Chapter 18
The clacking of small hands on a keyboard were the only noise in the room, until an aged voice broke the silence.
"Alright dearie, it doesn't look too bad. A few bruised ribs are the worst of it. Nothing a quick kiss won't clear up."
The tiny form of Recovery Girl pushed away from her computer, riding the stool she sat on until it stopped before the bed where an invisible form lay.
The woman's lips stretched out, contacting Hagakure's hidden cheek with a loud smacking noise.
The younger woman let out a small "eep" of surprise, before she sagged into the bed.
"Ooooh, that feel so much better~" The invisible woman groaned.
"I'm happy to hear it, dearie." Recovery Girl smiled at her easing pain. "Now, before you leave, keep in mind that my quirk uses your bodies existing energies and stamina to encourage it to heal faster than it normally would, so you'll probably feel a crash pretty soon."
She reached into a pocket and pulled out what looked like chewy candies.
"To help mitigate that, have some of these gummies. They'll help you recover, but they are not a cure-all. Be sure to get some actual food in you and get plenty of rest. No strenuous activities for the rest of today, and if the pain persists please come back and I'll get you checked out."
Hagakure reached out, taking the treats and promptly shoved them into her mouth, squealing in delight.
"Oh my gosh, these are so good!" He arms reached up, likely cupping her face in her hands, as she wiggled back and forth.
"I'm glad to hear that. They're a special blend that I came up with myself. Now go back to your friends, I've got one more patient I need to have a word with."
Izuku grimaced at the woman's words.
He had been sitting as far away from the two of them in the hopes that the nurse would forget about him, but he was to so lucky.
Hagakure hopped out of the bed and skipped to the door leading out of the nurse's office.
"Thanks Ms. Recovery Girl!" She waved back at the little woman as she exited the room.
Izuku continued to pretend he didn't exist in that moment, but knew it wouldn't last when he heard the clacking of a cane make its way towards him.
He tensed, expecting the elderly nurse to press him with questions about what happened during the lunch break.
He was surprised, when she plopped into a small chair situated nearby, where she slouched in exhaustion, releasing a sigh that set off Izuku's nerves.
"I swear, you young'uns get more and more rambunctious every year…"
"W-what?" Izuku looked over, seeing Recovery Girl sag into her seat.
"During the alert, students were trampling over each other to try and get out, but you were able to get them to calm down and follow the proper evacuation guidelines." She turned to him, a relieved smile on her face. "Thank you for that Midoriya. If not for you, a lot more people could've gotten hurt."
Izuku felt his throat tighten at her words.
"I-I didn't really do all that much. I just yelled to get their attention." His eyes turned down to his clenched hands. "…Pretty sure I scared them more than anything else. Gave them a more immediate threat to worry about."
"What makes you think you scared them?"
Izuku's hands clenched tighter.
"How else would they feel when a beast bigger than a horse roars out at them an intruder alert is going off?!" The greenette spat out. "I shouldn't have done that; I probably just made it so much worse for them."
Recover Girl didn't immediately respond. When she did, her words were slow, careful.
"You seem stuck on the idea of frightening them. Does that that have something to do with the… state I found you in?"
He knew what she meant to say. A panic attack. Most people don't realize in the moment what it is, but he did. He was very familiar with the feeling.
He'd had plenty of them in the past.
"I don't like scaring people…" He heard how small his voice sounded, and he hated it.
"M-midoriya? Y-you're scaring me…"
The room suddenly felt so much smaller than it was before. It was getting harder and harder to breath. Where his hands were clenched together, he saw a mess of fur and claws.
"W-why are my hands like that? I didn't use my quirk. I-I need to undo it, I need to-"
A small hand landed softly on his knee; and a voice pierced through the ringing in his ears.
"Just breath dearie. Follow along with me: Inhale." A breath in. "and exhale…"
It took him a minute or so to follow along, but once his ragged breathing even out to something closer to normal, he realized his hands were human again.
His vision blurred and his shoulders quaked.
"It's ok, dearie. You're safe here, let it all out."
Izuku turned, barely able to see that the tiny woman had hopped onto the cot he was sitting on. He didn't need clear vision to feel Recovery Girl wrap her arms around him.
He carefully wrapped his own around the fragile nurse, and let the tears fall.
Izuku didn't know long he cried into her shoulder. It could have been minutes, seconds, or even hours as he poured out his pent up fears from his eyes.
When the tears finally lessened to a trickle, he pulled away, seeing the large wet spot on the woman's coat.
Quickly wiping at his face with the sleeve of his school jacket, he stammered out, "I-I'm sorry. L-let me help clean that up!"
He moved to rise out of the bed, his eyes shifting to find a rag or towel, only to get waved off by the older lady.
"Don't worry about it dearie. You aren't the first student to get my coat dirty, and you won't be the last. Thankfully I keep plenty of spares." She said, her kind smile still on her face, though he felt like there was something about her expression he couldn't quite identify. "Did you want to talk about what has you so bothered?"
Izuku opened his mouth, maybe to say something in response, but he felt his throat clench up.
It had felt nice cry, to finally let out some of the fear he had held onto. The fear that he was the monster people called him for years. That he had proven them right today.
After all, in the act of saving one of his classmates, she had admitted to his face that he scared her.
…And he hadn't even been transformed at the time.
He thought he'd been able to weather it all while he had Tsu as a friend, and had all but left those thoughts behind after meeting Himiko, but today proved that he hadn't left it behind at all.
That anger he felt when the reporters broke through the barrier, when Hagakure had been trampled by the fleeing students…
He'd felt angry before, and had done a pretty good job of shoving into a shoebox and locking in a mental closet, if he said so himself.
That anger he felt during lunch was something different though. He couldn't get a hold of it, couldn't bury it. It burned bright and it burned hot.
Like something deep inside of him refused to let the emotion be extinguished.
And that scared him.
He didn't like being angry. He didn't like the way it made him feel. Uncontrolled, violent.
It made him feel like…
He didn't know what it made him feel like. He just knew that he didn't like it.
Enough time must have passed while lost in thought, that Recovery Girl must have assumed he wasn't going to answer.
And honestly, he really wasn't planning on doing it.
Acknowledging it all in his mind was one thing, but admitting it all out loud felt like too much. It all still felt too raw.
He watched her drop off of the bed and make her way over to her desk.
She climbed up a small set of steps and plopped into a plush chair clearly made for someone larger than the diminutive woman.
He would have found it kind of funny if he hadn't just cried a river of tears down her back.
She slid a blank piece of paper towards herself, and wrote something down on it.
Climbing back down, Recovery Girl walked back to Izuku, holding the paper up to him.
"W-what's this?" He asked, reaching forward and taking it.
"Most people don't realize it, but mental problems tend to come part and parcel with working as a hero. From traumatic injuries to failed rescues, all the way over to PTSD. It's why plenty of hero agencies hire on therapists to help keep themselves level, or just have someone to talk to. We have a few on staff to account for the large number of students we have, but the one I'm recommending to you is Hound Dog."
Izuku looked at the paper, seeing the contact information for The Hunting Hero: Hound Dog. More specifically, the contacts for his work as a UAU licensed therapist.
"Not only is he the best we have, but I believe he will have a much better perspective than I in regard to your situation."
He didn't doubt it. Heteromorph quirks varied in terms of just how much it effects a person's body and personality.
Plenty of people like Hound Dog, Gang Orca, and even Ryukyu were some of the more extreme cases, though Ryukyu's didn't show unless she was transformed.
"Kind of like me, in a way."
He looked back up to the school nurse. Her smile had changed to a more serious, if still concerned, look.
