Hood growled. "Stop. Comparing that and me." Hissing, Hood stretched himself out, so that he was at full height. "Stupid Nomu's Quirk made him a stupid punching bag. Stupid! Only absorb punches! Worthless, dumb! Shock Absorption dumb! Dumb with heroes that can set you on fire. Dumb with heroes that can fire lasers from their eyes. Dumb dumb dumb!" Hood thrashed around, stomping his feet in a tantrum. "Punching bag Quirk was worthless. Can't punch back." He stopped stomping and alarmed Ochako when he lifted himself up so that all four of his hands had their palms facing her, and a still not all there Katsuki. "But me? I can absorb those heroes' attacks. All of them, even explosions. My Quirk's not Shock Absorption, it's Absorption and Release!"
Ochako's eyes went wide as every instinct she had told her to fucking move. Oh shit! Oh shit shit shit! She floated Katsuki and hauled him up, just as she heard an all too familiar popping and crackling. She jumped to the side, just as Hood's palms unleashed a massive explosive cone that evaporated the spot the pair had just been. Ochako screamed as she and Katsuki were thrown away from the force of the blast. Even if it wasn't a direct hit, the size of the attack made a direct hit not matter.
There's no such thing as a glancing blow from an explosion.
Hood was beside himself, cackling while he lowered himself back down onto all fours while shaking his smoking upper hands. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I always wanted to do that! You kept attacking and I kept absorbing and look what I did!"
"You know," Tomura grumbled while digging at his ringing ears, "I wanted him alive right? To see if he'd change his mind before we got out of here."
Hood's head snaked around. "If he's dead then he wasn't worth the offer."
Tomura shrugged. "Fair point, I guess." He then peered into the smoke and darkness. "Is he?" When Hood didn't answer, Tomura smacked its side. "Hey! Talking to you." He frowned when he saw that Hood wasn't looking at him, but out towards the horizon. Then suddenly, he twitched and Tomura gave an alarmed shout when Hood folded in his wing and wrapped his body around him.
"DOWN!"
Hood only had the chance to scream out his warning, just before the night sky was split in two.
There's a saying about plans in war. No plan survives first contact with the enemy. The League of Villains had divided, scattered and engaged their targets. And for several minutes, as far as the twin leaders of the attack were concerned, things were going right. There were still steps needed to be taken before a full victory could be achieved but, as far as Lady Nagant and Chimera were concerned, this operation was going fine.
That was until a shaft of liquid light suddenly shot across the sky, and illuminated the whole forest in viridian light.
And deafened everyone as it roared like the furnaces of hell were just stoked.
The light shot out straight, until it slammed into the side of a mountain that encircled the Wild Wild Pussycats' valley. For several seconds the light burned trees to ash and the rocks vaporized from the heat. Lady Nagant, from her sniping point, hissed at the heat that struck her. She was a mile or so away, but she could still feel the hellish heat from where she was. She pivoted her rifle, eye down the scope trying to figure out what the hell was making that light, when suddenly the source of the attack twisted, and that beam was turned, the end of the light now dragged across the mountainside.
It twisted fast, the beam stretching out into a wide cone, but Lady Nagant was already moving, Blackwhip shooting out like tendrils as she swung, scurried and clawed away through the trees as she realized her position was right in the light's path. She was several football pitches away when her spot was incinerated, narrowly avoiding sharing the same fate as the corpse she had traded places with back in Tartarus.
But while she was far enough away to avoid the light, she wasn't far enough to avoid the massive explosion that ripped itself free from the melted out gash along the rock face and obliterated the side of the mountain. Lady Nagant tumbled through debris, smoke and fire as she did everything she could to not get smashed by the house-sized boulders that flew past her.
The beam of light faded, leaving a trail of destruction across a ripped apart mountainside and a cloud of smoke and dust that reached up into the black night sky, a billowing mushroom cloud of horror and destruction which held the horrified attention of heroes and villains alike.
Tomura dug himself out of Hood's coiled body to stare at the rising fireball that now blanketed the whole forest in harsh orange and red light. "What. The fuck?"
"Gun lady was in the mountains." Hood kept a close watch on the rising fire. "Gun lady probably dead."
"Where the hell did that blast come from?! Who the hell can do something like that?!" Tomura wanted out of Hood's grip, but he wasn't making much progress. To his annoyance, it seemed like Hood was following his orders to protect him really well.
"It was green." Tomura took a few seconds to let that sink in, before he really started struggling to get free. "You're done. Boss said if things went sideways, you were done." Hood wasn't giving Tomura a chance to argue, as his wings spread out and he made sure Tomura's fingers were held away from his body.
Before Hood could take flight, a sudden rustle and muffled screams pulled his attention back towards the woods, which was falling back into darkness as the fireball faded away. He laughed and screamed into the night, "We'll play again, Bakugou! We'll play and play until you're a bloody paste in the dirt!"
Flapping his wings, Hood rocketed up into the night sky, soaring away and taking a very pissed off Tomura with him.
When Ochako couldn't see the two any longer, she finally took her hand off Katsuki's mouth, hissing as his teeth finally stopped being clamped down on her palm. "Don't screa—"
"Tsubasa! Get back here! We aren't—"
Ochako snapped, and with Katsuki still under the effect of her Quirk, threw him against the trunk of the closest tree. The thunk of his body bouncing off would have been cathartic if not for the situation.
And while the throw had gotten him to stop yelling for the moment, Ochako needed him to stay quiet. So she quickly chased after him, reared back her fist, then drove it into his face with a wet crunch. Blood splattered out from Katsuki's nose, droplets of crimson floating in the air, unaffected by gravity like the rest of Katsuki.
The bloody nose fit in perfectly with the battered and bruised boy who still didn't look quite right. He looked like he got into a fight with a collapsing building. He had a hell of a shiner and multiple abrasions that were welling up with red beads of blood.
Ochako was also worse for wear. Clothes charred, hair singed, cuts on her face along with a badly split lip wet with blood, and several blotches of skin were already turning pink from the heat of the explosion. She definitely looked like she had fought that same collapsing burning building.
Both looked like they just got their asses handed to them, because they had. They had lost the fight. Though Ochako wouldn't call what had just happened a fight. That had been a beatdown, which they had been lucky to escape from.
Ochako stepped up and grabbed Katsuki's collar, and pressed his back against the rough bark. "Listen t'ah me you fucking sack of shit. We just got our asses handed to us by something I don't think was even trying. If that Nomu wanted us dead, we would be fucking dead. We just escaped with our lives, so don't you dare let your ego call that thing back."
Katsuki reached up and grabbed Ochako's wrists, squeezing hard as he tried to get her off him. "I wasn't done fighting!"
Ochako ripped a hand back, balled up her fist and was about to punch him again, only for Katsuki to get a hand up and press it right into her chest. Smoke began to escape from his palm where it made contact with the spot stained clothing, a warning that if she tried throwing that punch, she'd get blasted.
"You never even started fighting," Ochako countered. Fist still raised, her face scrunched up from the smoke wafting past her face, blood now dripping down her brow, letting her know one of the bumps on her head was more than just a nasty welt. "The moment Shigaraki goaded you with that Nomu, you weren't fighting. You were flailing around in a panic. You look me in the eye and tell me you're proud of that shitshow back there."
Katsuki's face soured.
"You're messed up. And I'm sorry, I really am, but right now, being a dumbass isn't going to do anyone any good. If that Nomu… that Hood is your friend, then…"
Katsuki spat out some blood from his mouth off to the side, pulling his other hand off Ochako's wrist to wipe away anything that was left. "It was him. Tsubasa."
Ochako's face softened, though she kept her fist ready to drive through Katsuki's skull. "I'm sorry. Honest to god I am. But right now, there's nothing you can do. And if you get yourself killed trying to do something stupid, then there's nothing you'll be able to do later."
Katsuki scowled. "The fuck am I supposed to do later?"
"Fuck if I know Bakugou. But right now, I need you here. Shigaraki and Ho…Tsubasa flew off, but there are still other villains attacking. I…" Ochako hated Katsuki. She hated him, but knew right now, her own feelings didn't matter. "I need you to get your head on straight. You're Deku's rival, right? Well, you can't call yourself that if one of you isn't fighting smart. I need you smart."
Katsuki's eyes narrowed. Ochako was pressing the Deku button, a sure fire way to piss off the other boy. But being pissed off was Katsuki in his natural state. Not this panicked uncontrollable bullshit she'd just seen. How he had been, that would get him killed.
