Capítulo 22: Path of Destruction
Fumikage wasn't quite sure what to make of Etsumi. Everything about him was confusing.
The boy with immense strength – almost to the point of being ridiculous – and heavily animalistic features that Fumikage may – or may not – have felt a certain kinship towards, had done almost nothing but surprise and puzzle him since the year began.
It had started at the quirk apprehension test on the first day, where Etsumi had surprised the entire class with his display of defiance towards Aizawa, not even being fazed at all by the direct threat of expulsion. Then he'd come in first place in every single event he'd participated in, with the notable exception of Uraraka throwing her softball into orbit.
After that already impressive showing, he'd gone even further by winning his fight against Ojiro with no discernable effort whatsoever.
If he were being completely honest with himself, Fumikage would say that Etsumi intimidated him after that. The combination of strength, confidence, intelligence, and the way he seemed to look through everyone rather than at them, made him seem like something other than human. An unstoppable, immutable force hidden behind the face of a man.
That opinion didn't change with All Might's training exercise, when Fumikage watched Etsumi go toe-to-toe with Todoroki, the son of Endeavor, and one of the strongest people in their class. He'd completely tanked through being partially frozen more than once. And if Fumikage's assumptions were correct about Etsumi's serpentine features, it would not have been fun for him.
During all of this, Etsumi hadn't even displayed any sort of hostility when he fought. The only emotions he showed were either excitement, apathy, or, very briefly, minor concern when Asui had been frozen to the floor.
It didn't even change during the second exercise, at least not until the end. Etsumi had completely turned their sneak attack on its head, had dispatched Fumikage's teammates in the blink of an eye, and had even overpowered Dark Shadow.
But then Etsumi had complimented Dark Shadow and, rather politely, offered to simply tie Fumikage up instead of physically subduing him. On top of that, he'd even given Fumikage advice on how to improve his abilities, while he was still fighting the others no less.
After that, Fumikage had started to keep a closer eye on the other boy, even going so far as to join him and a few of the others at lunch.
Seeing Etsumi outside of the training scenarios, and outside of a fight, gave him a view of the intelligence and kindness that sat beneath the strength. He seemed to be able to give immediate, well-thought out answers to anything that was said to him, and gave out advice to just about everyone he spoke to in some way or another.
Then, on the bus to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, Etsumi had surprised him again with his interaction with Dark Shadow.
Dark Shadow took an immediate liking to Etsumi when they heard the boy refer to them by their name. It was a simple thing, but something that Fumikage rarely saw with those he interacted with on a regular basis. Most people simply saw Dark Shadow as 'Fumikage's quirk,' and only ever referred to them as such.
It wasn't as if they were necessarily wrong, but Dark Shadow was so much more than that. They lived within and were eternally attached to Fumikage, yes, and could even be controlled by him to an extent, but could otherwise act entirely independent of his wishes. They were even intelligent enough to have their own thoughts and opinions, and to voice them.
All the same though, the two of them had gotten used to people believing Dark Shadow was nothing more than a quirk. It was unfortunate, but there was little that could be done about it.
But then, Etsumi had not hesitated at all to actually acknowledge Dark Shadow. From the first time the two of them had spoken, Etsumi had referred to Dark Shadow by their name, acknowledging, at least on some level, that they were their own individual.
So, of course, Dark Shadow had to inspect Etsumi up close as soon as they got the chance. They'd gone right up to him and studied the proffered hand. The entire time, Fumikage could feel Dark Shadow's excitement and curiosity through whatever connected them.
Fumikage had been thoroughly surprised – and partially embarrassed if he were being honest – when Dark Shadow took Etsumi's hand and pressed themself into it. There were very few people in the past that Dark Shadow had allowed to touch them – not that there had ever really been many that were willing to in the first place –, mostly reserved for his parents and his brother.
That surprise had turned to outright horror though, when Etsumi began petting Dark Shadow, to the point that Fumikage resorted to physically restraining the demon. No matter how pleased Dark Shadow was in that moment, it had very quickly become too much for Fumikage to handle.
Nobody aside from the two of them knew, but Fumikage was able to feel, to an extent, everything that Dark Shadow did. This meant that when Etsumi started petting Dark Shadow, it felt like there was a hand running across his own feathered head.
That was something that Fumikage was not equipped to handle in the slightest. He was severely inexperienced when it came to stuff like that. It wasn't as if he were lacking in physical contact or affection as far as he was aware; he was pretty close to his family after all. But at the same time, none of them were particularly outright with their emotions, choosing instead to express themselves through silent gestures.
It wasn't until after he'd pulled Dark Shadow back that he actually stopped to think about it. When he did, he was shocked by how good the sensation had felt, and even more so by the fact that he realized he'd enjoyed it.
Nope. Not something he was willing, or able, to get into. At least not right now. He brushed it off as just one more thing to add to the list of things about Etsumi that confused him.
Then the rescue training devolved into disaster, and Etsumi continued to surprise and confuse him.
Within the space of a few short minutes, he went from scared of Etsumi – a result of the anger he'd displayed against the villains, received by both Fumikage's own perspective, as well as Dark Shadow's – to thankful for his help in calming Dark Shadow and giving advice on how to better avoid losing control in the future, to somewhere between amused and concerned by his interactions with the second group of villains.
So, yes. Etsumi was a thoroughly confusing individual. There was so much more to him than what met the eye. Fumikage wasn't entirely sure what to think of him half the time.
Right now, however, he definitely did. There was no question in his mind whatsoever.
Right now, Fumikage was absolutely terrified.
He'd thought that Etsumi had been angry when he came to the rescue in the Downpour Zone. But that, the slight feeling of anxiety he'd experienced by looking at Etsumi, paled in comparison to this.
Etsumi's expression was one of pure, absolute rage. The feeling he gave off was so intense that Fumikage was struggling to breathe. It was such that he would've expected Dark Shadow to lose control right then and there at the open hostility, had they not been just as terrified as Fumikage. He could feel them almost trembling in fear within him.
And the rage wasn't even directed at him. He simply happened to be nearby.
Etsumi moved slightly closer to whatever he was looking at – Fumikage had still yet to even walk through the door – and something akin to a deep growl rumbled out of his throat.
Fumikage stumbled backwards, barely keeping his balance and still fighting to suck down a full breath. It was as if this wasn't even Etsumi anymore who was standing in front of him, but a beast. A monster that could reduce him to dust without so much as a second thought.
He fell backwards onto the ground, eyes plastered on Etsumi. Dimly, he wondered to himself what the other boy had seen that had caused this.
What could possibly exist in this world that was capable of igniting this sort of anger?
---
"What do you think you're doing?" Izuku's voice rang out over the courtyard, reverberating with 'Siren' as it reacted to his anger.
All at once, everything around him came to a screeching halt.
Eraser stopped his weak struggling against the beast, Shigaraki halted his advance, his hands mere inches away from Uraraka and Tsuyu, and even the few minor villains scattered about the area – standing or otherwise – froze in place.
