Within seconds, Asami is scooped up by a sea of Twice doubles and surfed to the other side of town. There is a rush of adrenaline flowing through her body as she looks back at the wild blue flames battling the ice dragon above her. She feels a strain in her chest watching as Dabi fights the ice user with all he's got, despite knowing that his body is being eaten away by his flames. She can't let him continue to fight like this, and she needs to do something to help.
Asami is dropped near the middle of the city by the clones of Twice, and she begins to quickly run, following the trail of decayed bodies. She turns the corner when she sees Shigaraki as he continues to decay a group of mindless civilians that charge at him.
She runs towards him, calling out his name when his shoulders stiffen at the sound of her voice, and he looks back at her. "You?" he begins lowly as he turns to her with narrowing eyes. "How'd you get out of the marble?"
"We don't have time for that," she begins sternly. "Dabi is falling apart," she tells him, motioning behind her as the blue flames reach the sky in the horizon. "His Quirk is eating at his skin. He can't keep fighting!"
"Not my problem," the pale haired man returns as he turns from her.
"He's fighting for you!" she sneers at him as she begins following him. "You need to help him!"
"No, what we need to do is wait for Gigantomachia to level this town and the stupid Liberationists with it."
"And how long will that take?" she growls at him. "Dabi's not gonna last much longer!" she yells, already seeing the size of his flames weakening in the distance.
"This was a bad idea, boss," Spinner says as he follows behind the villain. "There's more of them up there!" he calls out as they see more civilians preparing themselves to be leveled by his Quirk in the name of holding them back from the tower.
The villain continues to move towards the tower when they see a group of Twice doubles come rushing towards them.
"Shigaraki!" one yells
"Hey Spinner!"
"Oh, Asami's here too!"
"You sure you don't have a warp Quirk too?"
Shigaraki is taken aback by the sight of hundreds of the double villain. "You made more of yourselves?" he rasps as he sees the pile of Twice bodies fumbling over themselves.
"Yeah!"
"A lot of us were lost in the ice though."
"But we are still here!"
"It's all thanks to Asami!"
"She kicked us!"
"It was so cool!"
Shigaraki glances over at the purple-haired girl who looks at him with labored breaths. "I have a plan," she tells him with a strong nod, watching and hoping that he will hear her out.
"She hasn't been wrong since," Spinner says with a lingering tone.
Shigaraki turns to her, looking her up and down to see bruises and cuts all over her body. Her clothes are torn and tattered, there is a flush in her cheeks from running, and she's clearly fought to assist Twice to overcome his trauma in some way. She could have easily run away from them as soon as she was released from the marble, but she decided to stay and she helped Twice and Dabi. And now, here she is with another plan to help out the League.
"What's the plan?" Shigaraki begrudgingly murmurs.
"He's obviously in that tower," she begins as they all look up at the large structure. "It's the tallest building in the city and gives the perfect bird's-eye view of the battle."
"Obviously," Shigaraki grumbles under his breath. "We've been trying to siege the tower, but his foot soldiers are everywhere."
"That's why we use Twice," she continues. "With his Quirk, we are able to create a path to the tower. He will act as an overwhelming distraction to the MLA's forces, while you, Spinner, and I make our way towards the tower," she tells him. "Twice then enters the tower and distracts them with copies of the League members, that way, their eyes are no longer on the ground. Meanwhile, you make an attack on the building itself and decay everything inside."
Shigaraki blinks at her, taken aback by her plan. She knows as well as he does that if he touches that tower and uses his decay Quirk on it, he will obliterate everyone inside. Her lack of empathy with the lives lost in that tower piques his interest in her.
"But what about Giran?"
"We can't decay Giran!"
"Not with Giran inside!" the Twice copies frantically pick apart her plan.
Asami turns to Shigaraki, "Do you think you can decay the building and not the people inside?"
Shigaraki shrugs apathetically, "Not likely."
Asami turns from him, biting at her lip slightly as she formulates a plan for all parties to be happy with. "Then Twice," she says turning around to look at three or more copies. "You will have to make sure you shield him from Shigaraki's Quirk and cushion the fall with your copies. Like a ladder of Twices!" she commands them.
"You go in there," she continues, "make copies of Shigaraki and Dabi, and whoever else you can. Get them to fight the guys inside and keep 'em busy so they don't focus on us on the ground. Once Shigaraki is close, he'll decay the building and the rest of you out here will create a ladder of bodies to make sure Giran gets out unscathed."
Shigaraki glances at her through the strands of his pale hair, eyes widening at her cooperativeness in assisting the villains. Her plan is great and he couldn't have thought of anything better.
"Do it," he says with a nod as the Twices begin tackling towards the tower.
