Chapter 4: What Happens Now

All Might's victory against the Nomu was hard fought but unfortunately short lived. All Might landed the finishing blow on the Nomu, launching it through the USJ roof, but he had no time to celebrate or take a break. He felt the wave of heat before seeing it and followed the sound of the explosion. What greeted his eyes worried him to the core - one of the zones was on fire, and it wasn't the one that's supposed to be. All Might turned and leapt, crossing the distance from the pavilion to the Collapse Zone in a single bound.

All Might landed on the same building Kagero and Kurogiri were on, but there was no one in sight. All Might clapped his hands together hard, releasing a shockwave of wind, blowing out the fires. Curled up on the ground before him, he saw two bodies, one clearly attempting to shield the other, the former's skin had boils on the back while the latter looked relatively unharmed save for the reddened skin.

All Might's heart sank at the realization that the students, that his students had to fight for their lives so early in their careers. All Might moved forward, attempting to separate the two to better assess their injuries, but found the grip to be locked.

All Might gulped heavily, Please still be alive. He raised two fingers to the students' necks, desperately praying for a pulse. When he felt a response in both, forgoing any attempt at being gentle, he picked the two up together and jumped to the entrance, depositing them along with the others.

Taking a head count, All Might only counted eight students, ten including the two he just brought over. He turned around, scanning the rest of the zones, trying to calculate how much time he had left before changing but immediately cringed, What am I thinking? The students' safety comes first, I'll just have to push through.

"Students," he commanded, "Does anyone know where the rest of your classmates are?"

Shoji replied in a subdued tone, "I know for a fact there are people in the Mountain Zone, and most likely the Landslide, but I don't know how many are in each. I'm also sure there are some in the Downpour and Conflagration."

"Thank you, Young Shoji," All Might nodded and leapt off again, in search for anyone else.

"Shoji-kun," Ochako sniffled, "Do you- Do you know where the villains are? All Might didn't say anything about them when he came back with Bakugo-kun and Kirishima-kun, so they must be gone. Are they still…"

Shoji attempted to get up but felt a hand on his shoulder, a pinky raised up, "There's no need to look," Shimura answered instead, his other hand pointing out, "They're right there."

Everyone followed the direction of his finger and saw the two villains in front of the fountain, the masked one sitting lazily on its edge while the mist one standing at attention next to him. They all cowered under the masked villain's gaze, but no one moved.

Shimura looked back down at them, holding his gaze before taking a step forward. He felt something wrap around his good arm, "Woah man, where do you think you're going?" tape-elbow asked.

"I'm going to go talk to them," he replied, wishing his other hand wasn't broken so he could decay the strand of tape.

"Yeah, no. Bad idea man, out of everyone here, you know what he can do. Not calling you weak or anything, but you don't stand a chance. You're still injured!"

"Let me go, Sero-kun. Because I know what he can do, it has to be me."

Tsu spoke up, "But why you, Shimura-kun? What are you going to do? What if he kills you?"

He looked back and answered resolutely, "He won't."

"How do you know that?"

"Because he hasn't killed anyone yet."

"That doesn't mean he won't change his mind. But you ignored my questions. Why you and what are you going to do?"

Shimura stared into Tsu's eyes, searching for something but couldn't find it. His left hand found its way to his neck and started scratching, "Arrggh, I don't know. I just feel like I need to do something. I had it! The Nomu, I could've stopped this attack from going any further if I wasn't such a wimp! I feel so weak just staying here when there's something I know I can do."

"Shimura-kun, if you're thinking about doing what I think you are, then you'd be the same as them. The villain knows what you can do too, do you really think you'll get the chance?"

The pink-skinned girl chimed in with a raised hand, "Uh, guys? Care to let the rest of us know what's going on?"

"He almost defeated the Nomu, and is thinking about trying again with the villain, Ashido-chan," Tsu replied bluntly.

Ashido didn't appear to understand, knitting her eyebrows together in confusion, but everyone else caught the underlaying message. Before it could completely settle in their minds, Shimura attempted to ease their worries, shaking his hands wildly.

"Tsu-chan, everyone, no! I couldn't, wouldn't do that! Never! I just, they're just sitting there! We should be doing something to apprehend them."