At his words, Shigaraki turned to face him, hands dropping back down to his sides.
"And who are you supposed to be, then?" The villain asked. His voice raspy and monotone. "One of the brats?"
"He is one of All Might's students, Tomura." The voice of the warp villain cut in as it coalesced from nothingness next to Shigaraki. "I believe I heard one of his classmates calling him 'Etsumi.'"
"Etsumi, huh?" Shigaraki drawled, reaching up to scratch at his neck. "Why is he here? Didn't you send him off for the weaklings to handle?"
"I did. But this one is troublesome." Came the response. "He deduced our plan to divide the students within moments of us arriving, and from the looks of things, he has overpowered those that I put into the Downpour Zone with him."
Shigaraki huffed. "Useless pieces of trash. Can't even kill one little hero wannabe. What good are they?"
He looked over at the warping villain. "What about you, Kurogiri? Did you at least clean up your mess?"
"I have." The warping villain – Kurogiri apparently – responded. "I was able to catch up to the one that got away, and put him in one of the zones with the others. And Thirteen has been incapacitated. It took a bit longer than expected, on account of this one helping her, but in the end she still fell."
Izuku grimaced. So, Iida had failed to alert Yueii, and Thirteen was out of the fight, if she was even still alive. He adjusted the Kusarigama in his grip, grabbing the weight in one hand and the rest of it in his other.
"Well at least you aren't entirely useless. Maybe now we can still have some fun before we head back."
Shigaraki looked back at Izuku.
"Well, little hero." He said, spitting the word like it was a curse. "Are you going to try to stop us? Or maybe you're going to let me turn your precious little classmates to dust first?"
Izuku's grimace deepened as the villain made a motion as if to attack Uraraka and Tsuyu again. He grit his teeth as he physically felt his irritation growing worse, and as 'Wrath' began pumping adrenaline in response.
The slimy little shit had invaded his school, attacked his class, and injured his favorite hero, quite likely disabling him. And now he had the nerve to try to put his disgusting hands on Ochako, who Izuku had welcomed into his home and who was as good as family by now, and Tsuyu, one of the very few people he had the privilege of calling his friends.
He was pretty sure he felt a tooth crack with how hard his jaw was clenched. In his hands, the weight separated from the chain that held it with a sharp snap. It was little more than a lump of deformed metal with how tight his grip was around it.
"Unacceptable."
Shigaraki froze once more, staring at Izuku.
"What did you just s-"
He didn't get a chance to finish that sentence as, in the blink of an eye, Izuku pulled his arm back and brought it forward with every bit of force he could muster.
He had four strength quirks and 'Wrath' burning away beneath his skin. That force was by no means insignificant.
The air cracked as the weight broke the sound barrier the moment it left his hand. The addition of 'Bullseye' ensured that the projectile would hit its intended target.
Now, most of the time he tried, he really tried, to avoid killing the people that he fought. Most of them hadn't done anything that would warrant such a harsh and permanent punishment. However, that being said, there were exceptions to that rule. Two, to be exact.
The first: Pedophiles. They deserved no mercy from anyone, and he would show them none. It wasn't often that he encountered one, but when he did, their screams would fill the night for hours.
The second: Fucking with his family.
The weight was on a direct course towards Shigaraki's head. The piece of shit wouldn't even have time to blink before his head was reduced to a cloud of red mist.
Izuku would do everything in his power to protect his sister and his friend. Anyone or anything that got in his way would be removed.
Before the weight could hit its target though, in the blink of an eye, the beast moved. Suddenly, it wasn't sitting on top of Eraser, holding him in its crushing grip. Instead, it was in front of Shigaraki, facing away from Izuku.
He watched as the weight dropped to the ground. Dropped, straight down, not bounce off of the beast, or deflect away as the momentum behind it would usually dictate. It was as if all the energy behind it had been canceled.
Narrowing his eyes, he looked up to study the beast up close.
'Distance between myself and Shigaraki is approximately thirty meters.' He thought. 'At the speed of sound, it would've taken less than point zero-nine seconds for it to reach the target. Distance between him and the beast is approximately fifteen meters. It would've had to have moved at-at least half the speed of sound; somewhere around one hundred-seventy-two meters per second. Quite possibly faster.
Not good.
When he first saw the beast, when the villains appeared in the courtyard, he'd assumed that it was an enhancer. A much stronger enhancer than usual maybe, but still cut-and-dry nonetheless. It had the size, the muscle-mass, and the general braindead disposition of most of the enhancers he usually ran into. Plus, the scars that littered its arms and torso gave him the impression of a brawler, or at least someone who was good at tanking hits.
The exposed brain and beak-like mouth were odd, but he chalked those up to being the result of an unusual mutation.
But seeing the beast move had him questioning that analysis. He'd assumed it was a strength enhancer, but with the speed at which it moved to shield Shigaraki – a speed that almost too fast for Izuku to catch – it had to be something else.
Enhanced strength and enhanced speed were two very separate things. Most people assumed they were all but the same – both being enhancers that boosted base physical attributes – but there were distinct differences between the two.
Strength quirks boosted muscle-mass, muscle density, or how much power one's muscles could exert, while speed quirks boosted how fast one could move. One could simulate the effects of the other – greater strength meant more power in each individual movement, allowing for more speed, and at the same time, more speed allowed one to put more momentum behind their strikes – but they were very different. Speed quirks more often than not also came with some inherent mutations that allowed the user to receive and interpret data from their senses, allowing them to move at their fastest without crashing into obstacles constantly. And strength quirks being focused on the muscles gave greater durability, along with raw power that couldn't be easily matched by other quirks.
All Might was one of the very few exceptions to this, with his boosted abilities coming from the massive stockpile of energy within him rather than any straightforward enhancement.
So to see this beast, with the power to snap Eraserhead like a toothpick, yet also with the reaction time and speed to get to Shigaraki in time to block the projectile, not to mention the odd behavior of the weight after it hit them…
It defied reason. And that set him on edge.
He heard raspy chuckling from behind the beast, and Shigaraki walked around it.
"So violent." He said. "Heroes seem to know nothing else. Just solve all of the world's problems with a punch."
He smiled. "That was pretty good. You must be pretty strong to do something like that. But unfortunately for you," he patted the arm of the beast, keeping one finger held up, "our trump card here is stronger."
His smile widened, and somehow took on an even more unhinged look. "I'd like for you to meet the Anti Symbol of Peace, Noumu."
At the sound of its name, the Noumu turned in place until it was facing Izuku, its dull, expressionless eyes locking onto his.
The moment their eyes met, Izuku felt all the air leave his lungs in one massive rush, like he'd gotten the wind knocked out of him. His blood ran cold, and his vision went hazy around the edges, taking on a gray tint. All the anger he'd felt, that had been burning through him just moments ago, drained away, leaving something he didn't quite recognize in its place, something sharp and cold.
