Chapter 265 - 264: Different Motions

Location: U.A. High School, Courtyard Footpath Time: Three Days Ago | 4:15 PM

RUSTLE.

Kicking a loose pebble across the paved walkway between the dorm buildings, Denki Kaminari let out a long groan and slumped his shoulders.

"Man, I can't remember the last time I actually got to use my Quirk outside of basic gym drills," Kaminari complained, adjusting the strap of his school bag. "Ever since Hero X debuted and started turning every bank robber in Tokyo into sidewalk chalk, the whole country's been quiet as a library."

Walking beside him with his hands behind his head, Hanta Sero laughed dryly.

"Hey, zero crime is supposed to be a good thing, right?" Sero pointed out, glancing over at Katsuki Bakugo, Izuku Midoriya, and Shoto Todoroki walking a few paces ahead. "Though I gotta admit, after we lost that twenty-on-one spar against him last month and missed the Humarise trip, I thought we'd at least catch a few purse-snatchers during our weekend work-studies."

"Speak for yourself, Soy Sauce," Bakugo snapped, shoving his hands deep into his uniform pockets while his red eyes glared straight ahead. "If that white-suited bastard thinks we're gonna sit on the bench warming our asses forever, he's got another thing coming."

"Hahahaha! Look at the famous Class 1-A, looking like a bunch of lost puppies with nowhere to go!"

Spinning around at the sound of the loud, mocking laugh, the group spotted Neito Monoma leaning backward at a forty-five-degree angle on the stone path alongside Itsuka Kendo, Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, and Setsuna Tokage.

"Here we go again," Eijiro Kirishima sighed, scratching his spiky red hair as Kendo walked up behind Monoma with her giant hand raised.

WHACK!

Chopped squarely in the back of the neck, Monoma dropped to his knees while Kendo grabbed his collar and offered Midoriya an apologetic smile.

"Sorry about him, Midoriya," Kendo said, dragging Monoma to the side of the path. "Though he was actually coming over here to ask if your class got the same weird notice from the faculty office this afternoon."

Stopping in his tracks, Midoriya blinked and pulled a folded memo sheet out of his blazer pocket.

"...You mean the weekend campus lockdown?" Midoriya asked, looking between Kendo and Setsuna. "Mr. Aizawa handed these out right before homeroom ended and said all off-campus passes are suspended until Monday."

"Vlad King told us the exact same thing ten minutes ago," Setsuna said, crossing her arms and resting a finger against her chin. "He claimed the support department is running a full calibration test on the U.A. barrier wall, only I walked past Power Loader's workshop during lunch and the whole lab was dark."

"Wait, you guys noticed the teachers acting weird too?"

Jogging down the grassy slope from the third-year dorms, Nejire Hado floated the last six feet off the ground and landed right beside Ochaco Uraraka and Tsuyu Asui, with Mirio Togata and Tamaki Amajiki walking right behind her.

"Hey, Nejire-senpai!" Uraraka greeted, before tilting her head in curiosity. "Did Ryukyu cancel our shift for tomorrow?"

"She canceled the whole week, Ochaco!" Nejire said, leaning in close with her blue eyes wide as she twirled a lock of her long hair around her finger. "When Tamaki, Mirio, and I went to drop off our patrol logs at Fat Gum's and Ryukyu's offices yesterday, the sidekicks were loading crates of field trauma kits into unmarked vans! Why would two different Top Ten agencies pack up combat gear on the exact same Tuesday?"

Pulling his hood down lower over his forehead, Tamaki turned toward a nearby oak tree and pressed his face against the bark.

"...The third-year teachers haven't been in the staff room since Monday either," Tamaki mumbled into the tree trunk. "...Snipe and Ectoplasm skipped three afternoon lectures in a row..."

Standing beside Todoroki, Fumikage Tokoyami pulled his smartphone out of his pocket and stared at the blank screen.

"...Hawks hasn't opened a single one of my check-in messages for weeks and months," Tokoyami added quietly. "...When I called the Kyushu agency landline yesterday, his head secretary told me the entire flight team had been reassigned to a classified commission exercise."

Todoroki looked down at his own phone, his heterochromatic eyes narrowing in thought.

"...My old man did the same thing on Sunday," Todoroki said, glancing at Midoriya and Bakugo. "...Burnin called the three of us while we were packing our hero cases and told us not to come near the Endeavor Agency until further notice."

Walking up to join the circle with Kyoka Jirou and Mezo Shoji, Momo Yaoyorozu held up a small tablet displaying the local municipal supply ledger.

"...It goes way beyond our work-study mentors," Momo said, her expression serious as she turned the screen toward Kendo and Mirio. "...My family's medical supply company received a bulk requisition order from the Hero Public Safety Commission forty-eight hours ago... they bought out every reserve crate of blood plasma and portable defibrillators in the central prefectures."

