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Chapter 89: The Weight of a Hero
🕑 Added 2025-07-22 19:40:32 +0000 UTCStain's katana descended, a deadly silver arc under the flickering light of distant fires. Time seemed to stretch, growing as thick as molasses. The roar of the burning city faded, replaced by the sharp whistle of steel cutting through the air.
It's not enough. My body is giving up. The paralysis is winning.
Izuku's mind was a silent scream in a prison of flesh that no longer obeyed.
But not my will. NOT MY WILL! MOVE!
In the final instant, his body, driven by a last desperate command from his Bio-Vector Control, contracted in an agonizing spasm. He moved barely two centimeters to the left. The katana, instead of piercing his heart, plunged deep into his right pectoral, millimeters from his lung. The pain was an explosion of white light in his mind, a tearing sound of flesh and muscle giving way. The taste of copper flooded his mouth.
The paralysis was nearly total. He felt his muscles shutting down one by one, like lights in a city losing power. But adrenaline and a will forged in months of hell granted him one last gift: three agonizing seconds of control over his arms.
Three… two… not to scream… not to give up… one…
With a choked growl that sounded more animal than human, his arms, shaking violently, shot forward. Not to strike. To hold on. His fingers dug into Stain's ragged clothes and leather harness. His entire body, impaled and paralyzed, became a dead weight, a human ballast chained to his killer.
No… I won't let go… You're… my responsibility… Girls… now…
Two figures burst into the alley's entrance, their silhouettes framed against the orange glow of the burning city. They stopped short. The scene that greeted them was a nightmare: Yu and Toru, conscious but wounded on the ground. Stain, the monster from the news, standing in the center. And Izuku, impaled on his sword, bleeding profusely, but clinging to him with the tenacity of a dead man. The horror froze them for a fraction of a second.
“DEKU-KUN!”
Ochako's scream was a tear in the soul, filled with disbelief and a rage that eclipsed her fear.
Stain's head snapped around, his bloodshot eyes glaring from under his mask.
“More brats! This city is a plague!”
He roared and tried to break free, to step back and assess the new arrivals, but Izuku's dead weight threw him off balance. His speed, his greatest weapon, was useless. It was like trying to run with a wrecking ball chained to his ankle. He glanced down at the boy who refused to let go, his voice a mixture of fury and a twisted respect.
“Let me go, you stubborn insect! You'll die anyway!”
With tears of rage in her eyes, Ochako prepared to lunge.
“I'm going to kill him! I'M GOING TO…!”
“OCHAKO, NO! THINK!”
Momo's hand clamped down on her arm, her touch firm and her voice an iceberg of logic in the midst of the chaos.
“LOOK! Izuku-kun has neutralized his speed! He’s turned a high-mobility killer into a stationary target! Don't waste his sacrifice on a suicide attack! Follow the training protocol: Environmental Control against Elite Foes!”
Stain, dragging Izuku, lunged toward them, his sword still stuck in the boy, using him as a grotesque shield.
Momo didn't hesitate. The skin of her arm glowed as she created a dozen polished steel bearings, which fell at her feet.
“OCHAKO, NOW!”
Ochako touched the ground, her eyes fixed on Stain.
“FLOAT!”
The bearings lifted, and with another touch, she returned their gravity right under Stain's feet. He slipped, his balance already compromised by Izuku's weight, and his legs splayed out at an awkward angle.
As he recovered, Ochako ripped a section of the pavement up with her Quirk, raising it as a makeshift, meter-high shield. Behind it, Momo created a net launcher.
HISS-THWUMP!
The high-tensile alloy net tangled around one of Stain's legs. He cut it with one of his daggers with a growl of frustration, but the maneuver had cost him a vital second.
“Clever girls!” he growled, his tactical mind adapting.
He spun his body violently, using the paralyzed and bleeding Izuku as a human shield against the girls' attacks. His smile under the mask was a cruel sneer.
“COME ON, HEROINES! SHOW ME YOUR RESOLVE! DO YOU DARE STRIKE YOUR PRECIOUS LEADER TO GET TO ME?”
Momo and Ochako stopped, horrified by the tactic.
I can't hit him… I can't… but I can crush him from below.
“Momo-chan, the ground!” Ochako yelled.
She shifted her focus, extending her hands toward the ground beneath Stain.
“HEAVIER!”
She created a localized high-gravity field right at Stain's legs. The villain grunted as he felt his movements turn sluggish, as if walking through wet cement. His feet sank slightly into the softened asphalt.
Blunt attacks are a risk. I need something that will incapacitate him without harming Izuku-kun.
“I've got him busy!” Ochako shouted, maintaining the gravity field with visible effort. “Do your thing!”
Momo, seeing the opportunity, opted for non-lethal weapons and created two items in rapid succession: a high-voltage Taser with two long probes and a stun grenade. She threw the grenade first. It exploded with a blinding flash and a high-pitched beep designed to disorient.
Stain instinctively shielded his eyes. In that instant, Momo fired the Taser. The probes flew toward him, but Stain, despite being blinded, reacted with inhuman speed. He spun, and the probes slammed into Izuku's body instead of his own.
Izuku's body convulsed violently from the electric shock. A choked scream escaped his lips.
“NO!” Momo cried, horrified by her own mistake.
Izuku's paralysis finally overcame him. His eyes rolled back, and his head slumped forward. His grip, though still firm from the rigidity of his muscles, began to visibly loosen.
The girls saw it. They shared a panicked look. They knew they had one last chance before Stain broke free.
“Momo, now or never!” Ochako’s voice was a desperate plea. “He’s letting go!”
“I’m on it!”
Momo's arms shone with a feverish intensity, steam rising from her skin from the massive lipid expenditure. She was creating her masterpiece of the night: a complex-looking cannon that fired a rapid-hardening chemical foam.
“I need three seconds! Cover me! Don’t let him get close!” she panted from the effort.
“WITH PLEASURE!”
With a guttural scream, Ochako tore a nearby manhole cover loose. The heavy metal disc floated before her. With another shout, she threw it like a frisbee, not to hit Stain, but just above his head. Stain glanced up for a fraction of a second, preparing for an attack from the sky.
It was all Momo needed.
“EAT FOAM, BASTARD!”
The cannon fired with a powerful THOOMP! A torrent of sticky white foam hit Stain head-on. In seconds, the foam expanded, covering him, and hardened with audible cracks, becoming a cement-like cocoon that immobilized him completely, with Izuku still stuck to him like a tragic sculpture.
The silence that fell over the alley was abrupt and deafening. The battle was over. Stain, defeated, was trapped.
Izuku finally collapsed, his body sliding down the foam cocoon and falling to the ground in a limp heap. The paralysis had subsided, but the stab wound and blood loss took their toll. A dark puddle spread quickly around him.
Ochako and Momo didn't celebrate. They ran to him, their faces masks of terror.
“Izuku! Deku-kun, hang on!” Ochako cried, kneeling beside him, her hands pressing on the wound in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding.
“The bleeding won't stop!” Momo sobbed, her own hands glowing as she desperately tried to create a clotting agent and sterilized bandages. “Hang on, Izuku-kun! Please, hang on!”
