Todoroki and I were dashing through the back of towering buildings, making our way further into the maze of alleyways, hoping we'd catch sight of Izuku soon. The darkness of the sky above was glaring down in an almost taunting manner, as if to mock us for what we'd encounter immediately. Todoroki's hand flashed in front of my abdomen, forcing me to halt my movements.
"Wait, I think I hear something." We paused, ears searching for any noise beyond our capacity. A loud crash sounded, followed with a familiar yelp. I felt the blood rush to my head, and my fists clenched tightly as I took off bounding to him.
If Midoriya's injured, I'll hurt whoever did it. I wasn't a person for particularly lecherous thoughts, but the idea of my best friend getting in harm's way ignited a deep rage that I couldn't put out. The scuffling grew louder as Iida's voice could be heard, asking Izuku to take a person named Native and leave. I turned, finally catching sight of the scenario as Todoroki and I released powerful waves of flame and stone, aiming for the man who hovered over Izuku, Iida, and a pro-hero, with a sword. I jumped in the air immediately, sending vines to wrap around what I presumed to be the Hero Killer Stain. He dodged them, slicing through as I used the false move to crash two boulders on him, piercing his body immediately, allowing Todoroki's ice to touch the supposed vigilante.
Stain groaned in pain, "So now there's more wannabes here? I'll kill you all if you don't get out of my way." His voice was a gnarled one, sounding as if speaking was a painful task. I'm in danger, aren't I?
It was obvious, Iida was bleeding from his arm and legs, the Pro-Hero named Native had blood dripping from his head and Izuku was littered with light injuries, but somehow frozen. I neared them as Izuku cried out my name, but his body still didn't move. I sent healing properties of calendula and aloe vera to all three of them while Todoroki was working to combating Stain some more. I thanked my brain for adding a first aid kit attached to my hip for my improved hero costume as I pulled out bandages, attempting to wrap up the boys' injuries as quickly as possible.
"Reyna, leave. This is my battle, take everyone with you but be careful, if he cuts you, he can immobilize you," Iida warned me with tears pouring down his eyes. My poor friend, Tenya Iida. He was so overwhelmed with rage and grief that he rushed blindly into a situation that he could no longer remove himself from. Nonetheless, as a hero-in-training and a friend, I wouldn't abandon him. "You asked the wrong person to leave you behind, maybe try someone else," I replied calmly, summoning two stone staffs as my weapons, while forcing more vines, thorns, and granite to launch themselves at the Hero Killer.
"Florence, please be careful, please." Izuku begged, eyebrows furrowed as he remained stiff. Moving both staffs to one hand, I stroked his cheek lightly. "There's no need to worry about me, I'll do whatever it takes to protect you guys." With that, I bounded towards Stain, finally releasing the fury I felt. Our attacks were relentless, he was swift in dodging almost every one of them as I analyzed the different ways to weaken his body. I created stony landslides, walls of vines and thorns to tear at him. He bounded back with the strike of my last hardened kick, I resorted to encasing my body with stone to protect myself when he tried to swipe at me with his sword.
Todoroki shot another fiery force as Stain pointed at me, crying out, "Are you a real hero? I'll kill you for your attempts to defeat me!" His words didn't tug at any weak spots of my ego, quite frankly, I was never impressed with his ideologies. The two-toned boy beside me became visibly upset with Stain's words.
"You won't kill her!" He yelled, shooting different layers of ice and fire to overwhelm the villain. I flitted away from the brute force of Todoroki's quirk, when I noticed the dagger flying at me. My eyes widened as I flew upwards, digging a vine into the wall beside me to keep myself afloat. I felt a burn in my ankle. Crap, he grazed me. I slammed my foot on the dagger to stop Stain from reaching towards it as I sent a wave of rock to crash into him.
"You're not a real hero!" Stain yelled once more, shaking his hand wildly at me as he attempted to jab Todoroki. I wrapped a vine around him, moving him out of the direction of the blade.
"Honestly, you're just a pretentious lunatic that wants to play God because of your warped views on heroes and villains. Nothing you say will affect me, you're deranged and I only care about protecting my friends, now fuck off." I stated, before using stones beneath my feet to propel me upwards. I flipped through the air and summoned dirt to create a draft that blocked me from his view. Finding a blind spot in his quick movement, I lodged a thorn into both sides of his ribs as I scraped them down, watching blood stem from the action.
Another blade appeared from his wrist as he took his opportunity to stab me, I rolled away and ducked, retreating near Todoroki. "You have good friends, Ingenium!" Stain suddenly appeared in front of Todoroki with his tongue hanging out as I noticed the smallest gash on my friend's cheek.
"Todoroki!" I screamed, forcing the boy aside with a vine as I felt a blade slice through my epidermis, blood gushing rapidly. Groaning, I used Stain's focus on licking the blade to smash a rock over his head, throwing him off balance as I threw the blade far from his reach.
