Kapitel 9: I May Fall

"Karma, can I talk to you?"

The horned teen stilled in the hallway, not turning at the call of his name. His stomach lit on fire but instantly faded out, leaving a hollow center in his gut. What filled the empty space was unease and guilt in the form of butterflies and he swallowed, slowly turning halfway to see Mizushima standing awkwardly behind him, his hands fiddling with each other in obvious nervousness. Karma kept his expression even and cool.

Karma studied his classmate, knowing he could only guess what he was about to bring up. Sighing, the redhead leaned against the wall, watching a few other students pass by. It was between periods but Karma had excused himself to take a break in the bathroom before the octopus-headed boy followed and stopped him. Well, might as well get this circus on the road.

"Make it quick, I've got places to be."

"R-Right…" Mizushima's eyes flicked away and he took a deep breath, returning his gaze to Karma. "Um, I just feel like maybe we got off on the wrong foot somehow?"

Karma raised a brow. "How'd you figure that?" What?

Another deep breath and the octopus-headed boy seem even more nervous and out of his element than before. "I-it's just that, um, I feel as though I probably upset you somehow? A-and whatever it was, I am so sorry!"

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute," Karma waved his hand, closing his eyes for a moment as he took a step toward the other. Opening his eyes, he gave Mizushima an incredulous look. "You… think I'm upset with you?"

Here's the thing about Akabane Karma.

Karma doesn't not care about people. That is the say, he's not a heartless scumbag that just plays around with his classmates, victimizing them to his pranks or tolerating them just to achieve something—okay, he's not always like that, anyway. But he does care.

He might not have cared last year, but that was before…

And so, to hear Mizushima interpret his avoidant behavior as Karma being upset and disliking the boy, well. It didn't hurt, but it just wasn't true. And normally, Karma wouldn't care about false things people believed about him (he once had a whole classroom convinced he was an actual vampire one year, this was nothing), but this just had to involve Mizushima's dumb head reminding him of… of him.

And as much as Karma didn't care about clearing his name in most cases, this… he didn't even know how to start with this. It hurt too much. It was still fresh.

"Well, I- A little? Yes?" Mizushima shrugged half-heartedly, looking sheepish. "Look, how else am I supposed to take it? You- You know? We're Pres and Co-pres of the class, we should be, you know, taking the helm together and talking and stuff, right? I-I just…"

Karma stared at the boy for a moment before sighing out his nose, dipping his head and shutting his eyes. His lips pressed tightly together before opening to respond when his phone made a loud and long beeeeeep! through his pocket.

His heart shot through his throat—

"No—" Karma shut his mouth as he fumbled for his phone. He pressed the voice button to hear Ritsu.

"This is a CODE: S.I.D. I repeat: CODE: S.I.D. The students in red-alert are: Gender Snake and One-Punch Boy. Heroes have been contacted and are on their way to this location: xxxxxx. Stand by for further updates."

Karma felt the earth fall from under him as he listened to Ritsu's announcement. Icy dread filled his lungs and all of a sudden, he couldn't breathe and he choked to get a single bout of air in—hands touched his shoulders, a muffled exclamation next to his ear but he couldn't focus on that. All he could think about was Nagisa and Izuku dying, he can't lose them too— no, no, what the hell? No! No, they were assassins , they could kick the hell out of any villain. Karma felt air finally enter his lungs and he gasped, hunching over his knees—when had he dropped to them?

The thought of Nagisa and Izuku being skilled assassins was what he clung to desperately, what helped him return to real time and helped him realize Mizushima was next to him, kneeling down with round, worry-filled eyes, both hands on his shoulder. Karma grimaced internally—he wasn't a touchy-feelsy person, only giving in to Izuku and Rio who were very touch-oriented around friends. But he couldn't bring himself to care about touch right now—just… focusing on what to do right now.

"What- what was that?" Mizushima's soft voice whispered next to him. He sounded scared. Karma looked at his dropped phone on the tile floor, a new crack in the corner. He grimaced.

A shaky breath left him before he rubbed his damp face dry, ignoring the boy beside him as he sniffled. To hell with keeping her secret , SCREW it—there were priorities to straighten.

"Ritsu," Karma hated how raspy his voice sounded. "Status report. How many and which heroes are involved?"

"Twenty students and two UA faculty members: Eraserhead and Thirteen. My connection to Nagisa and Izukun's mobiles were cut off before I could see the villains, same for Eraserhead's mobile."

Karma's brows furrowed as his eyes widened. All Might wasn't there? He knew about Class 1-A's field trip; Izuku wouldn't shut up about it during the past weekend or in their group chat. He even heard All Might say something about chaperoning along with for training.

"What happened to All Might?"

"He and Principal Nedzu are currently in the teacher lounge. I've notified them; All Might is leaving as we speak."

