A/N: Hey, everyone! Not sure if you guys knew or not, but today marks the two-year anniversary of this story's launch on YouTube! Accordingly, I've already posted not only this chapter, but the next one on my channel (NotYourAverage Productions) as a bonus! The next chapter will also be posted here on Apr. 4th, which marks the anniversary for when this story launched on FanFiction.

Thanks so much for the last two years of love and support that you guys have given me! Looking forward to what the next year brings you guys!

The Calm and the Storm

At precisely 8:30 a.m. the heroes and police were all gathered in front of the Shie Hassaikai's gates, all of them fully briefed on the situation at hand and the resistance that they could expect to encounter. The police were all armed with riot gear, save for Satoshi and a few others, though he was packing heat on his belt. "Once we've read them the warrant, you're free to engage," he told the heroes, some of whom were looking eager for action.

"What's with this guy?" a hero named Rock Lock grumbled. "He's actin' like we don't know our jobs."

"That's not it," Fat Gum argued while Satoshi moved to ring the doorbell on the gate. "Lay off the guy."

"Look, I'm just sayin' that we're wasting what could be vital time," Rock Lock said stubbornly while Kai reached up and tapped a button on his scouter. "These Yakuza bastards are good at hidin' in the shadows. If we show up in a big group like this, who's to say they won't disappear again?"

"I wouldn't worry about that!" Kai suddenly shouted before he bolted forward, tackling three officers out of the way of the door before it was suddenly blasted off of its hinges to admit a mountain of muscle in a black mask that growled at the lot of them. He helped one of them to their feet as he asked, "You okay?"

"Yeah, but… How'd you know that was gonna happen?" the man asked as Kai whirled around to look up at the massive villain that was now slowly getting to his feet, having apparently stumbled during his entrance.

"I don't like it when places like this are quiet, so I set my scanner to detect any active quirks in the immediate vicinity," Kurai answered as he settled into a slight crouch and glared up at the behemoth of a villain. "Guess they decided to start the party with a bang." He was prepared to engage with the masked villain, but Ryukyu beat him to the punch, transforming into her dragon form, which was easily triple the size of the yakuza thug.

"Go on!" she rumbled at the heroes and police. "My agency will deal with this guy! Everyone else, go get the girl!" Crescent Rose was already moving, brandishing her scythe/rifle as she sped through the police to take up a sniper's position on a nearby rooftop.

"Understood!" Nighteye acknowledged before he led the way into the compound, the other heroes hot on his heels. Deku took a moment to check on Uravity, who gave him a nervous smile and a thumbs-up before she went to join her mentor, and he went after the other law enforcers.

The second that they cleared the wall, Satoshi held up the required paperwork and shouted, "We have a warrant to search the premises on suspicions of illegal drugs manufacturing and sales!"

"What?!" shouted one man among the twenty or so in the courtyard. "How'd they score a warrant?!"

"Who cares? Let's waste these pigs!" grunted another man as he aimed his palm at the lead heroes. The bushes near him began to rustle in response to his quirk, but before he could launch any leafy projectiles, one of the heroes was already right in front of him, his face a stoic mask of hatred and contempt.

"You yakuza trash better watch your mouths," Kai snarled before he slammed his metal fist into the man's jaw, breaking it and sending blood and several teeth flying as he crashed to the ground, insensate. The boy then turned with inhuman speed to catch a metal pipe with the same hand, startling the man that had swung it as he clenched his fist and warped the metal with his steel grip. The man's face registered surprise and then fear before Kurai delivered a thunderous high kick into his sternum, launching him up and over his allies, even as the other heroes and police began to engage. It took several seconds for him to return to earth, crushing two other gang members beneath him when he did.

As Deku and Red Riot caught up to their friend, who fell back into place in the column of heroes following Nighteye, they both had to do a double-take as they caught sight of something on their friend's face that they had never seen before. They had seen Kurai upset many times, irritated, and even angry, but what they saw now was beyond any of that. He was an exceptional fighter, capable of fighting with complete control over his own body so that he did not inflict any manner of permanent injury, even with his robotic limb.

