As the two remaining elemental attacks came at them from behind, Shiozaki desperately raised a dome to protect them, barely blocking it in time. Kakazu analyzed their reactions and repositioned his masks.
Shiozaki asked, "Is everyone ok?"
Before an answer could come, Orochimaru's huge snake charged straight toward them and dug its head into the ground to fling multiple boulders toward them. "Acid Man!"
Mina covered herself in a large glob of acid that incinerated the blocks on contact and Ojiro ran toward Kakazu himself, 'There's seriously no time to breathe with these guys! They're relentless!'
The fire mask turned and shot multiple fireballs at him, but he weaved past them and engaged in close combat with Kakazu. He dodged a punch and aimed for a nerve in his arm, shutting it down and making it go limp before swinging his tail at Kakazu's head.
Kakazu grunted, but the strings inside his body twirled endlessly until he could reuse his arm and choke out Ojiro, extending his arm and slamming him into the ground before his lightning heart aimed a blast at Ojiro.
Ojiro went wide-eyed at the incoming lightning and couldn't break out, but Kirishima ran in out of nowhere and tanked the lightning blast. "Kirishima!"
Mina smiled while weaving the purple snake's attacks. "There you are!"
Kakazu glared, "You..."
Kirishima exclaimed, "I got you, Ojiro!" Kakazu extended his other arm to try and wrap around Kirishima again.
Thoughts of Kirishima's training passed through his mind, 'Just being a shield in war isn't enough; I'm the spear, too now!' He hardened into his unbreakable form, although his forearms continued to harden more and more. The hardened plates built up and extended over his hands until they became a jagged blade that sliced through the tentacles in Kakazu's arms. "You're not killing anyone else, ever again!"
He sliced through the other arm, holding Ojiro, and charged for Kakazu. Kakazu tried to jump back, but Kirishima was persistent. He tried to knee Kirishima, but he headbutted his knee hard enough to crack it, and then he stabbed him through the stomach with his arm.
Kakazu hunched over and Kirishima tried to follow up, but the wind mask blew him back toward the other students while Kakazu stitched up his own wounds. Kirishima stared at the closing wound with wide eyes, "That did... nothing?"
At the same time, Mina dodged past the large snakes and Orochimaru's attacks while landing acid on him, only for the snake to shed those pieces of skin away. She turned to Kodai, Shiozaki, and Yanagi who seemed frozen in place watching the fight. Mina yelled, "Don't just stand there! This isn't just training anymore! They could kill us!"
They snapped to their senses just as the fire and wind heart blasted at Shiozaki. Shiozaki put up her vines again, but the wind and fire went through them with ease. Yanagi and Kodai yelled, "Shiozaki!"
The two sprung to action, combining their quirks and expanding a piece of metal like a wall to block the fire, but the wind cut right through it and sliced through part of Shiozaki's stomach.
There was no scream, but she collapsed and the two girls ran to her side to cover her wound, "Shiozaki!!!"
Kirishima looked back at her with a dropped mouth while they tried to wrap up the blood pouring from her side. Shiozaki tried to hold back tears with a weak voice, "I... I'll live..."
He gritted his teeth. He ran at Kakazu with more fervor, "DAMN YOU, BASTARD!"
Strings burst from Kakazu's mouth and wrapped around Kirishima, but he cut them up piece by piece and tried to stab through Kakazu again, only for it to barely pierce Kakazu's skin that darkened. Kirishima tried to push it in further, but Kakazu grabbed his arm and punched him hard enough to make plates peel off his face, "Did you think getting angry would let you win? All it did was make you tunnel-visioned."
On cue, while the 1B girls were distracted, and Mina dealt with Orochimaru, Ojiro was singled out by all four masks at once and was surrounded. He weaved past the water blasts and wind slashes and tried to get out, but the fire mask surrounded him in a ring of fire. Mina looked back and noticed what was happening, "Ojiro! Hold on!"
