Chapter 12: When the Walls Fell
"Well this is starting to get really fucking annoying."
"No shit," Overhaul spat in digust, shooting Dabi a withering glare before turning his attention back to the series of bleeding bullet wounds in Kurono's shoulder and arm. "So why don't you go deal with the problem, smartass?"
"Because if you haven't noticed by now," Dabi shouted indignantly over the sound of howling gunfire and splintering wood and metal, crouching lower behind the overturned desk serving as their cover, "their shields are flame-resistant!" By now he'd given up on most of his recording and narrating duties, but with the room submerged in a writhing sea of lavender fog illuminated only by fire and gunshots, Kai could hardly blame him.
"Of course they are." Chisaki swore resignedly and laid his palm flat on his patient's chest. "Hang in there, Chrono, this might feel a bit… weird."
"You should have just… left me behind, Kai." Kurono muttered, shaking his plague-masked head. "There's not enough time for this."
"There's time if I say there is," Overhaul growled, though he knew full well that his lieutenant was right. Only three minutes remained on their ticking countdown- three minutes to push through to the databanks before their chances of escape dropped to near-zero.
Just moments after Kurono's injuries neatly closed, another Yakuza foot soldier fell dead to the ground a few feet to the left of them, his mask shattered by bullets, and Setsuno shot the trio a worried glance from where he, Rappa, and the others were dug in behind an overturned breakroom fridge. After making good initial progress on the third floor, their advance had been stalled halfway to the databanks by another squad of armored cops, even more organized and ferocious than the last, this time equipped with massive riot shields that made targeting them almost impossible. I could turn the things to piles of dust if I could just get close enough, Chisaki knew, but stepping out of cover is a fucking death sentence as things stand. He'd tried to summon Dark Shadow again with another target indicator, but the rearguard team was too busy dealing with the influx of reinforcements to render any further assistance. Entrenched behind various pieces of cover, the remaining Precepts soldiers were holding the police off from advancing on their position to the best of their abilities, but their numbers were quickly beginning to dwindle, and there were no openings for Toya or Rappa to attack or use their quirks.
Looks like we might have to use this after all, he mused, drawing a vial and syringe out of jacket pocket. It was one of the last doses of Trigger that his organization had left; Nighteye had seized almost all of their stores and destroyed their production facilities in his raid, and only around ten doses' worth of the drug had been saved in the end. It had been reserved solely for the Expendables and even then only for emergency circumstances over the past two years, but today certainly seemed to qualify as one by any measure. Edging towards the other group, Overhaul slapped the ground to raise up a temporary wooden shield in front of the team, then leaned out and tossed the syringe to Setsuno, who caught it deftly with one hand and plunged the needle into his arm like clockwork as Kai began to speak into his earpiece.
"Alright, listen up, boys, new plan. Dabi, you hit them with a blast big enough to suppress them for a few seconds. Setsuno, as soon as he does his part, steal as many of their guns as possible. Once that's done, Rappa, the rest of you- you know what to do. Move in and eliminate them, a straight charge from the front. I'll take Chronostasis and cut off their retreat. There's no time for questions, just do what you're fucking told, now go!"
Not a moment later, the sea of purple turned bright blue as Dabi dashed out of cover and began to bombard the cops with an inferno so hellish and sudden that their front rank backed up several steps in surprise, their constant barrage of bullets falling silent for a few moments as they locked their shields together in defense. Just as Chisaki had intended, everything else fell in place like clockwork as soon as they lost their offensive momentum. His breath ragged and his eyes wide and wild beneath his transparent glass goggles, Setsuno leapt on top of one of the surviving desks and extended a trembling hand out toward the enemy. Whereas his quirk was usually only able to steal things being directly held by his targets, and limited him to taking around three items at once, Trigger expanded his capabilities dramatically- his upper limit was past ten items now, and the handheld restriction no longer applied.
"That's right, shitheels, give me everything you've got!" He cried with a gleeful cackle, as one assault rifle fell into his arms and a dozen others clattered to the ground behind him. Another wave of his free hand and half the group's gas masks were stolen as well, along an assortment of helmets, goggles, ammunition, and shields; all of it accumulated in a growing pile on the floor behind him as he opened fire on the enemy with a series of bursts from the hip.
Several men tried to draw sidearms or stun batons from their belts, but by then it was too late- Rappa was already in their midst by then, bashing aside any remaining riot shields before beginning to slowly demolish the squad one-by-one with brutal, lightning fast blows, chained together from man to man in such rapid succession that none of them could effectively counter him. A handful of reinforcements burst through from the data vault's entrance at the far end of the room, but Dabi and the three remaining foot soldiers rushed forward and quickly pinned them down.
"Not strong enough!" Rappa bellowed in protest as he bashed in the lead riot officer's chest in with a sickening crack, practically ignoring his armored vest, then grabbed the man's body by the legs and swung him into one of his charging allies like a ragdoll. "These guys are weak, Overhaul, I want more of a challenge!"
"Don't worry," Overhaul called, stepping out of cover and starting towards a trio of disarmed riot police who had barricaded themselves in one of the floor's corner offices; he let Kurono take point in case they had any tricks left up their sleeves. "I'll make sure that you get one soon en-"
Wham.
It happened within the span of an instant, while Kai's head was still craned toward the sound of Rappa's voice; the door to one of the smaller, shuttered offices they were passing by burst open directly between Chronostasis and Overhaul. The corner slammed hard into the back of Kurono's head and sent him toppling to the floor, and a gas-masked Tsukauchi Naomasa darted out into the open, training a gun on Overhaul's chest.
"Freeze, Chisaki!"
"Is that a fucking joke?!" Kai retorted, lunging forward with his right hand outstretched. All he needed was to lay one finger on the detective, and it would be over. I'm not going to let a worm like this slow me down.
But Tsukauchi dodged to one side with a catlike level of grace and deftness just before he could reach him, and Chisaki could only watch in shock and horror as his hand exploded before his eyes in a shower of blood and gore. Three of his fingers were either missing or stumps, and the top of his palm was spit in two, bone and tendon openly visible.
"You son of a bitch!" He roared in agony, clutching at the bloody ruin as he stumbled backwards. Stars filled the corners of his vision, and every glance at what remained of his prized appendage pushed Kai closer and closer to retching on the office floor. My other hand is still gloved, I can't fight back!
Before he could come up with an escape strategy, the detective's pistol barked again- more pain, more stars, and suddenly he was on the floor, his vision fading in and out, Naomasa's boot on his chest. Tsukauchi had shot him in the shoulder this time, if the stream of warm, wet blood running slowly down his forearm and chest was any indication.
"I could kill you right now," The detective gritted, his features contorted in barely restrained anger. "But you don't get to die that easily. I'm going to make sure you pay for every life you took today."
"BOSS!"
Suddenly the pistol disappeared from Naomasa's hands, and Overhaul whipped his head around to find Setsuno standing just a few feet away, the stolen gun trained on its former owner.
"Shoot him!" Chisaki cried, an order the Expendable complied eagerly with. Toya fired five rounds in rapid succession, and laughed in triumph when Tsukauchi grunted in pain and sunk down to one knee, his head hung low in defeat. He was about to offer his capo a hand getting off the ground when Kai noticed that there was no blood dripping from the detective's tan trench coat, and his eyes widened.
"Setsuno, shoot him in the goddamn head, I think he's wearing-"
Shhk.
…Kevlar. By the time Overhaul finished his thought, Naomasa had already shot back up to his feet, pulled a military knife from a holster on his calf, and hurled it at his adversary, all in the same fluid motion. It had buried itself cleanly between Setsuno's eyes, and now the most capable of Kai's remaining Expendables was lying dead on the floor beside him.
By now, though, the commotion of the encounter had drawn the attention of the rest of the strike team; Rappa's heavy footsteps were audibly drawing nearer, and Tsukauchi was forced to dive for cover behind a desk as bullets fired by the foot soldiers whizzed by. Taking advantage of his captor's distraction, Chisaki took a deep breath of fresh air, tore his mask off, then used his teeth to pull off his other glove. Repairing his shattered hand took only moments once that was done, and by the time Naomasa noticed what had happened, he was already back on his feet and halfway towards him. Deprived of his gun this time, the fury in the detective's eyes was replaced by panic; he reached for the stun baton at this belt, but he was a beat too slow. A swipe of Kai's hand disintegrated Tsukauchi's arm in a burst of crimson, and he cried out in pain, stumbling backward in shock just as Chisaki had. He slumped against the same door he'd flung open in ambush, only to be skewered against it when Kurono's hour hand plunged straight through the wood and his throat at once; he had finally stirred again after falling momentarily unconscious from the blow he received.
