Japan…
A once peaceful and thriving country…
Was nothing short of a haunted city by that point…
Was what Sora thought as she flew across the sky, looking down at the decimated buildings and crushed cars abandoned by the side of the road.
Japan has turned into a battlefield where villains roam freely, and heroes struggle to keep everybody safe.
From anyone's point of view, the situation seemed hopeless. In that lawless ghost city, it became a matter of eat or be eaten.
Or so what most people would think.
That hopeless situation merely spurred a few to make a move, to grow faster.
And Sora was one of them.
Under normal circumstances, Sora shouldn't have been made to do hero work until she was in her third year of high school. But because of one misfortune following the other, she had ended up on the front lines before finishing her first year.
Not that she ever complained. A step closer to her dream of being a hero was welcome.
Sora's eyes snapped, and she focused back on the city when she caught movement at the corner of her eyes. It didn't seem to be a villain. They were a group of civilians.
Because of recent events, people began to lose trust in heroes, who, according to them, allowed Japan to sink into that very state in the first place.
While some were tolerant enough to seek the shelters erected for them and stay safe there, others decided that they could only trust themselves and formed armed groups to protect themselves, making it much, much harder for heroes.
Civilians who had no experience fighting were the same as time bombs waiting to go off. They knew nothing of watching out for their surrounding and others who might get caught in a fight. It was bone-breaking to learn those things firsthand during her year of hero training.
Albeit, it wasn't like they could arrest or force them to head to the shelters and leave everything to them.
" Life would have been much easier then," she sighed as she flew on, only for an alarm to blare all of a sudden.
" Warning. Multiple villains are currently active in and around the West District. Citizens are urged to seek refuge in designated safe zones."
" Sora-chan…" A static noise in her ear made her reach for the comm. " Villains spotted! 2 kilos away to your ten!"
" Got it! Heading there right away!" With one single flap of her four wings, she crossed the sky at an incredible speed, leaving behind a shockwave.
As she looked to the side, she could see another blur zooming over the city. " Can't let Midoriya get there before me! I can't lose when it comes to flying!"
She picked up speed. Her red eyes widened when she saw the truck racing through the cracked road, with a couple of villains sitting atop it. " Huh…" she blinked twice at the vehicle. " I'm pretty sure trucks don't have consciousness of their own… unless… interesting…"
With another flap, she swept towards them, both she and Midoriya flanking them on both sides. On a closer look, she could see blue spikes coming from the roof, and the windshields had practically turned to eyes. I see, something like a takeover of vehicles, huh. Much like that Shi Hassaiki guy… then…
" You're past the speed limit!" She smirked as she darted forward, overtaking the truck before rounding on it, arm covered in grey feathers. She punched the front so hard that it sent the whole thing tipping on its rear wheels before Midoriya grabbed it using his Black Whip.
Boxes of rations fell off the back while the two other villains hopped off, facing Midoriya. One of them threw energy boomerangs at him, but he dodged them with ease. The other, who bounced around like some rubber ball, attempted to ram into him, but Midoriya was faster. All without letting go of the truck.
The boomerangs made a roundabout, an inch from impaling his back.
" As if I would let you!" Sora soared above him, her wings enlarged, and flapped hard, creating strong air currents that deflected the blades away.
The bouncing guy made another attempt on Midoriya, only to be punched out of the way.
The energy blades that had fallen on either side of the route exploded, and the panicked truck villain tried to escape, but Midoriya held his ground despite the motor revving loudly.
He finally pulled it closer, kicking the compartment hard and extracting the unconscious villain, binding him.
" As expected. Just like Seijin-kun, they need to maintain focus to keep that kind of takeover. Once they're out, it's undone."
Sora's eyes narrowed as the rubber villain bounced away, a smirk donning his marred face as he thought he could escape.
" Too bad for you…" Sora didn't even move, crossing her arms as she remained airborne.
The villain blinked, only to be tangled in Ojiro's tail and slammed to the ground, where Sero's tape kept him put.
" We're class 1A…"
Uraraka, on the other hand, had her metal wires wrapped around the boomerang guy who was floating a few feet off the ground.
" No one of us fights alone," Sora stated with a proud smirk.
" Jailbreakers secured!" Uraraka reported with a wide smile.
" Leave some action for the rest of us next time, you two!" Sero complained.
" We'll consider it." Sora laughed off as she floated to the ground, waving at an overhyped Hagakure and a smiling Jiro.
" Either way, it's really amazing, Midoriya's One For All," the latter noted.
" And it doesn't seem like you're injured at all after using it that much. Your control improved," said Sora, who looked the boy up and down for any broken bones he might be hiding.
The boy merely offered a sheepish smile before something caught his attention. Sora blinked and looked over her shoulder, where she could see someone riding a red motorbike looking down at them.
A civilian? Was he passing by, or did he come here intentionally? The fact that he stood still and surveyed them so far indicated most probably the latter one. If he were merely passing by, he should be desperately trying to get away from the fight scene.
Noticing that he had been spotted, the man drove away.
