Chapter 21: Joint
The skies above Musutafu were really quite boring, Hawks had decided. There just was not that much villain activity in the city thanks to the looming presence of U.A. Anyone could have told Director Oh that, which was why Hawks was somewhat confused as to why his presence had been requested here.
He was also confused as to why All Might had been requested to be in Tokyo this particular day. It seemed to him that any threat that he could be expected to take care of would be far easier for All Might to dispatch. Of course, he wasn't supposed to know about the Commission's requests of All Might, but he had always found that information was the coin of the kingdom, so to speak, in the HPSC. One day, he was planning on cashing in what he knew.
That day would not be today, though, as a splash of red in the sky immediately drew his attention to the sprawling campus of U.A. Distress flares soared over a distant part of campus, far from the main buildings and training zones. It was unlikely that any of the U.A faculty that weren't already at the site of the distress call would be able to reach it any faster than he would.
Hoping that the comments Nezu had made last time they spoke about installing anti-air missiles across campus were just a joke, Hawks banked sharply and winged towards the source of the flares. He quickly came across a large glass domed structure that seemed to lie at their origin and quickly noticed two things that stood out as worrisome. First, one of the glass panels that made up the dome had been shattered, and likely recently based on the still jagged hole in the structure.
Second, as soon as he approached the dome, the near constant radio chatter from his sidekicks and agency support staff suddenly cut out. Even when he was patrolling solo outside of Tokyo he still liked to listen in and devote at least a little brain power to monitoring his team through his headphones. That it had cut out near the dome, combined with the fact that whoever was inside likely had to resort to a signal flare to send out a sign of danger, meant that there was at least a villain with an electronics jamming quirk inside. Hawks pulled his headphones down to hang around his neck. He didn't publicize it much, but his hearing was far more sensitive than the average persons, and so the headphones doubled as noise cancelation for his comfort. He had a feeling that he was going to need to be able to hear as well as possible as soon as he headed inside.
And he was heading inside, there was no question of that.
Hawks didn't break his momentum as he winged in through the shattered glass dome and quickly took stock of the situation. Many villains in a central plaza, although most had been knocked out, several more villains in each of several outlying zones, but again most had been neutralized in one manner or another. Two domed structures that he couldn't immediately see into, but he saw half a dozen students at the top of the stairs near the entrance, and at least half a dozen more between the central plaza and the exterior regions.
Most worrisome were the two members of the U.A faculty that appeared to be down and out of the fight: Thirteen at the top of the stairs, protective suit shredded, and Eraserhead in the middle of the few conscious villains near the center fountain, a giant bird-faced villain kneeling on his back. Eraserhead looked to potentially be in even worse shape than Thirteen, given the amount of blood shed around him and the murderous glint in the eye of the villain on his back.
Thankfully, people were not in the habit of looking up and Hawks was not in the habit of making much noise while flying, so the villains were still unaware of his presence. There seemed to be a break in the action below, with the villains content to monologue at the injured Eraserhead while a pair of students watched from the distance.
Feeling he had a moment, and not wanting to miss the monologue of the villain in the center, Hawks detached a good half of his feathers sending them across the complex with the goal of finding any and all students before detaching his two largest pinions and sharpening them into blades. Unfortunately, the time he had taken to prepare had led to the situation below deteriorating to the point where one of the students had come into conflict with one of the villains, thankfully fending him off for the time being. Hawks was already dropping into the conflict when he heard the villain order an underling, Nomu, to kill the green-haired kid.
Hawks twisted in his dive to interpose himself between the villain and student, but found the bird-faced villain moving far faster than he thought possible, bounding off of Eraserhead and crossing the distance in an eyeblink. The next thing Hawks realized, the villain was standing over the kid with both arms raised, ready to swing down and end his life.
Thankfully Hawks had managed to get just close enough that he was in a position to intervene. There wasn't even time for thought, just action. He brought his pinion-swords down on the shoulders of the villain, making sure to sever the ligaments needed to bring the arms down in the hammer blow needed. Blood, dark red enough to be almost black, spurted from the wounds, some of it splattering down on the wide-eyed student in front of him. A trio of feathers zipped by, picking up the two students and whisking them away to the entrance at the top of the stairs. Another pair of feathers carefully picked up Eraserhead's unconscious form, carrying him to the top of the stairs as well.
"Normally I'm a little nicer to my fellow birds, but," Hawks sharply pulled his blades out of the villains shoulders and watched with little satisfaction as his arms fell limply to the side. "I also can't condone murdering children, so there's that." He turned to point one of his pinions, still dripping with blood, at the blue-haired villain that appeared to be the leader. "Surrender now and I'll make sure your flunky here gets the medical support he needs.
"Well, well, well, it's not All Might but it's a good start." The blue haired youth seemed remarkably unperturbed by the blood drenched sword pointed at his face, but given that he appeared to be wearing hands, perhaps he wasn't entirely there. "Kurogiri, we have a flier too. Why don't you bring it here for Hawks to play with."
"As you wish, Tomura." A being apparently made out of mist responded, opening a portal nearby through which another villain with an exposed brain emerged. More like fell, really, as the winged villain was dead even before hitting the ground, pale and wrinkled. Hawks raised an eyebrow at the hand-covered man who looked as if he did not believe what he was seeing, scratching at his neck.
"Kurogiri! Why is it dead? Do you have more vines messing with your quirk?"
"I assure you that I do not, Tomura Shigaraki. Perhaps the students were able to best this nomu. It was the weakest of the four." Normally Hawks would jump at an opportunity to strike a villain in the back, but the two of them were too busy giving up important intelligence. He could wait a minute longer.
