[The Fox and the Hare] Chapter 42 - A Titan’s Fall (Patreon)

AN: One of my fics is close to ending, so I'm thinking about starting to write a new story once that happens. I have posted a poll with over ten story options on my FFN profile, so you can go vote there. It is a blind poll so that you do not get influenced by other voters. The poll will remain open for several good weeks.

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Chapter 42 - A Titan’s Fall

Naruto wiped the blood staining his face with the sleeve of his jacket before stepping out of the crater with a feral look in his now crimson-red, slit eyes.

“Who is next?”

His inhuman, demonic voice sent chills down Shigaraki's and female Nomu’s spines. For the first time since they were created, the two Nomu felt fear.

But then, anger took over fear, and Nomu-Shigaraki let out a scream. Aiming his hands at Naruto, he fired two enormous blasts of pressurised air. An entire section of the woods was levelled, and a deafening sound like that of nails scratching against a blackboard was heard when they impacted the UA Barrier.

Alas, no matter how powerful an attack was, it amounted to nothing if it didn’t hit its intended target. Naruto had easily avoided his telegraphed attack. Not only did he miss Naruto, but his Air Cannon ended up reaping the lives of another few dozen villains who were supposed to be on Shigaraki’s side.

At that point, most of the no-name villains started running away from the battlefield as if the devil was on their tail. They were not retarded; they realised that they were little more than cannon fodder in a battle between monsters like the Nomu, Gigantomachia, All Might, and Vanguard.

Merely a split second after Shigaraki fired his Air Cannon quirk, a glint of gold light shone in the corner of his vision as 4 spear-tipped golden chains struck at his right side like vipers.

“F-Fuck!” he stuttered out a curse, but, thankfully, right as the chains were about to impale him, the Female Nomu threw a large tree trunk into the midsection of the chains, bending them and thus changing their trajectory at the very last moment, making them miss.

Shigaraki didn’t miss the opportunity that Female Nomu created for him, and eight red and black tendrils came out of his fingers, firing back at Naruto. It was one of All For One’s favourite quirks, Rivet Stab.

Naruto caught the Rivet tendrils that he could with his bare hands, shattering them like glass, and used his five fox tails to block the ones that he couldn’t catch. His fox tails weren’t just for show. They were so tough and durable that the Rivet tendrils couldn’t even pierce through their inexplicably soft-looking fur.

Female Nomu almost broke the sound barrier as she charged at Naruto and threw another kick with her entire strength. Due to his Adamantine Sealing Chains being extended over a long distance and due to Shigaraki’s Rivet Stab occupying his arms and tails, Naruto was unable to defend himself against her.

But he wasn’t alone. Female Nomu was surprised as a crimson-red fox-like creature came out of his shirt and caught her kick effortlessly. It was Kurama. Opening his maws wide, he sank his fangs into her leg, ripping it to shreds… or at least that had been the plan. Kurama didn’t feel the sensation of his teeth tearing into flesh because Female Nomu’s body turned into a puddle of water and slithered out of his grasp with her Liquefying Quirk.

Their battle came to an unexpected pause when a massive explosion burst from the other side of the battlefield like a volcano. It was so powerful that he could feel the heat even from such a huge distance away.

⁂

While Naruto, Izuku, and All Might were fighting against the High-End Nomu, 3-B class students had mostly finished their fights with the flying-type Villains and Nomu and were in the process of evacuating. Meanwhile, some of the teachers came to aid the other zones of the battlefield.

Although Gaara’s sand landslide managed to sweep Gigantomachia a second time off his feet, the giant stood up again much faster than the first time and punched at Gaara with a roar.

A gigantic wall of ice rose in front of Gaara, courtesy of Todoroki, but Machia’s fist smashed through it effortlessly. Gaara also created a thick wall of sand, and right after him, Cementos also erected a large rampart.

Fortunately, with the sand acting as a sort of cushioning layer, Cementos’ concrete wall managed to withstand (just barely) the giant’s punch, saving Gaara from certain death.

“Dark Shadow!” shouted Tokoyami as he took a page out of Gaara’s book and tried to make Machia lose its footing by sweeping his leg.

“This isn’t working! We have to knock him out somehow!” said Tokoyami when he saw that Machia didn’t easily lose his balance.

While the heavy hitters were holding back Gigantomachia, Present Mic’s loud voice rang in everyone’s ears:

“3-A class, listen to me carefully! We are going to retreat! Most of the students and non-combat teachers have already evacuated. The 3-B class is evacuating now too! Other than the names I’m going to mention now, everyone else will follow me to the shelter!”