Now though, it was clear that Kai was out for blood.

It's a good thing his brain won't explode when he gets mad anymore, but yikes! Red Riot thought as he passed by the first man that Kai had decked. Did all of the stuff that he's been dealing with finally get to him? I hope that he doesn't do something that he regrets today.

Fat Gum seemed to be having similar thoughts, because he looked down at his sidekick and said, "Hey, be more careful, Sport. We don't need you getting ambushed because you got ahead of yourself, okay?" Everyone unconsciously tensed up, wondering if he would resent the rebuke and act out against it. As none of them had ever actually seen him this furious, they weren't quite sure what to expect of him.

So they all breathed a collective sigh of relief when he simply said, "Yes, sir." Still, it didn't cause the murderous look in his eyes to go away, either.

Eraserhead watched his student as they ran, thinking that it might be better if he kept his quirk ready, just in case the boy started to take things too far. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now, but I won't allow him to make a mistake that will end his hero career before it even begins.

By the time they made it inside the compound, the only heroes that hadn't been held up by the yakuza grunts were those affiliated with the UA students and Rock Lock. Satoshi and a handful of his officers were also in tow, all of them keeping their hands close to their firearms as they ran. Nighteye led the way alongside his sidekicks, Bubble Girl and Centipeder, but they soon stopped in front of an alcove in the wall where there was some kind of house plant sitting inside. "This is it," the tall man said as he shoved the vase aside and started pressing down on the wood paneling inside the recess of the wall. "If you press in a certain combination, then… Done."

The wall began to slide away, so Nighteye backed up while Bubble Girl piped up, "This is kinda cool! Ninja passage!"

"Guards up, we got three incoming," Kurai muttered as he drew back his fist.

Centipeder and Bubble Girl moved first, incapacitating the three men that charged up the set of hidden stairs as soon as they came through the opening, much to their surprise. "Go on, sir!" Bubble Girl urged her boss. "We'll keep them restrained while you go save the girl!"

Nighteye nodded and once again took the lead, rapidly descending into the stairway that opened up into a brightly-lit passageway made primarily of concrete. "It's not far," he told them as they ran.

"I gotta say, these guys have been coming at us pretty hard," Red Riot commented.

"Gangs like the yakuza are annoying because of how devoted the grunts are to their boss," Kai deadpanned as he glanced at his scouter, checking to make sure that no one with a quirk was trying to get the jump on them. "They'll take a sword to the eye while staring down the blade if their master asks them to. It's their version of honor."

"And the boss is repaying that by letting all his goons take the fall while he gets away?!" the redhead demanded. "What kinda honor is that?! It's not manly at all!"

"Even so, Kai is right," Eraserhead panted as he ran alongside Rock Lock. "These guys would rather die before they let us through, which just makes our job all the more difficult."

"Stow the chatter, we're nearly there," Nighteye said as they rounded a corner- and came to stand in front of a solid wall.

"A dead end?" Rock Lock complained as he glared at Nighteye. "So much for your foresight bein' infallible. What're we supposed to do now?"

"Hang on," Lemillion said as he removed the visor that he wore as a part of his costume and approached the barrier. "Lemme take a peak."

"Wait!" Red Riot called after the senior. "If you go through the wall, you'll be naked!"

While Suneater explained to his comrade how Lemillion's outfit could actually permeate with him, due to being made of a fabric synthesized out of his hair, UA's number one hero student stuck his head through the wall for a brief second before he pulled back and put on his visor again. "It's like I thought," he told them. "The path continues past this wall- it looks like someone put it here just to get in our way. I didn't see any villains, though."

"I'm not getting anything close by in terms of an active quirk," Kai scowled as he checked the settings on his scouter. "If there is someone nearby, they're not using their powers right now."

"Breaking down this wall isn't gonna be easy, and it'll be a pain if there are more of them," Lemillion said worriedly, which only served to put a smile on Kai and Red Riot's faces, as well as lend a determined set to Deku's jaw.