"You saw that light, right? That green light," Ochako pressed on while Katsuki was back to glaring at her. "Deku just blew up a mountain. Deku just did that. The only way he could is if he pumped up his Boric Pyre with One for All. And he wouldn't do that unless he was in trouble."
Katsuki took a second, before he pulled his palm off Ochako's chest, the spot now blackened and with bits of cloth falling away as ash. "That attack came from above us," he said carefully, color slowly returning to his face as he pushed Tsubasa and the horrors connected to him down. "It wasn't anywhere near the fucking path."
"I know."
"He didn't have a game partner either."
"I know."
For maybe the first time since the attack, Katsuki got a good look at Ochako. She was holding herself together by threads. Here she was, blasting him for falling into a panic, and she was one bad thought away from doing it herself. Katsuki knew Ochako was fiercely protective of Izuku. He knew he was also the reason for that, but that was beside the point. Ochako took her role seriously. As Izuku's best friend. As a member of his inner One for All circle, and now with him being her boyfriend, every feeling and instinct she had must be screaming at her to rush to Izuku's aid.
Fuck. Katsuki was putting together all the pieces now. Izuku was alone. Izuku wasn't on the path where the rest of the class was. Izuku had probably just pushed his Boric Pyre, an extremely self-destructive Quirk he had extremely limited experience with, into full Plus Ultra. All these things added together, did not paint a good picture.
I'm off my game so I'm only getting the picture now. Pink Cheeks probably put this all together the moment she saw the damned light.
"We can't go save your boyfriend's sorry ass if you're going to stand there pretending you're still going to punch me again."
Ochako let out the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding, and finally pulled away. When she tapped her fingers together to let Katsuki drop to the ground, she realized her hands were shaking. "Fuck." She gripped her hands tightly. Because now that she had put their whole attack behind her, her mind had a moment to really start thinking about all the worst case scenarios she hadn't been able to before. She'd seen what happened to Izuku if he went overboard with his fire. And what she had seen minutes ago was way worse than Hosu. "Fuck. We need… Todoroki or…"
Oh god. Everyone else. Himiko. Tsu. They are all out there. And Kouta too. Ochako gripped her hands tighter, recalling that where that light had come from, was awfully close to where she had watched Izuku go after Kouta before.
Katsuki reached up to his nose, and gave it a painful tug, confirming that it wasn't broken. He pressed his thumb on one side and blew out, clearing one nostril, then the other,. "We find that shitty nerd first and then worry about what kind of first aid he'll need."
Ochako froze.
"Right now we know where Deku is, but we need to hurry or he might move before we reach him." Katsuki pointed towards the small hill where the blast had come from. "So we go straight there. We can't worry about finding other people in this forest right now."
Ochako lowered her hands, took a breath, and balled her hands into fists, knuckles cracking. "I think the light came from where Kouta would hide away from us. Deku followed him the other night."
Katsuki clicked his tongue. "Fuck. That explains why he'd be away from everyone else. Of course he ran for the kid after the cat lady started begging him to run for camp like that."
That telepathic message wasn't one you just forget. It hadn't been from a hero telling some bystander to run. That was an aunt screaming for her nephew to get to safety.
Katsuki and Ochako looked at each other. And with small nods, both took off through the woods, towards where the bright light had come from.
"Ha! Would you look at that. It was a good idea to come up here after all."
Kouta had been watching the chaos from his hilltop hideout, too stunned to do what his aunt had begged him to do and run. And while he had stood there motionless as a statue, he hadn't realized he wasn't alone anymore. Didn't see the giant, draped in a tattered cloak and wearing a flat bone-white mask. walking towards him until he spoke. His voice was cruel and twisted.
Kouta stumbled back, eyes wide and the intimidating villain kept walking towards him- "Get a good view of the carnage. and something to wet my appetite with." He cracked his knuckles. "We're supposed to be sending a message. Well, nothing does that better than some pipsqueak roadkill."
He took another step, and Kouta fell backwards. He tried to keep moving but his arms and legs had locked up in fear.
He's going to kill me! Aunt Shino! Mom! Dad! Someone please!
The man raised a hand over his head, clenched in a tight fist.
"KOUTA!"
Only to turn just as several large boulders slammed into him like cannonballs, exploding into dust and rock shards, hiding the villain away in a cloud as Izuku landed between the villain and Kouta. He immediately turned to face the terrified boy. "I ran here as fast as I could. We need to get you to the campsite. Come on, I'll carry you and—"
"IT'S YOU!"
The scream gave Izuku just enough warning to turn and throw up a barrier as one of the still intact boulders he had launched was suddenly thrown from the dust cloud. The stone's impact had Izuku's ears ringing. Not that he had any time to worry about that.
As the cloud of dust settled, the villain's tattered cloak was tossed off the side, forgotten as it fell down to the forest floor below. Shards of the villain's mask were next. So as he strode out, Izuku and Kouta got a good look at him.
"No… no not him. Muscular… the monster who…" Kouta's body gave out as he collapsed onto the ground.
Izuku didn't need to hear anything else. He could fill in the gaps.
"Ha ha ha ha ha! I don't believe it. It's really you." Muscular was a large, bulky, muscular man with short, spiky, sandy blond hair and a small black eye. The eye where a large scar went across the left side of his face, was hollow save for a prosthetic ring, where a glass eye should go.
Izuku guessed he must have knocked it out of his head during his surprise attack. That hollow void was unsettling. Like an open window into this villain's soul.
"All the bullshit I had to deal with. All the fucking planning and rules that shit Shigaraki wanted me to follow, but it's all paid off. Midoriya. Oh, I've been waiting for this."
While Izuku's face darkened at the mention of Tomura, he didn't have much time to focus on that due to the ungodly amount of bloodlust emanating from this monster and all the crazy coming from his mouth. He's been waiting? What does that mean?
Izuku was confused, but not so distracted that he didn't know what he should be doing right then and there. He hadn't come up here to fight. He came to rescue Kouta. "Kouta. Get on my back. I'm going to get us—"
Muscle fibers grew out of Muscular's skin, enlarging his right arm, which he drove into the rock face beside him. Flexing, he ripped chunks of rock and hurled it at them. Izuku put his barrier back up as the rocks crashed into it.
Okay, he doesn't want me to leave! Fine!
Reaching back with hand, Izuku kept one holding the barrier, while with the other grabbed Kouta with his Quirk. "This is going to feel weird but don't move around! I'm going to lower you down the side of the mountain!"
Kouta didn't get a chance to agree to anything before he felt his clothes squeeze around him and he was lifted off the ground. Izuku hurried to get Kouta down to the forest floor, but…
"Oh no! I say the kid stays!"
Muscular ripped more stone, but instead of throwing the rubble at Izuku, twisted and then, to Izuku's horror, threw it all towards Kouta. Izuku immediately threw his barrier to intercept the rocks while also yanking Kouta back to the ledge.
But with his barrier now protecting Kouta, and his attention diverted to make sure he was brought back up as quickly and safely as possible, Izuku was an open target.
Muscular launched himself forward and drove his muscle enhanced fist towards Izuku's face. Izuku only just got his arms up, One for All crackling to life, to block the strike with both forearms. The blow sent shockwaves of sharp pain through his arms and the force of the strike sent Izuku sliding backwards, while he desperately dug his shoes in so he wasn't thrown off the side of the ledge. Or worse, collide with Kouta.
When he finally was able to stop himself, he was only inches away from Kouta.
Snarling, Izuku pointed at the villain. "If you want to fight me, then fight me! Leave Kouta out of this!"
"Fuck that. The kid stays." Muscular laughed. "I never said I wanted to fight you." More muscle began to grow over the man's body, bulking himself up until he was almost twice his width. "I joined this shitshow so I could kill you. Fuck all the League of Villains shit. Fuck what Shigaraki or that voice in the TV said. I'm here for one reason and that's to beat you to death!" Muscular smiled through clenched teeth like a deranged madman. "And if you're distracted worrying about the kid, then all the better for me!"
Something dark started bubbling up inside Izuku as he glared hatefully at Muscular. The world around him darkened as he saw less and less of everything else and just the monster in front of him. Every dark thought, every angry whisper from the back of his mind, things Izuku had tried and fought to keep out of his mind, were getting louder and louder. A buzz of bee-wings telling Izuku to let go and finally let someone pay for all the horrors he'd been forced to live through. All the pain. All the suffering. That it would be okay to hurt this monster.
