There had been two more messages relayed into his head by way of Mandalay's Quirk since the last, the first allowing the students to use their Quirks to defend themselves, and the second about one student in specific. Either way, it seemed his old teacher reached the same conclusion, that his students were the target.
It didn't take him long to figure out who 'Kacchan' was either; he could even see the rationale somewhat. The hothead's Quirk was exceptionally destructive, with an attitude to match and a name and face everyone who had tuned in to watch the Sports Festival knew. So, only most of Japan. If all they accomplished was giving him a sprained ankle, it would still be a heavy blow to U.A.
Not that it mattered; he was hopelessly lost anyway, and the explosions in the distance made for excellent directions.
The sight of what looked like an iceberg rising above the treeline soon confirmed it.
Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, he also recognized who it was that the two were fending off. Yoshihito Akabane. The BDSM-like outfit was unmistakable, his mouth stretched wide to allow him to use his Quirk more effectively. He had been sentenced to death for murder and cannibalism, and had recently escaped imprisonment while en route to Tartarus. Very dangerous despite his abject insanity.
At least even the hothead seemed to be wary enough to keep a good distance. They also quickly noticed his approach, being so on edge. "Let me take him," Nobuto insisted, nodding at the unconscious boy from Class 1-B that Todoroki had lifted onto his back. He knew enough about the heartthrob's Quirk to know that he couldn't produce ice indefinitely without rendering himself a block of ice in the process.
Nobuto saw him nod with some relief, allowing him to retrieve the boy from his shoulders. Looking down at his messy reddish-brown hair, Nobuto vaguely remembered him from the Sports Festival, his Quirk able to turn the air solid.
Gently shifting the boy's unconscious body over his shoulder, he turned back to both of them. "Kacchan, I assume?"
The response from the blonde was immediate, and deafening. "I DON'T NEED YOU BABYSITTING ME, SUNGLASSES!" Despite the uncomfortable sound of Akabene's teeth burrowing through ice, Nobuto would have heard him fine if he just spoke normally.
"I'll take that as a…" he started before pausing. There was something in the distance, peeking out of the trees, and it was rapidly approaching them. As it neared closer, he quickly realized what it was, or who. "I believe those are your classmates."
Seeing Tokoyami completely consumed by his Quirk was an unsettling sight, but some small part of him could also admit that it was a magnificent one. The twisting, writhing, and vaguely bird-like shadow raged as it chased after Shoji, his teammate with silver hair and too many arms, knocking over trees as if they were toys. Akabane was no different, except the blow hadn't taken him out of commission. Not yet, at least.
"GIVE US SOME LIGHT! TOKOYAMI'S ON A RAMPAGE!" It was one of the arms splitting open into a mouth that shouted.
Todoroki was about to lend a hand with some fire from his left side when Explosion Boy stopped him. Protesting his victims being 'stolen' from him, Akabane thought it was a good idea to attack the towering monstrosity. It went as poorly as could be expected for him, and another good dozen trees were leveled alongside him. Nobuto eyed the satisfied smile on the blonde's lips. Despite the oversized ego and poor impulse control, Katsuki Bakugo did still possess some keen instincts.
With Akabane out of commission, Nobuto watched them both proceed to unleash their Quirks through his sunglasses, driving the overgrown shadow back inside Tokoyami. It also allowed him to see that Tokoyami's shadow hadn't just been chasing his teammate, but technically another of his classmates as well, a head of green hair peeking out of a cocoon of interlocking arms. Midoriya looked like a mess, and that was being kind.
He still smiled happily at them all in spite of it. "You're all safe."
Tokoyami tried to apologize, and though Nobuto greatly empathized with him, he couldn't say the words he wanted to say to him. But he could do one small thing, at least.
Striding into their midst, he held out his free hand to the raven, or maybe crow-headed, boy. After an awkward moment or two, Tokoyami took it, and Nobuto pulled him up to his feet. "It's easy to forget how it's only been a few generations since Quirks appeared. All we can really do is learn from our mistakes when they prove too much for us to handle."
While Tokoyami seemed thoughtful at his words, he didn't expect applause.
