Izuku took deep, calming breaths as he ran alongside the others through the uneven terrain of the hallway they'd opened up. He blinked tears out of his eyes, and resolved to keep himself in check. Emotions would not hold him back today. There was a way to get Hitoshi's Quirk back, he knew it, but it still hurt to think that he'd had to be that selfless while Izuku had been a room away and he hadn't been able to help his best friend. Aizawa had filled him in on what had happened as they ran, and Izuku was so proud to call someone so heroic his friend. Izuku couldn't believe that Hitoshi thought he was anything but a true hero. He met Tsu's eyes and got a nod from them, and that helped him feel better. If Tsu was able to keep their cool and stick to the mission, then Izuku would have to rise to meet their standard.
The hallways slowly evened out as they moved deeper into the labyrinth. The twisting, winding halls transitioned over a period of minutes to the smooth, lifeless structure that they had been before the raid had begun. Mimic had obviously been on Trigger, but even the increased version of his Quirk still had limits. There was no way to control the entire building at once, even for him. That meant that after a short while navigating the gnarled maze of corridors, they came out the other side of the chaotic path and were on their way yet again. The heroes pursued their target relentlessly, Sir Nighteye leading the way using his memory of the path to Eri to guide them. Izuku felt restless, like he wanted to simply unleash his full power and sprint down the hallway to get to Chisaki first and detain him quickly. He could probably outrun everyone but Katsuki with twenty-five percent. It was a real option for him. He could see that Katsuki was going through a similar dilemma, briefly overtaking Nighteye but holding back the power of his explosions so that he didn't miss a turn in his haste. That itself was grounding for Izuku, something that allowed him the clarity of mind to think and decide against following his impulsive instincts. Katsuki wanted to give Chisaki a piece of his mind, too. They'd all do it together. He wasn't the hero. Izuku breathed, and managed a smile.
"We are nearing the room in which they held the girl," Sir Nighteye said, turning a corner. "Be on your guard."
Blood rushed in Izuku's ears at the news, a rush of excitement pulsing through him. This was it. Everything had been building up to this. The next few minutes would decide who won and who lost. This was for all the marbles. The strike team rounded a few more corners, and then Sir Nighteye came to a stop. The whole team rode their momentum for a moment before pausing beside him, the heroes assembling before three figures. The most notable figure was a little girl. Izuku thought all of their eyes had to be on her. She was tiny, certainly poorly fed. She looked just like the sketch that Izuku had made for Ushiro, only with a disturbingly empty look in her eyes. Whitish hair, red eyes, that horn — it was Eri. The second figure that Izuku's eyes latched onto was a person wearing a long white raincoat, which somewhat obscured the dark boots they wore and the black plague mask with gold trim that jutted out from underneath the hood. That had to be the only member of the Shie Hassaikai with a position of authority that they hadn't encountered yet, aside from the boss. It had to be Hari Kurono, also known by his alias, Chronostasis. His Quirk was one to watch out for. Kurono was pulling Eri along by her hand, but she had fear written all over her face. The final figure turned around to look at them with narrow golden eyes devoid of emotion, and Izuku's own eyes widened in shock. It was the Plague Doctor from the pictures that Izuku had studied way back when he'd first started on this path. The narrow build, the black dress clothes and green bomber jacket, the plague mask embroidered with gold, the white gloves, it all matched. Izuku's heart pounded in his chest as those cold, critical eyes swept over the heroes and blinked casually.
"And who might you all be?" Kai Chisaki asked, his low, crackly drawl calm, as if he didn't think he was in trouble at all.
"Kai Chisaki, you're under arrest!" Nighteye said. "You've committed countless crimes. Drug smuggling and are the least of your sins. The child you've tortured is going home to her family, and you're coming with us."
Chisaki paused for a moment, shrugged, and then said, "Chrono."
"Yes, boss," Chronostasis said, taking a few hasty steps forward.
!
