The Hero & The Demon
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Sora Kinzoku had made her decision. She just had to live long enough to follow through on it.
"What's the plan?" She asked, doing her best to maintain a brave face. She was quite honestly scared out of her mind for a lot of reasons, only some of which were shared by her friends, but she didn't want to be the first one to break down. There would be time for that later, once they were all safe.
Deku tapped a finger against his chin thoughtfully. Tsuyu and Sora both watched him intently. He seemed to be the brains of their team so far, being the first person to figure out the flaws in the villain's plans.
"Well, we should start by going over what our Quirks are." He said. "We'll need to be careful how we all use our abilities if we're going to survive. My power's sort of a double-edged sword. I can channel an incredible amount of strength through my body, but using it causes me to break down. I've got to be extremely careful about where and when I make my move."
"Makes sense." Sora nodded. "Is there no way of moderating your output, though? It doesn't seem right that your only options are zero or a hundred." Deku shook his head. Sora already knew the answer to this question thanks to Kage, but she felt that prompting it in a situation like this was worth trying.
"That's not something I've been able to handle yet." He explained. He looked down at one hand and clenched his fist. "Sorry. I'm working on it, but I've got a lot further to go. I don't think I could figure it out in a situation like this."
"That's okay." Tsuyu spoke up reassuringly. She patted Deku on the back. "Ribbit. You power's still really amazing. In fact, it's probably our best shot if we want to take out the villains at all, or at least keep them back." Sora nodded her head in agreement.
"Yeah. We'll probably need something big, so you've got that covered." She smiled. "Not to be rude or anything, but I don't think Tsu and I are exactly powerhouses. You're our best bet in terms of offence." She crossed her arms. She glanced over to Tsuyu. If she was offended, she didn't display it.
"That's fair." She shrugged. "My Quirk lets me do everything that a frog can do. I can leap high up and climb on walls, and my tongue can extend to about twenty meters. I can also spit up my stomach to clean it, and secrete a poisonous fluid. It's not that strong though, it mostly just stings a bit."
"Have you used the poison against other people before?" Sora asked immediately. "It's possible that your frog-like form gives you more natural resistance to your own body's output. If we end up going in the water again, it might be worth trying to poison the waters so it hurts the bad guys."
"I guess. Ribbit." Tsuyu said, placing a finger on her chin. "But wouldn't that also hurt you guys? Plus, I don't know if my poison would spread fast enough through all that water." Sora grinned.
"That's where I come in." She jerked a thumb to herself confidently. "I call my Quirk 'Razor Wing'. I can manifest wings out of metal that I use to fly. It uses up the iron in my blood, though, so I can't keep it going for too long. If I'm lucky, I can supplement it by absorbing and transmuting nearby metal to keep them up or even expand them. I...don't remember if there's a limit to that." She finished hesitantly. Deku raised an eyebrow.
"You don't remember?" He asked. Sora looked away, suddenly feeling much shyer than she was a moment ago. "Does that mean you've never pushed it far enough to find out?" Sora sighed.
"I-I think I have. When I was young." She forced the words out. This was really not the time nor the place to be getting into this, but she supposed they needed all the information they could get if they wanted any chance at surviving. "There are a lot of things about my childhood I try not to think about. My Quirk happens to be one of them. I... I didn't really come to UA so I could learn more about it or anything. I only went to the entrance exam so I could fly around for a while. I'm not really supposed to be here."
The others looked between themselves for a moment. Sora could tell they were judging her, even if they were far too kind to do so in the mean-spirited way she felt was deserved. Deku was the first to speak up again.
"I don't think that's true, Sora." He said, surprising her. Sora raised an eyebrow at him. "I-I know it's not exactly the same as you, but I also worried about whether or not I should really be here. Honestly, I still worry about it. But we both earned our places here. We're supposed to be here by every metric that exists. It doesn't matter why you got in, or if I'm capable enough. What matters is that we're here, now."
"I agree." Tsuyu added. "Ribbit. You're both probably being too hard on yourselves. You've done really well in class, and you're well liked. So long as you're both doing your best, I don't think anything else matters." She shrugged. Those words must have been easy for her to say and internalise.