“Uzumaki Naruto! Izuku Midoriya! Shoto Todoroki! Fumikage Tokoyami! Sabaku Gaara! The 5 of you can stay behind and continue fighting if you so desire. But everyone else has to retreat. NOW! THIS IS NOT UP FOR DEBATE!” Present Mic screamed when he saw quite a few of them acting rebellious.

Kirishima, Kaminari, and Mina were particularly dissatisfied with the situation, but Present Mic’s scream made them swallow their complaints, and they followed everyone else as they ran to the shelter.

“Damn it! It’s because we’re too weak!” Kirishima said angrily.

It wasn’t lost on them how Present Mic allowed only the strongest 5 students in the class to stay behind to hold Nomu and Gigantomachia back.

“They’re treating us like dead weight! Shit!” Kaminari also cussed.

The worst thing was that they couldn’t contradict Present Mic's words. They couldn’t imagine how they would be able to fight against Gigantomachia. That villain was simply in another league altogether. As for the High-End Nomu outside the UA Barrier, their eyes could barely even keep up with their movements. They knew that they would most likely get killed in seconds if they were to get involved in that fight.

Alas, during such dire moments, Present Mic couldn’t afford to care about their hurt feelings. It was his responsibility as their teacher and as a Pro Hero to ensure their safety.

⁂

With the flying-type Nomu and Villains taken care of, Eraserhead ran as fast as he could towards the outer rim of UA High’s campus and climbed the steel ladder leading to the top of the UA Barrier.

Aizawa was rarely envious of other people’s quirks, but in such a critical moment, he couldn’t help feeling frustrated with his lack of superhuman abilities.

‘I need to get there as soon as possible.’

Unfortunately, his physical abilities weren’t that much higher compared to a well-trained, quirkless person. Climbing up a ladder over 20 metres tall couldn’t be done in a matter of seconds.

Suddenly, a gunshot was heard, and he cried out in pain when a bullet passed through his hand, leaving a bloody hole in it. The suddenness of the pain made him lose his hold on the ladder, and he fell off from a height of nearly 7 metres.

Despite the painful fall, he was fortunate enough not to get injured. He stood up as quickly as he could, just in time to see one of his colleagues step from behind a nearby building. Wearing a cowboy hat, a gas mask, a red cloak, and carrying two pistols in his hands, his identity was unmistakable.

“Snipe! What’s the meaning of this?!” shouted Eraserhead, all the while wrapping his bleeding hand with a piece of his clothing. “Are you siding with the Villains? Are you betraying us?!”

When Snipe aimed his pistols at him instead of replying, Aizawa activated his Erasure quirk. Under his disbelieving eyes, Snipe’s body seemed to melt, and his clothes and skin fell off like a gelatinous goo, revealing the almost naked body of a blonde girl in late teens.

“Oups, I was caught,” said the girl with a large grin.

“Who are you? Where is the real Snipe?”

“Hehe! What do you mean? He’s right in front of you!” she said, giggling.

“So you killed him, huh?”

“He’s not dead. He lives through me. We are one and the same.”

Eraserhead frowned, not feeling in the mood to deal with an insane killer’s mad rambling. Despite his injured hand, he charged at her, unafraid in the least. But, to his surprise, the girl didn’t back off. Pulling a knife out of nowhere, she lunged at him too and slashed wildly at his neck. Aizawa crouched under the slash of her knife and then stood up fast, smashing his head into her chin.

The girl stumbled back in pain, the strength of his headbutt making her see white for a moment. He didn’t give her any time to recover and swung his fist at her, slamming his punch into her temple. Already dizzy from the headbutt, the girl was knocked out cold by his second strike.

Aizawa looked at her for two more seconds before turning around and rushing back to the ladder. But he only managed to make three more steps before a sharp knife was stabbed into his back.

The blonde girl hadn’t been knocked out; she had been playing possum all along. Thanks to her ability to make her presence disappear, Eraserhead didn’t suspect that she might still be conscious and turned his back to her, intent on going to All Might’s help as soon as possible.

Eraserhead only felt a sharp spike of pain as the girl removed her blade from his back and let him collapse to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

“I don’t like you. I’d rather not drink your blood… But I’ll make good use of your quirk,” she said as she stuck her tongue out, licking the blood off her knife’s blade.

