Chapter 31: Why Are You Doing This?
"Momo!" Uraraka shrieked as Yaoyorozu hurried into view.
Uraraka had her mouth covered with the crook of her elbow. She took the gas mask that Momo handed out without hesitation.
"I'll keep going!" proclaimed Kirishima. "Pass me some masks!"
As Uraraka helped Tsu put on her own mask, Momo made an extra armful of masks. Kirishima took them with a nod and hurried off into the gloom.
"We heard Mandalay's message!" Uraraka explained. "We started to come back but had to go around this fog!"
"Is it poisonous, ribbit?" Tsu asked.
"We believe so," Momo nodded gravely. "Midoriya said it's either poison or sleeping gas. We have to gather everyone we can and take them back to the lodge – that's our top priority. The two of you should head back, I'll catch up with Kirishima."
Uraraka furrowed her brow. Deku must be back at the lodge – that was the best place for him to be. The unspoken rule was that whenever Deku wasn't around, they followed Momo's orders without fault. But… Oh – what would Deku do?!
And this was the moment that Mandalay's second message echoed in their minds. A message that urged them to fight back –
"Students of class A and B! By the permission of the pro hero, Eraser Head, you are permitted to use your Quirks to protect yourself and others, until you are back under our protection!"
There was more to it than that, but those words were all Uraraka needed to hear.
She looked to Momo with certainty on her face, "We have to go after whoever's making this gas!"
She shook her head, "It's too dangerous. Think about it. The gas isn't moving naturally. If it did, it would have spread out and thinned across the entire forest. Instead, it's concentrated in a vortex around this area. That means the Quirk user must be in the middle, and likely has some way to defend themselves. The best way forwards is to evacuate the forest and regroup."
Uraraka started to pace back and forth as she thought this through.
Deku had said to her before that her constant notes in his books made him think like her sometimes.
Who said the other way around wasn't true as well?
"We're facing someone who has a poisonous gas Quirk," she said aloud. "It spirals in a vortex, so it must be super thick around them. So, visibility is reduced. We… don't know if the villain is affected by their own gas – but if it's a vortex – like a cyclone – there'll be an eye of the storm – wherever the villain is standing, there's gonna be a small area where there is no gas at all! So, visibility won't be reduced when we actually reach them. Ok… what other advantages might the villain have? Um…"
"What if they can feel movement in the gas?" Tsu acknowledged.
Uraraka clicked her fingers and pointed back at her, "Right! So, we've gotta be super stealthy! What if… we went from above?! Look for the eye of the storm?!"
Momo wasn't stopping them, so Uraraka kept going.
"Ok, ok… support items – what items might they have…?"
"A gas mask?" Tsu said, tapping her chin with her finger thoughtfully.
"Only if they're affected by their own gas."
"The gas isn't moving," Momo pointed out, now engrossed in this thought process too, "which means the villain is standing still."
"Right! So, they need to be protected if someone jumps them. Armour? Maybe something to trap people – like your net gun!"
"Or a gun in general," Tsu said darkly.
They wavered for a moment.
"It's too dangerous," Momo said again, shaking her head. "You can help me hand out masks if you want. Either that or go to the lodge. The villain isn't attacking anyone, so they're best left unprovoked."
What else would Deku write in his notebook about this person… Right! Their greatest weakness from class A!
Someone stealthy… Uraraka, Hagakure, Shoji, Jiro – someone who could go from above… Uraraka – someone who could knock them out quickly… Kaminari, Sato, Ojiro… Kirishima… maybe Shinso? Oh, and someone who could protect against a weapon like a gun – that would be Kirishima again.
Uraraka slammed her fist into her open palm, "Ok, the villain's greatest weaknesses from class A are me and Kirishima! We need to find him again!" and she took off in the direction her peer had disappeared off to.
"Ochako! Wait!" Momo exclaimed. She and Tsu quickly ran after her.
