Chapter X- Pyrrhic Victory
Ochaco and Momo fell through Kurogiri's portal, landing squarely in a boat. Momo let out a surprised yelp as she landed hard on her shoulder, but she quickly popped it back into place. Looking to her side, she saw Ochaco nursing a minor bruise on her head. Momo then peered over the edge of the boat and spotted more than a dozen villains surrounding them.
"Damn, my head hurts! It feels like I hit it on a rock," Ochaco said, rubbing her head. She looked over the side into the water, watching the villains argue among themselves, before turning back to Momo. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, just a little sore. Don't worry about me, though—I'll be fine. We really should focus on taking out those villains," Momo replied, brushing back her damp hair. "I just wonder if Izuku and the rest of our classmates are okay."
"How the hell are we supposed to take them out? There's nearly a dozen of them!" Ochaco exclaimed.
Meanwhile, Momo surveyed the water, noting how strangely cautious the villains seemed since they hadn't attacked the vessel yet. They could simply be idiots—as evidenced by their endless bickering—and she wasn't ruling that out. Even so, they should have launched a long-range quirk attack by now. The fact that they hadn't meant either their quirks were extremely weak, or they were terrified of whatever might be on the boat. Whatever the reason, Momo didn't care.
"I don't like this," the shark-man growled, staring nervously up at the deck. "That boat's been way too quiet. They know we're surrounding them, but nobody's taking a shot or even showing their faces. It feels like a trap."
"We have no idea what they're hiding up there," another villain added, crossing his arms.
"You really think they're setting a trap?" a third villain scoffed. "It's probably just a couple of terrified kids shivering behind the railing. I say we board the damn thing, take whatever valuable cargo or support gear they're hauling, and gut whoever's inside."
"Okay, what the hell is your fascination with blindly rushing every ship we find?" the second villain snapped. "This is the fourth vessel you've wanted to blindly hijack this week without checking the water first."
"Are you saying we shouldn't loot a perfectly good ship that might be packed with high-grade hero tech?" he retorted.
"It's the principle of the matter!" the second villain shot back. "You have a habit of wanting to jump headfirst into danger regardless of how lethal the setup might actually be!"
"Will you two shitfucks please shut the hell up and focus on the goddamn job for once?!" the shark villain cut in. He glanced back up at the deck, blinking as he realized the subtle movements above had completely stopped. "What the serious fuck... where did they go?!"
"What do you mean? Weren't you watching the deck?" the second villain pressed.
"I can't focus when you, Retard, and you," he pointed sharply at the third villain, "fucker, are arguing about what's inside the damn wrapper before we even open it!"
The other two fell begrudgingly silent, knowing their partner wasn't entirely wrong.
"…I still say there's good loot on that ship," the third villain muttered under his breath.
"This is pointless," a fourth villain finally growled.
Tired of the endless bickering, he raised his arm, using his quirk to force a giant, crushing hand out of the surrounding water. With a heavy crash, he smashed it violently down onto the ship, splitting the hull in half so the vessel would sink and force whatever was on board into the water.
Back on the ship, Momo and Ochaco had just finished explaining their quirks to each other and were trying to develop a game plan before the vessel was violently struck and split down the middle. Momo was already calculating their options with practiced composure, but the sudden attack sent the boat lurching, making the reality of their situation hit Ochaco all at once.
"Wait, wait, wait—they're actually trying to sink us?!" Ochaco gasped, gripping the railing as the wood splintered around them. "There's over a dozen of them down there! How are we supposed to deal with a whole ambush on our own?!"
Momo remained remarkably steady, her eyes quickly scanning the deck and the widening tear in the hull. "Panicking won't change our odds, Uraraka. We have a way out—we just need to execute it cleanly."
She turned to face Ochaco, her gaze fixed with steady determination. "Here is the plan: I am going to synthesize a dual-thruster jetpack right now. Once it's ready, you'll use your Zero Gravity on both of us to negate our weight. The jetpack won't need to lift hundreds of pounds—it'll just need to propel us straight up and away from the wreckage."
Ochaco blinked, her eyes widening as she processed the idea. "A jetpack?! Momo, that sounds amazing, but... aren't we just setting ourselves up as floating targets? If we launch straight into the open air, what's stopping one of those villains from sniping us right out of the sky?"
"They've been hesitating to attack directly this entire time," Momo countered sharply, already focusing her energy as glowing light began to radiate from her skin. "They don't know what our quirks are, and launching upward buys us immediate distance from the water where they hold the advantage. The moment we gain altitude, the momentum will carry us toward the shoreline before they can even coordinate a long-range shot."
Seeing Momo's absolute confidence—and watching the frame of a heavy-duty propulsion rig begin to materialize from her shoulder—Ochaco swallowed her panic. Her own look of doubt transformed into a focused grin.
"Right," Ochaco said, taking a firm stance and raising her hands, fingers ready to touch. "We airborne on your mark!"
Momo finalized the heavy-duty jetpack, locking the harness tightly around her chest as Ochaco held onto her shoulders from behind.
"Zero Gravity!" Ochaco shouted, tapping both Momo and the jetpack with her fingertips. Instantly, the sheer weight of the twin thrusters vanished into thin air.
"Ignition!" Momo called out, pulling the throttle lever on the rig's handle.
With a deafening ROAR, twin columns of white-hot exhaust slammed down onto the splitting deck. Unburdened by gravity, the jetpack shot the two girls straight into the sky like a surface-to-air missile, leaving a towering trail of smoke in their wake.
Down in the water, the villains—who had just triumphantly split the ship in two—were completely caught off guard by the sudden launch.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" the shark-man shrieked, ducking underwater as the blast wave of heat rolled over them.
"THEY'RE AIRBORNE! SHOOT THEM DOWN!" the second villain screamed, flailing his arms in a frenzy. "DO ANY OF US HAVE A GUN?! WHO HAS A LONG-RANGE QUIRK?!"
