What could he do? Where could he go? Izuku looked around and tried his best to hone his senses, but it didn't work. He couldn't focus. It was like Bakugo was drawing Izuku's attention toward himself magically, those dull, blood red eyes, like black holes pulling everything in toward themselves. Izuku couldn't pull together enough focus to figure out a plan. It was too sudden, too extreme an escalation, and his mind was still reeling from the shock. He looked over at Koda, who was shaking so badly that Izuku thought that he might not have been able to say a thing, much less use his Quirk. The boy's watery eyes met Izuku's, and he knew he had to do something. Izuku had to act, or Koda was going to die, too. That thought gave him something to anchor himself with, something to focus on other than Bakugo's all-encompassing gaze. He wasn't the only one at risk if he failed to move. He had to do something for Koda's sake as well. If he couldn't move to save his classmate's life, then what was all his training for? Izuku's face set itself in a hard glare at his former friend, bully, and tormentor. Such loathing burned in his chest that he thought he might spit flames if he didn't get his breathing under control.
"What's wrong, Deku? At a loss for words?" Bakugo's laugh was a deep belly laugh, unfiltered joy rolling off of him in waves of uproarious cackling. "For once in your miserable life, you decide to shut the hell up!" He took a step out of the bushes, and a heavy thunk drew Izuku's eyes to the foot he'd driven into the dirt — his left. A gleaming metal replacement allowed Bakugo to stand upright as he took that one heavy step forward. "Yeah, that's right. You're not the only one who can play the prosthetic game."
"Koda, you have to run," Izuku muttered under his breath as he took a step away from Bakugo. Distance was what would give him the best chance at winning. Koda probably tried to sign something at him, but Izuku didn't have time. "It's not a question. You'll die if you don't get outta here."
"The nerd's right," Bakugo said, taking another labouring, lopsided step forward. "But then again, you're always right, aren't you, Deku?"
Izuku met Koda's eyes and shook his head as the other boy began to panic. "You heard Mandalay's message, right? Go back to camp. I'll be fine." Koda tried pulling on his arm to drag Izuku along with him, and Izuku struggled to remain unemotional as he resisted the effort to protect him. "You need to go. Leave."
"No," Koda said, snapping Izuku out of the beginning of panic. It was the first time he'd heard the boy speak, and his voice was raw, anger giving his trembling voice a force that Izuku hadn't expected. Koda glared at Bakugo as he kept his hand on Izuku's arm. " He's the one that needs to go. And Mandalay said that we aren't allowed to engage with any villains. Let's just run!"
Bakugo's right eye twitched when Koda called him a villain. It seemed to Izuku that, despite their last encounter ending with him cursing all the heroes and abandoning his desire to be one if they were all like the one he loathed, he still held some disdain for being called a villain, just like he always had. That was something, that was a tool that Izuku could use to throw him off if he needed to. Izuku placed his gloved hand over Koda's grip on his arm, and smiled shakily.
"Thanks," Izuku said, his voice level. He turned to face Bakugo and Koda stayed by his side. "You're right. You better leave, Bakugo. I've gotten so much stronger since we last fought. Don't make me use that strength."
"As if you could," Bakugo said, another thunk ringing out as his metal leg impacted the forest floor. "I saw your face when you maimed me last time. You can't do anything unless you get your pathetic minions to help you, and even then, you can't finish the damn job." He regarded Koda for the first time, but scoffed and grinned. "You've got more guts than I thought, bug boy." Izuku must have startled at that — he hadn't realised that Bakugo would remember Koda — because Bakugo turned his gaze to Izuku again, and his expression became so wild and intent that Izuku could barely make himself meet that frigid gaze. "This loser can't save you, though! Tonight's the night, Deku! Prepare to die !"
