A/N: Alright, who's ready for an extra-long chapter? It is the 75th entry for this story, so I figured it might be nice to let loose with some extra content. Villains of Nabu Island, let's go!

P.S. The artwork for the next couple of weeks is of an original villainess of my design. You can find a better quality version on my Instagram: the_red_swordsman

P.P.S. Trigger warning for self-harm in this chapter. Please read at your own discretion.

Scant Mercies

The masked villain who called himself 'Nine' looked down from the ruins of the ferry that he and his crew had used to travel to Nabu Island, his eyes glowing as he sought the power he needed. After a moment, he let out a long breath and said, "It's not in this area. Chimera, take out communications. Mummy, Switch, Slice, you're my diversions. I don't want to be disturbed."

"How do you want us to do it?" asked the hulking, blue-furred monster known as Chimera.

"However you want," Nine answered as he leaped off the water craft.

"Excellent," Mummy grinned from behind the red bandages that covered his face and the majority of his body.

"Dibs on law enforcement," Switch added, her eyes glowing purple.

The moment that they were all gone, the woman known as 'Slice' slung her lengthy red hair around herself, unleashing a storm of diamond-hard scarlet needles in every direction. Within seconds, every ship that could get people off of the island was completely wrecked, making escape for the residents impossible. Once Chimera takes out their communications, it will be impossible to call for help, she thought with satisfaction. And with no heroes to help them, the people of this island will have no choice but to submit to Nine's will.

Can't Stop Twinkling, Invisible Girl, and Myrtenaster had just finished helping a couple of tourists find their luggage when they heard something that sounded an awful lot like an explosion coming from outside. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me," the Regal Heroine groaned as they dashed out of the door into a scene of mayhem and panic.

"Heroes!" shouted someone- they weren't sure who- as the civilians all ran away from the source of the chaos. "It's a villain! Help us!"

The street was littered with monsters of all kinds wrapped in dark red bandages that reminded the young heroes of drying blood. They were all menacing figures, and they were tearing through the shopping center without discrimination, simply laying waste to whatever was within their reach. Seeing the disorder got Myrtenaster's hackles up enough that she let out a very un-lady-like growl before drawing her rapier.

"Aoyama, take out the ones that are floating," she ordered. "I'll get the ones on the ground, and keep them from getting to you two. Hagakure, call the office in case we need backup."

"I can't, I already tried!" the other girl said, sounding close to panicked. "I don't have a signal!"

Meanwhile, the mummified monsters were drawing closer, and the heroes knew that there was no time to waste bemoaning what they lacked. "Get any stragglers out of here, then!" Myrtenaster ordered as she began to conjure a trio of white hexes. "There may be more of them! Kyah!" Her sword lashed out at blinding speed and reduced the closest mummy to scarlet ribbons, followed immediately by her leaping from hex to hex and slashing through another four mummies as she did.

While Invisible Girl ran off to do as she was told, Can't Stop Twinkling was letting loose with his navel laser at anything that moved over his comrade's head. The two heroes soon noticed that whenever they defeated a monster, the bandages came unraveled around an object and deposited it to the ground, broken. There were vending machines, street signs, food stalls, even a car was being used against them.

"Well now, this is a surprise." A new voice came into their midst as the mummies all drew back, allowing the teenagers to see that each one was tethered to someone. That someone was wrapped in the same bindings as the objects that had been turned into monsters that attacked them, and was now slowly walking toward the two of them. "Heroes, out in the middle of nowhere?"

"Who are you?" Myrtenaster demanded as she whirled her rapier and prepared a black hex behind her and a silver one in front of her peer. "Why are you here?"

"I'm not here to talk, I can tell you that," the man sneered from behind his bandages. His eyes were just about the only identifying feature that they could make out, as the rest of him was covered in some kind of military-looking gear and the red fabric that he was apparently using to control the loose objects in the shopping center. "I also didn't expect to have anybody fight back, so this is turning into a fun day," he added as more bandages shot away from his body and wrapped themselves around a movie rental machine, turning it into a lumbering brute that shuffled toward the heroes.

"I suppose we're doing this the hard way," Myrtenaster muttered before activating her hexes, the black one sending her rocketing forward with her sword outstretched, and the silver sigil absorbing Can't Stop Twinkling's navel laser before spitting it out as a storm of razor-sharp light needles that skewered half of the monsters, reducing them to scrap while the white-haired girl spun around the corner of a bakery and allowed the storm to pass her by. This was followed by her using some white hexes to run up the building and then leap out into open air, the point of her rapier aimed to deliver a swift blow to the villain controlling the puppets.

Firecracker cocked her gauntlets, her hips squared and her fists up as she stared down the woman who had nearly killed the police officers stationed at the precinct. Crescent Rose had her scythe unfolded and had her finger on the trigger, ready to leap into action at the first sign of trouble from their new enemy.

The villain was short like Crescent Rose, with angular facial features accented by raven hair and violet eyes that flicked back and forth between the two sisters rapidly while their owner fixed her lips in a sneer. "I hate the cute ones," she growled softly. "I think I'll mess up your faces after I kill you so no one'll look at you at your funerals." Her appearance spoke nothing about her quirk, so the Americans were on high alert as they waited for their opponent to make the first move.

"Oh great, a crazy one," Firecracker grumbled. "I hate the crazy ones."

"Hehe, the only thing that's crazy is how fast I'm going to leave you a bleeding mess on the sidewalk," the villain that called herself 'Switch' replied as her sneer turned into a demented smile while she clenched her fists, which were decorated with spiked knuckledusters. "The best part? You'll have made it happen yourselves!"

Bang!

"Froppy, get these people outta here!" Tailman shouted as he charged at the beast-like villain who had appeared amid the rumbling earth that had set fire to the forest bordering the beach he and the others had been patrolling.

"Ribbit!" Even as the Martial Arts Hero ran at the unexpected enemy, Tentacole moved alongside their frog-like classmate to secure the other citizens who were closer to the danger zone, leaving their friend free to engage without having to multitask.

Leaping high and spinning himself rapidly to build momentum, Tailman lashed out with his namesake's appendage the second that he came into striking range with enough force to break bones, aiming for the burly villain's thick neck. He didn't actually expect to seriously injure the other man, given his hardy appearance, but he didn't expect for his blow to essentially be backhanded aside like a lazy fly, sending him backpedaling and off-balance.

He swiftly recovered his center of gravity and beat a hasty retreat a few yards away from the new threat, who regarded him with something like a bored curiosity. Realizing that he lacked the strength necessary to drive the beast back with conventional methods, Tailman decided to try and buy time for the evacuation in a different manner. "Who are you?!" he demanded of the villain. "Why are you doing this?!"

The beast villain snorted as he casually picked up two boulders, each one larger than the martial artist while he replied, "You look a little young to be a hero." So saying, he tossed the rocks like one would toss a softball- only these moved much, much faster, in spite of their mass.

Tailman was nearly flattened by the huge stones, but a blur of dark motion swept him away and set him down safely a few-dozen meters away from the danger zone. "Tokoyami?!" he realized as he felt his feet touch the sand.

"I've got this!" the Jet-Black Hero shouted over his shoulder as he flew toward the beastly menace. "Dark Shadow!"

The creature born of his body let out a throaty battle cry as it stretched away from his cloaked frame and extended its claws, ready to tear into Tsukuyomi's enemy. Still, the raw power of his quirk was driven back, though it took a bunched fist as opposed to a casual slap, this time.

Even so, it was clear that Dark Shadow's strength would not do much more than annoy their enemy under the current conditions. If it were nighttime, it might be another matter for Tsukuyomi's chances at victory, but as things stood…

"Tokoyami, get back to the office!" Tailman shouted as he moved to reengage the enemy, who still looked relatively bored with the lot of them. "We need reinforcements!"

"Are you sure?!" he asked his classmate.

"Go!"

"No!" Dark Shadow protested angrily. "We're not running from this guy! We stay, we stand our ground!" Suddenly, Tsukuyomi was glad that it was not nightfall- otherwise he might have lost control of his quirk then and there.

"Dark Shadow, we are not Kai!" he shouted at the dark being as he tried to reign it in, having recognized the catchphrase it was using. "We cannot save people the same way that he does! Ojiro is right, we need help to take this villain down!"

"Ragh!" the creature protested, but it finally obeyed his command. "You get off easy for now, monster! When we come back, you're gonna be the one flat under a rock!" With that, the pair took to the sky, heading straight for the UA Hero Agency.

"Hah!" the beast villain chortled. "The only one who could've pulled that off was All Might, and the last I checked, he's not much of a hero these days!"

Tailman and Tentacole's faces both tightened with angry glares at that. "We may not be the Symbol of Peace…" the multi-armed boy muttered.

"But we're not heroes to take lightly, either!" Tailman finished as they ran back into the fray, odds of success be damned.

