Keeping the Course

“Oh Izuku…” Izuku sat at one of the tables in the large mess hall, his mother enveloping him in a hug and stroking his hair. After defeating All For One he and everyone else who was still at the campus was evacuated aboard Mr. Aurdel’s large ship, picking up any refugees that they found on the ground as they traveled inland. Less than coincidentally they were able to meet up with all the refugees who’d fled the campus just before the battle had begun. Among them were most of the families of the students of UA. Most… He wished so badly that that word wasn’t attached to that sentence, because it felt like it was eating away his soul.

“I wasn’t able to do anything. Even though it should have been me that had to defeat him, Mr. Aurdel…” He winced, unable to continue his thought.

“He wanted to make sure that you were safe, safe like everyone else. You can’t blame yourself for that.”

He shook his head, ”I don’t know. I just don’t know.” Izuku wasn’t sure how long he just sat there, staying in his mom's embrace. Maybe it was for five minutes, maybe it was for over half an hour. There was no real way to tell. The stress of about the last month had totally overcome him, with so much having gone wrong so quickly. It… it was hard to put into words just exactly how he felt. Maybe one day he would have a way to describe it, but not now.

Some time later the door to the mess hall swung up, and Mirko walked in alongside the AI copy of Mr. Aurdel in the robot body. “How is he?” Bakugo asked them, having been situated nearby Midoriya in the mess hall.

“I’m going to be perfectly honest with you, it’s not exactly easy to tell. In terms of injuries and physical health, he’s doing perfectly fine. His lungs are taking in air, his heart is pumping and everything else is working. But…”

“But what?”

“Look. By the time that Eri got to the body, it’s safe to say that he was clinically dead for a minimum of thirty seconds. And while it’s true that there have been cases where people were pronounced dead for longer periods of time, and still revived, it’s a case by case basis.”

“Can’t you use all that tech to try and figure out if he’s alive or not?”

“Believe me, I’m working as quickly as I can and as efficiently as I can. But things aren’t easy. I still have an entire medbay full of injured people to care for. On top of that I don’t have all the equipment that I need, something that makes it ten times harder to figure out what’s going on.”

“Well it’s frustrating,” Bakugo said, crossing his arms, “Right now I’m sitting here doing nothing, when I could be doing something.”

“…If you’re absolutely insistent on doing something, then I do have a job for you to do.” Midoriya looked up.

“And what’s that?”

“In roughly an hour, the worst of the tsunamis will be over. The majority of the massive waves will have reached their furthest point inland, and the high tides will begin to rapidly recede back to a point of relative equilibrium. That’s when we’re going to see the most activity on the ground, civilian, Hero and Villain. That third group is what I’m concerned about.”

“Do you think there are more Villains we need to fight?” Izuku asked.

“Izuku, you should be getting rest!” His mother quickly countered.

“Of the members of the League of Villains, four are unaccounted for: Dabi, Twice, Spinner and Mustard. Granted I think the first on that list can be scratched off, but that still leaves three and doesn’t account for any possible help they may have found along the way.”

“And before we can even start rebuilding, we need to get the most dangerous Villains out of the way,” Bakugo said, standing up, “Right?”

“Right, and you guys are my quick reaction force to deal with this.”

“Why can’t you deal with them?” Izuku’s mother questioned, holding him tighter. “My boy has been put through so much, and with everything that’s happened I can’t risk losing him.”

“I can understand your concerns with what we’re asking him to do, but I’m afraid there isn’t much of a choice. If I could go into battle against them I would, but I’m preoccupied keeping this ship running and tending to the injured.”

“You won’t have to worry about them,” Mirko said, a pained grin on her face, “I’ll watch your son and make sure he comes back.”

His mother looked down, wearing a mixed expression of worriedness and acceptance. “I think tbat even if I said not to go, you wouldn’t listen to me.” She let out a sigh, “Promise me that you’ll come back safely.”

“I will.” She stroked his hair one last time, then let go. Izuku stood up, “I want to start preparing now.”

“Come on then.” The AI led the three of them out of the mess hall and into the hallway, “Aside from finding them in the first place, the largest problem you’re going to have is your gear. Bakugo, your costume was basically shredded while you were holding off those two Villain twins back in Otheon. As for you Midoriya, that fight against All For One did about the same level of damage to your costume. Luckily the most important pieces of gear are still intact.”

