Sasuke's warning was in vain as the invisible force didn't give them proper time to react. Shoda was torn in half before everyone's eyes, and Mirko was decisively crushed into the ground.
Mina pulled in the other students she sat directly next to, "Acidman!" She engulfed all of them in a thick large bubble of acid. Non-corrosive on the inside, but the outer layer was as corrosive as possible. The outline of an invisible arm trying to dig through the acid toward them was seen, but it melted away before it could reach them.
Everyone's expression turned to horror when the situation dawned on them but they didn't know where to run to.
Shigaraki chuckled, "That... What was his name... Shoda? He was a real nuisance earlier, he had to go."
Minato sweated with gritted teeth and used his markings on everyone to teleport them on top of Dark Shadow which grew in size. Tokoyami yelled, "What's going on?!"
Sasuke yelled, "Fly far away from here! An invisible Shigaraki is coming right toward us!"
Tokoyami turned left and barely avoided the ball of aura that Sasuke saw jump at them. Nejire grabbed her head, "He got Mirko and Shoda... that... that…"
Naruto yelled with clenched fists, "What the hell is going on, Sasuke?!"
"Limbo must be some kind of invisible clone! I can see its aura still, but it must be invisible to the rest of you!"
Deku flew toward them and sat Bakugo near them, "This is nothin'! I can still fight!"
Hawks put a hand on Bakugo's shoulder, "No you can't... this is a really big issue... If that's true, then only Sasuke and Midoriya can fight him now..."
They all grimaced and Midoriya spaced out staring up at Shoda and Mirko. 'I could have prevented that...'
The real Shigaraki jumped toward them like a missile, "Forgot about me!?"
Midoriya gritted his teeth and intercepted him, "Take care of Kaachan! I got this!"
Midoriya met Shigaraki in the middle and their fist clashing destroyed the windows of all the buildings below. Midoriya was stuck in his head, 'I'm sorry Shoda, Mirko, Kaachan... everyone... I was being selfish... You guys were all right, but I insisted and...' Midoriya resolved himself and the conflict left his eyes, 'I can't hold back anymore.'
Shigaraki blew Midoriya away with an air cannon, but he used gearshift to defy physics and used a Fa Jin-enhanced uppercut to send Shigaraki flying up toward the clouds. He sensed an invisible attack and dodged it, blowing the Limbo clone toward the ground with a gust of air pressure. Midoriya chased Shigaraki high up into the sky and the other heroes quickly tended to Bakugo's wound.
Sasuke's brow scrunched and he said, "I hate to leave Midoriya alone out there, but I'm not recovered enough to engage Shigaraki alone."
Mina asked, "I thought you were good to fight? Or was that a lie?"
Sasuke stayed silent and Nejire clenched her arms, "Shoda and Mirko couldn't even see it coming... What are we supposed to do now? He was always stronger, but now we can't even see him."
Minato put his hand under his chin trying to think of something, "I... don't know... For now, all we can do is wait for Sasuke to recover so they can take both Shigaraki's one-on-one."
Hawks muttered, "Assuming Midoriya is still alive at that point... damn it!"
Ino listened through the comms with a clenched jaw and wide eyes before forcing them shut. Her heart beat the fastest it ever has before and she looked around to see everyone not paying attention to her. 'Only Midoriya and Sasuke can see it... the rest of them are sitting ducks... but... I can help with that... if I can link everyone's minds together like I've been practicing, maybe they'll see him too!'
She began shaking, but she bit her lip and clenched her fists, 'I need to help them... this is something only I can help with... they need me! I just need a way to get there fast... Wasn't Monoma brought in?'
She stood up hastily, but not so hastily that others would notice. She speed-walked toward the medical wing where Monoma was and saw her father in the hallway. "Huh? Ino, what are you doing here?"
"Just going to the bathroom! I'll be back!"
She continued her pace without slowing down and Inochi raised a brow, "Okay then..."
She peered around the corner of the medical wing and saw that Monoma was alone and awake, 'Oh thank God...'
"Monoma!" she called out, rushing to his bedside. He perked up. "Huh? Are you one of the communication center people?"
"I need your help," she exclaimed while grabbing his hand. "Midoriya's fighting alone against an invisible enemy. The others there can't help because they can't see it!"
Monoma's brow furrowed while he processed what she said, "An invisible enemy? What—"
"—I can link their minds," Ino interrupted, "Right now only Sasuke can properly see the invisible enemy! But if I get there then I can link their minds so they can all fight, please! I just need you to warp me there or else they'll all die! You just have to trust me on this!"
Monoma blinked a few times while sweating and held up his free arm that she wasn't grabbing, "Alright alright. I get it. Well not really, but I get the gist. Just let me know one thing. Are you one hundred percent sure you wanna go out there?"
She nodded firmly and he opened up a misty tear in space, "There's your gate. But just so you know, I can only teleport via precise coordinates, so I'll try to put you on the sky—"
"—Thank you!" She ran through the gate without hesitation, but her feet quickly stepped onto nothing but air, and she began free-falling through the air. "Huh?" Her mouth dropped but the wind crashing into her face quickly made her reality sink in as she started screaming at the top of her lungs. 'I really should have specified the ground since the sky base fell! Please don't let me die please don't let me die!'
