Chapter 51: Beasts and Battle

“Text” – Normal speech

‘Text’ – Thought

“Text” – Quirk Spirit speaking in the human world

“Text” - Attack

“Text” – Radio/Communication lines

“Text” – None Japanese speech

(text) – Subtext/meaning behind a spoken word

Line Break

"Eraser." Thirteen called out, as she was getting bad vibes from this one. He wasn't the sort of villain who would go quietly.

"Already on it." Eraser flashed his quirk, locking onto the man as his capture scarf raced forward, entangling the man and pinning his arms to his side.

"Oh, I was told about you." That finally got his attention as the dark-haired man smiled at them, his face near splitting with how hard those staples strained. But their attention went to the fact that his hands were still lit up, bright blue flames coating both his hands before his entire body burst into flames. Aizawa was left stunned by this, as his capture weapon burned so fast that the villain only needed to flex to discard the rest.

Even through the blue blaze coating the man, they could see his insane grin. "Nice to see it was all BS." He sent a giant blast of blue flames towards them.

The heroes, while caught flat-footed by the clear use of quirk, didn't let their surprise slow them down. Eraser quickly sent his scarf to an overhead streetlight, and with another, he grabbed onto one of the downed helicopter pilots, pulling them out of the way. All Might similarly grabbed onto Thirteen, the commission agent, and the second pilot before leaping out of the way of the gales of bright blue flames.

“That the?” Thirteen asked.

“Eraser, why didn’t you-” All Might yelled towards Eraser.

“I did!” He shot back, as he hadn’t released Erasure the entire time, but even with his gaze locked onto the burned-covered villain, his quirk wasn't suppressed, a fact proven when he sent out another blast of flames at them, Eraser feeling the heat from them even as he dodged. “He shouldn’t be able to use his quirks unless…”

No, that wasn't possible, but…unless this was something else he had never seen before, it could only be…

“All Might, Thirteen, it’s just like the USJ.” He called out to the two, keeping it vague so they alone would catch on. All Might's smile growing strained at the news as that…complicated things. Landing, he faced the incoming flames, but with a wave of his hand, the force generated dissipated the flames. At the same time, he flicked his finger towards the villain, sending a blast of air that knocked the villain off his feet, but he twisted mid-air, landing on his feet, none the worse for wear.

“USJ? Wonder what that’s all about?” The villain asked, dodging Eraser's attempt to wrap him to set him up for All Might, only for Thirteen's black hole to catch him, as he fought against its pull, using his flames as thrusters. A thought seemed to come to him. "Oh, wait a minute, you know, don't you? Oh, that's new. You heroes never seem to figure that out."

All Might responded to his question with a heavy punch to the face, having not wasted the chance to get close to the villain, who was otherwise distracted. Unlike with the first hit, this sent the man flying, crashing into the blood-stained, ash-filled street, bouncing a couple of times before he smacked into the guard rail along the rail with a hard thud.

"Enough, villain! We've had enough of your crimes. Surrender!" He demanded, as they needed to finish this quickly, but more than that, they needed to inform the dean about this, as if this guy wasn't the exception but the norm of this attack. They needed more than they could bring to the fight. He needed more than he could use, as much as it burned him to admit such.

With attention off them, the commission agent used the chance to lead the two pilots off the street and into an alley where they wouldn’t be in the way, as they could see they wouldn’t be able to add anything to this fight.

As they left, the villain seemed to prove as much as despite that heavy hit, he got up like it was little more than a light fall. Feeling at his jaw, the villain’s gaze didn’t lessen, and when he conjured up another two balls of flames in his hands, they only burned hotter. “Nah, I don’t feel like dying just yet. I got some work to do, and fun to have!”

His follow-up was larger then the first, stronger as well as All Might could feel himself sweating even as the fireball approached, Thirteen stepping in to help as opened up 2 of her finger taps and sucked in the giant blast of fire, the villain didn't stay stationary, as with his attack countered, flames shot out his feet. Back, sending into the air, the man flying over them, firing down on them with blasts and balls of searing hot flames, all while using his flames as thrusters like a spacecraft would, rolling, dodging, and weaving through their attempts to stop him.

