Chapter Eleven: Clearing the Air
Magne had been looking forward to this day ever since Shigaraki announced it'd be coming. While her reaction to Overhaul's slights had been toned down by Kurogiri's intervention, the resentment still remained, and getting an opportunity to act on it had been everything she wanted.
As if the universe had bent over to oblige her, her phone pinged, the message she'd been looking for on its screen. From what she saw, their new recruits all got the same message. The time had come even sooner than she thought, and she was more than ready. Once they were finished, the Shie Hassaikai would be no more.
Several dozen people made eye contact with each other from across the room, all the defectors taking a second to make sure they knew which side they were on. Right as everyone else in the room had the time to start getting suspicious, a man standing right next to the Bullet with the bag over his head bashed his misshapen head against the Bullet's, and the room subsequently exploded into absolute chaos as his— their— allies initiated a massive brawl.
Of course, this included the League of Villains as well. Toga launched herself into the fight with a shriek, Mr. Compress began putting on a show, and Spinner's fanatical devotion made itself clear once again. Magne joined the brawl as well, ready to help her friends in any way she could.
Within the first thirty seconds, it became clear they had the advantage. Just about every attack their side made was ruthless, brutal, efficient. Unlike their recent assault on Takoba National Stadium, which had been largely unstructured, the Shie Hassaikai members they recruited knew enough about both themselves and their enemies that everyone seemed to know who to go for. Furthermore, apart from a few knives it seemed to be a Quirk-on-Quirk battle: in tight quarters, a bullet threatened to kill an ally just as easily as an enemy. Their research had borne fruit, everyone on their side either taking out potential problems before they arose or going for people who had bad Quirk matchups against them. In what felt like seconds, the number disparity between the two forces disappeared, then began favoring her side.
Magne wasn't being attacked directly yet, their enemies focusing more closely on those right in the thick of things, but that didn't stop her from getting involved. When Toga got cornered by four men all at once, Magne pulled them all towards her and sent them sprawling. When a huge woman pile-drove three of her allies all at once and produced the largest knife Magne had ever seen to finish them off, Magne knocked her off the stack and right into Spinner's blade. And when that meant Magne was taken more seriously and others started attacking her, her allies returned the favor, keeping anyone from getting too close and taking out the fighters with range to their attacks whenever possible.
The Bullet with crystals around his arms, his name unimportant, charged her with clear intent while dodging both Toga and Spinner, but she pulled him close with her Quirk once he got within range and he lost his balance, tumbling across the floor until he was at the feet of Mr. Compress. He rose again in an instant, but by the time he could charge her again, he'd been ripped in half: his left side had become one of Mr. Compress' marbles, while the right side stayed upright for a few seconds before falling in a heap, the telltale signs of life rapidly fading.
Magne had to resist the urge to cheer even though this fight wasn't finished yet. Overhaul wasn't here, but every person she took down represented another blow to both his forces and his psyche, and she appreciated both those things.
Soon, he'd be reduced to nothing, and then she could claim her victory once and for all.
Kurogiri's unusual face made it hard for outsiders to discern his current emotions. However, had he a mouth, even he would have stretched it into a winning grin at this point.
After their initial meeting with the Shie Hassaikai had gone so wrong, Kurogiri knew their alliance would never last; it might not have even lasted five minutes had he not intervened. Overhaul and Tomura disagreed on too many fundamental things to work together effectively as a team, and many of each's subordinates didn't care for their opposing leader. Any further attempts to conduct operations under the same umbrella seemed doomed to failure, and that posed way too much risk for him to tolerate. However, writing off their alliance as a total loss created its own issues: it could easily establish them as being too difficult to work with to be worth the bother.
Thus arose a third option, one that split the middle. It still threatened the same outcome as either of their first two choices if things went south, but at least this one could swell their ranks quite noticeably. And Tomura came up with the resulting plan himself for the most part, proving he was more than capable of growing into his role as a team leader with some guidance.
Furthermore, that plan had been executed with minimal problems, if any at all. They'd been outnumbered at the beginning, but their crew had both surprise and preparation on their side. By the time their opposition had realized what was going on and moved to regroup, they barely even posed a threat anymore: instead, they were little more than fodder to be used as a demonstration of just what they were capable of. The Eight Bullets and Mimic had put up a little more of a fight, but only three of them had Quirks that either worked at range or were good for crowd control, and Magne and Dabi outclassed all of them when they were at their best.
