Conqueror

Izuku smirked as he caught a flying foot in one hand, halting the kick that had just been aimed at his head. A split-second later he pulled his head back just in time to avoid a punch, snatching the offending hand out of the air as it passed just an inch from his nose. With a firm yank, he tossed the two opponents away from him, one off to his front and the other behind him.

"Ashido." He called. "I told you. You need to start utilizing your acid in melee combat. You could've thrown acid from your foot to make it harder for me to block."

"And Hagakure." He said, turning to look directly at her, despite the fact that, since she was wearing her costume, she was completely invisible. "You need to take more care to ensure that your movements are completely silent, and you should time your attacks a bit better to work with your allies."

Both girls groaned out loud from their positions on the ground, with Ashido speaking out.

"But controlling the potency on the fly is so hard." She complained. "It's even worse when I'm fighting. If I don't get it exactly right, then I could end up seriously hurting someone."

"That's exactly why you're practicing with me. Not only am I less likely to get hurt to begin with, but any damage won't be lasting. I'm the perfect test dummy. For the time being though, take an extra split-second to focus on the potency before you attack. You'll do that over and over until it becomes second nature to control it as you go. Force it down as low as you can make it to start off with if you have to. Even something like that in your enemy's eyes can make a huge difference."

Seeing the look of apprehension on her face, Izuku continued.

"Here. If it'll make you feel better, you can see for yourself. Come drip some of your acid on my h-."

Izuku's head jerked to the side just in time to avoid a hardened fist coming from behind.

Without skipping a beat, he grabbed the arm, before swinging its owner up into the air and slamming them down into the ground. The impact was strong enough to crack the pavement beneath.

It was a good thing that part of Izuku's training regimen for Kirishima involved him keeping his entire body hardened as much as possible. He could afford to be a bit harsher in his treatment.

"Trying to take you opponent by surprise while they're distracted." He remarked, rolling his shoulder. "Smart. But remember, you don't always have to go for the head. It's an effective target to deal significant damage, but it's also a riskier target that's harder to hit. There's nothing wrong with getting in a body shot, especially with your hardened punches."

Kirishima let out a small cough from his spot on the ground.

"Is there a reason you're hitting so hard? It's only sparring, right?" Kirishima asked. His tone made it sound like he was complaining, but the smile on his face gave away how he was really feeling. He was excited. Whether it was because of the sparring itself, the fact that he was able to use his quirk with no reservations, or the simple fact that they were training their quirks in the first place, was anyone's guess.

"You're right." Izuku responded. "This is just sparring. That's why you're still conscious right now. And the reason we're doing it like this is so that you can improve as much as physically possible in the two weeks we have until the sports festival. One of the best methods to do so is through direct experience. A trial by fire, so to speak."

Looking around himself, Izuku observed the states of the students he'd chosen to spar with today. Ashido, Hagakure, and Kirishima were still on the ground. They weren't necessarily hurt, just sore and exhausted. Tsuyu was a few feet away, also on the ground but sitting up and looking better than the first three. And finally, Yaoyorozu was the only one still on her feet. She was leaning on a staff she'd created and was nursing an already-forming bruise on her side.

This sparring might indeed seem harsh to most, but it wasn't as if he was simply beating his classmates senseless for no reason. No, he was actively giving them advice as they went, telling them how to correct their mistakes in order to avoid getting taken down as they had. And it went without saying that he was going quite easy on them.

And his method was working. That was the biggest reason he was doing it like this.

Today was only the second day of sparring – the third day since they had begun training – and already he was seeing some minor improvements from them. It wasn't anything spectacular – a split-second faster reaction time here, a better bout of teamwork there, a correct prediction of how he would react – but it was noticeable improvement nonetheless.

These five were among the ones who needed fighting experience more than the others. Ashido, as he'd said, needed to be able to utilize her acid in a fight, and Hagakure needed to learn to properly support her allies as best she could while remaining unseen. Kirishima simply needed to enhance his quirk, both in his reaction time in activating it and with the amount of time he could keep it active. Tsuyu had a mutation quirk, so the extent of her training was to enhance her base physical capabilities and get her more experience in a fight. Yaoyorozu, despite being the most skilled of the group, needed practice when it came to using her quirk in a fight. Beyond simply creating weapons to use, that is.

Hers was easily the most versatile of the group. If she were able to use it properly, she would have the potential to take on her four teammates in a fight and stand a decent chance at winning.

The problem, however, was in her nerves.

Maybe it came from the ridiculous amount of forethought and preparation that her quirk required, both in figuring out what she needed to create and in then remembering its composition, but there was a certain amount of apprehension in her actions. It wasn't much, but he saw her hesitate the slightest bit just before creating a tool or weapon to use.

She either needed to become proficient enough in her decision-making that such hesitation was not necessary to begin with, or learn to push past it and make the best of what she creates, even if it isn't the best for a given situation.

There wasn't much that could be done about that aside from drilling the apprehension out of her. Get her used to fast-paced situations enough that she doesn't hesitate. Make it so that she can't hesitate, until eventually she won't.

Seeing them all in various states of exhaustion, Izuku relaxed a bit.

"Alright. We're taking a break. I'm going to check on everyone else, then we'll get going again."

He ignored the collective sigh of relief as he turned to start heading towards the others. His group had set up in a corner of the training site, so as to put as much distance between themselves and the others as possible.

These five weren't the only students that needed more experience in a fight, nor were the only ones that he planned to spar with, they were simply the first ones he'd chosen. Really, with the exception of Yaoyorozu and Ashido, he could've chosen anyone from the class. The only reason those two in particular were singled out was because their training specifically would require a bit more time than most of the others.

Izuku would've liked nothing more than to spar against all nineteen at once, rather than splitting them up as he had, but as fun as it would be for him, it wouldn't be very helpful for them.

Not only would it be a waste of time for everyone to fight him at once – as with such a large group, there would be more of him incapacitating them than advising them – but not all of them even needed fighting experience, some only needed to improve their quirk.