" Should we go after him?" Sora asked.
" What about his aura?" Midoriya countered.
" I didn't feel any malice in it…"
Midoriya breathed out as he looked up again. " Then, we probably shouldn't. We have those villains to take care of after all. They're the priority."
Sora nodded before they tied the three up with Sero's tape and shoved them into the back of the UA truck…
—-------------------
"We'll let you take it from here." Midoriya bowed to the policemen, who saluted in return while coercing the unruly villains into the station.
Sora stretched up, cracking her shoulder after a long trip in the truck, as Sero informed the other teams of their success.
As a means of reducing the pressure on heroes and trying to lure AFO and Shigaraki out, the whole class had split up into three teams of seven led by Midoriya, Todoroki, and Bakugo, and conducted rescue missions around the cities.
Of course, there were pro heroes nearby if anything ever went south.
Their group consisted of her, Uraraka, Jiro, Hagakure, Ojiro, Sero, and Midoriya.
Her friend, on the other hand, got dragged away by Bakugo to his team. She wondered how he was faring under the fierce boy's lead.
" Huh! Only three villains! We got four here!" Said boy yelled through their communication line.
" Here team three! We captured six villains!" Todoroki's calm voice came through the channel.
" Hey! No one likes a bragger!" Cried Bakugo.
" Says you?" Yuu's muffled voice joined.
" Shut up, baggy eyes! You became more talkative as of late!" There was the distinct sound of an explosion, and Yuu quickly apologized.
Sora couldn't help but laugh out loud at that. Seems, although Yuu ended up inheriting Whisper's quipping role, he still couldn't stand up to Bakugo.
"Anywho, numbers don't matter, this is no competition, Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight." Iida joined, using Bakugo's full hero name, which elicited some sniggers here and there.
Only the class rep elected to call him that way; everyone else resigned to calling him Dynamight.
They didn't have much of a breather, for another notice of a villain going rampage came. Everyone converged around Midoriya as he took out his smartphone, checking the intel shared with the mission briefing. The villain was a man with several extra mouths on his abdomen and shoulders, all of which flaunted a series of jagged, saw-like teeth.
" The west Harbor isn't far from here," Uraraka informed.
" We're the closest!" Jiro affirmed.
" We're dealing with him!" Sora called out her wings and flew into the sky just as the others boarded the truck and followed after her with Midoriya on top of it…
—-------------------
" I can see him!" She reported back once the villain was finally in sight, only for her eyes to widen. " He's dragging a hostage with him! A young woman!"
Upon seeing the blue and red UA truck, the villain changed route, chewing his way through the warehouses.
Sora's eyes scanned the area quickly, and her heart skipped a beat. " There is a refuge not far from where he is headed!"
" We can't follow with the truck!"
" I will-"
" I will come with you!" Midoriya's voice came as he launched himself from the truck. " You're the one who said that no one in class 1A fights on their own."
Sora couldn't help but smile at his words. " Midoriya… very well, we'll come at them from both directions. I will be waiting before the refuge."
" Got that!"
With that, Sora flew through the demolished buildings, sweeping down in an arch through the debris-filled alleys and dropping right before the villain. She came around just as Midoriya fell upon touching the hostage, unable to move.
What just…
" Out of the way!" The villain cried, the mouths on his shoulders extending towards her.
" Not a chance!" She allowed her feathers to cover her whole body, and her bones cracked as her frame enlarged, growing taller and broader.
She grabbed the two mouths with her bare hands, but the villain's power was something else, almost on par with Midoriya's.
How?
She didn't have time to think about it, for behind her were countless people whom she needed to protect from this maniac. She ought to stand her ground before him.
And so, with her feet stepping firmly on the ground, they cracked the concrete beneath her as she pushed against him with all her might.
" Don't you underestimate me!" For a moment, she saw a flash of pink in his eyes, before his strength increased and she got pushed back through the glass door of the refuge, taking everyone inside by surprise.
Through the pain pounding in her head, she could hear herself crying for the people to get away.
Yet again, they wouldn't listen to heroes. They grabbed their weapons and pointed them at the villain. But their bullets were eaten, and their firearms got snatched from their hands and into the large mouth on the man's abdomen, exploding as they were chewed on, causing fire to catch and start eating away at whatever was nearby.
Doesn't he feel that from the inside?
She wondered as she saw the man laughing and reaching out to grab more hostages.
A whip of utter black energy wrapped around the extended tentacle of the open maw, preventing it from harming anyone.
Midoriya stood by the gaping opening Sora made, trying to hold the villain in place.
" Shirogane-san!"
Sora snapped at that, quickly hurrying to move the civilians away while Midoriya continued to fight a tug-of-war with the other man.
Be careful, Midoriya…
" Come along! This way!" She cried, knocking a side wall out to create an exit for the civilians just as the UA truck came around. Hagakure and Jiro quickly made to check on the people.
" Where's Deku-kun?" Uraraka asked, worry palpable in her face.
" Towards the back!"
And it was then her ears picked up several gunshots from that direction...