Well, I got good news and bad, at least personal. The good news is that I managed to submit my assignments without issue; the bad news is that I had to drop a class due to financial problems, which means I'll have to register to do it again for the second semester, so…fun! But I'm glad to see the support I've been getting, as it's not much, but it just means that what I do get is all the more supportive as people kept at this even when I had to take that little extended break. As a thanks, this chapter will be longer than expected, even with the new word range I've worked up.

But first, I have a mixed bag of news: While Life of a Hero is on the ice, I'll replace it with a new story. I've discussed the idea with others for a while now and worked out most of the kinks, so we'll see how that goes when it's up. Also, I'll release a new chapter of Songbird in April, so keep an eye out for that.

Chapter 20: Party in the USJ

(Previously)

Koharu revelled that, as any predator did, there was a particular joy in trapping your prey and seeing that they know they're at your complete mercy, which she couldn't describe, even if she tried. But her human understood it. He had the same every time he had the chance to express his joy, to spread his delight through emerald flames. Flames that turned her into this, into something more significant. "Consider this payback for trying to control me like I was another mere snake, a beast of its instincts."

Before she could continue toying with the poor boy, the wall beside him exploded, thanks to a familiar fireball. As she stepped through the smoke and dust back into the rain, Pyre took in the sight that awaited him. He raised an eyebrow as he figured that Koharu would do something like this when she asked for the two to split, but it got the job done.

"You have a choice here. You can surrender and come quietly, or we can make you." Pyre informed him, not caring to lie and say they could try to escape. They all knew that wouldn't happen and the attempt would not end well for the student.

Koda didn't even need to think about it, as he lowered his head and said with wobbly lips and shameful tears. "I...I surrender."

Slice had been placed in the Landslide zone; she didn't know why their employer didn't deem it essential to tell them why he put them where. But it wasn't the worst place, even if the company were bland as white bread. She tried talking with them, but if they weren't trying and miserable failing to make a pass at her, they were boring to talk to, so one note in their belief that this attack would succeed, that they'll make a name for themselves by being involved in an attack of a bastion of hero society.

It would be cute if she was watching from a safe distance. When the portal opened, they saw just one student coming through. Even though U.A. had an insanely high set of standards just to enter, the thugs with her rushed to join whoever had been present to fight, 'wanting some of the action,' as they put it. She thought it would be best to caution them, but if the lemmings wished to jump, nothing she could have saved would stop them.

And it would seem that her prediction became fact as she watched from a hidden spot how this ice user efficiently handled the villains; it didn't even seem like he moved from his place; he merely sent out his quirk, and now he had almost a dozen thugs frozen. It was an impressive quirk, and considering that the villains weren't dead or suffering some significant frostbite, at least as far as she could see, he had exceptional control over his quirk.

But she still found it…lacking. His style had no substance, as while using finesse, he was merely brutely forcing his way, using the same trick of freezing them. Could he not be more creative? Couldn't he make weapons out of ice? Why was just half his body covered in ice? Was it real?

"I've been spending too much time around Midoriya; I'm starting to think like him." Slice chuckled to herself, hearing the student making a rather bold statement on how if he didn't help them out of the ice, their cells would freeze and die and how they better start talking. What an amusing sight to see a student training to be a hero using such a villainous interrogation tactic, but she couldn't let him find out anything, so she made her move.

"So talk." Todoroki held a frost-emitting hand to the thoroughly terrified villain's face.

"Alright! Alright, I'll talk, just don't leave me like this!" The man in combat paint screamed back, but before he could say a word, Todoroki's hard-earned instincts screamed at him; without thinking, he shifted his foot behind him, creating a wall of ice which saved him from getting hit. Was that hair? Looking to where they came from, he saw another villain smirking towards him, her crimson hair shifting like tendrils or snakes.

"I'm afraid that he won't be saying anything unless he wants the boss to know who was the rate." She spoke up, making it clear to the villain that it was either frostbite or decay, and it seemed that he preferred whatever the hero boy could do as his, and the mouths of everyone else clamped shut.

This was something that Todoroki noticed as his eyes narrowed at that method being cut off. "Another one?" Looking her over, besides being the first woman to appear before him, she carried herself very differently to these mooks. Where they acted tough and moved like children, her movements were calculated, not a single wasted movement to her. Even her gaze, which was taunting, never strayed far from his hand and feet, most likely connecting to how his quirk worked and keeping a reasonable distance so as not to get caught like most of the others.