Bakugou and Todoroki were prime examples of this, with Ochako being pretty close. Both had excellent experience, there wasn't but so much they could get out of sparring with him. He only had one day slated for the two of them.

Ochako was in something of a middle ground between the two groups. She definitely had quirkless combat down, but could probably stand to fight with her quirk more than she had. He was planning on pulling her away during the second week to spar with her. In the meantime, he had her constantly using her quirk on herself and on as much debris as possible, so as to increase both her tolerance and her limits.

At the same time, Todoroki was improving his fine control over his ice. He'd already displayed his outright power, but Izuku wanted to see how detailed he could get with the ice he produced.

Todoroki had been somewhat skeptical, in his own silent, apathetic way, that such training would be necessary, until Izuku tasked him with creating a perfect cube with his ice. It had taken three failed attempts before he realized that Izuku was right. Izuku had left him with a list of various shapes and structures to work on over the two weeks. If he performed as well as Izuku was hoping he would, then he'd be creating intricate ice sculptures by the time the festival arrived.

He also, at some point, wanted to talk to Todoroki about his apparent refusal to use his fire, but he was a bit hesitant to do so.

It didn't take a genius to figure that there must be a fairly significant reason why he didn't use it. Such a huge part of himself, and he was neglecting it outright. Something that big was most likely very personal in nature. Not only was Izuku woefully unsuited for that sort of conversation, he also had no interest in even attempting.

He hated to see such a powerful quirk misused, but at the same time, no one had any right to make that decision except for Todoroki. If the reason behind it was as personal as Izuku suspected, then he had no right to interfere. All he could do was help to improve Todoroki���s ice as much as possible to make up the difference.

Then there was Bakugou, the one whom he knew the least about, both in personality and in his skills. He'd already seen that Bakugou seemed to be fairly proficient when it came to fighting, so instead of focusing on that, Izuku had him focusing on his quirk, just like Todoroki. He would be working on producing the largest explosions he was capable of, as often as he was able to. Izuku had also mentioned to him the possibility of using his explosions as a method of propulsion. After seeing how Bakugou had utilized his quirk during the quirk apprehension test on their first day, he wondered if the same method could be applied for temporary vertical propulsion as well.

All of the other students were working on various aspects of their quirk just the same.

Jirou was working on improving the strength of her jacks, repeatedly stabbing them into the walls of the building she was in. She was also fine-tuning her quirk for reconnaissance. He'd sent her to the top floor of on of the buildings close to the center of the site and tasked her with picking out which students were where and marking down their locations on a map.

Shoji was tasked with splitting his arms into as many separate limbs as he could and controlling them all simultaneously.

Sero was currently swinging his way through the mock city like a pre-quirk era fictional hero, improving his mobility and pushing the limit of how much tape he could produce at once.

Each of them had a specific method of training specially tailored for them. Then later on he would be pulling most of them away to spar with him.

Izuku paused on his way to start checking on students.

Actually. He might be able to bring some more into his sparring group today. Some that might could use it. That might help balance things out a bit. And these particular students could probably use it.

A smirk appeared on his face. This might make things a bit more fun.

---

Twenty minutes later, Izuku had checked in with everyone and was back with his group, this time with two new students to join in.

"Alright everyone." He called. "Break's over. Time to get back to it."

He was surprised – though very pleased – when he didn't hear any groaning or complaining as the original five got up off the ground. Instead, when he looked around at all of them, he saw – assumed, in Hagakure's case – only determination in their eyes. Determination to withstand his training and grow stronger because of it.

A smile broke out on his face when he saw this. He was getting excited in the face of such determination.

"Also, from now on, we'll have Ojiro and Mineta joining us as well. So any strategies you might have should adjust to include them."

"Before we begin." He continued, looking down at the shortest student. "Mineta. Your quirk. Toss me one."

Said student looked up at him in confusion. "What? But it'll stick to you?"

"I'm aware. I would still like to look at it."

Still looking at him with a curious expression, Mineta reached up and plucked a ball from his head, before tossing it to Izuku, who snatched it out of the air.

Bringing it closer to observe it, Izuku tried pulling his fingers away experimentally. As expected, they barely budged, limited to only as far as the ball was willing to flex. The same was true in the opposite direction, when he attempted to crush it.

He might only have two strength quirks active at the moment, but still, it was surprisingly resilient.

"Yaoyorozu. I don't suppose you could make a rag of some sort? I'd like to remove this without sticking my other hand to it."

"Of course." She replied, already handing one to him.

He took it, wrapping it around the ball and concealing the hand it was stuck to in one movement.

Using 'Metallum,' he transformed the palm of his hand. His skin might not be able to withstand what he was about to do, but if it was metal then there shouldn't be an issue.

With that done, he gripped at the covered ball with his free hand and tore it away in one swift movement, dropping 'Metallum' and instant later.

He checked out his hand as he tossed the ball off behind him, and was pleased when he didn't see any damage.

"Now then." He said, rolling his neck. "Now that-that's done, let's get started."

"Wait, we just got here." Ojiro said. "Don't we at least get a chance to make a plan before we start?"

"Nope. As you'll soon find out, this is as close to a real fight as we can get in a training situation. There won't be many times where you have an opportunity to strategize beforehand, so neither will you have any right now. Learn to plan on the fly."

"So what are you getting out of this?" Mineta asked, tone a bit annoyed. "If this is meant to be training, how is it helping you?"

He could understand where Mineta was coming from. The boy's scalp was already bleeding from repeatedly using his quirk, and now he was about to get into a decidedly one-sided fight.

"This is more for your benefit than it is mine." Izuku answered. "To get you as much fighting experience as possible before the festival. Besides, you've all seen me fight. Are you able to legitimately suggest that I am lacking in ability or experience?"

Mineta didn't answer that. None of them did.

"That being said, I do see your point." He continued. "It's not fair that I'm not challenging myself at all with this."

