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Chapter 29: What are you?
🕑 Added 2024-11-25 15:08:50 +0000 UTC“Text” – Normal speech
‘Text’ – Thought
“Text” – Quirk Spirit speaking in the human world
“Text” - Attacks
“Text” – Radio/Communication lines
“Text” – None Japanese speech
(text) – Subtext/meaning behind a spoken word
Chapter 29: What are you?
“Yo, Midoriya, you good?" Yaoyorozu looked to the side where Tetsutetsu was questioning Midoriya, who had been acting strange since they discussed that villain he insisted was a creature. Yaoyorozu wasn't sure, as yes, it didn't look human, but quirks had altered things so much that the concept of 'looking human' was horribly outdated. People with passive and active heteromorph genes could look like anything imaginable.
But she still felt like he wasn't just needlessly stubborn; he seemed to believe it with a passion that couldn't be dismissed as mere ignorance. For that reason, his response to Tetsutetsu's question left her slack-jawed.
"I need to take that thing down. Now." Midoriya didn't elaborate on that before he dashed out of cover, flames bursting from his body, focusing on his legs to increase speed as he rushed the villain. His attack drew attention to him and to them!
Having some unkind words to say about it, Yaoyorozu kept herself focused as she stood up, pulling out a staff from her gut and a grenade off her thigh. "Focus on aiding Vlad and Eraser-sensei!" she ordered as she tossed the grenade into the ground of villains. The device was revealed to be a flashbang, which went off, the blast of sound of light sending many villains to the ground.
"Got it!" Tetsutetsu slammed his fists together, his entire body shifting to steel as she rushed in like a mad bull, the surprised and disorientated villains proving no match him. Supporting him was Asui, who used her powerful tongue and frog-like legs to jump around, wrapping up limbs or mid-sections and throwing people off balance, if not into others.
Yaoyorozu lost track of Hagakure, but she spired her gloves and boots on the ground. She knew the girl had dropped them and dived into the ground to sow chaos and confusion. "Hey, over here!" She heard her call out to the left, to which a villain quickly turned and attacked, but his strike didn't hit an invisible girl, but another villain.
“Dammit, guys, that nearly hit me!” She called out again, with another villain turning their head to the right and sending a blast of air where he heard the sound, but again, this hit their own numbers.
“What the fuck? Stop attacking us, you morons!”
“I’m trying to take out one of those brats!”
“Yeah, so am I!” The villains started to argue with each other, as the couple incidents of friendly fire knocked people into each other, turning the cohesive whole into an unruly mob, which the students and their teachers took full advantage of.
"None of you can touch me. Go ahead and prove me wrong." Yaoyorozu smiled as she realized what Hagakure was doing. However, she had never guessed that the invisible girl had learned how to throw her voice and so well at that. That smile turned into a frown of worry as she saw Midoriya take a direct hit from the villain he had chosen to fight. Tetsutetsu tried to get their classmate to help, but not even he could bulldoze through all the villains between them.
“(Kero) He’s still fighting, don’t worry.” Asui’s call calmed her somewhat as a villain to her side she had been about to kick was wrapped up in a familiar capture scarf, their quirk suppressed as they went drawn into a high knee to the face as Eraser released them the fall, knocked out. Before he asked why they had thrown themselves into the fight, Vlad beat him to it, and Asui's response made him frown harder than he had been.
“Explain. Now.” Eraser said as he stood back to back with his student, his capture scarf held tight. The two faced off against a horde of villains who charged at them.
Batting aside a villain, she tripped them up with her staff and thrust it into the side, a yelp of pain her reward as the villain turned to try to make her pay for that, clawed hands ready to tear into her. "Unfortunately, we don't know much about the villain." She replied as she smashed the villain in the face with her staff.
“His quirk, how did it work?” Eraser canceled the quirks of several villains, wrapping one's arms together before swinging him around like a ball attached to a chain, the villain's stone body his wrecking ball as he sent the man flying into a group of others.
