The Marksman and The Warrior

Showdown

"You shouldn't have done that, Midoriya-chan." Shigaraki growled as he nursed his bleeding wrist, "Now I really wanna kill you."

"Good luck. You failed last time." Izuku never took his eyes off the villain's hands.

By this point, the civilians around the two had formed a good twenty-meter radius circle around them. Izuku's eyes flickered at the crowd, "Why are you all still here?! Go!"

Shigaraki cackled, "Oh, you poor hero."

The blue-haired villain charged, not at Izuku, but away from him, reaching out to grab one of the civilians, who is a black-haired man wearing glasses.

"No!" Izuku tried to catch up to Shigaraki, but the villain, with more experience and training than the hero student did, easily outpaced him, "Don't touch him!"

However, before Shigaraki could close his hand over the civilian's face, a small stone briefly appeared between them before Katamina's form shimmered into existence before the villain, stopping the villain's attack by grabbing him around the wrist and kicking him away.

She scoffed, "Of all days to leave my knives at home..." She turned to the crowd as Shigaraki hit the ground, inadvertently disintegrating a part of the tiled floor, "Everyone, do you trust us?"

There was a general affirmative consensus, "You're UA students! Of course we trust you!" Someone called out from the crowd.

"Well, that's your problem, because you shouldn't." Katamina glared at the crowd despite her milky eyes seeing absolutely nothing, "We're heroes in training. We cannot be trusted to fight a villain and keep you safe at the same time. With that being said..." Katamina quickly kicked Shigaraki away from the crowd yet again, letting Izuku once again engage the villain, "If you don't want to die today, leave the building."

When the crowd didn't disperse, Katamina fished out a pebble from a nearby potted plant and activated her quirk, making her sword appear in her hand, "Now!"

The roar of the blind girl caused the people in the crowd to snap out of it and vacate the premises. The scuffing of feet from above told Katamina that there were people on higher levels still watching the incident.

Meanwhile, still exchanging blows with Izuku, Shigaraki grinned eerily, "What did I say, hm? All walking bags of XP. More content about watching a fight go down than their own safety. That's how much hero society has corrupted them. All that faith in heroes, and for what, hmm?"

Izuku ducked and weaved underneath the villain's hands, only to get kicked in the chest as he was sent tumbling to the ground, "Well... It is the observer effect, after all. Not even we're innocent of it. It's basic psychology, you know."

Shigaraki's eyes narrowed as he approached Izuku's fallen figure, "Huh. They know all this and yet they don't do anything to change it?"

"Well, what can you do? Easier said... than done..." Izuku struggled to catch his breath as he managed to push himself onto his knees.

Shigaraki simply sneered as he reached his good hand down to grab Izuku by the face, and-

"Stay away from my little brother, you dusty son of a bitch."

Katamina's voice seemed to distort as the air around her vibrated before she appeared between Shigaraki and Izuku, her purple hair settling against her back as she slammed her sword's sheath into the decay villain's ribs, right between two of then to avoid cracking them too badly.

"Augh! You brat!" Shigaraki growled as he temporarily backed off. His wrist was still bleeding, and Katamina knew that his side was beginning to bruise.

"Heroes are on their way." Katamina informed him matter-of-factly, "You'll be outnumbered soon enough. So I'll give you two choices here. You can either run or you can stay and get cut down."

Shigaraki sent the two of them a death glare before cackling psychotically, "Well, looks like this is game over for now... But watch yourselves, Hero Brats. I'm sure I'll see you again soon. Hehehe... Sooner than you think..."

He backed away and raised his voice, "Kurogiri!"

As a purple portal appeared, Shigaraki turned to walk away, but not before leaving a final warning, "Your little Summer Camp isn't as safe as you think, little brats."

The swirling purple mist disappeared into itself as Katamina and Izuku both collapsed onto the ground, one with the final release of fatigue and fear and the other in relief and guilt.

"That..." Izuku panted, "Was terrifying..."

Katamina nodded somberly, "Sorry I couldn't be here earlier, Izuku."

"It's... It's okay." Izuku covered his eyes with his arm as he laid on his back, "We're okay..."

When the heroes arrived, they saw two terrified children after having just survived a harrowing experience. They said nothing. Neither did the police.

...

"Alright. Thank you two for your accounts." Detective Tsukauchi sighed tiredly as he clicked the recorder and ended the recording, "This is getting out of hand."

"No, this is on us." Katamina shivered as her milky eyes darted around the room, as if seeing something that isn't there, "We should've been more alert. Villains are everywhere, we should've been ready."

"Senkiru, I cannot, in good conscience, pin the blame on you kids. You're kids, you shouldn't need to be on guard when you're supposed to be enjoying your lives." Tsukauchi leaned forwards in his chair, his eyebrows knitted together, "These villains already cost you your vision. I don't want them taking anything else away from you."

"Thanks for the sentiment, detective, but you and I both know that the villains aren't going to stop there." Katamina crossed her arms, "That hand fucker alluded to something about our summer camp. They're powerful. They're going to find a way to attack it, whether we like it or not."

"I'm afraid that might be the case." Tsukauchi let out a small breath, "Well, for now, you two don't need to worry about the villains. We'll deal with it."

Izuku spoke up for the first time since the interrogation ended, "If... If I read Shigaraki right... He's not the one pulling the strings. Whoever his 'sensei' is, that's the one we need to watch out for. I... I could be wrong, but... I think Shigaraki may have been groomed for villainy from childhood."

A/N: Another chapter done. I'm gonna be honest, I have no idea where I want to finish this story. Do I finish it in Kamino, do I finish it after the Overhaul arc, or do I keep going until the Final War arc?

Probably not that last one. I have no idea how to even begin getting into the MLA stuff.

Anyways, D&D character concept for the chapter: A Summer Eladrin turned Shadar-kai after being whisked away to the Feywild and then the Shadowfell, then returning to the material plane with the power of the shadows and black flames.

Funny thing. I'm currently playing this character in a campaign, and lemme tell you: Warlock with Eldritch Smite and a Paladin dip is insane. I'm waiting to crit with this build so I can just casually deal over 100 damage with a single hit.

Ha. Anyways, I'm gonna go ahead and publish this chapter. I have some more homework that I need to do for university.

Timeless_95, signing out.