Chapter 66
One Last Hope
"This is the first time we've met, Stars And Stripes." Shigaraki grinned. "I see you kept Deku alive since we last fought. From what I can tell, he needs the help."
Diamondhead scowled, and his fingers sharpened into talons. "Last chance, Shigaraki—surrender, or I will end you."
Shigaraki looked amused. "Wow, a death threat? What kind of Hero says something like that?"
"The kind that's willing to do anything to save the world."
"Ooh, scary." Shigaraki turned to Stripes. "Is that your position, or are you going to be his conscience?"
Stripes cracked her knuckles. "We're gonna see which of us puts you in the dirt first."
"Please." Shigaraki held up an index finger, and a miniature sun formed around it. "If I really wanted to, I could kill you both in a second."
Diamondhead didn't feel the heat of a sun halfway across the room, but he could see that Stripes' costume was already soaked with sweat. "Then why don't you? Why show off like that?"
"Because it's fun," Shigaraki admitted freely. "At this point, you two are the only people on the planet that could give me a fight, and I'll still have to hold back." He smiled. "After you're dead, everyone on Earth will know to bow before me; heck, maybe I'll find those aliens we're all combined with and make them bow before me, while I'm at it."
He still doesn't know that those we're locked in this universe, Diamondhead thought. If he becomes a full Celestialsapien, would he be able to break that lock?
"Is that what this is all about?" Stripes asked. "You just want to sit at the top and look down on everyone else? Looks like you're still a dumb kid, even after getting all that power."
Shigaraki frowned, and the tiny sun vanished. "You don't get it, do you? With the power I wield, I don't need a plan. All I have to do is want something, and the universe will bend to my will."
"We won't let you win," Diamondhead said. "We'll keep fighting until we find a way to beat you."
Shigaraki sighed. "Big talk, but you won't do much fighting after I've disassembled your atoms and scattered what's left across the galaxy. Which I can do, by the way. The only reason I haven't is because I want to see what it's like for a god to fight ants."
At that point, Deku was just done. He was tired, he was sick, and he was through with the weight of this responsibility on his shoulders. He lunged forward, arms raised to impale Shigaraki, but just as he got in close, Shigaraki slapped him aside as easily as he would a gnat. The impact shattered Diamondhead's arms like glass, and the rest of his body was sent hurtling through a wall.
"Izuku!" Stripes started to move, but in her haste, she didn't see the warp gate appear behind her, nor the arm reaching out, until she felt it brush against her. She whirled, and that movement saved her life; instead of her entire torso sealed away in a marble, only a chunk of her right shoulder was taken. Blood poured down her arm, drenching her sleeve in red.
"My apologies," Mr. Compress said with a mocking edge. "I didn't want to cause undue suffering, so I intended to kill you painlessly."
Stripes hissed in pain as she brought her left hand up to her now limp arm. "Cathleen Bate will be healed of all injuries."
Compress sighed as Stripes' arm was fully restored. "Now that's just not fair."
Kurogiri tried to pull Compress back through the warp gate, but Stripes was faster. She grabbed Compress by the face, shattering his mask in the process, and slamming him into the floor with enough force to break every bone in his body.
"I warned him not to take you lightly," Kurogiri said as he emerged from the warp gate. "He was convinced that Shigaraki would not let him fail."
"And what do you plan on doing?" Stripes could hear the sound of fighting behind her, but after what had almost happened to her, she didn't dare take her eyes off Kurogiri.
"Shigaraki Tomura is my master." Kurogiri's glowing eyes narrowed. "He wanted to gauge Midoriya's abilities before engaging both of you—a warmup, he called it. He ordered us to delay you for a short while."
"Oh, it'll definitely be short."
Stripes moved in a blur; Kurogiri tried to block her with another warp gate, but she nimbly hopped over it and landed behind him. Kurogiri opened another gate underneath him; the exit took him right above Stripes, who got out of the way before he practically landed on top of her. This time, she anticipated his next move, and her arm moved in a blur, catching his armored collar with a punch that had enough force to crumple it like a soda can and send him sprawling.
"Quite the file on you," Stripes said as Kurogiri moaned in pain. "That collar thing holds your real body, right? How many more times do I have to hit you there before you stop moving?"
Kurogiri glared up at her and tried to form another warp gate, but Stripes was faster, and grabbed him by the collar. Almost instantly, an indent shaped like her hand formed in the metal, forcing a pained grunt from Kurogiri.
