Chapter 7
In the course of a man's life, there will be moments where all higher brain function will shut down –even for just a second– and all he will be able to think is, 'Well… shit.' Such moments can range from dropping a bowl of cereal on the floor in the morning before having to go to work, all the way to the traumatic loss of a limb. Those two words and that pause in between are surprisingly effective when it comes to summarising the mental state of the man in question during such events. Two words, and a pause. A beautiful example of the complexity of human communication.
Aizawa Shouta was having a 'Well… shit' moment right now. Here he was, on a Friday morning, facing down a horde of villains during what should have been an introductory class to rescue work. He was in one of the furthest facilities away from the main school, a pure rescue hero with little combat experience as back up, and twenty kids with no experience at all. 'Fuck!' Shouta scanned the crowd. He'd moved passed that micro-second freeze up where everything goes to hell when you absolutely least expected it to, and was running through his options.
He currently had three priorities:
Evacuate the students to a safe locationInform the school of what is happeningHold back the villains long enough for reinforcements to arrive'Hold back' because he wasn't going to kid himself; he couldn't win this fight. The grunts that made up the main body of the attack force mostly seemed to mostly consist of typical back alley thugs, or, in other words, his every-night-usual, a title shared with a café called "The Emerald Pasture" he visited in the middle of his patrols, since they were the only place open that late where the barista served him near lethal levels of caffein without complaint. In other words, his favourite café. He isn't joking when he says that if anything happened to the place or its employees, he would kill everyone involved and then himself.
Eraserhead focused. Now wasn't the time for thoughts of God-given coffee or possibly-villain-but-all-around-adorable baristas and their cats. Now was the time to be a Hero.
"Thirteen," he yelled over his shoulder, keeping his eyes on the villains glaring up at him from courtyard, but keeping a large part of his focus on the three most important ones. "Protect the students and get them out of here. Kaminari." The teacher turned one eye to the student in question and felt something heavy in his gut. The electric boy had given the impression of being upbeat from the start of the year, flirting good-naturedly at least once with anyone who would talk to him, and took the inevitable rejection with a laugh. That same jolly teen was now staring wide-eyed at the gathering, frozen with fear. Sweat gathered on the boy's brow and he didn't even seem to be breathing.
The weight in Shouta's gut got heavier as anger flashed through his mind. This was why they waited until internships to even lightly expose their students to villains. It gave them time to somewhat adjust to the reality of the heroism and the required mindset, to start to come to grips with the fact that facing dangerous individuals and putting their lives on the line is what is expected of them. These kids had a week's worth of time in a hero school behind them and a single combat exercise. Regardless whatever training they went through before they came to UA, facing real villains who wanted to kill them was something no amount of normal training would prepare them for.
Unfortunately, Eraserhead didn't have the time to mourn the loss of his students' innocence. "Kaminari!" This time, the boy snapped out of his shock and looked at his teacher. "Use your quirk to try and contact the school. They need to know what's going on here!" Just as he turned around to jump down the stairs and engage the villains, three students stepped forward out of the corner of his eye. He glared and the three stopped. 'Todoroki, Bakugou, and Midoriya, huh…' "And what do you three think you're doing?"
Bakugou snarled, hunched over and hands clenching and unclenching, tensed up like a wound spring. Blood-red eyes flitted between Aizawa and the villains. "There are too many for you to take on alone, teach. You need back up." Todoroki gazed at his teacher evenly. "And unless you've been deceiving us about your quirk, you don't seem like someone suited for large scale confrontations." Midoriya just looked past his teacher, down at the gathered villains who seemed content to wait for the heroes to make the first move. The green-haired teen's hands were clenched into fists, the odd spark flying from his skin being the only sign of his agreement with his classmates.
Aizawa nearly smirked. 'Precocious brats… but perceptive. Still, I need to make sure they don't follow me... time to be a teacher and teach.' Aizawa looked back to the crowd and crouched at the top of the stairs. "No hero is a one trick pony. Stay back and evacuate, that's the only way for you all to help right now." And with that last order, Eraserhead shot off down the stairs, taking them four at a time.
There is a certain art to going down stairs at high speeds. The type of movement required is somewhere between running, falling, and jumping. A running leap forward, over the lip of the stairs. A sudden drop, during which the one in question has less than a second to consider what to do next –and maybe all of the life choices that led to that point. Then the landing, probably the most difficult part. A good landing means that they put the right amount of power into your jump, that the legs and feet are positioned properly, and that, somehow, they managed to land on a slip of concrete with less than thirty centimetres of step-width.
A bad landing means a twisted ankle at best, which, if he fails to catch himself, is followed by a painful and embarrassing tumble down over fifteen vertical meters of concrete stairs, finally landing at the bottom in a heap of broken bones and painful bruises. In other words, what Eraserhead just did was an impressive feat to any novice free runner.
Aizawa Shouta, codenamed Eraserhead, was no novice.
He flew down the stairs with the grace and focus of a gentle stream, before smashing into the enemy vanguard like a raging torrent. He jumped over a wild haymaker from a man made of stone, wrapping his capture weapon around rockman's shoulders and using them as a leverage point to launch a steel toed kick into the villain's temple, dropping him.
The other villains in the front line seemed to hesitate, and Aizawa took the chance to get a better look at the villains now surrounding him.
'Mutant quirks as a front line–' he dodged a projectile from another villain, using the chance to throw a man with three arms and two knives at the source. A strangled yelp and the heavy thud of two bodies hitting the ground made him want to grin. '–and longer ranged fighters as a second line. Did they know I was going to be here? Something to find out later.' The hero took a moment to scan the crowd, his mind quickly formulating a plan. 'Ok, I can work with this.'
Eraserhead sidestepped the swing of a crowbar from a man with four legs – no other mutation, just four legs. 'I wonder how he lies down to sleep with all that extra clutter,' a distant part of Aizawa's mind thought errantly, as he kicked one of the knees out of place, ducking under a swing from another attacker that hit the four-legged man in the temple, causing the villain to collapse. 'Guess that's one way to find out.'
Eraserhead's new opponent had four eyes and four arms, and was swinging wildly at the hero. 'No training, no finesse.' The hero's black eyes caught movement in their periphery, and he spun around the four-armed villain's double-haymaker. The heavy swing met no resistance, and the villain stumbled forward, right into an energy beam from the back line. The hero used the villain's bulk to shield himself as the four-armed villain took the hit and slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Someone cursed in the back line, and Aizawa bobbed and weaved between some of the melee fighters, letting the back-liners take out their own allies by themselves with poorly aimed and poorly timed shots. 'Saves me energy and causes chaos,' he thought, as a man with spiky hair and no visible mutation went down, and Aizawa decided to temporarily claim the pipe the villain was trying to wield as battlefield salvage. Eraserhead looped a piece of his capture weapon around the pipe as it fell from its previous owner's now limp hands, swinging it around to build up momentum, and swung his improvised flail into the chest of another large villain. The hero didn't wince at the sound of cracking ribs, nor the pained wheeze of the winded man going down. These villains didn't deserve his sympathy.
A glint from somewhere behind the front line caught his attention and, seeing a distinct lack of potential human shields, the flail was swung around again. This time, the loop loosened, and the pipe flew straight into the skull of a mohawked woman with what looked to be an air blast gathering in her cupped hands. The pipe knocked her concentration –and a few teeth– out, making her attack go wild and hit her allies, dropping two other spindly back-liners.
