Chapter 8
In the center of the facility Eraserhead was down, a bird monster standing atop him. Though he had nullified its quirk, he still couldn't do anything. That fact meant that this was this things own natural physical strength, strength that rivalled All Might's. He didn't have time to rest before his head found the ground again.
In the sides three students were watching unseen.
"He…Hey Midoryia this is bad, right? We have to go." A boy with purple hair that resembled grapes, stuttered out, clearly shaken by this display. He received no answer though, the other two frozen in shock. In front of their eyes, the mist man returned. This time though, something was wrong. As he materialized, he wobbled before catching himself and beginning to talk.
"Tomura Shigaraki." He appeared to be addressing the hand covered man, as he responded immediately.
"Kurogiri. Is Thirteen dead?"
"She's incapacitated but I was beaten by a student and the rest probably escaped." He was slurring, but he had managed to get the message across. Shigaraki seemed to be less than pleased with the answer.
"Huuuh…. Huuuh, beaten by a student? If you weren't our only way out, I'd turn you to dust now. We don't stand a chance against Pro's. It's game over for now man. We are leaving and we are going to talk."
The hidden students were surprised but happy to hear that.
However "I got a bad feeling Midoryia." The girl of the group had felt something amiss.
"To do all this… and leave on a whim…" 'Tsuyu is right, this is very weird. They want to kill All Might but are willing to leave now? We can't let them get away now! What are they even thinking?'
"I think we should leave a few dead kids, to really hurt All Might's pride." The voice that had become a nightmare sounded again.
With a lightning fast dash he grabbed Tsuyu face, intent on killing her. The kids didn't have time to react, but thankfully for them Eraserhead had erased his quirk in the last moment.
"You are pretty cool Eraserhead!" His face was once again slammed to the pavement.
Midoryia was getting ready to take advantage of this break in concentration and attack the Villain, when a loud sound echoed through the whole facility. He winced at the sound, but then to his complete surprise a gaping hole had appeared in the Nomu's arm that was holding Eraserhead.
Seeing the danger, Kurogiri quickly pulled Shigaraki and tried to warp them both out of the battlefield, however Shigaraki pulled himself off. He had recognized the girl that had attacked. It was the one that had almost put him to sleep. He silently prayed the Nomu would cut off its hand to regenerate, knowing that with the speed of whatever had hit it and its temperature the Regeneration quirk would be useless, the wound already cauterized.
Misaka, standing some fifty meters away, was not surprised it didn't regenerate. However it's next action surprised her. It cut off its arm and started growing it back again. She wasn't fazed though and started attacking again, before being interrupted by the loud sound of a door breaking and the voice of All Might.
"FEAR NOT! I… AM HERE."
He had a bad feeling about the situation and had left the principal's office. He had met Ida on the way, and having been told the gist of what was going, his blood had boiled
"Wow, it's All Might! It's over for them!" The morale of the students had gone up while the Villains morale had plummeted. With lightning quick movement he had taken down many Villains and reached Aizawa who was starting to pick himself up, after being freed. Now though seeing All Might, he had fallen unconscious. All Might then picked up the three kids and ordered them to take Aizawa and hurry to entrance.
"Hey All Might, could it be true you are getting weaker? You are slower than expected."
Midoryia protested and said that he couldn't even scratch the Brain Villain. Taking his signature pose and smile he said "FEAR NOT!" and jumped to attack.
"CAROLINA SMASH!"
The attack was however intercepted by the Brain Villain, but to his shock it achieved nothing.
"Ineffective because he has Shock Absorption. The only way to defeat him is by slowly ripping him to pieces, not that you will get the chance."
With that info All Might did a suplex and caused an explosion. Misaka had already distanced herself, seeing the two titans of physical strength contest.
In the concrete he had dropped the Nomu in All Might had found himself in a vulnerable position.
"His job is to hold you down and then I'll cut you in two with my quirk." The plan had worked simply because Kurogiri was overworking himself. Operation of his quirk was becoming easier, but the effects of the attack still lingered.
"Tsuyu, hold Sensei for me."
"Sure, but what will you do?"
He ran towards All Might screaming his name. At the same time he heard a voice he could recognize everywhere.
"Get… the hell out of here!! Deku!
