While Sora and the rest were struggling in Jaku, the other group of heroes at Gunga Mountain were facing an unexpected threat.
" When we were asked to help I didn't expect to be abandoned here in the forest," mumbled Ai as she kicked a pebbled away from her just as Komori, Honenoki, and Kaminari joined them. " That reminds me of Hansel and Gretel. Will we be attacked by a Witch too?" She cocked her head towards Kendo who facepalmed herself.
Just then, Jiro gasped out loud and jerked her earphone jacks from the ground.
" What's it, Jiro Jack?" Asked Kaminari realizing her disturbed look.
" Bad news!" Her cry made Tobio pout, wondering what was it that had scared her that much. " Something really massive is on the move!"
" Massive?!"
" It's charging this way!" The blunette cried out upon plunging her earbuds again into the ground.
From their spot, there was no way for them to know about the ginormous villain who broke through the villa and was wading his way towards them.
Shoji used his dupli-arms to extend a spare eye skywards and scout for the coming thing but was yet too far for them to be seen.
" I listened to the regular reports on the comms. The operation is going as planned," Yaoyorozu elucidated.
Ai was hopping on her toes as though she would be able to see something over the foliage that way. It wasn't until the heroes who stood guard on them rushed away to help in the front rows that they all felt the predicament the heroes were in.
" I can't stand being left in the dark like this!" Ai flailed her arms around with her cheeks puffed in annoyance. " I want to know what is happening there!"
" Hold on! We're told to standby, Ai!" Tokage said stopping her from venturing after the heroes.
" But-"
" Dobutsu, I've found some interesting mushrooms here 'shroom! Want to see them?" Komori piped in and the blond was immediately crouching by her side with sparkling eyes.
" I do!"
" Seems her easily distracted nature was of help this time." Kendo breathed out and then whispered to the brunette," Thanks for your help Komori. Keep her distracted."
Komori held a thumb up at their class rep and Kendo rejoined Yaoyorozu and the rest as they were trying to gather information about what was going on. " Mt.Lady is being hurled up in the sky!" Shoji cried suddenly.
" She was tossed away?" Asked Mineta, finding it hard to believe the giant woman could be thrown away as though she was a twig.
" Yeah, I even saw some blue flames," confirmed Shoji.
" Blue flames..." Tobio's frown deepened. There was only one known villain with that ability. " The League of Villains..."
At that moment, Midnight reached to Yaoyorozu through their comm. Everyone then switched to hear her too.
" No one can take him down with brute force." Her voice was shaky and she appeared to be out of breath. " I want to put him to sleep."
That was rather sudden, for the use of any sedative to force anyone to fall asleep was against the law. For Midnight to make that suggestion, it only served to highlight just how much trouble the villain was.
As the woman spoke, Yaoyorozu was taken aback, her befuddlement was growing by the second before she eventually started crying out to their teacher, however, the woman on the other side didn't respond.
" ' Pass the sedatives to the heroes', huh?" Tobio looked down the path the heroes had run down earlier. " There is no one left but us. Should we retreat then?" He turned to their class rep, for as the vice representative, he too was obliged to consider their class' safety.
Kendo's eyes then went to the back of Yaoyorozu. " It's all up to Yaoyorozu's decision. Midnight left the final word to her. What worries me though..."
Tobio's fists clenched. " Why asking us to do so in the first place? The only thing I can think of is that she is in no situation to put him to sleep herself." She sounded in a pretty bad state in the first place.
Yaoyorozu pressed her hands to her forehead as she thought about their situation and what they were able to do before she finally cried out upon hearing the rumbles and explosions closing in. " Earphone Jack, Tentacole, Teddy-chan! Locate the enemy with his sound and find out when he'll get here! Tell me his size based on what you see!"
" Finally some action!" Ai ran to her teammates from Gang Orca's agency.
" Mudman! I need your help as well! Everyone else! Get ready to move!" She ordered confidently, a plan already in mind.
As lithely as a cat, Ai climbed up the highest tree in view and squinted at the horizon. " He's already this close! Woah, really fast! How could he be quick with that giant body?! I would have to-"
" Focus!" The whole of class B cried out at her just as Jiro announced the villain would be there in less than a minute.
" Nope. He's going for a little date first with Mt.Lady. She must be desperate to cling to him like that."
" Huh?!" At their astonished comment, Jiro informed them the villain was getting slower.
" The enemy is about 25 meters tall. He's much bigger than Mt. Lady!" Shoji reported just as capsules were rolling on the ground, freshly created by Yaoyorozu.
