Mirio's Pov
After my perfect prediction to Chrono picking up his gun to aim at me, I kept on fighting, and it was going perfect. It seemed like after Izuku's call, and the confirmation that I wasn't as deep below ground as I expected, my mind had cleared itself to a certain degree, and my body moved way better.
Right after stopping Chrono, I turned to look at Overhaul with a simple glance, and after making sure that he would at least take a couple of seconds before getting up again, I went back with Eri. I think that I usually would've gone to finish the job, but I had left her to the side for quite a while, and she was probably getting pretty scared, so I wanted to make sure that she was alright at least.
My first idea was to go below the ground and appear infront of her, since that would easily be the fastest approach, but at the same time, I was pretty certain that it would scare her quite a lot. Instead, I submerged just as planned, but I came out a couple feet infront of her, and with a great spin to show some flashiness, I landed right infront of her. "Hey, Eri! How are you doing do far?" I asked to her, while also flashing a smile as bright as I could, and patting her head slightly.
She was initially shocked, for obvious reasons, but after quickly catching up to it, she started nodding, while also faintly saying. "Y-Yes..." I was glad to hear this, but I couldn't get too cocky right now.
Seeing as I still had a couple of seconds left for the two of them to wake up, I decided to use that time to look closely at this place, and see if there was actually a way out. I kept my hand on Eri, so I could keep petting her head, while also perking up my head and turning to look around. My idea was to find a crack of sorts or something else I could use, but instead, I found a passageway that lead right out of the room and onto the dark.
At first, I was confused by this, and since the only logical reason for me was that it must be a gate away passage, I assumed that Overhaul created it. This then left two possibilities. Either it went all the way back to their main headquarters, so it could be as safe as possible, or instead, it came out somewhere in the city, most probably an alleyway or something, making it pretty fast to get in and out.
It was a tempting solution to my current situation, but I couldn't predict which one was it, because they actually had good reasoning for both of them. On one hand, maybe they build it before hand, and waited for their first opportunity to use it, or instead, when they barely got the notice that Y/N left the hospital, they got as close as they could, and created this passage in a few moments.
One alternative was pretty rewarding and the other one was pretty risky. In the end, I couldn't decide, but it didn't matter much, because right at that moment, when I was gonna turn to look at Eri in order to take care of her, the passage suddenly closed off, and while surprising at first, I quickly knew what it was. "D-Don't even think that...that you're gonna get away from me!" Exclaimed a pretty tired and beaten up Overhaul, as he also did his best to get up.
I was a bit frustrated by this, but decided to mostly ignore it, and instead went back with Eri. "Don't even try it Overhaul. There's nothing you can do to take her away from me. You're too injured to even stand up straight!" He couldn't even answer from hos bad he was, but at that moment, he simply touched his chest, and rebuild himself, something that I had forgotten for a moment.
Once he was better, Overhaul just took a deep breath, and as he turned to look at me again, he said. "Don't think that I'm even nearly done with you! That girl is of my property, and I'll get her back! By any means necessary!" I quickly got into a fighting stance, while Overhaul turned to look at Chrono and muttered something to him. Shortly after, Chrono started getting up, but that wasn't a big concern for me. I had take away his gun, and seeing as this was the second time I did it, I was a bit safer to assume that he didn't have any others.
Either way, I had to start thinking, and fast. With no escape route, I was in a pinch. My quirk isn't strong enough to break any walls, and I can't get Eri out with it, so my only option was to hold on until the others arrive. A bit annoying, but seeing as I was holding myself well until now, I had hope.
I didn't want to let Overhaul do whatever he wanted, so I got an idea. I started running at him, making sure that he heard me, but once the two of them turned to look at me, I immediately sank below the floor. This was sure to get them alert, and seeing as Overhaul was a surprisingly good fighter, he would try to predict me. The most obvious would be for me to come from behind, so I instead was planning to come out from infront.
So, after a couple of seconds, I deactivated my quirk, sending me up earlier than usual, and as I came out of the ground, I got a glimpse of Overhaul turning the other way and sending some spikes over there. This filled me with a lot of satisfaction, but now wasn't the time to get cocky, so I just focused entirely on my fist, and delivered a very strong punch right to the back of his neck.
The impact made him almost fall over, and in that second that I got, I decided to finish things off with Chrono, and delivered a kick right to the side of his head. This was also quite convenient, since it turned out that he did have another gun, but with this last kick I was certain that I had knocked him out, so he wasn't going to be a concern for a while.
Then, as Overhaul regained his footing, and took notice of what I did to his sidekick, he could only exclaim. "Chrono!" And after seeing him not even moving at that, he knew what was up. We both looked at each other, and with just our stern looks, we said what we needed, and prepared to fight.
