Or so they thought....
A tremor started as something barely perceptible...a vibration in the concrete that could have been mistaken for aftershocks from Midoriya's devastating punch.
But it grew. Steadily....
Ryuu felt it through his feet first, then in his bones.
The emergency lighting flickered, casting the devastated hall in stuttering shadows that made the destruction seem to pulse with malevolent life.
"That's not the structure," Momo said, her analytical mind cutting through exhaustion to identify the wrongness. "The frequency is too consistent. Too controlled."
"Then wha—?" Ochaco began.
The temperature dropped.
Not gradually, like evening settling over a summer day. Not naturally, like air conditioning finally catching up to heat. This was immediate and absolute....as if winter itself had decided to visit this particular room and freeze the very molecules in the air.
Ryuu's breath misted despite the building's climate control.
Frost began forming on broken glass and shattered concrete in patterns that looked almost *artistic*.
"Oh my," a cultured voice drifted through the devastated hall, carrying refined tones that belonged in a lecture hall rather than a battlefield. "This is rather disappointing."
Through the hole Midoriya's shockwave had torn in the eastern wall stepped a figure that redefined every assumption Ryuu had made about their situation.
Kurogane Takeshi moved with liquid grace despite standing eight and a half feet tall.
Where the villain they'd just defeated had been brutal force incarnate....all muscle and murderous intent....but...this man was refined destruction.
Lean muscle wrapped over a frame that promised intelligence married to overwhelming power.
His skin held a metallic sheen that shifted as Ryuu watched, chrome becoming copper becoming something darker, more ominous.
The effect wasn't flashy or theatrical. It was natural, as inevitable as breathing, and somehow that made it infinitely more terrifying.
When those analytical eyes swept across the room, cataloguing every student and injury, Ryuu felt a primal urge to run.
Not the fear of combat or physical danger, but something deeper....the recognition that prey feels when it realizes the predator has been studying it for far longer than it knew.
'We can't fight this. Not as we are.'
"Ah," the man continued, stepping delicately over chunks of concrete as he approached his fallen subordinate with the care one might show examining a broken tool. "I see my advance team encountered some... difficulties."
The casual dismissal of professional villains....the same ones who had nearly killed them all....as an 'advance team' sent ice through Ryuu's veins that had nothing to do with the unnatural cold.
"Who..." Mina's voice came out hoarse, exhausted. "Who are you?"
"How terribly rude of me." The man's smile was pleasant, refined, completely at odds with the devastation surrounding them. "Introductions should always precede business. My name is Kurogane Takeshi, though I suspect some of you may know me by a different designation."
"The Collector," Momo breathed, recognition and terror warring in her voice. "Maximum security classification. Quirk: Absorption Matrix—temporary quirk copying through physical contact."
"How wonderfully thorough, Miss Yaoyorozu," Kurogane said with what seemed like genuine approval. "I do appreciate proper research. It shows respect for one's opponents." His gaze settled on her with something that might have been admiration. "Creation through lipid conversion. Extremely versatile. Limited by knowledge base and available body fat. Currently depleted to approximately fifteen percent of optimal operating capacity."
He hadn't touched her.
Hadn't even moved in her direction. But somehow he knew.
The implication was staggering.
This wasn't just quirk copying....this was understanding on a fundamental level that transcended normal observation.
"Now then," Kurogane continued, beginning to move through the room with measured steps.
Each footfall left crystalline patterns in the concrete—not ice, but something that looked like frozen reality itself. "Let me see what we're working with."
'He's not here to fight,' Ryuu realized with growing horror. He's here to study us. To collect data. Like specimens in a laboratory.
"Stay back," Bakugo snarled, explosions crackling weakly in his palms. But even the blonde's usual aggressive confidence was undermined by the way his hands trembled, the way his stance betrayed the beating he'd just taken.
"Ah, Explosion," Kurogane observed with interest. "Nitroglycerin-like sweat with voluntary detonation. Remarkable control for someone so young, though I notice your output is currently reduced by approximately sixty percent due to quirk exhaustion." He tilted his head. "Tell me, does the recoil damage accumulate over extended combat, or does your body adapt in real-time?"