"Please, don't lump me in with the rest of these fools. They couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper back," Slice waved off that comparison before firing off a volley of hair needles at Todoroki without warning. Still, he wasn't so quickly taken down as he created another ice wall to block it. Still, when he looked, he saw she was already on the move, rushing him as she fired another volley from a different direction. When he put up a wall, thinner now that he believed he understood her quirk, she disproved that one of the hair strands formed into a bladed tendril and cut through his ice like nothing.

Ticking his teeth, he jumped back to avoid her follow-up, which was an axe kick which he countered by reaching to it with his right hand, but she dodged it without issue as he backflipped back, attacking him at the same time as he had to roll to avoid it. "But you, on the other hand, this might just be fun. It's not every day that I get to stretch my legs against someone worth my time." She didn't let up, continuing to attack with either projectiles or her hair blades.

"Especially someone so ruthless that he'll threaten his defeated enemies with frostbite if they didn't squeal." He didn't like that implication but couldn't let the rest call his bluff. He needed to get back to the plaza, as that's where the dangerous villains were, but it would see that she could be counted among them.

"You think I'm joking about that? You wasting my time puts them at risk." He challenged her, skating along with his right foot leading, creating an ice path for himself to increase his speed over the rocky terrain. She was able to keep up, and she was a speed fighter.

"I don't care. I was paid to fight you brats, and that's what I'll do. If you want to take time to unfreeze them, go right on ahead." She swung two hair tendrils at him. He had to dodge the one coming from his left side, but he managed to touch the one from his right with a passing touch, enough to freeze it. Still, to his shock, it kept going, with him needing to create ice armour on his right side to protect himself from what could have been a crippling blow. However, the force behind still sent him away, rolling to dissipate the force.

"But don't think for a second that I'll just let you do that." Slice finished, her hair flexing and shattering the ice that had covered it, even if she lost a few strands. Having him on the back foot, she didn't give a second to breathe as she engaged him again, learning more about him. While his quirk was undoubtedly stronger than hers, it wasn't nearly as versatile.

More than that, she started to notice its weaknesses as well as the boy's as he was one of those types, like Nine, that didn't practice nearly as much to fight in situations without their quirks, which meant that when she got close, he almost always backed up. When she tried to strike him with another two-pronged assault, he didn't try and freeze both in place, but he rolled back, which, combined with how he reacted to the first strike, told her something about him.

"You said you were paid? Was it the same as the rest of them?" Todoroki beat her to it, no doubt trying to buy himself time, but she could humour this as a double-aged sword, giving her a chance to rethink her strategy.

"They're just gutter punks, and thugs brought it because they saw a chance to make it big; we, on the other hand, were paid handsomely to assist in this little excursion," Slice stated, the rest of the frosted villains grunting at her insults. Still, none could do anything, and most were smart enough to keep their mouths shut, or else they find themselves pin cushions for her hair.

"We?" Todoroki caught that, but she smirked at him, her hair rising and blasting, forcing him to defend himself with another ice barrier.

"Do better, and I might tell you, but you have an unusual quirk; you can create and spread ice, but only from your right side." She didn't see much, but she could tell from how his hand flinched that he didn't like that she caught onto his little secret as he rushed to attack from another angle, with Todoroki encircling him in ice. "Do you cover yourself like that to fool people into thinking otherwise?"

She sliced at him with a sizeable bladed tendril. Still, he didn't remain idle as he used his quirk to create an ice platform that avoided the strike and bit into the ice but did not get stuck a third of the way through, forcing her to retract it before he could freeze it. They continued to fight, the area increasingly growing colder from the amount of ice being thrown about, with more of it getting covered with ice. Slice used the fact that there were bodies all over the place to her advantage, as it kept the boy from using more significant attacks, but she didn't need to worry as much.

Jumping in between discarded ice pillars, she kicked the boy in the chest, knocking the wind from his sails as he went flying back, rolling on his side before he moved to get up, but he was much slower than before, with her deep blue eyes catching the frost forming on his body. That was a clue to his quirk's drawback, besides the that it could only be used from one side of his body. "You know, if you were facing Pyre, you might have had a chance, as his quirk might have been able to help with that frost build-up," She started as he slammed his right hand onto the ground, sending a wave of ice towards her.

