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The entire town worked throughout the night alongside the young heroes to help them create the ideal trap to fight back against the remaining villains on the island. If things go as planned, then the UA students may yet still have a fighting chance against these terrorists looking to get their hands on the young Katsuma.
Everybody had a stake in this fight, so they committed all they could to help the cause. These villains would have to go over their cold, dead bodies before the island would let an innocent child go into their malicious grasp.
Most of the plan had been devised by none other than Midoriya himself. Although he deflected many of the compliments, he remained firm that it was only thanks to the information received the night before that gave him the context to begin devising this ambush.
The Night Before
"... He's dying?"
Elaborating further, Huntsman returned to writing down more info in response to Jiro's question. After a few moments, the paper had more written on it to provide context to what he shared with the students. On it, critical information regarding the limits of Nine's power were provided.
As it turns out, the man had a severe medical condition that came with the constant use of his quirk. His body deteriorated with the usage of his powers and made Nine go through symptoms similar to leukemia. All soft tissue in his body was close to falling apart, so it was imperative for him to find an ideal healing quirk to keep himself from dying in a matter of days.
Looking back on the events passed gave Izuku much more insight on the criminal's motives. That was why the villain was so fixated on capturing the child throughout their fight. Katsuma's cellular regeneration would be ideal in keeping the symptoms of his quirk usage at bay.
Huntsman then wrote down one last piece of advice for the young heroes before tucking away the notebook and turning back into the wilderness.
All that had been written down was a warning. He already had business with them and could keep them at bay until help arrived. If they wanted to intervene, then he would simply have to back off. His employers didn't want him to interfere with the matters of heroes further than what was necessary. Since the contract broke off all business ties along with associative interests, it was up to the young heroes if they wished to turn a blind eye or take on the villains themselves.
Much of this information wasn't actually shared with them. He only disclosed that it was up to them if they wanted to let him take care of things. Katsuki spoke up first and asked the masked stranger the most imperative question hanging in the air.
"Are you going to kill them?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
His silence told them enough.
By standing by and letting Huntsman take on the villains, they would be resigning these villains to death by proxy. There was only one way for them to take things from there.
"Thank you for your help, but it wouldn't be right if we simply stood by when we as heroes have a responsibility to these people. We will be taking things from here…"
Midoriya spoke for the entire group when he kindly turned down Huntsman's help. Rather than trying to protest, all he did was just bow and start to head back into the forest. His wolves obediently followed without hesitation.
Now it was up to them to figure out a plan of attack to fend off the villains until help arrived. Turning down help now left them responsible for the fight ahead. With that, they now got to work with a strategy that would give them a real chance at saving the civilians of Nabu Island.
Present Time
It was imperative that the group of villains be separated from one another in the upcoming battle. Now that they knew the most powerful one of them had very tangible limits, this became a fight of attrition between the two sides.
Hitting hard and fast to divide them was only step one of the plan. Pushing them to three separate areas then would be up to how strong the hero's initial assault would be. Then came another difficult goal afterwards. From there, they would then have to throw anything and everything at the villain to try and exhaust him to the best of their abilities. Weakening him to the point where others in their class could start taking him down held the best chance of success for their predicament.
Dawn broke over the horizon as class 1-A stood on one of the castle ruins to watch the only pathway to the singular island off the shore of the main island. This sandbank was narrow and very visible for anyone approaching the castle ruins, so the defensive party took advantage of the natural terrain for their own purposes. Right on cue, the villains were seen coming up from the island towards the ruins while still walking with confidence towards their current objective.
Slice, the crimson haired woman, reported seeing no sign of Huntsman earlier while spotting the heroes on the castle ruins. Chimera told Nine that even the scent of the man and his wolves were faint from the opposite direction. If they wanted to complete their objective, they needed to act now.
All the students were biting their nails as the villains were walking down the sandbank path at a leisurely path. Their resolve still held strong still, so they remained resolute as the distance was starting to close between them and the villains. Momo calculated the distance and began to count down for the first preemptive strike to begin. Seconds passed as Aoyama psyched himself up as his cue was called.
"I Am Always Sparkling SUPERNOVA!"
