SWWOOOOOOOOOOSH.
Nejire, acting on trained instinct, used a double blast of wave energy from both hands to push a huge wave of falling debris aside, from one group of people who had been caught at the edge of the bomb.
Using her feet, she flew into the flow of her own blast and let it rocket her downward into the shadow of the explosion-cloud, four spirals carrying her forward at once in a move she rarely used.
There was a middle-aged couple falling into the debris, the floor beneath them crumbled. Nejire flew down to them with such force that the smoke parted out on either side of her, and tucked them both under one arm in a drive-by rescue.
"HANG ON!" she shouted, as the man and woman screamed, her velocity carrying them out past the explosion's area of effect and into the charred grass of the campus ground.
They landed and slid to a stop, Nejire's blue boots leaving deep grooves in the mud, her hair flapping out beyond her as she opened just two fingers off of her grip on the woman, shooting out a decelerating wave in front of her and the civilians.
They caught their breaths, Nejire asking them, "Okay? Anyone you know left behind?"
"No, but…"
"Good! Gotta go!" She left them there, flying back toward the chaos.
"THANK YOU, DEAR!" the woman shouted.
Nejire had no time to accept the praise. The bomb had gone off, and that meant Mustard was nearby. Where's Midoriya?
She went skyward, eyes darting around to soak in the scene from above. The hero teachers of Seiai were gathering around the fallen wing of the building, rescuing those that were visible at the top of the rubble. No sign of anyone she recognized, though.
And out on the edge of campus, Moonfish was towering further and further over the spike wall, trying to probe his way through.
Nejire looked in that direction, spirals still swirling from her hands and feet to keep her afloat. Only a small group of teachers were engaging the villain; most had rushed back toward the building the moment the bomb had gone off.
Isn't Mirko here too? Where's she? The rabbit heroine would be a good matchup for this villain, with her ability to get in close very quickly.
Then again…perhaps it was better to engage him from a distance. That was something she could do.
Nejire kicked both feet and propelled herself toward the Tartarus escapee.
Moonfish noticed her, his awful beady eyes just tilting in her direction ever so slightly, his jaw slacked to allow his blades to emerge from his mouth in a gross nest of metal.
Over half of them redirected up toward her, quicker than she expected. Nejire's eyes widened and she pulled up short, punching down with a wave to push herself upward and get some instant elevation. She flipped herself over the probing blades, her hair narrowly missing another trimming. Shhhhhhhhing!
Many of the blades turned to follow her as she flew sideways. She underhanded another wave at them, causing them to deflect and shatter, and dived under them, closing the distance to Moonfish…or, more precisely, the tower of blades he was balancing on.
"Down…you go!" she shouted, firing two blasts into the tower and shattering its center, blades breaking and toppling like Jenga, causing the whole thing to crumble. Moonfish cried out and began to fall, pulling all his blades back toward himself at high speed, like a retracting tape measure. Nejire hissed, sensing them slashing toward her from behind, and flew high again to avoid getting cut.
The villain shot another pillar of support down into the grass, stabilizing himself, but lower to the ground this time. Nejire flew forward to get right over his head, and then dunked a two-handed blast straight down at him. FA-WOOOOOOOOM!
He looked up, and a flower of metal sprouted from his open mouth, spreading wide like a net and catching the blast evenly, its energy refracting and dissipating over the wider surface. Nothing was broken. But I have enough power to break them. Just gotta keep trying!
"Blue hair…gold spirals…high priority target…" Moonfish groaned.
Nejire scowled. "High priority?! Because I'm part of the Big Three?!"
"Because…association with…Izuku Midoriya."
A chill went down her spine. "What's in it for you, anyway!" she snapped at him. "Why are you working with Mustard? Why didn't you just kill him like you do everybody else you meet? What did he promise you?"
"Lots…more flesh…if I came here…"
"How'd he get in? Did you get him into the school somehow? Are the bombs detonated remotely or set manually with a timer?"
"Told me…you asked questions…talk too much."
"At least I know how to talk, you creepazoid." Nejire flew out and low toward the wall, trying to get an attacking angle…
…Moonfish's blades swung out and swatted her.
"AAAAAAAAAH!" she screamed, feeling the sharp lashing of pain from being full-on struck by fast-moving steel. The angle had been awkward; they had hardly cut her, and she'd used her forearms to block the worst of it. But the power of the strike was such that she went flying backward, off the wall and out of campus, down into the village just beyond Seiai…
…She thought she'd had more time to decelerate than she did.
CRRRRRRRRRRASH.
Nejire Hado fell through the roof of a building; a house that lay just beyond the boundaries of the school. She curled up as she fell and impacted, and burst waves from every part of her body, creating an imperfect shield of spiraling energy that numbed her fall.
She landed on the floor of the house's living room, roof tile and wood shards strewn about her landing site. Her Quirk died around her as she came to a stop.