"Speak for yourself," Red Riot said as he drew back a rock-hard fist. "If they think this is all it'll take to stop us…"

"They're in for a world of hurt!" Kai shouted as they both threw a punch at the wall, even as Deku slammed an armored foot into the barrier alongside them. The result was a massive hole that even Fat Gum would have no trouble fitting through.

"Hey, that didn't suck," Rock Lock commented, which was as close to a compliment as the students could probably expect from the man.

"No kidding, they beat me to the punch!" Fat Gum said with a proud grin before the group got moving again.

"Hey Kai, how's your arm holding up?" Deku asked his friend as they ran.

"Perfectly," the boy answered without looking at his friend. "I did maintenance on it this morning before we left, and it's designed to handle the force and speed equivalent to that of an F-1 engine. Me punching stuff isn't going to do anything to it."

"Are you sure?"

"Akarui tested the metal's durability against the theoretical physics of one of All Might's Texas Smashes, and it held up fine," Kai assured him.

"Theory is one thing," Eraserhead reminded them. "Reality is another."

"I wouldn't be relying on it if I didn't think that- whoa!" Kai's cry was drawn out of him as the entire hallway began to twist and churn like the inside of a snake. "The hell?!" He looked at his scouter, but the reading he was getting didn't make any sense to him at first.

"Is this Chisaki's Overhaul?" one of the police officers asked before he fell against the wall, which was sliding into the floor at chest level.

As Kai did his best to get the man to his feet, Satoshi shouted, "No, his quirk can't do this! Mimic is the one we're after! He can enter any inanimate object and move it like he would his own body!"

"Not like this, he shouldn't be able to!" Rock Lock grunted as he braced himself against Suneater for temporary support. "He's not supposed to be able to control anything larger than a damn refrigerator!"

"Remember who we're dealing with!" Fat Gum shot back as he tried to keep his bulk from crushing Eraserhead, who was directly behind him. "Dollars to donuts says he's using a quirk enhancer! Can't you do something about him, Eraser?!"

"Not unless I can see his actual body!" The man was looking at Kai as he spoke, but the boy shook his head in the negative.

"My scouter can pinpoint a person's location if their quirk is active, but because his is taking over in this entire section of the building, acting as an extension of his body, I can't tell where he is!" he growled as he cast his eyes about, trying desperately to see where their captor was hiding. He considered trying to use Divine Eye, as he had gotten a lot faster at activating it in the last few weeks, but he got the feeling that even if he did use it, he might run into a similar problem that his scouter was having.

While it was true that he'd had no trouble seeing Togata moving through the floors when they had fought, it was also true that the senior's quirk only affected him directly- the effect of his body wasn't widespread like this one was. Kurai wasn't entirely sure how his ultimate move detected other people, so he knew it would be better to save the power for later, unless the situation got really desperate.

"We're gonna die down here…" Suneater was groaning. "Chisaki's gonna escape with the girl…"

"Don't talk like that!" Lemillion insisted as he grabbed his friend's shoulder. "You can do this, Suneater! We can still pull this off if we keep our wits about us!" His eyes were scanning the shifting tunnel, studying its patterns of movement, erratic though they were.

"Kai, can't you start blasting the walls to try and flush this guy outta hiding?!" Rock Lock shouted as he nearly fell over.

"Not unless you wanna risk a laser to the kisser!" Kai shouted back. "This guy would probably just move somebody into the path of a blast as soon as I tried!"

"We can't do nothing, either!" Lemillion insisted. "This guy is twisting the hallway, but the general direction is still the same! I'm going after Chisaki and the girl- speed is what's needed most right now!"

"Lemillion, wait!" Nighteye called after his protégé, who was already on the move.

Before anyone could stop him, Kai bolted after the upperclassman, shouting over shoulder, "I'm the only one fast and strong enough to bulldoze through this mess and keep up with him! We can't leave anyone alone down here!"