"Shimura," a lazy voice groaned out. The students turned their heads, surprised to see Aizawa sitting up, the wounds on his face no longer gushing blood, "We'll talk about that later, but everyone else is right. You going down there for whatever reason is beyond irrational. No one is leaving this platform for any reason. Sero, if anybody attempts to leave, tape them down." The boy nodded, "Now, tell me everything that's happened."

All Might arrived at the Mountain Zone to find three of his students, one, a blond boy with a black lightning bolt design on his hair was a clear hostage. The other two were both girls, the taller one was wearing a red bodysuit with yellow trim, her black hair up in a spiky ponytail while the shorter was wearing what looked like a biker's outfit, her purple hair in a short bob with two longer bangs framing her face. They had their hands up in surrender, but upon seeing him, both girls gave a relieved smile.

"What're you two smiling at?" the skull-masked villain asked confused, "You that happy your classmate's about to get fried? Are you even trying to be a hero?"

The girl in the biker outfit smirked, "Nah, we're just so happy that All Might's here."

The skull-masked villain's eyes widened, he turned around and came face to chest with All Might. His grip on the boy released out of shock, "A-All Might…"

All Might simply pounded his fist on the villain's head and he was out cold. He immediately picked up the boy in his left arm and the other two in the other, "I apologize for being so rough with the handling, but I need to move quickly," he explained as he carried them out of the Mountain Zone, "I'm bringing you to this zone's emergency room. You are to stay there until you are retrieved by another hero."

The girl with the spiky ponytail replied through being jostled, "All Might… Where are… The others?"

"A group of the others are currently at the entrance of the facility, and I'm going around the other zones to find everyone else. This was the last zone I had to check."

"Are… They safe?"

"Yes. Fortunately your classmates were able to handle the villains in their zones. From what I saw, you three were the only ones that ran into that sort of problem."

The girl looked down, disappointed, "I see."

At this point, they all arrived at the emergency room. It was situated off to the side, set in one of the caves, looking more like a doomsday bunker than anything else. All Might gently placed the teens down and kneeled in front of the raven-haired girl.

"Young Yaoyorozu, please do not look down on yourself. You were thrust into a situation that should never have happened on your third day of high school, and despite having slightly more trouble than your classmates, you, Young Kaminari, and Young Jiro all performed admirably. So please, instead of thinking 'I was so weak', or 'I'm not ready', or 'I wasn't good enough', take what happened here and use it as motivation to get better and stronger. Remember what it was like so you or anyone else will never have to feel that way again."

Yaoyorozu's eyes teared up as she nodded, "I will, sir! Thank you!"

All Might gave her one of his famous smiles, "Wonderful! Now please stay here until you are retrieved by another hero. They should be close, but the main villains are still out there."

"Wait," Jiro cut in, "You mean that big boom earlier wasn't you beating them?"

All Might shook his head, "Unfortunately, no. That was more of a diversion, the real villains are still out there."

"Go kick their asses, All Might." All Might grinned cheekily and closed the door.

Kagero was still sitting on the fountain, watching the group at the entrance intently. He saw one kid attempt to walk down the steps, Shimura-chan, but was brought back by someone out of view. He would be lying if he said he wasn't disappointed about seeing this happen.

"I wonder what's going on in their minds," Kagero wondered aloud.

Kurogiri paused for a second, debating whether to give him a response, "How do you mean?"

"I mean, just think about it," Kagero sat up, explaining further, "That one heroling that got out, he left how long ago? Twenty, thirty minutes maybe?" Kurogiri hummed, "I get that not all heroes are as fast as All Might, but they're sure taking their sweet time.

"According to the info we got earlier, this facility is around three kilometers away from the main campus. It takes the average person around twenty minutes to run that far, fifteen-ish if they're in shape, and even less than that if they're taking a vehicle or some other form of movement. Besides that, the doors are wide open thanks to All Might, and none of them are even attempting to leave. I get that these are students, but they're severely lacking in common logic. The hell are they waiting for?"