Yaoyorozu nodded, though he couldn’t see it. “He creates warp gates; you need to pass through them for him to teleport you, but he can create multiple of them and anywhere he wants, as he created them under us. We were sent to the frost zone, where villains awaited us. All of them had quirks suited for the cold."
Eraser hummed, as despite the situation, it relieved him to know that his students weren't hurt by it. Perhaps there was hope the others could also manage to clear their zones. Still, it was more likely they would hold out long enough for help, as someone had to have noticed the lack of communication. “If they could place villains like that there, then they most likely placed villains with similar field advantages in the other zones and sent the rest of the students there.”
"We think that's the case. Why else would they have people waiting for us?" Yaoyorozyu created another grenade and tossed it. The villains thought it was a flashbang. They closed their eyes or covered their ears, which played into her hands as it exploded, showing them in a sticky, spider-web-like trap. She had been studying a new type of capture item after her parents got the formulas for her.
"It does confirm that they can't send you far enough away that you couldn't call for help. U.A.'s on the edge of town, but it wouldn't be hard for any of you to alert someone if you could." Eraser was grateful that, like the students, he suspected they would have dropped them in the middle of nowhere or out at sea if the villains could have. Maybe they could have sent it to a high-up portal, but they weren't, so was there a height limit? Something else he didn't know?
Regardless of how they had to deal with the now, this was made more transparent when Tetsutetsu was hit in a massive blast that sent him back. He kept his footing, which left two small trenches in the ground. The steel-covered boy was covered in some dents and cracks, but he was still smiling and ready to fight.
“That gives us a fighting chance, and these fools aren’t all that strong,” Vlad got rid of one of Tetsutetsu’s strongest foes, smashing them in the gut in a Warhammer made from his blood, before creating a blood barrier to his side, just in time to block a blast of porcupine needles.
The man took a huffy breath, his face starting to sweat as the two teachers had been in a nonstop brawl for 20 minutes now, and despite the dozens of villains they had defeated, it was like there was more ready to replace them; their quirks making it all the harder to plot and react to threats. “But they’re making up for it in sheer numbers. At this rate, we could easily tire.”
‘I suspect that was the idea, I can’t keep erasing quirks, and I don’t have time to apply eye drops like this.’ Eraser agreed with him as his eyes were getting dangerously dry, but he couldn’t stop. Even though he was an ambush type of hero who preferred shorter fights where he got the drop of his foes, he couldn't back down when this many villains could then scatter and join the God knew how many were fighting the rest of his students.
“Fire Spin!" Those bursts of heat and light weren't making it easier for him, but he would be a hypocrite if he complained. Thus, the fight continued, with the teachers trying to work their way closer to their student, who seemed to be handling the most significant threats, but they couldn't bet on him doing that for long.
"Just what in good name did you do?" Midoriya's question puzzled them, the teachers most of all, as he relaxed, not out of confidence but out of…fear and disgust. What was it with this villain that got such a reaction, and why now? “That thing…it’s quirk…it’s not its own. It’s a prisoner…”
'It's quirk, isn't it's own?' Vlad's brow creased at that statement.
'It's quirk is a prisoner? What is he talking about?' Eraser was also confused, but then he recalled their meeting about their upcoming class. He didn't know why, but how this boy was acting suspiciously.
If Eraser heard the others right, the villain, Shigaraki, clapped his hands and replied to his student's horror-filled statement in glee. "You actually figured that out? Well, you must have great perception skills." Wait, Midoriya was right? How would he have even known that? How was it even possible? Did Midoriya have some skill or training with this from his quirk researcher mother?
It wasn't just them, but even the students found themselves confused and worried about the situation; Yaoyorozu found the concept that a quirk can be held 'prisoner' by someone who wasn't born with it preposterous. Still, she couldn't disregard the villain's immature and vile taunts; she couldn't detect any deceit in his words. But that did open another realization for them, especially Asui, who realized that Midoriya had tagged the thing as, for lack of a better term, 'off' a while back. Was that why he rushed in to fight it?