A harsh breath left him in agitation before a hand raised to scratch at his ears. Scowling, Karma snatched his phone and stood up, Mizushima copying him. The redhead turned to speak before an alarm rang through the school, the same alarm from yesterday.

[SECURITY LEVEL 2 HAS BEEN BREACHED IN A NEIGHBORING UA CAMPUS BUILDING. PLEASE REMAIN CALM AND STAY IN YOUR HOMEROOM CLASSES UNTIL FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS ARE GIVEN.]

Karma cursed and tightened his grip on his phone, gesturing for Mizushima to follow as they ran back to Class 1-I. He knew questions would be asked and he wasn't entirely sure he could answer them when it came to it, but for now he shoved that thought to the back of his head. That can be dealt with when the time comes.

"Come on."

Karma ignored the way his heart rammed in his chest, shaking with anxiety and dread.

---

"Are you going to tell me what that was?"

Silence, knuckles rapping against the table as Business Guy tried to keep his class calm. Karma couldn't process the words being thrown about behind the blood rushing through his ears, the pounding deafening. He pressed his fingers into his forehead.

"Karma?" Mizushima prodded again.

Karma's eyes darted across the room to Asano, violet meeting amber. He switched his gaze to Mizushima and shut his eyes, his hand rising to press against them. He shook his head, grimacing. He felt powerless.

" Later ," his voice cracked.

Mizushima frowned with his eyes, leaning away.

Karma shuddered. He can't… he can't lose anyone else.

---

Toshinori sighed into his hands before dragging them down his face.

He thought he learned his lesson already, using up his time, his quirk. He was positive Korosensei drilled in the lesson of pacing himself before he died. Toshinori tried to think how his fellow teacher would react if he could see him now, burning up his time like paper in a fire.

The hero pulled his phone out for the fifth time in ten minutes, bouncing it in his hand before opening the lockscreen. No notifications.

No response to his several texts or calls.

With two teachers, surely one of them would answer by now?

He hummed, leaning forward with his chin in his hand, jaw jutted forward. His mind wandered to Young Izuku and Nagisa. He's already skipped Heroics once, it'd be a disappointment for him not to come a second time—it's not even a full month since school has begun! A huff and the blond shook his head, puffing out in his hero form and pushing down the rise of what he knew to be blood back down his throat. No! This won't do, he has to put up a good example for the kids! He's their model after all, right? He has to take care of them, each of them, not just for himself, but for Korosensei too.

He poured so much of his soul into these children, to mold them into model citizens and people to look up to. All that All Might's ever done was smile at the camera while holding victims, offering a beam of light in the dark to look too, and sure that wasn't something to just bat your eyes at, but… But it wasn't personal to people. Learning from Korosensei, how he tended to each of his students individually and teaching them differently, tailored to each student as their needs provided, it was an eye-opening experience for the Pro Hero.

Each person couldn't just be dealt with as a general audience, but tended to as an individual.

So he had to give all of 1-A a good example to look up to! Yeah, he's going to go, right now! Right this second! Right this—

"All Might!"

Toshinori almost spat blood in surprise. "The principal!"

"Yes! It is I! Am I a mouse? A dog? A Bear? No one knows! All you need to know is that I am the principal!"

Oh shoot, it's groveling time! Instantly, Toshinori kneeled on his toes with his knees up, absolutely trying to suck up to the principal who caught him… doing what, lazing around? Hardly. More like skipping class, but whatever. "Your coat is looking splendid today, sir!"

"My secret is keratin! No human can produce such luster!" replied the animal principal as he strode to the couch.

"But enough about that. You're quite a busy man, aren't you?" He stopped to grab the Ipad on the table, working quickly to bring up the Yahoo! News page. He turned the tablet to show All Might, the headline saying 'All Might resolves three incidents in under an hour!'"As they say, crime never sleeps no matter who's in town, but it seems neither do you, All Might! Rushing off at the slightest hint of trouble is just like you!"

Nedzu set the tablet down as he began to pull himself onto the couch cushion, maneuvering himself to sit with his leg crossed over the other. "Your injury and its after-effects has limited you as a hero. Not to mention being busy educating the successor to One for All, but you, being the stubborn 'Symbol of Peace' that you are, refuse to make either of those things public knowledge, which is why I recommended that you teach here." He gave a pause, allowing that information to sink in before he put both paws into his lap. "And that's not even accounting for the past year both you and your students have had to experience. Moreso that dreadful night."

That was when Toshinori finally broke eye-contact with the principal, deflating his form and finding a particular spot in the carpet to examine instead. His stomach churned, but he remained silent.

