Chapter 49: Fight in the Forest, Part 2
While students fought for their lives in the forest where the scares were meant to be purely harmless, the signs that something was wrong were becoming more apparent to the Pussycats at the camp.
"What's that burning smell?" Pixie Bob asked.
"Look, black smoke," Mandalay said, pointing at the dark vapors that were just visible in the darkness above the treetops.
"I don't like this," Tiger crossed his arms, voice a low growl.
"Should we call off the test of courage and tell the students to come back?" Ragdoll asked.
Before anyone could answer her, a blunt metal pole, glowing with the light of a Quirk, slammed into the side of Pixie Bob's head, shattering her goggles and sending pieces flying everywhere. The blond heroine collapsed to the ground, unconscious and with blood flowing freely down the side of her face.
"Pix!" Ragdoll yelled.
"No sudden moves now heroes!" the villain holding the other end of the pole that had just smashed into Pixie Bob's head warned. "Or I finish the job of crushing her skull!"
"Greetings, heroes!" said the first villain's companion, a figure with a reptilian Quirk and a mask that was unmistakably like Stain's. "We're the League of Villains' Vanguard Action Squad!"
"Vanguard Action Squad?" Tiger snarled. "You look like a couple of nameless punks to me!"
"Shows how much you know, then," the one with the lizard mutation grinned. "I'm Spinner, and this here is Big Sis Magne. We're here to spread the ideals of the League and the dream of the Hero Killer Stain to this corrupted world!"
"I don't care!" Tiger snapped. "You've harmed my teammate! You don't get to laugh and smile after that like it's nothing!"
Spinner drew his weapon, a crazed amalgamation of what looked like dozens of different blades, like he was trying to cram Stain's entire arsenal into one. "In that case, you fake hero, just try and wipe the grins off our faces!"
"With pleasure!" Tiger shouted as he rounded on his foes.
"I've sent out a warning using my Quirk!" Mandalay said as she rushed to join him. "Ragdoll, get the students who are still here to safety!"
"Right!" the green haired Pussycat nodded. "This way, kittens!" she added, breaking into a jog and gesturing for the hero students to follow her.
"All of you, go on without me!" Izuku said.
Ragdoll frowned. "That wasn't—"
"I know where Kota is!" Izuku said.
"But Midoriya, don't you want to go to Yaomomo?" Ashido blurted out, both of them knowing that the heiress had ventured down the path for the test of courage several minutes ago.
"Of course I do!" Izuku said. "But she's strong, she's a hero student, too. The Pussycats need to protect us, but I can't rush to her side when a defenseless child is in danger, and I know Momo wouldn't want me to!"
Ragdoll hesitated.
"Let him go!" Mandalay said, even as she danced around Spinner's attacks.
Ragdoll scowled but nodded. "Fine, but don't you dare get yourself killed, Midoriya!" she said before taking off again. "Mandalay will hate herself forever if you do!"
"Everyone! The camp is under attack by villains, and there's likely more out there! Everyone who can, get back to camp! If you see a villain, don't engage, just retreat! Stay safe out there!"
"What was that?" Sato asked, looking around for the source of the phantom voice that had just sounded inside his head, as though he would find someone inside the classroom where the remedial students were having their lesson he hadn't noticed before.
"It was obviously a Quirk, dumbass," Bakugo snapped.
"That was Mandalay's Quirk," Aizawa said. "Vlad, I'm leaving the kids here with you! I have to go and help protect the students who are out there!"
"Right!" the Blood Hero said.
Aizawa dashed out of the room and sprinted down the hall.
"Oh man, being stuck here while the others are in danger sucks!" Kirishima groaned. "Cowering in safety while the others are fighting villains has to be the least manly thing ever!"
"Don't go getting ideas," Vlad King warned them. "You're first year hero students, far away from being pros. You don't belong to be facing villains yet."
Kirishima grumbled some reluctant words of agreement and settled down.
For a few minutes, students and teacher were quiet, waiting in tense silence. However, it wasn't long before they started to hear deep, distant thuds and other sounds of battle.
Finally, Vlad couldn't take it anymore. "I'm going to stand watch outside," he announced. "All of you stay here and yell for me if anything seems amiss. Don'tget any funny ideas."
"Yes, Mr. Kan," the students responded listlessly.
"Damn, this fucking blows," Bakugo growled the moment the teacher had departed, pounding his desk with both fists, a pop from his Quirk further punctuating the gesture. "I shouldn't be stuck in here with the rest of you losers! I should be out there kicking the villains' asses!"
Monoma scoffed. "And why do you think you should be out there?"
Bakugo looked at him like he was a complete moron. "I'm the future number one hero," he snapped. "Not some random extra like you assholes. I'm the main character!"
"Bakugo," Kirishima frowned.
There were definitely things about the explosive blonde that he admired, like how he was always willing to charge into battle and how he never seemed to let a setback damage his faith that he was destined for big things, but there was no denying he could be kind of mean and self-centered sometimes, too.
"You? The 'main character'?" Monoma laughed derisively. "I knew you 1-A plebes were arrogant and full of yourselves, but I didn't realize you were completely delusional on top of that!"
"What?!" Bakugo snapped, jumping out of his chair, a vein in his forehead visibly throbbing.
Monoma also rose to his feet, looking unfazed by the other blonde's fury. "You heard me," he said. "To be clear, I think all of you 1-A glory hounds will prove inferior to the magnificence of Class 1-B in the end, but even if we ignore that, the idea that you're the main character is laughable! If anybody is your pathetic class can claim that, it's not you, it's Midoriya."
"That useless Deku?! Are you out of your mind, Copycat?!" Bakugo snapped.
"Um, should we do something?" Kirishima quietly asked the other students present. "This seems like the kind of conversation that's going to end with somebody bleeding..."
"I'm not getting in the middle of that," Sato proclaimed. "Todoroki, maybe you should? You've the only one here with a Quirk powerful enough to not get insta-murdered by Bakugo."
The young man with the two-toned hair didn't respond at all. He was staring in the direction the distant sounds of battle were coming from.
"Todoroki?" Kirishima asked. "You okay, dude? You seem...troubled."
Of course, considering a villain attack was happening, being a little freaked out was understandable, but Kirishima hadn't expected it from Todoroki. From what he'd seen, the guy had been cool as a cucumber during and after the USJ attack.
"What?" Todoroki finally noticed them.
"Never mind," Sato sighed, looking toward Bakugo and the lone member of Class 1-B present.