She tried to turn away while covering herself in acid, but Orochimaru's snakes slammed on the ground hard enough to cause a crack in the earth below Mina that she fell through. Her own acid worked against her and caused her to sink in further by melting the ground. Orochimaru smiled sadistically, 'Ahhhh, I see what you're doing, Kakazu. Great thinking!'
Kirishima tried to turn away, but Kakazu grabbed onto his arms, "You're not going anywhere, kid!"
"Let.... GO OF ME!" Kirishima roared and grew spiked plates all over his arms before grabbing and slamming Kakazu onto the ground."
Ojiro, all the while, weaved attacks from all the hearts, but only just barely as multiple cuts and scorch marks brandished his clothing. 'Damn it! I can't dodge these forever! Should I try to jump over the flames? No... I won't be able to dodge in the air... but I can't run through either!'
Kirishima ran to his assistance, but a snake bound Kirishima's legs together and tripped him; he quickly ripped it in half, "I got you!"
Before he could continue running Kakazu wrapped tentacles all around his body and pulled him back into a chokehold. "LET ME GO!"
Kirishima built up the hardening on his back to try and stab Kakazu, but it couldn't pierce his diamond armor. "No, you need to see how pointless your struggle is."
Kakazu held him in place while he struggled as the lightning heart charged up a huge blast. Kirishima tried his best to break free, but it was to no avail as the lightning heart let off a huge surge of unavoidable electricity at Ojiro. For a brief moment before the attack landed, Ojiro and Kirishima made eye contact, and then he was gone. Peeled back and incinerated by the large continuous surge of lightning.
All that was left was a scorch mark on the ground and Kirishima let out another agonizing scream, "OJIROOO!"
Mina climbed out of the ground with eyes the size of saucers and she teared up, "Ojiro..."
The 1B students who just finished covering Shiozaki's wound froze in shock. Shiozaki herself held her hands together in a silent prayer.
Kakazu leaned down to Kirishima's ear and told him, "What happened, hero? Didn't you say you weren't gonna let me kill anyone? So much for that, huh? You kids weren't ready for this, those cowardly pros just sent you guys to your deaths."
Kakazu tossed him aside and eyed the rest of the students, 'That should keep him out of the fight... now to pick off the rest of the weak links... I can't believe I'm really out here having to deal with this!'
Kakazu glared at them all and clenched his fists. He shouted, "It's insulting that I was seriously singled out just to fight children! You're all pathetic! This isn't some training course to capture villains, you aren't getting any points based on performance, and there's no rescue coming! Now... let's end this quickly."
A cold wave passed through each of the teen's minds, and there was a shift in the atmosphere as the hearts charged up their next attacks.
Kirishima himself stood up slowly with a deadly look in his eye as the jagged skin plates extended, becoming sharp on all ends and protruding spike-like plates out of his back while his fingers sharpened. "You're right... this isn't a training course..."
Kakazu turned back to him and his eyes narrowed, 'He still has the will to fight?'
Kodai and Yanagi stood side by side and Kodai thought, "This is survival..."
Shiozaki slowly stood up, and the pain disappeared from her face. Her expression hardened and she shared knowing glances with her friends, "I suggest you repent while you still have the chance."
Kakazu chuckled, "You think I'm gonna beg for forgiveness?"
Kirishima put up his guard, "Soon enough you won't be able to beg for anything."
As their second round began, Orochimaru thought, "This is... unexpected, but whatever. If things get too bad I'm getting out of here.
Orochimaru frowned at Mina, who jumped out of the crevice and slid around, shooting globs of acid at him. He ducked under them and thought, 'This girl is annoying... I've been relegated to stalling her with Manda so far. Once Kakazu is done with those kids perhaps he'll have a better time with her.'
Manda destroyed the ground with a tail bash and sent rocks hurling toward her, but she jumped on the pieces of rock and used them to get closer to them.
Once she landed on Manda, she slid toward Orochimaru and shot acid at him. Although, the large large did the worm and flung them both into the air. The snake swallowed Orochimaru and swung its tail hard down at Mina, putting a crater in the ground below and leaving behind supposedly nothing.
