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Her breath was coming in short, erratic bursts. Eyes wide open, darting from one scene to the next as a chill ran down her spine. In her chest, a hand clamped around her heart, squeezing and pulling, tearing at it as two others gripped her lungs in iron fingers and weighed her breaths down. No, no, no. This couldn't - no- this wasn't-
Her body lurched forward, mouth gaping open in a scream as one of the villains flung Mina clear across the room. The girl's body slammed into the wall, and she slid down it soundlessly, body limp. No, no, no. This wasn't- no, no, no.
With shivers wracking her body, chilling her to the core, Nakima turned in a circle to look at her classmates with sudden clarity. They were all fighting their hardest - trying to survive. Fight off these villains, the- the beastly creatures that were wreaking havoc in their school. Teachers were nowhere to be found - their hands were full enough as is. U.A. was under attack - throughout the entire campus.
Something inside of her reared up, denying the sheer notion that this was the end. No, no, no, no, no, no-
Todoroki was the one closest to her, so she turned to him as he sent a wave of ice towards the man leaping at him. "Tod- Shoto-kun." Nakima lifted her gaze to meet his as he turned a bit to the side - enough to see her and his enemies. Before he could say anything, she gave him a wobbly smile. "Get them all up. Off of the floor. As fast as you can."
Thirty minutes - that's all she needed. They'd be safe. Everything would be okay.
Her hand stretched out, but she pulled it back just before her fingers touched his cheek. "Make sure you get up, too. And then get out, the second there's a chance. They'll fight you - I need you to make sure none of them get loose, okay?" Then, she straightened her back and lifted her chin.
Fingers sliding to the circular device on her chest, Nakima whispered to herself. "Shields down. Safety protocols deactivate." Then she tilted her head at Shoto as he frowned, opening his mouth. "And tell my mom and dad that I'm sorry, okay?"
With something between a sigh of relief and gasp of anguish, the red-haired girl twisted the device and for the first time since she joined their classroom, Todoroki watched as the outer layer of her hero outfit slid away. Other students were closing in on them - Sero, Kaminari, Jiro. They all watched, perplexed as the metallic bands slid away from her wrists and ankles, pulled back from her temples, and left her neck. The metal slid into the circular device - a case, Todoroki realized belatedly. It beeped - loudly, and five times in a row. The sound drew the attention of others - students and villains alike.
From the device, a voice came. "Safety Protocols deactivating, clear area. Clear area. Clear area." It boomed across the devastated landscape, and a high-pitched siren began going off. "Clear area. Clear area. Clear ar-" With a swipe of her thumb, Nakima ended the incessant beeping. Iida was running towards them, a trail of beasts on his tail. Deku, Uraraka, and Asui could be seen leaping closer.
"Sorry guys." She threw a smile over her shoulder, something between bittersweet and rueful. The severity of what was happening slowly dawned on her classmates. From the corners of her eyes, she watched as they scrambled together. Sero taping them all up, yanking them from the fields and ruins of the buildings as Todoroki and Tokoyami lifted their classmates out of range of the attackers. At first, the villains didn't notice what the students did.
A heat wave winded students, bringing sweat to their skin suddenly. With each footstep Nakami took, the grass singed under her feet. A few steps away from her classmates, her hero uniform caught fire. The smell of singed hair swept through the wind, and then her arms and scalp were on fire. "Nakam-" Kirishima's desperate yell was cut short as he was yanked back into the mass of students by Asui's tongue.
Thirty feet away from them now, Nakami's footsteps no longer simply singed the grass. It set it on fire. Mud and dirt hardened beneath her feet. A trail of fire was following her - and her skin was no longer skin. It was shifting, moving - reds, yellows, oranges. Her outfit may as well have been a thing of imagination - no part of it clung to her skin anymore. If you could call what she had skin.
By the time Todoroki, Tokoyami, Sero, and Asui had managed to yank the students back fifty yards away, the ground was shifting and moving beneath Nakami's feet.
By the time the villains and the creatures had the sense to run - it was too late. Molten magma spilled from her mouth as the girl opened it. From under her feet, it bubbled to life with each step. The ground gave way to the shifting, moving force beneath it as she lifted magma from hundreds of kilometers deep in the earth.
Within two minutes after removing the circular device, Nakami had not only pulled enough magma to the surface to cover the small field of rubble and destruction, but she became it. The villains ran - or tried to. Between the heat of the magma rising to the surface and the fast-flowing movement of the lava it became, many were too slow. They got caught in the lava, or stood too close to be able to bear the extreme heat it threw off. Even the creatures - the things which had been winning this battle up until now - tried to flee.