As Eraserhead was busy teaching a man with a pig mutation how much it hurts to be punched in the snout, he spotted another villain trying something different. Instead of just charging at the hero that was tearing through their front line, this female villain ran past him, trying to get to his students. Fur sprouted on her arms and legs, her fingers turning into claws as her legs became digitigrade. The villain was halfway through her transformation, picking up speed as her legs elongated and her pace lengthened, when Eraserhead intervened. Previously black eyes lit up red as black hair floated in the weird anti-gravity field of his quirk. Long, wolf-like legs suddenly shorted, and fur vanished back under very human skin. The villain had a second to feel startled about the sudden failure of her quirk –the absence of the thing that had always been within her perception shaking her to her core– before a long white scarf looped around her upper-body, trapping her arms to her torso. The villain was yanked off-balance and swung through the air, screaming as her previous momentum was turned against her and, like a bowling ball through pins, she collided with a clustered group of villains that had sought to follow her example.
Aizawa allowed himself a nano-second of pride, then got back to work. Some of the collapsed group was still conscious, but a 'gentle' reinforced boot to the jaw in passing was enough to dissuade them from trying anything for the rest of the day, and maybe persuade them to choose a different career path. Publicly funded medical care in the prison system will fix the broken jaw, maybe even use healing quirks for the concussion, but the trauma of seeing a crazy homeless man with glowing red eyes and a halo of floating black hair launch himself at the poor sod with a long, white scarf and a manic glare will stay with them forever. Aizawa considers it his own little contribution to penal and reformation system society implements.
Eraserhead decides to kick it up a notch. Most of the front liners are down, or too scared to try sneaking around him after what he did to the previous group that tried. It had only been five minutes, max, so the hero still had plenty of energy in the tank, and he wasn't sure if the students had finished evacuating. Using the body of a particularly tall man, Eraserhead's feet left the ground. He used the man's weight to launch himself upward, kicking off his piece of leverage's face and shoulders, conveniently knocking the villain out. Eraserhead launched himself from one villain to another, using his capture to pull himself towards new targets, or pull new targets towards himself. He interspersed his dance of acrobatics and violence with uses of his quirk to stop any particularly stupid villain from attacking him or his students from range, sometimes repeating his previous trick of villain bowling.
Eraserhead had just kicked a woman with knives for hands in the stomach when he suddenly got a good view of the villains' ringleaders through the crowd, and the weight he had forgotten about made itself known. Eraserhead knew how to count. He had seen three actual threats step into the USJ from the main portal, the massive purple thing with its brain sticking out, the man with light-bluish hair covered in hands, and the misty villain in fancy clothes that acted as the group's doorway into the school. There were only two of them standing at the back of the horde of grunts that Eraserhead was currently tearing through.
'The teleporter is gone!'
Aizawa kicked it up five notches. He felt panic pushing itself up from his gut, but viciously supressed it.
'And I'm pretty sure I know where he is!'
'God fucking dammit…' Izuku glowered at his teacher's back as the man launched himself down the stairs. The teen could admit he admired Aizawa's bravery, but come on. 'Eraserhead specialises in urban environment ambushes. This flat, wide-open terrain bullshit is the worst-case scenario for him.'
As Bakugou and Todoroki followed their teacher's instructions and joined up with the retreating class, Midoriya stayed behind to observe a bit longer. His glowering lasted until Aizawa knocked out the first villain. Then another, and another. Thin black eyebrows, previously scrunched downwards in anger and annoyance camouflaging hidden worry, slowly started to rise. They kept rising and nearly disappeared into his hairline as the green-haired teen watched his teacher cut a swath through the horde, leaving downed villains and unconscious bodies in his wake. It seemed Midoriya needed to revise his earlier statement.
'No hero is a one trick pony, hey?' Midoriya focused his attention on the three at the back. The ones that had arrived last, and who looked the most important or strongest. 'They haven't moved yet. I wonder…'
"Midoriya!" A loud, authoritative voice cut him from his musings. Izuku looked over his shoulder to see Iida beckoning him to follow. "We must follow Aizawa-sensei's instructions and evacuate! Now is not the time to idly sit and watch!"
Midoriya turned and jogged to catch up, sending one last look over his shoulder towards the sounds of struggle and fighting coming from down the stairs. Burning green eyes turned back towards the retreating backs of his classmates as the teen increased his speed to catch up.
Thirteen corralled the students towards the door, periodically looking back to check that there were no stragglers being left behind. Satisfied that all the students were keeping up, the rescue hero looked forward through her visor, biting her lip. Thirteen was a hero, and every hero engaged in combat at some point in their career –it was damn near inevitable– but it had been years since she had been faced with a situation like this. Her preference for rescue work had coloured her methodology for heroics when she'd become a full Pro Hero after graduating from her position as a side-kick.
Thirteen specialised in rescue and disaster clean-up, whether that disaster was natural or man-made, she prided herself on always being in the first wave when it came time to going in and rescue civilians. Sometimes, the causes of those disasters where still present, but rescue operations were collective endeavours. You always had someone's back, and they had yours. Rescue heroes would pull civilians out of the rubble, while combat-specialised heroes would take care of the villains, or other types of heroes would try to mitigate the effects of the disaster.
As Thirteen led the evacuation of the students, she felt her stomach turn. She was the youngest teacher at UA, and she knew that. She knew she had a lot to learn from her more experienced colleagues, and she was honoured that they treated such a young hero and teacher like her as an equal. Despite this, she knew her dear colleagues, and she knew what Aizawa was thinking when he threw himself down those stairs. She knew that he knew that he was a delaying tactic at best, and a short distraction at worst.
Thirteen grit her teeth, and encouraged her students to move faster. The exit was getting closer.
She refused to let Aizawa-senpai's actions be for nothing, nor would they be his last. She would get these students out of here, get reinforcements from the school, the teachers would break down those doors, sweep the villains away, and all the students would be left with was a story to tell their friends in other classes about how they had almost been attacked by villains in their first rescue exercise, but had gotten away unscathed thanks to their teachers' timely intervention. Even if, unbeknownst to the students, they couldn't rely on All Might at the moment.
They were close to the door, the first students being were less than ten meters from the exit and the only escape they had from these horrible turns of events.
And that's when things went from bad to worse.
A purple dot manifested before them, before it exploded, expanding into a wall of swirling purple darkness to block their escape, the dark mists that made it up dancing in the still air. From the source-less smog, two bright lines appeared, growing into toxic yellow flames, containing a barely visible intelligence. These fire-like eyes stared ahead, directly into the mass of frozen students.
Izuku repressed the cold shiver than ran over his skin. It felt like the villain was staring through his being, right into his soul.
"Greetings, students and Thirteen." The mist villains voice was a smooth baritone. In any other situation, it might have even been considered soothing. Here, however, it inspired nothing but dread. "We are the League of Villains, and we have invaded this establishment in order to bring about the end of the Symbol of Peace, All Might."
The intent behind the statement shook the students to their core, the audacity of it momentarily freezing Thirteen. The villain's gaze slowly drifted over the gathering… or at least it probably did. The mist man's eyes were just yellow streaks, with no pupils to indicate where exactly he was looking. The lack of features or visible expression gave the man an almost empty, bored look. The narrowing of his eyes and the tone of his following statement shattered that illusion.
"We were led to believe All Might would be here, attending this lesson, yet that does not seem to be the case. Has there been a change in schedule?" The deceptively polite statement contrasted with its intensity.
Thirteen, despite being severely out of practice in combat and direct villain confrontation, was still a hero. She had still gone through thousands of hours of training and had even more hours of experience in stressful situations by this point. Her body moved on instinct, and she positioned herself in front of the crowd of students, shielding them behind her. "He isn't here. Now move aside, villain! I will not hesitate to fight you to protect my students!"