For a moment, her body was unable to move. She was laid out in a mess of her own making, a hole in the roof above her, a broken tea table in front of her, and she was totally, completely stunned.
Then, the pain came, and she began to whimper.
Owwwww…ow ow ow ow ow ow. Ow.
Slowly, gingerly, she sat up, turning her arms over and looking at the shallow cuts there, slowly dripping beads of red from a half dozen little openings.
Head hurt. Chest hurt. Back hurt. The aches were coming everywhere, bones and joints and muscles. Her body was tingly. Not good. She was going to have bruises.
Dammit. Can't let that take me out of the fight. One mistake had been high-consequence. That was often how it was when fighting in the sky…she'd grown too careless. But who knew if there was even someone else who could engage Moonfish?
I gotta get back out there!
She stood up, wincing, adjusting her bodysuit a little as it had skidded up too far in a few places. Lifted her heels off the floor, glancing up with determination. Preparing to shoot right back out of the hole she'd just created in the ceiling.
"Ahhh, ah-ahhhh, ah-ahhhh, ahh."
Her blood ran cold.
"Ah-ahhh, ah-ahhhhh…ahhhh."
No. Nononononononono.
Not now. How could it be now? HOW IS HE HERE?!
Akira Asano emerged from the shadows of the house, his six music notes hanging around his shoulders. His face shimmered with a grin of victory.
"Hello again, Nejire Hado," he said.
…
Camie slid around a corner. The blue-grey-white hallways were flashing red all around her. People rushed frantically past, going in the opposite direction, fleeing the blast. She did not flee. She ran toward it.
Stupid confusing layout. Her eyes darted wildly between two ways to go, the alarm blaring in her ears. Shouts and clangor were barely audible over it. Which way? Civilians were fleeing equally from both sides.
The building shook again. A crack appeared on the ceiling in the hall to the right. Right it is.
"Calm! Chill! Don't trample!" she told the folks that were going past, waving them along in the right direction. Families.
Several Seiai students appeared on the other side of the hallway. One girl saw Camie directing traffic. "You there! What's your assignment?"
"The battle!" Camie shouted back, lying.
"The teachers have it! We're to keep the prisoners contained in the sixth wing!" The girls took off in that direction, thankfully not waiting for Camie to follow. Because she didn't intend to.
If those prisoners get free…not all of them would be like her mom, to be sure. Some would be violent, or insane, and some had bad Quirks. No wonder all the hero students were being sent there…
The whole building shuddered again. Camie watched the flow of people converge at the junction and head away from the collapse, while the Seiai students headed off to the left toward the sixth wing…
…Someone else broke out of the crowd of civilians and headed to the left. All the way across the mass of people, Camie only caught a fleeting glimpse of them. They were not wearing a Seiai uniform. They were not even a girl.
She ducked her head and drove through the crowd, heart racing. "Scuse me. Scuse me. Out of the way, go!"
The crowd shouted and cried and surged on, continuing their evacuation, as Camie fought against their flow. Trying to get back across to the left.
He wants to get to the prisoners for some reason. I can't let him. Come on. Come on…
Bodies closing and shoving and pushing. She weaved her way through, and made it. To the left side.
At the far end of the hallway, at the next turn, she just barely saw a shadow swishing around the corner out of sight. The red lights flashed, screwing with her.
Camie took off.
Feet pounding against the tile floor in full sprint, her whole body bouncing as she surged with furious adrenaline.
She'd come here to get him. And if this was him, he was getting got.
Reaching the corner and coming around, her boots slid with a squeak, and she pulled up short.
It was a dead end, a stub of a hallway. Camie paused; the person had definitely gone around this corner, and hadn't crossed back to the other direction, the one that actually went somewhere, or else she would have seen it. She'd been looking forward at the junction the whole time.
Only two doors, one on either side, and a water fountain on the wall in front of her.
Camie darted forward and tried the left door. Locked. She backed up and prepared to try and kick it open, blood pounding through her head. The alarm blared. Red flashed. She wasn't sure if it was inside or outside her eyes anymore.
Just as she lurched forward, the door flew open. Panic spiked as she fell into the dark classroom, betrayed by her own momentum, crashing chest-first into a desk.
A shadow moved to her right, just next to the door. A slouching demon in a gas mask.
Camie threw herself about, so quickly her vision went blurry, desperate to subdue him. He'd been a millisecond away from darting back out the door and down the hall, his one-up on her nearly perfect, but she drove a shoulder into him and threw him against the chalkboard.
The two of them, of a height and weight with one another, slammed into the wall. Mustard struggled to throw her around and pin her instead. Camie's fist swung across his face. It deflected off the gas mask, her knuckles spiking with pain. His arms and hands and legs flailed everywhere, trying to take her down and take himself free of the situation at the same time.
"I thought someone followed me," he growled. His voice was modulated beneath the mask. "But you are not Deku. Who the hell are you?"