The curiosity in his voice was somehow worse than threats would have been.
"I said stay back!" Bakugo launched himself forward with explosive propulsion, fist cocked for a devastating blow.
Kurogane's hand moved with casually.
His fingers caught Bakugo's wrist mid-strike, metallic skin rippling as contact was made.
For just a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then small explosions began crackling around Kurogane's free hand....perfect mimicry of Bakugo's quirk, though the detonations carried a different quality. More controlled. More refined.
"Fascinating," he murmured, releasing the blonde and stepping back. "The chemical composition is more complex than I anticipated. There's an emotional component affecting output intensity, isn't there? Anger as catalyst rather than merely psychological motivation."
Bakugo staggered backward, clutching his wrist. For just a moment, his skin had taken on that same metallic sheen.
"Don't touch them!" Ryuu stepped forward despite his exhaustion, despite having no quirk to defend with, despite knowing it was futile.
"But I need to touch them," Kurogane replied reasonably, as if explaining basic mathematics to a child. "How else can I gather proper intelligence?" His gaze shifted to Tsuyu, who was crouched protectively near the unconscious Midoriya. "Amphibian mutation with multiple sub-aspects. Enhanced strength, agility, environmental adaptation..."
He moved toward her with that same liquid grace.
"Ribbit!" Tsuyu leaped backward with inhuman speed, tongue lashing out defensively. But Kurogane's hand intercepted the appendage mid-strike, fingers closing around the muscular tissue gently.
"Remarkable," he said, his own tongue flickering out—longer than it should be, more flexible than human anatomy allowed, carrying that same metallic sheen. "The sensory enhancement alone is quite overwhelming. How do you process all that environmental data without cognitive overload?"
He released her, and Tsuyu collapsed backward, shock written across her features. A faint metallic tinge flickered across her green skin before fading.
"Stop it," Mina said, acid beginning to form in her palms despite her injuries, despite the pallor of her skin. "Stop treating us like experiments."
"But you are experiments," Kurogane replied with gentle patience. "The next generation of heroes, trained and molded by the finest institution in Japan. Every technique refined, every weakness addressed, every interpersonal dynamic carefully cultivated." His gaze swept across them again, clinical and thorough. "You represent years of investment and development. Naturally, I'm curious about the results."
He moved toward Ochaco, who raised her hands defensively despite the exhaustion that made her movements sluggish.
"Zero Gravity through contact," he mused, easily evading her desperate attempt to activate her quirk on him. His fingers brushed against her sleeve...fabric rather than skin, but apparently sufficient. "Interesting limitation. You can't affect what you can't touch directly."
Suddenly he was floating several inches off the ground, defying gravity with the same casual ease Ochaco demonstrated. "And what's this? Nausea as a side effect of overuse? How wonderfully human. Such an elegant quirk hampered by biological limitations."
Ochaco collapsed to her knees, overwhelmed by sudden weightlessness she couldn't control in her exhausted state.
The metallic sheen flickered across her skin briefly.
"Fascinating," Kurogane continued, settling back to the ground as the Zero Gravity effect faded. "Though the duration appears significantly limited without direct skin contact and conscious maintenance. Useful data."
Jiro stepped forward desperately, earphone jacks already extended. "Leave her alone!"
Her jacks stabbed toward the concrete, sending destructive sound waves toward the villain.
But Kurogane simply sidestepped with casual grace, his hand shooting out to catch one of her jacks before she could retract it.
"Vibration manipulation through specialized organs," he observed, even as she struggled to pull free. "Fascinating application. Limited range but devastating potential at close quarters. Thank you for the demonstration."
He released her, but the damage was done. Jiro staggered backward, clutching her earphone jack as it briefly took on that metallic sheen.
For a moment, destructive sound waves crackled around Kurogane's fingertips.
"STOP!" Ryuu lunged forward, but froze as those eyes fixed on him with sudden, intense focus.