The disembodied villain's emotionless gaze fell upon Thirteen's emotive black faceplate, the white ovals used to mark her eyes having changed into a frown. Such a thing was a useful asset when she needed to comfort scared civilians, but it wasn't built for intimidation. The villain was unfazed by Thirteen.
"Is that so… No matter. We all have our parts to play, and mine is to scatter you all to wind. To deliver you all to suffering and torment beyond your imagination." The villain's body began to swell, the mist that made up his form roiling and spreading violently as his body expanded to twice his previous size. "Some of you may be lucky enough to perish quickly. Most of you, however, will live long enough to watch the Symbol of Peace draw his last breath, before we destroy you in ways that make death look like a mercy."
As the villain's body grew, the students finally snapped out of their shock. Reactions were varied, some fell into practiced, comfortable stances and moved forward, others took a few steps back, fear still gripping their hearts, but not preventing them from moving.
Izuku leaned forward slightly, knees bent and his hands to his sides. His fingers were clawed, acting as a cage to the heat building up in his palms as the temperature of the area surrounding him started to climb. It was a sharp contrast to Todoroki, who put his right arm and foot forward, the surrounding area becoming colder. The contrast could be felt by those near them, at the back of the pack. On one side, students were starting to sweat and tug at their collars, while on the other, they could see their breaths fog as they exhaled.
Before either elemental quirk user could bring their quirk to bear on the villain and unleash the individual powers under their control, someone else intervened.
The loud bang of an explosion was the only warning before a blond missile rocketed towards the villain from the right, a second explosion growing in his palm and a snarl on his lips. Following his lead, a second shape charged out from the front of the pack of students. The scraping of rock grinding against rock could be heard as the missile's backup pulled back a hardened fist and leaped at the mist villain, who's only indication that he was even remotely surprised was a slight widening of his electric-yellow eyes.
The boom of a much stronger explosion, followed by a small wave of force drowned out Thirteen's cry of alarm and warning, and the dust and smoke from the detonation hid the results. As the class waited with baited breath, a pair of muffled curses were heard before the pair of students jumped backwards out of the dust cloud. Bakugou and Kirishima stayed on guard, hands popping with firecracker explosions and fists as hard as granite raised in preparation for any retaliation. The others waited in kind, their teacher moving towards them to hopefully pull the foolish boys back with the others.
The silence didn't last long. "My oh my, was a near thing. That could have been quite dangerous." As the dust and smoke cleared, the villain was revealed. His gaseous form stood there, looking undisturbed and completely unruffled. "You truly are golden eggs."
Most of the students felt their hearts rise to their throats, and it burned with the bile that came with it. Did the villain not have a body? If that was the case, most of them wouldn't be able to fight him at all, let alone fight him! They were dead weight!
But not all panicked. No, for some, their eyes narrowed. They had noticed something.
'Was that a trick of the light? Or is there something shiny–'
"No matter. This only makes my job more important. Now," those previously empty yellow streaks came to life as the villains body exploded. Black mist surrounded the class and fell upon them life a tidal wave of darkness. Some had the reaction to jump out of the way, or immediately grabbed onto the nearest person and charged in the direction of what they hoped was the shortest way out of the mist. The mist saturating the air vibrated as the villains already deep voice seemed to drop another octave. It was all encompassing. "Now be scattered and perish!"
Izuku, his vision still obscured by the fog, heard the yelps of his nearby classmates being cut off. Despite his visibility being nearly zero, he could feel the space around him getting colder, emptier, as his classmates vanished into the fog. Then the ground, the oh-so reliable surface he had trusted to hold him up all of his life, betrayed him and disappeared. Midoriya's glowing green eyes widened with surprise as he felt old mistress gravity come calling for her due.
Distantly, he heard a scream and a part of him worried for those who could be his friends.
Then he fell through, into the inky darkness of the space between stars. A space forever ungraced by light or warmth.
He fell in, a̫̼͎͎͑̓̓͆̚͟n͈͚͎̘͍͊̆͠͞͞d ̩͝f̧͙̫̈́̏͞ē̢͕̟̍̚ĺ̛̮̥̪͡t̡͓̫͕̹͌͐̐̒̈́ ̥͒͘͟di͚̼̝̱̘̭͑͛͊̕̕s̙͎͔̻̰̃͋̓̕͟͠͝t̨̘̻̠͓͆̿̋̐͂̕͟i̝̮͖̖̻̮̍̿͢͝͞n̨̛̦̳̜̣̙̖͛̑͊̒͞͞c̨͓̠͚̪͙͛̓̓͛́̚͠ͅt͓̖̞̅͂̓l̡͕̼̞̠̙͈̈̏̋̔͆̅͝ỳ̢̞͉̬̟̟̪̎͆͊͘̕ ̢̼̇̊u͚̓n̞̰͉̦̋̎͌̒we̢̩͍͇͒̓̒l̨̟̖̒̎͐̉͢͢c͇̺̜̺͇̱̗̪̈́̾̄͂̓̂̓͒͟͝͞ͅǫ̻͔̠̳̜̬̣͔̿̅̌͛̔̒̅͐͌̕͟m̢͚̳̩̖̜̯͖͒̎̏̈́̉̆̑̏̚͜͜ȅ͓̳̳͇̘͕̙͔̱͐̍̏̿̑̒͗͜͞ḓ̛͙͍̜͈̬̜͖̰͙͑͆̈́̀̈͐̓͘.̘̯̗̱̞͇̻̱͖̒̓͗̑̾̉̀̈́̕͘͜
The next thing he knew, he was falling, he was getting wet, and it was still dark. Though significantly less dark than what had probably been the villain's quirk. Shielding his eyes and forcing them open against the wetness, Izuku took stock of his situation.
As his eyes adjusted to the light level, he saw a cityscape stretch out beneath him, glinting as the small amount of light there was reflected off of the wet sheen that covered the place. Droplets assaulted his exposed skin in waves, the sting amplified by the breeze.
Izuku suddenly reminded himself of his initial assessment, and looked to the ground directly beneath him, that seemed to be approaching at an uncomfortable rate. He decided he didn't much like the idea of death from falling, and acted accordingly.
Pushing his arms out, Midoriya let loose pair of small but concentrated flames from his hands, using his body as a shield. After reorienting himself so that his legs are facing down, he braced, activated his boots, and let out a much stronger gout of fire from his feet. His quirk sputters and protests, but Midoriya ignores it. He forces his flames to push through the rain and wind and forces his quirk to slow him down!
With a final roar, more fire is pumped out through the initial gout, providing enough upward thrust to slow him down so he didn't end with a splat. He still had a bit more momentum than was probably suggested when attempting a downwards vertical landing, so Midoriya ended up kneeling on the ground, the remnants of his flames being scattered by the displaced air, as well as the water from the puddle he had just splashed into.
'Damn. Nearly a perfect hero landing.' He thought to himself as he got to his feet. Izuku shook his wet hands in an attempt to dislodge the water there on reflex, before the incessant rain and howling wind reminded him of the futility of his action.
Deciding that getting out of the rain took priority, he flipped up his hood and made his way to one of the three story buildings lining the street, finding the front door unlocked. When he got inside, Izuku activated his quirk, sighing in relief as he felt himself dry near instantly, the water on his skin and in his clothes being vaporised by the heat he was emitting.
Feeling sufficiently, Izuku moved through the building, deciding to try and reach higher ground to orient himself and try to find out where he was. For now, all the information he had was that he was in a city, and the weather was absolutely crap. From the lack of decoration or furniture in the building, either he'd been sent gods know where and had had the good fortune of finding an abandoned building right off the bat, or he was in one of UA's training grounds, and probably still in the USJ.