"If he's a 'useless Deku' then what does that make you?" Monoma asked the explosive student, smirking. "He was one of the students who defeated that creature at the USJ. He won the Sports Festival with a spectacular display of power, when you didn't even make the podium. He was the one who captured a yakuza boss on his first ever patrol. Hewas one of the ones who defeated the Nomu a second time. And to top it all off, he also picked up a smoking hot girlfriend along the way. But yeah, sure, that's not main character stuff. He's just some useless extra. You, the guy who's done none of that, are the main character." He added, voice dripping with acidic sarcasm.
Bakugo was clenching his fists so hard his knuckles had turned white. "Shut the fuck up," he growled.
Monoma didn't stop. "I know Class 1-B will make everyone in 1-A look like jokes once we get a proper chance to show our potential," he said. "But compared to him, you're nothing but a pebble on the side of the path."
Kirishima would swear he saw Bakugo snap.
Then the far wall of the makeshift classroom exploded, knocking the students inside down and spraying wood, drywall, and other debris through the air.
It took the redhead way too many seconds to realize it wasn't Bakugo who'd done that, he'd been so completely expecting a literal eruption from the blonde.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" asked a tall, slim man with spiky black hair, his skin a mixture of normal flesh and horrible scar tissue that appeared to be stapled together. "A bunch of baby heroes just—!"
He didn't get any further before a wave of red slammed into him like a miniature tsunami, knocking him off his feet and to the ground. The red liquid solidified a moment later, pinning him in place.
"Don't mess with UA students," Vlad King growled, walking into view of the students, his hair slightly singed.
"Heh, guess that's a pro hero for you," the villain said, sounding surprisingly at ease, given the situation.
"Talk, villain," Vlad growled. "How many of you are here and where? What exactly are you after?"
"Why should I tell you?" the villain asked.
Vlad flexed his fingers, and the red mass holding the villain in place abruptly writhed and then constricted. There was a muted cracking sound, and the dark haired man grunted in pain.
"That's why," Vlad snapped. "Now, you've got 23 unbroken ribs left. Want to keep them that way?"
"Hurting a captive to make him talk? Not very heroic of you," the villain chuckled. "Is it because your students are in danger? Do all heroes' morals go out the window the moment something they care about is on the line?"
The red convulsed again. "Twenty-two, now," Vlad said. "Don't lecture me on morals, scum."
"Don't like to hear it, so you're shutting me up because you can?" the scarred man asked. "Might makes right is pretty villainous, wouldn't you say?"
Vlad scowled, but before he could respond either via speech or by breaking a third rib, the villain seemed to start...melting.
"What the...?"
"Is that another Quirk?" Sato asked.
"See ya later," the villain smirked just before his body collapsed into a pile of black goo.
Vlad King scowled and withdrew his blood back through his gauntlet, then he turned to the students. "I'm going to check the area for more villains," he said. "This building is compromised. All of you, hide in the forest near here. Don't go too far and don'tengage any villains."
There were murmured agreements from the students, and then Vlad King dashed off, quickly disappearing from sight.
The students awkwardly exchanged glances for a moment, then Todoroki began to head toward the tree line, exiting through the huge hole in the wall the villain had created. That seemed to spur the others into action, and in only a moment they were just outside the clearing where the building sat.
The atmosphere still held the same, shell shocked feeling to it.
Until a certain explosive student broke it.
"To hell with this shit," Bakugo growled. "I'm not just going to sit here like some damned extra!"
"Bakugo, don't!" Kirishima said.
The blonde responded by flipping him off as he marched into the distance.
Meanwhile, out in the middle of the forest where what was supposed to be an evening of lighthearted fun had turned into a life or death struggle, a trio of UA students were making their way through the worst of the poison gas that currently suffused the area.
"You sure these gas masks will hold out, Yaoyorozu?" Tetsutetsu asked.
"Quite sure," Momo answered.
"I'm still not certain seeking out villains like this is a good idea," Kendo put in. "Not when we were explicitly told not to engage."
Momo and Mineta had encountered a group of Class B students in the chaos that had ensued, several of them already unconscious thanks to the poisonous gas. Momo had been quick to make gas masks for everyone, and once protected from the malicious vapors, the boy with the metal transformation Quirk had been eager to confront the villains.
To Kendo's surprise, her fellow class rep had agreed with him, so they had left the unconscious students in the care of Mineta and 1-B's Yowase and headed off toward where the toxic mist was thickest.
"With the exception of Pixie Bob, none of the pro heroes here have Quirks that are very well suited to combating poison gas," Momo replied. "And judging by the fact that we haven't seen any of her earth beasts so far, it seems likely that she's either tied up with something else or she's been incapacitated somehow. If it's not stopped, that gas could hurt several more of our fellow students or leave them vulnerable to the villains."
"I see him," Tetsutetsu said, peering out from behind a tree and spying a guy in what looked like a school uniform, his face covered by an elaborate gas mask. "Looks like we were right about that gas being created by some guy's Quirk."
Momo nodded. "Good, that means we don't need to change the plan," she said. "Kendo, Tetsutetsu, get ready."
"Why are we taking orders from her?" the boy with the metallic Quirk asked the redhead under his breath.
"She's the one who has a plan," Kendo replied in kind. "Also, she does kind of have a little more experience with this kind of thing than we do."
Tetsutetsu grunted, unable to contest the point but not happy with it, and moved to get into position.
"Ready when you are," Kendo whispered, giving Momo a thumbs up.
The heiress nodded, activating Creation and making a steady stream of Sonambulist gas. Shortly afterwards, Kendo expanded her hands and began to wave them frantically, sending the toxic mist flying away from the area and sending the pink vapors at the gas villain.
"What the hell?!" the villain exclaimed, suddenly finding himself on the receiving end of gale force winds and mysterious gases other than the ones he generated.
Drawing a pistol, he aimed in the general direction of the mystery assault and squeezed off a couple of shots, both of which missed but still came too close to the two girls for comfort.
"Bastard! How dare you fire a gun at students!" Tetsutetsu roared as he burst from the brush and charged at the villain, Quirk already activated.
The gas villain spun and fired off several shots at the new threat, but the bullets bounced harmlessly off Tetsutetsu's metal body.
"Raugh!" Tetsutetsu roared as his fist slammed right into the villain's face, completely shattering the gas mask he wore.
The villain went tumbling to the ground, and more importantly, he took a breath of the pink gas that now surrounded him thanks to Kendo and the Creation user, passing out almost before he hit the dirt.
"Looks like we got him," Tetsutetsu said as he transformed back to normal, panting from the intensity of the moment.
"Indeed," Momo said. "I'll create some restraints for him, then I suggest we make our way back to camp. I think we've lingered here for quite long enough."
"Agreed," Kendo nodded.
"Kota! Get back to camp, now! Villains are attacking!" the now familiar telepathic voice of Aunt Shino sounded inside his head, tone more afraid and desperate than he'd ever heard her. "I'm sorry, Kota, I can't come for you, so get back here!"
