Dr. Garaki's voice echoed softly inside his ear.
"...Doctor."
"The retrieval phase is complete. Thank you Hood. You have done exceptionally well." The old scientist chuckled.
"Now..." Hood rasped, his auxiliary arms flexing as the jet vents on his back flared into a blinding, white-hot roar. "...Can I kill it?"
"You may now disregard the retrieval parameters. Eliminate the nuisance pursuing you, and continue as you see fit."
Meanwhile, "Inasa! What is your current status? We've received reports of a Nomu sighting past the borders of Aichi prefecture. Report!"
The voice crackled through the communicator strapped to Inasa's ear, bringing him out of his thoughts.
Inasa didn't take his eyes off the black-winged silhouette ahead. "I'm still in pursuit, Midnight-Sensei. We're currently in the middle of a high-density urban sector—"
"Reinforcements are on the way. Hold on and avoid civilian casualties at all costs. Don't do anything rash."
"Rest assured Mam." He ignored the burning sensation in his cheek, eyes filled with determination. "Even if it costs me my life, I'll make sure they don't escape my..."
His words were barely completed when a thick, foul-smelling black sludge suddenly erupted from the mouths of Tomura Shigaraki, Dabi, Toga, and the rest of the captured League members.
"Huh?! Gross! Not this again ... " Toga's muffled complaint was cut short as the slimy mud rapidly expanded, wrapping around their entire bodies.
With a sudden, violent POP, the black sludge imploded, completely vanishing from the iron-maiden pods.
The heavy restraints fell entirely empty, swinging loosely in the wind from Hood's tendrils.
"What...?" Inasa's eyes widened in horror as he watched his targets vanish into the thin air right out of the Nomu's grip.
"Now then... Enjoy yourself to your heart's content." Hood stared at his hands holding nothing but empty restraints.
Slowly, the High-End's head rotated down toward the lone Shiketsu student below.
The irritation in his yellow eyes was replaced by a pure, predatory gleam. Down below... Morning commuters who had run to a safe distance turned their heads to watch.
People further away pointed upwards and raised their phones to record. Despite the current state of things, long engrained habits weren't something that could quickly be changed.
High above...
"They're... gone?" Inasa's words were caught in his throat. His eyes remained fixed on the empty restraint pods swaying beneath the Nomu's tendrils, struggling to process what he had just witnessed.
'How the hell did the League just disappear?'
"Inasa! Respond!" Midnight's voice broke through the speaker, her tone tight with rising panic at the sudden silence on the other end.
"What's happening out there? Why did you stop reporting?!" Inasa couldn't tear his eyes away from the sky. He swallowed hard.
"Midnight-Sensei… the League. They're gone."
Over the line, the sound of rushing sirens and chaotic shouting on the Kanagawa bridge briefly seemed to fade as Midnight froze. "What? What do you mean gone? Yoarashi, did you lose visual track of the target?!"
"I didn't." He replied anxiously. "I saw them spit out a lot of black glob … it just erupted out of their mouths and swallowed them whole! The restraints holding them are now completely empty!"
"What?!" Midnight's voice escalated into a sharp, disbelieving gasp. "Everyone disappeared? All of them?!"
".."
Looking at the flying monstrosity in the distance, his eyes narrowed once again.
"...Not everyone."
His gaze met Hood's glowing yellow eyes. The High-End's face slowly split apart to form an unnaturally wide grin filled with rows of jagged teeth.
The sight alone sent a chill racing down Inasa's spine.
"...That thing is still here." High above the city, neither of them moved.
The morning wind whistled softly between the towering buildings below as the two figures remained suspended in the air, staring at one another from across several hundred meters.
"..."
Hood slowly rolled his shoulders. "You .. You've been following me for so long." The empty restraint pods hanging from his tendrils were released one after another.
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
The heavy steel containers tumbled through the air before crashing into the deserted streets below with thunderous impacts, scattering chunks of asphalt across abandoned intersections.
Its yellow eyes never left Inasa. "Are you ... Actually strong?" The distorted voice echoed across the sky, clear enough for him to hear.
" ... After all .. you don't ... Look strong." Hood's eyes were deeply scrutinizing. "All you can do ... Is control air ..."
The long string of sentences sent an involuntary chill down Inasa's spine. According to the news, these things were biological weapons made from the bodies of deceased victims. Meaning they were in every sense, reanimated corpses that couldn't think for themselves.
