Narration POV
Kaminari had been disoriented.
One moment he was standing with his classmates at the entrance to USJ, the next a villain had suddenly surrounded them with swirling darkness and teleported them away.
Then he found himself along with Yaoyorozu and Jirou in the mountain area of USJ, rocky terrain stretching out before them with jagged cliffs and loose debris scattered everywhere.
Villains emerged from behind the rocky outcroppings, grinning like some kind of villains from kid tv shows.
Kaminari felt his palms grow sweaty as electricity began to crackle between his fingers involuntarily.
The fight was chaotic to say the least.
Jirou grabbed Yaoyorozu's arm and whispered something urgent in her ear. Kaminari couldn't hear what they were planning.
"Kaminari!" Jirou called out. "We need you to discharge all your electricity!"
"All of it?" he asked, his voice cracking slightly.
"Trust us," Yaoyorozu said, already creating something with her quirk, rubber insulation blanket 100 millimeters thick, that she quickly wrapped around herself and Jirou.
Understanding dawned on him, and he smiled, a wide grin.
"I get ya. In that case, I can be incredibly strong."
Electricity exploded around him in a brilliant display of golden sparks and crackling energy. The voltage coursed through every villain in the immediate area, their screams echoing off the mountainous terrain as they collapsed, twitching and unconscious.
Of course, that level of electrical discharge came with a side effect Kaminari was all too familiar with. His brain felt like it had been scrambled, thoughts becoming sluggish and disconnected. He was barely aware of his surroundings when he saw something that made his foggy mind focus enough to yell in terror.
Something moving incredibly fast was approaching him, no, not just fast, it was like watching a black blur coming at him.
"AAAAGHHHH!!!"
It wasn't a manly yell.
Not that Kaminari minded that at the moment.
He saw it getting closer and closer, and through his electrical haze, he remembered what the creepy hand-covered villain had called these things.
A nomu.
This one was thin, almost skeletal, with exposed brain matter and a beak-like mouth.
He could do nothing but watch as the distance closed, and when the creature was so close that he could see the liquid moving around in the thing's retina, the nomu suddenly went flying as a sonic boom rattled his bones and threw him to the rocky ground.
There Arthur was, standing where the nomu had been like some hero from legend.
His blue cape billowed behind him, his sword glowed with that familiar sacred light. However his eyes were different, they could only be described by one word, they were focused.
Arthur burst again from his spot with another sonic boom that made Kaminari's ears ring. The golden blur that was Arthur collided with the black mass of the nomu, and they began to engage in combat that was almost impossible for normal eyes to follow.
Jirou and Yaoyorozu, who had been protected from Kaminari's electrical discharge by the rubber insulation, quickly made their way to his side.
From their elevated position in the mountain zone, they had a clear view of the entire facility, and what they saw was both awe-inspiring and terrifying.
The battle was like watching three streaks of light, two black and one gold, creating boom after boom as they collided at speeds that they almost couldn't register. Each impact sent shockwaves through the facility, rattling the very foundations of the USJ.
"We need to get down there and help the others," Yaoyorozu said, creating a rope and grappling equipment.
As they descended the mountain, heading toward where they could see other classmates scattered throughout the facility, Jirou kept glancing back at the battle taking place all over the facility.
"They are..." Jirou said, her voice trailing off as she watched another collision that sent one of the nomus spiraling into a concrete wall.
"Fast, yeah," Yaoyorozu replied. "But why isn't he killing them?"
Kaminari, despite his electrical overload, managed to focus enough to follow their conversation. "Huh?"
"Look closely," Yaoyorozu pointed as they reached the base of the mountain. "They keep regenerating from whatever injuries they sustain. See how that one's arm just grew back after Arthur cut it off?"
Indeed, as they watched, they could see limbs being severed and then regenerating within seconds, as if the creatures possessed some kind of advanced healing factor.
"Then why not knock them out instead of killing them?" Jirou asked, plugging one of her earphone jacks into the ground to get a better sense of the battle's vibrations.
"He's trying to," Yaoyorozu observed, "but he probably can't generate enough force in the brief moments he has with each one before having to engage the other."
The battle raged on.
