Image At the End!
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A jagged fork of lightning slammed into the far side of the plaza. The flash lit up the civilians still huddled behind barricades. Kaminari flinched instinctively but didn't back off from the line. Momo was pulling fresh restraints from her bag, handing them off to Shoji who kept his massive frame planted near Eri and Mom.
Iida's voice crackled over comms. "Two more groups coming down the southern road. Ten, maybe eleven hostiles."
"Cut them off!" Kendo barked back. "Komori, Honenuki, you are with me. Vine, take the rooftops and call out movements!"
"On it!" Komori's voice carried faintly even without the comms.
Another gust ripped through the square. Dust and ash flared into the air.
Nine's breathing hitched slightly. His arm raised, and another pulse of energy screamed skyward.
Clouds churned tighter, splitting open in a spiraling vortex. Air warped. A funnel started to form near the shoreline, debris already being sucked into the air. Sand, planks, entire beach umbrellas ripped free like paper scraps.
He didn't answer. A sharp flick of his fingers sent two Hydra tendrils lashing out from his back, their glowing blue coils cutting through the air.
I ducked the first, slammed the bat into the second, and felt it ripple like striking water. It recoiled, but the force still sent me sliding back across the stones. My heels dug in, cracking the plaza underfoot. So he wasn't using them in full power before. Probably because his body cannot handle the load.
I grinned at the swirling clouds above. "Thank you for delivering the right elements," I muttered, rolling my shoulders. Nine's little storm tantrum was going to be his own coffin if he kept this up.
His glowing fingers flexed, Hydra tendrils whipping down so hard the stones beneath me shattered like glass. I threw myself sideways, boots grinding sparks off the cracked plaza as the shockwave roared past, hot enough to strip the air from my lungs.
"You are going to break yourself before I even get started," I called out. "Do me a favor and at least pretend you are a challenge."
Nine's lip twitched, his jaw tight. "You talk like you already won."
"That is because I have," I said.
[PHANTOM STEP ACTIVATED]
The world around me blurred, my figure flickering in and out like a bad reception. Nine's pupils narrowed as his head jerked side to side, trying to track me.
"Stay still," he hissed. His Hydra tendrils lashed in wild arcs, tearing trenches through stone and snapping a charred bench in half.
I was already gone.
My feet slammed against the ground, each step stacking speed on speed.
"HEY, SHITHEAD!" I roared, the sound cracking the air. It slammed into Nine's brain like static and for a split second, his entire body jerked as his Air Wall faltered. His laser hand twitched but no shot came.
[ARIA OF THE ARCANE TRIGGERED]
"Too slow."
[ENDLESS MOMENTUM MAX]
The shockwave erupted from my fist mid-sprint. The air in front of me hissed as an invisible blade sliced clean through Nine's freshly forming Air Wall. Cracks spiderwebbed across its surface before it shattered like glass.
[ECLIPSE STRIKE READY]
Nine barely got his hands up before I closed the gap. My palm struck first. Quirk energy sparked between us for half a second… and then went dead cold. His Hydra tendrils flickered and collapsed mid-motion. His floating platform dipped slightly as the power in his legs faltered.
"Where are your toys now?" I spat.
[STORM FIST ACTIVE]
"TASTE BAJRANG GUN, FUCKER!"
My fist came down like I was trying to punch through the island itself. It was not just a swing... it was everything, every stacked ounce of momentum, every ounce of kinetic hell screaming through my arm, every insult Nine had earned condensed into one unholy delivery.
The air itself caved in around my knuckles as I smashed into Nine's chest. The impact cracked with a sound so loud it felt like a cannon going off in my skull. A shockwave ripped through the plaza, sending rubble, planks, and stray weapons flying in every direction.
The bastard's eyes bulged wide as his ribs folded in under the hit. The glow of his quirks sputtered out like a choked candle, and the Hydra tendrils whipping wildly behind him evaporated mid-scream. He tried to breath, but his lungs were failing to inflate properly under the force. His entire body lurched backward, but my fist stayed buried in his sternum, grinding him deeper into the collapsing Air Wall behind him.
The stone beneath us shattered, spiderweb cracks racing outward as the ground cratered. The broken plaza floor split open with a low groan before chunks of debris lifted and rained down like cheap confetti. The civilians behind the barricades screamed as dust roared over them, but none of them ran, not a single one.
"FUCK YOU AND YOUR FIVE-DOLLAR QUIRK COLLECTION!" I yelled, slamming him again.