Izuku's Pov
After gathering enough information about our surroundings, and getting a better understanding of what our situation was, we all started moving. At first we did have some trouble, since we didn't know in which direction we should go in order to get to the closest room. The girls asked us how we got there in the first place, to see if we could use the same method, but unfortunately, we followed the vibrations of their fight to locate them, but currently there wasn't any we could follow, so we were stuck.
Or at least we thought we were, until K suggested using Sir Nighteye's quirk to see the future, and see in which direction we would go. We wondered for a while if this would help, since it might come out as a sort of paradox. Basically, if Nighteye got the direction from his quirk, then that means that either the us in the future got their instructions in another way, which would result in us breaking that timeline, or they got it the same way as us, meaning that there must've been a first us that got it in another way, resulting in the same problem as before.
Whatever it was, we didn't want to think about it, as it was getting too complicated, and some of us weren't even able to understand. So, instead of worrying about that, Sir Nighteye simply decided to look into my future, since I was the only capable of digging out a tunnel, so I would be the easiest one to follow.
It took some moments, and after around half a minute Nighteye's expression got too concerned about something, but seeing as we didn't want to interrupt, we waited. It still took around another half a minute, and through that entire time, Nighteye's expression didn't ease up, in fact, it got way worse at the end.
Nobody said anything at first, since the situation had become way worse than it was before, but K quickly broke it off, as he stepped forward and asked. "Four eyes, what did you see?" And after taking some deep breaths, Nighteye replied.
"Nothing important. It's this way." And while some of us surely wanted to make some questions, he didn't give us time, as he just started walking and moved away from the group. This made things even more confusing, but at the same time, there was nothing we could do about it, so we just followed along and did as he said.
Nighteye just looked around the walls, looking for some sort of marks, and after a little while, he said. "Alright, here it is." While touching a very specific spot of the wall. He then turned around to look at us and said. "The next room is in this direction. Deku, we need you to start breaking it just like before, but this time, try to aim higher with every kick, okay?" I simply nodded, and while I prepared to begin, he addressed the rest of them. "And as for the others, I need you to help move the debris out of the way. We don't want much of it accumulating." They all nodded, and Ryukyu asked.
"You girls think you can keep going?" And after pumping themselves up for a bit, both Uraraka and Tsuyu nodded at her. Right after that, Sir Nighteye turned to look at me once again, and after a confirming nod, I started kicking away at the wall.
At first I didn't think much about this, just assumed that it would be the same as before, but as it turned out,, kicking upwards with the intent of breaking such a thick wall was pretty hard, and with every kick, it became even harder. Not only because of the increasing fatigue though, but also because the floor below me became less and less even, as it started to tilt at a pretty tight angle, and the floor filled itself with debris and bumps.
In general, it was hard to go through, but knowing that the others were counting on me, and were also doing their hardest to do their part, specially Uraraka and Tsuyu, due to how tired they were, made me forget about all this hardships, and just focused on getting the work done. Fortunately for us, soon enough, we arrived at the next room, and as we noticed some new and small cracks, from which quite some light started sipping in, we heard a voice coming from the other side. "Who's there?" And this time, I quickly recognized it as Fatgum.
Now that we were also closer, I turned from using my legs to using my fists, since it would allow me to be a bit more precise with my attacks, while also exclaiming. "Fatgum, it's us! We found a way out!" And just as I started making the hole even bigger, I could hear Fatgum getting closer.
Right when I noticed that only one more punch would be needed, I exclaimed. "Alright, everyone, back up a bit! This one is gonna be rough." And as I charged my fist with 25% One For All, just to be sure, I punched through the wall, and a cloud of dust covered all of us in an instant.
It took a while for it to start fading away, but as it did so, I could hear someone approaching us, and after a couple of seconds, I felt someone grabbing my hand, and helping me up. I was worried when I first heard them, but once they grabbed my hand, I felt relieved, and so, once the dust spread away, I could see who it was. "Fatgum!" I lightly exclaimed, while he just smiled at me. I was happy to see him, since I was still slightly worried that something bad could happen, but with him here, things must've gone well, at the very least.
I did notice two things though. One, he was skinnier than before, like he had lost more than half of his body weight, and it had only been at much 45 minutes to an hour since we last saw each other, so I didn't understand how this was even possible.
I was about to comment on this, when I noticed the second thing, and this did worry me more than the other. "Wait, where's Kirishima?!" I lightly exclaimed, as I kept looking around, but he was nowhere to be found.