They charged through the undergrowth. It was tough in the dark, but Uraraka did her best to track the broken branches and disturbed leaves Kirishima left in his wake. The weather had been dry – there were few footprints to follow, not that she could see them anyway.
As they went, the fog grew thicker. She noted how the fog was wherever the fire was not. Was it flammable? That could be dangerous if Kacchan or Shoto used their powers! They definitely needed to take this gas villain out!
Soon enough, Uraraka heard quiet chatter.
"Hello?!" she called out, aware that it might be dangerous, but wanting to make sure they didn't frighten anyone on their side.
Pushing through another bush, Uraraka came across Kendo, from class B, as well as Tetsutetsu and a couple of unconscious friends. They all wore gas masks, Kirishima must have already passed through here.
"Oh no!" said Uraraka, kneeling down beside the unconscious girls from class B.
"They're just sleeping, we're pretty sure," Kendo explained.
"It's a sleeping gas, thank goodness," Momo sighed as she and Tsu caught up.
"Kirishima told us to take these two back to camp," class B's president explained.
"Now you girls are here – take them back! I'm going after this gas villain!" proclaimed Tetsutetsu, already prepared to run off and do just that.
"Wait!" Uraraka explained, "No, that's what we're doing too! We'll help!" But she saw the way he hesitated, eyes shifting over them, and realised – "You… don't trust us, do you?"
He gritted his teeth and glared at the ground, "Look – I trust Kirishima, ok?! He's my friend! But you've gotta understand! Someone would have had to leak this location, broadcast it, somehow! There's been a traitor amongst you before, and there's one now – why else would the villains attack whilst my class is all in the woods?!"
There's… a second traitor?
Momo gently pushed her aside to step forwards, "I understand your fears. I too have been mulling them over, but now is not the time to put a wedge in between us. We must work together – and Uraraka is right, facing the villain producing this gas is our best hope. We're offering to help you."
He looked conflicted, but regardless, said, "Fine – but if a single one of you double cross us!"
"We understand," Momo said surely.
Uraraka nodded bitterly in the background.
"Tetsutetsu's Quirk is very similar to Kirishima's," Tsu pointed out, undeterred by the confrontation, "Your analysis still applies, Ochako."
"R-Right," she nodded. "Then let's go."
After some discussion, Tsu agreed to stay behind and keep an eye on the two unconscious class B girls. Tetsutetsu was unsure, but Kendo's certainty seemed to comfort him.
They ploughed on into the mist, Tetsutetsu leading the way as the air grew thicker, and the gas masks began to struggle.
"I'll go up the trees," Uraraka explained in a hushed voice once they believed they were close.
Momo nodded, "I-I've used up a lot of my power on these masks. It might be best that I stay back and try to capture the villain if they try and run off. The two of you can –"
"–Go in alone," Tetsutetsu finished for her, a threatening look in his eye. "Why does it feel like you're trying to back away and leave us to fight this guy?"
The only reason Uraraka hadn't punched him yet was because he was literally made of steel.
Kendo tried to reason with him, but Momo insisted his concerns were well placed. She said she'd come in too. Uraraka could play back up instead.
Not liking this at all, Uraraka jumped up into the trees. The gas was still potent up there, but she felt like she could breathe a little easier.
After hopping slowly and carefully from branch to branch for a little longer, she stopped, spying the silhouette of a stranger, just below.
"Don't think I can't see you," a man's voice called out calmly.
Uraraka tensed up. She didn't know where the others were – could the villain see them?!
"I'm surprised my gas hasn't affected you. But no matter, you won't get any further."
Just below her, Uraraka could barely see the figures of the other three, frozen just before the eye of the vortex of gas.
"Society lifts heroes like you up. But… they tend to forget, don't they?
"You're still only human."
And with a bang – a bullet was fired, coupled by a scream.
Uraraka panicked and leapt forwards, bursting into the clear in the centre of the vortex.
Below, she could see Tetsutetsu on the ground, his skin silver. He was in front of Momo – had he dived to take the bullet?!
