Chapter Text
Overhaul’s transformation seemed to have renewed his energy and healed his wounds. With his quirk, he could likely just heal his own wounds as they happened.
While his mentor kept the villain busy, Izuku turned to Hitoshi.
“I’m going to need to use it,” he said. “If I can’t bring it out on my own, I want you to make me do it. If I can, I need you to make sure I can turn it off.”
“Got it,” Hitoshi said, no question in his mind of what his friend was asking for.
They were both forced to leap out of the way of jutting concrete that Chisaki was sending at them, as he tried to trap Sir Nighteye and impale him. Izuku focused hard, trying to force black Whip to manifest, but was having trouble, because he was constantly being forced to dodge. His iron soles saved him twice from being impaled on jutting rock, and he used them again and again to smash through, kicking as much debris at Overhaul as he could with the speed of a high-powered slingshot.
Suddenly, Chisaki managed to impale Nighteye through the leg with a sharp spear of rock, causing the hero to cry out momentarily in pain before he stifled it. Izuku knew he would not want Lemillion to try to come back to check on the battle. The wound was ugly; the point of the spear entered his leg just below the side of his left knee, and exited through the top of his thigh, effectively pinning him in place. A moment later, another spear shot out and broke the base of the first, tearing it from his leg in the most brutal way. It was a grisly sight, with blood pouring alarmingly through Nighteye’s fingers.
“SIR!” Izuku shouted frantically, not able to look away for long enough to assess how severe the damage to his mentor might be.
“Don’t lose focus,” Sir Nighteye ground out, teeth gritted against the pain. “I can make a tourniquet out of my shirt; it’s not like I’m going to wear it again.”
Izuku winced inwardly at the weak attempt at humor - the characteristic that Sir Nighteye had said he valued so highly..
“Do you hear that, Eri?” Chisaki was calling out loudly to the girl with a mouth that had appeared in his palm, “They’re going to die because of you, Eri. If you come back now, you could put a stop to all of this. I can fix them up as good as new! If you don't, they'll die, and it will be YOUR fault.”
“Bullshit,” Hitoshi ground out. Then he had an idea. He adjusted his voice mask and issued out in Chisaki’s voice, “Who am I kidding? I’m going to kill them, no matter what you do! Run Eri! Run, and see if you can get away from me! RUN!”
Chisaki actually looked shocked for a moment before saying, “Very clever. A mimic quirk, I suppose?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Hitoshi asked slyly.
“Insolent--” Chisaki froze for a moment, his eyes turned glassy and blank. Izuku had just a second to mentally start cheering, but the man seemed to shake off the mind control almost immediately.
“Shit. He’s basically two people right now,” Hitoshi said angrily.
Izuku hadn’t even considered that. Mind Bender’s control wasn’t strong enough at this point to control TWO wills. Any lunatic who had come far enough in the Shie Hassaikai to be this close to Chisaki had to have an incredibly strong, albeit insane, will.
“Both of you, get out of here,” Sir Nighteye said, “Or we’re all going to die! I foresaw it!”
“Not happening,” Deku stated. “I don’t care what you saw--I can change the future! You go and and get your leg fixed. Mind Bender, you should help him!. Go find Lemillion and get Eri out! Her safety is priority!”
“As if I’d leave you on your own,” Nighteye said, launching another of his hyper-density seals at Overhaul, hitting him in the head. “There’s no fixing this leg, anymore.”
“You need me here to help with Black Whip,” Mind Bender said pointedly.
“ENOUGH!” Overhaul raged, crouching to put his hands on the ground.
“You ready, Deku?” Mind Bender called from across the room.
“Do it!” Izuku cried back.
A moment later, Izuku blacked out for a second, and when he was released from the trance, Black Whip was flowing through him, thick ropes of black energy writhed around him, undulating without purpose. He wasn’t sure what Black Whip was comprised of, but it was strong and resilient.
“Take him down,” Mind Bender shouted to him, dodging and leaping around the violently changing space to avoid the same fate as Sir Nighteye. His footwork and gymnastic ability had improved exponentially since the last time Izuku had seen him execute those types of moves.
Izuku was no longer under Mind Bender’s control, possibly because he’d been released, but more probably because of the pain coursing through his arms and hands. Either way, it was up to him to stop Overhaul from here. There was no alternative.
A jagged rock shot up from the ground and knocked Mind Bender hard enough to make him fly through the air and land heavily a meter away, a bloody gash on his forehead. He managed to turn onto his back, but seemed stunned and unable to sit up right away. A spike of rock shot up beside him and tore a gash in his hip, but that was the worst of it. At least his hadn’t been knocked unconscious.
Suddenly, the room became still, and it threw them all off center. The floor quit rumbling and heaving, and in the eerie silence that followed the cessation of movement, the only sounds were everyone’s labored breathing.
Deku looked around wildly and was shocked to see Eraserhead in the opening of the wall, hair lifted into the air in proof that he had his quirk locked onto Overhaul. The monstrous fusion remained, but Chisaki’s quirk was nullified, keeping him from using the room against them. “Deku...wrap this up before Nighteye bleeds out.”