Izuku witnessed the ordeal, his voice growing in pain as he repeatedly called my name. I ignored it, only focusing on speaking to Todoroki to stop myself from running to Midoriya. "The Pros will be here soon, right?" I questioned, feeling my body grow weak as I threw a quick mixture of strength from a boulder and aloe vera to my wound, failing at closing it. He nodded, hurling his flames and ice towards Stain.
The hero killer slashed through Todoroki's structures, launching himself into the air as he swung his sword downwards, aiming for Native who was crumpled near Iida. Bastard. I flew, hardening my arm and aiming a punch into Stain's stomach at the same time another gloved fist pulled the same move.
It was Izuku. He seemed to recover from the drawbacks of Stain using his quirk on him, now the boy was launching himself around with an energy and speed that couldn't be matched.
All three of us were trying our best to fight the manic guy off, his movements growing too quick and jitterish for us to properly comprehend. Todoroki shot out more flames as I rolled beneath them, appearing at Stain's side to strike him relentlessly with my two granite staffs while Midoriya dashed in between the walls, aiming punches and kicks whenever he could.
I was too slow in realizing that Izuku got a thin slash from Stain, seeing the hero killer swipe his tongue on the blade sent my stomach lurching as Midoriya collapsed, once again paralyzed. "Izuku!" I panicked, running to him to heal the graze before dashing off to use a wall of stone to hurl at the masked man.
He slashed through, destructing my rock and Todoroki's ice as I had to fly to the side of the alley to avoid getting backlash from the debris. Within the same second, Stain had his sword only inches away from Todoroki's underarm, swiping upwards as if to dismember his limbs.
In revulsion, I shifted from the ground I was on to Todoroki's side in an instant while Iida screamed, "Burst!" and we both deflected the blade from grazing my friend's skin. As Stain swung it downwards, it tore through my thigh, leaving a gash in my costume. Poor thing, I have to take it to that girl Hatsume for repair. I hissed, clutching my leg while Izuku struggled pointlessly, chants of my name were called out in concern and pain.
The successful part of Iida's move was that he kicked away Stain with so much force that he stood on opposite ends to all of us. The hero killer grew more livid, darting between walls as Todoroki and I continued to target him with our quirks.
Stain let out a frustrated cry, tossing a small blade too quickly in Todoroki's direction. My eyes caught sight of the flying weapon and my body continued to move without thought, Iida's hand appeared in front of Todoroki's, forcing the blade to wedge into the armor of his hero costume while Stain hurled another knife and I jumped to Iida, laying my arm in front of his as it pierced my bone directly. I screamed, collapsing to the floor as I yanked the weapon out of my body, only to draw blood from my lip from how forcefully I bit down on it.
"Todoroki, we've got to finish this, all of us." I groaned out weakly, despite Iida's continued protests and demands that we leave. Todoroki froze Iida's engines while dragging me upwards, and I glanced to my side to see that Izuku was somewhat standing on his feet again. Pain towed through me at the sight, his legs were purple, indicating that he injured them.
I'll get you for this, Stain.
In unison, Iida ran up the wall, preparing his leg for a powerful kick, Izuku had sparks flying from his arm, and I was completely covered in rock, being thrown into the air by Todoroki, allowing a heavy weight of stone to build on my fist that was aimed for his jaw.
Our bodies touched him at once, sending his body twisting in different directions from how powerful our attacks were. Stain was knocked unconscious from the blows dealt as he collapsed to the floor, and I summoned a safety net of vines to capture Iida and Izuku, letting my body hit the cement since my mind was only focused on protecting them.
I hate you, damned brain.
I huffed, forcing myself to stand on my own two feet as I talked to Todoroki.
"Look for rope, I'll help Native and Izuku, we need to get the pro-heroes." I demanded, and Todoroki abided, finding the rope near a dumpster as he began tying up the hero killer. Nearing the supposed vigilante, I took every blade and knife I could find in plain sight on his body, tossing it out into the pavement as I grabbed Izuku, wrapping my arm under his shoulders to lift him up and get him seated near Native.
Midoriya seemed to be drifting to and from reality, his eyes finally regaining normalcy as he saw me tending to his wounds. I extracted healing properties from the best plants I could think of while wrapping more bandages and cloth around Native. The pro-hero began apologizing and thanking me at the same time, words coming out blurred and rushed as his eyes seemed tinted with regret. I was doing the same to Izuku, focusing on wrapping his lower leg.
I didn't realize his hands were threaded in the hair at the nape of my neck, he tugged at me and I glanced up, meeting his tearful gaze.
"Izuku, what's wrong?" I asked softly, ceasing the wrapping of his ankle as I swiped at the tears on his waterline. "You're so amazing, Florence. I just get so worried when you fight, I don't want you getting hurt but look at you, you're not even focusing on your own injuries." He gestured to the blood that was slowing down on my inner arm and the same liquid that drizzled out from my thigh.
