Loss

I liked to think I wasn't an idiot.

Sometimes I just had to do pretty idiotic things in order to succeed.

This was one of those times.

Tomura's head whipped around, and now I could see hands of varying sizes plastered all on his body. I could see his body visibly trembling. All his attention fell on me.

The mana surrounding him was eerie and overwhelming, like a dark pool of pure hatred. It was dark and ominous, disconjointed yet stitched together. It almost didn't feel human.

I looked past him to notice Midnight, injured but not in horrible condition. Behind her was an extremely injured Kazuho kneeling next to a bleeding and unconscious Manami.

I could feel a calm flow over me upon a confirmation where she was.

The situation was probably something like this:

Tomura was probably irritated after our stunt of stealing the Ultraphone, and he somehow got to the Haneyama Bookstore. In a rage, he may've destroyed some of the bookstore. I thought Kazuho would've been in class because it was the middle of the day, but it doesn't seem like that's the case. Kazuho must've stepped out to defend the store.

At the same time, Manami went to get Gentle's help then dashed to the Haneyama Bookstore to check on Kazuho. Manami may've known about Kazuho working today, even despite the plan being done in the middle of the week. She probably didn't bring it up because she didn't think it was important.

Manami, Kazuho, and Tomura all clashed at once. Kazuho was probably pretty beat-up before Manami arrived. I don't know how much of a scuffle there was, but it was probably pretty bad. There may've been some screams and then Midnight probably came.

Midnight probably fought with Tomura for a bit before he got… bored? I don't know exactly why he'd turn away from his opponent, but I could probably chalk it up to him being pretty delusional.

Now his attention was firmly placed on me. When it was like this, Midnight could focus on keeping Kazuho and Manami safe while I figured out how to handle Tomura.

The biggest problem was just how I was going to do that.

I slid to a stop, dawning a smile befitting of Seiryu's confidence.

"Tomura Shigaraki," I called my opponent, clearly putting him on edge. "You truly believe that woman could be a replacement for me?"

I could see his fingers twitching.

"Seiryu…! I'll kill you…!" He began charging towards me, as if his prior enemy had completely faded from his mind.

I leapt back before grinning and snatching the Ultraphone from my Inventory.

"Surely my life isn't as important as something else?" My words halted Tomura in his tracks. I mentally cheered upon hitting the nail right in its head.

"Give me that!" He yelled, dashing towards me once more. This time, with much more intensity. He completely vanished from my sight before I could react.

"Watch out―you wouldn't want something like this to break, would you?" My hand tightened around the Ultraphone, and suddenly Tomura stopped, scratching his neck fervently as he murmured to himself.

He moved so fast I couldn't see him, yes, but for my plan I didn't need to see him. He needed to see me.

I planned to threaten him with the Ultraphone, similarly to how I got out of Dabi and myself out of our situation earlier. Hey, if it wasn't broken, I saw no need to fix it.

"Father…." I could really only catch a few words, but "Father" was the most apparent one from what I could hear.

Now, all I needed to do was get him away from here. Because of how mentally unstable he seemed he should've been that much easier to manipulate. This could've been much easier than convincing Kenji to let Dabi go.

But nope, apparently nothing I do can be that easy.

A black fog appeared out of thin air and slowly began settling around us. I looked around with my additional eyes, but I never took my originals off Tomura. Midnight, Manami, and Kazuho were all pulled into the fog as well.

"Tomura Shigaraki, Seiryu wouldn't risk destroying the Ultraphone after so much work to obtain it," Another voice calmly rang out from all around us. "Another thing he wouldn't risk, are the lives of children."

My attention entirely turned to Manami, Midnight, and Kazuho.

Midnight's attention darted around, swinging her whip into the black fog. Even with her visible injuries and obvious exhaustion, she didn't seem slowed down in the slightest.

"I won't let you harm these children!" Nemuri yelled, a light pink gas rising from her skin.

"As rude as it may be, I must inform you that you don't have much of a choice in the matter," The black gas surrounding us gathered around Midnight, and despite her efforts to dispel it or flee from it, it'd seemingly made her disappear.

Her presence and mana were entirely gone. However, she couldn't have died. Observe told me that her HP and MP hadn't changed at all compared to when she was right here compared to when she was… elsewhere.

The black fog probably had something to do with teleportation, or something of that sort.

"Midnight!" Kazuho gasped. She tried to grab the injured Manami and flee, but the black fog gathered around her just as quickly as it'd done with Midnight.

It all happened so fast that if I were absolutely anyone else, I wasn't sure if I could react. But I wasn't anyone else, I was me.

