The students watched in horror-stricken silence as Aizawa fell toward the ground, his head a mess of blood-soaked hair, as red trailed through the air after him. The spray of blood coated the spikes that had attacked him, and Chisaki laughed as the hero with the greatest chance of stopping him fell through the air. He would have fallen to his death if Ochako hadn't rushed in with speed unlike anything she'd ever pulled off before, colliding with Aizawa's limp, flailing body and activating her Quirk on him. They both tumbled sideways through the air, landing with a roll on the wall and staying there — Ochako must have set their gravity to register the direction of the wall as down so that they could get away from the floor and ceiling attacks. Izuku let out a shaky breath and silently thanked Ochako for saving him from the fall. He also realised that her pulling off that incredible save meant that it was only Tsu, Nighteye, and Rock Lock protecting Eri, and they didn't have the power to defend against Chisaki's attacks. Izuku met Katsuki's eyes from across the arena and nodded. They had to trust Ochako to look after Aizawa for now, which meant that it would be all five remaining heroes against Chisaki. They could do this.
Izuku flew over to the pros as Chisaki sent another attack at Rock Lock, who was holding Eri, kicking the spike to shatter it into a hundred tiny pieces. Katsuki then appeared in a flash of explosive speed and similarly destroyed a spike that had been about to impale Tsu.
"It'll be harder to defend against these attacks so high up in the air!" Izuku said. He crushed another spike in his hands. "It gives us almost no time to dodge or block!"
"Take them to the ground!" Katsuki said as he dodged and incinerated a spike with the same explosion.
Izuku and Katsuki were the only two fighters left who were mobile in the air. Ochako was doing first-aid over on the wall, and Lemillion popped up occasionally to attempt helping before his lack of a hand and his active blood loss hindered his performance enough that he had to dip out again. Tsu had Zero Gravity on them, but there weren't any footholds in the air aside from Chisaki's spikes, and that was too high-risk to attempt. Izuku and Katsuki were barely keeping up with what was going on, and their reflexes were much faster than Tsu's. They immediately wrapped Nighteye, Rock Lock and Eri in their tongue and swung them around so that they glided toward the ground, and joined them with some help from Blackwhip a moment later. Izuku and Katsuki allowed themselves to be pushed back after that, putting some distance between themselves and Chisaki while keeping them close to the people they were protecting. It was all happening so fast that Izuku didn't have time to think about a larger strategy for taking Chisaki down. He simply hoped that Aizawa wasn't dead and that he would sit back up after getting first-aid from Ochako and erase Chisaki's power. He guessed that Katsuki was the same way, as he wasn't shouting profanities or insults at Chisaki, only making noises of pain and exertion.
"Stop!" a tiny, shrill voice said. It rang out around the chamber, and it took a moment to realise who'd spoken.
All attacks stopped. Chisaki stopped sending spikes their way, and brought his pillar lower so that he could get a better look at Eri. Izuku and Katsuki landed with the others, huffing and puffing, and looked up at the unhinged expression on Chisaki's face — a massive grin that looked like nothing Izuku had ever seen before. Eri trembled as she fought against Rock Lock's grip, and she escaped from his gentle, careful hold to run out in front of the heroes as she cried. "Stop this now!"
"Eri!" Izuku said, holding out his hand to pull her back with Blackwhip if it came to that.
"Kid, what the hell are you doing?" Katsuki yelled.
"The right thing!" Chisaki answered for her. His booming, crackling voice filled the chamber in a way that Izuku had only ever experienced one other time — All For One's voice had had the same all-consuming nature to it. "Don't you see now, Eri? Defying me only gets innocent people hurt. You don't want that, do you?"
"No!" Eri's fragile voice shook as she spoke. "I don't!"
"Then come back to me and the suffering stops," Chisaki said, holding out his hands atop his tower.
"What about her suffering, huh?" Izuku yelled. "Does she get to be happy?"
"Of course not," Chisaki laughed. "It's not her place to be happy. It's her place to be punished for her cursed existence."
"She's a little kid, you freak!" Katsuki yelled.
"Eri, we're not letting you go back to him. We'll die before we allow you to suffer a second longer than you already have," Tsu said, glaring up at Chisaki.
