Kaminari sighed, his thumb hovering uselessly over the dark screen of his phone. Even the thought of calling home felt like an impossible task, a heavy weight pressing into his chest. His eyes wandered lazily around the darkened forest, catching the silhouettes of gnarled branches and the way the shadows pooled in the hollows of the trees. He took in anything he could find just to distract himself from the hollow ache in his gut, letting the silence of the woods settle over him. It was a heavy, exhausted calm, a quiet so deep it felt almost like he was slipping into a dreamless sleep.

  A booming explosion erupted from the heart of the festival, a violent jolt that rattled his teeth and sent a physical shockwave through his already aching head. The sound was a jagged tear in the night, waking him instantly from his half-sleep. Adrenaline, cold and sharp, flooded his system. He bolted upright, neck snapping toward the direction of the rising smoke. The faces of his friends flashed through his mind, and the lethargy vanished, replaced by a cold, prickling panic.

  He scrambled to his feet, but his coordination failed him. His boots slipped on the slick, damp grass, and he went down hard, feeling the cold mud soak into the back of his shirt. He didn't wait to wipe it off. He forced himself up and began to move, first a staggered walk, then a clumsy jog, before finally breaking into a desperate sprint back toward the festival.

  His mind was a frantic loop of self-doubt. They could probably handle themselves, right? Do they really need me? He shook his head violently, hating the way his brain tried to give him an excuse to turn back. Just as the smoke grew thicker, he tripped on a buried rock, tumbling headfirst down a steep hill. He landed in a patch of tall, damp grass, his lungs burning. Gasping for air, he hauled himself up once more, his clothes ruined and his skin stinging, and continued his frantic run toward the black plumes. He saw crowds already gathered behind familiar looking tape, huddled together in groups, yet their safety didn't stop his stride. He blew past the boundaries, driven by a singular, desperate need to find the others.

  Across the debris-strewn grounds, Tetsutetsu and Mina ran side by side. They didn't exchange a word, their breath coming in synchronized gasps. The look of sheer worry on Mina's face rivaled the hard, focused intensity in Tetsutetsu's eyes. They broke into the fight grounds, a place where the stone had been shattered into craters and chunks of pavement were gouged out like shrapnel.

  They spotted Kirishima near the edge of the destruction. He looked frantic, flipping over broken stalls and splintered wood, clearly searching for someone buried in the wreckage. As they ran up to him, he spun around, his expression pale and panicked.

  "Good, you're back.." He said, swallowing hard against the dryness in his throat.

  Tetsutetsu didn't waste time. "What's the situation." He asked in a no-nonsense tone, his eyes immediately darting to the center of the chaos.

  There, in the middle of a wide radius of destruction, was Robinn. She was still running in a wide, punishing circle, her movements a blur against the backdrop of fire and jagged metal. Dozens of metal tendrils slammed into the ground around her, chewing up the stone in violent arcs that traced her path. Kirishima turned his head back to the scene, catching his breath with difficulty before speaking.

  "We need to take the villain's attention away from Robinn."

  Tetsutetsu raised an eyebrow, his gaze lingering on the girl. "Why? Looks like she's doing fine."

  Kirishima shook his head instantly, his voice tight. "She's slowing down more and more. She's probably exhausted and just running on fumes."

  Tetsutetsu nodded. He trusted Kirishima's instinct, and the memory of his earlier conversation with Robinn only reinforced the worry. He turned his whole body toward the villain, his skin shimmering as it transitioned into steel. He clapped his fist into his palm with a resonant, metallic clank.

  "So, how are we doing this?"

  Kirishima reluctantly stepped away from the debris he had been clearing. He looked back over his shoulder once, a flicker of hesitation crossing his face, before he focused entirely on the task at hand.

  "He's only been attacking her, so... I'm not sure."

  "Charging in always works!" Tetsutetsu said, already dropping into a low running stance, his metallic form catching the flickering orange light of the nearby fires.

  Mina held back next to Tetsutetsu, her eyes wide as she tracked the erratic, violent path of the blades. She felt like the odd one out here, and it wasn't just the fear. Tetsutetsu was currently a solid mass of steel, and Kirishima was standing there with skin like jagged rock. They were built for this. They were shields. She looked down at her own hands, then back at the towering structure where the villain sat. She had her acid, but she didn't have armor. In a radius filled with high-speed metal that was currently chewing through solid stone, she felt dangerously, painfully soft. She could melt a blade if she timed it right, but if she missed even one, it meant being skewered.

  "Are we sure about this?" She said, her voice sounding small even to her own ears as she looked at the two standing in front of her.

  Kirishima looked back at her, the realization of her hesitation crossing his face for just a moment before it slightly softened his hardened features. He knew exactly why she was doing it. Still, seeing Mina Ashido back away felt wrong in a way he could not quite put into words. She was never the one to retreat. She was always moving forward. This was different.

  He glanced over his shoulder at the chaos of the battlefield, the screeching metal and erupting stone, then looked back at her again. He offered a small, nervous smile that did little to hide the fear behind it.

  If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  "Don't worry about it. We can handle it."

  He gave a sharp nod to Tetsutetsu, and then both of them took off, boots pounding hard as they booked it toward the center of the destruction. The ground beneath them was barely recognizable anymore, a series of concentric rings of shattered pavement and torn earth. They leapt over upended slabs of stone and twisted debris, the air thick with dust that clung to their skin and burned their lungs.

  Robinn spotted them as she completed another punishing lap around the battlefield. She was on one side of the vast circle while Kirishima and Tetsutetsu were on the other, the distance between them filled with swirling dust and flying stone. Her focus drifted for only a second as she registered their presence.

  That was all it took.

