Capítulo 2347: 89
Chapter 89: Crushed
A/N: First off, let me say happy new year to all of you! Yeah, I know it's a bit late. But hey, better late than never, right? Anyways, as for the fic: Continue! Onwards, to battle!
Togata kicked off without another word. Most of those who knew him were surprised at seeing him shooting out of the ground in their defense, considering the loss of his Permeation not too long ago. Though, most were even more surprised at what came next.
It was true that the distance between Togata and Shigaraki was hundreds of meters out, but with a simple movement it was covered in all but a few seconds. With his speed Togata had reached his target near instantly, kickstarting the battle in earnest
Shockwaves erupted far in the distance, displacing particles of dirt and ash into the air. The sheer force created by the fighting pair was so strong that it could be felt by the onlookers, each wave and punch gushing air past their forms.
Very few were in the know of how such a development could have come to be. Most were stuck standing in shocked awe, trying to decipher how a boy who could merely phase through objects could trade blow for blow with such a powerful adversary.
The fair few who did know remained vigilant, keeping themselves busy with other tasks to aud in the fight. In fact, there was one such individual who took advantage of the slight reprieve the greatest — namely, one Izuku Midoriya. With most of the others preoccupied, he knew it was his time to act.
He tugged on Ashido's arm, dragging her attention away from developing conflict. He gestured, inclining his head towards an isolated spot away from any possible prying ears.
And although Ashido was quite obviously nervous at first, biting her lips as her gaze shot back and forth between the gestured spot and the boy by her side, she knew that there was little she could do to dissuade her wayward classmate from what he wanted.
"I have a feeling that I already know what this is about," Ashido muttered once they were far enough away from the others, her voice laced with suspicion. "And I don't like it."
"You know as well as I do that I have to do something!" Izuku argued, his sharp whisper seemingly cutting through the air. "Doing anything otherwise isn't something that I can consider, especially when I can help turn the tide!"
"You think I don't know that!?" Ashido shot back. "Shigaraki's a monster now! It's obvious that we need all hands on deck!"
"Then—"
"No!" Ashido exclaimed, grabbing Izuku face by the cheeks and forcing his gaze towards the battle.
"Look at that!" Ashido cried out. "They're destroying everything around them with mere punches! What chance do any of us even have in standing against something so powerful? I mean, he's killed so many of us already, and with just his original quirk! In your condition, you'd be killed in an instant!"
"I know that!" Izuku contended, looking Ashido in the eyes. "You think I don't know that? But it doesn't matter. It's a risk I have to take, for the sake of everyone counting on us. For our friends, our families, for every single civilian and every hero that has died today. This has to end here, before it can get out of hand."
One of Ashido's eyes twitched. A few moments of silence passed between the two, the tension effectively drowning out the sound around them.
"Gahhhhh!" Ashido threw her hands up in the air. "Fuck! Fine, you're right. Let's go then, before I change my mind and chicken out."
Ashido began pulling him towards the battle, but Izuku kept his ground, a bit of hesitation evident in his features. "Ashido…"
Ashido looked at him with a glare. "What? Don't think that I'd be able to do anything?"
Izuku's eyes widened in surprise, his hands immediately shooting up in a placating gesture. "No! No, no, of course not. It's just… You shouldn't have to go just because—"
"I'm volunteering, Midoriya," she interrupted, her voice matter-as-fact. She was already taking off one of her shoes, burning a hole through the sole with her acid. She placed the shoe back on afterwards, repeating the process with the other.
"Besides," Ashido continued, "I'm not leaving you to go off on what's essentially be a suicide mission in the condition you're in. You're taking me with you whether you like it or not."
"But—"
"Do you really want to have the same argument you just had with Aizawa-sensei?"
Izuku let out a sigh. "Fine."
"Great!" Ashido cheered. "Now hold on tight."
"Wha—"
Before Izuku could react, he found himself draped over Ashido's back against his will.
