章 2364: 106
Chapter 106: Weld
A/N: And I present to you: The Penultimate Chapter of Flight of the Dragonfly! Closing remarks begin: now!
Izuku woke with a jolt, sand flowing off his body as his then widening eyes were assaulted by the luminescent rays of the dawning sun.
On the ground beside him, Mirio Togata found himself in a similar situation, albeit with a bit more urgency within his bones. Togata jolted up, but rather than stay seated on the ground he instantly rose to his feet, eyes scanning his surroundings for any perceivable threat.
However, just a few seconds of observation later and the wearnimess of the night was no longer a prevalent feature of Togata's form. Both his stance and his stiff expression subsequently loosened up as he collapsed to the ground with a soft thud, a small expulsion of a sandy cloud following in his wake.
"Morning," Izuku greeted, a satisfied smile blooming on his face.
Togata groaned in response, moving to wipe his hand over his face as he looked over the horizon. "Morning, I guess… You wouldn't happen to have an idea where we are right now, would you? Because last I checked we weren't lounging around on a beach.
"I'm… not sure really," Izuku said with a yawn. "I just teleported us somewhere relatively isolated where we wouldn't get interrupted for a bit. Well, those are the parameters that I placed that teleportation power on, anyways."
"Oh… No worries then," Togata muttered as he laid back, propping his arms out on the ground. "But it's suddenly morning now… Did we move across time zones maybe?"
"Unlikely; the power's range is nowhere near as potent. And besides, the timeline adds up considering we spent a good... four hours in our heads. Sunrise is supposed to be at about five in the morning around this time of the year."
"I— wait... Four hours!?" Togata nearly yelled. "But the longest I've ever spent in my mindscape-thingy is, like, twenty minutes! And I mean that in the real world sense after spending three hours with my sense of time all jumbled up!"
"Safely transferring all of that resonant power contained in All For One while making sure the new host retains their voluntary motor functions and their sanity takes a long time, you know. There's a reason that I was running around like a rabid werewolf after a squirrel."
"And we wouldn't want that," Togata mused. "Especially since I'd have One For All at the same time."
"Exactly!" Izuku cheered. "See? Now you're getting it."
"I suppose," Togata conceded to the topic. "Though... I do have that I kind of want to ask you, if you don't mind. But I mean, you don't have to answer, since it's probably still a sore topic for y—"
"I killed him, if that's what you're asking," Izuku muttered with a sigh. "No need to beat around the bush."
Togata sighed. "And… how do you feel about that?"
"What are you, Hound Dog?" Izuku scoffed — a scoff that faded quite quickly into a sigh. "Honestly? Nothing all too much. To be as open and clear as possible, I destroyed him. Physically and mentally. When I was done with his mind I ordered my bugs to devour all that was left of his body. Of course, that was after I ripped out both his brain and his heart out with some telekinesis."
Togata blinked. "You did what?"
"Then I… hmm… It's a bit hazy, actually." Izuku started to rub his chin as he shuffled through his memories. "I… think that after pulling his heart out from his chest that I dropped it in a volcano. Not sure which one though…"
A swarm of bugs formed over Izuku's head. "That'd be Mt. Bandai, Izuku."
"Right!" Izuku cheered. "Thanks for reminding me, Taylor."
"Mhm." The bugs made a nodding motion before dispersing.
"Anyways," Izuku continued, "after I pitchforked his brain out from his head, I subsequently stomped on it — with some added super strength as the icing on the cake — until it was a fine paste."
Izuku tilted his head. "After that… Ummm, I fed the remains to a few rats? Rats which I promptly killed after their meal. And I think I melted them with some acid afterwards. Or did I irradiate them with deadly levels of radiation and then drop them in some ocean trench? Or—"
"Spare me the details," Togata interrupted, a grimace clear on his face "Please. You don't need to continue."
"Oh! Heh heh…" Izuku rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, sure. I'll just… let us soak up the sun for a bit then. We deserve it, I think."
A comfortable bout of silence reigned between the two after that, the duo willing to enjoy the sight of a new day — one without any of the immediate life-threatening burdens of the last — peek over the horizon.
If asked, the two wouldn't have been able to say how long they spent simply sitting on the beach, letting the sun cleanse them of the weariness that the past year had inflicted onto them. But nevertheless, such a moment couldn't last. They still had to get back to those that cared for them, after all.
"Dorcus titanus okinawanus."
Togata slowly opened his eyes, turning his head towards ever so slightly to his side. "Bless you?"
