In the UA lounge, far from the chaos of the USJ, Toshinori Yagi was sitting on a worn sofa in his skeletal form. His thin, sunken body contrasted dramatically with the heroic image the world knew. A steaming cup of tea rested on the table in front of him.
"And then I told the mayor that the ceremony would have to wait," Nezu chatted animatedly from his chair on the other side of the table. "The expression on his face was absolutely hilarious when I mentioned the violated building codes."
Toshinori let out a dry laugh that quickly turned into a cough.
"Cough, cough... Nezu, only you could find humor in municipal regulations."
"Bureaucracy can be surprisingly entertaining when you know where to look," Nezu took a sip from his own cup with delicacy. "But tell me, Toshinori, how do you feel about the first year students? They have shown remarkable progress."
"They are exceptional," Toshinori smiled genuinely; his sunken eyes showed a fatherly warmth. "Especially young Inko Midoriya. She has the spirit of a true hero."
"Ah, yes," Nezu nodded thoughtfully. "Aizawa mentioned that she has an unusual level of tactical maturity. She is an interesting girl."
The communication radio on Nezu's desk suddenly crackled. Both turned toward the device.
"This is Midnight," Nemuri's voice sounded tense and cut by static. "The USJ is under attack by the League of Villains. I repeat: villain invasion at the USJ. Multiple hostiles. Requesting immediate reinforcements. The students have been scattered."
The atmosphere of the room changed instantly. Toshinori's cup fell to the floor and shattered.
"WHAT?!" his voice came out as a guttural roar.
Nezu was already in motion, jumping from his chair toward the communications panel.
"Midnight, this is Nezu. What is the exact situation? How many hostiles?"
"Dozens," Nemuri's response arrived between sounds of battle in the background. "They are organized. They have someone with a transportation Quirk. They scattered the students all over the dome. Aizawa is holding back the group of enemy forces in the central plaza, but we need support now."
Toshinori did not wait to hear more. Steam began to emanate from his skeletal body. His muscles expanded violently, tearing his loose clothing. His hair stood up in pointy blonde strands. In less than two seconds, the frail man had completely disappeared.
All Might stood up in all his muscular glory, his blue eyes burning with barely contained fury.
"I AM ON MY WAY!" he declared with his characteristic thunderous voice.
"Toshinori, wait..." Nezu began to say, but All Might was already running toward the door.
"There is no time! My students are in danger!"
The lounge door exploded outward when All Might went through it without bothering to open it. His footsteps echoed like cannon blasts in the UA hallway as he accelerated to superhuman speeds. The students walking through the hallways barely had time to move aside before a gust of wind hit them. All Might was a golden blur tearing through the campus.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" his voice echoed through the halls.
He passed by Vlad King, who blinked in confusion.
"What the hell...?"
All Might left the main building with a jump that catapulted him thirty meters forward. He landed on the path to the USJ and his legs became pistons of pure power. The landscape became a blur around him. The trees, the buildings... everything passed in fractions of a second.
Hold on, young ones! I am coming!
******
At the USJ, near the entrance, the battle continued with increasing intensity.
"AGAIN!" Ren shouted while telekinetically throwing a metal bench toward the center of Kurogiri's fog mass.
CLANG.
The impact echoed when the object hit the metal container hidden in the fog. Kurogiri writhed with evident pain and frustration.
"These brats!" Kurogiri growled while opening multiple portals to divert incoming attacks. "Why do they have to be so problematic?"
Ochako had made several large pieces of debris float and Tsuyu threw them with her tongue in rapid succession. Each projectile forced Kurogiri to divide his attention and open more defensive portals. Mina slid around the battlefield on her own acid secretions, shooting corrosive streams from unpredictable angles. Hagakure attacked when they least expected it; her invisible blows impacted against the vulnerable container every time it was exposed.
"Ribbit, he is losing his rhythm!" Tsuyu observed while her tongue retracted after another throw.
Kurogiri's movements had become more erratic and defensive. He no longer tried to attack them directly as he did at the beginning.
