Chapter Text
Midoriya, Asui, and Mineta looked over their work from the shore of the Shipwreck Zone. The aquatic villains were now stuck in a pile of themselves and Mineta's spheres.
"Those guys aren't going anywhere," Mineta said, "It takes a good twenty-four hours for my spheres to lose adhesion, and by that time Ida should be back with more of the teachers."
"We got them all at once," Asui noted, "This is everyone I saw down in the water. And anyone I might have missed was likely caught up in Midoriya's giant water fountain."
"Looks like I'm starting to master more of my Quirk," Midoriya noted, "That was a good 15% of my full strength. Before I could only muster up 12%. Not to mention what just happened earlier."
"That was bizarre," Asui said, "The sudden muscle density and combat instinct I could buy as just part of training, but where did that sudden smoke come from?"
"I guess I learned how to vaporize my sweat into a sort of mist using precise muscle contractions," Midoriya suggested.
It was the only physical excuse he could think of that still fit in with how Regeneration worked. He just hoped One For All wouldn't throw him any more surprises.
"It was a stressful situation, ribbit," Asui agreed, "I know I wasn't showing it, but I was nervous about all those villains. Mineta was shaking like a leaf, and I saw your fist shaking when observing those guys."
"So what now?," Mineta asked, "Maybe we should find our way to the exit. See if we can't find the villain who's jamming the alarms."
"It would be a good idea to prioritize getting help," Midoriya agreed, "We should also deal with that mist warping villain at some point. He was able to spread his body out quite a distance, so if he's able to reach Ida it'll be harder to find help. Right now though, his attention should be on Thirteen, Agent of J, and those members of our class he didn't send out randomly. We should also try to avoid the center, where all the real action is."
"Most of those villains are likely all cleaned up," Asui noted, "Between Mister Aizawa, Serpenshia, and Endo Hound, I'd be surprised if they aren't dealing with the ringleader right about now. That creepy guy with all the severed hands on his costume."
Midoriya nodded.
"Aizawa on his own would be at a disadvantage in numbers. His Quirk needs constant eye contact to function. One blink and his opponent can get the drop on him, so he's vulnerable to being worn down in a crowd. But Serpenshia and Endo Hound have no such weakness. Serpenshia has his physical power and can generate his Black Gunk in large quantities before he wears down since it's a byproduct of his body's natural fluids. Meanwhile Endo Hound can produce Amnestic Gas as a byproduct of carbon dioxide."
"So unless one of those villains can cut off her air, she's good," Mineta realized, "Most of those villains were spread out to attack our classmates, though. While there might be enough in the center to handle one of those three on their own, they're fighting together."
"The one that worries me is the large villain that was brought in," Midoriya noted, "The leader, Shigaraki, suggested it was being saved for All Might. But with the other villains being used to lure him here, what's to stop him from unleashing it early if they no longer have value as a lure? Most of them are like us. They haven't had any real training with their Quirks."
"Some of them did look like they were college age," Asui realized, "Think they're hero course rejects from various high schools?"
That was certainly Todoroki's opinion as he finished freezing the remaining villains in the Landslide Zone.
"This is why the hero course system has been refined, to keep out those who are untrained in the use of their Quirks, or are unable to handle an Object of Power. But rather than choose a more suitable path, you let yourselves be drawn in by the allure of a villain's life."
He sighed.
'I thought this was a case of simply bringing in a force of elite villains to overwhelm All Might in order to kill him, but these low-level trash aren't even a match for a UA first-year. Or at least not one from the hero course. The one who called himself Shigaraki... He must have a different plan in mind. We need more information.'
"Listen well," he said, "If you stay frozen like that your cells will slowly die. You'll soon succumb to frostbite and hypothermia. Now as a young man striving to become a hero, I'd prefer that not happen. I'd like to avoid unnecessary cruelty."
He approached one villain who was now whimpering in fear.
"So tell me... How does your boss intend to kill All Might?"
'Listen up,' Todoroki called in over the earpieces, 'None of these villains are elite threats. They're just high school dropouts and street-level villains recruited as fodder. That large black monster they came with is the one who's supposed to kill All Might.'
