"We're here," Tatsuo announced, his voice a low, gravelly hum that barely carried over the wind.
Through the windshield, the Blackwood Estate loomed out of the thick, unnatural fog. It was a massive, sprawling European-style stone castle, seemingly plucked from the dark ages and dropped into the Japanese wilderness. Dead, thorny ivy choked the ancient stone walls, and the massive wooden portcullis was raised, but the heavy iron drawbridge was pulled firmly shut across a deep, dry moat. Surprisingly, the courtyard before the bridge was completely empty aside from the trucks parked outside.
"The trucks must have driven around to a subterranean loading dock," Tatsuo muttered, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the perimeter through his Plumber helmet's thermal optics. "But the fact that they haven't posted guards out means they either feel entirely untouchable... or they have something else guarding the grounds."
Ryukyu unbuckled her seatbelt, her expression shifting back into the composed, professional mask of a Top 10 Hero. "Regardless, we need to get inside quietly. How do we get in, Kendo? The drawbridge is raised, and the moat looks to be lined with rusted steel spikes. I could fly us over, but if they have anti-air defenses or motion trackers, then a giant dragon will trigger every alarm they have."
Tatsuo simply turned to her and offered a confident, knowing smile beneath his visor. "Leave it to me."
The group slipped quietly out of the vehicle, the freezing mountain air immediately biting at their skin. They crept through the dead brush, staying low until they reached the edge of the deep moat. The massive iron-wrought drawbridge stood vertically before them, chains as thick as a man's torso holding it firmly against the stone archway.
Tatsuo stepped right up to the edge of the chasm. He reached across the gap, his heavy, armored gauntlets gripping the rusted iron spikes protruding from the top of the drawbridge. He planted his boots firmly into the dirt.
"Stand back," he warned.
Tatsuo let out a low, guttural groan of sheer exertion. The servos in his Plumber suit whined—VHRRR-SCREEE—but the real power came from the man himself. His muscles bulged beneath the white and gblack armor. The massive iron chains protested with a deafening CLANG-CRACK-CLANG, sounding like gunshots in the quiet night. Slowly, agonizingly, Tatsuo pulled the multi-ton drawbridge forward. The gears in the gatehouse shattered from the sheer force of his pull. With a final, explosive heave, he threw his weight backward.
CRASH!
The heavy drawbridge slammed down over the moat, creating a perfect, flat path directly into the dark maw of the castle. Tatsuo dusted off his hands, his breathing entirely steady. "After you."
Izuku's eyes widened to impossible proportions. Before anyone could even blink, he had a battered, scorched notebook—Hero Analysis for the Future, Vol. 13—whipped out from his pocket, a pencil flying across the page at blinding speed.
"Incredible!" Izuku muttered rapidly, his voice a high-speed buzz. "The physical output required to snap steel gears of that thickness without leverage is astronomically high! But it's clearly not an average strength enhancement quirk, it has to be a density-altering mutation! If Tatsuo-san can alter his muscle mass density ! But wait, does it put a strain on his skeletal structure, or are his bones reinforced too?!"
Suddenly, a head of periwinkle hair popped over Izuku's shoulder. Nejire was staring at the notebook, her eyes sparkling with intense, unrestrained excitement.
"Hey hey hey!" Nejire talked just as fast, matching his frantic energy perfectly. "If it's a density quirk, then his center of gravity would completely shift when he activates it! That means he must have incredible natural balance to not just tip over! But what if it's actually a localized gravity manipulation quirk? If he made the bridge lighter while making himself heavier, it would look exactly like super strength! Do you think it's gravity or density?!"
Izuku turned to her, his face lighting up. "I was just thinking about gravity manipulation! If he manipulated the gravitational pull—"
"He could theoretically create a localized vacuum to pull the bridge down!" Nejire finished.
"Exactly!" Izuku gasped.
"Jinx!" they both shouted at the exact same time, pointing at each other.
For a split second, they stared at each other in pure, unadulterated shock. Izuku had never met anyone who could keep up with his muttering, let alone someone who genuinely enjoyed analyzing quirks as much as he did. Nejire felt exactly the same; people usually found her endless questions annoying or overwhelming, but Izuku was right there on her wavelength.
