MHA Universe, Earth, Japan, Yokohama.
*Rumble!*
After Akatsuki and Sakura arrived near the rubble that used to be the warehouse, a slight trembling could be felt through the ground. Shortly afterwards, a few piles of rubble began to shake before pieces started to roll down to the ground.
Not long afterwards, six Nomus, all with slightly different appearances, burst from the piles, their grotesque mouths opened wide as their tongues lulled out of their mouths.
"No matter how many times I see these things, they're disgusting." Akatsuki muttered as she reached behind her to grab the hilts of a pair of kodachi strapped to her back. "I usually don't like killing. But since these things are already dead and, more importantly, so ugly, I'll make an exception."
"I'll even lock what's left of them in the [Shadow Space]." Sakura added as her shadow began to expand rapidly. "Leaving their bodies lying around will more than likely be a felony-class case of littering."
"I could actually see that." Akatsuki replied as she lowered her stance. "Well then, why don't we do our civic duty and get rid of these things."
"Yes, let's." Sakura replied as several tendrils burst up from her expanded shadow and speared towards the Nomus.
At the same time, Akatsuki activated her [Sneak Quirk], vanishing from the perceptions of Sakura and the Nomus. However, to make sure that she did not clash with Sakura, Akatsuki made sure to stay in the range of Sakura's shadows.
*Swish!* *Swish!* *Swish!* *Swish!* *Swish!*
Cutting through the air, each Nomu was targeted by one of Sakura's shadow tendrils. And while the leaner Nomus, clearly designed for speed, were able to dodge away from the shadows before trying to grab them and tear them apart, the bulkier ones, made for strength and durability, took the attacks head on.
*Splatter!* *Splatter!* *Splatter!*
As a result, the two slowest Nomu were pierced through the chest, the shadows not slowed by the external defenses in the slightest. Meanwhile, all of the faster Nomus managed to dodge and grab the shadow tendrils. However, only three of the four were able to tear them apart. As for the last one, it was pierced from behind after the tendril extended even further and curved back towards its target.
*Roar~~~~!* x 3
The pain-filled roars from the Nomus echoed throughout the area. Meanwhile, the undamaged Nomus charged towards Sakura, recognizing that she was the one who launched the attack.
"You really shouldn't be so hasty." Sakura muttered while controlling the tendrils piercing through the other three Nomus to wrap around them.
*Shing!* *Shing!*
As soon as Sakura's words ended, two flashes of light cut through two of the three charging Nomus' legs. A moment later, Akatsuki, with her [Sneak Quirk] dispelled, appeared behind them with her arms spread and her kodachi glinting under the sun.
*Thud!* x 2
*Roar~~~~~~~~!* x 2
A moment later, the two Nomus whose legs had been cut, fell forward without their legs attached. Even so, it was clear that the fight was not over, as the stumps began to wriggle. Then, a pair of fleshy tendrils shot out, trying to reconnect the severed legs.
Meanwhile, Akatsuki quickly spun in place with her right arm pointing towards the last Nomu,, who was still charging towards Sakura. Then, she shot a thin wire, tipped with a grappling claw, from her wrist guard.
However, when she turned around, she was surprised to see the Nomus trying to reconnect their legs.
"Ew! Not only are they ugly, but their disgusting like tentacle monsters as well." Akatsuki said as the grappling claw dug into the only standing Nomu's back. She then continued while raised her left hand and tapping a button on her right wrist guard with the pommel of her short sword.
*Zap~~~~~~~~~!*
*Roar~~~~~!*
In the next instant, a high-voltage current was sent through the wire. That naturally led to the Nomu being lit up with more than triple the usual voltage of a taser. Or a hundred fifty thousand volts. As a result, the Nomu stopped running forward, started roaring in pain, and fell to the ground less than ten feet away from Sakura.
"That smells so bad." Sakura said while raising her left hand to cover her mouth and nose. "It's like burning corpses."