Muscular now towered over Izuku as he slowly closed the gap. "And don't think I'll forget about him and chase after you if you run. You leave, and I'll rip the little shit in half. And wear his little body on my hand like a sock puppe—!"
CRACK!
Izuku screamed as he launched himself and drove his fist into Muscular's face. Digging his heels into the man's collar bone, Izuku grabbed a handful of hair with one hand, anchoring himself to Muscular's head, then pulled his fist back, green sparks dancing over his body, and drove it into Muscular's face again and again and again. Screaming with each punch as he threw himself at the villain in wild abandon.
This wasn't smart. This wasn't brave. This wasn't heroic. This was just Izuku wanting to hurt someone and taking full advantage of the universe giving him someone he could.
CRACK!
CRACK!
Crack!
crack!
Self-preservation kicked in, and violently grabbed ahold of Izuku's arm before he could throw another punch. "HA HA HA!" Izuku was stunned to see Muscular grinning back at him, lip busted, and nose bleeding, but nowhere near as messed up as Izuku had wanted at that moment. "My turn."
Leaping back, Izuku only just avoided the attack, as Muscular smashed his hands together. It didn't produce the shockwave All Might had made when he had done something similar back during Izuku's term finals. But Izuku was sure he would have been turned into pulp all the same.
Muscular lept after Izuku, fists crashing down into the ground as Izuku was forced to keep dodging to avoid getting flattened. It was like fighting a deranged All Might. But unlike his test, Izuku didn't have a partner to help.
"Ahhh!"
Kouta's screams were close. The poor boy was panicked and Izuku realized all his dodging was just letting Muscular get closer to who he was supposed to be protecting.
Not another step back!
Izuku screamed and launched himself straight for Muscular. Shooting through an opening of the villain's wild but wide strikes, Izuku threw haymaker after haymaker into the man's body, pumping more and more of One for All into his fists with each punch.
5%
8%
At 10%, with tiny red lines starting to spread over his skin like cracks in glass, the strike sent a jolt up Izuku's right arm like a hammer hitting his funny bone. Izuku was pushing the limits of what his body could handle. Any more strikes like that, and something was going to break.
Don't let that happen. You've made too many promises to Ocha—
"If that's all you got, then I'm just going to kill the kid now for fun!" Muscular raised his hands, gripping them together to slam them down like a hammer on Izuku. The thin red lines darkened and began to crackle under the skin of Izuku's right arm in response. Muscular swung down just as Izuku screamed, "DETROIT SMASH!"
Izuku saw black as he threw a punch at full power. There was a harsh, searing pain, but Izuku pushed through as he drove his fist into the villain's Quirk-grown muscles. Fibers ripped, tore and exploded out as Muscular was thrown backwards. Izuku clenched his teeth, hissing from the pain shooting up his arm, but at least the skin hadn't been shredded, and the arm wasn't blacked from the impact. Izuku could take some solace that to end the fight and protect Kouta, he'd only had to break his promise a little.
Then Muscular landed on his feet.
The muscle villain cackled as he stood up several yards away, running a hand over the shredded muscles over his abs. Ribbons of muscle fibers hung from the point of impact, but to Izuku's growing anger, new fibers were already growing to replace the damaged ones.
"Kid, you really gotta learn not to telegraph your punches." Muscular pulled at the muscles at his waist, and Izuku saw that it looked thicker there than the rest of him. "If I know where you're going to hit, you ain't gonna do shit to me."
More and more fibers began to grow over the rest of him, matching the thickness of what he had used to protect himself. "And if that's the best you got, then you're done."
Muscular's one eye looked down at Izuku's arm. Seeing how the muscles spasmed and Izuku's fist was clenched, he could tell that the punch had hurt Izuku. "Detroit Smash, huh? You think you're All Might? What a joke."
Izuku's mind was racing. He'd thrown everything into that punch and it hadn't brought the man down. His arm wasn't shattered, but he was sure he couldn't throw another one. There was his left arm, but if that didn't work, then how was he supposed to keep fighting? His Psychokinesis wasn't going to be effective here. And Izuku wasn't sure his—
"Why," Kouta cried. "Why you?! Why does it have to be you?!"
Muscular frowned, turning his attention to Kouta. "Hmm?"
"You took Mom and Dad. You took them, wasn't that enough?!" Kouta screamed and Izuku winced. Fate decided to be especially cruel to Kouta. Forcing him to face the monster responsible for destroying his life.
He won't touch Kouta, Izuku swore to himself. He. Won't. Touch him.
Muscular rolled his neck, cracking it. "Kid. I've killed so many people. What makes you think I'd give a shit about your Mom and Dad?"
Izuku felt his breath catch at such a horrible thing to say, while Kouta pointed up at Muscular's face. "They were Water Hose! The news said you got chased off after they did that to you! You don't have an eye because of them!"
Izuku glared and waited for recognition to finally cross Muscular's face. The villain reached up, scratched at the scar on his face. His fingers ran around the prosthetic socket, before he shrugged. "Nope. Doesn't ring a bell."
The truly horrifying thing for Izuku was that he didn't think the man was lying. There was no recollection in his eye. No memory of Kouta's parents' valiant effort to repel him at the cost of their own lives. He could have mocked them. Said something like they had died for nothing since he had escaped. Something. Anything. But to say nothing, to not remember them at all. That felt especially cruel.
Kouta choked on a sob while Izuku seethed, "You—!"
"Oh, save the bullcrap righteous fury crap. You think some dead heroes matter?" He cracked his knuckles, each pop thick and heavy like a hammer on a railroad spike. "Here's what's important." He took a step and pointed at Izuku. "First I'm going to kill you. Then the kid. Then I'll finish what Shigaraki couldn't. I'll find your mom and pop the fat bitch like a water balloon." Muscular's smile widened. "Hey, I'll be reuniting two families. Ain't that a… bitch?"
Something inside Izuku broke. The dark buzzing, and the blackness that had been eating away at him, all burst out. Every dark thought. Every hateful wish. Everything that sat and stewed in the far reaches of Izuku's soul, only so recently simmering because of Tomura, now burst out in a rolling boil. From deep inside him, a dark voice called Izuku to act. Screaming an order that drove Izuku on. An order made of only two words.
BURN HIM!
Every seething breath Izuku took, was a bellow that stoked the fire inside him. Hotter. Hotter. Hotter until tongues of flame flickered with each breath and liquid flame dripped from his mouth. Black smoke exhausted from the side of his mouth and nose like a coal stack. The fire inside Izuku kept building. Anger, rage, hate stoked it hotter. A green glow began building inside his chest, while on top of it, red angry crackles of energy danced across Izuku's skin.
The heat made the air around Izuku shimmer and dance, before more smoke joined what Izuku was breathing into it. His shirt blackened, then ignited, burning orange as it fell off his body, its orange fire soon drowned out by the harsh emerald from Izuku flames.
Muscular eyed Izuku before he recalled something said in one of the boring as shit meetings called by either the gun bitch or the smoking mutt. A warning.
Oh right. He can breathe fire now too… FUCK!
The villain might have a body of mighty muscle, but even he knew that if there's one thing muscle can do, it's burn.
Muscular launched himself right for Izuku, just as the boy opened his mouth, and with the deafening roar of a rocket, let loose a blast that tore apart the ground and mountainside as it was unleashed. A pyre of light and heat.
Catching the capture cloth, Chimera yanked Aizawa towards him while he extended a clawed hand to catch the suddenly airborne hero. Midnight gave an alarmed cry as she dove and tackled Aizawa before he could get caught, sending the pair of them rolling on the grass. Creating a split second where Aizawa wasn't looking at the large villain.
Chimera took the opportunity and immediately opened his mouth and unleashed a blast of fire at the pair. Only for the fire to hit a wall of solidified blood as Vlad King acted to defend the two. Aizawa quickly got his eyes back on Chimera and the villain's fire fizzled out.
"Damn, he's good at realizing when you're not looking at him," Midnight said with annoyance.
Aizawa agreed. "He's probably trying to breathe fire all the time. He's got a good way to tell."
Vlad King pulled his blood back in, but noticed that there were pieces of the wall missing, vaporized from the heat. "Smart villains are always a pain… And I can't put another barrier up like that again. I lose too much blood, I'm going to black out."