Looking around, he spotted the staff that Yaoyorozu had created earlier, now discarded on the ground. It was made of metal, it would work perfectly for what he needed.

"Kirishima. Would you mind tossing me that staff there next to you?"

"Uh, sure?" He said, already moving to do so. "Why do you need it?"

Izuku caught the staff out of the air, already pulling on 'Weapon Mastery.'

"Because while I am not lacking in experience when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, that is not so much the case when it comes to handheld weapons."

Letting his quirk guide him, he spun the staff in his hands, enjoying the way it hummed through the air, before letting it come to a stop against his back.

"I might as well use this opportunity to do something about that."

Izuku smirked as he saw the vaguely irritated looks the other students shot at Mineta, and the look of regret in his eyes.

"Now then, I suggest you get moving before I come to you."

He didn't even finish speaking before he was already on the move. He charged straight for Kirishima, swinging the staff around and cracking it across his arm, which Izuku was pleased to see was already raised and hardened to block. That didn't stop him from getting tossed to the side, however.

Immediately after, he leaned back to avoid a kick from Tsuyu, bringing the staff up a split-second later to smack the side of her knee, then again across her back, sending her rolling as soon as she hit the ground.

With her out of the way, he brought an arm up to block Ojiro's tail, simultaneously, swinging the staff to deflect Hagakure's fist that had been aimed at his stomach. Grabbing the tail, he swung Ojiro into Hagakure, sending them both to the ground.

Right at that moment, he heard a massive explosion off to his side. He looked over just in time for a cannonball to impact his side. It didn't hurt, not with 'Shock Absorption' doing its job. But although it didn't measure up to the Noumu, he still felt it.

"Excellent."

He felt his smirk growing, even as he rewarded Yaoyorozu with another bruise and disabled the cannon.

Izuku didn't get a moment to breathe as Kirishima was on him again. The boy was right in front of him, throwing a punch aimed at his face.

He brought the staff down across Kirishima's hardened face, sending him into the ground.

Just as he did though, he noticed something in his peripheral, too late to dodge.

Izuku turned to look just in time to get a face full of acid, blinding him. At the same time, he felt something hitting his left arm, sticking it to his torso before he could pull it away.

"Excellent!"

With one hand, now that the other was incapacitated, he cracked the staff across Ashido's wrist, deflecting her incoming punch before delivering a follow up hit to her ribs. Then, in the follow-through, he hit Mineta away from him, sending the boy flying based on what he could hear.

Before anyone else could make a move, he spread his wings, thrusting them downwards with enough force to send up dust. He didn't take off into the air, as it wouldn't be fair to most of them, he simply intended to halt the fight for a moment or two.

Giving his trapped arm an experimental tug, he found that, just like with his hand, he wasn't able to free it without something else being added to the mix.

He could also feel the flesh around the upper half of his face sizzling ever so slightly, ensuring that he wouldn't be opening his eyes for a few minutes. Ashido must've misjudged the potency by a bit.

Not that he was going to point that out of course, at least not yet. This was the first time she'd used her quirk offensively in a fight as far as he'd observed, he wasn't about to say something that might put her back to square one. Besides, it was barely giving him any discomfort, and any damage caused would be counteracted by his healing quirks.

With his smile still in place, he poured his focus into 'Proximity.'

He'd already had the quirk active – it was rare that he ever had it inactive – but now he simply focused on it a bit more than usual, as it had temporarily become his only method for seeing his opponents.

"Very good." He said. "Very good indeed."

He pulled on one more strength and speed quirk, feeling them settle into place.

He was down to one arm and no eyes; he needed a little something to level the playing field.

"Well?" He asked, seeing that none of them were moving. "What are you all waiting for?"

"Uh, shouldn't we take a break so you can get your arm free?" Kirishima asked. "And so you can get the acid out of your-."

His words cut off as Izuku's fist impacted his stomach, which was thankfully hardened to avoid most of the damage. Izuku didn't stop there though, as he picked Kirishima up by the neck and threw him at Ojiro, who was identifiable by his tail, even if Izuku couldn't currently distinguish anyone based on things such as facial features.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves now. You would be mistaken if you assumed that I've never had to fight without my eyes or with only one arm."

He didn't specifically mention the USJ, but he knew that all of them were thinking of that day, when he'd had to fight under such a condition.

"Now then." He said with a smile. "As I said a minute ago. I suggest you get moving before I come to you."

---

"Are you excited Shadow?" Oni asked. "Because I'm excited."

It was the following night, and Oni and Shadow were together, as they almost always were nowadays.

The other vigilante sighed in response. "Yes, Oni. I suppose you could say I am somewhat excited. Though it is almost certainly for a different reason than why you are."

"Oh? Do tell."

"There's no doubt in my mind that the reason you're excited is because we're walking into a fight that's likely to give us more trouble than usual. Because you're an adrenaline junkie. My excitement, if it can even be called that, is because we're finally about to score a serious hit against the Triad."

The two vigilantes were walking up to the building that would be their target for the night.

It wasn't much different from any other location they might go after. It was a small and unassuming single-story brick building on the outside, and led to a much larger space below ground. There were, however, a few notable differences that Oni picked up on.

For starters, there weren't any windows, and there was only one single door. Only one entrance.

The utility of having other points of entry to serve as potential emergency exits was cancelled out by how small the building was. Any opponent that presented enough of a danger to necessitate an emergency exit would not be so stupid as to not surround the building.

The door itself seemed to be made of steel, and Oni could tell just from looking at it that it was at least as thick as the walls were.

And speaking of the walls, a brief check with 'Spectrum' revealed that they, along with the roof, were all reinforced with steel.

This wasn't so much a normal location, meant to facilitate the Triad's primary function of human and quirk trafficking, as it was a veritable fortress.

A fortress to protect the person Oni and Shadow were after tonight.