Sora wasn't so sure. She knew there was more to her situation, to not being supposed to be at UA. But those reasons weren't things the others would understand, and Sora got the feeling they wouldn't care if she told them.
Maybe she shouldn't have cared either. This was her life, not a story. Who cared if she wasn't following some pre-existing script? She'd write her own.
"Speeches aside," Sora said jokingly. "How are we going to do this? I don't think I can fly us away without being spotted, and that's assuming I could carry you both. I don't know if you've noticed but I'm not really all that strong?" She flexed an arm to demonstrate. It was thin and weak, much like the rest of her.
"I noticed." Tsuyu said, perhaps unnecessarily in Sora's opinion. "They're still nice arms, though. Ribbit." Her face dusted red as she tried to figure out how on earth she was supposed to respond to that observation.
"Thanks?" She guessed. It seemed appropriate. She shook her head. "A-anyway, I could try to lift you guys both up, but I don't think I could hold onto you for long. Plus, they could probably try shooting us out of the air with whatever powers they have."
Sora wished she hadn't drawn attention to the villain's abilities, because it seemed as though she had just jinxed them all.
A massive arm made of water sliced through the entire boat, forcing Sora and the others to have to leap over to one side. The sound was deafening and terrifying – sliced metal that cut through the air itself. Sora instinctively summoned forth her wings and wrapped them around the others, trying to shield them from any debris that might come crashing against them.
After a moment, the immediate damage was done. Sora let her wings fall apart. The good news was that she had succeeded to some extent; nothing had gotten close to touching either of her friends thanks to her quick response. The bad news was that now, on top of being stuck on a boat that was surrounded by murderous supervillains, it was now sinking.
Sora was about to wonder aloud if the day could get any worse, but she didn't want to risk it. If the gods were listening, they'd take it as an invitation.
"Shit. Shit. Shit." Sora cursed. "Okay, I'm dead. We took too long and now I'm dead. I can't swim and we're about to sink into more water than I've ever seen before in my lift and I am so totally and completely dead." She knew that panicking was probably not the best thing to do, but she wasn't really able to stop herself. She overheard the villains down below.
"Bet they're really freaking out now. Those kids are dead!" One voice laughed maniacally. Another replied to it firmly.
"Don't get too confident," The second villain said. "Shigaraki said that we can't afford to underestimate them. Their age or how panicked they are doesn't matter. We still have their Quirks to worry about, even if we are strong in the water."
"You worry too much." The first villain dismissed them. "Just 'cause Dangan got his ass beat doesn't mean we're not going to crush these guys. Besides, that boat is gonna sink in less than a minute. Pretty soon, their Quirks won't matter!"
The villains were right. Sora had less than sixty seconds to live. There was no way she would be able to get off the boat without being shot out of the sky, and that wasn't even accounting for the other two. Her decision to fight to save them was meaningless when there was no way she could survive or fight regardless.
Her eyes screwed themselves shut.
"I'm sorry." Her voice came out in a whisper.
"'The moment your enemy thinks they're about to win represents your best chance.'" Sora opened her eyes to see Deku standing up. He was shaking, clearly also terrified for his life. But he was still standing. "All-Might said that in a documentary interview once."
"W-what...?" He couldn't be serious, could he? There was no way any of them could turn this situation around. They weren't All-Might; they were scared kids! Deku's entire body was shaking, and he still thought there was a chance to fight? How?
How was he so strong?
"This is our only chance." He said. "We can still win this!" Sora didn't understand how he could still believe that. And yet, somehow, the fact that he did meant something.
Deku climbed the wall of the ship and let out a scream. It wasn't a cry of desperation like Sora was convinced was all she could manage. No, he had let out a battle cry. It was a fierce and aggressive sound that signalled to the villains that they were done for.
He leapt out of the boat and thrusted his arm down.
"GO TO HELL!"