Camie spat at him, and with a yell, pushed him into the chalkboard once again. Their bodies locked against each other, nearly evenly matched physically. She put one palm against his masked face and tried to slam his head into the wall. He drove an elbow into her stomach, and the moment he got some distance, pulled a knife from his pocket and delivered an overhead swing toward her face.
Camie stepped sideways and grabbed his outstretched arm. Closed her hand, forcing him to drop the knife. Kneed him in the crotch. Mustard pulled her arm toward himself, locked her upward-bent leg with his own, and headbutted her. Camie saw stars. He fights like a street cat. No holds barred, rapid and desperate. Survival at all costs.
Then she saw the purple gas eject from his arms, and her breath stopped sharply.
Holding it, she went low and threw him over herself, into the desk. CRASH!
The gas did not stop. It puffed out from him like a leaky faucet even as he scrambled to his feet and made for the door.
She slammed a full arm into his chest, halting him in his tracks, and tripped him with a low swinging kick. Still holding her breath. Gotta. Knock him. Out…
But he refused to go down. He scurried backward deeper into the classroom, still ejecting gas as he put distance between them. Camie recklessly strode forward into it, vision getting poorer.
"YOU CRAVEN LITTLE LOSER!" she screamed. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE DONE?"
"Oh, killed a bunch of people, I'm sure," he snarled back venomously. "And I won't stop until you all admit how fucked up these schools are!"
"I'll kill you," Camie promised, the few breaths she'd taken just to speak already making her woozy. Shit. The gas. The gas.
"You'll fall asleep first."
I'll give him a taste of mine!
She activated her own Quirk. Her gas overpowered his, sparkling pink encroaching on purple. She threw them into an illusory snakepit, the ground writhing and slithering and hissing.
Mustard took a wary step back, his head moving around in confusion. Camie had total control of the space visually; she had made his gas invisible, but he, as a person, was now totally exposed. He had nothing to hide in.
She made herself invisible as well, and moved wide around the snakepit, taking care not to crash into any invisible desks. Keeping her eyes on Mustard, still holding her breath. Have to do this quickly. She figured she'd pass out in like, thirty seconds, either from lack of oxygen or from being forced to inhale the gas.
Mustard stepped over the snakes carefully, seeming to realize they weren't real. He took another, more reckless step forward, and ran into a desk. He swore. "Why, you…"
He looked left and right, wild, searching for her. "Where'd you go…?"
Camie took the gamble, and leapt a desk, closing the gap to him, intending to take him out with one swift kick to the head.
Then, he turned around and grabbed her foot, slamming her to the ground with enough force to eject all the air she'd been holding right out of her mouth.
Shocked, Camie struggled to get back up, but he punched her in the gut. Forcing her to breathe.
"Just kidding," he snarled. She could hear his glee. "I knew where you were the whole time. You may have made my gas invisible, but I can still sense your movements when you're in it. Lights out."
Her illusion dissipated. The last thing she felt before falling asleep was a rage like she'd never felt before.
…
Close, thought Izuku.
It was the only word to really describe this situation.
His world had become touchy-feely, grimy and dark and tight. Jagged, irregular chunks of rock and debris were settling, each shudder of the larger structure causing harrowing shifts and sprinkles of dust.
The earth groaned.
He was in a cave, a cave of his own making, a tiny alcove of survival in the midst of the collapsed rubble that had been an entire wing of Seiai. A cave with barely enough room to wiggle, let alone adjust his position.
And Rumi Usagiyama was squished on top of him.
"Get…off…" he coughed, pawing at her. He hated being on his back. He could feel the rocks digging into him from below. "Get OFF! We have to go!"
"There's nowhere TO go," she answered, gruffly.
"Why did you do that?! I was trying to save them!"
"I cushioned our fall. I'm the reason we're alive."
"You're the reason we're stuck, and there's probably other people in the same boat that we can't save now!"
"You were already going too late, you wouldn't have done anything-"
"Don't you DARE tell me what I would or wouldn't have done! I could have saved some of them! Why are you arguing with me?!"
"Midoriya." Her voice was unusually calm and quiet. "I'm not trying to argue with you. Please calm down."
Izuku breathed heavily, pausing. He could feel every curve of her body pressed against him. She was warm. But it feels nothing like my dream.
He had been ready to be confrontational. To continue the fight that he'd had with dream Mirko. But dream Mirko was not real Mirko.
"We're trapped," he squeaked, his mouth already beginning to dry in panic. The ruin of the building shuddered around them again. More dust rained down from the cracks between the rubble.
"Well, kinda." Mirko adjusted herself slightly. Her face was below his; the fur on one of her tall white ears tickled his nose. He could just barely see her; his eyes were adjusting. "My leg is pinned under a rock. Thankfully, it's the replaceable metal one. Otherwise we're okay, right? Are you injured?"
"I…I don't think so." His back was in a little bit of pain, but nothing major.
