New Week! New Chapter, Let The Powerstones Start Rolling In!
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[NEWS HELICOPTER – ABOVE HOSU – 7:43 PM]
"This is Ayaka Fujimoto with NHK News, reporting live from above Hosu City," the reporter said, gripping her headset as the helicopter banked hard to avoid another plume of smoke. "What we're witnessing tonight is unprecedented in modern hero society. Multiple coordinated attacks across the city have pushed local hero agencies to their absolute limit."
The cameraman adjusted his lens, focusing on the rooftop battle unfolding below.
"We have visual confirmation of Pro Hero Ingenium—ranked Number 67 on the Hero Billboard Chart—engaging what appears to be a large-scale mutant-type villain." Her voice carried forced professionalism over rising panic.
"The creature greatly resembles one of the villains apprehended during the attack on U.A a month prior. With this one seemingly moving on all fours."
"We're getting reports now that similar attacks are occurring in at least three other locations across Hosu. The creature Ingenium is fighting is one of several entities of similar design."
The camera captured Ingenium dodging a claw strike.
"Ingenium is known for his high-speed rescue operations and combat prowess, but this opponent ..." She stopped as the creature's blow demolished an entire rooftop access structure. "... this opponent is pushing him to his absolute limits."
In the studio, the anchors watched the feed with serious faces.
"Fujimoto-san, can you confirm if there are civilians in the area?"
"Negative," Ayaka replied, watching as Ingenium landed a solid punch that actually drove the creature backward. "It appears the evacuation is still ongoing. We can see other heroes coordinating civilian movement a distance away from the combat zone. Ingenium seems to be... he's deliberately keeping the creature's attention on himself. Drawing it away from the evacuation route."
The camera zoomed in as Ingenium launched a flurry of Recipro-powered strikes.
"He's pressing the offensive now. The creature is being driven back, but ..."
The creature's arm transformed, expanding into a shield.
"What ..." Ayaka's voice faltered. "Did you see that? The villain just... its arm ... It just deflected Ingenium's attack and now ..."
The arm elongated into a whip.
"Oh God—"
CRACK.
The transformed limb struck Ingenium with devastating force, launching him through the air.
"INGENIUM'S DOWN!" Ayaka shouted, abandoning all pretense of journalistic distance. "He's been thrown through a building window. We're losing visual."
The camera struggled to track through the smoke and debris.
"Can we confirm his status?" the studio anchor's voice was tight.
"Unknown. The building he crashed into appears to be residential. We're trying to get a better angle."
Across the nation, the public watched in stunned silence. In Tokyo, commuters gathered around giant displays in Shibuya Crossing; in quiet suburban homes, families huddled together, their faces illuminated by the blue light of the broadcast.
"What's going on?"
"Is that Hosu?"
"Is that Ingenium?"
"Oh my goodness .."
Murmurs swept through homes and streets as all those watching recoiled at Ingenium getting slammed into a building.
"I can't believe it."
"Yeah. First U.A's attack. Now this. This League Of Villains is growing more rampant with each appearance."
"You think Ingenium's gonna be ok?"
"Now we can only watch. Reinforcements should come in soon .."
Meanwhile,
In a residential building In Hosu
CRASH.
Multiple tendrils burst through the walls like spears, the Nomu's transformed arms extending with horrifying speed.
Tensei's body moved on instinct.
He tilted his body to the left. A tendril grazed past his side of his helmet, while the other dented his armor and injured his shoulder.
The third found its mark, piercing straight through his stomach.
"Ugh—!" Tensei let out a strangled groan. ...
The children whimpered in terror.
The tendril retracted, pulling free with another horrible squelch. Ingenium collapsed to one knee, his hand instinctively pressing against the wound. Blood seeped between his fingers.
'This is bad.' He thought at the sounds of the children behind him.
'Get up.'
Outside, the Nomu landed on the street. Tensei raised his head. The Nomu's arms twisted, reforming into multiple sharp lances aimed directly at the gaping hole in the house.
The transformed arm shot forward at rapid pace. Worse still, Ingenium couldn't dodge. Not because he couldn't but If he did, the attacks would shred the children behind him.
The tendrils shot forward ..
CRACK.
A leg slammed into the ground with tremendous force.
