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

  He was frozen as he looked at her pained expression, his hands trembling, and it had nothing to do with current. The crackle of lingering electricity hummed faintly in the air around them.

  "Jirou... I..." He started, gulping hard.

  A pair of steps came from behind them, crunching over broken stone and scattered debris before stopping next to the pair. Momo and Sero looked between the two, both clearly out of breath and exhausted. After a beat, Momo went to help Jirou get up, carefully bracing her arm. "I saw you running away." She said.

  Sero stopped next to Kaminari, shoulders tight, eyes flicking between the smoke and the distant flashes of movement. "Are you both alright?" He said in an intense tone.

  Kaminari nodded instinctually, but he was barely hearing Sero. His ears rang, the noise of the festival and the fight blurring together into a dull roar.

  "What's ha... happening?" Kaminari said in a weak voice.

  Jirou spoke, looking at the ground again, her tone sniffly. "A villain attacked the others... We were helping evacuate civilians, Uraraka stayed back there to maintain order."

  Sero smiled nervously, glancing toward the ongoing destruction. Unease crept into his posture, his legs moving before he consciously told them to. He was already walking toward the chaos. "I'll see if I can help." He said, steeling himself to run into that mess.

  Momo nodded at him as she propped up Jirou, noticing the faint smell of singed hair and electricity clinging to her. Then she glanced over at Kaminari with a confused look on her face, clearly trying to piece together what she was seeing.

  Sero ran into the radius of destruction, spotting Mina standing hesitantly at the edge. The ground there was cracked and warped, bits of metal embedded into stone like shrapnel. He ran up to her and saw why she was hesitating. The villain he'd heard so much about was indeed quite sharp.

  She flinched as she glanced back at him, a slight relief in her eyes recognizing him.

  "What can we do?" He said, stretching his arms.

  "We need to get them out of there... Right?" Mina said, looking unsurely toward the mass of blades.

  Sero's eyes slightly widened. "And turn that death trap's attention towards us?"

  Mina nodded at him, confidence slowly coming back into her expression.

  Sero smiled widely at her, then turned toward the villain with a sharp exhale, his jaw tightening as he focused on the mess where his classmates were trapped

  "Remember the cavalry battle?" He said, aiming both of his elbows forward.

  Mina nodded, getting in front of him, kicking her shoes off and seeping low percentage acid out of her feet. The stone beneath her began to hiss and slick over.

  Sero shot his tape with all his force. It flew right over Kirishima and Tetsutetsu, sticking to a wall past them.

  "Ready?" He said with a nervous grin.

  Kirishima was losing steam fast. He needed to hold on longer. He couldn't fail. But his quirk had limits. Everyone's did. He gritted his teeth so hard they sounded like grinding stone. He barely registered Tetsutetsu next to him, taking the attack and bracing him at the same time.

  He'd lost track of time. His stance kept getting worse, more of his skin chipping off as the pain increased. Broken blades piled up at their feet. All of his senses were getting overwhelmed. The taste of blood in his mouth. The smell of steel and fire. The repeated impacts of blades hitting him. The scrape of metal and stone. His focus was slipping.

  "Don't you dare fall!" Tetsutetsu shouted between gritted teeth, bringing Kirishima's focus back, weirdly enough.

  Sero and Mina started moving forwards as Sero began yanking his tape, picking up speed and barreling straight towards them.

  Then they felt the wave of heat hit.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  They glanced up to see the top of the jagged tower of blades get engulfed in a fireball, horrible screams coming from the top. The fire's origin was Endeavor, standing nearby and shooting flames up at the villain.

  Metal groaned and melted. The relentless attack on the students stopped. Kirishima and Tetsutetsu held rigid even after it ended. When they opened their eyes, they saw the melting mess in front of them. Kirishima caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Mina and Sero were sliding toward them at an increasingly rapid pace, both screaming.

  He unhardened. "Turn off your quirk!" He quickly screamed out, then turned to Robinn, barely being able to grab her arm before his classmates slammed into them. The impact knocked the whole group four meters from where they had been.

  A pile of groaning teenagers lay on the destroyed stone ground, the cold surface a relief after the sudden heat.

  Kirishima looked over at where they were moments ago. A massive chunk of the melting tower crashed down into that exact spot. His eyes widened briefly before he tightened his grip, his hand still firmly around Robinn's arm.

  The police and paramedics arrived soon after. Sirens and shouts filled the air. It was a mess. A more organized mess due to the students' efforts, but still a mess. Lower ranked heroes helped wherever they could.

  The police gathered all the U.A. students, half a dozen officers surrounding them as they sat on still standing picnic tables.