Kaminari heard that loud and clear and shocked one of the villains attacking him in the Mountain Zone. Sure enough, the big guy proved more easy to take out than his size would suggest.
"So we just gotta avoid the ringleaders in the center, right? So long as we do that, we should come out of this alive."
Yaoyorozu was disabling most of the villains with capture weapons such as bolas and nets, while Jiro plugged her earlobes into various speakers along her costume to unleash a stunning sound wave from her own heartbeat, paralyzing several more villains.
"Why bother recruiting from the gutter?," Jiro asked, "They have a villain with a warp Quirk, wouldn't it be more efficient to break into Tartarus prison for stronger villains?"
"Tartarus has walls made of telekill alloy," Yaoyorozu pointed out, "Maybe his Quirk isn't strong enough to bypass it."
She undid magnetic clamps on the back of her costume, creating a large insulating blanket for her and Jiro. Kaminari smirked.
"The thing about my Quirk is, it makes me a human taser. But I can only control where the electricity comes from, not where it goes. If I went all out, I might accidentally hit my classmates. But it still works like normal electricity, so things like rubber or other insulators are immune. And from what I'm seeing..."
He charged up his power to full.
"None of you even have wood for an armor coating!"
The entire group was completely paralyzed at the electrical energy hit them at full charge. Jiro smirked as she peeked out from under the blanket.
"They didn't even have rubber soles on their boots. Bunch of edgelords thinking it was cool to have metal-studded ones."
Yaoyorozu's Quirk let her make anything non-living by expending her body's lipids, but for more complex items she needed to understand the composition. Also, she needed more skin area for larger items, hence why the back part of her costume was designed to separate. Kaminari shook his head to clear the cobwebs. Since his Electrification Quirk relied on his nervous system to fully function, using too much of it temporarily shorted out his brain, leaving him momentarily idiotic. It usually only lasted for a few seconds.
Meanwhile back in the center, Aizawa, Asahi, and Tanaka were cleaning up what was left of the villains in that region. Tanaka spotted Shigaraki rushing in.
'I need to focus on Eraser Head. By now his Quirk should be worn down enough. With him out of the enemy party, I can let the Nomu run wild on the other two.'
But Endo Hound had already sensed him running.
"Tanaka! Aizawa! Hold your breaths!"
She breathed in deep, then unleashed her Amnestic Breath across the entire central area. The shot hit Shigaraki full impact.
"Oh, crap!," he called out, "Status ailments are the worst! Especially forgetfulness!"
He tried to turn back, but the gas was already catching up to him. He wound up stumbling back.
"What's going on? Why do I feel bigger?"
He tried to stand, only find part of the ground giving way. He noticed that a small pit had been created through decay.
"Wait... Since when do I have a Quirk?"
Nearby, Midoriya, Asui, and Mineta had approached in order to see how things were going. Midoriya noticed Shigaraki's confusion.
"Looks like a five-point contact Quirk, but he can't turn it off the way Uraraka can. And since he was afflicted with Asahi's Quirk, I'd say it's not a natural one, and that the lack of control isn't because he can't remember how. I wonder..."
He looked over to Shigaraki's shoes.
"Do those shoes look familiar to you guys?"
"I think they're from a brand that caters to Quirkless people," Mineta said, "Those without Quirks have an extra toe joint, meaning normal shoes are too tight for them. So one shoe company made a particular brand of shoe designed for such people to walk around more comfortably."
"This guy seemed more dangerous than the others," Asui said, "But against three pros he was outmatched. I don't think he even expected Endo Hound to get in the way. It looked like he was making a beeline for Aizawa."
"In a few seconds Shigaraki's memories are going to come back," Midoriya noted, "But that will include everything he was muttering about while in a state of confusion. Which is going to leave him even more confused."
Sure enough, Shigaraki was able to return to normal as the three heroes dealt with the remaining villains in the center. But in the process, he had dusted some of the severed hands, having tried to get rid of them due to disgust.
"That was stupid of me. Rushing in like some noob. I'd forgotten the genre. This isn't a turn-based RPG, this is an MMO raid. Of course one of the others was going to rush in to help. What was I thinking? And now I've wound up losing a few family members in the process."
