Chapter 8: Wonderland
Katsuki felt like a pot of boiling water with the lid clamped shut. He felt Deku's eyes on him wherever he went, in the lunchroom, in the hallways, even when he was checking his phone in the bathroom. Swearing came easily to him, Katsuki's way of showing the world that he meant fucking business. Now, every time he started one, a jolt of fear held his tongue. Even at home, even when locked away in his room, even when Deku shouldn't possibly be able to overhear him, he couldn't bring himself to swear. He knew he was being stupid. He knew he was being weak, but if all it took was one swear to cost him his rightful place as the number one hero, he'd never swear again for the rest of his life, no matter how much like a fucking wimp it made him feel.
So, he kept the lid on his anger and sucked up to Kaminari and Mineta. It was easier said than done. They both regarded him like a rabid dog at first, glancing uneasily at one another when he asked to sit next to them. It was only natural. They were too weak to handle him. So, he had to roll over and show those pitiful puppies his belly, wag his tail, smile, ask nicely, and play the meek, pitiful little Pomeranian that Deku wanted him to be.
It had taken mentioning that he played the drums to get Kaminari to open up. The dunce was into rock music and wanted to play the bass. Mineta had volunteered to be lead singer, salivating over all the chicks he'd score once they started a band. It took all of Katsuki's discipline to keep from strangling him right then and there.
As the days wore on, Kaminari and Mineta gradually warmed up to him. Katsuki endured their discussions of girls, music, and videogames, pretending to be engaged. It wasn't hard. His ear for the drums led him to multiple rock bands, and it was always fun to crush virtual villains in a videogame, but the idle conversation made him feel as though he was wasting time, when he could have instead read through the textbooks, or clobbered a training dummy at one of the gyms.
As if it wasn't enough that he had to suck up to the hero course's lowlifes, he had to watch Deku surround himself with half the class, as if to prove to Katsuki that he could surpass him in the lunchroom as well. Each day, he'd have someone different sitting next to him, making hand gestures with Signs, having Raccoon Eyes lean on his shoulder to look at his hero notes, swapping baked goods with Lips, or just sitting in silence with the human thermostat. Deku's table was the center of the room, with the rest of the hero students orbiting around him, while Katsuki was out in the middle of fucking nowhere, right next to the useless gen-ed students and their creepy, muttering business-minded twins.
Per Izuku's instructions, Katsuki asked his two reluctant companions if they wanted to hit up the arcades. Their hesitation died the moment he waved Izuku's crisp 5,000 yen note in front of their faces. By the next day, they both confirmed that it was alright with their parents.
Katsuki took them to an arcade on the other side of town. The last thing he wanted was to run into his old classmates. He had heard that the place was more expensive, but worth the price. As he walked past row after row of arcade cabinets, all looking as fresh as when they rolled off the factory floor, he reluctantly agreed it was better than his old haunt.
Kaminari took the lead, steering them towards an on the rail shooter with room for four. Mock villains held gagged civilians hostage as they made their way floor by floor, shooting flames, feathers, and denim strands in obvious homage to top heroes. Kaminari had terrible aim, roasting as many civilians as villains, and Mineta was a touch too short to reach over the console, leaving him shooting feathers towards the top of the screen. Katsuki had to work overtime, flinging denim left and right to leave villains comically hogtied with their own clothes.
Miraculously, they made it to the final boss fight on the roof. Muscular, mechanical eye leering at them, muscles bulging out of his skin, laughed at them as he stomped onto the screen. Nondescript fallen heroes littered the scene, beaten into walls or left lying on the floor. They had to target bulges in his arms and legs, stopping him from throwing punches and softening him up until his eye was exposed. After a few shots to the eye, he'd go back to guarding it, rinsing and repeating until he hit the floor.
"Hell yeah!" Kaminari shouted. "That's what I'm talking about!"
With a target half the size of the screen, Kaminari still found a way to roast the heroes in the background. Mineta at least proved his worth in stopping the overhead punches and going for the eye, but Katsuki barely blocked the kicks on his own. As tempted as he was to point out how useless they were, Katsuki couldn't risk Deku taking offense to the ordered trip to the arcade being cut short.
Next to catch their attention was a two-player fighting game. Mineta bowed out, taking the opportunity to ogle a girl leaning over a pinball machine, while Katsuki and Kaminari picked characters. Katsuki went for Endeavor, but Kaminari beat him to it.
"Sorry, man, he's my main."
All Might was selectable, but the one rule of any fighting game was to never pick All Might. Whether it was Street Heroes or Hero Brawl, All Might was always the OP character, tanking every hit and punching like an eighteen-wheeler in return, moving far too fast for a heavy-hitter to boot. Hawks always had a terrible matchup against fire, so instead, Katsuki settled for Best Jeanist.
Kaminari took an early lead, roasting Katsuki with a long-range barrage, but once Katsuki got a hang of the controls, he darted through an opening and landed a punishing combo. Not letting up the pressure, Katsuki pressed Kaminari's character against a wall until his health bar emptied.
"Aw, I thought I had you!" Kaminari complained as he fed more money into the machine. "Hey, Mineta, you're up."
Not wanting to learn another control scheme, Katsuki stuck with Best Jeanist while Mineta went with Mirko. Surprisingly competent at the game, Mineta leapt behind Katsuki and dealt a powerful kick, knocking Best Jeanist into a stack of crates. From there, it was a slaughter, as Mineta strung combo after combo while Katsuki struggled to get a hit in.
The whole battle left Katsuki in a fit of apoplectic rage. Mineta smirked at Katsuki, but his giddiness evaporated before the fire in Katsuki's eyes. With a panicked glance at Kaminari, Mineta swallowed and said, "Uh, good game, Katsuki. You did great!"
