Rejected Stones

Role Reversal

77. Role Reversal

To ask why we fight is to ask why the leaves fall; it is in their nature. Perhaps there is a better question: What is worth fighting for?

-Chen Stormstout

Less than two hours ago, Izuku had been witness to a joyful event, the marriage of two of his dear friends, and now his future sister and brother-in-law, as well as his teacher finally admitting that even Shota Aizawa had a heart, and a sense of humor. Now he sat down to discuss the results of the carnage he had unleashed the day before, and plan on how to cause even greater destruction soon.

"How successful were you yesterday?" Izuku asked, folding his hands together and looking down the conference table towards Bakugo and Hado, the strike team leaders from the assault on a PLF stronghold the day before. With him sat Nezu, Burnin, and Tsuragamae, and of course Mei, who was still in her dress from the wedding.

"All objectives accomplished!" Hado declared. Then her face fell. "But...two policemen died. And so did Komori from 1B. We had a lot of injuries too..."

"But the damage we did to the bastards was a hell of a lot more than we took," Bakugo snarled. "We wiped out at least a hundred of their elites. And I personally killed Toga. For real this time. She thought she could hide behind Mei's face. Bitch had it coming."

The thought of Mei dead in the dirt, even a shapeshifted version of her, made Izuku sick, but the real Mei nodded in satisfaction. "Good. She took too much of my blood."

"Most of the casualties we took were from one guy though. Twice. Killing Toga really pissed him off. Guess he had the hots for the freak or something. I must have killed a thousand of his copies," Bakugo reported.

Hado shuddered. "They just kept coming and coming, waves and waves of them. If it hadn't been for Bakugo, we would have been overrun even as we tried to retreat. We didn't have to fake it, they really were pushing us back. He was making clones left and right, of their elites, of himself, it was a nightmare. They're easy to take out but...but there were so many."

"I don't know if I got that bastard too, but I took out a lot of him," Bakugo reported. "He finally quit, so maybe that last explosion took him out for good. We won't know for a while though."

"And they saw you using One For All?" Tsuragamae asked. It was no longer a secret that Bakugo had inherited the power of All Might, and in fact Izuku had wanted to spread the story far and wide, as quickly as possible. It was vital they provoke Shigaraki into making a foolish move, and Izuku hoped the idea that One For All was alive and well and defying him would be enough to do that.

"I mean, I ran around screaming, 'I'm coming for you, Chapstick you ugly bastard! My One For All Against your All For One!' And then I killed his girlfriend. So, you know, he's probably at least a little pissed, and he's dumb if he didn't notice me punching out goddamn buildings and grabbing people with the Black Whip," Bakugo said.

"Yeah, um, he wasn't really subtle," Hado said, eyeing Bakugo sideways. "And he said some, er, really mean stuff."

"Well if you wanted subtle you should have asked for Hagakure," Mei pointed out. "Bakugo has explosions, which are the opposite of subtle. I know, trust me, it is very hard to hide an explosion."

"Well, then we just have to wait," Izuku sighed. "We'll want to watch for them massing forces, or potential retribution strikes. Have our scouts and patrols reported anything?"

"After yesterday they quit moving north at least for now," Nezu said, climbing up on the table and walking to a large map they had rolled out. "They're active in the south, and are marching on Kyoto." Nezu nudged a few markers that acted as indicators of PLF forces along roads and to various towns and cities.