Dr. Garaki's Laboratory - Undisclosed Location
Kurogiri's warp gate spat them out into the dim glow of Garaki's laboratory. The portal snapped shut behind them.
Toga was now on the grounds cold tiles, barely conscious, chest rising in shallow, stuttering breaths, that womans spear of bamboo that had punched clean through her abdomen had left a ragged, weeping hole just below her ribs; dark blood soaked the front of her uniform and pooled beneath her in a slow, glossy sheet. Her left arm was bent at a sickening angle, bone jutting against the skin like it wanted out. Every breath made her lips twitch, but she didn't scream. She just stared at the ceiling with glassy, unfocused eyes.
Twice wasn't doing much better, the right side of his head had deep cuts where the toxin driven fear had driven him to smash himself against the tunnel wall again and again. His duplicate suit was in tatters, the fabric now fabric dark and soaked with blood.
But they had survived-
barely.
Garaki emerged from behind a row of tall stasis pods, wiping his hands on a stained cloth and glanced at the two broken League members on his floor, then at Shigaraki.
"What happened?"
"Fix them."
Garaki clicked his tongue, a small, irritated sound. He crouched beside Toga first, tilting her chin with clinical detachment. Blood smeared across the tile as she shifted.
"I am not your personal medic. My job is—"
"I dont care," Shigaraki cut in, voice low and flat. "They're League, that makes them useful to All For One. If they die here, it's your fault."
The old man met his gaze for a long second. Then, without another word, he pulled his lenses down over his eyes and gestured sharply for Kurogiri to lift Toga onto the central operating table then Twice after. Metal instruments clattered as he began laying them out with practiced efficiency.
Kurogiri opened the gate back to the hideout. Shigaraki stepped through without looking back, hands shoved deep in his pockets, the faint smell of blood and fear toxin still clinging to his coat like a promise.
Behind him, the laboratory lights hummed coldly on as Garaki went to work.
Dr. Garaki's Laboratory - Several Minutes Later
The work on the girl took less time than Garaki had thought it would, Twice was more of a challenge but he got them stable after around half an hour which was about right given someone of his skill. When the immediate crisis had resolved itself, Garaki washed his hands, and walked to the secondary workstation at the far end of the lab.
The Nomus in progress lined the walls, suspended in their tanks, he gave them a brief glance as he passed before his recently built communications centre.
He had been away from his communications for some time, after his Master was captured and the heroes found the first Nomu warehouse he had to leave in a rush and hadnt been able to reach out to his international contacts and he had to deal with the children All For One insisted on saving. He sat down and pulled up the encrypted relay and checked the status of his standing connection to Gotham.
He initiated the call.
The screen came into focus after a few seconds, he expected Crane or his associate William but neither of them answerd. It was a woman who was seated at a desk that Crane was in during the few times the two had been in contact.
"I was expecting Crane?" Garaki said.
The woman looked at him without surprise. "He is currently unavailable," she said. "I have command until he returns from business. To be honest we assumed you were compromised after you went radio silent"
"So then where is Crane or when would we be able to talk?"
The woman's expression did not shift.
"As coincidence would have it he is currently in Japan as we speak"
Garaki was quiet for several seconds. "How convenient," he said finally,
"If you need to relay anything to him," she said, "I can pass it along."
"Tell him Garaki sends his regards, and that I have something to discuss in person given the fact he is in Japan."
He ended the call before she could respond.
He stood there for a moment with his hand still above the controls, looking at nothing in particular.
Then he turned and went back to his patients.
League of Villains Hideout - Around the Same Time
The hideout reeked of stale smoke, burnt plastic, and simmering rage.
Shigaraki sat hunched forward in his usual chair, elbows on his knees, fingers twitching like he wanted to decay the entire room. The anger rolling off him was thick enough to taste. Across from him, Dabi leaned against the wall with his usual half-lidded boredom, but the blue flames flickering at his fingertips betrayed how pissed he actually was. Spinner paced near the door, tail lashing.
"They're both fucked up," Shigaraki growled, voice low and venomous. "Toga's gut looks like it went through a woodchipper. Twice can barely breathe this was no heroes doing."
"Had to be Overhaul," Spinner said, spitting the name like it was poison. "That bastard's been looking for an excuse to screw us since we met him. He probably turned on Toga and Twice when they weren't useful anymore."
