The classroom felt smaller than it had done two years ago. The window was shattered; the door threatening to fall off the hinges; the ceiling half caved-in; and most of the desks were rotten, rotting, or collapsed altogether. Where once there had been the scent of fresh paper and ink mixed with twenty teenagers' worth of perfume, deodorant and insufferable hormones, there was now naught but wet concrete and a tinge of mould. In place of the inane chatter of young students or lectures from faculty was a deserted silence, a light wind humming through the cracks.
But most of all, where there was once a warm sense of camaraderie and hope… Was a plain emptiness. Logically, of course, a room shouldn't have any kind of feelings attached to it. It was just a room; it was the people in it those emotions should attach to. Yet despite that, the emptiness pushed against a man's heart.
Probably because sixteen of those seats would be empty even if this place were still open…
The man sighed, walking behind the desk as he'd done so many times before. Yet despite the familiar motion, the room's dismal state made the sensation feel alien. Wrong.
What's this…?
Behind the desk, something was on the floor. A faded, stained yellow visible through a layer of mould, mushrooms and weeds that were slowly but surely working their way into the abandoned building.
Wondered where you'd gone…
Shouta Aizawa picked up the mullered sleeping back, brushing off what he could before almost dropping it after a particularly pungent odour came out. Despite the thing's disgusting state, he still pulled it up to rest on the teacher's desk. Or, rather, former teachers desk.
Similar to the room, logically, it was just a sleeping bag. But it was still so much more than that.
A reliable partner in getting rest wherever and whenever he was able, invaluable to ensure he was rested enough to go patrolling through the night. A source of warmth and comfort, even in freezing gales of back-alleys on stakeouts. Heck, to some students, that sleeping bag was probably more recognisable than he was.
But at the same time, it was a grim reminder of how different things were now. Where once there had been comfortable cushioning was disgusting and squishy flora. In place of easily-disinfected nylon was a small colony of woodlice.
… Where did it all go so wrong…
He knew the answer, of course. It was why he was here today, and not three days from now. But it didn't make it any easier.
"Please don't tell me you're keeping that." a familiar, friendly voice sounded from behind him.
"Some of the materials are hard to get a hold of now." Shouta kept his eyes focused on the disintegrating bag, "It's logical to re-use what we can."
"Recycling for the win." Hizashi slid into view, revealing himself to be wearing his barely-still-functioning Present Mic-directional voice amplifier. But otherwise, he was wearing simple civilian clothes like Shouta. "But before you ask, no, I'm not helping you carry it."
"I'll deal with the detritus before taking it back. I doubt they'd let it on the subway."
"Eh, they let you take pretty much anything nowadays. Need the fares and all." Hizashi looked around, possibly trying to find somewhere to sit or a wall not coated in god-knows-what to lean against. Before long, he realised the endeavour was futile and gave up. "So…" he looked to Shouta, who simply returned his gaze with a flat stare, "Do you… wanna talk about it…?"
"No." he replied simply.
"Cool, cool…" Hizashi nodded, "Do you think you… should talk about it?"
"Probably." he didn't continue. Hizashi heaved a sigh in response, clearly struggling to find the right phrasing.
"You do realise it wasn't… your fault, right?"
"Define fault." Shouta's response came out more bitter than he'd intended.
"Well, it's-"
"If Iz-…" he trailed off, "If Mid-" he bit his tongue, "If he'd been rejected on the basis of failing to score a single villain point and ruining three limbs in the process, he'd still be alive. If Bakugou had been rejected on the basis of failing to score a single rescue point, he'd still be alive. If All Might had been a halfway competent teacher in the slightest fucking degree, he'd still be alive. If I'd expelled him on the first day-"
"It was the first day, and it's not like the kid wasn't taking things seriously."
"He had no control over his Quirk."
"Because he was a really late-bloomer."
"I didn't know that."
"But you admit expelling him would've been the wrong decision."
"I would've expelled him, temporarily, incorrectly,due to ignorance of his circumstances, yes." he admitted easily. Expelling a student for circumstances beyond their control would've been far from logical. "But I would've expelled him."
"Which would've been a poor teaching decision-"
"But he'd be alive." Shouta sighed deeply, gaze dipping to the floor. "The ends may not always justify the means, but in this case?" his voice was unknowingly reduced to a whisper, "I'd give anything to have made the right decision for the wrong reasons."
"… I know." Hizashi replied quietly, lightly putting a hand on Shouta's shoulder, "But hindsight always has perfect vision. At the time you couldn't have known-"
"And if he'd still been alive, I would've been at the USJ instead of Snipe." he continued on, "I probably would've dealt with the grouped villains better as I'm more experienced at that range, I definitely would've been able to cope with noumu better, the kids wouldn't have been as scared and prone to freeze-up and accidents, he probably would've been able to co-ordinate with his classmates and maybe save them-"
"You can't know that!" Hizashi insisted, "For all we know, the only difference would've been Midoriya dying at the USJ instead, and you dying in place of Snipe!"
"Still-"
"And don't you dare say that would've been better!"
Shouta bit his tongue at the idea. Would it have been better if he'd died in place of Snipe? Maybe. Maybe not. If that were the only change, there were too many considerations to know what would've happened. What course would his old colleague have charted if the world had still gone to hell in a handbasket? Would he have done better than Shouta?
"… I didn't mean it like that." he eventually grumbled out.
"Good." Hizashi nodded sternly, "Because I can tell you what would've happened if you'd died: I would've quit, the A-"
"We did quit." Shouta reminded him.
"I don't mean teaching U.A., I mean Heroing in general." Hizashi shook his head, "Oboro was bad enough to make me re-consider the whole thing. If… If you'd checked out too-"
"I didn't mean it like that." Shouta repeated, more softly this time.
"Right." Hizashi sighed, "Right, sorry. Back on track: You can't- shouldn't blame yourself." he had a small smile, "I may not have known the little listener personally that long… But I know he'd say the same."
"Please." Shouta huffed, "From what Inko's said about him, he'd probably apologise for dying and blame himself." he shook his head, "I still can't believe we let someone with Bakugou's history slip through the net. We should've done more background checks- I should've insisted on visits to potential invitees' schools-"
"Shouta." Hizashi rocked him lightly.
"… Right." he shook his head again. Logically, he knew such extensive checks would be difficult to carry out. It would take a lot of time and effort from people whose judgement would have to be beyond trustworthy. It would've taken a not-insubstantial amount of U.A.'s resources.
… But it would've been possible…
"Shouta." Hizashi rocked him again.
"I know, you don't have to badger me about it-"
"Shouta!" he rocked him far from lightly, pointing a finger through the broken window, "Look!"
"What are you-" he followed the finger outside, where it was getting remarkably dark-
… and red.