His hearing began to fade out, leaving him with nothing but the pounding of his hearts in his ears.
His instincts screamed at him to move, to run, but when he tried to shift backwards to put distance between himself and the Noumu, he found that he couldn't move, his body wouldn't listen to him. He couldn't even look away from those lifeless eyes.
Less than a full second after making eye-contact, something in his chest seized, and he felt warmth flood into his limbs. It took him too long – long enough that he would've been embarrassed were this a normal situation – to realize that his body was reacting without his input in response to whatever he was feeling. It was pulling on quirks.
It took him even longer to get a handle on it, to force himself to stop before he activated every quirk he had stored away.
He felt sweat on his brow, but he was too distracted to even figure out why.
"Tokoyami you need to run." He said, forcing his mouth to move long enough to squeeze it out. It came out as little more than a whisper. "Run now. Back into the zone."
Izuku didn't know if Tokoyami listened to him, or if he'd even heard. He couldn't even turn around to check.
Every cell of his body was screaming at him that this Noumu was dangerous. Nothing he'd ever faced before, no one he'd ever faced, had ever warranted this much of a reaction.
Focusing within himself, he pulled on more quirks, much more controlled this time around. He opened the flood gates just a crack, letting the heat suffuse him as quirks were pulled from his chest.
He used the warmth to ground himself, allowing the one, single piece of control he had over himself to take the entirety of his focus, forcing himself out of the mist that seemed to have overtaken him.
After what felt like an eternity of trying to get himself back under control – which in reality was barely even two full seconds –, he was finally able to suck down a breath.
It was like flipping a switch. All at once, his vision returned to normal, and his hearing came back to him. The haze that kept him from thinking straight, that kept him from being able to control itself, was swept away.
The only things that remained were the thundering of his hearts in his ears, and the cold, piercing sensation that refused to leave.
Izuku clenched his fists, taking comfort in the still-growing heat in his limbs.
He knew what it was now.
His mouth pulled into a grimace, baring his teeth.
This feeling.
His hearing began to fade out once more, but this time it wasn't his body reacting to the Noumu. It was him preparing for the fight. The calm before the storm as his body was flooded with adrenaline and his focus narrowed onto the threat.
The feeling was fear.
Pure. Primal. Unadulterated fear.
It had been so very long since he'd felt anything like it that he'd very nearly forgotten what it felt like altogether. Even then, it had never been this intense, this all-encompassing.
Maybe it was because he hadn't felt true fear in such a long time, or maybe it was simply the fact that it had never been so intense, but one thing was becoming very, very clear to him the more he thought about it.
The corners of his mouth upturned ever so slightly.
This fear? This all-encompassing feeling of absolute danger that had threatened to drown him just moments ago?
God. It was absolutely delicious.
Nothing had ever presented this much danger to him before, this much of a direct threat to his life. Nothing had ever presented this much of a fight before. The power hidden beneath the surface of the Noumu was enough to make his instincts panic enough that control over his body had been stripped from him in a way he'd never experienced before. And all it had done was look at him.
As the beating of his hearts continued to increase in tempo, and the world had all but faded away entirely, he clenched his fists once more, running a mental checklist of the quirks he was brining into this.
All of his strength quirks were currently active, something he'd never actually experienced before. And all of his speed quirks had risen to match. Durability, healing, 'Air Cannon', and a number of emitters – many of which that weren't even necessarily suited for fighting – that had been pulled up with the initial rush.
With that done, his entire body tensed, like a spring ready to snap.
The seconds stretched out longer and longer. By now, everything had faded away except for the enemy right in front of him.
The entire time, he still hadn't broken eye contact. Still hadn't moved from that spot.
"Noumu." Shigaraki said, his voice distant and somewhat muffled to Izuku's narrowed focus. "Kill him."
The spring snapped.
Izuku's fist met the Noumu's in the middle of the space with an explosive shockwave. The resultant blast of air – both from the impact itself and from 'Air Cannon' supplementing it – threw everyone and everything around them back.
Izuku cursed internally as he felt the pain travel down his arm. Just one punch, and it felt like the force behind it would break his arm. It might've already been fractured, he really couldn't tell.
As they both pulled back their other arm to throw another punch, he pulled on 'Metallum" as quickly as he could. The metal flashed across his bones in an instant, just in time for their fists to impact, creating another shockwave.
It still hurt, the force that traveled down his arm, but it wasn't as intense as the first one. At least now it didn't quite feel like his bones were fracturing.
The two became a blur as they continued their assault. Each thrown fist collided with another as they matched each other, punch-for-punch. It was almost too much for Izuku to keep up with – at this point he was relying upon instinct as much as he was his physical senses – but he did. The wind and shockwaves from the merciless assault whipped and tore at the surrounding area like a storm, preventing anyone from approaching, or even looking at them. Izuku was too focused on the Noumu to keep track of his surroundings.
Suddenly, with one last massive hit, the two broke apart.
Izuku backed away, putting several feet between him and his opponent. His chest was heaving, hearts thundering away, and his hands were shaking ever so slightly, either from the strain of the attacks, or the intense, chaotic energy that thrummed through his veins.
But he still had the same feral grin stretched across his face.
He started circling around the Noumu, raising himself up so that he stood taller than it and using the opportunity to take stock of his surroundings out of his peripheral vision.
Shigaraki and Kurogiri stood off back behind the Noumu, next to the fountain, still braced for the wind that had just been surging through the courtyard. Tsuyu and Ochako were still in the water, watching the fight along with another student that he hadn't noticed before; it looked like Mineta, maybe. And Eraser was still more or less where he'd been left by the Noumu. Izuku could just barely make out that the hero's eyes were cracked open and watching.
While he had a moment to spare, Izuku activated his healing quirk, almost immediately feeling the soreness in his arms begin to dissipate. It wouldn't be able to do much – just from the one encounter he could tell that the Noumu had more outright power than him –, but hopefully it would help him keep up.
The Noumu had backed away a single step and regarded him with the same dead eyes, if maybe slightly more attentive now that it was acting under orders.
The tension in the air was palpable as they stared each other down. More than that, it was very quickly building up once more.
Izuku's fingers twitched just as he noticed the Noumu's muscles tensing, and the tension reached its peak.
The met each other once more, hands locking together as they grappled. Their arms shook with the sheer amount of force behind them, and the world around them seemed to tremble in kind.
Izuku snarled at the Noumu, whose face didn't even change in response, as he bore down, using his height and weight to his advantage.
But through the snarl, the corners of his mouth upturned once more. He had the Noumu trapped. Their hands were locked together in crushing grips, both trying their best to crush the bones of the other.
So long as the Noumu was focused on Izuku, and he had it locked down like this, it wouldn't be able to respond to anyone else.
Turning his head to the side as much as he could without breaking eye contact with the Noumu, he called out to his classmates.
"Tsuyu! Ochako!" He shouted. "Get Eraser and get out of here!"