“Do you have any way to repair our costumes?”

“I do, but repairing your costumes would take much more time than just issuing temporary sets of new ones. “

“You have more than one set of our costumes?”

“...No, we didn’t expect you to destroy your costumes within a matter of days. I’m issuing you sets of military gear.”

“Military gear?!”

“This is a navy vessel, I’m not sure what else you expected on it.”

“I guess you’re right…” They turned out of the hallway, entering into a room. “What is this place?”

“The armory.” He pointed towards a number of stands, “Those are the sets you’ll be wearing.”

Midoriya walked up, closely examining the suits. “They sort of look like your own armor.”

“They work on the same principle: a flexible but tough undersuit covered with titanium and ceramic plating for standing up against small arms and plasma fire.”

Mirko walked up to the one her size, “Who exactly were these supposed to be for?”

“Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, elite soldiers who would land behind enemy lines in drop pods released in orbit.”

“Sounds like a tough bunch.”

“Not as tough as the Spartans were, but they were good.”

Midoriya turned around, “If we have our gear sorted, then what about transport? As much as we can jump out of the ship again, I don’t think it’s a good idea to take it directly above wherever the League of Villains are.”

“I’ve already got that sorted.”

Mustard stared out the window of the small cafe they he and the others were taking residence in, watching as Kunieda scattered large bundles of seeds across the ground in a nearby small park. He lifted his submachine gun, resting it in his shoulder. “You know, we don’t have any chance in hell if actually achieving our little attempt at a ‘revolution.’”

Spinner was sitting on a couch they’d dragged inside, sharpening his sword. “And why is that?” Twice was next to him on the couch, completely catatonic and still in his prison uniform aside from having his costume’s facemask.

“Well, I don’t know if you’ve ever picked up a history book but… There have been lost causes with more support than we have now.”

“More support? I’d say we have plenty enough already, more than enough really. All For One broke us out and a bunch of Villains followed him to us. Hell, we even have those specific killers that he gave us and one of those Nomus.”

He turned around, “Haven’t you noticed that even with what we have, we’re guaranteed to lose? That Nomu he gave us is one that got defeated in UA last year, Dictator is no good in a straight fight since one good hit is all it takes to make him lose control of the people he’s puppeting, Kunieda controls plants and we’re in the middle of the country’s coldest winter and Gashly is completely crazy. Meanwhile he took himself, that second body with the powerful quirks and Twice’s quirk and went to attack UA. We’re just a diversion.

“Some diversion,” Spinner snorted, “We’ve managed to take over half of a city, tossing out the Heroes and cops who were in here before. Not to mention with the hostages we’ve taken we’ll have more than enough leverage to keep us out of immediate harm’s way.”

“Leverage?” Mustard turned, “Do you really think that at this point anyone is thinking about a few lives being used as ‘leverage’? The only thing people are thinking about is survival.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to say. The people we’ve captured will-”

“You’re completely missing my point! Spartan whipped people up into a massive frenzy before we went into Tartarus, then when the war happened he encouraged and had civilians fighting with reckless abandon against soldiers. A few Villains aren't going to scare them anymore. Once they regroup they’re going to come back here and try to drive us out.”

“Then we’ll kill them.”

“Kill them? That’s it?” He was exasperated, “If you think we’ll be able to hold you’re delusional.”

Spinner scowled, “And for a kid that joined to make his ideals into reality, you sure seem to be a massive cynic.”

“I’m not being a cynic, I’m being a realist. I told you before that we were likely going to be betrayed by those guys who were giving us jobs, and look what happened. I’m trying to say the same thing now.”

“Then what are you suggesting?” Spinner said, looking down at Twice.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know? Then what the hell is the point of criticizing this all if you don’t know?!”

“Look, just because I can point out a problem doesn’t mean I’m obligated to come up with the solution. You’re supposed to be the leader since Dabi is gone after all.”

Spinner sighed, “Look, I know you’re too smart for your own good. The least you could do is throw me a bone and give some advice.”

“Fine then.” He put down the submachine gun, placing it on a nearby table. “Then answer this: what are you trying to accomplish?”