"I CAN THROW ROCKS, BUT THEY'RE FIVE HUNDRED FEET IN THE AIR!" the third villain yelled back in a hysterical panic, wildly hurling a handful of wet gravel that splashed uselessly back into his own face. "THEY HAVE A ROCKET SHIP! WHY DO THEY HAVE A ROCKET SHIP?!"
"WE ARE SO DEAD, THEY'RE GOING TO CALL THE PROS!" another thug wailed, splashing around aimlessly as the churning waters from the ship's sinking hull began pulling them all together.
High above the chaos, Momo cut the thrusters, and Ochaco released her quirk just as they glided down toward the safety of the plaza embankment. The impromptu duo landed with a clean, practiced roll near the edge of the USJ's central grounds.
Once on their feet, they surveyed the main plaza for the first time since being warped away—and the sight made their hearts drop.
Low-level thugs and villains were strewn across the concrete in various states of consciousness, but in the center of the battlefield lay a beaten and bloody Thirteen lying under the fist of a nightmarish monster with an exposed brain.
Momo and Ochaco held back their gasps, ducking low behind a cluster of fake ruins to avoid detection. The maniacal cackling of the pale, hands-covered villain echoed through the dome, making it painfully clear that their teacher was at his absolute limit—and that they were going to have to act fast.
(X)
Crouched low behind the fake rubble of the plaza, Izuku, Bakugo, and Tsuyu held their breath as the brutal scene unfolded before them. The dust from the central grounds had barely settled, but the situation had already plummeted into a nightmare.
"Ribbit... this is bad," Tsuyu whispered, her wide eyes reflecting the terrifying sight across the plaza.
Thirteen, who had stalemated Kurogiri, was completely overwhelmed in an instant. The monstrous creature—the towering, brain-exposed Nomu—had moved with speed that defied physics. In a terrifying blur, Thirteen was blitzed, her protective suit torn to shreds as the sheer impact sent the Pro Hero crashing motionless onto the concrete.
"Tch! That bastard... moving like that with a body that huge?!" Bakugo snarled under his breath, his palms sparking violently against the artificial rock. Small beads of sweat dripped down his temple, but his jaw was clenched tight with pure rage. "We can't just sit here like cowards while they tear the pros apart!"
"Katsuki, wait! We don't know what that thing's quirk is!" Izuku hissed, grabbing Bakugo's shoulder to keep him anchored.
"You saw how fast it closed the distance on Thirteen! If we rush in without a plan, we're just giving them more hostages. We need to analyze the situation—"
"Shut the hell up, Deku! I don't need a lecture from you!" Bakugo snapped back in a harsh whisper, shoving Izuku's hand off. "Thirteen is down, and Aizawa-sensei is nowhere in sight. If we don't move now—"
"Looking for your teacher?" a heavy, booming voice suddenly rumbled from directly behind them.
The trio froze, the hair on the back of their necks standing up.
Before any of them could even turn around, a massive, bloodied body was thrown over their heads, crashing heavily onto the dirt right in front of their hiding spot. It was Aizawa. He was completely brutalized, his goggles shattered, clothes soaked in blood, and both arms bent at unnatural angles.
Standing right behind them was a towering, muscular villain wearing a cracked plague doctor mask and heavy brass-knuckled wraps over his massive fists. Kendo Rappa grinned maniacally beneath his mask, his shoulders twitching with pure, unadulterated bloodlust.
"He was boring. Broken after a few hits," Rappa growled, pulling his right fist back as muscle fibers visibly bulged along his arm. "Now, show me if you kids have any real grit!"
Rappa unleashed a lightning-fast flurry of bullet-like punches straight down at the three students.
"GET BACK!" Bakugo roared, shoving Izuku and Tsuyu out of the way as he thrust both palms forward.
BOOM!
A massive, blinding explosion erupted from Bakugo's hands, slamming point-blank into Rappa's chest. The sheer concussive blast forced the hulking brawler backward, his boots carving deep trenches into the dirt as he skidded back several yards, laughing wildly at the heat.
The deafening blast drew the immediate attention of the pale, hands-covered villain standing in the center of the plaza.
Tomura Shigaraki scratched frantically at his neck, his red eyes wide with manic frustration as he stared at the sky. "Where is he?! Where is All Might?! We brought all these extras, we brought the Nomu... and the Symbol of Peace doesn't even show up?!"
Shigaraki turned his bloodshot gaze toward the smoke rising from Bakugo's explosion, his teeth grinding together in a rage. "I'm tired of waiting. Nomu! Kill the blonde one first. Clean up these annoying NPCs!"
The Nomu let out a guttural, lifeless screech and vanished from its spot, reappearing in mid-air right above Bakugo, its massive fist reeled back to crush him into dust.
"KATSUKI!"
Izuku didn't hesitate. He stepped between Bakugo and the impending strike, but he didn't look at the Nomu. His eyes locked onto Shigaraki.
In a fraction of a second, Izuku crossed the distance to the ringleader. Shigaraki barely had time to blink before Izuku's fist made solid contact straight into his face.
CRACK!
The force of the punch was devastating. The father-hand mask strapped to Shigaraki's face shattered into pieces, flying off his head and skittering across the pavement. Shigaraki stumbled back, clutching his exposed, pale face, his chest heaving as he fell into a state of pure, unhinged hysteria.
"Father... no! No, no, no! My mask! You touched it! You filthy brat, I'll decay you into dust!" Shigaraki screamed, rolling on the ground as he clawed at his own cheeks in a panic.
Perceiving the strike on its master as a threat, the Nomu instantly shifted its target in self-defense. Mid-air, the creature redirected its colossal, mountain-splitting punch directly toward Izuku's head.
The fist came down with enough force to shatter the entire dome-
CLANG!
An invisible boundary distorted the space around Izuku. The Nomu's fist stopped dead in its tracks, hovering barely an inch away from Izuku's face. The shockwave blew the surrounding dirt away, but the punch itself hit absolute nothingness.
Infinity sat between them. No matter how much raw force the bio-engineered monster exerted, the distance between its fist and Izuku was being divided infinitely. It couldn't touch him.
