"AGAIN!" shouted Sasakura, arms crossed as he glared at the students he was tutoring.
The three students were panting and sweating, but they pulled themselves up off the ground at his command.
Sasakura observed his students carefully, keeping a careful eye on all of their conditions. Muscle fatigue was growing, and they were running short of energy. This next exercise would be their last, more and they'd likely collapse, but this was good. Being pushed to their bodies' breaking point once in a while was crucial to understanding how far they could go before they collapsed. Better to know in a controlled environment than in the field.
His first student Habiki could weaponize echoes. Initially believed to be a variant of sound-based quirks, it was discovered he could make an echo out of anything. It was unusual, but its potential was limitless. It had nearly even killed him several times, he had once caused an echo of the impact of him tripping and hitting the pavement. It had nearly broken every bone in his body, but had received medical help quickly and survived. Honestly his quick should be renamed to "Repeat", but the names given to quirks tended to stick. Learning to control his quirk was proving exceedingly difficult, and so that had been the crux of Sasakura's training for him. Izuku had even pitched in a couple of ideas, and now that training was bearing fruit. At the very least he wasn't accidentally hurting himself, others, or objects anymore.
His second student was less problematic, Tsumugi had the unique ability to make a string out of any material and then manipulate said string. The reason why she needed tutoring was that she had been unable to use her quirk to keep up with the school's demands. She'd barely scraped by the entrance exam as it was, and was often made fun of for what was considered to be a weak quirk. The concept of "thin" seemed to be the running theme in her family's quirk history. Her older brother apparently had a thread quirk, but how it worked he had never said. Sasakura had had to get creative with his tutoring for her, he'd even used his quirk on her as a development aide.
His third student had a quirk as strange as Sasakura's own and also had as much trouble figuring out how to use it as Sasakura did when he was young. Kuragari Moku's quirk was called "Name". How it worked was rather confusing, but the best Sasakura and others had been able to figure out was that Kuragari could manifest a "name" into reality. It seemed to be limited to his own name, at least for now. He could manifest black ink into the world from his fingertips and then manipulate said ink with limited success. He had managed to use this to scrape up enough points in the practical portion of the exam to pass, but he had finished last.
All three of his students had only barely passed the exam, and now they struggled in school. Habiki struggled to control his quirk and was terrified he might hurt himself or others with his lack of control. Tsumugi's quirk was admittedly rather weak, but Sasakura firmly believed in the potential of any quirk to become something truly great. Kuragari meanwhile had no idea how to actually use his quirk, claiming his display during the exam was a fluke brought on by stress and desperation. All three of them displayed problems Sasakura had experienced to varying degrees in his own youth. It was no wonder Nezu wanted him to tutor them.
Sasakura smiled as he watched his students go through another set of exercises, they really had improved and their own perceptions about their potential success had only risen, driving them to work even harder.
"Habiki, focus up! You just magnified Tsumugi's voice! You have to keep your concentration, filter out the distractions that don't matter, and keep a firm hold over quirks' desire to go wild! Tsumugi, you still have some of your material left to turn into string! You need to be able to convert your chosen material rapidly and cleanly! Kuragari, same problem as Habiki, keep your focus and concentration or you'll never manage to manifest your quirk as you want!" Sasakura barked out. Even if they were bone-dead tired, they couldn't afford to lose focus and concentration under any circumstance.
His students finally collapsed onto the floor, unable to do more than just pant and sweat. Sasakura had to suppress a chuckle, he walked over to a nearby bench and retrieved the meals he had Lunch Rush prepare for them ahead of time. He passed out the carefully curated meals and drinks. He sat with them, eating and drinking and answering questions.
Eventually, they finished, and Sasakura checked the time. It was getting late, he could see that the sun was setting in earnest now. After doing some mental checking, he figured that if everything had gone smoothly, then the assault teams would be at the mountain fighting at this very moment.
"Mr. Sasakura?" came the unexpected voice of Kuragari. The student didn't talk much, so Sasakura was always interested in what he had to say.
"You were a hero before the war but didn't fight in it right?"
"That is correct," he said.
"I've... been wondering. What does it mean to be a hero?" he asked timidly.
It was an unexpected question, and one he hadn't thought about in many years. He remembered thinking the same question back when he was a student. The media loved to make heroes out to be paragons, but when he entered school he realized how different things were on the inside. It had made him wonder, what a hero really was. He'd never asked, it seemed like something that should be obvious and so he had been afraid to ask. Yet he hadn't had to ask, because when he was graduating the principal gave a speech that settled the question in his mind.
Sasakura stood up, "It's a complicated question. I think everyone would give you a slightly different answer, but I would say a hero is someone who-" he was interrupted when he sensed something was wrong.
