Kirishima arrived at the meeting place on time, dressed in a suit, and greeted Iida, who was already waiting there.
"Hey, class rep."
"Hm? Kirishima. Good, you’re here!"
"So this is everyone?"
The only people visible at a glance were Kaminari, Iida, and Todoroki.
Iida waved a stiff arm and said, "That’s right! We’re not late yet, but there isn’t much time left before the appointed hour!"
"Well, I guess they could still be a little late, but there really aren’t many of us."
"Geez, but girls always need a long time to get ready, Eijiro!"
"I know that, so I told them to get ready right away."
Just as Kirishima replied to Ashido, who had popped out from the side to butt in, an elevator opened and Midoriya appeared.
"Sorry I’m late! Huh, where are the others?"
"They’re not here yet! What do you think group plans are for?"
While he muttered in annoyance, another elevator door opened and Uraraka appeared.
She was wearing a pink one-piece dress, with flowers in her hair, and looked as bright as her name suggested.
Unlike her cheerful appearance, she fidgeted with her hair and apologized in an awkward way.
"Sorry. I’m late!"
"Ooh!"
Kaminari stared at her and gasped in admiration, and then the elevator doors opened again.
Inside were Yaoyorozu and Jiro, both in pale green dresses.
"Sorry we’re late. Jiro was..."
"I, uh, this kind of outfit is just... how do I put it."
She had been hiding behind Yaoyorozu, but now stepped forward and looked away.
Her voice was shy and cautious, and Kaminari answered brightly.
"It’s like clothes really do make the man!"
"Shut up."
Jiro’s earphone jacks mercilessly punished the clueless boy.
Kaminari slapped a hand to his knee and cried, "What? I was complimenting you!"
"You weren’t complimenting me."
"Of course it’s not a compliment, Kaminari..."
"Huh? It’s not?"
"How did you even get into U.A.?"
At Kirishima’s rebuke, Kaminari’s eyes went wide as if he truly had no idea.
Seeing that, Kirishima pressed a hand to his forehead.
At least thanks to his correction, Kaminari escaped the wrath of the girls behind them, who had been about to say something with ominous looks on their faces.
"This is my first time wearing a suit. I borrowed it from Yaoyorozu."
"I-It suits you. Yeah. Really well."
'What are you doing...'
Kirishima muttered inwardly as he watched Midoriya praise Uraraka, who was waving both hands up and down in embarrassment.
It was a fresh, innocent boy-and-girl scene, but somehow it felt oddly irritating.
Uraraka, flustered, waved her hands frantically and tried to refuse it.
"No, really, Deku-kun! You don’t have to force it!"
Just then, the entrance leading to the reception hall opened and Melissa stepped out, dressed beautifully.
With a blue top, a sky-blue skirt, her glasses removed, and makeup on, she gave off a completely different impression from before.
If her earlier look had been that of a typical student, now she was the very image of a radiant Western beauty.
Kaminari looked at her with a face like he might cry at any moment and said, "This is bad. I think I’m doomed. What do I do?"
"Just be doomed already."
Jiro muttered coldly at him.
Meanwhile, Iida kept making calls, ignoring the little comedy unfolding beside him.
After trying again and again without anyone picking up, he lowered his phone and said, "No good. I can’t get through to Shoto or Bakugo either."
At that moment, an announcement began to echo through the entire building.
The pleasant female voice carried nothing pleasant at all.
"This is I-Island Management System. According to the security system, we have received information that explosives have been planted in the I-Expo area. From this moment forward, I-Island will shift into a heightened alert mode. Residents are requested to return home immediately. Anyone outside after ten minutes from now will be detained without warning."
At the children’s location, a steel door dropped down from above and sealed off the wall.
While the startled students looked around in all directions, the announcement continued without a trace of concern.
"In addition, major facilities will be forcibly locked down by the security system. Repeating. By the security system..."
Kirishima’s sharp ears caught the faint screams drifting through the air.