All Might just barely missed him when he sent himself rocketing up, but he could angle himself so that as he almost overshot him-

“New Hampshire Smash!” All Might punched the air, turning his body in the same motion so that instead of just being sent back to earth, he was flipped in the air in a moment, his fist already clenched and coming to strike the villain centre mass, to which the scarred, grinning villain’s body burst, sending flames out his chest, creating a fiery shield which diminished All Might’s blow, the blast was followed by on out his back and shins, further cushioning his landing.

"This one will be tricky," Eraser muttered, having seen the entire thing. He could say this about this villain or quirk: They were incredibly skilled—nothing like the monster that Shigaraki had brought, which acted on instinct alone.

But that couldn’t match them, as despite the flames coating their body, All Might managed to get close, his fist pulled back.

“Detroit Smash!” All Might yelled as he punched the villain right in the face. His flames proved too little to defend against the blow, its force blowing away the fire and smoke as the villain was sent flying. Not stopping by the guard rail, he crashed through it and then through the brick wall of an abandoned business.

“Holy-that was incredible…” One of the pilots watching uttered in awe.

“Great work, All Might! With this one down-!” The other was about to cheer from their hiding spot. Still, the commission agent stopped them, not understanding why she had this sinking feeling in her stomach.

“It’s not over yet, gentlemen.” All Might told them, which sounded insane, that he, the Symbol of Peace, the strongest hero in the world, had landed one of his signature attacks on this villain. Of course, All Might must have held back to not kill them, but no one was gonna just get back up from-!

Their disbelief was replaced with shock and fear as they heard something in the building. Something moving. Despite the odds, the villain crawled out of the hole before slowly rising to his feet. His face was heavily bruised, and several teeth were missing, yet he didn't seem to care about any of it.

Eraser and the rest were surprised, but not as much as the commission agent and chopper pilots. This was something they had suspected. "Okay, that one hurt. No wonder even the dead think you’re a Demi-God. But it at least proved my theory,” the man mused, almost forgetting that they were present.

"Eraser, get the two out of here, leave this to Thirteen and me." All Might stated.

“Got it, just don’t do anything illogical, just contain him till reinforcements can get here.” Eraser didn't fight him on this, turning to do just that. He also contacted the school about this and hopefully got help before the city burned down.

All Might smiled, feeling hesitation, uncertainty, and fear, but also reaching for his drive, hope, and determination to save lives. “Eraser, my friend. The role of heroes often means doing the illogical to save lives and hearts.”

Dabi watched as Erasure left, but didn’t give him issues. If he was heading out, odds are he’ll return with back-up, and if he was lucky, they’ll send the flame hero against him, believing that Endeavour could handle a man like him. But till that happened…

“Now, since you’re pulling out stuff like that, I’ll bring out some A-grade material of my own.” Dabi’s bruised, bloody smile grew in intensity as his body was instantly shrouded in an aura of bright blue flames, turning him into a walking bonfire.

Those flames started to get sucked up almost as fast as he could produce them as Thirteen held her hand out to him, all four fingers and thumb cap open, using half the full power of her quirk to prevent the villain from reaching his best. “It doesn't matter how hot your flames are if I just suck them all up!"

Dabi laughed, seeing how his flames were devoured into the nothingness, and how All Might was prepping to try and defeat him. Man must have seen he couldn't handle him like he would a human, but who knows, maybe he'll get lucky; that was just part of what made this fun. "But how much can you take, Thirteen? I have a lot of fuel and I'm having too much fun to stop now!"

Line Break

'Okay, so I have its attention,' Midnight thought as she landed another strike with her whip against the quirk's side, cracking its fusion of scales and flesh hide. But it wasn't doing damage, at least nothing that was slowing it down.

