Inasa's body dropped like a stone.
"...Yoarashi?"
For a split second, nobody understood what they were seeing. One moment, the Shiketsu student had been soaring through the sky with enough confidence to challenge the unknown object himself.
The next, he was falling without response, straight toward the ocean below.
"...GALEFORCE" Seiji lurched forward in disbelief, one hand slamming against the cruiser window. "Inasa, respond you idiot."
Inside the lead transport, Midnight immediately pressed a finger against the communicator.
"Report!"
"It's Inasa Midnight Sensei. He isn't flying anymore! Now he's falling into the water."
Midnight's face changed.
"X-Less!"
"I saw it!" X-Less barked from the second transport. "He must have been hit with something. Driver, slow the convoy—"
"Froppy ..."
"Kero!"
Before anyone could issue another order, Tsuyu had already moved. The rear door of the escort cruiser burst open and the girl jumped over the guard rail without the slightest hesitation. The rushing wind swallowed her small frame as she plummeted toward the glittering water far below.
"I've got him!"
Halfway through, she shot her tongue towards him like a whip. The elastic appendage stretched dozens of meters through the air, racing toward the unconscious Inasa. At that exact moment ...
A shadow swept across the bridge and across the police car that had come to a halt.
The kids and officers instinctively looked up.
"...?"
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!
Only to hear a loud crash in the distance. Up ahead, the lead transport lurched violently. The roof visibly deforming from the force of the impact.
Inside the containment vehicle, Midnight tumbled violently across the steel floor, her shoulder taking the brunt of it.
"What the—"
"Oh... oh my," Himiko Toga rasped, her eyes wide and bloodshot behind her neck brace, her face twisted into a state of pure euphoria. "Is this... a rescue operation? Is someone coming to play with us?"
Midnight gritted her teeth so hard they threatened to crack as she glared into the dark. "Shut .."
Her words were interrupted as groaning sounds echoed from the roof. The entire structural steel roof of the multi-ton armored van buckled violently inward. Sparks showered the pitch-black interior as the ceiling caved by a full foot.
"Huh?" Toga muttered, her head tilting.
Following which, a pair of monstrous claws punched through the armored roof as though it were paper.
"Midnight! There's a Nomu on your roof!" Nemuri had barely gotten herself together when X-Less roared through the radio from the vehicle ahead.
"Huh?" KRRRRRRRRKK!!
Before Midnight could even scramble to her feet, the monster's claws wrenched backward, peeling a massive chunk of the reinforced steel roof open like a cheap tin can. Moonlight flooded the dark vault, illuminating a towering, three-meter-tall silhouette with pitch-black skin and yellow irises.
Its aura alone made every instinct she'd honed over years as a Pro Hero scream at her.
'Dammit.' Reacting on instinct, she ripped a long strip, tearing open the sleeve of her bodysuit.
Her thoughts were simple. She'd put it down before it could even take a step.
The moment she did, a dense, pink somnambulist mist erupted from her skin, but it never even reached the creature's face.
With a blinding crunch, Hood's hand morphed into a thick muscle spike that thrust downward at extreme speed.
CHUCK!
The spike pierced cleanly through the same should Midnight had exposed, pinning her brutally to the steel floor of the van.
"Ahg—!!" A sharp, suffocating scream was ripped from her throat as hot blood immediately pooled beneath her. The sheer force of the impalement fractured the floor plates beneath her body, leaving her completely paralyzed in agonizing pain.
"Oh wow..." Toga gasped, eyes lit at the sight of the creature resembling the ones they left at the doctor's place. "It really is a rescue op. The old man didn't leave us to die ... Ohhhh." The smell and sight of fresh blood filled the compartment and only added to her excitement.
"Ah ... Blood." Her eyes widening in pure bliss.
Hood tilted his head, eyes moving across the Toga and Dabi before finally landing on Shigaraki. He leaned down into the hole to finish the Pro Hero off. But right before his claws could crush her skull, a thin laser beam cut through the night sky.