"Fine then, bring the other two back. I want to know what we're dealing with." Hawks readied himself, prepared for anything. If they were speaking of more villains like the hulking one behind him, he would need to be ready for them to be both fast and strong.
Two more portals opened and each deposited a villain on the ground in front of him. Yet another was dead, this time with a crushed skull, and Hawks could only wonder which hero student had both the strength and the will to kill a villain with such prejudice. The other, though, was very much alive, Another black-skinned, hulking beast of a man, this time eyeless rather than beaked.
"Another dead?! What are they teaching kids these days?" Thankfully, with twenty students now deposited by the front entrance, he could return his smaller feathers to him, increasing his speed and versatility. He should be able to take down one of these villains without resorting to a sneak attack like last time.
"I'm happy to show you how a real hero does it, if you're interested. Maybe you didn't catch it last time around." Shigaraki slowly turned back to face Hawks, almost as if the villain had forgotten he was there. Given how petulant he had sounded, perhaps he had. Hawks did not miss Shigaraki's eyes flitting to the front stairs, however.
The smile that grew underneath the hand covering Shigaraki's face was unmistakable as he stopped scratching. "Actually, I don't think you caught it either. Why don't you take a look?" Hawks felt motion behind him in his feathers, and turned slightly to look behind him, keeping his sword pointed at Shigaraki. The bird-faced nomu that he had crippled earlier was in the process of regenerating both of its wounds, fresh musculature filling in the gaps in its shoulders.
"New plan, Kurogiri. Hawks has kindly gathered the students for us. Drop the secondary nomu up there with them. You and the primary nomu, kill Hawks. Now." As soon as the last raspy word left his mouth, the beast behind him threw itself forward. It was only that Hawks had already been alerted to its presence that he was able to launch himself upwards and evade the first wild blow. Looking about wildly, Hawks was able to see that the warper had sent the other nomu to the front of the building, between the pack of twenty students and the front door.
He had no time to plan how he would save the kids before the bird-faced nomu jumped at him, easily leaping dozens of meters into the air just to get at Hawks. Thankfully, being at such a distance and in possession of all of his feathers allowed Hawks to easily dodge to one side. A portal formed behind him leading back to the nomu, however, and he was forced to tuck into a sharp dive just to avoid the beast's fist. Even so, it came so close to him that the hero could feel the nomu's fist just graze the tips of his feathers. A single clean hit from the nomu would end Hawks' life for sure.
He wasn't happy about it, but the kids would have to see to their own safety for the time being. Hopefully the U.A faculty had also seen the distress flares and were close by. Hawks would have to deal with the warper and the bird-faced nomu first, and it was going to require all of his attention.
Detaching a few of his smaller feathers to harass the warper, Hawks readied his swords as the nomu once again flew at him. It was time to show the villains exactly what he could do.
---
One moment Izuku was standing in the middle of the USJ, saved from an untimely death by what could only have been Hawks' blades, the next he found himself whisked away to the top of the stairs near the front of the facility. Kyoka had been deposited to his left, while Aizawa had been carefully placed near the center of the platform, near what appeared to be Thirteen. They were in at least as bad shape as Aizawa was, with the back of their suit completely shredded. Yaoyorozu, Shiozaki, Rin, and Kodai were kneeling by their teacher's form, while Shoji and Kendo stood near the top of the stairs, watching the unfolding situation below them.
Even as Izuku took in his surroundings, the rest of his classmates began to be flown to the front of the building by distinctive red feathers. Kaibara and Awase were the next to arrive, with Awase looking like he had seen better days, face pale and stained with blood. Todoroki, Ashido, and Tokage had also been injured in their struggles, with Todoroki shivering on the ground covered in ice, Ashido nursing her hands and Tokage missing at least an arm and half of her face. Hopefully Tokage's injuries were more the result of Hawks only grabbing her largest portion. The last four to be dropped off by Hawks were Kamakiri and Pony, both covered in blood and smoke, both sporting wild, nearly deranged smiles, and Koda and Tokoyami, looking highly distressed and unperturbed, respectively.
A quick count showed that all twenty of them had been returned to the entrance of the building, but Hawks was not with them. Izuku quickly stepped over to where Shoji and the others were watching the central plaza, trying to get a view of Hawks. It wasn't hard to find the man. The red wings quickly refilling with feathers made it hard to miss him. Unfortunately, it was also hard to miss the two hulking nomus on either side of him, the bird-faced one apparently regenerating from whatever injury Hawks had done to it earlier. Izuku's eyes slid away from the corpses of the two nomu also lying in the plaza. He couldn't think of that right now.
"Are you alright, Midoriya?" Shoji's soft voice sounded next to him. "That's a lot of blood on you." Huh, Izuku had forgotten that not only was he covered in the nearly black blood of the bird-faced nomu, but also the blood of the one that had hypnotized him.
"Don't worry, it's not mine." For whatever reason, that didn't seem to reassure the taller boy at all.
Unfortunately, in the moment that they had taken to talk, one of the nomu had disappeared from the central plaza and Hawks was furiously dodging attacks from the bird-faced nomu. Izuku turned to Shoji to see if he knew where the missing nomu had gone, only to find the boy already turning back towards the rest of the class. Stomach dropping, Izuku whirled around to see the eyeless nomu standing between his classmates and the exit from the USJ.
Without a thought, Izuku flared One For All and shot back towards the nomu in order to keep it from getting at the injured students and teachers that lay nearly defenseless. It wasn't clear how strong this one was compared to the four-eyed nomu that he had fought earlier, but he started at seven percent of One For All, ignoring the fire in his bones.