As Izuku passed a window and took a look outside, he was tempted to go with the second option. He couldn't see much with all the rain and the darkness, but if he squinted, he could see the barest outline of a dome surrounding the city. 'Fucking hell,' he thought, walking past the window and up the second flight of stairs. 'This is just like that Simpsons movie.'
Izuku reached the top floor and shook his head. 'Now's not the time.' He took a look out of the higher window, just in time to see a group of people running down the street. They seemed to stop and look around, talking to each other for a bit, before continuing on. Midoriya narrowed his glowing green eyes. 'Other villains. This must be how they intend to make us 'suffer and perish'.'
He looked down at his hand, clenching and unclenching it, before looking back outside at the falling rain. 'Either they planned this better than I thought, and they know our quirks, or I'm just unlucky.' He wanted to grin under his mask. 'If it's the second, no big deal. I've dealt with tougher odds.' He backed away from the window, and turned to face it. He probably had enough distance for a decent run-up. 'If it's the first, well…' The light of the green suns in his head glowed with gleeful malice as he sprinted towards the window. He leaped at the last second, smashing through the glass and alerting the group of villains that had just passed by. Discretely using his quirk in his hands, he softened his landing and rolled to dispel the momentum, unfortunately rolling through another puddle. He curses in his mind, but immediately pulls on his quirk, heating him up but not releasing any flame. Standing smoothly from his roll, and turns to face the surprised looking villains.
Izuku schools his expression as he stares down villains that came to his school with the intention to hurt or kill Izuku or his classmates. 'If it's the first, then they have made a terrible miscalculation.'
The villains' shock turns to a perverse excitement as they grin evilly at Izuku, standing alone in the middle of the street. Four of them are armed with various pipes or knives, with the last one being unarmed. Some of them have distinct mutations that mark them as having at least semi-aquatic related quirks, though they all seem to be wearing water-proof clothing. Izuku's eyes burn like suns from the shadows of his hood as he gazes over them, his face neutral.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" A female villain says, leading the pack as she stalks towards the motionless student. She has pitch black eyes, needle sharp teeth, and a stalk-like growth on her forehead from which dangles a glowing bulb. Her quirk probably makes her look like one of those deep-sea fish, Izuku thinks, though he can't decide if that means her eyesight is affected too. From the way her black eyes stay locked on him as her face pulls into an evil grin with too many teeth as she continues to advance, Izuku thinks not. Izuku decides to focus on the machete she's wielding. It's probably more important.
"Looks like we've got a hero brat deciding to join us." The man behind her had blue skin and yellow eyes. He sports a mohawk and wields a knife. The rest of him looks enough like the base standard shape for humans. He's grinning too, though it's much less effective than the woman's when it comes to intimidation. 'It's probably the teeth.' Izuku muses.
"He would have stayed all hidden and safe in the building, if he was smart. Now we get to have some fun." This man wields a pipe and looks slightly bulkier than his compatriots. He looks excited, and the hand holding the pipe twitches as he advances.
The other two stay quiet, the unarmed one staying back as the other one armed with a chain joins the rest as the stalk towards Izuku. The unarmed man probably has a quirk that works at range, and intends to provide support. Or he's a coward.
'The coward is smarter than his friends.' Izuku thinks, as he turns to fully face the villains, who stop in their tracks. They're still grinning viciously, but there's a degree of caution now. 'They're watching me,' the teen thinks. Deciding the test something, he looks down at his hand, and lights a small flame, before looking back at the villains. They've relaxed minutely, and vicious excitement is rushing in to fill the gap caution left.
The lead villain laughs. "HA! Looky here. The hero brat has a fire quirk. Now ain't that a shame." Her friends join her and laugh. They start to stalk towards Izuku as he nods to himself. 'They didn't know my quirk, so they probably don't know my classmates' quirks either. That's a decent advantage.' He grins internally as he keeps the small flame burning in his palm, subtly pulling on more of his quirk as steam rises discretely off of his form. The approaching villains don't notice, too drunk off of the supposed fear they're inducing into the hero-students. Maybe they want him to run, want to relish his despair in a game of cat and mouse as they hunt down the poor teenager with dreams too big for reality in an environment that renders his quirk useless before slaughtering the helpless hero brat.
The malicious glee returns to Midoriya's eyes that suddenly burn with the excitement running through his veins as Izuku drops the mask of neutrality. 'Thank the gods I got some of the stupid ones.' The small flame burning in the centre of his palm roars to life, exploding outwards and vaporising the surrounding water. When the glare of the burning flames calms down, Izuku is coated in fire. It runs up his arms, legs and torso, coating him in a dangerously beautiful armour. The rain no longer reaches him, the surrounding temperature having risen to a point where the water evaporates due to his proximity. He gets his revenge on the puddle he landed in that soaked his breathable, fireproof socks as the offending body of water dries up like a puddle in the desert. The suns in Izuku's eyes rove over the frozen, wide-eyed villains, before landing on the woman leading them. Her smile full of sharp teeth looks a lot less sure now, her eyes awash with fear and uncertainty.
Izuku relishes it. 'This makes it all the more fun.'
The fire of his quirk bursts to life in twin blasts from his palms, and suddenly he is in front of the lead villain. Izuku has a split second to see her needle-like teeth up close, see the widening of her black eyes and a slight flicker from the bulb hanging from her head, before a fist coated lightly in flames collides with those teeth. He doesn't feel any break beneath his fist, and as she goes down and the other villain's recoil from the attack, the world slows to a crawl as adrenaline kicks Izuku's body into battle-mode.
'Teeth so thin would usually be more fragile and prone to breaking, but seeing as none did just now, they're probably tougher than normal teeth. I wonder if her teeth are more resistant to decay? Brushing them must be a pain, though. I should ask Kirishima what it's like caring for sharp teeth.'
The green haired teen is in front of the blue-skinned villain with the knife before the woman hits the ground. He uses his quirk to build up momentum, grabbing the man by the face and slamming him backwards into the ground. Izuku dodges out of the way of a pipe swing that impacts the unconscious man in the gut, ducking out of the way of what looked like a water blast by the distance fighter. Izuku violently pushes out a gout of flame, aiming at the ground in front the hydrokinetic to avoid barbequing a villain. The attack works as intended, destroying the concrete in an explosion that launches the villain into the air and backwards, hopefully knocking him out.
Pipe villain is persistent though, his arms swelling beneath his waterproof coat as his swings get faster. Izuku backs away, causing his attacker to lunge and raise his weapon for a heavy overhead strike at the crouching teen. Izuku grins, as his quirk burst from his feet and hands, rocketing him forward faster than the pipe-villain expected. Izuku notices scarring on the man's nose –probably indicating multiple prior breaks– and feels a tiny bit of satisfaction as he adds to that scarring, the feeling of cracking cartilage running through his knee as it impacts the thugs face. His momentum carries him forward, and the big thug pitches backwards, his weapon lost as the pain of a broken nose, the oncoming concussion of a knee to the face, and the final impact of concrete against the back of his skull robs the villain of his consciousness.
'Probably some kind of enhancement quirk focussed on the arms or upper body, since his legs didn't swell up too. Maybe it's a special kind and includes some weapon focused enhancement, like he hits harder with something he holds? Probably not in the weapon mastery type, though, seeing how he was swinging that thing around like a moron.'
Still in the air, he spots his final target. The quiet villain armed with a chain is looking scared now, and seems to be turning to run, dropping his weapon as he does so. 'Well, we can't allow that, now can we.' A burst of concentrated flame later, and Izuku grabs the chain villain by the back of his head, slamming his face into the ground. The last hit was maybe a bit more forceful than necessary, but it's good practice to make your last hit your hardest, even if it doesn't make much of a difference.