"Ah," Kurogane breathed, and for the first time his expression shifted from clinical interest to something hungrier. "The prize himself approaches."
He moved toward Ryuu with deliberate steps, each one carrying weight that made the concrete groan.
"Resonance," he said, the word carrying reverence that made Ryuu's skin crawl. "Quirk amplification through physical contact. Emotional resonance increases effectiveness exponentially. Maximum recorded output appears to be five times baseline with deep interpersonal bonds, though I suspect the ceiling is significantly higher with proper... motivation."
The accuracy was terrifying. This man knew Ryuu's quirk better than some of his teachers.
"Tell me," Kurogane continued, stopping just outside arm's reach. "What would you do to protect them? How far would you go? What would you sacrifice?"
It wasn't rhetorical. The way he asked it, the genuine curiosity in his voice, suggested he was actually collecting psychological data as thoroughly as he'd been copying quirks.
"I'd do anything," Ryuu said, the words escaping before conscious thought could filter them.
"Anything?" Kurogane's smile widened fractionally. "Even if it meant working with the organization your father serves? Even if it meant using your gifts for purposes your heroic instructors might find... morally questionable?"
The words hit like physical blows.
"What... what did you say?"
"Oh dear," Kurogane's expression shifted to mock apology. "Did I speak out of turn? How terribly rude of me. Family discussions should wait for more appropriate circumstances."
"What did you say about my father?" Ryuu's voice came out strangled, the world narrowing to this single point of incomprehension.
"Commander Yamamoto speaks of you often," Kurogane replied easily, examining his own metallic fingernails as if discussing the weather. "Such pride in his voice when he describes your development. Though he did mention you still use his wife's maiden name....Tanaka, wasn't it? Family complications, I assume? Divorce can be so messy, especially when one parent chooses their career over domestic stability."
Commander Yamamoto.
My father's name.
My father, who left eight years ago for 'overseas research.' My father, who...
The world spun. Ryuu felt hands gripping his arms....Mina and Ochaco supporting him as his legs threatened to give out.
"You're lying," he managed, but the words lacked conviction even to his own ears.
"Am I?" Kurogane tilted his head, studying Ryuu's reaction with the same clinical interest he'd shown the quirks. "Tell me, young Resonance....when exactly did your father's overseas research position begin? Eight years ago, perhaps? Right around the time certain government programs targeting Enhanced individuals came to uncomfortable public light?"
"Stop," Mina said fiercely, acid dripping from her fingers despite her exhaustion. "Whatever you're trying to do, whatever mind game this is—"
"Mind game?" Kurogane looked genuinely puzzled. "I'm simply stating facts. Commander Yamamoto is one of our organization's most valuable assets. His research into quirk interaction and resonance phenomena has been instrumental in developing our current operational protocols." His gaze returned to Ryuu. "Where do you think we got such detailed intelligence on your capabilities? Family provides the most accurate data, after all."
"SHUT UP!"
The building groaned ominously, as if the structure itself was protesting the revelation. Dust rained down from new cracks spreading across the ceiling like spider webs.
"Ah," Kurogane observed with mild interest, glancing up at the compromised architecture. "It appears our previous encounter caused more damage than anticipated. This entire wing is approaching structural failure."
He looked at the exhausted students, then at the unconscious villains scattered throughout the hall, then back at Ryuu with that same assessment.
"Here's an educational moment for you, future heroes," he said pleasantly, backing toward the hole in the wall he'd entered through. "Sometimes the villain wins not through superior force, but through superior timing and information control."
"You're leaving?" Momo's voice carried disbelief and frustration in equal measure.
"I'm a professional," Kurogane replied. "I complete my objectives efficiently. Today I was tasked with gathering extensive intelligence on UA's current exceptional students. Combat performance under pressure. Quirk capabilities and limitations. Interpersonal dynamics and emotional pressure points." His gaze lingered on Ryuu. "Psychological vulnerabilities and motivational structures."
The ceiling groaned more ominously. A chunk of concrete the size of a car crashed down thirty feet away, sending up a cloud of pulverized material.