Shigaraki continued, patting the beast’s side. "That's right, little hero. Nomu was designed with multiple quirks, including super regeneration, so you can do nothing to get its health into the yellow." He seemed proud, with the heroes and students completely surprised by the reveal. Multiple quirks? Impossible, not even the teachers had seen cases of that. Todoroki might have had ice and fire, but it was two halves of the same quirk…
But what about Midoriya? His quirk gave him access to at least four forms. Aizawa started to put the pieces together. Midoriya was the only one who noticed that this…thing had a stolen quirk. He didn't seem surprised that it had multiple. Maybe that's because he had seen it already, or perhaps he had already known that it was possible…because he was the same.
A glance to the side, and even with his goggles on, he looked Vlad in the eye and saw that the man suspected the same thing. But there was another question. Midoriya seemed disgusted not by the concept of having a quirk that wasn't yours but by a stolen quirk. So, where did he get them if he also had multiple quirks?
"Where?" Tetsutetsu shivered at Midoriya's question; it sounded different from his typical behavior and dangerous.
“What?” the hand-covered villain replied. Hagakure was silent as she watched the confrontation between the two, much like the rest, as the fighting had come to a much-needed pause.
"Where did you get those quirks? How did you get them? They-they're suffering, and you can just stand there gloating?!” Yaoyorozu's frown grew all the pronounced; Midoriya sounded angry-no, that was too mild a word; he sounded enraged and grief-stricken for the fate of these stolen quirks.
Why was that? She had only heard someone that worked up at her grandparent's funeral, and one of her cousins said something entirely out of line, causing her aunt to blow up at them. Did Midoriya value quirks like how they valued people?
The teachers said nothing, lacking critical details. Still, they had long understood how depraved people can be, not just villains. So if these quirks were something precious, while it is surprising to learn that, it wasn't to know that a villain apparently trapped and abused them, shoving them into some sort of lab-made bio-weapon.
Despite their wishes, it would seem that their young students were also facing that harsh reality.
Shigaraki only added to that horror when he placed a hand on the side of his Nomu creature. They witnessed his quirk in action as the flesh dried out and cracked, decay spreading across the creature's body in what must have felt like hell, but the beast didn't so much as flinch; its fisheye-like gaze remained forward, focused on nothing. Vlad was sure he heard Hagakure gag, struggle, and ultimately fail to not throw up at the sight, the same being true for Tetsutetsu. At the same time, it seemed like just Asui and Yaoyorozu could keep their lunch inside, though both were notedly green faces.
Shigaraki thankfully retracted his hand, leaving the decayed flesh to flake off before it damn near exploded, fresh bone, blood, and muscles growing to replace the damaged sections in mere seconds.
“Suffering? They’re abilities, you brat. Tools to be used when and however you want.” Shigaraki stated, which disgusted the heroes and students deeply, quirk or no, that treating a living creature like that was appalling.
“Tools? No…you’re wrong,” Vlad's gaze jumped to Midoriya; his blade was slightly lowered, but he didn't buy for a second that he was tired, not when his gut was saying that this was merely the calm before the storm. “So wrong that it’s painful…but also sad that you can say it like it’s a truth.”
"The quirk you have from birth…it's a gift, one that seeks to help you, and when you pass, they continue to carry on your will and your emotions," Midoriya's words offered some details, yet left out others that none of them could make out. When you pass? What, did he view quirks as parts of the soul, something that was left behind when you died? How was that even possible? They were just power, and power had no will or metaphysical component…right?
Yaoyorozu wasn't sure anymore, as Midoriya was so sure of himself. His words carried such conviction that you couldn't dismiss them without effort, and she didn't want to. It was fascinating, terrifying, useful, and profound. The notion that quirks could be more than what she and everything else thought them to be was all those things and more.
