Chapter 47: The Muse Unleashed! Berserker vs. Woman!

Midnight released the fist she'd caught, and the moment she moved, Woman threw a punch at her head. Midnight didn't even bother blocking it. She tilted her face, let the arm slip past her cheek, and answered with a knee to the stomach that folded the creature over on itself.

"Not bad, doll... you've got a nice hook," Midnight said with a mischievous smile as she twirled the whip around her wrist. "But you haven't seen what I can really do yet."

Woman straightened up, and with a spin unleashed a combination of blows that would've shattered any pro hero. Midnight read every intention mid-fight and was already out of the way before the punch even finished throwing. One step to the left, another back with her hip spinning, and the whip cracked across Woman's face, leaving a deep welt on her skin.

"Ooh, that had to sting," Midnight said, clicking her tongue. "Oh right, you don't feel anything, do you? How boring. Good thing I can have fun for the both of us."

I can't believe she's flirting with a monster while I'm bleeding out, Izuku thought. Wait... is that what Berserker Mode does? Makes her faster, stronger... and way more intense too? Because I was pretty sure the manual said "medical supervision," not "hit on a lab creature."

Woman growled and charged again. This time she went straight in, betting that raw speed would be enough to catch Midnight.

Midnight ducked under the extended arm, hooked the whip behind Woman's knees, and pulled. Woman's legs flew forward, the creature crashed onto her back on the broken pavement, and before she even hit the ground, the heroine already had a boot planted on her chest.

"Lie down and stay still, gorgeous," she said, leaning over her with a hungry smile. "We're not done getting to know each other yet."

Woman braced her hand against the ground, pushed off, and drove a punch straight up with everything her body had. Midnight saw the blow coming the second Woman's wrist started to tense, jumped back, and landed on her feet a few steps away, whip hanging loose between her fingers.

"Eraser, honey," she called over her shoulder, not taking her eyes off the creature already rising again. "Don't take your eyes off her. I'll handle the rest of the show."

"Wasn't planning on blinking," Aizawa replied, eyes bloodshot and scarf taut in his hands, holding his Quirk on Woman.

Woman lunged again. Midnight met her with a brutal dance of whip and kicks, moving between the creature's blows with a lightness that left Izuku slack-jawed. Every time Woman calculated where the heroine would be, Midnight was already somewhere else, slicing her skin and sweeping her off balance while laughing under her breath and dismantling her piece by piece.

"S-sensei..." Izuku murmured, dragging himself over to prop his back against an overturned car. "That's... that's terrifying."

"How's it going back there, handsome?" Midnight purred, tilting her head as another attack whooshed past. "I hope you're not planning on stealing my spotlight."

"Not in a million years, sensei! Right now just surviving is an achievement!"

"Excellent answer. Then stay put... and enjoy the show."

On the other side of the highway, things were far from a spectacle.

Snipe rolled behind a squad car as his own bullets came bouncing back off the chassis, striking sparks from the metal.

"Kamui! I can't get a clean shot!" Snipe shouted as he spun his revolvers and reloaded fast. "Those four eyes keep tracking my bullets!"

"Then make it look where I want," Kamui Woods replied without taking his eyes off the Nomu, sending fresh branches sprouting to close in around the creature. "The second I cover its sight, fire. It won't be able to track your rounds."

The reflector Nomu rotated its four pupils independently, tore out a couple of branches by the root, and stepped toward the armored vehicle at the back of the convoy.

"It's heading for the trucks!" Snipe warned.

Kamui brought his hands together and fired every bit of wood left in his body all at once. Branches sprouted from the pavement, from the guardrails, from the remains of his own walls, and wrapped the creature in a cage that closed from top to bottom. The Nomu clawed at the trunks and shattered several, but for every one it tore off, two more grew in its place, and within seconds the wood climbed up its body and covered all four eyes.

"I blinded it!" Kamui Woods shouted. "Snipe, now! It can't track what it can't see! Its head is the only thing still exposed!"