As she squeezed, Stripes also noticed that Kurogiri's gaseous form shrank slightly, which gave her an idea. "Sorry about this, but I'm not too sure how to just knock you out."
Before Kurogiri could protest, Stripes began to crumple his collar together like a piece of tinfoil. As the metal was compressed, his body withdrew more and more as the ports for his real body were cut off from the outside world. In a few seconds, all that was left was a crumpled ball of metal, resting in Stripes' hand; she could feel a slight shaking as Kurogiri tried to escape, but he didn't have the strength to break free of his prison.
"Two down," she muttered to herself, and staggered as the building shuddered from a powerful impact. "Dammit, Izuku, you'd better be alive!"
…
Deku had known that Shigaraki was more powerful than him, even if he hadn't completed his metamorphosis. In fact, Shigaraki was likely the most powerful person in his universe, and the only reason Deku wasn't dead was because Shigaraki wanted to play with him for a while.
That didn't stop Deku from trying to punch the smug bastard in the face as Humungousaur, but he thought he was doing more damage to his own fist than to Shigaraki.
"Is that all you've got?" Shigaraki grinned as he grabbed Humungousaur by the tail and heaved him over his shoulder. If Deku hadn't turned into Ghostfreak and phased at the last second, he would have been smashed into the floor.
Now free of Shigaraki's grip, he turned into Heatblast and unleashed an inferno that would have atomized anyone else on the planet. Shigaraki merely held out one hand, and the flames gathered in his palm; he clenched his hand into a fist, and the fire dissipated into a shower of sparks. He then moved impossibly fast, grabbed Heatblast's hand, and crushed it like a dried leaf. Deku turned into Swampfire before the pain registered and backpedaled as he healed.
"I really should thank you," Shigaraki said. "You've already hit me with a dozen of your aliens, and I've taken their best hits. After this is over, I'll be able to fight any Hero alive without worrying."
Deku turned into Articguana and froze Shigaraki's leg to the floor. "What, are you saying I'm stronger than any other Hero?"
"Everyone with a Quirk is just a watered-down version of your aliens," Shigaraki reminded him as he easily shattered the ice. "If I can beat the real thing, I don't have to worry about the knockoffs."
There were several successive flashes of green light as Deku turned into XLR8 to get in close, Big Chill to pass through Shigaraki and freezing him in the process, and then Four Arms to deliver a rapid-fire barrage of punches to his back. Shigaraki staggered forward, then whirled and slapped aside the next blow with enough force to shatter every bone in Four Arms' fist. Deku turned into Armodrillo and drove Shigaraki a few steps back with a powerful tremor, then turned into Swampfire to heal himself.
Shigaraki laughed as he placed his hand on the floor; Overhaul formed dozens of spikes that would have impaled Deku if he hadn't phased through them with Ghostfreak. Both of them took a moment to breathe, and both came to the same conclusion: Deku would run out of steam long before Shigaraki.
"I have to say, fighting you has been fun." Shigaraki cracked his knuckles. "Too bad you've got a time limit."
Deku turned into NRG. "If I wasn't dying, and if the fate of the world wasn't at stake, I could almost say the same thing."
Shigaraki inclined his head, though his smile never faded. "Oof, I didn't know about that. Is that why Comprehension kept telling me you were sick?" He paused. "Telling me wasn't that smart."
"I thought it would help you understand just how determined I am to stop you, and why I don't care if you kill me." The vents on NRG's head glowed brighter. "I'm dead either way."
Shigaraki shrugged. "Well, at least I'll have some fun if you're giving it your—" He stumbled as Stars And Stripes rammed into him from behind, and then placed her hand against the back of his head. "What?"
"Tenko Shimura's heart will explode!" Stripes' words were shouted in a rush.
Deku and the other Heroes had had many discussions on how to defeat Shigaraki over the last year. They had gone over every scrap of data they had on him, from firsthand accounts on Deku's part, to information clandestinely sent to them by Nezu. There were dozens of theories on how to kill Shigaraki if he was at his best—their best hope was that Deku would be able to use his own Celestialsapien to win the fight, but their most reliable strategy involved keeping Shigaraki distracted, and providing Stripes with the opportunity to use her Quirk on him. All she needed was his real name, which Nezu had already provided.
That was why Deku had been so willing to let Shigaraki pummel him. In his mind, he was a dead man walking, so he had no issue with letting himself be the main target, especially if it meant that Stripes would save the world.
