The promised day arrives. Shigaraki is wearing hands on his face and body, and it makes my stomach turn. He's giving some kind of crappy speech to the other villains, about them realizing their dreams of crushing All Might and the other heroes, of turning this world on it's head so they could do what they want. It almost reminds me of the speech that was given at the Paranormal Liberation Front's meeting. Guess parallels are everywhere.
A purple swirling portal is opened. It's almost like Kurogiri's, but it's…not. There's something really different about it, and I know it's not coming from me. It must be All For One using some kind of remote teleportation quirk. Which means that they'll be in contact somehow to make sure Shigaraki has a way out. That's fine. That's more of a chance for us to get away.
This will work. It has to. If not..
If not, I have a contingency in place. I won't let her suffer needlessly anymore.
We walk through the portal. I can see the group of students at the top of the USJ stairs, dressed in their hero suits. I can pick out Katsuki almost immediatley, seeing the explosive headpieces and his grenadiers.
We can do this.
"Naoko, go," Shigaraki orders. My body snaps into motion by itself, my feet barely touching the ground as I rush forward. Several other of the villains follow me, the others dispersing as a whirlwind races towards the students. Right before it reaches the foot of the stairs, it dies, the familiar gray cloth of Aizawa snapping forward. I duck and roll out of the way, letting it snatch a woman with sharp hair behind me. I get back to my feet, seeing the hero leaping overhead before landing in a crouch.
"Thirteen, get the students out of here," he yells, throwing a dozen caltrops towards the ground to prevent others from moving. I grab two knives and rush him, grazing the back of his shirt before he turns towards me. I duck out of his eyesight(fuck) and aim for his knees, barely slicing them before he leaps back and throws his scarf towards me. I throw one of my knives toward, watching it bounce off the reinforced cloth before clattering uselessly to the floor. I throw the other one towards him as he leaps back into the air, dodging the next throw of his scarf before diving forward my knife that was still on the floor.
One good chance, all we need is one good chance. Just keep dodging him, you got this, Empathia!
He taught me everything I know. I know his moves inside and out, he taught them to me. It can be so easy to get through this. But we don't want that. We need to get captured, so he can help us. They can help Naoko.
There's an explosion behind me and a crackle of ice. I grit my teeth as my foot gets trapped by a trail of ice, looking over my shoulder to see Shoto running down the stairs. Katsuki is ahead of him, using his explosions to fly. Fuck, I should've known better.
The next explosion is aimed at the ice, letting me get free. There's another cascade of ice running towards me and I have to jump out of the way to avoid it. An explosion behind me makes me duck down, feeling the heat from it singe my scalp.
There's no teamwork here. They're fighting each other as much as they're fighting me.
"Get out of here, you two," Aizawa yells, scolding them as he looks over his shoulder. Of course they don't listen. When have I ever known either of those two to listen when it comes to saving others?
I glance over my shoulder, seeing Shigaraki scratching at his neck as he watches Aizawa fight six of his villains at once, more of them running towards the students, and then Katsuki and Shoto gunning for me.
I have to use my quirk. I need to use it.
'Master won't let us, not if Shigaraki is close by,' Naoko's voice whispers in the back of my head. 'He'll get hurt-'
"Collateral," I whisper, my first free word since waking up in this time line. At that same moment, Katsuki lands a punch, sending me staggering back before following it with an explosion that sends me flying several feet backwards. I hit the ground hard, the breath knocked out of my lungs. My shoulder is screaming, definitely dislocated at the least. But it's what gets my head to feel the clearest it has in what feels like forever.
Then I activate my quirk. It hurts so much, I haven't felt it hurt this much since I first came to UA. It hasn't been as trained as it had been in my time line, a new ability from the way my eyes are already blurring and trying to deactivate it.
"Naoko!" I hear Shigaraki yell, but I ignore him. If I didn't want to save her so much, I'd make sure I'd kill him first. For all the pain he's caused me, for all the pain he's caused Naoko.
My limits here are so much less than what they should be. It's enough to get the bastards fighting Aizawa to freeze. For him to incapacitate them and turn his quirk towards the villains racing towards the others. It's not enough to get everyone, to get them all to freeze and to relive everything that they're scared of, their traumas that led them to this moment.
Anyone who hurts innocent kids-they don't deserve redemption.
I barely manage to get my feet back underneath me when I feel someone's boots slam into my back. I'm slammed back into the ground and feel a very unsettling and painful crack in my chest. I try to press my hands into the floor to push myself up, but am stopped by a hand on the back of my neck.
"Go ahead and move. They'll be piecing you back together for fucking weeks," Katsuki growls. My heart flutters but I don't have time to decipher what the hell that means for my psyche and mental state.
"I'm not your enemy," I say, my voice strained. "I-I-I need help. Please-"
"Bullshit. You attacked our teacher. How the hell did you guys even-" His voice trails off as a Nomu walks through the portal. My heart sinks, my eyes widening.
'"But there was a villain attack here at the school, specifically at the USJ where we were supposed to be doing disaster training, but he got attacked by one of the villains trying to save us."'
Izuku's words from my first day at UA scream in my head. Panic sets into my system and I start trying to get from underneath Katsuki.
"You need to get off me now," I say, my voice frantic. "You need to get out of here, all of you. This isn't the time to be a hero please, Katsuki."
"How the hell do you know my name?!"
"Now's not the time for that, please! Mr. Aizawa is going to get really hurt, you have to get everyone out of here now!"
"Why should I believe you, villain?" he hisses at me. "You attacked us."
"Because-because-" Because I love you, you're all my family, I don't want to see any of you hurt! "My name is Naoko, they've been using me as a bodyguard for Shigaraki, I can tell you almost everything about their plans, but you have to help me, you have to help yourselves, please get everyone out of here!"
I watch his resolve waiver ever so slightly, his eye twitching. He looks up at Mr. Aizawa and the Nomu. My heart is beating so fast, my chest hurting. I can feel myself getting more and more lightheaded.
"Please," I whisper, my voice weak. "Please save everyone, Dynamight."
'You know him..?'
He'll help us, Naoko. Don't worry. He's a good guy underneath all of that.
'I trust you, Mariko.'
Then everything goes black.