Instead, all it did was turn its head towards her, lunging to devour her. The woman swung her whip onto an overhead balcony, feeling it become taut. She pulled with as much force as she could, jumping in the same act to evade the attack. Landing on the balcony, she heard a popping sound and felt the railing bars twitch just a little, a near impossible thing with how much else was happening.

She didn’t hesitate as she jumped off it. A moment later, the building exploded as the quirk sent off several blasts within its interior, the five-story store and apartment combo crumbling, sending tons of concrete, wood, and steel onto the beast.

Landing with a roll, Midnight was back on her feet, whipping at the quirk’s side, keeping its interest and probably ire on her as it ripped its head free of the debris and turned to glare at her, none worse for wear.

Gazing at it, Midnight felt sweat form on her brow. She'd had her fair share of bad fights over the years and had seen some terrible things, including that whole mess with Naruhata, but this was something else entirely. This wasn't someone on trigger or some messed-up creation of science, but something else entirely.

A monstrous serpent, grotesquely swollen, its vast body sheathed in a fused armour of scale and hide—an unnatural shell that bulged and pulsed. This was not human, it wasn't alive, and yet it still existed. It was still dangerous, and she had no means to do any meaningful damage.

“Nezu, we have a problem.” Midnight contacted the school, as she could speak a little more freely with no one else.

There was a moment of silence before the radio was picked up. “Go ahead, Midnight. I assume it has something to do with the nature of the villains?” Midnight didn’t even pretend to be surprised that Nezu would have caught on by now, not like she was the only one who could be passing on reports.

"Yes, they're quirks. I don't know why they're here, or how many, but one was about to attack some people. I managed to lead it away, but I'm running out of options to avoid its attacks." She relayed, having turned to run down the road, the quirk letting out an ear piercing screek as it gave chest, its body developing boils which raptured randomly, throwing explosive force every which way, a couple nearly tripping her up, but like she joked with Death Arms, she was no novice when it came to hero work in heels, nor where her heels the sort which easily broke.

“I see. I'm putting on Professor Midoriya. She can better categorise this situation.” Nezu promptly replied. The speed with which he handed the line over probably meant that he had already found the professor and that she was in the command station.

“Ms. Midnight, can you describe the quirk? What does it look like? What powers does it have?” Inko asked, the woman getting straight to business, no panic or hesitation as she would expect from a normal civilian.

Dodging another attack, Midnight lashed out with her whip, striking at the quirk's side. As she did so, she gave a description of her opponent. Inko listened carefully to this, taking time to consider the threat level. “Hmm, that is definitely at the same ranking as the USJ incident, just not the same strength," Inko informed her. This was a relief; she didn't need this suddenly mutating, even if it lacked a physical body like the Nomu. “Where are you?”

Sparing a glance at her surroundings, she could make out some landmarks despite the destruction. “I’m about nine blocks southwest of the plaza.” That was good, really good. It gave the rest of them time to get as many people as they could out.

It was not so good for her, as she accidentally ran into another one. This beast looked closer to a truck-sized lizard. Its scales were made from rough, rugged stone with a white bone-like mask. Its eye holes lacked true eyeballs but crudely carved stone, which didn't seem to look at her but seemed to track her every move, all the same.

“Okay, we have someone coming towards you. Just…mind the wind," Inko replied, not having time to tell her that she had double the issues to handle as she felt the wind picking up.

“Hahahaha!” She looked up, seeing that the wind she felt was just the furthest reaches of a tornado, at its core was a man who seemed to be having the time of his life. "I can't believe it. I got the chance to fight alongside you, midnight! You're one of the coolest pros out there, being so passionate, I can't help but praise it!" The figure, a man more than a boy, declared as he waved his arm, sending blades of air towards the first of the quirks, cutting deep into it, gaining shrieks of pain as it skidded back.

As the second tried to make a move, and Midnight prepared to try and attack it, the wind controlling man used his quirk to propel himself into it, his fist coated in a fiercely and thick cyclone of wind which he used to punch the lizard, it didn’t cut as deep, but it seared through a good layer of stone, forcing the beast back.

