k

by gkidsanderson4

k

7. 7

Several minutes earlier, moments before power was restored to the USJ

"Alright you damn lackeys, I'm done hiding from you!"

Katsuki cackled and ran as loudly as possible through the building to attract all that cannon fodder, with some well-timed crackles to show him his surroundings.

He grinned when he got to a dead-end and heard a bunch of those idiots running up to him. "We got you now brat! You're really stupid if you think you can fight us while we can see you!"

The grin turned into a feral smirk as he lifted up his right foot and aimed his boot's sole at them. "Oh I'm counting on it!"

He tensed his foot and let the mechanism create an actually decent explosion with his stored sweat. For him it was just a shitty flash but for those idiots… "Ah what the hell?! So bright!"

'Fucking idiots with your night vision! Not so tough now that your advantage was turned against you huh?! Be grateful I'm not beating you up yet!'

Pushing aside the dazed villains Katsuki ran to the building's entrance where the other extras were waiting for him. "Hah, I'm surprised you didn't abandon me yet you shits!"

Gen Ed shit scoffed. "We're not in a contest for who's the worse person, Hero course crap A."

Background piped up next. "Did the flashbang work Bakugō?"

"Heh, of course it did, cause I'm the fucking best!...And your idea was good I guess."

Background decided to get smug on him. "Didn't quite catch that last part Bakugō."

Copycat scoffed. "Are you two 1-A hooligans actually going to waste this time instead of getting outside now that the villains are distracted?"

'Ugh right, time to get drenched again.' "Shut up Copycat, we're going alrea-"

All the lights suddenly turned back on again. "What the fuck, now you decide to go on again?!"

Tail decided he didn't want to waste time any further and dragged everyone outside where- "It's not raining anymore?!" 'HALLE-FUCKING-LUJA!!!'

"Fuck yeah! Time to show these bastards who they've been messing with!"

Gen Ed shit butted in. "Fuck no, you're not charging ahead of us when you still look like a Pomeranian that lost in a fight against a super soaker! Let's move our asses to an open spot so we can't get ambushed."

They quickly found a decently sized square in the middle of the zone that they could hunker down at. They'd look for the exit if they hadn't been thoroughly disoriented earlier but fucking whatever. Katsuki seethed internally at not being able to do anything except using some of his stored sweat from his boots if a projectile was coming right at him but at least the damn extras were actually putting up a fight now that the lights were on again.

"Hagakure, two enemies at your two o'clock!" Gen Ed shit had been barking those call-outs since they got here and Background and Copycat had been roaming around the nearby buildings to knock them out from behind. 'Wait, the fuck? Copycat had to get naked to hide us in that closet. Has Background been buck-naked every Heroics lesson this entire fucking time?!'

The other two non-Hero course extras were suddenly useful as well. Void eyes was fucking unhittable and knew exactly where to hit the idiots that tried to fight them up close where it hurts and Tail completely fucked up the remaining ones as he bounced all over the damn place like a monkey in the goddamn jungle. 'Seriously, did he inject steroids into that third fucking leg every goddamn morning or something?'

Cowlicks had somehow put together a goddamn slingshot within three seconds after they arrived and had been sniping those poor fuckers right out of their hiding spots.

"-target at 16.4 meters away, aiming up at 36.7 degrees. Stretching rubber band tension to-"

Yeah…she'd been spouting that shit the entire time as well, she had a 100% accuracy though so whatever.

Suddenly tremors rocked the earth as a violent explosion sounded from far away. 'What the hell?!'

Gen Ed shit yelled at him. "Was that you?! Are you finally fucking useful again?!"

He was about to shout back when- 'Wait I'm dry? How long have I been fucking sitting back then?!' "That wasn't me Gen Ed shit! But you're right, it's time I kill this fucking fodder!"

Once he got his explosions back up to strength the whole thing got way fucking easier. It was actually pretty fucking therapeutic to finally blast away some idiot villains.

"NOOOOOOOOO!!!" Suddenly a muffled yell came somewhere outside. 'Was that Izuku? What the fuck is going on out there?!'

"Oi you shits got this handled right? I'm fucking leaving this shitty zone!"

Gen Ed Shit rolled her eyes. "Sure whatever. Leaving the remaining small fries to us now that you've had your fun huh? Thanks for the vote of confidence I guess asshole, now scram!"

Katsuki shot off in the direction of the scream, hopefully where the fucking exit to this godforsaken zone was. 'You better not die on me Izuku! We don't do losing!'

Several minutes before power was restored to the USJ

This was definitely not going well for Shōto. The lights still didn't show any signs of going back on and they had no idea where to move to safely without falling off of a cliff. To top it all off they still hadn't left the area that Shōto had iced over and they were all trying not to slip up.

"Ribbit…I'm so…sleepy." And two of his teammates were in danger of hypothermia too because of it, so that was a nice bonus. At this point he'd rather go back and have over a hundred awkward dinners with Father than go through this again.

Tokoyami, the one who'd started carrying Asui when she got too tired from the cold, made a decision. "I'm afraid that drastic measures will have to be taken. Aoyama, while I am grateful for the seal you've given me to keep Dark Shadow at bay I think I will have to break it soon."

"Ribbit…wouldn't that…endanger us too?"

"I do not plan on staying here with you. Aoyama, the seal will dissolve if I stray too far from your path does it not?"

"Mon ami, je ne sais pas…oh you mean my light patch! Oui, it should."

"Very well, Tsunotori, do you have room for one more passenger on your back?"

The horse girl, who had gone on all fours a while ago and had been carrying Tokage on her back answered. "Sure thing partner, ah wouldn't be a good horsey if ah couldn't carry some of ya."