"Having to grow close to such an extraordinary person then having to watch his demise under your supervision is not an easy thing to stomach, All Might," the ever-persistent grin on the principal's face was washed away at that, though his voice was still as soft and chirpy as ever. "Especially for children. And I must say, I am impressed with how well you managed with them, not only with teaching them but with keeping them safe and out of the hands of media. Even so, I do believe Korosensei might have been your impulse control back then, hm?"

Toshinori's head snapped up at that, the realization shooting a pang of heartache through him. His face contorted into a painful grimace, knowing he truly had just dwindled back down to square one when Korosensei had died. He… He wasn't that bad, was he?

Nedzu's expression softened back to his default smile, head tilting just a tad. "Now, now, All Might, don't look disheartened. It's absolutely normal to be off balanced after the death of a loved one. Whether or not either of you got along in the beginning, I've been told many good things about how well you fared with them regardless."

The Hero's grimaced loosened into an expression of confusion, then. "You've… been told?"

"Korosensei had arranged a meeting with me quite a long while before he passed."

Toshinori dropped his gaze, an empty chuckle leaving him. Of course he would, that old Octopus managed to tie up each and every single loose end that dangled from class 3-E. "I'm not surprised," he muttered.

"Yes, well, back to the matter at hand, even if I did offer you a position here at UA, don't forget it was you who accepted. So I, and Korosensei as well, I surmise, would appreciate if you tried a bit harder to prioritize your role as a teacher, hm?"

Toshinori felt like he was stomaching a thousand One for All punches to his gut, but he took it all in stride, humbling himself (especially since this was his boss, so, like…) with a nod. "A-absolutely, you're absolutely correct… that's why I was… just about to head to USJ…"

"But you'd be forced to return soon thereafter, no?" the principal moved forward, grabbing a tea cup off the table and began to set the tea machine. "So why not—"

A long and loud beeeep! followed by some electrical shrieking sounds erupted from Ritsu's main unit, the screen glitching up before the AI finally appeared on the screen. She gasped and put her hands against the screen before finally straightening somewhat and shouting her teachers' names in alarm. Both teachers instantly stood and raced to her unit.

"Ritsu?! Is everything alright?!" Toshinori instantly held the box on its side, his eyes wide and frantic. Panic gripped his heart like an hot iron. He had to push down the urge to throw up at all the potential horrors that could have caused her to react this way—he's never seen her so frantic before. She had the most impenetrable software on the planet, who could have possibly rendered a DIGITAL PROGRAM BREATHLESS?!

"Sensei!" she gasped, staring at the Pro Hero. "Sensei, I was blocked out! I was trying for so long to get back to my main unit— I don't know who did it, b-but someone had some sort of electric quirk — all the students' phones have been shut off! I was shut out of the phones, if I hadn't left, I don't think… Sensei, the students, they're in trouble! There are villains at the USJ!"

Toshinori had already changed forms and rushed out the door, ignoring the rush of blood through his throat and threatening to push out his teeth.

Nedzu's eyes hardened, but his stance hadn't changed. "Ritsu, if I may," he began. "Tell me everything you know."

---

Hundreds of villains, a horde of them—no, not even that. It was almost overwhelming taking in their mass number, but one thing was for sure: almost all of them were ugly as hell.

And terrifying.

But Izuku and Nagisa have seen a man without the skin of his face before, so that's not so new.

Hordes and hordes of villains though? Yeah. Definitely new. And scary. Izuku had to grip his wrist to stop it from trembling.

Aizawa ripped his goggles over his eyes, shouting to his students, "Don't move! Those are villains!"

That's when the real panic started to set in, hearing the confirmation that those were indeed villains said out loud rattled the class of newbie heroes. It must have been from experience dealing with assassins and villains alike that made the two ex-assassins recognize the difference. Assassins typically had more… class than villains, anyhow.

Finally, the familiar fog stopped spawning the countless villains, only after a large behemoth of a person (person…? It seemed… too strange), its brain exposed, and the black mist seemed to almost solidify to the point where two eyes could be made out. Oh, so the mist itself was a person—teleporting quirk?

A deep voice boomed from the crowd—the mist villain spoke, squinting at the heroes. "Thirteen… and Eraserhead, is it…? According to the staff schedule I received the other day… All Might is supposed to be here…"

The way he said the hero's name didn't sound right to Izuku's ears at all.

Aizawa scowled, muttering, "So it was these scumbags who trespassed the other day."

The man with hands grappling his face let out a breathy moan, his voice shuddering and crawling out, "Where is he…? We've come all this way… and brought so many playmates…" The villain looked around, watching his henchmen crawl forward, towards the heroes smugly. Yet he looked agitated. "All Might… The Symbol of Peace… Where is he…? Where…?"

All Might's name sounded way worse coming from this man.

He straightened up, a cackle released from his mouth hidden under the decaying hand. He tilted his head.

"I wonder if some dead kids will bring him here?"