With a cold expression, he slowly took off his jacket.
"What is this, huh? What are you suddenly doing, Kirishima-chan? Ribbit."
"I can’t do anything about the pants, but these clothes were pretty expensive, and I like them. It’d be a waste to tear them up."
Even as he answered Tsuyu, he didn’t stop moving. He removed his jacket, vest, and shirt, revealing his beautiful upper body.
Since his hero costume already exposed his torso, the others were used to seeing it, but because he was in ordinary clothes now, it felt different somehow.
Perhaps because they still hadn’t fully grasped the situation, the girls’ faces reddened at the strangely improper feeling of it all.
Ignoring that, Kirishima spread the power of his Quirk factor through his entire body.
Each and every cell began to change under the immense force blazing like fire.
Hexagonal patterns surfaced across skin that had turned blood-red.
His fingertips and toes sharpened, and horns rose from his elbows and knees.
It was Kirishima’s battle form, [Demon Form], now familiar to the children.
"Honestly, I wasn’t thinking much about it, but if this is happening, I guess I should be glad I brought it."
Kirishima tapped the watch on his wrist.
Unusually, the watch, made of red metal, elongated and transformed into a controller for the panel Uma and Ten had shown him.
He placed the controller, with two protrusions sticking up from it, on his head, then touched the suit and tie he had taken off as well.
Immediately, thin scales gathered from the lining of the suit and the back of the tie, transforming into a skirt-like structure.
If anything, it resembled the steel skirt armor of a tonlet, except with the front open.
Though compared to a tonlet it was far more flexible, so it hung down like real clothing.
The children stared blankly at the whole process.
Kirishima ignored them and put on the panel.
Watching him, the children thought to themselves,
'Wow, he was already scary, but now that he’s got that headpiece on, he looks even scarier.'
'No matter how you look at it, he’s a horned demon...'
"Ribbit. Is there a reason you’re wearing that now? It looks a lot more demonic."
'She said it!'
Kirishima answered Tsuyu’s question as if it were nothing.
"Everything has a use. Honestly, this is my first time using it too, but..."
He trailed off.
He had no doubt that the mad inventions of his two otaku friends would be useful.
They definitely made crazy things all the time, but at the very least, they never made useless things.
The problem was that they often made things that demanded absurd abilities.
Uma looked like nothing more than a horse-headed fashion disaster on the surface, but in reality he used his Quirk with astonishing delicacy.
If even someone like that had hit his limit with this device at ten, Kirishima didn’t have much confidence he could handle it well after entering Demon Form.
Then Todoroki checked his phone and spoke up.
"There’s no signal. Looks like everything related to information has been cut off."
"The elevators aren’t responding either."
Jiro also tested the buttons in front of the elevator and reported the situation.
With no time to practice and the new equipment needing to be used in actual combat right away, Kirishima let out a sigh.
Melissa said, "For the security system to go into alert mode..."
"Iida-kun. Let’s go to the party hall."
"Why?"
Midoriya stepped forward and voiced his thoughts, and Iida questioned him.
He calmly explained the reason.
"All Might is in the hall."
"All Might?"
At Midoriya’s words, all the children reacted with visible relief.
Kirishima frowned.
Even though these were the elite among elites, and even though some of them had already experienced real combat, they still relaxed the moment they heard All Might was there.
And yet they knew nothing at all about the enemy.
Maybe that was understandable for ordinary civilians, but for fighters to react like that was pure negligence.
It was exactly the sort of attitude that made All Might a burden.
Still, he said nothing.
They were still young, and problems like this had to be felt with their own bodies.
That they could save themselves only through no one but themselves.
"Melissa, is there any way we can get to the party hall?"
Even as Kirishima’s eyes sank deeper, Midoriya kept talking.
At his question, Melissa answered without hesitation.
"If we use the emergency stairs, I think we can get near the hall."
"Please guide us."
