Chapter 9
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.
Chapter 10: Mismatched Fates
Izuku examined the last commission he saw himself taking, a hundred-thousand yen offer from MidnightLover69, by far the most amount of money he'd ever been offered at one time. They had asked for an explicit image of Midnight, very politely, understanding he usually made a rule of not doing explicit art and making it clear they wouldn't be mad if he didn't accept.
He used a local coffeeshop, a favorite haunt of his anytime he needed a caffeine boost to finish a round of commissions, as the backdrop. Midnight usually taught in her hero outfit and never made any appearances in casual wear, so Izuku had to get inventive, putting the R-rated hero in a long-sleeved gray shirt and letting her hair hang loose. Gone was her usual sexy smirk, replaced with a soft smile and distant, distracted stare.
Izuku spent an inordinate amount of care on the image, from the texture of the table she sat at, to a curl of steam rising from the mug she held. Sunlight slanted in through the window, casting Midnight in a soft glow that lit up her features. He even added people in the background, leaving their features indistinct, yet adding enough detail to make them feel alive.
When he was done, he stopped to admire his magnus opum. It showed Midnight, not as a hero, but as Kayama Nemuri, drawing out a soft and sensitive character that Izuku wouldn't have believed had existed before he made this piece. He typed out a message to the patron, explaining how he couldn't accept their commission, explaining how heroes were people as well and he didn't feel comfortable exposing them in such a fashion, and instead offered this image free of charge.
Midnight got Izuku's message an hour later. The image, and the love with which it was crafted, brought tears to her eyes. She went to his and donated twice as much as she had promised, exactly as Izuku foresaw.
Ever since he had found his Quirk, commission by commission, with a steady drip of subscribers after the site got off the ground, Izuku had squirreled away a small fortune in his personal bank account. The account number and password were tucked under his laptop, where his mom would hopefully find it. He knew it wouldn't be any consolation to her, but it would at least mean she could quit one of her jobs or afford a nicer apartment.
His last week had flown by, assuming his Quirk wouldn't be wrong a second time. Maybe near-death experiences messed with it. Maybe All Might had done something. All Might wasn't going to be there this time, he saw the collection of heroes that will arrive to save the students, and All Might wasn't one of them. The villain that would kill him this time would have all the time he needed to disintegrate him. Even if he did live, against all odds and the promise of his Quirk, he'd just quietly put away the bank deposit slip he left for his mom and keep saving people however he could.
It had been unremarkable week, as far as weeks went, more classes, more training, more pushing himself until he could barely stand, rushing to make his body ready for the villain attack. Ojiro practiced with his bola, Ashido tried out with her new gauntlets, Uraraka figured out how to dampen her Quirk's effects to use it longer, and Bakugo spent his lunches sitting gloomily with Mineta and Kaminari.
When the press had broken in, Izuku asked Yaoyorozu for a megaphone and calmed down the panicked students. Iida had insisted on renouncing his position as class rep, citing how Izuku had stayed calm in a crisis. Izuku insisted on a revote. More than half the class made him the new rep. It was an uncomfortable position for him, acting as class leader, but if it made his fellow students look to him in the coming crisis, it was an easy burden to accept.
The next day, he had used the megaphone to ask Yaoyorozu if she could make equipment with Jirou. With Jirou sitting next to her, a seating arrangement Izuku had set up ahead of time, Yaoyorozu reluctantly took Jirou's measurements for her earphone jacks. He exposed Tokoyami's weakness and encouraged him to tell others, explaining how his and their lives might depend on knowing how his Quirk worked. He taught a few interested students, including Hagakure, sign language with Koda. He used every moment, every conversation, to steer them towards safety at the USJ.
And now, Izuku watched them board the bus to the USJ, knowing that they would be fighting for their lives in less than thirty minutes, and not able to say a word about it. Part of him railed against it, part of him screamed to take Aizawa aside and tell him everything he knew, but the familiar sensation of vertigo gripped him, reminding him the consequences of trying to change his future. Everything would work out as it was supposed to.
Before they had left for the USJ, Bakugo had marched up to him, and without meeting his eyes, said he'd done what he had asked. Izuku nodded, said "Thanks Kacchan," and left it at that. Unless his Quirk screwed up again, it would have been the last conversation they will ever have. He hoped Kacchan would take his words to heart and be the hero he never could.
