- Chapter 7: Confrontation -
Inside the TARDIS, everyone was knocked off their feet. The controls room's lights were flickering and some wall panels smoking and sparkling, along with the cloister bell ringing.
"Is everybody alright?" The Doctor, who got back on his feet using the control console as support, shouted out to everyone.
Korosensei, who got back up very quickly, looked around and found everyone else starting to get back on their feet, replied, "Yeah, I think so."
Kayano complained, "Was it supposed to be this bumpy?" The Doctor simply shrugged, "No idea, never travelled through a trans-universal wormhole before."
"Can I use the bathroom?" Sugino asked, still sitting on the floor, "That ride really made my stomach sick." The Doctor pointed at the large door down the stairs, "It's down there, first left, second right, past the macaroon dispenser."
Sugino got up and as he took a step, his leg softened and caused him to nearly fall over, if it wasn't for Kanzaki, who was right next to him, to hold him up. "How about I help you there?" The class idol offered, and the baseball-playing male replied with a slight blush, "Thank you so much, Kanzaki-san."
The Doctor then walked to the exit and poked his head out of the door, and scanned the surrounding buildings and people with his eyes. Noticing that some people have some rather peculiar physical characteristics, he put on his sonic sunglasses to analyse their DNA, all of which turned out to be human but with some slight alterations, confirming their location and what he had feared earlier.
The Time Lord took off his shades and headed back inside with a worried expression, which was noticed by Karasuma, who inquired, "Doctor, what is it?"
"One, we are in a parallel universe. B…No, two, I found out what the sentence Karma and Kayano heard meant."
That piqued everyone's interest, with Karma and Kayano asking at the same time, "So what does it mean?"
The Doctor took a deep breath and sighed, "It means exactly what it says, 'the end of all heroes'. We are in the Heroverse, a parallel universe where 80% of the global population has special abilities called 'quirks', each one is unique, some have enhanced abilities while some would have altered physiology. And most importantly, among them, some would choose to become heroes, to maintain social stability, or enter a life of crime and become villains."
Hearing what the Time Lord said, Fuwa Yuzuki and Mimura Koki, the manga-geek and movie-geek respectively, immediately asked, "So like the superhero comics, movies and manga back home?"
"Well in a way, yes," the Doctor replied, "you can say that this is the world where superhero fantasy comes to life."
With that reply, the two squealed and jumped around with excitement, while everyone else was astonished at what they just heard. The Doctor just smiled as he remembered the time he was named 'Doctor Mysterio' by a boy during an adventure with Nardole.
Isogai asked, "How did this happen? How did the people gain special powers?"
"No one truly knows, whether it was by accident or natural, but only that it happened gradually, starting from a child born in China with the ability to glow brightly back in the 1960s."
Irina then inquired, "How come you know about all that?" The Doctor turned his gaze at her, and just ask sarcastically, "Isn't that obvious?"
Karma interrupted, "So where exactly are we?" Prompting the Time Lord to ignore the blond teacher's question and go to the control console, after pressing a few buttons to hack into the local satellite network, in order to get a fix on their location, "Musutafu, Shizuoka Prefecture."
Hearing the name of the city, Karasuma asked, "Musutafu? Never heard of that city before." The Doctor replied, "That's because it is a city that doesn't exist in our time, so that would mean we have also travelled into the future."
"Everyone, I have connected to the local web, but I still have no success with calling Nagisa," Ritsu told the others, as she had been attempting to contact Nagisa's cellphone ever since they had landed.
Itona then theorised, "Then, it is either he is busy or his phone is broken."
"Does anyone have his number?" The Doctor asked as he took out his sonic screwdriver and made some adjustments to it, Karma volunteered his phone and held it out. The Doctor then pointed his sonic screwdriver at the phone and activated it, and said, "Shiota Nagisa...105 kilometres north-west of here, that's somewhere in Tokyo, here we go then."
The Doctor then pulled the lever to restart the engine, but the TARDIS engine didn't budge. He tried again, but still nothing. He then asked the console, "What's wrong? Why won't you go?"
The TARDIS made a response in beeps and other mechanical noises, the Doctor then shouted out, "Not enough power to move!? Are you serious? How did that happen!?"
As this was happening, Kayano tapped the Doctor's shoulder, "Who are you talking to?" He looked at the green-haired girl next to him, and replied, "I'm talking to the TARDIS, well not talking, more like reasoning with it."
That sentence confused everyone, Maehara then asked, "But it's just a machine, why would you need to reason with it?"
"The TARDIS is not just a machine, it is alive and has a conscience, you don't just drive it like a car!" The Doctor continued after several more attempts, "Ack, it's no use, the TARDIS can't charge up."
