Kirishima hesitated.
All he could clearly recall from the now-real attack was how Midoriya and Tsuyu had narrowly escaped death, and how Aizawa had been brutally overwhelmed while protecting them—only for All Might to eventually prevail after a grueling fight.
He found himself weighing whether to rush out immediately and crush the bastards or to follow Aizawa’s orders for the time being. Given his current status, the latter was clearly the wiser choice.
If he were a fully qualified Pro Hero, he could operate as an independent combat unit, thinking and acting on his own. But right now, he was nothing more than a trainee. In a worst-case scenario, everyone would be forced into battle regardless of their wishes; under normal circumstances, no leader or instructor would throw a student into the fray. In a situation like this, defying orders and charging in was far from wise.
"So what? Are we really just going to stand here and watch our comrades get taken out by the enemy? No way!"
Even as he prepared to move, Kirishima felt the weight of reality: life rarely followed a strict plan, and in the heat of combat, improvisation was essential. Just when a massive surge of strength was about to burst from his solid legs, Aizawa’s shout froze him in his tracks.
"Don’t move! That’s a Villain!"
"Based on yesterday’s instructor curriculum, Eraser Head and Thirteen should be here..."
"So yesterday really was the work of these trash after all."
At the steely determination in Aizawa’s voice, Kirishima stopped dead in his tracks.
Meanwhile, a black fissure coalesced into a swirling mist with watching eyes. As it spoke in an oddly courteous tone, Aizawa muttered under his breath.
A man with his limbs spread across his body glanced at the students and murmured quietly.
Normally, the sound would have been too faint to hear, but Kirishima’s heightened senses caught every word.
"Where is he...? I brought so many here—yet All Might, the Symbol of Peace, isn’t here. If I eliminate the children, will he show up?"
At these words, Kirishima bared his teeth into a grin. The oppressive malice and grotesque murderous intent filling the air sent a thrill through his heart, awakening the beast within—a beast that relished chewing enemy flesh and drinking their blood.
In stark contrast, the other students looked pale, their apprehension natural for those facing a life-or-death situation for the first time.
Kirishima sighed and clapped a hand on the shoulders of both Midoriya and Uraraka, who stood stunned.
"You two, snap out of it. If you're trembling like this, you won’t be able to fight or run properly—even a pep talk won’t fix it."
Midoriya slowly lifted his stiff neck to look at Kirishima, then flinched. Though he’d tried to hide it, Midoriya could see a faint smile playing on Kirishima’s face—a smile only a longtime friend could detect. Right now, it seemed, Kirishima was genuinely enjoying the moment.
"Kirishima really is something else... But he’s right. Freezing up won’t change anything."
"A Villain? They infiltrated a place swarming with Heroes? Are they idiots?"
"Teacher, what about the intruder sensors!"
Shou muttered with a stern expression, while Yaoyorozu asked urgently.
Thirteen replied in a voice so distorted it was hard to tell their gender, "Of course, there are sensors, but..."
"Whether they’re just here or spread throughout the school, if the sensors aren’t reacting, it means the enemy has someone capable of bypassing them. They’ve timed this perfectly—isolating the teachers from the students and choosing a moment when only a few will be in that area. They may be idiots, but they’re not stupid. This is a carefully planned surprise attack with a purpose."
While the students recoiled at Todoroki’s calm explanation, Aizawa barked out orders.
"Thirteen, initiate evacuation. Call the school. This Villain knows how to counter the sensors; there might be a radio-based Quirk interference. Kaminari, use your Quirk to try to contact them."
"Yes, sir!"
Kaminari fiddled with the communicator clipped to his ear at Aizawa’s command, but it proved futile. Kirishima had already attempted contact when the enemy first appeared, so he doubted Kaminari’s chances. Of course, if the enemy wielded an electricity-manipulating Quirk, alternative methods might exist—but right now, Kaminari didn’t seem capable of such delicate control.
Then Midoriya shouted at Aizawa,
"What about you, sir? Are you planning to fight alone? Against so many foes, even if you erase their Quirks... Eraser Head’s fighting style is to erase an enemy’s Quirk and then restrain them! A straight-up fight is..."
"A Hero can’t rely on just one trick."
Aizawa turned to Midoriya as he replied. At that moment, Kirishima stepped forward.
"Teacher, let me fight too. I’m strong enough to take them head-on, and I have combat experience. This isn’t arrogance—it’s a measured decision."
"Kirishima, is it? Yes, you’re strong. Your combat ability is significant, and it would be foolish not to use it. Listen carefully: protect the students. Everyone here except me, Thirteen, and you lacks real combat experience, so I’m entrusting that to you."