Asui drearily spoke up as she was put on Tsunotori's back. "Ribbit…are you sure…Dark Shadow won't hurt you…Tokoyami-kun?"

Tokoyami huffed. "She would never hurt me. The poor villains that are near me however…it's why I originally didn't want to let Dark Shadow out, besides possibly hurting you."

Tokage, despite being coldblooded didn't feel the need to hibernate like Asui so she was just really cold, piped up. "Heugh, wait…Dark Shadow's a girl? But it's your quirk…aren't you ma-?"

"Do not disrespect her choices!"

"…Oh sorry dude, I was just wondering…sorry."

"I am quite on edge for my inevitable endeavour, but for your information Dark Shadow is a fully separate entity from me and has her own preferences. Now, if there are no objections I shall go back the way we came, you'll know when Dark Shadow gets lose. Hopefully the villains will be too busy defending themselves to pay attention to you so Todoroki and Aoyama should be able to guide you out with their light."

Before any of them could object they heard Tokoyami slowly walking away from them. For a good minute the only thing they heard was the clopping sound of Tsunotori's hooves on the rocks as they carefully kept walking forward. Suddenly a howl erupted from deeper in the Mountain Zone and they could see two large red eyes thrashing around in the distance.

The Support student, Kikōgu, nervously spoke up. "J-Jesus, that guy is s-scary."

Shōto hoped that Tokoyami would be fine as he addressed the group. "Most of the villains should be preoccupied now. Aoyama and I will illuminate the area and get us to the zone's edge. Once Dark Shadow has incapacitated the stronger villains we should run back in and help Tokoyami subdue her, any question?"

There were no objections. "Good, then let's-" But before either Shōto or Aoyama could start using their quirks the USJ's spotlights suddenly flashed on and did the job for them. This would've been great news but as Shōto looked back at Tokoyami's general direction, where Dark Shadow looked to be rapidly shrinking, it really turned out to be quite unfortunate.

Tokage reacted first. "Dammit, Tokoyami's in trouble! If we don't get there soon Dark Shadow will get too weak and he'll get overwhelmed! We agreed to put him in this so now we have to save him!"

Shōto agreed but did a quick check for cameras. "One thing first though." He quickly turned on his flames and warmed his coldblooded teammates back up to normal temperatures. 'Guess I needed it in the end anyway.' The only one who seemed hesitant to join in was Kikōgu. "Uh, you guys go do that while I stay here. I didn't even want to pass the 1st round dammit, but my quirk under that stress literally made it impossible to get caught!"

Shōto and the remaining four people on his team all dashed off. Aoyama, who was the only one of them who didn't have any mobility options, emitted a girly scream when Tsunotori ran into him on all fours and scooped him up onto her back. "Aight, let's go partners! We got a little birdy to save!"

At the same time in the Conflagration Zone

It wouldn't be until much later but Eijiro Kirishima and his team didn't even know about the blackout. They had been much more occupied with all the flames that had suddenly turned on a while back as complete strangers popped up from the woodworks and started attacking them.

On the one hand Eijiro was lucky that his team wasn't fully made up of people whose quirks were severely disadvantaged by the fire, though there were several of them. Sero's tapes could definitely be set on fire, the Shiozaki girl's vines would shrivel up if she got anywhere near the flames and Kuroiro couldn't reliably travel through shadows that were constantly changing shape.

On the other hand he cursed his quirk's inability to protect himself against overheating. He and Satō were in the same boat when it came to that, they could still use their quirks for close combat but they had to stay away from the flames to avoid getting burnt while the villains seemed to all have some type of fire resistance. They had both decided to protect Kuroiro and Shiozaki, who had both been standing in an open area away from the fire, while Tetsutetsu charged straight through the inferno and at the villains while Ashido used viscous acid to douse some of the flames and expand their current area.

It had taken quite a while but now they had finally knocked out all the intruders with minimal injuries, and the fires had suddenly turned off as the lights went back on, right when they finished as well! Eijiro really was lucky with all of his manly teammates.

Both Ashido and Tetsutetsu were panting from exhaustion as they approached him. "You two were so manly out there!"

His steel doppelganger was the first to get his breath back and bumped his fist. "Sure thing bro, you weren't too shabby yourself!"

Shiozaki, who had been praying the entire time the fire was on, shakily pointed behind them. "I fear that the lord has sent down one more challenger before we may escape our personal hell."

Eijiro looked at where she was pointing and paled when an absolute unit of a man came walking at them from the opposite end of the street. If he didn't know any better he thought that that Kingpin dude from those old Spiderman comics had come to life, the only real difference being a large black bowler hat sitting on top of his head.

Before the man could come any closer Eijiro stepped forward. "Hey man, we don't want to fight you. We already took out all of your buddies so can you just let us go?"

The man narrowed his eyes but kept up his casual stroll. 'That guy would be so manly if he wasn't a villain.' He side-eyed Tetsutetsu who nodded at him as they both charged at the hulking figure. 'Red Gauntlet!'

The rock and metal fists hit him straight in the stomach but the man didn't even cringe as he yoinked both of them with his large hands and slammed the two of them into each other.

Both Eijiro and Tetsutetsu fell on the ground and tried to scramble back when they saw the big guy raise his fists to smash the ground. Eijiro tried to shield himself with his hardened arms but suddenly tape came shooting from the side, missing the guy's arms and hitting the bowler hat off his head instead.

Sero's voice came from their right. "Crap sorry! I thought I could tie up his arms now that the fire is gone but I choked!"

Eijiro wasn't really paying attention to that though as the towering man hadn't brought down his fists yet. Suddenly the man's muscles slackened and he fell forward.