Shigaraki managed to turn his head to glare at Stripes before he coughed up blood and tumbled over… only to catch himself at the last second as he activated Rewind and healed his destroyed heart.
"Okay, no more playing around." Shigaraki had stopped smiling; instead, he glared at them, his eyes full of hate. "I'm gonna kill you now."
…
It started with a terrible rumble that threw the Heroes off their feet. Sir Nighteye had barely started to rise when the Shimura home exploded; Mount Lady and Ryukyu shielded as many as they could from flying debris with their own bodies, while Best Jeanist and Kamui Woods caught more with their respective Quirks.
Fatgum looked around in a panic. "What was that!? A bomb!?"
Mirko shook her head. "I've kicked enough people through buildings to know what an impact looks like. Somebody took really bad hit." Her ears twitched as her incredible hearing caught something. "Incoming! Everybody move!"
Her warning came just in time for everyone to avoid something from crashing down on top of them. When the smoke from the impact cleared, the assembled Heroes saw Cannonbolt, his shell cracked and bleeding. He uncurled with a groan, revealing Stars And Stripes, who was almost as battered as him.
"Ow," Stripes moaned as she forced herself to her feet and placed her hand on her forehead. "Cathleen Bate will be healed of all injuries… again."
Even though the cuts and fractured bones healed, Stripes was still a mess. Her mask and cape were gone entirely, and most of the rest of her costume was torn and bloodstained. Deku turned into Swampfire to heal before he turned human, and the other Heroes present winced at his appearance. He was shaking so badly that more than one person actually thought he was having a seizure, and he was coughing up an alarming amount of blood.
"I j-just n-need a minute," Deku gasped out. "N-need to l-let the watch r-recharge… then I'll hit him w-with an Ultimate."
Sir Nighteye helped carry Deku, while Mirko helped Stripes. "Where are the others?" Nighteye asked.
Stripes shook her head. "We got separated as soon as we got in there. I took down Compress and Kurogiri, but I have no idea about any other fights."
"This sucks," Mirko said grimly.
"For you, absolutely."
For a moment, nobody moved, but only because none of them could understand what happened. One second, the back lines were clear; the next, Shigaraki was just there. If he had been injured, there was no sign; he almost looked like he was in the middle of a morning stroll.
Mirko reacted first, and lashed out with a kick that could shatter steel. Her foot caught Shigaraki in the jaw, and if that attack had happened just a few days ago, it would have at least sent him flying. Instead, it was Mirko's foot that was broken, and nearly torn from the rest of her leg, while Shigaraki didn't even have a scratch.
Kamui Woods wrapped his branches around Shigaraki's wrists and launched him into the air… or, rather, he tried. Despite heaving with all his strength, Shigaraki didn't budge; instead, he just smirked, tore one hand free as if the branch wasn't even there, and placed that hand on the branch that still held him. Decay activated, and Kamui Woods was turned to dust before he had time to scream.
Mount Lady blinked back tears as her friend died in front of her, even as she ripped a chunk of the street free and hurled it at Shigaraki, who didn't even try to dodge. There was the sound of an impact, but when the dust cleared, Shigaraki was completely unharmed. He smirked up at Mount Lady and pointed one hand at her; he pulled an entire missile out of his arm and flicked it at her with the force of a meteor. The missile hit her in the thigh and exploded; the blast nearly tore her leg off, and she screamed in agony as she collapsed.
"Anyone else?" Shigaraki asked, and got two fists in his face as answer.
"Tenko Shimura will lose all the blood in his body!" Stripes shouted.
Even as red liquid blasted out from Shigaraki's mouth, Diamondhead's fist drew back, then morphed into a massive blade and punched into Shigaraki's stomach. Either injury should have killed him, but he merely activated Rewind, and it was like the wounds never happened. He then backhanded Stripes across the face, shattering her jaw and a good part of her skull.
"No more!" Diamondhead jammed a long spike of crystal deep into Shigaraki's eye. "I'm not letting you hurt anyone else!"
Shigaraki laughed as he pulled the spike free and healed himself. "You say that like you could actually do anything to me if I didn't want you to. Don't you get it, kid? At this point, I'm a god."
Diamondhead stepped back; Shigaraki's eyes and hair now looked like they had been replaced with pieces of a night sky. He knew, deep in his very soul, that Shigaraki had fully ascended to become a Celestialsapien.
And then, to the surprise of everyone, he smiled.
"Thank you. I was hoping you'd say that."
There was one more flash of green light.