Izuku met up with a couple other classmates before getting on the bus. He gave Sato a box of homemade sweets, packed with sugar and portioned to last through the villain attack. For Hanta, he had a bottle of moisturizer, suggesting that it would help keep his skin from drying out from Quirk use. He had energy bars as well, but those he kept in airtight bags in his pockets.
A low, excited buzz filled the bus ride over to the USJ. Classmates guessed at what kind of rescue work they'd be doing, Uraraka gushed over meeting Thirteen, and Bakugo glared at Izuku in stony silence, flanked by an excited Kaminari and Mineta. Iida tried to restore order, going so far as to stand and reprimand the class for their noisy behavior, but the moment he spotted Izuku, he fell silent and sat back down.
Thirteen met them at the entrance to the building. After they took Aizawa aside, he announced to them that All Might wouldn't be able to make it, just as Izuku knew would happen.
Izuku pointed out the swirling vortex in the plaza as it started, giving Aizawa an extra precious few seconds to react. He warned Thirteen against using her black hole Quirk, keeping her from making a fatal mistake against a warp-Quirk user. He shouted for everyone to meet up at the center plaza, gathering them so he would know they were all safe before he died, before tackling Mina as the black mist overtook them all.
Izuku tucked his legs as he fell, landing in the water with a huge splash. He broke the surface quickly, drew the two grappling pistols Hatsume had made him, and fired both at the boat.
"Grab on!" he shouted at Mina.
She wrapped her arms around him as he reeled in the grappling guns, dragging them both to the side of the boat. His arms stung from their combined weight as he climbed the side of the boat. Once they were up, Izuku grabbed Yaoyorozu and Jirou first, pulling them by their backs. Mina helped him pull them up, just before a hydrokinetic villain could slash at them.
Iida had made it to the back of the boat himself, and Izuku sent Jirou to help him up. Kirishima was still floundering in the water, weighed down by his hardened skin, as a villain with shark teeth bit at him from all sides. Bits of broken teeth floated in the water, but the villain kept growing more, and blood leaked into the water from tiny cuts in Kirishima's armor.
Izuku grabbed him with both grapples. Mina and Yaoyorozu hauled him up with them, while Izuku told him to only harden his legs. With his weight reduced, they were able to pull him up.
Villains circled the boat, watching them from the water. The students stood in a circle on deck, catching their breath.
Yaoyorozu looked around, shivering either from the cold or the danger. "We should get this boat moving. Kirishima, could you check below for the engine?"
"There isn't one," Izuku cut in. "It's just a prop for the simulations. Mina, could you cut away the top half of the boat with your acid? We need to make it lighter so we can push it back."
Despite the situation, Mina smiled and saluted him. "Aye aye, captain!"
"Kirishima, go with her, cut off the pieces she weakens."
Kirishima pounded on his chest with a toughened hand. "Sweet, let's do this!"
Yaoyorozu looked at the villains in the water and asked, "What are we going to do about them? They're not going to let us go."
Jirou wrung water out of her hair. "Give me a sec. I'll use my speakers to blow them away."
"Are they waterproof?" Izuku asked.
Jirou looked down at her legs. Water sloshed around inside the speakers in her suit. "Shit, didn't think of that. Any ideas?"
Yaoyorozu was about to make her own suggestion, but Izuku cut her off. "Yaoyorozu-san, could you make a replacement? Something hand-held that we could aim would be great."
Frowning in concentration, Yaoyorozu formed a device like a megaphone. A villain, growing impatient watching them stand on the boat, formed a clawed hand from the surrounding water. Jirou plugged a jack into the sonic device's port, aimed it at the villain, and let loose a powerful blast. The villain dove underwater, clutching their ears, and the watery construct fell apart.
"Great," Izuku said. "Keep them off us while we help cut the boat to size. Once it's smaller, we can row it back to shore. Yaoyorozu-san, stay with her, and deploy flashbangs if any get too close. Don't make too much, we may need more items later on."
Yaoyorozu nodded and stood next to Jirou, pointing out villains for her to blast. Wary of the sonic shockwaves, the villains backed off, gathering in a group to discuss their next move. Meanwhile, Izuku and Iida helped haul boat scraps overboard, while Ashido melted more holes and Kirishima cut through weakened sections with his hands.
