Chapter Text
All things considered, Izuku was having a bad day. As it was, Izuku was no longer fighting to win. He was fighting to survive. It was supposed to be a training day. It was supposed to be a day spent learning rescue techniques for natural disasters and the like, but at the rate it's going now, it’s looking more and more like a body recovery training day. He’d barely avoided being eaten by a shark, his fingers were all purple and mangled as they hung uselessly at his side from using his quirk, Thirteen was critically injured, and now Aizawa was fighting the leaders of the villain attack all alone with an injured elbow and it looked like he was-
NO! AIZAWA-SENSEI! Midoriya stood shocked as he realized somewhere in his analysis of the day’s events that the thing the villains had brought with them was now gripping Aizawa’s face in one of its massive palms. The mutation quirk it possessed having given it an advantage in the fight with his teacher, whose quirk was, unfortunately, useless in a fight against mutations. To his horror, the monster slammed his teacher’s head into the ground with a sickening thud. Then it lifted Aizawa’s head up and slammed it down once more.
As the thing repeatedly bashed his teacher’s head into the ground, the purple mist villain appeared nearby the man covered in hands- the leader of this attack- as Izuku realized. The purple mist man informed the creepy hand man, whose name was Shigaraki based on the way the warp villain addressed him, that he’d failed to kill Thirteen.
“Shigaraki, I’ve put thirteen out of action, but one of the students escaped” the warp villain, Kurogiri, as Midoryia learned from Shigaraki’s response, continued. Izuku watched as the villain who’d been speaking in gaming terms began scratching his face furiously before suddenly halting and nonchalantly stating:
“Well, I guess it’s game over. All-might’s not here. Let’s go home”
What? Game over? Are they leaving? Midoryia wondered in his head, the two other students next to him excited that the bad guys were going home and that “They were saved”.
Midoryia wasn’t so sure. Thoughts of Why would they come all this way to go home empty-handed? Were they trying to kill All-Might? He’s not here, what are they going to do? raced through his head. Then, Shigaraki’s face turned to look at them, and his heart sank. Midoryia was too scared to understand everything the man was rambling, but when the words...
“But before we go...let’s smash his pride as the symbol of peace and leave a few dead kids for him to find” left the man’s mouth and Izuku realized the man had suddenly moved a lot closer than he was before, reaching out to grab Tsuyu’s head. Remembering what his quirk did after seeing it used on Aizawa-sensei, the skin going to the bone on his sensei’s elbow with just a glancing touch, Midoryia realized what he meant:
He’s going to kill us. Midoryia realized as fear shot through him. Shigaraki’s hand landed on Tsuyu’s head. She’s going to die … and I sat here and watched it happen. Shigaraki’s hand rested there on top of the frog girl’s head for a few seconds and… nothing happened. One finger landed on her head, then another, then the rest. Five-point contact, and yet nothing.
“Damn it...You really are cool” the man, turning and glaring back at Aizawa-sensei who’s hair was flying, even as it was gripped by the Nomu, and whose eyes were being held open in determination to save his student. Midoryia chose that moment to come to his senses and break out of the fear that had kept him frozen.
Aizawa will have to blink soon. I need to act now! Midoryia exploded from the water. Listening to All-Might’s advice, Izuku did the only thing he could: clench his butt-cheeks and yell.
“SMASH!” Izuku screamed as the power of one-for-all focused into his arm as he threw it forward to connect with Shigaraki. Izuku could feel the force as it connected, his arm snapping as it did, and watched as the wind kicked up dust and blew out lights clean on the other side of the building. As the dust cleared, his heart dropped, instead of connecting with Shigaraki, the Nomu had somehow moved and taken the blow. Despite the immense power in his punch, it just stood there, unfazed.
Izuku glanced at where the Nomu had moved from, where Aizawa-Sensei was now lying face down in the dirt, hopefully, knocked out cold.
If the sounds of bones snapping when the Nomu had slammed him into the ground were anything to go on, he could be a lot farther along than knocked out right now. Based on how the nomu had dealt with- his thoughts were interrupted by the shadow of the Nomu’s massive fist looming above him, rearing up to strike down. Throwing himself to the side at the last second, he barely avoided what was sure to be a gruesome fate.
I mean, if it was here to take on All-Might, there’s a good chance it would only take one hit to uhh… kill me. Izuku swallowed as his brain ran a potential damage assessment of what that fist could do to him if it connected.
Bad things, really bad things. His brain decided. Dodging another fist, Izuku began realizing how tired he was becoming. Without the ability to access One-For-All without shattering his body, he was relying entirely on his own stamina, which while it had been developed by the last few months of training with All-Might, was certainly not enough to continue dodging these punches forever.
“Come on! Kill the stupid NPC already What the hell did we build you for if you can’t even kill one lousy NPC!” The man covered in hands yelled at the Nomu, which thankfully paused to listen to what Izuku was assuming was his boss, giving him time to get a bit more space between himself and that thing.
Worrying about the connotation of how he said “what we Built you for” and the fact that it appears his brain is exposed entirely later, this really needs to end soon. Or I’m going to be finished soon.
The beast took off, bounding towards them at speeds that shouldn’t be possible. Does it have a strength quirk? Or maybe it’s just a general enhancement quirk? Midoriya tried to figure out what its quirk could be as it bounded towards him. But baffling quirk aside, he had to act. Now.
“Tsuyu! Mineta! Grab Aizawa and get him out of here! I’ll lead it away!” He yelled at his classmates, hoping his sacrifice would give them time to at least attempt an escape. He could only hope the rest of the class had escaped from whatever zones they had been sent to, and that he could distract the Nomu long enough for the others to escape or for the heroes arrived.
