Tomura pushed himself to his feet as he glared at the Heroling who had dared to attack him, only to find something peculiar. Something interesting.
The boy who had sent him flying was short and had clearly been in the nearby shipwreck zone. His Costume was dark and ripped at the side and he could vaguely make out that it had been green. His curly hair stuck to his face and freckles dotted his figure as he rose from his crouch.
That wasn’t what interested him however, no that would be the boy’s smile.
It showed every one of his teeth and had a cruel edge to it, now that on its own would have been enough to peak his interest, but what made this oh, so sweet was the look in his eyes.
They were utterly cold. No fear, no hesitation, not even an ounce of regret or pain. Just an ice so intense Tomura could feel it from where he stood. The boy didn’t speak, choosing instead to walk towards them plaza. He didn’t even spare a glance to his injured teacher.
He felt giddy. “Oh what do we have here?” Tomura let his own manic grin slip. “You aren’t like those other Herolings, are you? No, no, you’re something much worse.”
Something akin to amusement tainted those cold, cold eyes. “You have no idea.”
Now this, this was what Tomura wanted. Someone just as unapologetic about the monster that thrived within them. “You could have broken my neck with that blow.” He said, testing the waters.
The grin sharpened. “If only I was so lucky.”
“I like you.” Tomura cackled.
“Enough to leave?”
Annoyance quickly replaced his amusement. “No! We’re not leaving until we’ve broken the Symbol of Peace’s pride.”
The boy looked around. “He’s still not here.”
“We shouldn’t waste our time.” Kurogiri interrupted. “The Heroes will be here soon.”
“Shut up!” He snapped. “I’m going to kill these kids! Stay out of this Kurogiri.” Tomura turned to the Nomu, a grin on his face. “Grab him.”
It obeyed.
…
It was only thanks to several Quirks that Izuku survived.
When that Nomu thing lunged at him, it had taken all his speed and reaction Quirks to just barely dodge a fatal hit. Even the glancing blow that had connected hurt like a bitch.
He wasn’t so lucky the second time when it continued its assault and clamed both hands around his torso and trapped his arms down, squeezing hard enough that he saw black spots.
The only thing that kept him conscious was the feeling or wrongness that emanated from the beast. He now recognized why it bothered him so much-it had several Quirks stuffed into one body, one body that couldn’t handle that many.
Izuku’s arms were useless, but unlike his father who had needed physical contact to take Quirks, his was a mix of his mothers and fathers, making it so that he could take them without touch as long as he was within ten feet.
The Nomu definitely qualified.
He fought through his nausea as he began pulling one of the Quirks towards him. It was tangled with the others and was a tenuous process, but eventually he was able to identify it as Shock absorption.
“See that power?!” The madman asked. “It was made to defeat All Might, so it can definitely handle a brat like you.”
Izuku began pulling another. It was easier this time and he could tell much sooner that it was a Speed Quirk.
Another for the collection. He thought grimly.
“Crush him, Nomu!”
Yeah, time to not be here.
Ignoring the pain in his ribs he raised his legs and kicked the Nomu in the face and propelled himself away. He hit the ground hard but managed to turn it into a roll and get to his feet.
“You’re a real bastard, you know that?” Izuku wiped the blood off his mouth. He glanced at Aizawa’s bloody body and resisted the urge to sigh in relief when he saw the man’s light still glowing strongly. He was in no danger of dying.
A large explosion went off behind him and Bakugou was launched towards Kurogiri. He was able to get the jump on the Villain, on account of Kurogiri’s focus on Shigaraki’s fight.
Kirishima came charging in to support him, but it wasn’t actually necessary.
“You move one fucking inch and I’ll blow you to kingdom come!” Bakugou screamed. “I knew you had a fucking body in there somewhere!”
Kirishima let out a nervous laugh as he stood protectively in front of Bakugou, probably realizing that while holding Kurogiri hostage he wouldn’t be able to defend himself.
Shigaraki looked enraged and confused. “How did you-” he let out a frustrated scream and lunged for Izuku.