All of his fury and frustration must have poured its way through his attack, for the impact that came with his cry was enough to shift the once calm water into violent and thrashing waves. The villains who had previously been drunk on their bloodlust and confidence were now being tossed all around, unable to maintain any semblance of their position.
"Sora." Tsuyu snapped attention to her. She shifted her over so that she could be carried with one arm, and tensed the rest of her body for a leap. With a diversion like this, they could probably clear most of the water and make it near the surface.
"SORA, TSUYU!" Deku cried out, no doubt thinking the same thing as he began plummeting through the air. Tsuyu leapt, seemingly able to carry Sora with no difficulty. She didn't hesitate. Her voice never wavered, nor did her body tremble. She simply did what she could and what was right.
Sora looked down at the waters. They were still thrashing, but they would settle soon. The villains wouldn't be trapped. There was every possibility they would go after them even now. Sora gritted her teeth.
Her friends had done so much, and they still weren't safe? Even with all of the risks they were taking, it still wasn't enough? It wasn't fair!
Her mother's voice appeared in her mind. Words she had hated to listen to back then.
"Sora, when we're needed, we can't afford to let anything stop us. One day, you'll understand that."
Gods, she hated her. She couldn't stand the thought of that woman. There was only one thing she hated more than her mother.
How much she loved her. And how much she held onto her words.
"Move your arm back." Sora instructed Tsuyu. Tsuyu looked over to her for a moment, but she did as she was asked. Sora grunted. She didn't know how much metal she still had in her, nor how much she really needed for this. She hadn't attempted this since she was a child.
Instead of the usual wings, two large pillars stabbed their way out of Sora's back. They weren't unlike bone, save for their smooth nature and steely silver colour. Sora felt them resonate, a frequency aligning them and emerging out from her.
She called her Quirk 'Razor Wing'. That was not its name. It bore a name she hated, yet one that carried a great deal of weight. One that echoed down, deep into tunnels that were held by its vigilance. One that she had ran away from, too afraid of what it would ask of her.
Her Quirk was called Kinzoku.
Metal.
Sora roared out a battle cry of her own, and the large boat behind the others responded. Sora could feel it more than she could see it – every bolt, every screw and every single metal slab burnt its way into more of her senses than her vision could ever comprehend. She could feel the parts that were beyond her eyes, deep in the water.
She willed them to move, and they obeyed.
Piece by piece, with speed that no craftsmen could ever hope to match, the boat reassembled itself into something new. It was a haphazard creation, but there were enough pieces to make it work. The shape of the boat shifted and the metal curled itself all around the villains. Deku's attack had drawn them all into one place.
Sora screamed as she felt the entire structure arrange itself into what she desired. What was once a boat was now a vast, bowl-like shape that walled the villains away from the rest of the facility. They tried to bask their hands against it, but it held. Sora would not let it fall.
This power of hers was good at one thing. She could always make a cage.
Tsuyu finally landed after what felt like an eternity. The area they arrived at was shallow, but even so, Sora almost managed to drown as she tumbled from her arms and collapsed. She forced herself up, but just getting to a kneeling position was agony. She raised a hand to her mouth.
When she took it away, she saw blood. She coughed and found more spewed out against the water. In her reflection, she also saw some sliding down from her nose.
"H-h-h...haven't..." She hacked out another cough, trying to at least force herself to smile at her friends. "Haven't used that in...a l-long time. I guess I'm...rusty?" She grinned at her own joke. The others looked at her with awe. She didn't like that, but she didn't have nearly enough energy to protest.
"Sora, that was amazing!" Tsuyu's voice held more emotion than Sora had heard from it during the entire encounter. Deku nodded along next to her.
"I-I can't believe you were capable of all that! Your Quirk is incredible!" Deku said. He almost looked like he might have made some attempt to question her about it, but her groans seemed to be enough to dissuade him. "Right, sorry. Can you move?"
Sora didn't know. She nodded. Clearly unsatisfied with that, The two shifted her into the middle and each took one of her arms. Sora's metallic pillars – antenna, she remembered calling them when she was younger – dissolved into dust.