It took a moment – likely a split second of hesitation – but he saw them running towards the fallen hero out of the corner of his eye. Ochako used her quirk on him so that she and Tsuyu could carry him away, Mineta following behind with an expression of pure terror on his face.
His grin widened as he managed to force the Noumu back a step. Now there was less that he needed to worry about. He hadn't been holding back at all for fear of catching them in the crossfire, but if he were the only one that the villains were focusing on, then that meant less people in harm's way.
The grin faltered, though, when he spotted Shigaraki move from his position at the fountain. He took off towards the students who were only halfway to the stairs. Izuku's face hardened again, teeth bared, as he felt the anger surge once more.
Changing tactics, he stopped pushing against the Noumu, ripping his hands out of its grip. The sudden lack of resistance sent it staggering forwards. It wasn't much – just a single step – but it was enough. Izuku ducked under its outstretched arms, weaving around to get behind it. At the same time his tail, now in a partial circle around the Noumu from his actions after they broke apart, closed in all at once.
His tail wrapped around the Noumu, crushing it with the force of an anaconda the size of a tree that's being enhanced by no less than seven strength quirks, trapping its arms to its sides.
Focusing his attention on Shigaraki, he wound his arm back, tensing the muscles within that were burning away like an inferno.
The villain, still mid-stride, turned to look at Izuku, the sudden bloodlust and intent drawing his focus.
With a grunt, Izuku threw his fist in Shigaraki's direction, 'Air Cannon' creating a massive shockwave that tore through the air. It caught the villain, sending him flying towards the Ruins Zone. Izuku noticed, with a small amount of satisfaction, that a few of the hands Shigaraki was wearing were knocked off as he disappeared into the trees that surrounded the zone.
With Shigaraki dealt with for the moment, Izuku spared a glance towards the stairs. Ochako and the others had reached them and were beginning to make their way towards the entrance.
His attention was forced back to the matter at hand, however, when he felt pain make itself known in his tail. Looking back at the Noumu, whose head and shoulders were still visible, he could see the beast struggling. Despite the strength he possessed, and the force he was applying to the grip, the Noumu was slowly but surely separating the coils of his tail. It felt like it was tearing through his scales and into his flesh.
Baring his teeth, Izuku moved closer, redoubling his efforts. He tensed his tail with as much force as he could muster, and watched as it tightened back around it.
"What are you made of?" He asked, almost snarling the words, as they continued their struggle against each other.
This was an ideal situation for him and his biology. He could probably exert more force through his tail's grip strength than he could in any other way, yet somehow the Noumu was still matching him.
The entirety of his focus had trained on the beast as it struggled. On keeping it contained. Reaching up, he pulled the gauntlet off of his left hand, before reaching his now bare hand towards it.
Izuku needed to end this. He had no idea why it was as strong as it was, why it felt like he was fighting All Might himself rather than some random villain, but he needed to put a stop to it. Something like this would not be easy, or even possible, for most people to withstand, and in a normal fight he wasn't even sure if he could subdue it.
But if he took its quirk, the source of the insane strength, then he wouldn't have to fight.
He reached towards it, fingers inches away from the exposed brain as the Noumu continued to struggle against him. He could almost feel the heat of its quirk emanating from it, without even touching it.
Then a hand closed around Izuku's arm, and on the membrane of his wing.
And Izuku screamed.
---
Ochako hadn't known Izuku long, but in the short time she had, she'd become convinced that he was the smartest, strongest, and probably the kindest person she'd ever met.
He'd saved her more than once during the entrance exams; though one instance was much more significant than the other. He'd impressed her and their classmates more than once with his strength and confidence. And his intelligence was evident just by watching and listening to him, not to mention that Ochako knew his secret regarding his persona 'Deku.'
But above all that, he had offered Ochako a place in his home after seeing where she was living, and had intended to live through her time at Yueii. He hadn't even hesitated, despite hardly knowing each other, and interacting a grand total of three or four times before that. Izuku spent his time and money on her, just to make sure she was healthy, happy, and comfortable.
And she was. Living in that penthouse, with fresh clothes and a gourmet-level meal for breakfast and dinner every day had her feeling probably the best she ever had.
She loved her parents, always had and always would. She was grateful for everything they'd done and sacrificed for her sake, and her reasons and goals for becoming a hero hadn't changed in the slightest. But she hadn't realized just how exhausting it was to live in that sort of financially-tight situation, how much it had been wearing on her, or how much of a relief it would be to not have to follow every decision or desire with the question of if she could afford it.
She was happy, and free of the greatest stressor of her life. And living with Izuku and Rei, the way they all interacted and the dynamic between them, was like having the siblings she'd always wanted. Rei was the comforting older sister, who knew exactly what to say and do to make sure that Ochako was included in conversations and that she was comfortable, and who never failed to greet her with a smile and a question of how her day had been. And Izuku was the loving brother, who would joke around with her and make sure she ate enough, but who also gave off such a feeling of strength and calm, collected, immutable confidence, that she felt protected when they were together.
Maybe her opinions of them were mixing with the fantasy ideas of siblings she'd formulated, but they were true nonetheless.
It had barely even been two weeks since Izuku had brought her home, but Ochako still loved the both of them, and considered them both – at least privately – as her brother and sister.
That's why right now, in this moment as she helped Asui carry the broken form of their teacher up the stairs towards the entrance, when she heard the piercing scream behind her, the likes of which she never thought she'd hear from someone like Izuku and hoped to never hear again, her heart shattered.
There was so much utter pain in that scream.
She spun around so quickly that if Mister Aizawa weren't weightless, he would've fallen.
Below them, in the courtyard, Ochako saw where Izuku had wrapped the big villain up in his tail. She also saw where the villain with the hands had grabbed Izuku's arm and left wing.
Her stomach sank, and her head went fuzzy for a moment when she saw him start to turn to dust.
Izuku's arm was brown and cracked, flaking away. Barely a second later his elbow, right where the villain was grabbing him, crumbled entirely. His hand and forearm dropped to the ground where it continued to fall apart. The same thing was happening to the thin skin of his wing, cracking apart and scattering into the air.
And he was still screaming.
Ochako's blood ran cold, and she felt tears welling up in her eyes as the villain backed away but Izuku's arm and wing continued to crack and crumble. It was traveling up towards his shoulder, and spreading across his wing.
"IZUKU!" She screamed, not caring that her voice cracked.
She was about to run to his side, either to try to help him – though she had no idea how she would go about doing that – or to protect him from the villains, when a hand grabbed her shoulder, stopping her before she could even take a step.
Her head whipped around to see Mister Aizawa, bleeding and wheezing in pain, and still floating. He'd grabbed onto her to flip himself around so that he could look down at the courtyard. As she watched, he seemed to force his eyes to open further as they flashed red and his hair began rising more than it already was.
Ochako's own eyes widened as she realized what was happening. She looked back down at Izuku to see that he wasn't crumbling apart anymore. It had stopped just before reaching his shoulder, and most of his wing still seemed to be intact.
