(POV: Riku Shindai)
The emotional shift hit him like a slap to the face. In an instant, the battlefield switched to confusion, worry and panic overgrowing even the villain's bloodlust and sadism.
Riku raised his regenerated arm. It felt normal. As if it had never fallen off in the first place. As if the arm, laying on the ground was just an illusion.
Meanwhile, the throbbing pain in his other arm had not stopped. But Riku didn't heal it. He may have acquired reverse cursed technique, but applying it exuded a strong pressure in his head.
He felt calm. His output had clearly increased as Riku felt his Cursed Energy sensor cover a wider area, leaving only a mild strain on his mind.
The villains around him were less calm. Distracted by his display of insanity and regeneration, they had looked his way instead of keeping their attention on the Eraser Head. That, bit them in the ass as he immediately engaged them, catching their Aggro once more as he slowly led them away from the main force.
Midoriya had retreated a few steps, his emotions as unorganized as ever. Hope, fear, confusion, disappointment... It was a list long enough for Riku to keep going m for a while.
Bakugo however, had not waited. One blast had been what it took before he suddenly engaged the figure wrapped in Mist and pressed it into the ground. His emotions were still volatile, but strangely enough, more focused than usual as he threatened Kurogiri with a point-blank explosion.
'...but this dude.'
The worst feelings, emanated from the guy with the hands on his face. A wave of Jealousy, anger, fear and irritation poured out of him as the guy scratched his neck, his eyes intently looking at the newly regenerated arm.
Despite that, the dam didn't break. Shigaraki kept scratching his neck in silence for a moment, then slowly stopped and retracted his hand, which was noticeably shaking.
"...is that your Quirk?"
The voice was trembling, as if forcibly kept calm.
Riku did not answer. A light pressure mounted in his head as he synthesized his Cursed Energy into its Reverse, slowly, nearly theatrically regenerating his other arm.
It was slow enough for the villain to interrupt him if he wanted to, but no such thing happened. He just stared at the process with an unchanging expression.
"Heh. Heheheh."
Tomura Shigaraki's shoulders started shaking as he broke out in a laugh. Then, he threw his head back and spread his arms in a dramatic gesture, as though addressing the universe itself.
"Hehehehe. Thats... What a coincidence." The villain jumped aside as Riku suddenly barged forward, dodging the attempted tackle.
"You know, its crazy... Heroes and Villains... Quirks and other Quirks. They can be so similar..." The villain ducked underneath Riku's backhand with a fluid motion.
"Heroes protect. Villains destroy. But honestly, both sides rely on violence to enforce their creed, don't they? Doesn't that make them the same?"
'No. It doesn't. Now stand still.'
Riku threw another punch, hoping to bait the villain to duck again, but Shigaraki anticipated the uppercut, simply sidestepping it.
"But Quirks like yours... they really piss me off." The villain's voice was filled with mock anger. "Honestly... i can blame all Heroes for using violence... but those shiny, heroic support Quirks? Healing...helping... Ugh, i can't even form an argument against them..."
Riku's tail lashed out in a circular motion, once more forcing the villain to duck. A knee immediately followed, barely blocked by the villain, but still knocking him back a few meters.
The Mutant felt his knee crumble a bit, but the cracks which had appeared faded moments later. Dread rose up in his gut as Shigaraki's emotional state shifted once more.
"But you know... we have a Quirk like that as well in our team. Guess who."
Not entertaining the villain, Riku simply sprinted forwards, but froze as he heard his next words.
"Nomu. Help Kurogiri. Then kill the kids."
Riku felt a ripple in his Cursed Energy as Nomu's figure tensed before moving. In an instant, the large black-skinned figure darted forward, his fist closing in on Bakugo who was holding down Kurogiri.
*BOOM
"AARGH.."
Bakugo's instincts saved him. The moment he heard the villains words, he blasted himself away, narrowly dodging the Nomu's attack. Kurogiri took on the brunt of the explosion and released a pained groan, but remained ultimately unharmed.
An instant later, the Nomu followed, its form chasing after the airborn Bakugo with mindless determination.
'Shit, i have to...'
Riku felt his anxiety rise. The only reason the Nomu had not yet reached Bakugo, was due to him being too high up in the sky. But the moment its attention would shift onto another student... chances were low for them survive.
With that in mind, the Mutant changed course. Abandoning any attempt of fighting Shigaraki, he simply started sprinting over, his Cursed Energy locked onto Nomu with near frantic air.
'Todoroki is here...'
A large mass of ice surged outwards, freezing the ground along with Nomu who had not even tried to dodge. Then, in a display of more mindless determination, it ignored the state of its frozen legs and attempted to keep moving.
'...huh?'