The villain (smaller than Uraraka was expecting) simply sighed in annoyance and began to reload his weapon.
"Stop right there!" Kendo darted forwards. Her hands enlarged before their very eyes, knocking the villain to the ground with startling strength.
He scrambled away, pointing his gun –
And Uraraka dropped from the sky.
He would never have expected it, and Uraraka had experience in disarming opponents. The gun was in her possession in seconds. As soon as her manoeuvre was completed, Tetsutetsu, still bleeding from his nose, swooped in with a powerful punch, smashing the mask the villain was wearing in an instant.
As he fell to the ground, Tetsutetsu said, "There's only one thing to do when a gas user's wearing a mask – break it."
Uraraka had the gun pointed at the man – no…
The gas begun to clear, and she realised, this was just a kid – a kid in a middle-school uniform!
She lowered her weapon, eyes wide, ears deaf to the conversation between Momo and Tetsutetsu that followed.
All she could think about was what he was doing here? Someone that was only a year or two younger than herself…
She dropped the gun and clasped her hands over her mouth.
This boy would be in class A next… wouldn't he?
"Torch!"
"What?!"
"Utility belt, you idiot!"
Monoma scrambled for the thing on the belt he was wearing – Midoriya's belt. He found the flashlight just in time to shine it on Dark Shadow's approaching claws, the beam shaking along with Monoma's hands as the monster screeched and backed away.
"Good thinking," Shoji panted, blood dripping from the ends of one of his many, produced limbs. At least he could grow that hand back.
Midoriya snatched the torch off Monoma and increased the beam's intensity, marching closer to Dark Shadow as it shrunk slowly back into Tokoyami.
"W-Why d-do you have… why do you have a torch w-with such high p-power?" Monoma stuttered, clearly more than terrified of Tokoyami's Quirk, which had quickly grown out of control in the night.
Midoriya pointed to the scar on his cheek unceremoniously. "That belt is filled with all sorts of methods of defeating my own classmates, I'll have you know."
Monoma stared, "But… why –"
"It's a smart idea, that's why," Shoji replied coldly. Oh yeah, the rest of class A still hated Monoma, didn't they? Well, Midoriya would consider himself friends with him now, and he still understood that thought process.
"T-Thank you," Tokoyami stammered as Midoriya helped him to his feet.
"No problem," and Midoriya handed over the miniature torch to him, just to be safe.
The two of them hadn't found many people in the woods so far. Avoiding the gas due to Monoma's lack of a gas mask didn't help. It wasn't like Midoriya's mask was functional at this point anyway. And Midoriya was slowing down – that much was obvious. He didn't know how badly he was hurt, but he was sure he would once the adrenaline had faded.
"Head back to the lodge," Midoriya insisted. "We're going to keep looking for the others. Do you know what pair was ahead of you?"
"Midoriya, you need to come back too," Shoji said with immense concern.
"I have to find Shoto," he voiced. Ok, maybe he did have some priorities here. "His… I-It's Dabi, Dabi's here – I have to find him."
They hesitated, glancing between each other.
"Shoto and Bakugo were the pair ahead of us," Shoji finally explained.
Then they were close.
"Wait," Shoji called out, grasping Midoriya's wrist before he could leave. "A villain with a blade Quirk attacked us, that's why Dark Shadow grew wild; he was startled and saw that I was hurt. That villain must have gone ahead. They might be fighting Bakugo and Shoto now."
Midoriya nodded, undeterred. "Take Tokoyami back to the lodge. The gas seems to be gone now. If you find anyone else along the way, take them back too. A lot of class B is probably unconscious, so keep an eye out."
Shoji responded by forming a blinking eye on the end of one of his tentacle-like limbs. Under his mask, Midoriya knew he was smiling.
"Good luck," Tokoyami spoke up (a little weakly), as the two of them started to walk away from the carnage Dark Shadow had left behind.
As they left Monoma spoke up, "They just listen to you without question, don't they?"
