Chapter Text
The raid went south the moment it started.
Everything was going well until the call to rush the criminal hideout was ordered.
And all hell broke loose.
~
“ What the hell was that?!” Someone yelled over the comms.
Aizawa was on the ground, trying to stabilize himself as the eight-story building shook. The shockwaves rattled through his body to his very bones.
The entire raid was already a fuck fest. The blueprints, case meetings, and team-up combos were already thrown out the window. Aizawa had lost his team a while back in his fight towards the top floor.
Tonight was an attack on the Omoi Kane , a broker organization that specialized in illegal espionage. Sources say those who needed information otherwise not attainable would come to the Omoi Kane for their secretive and “subtle” methods. In reality, the organization all but hunted for their clients, tracking down anyone who could know a little about anything and kidnapping them until they’ve spilled all of the secrets.
It was a dirty game, but what threw the police for a loop was how victims of the Omoi Kane would often be returned to their lives quickly and consistently unharmed . Not a scratch, not a scrap, not even a bruise.
It was one of the mysteries of this organization. Every person they’ve taken has been returned safely to the very place they were kidnapped. With no memories of their time away or bodily evidence of a hellish interrogation, many people didn’t even know why they were abducted…
Or what they had given up.
That is why tonight was important. The underworld of crime was constantly brewing. With an organization as elusive and cunning as this one, the heroes had to cut the Omoi Kane at the roots before they grew any more dangerous than they already were.
Initially, Aizawa’s team’s mission was to scout out the building and relay information back to the heavy hitters who’d rush the building after them. They were supposed to be the first wave.
But then, the organization was tipped off by a police leak, leading them to prepare for their supposed-surprise attack.
The organized waves no longer mattered — it came down to which side could brawl the longest and the hardest. And, since the enemy already expected the police, they had a few tricks up their sleeves…
“ Explosion on the 3rd floor! Blew exit routes. Bringing in aerial reinforcements. All members above the 3rd floor — Retreat! ” One of the grounds command ordered.
“ Fires spreading up the North Face. Physical structure still secure,” another office reported.
“ Hawks en route! ATA 5 minutes. Stand by on South escape stairs, eighth floor. ”
A series of responses filtered through the shared communications, but Aizawa never said anything.
Took focused on the smoke slowly rising from the vents, he remembered his location.
4th floor.
One floor away from a raging fire below and four floors away from his escape, not counting the number of gang members crawling throughout the place ready to die to keep their Kingpin’s escape.
“God damn it,” Aizawa breathed, already feeling the floor heat up below him.
He needed to get up. Go up. To the top. It wasn’t a matter of winning or losing, success or failure. This was about survival.
He ran to the EXIT doors into a staircase, taking the steps three at a time when—
“— fucking Ooto’s quirk,” a voice yelled from the above staircases.
Aizawa stopped. He ducked low to the steps, stilly watching the creaking steps above him.
Their footsteps were loud. Heavy. Coming directly towards him.
“Shithead fucked all of us,” another voice said, angrily. “Yoshimitsu-san is out at least. Once we get Ku, we can regroup in Musutaf-“
“Stop.”
Aizawa stopped.
“…There’s someone here.”
“Hah?! Who the fuck-“
“I can sense them.”
The faceless voices were on the platform directly above Aizawa. The closest offshoot door was either another two stairs up or one down towards the fire.
Going back was a risk. The fire was quickly spreading through the building. Aizawa could feel the heat just in the staircases, but it was either that or two unknown gang members.
Aizawa grabbed his capture weapon.
He can’t fight fire, but he can fight people.
“ Get Ku and I’ll handle this one ,” one of the voices whispered, followed by a hushed grunt.
Aizawa activated his quirk just as two men jumped into view. One pulled out a gun from the top of the platform while the other darted toward Aizawa.
“ Shit -“
“Go, Mitsu!” The gun wielder yelled, firing bullets down the stairway.
Aizawa dropped to the stairs as the lone gangster ran past Aizawa — toward the third floor. Aizawa quickly threw out his capture weapon and snagged the man’s ankle, effectively tripping him on the steps.
“You fucker!” he yelled, turning on Aizawa and firing up his quirk.
With a simple glance, the man’s hand of lighting deactivated. Aizawa re-lassoed the dazed guy and flung him into his comrade on the platform. The gunslinger quickly dogged Aizawa’s makeshift attack at the same time his gun jammed. Before Aizawa could even try to run, the man jumped in close to Aizawa. They exchanged a few hits and blows before Aizawa got a step on them and flipped him over his shoulder.
The man tumbled down the remaining steps, landing with a hollow groan. He did not get up.
“Banho!” The lightning-quirk yelled, jumping to his feet and powering up once more.
