Chapter Text
How could it end like this?
Himiko’s talk with Ochako had gone differently than anything she ever could have imagined. Her head had been swimming after Jin’s death…she wanted to know why Jin had to die. Was his life less important than everyone else’s because he was different? Was…was her life less important than everyone else’s?
She had hoped that Ochako would understand her and she’d feel happy knowing that she could use her quirk. Because Ochako was just so full of kindness and when she tried to be her, the world just felt so much kinder to her. She often dreamt of living as Ochako…being able to go to a hero high school and talk to cute boys, especially Izuku…
But instead she rejected her like everyone else. She was horrified when she shared what she’d done with her quirk and proceeded to decry her saying…
“If you want to live however you please, you have to face the consequences”
That had hurt so much to hear…
Why couldn’t she be happy with what she’d learned?! She should be thrilled that she could use her quirk. She was even closer to being like her – what better expression of love was there? But her love meant nothing to her…she was a freak meant to be tossed aside and rejected by society. Jin had been the same but…he had been killed by that bastard Hawks. Now she feared the same would happen to her – that Ochako would end her life.
With all the emotions running through her head, only escape had been on her mind because she had to survive at all costs. She thought she would have gotten away easily but she had made two very critical mistakes. She heavily underestimated Ochako which put her heavily on the backfoot. While Himiko was prodigiously acrobatic and had learned how to fight and survive on the streets, Ochako was proving to be a hell of a lost stronger than she thought. She swore almost snapped her shoulder clean off the couple of times she managed to get a grip.
But what truly dug her grave was not acknowledging Tsuyu as a threat. She got a first hand demonstration of how much strength those legs of hers had as she slammed it into her hip with enough force to shatter it and leave her unable to move on the ground. It was so easy to see her as the cute frog girl that people didn’t realize she had enhanced physical abilities.
She had little to no hope of escaping with her hipbone shattered. She tried to crawl away, she tried to skewer them with her knife, but they were unfortunately proving they were not pushovers. They might not have the titanic strength that Izuku had but they had her dead to all rights. She could do little as they whirred her around and slapped cuffs on her. She thrashed wildly snapping her teeth around desperately while they struggled to hold her down.
But it got even worse when the police arrived. They tied a red ball gag between her lips leaving her face red in humiliation and rage. Ochako and Tsuyu both protested gagging her but the cops shut them down. They patted her down extracting every hidden knife before further restraining her with chains – not that they needed to given she couldn’t move with a broken hip. She struggled and struggled but it was to no avail! Humiliated, hurt and defeated…in the end despite everything, she didn’t have superhuman strength so there was little she could do.
As she was hauled away a single tear escaped her eyes, ‘I’m so sorry Jin-kun. I let your death go in vain…’
This couldn’t be happening…his master plan couldn’t fail like this. When he reached out to Tomura to forcibly activate hyper regeneration, he was stunned to find that it wouldn’t yield as he’d expected. It stalled before huffing and giving out at the worst possible time. Endeavour had put everything into his attack turning every last cell into ash.
One For All had done what it intended in the end…the Ninth had pummeled Tomura with everything he got, pushing his regeneration to its limits. It was already working overtime to keep his incomplete body going which wasn’t helped by the fact that he never did half measures. If he was more astute, he would have retreated to recover before launching his assault…but in the end the very thing he had cultivated in him had been his downfall.
He let out a howl of rage deep within the confines of Tartarus. Not willing to take any risks, the warden pushed the deadman switch which promptly filled the rooms of every high-profile villains chambers with toxic gas. Lady Nagant and Stain simply sat against their walls resigned to their faiths. Overhaul’s mind had long since dissociated…others like Muscular and Moonfish tried their best to escape but it was futile.
The irony was that the intended target wasn’t even killed by this, but that came with its own consequences. His lungs were damaged however regeneration slowly crawled to try and heal him. But for every inch of tissue it healed, just as much was damaged by simply breathing. The shadow emperor was left a catatonic husk only able to struggle for oxygen around him.
It was dawning on Touya that he had miscalculated. And it wasn’t a minor little one either…no it was one that was probably going to cost him his revenge. His precious little brother had been right there as he watched Endeavour’s whole world crumble around him. He sat around stunned and what better way to drive the knife in then by killing his perfect creation in front of him?
…except killing him turned out to be much harder than he expected it to be. He had gone at him all guns blazing at first, Shoto appeared to be struggling. He let his brilliant blue flames roar practically searing the air around them.
Then everything went wrong. If he was to explain it in terms of one of Shigaraki’s stupid video games it would be the equivalent of spamming his special bar up front for flashy attacks and not having any when he actually needed it. For all his burning hatred, for all his willpower, for all his inability to feel the pain inflicted by his quirk – his body could not handle the strain of prolonged combat. After using up all his juice, Shoto very quickly turned the tables on him.
If he had just gone for the kill instead of dragging it along while taunting Shoto, the fight might have gone differently. But the realization that he squandered his chance made him sloppier but most of all it was the infuriating poker face on his brat of a little brother’s face that made an acidic feeling of hate course through his gut. He tried to funnel that rage to get himself to move, but his body betrayed him. The itch was deep, practically clawing at his bones and it was intolerable…he almost wished he could feel pain instead.
Shoto had played him like a fiddle. He used his superior stamina to wear him out slowly before counterattacking an already weakened enemy. There was no chance of help either…Shigaraki had been torched long since. Spinner and Machia were tied up by Jeanist’s threads – the latter was finally being affected by whatever they tried earlier. Compress had the brilliant idea of compressing part of his body only to instantly go into shock after losing a chunk of flesh and had probably already bled out. And Toga was the last person he could count on for backup even before she’d fucked off to wherever.
His vision began to blur as he stumbled forward. The heat from Shoto’s fire was unbearable for his body and felt his already weakening body lose control. He crashed into the ground hard unable to keep himself up…
Tomoyasu had gotten careless. But could he be blamed? He had to deal with Shigaraki and his goons’ insane demands! Either Toga wanted to stalk those students or Dabi wanted the scoop on Endeavour or Spinner wanted background on Stain. Just inane and tedious things that were far beneath his capabilities.
But Re-Destro commanded them to follow the League without question. He was sure he’d undergone some sort of psychotic break. Because running an empire as big as the one they had at hand was not easy. Shigaraki might be intelligent when it came to a fight, but not much else. Re-Destro in comparison was a seasoned businessman who had been running the Meta Liberation Army under everyone’s noses for decades while successfully fronting as the head of Deterenat.
The seams began to come apart once Shigaraki took the helm. He had no other focus than destroying hero society and it seemed he had only grown more unhinged after his quirk awakening in Deika City. They not only lost a lot of manpower, but their streamlined processes built up over decades became chaotic and disorganized. Far too many resources were invested into the Nomu project leaving the whole structure vulnerable.
The Nomu project was mostly a disappointment. They produced some incredibly powerful Nomu sure, but their limiting factor was All For One. Without his ability to freely give and take quirks, their creation was far, far too slow. Their army had not been prepared whatsoever and all their work was for naught.
What was to be expected when the reins were taken over by a bunch of murderous psychopaths?
It mattered little now. He had to try and save as much data as he could. They could still rebuild in the future. That was the beauty of liberation – no matter how much they squashed it, the seeds would forever be sowed in society. All it needed was for it to be cultivated for it to regrow. Then one day, it would grow to its full potential encompassing the entirety of society as it should.
He heard the door kick open and his heart sunk. He had minimal combat ability and he cursed himself for not thinking to carry firearms. He could stall them with his clones but…it was clear what his fate was going to be.
It was the end of the line for them.