".... Are you ... Even a hero?" So why the hell .... Could this one talk?
"Inasa!"
Midnight's voice came through the communicator.
"Listen to me carefully. You've done your job. The League has escaped! Your pursuit objective is over! That's enough. Fall back now."
Inasa didn't answer. 'This thing .. seems to be concerned about ... My strength.'
"Yoarashi, are you listening? You've done enough!"
Her tone rose even higher.
"Disengage immediately!"
Midnight's voice screamed through the earpiece, but Inasa didn't break eye contact with the monster.
'Retreat?'
He looked down. The streets were packed with frozen commuters. Traffic was deadlocked. If he turned around and flew away right now, then there were two scenarios. One, the monster would chase after him to finish him off.
This would be ideal, as it would mean he could lead it away. However, if it wanted that, then it would have attacked him already. The fact that it could speak alone meant this thing had intelligence. There was a high chance it would recognise and not fall for the bait.
If he retreated and it didn't follow, then it was unknown what would happen. Worse cast scenario, this thing would dive straight into those crowds just to find someone else to fight.
"I'm sorry Midnight-Sensei." The winds around him rage stronger. "BUT I UNFORTUNATELY CAN'T COMPLY AT A TIME LIKE THIS."
"What?"
"If I pull back now ... We lose the only eyes on this thing. Nobody knows where it's going. Nobody knows where it will land. And when it does land .... " He exhaled. "There will be civilians."
Midnight's frustrated voice came from the other end.
"I am not asking. This isn't something you can deal with. Retreat! That's an order!"
In response to that, a grin emerged on his face.
"Order? Sorry but .... It's an intern's duty ... TO LISTEN TO THE WORDS OF HIS LEADING HERO"
He said, prepping himself. "UNFORTUNATELY, YOU AREN'T MY LEADING MENTOR MIDNIGHT SENSEI. HENCE ... I'M NOT ACTUALLY OBLIGATED TO OBEY!"
He yelled. Deep down, he knew it was a reckless, purely semantic argument to justify defying a Pro Hero's direct order. But looking at the crowded streets below, he couldn't back down.
"SO I'M SORRY FOR WHAT I'M ABOUT TO DO. BUT A HERO DOESN'T TURN HIS BACK. NEITHER DOES HE LET HIS SPIRIT RUN COLD. I'll HOLD IT OFF TILL REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVE ... AND ACCEPT ANY PUNISHMENT I AM GIVEN AFTER."
On the other end, Midnight's face changed. Forget about accepting punishment. There might not be a living person to accept after he went through with this.
"Yoarashi, don't you dare—!" Her voice was completely cut off as Inasa reached up and forcefully tore the communicator from his ear, tossing it into the sky. The small device was instantly swallowed by his own updrafts, spinning away into the clouds.
"Am I a hero?" Inasa repeated Hood's words aloud, his voice dropping its usual boisterous tone, replaced by a razor-sharp edge.
The blood from the gash on his cheek dripped down his jaw, but his eyes burned with unrestrained passion.
"I am a student of Shiketsu High! My name is INASA YOARASHI. GALEFORCE."
BOOOM!!
The ambient morning breeze vanished, entirely sucked into a massive, localized low-pressure zone centered entirely on Inasa. Hundreds of micro-currents of air began to scream around his body like miniature jet engines.
"And I'll show you .... JUST WHAT KIND OF HERO I ....."
SPLIT-SQUELCH!
Hood didn't wait for him to finish. As one would imagine, the High-End possessed no penchant for motivational speeches or heroic declarations.
The five tendrils on his left hand fired simultaneously crossing the distance between them in a fraction of a second.
BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG.
All five punched clean through the office building directly behind where Inasa had been standing.
Emphasis on the words "Had been"
Hood lifted his gaze. Inasa was thirty meters higher than he'd been a second ago, riding a violent updraft that had launched him the moment the tendrils left Hood's shoulders.
Several tons of pulverized concrete raining down onto the streets below.
"HEY!" Inasa shouted, rising rapidly through the ascending dust. "YOU KNOW IT'S RUDE TO INTERRUPT SOMEONE MID SENTENCE RIGHT?" Halfway through, he swept his arms downward.
Inasa seized the entirety of the atmospheric pressure within a hundred-meter radius.