Standing back up, Izuku surveys the aftermath of his work. Four unconscious villains on the ground, who will probably wake up with headaches and many regrets. He takes pride in the fact that none of them have anything more serious than the odd second-dipping-closely-into-third degree burn from when his fire got a bit too hot before his punches, but he considers this a successful first test of his new combat style, especially since he'd only realised that he needed to change things up around two or three days ago.
Satisfied that none of the villains would be dying anytime soon from anything he did, Midoriya set off in the direction of the closest edge of the dome. When he got there, he could either melt through if he was in a rush, or follow the sides until he got to a door or exit or something.
Walking down the street, steam wafting off of him as his quirk kept the water at bay, Midoriya heard a groan over the rain. He looked around the edges of the street, and saw the long-range villain he'd thrown with an explosion earlier lying on the pavement, still conscious, if barely and looking a bit more on the toasty side. Mildly annoyed at himself for misjudging and using too little power, the green haired teen stomped over and knocked the last villain out with a relatively gentle hit to the head, before turning and continuing to march down the street.
Izuku frowned as he realised something. He could have missed that villain, and that would have given him an opportunity to attack Midoriya by surprise, or call for friends to do so for him. Midoriya's frown deepened as he thought of something else. 'Are any other people from my class in here?' He hadn't heard the sounds of combat, but, with the wind and rain, that was expected. Izuku couldn't just leave one of them behind at the mercy of whatever other villains were stalking the streets of the downpour zone.
But he couldn't be sure that there were any other hero-students in here with him. And the only way to really see if there were any here would attract villains as well. 'Decisions, decisions.'
In the end, Izuku went for it. He didn't want to leave too many villains behind him as he moved, and he couldn't afford to not check for fellow students, so he decided to just bite the bullet.
With a quirk boosted leap, Izuku was on top of a building, his flames now swirling more aggressively around him. Steam gathered around in a shroud as he lifted one arm and shot a fireball up into the storm, before he started to move. Using his connection to his fire, he increased the intensity of the fireball until it became like a beacon, one that could be seen throughout the dome. He ordered it to follow him as he leaped from rooftop to rooftop, his quirk burning brightly around him and above him. He was really hoping this would work.
He found out it did a few minutes later when he heard shouts from the streets, followed by a shower of spikes imbedding themselves into the rooftop near him. He quickly checked for any signs of his classmates, found none, and decided to deal with the villains quickly before moving on.
One quirk-accelerated jump down to street level, a relatively small explosion to finish off the ones clustered together, followed by some blunt force trauma to the ones not taken out in the blast, and Izuku resumed his running across rooftops.
He dealt with two other groups in similar fashion, only having to use more power once when he came across a villain with what looked like a tortoise or scale quirk. The man tried gloating that he could withstand fire and explosions no problem. A quick close-quarters fire-blast to his underbelly dislodged any such foolish notion, and Izuku was back on the move.
Izuku had nearly reached the edge of the dome, and decided that either there were no other classmates in there with him, they were taking a different exit, or they were still fighting villains. Despite not knowing most of them for long, he refused to consider them being dead as a real possibility, if the villains he'd dispatched were any indication.
Izuku could see the green glow of the exit sign when a roar caught his attention, and he stopped in his run to peer over the side of the building. What he saw confused him. A massive swarm of bruised and battered looking villains were surrounding a mass of darkness sitting near a fountain. 'Wait,' green eyes narrowed at the scene. 'A moving mass of darkness?' Yellow eyes like flames appeared on the mass' exterior and Izuku briefly wondered if the fog villain had reappeared, before a large clawed arm swiped out from the mass, launching one of the villains who'd gotten too closed through the window of a nearby building.
'Aaah.' Izuku finally realised who it was. He remembered a quirk like that being used in the assessment and the combat training, one of his classmates who Izuku was pretty sure had a bird's head. Not that he could tell now, of course, what with said classmate being entombed somewhere inside what Izuku now recognised as the boy's quirk. It was sentient, or at least somewhat intelligent, if he remembered correctly.
Flaring his quirk, Izuku rocketed down to join the fray, idly noticing how the roiling darkness shrieked and recoiled away from him. Surprised but glad that he wasn't going to have to worry about accidentally hitting his classmate, Izuku fell into his attack pattern, though he was freer with his fire-blasts than before. His patience with this weather was running out, and there is only so much water you can evaporate to dry yourself off before the steam becomes tedious instead of a cool aesthetic. On the plus side, the superheated steam was great at keeping unprotected enemies away and causing minor damage while he focused on the ones in front of him. His classmates quirk would also lash out sometimes, pinning the villains between the ball of fiery death shooting between their friends, and the dark ball of doom squashing or throwing other villains out of the field.
Some concussions, a few broken limbs, a fiery explosion or two, and a lot of roaring from a pissed off quirk, and all the villains were down and out. Feeling satisfied, Izuku walked towards where his classmate was, the quirk hissing and spitting at him all the while as it shrunk down from the size of a building, to a truck, to a large family car. Eventually, the quirk receded enough as Izuku got closer to reveal the shaking form of Tokoyami. His avian head was bowed and his eyes screwed shut. He was also clutching at hid arm below his cloak. Honestly, from where Izuku stood, the normally stoic boy looked terrified.
Izuku crouched down in front of him, at a distance to avoid scorching the boy and to give him space. He waved his hand back and forth to get the teen's attention, and eventually, Tokoyami's eyes opened. The boy looked surprised, though if that was because Midoriya was here, or that he was here and on firedespite the pouring rain trying its best to put it out, Izuku wasn't really in the mood to guess.
"M-Midoriya." The boy's voice shook uncharacteristically, the emotions he was trying his best to overcome exposed to the world through a tremble. Izuku nodded slowly, his glowing green eyes still managing to stand out in the shadows of his hood despite the flames. The fire-clad teen did his best to look patient and understanding, but they were on a bit of a time crunch. There probably weren't enough villains left in the downpour zone for it to be a concern, but the status of their other classmates and their teachers was still unknown. In a battle, unknown wasn't good, so Izuku was endeavouring to change that 'unknown' to 'known and accounted for' as soon as possible.
However, Izuku knew that moving Tokoyami as he was wouldn't help matters, so he was patient, and let the boy sort himself out as much as he could.
Tokoyami took a deep, steadying breath, before exhaling slowly. "Thank you for your assistance, Midoriya. I was in quite the situation." The tremor was gone and the calm had returned to the bird-faced boy. Izuku nodded and they both stood up. Izuku looked at the arm Tokoyami was cradling as they started to jog towards the glowing green light of the exit sign.
Tokoyami noticed Midoriya's gaze. "It's a cut. It's not very deep, just quite long. One of those villains surprised me by jumping out from an alleyway. He managed to cleave into my flesh with his blade before Dark Shadow emerged and dispatched my assailant. Unfortunately, the existing darkness and the stress from the whole situation had weakened my grip on my inner demon already, and that surprise attack combined with the realisation that we were surrounded was the last straw, and I lost control." Tokoyami looked away, abashed. "How shameful. Betrayed and defeated by the darkness I claim to belong to." Deep red eyes locked back onto the teenager running besides him. "Thanks to the light given off by your fire, Dark Shadow was weakened enough for me to pull him back in and regain control. Unfortunately, I was quite shaken by the whole event."
Izuku blinked, continuing to stare towards the exit light. 'As fascinating as all of that is, and as cool as it is to know that my quirk is basically a hard counter to his, that wasn't really what I was trying to get at.' Izuku looked at his running companion and pointed to the boy's cloak, miming a tearing and bandaging action.