"It'll heal, don't worry about me." I grabbed his knees, thinking of how I wanted his broken legs to heal somewhat, using the last of my endurance to carry on the action.
Native was standing, stretching his arms as Todoroki and Iida were dragging the hero killer behind them. It seemed that the worst of today's events had passed. "I can carry him back to safety," Native told me, gesturing to the green-haired boy who wouldn't remove his eyes from me. I nodded, getting ready to step back and give Izuku some space but his grip on my neck wasn't letting off.
"Hey, it's okay, Izuku. We gotta go turn Stain in, come on." I nudged his wrist, asking with my eyes for him to let go as he only whined, finally releasing.
Native lifted him up as we walked towards the end of the alleyway, making our way back into the public areas of the downtown portion of Hosu City. We were beginning to see sidewalks when a small, old man donning a yellow cape appeared in front of us.
That's Gran Torino. He began yelling at Izuku, lecturing him for taking off as he struck the boy.
The hero casted a glance at me for a second, eyes furrowing as he took in my appearance. "Miss, you need to get your wounds checked," he spoke gently to me but I shrugged, "I'll be fine, sir."
Todoroki and I caught sight of Endeavor, who was scanning the crowd of heroes and interns gathered near him, his eyes finally settled on us. I only saw concern flit through for a millisecond before he resumed his scowl. "Reyna, Todoroki. Don't do that again." I apologized, lowering my head to express the guilt I felt for neglecting my responsibility. The police department appeared, ready to detain Hero Killer Stain and the Nomus that were all defeated.
I found myself nearing Izuku, both of us casually bringing ourselves to one another as we waited for instructions on what to do.
He was struggling to walk properly, but that didn't stop him from throwing his arm around my hips and digging his fingertips into my sides. I knew he was slightly angry with me from his clipped words, but the softening of his eyes told me that it was only because he cared for me the same way I did for him.
"Izuku." I breathed out, shutting my eyes and finally indulging in the relief that I longed for since Todoroki and I had received a notification of his whereabouts.
"Florence, you protect everyone but yourself, that's dangerous, I feel like I'm going to lose my mind the more I see you get hurt." He shifted his arm from my hips to wrapping it around my head, pressing me to the crook of his neck.
"Look who's talking," I mumbled, shutting my eyes as I basked in the calm that was settling into me, allowing the adrenaline to slow down.
I heard the rumbles of his chest as he hummed softly, his fingers working through the tangles of my hair, pulling lightly to set me at ease.
Then, a loud animalistic shriek pierced the air. I pulled my head away from Izuku to look at the small, winged Nomu flying through the air.
Oh God. Why is it approaching us?
The heroes seemed blindsided by the Nomu, their reactions too slow for what occurred. The Nomu revealed its talons, lunging for Izuku. I gripped his hero costume tightly, before throwing him to the floor, away from the Nomu as its claws pierced my clothing and back, lifting me into the air.
I screamed in alarm when Izuku and the others were slowly starting to look like ants as the Nomu towed me higher into the air. I tried yanking the claws off of me, but his grip refused to slacken in the slightest. Meanwhile, Midoriya had taken to calling for my name desperately, dread peaking in his tone. I was wriggling my body, trying to summon stones and vines to disable the Nomu, but it wouldn't budge, blood starting to sprout from my skin because of its' grip. I heard the Nomu release a warbled cry of pain as I was suddenly liberated.
Now I'm going to meet my oblivion by falling into the cement.
I braced for the impact, trying to call for stone to form and mold itself around my body.
I never felt the impact.
Both of my feet were placed on the cement properly as a deformed hand wrapped around my throat. I gasped, pulling at the fingers of Stain to get him to loosen his grip. We were facing the pro-heroes and my classmates, all of their pupils dilated and they only stared in stupor.
"I could make the Hero Commission look horrible by killing her." Stain laughed manically, he plucked out a blade that must've been hidden, and pressed it against my neck.
"Is that what you all want?! Huh? You want me to kill her! That's why no one's stopping me, right? Because none of you are real heroes!" Izuku tried throwing himself in our direction at that, but Todoroki's iron grip remained firm on him. The others had terror spiking through their demeanors, everyone too lost in what to do.
I stood still, not moving an inch as his blade pressed deeper into the center of my neck, drawing blood once more as the droplets began to cascade down my collarbone.
I felt his lips pressed near my hair to whisper, "You're lucky I consider you worthy." His grip slackened and the knife dropped to the floor. He was unconscious again.
I stumbled forward, falling to my knees as I pressed my hand to my throat, trying to stop the minute beads of blood that derived from how hard he held the blade to my skin.
The last thing I remembered seeing that day was the moonlight casting a loving glow on Izuku Midoriya's freckles and forest-green irises.