A small sob worked its way out of her throat, and it felt like her legs would fail, before another hand grabbed her other shoulder.
She looked back to see Asui, the girl's face ashen and tears of her own gathered in her eyes.
"Let's go." She said, voice shaking, but otherwise calm. "We need to get out of here."
"But we have to help him!" Ochako tried to protest. "He's hurt!"
"There's nothing we can do against them, kero. Besides, he's not done fighting yet." She responded, pointing down at the courtyard.
Ochako turned to look once more, and felt a small surge of confidence when she realized that Asui was right.
---
Izuku was on fire.
His body burned, and it felt like his cells were being ripped apart, one by one. He was being torn to shreds from the inside.
It was all he felt; the fire that was actively consuming him. It blocked out everything else. He'd never experienced such pain before.
He'd been shot, stabbed, burned, shocked, strangled, hit and thrown around, and had his bones broken, amongst other things, over the course of his life.
All of that was nothing compared to this.
Through the pain, he felt his balance shift as weight disappeared from his left side. The fire trailed up his arm, and along his wing.
Izuku dimly recognized that this must be Shigaraki's quirk, 'Decay.' He had no idea how Shigaraki had gotten back so quickly, or how he'd failed to notice the villain getting close, and he didn't have the capacity or focus to try to figure it out. He couldn't even activate his healing quirk from where it had slipped from his grasp to try to stop the fire.
All at once, seconds or minutes or maybe even hours after the pain started, it halted altogether.
The sudden absence of the agony that had threatened to consume him left Izuku feeling lightheaded. He took a ragged breath, feeling it rattle into his lungs. Everything was muted, muffled in the aftermath of the fire.
His mind took a moment to catch back up, slowly regaining his faculties. Then he felt the Noumu struggling in his tail and it all snapped back to him at once. His surroundings came back, his hearing and vision clearing away to absolute clarity, and his sensation of touch coming back just the same, almost too strong. He registered that his left arm was all but completely gone, leaving a stinging, bleeding stump at his shoulder, and his wing felt like it had a ragged hole torn into the membrane. His throat burned as he breathed, likely injured when he'd screamed. And he could feel the wetness on his cheeks.
Shaking his head to clear it, he focused back on the matter at hand; there were still villains here, and he needed to stop them. One last shake and he allowed the anger, the rage to burn through him again as he focused on the source of the pain. Turning his head, he looked over at where Shigaraki was standing just a few feet away.
He growled, before spinning around to bring his arm up – his right one, as his left was otherwise unavailable – to smack the villain.
"Mother-FUCKER!" Izuku shouted as he backhanded Shigaraki away, taking a small bit of satisfaction in the way he wheezed in pain as he flew.
At the same time though, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he realized that the impact hadn't been nearly as strong as it should've been. For that matter, 'Air Cannon' hadn't even activated to create a shockwave.
Glancing up at the stairs, he found the reason why.
Eraser, floating over the stairs and still broken and bleeding, was glaring down at the courtyard with his red eyes, canceling everyone's quirks. He had a hand on Ochako's shoulder who, along with Tsuyu, was staring down at him with tears in her eyes.
Eraser's quirk must've also canceled out some of Izuku's.
Over their many interactions, Izuku had-had plenty of time to study how exactly the hero's quirk affected his own. Any quirks he had active that were emitter or transformation-types would be erased. This meant quirks like his claws, healing quirk, and his natural quirk. Any mutations he had active, like his wings, horns, or snake tail, wouldn't be erased as the moment they were active, they became ingrained in his body.
Under normal circumstances, 'Erasure' didn't present any issues. In learning how it worked, he'd been able to have a select few quirks picked out with the express purpose of augmenting him when he was with Eraser, just in case he needed to fight or flee from the hero. These were ones he almost always had active as Oni.
However, right now? When he'd pulled on so much more than those select few? When he was relying on them for a fight? It presented issues.
His strength quirks were a mixture of all three types of quirks. Some were mutations that condensed or increased his muscle mass, some were transformation-types that achieved the same effects, and some were emitters that used his store of energy to exert strength.
Only three of his seven were mutations.
And all but those three had been erased.
Just as the thought crossed his mind, he felt the Noumu gaining ground.
Before he could do anything in response, the beast was wrenching the coils of his tail apart, freeing itself.
Now free, it threw a punch at him. He did his best to bring his own fist up to meet it. It just barely did, but without everything that had been augmenting him before, the impact knocked his fist back. The force with which it was thrown back made it feel like his arm was about to be wrenched off of his body, and he felt every bit of the impact in his bones.
Grunting in pain and with no free limb to counter the Noumu, he was left completely open.
One of the beast's massive hands closed around Izuku's torso in a crushing grip. Before he could do anything to stop it, a fist was sent crashing into his chest, knocking the air out of him and sending him flying back towards the Downpour Zone as the other hand released him.
The world spun around Izuku as he tried, and failed, to regain his bearing as he soared.
He hit the ground in a jarring impact. One that, had his lungs not already been empty, would've knocked the breath out of him. Thankfully he didn't roll, his tail making it so that he just hit the ground once and stopped.
Laying on his back, he tried to force air back into his lungs. It took several long seconds, but eventually he was able to suck in a massive breath. Several more seconds and his breathing had stabilized to the point of no longer being desperate.
He lay there for a moment – still gasping, right arm feeling like it was broken in at least three places and left arm gone entirely, and with his head ringing from the impact – and tried to collect himself.
Then, he started laughing.
It was quiet at first, barely audible, strangled with how much he was still struggling for air, but slowly increased in volume. In seconds it was back to a normal volume as he laughed to himself.
"Hah." He huffed, a grin on his face. "So that's what it is."
He forced his head up to look at the Noumu, who was staring at him from the same spot, having not even moved a step since it hit him.
His grin widened. "So that's how you're so strong."
When the Noumu hit him, it had been in the center of his breastplate. But as he flew out of its grip, for a moment, a single fraction of a second, their bare skin touched.
Out of all of his many quirks, the one he knew the most about and had the most experience and proficiency in using was his own natural quirk. He'd discovered and learned so many things about it over the years. For one: He didn't need to use his hands to take a quirk. Any direct contact would work. The second: Quirks had distinct feelings associated with them. They all felt like a source of heat within the body, but they all felt different. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to explain it at all if someone asked, but he could differentiate between them; that's how he picked his own out from the bundle in his chest.
With those two things, he'd also become quite proficient at taking quirks. He enjoyed the slow, methodical way of doing it, where he drew out a quirk over several agonizing seconds, for the effect it had on the criminals he used it on. But if he really wanted to, he could take quirks with little more than a brush of his fingers against someone else's as he walked down the street.
So with that single instant of contact between Izuku and the Noumu, he'd reached out with his quirk almost on instinct the moment he'd felt the warmth within the Noumu. It had pulled on the first source of warmth it could grab.