Blasting off the monster, the man landed next to Midnight, giving her time to get a good look at him. She was right on the man part, as he wasn't just tall; he was incredibly muscular and easily one of the biggest men she's ever met. His clothing, on the other hand, was…simply, clearly he hadn't been planning to do anything but enjoy the festival, but hadn't shied away from the call to action.

“Well, always happy to meet a fan, you wouldn’t happen to be the help that Midoriya sent over?” Midnight asked him, as she could recall seeing a face like his that day. Yes, she was sure of it, and he had been wearing a Shiketsu uniform to boot.

“That’s right. We met not too long ago, but I wasn't able to properly introduce myself!" Yoarashi’s grin didn’t diminish in the slightest, and she noted his gaze never once went below her neck. "Please, let me correct that after we handle this fella!" Around the two, another cyclone formed, the wind creating a wall that kept out their opponents, who both leapt at them. The snake paid for it as the wind sliced into its body, drawing blood.

Nodding towards him, Yoarashi released the wind barrier, giving Midnight the chance to attack the wounded snake. Using her quirk in conjunction with her whip, she struck at its wounds, drawing screams as she tried to put the damn thing to sleep, but while it was slowing down, it was having as much effect as her earlier attempts, only slowing it down.

Yoarashi was having a much easier time whipping about the lizard. Its attacks seemed slow and drunk compared to him, who, in contrast, was able to land blow after blow. Eventually, he managed to lift its leg off the ground, and when it came down, it was into what mini cyclone, tearing at its armour till, at last, his wind drew blood—a lot of it—as the spirit, enraged and on a rampage, bellowed out in pain.

Its other led slammed into the earth, sending its power through the street, Midnight and Yoarashi spotting how everything around it become rugged and stone-like, with protrusions of rock jutting out the road, the sidewalk, the guard rails, even a close by bush which had somehow escaped the worst of it, the weight of the newly formed storm too much for the piece of greenery which collapsed under its own newly gained weight.

Midnight, not wanting to see how far the quirk could spread its effects, latched onto a street light with her whip and pulled herself out. Yoarashi remained in place, levitating thanks to his wind.

“That quirk…I remember you, not from Midoriya’s little secret, but you applied for U.A. as well, didn’t you? We never did learn why you refused to accept your approved application when you got top marks in the recommendation exam.” Midnight called out to him, swinging to the side and out of the way as she focused on the snake, which was finally starting to slow further.

"It was…a spur-of-the-moment choice, Midnight. But I don't regret it, Shiketsu is pretty damn fun, and so many of my classmates are my kind of people." Yoarashi paused momentarily, looking away with disgust, but he recovered just as fast.

Midnight had questions about that, but that would come later. “Well, it’s sad we lost out on such a strapping and strong young man, but to each their own.” She chuckled as she evaded a strike from the snake's tail, which caved in the door of an abandoned car, her whip lashing out in a counterattack at its eyes. You wouldn’t happen to have any of those capture balls on you, would you?”

Yoarashi patted his side, pulling out one of them, which enlarged his hand. "Never leave home without at least three. I just didn't think I'd be using them today…” Again, he frowned, but now Midnight saw he looked to the side at the lifeless corpse she had actively been ignoring. Otherwise, she would notice the rest of them and hesitate or get sloppy and risk joining them.

“Hey,” She yelled, drawing his attention just in time for him to protect himself from an overhead strike, his wind kicking up enough to keep the lizard from getting its revenge. "You want to be a hot-blooded and passionate hero? Focus on what you can do, not what you can't. We must handle this one and then try to find the rest." She advised.

"Of course, sorry about that, but I've already caught 2. But there's at least a dozen more." Yoarashi got his head on straight, creating a giant blade of air, its edges made up of dozens of super-fast spinning blades of air, which he swung at the lizard. The beast evaded it, and the blade sailed past where it had just been standing and carved through a small building from the store to the back wall.

Midnight knew Eraser wouldn't be pleased with such, but the guy was still a first year—a skilled one, but a first year all the same. The only solace was that the area was already heavily damaged, so they could be loose with the rules against reckless property damage.

