A Labyrnith

8:30 am

They were there, standing outside of the headquarters. Sora's heart was pounding violently. Was it fear? Was it excitement? Or was it the small hope that she might grasp that would lead her to her lost father? She couldn't tell.

By the time the chief of the police was about to ring the bell, someone came rushing from the inside, crushing the door and still going for those standing behind it. They moved quickly, Fat, Midoriya, Sora, and Aizawa hurriedly pulled a few policemen out of the way of danger.

" What do you want?" Sora looked back at the person who came out, taking his appearance for the first time. He was huge. That was sure. She would have to fly so she could look him in the eye. He was wearing a bird-like mask with a curved beak and he was strongly built. When he stood, he blocked up the door.

" What do you people want?!" He shouted, thrusting a punch at Ryukyu. There was a strong impact, and smoke and dust covered the area it was hard to see and the air shock held everyone in their spots.

" Ryukyu !" Sora flapped her wings hard, trying to push the cloud of dust that fell upon them. But a pair of larger wings did the job and a great dragon was standing before them, holding the villain that attacked them at bay with the metal clue Ryukyu was usually wearing over her face.

"Ryukyu Agency will take care of him!" The dragon said and it was like a call for them, Uraraka, Asui, Sora, and Hado rushed to help her.

" Sora!" Sora looked back at Yuu. She gave him the best smile she could master under such circumstances and shouted back at him. 

" Yuu, save her! Save Eri-chan! I know you can!"

And she flew to join her teammates while the rest rushed through the broken door as Ryukyu kept the villain restricted. As expected, there were underlings left there and they were eager to put up a fight against them despite the police showing them the search warrant.

Some of them were tackled by heroes as they rushed on towards the door. Police kept the flood of Villains at bay with their shields while opening a way for the heroes.

Amidst the clamor, Yuu felt as though he was drowning. It was hard to keep up with the rest as they wrestled their way in between the gangsters attacking them. Fat Gum's large back was getting further and further from him. So they want to hold us back. Could it be they knew we were coming? " Regardless..." His fingers found the blaze of blue flames by his side.

From the corner, blue fire erupted before Kyubi jumped out of it, hauling Yuu on her back and leaping over the heads of the horde of people. It took her no time to catch up with the rest of the heroes at the front door. " It's an emergency! Excuse us for not taking off our shoes!" Fat Gum called as they barged through the door. The mansion was considerably large so Kyubi didn't have any trouble running along the corridor.

"I wonder if someone leaked information to them. I feel like they're all gathered in one place for some reason..." muttered Amajiki.

" If someone had, I think they'd be avoiding us more smartly. They should all be used to working together with one will already," retorted the chief.

Yuu pondered on that. Why go through the trouble of holding them back in the first place? If they had known they were coming long enough to rally their allies, then it would have been easier to escape already. What do they want to accomplish?

Nighteye stopped right beside a vase perched on some kind of a low surface carved in the wall. He pushed the thing away and started pressing on the wooden boards in a certain order. Yuu could see the wall backing a few centimeters before opening to the side. "Some clever way to hide a secret passage gotta give them that." Whisper was impressed.

Yuu's eyes caught movement behind the door and he quickly pulled Kyubi back. " Get back!" He warned the rest just as three men stepped out from behind the door, all ready to fight and stop them there.

"What the hell, bastards!" The man with some kind of trumpet jutting out of his mouth shrieked loudly. Centipeder and Bubble Girl took care of them in a blink while urging the rest of them to press on. They quickly pushed through the doorway and climbed down the staircase to an underground corridor. However, as they turned around where Nighteye indicated, they found their way blocked by a wall.

Togata then ran to the wall, his head phased through it to inspect what was on the other side. Just as Nighteye said, the way carried on. Both Midoriya and Kirishima took the initiative to crush down the obstacle before them.

As they pressed on along the path, Yuu's ears perked up when he heard an ominous scream. His eyes flicked around, trying to figure out its source when the solid corridor started contracting and swaying, changing as if it was alive. It was hard to keep their balance and Kyubi had to lean on the wall.

"It's not Chisaki! It's different." They heard the chief explain. " The only one it could be is the director, Irinaka! Irinaka's Quirk, Mimic, lets him go into objects and control them freely from within! So he's gone into the concrete that makes up the underground, and it's turned into a living maze!"

