Chapter 42: Bubble Cutter
"So you're their leader, Tomura Shigaraki. You really do look the part of a villain..."
Seeing Shigaraki's sudden frenzy, Kira let go of Asui and discreetly gestured for Midoriya to take the other two and leave, continuing to talk to stall for time.
"Have we met? Or did someone snitch on me?" Shigaraki stopped scratching his neck, instantly realizing the false information he had received earlier. "So those thugs were defeated... So unreliable..."
He bent over, one hand on his face, and suddenly started laughing as if he had found something hilarious. "A bunch of losers who had their homes taken away by All Might, and they have no backbone at all? And they were even clamoring to kill All Might..."
Their homes taken away by All Might? What is he talking about?
A realization dawned on Kira. He looked at Shigaraki and said knowingly, "I see. The people you recruited for your League of Villains were probably the ones who did their underground dealings at Seaside Park... Because All Might cleaned up the criminal element there, these unorganized lowlifes were found by you. You tempted them with the promise of killing All Might, gave them a good deal, and used them as cannon fodder."
"They're just a bunch of rats living in a sewer. It's an honor for them to sacrifice themselves for something that will change the world."
"Change the world?" Hearing this, Kira laughed. "I get it now... You're just a chuunibyou kid, aren't you? Always thinking about doing something amazing that will make the whole world notice you. But in reality, the world couldn't care less about what you do. You're not Tokiomi Tohsaka! And another thing I've been meaning to say, what's with all those hands hanging off you? Are you showing off your perverted hobby? While I can understand the hobby, your aesthetic is truly hideous..."
"Chuunibyou... aesthetic... What are you trying to say?"
"I'm saying, you don't understand the beauty of hands at all! The most beautiful hands are the pale, delicate, well-manicured hands of a young woman. That soft touch, as if she were still by your side, feels like she's always with you..."
Of course, this perverted speech wasn't from Kira's own feelings. He was imitating Yoshikage Kira's tone and psychology, imagining the beauty of hands.
Midoriya and the other two had already used this opportunity to swim several meters toward the center of the lake. He paused and glanced back at Kira with a look of surprise, convincing himself that his class president was just trying to distract the enemy. Mineta was only focused on escaping and paid no attention to what Kira was saying, just urging Midoriya to swim faster. Asui didn't stop at all, as if she hadn't heard a thing.
"Interesting. You're an interesting guy!" Shigaraki laughed for a moment, then suddenly stopped. He coldly said to the bird-beaked giant standing beside him, who wouldn't move without his command, "Nomu, kill him."
Following his command, Nomu let out a sharp cry and charged at Kira with incredible speed. He was so fast that the surface of the water didn't seem to react, and he sprinted across it like a martial arts master in a wuxia novel.
Midoriya was carefully pulling Asui and Mineta through the water, but they were still not very far, only about ten meters away.
"Don't just stand there, go!!"
Seeing Nomu charge, Kira couldn't worry about them anymore. He instantly spread the last of the soap solution he had smeared on his hands and released a disc-shaped Hamon bubble.
"EAT THIS, BUBBLE CUTTER!"
The Bubble Cutter—a skill from Caesar Zeppeli. It used the power of Hamon to create a strong centrifugal force within the bubble, forming a bubble with a powerful cutting ability, which had shone brightly in his duel with the Pillar Men.
In Kira's mind, when faced with an unidentified flying object heading for a vital spot, the first thing to do should be to defend. But he was still charging straight at him...
Kira's eyes narrowed. If that's the case, then take this!
...Although he hoped it would injure him, he didn't have high hopes. After all, Nomu's purple skin looked much tougher than the Pillar Men's.
The sharp, fast Bubble Cutter went straight for his neck. However—Nomu didn't dodge, taking the full force of the razor-sharp Bubble Cutter, which only left a shallow, bloody scratch on his neck! And, to Kira's shock, the scratch quickly clotted, and the wound instantly disappeared!
Miscalculation. I didn't expect him to have such powerful regenerative abilities on top of that speed. This is definitely a double-A-rank panel.
"Turquoise Blue Overdrive!"