"Good. So, you can use your power to get us out of here, right?"
"Ummm…" Izuku experimentally activated One for All at just a few percent. The green sparks illuminated the space a little, and he got a view of Mirko's nervous face…then the building shook again, and all the debris around them lurched a bit aggressively…
"NO, no, no…" He deactivated, gasping, his arms thrown tight around Mirko's back to protect her, instinctively, as their entire little space of survival seemed to shift from his discharge of power. "No…"
The two of them breathed against one another for a moment. Izuku felt like sobbing. "I can't…" he muttered. "That would just kill us in here for real."
"Okay." Mirko seemed to be working things out in her head. Her voice trembled. "Okay. Maybe, if you like…charged up to full power really fast? Fast enough to blast all the debris away without having any of it fall back onto us?"
"But we don't know who else is trapped down here. Civilians. I don't want to kill them b-by accident."
"Shit." Her chin fell down onto his collarbone. "D-dammit. I…don't have any ideas, then."
"We're going to run out of air, Mirko."
"I know."
"Th-there must be something else. Some other way. At UA they taught us everything about how to safely clear debris to save civilians from a collapse. But that was from the outside. And for those who played the civilians…"
"...the only advice is to conserve air and wait for rescue," Mirko finished for him. "They taught me the same thing."
"I don't want to wait for rescue. Surely you don't, either."
"We may not have another choice, kid."
"But…but you…you came here to stop him! You're just like me, remember? We can't just stay down here until it's over, we can't…" Izuku trailed off, his voice losing its volume and its determination. "We can't fail…"
In the distance, beyond all the crashing and rumbling, he could hear echoing screams and sounds of battle.
"It's too late," Rumi whispered. "And believe me, I'm as pissed as you."
"Then why are you acting so…resigned? You're Mirko! You're supposed to bite and scratch and fight to the end! That's what I always lo…liked. About you."
"Do you think I would have survived this long if I didn't throw in the towel sometimes?" She coughed through her words. He was over-conscious of every little movement she made on top of him. "I just never talked about it in all those damn interviews. I hate accepting help, but I've rolled onto my back and done it before. Sometimes it's the only way to live and fight another day."
"You're not the one on your back here. I am."
"Y-yeah." He felt her wince; the tips of her long eyelashes tickled his arms. "I guess I'm making it even harder for you to breathe, huh?"
"It's…fine. I'm sorry that we're, uhh…in this particular position."
"Heh." Mirko sniffed. "Truth be told, I've laid on less comfortable things." She shifted her hips a little. He noticed she hadn't protested his arms around her waist.
"Maybe we should stop talking," he muttered. "To…you know. Conserve air."
"If you want," she responded softly. "I think the silence may drive me crazy, though…ack!" She coughed again, more dust settling around them.
Izuku wracked his brain. I have other Quirks. There must be some way to use them here. Smokescreen was useless, as was Fa-jin without room to really build up his movements. Danger Sense…? He closed his eyes and tried to sense the wider environment beyond their cave, trying to see if he could detect other caves, places where people were in danger. If there weren't any, then maybe he'd be okay with doing Mirko's idea of activating his power in a burst to free them…
It doesn't work like that, Shinomori told him sadly. You're sensing danger everywhere, but it's almost impossible to know exactly what it's from. You'd need a totally quiet environment and a long period of meditation…and you're not going to get that in here.
Izuku despaired. He was right. Danger Sense was going haywire as expected, but there was no way to tell if that was from the battle happening elsewhere on the campus, or from trapped civilians just nearby. It was too all-encompassing.
He barked out a dry laugh. Maybe if Float could float other things besides me. Right. He may as well be Uraraka. Or have her here with him.
A pang of regret shot through him at that thought. She'd want to be here.
He remembered that there was a heroine laying on him. Sometimes it's the only way to live and fight another day, Mirko had said. In regards to accepting help.
"Mirko," he whispered.
Her ears perked up a little. Tickling his nose once again. "Yeah?"
"Why did you leave karaoke so suddenly?" Asking the question that had been gnawing at him for weeks.
She didn't answer. He felt her sigh a little, her chest relaxing into his, but her voice was silent.
"I'm…sorry for bringing it up. I was just worried that it had something to do with me…"
"Not really, Midoriya," she finally answered. Her voice was husky. "At least, not in the way you think."
"Then…?"
"Like I said, I hate getting helped, even when I have to be," she mumbled. "I hate being part of a team. The casino op…I didn't want to work with y'all, but I thought it was the best way to get to the enemy. That being the bomber."
"Yeah, we…figured as much. It's not like I wasn't there for the s-same reasons. I wasn't too enthusiastic about teaming up with them either." At the time, anyway. Things had changed. He wasn't sure at what point they'd changed, but they had.
Mirko took a deep breath. "I left because…because. Well. I was starting to like it. A little bit."
"Oh." Izuku hadn't expected that.