The ground beneath Izuku trembled for a moment as Bakugo was flung forward by an explosion that lit a fire that consumed all the trees behind him in a ten metre radius. Bakugo tumbled through the air, his body flailing as he managed to overcome Izuku's reflexes and put himself within melee range in an instant. That was impossible. Bakugo's explosions had never been that powerful before, and Izuku had observed the rate of improvement that Explosion had displayed their entire lives. There was no way that he could have tripled, maybe even quadrupled his output and speed in two and a half months. Izuku ducked under Bakugo as he soared overhead, landing with the sound of tearing wood as he made his metal leg take the impact of landing foot first on the tree, inertia keeping him crouched against the vertical surface for the split second that Izuku and Bakugo made eye contact. There had to be something else going on there. They'd confirmed that Bakugo was working with All For One in some capacity nowadays — was that where he'd gotten the new leg? Did All For One also upgrade his Quirk somehow, or give him a second whole power? Izuku thanked his parkour and hand-to-hand training with Aizawa for allowing him to dodge that blindingly fast attempt at what had seemed like a kick. He wouldn't have been capable of dodging that back in Hosu.
"Fan out," Izuku whispered as Koda crouched by his side. "Flanking him is our best bet. Try to blind him if you can." The other boy nodded, and Izuku scowled as he turned back to Bakugo, who landed on the ground with a heavy thunk.
"You're proving my point from back then, you know," Bakugo said with a little giggle that bubbled up as he grinned at his two enemies. "Only weaklings have to game the system and strategise to secure their victory. The truly strong ones — All Might and All For One — they can just blow everyone else away with raw power. And now so can I!"
The flash of the next explosion came a second before the deafening boom, but Izuku was already moving. He sprinted along the trail, continuing on the way that he and Koda had been going so that he wouldn't lead the fight to the pair behind them, which should've been Tokoyami and Ashido. If the others kept moving forward, then he'd stay between the pair ahead and behind them, therefore keeping others out of harm's way. The explosion incinerated the tree that Bakugo had been standing in front of, as well as the five trees behind that one. His explosions had become exponentially more powerful since Hosu. Bakugo suddenly overtook Izuku and spun around his front side, getting in front of him with a spinning explosion that had his metal leg flying at Izuku's torso. Ducking down, Izuku threw his hand out and grabbed onto the metal leg as it swung through the space that his chest would've occupied a second prior. He realised something as his arm jerked upward and he was lifted off the ground by Bakugo's spinning momentum. His explosions were more powerful, but his body was slower than ever, likely due to the added weight of his leg and the effort needed to move it. He wasn't used to fighting with it yet. That gave Izuku an advantage. He disregarded that for now, though, as he was flung into the air and he had to work to make all his limbs avoid getting scratched and bruised by colliding with all the branches that he narrowly dodged on his way back to the ground, the impact of which he negated with a roll.
His right hand felt cool suddenly, and Izuku looked down to discover that his glove had vanished. It had happened again, he'd disintegrated his glove without fulfilling the normal requirements to do such a thing. That meant … Izuku realised that Bakugo was kneeling on the ground, his metal leg in pieces around him. He'd grabbed onto it with his uncovered hand? His Quirk had reacted to his desires and somehow ignored his usual limits. This was what Aizawa had been talking about. His admittedly brief training in allowing himself to ignore Quirk's restrictions was paying off. Bakugo didn't allow him to bask in the swelling pride that brought a small smile to his face at that moment, though. He shot off using an explosion and left the partially disintegrated remains of his metal leg behind.
"Please, friends! He can't be allowed to see clearly!" Koda cried, pointing at Bakugo as he roared in rage again at being called a villain.
When Bakugo stalled in the air, his momentum between blasts dying down, a swarm of birds and insects appeared from among the trees. They gathered around his head, and some of the birds even pecked at his eyes. Koda had ended up behind Bakugo, as Izuku had intended, since it would either render Koda all but invisible to Bakugo, since Izuku himself was his main focus, or it would split Bakugo's attention two ways, which would dull his reflexes and worsen his aim, at least in theory. Either way, flanking was the way to go. It turned out to work against them, however, when Bakugo fired off a series of explosions that flung him through the air like a ragdoll being shaken by a child, which killed all the animals that Koda had called to interfere with his eyesight. They all dropped to the ground around Koda, charred and nearly unrecognisable as once-living things. He stared at them with rage and grief twisting his face, but his expression turned to shock once Bakugo fired another explosion and launched himself into the air above Koda, and let himself fall to the ground behind him. Koda twisted to face Bakugo, but there was nothing he could have ever done. He sunk a punch into Bakugo's face, but he simply took it with a grin. The punch somehow rebounded, like all the force of Koda's stocky frame hitting him was sent right back at him, and his arm flew away from Bakugo with force.