He should really thank his hardening cause otherwise that unit of a man falling on him would've probably caved in his ribcage. Both him and Tetsutetsu emerged from either side of the downed man with their quirks activated and stared at one another until they started laughing as the weirdness of the situation caught up to them.

Ashido ran towards them with a pout on her face. "Kirishima stop playing wall, we're here too you know!"

She looked at the unconscious man's body. "What happened with that guy though? Did you bore him to death with your manliness speeches or something?"

The pink-skinned girl snickered and Eijiro relaxed. He shouldn't have let his guard down though as suddenly Ashido went stock straight and frantically started slapping her own back. "Ew ew ew, something's crawling up my back!"

Eijiro didn't really know what to do as she started running around in circles as well and started slapping her head. 'Did a cockroach crawl up her pantleg or something?' "Getitoff, getit off, get it off, get…it……off."

Ashido's arms went slack and her golden irises glazed over for a second until a different, completely uncharacteristic look replaced it and her voice came back. "Hehehe, man this girl made it too easy. First two perfectly placed handlebars and then she turns out to be an airhead too? I've never mounted someone this size so fast!"

In response Eijiro got back in a combat pose. "You're not Ashido, who are you?! What did you do to her?!"

A gleeful smile 'Wrong, wrong soooo wrong.' appeared on 'Ashido's' face. "Same thing I did to ol' Brutus over there. I'm definitely liking the look of this quirk more though."

Some globules of acid fell on the road, sinking straight through the cement as it sizzled violently. "Hehe, let's see how strong this acid can get!"

Simultaneously back in the Mountain Zone

Shōto and the others had finally arrived at Tokoyami's last visible location: the crevice that split the Mountain Zone into two. Looking over the cliff's edge he saw Tokoyami trying to fight off a horde of villains with a normal-sized Dark Shadow. It seemed that Tokoyami had decided to jump into the shadows of the cliff to conserve some of Dark Shadow's strength.

Tokoyami was definitely showing signs of real exhaustion so Shōto slammed his right hand on the cliff wall and let his ice rapidly spread downwards and across the bottom to trap some of the villains. After that he created a slope of his ice and they all slid down to help Tokoyami.

When they finally got down it was clear that besides Tokoyami not every villain had gotten caught in the ice as several of them were already facing Shōto and co. A voice they'd heard a while ago came from the male villain nearest to them. "Hey, look who decided to come back and play!" He looked at some other villains to his side. "You guys free the others, we'll deal with these brats!"

Shōto narrowed his eyes and sent out a wave of ice, which subsequently got broken apart by several chain whips, apparently that was the guy's quirk. He didn't really feel the need to use his fire right now though since the lights going back on might mean that the cameras were on as well. If either Asui or Tokage got caught in his ice though then he would use it of course.

Several more waves of ice were sent towards the villains as the others in his team charged as well. Satisfied with the lack of any charging villains Shōto stomped on the ground as he created a pillar of ice that lifted him up from the ground. Both Tokage and Tsunotori were great at distracting the villains. Tokage's separated body parts and Tsunotori's horns weren't doing much damage though, but Tsunotori made up for that by literally ramming into the distracted villains. On the same side of Shōto's makeshift pillar Aoyama had brandished '…was that a sword made of light?' as he got scooped up by Tsunotori again and they charged at villains, Aoyama waving the sword around in a blind panic at Tsunotori's sides.

Dark Shadow was mostly bobbing and weaving between all the grunts, trying to keep Tokoyami safe and staying as far away from the Aoyama and Tsunotori combo as possible. Content with the current situation, he slid back down and sent several ice waves towards Tokoyami to help him out but he could already feel himself starting to shiver from overuse.

Cautiously, he generated some small flames to slowly get his body temperature up. He almost fell over though when a booming sound accompanied by harsh winds rocketed through the dome of the USJ and Shōto just about saw a blinding beam exiting and completely tearing up the dome at the opposite side of the facility. 'Was that Midoriya? I guess it makes sense, only his quirk could get hot enough to make those kinds of winds…'

He suddenly got an idea and skated over the icy ground towards Tokoyami's side of the cliff as he called out for the others to join him.

Relatively quickly Tsunotori, with Aoyama still on her back, galloped towards them, followed by Asui who covered the entire distance with one large hop as she slammed several villains into a wall with her tongue and lastly Tokage reassembled herself next to them. "Yo cap'n, what you planning?

Shōto looked at the charging horde of the remaining villains. "Just get further behind me and let me do the work." They had just gotten past a tighter part of the canyon and Shōto decided that this place would work best. He took note of the frigid temperatures that he'd gathered through his generous usage of ice and his lips turned upwards as he let his fire loose and shot it straight at the horde of villains.

All the villains stopped in surprise and just as he'd hoped the sudden temperature increase made the air in the tighter section explode outwards, blowing everyone backwards and causing the cliffsides to collapse, blocking the section up with rubble.

Tsunotori stood up and started clapping and cheering. "Oh wow, not even the fireworks on the 4th of July back in Texas could measure up to that!"

She seemed to have forgotten that she had been carrying someone as Aoyama fell on the ground with an oeuf. He didn't seem too bothered though. "Wasn't I quite the knight in shining armour?"

Dark Shadow popped out of Tokoyami's bellybutton. "You sure were, ew. Make sure to stay away from him Fumi. So what's next Mr. Ice & Fire?"

Shōto looked back at the caved-in section. "We should head the other direction to see if there's an easy way out and regroup with Kikōgu, then head to the central plaza. I think Midoriya is in trouble."

Everyone nodded in approval but before they could get moving a scream echoed through the USJ and Aoyama turned as pale as a sheet. "Mon amis, why are the spotlights going dark again?"