"But … why are you trying so hard?" Eri asked, tears running down her face. "My Quirk is evil, it hurts people."
"Chisaki is evil," Sir Nighteye said, calm and collected as ever. "Do you think a good man harms an innocent child because they were born wrong?"
Eri had no response to that. She looked back up at Chisaki, and started crying. Her knees buckled, and Tsu was there in an instant to catch her before she fell. Eri started sobbing into Tsu's chest as they cradled her, and they patted her on the head while shedding a tear themself. "We've got you. You deserve to be saved. It's a hero's place to do whatever they can to help everyone. No matter what. You have a family, Eri, people who really love you. You're going home." Eri cried harder at that, and held onto Tsu harder than Izuku had ever seen a person hold another.
"Yeah, and it's your place to freaking die already!" Katsuki said as Chisaki leaned forward with a retort.
"You're all idiots! You think you've escaped me over there. Did you forget that I'm still technically touching the ground?!" Chisaki screamed.
!
Izuku reflexively leapt up, and Katsuki and Tsu followed him into the air the moment Chisaki mentioned touching the ground, presumably guessing he was going to go for an attack. He twisted around and grabbed onto Sir and Rock Lock with Blackwhip, yanking them up and into the air with him. The attack came from the ground, with thin, almost prehensile spikes snaking up and following the people closest to the ground — Sir Nighteye and Rock Lock. Blackwhip wasn't able to protect them when the spikes skewered Sir through the legs in five different spots, including through both knees, and Rock Lock through the torso, including a puncture right through the shoulder which rendered one of his arms useless. Izuku shouted to them, but they didn't seem to register anything through the pain. The attack was so fast, and had originated so close to its targets, that Izuku hadn't been able to protect them. He scowled as Katsuki blasted himself up toward Chisaki with a roar of rage. Izuku and Tsu landed on the ground, and he destroyed the base of the spikes to allow Sir Nighteye and Rock Lock to lay down on the ground without removing the constructs and making them bleed out.
"Midoriya," Sir Nighteye said with a strained voice. "We need to retreat."
"We can beat him!" Izuku said.
"You can't. Mirio is out of the fight," Sir said. "Remember what I said. I foresaw the best chance of victory coming with Mirio's involvement."
"I don't care about what you foresaw. We'll make a new future!" Izuku said as he began to retrieve the medical supplies contained within his belt.
Lemillion rose out of the ground and fell to the floor, collapsing due to his severe bleeding. Ochako arrived with an unconscious Aizawa in her arms. She laid him down on the ground and registered that others were hurt as well. The three able-bodied students began to perform first-aid on their mentors, but Ochako put her hand on Izuku's back.
"You're better off helping him," Ochako said, looking up to Katsuki as he dodged and blasted his way through Chisaki's attacks and defences. "We can do this."
"Are you sure?" Izuku asked, his voice catching in his throat. He noticed that she had tears in her eyes. Was that because of Aizawa? "You're …"
"I'm fine. We'll be fine. Just beat this guy," Ochako said.
Izuku put a hand on her shoulder, and he hoped it gave her some comfort. He went to speak, but he was cut off.
"Don't say it now," she said. "Sounds like a goodbye if you say it now."
"Okay," Izuku said, and turned to stand. "Nighteye. We're going to win. Even if I have to go beyond my limits."
A One For All powered leap, Air Force and Float propelled Izuku upward as Blackwhip snaked out of the tunnels on his gloves and the holes in his shoes. The smoky black power wrapped around his arms and legs and created the misty coating that he called Dark Cowling. That additional layer of protection allowed Izuku's limit with One For All to increase slightly — twenty-eight percent of the power flooded his whole body with a rush of adrenaline and a flashing, crackling aura of power. The world slowed down as he applied his Pinpoint Focus technique in one-and-two-second intervals, only in the moments before an attack landed. His Perfect Dodge technique had his reflexes hijacked entirely by Danger Sense, so that he could finally spare the brainpower to think. Smokescreen used Blackwhip as a conduit and billowed out of him without the middleman of his shoes, and confused Chisaki on where to aim, further improving his chances at dodging his attacks. Izuku used every single one of his five Quirks, all the techniques he'd ever learned using those Quirks, and every bit of willpower he had in his body to increase his chances of beating Chisaki as much as he possibly could.