The boat tipped as they cut it down to size, forcing them to work their way around multiple times to get it down to just the bottom hull. It was too wide and flat for a normal boat, with nowhere to sit, but it held the six of them and moved well enough as Kirishima paddled with a makeshift oar. Yaoyorozu had volunteered to make a real set of paddles, but Izuku had pointed out it would waste her lipid reserves.
Emboldened by the shrunken size of the boat, the villains converged on their position. Kirishima rowed faster, but their clumsy craft couldn't outpace the dozen villains after them.
"Iida-san," Izuku said, "Can you activate your engines underwater?"
"I could," Iida said, "But I would have to be careful not to flood them."
Kirishima looked back and grinned. "Dude, are we turning this thing into a speedboat?"
"Are you sure that's safe?" Yaoyorozu asked. "What if we capsize?"
"The villains are catching up to us anyways," Jirou said as she blasted another villain out of the water, "And they're too spread out for me to get them all. Just do it!"
"Alright, hold on everyone!"
Izuku and Ashido held Iida's arms as he lowered his legs into the water. As his engines revved up, the boat shot forward, kicking up waves in its wake. A few villains matched the new pace, but Jirou forced each of them back before they could do any damage.
When the boat hit the shore, it bucked up, tossing everyone over the side. Izuku landed nimbly on his feet, grappling guns drawn, while the rest fell on their backs and sides. Kirishima was the first to his feet, skin hardened, looking around for signs of villains. The shore was quiet, but within a couple hundred feet, a battle raged at the center plaza, as two-dozen villains surrounded Eraserhead and Thirteen. Aizawa darted through the group of villains, using his capture scarf to subdue three at a time, but Thirteen, forced to fight without their black hole, could only block and dodge as a villain slashed at them with dagger-like claws.
"Sweet, we made it back. Now what?"
"We need to get someone back to U.A.," Izuku said. "We won't be able to find the one cutting communications, so we'll need to send someone to warn them in person. Iida-san, we need you to run back to campus and warn the heroes."
"And leave you all behind? How could I –"
"Class rep's orders," Izuku said. "We can hold out until help arrives."
Iida grimaced, but he saluted and said, "Yes sir. I will send for help as soon as possible."
"Jirou-san, Yaoyorozu-san, go with him. Use the sonic gun and flashbangs to keep the warp Quirk villain off him. Aizawa-sensei has the rest of the villains bottled up at the plaza, so you shouldn't run into trouble." He fished the energy bars out of his pocket and handed them to Yaoyorozu. "Use those to recharge your Quirk on the way."
"What about you guys?" Jirou asked.
"We'll help the teachers from here," Izuku said, gesturing to himself, Ashido, and Kirishima.
"That's too dangerous," Yaoyorozu said. "Those are real villains, and we're just freshmen students."
"We have the tools to keep them at a distance," Izuku said. "If Aizawa falls, the villains will be free to pick us off group by group. We have to make sure he lasts long enough for help to arrive."
"But–"
"Yaoyorozu-san," Izuku said, putting more weight and volume into his voice than he would ever normally feel comfortable with, "We need to get more heroes, and we need to make sure Aizawa-sensei holds out until they get here. I know splitting up isn't wise, but there's no time to argue."
At first, Yaoyorozu looked as though she wanted to argue further, but as she watched the battle, saw Aizawa and Thirteen slowly, but surely overwhelmed by sheer numbers, she buckled. "Okay. Please don't do anything reckless."
"Make a flashbang for me, in case we need it. Save as much of your Quirk as possible, we'll need medical supplies after this."
Yaoyorozu swallowed nervously and handed Izuku a matryoshka doll. "Pin's on top of the head. Just – be safe, okay?"
"I will, just get moving!"
As Iida left with his escort, Izuku turned towards the plaza. "Ashido-san, spread acid out in front of us. Make it weak, but very slippery. Kirishima, take point. If anyone tries to get through the acid, take them out."
Kirishima's skin turned jagged and solid. He gave Izuku a toothy grin and said, "You can count on me."
Mina spread the acid in a wide cone in front of them. "Maybe I should get a squirt gun, then I could get in on the long range combat too."
"The accuracy would be very poor at this range," Izuku said. "You'd probably hit the teachers."