" We've been in UA for a year. None of the teachers taught me to be a hero who runs away from the villains!" She announced proudly while the rest of them picked on the containers.
" Certainly!"
" Yeah!"
" For sure!" Choruses of approval followed from all of them.
Yaoyorozu picked up a capsule and clutched it tight. " I want to fight. Everyone..."
" Say no more," Tobio noted Kaminari's shaking. " We put on our costumes and came this far, we are already heroes!"
Tobio nodded, his resolve steeled. " There is no going back from here! We'll go beyond, Plus Ultra!"
Both classes shared the same thoughts as well.
" Understood." A stream of blue fire announced the approach of their target. " All of us will put up our defense here!"
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The plan was simple, drop him to his knees and force him to drink the sedative. With Mt. Lady's efforts, they were given enough time to get the trap ready.
Ai and Tokage both stood watch. Honenoki softened the ground in that area while Yaoyorozu peppered it with bombs.
" But will this single bottle be enough to put that thing to sleep?" Ai had to express her concern about the small capsule of liquid and the gigantic form of the monster rushing through the forest.
" According to Yaoyorozu, it's not diluted. So it should be enough," Tokage's hovering upper head turned to her. " More importantly, you should get in position too. I will keep watch."
" Thanks!" And the blond hopped down the tree, catching up with Kendo and Sato as they were stowing something in the softened ground. " Hey, what's that?"
" Mineta's balls. Using his ropes as well, we can hope to force the villain's mouth open if they stick to his jaw," Sato explained.
" More importantly get ready, Ai. You'll be helping us." Pointed Kendo.
" Already on it, class rep." Ai's fingertips brushed against her brown bear plushy keychain.
" Back up, now! Hurry up!" Tokage's mouth shouted above their heads. " It's almost here! He's already before me!"
The quaking of the ground was an enough sign for them, so the students scurried away.
A frightening roar caught their attention, prompting them to look back at the giant in fear just to find him behind them. The moment he stepped onto the muddy ground, his feet sank and he tipped forward, the League of Villains jolted off his back by the sudden motion. He fell face first right behind Yaoyorozu.
" He fell for it!"
Ai, Kendo, Sato, and Shishida rushed to the yellow ropes they had left nearby and grasped them, ready to haul.
" Heave!" Sato cried, tugging on his.
As the villain sank deeper, all four of them pulled as hard as they could while Shiozaki and Sero tried to keep his head down, but he was stronger than both of them.
" Even with my bear strength! It's very hard!" Ai grunted noticing the rope slipping off her hand. " Nope! Not happening!" She wound the rope around her palms and tugged harder.
Shoji, Aoyama, and Ojiro went after the League of Villains. As Jiro attempted to support them, she was burned badly. It was then that Kaminari's pointers were shot at them, and with Yanagi's help, he was floated up so he could electrocute them. However, Mister Compress used the compressed rubbles he saved from the villa to keep both him and the trio away.
" It's going to fall on Sato-kun and the others!" Warned Hagakure. Tobio didn't waste a moment, balling on himself, he shot towards the rubles, ricocheting off them and knocking them away from their classmates.
" Damn it! Open up your mouth!" As Sato shouted, Ai put more force into her back, ignoring the red streaks forming on her palms, she heaved the rope.
The giant villain's mouth cracked open and everyone hastily thrust their bottles at him. However, the villain sneezed, shooting all of their bottles back and almost knocking them off their feet.
Using the chance, Dabi ignited his flames and used the resulting air current to spread it.
Slow to duck down, Ai yelped while holding her arms before her for defense, the searing heat burning her already hurting hands. " Dobutsu-san!" Tobio cried as he leaped towards her, enclosing his rubber-like body around her small figure and bouncing back.
Shishida and Sato quickly retreated as well before turning back, finding the fire eating away at the canopy of leaves above their heads.
Mudman was quick to act and began sinking the burning trees before the fire could spread any further.
" Dobutsu-san! Are you alright?!" Tobio bent down at her the moment he let her out and she fell to the ground, holding her hands together and wincing in pain. They were burned badly.
Just as the villain stood up, Yaoyorozu blew the bombs she had already set in the area, bringing him down again. Still dedicated to their duty of putting the villain to sleep, the two classes ran back through the fire.
" You better sit here!"
" I'm going too! This is nothing!" Though her hands shook, she stood to her own feet again, determined to join them to the very end.
Through the smoke and flames, both of them could see the heroes ambushing the League of Villains while Mt. Lady was wrestling the giant, forcing his mouth open just as Ashido jumped out of the flame within what seemed to be a coat of her acid.