"Reinforcements confirmed on the way," Nemuri finished her transmission and put away the communicator. Her blue eyes shone with renewed determination as she actively joined the fight. "Now, let us keep this bastard busy until they arrive."
She unrolled her whip with a fluid movement of her wrist.
CRACK.
The whip cut the air directly toward Kurogiri. The villain opened a portal instinctively, but Nemuri had already anticipated the move. She twisted her wrist at the last second, changing the trajectory of the whip so that it bypassed the portal and hit the fog from a side angle.
"Gh!" Kurogiri retreated several meters.
"Ohhh," Mina whistled impressed. "Midnight sensei is cool."
"Concentrate," Nemuri ordered without taking her eyes off her target. "Do not let him regain his balance. Keep the pressure constant."
Ren extended both hands. His telekinesis grabbed three nearby trash cans simultaneously and threw them in a triangular formation. Kurogiri opened portals to divert them, but Nemuri attacked again at that precise moment. Her whip wrapped around a section of the fog and pulled hard.
"ARGH!" Kurogiri shrieked when his form was violently stretched. The metal container became briefly visible, spinning inside the mass of fog.
"There it is!" Hagakure shouted.
An invisible blow impacted against the exposed container. The metallic sound echoed clearly.
"This is ridiculous," Kurogiri panted, losing his calm and professional tone. "How can a group of first year students and a single heroine cause so many problems?"
"Because we work as a team," Ren replied while preparing his next telekinetic attack. "You are alone."
"And because your weak point is stupid," Mina added with a sharp smile while throwing more acid.
Kurogiri dodged the acid by opening a portal under him and emerging several meters to the left. His yellow eyes glowed with poorly contained frustration.
"Enough," he declared. "I cannot keep wasting time with you."
"Oh, no," Nemuri smiled dangerously. "You are not going anywhere."
Her whip snapped again, but this time Kurogiri was prepared. He opened a massive portal between him and the group, large enough to swallow any incoming attack.
"Goodbye," he said in a cold tone.
He began to move back into the portal, his fog form moving like smoke blown by the wind.
"Do not let him escape!" Ren shouted.
But Kurogiri was already half absorbed into his own escape portal.
CRACK.
Nemuri's whip reached him at the last possible second. The leather wrapped around a section of the fog just as Kurogiri was about to disappear completely. Nemuri pulled with all her superhuman strength, trained by years of heroic combat.
Kurogiri was ripped out of the portal with a cry of surprise and pain. His fog body crashed against the concrete floor with an impact that sounded strangely solid.
"I told you," Nemuri approached slowly, coiling the whip for another attack, "that you are not going anywhere."
Kurogiri stood up shakily. His form was visibly trembling now. He had been fighting continuously since the start of the invasion, opening dozens of portals to scatter the students and defending himself from multiple attackers simultaneously. Even for someone with his level of control, exhaustion was beginning to take effect.
"Inadmissible," he muttered. "Impertinent youths. Persistent heroine."
"Those are very polite words," Nemuri commented sarcastically.
Kurogiri observed the group in front of him: five coordinated, fresh, and determined opponents. Then he looked toward the central plaza, where he could see Aizawa still fighting. Tomura was there, waiting. He made his decision.
"Very well," his form began to expand again, but this time backward, moving away from the entrance group. "If I cannot eliminate you, at least I can return to Tomura and report the situation."
This time he did not try to open an escape portal. Instead, he simply moved like fog through the air, sliding quickly over the ground toward the central plaza.
"He is making it!" Ochako shouted.
"Let him go," Ren said surprisingly. "We need to head toward where Aizawa sensei is anyway. He is leading us exactly where we want to go."
Nemuri looked at him with approval.
"Ready. Everyone, forward formation. Stay close to me."
The group began to move toward the central plaza following the trail of fog that Kurogiri left in his wake. As they got closer, the sound of battle became louder and clearer.
CRASH. BANG. THUD.
