Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
"HAHAHAHA! LOOKS LIKE LUCK IS ON MY SIDE!" AFO laughed sadistically, my stomach dropped when I saw the first monster fall, a humanoid monster, bigger than the average person, almost two meters tall.
Completely muscled, red-skinned, tattooed, with bloodthirsty faces and sharp weapons. A damn High Orc, it had to be a damn High Orc dungeon. High Orcs were classified as S-Rank.
Not because they're hard to kill, because they are, but a group of Rank A's would be able to take out a High Orc easily, the problem is... There were always a lot of them, hundreds of them. They went in groups.
And just as I expected, this Gate was no different. Hundreds of High Orcs began to fall from the gate of heaven like an apocalypse. This was worse, this was much worse than the damn Wyvern!
I had to get rid of AFO once and for all! I tried to run again, only for a piece of land to grow in front of me.
"Still trying to escape, Miyamura?" AFO mocked.
"YOUNG MIYAMURA! WE WILL GIVE YOU A SPOT! ESCAPE AND HELP THE OTHER HEROES AND HUNTERS! KILL ALL THE HIGH ORCS AND THE DUNGEON BOSS!" All Might exclaimed angrily. He appeared in front of AFO. " DETROIT SMASH !!"
All Might's strong punch collided with the large arm created by dozens of AFO quirks. Both had wrapped their fists in haki, so they made a massive shockwave that pushed me slightly. I could feel the entire ground and air tremble from the force.
Without hesitation, I turned around. Godspeed! I hit the ground hard several times to shoot out in the direction of the High Orcs.
"No cheating, Miyamura." I heard AFO's voice next to me, her fist was practically at my side, when the grandfather appeared, Shusui was overflowing with haki and cut AFO's fist, preventing her blow from reaching me.
"Go, Izumi!" Grandpa shouted as he spun around and tried to slash at AFO, only for her fist to suddenly regenerate and slam into Shusui. I could hear AFO sigh as a hand appeared in front of me through a portal.
My haki immediately screamed, and I stopped suddenly; even so, the hand managed to touch me, enough for its fingers to touch my shirt for a split second, then my clothes began to decompose.
My eyes went wide, Decay?! Had Decay retorted?! I gritted my teeth, ignored my shirt, the bottom half of which disappeared, and immediately slashed my arm, but half a dozen more portals appeared around me and more arms sprouted from them.
I quickly spun around and sliced through all the arms, only for AFO's giant, mutant fist to appear in front of me once again. I clicked my tongue, turned my body, my feet planted against AFO's fist, and was pushed back once more.
Back on the battlefield against AFO. My gaze focused on AFO; her body had mutated once again. In addition to her two gigantic arms filled with quirks, facsimiles of her seemed to emerge from the rest of her body, as if there were several afterimages superimposed on top of her, one on top of the other.
Most importantly, there were the arms that were coming out of AFO's body, arms that were going in and out of portals as she tried to attack me, arms that extended beyond their normal length. I gritted my teeth. Damn bastard with so many Quirks.
I took a deep breath and stepped into my shadows, trying to take advantage of the night shadow to move away from AFO, but AFO began to shine so brightly that it almost seemed to turn into day.
All the shadows flinched. An arm shot out from right where the shadow was, and dived into them, right next to me. Damn! Why could everyone enter my shadows without permission?
I slashed my arm and stepped out of my shadows, after all, I could no longer travel through them with AFO illuminating the battlefield.
I thought quickly. I saw the first High Orc fall to the ground and promptly be tackled by Endeavor, who quickly took care of it. But there were still hundreds of them falling from the sky.
I couldn't get away, AFO would do everything possible to prevent me from going to fight and help against the High Orcs, the chances of an S-Rank Hunter coming right now were abysmal, we were close to Tokyo, where the Draw Sword Guild was, but they themselves should be guarding their own Gate above Tokyo, it would take them a while to arrive.
And time was the last thing we had. The only luck, according to the statement AFO made at the beginning. "That she was lucky," was an indication that they couldn't control what kind of gates the Haywire devices opened. It's just that we had horrible luck on I-Island and now.
I had to break free from AFO I had to help the others before the Altor Orcs overextended themselves. I looked at the hunters and heroes still fighting off the remnants of the Grimms, and I saw my Jackalope, still healing them, multiplying now and then, and jumping to a civilian, and-
I just had an idea, an idiotic idea, but… maybe it could work.
"All right, Zen Shigaraki! If you want to fight! I'm in favor of that!"
"Izumi!?" "YOUNG MIYAMURA!?" Grandpa and All Might asked, confused, and AFO laughed amusedly.