Nobuto turned sharply, seeing a man that looked like half a corpse staring at him with a smile that never reached his eyes.
"Even I was convinced," the corpse man rasped.
He was already moving the moment the corpse man extended his hands, but he wasn't the only one, a mass of ice quickly springing up from the ground. He returned the unconscious boy he was carrying into Todoroki's arms just as flames even bluer than the ice melted half of it away. "Don't just stand around," he told them. "Go."
They still hesitated, and Nobuto was about to give them a little push when they finally got a move on it. He turned his Quirk on the corpse man instead, or at least he tried to. It was like trying to catch smoke with his bare hands. Worse, his opponent seemed to have no such issues with his own Quirk, the heat so intense that he suffered burns despite avoiding the sudden onslaught.
Yet instead of continuing, the corpse man decided to speak to him instead. "You weren't supposed to be here. We were keeping the Pros docile, robbing them of the initiative." The smile on his patchwork lips was mocking.
"It's unsportsmanlike not to introduce yourself," Nobuto shot back as he let himself catch his breath.
"The name's Dabi. Don't wear it out."
It wasn't a name Nobuto recognized, and his Quirk was still out of whack. He didn't know what a fire Quirk would have to do with whatever was stymying him, but he was starting to get a feel for it anyway. Although it would go much smoother were he to unburden himself, he hesitated to take the risk when there might be someone else here.
He stressed his muscles instead as he lunged, flexing his Quirk in an unfamiliar manner. The sheer single-minded hatred he felt from just the slightest touch of the corpse man's presence might have led to a disaster if his Quirk had not finally taken hold, directing Dabi's attention elsewhere. The next moment, he delivered two blows, one to each side of his ribs, breaking more than a few. Nobuto finally grabbed him by the throat, directing his arms away to send the inferno of blue into the air instead. His skin felt just as unpleasant as it looked, clammy, but also like parchment.
Despite his struggling to breathe as blood must have filled his lungs, he still croaked out a laugh. "There it is. Your Quirk." Nobuto stepped back with some alarm as the corpse man's body suddenly started to slough like mud down a window. Before he seemingly melted completely, he gave another unhinged smile and rasped out, "I win."
The face Nobuto was making must have looked ridiculous as he stared down at the puddle of sludge. At least he could be reasonably sure that there was more than one Quirk involved now.
Prodding what was left of him with his shoe hesitantly, it remained inert.
Now that it was quiet, he heard the sounds of fighting in the direction they had run off in. His muscles protested as he set off in a sprint, but en route the sounds quieted. By the time Nobuto finally found them, they were three fewer in number, and whatever went down had passed. They all looked defeated, and Midoriya had passed out on the ground.
Todoroki startled when he placed a hand on his shoulder, though he calmed slightly when he looked up to stare at Nobuto's sunglasses for a moment. "Kayama," he finally whispered.
Shoji looked up as well, all his limbs on his left side and part of his torso having suffered burns of various degrees. "What happened?" Nobuto asked them.
He had to bite back a number of colorful curses as they caught him up. Bakugo and Tokoyami had been turned into marbles by way of a Quirk, and they had tried to give chase before the League had made use of the same warping Quirk to flee again, with the two in hand. It was, put simply, an unmitigated disaster. Another attack happening at all would have already led to some very uncomfortable questions, but two students being kidnapped outright? Nobuto didn't think he would ever feel sorry for his furball of a principal, but he did now.
The stink of the smoke from the forest burning down around them stirred him to action.
"What's done is done," he told them gently before carefully retrieving Midoriya. "We should return and tell Aizawa." Nobuto tried not to focus on how the green-haired boy's arms looked like two sausages that had burst.
He turned around at the sound of footsteps, but it was only the same two girls he had spoken to when all this first began. Antigravity Girl gasped when she saw Midoriya in his arms. "Deku?"
"He's only unconscious," Nobuto told her. Even if that was the least of what was wrong with him.
Todoroki butted in. "What happened to Tsuburaba?" That was a good question. Nobuto did leave him with Todoroki.