The whistle of Aizawa's capture bandages. The sound of bodies hitting the ground. When they finally reached the edge of the plaza, the scene that unfolded before them was chaotic. Aizawa was at the center of it all, moving like a ghost among dozens of villains. His bandages flew in all directions, catching limbs, throwing bodies, and blocking attacks. His eyes glowed red constantly as his Erasure canceled Quirk after Quirk.
But he was clearly exhausted. His breathing was heavy and visible even from a distance. He had cuts on his arms and his uniform was torn in several places. Blood dripped from a wound on his forehead.
"There are too many," Tsuyu whispered with concern. "Ribbit, he cannot keep going like this for much longer."
"He does not have to," Ren turned to Nemuri with an intense expression. "Midnight sensei, I need you to use your Quirk now."
Nemuri frowned.
"My Somnambulist has limited range. I cannot cover that whole area from here."
"You do not have to," Ren smiled slightly. "I will do it. Release your gas and let me guide it."
Understanding lit up Nemuri's eyes.
"Your telekinesis can manipulate gases."
"Exactly," Ren nodded. "I can spread it through the whole plaza, direct it specifically toward the villains, and keep it away from Aizawa sensei. But I need you to release a lot of gas, as much as you can."
Nemuri did not hesitate. She tore the sleeve of her suit, exposing her skin to the air.
"All of you," Nemuri ordered the rest of the group, "move back fifteen meters. My gas is potent. I do not want to knock ourselves out."
The group retreated quickly. Ren stayed close to Nemuri, preparing himself mentally.
"Ready when you are," she told him.
Ren closed his eyes for a moment, expanding his telekinetic perception. He could feel the air currents, the dust particles floating, even the heat radiating from the moving bodies.
"Now," he said opening his eyes.
Nemuri activated her Quirk completely. A purple and aromatic mist began to emanate from her skin. It expanded quickly, forming a dense cloud that normally would have dispersed at random. But Ren was already working. His telekinesis grabbed the gas as if it were a solid object. With precise movements of his hands, he began to guide the cloud. The purple mist moved unnaturally: instead of dispersing, it concentrated, snaking toward the central plaza.
"Incredible," Nemuri whispered watching her own Quirk being manipulated with such precision.
The gas cloud split into multiple streams under Ren's direction. Each stream headed toward a different group of villains, surrounding them like living tentacles. The villains noticed the mist too late.
"What is that?"
"It smells weird!"
"Do not breathe it... ugh..."
One by one, the villains began to stagger. Their movements became slow and their eyes closed heavily. Aizawa, who had been fighting three opponents simultaneously, suddenly realized that his enemies were falling asleep around him.
"What...?" He looked up and saw the streams of purple mist flowing through the air, carefully avoiding him but enveloping every nearby villain.
His gaze went toward the entrance and he saw Ren with his hands extended, intensely concentrated. Nemuri was by his side, releasing more gas. A small smile appeared on Aizawa's bloody face.
Smart brats.
More villains fell. The battlefield was clearing quickly as dozens of enemies collapsed unconscious.
"I... cannot... stay... awake..." a villain with a strength Quirk fought against sleep for a few more seconds before falling to his knees.
In less than two minutes, most of the villains in the plaza were snoring. Ren dropped his hands, panting. Controlling so many gas streams simultaneously had been mentally exhausting.
"Good job," Nemuri put a hand on his shoulder.
Aizawa walked toward them, wiping the blood with the back of his hand.
"Impressive teamwork," he said with a tired but pleased voice. "Ren, that was a brilliant strategy."
"Thank you, sensei," Ren replied, catching his breath. "But we are not done yet."
Everyone looked toward the center of the plaza where two figures remained standing. Shigaraki Tomura scratched his neck nervously, his red eyes fixed on the group. And next to him was the Nomu, that monstrous thing that had not participated in the battle until now, simply watching with its pupil-less yellow eyes.
*****
Meanwhile, in the Landslide Zone, Momo Yaoyorozu was running through the rocky terrain. In her hand she held a rectangular device that she had created herself.
"There," she pointed toward some rocks. "I detect three GPS signals together. They must be some of our classmates."
