I did all I could, I can only hope Accelerator or some other Hero will make it back here in time to save her now.
Todoroki braced for the pain he expected to feel as Shigaraki set off his Quirk on him. He held his stance, guarding Sumire with all he could give at that moment. He closed his eyes and waited for death.
"What?! Why aren't you crumbling away?"
Todoroki dared to open his eyes and saw a puzzled Shigaraki staring down at him. He tightened his grip on the young man's throat, thinking that would make his ability activate. Only choking and wheezing noises answered him in response.
"Let go of him; I won't let you kill him or anyone else!" Sumire used her uninjured hand to try to pry the villain off of Todoroki's neck, but his grip was stronger.
There's only one thing left for me to do. I have to use my Quirk and steal his ability from him. I don't know what'll happen to me if I do though. But I'm not going to let him kill Todoroki. He's risking his life to save me, how can I not be willing to do the same?
Sumire pulled her hand back and used her teeth to remove the glove from her hand. She reached out past the side of Todoroki's face and attempted to touch Shigaraki.
"Sumire... Don't!" Todoroki whispered through gasps of air.
Her throat seized up with emotion, tears streaming from her eyes. "I have to! There's no other way to save you than to break him!"
"There won't be any need for any of that nonsense, kids. Stand down now!" The voice was coming from the entrance, now clear of the mist that had been shielding it before. Stepping over the splintered remains of the door, was Mr. Aizawa. His goggles covered his eyes, making it difficult to know where he was looking and whose Quirks he was erasing. At the moment, it seemed everyone's Quirks were negated.
"Ahh, I remember you! You caused us so much trouble during the USJ attack. You're the reason why I wasn't able to kill this young man after all," Shigaraki said as he let go of Todoroki and stood up straight. "But we both know that you can't keep your ability going forever. I'm almost willing to bet after the injuries you suffered during our last fight your limits are even shorter than before."
"This isn't going to carry on long enough for you to find out if that's true, Shigaraki. Get out of here you two; it's time for the Pros to go to work!"
Todoroki, still gasping for air, slowly rose to his feet and turned to face Sumire. She was struggling to try to put her glove back on using her injured hand. He bent down and reached his hand out to assist her.
"NO!" She jerked her hands away from his approaching touch, freezing him in place with her sudden outburst. "You can't, Todoroki. I don't have the energy to hold my Quirk back anymore. It took all I had to keep it from activating while we were so close to each other earlier. Please don't take chances with me like that!"
"I... I'm sorry. I had no idea you were doing that just now. We need to get out of here, so please let me help you up so we can let the adults finish this." He stood up and reached out once more.
"Tch... I'm tired of waiting. Kamui, would you get these two out of here!"
The slim figure that entered the building was the Pro Hero known as Kamui Woods. He was known to be able to use his Quirk to manipulate the wood that made up the arms of his costume. "Sure thing, Eraserhead. Lacquered Chains Prison!" He raised his arms, the wood shielding them grew out and raced forward towards Todoroki and Sumire, wrapping firmly around them both. Kamui then yanked back, picking the two of them up and carrying them out of the building.
"Sorry if that was rough, but just stay out here and let us take care of the bad guys," Kamui said as he dropped the two students and re-entered the building. He found Aizawa still holding his place, preventing Shigaraki from using his Quirk.
Kurogiri, who had used the bar to hide, created another portal behind Shigaraki. "I think it's time for us to leave, Tomura!"
"I agree, let's continue this game at a later date, Heroes!" Shigaraki turned his back to Aizawa and walked towards the warp gate. Aizawa then realized where the creator of the portal was hiding. He gave up on erasing Shigaraki's Quirk and instead moved to the bar to find Kurogiri. He rested his eyes briefly before reactivating his Erasure on Kurogiri. He canceled it out just in time for the portal to disappear before Shigaraki could step through it.
"Argh! Damn you, Heroes! You think you're so superior and righteous all the time! But this Golden Age for heroes won't last forever, I guarantee it!"
Kamui used his Lacquered Chains Prison once more to restrain the two villains. Shigaraki attempted to grasp his wooden bind to break it down, but it was useless as long as Aizawa had his eyes set on the two of them.
"I think that we've had enough of a lesson for today, Tomura. You did well, but now is the time to realize that it's better to retreat and continue the fight another day," said a voice from within the room. Shigaraki looked towards the monitor on the bar. The screen came to life, with the words 'Sound Only' appearing on it.
"Sensei..."
A black oozing liquid formed around the two villains, slowly covering them. The wooden restraints holding them in place broke away, eaten away by the matter that had covered them and transported them away. The monitor blinked off a moment later.
"Damnit! They got away," yelled Kamui Woods as he retracted his wooden tendrils.