After some time of harassing the Triad, clearing out minor locations and freeing their victims almost every night, they'd finally decided it was time to target someone a bit higher up on the chain of command.

Shadow was right. Oni was absolutely excited for the fight that was to come.

Just looking at the effort put into not only making the location as secure as possible, but also making sure such security measures were hidden, painted a picture for what they could hope to encounter once they'd entered. Whoever was inside must be important, which either meant that-that person would be stronger than the usual fodder, or they had someone like that nearby to protect them.

Oh yes. He was absolutely excited.

Oni had already pulled on the quirk that changed his legs, making them scaled and digitigrade, just as he had pulled on his claw quirk. He also had the strength and speed quirks he'd pulled from the Noumu, putting him on the same level as it for this fight.

Because of the security they could observe, they didn't bother with attempting to be stealthy as they approached, instead simply walking towards it.

There wasn't anyone outside keeping watch, nor was there anyone nearby as far as any of them could tell. But while that would normally be a sign of incompetency, here it simply wasn't necessary. The strength of the building afforded them that privilege. That, and the fact that the sheer number of cameras and sensors surrounding the building was almost comparable to Yueii.

He'd asked Rei to turn them all off as they approached. It would give him and Shadow away, but no more than leaving them on would've. Besides, like this, the people inside would have no idea what was approaching, only that something was. With luck, that would drive them into something of a panic as they prepared.

They came to a stop as they reached the door, which looked more like a vault door than something that should be the entrance to the building.

"So what's the plan then, Oni?" Shadow asked. "Want to wrestle with this like you did that vault during our first raid?"

"Ha. Hardly." Oni responded. "If I really wanted to, and didn't care about the collateral damage, I would simply blow the entire building away to get at what lies beneath. But no, I've got a much simpler method in mind."

He brought a hand up to rest it on the door.

"You see, whoever made that vault decided to make it out of titanium of all things. A massive waste of money if you ask me, because something that big made entirely of titanium would've cost about as much of the rest of the facility. But these people were much more sensible."

He pulled on a quirk that was absolutely perfect for this situation, feeling it settle into place a moment later, focused primarily around his hands.

"I would back up a bit if I were you." He advised. "This is going to make a mess."

Once Shadow had backed up a suitable distance, Oni continued.

"You see, whoever made this door had it made out of steel. Which, aside from being much more cost efficient, means that it's an iron alloy, which works out perfectly for me."

He focused on the new quirk in his hands, activating it. As soon as he did, the entire door immediately rippled, before liquidizing.

It was as if it had been melted. The now-liquid door flowed to the ground with the consistency of syrup, spreading across the ground and clearing the way for them.

The metal wasn't even warm to the touch as it flowed over his scaled feet. It was still cool from the night air. It made for a very odd sensation.

The quirk didn't melt metal, at least not with heat, it simply temporarily liquidized it.

It was aptly named, 'Liquid Metal.'

Backing away from the mess, he shook his feet to hopefully rid himself of anything that had clung to him. It only took a few moments for the metal to solidify again, freezing in a mishappen puddle.

With that done, Shadow was at his side again.

"…Do I even want to know how you're able to do that?"

"The answer to that is the same as any other time you've asked such a question. Just don't worry about it. Let it be and live your life."

"The entire upper building is empty." Rei announced. "They're all down below, getting ready for you."

"Sounds like fun."

Oni was liking these people more and more every minute. In addition to everything else, they were also smart enough to pull back to prepare instead of rushing out to face an unknown number of assailants.

A smile stretched across his face as his heartbeat increased in tempo.

"Let's get started then."

He and Shadow navigated through the building easily enough. It didn't take them long to reach the stairs that led down to the main part of the facility, and soon enough they were standing outside the door that led from the stairwell to everything else.

Oni could feel all the other people on the other side. No one was moving, and they were all spread throughout the space.

They were ready.

Oni hummed to himself as he brought his hands together, cracking his knuckles. The door was just as big as the one that led into the building. Now, he could very easily just liquidize it as he had the other one, but he had a much better idea for how he wished to start things off.

"Phantom, is there anyone directly between the door and the far wall? Would anyone be in the way if someone were to, oh I don't know, kick the door off its hinges?"

"You should be clear. Doesn't look like anyone's in the way."

"Why would you want to do that?" Shadow asked. "Couldn't you just melt it like you did before?"

"Why of course I could, Shadow. But that simply isn't as fun as what I'm about to do."

He stepped up closer to the door, shuffling through his active quirks and relishing the way his heart pounded away in his chest.

"Besides, first impressions are important. What kind of person would I be if I didn't immediately convey how fucked they all are right from the beginning?"

With that, he took a firm step forwards and kicked the center of the door as hard as he could. The massive door, bent slightly at its middle, separated from the wall, actually taking some of it along. It buried itself into the wall on the other side of the room.

Motioning for Shadow to stay put for the moment, out of view, Oni strode into the room, looking around at all of its inhabitants.

There were quite a few, somewhere around twenty in total, with a decent range of quirks. And even better, hardly any of them looked scared.

Normally, in this sort of scenario, his opponents would look pretty close to soiling themselves by this point. But instead, most everyone present tonight was displaying some variation of grim determination or anger as they watched him.

'Good.' He thought. 'Resist while you can. Make this as fun as possible for me.'

"Hello there, everyone!" He called out in greeting. "My name is O-."

A gunshot rang out, cutting him off, the noise echoing throughout the room.

In the silence that followed, the criminals all watched as Oni worked his mouth around, then spat something down at the floor.

That something pinged like metal hitting concrete as it bounced across the floor. Those that were close enough saw that it was the deformed remains of a bullet that had impacted something.

Oni looked down at the floor, inspecting the tiny, crushed piece of metal that he'd nearly just unintentionally swallowed. 'Shock Absorption' had rendered it useless. He barely even felt any discomfort where it had hit him.