"Man," Ashido sighed, "like I said before, you are heavy. Thankfully, despite you being taller than me, it seems like all the malnourishment from the lab made you lose a few pounds!"
"Wow…" Izuku drawled. "Thanks Ashido."
"Your welcome! Doesn't change the fact that you owe me for this later, though. Oh! And a pair of shoes too!"
"Ashido—"
"Arms secured around my neck please," Ashido continued with a smirk. A shockwave in their general direction led to the expression faltering for a bit, but nonetheless she continued with her upbeat tone. "Don't want you falling off now, do we?"
With a sigh, Izuku did as he was told.
"Good! Now play along," she said, walking towards the trio of Aizawa, Rock Lock, and Manual. "We probably want over there as fast as possible, so no time to explain, 'kay?"
Before Izuku could even ask what she meant by that, he and Ashido found themselves right beside Rock Lock.
"What are you two still doing here?" Rock Lock questioned. "Eraser already told you two to scram!"
"Ashido…" Aizawa added warningly.
"I know, I know!" Ashido pleaded. "It's just—"
She and the others braced themselves from a slight rumbling of the ground, caused by when Shigaraki and Togata — who had some time ago taken the fight to the air — had both crashed into the ground.
Ashido continued along after she steadied her own footing. "I was wondering if you could use your quirk on Izuku here so he'd stick onto my back. That way I can drag him off to the triage center without him getting away from me."
"Wait, what?!" Izuku shouted. "Ashido!"
"First off, ouch!" Ashido scowled. "My ears are right there, you know! And second, you get no say in this!"
Izuku began to remove his arms from around Ashido's neck, but the girl circumvented his efforts merely by keeping one hand around his wrists, and another to continue holding him up on her back.
"Do it, Rock Lock," Aizawa simply added.
"Gotcha," Rock Lock said, removing one of his arms from around Aizawa and moving it towards the trapped Izuku. Without another word, the two students found themselves stuck together.
Ashido let her grip free, leading to Izuku to attempt another escape from her back. However, despite removing his arms from their previous position, he found his torso stuck to her back, no sign of the force keeping the two stuck together weakening in the slightest.
"Perfect!" Ashido exclaimed, acid beginning to leak out from under her shoes. She positioned herself as if she was about to take off in a marathon, bending slightly and pointed towards her destination. The one caveat being, her facing straight towards the ongoing battle.
Despite not directly looking at his students, Aizawa caught notice of the sight in his periphery. It only took him a moment to decipher what the image meant. "Ashido! Don't you dare—"
But it was too late, Ashido already darting off towards battle, the acid flowing from her soles granting her movements taken to wearing roller blades.
"Sorry!" she yelled back. "I'll take the detention later, Aizawa-sensei! Wish us luck!"
"Shit!" Rock Lock cursed, watching the duo's retreating backs. "I didn't think that she'd be doing that! But don't worry Eraser, I'll just cancel out my—"
"Don't," Aizawa countered. "Leave them be."
Rock Lock stared at the man with unbelieving eyes. "You can't be serious."
Aizawa sighed. "Unfortunately, I am. It'd prove an unnecessary isk with how far they've already gotten."
"We could have Torino get them back, no?" Manual added in. "I'm pretty sure he can carry the two of them, right?"
"He could," Aizawa replied. "However…"
"What?" Rock Lock asked.
Aizawa sighed. "I hate to say it, but Midoriya hasn't proven to be incapable of anything thus far, despite my grievances with his… methods. He knows how to gauge his abilities in the face of a dire situation. If he says he can help, whatever he can do must be something pretty substantial."
Aizawa continued on with his task, his eyes staring daggers at the newly risen Shigaraki. He didn't stray his gaze, no matter how much he wanted to look at his two students who were going to risk their lives.
"Just don't make me regret this, Midoriya," Aizawa muttered to himself, worry strewn into his very being.
He barely saw the projectile hurtling straight towards him until it was too late.
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Izuku exclaimed, patting Ashido's back. "Slow down!"
