44 Chapter 44: The World's Most Intense Staring Contest

"How are WE gonna save All Might...!? If he can't beat that thing we have no chance!" Ojiro stares at her like she's gone crazy

"Your part is simple... But dangerous" she points behind them "The Firetruck is leaking gas, go make it blow up as fast as possible, doesn't matter how as long as you don't get hurt"

He stares at her like she's gone even crazier "Huh!? Why!? What could that possibly do?"

"Don't matter! Go now! As Class Rep that's an order!" She turns him around and kicks him in the back to make him go!

"This is crazy!" He clenches his fists and runs towards the smoking truck "There'd better be a reason for this!! How can making the truck blow up help All Might!?"

Hitomi turns to Toru "Toru..." She sighs "You stay here"

"What!? But I-!" Hitomi puts a hand over her mouth

"I'm sorry... I know not giving you a role is insulting... But the next part is only something I can do..." She smiles and rests her other hand on Toru's shoulder "Trust me..." 'I'll feel much better with you here out of harm's way anyway...'

"Mmm..." Toru reluctantly nods her head... "Mi mus' ou..."

"I'll be back... I promise" she kisses Toru's forehead and sprints away before Toru can react to it 'I hope...'

"W-wah...? Hitomi wait!!" Toru rests a hand on her forehead and stares after her... But she doesn't stop

'Ha haaaa!! I kissed Toru! Not a proper kiss but still!! I'll take it!!' she keeps sprinting towards All Might and the monster, letting her momentary high from the kiss distract her from the fear she's feeling...

All Might grunts as he tries to pry Nomu's hand away from his bleeding weak spot! But he can't do it... Nomu's grip is too strong

Kurogiri glares down at All Might "Normally I wouldn't want blood and viscera flooding the insides of my warp gates, but I'll make an exception for a hero as great as-"

There's an explosion not too far away, from the other side of the fountain! And as all creatures do when hearing an unexpected loud noise, they all instinctively look in that direction

'Gotcha! Eyes don't fail me now!' Hitomi skids to a stop about twenty meters away as she rips her visor off her face and glares at the Monster's eye 'Direct eye contact, direct eye contact, direct eye contact!!' she focuses her gaze fully on the monster, even as a headache worse than any she's felt before explodes behind her eyes

All Might's eyes widen! 'What Is Sekizō Doing Here!?' below him Nomu grunts and he feels a change to the texture in his grip... He looks and sees Nomu's hand very slowly turning to stone 'This Is...? Her Quirk! I Remember Her File!' he grunts! "No! Young Sekizō! You Must Run Away! It's Too Dangerous!"

Shigaraki smiles behind his face hand "No no no child. Please stay. Stay and watch the Symbol of Peace die!"

Hitomi grunts and keeps her eyes focused on the monster! Never breaking eye contact 'C'mon C'mon...!'

The creepy guy gets more alert "Kurogiri... Something's-"

With a roar of effort All Might crushes Nomu's stone fingers to shards and dust and pulls himself free of it's clutches! Flipping behind it and getting it in a choke hold!

"No!!!" Shigaraki scratches his face "Kurogiri kill the girl and free Nomu!"

"At once" Kurogiri turns to Hitomi as tendrils of dark cloud burst from him "How foolish. Learn your place child." The tendrils all lash at Hitomi!

"Learn yours you Bastaaaard!!!!" Bakugo launches in from the side out of nowhere and lands an explosive hit on Kurogiri! Reaching in and grabbing his neck armour before dragging him down and forcing him the ground with a roar

Ice streaks across the ground and covers most of Nomu's torso, making it easier for All Might to hold it, Todoroki walks forward "One of your poorly

trained thugs told me you're here because you think you can kill All Might"

Kirishima launches at Shigaraki with a battle cry! The cry alerting the creep and letting him jump back out of harm's way "Damn that was gonna be cool...!"

Bakugo pins down a struggling Kurogiri by the neck armour "Guess I found your body that time, ya smoky bastard!"

Todoroki glares coldly, PUN INTENDED, at Shigaraki "The Symbol of Peace will not be defeated by delinquents like you"

All Might tightens the choke hold on Nomu and looks to Hitomi 'If She Manages To Petrify This Thing. I Won't Need To Spend The Effort To Fight It! I'll Have More Time In This Form To Protect The Children' "Young Sekizō! Can You Finish It!?"

Hitomi grunts and her legs tremble as the painful headache gets even worse...! "I-I can try...!! Don't let it go...!"

Nomu thrashes in All Might's grip and screeches! "Hold Still You!! We're Not Done Yet!"

"I'm here All Might!" Midoriya sprints past Bakugo and grabs Nomu by the beak! Keeping his head stable "I've got him! I'll help you!"

Stone slowly flows down Nomu's arms and legs... But the progress is agonizingly slow... Literally agonizing in Hitomi's case... 'It's... So strong...!! I thought... It's Quirk was... Shock Absorbing...!'

Away from the group at a bit of a distance... Tsu and Mineta, with the beaten Aizawa on their shoulders, watch on as their classmates appear one after another to aid the Number One Hero...

Mineta sniffles "Todoroki... and Bakugo..."

"And Kirishima too..." Tsu gulps... "But Hitomi looks like she's in trouble..."

Aizawa groans on their backs and slightly opens one eye and looks back at the Hero's and Villians...