Since the start of the fight, it had become painfully clear that even after Vlad King had joined them after the initial attack on the building, that the three didn't have the raw power to end things in a quick manner. Chimera's raw strength, even with his Quirk being suppressed, was a huge obstacle. There was also the fact that Midnight couldn't use her own Quirk to put him to sleep, without risking Aizawa and Vlad King's safety. The combo of Chimera's power and their own Quirks not being a set that could naturally sync up, was making this brawl a long, drawn out slog.
There was also the added stress of knowing that the kids, despite being told to stay inside the building, were congregating at the smashed in wall, watching and debating about stepping in to help..The teachers knew they couldn't yell at them to get back, as that would bring the villain's attention to them. Right now, they just had to hope their common sense overrode their heroic senses, which were probably screaming at them to step up and help.
Chimera smirked as he began to advance on the three. Midnight watched him through narrowed eyes. "I hate saying this, but does anyone else feel like this fight is fixed? He's clearly meant to hold us up." Not a pleasant thought to the three, since it meant that there was some plan at work aside from just an attack.
Aizawa grunted. "I still have my knife and a few tools left, but getting in close to use them will be an issue. We need to keep him held so Midnight can knock him out."
"Love to hear how we can do that without either of you two getting put to sleep too."
"We don't. Vlad and I will have to be willing to get hit by your Quirk to end this." Aizawa couldn't look towards the woods, but he could tell things were getting worse. The fire was spreading and there had been several loud explosions and thunderous booms that indicated that some fights were breaking out, despite Mandalay's order to retreat.
"One of us making it out there to help is better than none. Vlad King, I want you to focus on only getting this villain locked up. I'll work on slowing him down so you get an opening to—"
Before Aizawa could finish his plan, all hell broke loose as the night sky was split in two by a beam of green liquid fire, before the mountain it hit erupted into a pillaring hellfire.
The explosion threw everyone to their knees. Vlad King used his blood to anchor Aizawa to the ground, keeping him upright so that he didn't lose sight of Chimera.
It took several seconds, but soon, the beam vanished and the shockwave of the explosion passed. Midnight stared in horror, already guessing who had just done that. "Oh no. No, no, tell me that wasn't…"
"Midoriya," Aizawa grunted with morbid certainty. "Unless the villains have someone that can—"
"The fuck?" Chimera roared as he looked back at the explosion. "Shit."
Vlad King grunted, "That's a no."
Chimera eyed the burning mountainside, before he pivoted and took off running, leaving the three pro heroes to flinch in surprise. He didn't have time to deal with them now as he pulled out the radio bullet Lady Nagant had given him and roared into it, "Nagant! Report!"
The response back was a roar of static.
Something had just gone horribly wrong with the whole operation, and he needed to get a handle on things as soon as possible.
"Fucking crap!"
"Nagant?! What's your status?"
There was another series of loud thuds and more swearing. "My sniping position just got nuked. I had to make a run for it before I got vaporized."
"Injuries?"
"Singed. But in one piece. Fucking boulders almost crushed me… shit."
"The hell happened? Do you have eyes on?"
"Saw the green light, but it was too bright to see what was causing it. I have no clear line of sight now. I'm way off point…" There was some grumbling as Lady Nagant took stock. "It's going to take me some time to find another nest. And I can't promise I'll have a full line of sight from it. Assume no covering fire from this point on."
Not great, but at least things weren't as bad as they could be.
"Chimera. That point of origin for the blast. That's where those two maniacs were headed to get a better view of the forest."
Chimera growled.
"They never reported contact."
Chimera looked towards where the beam had come from. "Shit. Do we have anyone that can reach that location fast?"
"Yeah. I think we got someone that hasn't engaged anyone yet."
Itsuka kept her enlarged hands cupped behind her back as Kyouka helped put another of her classmates into her palms, while Momo made another gas mask to slip over their face. Thanks to Itsuka using her hands, she had been able to push the gas back after noticing her classmates starting to pass out. Holding out long enough for Momo and Kyouka to arrive, both already sporting gas masks.
The violent explosion was now starting to fade and the three were trying to decide what their next course of action should be.
"My classmates are still out there," Itsuka pointed out, making it pretty clear what her opinion on the matter was.
Kyouka thumbed the other gas masks she had hanging at her waist. "We have no idea what breathing this stuff will do to a person after they get knocked out. We should try and find anyone we can."
Momo frowned. "We also do not have any idea about the villain that is making the gas or if there are others lying in wait. If we are ambushed while carrying more people… We need to get the people we have to safety first." She paused and glanced at Itsuka. "Unless you know for certain where the rest of your classmates are?"
Itsuka shook her head. "We scattered up and down the path Ragdoll showed us."
It was a hard call.
Momo looked down both ways of the path, knowing that whatever they decidedm they needed to choose soon. Staying in one place would effectively make them sitting ducks. If a villain found them now, it could be a disaster.
"Is it just me, or is this gas getting thicker?" Kyouka asked worryingly. The other girls glanced around, and confirmed that she was right.
"Yaoyorozu…" Itsuka asked slowly. "Can these masks handle all that gas?"
"I'm… uncertain. The mask is based on a highly rated manufacturer… but even the highest rated filters aren't perfect." That bit of knowledge was grim. "We also don't know if the gas only affects us if we breathe it. Skin contact, prolonged skin contact, may have ill effects on us too."
Momo peered at the thickening smog. It was getting harder and harder to even see the path more than a few yards out. "If we move off the path, we may end up getting lost. Assuming we would be able to find anyone as things are. And if the fog gets much thicker we might lose the path altogether even if we try to stick to it," Momo finished.
Kyouka tapped her jacks. "I could try and listen for people, but… if they're unconscious…"
"It's ultimately your call, Kendou. You are a class representative, while I'm only a vice representative. You hold seniority here," Momo declared. "These are also your classmates and friends we are talking about. Jirou and I will follow your decision."
Itsuka nodded, knowing time was running out for whatever decision she made.
But as they waited for her to make her decision, none of them noticed the long figure walking through the woods towards them, the thick clouds of gas swirling around his body as he made the poisonous cloud thicker, his gas mask hiding the annoyed expression as his search for the one person he actually wanted to find continued to come up empty-handed. But, his hand clutched the grip of his pistol, at least he found some dumb heroes he could take his frustrations out on.
Everyone had been thrown to the ground when the explosion lit the sky. While some gawked in shock, and others worked to get their classmates back on their feet, Mei had pulled out a small handheld screen, her face becoming more and more worried as data started popping up on it.
"Hatsume, we need to keep moving!" Hitoshi barked as he grabbed her and started hauling her to her feet. "Worry about your babies later!"
"Midoriya's body temperature just spiked," Mei snapped, thrusting the screen into his face. "Look! Look at these readings."
Hitoshi paused while he tried to make sense of all the techno data getting shoved into his face. "That's… huh?"
"Temperature spikes. Theta and beta brain waves are all over the place. His Quirk factor just shot through the roof."
"Wait, so that was Midoriya just now?!" Mashiro asked in alarm while the rest of the group looked back at the resulting destruction in shock.
"He must… is he fighting a villain?"
"But Mandalay told us all to run, right?" Tooru asked.
Tsuyu looked towards where the beam had come from. "If Izuku was cornered. Or protecting someone…kero…"
"Or looking for an excuse to get in a fight," Minoru added. Though he quickly moved to get out of Tsuyu's line of sight as she shot him a particularly unhappy look. "Hey! I'm not wrong, you know!"
Shouto took a step that would have taken him off the path back to the campsite, but Tenya reached out and put a firm hand on his shoulder. "This isn't like the other times. We were given direct instructions."
Mezou looked at Tenya, hard. "You're serious?"
Tenya returned the glare in equal measure. "We have to rely on the experience of our teachers and the heroes here. They made it clear they wanted all of us to retreat back to camp."
"It's not just Midoriya that's out there. All of 1-B were hiding in the woods for the game. The first few groups already went in."
Tsuyu croaked unhappily. "Which is why they want us to get back to camp. The more of us in one place, the easier it'll be to protect us. If we're all spread out…" Her hands were clenched at her sides, while her whole body was visibly shaking.
"H-hey. Uraraka was with Bakugou. You heard those other explosions, right? I'm sure whoever was unlucky enough to run into them is already done," Minoru tried to reassure her. "And Toga is… well, she's probably the last person anyone wants to run into in some dark woods."
"Kouda has a whole forest of animals too to sic on the villains if they run into anyone," Tooru added.