"Nuh-uh!" Ashido chided, keeping up her upbeat attitude despite the signs of battle up ahead. "You're going to have to get used to it! I'll be dodging and stuff all over the battlefield later! And besides, it's not like you'll fall off!"
"I—" Izuku paused. "Okay fine, you have a point!" he admitted. "But what the heck was that back there?! I thought that you were really going to take me to the evac zone! Couldn't you have at least told me that you were faking it?"
"Brace!" Ashido yelled, leaping over a rather sizable crater, at the same time covering her face from the loose debris still present in the air. "And I told you to play along, didn't I?"
"I didn't know that you were going to do that! You got me panicked!"
"Exactly! I got a genuine reaction out of you because of it! I was all the more convincing because of it!"
The sounds of battle grew louder as the duo grew closer and closer to the fight. The distant booms from before were nearly ear-rupturing by now, with the distant brown and black clouds now something they stood in the midst of, particles spewing every which way.
Ashido herself gazed up at the encroaching battle at this point, squinting her eyes to avoid the almost ever-present glare that emanated from the multitude of quirks being used up above.
"Is that…" Ashido gulped. "Is that what I think I'm seeing?"
Izuku blinked, he as well stupefied on the sight up above. Of the sight of Shigaraki using quirks.
"I… I think it is."
"But Aizawa-sensei—!"
"Nothing we can do about it now!" Izuku said. "Just be extra careful now!"
"But we're on the ground," Ashido muttered. "His Decay—"
"We'll be fine as long as Togata keeps the fight in the air. Any sign of Shigaraki touching the ground, you immediately swerve in the opposite direction, alright?"
Ashido nodded. "Right, right. Like it'll be that easy," she sighed.
"You know…" Ashido began, "only now has the reality of the situation caught up to me. And, well… Shit. This is a horrible idea. Why am I even here?"
"Well, technically it's because Toga wanted to use you to assassinate All Might," Izuku informed rather nonchalantly.
"She what!?" Ashido squeaked, missing her footing and nearly tumbling to the ground.
"Sorry!" Izuku apologized. "Probably should have saved that for later like the other things. But just… huh."
"Huh?! 'Huh' what?"
"We've just entered a suitable range," Izuku answered. "Skirt around the edge, but be ready for evasive maneuvers!"
"Wait! Edge of what?!" Ashido yelled out. "And how exactly are you going to coordinate with Togata-san up there?!"
"A circle!" Izuku replied, eyes focused on his opponent. "Around a hundred foot radius centered on Shigaraki. I'll tell you if you end up going off course! As for Togata, I just need to—"
"Your bugs aren't available at the moment. I'm still fixing that component of our power… Are you telling me that you didn't notice?"
Izuku twitched. I've been a bit busy, you know!
"We'll just wing it?" Izuku eventually finished.
"Just great," Ashido muttered. "Remind me how you're so high ranked in the class again? It seems like you don't think before jumping into a situation!"
"I do so! Like, I'm almost certain that Shigaraki is way too preoccupied with Togata to care about us! And with the way Togata is fighting, Shigaraki can't likely target us! It's a wonderfully set up scenario where we— Gah! Nevermind, focus! I'm about to do it! Prepare for potential retaliation!"
Up above, Shigaraki and Togata continued to trade blow after blow. Black and red spires erupted from Shigaraki's back, zig-zagging through the air in an attempt to reach their target. They never did, oftentimes blocked by yellow barriers of energy or Togata simply letting the attack phase through him.
If anything, the fight was at a stalemate — Togata for his as of yet still developing prowess over One For All, and Shigaraki for his underdeveloped transformation. The two developed to physical attacks, letting out highly powered kicks and punches that most wouldn't be able to track with the naked eye.
However, to a certain individual down on the ground, that wasn't a problem.
You got him, Taylor?
"Ready to invoke a spasm on his right arm. Just waiting for the right moment… right… now."