But that brought another question to mind: the sheer destruction of the place. The professor's explanation of quirk spirits wasn't thorough, but it had enough information that Midnight knew this wasn't something she had ever heard about. “Is this normal?” she asked, as perhaps this was the kind of thing that happened out in the country.

“No, there’s never been an attack like this!” Yoarashi yelled back, duelling against the lizard, the quirk turned animal having learned its lesson and now was evading his attacks with increasing success. However, his strikes when they did land, seared off more of its stone armour, and at times, drew blood. “Gekiha don't typically mob like this, so there has to be a shishiha leading them, but I haven’t had the time to look.”

"Also…this just doesn't feel right, I don't know, but something about this one, just like the rest, is really turning my stomach and I can't figure out why," Yoarashi added.

"Believe me, I know the feeling, but we can focus on figuring that out after we've handled things here," Midnight replied, keeping her attention on her opponent. Having just one capture tool, it would be best if she left the stronger of the two to the expert.

Line Break

Sheltering with the rest of the students, there wasn't much Midoriya or the rest could do. Nothing but keep up to date on events happening, thanks to the dozens who had their phones on them, and in a word, it was horrifying.

In their first years, they might be, in their short time at U.A., they had come to enjoy their time out on the town. Many had found spots they liked, whether a quiet café, a bustling club, a restaurant with tasty food, or just a park they could relax in with friends. Musutafu was a welcoming place. For those from the city, it was a break from its never-ending busyness; for those from smaller towns and the countryside, it was a taste of what urban life could be like without overwhelming them.

And yet it was all burning.

“This is Reiko Yamane, live from Chopper 9. I… I don’t even know how to describe what we’re seeing.” Midoriya, Aoyama, Uraraka, and Ojiro crowded around Hagakure, whose phone played the news, the camera feed shaking as the news chopper banked hard to avoid a rising column of smoke from an explosion. Switching off the face of the on-field reporter to the carnage, they felt their hearts squeeze as they took in the destruction.

In the distance, they could make out other choppers, some marked as belonging to other news agencies and some marked as police or hero commission. Those last two seemed to be flying the closest to the danger, Midoriya hoping it was because they were locating and getting people out.

“We have visual on… what looks like dozens of incidents across the central district. Emergency services are trying to push into the area, but they're overwhelmed. I repeat—they are overwhelmed. We're hearing unconfirmed reports of similar outbreaks in multiple districts. I…” The reporter pauses, voice catching. “All Might is on the scene, and is engaging one of the criminals believed to be at the root of this, but-”

Her attempt at assurance was undermined when they saw a building crumbling in the distance, with faint, undeniable screams heard from it. Aoyama wasn't sure which it was, as it could have been from people in the now levelled building or people crushed by it. Neither was something he wished to think about, the same with the rest.

“Reiko, has there been any news of possible villain groups? Any motive for the chaos?” The in-studio news anchor asked.

“There have been none. Heroes on the scene are focusing on search and rescue. We've got several reports from eyewitnesses that the attacks happened out of nowhere, with no clear signs of a villain or quirk usage.” She replied, which only made this worse, as with no face or name to place this on, they could only guess. But even the newly revealed League couldn’t hope for something like this…right? If they could, surely they would have done so at the USJ.

“Unknown?” The news anchor seemed just as surprised as the viewing audience.

“Correct, and it was widespread. The authorities have already called for lockdowns to isolate the problem areas, and the commission has called in heroes from across Honshu to assist in the operations!” There was a cry of a beast unseen by the cameras, the reporter looked to the side but couldn’t get a word out as something crashed into the side of the chopper, sending glass flying as the craft struggled to remain airborne, the woman screaming as she held onto for dear life, the pilot yelling out to his co-pilot as smoke poured in.

Hagakure wasn't the only one muttering that things would not end there.

“Reiko? Reiko!” the news anchor yelled at her. Mercifully, the chopper righted itself, leaving the reporter sweaty, close to tears, but alive. They could hear alerts sounding, and the air was whipping her hair about, the neat bun having come undone in the chaos.