Shigaraki didn’t share her sentiments about the topic. "Nomu, kill him, then move on to the others."
With that order, time seemed to slow for everyone. Yaoyorozu yelled as she tried to move to help, same with the others as Eraser glared at the beast and erased its quirks despite having a drying set of eyes, but that didn't affect its speed as it charged his student. Vlad was creating a spear of blood to throw, but it was forming too slowly while the rest also moved; even Asui couldn't jump over them, as villains started firing all manner of quirks into the air, forcing her to ground, else she got tagged and seriously injured.
Through it all, the dark-haired girl watched as, confusingly, Midoriya didn't move; he didn't shift from his bent forward form, his hand ready but not drawing the blade he had sheathed for God knew what. Despite the danger rushing towards him and what would surely be a death blow, she saw that his gaze held no fear, no anger, no hesitation. It was a gaze that she had only seen on top heroes, one people like All Might in clips of him facing off against massive odds.
A look of strength but also warmth. Momo realized that, like top heroes, it was a look of ironclad confidence, not just in their ability to defeat the foe before them but also in their ability to protect those behind them.
“Save and guide them, Seijū Genrin.”
Line Break
Midoriya’s words were softly spoken, yet they hit them all like the roar of a great beast, piercing through to their bones. And with those words came power, as his blade exploded and rapidly reformed as he performed a quick draw slash, moving far faster than before. The nearly formed blade quickly cut deep into the flesh of the Nomu, but that wasn't it, as in its wake, it left shards of ice and snow that invested the massive wound.
And for the first time, the Nomu let out a screech of pain, stunning Shigaraki as that wasn't supposed to be possible; he was told that the damn event item couldn't feel pain; what the fuck?!, Midoriya didn't let this be the only move as shifted, turned as wrist and with a yell, brought his blade down on the Nomu once more, this time severing its arm from the elbow, the blade releasing a boom and flash as lightning coursed through it into the beast whose body was left temporarily paralyzed by the shock causing uncontrolled muscle spasms.
To finish the combo, Midoriya pulled his blade to the side before thrusting its butt off the handle into the beast's gut, the force of the blow sending it crashing back, nearly taking out Shigaraki like a human bowling pin.
When their vision recovered and the smoke and dust cleared, all were left in awe at what they saw. The Nomu was on its back, still spasming about as it tried to get up, its missing arm regenerating but much slower than what Shigaraki had demonstrated it could do.
Meanwhile, Midoriya looked functionally the same, yet simultaneously, it was like he was different. He had animal-like ears atop his head, the same type he would get when he accessed Seijū Genrin, or as her faux nom: Faunalution’s power. However, it was much more extreme; they were more prominent and more alert. His now brown skin seemed rougher, while the fur that covered his hands had expanded to his elbows, and his tails had gone from one to 4, each a different color that would have matched more with his forms.
His sword had also changed from a beautiful, if generic, Katana to a massive Dadao blade. The blade was much longer, and its top half wider than any Yaoyorozu had seen in textbooks or museums. Its handle was seemingly unchanged except for the crossguard, which was now broader in white of thick, multi-colored fur that reminded her of his other forms.
The blade wasn't bare either. On the side they could see, they could make out what appeared to be intricately and painfully carved images of several animals in a style reminiscent of Edo-period paintings. She could make out a dog, two differently styled rabbits, a fox, and a cheetah.
“What the hell was that?!” Shigaraki yelled, breaking the silence that had fallen.
“That…” Midoriya took a breath. His lungs felt brand new. No, they felt like they weren't wholly his, and he had embraced that as he felt the power of all he had gained coursing through him, fused with him. "What can power given accomplish?"
"Nomu, get up and kill him!" Shigaraki was sick and tired of this BS; first, the dungeon boss that doesn't show, then this mini-boss goes and has extra moves and abilities? What the fuck was that? But as if to make his mood fouler, Nomu didn't respond to his words immediately, as even with his orders, the weapon was slow to rise, its arm still regenerating, which should have been done by now. "What did you do? How did you use two types of abilities at once? Don't think I didn't see you switch typing from fire to ice and now lightning?"