He looked up at the person who had fired it. They had their arm outstretched, and he could clearly see the hole in their palm that must serve as the barrel for a gun quirk. Aside from that, he could see that they had joined the small number of people in the room that were afraid of him, seeing how useless their quirk had been.

His smile reappeared as he looked at them.

"Okay, first of all, that was quite rude of you. I wasn't even done talking. And second-."

In the blink of an eye, he was face-to-face with the criminal, separated by mere inches. He watched the fear in their eyes skyrocket as they caught up with him.

Taking their forearm in his hand, he crushed it, rendering their quirk completely useless. Just as the scream began to escape their throat, he placed a foot on their chest and launched them into the wall, silencing it before it even started.

Oni laughed as everyone else finally realized what had happened and scrambled to react.

"Let's get this party started, shall we?"

Before anyone could do anything, he brought his hands together in a massive clap, unleashing a shockwave that made everyone's ears ring and sent the people closest to him flying.

Just as he rushed forwards to really start the fight, he spotted Shadow appearing from the shadow of one of the criminals.

Oni let out another laugh as the entire room descended into chaos.

---

"Well that was a nice way to start tonight off." Oni said, looking out across the fallen criminals spread throughout the room.

"Whatever you say, Oni." Shadow said as he knelt down to check on one of them.

Oni hummed to himself as he picked his way through the maze of bodies. Unfortunately, none of the ones they'd encountered in this first batch had anything that was worth taking. But the night was still young, and this location was supposed to be the biggest one they'd encountered so far.

Just as he was about to step over a particularly large mutation quirk, he felt something that made him freeze in place.

For the shortest instant, not even half a second, he'd felt… something, on the edge of his mind. In that split-second, it was almost as if his body had refused to move. He brought his hands up, inspecting them. It was such a short, insignificant thing, he almost wasn't sure anything had even happened at all. Maybe he'd simply hesitated for a moment for no other reason than pure random happenstance.

He shook his head. Either way, they still had more work to do. And if that really was something, then he'd soon find out.

---

It happened again as they encountered the next group. It was a smaller batch than the first, but consisted of arguably better quirks. He'd started things off almost exactly the same way, but as soon as he moved to begin dealing with the rest, he felt the mysterious sensation again. His movements had halted for a full second, and it felt as though something were pressing against his mind. And this time, he saw Shadow freeze up as well.

He wasn't quite sure what to make of it. It wasn't mind control, he'd experienced that before, and this most certainly wasn't that.

It was almost as if he'd encountered something that was making some baser instinct in his mind freeze up in the face of it.

Whatever it was, he wasn't a fan. It was almost certainly the result of a quirk, and he would make sure to hurt whoever was responsible.

As he shook it off once more, he turned his focus back towards his current opponents, now enjoying himself a bit less than he had been.

---

It kept happening as the two vigilantes continued to make their way further into the facility. It started happening more frequently the further they got, to the point that once every few minutes the feeling would wash over them and make them freeze. What's more, is that the further they got, the more intense the feeling became.

Oni was lucky in that it already barely affected him, and that the more that it happened, the more frustrated he became, which in turn made it easier for him to brush it off.

Shadow, on the other hand, wasn't so fortunate. It wasn't by much, but each time the feeling came again, he would freeze up for a few seconds before he was able to push past it. And he was naturally a level-headed person, so he wasn't one to get frustrated nearly as easily as Oni.

It eventually got to the point that Shadow was barely able to assist in the fight. He was being forced to sit back as Oni went in. He wasn't nearly as durable as Oni was, and apparently he wasn't as resistant to whatever quirk this was that was making things so difficult for them. Shadow couldn't push through whatever it was to avoid injury in the middle of a fight, nor was he resistant enough to avoid injury to afford that much of a delay.

Oni growled as it happened again, forcing him to pause just long enough for one of his opponents to land a solid hit to his chest, until he pushed through an instant later to retaliate, breaking both of the criminal's arms in the process.

That was the worst part of this; the fact that none of the criminals around him were being affected by whatever was happening. More than that, they seemed to be specifically timing their attacks for those very moments. It was as if they not only knew what was happening, but were actively expecting and predicting it.

'I swear. I am going to remove their legs if this keeps up.'

He caught a kick that was aimed at him, breaking the criminal's ankle. An instant later, they were sailing through the air and into one of their comrades, impacting with enough to break bones.

Barely even five full seconds after the last, the feeling washed over him again.

He grimaced. 'Fuck it. I'll remove your arms too.'

---

Three separate fights and twenty minutes later, and Oni was bordering on fully infuriated.

Oni and Shadow – the latter suffering from a migraine at this point – eventually found themselves at the end of a long hallway, lined with doorways.

By now the feeling was coming several times in a minute and felt more like a physical force pressing down on them than anything else.

Though, for the past few minutes, the feeling had stopped altogether, which was why Shadow had caught back up with Oni at all. It was a bit of a relief, not having his actions stuttering along like a video with poor internet connection, and not feeling as though a massive weight was pressing against both his mind and body at the same time.

Though, at the same time, the fact that he had yet to encounter the source gave him a sense of foreboding.

They had yet to actually come face-to-face with whoever was causing it. And since it was obviously getting stronger the closer they got, they'd yet to experience it at its strongest.

As the two worked their way down the hallway, checking the rooms as they went for criminals, Oni kept an eye out as best he could, both with 'Proximity' and 'Spectrum,' hoping to catch some sign of the one who'd been giving him so much trouble.

Oni froze in place – this time under his own volition – when they finally got far enough for 'Proximity' to pick up someone waiting just around the corner at the end of the hallway. He held an arm across Shadow's chest to stop him.

As if waiting for this cue, a man stepped into view.

He was enormous, bordering on what Oni would expect to see from a mutation quirk, almost the same size as All Might. Jet black hair, a hooked nose, and a jaw so defined and square-like it was almost funny.

Oni didn't hesitate to use 'Appraisal.'