Mei crossed her arms. "I'm not a hero student. I can just go, you know."
Tenya turned and made it clear what they were going to do. "As class representative, I am going to make sure we follow Mandalay's instructions. We are going back to camp and we are not going to make the situation more chaotic for the heroes and teachers. Understood?"
Tenya made sure he made eye contact with everyone. His gaze lingered longer on those from his close group of friends, not looking away until he got some form of acknowledgment from them. "Okay. We keep heading for—"
"Flesh?"
Everyone froze when a new voice cut through their conversation. Hollow and cold, it creeped out from the shadows of the woods. The kids only just turned their heads, before a spiderweb of white blades shot out, right for them.
"Fuck fuck fuck!" Himiko knew she should be limiting her breathing, but her rage was making it almost impossible.
Himiko spotted purple whiffs of gas lingering in the air, hovering over the ground like a blanket. The moment she saw that, she whirled and started tearing at Kouji's large shirt, taking a chunk off and wrapping it around the startled boy's mouth and nose as fast as she could. "Don't breathe the gas!" She had another strip of cloth cut that she hurried to wrap over her own face right after his.
"Toga?"
"Shhh! Don't talk. Don't breathe…" She stomped the ground. "FUCK!"
Kouji had thought for sure he had seen Himiko at her worst right after that green fire had ripped through the sky. It was shocking to see he had been wrong. He could tell before, worry had driven Himiko into swearing before she pressed on.
This? This was rage.
Himiko's fingernails dug into her palms. She was practically frothing at the mouth. Her one yellow eye seemed to glow in the darkness as she looked out, scanning the woods. Then she pointed. Kouji looked and saw what looked like a babbling fountain of dense purple smog frothing through the trees.
It was impossible to tell how far the source of this poisonous smog was. But it seemed like Himiko had a direction for them to move in.
"How long can you hold your breath, Kouji?" Himiko wasn't looking at him. Her attention was laser focused now.
Kouji doubted she wanted to hear about how his practice at camp helped him scream longer and louder, and that he was sure it had helped him suck in more air. So, he nervously answered, "Long enough."
Himiko nodded. "We're running straight. If you think you're going to have to breathe, climb." Himiko motioned to the trees. "This stuff is like mustard gas. It's heavier than air. Go high for clear… less poisonous air. You'll still pass out, so make sure you're not in a spot you'll fall. But it should help you not suffocate."
Kouji wanted to ask how she knew that, but there wasn't time. She had taken her deep breath, trying to do it in a spot that didn't have the whiffs, and was running in a dead sprint. Kouji did the same, and hurried after her, already feeling like his lungs were going to pop.
Izuku's Boric Pyre ripped everything apart as he fired it, the force of the fire going off like a rocket, ripping and tearing at the rock and ground.
Muscular leapt into the mountainside and dug in before he propelled himself at Izuku. Reaching out, he smashed his hands against the side of Izuku's face, but almost all the force was gone. The blast had slowed him down, and the fire had burned away layers and layers of muscle. The right side of his body was shredded and blackened.
But he'd gotten his hands on Izuku's face, turning Izuku's head to the side, and pushing that beam of light away from himself and making it drag across the mountains behind him. He heard the explosions, but he couldn't care less at the moment. The damned fire was charing away his body. Layers and layers of muscle were getting eaten away. He knew he had to get Izuku to stop, of he was going to die.
The problem was, with his muscles getting destroyed, so was his strength. And just pushing Izuku's face away was all he could manage.
Izuku, meanwhile, snarled and tried to force his head back. He just needed to turn a little and then—
KID! THE KID!
It was the voice of a panicked mother, desperately trying to get his attention. And for the briefest moment, with his head pushed to the side, Izuku got a chance to glance behind himself.
There was Kouta, curled up in a ball.
Oh god.
Everything receded. The black mist clouding Izuku's mind vanished and he snapped his mouth shut, cutting his Quirk off.
Muscular stumbled backwards while Izuku fell to his knees, hacking and coughing as the blowback of what he had just done to his body bashed him over the head. His chest was burned, red and blistered, and the ground felt uneven and moving. Izuku tried to breathe. The first few gasps just had more fire. It took him multiple tries just to get his lungs to stop producing fire, then smoke.
Izuku crawled on hands and knees towards Kouta, voice raspy and dry as he called for him, "Ko-kouta. Kouta, I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"
Izuku cursed himself. He'd let himself give into the taunts, and now he'd gone and left Kouta terrified. He came here to save him, not scare him.
"I'm sorry," Izuku reached out, but it was getting harder and harder to move. And worse yet, a nagging fear ate at him. His body heated up when he used Boric Pyre too much. After what he'd just done, could he even hold onto Kouta to pull him away?
I messed up.
The heat from his own body was making him dizzy. The edges of his vision were blacking out. Pretty soon, Izuku was sure he'd black out from a heat stroke.
But before that happened, a blast of cold slapped him in the face. Eye suddenly snapped open, Izuku realized his face was dripping wet. The water was steaming off, but then more was sprayed onto him. Water, a constant hose, was getting sprayed over his body, cooling him off and making the world come back into clarity.
"Win." Izuku's head snapped up, and saw that Kouta was sitting up, looking at him while he kept hitting him with water. "He's hurt. Win. Please, just beat him. Please, I just…" Kouta wept, crying and sobbing while he worked to help Izuku. "Beat him. Please."
Slowly, as the world came into focus, Izuku made his way up from one knee. His body was still steaming as the water evaporated off his skin while he worked himself up to his feet. When he was standing, Kouta finally lowered his hands. The water from his palms slowed to a trickle, but he had done enough. Izuku was plenty cooled off now. In body and mind.
"It'll be okay," Izuku said as gently as he could, reaching down to lay a hand on Kouta's head. "I'm here."
Kouta sniffed. "That's… that's All Might's line."
Izuku nodded. "It's a good line."
Turning, Izuku found Muscular was still in the process of regrowing his layers of muscles. But it was a botch job. Blackened threads were woven into everything. Everything on his right side looked pale. Even the new muscle was growing in wrong. Cooked. His right arm and hand were the worst. The muscle looked fragile.
"You can punch him, right?" Kouta then looked at Izuku's right arm and hand. Both were starting to swell. Izuku was pretty sure something was broken. Not a major fracture, but he had hurt himself.
Again.
"Maybe," Izuku answered slowly. His mind was working overtime. "What I need is to get that muscle off him."
"Fire?"
Izuku coughed out some smoke.
"Then what?"
Izuku looked down at his arm, and focused. His Psychokinesis glowed to life around himself, but around his right arm, it was brighter. Then, joining the glow, were green electric sparks. "PK Brace," Izuku said with a tired grin. "Thanks to all the training with your aunt and the other Wild Wild Pussycats, I can use my Quirk techniques all at the same time. This'll keep my arm from getting worse while I finish this."
Moving his arm around, Izuku noted that this wasn't something he'd be able to do for a long time. Maybe a minute. It took a lot of concentration. Still, he wasn't planning on using his arm to punch. This was just to keep things from getting worse. No punching with his right until he saw a doctor.
"When'd you come up with that?"
"Just now." Izuku offered a smile.
Keep smiling. Smiling is important.
Muscular growled in anger as he turned his attention towards Izuku.
Izuku just glared back.
"Kouta, I have a plan. It might get scary, but I promise. I'll get you out of this."
There were several feelings of doubt when Izuku mentioned he had a plan.
I have the start of a plan.
That's called a concept.
Muscular roared, "I'm going to kill you!"
Izuku got ready for the next round. "You keep saying that, but you keep not killing me."
"RHAAAAAHHHH!"
Muscular charged just as Izuku did. The monster's movements didn't feel slower, but Izuku saw that the strong violent movements were tearing at his own body.
Izuku ducked under a flying punch, closing into Muscular's body. Izuku doubted that even with the big guy as messed up as he was, he could beat him in a punching match. Even if he tried to brace his left arm to reduce the damage, the risk was too great. The muscles just offered up too great a defense. And Izuku couldn't risk taking himself out of the fight, even if it meant winning over Muscular.
After I get Kouta to safety, I still have to go find Ochako!
So, once again able to get inside Muscular's swing, Izuku shot his left hand out.
"Weak! Weak weak wea—"
Riiiiiiiiip!
Izuku buried his hand and fingers into the mess of fiber, and after getting a good grip, pulled. And with 5% of One for All, began ripping a layer of muscle off of Muscular's body.