"I would say that you lose, bug boy," Bakugo said as he balanced on his one remaining leg. The palms of his hands glowed white hot as he thrust them out at Koda's chest. "But you were never a part of my game."
The explosion pushed Izuku back a few steps, which sent horror and fear crashing down upon him as the explosion consumed Koda's body entirely. If the blast had done that much to Izuku, who was probably about fifteen metres away, then what might it do to Koda? The boom was ear-splitting, and the flash illuminated the woods around Bakugo for about twenty metres. The smoke cloud enveloped Izuku as well, and he waved it away from himself as he coughed and crouched, ready to move if he saw a flash of light or heard the telltale sounds of Bakugo's Quirk. When the smoke cleared, it became clear that Izuku was on his own from then on. Bakugo kneeled over Koda, whose top half had been reduced to black char by the blast. Everything above the ribs was simply gone; chest, arms, head — burned to nothing, leaving a thick layer of seared flesh that cauterised the wound, so there wasn't even any blood that had been spilled. Koji Koda died instantly. Bakugo panted like a dog who'd had his leash removed, kneeling over him using his one good leg for balance while the stump of his left knee pressed against Koda's stomach. He gave Izuku a look that had goosebumps erupting on his skin. It was the same look that Stain the Hero Killer had given him back in Hosu. Pure, unrestricted bloodlust.
Katsuki Bakugo was not a boy at that moment, nor was he even a man. Death and destruction incarnate knelt before Izuku Midoriya. The most revolting feeling entered Izuku's heart at that moment, an urge that he hadn't felt since the attack on the USJ and his encounter with the Nomu. He didn't think, I have to stop him, or, I have to win.
The only thought that Izuku could register at that moment was, Katsuki Bakugo has to die.
Ochako stumbled as she dodged another knife. She and Momo ran alongside each other as they sprinted down the trail, ducking and weaving under and around thrown knives as they lashed out from behind the treeline. She tried her best, but Ochako couldn't see who was back there throwing the blades at them, nor could she pinpoint exactly where the assailant was, since the knives came from a different point of origin every time. Awase panted as he ran alongside the girls, muttering under his breath about how unfair this was. Ochako agreed, but she needed to focus to pinpoint where the villain was attacking them from, and Awase wasn't helping. She and Momo had found him wandering aimlessly trying to get back to camp, and they'd brought him along with them after Mandalay's warning had told them to return to camp through the trail instead of cutting through the woods like Momo had suggested at first. At least the muttering was muffled somewhat by the gas masks that Momo had made when they'd come across purple smog that she'd assumed was highly toxic, the product of a Quirk, or both. She felt safe with the mask on, but Ochako was getting worried about the magnitude of what was going on. According to Mandalay's message, the Hero Killer, Stain, was present. Did that mean that Bakugo was there as well? How far ahead was Izuku? She ran as fast as she could, hoping and fearing at the same time that they'd catch up to Izuku. What would they find if they did? The possibilities were endless, but most of them were horrible, terrible outcomes. Ochako chose to have faith in Izuku's ability to handle himself.
A pattern emerged within the way their unseen attacker carried out their attempts to stab the three students. A knife would come from one side, then another from the opposite side, then from above, and that cycle would repeat. The pattern and order of those attacks was pretty much random, or so Ochako thought. She couldn't pinpoint any real pattern other than the tiny detail she noticed after a few minutes of defending against the barrage of blades. When those three attacks had been tried at least three times, a knife would come at them from behind. Ochako used her Quirk and became weightless, her fatigue from the training she'd suffered through not even two hours ago melting away as adrenaline and sharp awareness came to her. She snatched knives out of the air, throwing them on the ground where Momo and Awase could see them, so that if the unseen assailant tried to reclaim their weapons, they'd have to come out into the open to do so. When that final attack from the rear came at last, Ochako sped around to her classmates' backs and saw a glimmer of steel in the shadows behind one of the trees they'd passed. Ochako leapt off the thick trunk of a tree and propelled herself right at the space behind that tree, returning her own gravity at the last second and tackling whoever was there as she went to the ground.
