Chapter Text
Ochako was sitting on a burnt-out car when she felt her phone buzz. Miruko was giving her a moment to rest, so she pulled it out, hoping it was one of the girls with good news.
Her heart plummeted when she saw Kyouka's message.
'Midoriya is being attacked by Stain.'
Deku was being attacked by the Hero Killer? No, this wouldn't stand. She made a promise to him and she intended to keep it.
"Next time, I'll be the one standing between you and danger."
Ochako stood up, fire in her eyes as she put her phone away and adjusted her hardened gloves.
"What's gotten into you?" Miruko asked casually, sauntering up to Ochako as she stretched one of her arms.
Ochako looked down at the muscular pro and spoke her mind. "Deku is being attacked by the Hero Killer and I'm going to save him. Kyouka sent the location and I-"
"Woah, woah, woah," Miruko said harshly. "Did you just say your boyfriend is being attacked by Stain?"
Ochako nodded firmly. "I'm going to help him. I made a pro-"
"And you have his location?" Miruko asked, interrupting her again.
"Yes, and I'm-"
"What the hell are you waiting for, then?! Lead the way!" Miruko ordered with a gleam in her eye.
Ochako blinked in surprise for a moment before she regained her fierce demeanor and nodded. "This way," she responded, removing the weight from her body and jumping into the air.
Defiant watched Ochako turn and smile back at Jirou and him. "Don't worry. I'm going to save you both," she declared.
His heart beat a little faster. Yes, she deserved to be a crown jewel in his hoard.
Seconds later, Miruko crashed down further in the alleyway, staring down Stain with a confident smirk. "And I'm here to kick your ugly ass!"
Defiant let out a small sigh. A pro was here; she would help protect his hoard as well. Even so, he couldn't take any chances.
"Ochako, listen carefully," Defiant began, causing his girlfriend to glance back at him again. "I can't move. I can't protect you."
Ochako smirked a little, but he could hear the stress in her voice. "Didn't you hear me? I'm gonna be the one protecting you, Defiant."
Oh, her saying his name made him very happy, but that was a matter for later.
"Miruko!" Defiant called out. "Don't let Stain cut you!"
"Oh, thanks for the advice," Miruko shot back sarcastically.
"It's his quirk! If he licks any of your blood, you'll be paralyzed!" he explained.
Miruko glanced back at him before lowering herself into a combat stance, seeming more serious than ever.
Stain held two knives in front of him as he glared at Miruko with wild eyes. "Miruko! You fake! You mutht be purged!"
Well, at least his blood was still affecting Stain somewhat.
"They never told me you had a lisp," Miruko scoffed.
Miruko jumped off toward Stain, swinging her leg at him but missing wide. Defiant could tell that she was just probing him and testing his defenses. She jumped around him, making the Hero Killer dance all around to avoid her attacks.
He was fast, but he wasn't 'Miruko' fast.
However, Stain was handling himself rather well. His fighting style was almost entirely different compared to when he had been fighting Defiant and Jirou; he was using his blades to zone Miruko out, fighting defensively rather than going after her aggressively.
Both of them knew that all it would take was one cut from his knife to end it all.
Ochako moved over to Defiant, moving her hand toward him to remove his weight. "Come on, let's get you out of here."
"I have to help her," Defiant growled.
Jirou looked up at him nervously. "Can you move?"
His body twitched as he huffed angrily. "No."
"She's in the top ten," Jirou continued, "she can handle Stain."
Defiant glared at the fight in front of him, watching Miruko deftly dodge another blade. "I don't think anyone can handle Stain alone. She's good, but she's not perfect. If she makes one mistake…"
Ochako looked at him, then back at Miruko. She pulled her hand back and turned away as she began to walk towards the fight.
No, he wouldn't allow that. He couldn't let her get hurt. "Ochako, what are you doing?! Get back here!"
He hated being trapped. His quirk raged and bucked, but Stain's quirk held fast.
Ochako glanced back, defiance and determination burning in her eyes. "If you think she needs help, then I'm going to help her. I'm not going to sit by while people are in trouble; that's not what a hero does. I'm going to help, no matter what you want me to do."
Defiant caught Stain's eyes glance over to Ochako and study her for a moment before shooting back to Miruko as she leveled another kick at him.
He snarled, but then he remembered what Tsuyu and his father had said to him just a day before. His hoard were important to him, but they were on a dangerous path. They were going to get hurt, they were going to get cut and bruised and break their bones, but that didn't mean he had to treat them like delicate china.
Izuku knew that, but Defiant wasn't sure. To lose one of them would be to lose a part of himself, like if his father lost a priceless artifact. They could never be replaced.
It's not like he had a choice in the matter right now; he still couldn't move. Even if he could, he doubted he could stop Ochako. She had that fire in her that reminded him of himself, for better and for worse.
