The Villain's Daughter

10 - Villains at the USJ

(Quera's POV)

If there's anyone I hate being around more than my dad, it's Shigaraki. He's more childish than I was back when I lived with my dad, which was years ago. I grab onto Eros and hold on tight for two reasons. The first is that I know she'll be less frightened with me since we're good friends and the second is that if they choose to separate us, we'll end up together, and therefore, will be able to fight stronger. They analyze the situation and I shrink into the crowd, hoping they can get a plan together. Now's the time to strategize. I can give up some information I know about them in order to get us out of this mess. But that's all I'm giving. Nothing more.

"Lienne," Eros whispers to me. "I've met that purple smoke guy before."

"Kurogiri?" I respond in a whisper. "Oh no, did he hurt you?"

She shakes her head. "No, just scared me. But he was looking for you."

"Damn, my dad probably wanted me. Ugh..." I sigh. "Alright, he just can't see me." I look around, momentarily. "Just hold on tight."

Eros nods as Kurogiri starts to approach us. He creates multiple warp gates, causing us to mostly scatter around the facility. Luckily, we end up in an area where we could use our quirks to our fullest potential - the landslide zone. Around us are four low-rate villains who most definitely have excavation type quirks. They could have an advantage over us if we don't use Eros' quirk, but I'm sure we could take them down without it. I set Eros down as two other warp gates open on either side of us. Kayama and Hanaki drop out of them and land on their knees. They clearly haven't traveled via warp gate before.

Hanaki stands up first and looks around, puzzled. The then spots the thugs and shoves her hand into one of her soil sacks hanging from her waistband. Shizu stands up and immediately gets into a fighting stance. Eros steps back and grabs my hand, pulling her mic pack down off her face. She's still shaking. I suddenly get an idea and shapeshift into a kangaroo. It's then when the villains decide to attack. One of them get the the ground and start to shake it. Another stomps and breaks it apart and two of them start to lift pieces of various sizes and pelting them at us.

All of us are off balance, but it's still easy to dodge most of the pieces. I shove Eros in my pouch and jump. I need to take down the earthquake guy so Hanaki and Shizu can fight, too. I aim and land a good kick on the earthquake guy, making the earth finally settle, just fast enough because parts of the landslide area had started to fall. As the earth levels out, Hanaki scatters some dirt and seeds on the ground then makes them grow quickly. I smile and give her a cheer of encouragement as I take Eros out of my pouch and return to my human form, sitting on the earthquake guy.

"Hanaki," Shizu says. "Think you can make some sort of gas mask for the three of you?"

Hanaki shakes her head, but I have an idea. "Hanaki, I need thorns!"

Hanaki quickly grows a rose with large thorns on her vine, plucks it, and tosses it to me. "Here!"

I catch it and use it to cut small pieces out of my suit with little holes. "It's not a gas mask, but it can filter out smoke," I say, handing one to Eros.

"They're small," Eros points out.

"So was my costume," I respond, tossing one to Hanaki, then pulling one on myself. "It'll fit your face perfectly."

"Now, I need them restrained," Shizu says, "and some tinder."

"Hanaki," I call out. Hanaki reacts quickly, and extends vines and blades of grass. They wrap around the breaker and the pelters.

"It's your turn, Lienne," Hanaki says to me.

I nod. "Eros, use your quirk."

Eros stands up and activates her quirk by whispering in my ear, and we both turn into large spiders. We spin a web and Hanaki sticks the villains to it. We put them in silk cocoons and hop off the web. Hanaki starts laying grass down in a circle around them and Shizu lights it up. The smoke is purple, like Midnight's. They can't hold their breath forever, so they'll breathe in at some point. We just have to continue to fuel the fire.

Suddenly, I get an idea. Certain types of toads have hallucinogens on their skin. If someone touches it, they'll hallucinate madly. There's no way they can hold their breath during that. I turn into a toad and hop onto the first guy and make sure I rub my entire slimy body on their skin. I hop over to the other, changing into a different type of toad to ensure they have different hallucinations. It's as much of an attack as it is an experiment. Once I'm finished with them, they start mumbling hallucination mumbo jumbo and inhale the smoke. They pass out soon after. I return to the ground and return to my human form. My her suit tears a bit, but nothing too bad.

We all turn around, attempting to see if anyone else needs help. Aizawa's in the center with Shigaraki and a bunch of other villains. He can't hold them off on his own. There's so many people going against him and he needs help. I start to walk to the center, but Eros holds me back. I stop and look at her. Her eyes are watering. Oh no...

"Lienne," she says. "He'll be okay, I promise you. He's not someone who wouldn't fight irrationally."

I nod, reluctantly. "I-If you say so..."

"For now, let's try and contact other heroes. We need to get out of here," Shizu suggests.

"There's no way we can get outside with that smoke cloud blocking our exit," Shizu says, rubbing his hands.

"Can't you knock him out with your smoke?" Hanaki asks.

"It depends on whether or not he breathes," Shizu explains. "Plus, my smoke reacts poorly to certain substances. What if he's made up of one of them?"

"Plus, he could just teleport us away the moment we get close," Eros adds.

"He has to have some kind of weakness," Hanaki says, thoughtfully.

"He does," I respond. "Past all the warp smoke is a body of some kind. He wears neck armor and a suit underneath it all."

"That's right..." Eros says. "If Hanaki attacks with her vines, she can restrain him."

"But what if he warps them away?" Hanaki asks.

"That's why we sneak attack him," I say. "He can't warp what he doesn't know is there."

"Looks like Iida's getting away," Shizu points out. "Hopefully, to grab a teacher."

"Aizawa needs help!" Eros shouts.

I look back at him and gasp in horror. He's fighting a large guy with brains spilling out of his head, and he's losing so bad. Too afraid to move, I just watch on in horror as repressed memories from my past start to bubble up. My sister's talked about these things before. She called them nomus and told me never to try and fight one. They're too powerful for me, too powerful for her, and too powerful for my brother. No one is strong enough to defeat it. So why is no one helping him? No, I know the reason. We're all too scared to try and fight him. I want so badly to move my feet, but they're frozen in place. As the nomu is holding Mr. Aizawa down, things suddenly start to become darker. The nomu raises its hands above its head, high, and then brings it down onto Aizawa, quickly.

I can't watch this anymore. I raise my hand for him and the nomu feels a sudden impact in its stomach. I think I yelled something, but I couldn't hear it. I couldn't hear anything. My vision started to fade, my knees buckled, the air around me went cold. Whatever happened after that is a mystery to me.

(Chiyo's POV)

"No!" Lienne yelled, holding her hand out.

She starts moving towards Aizawa. Shizu, Hanaki, and I try to hold her back, but to no avail. She breaks through our grip and continues heading that way. I look down at my hands and turn into a snake, then slither in front of her as fast as I can. Returning to my human form, I hold my arms out in front of her, blocking her way. She tries to push me out of the way, but I stay planted. Her eyes are glowing bright green. I peek behind her to see grass creeping up on her. When I look back at her, it looks like she's starting to come to her senses. I smile at her.

Then, something hits me in the head and everything goes black.