"Like hell I did," Katsuki snapped. Any other time, he'd have shown Mineta his place, but he couldn't, not when Deku might hear about it. Taking a deep breath, Katsuki said, "Kick Kaminari's ass so we can move on to something else."
Kaminari was thoroughly trounced, with Mirko smirking under the flawless victory screenshot, one foot on Endeavor's chest as he lay unconscious on the street. The next game to catch their attention was the dance pad, this one with room for four. Mineta argued for one with busty girls dancing in the background, but Katsuki swiftly vetoed him, settling for a hero-themed song. Once again, fate left him with impeccable-styled Best Jeanist, dancing with a soulless stare. Kaminari, to his joy, got Endeavor glaring as he two-stepped, while Mineta scowled at Edgeshot folding himself as he twirled.
Yet again, Mineta proved himself better than he had any right to be, practically leaping between each button on the floor, but this time, Katsuki gave as good as he got, matching the smaller teen step for step. Kaminari, meanwhile, got hopelessly left behind, the crowd booing as red lights blared around Endeavor. Not even half the song went by before he got the game over screen.
As the dance wound to a close, Mineta's eyes darted between the two scores. Making a quick calculation on his odds of surviving another victory, Mineta fumbled the last few steps, lowering his score just enough for Katsuki to pull ahead. Noticing the intentional fumble, Katsuki glowered as the screen announced his victory and Best Jeanist stiffly bowed to the invisible audience.
"Next time," Katsuki growled, "Don't hold back. Got it? I'm not going to take some lame-ass victory."
"Uh, sure, got it," Mineta hastily said as sweat dripped down his face.
As they made their way back around the arcade, the Rock Hero setup caught Kaminari's eyes. He dragged Katsuki and Mineta over, claiming the bass while Mineta scooped up the microphone. Katsuki settled into the drummer's seat and gave the light, plastic sticks an experimental flip. They were attached to the rest of the set with wires, but he could tap out a beat well enough.
Predictably, Mineta went for a song from a high-profile all-female band, but Kaminari and Katsuki both shot down the easier pop song. Kaminari steered them towards a higher-difficulty hard rock song. Nodding his head a few times to the beat, Katsuki drummed out his part, missing the occasional tap when the wires got tangled, but quickly getting the hang of it.
Kaminari tackled the awkward fingerings and fast strumming with ease, not dropping a single note as he jammed out on the cheap plastic controller. Mineta, while singing at the right intervals to score in the game, had a voice that made nails on a chalkboard sound like an orchestral symphony. His voice screeched and groaned like a saw cutting a block of iron in half. Puberty had clearly kicked his voice box in the balls, but from the way he winked at two passing girls, he had no idea how terrible he was.
With their high score, the game offered them an encore. Katsuki grabbed Mineta by the scruff of the neck and plopped him in front of the guitar, telling him on no uncertain terms that if he ever tried to sing in his presence again, he'd personally see to it that the balls below his waist would be the same color as the ones he had for hair, and added that it might bring his pitch high enough so it'd be inaudible to the human ear. Suitably subdued, Mineta strummed the guitar while the computer took over the vocals. Mineta's fingers were too short for the more complex fingerings, but they were able to limp their way to a second finish of the song.
Thoroughly gamed out, Kaminari and Mineta drifted over to the ticket games, mindlessly mashing buttons and pulling levers to squeeze tickets out of the machines. Katsuki went over to the ski ball. Years of practice let him sink all but one of the balls in the highest point target in the top left corner. A few fistfuls of tickets later, Kaminari had a temporary Endeavor tattoo, Mineta was nursing a nosebleed and clutching a mini Midnight doll, cleavage and skimpy costume included, and Katsuki had a wad of candy to gnaw on while studying for the night.
The games alone had wrung out Deku's 5,000 yen, and they hadn't even gotten food, not that Katsuki would complain. He'd sooner fork over his entire wallet than grovel at Deku's feet for more spending money. The arcade had a dining area off to the side, bedecked with hero paraphernalia from the hottest new heroes. A full-sized replica of All Might's costume hung behind glass in one corner, along with a signed, framed photograph of Hawks with his sidekick, a pair of jeans signed by Best Jeanist, and a box of Wash's favorite detergent.
The menu featured greasy food of all kinds, from takoyaki and karaage to cheese curds and French fries. Mineta and Kaminari argued back and forth over what to get, but once Katsuki got fed up with listening to them squabble, he ordered them all pizza.
They got a table with a good view of the television, and to Mineta's joy, a table of four chicks just far enough away to not notice him creepily staring at their chests. Kaminari started a conversation about what kinds of songs they would play if they got a band together. Mineta half-listened, throwing out apathetic comments as he kept his eyes on the other table.
When the pizza finally arrived, Katsuki regretted not coming sooner. A cheesy, greasy aroma wafted from the pizza, mingled with the scent of oregano and fennel in the sausage. He pulled a slice towards him, smiling in appreciation of the thick, gooey strands of cheese that stretched out as he brought the slice closer to his mouth. The crust was thin and crunchy, the sauce tangy, the cheese divine. Even Mineta was roused from his perverted thoughts, pausing to stuff his face full of pizza before turning back around.
The girls eventually noticed Mineta's peeping, though how it took them half a pizza for them to get around to scolding Mineta was beyond Katsuki. He watched the trouble unfold, first as startled glances at Mineta, then hushed whispers upset and angry enough to reach Katsuki's ears. Finally, one of the girls stood, drink in hand, walked over to their table, and towered over Mineta. Her fingernails glittered with flecks of silver, though whether it was nail polish or a Quirk was anyone's guess.
"Excuse me," she said in a snippy voice. "But it's rude to stare. Please stop."
Mineta gave his biggest shit-eating grin, much to Katsuki's inward exasperation. "Sorry, but I couldn't help myself, not when you've got such a nice rack."