Izuku moved before anyone else. He leapt forward and Blackwhip erupted from his hands to bind Chronostasis before he could do anything. That's when a projectile shaped like an arrow flew out from under his hood and soared right toward Izuku, and he realised that that's what Danger Sense had been warning him about. He ducked under that arrow, and it flew over his shoulder with a thin sound of air rushing by. Izuku reached up and grabbed onto the tether connecting the arrow head to Chronostasis, and pulled on both that and his Blackwhip to yank him through the air and pin him to the ground with a knee on the small of his back. Aizawa stepped in front of Izuku and crouched down so that he could get both Chronostasis and Chisaki in his field of view. Chisaki was running away with Eri in his arms, something that Katsuki was eager to stop based on how he threw his hands back in wait for Aizawa to get his Quirk active. That plan was halted when Overhaul abruptly turned a corner and disappeared from sight the second before Aizawa activated his Erasure on Chronostasis.
"Damn it, old man, you're slow!" Katsuki roared, before using his Burst Speed Turbo move to pursue Chisaki.
"Remember, he's more dangerous than he looks!" Sir Nighteye shouted after Katsuki.
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At the same moment as Sir had warned Katsuki about Chisaki, it was as if the entire hallway suddenly came alive and tried to kill every hero present. It wasn't like Mimic's manipulation of the building from earlier, this was more refined, more calculated. The thin spikes that erupted from the floor and ceiling went for Katsuki first, trying to skewer him in the air. He reacted with his usual speed, but he couldn't outrun the spikes completely. He spun and flipped through and around the spikes, but he still suffered slashes to his shin and bicep. The wave of spikes approached the other heroes grouped up together on the ground, and Izuku acted on the warning from Danger Sense in the heartbeat before they pierced through all of his friends and allies. He leapt up and used Blackwhip to anchor himself to the ground, which pulled him back down as he stomped with all his might on the floor. This caused the approaching spikes to be reduced to tiny shards of debris in the following shockwave, and all of the heroes behind Izuku to be safe. Katsuki fell to the ground and landed with a rough bounce as his injured leg buckled and failed to hold his weight.
"Gren-Aid!" Aizawa called.
"I'm good, just get the bastard!" Katsuki said as he slowly, painfully drew himself back up to his feet.
Ochako, Tsu and Lemillion rushed forward. Lemillion took the lead, as his matter-overlap repulsion technique propelled him faster than Tsu could hop and Ochako could fall through the air. All three of them followed Chisaki around the corner, and judging by the lack of immediate fighting sounds, he'd kept running once he'd pulled off his distraction. Izuku, in his anger, pressed on Chronostasis a little harder and forced the air out of his lungs, causing him to breathe heavily. Izuku let the guy go and Aizawa took over, allowing him to run over to Katsuki and offer his hand. Katsuki got to his feet and grimaced at Izuku's offered help, before looking away.
"Come on," Katsuki said gruffly. "We can't let all those losers get the kill, right?"
"Right," Izuku sighed.
Izuku and Katsuki used their Quirks to catch up to the others as fast as they could. Aizawa, Sir Nighteye, and Rock Lock stayed behind to make sure that Chronostasis was detained, but yelled after them with promises that they'd catch up and help with Chisaki as quickly as they could. The two boys ran and flew down the hall to realise that it had been closed off and made into a dead end, presumably by Chisaki's power. The two of them broke through it easily to find that the area beyond that wall had been opened up to about twice the size and was a mess of spikes and flat areas that made the space akin to a minefield, except the mines in this scenario were spikes that would impale those who weren't careful about where they stepped. As they registered this change in setting, Lemillion rose from the ground and landed a massive punch on Chisaki through a spike he'd attempted to counterattack with, causing the villain to stumble back and almost push Eri over the small platform he'd made for them and into the spikes. Chisaki shook his arm out and it broke off into small pieces for a fraction of a second before it was fine again. He'd used his power on himself. Chisaki could heal with his Quirk? Izuku paused as he realised that. Why was he using it like this, then?
"Hey, Overhaul!" Katsuki yelled, blasting himself into the air. "You've got a lot to answer for, asshole!"