A wave she easily dodged, as despite being big, it was slower, slower than before. "Or he could have just as easily melted anything you could throw at him, a mixed back and a real bad day for you." Slice shrugged her shoulders and went on the offensive once more. Todoroki found himself overwhelmed; even without her quirk, Slice was far faster and more experienced than he was, landing more attacks as his ice started to slow down.

It wasn't even 5 minutes before the fight was all but decided. Slice stood, a little worse for wear, with her hair uneven thanks to some ice and how many needles she shot, but she was still more than ready for another round. Todoroki, by contrast, was barely standing. A black eye was forming from a knee she landed, along with other bruises that must have been forming under that costume of his, marks that were made to be lesser by the fact he had taken needles to his forearms, shoulders and one to the left thigh, along with cuts and gashes from when he wasn't fast enough to block or dodge her attacks.

When it came to his quirk, he was equally drained as his ice had been pushed to its limits, made evident by how the landslide area looked closer to a winter zone with how much ice and frost Todoroki had set loose; the rest of the villains somewhere in the dozens of chunks and pillars of ice, but if they lost a finger or 2, well it wasn't on her. Todoroki might not have thought of the other villains, as his attention was solely on Slice now that she had backed him into a corner.

His body was slow, and he could feel the frostbite set in. He had been careful to avoid more significant attacks. Still, this woman wasn't like the rest, forcing him to unleash attack after attack with no success. Now, he felt like his legs were both locked from the cold and far too shaky for his liking.

He heard a part of him that sounded like his father calling him a fool and telling him to stop messing around. He could solve his current dilemma and easily defeat this villainess. Still, he quickly ignored that, as he always did whenever he felt cold. He'll figure this out just as he always did with his ice. "I won't do what you want," he thought aloud.

Hearing this, Slice raised an eyebrow, wondering if the ice was getting to him as she didn't say anything in the last couple minutes, before deciding he wasn't interesting enough for her to waste any more time on it as she swatted at him with her hair, aiming for his non-ice producing left side which he moved to avoid, but that was what she wanted as she used his sluggish movements against him as before he could act, he was hit by 2 dozen of her hair needles in his right side, from just above the knee to below his armpit and several finding a home in his arm.

Todoroki fell to the floor, furious but too weakened by the cold and his injuries to act. Inspecting him, she nodded after seeing that he wouldn't be trouble, but she wished to be sure. "If you want to keep that precious right hand and leg, you'll come quietly," She threatened as she reached for the earpiece she had been given before the attack began.

"Kurogiri. I don't know what you did, but we only got the one brat here in the landslide zone, but I've taken care of it. I'll need a portal for two since I'm bringing a hostage." She relayed, looking around and seeing the face of one other villain, still trapped in the ice and shivering; their eyes were pleading for help before she rolled her eyes and added.

"Also, portal the rest to the flame zone. This brat managed to defeat all of them like the chumps they are, and they need to get thawed out of the ice before whatever damage done is permanent." She gave them mercy, moving her eyes to the boy she had bested, her hair moving to pick him up as she flashed her bladed gloves and made sure he saw them so if he tried to freeze her hair, he would know she could handle him without it.

In the collapsed zone, explosions had been ringing out for a while now, not due to flaws or features of the zone itself but because of one particular student going on the rampage. Those blasts were coming from within a partially collapsed building's upper floors. "Die!" Bakugo blasted back two villains so hard that when they crashed into the wall, it left small craters and spider-web cracks, with both villains joining the well over 2 dozen others he had handled, passed out on the blow thanks to blasts, punches, kicks or some fusion of those two.

Though, as much as he would like to say it, he couldn't take the credit for all of the defeated morons that called themselves villains as behind him, shitty hair was handling another that tried to fight him with a sword, one that shattered against shitty's hair hardened body. Now defenceless, the villain tried to plead for mercy, to which Bakugo held back a smile when shitty hair just knocked him out like all the others. "Is that all of them?" Bakugo asked.

"I think so. It was this lot and the ones we fought outside, and I don't hear anymore coming." Shitty hair replied, looking around to be sure but only seeing already defeated villains.

"That's it, these weak-ass morons can't even hold a candle to us; at least they could have done is brought in more of them." Bakugo kicked one of them, getting a pained moan from the unconscious grunt

"Even if they're not strong, we should hurry and help the others. We could have got a smaller, weaker group." Kirishima released his quirk, allowing his hardened arms to return to normal.