A few minutes more, and apart from Toga having gotten a few cuts and Dabi showing signs of Quirk overuse, they'd emerged from the fight unscathed. Overhaul's side could not say the same: of their alternate leaders, only Mimic remained alive, and he might have been quite a sorry sight if Kurogiri had a reason to feel sorry for him. He wouldn't be alive much longer, anyway, so it was a moot point.
Despite his injuries and his imminent death, Mimic remained defiant until the end. "Overhaul… will… avenge us…"
"Yeah, keep thinking that," Dabi said, and extinguished his life with a blast of flame.
Just like that, the important part of the battle had concluded. All of Overhaul's top fighters were dead; enough of them remained to be easily identified, but no more. They'd suffered far fewer casualties: a handful of their allied Shie Hassaikai members had suffered fatal injuries, but apart from a petite man with white hair weeping over the body of someone who appeared to be his sister, no one seemed too torn up by their losses. Perhaps yakuza membership had strangled most of those emotions out of them, or maybe they just didn't know each other well enough to care yet. It didn't matter at the moment; he and Tomura could figure out how to unite them as a team later.
Kurogiri turned to face their new allies. "Could one of you please summon Overhaul here? The time has come to finish the job."
Several others jumped at the chance to be useful from what he saw, each of them composing a message for Overhaul about why he needed to arrive at the League of Villains' headquarters as soon as possible, though hopefully they left out the details of their betrayal.
Now it was Tomura's turn to take the helm. Sure, Kurogiri could have just dealt with Overhaul himself, but he decided to save that for a backup plan: it'd be more fitting, and convey a more powerful message, if Tomura and his newfound allies finished the transition instead of him.
The next step went according to plan: Overhaul popped into existence from the portal Kurogiri's clone had made for him, no emotion on his face other than mild annoyance. "What's so important that—"
Overhaul froze in place, the rest of his sentence dying in his mouth as he took in the scene. Maybe it was all his closest confidants being dead on the floor, or maybe it was just the blood and gore that entailed. Either way, he locked up and began trembling, the rest of the League of Villains beginning to close in on him so they could finish the job.
Things were coming to a close just as Kurogiri had wanted. One small step for Tomura, one giant leap for the League of Villains.
Overhaul felt like he'd swallowed a terrarium's worth of live ants.
Everything had been going so well. Takoba National Stadium had been infiltrated, chaos had reigned, casualties been caused, trust in the hero society lost. There'd been a reason he agreed with Shigaraki's plan; if everything went well, it set up the Shie Hassaikai for a ride to the top of Tokyo's criminal hierarchy, which would allow them to accomplish anything Boss could have ever dreamed of. Then, everything had gone awry and he'd found the Eight Bullets, his Eight Bullets, in pieces on the floor, and all of his carefully-made plans had gone to hell.
The realization finally hit him. "This entire plan was a trap."
Shigaraki didn't even bother denying it. "Yes, it was."
Now he tried to fire the gun full of Eri's bullets he'd kept on him for emergencies just like this, but the instant before he pulled the trigger an invisible rope yanked him forward, sending him tumbling end over end and his bullet over everyone's head. A second pull, this one much harder, slammed him into a wall, making his vision swim and his gun fall to the floor. He scrabbled for the gun, but Toga moved faster, kicking it out of his reach for Dabi to grab.
He tried to use his Quirk, but his skull was on fire and his vision fuzzy and then Magne smashed him into the wall again and he went still.
"It's a shame," Shigaraki said. "You and your cohorts might have been useful party members. However, I think we'd both agree our leadership styles are fundamentally incompatible. Plus, you insulted my allies and friends. I'd tell you to never do that again, but you won't get the chance, so… too bad, I guess."
He managed to scramble backward a little further on his hands and knees, his legs still refusing to cooperate, but Magne used her Quirk on him again, making him taste bile in his mouth and almost white out from the pain, but not quite. Perhaps that would have been a mercy, though, considering what was about to come next.
Shigaraki fixed a cold, lifeless gaze on him. "Game. Over."
Then, Shigaraki's hands, cold as death, grabbed Overhaul by the shoulders, and he knew his time on this Earth had ended.