It turned out that the eyeless nomu was at least as fast as the one he had fought earlier, and definitely stronger. It was again only the straightforward and unsophisticated fighting style of the beast that let Izuku survive, let alone fight the creature. As it was though, he found himself slipping up to eight percent, perhaps even slightly higher, just to try to keep pace with the monster.
Ultimately even that was not quite enough to fight back, just hold his own ground for a few moments. Distantly, Izuku was aware of Kyoka creeping around to the side to support him, of Kendo and Shoji looking to find an opening to jump into the melee but unable to keep up with the speed of the fight.
It quickly dawned on Izuku that if he wanted to make any progress out of this stalemate, he'd need to push himself faster or stronger in some capacity. The burning deep within his limbs told him that he wouldn't even be able to keep up his current level of One For All much longer, let alone push it any higher.
But there was another option. One that he had managed to do while under the hypnosis of the pale-skinned nomu earlier. Well, that One For All (or one of its previous holders, still to be determined) had managed to do earlier. He could feel the energy now and then, floating somewhere deep within him, but it always slipped away as he tried to harness it, like water flowing through his fingers. He disappeared a bit into his own mind as his body moved on its own to defend against his opponent.
What did he know about that mysterious energy? It had first manifested itself while he was performing his morning kata exercises. When his body had used it on its own, it had done so in motions that exactly matched those of his morning exercises. At the time he had thought that it was simply muscle memory that had led his body (his predecessor?) to make those motions. Perhaps it wasn't a coincidence. Given that his legs were about to give out from the strain of running One For All at eight percent, and that Izuku knew that if he dropped down even slightly he would be overrun by the nomu, he decided to throw caution somewhat (more) to the wind and attempt a strike that was from one of his katas.
As soon as he made that conscious decision, he could feel that same energy gusting through his body like the wind. A straight punch aimed high was all that Izuku used, and if he had not felt the energy swell within him, he would have expected it to be caught fairly simply by his opponent. As it was, though, his body accelerated into the punch far faster than either he or his opponent expected, giving him a nearly perfect shot at the nomu's chest.
The nomu attempted to twist back and out of the way of Izuku's punch, but still took the majority of the strike cleanly in the torso. Like earlier, there was no dramatic gust of wind, simply the cracking of the nomu's bones underneath Izuku fist as the entire seven foot tall beast was flung backwards from the strength of the strike, bouncing and rolling almost all the way back to the exit from the USJ. Izuku released a small sigh as he saw the nomu still moving and trying to push itself to its feet. This time at least he had managed to not kill the villain in a single strike.
"Nice shot, but that's not going to keep it down." At some point Honenuki had shown up behind him with Uraraka as well, staring at the injured villain. "Uraraka, Todoroki, and I ran into this guy in the landslide zone. He has a regeneration quirk. He'll probably be on his feet in less than a minute." Even as he spoke, Izuku could see the broken bones just beneath the nomu's skin rearrange themselves, presumably knitting themselves back together.
"Can either of you subdue it?" Uraraka and Honenuki had two of the quirks in the class best suited for nonviolent take downs.
"It used its punches to navigate in midair when Uraraka tagged it, so no dice there. I could, but it would cut us off from being able to get out." Honenuki gestured at the elevated platform towards the exit. "I subdued it in the landslide zone, but it was on its way to breaking out of the ground. If it did that here, we'd have no way out."
Izuku nodded grimly as he turned back to the black nomu which was pushing itself to its feet. Maybe they could direct it somewhere else to subdue it there with Honenuki's quirk. The presence of a villain with a warping quirk made that rather difficult on its own. He didn't have any more time to plan before the nomu once again launched itself back at the students.
Prepared with a better knowledge of how to pull extra energy from his quirk, Izuku ran forward, prepared to once again engage the villain in combat. The nomu raised a fist to bring it down upon Izuku's head and he prepared a cross block, knowing that it had worked for him earlier in the day versus the four-eyed nomu.
For some reason, though, it didn't work this time. There was no flood of energy, just One For All at eight percent. Izuku realized at the last moment that he could not block this sort of attack with just eight percent, and shifted his block into a redirection, using his arms to send the meaty fist into the floor. Pain bloomed in his arms even from just this slight redirection, and the nomu's fist smashed into the floor, creating a small crater from the impact and spider-webbing cracks outwards.
Suddenly Kyoka was beside him, jacks puncturing the nomu and pushing enough sound into it that Izuku could feel the vibrations from a few feet away. As the nomu shook and eventually fell back into a stunned repose, she grabbed Izuku by the hand and pulled him away from the temporarily motionless villain. He suppressed a wince at the sudden shock to his arms, still aching from deflecting the earlier blow.
A flash of blue along the ground was all that Izuku could see as the nomu found itself attached to the ground by its legs and fist. Or perhaps more accurately, the ground was welded to the nomu. Looking to the students behind him, he saw Awase with a hand on the ground, blood pouring from his nose and eyes with a small, self-satisfied smirk on his face before he toppled to the side, unconscious. Kaibara and Tokage were at his side immediately, pulling him towards the center with the other injured.
Izuku let himself relax a little into Kyoka's support. They had managed to subdue the beast, at least for the time being. "Thanks, Kyoka. I thought I had a handle on something new with my quirk, but I guess I still need to figure it out." Kyoka snorted and mumbled something about how he was lucky to have survived, but Izuku was already sorting through what he knew of that extra energy and how to activate it.
A ripping noise from behind him tore Izuku from his meditations, as he and Kyoka turned to look back at the trapped nomu behind them. It had already torn its fist from the ground, a grisly stump all that remained of its hand. The regeneration quirk that Honenuki had mentioned kicked in, raw musculature expanding and forming a new fist as they watched. The beast next tore its two feet off, leaving them welded to the floor as it crawled towards the hero students, new feet regenerating along the way.