The sudden lack of chaos enabled Izuku to focus enough to send Black Whip sailing toward Chisaski, winding around both sets of his clawed arms and lashing them tightly to his body.
“Why can’t any of you see the big picture, here? I’m going to reset the whole world! There will be equality and acceptance for everyone!” Overhaul shouted frantically. “She has the power to reset humanity to a time before quirks and make everyone NORMAL again!”
Izuku suddenly knew just what he needed to do to control the whips, and pulled them strongly enough that he could hear the villain's bones cracking before he stopped tightening them. He gritted his teeth and told himself that he was a hero, and it wasn’t up to him to sentence this monster, or carry out his punishment.
It was then that Eri crept through the hole in the wall, trembling from head to toe. The shifting rubble under her bare feet drew all of their attention. She had the remnants of Lemillion’s cape wrapped around her shoulders like a blanket, dragging on the ground behind her. Her hair was a tangled mess, and there scrapes on her knees and tear-tracks staining her cheeks. The horn on her head seemed a few centimeters longer than before, but otherwise looked ordinary.
“Get Eri out of here! “ Deku shouted, his heart already racing and beating hard enough to be heard in his own ears. “Nighteye! Convince her!”
“Eri. Eri, come to me,” Nighteye said weakly, beckoning her with a bloody hand from where he was trying to staunch the steady blood flowing from his leg, despite his best attempt as a tourniquet. “Let’s get you out of here.”
“Eri! Come to ME!” Overhaul demanded in a manic voice. His breathing was labored from having his chest constricted by whips.
Eri stopped and crouched in the rubble for a moment. She looked like she was about to break down completely, she was trembling so hard. “You. You hurt me,” she said in a high, childlike whisper. “You hurt everyone.”
“Come with me, Eri,” Nighteye coaxed, “And he won’t hurt you any more.”
“I can stop him,” Eri whimpered, standing again and walking closer to the immobilized villain.
“You don’t have to listen to him anymore,” Mind Bender said in the kindest voice he could manage while still trying to pick himself up. “Just leave here, and let us take care of it. You’ll never have to see him again. Turning yourself over to him won’t make him stop trying to hurt us.”
“Nothing ever stops him,” Eri said sadly, her voice a little stronger as she moved so close to Overhaul that Izuku felt sick with worry. “But this might.”
Eri, will you please listen to me?” Mind Bender tried in an attempt to brainwash her into leaving on her own.
Eri didn’t reply. She only straightened her shoulders resolutely and carried on.
“Eri, we’re here to rescue you. Let us help you by helping us get you out of here,” Eraserhead tried, not breaking eye contact with the monstrous villain.
No one actually saw what was in her hand as she reached up and pushed into Overhaul’s leg with all the might in her tiny frame. It almost looked like she was trying to topple the monster with as hard as she leaned into him. When her hand dropped, something small, cylindrical and red fell to the floor with a hollow ’tink.
A bullet with a needle on the end. She had just used it to pierce Overhaul’s skin.
The scream that came from both Chisaki’s ‘beak’ and the obscene extra mouth on his palm was ear-splitting and full of rage.
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, YOU LITTLE BITCH?!” the monster screamed, straining against the hold of the whips, which didn’t budge under Izuku’s grip.
It was a moment before Izuku noted that Aizawa’s hair was no longer raised, and he wasn’t using his quirk. Eri had backed away from Overhaul and into Sir Nighteye’s embrace. Aizawa kept facing the monster as a precaution, but backed through the rubble carefully toward the wounded Nighteye and the frightened girl.
“This… This isn’t what I saw at all,” Sir Nighteye whispered in wonder, wrapping an arm around the frail shoulders of the little girl.
“I told you I would change the future,” Izuku said with a feral grin.
“No...but I think Eri did,” Sir said softly, hugging the girl close.
“What do I do with this piece of garbage?” Deku asked Eraserhead.
“Knock him out,” Aizawa suggested. “Until the police can take over.”
Lemillion came panting into view through the hole in the wall then, skin gray and feverish looking. He was crawling slowly on his belly, leaving a trail of blood behind him and gasping out, “Eri! Eri come back!” over and over.
“Mirio!” Nighteye shouted as loudly as he could. He was growing weak from blood loss and couldn’t possibly last much longer.
“Is she safe?” Mirio gasped out on a half-sob.
“She’s safe, Mirio. You did an amazing job,” Sir promised him.
Having had enough of his friends being hurt, Izuku pivoted and braced, then used Black Whip to slam Overhaul into the ceiling, then into the wall for good measure. He didn’t let the bindings loosen, even when the figure was slack and breathing with a ragged gurgle.
“That should do it,” Mind Bender huffed out on a half-laugh.
“You’ve done well,” Eraserhead told them, placing a hand under Nighteye’s chin to look at his face and check for signs of shock.. “But all of you need medical treatment.”
As if summoned, several people arrived on the scene at that moment, including Ryuukyuu, Uravity, Froppy and several police officers. They swarmed in all directions, taking stock of the situation and moving to help.
“Lemillion!” Uravity cried out, rushing to kneel by his side. “Hold on, we’ll get you taken care of.”