Takebayashi then suggested, "Aren't there any alternatives?" The Doctor shook his head, "No, the TARDIS draws power from temporal rifts that exist across our universe, but we're in a different one now, the energy here is incompatible. It would be like using diesel in a petrol engine."
Korosensei then suggested, "Then we will have to find him the old fashion way." It was at this moment that Sugino and Kanzaki came back from the bathroom, and the others filled them back with everything they had just said.
As they were about to exit the TARDIS, Kimura raised a question, "But what about Korosensei, shouldn't he stay here and out of the public's view?"
The Doctor was about to reply as he was setting the TARDIS into self-repair mode, but was cut short by Kurahashi, who managed to answer first, "I don't think there would be a problem, the Doctor said that the people here have special powers and some of them have altered appearances, I think Korosensei wouldn't raise too much attention." The Doctor smiled and said, "Spot on, Kurahashi!" Causing the orange-haired girl to smile brightly.
Feeling more assured, they exited the TARDIS. And seeing the city and the people outside, they were all amazed. The city might not be as big as Tokyo or Osaka, but still, it felt different in the sense that it didn't exist in their world. The people too, most of them looked normal, but some of them looked very alien-like.
Karma noticed a newspaper lying on a nearby bench and picked it up, he flipped over a few pages to look at some headlines, and more importantly, find the date. "Guys, you might want to take a look at this," he showed the front page to the others, "this says today is December 8th, 2086!"
Now knowing that they are not only in a parallel world, but also 70 years in the future, causing the students to start discussing curiously about how much more different this world is compared to home.
Karasuma suggested, "I think we should get to the metro station about now." The other two teachers and the Doctor all agreed although Korosensei would like to see more and let the students have more fun.
As they were leaving the park, Hayami looked back and saw that the TARDIS looked a bit out of place, and asked, "Shouldn't we do something to hide the box?"
The Doctor answered, "Don't worry about it, if there's anything about the human race that transcends all universes, is that when you put a mysterious blue box in the middle of town, they will just walk past it." And just as he spoke, a street cleaner came by to put back up the bins that were toppled over by the TARDIS, and after finishing his task, he just left without noticing the very out-of-place blue box, thereby confirming what the Doctor said.
Luckily for them, the closest metro station was just across the street from the park they landed in. They all bought tickets to Tokyo station, except for the Doctor, who could use his psychic paper to imitate a station pass, and took the next train to Tokyo, which will be a 40-minute ride.
=| U.A High School: Principal's office |=
"So how has the investigation been going?" Principal Nezu asked as he sipped his tea. "Has anything suspicious come up regarding the supposed threat that Nagisa-kun spoke of?"
Aizawa and All Might sat across the principal, teacups on the small table in front of them as they collected their thoughts.
The black-haired man spoke first, "Some of the other underground heroes and I have spread ourselves all over the city but other than some common thieves and criminals, we didn't come across anything or anyone vaguely related to what the kid said."
"I see," the principal said. "I'm surprised they all went along with the investigation, considering they also had their own work."
Aizawa sighed, "They didn't seem to mind too much, it kept them busy." He eyed his cup of tea, before deciding to pick it up. "Although, I did omit the part about Nagisa being from another world. I just said that there might be someone plotting something and I could use their assistance."
"Vague much?" All Might sweatdropped, as he sipped his tea.
"It was enough to convince them, and I felt it would be better to not advertise that the kid's not from our world." Aizawa shrugged, "And besides, with your retirement as the No.1 hero, and the increase in villain activity, I wouldn't be surprised if more villains want some spotlight." He sipped the tea but immediately regretted it. Would it kill this guy to have some coffee?
All Might thought about the other teacher's words, "Well, you do have a point on that matter, but if these people are supposedly from another world right? How would they know about my retirement? Unless they are from our world."
"Well, Nagisa-kun did mention that it's a possibility." Principal Nezu pointed out as he recalled the conversation.
"There aren't any heroes in my world, at not any with superpowers so it's unlikely that they're from there," Nagisa told them. "They're either from this world or another world entirely and if that's the case, we'll likely find them here."
"People with the ability to manipulate Space-Time and hypnosis, and there's a fifty percent chance that they're from our world or another world, but also a small chance that they could be from Nagisa's world." The Principal pieced all the information they had, Principal Nezu held his head after. "How's it possible that we have such a huge problem yet so little information at the same time?"
"I just can't believe just how ridiculous these 'villains' sound," Aizawa said. "It could all be possible, but how do we honestly know this kid isn't just making stuff up?"
"I think we should at least give him the benefit of the doubt." All Might reasoned, "And he seemed like a smart boy. I don't think he'd just make this stuff up, Aizawa."