Nagisa and Izuku tensed at that. In that moment, Aizawa's capture tape came alive and he stood in front of the class toward the villains, ignoring the way the student body began to visibly panic.

"Villains?!" Kirishima exclaimed. "Who'd be dumb enough to sneak into a school for heroes?!"

Yaoyorozu looked to Thirteen. "Sensei, aren't there intruder sensors?"

Thirteen nodded. "Yes, of course! We take your safety very seriously."

The one called Todoroki added on, "Are they only here, or just at the main building? Either way, if the sensors aren't working, it has to be one of their quirks that's doing it. This is more than a twenty minute drive from campus, and they picked a time where there'd be few people here. They may be fools but they're not dumb. This was a well calculated attack."

Aizawa called for the other Hero, gaining the attention of the students. "Thirteen, begin evacuating the students. Ritsu offline; there must be a quirk manipulating the technology and jamming the signal. Hopefully Ritsu's already trying to connect back to her main unit to alert the other Pro Heroes." He turned to Kaminari. "Kaminari, try using your quirk to call for help."

"G-Got it!"

Aizawa moved toward the villains down below again. Panic surged up Izuku's throat—"Sensei?! You can't ff-fight them alone!" His words tumbled out quickly and sensibly, but there was no mistaking the absolute tremble rocking his voice as he called to his teacher. Absolute focus was poured into making his words sensible and clear, without tumbling, especially with his senses so shot like it was. He still slurred his words. "Your ff-fighting style involves quirk 'ras're and a quick binding c-capture. Head-on battle, th-tha's not… Y're not…"

"You can't be a good hero with just one trick."

And with that, he leapt down the large staircase toward the villains. Izuku couldn't contain the hammering of his heart as his words stuck in his throat, begging to break through as a genuine warning.

You're not Korosensei.

He turned to Nagisa, forest meeting sky in the same frantic manner and he knew then the blue-head was thinking the same thing. His gaze flicked back to where they could see Aizawa, fending off the villains almost flawlessly and he suddenly felt mesmerized. Of course— Izuku needs to stop underestimating others…

"Midoriya!" the name snapped him from his trance, and he noticed he was muttering under his breath. Iida's voice turned him away, "This is no time for analysis! Hurry up and evacuate!"

"I'm afraid I can't allow that—"

The mist from before, a man he knew now, a man with a teleportation quirk that Izuku itched to dissect and exploit, flew past everyone in the blink of an eye and blocked their path. He was looming, a black, inky form threatening each student's safety, and for a moment, the way his tendrils flapped around the air reminded him vaguely of the monstrosity that was the Reaper in the final fight with Korosensei. Terror shot through his spine, seizing him up.

"Greetings," the villain's deep voice soothed. It felt like a cold irony, the way his voice was calm and not at all cruel, yet who knew what sort of backwards personality this person had? "We are the League of Villains—" Izuku and Nagisa tensed up. "—Forgive our audacity, but today, we've come here to UA High School—this bastion of heroism…"

"To end the life of All Might, the Symbol of Peace."

Izuku couldn't breathe.

Nagisa's snakes kept hissing, trembling in pure rage and hatred. His teeth grinded together so hard, they hurt. Blood dripped in his mind, the overwhelming yet very familiar sense of bloodlust encompassing his mind and drowning out all rational thought. His snakes hissed and hissed. He muttered out a breathless and shaky, "You…"

Izuku tried to swallow the rock that threatened to choke him, his fists balled at his sides. One hand twitched open, clawing at his gun holster but he paused—does this villain even have a physical body? Could he even tase him with his gun?

"We were under the impression that All Might would be here today… but it seems like his schedule was revised?" The man's form wavered, shifting and suddenly the whole student body was surrounded. The bright eyes of the villain scanned the group quickly, squinting then and Izuku felt a chill shoot through him—

He was looking at Izuku.

"I know you," was all he managed before Bakugou and Kirishima shot out, shouting and quirks activating in a large explosive. The pressure that shot from their attacks distracted Izuku from the icy terror that dropped from his chest to his gut.

From then, it was a blur between Thirteen shouting for their students to stay back, the misty villain cackling and commending the two heroes-in-training. Izuku remembered the black smog erupting further, swirling around his classmates—he remembered pushing Nagisa out of the way and colliding with Uraraka—and he saw Nagisa's snow-white shine of his eyes through the thick mist, slitting the way it does when his quirk activates, and suddenly Izuku was falling.

Into water.

Izuku can't swim.

---

Nagisa screamed obscenities at the black villain as he touched down to solid ground. He was absolutely positive his quirk had frozen the being, but that guy's quirk still managed to teleport him away anyway. He didn't know for how long he'd stay that way, but… it was hopefully enough time to get all the students out and away to safety.