"… What?" he asked lamely, before shaking his head to get it in the game, "Some kind of atmospheric alteration Quirk?"
"Could be light refraction?" Hizashi added uncertainly, "But… Is it just me, or is it-"
"It's curving." Shouta nodded. "Forming some sort of… dome?"
"Why would someone do that?"
"Depends if it's just light, or matter too." Shouta was starting to pull his brain into deduction mode, "If the former, likely to keep outsiders from seeing what's going on inside. If the latter, could be to keep others out." he frowned, "That, or us in." he pulled out his phone, "No reception. Whatever's happening, I don't think anyone on the outside has a chance of seeing what it is."
"But who'd want- wait, what was that?" Hizashi stepped over to the window, looking towards the front gates. "Some kind of smoke?"
"Think so." it was too far away to make out details, but- "There are people there too. Around… A dozen?" Shouta ducked and pulled Hizashi lower. Not so low that they couldn't see, but low enough to try and avoid being seen as much as possible.
"Uhh…" Hizashi swallowed, "Think it's a few more than a dozen now…" he looked to the outskirts of what was definitely a dome, where some kind of white substance was rapidly-
… What.
"Please tell me I'm not the only one seeing an army rise up out of the ground?" Hizashi rubbed his eyes.
"If there's so many people, maybe a series of Quirks?" maybe they're like Pixie-Bob's earth beasts?
"But they don't look all too friendly with-" suddenly, a blue-ish wall formed out of nothing. It almost looked like ice. The group argued, and seconds later the lion's share of them were forming up. The 'army' encroached on them before- ok they just jetted towards the entrance faster than I could follow and there's a horde of white puppet humanoid things flooding the school grounds.
"We need to get down there." Hizashi decided, "Figure out who they are, what's going on."
"If they are here for us, we'll be walking straight into a trap." Shouta pointed out, "It'd be better to stay hidden, see if we can eavesdrop."
"Not so great at stealth." Hizashi never was one for subtlety.
"Then we should split-" Shouta remembered that without their phones, they'd have no way to communicate. "But then…" he shook his head – he'd come here to try and get something resembling closure, not stumble into a shitshow! "Stick together, stay alert, retreat back if we hit anything dangerous."
"Sounds like a plan." Hizashi nodded, and the two began heading towards the exit. "I mean, staying here doesn't really accomplish much. It's not like all of our answers are gonna come bursting through that door-
*CRASH*
Suddenly, the wall directly next to that door imploded.
An unknown projectile flew into the classroom and made a massive cloud of dust. Hizashi readied his microphone, while Shouta whipped out the ream of capture tape he kept on him. As the dust soon began to settle, the projectile's shape soon came into focus: it looked like a person.
Well, now most likely a corpse-
The supposed corpse let out something between a groan, a wheeze, and a whimper.
Shouta quickly approached them while Hizashi remained on alert, watching their backs. To survive something like that, this person must have-
As the bodies' form came into focus, Shouta's thoughts stopped. So did his breathing. So did his heart. Despite the light coating of dust and somehow near-pristine suit, there was no way he could mistake that face. A head of messy green hair, green eyes, freckles…
"Midoriya…?" the word came out somewhere between a shocked exclamation and a hiss. No, it can't be him. What am I thinking? It must be some disguise-
"Sensei…?" 'Midoriya' asked in a daze, head tilting to and fro as he was clearly out of it. "No, don't you see…? I'm still standing."
Shouta sucked in a breath. There were only four people alive who could possibly know he'd said that two years ago. Uraraka, Iida and Tokoyami were still safe. He was confident in that; he wasn't going to let anything happen to his last students. And they wouldn't share that with anyone without a good reason. Maybe they'd told a therapist and they'd abused patient confidentiality? He hadn't been checking on Bakugou as much as he probably should've. It was... hard… But he was still fairly sure he hadn't been kidnapped. And he was very sure he wouldn't have just told anyone that line. So how did this… person possibly know what he'd said on that day Shouta wishes he'd followed through with his expulsion threat?
"Midoriya!" another familiar voice yelled from down the hall, the sound of rushing footsteps clear.
"Uraraka?" Hizashi asked from behind him, Shouta too focused on the boy before him to tear his gaze away.
"Present Mic- Aizawa-sensei?!" Uraraka exclaimed.
Shouta managed to turn his head long enough to ask her a question. "Explain. Now."
"Oh, well, uh-" she was interrupted by more people following. Iida, Tokoyami, and the 1B kids – Shiozaki and Monoma, if he recalled. Along with…
"I take it she's involved." he nodded towards the last of their group: Some white-haired girl wearing a suit remarkably similar to the Izuku impersonator.
"You have no idea." the girl drawled without taking her eyes off of a phone she was remarkably occupied with.
"It's…" Uraraka tried to explain, "Is he ok?" Shouta glanced back to the impersonator.
"Dazed, but alive."
"Well…" Monoma sighed, "Not exactly."
"Step aside." the white-haired girl stepped towards the impersonator, "I'll fix him."
"What's that supposed to-"
"Wait!" Iida unexpectedly cut in, "Where are Todoroki and Hagakure?!"
… What.
Toru's newfound ability to run real fast thanks to demon duel nonsense, combined with Todoroki's efforts of sending ice hurtling back, were keeping them ahead of the skeletons. But they were still unnervingly close. A single stumble and the two could be buried under a mountain of clattering bones.
Don't think about it! Toru shook off the negative thoughts, Just keep going- there! Another set of stairs was just around the corner. So long as they hadn't collapsed, that was their route up! Toru leapt around the corner-
"We're almost-" *whoosh* the sight of a white fist in her face made Toru turn invisible by instinct. She flung her head to the side, cheek painfully scraped by a forceful set of arm bones launched towards her. Looking past the new attacker, there was another small army of skeletons flooding the new hallway. Clearly they'd managed to get in through more than the front doors.
*whoosh* Todoroki grabbed the offending skeleton's arm and tried to freeze them. Instead, the effort coated half of the scarred boy in a layer of ice, while the skeleton itself was practically unaffected.
What- he hit him off-beat! Clearly their demon companions weren't kidding when they meant timing was key.
*crash* but the skeletons weren't waiting for Toru to comprehend what was even happening; a second skeleton from behind them lunged forward to bring a fist crashing past Toru's invisible arm and into Todoroki's frozen form, sending the boy forward with such force Toru almost lost her grip.
Shit! They were surrounded by skeletons that were more experienced in this weird brand of fighting than Toru and Todoroki both. The stairs were scarcely ten metres away, but the path was already blocked by more of the undead. If they tried to fight through them more would descend. Retreat wasn't an option, they were coming from all sides. If they were outside maybe Todoroki could make an ice platform up, but as it was…
Nothing for it then! Toru didn't try to pull back against the velocity the second skeleton's punch had given Todoroki. Instead, she slackened her grip, put her own strength into speeding him up, momentarily bringing him into a spin around her.