"I'm not forcing you to go see him, but I would recommend giving it a try. Even if it is just to have someone to talk to. Don't worry about anything getting out during your session if you do go, all of our therapists have the same doctor/patient confidentiality agreement I am under. Nothing you say will get out, and anything that does will only be after you've given express permission to do so."
The smile returned to her face.
"With all of that out of the way, was there anything else you wanted to talk about? Have you recovered ok from the that scuffle you had with the Bakugou boy?"
"N-no, nothing else. I've recovered just fine. Thankfully I was able to finish my healing after resting for a few days." Izuku stood up preparing to leave.
"Good, that's wonderful to hear." She looked up at the clock hanging on the wall. "Now then, I do believe I've taken up enough of your time. You've got some people waiting outside for you. Go on back to your classroom."
He breathed a sigh of relief, just reaching the door-
"Oh, and one more thing, dearie."
The wolf man looked back. "Yes?"
"While the school doesn't forbid intimacy in the dorms, please do be sure to use protection. Wouldn't want a happy surprise to get in the way of you all graduating."
He felt his face heat up as he quickly swinging the door open and leaping out, shutting the door, escaping the tittering older hero.
Only to be met by the sight of a pouncing cat.
He yelped as Himiko impacted his chest with a flying tackle.
Thankfully years of experience helped him transfer the force into a spin.
Completing a full rotation, he helped set the blonde back on her feet, where she started to barrage him with questions.
"What took you so long? Is everything ok? Can I get some of your blood? Were you hurt? Did she punish you for something stupid? What's that in your hand?"
It took him a moment to process them all, but when he did he couldn't help it.
He laughed.
He laughed so hard that tears came back to his eyes as he held onto the vampire.
"What? What's so funny?!" She yowled out.
"Never change, Himiko, ribbit. Never change." A chuckling Tsu said, walking up to them.
It took him so long to calm down, that Himiko started to nibble on one of his arms in annoyance. It was the one holding Hound Dog's information, oddly enough.
Wiping his wet eyes, he looked between her and Tsu.
"I-I'm fine. She just wanted to ask me some questions. As for the paper," He handed it to Tsu. She was more likely to actually read it and Himiko was at the moment. "She gave me Hound Dog's contact info."
"The hero Hound Dog? Is that because his quirk is similar to yours, ribbit?"
"That, and he's a therapist here at UA."
"What?! She's sending you to get therapy?!" Himiko cried out. "She can't do that!"
He understood where she was coming from. After her years of therapy-induced quirk suppression, it was no wonder the woman was vehemently against the idea.
"No, she hasn't set anything up. She just gave me his contacts, so I could set it up myself if I wanted to."
His words seemed to mollify her, but just enough that when she went back to biting his arm, she didn't draw any blood.
"Still don' know why she' do that…" Himiko mumbled into his arm.
"You know why, ribbit." Tsu handed the paper back to him, which he stuffed into a pocket.
Himiko just "hmphed" into his arm.
A group of footsteps brought his attention past his two best friends, where he caught sight of Kirishima, Hagakure, and surprisingly, Iida.
"Iida, what are you doing here? I thought you would have gone to class with everyone else?" Izuku asked.
"I discussed it with Yaoyorozu, and we decided it would be best that the Vice Representative would lead 1-A back towards the classroom, and that I, as your assistant Vice Representative, I should stay here to watch over you all!" The blue haired man said, one of his arms chopping authoritatively.
He chuckled a bit as he watched the man's antics.
"I appreciate it Iida." The wolf man smiled. "We should get going, don't want to get Mr. Aizawa angry if we take too long."
"M-Midori?" A small voice said.
Izuku blinked, his gaze turning towards the floating set of clothes.
"H-hey, Hagakure. W-what's up?" He tried to still the tremors he suddenly felt in his chest, but it still escaped him in the form of stuttering.
The invisible girl walked closer to the trio, the sleeves of her uniform hanging up in a way that made him think she might have been fiddling with her hands.
"I just wanted to apologize."
He blinked in surprise, but before he could come up with a response, she continued.
"Tsu told me a little bit. About how kids used to call you scary, and I wanted to say I'm sorry!"
She suddenly jolted up to her full height, her bracelets rattling as her arms went ramrod straight at her sides.
"You were just trying to save me, and I went and said something so mean!"
"H-Hagakure, it's fine, you don't have to-"
"It is most certainly not fine, mister! You were just angry at those awful reporters outside, and I went and said the worst thing I could have to you. You don't get to say, "it's fine" after that!"
"Well, not the worst thing you could've said…" He did not say out loud.
"Hagakure-"
"So I'll do whatever it takes to make up for it!" Her arms were crooked at her side, likely resting her hands on her hips.
… before she slumped, bringing them back up so her hands were together again.
"Though… I'm not sure what I can do. I'm not exactly good at cooking or cleaning…"
He could just imagine her poking her index fingers together in embarrassment.
He almost guffawed at the image.
Choking down the fit of laughter he responded.
"H-Hagakure, it's ok. I get it. You were being trampled by over a hundred people, and I just pulled you out of there and then started growling into your ear like some sort of crazed animal. It was my fault more than anything, so there's nothing you need to make up for. Though, if it helps, I forgive you."
Hagakure paused.
"O-oh. I uh… Are you sure?" She sounded hesitant. "This was a little sooner than I expected…"
He smiled reassuringly at her.
"Of course I'm sure. Though… I'm sorry too. If I had been able to control my anger, I wouldn't have freaked you out so much."
"Already forgiven!" She waved her arms in the air excitedly. "You know what? Since we've forgiven each other, you can call me Toru!"
"A-are you sure?" He was surprised at the emotional flip. Going from contrite, right back to her happy go lucky attitude just because he forgave her?
And now she wants to let him use her first name?
"Yep!" She said jubilantly.
"Oh, well in that case you can call me Izuku!"
"Nope!" She said just as jubilantly.
"A- wha- huh?" Izuku's brain blue screened.
"I think Midori sounds better. Now come on, Yaomomo is probably wondering where we are, let's go!"
He watched as she turned, lifting an arm forward, and started marching in the direction of their classroom with Iida right behind her.
He blinked when Kirishima walked up to him.
"I just wanted to say, Midoribro, I think what you did was manly as hell!" He loudly whispered to Izuku, a hand raised to the side of his mouth as if he was trying to whisper conspiratorially.
Then he, too, followed after the invisible woman.
"Wwwwhat just happened?" That was all he could say in response.
"It's nice to have friends, ribbit." Tsu giggled as she grabbed his free arm, pulling them along.
Himiko just continued to gnaw on his arm as she was dragged along.
A sudden shaking jerked her awake.
Himiko rapidly blinked bleary eyes, images of hunky wolf-men and frog legs receding to the ethereal part of her mind where most dreams stayed after waking up.
Taking in the scene before her, the blonde remembered what she was doing before the cozy shoulder she was drooling on had lulled her into a comfortable sleep.
She was sitting in a bus, with Izuku sitting next to her, currently on their way to what the hobo told them would be a "field trip".
…Though the fact that everyone was dressed in their hero costumes gave way to the fac that it wasn't going to be as fun as she hoped.
A class where they dressed up in their costumes meant a bunch of work, and all she wanted to do was cuddle up to her fuzzy dog-man-eventual-boyfriend and take a nap.
While she had the nap part down, it was unfortunate that Izu had to be in his human form for the trip to wherever they were going, and doing so in a vehicle as it rattled down the road meant that it wasn't a great nap.
Though the hand currently carding its way through her hair and scratching the scalp beneath certainly helped.
She sneakily shifted her gaze up, trying to hide the fact that she had woken up, lest the lovely head pats end, taking in the sight of her delightfully oblivious snack-muffin.