They could absorb energy, but this was too much too fast. The lava ate away at their flesh faster than they could regenerate. They screamed - in anguish or rage, no one could be sure which.
Seven minutes and fifty-two seconds later, the first teacher arrived to the scene. Ishiyama threw up a blockade between the rest of the school and the field of lava. It splashed against the barrier languidly and continued to eat its way in the other directions.
One minute and thirty-three seconds later, Ectoplasm arrived - followed by Yamada and Aizawa. Less than a minute later, All Might arrived to the scene. The field of lava had grown ever wider, encasing the rubble of the collapsed dorm buildings. Villains that ran were yanked back by what appeared to be arms of lava, devoured by the molten earth and metal.
"What-" All Might didn't have to finish the sentence. The students were let down from their binds near the teachers.
"Nakami." Todoroki stated, eyes widened. Now, none of the students tried to race forward.
The single word, her name, sent the teachers into a frenzy. Aizawa was shouting, yelling for Ishiyama to contain the field of lava and Ectoplasm to round up the living villains. The creatures were nowhere to be seen. Yamada and Ectoplasm worked faster than the students had ever seen them, using Ishiyama's cement to stay out of the reach of the lava while they gathered the few remaining villains.
All Might was struggling against Aizawa, trying to push him out of the way to go out into the chaos. "No!" Their homeroom teacher's voice cut across the panic of the students and teachers alike. Even now, more students and teachers were arriving - from every year and class. More and more flooding the field, trying to find out why the attack had suddenly stopped.
They were kept back by the teachers and third years. "No." Aizawa shoved All Might backwards. "There's nothing you can do for her. We knew-" He sucked in a breath, turning and scanning the field of lava.
A wail pulled everyone's attention away - and towards a third year girl that was running towards the field of lava. She was yanked backwards by Midnight before she could get to it and the girl only cried louder, screaming.
"Nakami! No!" She was screaming, yelling, struggling against Midnight. "What did you do Nakami?! What did you do- No!" It was then that the murmurs started. The girl began sobbing, her body caving in on itself as Midnight dragged her backwards. Her words became garbled, and then just devolved into wordless screams of anguish.
From the center of the field of lava, a figure began forming out of the lava itself. It grew to massive proportions quickly, and the molten earth was pulled into it as it grew. It changed from blob-like to vaguely human-like, to a towering likeness of the second-year girl. Where the lava had laid, the ground sizzled.
Nakami's form tilted its head and the mouth opened but no sound escaped. "Come back to me- Come back- Nak- Kami, come-" The third year scrambled forward, held back once again by Midnight as she screamed and sobbed. "I know you're in there- come- please- Kam- Sissy, please-"
The figure smiled, pressing its hands to its flowing chest. It began shrinking - pulling in on itself slowly but surely. Until what stood there resembled the form of Nakami - albeit a version made of lava.
"Where-where is-" Her sister was sobbing, frantically looking around. "Where's the control- Where's the-"
"It broke, when she took it off." Todoroki spoke up, producing the circular object from his pocket. The screen was shattered and blackened - it'd been too close to her when she began heating up.
"No, no-" A garbled sound escaped the third year again and she wailed. "She can't- she can't come back on her own- without it- she can't come out of this-" Her eyes found the bleary form of her younger sister through her tears. "Why would you- you can't- sissy please."
Nakami's form smiled - and she motioned around. To her classmates, her teachers, the rest of the school. All of them. She'd done it for them. Of course she had.
"How can we help her?" Aizawa spoke up again finally, eyes resting on the molten girl. "I can't shut off her quirk-"
"She's too hot. Once her temperature gets high- high enough- she can't control it. Her quirk take-takes over. She can't- come back unless- her temperature- it comes dow-down-" She was speaking between sobs, trying to make sense of the information she already knew. "And if she can't- can't come back- before thirty minutes on her- on her own- it'll cause- perma-permanent damage."
It was all coming together for the former class 1-A now. Why she kept the device on - why she protected it at all costs. Why she never talked much about her quirk, beyond the ability to heat things up. Why there were scars lacing her back and shoulders, as if she'd been burned.
Seventeen minutes and twelve seconds had passed since she first let her quirk go, and the students and teachers began scrambling for a solution. Two minutes and fourteen seconds passed before they came up with a working solution. The support class pulled together - and set to work on the destroyed regulator after her sister pulled herself together enough to explain how it worked.