Sorry Todoroki! "YEET!" she threw him over to the stairs as fast as she could. Her invisibility would give her some leeway to get through the bony boys, but Todoroki would be crushed by sheer volume of fighters within seconds.
Todoroki seemed to take being flung by his comrade about as well as he took everything else: with a remarkably uncaring face as he grasped the situation quickly. He pivoted in mid-air and jumped off a skeleton's head before it could grab him to leap through to the stairway. He ran up the first few steps before pausing, turning around and cracking his neck.
"All right." he managed to bob up-and-down for a handful of seconds, struggling through the cold long enough to tune in with the duel's melody. "My turn." right on-beat, he stomped his right foot down and set off a landmine of ice, an avalanche quickly rolling through the halls. Toru managed to barely avoid the onslaught by jumping and pulling herself up onto an unaware skeleton.
"Next time!" she jumped off as the skeleton made to grab her, using the heads as a walkway while the undead began punching at the ice to free themselves. "A little warning would be nice!" she slid up the icy slope towards Todoroki and dropped her invisibility.
"D-D-Ditto." the boy replied apathetically sans the obvious chill. His eyed widened minutely; Toru looked behind her to find the skeletons beginning to break out of their icy shackles.
"R-Run?"
Toru nodded and began dragging him up the stairs, "Run."
A rush of warm relief brought Izuku out of a murky haze. His vision was soon filled by a familiar white-haired demon.
"We really need to stop meeting like this." Izuku barely had the energy to be flustered by Modeus'… joke? He shook his head and made to stand up, only for someone else to take his arm.
"Easy." Uraraka's voice was soft. She stepped forward as Modeus stood aside and returned to his phone. "How do you feel?"
"Like I just got punted over a hundred metres before crashing through glass and concrete." Izuku groaned, slowly getting up, "What's happening?"
"Well, let's see." Monoma huffed, "We've been trapped by an evil witch, the legions of the damned are pouring in with no signs of stopping, our best combatants seem otherwise engaged, and we're all going to die." he glanced around the others, "Did I miss anything?"
"Surely this must be some horrible nightmare…" Shiozaki said nervously, "Or perhaps he is testing us…?"
"But one is usually given study time for tests." Iida pointed out.
"Maybe we were supposed to cover 'demonic invasion' in second year." Monoma laughed nervously.
"I can confirm that was not part of the curriculum." another familiar voice added and-
"Oh…" Izuku swallowed nervously at the sight of his old teacher.
"Yeah." Aizawa levelled a glare at him, "'Oh'."
"Um…" what was Izuku even supposed to say in this situation? "I'm… Glad you're still alive?" the way Aizawa grit his teeth suggested that may not have been the best thing to say. "Uh…" he heard the sound of footsteps pounding down the hallway. Everyone froze in fear of what it could be.
"It's Hagakure!" the tenseness ebbed out of everyone's shoulders at Iida's statement, save for Aizawa and Present Mic. Hagakure arrived in the doorway, panting lightly and carrying a frozen-over Todoroki.
"He needs defrosting!" she yelled the moment she arrived, "He sealed up the stairway but it did… this!"
"R-right!" Izuku nodded, looking around their ranks. As far as he could tell, the only one who had anything which could warm up Todoroki, other than the boy himself, was… "Could you heal him, Modeus?"
"Hmmm…" Modeus didn't look away from Izuku's phone, "I could…"
"And you will, to make sure we're all safe and Midoriya doesn't get hurt, right?" Hagakure presented a reasonable argument.
"Mayyyybe…" Modeus sighed dramatically, "But honestly I'm pretty sure we could keep Zuzu safe more easily without you idiots getting in the way."
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Present Mic asked.
"Long story." Hagakure sighed.
"'Zuzu'?" Aizawa asked.
"Dumb story." Hagakure groaned.
"Modeus." Izuku repeated. She gave him a modicum of attention, "I would sincerely appreciate it if you could heal my friend. If there's anything I could do in return-"
"I want a kiss." Izuku wasn't even sure how to react anymore. His initial response was to flush red, but most of it quickly drained away with a tired sigh. Should he even be surprised at this point?
"Haven't you already… D-Done that?" despite dealing with Modeus for what felt like weeks, he still couldn't get the words out without blushing.
"Twice now." she nodded to where he'd been lying injured- oh, right. He was probably even redder now, "But those were for healing. They basically didn't count."
Izuku glanced to the frozen and badly shivering Todoroki. He honestly thought they probably did count to some extend, but... "Alright, fine, once we're out of this nightmare-" he'd barely gotten the words out before Modeus zipped over to Todoroki, defrosted his body with what seemed to be intense heat coming from her free hand, and gave him a kiss on the cheek which quickly brought him to.
Ok, so it can be on the cheek. Those two definitely did count.
"… What did I miss?" the thawed-out boy looked around the room, before his eyes eventually found Aizawa and Present Mic. "… Oh." he blinked several times, before turning to Izuku and getting out of Hagakure's arms, "What have we told them?"
"Not a damn thing." Aizawa somehow managed to glare at all three of them, "Now would one of you explain. What the hell is going on?"
"The school is surrounded by legions of apparent undead." Iida started with the important information.
"They've been summoned by vile demons who wish ill upon us all." Shiozaki continued.
"But some of those demons aren't actually bad!" Izuku was quick to defend his new sort-of-friends, "Justice tried to stop Pandemonica, but got sucked into the smoke cloud, so now Cerberus is fending her off while we try and deal with the…" he glanced outside to see the ground completely covered with a rising blanket of skeletons, "Well, them."
"They most likely have their own agenda…" Shiozaki muttered, "I hope you realise we cannot trust them." Izuku found his fist clenching unconsciously. These people were the only reason he wasn't suffering for all of eternity, the only reason they had any hope of setting anything in any way right, and she was-
"I'm standing right here." Modeus side-eyed the girl.
"Trust me." Shiozaki glared at her. "I'm well aware."
"But the important thing," Hagakure intervened, probably for the best. "Is that some of those demons – Pandemonica and 'Zadara' or something – are actively trying to kill us all. The others," she gestured to Modeus, "Aren't, or are currently helping us."
"I like the sound of those 'demons'." Present Mic gave a thumbs-up to Modeus.
"But when you say demons-"
"Literal demons." Todoroki interrupted Aizawa, pointing to the sea of undead, "From literal Hell. And those are literal skeletons, also from literal Hell. They are literally breaking through the literal ice wall I literally created literally as we speak."
"And you're…" he glanced back at Izuku, a visible hint of nervousness on his face.
"… Literally dead." they'd already told them this much, "Like Hagakure said, it's a long story. But right now they're chasing me, and if they catch me, well…" he fiddled with his hair nervously, "It'd be bad."