At her side, Iida adjusted his glasses while his engines made noise on standby.
"Understood. I will go check and inform them of the meeting point."
"Be careful," Momo warned. "There may still be villains."
"Of course," Iida nodded seriously before activating his engines.
VROOOOM.
Iida disappeared in a blue blur. Momo watched him go before looking at her device: two signals to the north, four to the west, and a single one to the south, isolated.
"I have to keep gathering everyone," she muttered while creating a signaling flare. She lit it and threw it into the air, where it exploded into a bright red light.
Any student who saw it would know where to go.
*****
In the Mountain Zone, Inko landed after a jump powered by One For All, creating a crater in the ground. In front of her, three villains lay unconscious. But her victory had come at a cost.
"This is problematic," she whispered looking at her hands. The index and middle fingers of her right hand were twisted, fractured. A pulsing pain radiated from there. "I still cannot control the power correctly. I used too much force."
She heard engines approaching. She put herself on guard, tensing up despite the pain. Iida appeared skating to a stop.
"Midoriya san!" he shouted with relief. "Thank God you are okay."
"Iida kun," Inko lowered her guard. "What is happening? Are the others okay?"
"We are gathering everyone," Iida explained quickly. "Yaoyorozu is tracking the locations. We established a meeting point at the border between the Ruins Zone and the central plaza."
He noticed Inko's hands and his expression turned concerned.
"Are you hurt?"
"Just fractures," Inko downplayed the matter, although her voice revealed the pain. "I can move. Where exactly is that point?"
Iida gave her precise directions.
"Can you get there alone?"
"Yes," she nodded. "But you need to keep looking for others. Do not waste time with me."
"Understood," Iida gave a quick bow. "Be careful, Midoriya san. If you find villains, avoid them. Your hands..."
"I know," she interrupted him softly. "Go. Make sure everyone is safe."
Iida disappeared in another blur of speed. Inko looked at her broken fingers and then toward the indicated direction.
"I need to get there."
She began to move, ignoring the stinging pain.
*****
In the central plaza, Kurogiri had rematerialized next to Shigaraki.
"Tomura Shigaraki," he said with urgency, "we have a problem."
Shigaraki stopped scratching his neck. The hands covering his face trembled slightly.
"What kind of problem?"
"The heroine Midnight managed to communicate with UA," Kurogiri reported. "The professional reinforcements are on the way. I do not know how much time we have, but it will not be long."
There was an absolute silence. Then, Shigaraki exploded.
"WHAT?!" his voice rose to a hysterical scream. "How could you be so incompetent?! I told you to scatter them!"
"I..." Kurogiri began to say.
"I DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR EXCUSE!" Shigaraki scratched his neck with ferocity, leaving red marks. "You ruined everything. The Master is going to be so disappointed."
"We need to retreat," Kurogiri insisted. "We cannot face multiple professional heroes now."
Shigaraki looked around: dozens of villains lay unconscious from Midnight's gas.
"That damn kid..." Shigaraki fixed his red eyes on Ren. "Our perfect plan, destroyed by a brat."
"Tomura, we have to leave now."
CRACK.
Midnight's whip hit against Kurogiri's fog, making him retreat. The heroine advanced with confident steps.
"I heard you wanted to leave," she said with a dangerous smile. "What if I tell you that I am not going to let you?"
Aizawa moved to flank them. Despite his injuries, his eyes burned with fury.
"You made a mistake coming here," he said with a cold voice. "Attacking my students was your last mistake."
Shigaraki observed the two heroes. He looked at Kurogiri, who was exhausted. A plan formed in his twisted mind.
"I see," he muttered. "So that is what you want. To catch me like a rat."
He looked at the Nomu, which remained motionless. A maniacal smile spread behind the hands on his face.
"All right. If you insist so much on me staying, I will stay. After all, it would be rude to leave when I have such... enthusiastic guests."
He opened his arms wide.
"Nomu," he ordered with a frigid voice. "Kill them all."
******
Author's Note:
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Power Stone Challenge!
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