Scowling, he looked at the villains before him. He's had enough of this bullcrap.¹

One after another he locked eyes with them, eyes flashing powder white and his snakes hissing with their own poisonous eyes. Soon, half of them were paralyzed with both fear and confusion, while the others were frozen solid by Todoroki who had teleported along with him. Nagisa ignored him for the moment and swiftly whipped out his taser knife, brandishing the sharper edge and pressing the button to activate the electric current that ran through the duller edge, and he strolled to the nearest villain, pressing the knife to his neck backhandedly.

He felt the no-name villain tense despite the paralysis placed on him. Fear radiated off the other. A forked tongue slithered out of the boy's mouth, passing over his lips before retreated back inside. Yes, he could taste the fear. Ko and Roka's heads lifted, uncomfortably close to the villain's face, each taking in his scent as well.

With a strained smile, Nagisa's voice came out sweet as honey despite an obvious edge to it toward the end, as he pressed the knife into the villain's throat, a thread of blood just beginning to leak out, "Now, if you don't want your vocal cords absolutely massacred or electrocuted to America, you're going to be a good little villain and tell me how the hell do you guys plan on killing All Might, hm? What's your plan?"

There was no way— absolutely no way —low-class villains, no, thugs , like these had any plan to take now All Might. They could never even hope to be on the same level as All Might . If anything, there were only about three or four really dangerous villains, and they all looked mentally unhinged as all hell, sans maybe the mist villain. But even so, on what grounds do they have to make such a claim? To stage such an attack on high school kids training to become heroes ?

It seemed perhaps they were aiming to overwhelm All Might? But that was stupid, he's seen the man take on a myriad of crooks by himself plenty of times. One punch and they'd all blast away. So yeah, they had nothing on All Might.

Still… Something didn't click right. Not at all. It was too perfect, too calculated to pick this day, at this location, even lock out Ritsu whose legitimate quirk was 'unhackable.' It felt like too much of a bargain to just waste it using these dumb thugs. Nagisa paused.

Unless… they really did have the means.

Didn't… The League of Villains sound… familiar?

And that mist villain, he looked directly at Izuku and himself when he said I know you. What the hell does that mean? Sure, they had a lot of attention from the press, especially regarding Korosensei, that was made clear earlier that week especially. Unless…

The villains.

Those times with Shiro, and the Reaper. He had teleported to that school so many times… They were with…

Nagisa clenched his teeth, pulling back after the villain stammered on about his lack of knowledge. The villains weren't even briefed on the plan, huh. He looked to Todoroki next to him. He seemed to have come to the same conclusion.

"We have to get back to the others, they have something—"

A villain rushed behind Nagisa then, a sharp lance pointed to the ex-assassin's neck before Todoroki's hand shot out, ice encasing the villain completely. Nagisa could see his breath coming out in a fog just with his close proximity to the ice-covered villain. Todoroki then yanked the villain's weapon from his grip, breaking whatever hold he had with it and throwing his whole body off-balance. The villain fell with a crash to the ice-covered ground. He had his snakes curl into the warmth of his hair.

"You should be more vigilant, Shiota."

Nagisa scowled. "Call me Nagisa."

Todoroki didn't answer, simply turning and heading downhill in the landslide zone, unfreezing the villains as he passed.

Frowning, Nagisa followed the dual-shaded teen, turning off and sheathing his knife as he continued to paralyze the freed villains with his quirk just in case they decided to do something stupid and attack them again. His eyes were burning by the end of it. He had to get down to the fountain—and fast, before the cold that followed Todoroki forced him into hibernation…

---

"You're very skillful with that knife. I wonder where you learned to hold it."

Nagisa didn't miss the way the dual-toned teen eyed his various weapons sheathed in his utility belt and clasped around his right leg. It wasn't a stare of caution, however. It seemed to emanate curiosity yet suspicion. Nagisa ignored it, continuing down the dirt path. His snakes uncoiled, tasting the air for potential attackers hiding and waiting for a moment to ambush.

Nagisa narrowed his eyes at a pile of rubble, large enough to hide maybe two grown adults.

"I had a good self-defense teacher."

---

A scream ripped from Izuku's throat as he crashed into the water below. Oh, God, that almost felt like a straight-up belly-flop, geez —A hand clasped over his nose the moment before he went under, a quick breath not nearly deep enough to hold his lungs over for ten seconds, but at least he didn't break anything?

Yet.

Struggling to open his eyes in the water, already feeling the burn it caused on his eyeballs, the green-haired teen squinted, barely making out a form—a person with a shark-like quirk, mouth opened wide and in his face. That alone was enough to startle the crap out of Izuku, and he pushed back with his limbs, hand leaving his nose and a garbled shout exhaled all the air he had stored in his lungs.