Then suddenly, there was a change in the tempo of the fight.
Arthur managed to catch the thin nomu and drive it with tremendous force into one of the facility's walls. The impact was so powerful that cracks spider-webbed out from the point of collision, and the creature was embedded so deeply that it seemed pinned there.
"Looks like he found another way though," Yaoyorozu said, a note of relief creeping into her voice as she smiled.
However, just as she finished saying that, the entire facility was suddenly drenched in golden light. It looked similar to the glow from Arthur sword, it was just much, much more intense.
Kaminari didn't know why, but every fiber of his being wanted to follow that light, to bask in its radiance.
The light could only be described as beautiful, not even beautiful could describe it.
Then it dissipated as quickly as it had appeared, leaving dark spots in their vision and a ringing in their ears.
Then came a scream, one of agony.
All of this had happened in the span of less than two minutes since Arthur had first saved them from the nomu attack.
Their gazes snapped toward the source of the scream. In the central area of the facility, they could see a figure, the villain with the creepy hand-covered face, clutching at where his left arm used to be. The limb was completely gone, cauterized at the shoulder by whatever force had created that golden light.
But the villain escaped before they could see much more, disappearing into a swirling portal of darkness.
The awe that the light had inspired in them had faded by now, replaced by something far more disturbing.
In the central zone, they could see Arthur clearly now. He was on his knees, cradling something in his hands, what looked like the remains of one of the creatures he had been fighting.
And he was crying.
His shoulders shook with the force of his sobs, and they could hear him repeating the same phrase over and over, his voice carrying across the now-silent facility.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."
It was then that they heard the familiar booming voice from the entrance.
"I AM HERE!!!"
All Might had arrived, but even Kaminari, in his electrically addled state, could see that the Symbol of Peace was too late.
Kaminari, despite his overcharged condition, felt his feet moving almost of their own accord.
He found himself walking toward Arthur.
He wasn't the only one, other classmates who had survived their own encounters with villains throughout the facility were also converging on the central area.
When he reached Arthur, Kaminari placed a hand on his shoulder, feeling the tremors running through the other boy's body.
"We're here, buddy," he said, his voice still slightly slurred from his electrical overload.
All Might himself began to walk toward them.
But before the Symbol of Peace could reach them, Arthur suddenly disappeared from his spot with a sound like displaced air. Where he had been kneeling, only the severed hand of the larger nomu remained, placed carefully on the ground as if it were something precious.
"So we're all just gonna stand around here like some kind of idiots?" Bakugo said, his voice unusually subdued as he and Kirishima approached the group.
Kaminari looked at his explosive classmate, noting that even Bakugo seemed kind of out of it.
"Young Bakugo is right," All Might said, though his voice lacked its usual enthusiasm. "You should all go to the entrance and wait for the other teachers."
As Jirou helped guide the still-disoriented Kaminari toward the entrance, he could hear his classmates beginning to process what they had witnessed. At the entrance, Mina, Uraraka, Shoji, and several others were waiting, all looking shaken but alive.
"Uh, so none of us are going to talk about it?" Mineta asked, his voice unusually small.
"About what?" Todoroki asked, though his tone suggested he knew exactly what Mineta was referring to.
"The light," Mineta continued. "I mean, come on. That was insane, wasn't it? I've never seen anything like that before. It was like... like looking at the goddamn sun."
Down in the central area, All Might worked quickly to gather the unconscious villains, piling them up at the center of the facility.
He also retrieved Aizawa, who had been badly injured during the attack and had fallen unconscious near the flood zone. When he had secured the area, he pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contacts until he found the number he was looking for.
Nezu.
He pressed the contact, bringing the phone to his ear as it rang. After a moment, a familiar squeaky voice answered.
"Nezu, the cutest principal speaking."
"Do you know where Arthur could be?" All Might asked without preamble.
"Hmm, he isn't at USJ?"
"No, some stuff happened."
All Might could hear the creak of a door opening through the phone, probably Nezu's office door, followed by a familiar voice calling out urgently.
"Principal Nezu, villains are attacking USJ!"
"Put me on speaker, please Nezu," All Might requested.
"You're on."