Eraserhead only managed to see the girl transforming into a perfect copy of himself before his eyes closed against his will and he fell unconscious.

⁂

At the same time, outside the UA Barrier, Cementos, Gaara, Todoroki, and Tokoyami were fighting a bitter battle against Gigantomachia. However, thanks to Cementos' arrival, the situation wasn’t as desperate as before.

Nevertheless, they were still struggling to stop him. He was like a juggernaut.

“I have an idea, but I don’t know if it will work,” said Todoroki as he created yet another gigantic wall of ice to stop Machia’s attacks at Gaara.

“What is it?” asked Cementos as he raised an enormous fist out of concrete to punch Gigantomachia in the back of his head.

“Gaara! Do you have enough sand to cover his entire body?” asked Todoroki while using the fire half of his quirk to fly away, just barely avoiding Machia’s large punch.

“Maybe. But it will take me some time to gather that much sand.”

“What’s on your mind, Shoto?” asked Tokoyami as he ordered Dark Shadow to coil around Machia’s legs, immobilising him for a few moments.

“Once Gaara covers him with his sand, I’ll fire my Prominence Burn.”

“You’re going to turn his sand into glass,” said Cementos in realisation.

“Yes. Then, you, Cementos-sensei, will use your concrete to trap him from head-to-toe too. That should buy us enough time to go over to All Might and Midoriya’s side and help them out against Nomu.

“Let’s do it!” said Gaara.

“I’ll buy you as much time as I can,” Tokoyami said before shouting the name of his special move: “Dark Shadow: Full Nelson.”

Luckily, Kaminari and Kirishima weren't there to make fun of his special move's name again. But Tokoyami wasn’t allowed the leisure to think of random thoughts for long because Dark Shadow warned him mere moments after catching Machia in a Full Nelson hold:

“He’s too strong! I can’t keep him for long!”

An enormous amount of concrete came out of the ground and trapped Machia’s legs, rising up his torso and almost encasing Dark Shadow within too.

“Tokoyami-kun! Pull back your Dark Shadow!” shouted Cementos before willing his Quirk to encase Machia’s entire body in concrete.

It didn’t hold him for long before cracks appeared, and Gignatomachia broke free. Cementos panicked when the giant took a big step towards him and raised his enormous foot to stomp him to death. But Todoroki quickly covered the ground in slippery ice, and Machia lost his balance, falling for the third time that day.

A roar of rage came from the giant as he started rising to his feet.

“It’s done. I finally got enough sand,” Gaara announced.

He was sweaty and pale, exhausted from the effort he had made to turn the surrounding soil into sand with his quirk.

“Sand Waterfall!”

The ground trembled as an enormous wave of sand erupted into the air and smashed into Gigantomachia like a tsunami.

Clenching his right hand into a fist, Gaara shouted with the last of his strength:

“Sand Binding Prison!”

Ten enormous hands with beast-like claws came from the wave of sand and smashed together into Machia, burying him within.

Having been waiting for the perfect moment, Todoroki's entire body was set ablaze, making him appear like a miniature sun.

“Proeminence Burn!”

A blinding beam of fire burst from his body like a laser cannon, engulfing the enormous statue of sand in a sea of flames.

Tokoyami’s Dark Shadow grabbed the weakened Gaara in his arms, and they ran away, putting some distance between them and Todoroki’s all-out attack, lest they be burned to death.

The large amount of sand covering Machia started to melt, turning into glass under the heat of the flames that were comparable to the sun.

Last, but not least, Cementos put his hands on the ground and poured his entire strength into one last move. A colossal amount of cement rose from the ground and covered the giant, creating an enormous pyramid almost two times taller than him, cooling the liquid glass and trapping Machia within.

To put the figurative nail in the coffin, Todoroki strained himself to cast a variation of his Heaven-Piercing Ice Wall one more time, covering the large pyramid of concrete with a thick layer of ice.

“We did it!” Todoroki said with a faint voice as he landed on the ground, panting in exertion.

“Take your time to recover,” said Cementos. “I’m going to All Might and Midoriya Izuku’s side right away.”

But, at that very moment, Izuku’s agonising scream reached their ears.

“ALL MIGHT! NOO!!”

⁂ A few minutes earlier ⁂

“All Might! The students and non-combat teachers have evacuated. All the flying-type Villains have been defeated too. I’m here to support you.”

At the sound of that voice, All Might smiled as he turned to look at the top of the UA Barrier.