Then Rappa was towering above them all, his voice full of disappointment as he gestured to the detective with massive metal knuckles slick with blood and gore.
"This is the guy who was giving you trouble, boss? He's puny!"
"Yeah, still a pain in the ass, though." Overhaul muttered, pulling the knife from Setsuno's forehead and laying both palms over the Expendable's wound to heal it and revive him- it was a rushed job due to the timeframe, but he could correct any lingering brain damage later as long as Toya could still walk and fight for now. "Why don't you go ahead and finish him? I'd do it myself, but we're short on time, and I feel like I might get carried away after what he did to Setsuno."
Kurono retracted his clock hand and strode around the door to watch Rappa as he cracked his neck and wound up the finishing punch; Tsukauchi tried to say something in the final moments before the blow, but only a dribble of blood and a labored grunt left his lips when he opened them. He sufficed instead by holding up a defiant middle finger, one that Overhaul returned in kind once he had helped Toya back to his feet and pulled his mask on again. Finally, Rappa caved in his chest with a single, swift jab, and Naomasa's body slid lifeless to the floor.
As Chisaki led the three men back across the room towards Dabi and the foot soldiers, who had nearly pushed the remaining cops all the way back through into the data vault, the thick coat of gas around then began to visibly dissipate, and Kai swore under his breath as Mustard's voice came in over the radio.
"I'm sorry, Overhaul, but we had to retreat. They were starting to use flashbangs and searchlights against Dark Shadow- he was going to be captured or worse, and I was almost out of ammo. We're at the rendezvous point now, but the gas won't last long without me there to keep producing it. You need to hurry."
"Alright, as of now, we are officially running on overtime!" Chisaki bellowed. "We no longer have the rearguard watching out for us- that means that any number of heroes are in this building at this very fucking moment, trying to find a way to get up to us! So double time it, because every second we're not finishing our mission is another second closer to Tartarus!"
"Well, viewers, looks like we're gonna have to wrap up this broadcast pretty soon." With a wave of his free hand, Dabi used a rolling wave of flame to incinerate the cops' remaining cover, leaving them to be picked off by Kurono and the soldiers, then turned the camera back towards his face as he leapt over a desk and took point in the advance towards the now unguarded door waiting for them. "I hope you've all been enjoying the show, but it looks like it might be a pretty good finale."
Just seconds after Mustard's message, the air was already clear again, and Overhaul joined Dabi and Setsuno in removing his goggles as they led what remained of the strike team into the data room, a tall chamber filled with rows upon rows of server banks, stacked all the way up to the ceiling. But not a moment after Chisaki had walked through, the automatic metal door slammed shut, splitting the team in two.
"The hell?" Shouldering his katana, Setsuno turned around and mashed the 'open' button with his thumb, only to receive a shower of sparks in reply. Then a flash of yellow whipped through Chisaki's line of sight, and a sudden gust of wind tore through his hair. Before he knew it, Toya was face-down and unconscious on the floor; Overhaul barely had time to hold his hands up to defend his head before something slammed into his gut like a charging bull and propelled him back into the wall with a dull crack. Pain lanced through his skull, and the world went dark; Chisaki wasn't sure how much time passed before a hard slap suddenly dragged him back to consciousness. At first he only saw patches of colored light- the first thing that resolved itself into a real image was Dabi's scarred face, just inches from his own, The younger man wore a bitter scowl, and was about to slap him again until Kai sat up of his own accord.
"Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey, Overhaul! Jesus, you scared the shit out of me, man. I thought I was gonna have to fight this asshole on my own."
As the rest of the room shifted slowly into focus, Chisaki realized that Dabi was actively maintaining a tall wall of intense blue fire in a semicircle around their group with his other hand. Visible on the far side of the inferno was a short man with a grizzled grey-white beard and a black domino mask over his eyes, hovering on the jets of air shooting from his bulky yellow boots.
"Gran Torino," Overhaul growled, his teeth grit against the throbbing pain as he reached to the back of his head and withdrew his hand covered in warm red blood. "I had a feeling he might be here."
"Yup, well turns out you were dead on the money with that one. I think he's the one who busted the door, to get at you easier. He almost took all three of us out at once, but he knocked me out that way before, back in Kamino Ward- I wasn't about to fall for the same tactic again. You hear me, old man?!" He craned his head around and gave Torino a middle finger; the old-timer simply laughed in response.
"Oh, I hear it. I bet you think you're pretty badass, don't you, punk?"
"Nah, not particularly. I just think you need to burn." Turning back to face Sorahiko, Dabi held out both his hands and turned his wall of flame into a massive, expanding burst that spread out in every direction, forcing Torino to soar back and out of its path.
In the same moment, Chisaki slammed one hand into the cold metal floor and the other into the sealed door behind him. A hole immediately opened up to allow the others through, while the ground transformed into a field of spikes rising up to counter the aged hero's every move.
"You need to close the door again!" Kuruno shouted over the din of the battle, loading a clip into his pistol and then turning to fire a burst of rounds into the room he'd just entered from. "The building's crawling with heroes! I froze a few with my quirk, and Rappa and the gunmen are holding them off the best they can, but it won't last for long!"
Ducking momentarily behind Dabi for cover as Gran Torino continued to dodge and weave between the flames and spikes, Overhaul craned his head to glance back through the hole and assess the situation. Sure enough, to say that things had descended into chaos was an understatement: Now that the gas had cleared, multiple teams of heroes had flooded through every possible entrance, and the strike team's forces were being completely overwhelmed. His mask already tattered and his face bloodied, Rappa was going blow-for-blow with Miruko as her kicks proved more than a match for his punches, while a group of Ectoplasm clones had surrounded the remaining Yakuza soldiers, who were rapidly running out of ammunition dealing with the endless destructible facsimiles. As he watched, one of the windows on the near wall burst open, and Snipe leapt through, smoke wafting from his gun's barrel. Kai's eyes met the expressionless gaze of the teacher's gas mask, and the hero wasted no time taking aim and cocking back the hammer; Kai only barely slapped the wall and fused the door shut again in time before a barrage of bullets slammed into the metal, tracing a perfect outline of each of his limbs. God, we really do need to get a move-on.
Behind him, Chronostasis had already joined the main battle, lashing out with his clock hands at the aging hero, who was very nearly cut by them in the first attack. When Overhaul added his spikes back to the fray, Gran Torino had almost nowhere left to dodge, though Chisaki was forced to reprimand Dabi for the intensity of his attacks after a tongue of blue flame set one of the rows of server banks sparking and melting.
"Careful with the damn fire, we can't complete our mission if we destroy everything first!"
"Well we can't complete it until we kill him either, can we?" Dabi shot back, letting his inferno die down for a moment as he turned his head to face.
Gran Torino wasted no time taking advantage of the perceived opening, and blasted down toward them at full speed, his yellow-gloved fist outstretched. From there, everything went exactly as they'd planned; Chisaki had suspected that the old-timer would be present, after all, so naturally they'd devised a strategy to counter him during their tactics sessions. Still looking at Kai in order to preserve the genuine nature of their 'argument', Dabi shifted one hand back in Torino's direction at the last possible second before impact and let out a massive blast of flame. His reflexes as sharp as ever, Torino dodged in the only direction available to him, given all the momentum he'd just built up- toward Overhaul. The opening was brief- it took less than half a second for Sorahiko correct his course and jet back in the other direction- but Chisaki was ready. Swinging both his hands in a wide, converging arc to cover the full range of Torino's possible movement, Kai lunged toward the hero, whose beady eyes widened in shock as he realized his error. The old man was fast- nearly fast enough to escape in time- but not quite. The very tip of Overhaul's left middle finger grazed ever so slightly across the side of Torino's boot as he rocketed away, but that was all it took to disintegrate the hero's right leg up to the knee, splattering all three men with blood.
"Ah, god damn!" Spiraling out of control on his single remaining jet, Sorahiko slammed into one of the servers and tumbled to the floor, his cape covered in streaks of crimson.