"Kai, wait!" Suneater protested, only to be held back by a frowning Fat Gum.

To their surprise, he yelled down the hallway, "Watch each other's backs in there! Kai, listen to what Lemillion tells you to do!"

"I will!"

"You're just gonna let him go?!" Red Riot yelped. "What if he gets hurt on his own?!"

"That won't stop him," the BMI hero answered, even as he tried to keep from falling on his student. "From what I've heard and witnessed for myself, Kai's will is the strongest I've ever seen. He'll see this mission through, no matter what. He'll probably rescue the girl before we even get to her."

"You're overestimating his chances," Eraserhead said grimly, causing his students to look at him with worry. "He's strong and skilled, yeah, but he's not in the right headspace to be acting on his own right now. If his concentration wavers, he could die down here."

"He's not on his own," Deku responded firmly, catching his homeroom teacher's attention. "And he's going to be a great hero today, no matter what!"

Lemillion looked over his shoulder in surprise when he heard the sound of a wall breaking behind him. Through the rubble came Kai, who was moving incredibly fast to catch up to him. They had just exited the part of the complex that was under Mimic's control, so the hallways had finally stopped shifting around them.

"Kai?" he called as he slowed down his pace slightly before phasing through another wall. "What're you doing here?"

The wall exploded behind him, some pieces flying through his body as he activated his quirk, while Kai finally caught up to him. "Something tells me that flying solo down here might not be the best idea," he answered with a grim expression. "Like I told the others, I was the only one capable of keeping pace with you through that circus maze back there."

"Well, I am glad to have some backup," Lemillion smiled at his school mate. "Thanks, Kai!"

"Don't mention it," the younger boy said before he raised his right hand and blasted another wall to bits in front of them.

It must have been one of the last obstacles, because this time, there was a person on the other side, waiting for them. As the two heroes skidded to a stop, the figure stepped into a better light as they said, "My, my, what do we have here? Two little boys playing dress up?" The figure was a young woman with raven black hair, clothed in a dark red dress with golden threads that resembled flames. She would have been considered incredibly attractive, had it not been for the fact that nearly half of her face was burned black, though she tried to conceal this by letting her hair fall over the left side of her face. "And here Chisaki was so sure that no one could make it past the Eight Bullets of the Hassaikai. He'll have to thank me later for trusting my instincts."

"Step aside, ma'am," Lemillion said forcefully. "Our business doesn't have to be with you. We're here for Eri."

"Hmm?" the woman mused with a sly smile as she put her chin in her pale, slender fingers. "Oh, you mean that adorable little doll that Chisaki was carrying around? She's not here, but I'd be happy to welcome you in her place."

"Yeah, we need a welcome from you about as much as your good side needs to meet a charcoal flame," Kai growled as he scanned the woman's face. As he thought, her description matched the woman who called herself 'Cinder', making her a powerful villainess with a fire-type quirk that could turn solid wood into ash with a snap of her fingers. If they had to fight her, she would be more than a handful.

"You're a feisty one, aren't you?" the woman purred in a way that made the two boys shiver. "I have to say, Shigaraki was most irritated when Moonfish failed to take the fight out of you, but… Well, he's just not all that good at figuring out how to break people. Not like All For One was."

Kai and Lemillion exchanged a worried glance before the older boy asked, "Are you with the League of Villains?"

"Formerly, though who knows when that could change again?" she answered him with a smug smile. "Today, I'm working as a member of the traditional yakuza, Shie Hassaikai. My name is Cinder, and you are…?" When neither of the heroes were forthcoming, she pretended to pout and said, "Come now. It's rude to keep a lady waiting. I've met Hikari, but you're new."

"Well, we wouldn't want that," Kai said with a fake smile. "What's the call, Lemillion? Fat Gum told me to follow your rules." He remembered that Cinder had used him as a hostage to delay his friends when they tried to rescue Bakugo in the forest. Good, he thought with a trace of dark anger bending his brow. I could do with a score to settle.