Katsuki rolled his eyes, swearing internally. Judging by the scowl and embarrassed flush on the girl's face, that comment did not have the intended effect on the girl. She drew herself up even higher, using every inch of her heels to look down on Mineta. "You're such a pervert. Leave us alone before I tell the manager"
Mineta's smile faltered, but even though he had already hit rock bottom, he was determined to dig himself even deeper. "Hey, don't be like that." He squeezed one of the balls on his head and said, "Why don't you take a seat next to me? I'll let you touch my balls."
The girl's eye twitched in agitation. She upended her drink over Mineta's head, spilling it all over his bulbous hair. The liquid ran off, not leaving a single drop on Mineta's head, but splashing onto his shirt and the table. "Here's what I think of your stupid little balls. I wouldn't come near you if you were the last boy on earth." She gave a snarky laugh and said, "Try again when you've grown two feet and don't look like someone stuck balloons on a clown. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get the manager."
Not wanting to deal with the manager, or worse, end up with Mineta being expelled for sexual harassment, Katsuki quickly stood up. "Excuse my idiot of a friend, he's really desperate because of the way he looks. Leave the manager out of it, and I'll make sure he doesn't bother you again."
Mineta gaped open-mouthed at him, alternating between anger and worry at Katsuki's ominous tone. The girl sneered at him. "Oh please, I bet you were checking us out too, you pervert."
Anger boiled up in Katsuki's veins. As tempting as it was to call her a bitch, Deku's threat held him back. He felt the window for a comeback closing, and in a moment of desperation, he said, "Nah, I'm not impressed. There's way better in my class, and she's far less shy about hiding what she's got. Probably because she doesn't have to wear a padded bra."
Kaminari hooted in laughter as the girl sputtered and glared at him. His outburst had even caused a stir at the girls' table. "Oh yeah?" the girl said, sputtering, "Well, I bet she gives such a show because she's a slut."
Katsuki shrugged. "So what if she is? Not like I care."
The girl was spinning her wheels at this point, but she was determined not to lose ground. "And – and I bet even then, she won't let a dirty asshole like you anywhere near her. Where did you get those clothes, Walmart?"
The girl's own clothes seemed expensive, if the tacky design was anything to go by. Katsuki surreptitiously dug a finger into one of the pizza slices, coating his finger in a dollop of pizza sauce. "At least I don't get mine out of the dumpster out back."
The girl gasped, and her face reached an even deeper shade of crimson. "I'll have you know, this shirt is an Uwabami line top and cost over twenty-thousand yen. I bet it's worth more than your entire wardrobe.
Katsuki flung the sauce while she went on about how valuable her shirt was. The dollop landed just above her waistline, and she didn't notice. Kaminari bit his lip, stifling another bout of laughter after he saw what Katsuki did.
"Really?" Katsuki asked once the girl was finally done. "I figured it was a cheap shirt since you got sauce all over it. Good for you."
The girl's eyes widened as she looked down, finally noticing the gob of sauce. She clenched her hand, and her nails grew visibly longer and sharper.
"You did this, didn't you?" she asked, holding up the shirt to the light. Mineta leaned down, trying to peek up her shirt. To avoid further trouble, Katsuki flicked him on the forehead, forcing him to sit upright.
"And waste perfectly good pizza sauce on someone like you?" Katsuki asked as he wiped his finger clean on his pants. "Wouldn't dream of it. Now, I suggest you get that cleaned off right away. Tomato stains are hard to get out of clothes."
The girl's eyes darted between Katsuki's hands, which were greasy, but not stained with sauce, and Mineta, who was rubbing his forehead where Katsuki had flicked it. With an irritated huff, the girl turned and strode towards the bathrooms. The other girls left their table and followed after her.
Once the girls were gone, Kaminari let out the laughter he had been holding back. "Dude, that was awesome! Way to show her who's boss!"
Mineta, on the otherhand, was ill-pleased by the turn of events. "Hey, why did you have to butt in? I was getting my moves on!"
Katsuki loomed over him and gave him his best 'irritate me one more time and you die' scowl. "Those girls had every right to call you out, and I'm impressed they had the balls to confront you about it. If they hadn't been such snobs and called me a pervert, I would've probably let you get in trouble. He – heck, I would've even helped them."
Katsuki really hoped that Deku didn't consider heck a swear. And if he did, then what the hell did he expect from him?
"Still, though, that was really cool," Kaminari said. "I could barely keep from laughing while she was going on about her shirt when you got sauce on it."
"Whatever. Let's finish up and get out of here before they get back. I don't feel like getting kicked out of this place."
They each took a slice, washed it down with the last of their sodas, and made a beeline for the door. As they left, Katsuki caught sight of the girls leaving the bathroom. The one with glittering nails glared at him before turning away.
It was still early in the day, and Katsuki was worried Deku would take offense if he called off the arcade trip early, so when they came across a park and an ice cream stand, he suggested taking a seat at a bench. Not ones to turn down free food, Mineta and Kaminari accepted the ice cream bribe. They sat down with their frozen treats and watched people walk by.
"Hey Bakugo-san," Kaminari said once he finished his ice cream. "Mind if I ask you a question?"
"Shoot."
"Why did you start hanging out with us?"
Mineta's attention was pulled away from the woman he was watching. Katsuki felt his stomach drop.
"What do you mean?" Katsuki asked, hoping to buy time and think of a better answer than 'Deku blackmailed me into hanging out with you two losers'.
Kaminari looked away and nervously scratched the back of his neck. "Well, the first couple days of school, you were, well, how should I put it?"
"An asshole," Mineta said, bracing for Katsuki's imminent anger.