Even if he had retired from being a hero, the senses he had honed still remained with him and he knew instinctively that something was wrong. He stopped talking and scanned his surroundings. The Gamma Gym was empty apart from them and nothing appeared to be wrong. Nevertheless, the feeling didn't abate. He walked over to the bench where and picked up his blade. He didn't draw it, not yet, but with it in hand, he felt more secure.
"Sensei?" asked Tsumugi, clearly confused.
"Out the doors now," Sasakura said, pointing to the exit.
They moved towards the doors but discovered that a barrier had formed along the walls sealing them in, then the far wall behind them gave a creaking noise. Sasakura spun around, drawing his sword in one smooth motion, and saw that a door had materialized in the wall and a large group of moderately well-equipped villains was standing on the other side. It was obvious things weren't going to end peacefully so Sasakura activated his quirk.
He pulled the old conditions he had made to aid him in battle so many years ago to the forefront of his mind. With the mental equivalent of signing his name, the first of the conditions, or perhaps contracts would be more appropriate, flared to life. Power surged through his body, he felt his body become lighter, stronger, faster, and his perceptions sharpen. He'd pay for it later, but it was a manageable price. He also put a condition upon his sword, he needed to ensure it would not break during the fight.
Sasakura heard his students shift positions and he sent a glance back to see that they lined up behind him, trying to put up a tough front. A grim feeling came over him, he could see they were too tired to mount a useful offensive, which meant he'd have to handle it all himself.
"I will handle this, if the barrier goes down run to the main building or failing that, hide in another building," he muttered to the students.
"There's so many of them, you can't fight all of them!" whispered Habiki.
"It will be a challenge," Sasakura admitted. "But don't worry about me, I will handle this." He said reassuring them.
"Hey old man, give us the students and we won't beat you too badly." Jeered one of the villains.
Sasakura narrowed his eyes, they were geared in military attire, but they reeked of recent conscripts. He guessed these villains were just fodder, meant to weaken resistance before the actual soldiers moved in. Sasakura strode forward until he was in the center of the gym, he turned toward his students and slashed along the floor leaving a line across it. He turned back to the villains and brought his sword to a ready position.
"You will not cross this line. Come, if you dare." He said simply.
He could see the apprehension in some of their faces, but the leader shrugged and ran at him. This galvanized the others and before long the group of villains was running at him. He too moved toward them, he could see some activate their quirks, and others brought guns to bear or close combat weapons.
As he closed in with the group, he jumped to the side avoiding a slew of attacks, and darted into the group from the side. he flipped the sword so that he struck with the back of the blade and in a single swing dropped one of the villains to the ground. He disarmed another and using his enhanced strength kicked the downed villain into two more. He spun to his left and brought his sword up into the elbow of the villain, breaking it. Sensing more than feeling the attack, he backflipped over a ball of fire and landed atop a villain's shoulders. His decreased weight caused the villain to buckle but he instinctively tried to stay standing. Sasakura smashed his sword down upon the head of one villain before pushing off from the villain beneath him and escaping the crowd. The moment he landed he ran at them again. He turned his run into a slide as he saw one of the villains aim a pistol at him. The shot whizzed overhead, and as he slid into the crowd once more, he turned his slide into a cartwheel. Avoiding two more attacks he was on the other side of the group and he spun toward them, smashing his sword into the side of one of them and continuing with the attack he carried the villain into two others. He did a backward cartwheel and brought the heel of his shoe into the villain's jaw, shattering it easily.
He took a moment to evaluate his situation, there were still quite a few left, but he'd downed a few already. He could feel his heart beating like a drum, he'd taken his medication but extended periods of exertion were dangerous for him.
Then he saw out of the corner of his eye, black armored figures walk into the gym. He turned his head slightly and he saw a giant of a man, in similar black armor minus a helmet leading them. He had a lightning bolt tattooed across his face and walked with easy confidence. Sasakura knew immediately that this would be one of Zeus's lieutenants.
He growled in frustration, as naturally, things got worse.
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The cloaked and hooded figure walked into the seemingly normal storage building. He walked to the storage container and after opening it up went inside. It was stacked with old support gear, most of it broken and needing repair. The whole building was used to store old and broken gear, but would normally have guards and surveillance round the clock to ensure no unauthorized persons found the hidden storage cavern beneath it. Inside the crate, he moved a rather heavy box and saw the faint outlines of the trapdoor beneath. He slid a hidden keypad out of the way and put in the code. There was a pause and he thought they'd changed out the hardware for a moment. But then there was a quiet beep and the whole bottom of the crate lowered into a large and wide hallway. He stepped off the lift and walked onto the large heavy-duty service elevator that could hold nine cars in a grid formation.