Another shockwave. This one tore the cracked Air Wall apart in a single blast. Nine's body flailed uselessly as the wall exploded behind him, fragments slicing past like glass daggers.
He gagged. Blood sprayed from his mouth mid-air as he tried to retch out words that did not come.
The residual force still riding my knuckles flared again. I yanked my fist back, twisted my body, and drove my knee into his gut like I was trying to send him straight through Tartarus' basement.
His entire body folded.
The sound he made wasn't a scream. It was wet. Hollow. A noise no human throat was designed to make.
I felt hands gripping me before I could move again. There were several, pulling me back like they were trying to anchor me to the cracked plaza.
Mom's fingers dug into my wrist. Eri clung tight around my waist, trembling, her small hands fisting my hoodie like I would vanish if she let go. Momo had one hand against my shoulder. Tsuyu's arm looped around mine. Toru's hand press briefly against my ribs. Mina and Uraraka stood just behind. Jiro's grip was on my arm too. Midnight's hand wrapped around my other shoulder, firm. Kirishima's palm slapped my back with a quiet thud, his fingers curling as he muttered something I barely caught. Deku's fingers were on my forearm, faintly shaking. Everyone else were there.
"Enough please, Ryuu."
It was Mom.
I turned.
Nine was down.
He was sprawled against the cratered floor, ribs sunken in, one leg twisted wrong. His fingers twitched once like he wanted to lift a hand but couldn't even get that far. Violet sparks flickered around his skin before sputtering out.
Nobody said anything for a second.
"Is he breathing?" Jiro asked, her voice quiet.
"He is alive," Momo said, glancing at the felled enemy. "Barely."
"Then that is enough." Mom's grip on my wrist loosened, but she didn't let go.
Kirishima sighed hard and stepped back first. "Damn… I thought you were gonna punch him through the damn island for a sec."
"Would've been a cool finish, though," Mina said, half-grinning. "You know… kaboom, villain disappears into magma, crowd goes wild."
"Yeah, and then Tartarus doesn't get him, idiot." Kendo's voice cut across as she jogged up with three of her classmates in tow. Her gloves were caked with dirt and blood. "We need him alive for questioning."
Bakugo stumbled out from behind a busted stall, still wheezing. "Should've just blown his head off. Save us all the paperwork."
"Bakugo." Kaminari shot him a look. "Say one more word and I will duct tape your ass to a stretcher myself."
"Try me, bastard."
"Don't tempt us."
Midnight tilted her head slightly. "Maybe we let him fight Nine's body instead. Win-win."
"This battle is concluded. The shadows have shifted." Tokoyami said, stepping forward.
"That is not even a sentence," Monoma said, snorting. "Try speaking normally."
"Better than you calling yourself a genius for the fifteenth time today," Rin quipped, already binding Nine's wrists in reinforced restraints.
I let myself hit the ground with a grunt, legs sprawled out. Hikaru and Katsuma rushed over. Hikaru crouched next to Nine, hands glowing faintly as he pressed them to the bastard's chest. Katsuma was at my side before I could wave him off, palms hovering nervously like he was trying to figure out if touching me would snap something in half.
"You are bleeding," he said, voice shaking. Hesitating but still pressed his small hands against my ribs, quirk flickering to life. The warmth rolled through my skin.
Class 1-A and 1-B were spread out, rounding up stragglers and slapping cuffs on villains we took down before.
"Two more restrained," Kendo called, dragging a struggling grunt toward Rin, who already had a line of prisoners kneeling against a cracked wall.
"Make it three," Sero added, webbing up another guy trying to crawl away.
"You seriously thought you would crawl to the ocean?" Mina said, standing over him with her hands on her hips. "What, you gonna swim back to your boss?"
"Maybe he thought he would grow gills," Kaminari muttered. He wiped a streak of blood from his cheek. "Wouldn't be the dumbest thing we've seen today."
"Close second though," Kirishima grunted, hauling a dented crate into place to block off one of the busted roads. "Bakugo, help me out here!"
Bakugo scowled, limping slightly as he stomped over. "Tch. Don't bark orders at me, Hair Gel."
"Wouldn't have to if you weren't acting like a one-man army earlier," Kirishima shot back.
"Save the bitching for later," Jiro said. She passed by carrying a bag of confiscated gear. "We still got a few hiding under the market stalls."
Tokoyami's cape fluttered as he stepped into view. "They are cornered. Their fate is sealed."
"So edgy." Pony muttered, her horns glowing faintly as she herded a small cluster of civilians back toward the center.