"Yeah, but that also gives us a reason to suspect him," The black-haired man muttered.
All Might blinked, "Hmm? Did you say something, Aizawa?"
"Nothing," The Class 1-A homeroom teacher said before side-glancing the blond man, "Anyways, did you find anything?"
The skeleton-looking man stared back at his cup of tea, "I really can't do much right now, but I at least try to go through some old villain files to see if any of them are related or vaguely resemble what we are up against, but just like you, I came out with nothing. I also considered the League, but since we already had Kurogiri and All For One in custody, and I don't think any of their quirks can manipulate Space-Time to that level, or any of its members have that kind of quirk, so I think we can ignore that possibility."
Principal Nezu sighed, "Well, thank you for your efforts. It seems these people are very good at keeping themselves hidden and leaving quite a lot of questions regarding them in the air. Let's hope they don't choose the worst time to cause any trouble." He placed his teacup on the table. "Thank you for coming today."
"It's fine, just don't expect me to be free all the time," Aizawa said, almost complaining.
All Might chuckled, "We'll be off then, see you Principal."
"Of course! Bye now and thanks again!"
As the two walked out of the office and continued down the hallway, Aizawa sighed, "All this work. I need a nap, or a cup of coffee. or both...I don't even know anymore."
The former Symbol of Peace chuckled again, "Just take a break then, I'll take care of anything you need to do."
"While that was tempting, don't worry about it, I'll get it done."
"You really are dedicated to your work, Aizawa. It's admirable."
"Thanks...I guess..."
"You know what else is admirable? Giving up while you're ahead. Isn't that what the former Symbol of Peace did?"
The two men turned around to see a man. He had grey hair that was so short that he was almost bald, sharp yellow eyes and rather tanned skin, he was also wearing a light-blue long-sleeved dress shirt with brown lines, a navy blue vest, black trousers and boots.
"Wait...who are you?" All Might asked in confusion. 'A new safety commission agent perhaps? No, why did he say that?'
Aizawa narrowed his eyes, 'I don't like the vibe I'm getting from him...' He slowly grabbed onto the special wraps around his neck.
But before he can react, the man took out a bronze pocket watch and opened it, emitting blue waves of energy at the two heroes, causing them to grow drowsy.
"What-what is this..." All Might found his eyelids growing heavy and his mind losing consciousness.
Aizawa activated his quirk as he tried to fight back the strong hypnotic energy, but it didn't stop. "It's not a quirk he's using, it's only the...pocket...watch..." Everything went black and they both collapsed to the floor.
The man put the watch back into his pocket and slowly sauntered forwards, bending over to find both pro heroes unconscious.
He tapped on his wristwatch, "I've taken care of Eraserhead and the former Symbol of Peace. They won't be a bother to what Shadowhand's doing at Tokyo..." he turned to look at the window, a smirk painting his lips, "Or anyone for anytime soon."
=| Back at the shopping district |=
'This can't seriously be happening...' Nagisa thought as he continued to be engulfed by the shadows.
'Midoriya-san...someone...anyone please...help...!'
Shadowhand started to giggle darkly, but it quickly became a full-blown cackle that was both disturbing and witch-like.
"Now that I have you, the only thing left to do is to draw out those hero wannabes. Oh! The thought of killing all those useless do-gooders really lights me up." She mutters a word, "Sphericular." and slides her hand on the bracelet to turn the shadow into a large ball, trapping the boy. She smirked at him creepily, "Are you ready to play hostage, Shiota Nagisa?"
Nagisa's eyes widened, 'Did she just say...kill? Does that mean she's an assassin? Is that why I was brought here?' His face scrunched up uncomfortably, 'I don't like this...'
"What are we waiting for?" The orange-haired lady leapt on top of the dark sphere as everything around seemed to go brighter, startling the blunet.
Without warning, they dematerialised and disappeared from the alleyway altogether.
=| Outside the karaoke Bin |=
Midoriya and the others came out of the Karaoke Bin, but there was no sign of the young blunet.
"You don't think he ran off somewhere did you?" Uraraka asked Midoriya with concern.
It had been ten minutes since Nagisa left them. Midoriya wanted to give him some space to calm down before going after him but he started to get worried.
And now that he wasn't here, the greenet was even more worried.
Midoriya placed a hand on his chin thoughtfully. "Nagisa doesn't know this place very well so he wouldn't have gone too far. It doesn't make sense that he shouldn't be here."
"Well, maybe he decided to take a walk to clear his head." Jiro said, "But then again, he doesn't look like the type of kid to take risks like that. I think I'll call Yaomomo, Sero and the others and tell them what's going on." The purple-haired girl brought out her phone and walked off.