Once police arrived, Eraserhead used his quirk to help Deku turn off Black Whip. From there, Overhaul was handed over to the police, still raging and shouting empty threats as he was put in an iron maiden for transport to Tartarus. Medics flooded onto the scene, and ambulances were called in.
Nighteye’s leg was badly damaged, and he let Aizawa take charge of Eri when the medics arrived to transport him to the ambulance. As the men rushed Nighteye away for treatment, the little girl clung to Aizawa tightly, burying her face in his capture weapon, still trembling.
“Will Lemillion be okay?” she asked in a small voice.
“Yes,” Aizawa said softly. “We all will, thanks to you.”
The girl’s eyes widened at that, and she let out a little sob. Her expression was a storm of emotions that flitted across her face, one after another, showing that she didn’t know what she should feel. Izuku knew that feeling all too well. Aizawa’s expression softened as he wrapped his arms around her in a protective embrace.
Izuku used the first aid supplies in his pouches to tend to Hitoshi, who had a hell of a goose egg on his forehead from where the rock had bashed into it. This hip was bleeding and would likely be black and blue for days after this, but it was already beginning to clot as Izuku put pressure on the wound with a bandage from his pouch.
Uraraka helped the police by making the iron maiden weigh nothing as they removed Overhaul--or whatever it was that Overhaul had become. She saw Mirio safely onto a stretcher the paramedics had brought, using her quirk to make him float gently. He cried out in pain, the tears leaking from his eyes washing the dirt from his cheeks and temples in thin stripes, almost making his face look cracked. He was losing his battle to remain conscious.
“Lemillion,” Eri breathed when she saw him. “No! This is my fault! Chisaki was right! I’m cursed!”
“No, Eri! That’s not true!” Deku told her firmly. “You saved us!”
“Hey! Calm down!” Aizawa said when she started to squirm in his arms.
Eri pushed and squirmed until Aizawa set her down, and she ran to the stretcher that Togata was lying on. “You have to be okay! You promised!”
Deku went to lift her again, so she could see Lemillion from a better vantage point. It was then that he noticed that her horn was glowing. Izuku could feel the power starting to flow through her, a tingle in his limbs stronger than One For All normally left him with.
“Eri,” Deku said gently. “What are you doing? Are you okay?”
“He has to be okay!” she insisted, leaning down so quickly that Izuku almost lost his grip on her.
“Eri,” Lemillion groaned, lifting his right hand with as much effort as he could muster to grasp hers. “It’s okay.”
At that moment, the glow traveled down from the tip of her horn to envelop her whole body, then traveled over to Deku, who was holding her, and down Togata’s arm from the point where his hand held hers. His entire body began to glow. While they watched, the wounds on Lemillion's face began to close and heal over and his eyes widened in surprise. Izuku was so focused on seeing Lemillion be healed, that he didn’t even notice his own small wounds disappear.
“Eri. Eri, thank you! I’m better!” Mirio said in a strong voice. He even sat up and let go of her hand to cup her face gently. “You can stop now.”
“Eri?” Izuku said, suddenly aware that the tingle in his body was becoming painful. “Do you know how to turn off your quirk?”
“I can’t!” she cried out in alarm. “I can’t! I’m sorry!”
“Eraserhead!” Hitoshi said, but their teacher was already ahead of him. He fixed his stare on Eri, the tiny girl collapsed, exhausted. The glow disappeared, and Izuku and Lemillion looked at each other in shock.
Izuku transferred her weight to a better position to carry her in, and Lemillion leaped off of the gurney to make room for her. She looked even smaller when lying on the narrow mattress, surrounded by medics who swarmed in to take her vitals and tend to her.
“I’ll have to ride to the hospital with her, in case she wakes up and her quirk activates again. Lemillion, you should come with us, just to make sure you’re fine,” Eraserhead told them.
They all nodded, and both their teacher and their senpai jogged along beside the stretcher as the medics took charge.
Izuku watched them go with a pang. It was all kind of surreal and disorienting to know it was over.
Izuku walked beside the gurney that Hitoshi had been loaded onto, adrenaline still humming through his system. He was having trouble believing that Eri was finally safe, and this ordeal was over without loss of life...that he knew of, at least.
“You okay? That was pretty intense.” Hitoshi asked him. “What did she do to you?”
“I’m not sure,” Izuku said honestly. “It just felt weird at first, but then it started to hurt...like a burn stings, you know?”
“You look...great, actually,” Hitoshi told him. “Like, you’ve got a healthy glow or whatever. I know it sounds stupid, but I don’t know how else to put it.”
“Hmmm,” Izuku said thoughtfully. “Her quirk is called ’Rewind’, and she healed Togata to as healthy as he was before we raided the place. Maybe some of that spilled over into me?”
“Maybe? It was strange to see, though,” Hitoshi said.
“Hood on, kid,” one of the police told Izuku as they got closer to the entrance of the compound. “The press is bound to be out there, and from what I’ve been told, you could do without your face plastered all over the news.”