Up above, Shigaraki was about to block a punch from Togata. He raised his arm up, blocking his face in the process. However, at the exact last moment, his arm spasmed, flailing all around and breaking his guard. Togata's punch connected, sending Shigaraki flying through the air.
"Success!" Ashido cheered. "Whatever it is that you're doing, anyways."
"No time!" Izuku shouted, already pointing in the direction Shigaraki had flown off towards. "We're out of range again; thankfully it isn't too far though."
"In a jiffy captain!" Ashido called out, making a tight turn around some metallic debris. "Onwards!"
Izuku grimaced, the cheerful tone coming from Ashido slightly bothering him, considering it having been present ever since their escape from the Doctor's lab. "How can you still be so upbeat in this situation?!" He asked. "I mean, we're in a—"
"It's a coping method, okay!" Ashido shot back almost immediately.
"Alright! Alright! Fine, I was just— Ah! And we're back in range!"
Izuku immediately got to work, reaching out to where he felt Shigaraki up high in the sky above them. In tandem with Taylor's efforts, he timed another spasm on the villain's body.
This time, a twirled foot twisted Shigaraki's whole from around, doing a 180 degree spin. The action left Shigaraki's backside open to attack, something of which Togata readily took advantage of by stabbing Shigaraki in the back with his energy-created swords.
Togata flew backwards right after, narrowly dodging an incoming barrage of what Izuku now noticed was the same attack All For One had used during the Kamino Incident. Though, at the same time of noticing this, Izuku didn't neglect to notice the way Shigaraki's head jerked right in their direction.
"That's not good."
"What?!" Ashido asked. "What's not good?"
I'm pretty sure Shigaraki's noticed us. Make sure that you can—"
"Gah! Fucking—!"
Izuku jerked his head away from Shigaraki, focusing instead on what was ahead on Ashido. He wasn't able to completely make out what had Ashido so spooked, considering the fact that she was already jumping over said thing when Izuku finally decided to look.
However, as Ashido landed, Izuku took the moment to look back. He almost regretted doing so, considering the ashen hand that had risen from the ground, already coalescing into a larger, very similar form.
"It's Kaijin-chan!" Ashido screamed.
"We are not calling it that!"
"You have any better ideas!? And shouldn't you be worried about the fact that it can decay things like Shigaraki? We're barely twenty, thirty feet away from it! We're going to die!"
yOu kILled ruKa! MiDOriya iZuku! YoU'lL pAy!
"Well fuck," Izuku cursed.
"See! What did I tell you! I'm haunting you after this, you know!?"
"That doesn't even make any—" Izuku shook his head, "Nevermind. And stop being so pessimistic!" he said, looking back once more at the following construct. "I think we're fine for the moment!"
Izuku made a decision then, taking his attention away from it and focusing back on Shigaraki.
"And what makes you say that!?" Ashido cried.
"It's chasing us on foot! It probably means that it doesn't share the effective range and destruction that Shigaraki has."
"You don't know that!" Ashido retorted. "It could be playing with us!"
"And do you really want to think that?"
"I— Shit! Shit! Shit!"
Izuku dragged his attention away from Shigaraki and back to his current position. The first thing he noticed was the disappearance of the ashen construct behind them, and it's sudden appearance in front of them.
Ashido swerved a hard right, only for the ashen construct to melt into the ground. It immediately appeared before them again, this time getting Ashido to react with a complete stop, the acid around her feet disappearing and her pushing her feet against the ground to slow their advance.
Acid began to spew from her feet again, Ashido retreating in the opposite direction.
"This is getting crazy, Midoriya! That's two close calls so far!"
"I know! But it looks like Shigaraki's getting pretty hurt up there! Endeavor just joined up a little while ago, so it's two against one and—"
"Ahhhh!"
The hand shot out of the ground, palm faced directly towards them. It was too close for them to simply stop or turn, the hand only two or three feet away. They were both going to die, and it would be his fault. Ashido would die, and it would be—
Twitch.
POWER!