Izuku spun around, ignoring his stomach heaving at the sight in front of him, once again ready to protect his classmates.
---
Shoto was going to die. In all honesty he was somewhat surprised that he had survived Endeavor's training as long as he had. Touya had died when he was younger than Shoto was now, after all. If anything, it was more surprising that he was going to die during hero training that did not involve Endeavor.
Shivering while lying in place on the floor, covered by a blanket hastily produced by Momo, Shoto had a perfect view of the fight that was currently going on between the eyeless villain from before and several of his classmates. Midoriya led the defense, clearly slowed some by deflecting the earlier blow, aided by Kendo, Shoji, and Jiro. Uraraka and Honenuki also observed, hanging back waiting for an opportunity to use their quirks to aid the situation. Rin and Kodai also helped by firing the occasional enlarged scale at the nomu, but it simply ignored the ammunition, quickly regenerating from any wounds it received.
Unfortunately it was all hopeless. If anything, the beast was only getting stronger and faster as time went on. There had now been five different attempts at subduing it, if you counted Midoriya's bone shatteringly powerful attack earlier. None had worked. None were going to work. It was going to wear them down and kill them one by one. At least it would be a suitable rebuke to Endeavor for his masterpiece to die in a situation like this.
He was disappointed that he wasn't able to do more to help his classmates. Despite all that Endeavor had put him through, he did still want to be a hero. He did still want to save people. Even people that might try to force him to use Endeavor's fire.
A cry of panic from the stairs caught his attention and with a surge of effort he was able to roll from one side of his body to the other. It was about all he could do, though. Once he had rolled over, Shoto was able to see exactly what had caused the panic: the villain covered in hands had just crested the stairs and was giving the assembled students a truly vicious look.
"You students just don't know when to quit." His voice was just as raspy as his skin was dry and cracked. Something about the villain's posture, his attitude, made Shoto think that he was more dangerous perhaps than the nomu. Or maybe it was the fact that he was covered in human hands. Either or.
Kaibara had perhaps more bravery than sense, being the first to launch himself at the newly arrived villain, hands spinning as he threw a haymaker at the blue-haired man. Foolish, considering that they had no way of knowing what his quirk was.
It immediately came back to bite Kaibara as the villain, apparently much faster than he looked, was able to step underneath the swing and catch Kaibara's right arm and left leg in his hands. As soon as his hands made contact with Kaibara, his costume and the flesh underneath began to melt away into dust.
Dark Shadow was the one who ultimately came to Kaibara's rescue. Apparently their protective streak involved more than just Tokoyami at this point. Regardless, Kaibara was able to limp away and let Shiozaki begin wrapping his wounds in bandages while Dark Shadow and the blue-haired villain went at it.
Fundamentally they were quite evenly matched. In the bright light of the USJ, Dark Shadow was a hair slower than the villain, but thankfully unaffected by his destructive quirk. Or, at least, apparently unaffected. Shoto watched Dark Shadow dissolve into static each time the villain's hands passed through them, and every time it took slightly longer for them to reform. Right now it was still quick, less than a second, but it was just an endurance match at this point.
A flying knife followed by two of Pony's horns announced her and Kamakiri's support against the hand-covered villain. He was able to catch and disintegrate Pony's horn, but Kamakiri's blade was able to graze him along his forehead, causing a slight trickle of blood down his face.
"Huh, you hero brats have some decent ranged units. You're next on the list." Dark Shadow's speed was decreasing as the villain continued his assault, although it was interrupted by consistent attacks from Pony and Kamakiri. It wasn't entirely clear to Shoto which side would run out of endurance first, but Pony and Kamakiri were already heavily injured. If the hand-covered villain were able to get to them, they were as good as dead.
A flash of black from above caught Shoto's attention. The nomu from earlier was floating off towards the ceiling at a relatively rapid rate. Uraraka must have managed to touch the beast and someone, likely Midoriya or Kendo, must have given it quite a push to get it away from them.
"I call hacks!" Shoto didn't quite understand the slang that the villain used, but was familiar enough with the frustration that he was displaying. "Kurogiri!" Was that a name? Shoto tried to shake his head, but found his thoughts slowing down. Not only that, but his vision seemed to darken as well.
Perhaps he was colder than he thought. Or perhaps it was the portal just above him that deposited the eyeless nomu directly in the middle of the pack of students, standing right above Shoto.
Oh.
Once again, Shoto was sure that he was going to die.
---
Sometimes Hawks impressed even himself. This was one of those times. He had used the various leaps and attacks from the nomu to get a good grasp of the monster's strength and speed, which he rated as somewhere just below All Might's level.
He had also managed to use his swords to give it several wounds that could have been fatal under any other circumstance in order to judge the speed of its regeneration. That he had found to be perhaps the most rapid regeneration quirk he had ever heard of, let alone ever encountered. While it was incredibly frustrating to try to fight through, it certainly made things easier in one respect: he no longer had to hold back.
One of the many things that the commission had trained him to do was to fly with as few feathers as possible. The argument at the time was that he could deal with more villains at once while remaining out of reach. Sure, it could do that, but at the moment, using them all on a single opponent seemed like a far better option. Hawks knew that he couldn't match the nomu strength for strength, and couldn't do enough damage fast enough to overcome the hyperactive regeneration quirk. But what he could do was nail the villain in place.
Literally.
The last time that the nomu had touched the ground, Hawks had begun his assault. A rain of razor sharp feathers descended upon the beast as he kept himself aloft with the absolute minimum of feathers. The hail of feathers was ultimately something that the nomu could deal with. They caused puncture wounds, sure, but the regeneration quirk would take care of those, and so the nomu simply waited it out, allowing itself to be blown backwards somewhat by the attack.