Izuku obediently put his mask and jaw protector in place, though it was a little worse for wear. His suit had held up remarkably well, though he definitely needed new gloves after Black Whip had shredded them.
He blinked as they came into the bright sunlight, and saw that police cars, ambulances, news vans, and even a helicopter had flooded the scene. Onlookers lined barriers that had been set up around the perimeter, and Izuku was forcibly reminded of being one of the people standing by, waiting eagerly for a glimpse of his favorite heroes.
“Mid-- Deku! You’re all right!” Red Riot was sitting up on a stretcher near an ambulance, completely wrapped in bandages from the neck down. His mask piece was broken, and his face was abraded and swollen.
“Are you?” Deku called back in concern.
Kirishima gave him a thumbs up, before he turned his head back to say something to...was that Fat Gum? The man was wearing the right costume, but his fat reserves had been melted away during whatever battle he’d fought.
“UGH…” Hitoshi groaned as the paramedics veered off to load him into the back of a waiting ambulance. “I hate going to the hospital.”
“You picked the wrong career, then,” one of the medics told him sardonically.
“Yeah, yeah,” Hitoshi complained. “I’ll see you later, Zu. Go make sure everyone else is okay.”
Izuku shared a fist bump with his best friend, then went to check on everyone else. He was snagged by a medic, who grabbed his arm before he could get far, and made sure he wasn’t seriously injured. By the time he had waved the fussing hands away, the ambulances holding both Hitoshi and Sir Nighteye had departed. Aizawa was climbing into the back of another ambulance with Lemillion, and looked over at Deku meaningfully. Izuku nodded in reply; Eri’s needs were far more important than his own.
“Hey! Hey kid!”
Izuku turned to see who was calling out, and saw a couple of the yakuza men sitting cuffed on the curb, with a group of policemen watching them. He tilted his head in question.
“Is Chisaki dead?” one of them asked. He had a split lip and a couple of teeth missing from his recent fight.
“No,” Izuku said, shaking his head. “But he is in custody.”
“Damn it!” the man sitting next to the first said.
“You wanted him to die?” Deku asked curiously.
“I wouldn’ta lost sleep over it,” he grunted. He had a black eye and was sitting very stiffly.
“Chisaki lost sight of the bosses’ vision. Boss never wanted us to be villains--that was all Chisaki.”
“Make sure you tell that to the police,” Deku advised, making a mental note to tell Tsukauchi, just in case he didn’t already know.
He looked around, not really sure of where he should be going. Finally, he spotted Bubble Girl and Centipeder off to the side, speaking with detectives. He headed over to them, to see what came next.
“Deku,” Centipeder said as he approached. “Good work.”
“Good work,” Izuku returned politely. “Sir was taken to the hospital. Lemillion went, too. I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do now.”
“We’ll head to the hospital to check on everyone soon, then comes the paperwork,” Bubble girl said ruefully. “I didn’t get to see Sir up close, but his leg looked pretty bad.”
“Really bad,” Izuku said grimly. “I hope they have good healers on call.”
“From what that area looked like, it’s a miracle any of you got out of there alive,” one of the policeman said, scratching his head.
“I don’t think we were supposed to,” Izuku said ruefully. “Sir said we were going to be killed.”
Bubble Girl looked shocked by that pronouncement. “He saw it, and it didn’t happen?”
“That’s unprecedented,” Centipeder said in awe.
“He said Eri was probably responsible,” Izuku said with a shrug.
They made sure that the police didn’t need them for any immediate needs, and they were cleared to leave the scene. They all ignored the press as they headed for one of the vans that had brought them to the scene to begin with.
“Deku! Wait!” Uraraka ran up to the van, waving her arm urgently.
Izuku stopped, as did the two sidekicks. Uraraka looked exhausted, and he was interested to hear what she had experienced while he’d been further inside the compound.
“Deku! I just heard it on the police scanner!” she said in a loud whisper. They were far enough away from the press that no one without a listening quirk would be able to eavesdrop. “Chisaki is dead!”
“Dead?” Bubble Girl asked sharply.
“Dead!” Uraraka confirmed.
“Did I… did I do that? Did I accidentally...when I knocked him out?” Izuku was stunned by the idea. He had thought briefly (very briefly) about letting Black Whip cut him in half for his sins, but he hadn’t really planned for him to die.
“The League of Villains hijacked the convoy taking Chisaki and his men to the villain’s hospital. Shigaraki killed him. I’m guessing he used his quirk, because the police said that ’only half of him is left’ when the Chief asked what happened.”
An odd mixture of relief, pity and fear swirled in Izuku’s mind at the thought. Chisaki was an evil man, but wouldn’t a life in Tartarus, stuck in a fusion with another person for the rest of your days be a worse punishment? He didn’t have an answer. It felt kind of like a mercy killing, in a way, though Shigaraki probably only did it out of revenge.
“That’s a pretty bold move by the League,” Centipeder said with concern. “This can’t be a good sign.”
“Well, whatever it means, it seems like the League is busy at the moment. That means that Deku is probably as safe as he can be for the rest of today, at least,” Bubble Girl said wryly. “Lets go check on Sir and Lemillion.”
