Red Shoes: an MHA Tale

Chapter 28: Even Unto Death

"I cannot let my family fall to these self-righteous heroes!" Jersey thought as he drifted aimlessly through the sky, still stuck under Uravity's Quirk. "She took my gravity. But she did not take my flight!" Stretching his wings, he pushed his body through the air and began to turn around. "My wings shall take me to victory even unto death!"

As Deku flew propelled himself and his companion through the clouds, he would repeatedly glance in the corner of his eye, turning his head slightly just to make sure she was still with him. Even though he could feel her arms hold tightly around him, he was still on edge. She was kidnapped from him and gone for several days. He didn't sleep. He barely ate. Ochako was everything he could think about. It made him reflect on the choices he made during their courtship years ago.

How they first started dating, following the events of their first year at UA, after the war against the League of Villains. They both saw each other almost die. And they made a promise, each of them, but mostly on him, to never take the full load. Up until that conversation with Ochako, Deku had always felt like he alone could do it and needed to. But when she and his other friends stepped in to save him, to rescue him from himself, he listened more. To this day however, he still struggles with overworking himself. Not out of any false responsibilities he felt he couldn't share. He was past that phase. It was now more out of habit.

No one else could do what he could do to his level. Of course he learned to let others lead the way in rescue and even combat. But during hard times of stress, his trust in others dwindled, even in Ochako. Deku's fears would get the best of him and he thought that if he could not rescue Ochako in time...

He never dwelt on those dark thoughts. They put him in a mindset that didn't fit his character.

Thankfully, she was here now to steer his mind, and his body. "Down there!" She called to him through the roaring sound of wind passing their heads.

He glanced down thousands of feet beneath them to where UA and the stadium stood. Even from that high, Danger Sense suddenly kicked on, making him wince. The hero stopped, keeping Float active as Ochako remained on his back.

"What is it?" She asked.

"We were followed." He declared.

Sure enough, out of the closest white cloud beside them, the monstrous devil Quirked villain emerged. Roaring and flapping his wings at them. He flew about as graceful as if gravity were still afflicting him as he closed in. He lowered his horned head, aiming the tips toward Deku's chest.

Ochako regained her protective Uravity energy and scrambled up her husband's back, to then launch off of his shoulders toward the monster. As she fell, her hands gripped his horns in perfect timing, dragging his body down with her.

Deku quickly realized they were falling. "URAVITY!" He called as he blasted air from his gauntlets and flew down after.

Jersey roared in frustration as her weight carried him down. The sound of screaming wind picked up in their ears as the ground quickly grew closer and closer. He thrashed his claws in her direction as she yanked herself away, still holding on to his horns. He snapped his sharp teeth but couldn't reach her from that angle above his jaws. One strike successfully landed, slashing her leg and cutting the edge of her gown. Blood flew up from the wound as she screamed out. Tears followed the blood upwards as her grip weakened.

Deku appeared behind them. The ground only a few hundred feet away now. He grabbed Uravity by wrapping his arms around her and linking before lifting off. She tapped her fingers together, giving Jersey his gravity back. But as he could feel it return to his body and flapped his wings, he struck the earth, creating a small crater there.

The heroes safely landed, Float deactivating. As they watched the crash. They took one brief moment of solemn silence before Deku turned to his wife. "I need to get you to the hospital. This cut doesn't look good."

"N-No!" She protested. "You need to warn UA about the attack."

Before he could protest, they heard a loud explosion coming from the UA stadium ahead.

"No..." They both gasped.

"I'll go to Recovery Girl. You go help the school!" Uravity ordered.

Deku took another look at her leg. "Please let me get you there first..."

"Izuku!" She snapped at him. "Your priority now is to help the people in immediate danger. I will get the help I need. I can make it."

"I lost you before... I can't-"

"Honey, I've been cut worse." She reminded him. She forced an assuring smile before limping off toward the campus. "Go, Deku, go!" She called back.

As One For All powered up within him, he remained concerned for her as he watched her rush off. "I'll find you after this!" He promised before blasting off. The leaves on the trees between himself and the stadium blew in that direction as lightning flashed in his place.

Meanwhile, Aizawa, Serizawa, and Snipe had formed a triangle around the towering Absorbing villainess, keeping their distance. She eyed them all and laughed. "None of you can touch me. Unless you wanna join in my flesh and make me bigger."

"Good luck getting out of my sight with your size." Aizawa said as his hair stood on end.

Snipe aimed his guns up at her eyes. "You move, I put a bullet in each of your pupils."

Out of the three in her way, Snipe was definitely the one to watch out for, having a long ranged ability. Easerhead was keeping her from absorbing any of them. And Serizawa...well he wouldn't be able to take her at this size.

"Don't try anything!" Aizawa ordered her.

"Too late!" Serizawa shouted as she threw her fist into the stands, Aizawa dodged the attack, barely taking his eye off of her for a split second to watch his landing.

Once he landed, his eye went right back to her, unblinking. But in that instant, she swung her leg around at Snipe and Serizawa. The latter of the two was able to leap over the incoming tree-trunk sized calf, but not the former. Snipe braced for impact as her leg not only struck him, but carried him off his feet. Serizawa winced as Snipe's body helplessly melted into her skin. She laughed and stood back up, only a few feet taller than before. "I just have to keep playing with you, Eraserhead, while you send me more flesh to take."

Aizawa cursed. "I'm getting too old for this..."

"Just try and catch me!" Serizawa quipped at the villainess. "We'll know all your secrets with you mouthing off like that before you can get any bigger!"

"This ends now, Nezu. Order them to stand down or I'll slice your throat." The henchman hissed into the principal's large rodent ear.

Nezu looked at him through his peripheral. "Then it looks like you'll have to kill me." Without warning, the small school master twisted the villain's wrist holding the knife and leapt on top of his head. His tail wrapped tightly around the man's neck and squeezed. He swung the knife around the room as everyone else started to panic. With the distraction, Nezu tapped a button on his wristwatch and it transformed, expanding over his arm into a small mounted cannon. He aimed it down on the man's cranium and fired. He dropped without a sound.

"What just happened, Nezu?! Did you just kill that man?!" A female ambassador from the government shouted from the group.

"Stun gun. Courtesy of Ingenium Tech." He said with a proud smile, tapping the button again and letting it shrink back down. "And I hope nobody left this room because he was not alone."