As the young boy made his way back from the hideout he'd claimed here (not as good as his secret base back at the Pussycats' "territory" but it did the job), he tried to clutch onto his familiar resentment and anger like a security blanket.
It was just like a stupid pro hero, he tried to tell himself, to occupy herself with helping random strangers and leave a member of her own family she claimed to love and care about to fend for himself.
The indignation and rage didn't come this time, though. His fear at the idea of running into real villains seemed to leave no room inside of him for them.
He told himself he just needed to get back to camp. He could be angry at Aunt Shino later.
Any comfort the notion might've brought him was destroyed when a huge figure in a black, hooded cloak, face covered by what looked like a discount hockey mask came into view.
"Well, well, I was just scoping out the area, and what do I find? A kid who's not on the list," a deep, gravelly voice noted, sounding amused and sadistic at once.
Kota stiffened.
"That's a pretty slick hat, kid," the villain remarked. "Why don't you trade it to me for this lame mask?" he asked, removing the item in question from his face.
The boy's eyes widened, tears forming in them and threatening to blur his vision. That face had haunted his nightmares for almost as long as he could remember.
Muscular. The villain who'd murdered his parents and destroyed his world.
With a scream, Kota turned and ran.
Muscular became a blur of motion, and like some evil magic trick, he went from being behind Kota to right in front of him.
"I'm gonna have some fun with you, kid," he proclaimed, pulling his fist back.
The earth shook as Muscular's fist impacted the ground where Kota had been standing with the force of a large bomb.
In all the dust, the flicker of green light was almost impossible to see.
"Are you okay, Kota?" Midoriya asked, setting the child back down on his feet.
"I...you...what?" the boy stammered, looking around wildly and belatedly realizing that he and the hero student were a good twenty meters away from where he'd been standing a moment ago.
The hero student, whose body was currently surrounded by a halo of green light, must've grabbed him and moved him to safety at the last moment.
"It's okay, Kota," Midoriya said. "He won't hurt you. I'll protect you."
Muscular laughed derisively. "You'll protect him? Does UA have a class on false bravado, kid?"
Midoriya ignored the question. "You told him that you'd enjoy this, right before you attacked him," he remarked instead. "Is that why you commit acts of villainy? Because you enjoy it? Because it's fun to you?"
"Yeah, pretty much," Muscular smirked. "I like doing it, and there's very few people who can stop me, so I do it. What of it?"
Midoriya scowled darkly, not an ounce of fear on display. Kota found himself almost believing that this dumb hero student could actually take down the monster from his nightmares.
"That makes you the worst kind of villain," he said. "Most people who use their Quirks to commit crimes do it out of desperation, or because they were rejected somehow by our superhuman society. But you? You murdered this boy's parents and upended his whole life because you enjoy it."
Muscular frowned for a moment, gazing at Kota, before comprehension dawned. "I knew that brat looked familiar!" he said. "Don't worry, kiddo, I'll send you to rejoin mommy and daddy soon!"
"Don't talk to him. Ever," Midoriya said coldly. "I won't let you touch him."
"Must've been top of your class in those false confidence lessons," Muscular sneered. "You are on my list, kid. The kill list. Knowing that, you still going to try to stand between me and the munchkin?"
"Of course," Midoriya replied. "It's the role I've chosen for myself."
If the hero student was putting up a brave front, he was doing an amazing job of selling it, Kota mused. Someone who could fake it as well as he'd have to be should be in acting school, not UA.
He desperately hoped Midoriya didn't belong in acting school.
"Just like a hero brat. Fine, I'll have my fun with you first. Oh, but wait," he interrupted himself. "Might as well take this opportunity. Where's the girl named Yaoyorozu?"
Kota heard the hero student inhale sharply. "Why do you want to know?" he demanded.
"I got a job to do, and I need to know that to do it," Muscular asked. "If you tell me, I'll make your death quick. I'll even let the rugrat there go."
"Not on your life," Midoriya growled.
"Eh, fine with me," Muscular said with a shrug, activating his Quirk. Layers and layers of muscle tissue burst into being and wrapped around his already huge frame, the pink strands writhing like worms.
"I wasn't going to spare the brat either way," Muscular grinned. "Now—"
He didn't get any further before a pair of emerald blasts shot forth, slamming into Muscular's knees—one of the few parts of the man's body that wasn't protected by layers and layers of solid muscle—each with the force of a battering ram.
There was a pair of loud, meaty cracks, and the massive villain shrieked in rage and agony as he collapsed to the ground.
"You little shit!" Muscular roared, managing to get into a position where he was laying on his belly and raising both fists into the air, like he was about to slam them into the ground. "I'll—!"
Two more green blasts lanced through the night air, and Muscular screamed again.
Despite the depth of his hate for the villain, Kota couldn't quite help but wince as he saw all four of the man's limbs bending in ways they really weren't supposed to bend in.
He also couldn't help but look at the hero student with undisguised awe.
"Sorry to hurt you so bad, but I don't have time to play with you," Midoriya said as a glowing jade hand reached out, grabbing Muscular by the neck and lifting him into the air. The villain groaned in pain as the movement aggravated his injuries. "Now, why are you looking for Yaoyorozu?"
"Piss off!"
The green hand shook Muscular like a snow globe.
"All right! All right!" the villain screamed. "She's at the top of the no-kill list! Shigaraki wants her brought to him alive! That's all I know, now let me go!"
The green hand vanished, unceremoniously dropping Muscular to the ground.
Midoriya turned to him. "Are you okay, Kota?" he asked. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"
Kota meant to tell the hero student he was okay, he really did. "Why?" he blurted out instead. "Why did you come to save me? I...I punched you in the balls the first time I saw you!"
To his surprise, Midoriya chuckled at that. "Because I want to be a hero," he answered, as if that explained everything. "Now, there's other things I need to do, but first, let's get you back to camp."
"What about him?" Kota pointed to Muscular.
"He won't be able to get anywhere under his own power right now," Midoriya assured him. "As much as I'd like to get him into custody, we can't worry about that while villains are still attacking. He won't be able to go anywhere."
"Fuck you!" Muscular barked, even as he struggled impotently to get up. "I won't let you win like this and walk off, like you're leaving me to die! No way a stupid brat like you beats me!"
Before either Midoriya or Kota could respond to that, Muscular activated his Quirk again, the writhing pink muscle strands bursting from his skin to surround his torso and mangled limbs.
"Stop that!" Midoriya shouted at the villain. "It doesn't matter how much muscle you gain when your joints are too badly damaged for you to move! All you'll do is hurt yourself if you keep that up!"
