Chapter 54: Burning Ice; Freezing Flames

With time against both sides, the students and Hero Killer battle while trying to find a means to claim victory before they lose the chance

(Previously)

“Over there, by the billboard for that Hawks line of watches.” Her cameraman still took a moment to spot it. Still, when he did, he ignored the large image of the number 3 hero to focus on the two objects he saw standing in its shadow.

"There are people! Two of them!" He confirmed, zooming in, his brow creased. One dressed pretty plainly for someone who liked the color black or whatever dark color that was. Were they a goth? They might be as he could see something on their face, a personalised mask? The second was hard out, namely because they seemed to be heteromorphs with smoky-like skin. He could see how smartly dressed they were, which was a weird contrast to the first one.

He relayed all that to his partner, who was just as dumbfounded as he was. "Curious onlookers? But…what's even over there? They're not facing any of the fires."

Her reporter senses went off. Maybe this was nothing, but she wouldn't bet on it as she looked towards the pilot. "Head in that direction."

The man gave a thumbs up. “God it.”

Line Break

Arriving on the scene, the two didn’t know what they would expect. Maybe it would be a small brawl, or maybe it would be a smaller skirmish than the others happening across Hosu.

Whatever they thought it was, it wasn't this. Before they got close enough to see faces, they witnessed an explosion of twisting green flames so hot that even as they approached, they could feel the change in ambient temperature.

As if that wasn’t strange enough, it was quickly followed by a small iceberg before a blast of bright orange flames pierced through it. Rising through the melted ice, steam, and smoke, they saw what looked to be a creature straight from the underworld: a giant serpent skeleton, congealed in bright, searing green flames, rose and bathed the street in a blast of equally green flames.

"Just what, just what, is happening over there?" their pilot yelled, as this seemed insane. Who could be fighting? What sort of quirks were those, and was that snake the product of a quirk or something else?

None of them knew, but the reporter knew one thing. "Start filming, connect us directly to the station, and tell them to let this play, " she ordered. Her cameraman looked at her momentarily, shocked at such a request, but he carried out her instruction wordlessly.

Yes, she knew one thing about this; whatever it was, it had to be shown. That was her duty as a journalist.

Line Break

Ryukyu was getting ready to retire for the night. She, Hado, and her sidekicks had a good day's work down, with most incidents being minor or simply accidents, with little in the way of actual crime, which was always a good thing for her. Perhaps others carved action or the chance to flex their skills and gain greater notoriety, but she rejected such things. She became a hero to help others, and if she could have days when that didn’t involve dealing with violent crimes, all the better.

She had just shut off her work computer and exited her desk when the door burst open. Hado came rushing in so fast that she half expected the girl to be using her quirk. She was about to reprimand the girl for forgetting to reign in her excitement when she saw the look on her face, and instantly, that idea vanished from her head.

“What happened?” She asked, quick to the point.

“Not what happened, what’s happening, quick, turn on the TV to the NHA channel!" Hado urged her. Ryukyu was confused but didn't question it as she picked up the remote she kept on her desk and pointed towards the large flat screen she had to the side. Turning it on, she went to the channel in question, saw the tagline at the bottom, and instantly realized why Hado was so concerned.

‘Students confront Stain.’

“-we don't know where the other heroes are at the moment, but we can only pray that they arrive here on time to offer up what surely would be critical aid against the hero killer." The reporter continued, but Ryukyu focused more on what she was seeing. It was Hosu, a city she had contemplated heading to to lend aid in hunting Stain but had decided against it.

That was a decision she regretted as she watched the city fall into chaos, with what looked to be the biggest thing being live footage of the hero killer. It could be no one else with that appearance, even if he wasn't using a sword but two knives. But despite his nickname, he wasn't battling true heroes. Instead, he was battling against mere students and a quirked snake. He was battling Midoriya and the Todoroki boy.

And he was winning.