The Nomu screeched, trying to pull its arm back to strike again, but it suddenly realized its fist was stuck. The space around its arm was compressed, locking the creature in place like a fly trapped in amber. It couldn't escape.
Izuku stood calmly in front of the behemoth, his eyes glowing with an intense, eerie emerald hue. He drew his right hand back, and the space surrounding his knuckles began to warp and distort. A blinding, swirling sphere of blue light materialized around his fist, pulling the surrounding air and debris toward it with immense gravitational force.
"Technique amplification... Lapse: Blue," Izuku murmured, his voice deadly quiet.
With the Nomu pinned completely helpless by Infinity, Izuku drove his blue-enhanced fist straight into the creature's exposed chest.
(X)
Shoto Todoroki stood over the shivering group of low-level thugs, frost creeping up their limbs and pinning them securely to the frozen ground. His icy blue eye held a cold, unyielding stare as he leaned down, his breath misting in the frigid air he had created.
"I'm only going to ask this once," Shoto said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "What is your main objective here? Who gave you the clearance to bypass the USJ security grid?"
Beside him, Mineta was trembling, holding his hands up in a defensive posture and eyeing the frozen villains nervously.
"Y-Yeah! You better talk! Todoroki here isn't messing around!" Mineta piped up, trying to sound tough, though his knees were visibly knocking together.
Before any of the immobilized villains could utter a word, a deafening CRASH shattered the air above them.
The glass dome high overhead exploded inward, showering the arena with glittering shards. Swooping down through the burst of daylight came another villain, a massive brute descending straight toward Shoto and Mineta with a wild, hungry grin.
Shoto didn't flinch. He stepped forward, raising his right side to meet the falling attacker.
"Predictable," Shoto muttered.
With a sweep of his hand, a towering wave of jagged ice erupted from the floor, rushing upward to engulf the airborne villain mid-drop. The frost snaked around the brute's body instantly, locking his limbs, torso, and shoulders in solid, thick ice.
The villain hung suspended in mid-air, entirely encased in Shoto's glacier—except for his head.
Shoto grinned, however, the villain's expression didn't turn to panic. Instead, the man gritted his teeth and grinned WIDER.
BRRRZZZT!
Without a second of warning, a blinding beam of concentrated heat ray shot directly out of the villain's right eye. The intense thermal energy sliced straight through the ambient cold, heading right for Shoto's head but his instincts saved him. Shoto threw his body backward, the scorching beam missing his face by a hair's breadth and singeing the edge of his hair. But the villain merely adjusted his head, swiveling his gaze downward to sweep the searing beam across the ground.
"TODOROKI!" Mineta shrieked, instantly ducking toward the dirt to avoid the oncoming light.
He was a fraction of a second too slow.
The heat ray swept over the space where Mineta had been standing. There was no blood—only the sickening, instant sound of sizzled flesh and a flash of white heat. The beam cauterized as it cut, slicing clean through bone and muscle.
Mineta's right arm was seared clean off at the shoulder, tumbling onto the icy ground with a dull thud.
For a terrifying beat, silence filled the dome. Then came the sound.
Mineta clutched the smoking, flat stump of his right shoulder, collapsing onto his side as a high-pitched, agonizing scream tore from his throat. "AAAAAHHHH! MY ARM! MY ARM IS GONE! OH GOD, IT HURTS, IT HURTS!"
Shoto scrambled up from the ground, his eyes widening in pure horror. His gaze darted from Mineta's writhing form to the severed arm lying in the frost, and then up to the grinning villain, whose eye was already glowing to fire another shot. Rage overrode shock.
"Die," Shoto hissed.
He slammed both hands against the glacier. A massive, violent surge of absolute-zero ice exploded upward, completely burying the villain's head, face, and glowing eye in a dense, solid mountain of frost. The immense pressure and flash-freeze crushed the villain's vitals instantly, snuffing out his life force before he could even blink. The glow behind the ice faded into total darkness.
Shoto dropped to his knees beside the sobbing, hysterical boy, his hands hovering over Mineta's shoulder in a panic, desperate not to make the injury worse.
"Mineta! Look at me! Hold on!" Shoto commanded, his voice cracking through his usual composure as he reached down, grabbing the severed limb from the ice and thrusting it into Mineta's left hand. "Grab the damn arm! Hold onto it tightly so it can be reattached if we survive this!"
(X)
The battle on the mountain zone's rocky terrain was spiraling out of control. Surrounded by dozens of liberation-minded thugs, Jiro, Mina, Kaminari, and Kendo stood back-to-back, desperately trying to keep the horde at bay.
"There are too many of them!" Kaminari yelled, his hands shaking as he kept his electricity held back, afraid of frying his own classmates. "We can't keep them off us forever!"
"Keep your head on a swivel, Kaminari!" Kendo barked, her hands expanding to giant proportions as she slammed two villains together, sweeping a path through the front line. "Jiro, give us some room!"
Jiro plugged her earlobes into her boots, sending a heavy, subterranean shockwave through the dirt that knocked back a wave of attackers. "Mina, cover the flank!"
"On it!" Mina shouted, sliding forward on a slick layer of acid beneath her boots. She raised her arms, ready to spray a defensive wall of corrosive fluid to block the narrow pathway.
She never got the chance.
"Look up, little girl!" a booming voice echoed from high above the cliff face.
A shadowy figure leapt off the high ridge, wielding a heavy, red-and-gold metallic pillar. "Name's Sun Wukong, and this here is the Adamantine Staff!" the villain roared in mid-air.
Before Mina could even tilt her head up, the villain thrust one end of the staff downward. The weapon instantly extended at blinding speed, its metallic base slamming hard into the bedrock and anchoring deep into the earth. Using the momentum and the sudden rigid anchor like a giant pole-vault, Sun Wukong launched himself completely over Mina's head in a blur, soaring through the air and landing squarely behind her.
As he descended, he retracted the staff with a violent snap, catching it in his palm and swinging it around in a brutal, lightning-fast arc.
SCHLICK.