“Great job, Eraserhead!” he said in excitement, giving him a big smile and a thumbs up.

Now that Aizawa, with his Erasure Quirk, was on their side, between him and Izuku, they were going to make quick work of the three remaining High-End Nomu.

“Aizawa-sensei. Focus on the Nomu with the helmet; he has a dangerous Spatial Distortion attack and a sort of Heat Vision Quirk too. We have to kill him first! I will nuke him!”

“Don’t worry, I’m going to Erase the quirks of all three of them!” said Aizawa.

“I’ll take on the Fat and the Elephant Nomus and keep them busy,” All Might shouted and threw himself at the Fat Nomu. “Detroit Smash!” he screamed.

He was confident that without their shock absorption and super regeneration quirks, the Nomu wouldn’t be able to withstand even two of his Smash attacks.

However, right as his fist was about to collide with Fat Nomu’s head, All Might’s muscular form disappeared and he transformed into a man as skinny as a skeleton.

“What the-?!”

Momentarily, his brain couldn’t process the unexpected turn of events. He had been reaching the limits of his Muscle Form, true, but, according to his calculations, he should have still had at least 10 or 15 minutes left! It made no sense for his strength to disappear just like that!

‘Unless…Aizawa used his Erasure on me?’

‘But why?’

‘Why would he-’

All those thoughts passed through his mind in the span of a second. But he didn’t have the time to come to a satisfactory conclusion to help him understand the situation because a huge mouth appeared in the belly of the Fat Nomu and his large white teeth transformed into steel before he chomped on All Might’s frail body.

“ALL MIGHT! NOO!!” screamed Izuku in a hoarse voice.

He tried to use his Float and his super speed to rush at All Might, but he realised, to his horror, that his quirks weren’t responding to his will either.

Overcome with shock, Izuku was frozen in disbelief when it dawned on him what had just transpired.

‘Aizawa-sensei… betrayed us?’

How could Aizawa, of all people, side with the villains? Izuku had watched the footage from the USJ incident many times before. Eraserhead had fought bravely against dozens of villains and put his life on the line to protect his students.

‘Why…? How… How is this possible?’

It didn’t make any sense.

While Izuku was frozen in stupefaction and basically turned into a quirkless person, the Laser Nomu’s eyes glowed, and a beam of light shot at him.

At the very last moment, a kunai with a ninja wire tied to its pommel ring wrapped around Izuku’s healthy arm and yanked him to the side. The Laser Nomu’s laser beams missed the boy only by a breath, carving a deep pair of lines into the UA Barrier.

“Izuku, wake up!” shouted Naruto in hopes of bringing him back to his senses.

After hearing Izuku’s heart-wrenching cry, Naruto left Shigaraki-Nomu and the female High-End Nomu behind and rushed to him, worried for his safety.

The blonde wasn’t unaffected by what he had witnessed either, but it was far from the first time he had seen someone die. He managed to keep his wits to himself and even save Izuku before the Laser Nomu’s Heat Beams could kill him.

At that moment, the Elephant Nomu threw his enormous trunk at them, and the Fat Nomu also enlarged his two arms to a huge size before smashing them down on the two boys like a pair of gigantic hammers.

Naruto’s shout had made Izuku come back to his senses, but seeing the two Nomu’s huge limbs coming at them, despair came over him. With Aizawa erasing their quirks, they were finished.

“You shouldn’t have come here-” he tried to say, feeling regret at the fact that he had dragged Naruto to die together with him.

But, as Izuku started wallowing in despair, four chains came out of Naruto’s back and formed a dome of golden light around them.

Izuku’s tear-filled eyes widened in disbelief.

“How?!”

“Aizawa-sensei’s Erasure doesn’t work on my chains,” explained Naruto, all the while not even flinching as the two High-End Nomu’s attacks slammed into the dome of light created by his Adamantine Sealing Chains.

As they were speaking, Nomu-Shigaraki and Female Nomu arrived on their side of the battlefield too. But Naruto didn’t even spare them a second glance.

“You should be able to use your quirks now, right?”

Naruto's mastery over his Adamantine Sealing Chains was exquisite enough to allow him to control whether he cancelled someone's quirk or not. Izuku tested his conjecture by conjuring his Blackwhip.

“Y-Yeah.”

“Don’t panic,” said Naruto calmly. “I am here.”

Izuku’s eyes filled with tears anew when he heard that saying. It made him think of All Might who was now lying on the ground dead, half of his body missing.

