The moment he uttered those words, a tremor shook the grounds of the entire school. Miyuki whipped around, eyes widening when she saw a cloud of darkness appear behind Aizawa, Neito, and Manual. A wave of twice clones flooded the space in the next instant, and as soon as the first one appeared, she detangled herself from Izuku's hold, raced over to Neito using her Sky Walk, shielding him with her light before the first Twice clone could get to him.
"Sasaki-Hime!" Neito exclaimed, turning to look up at her from the ground. His face twisted in shock when he saw the mass of clones pressing against her shield, silver lines streaking across her skin once more. "What are they...?!"
Aizawa's eyes widened when another warp gate appeared over the monitoring Isle. "Yamada!"
"This is Kurogiri," she said through clenched teeth. "Phantom Thief, move away from here as quickly as possible. Hurry! Erasure is still needed to nullify the Villain's Quirks!"
"What about you? You won't be able to hold them back on your own like that for long," Neito responded, eyeing her bloodied hero costume and fresh wounds. "If you keep this up, you'll! –"
"It's absolutely necessary," Miyuki interrupted loudly, straining to push back against the ever-rising wave. Looking over her shoulder at him, she raised a thumbs up and flashed him her signature smile the best she could, "That you all survive, Monoma-Kun! You are the main character here, after all... right?!"
Pursing his lips together, Neito swiftly turned back to look for Aizawa. Miyuki did so, too, but the two students were shocked to see the Twice clones pouring out of other Warp Gates from behind the shield. Manual and Aizawa had been swallowed in the gigantic wave of them and they struggled to get out.
"Sensei!" Miyuki and Neito exclaimed.
She couldn't extend her shield anymore. The luminosity of the sun and her own light were keeping it intact just enough to keep Neito safe. If she stretched it out any farther it would surely break under the immense pressure from clones' bodies pressing against it.
"How the hell are there so many of them?" Neito mumbled, watching, muscles tight with tension, as the Twice Clones started pounding on the half-and-half girl's shield. One of them punched a hole through it on Miyuki's blind spot and stabbed a knife through her side. "Sasaki-Hime!"
"It's fine!" Miyuki lied, gritting her teeth. The cracks spread farther across her skin. "I can... barely feel a thing right now!"
"Dammit...!"
Miyuki's eyes widened when, suddenly, her feet got swept out from under her. Neito grabbed her waist then shoved her over the side of the roof, back towards where Izuku and Zin were.
"Monoma-Kun?!"
Her eyes widened as she watched her shield start to shimmer away from around the blonde boy.
"You're always taking up the spotlight, Sasaki-Hime..." he said, shadows of the clones darkening his face. "But you said it yourself, right? I'm the one in the lead here. So, leave... go and crush that b*stard of a brother of yours already!"
Neito's face disappearing in the swarm of clones, her shield completely crumpled, was the last thing she saw of that place before she caught herself in a bundle of shadows. She pushed herself to her hands and knees, panting heavily, before breaking down the net. Immediately, she activated her Eagle vision and looked out for Izuku as she wove through the debris across the battlefield.
"Yuki-Chan!"
She turned around and saw her best friend standing in the middle of the battle ground across from Zin, skin seeming to be molting off of his body like the wings on his back. Miyuki rushed over to him just as a blast shook the school, putting up a shield in time to protect them both from the shockwave as soon as she reached him. The battle Cage jolted violently. In the next instant, the ground seemed to lose its stability as the entire structure slowly began to descend.
"Monoma-Kun..." Izuku said. "Phantom Thief...!"
"Is incapacitated," Miyuki informed him, gut wrenching with worry for the blonde boy, Aizawa, and Manual. "Which means that –"
"Erasure has been nullified!" Izuku exclaimed. Miyuki winced as black tattooes scattered across her back like paint. She collapsed to her knees, clutching her chest, shield dissipating like dust in front of them. "Yuki-Chan!"
"Nevermind me," she quickly responded, standing up as if nothing happened at all. Izuku nodded, although hesitantly, returning to face the villain standing across from them. "Right now, the situation's getting more and more dire."
"If things continue like this, the strongest villain will escape," Izuku said, alarmed. "If U.A. falls to the ground then Japan... No, the whole world will be destroyed by his hands!"