Tsu looks back at him "Let them handle it, we need to hurry!"

Mineta nods "Yeah, okay!"

As they turn away and start moving again they miss Aizawa's hair starting to slightly stand up and float...

All Might grits his teeth and grunts "The Stone. Seems Faster Now! Keep Going Young Sekizō!"

As the Hero said, the stone is now flowing over Nomu much faster than it was! Nomu continues to screech but he can't move with all that's holding him down

Shigaraki stares at this scene and remains in place "Kurogiri... Nomu... How could you let a few stupid vrats get the best of you? You've gotten us into a real jam here..."

Bakugo grins and glares down at the warp Villain "You got careless, you dumb villain. It wasn't hard to figure you out. Only certain parts of you turn into that smoking warp gate. You used that mist to hide your actual body, as a kind of distraction. Thinking that made you safe!" He presses Kurigiri down harder "That's why we missed"

Kirishima clenches his fists at that...

Bakugo continues "But if you didn't have a body, you wouldn't be wearing this neck armor, right? You're not immune to physical attacks if they're well aimed!" Kurogiri tries to get up but Bakugo let's off a few small explosions on his neck "Don't move!" He leans down with a near deranged grin "You try anything funny, and I'll blow your ass up right now, you got it? They'll be peacin' you back together for weeks!"

"Ohhhh that doesn't sound very heroic" Kaminari grins at him

Shigaraki stays as still as he has been this entire time... "They escaped uninjured and captured my two strongest men. Kids these days really are amazing. They make the League of Villains look like amateurs" he turns to Nomu "Can't have that. Nomu"

Nomu screeches and tries pulling himself free of the portal... But with All Might, Midoriya and the ice holding him plus his legs being turned to stone... There's no hope for him

"What...? Nomu!! Get up!" Shigaraki starts getting agitated and scratches his face behind the hand "I said get up damn it!!" Nomu tries but... Just can't...

"No... You!" He turns to Hitomi "This is your fault! You started this! Cheater! You broke my Nomu!!" He takes off sprinting towards her! "If you want something done right do it yourself!"

"Hey hold it creep!!" Kirishima sprints to intercept "That's our Class Rep you're dissing!" He sends a hardened punch at Shigaraki's covered face!

"Get out if my way!" Shigaraki moves his head away from the blow and shoves Kirishima in the chest!

"Gaaaah!!" Kirishima cries out in pain and falls backwards to the ground as quite a few layers of his hardered skin cracks and turns to dust in the shape of Shigaraki's hand print

All Might goes to go after Shigaraki but as soon as he loosens his hold even slightly Nomu screeches and tries to escape! Causing Midoriya to cry out in alarm and All Might to tighten his hold again! "Run Sekizō!! Get Away From Him!"

Todoroki starts surfing a wave of Ice towards her! "I got it!"

Hitomi drops to one knee... Her vision blurring at the edges and blood dripping from her nose... Still with her eyes fixed on Nomu and deaf to the world... 'Almost... There...' her snakes are in a bad way too... they're all barely conscious... she hardly registers the approaching Shigaraki coming towards her with his hands outstretched... The pain is too much...

She sees a faint figure sprint past her... her snakes able to slightly make out the form of Toru as she sprints past towards an unaware Shigaraki!

After building up enough speed Toru leaps into the air and SLAMS both feet into Shigaraki's approaching chest! "Leave her alone!!!"

Shigaraki is knocked back and hits the ground HARD! Having all his breath knocked out if him and wheezing... "W-what...? Lag spike...?"

At that point Todoroki catches up and encases the downed Shigaraki in ice apart from his head "Hagakure? Was that you?"

Toru groans and sits up from where she herself landed... Hard "Yeah... Did I get 'im?"

"Hm" he nods "You did"

Behind Toru... Hitomi goes limp... And collapses on her side... Toru turns and gasps! "Hitomi!!!" She sprints over! "Hitomi!!"

Todoroki quickly turns around to check Nomu! Only to see All Might pulling a fully petrified Nomu through the rest of the portal and laying it down...

The Hero then looks over and sees the state of Hitomi! Quickly beginning to run over "Young Sekizō!"

Toru cradles Hitomi's head in her lap and tears start to drip onto the her face from Toru's... "H-Hitomi...? C-can you hear me...?"

Hitomi groans... And slowly opens her eyes to look up at Toru... "Did... I get 'im...?"

Toru meets her gaze and smiles letting out a half laugh half sob... Still with tears running down her cheeks "Yeah... You got him..."

"Everyone's... Safe...?" She slowly reaches up and brushes away a few tears from Toru's cheek...

Toru nods and sniffs... "Mhm... Everybody survived..."

Hitomi manages a small smile... "Yay..." Her hand flops down... And some tears of her own start to slide... "My head hurts Toru..."

"You're gonna be ok Hitomi... Recovery Girl will fix you right up... You'll be ok I promise..." More tears stream down Toru's cheeks...

"I believe... You..." Her head slowly drops to the side as her eyes close "I'm sleepy... I'm gonna..." she sighs "Night night... Love you..." She passes out...

Toru trembles "Hitomi you can't sleep yet...! Hitomi wake up...!! Hitomiiii!!!"

As All Might arrives at their side... The last of Hitomi's snakes that were conscious... Drops to the ground... Limp and lifeless...