He didn't have a quirk nearly as powerful or destructive as Midoriya, Koharu, or Todoroki, all three unleashing some variation of chilling ice attacks, bright green fire waves, and blistering orange infernos, and yet, Stain remained standing and fighting against them, his knives despite their size slicing through Todoroki's ice, carving deep cuts into them as he dodged, evaded and just dived through their flames to get close, with both Midoriya and Koharu putting themselves between their foe and their flesh and bone ally.

Her training and experience told her it was the wise move as whatever Stain’s quirk was, both could regenerate entire limbs and organs so long as they had the energy reserves, but that didn’t soothe almost maternal side of her which wanted to take off for Hosu right now as both suffered cuts deep enough to damage bone in Koharu’s case, or lose entire limbs in Midoriya’s as both arms were sliced off from the forearms, leaving bright green lava gushing out geysers.

Hado was even worse as the typically bubbly girl could barely stay still as she watched her Kouhei and what she liked to think of as a little brother being so easily and repeatedly brutalized. Sure, she knew a lost limb to him was like losing hair for others. Still, there was a key difference in Midoriya accidentally blasting off limbs in training and apologizing to her and fighting for his and Todoroki’s life against a ruthless and capable killer who didn’t seem to care for how burned he was getting if it meant he could take their heads!

They continued to listen, but it wasn't looking good. Yes, both were holding on, but they understood Midoriya's quirk. As powerful and seemingly invulnerable to Stain's attacks, it burned through large stores of his energy reserves to maintain it, double so for Koharu, who couldn't recuperate lost energy nearly as effectively as her human. It was a game of time, and with each hit they suffered, each wound that rapidly healed to stay in the fight, Ryukyu and Hado knew both were burning through their time limit.

The only respite was Todoroki. If he could stay up, he could create flames for the two to eat, though that was a short-term solution at best, as Midoriya's quirk was supercharged by flames; it wasn't directly fuelled. He could create larger attacks, yes, but it would only exasperate the issue.

Line Break

The day had been a pretty productive if a boring time for Tokage, if she had to describe it. By the 3rd day of her internship, she found herself mainly paperwork with her mentor, who would then judge and point out where she made errors; often, he timed her reasoning that while it was important, pros shouldn't 'doddle' about it and get it done as quick as possible, but emphasized speed shouldn't come at the expense of quality.

She got a bit of a treat as he brought her along for one of his patrols. Seeing the man work was pretty chill as he often just sat on one of his disks and floated about like a real wizard. When he stopped to talk to civilians, especially young kids, he would happily let them sit on it or another he made and fly about for a minute or two before the cheering kids would be returned to their happy parents. Her quirk also got some attention as it wasn't every day that you saw a girl split into 7 parts just floating on by.

She was on her way to Majestic's office to inform him she would clock out and head to the hotel he had booked for her, but before she could knock, she heard something on the news playing.

"-Izuku and Todoroki Shoto, two first years of U.A.'s hero course, are currently engaged along with a strange fiery snake and seem to be holding their own, but we need to ask for how long?"

Tokage didn't like that, not one bit. She had no clue where Todoroki had gone for his internship, but she knew Hebimi was with Endeavour. Disregarding manners, she opened the door to Majestic's office, and ignoring how much he styled the place like some fantasy wizard's lair, her eye went towards his teacher, where she felt her heart drop at what was playing.

“Is…is that?” Tokage asked, weakly pointing towards the live feed.

Majestic, missing his typical easy-going smile, nodded, his eyes remaining fixed on the screen. "It is, it fits all the reports, and he would be in Hosu."

"What the hell is he doing? He should get out of there; they're getting owned!" Tokage yelled as Stain managed to jump onto Midoriya and slam his heel down into his snake-covered head, knocking him off balance before making a beeline towards Koharu, who roared at the villain for daring to continually harm her human. "We need to go; with your quirk, we could-"

Majestic stopped her. "We're an hour away at best, which will leave me exhausted and of little help. Before you ask, no, I will not send in a student on this, so I wouldn't bother asking." She turned to glare at the back of his head, half ready to yell at him, but she held her tongue. As much as she wanted otherwise, she knew he was right.