"That sounds about right. Akatsuki replied while disengaging her taser claw. "Anyway, just suck it into your shadow. That way the smell will go away."
Nodding in response, Sakura quickly manipulated her shadow to form a few more tendrils. However, instead of just pulling in the electrocuted Nomu, she also dragged in the two whose legs had been cut off, as well.
"We should get rid of the last fast one next." Sakura said once the three Nomus were disposed of.
"Right." Akatsuki replied as she spun around once again.
Kicking off the ground, Akatsuki once again vanished after taking two steps. Meanwhile, Sakura, who had been doing her best to hold the three remaining Nomu in place, created several more tendrils to keep the powerful Nomus occupied, as they had been tearing apart any tendrils that wrapped around them. Luckily, that was able to keep them distracted long enough that they could not focus on approaching Sakura.
Meanwhile, the final agile Nomu, although unable to break the tendrils that wrapped around it, was still strong enough to keep itself from being dragged into the [Shadow Space] while its body was completely intact.
Naturally, Akatsuki and Sakura had every intention of rectifying that issue immediately.
While difficult, Sakura controlled her shadow tendrils to drag the agile Nomu away from the strong ones so they would not get in the way of the operation. And by the time Akatsuki was close enough to attack, a small gap was created between it and the other two Nomus.
*Shing!* *Shing!* *Shing!* *Clang!*
Akatsuki's attack pulled her out of her stealth once again. Not before she managed to cut off both of the Nomus legs and arms, though. She also tried to cut off its head. However, like Kurogiri, the Nomu wore a metal collar that was strong enough to stop her blades from cutting through it.
"What are those collars made of?" Akatsuki asked with a slight frown. "These blades Hatsume-San made vibrate at high frequency. So high, in fact, that cutting through the rest of the Nomus body parts was like cutting through butter with a hot knife. *Sigh* I can understand why Tatsuo-Kun wants to invite her to the group."
"Hmph!" Sakura snorted as she controlled her shadows to pull the pieces of the Nomu into her [Shadow Space]. "Alfonzo-San could make them, too. I bet his would be even better."
"Oh, my Goodness." Akatsuki said while rolling her eyes. "Are you still upset about what she said about wanting to make babies with Tatsuo-Kun? I know you know she doesn't mean it like that. She probably doesn't even think of boys like that. The only thing on that crazy girl's mind is making new inventions."
And just like Akatsuki said, Sakura was well aware that Mei is not romantically interested in Tatsuo. At least, she's not consciously romantically interested. But first impressions are hard to get over.
As proof of that, Sakura still saw Tatsuo as her hero, despite the fact that he's probably the furthest thing from a hero. Heroes kill the dragons in fairy tales, after all.
Knowing that defending her irrational dislike of Mei was an exercise in futility, Sakura kept her mouth shut. Instead, she turns her attention to the two Nomu who were making progress in freeing themselves from her tendrils.
"*Giggle* Okay, I'll drop it." Akatsuki said as she also turned to face the remaining Nomus. "But seriously, having another person who can build stuff wouldn't be bad for the [Chat]."
"Let's talk about that later." Sakura said with a pout. "For now, let's focus on completing the [objective]."
Deciding to let it go, Akatsuki turned back towards the remaining Nomus. And what she saw was that they were breaking Sakura's tendrils faster than she could reapply them. Knowing that things would get dangerous if the Nomus were to free themselves, she once again activated [Sneak] and charged towards the two hulking monstrosities.
Meanwhile, Sakura began using more than just tendrils to attack the Nomus now that she had more time to process the battle field. The first thing she did was raise a wall of shadows between them, separating the two while making it so that Akatsuki would only have to deal with one at a time.
Then, with most of her focus, Sakura attacked the Nomu on the her right, leaving the one to her left for Akatsuki to deal with.