Fulgur―invisible to all but me―stood on Kazuho's crouched back with a smile unbefitting of the serious situation. From all around her, Electromagnetic energy pulsed, pushing the black fog away from Kazuho and the unconscious Manami.

"Tomura Shigaraki," The voice called, and I pulled all my attention back to Tomura. As if everything with Midnight, Kazuho, and Manami was a calculated plan, Tomura was right in front of me even before I could react.

His hand was reaching for the Ultraphone, but I pulled my hand back a little bit earlier. I was about to take another leap back, admittedly afraid of advancing against someone so much stronger than myself, but my hand was pulled into the thick black fog, appearing in front of me as if it was a completely different entity.

I began pulling my arm from the black fog, not wasting even a moment with my skills' help, but Tomura was a split second faster. He pulled the Ultraphone from my hand with force unbefitting his rather small frame.

I tried my hardest to keep the Ultraphone in my grasp, even resorting to opening my Inventory and trying to store it in there, but the relic left my hand before I could do anything.

Tomura hopped back, noticeably holding the Ultraphone in his hand with four fingers. I leapt forward, feet leaving the ground before I could properly plot out a plan of attack. All I knew was that I needed the Ultraphone back.

All our work would be invalidated if I didn't get it back.

I reached with all my might, using every one of my skills to pull the Ultraphone towards me.

If I could just Steal it back, I'd be able to get it back, I thought. Maybe those levels I got wouldn't be worth nothing!

As I reached for it with my body, soul, and mind, the hand on Tomura's face fell away. Underneath it was a face of pale skin dawning a devious grin. The black mist gathered next to Tomura, leaving the body of a man with a metal brace visible for a short moment.

I could see a name, Kurogiri, for a moment, but I didn't even give it a glancing look.

I had to reach. I just had to.

The black gas slowly swirled around Tomura and Kurogiri, Tomura was left just visible enough for me to see his actions.

"I'll leave you with some gifts," His voice was so condescending compared to before. It filled my heart with rage only settled by Gamer's Mind.

Tomura's last finger came down and met the Ultraphone, quickly turning the artifact into dust. I could feel my heart drop into the pits of my stomach.

The artifact turned to dust, leaving a black shining crystal within. Mana radiated off the crystal in droves incomparable to anything else I'd ever seen. It was as if this was 100 times the strength of a mana crystal.

It was only because of Gamer's Mind that I had enough of a thought process to Observe the crystal at all.

[Primordial Crystal]

A mana crystal filled with something much more divine than normal mana.

The description was vague, and I truly wished that I had enough time to think about the meanings of a Primordial Crystal being the energy source to the Ultraphone. I wished I could've thought about where the Ultraphone came from or what this "more divine than normal mana" really was at its core but….

It didn't matter. Those questions didn't matter nearly as much as what was occurring right in front of me.

Tomura's hand reached out into the black fog and his hand was pulled into a portal. That portal opened to where Fulgur was protecting, right above Kazuho's neck.

Fulgur…!

I allowed Fulgur to take as much of my MP as she needed, and sensing the severity of the situation, she took about 70% of it. She pushed Kazuho and Manami far away, not thinking of comfort for the girls as much as the safety of their lives.

Tomura was still faster.

His hand grabbed Kazuho's wrist, grasping onto it tightly and activating his Quirk. I could see as her skin broke down to a molecular level, the… sped up decaying quickly gnawing down to her muscles and more.

"Will you chase us, or will you save her?" Just as Tomura's words finished, Kazuho's heart wrenching scream rang out.

The black fog swallowed the villainous duo up as Tomura's Quirk affected Kazuho more and more.

With Gamer's Mind I didn't have to worry about being overcome with emotion, so I was always granted the opportunity to think clearly. Kind of. Sometimes my Quirk was unnecessarily spotty.

Still, because of Gamer's Mind I knew what needed to be done.

I could either go after Tomura, possibly leaving Kazuho to die, and try to get the Primordial Crystal. I don't know where I'd be taken, and I don't know if I could even beat Tomura in a fight. However, if I didn't, this entire mission would be worth nothing.

Or I could save Kazuho. Now, there were no guarantees Tomura's Quirk would kill her, but I really wasn't willing to underestimate Tomura when I couldn't even see his level. Saving Kazuho would've been good, yes, but I would be actively ignoring the goal I'd been working for an entire month nonstop for.

The whole ruckus we caused would be worth nothing. The people that would undoubtedly be caught in the crossfire of this whole thing would be hurt for nothing. All this training would've been worth nothing.

Well, the choice was easy.

I leapt past the black mist, ignoring the childish giggles that erupted from Tomura upon him seeing my choice.

"Father was right! You've changed, Seiryu…!"