The first, because there was more than one.
As he felt his quirks surge back into place now that Eraser had finally blinked, he started laughing again.
He rolled over and rested his fist on the ground – the small action sending small cracks spiderwebbing from the spot – and lifted himself up, shaking with the effort.
Rolling his neck, he turned to face the Noumu. He tilted his head as he smiled at it. He could feel the Oni mindset surfacing. He knew that he was losing himself to it in the face of the constant adrenaline, anger, and pain that had been surging through him for the past several minutes. Taking advantage of this, he reactivated 'Wrath.' The quirk took his anger as fuel and converted it into raw strength.
And right now? He had anger in spades.
"Oh how I wish I could actually let go to fight you." He said, more to himself. "You're so much fun."
Raising his hand, he clenched it into a fist as he pulled on the newest quirk. He wasn't sure what it was – it had the feeling of a mutation-type, that much he could tell. Maybe a durability of some kind? – but it was sure to help. His body tingled as the quirk spread across it. At the same time, he re-activated his healing quirk to hopefully fix his right arm and stop the bleeding in the messy stump he had in place of his left.
"You know. You villains have a lot of nerve showing up here, threatening my classmates and friends, and my sister. And originally I was just planning on subduing you so that I could ensure their safety."
He started moving forwards, slowing moving towards the Noumu.
"But since you all seem so adamant to be as stubborn as possible, and want to act like the irritating insects you are, I've changed my mind. I'll humor you."
Raising his fist to his face, he made a show of pressing his hand to his jaw to crack his knuckles. In reality, he was doing it to touch the convenient little tungsten plates to his bare skin, letting it rewrite 'Metallum.'
"You want to play games, monster?"
He activated the quirk, and felt the dense metal flash across his body, changing everything except his skin. It took an extra bit of concentration to stop the transformation in the right place at his stump of an arm.
With the transformation complete, he stretched his arm towards the Noumu, letting it hang in front of him in a loose combat stance.
" Fine. Let's play games."
As one final step, he pulled on 'Quick Thinker,' enjoying the way the world slowed around him.
The ground beneath him shattered as he exploded forwards. In the blink of an eye, he and the Noumu were face-to-face once more.
The beast raised a fist to intercept him, and Izuku responded in kind. But when the punch was thrown, Izuku, making full use of 'Quick Thinker,' ducked below it and delivered his right into the Noumu's side.
He blinked in surprise as, this time, the Noumu was thrown back, straight into the fountain.
Looking between the beast, who had come to a stop some distance away, and his arm, in which he'd felt none of the impact in whatsoever, he laughed.
"So that's what that was. No wonder you seemed like such an immovable object. It's because you literally were."
The quirk he'd taken. It wasn't a durability quirk, at least not in the usual sense. It was a quirk that canceled out kinetic energy. Shock absorption, or maybe nullification, he couldn't quite tell yet.
It didn't matter. One way or another, it would help.
The Noumu screeched at him, and their fists met in another earth-shattering impact. Izuku laughed again as he once again felt nothing in his arm from the hit.
Ducking beneath another punch, he drove his elbow into the beast's chest, sending it flying again and taking the split-second opportunity to grab another quirk from the inferno under its skin.
He chuckled as he pulled it into place, feeling it suffuse his body. This one he recognized. It was a speed quirk.
Instead of waiting for the Noumu to come back to him, he raced after it. When he caught up, it was already up and coming for him.
They clashed again, fists blurring as Izuku met every hit with his single arm, the new speed quirk working wonders.
Both landed hits as the seconds stretched out and the number of thrown punches entered into the low hundreds. Izuku's chest was aching even more than it had been with each hit – the shock-canceling quirk apparently only did do much, and the Noumu's raw strength had not changed. And while it prevented the worst of the damage, it still hurt – and he was driving the Noumu back with every hit he landed.
His head snapped backwards as it landed a solid hit directly to his face. He grinned as he looked back down at it, blood already running down his face.
"What a lovely punching bag you are." He said, continuing his onslaught. "You hit back, and never seem to break no matter how hard I hit you."
That was another thing. The Noumu must have a healing quirk somewhere in the inferno. Izuku could hear the beast's bones breaking under his assault, and yet the limbs never deformed in the slightest – for no matter how great one's willpower or strength was, if their bones were dust or breaking through the skin, the limb would become non-functional – let alone any indication of pain.
The thought only excited Izuku, as he imagined getting his hands on it.
"Let's see how long we can keep this up."
---
Ochako gulped as she watched the fight in the courtyard between Izuku and the monster.
No, 'fight' didn't quite describe it. Not with each hit being strong enough to send wind to whip at her hair from this distance.
This was a clash, and not between humans, but between two titans.
Every hit shook the ground beneath them and every movement was a blur to her eyes as they traded blows.
Ochako had no idea how Izuku was still keeping up with the monster with only one arm, but she desperately hoped he could keep it up.
Her attention shifted to beneath her as Mister Aizawa groaned, attempting to shift himself to be able to see the fight. She stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, holding him down.
"Please stop moving." She said as he looked up at her with a glare, or maybe it was just his injuries making it look that way. "You'll only make your injuries worse."
They'd made it back to the top of the stairs to find some of the other students – consisting of Bakugou, Kirishima, Shouji, Kouda, Todoroki, and Hagakure – tending to Thirteen, who looked as though her entire back had been shredded. Ochako and Tsuyu had set Mister Aizawa down next to her so that they could attempt to tend to his wounds, maybe stop the bleeding until help could arrive.
And now they all found themselves in a horrible position where they were forced to watch and wait. Not all of the students were accounted for, likely still in whatever disaster zone they'd been sent to, and they had no idea whether the missing ones were hurt or fighting or just hiding until everything was settled. They also had no way of knowing if any help was on the way. If anyone at Yueii knew that they were under attack.
The only thing they could do was watch the clash down below and hope that Izuku could somehow keep it up, because all of them knew that they stood no chance against the monster that was going toe-to-toe with the strongest student in the class. Ochako didn't think that even Bakugou or Todoroki could stand against the sheer amount of power that was being displayed.
Ochako blinked, and something exploded behind her. Looking back, there was a cloud of smoke next to the door. A split second later and the monster emerged from within. The other students backed away, or dropped into combat stances, and Todoroki sent a wave of ice careening at it which it swatted away, just like Izuku had done when he faced the two-toned boy.
Looking down into the courtyard, she found it empty. There was no sign of Izuku.
A screech drew her attention back to the monster, and just as she looked back at it, a green shape dropped from the sky and there was another explosion of dust.
A laugh rang out, and a shockwave of air dissipated the dust in an instant.
It revealed Izuku and the monster struggling against each other, their fists pressed together where their punches met, visibly trembling from the effort.
The sight of him sent shivers down Ochako's spine.