"I don't know much about teleportation quirks, but if we sent us here, maybe he sent the others to the other zones as well. I'm worried about those less offensive quirks." There were people like Hagakure and Koda; one was invisible, and the other could talk to animals. He wasn't sure, as the guy wasn't the most social, but even if he could make them fight for him, there couldn't be much inside the USJ for him to command.

"Thirteen could have taken that guy down if we didn't run off ahead." Kirishima felt like an idiot for that, as Thirteen clearly was getting ready to attack. Still, he was too impulsive to realise that. Now, who knew how many of his classmates were scattered, fighting for their lives? Turning to Bakugo, he made his case. "As men, we have to take responsibility for that!"

"You want to go, knock yourself out. I'm going after that warp bastard." Bakugo didn't seem the least interested in that, much to the chagrin of his classmate.

"Now is really not the time to act childish, you know. Remember that our attacks didn't even do anything," Bakugo interrupted him, liking this conversation as much as dogs like baths.

"They did; that warp bastard just blocked them! Otherwise, he wouldn't have said that crap about it being a close call. He has a real body under there. We need to hit it before he can block it this time." That warp dude, whatever the fuck his name was, he wasn't as immune to attacks as he wanted them to think.

"And shitty hair, you need to think. He was their way in, that means he's their way out. We take him out; they're trapped. That'll make it easy for the cavalry to clean up this mess when they arrive." He explained his plans to him.

"But,"

"Shot your chit-chatting!" A previously cloaked villain jumped at them, a knife in hand, but Bakugo caught him by the head and blasted them. Keeping his hold on the now decloaked lizard person, he held him up for shitty hair to see.

"Those idiots got into U.A. If this is the level of villain they're dealing with, they'll be fine. Even dunce-face could handle this lot he if bothered to think." He tossed the villain aside, much to the show of shitty hair, who smiled at him.

"Wow, it's easy to forget, but you can be calm and rational when you want to be." Bakugo felt his brow twitch at that absurd statement.

"I'm always rational to shitty-haired moron!" He yelled at him as one or two of the villains they had already taken up seemed to wake up, if only a little, as they looked about and realised they had been washed.

"Dammit, why did we have to fight without the heavy hitters?" One asked, which drew the student's attention.

"Shigaraki should have brought more, not just two." The others grunted as if they could have benefited from those two monsters.

"What the hell are you talking about? What heavy hitters?" Bakugo demanded, but both didn't answer as they fell back into the world of dreams. Kirishima quickly checked the rest.

"Out like a light, same with the rest of them." Though that was concerning, he reported that there were apparently a couple of villains who were seen as A-tier compared to these guys. Were they the ones at the plaza? Or were they somewhere else in the USJ?

"Forget it; my plan's still the same; go do whatever you want." Bakugo dismissed that as they couldn't do anything with what they had. All he could do was expect his classmates to not be extras like they'd already proven. And if he ran into these so-called heavy hitters, he'd blast them all the same.

"Hey, wait up. It's super manly that you believe in your friends, Bakugo! I'll follow you!" Kirishima said as the two left to return to the plaza.

Asui, Mineta and Shiozaki could do nothing but watch as Aizawa was manhandled by that thing that the villains brought with them. The trio had found themselves dumped in the flood zone. Still, besides Mineta, whose quirk and size left him vulnerable, the two girls quickly handled the issue as Shiozaki's vines could support her and grab onto villains that tried to fight them. Attaching Mineta's balls to them made them effective capture tools as she didn't need to wrap them around villains; she just grazed them and let the balls latch onto them like fly paper.

Of course, Mineta made a pass, but one look was enough for him to understand how little the religious girl cared for his antics. They had thought that if they handled their issues so effectively, they could assist their teacher and the rest. But watching that beast of a creature move before they could even notice it as it got the jump on Aizawa and how easily it took him down made it clear how inaccurate that assessment had been.

With the pro, he bit back a curse but still screamed as his arm was shattered like a twig by the Nomu. "You can erase yours; pretty cool but nothing special. Not when faced with overwhelming power, you might as well be quirkless right now." Eraser struggled to look toward the monster on top of him, but he got a good look at its absent-eyed face and activated his quirk. For his efforts, the creature slammed his arm into the ground, shattering his bones from his mid-forearm to well above his elbow, which he did scream at.