Dabi let out a dry, humorless chuckle. "Figures, the guy acts like he's too good for the League, then stabs us in the back the second it benefits him."
Shigaraki's scarred hand tightened around his phone until the case creaked. "If he touched them—"
The phone buzzed in his grip.
He answered instantly.
"Compress," he snapped.
"I'm two blocks away, slipping out through the side streets," Mr. Compress said smoothly, voice calm despite the distant sirens in the background. "You'll want to hear this. Overhaul's finished, the heroes took him down hard and they're now loading what's left of him into an ambulance right now and it looks like theres just one police escort. Minimal security."
Shigaraki's eyes narrowed. "One?"
"One," Compress confirmed. "He looks half-dead already, this might be the easiest kill we've had in months."
A vicious smile slowly crawled across Shigaraki's face.
"Which way are they going?" he demanded.
Compress rattled off the details without hesitation.
"We're moving. Now!"
Dabi pushed off the wall, cracking his neck. "Finally, some good news today."
Spinner was already heading for the door. "I'll drive."
The three of them moved quickly through the dingy hallway before getting outside and reaching a battered black truck waited in the alley. Spinner slid into the driver's seat while Shigaraki and Dabi climbed into the back, the doors slamming shut behind them.
Spinner started the engine, the truck rumbling to life.
Surface - Yakuza Compound - Deku and "Eri"
Deku dropped to one knee on the shattered concrete, breathing hard.
His left arm was finished and he wouldent be punching anything for a while. He had accepted that somewhere around the third exchange with Chisaki and shoved the thought into a distant corner of his mind. It hung useless at his side now, throbbing with a deep.
Then he felt small hands release their grip on his back.
Deku looked up.
Eri stood in front of him.
She wasn't shaking, and she wasn't crying. Instead she stared at him with an expression he couldn't quite place it was like she was calm, almost detached, with the faintest curve at the corner of her mouth that looked disturbingly like amusement. It didn't belong on the face of a little girl who had just been through hell.
It didn't belong at all.
His exhausted mind tried to file it away, to make sense of it, but something cold twisted in his chest.
"Eri…?" he rasped, voice hoarse.
She kept looking at him. That strange little smile lingered for half a second longer.
Then it was gone.
"Thanks, hero," she said softly. "I was really scared."
Deku blinked.
"Why are you speaking English?" he rasped. His voice cracked. "and why… why don't you remember me?"
The girl took one neat step backward.
Then she laughed.
It was wrong. A thin, hollow sound that didn't belong to a child.
And then she began to melt.
The edges of her small body blurred and sagged, her white hair darkened and ran like wet ink and her limbs lengthened with a sickening, liquid stretch, bones shifting audibly beneath the skin before the skin itself gave up pretending. The hospital gown dissolved into nothing as the form expanded outward, growing broader, heavier, wrong in every proportion. A thick, clay-like substance oozed and reshaped itself with wet, sucking sounds.
Deku stayed on one knee, wounded left arm hanging useless at his side, and simply watched.
He couldn't move, he was in complete shock and part of him had shut down completely.
The clay monster finished growing. It was huge now and one of its arms rose with a slow, deliberate motion. The end of the limb bulged and flattened, hardening into a massive, crude mallet head the size of a small car.
It drew back.
Deku stared up at it eyes hollow.
The creature let out another laugh and swung.
Then something very large slammed into the clay figure from the side.
It was Ryukyu in her full dragon form and the impact was thunderous. She drove the creature sideways across the wrecked street with a snarl, claws gouging deep furrows into the concrete as she tried to pin it down. For one heartbeat she had it, then the thing's arm whipped around and caught her across the shoulder with brutal force, sending her skidding back ten meters in a spray of broken stone.
Ryukyu rolled and came up roaring.
The commotion drew every eye on the surface. Heroes turned mid-step, Uraraka was already sprinting toward them, a pro hero launched into the air above. The clay creature registered all of it but it did not get smaller or back down.
It grew even larger.
Its mass surged upward with wet, sucking sounds and in seconds it towered over even Ryukyu and settled into a wide, primitive fighting stance like it intended to finish this right here.
Then it simply… stopped.
Mid-motion with its arms raised and weight shifted forward, but perfectly still. Like a machine that had been unplugged halfway through its job.
Ryukyu didn't hesitate.
She charged with a roar and drove her clawed fist straight through its chest.
The creature shattered.