Then he was choking, swallowing water but there was no air to help him—it felt like there were several pillows stuffing his mouth and nose, a hand gripping his throat and squeezing until every ounce of breath left him. He felt the world around him start to go dark as he struggled with his own body, desperation clawing around him—where was the villain? Nothing's happened yet—something wrapped around his abdomen and suddenly— air!

He slammed down on something hard and instantly began to choke out water. A hand was pressed to his back, patting down hard so he could get everything out and start to actually breathe , and a deep inhale (sounded more like a desperate wheeze) finally got him on the right track to not passing out.

"Midoriya, are you okay?" came the croak from behind him. Gasping, Izuku righted himself on his hands, turning his head to see the blurry image of green—Asui? He blinked hard a few times, lifting a shaky hand to rub at his eyes before he could finally see her clearly. And Uraraka was right behind her, both girls' expressions lightened with concern and fear.

Another shaky breath in, he was mostly calmed now aside from the ringing in his ears and there was still water stuck up his nose making him feel icky, but he managed a nod. He hadn't drowned, so that was a good thing, right? "Y-yeah," his voice came out scratchy and nasally.

Asui blinked and crawled toward him, a hand rising to his nose and she pushed on one nostril. "You might have water still stuck in there, try blowing now, kero."

He did, and whatever water was lodged there came out onto the floorboard. She did the same for the other nose. It was disgusting and embarrassing and gross, but Izuku was more impressed she knew what to do than his own self-image. Plus, he's ninety percent sure she's the one who saved him, so he owed it to her.

"Th-thanks, Assss-sui," it felt odd to talk, his throat still feeling raw and exposed, but it did sound better.

"Call me Tsu," she automatically responded. Izuku stammered awkwardly at that, making a mental note about her preferred name.

"Izukun, you can't swim?" Uraraka inquired, brows furrowed.

Izuku ignored her question, not wanting to go there at all before he stood up and looked over the boat railing. "The flood zz-sszone?" he murmured. He stood back, a bent finger moving over his mouth, brows furrowed. His mind caught up to their current position, going over it with a collective voice, okay, let's go over it. We're in the flood zone, we were warped here by Darkness McMist Guy, and what was it he said — he said they came to kill All Might, but he wasn't here… He was supposed to be here, and they knew that, he wondered if his schedule was changed? So they knew, they knew UA's schedule! They must have been the ones who caused that mayhem with the press the other day… But he… also knew me? How —

"Midoriya, stop muttering, kero. It's scary."

Izuku flinched out of his bustling mind, blinking to see the two girls staring at him. "Sss-sorry," He swallowed roughly before lowering his voice and glancing back at the water. "T-Todor-roki was r-right, they were r-ready."

Uraraka frowned and nodded. "It seems that way. But- they can't really think they can kill All Might, can they?"

"Uraraka," Asui- er, Tsu turned to her. "Think about it, kero. If they didn't have something to use against All Might, they wouldn't be trying so hard, right?"

Izuku zoned in on the frog, alarm present in his expression. That's right, and that big guy was really… suspicious, not to mention familiar. It made Izuku feel so unnerved. Something in him crawled at the sight of the beast.

"They did threaten to torture us, after all," Asu- Tsu! Tsu continued. He'll get it right. "I wonder if we'll be able to hold out until All Might comes. But considering they might have a weapon against him, I wonder if we'll even make it out in one piece…" Tsu looked over the edge of the boat. "I mean, they almost just killed us, too. Well, Midoriya, that is."

"D-don't say that! Come on, let's try and stay positive, you know?" Uraraka's nervous laughter interjected, moving between the two green-heads and leaning over the side of the boat. "I mean, they could have been just, trying to subdue us and stuff, right? We don't know they're trying to kill us! Righ-EEP!" At that moment, she screeched and ducked her head down with her two classmates, a sharp object—shrapnel or something? A knife?—flew over their heads, just barely missing and sticking into the wall of the boat behind them. Uraraka swallowed, bug-eyed and pale. "O-okay, maybe they're trying to kill us. Wait-"

She peaked back over the side of the boat again. Yep. Those are villains—"They got here fast! What the chips!?"

Tsu (nailed it!) and Izuku poked their own heads over the side, a brow raising on Izuku's expression. "What're they… doing?"

"Nothing?" Uraraka muttered with confusion. "They're just… swimming around?"

"They look uncertain," Tsu noted. "Like they're waiting, kero."

Izuku hummed to himself, a hand rubbing his chin as he glanced away. "Wait… they look like they're expecting t-to fff-fight in the wat'r," he paused, chewing on the side of his cheek as he thought. He had both girls' attention on him. "Which mm-means, they don' know w-what your… quirk is." He turned to Tsu, brows furrowed in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Uraraka cocked her head.