Still not done yet, the hero tried to take back off with his left leg, but Chronostasis darted in and swung his minute hand in a clean arc across the hero's back and side before he had the chance. Frozen in place, Gran Torino could only watch with an expression somewhere between fury and regret as Overhaul strode forward, reached down, and destroyed his other leg in the same fashion. Chisaki considered just leaving him to bleed out like that, but after a moment's consideration, he decided that he was in the mood for tragic irony today.
"Here," he called, and tossed the thumb drive containing Cloudpiercer to Kurono. "Go ahead and upload it while I deal with grandpa over here. Dabi, grab Setsuno and contact Kurogiri, we're gonna need that extraction in about thirty seconds."
On cue, one of Miruko's kicks drove a deep, rabbit paw-shaped dent into the door, and Kai chuckled nervously as he grabbed Sorahiko by his collar and carried the paralyzed hero over to the outer wall. The room had no windows, but it only took a second for him to make a wide hole in the metal and concrete and insulation, facing out to the street and city blocks below. Wailing sirens filled the air, but most of the heroes and cops were concentrated on the other side of the building, by the front entrance. Accordingly, there was no one below to catch Gran Torino when Overhaul hurled him over the edge, a soft grin on his lips.
"Your whole life you've been able to fly like it's your second nature," he called down as Sorahiko fell, "so tell me, how does it feel to finally experience gravity like the rest of us?"
He never heard the old man's answer, of course, just the sound of flesh and bone hitting distant pavement. Satsified, Overhaul turned around just in time to watch Lemillion phase through the sealed door and land nimbly on the vault's floor with a wide smile on his face. A moment after it had soared up to new heights, Kai's heart plummeted like a stone in his chest, his eyes wide.
No, not again. He wasn't supposed to be here. He was supposed to be out of the city today…
"Well well well, what do we have here?" Mirio put his hands defiantly on his hips and shook his head in disappointment. "Looks to me like a few cornered thugs with nowhere to run. Wanna give it up and come quietly, Chisaki, or do you need me to rough you up again first?"
Over at the access port, Chronostasis and Dabi seemed at a loss for what to do; the latter had an orb of fire at the ready in his ready in the hand that wasn't busy keeping Setsuno slung over his shoulder, but his expression made it clear that he knew full well he wouldn't be able to singe a single hair on Togata's head.
"You don't touch Kai!" Kurono finally bellowed after a few agonizing seconds of silence, stepping forward with his own pistol held against his head. Even from ten yards away, Overhaul could see that he was trembling in his white overcoat. "You heroes have to save everyone you can, right?! If you take another step forward, I'll fucking do it!"
"Kurono?!" Chisaki cried in confusion, edging towards Dabi as steadily and cautiously as possible. "What the hell are you doing?!"
Even Lemillion momentarily seemed at a loss for words, but a moment was all they needed. In the span of the next second, Kurogiri's portal opened amid one of the rows of servers, midway between the other two villains, Miruko and the heroes finally knocked down the door and burst through, and everyone started to move at once. Dabi and Overhaul both broke out in a sprint for the warp gate, the latter slapping the floor as he went and erecting a shifting wall of grey metal to catch Snipe's bullets and hold back Ectoplasm's clones. Chisaki lost sight of Lemillion and Kurono behind the shield, but a gunshot rang out across the room, just as Miruko leapt over his wall in a single bound. With one last flourish of his hand, he was able to create a bed of spikes large enough to throw off her landing, sending her sprawling face first into one of the servers while Dabi dove through the portal with Setsuno. There was no time to check whether the virus had been successfully uploaded- Kai had to leave that up to faith as he charged through behind Dabi, his breath a ragged pant, sweat soaking his brow and bangs.
Just as he ran through the gate, though, something grabbed hold of one of his legs- one moment he was looking at the dim interior of the warehouse that they were scheduled to warp to, the next he was on his back, staring up at Mirio's face as Lemillion tightened his grip on Chisaki's shin.
"You're not getting away again! Not this time!"
The young hero's body was half-in and half-out of the portal, but his sheer strength was incredible; Overhaul was sliding rapidly back through the gate until the familiar metallic click of a revolver being cocked filled the air, and two fingers on Togata's right hand exploded. His eyes wide with shock, Lemillion loosened his grip out of instinct, and let out a yelp of surprise and pain. Seizing the brief opening, Kai drove his foot hard into the hero's face before he could dephase, sending him stumbling back through to the other side- the instant he was gone, Kurogiri drew the portal shut, leaving the remaining members of Strike Team Vandal alone and exhausted in the darkness, yet nonetheless victorious.
"Thanks for the assist, kid." Chisaki gave Mustard a nod of acknowledgement, gesturing to the boy's Python. "I thought for sure he had me there."
"I would have closed the gate and cut your feet off before I let you be captured," Kurogiri intoned solemnly- Kai couldn't tell whether it was genuine concern or hidden malice in his voice. "Am I to assume that this is everyone who made it, then?"
"Seems like it," Overhaul replied, pushing himself to his feet and doing a quick head count: Mustard, Dabi, Dark Shadow, himself, one Precepts foot soldier, and one unconscious Setsuno. "Six out of seventeen. Losing Rappa and Chronostasis is a kick in the balls, but could've been worse, I guess. We'll get them back soon enough, if they're still alive. That reminds me. Dabi- did Kurono install the virus in time? And where's the video camera?"
"Well, good news and bad news, I guess." The patch-faced Syndicate member eased Setsuno down to the floor, then shoved his hands back in his pockets and shrugged. "Bad news, the old geezer busted the camera to pieces while you were out for a few seconds, so we didn't get to film our great escape. Good news, I'm pretty sure clock hair uploaded the special computer thingy, so don't worry about it."
"Pretty sure?" Chisaki felt one eyebrow raise out of instinct. "You're pretty sure that we accomplished the main goal of our mission? You want to amend that statement?"
"Okay, I'm ninety percent sure he did, that make you happy? I saw him put the flash drive in the computer, things were happening kind of fast, so forgive me if I didn't have time to watch the whole process while the dude was holding a gun to his head and half a dozen heroes were charging at me."
"No, it doesn't, but it'll have to be good enough for now." Overhaul signed heavily. "We'll find out whether or not he did it soon enough, I guess. That's a wrap on today, good work, everyone. Now all of you, split up and head to your safehouses, like we discussed. I don't want to see any of your faces on the street until this has all blown over." He glanced down at his bloodstained jacket, and shuddered at the sight. "I feel filthy. I gotta go take a shower. I need to be clean again."
"So, am I to assume we're sticking to the plan, then?" Gentle asked, stepping up to Pandora's side as they continued to stare down the three heroes opposite them. The slash on his torso still ached, but the bleeding had stopped for the most part, and the adrenaline coursing through his veins had numbed most of the pain for the moment. I can still fight. There's a chance for us to win this yet, and for me to prove my worth.
"I think we're a bit past plans at this point," Synapse replied dryly. "Win. That's the only plan we need to worry about."
"Unfortunately, I'm going to have to object to that strategy," Hawks called, flexing his wings. "Any chance I could persuade you to plan on surrendering instead? It's just that I've already thrashed you all so much, any more would start to feel excessive."
"Just know when you're bested and give it up already!" Gale Force cried, his arms crossed in disapproval. "You have no chance of winning this anymore!"
"I'll admit," said Yaoyorozu, leveling the tip of her sword with Hawks' head, "It's been a rather exhilarating warm-up. You made a fatal error, though."
"Oh?" Hawks took a step forward and grinned, his feathers slowly gathering in a rotating cloud around him. "And what's that?"
"You gave us time to regroup." Momo said with a matching smile of her own, then aimed one of her gauntlets at the ground and fired the smoke bomb that served as the signal for a full counterattack.
Opposite them, Inasa wasted no time whipping up a funnel of wind to blow the thick white cloud away, but by the time it dissipated, Shinso was gone, Yaoyorozu was airborne and making a beeline for Hawks with her jetpack and thrusters, and Tobita as striding calmly towards Sero and Yoarashi, tapping the ground with his elegant walking stick as he went.
"Well well, gentlemen- how shall we go about this? The easy way, or the hard one?"
"I've seen your videos!" Gale Force shot back, lifting steadily off the ground and sending a burst of pressurized wind in Gentle's direction; Danjuro drew his hands around in a wide circle just in time to reflect it back toward its sender. "You've got a lot of passion- not as much as Hawks, but still, I like that! So I don't wanna hurt you too badly, if I can help it!"