“The same thing I’ve been trying to do since I joined the League, tearing down the old society and creating a new one. One that’s not inundated with fake Heroes and talk of equality that stands up like papier-mâché does against rain.”

“And you believe that staying here in the city to fight against the inevitable attack is going to accomplish it?”

“What other options do we have?”

“Well you could run away, abandon this place and try to hide out in Japan somewhere or another country.”

He snorted, “Right, like that would help me accomplish my goals.”

“I never said that it would accomplish your goals, only that it was an option. Not that anything could really be done to accomplish your goals now though.”

Spinner threw himself back on the couch, “You’re being incredibly unhelpful.”

“That’s just because I’ve already decided that I’m going to follow through with my ideas until the very end, and that I’m going to die on my own terms.”

“I’m not so sure that we’re going to lose. But even so, I’m willing to follow through with my beliefs until the very end. I won’t run away from whatever fight is coming.”

“Then I guess it’s decided, we’ll fight to the death,” he yawned, “You better get talking with those hired assassin guys then, plan a defense. I’ll just be ready to fight when we’re ready.”

“Then I’ve got one more question for you, what are we going to do with Twice?”

Mustard looked at Twice, still motionless but alive. “If he still had his quirk, he very well could have allowed us to win. Make an army of Nomu clones. But All For One took it. Now all he is is a quirkless corpse.”

“Are you calling him dead weight? He joined at the same time as us, he helped hold us together even when Shigaraki got his neck cracked.”

“I can understand what you’re saying, but I’m trying to tell you that if we put him down now it’ll be a mercy compared to letting him live. If we lose and he survives, then he’ll by the time he was up he’ll find himself getting lynched by angry civilians with no way to defend himself. If we do manage to win, then he’ll have nothing to do and the others will hound him for existing only as a hindrance. At least this way, he’ll go peacefully.”

“I guess, but…”

“It’s like if you had a sick family member. You love them, and you don’t want to see harm come to them, but you know they’re not going to get better. You don’t want them to suffer unnecessarily.”

Spinner stood up, shaking his head. “You know, you’re fucked up.”

“That’s why we’re here, isn’t it?” Spinner, not having a counter, simply walked out of the cafe. Mustard put down the submachine gun and walked over towards Twice, picking up his revolver. “I don’t know if you really are unconscious or not, there’s no way for us to tell. But if you are awake then I’m sorry about this.” He pulled one of the pillows off the couch, put it on Twice’s face and then placed the end of the gun against it. A single muffled gunshot then rang out, bloodied polyester and cotton spraying up. Mustard pulled away the revolver, putting it back in its holster. Only one thing left to do.

“Wait, you’re the one that’s going to fly us in?”

“Yeah, of course I am. Who were you expecting?” Issac said, poking his head out the cabin door of the aircraft.

Bakugo folded his arms, “Maybe someone who actually has some experience flying things.”

“I may not have any actual experience flying any aircraft ever, but I’ve been training in a simulator for the last hour and I’d say I’m pretty confident in my ability to fly this thing. Besides, most of the flight systems on this thing are completely automated. It’s not like I’ll flip a switch and suddenly we catch fire, crash and die.”

Midoriya scratched the side of his face, “I’m still not too sure about this…”

“Have a little confidence,” Mirko said, walking in. “It’s not like you can fly one of these things either.”

“But that’s because I never would have been expected to fly one of these!”

“We’ll be fine,” Issac assured them, “The only times I crashed were when I mixed up the auto-pilot release and the flares.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better at all!”

“Quiet,” a voice said over the aircraft’s radio, and they all hushed. “We’ve picked a weak signal coming from outside one of the cities, and I’ve identified them as a scattered unit of the JSDF that have managed to link up with a number of Heroes and armed civilians.”

“Outside of a city?”

“They were performing rescue efforts until they were driven out by a small army of Villains. Unsurprisingly they were able to recognize that a few of the Villains they encountered were from the League of Villains.”

“Taking a city… What do they think they're doing?”

“It’s their idea of ‘liberating’ the country, taking over entire cities and occupying them in the name of their ideology. One of their members, Spinner, seems to be leading them at the moment. Supposedly he was shouting something about ‘freedom from the oppression of mutants.’”