Mina's eyes widened in sheer shock. She didn't even have time to scream before the sharpened tip of the Adamantine Staff pierced straight through her chest from behind.
"MINA!" Jiro shrieked in horror.
"Get out of the way!" Kaminari screamed, reaching out helplessly.
Sun Wukong grinned maliciously under his headband. With a fluid, terrifying motion, he spun the weapon once more and jammed the bottom end of the staff firmly back into the ground, locking it completely upright into the rock.
He let go of the handle and stepped back, leaving Mina suspended several feet in the air, impaled on the vertical pillar. Gravity took over instantly. Weakened and unable to summon her acid, Mina's own body weight forced her to slowly slide down the smooth length of the staff, her boots dragging uselessly against the blood-stained metal until her feet touched the dirt.
"One down," Sun Wukong chuckled, spinning a spare dagger in his fingers as he turned his gaze toward the remaining three students. "Who wants to be pinned next?"
Kendo's jaw tightened, her eyes burning with pure fury as she stepped in front of a horrified Jiro and Kaminari, her giant fists clenching so hard her knuckles turned white. "You monster... you're not getting past us!"
Sun Wukong twirled his spare dagger between his fingers, stepping over the fallen terrain with a casual, predatory stride. "Three little hero-trainees left," he sneered, looking between Kendo, Jiro, and Kaminari.
"Don't look at Mina! Focus on him!" Kendo ordered, her voice cutting through the panic. She planted her feet firmly, her large hands ready to defend. "Jiro, Kaminari, stay behind me!"
Jiro gripped her earlobe jacks, her body trembling with rage and fear. "You're paying for what you did to her, you bastard!" She lunged forward, aiming to plug her left jack into the ground to blast him with a localized sonic shockwave.
Sun Wukong moved faster. In a flash of terrifying speed, he closed the distance, the dagger blurring through the air.
SLASH.
"I'M SIMON PETER!" Sun Wukong roared unexpectedly, a crazed grin splitting his face as his blade caught Jiro mid-strike.
Jiro let out a choked, horrific scream as the top half of her left earlobe jack was severed clean off, spurting blood as she collapsed to her knees, clutching the side of her head in sheer agony.
"JIRO!" Kaminari yelled, stepping forward in a panic, but Kendo was already moving.
Exploding with pure martial arts precision, Kendo stepped into Sun Wukong's blind spot. She enlarged her right hand to massive proportions and swept his leg, throwing him off balance before delivering a lightning-fast palm strike directly to his sternum. The concussive blow sent Sun Wukong skidding back across the dirt, gasping for air as the breath was violently knocked out of him.
"Kaminari, take care of Jiro!" Kendo demanded, following up her advantage with a crisp martial arts combination—a high kick aimed at his head followed by a sweeping backfist.
For a brief second, she had the upper hand, pinning him back with relentless melee strikes. But Sun Wukong recovered his footing with animalistic agility. Ducking under her backfist, he delivered a brutal, heavy roundhouse kick directly to Kendo's side, sending her flying through the air toward a jagged rock formation.
While she was still airborne, Sun Wukong flipped the spare dagger in his hand and threw it with terrifying, lethal accuracy.
THWACK.
The blade embedded itself deep into Kendo's right eye before she even touched the ground. She crashed hard into the dirt, letting out a muffled gasp of agony as she clutched her face, her sight gone in a blinding flash of red.
Sun Wukong threw his head back and laughed, thoroughly enjoying the carnage. "Is this the best UA has to offer?! You're all just—"
He was cut short. He hadn't noticed Kaminari stepping up behind him.
Driven completely past his breaking point by the sight of his broken, bleeding classmates, Kaminari wasn't holding back anymore. Tears of rage streamed down his face, his teeth grit so hard they nearly cracked.
He was such a fucking loser.
Denki Kaminari considered himself a fairly even-tempered guy. It took a lot to get under his skin. But watching Sun Wukong tear through his friends hadn't just gotten under his skin; it felt like his soul had been ripped raw.
He had stood there, frozen. Paralysed by hesitation. And because he hadn't acted sooner, Mina was impaled in the chest, choking on her own blood. Jiro's severed ear lay in the dirt nearby as she writhed, clutching the side of her head in mute horror. And Kendo—brave, fiercely loyal Kendo—was kneeling, one hand pressed over an eye that would never see again, red streaming through her fingers.
All because Denki had been too slow. Too cowardly. Too late.
Now the bastard was stepping over Kendo's broken frame, laughing.
He made a decision.
Tragedy or not, failure or not, this monster was going down right fucking now.
The air snapped with blinding blue power. Denki pumped out more watts than he ever had in his entire life, completely shattering his built-in safety limits. The asphalt under his boots liquefied into glass, and nearby steel beams twisted and melted under the sudden, suffocating heat. The atmosphere roared like a jet engine. 1,000,000? 2,000,000? Fuck that. He locked his eyes on Wukong and blasted the villain with a solid 6,000,000 watts. He had no idea if his own heart would survive the feedback, but he didn't give a shit! Not anymore!
SUN WUKONG WAS GOING TO FUCKING FRY!
The villain's triumphant smirk vanished, swallowed instantly by a wall of white-hot divine wrath. Sun Wukong screamed in mindless agony as the power of a thousand lightning storms coursed through his veins. His skin scorched, smoldered, and split open. The sheer volume of voltage forced every muscle in his body into violent, bone-snapping convulsions, dropping him to his knees before he collapsed onto the burning earth. He shrieked so loudly Denki thought the bastard's throat would tear completely open.
It was the best sound Denki had ever heard.
Finally, Denki's Quirk flickered and died.
Sun Wukong was dead. His armor was fused to his crisp, charred flesh, smoke pouring from his motionless mouth.
Denki didn't get off scot-free, though. He had discharged far more electricity than a human body was meant to hold. Most of his skin was covered in second-degree burns, cracked and peeling like the shell of a hard-boiled egg. His head felt as though a thousand red-hot needles were driving directly into his cerebral cortex at once. He couldn't stop the flow of blood-tinged drool pooling in his mouth, or the hot fluid leaking quietly from his ears. He crumpled to his side and vomited, staring in dazed horror at the dark, viscous red spattered across the ruined ground.