Izu was wearing his weird blue costume that he insisted "had ties to the moon" or whatever. She didn't really care too much about what any of those symbols running along the seams meant, all she could care about was the skin he left bare.
To those strong arms, to the delicious chest muscles showing through the open vest, to that deliciously pulsating neck left exposed whenever the hood was down.
In fact, he had it down right then, leaving his throat bare for all to see, and his wild hair let loose from its usual hair tie.
Himiko didn't really care too much about how he kept his hair done, it's not like she was one to talk.
Most of the time she kept her hair up in two balls because they were easy to do, and she thought they looked cute.
Whenever she was at home though, she would let them loose, and didn't really try too hard to control her unruly hair.
After all, she had two amazing friends to take care of it for her.
Whenever Tsu was able to visit, the woman would take her time fighting any tangles in her hair while they washed together, and Izu would always brush her hair out afterwards.
There was something almost ritualistic about the way the they would care for her hair, possibly something to do with the animalistic side of their quirks. Probably something about animals grooming each other, but she wasn't an animal scientist.
Not that she would ever complain. The way Tsu ran her hands through her hair as she applied soap, and the way Izu ran the brush and his own fingers over her head had her melting into a puddle.
So lost was she in the coziness of the moment, that she almost missed the moment when the bus came to a stop.
She grumbled loudly when she was forced to get up and exit the vehicle.
Clinging to Izu, she was led towards a large building shaped like a glass dome. It was lacking a sign denoting what it was for, but she did notice something odd standing before the entrance.
It was what looked like a giant puffy pillow with arms and legs. Where a person's head would be was a black dome settled atop some sort of weird breathing apparatus. The end of each of the figure's finger were covered in what looked like metal caps.
Two white splotches covered the dome in some sort of cartoony facsimile of eyes.
Before she could consult the hero encyclopedia that was Izuku Midoriya, someone else stepped forward with what's usually his signature excitement for heroes.
"Oh my gosh, that's Thirteen!" Ochako Uraraka cried out. "She's a hero who specializes in rescue operations, using her quirk Black Hole to clear away debris and absorb energy attacks or fire!"
"Ahahahaha, I see my reputation proceeds me!" A tinny voice came from the puffy costume.
It was so heavily distorted that had Uraraka not said anything, Himiko would have struggled to identify her gender.
"But there is one misconception that I should clear up." Thirteen lifted a hand, pointing one of the capped fingers towards the ground. "Black Hole does not simply absorb matter."
The metal popped open, and where she pointed, grass, rocks and other debris was sucked up into the finger port where it promptly disappeared.
It closed back up, and the costumed woman lifted the hand so that the class could see the now covered finger.
"It affectively dematerializes anything that gets sucked up, hence its name. Anything my quirk takes in, cannot be let back out."
"O-oh…" A suddenly paler Uraraka gulped out.
"Every quirk, if mishandled, can cause severe damage to your environment, or even civilians if due care is not taken when you use them. I've been a hero for years now, and I still have to be very careful while using mine." Thirteen said.
"But we don't expect you all to have the same level of control as we do. We've had years to practice, whereas you lot are still in your first year of school." Aizawa interjected, walking up beside the Black Hole hero. "It's very likely that most of you haven't had any opportunities to go all out with your quirks, so you will come here multiple times during your stay at UAU so you can properly test your limits."
"We've designed this building to house several environmental disasters so you can push yourselves to the fullest under harsh weather conditions." Thirteen opened the doors, leading them all inside.
Several students gasped at what they found inside.
In the distance there were multiple closed off areas large enough to fill a small town.
One looked like a mountain riddled with cliffsides that looked barely large enough for two people to stand on. Near its peak was a thick layer of snow.
One looked similar to the mountain area, but was covered in rocks, boulders, mud, and the remains of what looked the buildings.
One was a small town filled with barely standing multi-story buildings chewed away by time. They all looked ready to fall over at barest breeze.
There was a giant lake surrounded by two more domed areas.
One was painted to have red flames covering the whole dome.
The other was blue and covered in dark grey clouds.
All of these areas surrounded a plaza that had a large fountain in its center.
"Welcome, to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint!" Thirteen spread her arms out as everyone took in the sight. "Or USJ for short."
"Here, we'll be splitting you all off into groups, where you'll be testing your quirks in environments suited to your power sets. We will be testing them in detrimental disasters as a later date, once you've gotten some more practice in." Aizawa droned.
The teachers continued to speak, but Himiko couldn't be bothered to pay attention to any of it. Her attention was elsewhere.
The thing about living on the streets in hero society is that the dark underbelly of the world is very dark.
Where most might suspect some muggings, maybe even some drug related attacks, the real seedy part of the back alleys was so much worse.
Kidnappings, murder, and even sexual abuse. It was so much worse than the news media liked to portray.
They didn't like to acknowledge that such awful events were happening under the noses of the heroes who keep the world so "squeaky clean".
That even some heroes were corrupt enough to let the evil slip past them all.
Thankfully Himiko hadn't been desperate enough to do anything too awful, on account of Izu finding her when he did, and not a day went by where she wasn't thankful.
There's no telling how far down into the dark she would have gone if he hadn't found her. What she would have done.
…Who she would have become.
She hadn't been on the streets for very long, having been homeless for maybe only a few months.
Though she wasn't there long, she was on the streets long enough to gain a particular set of instincts. Instincts that she'd let gather dust in the back of her mind.
Instincts that were screaming at her.
To run.
To hide.
To grab onto Izu and Tsu, and cower in a deep, dark corner where they would hope they wouldn't be found.
"Himiko, are you alright?" A voice sounded at her side.
She barely registered the words. Her ears were ringing, and she realized that a cold sweat was running down her back.
Something begged her not to look, to just pretend it wasn't happening.
She turned her eyes towards the Central Plaza.
Her breaths came in ragged gasps as she tried to back away, but a strong pair of arms kept her steady.
"Mr. Aizawa, is that supposed to be part of the class?" Someone asked.
Below, a misty hole in reality floated in the air. From it stepped a large group of people. All of them wore the ragged and sweat-stained clothes of low-tier villains.
They weren't what was causing her instincts to act up, so what-
Behind them stepped out two more figures.
One was absolutely massive, rivaling even All Might in size. Its skin was black, riddled with disgusting, pulsating red scars. Its muscles were so large that they almost seemed like they could tear their way through its skin at any moment.
Where a man's head would normally be was large beak absolutely filled with sharp teeth. Atop it sat an exposed brain, its two eyes bulged out of the wrinkly grey matter.
From behind it stepped a man wearing loose fitting black clothes. Across his body, an array of hands clasped onto his arms, torso, neck, and one even covered his face.
There was a great distance between this man and her, but Himiko could have sworn she saw a glare of red coming from behind the hand covering his face.
Her fear ratcheted even more when the portal behind him spoke.
"Hmm, the schedule said that All Might was going to be present, yet I only see Eraserhead and Thirteen." The hole in reality shrunk down until it took the shape of a man, his head a constant shifting roil of dark clouds with two lines of yellow taking up where his eyes would have been. "Would you be so kind as to bring him here? Today is a very special occasion after all."
Himiko felt Izu's grip on her tighten.
"Today is the day your Pillar of Hope comes crashing down."
Her breath snagged at his words.
"No, he couldn't possibly mean-?"
"Today, All Might will die."
Izuku stared in mute horror.
"All Might will die? No, that's not possible. He can't-" Izuku thoughts were cut short at the shouts of some of his classmates.
"Sir, is this part of the class?" Kirishima asked.
"No. Those are actual villains." Aizawa answered. "Thirteen, are you able to contact the main campus?"
"No, something's jamming the communications in my suit!"