[Name: Asari Sho]

[Quirk: Conqueror. Passive, Focus. Mental/Enhancement/Manipulation. Mental/Enhancement/Manipulation.]

[Transforms the user's willpower into a physical force. The strength of this force is directly proportional to the strength of the user's willpower.]

[Passive use increases the weight behind the user's words, making other's more likely to listen.]

[Active use exerts the user's will upon others.]

Oni smiled upon taking in the information provided.

'You!'

Before he could do much of anything, however, he noticed one of the man's – Asari's – fists opening, dropping something to the floor. He watched as that something, several somethings, clattered at the man's feet, realizing a second later that they were syringes. There was only thing that could mean

Trigger.

His eyes widened, darting back up to look at Asari. He saw something flash across the man's eyes as he thrust an arm out at him and Shadow. Immediately, he saw cracks appearing on every visible surface as something barreled straight for them.

In an instant, Oni grabbed the back of Shadow's collar and threw him as far back down the hallway as he could, before turning back towards Asari and bracing.

It hit him with all the force of a train, freezing him in place and almost pushing him backwards, all while weighing down on his mind so much that it felt as though he were drowning.

He couldn't move in the face of it, could barely even breathe. It wasn't so much the physical force itself that was keeping him from moving, however. If it were physical force alone then he would have no issue brushing it off and ending this. No, it was whatever the quirk was doing to his mind that kept him immobile. It was as if it froze his mind in place, keeping him from thinking properly, or controlling himself.

But, no matter how strong it might be, or how much it threatened to suffocate him, it could not blot him out entirely. He could still feel that he had some degree of control. Otherwise he would've been blown away as soon as it hit him.

With all the control over himself that he had at the moment, he started drawing on quirks.

First was 'Wrath.' Immediately it took in the frustration that had been building up and converted it into raw power. He felt the intensity of Asari's quirk drop as fresh strength burned through him.

Then came 'Metallum.' It flashed across his body, turning flesh and bone into pure tungsten. The floor beneath him cracked as his new weight settled on it, even as the force bearing down on him became that much more bearable with his hardened skin.

He took a step forward, pulling on 'Gecko' to keep his footing and ensure he wasn't pushed back.

Asari's eyes widened when he saw Oni take a step, pushing past his quirk.

Oni, on the other hand, started smiling once more as he took another step, pulling on more strength quirks as he did. With each one, his pace increased, quickening until he was walking down the hallway at a normal speed.

The quirk was still weighing down on him, rendering his mind nearly blank and making him feel as though he were walking with a mountain on his back. Each step took a colossal amount of effort, the floor beneath cracking with every one, but still he continued to walk.

The criminal was starting to visibly panic as he saw Oni resist his quirk. He redoubled his efforts, sending another wave of force down the hallway at him. It didn't achieve anything though. Oni merely brushed it off, continuing his steady pace towards the criminal.

As he came within twenty feet of the man, Oni watched as he reached into a pocket and pulled more syringes out. His eyes widened at the sight. Asari had already taken so much, enough to potentially be lethal, but now he intended to take more?

On top of that, Oni was only just withstanding the man's quirk as it was. If he took another dose of that size, what would he be capable in the short-lived blaze of glory before his body collapsed?

The world slowed to a crawl as Asari raised the syringes into the air, preparing to bring them down into his arm.

Seeing that, Oni dropped to all fours, sinking his clawed fingers into the floor.

With as much force as he could muster, and pushing through the quirk as much as he could at such close proximity, he launched himself forwards, closing the last few feet that separated them.

As he travelled through the air, he dropped his hold on 'Metallum' and he claw quirk, exposing his hands as they reached for the criminal.

The moment his skin came into contact with Asari, he tore the quirk from the man, bringing the oppressive force to an abrupt end.

As soon as he felt the weight lift from his mind, before he even touched the ground, he spun around in midair and planted his feet on Asari's chest, before sending the man flying into a wall, where he dropped to the floor.

Oni settled on his feet, panting from the exertion.

Shadow's voice appeared over his earpiece a moment later.

"It's stopped." He announced, oh-so helpfully. "Are you okay? Is it over?"

Oni let out a shaky breath. "Not quite, I'm afraid."

He looked down to where the syringes were sticking from his chest. Three of them, plungers fully depressed.

Reaching a hand up, he pulled them out, hand trembling slightly, and tossed them off to the side.

He saw Shadow appear at the end of the hallway. Even at this distance he could see blood running down the vigilante's face. Hopefully that was simply from the pressure of the man's quirk, and not a bad landing from where Oni had thrown him.

Before he could ask, the thought was burned from his mind as a wave of fire surged through his chest. He gasped at the sensation, and found himself on his knees an instant later, Shadow already rising from the darkness next to him.

The vigilante was crouched down next to him immediately.

"Oni! Are you okay? What's happening?" He asked, just as Rei's voice sounded out, asking the same thing.

"I-."

He gasped again, this time doubling over as another wave tore through him. He could feel Shadow's hand on his back.

"Trigger." He managed to say through clenched teeth. "Fucker was going to inject himself. Accidentally got me instead."

"Oh shit." He heard Rei whisper. She'd immediately grasped the severity of the situation.

Trigger was an incredibly dangerous drug that served to enhance a person's quirk. It was the result of an experiment to artificially strengthen quirks, which was deemed too dangerous to the user and immediately halted. And then, naturally, it appeared almost immediately in the underground drug trade.

In a normal situation, with a single dosage, on a target with a single quirk, it yielded significant results. Significant enough to turn the tide of most any fight.

But this was by no means a normal situation.

He'd just been injected with three doses at once.

And he had one-hundred-twenty-seven quirks packed beneath his skin.

A pained grunt escaped his throat as he felt another fresh wave of fire, this one more intense than the last. He was doubled over so far that his head was touching the floor.

"Fuck." He cursed. "It burns."

He could feel it starting. His chest, right where his quirks were settled. It felt as though there was something boiling within him.