Midoriya shrugged, "There's usually more resistance when it comes to me wanting to go do things by myself. It's probably different because you're here – let's go."
Monoma was quick to catch up as Midoriya ran on ahead, "I don't have any Quirks anymore, remember?" he hissed. "My timer ran out! It's been way more than five minutes."
"Then why didn't you copy Tokoyami's or Shoji's?!"
"I'm not copying Tokoyami's!" he snapped, almost tripping over a tree root. "And Shoji's wouldn't work!"
"Right, mutations," Midoriya nodded, not requiring further explanation. Of course, Monoma's copying ability had limitations, and the ability to spontaneously mutate his own body in mirroring someone's Quirk was bound to be one of them.
Shoji had been right. They didn't need to go far at all before they heard fighting. Kacchan was as loud as ever, and the sudden drop in temperature was a clear indication of Shoto's presence.
As Monoma nervously loaded the grappling-bolt, they tip-toed towards the scene.
"…Just two Quirkless idiots, about to get themselves killed," Monoma muttered bitterly. Midoriya chose to ignore him.
Just around a tree trunk, Midoriya could see pillars of ice scattering around a clearing. A man in full black, in a straitjacket, seemingly danced around in the air, blades extending from his teeth. For such a seemingly difficult power to manage, he was adept at wielding it.
Shoto skidded around on his ice, desperately trying to embolise the villain. Whenever he got close, however, the ice was shattered with those blades. Kacchan was doing his best to, but clearly avoiding using his power much. It could have been in fear of setting fire to the trees; maybe partly due to the cold inhibiting his ability.
Regardless, they were fighting a losing battle.
That villain needed to be taken out, and quickly.
"Now what?!" Monoma whispered, gripping onto one of Midoriya's sleeves in obvious fear that Midoriya knew he would deny.
"Just give me that!" he retorted, snatched the grappling-bolt from Monoma's grip, and lined up his shot.
Monoma's method of taking out Muscular had given him the idea. And with a phantom ache in Midoriya's shoulder, he pulled the trigger, and the bolt was fired out in the blink of an eye, burying itself in the villain's shoulder with a surprised yell.
Midoriya dug his feet into the ground and retracted it, the villain flying towards the floor as the wire imbedded in his side yanked him harshly downwards.
The moment he made contact with the floor, Midoriya was there, and with a method he'd learnt from Ojiro that had absolutely terrified him at the time, knocked him out cold with a harsh kick to a pressure point on the side of his throat.
They stared at him.
"You're welcome," Midoriya sighed, reloading the grappling-bolt. It hadn't even imbedded that deeply into the villain – he was surprised that even worked – It must have mainly caught the fabric of his shirt.
"What the hell?!" Kacchan yelled.
Midoriya shoved the weapon back at Monoma and switched his sword back to his right hand as he marched over to them.
"I'd freeze him, if I were you," Midoriya told Shoto, who did just that before the tooth-blade villain could come to.
"Are you ok?" Shoto asked immediately, breathing steam in the frigid air.
Just how bad did Midoriya look?
"I'm fine," he insisted.
"Y-You're really not," Monoma interjected, yanking his shoes out of the ice he'd been frozen to the ground with. "Midoriya, no offense – but you look like you could pass out at any moment! You've found Shoto, now let's go!"
Midoriya hated to admit it (especially in front of Kacchan), but he was right.
"We need to go back to the lodge," Monoma insisted.
"Yeah," Shoto nodded, clearly still frazzled. "Good idea. We have one of your classmates here too."
Monoma blinked as Shoto indicated to the unconscious body, slumped up against a tree and surrounded by a protective wall of ice.
"Tsuburaba…" Monoma muttered in shock, hurrying over to him.
Shoto helped him lift him onto Monoma's back as Kacchan made his excuses:
"You three go back – take that guy with you," Kacchan growled, "I'm finding the rest of these damned villains and teaching them a lesson!"
"Don't be an idiot," Midoriya replied, too tired to shout.