Midoriya calmly opened his eyes, revealing that they had taken on multiple colors, a color wheel with sections dedicated to his natural green and the rest of the quirks he had inside him. "I don't need to tell you anything other than that I'm going to stop you and put this quirk to rest."
"Midoriya! I'll suppress its quirks; just handle it!" Aizawa yelled to him. He didn't know what or how Midoriya did that, but he needed to keep it up.
"Understood!" Midoriya replied, raising his blade before rushing into the Nomu, screeching and retreating; the beast put on the back foot as Midoriya started his assault; each time he swung or thrust his massive sword, a different one of the beast's carvings glowed when it was on the fox and his blade had touched the ground in a dodged downward slice, ice sprouted from the point of impact.
All the while, the Nomu was gaining damage as Midoriya's seemed to have no issues cutting into its thick flesh, but something was off as even just passing blows left the creature feeling weaker; it's super regenerating working slower than it should as such wounds should have healed near instantly, but instead they remained open for seconds, leaving the beast to bleed all over, blood flowing through the carvings of Midoriya's blade.
Midoriya, for his part, kept his attention on his foe; with each blow, he could see it; the chains were breaking, but so too was the quirk taking damage. It pained to see it not react even as more cuts appeared on its small, thin body, but this was all he could do. He didn't have a capture ball or use it without giving the game away. All he could do was try to give the quirk peace before it could become a more significant problem.
It was a near-fatal mistake as his ear twitched almost too late. He turned and swung for Shigaraki, who had quickly covered the distance between them and tried to grab him. Shigaraki smiled as he managed to catch Midoriya's blade between his palms before it could cut him. "You went for a killing blow immediately, didn't you?" Shigaraki asked him, his thumbs raised, to which Midoriya remained silent as he tried to pull his blade back, but Shigaraki’s palms were clamped tight on the blade.
“And you people call me a villain, yet here you were, having jumped straight to lethal force. I don’t think you deserve a blade anymore!” Shigaraki let his thumbs drop, and immediately, the blade started to decay and break into pieces as Midoriya kicked him off and jumped back, looking at the now destroyed weapon in his hand as it had several chunks missing, and a quick shake had the top half break off and fall with a clatter.
However, if Shigaraki expected him to be surprised, shocked, or scared, he was in for a rude awakening. "You're wrong. My blade isn't normal. It only cuts when I will it to. I could swing it all I like without bringing needless harm, not to your body anyway, also." He held the blade out, and to the villain's surprise and ire, the blade repaired itself within seconds until it was back in perfect condition.
“Did you truly think you could decay away the gifts that are my power? It’s insulting that you even tried.” Midoriya sped towards Shigaraki, who dived out of the way. Still, Midoriya didn't stop as he had never planned to attack Shigaraki, something the hand-covered villain only realized when he saw what was in Midoriya's path; the still recovering Nomu.
Jumping into the air, Midoriya pulled back his blade. The dog carving began to glow as Midoriya locked eyes on the target, ready to finish this while it was still weakened. He gripped his sword and brought it down, power gathering in its tip.
“Tera Blast-!" Midoriya's plan involved unleashing a devastating energy slash at the Nomu, slashing it across its chest and finally destroying its super regeneration, allowing the spirit to rest in what he hoped was the afterlife.
But what happened was a familiar portal opening up in front of the Nomu, his slash passing through it before he felt its impact with his back, cutting deep into his flesh from his shoulder down to his waist. The surprise of his own attack hitting him, along with the force of it, sent him crashing into the ground, his blade falling from his hands.
“Midoriya!” Asui called out as Midoriya groaned, slowly getting up as his blood poured out the gash on his back, his right arm especially slow as the strike had cut deep into his shoulder.
