(This is one of my favourite chapters so far, definitely in my top 5)
Lower Levels Tunnels - Post Mimic Fight
Irinaka hadn't stopped moving since they got the restraints on him.
"Toga!" His voice was raw. "Toga and Twice, I won't forgive you! You traitors will die!"
Nighteye looked at him.
"Tell me where the other League members are hiding."
"I don't know! But I'll find every last one of them! I won't stop until I've crushed all their skulls to dust!" Something crossed his face that seemed to change from rage into satisfaction. "But I don't think I'll get the chance."
Nobody asked him what he meant.
Midoriya looked around the chaotic scene and up at the distance to the tunnel above that he had opened this pit to these lower tunnels before glancing at Aizawa.
"I'm guessing those two are the only ones here, at least for now. It doesn't look like the villains from the League are going to attack us."
A detective stepped forward loading his gun.
"Maybe not but they're not on our side just because they betrayed this guy. Those criminals are wanted across the country as officers of the law, we can't let them escape."
He looked at the heroes again.
"Why are you fools standing around talking instead of acting? The cops can deal with the League. You're wasting time, so ignore them and keep moving or did you morons forget our mission's top priority?"
It was Rock Lock still holding his wound and now sitting on the ground on the wall exhausted.
"I'll hang tight," Rock Lock said. "Someone has to stay behind to keep an eye on Irinaka and thanks to the crazy girl with the knives, I'm not going anywhere anytime soon." He looked at the group assembled in the corridor. "Well, go on. Finish what we came here to do."
"We'll find her," Midoriya said, "and we'll save her, don't worry Rock Lock!"
Rock Lock watched them go down another tunnel just before it collapsed and memories came to him of his wife at home and their new baby boy. He'd been worried about the kids on this operation that they were too young, whatever their training. Then he'd watched them act more heroically than most pros he'd worked alongside.
You promised to save the girl, he thought, watching Midoriya's back as the tunnel collapsed. Then you better do it, Deku. Same goes for you, Nighteye. Her future is on you.
Toga and Twice - Lower Tunnel
Toga and Twice were walking through a tunnel they found before Mimic was taken down.
"What should we do, Toga? Kiss maybe?"
"There's a good chance Izuku's going to get bloodied up," Toga said looking excited. "I'd really like to see that again but maybe more than that..." She paused. "Right now I just want to make Overhaul cry like a little baby."
"In that case, I've got no idea! Here's what we should do."
He leaned in and whispered it.
"Oh, that's perfect, Jin. It'll make Tomura real happy, too."
Toga looked back down the corridor where they had escaped leaving Mimic behind.
"I wish I could watch."
She was still smiling about it when she turned forward and saw someone standing in the dark ahead of them.
Twice went first, charging forward yelling "some more Yakuza losers Toga!". Toga ran up to follow smiling happy she would get to kill a straggler.
Then vines came through the tunnel walls before he got close. Four of them, fast and precise, impaling his arms and his legs and pinning him to the floor mid-stride. He hit the ground with a scream of pain. Blood was already spreading from the punctures.
Toga didn't stop, she wasn't happy now but angry. She had her knife out and she was already on the woman, driving the blade into her chest, she felt it go in deep and after being satisfied she jumped back.
But when she looked at the knife looking to taste some blood.
The blade was dry.
The woman hadn't even flinched, she just looked down at the cut in her chest, then back up at Toga, and laughed. The vines retracted from Twice's limbs all at once. He stayed on the ground, gasping, blood pooling under each arm and leg. The cut in the woman's chest closed, immediately, the skin sealing over before Toga had fully processed that she was watching it happen.
The woman's arm turned into a vine. Thick, coiling, faster than Toga could back up. It wrapped around her throat and hauled her off the ground.
"Plants," the woman said, "do not bleed."
Toga grabbed at the vine with both hands fighting to pull it away as it tightened and it got harder for her to breathe. Her feet were well off the floor and her vision was starting to go blurry as she couldn't get any air.