Everyone turned around to look at the dome to see the lights dimming until they eventually turned pitch black. As the blackness suddenly started covering the rest of the dome's surface Shōto looked at Tokoyami, who startled at everyone's gazes suddenly turning to him. "Th-That isn't my doing! I wish I had such supreme command over the abyss like that!"

The weirdest part though was how, despite the dome having turned completely black at this point their surroundings still looked like they were lit up normally. 'Wait…is the darkness spreading through the actual air towards us now? Is this a villain's quirk? What's going on?!'

Back at where we left off in the Conflagration Zone

Eijiro panicked as he dodged several globs of Ashido's highest grade acid. 'Crap crap crap, a mind control quirk? We definitely haven't covered 'how to fight your friend under a villain's influence' in classes yet!'

He skidded to a stop and narrowly avoided another spray of acid which completely melted the ground in front of him. 'Think Eijiro, what do those people in movies always do in this situation?' "Ashido, can you hear me?! I know you're still in there, fight back!"

'Ashido' cackled. "Really, you're pulling that friendship crap?! Well I can tell you that she ain't hearing you, buddy. My quirk is less mind control and more of the 'put their consciousness asleep and then push theirs aside with my own' kind! There's no way to snap her out of it! Not that I want to leave, this quirk is way too cool! I might just keep this one once I'm done here instead of Brutus!"

Sero swung across the street towards Eijiro with his tape and landed next to him. "Man I didn't even think that Ashido's quirk was that strong! Anything we throw at her gets completely destroyed! How much does she have to hold back to only sting us during sparring?!"

'When we're done with this I'm telling her that she's even manlier than I thought.'

'Ashido' turned around and threw more acid at Tetsutetsu. "Hahaha, mounting this girl was the best decision so far! You don't even want to seriously hit her, not like it'd do anything to me anyway!"

'That's the second time he mentioned 'mounting', what does that mean?! Now that I think about it, 'Ashido' mentioned handlebars of all things too!'

Eijiro looked back down at the floor to try and take stock of all the remaining puddles of the dangerous acid when he suddenly noticed that the bowler hat Sero had knocked off of 'Brutus' was in a different spot than where it landed. 'Wait…that was when the big guy suddenly fell over!'

Eijiro focused back on 'Ashido', who was cackling as she destroyed some of Sero's tape, and suddenly noticed that her horns were being gripped by two really small hands which were attached to something hidden in Ashido's fluffy curls.

His eyes widened. "Guys, the villain is hiding in Ashido's curls! Aim for her hair!"

Sero and Tetsutetsu both responded at the same time. "Got it!"

That was easier said than done though, as it was one touch of the acid and you were out of the fight, but the fact that they didn't actually have to harm Ashido to get the villain made them more willing to get close to her. Eventually Eijiro managed to get close enough as the villain tried to dodge Sero's tape and aimed an open, hardened backhand straight for Ashido's pink curls.

The result was a tiny blur flying through the air and skidding across the ground. Eijiro startled and caught Ashido as her muscles slackened and her body collapsed to the ground. Anxiously he pressed his ear up to her chest but was relieved when he heard soft breathing. 'The villain was right, they did just force her asleep. Speaking of-'

Eijiro turned his head in Shiozaki's direction, where the blur had been launched towards by his backhand. On the ground lay a man of extremely short stature, even shorter than Mineta, groaning and clutching his bald head.

The now identified villain jumped up when he noticed everyone staring at him and suddenly made a mad dash for Shiozaki, the nearest person.

Shiozaki shrieked as the man latched onto her P.E. uniform's pantleg and crawled out of view into her ankle length vine hair. "Out, foul demon, OUT!"

Satō, the one who had been standing closest to her as he'd been in a sugar crash after his quirk had worn off a little while ago, seemed to be snapped back to lucidity at the scream "The villain!" and darted towards her.

"The power of Christ compels you!" Her vines were thrashing all over the place to try and shake him out. "The power of…Christ…compels…" She went slack right before Satō reached her and instead he suddenly got wrapped up in several vines and slammed over the sidewalk and into a building.

'Crap, Satō was too late!'

'Shiozaki' cackled. "Oh man, that was really close there. This quirk seems like it'll restrain all of you nicely though, what a lucky draw! I'll just get back to the acid girl after I'm done with you and get the hell outta here with my price!"

Eijiro started to feel angry at the villain speaking through an innocent girl's voice while bragging about taking over another innocent girl and keeping her as his property, a girl that he's known for a while too. "What the hell is wrong with you?! Doing all your dirty work through innocent people, how long has that 'Brutus' guy unwillingly been under your control?! This is the least manly thing I've ever seen!"

'Shiozaki' gave an indignant grunt. "You and your talk about manliness, have you seen how fucking short I am?! No way I'm gonna fight anyone as myself! Besides, my shortness is great for my quirk and I'm pretty comfy doing things like this so I don't really care!"

'She' then turned towards Satō, who was still constricted by the vines attached to her scalp. "Three down, four to…wait where's the fourth guy?!"

'Shiozaki' moved from her spot in an attempt to dart forward when she suddenly tripped and fell on the ground. A creepy laugh was heard from below and they saw completely black hands coming out of Shiozaki's shadow, holding her by the ankles. Two eyes and a mouth suddenly appeared as well. "Heeheehee, I wasn't able to get anywhere near you before but thanks for making a shadow-bridge right to your shadow when you tangled up Satō over there!"

Tetsutetsu smiled as he ran past Eijiro and towards Satō as he yanked at the vines constricting him which…broke apart? "There was a reason that Shiozaki wasn't using her quirk at all since the fire came on. Her vines might normally be sharp and tough but when they're dehydrated from intense heat they fall apart if you yank hard enough! There was no water around for her to rehydrate her vines so it seems your 'lucky draw' turned out to be a dud!"