Izuku let out a small chuckle. "Sorry, I was speaking out loud again. You know how I am." He cleared his throat. "Anyways, I was talking about the Okinawa Stag Beetle. A pair of them just stumbled into my range just a second ago."
Togata blinked. "So we're on Okinawa?"
Izuku nodded. "Northern Okinawa, to be precise. Which means that the large abundance of trees a little ways behind us is probably the Yanbaru Forest."
"How can you be so calm about this?!" Togata asked, arms shooting to the air in exasperation. "How are we going to get back to U.A.?! We don't have a way of contacting the others due to a; the villains running around! And there's no way in heck that we're getting a plane trip back considering how—"
"You can teleport us back, Togata-senpai," Izuku interjected. "You have the power that I used to get here within you now. The whole point of having All For One now, remember?"
Togata's eyes widened in realization, his head nodding along right after. "Right. I forgot."
"You'll need to work on that," Izuku said. "You'll need to have conscious knowledge of everything you have on you, both to prevent casualties and resolve situations faster."
Togata grimaced, crossing his arms in thought. "That sounds… hard."
Izuku chuckled, shrugging with a smile. "I said that I didn't want it, didn't I?"
"Hey!" Togata shouted out. "That's a-okay to me, Midoriya! It just means that I'll reach my goal in no time!"
Togata tilted his head, humming in consideration of his words. "With all this power I'll probably get there too easily." He turned to Izuku. "What do you say to Lebillion, eh?"
A rather ominous looking cloud of smoke puffed into existence, just outside the gates of U.A. High. With its heavy traffic and status as a refugee center — plus last night's unprecedented break-in — a guard system had recently been set up. A very provisional one, that is.
And so, it shouldn't have come to a surprise that Mina Ashido tensed up at the appearance of the smoke, her body moving from the makeshift watchtower behind the school's walls.
It was only Spurt's incessant chittering up from upon her shoulder that snapped her out from her daze, alerting her to the two still smoke-claud figures nearing the gate. She hurriedly spinned around, primed to reach for and press down on the button that would set off the school's alarm system. But quite frankly, she was too slow, her hand prevented from reaching its destination by a swarm of bugs.
"Midoriya…" Ashido gulped, backing away from the growing mass of bugs.
"Hey Ashido!" the bugs greeted back, much more cheerily than one would expect from a supposed victim suffering from the corruptive influence of All For One. "This watchtower wasn't here last night; not bad for something made up in just a few hours… Did Momo help cheat this thing out?"
Ashido blinked, stupefied at the scenario unfolding before her. "Wha…?"
"Sorry," the bugs apologized, fully forming their human form. "I'm probably the reason this thing was raised up, huh? Sorry about that… You're also probably really confused right now too. I can explain and everything, promise! In the meantime, mind opening the gate for us?"
"Wha—? No!" Ashido yelled, engulfing her arms with her acid. "You think that I'd let petty tricks hoodwink me into letting a dangerous individual into the school?!"
The swarm clone rubbed the back of its head. "I promise that it's all sorted out now! And besides, if I really had hostile intentions I could just jump over the gate! Or even blow it away! And besides, Togata-senpai is here to vouch for me!"
Ashido shook her head in disbelief, adding to her already ungodly amount of swelling distress. First, she gets shaken awake in the middle of the night by her friends telling her that Izuku's gone berserk. Then she gets drafted — very quietly, "so not to arouse fear and panic in the people," Yaomomo had said — into guard duty and forced to stay up fifteen feet in the air for hours. And now here she was, faced with her possible imminent death.
Ashido took a few more calming breaths, slowly petting Spurt for as she leaned against the wall of the watchtower. After one final deep breath, she steeled herself to look over the edge of the watchtower's wall. And indeed, as much as she wanted her eyes to be deceiving her, she couldn't brush away the fact that right outside the gate stood Izuku Midoriya and Mirio Togata, their smiling faces waiting for the gates to be opened for them.
Ashido sank to the floor, back leaning against the wall. Almost subconsciously, she pushed the button to open the gates. She then set Spurt down on her lap, the crab looking up at her with his beady eyes.
"Yeah, I know," she muttered. "But does it matter? We're all screwed anyways if the two of them both fell to the desire of the cookie route." She leaned her head against the wall with a huff. "But I don't care anymore. I'm gonna sleep."
The swarm, left forgotten off to the side, began to speak. "I can explain everything that happened now, if you want. Or do maybe you want to wait for Nezu's confirmation for something?"
Ashido threw a glob of her acid at the swarm. "Go away!"
"I feel kind of bad leaving her like that," Togata muttered as he and Izuku walked past the then-closing gate and into U.A.'s campus.
