Punching out, still midair, Lemillion paused.
It was like Luke had used his Delay Quirk on him all over again, the world moving in his vision, frame by frame.
The Villain made a fist and lifted his arm.
With a windy gust, the fist went right through Lemillion's head.
"…" The black-skinned, naked monster grumbled, pulling back his arm.
Then, instead of punching again, he pointed his finger toward Lemillion's head and let out another word. "… Hurt…"
And pain bombarded Mirio's head, taking the shape of a monstrous headache.
It hurt him so much that despite being petrified midair, he couldn't help but open his mouth and whimper, his hands going toward his head to squeeze it tight… frame by frame.
The fight between his slowed state and his Quirk became a fight between the pain and his focus.
Once the pain won, and he lost his focus, his body would regain its material form.
Then, if the Monocle punched, with the strength he had displayed, his fist would also go right through Lemillion's head… exploding his skull.
From the way the Villain was already making a fist, waiting to punch out, it seemed he had also come to the same conclusion.
Fortunately, Lemillion hadn't arrived here alone.
With a golden blur, a figure appeared behind the Villain, descending from the sky.
It was Nejire Hado — Wonder Hero: Nejire Chan — with the Surge Quirk, which allowed her to convert her vitality into energy and release it in the form of exceptionally powerful spiral shockwaves.
It was a continuous release of low-intensity spirals that she was using to fly right now, too.
The moment Lemillion's body began gaining form, and the moment the Villain punched, Nejire propelled herself like a missile, generating a monstrous pulse of shockwave through her feet.
The shockwaves she could release were powerful, but because they traced a spiral path toward the target, they were slow and covered a greater area as they moved forward.
If she attacked from too far, then her shockwaves would send both the Villain and Lemillion flying, defeating the purpose of her exposing herself much earlier than she was needed to as per their plan.
Like an angel, with her long hair fluttering like blue wings, Nejire landed right next to the Villain, pointing her left palm at his side.
Nejire Wave —
A ball of golden energy gathered in front of her palm.
Then, putting her back into it, she pushed her palm forward, letting the energy loose.
— Output: 40%!
Boooooooooooom!
The same Villain who had caused the steel platform to ring was lifted off his feet and sent flying. The golden spiral shockwaves made him spin in the air. Then, like a statue of black steel, he crashed onto the concrete floor with a loud THUD, skidding dozens of meters before coming to a stop.
"Ugh…" Lemillion fell to his knees next to Nejire, holding his head, his one eye planted dead on the Villain's motionless figure in the distance.
Bullets rained from one side as the Yakuza members fired indiscriminately toward the Pros.
However, Suneater, who had the Manifest Quirk — that allowed him to manifest the physical characteristics of anything he had eaten — was acting as a wall between the bullets and Lemillion and Nejire.
Tamaki's arms and legs had become massive tentacles.
On top of those tentacles, he had sprouted clam-like shells, impervious to the bullets.
And, pressed under those tentacles, somewhere, was Shin Nemoto — passed out cold!
"Let's retreat…" Nejire suggested, as half of their mission had already succeeded. "I am getting a bad feeling from this pervert…"
Lemillion ground his teeth as the pain in his head still lingered, his eyes reflecting the Villain, who was getting up.
From their initial observation, they'd thought that this Villain had the Super Strength-like Quirk.
However, with every passing moment, Lemillion was getting a feeling that they had grossly underestimated this Villain's true nature.
And that's why… he couldn't retreat.
"We must take him down," Lemillion said, finally letting his head go. "This Villain… is too dangerous."
Nejire had just opened her mouth to suggest otherwise when she saw something that made her gape, her jaw dropping lower and lower.
Behind the black-skinned Villain, in the background, two figures were bolting right toward the crates that held Compound Monocle and Quirk-Erasing Drugs.
And those two figures looked almost the same — their white greatcoats fluttering as they ran, the black clownish masks hiding their faces.
The Apostles of Mr. Fool?!
"… Dr. Blessed?!" Nejire hissed, a nervousness settling in her heart. "He is involved in this, too? … Of course… Why wouldn't he be…"
"Don't let them take away those crates," Lemillion said.
"But…"
"Go…" Mirio took a deep breath before letting it out, regaining his bearings. "I will take care of this…"
The Pro never got to finish his claim.
To his and Nejire's surprise, the black-skinned Villain had completely ignored them and was now looking right at the two Apostles, who were making a beeline toward each set of crates that lay some twenty meters from each other.
Then, they saw something odd.
The Villain lifted his hands high as if he were holding the entire sky up.
Then, slowly, he lowered his hands, facing his palms toward the earth.
Nejire and Lemillion faltered as if a ton of weight had landed on their shoulders instantly. Not only them, but the two Apostles and the robed Villains, who were about to confront them, also slowed, their actions becoming sluggish. The same happened to Suneater and the Yakuza members who were firing at him.
All the people on the dock slowed down as if they had fallen into a quagmire that reached their knees.
And, in this quagmire, only one man retained his agility.
The black-skinned monster, who had again raised his palms toward the sky.
However, instead of bringing them back toward the earth this time, he kept them up, and two massive blobs of blackness manifested over his palms before taking the form of large balls of black fire!
"Just…" Lemillion hissed through gritted teeth, sinking into the earth. "… what is he?!"