Jirou tried to move too, but she hissed in pain when she put any weight on her left leg. She sighed and leaned back onto the wall before sliding down to the ground with a defeated expression on her face.
At least she wasn't going anywhere.
Ochako pressed her fingers to her arm as she got closer to the battle, reducing her weight and improving her mobility. She picked up the dumpster that Jirou had blasted at Stain earlier and held it above her head as Miruko locked eyes with her.
The Rabbit Hero jumped back, giving Ochako room to hurl the dumpster at Stain. He was barely able to react in time, but managed to jump to the side to avoid Ochako's attack.
However, Miruko was waiting for him. Stain's dodge put him out of position, leaving him unable to properly avoid her kick.
For the first time, Miruko found solid contact. Her leg was driven into Stain's side, driving him backwards. Judging from what Defiant could hear, Miruko had at least cracked a rib or two.
To Stain's frustrating credit, he kept his balance, skidding to a stop halfway between Defiant and the women.
Miruko looked over at Ochako and nodded. "Remember what I taught you, kid."
The two women began to run toward Stain as he steeled himself, seeming to shake off Miruko's blow. Miruko jumped high off one of the walls while Ochako stayed low, removing more weight from herself as she picked up speed.
In a flurry of motion that Defiant could barely follow, Miruko dove down at Stain, who seemed to be focusing on her most of all. To his credit, that was probably the right decision. One more solid strike from Miruko would almost certainly end the fight.
Stain was able to dodge her, but at the same time, Ochako had swung her leg from the other side, pressing her fingers together to return the weight to her leg. She must have pushed hard with her quirk because her leg didn't lose any speed as it collided with Stain's back as he twisted away from Miruko.
The man stumbled forward, slamming into the wall as Miruko skidded past. Defiant felt a surge of pride; Ochako was doing it.
Then his pride turned to horror as he saw Stain slowly raising a dagger to his mouth, licking the crimson blood on its edge.
Enji burned.
He burned more than he ever had before.
Every inch of his body seared with power, the power he had been searching for all these years, the power he had been chasing after.
But it was wrong.
It was all wrong.
No matter how hot he burned, the demons still tormented him.
They beat him and burned him. They kicked him down and yelled at him to get back up.
All around him, he saw his family. He saw Rei and Fuyumi, he saw Touya and Natsuo, he saw Shouto; all of them sitting around a table.
Eating, laughing, smiling.
He saw the demons arrive and burn it all down, time and time again.
Laughter turned into screams of terror. Smiles turned into flame-charred bones.
Happiness turned into hatred.
All because of the demons.
The demons that wore his face.
He saw his agency rising above him, towering like a pillar of hell as flames erupted from every window and smoke billowed from the doors.
The demons poured from the agency like the legions of the damned as his sidekicks screamed.
He watched his sidekicks get burned alive by the demons. He watched their skin blacken and char until it fell off their bones, only for them to be reborn and tortured again, like some sicker, more twisted Sisyphean curse.
Try as he might, his flames wouldn't burn down the agency. His strength did nothing to the demons, but if he stopped burning, the demons closed in like vultures over his corpse.
For all his power, he was powerless, but he could do nothing but keep burning.
A young Shouto loomed above him, his face unblemished and happy.
Then his face turned despondent, then angry, then scared. A demon grabbed him by the shirt and brought his hand down to his face, searing the child's eye as he laughed.
The haunting, echoing screams of his son pounded in his skull like a million jackhammers, making him feel like his head was going to explode.
Enji tried to stop the demon, to pull him away from his son, but his hands just passed through the demon.
Once the screaming stopped, the demon dropped Shouto to the ground. His son laid there motionless, his head rolling to the side as the skin fell off his face, exposing the entire left side of his skull. Shouto's dead eyes stared into his soul as the demon stepped over his corpse and grabbed Enji by the throat.
"̖̦̄̑Y͕̾o̪̓u ̺̟͐̃n͚͙̂̀ev̢͈̽e̟͑r͖͇̓̌ ̼̈́care̖̺̊̐d ̻̙͘̕b̦̳́͐ḛ͑͜͠f̗̔o̺̔r̖̥͌͞e̺̰̔̉,͍͠ ̪̻̿wh͛͜y̰͘ ͙̂͌ͅp̡̪̌̎ŕ̬͙̏e̳͈̍̊t̟̹̾̾ȩ̕n̯̕d̘̑ t͟o͕̍ ̼͔̇͞s͓̻͛͗t͍͍̆̕ar͋͢t ̦͚̋̚c̺͖̅̌a̧̛r͚̯̄͐i̺̭͌̃n̯̮̋͞g͔̙̃͘ ͖͖̑̑n̪̕o̬̭͛͊w̦̽͢͞?"
Enji couldn't speak, he could only make a pathetic sputtering noise.