A magnificent beam of shining energy exploded from Aoyama's belt. The villains saw the attack coming, so Nine simply used his gold barrier while his other comrades leapt out of the way.
Up next was Momo. Her attack consisted of two loaded grenade turrets the size of tank barrels, which unleashed explosive shells that pelted the ground all around the villains. These pieces of weapons technology were capable of rapid fire with an advanced rotary system with a targeting system built into their housings. This schematic came courtesy of research that she delved into regarding the current state of developing firearms available.
This assault did impress the villains to a degree, yet still didn't take away from their confidence over their chances of victory.
That bravado slightly diminished when Slice suddenly felt the ground under her feet give away to an underground cavern the explosives exposed right underneath her. They realized that the young heroes never intended to take them on in a straight fight. Separating the group had been their objective from the start.
Even Chimera had been forced to leap off of a cliff to avoid the rain of explosive shells coming down on him. Now that step one has been a success, phase two could commence.
Nine kept blocking with his shields while boulders were pelted at him en masse. Sero, with the assistance of Ochaco, used his tape to keep hurling rocks at the villain still walking at a leisurely pace towards the top of the incline. Each and every boulder that actually flew straight at Nine met its fate with a purple laser from Nine's fingertips. He was even able to fire back at the teenage heroes effortlessly while still protecting himself.
They had no choice but to keep backpedaling away from the man who seemed to be nothing except unstoppable. Ochaco herself began to feel the repercussions of her quirk taking its toll on her body as well.
These two were too deep in it now to stop now. More boulders were thrown in a midair avalanche of solid stone, to which Nine kept countering with ease.
Backed up to where the actual final blow for their first attack was, Sero helped Ochaco down from his tape so that she could use her quirk on the logs holding back the metric fuckton of boulders being propped up by logs. Her stomach felt like it was about to twist itself in two at this point, but she still muscled through.
Both her hands got busy touching all the logs keeping the stones from tumbling down the slope. Once in the air, the boulders did what came naturally and all came crashing down the hillside. Mineta then did his part and launched his grape balls into the rubble as it tumbled right on top of Nine. Blood started to pour out of his scalp as the amount of grapes began to tear at the skin.
When the dust finally settled, the students felt a massive wave of relief that their plan seemed to have worked as desired. Ochaco felt a wave of a very different sort and emptied her stomach of whatever little she had to eat earlier.
As Sero went to check up on his classmate, a very unfortunate turn of events came in the form of Nine blowing off the rubble that had been piled on top of him. His attack even launched the dazed trio that had been assaulting him with rocks for the past few minutes. Before he could lock on to the still vulnerable students, Bakugou came to the girl's rescue by hitting the man with a condensed wave charge from his remaining gauntlet.
It hit him with enough force to actually cause him to stumble back while leaving Nine's ears ringing. That attack was something he hadn't expected from the teenage boy he faced off once before.
"... That's a nasty little attack you've got there."
"And I've still got more waiting for you, prick!"
Izuku came bearing down with a superspeed kick that pushed Nine back once more. He collided with the barrier like a green comet and destroyed the earth all around Nine, yet the barrier he had still kept itself in one piece. That attack hit it with enough force to warp plated armor on a tank with little to show for it.
The stranger with those wolves managed to shatter it with a single strike of their gun. Midoriya contemplated how much more he needed to throw at the villain to see something give out.
Underground
Being in a dark cave allowed Tokoyami to utilize the most out of his quirk. Just like Slice, his abyss cloak had multiple tendrils that were fighting back the woman's bladed hair well enough. It frustrated the villainess this teenage birdbrain kept her at bay while managing to know where she was going to strike from at all times.
Thanks to the second ability, abyssal eyes, periphery was of no issue for Tokoyami. Training his ability to move his multiple arms instinctively gave him more control as well as mobility along with the abyss cloak. There was no blindside that existed for the shadow user anymore.
Providing support to Tokoyami was Mina. She laid out a web of sticky webbing that seriously got in the way of Slice. The entire cavern looked to be straight out of those alien movies she was so fond of, only in pink instead of black and green.
Getting the slime in her hair kept limiting Slice's ability to control it. Now she slowed down to a significant degree while now being on the defensive. Her temper was starting to get the better of her at this point.
