Idol Hero | BNHA

Chapter 34

"Hiromi, how's your arm?" Midoriya asked as the heroes in training tried to figure out a way to at least stay alive before the real heroes showed up.

"Better than before, but it still hurts," Noriko answered, glancing down at her arm. There was still a sharp pain in the spot where the knife had been stuck in her arm, but it had mostly been numbed down due to the ice she had put there. Though, that was beginning to crack. "And I'm still a bit worn down from fighting that-" her breath caught in her throat for a second, but she recovered, "the Nomu I ran into earlier."

"You fought a Nomu?" Midoriya exclaimed, shock on his face. "How-"

"I'd rather not talk about it now," Noriko interrupted. She knew Midoriya assumed it was because they were fighting the Hero Killer, but, while that was true to a point, it was mostly because she wasn't quite sure she wanted to share with her friends that she was capable of killing someone so easily.

"R-Right. You and Todoroki have already lost too much blood." Midoriya said as he activated his quirk. "I'll distract him and you two can support me from behind."

"That's a pretty big risk," Todoroki said.

"We don't really have any other options," Noriko replied despite wanting to agree with Todoroki. But this whole situation was a big risk from the start and there was no way they were getting out of it just yet.

"Yeah," Todoroki agreed. "The three of us will protect them."

"Three against one, huh? This won't be easy." Stain said, regaining everyone's full attention. Fear that had briefly left while they were talking came back at the sight of the murderous intent in Stain's eyes. But she wouldn't let that stop her from fighting.

Midoriya charged forward while Noriko sent a few ice birds flying at Stain. Stain dodged Midoriya's attacks and Todoroki prevented him from counterattacking. The Hero Killer jumped away from the ice, but the ice birds were able to hit Stain. Though, he didn't seem very fazed by it because when Todoroki used his fire he was able to easily dodge it. Noriko quickly created a ram that charged at the Hero Killer, but he was able to stab his sword through the center on the ram and shatter it. Noriko winced at the shattering of the ice and the ice that was covering completely melted. She couldn't feel the part of her arm where the ice had been, but she still iced over the wound again. She already felt like an ice cube, there wasn't much that'd make it worse.

Midoriya was cut by Stain and fell to the ground, but before Stain could do more damage, Todoroki used his fire to force the Hero Killer away. Noriko took a deep breath and created an ice dragon that flew straight at the Hero Killer.

"You have to run," Iida muttered from behind Noriko and Todoroki. She glanced back at him for a second before she felt pain from the dragon being shattered, though it was numbed by how cold she was.

"You want to make your brother proud?" Todoroki questioned loudly as Stain paralyzed Midoriya again and started running toward Noriko and Todoroki. Todoroki blocked his path, only for the Hero Killer to cut through the ice. Noriko created another dragon that charged at Stain, but he was able to shatter it. Todoroki then sent a stream of fire at Stain, though he once again managed to dodge. "Then become the hero he wanted you to be!"

"Todoroki and Noriko sent out a constant stream of attacks in hopes they could keep Stain back. But he was advancing and the next thing Noriko knew, she had been stabbed in the side before suddenly falling to the floor and becoming paralyzed, forced to helplessly watch as Stain attempted to slice Todoroki with his sword. Noriko wanted to do something to help, but she could no longer move.

That's when Iida suddenly came speeding past Noriko yelling, "Recipro Brust!" before kicking Stain's sword away from Todoroki and then kicking Stain, launching him backwards. Noriko breathed out a shaky sigh of relief as a broken piece of Stain's sword clattered to the ground.

"You're able to move, that's good," Noriko said, her voice sounding quiet and weak. She meant to speak with more entusiasim, but she couldn't move and the stab wound in her side was bleeding more than Noriko was comfortable with.

"Hiromi, are you ok?" Todoroki questioned, concern in his voice as he looked at her.

"Obviously not," Noriko retorted, hating that she couldn't move her body.

Todoroki glanced at Stain then slightly picked Noriko up and moved her so she was sitting against the wall not far from where the pro hero was paralyzed. He held his right hand to the stab wound in her side and covered it in ice, trying to keep his attention on Stain in the process. Then he stood up and turned back to the fight, leaving Noriko to be an injured bystander.

"Todoroki, Midoriya, Hiromi, this has nothing to do with you and I apologize," Iida started, Noriko watching his back as he spoke. "That's why I can't allow you to shed anymore blood for me."

"It's no use trying to act like a real hero. A person's true nature doesn't change in just a few minutes. You will never be anything but a fake who prioritizes his own selfish desires. You are an infection to society that twists the idea of heroes." Stain growled, his murderous eyes narrow. "Someone must set you straight."

"You're a fundamentalist lunatic," Todoroki told Stain before saying to Iida, "Iida, don't listen to this murderer's nonsense."

"No, he's completely correct. I have no right to call myself a hero." Iida said, causing Noriko's eyes to widen in surprise. "Even so, there's no way I can back down. If I give up now then the name Ingenium will die."

"Pathetic," Stain growled, his eyes seemingly glowing red from bloodlust or insanity, or maybe both, Noriko wasn't sure. But before Stain could barely take a step forward, Todoroki shot fire at the Hero Killer.

"Idiot! The Hero Killer is only after me and the kid in the white armor. Stop fighting back, just run away!" The hero who was on the floor next to Noriko shouted. Noriko would've forgotten about him had she not been set down by him. 

"I doubt he'd let us leave. Not to mention two of us are down. He'd kill us all the second we quit fighting." Noriko retorted, irritation in her voice. This hero, who had been paralyzed this whole time, not doing anything but needing protection, was trying to tell them to run away. If Stain wanted to call anyone pathetic, it should've been this hero, not Iida.

Stain jumped away, Todoroki switching from his flames to his ice as Stain landed on his right. The Hero Killer jumped around, dodging attacks and slashing ice before Todoroki switched to fire again.

"Hey, Todoroki, can you regulate temperatures?" Iida asked suddenly as Todoroki was continuing to shot fire at the Hero Killer.

"Not ever well with my left, but yes I can," Todoroki answered.

"You gotta freeze my legs for me without clogging the exhausts," Iida said, drawing Todoroki's attention away from Stain.

"Look out!" Noriko shouted, attempting to move as Stain threw a knife at Todoroki, but it was no use, she was still paralyzed. Instead, Iida moved forward and blocked the knife from hitting Todoroki with his arm, then stopped another that landed Iida on the ground.

"Just do it! Hurry!" Iida yelled at Todoroki. Todoroki did as he was told and froze the around around Iida's engines before going back to blasting fire at Stain. Then, Iida used some sort of super charged version of his recipro burst and shot up into the air at Stain. At the same time, Noriko noticed that Midoriya was able to move again and jumped into the air to attack Stain as well. That's when it finally occurred to Noriko that Midoriya was using his quirk without breaking his bones.

Midoriya and Iida both reached Stain and the Hero Killer was unable to do anything as Iida kicked Stain and Midoriya punched him. But then Stain suddenly moved and grabbed his sword, attempting to slash Iida, but he was able to dodge the attack and kicked the Hero Killer at the same time Todoroki sent another blast of fire at him.

As Iida and Midoriya were falling to the ground, Todoroki used his ice to catch them and make them slide back. Noriko looked up at Stain and found him motionless on a pillar of ice.

We won.