ZZZZZT!
The laser struck Hood's primary shoulder arm, burning straight through the muscle tissue and severing the tendons. The sudden impact forced Hood's arm to jerk away, saving Midnight's life as the car beneath them swerved violently from the force of the blast.
The driver up front hurriedly slammed the breaks.
"Hmm?" Hood looked away from Midnight, turning his head back. Yellow eyes settled upon the man hanging from the transport window. The ruined shoulder was already knitting itself back together.
Outside ...
Every vehicle in the convoy screeched to a halt. "No way." As standing atop the lead prison transport...
...was a monster nearly three meters tall.
Pitch black skin with an exaggerated build and visible pulsing muscle fibers around the sides and neck. With a turn of its head, its face partially obscured in darkness was revealed.
Massive black wings unfurled behind its back, before morphing back to form arms. "That's ..." The faces of the driving officers change drastically at the creature ahead.
"Are you ... Strong?" It asked, in a grating, dual-toned rattle that sounded like grinding stones. X less wasn't even sure how that was possible, nor did he care to find out.
He leaned completely out of his passenger side window just as the monster turned its head.
A needle-thin, incredibly concentrated laser beam erupted from his right eye, slicing through the air and punching cleanly through Hood's massive sternum.
The heat was so immense that the flesh vaporized instantly, leaving a glowing, see-through hole the size of a fist right through the creature's chest cavity.
"Direct hit!" one of the officers shouted. The next moment however, his excitement was stifled at the source as the flesh around the smoking hole in the Nomu's chest crawled across the gaping cavity.
Muscle fibers writhed and bones regrew before knitting together within a literal half a second's worth of time.
The Nomu didn't even twitch, remaining perfectly anchored to the roof, as though it had never been struck in the first place. "What the ... " X-Less's pupils contracted.
This Nomu could regenerate? Meanwhile, feeling the wound close, the Nomu's right arm swelled grotesquely before anyone could react.
Muscle twisted, forming into a giant writhing mass of elongated flesh tendrils. X-Less immediately changed his target from the chest to the head.
WHOOSH!
The man barely had time to blink before the mass of tendrils tore through the windshield, shattering the glass and wrapping tightly around the steering wheel with crushing force.
SQUELCH! One of the thick tendrils drove straight through X-Less's shoulder, pinning him to his seat.
" ..Ugh .." The tendril mass resurged, forming into a firm grasp on his neck.
"Sir .." The driver yelled at the destruction around.
Xless gritted his teeth. The tendril crushing his shoulder tightened with an audible crunch, hot blood immediately soaking the front of his costume.
"...Get out!" Ignoring the pain, he forced his right eye open, heat gathering behind the retina.
'Just one clean shot...' A crimson glow illuminated the interior of the transport. "Heat blast." A concentrated energy blast fired from his eyes. Facing the incoming attack, Hood simply leaped off the top of the prison van and covered in the air with his jet quirk as the flaming energy rushed past under him.
At the exact same moment, the tendril around X-Less's neck suddenly went taut.
"...!"
Before he understood what was happening
YANK!!
Metal bent violently as the Eye Gun Hero was ripped through the shattered passenger window.
What was left of the glass shattered that very instant.
Jagged shards of tempered glass and twisted metal tore mercilessly into X-Less's face and arms as he was hauled bodily through the narrow frame.
Dizzied and bleeding profusely from dozens of fresh lacerations, the Pro Hero was lifted high into the midnight air, dangling helplessly in the iron grip of the Nomu's primary tendril.
Hood tilted his head, watching the bleeding, gasping Pro Hero look back at him in wide-eyed shock. The monster's yellow eyes dilated slightly as it evaluated the pathetic lack of resistance, coming to a quick conclusion.
"So ... You aren't then."
Without a shred of hesitation, the mass of tendrils wrapped around X-Less's torso began to contract like a hydraulic vise.