The full shock of his failure and exertion caught up to him, and he began to softly weep.
Darkness was descending over his vision, cold and absolute. This wasn't the harmless brain-shorting "whewey" state he was used to. His organs were failing. He was slipping into the dark, and he wasn't sure if he was ever going to wake up. He cried openly, the bitter tears scalding his ruined cheeks, consumed by the agonizing guilt of his own delay. If he had just moved sooner, none of them would be broken.
"I'm... m-m-sorry..." he slurred, sobbing weakly as his eyelids grew impossibly heavy. "So... slow. Sh-Shoud've... moved... sooner. S-Sorry, guys... I'm... so... s-sorry..."
His vision went completely black, and his eyes drifted shut. The groans of his injured classmates echoed through the quiet mountain zone.
(X)
The damp, suffocating reek of sewage filled the corridor as a massive, liquid-like mass slid out from the shadows, pinning Camie against the reinforced wall.
"Get off me, you gross creep!" Camie gasped, flailing her arms uselessly against the thick, fluid mass wrapping around her neck and shoulders.
The Sludge Villain chuckled, his yellow eyes glowing within the murky brown ooze as he forced his bulk around her, muffling her air supply. "Keep crying, kid. You think I want to be involved in this hero-slaughtering nonsense? Those freaks in the League of Villains are completely retarded. They've got no plan, no finesse—just a bunch of lunatics throwing tantrums."
He tightened his grip, his liquid body creeping up toward her mouth and nose. "The only good thing they did was break me out of prison. Now? I'm escaping this dome and laying low for a while. But to slip past the Pros outside, I need a stealthy, pristine meat suit... and you'll do just fine."
"CAMIE!"
Kirishima rounded the corner, his eyes widening in pure horror at the sight. "GET YOUR HANDS OFF HER!"
Hardening his body into jagged, rock-like armor, Kirishima lunged forward with a furious roar. He threw a brutal right hook straight into the monster's face, followed by a flurry of clawing, punching, and kicking. His fists hit with deafening thuds, but the rock-hard strikes did absolutely nothing. His hands sank harmlessly through the sludge, the displaced liquid simply flowing back into shape every single time.
"It's useless, kid!" the Sludge Villain laughed, his voice bubbling through his mass as Camie's muffled gags grew weaker. "You can't hurt liquid!"
Kirishima kept striking, frantic tears blurring his vision as he watched Camie choking helplessly inside the murky mass. No, no, no! Why isn't it working?!
Every useless blow sent a wave of agonizing realization crashing over him. I'm useless. I'm a weak, pathetic little shit... I haven't changed at all.
Images flashed unbidden in his mind—the dark alleyways of middle school, the intimidating villains, and Mina Ashido stepping up without hesitation while he froze in terror, unable to move a muscle due to his terrible control over his quirk. I promised myself I'd change! I swore I'd be a hero who protects people! So why am I still just that scared, helpless kid from middle school?!
"DAMN IT!" Kirishima screamed, swinging a desperate, wild punch with every ounce of frustration left in his body.
SQUISH.
"AGHHH! MY FUCKING EYE!" the Sludge Villain shrieked, his voice escalating into a high-pitched, agonizing screech.
Kirishima froze, blinking in surprise. His hand hadn't hit the thick sludge—his jagged, hardened fingers had plunged straight into the villain's exposed, solid eyeball.
He's still got weak spots!
Realizing his advantage, Kirishima didn't hesitate for a second. He lunged forward, using his sharpened, stone-like fingers to repeatedly claw and gouge at both of the villain's glowing yellow eyes.
"STOP IT! GET OFF ME, YOU LITTLE BASTARD! AGH!" the Sludge Villain screamed in pure agony, completely overwhelmed as his liquid body thrashing wildly. In his frantic attempt to shield his eyes, his grip on Camie loosened just enough for her to slip her head free.
Gasping for sweet air, Camie didn't waste a split second. A thick, sweet-smelling purple haze erupted directly from her mouth and skin, billowing outward and completely swaddling the Sludge Villain in a dense fog.
"What... What is this?! I can't see! They're everywhere—THE HEROES ARE HERE!" the villain howled, trapped instantly in a terrifying, vivid illusion created by her Glamour quirk. He began thrashing at absolute nothingness, completely blinded and confused.
Kirishima reached into the chaotic mass, grabbing Camie under her arms and violently ripping her free from the villain's loosening sludge.
"I got you! I got you!" Kirishima sobbed hysterically.
He dropped to his knees, pulling her into a desperate, bone-crushing hug. He buried his face in her shoulder and completely dissolved into a bawling mess, tears and snot streaming down his face as the sheer relief of saving her broke his composure entirely. "I'm so sorry, Camie! I thought I was gonna lose you! I was so scared—"
"Kirishima... wait..." Camie wheezed weakly, her face turning a violent shade of green. "My stomach... I swallowed so much... sludge..."
"It's okay, you're safe now, I'm never letting go—"
BLEAGHH!
Before he could finish his sentence, Camie violently threw up a massive wave of murky sludge, stomach acid, and bile all over Kirishima's chest and shoulder.
Kirishima froze mid-sob, his arms still wrapped around her as he slowly looked down at his ruined uniform, the crying coming to a dead, stunned halt.
(X)
Bakugo launched himself into the air, the roar of his gauntlets echoing through the artificial terrain as he unleashed a barrage of massive, blinding explosions down on Kendo Rappa. The concussive blasts ripped up the dirt, filling the air with searing heat and dense smoke, but the hulking brawler didn't slow down for a second.
Rappa charged straight through the wall of fire, his heavy brass-knuckled fists striking the earth with blinding speed. The sheer frequency of his lightning-fast strikes shattered the bedrock beneath Bakugo's feet, sending shockwaves through the soil that instantly disrupted the young hero's balance as he tried to land.
"Tch! Annoying bastard!" Bakugo snarled.