“Forgive me for being late, master Shigaraki, but I arrived on time." Kurogiri formed at Shigaraki’s side, though Shigaraki and the rest noticed that the man seemed hagged and beat up; no doubt he had just got out of a fight. Midoriya had just gotten up and seen the battle damage on the guy who sent him and the rest to freeze to death, only for the boy to get tackled by a recovered Nomu and slammed into the ground again, coughing up blood as he felt a rid or two crack if not break.
Ignoring how the rest cried out for their pinned classmate and being slowly crushed, Shigaraki looked over his second in command. "Took you long enough. What were you twiddling your thumbs after sending all the brats off?” Shigaraki asked, annoyed that all this had gone down. Nomu finally settled the stupid brat, but it shouldn't have taken so long.
"That is false. I sent most of them, including two teachers, to the different areas." Kurogiri confirmed what the teachers and students already suspected. Still, they focused more on getting through as Tetsutetsu was making progress. He just needed a little more time.
“Yeah, I knew that; I've been watching two of the…wait, what the hell do you mean most of them?" Shigaraki glared at his number two, who didn’t shrink under the intensely violent gaze.
“Some of them had quirks that allowed them to escape my warp gates. Along with Thirteen, they had managed to escape and kept me busy at the entrance. It pains me to inform you that one of them managed to get past me and escape the USJ.” Kurogiri reported that his fight with Thirteen and those remaining students had been one he wasn't prepared for.
It was easy enough to take down Thirteen; he merely used the same trick he had against the odd animal student who was about to strike their Nomu. But it would seem it wasn't an assured lethal blow as much as this boy. Thirteen wasn't killed by her quirk, as she canceled it before it could.
It was the other students who had been an issue. The one who could split herself was a real nuisance; her parts could already float, so opening portals high up and dropping them did nothing, nor did she care if he sent away pieces to begin with, as she just regrew what she could and laughed that if they won, she could nap after this and be right as rain. That was when he could even grab her pieces, as the white-haired one had a telekinetic quirk, which meant she could hold those pieces and pull them out of danger.
Once they had figured out that he had a collar, she grabbed it with her quirk, giving the others a chance to attack him as he could only open portals, not move or even turn his head. For that, he got a few punches from that boy in yellow and several cuts from the insect-looking one with blades coming off his arms. Finishing off that humiliation, the browned-haired girl touched it, her quirk leaving him weightless as the blonde with horns fired them at him, sending him flying off into the damn ceiling. Forcing him to watch as the boy in yellow opened the doors and allowed the Tokage girl to escape.
“What…you let some stupid brat escape?” Shigaraki asked, his fury getting to the highest of the day as he reached for his neck, scratching his skin aggressively until it turned red. Still, even as he drew blood, he didn't stop as his fury grew worse at how his plans, his dream to see All Might dead, and his reputation as the symbol were ruined. But apparently, his day was absolute trash! How was he supposed to trust Nomu to kill All Might when it couldn't even handle a stupid brat without an assist?
"Kurogiri…if you weren't our escape plan, I would turn you dust for that fuck-up!" He yelled before, and at least he calmed down as he started to think again. "Great, just our luck, we're down. God knows how many pawns are struggling with the mini-bosses, but there is no way we can clear this dungeon if more of them show up. Dammit, I want to fight the big boss, but we don't get any revives, and we'll need them."
‘They’re just going home? Just like that?’ Vlad asked himself, in disbelief over what he was hearing.
'Oh, thank God, this was getting intense!' Hagakure internally cheered, which meant they could get a chance to rest and medical attention for Midoriya, who continued to bleed even as that thing held him down.
‘Wait a second, something’s not right.’ Eraser thought to himself, Asui sharing that thought as it didn't make sense to her. Until now, Shigaraki has acted more like her siblings when they got emotional, and they haven't just backed down even when it would make sense.
'They've already sunk too much time and resources into this assault; they wouldn't just give up now, would they?' Yaoyorozu considered, seeing that Tetsutetsu was close to getting through, looking much worse than before, but his quirk was still up.