CRACK.
The sickening sound of ribs snapping echoed in his ears.
"ARGHHHH!"
X-Less threw his head back, letting out an agonizing, blood-curdling scream that pierced the comms lines before his lungs collapsed under the suffocating pressure.
The Nomu paid it no heed
"Let him go!" a sharp, furious voice bellowed from the highway below.
Hood's head snapped toward the sound. A barrage of detached, hovering masses of raw, human flesh was streaking through the air toward him.
Seiji Shishikura stood a distance away, his now empty arms extended and teeth bared in uncharacteristic rage as his Meatball quirk attacked.
Hood didn't even bother to dodge.
With a tear of muscle tissue, a second, massive arm erupted directly from the edge of the Nomu's shoulder. It shot forward, punching right through the center of Seiji's incoming flesh projectiles and scattering them into harmless spray before they were even halfway through.
The auxiliary limb continued unabated, crossing the distance before its clawed tip pierced straight through Seiji's lower abdomen.
SPURT.
The young Shiketsu elite froze instantly, his eyes widening in absolute shock. A thick glob of blood welled up from his throat, spilling past his lips.
"Shishikura-kun!!" Nejire screamed, her hands cupping together to channel a massive wave of output.
Hood ignored the impaled boy dangling from his back arm, his yellow eyes shifting up to lock onto the hovering girl in the green uniform and periwinkle hair floating above him.
"... Just ... like them," Hood rasped. A small, dark blowhole split on the Nomu's exposed chest muscles.
Following which, he fired the paralyzing ultrasonic wave directly at her.
SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
"Get away from—!"
Nejire's words died in her throat. The invisible wall of high-frequency vibrations slammed into her skull halfway through her shout.
Her vision instantly went pitch black, the spiral energy around her limbs disappearing as her body froze entirely. Stripped of her flight, she plummeted straight out of the sky, crashing heavily onto the concrete below.
Casually, Hood retracted his shoulder limb, letting the bleeding, unconscious Seiji drop to the ground like a broken doll. With his front hand, he threw the mangled, barely breathing body of X-Less aside, casting the Pro Hero over the edge of the bridge into the dark waters below.
"No... strong heroes," Hood uttered, his head tilting as he scanned the broken, bloody baseline of the bridge. His yellow eyes narrowed in hollow disappointment. "None here..."
"Do not fret, Hood." Dr. Garaki's voice came through on the other end of a tiny communication receiver embedded deep inside the tissue of Hood's ear. "The truly strong ones will show themselves soon enough. For now, focus on the objective. Retake the League and withdraw! If you tarry, the entire prefecture's forces will converge on your position. It would be inconvenient to fight to your heart's content while having to protect Tomura."
Hood's brain hidden underneath his skin pulsed at the mention of stronger opponents. He looked upwards to see the sky brightening as night gave way to daytime. "...Understood."
The Nomu turned toward the overturned convoy.
Its arm muscles immediately rippled apart.
Four.
Six.
Eight writhing tendrils burst from his shoulders and back like living serpents.
WHOOOSH!!
They shot downward simultaneously. Inside the ruined containment transport, Toga's grin widened.
"I knew it. I knew we wouldn't be left behind."
CREEEEEEAK—SNAP!
Without a shred of hesitation, Hood thrust his elongated limbs downward, wrapping his thick, tendril-like fingers tightly around the heavy iron-maiden restraint pods containing Tomura Shigaraki, Dabi, and Himiko Toga. With a massive heave, he yanked the containment units clean out of the vehicle's chassis.
Midnight, still pinned through the shoulder, could only watch through blurred vision.
"...No..."
Not finished, Hood's yellow eyes locked onto X-Less's ruined, overturned cruiser just a few meters away. His auxiliary arms tore through the vehicle, tearing the doors off their hinges and pulling out the remaining high-security targets trapped in the secondary transport line.
Within seconds. Every captured League member was dangling beneath Hood's massive frame.