Not far away, Kirishima swapped hands with Kakazu evenly. Kakazu didn't risk extending his arms and opted for punches and kicks that Kirishima returned in kind. Every hit Kakazu landed chipped away at scales on Kirishima, and in return, the jagged edges of Kirishima's fist cut through his diamond armor. With every fist Kirishima threw his mind raced, 'I was an idiot... damn it, Ojiro! He was right... I can't really protect everyone's life if... if I'm not willing to take one... for Midnight... for Ojiro, and for all of us! We're taking you down!'
Kakazu thought, 'He's keeping up now, even the other kids are keeping up! What the hell changed?! That earlier plan didn't work at all!'
Kakazu diverted the water heart to shoot Kirishima in the back, but Shiozaki blocked its blast by raising her vines, "You're gonna regret that!"
Her vines sucked in the water and she spread out dozens of vines in a spider web-like pattern across the ground, binding the water and wind heart in place. The lightning and fire heart jumped into the air and shot blasts down at the vines, but Yanagi and Kodai moved in sync. Kodai expanded a block of tungsten to the size of a school bus and blocked both of the masks attacks.
While the attack was blocked, Shiozaki held her fists together, and the vines compressed onto the water mask until they destroyed it, making it lose its form.
The wind heart cut through the vines holding it, and Shiozaki hunched over in pain gripping her side. "I'm sorry..."
Yanagi replied, "No, you did great. I got what I needed in position."
Kodai pressed her fingers together, and a car expanded inside of the wind heart, destroying its mask and making it explode in the process. 'That's the first time I was able to shrink something that small... Wasn't sure if I could get in the gaps between those strings before that.'
Kodai and Yanagi met each other's gaze and had a conversation with only their eyes. The lightning heart shot a huge blast at them, but Shiozaki bundled as many vines as she could in front of them to block it. The fire heart shot multiple fireballs all around them, but got an idea, 'What if I...'
She created a roof above them with her vines and collected all of the water she could to soak the vines as they provided a temporary shield against the flames. Yanagi waved her hands and Kodai pressed her fingers together. Expanding vehicles inside the other masks' heads and destroying them.
Kakazu's eyes widened while he blocked both of Kirishima's fists, 'All four hearts?! What the hell happened?! They weren't like this a month ago! What kind of training did they do?! Even just a few minutes ago... damn it!' He put his mask back on.
Over inside Manda, Orochimaru smiled, "Nowhere to be seen? Hm. Perhaps I finally killed her." He stood up inside Manda's mouth and thought, 'Now to help kill the rest of those kids, and... hm?'
He heard a rumble far inside and he tensed up, 'It couldn't be...'
He felt Manda slowly dying, and he soon found out why when he saw a large body of acid jetting toward him up Manda's inside and melting everything in its wake. "Impossible!"
Mina recalled Orochimaru binding Kirishima's legs and yelled, "This is for Ojiro!" She clapped her hands and sent a thick jet of acid that tore through Orochimaru's midsection and cut him up vertically as he feebly let out only a single snake that slithered away.
Outside of the dead snake, Kakazu shot strings from multiple points in his body and tried to stab through Shiozaki's open wound while she was weak, but Kirishima grabbed and cut the strings inches before they could connect, "If you want to hurt any of them, you'll have to kill me first!! That's a man's promise this time!"
He kept hold of Kakazu's strings and didn't let them reattach while he tried to punch through Kakazu's armor. "You only have one more heart, don't you?! You're dead!"
The 1B students glared at Kakazu and Yanagi yelled, "ENOUGH!" Her arms waved and Kodai pressed her fingers together.
Kodai thought, 'The strings not being able to connect is all we needed, thanks, Kirishima!' A jagged piece of metal expanded through Kakazu's chest where his heart was supposed to be. And he coughed up blood, but his heart wasn't there.