"'Bad' as in-"
"Zuzu's soul destroyed – i.e. deader than dead, Hell conquered with an iron fist, religious upheaval reflecting on Earth, I don't get my kiss, lots of people die, bla bla bla."
"Ok." Aizawa nodded with a restrained sigh, "I have a number of questions, but they can wait until we're safe." he looked out over the sea of skeletons, up to the World Sphere, "Can we get out?"
"Uhhh-"
"No." Modeus answered for Izuku, "I can slip through with maybe 1 or 2 people if we're lucky, but that would be it. We need Cerberus or Justice to break through."
"Which means we need to defeat 'Pandemonica' or wait and hope 'Justice' can win inside the smoke." Uraraka summarised, "Right?"
"Right." Izuku nodded. He was pretty sure that was what was going on.
"So we just need to stay alive." Aizawa nodded, "Where would the safest location be?"
"I imagine that would be the school." Iida suggested, "For the reasons you outlined previously, M-Midoriya," he paused, but quickly shook his head to stay focused, "As well as the fact the entirety of the campus outside the school now appears flooded with those creatures."
"Hmm…" Aizawa walked over to the side of the classroom closest to the broken glass wall giving a view to the front gates of U.A. "What about over there?" he nodded towards a small gap in the sea of skeletons. Perhaps Aizawa didn't notice or, more likely, considered it a lesser threat, but he was gesturing towards the battleground of Pandemonica and all three of Cerberus.
"Uhh…" Izuku didn't really have time to explain all the details of why that was a terrible idea, "I don't think that'll work…"
"Because?"
"Aizawa-sensei, that is a pit of darkness from which no meaningful life can return. An arena of demonic champions revelling in the depths of bloodshed." Tokoyami tried to explain.
"In Japanese." Aizawa deadpanned.
"相澤 先生、それは闇の穴です-"
"Not what I meant."
"Should I stick to hiragana?"
"What he means, Aizawa-sensei." Monoma took over from Tokoyami, "Is that that is the death circle. Anything that goes in the death circle, dies. Something we would prefer to avoid." Aizawa glared at the boy, unamused by his sarcasm. Monoma simply stared back.
"But most of us still can't fight them." Uraraka got the conversation back on track. Aizawa went to ask her to clarify the point be she answered pre-emptively, "Supernatural fighting shenanigans."
"Almost there…" Modeus was hammering away at the phones' keyboard. It was a fairly cheap model; hopefully it would survive the effort.
"I guess…" Izuku ran a hand through his hair in thought, "Todoroki, Hagakure and I should keep them occupied." he glanced to the two in question, "The three of us fight off any coming down the hallway. You two switch to the other side if they start coming from behind. Hopefully we can fend them off long enough for Justice or Modeus to finish." he focused on Todoroki, "How long do you think your ice barrier will last-"
*CRASH* the shattering of ice rung through the floor.
"… Zero seconds." thanks Todoroki. Izuku ran through the half-destroyed door and down the hallway, giving them plenty of space between them and the classroom-
"You can't-"
"Wait a second-"
"Uraraka, Aizawa-sensei…" he paused. He wanted to explain the situation more clearly, wanted to include them more and fight this together… But what could they do? "I- If any of us are injured, pull us back to be healed by Modeus." it wasn't much, but it could help. Uraraka's face went from nervous to determined almost instantly, while Aizawa gave a tight nod.
"Midoriya!" Hagakure pulled him back to the present. He darted out, finding a wave of skeletons surging down the hall towards them, the clacking of a thousand bones on concrete echoing in a somehow organised dissonance. He timed his steps in time to their charge, getting into the habit of attuning to the melody of combat.
The narrower hallway would make it easier to deal with their numbers – perhaps Todoroki could freeze them, fall back to be healed while Izuku and Hagakure put them out of commission, rinse and repeat?
It'll have to do for now. He relayed his thoughts to his companions. A pair of nods was his reply as the skeletons descended, looking to crush their group before the ice began rushing up their feet.
I really hope Justice is doing better…
Zdrada exploding out of the floor in rage was not unexpected. In fact, it was exactly what Justice had planned. What she hadn't planned: The exploding floor continuing to rise upwards as Zdrada rode a wall of smoke from the deck floor… only for the entire wall to transform into an array of cannons.
Cannons which, if the demonic energy concentrating in them was anything to go by, were fully operational.
… Huh-
~! SayMaxWell - Shantae - Rottytops Theme !~
The wall of cannons unloaded column-by-column in a new melody, and Justice quickly slipped into the new rhythm. Twirling through two neighbouring columns of cannonballs she started to close the distance, before the wall started unloading in more and more convoluted patterns.
Justice ducked under a row's shots; jumped angularly over a diagonal's barrage; darted into the tiny gaps the increasingly complex shot orders demanded. She leapt over the last few shots before reaching the wall-
*THUMP* before being hit point-blanc by a cannon-shot to the stomach, hurled backwards even further than she had been when she started. Had she been a mortal or even less powerful demon, that probably would've been game over.
"Alright." as it was, she was merely injured and – FAR more importantly? One of her sunglasses' lenses had been shattered. "Now I'm pissed."
Not even taking a moment to savour the hit, Zdrada's bombardment carried on. At least the pattern had reverted to a simpler form. Justice ran back at the wall full-tilt, ducking under a higher row of cannonballs before jumping for the next set. As the cannonballs shot underneath her, she flexed her leg downwards, jumping higher up off the projectile.
Straining her soul sense to the extreme, she began to see the pattern of future cannonballs in all their needlessly complex patterned glory. She kicked off of one flying to her left, swung upwards from one shooting over her head, slashed another clean in half that would've otherwise struck her down.
Two jumps from the top, she could see Zdrada panic.
"HRAH!" in a last-ditch effort, she forced the entire wall of cannons to fire. Justice leapt off the last cannonball from the last wave in a dive, shooting a lance of concentrated fire up her sword – enough to destroy a single cannonball and reach the wall once again.
Still recovering from the full-on volley, Zdrada was powerless to stop Justice grabbing onto one cannon near the top of the wall and hoisting herself upwards. Zdrada stomped down with a cutlass in hand. Justice quickly rolled to the side, curving the momentum into an upwards slash with her sword, one Zdrada was powerless to defend against-
*woosh* only for the sword to swing easily through air. Zdrada's form disappeared as a cloud of smoke when the blade swung through. Someone's whistling drew Justice's attention to the deck floor on the other side of the cannon-wall.
"So close." Zdrada grinned as she smacked the cannon-wall from the floor. A ripple was sent up, and quickly turned where Justice was standing into a long line of upwards-facing cannons.