"My dear boy, if you want to beat us, you're going to have to hurt me."
Inasa's eyes darkened beneath his Shiketsu cap, and he raised his gloved hand to summon another funnel of air, but Hanta held out an arm to stop him first.
"This one's trouble, Gale Force, I've seen him in action. Let me handle Gentle, you go for the hostages!"
"Are you sure, Cellophane?"
"Yeah, I'm-" Sero froze, his arms suddenly falling limp at his sides, and by the time Yoarashi realized his fellow intern had been brainwashed, Gentle was already springing off the ground towards Hanta, his eyes narrowed in determination.
With a frantic wave of his arms, Inasa used a massive gust to propel Sero up into the air just moments before Danjuro landed where the young hero had been standing- the wind pressure was enough to break the effect of Shinso's quirk, but if the worried glance the two interns exchanged was any indication, they wouldn't be coordinating any further verbally. Predictably, they launched into the same plan they'd just been discussing: Gale Force flew toward the temple doors, where Twice, Monoma, and Nemoto were standing their ground in front of the two hostages, while Cellophane latched onto the roof with a long strand of tape and began to build up momentum in a wide, swinging arc that sent him in a 180 degree loop around the back side of the building. Above the chaos, Pandora was holding her own in an aerial duel with Hawks, whose movements were growing more and more fatigued as exhaustion set in and his feathers were steadily depleted. Hanta tried to surprise her from behind with a strand of tape from his free arm as he swung past them, but she angled down her left gauntlet and incinerated his attack in a stream of fire without so much as a backward glance in his direction.
"La Brava," Tobita called, his eyes locked on Sero as the intern began to swing back in his direction, "now, darling!"
As he watched and waited, Danjuro allowed himself to steal one brief glance up at her perch on the third floor, and smiled softly to himself when she leaned out over the edge of the balcony and cupped her hands around her mouth.
"Gentle, I love you!"
No matter how much they used 'Lover Mode', the feeling of Aiba's quirk flooding through him never failed to impress Tobita as it took effect. All at once, his speed and reflexes were heightened to superhuman levels, his muscles surged with overwhelming power, and excess energy began to emanate from his body in the form of golden fire, from his hair and moustache and flowing cape. A strange tingling sensation shot through his veins until it filled his every limb and extremity, and suddenly his mind was absolutely at peace, brimming with feelings of warmth and affection. These emotions quickly turned to cold resentment, though, when he turned his gaze back to Sero, who by now was flying towards him at full speed, his legs outstretched for a kick.
"Are you quite certain you've seen me fight, young man? You don't seem to be the least bit aware of my tactics." Laying a field of elastic air circles in Hanta's path as he went, Gentle slapped the ground and bounced back and away into the cherry grove, ready to launch a fresh attack on the boy the instant he rebounded into the ground.
Rather than simply fall for the trap, though, Cellophane tugged on his main thread of tape and adjusted his course midair to shoot perfectly between the patches of elasticity, then severed the strand, bared both of his elbows, and fired a swift series of tape bursts down at Gentle as he skidded in for the landing. Tobita was practically mummified from the neck down in the span of a heartbeat, his arms pinned to his side, and with a cry of triumph, Sero pulled hard to the left to swing Danjuro into one of the trees.
"Got you now, asshole! This is for Aizawa!"
Oho, what's this? Tobita cocked an eyebrow in amusement, then cracked his neck and planted his feet firmly in the ground, digging a small pit for each one with the force of impact. Not a bad tactic, but sadly futile. Hanta kept pulling, but Gentle didn't budge a single inch, and couldn't help but let out a chuckle when the intern began to visibly struggle and strain.
"Sorry, young man, did you say you wanted to avenge your teacher? You'll need to try a bit harder than this."
A grin spreading across his face, Tobita flexed his arms a single time and instantly tore the tape bindings to shreds.
"Ah, that's better. It was getting a bit stifling under all that- I'm sure you understand."
Then he launched himself directly toward Cellophane, who raised his elbows and fired another barrage of tape in a panic- it was exactly what Gentle was hoping that he'd do. Grabbing hold of the tips of the threads and wrapping them around his hands, Danjuro dropped back to the ground, dug his heels in, and yanked with all his enhanced strength, sending Hanta flying towards him. He quickly severed the strands midair, but by then momentum was already working against him; there was no chance for Sero to slow down or stop himself before Gentle slammed his waiting fist into the intern's tape-dispenser mask and sent him tumbling bloodied and unconscious to the ground, his jaw shattered.
"Such a bother, violence." Tobita shook his head solemnly, then wiped the blood from his glove with an embroidered handkerchief and turned back to the rest of the battle to assess the situation.
Momo and Hawks were still darting about and slashing at each other overhead like a pair of mad hornets, while at the temple doors, Neito had copied Todoroki's quirk, and was holding back Gale Force with alternating blasts of fire and ice while Twice lashed out at the young hero's defenses. I still have nearly a minute of Aiba's quirk left, he knew, his eyes flitting between the two engagements. But whom to assist?
"Chaudron needs your held more than Pandora does. He's barely conscious at this point, he could pass out any moment, and then the hostages are practically unguarded." Danjuro jumped at the sound of Synapse's voice in his ear- Hitoshi had practically read his mind- but swiftly complied nonetheless, breaking into a sprint and then a quirk-assisted leap towards Yoarashi.
Inasa noticed his new opponent just in time to dodge his outstretched fist, but he wasn't quite agile enough to evade the circle of elasticized air Tobita was wielding like a bludgeon with his other hand, and blood spurted from his broken nose as he sailed a dozen meters toward the ground before finally catching himself. Gentle, meanwhile, landed atop the roof of the temple, his flaming cape billowing in the wind, and the two stared each other down for a few tense moments.
"You say you've seen my interviews," Danjuro called, stroking his moustache. "Well I've seen your interviews, Gale Force, and I must say, I'm impressed. You have a clear dream that you're not afraid to chase with all your heart no matter what the world may think of you. In another lifetime, perhaps we could be comrades."
After a heavy sigh, Tobita reached down, touched the tiles of the roof, and shot off the newly elastic surface towards Yoarashi, who raised his arms and fired off two funnels of air to intercept the villain. The wind was strong and fast, and Gentle was very nearly thrown back, but in his current state, he was stronger and faster still, and fought through the gale to land a brutal, double-fisted blow on Inasa's chest. Much of the impact was absorbed by the intern's bulky hero costume, but the Shiketsu third-year's wind died down as he gasped for breath, and it was all too easy for Danjuro to slip behind him with his enhanced speed and deliver a brutal chop to the back of his neck, sending Yoarashi plummeting into the ground.
"The only problem," Gentle continued, bouncing down towards the ground off of a series of air circles, "is that I have a dream too, young man, and that dream is not just my own to protect! Who's to say that yours is more important than ours?!"
Touching down gently on the stones of the courtyard, Tobita regarded Gale Force with a look of pity; the hero had struggled back to his knees, though blood was still dripping down his face, and his breath was wheezing and ragged.
"Finish him, Gentle!" La Brava shouted, and Danjuro was raising his fist to do just that when a blast of wind sent him staggering backward, and suddenly Yoarashi was back on his feet, his eyes wide with anger as his massive glove surged straight toward Tobita's face- tendrils of wind were whipping around it to increase the blow's speed and power.
"Take this! Hurricane Punch!"
"How trivial," Gentle replied in a bored tone, catching the attack easily with one hand. As little as he generally enjoyed these parts of his fights, he couldn't help but find himself grinning as Inasa's eyes widened in shock. With a flourish of his free hand, he laid an open palm strike on the intern's chest that sent him skidding back a dozen yards- Yoarashi nearly fell off the mountaintop, and only caught himself thanks to his wind. When he lifted his head and raised his arms again, though, his face was a mask of furious determination.
"Let's see how you handle a taste of Divine Typhoon!"
This time, the deluge of wind was on a completely different level in terms of power, and even when he dug in his feet again, Gentle found himself sliding backward uncontrollably. He tried to create a series of air circles to reflect the gale, but each time he sealed off one side it started to come from another, until it began to lift up from beneath him, and he was in danger of being carried away. The whirling torrent built up in a massive, storm-like pattern around Tobita, until the walls of the miniature tornado were practically all he could see; just outside his visual range, he could hear the cracking and twisting of wood as the trees were torn from their roots, and the shattering of ceramics as the tiles from the temple roof smashed into the ground. Well, now, this might be a problem. I suppose if things get too dire, I could-
"Hey, kid, easy with the wind there, you could injure the hostages!" The sound of Hawks' muffled voice interrupted his thoughts, and with eyes wide in anticipation, Tobita whipped his head back around to watch Inasa's response.