"You shitty brats! I'll fucking kill you for Nine's dreams!"
This lapse in judgment made her more reckless. Something that Tokoyami picked up on and took full advantage of.
Slice charged at the boy with her hair forming their blade like shapes. Had she kept her cool, she would have spotted how the teenage hero looked to be ready for her attack while waiting for her to come to him.
Timing it had been tricky, but his many arms managed to catch the swords formed out of the villain's hair and trapped her temporarily in his grasp.
"Mina, now!"
"Gotcha!"
Several shots of acid hit the woman trapped in Tokoyami's shadow. It seemed that her hair wasn't as durable as steel in terms of resisting chemical substances. Her silky locks easily dissolved, leaving behind a mess of burnt and uneven strands.
Something snapped in the woman after seeing her lovely hair become this moppy tragedy now sprouting out of her scalp. She screamed bloody murder as she started to spray down the entire cave with her remaining hair. Tokoyami had his shadow counter most of the damage, though Mina was not as fortunate to have a defense like her fellow hero.
Most of the hardened strands of hair launched were aimed at her. She evaded many strands while melting some, though that had its limitations against a volley of non stop projectiles. Several buried themselves in her legs and arms as Mina barely shielded her face from the rapid fire of the needles. She fell down several alcoves in the cave and hit her head hard against the floor. Her classmate rushed to her side to check up on her condition and saw that Mina was out cold. The wound on her head gushed blood and made it difficult to see how seriously injured she was.
An emotional response like this caused the shadow to start reacting violently. Someone hurt his friend and they were going to pay.
To Slice's surprise, the shadow that draped over the young man started to spread outwards and produce even more of those arms she already had been struggling with. Those yellow eyes even grew in number to the point that the cavern floor had almost been taken over by the boy's shadow.
It was as if the entire cave transformed into the abyss itself. She could barely dodge as several tentacles shot out to claw at the woman who hurt his comrade. There was nowhere she could hide against such an omnipotent opponent anymore, so she went for broke and launched her hair all over the cave in hopes that one of the shots would hit something important. All those needle like projectiles buried themselves into the cavern ceiling as Tokoyamo grabbed the woman and slammed her against said ceiling.
These two factors caused the cave to be compromised enough to begin caving in on top of those still underground. Misfortune struck when Tokoyami suddenly felt a heavy dizzy spell hit him. Using abyss cloak while being in a berserk state drained the boy of all his stamina. He collapsed right on top of Mina as the boulders came crashing down.
Fading out, something happened that he couldn't quite register due to his delirious state. If he had to describe it, he could have sworn that he saw something begin to glow like moonlight in his periphery as the world began to black out.
Outside
An explosion in the direction of the underground cave startled a few people still above ground. One person was far more distressed than the others at the sight of the collapsing cave.
"Mina!"
Bakugou suddenly tackled the distracted Izuku when another volley of purple lasers came bearing down right where he stood previously. Katsuki gave Izuku some lip regarding where his focuses were currently.
"She's not gonna die to something so stupid! So focus up if you wanna go save her after he's been dealt with!"
It hurt, but Bakugou was right. Being distracted would only put the people in this fight at risk. If he wanted to save Mina, he needed to first make sure that the people here were safe first. Keeping his head on straight was now a matter of life and death.
Far above this fight, Ojiro saw another massive fire start to form where the students pushed Chimera. Looking through the viewfinder revealed a good chunk of the forest being engulfed in flames. If that was caused by the villain, then things were likely already starting to go south for his other friends.
Elsewhere
The poison that the junior heroes used against Chimera had too much of a mild effect to slow him down. On top of that, he had further mutated and gained a great deal of size while his animal features became increasingly prominent. He even gained the ability to spew some sort of particle beam from his jaws that incinerated the local forest when it passed over the trees.
Taking shelter in a cave; Todoroki, Asui, Kirishima, and Iida needed to come up with a new plan if they wanted to have any chance of success against this monster of a villain. Iida had used up his engines for his recipro burst and possessed less than a few minutes before his engines overheated. Being up against the wall like this had them rushing for a solution to their villain problem.
"... Guys, I have an idea."