The sound of shattering ice followed as the Nomu lost both its legs from beneath the Knees.
'...that's familiar...'
The atmosphere of the battlefield shifted again, as the students stared in horror at the being which determinedly crawled along the ground. The villains capitalized on that moment, surging forward and trapping the student heroes like Kirishima and Bakugo in a wide circle, leaving noticeable empty space around both Todoroki and Nomu, and Shigaraki and Riku.
Todoroki too, had horror filling his mental state. Riku couldn't blame him. A guy destroying his own limbs was some crazy no-one would expect.
The white-skinned mutant was still in full sprint, Shigaraki hot on his heels.
'Shit...what do i do..?'
The anxiety piled up. Riku was confident in his own abilities, but his sensor indicated that his classmates weren't. Uraraka, Shoji, thirteen, Sero and Ashido had re-engaged Kurogiri a bit further away, but the danger they were in, pressed on him like fire.
'I need... i need more range. I need to tank!'
But the wheel didn't care about anyone but him. Adaptation was a selfish. It responded to direct Stimuli, either inflicted upon him, or by him. He wasn't capable of adapting to something his classmates were affected by.
The thought made his chest tighten. This was his first fight against villains and he had always thought he'd be ready for it. He had trained a lot, and his abilities were those of one of the most powerful characters in fiction.
But this wasn't a spar in which two fighters fought and stopped when tired. This was unrestrained, the safety of everyone around him bearing down onto his shoulders. And he didn't know how to deal with that. He only knew how to protect himself.
Anxiety shifted to panic as the white skinned mutant clearly sensed Thirteen's suit be ripped cleanly-open by her own Quirk.
As Kirishima found himself immobilized underneath another Mutants grip.
As the Nomu's legs regenerated. As it sprinted towards Todoroki.
As Shigaraki's hand closed around Riku's foot, turning it into dust, sending him face-first into the ground.
Alarm bells blared in his head as he heard the sound of more shattering ice, and sensed the Nomu closing the distance to his classmate.
Pressure mounted in Riku's head as he pushed, forcing the wheel on his head to turn. He needed range, size. He needed the villains attention, to make sure they went after him. He needed his classmates to stay safe-
CLANG
The response came in form of the familiar sound of the wheel, turning. It was not perfect, far from it. It groaned in protest and shook as he forced what he thought to be a solution into the wheel's adaptation. His head hurt, but the relief he felt at the clanging sound washed away the worst of his suffering.
Muscles stretched. Bones groaned and expanded. His Skin tightened over his swelling body, spreading the uncomfortable feeling through his entire body. Riku felt his control over Cursed Energy waver, his cursed energy sensor barely holding as he reached out, this simple motion casting a shadow upon the battlefield.
"...huuuh? What?"
The shell shocked sound of Shigaraki's voice was ignored as the growing Mutant's hand slammed onto the Nomu, closing around him.
The shockwave garnered attention as villains and Heroes alike froze at the sight of the white-skinned Mutant. His large body slowly raised itself to its feet, towering over the battlefield with the size of a small house.
"...Shindai? Thats Shindai?"
"Is that... is that supposed to be a student?"
Voice filled with disbelief and fear echoed through the place. The Mutant, his size at around 10 meters growled, the sound sounding as though emerging from the depths of his throat.
In his hand, the Nomu thrashed violently, strange sounds escaping it as its own muscles strained against Riku's grasp.
With a sickening crack, several of Riku's fingers were bent and the creature dropped onto the ground, regaining its footing with terrifying speed.
"Thiiiss...this! This is not fair! You're cheating! Haaahh... cheating..."
The villain's leader lost his composure, but Riku struggled to hear him. He struggled to hear anything. His wings throbbed painfully, so did every other part of his body. The voices of classmates and villains were higher-pitched, distant and small, reminding him of the buzzing of insects.
Every step felt like wading through cement. The ground groaned and cracked underneath his weight, his feet sinking into the asphalt as though walking through Quicksand. Each movement required effort his brain was not used to calibrating, and while his muscles were capable of sustaining those, his brain was not wired to control such immense strength.
Cursed Energy was lacking. The feeling he had grown so accustomed to controlling in his body, felt sluggish and slow, not enough to sustain his entire body. It lacked behind and he found himself incapable of covering his entire body with it, his output and reserves, not nearly enough.
'what is this? Why do i feel so wrong?'
The villains did not leave him much time to think about it. A high-pitched sound emerged from the villain's leader and a wave of pain assaulted him as the villains not busy fighting his classmates focused their Quirks and abilities upon him.
Riku's cursed Energy failed to reinforce his body in time but the damage the villain's Quirks dealt was negligible. He attempted to course Reverse cursed Technique through wounds, but the technique failed, his output and proficiency failing due to his size.