…
Uravity had worried that she and Geosynch would never find their way out of the League base. Then, when the base started to shake, and parts of the ceiling collapsed, she had worried that she would be buried alive. Thankfully, not only did that not happen, they ran into some of their friends.
"You all look terrible," Gentleman Jack said without preamble. "Was I the only one to get through my fight without injury?"
"Oh, shut it." Maccabee looked around. "Did anyone see Endeavor or Triumph?"
Geosynch shook her head. "No, and we have not found Stripes or Deku, either."
As Uravity took in what happened to her friends—especially Alien Queen, whose new form occasionally sounded like she was crying—she was actually glad that Deku wasn't around. If he saw how his friends were broken, battered, and fundamentally changed, he wouldn't forgive himself.
"How are you doing?" she whispered to Genesis, who held her four-fingered hand close to her chest.
"It doesn't hurt as much, but Panzer told me that might be shock." Genesis was pale, though Uravity couldn't be sure if that was the pain, loss of blood, or the trauma.
"We'll get you fixed up," Uravity said, and forced a smile. "If I got a cool robot arm, you can get a cybernetic pinkie. Maybe Melissa can make one that shoots lasers."
Genesis tried to smile back, but she saw the bleeding forms of Cellophane, Virtus and Froppy. Cellophane had managed to get to them without help, but his head injury had gotten worse since he and Ranger had fought Re-Destro, and could barely sit up.
"At this point, you and Mina are probably the only ones who can still fight," Genesis admitted. "Shoto is still missing, and so are All Might, Bakugo, Mirio, Tamaki and Nejire; the others are too hurt, and I used up all of my available lipids."
"I'll punch Shigaraki for you," Uravity said, though they both knew she wasn't serious; Deku had already admitted that Shigaraki was way beyond any of them.
"You'll stay here," Hawks cut in as he flew over with Stain carried by one of his feathers right behind him. "None of us are going to be at our best in this kind of fight if we have to worry about a bunch of kids who are still students. Sorry, but you're a distraction that we just can't afford today."
Uravity wanted to tell him he was wrong, and maybe punch him while she was at it; she already knew that she couldn't realistically contribute to the fight, but it was her boyfriend up there!
"Once we get to the surface, we'll engage Shigaraki," Hawks said, his voice all but daring anyone to disagree. "The students will take the injured out of the way, so that we don't have to worry about collateral damage."
"Fuck that!" Explosions almost drowned out the indignant roar of Ground Zero as he rocketed past them. "I promised Deku that I'd explode Shigaraki's face, and that's what I'm gonna do!"
"Dammit, kid!" Hawks was about to go after him, but paused and pointed at Uravity. "I mean it: you kids stay out of the fight. Don't make me have Stain paralyze you."
The students who were strong enough to move, or at least sit up, glared at him, but they didn't try to disobey. As much as they hated to admit it, none of them were in the same league as someone like Hawks, not to mention the other top Heroes. Instead, Uravity limped over to Froppy and gave her a hug.
"Come on, guys," Hawks said to the adult Heroes. "Let's see if Deku needs our help… and try to keep that human firecracker from getting himself killed."
…
Ground Zero wasn't so arrogant to say that he didn't feel fear. If anything, he welcomed fear, if only because he saw it as an obstacle to overcome, and make himself stronger by doing so. Plenty of other Heroes had the same mindset; the difference between them and him was that he refused to actually admit it to anyone but himself.
There was one other difference, actually: where most Heroes faced fear with calm, or witty quips, Ground Zero overcame fear with anger.
So, when he saw Shigaraki standing over defeated Heroes and heading towards Deku, he didn't hesitate. He didn't see Shigaraki as an insurmountable threat, just a whetstone to sharpen himself into an even better Hero.
"Die, asshole!" Ground Zero flicked the red switch behind both of his gauntlets; it was the emergency setting, which dumped all the accumulated sweat over the last two months from the six barrels in each respective gauntlet into one massive explosion.
The blast that followed was less of an artillery strike, and more of an entire bombardment that would have impressed gunnery officers in World War One. The crater the explosion left had shattered the street, sewer, and hit the bedrock underneath before finally losing its energy.
Even All Might would have had trouble withstanding such punishment, and anyone weaker would have been killed outright. Shigaraki hovered just above the crater, without a scratch on him. He glanced Ground Zero's way, his void-filled eyes showing only bored disdain.
"That was loud. I was almost impressed." Shigaraki raised one hand in his direction. "Go away."