The girl that fell to the ground, pinned as Ochako held her arms against the forest floor with such force that she dropped one of the knives she held, pouted in the way that a small child would. Her blonde hair was done up in messy buns, and her golden eyes with vertical pupils like a cat's staring up at her with glee. Recognition gave Ochako pause as all her thoughts were halted by the realisation that she knew who this was. The girl that Ochako had met at the mall the other day, Himiko, was the person she'd tackled, the person that had been attacking them. Ochako stared down at her in shock, but Himiko just giggled.
"Heya there, Uraraka!" Himiko said. Her face lit up with a blush, and she started wriggling around underneath Ochako, likely trying to escape. "Quite the position you've put us in. I thought it'd take more than that to get this out of you!"
Ochako glared down at Himiko for more than a few seconds as she tried to process what the other girl could possibly be referring to, before she realised that Himiko was talking about how Ochako had basically straddled her. Exhaling forcefully and ignoring how hot her face became from Himiko's implication, Ochako frowned. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here for you, silly!" Himiko said, as if it was the most obvious answer. "We belong together!" She tried to raise her head up to put her face close to Ochako's, which forced her to loosen her grip on Himiko's arms when she dodged what was seemingly supposed to be a kiss. "Aw, come on! Don't play so hard to get when you have me like this. "
A deep revulsion made Ochako's skin crawl. She forced Himiko to stay down with a knee to the sternum. That was the deal? Ochako fought to not make a face at the realisation that Himiko's interest in her was because she was attracted to her. The disgust didn't come from the fact that Himiko was unattractive, because she was actually quite pretty if one ignored the blood staining her hands and the unsettling way her eyes reflected the light of the moon, nor was it because Himiko was a girl, though that wasn't something that Ochako had ever considered as an option for herself before. The reflexive rejection that surged forth to ring the alarms in Ochako's head stemmed from the fact that Himiko had hurt Momo and Awase. They both had minor nicks on their arms and legs from the knives that Himiko had thrown. Himiko's attitude just then was also a factor. She was visibly unhinged, giggling like a schoolgirl and writhing around as if she enjoyed being physically overpowered by Ochako. The realisation that she probably did enjoy it made Ochako let go and spring backwards, a brief use of her Quirk allowing her to glide through the air and land beside Momo and Awase as Himiko got to her feet. A disgusted reflex made her check her hands for blood, and she sighed in relief when she found none.
"Are you alright, Ochako?" Momo asked.
"She didn't get you, did she?" Awase asked, putting himself in front of the girls, which was likely for himself more than it was for them.
Himiko stepped out of the bushes with a face-splitting grin on her blushing face. " Ochako? That's a wonderful name. You two must be close. I think I'll call you that too!"
"Do you … know this girl?" Momo asked, putting a hand on Ochako's shoulder, which quelled the panic that had begun to well up inside her chest. That firm, steady touch was grounding, and it helped her reclaim her wits.
"Not really," Ochako muttered, shifting to stand at her full height, which still wasn't very impressive, since she was the shortest of the group even including Himiko. She raised her voice when she said, "We met once, at the mall. I'm sorry if you took the helping hand I offered to you as meaning something more than that, but whatever idea you have about our relationship is wrong."
"What?" Himiko asked, her ecstatic expression shattering into panic. "But we held hands and had such a wonderful conversation! It was the perfect first date!"
"I helped you clean your blood-covered hands. I kept asking you how you got so bloody, but you kept dodging the question. Then, you ran away," Ochako shot back. The retort seemed to break Himiko further, and so Ochako stood in front of Momo and Awase while Himiko loudly denied that reality in a manic breakdown.