God-damn smoke-clone bull- Justice leapt off the wall, grabbing onto the nearby rigging and hastily swinging into a position to hold it. She couldn't just drop to the ground or else, best case, she'd meet a wooden floor as Zdrada sunk through it. Worst case, Swiss Justice cheese au Cánnonbâll.
Quickly coming up with an idea, she spun a holster to hold the rapier from the rigging-smoke and put it on her back. She took off up the rigging, heading for the top of the main mast. Weaving from side-to-side to avoid Zdrada's cannon-fire, the task became more difficult after the demon began forming more cannons from the sails Justice was climbing up through. Nevertheless she made it, swinging and weaving through cannonballs before hopping into the barrel-like crow's nest that sat comfortably atop the mast.
Reinforcing the nest with her own demonic energy, she was able to hold back the cacophony of cannonballs. They tried to breach through the wood, but failed as Justice's infusions meant it was now stronger than concrete over four times as thick. Without anything succeeding, the noise died down as the cannons stopped shooting.
"What was that about being too scared?" Zdrada tried to taunt her, as if Justice was some juvenile demon that would lose it with some light jeers.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say." Justice used the time to change her weapon's form and create a small secondary, "But why would I bother?"
"Uhh." Zdrada slurred in a mocking tone, "Because you're trapped?"
Justice put her hand to the floor in front of her, slowly but surely drawing the smoke in the air into solid form. "You sure about that?" within a few seconds, the ladder Justice was forming slowly extended above the tip of the crow's nest. "How far up does your influence extend? Another ten metres? Twenty? A hundred?" a cannonball shot at the ladder, but the structure was only dented and quickly mended. "Knock yourself out. You can form shit faster, but you can't break my constructs from so far away. Why don't you just sit down there like a good girl and think about what you've done, while I get on with things more important that you?"
As expected, the jabs did wonders. After a few seconds of childish fuming and some very colourful curse words, Zdrada grabbed onto the rigging and began steaming up it. Justice used her sight to watch her progress, taking off her broken sunglasses to pay careful attention and ensure it wasn't another smoke decoy. The demon slowed down after reaching the base of the crow's nest, morphing her cutlasses into flintlocks and creeping up the side of the barrel. Did she not realise Justice could see her through the objects? Zdrada never was the hottest flame in inferno.
"AVAS-" the idiot's eyes had scarcely a moment to widen in surprise.
*BANG*
You're not the only one with a gun, bitch.
Justice's sword, re-formed into a short-barrel 19th-century Blunderbuss, threw Zdrada flying back. She honestly would've preferred something a bit more modern, but if Zdrada was so keen to live in the past, Justice was happy to kill her in it.
Leaping upwards from the crow's nest, Justice aimed her secondary flintlock. Not giving the demon a chance to recover, she shot her square in the head from above, sending Zdrada crashing back down to the ground. Justice grabbed onto one of the sails, safely sliding down back to the main deck.
"Ughhh…." Justice approached Zdrada's defeated form. Lying groggily on the ground, their face still steaming from recent demonically-generated lead to the face. Re-shaping her blunderbuss and flintlock to rapier and cutlass forms, Justice held the main sword to their throat, the cutlass hanging by her side.
"Any last words?"
"Seriously?" they coughed, "You have any idea how long it'll take for me to reform?"
"Well, let's see…" Justice thought about it, "Usually I'd wager a good decade or two, but as you told me you're working with Lucy? She'll probably have you back up and running in a few days. Two weeks, tops."
"I never said I was-"
"I suggested you were working for Lucy, you never contradicted me." she rolled her eyes.
"Maybe I was playing my cards close to my chest." they sat up slightly; Justice kept the blade at her neck.
"You passed up the chance to point out someone was wrong?" Justice scoffed, "Sure, and Cerberus passed up a raw soul-" she remembered a recent even "-without prompting. Get real."
"I'm insulted you think so little of me." they wore a grin that displayed malice. Confidence. Victory.
"Oh, Zdrada," Justice slashed backwards and upwards with her cutlass, following up with a quick piercing jab as she brought her rapier around, directly through the real Zdrada's black hole of a heart. "What else would I think of someone so… predictable?"
"D-Damn…" Zdrada's true form hacked out a cough of blood and lowered the counterfeit blunderbuss they'd hastily fashioned. The duplicate on the floor faded into smoke. With her energy draining from the rapier's wound, it was child's play to knock the blunderbuss out of her hand with Justice's cutlass. "Thought I had ya there…"
"Please." Justice pushed the rapier in deeper, "The only reason I willingly lost sight of you coming down the sails was because I knew you'd pull something like this." she'd barely even had to confirm the fact with her soul sight. Which Zdrada still seemed to forget Justice had.
"But you're right." the now-truly defeated demon tried to wipe some of the blood from her mouth, "A few days and I'll be back." she grinned maliciously, "Only have to beat you once."
"I only need a few hours." Justice twirled the cutlass in hand, before swinging it towards Zdrada's neck.
*SLASH*
"I've already beaten you." as Zdrada's head fell to the floor, Justice pulled the sword out of her chest. The body quickly began to break down into demonic essence, a dripping red energy which sunk downwards like tar. A moment later, the smoke slowly began to lose its form.
Shouldn't take longer than half a minute to break down. She nodded in satisfaction, heading towards one of the sides to make her escape.
… Although… she paused, a small grin forming on her face. It'd be quite a waste to just abandon all this… Izuku could wait another minute or two.
Izuku wasn't sure he'd last more than another second or two.
Their initial attempts to repel the horde had gone more-or-less ok; his initial plan of freeze, beat up, heal, repeat, had proven remarkably effective. The skeletons couldn't make more than a few steps of progress before they were stopped and chipped away to push them back. Combine that with his newfound ability to sustain One for All at 1%, and they were barely even breaking a sweat! But within a couple of minutes another wave started scrambling down the hallway from the opposite direction.
Someone smarter than he may have called it the inevitable result of blocking one route while the other was relatively unobstructed; a novel example of an amalgamation of barely-sentient individual actors operating on rules that resulted in group behaviour crossing over fluid dynamics and bird flock organisation.
Izuku called it a disaster.
""HM!"" two skeletons grunted as they brought arms crashing down where Izuku had stood. He zipped to the side with the beat. He used a pair of semiquavers in the song to dodge and leap back towards them before a crotchet to send a kick to one of their ribcages, hurtling them into the other would-be attacker and further into the wall before another three made to follow up.
The first threw another fist downwards. He dodged left. The next threw a punch straight forwards. He ducked. The third threw a kick at him. He crouched to the floor and rolled right, throwing himself up with his arms to launch a two-legged kick at the original skeleton. It was sent flying out the window while he leapt off of its form back towards the skeleton that had thrown the kick, where it was still recovering and off balance. A hard punch threw it to the floor, but the last skeleton had recovered and threw a right swipe his way. He made to jump to the side, but flinched; dodging to one side would mean jumping into the rest of the horde. Dodging to the other would give them enougg ground to try edging into the classroom.