"You're the idiot who ran all the way in here and clearly picked fights with villains indefinitely better than you!"
"Well, that explains why I took that guy out in two seconds," he snapped sarcastically. "You had your chance, and then spent too long fighting this villain."
"There's no time to fight," voiced Shoto, stepping in between them. "The fire is getting closer."
Midoriya hadn't noticed. He'd been so focused on pushing through this, that he'd almost completely zoned out. But now he could hear it, the crackling of not-too-distant flames, inching ever closer through the dry undergrowth.
"Which way's the lodge?" Monoma asked no one in particular, shifting Tsuburaba into a more secure position on his back.
"Away from the fire," Midoriya replied, not knowing if it was the truth.
They began to walk, after Monoma tapped Kacchan's head to copy his Quirk and Kacchan had instantly lashed out, that was (Shoto had far less complaints about his power being copied).
"Midoriya? Midoriya?!"
He blinked, "What?"
Shoto stared back at him, "I thought you were about to pass out."
"I'm fine," Midoriya retorted, although he was starting not to believe it.
His fight with Muscular hadn't been long, but the villain had certainly enjoyed taunting him. He'd been thrown against rocks, tossed aside like a ragdoll, almost beaten senseless. Every inch of his body ached. There was more than one cut on his head, and unpleasant memories of what a concussion felt like were starting to become familiar once more, as the world persisted to spin, and his knees grew weak. How he had managed to fight it off for this long was beyond him, but he decided it was better not questioned.
Shoto stopped and shook his head, "No… no, you're definitely not."
"We need to keep moving," Midoriya insisted, trudging on ahead. "That fire – you know it's –"
"Dabi," Shoto replied simply.
"Hurry the hell up!" Kacchan yelled back at them.
"Would you quit being so loud?!" Monoma shouted in response. "Can't you class A idiots realise that we could be ambushed at any moment?!"
The words of their argument grew distant, slurring together. Midoriya tried to fight against it. He hated feeling his weak. But the blackness came so quickly – one minute he was aware and standing, and the next –
"–like class B is freaking superior?!" Bakugo snapped at Monoma. "The rest of your bloody class is probably lying unconscious in a freaking bush! You're carrying one of them!"
"No thanks to you!" the freaking copycat replied. "Someone from class A had to have leaked this place's location!"
"You're not all saints! One of you might have done it," Bakugo hissed. Or maybe one of class A had been bugged? Damn it! Why was he feeling protective over his damned class?! This was all Deku's freaking –
He turned around, and they weren't there.
"Shut the hell up," Bakugo said, covering a hand over Monoma's mouth to stop his yapping.
The leech batted it away and opened his gob to say something else insensitive, before he cast his eyes to where Bakugo was looking, and came to the same, dreaded realisation.
"…Midoriya?" he called out quickly, "15?"
Stupid numbers.
"Ah! The two of you had been so busy being so argumentative, that you completely missed my magic trick!"
The two of them looked up to the trees. Up there, was a masked man in a top hat and a trench coat. He wore black gloves, and twiddled between his fingers, two glass marbles.
"What the hell?" Bakugo murmured under his breath. Where those marbles –
"I took your friends with my power – I used to be a street performer; you know."
"Hey! Give them back!" Monoma yelled uselessly, pointing the crossbow thing that Deku had started carrying around at the villain, trying to keep Tsuburaba secure, all the while.
"Give them back?" he chuckled, "They're not your possessions. We're here to set them free."
Why are all villains so freaking delusional?!
Bakugo didn't care about Shoto's blabbering about not setting fire to the forest. He took off with a blast, leaving Monoma coughing on smoke in his wake.
The masked magician took off, bounding from tree to tree ahead of him.
But Bakugo knew he wouldn't be able to get far. With a grin, he set off in pursuit. He'd show Deku – Bakugo wasn't freaking weak!
And then all of a sudden, a wall of ice appeared out of nowhere in front of the villain. It must have been freaking Leech, hidden below the canopies.