"I'll explain everything to her one-on-one later," Izuku said. "For now, we need to head to Nezu's office and explain the situation to him…" Izuku hummed. "That is, if he doesn't already know what's happening and is just letting the others panic for his own internal glee, anyways."
"Oh come on," Togata began. "Principal Nezu wouldn't do that!"
Izuku patted Togata's shoulder. "You don't know him like I do; trust me on this. I—" He turned his head towards Nezu's office. "Speaking of, it looks like he really wants to get back at me for last night."
"Why do you say tha…" Togata's ears perked, his hand moving to cup his ear. "Oh hey, that's Nighteye!" Togata's eyes gleamed. "Oh! I can hear them all the way from here! Cool!"
"Right?" Izuku agreed. "Though really, I'm just happy that I got a heads-up." Izuku smirked. "I'm gonna jump him."
Togata blinked. "What?"
"Nighteye's been an ass to me specifically, you know that! I just want to get back at him a little! And you're in a prime position to help me out!"
Togata took on a blank stare. "Midoriya."
"No, no!" Izuku waved his hand about. "Just hear me out! We just need ro make it look like I still have All For One — you just need to transport the both of us and a good handful of my bugs in there with your smoky teleportation. You can hide inside the bugs—"
"Whoa whoa whoa!"
"Just use Permeation!" Izuku exclaimed. "You don't need to be touching the bugs. You just need to not get seen!"
Izuku sighed, stopping his movements as his hand found itself on the doorknob to Nezu's office. He turned his head slightly, facing Togata behind him. "You're no fun, you know."
Togata crossed his arms. "I'm objectively stronger than you now, my kohai. You couldn't beat me if you wanted — unless you mindrape me as well."
Togata smiled, placing a firm hand on Izuku's shoulder. "And besides, I'm still your senpai! You'll do as I say, and you'll like it!"
Izuku sighed, moving to open the door. "Hai…"
The door opened, revealing an office whose audience included a calmly seated principal, a disgruntled and irate Nighteye, and a ruffled and tired Yagi Toshinori.
All three gazes turned simultaneously at the opening of the door, with the latter two's forms jolting in surprise at the sight before them.
"Mirio!" Yagi exclaimed, jumping out from his seat. "Midoriya! You two are alright!"
Quite unlike the other, Nighteye merely glared — that is, straight at Izuku. "Yes…" he drawled. "They definitely do seem… 'okay.'"
"Don't be like that, Mirai!" Yagi chided, taking on his trademark smile "The two of them are here and we're not dead! That means that everything was resolved in the end!"
"Or that All For One's come to see the look on our faces before he kills us all after revealing his success in taking over both of their bodies."
"If that were the case," Nezu interrupted, "I'd had long gone down my escape hatch." He turned to the two new arrivals, pouring out two new cups as he did. "Even if you two did take your time in doing so, I'm glad to see you back! I've had some tea for you prepared, you see; nice and classic matcha! I'd say you need it after the events of the past night."
Izuku walked up to Izuku, taking the steaming beverage in his hand and greedily taking it in. "Thanks Nezu. I needed that."
Nezu smiled. "As I knew you would." He then turned back to Togata, offering the cup out to him. "Hmm?"
Togata held out a hand. "No thanks, Principal Nezu. I'm good."
Izuku's arm took the offered cup without warning. "More for me then."
Nighteye grunted. "Nezu, if you think—"
"Uwup!" Nezu interrupted, a mischievous smile on his face "I've been over this with you, Mirai. It's 'Principal Nezu' to you."
Nighteye closed his eyes, taking a breath before continuing. "Principal Nezu." He paused, waiting to see if he would be interrupted once more. But when none such obstruction came, he continued on. "You can't tell me that you're okay with the prospect of letting a potentially hazardous element to society galavant around your office without any restrictions? Surely such a thing will at least make you pause to think?"
"Are you talking about Togata-senpai?" Izuku interjected, then taking another sip of his tea. "'Cause that's an awfully rude thing to say about your now pseudo-sidekick."
Izuku hands tightened around his armrests. "I'm talking about you and your All For One-weilding face, Midoriya."
"Uhh… Nighteye?" Togata butted in, eyes darting back and forth between his mentor and his underclassman.
Nighteye turned to face Togata, his face smoothing itself out. "Yes, Mirio?"
"Midoriya actually gave me All For One." As he said this, he raised a bundle of flames in one hand, and formed a spear out of thin air in the other.
Nighteye nearly fell out of his seat, all while Yagi had his eyes nearly bulging out of his sunken sockets. "WHAT?!"