It confused everyone it shattered like cheap sculpture made from some brittle clay in a highschool art class. Then they saw why it was now a hardened hollow shell and there was nothing inside.
Ryukyu stood amid the wreckage, chest heaving, and stared down at the scattered pieces with narrowed eyes, as if expecting them to move again.
They didn't.
Behind her, Deku remained on one knee.
He still hadn't moved, his right hand pressed flat against the broken concrete, fingers trembling. His eyes were fixed on the ground, wide and empty, like his mind had simply stepped away and forgotten to come back.
"...Deku?" Uraraka's voice reached him from somewhere far away.
He didn't answer.
Around him the sounds of heroes securing the area continued, but Izuku Midoriya stayed perfectly still on that street, staring at nothing, while his mind was stuck on the fact that everything they had done, everyone they had lost, and everything they sacrificed, was for that thing that wore Eri's face while they let the real Eri disappear and now they had no idea where she could be or who she was with.
Was it all for nothing?
Ryukyu dropped from the air like a falling building and slammed into the scattered clay fragments with savage force. The impact cracked the pavement beneath her and as she stood in the center of the wreckage, chest heaving. Her golden eyes scanned the pieces but none of the dried clay moved or reformed. Whatever had worn Eri's face was gone.
Uraraka was beside her a moment later, breathing hard.
"She's not here," Ryukyu said quietly.
"I know." Uraraka's voice was small, her eyes stayed fixed on the ground. "With a Quirk like that… I don't know how we're supposed to find her now."
Ryukyu glanced up at the empty sky where she had been circling earlier.
She looked back down at the shattered clay and yelled out to the heroes and police around them "its not time to give up yet!"
"Someone planned this,"
A police officer burst out from one of the newly opened ground exits, mask already strapped to his face, frantically waving others back. "We need gas masks!" he shouted. "There's something in the air down there, we need to be properly equipped or clear the lower levels before sending anyone else in!"
Highway - Crane's Vans - Same Time
"There he is," Cameron said over comms, voice tight with satisfaction.
Crane was already watching.
Through the windshield of the second van, far in the distance above the shattered compound, a massive grey and brown clay-like shape rose against the skyline and to them it was unmistakable it was Basil in his full form.
"Job's almost done," Cameron added.
Crane glanced down at his phone. The tracker on the ambulance continued its steady path along the predicted route.
He made a quiet calculation, then spoke to the driver.
"Pull over."
The vans eased onto the pullover lanes in smooth sequence, engines idling. Crane stepped out into the cool air and looked back down the highway.
"The ambulance will pass within a few minutes," he announced, loud enough for the others. "We hold here."
Surface - Near the Compound Perimeter - Basil
The moment the clay monster froze mid-stance, Basil moved though the body before reforming himself and slipped through the the back of the left leg unseen. The opening sealed behind him instantly as he dropped to the ground in his base clay form. Ten meters later he was already reshaping, bones lengthening, features sliding into place, uniform materializing over his body. By the time he reached the outer police perimeter he was just another officer walking with the calm, slightly bored look of someone who had been on perimeter duty for six straight hours not getting to see any action.
He didn't look back when Ryukyu shattered the shell he left behind.
Only once he was two full blocks east, tucked inside a narrow alley between two closed shops, did he let the transformation drop.
The police uniform melted away and face dissolved.
Basil now stood in his own clothes and his own face before looking up and hearing a car honk twice and he stepped back into the street.
The black car stopped beside him and Silver didn't even glance over as he climbed into the passenger seat.
"I deserve an award for that," Basil said, buckling in.
Silver was quiet for half a block.
"You blew the ending."
Basil gave a low laugh. "Try performing as a child you've barely observed, then critique my acting."
The compound perimeter shrank in the rear-view mirror as they drove back toward the hotel, the city lights beginning to flicker on in the falling evening.
Highway - Crane's Wings Follow the Convoy
A large truck passed first.
Cameron watched it from high above, wings steady keeping a steady flight. He said nothing, It wasn't their target.
Then came the ambulance.
Single police car was infront of it.
He clicked the comms twice.
"One police unit," he said quietly. "That's the entire escort."
In the second van, Crane didn't answer right away. He studied the blinking tracker on his phone, then looked up at the distant ambulance through the windshield.
"Follow at distance," Crane finally said. "Do not close in just yet."