Then, the realization of how close their faces were hit them. The memory of the CPR flashed in both of their minds simultaneously.
Izuku's entire face erupted into a brilliant, glowing red. He practically choked on his own spit, snapping the notebook shut and taking three rapid steps back. "I-I-I mean! That's just a theory! A quirk theory!"
Nejire's cheeks flushed a beautiful, deep pink. She immediately looked down, her fingers twisting the edge of her hero costume nervously, though a massive, genuine smile was plastered across her face. "Y-Yeah! A theory! Super cool theory!"
Kendo watched the exchange with narrowed eyes, her arms crossed tight over her chest. She let out a small, irritated huff, deciding she really, really didn't like the weird feeling blooming in her stomach.
"Focus, children," Ryukyu whispered, her voice snapping them back to reality. She stepped onto the drawbridge, her golden eyes scanning the pitch-black tunnel ahead. "We are in enemy territory now. From here on out, we move silently. Step where I step. Breathe quietly. Keep your eyes on the shadows."
The group crossed the bridge and entered the castle. The air inside was completely stagnant, smelling thickly of ancient dust, damp stone, and cold iron. It was pitch black, the darkness absolute and oppressive.
"I can't see anything," Kendo whispered, holding her hands out in front of her to avoid walking into a wall.
"Nejire," Ryukyu said softly, knowing exactly what her intern was capable of.
"I've got it!" Nejire whispered back. She raised her right hand, her fingers splayed. Bzzzt. A beautiful, soft golden-yellow light bloomed from her palm, shaped like a swirling galaxy. She didn't fire it; she merely held it there, letting the ambient, spiraling energy act as a brilliant torch.
The light chased away the shadows, illuminating the grand entrance hall of the Blackwood Estate.
It was a hauntingly beautiful, terrifying place. The ceiling arched high above them, lost in cobwebs. Rusted chandeliers hung dangerously low. But it was the walls that made them stop in their tracks. Lined up along red, moth-eaten carpets were dozens of stone pedestals holding bizarre, jagged artifacts that looked ancient and golden diamond encrusted jewels. Surrounding them were towering suits of medieval armor, but they weren't standing at attention. They were posed in brutal, dynamic fighting stances—swords raised mid-swing, lances thrust forward, heavy shields bashed inward.
The flickering golden light from Nejire's hand made the shadows dance, creating the horrific illusion that the empty armors were moving out of the corners of their eyes.
Kendo shivered, rubbing her arms. "Are we sure that mercenary didn't lie to us? I don't see any Forever Knights. I don't hear any trucks. This place feels like a tomb."
Tatsuo kept his blaster raised, sweeping the corners. "If Grit lied, then he has a one-way, non-refundable ticket to the Null Void waiting for him. But my scanners are picking up faint residual energy signatures. Level 5 tech has been moved through this hall recently. We split up but stay close. Fan out, but keep within visual range of Nejire's light. Look for hidden doors or scuff marks on the floor."
The group fanned out across the massive hall. Izuku moved toward the far left wall, his heart pounding in his chest. He still couldn't believe he was here. He was quirkless Izuku Midoriya, sneaking through a literal terrorist-controlled castle with the Number 10 Hero. He swallowed hard, trying to keep his fear in check. He had to be brave. For his grandpa. For Kendo. For Nejire and Ryukyu.
He stepped up to two particularly massive suits of Forever Knight armor. They were posed in a terrifying way—one had its heavy broadsword driven entirely through the breastplate of the other, locked in a permanent, gruesome depiction of fratricide. The jagged metal teeth of the helmets seemed to grin at him in the dim light. Izuku leaned in closer, his analytical mind noticing that the joints of the armor were reinforced with what looked like carbon-fiber alien tubing.
A hand suddenly clamped down hard on his shoulder.
"BOO!"
"WAAAHHH!" Izuku screamed at the top of his lungs, spinning around and throwing his arms up in a defensive, terrified panic.
"Shhhhh!" Tatsuo, Ryukyu, and Nejire all hissed simultaneously from across the hall.