"I know!" Togata smiled, dispelling both his newly made fire and spear and then placing his arms at his waist. "Cool, right?!"
Nighteye took a moment to recollect himself, shaking his head before he reclaimed his usual stoic and cold expression. He looked to Izuku, his stare no longer as stern and calculating as it was before, but still holding a tinge of contempt.
"Be that as it may," Nighteye began, "I still have concerns addressing the danger Midoriya stands to bring to U.A. as one of its residents. After all, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that Kentaro and his killers would take advantage of all this chaos to assault the school, Midoriya being a point of interest for them all. I know that the rumors say that they all simply fell off the face of the earth, but at best until we can confirm these claims they are no better than just a bunch of hearsay. Any moment and—"
The small number of Kentaro's group who are still alive are holed up down below!, so there's no need to worry about that!" Nezu cheered. "And I must say, we have a good count! Three and a half is a slightly better number of survivors than I expected to be left!"
Mirai raised an eyebrow "Below?"
"Three and a half?" Izuku asked.
"Horde's still snug as a bug in his cell considering you left him be, Izuku." Nezu continued, gesticulating while ignoring Nighteye's muttered question. "Pathogen's head injury is being tended to by Miss Yaoyorozu and Mister Todoroki at the moment. Kizu's been locked right back up in her cell; currently being watched over by Mister Honenuki and Mister Fukidashi."
Nezu looked to Izuku. "And Chiyo's officially announced Ricochet to be in a strange state in between brain death and consciousness."
"Ricochet got brain damage?" Izuku asked, his surprise clear on his face. "But how? With his quirk that should be virtually impossible."
"That's true," Yagi chimed in. "I've read up on him, and I dare say that even in my prime that I wouldn't have been able to do such damage to him."
"Hmm… Aha!" Togata held a finger up. "I think that it might have to do with… Defense Bypassing Force Waves?
"Huh," Izuku huffed. "Sounds esoteric enough; that'd probably do that." He turned to Nezu. "Guess that just leaves us with one then, huh?"
"Two if you count Caustic," Nezu corrected.
"Excuse me?" Nighteye butted in.
"Victims that'll need extra convincing to ensure certain… details don't get out to the general public," Nezu clarified. "Lucky for Horde that he was the first one your team knocked out, Izuku. He hasn't the slightest idea. And nobody's going to believe a little kid who's been in the presence of serial killers. The people will believe that she was merely made to say those words."
Nighteye was almost ready to jump out of his wheelchair. "What the hell are you two—"
Nighteye's outburst was stopped in its tracks as he felt a hand fall upon his shoulder. Looking up, he found none other than Yagi, giving him a resigned smile. "Best to just leave them be, Mirai. You'll actually keep your sanity that way."
A conflicted look appeared on Nighteye's face, eyes darting between Yagi's and Izuku's differing figures. "But—"
"AHH!" Izuku screamed, jumping in place.
Togata, Yagi, and Nighteye nearly all jumped out of their skin in return, blindsided by the sudden reaction of the green-haired boy.
"What?!" Togata asked, gripping Izuku by the shoulders. "I thought that we were finally done! That the situation could deescalate and I'd be able to have my final year of high school in peace. Please don't tell me it's another attack!"
"They're coming," Izuku muttered under his breath, his eyes staring off into the distance. "And it's like a whole stampede." Izuku removed himself from Togata's grip. And then he turned, slowly, to face the rodent behind the desk. Only to find him snickering beyond belief, nearly falling out from his chair.
And then, as if by command, a small light lit up on Nezu's desk. A flashing light that — after some effort spent during the aftermath of his late night escapades — Izuku discovered signified the rising of the elevator from the bunker below.
Izuku's eye twitched, his body aching for him to move. But he knew in his mind that it was already too late for any possible escape. And so he glared, imprinting an impression of payback-to-come straight into the eyes of the now smirking Nezu.
"Your late night arrival last night gave me quite the pile of paperwork I had to do," Nezu simply explained with a shrug. "What'd you expect out of me? A simple acceptance of apology?"
Izuku growled. "You moth—"
The doors to the office slammed open.
The elevator finally completed its route to the principal's office, its door opening with a sickingly cheerful ding.
"IZUKU!"
"You're grounded, Izuku!"
"But Mom!"
A/N: And there we have it. Just one more chapter until the end. On a side note, remember that other story that I've been hinting at? Well, it's first chapter will be out next week! So stay tuned for that!
Thanks to everyone who's stuck with me thus far! See you next time!
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