"Everyone, get out of the building and get help, now." Eraserhead ordered, placing his goggles over his eyes.
"But what about you?" Kaminari cried out. "You can't seriously be planning on fighting them on your own?"
"I will do what needs to be done." He turned back to them. "As your teacher, it is my responsibility to make sure you all are kept safe."
"But there have to be over a hundred villains down there!"
"You'd be surprised how much actual training makes the difference." Izuku noticed that the teacher neglected to meet anyone's eyes. "Now get going! I'll buy you what time I can."
His words spent, the bedraggled teacher ran down the stairs, meeting the crowd of villains down in the central plaza.
He turned back when he heard a loud banging noise.
"Dangit, the door won't open, it's stuck!" Ojiro banged his tail against the doors, but they held fast.
"They have control of the security system too? Who are these people?!" Thirteen was tapping away on a nearby console, seemingly in vain.
"Move out of the way." Sato stepped forward, pouring a small packet of sugar into his mouth. "I'll get the doors open!"
"That will not be necessary."
Izuku swirled around, seeing that misty villain suddenly standing among them.
"What?! When did he-"
"I cannot let you all leave. The young master has requested that you all stay, so that you may witness the downfall of your greatest hero." The man began to grow in size, but suddenly Kirishima and Todoroki crashed into him.
The portal user grunted as he impacted the ground.
Izuku felt a glimmer of hope as he watched Todoroki grab the man by the shirt collar, ice running down his arm-
"How unruly."
A blast of black mist shot up, enveloping the two students before shrinking back down.
They were gone.
"Stop this at once, I am not to kill any of you, but I will defend myself if I must." The mist-man stood back up, his yellow eyes glaring at the student.
…Only to grunt in pain as the mist making up his body was dragged backwards, right into the open ports on the hand Thirteen had pointed forward.
"I will not allow you to harm my students!" She seemed to have the villain well in hand-
Thirteen screamed.
Behind her, another portal hand opened, which pulled at the back of her suit, tearing it, and horrifyingly, her own back apart.
She fell to the ground, her quirk cutting off as she collapsed, ending the drain coming from the portal.
"I believe that is quite enough." The villain panted.
His reforming body then expanded and a blast of smoke.
"I am not permitted to kill you all, but I can certainly remove you from the board."
Izuku felt himself fall as the mist reached him. By instinct, he grabbed Tsu and kept his hold on Himiko as he fell.
"BEGONE!" A surge of smoke blasted out at them.
The last thing he saw before everything turned black was Shoji hurling Iida at the sealed doors.
Izuku hit the ground with a loud "oomph", having spun them so that he would be the one to take the landing on his back and prevent his friends from getting hurt.
He was surprised it didn't hurt more than it did.
He turned, seeing a small field of white beneath him. Looking up, he saw the domed ceiling of the USJ overhead.
"Ugh… where are we?" A voice groaned at his side.
"Himiko!" He sat up, the two women still in his arms. "Are you ok?! You froze up, I thought the villains had done something to you!"
"I'm fine, just wasn't prepared for all this bullcrap." She shook her head, looking up at him. "What happened?"
"I think we got teleported by that mist villain. Since we're still in the USJ, we must be in the mountain zone" He squinted at his surroundings. "And since all I can see is snow, we must be really high up."
"Cold…" Came from a small voice at his other side.
"Oh crap, Tsu!" He reached the hand holding Himiko over so that he could envelop her in his arms.
He knew her suit was designed to help regulate her temperature in colder climates, but they never had the chance to properly test it.
And for them to suddenly go from room temperature to freezing cold, she must be feeling worse from the cold snap.
He pulled the three of them to their feet and passed the frog to his other friend.
"Himiko, hold onto Tsu. I'm going to transform, and try to get us down the mountain as fast as possible. Try to keep her warm until we get down there."
"Oh you aren't going anywhere."
They turned, seeing a group of villains trudging towards them. The one in the lead wearing a heavy winter coat.
"We've got orders to keep you all busy." He eyed the three of them, his grin growing wide. "He didn't say we couldn't have some fun while doing it though, did he?"
Izuku's body flashed as a wave of disgust coursed through him. He let it pass, knowing he didn't have time to deal with these creeps.
He howled at the group, launching them all away.
He huffed, laying down so that the two women could get on his back. It was obvious that Tsu was losing body heat too quickly by how hard Himiko had to struggle to get her up there.
He stood up, his two charges as secured as they were going to get atop him.
He needed to move fast.
…He would need to have a word with the people who made Tsu's suit at some point.
He ran for everything he was worth, leaving a plume of snow in his wake.
When he finally made it out of the mountain zone, Izuku was panting.
Not only was he running faster than he ever had before, he had to dodge villain after villain on his way down while doing it.
"How many villains did these people bring?!"
He dug his paws into the ground, sliding to a stop in the central plaza.
He was slightly relieved, yet a little worried, to see that his homeroom teacher was still fighting.
The sleep deprived man was surrounded by unconscious villains. Izuku watched as another one tried to fire looked like literal finger guns, but failed when Aizawa glared at him, before being rendered unconscious by a flying knee to the face.
He continued to watch the hero knock down goon after goon, but something caught his attention.
He turned his ears towards the noise, trying to get his enhanced hearing to pick it up.
"Someone's… counting?"
He turned his eyes in that direction, seeing the hand covered man staring intently at Eraserhead.
"26…27…28…"
Izuku was trying to puzzle out what the man was counting, when he rushed forward, Aizawa's elbow suddenly in his grasp.
The greenette winced when his teacher shouted in pain, and watched in horror as first his sleeve, then his skin, then his muscles start to crumble away as ash flying on the wind.
His eyes widened in horrified recognition.
"He's the one who broke the gate, letting the media in!"
"I'm getting bored."
The hand covered man let go of Aizawa's arm, letting the man fall to a knee as he grasped his bleeding arm.
"All Might was supposed to be here, why hasn't he gotten here yet?!" The madman lifted his hands and start scratch furiously at his throat.
Izuku barely noticed Tsu and Himiko sliding off his back, too enraptured by the horrible sight before him.
The scratching hands stilled.
"I've been letting this fight between mobs go on long enough. I've been waiting for the hero to show up and save his party, but I'm thinking that's not gonna happen. Hmm…"
The man tilted his head back, as if in thought.
"Maybe it's not a timed event? Maybe I need to kill enough of the weaker party members to get the big guy to come out?"
Eraserhead's undamaged arm suddenly struck out, a string of his capture tape reaching for the crazed villain-
The giant beaked thing was suddenly there, one of its massive hands wrapped around Erasure Hero's arm.
He bent the arm back, snapping it at the elbow.
His screams were cut short when the monster grabbed him by the face and slammed the back of his head into the ground.
"Change of plans you mobs!" The hand covered man cried out. "Let's see how many people we need to kill to get All Might's attention!"
Izuku felt a weight in his gut.
"It will make his look of defeat all the sweeter when he gets here sees his precious students lying dead on the ground."
The man's eyes turned, meeting Izuku's.
"Starting with you three. Kurogiri!"
He watched, terrified, as a portal opened before the villain.
The large wolf had expected the other end to appear before him, but when the other man reached through and nothing happened, he turned as realization hit him.
He watched, as if in slow motion, as a hand reached out of the portal right next to Tsu's still shivering form.
Neither her nor Himiko noticed it open beside them. Neither aware of what was about to happen.
They were about to die.
Before he could even comprehend his next action, Izuku tasted blood in his mouth.
He felt the flesh between his teeth, and he yankedhis massive head to the side, tasting even more of the life essence flow across his tongue.
He heard the villain scream in pain, but refused to let go.
