Chapter 25 - Last-Minute Heroics! But Why Is He Holding a Tanuki?

(Gwen POV)

Momo Yaoyorozu, Kyoka Jiro, and I were, how to say... a little surrounded in the Mountainous Zone.

There were at least twenty villains around us.

"Oh! This is some kind of party," I said, placing my hand on my chin.

The villains grunted and took a step towards us.

"I don't think this is the time for jokes," Kyoka exclaimed, ducking as a punch from one of the villains passed over her.

Momo twisted her waist and, holding a metallic baton, struck a villain's head, causing him to fall backward.

"Huh! Where have your good moods gone?" I jumped, resting my hand on a large fist coming toward me. Flexing my muscles, I pushed off and launched myself into the air.

In the air, I turned my body and shot webs at the villain, propelling him into a group of others.

"Strike!" I shouted, raising my fist in the air.

"You two, please take this more seriously," Momo shouted, spinning her metal baton to strike the villains' heads.

It seems our vice president is quite serious, a stark contrast to my cute president's personality.

While dodging a punch thanks to my [Spider Sense], Jiro moved her foot.

"It's not going well! I was just thinking of a decent plan, but…" As she spoke, the flexible plug-shaped headphone jacks dangling from her earlobes moved toward her boots, which had built-in stereos.

"I guess I'll just send a soundwave," Jiro said, shooting a concrete-rattling wave from her boots toward a small horde of villains.

"Ahhhhh! My ears!" A bigfoot-like villain fell to the ground, along with others.

Jiro's quirk is quite eccentric.

Jiro possesses a quirk called [Earphone Jack], which provides her with long, controllable earlobes that function like headphone cables.

Jiro's earlobes are shaped like jacks at the ends, allowing her to connect them to various objects. From my observations, these earlobes can channel vibrations, likely through Jiro's heartbeat, and when connected to her boots, they can release powerful sound waves.

If Nero were here, he would definitely say these earlobes are cute.

I thought, leaning my lithe body back and kicking a villain in the jaw.

"Yaoyorozu, are you ready yet?" I asked the maiden in her revealing costume.

"Yes!" Yaoyorozu shouted, crouching as several stun grenades emerged from her back.

Yaoyorozu and Jiro closed their eyes and lowered their heads.

I quickly moved my hand, shooting webs, to grab the stun grenades. I swung my hand, throwing the stun grenades at the cluster of villains.

I closed my eyes, and the next thing I heard was the sound of an explosion. Even with my eyes closed, I "saw" a flash of light.

"My eyes, you bitches!" one of the villains screamed in pain.

"Name-calling isn't cool," I said, opening my eyes and moving out of the way. Suddenly, a large, amplified sound wave hit them.

Thanks to the stun grenades and the sound wave, the villains fainted and fell to the ground.

"For a plan made on the spot, it wasn't bad," Jiro said, reaching into her coat pocket as she approached us.

"We make a beautiful band," I said, miming playing a drum kit.

Jiro looked at me, tilting her head. "You play drums?" she asked.

"Yes, it's my favorite instrument," I said with a smile. "I even had a band."

"That's interesting, but nothing beats the guitar," Jiro said. Her words sounded confident, but her tone was shy. It seemed she was somewhat embarrassed about her interests.

"Hmm! I cannot understand the taste for such noisy instruments. I prefer a violin a thousand times," Yaoyorozu said.

At the same moment, Jiro and I turned to argue with Yaoyorozu, but...

"..."

"..."

"What is it?" Yaoyorozu exclaimed with a confused expression.

In front of us, Yaoyorozu was standing, but the front part of her clothes was torn, revealing her breasts.

Big!

They could give Ochaco some pretty good competition.

"Uhhh! Your clothes are torn, Yaoyorozu-san," Jiro said, pointing at her exposed chest.

"Alright, I'll make another one. By the way, you two can just call me Momo," she said, not paying much attention to her state of undress.

"Okay, Momo. You two can also call me Kyoka," said Jiro with a shrug.

"Of course, Momo and Kyoka," I said, thinking that pair of breasts was quite impressive.

It's a shame that I'm not attracted to women at all.

I thought with a shrug, while Kyoka seemed impressed by Momo's assets.

As Momo made a new outfit with her quirk, my thoughts drifted to Nero. Honestly, I was worried about him, even though I had complete trust in him. This feeling was a bit contradictory, though I wouldn't trade it for anything.

It doesn't take a Sherlock Holmes to know that I was totally in love with him. Well, it's kind of hard not to develop feelings for him. Nero had countless qualities, and even his flaws were endearing.

Gwendolyn Maxine Stacy, you are in love with a man who already has a partner, and yet you don't intend to give up on him.

I mentally censured myself. But there was no guilt in my self-criticism. Maybe it's because I never hid it from Ochaco. Quite the opposite; I always made it very obvious to her that I liked Nero.

The strangest thing is that, apart from the pseudo-rivalry I had with her, Ochaco never tried to stop me.