"We need to keep moving, and find Eri before Chisaki gets away," the blond student answered as he took a running stance. "But if she catches up while we're running, it could be an ambush, and then we're really in trouble."

"Got it, you're faster," Kai said as he took a fighting stance. "Go get Eri from the bastards. I'll catch up once I've finished her off."

"Are you sure you can handle it?"

"I've survived worse."

"Are you two really so foolish as to discuss your strategy in front of the enemy?" Cinder asked as her good eye glowed amber and the air around her began to heat up. "You think that I'll just let you pass?"

"Well, can't keep the lady waiting," Kai smirked with a cold light in his eyes right before Lemillion disappeared into the floor, drawing Cinder's attention for a second. "Good luck, pal."

He rushed at Cinder, cracking the ground beneath his feet as he put extra power into his legs to give him instant momentum against his opponent. Instead of being surprised, however, the woman sneered at him before saying, "You're a foolish little boy, aren't you?" A wall of fire erupted between them, hiding her from view, and forcing him to shut his eyes against the heat. He tore through the flames without any real harm done, though some of his hair was singed off.

As soon as he landed, he turned around, only to see that Cinder wasn't in his sight. He scowled and hit the 'search' function on his scouter, as the device had already measured her biometrics, which would allow him to keep track of her movements as long as she didn't get too far away. "Where did you-?"

His question was cut off as fire balls erupted from the burning wall, forcing him to react. He countered one with a blast of Energon, and the other two he batted away with his sword, activating it in a blur of motion. She's inside that thing?! His scouter had pinpointed Cinder as being amid the firewall, which surprised him. Kai didn't think that he'd ever even seen Endeavor exercise such precise control over his Hellfire- though that may have been because he didn't really pay much attention to the Flame Hero in general.

Pushing the thoughts aside, he held his sword aloft and said, "You just gonna hide in there? I'm between you and my target, now. I could just run, and you'd never catch up to me."

"Maybe, if you were simply trying to escape," Cinder's voice echoed from within the blazing barrier. "But you're not trying to escape, are you? And you won't risk turning your back on me when there's a chance that I might scorch you the second that you do. Or better yet, maybe I'll wait for you to come back so I can turn that little girl into a pile of ashes."

Kai scowled, but he knew that she was right. If he didn't neutralize her now, she could end up being a bigger threat later on. I'll just have to snuff her out right now, he thought as his right arm's lighter sections glowed slightly in preparation to channel extra power through it.

He waited until Cinder threw another fire blast at him before he moved again. First, he ducked the projectile, then he sped forward a few meters so that he was right in front of the flames, and made a full stop, followed by a max-power punch into the ground that broke apart the concrete in front of him, and causing Cinder's concentration to fail as she began to fall down into the next floor with a startled cry. The instant that the flames were gone, Kai stood up straight and proceeded to unleash a barrage of energy blasts into the hole that he had made, hoping to pulverize Cinder before she could recover from the fall.

After about ten seconds of turning rubble into powder, Kai's scouter was no longer picking up on Cinder's quirk, though it registered her as being alive somewhere under the concrete. The boy shut off his powers and turned away, ready to resume his journey to find and rescue Eri. As he walked away, he muttered, "Scouter, locate Lemillion." The lens displayed his comrade as being a fair distance away, but it seemed like he wasn't moving. Maybe he's caught up to Chisaki?

He started to head in the direction of his upperclassman, but his progress was stopped when a searing pain erupted in his back, courtesy of a fireball that had slammed into him, knocking him off his feet and coating a good portion of his shoulders in second-degree burns. He cried out in pain and collapsed where he lay, though he fiercely maintained his hold on consciousness. It wasn't as bad as when Todoroki had cauterized his arm, but it still wasn't a good sensation, either.

"I've found that the most common mistakes you amateur heroes make is that you assume just because an enemy is down, that they will stay that way," Cinder told him condescendingly as she used some kind of flame rope to pull herself out of the hole she was supposed to be buried under. "A pity. You would have made a rather handsome hero, had you never encountered me." She approached the boy, who was scrabbling desperately as he tried to get away, but the pain from his burns were making it difficult for him to think cohesively, much less move quickly.