Mirko grit her teeth, “Why that little… Doesn’t he realize that doing this sort of thing is going to have the exact effect on people? That it’ll only make things worse for us?”

“It’s more likely than not that he just thinks consequences be damned since society has essentially collapsed by this point. Either way, your primary objective is to push them out of the city as quickly as possible so rescue efforts can begin as soon as possible. I leave the decision of what to do with the Villains afterwards up to you. Kill or capture, no preference on my part.”

“Frankly I don’t think any of them deserve to be captured, not after everything that they’ve done.”

“Wait a minute,” Midoriya interrupted, “We’re supposed to be Heroes. Even if they’ve done horrible things, it’s not our place to pass judgement on people on a whim. It’s up to-“

“Kid, I’m going to repeat to you what I say back in the mountains. In life, there are just some people who can’t be talked out of their beliefs. If they cared about justice or fair judgement in the first place, they wouldn’t be killing Heroes and massacring civilians.”

“But-“

She put a hand on his shoulder, “These guys are directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of people close to you, friends and classmates. And if my bo- …your teacher is dead, then they’re responsible for that too. At the very least they deserve to be punished for that.” Midoriya didn’t have any way to counter her words, so he just remained silent. “Now, do we know exactly where these guys are?”

“We have their general location,” the AI said, “I’ll dump it into this Pelicans nav system, then you’ll just have to follow that until they fire a flare to let you know exactly where they are.”

“Alright.” She turned her head, “Issac, get this thing moving! I don’t want to waste any time and give those damn Villains time to prepare.”

Final Sortie

Aurdel shut off the remote link and watched through the cameras as the hangar doors opened, the Pelican carrying Midoriya, Mirko, Bakugo and Issac flying out and narrowly avoiding colliding with the ship's walls. Even though he was the one that initially brought up the mission of finishing off the League of Villains, he couldn’t help but feel some hesitance at sending them out there. Just like the mission to the Kunlun mountains he was sending them into the unknown, the only difference this time was that they had a vague understanding of what the threat they were going to face was and that there were even fewer of them going to face it. But just like back then, he didn’t have much of a choice. Things had to be done and the situation he was in simply didn’t allow him the time to handle it himself.

He stepped out of the bridge and walked down the hallway, running his mechanical hand across the walls of the ship. If the real him was dead, what was he supposed to do? All the responsibilities of defending the students and civilians, maintaining the ship and rebuilding the country would fall to him. But he couldn’t do it. Not because he was trying to shirk responsibility or anything like that, but because he literally wouldn’t be able to do it. The reason the technology he used to control this robot body was never used to produce AIs en masse was because of a lack of long term stability. Those that were made only survived around one to two months on average, three to four if they partitioned and deleted older memories to keep up an ever shrinking storage capacity. Combine that with neural degradation and the AIs would go insane instead of rampant, with the only one that managed to live a year becoming a rambling mess and eventually completely catatonic. Four months wasn’t enough to rebuild a city, let alone a country. And he knew for sure that if he didn’t rebuild things his way, then the problems that had allowed this collapse to happen in the first place would only ever occur again. He couldn’t allow that to happen.

“Jiro…” Aurdel heard Kaminari mutter as he walked into the medbay, passing by him and the many others that had been recovered from the UA battlefield. Among them were both those alive and dead, with him having done as much as he possibly could for them. The injured were treated and healed, Eri helping to rewind their wounds under his instruction and watchful eye. As for the dead… he’d done his best to have their bodies restored, that way when he had the right place and time they could be given the dignity that they deserved.

He continued forward, entering the surgical unit. Laid across the table and strapped to a bunch of machines was his body. The real him. Just like all the others Eri had rewound, it too was completely uninjured and returned to the state it’d been in before the fight. But there was one thing different from the others that had been revived. Somehow, it had come back to life. Blood was pumping, lungs were taking in air and energy was being burned. But despite all that there were no actual signs of consciousness. And so he was left with only one last thing he could possibly do. He took one of the datalink cables, jacking it into the neural link in the back of the body’s head before connecting the other end to the datapad he had in the room. Then, after connecting himself to the datapad, he hooked it all up to one large electrical system designed to flood everything with an immense but controlled amount of electricity at the flip of a switch. He took one last look around, not sure what exactly would happen the moment he threw the switch. But he needed to find out.