Jet vents opened across his back.
BOOOOOOOOOM!! The highway exploded beneath his feet as Hood launched into the sky carrying every member of the League of Villains. Within seconds he had already become a shrinking silhouette against the brightening horizon.
Midnight watched through gritted teeth as they escaped, unable to do a thing to stop him.
Down below, the surface of the dark ocean broke.
Tsuyu Asui dragged herself onto the lower support structure of the bridge. "He's pretty... Heavy." Her small frame struggled slightly under the weight of Inasa Yoarashi who was entirely limp on her shoulders, both soaked.
Looking up at the smoking ruin of the highway above and the black silhouette fading into the distance, Tsuyu swallowed hard, the color completely drained from her face. "Ribbit... Oh my god."
Inasa lifted his head with great effort, eyes staring at the direction the Nomu left in through barely gritted teeth.
Up on the fractured bridge, a chaotic chorus of shouts erupted from all directions. "Get medical over here now!" a police officer screamed, stumbling over the debris toward the crumpled form of Nejire. "We have multiple pros down! Move, move!"
Ochaco Uraraka sprinted past the panicking officers until she reached the gaping, torn-open husk of the lead transport. "Midnight-sensei!!"
Then stopped to see Nemuri Kayama barely pushing herself up. Her costume was completely soaked in crimson, her left shoulder a mangled, unrecognizable mess of torn muscle.
"Sensei, don't move! You're bleeding too much!" Ochaco cried, reaching into the ruined van to support her.
Midnight didn't look up, her jaw was tightly clenched as she pressed the transmit button with a blood-stained thumb. "This is... Huh?"
Her thoughts were interrupted as she saw a figure carried by a whirlwind, shooting out from under the bridge.
'Inasa?' Midnight's eyes widened, realising what was happening before hurriedly pressing her finger to her ears.
"Yoarashi! What are you doing?"
"Isn't it obvious Midnight-Sensei?" Inasa said, wind whipping across his face. "We can't just let them disappear! So I'm giving chase." Every gust of wind he generated sent another wave of pain crashing through his skull. The ultrasonic blast had never truly worn off. His ears still rang violently but he couldn't stop now.
"Don't be an idiot!" Midnight yelled at the top of her lungs. "This isn't something a single person can deal with. Fall back immediately!"
"I KNOW THAT!" The answer came without hesitation.
"THAT'S WHY I'M NOT GOING TO FIGHT IT!"
Up ahead, the small dot was gradually fading into the distance. Gritting his teeth, another burst of wind exploded beneath his feet.
BOOOOM!!
His speed increased again. "I'M JUST GOING TO FOLLOW HIM!"
"As long as I can keep him in sight..."
"...the heroes will know where to find him!"
Midnight froze.
"..."
It was reckless. Completely reckless.
If that thing turned around and attacked him, he would be easily killed.
"That's not ideal. Come back ..."
"I SAY THIS RESPECTFULLY MAM. BUT NO."
".."
"THIS THING JUST HURT MY TEAM. AND THE LEAGUE HAVE FINALLY BEEN CAPTURED AFTER ALL THIS TIME. THERE'S NO WAY I'M LETTING THEM ESCAPE THAT EASILY."
"Yaorashi." Midnight's fingers dug into the cracked frame of the transport vehicle, the transmission button slick with her own blood.
Finally, she gritted her teeth and pressed the Transmission device in her hand.
"This is Midnight,"
"Priority Alpha emergency."
"League transport has been compromised."
"Repeat..."
"The League of Villains has escaped."
"A Nomu is transporting all captured members with aerial flight."
"Primary pursuit has been initiated by Shiketsu High first-year Inasa Yoarashi, maintaining visual contact with the target. Heading South-Southeast. Requesting immediate backup... and Vanguard deployment!"
Silence lasted less than a second for seconds. Moments later, every emergency frequency in the region erupted to life. Meanwhile .... A hundred miles away from Kyoto.