She tried to thank them, but she didn't have the strength to speak. Her vision was blurring, and all she wanted to do was collapse and pretend this whole thing was a dream. Still, at least the hard part was over.
It was at that moment that the lights of the USJ shattered.
Less than an hour before Kage Sekai's life was changed forever, he had been fighting for his life in a fiery hellscape. He naturally had assumed that things wouldn't get much worse than as they were, given that he was surrounded by murderers and criminals intent on either killing him or capturing him and sending him somewhere much worse.
As if that wasn't bad enough, many seemed perfectly happy for there to be overlap on those conditions. He was doing his best to block and dodge around countless jets of flame, but he was surrounded. There was little room to breathe, not that the smoke-filled air made that easy anyway.
"Keep on him!"
"He's just one kid, how haven't we got him yet?!"
"Idiot! Think the boss would want someone weak?!"
"Well, he said he didn't care if he was dead!"
"I don't think I'd mind either!"
The villains' words and conversations washed over him, but he tried his best to avoid focusing on their words, or the panting sounds coming from his own mouth. He also had to do his best to avoid the uncomfortable tingling that was crawling across his whole body with his power. If it wasn't enough to kill him, it wasn't enough to worry about.
He had too much left to do. People to save, a world to improve. He was not allowed to die here.
His mind briefly flickered to Sora. She was only here because he couldn't take care of himself at the entrance exam. He had panicked, and because of that she needed to save him. That act had determined her fate as a member of UA, and ever since then Kage had been dictating the future for her. He had pushed her to get more and more involved with his plans of saving the world, even when it was clear that wasn't what she wanted.
He had been too reliant on her for support. And the moment she needed him to give it back, she had slipped away from his grasp. She had been pulled away to gods-knew where, all because he wasn't able to help her. Even after everything, he had not been able to repay her.
He was only ever more in her debt.
The onslaught continued. Kage saw an arm reach out to him, so he grabbed it. He crushed the bones with one hand, making a sickening crack ring out across the arena. He then channelled power through his arms and lifted the villain, slamming them across into another group. They didn't deactivate their flames fast enough, and the villain he had thrown got themselves severely burnt.
Were they breathing? Kage didn't know. And as much as he hated it, he couldn't afford to care in the moment either. The thrown body provided a few seconds of distraction. He had to take advantage of that.
Forcing his mind to ignore the thoughts he knew would paralyse him, Kage channelled strength into his legs and leapt up through the air. As he did so, he sent the energy out from his legs in mid-air and sent it out as dozens of small blasts that spread throughout the crowd. They shot out from him like bolts of lightning fired from a storm.
Kage didn't pause to see where exactly the bolts hit, but he heard cries and screams of pain. He hoped that was all they were.
Just as he wasn't allowed to die here, he wasn't allowed to kill. He had seen death, felt the horrors that awaited beyond. The agony of feeling oneself be unmade. Kage had made a deal with a devil jut to avoid it, and it had come at the cost of one life too many already.
These people may have been supervillains out for blood, but that didn't change the fact that they were alive. That alone was valuable.
He managed to dive through the window of one of the fake buildings. The construction wasn't dissimilar to the mock city districts used in their battle training. The walls and floor of the building were bare, with little inside to populate it. It didn't seem any of the villains were hiding within, so he probably had time to catch his breath for a moment. He leaned down, though knew better than to sit.
He didn't know how long the building would last, after all. This place was made to simulate massive fires. Collapse was possible, especially with the villains outside patrolling the area for him. Still, he needed a few moments at least.
"Oh gods..." He breathed out. "Everyone else better be okay. It's hard to see anything clear, even with the special eyes." He tried to activate the power, but the result only produced an unintelligible mess of colours outside – most likely Aizawa and the crowd of villains. There were three lights that stood farther away which stood out to him.
One of them was Sora. He didn't know how he could tell, but he knew it for certain. The good news was that she was alive. The bad news was that she was in the flood zone.
"Shit!" He cursed, forcing himself upright. "I was hoping that would change on its own. I have to get over there!" In the main series, the flood zone was conquered thanks to the combined efforts of Izuku Midoriya, Tsuyu Asui and one student who was now no longer present – Minoru Mineta.