Kaminari cringed, but he didn't contradict Mineta's words. "Well, you swore at basically everyone, called us all 'extras', and tried to murder the first student you fought against. Well, I think so, anyways? Not really sure what happened there. Then, one day, that all… I dunno, went away? It's not like you were a completely different person, just… different." Kaminari sighed and tossed the soggy ice cream wrapper in the garbage. "I don't know, it's just weird. I guess what I'm saying is, I don't know what's going through your head or why you're hanging out with us. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm glad you invited us out and I had a great time, I just want to know why."
He couldn't tell them the truth, and he doubted an outright lie would hold up. As Kaminari struggled to put his thoughts together, Katsuki pieced together exactly what he could tell them. "I got some advice," Katsuki said carefully, "About how I could be a better hero. They suggested that I find someone to hang out with, and, well, they suggested you two."
Katsuki cringed at his own words and waited for their reaction. Kaminari blinked, taken aback by the answer, and looked down at the paved path. "Well," he said with a nervous chuckle. "I don't know what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn't that."
"Yeah!" Mineta shouted. "You used us!"
Katsuki cringed and felt his blood boil at his reaction. It wasn't his fault that Deku was making him do this. What the hell did they want from him?
Kaminari took a deep breath. "Well, I mean I guess I don't mind. You did just treat us to arcades, lunch, and ice cream. And, well, it's not really a bad thing that you're trying to reach out to people, even if someone told you to." Kaminari looked at Katsuki and smiled. "You were honest about it too. You could've just lied or gave a vague reason, and instead, you told us the truth."
"You're really not mad?"
"Nah. Explains a lot." Kaminari smirked. "They also told you not to swear, didn't they?"
Katsuki scowled and asked, "How the fu – how do you know that?"
"Uh, I dunno, maybe it's because you have to stop yourself from swearing every sentence?" Kaminari tentatively put a hand on his shoulder. Katsuki frowned at it but didn't shove it off. "Look, it's weird, and I don't know how to feel about this whole thing, but you're clearly working hard to be a better person. I guess, well, I don't mind being your friend. You're not easy to hang around with, but you know how to rock and the way you stood up to that chick was awesome. You don't have pay to get me to hang out with you. In fact, next time's on us."
"Us?" Mineta asked.
Kaminari elbowed him in the ribs hard enough to make him double over. "Yes, us, unless you feel like sitting alone at lunch."
Mineta scowled, rubbing his bruised ribs, and said, "Fine, next one's on us. I still don't like it, but I guess it's fine."
Kaminari said, "Let's not talk about this again, alright? From here on, we're friends, and that's that. Deal, Katsuki-san?"
Kaminari held out his hand, waiting for Katsuki to take it. Katsuki didn't know how to react to the sudden kind gesture, half of him raged at the weakling taking pity on him, playing the part of being friends for his sake, and the other half was confused, didn't understand why Kaminari wasn't angry, didn't push him away for basically using him, like Mineta said. As Kaminari's smile faltered, Katsuki took his hand and awkwardly shook it.
"Deal," Katsuki said through gritted teeth.
Chapter 9: Into the Void
One second, the whole world dropped away, leaving Mashirao floating in a black void. The next, reality was back, only everything was on fire. For one confused second, Mashirao wondered what he had done to deserve being kicked straight to hell, no waiting in line for St. Peter's judgement.
A knife darted out of the flames. Mashirao did a wing block out of reflex, stepped into his attacker, and laid him out with a well-aimed punch.
More attackers rushed at Mashirao from the fires. He crouched into a familiar stance and took a deep breath, instantly regretting it when smoke filled his lungs. As he coughed, the villains ran forward, only for a string of tape to stop them short.
"Ojiro-san, over here!" Hanta called through the flames. He tugged, forcing the group of villains to stumble back before one slashed the bindings. Tokoyami was with him, fending off another villain with a shrunken Dark Shadow. Using the opening, Mashirao ran towards them and helped Dark Shadow bring down the villains.
"Where are we?" Mashirao asked.
"Still in the USJ, I think," Hanta said. "Thirteen did say something about a conflagration zone."
Tokoyami put himself between the other students and wrapped Dark Shadow around them, holding the villains at bay. "We should head back to the center, like Midoriya said."
Quills flew out from the flames. Dark Shadow rose to block them, but some make it past, piercing Tokoyami's cloak. As light crept in through the holes in the cloak, Dark Shadow grew smaller and weaker.
"Are you hurt?" Hanta asked, unrolling his tape. "Ojiro-san, keep them off us, I can bandage him up."
"I'm not hit," Tokoyami said, "But my cloak's ruined." There was a short pause as the avian teen went through an internal struggle. His next words sound as though they were forced out of him. "Dark Shadow gets weaker in light, and without the cloak, I can't do anything."
"Here, let me patch it up."
While Tokoyami and Hanta were distracted with cloak repairs, the quill villain stepped out of the flames, arms aimed at them, with enough quills bristling from his hands and forearms to turn Mashirao's classmates into pincushions.
Unable to breathe from fear, Mashirao rummaged in his gi's improvised pockets. His hands closed around the bola, a last-minute addition to his hero attire. It was a graceless throw, but one end of the capture weapon struck the villain in the head. They reeled back, quills firing wildly into the air and striking another villain.
Cloak repaired, Tokoyami sent Dark Shadow after the quill-bearing villain, bringing him down before he could fire more quills. The fighting grew hectic after that, villains closing around, Tokoyami holding down the hasty tape job on his cloak, Hanta smearing moisturizer on his elbows to keep his tape from drying out, and Mashirao fighting wave after wave of villains until his arms grew heavy.
When they finally made it out of the fires, the first thing Mashirao saw was Midoriya, face bleeding as a gray-haired villain dug his hand into his skull. Mashirao reached into his gi, but he was all out of bola to throw.