“We’re fine!” she replied, only to pause as she listened to something to the side, her face twisting into a fusion of irritation but also relief. “We've been contacted by the police. They've declared a no-fly zone due to the risk of whatever is occurring reaching us in the air. This will be the last you hear from us. Until then, please offer up prayer to those below and hope that All Might will bring to an end.”

That said, the cut was followed by the rest of the feed from other choppers as the seconds went by.

“There goes the news.” Kamakiri glared at the phone, itching to bust the blast doors down and run the entire route back into town to help.

"Probably for the best, that wasn't something I enjoyed watching," Shishida added.

"And yet, we must. We students are training to be heroes, and such calamities will be what we'll be expected to rush into." Iida added, though he found that he wasn't in as much of a hurry to do so as he thought he would, and he couldn't tell if it was caution or fear.

“They didn’t mention anything about U.A. being at risk, or the festival.” Kaminari noticed.

"I mean, would they even know? This stuff started up during the festival; I'm pretty sure they'll focus on that." Jiro asked. Considering the hell on earth happening 10 minutes' drive away, some festival seemed like old news. Besides, as morbid as it was, they hadn't had any tragedy to report on; things had been going well.

“Well, there has to be something we can do.” Midoriya rubbed at his head, as sitting around and doing nothing was getting to him.

"I hope you won't try anything, old friend," Aoyama said, though he looked just as uneasy as Midoriya. Playing with a ball of light in his hand, he tossed it between his hands.

"It wouldn't be smart to try; we don't even know what's happening. Like Yaoyorozu said, if we just rush in, we could make things worse." Shoji reminded them, as the news hadn’t even had a suspect in mind, much less a motive.

“Or become part of the slaughter, they have no clue how it’s happening, or why-how can you protect yourself against that?” Kuroiro asked, as it seemed like the assault had elements of a biological-type quirk, which was one of the most dangerous, as it took all the dangers of something like poison gas, and added the lethality of conscious direction.

“Midoriya, Aoyama,” They looked up, spotting Ectoplasm of all people approaching. “The dean would like to have a word.” The request confused the rest, but one person figured out what was happening.

“So, this is about that…isn’t it?” Todoroki didn't dare say it when someone could hear it, but he didn't need to for the hero to understand. His lack of a response only confirmed it. "You wouldn't seek those two out if this were a regular attack. So what's going on?" Todoroki asked, as if this was like the USJ, but they couldn't just throw heroes at it. Still, sending just 2 people when the entire city was at risk was just as foolish.

Ectoplasm looked ready to refuse, to just do as he was asked and bring the two students with him, but it wouldn't be so easy, as the rest seemed to want to get involved. “Please.” Part of him wanted to laugh at Uraraka's face. She looked sincere, and perhaps she was. But he had worked with too many heroes to not recognise that in those eyes was the silent declaration that if she was kept here, she'd get out.

“Do all of you feel the same way?” he asked, and while some looked hesitant, the majority were on board, and thus, the rest went along with it.

“Then follow me.” Turning, he led all 40 out of the shelter, hoping that when he got back to Nezu, they could figure out a proper cover for this, as the other students would want answers.

Line Break

I am getting into a nice groove of things, and while I do have something to work on Thursday, with Friday clear for the moment as I finish up another WIP, and then get back to writing for More Than You Think, I'm not as stressed as I would typically be. I even progressed in ZZZ while the rest of the internet seemed more focused on Uma Musume. Also, when I returned to add a little more to this Sunday evening, Death Battle had just released their episode on Miles vs Izuku, and that soundtrack, and hmm, that was so damn good, perfect for that DB.

With this chapter, as you probably tell from the last 2, I'm going for something a little different to both canon and many fanfics, having the stakes be raised this early in the game, and so close to home, relatively speaking. And now we have the whole thing with Dabi, which some of you have reached out about, and all I can say is that it will be explored as the story goes, and he's not the only change you'll see through this.