Then a dark cloud? appeared at the far end of the corridor.
And that man from earlier… Crane walked through it, the gas moving around him before stopping. He looked at the two of them, Toga hanging in Ivy's grip, Twice bleeding on the floor and didn't look very impressed.
"We can't waste more time with these two," he said.
Ivy looked at Toga for a moment. Then she threw her straight up and while in the air, Toga managed to take a deep breath before she hit the ceiling and came back down and Ivy's arm had morphed from a vine to a sharp bamboo like spear and stabbed it right through Toga's abdomen on the way down, clean through, and Ivy yanked it out and let her fall.
Toga hit the floor and stayed there. The pain was enormous and immediate and she could feel herself bleeding. A lot, her hands went to her stomach automatically and found wet.
Luckily it didn't hit anything vital.
Crane and Ivy walked past her, neither of them looked back.
The cloud came with them, rolling forward through the corridor, and it was already in Twice's lungs and working before Toga then started feeling the sensation as well.
Twice's breathing changed, and he'd taken more of the gas than her and started panicking and his fear came back of whether he was real or not and he began to see more versions of himself gather and speak to him.
You aren't the real one, just a clone
You're going to dissolve, you can already feel it, why not speed it up.
He smashed his head into the wall.
Then again, harder and again and again until blood began going down the side of his face and mixed with what was already coming from his arms and legs.
"Jin—"
Toga dragged herself off the floor on her hands and knees and got her arms around him and pulled him away from the wall and used all her strength to restrain him for his own good.
He fought her for a moment.
Then something in him gave out he wasn't dead yet just exhausted from the blood loss but he didn't have much more time.
Toga looked up.
The corridor where Crane and Ivy had gone was empty.
She looked at her hands, the blood from her stomach wound was soaking through her clothes steadily and she reached for her phone, weakly managing to call Shigaraki.
"Tomura." Her voice came out steadier than she had any right to. "We need Kurogiri, send him now."
She gave their location.
Before she dropped the phone
She looked at the ceiling unable to hear his answer and saw her parents looking down at her. Her mother's face while her father wasn't looking now, disgusted with what his daughter was and had become.
As they began to yell at her, she just held onto Twice and kept breathing until a portal opened and Kurogiri picked them up.
Overhaul Base Secret Entrance Tunnel - Rest of Cranes Wings
Silver checked her watch for the third time and didn't say anything about it while Black Mask was pacing on the other side of the vehicle getting anxious.
Nobody wanted to be the one to say it first.
Cameron stepped forward before anyone got the chance.
"We don't question the boss." He said it without raising his voice. "We wait."
Nobody argued the loyalty they had for Crane was too strong and the tension in the tunnel settled.
Black Mask looked away from the road.
"William…"
William had drifted toward the back of one of the vans again holding a syringe and scalpel and started opening the door.
"Stop."
He looked at Roman.
"Now."
William backed off sighing.
"Fine…"
Lower Tunnels - Rock Lock and Officers
The officer at the front of the group had been moving carefully down the only tunnel out after the one the heroes took collapsed.
His flashlight beam was the only light ahead of him as he scouted this area. He stopped at a section where the passage widened slightly and turned back toward the group.
"I think I found a way out," he said.
The sharp vine came through the back of his skull and out through his mouth before he finished the sentence. It raised him off the floor as blood gushed from his mouth as he slowly died then the cloud of toxin came fast filling the corridor in seconds.
Rock Lock was in the back and looked up from his injury to see the dark gas cloud cover them all then he could hear the voices of cops panicking shooting their guns off in all directions at things that weren't there, one kept firing into a wall, another kept shooting his best friend even after it was nothing but a corpse, and another officer's Quirk activated and started a fire started at the tunnel's edge, small at first but growing fast finding fuel in the debris and bodies along the floor.
The corpse of the first officer then landed at his feet.
The vine had swung it forward and released it and it hit the stone in front of him and he looked at the face of the officer he'd grown to know over the last half hour.
Ivy stepped through the opening.