"Wha?! St-stop!"
Muscular abandoned his punch and began grasping at Izuku. But with the fibers ripped, Izuku scurried around Muscular, keeping close to the oversized villain and away from his hands, while at the same time, digging both hands into the villain's Quirk flesh, pushing his fingers between the fibers and pulling when his hands were filled, ripping and tearing at Muscular's body.
Doubt this would have worked if he hadn't been burned. Izuku grunted to himself while he ducked a wild swipe. But with half his body cooked, and charred, it's like digging into some spaghetti.
The muscle fibers were the wet squishy noodles and the meat sauce… was more meat sauce.
Izuku decided he didn't want to think about what was actually oozing from between the muscles. It was thick, dark and viscous.
"No no no! My body! You're ruining it!" Muscular's scream of alarm came out panicked as Izuku kept at it, ducking and dodging as best he could and all the while ripping at the villain.
If Muscular tried to leap back, Izuku kept up with him step for step, always making sure he was as close as possible. The huge muscles Muscular covered himself in meant he wasn't the most flexible. But again, if not for the burns, Izuku would have never been fast enough to take advantage of this small detail.
Keep ripping. Keep digging. Gotta expose skin!
"The hell kind of hero fights like this!? You freak!"
This was the part of the plan that was a crapshoot. Inwardly, Izuku admitted he probably couldn't throw a punch to take advantage of the damage to the ripped muscles and the opening he was trying to make, not without potentially taking himself out of any fights coming afterwards.
At least not in a single strike.
Gotta bank on 'death by a thousand cuts.'
He could hear her, again saying this wasn't a plan. Well, a concept was better than what he was doing earlier.
If not for Kouta, I'd have passed out from the heat.
"ENOUGH!" Muscular screamed in rage as he suddenly swung both his arms out, like he was getting ready to give a poor granny the tightest bear hug. And to Izuku's shock, that wasn't far off.
For a split second, the muscles around his body loosened. And Izuku thought perhaps his plan had worked better than he had planned. Then Muscular rushed forward, and those fibers engulfed Izuku, tightening around his body at the same time Muscular swung his arms in. Adding the pressure. Constricting and squeezing. As a mass of writing flesh, Muscular drove Izuku into the mountainside, cratering the rock and pressing into Izuku, making sure he couldn't move.
Muscular worked his head through the solid mass of flesh his Quirk made, so that he could look Izuku in the eye as he crushed the life out of him. "All you've done is make sure I kill you slowly to shit! I'll squeeze the air out of you, then your life!" Izuku pumped One for All throughout his body, trying to flex against the mass squeezing him. "Did you think this would work?! Even if you got through my muscles, you're not strong enough to hurt me!"
The crater cracked and grew as Muscular kept pressing. Rubble fell and bounced off Izuku's head. He glanced up, then looked Muscular in his one beady eye. "Maybe. But you know what? I don't think I have to be the one to hit you!"
Izuku refocused his Psychokinesis. Instead of focusing on his own body, he reached out with it. First…
"Eek!" Kouta squeaked as he was suddenly pulled backwards, away from the fight. Once he was many, many yards away, Izuku flashed Muscular his most deranged smile. Just as the whole mountainside behind and above him lit up like a green flashbulb.
Muscular snapped his head up, eye going wide. "Wha—?!"
"Rocky. Mountain. Smash," Izuku, nose bleeding, spelled out with grim glee.
There was an ungodly crack. Followed by another. Then more. Then, in one dramatic moment, the whole mountainside shattered, and the glow instantly faded.
Izuku's attack was a giant rockslide. And as Muscular let go of Izuku in a panic as he wrapped himself up, Izuku soon became the single glowing light in a sea of rock, stone and dirt.
"G-give me your hand!" Kouta called out between coughs. The dust was still thick from the aftermath. He had been pulled well clear by Izuku, but after the rocks had settled, he had hurried over to the pile, hoping to find Izuku was alright.
He got half his wish.
Izuku was lying under a small debris pile, having escaped the worst of things with One for All and Psychokinesis.
Izuku took the offered hand, and let Kouta pull. Vaguely, he was reminded of the time he and Hitoshi had found Tenya. Trapped under some rubble.
Pulled out, Izuku let his Quirk fade with a long sigh, and the barrier holding up the stones around him faded, making the last few rocks come crashing down.
Standing up, Izuku had to steady himself. Starting the rockslide had been hard enough. Keeping himself from getting crushed was the other two thirds of the problem. His head hurt, and his nose was definitely bleeding. A lot.
He just really hoped the dizziness was just from getting his bell rung a little.
"You dropped a mountain on him…" Kouta said in awe. "Is… is he…"
Izuku frowned and pointed. "No."
Even weakened, the man had been crazy strong. Even without muscles protecting his head, he'd taken multiple hard One for All strikes to the face. Granted, maybe only at 10%, but that still said a lot.
Izuku banked on this being enough to stop the man. But not to kill.
So it made sense to see Muscular's form sticking out of the larger stones, buried up to his chest and out like a light.
Kouta frowned when he saw the unconscious villain. He stormed up, picking up stones as he went and threw them. "Take that! Take that and that!"
Kouta was climbing up to him, with Izuku hurrying after. "Kouta, stop!"
Kouta grabbed for a larger stone the size of his head, trying to pick it up, but Izuku pulled him away. "I'm sorry, but you can't."
"He deserves to be… he should be…" Kouta's tears started up again while Izuku wrapped his arms around the boy.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Kouta." Izuku held him. Giving what little comfort he could. Maybe there weren't any words. Maybe he should be pulling him up and running for the camp site. But in this brief moment. It felt more important to just let Kouta know he wasn't alone. That he had someon—
"Uhhhh." The groan startled Izuku and made Kouta wince back in horror. "Yooooouuuhhh…." Muscular's form twitched, his body a mess of splattered muscles, both arms broken badly, looking more like mangled pasta than a person's limbs, more of that nasty ooze dripping from between the fibers.
Holy shit he's still up?
Damn! Kid, get the little one and get out of there!
Izuku started to pick Kouta up, agreeing with the ghosts in his head it was time to leave. Muscular might still be conscious, but there was no way he was a threat now. He had come up here for a reason and it was time to—
Muscular started writhing against the stones, their jagged edges digging into flesh, tearing it as more dark ooze spilled out. "Yoouuuhhh ruuuined…"
Izuku froze as Muscular's head twitched, and his face turned to face him. His one good eye was glazed over, not focused on anything. But the empty socket, the black void into the man's head, that was looking right at Izuku.
"You… ruined it!" Muscular's right arm twisted and, to Izuku's horror, shot out, arm whipping out like a tendril of flesh. Izuku threw Kouta back, away from danger, while moving his body to get between him and the sudden attack. The fleshy mass ensnared Izuku's right arm, wrapping it up from wrist to shoulder.
Then with a sickening crack, wrenched.
Izuku bit back a scream of agony as his right arm was shattered, the bone crushed and broken in multiple places. Both forearm and upper arm bones were rendered into pieces. Izuku, in desperation, pulled to try and free himself, but the pain sucked the strength out of him. Eyes blurry from the pain, he now had an up close look at what was seeping through Muscular's muscle fibers. It wasn't dark ooze. Night hid its true color.
It was a dark green sludge.
Then, his left arm whipped up to the air, over Izuku. "YOU RUINED IT!" Muscular screamed. Or at least, the sound came from Muscular's mouth. But it was not his voice. Izuku turned and saw more and more of that green sludge drooling out of Muscular's eye socket, before a bright yellow glaring eye plopped out like a rotten egg yoke. "YOU RUINED MY PERFECT NEW BODY!"
Izuku gawked in shock as he recognized the monster that had him in their grasp. The villain that Izuku had faced at the start of his heroic journey. The sludge villain!?
The moment Izuku realized who he had been fighting this whole time, the second tendril, raised above Izuku's head, came down with a crack. A tendril of flesh, muscle, sludge and bone shards cracked like a whip, and sliced down through Izuku's face.
For several heartbeats, Chitose was practically a frozen statue, body still, breath held and mind blank, so unprepared for what had just happened that she just couldn't comprehend it. Had Inko just attacked her?
The punch had happened so fast, so unexpectedly, that it was still taking her several moments to figure out how she should be reacting. Finally, after what felt like recovering from a hard crash and reboot of herself, Chitose's instincts drove her to the most obvious reaction. Rage. How dare someone lay their hands on her. How dare they, how dare she. With just a twitch, she'd use her Landmine and splatter Inko's body parts all over the—
I'm not hit.