"Do you think he might have gone off with somebody?" Iida asked.
Midoriya tensed at that. Suddenly, he got a bad feeling about what might have happened to Nagisa. 'What if it's-No, it couldn't be, right...?' Bakugou glanced at the greenet from the corner of his eye.
"A stranger?" Kaminari spoke up. "I dunno. But you heard what Jiro said, he seemed like a cautious kid."
"But what if he did? In that case, we have to find him quick!" Kirishima said, turning to Bakugou. "C'mon Bakugou, let's go!"
"What?" The blond snapped, "Why should I fucking help?"
"Because it's our responsibility to take care of him!" The redhead argued.
"Deku's the one who found him, which means it's his damn responsibility, not mine! Don't drag me into this!"
"But-" Kirishima tried to argue but Uraraka cut him off.
"Seriously Bakugou!? Nagisa could be in trouble or worse, and you don't even wanna help find him! What's wrong with you? We're supposed to be heroes!" She yelled at him angrily. "Could you not be a jerk for one day of your life?"
"Piss off, Round Face! I'm not helping because I'm a jerk! I'm not helping because there's something seriously wrong about that kid!" He said confusing the others. Midoriya turned to the blond when he said that.
"What do you mean?" Uraraka raised an eyebrow.
"So you've noticed too, huh?" Todoroki said, speaking for the first time since Nagisa left.
"Noticed what?" Kaminari questioned next.
"That the kid isn't normal," Bakugou said, folding his arms. "Don't tell me you idiots forgot what happened on the first day he came, the air in the whole damn corridor changed when the perv attacked him. That wasn't normal."
"Hmm, yeah you're right, now that you mentioned it. It was kind of scary," Uraraka shuddered as she thought about it.
"And how he dodged Asui and Kirishima when they were supposed to bag him for the surprised party," Todoroki pointed out, "He had to have sensed the two of them coming."
"That is very true," Iida agreed, holding his chin.
"See what I mean? And when Shorty commented on his song, he got upset which means she made him remember something he didn't want to," Bakugou said. "That kid is hiding something, something big. I don't think he has amnesia like he claimed to be. Right Deku?"
They all turned to the greenet, causing him to flinch and sweat nervously.
He hadn't told them about Nagisa being from another world and about what really happened the day he found him.
Still, Nagisa's weird abilities were something even he couldn't explain but he never asked about it as he didn't want to pry unnecessarily.
Although, maybe it was about time he questioned the boy - after finding him of course!
But before that, maybe this would be a good time to tell the others the truth. If there was one thing he hated, it was being dishonest to his friends and keeping secrets.
'I'm already doing that...' Midoriya thought, before finally sighing. "Alright, you got me. The truth is-"
"The truth is you heroes will finally meet your well-deserved end!"
The small group turned to the source of the voice, and their eyes widened when they saw an orange-haired woman dressed in red and gold standing atop the railings of the sky bridge connecting the two sections of the 1st floor. She gave quite the malicious smirk as she stared down at them.
But that wasn't what really surprised the heroes-in-training. It was the blunet trapped inside a large dark sphere, his body trapped with shadow-like tentacles. He looked extremely uncomfortable.
Uraraka covered her mouth with her hands in shock, "Oh my God! Nagisa-kun!"
"Nagisa!" Midoriya yelled out to the blunet. Nagisa looked up at the call of his name but didn't attempt to say anything.
This made Midoriya glare at the woman who was responsible for his friend's discomfort. "Just who are you!?"
"Oh, just someone with a task," The orange-haired female responded casually but then looked at them with twisted eyes. "I am just one of many who will play a significant role in destroying you pitiful heroes. So as a start, I decided to end you ridiculous excuses for rookie crime-fighters."
"What did you just say old hag?!" Bakugou snarled at the woman, seemingly very offended by that last comment. His palms began sparking as he stepped forward, "Why don't you get down here so I can show you who's the fucking amateur!"
The mysterious lady smirked, "With pleasure."
In an instant, she vanished into her shadow, dragging the sphere Nagisa was trapped in along with her. Surprised, the group looked around to where she might have gone. They all began powering their quirks as well as putting on the support items that they carry all the time (just in case).
"Where is that old hag!?" Bakugou spun his head viciously, his palms still sparking. "Come out already and fight you damn coward!"
"We'll see who'll be cowering."
"What did you say!?" The ash-blond looked behind him, only to have his leg yanked into his shadow.
He struggled to pull his leg out, as several dark tentacles crept up onto his body.
"Kacchan!" Midoriya screamed.