"But before we go, we can deal with one annoying mini-boss so he doesn't spawn next time. Nomu, crush him!" Shigaraki ordered with violent glee, but instead of hearing the sound of bones being smashed and blood splattering all over the place, the Nomu started to twitch.
“Nomu, I said crush him!” Shigaraki ordered before the Nomu let out a pained, confused screech, as its programming clashed against some new feeling in it as if its quirks were acting up in ways it wasn't built to handle as the damage Midoriya had done was starting to catch up. “Kill the stupid brat!”
Seeing his chance, Midoriya forced himself to act, even with the previous injury. He spent another chunk of his dwindling stamina and energy dispelling his dropped blade and summoning another. Grappling it tight, he thrust it back towards the Nomu holding him down. The blast stabbed deep into its chest, missing its heart, but that was fine as, with a determined yell, he fired off a blast of ice and electricity.
The duel elemental attack left him drained, but it did the job as it knocked the Nomu off him, its wound coated in thick ice, which further hampered its healing. At the same time, the electricity overloaded its nervous system, leaving it twitching about on the floor as Midoriya's transformation was released, his quirks seeing that his body wasn't in a state to maintain it any longer.
“Fine, then I’ll do it myself!” Shigaraki rushed forward to kill the weakened, vulnerable student, but Tetsutetsu got in the way.
“Like hell!” Shigaraki grabbed onto his forearm, his decay starting to spread. Still, Tetsutetsu grit his teeth as he punched the villain square in the gut, sending all the air in his lungs right out before he follows it up by tossing it back. "Damn, that hurts like hell. I knew that my steel might not hold up, but damn, did it not hold up!" Tetsutetsu's left forearm was an absolute mess; his steel skin decayed and flaked off, exposing the top layer of his muscle. Thankfully for him, that was all the damage.
“(Kero)” Asui also moved, her tongue wrapping around Midoriya’s waist and getting him out of there. "I wouldn't move around too much if I were you. That wound looks pretty deep." She told him, hiding how much she hated the taste of iron on her tongue.
Midoriya nodded, using considerable effort just to remain awake. Still, with how pale he was, she was sure that he needed a doctor and fast. “Got it…but we need to handle Nomu.” He told her, as the Nomu got over the muscle spams and crushed the ice that was in its wound, but despite that, it didn't act to kill him as ordered. Instead, it started twitching and stumbling about, and parts of its body began to pulse, bulge, and shrink randomly.
“It’s acting weird, probably because of what you did.” Asui guessed, as she had plenty of questions about that, but now wasn’t the time.
“Maybe…” Midoriya conceded, though there was more to that than just harm. His blade, much like the other weapons used by those like him, was designed to target quirks; it was why they could even hurt a quirk. But he had never seen one act like this; as he could see it, its super regeneration quirk factor was close to free, but its eyes didn't gain any awareness; instead, it seemed to be turning violent. To make things worse, he saw something he hadn't seen before, a second quirk in that thing, one that looked to be an older man but no less sane-looking.
‘But it could be something else…but what is it?’ Midoriya thought to himself before he realized with dread what was happening. He wanted to scream and yell for Asui to let him down so he could finish the job before things got worse. Still, he could barely move an arm, and even when he tried to summon his power, they rejected it because of his condition.
“Kurogiri!” Shigaraki's yell drew his and Tsu's attention as a portal appeared in front of the girl. The two were still mid-jump with no means to change course. Through the portal, Shigaraki's hand reached out, reaching to grab onto Asui and do to her what he tried to do to Tetsutetsu and Midoriya.
They would have been sitting ducks if not for aid to arrive. Vines burst out of the ground around the two villains, forcing them to dive away or else they get caught, a fate that dozens of the others still up and fighting didn't escape.