Back at UA Hero Agency, all of the students were starting to notice the lack of phone calls coming in, which led to the realizing that none of them had a signal on their office or cell phones. "Anyone else starting to get a bad feeling?" Mina asked nervously. Most of the students were at the agency, having completed their earlier jobs, and without any new requests to act on, they had decided to remain at the office on standby.

Before anyone could answer her, they heard someone shouting for help outside, which saw to them all running out the front door. "Heroes!" called a man who had just leaped off of his moped. "There's a villain at the shopping district! Your people are holding him off, but they need help!"

"Trouble at the beach!" called the deep voice of Tokoyami from above, startling his classmates. "A villain has appeared. Ojiro and Shoji are holding him back, and Asui has begun evacuating the citizens, but they all need help."

Before Iida could start giving orders, another islander ran up, out of breath, and gasping, "Villain…! At the police precinct!"

"Jeez, how many of these guys just decided to invade all of a sudden?!" Sero demanded of no one in particular.

"It doesn't matter," the class representative answered as he turned to face his peers. "We're fighting on multiple fronts, and this will be a race against time."

"We're the only heroes on the island," Yaoyorozu reminded them. "Communications seem to be down, so we can't expect any backup to bail us out if something goes wrong."

"Bakugo, Kaminari, Kirishima, go to the shopping district and help Schnee's team!" Iida said rapidly, having apparently come up with a general plan. "Uraraka and Koda, you'll be our evacuation team for the beach. Yaoyorozu and Jiro, you're on first aid for the shopping district teams. Ashido and Belladonna, head for the police station! Todoroki, Sero, Sato, and Tokoyami, we're all heading down to the beach!" As most of the other heroes headed out to follow their orders, Iida took a moment to pull Ashido aside and say, "Knowing Kurai, he's probably at the police station. Whether he realizes it or not, his first instinct is to help protect other law enforcement officers in order to maintain some measure of organization, especially after the chaos that he witnessed in Fukuoka."

Mina's eyes widened for a second before she smiled at the taller boy and saying, "Thanks, class rep."

"Thank me by making sure he's alright."

"No signal?!" Izuku cried as he looked down at his phone and Kurai tapped his scouter in frustration.

"Nothing on my end, either," he told his friend with a grim face. "Whoever took out the harbor must be responsible for our coms going down, too. If they're going through the trouble of cutting off our contact with the mainland, these aren't just some punks out for a joyride. We're looking at somebody who know how to strategize."

The two of them quickly made their way down to the harbor, but other than the ruined boats and piers, they saw no signs of whoever had done this. "Check this out," Kurai said as he plucked something bright red out of the ground in front of them. Upon closer inspection, it looked like a crystalized needle, and it was sharp enough to penetrate metal and concrete. "So at least one of them has a projectile-type quirk."

"You think that there's more than one villain, too?" Izuku asked him.

"Given how recently our phones lost their signal and when Mahoro made the call- when this had to have happened- I doubt that we're dealing with an individual," Kurai answered with a shake of his head. "There's gotta be at least two of them on the island."

"I agree," his friend nodded. "We need to make sure that the islanders are safe, however many of these villains there are." A thought seemed to occur to him just then, because he turned directly to look at Kurai and say, "Katsuma and Mahoro! Their dad is away at work!"

Kurai understood his sense of alarm- without their father around, the two kids were more likely to panic and get lost in the chaos that was no doubt coming to their home. "Do you know where they live?" he asked his friend.

"They gotta be near Mrs. Suzumura's place," Izuku answered with a sharp nod. "I'll go find and take them back to the office."

"Alright, I'm headed for the police station," Kurai nodded as he started to jog away.

"Why there?!"

"They took out our means of escape and communications!" Kurai called over his shoulder. "Next logical place for them to hit would be law enforcement so that the panic keeps going! Since the island's hero retired only recently, the villains probably wouldn't be expecting a replacement agency just yet!"

"Good thing we're here, then!" Izuku shouted as his friend shot him a grim smile before using his quirk to take off at high speed.

Can't Stop Twinkling had hit his limit with his quirk, keeling over in pain after blasting another puppet in a string that seemed never-ending. Myrtenaster was still going strong, but it was hard for her to fight off so many of the manifestations at once, and so she was slowly being driven back by the Mummy villain.

Just when it seemed as though their enemy would entrap her, there was a round of explosions that scrapped half of the scarlet puppets and blinded the villain simultaneously. Myrtenaster looked over her shoulder, knowing that there was only one person who could make those kinds of blasts with such precision. "You're late," she said as a familiar blonde walked through the smoke with a sneer on his face.

"I shouldn't have to be here at all," Ground Zero shot back. "I thought you were supposed to be hot stuff, Ice Queen, but you can't handle one stupid villain?"

"Maybe you'd care to show a girl how it's done?" she said challengingly, which got the boy to smiling dangerously.

"Alright, but remember that you asked for it!" Ground Zero took to the air, even as Red Riot and Chargebolt dove into the fray, laying waste to several of the puppets that were menacing Can't Stop Twinkling. Just behind them were Creati and Earphone Jack, who were prepared to administer first aid.

"Reinforcements, huh?" Mummy muttered as he sent out more of his wrappings to summon more puppets to his aid. "Let's change things up a bit." Without warning, he sent multiple lines of fabric toward his enemies, ensnaring Red Riot almost instantly, having seen that he was one of the slower fighters on the heroes' side. Before the bandages could spread too far, Myrtenaster slashed through the line attaching her peer to the villain, which in turn undid the bindings on his arm.

"Thanks!" he said appreciatively. "I owe you one, Schnee!"

"Argh!" The two of them were startled by Ground Zero's shout of surprise, looking up just in time to see the boy become completely enshrouded in the red wrappings of their enemy. "What the… hell…?!"

"He can control people, too?!" Chargebolt yelped.

"Not quite," Mummy answered as he continued to summon more puppets. "Objects wrapped in my bandages move according to my will. Even if it doesn't work on people, there's a lot of your body that's covered by much that is inanimate. Clothes and gear are easily bent to my will, like I've done with your friend here. So now the question becomes; will you surrender and willingly become my puppets, or will I have to kill you and use your corpses against your friends?!"

Myrtenaster had a different idea. "Jack, see if you can unbalance our friend there!" she said as she slashed through another puppet coming at her while avoiding Ground Zero in puppet form.

"You got it!" the Hearing Heroine said as she knelt in front of her comrade and slammed her hands down on the ground, palms up. "Heartbeat Distortion!" Her attack tore up the ground beneath the villain, knocking him off his feet with a shout of surprise.

"Chargebolt, fry him!"

"You got it!" One of the boy's polarizing disks shot out of his wrist-slinger and landed on the recovering Mummy, who looked down at his chest with confusion. A second later, all trains of thought were scrambled by a sharp burst of electricity that knocked him on his back again, freeing Ground Zero and most of the other puppets.

"Last move's mine!" the volatile hero roared as he shot straight toward the man who had trapped him. He grabbed the man by the face while his other hand primed the pin on the attached gauntlet. "Guess what happens when I get a load of my sweat stored up?" he asked the semi-conscious villain with slightly deranged smile. "You get a maximum blast… Now, DIE!" He yanked the pin out of its place and unleashed a hellfire explosion at point-blank range, thoroughly roasting the villain and knocking him through the wall of a concrete fence that surrounded a small parking lot.

He was breathing heavily as he heard his classmates running up behind him, followed by Myrtenaster asking him, "Are you okay?" Mummy was lying in a smoking heap across the lot, unconscious and totally incapable of causing any more trouble for them.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he snorted, as if it were obvious. He did, however, look at her out of the corner of his eye and say, "You act fast, Schnee. Even Deku would've taken a while to come up with that plan." He saw the girl's eyes starting to light up, so he turned away and said, "I'm leaving the rescuing to you guys."

"Where are you going?" Red Riot asked as Ground Zero got ready to take to the air again.

"To kill the other villains!"

So far, Crescent Rose and Firecracker were having a terrible time at fighting Switch- mostly because no matter what they did, they couldn't seem to hit her. "Is that all you pretty girls can do?!" she taunted as she ducked behind a police car that Firecracker turned into scrap with a single blow. The rest of the block looked just as bad, having been torn up throughout the course of the fight.

"Augh!" the Sunny Heroine snarled, infuriated at her inability to land even one shot on the violet-eyed villain. "What's her deal, Sis?! This should be a cakewalk, she's not that fast!"

"Best guess is her quirk is something like Blake's Shadow!" her sister replied as she unloaded an armor-piercing bullet into the disconnected door of a squad car that had been sent flying by one of Firecracker's earlier attacks. At close range, the round went clear through the metal, but it still missed its intended target. "We're only hitting her where she's been, not where she actually is!"

"So at least you've got some brains behind that stupid cute little face of yours'," Switch said as she popped up behind the door, though her opponents couldn't tell if she was annoyed or impressed by the fact. Firecracker stopped caring even a little bit when Switch added offhandedly, "Your blonde friend is just stupid, though, like all the others… Makes me want to vomit when the dumb ones don't get the looks to match their insides."