"What the hell? Get the fuck off me!" Bakugou fired his explosions onto the dark tentacles, and while that got them off, the tentacles began to grab onto the other teens.
People started running from the area where the tentacles started to emerge from.
"Everyone, get out of here!" Midoriya shouted at the crowd of panicking people as he attempted to kick away the tentacles.
Todoroki froze the tentacles and broke them off of him, and then blasted fire at them. Iida sped away or threw a kick every time one tried to grab onto him.
Uraraka managed to land a few hits but could only dodge the tentacles for the most part while Kaminari electrocuted them and Kirishima sliced through them with his hardened arms.
"Is that all you've got?" Bakugou demanded, "You gonna have to do better than that!"
The mysterious woman let out an echoing laugh as she appeared half out of a shadow on the ground, "It seems my basic skills won't work on you children, I thought this wouldn't take time but I suppose I shouldn't have underestimated you."
"We don't want to fight," Midoriya said. "Just give us back Nagisa!"
"Oh, but that wouldn't be fun," Shadowhand said, pretending to whine.
"Screw it!" Bakugou slammed his palm at the shadow from which the shadowy lady emerged, detonating the ground. "Come out and fight us properly, bitch!"
The woman's shadow slithered on the ground before rising back up to morph into her solid-state. She smirked widely.
Bakugou growled, "Why won't you just stay fucking still!?" He ran towards her and tried to blow up her face, but she simply dematerialised and vanished again. The blond managed to stop himself from tripping and spun around to see the lady rematerialising on the other side of the group.
"Do you want to try again, Explosion boy?" she said with a malicious smile.
Bakugou glared at her, knowing that it would be pointless to try once more.
"What in the hell are you?" Kaminari asked, unable to comprehend the woman's powers.
"It seems some kind of shadow quirk, but...it isn't anything like Tokoyami-san's quirk." Iida deduced.
"Yeah," Uraraka agreed. "If that was the case, Bakugou's quirk would've overpowered it!"
"It's also like some kind of muck, I can't quite put my finger on it," Midoriiya muttered as he furrowed his eyebrows." But what I really want to know is where Nagisa is! Where are you keeping him?"
Shadowhand looked at Midoriya, "Nothing to worry about, I've kept him in the Shadow World."
"What? Shadow...World?" Midoriya asked, puzzled by his response. "Where-where is that?"
=| Somewhere Dark and Confusing |=
Nagisa was still stuck in the black, shadowy sphere, and he couldn't see or hear a thing. He stopped struggling several minutes ago as it seemed futile. Although, it was still very uncomfortable/
Eventually, the tentacles unwrapped themselves from the blunet's body, allowing him to move his limbs again. Nagisa sighed in relief but was surprised they released him.
He was even more surprised when the shadow sphere dissipated around him, and his feet were able to touch the ground again.
"I forgot how...disturbing tentacles can be when used like that, I'm really glad Korosensei doesn't do that kinda stuff." He sighed again, truly relieved to no longer be trapped like that, "Or at least I think he doesn't..."
A chill ran down his body.
"I feel so violated...it has just been one strange thing after the other since coming to this world...ugh!" he stuttered, rubbing his arm to ease up. Although, he suddenly felt something else. "Wait? Why do I feel so weird?"
It only lasted a moment, leaving him confused. Before he could dwell on it any further, his eyes caught sight of his surroundings.
He looked around the peculiar area, where colours were inverted and outlines stood out in an eerie white. He looked at himself, and it was the same thing for him; everything light on his body was dark and vice versa.
"What-what is this place?" Nagisa continued to look around as he started walking.
And then he noticed that he wasn't standing in any random location, everything looked familiar, kind of like...
"...The shopping mall?" The blunet muttered, "Yeah, that's definitely it, but...why does it look like this?" He glanced up, "Even the sky looks weird," He then looked around to see people running all over the place.
"What's going on?" The blunet asked as his eyes followed the people. But for some reason, they looked different from everything else.
Well, not necessarily different, but more like they looked normal and didn't seem affected by the peculiar surroundings.
Nagisa tried to understand what was happening. he lifted his now dark hand to his view, before looking at the people again.
"What...is this?" Before he could finish, a person was running towards him. He managed to move to the side to let the man through, and that's when it... happened.
But more like, it didn't. The man's shoulder came to close contact with Nagisa's, but instead of it brushing against his...it went right through him.
Nagisa knew he wasn't imagining things, his shaky azure eyes saw that happen. But when a child had actually run through his body, it became clear what was going on.
"Just...where on earth am I?" Nagisa asked, his mind racing at the realization.
"Nothing to worry about, I've kept him in the Shadow World."
"What? Shadow...World? Where-where is that?"
