(3rd POV)

Shigaraki stares at the assembled low-level thugs in irritation as he scratches his neck. “I was hoping that there would be at least one mid-level mob mixed in with the rest of the adds.”

“Ah, don’t be like that,” the green-clad individual next to him says as they throw an arm over their shoulder. “It’s not like we thought we’d be getting anyone good anyways. Just think of them as meeting your expectations!”

He scowls at the rabbit-themed villain, which only deepens when he hears the npcs muttering about how impressed they are that the ‘villain sensation’ Midosagi is participating in the attack on All Might, and how it makes them actually think they can pull it off. Making an idle swipe at him, Midosagi hops back with a laugh and a spin, throwing their arm around a hunched boy in tattered clothing and a mask that matches Midosagi’s. His black jacket’s large amount of holes reveals glimpses of the scars littering his body.

“What about you? What do you think our chances are for pulling this off successfully?”

The teen flinches, shying away at the contact but seemingly too scared to try and move away from them. “I-I-I think y-y-you’re underestimating heroes t-t-too much.”

Midosagi frowns behind his mask and smacks the back of their head. “Yeah, well you glorify them. Hopefully this will finally break that little irritant.” He chuckles. “Especially since we have… that.”

With a grand gesture towards the shadowed recess of the warehouse, a hulking muscled beast with the head of a bird emerges. The assembled thugs gawk at it, especially at the parts where the skin has torn from the strain of containing its immense physic, revealing the raw muscles underneath. Shigaraki smirks at getting such a reaction from them, smug in the knowledge that he’s the one leading this attack. Though his hand twitches knowing the…changes…he had to implement.

“This, is Nomu.” Shigaraki addresses the assembled. “They are the one who’ll be fighting All Might. The rest of you just need to take care of the students and the other two heroes who’ll be with him.”

“And why should we be left out of the fun!” One of the thugs shouts, those surrounding him pulling away and leaving a large Minotaur-like man in his own space. Shigaraki raises an eyebrow, though the hand on his face mostly hides the fact, and scoffs.

“Do you really think that a low-level npc like you is strong enough to fight the boss of the game?”

The man growls, a puff of air coming out of his oversized nostrils. “If you really have someone who can beat him, then there’s no way I’m sitting out of that fight!”

A glory-seeker. Midosagi muses. Shigaraki comes to the same conclusion, his raspy chuckle muffled through his hand mask. “Tell you what, if you’re able to take one attack head-on, you can act like a mid-boss and join Nomu. If not…” He leaves the consequences unsaid, letting their minds conjure their own punishments.

The minotaur gives a cocky smirk. “Fine by me.” He sets himself, crossing his arms across his chest while he waits for him to make a move. Shrugging, Shigaraki stretches his hand out, a dark misty portal opening in front of it. An identical portal opens in front of the minotaur, and Shigaraki’s curved fingers exit, lying gently against the man’s neck.

He laughs, feeling how weak his grip is. “That’s it? I’m starting to d-agk.” His arrogant words are interrupted as soon as Shigaraki’s thumb lands on the other side of his adams apple. He tries to look down, but the sudden burst of overwhelming pain freezes him in place. Without even being able to scream, the assembled villains watch in horror as his skin starts to crack and flake off, vanishing into the air as Shigarki’s quirk spreads.

It takes his head first, slow enough that the pain in his eyes screams at them, but fast enough that there’s no blood -or perhaps that too is disintegrated- dripping from the expanding emptiness where there used to be a mouth. Then a nose. Then his eyes. Before they know it, his entire head becomes nothing but dust. And then it starts expanding downwards, much quicker. As if it knows that there’s no one left to experience the pain it wishes to inflict.

And not even a minute later, the minotaur man is gone, even the dust he was reduced to gone without a trace. There’s silence in the warehouse, interrupted only by a few of the thugs throwing up from the sight, including the boy next to Midosagi. Scowling, he pushes him away.

“Seriously? You should be used to this by now. Man up!”

He doesn’t answer, just continuing to empty the contents of his stomach while Midosagi and Shigaraki stare. After a few seconds with his expression not expanding beyond the hand, Shigaraki turns away and addresses the thugs. “So. Anyone else think they have what it takes to face-off against the boss?”

Rapidly shaking heads are his reply, and he snaps his fingers, someone who could be in highschool stepping out from behind him. “One. Make sure you follow your script. It’s different from the others, so don’t mess it up.

He bows, making a sweeping gesture with his top hat and cane. Of course, Shigaraki. I don’t plan to disappoint.”

Shigaraki grunts. “See that you don’t.”

Kurogiri warps into place between the small group of elites and the assorted thugs, opening a large portal and gesturing towards it. “The time has come. Enter, and let your names go down in history as those who helped to bring down the Symbol of Peace.”

A few hesitate, but they are soon swept up in the crowd of more willing villains as they pass through the portal, dragging those who are having second thoughts with them. The Nomu walks behind them, an extra deterrent in case any decide to take their chances and run.