"I…have had mixed experiences with teams, Midoriya. They can accomplish one thing very well and then hold you back for the next thing. Groups can encourage their own progress and their own…lethargy. I've seen it a million times. We…you, me, Nejire, Suneater…we did what we set out to do at that casino. But when we were left with more questions, and hadn't caught the bomber…we rested on our laurels. We chilled and had some fun. Because we were a group. Who enjoyed hanging out together. In the middle of that night, I realized I was enjoying it too, and…well. It made me sick, I guess. I couldn't handle the idea of resting for even another second when I had this guy still to catch. I'm sorry."
Izuku slipped his arms around her a bit more without thinking. He was basically cuddling her. "I understand," he murmured. "Thank you for being so honest about it." She and I really are very similar. This entire time, he'd been struggling with the same things. To go it alone or with others. And if he did choose others, then who? Who to trust? What made him let his guard down around certain people? He still felt no closer to understanding it than when he'd started.
And these women…these women would be the death of him, he was sure of it.
Maybe not the best line of thought when you are in a literal life-or-death situation with one, Nana put in.
Mirko chuckled. "May as well be honest since we're stuck together. You…ah…aren't exactly hiding anything from me at the moment."
Izuku suddenly became aware that the position they were in had caused him to…pitch a tent, as it were.
"I changed my mind," he squeaked, his entire body going nuclear from embarrassment. "I'd like to die in here."
That made her laugh again. "Chill, man, I know you have no control over it. Honestly, I'd be more weirded out if it didn't happen…then we'd have cause for concern. Like, maybe your crotch got injured on impact or somethin'."
"Is this your attempt to lighten the mood?" he asked, strained. Trying very hard to focus on making his erection go away.
Mirko, unfortunately, seemed to catch on to what he was doing. "Just try not to think about Nejire," she said.
Izuku hacked out a shocked cough. "Wh…why would you…no…!" His brain immediately jumped to an image it recalled often: Nejire in that revealing, flowy dress she'd worn before the beauty pageant. Ohhhh, God…
Mirko giggled evilly. "What? Isn't part of you at least a little grateful I left you two alone together that night? I honestly felt like I was third-wheeling the whole time."
"She and I aren't…like that." Even if I wanted to be. "All we did after you left was eat s-some snacks…"
"Hmph. If you say so."
"You…sound disappointed in me."
"Well…it's just, I was so sure that you two were throwing the let's-hook-up-later eyes at each other all damn night. But maybe I was just seeing things."
Were we? Izuku would be the first to admit that he had no idea how social cues worked when it came to hookups. Every situation he'd been in with a girl so far, he'd completely accidented himself into.
Well, there's Camie. With Camie I managed to read the mood. Once. And then utterly failed to follow up on it at all.
"Could…could I ask you for some advice?" he heard himself whisper.
"Oooooh. Sure. If it's about what I think it is." Mirko wiggled against him a bit, interested, which did not help things.
"If there's a girl who…I'm in an ambiguous sort of…state…with…how do I…"
"Ahhhh. The what are we conversation. Such a classic." Mirko was grinning; he could sense it. "Here's how you approach it, Deku: it all depends on what you want to be. Even if the girl were to come to you first and be clear about her intentions - which…let's face it, none of them EVER do that - but even if she did, there's no sense in leading her on, and settling for whatever she wants just to please her, when it's not what you want. That'll just make you both unhappy in the long run."
"And…what if I don't know what I want?"
"Oh…I think you know. Everyone knows. Whatever the first thing you imagine is when you think of her. That gut feeling. That's what you listen to. So…what do you do? Well, you go right up to her and proclaim your intentions. If she likes you already, then…" Mirko snorted. "Trust me. She's really gonna like it when you do that."
"This…seems like bad advice."
Mirko bristled. "Hey. My advice is great. Maybe it wouldn't be if I didn't know your situation, like if you were some helpless loser after a girl out of your league, but…you're not. This girl does like you already. Nejire? It's written all over her."
Izuku was taken aback. "This…isn't about Nejire."
"It's not?" She lifted her head to stare at him, confused. Their eyesight had mutually adjusted to where they could see each other's faces just fine.
And they stared for a bit too long.
Mirko raised an eyebrow.
"It's not about you, either!" Izuku blurted. "...If you were worried about that, for whatever reason."
She lowered her face back into his chest, as if hiding it. That confused him further. "No," she grumbled, her voice muffled into him. "...No, I'm being stupid…"
Izuku was suddenly hit with a wave of dizziness. He blinked, the already-dark space growing even darker around the edges of his eyes. His head rang fuzzily.
You raised your voice, said Yoichi. You spoke too much. Got too excited. You both did.
Mirko lifted her face again, and gasped for breath. Alarm bells rang in Izuku's head. "Are you…having trouble breathing…too…?" he asked her.
"Yeah." She was sweating. He could feel it soaking through her costume. "I, uhh…I guess we screwed up."