He got up, and motioned for the Nomu to approached.
"I was hoping to save our heavy hitter for the final boss, but I suppose it couldn't hurt to give him a little more XP before taking on All Might."
Meanwhile, Kurogiri was having to face down Thirteen and Agent of J. Much like Shigaraki, he was having trouble due to being hit from two different angles. He was getting sucked in by Black Hole, drawing off much of his mist. And when he tried to use Warp Gate, his own Quirk, Agent of J launched some sort of distraction technique to prevent him from focusing properly.
"I have no choice but to break off," he decided, "My concern should be chasing down the one that rushed out the exit. Otherwise he could attract the attention of far more than just All Might."
He tried to rush off, only for Shoji to wrap his Dupli-Arms around his form.
"Midoriya noted that you still have a physical form under all the mist. Knowing that, it's a simple matter of containing you."
Kurogiri's eyes widened.
'I never heard them even discuss anything before I separated them. When could they possibly have...?'
He then noticed Shoji's earpiece and it all made sense. The villain they had hired to jam communications was only meant to jam outgoing signals, not suspecting that the heroes would provide the students with means of keeping contact with each other long-distance.
From the cameras in his lair, Crimson Death, the horned-villain, surveyed the USJ.
"Pure evil is that which cannot accept that it is evil, or that good exists. I am certainly evil and do not deny such, nor do I deny that good can exist. But my son... All For One. He does not seem to understand this simple fact. From the moment his brother turned against him, he has been gobsmacked by the idea that anyone would deny his vision."
He turned on a monitor.
"Teruteru, how is the young boy doing?"
The form of the Sliming Sadist, real name Teruteru Kamoshida, appeared.
'Not terribly, Father. The heroes were able to predict some of his schemes, even if they don't yet know how All For One intends to kill All Might. Still, to Shigaraki's credit, he knows how to adapt under pressure. Right now he's using the Nomu early to counter the combined forces of Eraser Head, Endo Hound, and Serpenshia.'
"We shall see how All For One's little experiment handles itself," Crimson Death said, "What of the gutter trash that were hired?"
'Most have been contained by the students,' Teruteru replied, 'A few stragglers are still fighting, mostly due to being well-suited to the environments they were dropped on. But it seems the class is able to communicate thanks to short range earpieces that escaped notice. It won't be long before they start to regroup. Even Kurogiri is struggling.'
"Of course he is," Crimson Death said, "After all... He is the least natural of the League of Villains."
In the Collapse Zone, Bakugo and Kirishima had knocked out most of the villains. Bakugo took down one last villain who had a camouflage Quirk.
"That should be it in this area," he said, "Deku noted that mist bastard's neck brace, which is probably protecting his physical form. By now Ida should have reached the school, so backup should be coming."
"Most of our classmates are taking down the other villains," Kirishima noted, "A lot of them seem pretty weak. Like they haven't been villains for very long."
"Most new villain organizations recruit from the lowest parts of society," Bakugo explained, "The hero washouts, the ostracized, the homeless, you get the idea. It's easy for a big shot villain to bring these losers into the fold with promises of home, family, and anything else society may have been unable to provide for them."
"You seem a lot more calm and rational when you're not fighting," Kirishima noted.
"When I get in a fight, I'm able to channel my Quirk toward an enemy," Bakugo explained, "But it didn't get this powerful overnight. In fact, when it first manifested all I could make were small fireworks. I had to study every facet of explosions and train my ass off in order to master it. Not just making the explosions as big and powerful as possible, but also controlling the size and power of the explosion for different functions. Take this punk here."
He held up the villain he had just taken out by the head.
"See how his head's still intact and he's still alive? If I didn't have any control over my Quirk you'd be looking at a bloody stump of a neck right now. Thirteen mentioned it during orientation prior to those villains interrupting our training. Our Quirks are deadly weapons, and there's a reason why they're regulated. Even someone like Mineta or Hagakure could murder someone if they used their Quirks in the wrong way."
"Yeah, like in the early days of anomalies," Kirishima said thoughtfully, "Back then the SCP Foundation was a Secure and Containment Procedural, preventing dangerous anomalies from raising body counts. It wasn't until enough humans appeared that could master their Quirks that the Foundation become the Superhero Central Protectorate it is today. So what's our plan?"
