Chapter Text
“... But first, let’s kill some of his precious students,” the villain – Shigaraki – said, and Tsu could only question when things had gone so wrong as red eyes bore into hers.
As a Rescue Hero hopeful, she’d been excited when Aizawa-sensei announced that day’s lesson plan.That excitement was intensified further at the knowledge they would be utilizing USJ’s structure– a renowned center for practice in high quality simulations of disaster scenarios.
Visiting somewhere like that was a dream come true. The only instance Tsu would ever manage to gather similarly relevant practice would be in real-life rescue situations during internships, and even then she might not be able to gather as much all-around experience.
UA’s insanely versatile structure was one of the reasons she chose the school over other Hero Courses after all, so finally getting the opportunity to use one of those environments should have been good- great even.
Yet, somehow, this had managed to turn into one of the worst days of her life.
It started when a mysterious black portal opened in the middle of the plaza, spouting waves and waves of real-life villains all over the place. And then that same mist villain managed to force Thirteen’s own quirk against themselves before dispersing Tsu and her classmates through the place, at the mercy of both human and ‘natural’ dangers.
They were somewhat lucky in that their attackers didn’t seem to know the students’ quirks– she didn’t want to imagine how much worse things would’ve been if she’d ended up in the Conflagration zone.
Still, they were first years with about one week of classes under their belt. Being pushed against dozens of hostile opponents, no matter how unskilled they were, was dangerous. Hell, if it wasn’t for Midoriya’s quick thinking, Tsu wasn’t sure she’d be able to escape the many villains that swarmed the Flood Zone unharmed.
But then, instead of running as soon as they were safe, the trio – she, Midoriya and Mineta – elected to stick around and watch Aizawa-sensei fight, as if they would’ve been able to provide any help against enemies that overpowered Pro Hero Eraserhead.
And their sensei was a powerful Pro Hero. Any doubts Tsu had gathered over it due to his unkempt demeanor and constant sleepiness were immediately kicked out the moment she saw him fight– and win– against hordes of villains with violent efficiency.
But then that monster– that hulking beast with an exposed brain and inhuman strength– had twisted Aizawa-sensei’s arm like a twig and slammed his head into the ground with a sickening crunch. Blood slowly seeped into a puddle on the floor, crimson coloring cracked concrete and Tsu had the terrifying realization their teacher could very well be dead.
She’d been frozen in shock, staring at the nightmarish scene with enough intensity it would probably burn itself into her retinas. Like a black hole, the terrible sight pulled at her awareness with a tight, painful leash, enough that she didn’t notice the villain leader’s approach until it was too late.
Shigaraki had lurched, moving with a speed Tsu didn’t think possible for someone with his body type. One moment, the trio of first years was safely crouching at the edge of the artificial lake, meters away from the center of conflict– and then, suddenly, a deadly hand approached.
Tsu saw it happen in an agonizing slow motion. The villain’s crazed red eyes had stared at his target, glistening in triumph and blood-lust as his hand oh so slowly closed around pale skin. Five fingers, one by one making contact until the lethal quirk strung– the executor’s axe striking upon its victim.
And then Midoriya crumbled.
It started with a web of cracks forming on his face from the points Shigaraki had managed to touch. It spread over the boy’s head, running over his nose and eyes and spouting blood at the points it dug deep into his skin. Midoriya had opened his mouth, face contorting in pain, but no scream came out for decay had already dug too deep into his larynx.
Between one blink and the other, her friend, the person with the brightest smiles and sparkling green eyes– Midoriya Izuku– had been reduced to a heap of foul-smelling dust.
The world came to a stop. She could feel bile coming up her esophagus– her throat vibrating in a desperate cry Tsu could not hear amidst the roaring blood thrumming against her eardrums. At the blurred-out edges of her vision, she distantly registered Mineta running away in a mad dash, tears and snot flowing down his face. Her thoughts echoed in a messy strand of distorted consciousness warning that maybe she should be trying to escape as well– but her body had locked up, too rigid in shock to carry out any evasive motions.
Shigaraki was laughing– mouth open wide in a deranged smile behind the embalmed hand that covered his face. He hugged his own stomach in an act of sickening giddiness as he stomped over her friend’s remains, uncaring for the person they used to be.
After what felt like an eternity, the villain finally came out of his stupor of crazed elation. His cracked lips moved shakily, shaping into words of death and murder. His attention slowly turned towards Tsu’s frozen, terrified figure, and she knew before he even moved that she would come to meet the same fate as Midoriya.
Once again, Shigaraki lunged, and the motion was enough to send air back into her paralyzed lungs. She tried to evade the attack, but her feet moved with nightmarish sluggishness– it was too slow, her movements too delayed against her assaulter’s deadly precision.
Tsu felt fingers slowly encroaching against her face and snapped her eyes shut, bracing herself for pain. Her heartbeat thrummed against her neck– the quickened beating pace of prey. Blood swelled in her mouth from where she’d tensed so hard a piece of her tongue was bitten off.