Hikaru let out a slow sigh. "He is stable... for now. I stopped the bleeding, but his organs..."
"Don't fix him too much," I said flatly. "He only needs enough to stand trial."
"I know." Hikaru didn't argue. He moved his glowing hands away, skin pale with strain.
Katsuma leaned back from me, brow furrowed. "You are gonna feel sore later."
"I will deal." I pushed myself up, wincing as my shoulder popped. "How many left?"
"Two squads still unaccounted for," Momo said, striding over with a clipboard in hand. "But they are cut off. Setsuna and Komori are handling containment."
"They better not screw it up," Bakugo muttered. "If one of those bastards slips away-"
"They won't," Monoma interrupted, arms crossed. "Not with Class 1-B there."
"You can gloat later," Kendo snapped. "Focus."
Nejire dropped down beside me, hair still damp from the ocean breeze. "You don't look dead. Good sign."
"Didn't plan on dying."
"Lucky for you, huh?" She ruffled Katsuma's hair before bouncing back up. "I will circle the perimeter one more time."
"Are we done yet?" Mineta groaned, dragging a bag half his size across the sand. "My arms feel like noodles."
"Good," Tsuyu said, hopping past with a bundle of restraints. "Means you are finally useful."
"Burn," Sero muttered, smirking.
Nezu arrived soon enough, like he owned the entire island... and for all I knew, maybe he did. Selkie's crew was with him. Selkie barked orders at the cops pouring out of their boats. Within minutes, the whole place shifted from chaos to organized chaos. Pro-heroes took over, hauling villains into armored trucks while a handful of sharp-eyed detectives spread out, notebooks in hand, jotting down everything locals said.
Nezu handled the entire operation like he was orchestrating a damn symphony. The second his furry little paws touched the dock, cops and pros snapped into position like chess pieces. He barked orders at Selkie's team without breaking stride, already laying out contingency plans for evacuations, media control, and evidence gathering. A news crew had shown up out of nowhere, no doubt invited by the rodent himself, and were setting up cameras while interviewing locals who looked like they had been waiting all week to talk.
The villagers swarmed the press like seagulls at a chip bag, shoving mics in their faces and spitting out stories faster than the reporters could type. Half of them were already spinning tales about how the UA students fought like pro heroes. The other half kept pointing out "the one with the bat" and how I apparently cracked a guy's skull in two. Overblown? Probably. Accurate? Also probably.
"Good PR," Nezu said, clasping his paws behind his back as he watched a civilian gush into a mic. "Heroes are built on reputation, and so is a school."
I did not answer. Not because I disagreed, but because I was too busy watching pros load unconscious villains into armored boat like trash bags. Some still groaned weakly as they were dragged, while others stared blankly at the ground, too wrecked to fight back. Tartarus agents showed up to oversee the worst of them, their masks making it impossible to tell if they even gave a shit about the chaos we had gone through to catch these people alive.
The students were scattered across the plaza now, most of them sitting in little clusters, eating rations or cleaning their gear. The pro heroes and police worked around them, too busy to acknowledge the kids unless they needed details for a report.
Nine was the last villain loaded up, his body bound in reinforced cuffs and straps so tight it was a miracle he could even breathe. Hikaru watched as they hauled him off, his expression unreadable. Katsuma stood next to him, clutching his dad's coat and glancing at me every few seconds like he was checking to see if I was still upright.
By the time Nezu gave the all-clear, I was already gone.
---
The beach was quiet.
Waves slapped lazily against the sand. Seagulls circled high above, screeching every few seconds to annoy us.
I lay flat on my back, the sun beating down hard enough to sting. It felt good. Too good, considering half my body was still throbbing from the fight. My head rested on Nejire's thigh. Eri was sprawled out on my chest, legs dangling over my side as if I was some kind of living mattress. She hummed quietly under her breath, clutching my hair with sticky fingers from a half-melted popsicle someone had handed her earlier. Mom was sitting close by, watching Izuku wrestle with Bakugo.
The others were scattered further down the shore. Kaminari and Sero argued over who would bury the other in the sand first while Mina chased Uraraka with a bucket full of seawater. Kirishima had his shirt off already, flexing at absolutely no one while Todoroki sat under an umbrella looking like he would rather be anywhere else.
"Want me to make you a drink?" Jiro asked, walking past.
"I don't trust you not to spit in it."
"You are not wrong."
Momo was setting up a little station under a canopy with Tsuyu and Pony, handing out ice packs and towels to anyone who wandered over.