'Shiozaki' struggled but Kuroiro's grip kept her stuck to the ground. Eijiro grinned at the villain's struggle as he walked up to her and hardened his open hand. 'Sorry for this Shiozaki, what I'm about to do isn't very manly but it's the fastest way to get this bastard off of you!'

With a swipe from his hardened hand he cut Shiozaki's hair off right at her neck and used his other hand to yoink the villain's exposed unmoving body from the back of her head. "I figured since you sat at someone's head both times you controlled someone instead of hiding somewhere else that you need to be touching their head to take control. And since you told us your consciousness replaced your target's that means that your actual body is completely immobile during it. Thanks for all the info we needed to take you down dude, that was pretty manly of you!"

Sero wrapped the little guy up tight in his tape as he shivered in fear. "H-Hold on you guys, I was j-just having some f-fun…r-right?"

Both Eijiro and Tetsutetsu aggressively palmed their fists simultaneously. "Oh yeah, we're gonna have a lot of fun with y-"

"NOOOOOOOOO!!!"

Any ideas of payback fled their minds as a muffled scream cut through everything. 'Was that Midoriya?'

Eijiro didn't wait for a second as he dashed towards the source, which was hopefully in the direction of the zone's exit and yelled one last thing over his back. "Sero, just let this guy dangle from one of the streetlamps! We have more important things to do!"

'Dammit, I completely forgot about the rest of the USJ! What the hell's been happening out there while we were fighting in here?! Hold on Midoriya, we're coming!'

Moments before where we left off last chapter

Tomura Shigaraki was having a very mixed day today. Finally, after three weeks of waiting and using the GameShark they had inserted at the start of this playthrough they could get the raid started! The GameShark really proved to be a boon though. First-row seats to seeing all the hero brats' quirks for three whole weeks? Complete control over that stupid Festival's games? Why not?! The best part though was finding out that thanks to Sensei's efforts the Symbol of Trash was all smoke and mirrors nowadays. He could probably snap that twig of a neck without any effort! Finding out that the other person that was responsible for what happened to Sensei was hiding in the same place was even greater news!

His original enthusiasm definitely got ruined though when it kept taking longer and longer for those stupid NPCs to capture all the objectives. Waiting in complete darkness with only Kurogiri as conversation partner was the worst loading screen ever. The only cool things that happened during that entire time were some flashing lights from the Landslide Zone and a haunting howl from the Mountain Zone.

But then, get this, the stupid electricity grunt he sent to the admin room to keep the dungeon's systems under their control flunked his job and the power turned on early anyway! His whole setup was ruined!

Things turned around again when the stupid green-haired brat turned out to have been hiding next to him during the loading screen when he thought the brat would be in the Flood Zone! At least he got to relieve some stress by letting Nōmu play a little. The brat definitely deserved it though, who casts all their mana at the start of a fight anyway?

And now he finally had the Symbol of Peace restrained in Nōmu's grasp, unable to do anything! He knew he was going off-script but he just had to see his resolve crumble to dust first! Damn this stupid girl for struggling so much, not like it will matter for long though heh.

"Time for student number one. No offense brat, you were just some fodder in the end."

Tomura was about to start his killstreak when- "NOOOOOOOOO!!!"

'That brat's still conscious?! Eh, I'll kill him after this girl then.'

His second attempt was stopped as well though as he suddenly noticed that the brightness settings for the dungeon's background were being turned down.

His eyes narrowed behind Father as the background became completely pitch black and the darkness came rushing towards him through the air. "Kurogiri, which brat is doing this?! We don't have a render distance quirk in our party!"

Kurogiri, despite the lack of defining facial features, seemed disturbed as well. "There's no villain or student with such a quirk inside the USJ, Tomura."

The render distance was decreasing rapidly now as the blackness swallowed the Disaster Zones. He shielded himself with his free arm but nothing weird happened as the border passed him and he couldn't even see his own arms anymore. 'Is this a fucking glitch?!'

Tomura snarled and tightened the grip on his hostage as he turned in the direction the darkness was moving towards, but the entire dungeon had turned completely black already. Despite the all-encompassing darkness he could still somehow make out a silhouette slowly standing up, as that section was even darker than black. Almost like there wasn't even actual space there, just a gap in reality.

Two bright-green dots suddenly filled Tomura's vision, like the might of binary stars were fully focused on him, the pressure was even worse than that of All Might's fierce blue, sunken eyes.

The absolute darkness only lasted for several moments as the two intense lights flashed even brighter and light abruptly returned to the dungeon.

Burning hot was the only thing that could describe Izuku's current situation. Every fibre of his being felt like it was boiling straight off. Because of his heat resistance he never even felt warm except when firing those ultimate attacks, but right now he couldn't even remember a time when he felt this hot, it was just too much and everything was so dark 'and I can't even-'

~The smell of antiseptic was nauseatingly overwhelming.

"IT'S TOO HOT, MAKE IT STOP!!!"

The sudden feeling of a tight hug and a soothing voice broke through his screams.~

The weirdly comforting feeling wasn't enough to overpower the distress but it was enough to break him out of his spiral. Despite the overpowering darkness he could actually feel himself laying on the ground. A sharp pain in his arms was rapidly diminishing and Izuku tried to stand up. 'Why is everything so dark? I remember pushing and- Oh god, I can't feel my quirk! Did I push too hard?! Did I break it?! Am I dea-?!'

~"Shhh, my Little Sunshine-"~

'No wait, I can feel it! The sensation is still there, just…different?'