Behind her, further back in the cloud, Crane.
Then a yellow energy materialized finding the officers who were still functional and slicing and impaling them one after another.
Irinaka, who was still restrained, started to fall under the effects before Ivy stopped beside him and raised him off the floor in her vines and held him, moving him up above the toxin; they still needed him for now.
Crane stopped in front of Rock Lock.
Rock Lock was muttering something about his wife, about the baby, he needed to keep them safe.
Then, for a moment, his eyes cleared.
He looked up and found Crane crouching in front of him.
Crane felt amazing and his power becoming massive with the concentrated area full of toxin fear it already taught him something new with the energy but his instincts were calling to something even greater-
"Your going to help me try something new"
Rocklocks eyes went wide and the tunnel seemingly disappeared and he was back in his home he saw his wife was standing in front of him smiling, holding their son.
She held the boy out.
"Look at our baby, he looks just like his daddy"
Though the voice sounded nothing like her.
He stood up and began walking over to hold his son while the pain from the stabbing seemingly went away.
"Yes just like his daddy" his wife said again smiling as blood began to replace tears.
Then a bright stroke of yellow light sliced her neck from behind and his wife's head came off as she laughed and her head hit the floor dissolving into smoke with her body but now his baby was falling.
Rock Lock dove forward but he wasn't gonna make it..
Until he caught him.
The masked man was holding him and calming his son down while all Rock Lock could do was watch on his knees it was like he was being held in place and he looked and saw the energy wrapped around his legs.
Then the illusion of his home seemingly evaporated, and he looked around and saw the tunnel and the bodies of the officers around him and the fire had grown.
He then saw the figure again but he still had his son.
Then he held the baby over the fire and looked at Rock Lock one more time
"Just like his daddy..."
And tossed his son in,
The energy disappeared and Rock Lock threw himself into the flames searching for his son but couldn't find him but in his panic, fear, and despair did not give up.
Crane watched in satisfaction.
Not in the heroes and police suffering and dying he could care less about that right now.
He realized the energy when in a space completely covered in others fear of him let him use it at an ease he never could before.
And then with that hero…
it was like he could change the perception of reality…
He didn't even really understand how or what happened, but perhaps-
The energy was not even the pinnacle of his power…
Ivy was waiting at the far end of the room, still holding Irinaka high up in her vines. He was past raging now, almost fully under the gas, drifting, occasionally surfacing enough to make a sound.
She had grown a wide flat leaf from the ground in an area the fire hadn't taken yet — the size of a table, thick-stemmed and substantial. She and Crane stepped onto it with Irinaka between them and it rose, pushing up through the hole Mimic made to the lower tunnel.
They came up into a higher passage, cleaner air, the burning corridor now below them with the toxin not risen to their level yet.
Irinaka had gotten out just in time not to be fine but to be able to at least function.
He looked at Crane and Ivy who released her vines letting him fall onto the ground
"Appreciate it," he said.
"We need you to show us the exit," Crane said.
Irinaka looked around.
He laughed once, short and without much humor.
"Those traitors. Did you—"
"Unless they have some magic portal they're," Ivy said.
He laughed again, more genuine this time.
"Show us to the exit we arrived at," Crane said.
Irinaka looked at him for a moment, then he nodded.
He went into the floor and the tunnel rearranged itself, the labyrinthine passage system resolving into a single straight line. He came back up and then looked down the shaft he'd opened earlier with Rock Lock and the police dead, looking immensely satisfied.
"I made a path to your people, but Overhaul's in a battle not far ahead. I made another tunnel that connects further up," he said. "We can launch a surprise attack through the supply room wall and help him on the way out." He still had his back turned to Crane, who reached into his inner coat pocket. "Those heroes, not all of them, are down yet. You need to go and kill the rest of them, if you just—"
He turned around to face Crane but-
Crane shot him through the eye.
His now lifeless body was already falling over, but Crane stepped forward and kicked him into the fire below.
Crane turned away, and Ivy fell into step beside him.
