save his friends. "… We're going to go upstairs and check on your parents, Ida. Make sure you guys follow behind Deku and I; we'll take the le-," but before Bakugou could finish spouting out his orders, he along with everyone else froze as they get the ground beneath slowly beginning to quake beneath their feet.
At first, it was barely noticeable, like the kind of vibrations that would be caused by a passing car outside that had its speakers on too loud. But soon, it grew more and more violent, and began to cause the fairy lights above to dim before suddenly falling down on top of them, as pieces of the ceiling started to flake off on top of them. Either by their own actions or by tripping and falling down from just how horribly the Earth shook beneath them, all five students could hear the nerve-wrecking sounds of an earthquake alarm echoing over the crumbling basement walls.
"Everyone, take cover beneath the table!" Bakugou barked out with fear in his voice, before he knelt down with his arms outstretched to shove both Ida and Mineta underneath the oak table; not wanting to risk letting them get injured due to them possibly being too frightened to act quickly enough.
Looking over to see if he needed to do the same with the Jiro, Deku was caught off guard as he felt his arm being dragged beneath the table by the aforementioned woman, who had already ducked underneath the heavy and sturdy piece of furniture before Bakugou had instructed them to do so. "Come on Midoriya, get your ass in here…!" Jiro grunted with horrified eyes, as she pulled him closer to her, as the rest of them huddled together as closely to the center of the table as they could.
Holding his arms over his head, Ida was hyperventilating loudly enough to be heard by his friends, as the thought of losing his parents and possibly his brother entered his mind. "D-Damnit…! Damn it all to Hell…!" Ida gasped out between deep and rapid breaths, as sweat began to drip down his forehead.
Opening his mouth to try and reassure his friend that everything was going to be alright, Deku suddenly let out a panicked yelp the moment he heard Mineta letting out an ear-piercing cry the moment something heavy landed on the table with enough force that it managed to create a deep crack within the tabletop itself. "W-We're gonna die…! O-Oh my God... I-I," Mineta sobbed violently, as he buried his face into Deku's shoulder. "I-I don't want to die, Midoriya…! I-I can't die being remembered as a pathetic c-coward; I-I just can't…!"
Gritting his jaw clenched, Deku moved the clingy young boy off of his shoulder before immediately kneeling up underneath where the crack was getting worse. "N-No one's dying; I-I won't allow it…!" Deku grunted out, as he lifted up against the broken table by pressing his back and arms up against the splintering crack.
Nearly tripping the moment the lights completely turned off, after what sounded like the power going out could faintly be heard over the siren and earthquake, Bakugou spat a curse word beneath his breath as he joined Deku by putting his own weight up against the breaking tabletop. "S-Sonofabitch…!" Bakugou muttered with his face tightening, as he and Deku grunted and whimpered repeatedly while their knees buckled and shook.
One by one, the other three students joined Deku and Bakugou, and knelt up beside them in order to prevent whatever it was on top of the table from crushing them. As the earthquake continued to violently shake the Earth and walls around them, the five of them did their best to keep themselves together and supported each other throughout the entire twenty minutes that it lasted. The moment that the second aftershock of the earthquake passed, Bakugou let out a defiant cry before blowing apart the table and whatever debris had piled onto the table above them.
"G-Goddamnit, guh...!" Bakugou shouted and gasped, before stumbling forward after having managed to use all of his sweat to save him and his friend. Had it not been for the fact that the power was still out and there were no lights to help illuminate his path, then perhaps Bakugou would have felt more prideful of his own feat of strength. But unfortunately for the blond man's ego, he ended up tripping over something metal and bulky, and let out a surprised yelp before landing face first into the debris-covered floor.
Hearing Bakugou's groan of pain, Jiro quickly reached into her costume's pocket to retrieve her cellphone. "H-Hold on Bakugou, I'll… I'll help you," Jiro said with her heart still racing in her chest, as she tried her best to use her trembling fingers to turn on her phone's camera light as quickly as she could.
With the light from Jiro's phone shining brightly from behind him, Bakugou cursed again to himself after looking down to see a pool of his own blood beneath where his nose had landed. "Ah, nghhh-shit, I hope I didn't break it…!" Bakugou muttered with excruciating pain, while gazing upward to see the aftermath of what the earthquake had done to Ida's basement.
The decorations that were put into place to make the basement seem more like it was in a forest were all scrambled within chunks of the ceiling that coated everything on the floor in a white-dust. Coughing up some of the dust that got into his lungs, Bakugou saw through his swelled up and tear-ridden vision all the fairy lights that were either completely knocked off their hinges, or had been pulled down by a chunk of debris; all while feeling himself getting annoyed that no one was saying anything, let alone trying to help him up.
"… Yeah guys, I'm totally freakin' fine, right as rain, actually; thanks for asking, you assholes," Bakugou groaned out, as he turned around while sitting down on his bottom. Raising one hand up to block the blinding light emitting from Jiro's camera, Bakugou shouted, "Alright, point that shit elsewhere, 'Long-Ears'; it's hard enough to see as it is…!"
Upon seeing Jiro slowly lifting the light up to point upward toward the broken ceiling, Bakugou slowly raised his hand while still nursing his bloodied nose with his other. Becoming unnerved over the fact that all four of his fellow students' faces were all pale and astonished, as if though they were staring at a ghost that he wasn't aware of being there, Bakugou swallowed back the lump in his throat as a new layer of cold sweat began to perspire over his forehead.
"W-What, what is it…?! D-Did something happen to me?!" Bakugou asked with a freaked out expression washing over his face, as suddenly began feeling blindly around his body to check for any wounds that he could possibly not be aware of. After making sure that he was free of any grotesque wounds, Bakugou's fear suddenly gave way to desperation, as all he wanted to know was why they were staring toward his direction.
"… For the love shit's sake! What the actual Hell are you guys looking a-," Bakugou demanded, before suddenly finding himself unable to speak another word. Staring down beneath him, where he had tripped, Bakugou felt the color drain from his face the moment he recognized the medium-sized armored figure who was lying unconscious on the floor.
Unlike the way the figurine looked, but much like how their Dungeons and Dragons session went, the figure dressed exactly like Goblin Slayer had parts of his armor either shredded off or damaged; most notably, Bakugou stared down and realized that the armored man's forearm armor had been removed, and in its place was a deep gash that was clotted already.
Unable to vocalize any of the confused thoughts that were coursing through his head, all Bakugou could do was just stare along with Deku, Ida, Jiro, and Mineta, as all five of them marveled at the sight of seeing Goblin Slayer, all while they began having their own feelings of existential horror washing over them. Although none of them said it, the moment they all looked up from the injured armored man and started to give looks to one another, it became apparent to them all that each of them were thinking the same two questions…
… 'If he's here, does that mean the others are too? And if so, how many crossed over to their world?'
This story is inspired heavily by Gundam 00, Goblin Slayer, Dangaropa, Dungeons and Dragons (of course), and the Elder Scrolls. Thank you for reading this long introductory chapter, and I hope to release a much shorter chapter two pretty soon!
Taking another break from Tokyo Ghoul, now that I'm wanting to write a modern AU of Goblin Slayer (Kinda) x MHA. Blame Skyrim lol, I still ritualistically play that game with mods, and have a fun time with the immersion and lore-breaking factors. Because of that, it's what inspired me to write this in the first place.
If you have any recommendations or pretty much just want to write anything, please feel free to hit me up.
Thank you again for reading, and I hope you have a good rest of your day.