The plan had been simple: Infiltrate the Shinkansen during the internship rush. Have Irinaka take the Trigger drug and merge with the train itself. Administer sleeping gas through the ventilation system. Once all passengers, including the target, were unconscious, quietly extract the boy to a secondary location for interrogation.
If the child was responsible for Overhaul's death, they would execute him.
If he wasn't, they would kill him anyway.
After all, regardless of whether the vigilante was real or not, the boy's interference had contributed to Overhaul's demise. That alone warranted death.
But Plan A had failed.
The boy had resisted the sleeping gas—something Kurono hadn't anticipated despite all his preparation.
However, it didn't matter.
They had watched his performance at the Sports Festival. They knew his capabilities. Speed. Strength, regenerative abilities, and a peculiar control of objects. Mostly a quirk that granted him explosive movement across short distances.
But they also knew his weaknesses.
Kurono's golden eyes locked onto him.
"Your special ability," He uttered. "is a burst-speed technique. It allows you to cross large distances in an instant. Almost like teleportation." He tilted his head slightly. "But everything has a weakness."
"Maneuvering at such high speeds shouldn't be easy," Kurono continued. "Precision suffers. You can only move in general directions—forward, backward, left, right. But confined spaces?" He gestured subtly to the narrow aisle, the packed seats, the unconscious civilians. "Confined spaces filled with obstacles and collateral damage? That restricts your greatest advantage. Am I right?"
Add to that the threat of civilian casualties, and his options narrowed even further. The threat was clear.
Behind Yuta, Nemoto's gun remained trained on his back.
Beneath him, the train floor shifted subtly—Irinaka ready to react at a moment's notice.
"So I'll ask you again," Kurono said. "Surrender. Or we make you."
This was the ultimate lid on the bottle.
With the lives of passengers at stake, once threatened, capture was certain. As for fighting them regardless? That was out of the question.
A U.A student who would foolishly risk his life for a girl he had never met before wouldn't take the risk of causing harm to civilians.
Yuta stood perfectly still for three seconds.
Then he smiled. A chuckle escaping without a trace of humor.
"You know what?" Yuta said, his voice steady despite the blood still drying on his uniform. "You're right. About almost everything."
Kurono's eyes narrowed.
"My quirk is restricted here. The civilians are liabilities. And yeah ..." His smile turned colder. "... a 'hero' would surrender to save them."
"Then you'll ..."
"But I'm not a hero yet." Yuta's Sharingan spun faster. "I'm a student. And students don't have the authority to make those kinds of sacrifices."
Kurono's eyes widened fractionally.
"So here's what I'm going to do—"
Before Kurono could react, Yuta's hand formed a Tiger seal.
POOF.
Thick white smoke exploded outward, filling his position in an instant.
"Nemoto! Shoot him!"
Phff! Phff! Phff!
Silenced rounds punched through the smoke, tearing through empty air.
Yuta was already gone.
He Body Flickered to Uraraka's seat, his hand closing around her unconscious form. His mind raced through calculations even as he moved.
'They used sleeping gas. Not poison or explosives.'
His eyes tracked the passengers—all breathing steadily, faces relaxed despite the chaos erupting around them.
They wanted him unconscious, and their actions implied extraction, not a massacre.
'If they wanted civilians dead, they'd have done it already. They need me alive for answers.'
His jaw clenched as he pulled Uraraka against his chest.
'Which means they'll chase me. Or they'll retreat.'
The alternative, that they'd slaughter a train full of people out of spite, didn't fit their profile. They were yakuza remnants seeking revenge, not psychotic killers.
It was a gamble.
But it was the only play he had.
His fist clenched, chakra condensing into a tight point.
'Sorry, Uraraka. This is going to be loud.'
The window beside them shattered.
Not from a bullet.
From Yuta's chakra-enhanced fist.
CRASH.
Reinforced glass exploded outward in a spray of crystalline fragments. Wind roared into the cabin like a living thing, the train's speed creating instant decompression. The white smoke was sucked out in a violent spiral, papers and loose items whipping through the air.
Kurono's coat snapped backward, his golden eyes widening.
"He's—"
Yuta kicked off the window frame, launching himself and Uraraka through the opening.
"See ya,"
The world became wind, noise and motion.
Three hundred kilometers per hour.
The force hit, trying to rip Uraraka from his grip. He twisted mid-air, using his body to shield her from the worst of it as he plummeted ... and landed hard on the concrete roof.
The earth beneath his feet developed numerous cracks.
His knees absorbed the shock, chakra distribution preventing his legs from shattering.
Without pausing, he sprinted forward, away from the tracks, Uraraka's unconscious weight secure in his arms.
Behind him, the train continued its forward momentum, the silver blur already beginning to shrink in the distance.
___
The moment the boy disappeared through the shattered window, the train lurched.
Brakes screamed. Metal groaned. Passengers—still unconscious—swayed in their seats as the Shinkansen's emergency systems attempted to compensate for the sudden deceleration.
Kurono stood at the shattered window, watching the boy disappear with his classmate.
"Chronostasis?" Nemoto asked, gun still raised. "Orders?"
Kurono's golden eyes tracked the retreating figure for three more seconds.
Then he turned away.
"We're leaving."
"What?" Nemoto's voice rose. "But he's right there—"
"And we have no way to catch him." Kurono's tone was flat. "No advantage and no means of escape in broad daylight and a populated area. We pursue now, and we're caught within ten minutes."
"But the Young Master—"
"We have our answer." Kurono's voice cut like a blade. "The boy resisted your quirk. Physically prevented himself from speaking. That's not the behavior of an innocent person."
Irinaka's voice echoed. "So we just... let him go?"
"For now." Kurono's expression was cold. "Irinaka, restore the train to normal function and release control. We're extracting."
"And the passengers?"
"They saw and know nothing. Let them wake on their own. By the time they do, we'll be long gone. And all they'll remember is falling asleep and waking up to a broken window and some missing students." Kurono turned toward the rear of the car. "We'll regroup and plan our next move. But not here."
It was impossible for the blast to the side of the train to go unnoticed. Passengers in the other carts might have already alerted the authorities. The next station wasn't safe.
If they stayed to threaten civilians, they'd gain nothing, the target was already gone. As for killing the passengers out of spite? Setting aside that that wasn't their objective, every hero in the region would hunt them down.
He didn't plan to get on the National wanted list so early.
"Irinaka," Kurono said, his voice sharp. "Override the emergency brake. Resume normal speed."
The train hesitated, then slowly began to accelerate again, the emergency braking sequence overridden by Irinaka's quirk merged within its systems.
"We're continuing to the next station?" Nemoto asked.
"No." Kurono moved toward the rear connecting door. "We're getting off before then. Irinaka, how much longer until you can safely separate from the train's structure?"
"Two minutes," Irinaka's voice rumbled through the walls. "The Trigger's effects are already fading. I need to consolidate my presence before I can fully extract."
"Do it quickly." Kurono pushed through the door into the next car, Nemoto following close behind. "We have maybe five minutes before heroes respond to the disturbance. Less if there were any pros on nearby trains."
They moved through three cars, passing unconscious passengers still slumped in their seats, heading toward the rear of the train.
By the time they reached the rearmost car, Irinaka had fully withdrawn his consciousness from the train's structure. The walls of the storage compartment rippled, and a figure stepped out of the metal as if walking through water.
__
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