He pulled one of the many knives on his person out of a pocket and spun on his heel, letting Shigaraki go past him as he left a long cut along his outstretched arm.
“You-you-you WORM!” The Villain screeched, turning around to come swiping at him again. The cut didn’t seem to be slowing him down as he began the deadliest game of tag he’d ever played.
Shigaraki’s Quirk was no doubt powerful and dangerous, but it only seemed to work when all five fingers were touching something-like Uraraka’s. That made his hands very deadly weapons, but it also meant he didn’t rely on his legs as much.
He dropped low and kicked the side of Shigaraki’s knee, activating his only two Strength Quirks.
A pained scream echoed through the plaza.
…
Toshinori had expected a lot of things when he’d burst through the doors of the USJ, iconic smile not longer on his face, but this was not one of them.
Young Bakugou was kneeling above a man who seemed to be made of mist while Young Kirishima guarded him. Aizawa was covered in blood and Toshinori very much hoped he was only unconscious.
Young Midoriya…Young Midoriya was holding a knife over a pale man’s neck, expression as cold and merciless as the arctic.
Still, he bellowed. “HAVE NO FEAR! FOR I AM HERE!”
The pale man’s face twisted and he shouted. “Nomu! Free Kurogiri!”
…
Eijirou was shaking.
One second he was standing in front of Bakugou in an attempt to defend him so that he wouldn’t have to let go of the Villain, the next that big black thing that had attacked Midoriya was flying towards him.
It happened so fast he knew there was nothing he would be able to do to stop it. In the face of overwhelming power, he was helpless.
Luckily, their side had overwhelming power too.
All Might planted himself in front of them, locking the creature in combat, the two now straining against each other.
He heard Bakugou swear behind him and turned to see the mist Villain free. He must have loosened his hold during the Nomu’s attack allowing the other a chance to escape.
“You need to get out of here!” All Might called out to them. “I have this handled!”
Except he clearly didn’t. While All Might was just the slightest bit faster than his opponent, they were of equal strength, and every time they connected a shockwave ripped through the plaza.
The freed warper opened a portal right under Midoriya, forcing him to release the Hand Dude or be sucked into it.
Midoriya darted away on light feet, his chillingly cold expression remaining. He held his knife in a defensive position and moved to avoid the ice Todoroki-where had he come from? -sent the Villains’ way without even looking.
“Kirishima.” Eijirou jumped at being addressed. “We need to get Aizawa-sensei away from All Might’s fight.” Midoriya nodded towards the collateral damage the two were taking.
“R-right!”
While he carefully made his way over to his hopefully only unconscious teacher, he could hear the Hand Dude shrieking as All Might and the Nomu clashed again and again.
“Nomu was made specifically to fight you All Might! It has shock absorption, strength, and regeneration! This will be your downfall! The Symbol of Peace will die here!”
“SHOCK ABSORPTION? THAT MEANS THERE’S A LIMIT TO HOW MUCH IT CAN TAKE!” All Might boomed.
He reeled his arm back for a devastating punch, only for it to be caught by the warper and redirected at Todoroki and Midoriya.
The former created an enormous ice wall that was immediately blown apart but had done its job even if the two had been toppled over. Not content with only one arm, the purple mist dude then completely separated All Might in three pieces, head, legs and torso, preventing the man from moving without risking being cut into pieces.
“Destroy him! Rip him in half!” Crowed the Hand Dude, still in the same place he’d been when Midoriya had bent his knee the wrong way.
Eijirou grabbed under Aizawa’s armpits and began dragging him away as gently as he could.
The Nomu kicked up a cloud of dust and was suddenly there, already poised to crush All Might’s torso.
He froze in place-shocked because he hadn’t even seen it move, and is was going to kill All Might and there was nothing he could do-
A dark figure appeared above the Nomu.
Faster than his brain was able to comprehend, Midoriya wrapped his legs around its neck and drove the pair of knives he’d produced into the Nomu’s exposed brain.
An inhuman screech rang through the plaza.
Midoriya wasn’t finished though, and continued slicing until the two blades met in the centre of the creatures back.