Tokoyami blinked –and Izuku couldn't help but think of the pigeons he's seen around the city– before realising what Midoriya was getting at. "Hmm. Excellent suggestion, though I don't know if it is worth risking the infection. As I said, the wound is long, not deep." Izuku raised an eyebrow. 'It'll still bleed and slow you down, won't it,' was what those green eyes seemed to say.
Tokoyami huffed –and wasn't that and interesting thing to see someone with a beak do. "But I suppose it does have merit. I should have a medical kit in my belt, anyways. So, no need to try and tear the fabric."
'Dude, are you seriously thinking about your costume right now?' Izuku thought as the exit doors came into view. There weren't any villains there, so it lent credence to the idea that the two of them had effectively taken out most if not all of the threats in the dome. Getting to the large metal doors leading to their salvation and hopefully dryer weather, they first tried to door panel. Unfortunately, it looked like the controls had been fried with all the communications equipment, so the lights were off and the doors very much not moving.
Izuku looked pointedly at Tokoyami, who huffed and rolled his eyes, before taking advantage of an alcove near the entrance to try and tend to his medical needs in a relatively dry spot. Izuku, on the other hand, cracked his knuckles and ran a critical eye over the double doors.
They looked to be made of high-quality steel, but that was a given. UA really did nothing halfway. They were probably treated to resist water-based corrosion, either using quirks or traditional methods, so it might react differently to his methods. There were probably seals of some kind between the doors and the frames to prevent moisture escaping and damaging internal mechanisms or parts of the exterior, too. The doors probably weren't treated to withstand high temperatures, like the ones on the dome with all the flames painted it on it probably was, though they still looked pretty thick.
Popping a last joint in his hands, Izuku stuck his arms out, his palms aiming towards the door. He planted his feet to provide a solid base, and let loose a stream of fire. Raindrops in between Izuku and his target turned to superheated steam as the hungry flames raced forwards like a starving beast unleashed on prey, crashing against the steel doors. Izuku narrowed his eyes, and with them, narrowed the cone of the blast and started to increase the temperature. Soon, all that could be seen was a beam of heat and light striking the steel doors, that stubbornly refused to budge. Izuku continued to up the temperature, and the flames roared louder. Orange mixed with blue as the intensity of the flames increased. The steel doors started to buckle and groan against the onslaught, and Izuku wanted to grin.
Grey steel turned brown, then red, then white as solid turned to liquid and the doors softened. Tokoyami stayed at a safe distance and observed the masked boy start to break down the door, his now bandaged arm tucked safely under his cloak and shielded from the rain. The bird headed boy shivered slightly despite the heat. Or maybe he shivered because of it. Either way, this was an effective way to be reminded that fire was a very, very dangerous tool, despite what Endeavour and other heroes may lead the people to believe.
Tokoyami was glad for his silent classmate's restraint, and maybe slightly awed at the control Midoriya was obviously putting into the attack as the beam started to move, slowly melting a big enough hole for them to walk through without the risk of Tokoyami burning himself on dripping molten steel being too high. Tokoyami appreciated the consideration.
The beam's intensity abated, and the nearly liquid doors tilted inwards, their weight forcing them to fold in on themselves as they collapsed. They were still glowing white hot, though slowly cooling to red. Before they could solidify enough to become a hassle to move, Izuku wound back an arm, before throwing it forward and unleashing a fire blast – though with the focus more on the "blast" than the "fire".
The explosion scattered the molten metal like superheated shrapnel with the consistency of sludge, and the green haired boy walked through the slowly dying flames in the frame, checking for any spots where pieces of the left-over piece of the doors might fall and injure Tokoyami. He leaned back into the dome, and beckoned a wide-eyed Tokoyami to follow behind him. Shaking off the remnants of whatever combination of shock, nerves, and exhaustion he was feeling at the moment, he walked towards the hole in the doors. Giving Dark Shadow as gentle a tug as he possibly could, he coaxed his now more compliant quirk out.
After a rampage, the quirk was always more subdued. Tokoyami figured running at such high power, even in the darkness, was definitely as tiring for the quirk as it was for him. Not only that, but, unbeknownst to anyone but themselves, Dark Shadow and Tokoyami shared a weak empathic link, allowing one to feel a dulled down version of the others emotions at all time. When he had been young, it had been near overwhelming to feel that growing rage and lust for destruction whenever he turned off the lights or spent too long in shadowy places, but, as the years went on and the two grew to have an understanding of another, it had become near second nature for either to let the others emotions wash over them, and remain at least partially unaffected.
Not so much after a rampage, though.
Tokoyami was sure that, on top of the physical tiredness such exertion would bring, the emotional turmoil and exhaustion from being overwhelmed by the others emotions was causing the sentient quirk no end of guilt. At least, Tokoyami hoped Dark Shadow at least felt a bit bad.
They probably needed to have a good chat when all of this was over.
A private one, of course. He still had a reputation as a mysterious shadow-dweller to maintain. At least, to any classmate that hadn't seen him on the verge of tears, though Midoriya looked like someone who would stay quiet about his own moment of weakness.
The bird-like mass of shadows slowly emerged from Tokoyami's body as they reached the hole. The heat being given off by the surrounding metal was still causing just the surrounding area to reach near scalding temperatures, but the fires had died off completely, and the left-over metal wasn't glowing bright enough to cause any ill-effect in regards to Dark Shadow's strength.
Dark claws reached out and pushed the still soft metal further out of the way as Tokoyami quickly, but still ever so carefully, made his way out of the darkness of the downpour zone and into the light of the USJ's courtyard.
The first ray of artificial light blinded the raven-headed teen, as much as it caused him to sigh with relief. It was like stepping out of the abyss into the promised land. Like the stormy city he'd just exited had been a nightmarish hell, a trial to test him and his determination.
He knew that, had he been alone, though he probably wouldn't have died, he most certainly would have failed.
Had Midoriya not arrived with his quirk coating him like sun-forged armour, Tokoyami might have lost the last sliver of control he'd been clinging to like a drowning man at sea holding onto the last thread of a rope thrown from a passing ship. Had he slipped, had that last threat snapped, then there would have been nothing holding Dark Shadow back from assuming full control and doing whatever it deemed necessary to protect its host and avenge any perceived wrong-doings with indiscriminate use of force.
There would have been deaths, in the USJ, that day. Deaths not caused by the villains, and heroes didn't kill if they could avoid it.
Tokoyami straightened his posture. No one had died. He was going to be a hero. Worrying about what had happened wouldn't help them now. He would reflect on the experience, he and Dark Shadow would learn from it, and they would grow stronger. Be better. They would be heroes.
Midoriya had prevented the one of the worst possible outcomes from becoming a reality, and Tokoyami would be forever grateful. He refused to waste this opportunity. He-
He walked right into a very stolid, very still, and very green wall. Rubbing his beak, Tokoyami looked up to ask the teen what was wrong, when his breath caught. He couldn't see Midoriya's face, with his hood up and with Tokoyami being stood behind him, but the green haired teen was built lean, and Tokoyami's eyes easily caught on the sight that had frozen the powerful fire quirk user in his place.
Tokoyami's red eyes widened, filling with fear and dread.
He'd been wrong. Oh gods, he'd been so very wrong.
They hadn't escaped hell.
They walked right into it.
Mineta Minoru considered himself to be pretty self-aware.
He knows what he likes, and what he doesn't. He has a decent understanding of his own limitations and areas where he excels.
He knows he's short. That would be pretty hard to miss, honestly, and he knows that, because of his size, he'll never be able to match up to a majority of other heroes or even his classmates when it comes to contests of physical strength. He just doesn't have the space to fit all the extra muscle it would take to do so. It's also genetic, a gift from his old man, who is even shorter than him. So, Minoru has accepted that he will most likely be short all his life, and has come to terms with it.