Miyuki squinted her eyes as she watched her brother's body straighten up.
"Why'd you ask... if I'm still here...?" Zin questioned darkly, a manic look wreaked across his expression. "Do you wanna ask my permission to be her boy-toy replacement? Jeez... When are you gonna get a clue, heroes... there's nothing you can do. I'm..." his dry mouth curled into a malicious smile.
"Your nemesis, after all."
"...That was Akihiko's personality!" Miyuki said, an icy chill piercing her heart.
"If U.A. really does fall, Yaoyorozu-San and the others will... I have to stop it from crashing!" Izuku resolved. "But I also need to stop Kurogiri so Zin doesn't escape! Aah, it's no good! I can't breathe...!" Izuku grit his teeth. "That's a drawback of this strengthened Gearshift! If I don't let my cells rest, I won't be able to breathe!"
"Don't worry yourself so much like that..."
Izuku looked up, the second user's voice quietening slightly when the half-and-half girl lightly touched his shoulder as she stepped in front of him.
"That's what we are all here for, so... don't try being the hero all by yourself, Izuku. You're not alone in this war."
She crossed her arms over her chest, fingers crossed. Her eyes glowed again, streaks of light reappearing around her body and a twister of shadows swirling around her feet. Almost instantly, blood oozed from her cracks and tattooes again
"Wait a second, Yuki-Chan... if you keep using your Quirk like this you'll..." Izuku's eyes widened with panic. Katsuki's dead eyes flashed before him and his blood turned cold. "No, stop! You've already gone past your limits. Doing this will! –"
"Don't worry." Despite the stiffness and pain of her movements, Miyuki smiled at him over her shoulder. "I won't die today. It's what I'm here for..."
The black and white streak that had gone through the shield moved even faster now, changing trajectory towards the sun. A shadow formed over it. Little by little, the sky darkened as a solar eclipse began.
"Shadow Shikigami: Amaterasu... Kronos!"
The building's of the school groaned. The entire structure tilted, ever so slightly, shadows converging around it to form a man, a little taller than her previous Shikigami, adorned in a Grecian robe. His beard went past his waist and his eyes shone as brightly as the sun. A bright spear strapped across his chest, 'Minutes' written across it in Kanji, and a shorter, darker one was at his hips, 'Hours' scrawled upon it.
Following it's creators movements, it reached out with shadows swirling around it's Minute spear and plunged it into the foundations of the school. The shadows sloughed off from in front of the sun, coming down to surround UA in a twister-like wind. The school slowed down.
"What is that?! Did somebody save us? A god-like man came out of nowhere and made a twister out of that eclipse...!" Came Mandalay's voice telepathically.
Miyuki breathed out. Wisps of light fell from her mouth.
My heart... has been slowing down all this time, she thought, blinking slowly to try and clear up her blurry vision. She looked down at her hands. They were balled up as if holding a sword.
I can't move anymore. The side-effects are starting to overwhelm me. If I keep this up, my heart, it will... surely be paralysed, too.
She looked up at her brother. He looked back at her. He wore a strange expression, but she couldn't make out what it really was he must've been feeling. Not past the bolts of light zipping around his molting form, just as hers did around her decaying one.
Behind her, Izuku clenched his teeth, looking up at Miyuki who stood between him and the world's most powerful villain. That was all he could do right now... wasn't it? He couldn't help her; he just had to watch as she slowly killed herself right in front of him. His stare hardened more, One for All surging around him. He gripped his collar, panting for breath.
"...To protect," Miyuki whispered. "Everybody."
"...To kill," Zin retaliated. "I don't care if you don't understand that, Imouto-chan. You can't save me. That's what makes us heroes and villains."
Just then, the school slowed down even more. Miyuki and Izuku felt a sharp tingle run over their brains.
"We've been saved again?! This time it's like the air turned into some kind of trampoline!" Said Mandalay telepathically. The two best friends' eyes widened.
Trampoline made out of air...? Miyuki wondered. Izuku... said something one time, after the school festival, about a man whose Quirk could do that...!
Izuku's eyes became misty. "Gentle!"
But his moment of relief quickly ended. In the blink of an eye, Zin appeared in front of Miyuki, his face split into a maddening grin of malicious intent as he reached out to touch her. The half-and-half girl stared at his hand, eyes getting wider and wider the closer he got. She still couldn't move, not even a muscle, without releasing Kronos. She was stuck.