Kage had never been a fan of that character, but he was essential in securing the villains in the flood zone, allowing for the heroes to survive unharmed. As far as Kage knew, Sora lacked any ability to do the same with her Quirk.
She made wings out of metal. It was a great power, but it was ill-suited to her environment. Kage started sprinting. He had to reach her, had to save her, he had to-
Someone leapt out in front of him. Kage couldn't stop himself from running head-first into them, and he collided. His helmet shattered with the impact, though the figure before him barely seemed to flinch. He was a man with tanned skin and pale white hair. He grabbed Kage quickly, using not just his arms but a long scorpion-like tail that curled around him and restrained his hands and legs, stopping just below his mouth and allowing Kage a clear view of the stinger, which glowed with a sickly green taint.
"Sis told me you'd ran off." The man spoke in a harsh and raspy voice. "She was never cut out for this. Always had her little episodes and freak outs. Don't know why dad liked her so much. The elder child is always the stronger one. Wouldn't you agree, Kage?"
"S-s...shut up," Kage gritted out as the tail began to constrict his throat. "And get the hell off me!" The villain's firm grip only tightened. Kage tried forcing his power through his body, as much as he could handle, but it wasn't enough strength to overpower the constriction.
His head felt light. He was starting to lose air.
"How rude!" The man said with a grin that made it clear he wasn't in the least bit offended. "Take that tone with me too much and I'll have to use little 'Zaiaku-Ori' here to poison you. That'd be a really nasty way to go. I'd say you could ask my dad to prove it, but he's dead. The doctors still can't stop his body from convulsing, and it's been years." Kage's eyes went wide with terror as the villain leaned his head down.
"How does that sound to you, Kage? Would you like to roll in your grave?" He taunted. "Or would you like to just be a good little boy and pass out of suffocation. If I don't forget to release you, you might stay alive. I'm sure the big boss would love having you back as a live specimen. He's big into science, the way I hear. So, what'll it be? Die now, or live long enough to have nice and healthy organs intact later?"
Kage could barely think. His vision was blurring, he couldn't breathe, and every muscle in his body was going limp. There was only one certainty in his mind.
He was going to die.
"You will not. I cannot allow it."
He couldn't respond with what little he had left, but he could hear the voice in his mind this time. His ever-present companion still hadn't abandoned him.
"You are not ready, but perhaps I must be. We have no time. Will you let me in?"
As Kage's eyelids drifted closed, he channelled strength through every fibre of his being. He forced the black energy to encompass as much of him as it could.
That would have to serve as his answer.
"Excellent. Now I may be let out."
At that moment, all of the lights in the USJ facility shut off.
For a moment, there was nothing but darkness. Then, Kage Sekai was gone.
The demon had awoken. Black eyes snapped open, and a burning beam of energy launched itself high into the sky, shattering the roof of the building and announcing to all the presence of this overwhelming force. The fires that surrounded the area now burned cold, as though heat itself as a concept trembled in fear at what had emerged.
The villain was flung harshly off of the body. His entire front half was now viciously burnt. He was still breathing, however. The violent screams of agony made that clear enough. A new voice took a deep breath and exhaled a cold mist. The body responded to its presence. The skin went icy pale, and the veins filled themselves with this power, no longer feeling the restriction of the red blood that once moved it.
Kage Sekai. Darren Smythe. This being was neither. But it had waited for this moment for so long. Now, at last, the demon was loose.
"Finally."
Mashirao Ojiro fell back as he witnessed the new figure utterly obliterate the villain. Her jaw was nowhere to be seen, and she bleeding profusely into the new crater that had been left. The impact of this thing's strength.
"I'm going to ask a question. Pay attention." The figure's voice didn't travel through the air, but rather burnt its way through it. It was an impossible sensation to hear it. The voice seared its way into the mind even after it had finished speaking, its every word engraving itself into one's soul.
Unsure of who was supposed to respond, Ojiro managed to make himself nod. The figure seemed pleased by it.
