Chapter Fourteen
Of course the darkness wasn't eternal, and cleared, revealing yellow, sloping ground far below us, partially submerged buildings buried in the dirt. Twisting, holding Momo and Mina tight to me, I turned my legs to lightning in an instant, spearing down into the dirt and controlling the speed of the retraction, slowing us all down, and landing with a solid, but manageable, thunk.
I felt heavy, my heartbeat hammering in my ears, the weight on my shoulders, of the threat I was going to have to face, almost physical.
Wait, it was physical. Looking to the side, I could see a floating glove on my shoulder, my naked, invisible classmate having latched onto my back when everything went to hell. "Hagakure, you can let go now," I said dryly as Mina and Momo found their footing, relaxing my grip on them.
"Oh, okay," I hear her reply by my ear, the words, said in breathy tone, were oddly erotic.
Focus! I blinked, looking around as she let go, dropping to her feet. "Okay, sit-rep," I said, on autopilot.
"Sit-what?" Mina asked, but Momo understood me instantly.
"I appear to be unharmed, as does everyone else," the well-trained creation specialist replied. "We appear to be in the landslide zone, being transported from over there," she said, pointing behind me. Turning I could see the central promenade in the distance. If the entrance was at six-o'clock of this circular megastructure, then we'd be at nine-thirty. I could make out tiny figures in the distance, but that was all.
"We also have incoming," Momo stated calmly, Villains coming out from hiding places behind the half-buried debris, obviously having been waiting for us.
"Heh," a man with a dozen bladed tentacles coming from his back called as they approached, "Two of each. Let's get rid of the boys, and have ourselves some fun." Several of the others laughed, leering at Mina and Momo, and I felt my breathing, which had started to slow, tighten at the threat.
"I'm a girl!" Toru objected, shaking her fist at the Villain, even as Momo created a metal staff and Mina started to exude acid from her arms and feet.
" Even better," the man grinned. "I wonder if I'll see it when I-"
"Now, now," a busty woman cut him off, sashaying up, wearing skintight leather and a mask that had little bat-wings. "Don't kill him, I want to have fun with him. Oh, to feel him writhe below me while I drain him of life!" she moaned lewdly.
Looking around, we were outnumbered. By a lot. I saw blade-Quirks, Mutant Quirks, one Villain had flaming fists, another looked like Edward Scissor-hands' emo sister, and they all looked like they were going to have fun hurting us. However, the other thing that struck me was how many of them were women.
One in five, maybe one in four, were female, or at least were probably female, given the nature of Mutation Quirks, breasts generally being a good indicator. I'd remembered there were two-bit villains aplenty during the attack, but they'd been background characters to me when I'd watched this episode, not worth remembering as they'd never show up again. I'd forgotten how many of them were female. And they all were the type of evil monster that'd kill high-school students just for kicks.
I couldn't believe my luck.
I looked around at them all, a smile coming to my features. If we were all Tier 4, or at least the girls were, and the Mom's were all Tier 2, then each of these people, all combat capable, would be Tier 3's at the very least, maybe even Tier 4's. A Tier 5 would be like Aizawa, who'd probably actually kick my ass, but each of these women were Villains, all of them having absolutely crossed the line into being monsters, and each would be worth four or eight points!
I laughed, an open, relieved sound. Mina could protect herself, especially with what I was about to do, and Momo would play it defensively if Mina did. Toru would be fine as long as she didn't get in my way. I felt the Stamp fall into my hand as those around me, Hero and Villain, took a step back, only Mina stepping back close, whispering, " What's the plan?"
Oh how I lo- how I appreciated that girl. "Stay defensive and keep away from me when I run. I'll draw fire. Trust me," I murmured, covering my mouth, before breaking out into laughter again. With today's haul, I'd be able to easily afford the pocket dimension, and with it I could secure an exit if I needed it. Hell I might even be able to become a Dragon!
What the heck was I panicking about earlier? I thought. Yeah, Nomu was so far above my weight class we weren't even in the same building, but in canon the three, now four, of us did absolutely nothing to either help Iida escape or to fight Shigaraki and Nomu! The others would be fine without us down in the center, and I had a hunt to get to!
"What's so funny, boy!" the tentacled one snarled, obviously angry that I wasn't giving him the attention he thought he was owed.