"Nope, sorry Eraser. But Nomu's superhuman strength isn't because of a quirk, but thanks to science, as this creature was bioengineered to kill All Might. So against you, it'll be like using garden shears to cut paper." The hand-covered villain seemed to gloat at his pain as the pro felt now was left his arms to use. He tried to think of a way out of this, but the Nomu grabbed his head and slammed it into the ground, cutting up his face on the jagged concrete.

It was then that Kurogiri returned from the main entrance. "Kurogiri, did you kill Thirteen?" He asked.

"She still lives, but she's out of action. However, there were some students I could not disperse, and one has managed to escape." Kurogiri regretfully informed him as Shigaraki looked his way, the hand on his face making it hard to know what he was thinking. Still, one wouldn't be off the mark if they said he wasn't pleased with that statement.

"What? You let one of them escape?" When Kurogiri didn't refute that, that displeasure turned to rage as Shigaraki reached for his neck, scratching it with increasing aggression. That wasn't part of the plan! Scratching his neck raw, he just knew that things had gone to shit. U.A. had over 30 pros staff, so they chose to attack here, where they would have only needed to worry about 3, including their target! The students were meant to be distractions that the grunts could handle, but somehow, Kurogiri got bested by them. How stupid was that?

"Kurogiri…! If you weren't our exit plan, you'd be dust right about now." Kurogiri remained silent, knowing that the master wasn't lying. In fact, he might still try to kill him, as he wasn't known for his temperament or long-term thinking, so it was better to let him get it out of his system now. Shigaraki looked like he was about to have a meltdown, but Kurogiri did have some good news to report.

"It's not all bad, master Shigaraki. One of our hired agents, Slice, managed to defeat and capture one of the students," He said as he opened the portal, letting the redhead confidently walk through it, her hair carrying her cargo as the villainess dropped him at her feet like he was garbage, not caring for how that must have hurt him.

The trio watching from the water were stunned to see Todoroki in such a state, as Todoroki had made a name for himself not just by being one of their 2 recommendation students but by coming second during Aizawa's quirk assessment and dominating Ojiro and Hagakure in their first hero class. He was one of their strongest, probably the strongest in class, yet he had been beaten? If he got bested, what chance did they have as the chick that did it was still there, along with the freak of nature!

"Is he still alive?" Shigaraki asked as Todoroki looked like he had gone 10 rounds with a heavyweight boxer wearing spikes on his gloves and lost each one.

"You think I would have wasted my time with a corpse?" Slice rolled her eyes, but she kicked the boy all the same, getting a groan from him to make it clear he was still breathing as Eraser raised his head just a little to see who they were talking about.

"Todoroki…" He got out, his heart heavy as he took in the state of his student, which was close to his own with how bad it was.

"He's their teacher?" To be frank, Slice looked at the beaten pro, though he looked more like a homeless guy than a hero.

"Yeah, must feel like crap knowing that he didn't just get his ass beat, but he couldn't even save one of his students," Shigaraki replied as Kurogiri got another message on his earpiece.

"Make that 3; Pyre just radioed in; he has two captives." The pro and students watched as the warp gate user opened another portal, allowing Pyre, with Koharu back to normal and wrapped around his shoulders, to walk through, no worse for wear and barely wet as his ambient heat handled that. Following him was one of the villains from the zone, soaking wet, much the same as his cargo, as he carried Tokoyami on his shoulder, gently setting him down, or else he invoked Prye's wrath.

The last of them was Koda, who walked without needing a gun or stated threat, though he was shivering in fear when he saw that he was now surrounded by dangerous villains, one of whom was sitting on his seriously injured teacher. Scratching Koharu's head, Pyre turned to Shigaraki, who looked impressed that he had managed to capture two students with seemingly no issue. "Bossman, don't you ever send me out in the rain again; it was terrible."

"I'm paying you to follow orders. Shut up." Pyre huffed at that, and Koharu's call of him an idiot made him snicker.

"Wow, real bossman of the year, this one is." He turned away from him towards his teammate and friend. "Slice, you already finished?" He asked, seeing that she also brought the boss man a present.

"It was just the one. I just let him tire himself out," She replied, coming off much more cordial than before, as if they were two friends who had just bumped into one another. What about you? Why is the big one still standing?" She nodded towards Koda, who looked like he was close to passing out from fear, and Prye shrugged.