"You don't strike me as a guy who follows orders, Miyamura, but let's see what you have planned." AFO laughed mockingly.
I gritted my teeth. I hoped this would work and help.
-------------------
Taylor Pov.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. It was supposed to be a simple rescue mission, secure Izumi and get back to UA, simple as that.
But somehow, everything went to shit so fast I don't understand what's happening. All For One's every plan, a fucking lunatic, just looking at her made my hair stand on end, and my instincts screamed to run in the opposite direction. Even my bugs refused to go near All For One.
Somehow, she had opened 10 Gates all over Japan, if Izumi was to be believed, and he was, his Haki rarely lied.
And looking up at the sky, it couldn't be a coincidence. A huge Grimm emerged from the portal, a damn dragon hundreds of meters tall. Its roar shook me to the bone.
"Don't split up! Protect the civilians! Kill every Grimm you see! That damn Wyvern has to be killed or it'll keep summoning Grimms!" My eyes snapped towards Izumi in surprise. I instinctively grabbed Yubashiri when he threw her at me.
"Izu-" I tried to say as my eyes widened when Endeavor took to the sky and launched a massive heat beam at the giant grimm, but it wasn't enough to kill the grimm, only wounding it.
Still, I sighed in relief, it was possible to hurt it, it was possible to kill it, I was about to speak to the others, when Izumi shot out towards the Grimm. I could feel my heart start to beat vigorously.
My gaze focused on the night sky, Izumi quickly approached the Wyvern and… decapitated it. In a single movement, he decapitated the giant monster. I almost smiled in victory before my stomach dropped as the Wyvern's body began to mutate.
"No… You don't have to do that, do you?" I asked in Ruby's direction, hopefully without looking away.
"No… I have no idea what's going on," Ruby said urgently, "I have a bad feeling… a horrible feeling."
And just as I expected, the Wyvern exploded into thousands of pieces in all directions, and tar seemed to rain from the sky, large drops of a putrid liquid that quickly formed into Grimms.
"Oh goddess." Ruby muttered in horror. She gritted her teeth. Fuck, this was getting worse and worse!
Then… Izumi moved once more. Wings grew from his back and he moved. His swords burst into flames and began to emit great rays of light until they formed a giant eastern dragon.
And time seemed to stop. I could barely keep up with him, the Dragon of fire and thunder that was now Izumi crossed the night sky at a dizzying speed, killing hundreds of Grimms in an instant before turning and launching itself in another direction.
It was… strangely beautiful to watch, Izumi leaving a massive trail of fire behind him, moving so fast that it didn't even disappear as it spread further, just kept growing, twisting and turning like a vast, long eastern dragon destroying all the Grimms in its path. It was truly incredible.
In a short time, Izumi managed to kill a ridiculous amount of Grimms, thousands and thousands of them, enough so that the few that fell were minuscule in comparison.
Izumi, to no one's surprise, launched a final, powerful attack against All For One.
"Come on! We have to help!" I said immediately as I saw the Grimms on the ground. I received affirmative answers immediately. I could see Darkness raise her shield, and I could feel the surge of force run through my body before we launched ourselves.
The range of my insects had extended even further than usual due to the tension and stress I was feeling; I could easily reach five blocks in all directions now, almost six blocks.
I used the insects to guide me and the other heroes and hunters who came immediately to protect the civilians.
The four of us quickly made our way through the crowd of Grimms that fell to the ground, which, although thanks to Izumi, the amount was marginal, there were still too many, so we hurried.
I squeezed Yubashiri tightly. It wasn't Shusui; it was uncomfortable to use, it wasn't my sword, it was lighter, faster, less destructive than what I was used to, but it was a magnificent sword, and it served to cut monsters; it had to suffice for the moment.
I cut down three Beowulfs quickly as the others joined in the slaughter. I could see Ruby bounce soon on the ground with Thunderclap and Flash, her scythe reaping deaths in her wake. Azula's sword, which was emanating an intense blue fire, turned all the Grimms she cut to ashes.
Even Darkness, in addition to blocking all the blows and attacks, killed several Grimms in her path. I looked around and could see dozens of heroes and Hunters also easily exterminating the Grimms.
Even the biggest ones, like Death Stalker and Nevermore, were easily taken down by the assembled group of professionals. It almost seemed like everything would be resolved until a finger snap echoed throughout the venue.
I stopped stiffly, and for some reason, I couldn't help but look up. When I looked up at the sky, I saw the fog of the portal disappear, only to see that a Gate above it had been hidden.
"You've got to be kidding me," Darkness muttered in horror. I gritted my teeth.