‘Dammit, Hebimi, why? Just run, run while you still can!’ Tokage pleaded, sitting across from her mentor; she prayed that she wasn't about to watch a live execution.

Line Break

“Come on, Midoriya, don’t let that punk beat you…” Tetsutetsu muttered, staring intently at his phone screen. They had finished most of their duties for the day, and while Fourth Kind hadn't let them leave early, he had allowed them a break till they could, as things had been a bit slow since the afternoon. So, he and Kirishima had decided to just scroll through some videos, sharing stuff they liked, which was one of the few times they had differences. While they liked similar stuff, it wasn't exact.

It was as Tetsutetsu was back on his home screen, about to search for clips of people swimming with sharks, when he got an alert about two students fighting Stain and clicked. He immediately recognized the ice as that asshole, Todoroki, and worried for him as Stain was dancing around it like it was easy. But his worry increased threefold when he spotted the familiar green flames and figure engaging Stain close up and getting his butt handed to him.

"Holy crap!" Kirishima cried out when Midoriya's attempt to bath Stain in flames point blank was stopped by the man slicing through his face; a bright, viscous jet of lava followed, spilling it across the road and causing his shot to fire off prematurely into some building. Kirishima reached for his own face, wondering just how the heck Stain could do that when Midoriya was stone, similar to his hardening.

"He's not out of the fight yet," Tetsutetsu added, pouring his faith into his friend whose snake hair came in clutch, lunging at Stain in an angry, burning storm of stone and fire, which Stain narrowly dodged, buying time for Todoroki to erect a barrier between them where Koharu remained on the other side, hissing at the villain while her human regenerated from that last hit. A head bash from Koharu did manage to land, but despite how much it had to hurt to get smacked in the gut by her burning skull, Stain rolled with it and was back on his feet, his scarps, cuts, and burns doing little to stop him.

"Come on, Todoroki, you're using those flames of yours, you got this," Kirishima added as when Stain got past Koharu, both Midoriya and Todoroki sent a wave of green and orange flames, which managed the villain off, Stain retreating to land stop a light post in a crouch, his knives held at the ready with the moon to his back.

He didn’t linger long as he dived towards them, tongue hanging out as Midoriya roared back, rushing ahead to battle with nothing but his fists.

Line Break

Gunhead’s agency doubled as a dojo and residence for some of his sidekicks, so Uraraka was able to stay on-site for most of her time there. But she had been worried for a while now, not for herself. She was managing well enough, and Gunhead was a great mentor. His cute side was a surprise but pleasant addition to what she knew.

What she was worried about as Iida. Ever since his brother had been attacked, he had been off. She understood that was expected, and if he acted like things were normal, she wouldn't even be more worried about him, which was exactly what he did! She and Tsu had asked him about it, but he just gave a smile as convincing as a salesman trying to get her to buy something she didn't need and told her he was handling things.

Tsu was right to call him out for it. Still, he could be stubborn and just ignored it, a choice which was made even less when they had to pick hero names. While some struggled, Iida and Todoroki were the only ones who picked their given names because they clearly weren’t in the right headspace to think of one!

Then he had that talk with Midoriya, and well, it wasn't as bad, but she was still worried about him. Iida's being largely silent in his messages only made it worse. She had hoped to relax a little before she went to bed, taking full advantage of her room having a TV. Uraraka had left it on the news in the morning when she had just wanted the weather report and had full intentions of changing the channel to a documentary on Neptune when she saw what was being broadcast and dropped her remote.

“What…?” She asked herself, going pale as she watched her friend and her classmate fight against a serial killer that made prey out of legit pros!

Off to the side, where she had set her phone to charge, it started to vibrate as others tried to contact her. Still, she couldn't turn away from the battle unfolding as ice and fire continued to freeze and burn the street in equal measure, as Koharu and Midoriya continually engaged Stain up close and paid for it as the man managed to sever Midoriya's snake-like hair in a single slash, sending at least 9 of them dropping to the ground where they wiggled about like lizard tails.