“Izuku, listen to me,” Naruto said in a strong voice to make his mind stay in the present. “All Might is dead. But you are still alive, and All Might wouldn’t have wanted to see you follow him to the grave. You have to survive. You have to go back home to your mother, don’t you? Don’t think about the past. Not now. Focus on the present. Are you with me?”

At that moment, Izuku was reminded of just how reliable and supportive Naruto used to be in the past when he had been just a nerdy, quirkless boy. Naruto had taken him under his wing, trained him, and helped him unlock his hysterical strength. Thanks to him, he had managed to enrol at UA High. It was thanks to him that he had taken the first few steps on the path of becoming a Pro Hero.

They had grown apart over the years, but now Izuku was feeling as if they had gone to the past. Naruto’s mere presence calmed him. Seeing how cool and collected he was while there were no less than five High-End Nomu attacking the Chain Dome all around them made Izuku feel that they might actually pull through somehow. It gave him hope.

Izuku wiped the tears on his cheeks with the back of his sleeve and showed a determined face.

“What’s the plan?”

“You have a Quirk that sort of buffs your attack power, right? Use it. And then prepare the strongest attack that you are capable of. You will count to five when you are ready to launch your attack. The moment you say ‘five’, I’ll cancel my Chains. You know who to aim for, right?”

“Yes, I’ll aim at Aizawa,’ said Izuku, his voice filled with determination. He wasn’t willing to call him ‘sensei’ anymore.

“You understand that you’ll be killing him, right?” Naruto asked for confirmation that Izuku wouldn’t pull his punches and hold back.

“I’ve prepared my heart for it,” Izuku said grimly. “All Might is dead because of him. I’ll never forgive him!”

“Alright. Let’s do it,” said Naruto, nodding his head, satisfied at the look in Izuku’s eyes.

“Wait… what about you?”

“What about me?”

“There are five High-End Nomu outside. Once your Chains are gone, you’ll be defenceless.”

“Don’t worry about me-”

“I won’t let you sacrifice yourself for me!” Izuku shouted.

Naruto chuckled at him and actually flicked his forehead with his finger as if he were making fun of a dumber little brother.

“As long as you take care of that traitor, nothing will happen to me. I’m strong, Izuku. Stronger than you imagine. For the first time, I will reveal my full power. So don’t worry. Focus on your task. You have to kill Eraserhead, no matter what.”

“You’re not saying this just to pacify me, right?”

“I promise I’m not. You know I don’t go back on my word. I can't afford to die here. My mom and dad are waiting for me. I was supposed to spend this weekend together with them and my little sister. Also, Rumi would kill me if I died before we got married.”

That last part would have made Izuku laugh if he hadn't been so heartbroken about All Might's brutal death just moments before. 

“Okay,” said Izuku, finally letting go of his worries.

The green-haired boy threw one last glance at All Might’s mutilated, lifeless body before pinning his eyes on Shota Aizawa, who was glaring at them from the top of the UA Barrier.

“One For All, Full Cowl, 100%.”

It was the first time he was going to use the full power of his OFA Quirk. He risked injuring himself severely, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He concentrated his entire power into his remaining arm. 

“Fa Jin!”

As he cocked his fist back several times, a special feeling washed over him.

“One.”

It wasn’t just the feeling coming with Fa Jin’s activation or Full Cowl’s rush of power.

“Two.”

There was something more; it was a sensation that he hadn’t experienced in years.

“Three.”

It was his hysterical strength.

“Four.”

The muscles all over his body bulged, and his heart started beating crazily as adrenaline coursed through his system.

“Five!”

The moment he finished counting to five, the golden dome of light faded away.

The ground under Izuku’s feet exploded like a bomb, letting out a shockwave that sent both Naruto and the surrounding Nomu flying when he launched himself into the air.

His face was dark red, the veins on his forehead were pulsing as if they were about to explode, and his eyes showed a glint of madness as he screamed:

“One For All! One million per cent! Detroit Smash!”

For a second, it felt as if sounds had ceased to exist in the world. Everyone still present on the battlefield watched petrified with shock how 'Aizawa-sensei' was erased from existence, not leaving even a drop of blood behind. But it wasn’t just him. The enormous UA Barrier that had tanked numerous punches and hits from Gigantomachia and the High-End Nomus was obliterated too, with Izuku’s punch going through it like a hot knife through butter before splitting the skies and releasing a shockwave that travelled for dozens of miles.