Kirishima frowned at these words but did not object. It wasn’t misguided—and more importantly, this was a battle situation. Aizawa was in command. Forcing a premature charge would accomplish nothing, even though he longed to smash a Villain’s head in with everything he had. Besides, there were two opponents out there keeping Aizawa occupied, and one of them was, without question, in a higher weight class than Kirishima. He decided to observe the unfolding situation first.
"Then I’m leaving it to you. Thirteen, Kirishima."
After issuing those orders to the group, Aizawa released his capture weapon and sprang down a flight of dozens of steps in a single bound.
The Villains reacted instantly.
"Fire team, move out!"
"The intel said it was only Thirteen and All Might—who is that?"
"Don’t know! But charging in alone? What an idiot!"
Just as the Villains readied their Quirks to attack, Aizawa’s eyes widened behind his goggles. Their Quirks were suddenly nullified, and in the ensuing confusion, his capture weapon flew out. In an instant, the assailants were bound; they were whipped around, describing huge arcs in the air as their heads collided before they crashed down.
"You idiots! That’s Eraser Head—the man who can erase Quirks just by looking at you!"
"Erase? I want to see that! Can he even erase mutant types?"
A four-armed Villain with rock-like, rough skin bellowed as he charged. Aizawa dodged his punch, slipped in close, and smashed the attacker in the face with his own fist. Simultaneously, he ducked to avoid another blow from behind and drove his knee into that enemy’s face.
"Impossible... But statistically, talents like yours tend to emerge in close combat."
The four-armed Villain was sent flying by Aizawa’s blow, colliding with several others before collapsing; then, another Villain—his legs entangled by the capture weapon—hurtled in on top of them. With a heavy, sickening thud as flesh collided, they all went unconscious.
Leaving the heap of bodies behind, Aizawa coldly stated,
"I anticipated this."
"He’s strong in hand-to-hand combat, and with those goggles on, they can’t tell who he’s erasing. In group skirmishes, that delays their coordination... How unsettling. Pro Heroes really are something else—amateurs wouldn’t stand a chance."
The Villain, whose limbs were clinging to his body, scratched his neck and muttered, his tone calm despite the underlying disgust. At that moment, the hair on Aizawa’s head, which had stood on end, finally settled. The eyes of the black-mist Villain gleamed with a cold light.
Meanwhile, Midoriya, watching from above as Aizawa effortlessly dismantled the Villains, couldn’t help but be impressed.
"Amazing. Taking on multiple opponents at once is the teacher’s specialty."
"This isn’t the time to analyze—hurry, evacuate!"
As Kirishima watched Aizawa’s fierce display, he trailed behind the fleeing students at Iida’s urging, dragging Midoriya along with him. Then, a surge of black mist rose up before the students bolting along the purple-tiled path toward the entrance.
"I won’t allow that to happen."
"Crap. In the blink of an eye, they nabbed the one who looked the most troublesome!"
Aizawa, noticing that one of the Villains had slipped away, cursed under his breath—but it was already too late to pursue.
The mist advanced, its yellow, glowing eyes fixed on them.
"A pleasure to meet you. We are the League of Villains. Pardon our intrusion, but our reason for invading U.A.—the stronghold of Heroes—was to claim the life of All Might, the Symbol of Peace."
Overwhelmed by the creature’s grotesque form, Midoriya went momentarily blank at its words. Still, the Villain continued speaking.
"Originally, All Might was meant to be here. Perhaps circumstances changed? Regardless, that’s none of my concern—my role is simply this."
Just then, as Thirteen uncapped their fingers to activate their Quirk, Bakugo lunged forward and unleashed a powerful explosion. A deafening blast and a dense cloud of smoke erupted, obscuring everyone’s view.
From within the haze, the creature’s voice resonated softly,
"Dangerous, dangerous. Yes, even students can be remarkably talented."
Its amorphous body rippled ominously.
Thirteen shouted in alarm,
"No! Everyone, fall back!"
"My role is to scatter you, toy with you, and kill you!"
The Villain’s body swelled rapidly, engulfing everyone in its path. In response, Kirishima surged to the front and pushed his Hardening to its limit. The red hue of his skin deepened as though blood were coursing beneath it, and his eyes burned with a sinister crimson light. In that instant, the black mist coalesced into a sphere that swallowed them all.
"Everyone!"
Outside the sphere’s reach, Iida cried out in despair. But when the dark orb vanished, no one answered his call.