*Swish!* *Swish!* *Swish!* *Swish!*
*Bang!* *Bang!* *Swish!* *Bang!*
*Roar!*
Instead of just using her tendrils to bind, Sakura sent tendrils with tips shaped into spheres, replicating maces and morning stars, Then, with a tremendous amount of force, she slammed the weapons made of shadows into the Nomu.
Despite the fact that the Nomu is roaring, thanks to the way they were created, it more than likely was not doing so due to pain. Rather, it was an instinctive reaction to getting hit. Even so, from what Sakura could tell, the Nomu was not taking any significant damage. And even when it did sustain damage, its [Regeneration Quirk] healed it rather quickly.
"At least it's not as absurd as the one that showed up at the USJ." Sakura muttered to herself while keeping up the attack. "That one would have already killed Akatsuki-San and I if Alfonzo-San didn't step in."
While muttering to herself, Sakura did not forget about the Nomu Akatsuki was facing. And when she looked over at it, she saw numerous cuts appearing on its body while Akatsuki dashed around it at superhuman speed. Unfortunately, thanks to the greater muscle mass, Akatsuki was having trouble severing any of its limbs in one strike.
Even so, Sakura could feel that the Nomu was weakening. As a result, she was having a much easier time binding it.
"It seems that they can only use one [Quirk] at a time.' Sakura muttered to herself. "While they're regenerating, they aren't nearly as strong."
Akatsuki seemed to come to the same conclusion as she continued to cut the Nomu, no longer worried about trying to sever its limbs. Instead, she focused on dealing as much damage as possible in the shortest time possible.
Meanwhile, Alfonzo, still standing on the top of the building from which he fired his [Final Flash], looked over the battlefield with his arms crossed.
"They're both pretty good." Alfonzo said with a nod. "I bet Akatsuki would be as much of a nightmare to fight as Lici is if she had a more powerful offensive option. Even so, those vibrating blades are a pretty good touch. Hatsume might be a good choice to add to the [Chat ], after all."
Reaching that point, Tatsuo shook his head.
"Then again, Lici might flip her shit if she found out that I left out Rumi." Alfonzo continued. "She was so jealous when Tatsuo got to meet Shea. She wants to have a bunny girl she can talk to, too. Then again, if Lici tried to dress up Rumi like she dresses up everyone else, that murderous rabbit might try to kick her all the way to the moon. Not that she could if she tried, though."
Deciding to leave the choice for a new member for later, Alfonzo returned his attention to the fight. And as he did, he saw that Akatsuki had done enough damage to the Nomu she was fighting that Sakura could now start dragging it into her [Shadow Space. Though, it was slow going.
Meanwhile, Akatsuki, after one last slash to the Nomu's mouth, which severed its tongue, left Sakura to deal with it. She then ran towards the shadow wall separating the two Nomus with both arms raised and pointing at a spot on the wall.
A moment later, a hole, large enough for Akatsuki to run through, opened up in the wall. On the other side, the Nomu Sakura was stalling was directly in front of Akatsuki. And when Akatsuki saw it, she wasted no time activating the grappling claws, firing them at the center of the Nomu's chest.
*Zap~~~~~~~~~~!*
*Roar~~~~~!*
Then, as soon as the claws pierced the Nomu's chest, Akatsuki sent another jolt of electricity directly into its body. She then began retracting the wires, pulling herself towards the spasming monstrosity.
At the same time, Sakura pulled back the tendrils and focused all of her attention on dragging the other Nomu into her [Shadow Space]. And with all her attention focused on a severely wounded foe, she had a much easier time doing so.
As for Akatsuki, while being pulled towards the other Nomu at high speed, she did not bother to activate her [Quirk]. Determining that it would not be needed for an immobilized foe that was still being electrocuted. Finally, when she was close enough, she disengaged her tasers and released the Nomu.
Yet, because Akatsuki was so close and the electricity was still running through its body, the Nomu was unable to react to Akatsuki's attack.