With a swing of my hand, my sword was unsheathed and lightning crackled around me. "Just realizing I was worried for nothing!" I truthfully smiled. "You girl's don't even need to help me, just sit back and watch how a real man fights! Not some pissant that needs to jump high-schoolers to have a hope of winning!"
The tentacle-man's response was lost as I flipped the mental switch. Like I'd practiced, my hips and legs crackled, turning to lightning, and I leapt forward in inhuman strides. He tried to counter-attack, tentacles going high like a scorpion's stinger in preparation to strike, but I was already on him.
My blunted blade slammed into his side as he lit up with electricity, with enough force to kill him if it'd been a real blade, a tiny fraction of my reserves ravaging him. The blow was strong enough that it felt like I'd cracked one of his ribs, but I didn't stop charging forward. The man was sent flying, tendrils limp, as I moved to another Villain, the fire-fist guy, who was charging forward, his right fist raised to strike me.
Not being an idiot, I moved to his right side, striking him even as he tried to awkwardly turn to hit me, electrocuting him and sending him into another person, who was shocked as well, some charge still on the fire guy when he hit.
Remember that, I thought, legs shifting in ways normal one's couldn't to let me dodge a bone-spine fired from from another opponent, the Villains just starting to realize the fight had begun.
Rather than attack the bone-thrower, already seeing a guy with an over sized jaw moving in place to counter me if I tried, I turned and threw a punch at a woman with serrated blue nails that seemed to drip a blue liquid, wearing a similarly colored crop top, the Stamp held between my fingers. Hitting her shoulder, she was tossed to the side, and I caught sight of a black mark, left where I'd hit.
Smiling, I turned, sword leading, and caught the knife of a thug with a lot of muscles, holding it just long enough to force lightning into him, his greater strength meaning nothing when his limbs were spasming.
I leapt forward, the ground underneath me erupting as a drill-shaped root came up where I stood. I didn't know it was coming, but even from watching Eraserhead for a moment, and from my own experiences, I knew that in mass fights, predictability and stillness meant defeat, and, in this case, death.
I fell into the mass of Villains, some who were backing up, laughing my head off, striking out at them all, making decisions on a whim, never developing a pattern. I caught a woman in a kimono in the stomach, but as she reeled back there was no mark on her clothing. Doing the one thing I hadn't before, I followed her.
As she struggled to her feet, glowing dagger waving in front of herself to ward me off, I closed, easily dodging the panicked swing. Rather than strike her, I tossed my sword at her, handle first, which she instinctively caught as she broke off her swing, looking puzzled. That lasted until I closed on her, punching the inside of her wrist, marking it as she reflexively let go of my blade, which I caught, slamming the butt of it against her head, knocking her out cold.
Seeing the others gather, I hurled the stamp at another woman, this one having a mutation Quirk that made her seem to be out of stone. It hit her, bouncing off, making her hesitate, and leaving a mark. Looking to where the girls stood, forty feet away, fending off a few villains, I almost broke off from my plan when a seven foot tall man holding a short-sword sized butcher knife tried to stab Mina.
However, she caught the blade on the acid covering her arm, trapping and jerking it with her acidic armor as she twisted backwards. He tried to hold onto his blade, losing it as acid ran down it, making him let go even as he leaned forward, towering over her. Mina had him right where she wanted, launching herself up on a jet of acid, kneeing him in the chin and sending him reeling, unconscious, to the ground.
That's my girl, I couldn't help but think, as I looked at my enemies who'd circled around, cutting off any avenue of escape. "I'm sorry, I thought you were supposed to be Villains, not training targets for children," I laughed. "What is this, movie ninja time? If you all come at me one after the other, I'm just going to take you all down, you useless trash!"
Channeling my inner Bakugo, minus the death threats, worked, and the ugly looks on the faces of those around me told me I'd hit paydirt. My now free hand flicked open my side pouch, pulling out the disk hidden within, knowing how to extend and grasp the handles without looking from my practice with Mei. Part of me wanted to yell out the attack's name before I did it, but that was fucking dumb.
Instead, the Villains all charged me, several even leaping into the air to try to get me first. I held the disk up, using my Quirk to activate it, firing off the internal motors as it flew up ten feet into the air , whirring as it spun, extending near invisible metallic threads in every direction.