Cutting through the fog of her own outrage, the cunning, calculating part of her mind quickly put the breaks on any immediate reaction.
If she'd punched me with that… My face would be what's splattered over the restaurant's walls.
Chitose blinked, and then with a shift of her head, confirmed that Inko's punch hadn't hit her, but was thrown wide. Inko's fist was floating right next to her head. Close. Oh, very close, but she hadn't actually hit her. But to anyone, it sure would have looked like she'd just thrown a punch intent of knocking her head clean off her shoulders.
But she hadn't? What is… Chitose refocused on Inko, who up until a second ago, she was all but sure she had eating out of the palm of her hand. Who after throwing that mock punch, wasn't even looking at her.
Chitose looked at this woman as her head was twitching in small little jerks, so that her eyes could scan the room around her. She watched this woman quickly and with intent take in everything around her, while she counted softly under her breath. Chitose doubted Inko meant to whisper the numbers out loud, maybe just a subconscious move to help keep track of her count, but after a moment, she stopped counting. It was at that moment that Inko's eyes also had a flash of recognition, like she didn't need to count as she observed her surroundings anymore.
Chitose glanced, and saw that the room was frozen and quiet. Every diner, every waiter, every busboy, everyone in the room was frozen. Swinging doors were stuck open as staff froze in them, and in the other rooms, in the kitchen, the cooks and chefs had all just stopped, stuck between the shock of what had just happened, and from the contradicting orders they all had; their normal orders to defend her should she come under attack as a leader of the Meta Liberation Army, and the ones she had told everyone the moment after Inko had called her and she had set this whole thing up.
Do. Not. Interfere.
A lot of things were going on at the same time. Orders and instincts and all sorts of other things. And it was all happening in just a few important moments. Whoever made the next move, would decide what everyone else did next.
"Oh my, that was a nasty little thing. That mosquito looked like it was about to land right on your neck." Inko slowly pulled her fist back, smiling bashfully as she returned to her seat and examined her hand. "Ah, looks like I missed, but hopefully it'll be too scary to come back." Inko rubbed her palm with her other hand's thumb. "I'd hate it if something got to your neck before me."
Eyes all shifted towards Chitose.
"Mosquito?" Chitose echoed numbly.
While Chitose tried to get that to fit into everything that had just happened, Inko was calling on her experiences with being in really, really shitty situations to not panic. If she was feeling catty, she'd be thanking Sytsevich for kidnapping her, because she learned to keep her cool from that whole horrible thing.
It's everyone. The whole restaurant.
It didn't seem possible, but there was no confusing what she had seen. Inko had thrown that punch, because while everyone was ignoring the flirting, violence wasn't something anyone was probably prepared for. So Inko punched, and immediately looked to see how people reacted. And what she saw told her everything. Somehow, this woman had filled the restaurant with her own people. Not just a few diners, but everyone was working for her. Was here because of her. And the sheer scale of that, the scale of the power, the authority Chitose must have to pull off such an impossible thing, made a pit form in Inko's stomach, though Nenshouki kept it from showing on Inko's face. She kept herself calm and unfazed.
I think… the scale of this is bigger than I thought it was.
"Uh huh."
But… then… What does this mean? Hisashi is trying to recruit influential people into a new MLA… but to pull off something like this. This feels like it would need to be an established organization. Surrounding himself with powerful people is one thing, but I can't believe that anyone can just pull this off. This would need something established, grown and spread out. This would need time to spread to regular people.
Inko was grateful to her past. Nenshouki kept her calm, but also gave her many different experiences to pull from to help her start to come to an answer.
"It feels like we're up against the Abegawa Tenchu Kai again."
…Hisashi isn't the driving force, Inko realized. There just wasn't any way he could be. Even if he was trying to do what Inko had suspected, even if he had started on day one when he began working at Detnerat, it still wouldn't have been enough time. I came at this the wrong way. But then, what does this mean?
Inko didn't have to wait to get her answer, as suddenly, Chitose started laughing. Wild and almost manic, she threw her head back and laughed. The act was so different, so out of character from anything Inko had seen, that even with her past self, she was taken aback and thrown off balance, really just sitting there and wondering what in the hell was going on.
"Oh, oh, you beautiful woman." Chitose covered her mouth to try to stifle the laughter, but wasn't doing that great a job. "You just, ha ha ha, oh, you are just too much." Her palms smacked the table as she leaned in, eyes wide with unhinged joy. "I heard what Hisashi said about you, read what the old HPSC president wrote about you, but to see a glimpse of it first hand, to see the woman that liberated a whole island in Destro's name, with only a handful of followers to start, through her sheer will and raw unblinking violence." Chitose's breath was starting to steam. "Oh, you are so much more than I could have ever dreamed. Of course. Of course you'd figure it out." Chitose looked her over, a new kind of hunger in her eyes mixed in with the old. "Just trying to figure out when you did. So exciting."
Then, while Inko absorbed the fucking bomb just dropped in her lap, Chitose leaned back, and while she got herself back under control, picked up a spoon, and gently tapped it against her crystal glass, making a very noticeable bell sound that rang out in the room. A very obvious signal for her people to pay attention. "Back to your places, everyone. I did give you all very strict orders not to interfere with our dinner. If you're all gawking, I doubt my wonderful guest will be able to enjoy the remainder of our time together."
It took a few seconds, and a few of the occupants gave each other nervous glances, but soon the normal murmur and calm one would expect of a fancy restaurant returned. While some of Chitose's people might not have been completely comfortable just going back to how they were, it was clear no one was brave or dumb enough to speak against her. Nenshouki pointed that out to Inko while the former leader of Bespin's Meta Liberation Army began to weigh her options.
Because there was a lot to unpack. Unfortunately, Inko didn't feel like she had the time to just sit and try to think this through. She didn't have time to really digest that this woman knew exactly who she was, and that apparently Hisashi was out there talking about her and their time on Bespin. There just wasn't time. So Inko reverted to form, and made sure it was Nenshouki who got her out of this.
"You sure you want your men all spread out?" Inko's voice was low, a dangerous growl mixed into it. "If you knew half as much as you think you know about me, your men would be standing right next to this table. I promise you, none of them will be able to reach you if I decide to reach across this table and rip out your throat."
Nenshouki had a simple solution to problems. She was not subtle.
But the way Chitose reacted was off for Inko. The threat didn't seem to ward the woman off, instead she looked more excited. There were no thoughts of self-preservation. So either she was completely insane, or she had a trump card.
Both?
"Oh, Hisashi didn't do you any justice. That fire in your eyes, oh I knew I saw something when your family ate with us, but now, to see it unleashed. This is absolutely wonderful." Chitose then casually picked up a small sugarcube from one of the dessert trays for the drinks, and rolled it between her fingers before casually tossing it away. With a small crack, it popped like a firecracker before it hit the ground. "My Meta Ability is called Landmine. It works on people too. All it takes is a little touch." She waited to see recognition cross Inko's face, and it did. But, there was no fear. In fact, it just made her expression harder. This was a woman that had stared death in the eye, and she wasn't going to blink.
Chitose also knew that it was entirely possible Inko might just strike her again before she could trigger her Quirk. She was alarmingly fast for someone that had supposedly become nothing more than a soft-spoken housewife. There was also the issue that her Quirk wasn't infinite; the explosive effects didn't last forever and would fade if given enough time. A long conversation would be enough. Also, the explosions themselves weren't that big. Bigger objects made bigger booms, but even if she exploded the table between them to give her space to use it on Inko, that might not be enough to slow her down.
But honestly, all these issues and worries didn't truly matter to her. She was just too taken in the moment to really care about the potential danger she was in. "I just have to ask. I'm just so curious," Chitose was done with the pretenses, and was letting all her twisted nature hang out openly. "What was it like to take your first life? That moment when you took your first step in becoming the woman who would send shivers down the government's spines."
Inko regarded Chitose evenly. "He actually told you about Sytsevich?"
Chitose snickered. "Oh no. Not that fool. I mean after that. When you raided those yakuza drug houses. When you set their homes on fire and waited for them to come running out screaming, right into your rifle. What was it like, to take hold of that power?" The look that crossed Inko's face, the darkness that flashed across her eyes, reminded Chitose of the looks Re-Destro could have. In fact, the similarities were as alarming as they were exciting. "Hmm, yes. Yes, it's so obvious now. You are so much more than you let on. No simple housewife has eyes like that. Hisashi undersold you. Of that I'm certain now."