"He understands he lost, and there is no point in hurting him after that, right?" Sure, he could burn him, but the boy didn't seem like he'd like that very much, even if it would mean he would be cured of even minor ailments. Koharu suggested that he keep her wrapped around Koda, but as funny as that was, they needed the boy awake to walk himself.

"You two…work for the League?" They turned to Eraser, who was looking at them in shock. He must have recognised them and no doubt wondered why they were there.

"Odd, I don't know this one. Is he really a pro?" However, Pyre didn't recognise him.

"He's an underground hero." Kurogiri filled it in for him.

"Oh, aren't most underground heroes known for not having the strongest quirks? Wonder how he got hired when U.A. puts so much importance into strong quirks." Pyre could admit that he was a little bitter about that, as his quirk was beautiful, but society, as it was, saw him as a monster at best or a 'sick boy' who needed help.

"Pyre, you were mentioning that you didn't like the zone you were assigned, but you're already dry," Kurogiri noted, as one wouldn't be able to tell where Pyre had been sent to just by looking at him.

"Just because I can dry myself off doesn't mean I like being cold!" Pyre huffed, looking away as Koharu reminded him that, as annoying as their placement had been, they had other things to worry about. "Yeah, yeah, you're right. We did what you paid us for and got you 3 captives, though where's everyone else?" He asked as they had arrived with well over 100 others, yet he only saw knocked-out bodies in the plaza.

"The mooks I was placed with got manhandled by the brat, and I wouldn't be surprised if the same is true for the rest of the zones." Slice moved some hair over her shoulder.

"You could have helped them, you know." Pyre reminded her, as that was what he did, even if he had to threaten his people to keep them in line.

"And I chose not to." Koharu snickered at Slice's reply, agreeing with her, which Slice smiled at, but then she noticed that Shigaraki looked a little peeved.

"What's up with you, bossman? Things don't look that bad," Pyre asked, as they had done what he had asked them to. Was he upset that Slice had let so many be defeated?

"Kurogiri allowed one of the brats to escape, so it won't be long before we're up to our eyeballs in pros." Shigaraki pointed towards their warp gate, who didn't react to the statement as it was true, as much as it pained him to admit that he failed.

"Well, that sucks." Slice shrugged her shoulders, wishing she had a place to sit, but there wasn't much besides the fountain, which was too far away.

"You sound happy." Shigaraki turned his irritation to her, to which she raised her hands in surrender but still smirked at the hand-covered villain.

"Oh no, why would I be happy that your half-ass plans failed?" She asked, insulting him in equal measure, which only pissed him off even more as these two had barely respected his authority over them, their replies almost always filled with backhanded compliments or veiled insults.

Before he could demand she show some proper respect or just order Nomu to kill her, she changed the subject. "Anyway, if we need to bounce, we can leave these 3. They'll make good hostages, especially this one." She knelt and grabbed Todoroki by the hair, lifting the boy so that they could see his face.

What they didn't know was that while that was true, in that 3 U.A. students would be great bargaining chips as hostages, Todoroki was worth far more than his classmates' thanks to his family, as plenty of villains would pay top dollar to get their hands on the youngest child of the number 2 hero, one that had put away more villains than even All Might. This wasn't lost on Eraser, who prayed that they hadn't realised that as Endeavour didn't advertise his family and his student didn't make a habit of using his flames that could make that connection more apparent.

"I don't have time for that; I'll sooner kill these brats than bother dragging them with us." Eraser felt his heart skip at Shigaraki's response while Koda started sweating even more.

"That wasn't part of our contract," Slice reminded him, and he could care as much as she showed him respect.

"You'll do what I tell you, woman." At his response, Pyre stepped up, siding with his friend over their temporary employer.

"We'll do no such thing. We've hired guns, not your killers. Do you want to kill them? Do it yourself." He told him Slice, and he agreed as they walked into this, knowing that someone would die, probably not All Might, about how terrible Shigaraki's plan was. Still, the odds were low that there weren't going to be at least a few deaths. So, they made their peace with it, as they could decide not to take those lives, but they couldn't stop the rest.