Denki, I could overcharge the area and shock everyone, I knew that. But if I did so on my own a tremendous amount of energy was wasted as it dispersed in the ground, and every volt was a valuable resource, with a very set maximum of what I could output before I was mission-killed: useless, vulnerable, and a liability to my team. Even if I worked almost every day to increase it, it'd always be an issue. I could channel it through my weapon, but that was limiting. No, when it came to situations like this, I wanted to touch everyone.
Gripping the handle, my legs snapped back to normal as my concentration shifted. I reached deep, and pulled out a third of my maximum, what Mei and I thought it would take to use the Conductor Web to its fullest.
I lit up like the fourth of July, the electricity pouring out of me, through the handle, and up the wires to the hub as timed seemed to slow. From there, it ran through the conductors, the main rotors protected from the charge that hit the distributors, channeling the torrents of energy through the couple dozen spools equally, down near invisible wires as the lightning seemed to stretch out of it's own accord.
Over a million volts of electricity, spread out in a sweeping, spinning web, struck every Villain within thirty feet of me, my own power somehow managing it to keep it from being lethal, even if they deserved it. If these monsters died, I'd get in trouble, but, even worse, I wouldn't get any points from my captures!
With the attack already underway, my cry of " Mjölnir! " was just fitting, and, after a few seconds of harsh radiance, the sound of the attack deafening, those gathered around me collapsed, twitching, in smoking piles.
A flick of the wrist retracted the web, a bit of electricity powered the motors to retract the spools, and I was set and ready to do it all again. Glancing over to the girls, both they, and the villains they were fighting, were staring at me, awestruck, though Mina's grin was a sight to behold. "You got them, or should I help?" I called, letting my spiky yellow hair spark.
Of the six remaining villains, one ran, catching a bola to the legs from Momo, another tried to stab Momo from behind, only to trip on seemingly nothing and receive a kick to the head from Mina, knocking him out, while the remaining four all fell to their knees, their hands up, yelling "We surrender!" in unison.
"Momo, cuff 'em!" I directed, looking around at all my points to be collected defeated foes. A few were still conscious, and I lightning-stepped to one after another, knocking the men out with a hit from my sword, the women with a punch, my Stamp once more back in my hand.
Sixteen women were captured, their skins marked. Opening up my phone, I selected the Company app, and saw sixteen captures, marked 'in processing', a timer counting down, all at seventy one hours, and between fifty seven and fifty nine minutes.
Right, three days to take effect, I remembered from the document. There went the idea of stamping and insta-selling a female villain to defeat them in a fight, but, given it had what amounted to a notice-me-not on it, it was all but an inevitability. On a whim, I tried to find the phone app that'd let me take pictures and stamp at range, only to get an error message, the app auto-closing.
Figured that'd be too easy, I thought, still so high off my sudden captures I didn't care.
"You get service?" Mina called over, seeing me with my phone out, and I tried to make a call, only to get a 'cannot connect' error message.
So Company functions work, but nothing else? I thought. Fits them. "No, just trying," I called back, putting it away, looking up at the others. Mina and Momo were both staring back at me, obviously waiting, and if I had to guess Hagakure was too, but I couldn't tell, because, you know, invisible.
"But I don't need a phone to send up a signal flare," I announced. Sheathing my sword, I reached up, inside my armor, and tore a coin off my necklace. Firming my stance I tossed it high in the air, my arms pointed in parallel lines, straight up.
I imagined the two coils, spinning in opposite directions, running through me, and then, when the coin came back down, connected them.
Once again, my arms were shoved apart as the coin was accelerated, well beyond the speed of sound, and blasted a hole in the ceiling, the entire panel coming apart and flying outward. Thankfully, the bits didn't come straight back down, and I didn't accidentally rain shrapnel down on us as I quickly realized I didn't think that through. At least not past 'fire up to hopefully signal someone' part. Oh well, it still worked.
Leaping over to them, I saw Momo nodding, turning to me. "Now what?" she asked, with complete confidence, which made me smile.
That, however,. . . was a good question. "Binoculars please, or telescope, whatever's easier on you," I requested, and she nodded, the long metal tube sprouting from her breast and quickly passed over to me.
Looking through it, Aizawa was still fighting, and still kicking ass. Holy crap, sleepy not-Batman was awesome, but I knew it wouldn't last. Shigaraki was nodding to himself, touching his fingers with every nod like he was counting, and Warp guy, whatever his name was, was still back at the entrance fighting the few of us who didn't get dragged out.