"My quirk is 'Frog'," Tsu calmly explained. "If they had known what my quirk was, they would have better sent me to the fire zone or the avalanche zone since I would dry out or enter into early hibernation in either zones. You're right, Midoriya."

"Ss-so the villains don' know our- our quirks," Izuku added. There was silence for a moment, all three taking a bit to let that sink in. "They probably planned t' separate us, 'nd then overp-power us with nn-numbers. We can… use this to our a-advantage. They haven' even tried t-to board yet, see?"

"Then I'll tell you about my quirk," Tsu turned to Izuku, explaining her abilities of climbing, leaping, her tongue length, and her toxic mucus secretion.

"You already know mine, but I'll explain it for Tsu, too," Uraraka began with a hesitant smile. "Anything I touch I can nullify its weight and make it float like in zero grav. My limit is about three ton, though. Reaching that point makes me queasy and I throw up a lot…"

"Y-you both are ss-so strong," he muttered in awe. He lowered his head to hum, thinking, "Okay, le's see now… I have ss-super strength, but it's s-still not, um, I don't- control it very well yet. It breaks mm-my bones ss-sometimes, so…"

The boat shook—Izuku let out a curse as he stumbled, holding onto Uraraka's shoulder while she grabbed onto Tsu.

"Crap!"

"I'm getting impatient!" yelled a villain in the water as half the boat began to sink. "Let's end this quickly!"

Fear for his safety tugged at the inside of Izuku's chest, his lungs already panicking. The entire boat was sinking.

"We have t' get out of h-here quickly!" Izuku took out one of his weapons, his gun with taser bullets for ammo. Not made for puncturing—in fact, they worked more like BB-bullets, only hard-hitting and the worst damage would be a blueberry-shaped bruise in ten minutes. The big kicker was the fact that they electrocuted upon impact for about twenty seconds, but the shock would be enough to disable the target. His brain flew with thoughts, plans that would save their lives. What would Korosensei do?

Korosensei… he would…

Izuku narrowed his eyes at the villains in the water, then his gun. He really did not like this idea. Or the water. Neither of these things.

"Al… A-Alright, I-I have a plan."

---

"Midoriya, are you sure about this?"

"Abss-solutely not, but they d-don' need t' know that, 'kay?"

"Amazing."

"Okay, I'm ready."

"Le's go."

Uraraka held onto Tsu, not yet activating her quirk while Izuku readied his gun. He let the rage from before, when the thought of someone— anyone —threatening to kill his Sensei permeated his thought, making him feel so wrong and violated within his family circle, and it gave him the willpower to pull his mask over his nose and toss himself in the air above the villains, yelling, "GO TO HELL!" while hastily charging up a One for All flick. Green and red lightning crackled over his hand as he shot off the finger flick, and the villains were consumed in a whirlpool. Dull pain traced his hand, vaguely reminding him of when he's ever slammed his elbow down on a corner, but the corner hit right in between his radius and ulna bones, sending a shock of pain through his very veins all the up up his wrist and to the tips of his fingers. Still, he had his gun ready in his right hand and he didn't hesitate to whip it out and shoot at whatever surfaced villains he could see, not caring very much if he hit them or not.

He's pretty sure he heard one of them shout, "OH, HELL, HE'S GOT A GUN!" before he shot off the bullets, then the voice turned into a choking sound.

Alright. That was kind of satisfying.

Then, Tsu's tongue wrapped around his midsection as she jumped off the boat, the three of them propelling toward land and finally Uraraka activated her quirk on them.

They slowed to a stop after Izuku wrapped his arms around both girls and Tsu was able to use her tongue to grab onto a pole hanging from the ceiling and still them. Izuku held his breath as he mentally counted down from thirty, barely remembering that nineteen came after twenty as he glanced below at the water. He was positive they both could feel him shaking as they floated without a care.

A moment was taken to calm his thumping heart, forcing his muscles to relax and not actually crush Tsu's poor ribs.

Izuku blew out a breathy and shaky, "Okay," and Uraraka released her quirk. His breath hitched as they plummeted to the water, but thankfully they weren't that far from ground and it was by the shoreline, so it was shallow and only up to his waist. Waist-height, Izuku can do. The ex-assassin glanced back at the villains back at the boat, hoping none of them actually died from that, but it was too late for hopes like that. He's sure one of them is helping the others not die anyway.

His left hand twitched, sending a jolt of pain through his arm again. He somehow managed not to outwardly flinch.

"Midoriya," Tsu snapped him out of his thoughts, bringing his attention to her. Her hand fell on his shoulder and he realized her eyes held genuine concern and kindness. "We're out of immediate danger now. You can stop shaking now, okay? Kero? Are you okay?" Her eyes flickered down to his hand.