“Todoroki…Midoriya…please bull through.” She begged.

Line Break

With both their sons out for their week-long internship, Mitsuki, knowing that Inko would be stuck at home, invited her over for dinner with her and her hubby, an event that she knew Masaru enjoyed. Not because he was interested in Inko, or Inko him, but because while he loved her and their brat, he was the odd one out in their house, the softspoken one with a temper as long as her skin was smooth, so hosting someone that matched that level was a nice change of pace for him.

They had some spicy chicken and rice and managed to catch up on each other's lives, which Mitsuki deeply appreciated. The plump single mother had been a wreck when her son went off the deep end and vanished, but since he was found, she had been doing a lot better. It's a shame their kids weren't nearly as close, but hey, you couldn't win all the battles, so don't bother.

After finishing their meal, they decided to prolong their evening with a little movie—something old, dumb, and liable to leave Masaru confused and Inko laughing her head off. At least, that had been the plan, but when they turned on the TV and saw it was playing the news, all such plans went out the window.

Watching Hosu be engulfed in chaos was bad enough, as it had been years since such an incident occurred, but it was made worse by the fact that they watched an armed man facing off against mere students.

“If you’re just tuning in now, we’re reporting live from the skies of Hosu City, where I was despatched to report any news relating to the Hero Killer: Stain when a sudden and violent mass villain attack occurred!” The reporter carried on as her cameraman kept his focus on the scene happening below, which meant Inko saw her son slashed from shoulder to hip like it was nothing; the boy was staggering as his sent am arm, one which he had to separate from his body via an internal explosion, towards Stain.

Stain managed to dodge it, but a second one caught him and forced him into the guard rail at the side of the street with enough force that it dented around him. As if he were made from tougher stuff than steel, he ripped off the hand holding him and got back into things, aiming for the boy Izuku had embarrassed at the festival not too long ago.

“However, we are broadcasting live footage to you, the first of which is of the Hero Killer, who is currently locked in combat against two students, Todoroki Shoto and Midoriya Izuku, both first years at U.A. We don't have a reason why they were in Hosu or seem to be the only ones engaging Stain, as U.A. has been unable to be reached.”

Mitsuki felt Inko's grip on her tighten, almost to the point where she half-expected the plump mother to break something. Still, she ignored that to offer whatever emotional support she could. “It’s going to be okay, Inko. The kid’s real tough, you know that.”

“But…but my baby boy…!” Inko was already crying; the woman had already begged her son to flee, to see that he couldn't win this fight when he was bleeding through his energy reserves with how much he was getting hurt and hurting himself. But she knew he wouldn't pick a fight without a reason, that for whatever reason, he saw this as necessary. So all she could do was beg that he fought smarter, pulled back a little as Stain was cutting into him time after time!

Masaru put a hand on her shoulder, offering silent support as his wife vocalized it.

"He's hanging on, Inko. He, that Todoroki boy, and his not-so-little snake friend. And they can't be the only ones there; the other heroes are probably busy dealing with the rest of the mess, but they'll get there soon. You said he was studying under Endeavour, right?" She asked, to which Inko nodded, as he had been a little apprehensive about it. When she nodded, Mitsuki smiled. "Then you can bet he's already on his way, and Stain's gonna regret waking up today." Endeavour was an ass like her son, but just like Katsuki, he was effective. Why he wasn’t here now, she’ll find out later.

So she cheered when Midoriya managed to catch Stain by surprise, going for a kick, which saw the boy turn his foot into a canon and blast Stain with a beachball-sized fireball that punched the man right in the gut, burning through his clothes to the skin. At the same time, another strike from Todoroki's ice, shaped like a battering him, came in from the side and sent the Hero Killer stumbling black; his rise was just a little slower than before as it seemed like at last, the bastard's own injuries were catching up to him.