Exactly as Hawks had wanted. His feathers were long enough to drill entirely through the villain, and push it down onto the ground. One hundred and eight feathers in total perforated the nomu, forcing it to its back, leaving it spread-eagle (pun intended) and staked to the ground. No matter how strong the thing was, no matter its regenerative abilities, if it couldn't get any leverage it wouldn't be able to get up. As soon as it had regenerated around the feathers, it would be even harder to remove them. It did have the unfortunate side effect of slowing Hawks down and limiting his abilities versus the remaining villains, but that was something he was willing to deal with for the time being.
The next step was to deal with the warping villain. All of this would be for naught if the villains could just pick up and leave whenever they wanted to. The portals had tailed off near the end of his fight with the bird-faced nomu. At first Hawks had thought that the warper had some sort of limit to the number of portals he could create in a short time. A look back towards where the students and injured teachers were put that idea to rest. Apparently he had teleported the remaining nomu into the center of the platform at the top of the stairs and was now returning to the central plaza.
Hawks knew that he had to save those kids. Even if the other nomu wasn't as strong as the one he had just pinned down, it was likely still well beyond any of the students. He couldn't fly as fast as he would like, but he still put his all into shooting towards the top of the stairs.
Ultimately, though, it didn't matter.
A twitching from the feathers he had used to nail the nomu to the ground was all of the warning he had before the hulking brute leapt just above him, fists raised, blood oozing from dozens of wounds where he had been impaled. Hawks himself barely had time to react, just enough to spread the rest of his feathers between him and the monster before it brought its fists down in a vicious overhead slam into the hero.
The feathers absorbed some of the impact of the strike, but it was still enough to send Hawks flying into the trees that filled the dome. The last thing that Hawks saw was the ground rapidly rising to meet him.
---
All Izuku had heard was a scream. It wasn't clear if it was Yaoyorozu, Shiozaki, Koda, or all of them at once, but ultimately it didn't matter. The eyeless nomu was back, floating just above the ground in the middle of his injured classmates and teachers, arms raised ready to kill Todoroki.
There was no time for thought, no time for planning, only time for action. Izuku kicked off towards the nomu with nine percent of One For All, feeling a few microfractures work their way up his legs. It didn't matter, he had to get there fast enough.
Vines from Shiozaki's hair shot up from the ground to grab the beast's fists and hold it in place, pulling it tight against the ground. They only slowed it for a moment, as it snapped them with ease. Yaoyorozu was already running to try and pull Todoroki away from the nomu, but it seemed as if she would be too late. Thankfully, Shiozaki had bought just enough time for Izuku to clear the distance. Knowing that a cross block wouldn't work, Izuku switched to a standard high block from his morning katas, and was thankful to feel the extra energy once again flood his body.
Blocking the two-handed hammer blow from the nomu cracked the floor beneath Izuku's feet and left his arms stinging and shaking, although thankfully only slightly more damaged than they had been before. Unfortunately, though, he knew that he only had one or two more blocks in his morning kata that he had not yet used. For now he was working on the assumption that he had only a single shot at each motion.
Therefore he went on the offensive. Knowing that the nomu still lacked gravity, he slid easily from his block into a middle punch, aiming so that the villain would be knocked backwards towards the flood zone. Screaming "Smash" at the top of his lungs, he once again felt the cracking of bones beneath the nomu's skin as it rocketed backwards, away and off of the platform. Izuku figured that he really shouldn't be getting used to feeling his opponents bones break beneath his fists, but that was something he could worry about if and when he made it out of here alive.
"Uraraka, drop your quirk!" Thankfully, his friend trusted him and she pressed her hands together immediately. The nomu dropped into the water of the flood zone with a massive splash, and Izuku hoped that would buy them a bit more time than they had had last time. Looking to the stairs, he found the blue-haired villain looking at him with a sneer on his face.
"'Smash', huh? I guess you're the little All Might wannabe that's been making this so hard. But if you're done with the mid boss, we can serve up something more for you." Dark Shadow lunged at the villain again, but the quirk was getting sluggish. The man casually ran his hand through the shadow bird once again, before calling to his companion. "Kurogiri! Bring the prime nomu here."
Black mist appeared next to the hand-covered man, through which the bird-faced nomu stepped. It was covered in its own black blood, but looked otherwise no worse for the wear from its confrontation with Hawks. The fact that the winged hero was not making himself known left Izuku with a pit in his stomach. Surely this monster couldn't have defeated Hawks, right?
"This nomu is faster, stronger, all around better than the one you were just facing. So how about it, ready to play on hardcore mode?" Somewhere behind him Izuku could hear his classmates swearing. He snuck a look to find that the warper had once again dropped the eyeless nomu between them and the door. Not that there would be any chance to run if what the main villain had said about the hulking bird-faced brute in front of them was true. "What, no answer? Well too bad. I'm making the calls now. Nomu!"
Izuku didn't let him finish that sentence. If this nomu was truly stronger and faster than the previous one, he needed to end the fight now, before any of his classmates, any of his friends got caught up in it. He would do anything he needed to to make sure they were safe. One hundred percent of One For All was not something he had used before, but he didn't want there to be any doubt as to the outcome. The kick he used was also a strike from his katas, one that he still had available to him.
As he let the storm from One For All encompass him, everything in his vision turned green as lightning raced through his veins. The extra boost of energy from his kata floated on top of the storm, corralled it, and gave it focus, but it still tore through Izuku like a wild animal. All he had was a single strike, and he had to make it count.