"C'mere and I'll show you who's stupid!" Firecracker shouted as she launched herself forward in tandem with her sister, both of them coming from opposite directions. Crescent Rose had her scythe held back in preparation of a mighty sweeping blow that would cut Switch in half, or at the very least, remove a limb if it connected. Both sisters had their eyes peeled for any sign of when their enemy's quirk came into action, some tell that would alert them to Switch's next move, but it never came.

Instead, they found themselves suddenly on a collision course with a large piece of rubble that hadn't been there a second ago, and only their lightning-fast reflexes kept them from crashing into the rock, and each other. Both sisters leaped away from the chunk of concrete and put their backs to each other as they kept an eye out for their elusive foe who seemed to have disappeared for the moment. "So that's it," Crescent Rose muttered.

"What's happening?" Despite Switch's disappearing act, Firecracker was sure that the villain was somewhere close by, waiting to pounce.

"She has a warp-type quirk," the younger girl said grimly. "She's not opening portals, though. She's changing places with whatever she wants to use as a shield so that it takes the hit and wears us out, little by little."

"Can't you use your quirk to overwhelm her before she uses it?"

"Too risky. If I try to hit her at top speed and she still gets the drop on me, I could end up flattened against a car or something."

"What if-?"

"Surprise!" Too late, the girls realized that the boulder next to them had been replaced by their enemy, and now she was aiming a vicious punch at Firecracker, who wasn't quite fast enough to dodge at such a close range.

Fortunately, they had someone else watching out for them that day. A blast of light flew out from up the road and crashed into Switch, sending her flying with a pained cry while Crescent Rose and Firecracker made another hasty retreat away from their opponent. Both of them were filled with relief as they heard a familiar voice ask, "You two okay?"

"A lot better now that you're here," Firecracker grinned as Kai stood beside the two of them. "You're a sight for sore eyes, handsome."

"You're lucky my girlfriend doesn't catch you calling me that."

"Oh really?" asked another familiar voice that drew the heroes' attention. "I don't mind her calling you that- it's true after all, and I know you aren't going anywhere." Ashid Queen was standing with a big smile on her face next to Gambol Shroud, who wore a more severe expression. "Glad to see you're okay, sweetie."

"Likewise, but we're not out of the woods yet," he said as he turned back to look at the recovering Switch. "Alright, Rose, what's the deal with this one?" In response, Crescent Rose gave a fast-paced summary of what she knew about their opponent's abilities, which led him to ask, "Can she trade places with anything, or is there some kind of limitation?"

"I think she has to see an object before she makes the switch," the younger girl answered. "She's only been doing it with stuff that's out in the open, far as I can tell."

"So we either need to blind her, or obstruct her field of vision enough that she can't use her powers," Gambol Shroud muttered as she drew her sword.

"I'm gonna recommend that you ladies go melee on this one," Kai mused as he studied their enemy, who seemed to be doing the same to their reinforcements. "We don't need her switching places with a bullet."

"What about that blast you hit her with?"

"She literally didn't see it coming."

"Nice!" Firecracker gave him a high-five while Switch began to advance on them again, now muttering something unintelligible under her breath through ground teeth. "Oh, one last side note, she seems to have something against hot girls."

"Well, then that's a lot of hate she's gonna be throwing here," Kai muttered as he settled into a fighting stance while activating his sword.

"Hey…" Ashid Queen said as she got into her own ready stance. "What're you saying, mister?"

"Not the time, Mina!"

"Oh, you're one of those," Switch seethed, all of her wrath now seemingly focused on Kai, who was admittedly a little unsettled by it. "Just because you're so gifted and desirable, you surround yourself with pretty girls, huh?! I'll bet you ignore all the plain-looking ones, no matter what their hidden potential might be, don't you?!"

Kurai blinked a couple of times before he raised an eyebrow and asked, "What, no one invited you to prom, so now you play dress-up and run around with all the other cool kids after Mom and Dad go to bed?"

The villain went an unhealthy shade of red-purple in her face as her rage built itself up, but before she could make a retort, Ashid Queen was already on the move. "Acid Shot!" Gray-green liquid sprayed out of her fingertips, corrosive enough to cause serious blisters and chemical burns if it came into contact with another person's skin, but not enough to kill them unless it were somehow ingested.

Switch dodged this by trading places with a nearby streetlight, which began to topple over, as it had been taken from its foundation. Before she could rest easy, however, Crescent Rose and Kai were already upon her, their quirks enabling them to cross the distance at high speed and swing their weapons mightily with the hopes of bringing her down before she could pull another stunt. They still weren't quite fast enough to keep her from trading places with a tree that soon ended up in three pieces following their coordinated attack.

Even so, Gambol Shroud's keen eyes had already spotted their adversary, and now she moved to engage. "Shadow Clones!" she shouted as she advanced, five mirage images shifting into being around her, making it impossible to tell which of them the real one was. They attacked in pairs, each time coming from a different direction as Switch continued to use her surroundings to her advantage, and she showed no signs of exhausting her quirk anytime soon. She was also starting to hit back, viciously tearing through the clones with her knuckledusters.

Unseen by her, Gambol Shroud had exited the melee as soon as Switch started to strike at her clones, and now Kai made another move. "Rasenshuriken!" he bellowed as he hurled a swirling orb decorated with four sharp blades of light that would annihilate the surrounding area of wherever it struck, and it was headed right for the villain.

His throat was glowing bright blue, indicating that he had engaged the power of his Visshuda chakra, which meant that while he no longer had his superhuman strength and speed, he had a far more perfect control over his energy projections. This decision confused the others, leading Ashid Queen to ask, "What're you doing? I thought you said close-quarters was the way to go."

"Yeah, then I got another idea," Kai said as the whirling energy neared its target. "Get ready to move, cos this is gonna be a big one."

Just as he thought, Switch used her quirk to ditch her entanglement with the last of the clones as soon as she realized that new danger was coming toward her. Having noticed that she had a tendency to teleport behind the source of incoming attacks, Kai stretched out his hand and willed the energy to return toward him, yanking it onto a path that put it on another collision course with his enemy.

"Nice try!" Switch cackled as she started to run toward Kai, a maniac gleam in her violet eyes.

"If you're thinking about doing a kamikaze, forget it!" he told her before shouting, "Shield!" A wall of energon appeared between the two of them, solid enough to mostly protect him from any blast damage that would result from Switch getting hit in close proximity to him.

"Gotcha!" Switch's crazed declaration caused a pit to form in Kai's stomach as he realized that he must have made some kind of crucial error in the heat of the fight. Before he knew it, his shield had been replaced by the Rasenshuriken, and there was no way that he was going to dodge in time to avoid getting roasted with his own power.

Fortunately, Crescent Rose was still close enough to sweep him into her petals and speed him out of harm's way. "Thanks!" he gasped as the energy crashed into the police precinct, and promptly blasted it to dust, much to his horror. "Please tell me no one was in there!"

"Don't worry, the cops were all gone before you showed up," the younger girl answered as she skidded to a stop while Gambol Shroud, Ashid Queen, and Firecracker all closed in, trying to overwhelm their opponent with close-quarters combat without much success. "So, you saw that?"

"She can switch objects with one another, not just herself," Kai said heavily. "And it works on projectiles from other people's quirks. Yeah, I got that."

"Good thing we stopped using bullets, then," Crescent Rose said with a wince. "We probably would've ended up shooting each other."

"This chick is really starting to piss me off," he growled.

"I got an idea," his friend said, her silver eyes brightening.

"What's that?"

"How did you beat that Nomu that could phase out of the way of your attacks?"

"I cut off his ability to cast a shadow, which he needed to flee," he answered rapidly, his mechanical fist clenching as he saw Ashid Queen get a nasty cut on her arm from a swipe of Switch's weapons.

"So use that same move to blind her so she can't teleport!"

"Are you crazy?!" Kai gaped at his friend. "The last time I did that, I blew a hole in the stratosphere! If I do that down here, this whole island is getting wiped off the map, not to mention all of you!"

"So just do it on a smaller scale!"

"I can't risk killing-!" Kai paused, an idea seeming to come to him. "On second thought…"

"What do you need?"

"Get me in close to her and keep the others back. Try to keep her field of vision obstructed with your petals until you see a bright light, and after the big boom, get me to a medic," he said with a grimace. "This is gonna hurt both parties quite a bit, even if it works."

"Good luck, Kai," Crescent Rose said with a worried look right before she took him into the red petals once again. Less than a second later, he was standing in front of Switch once more, delivering a swift punch at her jaw that he knew would never land. Sure enough, she changed places with a police bike that went flying from the force of the punch, but it didn't put much distance between them, plus there weren't many other sizeable objects for her to change places with, and before she could find one further away, Kai was ready to put his plan into motion.