It took a while for me to relax, but once I had calmed down, Fatgum explained. "Don't worry, he's alright. I left him over there to rest. We had an intense fight, and he definitely got the worst of it. I had already told you, didn't I? Through the phone." I then remembered that he had in fact done so, and I felt very embarrassed about that.
"Right, sorry. Everything has been very confusing so far." He was understanding of this, as he said that it didn't matter, and while I was still a bit embarrassed, I simply decided to ignore it, as there were other matters to attend to. Namely, the rest of my teammates that were still in the tunnel.
The first thing I did was fan around the entrance with my hand, as well as a One For All enhancement. With this, I was able to clear out whatever was remaining of the dust, and while the rest still had some of it on their faces, soon enough, after some coughing, everyone got better from it, and so, both me and Fatgum helped them out.
Once we were all done, they took a moment to clean ourselves, and that's when we turned to look at Fatgum, and asked him exactly what happened. He then turned to look at one of the furthest walls, and then started saying. "Both me and Red Riot fell down here. We didn't know what was happening, but the light from the ceiling was enough that we weren't really all that scared, just confused. We tried looking for a way out, but before we could, we heard some kind of thudding, then followed by two villains coming out of it." He then pointed to a different part in the room, and kept talking. "One of them could create pretty strong shields, while the other was capable of throwing punches that were as strong as cannon balls, and as fast as a gatling gun." Hearing this was quite frightening, and while it was hard to do from this distance, I could see them.
Following this, Fatgum started walking towards one of the walls, while Fatgum continued talking. "Thanks to the loud thud, we weren't really taken by surprise, as we could anticipate who was coming, but once the villain that punched really hard attacked us, we were shocked. With just one punch, he basically broke Red Riot, both physically and mentally. I had to get in the fight to help him, but it felt useless. Not only was he piercing through my defense, but the speed of his punches didn't allow me to retaliate at all, and before I realized, I was about to lose. I did manage to get an opening from him, but that was quickly covered by the one who creates shields. Everything seemed hopeless, and even though I was forming out a plan, I wouldn't be able of using it without making the fist villain stop. Fortunately for me, Red Riot came just in time to save me. I'm not really sure what happened in his mind, but he suddenly jumped in between me and the villain, and while at first he couldn't even take one of his punches, this time, he was able of tanking all of them. This gave the time I needed to concentrate all of my stored energy, and so, I released a punch that had a power similar to each and every punch that that villain threw at me, and even though the villain with shield powers tried to cover both of them, it wasn't enough, and I ended up knocking both of them out. Truthfully, Red Riot saved me this time." It was amazing to hear such things from Kirishima, and as we arrived at our destination, I could see that it was Kirishima, who was laying on the floor.
Just looking at him was enough to see how intense the fight had been. He had cracks all around his body, which looked worse than regular cuts, and he didn't even have any sort of bandages, since Fatgum didn't have anything like that, but luckily for him, that wasn't the case for all of us.
"Out of the way." Said K, as he got closer to Kirishima, and once he was right by his side, he took out some bandages and some other stuff from what seemed to be a military belt. "I'll take care of him. You go ahead and see where to go next." We were all surprised by this, and even Ryukyu jokingly said.
"Wow, K, you sure are prepared!" But without even flinching at her words, K just said.
"The useless should at least try their best to do something. We can't be holding them down all the time." On the surface, that sounded like something he said due to his condition as quirkless, something that I could kind of relate to, but after thinking about his tone of voice for a second, it seemed deeper.
The amount of 'hatred' and conviction on those few words was way too much, even for someone who grew up with that condition, and it felt like he was not only talking about quirkless people, but a bigger range of people in general. It was hard to know what was this range precisely, but I don't think that anyone really wanted to find out, as we just nodded and moved away.
Once again, Sir Nighteye started looking through the walls, until he found a mark that he seemed to recognize, he then walked a couple of steps to the left, and after tapping on the wall for a little while, he said. "Right here." And so, I started kicking once again.
This time it was even harder, as according to Sir Nighteye, the next room was pretty much infront of us, but also, pretty high above, meaning that I had to kick at an even tighter angle. Luckily for us, Fatgum, while injured, insisted that he could help, because apparently, while he had obviously lost pretty much all of his fat, this helped him become a bit stronger and more agile with his body, meaning that he could help Uraraka and Tsuyu down there. I'm pretty sure that this made all of us feel at ease, taking some of the burden of my shoulders.
I wasn't the only one to feel like that though. I think Nejire was tired of being just off to the side, due to her injuries from the previous battle, and while we mostly insisted that it was alright, and that she should rest for a while more, she didn't listen to it, and helped me.
