Chapter 2: A Pro's Calling

Chapter Text

"And that, Yagi-kun, is why you should always have a rubric," a small, white furred creature explained, "Even if your assignments don't necessarily require one, it's always good to plan out beforehand how you would grade the students by separating your expectations into tiers. Just remember to not set them too high, they are still students after all."

The man opposite the creature nursed his teacup as he tried to digest the veritable lecture he was receiving. He had yellow hair, splayed wildly in all directions with two main long bangs framing his face. His eyes sunken in, with piercing blue irises shining through, his gaunt figure still crouched on the floor.

He coughed into a handkerchief, "Yes, well, thank you very much for the advice, Principal Nezu. I am aware that I am a little lacking in teaching young students, but this is still not enough to deter me!"

Nezu looked Yagi over, his beady eyes scanning every inch of him before responding, "But of course! This is your first year teaching after all, even some of our tenured teachers still struggle from time to time."

Yagi puffed a sigh of relief, finally seeing the lull he needed to sneak away, "I'm sure I'll be able to get the hang of it in no time, sir. By the way-"

"You haven't been able to get in touch with Aizawa-kun or Thirteen-san either then, I take it."

Yagi sputtered, "You- you were aware of the lack of contact as well? Why did you keep me here? What if they are in trouble!?" Yagi started to stand up and was just about to rush out the window before he saw the principal raise his paw.

"Firstly, there is nothing that happens on this campus, the businesses directly connected to us, and the buildings we own that I do not have, at the very least, an inkling of what's going on. Secondly, it's precisely because they might be in trouble that I chose to keep you here."

"But why?" Yagi asked exasperatedly, "If the students or teachers are in trouble and I'm not there, then I am failing in my duty as a hero! I already failed them as a teacher for not being there from the beginning!"

"Yagi-kun, I kept you here because you needed to rest," taking the sudden stillness from him as a sign to continue, Nezu moved on, "You've already used up most of your valuable time, that's why you were hiding out in the teacher's lounge and not with Class 1-A at the USJ is it not? Had you gone out the second you noticed you weren't getting a response from Aizawa-kun or Thirteen-san, would you have been able to take care of the problem, maintain your form after its resolution, and then keep it until you were behind closed doors?"

Yagi sighed in defeat and shook his head, "No. If I'm being honest, if I went right then I probably would have changed right as I entered through the doors."

Nezu hummed and walked towards the door, "Then with your break, I believe I have bought you another thirty minutes. Please ensure the safety of my students and staff, All Might."

Kagero heard the groans of the fodder he brought out for the occasion as they slowly stirred. Unsurprisingly, the mutants were mostly recovered and already were staggering towards him. He studies the one closest to him, off-handedly remembering him to be the one that Eraser threw into another group of fodder.

"So, boss," the man coughed out, "I hear that right? The heroes are on their way? We should probably get gone soon."

With Kagero's focus now solely on him, the villain faltered in his steps. He'd never actually gotten a good look at who their "boss" was, but now that he has, the villain is glad that he didn't get the chance before.

His mask was colored a deep forest green and fashioned to look like a dragon's maw, covering the entire lower half of his face. The hood was up on his black and green jacket, keeping the top half in a perpetual shadow, his eyes almost shining in the darkness. Under his sleeves, the villain could make out some sort of bracers, but all that was visible was a little part protruding at the base of his palms. Black pants were tucked into steel toed combat boots, with multiple knives holstered to both thighs.

If the villain was being honest, the boss didn't look all too dangerous besides the mask, but the intense aura that surrounded him and the cold, calculating eyes said otherwise. The villain knew that one wrong move could end up with him being dead, so he didn't voice his thoughts.

"No," Kagero replied, "far from it. Grab two other mutant types, I want you on guard duty."

The villain quirked an eyebrow, "Guard duty? It's not like we have anything to defend here."

Kagero turned and pointed to where Eraserhead was still laying, "You're guarding him. Mutant types aren't affected by his quirk, and are generally stronger than the others. Just make sure he stays down. I don't want to have to deal with him too on top of whoever else is coming."

"You can't just-"

Kagero was already walking away, "I'm not wrong, though. Just shut up and do your job. Kurogiri!" The mentioned villain materialized next to him once again, "I want you to bring it in."

If Kurogiri was surprised, he didn't show it, "Are you sure, Kagero Shigaraki? We were told it hasn't been tested yet."

"Exactly. What better way to perform a test than on the heroes? If it gets defeated, we get good data. If it doesn't, we get good data. It's already been programmed to take commands and's already keyed in to my voice. This'll give us a good baseline to work with."

"Very well," Kurogiri did as he was told and opened another portal. This time a hulking figure came out. Large muscles lined its body, but it was far from natural. Its skin was black and scarred, but its head was the most disturbing part. A birdlike beak lined with sharp teeth sat where the mouth should be, its brain exposed to the air, with round soulless eyes set into it. In all aspects of the word, this was an abomination, a monster, something that shouldn't exist in the mortal realm.

"Shoji-kun, do you have any updates?" a girl clad in a pink and blue bodysuit asked.

"Give me a second," the multi-limbed boy replied as he formed more eyes and ears on his appendages, "I can't hear Iida's engines anymore, so he's probably close to if not already at the school. It's hard to tell what's going on in the Downpour and Conflagration Zones due to the ambient weather, but the other zones seem like their fights are dwindling down.