She would die– just like Midoriya. She would be decayed by this villain in what was supposed to be a school trip. Tsu was only fifteen and she would die– she was dead–
But then– nothing. The pain didn’t come.
“Ah, Eraserhead, you’re so cool.” Shigaraki said, the hand that had threatened Tsu now scratching nervously against his irritated neck. “Protecting your students even after everything… it’s a shame you were too late to save one of them.”
She saw it, then. Under the hulking beast, somehow, Aizawa-sensei had managed enough leverage to send a quirk-fueled glare at the villain, despite the concoction of blood and grievous injuries that colored his face and body.
“No matter. We’ll just have to deal with you first. Noumu–”
The monster’s arm tensed in anticipation but, just a moment before it could bash her teacher’s head once again against hard concrete, a massive stake of ice speared it in the shoulder.
“You shouldn’t forget about the rest of us.” Came Todoroki’s cold voice, red and white hair glistening with glacial power.
“Shut up, Halfie!” Bakugou’s brash tone followed as he jumped into the scene with a literal boom, Kirishima close behind him. “Where is that mist fucker? I’m gonna kill him!”
“Tsk– Noumu, kill those brats.” Shigaraki ordered, lips curling in annoyance.
The beast let go of Aizawa-sensei– his body left crumpled lifelessly on the ground– and lunged with inhuman speed, uncaring for the ice structure pinning it down.
Todoroki reacted, spouting another, much bigger glacier over the creature, enclosing it in a thick layer of ice before its attack could reach the teen. Meanwhile, Bakugou, propelled by his explosions, flew over in the direction of Kurogiri, aiming a strike at the villain’s misty figure.
And then something started to burn.
At first, Tsu was confused. She could smell the faint scent of smoke and ashes, slowly growing stronger for apparently no reason. It couldn’t be Bakugou’s explosions– those always carried a tint of sweetness– and the Conflagration Zone was too far away for smell to carry over.
It intensified until she couldn’t think of anything else. Her tongue tasted of ash and blood, and even the faint scent of petrichor from the Downpour Zone became forgotten amidst the odd odor. Soon enough, others also took notice of it– Shigaraki’s eyebrows twisted into a scowl as he looked around seemingly in confusion.
Kirishima frowned from where he’d been tending to Aizawa-sensei. “Is there a fire?” She heard him ask.
Fights around her had slowed down to standoffs– even the Noumu stagnating with its puppeteer’s distraction. The air had become noticeably hotter within the short period of time since that damned smell started. Todoroki’s ice constructs visibly began melting. Tsu was sweating, but thankfully the nearby water allowed her not to pass out from it.
It took a long moment of this confusion– a dozen or so breaths of dry, scorching air, before they all simultaneously noticed it.
From the heap of dust and ashes that once was Midoriya Izuku, flaming red embers had begun to burn.
Dark, acrid smoke drew languid shapes stemming from the center of ignition. Nothing about the scene made sense– there was neither anything that could cause a fire or maintain it, and yet– it grew. As the moments passed, embers turned to blaze, and smoke turned to soot, coalescing on the floor in thick, amorphous piles.
Temperature rose with each second until Tsu’s eyes started to sting, yet she could not allow them to stray from the sight– and she was glad she didn’t, for one misplaced blink would’ve made her miss what happened next.
At the eye of the pyre, flames surged in an explosion of brightness, rising meters up in the air in a white-hot inferno. The ashes and dust that had been scattered throughout the ground slowly rolled over to the focus of heat, meshing and building into an increasingly bigger, denser shape.
The entanglement of soot soared, solidifying into a silhouette just a tad over Tsu’s own height. The burning inferno still enveloped it like a cloak, blending around the figure’s darkened shape. It staggered forward, exhaling such fiery hotness every observer was forced to take a step back. The being– because she was sure whatever that was had to be, somehow, alive– faltered shakily in its movements, hunching over itself in search of stability. When it rose again, Tsu had to take a sharp breath for the sight that met her eyes.
Two beautiful, flaming hot wings of pure, iridescent fire stretched over from the figure’s back. They served as a barrier, separating Tsu from the villains’ view– and, at that moment, she knew she would be safe.
“What is this, what is this? A surprise boss?” Shigaraki said. His voice was shaky and desperate, the sound of his nails scratching over dry skin ringing loudly throughout the place. “No, no… the only boss was supposed to be All Might. That’s– that’s cheating!”
Tsu could not see the being’s face– if it even had one– but she got the distinct impression it glared at the villain.
And then it lunged.
Really, it was a testament to that Noumu creature’s speed and strength that it managed to intercept the attack– one moment the entity stood in a majestic display of flaming power, and the next it collided against the bulging purple monster with an explosion, just a couple of steps before Shigaraki.