"Finally, someone gets it right," Chisaki said, crouching and pressing an uncovered hand to the stone pillar he and Eri were standing atop. A series of spikes then protruded from the pillar and lashed out at Katsuki, who dodged them all thanks to the range he was afforded by the more open arena. "The name Kai Chisaki isn't mine anymore. I left it behind when I ascended to my rightful throne."
"And what's that throne built on?" Izuku yelled. He took off into the air using Float and started flying around in a pattern opposite Katsuki's to distract Chisaki. "The blood of children! You're not a king, you're a monster!"
"And you're diseased!" Chisaki screamed back.
!
Izuku used Air Force to reverse his trajectory through the air and dodge Chisaki's next spike. Katsuki used that opportunity to get in close from Chisaki's rear and send a blast at the pillar to destabilise it. This knocked Chisaki off-balance and made him abandon his attacks on Izuku in order to right the angle of the pillar. Unfortunately, Eri wasn't so lucky, and lost her balance completely. She tumbled off the pillar and fell toward the spikes. Katsuki's eyes widened as he triggered an explosion, but he was too slow in building up the speed he'd need to save her. Izuku threw his hands back and flicked his fingers, the air rushing away from his back and the force launching him forward. One For All surged within him and he pulled off his flight technique Slipstream, which allowed him to ride the gusts of wind he created with Air Force. He sped through the air and caught Eri in his arms, tumbling through the air like a pinball game as he bounced from pillar to spike to floor in a series of impacts that he was barely able to redirect into further leaps. He landed on a patch of solid ground with Eri in his arms, her whole body wrapped in Blackwhip to prevent her from slipping out of his grasp accidentally.
"Is she okay?" Rock Lock yelled from the entrance to the hellish battlefield. Aizawa and Sir Nighteye entered seconds after, and Izuku smiled. Everyone was here.
"Are you okay?" Izuku asked the girl, smiling down at her. Eri didn't answer, just stared at him with a horrified look on her face. He turned back to the pros and said, "I think she's in shock!"
"Don't you dare take what's mine, you filthy heroes!" Chisaki screamed.
!
Izuku leapt up and cradled Eri close to his chest. Spikes erupted from the ground where he'd stood just seconds prior, and he said to Eri, "It's gonna be okay. We're not gonna let you get hurt anymore." Izuku planted his feet as they collided with the wall, dampening the impact. He looked out over the battlefield and still couldn't find Ochako or Tsu. Where had they gone?
"Damn it," Aizawa said, using his binding cloth to manoeuvre around the battlefield and swing off the large, twisting spikes. "I can't use Erasure if you're swarming him!"
Lemillion and Katsuki were both engaging Chisaki as Izuku landed on the ground near Rock Lock and Sir Nighteye. Katsuki used his superior mobility and ranged attacks to distract Chisaki while Lemillion used his Permeation to phase through the barriers and counters that Chisaki attempted to stop him with and land hits. It was a brilliant strategy, but it did in fact block Aizawa from using his Quirk to erase Chisaki's own, so it only served to maintain the status quo of the battle and not advance them toward their win condition. Given Chisaki's ability to perform wide area-of-effect attacks and the relative lack of a suitable counter to that on their side, that meant that the longer the fight dragged on the more likely it was that Chisaki simply lashed out with a wide area attack and tried to kill them all at once. It was difficult enough to dodge his single-target attacks, and Izuku had a built-in warning that they were coming. He couldn't imagine the work that the others were putting in to remain as uninjured as they were.
"Someone needs to take Eri away from the battle," Izuku said. "She's what he wants, so proving that she's beyond his reach could make Chisaki give up."
"Or it could make him fight ten times harder," Rock Lock said. "You know what they say about backing a wild animal into a corner."
"Regardless, I can't hold onto her if I want to help take Chisaki down," Izuku said, crouching so that he could let Eri onto the ground tightly, empted to let go of her, but she held on tightly, like she'd never let go.
"Why?" she asked, the first word she'd said.
Izuku crouched there for a moment, shocked into silence. "Why?" he repeated in a baffled tone.