"All of you, scatter!" Kai shouted as Crescent Rose continued on with her task, entrapping the two fighters within a swirling storm of red flakes that left only a few rapidly-moving gaps to see through, though none of them remained in place for long. The girls didn't bother to question the order and did as they were told, leaping away as he added, "True Speech…" Switch hesitated, wondering what was about to happen, and it cost her. Energy pulsed from Kai's body as he made a sweeping motion with both arms and roared, "Barrier!" His voice spoke the word into being, conjuring a brilliant dome shield made of pure energy that entrapped the both of them, and blinding them simultaneously.

"What are you doing?!" she shouted as she tried to switch places with the shield itself, but finding herself unable to do so. "What is this?!"

"You can't look directly at a bright light without impairing your vision," Kai answered from within the swirling storm of energy. "I took a gamble that you need to be able to have a clear line of sight to whatever you're changing places with, and it looks like I was right."

"Okay, so what?!" the woman snarled as she started to advance on him. "You're trapped in here with me!"

"Not quite," he said with a smile, even though he knew she couldn't see it. "I think it's more accurate to say that you're trapped in here with me- and my little friend."

"Eh?"

"True Speech… Bomb." An orb the size of Kai's fist appeared between his palms, and in spite of herself, Switch felt the blood draining out of her face.

"You wouldn't," she protested.

"Ah, don't worry, this won't kill us," he chuckled through a grimace. "It ain't gonna tickle, though." With that, he hurled the bomb at the ground, ignoring Switch's scream of protest.

The two of them were completely lost to sight and sound amid the thunderous explosion that made Ashid Queen shout in fear of her boyfriend's life, but it didn't last long. The light faded, allowing them to see their enemy and their friend lying on the scorched pavement, both of them covered in injuries, but clearly alive if the pained groans were anything to go by.

"And here I was lecturing her about kamikaze attacks," Kai grunted as he slowly got to his feet, apparently in slightly better shape than his opponent. He nearly fell over, but Ashid Queen was quick to move in and hold him up. "Thanks, honey."

"I thought you were done doing stupid stuff like that," she said, somewhere between furious and relieved.

"I made it non-lethal on purpose," he told her. "I made a promise, and I intend to keep it. If I hadn't known that I could survive it, I wouldn't have done it."

"We need to restrain her," Gambol Shroud said as she levelled her sword at their enemy, who was trying to get up. "You, stay down." She roughly shoved Switch back down with her foot, who was blinking rapidly as her eyes tried to adjust back to normal lighting.

"I'm on it," Kai grunted as he stepped forward and reached out with his hand, engaging his Visshuda power again. "Chains." At his word, links of light appeared and wound themselves tightly around their enemy, restraining her movements. "Belladonna, if you could get something to blindfold and secure her on a more permanent basis?" The latest blast had cleared the immediate area of anything large enough for the woman to use as cover, but they were still unsure of her quirk's range.

Gambol Shroud moved to take the bow out of her hair, but was stopped when Switch began to chuckle in a low tone as she sneered at Kai, saying, "You were right, hero. I have to be able to see what I'm changing places with. But there's one itty-bitty detail that you missed."

Gambol Shroud's eyes widened before she lunged forward with her sword, determined not to give Switch another chance to escape now that they had her captured. She aimed her blade carefully even at her speed, not wanting the blow to be a fatal one, seeing as they might be able to get some information out of her later. Switch smiled one more time before the blade pierced flesh and stuck into the ground below it, triggering a silence so complete that even nature itself seemed to be muted for the moment.

Kai's mouth was open in shock as a cold and biting, burning pain erupted from his chest, robbing him of his ability to breathe as he stared down at the sword buried up to the hilt in his ribs. The chains binding his body blinked out of existence as he released his quirk, his eyes slowly drifting back up toward Gambol Shroud, whose golden orbs were wide with horror as she realized what she had just done. "Hikari…?" she whispered as her eyes drifted down toward her blood-covered weapon, some of the crimson stains having already spilled onto her fingers. Scarlet spots decorated her body and face, having been coughed up by Kai from the initial impact, each one feeling as though it burned her flesh where it landed.

Switch's voice erupted into a full-on fit of giggling as Ashid Queen let out a terrified scream while she and the other girls charged forward, the villain forgotten as they rushed toward their wounded friend. "I can change places with people, too!" she taunted them.

This was enough to make the Melting Heroine snap, and she let out another raw-throated scream as she sent out whips of acid in the general direction of their enemy's voice, the liquid being powerful enough to cut through streetlights, carve lines in buildings, even burn clear through a car, but nowhere did she hit her mark, much to her fury. "I'll kill you!" she screamed furiously, tears racing down her cheeks. "Come near us again, and I'll kill you, crazy bitch!"

Meanwhile, Kurai was trying not to black out from the pain while he felt his blood pooling beneath him, dropping his body temperature at a steady rate while spots swam in front of his eyes. His head felt like it was going to implode, so he could barely make out what Yang was saying as she knelt in front of him next to Blake, but eventually he realized that she was shouting, "Come on, buddy, breathe! You're going into shock, and you need to breathe through it, even if it hurts!"

Once again, it took him a couple of seconds to really understand what she was saying, but when he did, he gathered his wits and forced himself to take in a breath- and immediately regretted it. "Gah!" he cried as blood seeped into his lung, which had been badly cut by the sword, and now he coughed it up, spraying bits of scarlet onto his friends, and causing the pain to be even worse as his chest moved around the blade. "A-! freaking Rinnegan quirk?! Seriously?!"

"Hikari!" Ruby yelped worriedly as she and her sister reached for their first-aid kits, ignoring the blood that he had just accidentally spit on them. "Hang in there! Y-You're gonna be okay!" Blake could only stare down at her reddened hands and the spots of crimson on her outfit as her mind continued trying to process what she had just done.

"I know… that…" Kurai gasped, trying to keep breathing and not choke on his blood at the same time, a delicate balance that was growing more impossible by the second. "I made a promise… not to die of… anything but old age! Ach!" He coughed up more blood, groaning in agony as soon as he could breathe.

"We gotta get the sword out!" Yang said as she moved to pull on the handle, only to have her hand swatted away by her sister. "Ow! What the hell, sis?!"

"If we pull it out, he's just gonna bleed out faster!" Ruby reminded her as she shed her cloak and placed it around Blake's katana in order to keep pressure on the grievous wound. "He's gotta have internal bleeding, which means that we have to keep the sword stable long enough for the doctors to operate!"

"Rose, go get the first responders and Yaomomo!" Mina said as she came to kneel by Kurai's side, wiping furiously at her eyes and nose as she held her boyfriend's trembling hand. "She's at the shopping district- please, hurry!"

"You got it!" the smaller girl promised. "Keep pressure on the two sides as best you can while I'm gone!" She was then off in a blur of red flower remnants, the wind trailing behind her as she made all possible haste in aid of saving their friend.

"Ashido… Hikari…" Blake was mumbling as she fell to her knees, her whole body shaking as she continued to stare at the scarlet that had infected her skin and clothes. "I'm so… so… I…"

"This isn't… your… your fault," Kurai gasped as he began to shiver from the feeling of cold seeping into his body in place of the lost blood. "It's gonna… be okay, I… I promise."

"Shh, don't try to talk right now," Mina said in a broken voice as she cradled his head while her tears splashed onto his body.

"No, talking is good, keep him doing that," Yang said with a negative shake of her head. "Talking means that he's awake, and awake means that he's alive."

"What… do I talk about… in a time like this?" Kurai gasped, tears of his own building up in the corner of his eyes as the pain began to get to him.

"Uh…"

"The Star Wars franchise was never good, not even when George Lucas was running it," Mina said rapidly, causing her boyfriend's eyes to flick over toward her as they narrowed slightly while the tiniest smile quirked his mouth upward. "They're all overrated and it was honestly almost a deal-breaker for me how much you obsess with them. I only put up with them because you let me watch Alien and Predator with you."

"Okay… now I have to… survive on principle, just to prove… how utterly… wrong you are," he wheezed through a weak chortle. "Ow, hurts to laugh." He took in a shuddering breath before he added, "And just… for dissing the man himself… we're watching the entire Clone Wars… series in chronological order." Mina was smiling at him while she nodded through her tears and shaking shoulders, and even though he knew that she was forcing it, the gesture did make him feel a little better.

Morale was low among the heroes that evening, though the people on kitchen duty did their best not to let the people of Nabu Island know about it. The day had been one disaster after another for the teenagers, with three of their number seriously wounded, and only one captured villain to show for it, thanks to Ground Zero and Myrtenaster. Everyone had survived, but half of them were fairly certain it was only because the villains simply hadn't felt like killing them.

The beach team had been held off effortlessly by a beast-like villain, despite having an overwhelming numbers advantage and the likes of Todoroki and Tokoyami to help them. The Switch villain had evaded capture despite sustaining wounds and had managed to take out their single strongest hero with a cruel blow. The other woman, Slice, had mostly stayed out of the battle after destroying the harbor, though she had made an appearance long enough to help her leader retreat after a battle with Deku and Ground Zero. The leader himself was a masked man with silver hair who seemed to have multiple quirks at his disposal, which led the heroes to wonder if the League of Villains was involved in the island's current state of disarray, though they hadn't seen any of the core members as of yet.

