Summary:

"How terrible," a passerby tuts, "hopefully he gets help."

"Gross. At least have the decency to hang out in front of an alley and not in front of a business, brat," another spat at him.

"A hero will come by to help you, I know it. Just stay strong, kid," someone tried to assure him.

With each comment, Izuku drew further within himself. With each comment, Izuku's hope of being saved was stamped out that much more. With each comment, Izuku wished he had been reduced to ashes like his parents.

He ended up sitting on the sidewalk for hours, hearing the same hollow reassurances and occasional insults, waiting for someone to save him. A shadow fell over him, Izuku curled even further inwards, unwilling to look at the latest good-intentioned but ultimately unhelpful person. The seconds ticked by but still no words were said, curious as to what this person was doing, he looked up. Instead of a cruel sneer, all he saw was an outstretched hand and a warm smile.

"Come with me, child. Let me save you."

Chapter 1: A New Opponent

Eraserhead was making short work of the villains that invaded the USJ. Entangling people in his capture weapon, swinging them around and throwing them like the hammer throwers from the Olympics. The fighters being knocked out before even attempting to activate their quirks. The hero, expertly and efficiently dancing and dashing between the ranks, spreading them out and thinning the crowd.

29 seconds… Eraserhead ran from a four-armed mutant, leading him to another group before deftly dodging out of the way. The mutant's momentum bulldozing through the unaware victims.

23 seconds… Some of the ranged fighters were attempting a volley of energy beams and projectiles, hoping to at least clip him. Their quirks were erased but the attacks still went flying, the bigger physical projectiles being caught and slung back to their originators.

18 seconds… The bigger mutants started standing up again, attempting to surround him, but their movements too slow, allowing Eraserhead to slip through and knock them back down.

Eraserhead was slowly but surely taking out the villains, practically steamrolling through them with skill that only years of training and experience could accomplish. He never stopped moving, never appearing to run out of energy, never spending more time than strictly necessary on taking his opponents down. This was the mark of a hero, someone who stood up against all odds to bring safety to the masses.

It would only make sense for the mark of a villain to be able to take one of them down.

Amid dispatching another group of three villains, the one who appeared to be the leader started to move. Unwilling to let a single movement go to waste, Eraserhead sent out a strand of his capture weapon at the new opponent, but unlike the rest, this one looked to know what he was doing. The villain caught the end in the air, and instead of attempting to throw it away like others tried, he wrapped it around his arm, forcing Eraserhead to keep his attention on him.

The villain yanked hard, surprising him with strength that didn't match the physique. Leaning into the momentum of the pull, Eraserhead intercepted the villain with an elbow strike to his diaphragm, earning him a quiet 'oof'. Satisfied that the villain was at least temporarily stunned, he tried pulling away to follow up with a more definite strike but found he couldn't.

"You know, Eraserhead, your quirk is pretty cool," the leader started, his grip on his elbow heating up ever so slowly, "It's so simple, yet you've made it so effective, and the way you're incorporating that into how you fight is nothing short of incredible."

Behind his slitted goggles, Eraserhead's eyes widened as his shirt burst on fire. "However, it still isn't without fault," the villain taunted. Eraserhead realized too late that Erasure was no longer active, and the fire probably came from the villain. In such close quarters, his attacks were limited, but he still had to try something.

Eraserhead aimed his left knee towards the villain's ribs, hoping to get some breathing room. The villain noticed and ducked under the attack. In a feat of strength and speed, the villain swept out Eraserhead's right leg out from under him and kicked him into the air. Immediately following, the villain brought his leg up above the airborne hero and delivered an axe kick to his back on the way down. Eraserhead landed hard on the ground, stunned and out of breath. He tried to get up but found himself pinned, the villain had his right knee on his back, left foot stepping on his left elbow, left hand on the back of his head, and the other holding his right arm at an awkward angle.

The villain leaned in close to the downed hero's ear, "You're not suited to drawn out battles, Eraser. You specialize in ambush attacks, nigh on guerilla tactics, yet you still jumped in to greet us. Why? You knew you were outmatched, but you still rushed in like a fan to a meet up. What'd you hope to achieve? Giving your students some peace of mind?" The villain smashed Eraserhead's head into the ground, "The outcome of this fight was decided the moment you chose to come fight us."