**
Midoriya screamed as he plummeted through the air, crashing into water. The cold liquid soaked him instantly, snapping him back to reality.
"Warp? Is that the Villain’s Quirk? To kill All Might? What in the hell is going on?"
Desperately swimming toward the surface, he was suddenly ambushed by a mutant-type Villain—a water creature with sharp teeth, its mouth gaping wide. Realizing too late that dodging was impossible, Midoriya steeled himself. He had faced far stronger foes before and had endured countless moments when evasion was not an option. This time, he refused to simply take the hit.
He resolved to sacrifice the use of one arm and strike back with the other. Drawing up One For All, sparks began to crackle around him in the dark water. Just as he thrust his arm forward and braced for the impending pain, Tsuyu suddenly appeared from the side and delivered a swift kick to the Villain.
Somehow, she had also managed to hook Shou around her waist. Stretching out her tongue, she wrapped it around Midoriya and hauled him toward the surface. Using her tongue, she first pulled Midoriya onto the boat stranded in the center of the chaos, then tossed Shou up as well before climbing aboard herself. Methodically, she secured her arms and legs to the vessel, and Midoriya managed a grateful,
"Thanks, Asui."
"Call me Tsuyu," she corrected coolly.
Once safely on board, she continued,
"But this is bad."
"Yeah. That Villain mentioned earlier that he knew U.A.'s curriculum. If you think about it plainly, their previous media stunt was likely a ploy to gather intel. Like Todoroki said, they’ve been preparing for this moment all along."
"But can they really kill All Might? I’ve never seen him in person, though I’ve watched his footage repeatedly. You all have too, right? I can’t imagine anyone having it in them to take down All Might."
With Shou’s intense, wide eyes fixed on him, Tsuyu replied coolly,
"Shou, perhaps they’re causing all this trouble because they've already prepared a way to kill him."
"Huh?"
"Someone capable of doing that came here to torment us and vowed to kill us. Can we really hold out until All Might appears? And even if he does, will everything end safely?"
"I don’t fully agree, but it’s a reasonable point," Shou responded gravely, nodding.
Soon, Villains began emerging one by one onto the water’s surface. There were over a dozen of them, and Shou clenched his teeth at the sight.
Midoriya, covering his mouth, sank into thought. They had a plan to bring down All Might—it had to be true. But why would they want to kill him? Because he was the Symbol of Peace? Because he served as a deterrent against evil? No matter; at this moment, the reason was irrelevant.
Images of the time he had spent with All Might flooded Midoriya’s mind: All Might reassuring him that he could become a Hero; All Might, despite knowing his own limits from years of training, encouraging him even when he overexerted himself; All Might inviting him over after announcing his success; All Might celebrating with him in the park at night; and that very All Might who, from the moment they met, made him believe that everything would be alright.
"Reason... who cares!"
"Whether they have a method to take down All Might or not, it changes nothing. What we must do now is fight—and win!"
He remembered how Kirishima had once collapsed after a bloody clash with a Villain on their first mission together. Even though Kirishima was well-built, he was still just a kid, smaller than an adult. And yet, he fought. Despite being outnumbered and injured, he never backed down.
Midoriya had once asked him how he could fight like that. Back then, Kirishima had responded calmly but firmly,
"There was a cliff behind me. I had nowhere to run, and if I fell, I was as good as dead—not just me, but all of you too. So I had no choice but to move forward. I had to break through whatever lay ahead—be it a battlefield or hell itself—and cling to the thread of life."
Midoriya had been struck silent by the sheer force of those words, seemingly too powerful for a five-year-old, and Kirishima had managed a wry smile.
"Someday, you’ll understand too. If you’re not planning to run away and shut the world out, there will come a moment when you have no choice but to press on. Everyone who fights is forced to make a choice, and Heroes are fighters by nature."
Placing a hand on Midoriya’s shoulder, Kirishima’s pure, earnest eyes bore into his friend’s,
"So someday, you’ll face a choice as well. I’m not here to tell you which side is right—after all, not everyone is born a warrior. Each person has their own path. But you want to be a Hero, don’t you? Then from this moment on, decide: Will you forge ahead into the inferno, or retreat into safety?"
Remembering how he’d once added that the world was brutal and would give no quarter to the young, Midoriya clenched both fists. He was right—no matter how much he pleaded with these murderous Villains, it would be in vain. Instead, he would fight back.
For himself, and for everyone he needed to protect. At the crossroads he had finally reached, Midoriya stepped resolutely onto the path of the warrior.
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