"Young Iida, don't worry, the villain situation has been resolved. But still, bring the other teachers over. We need medical support and cleanup crews."
"Well, you heard him," Nezu said to Iida. "Now please get out of my office."
All Might heard the door creak again as Iida presumably left.
"You could have been a little nicer about it," All Might observed.
"Don't give me lectures about manners right now," Nezu replied, his voice taking on an edge that All Might rarely heard. "You were talking about Arthur. What happened to him?"
"That's the problem, I'm not entirely sure myself. He dealt with the villains, but then... then... I didn't have time to ask him what was wrong before he disappeared. Do you have any idea where he might have gone? He looked like he needed help."
There was a pause on the other end of the line, and All Might could almost hear the gears turning in Nezu's hyperintelligent mind.
"I think I have some idea," Nezu said finally. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention."
The he hung up.
In Nezu's office, the principal sat back in his chair for a moment, processing what All Might had told him. Then he jumped down from his seat, his playful demeanor missing.
"Please be there," he muttered to himself as he began walking through the hallways of U.A.
These were hallways he had walked through countless times, hallways he had personally designed when he took over the school, hallways he knew from memory better than anywhere else in the world.
And right now, he hoped beyond hope that Arthur was somewhere in one of these hallways.
He made his way to the dormitory section of the school, then specifically to the boys' wing. He walked down a specific corridor, finally stopped in front of a particular door.
He knocked once. Twice. Three times.
When there was no response, he tried the doorknob. It was locked.
"Arthur, I know you're in there. Let me in, please."
He stood in front of the door, considering his options. He could hear the faint sound of breathing from inside, confirming his suspicions.
"They told me you dealt with the villains, and that's good. I'm sure you felt some of that old vigilante adrenaline coming back. Must have been a familiar feeling after all this time trying to be a student." He paused, listening for any response. "So come on, tell me, why are you hiding in there?"
Silence.
"Yeah, I'm not going to have a conversation with you through a door. We aren't in kindergarten, Arthur."
He pulled a card from his suit jacket, a master key that would open any room in the school. He was about to place it on the electronic pad when he suddenly heard Arthur's voice from inside, barely above a whisper.
"Please don't come in."
Nezu could hear the pauses between the words, the way Arthur's voice caught and broke. He recognized the signs, Arthur was crying, and had probably been doing so for some time.
"Please, Nezu."
The desperation in Arthur's voice almost made him reconsider, but his concern for the boy overrode any desire to respect his privacy at the moment.
"I'm sorry, lad. I'm going to have to disappoint you here."
He placed the card against the door's electronic lock. The mechanism beeped softly, and he turned the knob, opening the door slowly.
What he saw inside made his heart clench with sympathy and concern.
The room was dark, the shutters were drawn tight, blocking out any natural light from outside. The only illumination came from Arthur's sword, which was glowing with its usual sacred radiance.
Arthur himself was sitting on his bed, back pressed against the wall, cradling Excalibur like a child might hold a favorite stuffed animal.
Nezu closed the door quietly behind him and approached the bed carefully. Arthur's face was streaked with tears, his usually bright blue eyes red-rimmed and hollow.
His entire body seemed to shake with the force of his suppressed sobs.
Without a word, Nezu grabbed the chair from Arthur's desk and pushed it next to the bed, settling himself into it.
"I'm not going to say anything if you don't want me to," Nezu said gently, "but it's not good to cry alone."
Arthur continued to cradle his sword, tears continuing to fall as small gasps escaped him in the silence of the room.
Minutes passed in silence. Nezu simply sat there.
Finally, Arthur's voice broke through the quiet, so soft that even Nezu's mouse-like hearing had to strain to catch the words.
"I killed someone."
A/N: This situation feels kind of familiar doesn't it, like chapter 1 but in reverse. Also extremely sorry for the late chapter got held up by some really bothersome stuff.
Honestly tried my best with the reactions so it didn't feel like I was just glazing Arthur through Kaminari, so sorry about that.
Oh, I also saw we were at the number 1 spot for a few hours, which was pretty cool, now we are done to number 3 not a problem there.
I hope you guys and gals enjoyed this chapter. Thx for reading. See you tomorrow. Author out.