"No!" Muscular growled, obviously in agony but still forcing his Quirk to add layer after later of muscle tissue to his body. "I won't lose like this! I refuse!"
Kota watched with a mixture of disgust and horror as the villain's body expanded to grotesque proportions, but despite it all, Muscular still couldn't get up. His Quirk couldn't fix or compensate for his injuries, but he just kept trying, as though the wrong tool for the job would become the right one if he just tried hard enough.
Muscular's body suddenly bulged horribly, making him resemble a demented meatball more than a man, and he released a scream of fury and pain.
"Kota!" Midoriya cried, suddenly getting between the boy and the villain.
There was a sickening splat sound, and Kota was able to see red spray in all directions, like some water balloon had just exploded, but not one filled with water. Muscular abruptly went silent.
"Is he...?" the boy trailed off.
Midoriya, so soaked with the red that he was literally dripping, went over toward the villain's twitching form. "He's alive," he reported.
Kota released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
He wasn't sure why he cared about whether the villain who'd murdered his parents survived or not. Maybe he just didn't want to have to see someone die.
"Ugh, that was so dumb," Midoriya grumbled, trying to wipe some of the red off of himself and not making very much of a dent. "I should've just thrown up a barrier, not used myself as one. Mom will have a fit if she finds out that was my first instinct..." he muttered to himself.
Kota blinked, feeling surprised that the crazy powerful hero student who'd just defeated Muscular like he was nothing would worry about such things, along with a dull pang of envy at the knowledge that the guy still had his mom.
"Well, never mind. I don't have time to stand around here," Midoriya said. Green light surrounded Kota, and he let out a small yelp as he found himself lifted gently into the air. "Come on, let's get you back to camp."
Meanwhile, in a seedy bar many kilometers away, the scene was considerably quieter and calmer than they were at the training camp.
"Do you believe that group will really be able to do it?" Kurogiri asked as he approached Shigaraki, who was seated at the bar.
The younger villain chuckled softly. "In a way, it doesn't matter," he said. "Succeed or fail, the fact that we struck this society's future elite heroes will intimidate people. When the stupid NPCs realize the heroes can't even protect their own, they'll realize the heroes can't protect them either. It'll spread the fear we need."
"As you say, Tomura Shigaraki," Kurogiri responded. "If you're so confident that our ends will be furthered regardless of the outcome of tonight, then I'll put them out of my mind."
"I wouldn't go that far," Shigaraki replied. "After all, people will be a lot more scared if the vanguard action squad manages to hundred percent their mission. And we definitely want them to succeed in getting the girl. Sensei's been interested in her and her Quirk since the USJ attack, and I don't want to disappoint him."
"A wise policy," the misty villain nodded.
Shigaraki smirked. "Indeed," he said. "Kurogiri, why don't we put the odds more in our favor? Send the 'hero unit' you pulled from the sky over there to help out." He grimaced slightly at describing it as such, but the video game terminology was too solid.
"At once, Tomura Shigaraki," Kurogiri agreed.
Back in the forest, Momo and the group of other students she was with were still carefully picking their way through the trees. They had picked up Mineta and the 1-B students they'd encountered earlier, Ibara and Honeuki having come to after the gas had knocked them out, though the two were still weak.
Currently, the group was staying away from the trail, hoping it would also allow them to avoid the villains, but between the terrain and needing to detour several times due to the fires, it was slow going.
Momo privately wished they could just beeline for the camp along the easier path and then head for their bunks to crash. The adrenaline from the pair of villain confrontations she'd gone through had long since run down, and she found herself feeling more spent than she had since the aftermath of the USJ.
That wasn't an option, however, so she kept putting one foot in front of the other.
Or at least she did until the hairs on the back of her neck suddenly stood up.
"Yaoyorozu?" Mineta whispered. "Why--?"
"Shh!" Momo hushed the shorter boy and throwing an arm out to keep him from moving forward, spotting the cause of the disturbance.
An inky black portal had formed in the air in the brush just beyond them, and that the 1-A students present recognized all too well from the USJ attack. A huge dark figure dropped out of the portal, landing on the forest floor with a thud.
"No..." Ibara breathed, horrified, recognizing the creature from Hosu. "It can't be. It's..."
"The USJ Nomu," Momo whispered.
Chapter 50: Fight in the Forest, Part 3
Momo was in danger.
Izuku had been aware of this since he'd first known that the camp was under attack by villains, of course, because they were all in danger thanks to that.
Momo was in danger.
But it was different now. Until his confrontation with Muscular, he hadn't known that the villains were targeting her specifically.
Momo was in danger.
He knew he still had things he needed to do. Izuku couldn't just drop Kota in some random spot in the forest and take off. He would never have wanted his girlfriend to abandon a child in the middle of what was effectively a war zone to rush to his aid, and he was certain she wouldn't want him to do that either.
Momo was in danger.
Still, everything in him cried out to find her, to face anything that came for her at her side. It was everything he could do to keep his flight to a low enough speed to prevent sonic booms and harming his passenger.
"Look!" Kota said, pulling him from his thoughts. "Isn't that Eraserhead?" he asked, pointing.
Gazing downwards, Izuku did indeed see Class 1-A's homeroom teacher running down a path that led from the main camp area toward the forest where the Pussycats had decided to stage the test of courage.
"Mr. Aizawa!" he shouted, rapidly descending toward the pro hero, who came to a stop.
"Midoriya!"
"Glad I found you, sir! The situation is really bad! There's so much to tell you, but I need to get to Mandalay so she can broadcast something to everyone!" he spoke in a great rush. "Please take Kota with you! The villains aren't after him specifically, but they're not above hurting him. Thanks!"
"Midoriya!" Aizawa barked, a moment before he could take off. "Is that your blood that's all over you?"
"No, Mr. Aizawa," he said.
The teacher grunted, the sound betraying no hint as to whether he was pleased with that answer or not.
"When you find Mandalay, also tell her to relay the message that I'm giving all of you permission to use your Quirks to fight back against the villains," Aizawa said.
Izuku blinked. He hadn't given the matter a thought, not when lives were in danger and they were kilometers away from civilization.
"Right," he nodded, then took off before the teacher could say anything else, now moving faster than he'd dared to while carrying Kota with him, if still staying below supersonic speeds.
It felt like it had been hours since the attack had started, and they were just a bunch of students who were taking a break from training to try and scare each other in the forest, but of course it hadn't been very long ago at all in reality.
Which was why the pro heroes present were still facing off against the pair of villains when he returned.
Impatience and worry burning inside him, Izuku rained down bolts of emerald light upon the two of them, quickly throwing jade versions of All Might and Best Jeanist at them as well.
"What the hell?" the reptilian villain shouted, slicing the viridian threads that Green Jeanist fired at him.
