53 Chapter 53 - Trust Me Bro

After introducing USJ to the students, Aizawa walked up to Thirteen and whispered with a questioning tone, "Thirteen, where's All Might? He's supposed to meet us here."

"About that…" Thirteen shook their head and neared closer to Aizawa and also whispered, "There was a villain attack on his way here, so he had to intervene and ran out of time. He's currently resting on the lounge."

Aizawa sighed, but there was nothing he could do about that.

'Well, we took precautions just in case…' Aizawa pocketed his hands and walked to the side. "It can't be helped then, so, shall we start?"

"Let's see…" Thirteen thought for a second before speaking, "Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone about a certain important subject."

"Everyone, I am sure you are all aware of my Quirk, Black Hole. I can suck up anything and turn it into dust." Thirteen raised their gloved hand.

"You have been able to use that Quirk to save people from all kinds of disasters, right?" Izuku exclaimed with shining eyes.

"Yes," Thirteen said with a solemn tone, "But it's a Quirk that can easily kill people."

"Some of you have Quirks like that, right?" Thirteen added. "In our society, personal Quirks have been certified and stringently regulated, so that doesn't seem to be a problem at first glance."

"But please don't forget that there are many Quirks that can kill people with just one wrong step. With Aizawa's physical fitness test, you found out the possibility of your own hidden powers. And with All Might's person-to-person combat training, I think you experienced the danger of using those power against others."

"This class is a fresh start. You shall learn how to use your Quirk to save people's lives. You do not have power so you can harm others. I hope you leave here with the understanding that you have powers in order to help others."

"That is all. Thank you for listening" Thirteen bowed.

Nearly everyone felt their minds turn more serious. What Thirteen said was right. The only difference between them and villains is that they use them to help others, while villains use them to bring pain to others.

But, there was one student in the class that wore a mocking grin on his face. Aizawa noticed that detail from the sidelines and couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. Just as he was to approach Ryuji and ask him about that mocking smile of his, Aizawa suddenly felt something wrong.

Out of nowhere, the sound of crackling electricity rang in the entire dome as the lights flickered on and off. The fountain in the middle of USJ's interior started to sprout water on and off, until all of a sudden, light bent as a dark purple hole opened in the middle of the air.

A hand appeared through the shadowy purple gate, and a pair of yellow eyes flickered above the ghastly haze. In the next moment, Aizawa's eyes met with a pair of scarlet red eyes brimming with killing intent.

Aizawa quickly reacted and waved his hand, shouting loudly, "Gather together, and don't move!"

"Thirteen, protect the students!"

The gate rapidly expanded in size to the point it became a large mass of shadows. Through the widened gate, hordes of villains walked out in droves, striking fear in the students.

"Those are… villains."

The reality of the situation soon dawned upon them. It wasn't a sudden surprise exam, it wasn't a part of USJ at all, it was a real villain attack with their lives on the line.

"Thirteen and Eraser Head… The teacher's schedule we received the other day and what Yuga reported matched, but All Might's not here." Kurogiri muttered in a deep voice.

"The trespassing the other day was the work of these scumbags after all, huh?" Aizawa put on his goggles and grabbed the scarf around his neck tightly.

"Where is he? I went through the trouble of bringing this whole crowd, too…" Shigaraki scratched his neck and looked around with his piercing red eyes.

"All Might, the Symbol of Peace, and he's not here?" Shigaraki smiled sadistically underneath his hand mask, "I wonder if he'll come if we kill some kids?"

Class 1 A stared at the crowd of villains with terrified eyes. More and more portals opened up one by one as villains came rushing in endlessly.

There was also one horrific monstrosity beside the blue-haired; a hulking mass of muscles and bird beak and an exposed brain. Just looking at it caused their hair to stand on its ends.

"How did they get in USJ?" Mineta muttered with a trembling voice.

"What about the trespasser sensors?" Momo asked with a confused tone.

"We have them, of course, but…"

"An organized attack, huh?" Ryuji hummed, wearing an intrigued smile. "They probably have someone that can deal with the warning system."

"I wonder how they managed to gather this sorta info." Ryuji chuckled, easing the mood slightly with his calm-as-ever attitude.

That's right. They shouldn't panic. If they panic, everything would be basically over before it even started. So, under immense pressure, they steeled their hearts and straightened their backs.

"They might be fools, but they're not dumb. They attacked us here when we're isolated out of campus without anyone else to come and help, they must have some sort of goal for doing this." Shoto muttered with an analytical tone.

"Their goal?" Ryuji wore a whimsical smile and pointed at his ears. "They practically said it already, they wanna kill All Might."