The smoke from the downstairs fire was getting denser by the second. Aizawa’s eyes stung and breaths hurt, but he pushed through it. He won’t give up.
The two collided in another hand-to-hand fight. it was a battle of footwork. Aizawa pulled out his knife and swung it at the criminal while the criminal kept swinging at his eyes.
“Die!” The man yelled, pushing Aizawa down a few steps.
Aizawa dodged a few punches before trapping the offending wrist in his capture weapon. The man tried to pull back but Aizawa kicked him against the wall. With another punch to the jaw, the man slid to the floor as unconscious as his comrade.
“Damn,” Aizawa coughed, holding his side. They were on the platform for the 3rd-floor exit. The smoke was thick and the heat unbearable. His head felt heavy; his body was worn. Everything in him felt close to collapse.
Aizawa leaned sluggishly on the metal railing. He needed to get to the top. To the 8th floor. Staying here…this close to ground zero… it wouldn’t be good.
Aizawa concentrated his energy on the stairs in front of him, making two steps before looking back at the two unconscious bodies.
Perhaps it was just his body finding excuses to take a break or maybe his logical mind picking up situational pieces, but the sight got him thinking – why was there anyone here ? Now ?
The explosion happened only a few minutes ago, but it shook the entire facility. Everyone, criminal and officer, would prioritize escaping, yet these two were coming down the floors toward the explosion.
If the blast itself didn’t destroy any escape routes, the fires and weakening foundation would. There was no way out. So why come in this direction? Why risk the damage? Why risk their lives? Unless–
(“Once we get Ku…”)
(“Get Ku…”)
There was something worth losing a life.
Aizawa had no clue who or what “Ku” was, but by the way, the two men were talking, it sounded like a person. Someone so important, the Kingpin himself was willing to lose his own foot soldiers and risk secrecy. With the extent of the explosion, no one would survive the night in this building.
Aizawa stepped off the stairs.
Even if “Ku” was a criminal, they would die if Aizawa didn’t do anything. He was the only one there and the only one who could save him.
Aizawa turned towards the third-floor door. He grabbed the red-hot handle with his scarf and threw open the door.
( “Here.” )
It was a burning inferno tightly contained on the small floor. The entire right side of the wall was blown out. Through the smoke and the flames, Aizawa could see distant flashes of the police cars and ambulances.
He covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve before turning to the burning decay of the room.
Parts of the ceiling and floor were caved in while flames licked every surface. The tight labyrinth of halls felt impossible to tread through. Fiery wisps of red caught his costume and black smoke scorched his eyes, but something in Aizwa’s mind pulled him into the fires. Slowly, he treaded through the floor, powered only by an odd sense to save.
(“Here . ”)
It felt foreign to Aizawa, … this… growing …need to rescue. Each step through the flames made him feel more anxious, more worried. Aizawa didn’t get anxious or worried on the job, least of all while he was still doing it. Yet, now, it was as if his body was desperate to save this ‘Ku’ before his head could even try to logic a plan. He needed to help. He had to help. Refusing, ignoring, or anything of the sort felt innately wrong.
“K…Ku?!” Aizawa roughly yelled. He hid his nose in his collar. “Ku?!”
Breathing made his lungs sizzle. Moving made his skin melt. His costume was fire-proof, yet it felt as if he was being boiled alive in his own body.
“Ku?!”
(“Here.”)
A soft creak was his only warning before an entire steel beam fell through the ceiling. Aizawa ducked and rolled to the side, crashing through a weakened piece of flamming drywall.
Aizawa coughed out the dust and ash. “ Shit .”
He landed in a slim hallway with nothing but a single door at its end. Fire licked the narrowed walls and smoke clogged up the hall, yet that last door refused to burn. Metal, almost blue in the heat, tauntingly inviting—
(“Here.”)
—if not for the steel bar barricading it shut.
“Ku?” Aizawa whispered, trying to get to his feet. “K-”
There was a cry. Maybe a scream.
(“Help me . ”)
Muffed over the crackling sound of the building burning, Aizawa picked it up like a dog and a whistle.
(“I’m scared… ”)
It came from the door. Behind the door. Inside yet another unseen room. There was a person – someone alive – trapped behind that door.
Aizawa ran down the hall, heart pounding faster with each step. His hands shook; jaw tight; knees threatening to give out. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt so panicked, but then again, he’d never been in a burning building before.
(“Please, I’m here.”)
“K-Ku!” Aizawa yelled, banging on the door. “My name is Eraser! I’m a hero! I’m here to save you!”
(“I don’t want to die…”)
Aizawa wiped his cheek of soot and sweat before analyzing the steal bar. It was thick, heavy, and glowing from the heat. It crossed the door fully, holding its place by the two pieces on either side of the frame.
“I’m going to get you out!” Aizawa said over the harsh fire.