At the same time, he could feel energy begin to buzz through his body. It was as if lightning had begun to course through him, and it was growing more intense with each passing second.

"Oni. We need to get you to a hospital." Shadow said, voice concerned. "I've never seen someone take so much Trigger before, but a regular amount is dangerous on its own. We need to get you some help."

He tried to pick Oni up by the arm, only to be thrown back a few feet as Oni pushed him away. It was a testament to how much the Trigger was already doing. He'd tried to limit the strength behind the push as much as possible.

"No." He groaned, his breath quickening. "It's not-. Not safe."

He could feel his quirks raging within him. A veritable hurricane with how powerful and chaotic it felt.

Most of them might be inactive, but they were still there. They were still in his body and within reach of the drug as it coursed through him.

Even now, he could feel them. Each one blazed like an inferno compared to how they normally felt. They threatened to bubble up from their place, activating without his consent. He struggled to keep them contained within.

He could tell right away that it wasn't working. A few kept slipping through his fingers, activating and adding to the crazed energy coursing through him. It was like trying to hold water in his hands.

"What do you mean, Oni? You need help."

Oni smacked his head against the floor in frustration. Frustration that was only being further incensed by the fire burning through him.

"No. Not safe." He repeated. Then, between breaths. "Shadow. You… Need to run."

"What? No. I'm not just going to leave you here-."

His words cut off as a shockwave rocketed out from Oni, courtesy of his newest quirk, which had escaped its spot in his chest. It was shoved back into place an instant later.

He groaned. There wasn't any time for pointless arguing. He could feel the energy within him reaching a peak, and his quirks were becoming harder and harder to keep a grip on. He needed to do something. He needed some way to burn off the energy, and with the way his quirks were misbehaving, that would not be safe for anyone near him.

"I said..."

Oni lifted himself up off the ground, forcing himself to look up at Shadow.

"RUN!"

Oni couldn't be sure what the other vigilante saw, but whatever it was made him sink into his own shadow immediately, disappearing from view.

Oni dropped his head back to the floor as soon as he was gone.

"Oni." Rei said. "What's going-."

"Phantom." He groaned, cutting her off, only barely remembering to call her such instead of her real name, as Shadow still had his earpiece. "It burns. It burns. I can't hold it back. Can't control it."

"What do you need?" She asked, voice shaking the slightest bit. "What can I d-."

"Eraser." He managed to squeeze out. "Eraserhead. Tell him… Dagobah."

"Alright. I'm on it. Just hang in-." He stopped listening as the burning became too intense to spare any attention to anything else.

His breathing kept speeding up. At this point he was barely a step away from hyperventilating. Quirks were constantly slipping from his grip and up to the surface. He was struggling so much to keep them contained, pulling them back so fast that he could barely tell what ones were even active at this point. He thought he could still feel his wings and horns where they were supposed to be, and his feet still felt the same, so at least he had that.

This continued for several long seconds, each one stretching out as everything climbed towards a peak.

Eventually, he pulled himself up in a single swift movement, gasping for air as he recognized the exact moment he lost his grip on himself.

The world around him was deathly silent for a single instant. The only things that existed in that moment was the thundering of his heart and the fire coursing through him.

In that instant, before everything came crashing down, he recognized one of the quirks that had escaped his grip and settled on the surface. He knew immediately what was about to happen. And although he was the one about to do it, he knew that he could do nothing to stop it. The energy burning through him needed to be released.

As he felt the world begin to crash back down around him, he closed his eyes.

Then his mouth snapped open, and out came a screech that tore its way out of his throat, loud enough to send cracks spiderwebbing through the entire room.

Immediately, his hearing cut out. The quirk-induced noise he'd produced ruptured his eardrums and dropped the world into silence once more.

As soon as his breath ran out, he took the opportunity to yank the quirk back within him, but in its place, he felt his electricity quirk slip through his grip. It activated immediately, sending massive arcs of electricity from his hands to the floor beneath him.

He pulled that one back too, only for 'Ignite' to appear instead, setting his hands ablaze.

This wasn't going to work. No matter what he did, his quirks wouldn't listen to him, wouldn't stay where they were supposed to. He needed something more. Something better to burn away this chaotic, restless energy.

Forcing himself to his feet, pulling back a quirk that sent puffs of supercooled air from his mouth, he did his best to let just his enhancers slip through his grip to settle into place.

He felt a few others come through at the same time, but he couldn't be bothered to try to reign them in at the moment, he was too focused on his need to move.

The floor beneath him exploded as he took off, doing his best to control his speed, which was enhanced far further than he'd ever experienced. It took every bit of focus he had not to collide with walls as he moved, something that, because of his strength quirks, would've likely ended up with him burying himself into the wall and burying the entire underground facility under a couple hundred tons of rock.

Eventually – though in reality it was barely even half a second – he made it to the top of the staircase that had led himself and Shadow from the main building.

At this point, he halted any attempt to control how much strength or speed he was using, no longer needing to care about the risks.

Instead, he crouched down, feeling the storm of energy condense in his legs, and launched himself into the air.

The air around him cracked with a thunderous boom as he immediately broke the sound barrier, crashing straight through the roof of the building and higher than any of the surrounding ones.

A flap of his wings sent a storm of wind raging towards the ground as it propelled him higher. He kept climbing higher until his breath was coming out in white clouds – this time not due to a quirk – and it was taking noticeable effort to breathe.

When he felt he'd gone high enough, he pulled an arm back, feeling the energy condense just as it had when he'd jumped, and punched.

The resultant shockwave was larger than anything he'd seen All Might create, raging as it tore through the air. The recoil sent him flying backwards.

He repeated this process, not paying attention to how far he was flying, all while other quirks continued to slip through his grip, before getting pulled back in a constant cycle.

At some point, he dimly recognized his hearing returning as one of his healing quirks must've slipped out.

He lost track of time as he flew through the sky, however many thousands of feet in the air he was, doing his best to keep his quirks in check as he burned through the never-ending chaotic energy that burned through him.