"Where did these come from?!" Magne shouted, deflecting a blow from Green Might with her weapon.
"Hiya!" Mandalay shouted, taking advantage of the distraction to launch a fierce flying kick right at the reptile villain's head.
Tiger fired a ferocious punch to the gut of the other villain at the same time, and in a moment, both were on the ground, struggling ineffectually as the heroes made short work of restraining them.
"Mandalay, Kota's safe!" Izuku exclaimed before anyone else could speak. "I left him with Eraserhead! There's a message he told me to ask you to broadcast with your telepathy!"
"Midoriya, why are you covered in blood?!" Ashido exclaimed, pointing at him.
"It's fine, it's isn't mine!" he replied.
"That just raises further questions!" Kaminari shouted.
"Never mind that!" Mandalay said. "Midoriya, what's the message?"
"How could that beast be back here?" Ibara whispered as the group of UA students gazed out at the monster from the cover of some nearby bushes. "I thought you said that Midoriya literally sent it into orbit!"
"Are you sure that's the USJ Nomu?" Mineta asked. "I don't remember it having wings before." He added, looking at the massive bat wings protruding from its back.
"The villain with the teleportation Quirk must've been able to retrieve it," Momo said grimly. "As for the wings, I suspect its master somehow added them so it wouldn't be helpless in the air again."
"Never mind all this speculation," Awase hissed. "It's here, what do we do about it?"
"Stay here and hope like hell it doesn't notice us," Mineta answered, sounding as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"If it's just allowed to rampage around here, who knows how many of our fellow students it could hurt?" Momo countered. "I think I may have a way to neutralize it."
"May I remind you that you felt the same way at Hosu?" Ibara said pointedly. "If Midoriya hadn't been in the area, you could've been killed."
Momo hesitated, knowing the vine haired girl was correct about that, her resolve to stop the Nomu before it could harm anyone weakening.
Then the great beast sniffed the air. Momo had no idea how it could smell anything but smoke, with so much of the forest ablaze, but a moment later it released a growl and took off into the distance at a gallop.
For a moment, none of the students present spoke, not sure how to react to this turn of events.
Then a scream nearby pierced the forest.
"That sounds like Uraraka!" Mineta said.
"So much for laying low!" Awase said. "We can't just stand around while it kills someone! Let's go!"
The group ran forward, crashing through the brush with no regard for anything but speed, soon finding the trail they had abandoned.
The Nomu held Uraraka in one of its massive mitts, her arms pinned to her sides, preventing her from even trying to use her Quirk on it, while her legs kicked uselessly in midair. Meanwhile, Asui was bouncing around like crazy, unleashing ferocious kicks at the Nomu, but her blows seemed to have no effect on it.
"Get Uraraka and try to keep it busy for a moment!" Momo ordered. "I think I can stop it if I can just get a second!"
"You heard her!" Kendo said, enlarging her hands. "Let's do this!"
Honenuki softened the ground beneath the Nomu's feet, the creature releasing a gurgle of surprise and anger as it sank into the earth, then Kendo and Tetsutetsu assaulted it head on, giant hands and steel body slamming into its hulking form.
The Nomu went tumbling, releasing the gravity girl in the process, and Ibara snagged the brunette with her vines and pulled her out of harm's way.
Mineta pulled numerous orbs from his head and hurled them at the downed Nomu, while Awase rushed forward, using his Quirk to fuse the beast with the ground.
Then the Nomu released a roar and wrenched itself to its feet, chunks of earth and purple orbs coming with it. It lashed out, and Tetsutetsu suddenly went flying, crashing into a tree with enough force to break the trunk. If he hadn't had his Quirk activated, the impact would've no doubt destroyed his spine.
With a growl, Kendo used her enlarged hands to knock down a couple of nearby trees, sending them crashing into the Nomu, and Awase rushed forward, taking the opportunity to fuse the lumber to the beast's flesh.
Then the Nomu roared, thrashing around and rapidly reducing the tree trunks to splinters. It charged at Asui, very nearly grabbing her, only for the frog girl to leap out of its grasp at the last moment.
"Yaoyorozu, whatever your plan is, I hope you're just about ready with it!" Ibara shouted, wrapping her vines around the Nomu in an attempt to hold it still.
Pfft!
What looked like a large tranquilizer dart was suddenly sticking out of the Nomu's exposed brain. The creature screamed in surprise and rage, reaching up to rip it out and easily snapping several of Ibara's vines in the process.
But its payload had been delivered. Almost immediately, the Nomu's movements noticeably slowed. It began to sway on its feet, body sagging, and finally it collapsed limply to the ground.
"What...what was that?" Awase asked after a moment.
"A powerful paralytic substance," Momo answered.
"Like what you used on Shishida when we were all training at your place?" Tetsutetsu asked.
"The very same, though this was much more concentrated, and of course the fact that it was injected right into the brain makes it far more effective, too," Momo answered. "Before, I could only hit a target at extreme close range, but Izuku suggested using actual darts and creating a gun barrel." She added, holding up one hand to show the cylinder of gray metal that was protruding from her palm, which she expelled and allowed to fall to the ground.
Mineta laughed, the sound coming out a little crazed. "That's three villains tonight. You trying to dethrone Midoriya as the class's top badass?"
Momo wasn't quite sure how to respond to that one. "I'm just glad we stopped it before it could hurt anyone."
"Thanks for coming to the rescue, you guys," Asui said. "I really thought things were going to go bad there."
Uraraka nodded. "What a night," she groaned.
"This is the second villain who attacked us so far," Asui elaborated. "The first one had some elaborate piece of support gear used for draining people's blood, and she got a little bit of Ochako's. She also came at us with a knife. We were able to chase her off, though."
Mineta shook his head. "This hero course, man..." he remarked to nobody in particular.
Before anyone else could speak, the now familiar telepathic voice of the Pussycats' leader spoke into their heads.
"Attention all UA students, this is Mandalay again! Eraserhead has given all of you permission to use your Quirks to defend yourselves!"
Tetsutetsu and Awase scoffed at the implication that they shouldn't have been doing that until now.
"Also, we've identified one of the villains' targets! It's the student named Yaoyorozu! She should avoid combat and return to camp as soon as possible!"
Momo's eyes widened, while the other students present all turned to look at her.
"Doing a bang up job of the 'avoid combat' part so far," Honenuki remarked sardonically, kicking the motionless Nomu at their feet.
"It's not like we were planning on roaming the forest in search for more villains, anyway," Asui said.
"Definitely not," Kendo agreed. "Let's head back to camp. Yaoyorozu, you stay toward the center of our group."