The heroes on Tokoyami's back heard the screams and turned their heads toward the falling girl, Hawks raised a brow, "What the hell?"
A couple of his feathers flew out and caught the girl by her clothes and brought her toward them. She wiped away tears and sighed in relief while Hawks asked as recognition registered, "The Head Doctor's daughter? Where did you come from?"
She cleared her throat and stood up on still shaky legs, "I got Monoma to warp me here cause I need to help you guys. Can you all hold hands?"
She stretched out her hands and Jiro tilted her head, "What?"
Ino raised her voice, "Just please do it! Long story short I'm pretty sure I can help all you guys see the Limbo clone!"
They didn't need to wait another moment more and everyone grabbed each other's hands in a circle. 'Mind Transmission!'
The effect was immediately noticeable as all but Sasuke blinked a few times seeing the aura outline of the Limbo clone.
Jiro shouted, "I can see it!"
Minato flipped his kunai, and a deadly expression crossed his face, "The fights are gonna be in our favor from now on."
Naruto nodded, "Yeah!"
Hawks asked, "Sasuke, are you good enough to fight yet?"
He nodded and Hawks stated, "In that case, I need you and Naruto to split the clone off and finish it if you can. As for the rest of us, let's go help Midoriya."
Everyone nodded, and Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other. "Let's kick that thing's ass!"
"Yeah."
Minato gazed toward the clouds, "It's trying to flank Midoriya right now."
Naruto replied, "I'll knock it right out of the sky then!" He hit his fists together and Dark Shadow flew everyone high up into the clouds. Once they got in range, Naruto outstretched a large golden arm and grabbed the Limbo clone from behind before jumping off Dark Shadow and slamming it all the way down to the earth.
Sasuke jumped down with him and the clone broke out of Naruto's grip before it could be slammed. The duo landed simultaneously, and Sasuke wrapped himself in his Majestic Attire before they both moved in sync against the clone. Sasuke thought, 'Looks like the clone can't turn the whole ground into a mind field.'
"This is gonna be easy pickings!"
"Don't get cocky."
The clone lunged at them first, trying to punch Sasuke, but a Susanoo fist met it in the middle and blew away any nearby rubble. Naruto appeared behind it and kicked it in the head, sending it rolling.
It recovered and thrusted a multitude of fingers at them, but Naruto tore through it all with a rasengan barrage using a dozen golden arm constructs. Naruto thought, 'Ever since that mind link, I feel like I know what Sasuke is gonna do before it happens too!'
Naruto jumped above the clone and kicked down, but the attack was blocked. Although before it could counter, Sasuke tried to cut it through its mid section which forced it to back off.
But one of Naruto's own clones slammed a rasengan into its back and sent it back toward the pair.
Sasuke entered his V3 Susanoo and tried to shower it with Magatama beads, but it buried itself under the ground and at Sasuke's feet.
Sasuke was almost grabbed, but Naruto grabbed him and pulled him to safety. A back-and-forth ensued for a while, and they both noticed at the same time that the clone slowly went through its own adaptation process. Naruto exclaimed, "We gotta try to finish this thing fast!"
"Agreed, we're gonna need perfect timing for this."
Naruto made a few dozen clones and they surrounded the clone on all sides before charging it with rasengans. It jumped high into the sky while shooting a shower of fingers below, but Sasuke pierced straight through it with an arrow in the air.
"Nice one!" The real Naruto caught up to it before it could land on the ground and kicked it back up before locking it into a combo and stomping it into the ground hard enough that it bounced toward Sasuke. Simultaneously on both ends of it, Naruto made a Rasenshuriken and Sasuke powered up an arrow with Amaterasu and Chidori before letting them off and clashing into the clone at the same time, obliterating it from this plane of existence in a light show of explosions.
They both caught their breaths and Naruto laughed before strolling over to Sasuke for a fist bump, "Way to go!"
Sasuke accepted the fist bump and wiped the sweat off his brow with a hunched back as his whole body felt sore, "Yeah..."
Naruto remained silent looking at him. "Can you keep going?"
"I have only a couple good attacks left in me." He straightened up and manifested wings, though they flickered slightly with instability. Naruto studied his condition. "You sure? You just finished fighting AFO not long ago, and now this..."
"I'm fine. What about you? That new cloak takes a lot out of you, doesn't it?" Naruto's golden aura had some flickering moments itself "Yeah, I can feel it draining me. This awakened quirk is powerful, but I'm not used to it yet." He rubbed the back of his head.
They both looked up toward the sky where explosions and flashes of light marked the ongoing battle with the real Shigaraki. Even from this distance, the level of the battle occurring was clear. "They need backup," Sasuke said, forcing his wings to spread out wider.
"Totally, but can you carry us both? I don't really fly, ya know." He smiled sheepishly and Sasuke shrugged.
"I will."
He began flying up and grabbed Naruto with a Susanoo arm. "You're lighter than you look."
"Hey!"
Their distance from the ground quickly increased and they made their way to join the last climatic battle.