Silence fell over the footpath as the students from Class 1-A, Class 1-B, and the Big Three looked at one another.

Crossing his muscular arms over his chest, Mirio dropped his usual goofy grin, his blue eyes turning sharp.

"...They aren't running a barrier drill," Mirio said quietly. "...Every pro in the country is gearing up for something huge, and they're locking us inside the dorms so we won't find out until it's on the news."

--<>--

Location: U.A. High School, Heights Alliance - Class 1-A Common Room

Time: Present | 10:30 AM

CLICK.

Tapping the enter key on her laptop, Setsuna Tokage overlaid a map of central highway closures on top of Momo's medical transport chart.

Gathered around the pushed-together dining tables in the dim morning light, all twenty students of Class 1-A, ten representatives from Class 1-B, and the Big Three stared down at the glowing screen.

Outside the tall glass windows, the sprawling U.A. campus was dead silent.

Pulling her earphone jack out of the concrete wall socket near the baseboard, Jirou stood up and shook her head at the group.

"...The faculty dorms across the courtyard are completely empty," Jirou whispered, winding the cord around her finger. "...Mr. Aizawa, Present Mic, Midnight, Cementoss, Vlad King... they all cleared out."

"My tentacles picked up the sound of forty chartered buses leaving the police staging grounds in Musutafu two hours ago," Shoji reported from his spot near the window. "Half of the convoy headed south toward the mountains in Kyoto, and the other half went straight toward Jaku City."

Pointing his pencil tip at the two red circles drawn on the map, Midoriya looked up at Bakugo, Todoroki, and Mirio.

"...Jaku General Hospital and the Gunga Mountain range," Midoriya said, his voice tight as he flipped through his thirteenth hero analysis notebook. "...All Might didn't even answer his dorm room door when I knocked twenty minutes ago. If he and all the teachers left campus in the morning, the raid is starting at noon."

SLAM!

Slamming both palms onto the wooden table, Bakugo stood up from his chair with his red eyes blazing, already dressed in his full winter hero costume and heavy knee-high boots.

"That's all I needed to hear," Bakugo snarled, turning on his heel and marching straight toward the front doors of the common room. "First that smug bastard Hero X locks us out of the Humarise fight after playing around with us on the turf, and now the pros think they can sneak off to a war without saying a damn word? Screw that—I'm going to Jaku right now!"

"Wait for us, Kacchan!" Midoriya called out, grabbing his green utility backpack and iron-soled shoes off the floor while Todoroki strapped his thermal vest over his shoulders right beside him.

"Count me and Mina in too!" Kirishima said, slamming his hardened knuckles together as Mina Ashido tied the laces on her acid-proof boots. "There's no way I'm sitting on the couch drinking tea while our teachers and mentors walk into a warzone!"

SWISH!

Before Bakugo could reach the brass handle of the front entrance, a blur of silver armor flashed across the rug as Tenya Iida planted himself squarely in front of the double doors with his arms stretched wide.

Right beside Iida, Itsuka Kendo stepped up and enlarged both of her palms into giant shields blocking the hallway exit.

"Hold it right there, all of you!" Iida barked, chopping his right hand through the air while his glasses glinted under the ceiling lights. "Have you forgotten what happened after Kamino Ward?! Leaving campus during a Priority-One lockdown without faculty authorization is a direct violation of the Provisional Hero License code!"

"Iida's right," Kendo said firmly, looking straight at Setsuna and Tetsutetsu behind the tables. "If Mr. Aizawa, Vlad King, and Hero X himself left the students off the roster, they did it to keep us from getting in the way of a military operation! Barging in uninvited will only make the pros waste time protecting us!"

"Get out of my way, Four-Eyes, or I'll blast the hinges off the wall!" Bakugo growled, small sparks popping across his gauntlets.

"...Step aside for a second, Iida, Kendo," Mirio said calmly, walking forward from the dining table with Nejire and Tamaki flanking his shoulders.

Iida blinked in surprise, looking at the third-year senior.

"...Togata-senpai? Even without your Quirk right now, surely you aren't encouraging the first-years to break the law!" Iida protested.

Resting a hand gently on Iida's armored shoulder, Mirio looked down at the map glowing on the laptop table.

"...Nobody here is talking about charging onto the front lines to steal kills from Hero X or Endeavor," Mirio explained, his voice steady and warm. "...We all saw what Hero X did on television last month—the pros have the main targets covered. Still, look at the size of those two red circles on the map."

Pointing a finger toward the residential neighborhoods surrounding Jaku Hospital and the villages below Gunga Mountain, Mirio looked directly into Kendo's eyes.

