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None saw Bakugo coming to the rescue like a true Hero.
Todoroki and Monoma's eyes were still partly blinded by the flashbang. The clouds of dust and smoke that Mushroom had created using Dark Roast First Crack made visibility even poorer in the sky.
So, when Bakugo came shooting out of the sky, powering his descent with the mighty explosions coming out of his soles, none chanced upon the extraordinary sight.
None but Hero Killer: Stain's Clone, who, despite holding multiple Quirks, exploded into a pile of mud from Bakugo's single attack.
A silence fell over the surroundings as Bakugo crashed behind Luke and rolled down the slope of the crater, passing out.
None of them were here with their Hero Costumes.
Bakugo's Hero Costume let him store his nitroglycerin-like sweat, increasing the intensity and scale of his explosions. Without that, Spinner's Quirk-Amplified Clone had already pushed the boy to the verge of breaking the bones in his arms and revealing his evolved Quirk.
To make matters worse, Bakugo then had to go high up into the sky, barely dodging the explosion that had devastated the forest in a half-mile radius.
Begrudgingly, he had then asked Singularity if She knew where Momo was.
To his horror, not only had She told him where she was, but She had also let him know that Stain's Clone was heading toward the same location.
With no choice left, Bakugo had pushed his Quirk beyond limits, covering a vast distance in a matter of seconds, finally taking down Stain before he could attack Luke and kidnap Momo.
So, the boy losing consciousness didn't come as a surprise to Luke, his eyes following Bakugo's body as it rolled down the crater, where Todoroki and Monoma caught him.
When he looked forward, Luke found Momo looking back at him.
"You… are calm…" She mumbled, breathing slowly in his arms.
Luke smiled. "There are always people looking after us, especially when you need them the most," he said. "So, what's the need to panic?"
Looking into his eyes, Momo opened her mouth as if to say something.
But changing her mind, she just smiled and collapsed.
"What was she going to say?" Nyx asked.
"Who knows…" Luke shrugged, holding her in his arms as he got up.
He brought the girl down to the boys. "Keep an eye on her," he said, looking at Todoroki. "The danger is not over yet."
"… What?!" Monoma gasped. "I… I don't have Erasure anymore…"
"It's alright," Luke said, walking away. "We don't need it anymore, either."
Todoroki stared at Luke's back, a weird feeling welling up in his heart. It was like… the person carrying a bird on his shoulder wasn't a part of this battle at all. It was like… whatever happened today… happened in a different reality, with Luke being nothing but a member of the audience, watching everything unfold calmly.
"… Where are you going?" Todoroki asked, knowing that he needed to stay with Monoma, Bakugo, and Momo for their safety.
Luke deliberated for a moment and pointed in a direction, stretching out his arm.
…
Cyan-colored bolts of lightning, much less noisy and more faded than usual, crackled around Luke as he used a Full Cowl 2% version of Reinforcement.
With a great push, he flipped the massive trunk of a tree, revealing the people buried underneath.
"Yo!" Luke grinned, sweat and tiredness drenching his face as Reinforcement ran out. "… Still alive?"
Midoriya lifted his dust-covered face, his eyes barely open.
Tsuyu and Uraraka were lying next to him, both bleeding but relatively unharmed.
From the sight of Midoriya's arms and legs, it became obvious to Luke that the boy must have used One For All right after escaping the marbles, saving not only himself and the two girls but also the Villains.
Mr. Compress and Himiko Toga lay not far from Midoriya, a splinter running through the former's shoulder.
A grunt escaped Midoriya's throat.
"… Yes, yes…" Luke nodded, descending. "You can have my autograph later."
"And mine… too…" Nyx cawed, her eyes barely opened under the exhaustion.
It took Luke a few minutes to pull everyone out of the debris.
And the moment he did so, a swirl of blackness took shape near him, a hand shooting out of it with the speed of lightning.
Danger Intuition had its limit.
A set of five rough fingers wrapped itself around Luke's face, but his eyes still held no panic.
Slowly, the entire figure walked out of the blackness, with artificial, white-gloved hands on its neck, face, and the back of its head.
"Laugh…" Shigaraki said, carrying a monstrous grin on his face. "I said… Laugh!"
Midoriya, who was panting and thanking his luck to be alive, heard that voice, and the earth slipped under his body.
Time lost meaning as his eyes fell on Luke's face, bloody cracks surfacing where Shigaraki's fingers were touching it.
Not Luke… Midoriya's entire existence screamed. No… No… "NO!"
A black strand of energy came shooting out of Midoriya's mouth and latched itself around Shigaraki's wrist before jerking it away.
The scene was so stupendous and sudden that Shigaraki couldn't do anything but stare at Midoriya as Luke distanced himself from the Villain.
Shigaraki looked at Deku, then at the black tendril of energy on his wrist, and then back at the boy.
Suddenly, BOOMS filled the surroundings as if a supersonic jet had arrived.
"Shigaraki!" Kurogiri screamed. "Let's go! Pros are here!!"
A shocked Shigaraki kept looking at Midoriya without blinking. Then, he grabbed the weak, energy strand latched onto his wrist, snapped it, and turned around, walking toward the black swirl.
"Oi… Shigaraki…"
The voice made the half-asleep Villain look back over his shoulder.
Smiling, and with a faced covered in bloody cracks, Luke lifted his right hand and scratched his neck… mimicking Shigaraki. "You gave me an itch... bastard."
Murderous rage, from the depths of his heart, oozed out from Shigaraki, his eyes gaining a bloody hue under the hand on his face. "You…"
But before the Villain could say or do more, Kurogiri swallowed him up, along with Mr. Compress and Toga.
And just as the Villains disappeared, the BOOM finally arrived, landing in front of the kids, raising a storm of dust.
Captain Celebrity, the Heroes' strongest reinforcement, was finally here…
… marking the end of Vanguard Action Squad's escapade as a bombastic failure!
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