Instantly after Aurdel flipped the switch everything went dark, like his eyes were closed. “It’s only been a few weeks, and you’ve already forgotten how to keep your eyes open? That’s not a good sign.” Eventually he managed to open his eyes, revealing to himself a dark void that surrounded him. Looking down he could see his body, flesh and blood as he used to remember it. But as he looked forward he could also see himself, one that looked identical to himself and stared him in the face.

“Is this what you saw the first time this happened?”

“For the most part, yes. The only difference between then and now is that All For One isn’t here, not that I miss the evil son of a bitch.” He took a deep breath, “But that’s why we need to talk. Now that All For One is gone, all that’s left to do is sweep aside the rest of his associates and pick up the pieces to begin rebuilding. We need to make a decision about ourselves and our futures.”

Rumi narrowed her eyes as they flew into the city, looking through the glass of the ship’s cockpit. Moments ago they’d come into contact with the friendly forces just outside the city. And to say that they were in a bad shake would be… a disservice to just how bad of a situation they were actually in. Before the Villains attacked there were around sixty soldiers, forty officers, twenty Heroes and at least a hundred armed civilians. Now they didn’t even have a quarter of those numbers. Anyone who’d been caught by the Villains after fighting back was executed on the spot, with who knows what being done to their bodies afterwards. But even those who didn’t fight at all suffered under them. One of the Villains, Dictator, was using a bunch of civilians as human shields and slaves. Another, Gashly, had personally gone on a massacre. Just the thought of it all made her blood absolutely boil. “We’re just about there,” Issac said, “I don’t see any of those Villains yet, and I’m not picking up any of them on the radar.”

“Why the hell would an airplane be able to find people on the ground?”

“I don’t know, it’s from the future? I’m sure it can do a lot of stuff that you wouldn’t normally think a plane can do. I mean, just watch this-” As the Pelican flew over the park it was suddenly struck, wildly beginning to spin.

“‘Watch this,’ huh?!” Bakugo shouted, grabbing onto his seat as they began spinning.

“Don’t act like this is my fault!” The Pelican spun out of control, diving nose towards the center of the park. “Brace yourself!”

Rumi was nearly thrown from her standing position as they slammed into the ground, but she managed to hold on with enough determination. Sights of the Villains flashed outside the glass. “Split up and deal with them!” She slammed the button, dropping the back door open.

“What about me?”

“Stay here and get this thing working again.”

“I’m no mechanic!”

“Then start looking for a manual!” She rapidly hopped her way out of the back, kicking her way out as the others followed her before splitting away. Bullets and projectiles from quirks rained in her direction, “You pieces of shit!” She came crashing down on top of a group of Villains, stomping five of them simultaneously with her prosthetic leg.

“Kill that traitor mutant!” Nearly two dozen Villains tried to rush her simultaneously.

She charged forward, “This rabbit won’t be killed as long as I’ve got something to live for!” She kicked straight through the first Villain that charged her, pulping his chest with her leg. Then she swung to the right, cleaving straight through another two before bisecting a Villain with a kick to the midsection. The rest of the Villains suddenly paused, many of them looking fearful at the immense brutality she was inflicting against them. “What happened to that drive of yours?!” She leapt forward, crushing one head between her legs before kicking another off the body of another Villain.

Then she was suddenly grabbed by a number of vines and tree branches, restraining her. “It’s no wonder that Spartan chose someone like you, given you seem to have a blatant disregard for life.”

“That’s real ironic, coming from a guy like you,” she snarled. The man she was talking to sat atop a bunch of tall flowers, controlling them and the other plants inside of the park.

Kunieda tightened his grip on one of the flowers, the vines and tree limbs around her tightening as well. “Your judgment is unnecessary. Spinner. Kill her.”

“I’m going to enjoy this!” Spinner charged towards her with his sword.

“And you are exactly who I was looking for!” Rumi managed to move her right leg enough, catching the vine trapping her leg beneath the moving parts of the prosthetic. Then, clenching it as much as she could, she was able to snap the vine. She then kicked forward, and in one rapid motion she blew straight through Spinner’s left arm, lodged the hilt of the sword between her leg and then twisted it to free her arm. “I’ll make you pay for what you helped All For One to do!”