Hisashi has been talking about us. To her. Inko now had new pieces to the puzzle, and the picture that was coming together was alarming. If Hisashi was pulling the shots in any way, he might have tried to downplay Inko's role to make himself seem more important. But the way Chitose spoke, it sounded more like Hisashi was reporting about Inko. "You're part of the Meta Liberation Army." Chitose smiled. Inko motioned to the people, about to say she was in charge but stopped.
Hisashi has been reporting. Working towards making himself bigger in this organization. He's reporting to other, more powerful people. He's not trying to restart our Meta Liberation Army, he found another cell! Inko thought back to the dinner. The way Hisashi acted whenever the other guests spoke. The way he seemed to revere his boss. Which wasn't new. Whenever Rikiya was brought up by him, it really was in a tone that was almost in reverence.
"Fuck, we got the answers."
"You, Koukuu, Tomoyasu and Ri—"
Inko was cut off as Chitose held up a finger, playfully acting like she was chiding a child. "Ah, ah, ah. I can overlook you speaking about Trumpet and Skeptic with their first names. But tread carefully when you speak of our leader Re-Destro. He, you will speak with respect."
…
"…Re-Destro?"
…
Inko didn't react outwardly, but inside a burning fire was starting to rage. "I'm guessing that the name isn't just for show. Or a title."
"Re-Destro is a direct descendant of our glorious movements founder. Through Destro, our people lived and continued on. And when our leader took his rightful spot at the head, we have grown stronger." Chitsoe spoke with something Inko could only describe as religious reverence. But if the Meta Liberation Army had survived since its original leader had killed himself, and had existed in the shadows, then that could maybe explain some of the crap Chitose had pulled. But Inko wasn't focused on that.
Instead, Hisashi has been trying to bring Izuku into a fucking cult?! Whatever this MLA was, it was very different from the one Inko had run.
Does this have anything to do with Hisashi suddenly trying not to act like a piece of shit to us? Was it to get to Izuku?
And then Inko remembered Deika City. The place Hisashi was staying. Where he kept talking about bringing Izuku. The way the people there also revered Rikiya.
…A whole city…
This was big. This whole thing was insanely big. Inko had answers, and the smart thing to do would be to figure out how to get the fuck out of the restraunt right then and their with them.
But as Inko looked across the table at the woman in front of her, it started to dawn on her that the opportunity she had planned to try and take advantage of, was still there. In fact, it was more important now more than ever to make sure that she leaves here with a very strong connection with Chitose. She was her way into whatever this mess was. A source of information about this other MLA cell. That wasn't something she could just give up.
"She's fascinated with me."
That's a huge understatement. Now it makes sense why she was coming on so strong. Apparently I'm just the kind of woman that scratches all her itches. If she wanted to recruit me…
"…She didn't have to try and flirt with me."
Okay. Okay fuck, okay.
"Breathe."
I am breathing. Oh god this really is like being James Bond.
Inko's expression softened, but she kept the Nenshouki edges as she reached over the table, and took Chitose's hand into her own. A move that showed she wasn't afraid of the woman's Quirk, and also that the flirting game was very much still on. "So if everyone else at that dinner had a codename, and are at the top of the organization," Inko inwardly smiled when Chitose's fingers closed around hers, "I assume you have one too. I can't believe you set this all up while being just a simple lieutenant."
Chitose looked ready to combust with excitement. She took Inko's hand and lifted it up so she could lean down and kiss it. "My name is Curious. It's a pleasure to meet you, Inko."
"You certainly know how to make a woman feel wanted. Even Hisashi hasn't pulled out these kinds of stops on our best days."
"This is my initiative." Chitose reached out and cupped Inko's cheek. Her smile widened when Inko didn't flinch or pull away from her touch. "I'm here because I want you. My curiosity about you just won't let me leave you alone."
Inko had a feeling that what Chitose wanted was more than just what the flirting and heavy handed sexual need implied. But she was pretty sure she couldn't just ask about that. Not yet anyway. This wasn't going to be a single time thing. She was going to need to work Chitose, to get what she needed. So Inko leaned in as Chitose pulled her. Bringing their faces closer together.
In for a penny…
"…In for a pounding."
"I'm looking forward to feeling just how much you want me. I bet the hotel we'll be staying in will make it an unforgettable night," Inko's voice dripped with intent and Chitose shuddered, her breath hot on her face as they got closer. "I just hope we'll get to be alone there."
"No one will be there to hear you scream."
Ruby coated lips came close to dark lavender, their breaths tickling each other's noses.
Crash!
But a sudden sound of broken glass jerked the pair to a stop. Chitose was about to rip into the stupid fool that had decided now of all times to be clumsy, but as she turned, she saw that all her men were back to stunned, defensive postures. Inko noticed it too, and that they were all looking up towards the restaurant's ceiling. Inko looked, and her blood went cold. A dark black cloud was swirling into a dark void above everyone's heads. Briefly, two yellow eyes glanced around the room, before they faded and only the black warp gate remained.
Inko had heard her son describe the attacks he had lived through. How the villains had someone with a warp or portal Quirk. She had heard Ochako describe it as a black void. She also knew the villain's name, thanks to the news reports talking about how Tomura had escaped after he had decayed her throat.
"Kurogiri," she hissed. She was back to how she was at the mall, murderous intent radiating from her being. This was the woman that had gone to war with the yakuza and won, and that was now a mother, and was willing to do whatever she needed to do to protect her son, regardless of anything else. This villain was one of the monsters that was responsible for her son being hurt. So, he was one of many Nenshouki would kill given the chance.
One of the diners began to approach the pair. "Ma'am, we need—" He didn't get to finish as the black portal began to shift, and someone floated out. A tall man in an expensive black suit, whose face was hidden by a black, domed mask that settled around his neck and shoulders. From the portal, came a distinct hospital smell, sanitizers and disinfectants, hidden by flowery perfumes that mixed and made a person's nose burn. This man floated above everyone with the air of a king who had descended down to tower over the common folk.
The guard looked at Chitose, but she gave him a look. No action. Though this was more due to their leader's stanuch rule that no member was to take any action that could lead to suspicion of the MLA's existence.
Chitose looked up at the man. "If you're looking to rob us, I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say we'll gladly hand over any valuables you want."
"Ha." The man made a small chuckle. "Amusing. You think I'm a common burglar?"
Inko flinched as her eyes went wide. No. No no no no no that couldn't have been. It had been years. But that was a voice that Inko could never forget. Even distorted by the mask, she recognized it. But All Might said… All Might said he was…
Chitose shrugged. "I am afraid I don't tend to keep up with the new villains. The portal makes me think you're League of Villains, but I don't think I've heard of someone with your description in the news."
"You're supposed to be dead," Inko whispered.
Though in the silent room, everyone heard her. Chitose looked at her, an eyebrow raised. "You know him?"
"Ah, she does indeed. We met many, many years ago. She helped me retrieve some lost property stolen from me."
"All for One." The name chilled Inko to her core.
"Hello Midoriya. It is so good to see you again."
And suddenly the whole room changed. Chitose's calm and almost dismissive demeanor changed into something close to panic. Around her, her guards all drew weapons, guns or other support items, from their coats or hand bags. A sparkle of light surrounded Chitose's hand as a large rectangle box of metal covered it. At the end were multiple cube protrusions, which she pointed at All for One as she lifted her arm at him. Others in the room activated their Quirks. Fangs, claws and raw elements bared in the face of this sudden threat.
Not that any of this really mattered.
The room was filled with people just about ready to crap themselves in fear. No one had recognized him. There were descriptions of the man, but none had ever mentioned him wearing such a strange black device.
And Chitose had just called him a burglar.
Slowly, All for One lowered himself to the floor. The whole time, his attention never wavered off of Inko. When his shoes clicked softly on the floor, he addressed her with a small respectful bow, an arm crossed over his chest. "Midoriya, I'm afraid I must offer my most sincere apologies. About Young Tomura, and for what you are about to experience."
Inko's mind was racing. She couldn't breathe. The floor felt like it was suddenly going to collapse under her. Everything was happening too fast. It was all too—
Then when Midoriya blood is thinned by half, the demon will come back to take the calf.
Pemphredo's voice echoed in Inko's ears, just as All for One took a step towards her.