Deku thanked Uravity and waved goodbye. The trip to the hospital was uneventful; they were not attacked or even paid any attention until they walked through the hospital doors. Izuku was glad he still wore his mask and jaw guard, since the lobby was full of reporters, hoping to bribe information out of the nurses and security guards on duty. When Deku and the others walked in, all cameras locked onto them as they were battered with questions.
“Were you at the battle at the Shie Hassaikai compound?”
“Can you tell us what your goal was, attacking a yakuza stronghold?”
“There were reports of a little girl being brought out of the scene of the battle! Who was she?”
“Is it true that All Might’s former sidekick was killed in action?”
Deku’s heart lurched at the last question he heard, wondering if Sir had died of his wounds. He had lost an awful lot of blood. A security guard slapped a sticker on the front of Deku’s costume that gave him clearance, and escorted them through a set of double doors, away from the cacophony of voices and intrusive questions.
“Vultures, the lot of them!” the man said in disgust, swiping his badge at a scanner in front of a second set of doors. “Don’t listen to ‘em.”
There was a triage room in front of them, with nearly every bay full of patients, with harried doctors and nurses speed walking around, attending to various tasks.
“Rock Lock!” Centipeder said, pointing to the nearest stall.
The dreadlocked hero sat up on a bed with his midriff taped up, an indicator that he probably had cracked or broken ribs.
“We got them,” Rock Lock said, giving them a smile and thumbs up. A pretty blonde woman holding an infant in her arms stood by, smiling tearfully.
They all nodded and smiled, and continued further into the room. They acknowledged or waved to various other heroes and officers as they passed, relieved to see that most of the injuries seemed to be relatively minor.
They finally came to a bed where Aizawa was sitting up with his feet dangling over, looking annoyed. He was shirtless, and had a thick bandage wrapped around his shoulder. There was an IV drip hooked to his arm and a heart rate monitor clipped to one of his finger.
“Sensei!” Izuku said, lighting up at the sight of him.
“Nighteye’s in surgery,” he said without preamble. “His leg was pretty messed up.”
Izuku nodded gravely. “Yeah, I know.”
“He’s a tough one,” Bubble Girl said, voice ringing with hope.
“Recovery Girl’s on her way in there, now. We’ll see if he’s strong enough to have her use her quirk on him, or if he’ll have to wait until he’s rested.” His tone told them that he didn’t think she’d be using her quirk on him any time soon.
“And Tosh?” Izuku asked.
“Shinsou’s fast asleep. Recovery Girl went and saw him a couple of minutes ago. He’ll be good as new once he wakes up,” Aizawa reported.
“Eri?” Izuku asked, grateful that his teacher was such a fount of knowledge.
“Still asleep, and still feverish. They’ve got her under armed guard and she’s been sedated for the next little while. She’ll be kept in isolation for now, too.”
“Because of her quirk?” Izuku guessed.
“Yes, an uncontrolled quirk like hers would be disastrous in a lot of ways. They’re going to take good care of her, and make sure she’s able to smile again, soon.” Aizawa said.
“Kirishima didn’t look too good when I saw him, earlier, but he was awake and able to talk,” Izuku said.
“He’ll be fine. He looks a bit like a mummy at the moment; he was covered in lacerations from the beating he took, but Recovery Girl’s got him on the mend.”
“That’s good to hear,” Izuku said with relief. “Um...we heard just before coming here. Chisaki’s…”
“Dead. I heard,” Aizawa said with a sigh. “Not a huge loss, but you can’t question a dead man. There are still a lot of unanswered questions, and I’m not sure any of his men can answer them all.”
“And how are you doing, sensei? Need anything?” Deku asked, feeling bad for not inquiring about it first.
“I’m fine,” Aizawa said shortly. “ Just a few stitches. They’re making a big fuss over nothing. Recovery Girl can fix me up later, if she wants.”
Izuku mentally translated that to mean that he had some injuries, but he didn’t want to be drained of the energy it would take to fix them until he was sure everyone else was taken care of.
“Were you able to call Present Mic to let him know you’re okay?” Izuku asked cautiously.
Normally, he wouldn’t inquire about his teacher’s personal life, but he knew he would want someone to call his loved ones to let them know he was all right, if they knew he was on a big mission.
“Yes,” Aizawa said with a lifted brow.
“Ah...Good,” Izuku said, not pushing any further than that.
From there, Bubble Girl and Centipeder went to the waiting room by the operating theater. Izuku was ordered to undergo a checkup to make sure that Eri’s quirk hadn’t had an adverse affect on him that wasn’t making itself known yet. Since One For All was still in tact, Izuku wasn’t too worried. It seemed that Togata was undergoing a full body scan, as well, just to be on the safe side.
By the time the scans and check-up was done, a lot of the heroes and police had been allowed to leave, but even more had arrived to check on their comrades. Recovery Girl had made the rounds, so many of the injured were sleeping to get their energy back, or looking distinctly drowsy.
“You get cleared by a doctor?” Aizawa asked him, now unhooked from all the machines and tubes and standing in the hallway sipping coffee from a paper cup.