His hesitation cost him a hit. The skeleton's punch connected and threw him back. The wind was knocked out of him as he skidded backwards on his feet-
"Ah!" flailing his arms out, Izuku barely avoided falling backwards out the window. The smallest of glances backwards showed that the ocean of skeletons had only continued to rise – they'd reached halfway up the second floor. If they reached the bottom of the fourth they were on…
WoaH! He threw himself left to avoid a skeleton ramming him, almost going off-beat as he scrambled back to his feet while the skeleton charged out the window and into the sea of its brothers. The rest of the hallway's wall kept encroaching, sending more and more out to fight him.
At least they're not just dog-piling on me… Maybe it was some rule of demon combat that you couldn't literally flood the opponent with your numbers? Maybe doing so gave most supernaturals a chance to deal with a lot of low-level fighters at once? (Because, let's be honest, if skeletons weren't low level then Izuku would be dead by now). Maybe Izuku was more agile than he thought, and they weren't able to surround him to quite that extent? Maybe they were just stupid?
*whoosh* he bent his neck to avoid another punch, grabbing onto the skeleton's arm and hurling it out the window before following it with a roll to avoid another one's kick. Before another could stomp him into the floor he jumped back and up, ducking under another's sideways smash.
Whatever the answer to his questions, the one thing he could say for sure was that these creatures were persistent.
Come on, Justice… he ducked and struck upwards, Modeus…? dodged back with a followup kick, Cerberus? forced to cartwheel to the side in the position he was stuck in, Surely someone has to be doing well!
Pandemonica was doing wonderfully.
Cerberus was proving a difficult opponent as expected, but even all of her strength was useless if she couldn't reach the airborne demon. Ah, the wonder of kinesis glyphs. Usually it would be tricky to control her movement to this extent and have enough power leftover for anything resembling a decent attack, but clearly Lucy wasn't all talk when she'd bragged about her World Sphere. The attacks needed to be fire-based for the sphere to properly empower them, which wasn't perfect given she was fighting a fire-resistant demon… But since when had she ever worked with anything perfect?
Hell, when was the last time she'd worked with something halfway functional?
And the restriction to fire wasn't all bad. It seemed the attack type had forced all of Cerberus to fight Pandemonica in place of the empowered mortal, meaning those skeletons should be finishing their task any minute now. Plus, the flames had ensured that other sinful soul's ice remnants were melted quickly and efficiently. Without her precious perches Cerberus was forced to spend more energy running around to dodge and, more importantly, it was far harder for her to reach Pandemonica.
Any leaps had to be measured so she wouldn't jump into the sphere or end up leagues away, meaning her attacks were even easier to dodge than normal. Pandemonica was confident she could keep going for hours, let alone the minutes needed for the skeletons to finish her task. And if they weren't able to?
Well, she still had a trick or two up her sleeve.
Still… she sighed, Would've been better if I'd been the one to finish him. Not Lucy's lapdogs… having the mortal in hand would've given her more bargaining power. More demands the fallen angel would have no choice but to accept. Still, the sigh soon gave way to a satisfied grin, never-ending high-quality coffee will make for a more than acceptable reward.
Yes; the skeletons would finish off the mortals (and Modeus if she got in the way), while Pandemonica kept one of Hell's most powerful combatants distracted. Victory was only a matter of time, so long as Zdrada could fight – not even fight, just survive – for a handful of minutes-
A deep, harsh groaning sound coming from Zdrada's fog cloud soon put that optimism to rest. Pandemonica would've rolled her eyes were they not busy tracking Cerberus and trying to see what had emerged from-
… This is going to be one of those jobs, isn't it?
Shouta was on the verge of snapping. There was an army of skeletons, they apparently weren't even the biggest threat, his dead students were seemingly here and fighting for their 'lives', Hizashi was keeping somewhat quiet, the world had gone mad.
"Ok." Shouta pulled out his capture scarf as 'Izuku' was almost blown clean out a window, "I'm going in."
"But sir-"
"You can't-"
"Are you deaf-"
"No buts, I can, my hearing is fine." he replied to Iida, Tokoyami and Monoma-
"You kinda can't though." 'Modeus' cut off his further points, "If you could, I wouldn't have to be working on this."
"Look, I still don't really get what you mean by," he glanced at Uraraka, "'Supernatural shenanigans'-"
"Clearly." This well-dressed phone addict was really getting on his nerves.
"But I can't just leave my students out there to-"
"So you'll distract them and get everyone killed instead?" she still didn't look away from her phone, only raising a questioning eyebrow.
"Whatever these 'shenanigans' are, I can still fight-"
"Prove it." she turned slightly to face him head on, "Land a decent hit on me and I'll take it back. You can go." Shouta blinked at the statement. If that was all it took to 'prove' he could fight-
"But," Iida started nervously, "I was under the impression you specialised in support over-"
"That's true." Modeus cut him off, "Against any other arch-demon, I'd be screwed." a what- "Against decently strong demons, I'd be lucky to win. Against a mortal who can't even hear the melody?" she scoffed and decided to start swaying her hips for some reason, "He wouldn't last ten seconds-"
Shouta shot his capture scarf forward. If he needed to get through this cocky idiot to help his students, it was only logical to do it as fast as possible. The element of surprise would ensure-
*thwap!* as he tightened the scarf around her, the entire thing just bounced back. At the same time, his body was suddenly constricted by invisible pressure, forcing the weapon from his grip. What was-
Modeus zipped towards him, steps timed in a clear pattern. The pressure had disappeared just as quickly as it came on, so he threw a punch in an opening between the motions-
*crack* and not only did Modeus not feel a thing, not only did the skin on her cheek remain perfectly unmarked... but his fist was thrown back as the bones in his knuckles let out a sickening crunch. The unexpected pain made him flinch, but his training kicked in as he tried to jump back.
*thwip* only for him to trip on his very own weapon. Looking again, it was clear Modeus had used her foot to send a ripple up the scarf, catching Shouta's foot. Manipulating the tape like that should've taken months, if not years of training, yet she did it in a fluid motion without effort. He tried to regain his balance, only for Modeus to bloody somersault towards him at point-blanc range. The most he could do was grab for her, but his hands practically melted down her form, unable to get a grip. Her legs wrapped around his neck while she was still upside-down. The force behind them seemed impossible for someone her size, but Shouta was forced to fall backwards with her or see his neck snapped for the resistance.
"Oh look, you're dead." moments later, Shouta was laying face-up on the floor. One shoulder was pinned by her legs, his chest felt heavy with her form, and he was being strangled by her thighs.
She'd never even stopped typing on the phone.