Izuku and Bakugo had suffered from electrical burns following a lightning blast strong enough to take out the power on the entire island, plus broken bones and cuts from other powers inflicted by the masked man. They were unconscious and undergoing treatment from the doctors, but Kurai was by far the worst among the wounded. Part of his ribcage on the right side of his body had been cut clean, the same wound leading to a cut on the corresponding lung, which was now losing air pressure due to the excessive internal bleeding coming from several leaking arteries and veins.

He had been forced to undergo emergency surgery on the spot when Ruby had returned with a surgeon and Yaoyorozu, who had fortunately been able to make all the necessary sterilized instruments that the doctor needed, but it had still been a rough ordeal. During the operation, after learning what blood type was needed, Ruby had also brought in Shoji- who was a match for Kurai- so that he could help to keep his classmate alive long enough to survive the ordeal. Since his quirk enabled him to sprout extra limbs on a whim, he was able to supply all the blood that they needed, though the effort and previous fight with the villains left him feeling severely worn out after the fact. Following that, Uraraka had been able to supply more blood for her friend's recovery, though she was unable to give as much as she would have liked, seeing as the process could have sapped her strength to the point where she would be unable to perform her duties as a heroine.

Even so, the doctors had said that Kurai would be able to recover, and he was now resting near Bakugo and Izuku. He had lost consciousness partway into the operation, and Mina had not left his side, distraught enough that she had threatened to melt Iida after he had insisted that she help with the food line. He too was worried about his friend, but he seemed to be trying to bury his concern in his work of caring for the frightened civilians, and it was causing them to butt heads harshly.

Luckily, Yaoyorozu had been able to help the two reach a middle ground by having Mina work in the temporary med bay where the island's population was taking shelter so that she could look after Kurai, as well as the other injured patients alongside Todoroki and Uraraka. This kept the girl busy and near her boyfriend, so both parties were satisfied, for lack of a better term. It also didn't stop anyone from worrying about them, even as they struggled to get some of the backup generators in the shelter running, have the people fed, and reassuring them that they could handle it if the villains attacked again.

It was getting close to midnight when Kurai finally stirred, his brow contorting in pain as his body alerted him to just how much abuse he had endured that day. He was in a small room adjacent to the doctors' ward, which afforded him a little more privacy due to his need for undisturbed rest more than even his unconscious classmates.

"Oh…" he gurgled, feeling some blood in the back of his throat, which he tried to spit out, with limited success. "Tha's nasty."

"Kurai!" Mina exclaimed, her eyes lighting up as she passed a set of cool rags to Todoroki, who took them without complaint as she bolted over to her boyfriend's side. "Take it easy, the doctor managed to stabilize you, but if you strain yourself, you could open up your stitches, and-!"

"Mina," he coughed, wiping his mouth free of blood as well as he could before looking up at her with tired eyes. "I'll be okay. I promised."

"I… I know," she said, hanging her head in shame. "I'm so sorry, Kurai. I didn't handle any of this well, at all. I went crazy on the villain after you went down, I panicked and couldn't figure out what to do with your injury, and I-"

"Mina," Kurai said again, smiling through gritted teeth. "It's okay. God knows I probably would have done the same if I'd seen you hurt by a psychopath. I'm just sorry that I've scared you again."

"That's all your sorry for?" she asked with a strangled half-laugh.

"Actually, no…" he grunted as she helped him get into a sitting position. "I'm sorry that I didn't double-tap that crazy villain." He and Mina shared in a laugh after that, and that, more than any reassurances from the doctor, told her that he would be okay. The last time that he had been this badly injured, he hadn't been able to joke about it, not until she had managed to talk him up a little. Now, he was the one comforting her, which told her that he was confident in his ability to survive this.

"Good to see you awake, Hikari," Todoroki said as he came closer, having finished his round of errands for the moment. "We were all pretty scared for a little while."

"Pfft, this?" Kurai snorted as he pointed to his chest, and immediately regretting it as the movement caused him more pain. "Ow… Okay, this sucks. Not as much as the arm thing, but not fun." As he moved, he noticed that the side where he had been stabbed felt odd beyond the obvious reasons- as if something had been added to his ribs, making the skin over them feel somewhat distorted.

"As I was about to say earlier, you're officially on bedrest orders," Mina told him as she sat down and nuzzled his shoulder, tearstains dampening his bared skin while she breathed a lengthy sigh of relief. "You've got some kind of pin-thingamabobs holding your ribs together where you got stabbed, and they don't have much give. No fighting until you've seen a stronger healer, got it?"

"Yes ma'am," he nodded before he felt his throat catch, and he was hacking up blood from his lung again. It lasted a couple of minutes, but eventually, he was able to settle himself down and spit the red liquid into a towel that Todoroki provided him. "Thanks," he wheezed. "Sorry about the mess."

"It's alright," the heterochromic boy said as he stood up to go. "I'll go get the medicine that the doctor had Yaoyorozu prepare for you."

"Thanks, pal." As he left, Kurai noticed the other half-dozen people in the med bay, Izuku and Bakugo among them. "So… those two are down," he grunted as his wounds throbbed painfully. "How bad are we?"

"Coms are still down, but Yaomomo sent a drone off to the mainland that's broadcasting an SOS," the pink girl began. "It's gonna be at least a six-hour flight, so the soonest we can expect reinforcements is tomorrow late morning, and even then, we'd have no idea of who could help us. Bakugo and Schnee captured one of the villains, and he's locked up in the basement. Everyone else had some minor injuries, but there's been no fatalities, civilian or hero."

"Thank God for that," Kurai sighed, breathing a little more easily.

"Yeah, but that's about where the good news ends," she sighed. "The villain hasn't said a word about what they're doing here, and we still have at least four villains loose on Nabu, two of which were able to take out our heavy hitters, one that throws punches as hard as All Might-"

"No way he's that strong."

"The guy weaponized wind pressure like Izuku does when he goes up to twenty-five percent, according to Ochaco," Mina said with a grimace, causing her boyfriend to look at her with alarm. "Yeah. The last one is kind of an unknown, but her hair turns super sharp and can be used as a weapon, we think."

"Is her hair red?" Kurai asked curiously.

"Yeah," Mina answered with a frown. "How do you know that?"

"Pretty sure she's the one who destroyed the harbor," he sighed as he hung his head. "Izuku and I found a bunch of these red needles that were hard enough to cut through metal like it was nothing. They had wrecked every ship on the island, and it couldn't have taken her more than a couple of minutes to do it."

"Damn," Mina muttered. "So the bottom line is, they're all strong, and we're out of our league."

"No such thing," Kurai said with an emphatic shake of his head. "We've seen their powers, and we have a better idea of how they work, now. Maybe if we can flip the script and somehow get the drop on them next round, we can take advantage of our numbers."

"We?" Mina asked with a raised eyebrow. "You're staying in bed, remember?"

"Okay, I meant like the royal 'we'."

"Uh-huh."

"Sue me, if I can't fight, I can still strategize," Kurai said with a strange note in his voice. "Right after I cough up my lungs." With that, he leaned over and started another hacking fit to try and rid his body of the displaced blood.

Blake couldn't get it out. She could still smell the blood, feel it in the pores of her skin, and see it dripping from her hands. No matter how hard she scrubbed her hands and arms, no matter how much her skin was begging her to stop before she scrubbed them raw, she couldn't wash the lifeblood of her friend from her body. Almost worse than that, she could only hear two things playing on loop in her head, over and over again; the sound of her sword piercing Kurai's flesh and pinning him to the ground beneath, and the thought, I did it again.

First in the forest during their summer vacation, and now this. I did it again.

She could feel the slight resistance that her hands had encountered in the instant that her sword had entered his body. Twice now, her actions had led to Kurai being on death's door. I did it again.

She could hear the sound of the breath being driven from his body as she pinned him to the ground. For the second time, her haste had hurt someone she was supposed to protect, and this time she couldn't even claim to be indirectly responsible. I did it again.

She could smell the blood as it spilled onto her hands and legs. Her sword had nearly taken Kurai's life, and worse, it had happened by her own hands. I did it again.

She still couldn't get the blood out, even after scrubbing her hands for twenty minutes in the bathroom. I did it again.

Her eyes wandered up toward the mirror, where she could only see more blood, splashed across her body, staining her soul with the color of her comrade's death. I did it again.

She began to claw at her face, where some of the blood was, but again, her wiping at it did nothing to remove the stains. I did it again.

She could already see his body wrapped in a shroud, all of his friends mourning the life that he would never be able to achieve. Her head felt like it was cracking open as the thought continued to reverberate in her mind, growing louder and louder with each repeat. I did it again!

"Get off," she said in a hoarse whisper. The jolt of her sword hitting the ground through her friend's body jarred her hands anew.