I was a bit stern about this, but after seeing that she was being even more stubborn than I was, we decided to just split the charge, and got to work. As to not leave a lot of work on her weakened shoulders, we worked out a little system. Instead of hitting with all my might, I would only kick the wall at pretty specific points, so that it would weaken, and then Nejire would finish it off with a blast of her power. Not only was this pretty light on both of us, but it was also faster, as the lumps that we took out with this method were bigger than with the previous.
With all of this combined, what previously seemed like a work that would take us quite a while, ended up becoming something that we got done in just a couple of minutes, and before we even realized it, we got to the next room.
As expected, this room was even more lit up than the previous, and as we all turned to look at the ceiling, we realized that we could actually see the surface. It seemed as the fight that had taken place up here, or maybe down here, not really sure when you're underground, was so rough that it managed to break off the ceiling, and with how close it was to the surface, some of the boulders that fell opened a path.
If I had to guess, from the looks of it there were still maybe a meter or two, but it wasn't much. Once that was out of the way, we all tried to get back on track, but there was still a question that needed answering. "Who fought here?" Asked Tsuyu, but while no one could answer, Sir Nighteye stepped up and said.
"I know who did." He then walked towards some debris, and after going to its other side, he lightly exclaimed. "Over here! Help me with this." We all instantly went to that same spot, and that's when we saw Tamaki, knocked out and pretty injured.
Fatgum got pretty scared by this, so he got by his side and tried to pull him out, however, before that, Nighteye said. "Wait! His foot is trapped. We must free it before we pull him." We then turned to look at where he was pointing, and as he said, there was a big boulder right on top of his leg.
I said that I would take care of this, and so, I charged my 20% across my entire body, and with one swift movement, I threw the boulder far away. Right when I did so, Fatgum took Tamaki on his arms, and went to look for a more suitable spot for him.
Once he found it, Fatgum took off his jacket, and gave it to him as a pillow, while also saying. "You go ahead. I'll stay with Tamaki and see if he wakes up." We all nodded, and so, for one last time, Nighteye went to look for a mark on one of the walls.
When he finally found it, it became standard procedure for us. We had to deal with not having Fatgum, but it wasn't as bad as before, because Nighteye said that this time it was pretty straightforward, as the next room was barely half a meter up, and just like five infront.
"Hang tight, Lemillion. We're arriving."
Mirio's Pov
The fight had extended itself for way more than I initially expected. No matter how much damage I dealt to Overhaul, he would always fix it right away, however, from the looks of it, there was one thing he couldn't replenish, his stamina. He was getting weaker and weaker by the second, and while it would probably still be a while, before he went down entirely, I was certain that I could do it.
Something else that I noticed, was that the entire place suddenly started shaking, and after a bit of it happening, I could note that it was coming from one of the walls. There was no way I could actually know what it was, but I was certain that that must be the others coming to help, something that made me grin a bit, and be even more certain that things would be okay.
Right after that though, the walls started shaking again, but from a different place, and after a couple of seconds, a hole appeared right behind Overhaul, just a bit to his left. "Special delivery." I heard the wall somehow speak, and after spewing something out, the wall said. "Alright. I'm out. Gotta keep an eye on the other two." After that, I didn't hear another word from the wall, but whatever it must've left made feel uneasy, so I got prepared.
Overhaul turned to look at whatever that was, and with a surprised expression, he exclaimed. "Nemoto!" It took me a second, but I quickly recognized that name as one of Overhaul's underlings. "Fire at him." Exclaimed Overhaul once again, while throwing something. I didn't immediately understand, so I got closer to see what I was, while also planning to attack them, but as I jumped towards them, I caught a glimpse of an open box, and inside, those same bullets that could destroy quirks, but one was already missing.
'Oh no.'
Chapter End
U.A Side Stories
The intricate system of rooms built below the Illum general hospital was built by both Overhaul and Mimic, with more work coming from the latter, since Overhaul mainly focused on getting Eri. They also did some planning beforehand, rather than just creating a bunch of rooms below a building in a second, so the structure was actually designed to crumble after an hour and a half or so, making it work as a distraction as well. This design generated the cracks as well, and has left them with around half an hour left of time.
Alright, once more, and hopefully last time, sorry for the one-week delay. I'll try my best to correct it by next week, but always remember that, even if I miss my cue, I'm always working on the next chapter, and it won't interfere with future chapters, neither from this or my other book.
I hope you all are enjoying this arc, with my own unique touch to it. I'm honestly starting to like it, and I'm planning to maybe add a couple more twists, compared to the original story, but I don't know. You'll have to wait to see it!
As you guys know, feedback and quirk suggestions are always welcomed, and leaving your comments down below is highly encouraged, as I very much enjoy reading them.
See you next time, PLUS ULTRA!!!