"Kill… All Might?" Izuku mumbled with a confused and horrified tone.

"Yep, and they're gonna achieve that with the most probable solution—that monster over there." Ryuji pointed at the purple-skinned humanoid freak in the distance with an unfazed grin.

"How do you know that, Anwir." Aizawa looked back as he prepared to fight.

"Heh, a Dragon has a sharp sense of hearing, you know?" Ryuji shrugged his shoulder, and with a laugh, grabbed the hilt of his blade.

As soon as he did so, the whole world suddenly came to a pause. Everything turned into a monotonous shade of gray, and no sound can be heard nor any touch can be felt. Their senses were dulled to the extreme in a world where time came to a near pause.

"Everyone…" Ryuji's voice rang in their ears the next moment, surprising everyone for a moment before they swiftly calmed down as a strange mystical power influenced their minds.

"Since we're already here, and I'm an expert with this type of sudden villain attack shit since I was 10 years old, I'll be giving out orders, so listen carefully. Though we do have some time to think since I accelerated our sense of time for a quicky, but this won't last long."

"Tenya, the gate behind us is pretty thick, but as soon as we finish this meeting, I'll cut it open. You should run as fast as you can, but don't use Recipro Burst since you'll basically be useless after that. Your main job is to get help from UA, which would take you ten minutes at the bare minimum."

"Of course, that isn't a big problem since we won't be needing outside help anytime soon if we're dealing with just these chumps."

"Chumps?" Aizawa snorted with a serious tone. "You seem to be underestimating the severity of this situation, Anwir."

"Oh, please, Sensei. I've been through life and death already when I was a fucking kid, shit like this ain't no probs!" Ryuji laughed loudly before his voice turned serious and cold, a hint of ruthlessness coating his every word.

"Tenya is basically our backup plan in case things go south. Next, we'll have to take care of those villains over there."

"And, that would be easy to handle. Aizawa-sensei, please only use your quirk on that portal guy because he'll be their biggest windfall if things were to ever go south for them. Without an escape, the pressure they'll face would rise. Next, Thirteen-sensei, please focus on protecting our class if some of them manages to approach us when I'm gone."

"I'll deal with most of them myself since I can attest to my own strength, but any of you can help if you're confident enough. Though if you ever do deice to join, you'll just need to follow my orders, and we'll win without a shadow of a doubt."

"The most important thing here is one simple advice that I've learned after living in this world for over 15 years, it's kill or be killed. So, if you squirm at the sight of blood, you better look away now!" Ryuji's voice turned whimsical as he gave a jovial laugh in the end.

"Anyways, we'll start now in three!"

"Wait!" Aizawa cut in, "What do you mean by kill or be killed? Are you planning on killing them?"

"Killing them?" Ryuji's voice shifted into a darker tone, a chill crawled down their spines. "Sensei, they're planning on killing us, and you're worried that I would kill them? How laughable."

"But don't worry, no life is needed to be spent if you just focus on that shadow boy over there," Ryuji said in a confident tone.

"Well, everyone ready to fight for their lives?" Ryuji asked one final time.

"Mmm." Izuku gave a metaphorical nod in the world of accelerated time.

"Heh, those villains better be prepared if they want to kill me!" Katsuki laughed loudly.

"I'll do my best, everyone!" Tenya said, nervous yet his resolve was as strong as steel.

"Then, let's fucking do this!"

…

As soon as his words ended, Ryuji swiftly took action and drew out his sword. A sharp golden sword light flashed and he created a blade of wind to cut through the thick metallic gate behind them.

Tenya reacted at the same moment and ran at full throttle. He only needed a few seconds before he can arrive at the gate and run unimpeded.

Kurogiri immediately noticed their plan and wanted to use his Warp Gate, but Aizawa activated his quirk at the same time and foiled his plan. His hair rose up to the sky as his eyes behind his goggles were strained by a bit.

As Tenya's figure slowly disappeared through the opened gates, Ryuji wore an eccentric grin and walked forward with slow and steady steps. Beside him, Izuku, Katsuki, and even Shoto walked forward of their own accord.

The others soon followed, their battle spirits bruning brighter than ever. Kirishima's arm turned harder than steel, Momo created a bow and arrow, and others activated their Quirks, prepared to fight with their all.

"OI!" Ryuji's voice boomed with draconic might! His golden eyes flashed with killing intent. It was immense, titanic, like someone who has killed countless living beings. Even though the killing intent wasn't directed at them, the majority of Class 1A inadvertently were scared shitless, but still, they aren't going to back down.