Though she was their only hope, the girl's bottle slipped out of her hand just as the villain swept away Mt. Lady like a weightless leave and was about to crush the pinkette with his hand. But Kirishima was Quick to shove her out of harm's path and defend against the impact.
Standing there with so little to contribute to the fight and thinking all hope was gone, Tobio and Ai were surprised to see Kirishima climbing up the length of the villain's arm and leap to his face. Despite his bottle being taken down with a knife from Toga, he fished another one which they assumed to be Ashido's.
With the bottle breaking on the villain's fang and the liquid finally in his mouth, all of them could breathe in relief. It was just a matter of time before that monster was out.
Using the canons Yaoyorozu managed to make in the nick of time, they attacked the villain to distract him from their friend just as the heroes from the front ranks made a detour to help with stopping him, all of them riding on Majestic's flying platforms.
" Beautiful! I wanna ride on one too!" Blurted Ai. She however didn't expect it to happen so soon. For a moment later, the villain who was supposed to drop down to the ground and begin snoozing, transformed into what could only be described as a destruction machine with giant claws and armor, and began his rampaging.
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It was a moment, a split second. Now seeing the trail of destruction left behind that monster, Tobio was reminded that they were closer to death a few minutes ago more than they could have ever imagined.
Ai could still recall it clearly, the moment the villain swung his enormous claws at them. Her whole life flashed before her eyes, she could see herself sprawled on the ground among the other corpses of her friends and bleeding, her eyes void of any sign of life.
It was thanks to Majestic who promptly hauled them on his platforms in midair before the impact that they were alive. With a single wave of his arm, they were sent away at a high speed, almost teleported, out of the battlefield.
His last words rang in their ears. Their decisions were all right, he kept telling them. But Ai wondered whether they truly were.
Clutching her burned hands, she could only begin to imagine the fear and horror of those who were attacked by that monster while he waded his way through those cities, heroes and civilians alike.
The monster didn't seem to slow down or show any sign of weakness. Although he had swallowed the anesthetics. Tobio gritted his teeth at the mere thought that everything they had done might just be for nothing. Why didn't it kick in?
" Weren't we checkmated... from the start?" Hearing Mineta's trembling voice, Tobio couldn't help but agree.
Then, what was all of this for? Why were we unable to do anything?!
Tobio clucked his tongue and turned back to Yaoyorozu and Kendo. " Yaoyorozu-san, Class rep..." They both looked back at him, still shock apparent vividly on their faces. " The fight isn't over yet. Even if... even if the whole plan didn't pay off. We shouldn't be standing here right now. We're heroes, right!"
" Gomu..." Itsuka's eyes widened slightly at his words.
" You're right..." Yaoyorozu pulled herself up, gathering the loose strands of her hair and tying them up again. " We're heroes, we mustn't stand still. Everyone, stand up! We're going back to the battlefield! We need to retrieve the fallen heroes and tend to them the best we can! That's what we can do for now!"
" I'm with you, Yaomomo!" Kaminari cried out. " I can't just let things end up this way! I couldn't do a thing back then! I need to make it up!"
" Kaminari..." Shivering as he was, Mineta cried. " Damn it! I can't let you go on your own!"
Moved by their resolve, one by one, classes 1A and 1B joined together.
Little did they know that everything they had done contributed to a fight that happened later on, somewhere else...
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It was sunset by the time aid reached them. The medical teams took care of the wounded while the heroes helped look for the missing ones.
Yaoyorozu, Sato, Ashido, and Kirishima ventured into the forest again as soon as they had their hands free, looking for their teacher. Kendo and Ai tagged after them, however, they stopped when Yaoyorozu and Ashido plummeted to the ground, crying.
" It can't be..." Kendo and Ai took a step forward and their eyes widened. Her body was heavily wounded, blood gushing all over her as she lay down on the ground, motionless.
No matter how loud any of Ashido or Kirishima called out for her, she didn't respond. Ai's eyes overflew with tears at the sight before her. " Why... is Midnight-sensei... what did she do to deserve this..."
Kendo approached her, rubbed her back, and pulled her into a hug. " She was a kind teacher... she was a nice person... why did they..." Sobbing and choking on her words, Ai cried.
It was then that Tokage approached them to relay the news of Majestic's death.
None of the students who received the news of their teacher falling in the fight could bring themselves to accept it. Midnight was talking to them a while ago, she was with them, she taught them, and she spent time with them. The truth that she wouldn't be standing by their side anymore was unbearable for them.
That day, despite Gigant Machia being successfully apprehended, he left a trail of death in his wake...