Mina nodded. "Then what else can I do?"
"See that big black one hanging in the back?" Izuku asked. Two figures watched the fray, Shigarakia lanky, blue-haired man covered in hands, and the hulking, black Nomu with its brain sticking out. Shigaraki watched in avid interest, scratching at his neck as wave after wave of villains fell. The Nomu watched unblinking, still as a statue, waiting for orders.
"You're seriously not thinking about taking it on, are you?"
"I don't think we'll have a choice. That villain's their trump card, what they're keeping in reserve until All Might shows up, but if their attack fails, they'll probably try to kill a few of us before they leave."
Mina grew pale as she studied the monster. "So, you're saying that thing's going to come after us?"
"If that thing can stand up to All Might, there won't be anything Kirishima or I could do to damage it, but your acid might. It's built to take punches, not chemical burns."
Mina looked at the gauntlets on her costume, a recent addition to hold large quantities of acid in reserve. "I have a bit stored up. Should I add more?"
"Make it as strong as you can."
With a nervous expression, Mina asked, "Are you sure? My strongest acid isn't exactly… safe."
Izuku put both hands on her shoulders. "I'd rather not, but if that thing comes after us, your acid is the only thing that can keep us safe."
After taking a second look at the Nomu, Mina took a deep breath and said, "Okay. But only if they come after us. The strongest stuff I can make would kill them. I'm trusting you to do the right thing with it, alright?"
Izuku met her black, worried eyes, and nodded. "It's a last resort. I'll let you know when we need to use it."
Izuku waited another minute, fingers steady over the triggers of his grappling guns. Between the canisters in his guns and the two waiting on his belt next to the flashbang, he had a total of thirty-four shots left. He will need every single one."
When a knife flashed towards Thirteen's suit, Izuku fired, snagging the villain's arm, and yanked back hard enough to topple them over. Izuku's next shot caught an ankle, tripping a villain before they could wrap their crystalline arms around Aizawa. Shots three and four each grabbed a head. When Izuku pulled back hard with both hands, their heads collided, knocking them both to the floor. Izuku's interference was minimal, but enough to keep the pressure off the two teachers.
The villains took notice, and a few broke off to deal with him. Most slipped. The one villain that kept their footing over Mina's acid field got clocked by Kirishima's hardened punch.
Mina gave him a solemn, wordless nod when she had filled up her gauntlets. Izuku switched out air canisters and fired more shots to tangle up a small group of villains. Thirteen, cut and bleeding from multiple scratch wounds on their front, was steadily retreating towards the swathe of acid, hoping to fight with their back against it, while Aizawa covered them. The villains, ragged and bloodied but still fighting hard, pressed closer and closer to the beleaguered teacher.
As if sensing their imminent defeat, the villains rushed him all at once in a desperate last gambit. Aizawa unfurled his capture scarf, weaving it into a loose sphere around him, before mashing it together, catching every villain in a tight ball of fabric. With Thirteen's help, he hurled the sphere of villains into the air, flinging them towards the lake.
Izuku had five shots left. The first two clung to Aizawa's back, yanking him onto the acid as the Nomu struck. The glancing blow broke Aizawa's arm and left a meter-wide crater in the ground. He slid to Kirishima, who helped him onto his feet.
The blue-haired villain wasn't far behind his Nomu. "Disappointing. Maybe I should invest more points into dexterity. Strength alone isn't any good if you can't hit the enemy, right?"
Aizawa shoved Kirishima aside and used his Quirk on the Nomu. The monster ran forward, plowing through Mina's acid. Izuku pulled Aizawa again. The monster's enormous hand clipped Aizawa's face, breaking his nose and shattering his goggles.
"Damn, it's no use," Aizawa muttered. He turned to Izuku and Ashido and said, "Get out of here. I'll hold off the villain."
"You would die," Izuku said. "We won't let that happen."
Aizawa scowled. "Don't be foolish. This thing's beyond any of you."
"You should listen to your teacher," Shigaraki said. "Run away, small fry. The XP I'd get simply wouldn't be worth the trouble."
Izuku gave Mina a firm nod and said, "Even if we ran, it would catch us. We have to fight."
Shigaraki grinned. "You really think you have a chance? This isn't some scripted loss, you know. You die here, it's game over."