Instead of letting his feet touch the crumbling ground, Bakugo angled his palms downward, igniting small, precise bursts to keep himself hovering safely above the unsteady earth. Squeezing his palms into tight fists, he pooled a massive amount of sweat into his right palm and aimed it straight down at the charging villain.
"DIE!" Bakugo roared, firing a devastating, high-density blast that engulfed the entire path below.
The explosion shook the surrounding area, but through the blinding flash of orange heat, Rappa pushed forward, his flesh smoking and charred as he powered through the firestorm. Closing the distance in a fraction of a second, Rappa threw a heavy, weight-backed punch that struck Bakugo square in the ribs, sending the blonde boy crashing violently across the dirt.
Rappa grinned maniacally under his mask, his chest heaving as he sprinted toward Bakugo to crush him while he was down.
"You got spirit, kid! Show me more!"
Before Rappa could step on Bakugo, a long, wet strip wrapped tightly around his massive torso. Tsuyu Asui pulled back with every ounce of strength in her legs, her tongue yanked tight as she pulled the towering brawler backward, throwing off his momentum and saving Bakugo from a lethal blow.
"Ribbit!" she croaked, bracing herself against a boulder.
Rappa stumbled back, his eyes snapping to the frog-like girl. A savage grin split his face. "A hero should know when not to step between two fighters!"
He flexed his chest, the sheer power of his muscles nearly snapping her tongue, and began dragging himself toward her, raising his fist to finish her off in a single blow.
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF HER, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"
A streak of blinding orange light slammed point-blank into Rappa's side. Bakugo was back on his feet, his face twisted in unbridled rage. He grabbed Rappa by the neck of his vest and began driving fist after relentless fist into the villain's face.
BOOM! "YOU!" BOOM! "THINK!" BOOM! "YOU CAN!" BOOM! "TOUCH MY CLASSMATES?!"
Each strike was instantly followed by a point-blank explosion, the heat singeing Rappa's flesh and tearing his mask to shreds. Bakugo didn't give him a single second to breathe, his curses lost in the continuous roar of his palms as he forced the hulking villain down onto his knees. With Rappa thoroughly battered and dazed, Bakugo grabbed the pin of his right grenade gauntlet with his left hand, locking the barrel directly against Rappa's chest.
"I was right to request these damn things..." Bakugo growled, his voice dropping into a deadly, murderous whisper. His bloodshot eyes glared down into the villain's face. "I just hope you survive this."
BOOOOOOM!
A blinding, catastrophic column of fire and compressed air exploded outward, shattering the silence of the USJ. The sheer force of the stored sweat blast ripped up the ground for dozens of yards, blowing back dust, debris, and smoke in a massive shockwave.
When the smoke finally cleared, a deep, smoking trench crater stretched across the ruined battlefield.
Deep at the bottom of the trench lay Kendo Rappa. His clothes were completely incinerated, his skin burned and melted straight to the bone, and his eyes melted shut from the intense, point-blank thermal heat. Yet, despite the unimaginable devastation wrought upon his body, the villain's chest gave a faint, agonizing rise and fall. He was somehow still breathing.
(X)
Izuku's eyes glowed with an emerald light as he took off his blindfold and unleashed a blinding fury of fists, each one heavily wrapped in the localized gravitational pull of Lapse: Blue.
The sheer force behind the volley delivered enough concussive pressure to completely obliterate a normal human in a single second. Yet, through the refined clarity of his Six Eyes, Izuku could actively track the creature's inner biology. He watched as the muscle fibers, crushed bones, and torn skin instantly knitted themselves back together after every single impact.
Realizing the monster wasn't going down easy, Izuku's grin widened, and he surged more cursed energy into his knuckles, drastically increasing the force of his strikes.
Overwhelmed by the sudden increase in power, the Nomu leaped back, landing heavily on the shattered earth. Dropping its long, muscular limbs onto the dirt, it began crawling frantically on all fours like a starved predator, accelerating toward Izuku in a terrifying blur.
Izuku didn't even bother raising his hands. In a flicker of distorted space, he simply teleported several yards out of the way, letting the beast crash uselessly into the dirt behind him.
Taking a quick breath, Izuku made a silent mental note to himself: Man, I am so glad I didn't volunteer to run for help in Iida's place... He looked at the hulking bio-engineered weapon as it turned around. There isn't a single person in our class who could handle this thing.
He cracked his knuckles, the sound echoing across the plaza, and settled into a relaxed stance. "Alright, meathead," Izuku taunted, his voice dripping with absolute confidence. "Give it your best shot!"
The Nomu roared, lunging forward with a frenzy of wild punches and heavy kicks. Each strike that hit the surrounding air delivered a force so tremendous that the glass dome overhead rattled and cracked, sending giant shards raining down as the earth shook beneath their feet. Yet, through it all, Izuku just stood there completely unbothered, resting his hands casually on his waist while Infinity stopped every single mountain-splitting blow an inch away from his skin.
Bored with defense, Izuku flicked his wrist. Using Blue, he caught the Nomu in an intense gravitational pull, yanking the massive creature through the air like a helpless rag doll. The Nomu swung a desperate right hook as it flew past, but Izuku effortlessly caught the colossal fist with one hand, stopped it dead, and punched the monster away with his free arm.
Before the beast could even hit the ground, Izuku vanished. He reappeared instantly in mid-air directly behind the Nomu, delivering a brutal kick to its spine, and then teleported above it once more. Interlocking his fingers, Izuku brought a double-fisted hammer blow straight down onto the Nomu's exposed brain, slamming the monster with enough force to create a massive crater in the center of the plaza.
The meathead scrambled out of the smoking pit, attacking again with relentless, mindless aggression. Izuku responded seamlessly, catching the creature's right fist a second time. He twisted the massive arm, using his Six Eyes to analyze the structural density of its anatomy to see what spot was best to hit.