Iida and Midoriya disappeared down the emergency stairs with Jiro and Melissa.
Kirishima twisted his body and loosened up.
Seeing the ominous aura around him, Ashido asked cautiously, "Hey, Eijiro. Do you think we’re going to have to fight?"
"Hm?"
At her voice, the remaining children’s attention gathered on Kirishima.
He answered in a calm voice, as if he were just going out for a walk.
"I don’t know whether there’ll be a fight or not. I’m not a prophet."
"Then why are you warming up?"
"Because I’m a hero. To put it more plainly, because I’m a fighter."
"Huh?"
"For ordinary people, the worst that usually happens when they fail to prepare is getting fired or losing their money. In the unlucky cases, they might lose everything they have, and as a result, their family relationships could fall apart."
Hagakure gave an awkward laugh at Kirishima’s matter-of-fact tone as he spoke about something enormous as if it were nothing.
"Haha... I don’t think that’s something you should call ‘the worst that happens.’"
"It is ‘the worst that happens.’ For people like us who fight, what happens when we fail to prepare is on a completely different level. At the very least, the former means you’re still alive. But for us, if things go well, I’m the only one who gets hurt or dies. And if they don’t go well? Who knows how many people will die because of us."
Even while speaking of terrifying things, he remained calm.
He wasn’t the kind of weak man who trembled at the mercy of all the things that might happen.
He could become an iron-blooded demon whenever necessary, and for now, as a human with warm blood still flowing through him, he gave advice to the silent children.
"So if something feels off, it’s better to get ready right away. If we don’t need to do anything, that’s fine. And if we do, then it’s better to be able to respond immediately instead of panicking."
Kirishima’s words struck the room in silence.
The children each fell into their own thoughts.
Then Midoriya and the others who had gone to the party hall returned.
The message they brought back from All Might was clear beyond any room for interpretation.
Run.
"We received a message from All Might. As U.A. High School teachers, I suggest we follow All Might’s instructions and escape from here."
"I agree with Iida-kun. We’re still students. We don’t even have hero licenses, so we can’t fight villains..."
Iida and Yaoyorozu agreed with All Might’s words.
Kaminari also spoke up in the same vein.
"Then let’s escape and go find the heroes outside."
"I think escaping will be difficult. This place was built with disaster-prevention design on the same level as Tartarus, which holds villain criminals."
Melissa cut off Kaminari’s plan with a realistic remark.
Kirishima watched the situation unfold without saying anything.
He had already decided he would move.
With the Hero side’s top combat power tied down, there was no way he was going to quietly escape and do nothing, even if he was the strongest force available here.
He had no intention of doing something that irrational just because he was a student.
'It would’ve been nice if Mirko were here. Tch. With Midoriya here too, All Might should be able to cover things.'
He missed the rabbit beauty who gave battle permission so freely, but he shook his head.
There was no point wishing for someone who wasn’t here.
He could only move with what he had.
But his friends were still students, and they had no obligation to risk their lives in this situation.
More than that, Kirishima didn’t like trying to talk people into fighting when they had no intention of doing so.
While he watched silently, Jiro stood up.
"Kaminari, are you okay with that?"
"What do you mean?"
"Don’t you want to go rescue them or something?"
"But even All Might is trapped. Is there any meaning in just us going?"
In a voice lacking confidence, Todoroki quietly said, looking at his left hand.
"We’re aiming to be heroes."
"So that means we’re still not supposed to do hero work..."
"And that means it’s okay to do nothing?"
Yaoyorozu tried to counter him, but his next words sank her.
Todoroki’s words carried no grand rhetoric, and that was exactly why they stirred a sense of duty.
"Th-That’s..."
As silence stretched on, Midoriya’s voice rang out through the darkened space.
"I want to save them."
"Midoriya-kun?"
"I want to go save them."
At Uraraka’s question, Midoriya made his intention clear once more.
"You’re thinking of fighting the villains?"