"You have approximately ninety seconds before structural collapse," Kurogane continued conversationally. "I suggest you focus on evacuation rather than pursuing answers to questions that would only disturb you further."
"Wait!" Ryuu called out, but Kurogane was already stepping backward through the wall breach with that inhuman grace.
"Oh, and Resonance?" The villain paused at the threshold, his metallic features catching the emergency lighting in ways that seemed to cut through shadow itself. "We'll be seeing each other again very soon. And next time, our conversation will be much, much longer." That predatory smile returned, colder now. "Commander Yamamoto will be so proud when I tell him how magnificently his son performed today."
Then he was gone, moving with speed that left only frost patterns and the memory of winter in his wake.
The silence that followed was broken immediately by another groan from the ceiling....this one accompanied by the sound of rebar snapping like kindling.
"We need to get out," Mina said, supporting Ochaco who was still swaying from Zero Gravity overuse and the lingering effects of whatever Kurogane had done to her.
Ryuu looked down at Midoriya's unconscious form, blood still trickling from the corner of his mouth, both arms hanging at impossible angles. Then at the groaning ceiling above them.
"I'll try to wake him up," he said, dropping to his knees beside the green-haired student.
He placed his hand on Midoriya's shoulder, focusing desperately on his Resonance, trying to push any amplification into the boy's healing factor or consciousness—
Nothing.
Not even a flicker of the familiar warmth. His quirk was still completely burned out, as absent as if it had never existed. The hollow ache in his chest where his power should be felt like a missing organ.
"Ryuu?" Tsuyu asked, noticing his expression of growing desperation.
"My quirk..." he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "It's still not working. I can't help anyone."
The admission tasted like ash in his mouth. Here, when they needed him most, when Midoriya needed amplification and they all needed coordination support, he was powerless. Useless.
"Then we carry him the old-fashioned way," Bakugo said firmly, moving to hoist the unconscious Midoriya despite his own injuries and the way his left arm hung slightly wrong from his encounter with the dark-energy villain. "Move it! This whole place is coming down!"
"But his arms—" Ochaco started.
"Will be fine if he's alive to get them healed," Bakugo cut her off, supporting Midoriya's weight carefully. "Dead heroes don't recover from broken bones."
Another chunk of ceiling crashed down, this one closer. The emergency lighting flickered more frantically, and somewhere in the distance, alarms were blaring with renewed urgency.
"East stairwell," Momo said, creating a simple metal stretcher despite her exhaustion. "Bakugo, put him on this. We can carry him faster."
They moved as one, their coordination from the earlier battle still intact even without Ryuu's amplification.
Mina and Tsuyu took the front of the stretcher, their enhanced strength making Midoriya's weight manageable.
Ochaco and Jiro flanked them, ready to provide support. Momo created handholds and wheels as they moved. Bakugo used controlled explosions to clear debris from their path.
Ryuu ran alongside them, feeling utterly helpless.
The building screamed around them as they navigated the emergency stairwell, concrete and steel surrendering to gravity in a thunderous cascade that chased them down like the wrath of an angry god.
Each footfall felt like it might be their last, each breath tasted of dust and desperation.
They made it to the facility's main lobby with seconds to spare.
The dust cloud billowed through the stairwell door just as it sealed automatically, emergency protocols finally functioning as designed.
In the relative safety of the evacuation zone, surrounded by panicked civilian researchers and the distant groaning of overstressed architecture, they finally stopped moving.
"Is everyone..." Momo began, then trailed off as she looked around their group. Everyone was standing, everyone was breathing, but they all looked like they'd been through a war zone. Which, Ryuu supposed, they had.
Midoriya remained unconscious on the makeshift stretcher, but his breathing was steady.
"We made it," Ochaco said, as if she couldn't quite believe it.
"Barely," Jiro muttered, still cradling her affected earphone jack.
"That man," Tsuyu said quietly, her large eyes reflecting the emergency lighting. "He wasn't trying to capture us, was he? Ribbit. He was studying us."