Snipe stepped out from behind the squad car in no rush. He raised both revolvers and locked his eyes on the only exposed point of the creature.

"Target locked..." he drawled. "Rodeo's over, partner."

The bullets flew out in curves, all at once, homing in on the marked spot. With no eyes to see them coming, the Nomu didn't raise a hand to swat them away. The rounds twisted through the air and rained down on the exposed head one after another, tearing it into a thousand pieces. And in the same instant the last bullet struck, Kamui condensed all his wood into a thick spear that pierced the cage from above and finished off what was left of the skull.

CRACK!

The four-eyed Nomu's body shuddered once, went slack inside the wood, and stopped regenerating. Its head was simply gone.

"Nice shot," Kamui panted, letting his arms drop.

"Nice cage, partner," Snipe replied, reloading out of habit. "One down. Now we gotta..."

Suddenly, a whistle cut through the air above their heads. The winged Nomu, which had been swooping at Kamui's branches all night, suddenly broke off, banked, and dove toward the far end of the highway, toward the crater where Mt. Lady was still wrestling with the eyeless beast.

"Bad news!" Snipe warned, tracking the enemy with his sights. "It's linking up with the big guy!"

"Mt. Lady's already at her limit!" Kamui Woods replied, taking off toward the front. "Move! If those two corner her, she won't hold out!"

Yu felt the winged Nomu's shadow before she saw it. The eyeless creature had spent the last few minutes pushing back against her palm with a strength that wouldn't quit, and just as she managed to pin it against the asphalt again, a set of claws raked her giant shoulder from above.

"Huh?! Hey, that counts as cheating! It's two against one!" Mt. Lady protested, struggling as the winged Nomu climbed out of her reach and dove at her again. "Come on! I signed up to fight one monster, not the combo meal!"

"Hang in there, Mt. Lady!" Kamui Woods shouted, hurling a shower of branches at the winged Nomu. "I'll pin it in the air!"

The eyeless beast seized the moment Yu looked up at the winged Nomu. It twisted under her hand, broke free of her weight, and planted itself at her side, and for the first time all night the two creatures moved in tandem, one from the air and one from the ground.

From his makeshift post behind the wreckage of the convoy, Aizawa took in the whole scene at a glance and clenched his teeth.

Mt. Lady can't hold both of them. Kamui and Snipe are too far out; they won't make it before impact. If I don't do something now, she's the first one to go down.

His eyes burned so badly he was starting to see double. He glanced over at the duel between Midnight and Woman, and what he saw confirmed the decision before he'd fully made it: the heroine had her completely dominated. Woman, without her Quirks, was no match for what Nemuri had become.

"Nemuri," he said, without fully pulling his gaze from the rest of the battlefield. "How long can you hold out on your own if I drop my Quirk?"

Midnight coiled her whip around Woman's arm, spun her on the spot, and slammed her face-first into a lamppost.

"Explosions and all?" she laughed under her breath, not losing the smile. "Not a clue, hon. But if we don't do something quick, Mt. Lady's gonna end up a pancake. Go help her... I'll keep this little lady entertained."

Aizawa looked at her for another second. Then he let out a breath, closed his eyes for the first time in several minutes, and released the block.

"She's all yours."

The instant Aizawa's gaze left her body, Woman got back everything they'd taken from her. The imprint of the lamppost Midnight had stamped into her face vanished as if it had never been there. The whip cuts sealed one by one. When the creature turned to face her again, she wasn't the toy Midnight had been amusing herself with a few seconds earlier. Her fingers began to deform, swelling out from her hand, and a smile spread across her face.

"There she is," Midnight said, and her voice lost its playful edge. "I was starting to think you'd deflated on me. Welcome back... to your best self."

Woman's fist swelled until it burst and unleashed an explosion that swept down the street. Midnight launched herself sideways before the fingers even finished swelling and hit the ground rolling through the debris while the shockwave ripped chunks of her costume from her back.

BOOM!