It was only when another hand reached out of the portal that he released him.
He turned, watching the man pull his mauled arm out of the portal, still screaming.
The wolf growled deep in its chest.
It had to watch the man; he couldn't let him get anywhere near those two again. It couldn't let its attention waver from the threat before them.
It didn't even notice the second threat until it was too late.
One second, Izuku was standing before the two loves of his life, planning to do whatever it took to protect them.
The next, he was… he didn't know where he was.
Everything hurt too much to know what here even meant. He tried to move, but stabbing pain stopped him.
It hurt everywhere.
"Wuh… w-what happened?" Even his thoughts were fuzzy.
His vision swam. He couldn't hear anything but the faint thudding of his heart. It hurt to breath.
If you could even call the wet sucking of air breathing.
He tasted blood.
"Oh right, I bit that guy, didn't I?"
Something felt very wrong.
"W-why can't I… w-what was I…?"
He coughed, and he tasted more blood.
"Blood… blood… why did I bite that guy again…?"
It was getting hard to think.
Hard to breath.
Hard to care.
Hard to…anything.
He tasted so much blood.
"Blood… why does it keep coming back to that?"
His breathing slowed, little more than bloody wheezing.
"I'm so tired…"
Darkness creeped in on the fuzzy colors.
"Is that mist guy using his quirk on me again?"
He tasted copper.
"…who was I thinking about?"
His vision swam, catching on a tinge of green and yellow.
"So pretty…"
As the darkness crept in, it brought the two lights into sharper focus.
"W-why do they seem so familiar…?"
The colors ebbed and flowed, forming into two people.
"So much blood…"
The yellow one was swiping a wobbly arm before her, trying to ward something off.
She was screaming, though he couldn't hear any words.
"What has her so scared…?"
The green thing was held in the yellow's other arm. She wasn't moving.
"Why isn't she moving?"
He watched as the green lifted an arm. Pointing it at…
"Me? Why is she pointing at me?"
He could barely make out her face. She was saying something, but he couldn't hear the words.
"I know the words, I know that face…"
Tears marred her cheeks, pouring down her face as she looked at him.
"They need me…"
Pain.
A hot, stabbing pain flared across what was left of his senses.
"They need me."
The darkness turned red as pain continued to tear through him.
"They need me!"
He watched as something reached forward, almost grasping the yellow.
"THEY NEED ME!"
*CRUNCH*
Chapter 19
This couldn't be happening.
This was just supposed to be some stupid field trip meant for them to train.
How could things have gone so wrong?
Izuku had been standing right in front of her, ready to fight for them, the stupid, brave man.
And then that thing was suddenly there, swinging one of its grotesque arms into the giant wolf.
The sounds his body made when he was hit made her sick. She had to fight with everything she had not to vomit, but she couldn't let herself. Couldn't run after him.
Couldn't look at his body.
"He's not dead. He can't be dead!"
Tsu was still cold, barely able to do more than shiver from the cold that crept deep into her body.
"If we make it through this, I'm going to tear those costume makers apart limb from limb!"
Himiko stared forward, keeping the black skinned monster and the pale villain in her sights.
She was more annoyed than ever that UA made all the knives she requested be apart of her suit were blunted. "For you own safety" they'd said.
It was a good thing she wasn't big on safety.
She reached down, pulling out a knife she'd hidden in her boot, and pointed it at the crusty bastard.
"Stay the fuck back!"
He chuckled, a smile stretching wide underneath the hand covering his face.
"So feisty~." His words sent a horrified shiver down her back. "That's fine. Makes killing you all the more fun. Don't worry though, I won't have my Nomu do it."
"Yeah, like not dying to the roided up super-chicken is supposed to make me feel better." She thought.
"I'll do it myself." He lifted up his injured arm. "That mutt bit me, and he seems to care quite a bit about you too, if the vigor he put into it is anything to go by. Seems fitting that I kill you first to get back at him."
He started walking towards her and Tsu.
Himiko felt her hands start to shake.
She wouldn't die here. She'd do everything in her power to get Izu, Tsu and herself out of there, but she wasn't sure how.
With ashy-man in front of her, the giant freak, and the man who could make portals, she didn't see how she was going to be able to manage it.
Gods help her, she would try though. She just needed a miracle.
Tsu shivered. She wanted to get up, but she was so cold.
"If we get out of this, I'm giving whatever development company that made this suit a peace of my mind."
She was starting to get feeling back into her extremities, but the process was slow.
Too slow.
Her vision had started to clear after they entered the central plaza, but she almost wished it hadn't.
Seeing Izuku getting backhanded by the giant monster broke her heart.
Watching his body skip along the ground like a pebble across a lake, then crash into the fountain at the center of the area shattered it.
Her eyes couldn't look away. Couldn't stop staring at him.
If her body wasn't in shock from the cold, she probably would have thrown up at the sight of him.
His body was a wreck, she could see that even from all the way at the edge of the courtyard.
Nothing was pointing in a direction it should have.
His legs looked like twisted branches, his torso was crushed like a cheap water bottle, and his head…
"Oh gods…"
Most dogs can twist their necks pretty far, doing that silly curious head tilt, where their ears would go floppy, but this…
It was spun so far around that-
Tsu felt bile force its way up her throat.
She felt sick. She couldn't think.
"No, he can't be…"
Tears poured freely from her eyes.
Slowly, shakily, her hand reached out for him. Almost hoping against hope that she could do something. To help him maybe.
She just had to reach him.
"I-Izu…"
"Please… please don't take him from us…"
Tomura wasn't angry.
No, he was downright furious.
All Might not appearing threw a major wrench in his plans.
The mobs he brought with him were supposed to threaten the lives of the students, keeping All Might too distracted to properly fight back against his Nomu.
He had originally planned for the small time villains to actually kill as many students as possible, but Sensei made him hold off on that.
Something about heroes pushed beyond the brink being dangerous.
Why wouldn't he want to push the number one hero past his breaking point? It would make his look of defeat all the better at the end of it all!
As much as he wanted to set his recruits to the slaughter, he knew that he shouldn't go against Sensei.
That said, these brats were really pissing him off.
Not only were they refusing to be subdued, one of them had even torn his arm apart.
He remembered a particular lesson.
"Your hands are one of your most important tools." He had said. "But so is your mind. Do think about where you put them. Not every opponent will be caught off guard by tricks."
Tomura growled.
That lesson had been an unusually rough combat session. He thought he had found an opening to touch Sensei, to finally get a win.
Only to find himself crying, face down in the dirt, every finger on that hand broken.
He looked down at his mangled arm. Kurogiri had applied some rough first aid to it, but blood was quickly seeping through.
He looked at the pile of flesh and bone lying near the fountain, then at the two girls before him.
He grinned as an idea popped into his head.
"Sensei said I shouldn't kill the students…" He thought. "But he never said anything about all of them needing to be alive."
He stepped forward.
He watched as the blonde pulled a knife from somewhere on her person and waved it around herself, as if to ward him off.
"Stay the fuck back!"
"So feisty~." His words were filled with mirth, but he paid careful attention to her panic-fueled slashes. "That's fine. Makes killing you all the more fun. Don't worry though, I won't have the Nomu do it."
It would probably hurt less to be dusted. If he let his quirk act fast, that is.
It was too bad for them that he wanted this to be slow.
He flexed his uninjured hand, taking pleasure whenever the cracking of the joints caused the little bitch to flinch.
He almost laughed as tears fell from her eyes.
Her swinging only became wilder as he approached.
He watched, using each step as an opportunity to gauge when the perfect chance to strike would arrive.
He feinted, leaning forward as if he would dive for the green woman still lying on the ground.