She put her fingers together nervously. "Yaoyorozu was helping Ragdoll gather everyone along the path, so we left him with her. The Pro was barely standing on her feet; she had inhaled too much of the gas. We told her that Bakugo and Tokoyami had been shrunk into marbles by the villains. We should have chased after all of you sooner. Maybe we could have done something," she breathed out guiltily.
Her classmate hugged her. "Ragdoll frowned and told us they had disappeared from her Quirk's sight, ribbit. We knew that something must have gone wrong."
"It's our fault," Todoroki tried to assuage her. "We fell for such an obvious trick."
Shoji looked like he was about to protest about the 'we' when Nobuto spoke up. "None of you even have your Provisional Hero License. None of this is on you. Aizawa will be happy to tell you the same thing in between beating himself up, and there's going to be more than a few heroes who will be doing their best to return your classmates safe and sound."
He didn't share his own doubts. He still only had the one lead, and the Safety Commission would have already acted if they had anything.
"Now, Midoriya needs to see a doctor or five," he told them. "Come on."
He stalked off at a brisk pace, and they quickly followed after a few steps. Despite his words, he was annoyed. Unlike them, he couldn't hide behind his inexperience. He should have been suspicious the moment his Quirk couldn't find purchase in the corpse man.
He searched his memories but nothing about doppelgängers made of mud was coming up. He would have to look into it later.
Aizawa wasn't back at camp when he and his small group arrived, having gone out to help, but speaking to Vlad King, 1-B's homeroom teacher, told him that Dabi had played the same trick on them. Nobuto could also tell that the brick wall of a man seemed slightly suspicious of him, but he couldn't blame him with how last-minute his being here was and everything that had happened since.
Vlad still helped him get Midoriya on a stretcher, at which point Aizawa returned with Ragdoll and a gaggle of students conscious and unconscious. The man normally looked like he hadn't had a good night's sleep in years, but now he somehow looked worse. Aizawa still proceeded to summon enough energy to interrogate him, even as he apologized to his students despite their protests and told them to rest. Nobuto again graciously ignored such rudeness as he filled in the blanks for them.
Of course, Aizawa immediately singled something out. "What happened to the Nomu?"
Fortunately, Nobuto was an accomplished liar, even in the face of Ragdoll's big eyes swiveling on him. "Still lumbering around the woods, I think. I took it on something of an adventure. Assuming they haven't retrieved it," he added.
Aizawa stared at him for a few moments before he sighed. "Thank you. It would have been worse if the Nomu had been left to its own devices." Nobuto was about to make an innocent comment when Aizawa unfairly interrupted him. "Don't."
"I'll have you know that I wasn't going to say whatever you're thinking!" he protested. Aizawa didn't believe him.
Unfortunately, Nobuto's slightly improved mood soon curdled as he spotted Pixie-Bob being carried in Tiger's arms as the rest of the Pussycats returned to camp. It would have been hard to miss the nasty head injury the Pro was sporting.
As Ragdoll ran over to them, Nobuto gave Pixie-Bob a small 'poke' of sorts for his own peace of mind; he hid any sign of relief when she pushed back slightly, ruling out anything too serious.
"Kayama." He turned back to Aizawa and Vlad. "You heard him say his name was Dabi?" Nobuto ignored how for the slightest moment he thought Aizawa might have suspected something, as Pixie-Bob had shifted slightly, but then Ragdoll was also fussing over her.
He nodded. "Ring a bell?"
Aizawa glanced at Vlad who shook his head. "Not anyone on the records," he continued. "However, it seems the League has recruited Jin Bubaigawara. He'd gone to ground a few years back, but the resemblance is uncanny. We thought he could only make copies of himself; evidently that is not the case."
A Quirk that could make a copy of someone down to their very Quirk? That was at least one mystery solved. A few minutes later the camp was swarming with people, and Nobuto had to sit and allow one of the more fussy paramedics to apply a salve to a few minor burns as he watched the fires in the forest being put out.
The details of everything that had happened slowly filtered in as well.
In the end, it seemed Shigaraki hadn't even come himself, a fact that only rubbed salt into the wound.