"Doesn't this sound farfetched?! " Whisper groaned." I mean, you saw for yourself how big of a place this underground facility is!"

Yuu thought back to their incident at the work study. " With a booster drug, it's possible."

" Eraser, you can't get rid of it?" Fat asked as they both were pushed back to back.

" Not if I can't see the main body..." He turned his head to Yuu. " Seijin, can't you figure his position?"

Yuu snapped. His super sight that allowed him to see even people's souls couldn't see through solid objects. Yet again, this soul was in a solid object. Maybe it could be possible.

His eyes glimmered in a purple color as he quickly scanned the corridor, but he saw nothing in there. " He's not here!"

" If the path keeps getting changed and remade..." Amajiki mumbled, incurring the purple head's attention. " Then they can prepare as many escape routes as they want. To have the judgment to be able to deal with this so quickly... Oh, it's no use anymore... Far from being able to save the girl, we're also..."

" This soldier is really worse than you," Whisper grunted. Yuu wanted to say something, to tell him that it wasn't over yet. But someone else was already there by his side.

" Tamaki!" Togata held on to Amajiki's shoulder. "That's not going to happen. You're the Suneater! Besides, this is just a stopgap! No matter how much they try to warp the path, as long as we know the direction of our goal, I can get there!" Togata was already running forward and slipped through the solid walls building in his way.

Amajiki looked at where his friend had just disappeared when Yuu walked next to him. " Strange isn't it... Sometimes we think ourselves unable to do anything. But all it takes is a friend who believes in you to help you see your way. You know what you have to do."

He did. Amajiki had already made up his mind. But unfortunately, a chasm manifested underneath them and they were plunged into a large hall just as the hole overhead sealed itself like a wound closing.

" Hey, hey, hey, hey." Yuu flung his head to his left to meet a rather peculiar gang. A blond man holding a katana and wearing a mask much like the beak of a bird, a bald bulky man with a surgical mask brandishing a gun at them, and another scrawny man who was wearing some kind of bag secured by a rope tied around his neck with a sewed mouth and two holes for the eyes.

Yuu recognized them from the documents he had read. They were quite the trouble. Not even the police would be able to back them up with guns. " Those gangsters would stop at nothing to hold us back," muttered Kyubi while pawing the ground as though ready to lung. Her nine tails flailed, each flaming at its end.

However, before any of them got to move, Amajiki held an arm out, telling them not to interfere. "...I'll be enough by myself."

" Eh! Had he gone out of his mind!" Whisper shouted. " No matter how amazing of a Quirk you have! You couldn't possibly handle those three by yourself!"

All the heroes there seemed to agree, as Aizawa had already erased their Quirks, it was their chance to attack. Still, Amajiki apprehended them all almost immediately with his octopus fingers and snapped their weapons with the crab claw.

He's trying to prove he can handle it on his own. Yuu bit his lip, Amajiki had a point. There was no good in wasting their strength and ammo there. " We have to get going. Chisaki is getting further from our reach with every moment." He urged them.

Fat Gum took one glance at Amajiki's back before urging the rest to proceed as well. However, before stepping out, Aizawa erased all of their Quirks and knocked out the guy with the bag mask with a swift twist to his neck. It was the best course of action, he was more like the natural enemy of Amajiki after all, Yuu knew.

Midoriya was still rooted in his place. Of course, he wouldn't want to leave him to fight three against one on his own. " Midoriya-san..." Kyubi stopped beside him. "... Just believe in him, he has a reason not to lose after all."

Midoriya took one last glance at Amajiki and then rushed among the heroes.

"He's stronger than anyone here," Fat Gum spoke out to quell whatever doubt they had. " But he was weak emotionally. He crushed himself with pressure to do things perfectly. He climbed up to become part of UA's Big Three under those conditions. Someone like that declared that he could completely shut them down! So... all I can do is leave it to him!"

" No! You still don't make sense!" Whisper growled. Yuu's eyes fixed down at the path ahead of them. I thought so. He knew it, despite how they may seem similar, his and Amajiki's conditions were different.