Line Break

It was getting late, which meant their day was ending soon, which Kendo appreciated. Not for the first time since she arrived at her chosen agency, as she wondered why she had chosen it. They spent most of their time acting as Uwabani’s entourage or as backups to whatever commercials she had lined up. In the 3 days they've been there, they have only gone on one patrol, which was mostly the heroine handling her adoring fans.

Yaoyorozu was even starting to realize that they really had been chosen to be props and weren't learning the type of heroics they had wanted. It was getting to the wealthy heiress.

 So, she wasn’t surprised when the girl looked down when they were called in by Uwabani, who wished to dismiss them for the evening. What did come as a surprise was one of the woman's assistants bursting in moments after them and telling her there was an ongoing incident in Hosu.

Like a switch had been flipped, the model-focused heroine changed; her easy-going smile shifted as her eyes gained a new light as she followed after the man. The two interns, unsure of the situation, had done the same, getting to a room where other staff members were all watching the news.

“What’s the situation?” She asked one of the people.

"We got into contact with the heroes on the scene; monsters described to be similar to the USJ one just appeared and were causing havoc. Several heroes moved to assist, but Endeavour sent Hebimi after one, which led him to an unexpected encounter with Stain." The operator replied. Uwabani and her interns kept their gazes on the screens, and it finally seemed like the two sides had reached something of a stalemate. Stain wasn't landing nearly as many attacks as before, but Uwabani’s keen eye picked up on the fact that both fire users were also starting to slow. Was their limit approaching?

"And why isn't Endeavour there, and instead, it's two students?" she asked, as she had never known Endeavour to send in unexperienced people to do his work, even if one of them was his son and the other child who bested Shoto.

"Mam, Hebimi reported that Stain was in the process of taking another hero's life and moved to assist; Shoto arrived soon after, along with Tenya, to provide support. Tenya was able to get Native to an ambulance and is currently heading back. Endeavor should be there in less than 2 minutes as well." She pursed her lips at that but didn't argue it.

"Can they…" Momo asked as Stain, close to stabbing Shoto, mind-filled with encyclopedialike knowledge and capable of high-level calculations and equations, feared what a knife that had to be covered with lava residue from Stain's prior attacks against Midoriya would do against Shoto's flesh.

But the blow never came, as a punch from Midoriya saved his fellow student. The two kept close as Koharu curled around them, a defensive wall of flames and bones. Kendo nodded at it, clenching and unclenching her first to try and keep calm even though she wanted to grab something and smash it.

“They have to, or I won’t be able to knock some sense into that strawberry’s head.” She stated.

Line break

“This would go easier if we could just incinerate him," Koharu suggested, not for the first time, as she glared at Stain, who stood at the other end of the road. The Hero Killer, typically draped in black with a scarf people rumored was dyed with hero's blood, looked like a mess. His clothing was torn, cut up, and burned away; not even his bandages had been safe, exposing more of his skin.

Skin peppered by bruises, cuts, and burns from their fire and all the lava flying about each time Stain had managed to cut Midoriya. Todoroki was sure that the man had to be a bruised couple of ribs, if not a broken one, and yet, he was still up with eyes as fanatic as they had been from the start. And despite having used up most of his blades, lost his main sword, and being armed with just 2 knives, Todoroki wasn't going to underestimate this guy, not when it would only take a drop of his blood for Stain to paralyze him again.

However, it wasn’t as if they were fresh as daisies. Todoroki still had his cuts and stab wound, closed-yes, but he wasn’t running out of options and was starting to tire with all the flames and ice had produced, one after the other.

Midoriya was even worse as he picked up early that the guy, despite appearances, was running on empty, sticking to more stationary tactics instead of the dynamic-in-his-face approach he had earlier in the fight. Koharu seemed to be the same as her flames, which were starting to dull.

“We need a means to best him, but how?” Todoroki asked.