“Yes!” Izuku said cheerfully. “In fact, he says that some of the damage to my joints was repaired, too. I don’t know how far back I got rewound, but I feel pretty good.”
“Silver linings, I guess,” Aizawa said. He stood up straighter and sighed. “Look, Deku...Sir Nighteye was pretty badly injured…”
“He didn’t die, did he?” Izuku demanded, face going from cheer to terror in an instant, recalling the reporter’s question earlier.
“What? No!” Aizawa was quick to correct that assumption. “He’s not dead, but he did lose his left leg. It was too badly damaged to save. He’s still in surgery and probably will be for a couple of hours.”
“Ah, damn it,” Izuku said sadly, looking at the floor.
“You know this wasn’t your fault, don’t you?” Aizawa asked, eyeing him carefully.
“Yeah. I know. I’ll probably still feel guilty about it, but not because I blame myself. It was insane back there; I thought we were all dead,” Izuku admitted. “So did he. I guess this is the better alternative, though it still stinks.”
“You kids are going to be sent back to the school, so the staff here can concentrate on the remaining wounded who still need care,” Aizawa told him. “Normally, you’d have a ton of paperwork to fill out and reports to file, but this is an exceptional case. That stuff can wait.”
“Could I be allowed to stay until Sir gets out of surgery?” Izuku asked, already suspecting the answer.
“Have you forgotten that the League of Villains is still out yo get you? And that they just murdered someone? It’s not a good idea. We’ll keep you updated.”
Izuku was forced to accept the wisdom in his teacher’s decision and dutifully changed clothes and met back up with the other UA students being sent back. It seemed surreal that it was only about three o’clock in the afternoon.
Hitoshi looked dead on his feet, and was swaying slightly as he sipped a paper cup of coffee he’d scrounged up somewhere. Kirishima still looked pretty swollen, battered and sleepy, but was on his feet and smiling. Amajiki looked equally tired, and had a long, pink stripe down his face where a cut he had gotten was still healing. He was leaning heavily on Togata, who looked indulgent, but preoccupied.
“They’re not letting you stay to wait, either?” Izuku asked him quietly.
Togata shook his head sadly, then perked up.”Don’t worry, MIdoriya! Sir won’t let this slow him down! He’ll be back to hero work in no time!”
Izuku forced a smile and nodded.
Uraraka and Asui turned up at that point, both looking tired, but uninjured. They were all herded past the reporters waiting outside and into a waiting van, where they settled in for the ride home. The coffee hadn’t helped one bit, and Hitoshi was asleep on Izuku’s shoulder within two minutes of sitting down, but the girls were too tired to be struck by how cute it was. They were all nodding off only a few minutes later, with Amajiki passing out into Togata’s lap. Togata, Izuku, and the officers escorting them back were the only ones awake for the next hour, but no one felt like talking. About five minutes outside of Musutafu, Izuku turned on his phone and and cringed at the long string of vibrations that indicated that he had dozens of messages waiting to be read.
Shouto had sent a thumbs up reply. Typical. He had probably been in the middle of class when he’d gotten the message. The rest of the class had sent demands to know what was going on, and that the whole school was talking about a huge raid that was all over the news sites, with their pictures included.
Izuku wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. They pulled up in front of the dorms at a little past six in the evening, and went to their respective dormitory buildings. The nap on the way back seemed to have revived Izuku’s friends a little, but it was easy to see they were still tired as they shuffled through the front door.
“They’re back!” Hagakure cried almost immediately.
Asui and Uraraka were tackled by their invisible friend and Ashido in a huge hug, while the rest of the household gathered around and talked at once about how worried they’d been when they saw the news for themselves.
Shouto stepped up behind Izuku and put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m happy you’re safe.”
Tenya stepped forward, waving his arms to ward them all off. “Everyone! It’s not just their bodies that need a rest, it’s their hearts! They’ve been through an ordeal and may need space!”
Izuku recalled his moment of tearfulness at the lunch table the other day and felt his heart warm at Tenya’s attempt to keep him emotionally safe.
“Thanks, Tenya, but I’m really fine,” Izuku said with a fond smile.
“Thank goodness!” Tenya said loudly, stepping up and embracing Izuku in a hug that lifted him off his feet. “I was SO worried!”
“You’re worse than anyone, Iida!” Kaminari laughed.
“Well, we were just about to sit down to dinner,” Tenya told them, turning back into ‘mother’ mode. “You should all have some nourishment and get some proper rest.”
And that is just what they did. The meal was a loud one, with everyone wanting as many details as they were allowed to give, and since they’d all carried out their parts in different ways, there were different stories that put together the whole. Izuku was horrified to hear about the beating that Kirishima had been subjected to, and the ordeal that Uraraka and Asui had dealt with when one of the villains had tried draining their life force to increase his size.
Shouto watched Izuku closely for the entire meal, and so Izuku did his best to seem carefree, so he wouldn’t be worried, but it was no use.
“Something happened, didn’t it?” Shouto asked quietly.
Izuku nodded slowly, looking down at his plate. “Yeah. But not the thing that should have, so it’s kind of okay. I think.”
“Do you want to talk about it? Alone, I mean?”