Kira wrapped his feet in Hamon, allowing him to walk on water. While some might wonder why he didn't do this earlier, the truth was, the amount of Hamon in his body was insufficient. He could only support short periods of water-walking, so he had to conserve his energy by swimming.
Kira only had time to leap out of the water and take a step back in the air before the pursuing Nomu punched him in the stomach.
THUD—
Kira had no protection other than the Hamon wrapped around his body. He was instantly sent flying, a parabola of blood from his mouth arcing across the calm water.
Kira slammed into the water slide in the center of the Flood Zone, his back hitting the round pipe. His body bent backward into an arc, and the pain instantly shot to his central nervous system. He felt like his body was about to fall apart. He couldn't breathe properly. The golden arcs of Hamon flickered and then faded away.
Kira fell limply into the water, sinking to the bottom with a plop. Besides the ripples on the surface, there was no other trace of him.
"Class President!"
"Kira-kun!"
"Kira-chan!" Asui, like a frog, leaped into the water.
Midoriya watched in horror as Kira was struck by Nomu, but he was powerless to do anything. He roared and, throwing caution to the wind, used his Quirk, leaping up and striking at the nearby Nomu.
"SMASH!"
Perhaps having completed its mission, Nomu stood dumbly where it had sent Kira flying, half-submerged in the water, as if its task were done.
Seeing this, Midoriya's anger intensified. The veins in his right hand bulged, and like its master's mood, a burst of explosive power swung toward Nomu's head.
THUD!
The intense shockwave created a storm in the middle of the pool, kicking up waves several meters high.
Midoriya was suddenly overjoyed to find that his arm hadn't fractured at all; it was completely intact. He had felt that he had used his full power. Had his Quirk been erased, like with Aizawa-sensei?
Midoriya looked at the enemy in front of him. Seeing its beak twisted and its eyeball popped out, a sense of joy welled up inside him.
I did it! I've mastered my Quirk! I won't get hurt anymore!
However, when Midoriya looked up again, his heart sank to the bottom, and he couldn't help but back away, wanting to get away from this monster.
With a creak, Nomu simply twisted its head back into place with its hand, then punched itself in the face, popping its eye back into its socket!
At a visible rate, the eye quickly healed. Nomu swung its arms, and the pool water around it was instantly parted. It let out a roar to the sky, and a sound wave far surpassing Jiro's, and even surpassing the Voice Hero, Present Mic, echoed throughout the entire USJ facility, lingering for a long time.
A Hamon bubble that Kira had created circled in the air and appeared behind Shigaraki, slicing at his neck from his blind spot.
"What a boring trick," Shigaraki said without turning around. He reached back with his right hand, and the bubble, which had maintained its Bubble Cutter form, was popped as easily as a normal soap bubble.
He looked at Midoriya with interest. "Smash... Are you a follower of All Might?" But then he heard Kurogiri's voice, and his interest instantly vanished.
"Tomura Shigaraki," a low voice said beside him.
"Did you take out Thirteen?" Shigaraki looked around and said with disappointment, "Is All Might not here yet?"
Kurogiri suddenly appeared from the void beside him, reporting, "He's been incapacitated. But some of the students we didn't manage to transport got away. One of them escaped."
"Ha? Hah—haha..."
Shigaraki trembled with laughter, then suddenly said, "Kurogiri, if you weren't my warp gate, I would have crushed you to dust by now."
"Let's go back. If seventeen or eighteen Pro Heroes from U.A. show up, we won't be able to win," Shigaraki said, very dissatisfied with the situation. He turned and walked toward the fountain. "The game is over. It's game over this time."
Hearing that they were leaving, Midoriya breathed a sigh of relief. Asui, who had already pulled Kira from the water during this time, held him in her arms again and said with some hesitation, "They're leaving. I didn't mishear, did I?"
Mineta was crying his eyes out. "I heard it too! We're finally going to be saved!"
Mineta had originally wanted to take this opportunity to hug Asui and touch her chest, but seeing the still-unconscious Kira in her arms, he gave up the idea.
The class president became like this to save us! The thought kept replaying in his mind.