Once more, Shigaraki flew off in the distance, heading right out of Izuku's range. And quite miraculously, it seemed they had fallen outside of his range as well. The ashen hand suddenly collapses, particles of ash uselessly falling to the ground, completely inert.
Ashido stopped in her tracks. She crouched down, grasping the place on her chest where her heart would be. She took in heavy gulps of air, her shaky breath the only thing Izuku was paying attention to.
"Damn…" Ashido muttered. "That… that was close. I'm pretty sure I had that whole 'life-flashing-before-your-eyes' thing just now."
She remained where she was for a whole minute. Izuku knew that it was a whole minute that could have been used to aid in the battle efforts, but a part of Izuku berated himself for thinking that. He let the moment be, believing wholeheartedly that Ashido needed it.
Eventually, she stood up by herself. She rolled her shoulders, then went ahead and clamped her fingers together before stretching out her arms.
"Okay," Ashido breathed. "Okay. I think I'm good." She took a moment, gazing around her before eyeing the battle in the distance. Before Izuku could say anything, she was already skating off towards the ongoing chaos.
"As—"
"I'm fine, Midoriya. Think up a way that we can counter Kaijin-kun instead of fretting over me."
Izuku blinked. "What do you mean?"
Ashido groaned. "I mean, he could have appeared right under us, right? We wouldn't have even had a chance to react. But he keeps showing up in front of us. What gives? Not that I'm complaining exactly, but…"
"No, no. I get it," Izuku muttered. "Let's see… He keeps appearing out of the ground. Why? Because everything around is essentially stuff the Shigaraki's obliterated? That means that the construct is piecing itself together from leftover ash. Okay. That makes sense. But why now go straight for the kill? Why keep his distance, and pop up in front of us instead of directly below? Shigaraki's not playing around obviously. He's mad, and when he's mad he's unhinged. So that means something about us is keeping him from going for the kill outright. He wants me alive? Unlikely, given the construct. Ashido probably doesn't matter to him, so… Aha!"
"What is it?" Ashido exclaimed.
"It's your acid!" Izuku answered back. "I don't think that the ash can form properly into the weird minion form because of it."
"So what? You want me spraying it around wherever we go so eventually the whole field is covered in my acid?"
"That's… actually a great plan! Nice job!" Izuku said, eyes glazed over as he stared after Shigfaraki. "Do it!"
"Wait, seriously?!" Ashido cried. "You're kidding me! I was joking! Do you know how tiring that will be? And that's not considering how tired I already am!"
"We don't have any other choice! It's the best we can do! And start doing it! We're right about in range. The acidic level you're using right now on your feet should be fine! Just do it!"
Ashido followed through despite her disgruntlement. She closed her palms together, creating a spout to launch her acid upwards and into their immediate area.
The results of her work were readily able to be seen, an ashen hand in the process of rising in front of them dissipating the moment the acid fell upon it.
"Sweet! Ashido cheered. Looks like it's back to watching out just for Shigaraki if I can keep this up then!"
"Wonderful!" Izuku cheered back. "And I've got another spasm=m queued up, I just—"
The sight before his eyes stoppe the words from leaving his tongue. Endeavor, falling to the ground after having been stabbed by those red/black spires. Togata, speeding his way towards Endeavor to catch him and black tendrils shot ahead to do the same; all the while dodging Shigaraki's assault.
As much as Izuku hated to say it, Togata should have let Endeavor to fall. Because it left Togata open. And Shigaraki took the advantage when he saw it, speeding straight towards Togata.
The villain's hand gripped Togata's shoulder.
A sudden jolt raced through Izuku's mind.
"Wha—"
A/N: Sorry if this chapter may seem a bit unpolished. I'm not exactly sure whether or not it actually gives off that type of vibe though, considering the only look over I did this time around was for a casual spell check. It's been a bit of a busy week for me, so time crunch, ya know? I wanted to get the chapter out now, though. So, hopefully it's up to standard!
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