"Forgive me, Hawks-sensei! I didn't mean to-"
Yoarashi fell instantly for the brainwashing, and the moment he froze in place, Gentle lunged forward and delivered a brutal kick to the boy's stomach that sent him soaring through the air like a bullet. Against all odds, Inasa managed to hold on to consciousness and steady himself above the cherry grove, but by then Danjuro was already directly above him, holding half a dozen layers of elastic air over his head.
"No one gets to stand in the way of our dream, not even you! Farewell, young Gale Force- Gently Sandwich!"
Before Yoarashi could dodge, Tobita slammed the compressed circles down into the intern's head and sent him sailing into the ground like a missile, then rocketed down after him and bashed Inasa once more into the crater he'd created to ensure that he wouldn't be getting up again this time.
But once the adrenaline surging through his veins had died down, and Lover Mode's aura faded, Gentle's eyes widened in horror as he gazed down at the young hero's bruised and battered body. Dear lord, is he… dead? Did I kill him?!
Then Danjuro saw Yoarashi's armored chest move up and down ever so slightly, as his mouth parted almost imperceptibly to allow a hint of a breath to escape from his bloodied lips. He sighed in silent relief, but then Mr. Compress' words drifted once more into his mind. It's a bridge you're going to have to cross, sooner or later.
Pushing Atsuhiro's warning to the back of his mind for the time being, Gentle turned toward the others and sprung back into the air. I can wait to cross it for a little while longer, I think.
Back by the temple, though, the battle wasn't going nearly as smoothly, as Shinso was forced to admit to himself. In spite of all the advanced combat gear she'd created, Yaoyorozu was still losing ground against Hawks in their duel- she'd managed to singe or freeze a few feathers and patches of his jacket, and had even broke his nose with her shield, but she hadn't managed to lay a single solid cut on his exposed skin with her paralyzing sword, and although the two interns had both proven gullible, Hitoshi hadn't been able to get the Winged Hero to fall for his brainwashing trick again, no matter which voices he tried.
As Synapse stood and watched on the balcony beside La Brava, cursing himself for his uselessness, one of Hawks' flight feathers whizzed behind Pandora before she could counter it and slashed straight through her jetpack's fuel cell in a burst of sparks and flame. A quick follow-up attack forced her to land before she could create a new one, and Shinso's stomach sank when he drove her head into the stone with a swift kick.
"Hold on, Pandora!" Gentle's voice drifted over from the far side of the battlefield, where he'd just finished off Gale Force, and Tobita began to leap from air cushion to air cushion back over toward the rest of them. A glint in Hawks' eye indicated that he remembered how Twice and Gentle had given him trouble before by working in concert, and the Winged Hero charged straight for Jin and the hostages, aiming to take Bubaigawara down before Danjuro arrived. Monoma had already fallen unconscious and ben carried inside by Nemoto, so Twice was the only one still guarding the hostages, and Shinso watched with genuine curiosity as Hawks dismantled Jin's defenses, shattered his tape dispensers, and slammed his body into the temple wall, all in the span of a second.
So it seems like he'll be rescuing one of them after all, Synapse mused, as the hero used one of his flight feathers to pry apart Uravity's restraints, touched Ochako's fingertips to her face to turn her weightless, and let one of his smaller feathers carry her out and away from the mountainside at a breakneck speed, towards where government helicopters and hero teams were still clashing with Longshot. Hatsume's going to have a field day with this.
Just as Hawks was turning to Coldflame to free the second hostage, though, Gentle skidded to a halt just behind the Winged Hero, who barely turned around in time to deflect Tobita's elastic attack with one of his feathers. The two traded blows for a few brief moments, but just when one of Hawks' feathers plunged through Danjuro's knee like a dagger, and it seemed that the villain was on the verge of defeat, a hissing sound filled the air, and suddenly one of Hawks' legs was frozen to the ground, rendering him immobile; Momo had finally struggled back to one knee and torn her broken mask off, panting as she aimed her gauntlet at the hero with trembling hands.
"Jesus Christ, that's cold!" Hawks yelped in protest. Within half a heartbeat, he had grabbed hold of one of his longer feathers to break apart the cocoon of ice, but just as he leaned down to free himself, there was a flash of blue light, and suddenly one of his wings had disappeared, all the way down to a bloodied stump, and the hero let out an agonized cry of pain.
"You seem to be unfamiliar with the most basic rule of showmanship," Called Mr. Compress, wiping away the stream of blood dripping from underneath his mask as he limped slowly and gingerly towards the hero, a turquoise marble grasped between two gloved fingers. "Never overstay your welcome."
Atsuhiro swiped downward with his other hand, and now both of Hawks' wings had been compressed, leaving the number one hero practically powerless- this had been the plan from the beginning, until he took them by surprise with the ferocity of his new tactics. It seems we're finally up, Shinso realized. Wasting no time, he gestured for La Brava to follow him downstairs and out through the doors into the courtyard, then crossed his arms and waited while Gentle and Pandora each restrained one of the defeated hero's arms and forced him to his knees. Hawks gave them practically no resistance- the look of shock and hopelessness in his eyes was so raw and complete that Hitoshi almost found him pitiable- almost, but not quite.
"Strike Team Vandal has completed their mission at the police station and been successfully evacuated," said Synapse, glancing to Compress, who still had a two-foot feather embedded in his stomach. "I'm signaling Kurogiri's clone to return for a medical extraction. Make sure he takes Chaudron, Spinner, and Twice too. Pandora, come to think of it, do you need one as well? You took a pretty hard hit back there."
"I'm fine," Yaoyorozu insisted, despite the blood dripping down from her scalp. "I need to see this through to the end. If I need medical attention, I can create the supplies myself."
"If you say so," Hitoshi muttered, as he pressed a button on his phone and a pulsing warp gate appeared by the temple entrance. Once he was sure that Kurogiri had the extraction well in hand, he beckoned for the plague-masked Nemoto Shin to join them, and crouched down to look Hawks in the eyes- once three seconds had passed, he began to issue commands.
"Do not attempt to escape or resist anything that we do. Do not speak unless you are asked to. When you do speak, do not provide any information other than precisely what you are asked for."
Then he nodded for La Brava to begin filming, and launched into the opening monologue- the whole piece had been written for Monoma to deliver, but that wasn't currently possible given the circumstances.
"The number one hero," Shinso began, clasping his hands behind his back and turning to face the blinking red light. "That was what you named him the other week, yes? We at the Syndicate were so excited to test out that claim for ourselves after the challenge our leader gave him, but after one little fight, he doesn't seem to be capable of much heroism at all anymore. Isn't that right, Hawks?"
The camera zoomed in on the meager remains of the hero's wings, and out of the corner of his eye Hitoshi could see La Brava screwing up her face in disgust at the sight of the exposed blood and bone. Hawks merely looked up at Synapse with lifeless eyes, and said nothing in response- whether he was trying to avoid the chance of brainwashing or he'd simply run out of witty barbs altogether, Shinso wasn't sure.
"As such," Hitoshi continued, "it seems to me that the only merciful thing for us to do now is to kill him, and put him out of his misery. Before we do, though, there's something that we think you all deserve to know about your soon-to-be former number one hero. La Brava?"
Aiba pressed a button on the side of the camera, and suddenly everyone tuned into their livestream was watching the same video clip, retrieved from the League's old files- Manami turned the screen around so that they could all see it. The footage was grainy, and there was hardly any color, but clearly visible at the center of the screen were Hawks and Dabi, standing in the semi-darkness of an old warehouse.
"That was different from what we'd discussed," said Hawks, holding a three-foot scarlet feather out in front of him like a short sword.
"Is that so?"
"I was hoping we'd get along better than this, Dabi."
Synapse felt a smile growing across his face as he continued to watch the exchange- it was the only footage of use they'd found among the League's archives in Kobe, and for some time after watching it, Midoriya had been delighted by the revelation that Hawks was a double agent whom they could target for recruitment. It took further investigation by Momo to reveal that he'd been working for the police the whole time, but after Overhaul's team raided and pillaged Tokyo PD headquarters, it was unlikely that the files proving Hawks' innocence still survived. Even if they try to reveal the truth of the operation after the fact, Shinso reflected, it'll just seem like they're trying to cover for him. People always latch onto the worst possible scenario out of instinct.