'Why is everything lagging behind?'
More pain suddenly erupted on his stomach as the Nomu jumped up, burying his fist in Riku's flesh. He reacted, not to alleviate or block, but to trade damage, his knee slamming into the Nomu from below, sending him high into the air.
Even that movement was agony, his increased size challenging the laws of gravity, increasing the pressure it exuded onto him. At the same time, the impact of he Nomu's punch had him buckle, but he managed to keep standing. Panic flared in his mind as he realized, despite the massive strength he gained like this, he was more vulnerable than ever.
BAM! Another punch followed, the Nomu mindlessly performing the same punch as before, burying his fist in Riku's gut. He, answered similarly as before, too slow to block it, but fully capable of dishing it out.
The Nomu squeaked as Riku backhanded it with his arm, then moved to follow after it.
'Gchhk, if i can't dodge or block, i have to stop it from acting!'
It didn't even have the time to stand back up as Riku landed on top of it, then simply rained down punch after punch, pressing it deeper into the ground.
The villains around him still attempted to hurt him, but his large tail swiped at them once, tearing open the ground and throwing the backwards.
Todoroki made himself useful, covering the Nomu with a wave of ice, which promptly shattered beneath another punch's force, but the Nomu simply regenerated, eating punch after punch with no expression of struggle.
Meanwhile, Aizawa and Riku's classmates huddled up, immediately grouping together in the space which Riku's and Nomu's battle had just wiped clean.
'...thats something.'
But not everyone was safe. Bakugo darted around, his explosions propelling him forwards as he took out villains left and right. Kurogiri seemed to have retreated from Thirteen, Uraraka, Shoji, Ashido and Sero, rejoining Shigaraki's side. Still, he remained the greatest threat. Riku didn't have a way to deal with him.
He didn't have time, either.
The Nomu kept eating punches and regenerating. Every strike should have chipped away at its strength, but its expression and regeneration did not change as it stubbornly attempted to sit up underneath the weight of Riku's attacks.
Riku, however felt fatigue and weakness accumulate. Small wounds were open all over his body underneath the flurry of attacks he suffered from. Slowly, he felt himself give out, his balance wavering, his punches missing.
His classmates screamed something, but Riku did not hear it as his punch for some reason hit the air instead of the ground. His sensor, unstable as it was alerted him of the Nomu standing on its feet, but he didn't have it in him to stop him.
And so, Riku's consciousness gave out.
-
-(Mini update: Many classmates are at the Plaza. But those who were on the faraway side of USJ are still not here. That includes: Tokoyami, Ojiro, Hagakure, Aoyama.
These came in, but late: Todoroki (mentioned), Kaminari, Jiro, Yaoyorozu)
-
(Pov: Izuku Midoriya)
BAAAAMM
BAAAMM
Izuku was screaming, but the sound was swallowed by the chaos of the Plaza. He stood at the edge of the Plaza, Tsuyu's Asui's tongue letting go of him, as the two stared at the colossal form of their classmate, trading another blow with the monstrosity known as Nomu.
His knees buckled as he watched the Nomu ignore Shindai's punch, simply repeating the same motions as earlier, jumping high up and delivering an earth-shattering punch into their giant classmate's gut.
BAAAM
Retaliation came in front of a backhand, followed by thundering steps as Shindai followed the Nomu's trajectory, then started pounding his fist into him.
"YOu all! WHAT the HELL are you LOOking AT? GO! FiGHT!"
Izuku's stomach lurched as he heard the villain's leaders voice give out order to his subordinates. Their numbers had been thinned by Aizawa and his classmates efforts, but they were still enough to pose a threat. And so, utilizing all kinds of different Quirks, they opened fire.
His and Asui's eyes widened as they watched their classmates colossal chest pierced by all kinds of projectiles, creating numerous wounds across massive form.
'...something. We have to do something!'
Izuku balled his fists. His plan involving Mineta's quirk wouldn't work as long as Shindai and the Nomu duke it out. He had to wait.
Again, the ground trembled and screams accompanied it. Shindai's head-tail whipped around, tearing open the ground and creating a small shockwave blasting people backwards. In an instant, he had carved out a place for his classmates to assemble, which they promptly did, taking cover and talking with Aizawa.
The onslaught continued, but Izuku thought he noticed something. Shindai was slowing down, his punches less accurate and sluggish. Izuku was unable to see the Nomu, but if Shindai kept going, it meant he hadn't managed to break through the Shock absorption and regeneration.
"..."
His eyes settled on the villain leader and dark mist forming next to him. If only he could...
'No... i'm not good enough. I'll only put myself in position to be saved if i do that...'
But... if Shindai was about to weaken, then there was another thing he could do.