The blonde's eyes widened in fear, knife swinging to intercept him, only to realize too late his true target.
He felt his dry lips split as his grin widened in glee. In just a few moments he would be reveling in her screams of pain, enjoying the show that would be her body falling apart. Becoming nothing more than-
*CRUNCH*
Tomura felt his hackles rise as some instinct told him to dodge.
He dove away from the loud noise.
He made sure to be careful in his sudden roll, not wanting to further injure his arm.
Quickly pushing to his hand and knees, he prepared to retaliate at the surprise attack, only to see…
Nothing?
No one was standing next to his previous position.
"What the hell was that feeling? Felt like somebody was about to bite my head off." His thoughts raced.
His head swiveled, trying to locate the assailant. His eyes narrowed when he found no one.
The only ones there were him, Kurogiri, the Nomu, the two women, what was left of his adds, the half-dead hobo, and the already-dead mutt-
His eyes widened when he caught sight of the last figure. The goddamn dog that almost bit his arm off.
"What the fuck…?" He muttered.
It should have been dead. Nothing should have survived a hit from his Nomu. It was designed to kill All Might.
Ahead, near the center of the plaza, were the remains of the overgrown animal.
The writhing remains.
Tomura watched in disgust as flesh bulged, bone cracked, and muscle split apart.
For a moment, he though maybe its body was shifting back to the form of a student as its body took its last breath.
"Maybe it's a summon, and this is its body rapidly decaying as whatever power kept it here elapsed?"
His thoughts halted as the body seemed to rearrange itself.
Bones broke through skin, and were pulled back in as muscle reconnected.
The torso bulged out like a cancerous mass was trying to burst his body apart, only to be sucked back in with a disgusting wet slurp.
Tomura refused to look away from the sight, even as he heard several people vomit into the grass.
Limbs continued to shift, seemingly unmoored from their natural position. He could have sworn he saw the thing's head swimming along its back like its body was made of some sort of furry sludge.
All the while, some sort of hazy light wafted off of it.
He had to fight the urge to vomit, himself.
This had to be the single most revolting thing he had ever witnessed. Not even the Doctor's vile experiments could have prepared him for this.
The… thing, for there really wasn't any way he was going to call it an animal, lost cohesion for a moment, its body becoming nothing more than a ball of flesh, muscle, and bone.
Tomura lost track of time as he watched the abomination writhe, parts of itself bulging out occasionally.
Eventually it fell in on itself, losing its round form, only for an appendage to shoot out, its end slamming into the ground before it.
The muscle and bone making up its form sunk below the skin with a loud tearing noise, and with dawning horror, Tomura understood what he was looking at.
That tentacle was slowing forming itself into a limb.
Bones continued to snap apart as they rearranged until they formed the bent shape of a wolf's leg. It's end bulging as it reshaped into a paw, each toe tipped with vicious claws.
And then another leg sprouted out, much faster this time.
Its body continued to shift as it took on a more familiar form. Its head grew out of its back, only to move forward and down, facing away from the group.
As its body seemed to stabilize, a tail sprouted from its backside and fell limp.
Tomura held his breath as he watched the remade wolf pant, likely exhausted from the effort needed to heal itself.
"Its weak, better finish this thing off now before it starts some bullshit phase two." He thought.
"Nomu! Kill that thi-"
Before he could finish his order, the wolf lifted his head… and howled.
Tomura didn't even notice as the entirety of the USJ shook at the force of power released from its maw.
He didn't notice the looks of hope dawning on the faces of the two women laid out on the ground.
He didn't notice as the villains he brought with him turned and ran.
His attention was fully upon the creature screaming out into the world. He couldn't turn away from it, even if he wanted to, because of one simple fact.
The wolf didn't lift itself up onto four legs.
It stood up on two.
It stood taller than even the Nomu's impressive 230 centimeters, yet nowhere near as wide.
The creature's muscle were lean, built more for speed than strength. It's fur was shaggy, hanging from its form in limp patches, lacking any of its previous luster. Its lustrous green was now a muted ghost of what it once was.
It resembled something like a sickly werewolf.
And he wanted nothing to do with it.
As its howl started to ebb, Tomura shook himself from his stupor.
"Oh hell no, take your second wind bullshit and shove it up your ass!" He growled out. "Nomu, kill that thing!"
The beaked monstrosity launched itself forward, prepared to clothesline the horror movie reject, only for its arm to strike nothing but air.
Just as the arm was about to make contact, the wolf thing ducked, its fur rustling at the edges as the strike passed over it.
The man's eyes widened when the werewolf lunged forward, biting into the Nomu's side.
It reared back, tearing a chunk of flesh and muscle away, leaving a ragged hole in the things side. Before much blood could be spilled, the edges of the wound swelled, rapidly closing back over, leaving unmarred flesh where a fatal wound had once been.
Normally, Tomura would be proud of it's super regeneration quirk, and he had been about to boast about its ability to recover from any wound.
Only for words to escape him, as he watched the brat-turned-beast chew and swallow the meat in its mouth.
Once again, he found himself wondering what the fuck this thing was.
He had seen plenty of people with animal or transformation quirks go berserk, tearing apart people caught in their rampage, but never had any of them eaten their victims.
The Nomu spun, slamming a fist down onto the wolf, only for it to dodge by leaping to the side. The ground exploded upon the attack landing, missing the beast entirely.
It tore another pound of flesh from the hulking monstrosity's arm as it spun around, consuming it too.
The fight continued like this for a while. The Nomu attacked, with the student-turned-animal barely dodging within a literal hairs-breadth distance from the attacks.
The werewolf ripped and tore as much flesh as it possibly could as it moved, yet for every wound it dealt, the skin and muscle regenerated, seemingly endlessly.
Tomura 's eyes narrowed as he watched the fight, intent on taking in as much information as he could.
He had every confidence that the Nomu would come out on top. The Doctor had designed this thing to take out All Might, of course.
Some pumped up kid on a rage-fueled emotional high would never be able to beat his secret weapon.
Although, a glaring weakness in the jumble of quirks the thing had was that Impact Absorption didn't hold up well against cutting attacks, put well on display as the wolf's teeth and claws tore through the science experiment's skin with ease.
As the fight continued, his gaze caught onto an interesting detail.
He couldn't help himself.
He laughed.
"T-the hell has you laughing, you crazy bastard?!"
He turned to his side, grinning down at the knife-wielding brat on the ground.
"It's funny, watching all of you hero-wannabes fighting for your lives, not realizing there's nothing you can do to stop us."
The beaked creature missed one of its hits, and the werewolf took the opportunity to leap onto its back, digging teeth and claws deep, tearing chunk after chunk of flesh away.
The Nomu roared, jumping backwards, throwing them both so far that they tore through several trees at the edge of the clearing.
Tomura watched as the Nomu lifted itself up, revealing the animal beneath it, it's back sticking at an unnatural angle.
He stared in fascination as the bent spine quickly corrected itself in a flash of light, and the furry beast lunged forward, spearing a clawed hand deep into the Nomu's stomach.
The undying monster reached down, intending to grab the beast, only for it to dive between its legs, trailing intestines behind it as its hand tore free.
The wound tried to heal itself shut, but the guts kept being pulled free, tearing the wound open again and again.
The werewolf jumped onto the Nomu's back, wrapping the intestines in its grip around the thick neck of the All Might killer.
It thrashed, trying to throw the transformed student off of its back.
It swung its massive fists over its shoulders, trying to hit the thing, but it kept dodging.
The sickly creature tugged on the viscera in one hand, pulling more internals free, and wrapped more and more of the organs around the neck.
It repositioned itself, planted its feet and pulled. It pushed against its back, using the Nomu's own organs in an attempt to choke the hulking monstrosity.