"Fine," Shigaraki moved to grab Koda's terrified face, Pyre looking away from what was surely going to be a gruesome end. But then he didn't hear screams or decaying flesh. Looking back, he saw that Shigaraki had stopped before he could touch the boy. A surprised yelp from Slice revealed that her hair had lost its form, falling back. He even felt cold. That shouldn't be possible; he was always warm, so long as his…

His eye jumped to Aizawa, the injured, bloody, and beaten hero, to see that he was staring at all of them with a fury that Pyre had never seen, the pro's eye glowing crimson. Seeing that and then spotting destroyed yellow goggles clued Midoriya into who this was.

"Oh, now it makes sense! Of course, U.A. would hire someone like you who can cancel quirks with nothing but a look, a great tool for training students who might take things overboard." He wished he could ask him, but even if he wasn't injured, it'd probably go the same as every other time he spoke with pros: disbelief, threats of arrest, cursing his existence, and finally, silence as he left them beaten.

With his furious gaze on them, none could use their quirks, which was why Shigaraki didn't even bother as he turned to the man. "You really are coo, Eraserhead." Shigaraki complimented the man, saying that even using his quirk in that state must have hurt. Yet, he still did it if it meant protecting his students. An excellent trait for a pro, but not one that would help him as Nomu slammed his face into the ground again, his gaze off them. Their quirks returned, but this time, Shigaraki was interrupted as the ground shook for a moment before it exploded, revealing a writhing mass of vines that grabbed onto the surprised villain, even capturing Kurogiri and the Nomu.

"What the?" Shigaraki yelled as he reached for the vines, but he found that there were so many that he couldn't decay through them all. Pyre and Slice jumped back to avoid the attack, Slice cutting some of the vines that tried to chase them as Midoriya blasted the rest with a fireball.

"Vines?" Pyre asked, seeing the vines only spread further. He shielded Eraser and Koda from them and moved to get the others

.

"I guess we missed a few." Slice turned and saw Shiozaki by the water. Her hair plunged into the earth as she glared at them.

"We won't let you hurt anyone else!" She declared, as she and the rest had got sick and tired of watching and almost had to see their classmate die, a mistake that they weren't going to repeat as Mineta and Asui used the distraction she gave to get their teacher and classmate to safety.

"Cute," With an almost casual air, Slice cut up more of the vines that Shiozaki sent after them. The girl was forced to focus most of her attention on Shigaraki and the Nomu, both of whom were fighting to escape. "But you're only delaying the inevitable."

"(Kero) Tokoyami!" Asui landed next to Tokoyami but had to retreat before she could grab him, thanks to a fireball crashing into the spot she had just been in.

"Sorry about that, but I can't let you take him back after the work I put in to capture him," Pyre told her, firing another shot as he grabbed Tokoyami, leaving the thug he had carried to his fate as he retreated, firing a fireball towards the small one as he led Koda away. Still, vines came up to take the blast, getting an annoyed grunt from the boy as he landed with only one of the 3 hostages they had. Slice tried to retrieve Todoroki, but Shiozaki was putting up a good fight, her vines coming in almost as fast as Slice could cut them down.

With Shigaraki, he was pissed off by this development as he ordered Nomu, "Nomu, kill them!" With that instruction, the already beastly strength of the Nomu seemed to grow as Shiozaki found her vines straining and cutting on mass as the beast quickly freed itself. Seeing the coming threat, Mineta tried to help by throwing balls in the area between Shiozaki and the Nomu, which did trip the beast, but he was up and running in seconds, not caring that pieces of the floor were now stuck to it. Thanks to the balls.

Shiozaki didn't have time to react as the monster grabbed her head, as if it were going to crush it in its palm like it did Aizawa's arm. She saw her terrified classmates; she saw her life flash before her eyes, but she could only accept this was her fate as she closed her eyes and said a final prayer for forgiveness and for the Lord to protect the rest of them.

Her prayers would be answered, and then some, when the doors leading into the USJ didn't just blast open but nearly exploded off their hinges. Such a sudden and expected event froze the fight; it froze almost everything happening, allowing them to hear someone approaching. Their steps were measured but echoing throughout the area, each step carrying a distinctive and immense sense of power that even Nomu turned to see who or what that was.

"It's fine now," They got their answer as they saw him from the smoke of their explosive entrance. They saw the symbol of peace, dressed in his typical teaching suit, his jacket in hand as he ripped his tie clean off. "Because I am here." All Might announced with his signature catchphrase, but for once, he wasn't smiling.