“Hey Ugly! You want me?!” Izuku yelled to the beast, whose head whipped around unnaturally fast to lock eyes with him. “Come get me!” And Izuku did something that might be considered stupid. With Tsuyu and Mineta needing space to move forward and grab Aizawa, Izuku gave them that space, by charging directly at the beast, putting himself in between the monster and his fallen teacher. By now, the beast had taken the bait, bounding up to meet Izuku.
As Izuku approached, the Nomu raised its hand up, the beast preparing to slam its fist down onto the pavement and squash this little kid once and for all. Seeing the first in the air, too close to stop, the beast likely too quick to dodge, Izuku did the only thing he could. Taking advantage of the flexibility that these brawn types normally lack, Izuku dove between its legs as the hand slammed down where he’d been a half-second before, its muscles tearing across its back as they extended farther than it should be possible.
TOO CLOSE! Izuku’s mind screamed at him. He’d been wrong. Normal brawn types can literally tear themselves apart to try and hit him. Turning his head a second to check how far back the Nomu was behind him, Izuku’s stomach dropped once again as he watched the torn muscles ripple under the creature’s skin as they pieced themselves back together.
A healing factor? What the hell is this thing? I mean, they said this thing was built to take on All-Might himself. Izuku was mentally tallying the odds of getting out of this alive, and at this point, it wasn’t looking good. Sprinting towards the treeline, he was hoping he might be able to lose the beast in the trees, or at least take up a bit longer of its time. Alas, Izuku’s luck was up. The trees a bit too far. The beast a bit too fast. Izuku himself a bit too slow. He only made it a few yards before the beast caught up.
The beast struck the ground again just behind Izuku, the force launching him from the ground as the earth itself crumbled and gave way beneath the creature’s fist. Izuku struck the ground shoulder first, attempting to turn it into a roll but the sheer force causing him to lose the tuck he had pulled himself into. Eventually coming to a stop after rolling for a few seconds, Izuku found himself face down in the mud leading that surrounded the forest biome. Taking a second to push himself back up, Izuku was ready to turn around and see the Nomu standing over him, rearing back for another hit. The final hit.
That was not the sight he was greeted with. Instead, the Nomu was standing perfectly still, staring at its hand.
Ehh… Stump. It’s staring at its stump. The force of the creature’s punch apparently was enough to damage itself, but with a healing factor, that shouldn’t be an issue. It can just heal that right? Why did it stop? Izuku was wondering. The monster was staring at its stump as if confused that it wasn’t healing. Then the monster looked down, at where it had struck the earth as if looking for the culprit for why its hand wasn’t healing. Izuku’s eyes followed the monster’s, and deep in the impact crater, Izuku could see something . A blue crystal?
The monster twitched a bit, and glared down at the dimly glowing crystal it had struck, as if offended the crystal had interrupted its regeneration. Roaring in anger, the creature started digging and scratching at the crystal. The Nomu’s grasp slipped a few times as the creature struggled to grasp the crystal between its stump and its remaining hand, even using its rows of sharp teeth for a better grasp and the creature pulled...and pulled.
As the Nomu pulled, more and more of the crystal was revealed. The bit sticking out earlier was apparently just the tip of the iceberg, as with every step back the creature took back in its effort to uproot this thing from the ground, foot after foot of blue crystal emerged from the ground.
As the Nomu revealed more of the crystal, it quickly became apparent this was no natural formation of rock or geode. For one, the crystal seemed to be cut cleanly, formed into a perfect tower of rock, pointed at the ends, each side of the opaque surface flatter than naturally possible. Secondly, as Izuku realized in astonishment as he watched little droplets of condensation appear on the surface of the stone, the crystal was made of ICE! No Way! What type of Ice is cold enough to be buried underground and come out unmelted? And thirdly…
WHAT THE HELL? IS THAT A PERSON!? Izuku’s brain nearly shut down. There, behind the frosted exterior of the crystal, Izuku could barely make out the shadow of a torso. He could make out a head and a torso, but it’s missing legs? Its torso ended in what Izuku might dare to call a tail, but that wasn’t quite the right word for it. Trailing back up the crystal sculpture, Izuku’s eyes landed on what he’s starting to be able to make out as a face. As he stared at the iceberg, a green light pulsed throughout the crystal.
The pulse seemed to have stunned the Nomu which now sat unmoving, staring at the icy monolith in front of it. The light of the energy pulse refracted through the interior of the crystal, revealing the contents inside. Izuku could see the being’s white hair, the black suit it wore, and the fact that it definitely didn’t have legs. What is that? A tail??
Another pulse of light. Another. Another. Starting slowly, the pulses rapidly sped up, like the counter of a bomb about to go off. Each flash getting brighter and revealing the creature underneath more. The flashes got quicker and quicker, but just as Izuku thought they couldn’t speed up anymore, they stopped completely.
For a moment, the world froze entirely. The Nomu was still frozen, unmoving. Izuku himself still stood in awe of the being in the iceberg. Even the sounds of fighting had died in the background as the USJ’s interior filled with green light. The crystal now sat dark and lifeless.
Then the being inside opened its eyes.
Twin green glowing pools of light met Izukus.
A second later, the crystal pulsed one more time. A crack formed down the middle. Another pulse, the crack spread. Another pulse, and the ice snapped in two entirely. One more and whatever is in that thing is about to be out of that thing.
The sound of cracking ice was the only warning Izuku got before being blown back as the crystal exploded violently, throwing him to the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust, engulfing Izuku and the Nomu. The green pools of light serving as a waypoint in the cloud of dust.
Then the twin lights went out, and as the dust settled, Izuku found the white haired-boy standing there, on LEGS?? What happened to it-his tail?
Then the being fell to the ground, and Izuku felt the ground shake as the Nomu began moving again.
Oh no.