Motivation - Old version

Seventeen

Kazue, for once in his life, was at a loss. What the absolute fuck was he suposed to do in a situation like this? The last time so many villains had banded together for a single goal had been before he'd even been born.

And now nineteen hero hopefuls and two pros were in grievous danger while he was hovering fifteen meters in the air, eyes wide as they scanned the surrounding area desperately. Looking for a flash of skin as dark as night crossed with reddened scars. Anything, anything at all that would tell him where Decay's mutant pet had vanished to.

It didn't have a teleportation or invisibility Quirk, so where the hell did it go?

But even if it did disappear from view, the villain in charge still had a major obstacle in front of him that had yet to be taken care of.

Eraser Head.

Kazue acted without thinking upon seeing Decay's lips move underneath the hand covering his face, fumbling at his flight gear to land with an uneven thump right behind the hero. Just in time to have the mutant speed forward out of nowhere at a velocity one would only think was possible for All Might and raise a hand menacingly.

The brunet braced himself for the inevitable contact, having made peace with the fact that he was likely to get severely injured. He didn't want to die so soon, but he'd rather risk his own life than see someone else's get taken away without doing a thing to try and prevent it. Kazue readied his Quirk in the span of a millisecond, ready to pulse as soon as the blow came. He didn't know what would happen if his other half still refused to listen, but forced himself to ignore the possibility.

He squeezed his eyes shut, only to wish he hadn't a second later. A human hand was roughly grabbing his shoulder and throwing his body to the side, catching him off-guard instantly.

Kazue scrambled to his feet at the undeniable sound of bones snapping, not even bothering to brush away the hair covering his eyes to get a better line of sight.

No amount of training could have prepared him for the sight only a few meters away.

Aizawa Shōta had been the one to grab the teen and throw him aside, just in time to get slammed into the dirt by the hand of the mutant.

His knees threatened to give out the longer he stood and stared, taking in one sight at a time. The broken, red-stained goggles. The crimson liquid pooling around the man's face. The arm bent at an unnatural angle in the mutant's grip as it crouched over the fallen hero.

No.

No.

Stay calm. Use your head to think, not feel, right now.

Kazue closed his eyes for a long, agonizingly long second as he turned his body to face the blue-haired villain. A deep breath exhaled from his lips as he formulated a plan, then numerous back-up plans in case one were to go south.

And he laughed like he didn't have a care in the world, spreading his arms even as a guttural cry of pain escaped Eraser Head's lips and droplets of the hero's blood splattered across the back of his costume.

"What's so funny, hero?" Decay asked, tone one of childish anger. "Your dear Sensei is being tortured by Nōmu, and you're next."

The brunet forced himself to snicker. To seem undisturbed by the sight behind him, the one he could just barely see in his peripheral vision. "Oh, nothing, it's just that... you're pathetic, is all," he replied in a singsong tone, deliberately not elaborating.

Decay's visible eye narrowed between the fingers of the hand. "NPCs are pathetic," he retorted, only further increasing Kazue's deduction that he was nothing more than a child in a man's body. Good. Then there was a chance, however small it might be, to defeat the villain without even having to deal with his pet.