"How much blood does a human body need to survive?" The figure's eyes flicked between Ojiro and the villain, whose blood was still soaking the ground around them. A crimson taint that besmirched the land. It held no fear, nor reverence in its motion. It simply continued to flow.
"I-I...I don't k-know." Ojiro thought for a moment, but fear slowed his mind. The figure watched him carefully with narrow eyes and he scrambled to think of a proper answer to give. "Two litres, I think! I-I heard that somewhere." He recalled the information as best he could. He was pretty sure it had come up in middle school biology at some point, though it hadn't been dwelt on.
"Hm. Very well." The figure replied in an unconcerned tone. It raised its hand from the woman's throat and flexed it out. A black glow extended from it and wrapped itself around her for a moment, before vanishing. The blood around the woman stopped moving. It hadn't dried, it simply refused to move any further.
The figure climbed out from the crater and dusted itself off. Up close, Ojiro noticed that the veins across its body didn't travel like normal blood vessels. They were shifting, as though trying to align themselves into some more esoteric shape.
In fact, it seemed that they were attempting to match the lines and patterns that adorned Kage's costume. Did that mean its arrival had been planned, or was it mere coincidence? Perhaps the figure simply had a fondness for the aesthetic? It was impossible to know.
The figure moved one hand. Ojiro found himself flinching involuntarily. Fortunately, it seemed he needn't have been concerned. They were extending an open hand out to him, making it plain that they meant no harm. Their face bore a smile – an approximation of one of Kage's, it seemed. It looked distinctly unnatural upon this figure's face.
"Mashirao Ojiro." They addressed him. "You have been an ally to my host. Thus, you are an ally to me. I would see you aided, as I would your compatriots. So long as you do not threaten our life, I shall make no move against yours. You have my word." Ojiro hesitated, then after a moment, he carefully took the figure's hand.
They pulled him up to his feet, though it was done swiftly and with some roughness. For a moment, Ojiro was almost sure his shoulder would be dislocated. The figure noticed his discomfort and frowned.
"My apologies." It said. "I have not taken on a form of this nature in some time. My strength is an uncertainty. You physicals are often more fragile than I expect."
"Physicals?" Ojiro found himself compelled to ask. The figure seemed pleased by the question and raised a pointed finger.
"Physical, corporeal beings." They clarified. "I do not typically exist in a material state as you do. My nature is that of energy, not mass. I am a conscious entity devoid of the limitations of physical form. However, a host is required for my power to be wielded in this realm."
"Right." Ojiro nodded, pretending he understood. The closest thing he could think of to what it described was some kind of ghost or phantom – a spirit without enough strength on its own to persist, something that bound itself to the living world through some kind of anchoring point. Like a haunted house or even someone who was cursed.
He had seen plenty of horror movies – a guilty pleasure of his. He hadn't expected to encounter one in real life, but there were many things he did not expect today.
"Kuryo."
"Huh?" Ojiro pulled himself out of his distracted thoughts. The figure wasn't looking at him, but was rather scanning the area around. "What is that?" The figure sighed.
"My name." It revealed. Ojiro immediately felt stupid for not guessing that. "You are wondering who and what I am. There is much I could say, but little I am certain should be told. My title can wait for a moment more appropriate, but you may know my name is Kuryo."
Ojiro nodded. Whilst Kuryo still maintained a distinctly unsettling presence, the fact that they were an ally allowed him to relax somewhat. There was no more threat of this unknown presence moving against him. That said, he couldn't lower his guard completely. He still didn't know enough about who Kuryo was or what their intentions were.
He had reason to believe that this entity was likely the reason the villains wanted Kage. He just didn't know what purpose they had for it. Nor did he know if Kuryo was aligned with that purpose or opposed to it. They had attacked the villain, but there was no way to know why it had done so. Perhaps it had simply been in the entity's way.
"What happened to Kage?" Ojiro asked, now feeling more assured that Kuryo wouldn't turn hostile on him just for drawing attention to the boy's absence. Kuryo looked down, their expression solemn. They placed one hand upon their torso, where Kage's circular logo was.