Ground Zero wanted to move, but he was rooted in place; it felt like someone had placed a heavy blanket over his body. He immediately realized that Shigaraki had done something with his power—at this point, calling his abilities Quirks didn't feel right—to lock him in place.
He's setting me up for an instant kill, he thought. Dammit, I didn't even give him a bloody nose.
Just as Shigaraki started to close his fingers into a fist, a figure burst from the dust of Ground Zero's explosion. They moved too fast to track, at least until their fist connected with Shigaraki's jaw and sent him hurtling off through several buildings.
"Take… that," Stripes gasped out, as her right arm fell limply to her side. The entire limb was purple and bleeding, and Ground Zero could see shards of bone poking through her hand and wrist.
"What the fuck happened?" he asked as he caught Stripes before she collapsed.
"Focused my Quirk into my arm," Stripes said through clenched teeth. "Gave myself the ability to 'punch harder than anyone in the world'. Being vague with my Quirk can have… consequences."
"Yeah, maybe you shouldn't do that."
Stripes grinned. "It worked, didn't it?"
The ground shuddered, and one of buildings Shigaraki had been punched through lifted into the air; standing below it was Shigaraki, his broken jaw already healed.
"I don't think it worked," Ground Zero said, though it took all his willpower not to stutter.
Shigaraki pointed at them, and the building launched at them at a speed that defied physics for an object that large. Ground Zero and Stripes had no time to dodge, and neither had the reserves of power to destroy the building before it hit them.
Fortunately, a storm of missiles flew up from behind them to crash into the building and destroyed it before it got too close. They turned and saw Panzer and Gentleman Jack, both with their arms transformed into missile launchers—and Jack's being twice as large—while Maccabee stood just behind them, boosting their Quirks with his own. A pair of feathers zipped past and grabbed both Stripes and Ground Zero, pulling them behind Hawks.
"You two need to step back," Ranger said calmly. "We'll hold off Shigaraki."
"Where is Deku?" Geosynch asked.
Stripes waved her good hand to her left. "I saw him over there a minute ago, but he stopped moving. I had to get Shigaraki away from him." She sighed. "It's bad, guys; Shigaraki killed a lot of people before I could push him back."
"Then we will hold him off until Deku recovers," Panzer said fiercely. "Come on, people!"
The international Heroes, along with Hawks and Stain, charged ahead, leaving Ground Zero and Stripes, who sat down heavily as she tried to regain enough energy to use her Quirk to heal herself.
"What's wrong with Deku?" Ground Zero asked.
"If it's like all the other times he's tried this, he's in for a world of trouble." Stripes managed a grin. "But if he finally gets it to work… it might be exactly what we need to end this nightmare."
…
Despite how much strain it put on him when he turned back to human, Deku actually liked turning into Alien X. The empty void of the shared mindspace made him feel like he was floating; unfortunately, he didn't have time to enjoy it.
"Well, well, it seems that you have returned," Sagacius said, with just the tiniest note of annoyance in his tone.
"At least he's persistent, I'll give him that." Despite the compliment, Fury's voice was full of rage.
The two aspects of Alien X were floating green masks in the void, without eyes, teeth or tongues. Sagacius looked every part the wise old man, with a long mustache that fell past his chin, and regal features that dared you to question him. Fury also had the aura of one not to be trifled with, but for a very different reason; scars crossed her face, as if she had been in a hundred wars, and her expression was a perpetual scowl.
Deku had tried to get them to work with him dozens of times, and while he had always failed, he had come away with just a little more knowledge about these two. Every time they spoke, his arguments grew just a little more persuasive, and their refusal took just a little more time. Now, at the eleventh hour, he was hoping he could give them that final push.
"Shigaraki has gone too far," he said calmly. "Not only can he do anything, he knows it. He's calling himself a god, and going around killing people. Can you honestly let someone like that run wild? He has no checks and balances, no opposing viewpoint. You once told me that you needed a third hand at the wheel because every Celestialsapien is perfectly balanced, but Shigaraki is what happens when there's no balance. How can you stand by and let him do all this?"
There was a pause before Sagacius spoke. "Normally, you would only need one of us to agree with your reasoning before we could act, but for a task of this scale, I cannot agree unless Fury also assents."
Fury arched a brow, but not at her opposite. "You say he has realized just how powerful he is? Does this mean that I'll get a decent fight for the first time in eons?"
Not for the first time, Deku wondered if Fury and Bakugo would get along great, or immediately try to kill each other.