"Is this chick crazy, or what?" Awase asked under his breath, but Himiko's senses were clearly sharper than Ochako would've assumed, because her attention was on him in an instant and a gleaming dagger was in her hand not long after that.
"I'm not crazy!" Himiko said, leaping up and landing on one of the thicker branches around, one that held her weight with minimal bend. "You just don't understand true love!"
Himiko vanished in a burst of speed. She leaped from branch to branch with ease, and she somehow crossed behind a tree and didn't come out the other side. The girl was just gone. How did she do that? Ochako circled the tree with Momo and Awase at her back, but she wasn't hiding behind it. Did she teleport, was that her Quirk? She might've been related to the warp gate guy that had transported Bakugo and the Nomu during the Hosu Incident.
"Keep your eyes open! She could come from any direction!" Ochako said, just a second before Momo yelped.
Himiko descended from the trees and grappled Momo. She hooked one of her arms around Momo's neck from behind and wrapped her legs around Momo's torso so that she hung off her. Her one free hand had a knife gripped so tightly within it that Himiko's knuckles had turned white. She leaned close to Momo's ear as the taller girl tried and failed to break the hold, but didn't bother to whisper.
"You're so pretty!" Himiko giggled. "I bet your blood tastes really good!" She bit gently on Momo's earlobe, which finally earned her an elbow in the ribs, enhanced by a spring-loaded boxing glove emerging from her bicep and slamming into Himiko's stomach. Momo forced Himiko off of her and staggered away as the shorter girl got back to her feet and glared at her would-be victim. "That's so rude! Learn to take a compliment!"
Ochako put herself between Momo and Himiko. She didn't know what to do. None of them had very good Quirks for offence, but if Momo could make knockout gas, or if Ochako could somehow knock Himiko into the smog that they'd avoided just minutes before, then Himiko would go down. Ochako just needed her brain to catch up. She was still kind of stunned by Himiko's sudden appearance, so she just needed to focus up and she could protect her friends from the girl's twisted idea of true love. That idea, that Himiko was doing this for her, was still repeating in Ochako's head, trying to make her understand a concept that was alien to her. She'd become vastly more comfortable with the kind of love that she and Izuku chose to express, the kind of love that made them want to do nice and generous things for each other, not harm others so that they could claim the other all for themselves. That idea just didn't sit right with Ochako, and it was messing her up, slowing her down as she tried to comprehend why anyone could ever really believe what Himiko said she believed. It was nonsensical.
"Learn to play nice first!" Awase said, attempting to sweep Himiko's legs out from under her from behind, only to fail as she leapt over his attack and came down on his off-balance body.
Himiko crouched over Awase as she lifted the knife above her head with both hands. Awase's Quirk, from what Ochako could remember, fused things together but it didn't change their makeup. It conjoined things. That wouldn't be of any help. Ochako made herself weightless reflexively. It barely even registered in her head as something wrong with the way gravity worked anymore. She crouched down and shot off through the air as Himiko brought the knife down around Awase's hasty, sloppy block, hoping to intercept before she drew blood. Ochako collided with Himiko and dragged her off of Awase quickly, but he cried out as the two of them tumbled along the floor, Zero Gravity deactivating to allow her to land properly between Himiko and Awase.
Trickles of red streamed from his chest, out through the slash that Himiko's knife had made in his shirt, the knife that was still sticking out of the centre of his chest. Bright red blood came in waves, staining his clothes and slowly creating a pool around him in the dirt. Momo rushed to Awase's side, ripping his shirt away to find that he was already covered in red and quickly becoming drenched in even more as it gushed out in waves from the stab wound in his chest. Awase stared up at the trees, his expression passive yet strained. His breathing was shallow, and he was completely still except for his hands, which were shaking worse than Ochako had ever seen anybody's hands shake. Momo created a series of first-aid tools from her forearms, and got to work trying to help Awase.
Ochako turned, with tears in her eyes, toward Himiko. "How dare you hurt an innocent person?"
"I thought you'd like it! Isn't red so his colour?" Himiko asked with a giggle.