I did it again!

"Get off of me," Blake begged the blood, but it ignored her. The smell of iron was growing even stronger, choking her, cutting off her ability to take in a breath of fresh oxygen.

I did it AGAIN!

"Get off, get off!" she finally screamed, unable to take the haunted, tortured look that the mirror was giving her with her own eyes. "I didn't mean for it to happen!"

I DID IT AGAIN!

"Go away!" she begged as tears finally fell from her eyes.

"No," said the phantom in the mirror, paralyzing her in place as its bloodstains began to spread even further, until she was completely dressed in scarlet. "I won't leave you, not ever. I am the thing in every dark corner of your mind, Blake. I am what keeps you up in the blackest part of the night. I am your destiny- the inescapable doom of the people you call your friends."

"No, please… I didn't-!"

"Who are you kidding?" the reflection taunted her. "You're getting so worked up, and for someone who never even gave you a second look- no matter how many times you looked when no one else was watching. It's time to face reality, Blake. All you do is hurt the people you care about- especially those you think you could love. You're a disease."

With a choked snarl of despair and fury, Blake drew her fist back and smashed it into the mirror, not caring that broken glass bit her hand and sliced deep into her flesh. All she cared about was getting rid of the horrible image in front of her.

You did it again, the voice taunted her from the darkest corner of her mind as she broke down and sobbed uncontrollably.

"How goes his recovery?" Chimera asked as he entered the little cabin that Slice and Switch had appropriated for the sake of their leader.

"He's doing well," Slice answered confidently. "I imagine that he'll be up in just a few hours."

"Good," the beast-man nodded. Glancing at the two women, he asked, "Did either of you see Mummy on the way over?"

"No," Switch said with a frown. "I'm starting to think that those heroes got him."

"You guys too, huh?" Chimera growled. "I still find it hard to believe that he would lose, especially to a bunch of kids." Despite his words, the fact that it had been several hours since they had met up under the signal flare without any sign of their comrade spoke of no good news for the man.

"Either way, it doesn't change the plan," Switch shrugged as she swept her short hair out of her face. "We know that the target is on the island, and they have no way of leaving. Once Nine is up, we can finish the hunt and begin the New World Order."

As she spoke, each of them thought back to the time that they had met their leader, and the world that he had spoken of. It would be a place where only power would determine one's fate, and the stronger they were, the grander their destiny would be. For one such as Chimera, who had been mocked and feared as a monster since his birth, it would be a utopia. For Switch, it was a chance at revenge against everyone who had ever ignored her existence due to her plain appearance in a world full of super humans with far more alluring people and powers. Slice had her own reasons for joining Nine, but since she had been with him the longest, none of the others knew what it was, nor had they ever thought to ask. All that mattered to them was the future that Nine had promised them, nothing else.

We bet everything on you, Chimera thought as he looked down at the sleeping form of his friend. Nine, you better not die on us.

Mina and Kurai talked for a little bit longer before one of the doctors came in to see the boy. "How are you feeling?" the man asked as Mina moved aside to let him have a look at her boyfriend.

"Probably about as crappy as I look," he joked through a wince. "How bad actually is it? I don't remember much from before I passed out."

"We had to do an old-style invasive surgery."

"Yeah, that part I remember."

"I think we got all of the veins and arteries patched up, and we managed to stitch the torn lung tissue back together," the doctor said with a tired smile. "I was able to use my quirk to close up the skin, but that's about all my powers allow me to do, and the skin is still thin there. Thanks to Creati, we were also able to set a few internal fixations on the ribs we had to cut through, so the bones should heal straight and proper, after which the sets will dissolve on their own, unless you see a surgeon that can heal you completely and remove the devices before your body runs its natural healing course. Unfortunately, the environment was far from sterile, but we decided that we would have to risk an airborne contaminant as opposed to you bleeding to death if we tried to move you. For now, I suggest that you keep an eye out for even the first sign of infection and bear in mind that any excessive movements could cause the wounds to reopen, both inside and out. Unless you can see someone with a much more powerful healing quirk, you're looking at several weeks of recovery time, at least."

"Told ya."

"I wasn't going to fight!"

"Uh-huh."

"Guys, make room!" shouted Kirishima just before the door was slid open to admit him and Yang, who were carrying an unconscious Blake between them, her right hand bleeding something fierce. "Doc, where are ya?! We need help!"

"Coming!" the man at Kurai's side called as he rushed over to assist the heroes. "What happened? Was it another villain?!"

"I don't think so," Yang said, a little breathlessly. "I found her in the bathroom in front of a broken mirror and glass in her hand. I had Kirishima help me because I'm too tired to carry her on my own."

"Wait, she punched the mirror?" Uraraka asked worriedly as the doctor set about using his quirk to close the skin of his newest patient. "Wha-? Why?"

"I think I know, but I'd better keep it to myself until I have a chance to talk to her," Yang muttered as she stepped back, a frown on her face. "Blake's always had a tough time with tackling too much stuff on her own, but I never thought I'd actually see her crack like this."

Kurai looked at the dark-haired girl with sympathy before he said, "I think I know what happened, too." Yang gave him a sad sort of smile, but before she could say anything, they were interrupted by a certain redhead.

"Hikari!" Kirishima called out with a relieved smile while he started to walk over. "Hey, man! How're you holding up?"

"Well, I didn't see the afterlife this time, so I'd say pretty good, all things considered," his friend chuckled painfully.

"Setting the bar a little low, aren't you?" the redhead grinned as they bumped fists.

"Too right," Kurai grinned back. "That way I can easily exceed expectations." As he watched the doctor move from Blake's bedside, his face sobered a bit and he asked, "Hey guys, can you help me up? I need to talk to Belladonna as soon as she wakes, and I'd rather she have my cot until she recovers."

"Why?" Kirishima asked him.

"Because I'm probably the reason she ended up like that."

It took some time for Blake to recover from the blood loss, so Mina had Kurai eat a little bit while he waited for the girl to wake up. "Waiting at the foot of another pretty girl to recover from getting hurt while I'm right here with you," Mina teased him, causing him to roll his eyes. "Have you no shame, sir?"

The med bay had gotten a pair of surprise visitors in the form of Mahoro and Katsuma, the latter of whom claimed to have a power that could help Izuku and Bakugo recover from their injuries more quickly. The two of them had been injured protecting the siblings from the leader of the villains, though why he had been after them at all had yet to be disclosed, as the only ones who could tell them were still sleeping. Mina had nearly asked the boy to help heal Kurai first, but the other hero had told her not to bother for the time being, on the grounds that their friends were still unconscious, and therefore needed more immediate medical attention. He knew that he was going to be okay, but they couldn't be certain of the same for them.

"I'm pretty sure you've killed off any sense of shame that I had before I came to our school," he answered readily with a grin that made Mina laugh. He had coughed up a fair amount out of his lungs, and he was starting to breathe a little easier now that he was sitting up.

"I'm glad to see that your sense of humor is still alive," said Iida as he entered the room, looking relieved to see his friend awake again. Mina, on the other hand tensed up slightly, as if preparing herself for a confrontation.

"Hey," Kurai said as he reached up to shake hands with his oldest friend. "I heard you're keeping the show running nicely. Glad to know you're doing okay yourself."

"'Okay' might be overselling it," the class president replied with a rueful smile. "All the same, I'm glad to see you conscious. I understand that you can't fight, but we're having a meeting to talk about the villains in a little while. Do you feel up to joining us? I could use your ideas."

"You got it, pal," Kurai assured him. "Come and get me when it starts, cos I don't want to have to move any more than I absolutely have to." Even injured, he still wanted to contribute to the upcoming fight, having no doubt that there would, in fact, be a round two.

"I understand," Iida nodded. To Mina, he surprised her by saying, "Forgive my behavior earlier, Ashido. I used my stress over the current situation as an excuse to lash out at you, which I should not have done. I am sorry." He bowed deeply to her from the waist, leading Kurai to wonder just what had happened while he was unconscious.

Mina, to her credit, stood up and returned the bow before straightening up and saying, "I shouldn't have yelled, either. I'm sorry, Iida. I guess we're both a little irrational when it comes to worrying about this guy."

"I suppose so," Iida nodded, a look of understanding passing between the two of them. "Would you mind helping me set up in the meeting room? Everyone else is wrapping up with the kitchen."

"You okay if I go?" Mina asked her boyfriend, who smiled and made a shooing motion with his hand.

"I'll be okay on my own for twenty minutes," he promised them. "Doctors are here in case I somehow start bleeding out again."

"Kurai!"

"I'm sorry, I can't turn it off!"

Once the other heroes were gone, Kurai contented himself with watching Katsuma work tirelessly to save Bakugo and Izuku. He had no doubt that Deku's kindness and determination had affected the little boy, as it had others before him. If this kid is serious about becoming a hero someday, you probably helped to shape the hero that he will become, he thought as he watched his friend sleep fitfully.