He keyed the elevator and it started to lower. After a few moments, the dark tunnel gave way to a large corridor wide enough for three cars to drive abreast. Along the left and right were doors, each one labeled according to what the vault contained. It held everything from weapons and armor or biological agents. He knew quite well that the government held DNA of various Nomu's in storage for study, not to mention vials upon vials of individual quirk factors. They even had the DNA of AFO in storage, researching it to ensure another monster like him never again emerged. He wasn't interested in any of that however, at the far end of the cavern, sat a single large door. It took him a couple of minutes to walk to it, but eventually, he stood before the door marked, "EXPERIMENTAL AND HIGHLY DANGEROUS MATERIAL."
He grabbed hold of one of the push doors and it rolled aside easily on greased wheels. He entered the darkroom, flicked a switch and the lights turned on. The objects in here were as the door said, experimental. It housed things like Momo Yaoyorozu's railgun or samples of the quirk destruction drug. What he wanted though was along one wall, large rectangular containers that housed the QUEESS.
He approached the containers and almost reverently ran a hand down the third one. He pressed a small button and with a hissing noise, air was sucked into the vacuum sealed container. The front panels retracted into the sides and it was revealed. His QUEESS, one of the original three developed to fight against Shigaraki. His heart beat faster, and he threw the cloak aside. He keyed the activation sequence and he heard the generator embedded within the container power on. He couldn't help but smile, at long last, the ache within him would be filled, that itch scratched, and the voice placated.
At long last, he would have his vengeance, and the first step on that path was to raze Mufustafu to the ground.
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Ochako dispatched another one of Zeus's mercenaries, and she let the body drop. She looked around and saw that that had been the last of them. strewn across the room and the hallways lay the bodies of Zeus's mercenaries. Ochako sank into a chair that hadn't been destroyed and felt her wounds. A nasty laceration across her back, several puncture wounds in the front, and a nasty bruise around her neck from when she'd nearly been strangled to death. Not to mention the other bruises and minor injuries strewn across her. She just took a moment to rest, but before her body could adjust to the rest she forced herself to her feet once more.
She navigated the hallways where she saw QSU and Police hauling bodies away into a room, others stripped the corpses of gear, and still, others were cleaning up the worst of the damage. Eventually, she found Naomasa and a QSU officer, looking over maps, talking into radios, or else shouting orders.
"I cleaned up the last of the mercenaries hold up in the break room. How are things in the city?" she asked, walking over to a piece of fallen ceiling and pulling a bottle of water out from under it.
"Not good. The best we can summarize is that elite mercenary squads are scattered about key points in the city. Plain run-of-the-mill criminals wreaking havoc across the city in conjunction, and a few hounds running amok. Most civilians are in bunkers or hold up in building safe rooms, but the casualty rate won't be pretty. What we need are the towers online, Nezu's master tower is likely compromised so we need to connect the towers across the city manually. Then we can have better communications going. Whatever Zeus is using to jam use is blanketing the entire city." Said Naomasa.
"I'm guessing you want me to bring them online?" she asked, draining the water bottle.
"You got it. You can fly so you'll be best suited to it. Just fly to them, manually turn them on and they should start auto-connecting. Once enough are active the system should be able to punch through the jamming and restore communications." Said Naomasa
"I'll get right on it," she said. She tossed the bottle aside and strode out of the room.
She made her way back out of the building and into the dusk. She stretched a little, then launched herself into the sky. She looked around and saw one of the towers located atop a nearby office building that was several stories taller than the police headquarters. She flew to the top and alighted onto the roof and made her way to the base of the tower. She ripped the covering off the front and several switches and buttons, and a nicely placed power switch. She turned the switch into the upright position and the monitor booted to life, coming out of standby. She waited a minute to ensure everything was fine before she floated away from the tower and started scanning other nearby rooftops.
As she scanned the rooftops, she noticed something odd coming from a point she recognized as being the rough area where the government and H.A. had their joint storage vault facility. The area was shaking then she realized that the shaking was spreading outward like a wave. A hum could be heard in the air, and she saw bits and pieces fall off buildings to crash below onto the street.
Her initial thought was that an earthquake was hitting but that couldn't be right. This was a localized event, and...
Her train of thought ground to a halt and spiked into fear and panic as far off at the epicenter, the ground erupted up and outward. Buildings started to topple like dominos, streets sank into the earth and smaller buildings were swallowed up entirely before being blasted back into the air. The earth cracked and split, and the destruction spread outward.
She looked down at the police headquarters, it wouldn't be long until the rolling wave of destruction wiped the building out. She blasted downward, racing the wave, she hit the roof and slammed both hands onto it and summoned up all the strength she had, and sent out a pulse. It raced across the exterior of the building, as she pushed with everything she had. When she had finally covered the building, she threw up the strongest gravity shield across it she could manage. She shut her eyes, grit her teeth, and ignored the throbbing pain in her skull, and rising nausea. Then the wave crashed into her and the building and all was enveloped in blackness and noise.