"Shimura, Asui, and Mineta made it safely to the edge of the Flood Zone, and are hanging out at the edge," as he was reporting, he heard a massive boom to the left, "That was definitely Bakugo, so he's still out there. I can't hear anything from over in the Landslide Zone, so either everybody there is knocked out or it was empty from the start. I can only hear the barest of whispers from the Mountain Zone, so something is still happening there."

Another student was hunched over the prone form of Thirteen, patching up their back with strands of tape coming from his elbow, "Wow, you can get all that info from all the way up here? Man am I glad you're with us otherwise we'd be completely in the dark."

"If that's how you feel here," another chimed in, this one wearing a yellow bodysuit, "Just imagine what it's like for our classmates out there."

"What about Aizawa?" another voice croaked out. The students followed the voice to Thirteen, still laying down.

Shoji gulped before answering, "Aizawa-sensei still looks and sounds unconscious. The main villain told one of the other ones down there to watch and make sure he doesn't get back up, but they're all just standing around him. I don't think he's in any more immediate danger."

"That's good, that's good. And what about Iida and the rest of you?"

A pink-skinned girl that was still kneeling next to them replied, "Shoji-kun said that he can't hear Iida anymore, so he was probably able to get help. As for the rest of us here anyway…"

"We're doing all right," the girl from before picked up, "It's kinda like we're in that weird time before something big happens. We haven't been attacked since Iida-kun managed to get out."

Thirteen groaned and tried to turn on to their side, "We're in one of the most critical times of a fight, the calm. I wish I could've helped more, I'm sorry for being such a burden."

The hero students, minus Shoji, all started waving their hands, showing that they don't blame them for what's happening. The tape-elbowed boy was in the middle of saying his reassurances when he saw Shoji tense.

"Hey, uh, Shoji. You alright over there, man?" he asked cautiously.

"I believe we are now entering the second wave of the attack."

Everybody tensed at the serious tone of his voice and prepared themselves as best as they could.

"Let's see if we're missing anything," Kagero started, his thumb tracing the outlines of the teeth on his mask, "Eraser's out cold still and I've got people watching over him, it's here to run interference for the stronger pros, ah. That's right. Kurogiri, we're leaving this place."

Still observing from the edge of the Flood Zone, Mineta started rejoicing loudly, "They're leaving!? We're safe! It's over!"

Once again, Tsu wrapped her hands around his face to silence him, "Shimura-kun, I don't like this one bit."

Shimura nodded slightly, eyes bulging as his hands found his way to his throat as he started scratching, "Yeah… why would they leave when they're right at the brink of winning? They even brought out that thing."

The students saw a portal open, all of them holding their breath in hopes that this is truly the end of this nightmare. None of the figures made to step into it, not even the villains still scattered in the pavilion.

"But before that, how about we leave a little parting gift for the little herolings over by the water?"

All three students tensed at hearing them being mentioned, but they were all frozen in their spots. They saw the leader turn and rush in their direction, faster than they could expect. Their vision was filled by fire shooting out of his hands before abruptly being cut off. The villain froze, hands still in firing position.

"You had one job!" the leader yelled, his head turning to glimpse behind him, "Don't kill him yet, just make sure he stays down this time! I really underestimated you, Eraser. You're a lot more stubborn than I gave you credit for. "

The villains standing around Eraserhead were in shock as they saw him looking up, his gaze settled directly on their boss. The one closest grabbed Eraserhead's head and smashed it into the floor multiple times while the others were kicking his body. Each blow Eraserhead grunted in pain until he slumped down again.

Shimura's mind finally caught up to what was happening, and his body started to move. He tugged at the parts covering his right ring and pinky fingers, the fabric receding from covering his fingertips. He reached his hand out to grasp the villain, "Get away from us!"

Quieter than ever before, the villain spoke again, "Nomu."

A black blur came between Kagero and Shimura and let out a piercing inhuman scream. The part that made contact with Shimura's hand immediately started decaying, turning the flesh into meat chunks and ash. Shimura was once again frozen in shock as his hand stayed where it was, the decay spreading further and further along the Nomu's body, its screams growing in crescendo. Shimura stumbled back, finally ending contact.

"What's this?" the villain asked aloud, "A five-point contact requirement, with a spreading effect on the contacted area? Almost like a poison in that it immediately starts spreading, and by the looks will keep going if the areas aren't immediately amputated? How fascinating."

The villain was now staring directly at Shimura, "And you were willing to use it on an enemy combatant when it's clear that you could kill with a single touch. Are you sure you want to be a hero?"

Shimura felt a massive hand close around his fist and felt it squeeze hard, breaking it. Shimura let out a pained scream and fell to the ground, crawling back to his friends as they crowded around him. To their horror, the Nomu's body started to regenerate with a terrible squelching sound. Internal organs were regrown and reconnected, bones and muscle fibers wrapping around, until finally the skin had grown to cover the areas. Less than a few seconds later, the Nomu looked like nothing happened to it.

Kagero stood up fully, lightly dusting himself off, "A valiant attempt, heroling. Truly. Had you kept your hand on the Nomu, you would've defeated it single handedly. A shame you won't get to try that again."

The Nomu grabbed his other hand and was about to squeeze as the doors to the USJ flew open. A single silhouette was in the doorway, but everyone in the building knew exactly who it was. The students that had a line of sight to the door, no matter where they were, all released small tears of joy. Their hero was finally here, but where that bright smile usually was, a deep frown was in its place.

All Might wasn't smiling, nor was he projecting his voice like he normally does. This was quiet, showing the fury and anger he currently feels, "I am here."

Kagero glanced up to meet his gaze, "About time, Number One."