While Katsuma labored, Kurai was surprised when Mahoro approached him with a bashful look on her face. "I, uh… I just wanted to say I'm sorry," she said as she looked at the floorboards. "You know, for the other day."

Kurai couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as he replied, "You already apologized. Why do it again?"

"Cos I didn't mean it that time," the little girl admitted, her eyes still downcast. "I thought that you and your friends weren't really heroes. I didn't think that you would act like them if people really needed you."

"You mean if Katsuma really needed us," Kurai said softly, drawing Mahoro's eyes up toward him in surprise. Seeing it, the hero grinned and said, "Believe it or not, I kind of get it. I trust heroes more than you, granted, but I have a younger brother who I want to keep safe with my own efforts. I suspect that you're much the same."

Mahoro could only nod, too surprised to speak after being seen through so accurately by a person she barely knew.

Kurai then said, "I thought so… The thing about little brothers is, they have a habit of surprising us older siblings with their own capabilities. I know I wouldn't be alive if not for mine."

"Wait, your brother saved you?" Mahoro gaped. "But…? I heard your friends talking about you, and your powers seem amazing. How could your younger brother possibly save your life if you're that good?"

"I'm obviously not that good if this is the shape I end up in after a fight with a villain," Kurai chuckled before coughing into his towel again, alarming the little girl when red showed up in the fabric. He moved to reassure her as soon as he could talk by saying, "It's not as bad as it was, trust me." When she hesitated, he went on to say, "Back to my brother- his name is Akarui, by the way. He's not a fighter like me, but he's very resourceful, and smart. And as it turns out, he's very brave, probably even braver than me."

"How is that?"

"It's a long story, but the short version is that he sacrificed his ability to walk and talk in order to save my life when I was fighting a villain," Kurai answered, his eyes darkening ever so slightly. "At first, I wasn't even sure if he would live, and even after he started to recover, it was clear that his life would never be the same again. I was so upset with myself for letting that happen, but I had to learn to move on with my life and accept that I couldn't change what had already happened."

"How did you do that?" Mahoro asked. "Why would you be okay with him being hurt at all? Wouldn't you rather that he was okay?"

"Of course I would," Kurai nodded tiredly. "But like I said, there's nothing I can do about it now, so it's either stay sad for the rest of my life, or make something of myself. I was able to move forward when I realized that he had done it because he loves me, and as much as I wish I could go back and change what had happened, he would go back just as many times to keep things the same, so that I could be alright."

When Mahoro was silent again, looking back at her little brother, Kurai felt compelled to add, "We can wish well for them all we want, but in the end, they choose their own destinies, even if it happens to be one that we don't want. More than that, it's our jobs as their family to support their decisions, especially if they are doing it out of love for us."

"So… You know that Katsuma wants to be a hero someday?" Mahoro inquired as she looked back at the wounded hero, who was smiling again.

"If you ask me, he's already shaping up to be a good one," he told her as he continued to watch Katsuma labor over his peers. "He's working hard to be one for my friends, and goodness knows they could use a hero right about now. He may be a little guy, but even the smallest little voice can go on to make the loudest noise."

"You really think so?" the girl asked as his eyes went back to meet hers'.

"I do," he nodded sincerely. "And he'll go even further than he could on his own if you're there to help him, Mahoro." Glancing down at his replacement arm, he added in a softer tone, "Without my little brother, I know I wouldn't be standing at all." When Mahoro started to search his gaze, however, his eyes flicked back up and he said, "I appreciate the apology. You're a good sister to look after Katsuma the way that you have."

"And you're a good hero, Kai."

"Heh… Mind doing me a favor, Mahoro?"

"Sure."

"Do you mind telling my friends that I might be a bit late to the meeting? I'm not quite feeling up to walking just yet."

Mahoro nodded dutifully before saying, "You can count on me."

Kurai grinned as she departed, saying, "I appreciate it." As soon as she was gone, however, he dropped the smile and said in a lowered tone, "I hope you're awake enough to talk about what happened."

"Would it make a difference if I said that I didn't want to?" Blake's voice was tired, but she seemed lucid enough to carry a conversation.

"No," Kurai sighed heavily. "I can recognize the look of someone who's a victim to the suffering of their own mind enough to know when it's time to reach out."

"How do you figure that?" she asked him as she sat up, keeping her eyes trained on the scarred tissue of her right hand.

"Because I've seen it in myself, though I'm sure you already knew that," he muttered, just loud enough for her to hear him. "Let me just cut to the quick and say that I forgive you, Belladonna. I hold nothing against you."

"That doesn't change the fact that twice now, my actions have nearly gotten you killed," she said bitterly. "This just goes to show that I'm not cut out to be a hero, after all."

"Bull," he told her sternly, knowing exactly what she was referring to. "Back in the forest at camp, you may have made the call to go check on Todoroki and Bakugo, but it was my actions alone that put me between him and Moonfish. You had no fault in that any more than me being a target of the villain this afternoon. If anyone is to blame, it's our enemies."

"If I had taken a different path, you might have never been pitted against them in the first place," she insisted.

"Key word there is 'might'," he said, giving her pause. "I was always going to become a hero, and that means that even if it hadn't been you by my side, I would have ended up facing them. And for argument's sake, even if it hadn't been them, I would have faced off with somebody else who could have just as easily wounded me like this. Belladonna, you're forgetting that I might not be alive if it weren't for you."

"What are you talking about?"

She seemed genuinely confused, so he softened his voice as he reminded her, "After my arm was taken, it was you who told Todoroki to cauterize my wound. If you hadn't done that, I probably would have bled out before we thought of a solution to keep that from happening."

Blake continued to hesitate at his words, then. Truth be told, she had forgotten that crucial fact from that fateful night. It didn't ease her guilty conscience, but for the moment, it seemed to keep it from continuing to grow in its intensity. With that in mind, she could only murmur, "Thank you, Hikari."

"Kurai."

"Huh?"

"You saved my life, and now we've faced death together a couple of times," he said with the ghost of a smile. "You've more than earned the right to call me by my first name."

"…Is this how you normally thank people for putting you in the hospital?" Blake asked him dubiously.

"Only when they're my friends," Kurai said, trying not to laugh out of fear of another coughing fit. "Now, let's get up and over to the meeting. We've got villains to stop."

Once the two of them had gotten to their feet, Blake helped Kurai walk toward the room where their classmates were gathered. Before they had even left the medical room, they were surprised to be joined by Izuku and Bakugo. "I thought you guys were gonna be down for a while," Kurai said as Izuku took him from the girl, apparently being well enough to support his friend's weight better than her.

"It's thanks to Katsuma here," the green-haired hero said as he favored the boy who was following them with a smile. "He has a cell-activation quirk that speeds up healing and enhances physical performance. Our bones aren't completely healed, but we can definitely move around and fight if we need to."

"Thanks for looking out for these guys," Kurai said to the boy, who nodded bashfully in response.

"So what happened to you?" Bakugo asked as he looked Kurai up and down.

"There was a villain at the police precinct that got the better of me," Kurai admitted. "She has the power to switch objects and people with herself and each other, which she used to put me in the line of friendly fire."

"You got shot?!" Izuku yelped, looking startled.

"No, I…" Blake hesitated before looking at Kurai, who nodded with a reassuring smile. "I went to injure the villain in a way that would make it impossible for her to run away, but she took advantage of my haste and switched places with Hikar- with Kurai." She switched the name at a raised eyebrow from him before she added, "I wound up stabbing him with my katana. He's been operated on, but there's still internal bleeding, and he's having trouble keeping his lung inflated."

"Did you know that blood tastes so much worse coming up than when it goes down?" Kurai said with a slightly loopier smile.

"Uh…"

"Hey kid," Bakugo said as he started to walk ahead of the others, though they soon realized that he was talking to Katsuma. "If you've got more juice left in the tank, you'd better work on Saiyaman, here. He'll need his strength back if he's gonna take revenge against the chick that did this to him."

"So… power theft," Kurai said while slowly releasing a pent-up breath. "In essence, he's All For One two-point-oh." He and the others had just learned that the leader of the villains menacing the island not only possessed multiple powers, but he could also apparently steal them. He had tried to steal Izuku's, but had been unable to for reasons unknown to those unaware of One For All's true nature.

All Might said it was a power that couldn't be stolen, so I guess it still applies to others besides All For One, he thought with a small measure of relief. They weren't sure if this new villain was a subordinate of the League, or if he just a had a similar power to All For One, but either way, he was clearly a threat that could not be left to wander freely, especially given that he had no problem targeting heroes and little kids.

"Why is he targeting Katsuma, though?" Ruby asked with a frown. "That's what I don't get. No offense, but Cell Activation doesn't seem like a power that a psycho villain would want."

"But what if he needs it?" Izuku interjected, drawing everyone's eyes back to him. He looked at Bakugo before he went on to say, "When Kacchan and I were fighting him, there was a moment when he could have had all of us dead to rights. We were totally at his mercy, but instead of finishing us off, he suddenly doubled over in pain. My guess is that using so many different powers puts a toll on his body."