" He kind of reminds me of you." Sora had told him after they first met the Big Three. " But I can tell he's different...". Yuu couldn't help but think the same as well, yet Sora's words befuddled him back then. " You know, he's the one holding himself back. His aura seems as if it's attacking itself. It's all different from your aura." Her words now made sense. All the same, he had something in common with his senior.

They both had a dear friend they would stop at nothing for.

" I trust him. Amajiki-senpai will be fine," Yuu murmured. But Midoriya and Kirishima couldn't share the same feelings.

" We can't waste a second of the time Suneater got for us!" Fat shouted on top of his lungs as they plunged further into the depths of the maze.

" Yuu, it's extremely quiet." Kyubi's eyes flung sideways as though expecting an attack to occur any moment now." This is worrying me."

" Ah. And the tunnel didn't shift for a while now. What are they up to?" It seems not only Yuu was bothered about that fact. Despite the boost, it seems he can't control all of the labyrinth after all. It's too big for him. So maybe he can focus on a section at a time.

Aizawa had the same idea too. " If an eye or ear from his main body is peeking through to try and block us, then I can see him."

" Have you forgotten?" Whisper turned to him at that moment." Yuu couldn't sense his presence back in the first corridor. That man doesn't need to be close by to act. He knows this place like the back of his hand. He only needs to confirm our whereabouts from afar and he can throw us down again."

But as he finished that, a chunk of the wall thrust out, grasping and pushing Aizawa into a hole that opened on the other side. " Sensei!"

All three of his students turned immediately, alarmed, they attempted to reach him in time and it was Fat who managed to push him away before Irinaka could isolate him. But Yuu was sure he saw Kirishima getting absorbed into Fat's body.

Aizawa murmured an apology to Fat though he was far from hearing it before he climbed under the bloke of concrete now extending across the hallway and continued forward, eager to get away from Irinaka's reach. The fact that he stopped toying with their path meant he found a more pressing matter to care for.

" Togata must be getting closer to Chisaki now." Whisper pointed, straining his sense in hope of capturing the slightest glance of Irinaka." Let's just hope that over-energetic soldier won't get his neck wrung the other way."

" Speaking of which, Whisper." Midoriya turned to him as he realized something." Can't you enter the walls and confirm Irinaka's whereabouts?"

" You think I didn't try?" Whisper snapped at him before he drew a breath. " It's quite impossible. The moment he fused with concrete it became more or less like his own flesh and blood. If I tried entering it would be the same as possessing a human and that's risky. It requires a toll of energy and even then, I don't know what may happen to him."

" Huh?" Most of them turned to him with questioning looks.

" Whoever cares what might happen, if you could possess him you can stop him, right? Why are you all refusing to use your potential!" Rock Lock's eyes flung to Nighteye.

" Possessing a human being might end their lives." Kyubi sounded." Are you really okay with that?"

" What?" Midoriya looked terrified at that idea as his eyes fixed on Yuu. " But Seijin-kun..."

"I'm fine because that's how my Quirk works. I absorb them, they don't possess me the same way. But for a human being, it may be the most terrifying and painful experience ever." Yuu narrowed his eyes. " Somethings never mix, and energy is one of them. Their bodies and minds might not take the external energy that was suddenly forced upon them, it may damage them both physically and mentally. Even take their lives."

" Didn't you ever wonder why I didn't try possessing the villains that confronted us before? Though mind you, I would have liked to cause agony to most of them." Whisper huffed.

" Are you still willing for Whisper to try?" Kyubi glared back at Rock Lock who seemed to have swallowed his tongue. "Thought you wouldn't."

They suddenly stopped when the whole place started swaying and writhing, squeezing as though to crush them. Using his Quirk, Rock Lock froze the churning walls, but Irinaka pushed at them from far ahead where the area wasn't yet frozen.

" Seijin-kun!"

" Right behind you! Kyubi!"

" Dragon Wheel!"

Midoriya's kick and the roaring fire dragon broke through the wall of concrete that unleashed at them.

They continued the same move again and again, Kyubi and Midoriya were almost out of breath. Kyubi managed to push through thanks to Yuu pouring more of his energy into her. I just wish I could do the same with humans! He looked apologetically at Midoriya who was wiping away his sweat.

" Seijin! Keep looking for him!" Aizawa urged the boy.