Mineta understands, through first, second, and third hand comments, that his own quirk isn't much. Sure, the sticky balls he pops off of his head might be a very strong capture type quirk, but beyond just saturating the field with his quirk and hoping he didn't accidentally trap his own allies, his quirk on its own wasn't very helpful when it came to quickly taking down villains.
So, he had adapted. He had trained his aim until he could reliably hit any target within throwing range, though he'd admit he wasn't quite as talented at hitting moving targets… yet. He had practiced bouncing off of his quirk so much he was practically unmatched when it came to speed when he was in enclosed areas.
His quirk on its own wasn't much, but he'd made it a hero's tool. His old friends hadn't believed in him, the girls back then had completely brushed him when he had said he was going to be one of the best heroes. He just wasn't cool enough, he said. He was too short, too weak, his quirk wasn't good enough.
When Mineta tried to follow his dad's advice and be a smooth operator, maybe get some digits or even a date, they'd laugh in his face, too.
He had very nearly believed everyone when they'd said he'd never make it.
Then he did. He made it into UA.
The day after he'd opened his letter, he'd ran to school, excited to tell them what he'd done. What he'd accomplished. Excited to see the look on his friends' faces when he'd show them the letter. Excited to see the non-believers gawk at his acceptance, and, of course, excited to see the girls' reactions when he'd tell them he was going to be a top hero and give them proof that he would. He even entertained the idea of signing some –ahem– personal items as early autographs that would become invaluable when he became a star!
Then he reached the closed door to his classroom, and he heard everyone laughing. He heard one of the guys he'd thought was his friend, someone he'd shared a passion for heroes as well as the opposite sex with, laughing as he talked about a chat they'd had earlier in the week. Laughing at how Minoru had actually gone to the UA entrance exam. Laughing about how badly he'd probably screwed it up.
Mineta told no one at school that he'd made it into UA.
Then, it was time for high school, and Mineta decided to reinvent himself. No more was the tiny hero-wannabe with the lame quirk. Now, it was time for cool and smooth Mineta Minoru. Envy of guys and charmer of ladies everywhere. He'd thought he'd reached paradise when he'd stepped into 1-A.
All the girls were so hot!!
Flawless skin, laughter like an angel's harp, perfect proportions! Though some of them –coughYaoyorozuAshidoUrarakaAsuicough– had proportions that made them sooooo much more than perfect! And the best part? They were nice! No more bitchy class princess or cruel fake-confession-in-the-shoe-locker girl. All of them wanted to be heroes, and they acted like it!
So of course, he took his chance.
Though he may have been a bit too much at the time.
"Dammit, brat! You sounded like a damn lecher!"
'Shut it, old man!'
Ahem, anyways.
He refused to abandon hope! He was on the track to being a super cool awesome hot hero, and all of the ladies would be clinging to him! Just like in the mags he had hidden away in his room!
Then he'd come second to last in the quirk apprehension test, feeling like he'd come a hair's breadth away from losing his dream forever.
The next day, he might have come on a bit strong to his teammate, and she might have taken it the wrong way and used her quirk to throw him at their opponents. But come on! She was so curvy! And with how tight her costume was, you'd think she wantedto get hit on!
Apparently, he'd misjudged her intentions. He learned to stay well out of her reach.
The day after nearly being trampled during a break into the school, he thought all the week's bad luck had paid off. He'd found a hole, small and discretely hidden behind a poster in the locker room. He had damn near ascended when he realised what room was next to the boys' changing room.
So, of course, like the healthy teenage boy that he was, he decided to investigate. Maybe he'd glimpse Yaoyorozu's yaoppais, Tsu's legendary frog's legs, exotic pink skin, those luscious curves, a teasing floating uniform-
Anyways, he'd nearly gotten a glimpse, Kaminari and Sero standing right behind him like the followers of a prophet leading them to a promised land, when a hand had blocked his view. A hand connected to an arm that belonged to one of the strongest and scariest members of their class. Someone who was glaring at them like they'd insulted his family line. Mineta had tried to sway Midoriya to the path of the righteous, but the boy had raised a hand and Mineta had started to fear for his safety.
Then Midoriya got stabbed in the hand by Jirou, and Mineta had paled at the idea of that happening to his eye. He'd seriously underestimated the girls' ability and willingness to resort to violence to solve their problems, which was stupid, really. The combat training should have told him that.
Then the class got attacked in what was supposed to be a training exercise, and now, here they were.
He'd been dropped into the flood zone, and been saved by Tsu before a shark villain had tried to eat him, which he was very grateful for. She'd hit him when he'd tried to show his gratitude, though. Twice. With her tongue. Which was much stronger than one would think a tongue would be.
Anyways, what he was trying to get at, was that Mineta knew himself. He knew he like girls a lot. He knew he was good with his quirk, and that his quirk was strong.
He also knew that other people would probably look down on him for why he wanted to be a hero. To be cool and to have ladies love him? That didn't sound very heroic at all! But at least he was honest with himself.
Is what he'd tell himself.
Mineta knew what he was. He was a fifteen-year-old city born boy, raised in a comfortable, happy household, who hadn't seen a villain up close in his life. So, by logic, he knew that how he was reacting was perfectly normal, and it was Tsu who was being weird. Why was it strange that he was terrified and in tears when they were surrounded by villains who were trying to kill and maybe eat them!? That was a perfectly normal response!
All of this to say, that when they'd escaped the boat and made it to shore, Mineta learned something new about himself.
When he saw his teacher fighting off swarms of villains and winning, he'd felt hope, and maybe a bit of awe.
When the blue haired villain had mumbled something before charging at his teacher, their fight lasting seconds before the villain did something to Aizawa's elbow that left the arm dangling uselessly and bleeding more than what was probably healthy, he felt tendrils of nervousness curl into his mind.
When the massive, purple, muscled villain had vanished, only to reappear and slam their teacher into the concrete headfirst, that nervousness had turned into real fear.
With each limb the monster crushed like the bones within were cardboard, he felt horror.
They'd gotten a reprieve when the mist villain had appeared. He'd felt terror, before it turned into hope as the villain informed his allies that someone had escaped the USJ, and was probably bringing back an army of heroes to help them.
That hope had turned into relief when the blue-haired villain had groaned and grumbled about "a game over". His tears had become tears of joy when the villain had said that they might as well leave. He'd been ecstatic! He'd jumped at Tsu, trying to get some comfort and camaraderie, and yes, maybe he'd tried to indulge in the fact that Tsu had pretty nice boobs for a frog. Though he'd still argue that nearly being drowned in response was a bit of an overreaction for a simple attempt.
It was what happened next that taught Mineta what he'd missed about himself.
He learned, or maybe just finally realised that, when it came down to it, Mineta Minoru was not brave.
How could he be brave, when he'd sobbed and cried when danger appeared. How could he call himself brave, when his classmate, Tsu, had been so unruffled by the presence of people who wanted to kill them. Tsu, who had gotten them away from the ship and the water villains, who had deduced that the villains didn't know their quirks. Tsu the frog girl, who, when their teacher went from kicking ass to being beaten to death, had changed plans immediately from trying to escape to trying to figure out a way to help their sensei. The girl who spoke her mind had stayed calm with each new development. She had kept her head through every hardship, when Mineta had lost his at the first sign of danger.
How could he call himself brave?
When the blue villain charged them, hands out stretched and clawed like the talons of a bird of prey., Mineta had frozen. Images of skin cracking and falling away, revealing bleeding muscle which then started to turn grey and fell to dust. He pictured those hands on his face, melting his eyes and nose and mouth and everything, leaving him a bleeding husk before the wind swept his ashes away.