"Well hey," Hawks was saying, "it did some serious damage to the number one. You should be happy. I haven't broken my promise. You're the only one who's gone back on his word."
"But it's even more unreasonable for you to think I'd trust the number two hero right off the bat. So this was also a test to see if you were trustworthy." Dabi shifted on his feet, and tilted his head slightly to the left as the feather began to hover closer and closer to his neck. "Why exactly did today's little event get resolved with zero deceased? It's hard to believe someone who sympathized with our cause and requested to cooperate would act in such a way."
"I've got to keep up appearances on my end," Hawks shot back. "I can't afford to lose the faith that's been placed in me as a hero. The more confidence everyone has in me, the more valuable information I'll receive. You should really be looking at the big picture here." Grabbing the feather back out of the air, the Winged Hero turned and began to walk away. "Everything I do, I do for the League, Dabi."
"Well, I still won't let you meet the boss for the time being, but… I'll contact you again, Hawks."
Then the clip ended, and the camera cut back to the hero's defeated face. On cue, Nemoto stepped forward into the shot, and Shinso, positioned between the two, smiled at the camera.
"Allow me to introduce Nemoto Shin of the Eight Precepts, a name I'm sure you're familiar with from the most wanted lists. His quirk is called Confession, and it forces anyone he poses a question to answer truthfully. I believe you had something to ask Hawks, didn't you, Nemoto?"
"Indeed," The Expendable replied, then took another step forward. "Hawks, was that you in the clip we all just saw?"
"…Yes."
"So you can confirm that you met with Dabi on multiple occasions, with the goal of gaining the trust of the League of Villains?"
"Yes."
"Why did you stop meeting them? Did you have a change of heart?"
"No. They got too suspicious, I guess. They stopped responding to my messages."
"That's all the questions I had," said Shin with a nod to Hitoshi.
"What a heartbreaking turn of events," Synapse said with feigned solemnity. "I must admit, even with our disdain for the current system, we were shocked when we learned of Hawks' betrayal; we knew that the people deserved to know the real truth about their so-called 'heroes'. But we won't let this traitor wound you anymore. Pandora, if you would?"
"With pleasure."
A soft smirk on her lips, Yaoyorozu grabbed hold of a tuft of Hawks' blond hair, then leaned down and dragged the blade of her sword across his throat. Bright crimson blood the color of the hero's stolen feathers spurted out across the cracked grey stones, and after swaying back and forth for a moment, he fell to the ground face-first and died in silence.
"Now he can't hurt anyone else with his disloyalty," remarked Shinso, his tone warm and comforting. "I'm afraid we have to go for now, but don't think that today's festivities are over quite yet. Make sure you keep watching for the grand finale."
"Alright, Snipe and Ectoplasm are on their way here now. Battle Fist, are you ready to go?"
"As I'll ever be," Itsuka replied, in the midst of a series of arm and leg stretches. "You're just lucky I'm patient, or I'd already be there."
"You know you don't have to come, right?" asked Present Mic, rubbing the back of his head. "You've been dealing with a lot lately, no one's gonna blame you if you let us pros handle it."
Kendo shot him a withering glare that said more than enough about her stance on coming to silence Hizashi, then stood and straightened her skirt; she was still wearing her school uniform, but it'd have to make do for now. Most of the students had made their way back to the dorms by now, but there were still a significant number visible milling about outside the glass doors of the lobby, many calling their parents or watching the villains' livestream on their phones. The hallways around them had grown eerily silent, though- for all intents and purposes, U.A. had become a ghost town in the span of a few minutes. When approaching footsteps announced the other two teachers' arrival a few moments later, Kendo turned to face the group of pros and cracked her knuckles.
"Alright, are we doing this the fast way or the slow way? With all due respect, keep in mind, there's a right answer and a wrong one to that question."
"I… was going to say we could use my car." Snipe offered meekly. "Traffic parts for heroes on duties after all, so it's not like it'd take…" He trailed off and exchanged a glance with Aizawa, who simply dug his hands into his pockets and shrugged.
"Sorry, she still doesn't really know how to take 'no' for an answer. But to be fair, it'll be a lot more efficient."
"And only slightly more humiliating," Ectoplasm quipped. "There's no sense in more discussion- the mission comes before our pride. Battle Fist, we're ready."
"Glad to hear it."
Once the group had stepped outside, Kendo grew both of her hands to a massive size, then gently picked up two teachers in each one, careful not to squeeze too hard. The moment they were all secure, she crouched down, let One For All fill her body, and took off towards downtown with a soaring leap, kicking up a cloud of dust in her wake.
In the end, it only took three minutes and forty-two seconds for them to reach Lemillion's agency, a swanky, modern office with floor-to-ceiling glass windows and colorful decor overlooking a busy market street. Togata had done well for himself since graduating from U.A.; an instant media darling, he already had a few sidekicks of his own, and had taken on several students from his alma mater as interns, including a few of Kendo's classmates during his most recent recruiting drive. Juzo and Setsuna were both visible on a video call with Mirio when they strode into his conference room- their faces occupied one wall-mounted flatscreen monitor, while the Syndicate livestream took up the other.
"I know traffic's going to be bad," Togata was saying, "and you should definitely check with your parents first, but if you really want to come down, you're more than welcome. I gotta warn you, though, we might be rolling out in the next few minutes- I'll keep you posted, okay?"
"Kendo!" Tokage cried as soon as she caught sight of Itsuka. "How are you already… wait, nevermind, of course you are."
"Look who it is, early as usual!" Lemillion turned around and flashed the group of newcomers a beaming grin, his hands on his hips. "Glad you guys could make it too, Eraser. Miruko and the sidekicks are in my office if you wanna say hi before we leave, first door on the right."
"Will do," Aiwaza replied, gesturing for the other teachers to follow him. Battle Fist lingered, however, to speak with her fellow 3-B students for a short while longer.
"I'm sorry I didn't realize you guys wanted to come too! I could've carried you both like I did with the others, do you want me to come back and get you now? It'd probably be quicker in the long run."
"Nah, don't worry about it." Honenuki shot her a thumbs up, and a sudden lighting change indicated that they'd entered the dorm- the chatter of a dozen other of Itsuka's friends was audible in the background. "That'd do nothing but slow you down, and we know time's an important factor. Just save some of the bad guys for us, okay?"
"Yeah, at least a couple!" Setsuna butted in. "I really feel like kicking some villain ass after watching those Syndicate motherfuckers' stupid video for half an hour."
"Language!" Togata protested in shock. After a few hurried apologies from the new interns, they ended the call, and Mirio turned to face Kendo.
"I'm really glad you're here, Battle Fist. You ready for this? We're gonna be walking into a rough situation, I'll be handing out gasmasks and flashbangs for everyone to counter Mustard and Dark Shadow."
"As ready as I'll ever be," Itsuka sighed, thinking back to the training camp. "I've dealt with the sleeping gas prick before, he's smart- fights dirty."
"So I've heard. Sorry, just one second." A cheerful ding announced that Lemillion had received a text, and his face lit up when he read it. "Alright, Sir's finally here!"
"…Huh?" Kendo raised an eyebrow questioningly. "No, he's over at U.A., talking with All Might."
Togata gave her a puzzled glance, but before he could say anything, the door to the lobby opened, and Itsuka's eyes widened in disbelief as Nighteye stepped through, dusting off his grey suit- a different color than the one she'd seen him in just five minutes ago, a quarter of the way across the city. Suddenly her heart felt like it was made of lead, and her mouth refused to work properly.
"I… you… what? How are you…"
"Took ya long enough, slowpoke!" Miruko's loud voice interrupted her stammering as the Rabbit Hero strode over from the office, a cheeky grin on her face. "What, did you get lost at the haberdashery?"
"As you're well aware, I was stuck in traffic," he replied curtly, straightening his tie and glasses. "That joke isn't any funnier now than it was the first two times you texted it to me."
"Eh, third time's the charm, and you're a hopeless audience anyway. I… Kendo, what's wrong?" Usagiyama had noticed her intern's obvious distress, and Itsuka finally forced herself to form words again.
"Sir, you… you weren't just at U.A., were you?"