"It doesn't matter now," Aizawa said as he pulled the goggles off of his face and rubbed his eyes. "We managed to prevent them from taking the girl, so I'd consider the mission successful."
"That's true, Eraser. The others should have made it here by now, we should go check on the students," replied Kamui.
Aizawa realized that he hadn't seen the white-haired Esper around when he got to the hideout. "Hey Kamui, did you see that other Esper outside when you dropped off the other two kids?"
"No, was he supposed to be here?"
With a sigh, Aizawa answered, "Yeah, I have a feeling he was."
...
"Now where the fuck did I end up?" Accelerator wasn't amused by that guy's cheap trick to make him disappear before he had a chance to fight. The area he had ended up wasn't familiar, but he figured that the Quirk had to have some limit on distance. He had been left in a forest area, which gave him only one idea.
He sought out the tallest tree he could find and used his ability to jump from branch to branch until he reached the top. He identified the school, which made it easier to figure out just where the hideout was located. That area was illuminated with light now, which had to mean that the Heroes and police had made their move on it.
So even after all this time, I still wasn't able to protect her when she needed it most.
...
The team of Midoriya and Touma reached the last location by the time the police had. Spotting Todoroki and Sumire over by the EMT vehicles, they rushed over to find out what happened.
"What happened, did you guys get hurt? We tried to get here as soon as we could," said Midoriya. He noticed that Todoroki's left arm was wrapped heavily extending down from his shoulder. Red stains had already started to seep through the bandages. He also saw the bruising that had begun developing around his friend's neck as well.
"It was Shigaraki. He had Sumire held captive just the way he had you that time at the mall. Accelerator and I... Wait, have you guys seen him? Kurogiri sent him through a portal right before the Heroes got here."
Midoriya and Touma looked at each other, then shook their heads. "No, we were told to go back to the school, but we weren't going back until we knew what happened here," Midoriya looked over to Sumire. "How are you holding up? It must have been frightening for you. I was scared out of my mind when that guy managed to take me hostage before."
Sumire was getting bandages placed on her facial wounds by one of the medics, but she looked over to Midoriya and the other boys and nodded. "Yeah, it was a scary experience."
She was still trying to calm her nerves; exhaustion had taken her over. Just turning her head felt like a struggle. The training to suppress her Quirk had only recently started. She hadn't developed the stamina yet to hold it off for so long. It had nearly been set off when Todoroki pulled her away from Shigaraki. Being pressed so close to him as he was shielding her made her have to push herself even harder to avoid stealing his ability. She felt sorry for snapping at him so suddenly when he had only meant to help her.
"Miss, It'd be a good idea if you got some rest. Your vitals are higher than we'd like to see," the medic stated as he finished bandaging her face and began to wrap the wounds on her hand. "We'll be transporting the two of you to the hospital shortly."
"Yeah, I think that would be... a good idea..." Sumire leaned back on the gurney and barely finished her sentence before drifting off to sleep.
Todoroki watched her as she slept, his pain seemed insignificant now. She'd worn herself out just to make sure he would still have his Quirk.
He also realized that since finding her in that cold alley, tonight was the closest they had ever physically been to each other. Blushing, he tried to draw his mind away from that thought and looked away from her.
Midoriya noticed his friend looked troubled, so he decided to engage him in some conversation. "So how did the villains manage to escape, Todoroki?"
Thankful for the distraction from his mind's previous track, Todoroki answered, "I'm not sure, we were pulled out of the building by Kamui Woods, so we didn't see the end of the fight. I think I heard them say something about a different kind of portal though."
From the edge of the woods, Accelerator appeared. He had used his ability to rush through the forest in the direction of the hideout. Noticing all the police response vehicles, he realized that the fight was over.
"Damnit, I wanted to take my frustration out on that freak with the hand mask. He must not have been that strong a villain if they caught him that quickly though." He wandered around the busy lot, looking for anyone familiar when he saw the two gurneys near the waiting ambulances.
"Sumire!" He activated his power once more to speed to her side. The sight of her unconscious and heavily bandaged was more than he could take. "Hey! Wake up, Sumire! Please, you have to get up!"
"Shh! She's okay man, she's just tired and needed to get some sleep. Stop yelling, or you're going to wake her up," said Todoroki.
"She's really okay?" Accelerator looked at him and noticed his injured arm. That's right, they both got hurt while he was rescuing her from that creepy bastard.
"Yeah, she just tired herself out suppressing her Quirk. I wasn't aware that she was even holding it back. She didn't have to put herself in this condition though. If I had lost my Quirk but still managed to save her, it would have been worth it."
Accelerator knew precisely what he meant. He was willing to give up his ability as well to save her five years ago. "Looks like she hasn't changed at all. Still refusing to break people."