The explosion caused by Bakugo in front of Kurogiri had distracted him long enough to be pinned down. At the same time Todoroki had freezed the Nomu's body and Kirishima had lunged at Shigaraki, barely missing him. This was also Misaka's time to enter the battlefield. She decided to attack the Hand Villain, Shigaraki. She had made a sword from the Iron Sand in the containers she had in her suit. She magnetized herself to Shigaraki and due to the magnetic attraction she moved towards him and he to her. He was caught unaware, but in the perimeter of his vision had caught sight of the sword. Activating his quirk at the last moment, the sword broke down.
However, next came a knee strike to the gut, followed by a punch and a kick to the face. The combination of inhuman strength and martial arts knowledge gave her an immense advantage. The martial arts she was using were a combination of the modern and more traditional schools of fighting. She focused on 4 for martial arts and another two for her sword arts. The martial arts she trained were Wing Chun, Kung Fu and more specifically the Iron shirt-one of the arts of the Shaolin Temple-, Jujutsu and the martial arts the school provided that were the basis for most Hero Martial Arts. These weren't random choices. She had selected Wing Chun and Jujutsu for their ability to counter any attacks thrown at them while also being able to counter, and the Iron Shirt allowed her to train her natural durability through a set of rigorous exercises that mostly involved being hit by swords or various other things, in the end making her able to naturally withstand bullets or punches from someone that was considerably weaker than All Might. The essence of these three however could be found in the belief of qi or prana.
It was an undisputed fact that it existed, as there existed ancient records of it that were proven true, when a Hero with the ability to see the history of a written text saw one and confirmed its existence. It was however unknown how they manipulated this energy. Misaka had her own theory on what this qi or prana was. In modern language it meant the vitality, the life force that permeated the universe. She knew one thing that matched the description of these words and their techniques: Mana. In her world, from her limited understanding of Magic, she knew that Mana was the life force Magicians refined to use for their spells. If similar practices existed here, there were perhaps Magicians in this modern era that could help her return to her home.
Back to the battle though, Shigaraki was panting, but he had recovered from the vicious attacks. He didn't even have time to react to those attacks. He now understood why Kurogiri wanted them to retreat. If such a strong student had enrolled, they had to leave or eliminate her right now. It would however be much too difficult to eliminate her now.
"Nomu. Free Kurogiri from that explosive boy."
Misaka sensed a radio wave coming from Shigaraki to the Nomu and then the Nomu stopped its chokehold on All Might. She was perplexed by the wave and stopped her attacks standing still to observe it. As he stood up the ice made by Todoroki crumbled away, but to the rest's surprise the part that had crumbled started regenerating.
"Wha… What! He's crumbling, but he's still moving forward" Midoryia was the first one to notice what was happening.
All Might put his hands in front of the students in defense.
"Get Back! What is this? I thought his quirk was super regeneration!"
"Did I say this was the only quirk he had?" Though he was still huffing and puffing from the previous attacks he continued to talk "This is Super Regeneration." By the time he had finished it was already up. "Nomu is a super-powered weapon made to kill you."
The Nomu ran towards Bakugou and All Might with the goal of shaking him off of Kurogiri. All Might saw the movement and moved to intercept the punch. To everybody's complete surprise though the Nomu stopped right in front of All Might. Misaka had managed to analyze the radio wave transmission and sent a counter order to the Nomu. As it now stood still, All Might was free to attack it and he did so. With a flurry of punches the Nomu was thrown away, its Shock Absorptions limit having been reached.
Even though the attack had failed, Kurogiri was still set free, Bakugou having let go when he saw the charging Villain.
Shigaraki was furious. His plan had been crushed and he hadn't even managed to hurt All Might. He was perplexed as to why his orders didn't work. He had a special radio transmitter for giving his orders, and it had worked so far, only failing at that moment. He was almost certain it was that girls work again. She was truly a mini-boss that meant Game Over for the attack. As Kurogiri started opening a portal he said a final speech, so as to instill fear in them.
"You Heroes will do anything to save a comrade, just like the plain one, who came at me with everything he had. But violence in the name of justice is okay, isn't it Hero? It pisses me off! Heroes and Villains alike thrive on violence, but we are still categorized. <
The portal was now ready and Shigaraki retreated knowing that his defeat was all but certain. He stepped into it and ran away from the battlefield.