“None shall be harmed as long as I can lend my aid.” Glancing to the side, they saw that the calvary had arrived, with Shiozaki leading the charge; her vines dug deep into the concrete around her, only to be coming out closer to them and their many foes, several grabbing onto the Nomu to restrain the struggling, compromised beast. “You wretched villains, you need to repent for your sins.”
Shigaraki had to continue to play defensive and dodge as he saw the ground shift and evade. This was a good thing, too, as Honenuki’s softening saw many villains, both those Shiozaki had already restrained and those she hadn't started to sink into the mud until they were waist deep. Letting the ground harden with their trap, Honenuki spoke. "Sorry it took us a while to get here. There were a lot of villains in our way."
"I'm just glad we got some serious back-up, too!" Hagakure waved at them, though they couldn’t see it as she still didn’t wear her boots or gloves.
"Hey, I didn't get in through recommendations for nothing." Honenuki chuckled as Sero helped Eraser and Vlad, as they had just cut the villain's number down by half in less than 10 seconds; the stunning power play from the students meant that the villains were on the back foot, their morale dropping as their crucial advantage was so quickly handled-their numbers.
The Nomu continued to struggle, its quirks fighting against the beast's programming with their wrathful but directionless desires for revenge, as they didn't seem to know who or what they were angry about; they didn't recall anything like names or pasts. Aoyama heard all that and found it highly unusual for a quirk to be such a violent blank. “My deepest apologies, my good man,” That confusion didn’t stop him from doing his job as his blade pierced clean through the Nomu’s back, heart, and out its blood.
"But this is the best I can do. Be at peace and rest above in the sweet, loving clouds." He frowned as he quickly withdrew his blade; as the Nomu fell silent, the blonde flicked his sword to the side to rid it of blood.
“What the heck, man? You killed him!” Sero yelled at him, the rest of his group just as horrified at him for just straight killing someone.
"Correction, I put down a beast, one that was hurting," Aoyama replied. Honenuki and Shiozaki were quirks to move to restrain him as they didn't know what was happening. Still, she'll be damned if they just let that slide.
“Shiozaki, Honenuki, leave it. It wasn't a person, but a creature made to fight." Vlad stopped both as they looked at him in confusion. What did he mean it wasn't a person? Wait, why weren't the rest of their classmates who were here already any more surprised about this than they were?
“Dammit…Damnitdamnitdamnit!” Attention returned to Shigaraki, who now only stood with a fraction of his invasion force, most looking ready to lay down their arms and surrender. “Hell no, I’m not losing because of those brats, you hear me?!”
“It is quite immature to have a temper tantrum, villain? At least take your defeat with grace.” Aoyama told him, not even reacting to the fact he might have killed someone, or was it, not a person but a thing like Vlad-sensei said? His group wasn't sure.
“Nomu!!!” Shigaraki blew a casket and just yelled out to the heavens. “KILL ALL OF THEM!!”
“That won’t-!” Aoyama started, only to be interrupted by an unholy roar from his rear, accompanied by smashed concrete and ripping vines.
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My schedule is back to normal, which means back to full-sized chapters. However, I haven't watched Act 2 of Arcane yet, though I've heard that it's a change from Season 1 and Act 1 of Season 2. Anything more, and I'm blocking it out. As for this chapter, I had to revise some plans to account for last week's issue, but I'm happy with the final product.
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And there is the end! I have to admit, I got into the groove. I just kept going until I wrote out another 1.5K words, but this was already over my limit, so I had to cut that and leave you with this chunky chapter. I debated how to handle the USJ but decided where the fun was in keeping things close to canon when I had already established that quirk hollows are a thing. Also, Izuku got the episode one Rukia treatment, was hit by an attack they should have avoided, and is now out of the fight, mainly because it might be too easy to write them winning against the monster they'll face in the next chapter.
Oh, and before I forget, Seijū Genrin translates to Scared Beasts of the Primeval Woods, which fits, seeing how all his quirks take on animal-like forms and his inner world is an unending forest.