"Right," Momo agreed, with only a little reluctance, not particularly liking the idea of all of them protecting her when they were all in danger but knowing she'd want to do the same if it were any of the others.
"Let's go," Kendo said.
"Come on, Momo has to be around here somewhere," Izuku muttered to himself as he carefully flew through the trees of the beasts' forest, knowing he'd never be able to find a single person from a vantage point above them.
"Midoriya!"
He came to a halt hovering in midair as the familiar form of Mezo Shoji rushed up to him. "Thank goodness I found you," the big hero student with the multiple arms panted as he came to a halt.
"Are you all right?" Izuku asked, seeing blood dripping from one of his four arms.
"I'll be fine, my Quirk will allow me to regenerate the damage," Shoji said dismissively. "Frankly, I feel like I should be asking you that, considering your current state."
"This blood isn't mine," Izuku said, not wanting to go into the whole story.
Thankfully, Shoji didn't feel the need to press for details. "Ah, that's good, then," he said. "In any case, Tokoyami and I were attacked by a villain. I took the hit, but Tokoyami was still startled enough to trigger his Quirk. Dark Shadow's gone completely out of control. He's a menace to anyone who gets near him."
"Can you just keep people away from him for now?" Izuku asked, ignoring the guilty squirm in his stomach. "The villains, they're after—"
"Yaoyorozu, I know, and I'm sorry to ask you to delay going to her, but Tokoyami said the reason Dark Shadow's going berserk is due to how dark it is here, and only light can calm it down," Shoji explained. "Bakugo and Todoroki are no doubt still at camp, and I haven't seen a trace of Aoyoma or Kaminari."
"So you need me to make light," Izuku realized.
Shoji nodded. "Dark Shadow's a danger to Tokoyami, himself, and everyone he encounters right now."
"All right, but let's try and be quick about it," Izuku said.
"Thank you, Midoriya," Shoji said before turning and running.
It didn't take them very long to find Tokoyami, mainly because a blind man could've easily located the mass of angry darkness that was currently writhing about in a blind rage and knocking down trees left and right.
"Geeze," Izuku breathed.
"Shoji! Midoriya!" Tokoyami yelled at them from the center of the maelstrom. "Stay away! Dark Shadow will kill you!"
Unfortunately, the warning only served to alert the rampaging Quirk, and a massive hand moved to slap into the ground where they were standing.
"Look out!" Izuku shouted as he and Shoji scrambled out of the way just before Dark Shadow struck the forest floor with enough force to shake the earth and kick up a great cloud of dust.
Meanwhile, not too far away, a blond girl wearing a school uniform and a support item that looked it could've come from someone's nightmare came to a halt, looking in the direction of the huge, deep thud.
"Hmm..." she stroked her chin, a cat-like smile appearing on Himiko Toga's face.
She had been on her way back to the rendezvous point, but she had only managed to get blood from a single UA student, when the plan had been for her to get samples from three or four. She'd rather not have to deal with Shigaraki being petulant and pissy about that if she could avoid it, and the UA students she'd encountered so far were so cute...
Mind quickly made up, she began making her way toward the source of the sound.
"Fucking finally," Bakugo said as his head snapped in the direction of the earth-shaking rumble. "Some action."
He'd been wandering around the damned forest for what felt like hours in search of a villain to destroy, so he could finally prove that he was the real future number one hero, not a...not a damned pebble like that copycat asshole from Class B had said.
Unfortunately for him, he hadn't been able to find any so far.
It looked like that particular losing streak was over now, though, because there was clearly something big going on over there.
Which meant it was exactly where the main character should be.
Grinning savagely, he took off toward the scene as quickly as his Quirk could propel him.
"This is nuts!" Izuku exclaimed. "I never knew that Dark Shadow had this kind of power!"
"Need to rage! Need to destroy!" Dark Shadow growled, voice so much deeper and more guttural than the one Izuku usually heard from the sentient Quirk.
"Midoriya!" Shoji shouted. "Light, now! Or we're done for!"
"Right!" Izuku shouted.
It was almost strange using the ring to create justlight rather than an attack or a construct, but that didn't mean it was difficult. Izuku raised a hand and emerald radiance exploded outwards.
Dark Shadow released a bestial roar, then rapidly began to shrink, the inky mass being rapidly pulled back into Tokoyami's body. In seconds, the sentient Quirk had vanished from sight entirely, leaving just the bird-headed hero student, who was currently on all fours, panting heavily.
"Th-thank you," Tokoyami gasped. "I flew into a rage after that villain severed your spare arm, Shoji. I released Dark Shadow but could not control him. My spirit is still lacking, it seems."
"It's fine, Tokoyami," Shoji said. "We were all at the brink of exhaustion to begin with. None of us expected this attack."
Tokoyami nodded. "My thanks to you as well, Midoriya. Overcoming that mad cacophony of darkness would not have been possible without your light."
"Anytime," Izuku said. "Please get back to camp when you're able to move, and keep an eye out for Momo. You might not have heard Mandalay's message, but the villains are after her specifically."
"We shall," Tokoyami nodded.
Izuku nodded. "Thanks, now, I really have to—"
"Someone's here," Shoji said abruptly, a few of his extra arms currently topped with ears.
Himiko smiled as she watched the giant black creature retreat back into the boy with the raven head. That thing was so cute! Oh, if only it had blood so she could turn into it, too!
Forcing herself to focus, she prepared her new support item. If she played her cards right, she might be able to get blood from two of the students present. Even Shiggy couldn't complain too much if she managed that. She crept closer.
"Someone's here," the guy with the extra arms joined by webbing said abruptly.
The two hero students who weren't on hands and knees whirled in her direction, green light flaring from one of them.
The blond girl's eyes widened, mouth dropping open at the sight of the green one, realizing only now what she hadn't been able to from a distance and in the darkness.
The boy was absolutely covered in blood.
Sakura petals seemed to explode through the air before her gaze, the edge of her vision suffused with a soft pink glow as love music began to play inside her mind.
Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined a boy could ever look so cute, so totally perfect!
Then the boy with the tentacle arms suddenly sprouted even more arms, each one ending with a snapping jaw. At the same time, a dozen glowing green copies of various pro heroes suddenly appeared between her and the boy of her dreams.
"Ack! That's not cute at all!" Himiko exclaimed.
The green hero constructs began to advance on her, and Himiko turned and ran back into the forest.
"Who on earth was that?" Tokoyami asked as he gingerly got to his feet.
"I've never seen her before," Izuku said.
"She must've been one of the villains," Shoji said. "She's certainly not a UA student or a pro hero."
"Should we go after her?" Tokoyami asked.
Shoji shook his head. "She's stealthy. I already can't pick out the sound of her footsteps," he said. "Besides, just because Mr. Aizawa gave us permission to defend ourselves, that doesn't mean we should go looking for a fight."