"Huh?" Nagisa heard a familiar voice. "Wait, that sounds like..."
He spun around to see Midoriya and the other Class 1-A students who went to the Karaoke bin confronting the orange-haired woman. And when their words had finally reached the blunet, he began to understand his situation a bit more.
Suddenly, Nagisa felt the same strange feeling again, this time from further away. 'What is this?' He felt vibrations coming toward him, and as he focused a bit, he could identify two sets of different wavelengths amidst all the chaos in the district.
They were both heading in this direction. He instantly recognized the ones rushing from inside the mall, but...where were these other ones coming from and who did they belong to?
=| Back in the real world |=
"Think of it like this, the Shadow World crosses all living worlds, where shadows are projected as lifeless reflective entities," Shadowhand explained, "whoever or whatever dwells in the Shadow World can still hear and see what exists outside but cannot interact with anything or anyone.
"Wait, why not?" Kaminari asked, not quite understanding.
"It's just the rule of things," she said, "you can't interact with things that exist in another plane of existence."
"Okay then, so exactly is your quirk?" Midoriya finally asked the big question.
Shadowhand cackled, "Quirk? There is no quirk." She hold out her hand and whispered a few words, 'Obrumbratio surgere in manu mea.' Forming tiny shadow balls in her palm and then dissipates. "It's just the words that do the magic."
"M-Magic?" Midoriya repeated.
"Oh, seeing your pitiful minds trying to wrap around that concept is really entertaining," Shadowhand chuckled, "You people in this world always think that quirks are the only form of power."
'Wait? This world? Does that mean...there are different worlds? So she comes from another world Just like Nagisa...' Midoriya thought about it all, as he tried to piece it together. 'That would mean, she might be connected to the ones who brought Nagisa here, or perhaps one of them!' He fixed his gaze on the mysterious woman. 'She must be! That's why she's after Nagisa. This is crazy, I have gotta tell All Might and Aizawa-sensei! Wait, should we call for backup? If this lady really is from another world, then it might be difficult to fight her! Who knows what else she has up her sleeves! Speaking of which, she's been causing chaos here for a while. But why has none of the Pro Heroes showed up yet?' He turned to the others, 'We need to be careful.'
"Hold on!" Bakugou said, bringing everyone's attention to him as he narrowed his eyes at the orange-haired woman. "In this world? Shadow World? Magic? You sure are spouting out a lot of things, aren't you? Why are so willing to just tell us all that crap!?"
Shadowhand shrugged, "Why not? There's nothing wrong with it," she turned to look at him. "And besides, it stalled enough for your other classmates to arrive."
Just as she said that, they all looked by the shop entrance to see Jiro and the other Class 1-A students running toward them.
"We heard what happened!" Yaoyorozu said worriedly. "Have you located Nagisa?"
"Is Nagisa-chan okay?" Ashido asked.
Shadowhand smiled creepily, "Oh, he's fine, nothing to worry about."
They all stopped and stared at the mysterious lady in confusion.
"Wait, who the heck are you?" Sero pointed at her.
She ignored the question, and announced, "Now that you are here, prepare yourself to see the true nature of shadows!"
She hold out both arms and floated, "Veni foras, et expandit. Prope, accipere formam. Umbra Hemisphaerium." Speaking in a foreign language, Shadowhand created a huge magic circle on the ground, glowing an ominous violet light.
With a swipe of both arms, the circle expanded to encircle the entire shopping mall promenade, and even several surrounding buildings before curving up into the sky, encasing the area in some kind of dome.
The young heroes looked around to find themselves trapped in a shadowy hemisphere. They tried to get out but despite its fragile appearance, the walls of the dome were completely solid, not even Midoriya's smashes or Bakugou's explosion can bust through.
"Incredible..." Midoriya didn't want to but he couldn't help but be awed by the woman's power. "This is definitely more than a quirk...how is she doing this and still keeping Nagisa in that Shadow world?"
"It seems we're trapped in here!" Ashido looked around frantically as Hagakure clung to one of her arms in fear. "What are we going to do?"
"Where are the Pro Heroes? We could really use their help right about now!" Sero said nervously.
"Yeah, Aizawa-sensei's quirk would be super handy!" Mineta said tremblingly, not knowing that it wouldn't work as it wasn't a quirk.
"What was all that she just said? What kind of language was that?" Kaminari asked. "It sounded familiar, like I heard it in an anime or something..."
"It was Latin." They all turned to Yaoyorozu when she answered the electric blond's question. "It's one of the languages used to chant spells in a lot of magic-based fantasies, along with Greek, English, Polynesian and sometimes made up languages."