No one else seemed to be paying them too much attention, so Izuku nodded again and got to his feet. They put their dishes in the sink and retreated quietly to Izuku’s room.
“It’s been a long day,” Izuku sighed, shedding his uniform shirt for a soft and faded All Might one.
“It sounds like it,” Shouto said patiently, taking a seat on the bed.
“Sir Nighteye lost his leg,” Izuku blurted out suddenly, as if it had been a cork under pressure and suddenly popped. “He got impaled through the leg so badly that they had to amputate. He was still in surgery when we left the hospital. He might still be in surgery right now.”
Shouto’s eyes widened, but he waited for Izuku to get it out of his system.
“Overhaul was turning the room into a huge maze of rock spikes, and Sir just couldn’t dodge them all.” Izuku said, surprised to find he was trembling a little as he sat beside Shouto and looked down at his own scarred hands.
“You said that something else was supposed to happen?” Shouto prompted, taking one of those hands in his own and attempting to be a grounding influence.
Izuku nodded, but it took him a moment to finally say it. “We were supposed to die. Sir Nighteye saw it with his quirk while he was fighting Overhaul. He’s never been wrong before.”
Shouto’s hold on Izuku’s hand tightened, and suddenly he was the one trembling. “What…” Shouto had to pause and swallow past the lump in his throat. “What changed things?”
“Eri,” Izuku said simply. “The little girl we were there to rescue, ended up saving us. Sho...she was so afraid and has been abused for probably her whole life, but she found the courage to do what she needed to, to save us.”
“How?” Shouto still seemed to be reeling for the idea that a foresight quirk had predicted Izuku’s death.
Izuku told him about how Eri had used the quirk erasing bullet made from her own body to stop Overhaul and freeze him into that horrifying amalgamation of two people forever by erasing his quirk permanently.
“Everyone came back looking so beat up, except you,” Shouto said. “You don’t have a scratch on you. I know for sure you were right in the middle of the battle, giving your all. What else happened?”
“Eri, again,” Izuku said, a half smile catching on his lips as he said it. “Sho, she has the most amazing quirk! It’s really incredible! She rewinds people! She can’t really control it, but when she does, she could be the greatest healer ever! Senpai--Lemillion-- got hit with one of those bullets and was really badly injured. When Eri saw that, she accidentally activated her quirk and rewound him back to before he got hurt!”
“That’s incredible,” Shoto said. “But that doesn’t explain how you came out unscathed. Did she use it on you, too? How badly injured were you before that?”
“Hmm? Oh! I wasn’t that badly hurt. My costume protected me a lot, and I’m pretty fast, you know. It’s just that I was holding Eri when she used her quirk on Lemillion, and got caught up in it, I guess? Since she can’t control it, anyone touching her or that she touches might get involved? Eraserhead had to use his quirk on her, or it would have been bad.”
“Izuku. Focus.” Shouto looked torn between amusement and worry as he spoke. “She rewound you, too?”
“Exactly,” Izuku confirmed. “Aizawa made me have all kinds of body scans at the hospital to make sure she didn’t do anything else to me. I’m perfectly fine, though they don’t know how far back she rewound me...some of the damage to my joints seems lessened, according to the doctors.”
Shouto seemed to relax, then. He pulled Izuku into a hug and just held onto him a few minutes.
“I wish I didn’t have License Training tomorrow,” Shouto sighed. “You’ve had too many close calls lately.”
“I’m going to be surrounded by pro heroes and police all day tomorrow,” Izuku assured him. “There’s a ton of paperwork and debriefing and stuff that still has to be done.”
“That’s the part of hero work that most people have no clue about, I think. All of the stuff that comes after the big battles,” Shouto said.
He had grown up with a hero father, so he knew better than most people how troublesome it could be.
Izuku’s phone buzzed then, and he looked at the screen to find a message from Bubble Girl.
Bubble Girl 6:41 PM - Sir is out of surgery and in stable condition. They had to amputate a few inches above the knee. No visitors are allowed, yet. See you tomorrow.
Izuku grimaced and showed the text to Shouto before replying a thank you for keeping updated.
“I suppose I should have a look at today’s homework while I still have a couple of hours before bed,” Izuku said.
“You’re not tired after today?” Shouto asked.
“Not physically,” Izuku said. “The rest will just take time, I think. There’s a lot to process.”
Shouto seemed to accept that answer and finally let go of Izuku’s hand. “I’ll go get my notes and stuff.”
For such an extraordinary day, it ended in a quiet and mundane way, and that was just fine with Izuku.
The weekend after the raid on the Shie Hassaikai was a busy one for Izuku. The paperwork had truly been a nightmare, with several forms that had to be done over because he’d filled them out incorrectly the first time. There were statements to the police, debriefing with several different people, and visits to the hospital to check on both Sir Nighteye and Eri.
Sir Nighteye seemed to be accepting the loss of his leg rather well, all things considered.
“My foresight showed me a very different outcome for the raid, leaving several people dead, myself included. A lost limb seems a small price to pay.”