It took him a full three seconds to realize that yes, he was shaking. Swallowing, he willed his hands to still at his side, ignoring the pain that blossomed from his two fingers. It's okay, he told himself, they're not broken, so you're fine. Besides, you've had worse . "I'm 'kay," he managed and lifted his eyes to Uraraka who had a wide-eyed expression of concern. He blinked the embarrassment away and instead turned his attention to the plaza where they could see only part of the struggle Aizawa was having with the villains.

"We should, um, mm-make our way t' the exit," the green-haired boy began, nudging his chin toward the staircase they came from. "Getting h-hh-help should be our ff-first priority. We can go along th' sh-shoreline to avoid th-th' plaza."

"We should be able to. Aizawa-sensei sure has attracted most of the attention toward the plaza," Uraraka noted.

Izuku pursed his lips, pinching his brows together. He couldn't get the uneasy feeling out of his gut—it swirled and twisted like a black twister, telling him something is going to go terribly wrong. Anxiety crawled through his veins like an army of ants. There were so many villains that Aizawa threw himself into. Logically, there's no way he can hold against all of them for so long. He really hoped Ritsu made it back to her main unit. Izuku started gnawing at his bottom lip.

"... He's gonn'a overwork hims'lf," Izuku muttered. Tsu and Uraraka both turned to him. His forest greens were concentrated on the plaza, a particular look drawn on his face—fear crossed with determination.

"Izukun… You're not really…" Uraraka began.

He remained silent.

"Izukun, you can't! That's—"

"I-I won't do any- anything ss-stupid," he turned to her sharply. Determination overwhelmed the fear in his eyes. His forest eyes were lit with a fire. "B-but I nn-need to do ss-something. Give Sensei an opening, e-even just a-a little."

"You're awfully calm, Midoriya," Tsu noted. Izuku didn't waver, his lips pursing. She could tell when it was his physical stutter working versus his anxiety tripping him up. He didn't have Korosensei to save his backside, no. He was trained for this, he had more experience in villain-defense than everyone in his class (sans Nagisa, of course). He wasn't an assassin now, not anymore. He wasn't being trained to kill in this school, he was being trained to save lives.

And dammit if he wasn't going to die trying at least.

He kept his stare on Tsu and she gave a sigh through her nose, dipping her head. Uraraka seemed incredibly uneasy at the whole prospect, but ended up nodding with her own determination shining in her eyes. "We'll only see how he's doing," Tsu croaked. "We'll see from there then."

Izuku grinned.

---

Everything.

Everything was wrong.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

He felt his crown itch and burn, thumping a painful headache through his head as he watched Aizawa's elbow start to disintegrate at the touch of the grey-haired man, that absolute villain —

Aizawa still never ceased to amaze Izuku, even after his right arm was out of commission, he still managed to take down three other of those thugs, pitting them against each other with only one hand. But he wasn't made for this sort of fighting. Dammit, where were the pros?! Ritsu got to them, right? Right?! It sucked, and everything sucked, and for a moment he could see a glimpse of Korosensei, battered and wounded and tired and just wanting to protect his students, and Izuku never thought he could respect a man more than Aizawa and Korosensei combined. Okay, maybe All Might above all, but that wasn't the point.

Even Handy-man there called Aizawa out on that, called out the fact that Aizawa wasn't made for long drawn-out battles with a large group of villains. Wasn't fit to keep going and going with so many villains on his tail like that. He managed for a while, and probably beyond what he could perform, and Izuku was starstruck over that, but… but…

There. There was that beast of a villain, the one that send centipedes marching and crawling down his back and into his insides. Connecting somehow, but the feeling was terrible and invasive. He felt like this beast was… wasn't even human, not even the way Korosensei felt. Korosensei was benevolent in the end, but this… Izuku felt the urgent need to take a knife through its exposed brain and decimate it. Wipe it from existence.

It shouldn't exist.

Izuku wanted to shout out to Aizawa, warn him, anything. But he felt his throat close up, mouth running dry, and tongue weighing heavy in his mouth.

"By the way, hero…" the chilling voice of 'Hands' came out, his head pointing up, a gesture to the beast behind the Pro Hero. Terror felt like electricity through him as he watched Aizawa turn around in alarm. "…I'm not the final boss."

The beast raised its large arm.

Black tentacles unraveled from his wrist and peeling away from his hands and fingers, leaving its black skin burnt red in its wake.

Izuku couldn't breathe. He couldn't focus on the outside world, his attention strictly placed on Aizawa and the monster that felt like a repeat of the Reaper, attack after attack after attack, pummeling Korosensei and leaving him beaten and bruised and bleeding.

The tentacles reared back, more tearing out of the beast's back and aiming sharply at Aizawa, then he struck.

Izuku wanted to throw up.

No… No, no, no, not again, NO NOT AGAIN NO NO NONO NONONONONO —