"We need more than just strength," Sagacius cut in. "If you are willing to accept that we need a plan, I will accept fighting him."
Deku grinned; for the first time in a long time, he felt the fires of hope in his heart. "Actually, I've been thinking about that. I do have a plan."
Sagacius and Fury looked at each other, and then at him, and spoke as one. "Tell us, and we will decide."
…
When the Heroes found Shigaraki, they didn't hesitate, and they didn't try to use reason. They knew what they were up against, and they went for the kill.
Geosynch focused her Quirk, and hit Shigaraki with enough gravity to crush anyone else on the planet into paste. It barely made him stumble, and when he steadied, he held out his hand in her direction. Geosynch barely had time to gasp before her heart was ripped from her chest; it flew into Shigaraki's hand, where it immediately turned to dust. By the time Ranger had realized what happened, Shigaraki grabbed him by the shoulders and ripped him in half.
Panzer and Gentleman Jack bombarded Shigaraki with more artillery, boosted by Maccabee once again. This time, Shigaraki idly waved his hand, and the rockets vanished, only to reappear behind the three Heroes; with the explosives boosted by Maccabee, the blast tore Gentleman Jack and Panzer apart. Only Maccabee survived, bleeding and burned and missing a hand, but his survival was measured in moments; Shigaraki moved at the speed of thought, and pressed his hand against Maccabee's face, turning him into a cloud of blood in an instant.
Monkey King was saved by Shigaraki's next swipe purely by virtue of his Quirk bending probability in his favor. He struck with his staff, hitting Shigaraki in the face and eyes, but it was like hitting a block of solid steel. Impossible power met favorable probability, and the impossible won; the feedback made Monkey King's nose and ears spurt blood, and Shigaraki punched his head from his shoulders.
Six of the most powerful Heroes on the planet, killed in less than a minute.
"Still not impressed with me?" Shigaraki asked with a cheeky grin as Stain literally flew at him, thanks to a pair of Hawks' feathers holding him up.
Stain didn't bother responding; he swung his sword at Shigaraki's arm, desperately hoping that he would be able to cut his skin. Shigaraki flicked the blade with one finger, tearing both it, and the hands holding it, from Stain's arms. Before Hawks could pull Stain to safety, Shigaraki grabbed him by the ankle and tore his leg off at the knee. By the time Hawks pulled him free, Stain was already going into shock, and would certainly die in a few minutes.
"How did anyone work with you?" Shigaraki asked Hawks. "You pretended to betray the Heroes, you actually betrayed me, and you betrayed the Hero Commission. You have got to be the least-trustworthy person on the planet right now."
Despite the terror he felt, Hawks managed to work up a smile as he held two of his longest flight feathers like swords. "Well, I felt really bad about everything that happened, and I want to make it up to Midoriya. If that means fighting a monster like you, then I'll at least feel like I balanced the scales."
"Wow. That is unbelievably cliché." Shigaraki ducked under Hawks' swings, and punched his arm clean through the man's chest. "But, hey, you went out saying something heroic. Good for you."
Before Hawks' body hit the ground, Shigaraki was bombarded by explosions as Ground Zero flew overhead. He wasn't injured, but it distracted him long enough to not notice that a massive silhouette of Stars And Stripes had formed out of the very air and brought a fist down on him. A huge crater formed under his feet, and his knees nearly buckled, but he recovered and punched up into the fist, shattering the construct in an instant. The recoil from the attack also severed Stripes' arm from her body, but she didn't even have time to go into shock before Shigaraki had her by the throat.
"Thanks for the exercise," he said with a wide grin. "I actually had fun."
Stars And Stripes managed to spit in his face before she was turned to dust. Shigaraki wiped the spit away, and then flew after Ground Zero, far faster than the student could ever beat. He swore up a storm as Shigaraki grabbed him by the back of the neck.
"I'll give you this," Shigaraki said, "you're definitely the bravest kid I'm gonna kill today."
"Goddammit!" Bakugo struggled in Shigaraki's grip, but his hand was like solid steel. "DEKU! HURRY THE FUCK UP AND KILL THIS GUY!"
"I'll get to him in a minute." With a squeeze, Shigaraki snapped Bakugo's neck, and then casually tossed his body aside. "Now, where is Midoriya?"
…
"It's our best option."
Sagacius and Fury nodded, and spoke as one. "Motion carried unanimously."
Deku cracked his knuckles. "Then let's get to work."
…
Out of the mindspace, Alien X clapped his hands together, and the world shuddered.