Once they’re all through, Shigaraki turns towards Midosagi and the boy. “You better be right about this plan of yours. It’s fucking creepy to see.”

Midosagi chuckles, grabbing the boy by the arm and dragging him along as they make their own way towards the portal. “Ah, don’t worry Shiggy. Even if Toshinori doesn’t care, his image is at least going to take some damage.”

He grins, an insane glint shining from his eyes. “It just means that we’ll be chipping away his foundation instead of directly knocking him from his pedestal.” He shoves the boy through, watching him stumble before taking his own step. “And the HPSC can simply put anyone else on that pedestal if they need to. But remove the pedestal?”

“And they won’t have anywhere to put the replacement.”

`~`

(Izumi)

“Cool! You guys even have fake villains!”

My shoulders relax at Kirishima’s words. Of course they’re fake. How could real villains get past UA’s security? Though I have to say, they really played it up with those flickering lights.

The small sense of relief I have is quickly shattered by Aizawa-sensei’s words. “Get back. Those are real villains!”

We watch as the villains fill the square, easily dozens of them starting to spread out. Eventually a large bird-like villain appears, wearing only a pair of pants and with some kind of rod sticking out of its head. It looks like that’s all that there is, which is more than intimidating enough! But then another person stumbles out of the portal, much smaller than the others.

My eyes latch onto them, unable to look away. I don’t know why, but I’m engulfed by the overwhelming sensation that I know them. A feeling that repeats when someone wearing a green jacket with rabbit ears trailing from the hood steps out behind them. Before I can try to identify why, I’m distracted by an excited shout nearby, which draws my attention away.

“I knew this would happen within a week!” The guest hero accompanying us for the rescue training, Mirko, sends Aizawa-sensei a smug grin before swinging her left arm into the crook of the elbow for her right and flipping him off. “Suck it Eraser!”

He sighs, pulling his goggles down to hide his eyes. “This isn’t the time for that. Just focus on protecting the students.” His scarf comes loose as he bends his legs, only to stop and stare as Mirko shoots past him in a massive leap that will land her in the center of the crowd where she’ll be surrounded. I’m sure that it’s not just me that’s shocked by the action, and Aizawa-sensei’s groan of annoyance as she shouts back reinforces that notion.

“Fighting is my specialty. I stick with my thing and you stick with yours!” She lands, and without even resetting her stance she launches forward with a spin, barreling into a dozen villains that are blown away.

It looks like the villains at the back are talking about something, those two familiar ones having been joined by a man covered in hands and a misty bartender type. Judging by the wild arm-flailing, the hand villain is angry about something.

“Come on. She can handle them while we get you all to safety.” Aizawa-sensei and Thirteen drive us back to the doors, but I trail at the back, unable to get those two out of my mind. It’s a distraction that stops me from getting trapped like the others.

A large pink thing engulfs the frontmost students, their shouts of surprise quickly swallowed by the mass. Before any of us can try and free them it gets launched upwards, and is revealed to be a giant bubble. Inside I see Sato and Koda on their knees, banging their hands against their prison.

“My, my. How insulting that you would think we would leave the only exit unattended. That would be positively rude, don’t you think?” The figure in front of looks utterly ridiculous, and that’s saying something given some of the hero costumes in our class.

It looks like a white onesie littered with large pink dots, matched with a top hat with the same color scheme. His shoes at least are brown and only have pink highlights. His face is covered by an upper mask that’s solid pink, and he’s wearing an obviously fake handlebar mustache. He plants the cane he’s carrying in front of him, hands overlapping the golden topper. “I am One. And I will not be allowing the many of you to escape. Especially as it appears that All Might is absent.”

He meets the glare of Aizawa-sensei, who has his quirk activated but hasn’t made a move otherwise. “Now, why would that be, I wonder?” He swings his staff upwards to tap his chin with the bottom. “Perhaps…”

He smirks, swinging his cane between Aizawa-sensei and Thirteen. “He has not had enough time to appear?”

My eyes widen. Does he know about Dad’s time limit!? We may not be on the best terms -though it’s better than before-, but the fact that villains know about his limit is all kinds of bad.

Our teacher doesn’t answer, instead asking who they are. “Who are you?And why are you looking for All Might? Usually villains like you want the opposite.”

They chuckle. “Well, let’s just-”

He doesn’t complete his sentence as Aizawa-sensei charges forward with his scarf leading the way while his hair floats behind him. But the villain doesn’t panic, calmly raising their staff and pressing a button. From the bottom of the staff extends a bubble, and now that I’m paying attention it looks like bubblegum!

It grows to the size of a bowling ball before they release the button, shooting it forward and forcing our teacher to roll under it to avoid being hit. A good choice considering it continues on until it hits one of the columns supporting the USJ sign at the top of the stairs, causing it to crumble around that spot and bring the rest of the structure down.

“Kurogiri, now!” They shout, and the mist person that was back at the square appears above us, his mist extending downwards and engulfing us. His ominous words are the last thing I hear before I’m suddenly somewhere else.

“We all have our roles, but the act cannot begin until everyone takes their places.”