"Spinner, Shigaraki, you two continue what you're doing down here. I can't be much help now without a Quirk."
"What're you gonna do?" Spinner asks her as Shigaraki continues his charge towards the tower.
"I'm going to try not to die," she tells him with a pressed laugh, though she's unconvinced with all the carnage that's unravelling before her.
He nods at her and goes to assist Shigaraki with his knives. She turns and looks over at the waves of blue fire and shards of ice fighting against one another. She gulps at the sight of Dabi's flames decreasing in magnitude and wonders how much longer he will be able to hold off the iceman before his flames eat away at his body.
"Don't worry, Dabi," she whispers under her breath, "We've got this."
She turns her eyes from Dabi and follows Spinner and Shigaraki, figuring that she's safest with them as she's unsure where Jin and Toga are amongst all the Twices. Compress is with Dabi who's largescale battle will only put her at risk than give her an opportunity to be useful, so she's best suited here.
The plan is going accordingly, and the wave of Twice doubles are able to infiltrate the tower and make their way to the top. Shigaraki, Asami, and Spinner continue their pursuit towards the tower. She hangs behind the two of them as they fight alongside her—or at least fight near her while she remains between them for safety.
She feels pretty useless in this fight, but she can't really be the one to blame since Dabi is the reason she doesn't have a Quirk to fight back with.
She follows on the heels of Shigaraki and Spinner as they make their way through the crowds of foot soldiers that fight against them and the waves of Twice forces.
Asami feels her arm being forcefully tugged and she lets of a squeal of panic. A man with a tiger face growls at her, opening his mouth as he prepares himself to devour her. She shuts her eyes, helplessly preparing for her death, but it never comes.
She opens her eyes hesitantly, only to find Shigaraki launching himself in between the two, placing the palm of his hand firmly on the man's face and decaying him in an instant.
"Let's go," he snatches her wrist, being mindful to keep his pinky up as he drags her back onto the main street before letting her go.
Her heart pounds wildly, and she can't help but wonder why he would come back for her. Why would he delay his victory of storming the tower just to turn around and protect a captive of theirs? She's a liability here, hence the reason they entrapped her in the marble in the first place, yet here he is, risking his life for hers.
She even catches Spinner's eyes checking up on her every now and then when he can. They are all protecting her as Twice defended her and Toga. They are all concerned for her wellbeing as Dabi was when he brushed her face. She can't shake the idea as she runs behind them that they are shielding her from harm, and they are working with her, as if they were… heroes.
Eventually, they are able to press their pursuit towards the tower. Shigaraki looks up at the tower that stands before him before he carefully steps forward. He looks back at Asami as his red eyes fixate on her purple ones.
"You better stand back," he warns her with a deep rasp in his voice that makes her throat tense with worry. She quickly takes a few steps back as the pale-haired man lifts his hand and places it carefully onto the tower.
Asami waits for a moment, the seconds dragging on like hours as nothing happens. She steps forward when the tower begins to rumble at his touch. She quickly takes a few staggered steps back as the entire tower begins crumbling into pieces.
"Where's Giran?"
"Get Giran!"
"He's our favorite!"
"Gotta save Giran!"
The Twices erupt in madness as they begin frantically crawling over themselves to build a ladder of bodies towards the top of the tower where they were certainly watching from.
Asami hears a boom where a massive body comes crashing into the ground. She holds her arms up to block her eyes from the wave of debris that's kicked up by the large beast.
She figures this must be the leader of the Meta Liberation Army, Re-Destro, and Shigaraki figures the same as he begins mocking the man for allowing his foot soldiers to handle the battle while he stood comfortable in his tower to watch.
"You thought we were beneath you," he begins, "So you set up this city and sent your mob after us. You never even expected us to make it this far," he scoffs. "No, not scum like us," he extends his arms out triumphantly. "Yet here I am, and I've knocked you down a peg."
He begins chuckling to himself as he stomps on the ground. "So, let me ask," he says as he begins decaying a path towards him. "How's that feel?"
The villain builds his body up in size and blocks Shigaraki's attack. He swiftly grabs for his hand, taking it into his fingers as he grows larger than a building. He begins crushing Shigaraki's hand in his pinch hold, and Asami panics. She knows that there is nothing that she can do for Shigaraki, and she just stands there, stiff like a board.
Shigaraki manages to use his decaying Quirk on the man's index finger, and though it causes minimal damage, the pale-haired man is still able to escape out of his hold.
"My head's splitting!" Shigaraki yells out as he feverishly scratches at his neck. Asami begins to stagger away from the scene, recognizing that wild look in his eyes and knowing that something terrible is going to transpire.