"Why are you fighting so hard?" Eri asked, tears in her eyes. "You'll just get hurt for no reason."
"The reason is to keep you safe," Izuku said with a smile. "We're heroes. Stepping in and helping someone out when they're hurting is what we do."
"But … I'm cursed," Eri said.
An awful feeling made Izuku's chest tight. "Why are you cursed, Eri?"
Eri hesitated, but sniffed and said, "My Quirk hurts people. I hurt people."
Izuku looked up at Sir Nighteye and Rock Lock. They both had dark expressions on their faces, and Izuku didn't think he looked any different. It was the same kind of thing that Hidari Ushiro had heard from Hana Chisaki, Eri's mother. Don't take the child. That thing is a curse. "You're not a curse!" he suddenly said with a vehemence that took Eri by surprise. "Kai Chisaki is the curse. He's the one who's hurting people, he's the one who uses his Quirk to harm others. You've done nothing wrong. We're going to save you, Eri. I'm sorry we couldn't help you sooner, but you don't have to hurt anymore. Please, take my hand if you want to stop hurting." Izuku offered his hand to Eri, and she looked at it while she frowned. She blinked tears out of her eyes, and her expression shifted, like she was about to say something.
Suddenly, pieces of rubble shifted nearby, and a chunk of the wall that had collapsed earlier fell to reveal that Ochako and Tsu had been trapped inside. Ochako's head was bleeding, and Tsu was limping, but they managed to climb out of the wreckage and make their way over to the others. They quickly explained that toward the beginning of the fight, the wall had been broken apart by Chisaki's Quirk and had fallen on her, knocking her out. Tsu had been with her, and had kept the debris from crushing both of them by holding it up with their legs. They'd only managed to escape when Ochako had regained consciousness and negated the gravity of the debris. Izuku wanted so badly to hug Ochako right then and there, but he was stunned by a massive ping from Danger Sense.
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"ERI!" Chisaki cried.
Izuku grabbed onto Eri tightly as he leapt. Ochako and Tsu followed him, floating and hopping away from the ground in response to his reaction. Blackwhip burst out of the little holes in the soles of his shoes made for Smokescreen and latched onto Sir Nighteye and Rock Lock, which resulted in him pulling them along as he protected everyone around him from the wide line of spikes that erupted out of the ground. Lemillion got another punch in on him from behind while Chisaki was distracted, which dazed him long enough to get hit with another attack immediately after that from Katsuki who sent an AP Shot right at him. Chisaki rolled off the pillar he'd been on since the beginning of the fight. In the air, his whole body jerked and was blown into chunks by some unseen force, only to fuse back together again before any blood had rushed forth. He was good as new by the time he landed on the ground. Aizawa had to swing around to the other side of the pillar to get him in his sights, but by that time, Chisaki had constructed three slimmer spikes that snakes out as if they were fully articulate. While Izuku hovered in the air, unsure of where to drop Nighteye, Rock Lock and Eri, the three snaking spikes struck.
The first one hit Katsuki across the ribs. A spray of blood covered the stone as it slashed all the way through his costume and tore a gash in his side under his left arm. Izuku used Blackwhip to push Sir Nighteye, Rock Lock and Eri toward a patch of solid ground and dropped them off. The second spike attacked Aizawa. Izuku flicked his fingers, and Air Force propelled him toward his teacher. The spike rushed toward him while he was at the peak of his swing, and Aizawa twisted to dodge it, but it was too late. The spike would have caught him in the face if Izuku hadn't arrived half a second before the impact and stopped the attack by putting himself between it and Aizawa. Izuku caught it in his hands and crushed it like brittle clay. Aizawa kicked off his back and resumed his swing. Tsu hopped over and caught Katsuki before he hit the ground and deposited him on the pillar Lemillion was standing on, though he seemed to lose consciousness briefly. The third spike stabbed right through Lemillion's chest without puncturing his actual body, due to his Quirk. Izuku stayed in the air for a moment and took another chance to assess the battlefield. The available places to stand were getting smaller and smaller, and he thought they may have been running out of time to defeat him before it became impossible to hit him between the forest of spikes that was forming.