Everybody present exhaled a sigh of relief, after all it wasn't everyday a Villain with All Might's capabilities showed up. However there was no time to rest and think about what had transpired. Their classmates were in need of help and they each went to a different place. They made quick work of the remaining Villains, who, knowing that they had been abandoned, surrendered.
A few minutes later the rest of the Heroes came, having been called by Ida.
"They've already fled? Even after such a dramatic invasion?"
"Yes, they caught us completely unaware, but let's focus on the students' health now."
"Ah, Principal sorry for leaving in such a hurry but as you can see I was correct about something going on."
As the teachers split off in groups some to apprehend the Villains and some to care for the students, all the commotion slowly died down.
A mist-like portal opened in the floor of a bar and from it came groans of pain.
"Oww… that bitch punched and kicked me in the gut, not to mention she managed to control the Nomu. We got crushed…"
Beside the hand-covered man, the mist-man, Kurogiri had poured himself a cup of coffee in order to manage to stay awake.
"and they got the Nomu too. We didn't even see the Symbol of Peace fight master." Shigaraki was talking to a familiar monitor.
"What do you mean, didn't fight him?"
"There was a student that managed to control the Nomu and also attack both me and Kurogiri with impeccable efficiency."
"Did you atleast manage to retrieve the Nomu or learn anything about the girl?"
"No. In our hasty retreat we didn't have enough time to pick him up as he was sent far away."
"Even after we went to all this trouble to make him as strong as All Might. Well no matter"
"Yeah if it weren't for that girl we could have destroyed them."
"Well, try to find more about the girl then. If she has such a powerful quirk, then she will need to be eliminated shortly."
Back at the USJ a peculiarly dressed man, in a trench coat and a hat, a detective with the police was counting the students.
"…19,20,21… Good everybody is here safe and unharmed."
Conversation among the students resumed, everybody talking about their experience, before the detective interrupted them.
"You are going back to your classroom. This is no time to take statements."
Tsuyu asked the question that lingered on everybody's mind. "What about Aizawa-Sensei?"
"Fractured face with both hands smashed to splinters and his eye sockets having been pulverized, or so I hear."
Everybody recoiled at the thought of those injuries. However the detective was not done.
"Thirteen has terrible lacerations across her arms and legs, but she will live. Of course All Might wasn't injured, but he has gone off to the nursery office to see if everything is okay."
"What about Midoryia?"
"Midori … ah, the kid! He made it in time and that reminds me I have to go there right about now.
In a corner some teachers were discussing with the principal.
"I think we will have to revamp our whole security system."
"It's a shame such a rare quirk has turned Villain."
"Ah well, what can you do?"
"Hm… yes what can you do? I'll go see if they need help Principal."
"Goodbye."
Meanwhile the Nomu had been apprehended.
"Detectice Tsukauchi, we have apprehended a Villain some 400 meters from here."
"In what condition is he?"
"He seems unharmed, but is unresponsive"
The detective found the Principal and made his request.
"Principal, I'd like to comb to school, to find anything suspicious."
"Some won't be happy, but this is your jurisdiction. Do whatever you feel necessary."
In the nurse office, Midoryia could be seen lying down in a bed ,having been injured from the recoil from the Nomus' quirk, All Might looming over him, not quite as intimidating, now being frail and skinny.
"I can't scold you, the situation being what it was, but be more careful next time."
"It's good it didn't want to fight. My time limit is still somewhat good."
The door opened and the detective came through.
"Pardon me. Long time no see, All Might!"
"Tsukauchi, I didn't even see you."
"All Might…! is this okay?" It could be heard clearly from Midoryias voice that he was confused.
"It's fine. You know why? Because. this is my favorite detective, Naomasa Tsukauchi."
"Thanks for the introduction. Not to push you, but I'd like to ask about the Villains."
"Before are the students, Eraserhead and Thirteen fine?"
"Yes, except for our friend here and the teachers have also stabilized. If you hadn't put your lives in the line, the students wouldn't be here now."
"That's good… but you got one thing wrong though, Tsukauchi. The students put their lives on the line too in this fight!! To be thrown into a real battle with the mysterious and terrifying, and surviving. Those first years now know the true nature of this big bad world. You 've never heard of such a class. Those foolish Villains chose the wrong class to assault! Because the members of 1-A will become mighty Heroes indeed and I'll make sure of it!!"