Midoriya sounded winded, though, in his current form, it was closer in sound to a gasping jet engine, starved for oxygen. "I have…an idea, but it'll be risky, and it'll leave me drained, but if it works,"

Todoroki cut him off. “What is it?”

‘These three work well together, and I can’t take out Endeavour’s scion with how protective the other 2 are being, but,’ Stain huffed, as that shot to his side really messed him up. ‘I can tell; they're losing steam. If I can force them to exhaust themselves, I can disable them and make my escape, as loathe to admit, my prey for the night is long out of reach.' He would need time off his hunt to rest and recover, but he would first need to get out of here.

He could have turned and fled, but he couldn’t be sure that they wouldn’t give chase and report his position to the other fakes. No, he was on a timer, a short one at that, to take down both and flee.

“Shoto!” Hebimi suddenly called as Todoroki waved out his left hand, sending out a sweeping gale of fire toward Stain. It covered the entire street and left little spots to hide or run to, made worse when the giant fire snake rushed in along with it. Its jaws opened wide to take a bite out of him.

Shifting, Stain hopped back, buying himself a few extra seconds as the flames approached. Reaching the side work barrier, he jumped onto it and then backflipped upwards onto a street light, avoiding the worst of the flames. However, he saw that it was a near ocean of flames as Todoroki poured out all he had into this, giving Koharu cover to lunge at him as she hid beneath the fiery waves.

'Is that their plan?' Stain asked, dodging as he jumped towards a building, digging his blades into the side of the wall to give himself a grip. 'But then why isn't the other one moving? Is it just conversing stamina to remain transformed?' Stain asked, but he got a gut feeling that it wasn't that, that he was missing something. When Koharu came for another swipe at him, he evaded, aiming for the other side of the street.

That instinct was proven right when he saw the flames suddenly change direction. Not because of Todoroki but because they were all being devoured by Hebimi, whose jaws remained so far open that he had to have unhinged his jaw. That sound of flames being sucked up was joined by two supped-up vacuums as vents on his shoulders drew in vast quantities of the air, it might have been preheated, but it was still oxygen.

Pouring all he had into this, Midoriya forced himself to maintain his form as, one last time, he blew up his arms, reforming them into cannons, and aimed them squarely as Stain, who having been caught mid-jump, was a sitting duck for him.

“Hado Flame!" Midoriya yelled as he fired off the triple attack, the flames bursting out of his gun barrels and jaws with enough force that they cracked his stone body, nearly rupturing it. The intense heat from the flames was so hot that Todoroki, standing to his back and with resistance to fire, felt himself sweating as the emerald spiral once against him engulfed Stain, the eye of the storm blistering hot as the air was sucked in and superheated the same as the flames.

The Hero Killer barely held back his scream as he felt like he was being cooked alive, his clothing near catching fire from the ambient heat. The attack was caught by everyone watching, from Kurogiri and Shigaraki, who kept their distance, to the news chopper, to even the heroes en route to the scene. All saw the bright, blazing corkscrew of flames, which climbed higher into the sky, flying for hundreds of meters before it finally dissipated.

That wasn't the only move the two made. With Stain falling back to the charred, cracked street, Todoroki rushed forward and slammed his right hand into it, feeling how hot the tar was against his palm. In the next moment, the entire street and the sides of the buildings were bathed in a wave of ice.

The sudden temperate drop further messed with the surroundings as things that had warped from the heat suddenly felt themselves rapidly cooling, with walls cracking and a cloud of mist forming over the area.

Todoroki felt himself close to his limit, breathing out a thick breath of icy mist, heating himself a little after such a move. He looked over the scene, spotting Koharu first, still in her larger form but frozen solid, an unfortunate sacrifice as if they held her back. Stain could have noticed their ploy early.

As for the Hero Killer himself? Todoroki spotted him, half frozen and laying face first on the ice-covered ground, to which he breathed a sigh of relief as he fell to one knee, the adrenaline started to fade now that the worst of the danger had passed.