Oh, Jesus. Oh Jesus. No. He had to calm down. He couldn't panic. He couldn't die in here. One for All would die with him, and the world would be lost.
The sounds of battle and collapse still echoed beyond the boundaries of their jagged prison. There was no chance that rescue was imminent.
"It's up to me," he muttered.
"Up to you…? We already…established…there's nothing you can do to get us out…"
"There is." There was one more Quirk he hadn't considered. Blackwhip.
Izuku let the dark tendrils emerge from him and slither away in all directions. They squeezed in-between the gaps in the rock. Snaked their way up and through and out. Probing, searching. Mapping.
"I can…sense everything they touch…" he explained aloud, so that Mirko could have some hope. "Maybe, just maybe…I can plot a safe way to…shift the rocks…use the whips to find the ones at the top and move them, then the ones below…and so on…"
Genius, kid. Banjo was brimming with pride; they all were. Genius. It didn't even occur to me.
"Okay." Mirko's breaths were hollow against his neck. "How…how long is that gonna take?"
"I don't know." He was trying his best to concentrate. To create a mental layout of the individual chunks of rubble in his head. It was a lot…and his brain needed oxygen to function.
Oxygen that was rapidly running out.
…
The air thickened around Nejire. Her heart felt like it was about to leap out of her throat. No. Nononononono. "Why?" she gasped, only able to step slowly backward, her fear paralyzing her as Asano advanced into the living room of the abandoned house.
The man laughed. "Why? Isn't how the better question?"
He sang. His Quirk darted out toward her. Nejire took off up toward the hole in the ceiling. Two of the notes caught her left foot and yanked her back to the floor.
To avoid another hard landing, she spun backward and released her Quirk against the wall, managing to find her feet. She whirled about, ignoring the growing pain from her wounds, and bared her teeth at Asano. "I don't have time for you!" she hissed.
His eyes narrowed. "I will make you make time. Aaaaaaaaah-"
Another attack from the notes. Nejire blasted herself backward toward the house's closed front door, just wanting to gain some distance and get outside, but the notes outsped her and came around to stick in her in the back. She kicked a wave to the left and managed to earn herself a grazing instead of a stabbing, with a narrow dodge.
"You're faster than last time. But not fast enough," Asano said. He hopped over a chair to close the gap to her, and let out a fast, jumping melody. The notes crashed through the kitchen, knocking things off the counter, opening drawers, tossing knives into the mix. Nejire rolled sideways, ejected two small waves out of her feet to hop over the kitchen island, and spun around again, facing him. Eyes darting everywhere, looking for a way out.
Be deadly, Camie's voice told her.
"Faster than last time," Nejire snarled. "That's rich. You catch me once when I'm on my period and then again when I've just taken a nasty fall. Lucky you. You think you're some kinda tough guy?!" Her voice shook, her panic mixing badly with her rage.
Asano just laughed. "I don't need to be tough. I don't want to be."
"I've got your number. First you show up at the power station where Mustard's been hiding, then here? You've been the one working with him the whole time. His man on the inside of Kijimi. You ran from the casino and took those explosives with you, and then they got used here."
His confused expression was so genuine that it sent a storm of doubt through her. "Explosives? Yeah, we had them at the casino…until you ruined us."
"They…they were taken by…you can't fool me! Mustard was at both places where you've shown up! That can't be a coincidence!"
"Where I've…shown up?" Akira Asano belted out a laugh. "YOU have been at both places where I have shown up, girl. That's the unifying principle here. Are you so daft that you fail to understand, even now?"
The six musical notes rose up threateningly over his head, spreading out in an array, his arms lifting up to control them, his hands closing into fists.
"You blinded my love and ruined her future. My future. I will ruin you right back, Nejire Hado. Everywhere you go, every place you think you're okay to take a risk. Every time you end up alone, or vulnerable, or weak…I will be there. I will never. Stop. Following you." Every step he took toward her was filled with horrifying weight. "I WILL HAUNT YOUR STEPS FOR LIFE! You'll have to kill me if you want me to stop. Or…do you not have it in you?" His head tilted inquisitively. "Do you only mutilate people and let them live in suffering instead?"
Her eyes filled with overwhelmed tears. This man was crazy, and he meant every word he was saying. He truly meant to never leave her alone.
Be. Deadly.
Nejire roared and attacked him.
The fight was a mess. She was not in as much pain as she'd been during their last encounter, but she was not calm, either, and he knew it.
Akira stood in the center of the home, spinning in a stationary circle and deploying his notes, wailing a dissonant tune of defense as Nejire destroyed the house around him. She flew right and left and forward and overhead and low, assaulting him again and again and again, her waves spiraling all over the place, knocking picture frames off walls, shattering windows, burning holes in cushions and wallpaper.
