He released the hardening, his skin returning to normal.
The villain grinned.
"Givin' up already?"
"No," Kaito said. "Just changing tools."
He pulled on the new Quirk. Two long, rubbery tentacles erupted from his back, mimicking the villain's own.
The strain was immediate, a burning in his muscles, but it was manageable.
He willed the tentacles to reverse the grip, coiling around the villain's own arms.
The villain's eyes widened in shock.
"Hey! What the—? How are you doing that?!"
"Thanks for the lesson," Kaito grunted.
With a heave, he used the tentacles to yank the off-balance villain off his feet and swing him in a wide arc, slamming him into two of his comrades climbing up the side.
All three tumbled back into the water with a splash.
"Whoa, ribbit!" Tsuyu croaked.
"Koda!" Kaito yelled, his voice strained from maintaining the foreign Quirk. "I need you to be brave for one second. When I say go, you run and jump as far as you can into the water. Asui, you grab him and get to shore. I'll cover you."
"What about you?" Tsuyu asked.
"I'll be right behind you! Now, GO!"
Koda, spurred into action by the direct order, ran and leapt.
Tsuyu shot her tongue out, wrapping it around his waist, and dove after him, pulling him along.
The water-based villains turned their attention to the two easy targets in the water.
"Not so fast," Kaito growled.
He planted his feet and thrust his tentacles downward, spearing them into the metal deck of the ship.
He willed them to lengthen, to stretch. They acted like massive, elastic poles.
He compressed them like springs and then launched himself into the air, high over the water, arcing toward the shore.
He landed hard on the concrete edge of the zone, rolling to a stop.
The tentacles retracted back into his body with a painful snap, and the Quirk faded, leaving him exhausted and sore. But he was down.
Tsuyu and Koda were already there, fending off a lone villain with her tongue and Koda's newfound courage.
A thunderous explosion rocked the entire facility. Kaito's head whipped around toward the central plaza.
Through the dust, he saw Aizawa. He was still fighting, a whirlwind of motion against a horde of villains.
But he was slowing. His hair was down. His Erasure wasn't active.
And the bird monster was upon him.
The Nomu moved faster than the eye could follow.
There was a sickening crunch. Aizawa's arm was bent at a horrifying, impossible angle. He screamed.
The hand-covered villain, Shigaraki, scratched his neck.
"Ah, ah, ah… All Might isn't here. This is getting boring. Nomu, finish him."
The Nomu raised a massive clawed hand to bring it down on Aizawa's head.
Kaito was moving before he even made a conscious decision. He was too far away.
He had no Quirk that could help. Acid? Tentacles? Useless.
But he had his legs. He had his voice.
"NO!" he screamed, sprinting toward the plaza, putting himself directly in the line of sight of the warp villain and Shigaraki.
He was a distraction. A pathetic, suicidal distraction.
But it worked. Shigaraki paused, his head tilting.
"Huh? Another little hero? So brave. So stupid."
The warp villain materialized partly in front of him.
"I would not recommend."
Suddenly, a blast of fire and ice erupted from the entrance. The massive door of the U.S.J. was blown off its hinges.
Standing there, backlit by the sun, his silhouette radiating pure, unadulterated fury, was All Might.
His smile was gone. His eyes burned with blue fire.
"FEAR NOT," his voice boomed, echoing with a power that shook the very foundations of the building. "FOR I AM HERE."
The relief that washed over Kaito was so potent his knees almost buckled.
The Symbol of Peace had arrived. The battle was now out of their hands.
He stumbled to a stop, his chest heaving, his body aching from borrowed powers and sheer terror.
He looked from the broken form of his teacher to the towering figure of his idol.
He had survived. They all had. But the cost was horrifyingly clear.
This was no longer a game. This was war. And his archive of borrowed powers felt terrifyingly inadequate.