Izuku felt the heat of the blast from his overturned car and covered his head.

Oh, for crying out loud, that's just what we needed. There goes easy mode, he thought, heart pounding. Hang on, sensei. Please hang on. Because if you die... I'm not exactly in for a different ending either.

Woman didn't give her a moment. She dissolved into a viscous puddle, sliding across the asphalt at incredible speed, reforming behind Midnight with both hands already on the verge of detonating.

Midnight guessed exactly where Woman would reform before she'd even finished putting herself back together. She spun on her heels, whipped the cord around her neck, and yanked down hard while driving her knee into her chest. The explosion the creature had prepped shot straight up into the sky instead of hitting her.

"Oh, doll...! You're falling behind something awful," Midnight's smile widened as she readied the next attack. "Shapeshift, blow up, turn into a puddle if you want... doesn't matter to me."

Woman roared and lunged with both hands leading. Midnight let herself fall onto her back, hooked her with her boots, and flung her over her head, and in the same motion released a cloud of her violet gas straight into the creature's face as she flew past.

The Somnambulist took hold. Woman landed badly, staggered, and for a moment her legs buckled a little.

"There you go... sleep tight, gorgeous."

But the regeneration worked against her again. Woman shook her head, the tremor left her legs, and she straightened back up with a sharper look than before.

The regeneration's burning through my gas almost as fast as she inhales it... What a pain. If I keep pushing this, I'm just gonna wear myself out. Alright, hon... let's change the game.

Midnight stuck to the creature and refused to let go. Every time Woman tried to open distance to charge an explosion, Midnight was already on her, cutting off the space with her whip, blasting another cloud of gas in her face, forcing her to burn regeneration on staying awake instead of healing. Woman got a hit in and sent her crashing into the chassis of a squad car.

Midnight got back up without a single complaint.

"Oooh... that one actually had some kick to it," she said, dusting herself off. "You almost made me feel something. Too bad for you... I'm not in the mood to give you that satisfaction today."

Midnight moved before Woman could react. In an instant she had her arm caught in the whip, canceling the explosion's trajectory before she could release it.

She didn't give her time to regain her balance.

A point-blank blast of gas fogged her senses, followed by a knee that folded her body and an elbow that broke her stance. Then came the final move: a brutal yank that tore her off the ground and hurled her against the highway's metal barrier.

The impact made the metal groan.

Woman's exposed head slammed into it and, for the first time, her regeneration didn't answer right away. The tissue tried to rebuild itself, but the damage had come too fast and been too severe.

Woman tried to melt into liquid to escape, but Midnight didn't let her: she kept the gas on her, and with the creature dazed, the transformation came out half formed and left her trapped between flesh and puddle for an instant the heroine used to pound her into pieces. Every blow landed on the same wound before it could close, faster than Woman's body could repair itself.

By the time the Nomu managed to break free and drag herself back a few steps, her skin was hanging in strips in several places and her exposed brain was crossed with dark cracks that no longer closed on their own.

"Oh, sweetheart," Midnight purred, closing in with the whip swinging at her side and a smile as elegant as it was cold. "You should take a look in the mirror. You're losing your charm."

Woman backed away. For the first time all night, one of the lab's creations retreated from a hero.

And just as Midnight was drawing her arm back to finish her off, the entire highway turned to light.

In the crater, across the street, everything had gone to hell all at once.

Aizawa had arrived with Kamui and Snipe, and between the three of them they'd finally managed to pin the eyeless beast down. The scarf bound its arms and the branches locked its legs, while Mt. Lady pressed down from above with both hands and the flying Nomu circled looking for an opening.

"We've got it!" Yu shouted. "We finally got it! See? I just needed some backup, it wasn't that hard!"

"Wait," Aizawa said, looking at the pinned creature. "Why did it stop?"

The eyeless beast stopped struggling. Its whole body went rigid, started to swell from within, and a reddish glow bloomed out of its flesh, climbing up its chest and face.

"That's not regeneration," Snipe said, taking a step back. "That's..."