Fortunately, the Doctor built his Nomus a bit tougher than that.
It continued to thrash, while the wolf refused to become dislodged.
When the Nomu realized it wouldn't be able to get a hold of the creature, it jumped, rolled across the ground, and did whatever it could to remove the annoyance on its back.
The werewolf just growled, refusing to let go, and pulled harder.
Its body broke, its arms crunched, legs gave out as they were pasted over and over again, yet it continued to hold on.
Its arms snapped back together, it got its reforming legs back under it, its body reknit together no matter how many times it was injured.
By then, the central park looked like a war zone.
Troughs of dirt riddle the area, trees were thrown about like a hurricane had blown through, and barely anything was left of the fountain at its center.
The Nomu managed to wrap a hand around one of the regenerating man-thing's legs, and with a loud crack, pulled it from its back.
The werewolf held on, the flesh in its hands splitting around the beaked creatures neck as it was pulled around and slammed into the ground.
The Nomu lifted the green-furred animal and swung again and again.
The wolf howled in agony as it was slammed into the ground over and over again, its fast regeneration unable to keep up with the rapid fire impacts.
It tried to claw at the crushing grip held fast to its leg, but could only manage a few bloody scratches before it was bashed into the ground like a fleshy hammer.
The Nomu did this a few more times, until with a slow, deliberate lift, it slammed the creature into the ground hard enough to crater the earth. Its pain fueled roar was replaced with a wet crunch as its body impacted.
The two girls on the ground next to Tomura watched on in horror as their furry savior went limp.
"What's wrong?" Tomura said with a not insignificant amount of glee. "Did you seriously think that rangy mutt would actually be able to stop my Nomu?"
He turned away from the concluded fight, looking down at the students cowering before him.
"It was engineered specificly to kill All Might. Your dog stood no chance. Against its unending regeneration, nothing can stop it!"
The man's smile dropped as he stepped forward, his good hand reaching out.
"You've all wasted enough of my time, and its obvious All Might isn't showing up."
The women paled as he stepped closer, all hope and willingness to fight draining from them. Even the blonde bitch was unable to muster up the force of will to swing her knife at him.
Good. That would make this easy.
"So I think I'll just kill you now. If I can't kill All Might, at least I can get the satisfaction of killing his precious hero students."
Tomura tensed, about to lunge for the blonde-
He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand.
He jumped back, barely avoiding the rapidly forming ice that ran through and past where he had just been standing.
His eyes followed the trail, landing upon a man half covered in ice.
"Young Master-!"
He turned at the voice, seeing Kurogiri get tackled by a shirtless redhead.
"Oh no you don't!" The man cried out, a firm grip on the cloud covered man's neck brace. "Don't even think about trying to teleport us again! I don't know what this thing's deal is, but I saw the way you protected it before warping us away."
He lifted a fist threateningly, the skin of his hand turning into some craggy rock-like material.
"You so much as move and I'll break it!"
"Kurogiri…" Tomura growled.
"I'm sorry young master! They caught me by surprise."
"That's twice now you've failed me-" He started, but his words were cut short when the ice covered man stomped his right foot, another wave of cold blasting out.
He dove, rolling to the side.
"I swear on my Nintendo, that I will dust that fast travel knock off when we get back."
Tomura grit his teeth.
This was supposed to be simple. Attack a bunch of college kids with delusions of grandeur, kill the number one hero, then leave after gloating a bit.
… but shit kept getting in the way of his plans.
He leaned forward, preparing to run at the ice-wearing idiot, only to launch himself to the side.
He ran at the muscle-bound bastard holding down his escape rope, fully planning to dust him.
The air grew cold as a truly massive wave of ice, far larger than the other attacks, surged towards him.
Tomura turned, reaching his hand out, intending to dust the veritable glacier barreling towards him.
Before it could reach him, however, it suddenly exploded into a cloud of ice shards and mist as something impacted it.
Everyone in the surrounding area was blown back.
The cyan-haired man rolled several times before he stopped himself, dusting a little bit of ground where he managed to stall his momentum.
He looked up, trying to catch site of whatever had just destroyed the frozen attack, only to laugh.
The mist and dust slowly cleared, revealing his Nomu standing in the crater its landing had caused.
It held the animal-thing in one of its giant hands by one of its legs. The body hung limp, its torso dragging on the ground below it.
The two wannabe heroes pushed themselves up, their eyes landing on the two figures in the center of them all.
"What the, is that…?" The ice user said.
"M-Midoribro…?" The redhead uttered in growing dread.
"These two also know that flea-bitten rat?"
Tomura stood.
"…maybe I can use that."
"You see what happens when you stand against the League of Villains?" He called out. "He thought he could stop us… He was wrong."
Where the werewolf looked rough after its grotesque transformation, it looked like so much worse now.
Not one of its limbs had survived the fight, all of them bent in multiple different directions, with bones protruding from several of them. Half of its chest was cave in. One of its eyes was missing, where an impact with an especially sharp looking rock had torn skin and bone. It bled profusely, pooling beneath it into a crimson puddle.
He watched in delight as the students turned green at the sight, the redhead gagging as he took it in.
He almost laughed when he heard the two women sob from somewhere nearby.
He would have too, if not for the fact that the damned furball was somehow still breathing.
"The fuck does it take to kill this thing?"
Something else of note was that where the werewolf had started of thin and gangly, it had at some point become emaciated.
"When the hell did that happen?"
He shook the errant thought away. No point worrying about what didn't matter.
"Surrender now, and I'll make sure your deaths are quick."
Sensei would probably be angry at him for going off script, but fuck it. If All Might wasn't going to show up, then there was no point keeping these kids alive.
"If not…" He gestured towards the crater. "I'm sure my Nomu would love to give you the same treatment?"
Their only response was silence, and the two women were too busy crying to say anything.
"No takers? Ah well, in that case… Nomu!" Tomura called out.
The beaked monstrosity's gaze turned towards him. He pointed towards the man half covered in ice.
"Kill-"
Before he could finish his order, he was interrupted by a tremendous crash.
He turned towards the noise, seeing a cloud of dust from where the doors at the entrance to the USJ had been.
His breath hitched when he caught sight of the form that stepped from the cloud.
"THERE IS NO NEED TO FEAR." The form boomed out. "FOR I AM HERE."
The dust was thrust aside by the casual swipe of a hand, revealing the smiling form of All Might.
No, not smiling…
As the Number One hero looked down upon them all, taking in the scene, Tomura couldn't help but notice that the smile that faced down the worst villains the world had ever seen wasn't there.
He was frowning, and as the large man's eyes landed on the broken form in the Nomu's hand, Tomura could have sworn the frown deepened into something dark.
He felt a cold shiver run down his back at the sight.
Then the man's gaze turned, and even from all the way down in the central courtyard, he felt those burning blue eyes land upon him.
"…..uh oh."
Toshinori couldn't help but growl internally.
He was scheduled to assist with teaching the students about environmental disaster training, but he had arrived at school late.
An abnormally large amount of criminal activity had chosen that morning to occur, so he spent some time on his way in assisting with the crime wave.
It had gotten so bad that he had to use up all but an hour of his remaining time in quelling them.
In an attempt to preserve his dwindling time as All Might, he finished his commute to UA as his true self, Toshinori Yagi.
So he had driven to school, instead of simply jumping across town like he normally would have.
By the time he had arrived, the students had already boarded the buses and gone ahead of him.
He had been about to follow them, only to be intercepted by Nezu and lectured about tardiness and time management.
Not even the number 1 hero was stubborn enough to argue against the Dean.
He was momentarily thankful that the verbal lashing had been interrupted when, of all people, Tenya Iida burst through the door of Nezu's office.