“Gashly, get her!” More tendrils ripped out of the ground to try and grab her as she tore her way out, kicking clean through branches and vines.

“Stupid woman!” As she went to kick Spinner again another Villain launched from the sidelines, wildly swinging his arms and legs.

One of his arms swiped across her face, digging in and tearing out small chunks of flesh, skin and hair. “Yeah, that’s what I am. And I wouldn’t change a thing about me!” As she laid in with a flurry of kicks she could hear an awful grinding noise, and upon Gashly being thrown back she was able to see what it was. His body was covered in hundreds of small barbs, each one as sharp as the last. “Can’t say the same thing about you, so I’ll be rearranging your face!” She kicked off the ground as a number of roots sprung up, trying to drag her from the ground. Gashly opened his palms towards her, firing off a barrage of barbs that mostly pinged off of her suit. A few ricocheted upwards, tearing out more hair.

“You don’t know any of the kind of suffering we’ve been through!” Spinner shouted, picking his sword back up with one hand.

“Yeah, I don’t know what you’ve been through. But I don’t care.” She landed on a rock, “I know I’m in the right to do what I do, and that’s good enough for me.”

“More like you’ve been told by that boyfriend of yours! Have you ever had a single thought of your own will?!”

She snorted, “Yeah, I’m thinking about what I’ll have for dinner tonight once I finish painting the snow and grass with you three and your little stooges.” She flipped backwards as rose bushes, tree branches and vines whipped against the rock, narrowly avoiding being struck.

“You won’t live that long!”

“Want to make it a bet?” She bounded across the ground before leaping up high, “If you like plants so much, let me help you fertilize them!” Kunieda summoned a whirlwind of plants to attack. “Luna Ring!” Rumi swung both her legs in a circle as hard as she could and as quickly as she could, kicking straight through the walls of plays being closed in on her. And with the flowers out from under Kunieda’s hands there was no way for him to control the other plants. So she took her chance. “Luna Tide!” With one leg above his head and one below his legs Rumi struck from both ends, snapping his arms and legs before dropping him limply to the ground. All the plants he’d previously controlled went limp.

“Now you’ve done it!” Barbs ripped through the air as she charged her way towards Gashly, blood running down her face from his previous attacks.

“Yeah, and I’m about to do it again with this move I’ve been saving up!” She jumped up, flipping over his head before landing behind him. She then dealt one swift and painful kick with her right leg. Even if she didn’t outright kill the man, that one blow was enough to completely put him out of the fight. “Now it’s just you.”

Spinner gripped his sword with one hand, “I won’t surrender to someone like you!” She jumped up as the Villain came charging at her, swinging wildly. With just one kick she was able to throw him back.

“You don’t know how much pain and grief you’ve caused Aurdel. Helping All For One, getting his students killed.”

“What do I care about some bunch of brats following an insane murderer? They got what came to them because it was what they deserved!”

“Well, if that’s the precedent you want to set…” She charged forward, flipping over Spinner’s shoulders. She then wrapped the back of her left leg around his neck, wrapping her right leg around his right arm. “...Then I’ll gladly follow it!” With one hearty squeeze she popped his head off his neck and his arm off his torso, taking him out of the fight instantly.

“Smash!” Midoriya kicked his way through a group of Villains, sending them flying out of the park and towards the street. “Give up already, there’s no way for you to win!”

“We’re not going to let ourselves get taken back to prison!” One of the Villains shouted, running at Midoriya.

“I’m trying to give you a chance of a better outcome!” Midoriya flicked his finger, blowing the man away with a concussive blast of air. “Why can’t you understand that standing against the world and violently lashing out isn’t going to change anything?!”

“Because the example has already been set that what you’re saying is wrong.” Midoriya quickly darted off to the side, getting into cover as a hail of bullets came his way. This voice… This was that kid, Mustard. “If it wasn’t, then Spartan would never have succeeded.

Midoriya poked his head out, “Mr. Aurdel didn’t- Is that a Nomu?!” He was about to retort when he suddenly saw that standing next to Mustard was the very first Nomu that he’d ever seen, the one that had attacked them in the USJ at the beginning of the school year.

“Yeah, he should look familiar.” Mustard reloaded the gun in his hand, then raised it again. “Nomu, kill him.”