---
Ochako's jaw dropped as she watched Midoriya let his quirk run wild. There was electricity floating in the air and she felt a tingle go down her spine. She was sure that if she were wearing anything other than her hero suit all of the hairs on her arms would be standing up. The faint smell of ozone filled the air.
A heartbeat went by and her classmate seemed more electricity than human. A low hum had built that she could feel permeate through her entire body. Vaguely, next to her, she could hear Jiro screaming, begging Midoriya not to break himself. Ochako didn't hear a word of it. Juzo was at her side, trying to pull her away from what's about to happen next, but there was no way that Ochako could look away.
Another heartbeat went by and suddenly Midoriya wasn't among the injured any more. The floor had cracked and shattered where he had been standing, and he was in front of the nomu at the top of the stairs, landing a kick directly into the chest of the beast. A crack rang out that sounded as if it could be heard throughout the entire USJ as a hurricane of wind erupted from the two of them. Dark Shadow tried to shield Tokoyami from the gust, but the boy was still blown backwards, tumbling to be caught by Koda. Kamakiri and Pony were also thrown backwards, only to be saved by Shoizaki's vines.
As the wind cleared, Ochako hastily searched to see exactly what the attack had managed. The blue-haired and black mist villains had been thrown backwards, somehow landing safely at the bottom of the stairs. She couldn't see the look on the hand-covered villain's face, but she could feel his murderous intent from where she stood. The bird-faced nomu, on the other hand, stood undamaged and unperturbed exactly where it had begun.
No, that wasn't quite right. It looked as if it had been pushed back roughly a foot.
Before Ochako could even process how absurdly powerful Midoriya was, and how much more absurdly powerful that nomu was, she caught sight of his right leg underneath his shredded costume pant leg. He was standing with all of his weight on his left leg, because his other was bruised and broken, twisted in any number of places and bleeding from at least a dozen cuts and abrasions.
A harsh, barking laugh tore her attention from her friend's injury. The hand-covered villain spoke loudly enough to be heard from the bottom of the stairs. "Even your best All Might imitation won't be enough. In addition to regeneration, that nomu has a shock absorption quirk. No matter how hard you hit him, he's not going anywhere!"
Two quirks? Was that even possible? It would explain the obscene strength and regeneration abilities the nomu that she fought with Honenuki and Todoroki, as well as the lack of reaction from the one that Midoriya just attacked. Ochako was willing to be actual money that any other villain on the receiving end of that kick would have been simply liquified on the spot.
Now though, both teachers were unconscious, half the class was injured, most of them too badly to continue to fight, and there were still four villains all prepared to kill them. Ochako knew that being a hero would be a dangerous profession, one that could one day end in her death. She wasn't prepared for that day to be literally day three of high school.
The door slamming open behind her gave her hope. Perhaps the teachers had seen Yaoyorozu's flare and come to the rescue. She turned to see who she had hoped most to see: All Might, standing tall in a familiar yellow pin-striped suit. It would only strike her later that this was the first time she had seen him not smiling.
---
Anger was not an emotion that All Might felt often. Frustration, annoyance, irritation, all of these were familiar companions, but they were all minor, easy to push aside. True anger, righteous fury, was something that came only rarely. He had felt it when he put All For One into a far too delayed grave.
And he felt it now. All Might had leapt and run as quickly as he could from Tokyo back to the U.A campus as soon as he had received Nezu's message about an incident at the USJ. The principal hadn't specified exactly what was wrong, just that a distress flare had been sighted over the facility. Nezu was rallying the teachers, but even with the distance between Tokyo and Musutafu, All Might could still be the first one on the scene.
It had been a long time since he had truly tested his speed, but he was proud of himself for being able to clear the nearly two hundred kilometers in just under five minutes. At his peak it probably could have been under four, but he was well aware those days were long behind him. Toshinori was glad that he had pushed himself to get here as quickly as possible, seeing the danger both his students and colleagues were in as he arrived.
The first step was to remove everyone from immediate danger, and that started with dealing with the brute of a villain in blocking the doorway. A sharp blow to the back of the neck, enough to knock out even villains with durability quirks was not enough to put the man under. Before the villain could turn to even see what was happening, All Might struck once again with a much larger portion of his power and was grimly satisfied to watch him crumple briefly, even if he wasn't knocked out. Knowing now that the villain (who upon further inspection had an exposed brain?) could take a great deal of punishment, Toshinori simply bodily grabbed him and threw him further into the facility, far away from his charges.
Saving the students in harm's way was his next step, starting with young Midoriya. The boy had an obviously broken leg and appeared to have damage to his arms as well. Beyond that, he was standing in front of yet another, even larger villain with an exposed brain. In all honestly, the bird-faced villain was almost as large as All Might himself, something that very few people could boast.
And young Midoriya was staring that villain down, determination flaring in his eyes.
It made Toshinori proud to see that sort of steel in Midoriya's back, even so soon into his training. It also terrified him, because there was no way the boy was in any shape to fight right now, yet still burned so bright in defiance. He was not ready to watch his successor throw himself into impossible situations without any training. All Might grabbed the boy by the scruff of the neck and hauled him away from the hulking villain. It was odd, but the villain didn't blink or so much as twitch as he hauled young Midoriya away.
In addition to young Midoriya, he also gathered the other students near the front and pulled them back to the doorway in large groups. Less than 5 seconds after he had arrived, Aizawa, Thirteen, and the students were safe, and All Might stood in front of them, ready to protect. them with all his strength. That also meant he had to protect their spirits.
" Worry not, my students, for I am here! " Several of the students had not even realized he was in the building before he had whisked them all away from their danger. " Young Yaoyorozu, young Kendo, please help your classmates vacate the premises. I will deal with everything inside. " While all three of the class representatives were still conscious, young Yaoyorozu and Kendo appeared uninjured and were in the best shape to help evacuate their classmates.