"YOU REALLY THOUGHT YOU SCUMBAGS CAN WALK OUT OF HERE UNHARMED? YOU REALLY THOUGHT YOU CAN FUCKING KILL ME?! HA!" Ryuji grabbed the hilt of his blade and his killing intent once again rose to an unprecedented level, shocking Kurogiri.

"Shigaraki!" Kurogiri hurriedly ordered the purple beast beside him to protect Shigaraki as best it could.

"HOW FUCKING LAUGHABLE!" Ryuji tightened his grip on his blade.

"DRAGON PARADIGM SWORD STYLE!" His voice rumbled like thunder.

"DIE!"

A flash of sword light appeared, and at a speed faster than what the naked eye could ever perceive, the wind howled as his sword swung through the air.

Silence ensued.

Then, something unbelievable happened. Tens of villains dropped to the ground, their eyes rolled to the back of their heads. They fell in droves like lifeless dolls, shocking the others. But not all of the villains received the same fate, others seemed to have barely resisted what he had done and instead shivered intensely, their breathing rough and their hearts palpitating.

Heh- A subtle snort echoed before a sonorous laugh shocked them away from their daze.

"Hahahaha! Holy fuck, that actually worked." Ryuji clutched his stomach and almost choked on his saliva. "They actually thought they died!"

"That's way too fucking funny." His loud laugh caused the villains to regain their reasoning, but hearing his words instead caused them to shiver as they vividly recalled what happened.

"What did you do, Ryuji-san?" Izuku asked worriedly and stared at the lifeless bodies in the distance. Even though they are villains, Izuku still couldn't but feel his heart drop after seeing their lives taken away so… quickly.

"Don't worry, I just shocked them out of their minds with my Quirk, pretty nifty, right?" Ryuji winked. "Those villains left are practically shivering from fright with me as the hidden blade that can chop up their heads in a moment's notice, so they would be constantly distracted if you were to fight them."

"Heh, at this point, the flow of the battle is at our complete advantage, leaving only that purple thing and that blue-haired cunt over there as our problems." Ryuji grinned. "Still, our win is practically assured already."

"After all, I ain't no chivalric dumbass. This is life and death, and I'll do everything in my power to keep us alive!" Hearing his words, the others felt a strange warmness in their hearts.

Even if his means were strange and his attitude was a bit weird, he was still doing this for their own good. To have a reliable ally like Ryuji, they could feel their victory as something inevitable already.

"What are you all waiting for? This sect master here gave you all the perfect training opportunity and you guys ain't using it?"

…

Kurogiri stood beside the Nomu, his eyes squinted as he looked at Ryuji's distant silhouette. 'With just one move, he turned the tides of this entire situation so quickly.'

'A charismatic presence and unrivaled strength.' Kurogiri slowly came to a realization that caused his eyes to widen. 'We're wrong.'

'It's not just this new successor of One for All we should look out for, nor All Might, but this kid as well!'

'Maybe there won't just be one Symbol of Peace running around in the future, but two!'

'No, perhaps even multiple heroes of that level would appear if he's here!' Kurogiri remembered Yuga's report of how strong those three were in the entrance exam according to the rumors and recollections he heard.

Without any visual aid to accurately represent their strength, and with UA tightly guarding that info, they weren't able to assess the situation properly. Because of that, they're now in a situation where they have severely underestimated Ryuji's actual strength and landed in a life-or-death moment.

Of course, it's also because Ryuji has been making sure to control the flow of information from all sides, and made sure to not display his full strength. Only with his trump cards hidden does he feel comfortable acting without fear! This was the usefulness of his precaution and preparations!

'I must return and report this to All for One-sama! If we're not careful, that kid would soon become a serious threat!'

Ryuji stared at them, his eyes bathed in an endless desire to kill.

Success was imminent. His plans have worked. Now, he only needs to deal with one little pest, and All for One would be dangling in the palm of his hands!

'Shigaraki, you better hope Fate is with you because today's the day you are sacrifice for my grand plans!'

AN: This chapter has 2594 words.

Ngl, I lowkey forgot about Aleksandra, and my current outline for the big climax of Arc 6 made her completely irrelevant to the story. Sigh, there are two ways on how I'll reintegrate the Glory Academy gang back to the story in Arc 3, and neither of them are easy to write since I'll have to either increase the cast of important characters or some other weird shit.

But, I'm finally finished with the general outline for the entire Volume 1, and let's just say that Zen is definitely my favorite even though he's not introduced yet. Like, bro, once Zen appears, I can finally say fuck you to the original plot of MHA and do whatever the fuck I want with the characters.

(June 7, 2023 - 559th day of writing)