"Hey, Chisaki!" Lemillion phased through a retaliatory spike for using his name. "If all this is for Eri, don't you think it's pretty stupid to put her in danger with all these attacks?"
"Eri is just the means to an end. The end!" Chisaki said, flinging as many spikes as he could through Lemillion's body as he phased through them all and fell toward the villain.
Lemillion fell through the ground and popped back up instantly, soaring above Chisaki's head with his fist thrown back. "And what end is that?"
"The end of all you sick heroes!" Chisaki said, reaching up at Lemillion.
The punch connected, and Chisaki's head rocked back from the force. Lemillion's hand, however, disappeared in a spray of blood that covered both himself and Chisaki. Lemillion stumbled to the ground and held the bloody stump of his arm as it bled a waterfall of red. Everything below the elbow was gone. It was silent as everyone paused in shock, even Chisaki. An explosion echoed throughout the chamber and Katsuki appeared from where he'd been safely dropped off by Tsu earlier, bleeding and slower than he had been before but still in the fight. Sir Nigheye shouted for his protege, and Lemillion cradled his arm silently. He glared at Chisaki for a moment before sinking into the floor and vanishing completely, only to emerge with Nighteye, Rock Lock and Eri panting and sobbing. Something stirred deep in Izuku's chest at the sight of a great hero hurt so badly by Chisaki's hands. Aizawa finally got a good angle as he rounded the pillar and used his Erasure, his hair standing on end and his eyes gleaming red behind his goggles. Chisaki suddenly paused, his hands pressed down upon the ground, and roared in rage.
"All of you are sick!" Chisaki screamed. "Convinced that you're doing something heroic by coming here and ending the boss's dream. I'll kill every last one of you and take Eri back. I promise that you'll suffer!"
"No one but you is going to suffer any more, Chisaki," Izuku said, propelling himself with an Air Force kick.
Izuku streaked across the chamber, One For All's green lightning flashing around him. He got close and landed a downward punch on Chisaki's jaw. "Detroit Smash!" A ripple of air washed over the entire chamber, destroying the bunches of spikes nearest to Izuku and Chisaki. It destabilised the massive pillar that Chisaki had created earlier, causing Tsu to leap off and cling to a wall as Katsuki landed on the ground. Chisaki fell to the ground, dazed by Izuku's punch, and the plague mask was finally destroyed after being mended so many times after so many attacks. Chisaki's entire face was unremarkable, the kind one wouldn't look twice at on the street. It made Izuku sick that such a monster could slip by so many people without arousing any suspicion. Katsuki crouched beside Chisaki and taunted him with his tongue stuck out, even though it looked like it pained him to hunch like he normally did with that side wound.
"Face the facts, Bird Brain. You've lost," Katsuki said with a wheezy laugh.
"I haven't lost yet! She's still coming back for me. When she and her siblings come, you'll be sorry then!" Chisaki said with a laugh as he pointed at Izuku.
"You're talking about Kisei?" Izuku asked calmly.
Chisaki looked like he'd seen a ghost. He may have finally recognised Izuku's resemblance to her, even through his mask. "How do you know that name?"
"We know everything, Big Bird," Katsuki rasped.
"Everything," Izuku echoed sternly. "She's not coming to get you. You're all alone, and you have lost."
Chisaki screamed wordlessly. He reached out and grabbed onto Katsuki's ankle, but he kicked Chisaki in response, forcing him to let go. Aizawa ran over to them and bound Chisaki in his capture weapon, then he hauled the villain to his feet. Izuku didn't release One For All, but he did bring it down to one percent so that if anything happened he'd be ready to react and max out his power again. Chisaki tried to resist, but Aizawa forced his hands together behind his back and made him stand still. Izuku gave Katsuki a look and offered his hand again when he saw that the other boy wasn't standing up after having crouched down.
"Are you okay?" Izuku asked.