"All Might." Young Midoriya's voice rang out as his co-representatives began organizing their classmates to leave the USJ. "They claim the villains with the exposed brains have multiple quirks. Enhanced strength, speed, regeneration in both of them. The beaked one took out Hawks and has shock absorption as well. I hit him with my full power and all it did was knock him back a few inches." Well that was good to know, and likely explained the boy's shattered leg.
" Are you sure that it is shock absorption? Not nullification? " There were ways to deal with annoying quirks like that, but something like absorption had a limit that it could take, while nullification quirks generally didn't.
"That's what the leader said. The blue-haired one covered with hands is the apparent leader, and has a disintegration quirk. Five point touch, it looked like. The mist villain has a warping quirk, but I don't know it's range or limitations." Not the most efficient debrief that All Might had ever received, but far better than most first years would have given.
" Thank you, young Midoriya. I will put this information to good use. Now you should evacuate with your classmates. I have everything under control here. "
Before Toshinori could make sure that young Midoriya actually evacuated with his friends, a hoarse voice from the center of the USJ called out. "Nomu! Kill All Might!" The bird-faced villain leapt forward, speed rivaling his own. With the warning provided by the order from below, All Might was able to catch the massive fist from the villain and quickly found that its strength was also comparable to his own. Thankfully he still had most of his three hours worth of strength in front of him. And the villain in front of him seemed to warrant working from his full power from the outset.
The fact that his return punch did exactly nothing to the villain in front of him was only a mild surprise after what young Midoriya had told him. Toshinori grimaced slightly that he couldn't even get the slight push back that his successor had, but figured it was for the best that young Midoriya's strength outstripped his own. The nomu attacked yet again and All Might stepped slightly to the side to grab the villain's arm beneath his own, and began to spin, ultimately throwing the nomu towards the remaining villains at the central plaza. More importantly, away from the students and injured.
" All of you! Evacuate now! " The bird-faced villain was already collecting itself and turning back to the stairs. All Might knew he couldn't fight here. It was too close to his injured students and colleagues, too easy for an errant blow or stray bit of debris to make things even worse. Without even the time to take a look back to make sure his students were leaving, All Might leapt towards the central plaza and all four villains.
---
The class was evacuating in as orderly a fashion as Kyoka thought could be expected, given the circumstances. Todoroki, Awase, Aizawa, and Thirteen were all still unable to move on their own, and were being gently moved outside by Kendo and Shoji with help from Rin and Kodai. The other injured students, Kaibara, Kamakiri, Ashido, and Pony were still able to move on their own, but generally accepted help from Kirishima, Koda, Shiozaki, and Tokoyami.
Notably absent, however, was Izuku. There had been a bit of a commotion as the mass departure began, and somehow he had slipped her attention for just a moment. That was all that he needed to, apparently, begin limping (with a broken leg, no less!) his way towards the battle that was currently raging down below and make his way almost to the edge of the stairs. Kyoka could hear more than enough of what was happening below to know that she wanted absolutely no part in it.
A functioning self-preservation instinct was something that Izuku had never truly demonstrated possession of, she supposed. Cursing her own foolishness as well, Kyoka hurried after him, ignoring Yaoyorozu's instructions to stay with the rest of the class. It didn't take her long to catch up with him, snaking her way underneath his right arm to support him and take pressure off of his shattered right leg while also holding him back.
"Green." She tried to make her voice as stern as possible while remaining quiet. Kyoka knew that the villains knew they were there and could likely see them at the top of the stairs, but there was still a part of her that said she should whisper to avoid drawing their attention. "What the hell do you think you are doing?" For a moment, Izuku stopped pulling against her and turned to look her in the eyes and Kyoka couldn't find it in herself to be surprised at the determination in his eyes.
"There are four incredibly powerful villains down there. I trust All Might with my life, but if even one of those villains slips away, it could be a real problem for the rest of us." His mouth thinned into a line as he looked back towards the central plaza, the sounds of battle unchanged from earlier. Kyoka finally found it within herself to look down at what was happening below and found All Might engaged in a titanic slugfest with the bird-faced villain. The simple air pressure from their strikes was enough to keep Shigaraki and Kurogiri far from the battle, while the other nomu simply stood, placid, near the now ruined fountain. "What do we do if they instruct the other nomu to attack us again? I just want to make sure everyone else makes it out safely."
"Are you really in any shape to do that Green? Given how bad your arms are you've got a total of two limbs in good shape."
Izuku grimaced before responding, but didn't look away from the battle below. "Better me than anyone else."
"What do you mean by that?" The silence that followed from her friend was infuriating. "Izuku! What exactly are you trying to say?" He sighed, glancing towards her for one second, a shimmer of tears in his eyes.
"Just that if I had a choice between me getting hurt and any of our classmates getting hurt, I'd pick me every time. I can take the pain. If it helps others, makes them happy, I should do it, right? That's what being a hero is about."
"Do you really think that our classmates would be happy if you got hurt protecting them?" The boy rolled his shoulders in a half shrug. Right, he still had trust issues with schoolmates. "Do you really think Iwould be happy if you got hurt protecting me? Because I wouldn't be. I'd do anything to keep that from happening. It would break my heart if anything happened to you."
That elicited another deep sigh from Izuku, and an actual response. "I just…" He trailed off, looking into the distance, past the chaotic battle down below. Kyoka was content to let him think, as she kept an eye and an ear below to make sure they weren't in too much danger. "I can't just not help. I can't just sit back and watch while I know that I could contribute something. I don't know if I could live with myself if I let myself do that." And wasn't that something she knew all too well.