Kaminari asked without making a scene, but there was a faint reluctance in his voice.
Midoriya said hurriedly, "No, Kaminari-kun. I was thinking about a way to save All Might and everyone without fighting the villains."
"I get how you feel, but something that convenient..."
"I still want to find it!"
Kirishima’s mouth curved at Midoriya’s words.
It was nothing more than a pure, stubborn desire to save people, and yet that was exactly why it was convincing.
Since the first time he saw Midoriya ten years ago, his personality had changed a lot, but that part of him had not changed at all.
If anything, it had become even purer and more intense.
Normally, people like that experience losing one person after another, slowly worn down until they kneel before reality.
It wasn’t as if Midoriya would never have to go through that.
The world wasn’t so easy that the protagonist could do anything without ever losing anyone.
In fact, because he was the protagonist, he might lose more than anyone else and suffer more violently than anyone else.
But at least today was not that day.
He didn’t know who the enemy was, but Kirishima was here now.
He looked at Midoriya, who was passionately throwing a tantrum, with eyes turned red.
"I want to save everyone by finding the best possible way for us right now."
"Deku-kun..."
While Uraraka looked at Midoriya with concern, Melissa spoke up.
"I-Island’s security system is on the top floor of this tower. If the villains have taken control of the system, then the recognition protector or password must have been disabled. We can also change the system back. If we can avoid the villains’ surveillance and get to the top floor, we might be able to save everyone."
"Melissa..."
"Avoid the surveillance? How...?"
Melissa gathered her thoughts and answered Jiro’s question.
"At this point, we haven’t caused any damage. I don’t think the villains are very good at handling the security system."
"So if we avoid fighting and restore everything to normal..."
"Impossible."
As Todoroki muttered and the children’s expressions began to clear, Kirishima’s grave voice mercilessly shattered their hope.
Midoriya looked at him with a betrayed expression, but Kirishima didn’t even twitch an eyebrow as he said, "The idea sounds plausible, but there isn’t a single certain factor. We have no information. The villains aren’t good at handling the security system? Why do you think that? Do you have any separate information about the members of the villain group? Avoiding a fight? It would be nice if we could, but what evidence do you have that it’s possible? Do you even have a layout of the villains’ positions?"
His voice was terrifyingly cold as he mercilessly poked holes in their sloppy plan.
"I understand wanting to talk about hope, but combat isn’t something you decide by burning a happy fantasy and assuming things will go in your favor. Without accurate information, you must not recklessly decide to start a war, and if war is unavoidable, then the right thing is to prepare for the worst. So put aside all that dreamy talk about how there won’t be a fight or how the enemy won’t be able to handle the security system, and make your decision. In the end, this is a matter of choice."
He met each child’s eyes one by one.
Their reactions to his intense gaze varied, but Kirishima did not seem disappointed as he continued, "You may or may not remember what I said to the press before. I’m only telling this to you, but basically, the things I say in interviews are nonsense I throw out because they sound nice. But this one was definitely what I believed. A person’s value is decided by what they live for and what they die for. Throw away the kind of ending you only see in children’s stories, where nobody gets hurt and nobody dies. Anyone can be hurt. Anyone can die."
Even as he spoke of cruel reality in a cold voice, his attitude burned like fire.
Anyone could tell that Kirishima had already decided to fight.
"But if you still intend to fight, then decide clearly what you’re fighting for. I will never force anyone. We’re definitely young, and it’s also true that we don’t have combat authorization. Not stepping forward isn’t betrayal, and it isn’t cowardice. In fact, stepping up to fight might be the reckless choice. But even so, if you can’t just stand there, if you want to save them, then only join if you’re going to fight by your own will."
In the dark space, Kirishima’s eyes glowed red as if they were flowing.
It might have looked sinister, but right now it only felt frighteningly hot.
A radiance that would one day be called the star of the end lit up the darkness.
The time to choose had come.
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