A sudden bloated feeling rose up from his belly and his eyes shot open. 'Nonono, not like the first day! Go back to normal, whatever that is!'

Almost as if it was instinct, the sensation suddenly changed back again and the bloated feeling died down. The darkness disappeared in a bright flash and everything that had happened earlier came rushing back to Izuku as the scene in front of him reappeared. The hand villain still held Chako-chan hostage and started scratching his neck with his free hand.

"That brat had a Phoenix Down?! Nōmu, kill him before he fires off another limit break!"

The Nōmu finally released its crushing hold on All Might, who fell to the ground coughing, as it dashed at Izuku. 'Nonono that punch will kill me!'

Ochako was desperately struggling in the villain's grip, which was only choking her out more as the guy got more pissed off. She had no idea what's going on with Midori-kun but he looked like he was in real pain and she just couldn't get free! Was she just a damsel in distress right now?!

Her eyes widened and her struggle got more desperate when the Nōmu charged in and hit him straight on, winds emanating from the impact. "IZUKUUUU!!!"

The hand villain chuckled. "Oh, first name? Hah, too bad he's a smear on the ground now!"

After a haunting second the smoke from all the disturbed debris cleared and-

"What the- How'd you survive that?! My Nōmu is as strong as All Might, you should be dead, you cheater!"

The greenette was still standing there in his glowing glory, arms shaking as he held back the Nōmu's fist. He coughed and spoke up in a strained voice. "Says the one who spied on us for three weeks. By now you must know of my magnetic field then right? I've turned it up so much that anyone will get repelled just from the iron in their blood!"

A pained grin appeared on his face as he slammed his body directly into the Nōmu's and successfully started pushing it back, bit by bit. "It doesn't matter how strong your Nōmu is if it CAN'T ACTUALLY HIT ME!!!"

Ochako feared for her life as the hand villain's fingers twitched in rage. "Dammit, Kurogiri warp that brat out of bounds!"

She couldn't see the mist villain but his voice sounded like he was struggling to stay still. "Tomura, my metal brace, I can't…get…closer."

Ochako watched in fear as the Nōmu kept punching back in retaliation, gusts of wind flying off every time its fists were stopped mere milimeters from its target's skin.

A wet cough alerted Ochako and her hostage taker that All Might was standing up. "Stay back, All Might! I still have this brat hostage!"

The hand villain then shouted in the Nōmu's direction. "Do you really think you can defeat Nōmu with some light pushing you brat?! It has infinite stamina and your status effect has a time limit, doesn't it!"

She focused on Izuku and saw that he was soaked with sweat, something she'd never even seen from him. 'Please be okay…'

Izuku could barely think through all the heat, all he could focus on was pushing back the Nōmu and stalling it from killing All Might until the heroes arrived. He knew that Shigaraki was right, his heart could give out under all the stress any second now from keeping up his own improvised Shock Absorption, which his mind had already decided to call Magnetar, despite his current circumstances, and there was no sign of backup. Even if he had taken up Mei-chan's offer and his heart could keep that up for longer, the raw currents of energy raging through him would cook him alive from the insides soon anyway.

'There's just too much energy, no matter how much I try I can't store anywhere near all of it or use it up fast enough! The only way it can go is out but I'd vaporise the whole USJ!'

He felt a sharp pang in his chest. 'I have to drop the field! Magnetar is too much for me! Heroes aren't coming, I can't cool down…it's too hot! I can't do this, I CAN'T-'

~"-everything will be fine.-"~

His thoughts snapped out of a spiral again and he focused on the direction he was pushing the Nōmu in. 'The Flood Zone, it's empty!'

He leaned further into the Nōmu and angled his feet as his toes dug into the concrete. 'Let's hope that acceleration from a standstill doesn't count as a shock!'

He rejoiced mentally as the jets of air shooting from his iron soles started lifting him and the Nōmu off the ground and shot them towards the artificial lake. 'Please be enough to cool me down! I'll have to drop the magnetic field, now!'

Ochako marvelled as the Nōmu was lifted off the ground and rocketed along with a green blur right over her head and into the Flood Zone.

Just seconds after they splashed into the water the entire lake lit up and erupted into clouds of steam, which quickly spread all over the plaza and-

"My eyes! So hot!"

The villain's grip on her throat lessened as he desperately tried to shield his eyes with his other hand. Ochako took the momentary distraction as she grabbed both of his pinkies and-

CRACK

The villain howled in pain as he let her go and Ochako dashed away from him. "Ow, you broke my fucking pinkies!"

When she got far enough away she looked back to see him cradling his hands and grinned smugly. "Yeah, as a fellow 5-point activation type it fucking hurts to have your pinkies bent backwards doesn't it?!"

Despite the pain he was in he franticly started scratching his neck again with the unbroken fingers as he suddenly darted forward. "Get back here you bitc- OOF!"

The guy grunted as All Might tackled him to the ground, the hand covering his face flying off. "WHERE ARE YOUR QUIRK AND HOSTAGE NOW HUH VILLAIN?!"

The now unmasked villain shrieked as he slammed his hands against All Might's arms but his bent pinkies couldn't reach the hero's skin. "Damn you and those brats All Miiighhhtt!!!"

Her smug grin faded when she was reminded of the smoke's origin. She abruptly turned to the smoke filled basin that used to be a lake and ran towards it. 'I'm sorry for being such a burden this entire time. I'm coming Izuku!'

She slid down the basin and grunted as she got enveloped by the smoke, which was still scalding hot, but she pushed through.

Two silhouettes appeared in the smoke she was running towards and a familiar, very pained voice became audible. "Nonono it wasn't enough. All the water's gone and it's still too much and I can't get away from everyone and it's burning and-"

Ochako swatted away some of the smoke. "IZUKU!"