"EVERYONE BACK, NOW!!"

The Nomu burst in an explosion that swallowed the entire crater and half a stretch of the highway. The shockwave lifted Mt. Lady off the ground despite her size and slammed her into the facade of a building. Kamui was hurled through his own shattered branches, Snipe tumbled across the pavement until he crashed into a squad car, and the blast sent Aizawa flying through the air until he landed on his back several meters away.

Smoke blanketed the entire street in an instant.

And out of that smoke, fast and silent, the winged Nomu shot forward. It flew straight for the spot where Woman was crawling, hooked her under the arms with both claws, and lifted her, taking advantage of the fact that every eye on the street was fixed on the fireball.

Midnight saw it coming and jumped after them.

"Oh no, not a chance!" she snapped, hurling her whip skyward to coil around the winged Nomu. "Give me back my dance partner! I'm not done playing with her yet!"

The tip of the whip almost caught it, but didn't quite hook on. The flying Nomu beat its wings one more time and gained altitude, Woman's ruined body dangling from its claws, and within seconds they were nothing more than a silhouette against the night sky.

Midnight gathered her legs to launch herself again, to jump onto the guardrail and climb after them across the rooftops if she had to.

"I can still catch..."

"Sensei, no!"

Izuku was a few meters away, propped against the car, one hand stretched out toward her and the other pressed against his side. He was struggling to breathe, his face was covered in blood, and there was a grimace of pain he couldn't hide.

"D-don't... don't go after them..." he gasped, meeting her eyes. "They're... they're already gone... And you... you can't hold out much longer like this. The manual... it said so, clearly... The longer you keep it up... the worse it's gonna hit you after."

"Izuku, I'm perfectly fine, I can still..."

"No, you can't... Look at yourself, sensei... Y-you're not fine."

Midnight lowered her gaze to her own body.

Her left leg looked fractured. Several fingers on the hand holding the whip had turned purple, and two of them were clearly broken. Her side, her back, and one shoulder were marked with bruises where Woman had torn her skin, and one of her eyes had gone bloody red.

All at once, the surge of Berserker Mode left her body. Every hit and wound she'd taken during her battle with Woman began to make itself known at full force in an overwhelming wave of pain.

Her knees gave out and she nearly collapsed onto the pavement.

"...Ngh..." She clenched her teeth to swallow the scream. A weak laugh escaped between ragged breaths. "Ha... ha... Heh... there it is... the fine print of the show..."

She stayed still for a moment, breathing through her teeth, letting the wave of pain pass. Then she raised her head, and her eyes landed on Izuku: the kid, battered to pieces, who had put himself between her and a monster with the only weapon he had, which was his big mouth.

She gritted her teeth, and everything else stopped mattering.

"Hang in there, reckless kid," she said as she limped over to Izuku. "Don't you dare pass out before I do. That would be terrible for my reputation."

She took his face in her hand to check his pupils, and Izuku, against all logic, smiled at the irony of seeing her worried.

"With all due respect, sensei... you look worse than I do."

"Ha. Cheeky bra... Ugh... No laughing right now... Yeah, well. Somebody had to do the hard part while you distracted the lady with pickup lines."

"It worked, didn't it?"

"It worked," she admitted, and beneath the exhaustion and the pain she squeezed his shoulder gently. "But you've had enough spotlight for one day... Now scoot over... these legs have done their shift."

Izuku pushed himself up with effort, gritting his teeth, and shifted to the right to make room for her to sit. Midnight let herself drop down beside him with a groan of pain, exhaling slowly until her shoulder ended up leaning against his.

"Aaaah... what a beating..." she murmured with her eyes half closed. "I think I'm gonna demand a vacation after this."

Izuku gave her a few awkward pats on the thigh, his face still stained red.

"You were incredible, sensei. Seriously... it was incredible."

"I know," Midnight replied, and rested her head on his shoulder, using him as a pillow. "But it's nice you've still got a good eye for spotting a top-tier heroine... even when she's a total mess."