Shoto shared his plan that he wished to enact with the help of his allies. It would require them to risk life and limb, yet it was their best option against such a behemoth of an opponent like Chimera.
Iida took point and drew the attention of the villain's line of fire with his remaining speed. Off to the side, Kirishima acted as Todoroki's shield as they skated across the frozen river they failed to contain Chimera in as their first attack. They needed to get into his blindspot before they could get Shoto in close enough to launch his attack.
Turning at the last moment, Chimera spotted the two teens getting too close for his comfort. Another beam launched itself from out of the human hybrids open mouth. Kirishima took charge and hardened his body to unbreakable levels to fend off the attack.
His endurance held as the beam poured down on his forearms. The basic guard was just enough to keep Todoroki safe from the laser.
When the attack ended, Kirishima collapsed out of exhaustion from having to tank such a brutal attack. Even bits of his hardened skin were glowing red hot as he fell to the floor. Shoto knew this was his one chance to get in close enough to end the fight.
He launched himself with some Ice and landed right on top of the villain. Both arms were reaching up at the boy when they were suddenly restrained by Tsauyu's long tongue. It seemed that the kid had some sort of plan in store for him, so he quickly used his tail to smack the young hero off of him. A kick from Iida allowed the class rep to grapple the long piece of animal flesh. There was still one more move that Chimera possessed that could end the fight.
A beam started to build in Chimera's open mouth. Something that Shoto had counted on as he enacted his counter move. His right hand aimed itself down the villain's throat and released a wave of cold to hopefully overpower the villain's beam.
This was a battle of attrition. Either the villain or Shoto was going to give in this contest of wills.
Unfortunately, Iida and Tsuyu were whipped around with brute strength and slammed into one another. Shoto had to hurry now that his fellow classmates were rendered unconscious. Unfortunately for him, Chimera had his arms free once again. Another second was all Todoroki needed to render the villain immobile enough to end the fight.
A hand grabbed Todoroki and flung the boy into the ground. His back collided with the rocks hard enough to crack his ribs.
All that effort and the villain was still able to move. Chimera was shivering like crazy as the freezing had partially affected him enough to cause his flesh to build up frost on the outside.
"Y-y-y-y-ou-u-u-u s-s-s-s-h-i-t-t-t-sss!"
Moving his legs to walk felt like walking through a level ten earthquake on a seesaw. Todoroki couldn't move as the villain slowly stumbled to the teenager. Malice dripped from the creature as they finally stood over the hero.
"I-I-I-I'l-l-l-l-l k-k-k-k…"
From out of nowhere, something suddenly collided with the villain. Trying to see what it was, Shoto tried to lean up enough to see what had suddenly attacked the villain.
Hanging from the villain's neck, a wolf that Shoto remembered from the night prior had its teeth deep in Chimera's flesh. Looking at the animal clawing and yanking at the villain's throat, its fur looked to be glowing silver as the villain tried to beat at the wolf. It also looked as though Chimera kept burning himself anytime he struck or grabbed at the animal.
Even the bit that the wolf tore at with its teeth had smoke spewing from it. It took a few long and grueling minutes before Chimera finally started to collapse. Wanting to ensure its kill, the wolf then tore at the neck a little more before stopping and deactivating its quirk.
Shoto panicked for a moment when the wolf went around to sniff at the other students who were unconscious all around him. When it came to him, it just sniffed his face before licking it a few times.
Instinctively, Shoto petted the face of the wolf before it stood back up and howled into the sky. After that, Shoto found himself lying next to his comrades alone. Whatever that was, at least he was still alive.
Elsewhere
Things were still looking dire with the fight against Nine. The sky began to turn dark after the villain struck down Izuku and Bakugou with a lightning strike from above. Two vials protruding from the back of Nine's advanced looking suit tore through his suit jacket before the already larger looking vials filled with purple fluid emptied themselves into his body. Even his mask popped off to reveal his full face, now producing purple glowing scars from the sides.
Although he was being pushed to his limits, that had no impact on the quality of his attacks. Nothing but blackened sky hung overhead as Nine kept walking closer and closer to the innocent children.