"He did have a useful Quirk," she said.
"He would have been a liability, plus I already have one lunatic to manage, I don't need more."
"And he wouldn't have left the yakuza anyway, and I don't have any intention of bringing any of them in."
Ivy considered this and said nothing further.
As they walked down the straight corridor.
Overhaul Base - Overhaul Vs the Heroes
Mirio had been hit and his Quirk was now gone but-
He kept fighting.
Chisaki watched.
He wasn't stopping.
"You came here to save this girl and it's her power that will end everything you've come to rely on, you're powerless."
"No," Mirio said. "I am still Lemillion."
He came forward again.
"Chisaki!"
"I told you," Chisaki said, anger rising.
"That's not my name anymore!"
Deku, Aizawa, Nighteye Arrive
Nighteye saw the battle in front of him then told the others. "Chisaki's on his last legs"
"Mirio! Get Eri out of here."
Eri was behind him, she hadn't said anything, just remained silent.
Chisaki was already moving towards them. "It's up to us to finish this."
Then out of nowhere, the clock-hand hair found Aizawa before anyone could close the distance. "Those pierced by the long hand will find their movements slowed," Kurono said, pulling back. "I meant to skewer both of you at once, but that's heroes for you."
And suddenly the two were sealed off in another room.
Overhauls Base Upper Tunnels Supply Room - Aizawa and Kuruno
"We referenced your Quirk quite a bit while conducting our research on Eri," Kurono said. "So I know a great deal about you, Erasure Hero. Fortunately, I was able to isolate you from your friends without resorting to lethal force. You'll be much more useful to us alive, erasing Quirks — that's an ability Overhaul finds very appealing and can be great for business. Oh, stop struggling, it's no use, you have all the speed of a snail right now, just give up, you won't move normally for another hour."
Aizawa tried as best he could to move despite not having much success.
"There's no stopping him once he's set his mind to something." Kurono watched him. "I don't know how much you've been able to find out, but Eri is the Hassaikai boss's granddaughter. If it brings Overhaul closer to achieving his goal, nothing is off-limits. He will use anything and anyone, that's the kind of man he is."
Then the door opened-
Overhaul Base - Overhauls Final Battle
The kick that sent Midoriya into the sky was his own.
That was the part he needed a moment to process. He'd hit Chisaki, and the impact had sent them upwards through a hole in the ceiling that hadn't been there before, and the two were now in the sky
He still had the girl as she held onto his back silent hiding her face in his back, she hadn't said anything during the ascent, she had to be terrified he thought.
"Eri, naughty girl. You belong to me!"
Overhaul began to morph in the air, launching attacks at them.
"In order to realize the old man's greatest wish, I need you. Eri!"
Midoriya landed hard, his left leg took most of it it wasn't broken yet but he knew that he was nearing his limit before launching back into the air with Eri holding on and he then spoke to her"
"Eri, will you please lend me your power?"
She said nothing then -
"I don't know how, I don't want to hurt you more"
He understood quickly shifting his attention to Overhaul who he was getting close to in the air.
In the chaos, he didn't realize they had just spoken in English…
He pulled the power through and hit Chisaki.
The fight moved across the sky and the compound's broken surface. Spikes and platforms and angles generated and dissolved by Overhaul in the rapid cycle of someone fighting on two tracks simultaneously, Deku was keeping up though until he took a spike across the arm in the third exchange and felt a crack, but after seeing Eri holding on kept going, stopping was not an option.
"You're done, kid."
"No way, it's not over, this time I will save her!"
He hit Chisaki with all he had left without destroying himself knocking the villain down and winning the battle when Midoriya landed his left leg gave out immediately and he went down on one knee, the arm hanging weak he knew he was going to be in the hospital for a while before he could fight again.
He then felt Eri let go and walk in front of him.
She was looking at him and smiled but it wasn't one of joy, more like one of trickery… before hugging him .