The demon pulled him up so he was staring into his own sneering face. Enji burned hotter, but the demon only laughed.
It reached its hand toward him, placing it over his left eye.
Flames erupted from the demon's hand as a searing pain flared across his face. A hellish flame dug into his very soul as he clawed at the demon's arm, but he could do nothing.
He couldn't even scream.
Finally, the flames stopped and the demon dropped him to the ground. He felt weak as he reached up to his face and touched his left cheek, feeling the charred, cauterized flesh.
He burned in anger. He burned in despair. He burned in fear.
But he continued to burn.
Then, from the edges of his vision, another demon began to approach.
It seemed more solid than the others.
More terrifying.
More hateful.
It wore his face, but it glowed more golden than the rest.
This was the leader of the demons.
If he destroyed this one, the screams would stop. The torment would stop.
He pulled his power forward, directing it all toward the demon. It stopped for a moment, but only just, before continuing its march towards him.
His flames burned hotter and hotter. Red turned into orange. Orange turned into white. White turned into blue as he pushed with all of his might.
The demon reached him and put a hand on his shoulder. Enji went to shove it and found that for once, he could touch the demon.
He shoved the demon's arm away and tried to punch him, but he was so exhausted that his movements were sluggish.
The demon grew in size, dwarfing Enji as he stared down at him.
With one hand, the demon pinned him down, and with the other, he stabbed him in the chest with a dagger made of pure hatred.
"R̠̀e̺̫͋͞s̡̠̆̍t͖̩̾ ̜̱́̐ṅ̨̤̓ö̲w̦̉̉͢.͍̣̍̑"͕̒͆`
The light began to fade.
And then Enji burned no more.
Ochako hadn't fully righted herself when she froze up, causing her to collapse onto the ground.
"You worked my blind thpot," Stain lisped. "Not bad. You theem to have the makingth of a hero, tho I'll leave you alive for now. Thtay out of my way."
Hearing that, Kyouka relaxed a little. Stain was a fanatic, but he was fanatical to a code. Ochako was safe… ish.
Even so, one glance at her told Kyouka that she wasn't exactly happy about it. Ochako's face was twisted into a combination of anger and desperation, but try as she might, she couldn't move at all, just like Midoriya.
Kyouka looked up at Midoriya, who looked like he was about to snap. Venom was dripping from his fangs as he struggled against Stain's quirk, but it seemed to all be in vain.
"I'm okay, Deku," Ochako called over through grit teeth. Kyouka could hear the frustration in her voice, which she could understand. Both of them were out of commission, and she doubted Ochako felt any better being helpless than she did.
Midoriya seemed to calm down slightly, but he still looked pissed . She definitely didn't want to be in his way if he looked at her like that, but there was something heartening about a very angry dragon trying to protect you.
Suddenly, Midoriya's eyes went wide. She looked down at his arm, which was moving.
Midoriya could move again.
There was a pause as she saw an idea flash through his slitted eyes. Midoriya moved his arm back to where it had been paralyzed and stood completely still. Why? Clearly he had a plan, but...
To her left, Miruko was still fighting with Stain, throwing kicks and jabs at him while dodging all of his blades. Kyouka was surprised at first—she was sure that Miruko could wipe the floor with Stain if she put more effort into it-- but then she saw the cold, calculating look in Miruko's eyes. Everything was completely intentional.
The woman wasn't taking any chances and neither was Stain. Both of them were very aware that a single blow from the other would very likely be the end of the fight, so both of them were on the defensive and looking for an opening. Whoever screwed up first would be history, and as Midoriya said, she wasn't perfect.
Kyouka also noticed that Miruko was slowly making her way over to Ochako, to make sure Stain stayed away from her. As she neared the woman, Miruko threw out a wide kick, causing Stain to jump back.
Which is when Midoriya spoke up.
"You really are pathetic, Stain," he growled.
Stain momentarily turned his attention on Midoriya, his fanatical eyes blazing with righteous anger.
Kyouka's eyes went wide. Midoriya was bluffing; laying an ambush in plain sight.
Miruko seized the moment and quickly picked up Ochako, hopping her a ways down the alleyway.
"You're trying to kill me and Miruko, yet the only people you've managed to put down are the two you aren't after. I've been standing here at your mercy this whole time and you've done nothing but play patty cake with Miruko."
"Kid, what are you doing?!" Miruko yelled as she placed Ochako back on the ground.
Taking the opportunity while Miruko was busy, Stain began to charge toward Midoriya, his knives ready to sink into his chest.
Right before Stain could strike, Midoriya's right arm suddenly moved forward, his black claws flashing in the ambient glow of the fires.
Stain's surprised expression lasted for only a moment before he managed to react, planting his feet and trying to dodge back from the attack, but Midoriya had caught him off guard just enough.