He jumped off of it.
Eijirou’s heart was beating a million miles an hour, but despite the gruesome scene, he was glad that thing was dealt with.
That was until it started healing.
…
You have got to be kidding me.
Izuku watched as the Nomu stitched itself back together, the deep slashes he’d inflicted soon made little more than a paper cut before that too was gone. He’d fought people with regeneration before and the trick was usually to either knock them out or force them to heal so many times that they became tired.
Something told him it wouldn’t be that easy.
Seriously though, of the Quirks I managed to nab I couldn’t have gotten regeneration?
Regardless, his attack had managed to distract Kurogiri long enough that Todoroki was able to force him to dodge with a wave of ice, freeing All Might in the process.
The Hero immediately went to work on the Nomu, punching at speeds that Izuku didn’t even bother trying to follow-no he was more concerned with the fact that Shigaraki was slowly but surely crawling towards a prone Aizawa and a distracted Kirishima. He had hoped that Bakugou would intervene, but some of the small fry Villains had gotten up again and were attacking him in mass, preventing any aid he might have provided.
Izuku was too far away to stop him and he didn’t trust Minor pull and Float enough to risk it. He did his best to hide that he was much better at pushing things outward with Force push than he was at pulling things to himself on account of the baseline strength of both Quirks.
So instead of trying to stop Shigaraki away, he pulled.
The Villain’s hand wrapped around Aizawa’s ankle.
Izuku activated Erasure seconds before throwing Shigaraki away and barking at a surprised Kirishima to “Get him out of here and pay more attention!” before kicking Shigaraki in the ribs.
“GO BEYOND, PLUS ULTRA!”
The Nomu flew through the roof of the USJ as the Symbol of Peace stood confidently before the remaining Villain’s.
“COME GET ME!” He shouted, but Izuku saw something curious.
All Might was shaking.
Not only that, but his light was wavering between its regular overwhelming intensity and the power of a single match.
Before any of the Villains could take him up on that, the entrance doors burst open revealing the teachers of U.A. in all their glory, Snipe immediately shooting several bullets, one of which hit Shigaraki.
Izuku made the mistake of looking away for a fraction of a second.
Burning pain erupted from his calf as it disintegrated, his instincts pushing him to kick Shigaraki in the head to get him to stop.
“Lies! All Might hasn’t weakened at all!” he shrieked before Izuku kicked him once again. He fell backwards and away from the prone form of the Villain as Kurogiri created a portal just beneath him before disappearing himself.
Izuku was vaguely aware of Kirishima rushing over to him and the rest of the Heroes picking off the small fry Villains, but he was pretty far gone. He’d been injured many times before, but never quite like this, and it hurt more than he was expecting. His pounding headache from Quirk overuse didn’t help.
One of the few drawbacks aside from having to be on the run for the majority of his life that his Quirk had, was the massive headaches he got. They never came when he was using them, but the second he stopped it would come all at once and was a pain. Literally.
He sensed All Might’s light settling down to that soft candlelight and tried to turn around only for his stomach to roll violently as his head flared.
That’s not a good idea.
“Are you okay, Midoriya?” He heard Kirishima ask, kneeling down next to him.
Izuku blinked owlishly. “I think I’m gonna pass out.”
And he did.
…
Keigo Takami Hawks perched on top of a building, letting the cool air ruffle through his wings as his sharp eyes darted around the city. Normally he would be on the ground, talking with civilians and keeping up the persona the Hero Safety Commission demanded he wear, but today he needed to get away from all the bustle and flashing cameras. Hawks considered himself a talented actor, but even he had his limits when it came to holding that fake smile for so long.
It wasn’t like he was missing much, his feathers were as spread out as they always were, taking in enough information to overwhelm a lesser man. Hawks had long ago learned what to dismiss and what to pay attention to, and at the moment everything was peaceful.
Too peaceful.
There had been a decrease in crime recently and while someone more optimistic would take it as a sign that the presence of Hero’s was helping the decline, Hawks knew better.
After all, hope was a luxury only fools could afford.
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