Shiozaki stated, "An eye for an eye is due..." Her vines shot forward and entered the open wound, digging through his insides and sending him into a shock before she ripped the remaining heart out of his body.
He regained his senses and ripped her vines in half before grabbing for his heart, but Kirishima reached it before him and squeezed it into a bloody paste before his eyes.
The effect was instant as all of Kakazu's resistance stopped and he fell to his knees. Kirishima stared down at him blankly and the light faded from Kakazu's eyes. He weakly spoke his last words, "Losing... to damn children... what... a joke..."
Kirishima's hardening softened and he replied, "We're not children... Especially not now."
Kakazu collapsed as the last bits of life left him and Shiozaki did a silent prayer while Mina jogged over to them, "Orochimaru's been taken care of."
The four of them stood in a circle around Kakazu's dead body while Shiozaki remained kneeling. They were all silent as the situation sunk in. There was blood on all of their costumes, they were ragged, and they didn't look, but they were down a friend. Kirishima eventually looked at Shiozaki's wound and broke the silence when he knelt in front of her, "How bad is it?"
She rubbed her side as blood clearly soaked the bandages and grimaced, "Pretty bad..."
Kirishima was silent for a moment before slipping his hands under her and picking her up bridal style. "What are you doing?!"
He turned to the others, "I'm getting Shiozaki to get some medical attention. Can the rest of you keep fighting?"
They nodded and Kirishima ran off with her as she resigned herself to it. Mina looked around at the heroes and villains fighting farther away and thought, 'Good thing Deidara and Sasori died... that might have been too much pressure for us to beat all the villains... I hope everyone else's front is going better than ours… especially yours…'
Far south in the Gunga Mountain Villa ruins, Pain stood in the middle of a small clearing in the forest while Hawk's stood behind two people that were familiar to him. One was a purple-haired woman named Konan, and the other was a red-haired man named Nagato.
Hidden inside the trees: Nagant, Jiro, Komori, Tetsutetsu, Shihai, and Endeavor all surrounded him and stared down at him, ready to engage at any time. Nagant herself had her sniper trained on him with her finger on the trigger. Hawks had both Nagato and Konan wear baggy clothes and hid feathers inside them. He thought, 'Gravity manipulation, weapon creation, energy absorption, soul absorption, stamina booster, and regeneration. Excluding Shigaraki himself, you were considered the most deadly. Even more so than AFO... If there's even a slither of a chance we could avoid a fight here, we gotta take it, but if not then we gotta end this as fast as possible.'
Pain asked, "Did you bring civilians here? What game are you playing at?"
The two were still and Hawks whispered to them, "I got you guys if anything goes wrong. It'll be ok."
Konan took a cautious step forward, "It really is you. Yahiko. Do you remember us?"
Pain didn't respond for a minute until he tilted his head, "Yahiko? Should I know you two?"
Nagato followed after Konan, "Yes! I'm Nagato. This is Konan. Do those names sound familiar to you? Before you disappeared, we were all friends as kids!"
Pain paused and he let the names linger in his mind, "Nagato and Konan..."
The two got closer as Pain's posture relaxed and Konan pulled a picture out of her pocket of the three of them together as kids. All smiling and happy in contrast to the situation they were in now. "Does this look familiar?"
Pain blinked, staring at the picture, and stated, "This is... a memory from longer ago than what I can recall... Are you trying to trick me?"
Hawks didn't allow himself to even blink as he laser-focused on Pain's body language, 'He seems confused so far... is it working? I can't be totally sure...'
Konan shook her head as they stood only two meters apart, "No, we're not trying to trick you... AFO kidnapped you! Your memory was... erased... But it's not too late! We can have your memories restored." Konan clenched her fists.
They got within arms reach and Nagato added, "There's a girl on the hero's side that can read and transfer memories. If you come with us then we should be able to restore your own memories!"
Pain looked down as if in thought and both of his old friends reached out a hand to him. He stared at the hands and Konan said, "There doesn't have to be a fight, Yahiko."