Yet, the villain didn't seem worried. A wave of his hand and a hole formed in the ice, marbles scattering around him and he vaulted through.
Bakugo tried to follow, but some of those marbles burst in his face, knocking him out of the sky and down through the trees, every single branch possible hitting him in the face on the way down.
Growling, Bakugo pushed through the stinging pain and got back to his feet, taking off at a run and trying to ignore the throbbing in his hands; the strain that his Quirk was taking.
A cry caught his attention. He changed direction, skidding in the dirt and almost falling over as he sprinted towards the yell.
He stumbled upon a clearing, where the unconscious class B idiot lay motionless before him, and Leech was not far ahead, shielding his face and friend from an onslaught of blue flame, thrown by a scarred man with a manic grin.
Dabi.
The villain spotted Bakugo and rolled his eyes. "Compress, we're leaving," he told the magician bastard.
"Fat chance!" Bakugo yelled as he charged forwards, leaping over Monoma and tossing a ball of fire at their faces, hoping to scar them just a little more.
Both dodged expertly, and Bakugo was suddenly yanked backwards by something which wrapped itself around his torso – a tape measure?!
"Hey back off! Not cool! Do it again!"
With whiplash from both this conversation and the third villain's sudden appearance, Bakugo quickly realised he was outnumbered.
"Get up," he hissed to Copy-cat, who was by his feet, lying before Tsuburaba. But Bakugo took one look at the red, raw skin on the back of his hands and arms, and realised he was alone in this fight.
Then so be it.
The magician was his target, so that's who he aimed for.
He expertly dodged and weaved past numerous attacks, increasingly frustrated on how the guy just stood there and watched.
With a frustrated cry, he turned and sent a powerful blow in the direction of the black and white idiot with the tape measure. He evaded with a backflip, and now Bakugo was ready to blow his freaking arms off.
But before he could, with a purple glow, a figure made of mist apparated out of nowhere, towering before Dabi, calm as could be.
"It's been five minutes since the signal," the warp villain – the same from the USJ – proclaimed. "Let's go, Dabi."
Around the clearing, several, swirling portals opened.
"See you around! Never again!" exclaimed tape-measure-guy, who dived through the nearest portal without a second thought.
No – they were going to get away –
"NOW!" And from the bushes came a brilliant beam of light, skimming the side of the magician's coat and bursting a hole through its pocket. Out, rolling two distinct marbles – Deku and Icy-Hot, it had to be.
But Bakugo was just a little too far away, and someone else got to them first. Fortunately enough, it wasn't a real villain.
Purple-haired Shinso dove from the same bush the laser had come from, grabbed the marbles, and rolled across the clearing to Bakugo's side.
"Aoyama run!" he cried, and the bloody sparkle boy yelped as he ran for his freaking life.
Bakugo hated to admit that he'd needed that help, but – "Good freaking job."
"Thanks," Shinso grinned slyly, gripping the marbles firmly in his fist.
Dabi rolled his eyes and held out his hand to send another torrent of flame right at them.
Just in time, Monoma skidded in front of them, and after a deep breath, blew on the air before them, creating an invisible shield characteristic of Tsuburaba's solid air Quirk – Bakugo had seen it before in the Sports Festival.
The shield shattered and broke under the intense heat, but it had done its job.
Dabi looked even more frustrated.
"Come on, let's go!" Shinso (Bakugo hadn't thought of a nickname for him yet, he was considering Eyebags) yelled, taking a few steps back.
"Compress," Dabi snarled, gesturing towards them as an invitation to help.
"No matter – let us leave," the magician, Compress, simply replied.
"We're not leaving without –"
"Oh, no matter," he waved it off. "They seemed so proud of themselves for rooting through my pockets that I thought I'd let them gloat."
"What are you talking about?!" Eyebags exclaimed.
Compress let out a laugh, reached up to his mask, about to take it off, and then froze.
"…What?" Dabi growled.
And Bakugo realised what had just happened.
"Show them, now!" Shinso ordered.