"Finally…Midoriya, it was a solid plan," Todoroki called out but didn't receive a response. Worried, he turned towards Midoriya. “Midoriya?”

The boy had dropped out of his stone form and couldn't even hold his steam-boasted form as he was left on his hands and knees, shivering as he felt cold, his inner flame struggling to keep going with so little fuel to burn. “Just…just give me a second…been a while since I pushed…that hard.”

“Can you move?” Todoroki turned and walked over to him, touching his shoulder.

Midoriya kept taking in gasps of air, trying to stoke the flames, but it was a challenge just to keep it alive until he could eat something. “Barely…”

"Then I'll restrain him. We don't have a rope, but I'll just freeze him enough that he can't move—" Todoroki started but saw something shift in Midoriya's face. His eyes widened, and an expression of utter disbelief and fear formed across them.

“Todoroki, behind you!” He yelled as Todoroki, as quickly as he could, turned his head towards his rear where Stain should be, only to see him up once more, having crossed the gap between them in what had to be moments, his blade pulled back and ready to plunge down into him.

His reaction time dulled from surprise and exhaustion, and no matter what, he couldn't call upon his flames or his ice fast enough, as it could barely feel his quirk shift beneath his skin, and he realized that, at best, he would launch off something after it was too late.

‘How is he!?’ Shoto thought, wide-eyed, as he couldn't understand how anyone could still stand after that. Stain looked like he was half dead, his clothing nearly burned off, exposing a body covered in 2nd and 3rd degree burns across the surface, over all that were still a layer of ice and frost burns that had to hurt against his burned flesh; Shoto would know, but it seemed like whatever compelled Stain to fight couldn't be stopped by injury.

'That's impossible; how could he still be standing after that?!' Midoriya felt like crying, but no sound came out of him that wasn't a wheezed gasp for air as he desperately tried to move, to act, but his body was too exhausted, his flames too low. ‘Move, body, move! I just need a little more, just a spark, a moment-please!’

He felt like he was about to watch someone fail and that he would be forced to watch Stain take another life before escaping, but he had forgotten one thing at the moment. Something that floated to the forefront of his mind when a speeding, armored figure came up behind him, a leg pulled back, propelling by momentum and engines in their legs.

“Recipro Extend!” Iida cried as he kicked the surprised Stain in the side, ribs breaking under the power of what could be called a jet-assisted kick. Stain's body bent around the kick as Iida carried it all the way through and sent him flying into the side of the street, which was still covered by a thick layer of ice, shattered on himself as Stain crashed into the empty business front that lay on the other side.

“Iida…?” Todoroki asked, stunned to see him back but incredibly grateful.

Taking a deep breath, Iida put them to his back. He didn't know if Stain could get up after that, but he wouldn't give him a chance when neither Todoroki nor Midoriya could keep the fight. "A hero saves, and I refuse to allow him to harm anyone else."

Line Break

In the dim glow of multiple screens, the reporter kept up the broadcast of Stain's arrest, who had finally been taken down by another U.A. student, Iida Tenya—the youngest son of the Iida family. As the broadcast continued, with other heroes under the supervision of Endeavour handling restraining Stain in a stark, cold room that reeked of antiseptic, a solitary figure seated upon a throne listened. The only other sound in the space was the low hum of life support machines.

The figure, draped in shadows, sat motionless before a slow smile curved their lips. Learning back into their eat, he murmured. "That boy is impressive.." He couldn't see, but he could hear the news report on how the son of Endeavour, and more importantly, the upstart Midoriya, handled things. He was quite the fighter with an incredible quirk. The sort of power that he desired, if not for himself, but he could find use for it.

Line Break

Well, thanks to a long-lasting power outage for most of Sunday and Monday, unlike last week, when I had the chapter for this story done on Monday, I'm finishing this Tuesday with little time to spare as I need to hit the books soon. The chapter itself is something of a soft conclusion to the Hosu arc, though I'll probably have more to add about it in the following chapter.