Izuku was untouchable. For that brief time when all of his Quirks were working in harmony with one another and he was maximising his output and techniques in order to beat Chisaki, he felt like he could do anything. This had to be what All Might had felt like all the time before retiring. He was faster than Katsuki, faster than Chisaki, stronger than both and had focus to spare. Izuku was so fast that he appeared behind Chisaki on his platform in a flash of lightning. His body felt like it had become lighting, and Izuku remembered that feeling from the licensing exam three months ago now. He kicked Chisaki in the back and sent him flying, purple fog clinging to his body as he was launched through the air without anything to protect himself with. Katsuki followed Izuku's lead and picked up the pace. The timing of his blasts ever since he'd gotten that nasty gash in his side had been strange, like it was longer between explosions, but his output hadn't suffered for it — exactly the opposite, in fact, he'd grown more powerful as the fight had gone on, even more so than Izuku had been expecting. Katsuki streaked through the air like a fiery comet and positioned himself above Chisaki, who landed on his back on an empty patch of solid ground.
"Go to hell you piece of shit!" Katsuki screamed as he pointed his right Grenadier Bracer at Chisaki and was held in the air for a brief moment by his twisting momentum. "Howitzer Impact!"
Chisaki looked up and realised what was happening in the split second before it all occurred. Katsuki pulled the safety on his bracer back and hooked his finger around the pin. Crouching down, a panting Chisaki hesitated, his entire body stiffening as the pain from Izuku's kick must have caught up to him. He hadn't healed himself after the last attack, and he was slowing down. The pin left the bracer with an audible ping, and a spark ignited all the sweat that had been building up in the tank within the grenade-themed support item the whole time Katsuki had been fighting. A streak of fire and force ripped through the air. The arena shook as a blinding flash and a deafening roar consumed the senses for a brief moment. The ground under Chisaki shifted in the instant before impact, and it leapt up around him in the form of a closed-off cage, but there was no time to build further fortifications. The attack crashed into the ground at Chisaki's feet, and Izuku realised that Katsuki was really going for the kill. It wasn't just talk anymore. The place where he'd been standing was engulfed in flames, and if he hadn't managed to protect himself, Kai Chisaki was certainly dead. Izuku and Katsuki landed on the ground between the area of the Howitzer's effect and where Ochako, Tsu and Lemillion — though he couldn't help much on account of his missing hand — performed first-aid. Izuku stood with Katsuki, keeping all of his Quirks running as they had been and waiting for a sign that the battle was over. Katsuki's hands sparkled slightly as he held them up in preparation for more fighting.
The smoke cloud generated by Katsuki's Howitzer dissipated slowly to reveal that a crater had been punched into the ground where Chisaki had stood. It was about two metres deep and concave, not a uniform hole. The ground in a ten metre radius of the crater, which itself was three metres across, was charred black from the sheer heat of the Howitzer. Chunks of debris lay around the site of the impact, and even more fell from the air above after being blown away by the attack. It was pure devastation, raw destruction unleashed. Izuku's stomach sank as he realised just what Katsuki was capable of, and how much he'd been holding back all this time. He'd always had the potential to be the number one hero, but now Izuku really saw that he was on his way, same as himself. They were equals, no matter how differently Katsuki saw it. Izuku wasn't capable of that much sheer output yet, so Katsuki Bakugo may have — in that brief moment at the very least — surpassed One For All.