Izuku fired his third shot at the Nomu's face, covering both its eyes with clingy black tendrils. While it was distracted with clawing the sticky strands off its face, Izuku shouted, "Mina-san, now!"
Acid gushed out of Mina's gauntlets. The viscous, cream-colored mixture smoked and bubbled as it ran across the Nomu's skin. The monster howled. Its flesh writhed as its regeneration rebuilt the burned flesh as quickly as the acid ate through it. Its eyes were burnt away, and acid seeped into its brain. Though the neural tissue repaired more slowly, the acid wasn't causing more than surface damage.
"What the hell?" Mina asked. "It's super strong, and it can heal?"
"It also has shock absorption," Shigaraki said gleefully. "All Might could punch it all day and not leave a scratch. Even your acid can't defeat it."
Izuku pointed at the Nomu's head and shouted at Kirishima, "Give me a boost!"
Kirishima, at first gaping in dismay, locked eyes with Izuku and smiled. "Sounds like you have another crazy plan. Let's do this, Plus Ultra!"
With hardened skin, Kirishima stood in front of the rampaging Nomu, hands cupped below his waist. With flashbang in hand, Izuku sprinted up to him, planted a foot in his hands, and leapt as Kirishima heaved him upwards. As Izuku became airborne, one of the Nomu's arms slammed into Kirishima's side, snapping his armored skin and sending him airborne. He hit the ground with a strangled cry, clutching a twisted arm.
While airborne, Izuku pulled the pin on the flashbang with his teeth. As he vaulted over the monster's head, he flung the flashbang at the acrid, fuming mess of brain tissue. The grenade sank out of sight. When Izuku hit the ground, the flashbang went off with a muffled pop. It left no visible damage, but the creature fell to its knees. Its flesh kept repairing itself, but the creature no longer moved.
Shigaraki stared at the felled Nomu. His eyes twitched, and behind the hand covering his face, a visage of palpable fury twisted his chapped, flaky features. "That was supposed to tank the final boss, and it got critted by some low-level cannon fodder? What kind of bullshit game is this?"
Aizawa, clutching his broken arm, stood in front of Izuku. "Give up quietly, and the police can be lenient."
"Give up? Now why would I do that? Sure, I can't kill All Might, but I can still defeat him."
Shigaraki ran towards Mina, arm outstretched. Mina flung acid at him, but as it touched his skin, the viscous liquid dissolved into gray dust, blowing away in Shigaraki's wake. Izuku fired his penultimate shot at the villain. When he pulled, the hand covering Shigaraki's face came with it.
"Got your nose," Izuku said. His stomach twisted itself in knots over those words, but he knew he had to goad the villain into attacking him. The other students would never be able to dodge him. Even Izuku, knowing every move the villain would make, couldn't dodge him forever.
Shigaraki clutched at his exposed face. Nervous muttering hissed through gritted teeth as the villain apologized to his father. He glared at Izuku, madness and fury in his crimson eyes as he screamed, "You'll die for taking father from me!"
Aizawa confronted Shigaraki, but he grabbed the pro hero by the broken arm. Aizawa blinked in the pain, giving Shigaraki the window he needed to dissolve half of Aizawa's elbow. Bleeding profusely, Aizawa sank to the ground. Mina ran to help him up.
Without having missed a step, Shigaraki rushed at Izuku. His hands darted like snakes, each finger a fang hoping to sink its decaying poison into Izuku's skin. An unnerving calm came over Izuku. The whole world slipped away, leaving only the moment after the present. Each twitch of muscle came of its own accord as Izuku danced on the strings of his pre-ordained fate. He ducked and weaved around Shigaraki's wild, groping attacks. Izuku wove like air, dodging the fingers of death by a hair's breadth, before darting in, striking a blow to the gut or the exposed face. Each hit, though lacking power, bought him just a little more time. Even with his flawless combat, Shigaraki slowly, inexorably gained on him, growing more cautious, overextending less often, giving Izuku fewer openings.
As the minutes wore on, Izuku's strength waned. His legs burned, and his head swam with light-headedness. Shigaraki's fingers brushed his face-guard, turning it to dust. Fingernails scraped long furrows in his arm, just a single nail short of stripping his arm to the bone.