Overhaul Base Upper Level Tunnels - Crane and Ivy - Same Time
The straight passage kept going but to their right there was another path into another section this was the path to somewhere nears Overhauls fight Mimic made, Crane could see a little up this second hall were two officers standing guard outside a door, with their small weapons and he could hear voices inside what he pieced together was the supply room and he also saw a frog themed hero?
But there was a hole to the surface further down,
Best to cover all bases.
Crane looked at the new tunnel and at the officers to the right and then looked at the path forward to the exit in front of him before looking at Ivy.
"Give me a minute," he said.
Ivy stepped back, leaning on the wall looking down at the exit.
He sent the toxin down the passage in a concentrated surge into the new corridor. It hit the officers first. One of them got a hand to his radio before his legs stopped working correctly and he fell down on the floor and started talking to someone who wasn't there. The other one turned and fired twice into the wall, dropped his weapon, and covered his ears.
Crane walked past them.
Inside the doorway, a girl in a frog-looking hero costume was leaning against the wall, knees to her chest, rambling and crying.
He thought about what kind of country sends its children into a place like this and calls it education.
He kept walking.
The room beyond was a supply room that had been converted into a containment space by circumstance rather than design. Aizawa was on the floor, his scarf partially raised around him, blocking enough of the gas that he was still present and unaffected.
Kurono was standing over him.
He'd put his mask back on when the police had started to randomly become hysterical, and now he was looking at the door when Crane entered.
His relief was visible even through the mask.
"Crane." English, accented but clean. He straightened. "Overhaul is outside fighting the heroes help me take Eraserhead out of here, the rendezvous point is—"
Crane looked past him at the two figures on the floor near the far wall, more kid heroes.
The boy with the food Quirk, and the blonde one, Lemillion he had been watching earlier on the security cameras in Overhaul's office. Both of them were now down, breathing but not conscious, their injuries extensive enough that the toxin hadn't needed to do much work, they were the luckiest ones still below ground, but he just stepped over them not caring much.
Aizawa managed to fully look up and saw that Kurono was still talking to this "Crane."
"I'm not working with people who lose to mere police and young children."
Kurono's expression changed into anger. "Without our cooperation you won't have access to more of the bullets. Overhaul still controls Eri, and without her blood, you will never—"
The yellow energy blade was fast; it was like it came out of nowhere.
Kurono's head came off at the neck, falling until it hit the floor and rolling until it was facing Aizawa. The eyes were still moving. A final few seconds of consciousness before the lights went out.
Crane looked at the head on the floor.
"I'm not concerned about the blood supply," he said, almost mockingly to the dead man.
He turned and found Aizawa looking up at him.
Crane crouched down.
"Hey, you're that Eraserhead that works with—" Crane started before stopping realizing the man wasn't under the toxin or fading yet.
"Let's keep that a secret for now."
He held the man's gaze for a moment.
"You're not dying today I have something in specific in mind for you people. I don't know when it will happen, but I look forward to it," Crane said.
He brought his foot down on the side of Aizawa's head knocking the exhausted hero out in just one stomp.
Aizawa went still.
Ivy was waiting in the passage now full of fear toxin as Crane reemerged from the room and they walked down the tunnel to the exit.
Cameron was the first to see them come out of the tunnel entrance and he said nothing, just signaling the others to get ready
Crane got into the back of the second van and sat down.
The new passenger in front of him said nothing.
"Will you miss this place?" Crane asked.
Before he got an answer, Crane's phone began to ring.
He looked at the screen, it was one of Overhaul's final men, he rolled his eyes but decided to pick up the call.
The voice on the other end was controlled but only barely, Overhaul was down and had been defeated, and he was on his way to the villain hospital but he managed to put a tracker on the ambulance.
The coordinates came through.
He looked at them for a moment but didn't say anything to the man before hanging up and looking out the window as they were now on the surface and the city of Osaka around them again.
He then let everyone vehicle know to change directions and follow the ambulance.'
He then talked out loud to no one in particular, "There's still one thing I need from him before we go" before looking down at the girl in front of him.
"And you can say a final goodbye."
"Eri"