"Skitter! I finally found you! Communications have been jammed!" said Gran Torino as he suddenly appeared next to me, still with Izumi's Jackalope on his shoulder, just like the one that was on mine.
"Is that why no one noticed the damn Gate above us?" I asked through gritted teeth. Gran Torino nodded solemnly.
"Yes, and it's terrible news for all of us. We're becoming disorganized. The Grimms divided us. We took care of them, but we overextended ourselves to save civilians and take care of the monsters. We need order."
"You can communicate with your insects. I need you to coordinate the heroes, hunters, and civilians, all of them." Gran Torino said seriously.
"You want me to do what?" I asked incredulously.
"Coordinate them, or they'll die," Gran Torino said sharply. I gulped audibly. I could feel my stomach drop several degrees; I could almost feel myself throwing up. "You can keep track of everyone, all the heroes, hunters, civilians, and monsters. You have a huge mental map."
"You know where everything is and where everyone is. Get all the civilians to safe places, reorganize the heroes and hunters, have them gather together, form groups, give them directions, move them around the map, have them fight monsters that have a chance of winning, and have them survive."
"I, as the highest-ranking hero in this operation, am now officially in charge of the logistics of everything," Gran Torino said seriously.
"I'm a fucking freshman," I retorted forcefully. I could feel myself paling as I trembled slightly, swallowing the bile rising in my throat.
"That thing up there doesn't give a shit anymore," Gran Torino snarled, pointing to the sky. "Either you do it, or people die. You chose this career, you chose this burden. Take responsibility. I know it's a horrible thing to ask of you, a first-year student, but All For One isn't going to let go of All Might, Ryuma, or his grandson to help us."
"We're alone in this shit, we don't know if reinforcements will arrive, you heard Ryuma's grandson, there are 10 Gates, everyone will be busy with this shit, you're our best option, your job is to make sure that most of those present get out of here alive," said Gran Torino firmly.
"I-I can't do it." I said shakily, too much responsibility, too much faith in myself, I could only control insects! It was nothing special!
"You can do it." Ruby said immediately, looking me straight in the eyes, completely confident. "You can do it... Taylor, I trust you, you'll do it... You'll do your best, I know it." Ruby said immediately. I could see her tremble slightly, but her gaze didn't waver in the slightest.
"Stop whining, Taylor, you're better than this. Izumi would make fun of you… But he'd trust you to be able to do it. So would I, so would we." Azula said firmly, sighing shakily.
Yes… Izumi would scoff, she'd laugh, but she'd have faith in me; she always has too much faith in us. That calmed me down a little, and the fact that the girls also believed in me… that also calmed me down.
"We'll follow you, Taylor. We won't leave you alone." Darkness said with a shaky smile. I tried to smile back, but I could only grimace. I exhaled deeply and nervously.
"Will you follow my orders?" I asked, squeezing my eyes shut. For the love of—I can't possibly be considering doing this. It was so risky, so terrifying.
"They will. I spoke to the heroes on the way here," Gran Torino said before wrinkling his nose. "Civilians will listen to you if you tell them you're a hero. They'll trust you immediately in these situations… Hunters, on the other hand… are known for doing whatever they want."
"Try to make them follow your orders, use Nezu's name if necessary, All Might's, Ryuma's, anything as long as they follow orders. I'll take responsibility for any problems. If they continue to ignore you, tell me and point me in the right direction, I'll take care of them." Gran Torino said directly. "Will you?"
I wrinkled my nose and gritted my teeth.
"Okay, fuck it, okay! I'll do it." I said forcefully before hitting my cheeks with my palms to wake myself up, even if just a little. It didn't calm me down in the slightest, but now I was more focused.
Just then, the sound of breaking glass made us look up once more. The Gate had broken, and then the first monster came out. This was getting worse and worse.
Now seeing the Altor Orcs fall made my stomach drop several meters. I wanted to repent, to take back my words, but Gran Torino slammed his fist into my back.
"Good luck… We'll need it," Gran Torino said solemnly. I gulped audibly.
I could see Darkness raise her shield, launching another wave of buffs at everyone present, heroes, hunters, and civilians alike; anything that would help would help.
I looked to the side and gritted my teeth. All For One, All Might, that damn Ryuma, and Izumi were fighting apart from the group. I could see Izumi trying to escape and help, but he was intercepted every time.
And I couldn't even help him. The fight that was going on, I couldn't even keep up with them, the speed at which they moved, the force, the shock waves that made the earth and air tremble, the cuts that created splits and fissures in the ground hundreds of meters wide.