She really was crazy. "You need to stop, Himiko, or else I'll stop you! I don't care what the heroes said, I'll follow All Might's ideals and stop you, right here and right now!"
Himiko stared at Ochako like she didn't understand. "But why would you do that? We're soulmates."
"We are not soulmates!" Ochako said, using her Quirk and leaping at Himiko as fast as she could propel herself through the air. Himiko dodged her grapple, and continued staring in shock. "This isn't love, this is evil!"
Himiko's shocked face suddenly warped with anger and something else, something that brought tears to her eyes. "You think so, huh? This is just how I am, Ochako! If you can't understand that, then you must be like all the rest of them!"
"I must be!" Ochako said, repurposing her momentum and leaping at Himiko once again. "So be like all the other villains and get what's coming to you!"
The Hero Killer's red eyes burned with the fire of passion, but it was a twisted passion, a passion that consumed all that it touched instead of preserving and nurturing the subjects of that feverish conviction. Tenya was shaken by that gaze as it locked onto his own eyes from across the clearing. Stain was right there, not even twenty metres away. He could close that distance in one second, maybe less. So why was he frozen? Tenya stood still on shaking legs as the Pussycats battled Stain, unable to leave and ignore the man who he'd spent so long despising, but unable to force himself to disobey the order given to him by Mandalay and intervene. Ojiro shook his shoulder and tried to pull him away from the fight, and Tenya appreciated that Ojiro had stuck by his side even when things had taken a turn for the worst, but he still couldn't move. He was afraid of what would happen if he left, but he was even more terrified of what he would do if he involved himself in the battle.
Many people thought that Tenya was too rigid, too lawful for his own good. There wasn't an atom in his body that could ever break a rule, and nothing that any of his classmates could ever do could sway him from that stance. Tenya wished that was true. He wished he was an innately rule-following, obedient, well-behaved, decent young man, but he wasn't. He'd thought so, until that night in Hosu, but what that night had taught Tenya Iida was that he wasn't a good, decent man. He wasn't good, he was nice, and he wasn't decent, he was content. The second that an opportunity had shown itself to break the rules, disobey direct orders from a pro hero, and commit a heinous crime in the name of revenge, Tenya had very nearly taken it. He'd wanted to kill Stain that night in Hosu, he'd been prepared to strike out on his own the second that things had begun to turn sour. He'd been so close to breaking the rules, but his friends had pulled him back. Now he had another shot at Stain, the infamous Hero Killer that had disabled his brother Tensei for life, and he couldn't make himself take the chance. He didn't know if he'd be able to pull himself back like Midoriya had in Hosu. He didn't know if he had the strength to kill the man he saw in front of him, and he didn't know if he had the strength not to. He was frozen.
Mandalay yelped as one of Stain's thrown blades sliced open her exposed shin. He then performed a great feat of speed and agility, ducking and weaving through the attacks that Tiger, with his hyper-flexible joints, and Pixie-Bob, manipulating the ground beneath him, could send at him. Tenya and Ojiro watched from their place on the sidelines, the tailed boy trying his best to move Tenya closer to a hiding place, as Stain overwhelmed Mandalay with sheer speed alone and swept her legs out from under her, causing her to fall to the ground. Stain then retrieved the knife that had slashed her leg and ran his foul, prehensile tongue along the flat of the blade, causing Mandalay to jerk before becoming completely still, like a lifelike statue.
"Another one of these animals purged," Stain said, stomping over to Mandalay and raising his longer sword above his head. "Another step closer to paradise."