She stood over him with a cruel smile as she knelt over him and held her hand out over his face. "Maybe you'll be a little more understanding of me once I make you into a monster, too." Fire rippled across her palm, ready to scorch his flesh beyond recognition.

Before she could unleash her power again, though, Kai suddenly flipped over and gripped her left hand with his metal limb, an unsettling look in his eye as he bared his teeth at her like wounded animal. "What was that about assuming someone would stay down?" he hissed at her as he jerked her off-balance and brought her burnt face closer to his angry one.

"How? Those burns should be-!"

"I survived losing my arm and burns way worse than these in the same night," Kai growled as he began to exert a painful amount of force on her wrist, threatening to pop the joint out of place. She tried to grab at him with her other hand, but he struck her across the face with his flesh hand as he sat up, discombobulating her enough to render her temporarily unable to use her quirk. He continued to increase the pressure, drawing out a shout of pain as her wrist joint was forced out of its proper placement, but he didn't let up on the pressure, either.

"What…?" she groaned as pain shot up her arm, keeping her from concentrating properly. "What are you…?"

"You said you'd turn me into a monster, right?" he challenged her as he got to his feet, tightening his grip even further, and causing her to gasp in shock as the pain began to worsen while he held her aloft by the damaged limb. He grabbed her face roughly and forced her to look him in the eye, in which she saw the seeds of a madness that could surpass Shigaraki's if they were allowed to grow. "Did you not see my arm, Cinder? If you're claiming to be a monstrosity based on the pounds of flesh lost or disfigured, you're nowhere near as ugly as I am. You should've just done what Chisaki told you to do and stayed out of my way. See, I want to be a hero, but that doesn't mean that I'm above using you to send a message back to your masters in the League."

The way he said that made Cinder feel colder than she had felt in years. She was no stranger to making disturbing threats herself, so she could tell that whatever he had in mind, he was deadly serious about carrying it out. Maybe it was because such violent implications were coming from a child that was making his malice seem so much worse, but she had never felt such fear instilled in her by another person before. Her throat dried out as he lowered his hand from her mouth, which allowed her to ask, "What message?"

Kai gazed at her with a silent contempt before he dropped her on the floor like a sack of potatoes. "An eye for an eye," he told her as he clenched his metal fist, which was shaking, though Cinder wasn't sure why, as it hadn't sustained any real damage in their scuffle. Then he moved impossibly fast, turning his body in full one-eighty before bringing his replacement arm down with all the force of his momentum, body weight, and quirk behind the blow. His fist connected with her left elbow, where it lay on the concrete, and all but severed the limb at the joint, flattening her elbow thinner than a pancake. The destruction was so complete that even Recovery Girl would have to amputate the limb, and Kai delivered this strike with a face set like flint that showed no remorse whatsoever for what he had done.

Cinder paled to the shade of an unhealthy ghost, but before she could even begin to fully register the hideous agony exploding out of her irreparable injury, Kai swiftly struck her in the temple, rendering her completely insensate. With a contemptuous snort, he kicked her against the wall as he muttered, "Wouldn't want anyone to step on the trash when they come through, now would we?" Pausing for a second, he realized that his fallen enemy might bleed out from the puncture wounds caused by the bone shards sticking out of her forearm, so he tore off the remains of his gi's top, leaving him in his orange shirt as he used the dense blue fabric to make a rough bandage before he left her where she was.

He moved to pick up his sword, hissing at the pain from his back as his burns protested the movement, but he did his best to ignore it and keep moving. His scouter showed that Lemillion was moving again, but he didn't seem to be making much progress- likely due to whoever else was using their quirks, as he could now detect at least two other unknowns, along with Chisaki himself up ahead. That can't be good.

Deku: Um, Kurai...?

Kai: Yeah?