"We've both been training to be heroes, Green. So have all of our classmates. We probably all have that exact same feeling. God knows I do. We all know what the risks are, what we're signing up for. You don't have to take it all on yourself. At the very least, let me help. Honestly, I'm probably more use than you are right now." That elicited at least the huff of a laugh from her friend. "And besides, we still have to have our jam session tonight."
Izuku turned to her with a smirk on his face. "You still think we'll get a chance tonight?"
"Well it'd make me happy, and that's what being a hero is about, right?" He rolled his eyes at her turning his own words back on him, but smiled and laughed regardless, putting a little more of his weight on her. The two fell silent for a time, simply watching the increasingly brutal duel between All Might and the nomu before another voice sprang up behind them.
"What are the two of you doing here? We need to evacuate!" Yaoyorozu hurried up to Kyoka's side, pulling on her arm to try and drag the two of them back towards the door. "Everyone else is outside with Kendo, we have to go!"
"All Might has his hands full with the bird-faced villain." Izuku started in surprise as Kyoka explained his position to Yaoyorozu. "We just want to make sure that one of the other villains, like the eyeless one, doesn't go after the injured." As she spoke, she heard additional footsteps behind them.
"I was more worried about the warper myself, but we do need to keep an eye on all of them." Honenuki strode up next to Izuku, giving him a congratulatory pat on the shoulder before looking down into the central plaza, face hidden behind his faceplate.
"A disintegration quirk is dangerous for all of you. Less so for me." Shoji stood on the far side of Honenuki, eyes grimly narrowed above his mask.
"I just want to make sure you're all safe. You're kinda making yourselves targets right now." Uraraka was the owner of the last pair of footsteps, coming to stand next to Yaoyorozu, determination written across her face.
Yaoyorozu looked across the five of them, emotions warring on her face. Eventually though, she seemed to settle on resignation. "Fine. We're not getting involved in that , though. We stay here at the top of the stairs, just in case something happens."
Everyone seemed relatively satisfied with this, and settled in to watch the climax of All Might's fight with the nomu. Kyoka, however, found her attention drawn instead to the warper, agreeing with Honenuki that he was perhaps the most dangerous of all of them. Her stomach dropped as she realized he had turned his head and his yellow eyes were pointed directly at the six of them at the top of the stairs.
Oddly though, Kurogiri made no move towards them. Instead he looked briefly towards Shigaraki, who was still invested in All Might's battle, before looking back towards the students and ultimately returning his attention towards the duel. Had they been dismissed? Or simply put aside for later?
Her questions died as a sonic boom rang through the entire facility. All Might launched the nomu through the ceiling and far away from the USJ. Kyoka winced involuntarily at the noise but couldn't help the smile that bloomed on her face. "Something like that, Yaoyorozu?"
The girl was beaming openly as well, as Uraraka and Honenuki cheered at the sight. "Not quite, but I'll take it." Black mist covered the villains, both conscious and unconscious, as All Might turned his attention to the remaining threats, apparently abandoning their attack on the hero. Kyoka could hear the general faculty arriving to help with the injured outside, and finally let herself exhale.
They had survived, somehow.
---
Snipe found Nezu pacing in one of the hastily erected medical tents outside the USJ, muttering around a teacup something about leaked information. Whatever it was, he was sure the principal would let him know if it was important. He knew that he wasn't the principal's first choice in most matters; that was Aizawa, but he was indisposed right now. However, Snipe was generally the second choice when Aizawa was not available, and the first choice in matters of school security. This certainly seemed to fit the bill.
"Ahem," Snipe cleared his throat to get the principal's attention. "Y'all wanted the injury reports when we had them."
"Indeed." The mammal stopped his pacing and drained his teacup. "How bad was it?"
"Nine injured students, five of them severely injured, two of them moderately so. Todoroki and Awase had some of the worst quirk exhaustion I've ever seen, while Ashido had suffered from her own acid. Midoriya and Kaibara had significant physical trauma. Kamakiri and Tsunotori moderate physical trauma, while Kendo and Shoji had minor injuries at best. The rest were uninjured physically. In terms of mental trauma? Well, that's a horse of a different color..."
"And among the faculty?" Nezu had already been informed of the broad outline, but wanted the finer details in this case.
"Thirteen experienced severe lacerations along her entire back, down to the bone in some places. On site medical care provided by the students helped stabilize her, and Recovery Girl is optimistic of a full recovery. Eraserhead suffered significant physical trauma across his entire body, with the most damage done to his right arm, back, and face. His recovery will be longer and is not guaranteed to be complete."
"Hmm." Snipe had worked for Nezu long enough to know that was not one of his happy hums. Unfortunately, he only had worse news for the principal.
"Additionally, Hawks was discovered in the facility as well, unconscious. He appeared to have been injured by a single high-impact blunt force trauma to the back. The HPSC has already air-lifted him out to a specialized healing facility, but Recovery Girl's initial diagnosis was at least two spinal fractures."
Nezu did not initially respond to this, only walking over to his teapot to pour yet another cup of tea. Another subtle tell from the principal that he was more agitated than he wanted to let on; usually he only drank one cup at a time no matter the circumstances.
"Hawks' presence complicates things quite a bit. The HPSC was already on site too fast for my liking, and now their favorite hero was apparently on site during the attack." He took a sip of his tea before grimacing. "Hawks is just lucky that the villain's jamming quirk disabled our surface-to-air missiles in the area as well." Again the principal dropped off into muttering around his teacup, and Snipe was content to let him do so. He didn't trust the HPSC or the villains that had invaded their campus, but he did trust in Nezu to help see them through. And Snipe would be there to make sure Nezu's will was done.