The Noumu loomed over its attacker, gigantic even in the face of such power– but it wasn’t immune. For the first time, the inhuman hulk of distorted muscle mass was forced into a defensive stance. Its bones had bent forcefully at the point it deflected the being’s blow. Tsu could distantly notice what seemed like an attempt at regeneration– tendons and skin molding against an impossible force, desperately trying to rearrange back to their prime– but it paled in comparison to the damage enforced by raging fire.
A scorching arm– the one not already occupied in a clash against distended muscles– reared back in preparation for a punch. Energy crackled in iridescent red lightning around the limb– the smell of ozone overpowering even the ever-consuming scent of ashes. At the instant the hit stroke, a blast of pressure rang, a wave of displaced air hitting Tsu and knocking her inside the artificial lake from its sheer strength.
She emerged after a short while– somewhat thankful for the water’s coolness against her amphibian skin– and was met with a sight of destruction.
At the point the Noumu had been, a carcass of smothering meat stood, blood and fat still bubbling from the heat. Pieces of darkened tissue had been slung in a wide radius by the force of impact, marring the scene in different shades of bloody flesh. It seemed the mist villain– Kurogiri– had somehow managed to escape Bakugou’s hold, for one of his portals slowly closed around the position Shigaraki had been.
Whatever happened in those short seconds Tsu had lost vision of the scene appeared to have been violent enough to force the villain leaders into a retreat– no matter how much she looked around, the girl couldn’t gather even a glimpse of them.
The students were safe.
Yagi Toshinori – more widely known as All Might – had bolted in top speed the moment news about the attack at USJ reached UA’s main building, despite his aching stomach and coughed lungfuls of blood.
He’d been reckless. The media had started to take notice of All Might’s decreased apprehensions in the last couple of months and, with his new position as a teacher, rumors of his imminent retirement had begun to sprout. That morning, Toshinori had found himself with some free time, and came up with the decision to use it to fight crime in an attempt to repel those assumptions.
But he’d bitten far more than he could chew, unused to his new limit carrying only the embers of One For All posed. As a result, he'd been unable to attend 1-A’s rescue simulation lessons scheduled for the afternoon.
And now the students he was supposed to aid were under attack, and he wasn’t there to help them.
Could Toshinori really call himself a hero if those bright young children came to harm due to his own recklessness?
As soon as young Iida arrived at the staff room carrying horrifying news, the hero had forced himself to inflate back into his stronger form so as to reach USJ’s building as fast as possible– no matter that the remaining teachers had also all been immobilized.
He’d kicked the front doors of the building open, unable to unlock them normally, likely due to the same interference that denied communications from traveling to and from the rest of the campus. Inside, at the entrance gallery, a conglomerate of students had gathered– all seemingly uninjured– as they tended to the downed form of Thirteen.
All Might threaded past them, knowing the arriving heroes would be better suited to aiding the group. He moved further into the plaza, noticing a commotion around the center of the space– whatever was happening there had upheaved enough smoke and dust to severely impact his visibility, and Toshinori did not like that at all.
The moment he jumped next to the fountain, he saw a terrifying scene. Dozens of incapacitated unknown persons– who he assumed were part of the hostile attack force– were strung around the grounds, visibly wounded. Their unconscious bodies sketched a path leading towards the bleeding and broken figure of young Aizawa. Kirishima seemed to be tending to his sensei, but without proper first-aid training, his efforts did little against Eraserhead’s injuries.
It was clear a major battle had taken place there. Deep gouges and cracks marred otherwise smooth concrete, dark stains of blood, dirt and what looked like chunks of meat laid strewn violently over a wide radius of destruction. The remnants of one of Todoroki’s large iceberg constructs loomed half melted a couple of steps away from the boy himself– thankfully uninjured. Young Bakugou stood fuming and disheveled, but otherwise seemingly well near the other boy, staring at a point in the distance.
When Toshinori moved his gaze towards where the explosive teen stared, he almost choked on blood.
There was a figure immersed by flames, standing shakily amongst a pile of charred remains. Bright fissures of mythical power danced in a crackle of lightning across its limbs, distending the air with its sheer strength at every twitch its body gave. Two flaming wings stood tall with an impressive range, defensively guarding over the being’s form.
But despite all those impossible sights, All Might had no issues recognising the person behind those fiery addendums.
This was someone he had seen grow with his own two eyes through painstaking ten months– he had witnessed that very same silhouette now marked by darked soot as it pushed over washing machines in a polluted beach.
Toshinori approached the burning teen despite how his own skin bubbled from the heat. “Young Midoriya,” he said, “you can stop fighting now.”
The figure turned towards him, enough for the man to catch a glimpse of terrified green eyes from beneath the flames. “A-All Might?” He asked in a shaky voice.
“Yes,” the hero answered between bloody coughs, “I am here.”
A wall of cement rose, separating the duo from observers just as Toshinori’s strong form failed and Midoriya finally passed out, the flames atop his skin dying as he lost consciousness.