"A sensible argument," Tokoyami said. "I think I can walk now. Let's get back to camp and allow Midoriya to—"
"Wait." Shoji spoke.
"Now what?" Izuku asked, finally letting some of his impatience show through.
Bakugo had been expecting some big fight with villains when he'd heard that enormous impact. He hadn't known which villains, and he frankly hadn't given a damn, so long as he got to murder the hell out of them and they were sufficiently strong that people were suitably impressed by his victory over them.
Instead, he'd arrived just in time to see Bird Brain's giant shadow thing retreating back into his body after Deku had blasted the thing with green light.
Disgusted to find no clash with villains he could use to prove his strength was on offer, he had been about to move on, not having the least desire to stop and talk to Deku and the other extras with him.
Then the weird villain girl had come out, but rather than even try to attack, she had given Deku a more nakedly smitten look than even Ponytail ever had (and Ponytail had directed some revoltingly adoring looks at Deku since the two had started dating, despite the prissy bitch probably thinking she was hiding it well). The villain had then turned and fled the moment Deku and Squid Arms had shown their fangs.
He couldn't believe such a total weakling had even signed up to attack UA.
Bakugo had been about to take his leave again, when Squid had noticed him.
"Bakugo, what are you doing here?" Squid called to him. "I thought you'd be at the main camp with the rest of the students in the remedial classes?"
The explosive blonde's first instinct was to tell Squid to fuck off, huff, and continue on his search for a villain worth a damn to kill.
Then he remembered something Goggles had said to him when he'd visited the support labs right after the Sports Festival to ask about Deku's mysterious super support gear.
"For it to be able to have so many functions without any apparent control mechanism or the user having a Quirk that helps them to control it would mean it operates off of some kind of mind-machine interface, or something close enough to one that it would be a distinction without a significant difference. So disrupting the user's focus, especially at an unexpected moment, could cause issues."
"Bakugo?" Squid spoke again.
With a roar, the explosive blonde launched himself at Deku as fast as his Quirk could carry him, fire and smoke blooming from his palms.
Green eyes widened, then a blast of emerald light shot out, slamming into Bakugo's chest and sending him flying backwards. He let out a grunt as he was thrown to the ground, his whole body crying out in protest. That attack had hit nearly as hard as one of All Might's punches, something he'd know about, having experienced that personally during the exam.
He tried to get up but couldn't quite manage it, some part of his body refusing to take orders.
Fucking Deku, he grimaced as his vision swam and then started to go black.
"What the hell was that about?" Shoji asked. "Is he under the influence of a Quirk or something?"
"I don't know," Izuku said. "And I'm sorry, I don't have time to worry about it right now."
Despite everything, part of him couldn't help but be amazed he was saying such a thing. Not too long ago, he would've been only too quick to drop everything to help his oldest friend Kacchan.
Now, he wasn't about to let the fact that the guy who'd done his best to make his life hell for ten years was acting weird distract him from finding Momo.
"I don't think he'll be getting up and making trouble any time soon," he added.
Shoji looked down at Bakugo's prone form. "I'll move him out of sight so he's not a sitting duck for any random villain. We can worry about him later," he said. "Go find your girlfriend."
Izuku nodded, taking off into the air, determined not to end up on another detour from his quest to find Momo.
He had only traveled for a bit when he spotted a thin trail of smoke rising into the sky, well away from the bigger fires. On a hunch, he headed for it, quickly spotting a group of 1-A and 1-B students.
"Midori!" Uraraka called as he approached.
"Are you all okay? Have you seen Momo?" he asked, talking so fast that the two questions came out as though they were a single thought.
"We're fine," Asui replied. "Yaoyorozu was with us, but she was just taken."
Izuku felt as though a hand made of ice had just reached into his chest and wrapped its fingers around his heart.
"Where? By who? What happened?" he demanded.
"We were attacked by some villain with a fire Quirk," Tetsutetsu explained, looking angry and frustrated. "While we were all focused on him, some weirdo in a mask used his Quirk to trap Yaoyorozu in this...marble, and the two ran off with her."
"Which way did they go?" Izuku asked.
"That way," Uraraka pointed. "But you can't—"
Izuku took off before she could finish, departing with such speed that the leaves were stripped from the nearby trees in his wake.
Stupid, stupid, stupid! He chastised himself, even as he frantically searched for any sign of the villains. I should've found her before dealing with Tokoyami! I know she's strong, but even the most powerful heroes need help sometimes!
He told himself not to despair yet. There was still time. Surely the villains couldn't have all escaped the area yet, right?
Izuku was nearly on the verge of despair when he spotted her: the girl who'd appeared before after he'd calmed down Tokoyami. She was running as quickly as she could through the trees.
Dimming his protective aura as much as possible, he followed her from above until she reached a tiny clearing near the edge of the forest. Several figures were already standing there, including a man wearing a top hat and a black and white mask. A familiar black portal swirled in the center of the area.
The villains were getting ready to escape.
Spears of glowing green light began to rain down on the clearing, like lightning sent by an angry god, while constructs of Hawks and Airjet appeared next to him and then went swooping down toward the villains.
"You're not getting away!" Izuku roared.
"Man, he's pissed! Let's fight him to the death!" a man who wore a white and black mask that covered his whole head exclaimed. "Just give him the girl back and run, you idiot!" he added in the same breath.
A great gout of flame shot out from the clearing, unleashed by a scarred man with spiky black hair, but Izuku surrounded himself with a force bubble, the fire passing harmlessly over it. Jade copies of the Water Hoses sprang into being and began to spray viridian water at the clearing.
"I know you have Yaoyorozu! Give her back!" Izuku shouted, increasing the intensity of his attack.
"Just give him the girl, I don't want to die!" the villain with the cloth mask shouted as he frantically avoided the energy bolts raining down around him. "Lady and gentlemen, it's been an honor to work with all of you!"
"Fine, you can have your maiden back...if you can catch her!" the villain with the top hat said, hurling a tiny ball high and far into the distance.
Izuku lost track of the tiny dark sphere almost immediately in the night sky, and for a moment he thought he'd have to scour the whole forest to try and find his girlfriend's tiny prison.
Then the villain snapped his fingers, and suddenly Momo was careening through the night sky.
Under better circumstances, the Creation user could've utilized her Quirk in a number of ways to safely bring herself to the ground. As it was, she showed no sign of doing that, no doubt too disoriented by her abrupt release to act to save herself in time.
Izuku surged toward her, not caring that he needed to end the rain of green energy bolts on the League's position.
"Oof!" Momo grunted as she landed in his arms. "What...Izuku?"
"Are you all right?" he asked.