Bakugo: Your Red Swordsman is showing.

Kai: Had to happen sometime- he is the writer, after all.

Mataras: Everyone has a point where they're willing to make things ugly. Kai here just finally hit his.

Deku: Even so, that was-!

Bakugo: Awesome! Do it again!

Deku: I was gonna say brutal!

Bakugo: I know, that's why it's awesome!

Mataras: Well, just to clarify things, it's not like Kurai would have done that to just anybody, villain or not. He had a score to settle, here.

Deku: Wait, what?

Kai: Yep. The only other people I would have done that to are Compress, Shigaraki, and Moonfish.

Bakugo: And how's that?

Kai: Think about it. They- along with Cinder- were the ones responsible for our kidnapping in the forest during the camp attack. Because they made it possible to take you away, my dad had to go after you, which led to Kamino, and his death. A large portion of my misery is thanks to those guys, and I am not above taking revenge in my own way when the opportunity presents itself.

Deku: Aren't you worried that what you did might be viewed as kind of... extreme?

Kai: Not really. Once villains hear that I did that to one of Shigaraki's goons and got away with it, how do you think they might react to me showing up at the scene of a crime in progress?

Bakugo: Ha! They'll be lucky not to crap themselves!

Mataras: Exactly.

Kai: In any case, we should probably move on to the conclusion of this segment.

Deku: Umm, okay?

Bakugo: Next time on this extra's story- Holding Out!

Mataras: It's been two years since this journey began, and it's time for Kai to take things to the next level. Get ready to Go Beyond!

Kai: Plus Ultra!

Next time on Your Hero Academia: Unveiling...

Lemillion was surprised to see his schoolmate leap into view over some of the conjured spikes to land next to him, looking a little winded, but otherwise okay. "Kai!" he said with relief. "Are you all right?"

"Got a little cooked back there, but I'm still in this fight," the younger hero said as he conjured two more energy blasts in his hands while Chisaki staggered to his feet, looking furious. Addressing the masked man, he added, "Too bad we can't say the same for your rent-a-thug from the League of Villains."

"You people… are filthy," Chisaki growled, sounding almost animalistic from within his beak-shaped mouth cover. "This hero sickness is infecting everyone these days… even schoolboys like you two."

"Whatever you're preaching, I'm not hearing," Kai deadpanned. "Hands where I can see 'em, Chisaki. I know you can't transmute anything if you aren't touching it."

"Don't use that name lightly, schoolboy," the thug snarled as he staggered forward. "And don't think for one second that you can get off on telling me what to do!"

"First off, my name is Kai, learn it," the young hero shot back as he aimed one of his palms directly at his opponent's head. "Really, it should be easy for you to remember, seeing as it's also yours', even if you don't deserve it. Second, the only guy that's sick around here is you. Third, you take one more step towards us or Eri, and I'm gonna drop you like a bad apple."

"Kai, you should take Eri and run," Lemillion told his peer, but Kai was already shaking his head.

"He sealed us in this room," the younger hero explained. Lemillion hadn't been able to see the current state of the exit because of the spikes, but Kai had just narrowly avoided getting swallowed up in the moving concrete. "I have no idea how thick he made the walls behind us, and I don't want to turn my back long enough to find out how big of a blast I'd need to make to get through it."

"So you're saying that we need to beat him if we're gonna make it out of here safely?" Lemillion asked with a wince. "Ouch. Tough break for us, am I right?"

"If he's as good with his quirk as I think he is, then yeah, this is gonna be an interesting morning," Kai muttered. Seeing that Overhaul was going to take a step, he preempted him by moving forward two paces and shouting, "I'm not playing, Chisaki! One more move, and I'm going to cut the head off of this worthless snake you call a gang!"

The deranged man's eyes widened as his fingers made some kind of strangling motion before he growled out, "Who do you think you are, schoolboy? The yakuza were in power long before you even understood the meaning of the word!"

"I told you, I am Kai!" the boy shouted back. "Now stand down before I give you a reason to fear that name!"