Jiro and Ojoro tried to stall the villain by collapsing a stone bridge he needed to cross to get close enough to grab Katsuma. He did fall into the precipice, though he easily escaped by using his blue serpent appendages to both pull himself up while grabbing both Ojiuro and Kyoka to then slam them into the nearby rock formations.
Mezo couldn't do much either against the purple lasers that he used his own flesh to block while carrying the terrified children to safety. He put them down and told them to run before opting to run at the villain to engage in a melee. Lending him a helping hand was a bloodied Ojiro from behind. Neither of their attacks were successful as another gold barrier erected itself. They went flying with another blast of air produced from the barrier itself.
Mahoro and Katsuma couldn't move from where they stood. This powerful villain had nothing standing between himself and these kids. Out of instinct, Mahoro stood in front of Nine to confront the man struggling to even breathe.
"Leave my brother alone!"
Her demands went unheard. She mustered the inner will to start swinging her arms at the man still unabated in his mission to get Katsuma's quirk. A fatal mistake that allowed Nine to grab the girl by the neck and dangle her in front of her brother like a poached bird. Another wave of excruciating pain twisted Nine's face even further.
"If you don't want her to d-die… Then come here."
Tears ran down the child's face as his sister begged him to just run. Seeing his family being tormented hurt his heart beyond words. He couldn't just abandon his family to such a cruel villain like this man.
Without thinking, Katsuma charged at Nine with his arms in the air. He would rather fight than abandon his sister.
"Leave my sister alone!"
Nine could see his objective finally coming to completion. All he needed to do was grab the boy and start stealing the quirk for all this to be worth something.
There was a sudden sharp pain in the forearm that held the girl in his grasp. It forced him to release the child and let her drop free from his hand, though she didn't hit the floor as expected. She couldn't see, but something had grabbed her from the back of her overalls and started to carry her away from the danger.
Katsuma saw it happen in perfect view of what was transpiring. Behind Nine stood the man who came last night to offer his help to the heroes protecting him and his home. Huntsman grabbed the arm that Nine held his sister in, letting his wolf grab the girl in midair and take her to safety.
Before he could even turn to see who stopped him, the back of Huntsman's fist slammed hard into the left side of Nine's head. It stuck with enough force that the fist kept going in a straight line and whipped the villain's head to the side horizontally. Blood spurted from the now popped eardrum Huntsman caused with that single strike. That single backhand wasn't enough for the mercenary to stop just there.
With his gloved hand, he grasped Nine's head by the chin for his knee to bury itself into a kidney from behind. Nine almost lost consciousness then and there as the pain electrocuted every nerve in his already deteriorating body.
"Katsuma!"
Back on his feet, Izuku quickly scooped up the boy to take him away from the dangerous fight occuring right in front of him. Once the two youngsters cleared out, Huntsman went for broke and interlocked his fists while Nine started to collapse backwards.
A single double handed hammerblow caused dust and rock to spray from where Nine stood. His fists landed directly on top of his shoulder blade when the blow came down hard enough to rattle the earth all around them. Bakugou flew in on the scene to check up on Mahoro, who stood next to the wolf that saved her.
"Oy, get away from-"
"No! Wait! He saved me. See? He's friendly."
To prove her point, Mahoro rubbed the face of the still docile wolf with wild abandonment. All the wolf did was stand there without a single complaint as the child's fingers even went into its mouth. Still, Katsuki approached the wolf cautiously and indeed found the creature to be friendly even. It gave him a lick on his hand as he tested the waters with the wolf.
Izuku checked on Katsuma for any sort of injuries that may have occurred without him knowing. All that seemed to happen was that the boy was a bit frightened. Turning his attention back to where the villains stood, what came out of the dust cloud even startled Bakugou.
Huntsman emerged from the dust with two bundles of something on his shoulder and under his arm. What he had in his possession were the two unconscious bodies of Mezo and Ojiro. Carrying them out of the danger zone, another wolf came out of the dust with Kyoka draped over its back. Unknown to the boys, the wolf that had killed Chimera rushed back to their master and saw Jiro still buried in one of the rock formations above.
She fell free from the crater and began plummeting to her death when the wolf managed to catch her with ease. It draped the teenage girl on its back and returned to Huntsman with Jiro balanced on it with ease.