"Bastard got me good," Katsuki said, pushing himself up to his full height with his hands on his knees. "But I'm better than good."
"If you say so," Izuku said with a smile.
"You're idiots if you think I'm done," Chisaki said as he thrashed in Aizawa's binding cloth. "I haven't been abandoned."
"Then why did your friends not come to bail you out, huh?" Katsuki snapped. "Maybe it's because you're a freak who wears that stupid mask all the time."
"I'm not the abnormal one. It's all of you who are disgusting!" Chisaki rambled, his eyes wide and frantic. "Get your filthy hands off me, hero!"
"And let you possibly get your Quirk back? Yeah, right," Aizawa said, kicking him forward to walk. "As if I'd do something so—"
"What is it, Eraser?" Izuku asked, noting how he'd cut himself off.
Aizawa looked off at nothing with a troubled look on his face, but something was wrong. Izuku and Katsuki both tensed at the same time, noticing the problem. His goggles had been brought away from his eyes, as if someone had pulled them off his face without caring to remove the band keeping them there. Izuku immediately had two scenarios that he could react to. The cause was either a person with an invisibility Quirk, or a telekinesis Quirk. Izuku had no way to counter either, because whatever had caused Aizawa's goggles to be dragged out in front of his face like that immediately stopped maintaining it. The goggles snapped back into place, smacking Aizawa in the eyes and pushing his head back. Aizawa's hair fell around his shoulders, and the red glow vanished from behind the goggles. He'd blinked upon impact.
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"Everyone off the ground now!" Izuku yelled through the headache that was starting to form from Danger Sense's constant pings.
One For All spiked to twenty-five percent within Izuku after he'd been holding it at one percent. Aizawa's binding cloth evaporated into nothing as Chisaki grinned savagely. Katsuki's palms sparked and he stood still for a moment, the chain reaction of his Quirk building. Izuku crouched down and shot Blackwhip out at Aizawa, who he caught around the waist. Chisaki crouched down and plunged his hands onto the hard, uneven ground with a look of giddy anticipation on his face. Izuku and Katsuki left the ground at the same time, with their powered leaps carrying them up and away from the ground that was about to become a weapon. As they rose up into the air, Izuku looked over at the others. Sir Nighteye, Rock Lock and Eri were floating in a trio, and Ochako joined them a second later as Tsu hopped alongside her. Lemillion phased through the floor and launched himself up to stay in the fight, even though it looked like he wasn't doing very well after losing his arm. They'd all gotten away in time, but now those who couldn't move around in the air well were vulnerable. It was up to Izuku, Katsuki, Tsu, and Ochako to protect their mentors and the one little girl they'd been trying so hard to save.
The wave of spikes came in the blink of an eye. They surged up toward Aizawa specifically, and Izuku yanked him up and away from the murderous flurry of attacks. Chisaki had concealed himself by forming the spikes around himself like a shield, so Aizawa's Erasure couldn't target him even though he tried. Chisaki must have been able to see through the little cracks in the construct, though, as his aim was killer — literally. Ochako and Tsu focused on protecting Sir, Rock Lock and Eri. Rock Lock managed to freeze some of the spikes in place with his Quirk, but that wasn't nearly enough to stop all of them. Tsu shattered some of the jagged constructs with their kicks, and swung the pros protecting Eri away from the massive wave of spikes with their tongue. Ochako worked on dodging for herself and maintaining concentration on her Zero Gravity to keep the pros airborne. Izuku worked on dodging with help from Danger Sense, and pulled Aizawa out of the way every time it seemed like a spike was a little too close to hitting him. The whole time, Aizawa kept trying for Erasure, but it wasn't registering Chisaki. It seemed that he'd hidden too well. Katsuki destroyed any spikes that came too close to himself or Izuku and Aizawa, and his blasts were getting more powerful as the fight went on — a unique boon for Katsuki and his Explosion compared to most other Quirks. The more he sweated, the stronger his Quirk was, and he was putting in work destroying these massive, rapid attacks before they could kill anyone.