A single thought raced through his tortured brain. "I'm sorry, Boss."
Then, Shigaraki's Quirk took hold and he crumpled to the floor, watching every fiber of his being flake away to nothing until the world cut to black.
Sero felt like anything but a hero at the moment; fragile, numb, weak. Even after the attack on Takoba National Stadium had been turned back and the perpetrators gone, neutralized, or apprehended, that didn't erase any of the things he'd seen, they'd all seen. And he hadn't even been on the front lines for the most part: shameful conduct considering he was supposed to be among the best heroes-in-training in the world.
As soon as the stadium had been secured and cleared and their classmates reunited as one, Eraserhead and Vlad King had corralled everyone from U.A. back to their buses, each of them doing at least half a dozen head counts on the way. Somehow, they hadn't lost anyone, but there'd been other schools that weren't so fortunate.
Sero had seen the bodies. Too many bodies. Some far too young to die.
He thought he'd known the game, but Shigaraki and his minions had just changed the rules.
Once Eraserhead and Scythe cleared their bus, all of Class 1-A boarded, Sero among the last to do so. He collapsed into the first empty seat he found, wanting nothing more than for this horrific day to end with some peace and quiet. Once Eraserhead stood up at the front of the bus, though, he knew that he had a bit longer to wait: anything Eraserhead said right now was likely important.
"I'm sure this will surprise no one, but the remainder of the exam has been postponed indefinitely," Eraserhead said. "It may be held at a different site on a later date, or it may not be held at all, depending on how certain factors play out. If and when a new date is set, we should know well in advance, so don't worry about that."
That felt like the last thing any of them needed to worry about at the moment, but Sero at least understood its importance. If Class 1-A wanted to fight on the front lines against the League of Villains with the law on their side, they needed those licenses, and it seemed unlikely that the exam they'd taken would be enough to get them granted. Perhaps Eraserhead and Nedzu could wrangle it due to the extenuating circumstances, but he didn't want to count on that yet.
"As for the battle itself, I'm not going to assess your conduct yet, as I was not privy to most of it," Eraserhead said. "Given that this is far from your first encounter with the League of Villains and I haven't had any problems with it yet, I don't expect any surprises, but if there are… let's just say they'll be dealt with swiftly."
Sero felt a pit begin to form in his stomach. He hadn't run away or put someone else in danger or done anything like that, but he could have done better; he knew that, and Eraserhead would too. Looking around the bus, he saw several others come to the same realization, even if their tiredness helped obscure some of their emotions.
Scythe decided now was the best time to put her two cents in, her voice conveying more energy than the rest of them had combined. "What that means for my presence here is unknown. I presume that will be determined in the near future, although there are no guarantees."
"Thanks for that, Scythe," Eraserhead said, cutting her off before she could say anything else. "The Hero Public Safety Commission and the Japanese government will give us updates as the situation progresses. Anything that I feel is pertinent to you, I'll make sure you know. If nothing else, securing Kurogiri has to be a top priority now, so let's hope we won't have to worry about his portals for much longer."
Indeed, Sero hoped that would be true. If he'd managed to get inside one of the most heavily-guarded locations in Japan with ease, then anyone at U.A. was a sitting duck; Kurogiri had breached its security once before and everything indicated he would try again any day. Perhaps they'd be sent home to try and combat that, but that just meant everyone he cared about was also in danger, and that sounded even worse.
The bus pulled out of the parking lot in relative silence, none of Sero's classmates feeling much like chatting after the events that had just transpired. Sero had no desire or energy to start a conversation, anyway; it was barely two in the afternoon, yet he felt his attentiveness slipping and his eyes fluttering. One wayward glance down the aisle confirmed most of his classmates looked the same way, their adrenaline highs all crashing in unison.
As the bus trundled back toward U.A. and the day's events all caught up with Sero at once, he finally gave into his urges and let himself doze.
"The number of casualties from the attack on Takoba National Stadium have risen to twenty-four, and fifty-two others are hospitalized. We reached out to both the Hero Public Safety Commission and The Help Us Company for comment about the flaws in their security systems—"
With the press of a button, the television flickered off, and it'd stay that way for at least the rest of the night. All Might couldn't bear to watch anymore: no matter what channel he flipped to, everyone was talking about the same thing, and he'd heard enough about it for one day, though he was sure he'd learn more about it in the days to come.