Gran Torino was right, either I did something or we would be massacred, I could see with my instincts all the heroes and hunters scattered around, the monsters were High Orcs, known to be able to fight against A-Rank hunters on equal terms, or even surpassing them, they wouldn't stand a chance apart.
I gritted my teeth and began moving my bugs. I marked all the heroes, hunters, and civilians and started barking orders through my bugs. To my surprise, Gran Torino had spoken the truth.
All the heroes and civilians followed my orders immediately. I was able to gather them and guide them through all the destruction to keep them safe or reunite them with someone who would take care of them.
But the hunters were a mixed bunch, some of whom did listen to me, seemed to understand what kind of trouble we were in, and were more than willing to cooperate, but there were a few others who outright attacked my insects, both before and after I spoke.
I clicked my tongue. Just as Gran Torino asked, I pointed out the places where the lone Hunters were. Then the first High Orc touched the ground.
Endeavor was the one who had been most reluctant to follow my orders, so she was the first one I sent; she was more than willing to act as the first attack.
" Flashfire Fist Hell Spider!" Endeavor shouted and extended her hands; from the tips of her fingers, small rays of heat emerged and spread across the sky. Dozens of them pierced the first High Orc, but it was not enough.
The lightning spread further and surrounded a dozen High Orcs, then the heat rays swirled and churned, slicing through everything in their path. A dozen High Orcs were completely torn to pieces by Endeavor.
Finally, the other High Orcs fell to the ground. I immediately marked them with my insects and tackled them with my insects.
I quickly remembered Izumi's advice: every living thing needed to breathe, so I shoved my bugs down their throats to try and drown them, I shoved my bugs against their eyes, inside their nostrils, their ears, all the places where I could disorient them.
And then I sent the hunters and heroes to finish the job. The Altor Orcs, struggling to breathe and disoriented, were weakened enough for the heroes and hunters to take them down.
Some heroes were able to kill them: Endeavor, Edgeshot, Beast Jeanist, and Gang Orca. Gran Torino was also able to take them on head-on, stop them, and hit them, but all of his attacks were non-lethal, so he was useless.
We also faced a group of High Orcs; to our surprise, our attack force was enough to cut down and kill the High Orcs with relative ease.
And finally, there were the hunters; there were some A-rank ones that I was able to gather, and they fought together, so they were also able to stand up to the weakened High Orcs.
Slowly but surely, the High Orcs began to fall. This was working. But it was slow. There were too many High Orcs, and they were regrouping, which would be a damn problem.
Then Izumi's Jackalopes disappeared. My eyes widened as I saw Izumi's shikigami turn into a shadow. I quickly searched for all the other Izumi Jackalope clones. None of them had disappeared.
I looked in Izumi's direction. He seemed completely fine, or well, he was still fighting hard against AFO. That means he killed some of her original Shikigami, damn it. I gritted my teeth as I began to calm the other heroes and civilians when our healing source suddenly disappeared.
We were facing three High Orcs, one of them threw one of her thick spears at great speed. Darkness stood in front and stopped the attack with ease; even so, the High Orcs continued their way towards us.
Azula extended her hand, and a lightning bolt shot out from her fingertips and struck the High Orc in front of her. The High Orc screamed in pain as she froze. I could see her chest burning slightly from Azula's sustained lightning, but it had no further effect. Azula clicked her tongue as she cut her lightning.
We were about to jump when four shadows appeared behind the Orcs.
My eyes widened as the first of them appeared. It was Izumi with wings, his hand wrapped in lightning, his fingers extended like a sword, and with a smooth motion, he attacked the same High Orc that Azula had attacked.
Izumi's attack pierced the monster's chest right into its heart, killing it instantly. The High Orcs were not intimidated; they turned around and began attacking Izumi, when a
A second Izumi appeared?! Only this one had its lower half in the form of a snake; the second Izumi's tail moved at high speed. Oh, I could recognize the attack even when it used its tail to attack.
Water Breathing, Seventh Form: Drop Ripple Thrust, only Izumi used it a dozen times at the same time, the tip of Izumi's tail repeatedly striking in a split second on the High Orc's chest until it completely pierced through, killing the second orc.
Then the third Izumi appeared, a huge, muscular Izumi with horns; he even seemed bigger than the High Orcs. He grabbed one of the largest High Orc weapons, which was almost as big as he was, and raised it over his head.
Sound Breathing, First Form: Roar. Ox-Izumi brought the weapon down hard and cut the third High Orc right in half.
"Sorry for being late!" said a fourth Izumi with deer antlers on his head. I couldn't help but sigh in relief. I didn't know what the hell was going on, but seeing Izumi present, even if for some reason there were four of them and all with animal features, calmed me down considerably.
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