Rubble shifted, and once again a pillar erupted from beneath the ground. It only rose a few metres off the ground, enough to allow them to see Chisaki standing atop it with a nasty look on his face. His entire body was burnt, and he was missing a few things — an eye and a hand, most notably. No part of his body had escaped the blast, despite his defensive measures. Chisaki screamed, but it was impossible to tell if it was from pain or fury. The sound he made was inhuman either way, with blood pouring out of his mouth at the same time, though he didn't seem to notice. His entire body warped for a moment as he pressed his charred, partly incinerated hand to his chest. It was like a glitch from a video game, how his entire form flickered and then appeared as it had before, completely healed. No, not entirely healed. Across Chisaki's entire body a rash had broken out, and he seemed incapable of making it go away like his other injuries. As well, some of his now exposed chest seemed to retain the burns that Katsuki had inflicted upon him. Was that a limitation on his Quirk or on his mind? It was hard to tell, but it might have been a problem with his mindset, as Chisaki had been reduced to a rabid madman by the events of the fight. He cackled as he stumbled toward the ledge of his platform and pointed down at the two students before him.
"You can't finish me off with pathetic Quirks like yours," he said. "You'll need something more powerful to kill me, heroes!"
"Wanna find out, you bastard?" Katsuki said, an explosion sparking in his palm.
"No thanks," Chisaki said, leaning over his platform and digging his hands into the ledge to maintain balance. "I never wanted to be infected by your filth, but here I am. I would rather not exacerbate my condition." He was clearly talking about the strange, bumpy rash and his inability to reverse some of his injuries, judging by how he gestured to his chest. "Just touching you degenerates has made me break out."
"Once you're locked up you won't have to worry about people touching you," Izuku snarled.
"Or I could just put you savages down right now and be on my way!" Chisaki said, his Quirk allowing him to clench his fists and dig grooves into the ledge of his platform.
Chisaki used his Quirk, but there was no warning from Danger Sense, so Izuku stayed still. Rather than an attack, a pillar formed behind them and rose into the air in an instant. Eri was launched into the air by the move, and Izuku noticed with a gasp that Chisaki had used his Quirk to throw her toward himself. The others down at the improvised first-aid station called out after her, but they were too distracted to stop anything. Eri screamed as she flailed through the air, and Izuku crouched down to leap as Katsuki began building an explosion to take off with. The ground suddenly reformed itself as a cage around them, and they used their built up moves to shatter the concrete that had attempted to keep them imprisoned. By the time they managed to free themselves, however, Eri was already falling to her knees on the top of Chisaki's platform, entirely within his reach. Izuku and Katsuki froze, giving each other a questioning glance. What were they supposed to do now?
"See, heroes?" Chisaki cackled. "I have the advantage here. Not you." He dragged Eri from her collapsed state and held her up by her neck, which she struggled against powerlessly.
"You're cornered and hurt, Chisaki. Stop fighting!" Izuku said.
"Oh, you think I'm the one who's been backed into a corner?" Chisaki said, jostling Eri and bringing noises of pain and effort out of her. Izuku's heart hammered against his ribs as his mind sought a plan. "You heroes always deny reality. Allow me to educate you on just how favourable this situation is to me."
"What could a low life thug like you ever teach us?" Katsuki roared.
"There are many things you do not know," Chisaki said with a grin. "Like the fact that you have nothing on me. I could kill Eri right now and it wouldn't put me at a disadvantage whatsoever. I could just bring her back, and she won't even come back all that changed by the experience, provided I do it quickly. The trial and error phase on that aspect of my ability was a troublesome hurdle."
"You've done it before?" Izuku asked, his stomach sinking as he realised the implication.
"Oh, yes," Chisaki said, like it was nothing. "You see it now, don't you? If you attack me, I will simply kill this cursed little girl, and then none of us get what we want. However, if I am to walk away from today a free man, she lives. How's that for a deal, heroes?"
"No dice!" Katsuki yelled. His hands sparkled again, the blast charging in his white-hot palm glittering with partially detonated explosions. "You think we'd make pacts with backstabbing lunatics like you?"
"No," Chisaki said with a content hum. "I just want to see where your breaking points are. It's clearly not just talk." He tightened his grip on Eri's throat, which caused her to stop kicking and hitting him as she began to suffocate.
"Eri, hold on! We're gonna save you!" Izuku said, tears welling up in his eyes as he imagined how much pain she must be in.