Kurai's eyes lit up as he looked at Katsuma, who was currently struggling to help his body recover from its own grievous wounds while Mina watched him work with fascination in her eyes. "That would explain why he needs a cell-activation quirk," he said in agreement. "If he could make use of Katsuma's power, he wouldn't be hindered by his body's limitations."

"So we know what they're after and why, but how does that help us stop them?" Yaoyorozu asked. She was lying on a couch, apparently needing rest after having overused her powers to provide the instruments needed to save Kurai's life, get the shelter's backup generators up and running, supplying toiletries to the civilians, and other necessary tasks. Kaminari was also resting, his mind having been overtaxed by his quirk after lending it to the power supply of the building.

"Easy, we take the kid and book it back to the mainland," Yang said with a grin.

"It's not that simple," Todoroki countered, somewhat to her annoyance. Seeing the look, he added, "These guys are serious. If we take Katsuma away, they may start targeting the other islanders until they get what they want."

"So just hand me over to them," the little boy said, surprising everyone in the room.

"Katsuma, no!" Mahoro protested, but her brother was already shaking his head.

"I'll be fine without a quirk," he insisted. "And if it means that everyone else can be okay, then I don't mind giving it up. That's what a hero would do, right?" He looked up to Izuku and Kurai, as if asking them to confirm what he had asked, leading them to look at one another for a brief moment.

"A hero does know that it's sometimes necessary to make a sacrifice, yes," Kurai began. Before anyone could start yelling at him, he quickly added, "But only as an absolute last resort, got it? If there's any chance that you can keep your power and deny this villain what he wants, we have to take it. Real heroes remember that they have family and friends who depend on them, and so they fight to make sure that everyone gets to make it out okay. It's important to remember that even those heroes are a part of 'everyone', understand?"

"Long story short, there's no way in hell we're handing you over, kid," Bakugo snorted as he crossed his arms. "We're gonna beat the crap outta these villains and make 'em regret ever being born."

"Yeah!" Yang cheered. "What he said!"

"The only way for us to resolve this safely is to stop these villains before they get to Katsuma," Iida decided. "If this man gets the cell-activation quirk, there's no telling how powerful he will become, and certainly none of us will be safe. I say we make our stand!"

"Right," Todoroki said firmly.

"I'm in!" Sero called.

"Um, obvi!" Mina grinned as she grabbed Kurai's metal hand while Ochaco grabbed Izuku's. "Team Lightning Drop is on the case!"

"Don't forget Team RWBY," Weiss said with a little smirk.

One by one, the class unanimously decided that the next time that they encountered the villains, it would be on their terms.

"We'll protect Katsuma and everyone else," Izuku said as he bumped fists with Kurai.

"And once the dust settles, we'll be the ones left standing," the Guardian Hero assured the two kids. "What's our motto, guys?!"

"Plus Ultra!" everyone else shouted.

It was the crack of dawn the next morning, and despite the fact that they were about to have what could be a very long day, Kurai could not sleep. Katsuma had done his best to heal him, even being able to mostly repair the bones that had been cut by the different blades the previous day, but he still had some rattling in his chest, and had coughed up some more blood since his treatment had finished. He was cleared to provide long-range support in the upcoming fight, but he knew that if he fought at close quarters, he would likely reopen some of his internal wounds, which could cause serious problems in the middle of a battle. Even fighting at a distance was going to be limited on his part, as he had to restrain himself from overtaxing his quirk. He'd never had internal injuries other than his head before, so he didn't really know how using his powers- especially the chakra abilities- would affect him in such a state.

Everyone else was sleeping for what would be a measly four hours, but it was the best they could do given the circumstances, and some sleep was better than none at all. As Kurai looked to his right to see Mina sleeping peacefully, he smiled to himself. She can sleep through just about anything but a thunderstorm, he thought as he carefully extricated himself from the blankets that had been provided to him. Moving silently, he grabbed up his scouter from where it lay on top of his hero costume, and made for the outside, where he would be undisturbed with his thoughts.

His smile faded away as he walked through the dark halls of the shelter and thought, I'm fighting for everyone today, myself included. But the truth is that no matter how good a plan is, there's always room for something to go wrong- and I've always done my best to be prepared for that.

Kurai knew why he couldn't sleep, even if he didn't want to admit it out loud. He had a feeling in his gut that something big was coming. He wasn't sure if it was because the villain they were about to face reminded him of All For One, or if his newest near-death experience had rattled him worse than he had thought, but something in the back of his mind wouldn't let him rest easy. He would have almost called the feeling nostalgic, except that he didn't exactly get the warm fuzzies thinking about the grave that he could have easily filled multiple times now, especially now that it felt as though one more step on his journey to become a hero would lead him right back into it. And if I fall in one more time, I somehow doubt that I'll be able to get out before the nails seal me in, he thought morbidly as a shiver ran down his spine.

I wonder if Dad knew what was coming, or if he at least had something of an idea before he died that night, he mused silently as he exited the building, shivering slightly in the air of the pre-dawn. If he did, I bet it felt an awful lot like this. He wasn't shaking in fear, his breathing was even enough for someone who had been stabbed, and he felt no sweat on his brow. It wasn't even like he could say that there was a feeling of dread in the air.

Kurai just had a feeling that something was coming, and if it really was his end, he needed to leave his friends and family with the closure that his father had not been able to give his. So he found a quiet spot behind the large building in the shade of a tree where he sat down, wincing as his chest ached, but being grateful that he was not subject to another coughing fit. He checked around himself to make sure that he was alone before he placed his scouter on his ear and hit a button which caused a 'recording' symbol to light up on the blue lens. He had several things that he needed to say, and not a lot of time to say them, so he hoped that his tongue would hold over well enough for him to not have to repeat himself.

I hope that this never reaches your ears, guys, but something tells me that I had best be ready, he thought before he took in a deep breath and began to talk. "This message is meant for Detective Tsukauchi of the Japanese Police Force, as well as the faculty members of UA High School, specifically those in charge of the hero course," he said in as clear a voice as he could manage. "For identification purposes, allow me to state that this is being recorded by Kurai Hikari, UA hero course student, and a provisionally licensed hero operating under the alias of 'the Guardian Hero'…"

Mataras: Alright, you bloodthirsty psychopaths! You wanted it?! Here it comes!

Kai: Whoa, hey! What're you so worked up about? I'm the one who bites it here in a bit!

Mataras: Sorry, I've been holding that in for a hot minute. I think the most common criticism I received during the New Year's Special was that I was taking too long to kill you, so... Yeah, I couldn't say anything at the time without spoiling the events of this chapter, so I've had to bite my tongue quite a bit these last few weeks. And before anyone asks, no, I did not accelerate my timetable to accommodate that request- it was just unfortunate timing for me.

Deku: It was honestly a little concerning how eager all the readers seemed for you to die...

Kai: I mean... I don't blame them? You've been taunting all of us for almost three years, now. At this point, I'm almost wanting it to just be over.

Mataras: Almost?

Kai: I mean, there are worse ways to go- but that doesn't mean that I actually want to die. I guess I'm saying that if my death in battle is inevitable, it's somewhat comforting to know that I won't have it hanging over my head for much longer.

Deku: We're going to miss you when it's over, you know.

Kai: Eh, I don't think our readers will be too broken up about it. They'll still have my smartass kid brother around, so I'm sure he'll keep things interesting enough for them.

Deku: Will you still be making appearances in the omake?

Mataras: Yet to be decided, but I'm leaning towards 'yes'.

Kai: You made another art piece concerning something that happened in this chapter, right?

Mataras: Yeah, it's up on my Instagram, since I figured the image of Switch would be more... general-audience friendly.

Deku: What does that mean?

Mataras: If you don't like images with a lot of blood in them, probably best if you don't check out that post. It's basically what Blake saw in the mirror right before she smashed it.

Kai: Dark.

Deku: Next time- The Guardian Hero

Mataras: This story has come full circle to its beginning. Time to see what lies ahead.

Kai: I guess... I'm ready to Go Beyond.

Deku: Plus Ultra!

Deadwood: I personally prefer the motto, 'Stay Behind, Minus Negative!'

Kai: Who the f #% is this guy?!

Next time on Your Hero Academia: Ipseity...

"Now we're on," Kai muttered as he placed a hand on Shoto's shoulder, using his Giving Heart technique to transfer a small portion of his power into his friend. He took special care not to give so much that he would pass out, as he wasn't planning on napping through the upcoming fight. After all, his part in this was not yet done. "Ready, pal?" he growled as he sighted the woman responsible for his near-fatal injury.

"Let's do it!"

"Kaito Combo…" the two of them muttered as they stood back-to-back, Kai with his right hand aimed at their quarry, and Shoto with his left arm doing the same as the air around them began to heat up. "PROMINENCE FLASH!"