He got snapped out of his frantic rambling and looked at her. His eyes widened as he looked at something above her. "That's it! Chako-chan, your quirk!"

"…What?!"

"Use your quirk on me and the Nōmu!"

She wanted to ask for elaboration but the sheer pain she saw him holding back through his fierce glowing eyes made her throw any caution out the window as she touched him and the Nōmu, already feeling slightly nauseous despite barely having used her quirk today.

Izuku positioned himself around the Nōmu, held onto it again and seemed to ready himself for another lift-off. "Don't release for as long as possible!" And with that Ochako was blasted backwards from the sudden winds being released from his feet.

Back at the central plaza Tomura Shigaraki was still seething in rage at All Might when something launched itself out of the steam in the Flood Zone and towards the hole in the dome. "NOOOO!!! Kurogiri, that brat is taking Nōmu out of bounds! STOP HIM!"

The mist villain prepared to warp them back to the plaza when he got ambushed from two different directions by a blond and red blur. "Didn't think so mist fucker! You must be one of the ringleaders huh?!"

"You were coming here too Bakugō? Midoriya's super manly right?!"

Kurogiri groaned from several small explosion hitting his brace. "Argh Tomura, they've pinned me."

All Might looked up to see the bright light that was Midoriya rocketing out of the USJ and into the sky as Shigaraki completely lost it. "NoOoOoOoOoOoOo NŌMUUUU!!! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!!!"

Mirio Tōgata was extremely proud of how much he and his friend Tamaki had improved. Both of them had made it through the preliminary rounds and they were now standing at the arena of the 3rd year's stage. True, Nezu had abandoned them as their umpire sometime after the 2nd round and that large sound coming somewhere from the USJ not too long ago was a bit concerning but it was probably one of his Kōhais getting in a quirk accident and Nezu went to make sure they were okay, right?

Midnight, the second referee for the 3rd year's stage raised her whip. "It's time for the 3rd year's final match of the Sports Festival. Ready, begin!"

Mirio grinned and prepared to fall into the ground when something caught his attention. A bright light was streaking across the overcast sky towards the west behind Tamaki. It was like a shooting star had made its way beneath the clouds to grace them with its presence. "Tamaki…what's that?"

The cold wind was howling in his ears as Izuku soared over UA's campus, directly away from the main building and Korisato. The cold winds weren't doing much at cooling him down though. 'Thank god that the Nōmu can't do anything if it doesn't hear any commands. I'm still too close to civilisation to release everything, I have no idea what will happen! I'm not even out of UA's campus yet.'

Black spots started appearing in his vision as he started crying again, the tears evaporating before they could even roll over his cheeks. 'I-I'm dying aren't I? I'm still not far away enough and everything's still too hot and I can't do this anymore I CAN'T I-'

~The smell of antiseptic was nauseatingly overwhelming.

"IT'S TOO HOT, MAKE IT STOP!!!"

The sudden feeling of a tight hug and a soothing voice broke through his screams.

"Shhh, my Little Sunshine, everything will be fine."

"It's going to be okay, because I'll be here until it's all over."

The hospital room was quickly illuminated by an increasingly intense light.~

Izuku snapped back into focus as he saw a large lake a good distance below him. 'Lake Ashi! I made it! I'm sorry, but I have to release everything right now, this is the best shot I'll get!'

He breathed in as he took all of the raging currents that were destroying him from the inside and pushed everything out at once. 'Time to go beyond!'

"HYPEEERNOOOOVAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

"Mirio, d-don't think you can use a cheap trick on me like that again."

"No I'm actually serious this time, look at what's behind y-"

Mirio was shocked into silence as the shooting star suddenly became several hundreds of times brighter and the clouds that had begun obscuring it as it kept climbing started violently being pushed away as lightning bolts shot through the sky.

On the opposite side of the arena Tamaki looked to his side just in time for the hurricane level winds to hit and nearly blow him away if he hadn't planted himself in the ground by manifesting tree roots under his feet.

Shōta Aizawa had been nervously fiddling with his capture weapon the entire bus ride to the USJ. When he had arrived at the Stadium entrance Powerloader had finally managed to override the automatic driver that had been going on the fritz and now Shōta, along several other teachers and Nezu, who had somehow gotten on the bus sometime during the ride, were being raced to the USJ by Hound Dog, who could barely contain himself from barking.

The large dome had finally gotten into view when a blinding projectile shot westwards and violently exploded fifteen seconds later. The bus shook violently when the winds hit and Hound Dog was forced to hit the brakes and turn the bus in the wind's direction to avoid getting tipped over.

Shōta knew that staring was completely irrational and jumped out of the bus to run the last bit to the USJ. He had to shield his eyes to stop himself from getting blinded as he fought against the headwinds.

He got lucky though when he immediately encountered Iida running from the USJ towards him, who managed to carry him the last leg to the USJ with his quirk. Right when Shōta was dashing to the USJ's entrance a rising ear-piercing noise was heard over the violent winds and claps of thunder for a few seconds before the loudest bang he ever heard reached his ears and tremors nearly made him and his student fall on the ground.

The only thing Toshinori Yagi- 'No, he was All Might right now.' -All Might could do as he restrained the screaming and raging man-child underneath him was to follow his student's trail through the hole he'd created minutes earlier with his gaze.

The distant ball of pure energy that made the three Supernovas he'd seen in the past look like firecrackers violently collapsed back in on itself and twin jets of light erupted from it. One going upwards and piercing the remains of the cloud deck and the other slamming directly into the ground below.