The League had not come out unscathed, three of their number having been apprehended, but it wasn't much of a consolation prize. Besides Akabane having been found unconscious, alive despite looking like a pretzel after his trying to fight Tokoyami's shadow, the one responsible for knocking so many unconscious had also been taken out by Kendo and another member of Class 1-B that Nobuto vividly remembered from the Sports Festival. Hard not to with such an outrageous name as Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu; his parents had to be crueler than most villains.
But that's all beside the point.
Nursing his burns, his eyes found Mandalay hugging her nephew tightly, a boy who hadn't even seen his sixth birthday yet. Midoriya had broken his body to protect him from Goto Imasuji, a man Nobuto knew all too well, if not personally. He had followed his exploits, if you could call them that.
Was it only a strange quirk of fate that Mandalay's nephew was the son of the two heroes that Imasuji had murdered in cold blood two years prior or had he planned it? After all, he was not as much of a meathead as he liked to pretend. He wouldn't have been able to evade capture all these years if he was.
And that, specifically, was why Nobuto loathed him.
He turned his eyes on the transport they had put Imasuji in after stuffing him inside an Iron Maiden. His knuckles went white as he clenched his hand, and he was about to stand when a very familiar and very ugly scarf appeared in his field of vision.
Aizawa placed his hand on his shoulder for a few moments, a surprising amount of affection from him. "I meant what I said earlier," Aizawa told him. "I might even have to apologize to her."
Nobuto figured his old teacher had assumed he was brooding. Which he was. Kind of. Not that he would ever admit to it, so he slapped a funny smile on his lips instead as he stood. "I wouldn't worry. The press will probably eat you alive before she can."
Aizawa sighed. "Thanks for the reminder," he deadpanned, turning to look out at the forest. "They still haven't found the Nomu."
Nobuto scratched at his nose. It saved him the trouble of potentially having to come up with an excuse as to why there was a dead Nomu when he was the last to see it.
"A shame. I wonder what the limits of that warping Quirk are," he mused. What he was hinting at might even be true. It wasn't like he was in any position to ascertain its fate, save that it was unlikely that it could resist his Quirk once it had taken hold. He knew how deep it went all too well.
Aizawa's tired eyes found his again. "Who do you suspect it is?"
He crossed his arms. "What makes you think I suspect it's one of your students?"
"Intuition," Aizawa deadpanned again.
"You always did have an uncanny ability to tell when I was up to something," Nobuto snarked. "It's Aoyama."
Aizawa frowned like a puppy had just been kicked. "Aoyama?"
"He feels guilty about something. It's eating away at him, whatever it is." It would be unfortunate if he was wrong, but the stakes had risen dramatically. "Still, that he feels guilty at all says something about how willing he played his part, assuming he's their source," he commented.
"I know." His old teacher gave a deep sigh. "Two students kidnapped, and one potentially at fault for it. U.A. might never recover from this."
Nobuto returned his gesture from earlier, even as he gave his unpalatable scarf the side-eye. "If I'm right, it isn't over yet."
The tiredness had already vanished from Aizawa again. The man had too many uncanny abilities. "They said most affected by the gas would start waking up within the hour." He gave a look. "I'll want your Quirk there."
"Shouldn't we get our beauty sleep in first?" He had already left, not even saying a word. Typical.
Nobuto's eyes went back to the transport after a moment. He had already made the decision earlier, and with Aizawa so conveniently distracted, well, how could he resist?
Adjusting his sunglasses, he projected his Quirk in a manner as familiar as breathing. It was a trick he had perfected over the years, staying unnoticed, and he quietly slipped inside the transport with no one the wiser. As the heels of his shoes tapped against the metal, he heard Imasuji stir in the darkness of the transport.
"Ahh, what a fight." He sounded almost wistful. "You bring something back to drink? Feels like I got facefucked by sandpaper," he complained.
Nobuto bit down on his temper. Imasuji's many victims demanded he take his time with this. "I'm afraid I'm here on other business," he finally commented conversationally. He flipped a switch to turn on the lights after, leaving Imasuji squinting.