Ochako was no stranger to nausea. There was the ever-familiar 'I used my Quirk too much' stomach pain, the 'I used my Quirk on myself and now I don't know which way is up' feeling that made her stomach do flips, the 'I ate two week old leftovers at the back of my fridge because wasting food equals wasting money' stomach cramps that would've made her call a hospital if that wouldn't have made her parents worry and maybe drag her back home, and because that apparently wasn't enough, she got the 'my body hates me and craves death' version once a month just for kicks. Now, she had a new type to add to her list, the 'I'm trapped in a shadowy vacuum and my stomach wants to fill the void' variety she hoped never to experience again.
When the void vomited her back into reality, it was to find herself surrounded by villains in a maze of crumbling architecture. Making herself half her weight, a trick she really had to thank Midoriya for suggesting, Ochako leapt ten feet into the air and landed nimbly onto a cracked archway. A villain came after her, but the weathered stone couldn't support their combined weight. Rocks fell to the ground, scattering the villains around her.
Ochako used the opportunity to leap higher. A glint of light from Aoyama's armor caught her eye, and she sprinted towards it. The flamboyant teen had his own bout of stomach pain, struggling to stand after firing his laser in a circle around him. The uneven terrain was keeping the villains at a distance, but Aoyama didn't have long before they made it close enough to stab him.
Neither Ochako nor the villains were the first to make it to Aoyama's side. Leaping nimbly over the fallen rocks, Shoji ran in front of Aoyama and spread out his dupli-arms. The first villain to reach him was sent sprawling by a three-pronged punch.
"Is there anyone else here?" Ochako asked when she made it to them.
"It's just the three of us in this zone," Shoji said, "Against fifteen villains."
Still doubled over and nursing an aching stomach, Aoyama shakily said, "I don't think we can take that many."
"And I can't carry both of you at the same time. Otherwise, we could just run away."
"What if I made us all half as light?" Ochako asked. "Try carrying me."
Shoji hefted her and blinked at how light she was. "I can work with this."
With Aoyama and Ochako tucked under his dupli-arms, Shoji ran towards the center of the USJ building. Without his dupli-arms to act as secondary ears, he didn't notice the pair of villains that swung around in front of him. They were moving at either side of him, planning to cut him off at a sturdy section of wall.
Shoji skidded to a halt and spread out some ears. "We can't stop and fight, there's more right behind us. Any ideas?"
Ochako prodded Aoyama. "Is your stomach better yet?"
"Oui, but I only have one shot."
"Fire it at the ground. We're going to fly out of here."
As the villains closed around them, Ochako took a deep breath, steeling herself for the nausea to come. She tapped herself and her two classmates, negating the rest of their gravity. Shoji jumped, putting them out of reach of the villains' reach. As the few long-range villains fired metal spheres and gobs of sludge at them, Aoyama fired his laser, launching them across the facility. They landed in a heap near Yaoyorozu and Jirou, closer to the entrance, just in time to watch Midoriya shove a matryoshka doll into a villain's exposed brain. It wasn't clear at first what that was supposed to accomplish, but as smoke rose from the villain's head, the villain's eyes rolled back, and it fell with a ponderous thud.
It was after watching Izuku flip nimbly off the villain's back that Ochako's stomach remembered that it got shot through the sky with a laser at zero G after she negated three-hundred kilograms worth of people, which, incidentally, was her new least favorite type of nausea.
Once she was done throwing up, it was to find Midoriya in the hands of a villain, his face falling apart in the villain's grasp. This time, she felt too frightened for nausea.
Koda never thought of himself as a coward. Sure, he preferred to avoid any and all human interaction, especially if it involved him speaking anything above a hoarse whisper. Yes, insects terrified him. Anyone who wasn't terrified of some creepy, crawly bug with way too many legs that made a sickening crunching sound when stepped on was clearly out of their mind. Everyone had a phobia or two of their own, so Koda never understood why the other kids in his school had treated him like glass. Fear was normal. Fear was what kept you alive.
Fear was what had him sprinting down a hill dotted by buried buildings as a villain howled and hooted in delight, brandishing knives as his scorpion's tail waved in the air.
"I'm going to slice you into pretty, pretty little ribbons!" the villain said, cackling as he sprinted towards Koda.
Koda dove into a ditch, hoping to lose the villain, only to run head-first into a soft, bouncy cushion of air. Falling forward, Koda reached out with his arms, trying to break his fall. His hands found something smooth and soft. He squeezed, trying to figure out why he couldn't see what he was holding.
"Could… you stop squeezing please?" a strained, high-pitched voice asked.
As Koda scrambled back, his brain processed everything at once. One, the squishy wall of air he ran into, was in fact, his classmate Hagakure. Two, said classmate, judging by the fact he couldn't see her at all, wasn't wearing any clothes. U.A. definitely couldn't make her costume soon enough. And three, there were only a handful of places he could have squeezed that would've felt so round and squishy, and Koda definitely didn't want to know which it was.
His hands were shaking as he made the signs of apology, too quickly at first, but then slowly, enough for Hagakure to understand. If he made it out of there alive, the first thing he'd do is thank Midoriya for teaching half the class basic sign language.
"It's okay, I should've been more careful," Hagakure said. "I took off all my clothes because there were too many villains around. I managed to get away, what about you?"
On cue, the villain leapt into the ravine. "Peekaboo, I see you!" He cackled maniacally and ground his blades together. "Now let's play!"
Koda let out an undignified whimper of terror and scurried back. The villain watched him struggle back until his back hit the end of the ditch.
"Come on, aren't you going to stand up? It's no fun if you don't struggle." He licked the blade, watching Koda with wide, crazed eyes as he strode closer.
Koda's mouth worked silently. He could hear the bugs in the dirt around him, not as many as would normally be around outside, but enough at least to distract the villain. The words wouldn't come. Watching the segmented, barbed tail waving in the air, Koda gasped for air, throat tightening as the villain came closer.