The vans pulled smoothly out of the break down lanes and merged back into the road which wasnt that busy, maintaining a wide gap while Cameron stayed high overhead, a silent shadow against the afternoon sky.
Below, the ambulance continued down the highway, completely unaware that it was now being followed from the front and the back.
Highway - The League's Intercept
The back of the truck opened and the lead officer realized who was in the truck infront of them.
"Oh, crap," a police officer said. "That's Tomura Shigaraki from the League of Villains!"
"Hey, lizard! Stop weaving! I get motion sick."
"Don't call me lizard! The name is Spinner!"
"Shut up and focus on driving," Dabi said, from the back.
Spinner glanced at him. "What would Stain say about this? Is attacking the police in line with his desires for a true hero society? I'm not so sure he'd approve."
"It's a necessary sacrifice, Spinner. I'm counting on you. Let's go."
A hero was traveling with the convoy with a sand-based Quirk they realized after Dabis first attack, which meant Dabi's fire wasn't going to be the approach here but The compress was already moving.
"Shigaraki is only a misdirection. A little sleight of hand, if you will. Now - watch carefully as the police car flies through the air. No trickery or wires involved."
The car went up and crashed alongside the ambulance.
"We've been finding burnt corpses all over the city. That's your doing, isn't it?"
"So the boss isn't the only one people talk about. That's nice to hear."
"Have you ever thought about the families of those you murdered in cold blood-"
Before the hero disappeared into a small orb.
Shigaraki walked toward the armored transport before kicking overhaul out, who was strapped to a bed with heavy restraints.
"Did you come to kill me?"
"No," Shigaraki said. "I thought of something you'll hate even more than that."
"I hate you. Truly, you're too full of yourself."
Compress then dropped a orb down taking Overhauls arm.
"For the arm." he said looking satisfied.
Shigaraki then picked up two small cases looking into them.
"Two little boxes. Which one holds the finished product? I'll just take both."
"That's mine." Overhul managed to say with what was left of his pride.
Shigaraki closed the boxes and removed the hand from his face so he could see Overhaul clearly.
"You know what I think, Overhaul? Someone so obsessed with erasing Quirks shouldn't have one of their own. Don't you agree?"
Shigaraki reached for Overhaul's arm.
Highway - Crane's Wings Arrive
The black vans closed in from both sides of the highway at the same moment.
They boxed the League's truck in before Spinner could even think of moving and ahead of them, the road itself began to tear open as thick vines erupted through the asphalt, wrapping around it with crushing force. The truck lurched once, then ground to a violent halt.
Cameron circled silently overhead, his weapons pointed downward.
William stepped out of the second van with the bio-flamethrower resting casually across his chest, not yet raised. Roman Sionis emerged from the third, with his men leaving other vans flanking him, weapons already up and steady.
Roman aimed his guns at Dabi.
Dabi stared at the barrel, calculating how fast he could ignite.
"Don't try it pal," Roman said flatly.
Dabi held but didnt back down.
Shigaraki remained completely still, his hand was still extended toward Overhaul's arm while his red eyes flicked across the vans, taking everything in.
Then the passenger door of the final van opened and Crane stepped out.
He walked toward the boxed in group around his brief but albiet former buisness partner, hands tucked into his coat pockets. His gaze moved from the ambulance to the police transport, then finally settled on Shigaraki standing exposed in the middle of the highway.
From below him in restraints he heard Overhaul's voice but it was raw, stripped of its usual control.
"Crane." A strained pause. "Kill these traitors. They took the last of the bullets and hes going to kill—"
Until his attention was drawn to the third van.
Ivy stepped out of the second van.
And she was carrying Eri.
The little girl had her arms wrapped tightly around Ivy's neck, face half-buried in her shoulder. She was conscious and physically unhurt, but her red eyes watched the standoff with the quiet, hollow caution of a child who had learned long ago that the world only consisted of people who wanted something from her.
She was simply waiting to see what these new people wanted.
Overhaul went dead silent.
While the League's also was shocked, even Dabi wonderd how they could pull that off.
Crane looked directly at Shigaraki.
"I still need one more thing from Chisaki before his usefulness runs out" He tilted his head slightly. "I'd suggest stepping back."
Shigaraki did not step back.
He took one step forward instead, red eyes flat and murderous, his hands slowly rising.
"You're a long way from home," Shigaraki said.
"You shouldn't be so confident."
"One chance," Crane replied.
Shigaraki charged.