After that scratch, Kirishima rushed in. Izuku used the last shot in his grappling gun to snare his ankle, tripping him with a hard yank. As Kirishima fell, his face missed Shigaraki's outstretched hand by an inch.
Izuku's arm was overextended from tripping Kirishima. Seeing his opening, Shigaraki darted forward and grabbed his wrist. The villain stopped, thinking he had won. Izuku took advantage of the villain's distraction. Blood went flying as Izuku's fist crashed into Shigaraki's face.
Shigaraki looked around, hunting for the reason his Quirk failed. When he saw Aizawa, hair floating, glaring at him as Mina clumsily bound up his bleeding arm, Shigaraki laughed and said, "I almost forgot about you. Kurogiri, are you there?"
A nebulous, purple form appeared next to him. "Yes, Shigaraki, but I have bad news. One of the students made it out."
Shigaraki grabbed Kurogiri by the metal band holding his body together. "You're lucky it doesn't matter, or you'd be dust. Now, do me a favor, and make Eraserhead disappear."
Aizawa tried to erase Kurogiri's Quirk, but he was swallowed up by purple mist. Mina was left clutching bloody rags of Aizawa's costume, looking up at the nebulous villain with palpable fear, while Kirishima was still on his back, struggling to rise without upsetting his twisted arm.
"Now that we won't be interrupted," Shigaraki said, "Let's continue where we left off."
With the battle reset, Izuku once again had the lead, but fatigue set in. Still not used to strenuous activity, Izuku's body refused to move as quickly as it needed to, and while he could compensate with his knowledge of his future, there was only so much he could do before Shigaraki caught him. Fingers grazed him as he backpedaled, a touch on the cheek, a brush on the shoulder, fingers slipping on his elbow, each a reminder that, no matter how hard he tried, Shigaraki would catch him eventually.
With that last bit of time he had before Shigaraki recovered, he swept his gaze around the USJ, finding his nineteen classmates. Todoroki holding up Asui, Uraraka vomiting as Yaoyorozu rubbed her back, Bakugou soaking wet, Ojiro with an arm under Tokoyami's shoulder, Koda leading an army of insects. Last was Iida, panting, engines smoking, as he opened the doors for U.A.'s staff. Midnight, Present Mic, Cementoss, Snipe, Ectoplasm, Vlad King, Recovery Girl, all of them.
Izuku blinked. Every teacher really was there, including All Might. It felt like a find-the-difference set of photographs in his mind, everything perfectly in place except for All Might, at the front, smiling his trademark Symbol of Peace smile, there in the present vision, ostensibly absent from all account he saw in the future. All Might burned his presence into his vision as future became present. He wasn't supposed to be there, but there he was. He might live after all. The thought didn't give him any comfort.
While Izuku was distracted, black fog bubbled up in front of his face. It didn't matter what Izuku did, he knew that the warp-quirk would find him no matter how he moved. Shigaraki's hand shot out of the void, gripping Izuku's face with four fingers. The fog billowed, revealing the rest of Shigaraki.
"They're all safe," Izuku said, smiling. "You failed."
Shigaraki sneered. "All but one."
The fifth finger fell. The pain Izuku felt was a pale echo of the original experience, the face-rending agony as he received the vision on the bathroom toilet. It still stung, but he held a smile on his face, staring death in the eyes as it claimed him. He had done it. He had saved everyone. He was a hero. He would have only saved one, if he had died that first time, but now, he had saved twenty-one. It was as much as he could hope for.
The pain stopped too early. Izuku looked around, wondering what had just happened. Shigaraki had flown halfway across the plaza, knocked aside by a flick of All Might's finger. Comparing the present to past was just as jarring. One second, All Might was with the other heroes. The next, he had an arm wrapped around Izuku and pressed a bandage over his forehead.
"You'll pay for this, All Might!" Shigaraki roared as the black fog swallowed him, leaving the downed Nomu and unconscious villains. He fought the void, reached for All Might, but with a final swirl of fog, Shigaraki and Kurogiri.
Izuku was slipping away, darkness creeping into his vision as his blood pressure tanked. Yaoyorozu sprinted over, crumbs of his energy bars on her cheeks, pulling more bandages out of her skin and handing them to All Might with tears in her eyes. Izuku watched the U.A. faculty secure his classmates, treating cuts and frostbite, before falling unconscious in All Might's arms.