Todoroki and several other students with ice and water-based quirks came to the frontlines - and began spraying her with 'attacks'. One student sent a huge blast of water at her, and it vaporized before it even touched her skin. Another three poured water from their storages and quirks into the now-enclosed area in which she stood, forming a lake in which she stood in the center. Within two minutes, it had dried up from the heat.
Todoroki sent wave after wave of ice, encasing her over and over and over again. Between each wave, other students pelted her with snow and ice, or streams of water. The lake was formed again and again, as each student pulled from their reserves.
Twenty-four minutes and fifty-three seconds passed before they noticed the difference - where water and ice had sizzled, melted, and vaporized away within seconds of touching her, it now took upwards of thirty seconds. The support classes and teachers were scrambling, someone having yelled about making some kind of breakthrough.
Twenty-eight minutes and fifteen seconds since she released her regulator, and Nakami stood in the middle of the lake with the water boiling around her slowly, ice sliding off of her and floating in the water, melting gradually. A beep sounded from the regulator as Mei Hatsume twisted a screw into place.
Twenty-eight minutes and forty-three seconds, and another loud beep rang out - following by the piercing, shrill alarm that had gone off when Nakami removed it. Her sister scrambled up, grabbing for the device, yelling that she can reactivate it. "Clear area. Clear area. Danger. Clear area. Clear area. Danger."
Twenty-nine minutes and six seconds, and the shrill warning voice was silenced and then Nakami's sister was leaping towards the sizzling lake - only to be pulled back. Todoroki took the device from her, and with a glance at his teachers, sent another blast of ice at the smoldering girl before pushing a platform of ice out from under him. It guided him across the lake's surface and he soared towards his classmate.
Twenty-nine minutes and twenty-two seconds, Todoroki covered himself in ice as he approached Nakami. The brief instructions he'd overheard her sister talking about were all that he needed in order to know how to activate the regulator.
Twenty-nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds, he slid into the sizzling water in front of Nakami and met her gaze. She frowned, shaking her head. He ignored her - and pressed the device against her chest, where it had previously rested. His fingers slid across the screen and he twisted the regulator.
Twenty-nine minutes and thirty-four seconds, the regulator sprang to life. The metal bands flowed out and encased her limbs, neck, head, and torso. She screamed and Todoroki was told to back away. He stayed. Her skin dulled, and she began to shake uncontrollably.
Twenty-nine minutes and forty-four seconds, she collapsed to her knees in a scream of pain. The regulator was working - and she was burnt. Everywhere. Her skin was charred, blackened to a crisp all over. She was screaming- no, wailing in anguish as every nerve suddenly felt the damage dealt to her.
Twenty-nine minute and fifty-six seconds, Nakami passed out from the pain. Todoroki caught her as she fell, wincing as she groaned at the painful contact. Less than thirty seconds later, a stretcher and nurses appeared and pulled her gingerly from his arms. Recovery Girl herself was there, pressing withered, old lips to the charred flesh of Nakami's forehead. Another nurse was holding his hands out over her, something oozing from them to coat her skin.
Thirty minutes, and the stretcher was being run through the crowd. No one was walking. They were all bolting indoors, to the infirmary. Nakami's classmates were gathered in a bundle, eyes wide and many of them crying or trembling. Her sister was pulled up to her feet by Midnight, and led inside.
Four days later, the rubble had been cleared away. In its place, new buildings were already nearly completed. Students were told it was their last day of respite from classes before they were required to return to normal activities. Security was increased on the U.A. campus, heroes being brought in from all over to improve on already-top-of-the-line systems.
Nine days after that, Principal Nedzu called an assembly of the school - and announced that Nakami was awake. She refused any visitors - even her classmates. For three more weeks, she stayed in the infirmary as she healed.
Nearly a month and a half later, the girl was released from the infirmary and sent home. She refused to see anyone. Her parents invited her classmates and teachers over, hoping to bring her out of her shell. She stayed in her room the entire time.
It took her seven months, two weeks, three days, and forty-seven minutes to step foot back onto UA grounds. It was to return her uniform. She withdrew from the hero course, and UA as a whole. Her doctors said she'd never be a hero again.
Thirty minutes had been an estimate.
Twenty-three minutes after she released her quirk to its fullest extent, her body's cells stopped being able to heal properly. By the time she was brought back, it was too late. The burns on her body would never heal, and she would be unable to do more than heat a cup of water - if that. Moving for the first few weeks had been painful. Walking took months to achieve. She'd never be a hero again.
One year and eight months after the attack on UA that she defended against, Nakami realized that she was okay with not being a hero again. She'd been one for thirty minutes - and that had saved her classmates' lives. It was enough.
Thirty minutes was enough time for her.