Compress finished taking off his mask, his expression blank as he plucked the two real marbles from his mouth – the ones Shinso was holding must have been decoys, made from when Monoma made that stupid ice wall.
"Toss them to us and release them!" Shinso ordered as Dabi clocked on to what was happening.
Compress held back his hand, ready to throw the orbs towards them, but before he could, Dabi swung his own fist and punched him in the head, seemingly ready to fight his own teammates to get Shoto back – and Deku too.
The marbles in Shinso's grasp burst into shards of ice, as Bakugo had expected, at the same time as a heavily injured Deku and shocked Shoto reappeared before the villains' feet, and Compress stumbled to regain his composure.
Shinso swore under his breath and backed away a little more.
Dabi grabbed Shoto by the collar of his shirt.
As Compress stumbled backwards through his portal, Dabi tossed Shoto through his own before he could even figure out where he was. He yanked Deku to his feet and wrapped his hand around his neck.
"Midoriya!" Shinso cried out.
Before he could even think, Bakugo charged forwards, his hand reaching out, "DEKU!"
But he was too late.
Tsu had a lot on her hands at the moment.
It was no well-guarded secret that Tsu was one of the most respected members of her class, amongst both her peers and their teachers. She was in class A in the first place for standing up to bullies, and she didn't exactly stop doing that now she was here. She was always looking after people; it was her nature.
She'd say her closest friends would be Ochako and Midoriya. They were both very cool people, and she was honoured to know them so well.
Maybe that's why it scared her so much, when Ochako broke down crying beside her, and Midoriya was nowhere to be seen.
It didn't help that Momo had disappeared too. She wanted to go after Kirishima, but no one had seen her since. They should never have let her leave.
"It's going to be ok, Ochako," she told her, resting a hand on her shoulder.
Breathing through heavy sobs, Ochako turned to look at her with big, watery eyes. "T-Tsu?"
"Yes, ribbit?"
"W-We – we c-can't fix it, can we?"
Tsu frowned, "Fix what?"
Ochako's eyes drifted to the detainment vehicle not far from where they were siting. The police and paramedics had arrived not long ago, as class A slowly gathered everyone they could from the forest. The rest of it was being swept now, as the fires were put out.
"The system," she murmured.
It took Tsu a moment to realise what she was talking about.
The boy that they had defeated, the one with the gun and the gas Quirk. He'd called himself Mustard and was a middle school student only a year younger than themselves. They knew next to nothing about him, but they didn't need to. Just the look on his face as he was taken in – that was all they needed to see to understand.
He was just like them.
"Sure, w-we can graduate," Ochako continued, staring at her hands, "we can be heroes, like Deku said. But… but there will still be class As. T-There are always g-going – going to be kids like us who make the same mistakes and end up in the same place a-and they're not gonna have people like Deku to h-help them!"
Tsu rubbed circles on her friend's back as she spoke, listening intently to every word she said. She was so very right.
After a moment more of silence, and destressing sobs, Tsu pulled Ochako closer into a hug. She latched on immediately, falling into her. "How can we be heroes if we can't help the villains?" she whispered.
Tsu didn't know.
She… she didn't.
"Bakugo!"
The two girls jerked up at the sound of Kirishima's cry. He ran across the grass towards Bakugo, who was just leaving the forest, covered in scorch marks, scratches and bruises. Beside him was Shinso and Aoyama, an unlikely group – but Tsu remembered Shinso being paired up with Aoyama under the blissful ignorance of the test of courage. They'd gone in just ahead of Bakugo and Shoto, which led to the question –
"Where's Shoto?" Tsu asked, standing up as they got close.
Bakugo's fearsome glare turned to her. She glared back, almost startled when that look in his eyes softened. A millisecond later and he furrowed his brow and stared at the ground. Tsu wondered if that was a look of… shame? Guilt? She'd never seen such emotions on Bakugo before.