"Asui! We're doing it. Go warn Aizawa and the others, i'll prepare my move the moment Shindai gives out!"
He didn't wait for her answer, simply sprinting back to where Mineta had been.
'Thank god...'
And there, he found a small hill of purple balls, some stained with red, next to his small classmate. He had tears in his eyes and bled from his head as he noticed him.
"MIDORIYA! IS IT OVER! PLEASE TELL ME ITS OVER...!"
"Not yet. But if this work then..." 'We'll have managed to thin out their grunts numbers.'
He finished his sentence in his head as he got in position, cocking back his fist, eyes intently focused on Shindai's wavering figure.
'The villains...are somewhere there. Aizawa and the others are fighting them... Ah! There is Kachan's explosion!'
With that, his shot was aimed. Now... he just needed to hope the force he'd use would not be too much.
His eyes narrowed as he saw Shindai's massive body give out, his last punches missing the target and striking at empty air.
'This is it!'
His body hit the ground with a thundering crash and in that very moment, Midoriya threw his punch.
SMASH
The small mountain of purple hairballs exploded forwards, covering the main plaza in purple rain. Midoriya immediately broke out in a run, following his shot, hoping to not have caught his classmates.
Approaching the battlefield, he soon noticed the annoyed screams and groans from the villains, putting a smirk on his face.
Soon enough, he reached Aizawa and his classmates, finding them standing next to a wide sheet covered in purple hair-balls. 'They managed to avoid these...'
Relief crashed onto him, but the reality of the situation immediately pulled him back.
"Deku! That was you?
He nodded. "Yes. I had Mineta..."
"Maan... you lot... you're really really pissing me off..."
The lanky figure of the villain's leaders appeared, accompanied by the figure wrapped in black mist.
"You know... i really hadn't expected that... aahhh. A single kid... making so. much. trouble."
The villain's gaze shifted over to Shindai's body further away. His body was... shrinking? His massive frame shuddered as his mass bled away unevenly, muscles compressing into themselves. Slowly, his frame regressed to how it had been, although his injuries remained.
"I thought... after what he did before... i thought his Quirk was Regeneration..."
Tomura Shigaraki's hands were at his own throat, scratching away at it relentlessly, even drawing blood.
"Haaahhh. And now... he does ... this? Turns into a giant... Cheater...haahh, he has to be a cheater..."
The scratching became more furious. Aizawa spoke up.
"Yeah. Surprised all of us. Some of us however, aren't man-children and understand how to deal with stuff. You're not included in that category."
The villain ignored him and kept scratching. Then, his movement froze. His voice was filled with glee.
"Haah. Heheh. But now. The cheater lost. Nomu beat him."
Next to Shindai, a Silhouette rose out of the rubble. The large bird-shaped entity was spotless. Not a single scratch or bruise on it. It simply stood there, staring straight ahead.
Midoriya felt his blood go cold. If Riku... in his giant form, hadn't even managed to leave a scratch on it... then how were they to...
He started shaking and he wasn't the only one. His classmates expressions were wide in fear, with even Aizawa's, Kachan's and Todoroki's tensing at the sight of the unharmed Nomu.
'We... we're all going to die!'
His breathing accelerated at the murderous expression of the few villains who still stood and moved. Their malevolence was open for everyone to see, the only restrained individual being Kurogiri, the one wrapped in black mist.
"Now... i think... i think we'll finally manage to do what we wanted..."
Tomura Shigaraki spoke slowly, savoring the moment.
"Nomu. Now, ki-"
KRRRRNK- CLANG
'What?'
Izuku's head whipped around. So did his classmate's and enemies.
"No... No there is no way. Thats... thats a cheat."
The villain's voice was a whisper, but everyone heard it. The villains shrunk back as a white-skinned figure slowly stood up.
Izuku felt numb.
'Where are his injuries...?'
This...was not regeneration. What he had done before had been too slow and unrefined. So now...
'What's that on his arm...?'
They should have been happy? Should they not?
But the Atmosphere did not allow it. Riku Shindai's arms hung limply at his sides as he slowly turned his head. His wings did not twitch. His tail did not move. And on his right arm, there was a blade.
Despite that, no one cheered.
"Stay calm. Something is wrong."
-
-
CHAPTER END
An: Breaking my promise bout not AN, but felt this is necessary.
This chapter is supposed to show this: Riku has no clue about how his Adaptation works. He is not used to real fights. He is not used to battles and stakes. He panics. He overreaches.
Why is the giant form so weak? Forced adaptation is induced by the user. But Riku only focused on adapting strength and size. He didn't factor in any other factors which matter when changing your own nature. Thats something the natural adaptation does by itself.
But well, i hope it was good enough. We're still not done.