Pain after a pause, slowly reached out towards the hands, "You're right... but there's something you should know..."
They saw his hands reaching out and smiled, relaxing. Konan asked, "Yeah?"
"I have no reason to dwell on my past!" Pain's palms darted for their foreheads, but when they were millimeters from making contact Hawks made them both fly back towards himself.
While flying back Nagato's eyes widened, "Yahiko! Why?! Stop this!"
Pain replied, "My name is Pain, and whatever I might have been as a child is irrelevant. Even if I hypothetically went with you people willingly, I'd never be free for the rest of my life considering what I've done in pursuit of establishing the new world."
Hawks sent Nagato and Konan far away, "We got it from here! I'll put you guys somewhere safe!"
Nagant thought, 'Let's not let this drag out!' She fired straight at the back of Pain's head, but he held up his hand and stopped the bullet in mid-air. His purple-ringed eyes beamed and burned into Nagant. "There's six of you scattered about around me thinking you're the predators when you're mere prey. If you give up now, there won't be a fight needed here."
Endeavor bursted through the trees, "You know we'd never bow down to a villain! Flashfire fist!"
Endeavors white-hot flames enveloped Pain, although he slowly absorbed the fire. But in the middle of the attack, Tetsutetsu put him in a chokehold from behind, 'It's still hot, but... since training with Todoroki, I can handle these flames better than anyone else!'
At the same time, Nagant tried to fire at his head again, but he announced, "Almighty push!"
A large invisible force sent Tetsutetsu flying and yelling while dispersing the flame that nearly enveloped him. "Your coordination is commendable, but ultimately futile."
Pain noticed spores spreading through the air around him and thought, 'All except for one that is...'
Endeavor got into close quarters and Pain tried to dodge, but Shihai emerged from the shadows on his feet and tripped him. However, while Pain fell he produced a missile and aimed it at Shihai. He panicked and went back into the shadows while Pain blew up the ground beneath them. Causing a huge smoke cloud and for Endeavor to hit the air. 'Where did he go?'
Hawks yelled, "There!"
Pain flew high up into the air while grabbing Komori by the arm while she screamed, "LET GO OF ME!" She instinctively sprayed him and flooded his organs with Mushrooms, making blood pour from his orifices and stopping him from being able to breathe, but he didn't flinch and produced a black rod before attempting to stab her.
But once again he was halted as Shihai came out of the shadow of his cloak and grabbed his arm. "I got him!"
Nagant yelled, "Good job, Shihai!"
She shot two bullets back to back, both cutting through the air toward Pain while Hawks shot dozens of feathers at him. At the same time, Endeavor flew up toward him. They all inched closer surrounding Pain on all sides while Shihai glared at him, but Pain's expression remained calm while he floated in the air and the wind blew his cloak. Pains pupils dilated, and due to the mushrooms flooding his internals, he could only think 'All of this effort... and yet it is as I have said before. It's time that they truly experience the pain of their own futility... Almighty PUSH!'
Pain fulfilled Komori's earlier wish and dropped her while emitting a huge unstoppable force of gravity like a supernova. The space-distorting force first blew Shihai straight out of his own shadow, then all of the feathers and bullets were blown in the opposite direction, Endeavor's flames were extinguished and he was pushed, and then Komori who was directly below Pain was sent far into the ground. And it didn't stop there. After hitting the ground, it destroyed everything it touched while spreading out in a radius that obliterated every tree it came in contact with.
Nagant gawked, "It's not stopping..."
Hawks flew up and yelled, "Shit! We gotta escape the radius!"
His feathers went into Nagant and Jiro's clothes as he tried to fly away and bring them with him, but it hit them too and ragdolled them as it kept spreading as far as the eye could see.
By the end of the attack, there was no more forest, no more heroes, and only silence as Pain stood in the middle of a perfect crater that stretched a thousand meters in every direction. The only sound that passed by was the wind uninterrupted by anything in its way whistling while Pain stood expressionless over a blood splatter with the faint smell of spores.