In His Element(s) || avatar / bnha

Be My Mirror, My Sword, My Shield

"Come on, come on," Izuku muttered as he and Mirio skidded around yet another corner of the warehouse's interior.

"He's still breathing," Mirio said urgently, adjusting their friend in his arms. Aang was limp and unconscious again, but somehow more peaceful than he'd been just short moments ago.

After Izuku had smashed the cylinder, everything had gone a little... bright. It was like a supernova had gone off in the room, centered around his friend, and by the time he and Mirio had managed to blink the spots out of their eyes, Kurogiri was gone, and Aang was prone once more.

From there, it was all they could do to make sure he was still breathing, scoop him up, and book it out of there.

"Where's Sir?" Mirio asked as the two of them ran, more for both of their considerations rather than expecting a direct answer.

Up ahead of them, a door burst open.

What looked like half of a Compress Copy flew through it backwards and smashed into the adjacent wall, sliding downwards into dissolving wax. Sir Nighteye stepped out of the doorway a moment later, looking irritated.

"Sir Nighteye!" Izuku blurted out as he and Mirio slid to a halt. The Pro Hero immediately glanced in their direction, taking in their flustered state and the familiar, unconscious teenager in Mirio's arms. He straightened his tie with narrowed eyes, a single, bloody gash across his forehead, ruffling his normally perfect bangs.

"I see you succeeded," he said dryly. "The situation here has been handled." He turned, heading for the end of the hallway. "Come. We should rejoin the others."

Because that was just how Sir Nighteye was.

Izuku and Mirio both shared a look and hastily followed him.

It didn't take long for the four of them to exit the now thoroughly abandoned warehouse, taking foot on the rough pavement outside. It was mostly dark by this point, the odd street lamp starting to flicker on in peripheral visions. Izuku could see the perimeter team, looking rather shell-shocked, with the policeman having retreated behind them.

And for good reason.

The broken streets were filled with spirits.

Animals, humans, otherworldly shapes, multitudes of colors and spirals and textures, filling the air. And in the midst of all of that, was the General.

The spirits, which seemed to have briefly dispersed with multiple outside arrivals, congregated together once more and as a group, advanced steadily on the massive spirit that towered over all of them.

But the General actually stumbled backwards, looking... impossibly scared. The air began to ripple around him as the spirits surrounding him grew closer together, warping his figure and expression until he could no longer be seen clearly, only the vaguest impression of him hanging in the ether.

There was a wordless, inhuman scream that started well below the threshold of what was humanly possible, so deep that it resounded through everyone's chests in the immediate vicinity. All the humans instinctively recoiled at the monstrous sound, but the spirits didn't waver.

They converged, some solid and colorful, others ephemeral and translucent, but all carrying the single-minded focus and bearing of a task that they knew needed to be carried out. The scream continued, rising in pitch and intensity until Izuku found himself forced to clamp his hands over his ears and grit his teeth in face of the sheer onslaught of sound.

And then it-

Abruptly-

Stopped.

There was a harmonic snap, like the breaking of an ethereal violin string and light radiated outwards. The soft grey of dawning sunlight through mist, it washed over the area in a flood of radiance.