Shigaraki moves towards the large man, but he uses his power to build his body larger. He ends up swiping at Shigaraki, causing the man to go flying as a tornado of wind blows the roofs off of the nearby homes.
Asami's heart races and she knows that she needs to get the fuck out of here. If she's knocked like that by him, she will surely die, and she's not too keen on dying here. She won't be any use to Shigaraki here, and without her in the way, he won't have to worry about killing her. So, she begins running, unsure of where to run to when she hears a roaring in the distance. Her heart races as she looks up to the sky to see an even larger beast coming straight for them.
So, this must be Gigantomachia? She thinks to herself as the colossal beast comes barreling towards them.
She watches as the monster comes running towards the battle, noticing that Shigaraki has lifted himself up and continues the fight. He begins decaying the ground around them, and that's when her heart stops beating as the terror settles in.
"He's going to level this whole city!" she whines.
Asami isn't sure how much control Shigaraki has over his Quirk and how far it can extend, but she is sure that he's not thinking much about her in this moment, so he will not be looking out for her when he decays everything around him. With that thought deeply burrowed into her skull, she begins running as fast as her legs can take her away from the battle.
She has no idea where she's headed, but she knows that she's headed away from Shigaraki. She curses her heeled boots and her tight skirt for handicapping her from running any faster as the sound of buildings crumbling and topping over themselves rings out behind her.
Her head shoots up to the sky as she sees a hooded figure travelling towards the fight on a sheet of ice. Asami's heart drops when she sees the man headed towards the fight. If he's on his way to help Re-Destro, then what the hell happened to Dabi?
She frantically looks around the streets in an attempt to find Dabi's blue flames, but she doesn't see them anywhere. She feels a constriction in her throat like she's being choked by an unseen hand that she can't pull away from. She feels like she's drowning in the weight of panic as waves crash against her body, dragging her deeper underwater and keeping her from taking in a breath.
She gasps for air, but she's unable to breathe as the city around her begins crumbling. Her legs shake and quiver at her weight and she falls to her knees, grasping onto her chest as she feebly attempts to take in a breath. She's having a panic attack and her vision begins to blur as the sinking realization that she's going to die here pulls her under.
"…fuck …r you …ing?" she barely hears a voice muffled by the ringing in her ear.
Her eyes lift from the ground as all they focus on are scarred arms reaching for her and lifting her to her feet. She glances up at him, seeing the outline of Dabi's face through the blurriness of her vision, but she's unable to distinguish any of his features.
She doesn't react to him as his muffled voice continues to call out to her to no avail. After a moment of trying to reach her, her body is hoisted up into a bridal carry and he lifts her off of her feet.
"Do it now, Ujiko," he commands as a black goo spills out of his mouth and they're quickly pulled from the panic of the decaying city, and inside a nice building that they have never been in before.
Dabi swiftly places Asami down to her feet, but her legs are not ready for the weight of her body, and she falls to her knees, crashing on the ground and dragging Dabi to fall at his knees with her.
"Dabi," she breathes wildly as she looks up at him with glistening lilac orbs as tears pool behind her lashes.
His turquoise eyes dart back and forth between her eyes, reading the wide-eyed expression in her gaze. He opens his mouth to ask her if she's alright, but before he can even think to say a word to her, she launches herself at him and places a firm kiss on his lips.
Asami immediately pulls away from Dabi's lips with a hiss of pain as her fingertips touch her plump skin. She looks up at him with tangling brows.
"You're burning," she whines as he lifts himself back up to his feet.
"Yeah, it's fine," he tells her distantly. She notices steam lifting off of his body between the damaged and undamaged skin, but more disturbingly, she finally notices the smell that's emanating off of him.
Asami releases an involuntary gag as she lifts her hand to cover her nose and mouth. Her eyes squeeze shut as she tries to hold her stomach from flipping at the sickening smell of burning flesh coming from Dabi.
Yeah, I'm revolting, Butterfly. I can't fucking forget that.
Before she can gain her wits and apologize for her rudeness towards him, he turns away from her, leaving the room as the rest of the League begins trickling in with the same warp gate that brought them here.
"Wow that was wild!" Jin cries out as he cradles an unconscious Toga.
"Where are we?" Spinner asks as he glances around the foreign room.
"Everyone here?" Compress asks, surveying the room. "Dabi?"
She steps out of the room as the rest of the League gathers their bearings, running after the scarred villain that saved her. If it weren't for Dabi, she would have been decayed into pieces like the rest of Deika City and something about that realization makes her feel as though she needs to thank him. Despite kidnapping her and holding her against her will, he could have left her there to die, but he chose not to… and for that she can't help but feel indebted to him.