Izuku froze, his heart trying to beat its way out of his ribcage. He looked down.
Itsuka Kendo was standing there, one hand covering her mouth as her shoulders shook with silent, uncontrollable giggling. Her emerald eyes were crinkled with pure mischief.
Izuku dropped his arms, glaring at her sheepishly, his face burning with embarrassment. "Itsuka! That's not funny! I thought I was about to get cut in half!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Kendo whispered, still giggling behind her hand. "You were just standing there so intensely, I couldn't resist! You should have seen your face—"
Kendo's playful giggling abruptly died in her throat. Her emerald eyes widened in absolute, sheer terror, locked onto something directly behind Izuku. The blood completely drained from her face.
Izuku felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. The air suddenly felt ten degrees colder. A foul, sulfurous stench washed over him, smelling of rotting meat and burning coals.
Very, very slowly, Izuku turned around.
The two suits of armor he had been staring at weren't resting on a stone wall. They were resting against a massive, scaled, black mound.
As Izuku watched, the mound shifted. CRACK-SNAP. The sound of massive bones realigning echoed through the hall. Two enormous, slit-like yellow eyes snapped open in the darkness, glowing with a predatory, malevolent light.
It was the head of a gargantuan, jet-black dragon.
The beast raised its massive head, easily the size of a city bus, shaking the two suits of armor off its snout as if they were dust. It rose onto four massive, muscular legs, its jagged black scales scraping against the high ceiling of the hall. It let out a low, vibrating growl that rattled the fillings in Izuku's teeth.
"Get out of the way!" Tatsuo roared.
Tatsuo leveled his heavy blaster and pulled the trigger. KRA-KOOM! KRA-KOOM! Twin bolts of searing blue plasma struck the black dragon directly in its massive snout.
The beast didn't even flinch. It merely blinked its massive yellow eyes, opened its maw to reveal rows of jagged, sword-like teeth, and let out a deafening, earth-shattering roar.
ROOOOOOAAAAAAR!
The force of the sound alone blew Izuku and Kendo off their feet, sending them tumbling backward across the stone floor.
Ryukyu didn't hesitate for a second.
"Nejire! Run!" Ryukyu screamed.
Mid-sprint, the Number 10 Hero leapt into the air. Her body underwent a rapid, change, shifting from a beautiful woman into a magnificent, dragon. Her leathery wings snapped open, and she charged head-on.
CRASH!
Ryukyu slammed her massive head directly into the black dragon's chest. The impact sounded like two freight trains colliding at top speed. The stone floor shattered beneath them, a massive crater forming from the sheer kinetic force of the two titans clashing. Ryukyu dug her talons into the stone, pushing with all her might, trying to wrestle the beast back.
But the black dragon was simply too large. It swiped a massive, spiked claw, catching Ryukyu in the shoulder and sending her skidding sideways.
"Go! Get out of here!" Ryukyu ordered, her draconic voice booming with panic as she breathed deeply and continued holding the black dragon off with all her might.
Nejire scrambled to her feet, her hands glowing with intense spiral energy. "No! I'm not leaving you, Ryukyu!" she cried out, preparing to fire.
"We need to move!" Izuku shouted. He scrambled over, grabbed Nejire's wrist in a vice-like grip, and pulled her forcefully backward toward the entrance of the hall. "We're in her way! Kendo, come on!"
The group sprinted backward, putting distance between themselves and the fighting kaijus. Ryukyu was a veteran hero, incredibly skilled in combat, but the black dragon was fighting with a savage, unfeeling brutality.
The black dragon lunged hard pushing Ryukyu back and shoving her against the stone wall behind her.
BOOM!!!
CHOMP.
The jagged, metal-like teeth sank deep into the junction between Ryukyu's neck and her golden shoulder.
Ryukyu let out an agonizing, blood-curdling scream that echoed terribly through the empty castle halls. "AAAAAAAGH!" Blood sprayed across the ancient stone tiles as the black dragon clamped down harder, violently shaking its head like a dog with a toy, trying to tear her throat out.