Everywhere, those bloody things stepped in her way. A double eighth note slamming her in the head using the connecting bar across the top. A flagged sixteenth note catching her hair and throwing her across the room. Quarter notes swinging at her chest and arms like heavy clubs. They zipped and zapped and darted wherever she wanted them to not be, and in the eye of the storm, Asano remained steadfast, the gleeful fire in his eyes growing brighter and brighter and brighter.
Tossing insults toward her the whole time. "UA's Big Three! The woman among them is nothing more than a big dumb flamethrower!"
Another whiffed attack from her that knocked the oven door off its hinges. "You and your blunt instrument of a Quirk! All you can do is cause pain!"
The musical notes swept toward her all at once in a corkscrew. She only managed to dodge four of them; the other two struck her in the wrist.
"Too afraid to let me live another day…TOO WEAK TO KILL ME!"
Nejire let out an inhuman sound, all her emotions boiling over…and she released waves from every pore in her body at once.
BWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAM. A spiraling, golden bomb, spreading out in all directions. Asano's eyes widened, and he pulled his Quirk back to shield himself…
…That was the last she saw of him, before the power of her attack brought the house down upon them both.
SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSHHHHHHHHHHHH.
Nejire let it all flow out of her, throwing herself backward, her body and costume glowing gold. Her Quirk reaching levels of hysterical strength it hadn't reached in ages.
The house was collapsing. As a storm of feelings rushed through her, she thought: whoever's house this is, I completely destroyed it. What an odd thing to feel guilty about in this moment.
And then she was flying up, flying up and out and away from the calamity, clawing herself free from the destruction she herself had caused. She was beyond what was left of the walls. She was free. She was free and getting further and further away, leaving it behind.
Nejire could not look back to see what had happened to her enemy. She could only flee, flee back toward the stone wall of Seiai, where even in the midst of battle, she was safe, and not alone. I don't want to be alone ever ever again.
She ran from him and from herself.
…
The minutes that followed did not seem real.
When Nejire landed back on the green of the campus, Moonfish was defeated. The teachers had defeated him. The prisoners had partially escaped onto the grounds, and now Seiai's hero students were in the midst of subduing them. The battle had changed, while the huge wing of the academy that had been targeted by the bomb continued to decay and crumble in the background.
There was the sound of a broken window, and someone was shouting, "HE WENT THAT WAY!" It sounded like Ms. Joke.
Nejire, clutching her arms as she stumbled forward, only had one coherent thought: Midoriya was nowhere to be seen.
…
"Moving the first rock," Izuku muttered. Wasting no more words than necessary.
Far above him, about thirty feet if he was any judge, Blackwhip constricted around a big chunk of debris, lifted it high off the pile, and threw it. His wrist twitched. One down. A hundred more to go.
Mirko just grunted. Her head was down against his chest. He could feel her heartbeat, her precious heartbeat. If I could at least get her out of here. If only One for All didn't have to end with him. Mirko would not be such a bad person to give One for All to.
He moved another rock. Threw it off the pile. A bit more dust rained on them. Izuku had plotted what he hoped was a good route, but he'd been unsure about the rocks in the middle…the ones ten or fifteen feet above them. They were mixed together at bad angles and he was unsure what was supporting what. It had taken a while to decide what order he'd do it in. Too long.
Now his head was feeling…light. Very light. Far too light.
The whips moved lethargically onto the third rock. Then the fourth. Then the fifth. He wanted to go faster. He didn't have the energy to go faster. Or the confidence in his plan.
If I rush it, I could bring the whole structure down on us anyway.
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten. That was several feet of debris taken off now. A whole layer. I can't hear the battle anymore. Was it over?
He kept at it. One of the rocks slipped a little, but he tightened his fist, and the whips closed around it. It was tough going without being able to see anything he was doing…like operating a claw machine with your back turned.
The structure let out a bad cracking sound, and Mirko whimpered, clinging to Izuku with a sharp intake of breath. Then, she slumped. "Ohhhh God. I almost…passed out…"
"Stay awake, Mirko." Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen. "Awake, Usagiyama-san. If you're awake, you're alive."
His whole body was slick with cold sweat. His head felt like a balloon. He wanted to drift away. He wanted that so bad.
Twenty. Twenty-one. Twenty-two. He had made a sizable dent in the debris now. Each toss of a chunk required more strength, more lift to get it clear of the hole.
"Midoriya…" she whispered.
"Shhhh." Twenty-five. Twenty-six.
The past users had retreated to some dark corner of his mind, silent. He wondered if that was his fault. They were only alive inside of him, after all. As his connection with consciousness faded, so too did their ability to communicate. To persist in any form. Seven souls are dying with me.
"No…they're not…" Mirko forced out.
Did I say that out loud? He was growing delirious. Trying not to break concentration. Thirty. Thirty-one. Each rock took all of his effort. The whips could hold cars…but they were only as strong as he could make them.
"Ggguhhh…" he croaked. Thirty-five.