Well, it's not like I'm a girl who doesn't take advantage of opportunities.

I thought, a smile forming under my mask.

••• ••• •••

(Aizawa POV)

Dodging one of the villains, I watched as Cassandra defeated him with a kick to the stomach.

She's a much better fighter than me.

With that thought, I let her handle these villains and moved toward their boss, the white-haired guy with his hands on his body.

"23 seconds!" the villain leader said.

"So you are the strongest." I swung my arm and threw the capture fabric toward him.

"24 seconds," he said, easily catching the fabric with his hand. "20 seconds."

Tsk! I clicked my tongue, avoiding another henchman, and took off at full speed toward him.

"17 seconds."

A few inches away from him, I pulled the capture tape, making his body come toward me as I elbowed him.

The thudding sound echoed throughout the area, but it wasn't from my elbow hitting his belly; it was from my elbow meeting his hand.

This guy managed to defend.

"It seems like your quirk's range is getting shorter and shorter, Eraser." The man in white said in his dark voice, and suddenly my elbow began to dry out and break.

"Don't bite off more than you can chew, ErasedHead," his glassy eyes stared at me.

I ignored his words as pain coursed through my body.

I turned my waist, punching him, making his body go to the side, while I jumped back.

The moment my feet hit the ground, two villains turned towards me. I moved my body, avoiding them.

"This quirk of yours… isn't it unsuitable for mass combat for a long period?" The leader of the villains said, getting up from the ground, as I wrapped the villain in front of me with the scarf.

"Isn't this a far cry from your typical job? After all, your true specialty is short-range stealth attacks."

Ignoring him, I pulled the villain in front of me backward and threw him.

Cassandra, who was a few meters away from me, was dealing with the villains perfectly.

"So you went into open battle just to save your students? You're really cool, really cool," he exclaimed wildly.

In the meantime, I had already dealt with the villains around me.

"By the way, hero, I'm not the strongest here." When he said this, suddenly a shadow covered me.

I saw a big black humanoid monster with a very muscular body and many scars. Its brain was exposed on top of its head, while its large eyes were around it.

Before I could do anything, its large hand grabbed my head and buried it in the ground. With the impact, blood ran down my face.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cassandra taking a step toward me.

"No!" I screamed as the creature grabbed my head and buried it in the ground again. With his other hand, he grabbed my arm and broke it inhumanly.

"Aghhhhhhh!" I screamed in pain.

"Tell All Might that he is being sought by the artificial human Nomu," I could only hear the voice of the villain leader.

"Hmm!" The creature exclaimed, squeezing my broken arm even tighter.

I tried to get up, only for the creature to exert a little force and put me back on the ground.

He's breaking me like I'm a twig. Looking at any part of your body should have been enough to erase your quirk… in other words, this is your default strength!? He is almost as strong as All Might.

I thought as he lifted my head, only to then slam it into the ground, creating a small crater.

My consciousness was almost cut off, but I managed to hear a voice.

"Tomura Shigaraki," said the man in black.

So his name is Tomura Shigaraki.

"Kurogiri, so Thirteen died?" Shigaraki exclaimed.

Thirteen! I mentally exclaimed.

"I stopped him in his tracks, but I'm afraid one of the students escaped. Before long, this place will be overrun by pro heroes," the black mist called Kurogiri said to Shigaraki.

Upon hearing his words, I couldn't help but smile.

"Uhhh! Ughh!" Shigaraki's voice started to lose control.

"This is game over. It's obvious that in a few minutes, they will send dozens of heroes. Unfortunately, we must leave."

They will go away.

"But before that, how about we leave some gifts for the symbol of peace?" Shigaraki's eyes went to Cassandra and then to Asui and Midoriya, who were in the water near the bank, thinking they were hiding.

Damn it!

"Nomu!" Shigaraki said, pointing at Cassandra.

Nomu, who was on top, quickly moved towards her while Shigaraki went towards Asui.

It's impossible for me to save them both. In fact, in this situation, I can only save Asui by deactivating Shigaraki's quirk.

I raised my head, looking at Shigaraki, while Cassandra raised her arm in hopes of mitigating the damage she would take from the creature that was in front of her, throwing a punch.

At this moment, the only thing I can do is force my quirk to erase Shigaraki's quirk.

Just as I was about to do so, a voice echoed.

"Well, I guess I'm not that late." Along with the voice, Shigaraki's body was pulled back violently, slamming against the ground.

And Nomu's punch created great pressure in the air.

I turned my body only to see Nomu with his hand still in the air.

"That was a nice punch." A rather familiar, sarcastic voice echoed.

With the smoke from the punch dissipating, I saw Nero standing in front of Cassandra with Kagemori in his arms.

I automatically let out a sigh of relief.

"From now on, I'll take on this fight." Nero gave a smile that exuded confidence, while in his arms he held Kagemori, who rolled his eyes at him, but still held him while her tail was wrapped around Nero's waist.