Blood started to trickle down his forehead, bleeding into his eyes. Eraserhead turned slightly to get a better look at the villain and grunted out, "My life is nowhere near as important as the students'. So as long as they're safe from you, I'd have done my job."

The villain hummed almost thoughtfully, "I'll be sure to keep that in mind, Eraser." The last word was spat out with malice as the villain smashed Eraserhead into the ground again, hard enough to crack the cement.

With Eraserhead out of commission for now, the villain stood up and looked around. Under any other circumstance, he would've loved to get a tour of the USJ. So many different zones to explore, so many scenarios to try out, so many places he would've loved to just have some fun.

"You're kidding me. This has to be a joke, right?" a purple-haired boy whined out loud, "We barely survived getting off that stupid boat and escaping those villains in the flood zone, but now this!? The monster mask guy took out Aizawa-sensei like no big deal!"

The frog-like girl next to him quickly wrapped her hands around his mouth, shushing him, "Mineta, please be quiet. It looks like the villain hasn't noticed we're here yet. If you start yelling, we'll be in bigger trouble."

"But we're already in bigger trouble," Mineta hissed, "Our teacher got taken down, that other hero is at the entrance, which, by the way, is nowhere near us, and the only way to get back there is by going directly through where the main villain is."

A curse could be heard further to Mineta's right, "I hate that all of those points made sense," the voice rasped out. Mineta and the frog-girl turned to face him, "But we've got to do something. We can't just sit here waiting for help to come. The villains that Aizawa-sensei took out are getting back up, and it doesn't look like he's moving at all either. He's a sitting duck!"

The frog-girl pointed her finger at her chin in thought, "So what do you suggest, Shimura-kun? As much as I hate to admit it as well, Mineta has a point. We were barely able to escape the villains in the flood zone because we were at a major disadvantage. If we go out there, we'll just be putting ourselves in greater danger."

Shimura lightly scratched at his neck before crossing his arms in thought, "We're all mainly close-range fighters, with Asui-"

"Tsu," Tsu interjected.

"Tsu-san-" Shimura tried again.

"Tsu."

Shimura gave her a pained expression, "Tsu-chan." He leveled a challenging glare at her, but she just nodded in acceptance, "Tsu-chan and Mineta, you both have some ranged attacks, but nothing that could really get us through safely, right?" Mineta nodded in agreement, but Tsu spoke up.

"I can use my tongue as a weapon, but with how that villain dealt with Aizawa-sensei, I don't want to risk it."

Shimura nodded in understanding and looked down at his hands. There's gotta be something I can do. He flicked between looking at his hands and the entrance, eventually his gaze found the floor. A thought suddenly popped in his head, "I could burrow us through!" The other teens looked at him confused, unperturbed he continued, "I could decay us a spot to enter here, and then tunnel underneath the ground and resurface at the bottom of the stairs."

Tsu quirked her head to the right while Mineta nodded up and down in clear agreement. Before Shimura could touch the ground, Tsu stopped him, "But how will you know where we're going afterwards? We could end up cutting through something important like powerlines, or end up in a completely different disaster zone. We won't know which way is straight, and we don't know how far it is from here to the stairs."

Shimura hung his head in shame, he hadn't thought that far ahead yet. Tsu, still trying to stay positive, pat his back, "It's alright, Shimura-kun, it was a good idea. How about we just get out of the water and hide a little better while we wait for the other teachers to get here?"

The trio moved out of the water as quickly and quietly as they could and settled behind some bushes that were dotting the edge of the zone.

Underneath his breath, Mineta muttered, "If they come."

Still reveling in the chaos that's happening around him, the villain feels a shift in the atmosphere and looks to his left. A purple and black mist with yellow eyes materialized, "Kagero Shigaraki, I regret to inform you that I failed in my objective. The herolings prevented me from keeping them contained, and one of them slipped outside. The heroes are sure to be inbound."

A small puff of fire escaped the mouth of the mask he was wearing, "So it's like that, huh? Don't worry too much, Kurogiri, while it is indeed unfortunate, things are still going more or less to plan. After all," Kagero turned to face Kurogiri fully, eyes blazing with anticipation, "How can we introduce ourselves properly if the whole party isn't here?"