Nejire stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes wide with sheer horror as she heard her mentor's scream. "RYUKYU!" she shrieked, tears instantly springing to her eyes. She ripped her wrist out of Izuku's grip and spun around, fully intending to charge the beast.
PEW!
A searing red laser blast struck the stone wall mere inches from Nejire's head, showering her with burning rock fragments.
"Nobody moves," a cold, metallic voice echoed from the shadows.
From the darkened archways and hidden corridors lining the entrance hall, they stepped out. One by one, their heavy metal boots clanking ominously against the stone. Five. Ten. Twenty.
Twenty Forever Knights, fully clad in gleaming silver plate armor, leveled their alien Laser Lances directly at the group.
"The pure world has no place for filth like you," the lead Knight sneered, stepping forward and leveling his lance at Tatsuo's chest. "Surrender your alien technology, old man, and we will grant you a swift death. Resist, and we will vaporize you slowly."
Itsuka Kendo stepped right in front of her grandfather, her face twisted in a mask of pure, unadulterated fury. "Make us, tin can."
Kendo activated her quirk. Her hands expanded rapidly, growing exponentially until they were the size of small boulders, glowing with raw, physical power. She raised both of her massive, heavy fists high into the air, took a deep breath, and slammed them down into the stone floor with every single ounce of strength she had.
KRA-DOOOOOOM!
The impact was devastating. The ancient stone tiles shattered like glass. A massive shockwave ripped through the floor, lifting massive slabs of rock into the air like a tidal wave of earth. The ground literally buckled beneath the Forever Knights. They screamed as the seismic wave hit them, launching the first ten Knights completely off their feet and sending them flying backward into the walls and pillars in a chaotic clatter of crushing metal.
"Keep firing!" the remaining Knights shouted, recovering from the tremor and pulling their triggers. ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! Searing red lasers rained down on the group, forcing Tatsuo to throw up a hard-light energy shield from his gauntlet to cover Kendo.
Nejire Hado was completely done playing games. Her mentor was bleeding out behind her, and these fanatics were standing in her way.
"Get out of my way!" Nejire screamed, her usually sweet voice cracking with raw fury.
She focused every ounce of her quirk. The air around her began to hum and vibrate violently. Her hair floated upward, defying gravity. She chanted her output level to herself to maintain control, but she pushed it far past her normal limits.
"Thirty percent!" Nejire shrieked.
She thrust both of her hands forward. "NEJIRE WAVE!"
FWOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!
Two massive, roaring tornadoes of pure, golden spiral energy erupted from her palms. The sheer concussive force of the blast tore the remaining floor tiles from the ground. The spiraling energy waves slammed into the Forever Knights like a golden hurricane. Their heavy armor didn't stand a chance. The energy blast caught them, spinning them violently in the air and blasting them straight through the heavy wooden doors of the castle and out into the dark courtyard.
But it wasn't enough.
From the upper balconies, from the stairwells, more Forever Knights poured in. Thirty more. Forty more. They were swarming like angry metal ants. Tatsuo was firing his blaster relentlessly, picking them off one by one, while Kendo swatted away those who got too close. Nejire was panting heavily, charging up another wave.
Izuku stood in the middle of the chaos, his hands trembling. He looked at Tatsuo, Kendo, and Nejire holding the line against the army of Knights. He reached for the Omnitrix on his wrist, ready to slam the dial down and help them push the line.
But then, over the sounds of blasters and shattering stone, he heard it again.
Ryukyu screamed. It was a weak, wet, desperate sound. The black dragon was pinning her to the ground, its jaws still locked on her neck, its massive weight crushing her ribs. She was losing. The Number 10 Hero was going to die right in front of him.
Izuku gritted his teeth, his heart making the choice before his brain could even object.
"Nejire-senpai!" Izuku shouted over the din of battle.
Nejire looked at him, her eyes wide and frantic, her hands glowing.
"Protect Itsuka and Mr. Kendo!" Izuku ordered, his voice filled with an absolute, unshakeable command that completely belied his age. "Don't let them through! I'm going to help Ryukyu!"
Nejire hesitated. She looked at the giant, terrifying black dragon, and then at the quirkless boy. But she remembered the boy who had jumped in front of a laser blast. She remembered the boy who had breathed life back into her lungs.