"Like lab rats," Mina agreed, her usual cheerfulness completely absent. "He knew things about our quirks that we've never told anyone."
"The way he copied them," Bakugo said, flexing his wrist where Kurogane had grabbed him. "That wasn't normal quirk copying. He understood them immediately. Like he'd been using them for years."
Ryuu stood apart from the group slightly, Kurogane's words echoing in his mind like poison.
Commander Yamamoto speaks of you often.
Your father's overseas research position.
Family provides the most accurate data.
Eight years.
His father had been gone for eight years, and Ryuu had never questioned the story about overseas research.
Had never tried to contact him, had never asked for details, had just... accepted it.
"Ryuu," Mina said softly, approaching him with careful steps. "Whatever he said about your father..."
"What if it's true?" The words came out strangled, barely human. "What if my father really is working with them? What if everything I thought I knew about my family is a lie?"
"Then we'll figure it out," Ochaco said firmly, moving to his other side. "Together."
"That's right, ribbit," Tsuyu added, her steady presence somehow calming despite everything they'd just been through. "Family sticks together. And we're your family now."
Momo nodded firmly, though she could barely stand upright. "We'll investigate this properly. Research the claims, examine the evidence, separate truth from psychological manipulation." Her mind was already working despite her exhaustion. "Whatever the reality is, we'll face it as a team."
"Yeah," Jiro said quietly, still standing slightly apart but her expression softer than usual. "You're not alone in this, okay? Whatever comes next, you've got us."
Even Bakugo, surprising everyone, added his voice to the mix: "That bastard was playing mind games. Trying to break your concentration, make you doubt yourself. Classic villain tactic." His red eyes were serious, lacking their usual aggressive edge. "Don't let him win by believing his bullshit without proof."
Ryuu felt something tight in his chest begin to loosen. Not the pain....that would take time to process, possibly years. But the crushing weight of facing it alone, of carrying this revelation without support, began to lift fractionally.
These people. These incredible, brave, stubborn people who'd just fought professional villains and survived an encounter with something from nightmares. They were offering to stand with him against whatever came next.
"Thank you," he managed, his voice rough with emotion he wasn't quite ready to fully acknowledge. "I... thank you."
Outside, the sound of approaching sirens grew louder. Multiple vehicles, moving fast.
"Heroes incoming!" someone called from near the main entrance. "Multiple pros responding! Medical teams right behind them!"
"About damn time," Bakugo muttered, but there was relief in his voice.
As the first professional heroes began streaming through the entrance....All Might's distinctive silhouette leading the charge, followed by what looked like half of UA's faculty.
Ryuu stood frozen, Kurogane's words still echoing in his mind.
Commander Yamamoto speaks of you often.
"Ryuu," Mina said, gripping his arm gently. "Hey, look at me."
He turned to face her, seeing the determination in her golden eyes despite her exhaustion.
"Whatever that bastard said about your father," she continued firmly, "we're going to find the truth. All of us. Together."
"She's right, ribbit," Tsuyu added, moving closer.
"And when we do," Ochaco said, her voice steady despite the tremor in her hands, "we'll face whatever comes next as a family."
Jiro nodded, her usual defensiveness replaced by quiet solidarity. "You're stuck with us now, amplifier boy. Deal with it."
Even Bakugo stepped forward, his expression serious. "That metal freak wants to play mind games? Fine. But next time we see him, we'll be ready to kick his ass properly."
Ryuu looked around at all of them...bruised, exhausted, but standing together despite everything they'd just survived.
"Next time," he said quietly, "I won't be powerless."
"Next time," Momo corrected with a tired but determined smile, "we won't need to rely on just your quirk. We'll be stronger as a team."
All Might's voice boomed across the lobby as he approached them: "Students! Are you injured? Where's Young Midoriya?"
Ryuu met each of his friends' eyes one last time before the chaos of rescue operations engulfed them.
"Together," he said simply.
"Together," they echoed back.
---
Author's Note:....I might drop the book...