"No, they're not," Chisaki said right in her ear.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
The tears in Eri's eyes ran down her face as she blinked. The next moment, a spray of red coated the platform Chisaki was standing on, as well as his entire body. Chisaki continued holding up Eri's body, but it had become just that — a body. There was no head remaining at the top of her torso. It had been reduced to a fine red mist. All of Izuku's Quirks shut off in his shock, cold panic gripping him as he hyperventilated and stared at the aftermath of Chisaki's twisted power move. Katsuki's hands shook, and the explosion that had been building died before it ever went off. His entire face twisted in disgust and horror, and his shoulders went slack as his arms hung at his side. They both stood there in shock as the remains of Eri's head rained down from atop the tower, Chisaki grinning down at them covered in her blood. There were screams of anguish from behind them, as everyone saw what happened. There was a moment or two of silence as the weight of what had just occurred descended upon the heroes. Izuku's stomach lurched, and he spilled his breakfast onto the ground. Katsuki took a few stumbling steps backward and then choked on his shallow breaths. Eri's limp limbs dangled from Chisaki's swaying laughter, which filled the arena and drowned out all the screams and cries from the heroes. He had won.
One second passed. Eri's body jerked. Two seconds passed. The blood lifted off of Chisaki's face and flew back toward the space where her head would have been moments earlier. Three seconds passed. It was as if time reversed before their very eyes. The pulp and blood that had sprayed everywhere in the aftermath of Chisaki's foul victory was sucked back into its source — Eri's head, which reformed itself in an instant as her body flickered and then was suddenly repaired. She gasped and thrashed around, resuming her efforts to escape.
A newly clean Chisaki grinned. "See, heroes? She's a tough girl. Eri can handle it."
"You're not human!" Ochako screamed from her position tending to the wounded.
"A monster," Tsu sobbed.
A yellow flash suddenly engulfed the horn on Eri's head, and she screamed. "Let me go!"
That same pulse of yellow energy erupted out of Eri's horn and quickly covered Chisaki in its warm glow. He then shrieked in pain and rage and dropped her onto the hard floor of their tower. Chisaki's entire body changed in an instant, reverting back to the burnt husk he'd become in the aftermath of Katsuki's last attack. He stumbled and staggered around, seemingly overwhelmed by the pain of being in that state, until he used his Quirk to reset himself back to normal. He breathed raggedly and stood over her, his whole body trembling as hate filled his eyes. Chisaki reached down with his touch of death and attempted to grab at her head again. Lemillion appeared out of nowhere, rising up out of the platform Chisaki and Eri were perched upon in a flash of colour and movement. He shot up into the air and used his one remaining hand and the force of his momentum to carry Eri upwards and out of reach. Chisaki sent a number of spikes after him, but Lemillion phased through them all.
"This trick again. Well, too bad she doesn't have your Quirk!" Chisaki said.
Another spike flew up into the air, aimed straight at Eri. It was as if the entire world held its breath as the attack hit Eri right in the chest. Lemillion reached up, but he could only take her by the leg in the time that he had. He held on tight, however, and a miracle happened. The spike landed right on Eri's chest, and sailed directly through her torso and out the other side without having injured her whatsoever. The breath that the world had been holding was released as Lemillion pulled Eri close and gave her a big smile as they tumbled through the air. Had Lemillion just made Eri phase through the attack with him? That was a totally new application of his Quirk. Izuku had never heard that he'd had that ability, so had he just then unlocked a new part of his Quirk? The yellow energy poured out of Eri's horn, and Lemillion's hand grew back in mere moments. They landed with the other wounded heroes, and Eri's presence alone seemed to heal the injured. Ochako's head wound healed over in seconds, Sir Nighteye's legs stitched themselves back together, and Rock Lock's arm started working again. Aizawa's breathing stabilised, and he jolted awake.
"Eri, are you a healer?" Tsu asked as the yellow energy began to dissipate. "That's incredible."
"No, it's not healing," Nighteye said as he tested his legs by standing. "Eri's power must be the ability to revert things back to previous states."
Izuku realised that Sir was right. Chisaki had been forced back into his burned and injured state, and that certainly wasn't healing. Eri had the power to rewind. That must have been how they took advantage of her for the bullets. He was sick to his stomach thinking that she'd been tortured because she had that kind of ability.