A little farther off, through the settling smoke, Yu peeled herself off the side of the building with a groan and slowly shrank back down to her normal size, her costume scorched and her arms cut in several places.

"Ow... ow, ow, ugh... everything hurts," she complained, feeling along her ribs. "Well... good thing I can turn giant. A regular hero would've ended up a sticker on that wall."

Kamui pushed himself up on his arms, and Aizawa was already on his feet, swaying, running his eyes over each of his teammates to count them.

Snipe was the first to remember the mission.

He jerked upright despite the beating and limped over to the armored truck that had been flipped. He ripped off what was left of the rear door and stuck his head inside.

"...It can't be."

"What's wrong, Snipe?" Aizawa reached his side, dragging his feet.

"They're empty... The villains are gone."

Aizawa looked at the empty truck and at the sky where the winged Nomu had disappeared, and finally understood everything at once.

"It was a distraction," he said quietly.

"A distraction...? What are you talking about?" Yu asked, frowning.

"This." Aizawa struck the empty metal of the truck. "While we were busy fighting... someone slipped in and took the prisoners."

Far from the highway, atop the roof of an abandoned building, a winged creature descended and set its cargo down on the ground.

Woman's ruined body collapsed onto the concrete.

Nearby, a small, round figure stepped out of the shadows, dressed in a white lab coat and round glasses. He crouched beside the creature and clicked his tongue.

"Oh, oh, oh... Woman... what have they done to my girl...?" Kyudai Garaki murmured, running a finger across the torn flesh with an unsettling gentleness. "I sent you to entertain some worn-out heroes, not to come back as a heap of broken pieces. Hm... I'll have to rebuild you almost from scratch. What a waste... Still, I suppose it'll also be a fine opportunity to make a few improvements."

Woman turned her exposed brain toward him with a growl.

Beside the doctor, Johnny tilted his head with a slight sway. The little Nomu had black skin, enormous round eyes, and an exposed brain, while the lower half of his body ended in a thick cable in place of legs. On his head he wore a transparent helmet packed with tiny mechanisms. He stood motionless next to Garaki, silently awaiting his next order.

"Excellent work tonight, Johnny..." Garaki chuckled, giving him soft pats on the head. "You're a wonderful boy. Just as I expected of you. While those four were drawing all the attention with such a commotion, you carried out your task without a single mistake. Fufufu... clean, precise, and not a wasted movement. That's how things ought to be done. You make me very proud, my little one."

Behind Johnny stood two figures. One tall and wreathed in dark mist, with two yellow eyes floating in the void. The other hunched, trembling, scratching at his neck with dry fingers and a mop of blue hair falling across his face.

"About time," Tomura Shigaraki hissed, stretching out fingers gone numb from the shackles. "What took you so long?! One more minute stuck in that piece of junk... and I would've started tearing it apart with my nails."

"Patience, young Tomura... patience," Garaki murmured with his hands behind his back. "After all, you're out now, aren't you?"

The old man tilted his head slightly, as if he were explaining something obvious to an impatient child.

"And all thanks to Johnny... and to those little sacrifices who offered up their lives so you could continue on your path. My dear children fulfilled their purpose perfectly."

His fingers wiggled eagerly beneath the sleeves of his coat.

"So perhaps a bit of acknowledgment wouldn't be out of place. After all... it would be rather sad if you were to forget the effort of those who made your freedom possible."

Kurogiri gave a slight bow within the mist.

"We thank you for the extraction, doctor."

"Ah... that's what I like to hear. That's what I like to hear very much," Garaki murmured, rubbing his hands together with a satisfied smile while his eyes gleamed behind his glasses. "My little efforts keep bearing fruit... how wonderful. However..." His eyes drifted toward Woman and his smile faded. "There's something strange about tonight. Something I can't ignore. A little thorn lodged in my mind... and until I figure out what it is, I'm afraid I won't be able to feel entirely... satisfied."

*******

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