Please say you were. Please let me be wrong.
"No. As we've established, I was-"
"I need to go." Itsuka turned and began to walk towards the exit, but quickly changed her mind. Fuck it, the elevator takes too long. I think Mirio'll forgive me if I repay him for the window.
"Go?" Lemillion looked even more confounded now. "But you just got here! Do you mean to the police station? We're all going to leave together soon, I can't let you go by yourself!"
"No!" Kendo pulled out her phone and typed out a brief warning text with shaking fingers as she spoke, trying her best to keep the panic building up inside her chest out of her voice. "I need to get back to U.A., because I think I just left All Might alone with Toga Himiko!"
"Holy shit." A loud crack and splash announced that Aizawa had dropped his mug of coffee on the other end of the room, where he was standing paralyzed with shock, his eyes locked on Nighteye. When he turned his head to face Kendo, his expression was full of an emotion she'd never seen in him before- fear. "Go, now, I'll explain it to them!"
You don't have to tell me twice.
Only a slight tinge of guilt for defacing Togata's new agency flitted through Itsuka's brain as she leapt through the window in a shower of shattered glass, bounced off the nearest rooftop, and began to soar back in the direction she'd come from. The rest of her mind was deep in the grip of cold, numbing terror, the unmistakable feeling that something horrible was about to happen to someone she loved.
"I'll save you," she whispered to herself as she drew nearer and nearer to the school. "I promise, I'll save you. Please, just hang in there."
When Atsuhiro's quirk was finally lifted, and Midoriya burst back into form and consciousness from his compressed state, the scene playing out before him was already enough to put a wide smile on his face. Toga cried out in glee the moment he appeared, and wrapped her arms tightly around him, her cheeks flushed with color. Just beyond her, All Might was slumped against the tall metal fame of one of the roof's heating units, gazing up at them with wide eyes. One of his hands was wrapped weakly around the hilt of the knife embedded just above his collarbone, and his breath was halting and ragged.
"Aren't you proud of me, baby?" Himiko cooed, planting a brief kiss on his lips. "I was reallllly tempted to just finish him off, it would've been so easy, but I left him for you, just like I promised!"
"I'm so proud of you, darling. I know that must've been difficult for you." He wrapped one hand around her waist and straightened his tie with the other, taking one step toward the fallen hero.
"Long time no see, All Might." The affection was gone from his voice, replaced by cold, calm apathy. "Do you remember our last conversation? What you told me?"
"How could I… ever forget?" Blood dribbled out of Toshinori's mouth when he spoke, and his body was wracked by violent coughs the moment he drew silent. "Young Midoriya… I'm so-"
"Sorry?" Izuku laughed aloud. "Were you about to tell me that you're sorry? It's a bit late for that." He let go of Toga and crouched down until his face was only a few inches from Yagi's. "Two years too late, old man."
There was an audible click, and suddenly Toshinori's arm was fitted with a quirk-suppressing shackle of the same type that had held Uraraka and Todoroki.
"Just for insurance's sake." Seraph explained matter-of-factly. "Your quirk is so curious, after all. I found it fascinating, personally, how it simply vanished about a year ago, except for the few rare occasions you've been seen to use it again- and even then, only for a brief moment. Tell me, Carmilla, have you ever heard of another quirk behaving like that?"
"Nope, never!"
"I hadn't either, until I began to do a bit of research, about your past, and the concept of quirk transfer. What I found was absolutely enthralling, Toshinori." He paused, and shook his head with a sigh. "But I'm not here to talk about One For All. I'll have plenty of time to discuss it with the current holder once you're gone, after all. What do you think, All Might? Would Kendo be agreeable to a little chat?"
"Leave her… out of this." All Might gritted, his eyes narrowing in anger. "I'm the one you want, not her."
"How right you are… for now, at least. My apologies for the digression- where were we? Ah yes. I believe you were apologizing."
"I'm not sorry for what I said to you." Yagi coughed again, more violently this time, as a new stream of blood leaked from his wound and soaked into his suit. "At the time, with the information I had, I thought it was the best way to keep you from hurting yourself."
"Oh?" Izuku raised one eyebrow, and he felt the fingers on one hand curling involuntarily into a fist.
"I'm sorry that I didn't see how much pain you were in, young Midoriya." Suddenly tears began to well up in All Might's eyes, and Seraph flinched when the retired hero laid one trembling, bloody hand on his shoulder. "You were suffering right in front of me," Toshinori continued softly, "but I… I didn't realize how badly you needed me to save you. When you disappeared, I remember how terrified I was, how ashamed. I was so afraid that you had… that you had ended it out of despair. I'm glad that you're alive, Midoriya, but I can't help but despise how badly I failed you."
"I didn't need to be saved." Izuku slapped away Yagi's hand, grabbed hold of his throat, and lifted the gaunt skeleton of the man into the air like a ragdoll, grinning as he gasped for breath. "Don't you get it? I didn't need your 'help' then, and I don't need it now."
The exo-armor concealed beneath his blazer and dress shirt hummed with electricity as it activated, but All Might was so light that Midoriya hardly needed the augmentations. His heartbeat was growing weaker and weaker each second Seraph tightened his group around the man's neck, so Izuku forced himself to toss Toshinori to the ground, and let him gasp for breath again. We can't have him dying before I'm finished.
"Everything I've done these past two years has been to prove myself to you, to prove that I'm worthy, that I don't need your pity. I had to show you that I can stand on my own, that I don't need a quirk to show my worth. So what do you think of what I've built, Symbol of Peace?" Midoriya held out his arms and smiled warmly. "All the blood and death and violence, it's all for you! I suppose I really have to thank you, in a roundabout way. None of this would've been possible if I didn't have you to keep driving me forward! There were so many times in the first few months that I was close to giving it all up, frightened that I was going to get myself and the people I cared about killed. But each time I despaired, I thought of you, All Might, of how greatly you'd hurt me, and just like that, I had the will to move forward again!"
Midoriya chuckled softly to himself, crouched down again over Toshinori's bloodsoaked chest, and grabbed onto the hilt of Toga's knife, twisting it back and forth in the wound. Yagi gasped in pain, and behind him, Himiko groaned with pleasure at the sight, running her fingers through Izuku's hair.
"You know, in a way, All Might, you're just as responsible for every person who died today as I am! How does that make you feel?"
"That's… not true." Toshinori muttered defiantly, though his voice had dropped to a ragged hiss.
"Perhaps it isn't, but what will the public believe if I tell them that it is? That's the wonderful thing about power, All Might- when you have enough, the truth is whatever you want it to be." Bored of making the retired hero writhe in agony, Izuku let go of the knife's hilt, stood, and began to pace back and forth across the roof, his hands clasped behind his back.
"And once you and Hawks are gone, and entropy takes its toll, I'll have more than enough power to have the good people of this country- the people that you care for so dearly- eating out of the palm of my hand. A quirkless boy who was told he'd never amount to anything will be their new symbol, and rest assured, they'll come to love me more than they ever loved you. It's rather poetic, don't you think?"
"I was never big… on poetry." Turning his head away from Midoriya, All Might reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out his cellphone, and began to type a message with shaky hands.
"Trying to call for help? How futile. You really are more pathetic than I thought." Seraph leaned down, snatched the phone away, and peered at the bloody screen. It was a half typed text message, addressed to Battle Fist.
(Draft): goodbye, young Kendo. I will always
"Ah, so you're more of the sentimental type than I realized! How touching." Izuku smirked and dangled the phone in front of Toshinori's increasingly pallid face. "What a shame it would be if she never received her master's final words." Then Izuku activated his metal gauntlet and squeezed until he was holding nothing but a mangled wreck of shattered glass and cracked circuitry.
"Oops. How clumsy of me."
Another tear ran down Yagi's gaunt cheek as Midoriya dropped the remains of the phone to the ground and began to advance toward him again, and when Seraph grabbed him by the collar of his suit and lifted him into the air, the wounded hero stared back in silent defiance.
"It's a vice of mine, to tell you the truth." Izuku shook his head and took a step toward the roof's edge. "I have the worst habit of breaking things when I grow bored of them. And do you know what All Might? I've looked forward to seeing you again for two years, but now that you're finally here in front of me, and I've said what I wanted to say, you're starting to bore me."