Finding his mark, Izuku used Blue to drive a point-blank punch straight into the beast's ribs. He moved fluidly to the right, driving another blue-enhanced strike into its side, then slid underneath its legs to reach its back. Leaning into the strike, Izuku drove a horrifying blow straight through its spine, the gravitational force of Blue completely blowing out the Nomu's stomach in a spray of blood before he finished the combo with a rising uppercut that launched the beast into the sky.
Izuku stood in the center of the crater, his heart hammering against his ribs in pure, unadulterated euphoria. This is incredible! he thought, high on the absolute feeling of dominance washing over his chest. This is the toughest fight I've had in ages that wasn't against my mother!
BOOOOOOM!
The shockwave of a massive explosion suddenly echoed from the mountain zone, the sound snapping Izuku straight out of his combat high. A cold, sudden wave of guilt crashed over him as he remembered where he was. Katsuki... Tsuyu... the others.
He had completely forgotten that his classmates were fighting for their lives while he was standing here foolishly toying with a monster.
"The moment you lose sight of such a destructive 'villain', you put everyone, heroes and civilians, around you at risk"Aizawa's words suddenly flashed back into his mind as he clenched his fists, stewing in anger. He fucked up again, just like he did against Katsuki.
Izuku's lighthearted expression instantly vanished into a cold, lethal glare. Without missing a beat, he slammed his foot onto the descending Nomu's neck, pinning it face-first into the dirt, and unleashed a continuous wave of Blue directly over its body, slowly crushing the beast's limbs and torso under an irresistible gravitational weight.
"Hey! Brat!" a shrill, hysterical voice echoed from across the plaza.
Izuku turned his head toward the voice—and his blood ran cold.
Standing near the edge of the artificial ruins was Tomura Shigaraki. The pale, hands-covered villain had his clawed fingers wrapped tightly around Ochaco's throat, holding her hostage as she whimpered in fear. A few feet away, Momo stood completely frozen, desperately clutching her created iron staff with trembling hands, utterly helpless as Kurogiri hovered right behind her with his purple mist flaring, ready to warp both girls away the second Momo dared to make a single move.
Shigaraki scratched frantically at his own neck, his fingernails digging deep as his bloodshot eyes glared at Izuku with pure, unadulterated venom.
"Who the FUCK are you?!" Shigaraki shrieked, his voice cracking with unhinged frustration. "What kind of cheat code quirk is that?! I read every single student profile! I memorized all of them! Your file said Space Manipulation—it didn't say anything about stopping punches! It didn't say anything about crushing the Nomu like a bug! What is this nonsense?!"
He tightened his fingers around Ochaco's neck, causing her to gasp for air. "All Might didn't show up... the Nomu turned out to be fucking useless trash... so fine! I'll just kill the NPCs myself!" His gaze flicked over to Momo, his eyes narrowing as he took in her trembling form. That big tits bitch's quirk... that would be extremely useful for a future Nomu. Or for Master. I need to make sure we keep her.
A cold sweat broke out on Izuku's forehead. His Six Eyes calculated every single possible outcome in a fraction of a millisecond.
If I teleport behind this guy, Kurogiri instantly warps Momo away, Izuku realized, his teeth gritting in frustration. If I teleport to Kurogiri, Shigaraki decays Uraraka before I can hit him. If I try to yank Momo and Ochaco out of their grip with blue, I could make the hand guy trigger his quirk out of instinct or spite killing Ochaco. And if I let go of the gravity on the Nomu, the damn thing will run wild again.
He was checkmated. There was no clean way out without sacrificing one of them.
Then, the air in the USJ shifted.
Izuku's eyes widened as he felt a sudden, overwhelmingly massive spike of cursed energy at the top of the facility. It was a sensation he knew better than anyone—something frighteningly familiar, devastatingly powerful, and intensely concentrated.
Danger!
Without a second thought, Izuku leaped backward out of the way just as the double doors at the main entrance were completely blown off their hinges.
A colossal, swirling sphere of deep purple energy blitzed through the entrance at terrifying speed. The sheer gravitational force of the attack ripped up the concrete, creating a massive trench down the center of the plaza. It tore straight through the trapped Nomu, completely vaporizing the bio-engineered monster into nothingness before continuing its lethal path straight toward Shigaraki and Kurogiri.
"SHIT!" Shigaraki screamed, forced to let go of Ochaco as he and Kurogiri frantically leaped out of the way.
The momentary distraction was all Izuku needed. In a flicker of distorted space, he teleported instantly beside Ochaco, tapped her shoulder to secure her, and vanished again, appearing safely next to Momo.
The purple orb sailed past them, dissolving harmlessly into a cloud of disintegrating matter near the edge of the dome.
Standing at the top of the central stairs, framed by the shattered remains of the entrance, stood Inko Midoriya. Her emerald eyes shone with a blinding, lethal aura as she stood clad in her full hero suit, her hands still raised from unleashing the technique.
"Phew... I took a big gamble firing off Purple from that distance," Inko said, her voice dropping into a deadly, ice-cold tone that echoed throughout the entire dome. "I'm just glad it worked out... because I am REALLY pissed off."
Behind her, a wall of backup arrived. An angry, deeply frowning All Might stepped through the smoke alongside Snipe and Midnight, their eyes locking onto the chaos below.
Shigaraki stared up at the doorway, his chest heaving as pure panic seized his throat. His red eyes darted frantically between Inko, All Might, and Izuku. The tables hadn't just turned—he had been completely checkmated. The game was fucking over.
"Kurogiri, you idiot!" Shigaraki hissed, turning his rage onto his warp-gate companion. "Why didn't you grab the big tits bitch when you had the chance?! Why did you let her escape?!"
"I-I frantically apologize, Young Master!" Kurogiri stammered, his mist flaring in a rare moment of genuine panic as he bowed. "It was a split-second mistake! The momentum of that purple blast—"
"Shut up! Just shut the hell up!" Shigaraki clawed at his neck until it bled, his eyes wild with terror as the heroes began their descent.
Shigaraki and Kurogiri suddenly bent over, gasping as a thick, foul-smelling black sludge began bubbling up from their throats. Violent coughing fits wracked their bodies as the murky liquid spilled over their lips, pooling on the concrete beneath them.