Luckily, a recovery that should have taken months would be reduced to mere weeks with the help of Recovery Girl, and a prosthetic leg was already being designed by one of the industry’s top support item designers. He would not be out of commission for long.
Eri was awake by Saturday afternoon, but still being kept in isolation. Izuku and Togata were allowed to go in and visit with her briefly, as long as Eraserhead was on hand to ward off any quirk related accidents. The visit went well, and the little girl seemed pleased that they’d come to see her, and that they were okay. She didn’t seem to remember much about using her quirk on them, and they didn’t bring it up. It was obvious that Eri didn’t know how to smile, even when she was obviously feeling as happy as she was able to feel in her situation, and it broke Izuku’s heart.
They learned later that Eri was the granddaughter of the Head of the Shie Hassaikai. His daughter had abandoned Eri after the girl had ‘rewound’ her husband (Eri’s father) so far back that he disappeared from existence. Poor Eri didn’t remember or know what had happened to her father, and didn’t understand why her mother had left her. Her grandfather had taken up the responsibility of raising her, only to hand the child over to Chisaki, because the old man had thought that her quirk was similar to Chisaki’s. It was at that point that Chisaki had come up with the idea of using the girl for his plans. When the old man had protested and admonished Chisaki to stop, Chisaki had betrayed him and ‘deconstructed’ him, then put him back together with serious medical issues that kept him bed-ridden and in a coma.
The man had been found and removed from the compound, but doctors didn’t have much hope that he would ever reawaken.
Many of the men arrested at the site had been all too happy to talk about the details of Chisaki’s reign of terror. They outlined the hierarchy, who had been loyally following him of their own accord, and the number of people he had casually killed for failing him in one way or another. Most claimed that they only served him out of fear for their lives.
The extent of the compound had been massive, and spread underneath many of the properties and streets in the area. It would take days to search all of it and determine was was evidence.
Gran had turned up from his own mission a little beat up, but tight-lipped about it all. He seemed satisfied with what he’d been told about Izuku’s performance during the raid. Izuku left out the bit about Sir Nighteye predicting his death; that was for Sir to divulge...or not.
In the end, the aftermath seemed a bit anticlimactic...which was the point, Izuku supposed. There would be trials and everything, but Izuku wouldn't’ need to be involved in those, most likely. His work studies had to be put on hold for the time being, since Sir had to work on getting well for at least a few weeks until he was ready to even try going back to work. Centipeder and Bubble Girl would hold down the fort until then, with Lemillion helping out occasionally, since he had seniority (and the League of Villains hadn’t put a bounty on his head)..
Izuku went back to attending his classes regularly, and only felt a pang of envy when others with work study were absent from class. He could, of course, look for other work study opportunities, but he felt like he had more to learn from Sir Nighteye and his crew. In the meantime, he would train (even with Bakugou) as hard as he could to learn to use Black Whip before he returned to duty at the agency.
He was a bit frantic as he caught up on his studies and was more than happy to have more time to spend with Shouto. Before they knew it, the weather was beginning to cool as September dwindled into October.
The police were chagrined to discover that the quirk cancelling bullets were missing from the crime scene. There had been three left after Overhaul shot Togata, and then Eri had used one on Overhaul. The case was gone from the rubble, and assumed to be in the hands of dangerous people. This caused the police to hold a press conference using Togata as an example to prove that the perfected formula was flawed. They stated that he’d been hit with a bullet that was supposed to permanently destroy a person’s quirk, but that Togata had gotten his power back in less than two hours after being shot. It was technically not a lie; they just neglected to mention that Eri’s quirk restored Togata’s body to a time before he was shot. This made it appear that the quirk cancellation was very temporary, indeed. They hoped that by spreading this misinformation, whomever had stolen the three remaining bullets would view them as worthless, and abandon or discard them.
They also learned that Eri’s quirk was activated through the horn on her head. It seemed to grow as she used it, and once her fever started to fade, the horn shrank to little more than a small bump on her forehead. It was at least one way to monitor if she was in danger of letting it loose in the future. After a few weeks of observation in the hospital, it was finally decided that Aizawa would be named her temporary legal guardian, since he was the only one who could turn off her quirk in case of an accidental activation. He was also in the best position as a teacher at Yuuei to help her learn control, in the future.
Bakugou finally bested Izuku in a fight during training. Izuku had been concentrating so hard on using Black Whip, that he’d let his guard down, and had taken a nasty hit from one of Bakugou’s explosions. Surprisingly, Bakugou hadn’t gloated too much about it, and had even helped Izuku get to his feet afterward, so they could go another round. They might not ever make it to the level of being friends, but in time they could learn to work together without animosity between them.
Shouto learned that his brother Natsuo had been paying regular visits to Tartarus to try and reach his brother, but so far, Dabi had been refusing his visits. Both Natuso and Fuyumi had been writing him letters though, and the guards reported that he had been observed reading them. Shouto wasn’t sure what that meant, or if it would ever lead anywhere, but he hadn’t been able to bring himself to write, or try to visit.
And so, life returned to normal, whatever that was, and Izuku allowed himself to relax and just do his best to live up to the bright future Nighteye claimed he now had in store for him.