Walking into the USJ, All Might saw the carnage that waited for him; while he was pleased to see the students were okay, this was only a tiny fraction of them. He didn't know where the others were. Only what he had been told was the suspicion. "I had a bad feeling when my calls weren't getting picked up, so I tore myself away from my discussion with the principal and rushed on over." He stated that the students collapsed in relief or looked at him like many had before.

He kept his stride strong, his sadness and anger swirling in his gut as he took in the condition of Thirteen, just as he had been told. "I passed young Iida on the way. He filled me in on the situation." He recalled that encounter mere moments ago, as he had been surprised and concerned to see the boy rushing towards the school like death was chasing him. The normally rule-abiding and respectful Iida had barely stopped long enough to explain the villain's attack before he rushed off to get more help.

"It's fine now," Coming to a top at the top of the stairs, he ripped his tie off his neck, his iconic smile nowhere to be seen. In its place was a sneer that would have been expected from the Flame hero, but he couldn't bring himself to smile, not when he was worried sick for his students. "Because I am here!"

"All Might…" Pyre uttered, his attention on the number one and only the number one, as he had thought he wouldn't freeze up at seeing him again, but how could he not? Memories replaying in his mind of when they last saw one another. All Might had been afraid of him back then, just like everyone else, but now? Now, he was furious with them. Before any of them could so much as think, never mind see him move, All Might cross the distance from the top of the stairs to their position like it was nothing, taking out every villain in his way and saving Todoroki and Tokoyami from them in the same process.

Pyre blinked as he wondered why he was looking towards the ceiling and why he was on his back and barely conscious as Slice helped him to his feet. "Good, you're still awake," Slice stated, relieved he wasn't down for the count like the rest.

"What happened?" He asked as he looked around, seeing that All Might had managed to grab everyone they had been fighting, even though Kurogiri and Shigaraki were now free.

"You didn't see it either? My best guess is that All Might hit you when he grabbed the boy." Slice explained. She had thought she knew fast when it came to watching Pyre and Chimera spar, but All Might was on a whole other level.

"Yeah, that would make sense. Lucky me that he didn't hit me too hard." Pyre looked at a silver lining, even if it was a small one, as this was the part that they were the least confident in, facing All Might.

The man in question stood with the gravely injured Aizawa in his hands, as well as having the unconscious bodies of Tokoyami and Todoroki at his feet and Shiozaki, Mineta, Koda and Asui with him, those last four not even sure when he had grabbed them and yet here they were. As they asked each other that very question, All Might's attention was on Aizawa; his heart squeezed when he saw his condition. Both his arms weren't just broken but nearly shattered, with his head awash with his blood, a concussion being the least likely ending for him as his face was cut up pretty bad.

"I'm sorry…Vlad, if only I had been here." He apologised, as he felt like a fool if he had just prioritised his teaching if he had only been here. Knowing he had other things to focus on, he turned his attention to the villain. There was the mist-covered one that matched young Iida's description of the war gate user, the monster that had nearly killed Shiozaki if he had taken even a second longer to arrive, a man covered with hands that were deemed to have some sort of decay quirk, that explained how the press got in earlier that week, a villainess with a hair-based quirk and lastly…

Midoriya. He knew this day would come, but he still wished it wouldn't, as he felt shame seeing what such a bright boy had become. What he had been turned into by the villains he was picked up by, but that wasn't for now. His job was to stop him and then show him a better path, perhaps speaking with the authorities for a lenient sentence, as slight a chance as that was with his rap sheet. With his back to his students, the symbol of peace spoke.

"Please take care of them. They both need emergency medical aid," He told the four, turning to their injured teacher and classmates. Still, despite their fears, they were hesitant to leave.

"But, but sir," Asui started to say, holding up a hand before giving a thumbs up.

"It's alright. You've done more than enough. Now leave this to the pros," he replied. The four were worried for him but followed his instructions as they collected Tokoyami, Todoroki, and Aizawa and made their way to the stairs, trusting All Might would handle this.

"Kick their asses, All Might!"

"Be careful!"

And that is where we'll end this. That was longer than I thought, but it's done. There was a part with Kurogiri and his encounter with Thirteen and the rest, but I cut that out as it's pretty much the same scene with few changes. But get ready for the next chapter. It'll be the first time since Chapter 2 that Bakugo and Midoriya have seen one another, and it will be spicy.

If you're an early reader, the next chapter should already be up; if you're not, it should be uploaded next week, April 24th.