The arriving heroes momentarily paused their advance, caught off guard by the bizarre, self-inflicted medical emergency unfolding at the base of the plaza.
Above them at the entrance, Inko's emerald eyes flared brightly. Her Six Eyes immediately kicked into overdrive, analyzing the microscopic structural shifts in the air and the unique spatial signature of the dark liquid. In a fraction of a millisecond, her eyes processed the raw data. Force-activation warp quirk! Someone from the outside is pulling them back!
"I don't think so!" Inko shouted, her voice cutting through the dome like a thunderclap.
In a blinding flash of distorted space, she vanished from the top of the stairs and reappeared directly behind Shigaraki and Kurogiri, reaching out with both hands wrapped in gravitational force to pin them to the earth before they could slip away.
She was a fraction of a second too late.
The black sludge exploded outward, completely engulfing both villains in a dense, tar-like sphere. By the time Inko's fingers snapped shut, her hands passed harmlessly through empty air. The villains had vanished, leaving behind nothing but the fading reek of sewage and a quiet, ruined battlefield.
(X)
The dust slowly settled over the ruined expanse of the USJ. In the immediate aftermath, the remaining low-level villains threw down their weapons and surrendered peacefully the moment All Might's imposing figure loomed over the plaza. Those who tried to fight back received a one-way ticket to the hospital, courtesy of the enraged Pro Heroes clearing the zones.
Yet, as the sirens echoed in the distance and medical evacuation teams swarmed the facility, a heavy, suffocating silence fell over Class 1-A. The students stood in frozen, hollow shock. While a few had secured clean victories, the reality of the ambush had exacted a horrifying toll on the rest.
Mineta sat on a stretcher, staring blankly ahead as paramedics bandaged the cauterized stump where his right arm used to be. Kendo clutched a sterile dressing over her ruined right eye, her remaining eye hollow and void of its usual spark. Jiro sat nearby, her head wrapped tightly in gauze to stem the bleeding from her severed earlobe.
Beside them lay Kaminari, barely recognizable under a tangle of IV lines and thermal blankets. Blisters stretched across his torso and arms, his skin cracked and peeling like shattered porcelain from the catastrophic voltage he had pushed through his own body. A respirator hissed over his face, forcing air into cooked lungs, while clear tubes drained a slow, dark fluid from his ears. Dried blood crusted beneath his nose and along his lips. His eyelids twitched uselessly beneath heavy bandages, trapped in a deep, medically induced coma as the paramedics fought to keep his failing organs from shutting down completely.
The medical zone looked like a war ward. Sato lay unconscious, his entire torso slashed to ribbons by a feral, werecat-quirked villain. Beside him, Koji wept silently, having lost his left leg to the same beast. Yuga Aoyama was loaded into a high-priority ambulance, suffering from horrific, blistering thermal burns and partial disembowelment, miraculously still breathing through sheer medical intervention. Hagakure huddled under a foil blanket, clutching her left hand where three fingers had been brutally severed before Tokoyami's Dark Shadow finally put the beast down.
But the most devastating blow of all hung over them in absolute silence. Near the center of the grounds, a white sheet was drawn over a motionless figure. Mina Ashido had succumbed to her severe impalement wounds shortly after the Nomu battle, her heart stopping despite the paramedics' desperate attempts to revive her.
(X)
Meanwhile, miles away in the dim, shadowed interior of the League's hideout, the atmosphere was thick with toxic rage.
"TRASH! IT WAS ALL A BUNCH OF TRASH!" Shigaraki screamed, violently throwing a glass tumbler against the wall. It shattered into a thousand pieces, amber liquid soaking the floorboards as he clawed viciously at his neck. "All Might... those brat heroes... that damn green-haired bitch!"
In the corner of the room, Kai Chisaki—Overhaul—ignored the outburst entirely. He pulled out a clean handkerchief, meticulously wiping down a wooden chair to clear it of any microscopic dust before pouring himself a fresh glass of water. He took a seat, crossing one leg over the other with clinical composure.
"Stop whining like a little bitch, dumbass; your whole plan was retarded from the start. I just lost one of the eight bullets," Overhaul announced casually, taking a slow sip. "Rappa's broken, barely breathing in a ditch somewhere. Luckily, he's one of my least favorite henchmen, so I'm not too bothered, and if we weren't enemies, I would have thanked you. But we had an agreement, which is now concluded, and so I expect my full payment for lending him to your little field trip."
Shigaraki snapped, his bloodshot eyes locking onto Overhaul. "You want payment?! The ball-less bitch you call a muscle couldn't even take down a bunch of midgets! I'll decay you into dust right here, you plague-masked bastard—"
"That is enough, Tomura."
A deep, commanding voice resonated from the dark monitor sitting on the counter, instantly cutting through the tension. The static on the screen flickered as the smooth, chilling tone filled the room, freezing both Shigaraki and Overhaul in their tracks.
"Kurogiri," the voice continued calmly. "Provide a full account of what transpired at the facility."
Kurogiri stepped forward, bowing his head slightly toward the screen. "Master... the operation was compromised. The Symbol of Peace arrived with heavy reinforcements, but the primary interference came from a green-haired woman. She displayed immense spatial manipulation—unleashing a devastating, purple sphere that completely obliterated the Nomu in a single stroke."
A long, heavy silence stretched through the hideout. Then, from the speaker of the monitor, came a low, echoing chuckle. It was a sound devoid of warmth, dripping with decades of dark history.
"A purple blast... from a green-haired woman," the voice murmured, the amusement in his tone rising. "So... Shimura, you've finally returned to the stage?"
Shigaraki glared at the monitor, his chest heaving. "Master! They humiliated us! The game was rigged!"
"Do not fret, my boy," the voice replied smoothly, his tone effortlessly restoring order to the room. "The board has simply grown larger. Things have gotten much more interesting than I anticipated."
The monitor shifted its audio output slightly toward Overhaul. "And as for you, Chisaki... you will receive your adequate compensation as promised. We are going to need every resource available for what comes next."