Nearly halfway. Nearly halfway.
He had promises to keep. He had to meet Lady Nagant one more time. He had to talk to Camie. He had to see his mom again. Hell, he had to see his dad again. And All Might, and Uraraka, and Kacchan and Iida and Todoroki and Aoyama and…
and Nejire…
Nejire, who he'd just seen this morning; he somehow felt like he was missing her most of all.
Forty-two. Forty-three. Forty-four.
Mirko took a deeper breath. It seemed maybe a little brighter in their little cave. "I think there's an opening somewhere…I can…I can feel it…" A tickle of cold air. That was enough for hope. Enough. "Keep going…"
He reached forty-nine, and his consciousness blipped for just a second, and one of the whips slipped. Brushed a rock off to the side that he hadn't intended to move. And ruined everything.
CRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRASH!
Mirko cried out and hugged him tightly, the two of them cringing together as an avalanche of debris came from one side, sliding down from the top and filling in the hole he'd worked so hard to create, to dig, pushing down on the rubble directly above their bodies and closing their little cave to a near-choking size.
Izuku's Blackwhips were squeezed and dissipated by the cascade of matter, losing their places and sense of direction and navigation all at once. The cracks they'd used as a labyrinth up were rearranged, closed and reopened elsewhere. A curtain of dust fell unceremoniously down on their heads…
…And then it all settled.
Izuku's fist opened. Blackwhip deactivated. All his fingers relaxed. He was shot. Drained. There was nothing left in the tank. Faced with the utter erasure of all the hard work he'd pushed himself to the brink to accomplish, he conceded.
"I'm sorry." That was all he could say. His voice sounded very small.
He felt something wet that wasn't sweat drip onto his chest. He realized that Mirko was crying. A horrible wave of self-loathing washed over him, some of the worst he'd ever felt since Aldera.
Her body heaved once. She allowed herself one sob. Just one. And then stopped.
The woman's red eyes tilted up toward him. Barely visible in the now-even-darker alcove.
"The battle sounds over," she said hollowly. "Maybe they saw your whips. Maybe they're coming to get us."
Izuku hugged her even tighter. He didn't know what else to do. "Yeah. Yeah, they're c-coming to get us. They'll be here any minute. We just have to…have to hold out until then…"
They were both growing more light-headed with every breath, and they both knew it.
Mirko coughed. Izuku coughed. Her white hair hung down around her face and brushed his throat.
"Thank you…for being here…" she muttered.
"Yeah…"
His breathing felt so shallow. His lungs were sipping for something that wasn't there.
"The heroes…they're coming…"
"Yeah…"
"We're gonna get out of here."
"Yeah…"
"That girl…you have to have that talk with her, right? So you…you don't have a choice."
"Yeah."
Rumi Usagiyama scooted up. He could not understand her eyes; there were a lot of emotions running through them, but mostly they looked sleepy. She wasn't in her right mind, and neither was he.
"Did ya get to kiss her, at least?" she asked.
"I did," he answered honestly. As long as they were talking about Camie. "Once. I don't think I'm…very good at it."
"You just…need practice." Both of them gasping now, the last bits of oxygen draining away. "You need to practice for when you see her again. Because you're gonna. They're gonna find us and you're gonna see her again."
"Yeah…" Izuku shifted his arm as best he could to go to the small of Mirko's back, scooting her up just a bit more. "...Practice."
And they both knew what they were going to do. They were dying, and losing their minds, and they only wanted one more nice thing to happen, a good memory to end on.
The kiss was nothing like his dream. It was sloppy, and dusty, and Mirko collapsed against him, soft instead of firm, limp instead of tight. But it was just as hungry, just as desperate. They were already so close that he couldn't help but buck his hips into hers. She did not complain. They kissed and kissed and used the last of their air, and passed out together, her on top of him.
Her head slipped to the side of his, but they remained intertwined, the only position they could take in that tiny opening.
"...here…"
"They're here…"
"FOUND THEM!"
The sound of a hiss. A snake?
Uwabami.
He was breathing.
Rocks were shifting.
A whirring sound.
A Quirk.
"Deku! Mirko!"
Daylight. His eyes were open?
A golden spiral. Pushing rocks aside. They cascaded around him.
Izuku winced, blinded.
Shadows moved across the brightness. Peering down at him. Climbing down. Floating down.
"Careful, careful." Uwabami's voice.
She specializes in collapse rescues. That fact came back to him in the murk. She did it at Kamino.
Just before Mirko was lifted off of him, he felt her breathe again. Felt her heartbeat. She was alive, too. They had both made it, and for now, that was enough.
He was in Nejire's arms. He could tell by the scent of jasmine.
"Did you…get Mustard…" he managed, as she lifted him out of hell.
"No," was her answer. Either her voice was small in defeat, or he was not fully conscious yet, because she sounded far, far away. "Ms. Joke stopped him from killing Camie. But he escaped."