"I'm fine, but...the villains!" she exclaimed.
He turned back, ready to resume his assault, just in time to see the black portal close up, the remaining villains nowhere to be seen.
"They got away," the heiress said.
"Yeah," Izuku agreed, not finding it within himself to care too much about that at the moment.
For a moment they just hung suspended in the hot night air, a little disbelieving that the attack was just over, after all that.
Then he kissed her, soft but with passion. Even when they separated for air, they left their foreheads touching, one breathing in what the other breathed out.
"When this camp is done, we are definitely taking that beach trip we talked about on the ride over here," Izuku said eventually.
Momo laughed, only a little weakly. "I already know exactly which bikini I'll wear."
It took a while for emergency services to reach the far off area where UA had its summer training camps, but when they did, they arrived in force, clogging the narrow local roads with police squad cars, ambulances, and fire trucks.
The camp itself was a mad frenzy of activity, acting as a central hub for the searches for the students still out in the forest, the villains who hadn't made their escape, the already started investigations, and the operations to douse the flames that the villain with the fire Quirk had set during the attack.
Of course, the safety and health of the students were prioritized above all else, which was the main reason why, not all that long after the members of the Vanguard Action Squad who'd avoided capture had departed, Bakugo found himself waking up in the makeshift field hospital that the EMTs had put together.
"Uh, what the hell? Where am I?" he muttered, taking in the scene around him.
"Well, looks like you're finally up," Kirishima remarked from next to the collapsible cot where the blonde was laying. He seemed more subdued than usual.
"Shitty Hair?"
"Yeah."
"What the hell happened?" Bakugo asked, trying to ignore the pounding inside his head.
"The villains are all gone now. Ragdoll was able to find you with her Quirk after they left," Kirishima explained. "Some villain must've hit you or something."
Bakugo very nearly snapped that it was that damn Deku who'd knocked him out but stopped himself, realizing that that would only invite questions as to why Deku had attacked him, questions that he'd rather not have come up.
"Yeah..." he grumbled. "Yeah, that must've been it."
Kirishima gave him a look that the explosive blonde couldn't quite decipher, then he shook his head. "So far as I can tell, the teachers seem to be ignoring how you went off on your own. Maybe they even forgot that you were supposed to be hiding out in the forest outside the main building with the rest of us. It has been a crazy night," he said. "Still, I wouldn't be surprised if Aizawa gives you hell for it later, considering what a hardass he is."
Bakugo scoffed, unconcerned. The damned hobo liked to talk a big game, but he wasn't any harsher on him than the losers at Aldera Middle School had been.
"Hey, man, I totally get not wanting to just sit around doing nothing while our classmates are facing villains," Kirishima said, "but I don't think it was very manly of you to go looking for trouble after Mr. Kan told us to stay there."
"Tch, whatever."
The redhead's mouth twisted with displeasure. "Well, I'll let you get some rest. Feel better, dude."
Bakugo responded with a noncommittal grunt.
It wasn't until Kirishima had left that the explosive boy allowed himself a grin.
It had only been there for the briefest of moments, a true "blink and you'll miss it" instant. He never would've seen it if he hadn't been looking in the correct spot.
But he had seen it.
When he'd launched his surprise attack on Deku in the forest, for just a fraction of second, a green ring had been visible on his finger.
The damned, super advanced support item that Bakugo had known existed since the Sports Festival. The one that allowed Deku to fake a Quirk.
He finally knew exactly where the asshole kept it, had finally seen it with his own eyes.
Your days of getting to pretend to be someone who matters are numbered, fucking Deku...
Meanwhile, Izuku and Momo, blissfully unaware of Bakugo's continued plotting, had managed to find something resembling privacy behind the camp's main building.
They couldn't exactly go very far at the moment; a police officer could show up wanting to question the two of them at any moment and indeed probably would at some point, and of course, it was likely to set off a panic if anyone believed they were unaccounted for.
They usually weren't much for displays of affection where they were likely to be seen at it eventually, both because it just wasn't in their nature and because they didn't want to give Ashido more to work with, but after the harrowing events of that night, neither cared a bit about the risk of their classmates catching them cuddling. So Momo had created a simple blanket and the two had spread it out on the ground then sat down together, his arm around her shoulders, her head laying on his shoulder.
For several minutes, the two just sat there, holding each other. For his own part, with the adrenaline of earlier having long since run down, Izuku found Momo's warmth making him pleasantly drowsy, yet he didn't feel like he could've quite slept if he'd wanted to.
"I was so scared when Uraraka told me you'd been taken," he whispered when he finally broke the comfortable quiet. "I thought I'd made a huge mistake, not rushing to your side immediately."
"You had to be a hero," Momo responded. "It's who you are, and I was fine until that one villain with that awful imprisoning Quirk got the jump on me. I even took down more villains than you did tonight." She added in a teasing tone.
He chuckled. "You did," he agreed, kissing the top of her head. "You're amazing."
"So are you," she responded, nuzzling her cheek against his.
They lapsed back into silence for a few moments.
Then the raven haired heiress began to kiss his neck.
Izuku suddenly didn't feel drowsy anymore.
"Momo?"
"Mmm?" she murmured, not stopping what she was doing.
This was new. Izuku certainly wasn't about to complain, given the amazing sensations that his gorgeous girlfriend's lips were sending through him, but he wouldn't have expected a night like this one to be when she decided to press their physical intimacy a little further.
He recalled hearing somewhere that some people tended to get..amorous shortly after a brush with danger. Izuku had written off the idea at the time as silly, but now he suddenly found himself wondering if Momo was like that. The notion of his girlfriend having such a reaction to peril was both intimidating and rather intriguing, given their chosen profession.
"Izuku?" she murmured between kisses.
"Yes?" he breathed.
"I'm sorry."
His eyes popped open. "Sorry? What for?"
"You tried so hard," Momo said rather than answering him directly, still kissing him. "You were so determined to save me, so brave and strong. You would've succeeded, if only you'd known."
"What...what are you...?"
"You don't deserve this," she said, sounding mournful even as she continued to kiss him.
"Momo, stop, you're scaring me," Izuku said, pulling away from her. "Why are you talking like this? I didsave you."
The sad, pitying look she gave him chilled him to the core.
"No, you didn't," she said, just before collapsing into a pile of black goo.
Izuku screamed.
"Wakey, wakey, Ms. Yaoyorozu."
Momo felt someone shaking her none too gently. Despite how leaden her eyelids felt, she forced them open.
She immediately wished she didn't when she found herself staring into the crazed red gaze of Tomura Shigaraki, his eyes just visible between the fingers of the severed hand that grasped his face.
"Welcome to the home of the League of Villains," Shigaraki rasped.