  Jirou and Momo leaned on each other, mirroring everyone's exhausted look. Kaminari was on the other table, face down and buried in his arms, Sero by his side patting his back. Mina was comforting Uraraka, who felt queasy from overusing her quirk. Tetsutetsu and Kirishima sat rigidly while a medic put a few dozen bandages on Kirishima. What remained of their matching jinbeis hung in tatters, scorched and torn, barely clinging to their shoulders as the fabric slowly slipped loose. They sat in silence. Robinn had been put on a stretcher and taken by an ambulance without a word.

  The police finished discussing something. Then one Kirishima recognized stepped forward. It was Mr. Tsukauchi, back from after the U.S.J. incident. He walked over and gestured for Kirishima to follow.

  Once they were at a semi private distance, he pulled out his notepad.

  "I was told that you were there when the attack started, is this right?" He asked calmly.

  Kirishima blinked, his whole body sore. After a cough, he spoke. "Yeah.. I guess I was."

  Tsukauchi nodded. "How did the fight start, what happened after?"

  Kirishima blanked for a second, feeling like even the memories got knocked out of him. He gulped his dry throat. "The first attack came out of nowhere, aimed directly at Robinn's throat..." He said slowly. Tsukauchi's eyes widened slightly. "She blocked the attack with her quirk."

  He kept telling his story. Before long, he finished, realizing how the ordeal that felt eternal had happened in under ten minutes.

  Tsukauchi nodded, lowering his notepad and looking over at the students. "So what I'm getting is that the villain was solely after Robinn Reibach."

  Kirishima nodded, hating the thought. As Tsukauchi turned to dismiss him, Kirishima blurted one last thing. "She isn't hurt... right?"

  Tsukauchi looked back and smiled thinly. "Luckily she isn't, thanks to your efforts of course." He tipped his hat and moved on.

  Kirishima stood there processing everything. Then he remembered he still hadn't had a drop of water.

  After getting a bottle from a medic, he stared at the police van while he drank. Seeing the villain tied up, unconscious, and badly burned in an iron maiden helped him relax slightly.

  Endeavor stood nearby giving his report. Seeing the Number Two hero made Kirishima realize just how far he still had to go. The fight they nearly died in had ended in seconds for him.

  His mom arrived a few minutes later. Once cleared to leave, Kirishima melted into the car seat, the seatbelt pressing uncomfortably against cuts he hadn’t noticed until the car started moving. The ride home was quiet. Every attempt at conversation died after a response or two.

  He flopped onto his bed, staring at the ceiling. His muscles twitched now that he wasn’t bracing anymore, his hands curling and uncurling like they were waiting for another hit. His mind and body were still reeling.

  The sound of the TV drifted down the hall, too loud in the quiet apartment, some cheerful program bleeding through before it cut abruptly to a news alert.

  It took a second for him to realize it was real. He pushed himself off the bed, his joints protesting, and padded into the living room.

  He stopped short of the couch as the broadcast played.

  "This night a beautiful festival took a horrible turn when the villain Moonfish, a previously convicted inmate on death row, attacked in the middle of the festivities. Luckily hero course students from U.A. were in attendance and kept the damage to a minimum. Still, there were forty one people with minor injuries, a dozen with worse ones, and sadly one life was lost. A young boy caught under debris when the fighting started."

  Kirishima's heart dropped.

  I don't really get people. As long as I can remember, I haven't been able to understand emotions and feelings that well. They all seemed weird. I know them by name. Happiness. Anger. Sadness. But that's about it. I never really questioned it. I never really had the time to.

  I guess I'm just confused.

  Kirishima saved me, apparently. Protecting me after I passed out. I get why he did it. Letting your classmate die isn't really a desirable outcome. It was the heroic thing to do. I know that.

  But risking your own life for someone else is something I'll never really understand. I'm grateful, of course. But especially risking your life for someone like me is what bothers me. It's not like I'm that friendly with him. If anything, he's one of the classmates I'm least friendly with. I find myself not making the same fake smiles I usually do with everyone.

  Would I do the same? Yeah. Probably. But I'd assume our reasoning is completely different.

  I lay here thinking, because it's about all I can do right now other than sleep. Waking up on this hospital bed unharmed was surprising. The moments before I passed out are the foggiest part in my memory.

  The only thing I do remember is that I wasn't fearing for my life.

  was a short break. Mostly because I genuinely ran out of time. Starting university again completely wrecked my schedule and energy levels, soo uploads are probably going to slow down for a bit.

  (Okay, technically 98 if you don’t count the intro and apology chapters, but I’m counting it anyway.)

  (Imagine a chibi Robinn in a yukata holding a sign that says #100.)