"I could ask the same of you, Kagero Shigaraki," Kurogiri shot back, "All Might defeated the Nomu, both Thirteen and Eraserhead are still alive, all the villains we brought along have been defeated, and to my knowledge, none of the herolings were killed or otherwise seriously injured, even the two we ran into. Why are we still here if we have been defeated so thoroughly?"

At that, Kagero stood up and stretched his arms above his head, "And that, Kurogiri, is you misunderstanding the purpose of the attack. We came here to land a blow against the heroes, sure, but killing them? That was never the plan," Kagero was now in Kurogiri's face, his eyes gleaming, "No, killing them only creates more, kind of like the hydra from Greek mythology; you take off one head, two more grow back. The same principle could be said for heroes."

Kurogiri's eyes narrowed, "It almost sounds as if you want the heroes to get better. Does your loyalty truly lie with Master?"

"Don't try to take that tone with me, Kurogiri," Kagero replied, his voice taking a dangerous edge, puffs of fire escaping his mouth, "Just because my expectations for this attack doesn't match yours, it doesn't mean I'm disobeying or betraying Master, not in the slightest. Anybody worth their salt could kill a hero should they so choose, and anybody that isn't stupid can kill a teenager."

"Then why leave them alive?"

"Because killing them is too easy. No, I want to shake them to their core, I want to haunt their dreams, I want to break them," Kurogiri backed off slightly, offput by the intensity of Kagero's words, "You've been around Master long enough, so you tell me. What does Master love doing more than finding and taking quirks?"

"Building up hope before crushing it completely," Kurogiri answered eventually.

"Exactly," Kagero nodded, "Master doesn't take quirks or kill people immediately, he plays with his prey beforehand, lulling them into thinking they're safe and then yanking the rug out from under them. Even then, sometimes he doesn't kill them. He lets them go, letting them live out the rest of their lives in fear.

"So no, Kurogiri. Killing them is far from what I want to do. I want them to know that they aren't at the top of the food chain, that heroes aren't untouchable, that they can be broken. If, after this, we find out that there are new or missing faces, then that means I got to them. If they're the same, then that means that the game is still on. It'll take some time, but I will win."

Kurogiri studied Kagero before relenting, "Very well. I still do not understand why we're still here, though. The heroes are surely seconds away at this point, and despite our best efforts, I'm sure we cannot defeat All Might and whoever else."

Kagero sighed heavily, "To be honest, I wanted to see how UA responds and who they could scrounge up in an emergency. The rat's paws are in a lot of plates, I'm sure of it, so I wanted to get an idea of the breadth of his influence. But you're right, we can't afford to stay here any longer, I guess we'll have to find out some other time. Open a portal, I'll cover our escape."

A portal opened behind them as Kagero conjured two balls of fire on his hands. He took a deep breath in, the flames in his hands reducing to nothing. At the edge of his vision, he saw a shadow move from the lower left to in front of him, growing in size as whatever it was came closer to the ground. Too slow, Number One. He let out another wave of fire, aimed directly at the group at the top of the stairs.

All Might was just exiting the Mountain Zone when he saw two figures standing in front of the fountain in the middle. He crouched down for a jump and leapt, ready to finally put an end to this attack. Still in the air, he saw the figure on the left, who appeared to be Shigaraki, produce balls of fire in his hands as a portal opened behind them. His eyes widened as he realized that they were about to leave. The light emanating from Shigaraki's hands vanished as he saw the makings of another fire-based attack.

He turned himself midair, aiming a punch behind him to shoot himself downward, hoping to intercept the attack in time. As he grew closer to the ground, he found himself washed in a wave of fire. He aimed another punch at where he thought the villains were, dispelling the fire. Once again, when his vision was clear, he found no one there.

Filled with a feeling he hadn't felt since his fight all those years ago, he released an angered yell, "NOOOOO!"

At the entrance at the top of the stairs, an assortment of heroes appeared, poised and ready for an attack, but all they were met with was a group of students in various states of shock, two heroes in need of medical attention, and the sound of the Number One hero's cry.

One hero stepped forward, clothed in a leather outfit, a set of speakers resting on his neck, and his blond hair slicked back in a way reminiscent of a mohawk, "What happened here?"