“W-Woah!” Midoriya was caught off guard by a mix of fear and surprise as the Nomu launched forward, the memories of the fight being recalled in his mind. He used Blackwhip, grabbing the Nomu and throwing it across the street out of reflex. The Nomu managed to stop itself, rebounding towards him after slamming back first into a light pole. Midoriya raised his hand to try and fire off a few Delaware smashes, only to find himself taking gunfire again. “Isn’t this guy enough to deal with?!”

“I won’t stop trying until you’re dead.” Midoriya maneuvered his way through the air using Float, avoiding the bullets and bracing himself as the Nomu came flying in. Eventually he was struck at full force, and just like the fight with All For One he could feel himself slightly buckling under the force.

“Detroit Smash!” Midoriya struck the Nomu with three hard hitting punches in quick succession, each one doing visible damage stayed only momentarily before being regenerated away. He needed to do more damage, but he couldn’t do that while being shot at!

“AP Machine Gun!” Bakugo came blasting in, opening fire and blanketing the area Mustard was in with explosions.

“Kac-!

“Shut up and stop messing around, you can easily beat that Nomu!” Bakugo’s words made him snap out of the feeling of fear he had. He was right, Midoriya could beat him. He was nowhere near as weak as he was that day!

“Smash!” With full confidence this time, Midoriya began striking the Nomu over and over. The damage being done now was substantially more than before, taking a few seconds to completely regenerate itself

“You Damn UA kids!” Mustard suddenly released a massive cloud of gas using his quirk, shrouding the area and giving the Nomu a moment to back off and fully heal.

Midoriya and Bakugo momentarily stepped out of the gas, putting on the helmets that came with the armor they were wearing. “I can’t say lay down covering fire with gas this thick. Deku, blow it away!”

“Los Alamos Smash!” Midoriya dropped into the center and clapped his hands while using One For All, creating a pressure explosion that blew away almost all of the gas in a near instant.

“What?!”

Mustard was caught off guard by the move, raising his gun again as the Nomu charged towards Midoriya again. “Howitzer Impact!” Bakugo blew his away in, both sending Mustard flying and off balancing the Nomu.

“St. Louis Smash!” Midoriya roundhouse kicked the Nomu across the side, the damage being done now so overwhelming that it was only barely able to keep up with its regeneration. “Manchester Smash!” Midoriya slammed the heel of his boot through the top of the Nomus head, its Shock Absorption quirk giving out and its brain being crushed by the force of his attack.

“Damnit, I knew the Nomu wouldn’t work. Dictator!” Mustard halted the reappearing gas, allowing a crowd of people to suddenly rush out of a building.

“What the hell?!” Midoriya and Bakugo quit attacking, taking a moment to back off as they realized that the people rushing out weren’t Villains. They were civilians.

“Help, we can’t control ourselves!” The civilians were all armed with weapons against their will, both firearms and blunt weapons. Midoriya and Bakugo quickly moved out of the way as the gunfire started, taking cover.

“They really are evil, using innocent people like that…”

“Start hating them once the fight’s over!” Bakugo shouted, “I’ll draw their attacks, you find where the guy controlling them is in the crowd and take him out!”

“Kacchan, wait!” But before he could say anything else he blasted away, coming under a hail of fire as Dictator, the man controlling the civilians, saw him. Midoriya peaked out of cover, carefully making sure that he wasn’t noticed. In the center of the crowd he could see the greatest concentration of people, with a number of people surrounding one man that was relatively obscured. That had to be him!

“Don’t let yourself get attacked Dictator!” As Midoriya leapt out of cover Mustard opened fire on him again, this time using a handgun instead of the other weapon he was using before.

“And don’t ignore me you piece of shit!” Bakugo, seeing where Midoriya was heading, faked out the Villains by pretending to make a beeline towards DIctator.

‘Deal with the green one!” The distraction was enough to have the people he was controlling focus on attacking Bakugo, allowing Midoriya the chance to quickly close the distance.

He used Blackwhip, lowering his percentage of One For All so it would be much more precise, and then used it to reach into the cluster in the center. With one solid tug he was able to pull Dictator up and out of the crowd. “Delaware Smash!” And with one attack he was able to put him out of the fight, breaking the control he had over the civilians.