"...Every single Pro Hero teacher and police squad has been pulled into the strike teams," Mirio continued. "...If a villain army that big scatters into the surrounding streets when the fighting starts, there won't be a single hero left in the outer towns to evacuate the civilians."

"And if Class 1-A is sneaking out to guard the civilian perimeter, Class 1-B sure as heck isn't staying behind to sweep the dorm floors!" Tetsutetsu roared, clenching his iron fists as Monoma nodded rapidly beside him.

"Indeed!" Monoma grinned, adjusting his tuxedo vest. "Leaving the entire rescue credit to Class A would be a permanent stain on our record!"

Looking around the room, Iida and Kendo saw all twenty members of Class 1-A, the Class 1-B group, and the Big Three strapping on their utility belts and support gear in unanimous agreement.

'There are thirty-three licensed heroes-in-training standing in this room,' Iida realized, letting out a long, defeated breath through his nose as he adjusted his glasses. 'Even if Kendo and I fought with everything we had, we couldn't keep them locked inside for five minutes.'

Lowering his outstretched arms, Iida snapped his heels together and pointed a sharp finger directly at Bakugo's and Midoriya's faces.

"...Listen to me carefully!" Iida declared, his voice echoing through the common room. "...Since I cannot physically restrain the entire hero department, Kendo and I will accompany you as field commanders to ensure this unit operates with strict discipline!"

Kendo sighed, shrinking her giant hands back to normal size while a small smile tugged at her lips.

"...One rule for everybody," Kendo stated, holding up a single finger. "...We stick strictly to the outer evacuation perimeters two miles outside Jaku Hospital and Gunga Mountain! The second anybody tries to run into the main battle zone without orders, I'm dragging them back to the bus myself—got it?!"

"Works for me!" Kirishima grinned, while Bakugo just clicked his tongue and shoved the heavy wooden doors open.

POP. POP. POP.

Pulling thirty-five miniature long-range radio earpieces and GPS transponders straight out of the skin of her forearm, Momo handed them out into a plastic tray as the students filed quickly into the dark courtyard before the sun could rise.

--<>--

Location: Jaku General Hospital, Subterranean Morgue Laboratory Time: Present | 11:58 PM

HUMMMMMM.

Deep beneath the quiet concrete foundations of Jaku General Hospital, rows of green glass preservation tanks bubbled softly in the cold underground air.

Sitting in his wheeled metal chair in front of the central control bank, Doctor Kyudai Garaki hummed an old tune under his breath as he tapped his thick, round goggles with a pen.

Down by his slippers, two small, big-eyed Nomu creatures, Johnny and Mocha waddled across the tiled floor carrying trays of surgical tubing.

Up above the main platform, suspended inside a thick cylinder of amber chemical fluid with dozens of black cables wired into his chest and spine, Tomura Shigaraki floated with his eyes shut.

BEEP. BEEP.

Looking up at the progress meter glowing on the central monitor, Garaki let out a raspy, pleased chuckle as the digital numbers ticked upward to 88.4%.

"...Eighty-eight percent, Johnny!" Garaki cackled, patting the rubbery head of the little Nomu beside his knee. "...Three weeks ago, when that winged boy showed Re-Destro the video of Hero X crumpling the American woman's missiles into a ball, I thought my old heart was going to stop beating!"

Wheeling his chair over to a secondary console, the old doctor checked the voltage valves pumping extra bio-energy into Shigaraki's tank.

"...Diverting the hospital's backup generators into the stabilization grid was a gamble, yet Tomura's hatred held his cells together without a single tear," Garaki murmured proudly, staring up at the pale young man floating in the liquid. "...Five more days... just five more quiet days down here in the dark, and you'll wake up with All For One's complete power right under Hero X's nose!"

--<>--

Location: Gunga Mountain Villa, Underground Assembly Hall

STAMP! STAMP!

Two hundred miles west of Jaku City, the massive excavated cavern beneath Gunga Mountain Villa echoed with the boots of thousands of Paranormal Liberation Front soldiers lining up in neat, armed ranks.

Up on the raised stone command balcony overlooking the cavern floor, all nine lieutenants like Re-Destro, Skeptic, Trumpet, Geten, Dabi, Himiko Toga, Twice, Mr. Compress, and Spinner gathered around the central tactical table.

Seated at his rolling computer rig with three satellite uplinks open at once, Skeptic rubbed his dark eye-bags and took a long gulp from an energy drink can.

"...Give me the sweep, Tomoyasu," Re-Destro ordered from his motorized wheelchair, looking down over the sea of fifty-four thousand fighters packed into the underground tunnels and mansion grounds. "...Any movement from Tokyo?"