"Please, Midoriya," Nejire pleaded, her voice breaking, tears streaming down her face. "Please save her!"
Izuku gave her a single, firm nod. Then, he spun around and sprinted directly back into the massive main hall, straight toward the clashing titans.
The black dragon didn't even notice the tiny human running toward it. It was too focused on crushing the life out of the golden dragon beneath it. Ryukyu was thrashing, her golden scales slick with her own blood, her golden eyes dimming with exhaustion.
"Hey, ugly!" Izuku screamed, running right up to the beast's massive hind leg.
Izuku didn't wait. He didn't look at the holograms. He just reached over, popped the core of the Omnitrix up, and slammed his palm down as hard as he could.
K-CHOWWWWW!
A brilliant, blinding flash of emerald green light exploded in the dark hall, momentarily illuminating every dark corner of the castle.
Izuku expected to feel his muscles expand. He expected to feel his bones stretch, preparing to turn back into the massive, twelve-foot-tall Humungousaur to wrestle the beast off Ryukyu.
Instead, the world around him suddenly got... a lot bigger.
The green light faded.
Standing on the cracked stone floor was a tiny, humanoid creature barely three feet tall. He was made entirely of what looked like smooth, white silicone, with bright green eyes and circular, headphone-like appendages on either side of his head. He had a strange, cassette-tape-like pattern on his chest, right where the Omnitrix dial rested securely.
"ECHO ECHO!!"
"What the...?" the tiny alien spoke. But his voice didn't just come out of his mouth. It sounded metallic, synthesized, and strangely overlapping, as if three people were speaking at the exact same time through an autotune filter.
Deku looked down at his tiny, white, stubby hands. He looked up at the ceiling, which now felt miles away. He looked at the gargantuan black dragon, which was now roughly the size of a skyscraper from his perspective.
"Are you kidding me?!" Echo Echo complained, his overlapping, metallic voice filled with absolute panic. "I'm a little battery man?! How am I supposed to fight a dragon as a living MP3 player?! What does it even do?!"
The flash of green light had caught the black dragon's attention. It slowly released Ryukyu's neck, dropping her bleeding form to the floor, and turned its massive head to look down at the tiny, white creature screaming at it.
The dragon let out a low, rumbling growl and raised one of its massive, jagged front claws, intending to simply squash the annoying white bug like an insect.
"Uh oh," Echo Echo squeaked.
The massive claw slammed down.
CRASH!
Echo Echo dove to the side at the absolute last microsecond, hitting the stone floor and rolling awkwardly. "Ah! Okay, I'm fast, but I'm bite-sized! Think, Izuku, think! What are my powers?! Do I shoot lasers from the headphones? Do I plug into a wall?!"
The black dragon roared, whipping its massive, spiky tail across the room. The heavy tail clipped a stone pillar, shattering it, and the debris flew toward the tiny alien. A piece of rock struck Echo Echo hard in the shoulder, sending him tumbling head over heels across the floor.
"Ow, ow, ow!" Echo Echo yelped as he rolled.
But as he rolled, something impossible happened. A strange, vibrating sensation ripped through his silicon body. It felt like his atoms were vibrating at the speed of light, separating and instantly re-knitting themselves.
He skidded to a stop on his back. But immediately, another voice—sounding exactly like his overlapping, metallic voice—spoke from right beside him.
"Whoa. That felt weird."
Echo Echo blinked, sitting up and looking to his left.
Sitting right next to him was... another Echo Echo. They were entirely identical, down to the glowing Omnitrix symbol on their chests.
The first Echo Echo stared at the second. "Are you me?"
"I think I'm you," the second Echo Echo replied, rubbing his head. "So... we can duplicate?"
The black dragon roared, rearing its head back to unleash a torrent of dark flames at the two tiny aliens.
"Wait..." The first Echo Echo's green eyes widened, the analytical gears of Izuku Midoriya's brain finally clicking into place. "If I can duplicate... and my voice sounds like this... headphones... cassette tape chest... Echo!"
The two Echo Echos jumped to their feet. "Let's see how many of us there are!" they shouted in unison.