He was decidedly less thankful when the young man explained why he was at there, instead of in class.
The USJ was under attack by villains.
His students were in danger.
He quickly shuffled out of the room, having paused just long enough for the door to close behind him, before he bulked up and raced out of the school.
What a fool he was.
It was his responsibility to be there for his students. To help them become the next generation of heroes.
To protect them.
He wasn't there when he should have been, but he would be there now.
He'd just hoped that he wouldn't be too late.
That they could hold out long enough for him to get there.
As he looked down upon what was left of the central courtyard, he felt a sudden weight in his core. One that pulled at his very being.
It was like a warzone. Trees were destroyed, craters littered the entire field, and deep furrows marred the once lush greenery.
In the center of the largest crater, stood a hulking man, and in one hand it held-
Toshinori froze.
"Is that…?"
While its form differed from the usual lupine form, the faded green sheen of its fur was unmistakable.
Held in the tight grip of the black skinned thing, was the battered and broken form of Midoriya Izuku.
The number 1 hero knew that the boy had an incredible ability to heal himself. He even knew that he didn't need to be conscious for the body to heal itself.
He had seen it happen during the battle trials, after all.
"So why isn't he doing it now?"
Midoriya was lying across the ground, one leg held up in the large man's hand, limp.
Unmoving.
That weight he felt burst alight inside him. A fire so hot that he felt like he might burst into flames had he stood still.
So All Might moved.
Faster than he'd ever moved in recent years, he rushed the blacked skinned monstrosity. Whether by surprise, or an inability to keep up with him, the beaked being made no move to stop him from freeing Midoriya from its grip.
The hero was didn't even stop himself from holding back, breaking the hulking figure's fingers so badly that they were all bent completely backwards.
He rushed past, grabbing Himiko and Tsuyu on his way back to the USJ's entrance.
He paused just long enough to set them gently upon the ground, before repeating his trip, grabbing Kirishima and Todoroki.
One final lap was made to the central courtyard, to grab Aizawa.
As he was setting his fellow teacher down next to the prone form of Thirteen, one of the gathered students cried out.
"IZU!"
He turned, seeing Himiko launched herself at the prone form of Midoriya.
Toshinori reached out, catching the blonde woman before she could land on the injured man.
"LET GO OF ME! HE NEEDS ME, LET ME GO!" She screamed, lashing out with nails and a surprisingly sharp looking knife.
"I'm sorry, young Himiko, but we have to be careful." All Might spoke gently, trying to keep her from trying even harder to stab him. "He is grievously injured. Any rough movements, and we risk him getting more hurt."
A pink appendage wrapped itself around the feral woman, pulling her from his grasp.
Tsuyu reached out and wrapped Himiko in a hug, and whispered to her until she calmed down enough to turn around and wrap the froggy woman in a desperate embrace.
He met eyes with the expressionless woman, and she nodded him.
"Don't worry I've got her."
She was trying to put up a brave front, but Toshinori could see the way she trembled. Likely on the edge of having a breakdown herself.
He forced himself to smile.
"Don't worry, Young Asui. UA has some of the best medical staff in the country. Once we get him to Recovery Girl, he'll be made right as rain!"
He hoped his words felt reassuring to them.
They felt empty to him.
Before he could let himself too hard on the health of Young Midoriya, he turned to the other two students.
"Where is the rest of your class?"
"W-we got split up. That guy covered in smoke was able to teleport us or something. Roki-bro and I got sent away first, to the Ruins zone. We didn't see anyone else, but the villains were saying stuff about more groups being set up in the "other areas"?"
It didn't take much thought to guess what that could mean.
"So they're spread throughout the disaster zones, then?"
All Might turned, preparing to go rescue the rest of his class.
"All of you, stay here. I will be right back with the rest of the-"
"All Might."
The large man paused, turning towards the voice.
"Young Todoroki…?"
The dual-quirked young man turned away from the center of the building, meeting the Number 1 Hero's eyes. He pointed down at the villains.
"The guy covered in hands is the leader. He said the thing with its brained exposed was designed to kill you. I don't know what his quirk is, but the big one has super strength and heals very quickly. Midoriya was ripping it apart, but it kept regenerating. Pretty sure it was healing faster than Midoriya was."
His voice was monotone, as if devoid of any emotion.
All Might couldn't help but blink at the man's tone. It was like he was just reading the weather report from the morning paper.
"… I just thought you should know." Finished speaking, the heterochromatic man turned back to the villains, watching them.
As much as the large man wanted to try and process… whatever that was, he shook his head.
He didn't have time to worry about it.
His students were in danger.
Giving his thanks to the young man, All Might launched himself across the building, aiming for the giant lake and the boat in its center.
It was matter of seconds for him to clear out the disaster zones and rescue his students.
He was moving far faster than he probably should have been, and he was sure Recovery Girl was going to have some words for him once this was all over.
He felt phantom pain in his shins, but brushed it off.
He wasn't sure why the ringleaders of this infiltration seemed content to let him spend the time to get his students to safety, but he was sure their patience wouldn't last much longer.
There was no way they would let him just walk out with his students, and if Young Kirishima was correct, it wouldn't take much for their teleporter to appear and stop them.
"Whey…"
Placing a seemingly delirious Kaminari next to the other students, he turned towards the stairs and leapt down.
He landed with a crash, dust rising in a cloud around him. He waved his hand through the air, the pressure powerful enough to blast the cloud away, revealing the three villains before him.
"It looks like the hero has finally deigned to give us some of his time, Kurogiri." The one covered in hands said.
"It would seem so, Young Master." The words seemed to emanate from the head of the one covered in clouds. It was hard to tell if he had a mouth , or any head at all.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. I had a bit of cleaning to do before I could get to you."
All Might cracked his knuckles.
"Would you be so kind as to surrender peacefully?"
The hand-covered villain laughed.
"You heroes really are too soft. One of your precious students is dead, and you don't even a shed tear? No platitudes about getting revenge? Just asking us to surrender?"
He sighed.
"No. We won't be surrendering. We're here to kill you, after all. No point leaving until the job is done."
The cyan-haired man pointed at the number 1 hero.
"Nomu? Kill him."
The black-skinned hulk of a man launched itself forward with a screech, arm swung back in a wild haymaker.
All Might ducked beneath it, launching a punch of his own tight into the Nomu's stomach.
He blinked in surprise when the monstrosity didn't even flinch under the force of the blow. He jumped back to gain some distance, only for the creature to leap with him.
"Surprised, All Might?" The hand-covered villain called out.
All Might lifted an arm to block an overhead punch, and grunted in pain when the blow landed.
"How strong is this thing?!"
"My Nomu was engineered to kill you. With its Shock Absorption and Super Regeneration quirks, there's nothing you can do, but die!"
"Multiple quirks?!"
Toshinori didn't let the thought distract him, and fired an uppercut right into the beaked chin of the Nomu, grinning when he saw it's head fly back.
"So its Shock Absorption isn't all powerful."
He launched a combination of blows into the thing's chest, watching a ripple effect seemed to pour across its skin at each impact.
His grin widened.
"This thing is like a punching bag made specifically for me!"
All Might reached out, grabbing one of the Nomu's outstretched arms, and spun. The world was a blur as he rotated like a top.
He let go, watching as the Nomu flew across the USJ, crashing into and through everything in its path.
He got into a boxing form as he prepared to launch back into the fight.
"That means I don't need to hold back. Good!"
He tilted his head, a loud cracking noise ringing out as he stretched his neck.
" I need something to vent out all of this anger on."
He felt that burning in his chest intensify.
"Don't worry, Young Midoriya. Just hold out long enough for me to end this."