His entire left side was drenched in blood from the mess of an injury at his shoulder, as was his face where it was pouring from his nose. His left wing was ragged and torn, missing a sizeable chunk of the thin skin stretched across it. The crazed expression on his face topped the whole image. His teeth were bared in a feral smile, with even his teeth red and bloodied, and his eyes looked almost crazy.
The monster hit Izuku with its other fist, right in the center of his chest. He barely even flinched, just continuing to smile at it.
It didn't stop there though, as it pulled its other fist away from Izuku's and started throwing more punches that shook the ground around them, each of them hitting Izuku's chest.
"That's it!" He shouted, catching one of the fists in his hand. "Keep fighting! Let's keep this interesting!"
Suddenly, he yanked on the hand he had trapped in his grip and delivered an earth-shaking headbutt that sent the monster staggering. Somehow, Izuku's smile seemed to widen.
His laugh rang out once more as he charged the monster and grabbed its arm. He swung it over its head and slammed it into the ground, before swinging it around and throwing it back towards the courtyard.
Izuku stretched his wings out, and Ochako got a full view of the ragged hole that the villain's quirk created. She felt her heart clench at the sight, and wondered how he'd be able to fly, or if he'd even be able to at all. It certainly didn't look like it.
A second later, he proved her wrong as he launched himself into the air after the monster. She could see that his injured wing was moving much quicker than the other to compensate.
Ochako gulped again as she looked back down at Mister Aizawa. She hoped that help would come soon. She had no idea how long Izuku could keep it up, but he had to be wearing down after the damage he'd taken.
Where were the heroes?
---
Izuku grunted as he crashed into the ground. The Noumu had gotten lucky and had thrown him into one of the zones. The Mountain Zone, maybe?
He forced himself back up, ignoring the soreness through his body, and the fog in his mind that was beginning to make itself known. As much experience as he had when it came to fighting, he had very little with long, drawn out fights. His normal opponents were generally fodder that went down in a single hit, but the Noumu was a walking punching bag, it was absorbing all the abuse he dished out.
As fun as this was, he was starting to feel the exhaustion catch up to him.
"Come on!" He shouted as it descended towards him from where it had jumped after him.
It was on him in an instant, delivering a blow that forced him partially into the ground as he blocked it. As the next punch came rocketing towards him, he just barely swiped it aside. Ducking below the next, he delivered three harsh blows in quick succession to its chest and sent it flying once more.
He took a moment to catch his breath, his chest heaving. Looking around at his surroundings, he spotted three figures standing off to the side.
No. Four figures.
Yaoyorozu, Jirou, Kaminari, and some random villain that had Kaminari by the back of his neck. He could see the villains fingers crackling with electricity.
All of them were staring at him, with the exception of Kaminari. The electric student had a blank look on his face, as if he were completely oblivious to the situation.
Izuku narrowed his eyes at them, feeling another surge of irritation. Yet another useless villain that thought they could threaten his classmates.
He pulled on the quirk he'd taken from the Noumu at the main doors. Another speed quirk.
In the blink of an eye, he was in front of the villain, his face inches from theirs. He enjoyed the sheer panic that flashed across it. Their hand darted up – though to Izuku, with as many quirks as he had and as much adrenaline as was pumping through him, it might as well have been moving in slow motion – crackling with electricity.
He grabbed it, letting the electricity wash over him. He barely even felt it.
'"Metallum" reduces the effectiveness of electricity.' He thought. 'Good to know.'
Izuku let his smile flash back across his face before crushing the villain's hand in his own, pulverizing the bones within. Their scream cut off with a strangled choke as he wrapped a hand around their throat, and they dropped Kaminari.
"Oh, how easy it would be to snap you in half~." He whispered, before slamming them down with just enough force to crack the ground beneath.
With that dealt with, he looked out in the direction he'd sent the Noumu. A small chuckle worked its way out of his throat when he saw it already coming back for him, so much slower than it had been.
He moved closer so Kaminari and the others wouldn't get caught in the crossfire. For a second, it sounded like one of them might've been speaking, but he ignored it in favor of focusing on his opponent.
The Noumu launched itself with an earth-shattering jump to close the last bit of distance; it might be slower, but it was still every bit as strong. He caught its thrown fist in his hand. Before it could do anything else, he yanked it forwards and used the opportunity to wrap it in his tail once more.
"I do think it's about time we wrap this little game up." He said. "Don't you agree?"
Its only response was to screech at him.
"Well said!" He chuckled as he launched the two of them into the air, ignoring the beast's struggling, which was just as strong as the last time.
As they rose into the air, Izuku looked around for a suitable spot to end the fight. He needed somewhere out of sight. His eyes landed on the flood zone, and he cocked his head.
'That could work. I just hope it's not saltwater.'
As he flew over the water, he suddenly folded his wings against his back, letting himself fall with the Noumu still in his grip.
He hoped that the shock-canceling quirk did what he thought it did, otherwise the impact with the water was going to suck.
The Noumu gave one last screech, and Izuku took as deep a breath as he could, before they both hit the water and went under.
The impact still sucked. It stung everywhere, and he could feel a few places where it had stripped the skin entirely from his metal flesh and muscle beneath. And of course, it was salt water on top of that.
With 'Metallum' still active, they sunk like a rock, or a very big chunk of metal.
'Time for some on-the-fly experimentation.' He thought as he pulled on another quirk he'd grabbed not even an hour earlier.
As soon as it was active, he felt himself almost… swelling? It was an odd sensation, but the effects were obvious enough. He was able to watch as his body grew, at least in comparison to the Noumu. With nothing else to serve as a frame of reference since they were underwater, the only sign that he was actually growing was the fact that the Noumu seemed to be shrinking.
As he grew, he felt his armor become increasingly tight around his body. Damn. He'd thought that the quirk brought clothing along with it, based on the villain he'd taken it from, but it seemed that wasn't the case.
As it started to become painful, he took one of the fingers of his gauntlet between his teeth and ripped it off. With his hand free, he grabbed at the collar of his breastplate and tore it away, the straps at his sides giving away before the metal.
With that dealt with, he directed his attention back to the Noumu.
'Now. Let's take a proper look at what you're made of.' He thought, just as they came to rest at the bottom of the body of water.
With a grin on his face, he latched his hand onto the Noumu's head. His breath was almost completely knocked out of him at what he found.
The fire, the raging inferno just beneath the Noumu's skin…
It was comparable to All Might's.
He could distinctly feel seven quirks, burning away.
He'd already taken three quirks during their fight, which meant that, somehow, this beast had-had ten quirks shoved into its body.
Very dimly, somewhere beneath the excitement and fog that occupied his mind, he recognized something very disturbing about that discovery, but it was swept aside.
Izuku's smile went wider, and he grabbed onto all the quirks at once, and he wrenched. Them. Loose.
The rush of heat as he pulled them into himself almost knocked his breath out for a second time. All the same though, he could feel his lungs starting to burn. His increase in size must've also increased his need for oxygen. Dropping the gigantification and 'Metallum,' he glanced down at the Noumu, who had since stopped struggling. He unwrapped it from his tail, watching as it drifted down to rest on the ground.