Midoriya's claws raked across Stain's chest, rending flesh with a sickening sound that was all too clear to Kyouka. Stain had managed to avoid the worst of the claws, but blood was still running heavily down his chest as he jumped backward.
"You're getting slower," Midoriya sneered as he pulled himself to his full height and began to grow slightly, his horns stretching back further across his head. "Miruko has been wearing you down, drawing out the fight to force you to make a mistake. She's not number seven just because she's powerful."
As if on cue, Miruko's foot made contact with Stain's back, sending him shooting forward down the alley. Midoriya dodged out of the way as the Hero Killer crashed into a wall, slumping down.
Miruko looked up at the nearly nine-foot-tall man next to her with a smirk. "I didn't know Stormclaw's kid was in my fan club."
"He's not done yet," Midoriya warned, his eyes still glaring at Stain like a predator stalking his prey.
Indeed, Stain was somehow dragging himself back up to his feet. His mouth hung open and drool poured from his maw, which only enhanced his absolutely crazed appearance.
"You will not ethcape judgement!" he yelled, taking a steadying step and drawing his last two daggers.
He looked shaky, but now wasn't the time to get cocky and make mistakes. Miruko and Midoriya dropped into combat stances, ready to finally put Stain down.
Then the man gasped out in pain as a heavy thud echoed through the alleyway and he collapsed forward onto the ground with the air driven out of his body. A moment later, he grunted again as two crooked horns embedded themselves in his wrists, causing the blades to fall from his grasp.
Kyouka's vision whipped to the end of the alleyway, where she saw Momo and Pony standing there, fire burning in their eyes. Momo held what looked like oversized pawns, which must have been what had knocked Stain down.
Not a moment later, Kyouka heard a familiar sound from above her. She looked up to see Hadou soar over the building she was leaning on with some cargo in tow. Mina and Eiko each hung from one of her arms, but jumped off as the cleared the building.
"Looks like the cavalry's here," Midoriya growled with an undeniable hint of satisfaction. "I don't think your trial is going to reach a verdict, Stain."
Mina's feet and hands dug into the wall as she used her acid to slow her descent, landing right in front of Kyouka as Eiko hardened herself and crashed down like a meteor, smashing the concrete ground into pieces.
"Are we too late?" Eiko asked as she looked down at the battered and bleeding Hero Killer.
Stain managed to pull his head up, but it was all over for him. Momo and Pony were approaching from behind, while Mina, Midoriya, Eiko and Miruko surrounded him from the front and Hadou hovered overhead, her twisting energy at the ready.
His beady eyes were hazy and unfocused as Miruko walked over to him, looking down at him with contempt.
"Stay down, Ugly," she snarled as she brought her foot down on his face, finally knocking him unconscious.
There was a pause before a collective breath was let out by everyone there.
Midoriya wasted no time before he began to move again. He turned around and began to run back down the alleyway, yelling over his shoulder as he jogged toward Ochako. "Hadou, check on Jirou!"
Their TA hovered down and landed next to Kyouka, kneeling down and looking at her with a concerned, but kind expression. "How are you doing?"
Kyouka managed to smirk weakly as she gestured at the blade buried deep in her left leg. "This knife hurts like hell, but I know better than to just pull it out. Give me a hand up?"
Hadou nodded, reaching over and beginning to pull Kyouka up with surprising ease. Although, now that she thought about it, she shouldn't be surprised that Hadou was in great physical shape.
She helped Kyouka steady herself and made sure to give her all the support she needed to keep her weight off her left leg. All around her, the other women were listening to Miruko, who was showing them how to properly restrain Stain with some rope and handcuffs Momo made. Hadou began to slowly lead her out of the alleyway when something caught her eye.
Kyouka looked down and saw a single green scale shining in the flickering light.
Perhaps she was feeling sentimental as the adrenaline left her system, but she couldn't resist reaching her jack down and picking it up. She dragged it back and dropped it into her open hand, admiring the color and sheen.
This was the scale that Midoriya had shed for her. He had protected her, made sure she was safe, but he hadn't treated her like a damsel.
She smirked. At least, not after she yelled at him a little. She had come to save him, after all.
They had leaned on each other, working like a team to survive the hell that was Stain.
It had felt… damn good.
She turned the scale over a few times in her hand as she slowly hobbled down the alleyway back to the main street. It was such a beautiful emerald color.
Hmm. Emerald.
She looked back and saw Midoriya crouched over Ochako at the end of the alleyway. He was back in his human form with his forehead pressed against hers, his hands holding onto the side of her face as they stared into each other's eyes. Their eyes were strained and they were clearly having some kind of very serious heart to heart.
Kyouka maybe could have listened in on what they were saying, but she decided to leave them with their privacy.
She turned back, smiling softly to herself as she put the scale in her pocket.
'Thanks, Emerald.'