Eventually, he realized that he needed to head towards Musutafu. Enough time had probably passed. Eraserhead would hopefully be at Dagobah by now. If Oni could get there, and Eraser could use his quirk on him, then that would at least take care of his restless quirks. Then it would simply be a matter of waiting out the storm of energy as the Trigger worked its way through his system.

Looking down towards the ground, he picked out what he hoped were landmarks, orienting himself based on them. Spinning back around, he let off another punch to propel himself through the air towards his city.

The flight, during which he broke the sound barrier a few more times, only took him a few minutes. Normally, at his top speed, it would take him somewhere between thirty minutes and an hour to fly from one city to the other.

It didn't take long to spot the beach. As soon as he was close enough, he pulled his wings in to let himself fall.

The wind whistled in his ears as he fell, likely already at terminal velocity.

He'd aimed for the water some distance from the shore, hoping to avoid a major collision with the ground or any of the nearby buildings. He made sure to yank 'Shock Absorption' into place, thankful for the first time that his quirks were currently boosted far beyond their normal capabilities. It should have no trouble taking such an impact.

As the water drew closer, he closed his eyes, holding his breath and bracing for the impact.

It still hurt, despite having 'Shock Absorption' active. The impact stung horrifically, and he suspected at least one of his ribs was broken.

He took a single moment to writhe in pain, both from the impact and from the Trigger still burning through him, as he started to sink beneath the surface of the water. Then, in an instant, he'd propelled himself towards the shore, and was crawling out of the water.

He stopped once he'd pulled himself far enough away from the water, panting as he continued to struggle to keep his quirks in check.

His breathing stuttered when he felt a tugging at his gut, and heard faint thunder booming above him.

'No.' He thought to himself as he struggled to pull his quirks back. 'No no no. Not that one.'

This one was among his more devastating quirks. Under the influence of Trigger, there was no telling what it would be capable of.

Then, all at once, the boiling beneath his skin came to an abrupt halt. His quirks were no longer raging away, trying to activate themselves, and the thunder overhead stopped immediately.

He collapsed to his side, curling into a ball.

The restless energy was still there, coursing through him, but without the struggle of keeping a handle on his quirks, the rush was manageable.

He sighed, the relief at not having to fight himself was extraordinary.

"Oni!"

Right. The reason why it had stopped.

Oni opened his eyes to see Eraser running towards him, hair floating and trailing behind him.

"Oh. Hello there, Eraser. What a pleasant surprise, meeting you here at a time like this."

"Oni. What's going on?" Eraser asked, dropping to the ground next to next to him. "Phantom called and said that you needed help. They specifically told me to use my quirk on you."

Right. Rei. He wondered why he hadn't heard her after his hearing had returned. Maybe him crashing through the building had broken or dislodged it. That or his flight over the city.

Oni sighed. He knew that he would have to answer the man's questions.

"Trigger." He said. "Some piece of shit was trying to juice himself, accidentally got me instead."

"Oni, you looked like you were in pain. I've never seen Trigger do that to someone."

"Well, have you ever seen what three doses at once looks like? Because that's what I got hit with."

Eraser's eyes widened at that.

"We should really get you to a hospital. One dose is bad enough. People have died from that alone, but three at once is unheard of."

Oni let out a quiet laugh at that. "Well, you see, I would've gone to the hospital already, but I was a bit preoccupied. I don't know if you've ever taken Trigger, but it's not just your quirk that it affects. It enhances it, yes, but it also gives you the energy to use the enhanced quirk. Multiply that by three and you get what amounts to the world's worst caffeine rush, as if you'd brewed your coffee with cocaine. If I'd gone to a hospital, I wouldn't have been able to guarantee that I wouldn't accidentally take the building down.��

"Besides." He sighed, closing his eyes again. "If something as simple as a drug overdose were enough to kill me, I would've died a long time ago."

He didn't have to open his eyes to see the worried look on Eraser's face. He knew that the man was concerned. His last statement would not have helped matters.

He sighed again. "I know that you have questions, Eraser." He said. "And I might just answer them. But later, alright? Right now, I'd really rather just lie here and wait this out. Tonight has been rather trying."

He took Eraser's silence as agreement.

A few moments passed in silence. Then, "Thank you for showing up, Eraserhead. It means a lot that you did. This would've sucked to have to experience it full force for however long it will last."

Another few moments.

"Sure thing, kid."

---

Oni panted as he as he flew through the air, though for an entirely different reason than before.

Before, it had been from the sheer struggle of holding his quirks back, and withstanding the massive surge of energy. Now, however, it was almost the exact opposite. Now he struggled to maintain the effort it took to fly.

He and Eraser had waited out the rush there on the beach, with Eraser using his quirk as much as he physically could.

And now that the rush had ended, he was left feeling completely empty. Just as he had felt towards the end of the USJ invasion, only much, much worse.

He would've sighed in relief, were he capable of doing so, as his home came into view. He stretched his wings out, gliding as much as he could and expending as little effort as possible.

As soon as his feet touched down on the surface of the balcony – the one that connected to the living room and kitchen – he collapsed, not even having the energy to land with any semblance of elegance.

Almost immediately, Rei was there, rushing through the door towards him. She picked him up as gently as possible, wrapping herself around him and settling him in the middle. She had her arms wrapped around his chest, with his head just beneath her chin.

"That… sucked." He breathed after a few long moments, breaking the silence.

She let out a soft laugh at that. Though he could tell just from that little bit that her voice was still shaky.

She opened her mouth to say something in response, but before she could get a word out-.

"Izuku?"

The two of them turned simultaneously to look at the source of the voice, Izuku lifting his head as much as he could.

Ochako stood there in the doorway, still in her pajamas and staring at the two of them with an expression that sat somewhere firmly between confusion and concern.

Izuku dropped his head back down against Rei, staring up at the night sky.

"Fuck."