This left me with a choice.
We weren't needed. I didn't remember every beat of the fight, only that Aizawa would get caught and his elbow disintegrated, then beat to hell by Nomu, Iida would escape, and Shigaraki would try to kill whatever students were nearby as a final 'fuck you' to All Might before getting ready to leave. Deku would try to stop him, then All Might would show up, and then shit would get real.
It would all go off nicely, only Aizawa actually injured, and, best of all, wouldn't involve me. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't hesitate to fight. The several dozen twitching Villains attested to that, but I knew, strong as I was, I stood no chance against the 'Anti Symbol of Peace' that was Nomu.
However, looking at the water, where Deku, Asui, and Minetta were supposed to be, watching the fight, no one was there.
I frowned, looking over, and there was no one on the ship either, so they weren't at the 'planning to make a move' stage either, and I was just early. Then again, Jiro, Momo, and I were supposed to be in the mountain zone, but we weren't. I thought grabbing Mina wouldn't change things, but Toru had hitched a ride as well. Did Deku and Asui end up somewhere else in the confusion?
Shit , how much had I changed?
But, I still didn't have to go down there. I could very easily tell the others we were running to the other zones to save the other students. I wouldn't even be lying either. If the other kids got a bad match-up, like Harvey Birdman dropping into the fire area, they could be in a lot of trouble.
And, on the more selfish side, there were bound to be more female Villains, perfectly okay with murdering innocent teens, or worse, and I could have the kind of harvest that'd take me years to accomplish elsewhere, the plot, at least for the first three seasons, having shifted from random mooks to a small group of talented enemies after this point.
Yeah those elite's would be worth more, but tagging Toga was bound to be more than twice as hard as tagging two to five mooks, the Company rewarding Quantity over Quality, at least to a degree, and once the major female players were removed from play in the League of Villains, and by that I meant Toga, I'd still have to deal with the men left behind.
No, I didn't have to get involved here. I didn't owe anyone other than the two next me, Mei, and my parents anything. This wasn't my job, I was a student, not a Pro! Hell, I technically was breaking the law just by fighting like I was! And if I died, this'd be the end! I couldn't help others later, what little good I'd done all I'd ever do! It was obviously better to burn low, and warm, and help hundreds, then to burn bright, flare out, and maybe not even help anyone!
This was supposed to be the safe choice! I came here because I didn't want to risk myself god-dammit! I was a mother-fucking immortal now, and I'd not even been here for two fucking months !
I thought myself a good person, but that didn't mean I had to sacrifice myself! That just meant I had to not be evil and help people! I could be good in other ways! This was stupid!
Was this Denki? Was he influencing me? I could practically hear him shouting in the back of my head not to be a coward, to go and help before Aizawa died, because without Deku there to distract Shigaraki, Eraserhead was going to die . But we were separate; we were supposed to be separate! But if that was true, why couldn't I look away?
Why couldn't I pull the telescope down, say Aizawa's actually handling it, and we need to go help the others!? It'd even be true, if I stopped watching him now. Hell, I could send the three of them to the Ruins while I headed to the Fire. That'd keep them safe, and it would let me Stamp every Villainess I saw with impunity! I'd even be able to help the others, able to move faster alone then I could with Hagakure and, to a lesser degree, Momo to slow me down! I even knew exactly how to phrase it, so that I could be completely honest, and get everything I wanted!
WHY COULDN'T I LOOK AWAY!?
"Denki?" Mina asked, concerned, touching my shoulder, and I flinched, fingers tightening on the telescope so hard I broke the thin metal sheath. "Denki, what's wrong?" she asked kindly, more kindly than I deserved. "What did you see?"
I looked to the girl beside me, fearful, concerned, but still beside me and trusting in me to do the right thing, and my heart broke.
"It doesn't look good," I said without thinking, raising it to peer back at the promenade, seeing Shigiraki had made his move, and had grabbed Eraserhead in time for the hero to blink, letting the Villain's Quirk work and disintegrating Aizawa's elbow. I had a minute to get there, tops, or else he was going to die.
I had a decision to make.
Only I really didn't.
Letting out a shuddering sigh, I looked around at the partially destroyed buildings around us, and I knew what I had to do. "Here's the plan. You three head to the Ruins, see if anyone needs help, save them, and move back to the entrance. But, before you go. . . Momo, I'm going to need a forty foot long iron rail."