"Wait, like fictional...fantasies?" Jiro sweatdropped at the idea of magic being real.
"Yeah, but it seems that she can actually use magic and chant spells somehow..." The Class Vice-president said.
Midoriya spoke up, "She did mention it is magic."
"Well, that explains everything I guess..." Yaoyorozu sweatdropped but quickly, placed a hand on her arm. "But now's not the time for speculations. If the Pro Heroes aren't here then we're going to have to fight her ourselves!"
"If we have to..." Kaminari groaned, not too confident about their chances, since they are not fully trained and do not have all their equipment.
Shadowhand cackled, "Oh yes, please do! I would like to enjoy destroying any form of hope you weaklings still have!"
She curled her fingers slowly as if she was pulling something up. Soon after, it became obvious what she was doing when dark silhouettes of the heroes lifted from the ground like they were being peeled off it.
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Kaminari jumped away from the shadow that began to stand up vertically like him. He looked down at the ground to find the end of his shadow was no longer attached to his feet. "What the hell is going on!? What is she doing!?"
The shadows began to morph and became three dimensional, like their living counterparts. Although they lacked any form of distinguishable detail and were just pitch-black from head to toe and have glowing yellow eyes.
"She-she separated us from our shadows and is now controlling them!" Midoriya said, his eyes dilated from shock.
"Yeah, thanks for pointing out the obvious Midoriya-kun," The frog heroine standing beside him deadpanned. "By the way, has anyone seen Tokoyani?"
"The last we heard. he was at a manga shop but he said he'd meet up with us soon," Sero answered. "I think it's better that he's not here. We don't know how his quirk will react to-" He jumped out of the way to dodge his now sentient, monster shadow copy as it tried to strangle. "-Well, everything!"
Ojiro smacked his shadow away with a swift swing of his tail but it came back and tried to bite him, causing him to kick it down. "Yeah, but at least when he gets here he could go find help! Something tells me, we might be her for-" He dodged an attack from his shadow clone. "-a while!"
Ojiro's copy took a fighting stance and taunted him. The tailed hero didn't take that lightly and also took a stance. "Bring it on!"
As he and his shadow got into a full-on karate match, the others fared pretty well against their own copies but were still struggling.
"I expected to face a lot of villains while training to be a hero, but never in a million years did I ever imagine fighting my own shadow!" Midoriya commented, powering up his quirk when his copy growled at him. "One For All..." Sparks of green lightning surrounded him as he twisted his body to send a kick at the shadow clone. "Full Cowl 20%!" His foot smashed into its face, causing it to stagger backwards before it shook itself and charged at the greenet again. Midoriya grimaced and sent a barrage of kicks at the shadow.
It dodged some and took a few, and just as the greenet was about to kick again in its head, it slid to the side and launched itself at him to scratch his face, but Midoriya reacted just in time, only for the ghastly claws of the copy to barely graze his cheek. "Argh!" The greenet winced a bit, kicking the shadow away as he tumbled over.
He reached over to his left cheek and cursed at the slight burning sensation and the few drops of blood on his hand. His green eyes glared at the shadow monster as it picked itself up, growled and pounced at him again. Midoriya and his shadow clone wrestled on the ground, trying to push it off him while trying to not get his face bitten off.
'Damn it! This is hopeless! We're stuck in this weird dome, fighting our own shadows and Nagisa's still in that Shadow World!' He thought frustratedly. He barely managed to look around to see his classmates in similar situations - getting scratched, bitten and injured as they tried to fight off their own shadows. He noticed how Bakugou and Todoroki kept igniting their shadows only for them to reform and attack the both of them again.
He frowned and threw his shadow off a second time, getting to his feet and promptly kneeing it in the abdomen as he desperately pondered the situation. 'It doesn't matter what we do, they just won't stop attacking us, they'll just keep putting themselves back together over and over again, Could it be the dome?' He dodged the feral attacks his shadow clone was hurling at him before slamming his foot on its neck.
And the greenet's copy looked sickening after that. It appeared as though its neck was broken from the way its head hung loosely to the side, it looked atrociously painful. He slid his hand around his neck and rubbed it unconsciously. Just the thought of breaking his neck like that caused him to gulp slowly. His shadow then tried to put its head back in place.
Midoriya narrowed his eyes just when his shadow clone recovered quickly again. 'It's definitely the dome,' he thought, ignoring the screams of his battered body, edging to continue fighting. 'It's like some kind of power-up field. As long as the shadow creatures or any form of shadow power is used in it, they're amplified and almost invincible!'
'The real question is, how long can that woman keep the dome for. It can't be more than several minutes to an hour, right? Ugh, there's no way to tell.' His shadow charged at him and Midoriya wasted no time speeding behind it before giving it another full cowl kick, sending it flying across the umbriferous mound.