Quickly checking up on his friends, they looked to still be alive. Midoriya looked up to the man still carrying the two young heroes with a look of gratefulness in his tired eyes.
"Thank you…"
A simple nod was all he got in return for the gratitude displayed. From behind, the cloud faded away enough to reveal a very pissed off Nine with his left arm being held in pain. Izuku and Katsuki stood at the ready as Huntsman's wolf that saved Mahoro knelt next to the children for them to mount up. Taking the hint, the two siblings straddled the wolf with Katsuma sitting in front of his sister.
To their surprise, they had little difficulty keeping their balance with the wolf doing most of the work keeping them on his back. There was no need for Huntsman to wait around before something else started up. He took the injured out of the area along with the children. Now it was up to Izuku and Bakugou to fend off nine for the time being.
Back with Nine, he grit his teeth as he pulled the loose arm down to realign the socket that came loose. A sickening crack accompanied the resetting of his shoulder. His eyes were glowing gold with rage at the heroes who were now standing between him and the child.
This had been the last straw that broke the camel's back for Nine. The weather once again began to act up with another lightning strike at the ready. Before he could summon his attack, both Izuku and Bakugou collided with the stomach of Nine with a heel from each hero imprinting their boots into his skin. Their speed had suddenly gone up in comparison to before. He couldn't even use his lightning before they kicked the ever loving shit out of him.
For added measure, Bakugou engulfed the villain in a fiery explosion that swallowed Nine in an inferno large enough to incinerate an office building.
Tumbling to the cremated floor, Nine felt another reaction from using his powers. His physical injuries only added to the damage that accumulated from the fight. The armor he wore activated and started the backup procedure. Emergency vents popped out of his back for the excess energy to start flowing out.
Sensing the change in the wind, the teenage boys could tell their opponent had changed something in his advantage. Emerging from the flames where he activated his armor, Nine returned with purple energy erupting from his back like butterfly wings.
His bare chest lacked the sports jacket that got destroyed in the flames. On his face, Nine had only the look of impatience and determination to get what he wanted. He would put everything he had left into these last few attacks.
Several cyclones started to sprout from the temperature difference of the fire and ocean breeze. Those air tunnels were then combined by Nine to become one single column of hellfire that reached up to the heavens.
Radiating from the dark sky were lightning strikes that pelted the island that the heroes stood on. At the rate the lightning kept hitting the island, the civilians that were taking shelter in the castle ruins were likely to be in danger as well. Context dictated that Nine had finally decided to put it all on the line to eliminate all obstacles in his way. If he couldn't have the boy's quirk, nobody could.
Edging towards the castle ruins, the cyclone of flames threatened to swallow everything in its way. Lightning kept shaking the earth with every strike that collided with the earth. These natural disasters were only going to stop if the one conjuring them did.
Looking back at one another, both teenage boys knew what they needed to do. Taking their stances, they too put everything they had into their next attacks. Failing here puts too much at risk.
"One for All… One hundred percent!"
"Howitzer… Depth Charge!"
Like two comets, Izuku flew towards his target leaving a green streak of light while Katsuki left a trail of red while using his propulsion to fly. Colliding with the fire tornado proved to be much more of a difficult obstacle than what even the heroes could predict. It actually produced enough force to resist their initial blows and forced them backwards while doing so.
Just standing this close to the heat made their flesh feel like burning charcoal. Oxygen was all but nonexistent with the fire taking it all away. Still, they couldn't let up.
Committing to the attack caused their armored costumes to tear apart like cheap tissue paper. Any more than this would leave them both defenseless afterwards, though that would only be an issue if they could even manage to stop this thing from swallowing the island inhabitants whole. A final push through the cyclone's power finally blew away the destructive phenomenon.
Obtaining success on this one battle still wasn't enough. Izuku's entire left arm looked violently scarlet and violet with the power of One for All eviscerating the muscle tissue from within. Bakugou could barely stand up with the amount of blunt force trauma he had to withstand up to now. They were powerless as Nine approached with that same casual speed he walked with at all times.
"Your level of power is lacking. People like you would never be able to live in the new world I will create. A world where strength is absolute. Where only the strong can prosper."