"Anyone else want to try-"
"HYAA-" evidently Hizashi did, "AH!" and the complete non-effect it had on Modeus, combined with the sound of crashing desks coming from his direction, suggested it had been even less effective than Shouta's.
"Anyone else want a go?"
*KLANG!* Shouta could see Shiozaki standing over their form, though his vision was starting to grow hazy. She seemed to be holding a metal pipe with a new indentation in it the shape of Modeus' head. Even the hair had been imprinted into the metal's form.
"What's wrong with you? If I hadn't been nice there, you could've just brained yourself. Not even I'm into that kinda thing- wait you're not a nun, are you?" Shouta tried hitting at her with his free arm, but all he accomplished was hurting his fist further. Some of the blows seemed to get through whatever was reflecting the attacks, but she still barely seemed to feel a thing. Even activating his Quirk didn't get a reaction.
"Oooooh, I feel all tingly." at least, not a reaction he wanted.
"Can you just stop." Uraraka's words sounded far away, "Shiozaki, I know things are difficult, but I think she's trying to- Modeus, stop it!"
"Hm?" Modeus looked down at him, "Oh, right, you guys need to breathe."
*gasp* Shouta took in a great lungful of air the moment he was able, Modeus twisting up and off of him. He deteriorated into a hacking cough, but still had the sense to take a look around. The kids were a mixture of shock, fear, and glancing nervously at the fight outside, while Hizashi was just getting to his feet the other side of the classroom, rubbing his head in pain.
"Sorry, kinda forgot."
Izuku slid into view of the doorway, his bruised, battered and shaking form diving into the classroom to avoid the wave of skeletons steadily gaining ground. "I need some help here!"
Hagakure pulled Todoroki's frosted form into the other end's doorway, throwing him in as she was struck by a punch to the back and sent flying into the classroom. "Ditto…"
"One minute…!" Modeus' typing became more frantic.
"We don't have a minute!" Uraraka used her Quirk on the classroom desks to make them weightless, before throwing them towards the doorways and gaps in the wall.
"It was foolish to entrust any manner of protection to such a creature!" Shiozaki extended her vines to try and coat the doorway, interweaving with the desks to make a stronger barrier. But the skeletons were pounding away by the second.
"Maybe if I…" Monoma put a hand to Todoroki, only for his eyes to go wide in surprise. "I- I can't copy his Quirk!"
"Wha-"
"Try touching the skin!" Izuku was throwing tired punches at skeletons that were crawling through gaps in the ad-hoc barrier, "The suits might be blocking it!"
"I did!" Monoma stood up, "I can't- It's like-"
"I GOT IT!" a flourish of red energy whirled around the phone Modeus was working on. The typing finally stopped as the skeletons began breaking through the doors. "I- wait these speakers aren't loud enough-!" an aux chord suddenly landed in her frustrated, outstretched hand. One guess as to who'd thrown it.
"LET'S DROP THE BEAT!" Hizashi turned the dials on his speaker equipment- oh god it's up to 11-
As Modeus jammed the wire into the phone and hit a final button, music started blasting from Hizashi's necklace-speaker. This 'melody' which the horned girl had been so insistent was why Shouta never stood a chance against her, this apparent song which was crucial to their victory, finally reached their ears.
~! [Electro Swing Remix] Spooky Scary (Swingin') Skeletons !~
Shouta wasn't angry. He was just disappointed.
No, actually, he was both.
"That's it!" the fact Hagakure confirmed this apparently wasn't a poor joke only solidified his disappointment.
"Hit them in time with the beat!" Izuku confirmed what Shouta had been beginning to suspect. Watching his blows, his dodges, his movements in general, it was obvious that he was following the rhythm of the song.
If Shouta was going to protect his living students and get to the bottom of the apparent resurrection of some former ones, he'd have to fight an army of skeletons using what little capoeira training he had in a dance battle.
… When did my life stop making sense?
…
"And lastly, here…" Shouta signed the contract as requested, "Perfect! Hence forth, you are officially a teacher at U.A.! I look forward to working with you, Eraser Head!"
…
Never should've trusted that rat.
Ok so Izuku's mortal ex-classmates-and-teachers could hear the song now, which was good.
*crash* unfortunately, the skeletons had fully broken through the desk-slash-vine barriers in the doors, which was bad.
As the skeletons poured in, Izuku slid over to the entrance. He kicked a skeleton with enough power to send them crashing into the wall, but two more took its place in a moment. They pulled back to return Izuku's blow in kind-
*thwip!* only for Aizawa-sensei's capture tape to hover over both their forms. It appeared in one beat, wrapped around their raised fists in the next, and tightened to crash the two into each other in the third.
"Can't believe that worked…" not wasting a moment he was soon by Izuku's side, covering for any lapses in Izuku's guard and harassing their movements all the while. With some of the pressure taken off, Izuku ramped One for All up to 2% and went more on the offensive, smashing skeletons back and kicking them into the ground.
Before long Uraraka had joined them, wielding a desk leg in 1 hand and making liberal use of her Quirk with the other. Any skeleton left vulnerable by Aizawa's capture tape or Uraraka's Zero-Gravity was punted from the classroom in moments.
His mortal companions, meanwhile, had formed into a second group. Monoma was working in tandem with Shiozaki to create a circle of vines which marked doom for any skeleton that dared to cross. Moving to the beat seemed a lot easier when you were using whips in time with the music rather than having to bend and twist yourself. Tokoyami was fighting back with Dark Shadow while Hagakure made quick jabs to cover his assualt. Iida was guarding a still-frosted Todoroki and Present Mic was mainly just trying to cover anyone who slipped up at all, keeping a careful hand around the magical phone connected to his speaker. It seemed the use of his support gear to make sure everyone could hear the music was hampering his Quirk usage – he probably didn't want to risk losing the one tool keeping them in the fight.
Modeus, meanwhile, was… Just sort of whizzing around. Swirling through the mess of skeletons, not doing much fighting but equally not being so much as grazed. Just keeping a group of the fiends distracted.
With their efforts the skeletons were being forced to a standstill, Izuku starting to gradually push them back and hold the classroom. Two entrances were far easier to hold than-
*CRASH* the wall behind them came crashing down, a new flood of skeletons coming through the new entrance.
Dammit! Izuku pivoted to the rear guard of his group. Aizawa and Uraraka fended off the smaller number pouring in from their front entrance, while Izuku had the task of dealing with those coming through the new opening.
Fortunately, they seemed largely focused on Izuku, meaning his other friends were able to withstand the new onslaught.
Unfortunately, they seemed largely focused on Izuku, meaning he was gradually being overwhelmed by the new onslaught.
"Don't suppose your friend over there can help?" Aizawa baited a triplet of skeletons in for a blow, only to wrap their fists together so Uraraka could send them all out the window with a few taps and swings. Still, she was starting to look a little worse for wear from the fight.