"Hydrate," she called to no one in particular. "All of you. That is an order."
"You are bossier than Kendo," Rin muttered as he grabbed a bottle of water from her pile.
"That is not a complaint," Kendo said as she passed, kicking off her slippers to walk barefoot through the sand.
Nejire idly twirled a lock of her hair with her free hand. "You are heavy, you know that?"
"You are the one volunteering as a pillow," I said.
"Because if I left you laying in the sand, you would bake like a crab."
"Sounds peaceful."
"Sounds stupid." She flicked my forehead.
I pinched her inner thigh, and she yelped, drawing a glance from Jiro.
"Asshole," Nejire hissed, smacking the top of my head with her palm.
"You were falling asleep," I said, staring up at the sky.
"I was not."
"You were humming off-key. That is practically snoring."
"Off-key?!" she shot back, voice climbing. "My humming is perfect."
Eri shifted against my chest, peeking up at Nejire with a tiny frown. "You are loud."
That shut Nejire up for about two seconds before she deflated and poked me in the forehead. "Now look what you did. You woke up the princess."
"She wasn't asleep," I said. "She was plotting how to steal my last bit of energy."
Eri blinked, then grabbed the front of my hair harder, "Not stealing."
"Lies."
"She is allowed," Nejire said, tugging lightly on Eri's little pigtail. "You are her favorite."
"Not by choice."
A thud nearby made me glance over. Kirishima had tackled Kaminari into the sand, and Sero was laughing so hard he nearly fell into the shallow surf. Mina abandoned her bucket war with Uraraka and joined them, dumping sand over Kaminari's back while he screamed something about betrayal.
Bakugo and Izuku were still going at it a few meters away, trading shoves that turned into actual wrestling as soon as Bakugo lost his footing. It devolved into Bakugo trying to shove Izuku's face into the sand while Izuku yelped and flailed like a dying fish.
"Bet five yen Deku flips him," Mineta said, crouched low and watching like it was a title match.
"Shut up, grapehead," Sero said without even turning his head.
"Rude," Mineta muttered.
Bakugo's growl turned into a sputter when Izuku actually managed to twist out of his grip, sending them both rolling.
"Deku got him!" Kirishima shouted, pumping a fist.
"Cheer louder, he might actually break something," Mina said, grinning.
Todoroki didn't even glance up. "If they start bleeding, I am not helping."
"Harsh," Sero said.
"Fair," Tokoyami added.
Mom handed us watermelons, and both Eri and Nejire sat above me, munching like little gremlins and giggling every time juice ran down their chins. Within seconds, juice was dripping everywhere... on Eri's dress, Nejire's fingers, and, naturally, all over me.
"Seriously? You are turning me into a damn popsicle stick over here." I said flatly as sticky pink liquid ran down my chest.
"Oh nooo, my bad!" Nejire said, leaning over me like she didn't sound even a little sorry. "Oopsies, Ryuu. You will survive, right?"
Eri chewed slowly, her face stained pink, and looked down at me with wide eyes. Then she leaned in and shoved a cold chunk straight into my mouth.
"You need to eat too," she mumbled.
"Yeah, you look half-dead," Nejire added, grinning. She "accidentally" let another drop of juice fall on my neck.
I chomped down on the watermelon and glared at both of them. Mom was sitting off to the side, laughing her ass off like this was the cutest thing she ever seen. Don't let that sweet little smile fool you... she set this up. I could see it in her eyes. Pure villainy.
"This is payback, isn't it?" I said, spitting a seed into the sand.
"For what?" she asked, like she didn't know damn well what.
"For existing," I muttered.
"Correct," she said, sipping from her water bottle.
I sighed, then stood up slowly. Eri squeaked as I hoisted her onto my shoulders, her hands clutching my hair to steady herself. Nejire yelped as I scooped her up in one arm, and Mom barely had time to react before I pulled her up with the other.
"Wait, Ryuu... what are you doing?!" Nejire shouted, kicking her legs.
"Ryuu! Drop me now!" Mom yelled, but her voice pitched up when she realized where I was headed.
"PAYBACK IS A BEACH!" I roared like a war god about to commit family-friendly atrocities.
"No no no no..." Nejire's hands flailed, her hair whipping around my arm.
"RYUU! PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT!" Mom screeched, clawing at my shoulder like that would slow me.
"Too late," I said, smirking.
The ocean was right there, glittering like salvation. Or, for them, doom.
"Ryuu, I swear on all that is holy…"
Splash.
Their shrieks cut off under a wall of saltwater.
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