"You think I was holding back before because I could kill Eri?" Chisaki cackled like a madman. "I really couldn't care less about her right now. As long as I bring her back quickly, it's no big deal." A sick feeling consumed Izuku as he connected the dots. Chisaki could bring people back from the dead with his Quirk? The thought came to him again as Blackwhip was empowered to grab and shatter a spike by his anger — Chisaki had all that power, and he chose to use it like this? "I was holding back because I was told not to kill you if I could, hero brat!" Izuku dodged another spike and pulled Aizawa out of the way, who grunted from being yanked so roughly. "You in the green!" His eyes widening, Izuku almost couldn't dodge another attack from the shock of realising that Chisaki was talking about him. "You're connected to those Children, aren't you?"
"Don't let this guy get in your head, Nexus!" Aizawa yelled over the rushing winds from Air Force. "He's trying to throw you off-balance so he can kill us!"
"I know that!" Izuku yelled back, and vented some of his anger through a kick that shattered one of the spikes all the way down to the ground in one big shockwave.
"Nexus, eh?" Chisaki said. "Well, Nexus, let's see you counter this!"
Chisaki suddenly moved. He pressed his hands down onto the ground and the chunk of the floor he was standing on was launched up and took the shape of the pillar that he'd created at the start of the fight, but which had been knocked down since then. The pillar reached the ceiling of the chamber, and Chisaki put his hands on it before the platform had even stopped moving. Aizawa tried to catch Chisaki in Erasure in the moments that he was exposed, but Chisaki erected a wall directly in front of himself to avoid that.
!
Dozens of spikes then descended from above, all of their trajectories curving toward Aizawa, who was between Izuku and the attack after having been yanked away from the last one. Izuku pulled on Blackwhip and put himself in the way of the spikes before putting his free hand out and pressing his middle finger against his thumb. Pinpoint Focus activated as he stared down the lethal wave of spikes coming his way. He hesitated to use one-hundred percent. This was an attack that he couldn't repel with twenty-five percent, but if he used one-hundred percent, the fight very well may have been over before he even pulled off his counter. It was a trump card he hadn't used in a long time, but that was what gave him pause. Was he willing to destroy himself again, possibly to never recover, to save Aizawa's life. Absolutely, but what would Aizawa want? Aizawa would tell him to find any other way to win than hurting himself to save others. Izuku released Pinpoint Focus and pointed his Air Force to the side, propelling himself and Aizawa, who he pulled in close, to the side.
"Throw me to Gren-Aid!" Aizawa yelled in his ear. "I can erase his Quirk from the other side!"
"Got it!" Izuku said. "Gren-Aid!"
"Way ahead of you!" Katsuki yelled, speeding toward the spot that Aizawa pointed to.
Using Air Force, Izuku spun around and flung Aizawa with all his strength toward Katsuki. His hair whipped in the winds generated by his centrifugal force, and Izuku then dodged backward with a kick when a stray spike tried to skewer him. Strangely enough, Danger Sense wasn't as loud as it had been. All of that malice, all of that killing intent, hadn't been directed at Izuku. It had been aimed at Aizawa. Chisaki must have really hated that Aizawa could take away his Quirk. The man in question flew through the air, his baggy hero costume flapping in the winds, but he only made it halfway to Katsuki, and not through any fault of his. Chisaki took advantage of their little plan and sent one massive, jagged spike at Aizawa before he could reach the side of his pillar that was unprotected from Erasure. Izuku and Katsuki both launched themselves forward through the sky, but Chisaki sent spikes to intercept their rescue attempt. Aizawa's eyes burned red as he activated his Quirk, and all the heroes shouted for Aizawa. Ochako and Tsu even leapt up toward him in order to save him, but they weren't fast enough either.
A spike drove itself right into Aizawa's face, and a spray of blood gushed out. The whole world went silent as Eraserhead's students watched him scream in pain, the first time he'd ever done such a thing in front of them. He closed his red eyes and his hair flapped in the wind once again, his Quirk deactivated. They'd lost the use of Erasure against Chisaki.
What hope was there now?