A rock floated next to the villain. It slammed into the villain's head, knocking them aside. The villain lashed out with both blades and the tail, but all three sharp edges struck nothing.
"Ah, the invisibility Quirk," the villain said. "No need to be shy, Uncle Tyrian just wants to play."
The villain stopped, glancing side to side with a manic grin. The ditch grew deathly silent. Koda held his breath, unable to move as the tension of the scene rose to unbearable levels.
A rock shifted. The villain lashed out with a knife. Flecks of blood splashed out from nowhere, coating the rocks of the ravine.
"Found you," the villain crooned. He flicked the blood off his knife and walked towards Hagakure. "Why don't you show me more of you? You're a very lovely color underneath the invisibility."
As the knife rose, Koda screamed. The bugs answered. Boiling out of the ground, centipedes, beetles, and spiders swarmed over the villain. Absorbed in the thrill of the chase, the villain didn't notice at first. Once the insects made it up to his neck, they started biting him. Arms, legs, face, anything not covered with skin-tight clothing felt the wrath of Koda's swarm. The villain screeched and dropped the knife, swatting at his skin, crushing insects in ones and twos as dozens more crawled up his ankles.
With another rock, Hagakure knocked the villain unconscious. The bugs skittered away as the villain fell.
"Thanks for that, Koda-kun," Hagakure said in an uneasy tone. "If we're ever fighting against each other in class, please don't do that."
Koda nodded and suggested in signs that they head towards the center, like Midoriya said before the shadows swallowed him. They found Sato further down the cliff, popping Midoriya's candies in his mouth as he broke a villain's nose. Cuts and burns covered his costume, and one eye was swollen shut. The insects, which had been following behind Koda, broke off to harass the villains. As half their number fell screaming under the arthropod assault, Sato rallied, slamming through the rest of the villains to reach the center.
They arrived just in time to watch a villain spatter the ground with Midoriya's blood.
The void had been the kind of cold that could only be described as an absence of warmth, chilly to both of Todoroki's halves. The chill that followed was felt only by his mother's half.
The mountain zone was an enclosed space with a simulated blizzard. Snow fell in a violent swirl of white, blotting out the view of the dome above. The occasional tree dotted the wintry landscape, branches sagging under the weight of snow.
A green mound, poking out from the white expanse, caught Shoto's eye. He staggered towards it, stumbling through the snow on hidden rocks. Asui, half-buried and shivering, looked blearily up at him.
"So c-c-cold," she said through chattering teeth. She clung to his left side like a life preserver.
"Let go. We need to get out of here."
"Cold blooded," she stammered. "Can't stay awake. Have to get warm."
Shoto swore under his breath. He looked around, hunting for the exit, but all he saw were cloaked shapes coming towards them. One spotted him, and the rest moved to surround him.
Their ringleader, an amber-eyed woman with black hair, smiled as she saw the two students huddled together. "Aww, trying to stay warm?" she sneered. "How cute. Here, let me help with that."
Molten glass dripped from her eyes, so hot it glowed with incandescent light. At her fingers, the glass hardened into tiny, sharp blades. A flick of her fingers sent them towards Shoto. He stomped on the snow-covered stone, and a wall of ice rose to catch the blades inches from his face. The ice sputtered and cracked as the super-heated glass shattered. Shoto sent more ice after the villains, catching a few, but most nimbly stepped aside, or ignored his attacks entirely with heat-based Quirks.
"There's supposed to be three of them," the woman said. "Back-ups, find the last kid. Green hair, Quirkless, feel free to kill him when you see him."
A few villains chuckled as they peeled away from the fight. Shoto sent a column of ice after them, but the woman swept a curtain of glass in the way. Steam hissed as the two attacks met.
"Kurogiri warned us you would be a tricky one," the woman said. "But sooner or later, you'll both freeze to death."
Shoto glanced at Asui. Her lips were turning blue, and her breathing was shallow. Her grip slackened around his arm. As panic set in, he heard Midoriya's words coming back to him, warning him, telling him to use his fire. Shoto shut it out. He wouldn't be his father, no matter what. He wouldn't use his fire.
Molten glass bled into the shape of a bow. The villain drew it back. Glass shaped itself into an arrow, nocking itself on the slender glass string. Shoto made a giant wall, wincing as the cold bit into his right side. The arrow plunged into his wall, heating the ice with enough force to blast it apart.
Shoto raised his right hand, straining to make another wall. His fingers were coated in frost, the flesh turning black, and his arm was red and throbbing from the cold.
"Done already?" the woman asked as she drew a second arrow. "Pity. I was just getting warmed up."
Shoto gritted his teeth, pushing himself even further for another burst of ice. As he tried to stand, Asui slipped off his arm. She didn't move as she lay in the snow.
"Aww, is the little froggy dead already? Don't worry, you'll be joining her soon."
As Shoto stared down at Asui, horrified from watching her succumb to the cold, he felt himself snap. White-hot pain filled his chest, and tears boiled on his cheeks. Midoriya's words bounced off his skull, use your fire, surrounded by villains, somewhere warmer, freezing to death, use your fire. The words became a chant, use your fire, use your fire, use your fire, pounding and pounding, demanding to be heard.
The arrow shot at his forehead. A torrent of fire met it, knocking it aside with a violent gust of air. The fire raced outwards, consuming the villain, reducing her to ash and bone in the blink of an eye. She didn't have time to scream.
Snow melted into wisps of steam, forming a misty circle that expanded with Shoto's fire. Villains ran, stumbled, scurried away in their panic to escape the flames. Shoto flung out his arm, and a second wall rose in front of them, blocking their escape. Howls of agony echoed in the mountain zone's dome as the fire closed in, consuming them one by one.