Another step, and they were at the precipice; the tips of Toshinori's toes were still on solid ground, but only barely- the rest of his body was being held in place by Midoriya's hand. One light push, one stray gust of wind, and he'd go tumbling into the abyss.
"So do what you came here to do." The sympathy gone from his voice, All Might spit a gob of blood directly onto Izuku's face, and Seraph couldn't help but smirk as he drew his handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped it away.
"Ah, there's the spirit I once admired so dearly. You know, I'm going to miss you, in my own way."
Then Midoriya drew his free hand back, let the electrified metal plates slide around his fist, and drove it into All Might's chest with every last ounce of his strength, a single word escaping his lips as he released his grip on Toshnori's neck.
"Smash."
For a fraction of a moment, All Might seemed to hang in midair, his eyes half-shut if he were in a dreamlike trance. But then gravity caught up with him, and he plummeted to the distant ground like a stone, landing crookedly amid the bushes with a dull thud.
"Yayyy! We did it, baby, we did it!" Toga's giddy voice was the first thing that Midoriya heard over the sound of his own pounding heart once it was done, and he allowed himself a soft grin as she wrapped her arm around his shoulders and kissed his neck from behind. "Can I send the signal now, baby? Can I, can I?"
"Go ahead, dear. I'll summon Kurogiri once you're done."
Cackling gleefully all the while, Carmilla drew a flare gun out of her kit and fired into the air; it burst into a bright, glowing red 'X' far above them, burned into the sky like a brand, where it would linger for the better part of an hour, thanks to Hatsume's proclivity for pyrotechnics.
But as Seraph's gaze drifted from the flare back down to his phone to call for their extraction, something caught his eye on the horizon, a small smudge rapidly increasing in size. By the time he realized what is was, she was nearly on top of them.
Kendo Itsuka saw it in slow motion, like a nightmare. She was still over a kilometer away from the school when it happened, but she saw the distant blonde dot that was All Might fall from U.A.'s roof, his shadow reflected on the bright glass windows as he dropped. Somehow, she instantly knew that it was him, and she pushed herself past her breaking point, strained her every muscle in a desperate attempt to wring One For All for any extra speed that it had, but deep down Kendo knew she was too far away to catch him. She was passing the thousand meter mark when she saw him hit the ground.
On the return journey, it took Kendo just two minutes and seven seconds to travel from Lemillion's agency back to the school. By her own estimates, calculated some days afterward, she was just nine seconds too late to save him. Nine seconds- she would never forget that number.
Itsuka also saw the one who had pushed him. As she soared closer and closer, she could see that he was a boy around her age, with messy green hair, neat clothes, and Toga Himiko's arms wrapped around his chest. Midoriya Izuku. Suddenly, she felt her horror turning into pure rage, and all at once she decided she was going to kill him, a decision unanimously reached by every fiber of her being.
She was very close now, just moments away from landing- near enough to see the expressions of shock on the two villains' faces. So you weren't expecting me back so soon, huh? Good. Then a black and purple portal opened just a few yards behind them, and her hands swelled and curled into fists as they broke into a run for it, pure adrenaline and fury coursing through her veins.
"YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY!"
But Toga had already jumped through, and Midoriya was close on her heels, just a heartbeat away from a clean escape. She landed on the school roof with a ground-shaking thud just as Izuku began to disappear through the gate, one hand reaching for his back. No. It can't end like this. I won't let him get away. I have to catch him.
What happened next, she didn't understand. Suddenly her outstretched arm pulsed with an unfamiliar energy, and all at once a long black tendril burst out from beneath her sleeve, streaking toward's Midoriya's receding form. When he vanished completely into the portal, it followed him through, and out of an instinct that felt both entirely new and deep-seated within her, Kendo yanked back, hard. Like a fish on a line, Izuku popped back through, struggling to remain on his feet; the black mass was coiled around his lower arm, and Itsuka could feel it tighten at her command when she flexed her bicep. They locked eyes with each other, and Kendo could feel a grin spreading across her face when see recognized genuine fear in Midoriya's expression.
"You're dead meat."
Before she could drag him any closer, though, Izuku produced a short, curved black blade from inside his other sleeve and brought it down in a swift slashing motion. His restrained arm was instantly amputated at the elbow in a fountain of blood- he never broke eye contact with her all the while. Then he fell through the warp gate and it flickered shut behind him, leaving only his severed limb behind. At the same time, the black tendril receded back into her body just as quickly as it had appeared, and Kendo fell to her knees, alone and broken. Battle Fist was vaguely aware of an intense, numbing pain in her arm, like pins and needles multiplied by a hundred, but she honestly couldn't bring herself to care. After spending a few moments in shocked silence, Itsuka came to her senses all at once, shot up to her feet, and leapt down to where she'd seen All Might fall, her eyes wide and frantic.
He was still alive when she touched down on the ground, but only barely, his body eagle-splayed among the bushes beneath a classroom window. His back and most of his limbs were broken, by the look of it, and along with the knife buried above his collar, his stomach been run through by a jagged stump; shards of bloodsoaked wood were scattered across the nearby leaves. His eyes were closed, but his chest was still rising and falling ever so slightly, and he began to slowly stir when she crouched down over him, tears welling up in her eyes.
"No, no, god please, no… All Might, can you hear me?!"
"Young Kendo." Suddenly his sunken eyes opened, two bright points of blue gazing proudly up at her. "You came back."
"Of course I did! You're gonna be okay, we're gonna fix you right up. Just hold on." For a moment she considered lifting him up and carrying him to the nurse's office, but then her eyes drifted back to the hunk of wood protruding from his stomach. He's already lost too much blood, his heart won't be able to take it if I move him. Footsteps became audible in the near distance, and when she looked up a there was a small gaggle of students she didn't recognize a few yards away, watching from the main path with horrified expressions.
"Get Recovery Girl!" Kendo shouted; the tears were streaming openly down her face now, but she didn't care if they saw her cry. "Does one of you have a healing quirk?!" One of the students darted back towards the school's entrance, but the rest of them remained rooted to where they stood, and more and more gradually began to arrive, drawn by her yelling, until there was an entire crowd watching.
"Kendo… listen to me." All Might laid a hand on her face and cupped her cheek, drawing her attention back to him for the moment.
"Don't talk, please. You need to save your strength!" Laying her hand across his own, she glanced briefly back up at the spectators. "Where the hell is Recovery Girl?!"
"You really do… remind me of her." All Might's voice was barely a whisper now, and she leaned in closer to hear what he was saying as he wiped away her tears with his thumb. His gaze had grown wistful now, like he wasn't really looking at her anymore, but far past her. "I can finally see her again, Kendo. I've missed her so much."
Nana, she realized, a leaden lump growing in her throat.
"You still have so much to teach me, though." Shifting her position on the ground, she lifted his head and shoulders into her arms, forcing a shaky smile onto her lips. "Right? And don't forget that we're still going to Canada together. I looked it up, though, you're not supposed pet the moose."
All Might let out a rasping chuckle at that, though her grip on him tightened out of instinct when more blood spurted out of his mouth.
"Thank you, Itsuka." He smiled weakly, then leaned up and held his forehead gently against hers. "Thank you for making the last few years of my life… happy ones."
Then he drew silent and still in her arms, and Kendo knew instantly that it was over. She'd stopped crying, perhaps out of sheer shock, and the crowd had grown mute around her- only the sound of chirping birds filled the cool morning air. Her eyes screwed shut and stayed that way, and she was only vaguely aware of most of what happened next. It took Midnight and Hound Dog a full minute to pry her off of Toshinori's body, and then she was wrapped in Jiro and Tetsutetsu's arms, sobbing into Kyoka's chest as Real Steel stroked her hair tenderly. They were talking to her in comforting voices, but she couldn't hear a single word. Right now, she and her grief might as well have been the entire world, and Kendo had never felt so alone.
And so it's done. The death of All Might was one of the hardest scenes I've ever written, so I hope I did it justice, not to mention the demise of Hawks and Gran Torino. As I mentioned last time, this is the story's Season 1 finale from a narrative perspective, so let me know what you've thought of events up to this point! Every review is a major help, no matter how brief. It might be a bit longer until the next update as I take a short break, but next time we'll delve into the complex aftermath of the operation, the response of society and the hero community, and what the Syndicate is planning next. Where do you think they'll go from here? By the way, for anyone who's confused about the black stuff that shot out of Itsuka's arm, all I'll say is that you need to catch up on the manga.