  The exhaustion finally won. Her feet tangled beneath her, and she went down hard, her body splashing violently as her watery form struggled to stay cohesive. She skidded across the broken stone. Almost immediately, the blades caught up.

  Dozens of metal tendrils stabbed repeatedly into her liquid form, plunging down with brutal force. Each impact shattered the ground beneath her, stone exploding outward in deafening cracks as the tendrils churned the pavement into rubble.

  Kirishima and Tetsutetsu saw her fall and pushed themselves even harder.

  Kirishima threw his entire weight into the jagged metal tower, slamming into its supports with a full-bodied crash. The structure groaned and faltered, metal shrieking as it buckled under the sudden impact. He did not stop to look at the villain. He did not slow. He broke away immediately, sprinting toward Robinn as debris rained down behind him.

  Tetsutetsu stayed beneath the collapsing mass. He planted his feet and began punching the blades that supported the villain, his steel fists slamming into metal with a rhythmic, echoing clang. Each strike sent vibrations through his arms, the sound ringing out like a bell. The structure stumbled under the assault, and for a brief moment, the relentless attack on Robinn finally stopped.

  Kirishima reached her just as the dust began to settle. She lay on the ground looking up at him, still fully liquid and barely able to prop herself up on one elbow.

  "Transform into air or something and get out of here," he said seriously, his voice thick with worry as he held his hand down to her.

  Robinn's expression hardened into a tired watery glare instantly. She did not take his hand. Instead, she pushed herself up slowly, her body swaying as she fought to stay upright. She stood on shaky legs, eyes flicking toward the crashing metal and relentless clanging where Tetsutetsu was drawing the villain's attention.

  "We need to keep going," she said, her voice thin and out of breath. She took a stubborn step forward anyway.

  Tetsutetsu had been taking down supports, but more blades kept stabbing into the earth to replace them. He had the villain's attention, but the imbalance was obvious. For every support he destroyed, two more took its place. The ground shook violently as new metal speared into it.

  He looked up just in time to see a cluster of blades rocket toward him.

  With a dozen heavy clinks of steel, he was slammed to the ground and pinned there, surrounded by a forest of jagged metal spikes. They did not press any farther inward. It was restraint, not intent to kill. Still, he could not move. His vision was reduced to narrow slits between metal, and through them he could see the villain's attention shifting again.

  Kirishima turned at the sound of metal groaning in a way that meant something was about to give. Then he heard it. The unmistakable sound of skin hitting stone behind him.

  He whipped his head around.

  Robinn had collapsed again. Her body was reverting to normal, starting at her legs and creeping upward in an uneven wave. The liquid sheen drained away, replaced by human skin that looked far too fragile in this chaos.

  Kirishima's heart began pounding violently as panic flooded his system. He could not run. He knew he could not carry her fast enough to escape whatever came next.

  There was only one option.

  He planted himself between Robinn and the villain, spreading his stance wide and bracing his body. He hardened every inch of himself, pouring everything he had left into his quirk. The sharp tendrils hit him like a speeding car, slamming into his chest and arms in a relentless barrage. Chunks of hardened skin chipped away under the force. Pain exploded through him, sharp and overwhelming, but he did not move.

  He dug his feet into the fractured pavement and held.

  He was a wall.

  Tetsutetsu struggled violently against the metal cage imprisoning him, but it did not budge. It felt like being wrapped in Ibara's vines, only denser and far sharper. Then, suddenly, he felt his feet come free.

  He twisted around just in time to hear the sharp hiss of metal melting.

  Mina stood only a few feet away, hands trembling as she sprayed acid onto the restraints. Her face was pale, eyes wide and glassy with fear, but she did not stop. The metal weakened enough for him to push, breaking free inch by inch until the cage finally gave way.

  He tore himself out with a guttural scream. His breath came in ragged gasps, legs burning where stray acid had splashed against his skin. Then he looked up.

  He saw Kirishima taking the brunt of the attack, the limp limb behind him telling him everything he needed to know.

  He spared one quick look back at Mina, only to see that she had already retreated to a safer distance. He did not hesitate after that. He started running.

  He punched through one of the supports as he went, the impact halting the attack for a split second. It was just enough time. He slid in beside Kirishima and dropped into a defensive stance, steel body braced as he prepared to take the next wave head-on.

  Even beyond the police tape, the terrain was nearly impossible to navigate.

  Kaminari did not slow down.

  He vaulted over toppled festival stands and overturned refrigerators, boots slipping on scorched stone as the sounds of battle grew louder. Steel shrieked. The ground cracked and shattered. Smoke stung his eyes as he finally caught sight of the towering horror in the distance.

  The villain made his stomach twist.

  Still, he kept running.

  Electricity began crackling off his body in jagged yellow arcs as he locked onto the target, his breathing growing harsh and uneven. His vision tunneled, the world narrowing until there was only the threat ahead.

  "Surely one million volts ought to stop that..." he whispered to himself.

  The electricity started crackling harder.

  Then, from the edge of his vision, he caught a flash of purple coming straight at him.

  He was tackled before he could react, the impact knocking the air from his lungs as they rolled across the ground and crashed into a broken stand. He groaned and looked down, only to be met with the unmistakable sight of Jirou's hair.

  She trembled violently, then cried out in pain as his electricity passed through her.

  Kaminari killed his quirk instantly and shoved himself backward, horror flooding his face as he leaned away from her.

  "Why would you... do that... you idiot," Jirou said in a pained voice. She held herself in a rigid plank, breath coming in gasps as her hair fell forward to hide her face.

  Shame crushed down on him.

  His friends were suffering, and he had made the moment about himself. Now she was hurting because of him.

  "Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" she barked, looking up at him with teary eyes.