"We help take down that mist bastard," Bakugo said, "Not only will that give Ida time to reach the school, we can stop the rest of these losers from escaping, leaving them sitting ducks for when the other pros show up. Our classmates can handle the rest of the small fry."
Kirishima smiled as his arms hardened into gauntlets.
"Awesome! That's thinking like a man!"
Ojiro was using his agility and martial arts training to take out villains in the Fire Zone. Tokoyami showcased Dark Shadow's incredible power to handle things in the Squall Zone's darkness. Kurogiri had just managed to warp himself out of Shoji's grip, only for his armor to get tagged by Uraraka's Zero Gravity, sending him helplessly into the air. From there he could see Ida prying the door open and tried to extend himself to warp him away, only to yanked off by Sero's Tape, pulled down by Sato using his Sugar Rush Quirk, which increased his strength based on his glucose intake.
"Damn! These brats are too strong! Master should have had us study their Quirks while we were grabbing files! The one with the engines is getting away!"
As he thought this, he found himself flung far away from the exit, just as Ida managed to pry the door open and race off for the school.
"Engine Boost!"
Kurogiri sighed.
"I'll just have to trust that only All Might will come. At least we can continue our plan, barring any further unforeseen complications."
Shigaraki watched as the three heroes struggled against the Nomu. It seemed unaffected by Endo Hound's Quirk, but Serpenshia's was able to keep it off-balance. Shigaraki started to get stressed, carefully scratching his neck his three fingers, a habit he had developed to insure he wouldn't kill himself with his own Quirk, Decay. Kurogiri arrived.
"I wasn't able to kill Thirteen or Agent of J, and one of the students escaped to get backup."
"That could pose a problem," Shigaraki said, "Granted he'll likely bring All Might, but that might not be the only one he brings. At this rate it's Game Over, back to title screen. We don't stand a chance against dozens of pros. Sadist and his siblings are going to be so disappointed. This was my chance to prove myself as Sensei's protege."
"Should we retreat?," Kurogiri asked.
"Hmm, not just yet," Shigaraki said, "After this they'll beef up security, making the level that much harder. We won't get a second chance. How's the rest of the party?"
"I don't know," Kurogiri admitted, "But probably not doing as well as we'd hoped. It turns out the class was given short-range earpieces. Our jammer is only good for external communication. They knew we were planning an attack. This is Foresight's doing."
Shigaraki nodded.
"Okay, we may still be able to accomplish a side quest at the very least. We can still wreck the Symbol of Peace's pride. Nomu! Get away from the pros! Stalk down the students and kill every last one of them!"
He noticed Midoriya and his group.
"I'll start with these ones!"
He tried to grab Asui, only for Midoriya to get in the way, Shigaraki grabbing his head. The decaying villain laughed.
"A noble effort, hero! But now you've just sealed your own-- What the...?"
His eyes widened in confusion. Yes, Midoriya's face was decaying, but his skull didn't seem to even lose any molecules.
"Not the best way to find out my skull doesn't even decay," Midoriya noted, looking rather creepy as his jaw moved without any cheek.
Even as it did, the cheek started regrowing, causing Shigaraki to freak out. He turned around.
"Kurogiri! This one's got serious self-rez! Forget the side quest, we need to--"
He then realized that in his panic, he had let go of Midoriya. Who was now leaping over Shigaraki to face him.
"At first I thought you were too tough to take on," Midoriya admitted, "But now that I've gotten a better idea of how your Quirk works, you're surprisingly easy to beat. Since you need all five fingers to use your Quirk..."
Shigaraki's eyes went wide as Midoriya grabbed both his pinkies.
"You wouldn't!"
Midoriya pulled down hard, and Shigaraki let out a massive wail of pain and agony.
"Let that be a lesson to you," came a familiar voice, slamming down right in front of the Nomu, "Life is nothing like a video game."
"And NOW the final boss show's up!?," Shigaraki said, holding his hands in pain, "Right as our party is depleted!?"
The teachers and students smiled in relief as the familiar form of All Might stood up.
"Fear not... For I am here!"