His mind returned to him when he felt two fingers touch his face.
It was a matter of micro seconds.
Three fingers.
Four.
Five.
…
Mineta dared to open his eyes, to see why his face wasn't falling away like dust in the wind as he himself collapsed in agony and despair. What he saw chilled him.
The blue haired villain had his hands on his and Tsu's face, the frog girl as frozen as him. In a sick parody of their situation, the villain had a grey, dead hand on his face, hiding most of his expression though the blood red eyes told him enough. The dry skin around the eyes somehow empty and filled with madness crinkled as the villain smiled under his deranged face mask and, without lifting his deadly hands from the two paralysed students, the villain turned his head to look over his shoulder.
"You really are the coolest, Eraserhead." The villain whispered in a voice dry from disuse and an unhealthy lifestyle. Mineta followed the villain's gaze, and got his first example of bravery.
Lying prone on the ground, one arm bent backwards, the other was so shattered it looked more like a bag of meat than a limb, was their teacher. Their teacher who, despite being in what must had been mind-shattering pain, with a massive, muscle bound monster of a villain sitting on his back and holding him down, had somehow managed to life his head far enough in the air to look at the villain, and his eyes were glowing red.
'His quirk!' Mineta though distantly. 'Is it stopping the villain from using his quirk?'
The brief moment of stubborn badassery by their teacher was shattered as the villain's grinned wider, and spoke three words.
"Nomu, stop him."
It was in this next moment, that Mineta got his second example of bravery that day.
The monster grabbed hold of his teacher's head, slamming the man's face into the ground so hard it cratered and, in that moment, two things happened.
The villain with the disintegration quirk whipped back around to get a good look at his victims when he felt his quirk return to him, to get a good, long look as his quirk worked its way into their skin and muscle and bones and left the little hero-brats as just corpses floating in the water. A clear message for All Might and the world that the symbol of peace was as weak and pathetic as the rest. A lesson that the number one hero could never save everyone.
The second thing that happened, was that Tsu moved.
As quick as a girl running on adrenaline and panic could, she whipped her head to the side, using her tongue to push Mineta out of the villain's reach and further back into the water, as she pushed as hard as her quirk enhanced leg muscles could against the ground.
It would have been an awesome first rescue, worthy of as many future retellings to friends and family as the legends of old. It would have been, had everything gone right.
The first half went perfectly. Her tongue impacted Mineta's oversized head in a manner she was unfortunately becoming familiar with, sending him back and away from the villain's deadly hands. Then she pushed off.
She'll never know what went wrong. Maybe she caught on a loose stone and lost her grip, or maybe silt wasn't as stable as it seemed. In any case, she did the worst thing possible in that moment, bar jumping forwards into the villain's embrace.
She slipped.
Her feet lost traction and her push didn't push her far back enough from the villain, who cursed at the loss of one hostage, before he reached out, quickly covering the short distance she'd made between herself and her assailant with a simple stretch of his gangly limb.
For a moment, the ever-stoic Tsu's expression melted into panic.
She felt those dry fingers touch her face again, and thought of her siblings at home, who still couldn't take care of themselves without her.
The next moment, she only knew pain.
Mineta recovered from his launch just in time to hear a scream that chilled his soaking body to the core. It was a scream filled with fear and terror and pain, and Mineta instinctively hated it. He wanted to hide under a rock until it stopped or went away, because his lizard brain was telling him that scream was made by a human in pain, and whatever caused it could do the same to him.
Then he looked up and saw the cause of the scream.
The villain looked on in glee as Tsu's skin flaked away, blood running down her face in droplets, then in waterfalls. All the while she screamed that horrible scream, the pain paralysing her, panic shutting down her higher functions. In that moment, Mineta Minoru thought he was going to see his classmate die.
In that moment, a small, unheard part of his subconscious, refused to accept that.
Fear and desperation guided his movements as he reached for the one thing eighty five percent of the population had in common, the one weapon that had been his own since he was four years old and weird growths had started appearing on his cranium, and the doctors had told him it was his quirk.
In that split second, small, scared, perverted, weak Mineta Minoru decided to be truly brave for the first time.
He tore off purple balls and hurled them at the villain, screaming and advancing all the while. He screamed a wordless, terrified war cry as he kept up his barrage of sticky balls, headless of the blood starting to run down his face, ignorant of the pain. All he knew was that 'Pop-Off' had never failed him before, and it was the only thing he could rely on right now.
At first, the villain backed away, dodging and weaving and cursing as he tried to avoid the hail of purple balls, but there were too many. The first stuck to his shirt, hitting centre mass and confusing the evil man when they didn't explode or poison him or something. That confusion cost him. More and more kept landing, sticking his feet to the ground and his arms to his torso. They even stuck his legs together, and he swore more as he fell on his ass. When at last the barrage stopped, the villain looked up to re-examine the situation.
The purple midget that the frog-bitch had thrown away was standing there, tears, snot, and blood running down his face as he panted and stared at the villain. He looked terrified, and the villain cursed some more as he stretched to get his hands on the stupid sticky balls. He'd turn them, and then their owner to dust!
Mineta was terrified, but that was normal at this point in the day. He stood in front of the –hopefully unconscious, please be unconscious– body of his classmate and stared down the leader of the villains. He'd stopped his barrage when the pain had gotten too strong to ignore, and he didn't know if he'd be able to pull another ball from his head for at least the next three days. So, he stood there, his last two sticky balls in hand, and prayed that the villain believed the mighty Mineta still had more in the tank. That the unhinged and evil man believed it was too much trouble to fight, and decided to just leave.
It seemed that no gods were listening to any prayers from the USJ that day.
Mineta's panic grew along with his tears as the villain growled and thrashed and, one by one, turned Mineta's awesome capture-specialised quirk to dust, slowly but sure freeing himself. Eventually, the villain stood, staring right at Mineta as he disintegrated the last sticky ball stuck to his shirt. His eyes held hate so pure that Mineta forgot to breathe.
He was pretty sure he was going to die. He really didn't want to die! He hadn't even touched a girl's boobs yet!
The villain's hands clawed as he glared hatefully at the shaking hero student, stalking closer and closer with each step. Mineta couldn't move from his spot, whether through pain or exhaustion or just plain fear, Mineta's feet refused to obey as he watched with increasingly teary eyes and a progressively snottier nose as the villain with the deadly hands got closer.
For a moment, Mineta felt a certain kinship with the roadkill he saw so often when he went on holiday to the country. He watched, impotently, as certain death came ever closer, and Mineta Minoru suddenly understood why deer froze up when they saw the headlights of twenty-five tons of steel and power barrelling towards them.
For a split second, Mineta knew for certain, that he was about to die, and he closed his eyes in acceptance.
Then, he felt confusion.
He was pretty sure, from his grand-pap's old books, that the land of the dead was supposed to be cold. If that was the case, why did it feel like it was getting warmer?
Mineta clawed for the last scrap of courage in his being, and opened his eyes.
And what he saw was blinding.
The heat of the rising sun brought warmth to the earth and life to its surface. The first ray of light that raced from the horizon pierced through the darkness that had overcome the land, banishing it back to the deepest of oceans or most secret of caves. In moments, it reduced the dominion the dark had held during the night to mere shadows.
But the Sun dwarfed the Earth, and burned fiercely. Just as its heat brought life and warmth, it could also lay waste to the earth, reducing the surface from one full of life to a land of mere ash and forgotten memories. Just as its light could bring clarity in the darkness, it could blind all to what was right in front of them.
It was the Sun's responsibility to remain conscious of its potential, for creation and destruction both, lest it be blinded by its own power.