It was dead. That much was obvious. He could feel it the moment he took the quirks from it. Either the shock of the transfer had killed it, or one of the quirks – the healing one maybe. He could feel one of those in the pile – had been keeping him alive in the first place.
With his body much lighter now, he launched himself towards the surface of the water, strength quirks allowing him to propel himself through the water with ease.
A moment later, he exploded out of the water. Before he could fall back down, he unfolded his wings, flying to the edge of the zone, where he'd first seen Ochako and Tsuyu. He dropped down to the ground with a heavy thud.
Taking a few deep breaths, he took stock of what he'd taken. Four strength quirks, two speed, and a healing quirk.
His smile widened with each one he examined. Somehow, with only four strength quirks to his seven, the Noumu had managed to match up to him and even surpass him at moments.
And now they were all his.
A laugh worked its way out of his throat as he stood there, sorting through the quirks again and again. It slowly increased in volume, until it was ringing out across the entire courtyard, loud and deep – and slightly deranged, he dimly recognized.
Suddenly, he grabbed onto the quirks and pulled on them, activating all seven at once. The resulting surge in power made it feel like he was on fire, in more ways than one. As his muscles bulged with the addition of the enhancers, he felt another sensation encompass all of his injuries, halting his laughter. They went hot, and in the case of his wing and left arm – or stump – they grew increasingly itchy.
As he watched, a mass of muscle, bright red and throbbing in time with his hearts, bulged from his shoulder. It seemed to build up for a moment, as the heat in his shoulder continued to grow, before bursting outwards. It grew into the shape of an arm and hand, and he felt bones shifting beneath the muscle, before the itchy sensation became nearly unbearable, and skin started to appear. In a few short seconds, his arm was restored to what it had been before being disintegrated. From what he could feel, his wing had undergone a similar process.
He lifted the arm, clenching a fist in front of him as he examined it.
A moment later, he threw his head back, and his laughter started again in full force.
This was wonderful! Not only had he acquired a set of quirks that had matched up to his full strength – in terms of sheer power alone –, but he'd also gotten a healing quirk that was able to restore missing limbs in a matter of seconds.
He ignored the way his surroundings seemed to dim, and his mind grew increasingly fuzzy.
Because right at that moment, he spotted Shigaraki and Kurogiri standing by the Ruins Zone.
In a flash, he appeared before them, just a few feet away.
Shigaraki was mumbling and growling something under his breath as he scratched at his neck hard enough to draw blood. Kurogiri was glaring at Izuku with obvious hatred. Or at least as much hatred as one could express with no physical body and no features except for glowing eyes.
"Cheater!" Shigaraki said, barely above a normal volume, finally dropping his hands away from his neck. "How'd you manage to defeat our trump card!? How is your arm back after I destroyed it!? You were supposed to be a weak little brat that gets crushed beneath us as we killed All Might!"
"Well then you should've come here with more than a half-baked plan and a creature that's only slightly stronger than average." Izuku responded. "Honestly. Whoever planned this is an idiot."
"Shut up!" Shigaraki shouted, already charging at Izuku.
He watched the villain draw closer, his hands twitching in anticipation. He would let Shigaraki come to him, and once he was within range, he would snap the little shit in half.
He hadn't forgotten Shigaraki's attempt to hurt Ochako and Tsuyu. He was still going to kill the fucker.
Just as Shigaraki about to strike though, hands already outstretched, and Izuku was a split second from tearing the appendages off, Kurogiri's purple smoke washed over the villain without warning. Izuku realized an instant too late what was happening, and by the time he'd swiped his hand through it to brush it away, they had both disappeared and left a fresh batch of villains in their place.
Izuku growled, eyeing the new arrivals. He vaguely recognized them as the few that had survived Eraser's initial onslaught.
"Cowards!" He shouted out in outrage at the last wisps of smoke as they faded into the air. "Stay and die with some fucking dignity!"
One of the new ones charged at him, and his hand darted out, grabbing them by the neck and tossing them to the side.
The anger surged again, and the fog in his mind swelled, until it had all but overtaken him. He looked at the villains, but saw nothing more than objects in his way. He didn't even take note of their quirks, as he normally would.
They inched closer, and he leaned forwards, arms tensed at his sides to strike.
The first few charged at him, ignorant little insects that they were, and he screamed at them, conveying his anger in a single guttural roar.
The closest one raised their fist to strike at him, and he prepared to crush every bone in the useless limb, when every one of them suddenly flew backwards, as if struck.
He blinked, before turning to look at the newest arrival at the base of the stairs. They were big, and exuded a raw power that rivaled the Noumu. Behind them, at the top of the stairs, he just barely registered several more, though not nearly as strong.
"Fucking villains." He growled, turning to face them fully. "There's no end to you is there?"
The figure took a step forwards, raising their hands. "Young Et-."
Their fists met in an explosive shockwave, the other just barely raising their hand to meet him. He brought his other fist up, and they caught that one too. They grappled against each other, the other being forced back a step.
He broke away a moment later, backing up a few feet and raising a fist to strike again.
Just before he could though, the other raised their hands once more. "Wait, Young Etsumi!"
Izuku faltered, blinking at them. He recognized their voice.
Shaking his head, the fog cleared slightly, and he saw All Might standing there, wearing a dress shirt instead of his costume.
Behind him, Izuku could see that the other arrivals were more teachers from Yueii. And that most were frozen mid-step as they stared down at him. They looked like they'd been heading down to assist All Might.
"All… Might?" He asked, shaking his head once more.
The hero seemed to sigh, relaxing slightly. "Yes, Young Etsumi. It's me."
He stepped closer. "You can relax now, Etsumi. You have done well, protecting your classmates and teachers, but the fight is over."
Izuku took another glance around him. The courtyard was littered with fallen villains, the fountain destroyed, and craters and chunks of disturbed earth left over as scars from the fight.
He sighed, letting his shoulders droop. Reaching within himself, he pulled back his quirks, all of the strength and speed quirks he'd brought out for the fight, or acquired along the way, 'Metallum' and 'Quick Thinker,' his – now two – healing quirks.
One by one, he let them all settle back into his chest, until the only ones that remained were his obvious mutations, and 'Insomnia.'
He felt the fog encroach on him again, but this time it wasn't anger and adrenaline, but pure exhaustion.
Izuku swayed in place, before feeling a massive hand settle on his shoulder, stabilizing him.
"You did well. Let us handle things from here." He heard All Might say. His voice was muffled, almost as if he were far away.
Izuku drooped further, very quickly losing the energy and focus to even remain upright.
A moment later, he found himself being pulled into an embrace. He was slightly surprised when he didn't automatically recoil at the contact; his exhaustion must be overriding his usual distaste for touch. Taking advantage of it, he leaned into the contact.
He took comfort in it as the fog overtook him completely and everything faded away.
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