Both aliens focused inward. The vibration hit them again. With a rapid-fire POP-POP-POP-POP!, the two aliens instantly split into four. The four split into eight. The eight split into sixteen. In a matter of two seconds, there was a small army of identical, three-foot-tall white silicon aliens standing in the center of the hall, staring up at the giant black dragon.
"Awesome!" all sixteen Echo Echos cheered simultaneously, their voices echoing loudly around the room.
The black dragon unleashed its breath—a massive wave of thick, black fire that scorched the air, rolling toward the small army.
"Scatter and surround!" the Echo Echos commanded each other.
The tiny clones scattered like roaches, diving behind pillars, sliding under the flames, and moving with incredible agility. They completely surrounded the massive beast, forming a wide circle around it, completely enclosing the monster.
Ryukyu, clutching her bleeding neck, weakly cracked open a golden eye. She watched in utter disbelief as sixteen tiny, identical white aliens surrounded the beast that had nearly killed her.
"Alright, ugly!" The prime Echo Echo shouted from the front of the dragon, crossing his arms. "Let's see how you like the sound of my people! Everyone, deep breath!"
All sixteen Echo Echos inhaled deeply, their silicon chests expanding. They opened their mouths unnaturally wide, planting their feet firmly against the stone floor.
"WALL OF SOUND!"
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was a scream of pure sonic destruction. Sixteen overlapping, hyper-amplified sonic waves erupted from the clones, converging perfectly onto the center of the circle—right onto the black dragon.
The sound was so incredibly intense it was visible, distorting the air in rippling, jagged waves. The stone pillars in the hall instantly cracked and crumbled. The stained-glass windows thousands of feet up shattered into a million pieces. Ryukyu had to desperately cover her ear-holes with her massive claws, groaning as the pitch threatened to rupture her eardrums.
The black dragon thrashed, roaring in absolute agony. But its roar was completely drowned out by the sonic barrage.
As the Echo Echos held the scream, pouring every ounce of lung capacity into the attack, something strange happened to the dragon. The sheer vibrational force of the sonic waves began to tear the beast apart. But it didn't bleed.
The black scales began to peel and shatter, flying off into the air. The "flesh" underneath ripped away in massive chunks, revealing not muscle and bone, but sparking wires, hydraulic pistons, and a shining, Level 5 extraterrestrial steel endoskeleton.
"It's a robot!" all the Echo Echos realized simultaneously, pausing their scream for a split second.
"Turn it up!"
They inhaled again and unleashed an even louder, more focused frequency, aiming directly for the robot's exposed chassis.
REEEEEEEEEEE-KRAKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The high-frequency vibrations hit the resonant frequency of the alien steel. The massive robotic dragon seized violently, its glowing yellow optic sensors flashing wildly. Its massive steel joints buckled, bending backward. Sparks exploded from its neck where it had bitten Ryukyu.
With a final, devastating.
KABOOOOOOOM!!!!
The robotic dragon's internal power core overloaded from the vibrations. The massive machine exploded from the inside out, sending massive chunks of twisted metal, wire, and fake scales raining down across the ruined hall.
The massive head of the robotic beast hit the floor with a heavy.
THUD
sliding across the stone and coming to a stop directly in front of Ryukyu. Its yellow eye flickered once, then died.
The smoke cleared, smelling strongly of ozone and burnt wiring.
The sixteen Echo Echos let out a collective, exhausted sigh. With a series of rapid POPS, the clones merged back together, pulling back into a single, panting three-foot-tall alien.
The Omnitrix symbol on his chest beeped.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BWOO
Red light flashed, and Izuku Midoriya was left standing in the center of the cratered hall, completely exhausted but utterly victorious.
Izuku panted heavily, turning around to look at the bleeding golden dragon. "Ryukyu! Are you okay?!"
Ryukyu shifted back into her human form, clutching a hand over the deep, bleeding puncture wounds on her neck. She looked at the smoldering, destroyed multi-ton robot. Then, she looked at the fifteen-year-old, quirkless boy who had just completely annihilated it.
The Number 10 Hero could only stare at him in absolute, stunned silence.