"She's mainly focused on support." Izuku punched to throw a skeleton back, jumped up and forwards with the skeleton to avoid a return blow, then kicked one of the attackers mid-jump. Unable to recover, another skeleton's punch hit him back into Aizawa.
"That's true." Modeus glided between the skeletons with ease before throwing a sly grin Izuku's way "Though I could be of more help."
Of course you could… "Y-you do realise that if I-" he ducked under a skeleton's charge and sent it flying upwards into the roof, "Well, if we lose, I can't- u-um…" he kicked the skeleton as it fell back to the ground, knocking over a group of its allies in the process, "M-make g-good on our… a-a-arrangement?"
"Don't worry Zuzu," she slid in to trip a skeleton he'd missed that was about to punish a gap in his movements, "I won't let them get you."
But you'll let them take down my friends… he kicked the tripped skeleton in the face before jerking to avoid another hit and returning with a punch, Right… "A-any chance I can convince you to-"
"Do a duet with me!" Modeus stepped right next to him, so close within his personal space he couldn't even defend- Oh wow she just smashed that one to pieces with a light backhand. Clearly she wasn't only good for support.
"U-um…" Izuku roundhouse'd a skeleton tied up by Aizawa, "D-did you just… kill that one?"
Modeus gave him an uncharacteristically flat look, "They're already dead, Zuzu."
"Y-yeah, but-"
"Lucy will just reform them. Skeletons like this'll only take a day or two."
"O-oh-"
"Wait." Aizawa interrupted them with a grunt, smashing a group of skeletons against the ground with a well-placed application of capture tape, "We don't have to hold back?"
"Duh." Modeus rolled her eyes.
Suddenly, the tone of combat behind Izuku shifted. No longer was the goal to throw skeletons back out the door or window. Now, it was to quickly and efficiently break them apart bone by bone. Aizawa and Uraraka's situation went from difficult to manageable. Aizawa called over to the other group to convey the message, but as they were already managing on their own, it seemed the knowledge they could essentially 'kill' their opponents didn't have such a drastic impact. Meaning the only one struggling right now was Izuku.
Or at least, Izuku without Modeus' support.
"W-what's a duet?" he barely dodged to the side before another set of knuckles were sent square into his hip, "I-I mean, I know what a normal one is, but-"
Modeus cut across the oncoming horde with a slash of her hand, a burst of flame buying them a moment's respite. She offered the same hand to Izuku with something resembling a slight bow. "Want to find out?"
Not really. He held back a sigh, But given the alternative… he gingerly took Modeus' hand with his own.
The moment he did, time slowed to a crawl. The landscape around him became distant and muted. The clattering of bones reduced to a low rumble, the crashing of vines made into naught but a whisper. But most noticeably, the song of souls quickly faded, reduced from a constant, pressuring force into mere background music. Everything around him- no, reality itself, threatened to become but an afterthought compared to the smiling demon before him.
For a moment. For one brief, inescapable moment? Modeus became his whole world. Her eyes a stunning, heart-filled night sky; her hair a wonderful, snow-covered mountain range; her lips- well… Izuku was supremely confident he was failing to keep his face anything other than a bright red.
And then Modeus twirled him around into a dip. A rose appeared in her mouth from absolutely nowhere. Izuku felt an incredible new surge of energy flowing through him. Not a controlled chaos like One for All, not the adrenaline high from the near-constant life-or-death situations he found himself in, but a gentle warmth. One that filled him with a sense of calm, that washed away the fatigue and wounds from his fight thus far. Yet it was one fuelled with enough power to turn into a raging inferno should he so much as ask.
And then the song of souls returned in a completely new form, one that he knew was outside the skeletons control. Or Pandemonica's. Or their 'masters'.
~! Scent of Love (Bayonetta OST) !~
Modeus raised him from the dip in time to avoid a skeleton bring both its fists down in a mighty crash. She released him with a twirl into a new group which he charged into, an indescribable sense of confidence as a punch exploded outwards. Over a dozen of them were sent flying back in a broken heap of bones.
"… S-so..." he accepted Modeus' hand as she stepped towards him, "a-a 'duet'?" the two spun around each other with joined hands raised above their head. The two finished the move with an outwards kick that sent skeletons from both directions flying.
"It's been… Actually, I don't think anyone's ever agreed to do one with me." she leaned back into Izuku, hands flying outwards with blistering flames in time to char any skeletons that tried to approach. Swivelling around, she suddenly pulled Izuku closer, "So I intend to savour every momen-"
"Wait- WHAT ON EARTH IS-"
*CRASH* Uraraka was interrupted as the front end of the classroom was torn away. The entire building started shaking and threatening to collapse as something smashed clean through.
Glancing towards the still-moving destructive force, Izuku found…
Wooden… panels- and WAIT ARE THOSE CANNONS?!
"AHOY, mateys!" Justice's familiar voice called out through the still-collapsing concrete, "Unless ye want to be buried under a fleet o' skeletal buccaneers, I suggest ye climb aboard!"
From everyone present, somehow including the still-yet-silent skeletons around them, a single word came forth:
"""What-"""
"It means get on the damned ship!"
"But we just got started!" Modeus pouted angrily as the roof of the school collapsed sideways. The caught a clear view of Justice manning the wheel of this old sailing ship which- was just- here, somehow, and had just crashed through the school, somehow. Also she'd lost her glasses somehow.
"I-" Izuku swallowed, "I- I know we're outnumbered badly Justice, but with you here I honestly think we have a good chance against-"
"Look out the bloody window." looking outside, Izuku found the sea of skeletons outside had risen to the point of almost flooding their floor. Within moments they wouldn't be fighting an army of skeletons they could manage with controlled zones and choke-points. They would simply be drowning in them. Flooded with a legion of undead fighters. He couldn't think of anyway to deal with that; a boat floating on them seemed like the only survivable option. He glanced back at the others,
"Time to go."
A/N:
I mentioned last time that I was worried at first the fight segments wouldn't take up a large enough chunk of time, and now I have the complete opposite opinion. Like we're ~17k words deep into combat and only reaching the second/third phase. I'm pretty sure the next chapter should finish it off, partly because considering the plan that seems about right and partly because if it doesn't I'm going to go insane.
On another note, we've hit 100,000 words! I think the site claimed this last time because it counted Author's Notes, but now we're actually here! And we're only a couple of chapters after reaching a really major story beat so that ties up pretty nicely. Really looking forward to getting to that as it's been planned for a while (though at this point 'planned for a while' covers pretty much everything being written).
Other than that sorry I couldn't get this out last week - as you can probably guess from the wordcount and comments it's ended up being just a tad longer than expected.
And with all that said as usual please do comment with thoughts, predictions, concrit etc., but above all have a lovely weekend!