His section of the building hadn't been spared from the villains' attack, but several of the professors he'd been trapped with were either current or former pro heroes, and as a result had little issue defending themselves. He'd been sorely tempted to throw himself into the fight once more, the remnants of One for All within him roaring for combat, but he'd refrained: his hero form didn't last long enough to do much anymore, and carelessly engaging in a battle with an undefined end point threatened to finish what All for One had started.
The journey home had been a silent affair, and thankfully as uneventful as anything could be. A large portion of Class 1-A slept through it, Eraserhead looking like he wanted nothing more than to join them. Scythe had way more energy than he'd expected since she'd apparently been in the thick of things, but all attempts she made to try and have a conversation were shut down. Perhaps not the most polite thing he could have done, but no one else was in the mood and she just wasn't taking the hint.
Before he could reminisce any further, his phone rang and jolted him out of his thoughts. A glance at the number revealed the caller as Nedzu, meaning he answered the call without hesitation.
"Thank you for picking up," Nedzu said. "Is everything well?"
"As well as is to be expected, thank you," All Might said. "Might I ask why you're calling?"
Nedzu didn't waste time; even his pacing was faster than normal. "I wish to inquire about your schedule for tomorrow."
"According to Eraserhead, Class 1-A at least is getting a day to decompress, so I don't have any classes to manage," All Might said. "I don't know whether Vlad King is doing the same for 1-B, but nothing's stopping me from asking."
"I have confirmed that he is giving 1-B a day off as well, which makes what follows much easier," Nedzu replied. "There's going to be another emergency meeting tomorrow right after the non-Hero classes end, this one only for staff members directly involved with the events earlier today. To the surprise of no one, the government is currently running the best damage control they can muster, and we'll be involved with that, both now and in the future. Once I'm through with these infuriating government meetings, I'd like to share their results with everyone pertinent; we need to be prepared for their next steps."
"A sensible reaction," All Might said. "If you haven't told Eraserhead and Scythe yet, I'll make sure they know about this."
"Don't worry, I called both of them as well," Nedzu said. "I'm sure they will attend."
All Might had a few questions he would have liked to ask, but he decided to save them for after the upcoming meeting, for having more knowledge of what was to come would make getting accurate answers much easier, after all. Nedzu didn't seem to have much time on his hands, anyway; shortly after he assured All Might that he'd spread the word to everyone that mattered, he heard the distant echo of other voices on Nedzu's end of the line, meaning something else had his attention at the moment.
"I must go," Nedzu said. "The recess in this meeting has ended; my presence is required once more."
Neither of them had anything else to say after that, meaning Nedzu hanging up right afterward garnered no reaction whatsoever. At least now he knew there was a plan in the works.
They'd need one with the way things were going. He'd thought that with All for One no longer in the picture, the League of Villains would fade out of relevance for a while, or at least limit the size and scale of their crimes while they regrouped. They'd done neither: if anything, the loss of their leader made them more desperate to prove themselves worthy of their title. Bringing All for One to justice was still the right course of action given what the man was capable of, but his final sacrifice to put that monster away felt less and less impactful by the day.
Still, that didn't mean his days were numbered. All for One would not see him beaten. He would not stay down just because his pro hero days were over.
Nothing stopped him from being able to help everyone he could, both in U.A.'s halls and outside of them. If (more likely when) the League of Villains decided to target those he cared about, he'd do everything in his power to make sure they regretted that decision for the rest of their lives.
And if he had to sacrifice himself one last time in the process, then so be it.
At long last, this day is finally over.
Honestly, this chapter was quite difficult for me to wrangle into submission; even now I didn't know how to fit everything I needed to without the flow of events feeling a bit disjointed. The Shie Hassaikai fight scene was what made me split this off from Chapter 10, anyway: originally I just mentioned it in passing in the next chapter, but that felt like a major cop-out, so I stuck it here.
On a happier note, with this chapter, everyone in Class 1-A, including the faculty, has now gotten a POV scene. I hope I did everyone justice. With luck, I can do the same in the upcoming arc as well, but I'll have to see how things shake out once we get rolling.
That's all I have to say for now. Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you on the 21st for the next chapter.