A massive wave of ice erupted from the pavement, surging forward like a frozen tsunami. It blocked the entrance to the house completely, encasing the incoming tendrils in crystalline prison before they could reach Tensei.
The Nomu's head snapped toward the source.
Todoroki Shoto stood at the end of the street, his right side frosting over. "Seems it was a good idea to tag along."
"Todoroki?"
"Iida was worried you couldn't handle it on your own," Todoroki spoke out, his right side radiating a freezing mist. "So I came to help."
"Leave now! This isn't an enemy you can deal with!" Tensei warned, but his words were drowned out by a piercing, metallic SCREEE!
The Nomu's arms began to bulge and pulse, the muscle fibers expanding until they were the size of tree trunks.
'It's activating another quirk.'
Todoroki didn't hesitate, slamming his palm to the ground to send a second, even larger wave of ice toward the beast.
But the augmented Nomu didn't dodge. Its massive, reinforced limbs shot forward, ramming right through the ice as if it were thin glass.
The frozen structure shattered, shards flying in all directions.
The lances, now backed by the force of a thousand tons of pressure, hurtled toward Todoroki at terminal velocity.
'Dammit.'
Ice shot up from his feet, creating an ice wall. Simultaneously, he propelled himself backwards.
BANG!
The wall was blown apart.
Shoto's eyes widened. He was still in his recovery frames; he couldn't put up another wall in time. The tips of the organic spears were inches from his chest .... And that's when ..
CLANG!
Out of nowhere, a heavy manhole cover sailed through the air with the speed of a disc-saw, slamming into the Nomu's face and jerking its aim off-course by a fraction of an inch.
'Huh?'
Before Todoroki could process what happened, a hand firmly gripped Todoroki's collar as out of nowhere, Yuta Akutami appeared like a ghost in the middle of the street.
Having moved with a Body Flicker, Yuta grabbed Shoto and leaped. Using his chakra-enhanced strength while midair, he pulled Shoto upwards, out of the line of fire just as the Nomu's spears pierced the air where Shoto's chest had been.
Todoroki's world spun around before everything returned to normal. A second later, he found himself a dozen feet above the floor, with a force holding him by his collar at the other end.
"What the ..."
He dangled for a moment, the wind whistling past his ears, his mind racing to catch up with the sheer speed of what had just happened. Then he looked up at the figure perched atop the flickering streetlight with the effortless balance of an eagle.
He wore a heavy, tactical black hoodie with stark white trim that traced the contours of his torso and sleeves like a skeletal circuit board. A ninja mask, matte black, covered the lower half of his face, leaving only a pair of red eyes with three commas visible beneath the shadow of his hood.
Reinforced gauntlets on his forearms and tactical utility trousers tucked into heavy boots.
"Tell me. On a scale of one to ten, how dead would you be without my help?"
The voice came off with a deeper edge due to the muffle of the mask, but it was one Todoroki recognised.
"Akutami?"
"In the flesh. Or the polyester, technically," Yuta replied, releasing his grip.
Todoroki landed on his feet, his gaze already shifting back down to the Nomu currently recovering from the manhole cover to the face.
The monster let out a guttural, wet growl. The heavy iron disc that Yuta had hurled was embedded halfway into the creature's distorted skull, but even as they watched, the bone and muscle began to bubble and knit together, pushing the metal out until it clattered onto the pavement.
"Ten," Shoto muttered, his right hand igniting in a flurry of frost as he stabilized himself. "I would have been a ten."
"Good. Honesty is the first step toward not getting skewered,"
Yuta looked up. His Sharingan locked on to the news helicopter in the distance.
'I'm on live TV?'
The camera was zooming in, everyone probably searching their memories for the identity of the masked savior who had just snatched the son of Endeavor from the jaws of death.
In response, Yuta raised two fingers in a lazy wave. A cocky, casual "hail" to the lens.
"Is he... is he saluting us?" Ayaka Fujimoto's voice broadcasted to the nation. "
Across Japan, the image froze on that action.
But the moment was short-lived.
SCREEE!
The Nomu, having fully ejected the manhole cover from its skull, focused its lidless eye on the streetlight. Its body rippled as it activated Muscle Augmentation and Transforming Arms simultaneously. Then proceeded to shoot them forward.
"Look out!"
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