"...Clean across the board, Re Destro," Skeptic reported, tapping his touchpad to bring up a live orbital feed of the X Agency skyscraper in Chiyoda Ward. "...My satellites have been locked onto Hero X's building all night, not a single situation has happened aside from capturing troublemakers from various near city since yesterday afternoon."

Switching to a second window showing the HPSC regional dispatch network, Skeptic let out a relieved breath.

"...And our inside man, Slidin' Go, checked in at midnight confirming the commission hasn't scheduled any joint exercises for the rest of the month," Skeptic added, completely unaware that Hero X had hidden the HPSC war council inside a pocket dimension weeks ago, when hundreds of pros all over Japan was silently teleported by him to the 2D Dimension or that Edgeshot had silently knocked Slidin' Go unconscious in his bed forty minutes earlier.

"...Pulling the northern regiments into the villa and speeding up the Doctor's schedule worked. The heroes have no idea we're four days away from launching."

Leaning against the stone balustrade a few yards away, Spinner let out a slow breath and adjusted the straps of his giant sword.

"...Only five days left until Tomura wakes up," Spinner muttered to Mr. Compress and Toga. "...Man, I was starting to think we'd be stuck eating cafeteria rations inside this cave until next winter."

"Ooh, as soon as Tomura's out of the tank, I'm going straight back down to the city!" Toga giggled, spinning her combat knife around her index finger. "Wait, where'd Jin go?"

"Up there on the second-floor walkway!" Twice called out, leaning halfway over the upper iron railing thirty feet above the stage and waving both hands down at her. "Morning, Toga! I'm just grabbing some fresh air with Hawks before the boring speeches start!"

Up on the high walkway leading to the mansion's outer glass windows, Hawks stood with his hands in his tan jacket pockets, looking out at the bright noon sky.

Down at the edge of the command stage, Dabi tilted his scarred head back, his narrow turquoise eyes locking onto Hawks's red wings up on the catwalk.

'Why's that bird standing right next to the outer windows with his visor already pulled down?' Dabi thought, a cold prickle of suspicion running down his spine as blue embers sparked inside his palms.

Up on the catwalk, Hawks heard the faint, rhythmic vibration of hundreds of footsteps and wingbeats crossing the forest line two miles out through his feathers.

"...Hey, Jin," Hawks said quietly, without turning around from the window. "...You're a good guy, you know that? When things get loud in a second, just stay down on the floor and don't fight back."

"...Huh? What're you talking about, bird-boy?" Twice blinked, tilting his masked head in confusion. "It's noon, nobody's..."

BZZZT!

Down on the command stage, all three of Skeptic's laptop monitors suddenly flashed bright crimson as a deafening alarm siren ripped through his speakers.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"...What the?! All forty perimeter cameras in the pine forest just went dead at the exact same millisecond!" Skeptic screamed, slamming his hands onto the keyboard in sheer terror. "...Wait—the hospital line in Jaku is cutting out too!"

--<>--

Two hundred miles away at Jaku General Hospital, the upper civilian patient wards were already completely empty, having been silently evacuated by police transports over the past hour.

Down in the basement morgue hallway leading to Doctor Garaki's hidden lab, a white-haired blur rocketed down the concrete corridor at blinding speed.

"Wakey-wakey, doc!" Mirko roared at the top of her lungs, swinging her muscular right leg down like a guillotine against the six-inch-thick reinforced steel blast doors. "LUNA WIND BLADE KICK!"

BOOOOOOM!

The heavy steel doors tore straight off their hinges and flew fifty feet across the laboratory, smashing through three glass Nomu tanks as Endeavor, Crust, Ryukyu, and Aizawa charged through the smoke right behind her!

"...H-heroes?!" Doctor Garaki shrieked, falling backward out of his wheeled chair in total panic. "...How did you find this place?!"

--<>--

At that exact same second back at Gunga Mountain Villa, Pro Hero Cementoss dropped to both knees on the forested ridge outside the estate and slammed his blocky palms flat into the mountain bedrock.

RUMBLE!

Before Re-Destro, Skeptic, or Dabi could take a single breath inside the underground hall, the entire mountain shook like an earthquake.

CRAAAASH!

Thousands of tons of solid rock and mansion roofing tore wide open from the outside, peeling the ceiling of the secret cavern completely away to expose the fifty-four thousand stunned villains to the bright morning sky.

Surrounded by Kamui Woods, Edgeshot, Yoroi Musha, and hundreds of Pro Heroes lining the torn cliff edges above the pit, Kaito floated calmly in the open air at the dead center of the sky when he felt something entered his perception.

Sigh.

"What are those kids doing here again?!" Kaito can't help but complain by these troublemakers.

--<>--

A/n: I'll be gone for a few days, my grandma died this morning. She was 91 years old. May she rest in peace.

-Dr_Chad

--<>--

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