Tenya was moving before he knew it. Tiger was sprinting toward Mandalay and Stain, but he wouldn't make it in time. Pixie-Bob's hands were only halfway to the dirt by the time that Stain swung his sword down in a sweeping arc toward Mandalay's head. Ojiro didn't have the range to counter the Hero Killer's finishing blow. He was the fastest of them, and he had the chance to save a life from the man who'd ended so many already. Tenya's body moved before he even had a chance to think. His engines roared to life, and he was shifting into top gear through reflex alone as he pushed off the ground and the propulsion of his Quirk had him streaking across the distance between himself and Stain in the blink of an eye. Tenya lashed out with a roundhouse kick, and Stain's sword had barely gotten halfway through its arc toward Mandalay's head before he drove his foot into the Hero Killer's ribs in a devastating counterattack. Stain tumbled and skidded across the dirt for about five metres and slid to a stop. He halted his momentum by stabbing his sword into the ground and using it as an anchor. The Hero Killer glared up at Tenya, those burning red eyes filled with his conviction, but they no longer froze him in place. Tenya stood between Stain and Mandalay, his whole body tensed and ready to fight, as Tiger caught up and stood at his side.
"Thank you, Iida," Tiger said, putting a hand on Mandalay's neck to check her pulse. "I won't ask you to help us, but if you will, your power would be useful."
"I'll do what I can. That's what these legs are for. Helping those who can't help themselves!" Tenya said, as much to himself as to Tiger.
Ojiro was suddenly on Tenya's other side. "I'm with you."
Stain rose to his feet once again, and dodged another clump of earth that rose up around his feet, courtesy of Pixie-Bob. There was nowhere to hide in the spacious clearing he'd chosen to fight in, so Pixie-Bob tracked his trajectory and had the earth lurch into the air around him and ruin his landing. He saved it with a roll and a knife thrown at Pixie-Bob that she intercepted with a small clump of earth, the blade uselessly clattering on the ground halfway to her.
"You don't have to do this," Tenya said, turning to face Ojiro as Tiger engaged Stain in hand-to-hand combat. "This is a personal fight for me, but you can still run. Close-range fighters are at a disadvantage against him, so I implore you to stay away."
"Not a chance." Ojiro's hands curled into fists, and he stood in a deliberate stance, all the muscles in his body tensed and readied in a way that implied years and years of training. "It wouldn't be very heroic of me to abandon a classmate just because I'm not as fast or strong as you. All of us in Class A know what you went through with this guy. Let me help you in a way that I couldn't before."
Tenya smiled, blinking rapidly to offset the tears that wanted to form in his eyes. "Thank you, friend."
"Any time," Ojiro said, his tail curling upward, likely in anticipation.
The Hero Killer made a big move. He side-stepped Tiger's attempts to grapple him and got out of his range. Stain then backpedalled and put as much distance between himself and Pixie-Bob as he could. That brought him closer to Tenya and Ojiro, however, and they then took their opportunity to pounce on him. Tenya ran, keeping himself at top speed without prematurely activating Recipro Burst. He was immediately in range for a kick, and swept Stain's legs out from underneath him with a gust of air that followed in the wake of his attack. The follow-up was a leaping, spinning kick from Ojiro that allowed him to drive his tail into Stain's sternum with such force as to slam him into the ground from where he'd still been hanging in the air in the immediate aftermath of Tenya's sweep. Stain groaned and, as he bounced slightly from the raw power of Ojiro's slam, spun his body around to land on all fours. He leapt at Tenya, who dodged out of the way, and kept those burning, blood red eyes on him as the two of them began a series of attacks and dodges.
"Tell me, Tenya Iida!" Stain roared between attempts to cut him. "Has your answer to my question changed since our last meeting?" He flipped over a kick that Tenya sent his way, and their dance continued. "Have you abandoned your selfish ambitions and become a true hero?"
"I haven't abandoned a single thing worth keeping close to my heart!" Tenya said, launching himself forward and throwing a stray punch or two to keep the Hero Killer on his toes, which seemed to work. "My family is important to me, and so I will work hard to become worthy of the title that has been passed from parent to child for generations! I've also learned a thing or two, though, if you must know." Tenya went for a downward vertical kick that Stain blocked with the thick cleaver that he carried at the small of his back, which then flew from his hands from the force of the blow. "I've learned that I also value doing the right thing no matter what, and right here, right now, the right thing would be to help my mentors defeat you after the months I've spent living in your shadow!"
Stain lunged at Tenya, gripping two smaller daggers in his hands in reverse grip. "Then come at me, Ingenium! Show me that your heart is true!"