"Safe." Kuryo said with uncharacteristic softness. "He sleeps, for he is not ready to face this awake. But we have little time for questions. Do you wish for freedom, or battle?" Ojiro wondered about that for a moment. He couldn't lie and say there was no part of him that wanted to go up against the villains in combat, especially given that he seemed to have a powerhouse next to him who could keep things from getting lethal if the need arose.
But he knew better than to go looking for trouble. Martial arts was a skill he honed for self-defence and the defence of others, not for some selfish pursuit of glory. His pride could wait, at least until he knew everyone was safe.
"Freedom." Ojiro said firmly. "For me and my classmates. Is that something you can help with?" Kuryo snorted derisively.
"That is not the question you mean to ask," They said. They held out one arm and let energy coil around it. It writhed around like two snakes wrapping themselves around a tree. "No matter. I am willing. My host would be displeased if I did not secure your safety. The task shall be trivial."
"Thanks." Ojiro gave a polite nod. Kuryo returned it, though its face indicated it was perhaps displeased by the gesture in some way. It rolled its eyes, as though it was a tired parent trying to indulge the request of a child. "We'll need to find the exit. I think the best course of action is to find a central area and orient ourselves from there." Kuryo shook their head and gave a chuckle.
"I forget you know not who you're dealing with, Mashirao Ojiro." They said, their voice rich with amusement. They began walking forward, so Ojiro followed cautiously behind. He kept his eyes open for villains. He didn't know how many had come across Kuryo, so there was still a chance they could both be taken by surprise.
Nothing leapt out at them, though they only walked a short distance. It seemed they were near the front of this environment, though there still wasn't an exit visible. Kuryo stopped in front of the main wall.
"There they are!"
"What' up with that kid? Something feels off."
"Who cares?! We get paid no matter what!"
"He's just a kid, not All-Might. We can take 'em!"
Four villains revealed themselves, emerging from one of the burning buildings. Ojiro turned to face them, readying himself into a combative stance. Kuryo didn't turn, nor did he move into a position for battle. He simply cocked his head to one side.
"I see ignorance is alive and well in this world." Kuryo's voice chilled the villains. Ojiro swore the temperature of the room had dropped once more. He found himself shivering. "Not to worry. It is my great joy to educate lesser beings. I believe you humans have an expression for this, Ojiro. Two birds with one stone, is that right?"
Ojiro was about to ask what Kuryo was talking about, but there was no time. There was a shift in the air so sudden that it caused the winds to whip around harshly, a hurricane summoned in less than an instant. Kuryo was no longer standing.
Ojiro had barely enough time to register the motion as it lunged forth. None of the villains were given any time to react. Kuryo stopped as they slid behind the villains and raised a fist, their grin manic and wild.
"Smash!" It announced as its fist moved. There was a sonic boom. Ojiro felt sure there would be more sounds present as well, such as that of the villains colliding with and shattering the solid concrete walls and being launched out. Perhaps the sounds of their pained cries, or the sound of shattering bones and blood flying.
But his ears bled, and he heard little else.
Kuryo appeared next to him once more. They placed one hand on his shoulder and sound returned once more. Ojiro looked out. Aizawa was still fighting against the large group of villains, many of whom had turned to face their new arrival. Kuryo tilted its head towards Ojiro, its grin still present.
"You chose freedom, correct? Run as fast as you can to the door you came from. Your classmates will be gathering there." Ojiro nodded. He had no idea what was happening today, but any questions would have their time later. For now, he needed to focus on getting free.
One of the villains tried to chase him, noticing him run just as he arrived at the foot of the stairs. They were about to strike him, so he threw up his arms in a hasty block.
He needn't have bothered. Kuryo appeared in front of him in an instant. The villain let out a gasp, taking a moment to recognise that his clenched fist had been cut off by a sudden spike of black energy and now laid flat on the ground.
"Volunteers. It's been too long since I last fought. Now to have fun!"
AN: The reveal of Sora's true power has been on my mind for some time, though not quite as long as the battles there are to come. Next time, the fights really get going. See you then!