His rants annoyed both Bakugou and Katsuki. An egomaniac like this had no grasp on reality while still being so delusional with their own purpose. Standing back up with great difficulty, Izuku and Bakugou faced the villain with the little strength they barely had left.
Lasers pierced the limbs of both heroes. Forced to kneel yet again, Nine kept speaking to his unwilling audience.
"A utopia where power is revered above all else. An ideal world."
That was the last straw for Izuku. He at least needed to speak up against such preposterous ideals.
"You really think you know strength and power? All you are is high off your own fumes!"
That interruption got the two boys a free trip into the jaws of the two summoned serpents that Nine possessed. He hefted the boys into the air while saying the last words these boys would hear before he killed them.
"Words from the weak. Now be good children and just die."
Trapped inside of the jaws of the artificial serpents, pressure kept squeezing down on Izuku while Bakugou also suffered the same as he did. Things couldn't end here for them. Any idea was better than none if death was the only alternative.
One idea stuck out for Izuku. Perhaps if they had more firepower, they could manage to overtake Nine. To boost the amount of power they currently possess could perhaps be done by…
Looking to Katsuki, despair once again set in for Midoriya. The distance between them was too great for Izuku to try and pass on One for All between the two of them. He needed to be close enough to at least give Bakugou some of his blood to pass on the quirk. Death felt closer than ever and they were just a few meters too far from one another to save themselves.
Two successive bangs cracked through the air. Izuku felt immediate relief from the lack of crushing force on his body as he began to plummet to the ground. Something then ceased his descent in the form of something soft and living tucking itself under his belly before leaping away while balancing him on top. Someone picked up the teen to then lay him down on the ground with something acting as a pillow for his head.
Huntsman had taken off his jacket and used it to cushion both the heads of Katsuki and Izuku on the hard earth. They were a good distance away from Nine, who looked to be rather fucked off by the intervention of Huntsman yet again.
"HUNTSMAAAAAN!"
Not even a turn of his masked head acknowledged the villain going berserk on an innocent island population. Izuku suddenly felt an idea come to him as he stared back at the mysterious savior that somehow saved him from certain death.
Perhaps this guy could hold his own against Nine if he had some sort of boost to his own impressive physical abilities. The risk of giving him access to One for All included the fact that Izuku may never see the quirk if this mercenary decided to run off with it. Trusting him felt like a risk that a losing gamble would feel better to take in comparison.
"Please… I need your help…"
A hand reached up to the man. Without any words, Huntsman took the heavily bruised hand into his gloved one. Izuku couldn't even feel the immense pain with his nerves being shot to hell at that moment.
"I-I have a quirk… That I need to give to… Give to…"
From behind the man, a small push knife produced itself in the other hand before it slashed its owner's palm. Midoriya still had his arm in the air as Huntsman took Izuku's fingers into the now wounded hand. Had he been more coherent, Izuku may have picked up on how suspiciously fast the man had taken to cutting his palm to receive One for All.
Feeling it start to migrate from himself to the man receiving the quirk, the young Midoriya started blacking out from the overload of pain from his injuries. Whether or not this person would return the quirk to him after the fact held less importance to him if everyone were to suffer in the end.
?
All around the inheritors was nothing but inky black water. They were all submerged with a storm of some kind raging far above them. Muffled claps of thunder with barely visible flashes of lightning were all they could hear and see.
Nobody knew what the hell had happened. One moment, Midoriya looked to be meeting his end; the next, the entire place suddenly got swallowed up in water.
Below them, the inheritors could just catch a glimpse of something bizarre going on. Whoever the quirk had been passed onto was walking on the floor while approaching a shadowy figure also stood on the bottom floor. Trying to swim anywhere proved to be useless as they all seemed to be in a strange sort of stasis, forced to float where they were.
Both figures were barely visible from where the inheritors were. All they could see was that they started to reach for each other's arms. They slowly clasped their arms together by gripping the other's forearm, and suddenly all hell broke loose.
The water began to churn and swirl around the two shadows that touched one another. Above them, Lightning kept striking the same spot one after another as a maelstrom began to form.
Pulled into the whirlpool were the inheritors. All sense of direction went out the window as they were forced to hang on while whatever strange events that were happening took place. Nobody knew what it was that had such an adverse effect on One for All.