"Hey … Deku," Katsuki said, pulling Izuku out of his own head. The two of them locked eyes, burning red and troubled green, and Katsuki swayed slightly. "Are you able to kill this guy?"
Izuku thought for a moment. He recalled his conversation with Sankitsuo, the third wielder of One For All. Would he be able to take Chisaki's life? After seeing what he'd done just then, he didn't know. Izuku didn't want to find out. He was scared of what he'd discover about himself if he did. "I don't want anyone to die today, but I won't stop you from doing what you feel is right."
"Then let's go," Katsuki said, launching into the air using a blast that had no visible buildup, startling Izuku. Was that a new kind of explosion he'd just used? The blast left behind a sparkling, almost glittery aftershock, which was definitely new.
Unfurling himself from his vomiting episode, Izuku straightened himself out and tensed every muscle in his body. He willed his Quirks to manifest once again, and they responded to him with no time lag. Twenty-eight percent of One For All had his eyes glowing brightly and his hair blowing from the air pressure it generated. Cracks formed in the floor as he dug his feet in, ready to move. Blackwhip emerged and coated his arms to form the protective layer necessary for him to wield the power he'd summoned to his arms. Smokescreen swirled around his feet, crawling across the ground. He poured all of his feelings, his anger, frustration, grief, determination, into his Quirks, and kept fighting.
Katsuki rushed Chisaki while he was still stunned by Lemillion's sudden Quirk evolution and Eri's escape. He was faster than before, and not just because of how much he was sweating. It was like watching a teleporter at work as Katsuki flung himself forward with the force of his blasts and appeared before Chisaki in a streak of sparkling explosions. Was this new level of power the result of him building up the blasts for so long before releasing them? It was incredible. Izuku almost couldn't track him. Chisaki reached his hand out to disassemble Katsuki, but despite the speed he was moving at he managed to detonate a small downward explosion, propelling him up and over to Chisaki's rear. He then let his Quirk off with a massive explosion that sent Chisaki flying through the air, smoking and charred as he healed himself yet again. Izuku followed Katsuki's lead and pushed off the ground with all his power, meeting Chisaki in the air less than a second later. Chisaki barely had time to realise, judging by the way his eyes widened, that there was no way to defend against the attack. Chisaki tried to force his hands toward Izuku, but Blackwhip shot out from his clenched fists and held his arms out wide so that he couldn't counterattack. Izuku then hit him with a Detroit Smash, sending an uppercut right into his chest while Chisaki was unable to protect himself.
The air pressure generated by the blow was intense. It disrupted Katskui's balance and sent him tumbling through the air before crashing near the others, who were consoling Eri after Aizawa had made her power stop rewinding them with a use of Erasure that forced his eyes shut almost immediately afterwards. They quickly began to perform first-aid on him the regular way, though he shoved them off and stood back up with a pained effort to prepare for more fighting if it was needed. Chisaki was propelled upward by the punch, and crashed into the ceiling of the chamber, causing a loud clang to ring out around the arena. The way he landed looked like it would hurt, but he stayed awake and pressed his hands to the high ceiling before he could fall back down. The entire ceiling of the space disappeared, and a blinding flash of sunlight flooded the subterranean chamber. Izuku landed back with the others as his vision recovered after so long underground. The others squinted as they tried to spot Chisaki and see if he was down, but what the heroes spotted when they finally found their foe was much worse than even a healthy Chisaki.
He'd somehow integrated the material of the ceiling into himself. Chisaki's body was now massive, made of stone and concrete with multiple limbs and a massive, gaping jaw that held no teeth. Inside the jaw of the monstrous thing, Chisaki's upper-body jutted out from where a tongue would be. He rose to his full height, which had him reaching out into the streets above easily. Izuku and the others inside gaped at the new form that Chiski had taken on. How many tricks did he have up his sleeve? The others all stood and prepared to fight, but Chisaki was no longer interested in them. He crawled out of the hole he'd made and emerged into the world above. The heroes within the chamber assembled, and gathered for a final fight.
One For All surged within Izuku. This was it. If they didn't bring Chisaki down with this effort, then all was lost. He'd never had more faith that he and his friends could pull it off. Izuku didn't think he'd know what to feel if he didn't have that faith.