Sero had tape wrapped around his copy and was about to swing it aside, when Midoriya's flew right between him and his own, startling him. He glowered at the greenet, "Hey! Watch it! If you're gonna chuck your shadow in my direction at least chuck it at my shadow!" He chastised him while tightening the grip on his shadowy counterpart.
"Sorry!" The One For All user apologized sheepishly. He relaxed momentarily only to recoil at the pain all over his body. His shadow had definitely done worse than he thought and he was so exhausted. Nevertheless, he managed to stay determined. 'I've been through worse. This is nothing!' He glanced around, observing his friends as they continued to battle their shadows. They looked just as exhausted as he did, worn out and beaten up but still fighting. It was inspiring to see them still going. They understood that they couldn't give in the towel just yet, he understood that as well.
What he couldn't wrap his head around was the absence of the Pro Heroes. Where were they? Why aren't they around, helping them. It had been about half an hour and they still haven't arrived! Was this not on the news? Bystanders were still around weren't they, taking pictures and videos right? This should be online! This should be sparking an uproar?
'So why? Why was no one coming? Does she have anything to do with it?' Midoriya cogitated, whirling around to catch Shadowhand speculating the chaos from above, as she levitated in a far off spot close to the top centre of the dome, right above the large fountain. She was smirking widely, very pleased with her work. Suddenly, he had a horrible thought, 'What if the Pro Heroes are in a similar situation as us? Is she powerful enough to manipulate shadows in distant vicinity without being present?'
However, one glance at the mysterious woman, the young hero just managed to pick up the strain in her body language, scrapping his earlier notion. 'She's powerful but I doubt she's that powerful. She can only do this much because she created this dome to supercharge her abilities, not to mention she's still holding Nagisa hostage.' His eyes caught sight of his shadow clone, running at him like a hungry predator and took in a deep breath. 'Right calm down. She's strong but not invincible, the fact that my shadow took longer to reform says it all. She is using too much energy, but then again so are we and I think-' The greenet breathed out and fired a kick into his copy's torso. '-That might be her true goal!'
Mineta screamed loudly as he sprinted away from his monster shadow, tears blasting out of his eyes. He took a glance back to see it only inches away from him, reaching out to grab and claw at him. "GAHH! STAY AWAY FROM ME!" He basically ripped off his grape-like balls from his scalp and flung them at his shadow clone, achieving at knocking it over as he ran to the other side of the shadow dome.
He tried to catch his breath, wiping the sweat from his forehead and massaging bitemark on his arms. "Geez! Can someone, anyone get us out of this dark, sinister prison of nightmares!" He yelled as he fell to his knees in defeat. However, whatever rest he thought he could get was cancelled when his copy returned, speed crawling like a spider before pouncing at him.
"AAAAH!" Mineta's eyes almost flew out of their sockets when he saw his shadow clone leaping towards him. He fearfully shielded himself away from what he believed was his certain doom, when his shadow got electrocuted and disintegrated. The pervert slowly gazed up to find Kaminari holding his arm out before sighing heavily.
"Damn! These things just don't stop do they?" The electric blond questioned, visibly frustrated and confused. "I mean I fried mine seven times already and my head's starting to hurt..."
Mineta blinked and practically burst into tears when he saw Kaminari. "Thank you! You're a lifesaver, y'know that!? A lifesaver!"
"You should be saving yourself, man!" The golden blond reprimanded him, much to the grapehead's shame. "But anyway, here!" Mineta caught whatever Kaminari threw at him and looked to see what it was.
"Your phone?" He asked confusedly. raising an eyebrow at the other.
"Use it to call Tokoyami! And tell him of our situation!" Kaminari ordered him, preparing to fight off both his and the pervert's shadow. "We're counting on you man so don't let us down! And don't break my phone or else!"
Mineta gulped as he watched Kaminari barely fending off the two shadow clones. He shook his head and gained a focused look. "Right! Let's do this!" He went into his classmate's contact list and pressed 'call'. He anxiously waited for their only hope to pick up the phone as it rang.
A/N:
SO SORRY! I ORIGINALLY PLANNED ON UPDATING ON SUNDAY, BUT I GOT A CASE OF GETTING SICK!
It was most unfortunate, but as I am recovering, I will be making the next chapter as scheduled, but please do keep in mind that, my chapters are 4k-8k (maybe 9k) words, so they will be taking some time!
Now, the overview, Class 3-E has officially entered the Heroverse! And the battle of Kiyashi District Mall has reached its halfway point, and in the next chapter, the conclusion and the revelation! So stay tuned!
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