Once it was over, the snow was gone. Bare rock and blackened tree stumps dotted the steaming landscape. Asui lay in a pool of water, still not moving. Shoto grasped her with fumbling hands and drew her onto his lap. He radiated heat, the air around him shimmered, and his arm thawed, exposing frost-bitten fingers.
"Hey," Shoto said softly. "Wake up, please."
Asui didn't respond. Another batch of tears filled Shoto's eyes as he hugged her tightly, squeezing more warmth into her lifeless limbs.
"I'm sorry," Shoto whispered as he sobbed into his shoulder. "I should've listened to him. I'm so sorry."
The void was nothing new to Tsuyu. One time, she had wandered off from her parents and snuck into a restaurant kitchen, enticed by the sounds of sizzling meat and chatting cooks. Curiosity drew her to the walk-in refrigerator in the back, and a numbing chill in her limbs kept her there. She woke up twenty minutes later in her mother's arms, tears dripping on her shirt as her mother smiled down at her. The void was much like the final moment of limbo as the world fell away, with her still conscious but unable to see the world, unable to move, unable to escape or resist the encroaching darkness.
What was new was the sudden, jarring transition to freezing cold. Her limbs grew heavy as the cold set in. She tried to rise, but the snow weighed her down. The void crept back as her body warmth seeped into the snow.
Warm hands pulled her from the snow. On instinct, she clung to the warmth, soaking in the body heat. She could barely mumble an explanation of what was happening to her as her rescuer trudged through the snow.
Tsuyu heard more voices, but they were muffled, foggy from the cold tickling her brain. She fought off her torpor, struggled to stay awake long enough to find warmth, but the hand she clung to grew colder, the chill around her crept deeper into her chest, as walls of ice rose and fell.
When she woke up, the snow was gone. Steam curled from her soaked hero outfit. Senses returned in waves, first prickling heat in her extremities, followed by the smell of ash and moisture. The ringing in her ears faded, revealing muffled sobs. A gray dome grew into focus as she blinked her eyes. Snowflakes drifted on the wind and turned to puffs of steam when they got too close to the ground.
Tsuyu groaned and stirred. Her eyes met Todoroki's. He stared down at her, disbelief plain on his tear-streaked face.
"I thought you died," Todoroki said hoarsely. He sniffled as he wiped his tears away.
"I went into hibernation, kero. Takes a while for me to wake up."
Todoroki hugged her tightly. Tsuyu squeaked from the sudden contact.
"I'm so sorry," Todoroki said. "You almost died because of me. I promised not to, but I had to, and I – I almost didn't."
"Well, I'm not dead." Tsuyu, still numb from waking up and shocked by Todoroki's out-of-character closeness, floundered for a way to change the subject. "We should meet up with the others, like Midoriya said."
Todoroki stiffly released her and helped her back onto her feet. As they walked down the mountain, Tsuyu stumbled on a loose rock and fell. Another rock, now inches from her face, had eye sockets. A look around revealed a charred skeleton, sans its head, lying as though it had been trying to crawl away to safety.
"What happened here?" Tsuyu asked.
Todoroki gazed at the bones. "I promised not to use it," he said with a shaking voice. "I promised."
Tsuyu swallowed, suddenly understanding what had happened. She looked around and found more bones scattered across the bare mountain, blackened by Todoroki's fire. She looked back at Todoroki's haunted face, his eyes transfixed as he stared at what he had done.
On impulse, Tsuyu hugged Todoroki. He flinched as she wrapped her arms around him. "It's okay," she said. "Let's just get out of here before more show up."
Todoroki nodded and let her lead him to the mountain zone's exit. Tsuyu tried not to look at the bones, tried not to think of what might have happened if Todoroki hadn't burned them all, tried not to imagine their screams, tried not to wonder why Todoroki, distant, quiet, emotionally dead Todoroki, was crying over her.
They made it out just in time to see a hand reach for Midoriya from the swirling void.
When the void swallowed Katsuki, he responded the same way he would with anything ominous, threatening, or annoying, blasting the ever-living shit out of it until his palms stung. The void, being a metaphysical vacuum, suffered no damage as a result of the outburst, which naturally made Katsuki even angrier. He had a finger on the pin of his grenade gauntlet, ready to nuke the swirling purple void to kingdom come, when it deposited him in a giant puddle amidst a torrential downpour, raising Katsuki's anger level to biblical proportions. Unfortunately for one surprised villain with an iguana's facial features, they became the new outlet for Katsuki's pent-up fury.
Leaving the smoldering, half-dead villain in his wake, Katsuki followed the hysterical screams until he found Mineta and Kaminari, backed against a building as five villains swarmed them. Katsuki detonated his palms, flying forward to kick a villain in the chin.
"The exploding one's here!" a villain shouted. "Have everyone surround them!"
Katsuki grabbed his face. He ignited his sweat, but all he got was a pathetic pop. The villain grabbed him by the wrist and shoved him aside.
"Not so tough here, are you?" the villain sneered. "Have fun trying to blow things up when your hands are wet!"
Katsuki stared in rage at his soaked gloves. He tore one off with his teeth and rubbed furiously, trying to dry and heat his hands, but the rain washed away his efforts.
"What do we do?" Mineta cried. "They're going to kill us?"
"Use your quirk dumb- just use your Quirk!" Katsuki snapped.
"Oh yeah, great plan, I'll just cover them in sticky balls until my head bleeds, that'll stop them from smashing our heads in!" Mineta pointed at the sidewalk, which was already dotted with purple spheres. "In case you noticed, they aren't doing much!"
"I could shock them all," Kaminari said, "It'd be really easy in this rain."
"Yeah, but we'll all be fried to a crisp!"
"And I'll be an idiot, I know!" Kaminari and Mineta both looked up at Katsuki. "What do we do?"
