In His Element(s) || avatar / bnha

The Beginning of the End

Shouta had never been more upset to have a bad feeling of his validated.

Damn it, Nedzu.

They were ready, don't get him wrong. The alarm system was doing its job, and the new defenses should be activating just about now. But for fuck's sake, there had to have been a less nerve-wracking way to get these things done.

Enough of that. He had a job to do.

He hadn't exactly been sleeping lately, and thus was already suited up when the alarms went off. Shouta slammed his laptop shut, glancing out the window instinctively, though nothing could be seen from this angle.

Midoriya skidded in the common room the moment he stepped out of his door, a stricken look paling his face to white.

"Sensei!" he panted, trying to catch his breath. He was already dressed in shorts and a t-shirt; he'd been on one of his midnight walk arounds before the commotion started.

He could hear the other students upstairs, waking up and moving around from all the noise, confused and anxious.

Damn it.

"Midoriya." He was so angry, and so worried for his students, but he couldn't afford to show that right now, not when they needed him to stay calm and control the situation. "Gather the rest of your classmates. Evacuate everyone back to the main campus, just like we discussed. Cementoss has the safehouse prepared." Shouta took a shallow breath, his mind already humming with plans and possible scenarios. "Tell them they have permission to defend themselves." Midoriya nodded dutifully and he fought the urge to grit his teeth.

"Stay safe," he managed to say, trying to ignore the tug at his chest when some of the fear in his student's eyes faded at his words. "Go."

Midoriya dashed off, green lightning sparking around his limbs.

One self-sacrificial problem child out of the way. Time to find the next one.

Bounding out the side door to the mist-filled lawn outside rewarded him with the view of encroaching chaos. Light flashed in the distance, and he could see shadowy shapes lumbering out by the walls. There was a hole in the boundary line, and if he squinted and shaded his eyes he thought he could maybe see the familiar, distorted shapes of Nomu, even in these spirit-filled forms.

A deep, ripping growl tore through the air from his left and he whirled on his feet, seeing the imposing black and white silhouette of Hei Bai. An eldritch maw flashed in his face for a moment and he blinked, before it transformed back into the bear shape that the massive spirit favored.

"Master Aizawa!"

One of his kids skidded into view for the second time in as many minutes. Aang came to a halt next to Hei Bai, anxiously dropping his hand into the thick fur along the spirit's flank. Eri peeked out from behind Hei Bai at the same time, just like the first night he saw her, just as afraid and it made Shouta's heart ache.

Aang's nose was bleeding, which made a grim amount of sense as Shouta remembered his reaction to the singular Spirit Nomu at the Licensing Exam. If there were multiple, like he suspected, it must be wreaking havoc with the kid's head.

"They're here," he confirmed before Shouta even opened his mouth. "I can feel it."

"How many?"

"Four," Aang said, his voice already scratchy. He sniffed, wiping his nose with the back of his hand and wincing at the sight of the blood when he pulled away. "Hei Bai feels them too."

Shouta nodded, clenching his jaw.

"We need to move," he said. "They're pouring resources into this, so we need to assume this is their frontal assault. They may have something else up their sleeves."