"Another cop, huh? You wear those sunglasses at night to look cool, guy?" The man with short-cropped blonde hair grinned much like a shark would, everything lower than his neck encased in the Iron Maiden. Nobuto thought he looked more handsome in his mugshot, but then losing your left eye and having it replaced by a gaudy fake one that the tryhard probably thought was intimidating would do that. "I know my rights. You can't have me dropping dead of dehydration."
Nobuto wasn't impressed. "You'll survive." The shitheel made an affronted sound as he stalked closer. "I don't suppose you would be willing to turn over a new leaf?" His Quirk acted in spite of his wishes.
"Was that weak shit your Quirk?" Imasuji asked, barking a laugh. "Save it. I'm never going to stop doing what I love, and I love killing."
Nobuto returned his ugly smile. He didn't need his Quirk to tell him that he was telling the truth, and if nothing else, he could respect the honesty. "I know. Unlike Akabane, you know exactly what you're doing. You revel in it."
"You judging me? I don't care. If you want a fight, let me out. That kid's strength only left me hungry for more. I can't fucking wait to fight him again."
Nobuto made a faint sound of disgust. "There is your problem, Imasuji. You aren't just short a conscience; you lack imagination, too." He hesitated only a moment before removing his sunglasses, and Imasuji suddenly groaned as if something struck him.
"What did you…" The fear he saw only excited him. The pathetic excuse for a man hated feeling weak, and Imasuji had never felt more helpless.
"You play at a beast in human skin. It's practically a fetish for you," Nobuto accused as he circled the Iron Maiden. "But it's all a façade, isn't it? Your Quirk… it took you years to master. You had even studied medicine at one point."
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Imasuji strained against his bindings with all his considerable strength, even if he couldn't leverage his Quirk due to there being no room for him to expand his muscles.
"You don't like it when I call you by your name, do you? It doesn't make you feel powerful like Muscular does." Nobuto felt him only grow angrier, and he relished every second of it. "Don't worry, you aren't the only one. It's actually quite common. A way to cope with how much of a miserable sack of shit you are, maybe?"
He carefully avoided the bit of spit flying his way as Imasuji stared at him with killing intent. "You're fucking dead once I'm free. You don't think I recognize you? Your eyes and your hair; you have the look of that bitch Midnight. I'm going to fucking tear her in half with my bare hands as you watch," he ranted, desperately trying to sound more powerful than he felt.
Nobuto only gave the brute a mocking smile despite the harsh words. "You're adorable. You think I showed you my face, did all this, just to leave you with a grudge?" He tsked. "You're a smarter man than that."
He could tell that Imasuji was about to either spit more threats or more saliva at him, so he put a finger to his own lips. "Shhhh." Hearing his jaw click shut, Nobuto continued, "I thought about quietly putting you down like a rabid dog at first, but I didn't want to burden Midoriya with the knowledge that he might have taken your life. I thought of something better." The now so very small man couldn't even scream as his Quirk began its dirty work. "Unlike you, I like to think I have a wonderful imagination."
Imasuji struggled against his bindings mightily, but it wasn't a struggle he would win, and his struggles grew weaker with every moment.
"You could even say I'm giving you everything you wanted. I'm taking away everything that separates you from a beast, piece by piece." Eventually, an eerie quiet settled, and it was done.
The guilt and disgust and horror assaulted him immediately, but it was just as quickly rebuffed by a wave of satisfaction and catharsis that soothed his wounded pride after Dabi. Whatever the League had accomplished today, whatever was left of Imasuji would never again be able to wield his Quirk in the way he had, a mindless animal inside as well as out.
Nobuto slammed his sunglasses back on just as his Quirk began to turn on himself, the color bleeding out of the world again as he took a few steady breaths. It was always unpleasant, even if it felt right and good in the moment. His mind liked to play tricks on him that way.
Checking for a pulse, he found one. An unmitigated success.
He gave him one last look before he left, the room returning to darkness as he flipped the switch back down. Looking up at the moon again, the tiredness caught up with him. While he wanted nothing more than to return to his small room here and sleep until noon, there was still so much more to do before he could allow himself such a reprieve. Not that Aizawa would have let him anyway.
Hopefully the chat with Yuga Aoyama would prove enlightening…