Just behind the group, came another couple of people. There was Monoma, with someone else from class B on his back. Tsu couldn't recall his name, but he must have been knocked unconscious by the gas.
"Monoma? Are you ok?!" Kirishima interrogated, spying the harsh burns up his arms at the same time as Tsu. "Weren't you with Midoriya? Sato said so."
He opened his mouth to reply but was quickly interrupted by the arrival of a paramedic, who soon whisked him away to get treated.
Tsu didn't like this, "Bakugo, what happened?" she quizzed.
More people were gathering around them now. Quite a lot had gotten back to the lodge uninjured, carrying limp members of class B as they went.
"I –" he started.
"HELP!" came a sudden cry.
Another figure stumbled out of the thickets. "Please – help!" he yelled. It was another awake member of class B, an honest rarity.
"Awase!" yelled Kendo, rushing past. "Who's –"
"MOMO!" Ochako screamed as soon as they realised who was on Awase's back.
Tsu rushed forwards along with the rest of them. Momo was more than just one of her best friends – she was class A's second in command. Without her or Midoriya around, they'd been letting Iida organise the growing crowd, who was as panicked and fearful as the rest. Tsu had been eager for Momo's easy smile and comforting words.
But here she was, their warrior – limp and blooded. Her iconic ponytail had been lost, the band snapped, leaving long, dark hair, flowing like waterfalls over her shoulders, hiding her face.
"Momo! Yaoyorozu!" Ochako continued to screech. But before she could get any closer, it was Bakugo who held her back, letting a paramedic reach their friend and lift her carefully onto a stretcher, instantly tending to the obvious wounds on her head.
Awase looked more than frazzled, but other than that, ok.
"What happened?" Tsu heard Kendo say.
"A Nomu," Awase breathed. "Came out of nowhere – I was helping Yaoyorozu hand out masks and then that gas went, so we started to head back; she got really tired. Then that – that thing jumped us! I thought we were goners, for sure. But then it just stopped – walked off before it could…"
He didn't need to finish that sentence.
"All the villains left," Bakugo explained, letting Ochako go now that Momo was out of sight. "That warp bastard from the USJ turned up. Nomu are monsters, right? Whoever gives it orders must have told it to turn around and go through a portal."
"W-Why?" Ochako stammered, as desperate for answers as Tsu was. "Why did they leave?! What did they want?!"
"They wanted Shoto," voiced Iida, now standing beside Tsu, "didn't they?"
Bakugo couldn't meet his eyes.
"Bakugo, you were with Shoto when you entered the forest. What happened?" Iida ordered.
He just gritted his teeth, head hung as he stared at the ground.
They got no answers out of him, but they didn't need to. Kirishima reached out to put a hand on his friend's shoulder, but he was shrugged off immediately. Bakugo marched away to be alone.
They turned to Shinso.
He sighed, "Look, I know I'm new here, and I still don't know all of you that well, but… you're good people, ok? This… this isn't your fault."
"What happened?" Iida demanded; fists clenched.
Shinso didn't flinch at the aggression, knowing Iida was as scared as he was, as they all were. "I don't know what led up to it, but Aoyama and I found the villains' rendezvous point. We waited there, and eventually Monoma and Bakugo showed up, chasing some magician guy. We stayed hidden long enough to figure out he had some kind of Quirk that could… trap people, in these little orbs or something. I-I tried my best to get them back but…"
Tsu stepped forwards.
Shinso was a lot taller than her. They'd barely spoken, but Tsu was good at reading emotions. She could see it in his eyes – the disappointment, the sorrow.
She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him close. He seemed surprised, raising his arms up a little as if unsure what to do with them.
"Thank you for trying," Tsu told him, almost hiccupping on the lump in her throat.
She pulled away, trying to deny the tears in her eyes, "T-Thank you."
"N-No – what happened?!" Ochako demanded.
But she already knew, they all knew.
There were only two people missing now. Two that hadn't been pulled out of the forest.
"Midoriya and Shoto," Shinso voiced, almost a whisper. "They're gone."