Midoriya landed back on the ground, about to restrain Dictator when something else happened. “Fine then, I guess this is it.” He turned, seeing Mustard having grabbed one of the hostages and putting a gun to their head.

“Don’t do it!” Midoriya shouted.

“Or what, are you going to kill me? I think you’ve already demonstrated you’re not willing to do that.” Mustard backed up towards one of the buildings, having his back against the wall so Bakugo wouldn’t be able to come in attack from another angle. Not that he could without injuring the civilian anyways.

“Do something, please!” The woman shouted, shaking her head as the barrel was pressed up against her head.

“What do you want?” Midoriya asked, trying to bargain with him.

“What do I want?” He scoffed, “I wanted to get some real justice, for the wrongs that were done against me and so many other people by those in power. That the leeches on society who claim to protect it would get worse punishments than the people they’re supposedly protecting society from. But that’s just not possible now, not that you could ever give that to me in the first place.”

“Then what can I do to have you let that woman go?”

“Nothing, you’ll just have to watch as you see the result of the society All Might heralded in.” As Mustard released the woman and shoved her forward Midoriya leapt towards him, expecting for the gun to fire towards either her or himself. But he was wrong. Mustard managed to turn the gun on himself before Midoriya reached him, squeezing the trigger and putting a bullet through his head. Blood splashed across his helmet and he couldn’t help but freeze up in horror.

Midoriya wasn’t sure how long he stood frozen. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours. But no matter how long he’d actually stood there didn’t make a difference to him. There was no way that he could process the sight of someone taking their own life in front of his own eyes… Especially not when it was driven by such intense emotions of hate. It was just like when he’d fought against the Chinese Colonel, unable to fully handle the situation.

“Hey kid… Kid!” Midoriya suddenly felt himself being shaken around, “Kid, snap out of it!”

“Mirko…” He managed to snap out of his trance, taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry, it’s just…”

“Don’t sweat it, what happened isn’t your fault.” She pulled him in to comfort him, “We dealt with the rest of the Villains over here, there won’t be anything else for us to worry about. We’ll just let the others handle the rest.”

“The others…?”

“Yeah, the other Heroes and soldiers. They showed up while we were fighting.” She sighed, ruffling his head to try and make him feel better. “Come on, let’s go back.”

Midoriya felt weak as Mirko managed to pull him forward, and at any moment it felt like his feet were going to give way and allow himself to collapse. He turned his head, looking around and seeing the results of the battle. Dozens of Villains lay scattered across the city. Some of them had gone down as the initial result of the fighting, others seemingly killed when the other Heroes and soldiers showed up and took their revenge. No matter what the circumstances were, it was just too much for him to handle. So many had been lost… He lowered his head, his breath becoming ragged as tears started to stream down his face. “How… How am I supposed to keep going after all of this? After everything that I’ve seen happen?”

“I don’t know kid, I’m still trying to come up with all of the answers for myself. But the truth is that nothing is ever going to be the same as it used to be. Too much has changed. I just wish that-” She paused, looking up before momentarily taking a glance to the side. “Is something wrong?”

“...The ship that Issac crashed is still over there, so who’s flying that thing?”

Midoriya looked up, seeing the same sight. “Maybe it’s the AI copy of Mr. Aurdel?”

“Maybe.” The two of them walked down the street as the aircraft came in, stopping once it finally set down in front of them with its back door facing them. Midoriya was almost too afraid to look, thinking that if he did he might see something even worse than he just had. Then the door opened. “You’re…”

“Alive!” Almost instantly he perked up, both he and Mirko sprinting forwards and essentially tackling to the ground.

“Ow… Careful. I just had to patch myself up, I don’t want to accidentally-” Mirko cut off Mr. Aurdel, suddenly grabbing him, pulling him in and giving him a kiss on the lips.

“Never do that again,” Mirko said as she pulled away from his face, “Or else I’m going to kick your ass.”

He sighed, pulling them both in for a hug. “From here on out, it’s going to be smooth sailing. I’m going to make sure everything is rebuilt the way it’s supposed to be. And I’ll make sure that no matter what happens, I won’t abandon either of you. I promise you.” He squeezed the two of them tight, and looking up Midoriya could see that there was something in his eyes. Tears.