" I'm!" He shouted before he was engulfed in Kyubi's fire as she unleashed another Dragon Wheel. " The boost is taking too long to wear off. They must have upgraded it." He gritted his teeth. Time was ticking and Togata was probably fighting on his own by now.

" I know you can!"

" We're saving Eri-chan... we won't get stuck here!" His eyes glowed, ready to boost Kyubi's attack even further. " For all of those standing behind us!"

" We can't let the path they created be stopped here!" Midoriya and Kyubi launched themselves on the chunks of concrete that hurled in their direction, breaking them apart. But then something odd happened.

The concrete receded back, the attack stopped, and the path opened. Still wondering what that meant, they were taken by surprise by walls rising from the ground or dropping from the ceiling. Aizawa quickly pulled Midoriya out of the way before he could get crushed. " Sorry." The green head apologized as he twisted and scrambled to his feet.

" He wants us separated?" Yuu stared at what surrounded them.

" But why now...?" Aizawa's question was in its place. Why changing his strategy now?

Yuu could hear Rock Lock's voice as he confirmed the safety of everyone else. Nighteye warned them, telling them to be prepared for an ambush.

Despite the walls separating them, Yuu could hear Rock Lock saying something about the League of Villains. Are they here? He whirled his head back to where Rock Lock was. " We need to get to him!"

Both Midoriya and Aizawa became alarmed at that and again, together with Kyubi, they busted the wall. There were two of Rock Lock there. One was lying face down on the ground with a bleeding wound, the other was looking down at him. It didn't take Yuu and Aizawa long to know what happened.

" Get away from him!" Kyubi pulled Midoriya from the phony hero by his hood just as he raised a knife at him while Aizawa erased his Quirk to reveal Toga Himiko, who persisted in her onslaught, rather eager on Midoriya. But Aizawa managed to bind her in his clothes and pulled her away from both of them.

Toga performed some extraordinary gymnastic skill as she tugged on the bindings and swung herself midair behind the older man, jabbing a knife into his shoulder.

" Sensei!"

He retaliated by grabbing his own and flinging it at her but she managed to get away just as a wall fell in between them. They're working together! Yuu bit his lip. So this is why he separated us! Which means! He turned to the direction of Nighteye and the rest and he could hear fighting there.

Midoriya ran over to check on their teacher. " I'm fine." He told him. " More importantly, Seijin, stop Rock Lock's bleeding and Midoriya, get the knife."

Yuu got off Kyubi's back and tore a piece of his cape which he used to stop the hemorrhage, his ears straining for the noises on the other side from them. They soon quelled, which meant the fight was over, and by the sound of it, it ended with Nighteye's win.

Yuu's hands flew to his ears and shut them when he heard a chill loud shriek he felt it was clawing at him from the inside." What's that!" Whisper cried. The ground then churned and swayed again, plunging them in what seemed like a tunnel slide.

They plummeted to the ground and quickly jumped to their feet only to realize what was happening. They were thrown into another hall but this time, mud was filling into it, as if the man attempted to drown them. His shrieks continued, piercing Yuu's ears he hardly could remove his hands away. Wincing in pain, he looked around, and he saw, for a split second, a black shade gliding through the walls. A soul! That was with no doubt him.

" I can see Irinaka!" Called Yuu catching Midoriya and Aizawa's attention.

" Where is he?" Midoriya urged him but Yuu was looking around. The man was moving quickly he was getting in and out of his sight.

" Just wait!" He followed him, waiting for when he would stop even for a moment. " Even the sound is echoing too much I can't pinpoint him that way!"

Then there it was, his loud cry almost punctured Yuu's eardrums. And there he could see him, up in the ceiling, hiding along the shadow of a hole. " Midoriya-san! Up there!"

Midoriya glared in that direction and, almost like the lightning, climbed up there and hit the cement hard. And there he was, the man who gave them so much trouble, as though buried into the ceiling. Aizawa glared at him and immediately the flood of mud halted.

The man fell down, and from his spot, Yuu could see both Twice and Toga from the League of Villains perched there and looking down at them but moved no muscle to help Irinaka. Nighteye knocked the man out and Midoriya caught him before he could hit the ground. The next moment they turned back up, Toga and Twice were gone...