*Shing!* x 2
With added momentum from her high speed approach, Akatsuki crossed her arms over her chest, the blades of her kodachi positioned over her shoulders. Then, once she was in range, she swung both blades with all her might, the left one aimed at just below the Nomu's collar while the right was aimed just below its exposed brain.
Then, with little effort, the two blades slashed through the Nomu's tough flesh. Then, to kill her momentum, Akatsuki quickly reoriented herself, pushing her feet against the Nomu's collar and kicked off.
*Splatter!*
And as a result of Akatsuki's move, the portion of the Nomu's upper chest, neck, and head that were between Akatsuki's slashes was sent flying from the Nomu's back, leaving the Nomu's body, from the upper chest down, standing there in the same pose it had been in when she stopped shocking it.
Unfortunately, that also meant that Akatsuki was splattered by a large amount of the rotten blood coursing through the Nomu's veins. On top of that, she had to watch as its brain, which was no longer being supported by the rest of its head, fell out of the glass casing that exposed it to the world.
"Okay, this is disgusting.' Akatsuki said while trying to shake off the blood. "I wanna go home and take a long, hot bath."
"Yeah, I'm glad I don't fight up close like you do, Akatsuki-San." Sakura said as she walked towards Akatsuki. "If I was covered in that much undead blood, I might have accidentally dragged a few blocks into my [Shadow Space]."
"Please don't say such scary stuff like that so calmly." Akatsuki said as she turned back to look at Sakura. "I might actually have nightmares about that tonight.'
Looking back, Akatsuki saw that the other Nomu was no longer there, meaning that Sakura had succeeded in pulling it into her [Shadow Space] She then turned to look at the one she just cut into pieces and saw that it, too, was being dragged into the shadows.
"Well, I guess we're done here.' Akatsuki said. "We can leave the rest to Alfonzo. He's the actual pro Hero, after all."
In response, Sakura only nodded her head. She then intended to turn her gaze towards Alfonzo, who was floating towards them on his metal disk. Yet, before she could…
*Clap!* *Clap!* *Clap!*
… the sound of a slow, one-person applause made her snap her head in the direction of the sound.
"That was quite impressive for two so young.' A man wearing a suit, a white collared shirt, and a metal helmet with hoses attached to his chest and back said with a smooth voice and an eerily gentle tone. "You two have quite the powerful [Quirks]. And it's clear to see that you've done well to master them."
Seeing this man approaching from where the center of the destroyed warehouse used to be, both Akatsuki and Sakura went on high alert.
"So, I think I'll be taking them for myself." The man continued. A moment later, however, he looked up at Alfonzo, who was not far away by now. "I'll take yours, too, Foreign Hero. But that will have to wait until I'm done with these two. For now, you can play with my most powerful minion."
"Yeah, I knew you would call him here, All for One." Alfonzo said in a bored tone. "But you're right, it's more important to deal with that big mother fucker than waste my time playing with you. He's a bigger threat to the civilians, after all."
"And that's what I hate about you Heroes." All for One said while shaking his head. "You'd actually leave two of your comrades to die, just to save those worthless civilians who are unable to protect themselves."
"Who said I was leaving them to die?" Alfonzo asked as he started raising his altitude. "I'm just better suited to dealing with that big bastard, that's all. I'll leave you to my cousin instead."
What?" All for One, caught off guard by Alfonzo's insinuation that a child could be able to defeat him, asked in a confused tone.
However, instead of answering, Alfonzo, cloaked in violet lightning, simply sped off in the direction where he could feel a gigantic presence barreling towards the city.
A moment later, All for One returned his attention to Akatsuki and Sakura. However, when he did, they were no longer standing there. Instead, there was only a young man wearing a lightly armored, black and midnight purple tactical bodysuit with a dragon motif, a black eye mask with the same motif, and a pair of modified trench knives in his hands standing where the two young women once stood.
"Does your cousin actually believe you can defeat me, Soramoto-Kun?" All for One asked in an amused tone.
"Nah, he doesn't think so." Tatsuo replied while shaking his head. "He knows it."