Katsuki primed a gauntlet and looked around, making the villains back off while he assessed the situation. One villain had stepped on a ball, trapping his foot against the sidewalk.
"Your spheres still stick in this rain?" Katsuki asked.
"Y-yeah, they're hydrophobic." Mineta grinned hysterically at him. "That idiot tried kicking one, thinking the rain would keep it from sticking."
"Hydro-what?" Kaminari asked.
"Are they insulators too?"
Mineta became thoughtful, then grinned. "They're like rubber, so yeah."
"I swear you two are making up words!"
"How do you not know what an insulator is?" Katsuki snapped at him. "Your whole Quirk is electricity!"
"Guys, are we doing this or not?" Mineta asked. "I'd like to not die, thanks."
Katsuki stepped on two of the balls. He wobbled back and forth, flailing his arms to keep his balance. "Pikachu, use discharge when we're both standing on these balls."
"Hey, who are you calling Pikachu?"
Mineta made a small pile and sat on it. "Just do it!"
"Alright, but this better work!"
The villains' eyes widened as Kaminari fired off his Quirk. Arcs of electricity leapt across the ground, skirting around Mineta's rubbery balls to shock the villains. One had the sense and speed to climb atop Mineta's balls, only for Katsuki to knock him unconscious once Mineta freed him.
"That all of them?" Katsuki asked as he examined the fallen villains.
"It – it better be." Mineta anxiously looked around, as if a villain might crash through the walls at any moment. Kaminari walked around in a daze, giving thumbs-up to a lamp post and mumbling to himself.
One of the villains, a tall, dark-skinned, muscular man with messy brown hair stood up, shaking drops of water off his coat. Arcs of electricity rippled across his arms. "You actually went through with it. Reckless children. Still, I'm impressed you came up with a way to stay standing after the discharge"
Mineta shrieked and hid behind Katsuki. Katsuki sneered and primed one of his gauntlets. "If you knew what was good for you, you would've stayed down. Now I'm going to kill you."
The man frowned. "Death threats from a hero course student? As if I needed any more evidence of how backwards hero society has become."
Katsuki aimed at the villain and pulled a pin. "Like I care what a villain like you thinks, now die!"
The villain was swallowed up in a massive cloud of smoke. When it vanished, he was still standing, albeit with a singed hole in his leather jacket.
"You know," the villain said as he strode towards Katsuki, "I tried to be a hero when I was your age. U.A. didn't think much of a kid who needed to haul around three car batteries just to punch a robot. Instead, they liked kids like Endeavor, kids with bright, flashy Quirks who could burn anyone who was a problem to a crisp."
Katsuki backed away and readied another gauntlet, but the villain rushed forward and grabbed his wrist. Katsuki struggled and even bit him, getting a numb tongue for his trouble.
"I don't want to kill kids," the villain said, "But knowing what you'll become someday, just another Endeavor burning the masses into compliance, I'm willing to make an exception."
"Fuck you!" Katsuki roared.
The villain looked at him sadly and raised a fist. "Didn't anyone tell you that heroes don't swear?"
Katsuki stared dumbfounded as the fist crashed towards him. At the last moment, one of Mineta's purple spheres slipped in front of the punch. The punch still rattled Katsuki's skull, but it kept him from snapping his neck.
The villain shook his hand, trying in vain to dislodge the sphere. "Clearly, our intelligence was off. We'll have to make sure this doesn't happen again."
Mineta grabbed the sphere, releasing Katsuki, and threw two more at the villain. They stuck to his chest, but the villain was careful not to touch them.
"What are you doing?" Katsuki said as Mineta ran away. "Keep throwing!"
"I can't!" Mineta pointed at his forehead. Blood trickled down past his eyes. "I only have a few left, and they aren't even doing anything!"
The villain watched them head down the alley and turned his attention to Kaminari, who was trying to high-five his reflection in a store window. "You're not going to leave your friend behind, are you? Some hero you are."
Katsuki stopped in his tracks and snarled. "Mineta, give me one."
"Wait, what?"
"I have a plan, just shut up and do it."
"Oh, you're coming back to fight?" the villain asked. "Do you still think you can win against me? Your friend had quite a bit of electricity in him. I could level this whole block if I wanted to."
"We'll see about that." Katsuki primed his other gauntlet, pulled the pin, and pressed Mineta's sphere into the opening. "Eat this, sticky grenade!"
With a deafening roar, the nitroglycerin detonated. The sphere flew apart in a burst of purple goo, drenching the villain and Kaminari in viscous, rubbery liquid. The villain pulled and struggled, but the goo held him fast to the ground. The more he struggled, the tighter the goo clung to him, until he was hunched over.
While Mineta dug Kaminari out of the goo, Katsuki strode up to the fallen victim. "That's what you get for being a villain. I'll beat any of you, anytime, anywhere."
"This isn't over," the villain growled. "I won't let people like you become heroes. You don't deserve it."
Katsuki scowled. He planted his foot on the villain's face, taking care not to touch the goo, and drove his head into the ground. The villain gasped, curling to keep his nose and mouth just above the water.
Mineta stared at Katsuki with a nervous expression. Katsuki kicked water into the villain's face and turned away. "Let's get out of this stupid rain. There's more villains to kill."
As it happened, there was only one villain left in the center plaza. He had his hand on Deku's face, with one finger poised over his forehead. Deku's eyes met Katsuki's at the last moment. His serene expression brought back memories months old, memories Katsuki had angrily shoved aside, telling himself it didn't matter, he was still worthless, someone as pathetic as Deku couldn't have possibly saved him.
The finger fell. Deku's skin flaked away, then the muscle underneath, then the bone. Blood gushed from the wound, staining the hand and running down Deku's face. All the while, Deku kept smiling that calm, quiet smile that set Katsuki's soul on fire.