Total Command

Chapter 26: Death's gruesome face taunts: soulless eyes, crimson grimace.

1-A was in the USJ after it was reopened, Izuku and Momo guiding the rest of the class as they walked towards the city-replica for training.

The goal was to hide in the wreckage of the city, while a group of five heroes tried to find the rest.

So she hid in an abandoned classroom. The only source of light in the room was a bare lamp; it was the perfect spot to hide in.

But then the light went out without warning. The world was plunged in darkness.

She shivered, but stood still, if anything this made it a better place to hide.

Then she felt it. Something... wrong inside the darkness.

Something vile.

As if reacting to her awareness of it the darkness pulsed around her in retaliation as she watched in horror, tendrils of pure inky black fading in and out of existence in her vision, hidden by the shadows.

She struggled to move, to get away from the source of it all. But her body did not comply.

She was rooted on the spot as the tendrils stitched together, coalescing into a gargantuan beast. It was too large for her to comprehend. Inhuman yet bipedal.

It moved towards her, its leg bending in a way it shouldn't, it's weight making the ground creak.

She could see the detail now, its black body highlighted by red tendons across its frame, looking necrotic and rotten.

Finally, her body accepted her command, and she started to run. The beast roaring as it followed her.

But the roar never got further away, remaining right at her ear, easily keeping pace with her.

It was toying with her, it's guttural breaths going from one ear to the other, making her body reflexively run the other direction.

In her panic, she didn't even realize that she was being herded somewhere.

She arrived at a doorway, neon green lightning blinding her as she stumbled into what looked like an alcove.

"Jirou, get back I can-"

Izuku didn't get to finish his sentence as another beast manifested behind him, grabbing him by the arm and snapping it like a dry twig.

Kyoka heard him scream in pain, the sound paralyzing her.

His emerald eyes looked scared as the beasts started to chuckle and cackle, another spawning from the inky black and grabbing onto his other arm and ripping it free of its socket with ease.

She stared at the blood spurting from the stump as Izuku howled in pain hoarsely like a dying animal, falling to his knees.

"N...no," she whimpered as another grabbed onto his head.

He managed to gasp out a weak "Run-" before the lightning cut off entirely.

Followed up by the crunch of bone and a sickening pop.

The inhuman cackling grew in volume, and with her superhuman hearing, she could hear the maddening cacophony of beastly and corrupted laughter spread around her.

Her eyes adjusted to the dark and she saw his corpse on the floor.

Her feet moved on their own, even as she wanted just get away.

Run away like how he had begged her to do.

But, she couldn't. Her feet had guided her over him, her eyes seeing the result of that crackle and pop.