"Yuki-Chan!"
Izuku raced towards her, One for All surging to get him to her quicker, but he was just too slow as Zin's finger grazed a strand of her hair –
BWOOOM!!
An indigo-violet bullet streaked through the air and ripped through his hand before it could touch her face. Zin's eyes widened. Miyuki and Izuku stared at the bullet that had come flying out of nowhere, completely taken aback.
This projectile... Miyuki realized, exhaling shakily. It could only be...!
Her earpiece crackled to life.
"Sorry about Kurogiri, kid," said Lady Nagant. Miyuki heard her reload her arm rifle and, activating her Eagle vision the best she could, she saw the former assassin taking aim from the roof of Central hospital, fully adorned in her hero costume. "I let him get away from me. I won't be repeating that mistake."
"Nagant... San..." she breathed, corner of her mouth twitching into a smile despite her paralysis. More blood oozed from her face. "T-Thanks...!"
"Save your thanks for when you and that boy in green win this war," responded Lady Nagant. "You asked something of me. Even though I may be drowning in darkness now, I can still see it; that bright future... you and your friend reminded me of that. So, I intend to make each of these wills of mine I have left reach Midoriya Izuku and Sasaki Miyuki!"
BLAAM!
The second bullet whizzed through the air and took out Zin's other hand before he could stand.
"Nagant!" He seethed.
Izuku looked at Miyuki's face, fist clenching clumps of grass.
"Yuki-Chan..." he breathed.
"Yeah," she replied, not taking her eyes off of her brother as his limbs grew back. "I heard... I heard it, too."
"Kurogiri!" Zin shouted. "I can't properly control this body! It's lagging, transport me to the other me!"
But the Black plume of smoke did nothing, its yellow gaze remaining fixed ahead.
"No... who... where... sh... frie... nd..."
"I don't need One for All or Eclipse! D'you hear me, old man?! Do you intend to control everything?! My heart is just like theirs!" Zin declared, feathers and fingers surging from his body. "It won't be corrupted! Everything that exists in this world... everything that became of it... gave rise to this wretched family of mine! Shigaraki Akihiko and Zin... have only one wish...!"
Miyuki's eyes widened when Zin came at her again, this time much faster than before, blue eyes shimmering in vapid excitement. He didn't reach for her again. Rather, she felt a terrible shudder throughout her body when he wrapped his arms around her in a brotherly embrace.
Fear shot through her heart when he brought his hand to cradle the back of her head. Almost instantly, Katsuki's bloodied face flashed through her mind.
No... I can't...
"Onee-San!" Mirio exclaimed, terror gripping his heart when he saw the cracks on Miyuki's body darken. His hold around Katsuki's body tightened. "Onee-San!!"
I can't... let it end like this! Even though he... he would want me to keep fighting...! Katsuki, I'm sorry. I haven't...
Tears prickled at the corners of her eyes, some feeling coming back to her body as Zin hugged her more fiercely than before, activating Decay as he did so.
"To destroy everything that has to do with this family!"
I haven't... protected anybody yet!
But before he could fully bring forth the Quirk, a black whip wrapped around him and yanked him off of her, out of the cage, and free falling through the sky. Miyuki watched, horrified, as her best friend fell down with her brother.
"Izuku!" She gritted her teeth and, with some of her sensation back, used her light to move to the edge of the cage. "Izuku!"
"Midoriya-Kun!" Mirio shouted.
Zin's teeth glowed healthily against his frigid, pale skin as he stared up at the boy restraining him.
"Whoa, Whoa," he said, veins thrumming with excitement. "I'm not your villain, hero. Like hell you're the one bringing about my salvation, either."
"I won't let you do that! But..." Izuku's face cleared slightly as he landed on his feet, keeping Zin tethered to him and restrained using Blackwhip. He narrowed his eyes at the villain standing across from him, his heart beating with indignance and resolution. "I won't ignore my friend's call for help... when she sees her onii-san's tears!"
"...?" Zin covered his face and laughed.
Izuku tensed up, his hold around Blackwhip tightening.
"Man..." he let his hand fall to his side. "You kids in love really are so... pathetic."