A second later, the booming sound and shockwave from the impact shook the USJ and all the spotlights fizzled out simultaneously, the only remaining light coming from the giant hole.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Uraraka-shōjo shakily climbing out of the Flood Zone's basin and pushing her trembling hands together. "Release"

From that whisper, Midoriya-shōnen's plan clicked into place in All Might's mind and restraining villains was the last thing on his mind as he leapt towards the dying light with 100% of One For All.

Izuku sighed in relief when the brightness died down and he felt his weight return. He didn't even have the energy to angle his body mid-air. All he could muster was to turn his head to look down at lake Ashi, which he had hoped could somewhat cushion his fall. It was like the volcanic crater lake had been turned back in time by several millennia as it once again housed lava. 'I guess that attack was more powerful…than expected. At least I'm not…hot anymore.'

A whistling sound was heard over the winds and his body was suddenly snatched out of the air by two strong muscular arms. "HAHAHA DON'T WORRY MIDORIYA-SHŌNEN, I AM HERE!"

Izuku looked up at the blinding smile of his idol when his muddled thoughts reminded him of something. "All Might…the villains…you had them restrained…'m sorry."

"DON'T FRET IT! PRIORITISING LIVES OVER DEFEATING VILLAINS IS HERO LESSON NUMBER ONE!!! NOW THEN, BRACE FOR LANDING!"

Izuku hissed as he was rattled in All Might's arms from the landing but calmed down when he looked behind his saviour to see the aftermath of his attack: a hauntingly beautiful, dimming light surrounded by clouds that were coloured like they were the nebula left over after a real supernova. All Might's blinding smile turned soft and fond. "I THINK IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO REST, MIDORIYA-SHŌNEN. EVERYONE WILL BE SAFE NOW, YOU WERE A REAL HERO TODAY."

Hearing that everyone would be okay, the stress in Izuku's shoulders finally left and everything faded to black. Izuku fell asleep from a lack of energy for the second time within a month.

The last things he heard before sleep claimed him was All Might whispering to himself "Midoriya-shōnen is burning up, I'll have to get him to Recovery Girl." as the man prepared another leap.

Right as All Might landed on the opposite end of the remains of lake Ashi Ochako finished barfing today's lunch onto the floor. 'Did All Might just…the villains!'

She looked up to see the hand villain standing up, shaking in anger as he forcefully bent his pinkies back into place and proceeded to scratch his neck open. "Dammit dammit dammit DAMMIT!!! It's game over, back to the start screen!"

The scratching suddenly stopped. "First I'll free my warp gate and kill you two meddling brats while I'm at it!"

Ochako looked over at the mist villain. Kirishima seemed to startle and took a step back from the mist villain. "Whoa, know when you've lost dude."

Bakugō had no such reservations and leaned forward with his hands in a combat position. "Oh yeah?! Come at me, Handjob!"

'Handjob' dashed over to Bakugō at frightening speeds but changed course for Kirishima last second, catching both of them off-guard and latching all of his scrawny fingers on Kirishima's face and…nothing.

"Get your filthy hands off of my students!"

Ochako's shoulders finally relaxed when she saw their homeroom teacher standing at the top of the stairs, his eyes glowing red and his hair floating up. The recognisable figure of Iida appeared next to him. "Fellow students of class 1-A, the cavalry will arrive shortly!"

Before Erasure dropped, Bakugō charged at 'Handjob' and hit him in the head with an exploding fist, making him skid on the ground to several meters away from Kirishima.

Bakugō turned out to be just in time as Erasure deactivated and the mist villain warped to 'Handjob'.

"Kurogiri, get me outta here!"

The purple mist expanded behind him and 'Handjob' started crawling himself through.

Bakugō wasn't having any of it though as he propelled himself through the air with hands and feet, using the last of his stored sweat in his boots. "You're not running away you bastard!"

Right before the gate closed Bakugō managed to get an explosion-boosted kick right into 'Handjob's' chest, which seemed to be off as it only really succeeded in getting the villain through the gate even faster and the last flecks of purple mist disappeared into thin air, as quickly as they had appeared at the start of this whole ordeal.

According to later incident reports, the other teachers, transported there by the student Shōji, arrived at the USJ less than a minute after the ringleaders had escaped. Coordination during the apprehension of all the remaining villains was stunted and difficult as all the communication devices on site had been fried minutes prior from the 'Ashi incident'.

Despite that, there was surprisingly little resistance from the villains. First responders found numerous villains huddled together in the Ruins Zone, trembling from the attack that had created the giant hole according to their testimony. A group of students had been found in the Overseer room, two of them were encountered being held back from beating up an unconscious villain by two other Gen Ed students, while students Jirō and Kendō were found in the back of the generator room, guarding an unconscious student, Denki Kaminari, who was suffering from severe quirk overuse.

In the Landslide Zone there was no resistance as all the villains begged to be put into custody just so they could get away from 'that pink devil and her demons'.

In the Mountain Zone most of the villains were found unconscious or trapped between rubble from what appeared to be a collapsed section of a ravine. The students were discovered together beyond the collapse, trying to climb their way up the dead-end they had reached.

In the Conflagration Zone the most notable feature was a villain of short stature, wrapped in tape and hanging from a nearby streetlamp, being used as a pinata by students Ashido and Shiozaki.

In the Downpour Zone a large pile of unconscious villains was found in the central square, several students from Gen Ed and Support alongside three Hero students making sure they stayed that way while amicably chatting with each other about the brawl.

And lastly, in the Flood Zone several villains with diving gear were found huddled together on a boat stranded in the dried up basin, sporting minor to serious burns.

All in all, the clean-up of the USJ incident went relatively easily beyond the stunted coordination. As such, most resources could be directed towards the aftermath of the 'Ashi incident'.