Aizawa stepped back and wound his capture weapon around his hands in a makeshift glove. He took as clear of a breath as he could before lifting the glowing beam with all his strength.
Perhaps it was the adrenaline or maybe the tunnel vision of priorities, but Aizawa felt no strain. His capture weapon smoked against the metal but neither his hands nor his skin felt the burn. With a simple push, the barricade was gone.
Aizawa wasted no time throwing the beam aside. He went to turn the door handle when – it was locked.
He tried it again. Once more. And once more after that. The hand gave only a bit before locking up and refusing entry. Aizawa cursed loudly, twisting and banging on the fiery door in anger.
“Fuck!” He yelled.
He didn’t know what was coming over him, but the sheer fear…panic – it clogged his head. He couldn’t think. Not properly. He was all over the place — scatterbrained, scrambled-minded, disorientated, and disorganized. Desperation outweighed logic. He needed a solution — any solution, even if it killed him.
In a fit of anger, Aizawa kicked at the door. Hard. Once. Twice. Three times, before, miraculously, slamming open like the fiery gates of hell.
It was a bedroom. Small. Orange with flames and black with smoke. The walls, the ceiling, the bed in the corner, the wooden chest on the side — it all burned with a dangerous need to consume.
His eyes quickly scanned the room when they fell to the unconscious figure balled up in the corner.
And suddenly, the thick, anxious fog in his head cleared.
It was a kid. A teen. Thin and small. His clothes were on fire and there was blood against the walls.
“Shit!” Aizawa cursed, quickly running over to him. “Ku? Ku? It’s Eraser. I’m going to get you out of here.”
He quickly scanned over the unresponsive kid. He was bony and sweating with angry burn marks already punishing his skin. Blood dripped down his blackened arms.
He quickly, but gently, threw the kid over his shoulder before high-tailing it out of the room.
“Eraser. Driver needed on the Northface. 3rd floor. Victim found. In need of medical,” Aizawa loudly reported into his earpiece.
He tried to retract the previous route to the escape stairs, but the fire had virtually destroyed any and all paths to the other side of the floor. He stood back in the main area where the entire center of the floor was gone.
The smoke tolled on his eyes and breathing, blurring the destruction in one big collage of color.
“Eraser? Where the fuck have you been?! We’ve evac-”
“Give me the mic– Eraser, where’s your nearest exit?”
Aizawa crouched against a brick wall, shielding the kid from the heat and debris.
“The…initial explosion site,” Aizawa coughed. His hands gave out a little before gripping the kid tighter. He shook his head. “I…I’m by… I’m by the hole… in the North… wall.”
“Alright, we have you. Hawks is on standby. Can you make it to the opening?”
Aizawa looked at the massive hole in the wall across the cracked ground. The flames flickered with the nighttime breeze while helicopter lights flooded the area in harsh white.
He looked down at the kid limp in his arms. Sweat and blood dripped down Aizawa’s back. He tightened his hold.
“…Yes.”
“Good. Get there now. You’re going to jump. We have choppers surrounding you. We’ll catch you.”
Aizawa’s mind lagged too much to truly understand what was just said. Not only were they on the third floor with fire raging around them, but Aizawa had a kid in his arms. A person.
But isn’t this what heroes are for? Saving people from burning buildings? Rescuing people? Putting their lives on the line to protect others?
This was the essence of being a hero.
“Just tell me when,” Aizawa coughed, limping towards the giant hole in the wall. He tied the kid to his front with the rest of his capture weapon.
From this height, he could see everything. The helicopters trying to stabilize their focus on him, the policemen scrambling on the floor, the emergency vehicles’ flashing lights.
His body felt like it’s met its match and this… this was the sweet, satisfying finish line.
“Alright. On my count, one…”
Aizawa closed his eyes.
“Two…”
His feet toed the crumbling wall edges.
“ Three .”
He jumped.
There was nothing quite as horrifying and thrilling as a true freefall. Almost weightless, everything in his body floated upwards. His stomach was in his heart, his heart in his brain, and his brain squished against his skull — it was as dizzying as it was reliving.
“ Brace, Eraser!”
But he had no time to revel in the moment.
Quickly, he held the kid’s head against his neck and held out a hand. What felt like an eternity was only a few seconds as Hawks swooped from above and caught Aizawa’s wrist.
The deadweight of both Aizawa and the kid popped just about everything in his arm, but Aizawa had no more energy to react to it. Already, the true extent of his injuries slowly returned to him as the adrenaline wore off.
“Hey, hey, stay with us, Eraser,” Hawks yelled down, but Aizawa was already on his way out.
The last he felt was Hawks landing them on the gravel, an oxygen mask over his mouth, hands cutting away his capture weapon and a small, twitching hand bunching up in his sleeve.
'Ku' was alive.