Every current within a four-hundred-meter radius reversed direction simultaneously, collapsing inward from every compass point at once, feeding into a single rotating column that formed around Hood's position with a sound like the sky being torn open.
"GALEFORCE: COIL!" WHOOOOOOOM.
The vortex wall closed. Within a fraction of a second, the converging currents warped into a violent, localized tornado, completely enveloping the giant creature in high-velocity, slicing air.
The sheer force of the updraft lifted the heavy concrete debris right back into the sky, as well as everything else that wasn't firmly rooted to the earth.
Inside it, Hood's yellow eyes tracked the rotation. Debris, a traffic sign, window glass, loose gravel from a damaged rooftop. Down on the ground, the civilian populace completely panicked. The deafening roar of the artificial cyclone echoed through the street.
Not far away, two pedestrians who had not yet evacuated were knocked off their feet by the pressure differential. A delivery truck slid sideways on the road surface, its driver grabbing the wheel in confusion.
"EVERYONE MOVE BACK!" Inasa's voice thundered from above. "GET AWAY FROM THE BUILDINGS! NOW!"
However, "No No No No! THAT'S MY CAR." Hearing the scream, his eyes swept the streets, tracking the remaining civilians with the same attention he was giving the vortex.
Every current he commanded was doing two things at once. Feeding the tornado and pushing people away from the impact zone. It was the hardest thing he had ever attempted in the field. His focus split four ways, five ways, seven ways, each diverging current requiring its own constant adjustment.
He was confident in his own strength, but underestimating the enemy was a sure way to get caught off guard. He couldn't hold back against a monster like this, but he absolutely could not let the outer fringes of the gale tear into the packed intersections below.
He could only pray the local agency heroes were already moving the crowd 'Hold it together. Just hold it.'
A few blocks away, a white news van veered sharply onto the sidewalk, its brakes screeching to a halt. The side door flew open, and a young, frantic field reporter scrambled out, clutching a microphone while a burly cameraman hoisted a heavy broadcasting lens onto his shoulder.
"Are we live?! Get us live right now!" she screamed over the howling wind, adjusting her earpiece as the lens focused on the massive black funnel cloud tearing through the skyline.
"This is Asahi Television reporting live from the borders of the urban sector!" the reporter shouted into the microphone, her hair whipping violently across her face. "A catastrophic villain conflict has erupted in mid-air! We are currently witnessing what appears to be an aerial engagement between a Pro Hero candidate and an unidentified villain approximately three hundred meters above street level. This is the 18th major villain attack the city has seen in the past two weeks since All Might's retirement and the incident at Ground Zero with multiple smaller attacks spread all over."
The reporter pressed one hand against her earpiece as another violent gust nearly tore the microphone from her grip.
"The winds are becoming increasingly unstable! Local authorities are ordering an immediate evacuation of the surrounding blocks. We strongly advise everyone watching this broadcast to stay away from the affected district!"
Behind her, the cameraman zoomed in.
The image filled with a colossal pillar of rotating wind.
The scenes had gone on air and countless televisions played the footage of concrete fragments spiralling endlessly around the white funnel. Even from the distance, the deafening roar drowned out the blaring evacuation sirens.
Meanwhile, far from the howling winds and screaming civilians... The very same broadcast flickered silently across a cracked television sitting inside the remains of a vandalized electronics store.
The shop had been wrecked during a robbery several days earlier. Display shelves lay overturned with shattered glass littering the floors, and a faded Closed Until Further Notice sign hung crookedly from the entrance. Directly across the street stood an aging pharmaceutical company that still looked to be in good condition.
Its windows were boarded. Its gates were chained and the lights had long since gone dark.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
A lone figure emerged from around the corner.
A dark cloak concealed most of his frame while a wide-brimmed hat cast a shadow across his face. Hidden underneath was a head of silver white hair, and a face half obscured in a half mask.
One gloved hand remained tucked casually inside a pocket. The other held a small orange paperback novel.
His attention never once left the pages. Finally, slung unceremoniously across his shoulder like a sack of rice...
...was a woman. Her wrists and ankles had been tightly bound together with stone restraints acting as hand and leg cuffs. Leaving her dangling upside down against his back.
Seeing the pharmaceutical company up ahead, she gritted her teeth, eyes filled with venom and resentment as she uttered.
"...We're here already."