Anim woke up face-down on concrete, his head pounding and his protective energy flickering weakly around his body. The fall through Kurogiri's portal had been disorienting, like tumbling through a washing machine made of shadows and twisted space.
He pushed himself up slowly, taking stock of his surroundings. Broken buildings stretched in every direction, rubble scattered across cracked streets like the aftermath of an earthquake. The landslide zone, he realized, recognizing it from Thirteen's briefing.
"Great," he muttered, spitting dust from his mouth. "Of all the places to get dumped."
A sound made him freeze—footsteps crunching over debris, coming from multiple directions. He wasn't alone.
"Well, well," a rough voice called out from behind a collapsed wall. "Look what dropped in for a visit."
Three figures emerged from the ruins. The first was massive, easily seven feet tall with stone-like skin and arms that ended in sledgehammer fists. The second was thin and wiry, electricity crackling between his fingertips like party tricks. The third looked deceptively normal except for the predatory grin and the way shadows seemed to bend unnaturally around his feet.
"Just one kid?" the electric villain asked, sounding disappointed. "That mist guy said he was scattering a whole class."
"Doesn't matter," the stone villain rumbled, his voice like grinding concrete. "Boss wants them all taken care of anyway."
"Boss?" Anim stood slowly, his body language deliberately casual despite the adrenaline flooding his system. "Let me guess—psycho with the hand collection?"
"You mean Shigaraki?" the shadow villain said, darkness coiling around his hands like living smoke. "Yeah, he's been going on about some 'game' since we got here. Something about fighting the 'final boss' and needing to 'level up' first."
"Level up?" Anim's protective energy began to pulse brighter, responding to his rising heart rate. "What is this, some kind of twisted video game to him?"
"Pretty much," the electric villain said with a nasty grin. "He's real excited about finding students to 'practice' on before the big fight. Says we're like the tutorial monsters or something."
"And what's the final boss supposed to be?"
"Some weird bird thing he brought along," the stone villain rumbled. "Keeps calling it his 'Nomu' and giggling about how it's gonna tear All Might apart."
The casual way they talked about murder and destruction made Anim's protective energy flare even brighter. These weren't professional criminals—they were thugs following a lunatic who thought real people's lives were just part of some sick game.
The electric villain attacked first, lightning arcing toward Anim in a brilliant flash. But something strange happened—the energy around Anim's body absorbed the electrical attack, dispersing it harmlessly like water flowing around a rock.
"What the hell?" the villain gasped, staring at his hands in confusion.
"My turn," Anim said.
His body stretched as he moved, covering the distance between them in a single fluid motion. His fist connected with the electric villain's jaw, and the man dropped like a sack of rocks.
"Impossible," the shadow villain breathed. "The intel said these were just students!"
"I am just a student," Anim replied, dodging a massive punch from the stone villain. "I'm just a really pissed off student."
The stone villain was strong—stronger than anyone Anim had faced before. Each punch cracked concrete and sent debris flying. But strength without speed was just destruction without purpose.
Anim's body flowed around the attacks like water, bending and stretching in ways that shouldn't have been possible. When the villain overextended on a particularly brutal swing, Anim was there.
His stretched arm wrapped around the man's leg, lifting all seven feet of stone-covered muscle off the ground. The impact when he slammed the villain into a nearby wall left a crater in the concrete.
"This isn't possible," the shadow villain said, backing away as darkness writhed desperately around him. "You're just some kid from a hero school!"
"Yeah, well, hero schools teach you things," Anim said, advancing on the last opponent. His protective energy was pulsing stronger now, responding to his emotions. "Like how to deal with pieces of shit who threaten innocent people."
The shadow villain launched everything he had—tendrils of darkness that moved like living things, trying to bind and crush. But Anim's enhanced body moved through them like they weren't there, his protective aura seeming to repel the shadow attacks.
The fight ended with a single punch that sent the villain flying into unconsciousness.
In the sudden silence that followed, Anim stood among his defeated opponents and tried to process what had just happened. The energy around him felt stronger than ever, more responsive to his will.
This wasn't just his Quirk evolution anymore. This was something else entirely.
A crackling sound made him look up—some kind of communication device on one of the unconscious villains was sparking to life.
"Hey! Hey! Did anyone find any good players yet?" Shigaraki's voice came through, high-pitched and excited like a kid on Christmas morning. "I'm getting bored waiting for All Might! The final boss battle won't be fun if I don't get to level up first!"
Anim stared at the device in disbelief. This psycho really did think it was all a game.
"Come on, somebody answer! I want to hear about the fights! Are the NPC students putting up a good challenge? I need to know if my tutorial monsters are working properly!"
The communication cut to static, leaving Anim alone with the unconscious villains and a growing understanding of just how twisted their leader really was.
In the distance, he could hear explosions and shouting from the other training zones. His classmates were out there, fighting for their lives while some man-child treated them like video game characters.
In the distance, he could hear explosions and shouting from the other training zones. His classmates were out there, fighting for their lives while he was talking with the orchestrator.
Time to move.
Anim's body stretched as he leaped from building to building, using the rubble as stepping stones toward the sound of combat. The protective energy around him pulsed with renewed determination.
These villains had made a fatal mistake—they'd threatened his classmates, his sister, people he was starting to care about. Now they were going to learn why that was a bad idea.
As he bounded across the ruined landscape, Anim could see other zones in the distance. Smoke was rising from the conflagration area, and he could hear the distinctive sound of ice crackling from the landslide zone's neighbor.
Todoroki was probably handling his section just fine—the kid's power was ridiculous even by U.A. standards. But what about the others? What about Jiro?
The thought of her facing villains alone made his protective energy flare brighter. She was smart and capable, but her Quirk was more suited for support than direct combat.
He needed to find her. Find all of them.
Anim pushed himself faster, his stretched legs carrying him across the disaster zones like a pink-and-white blur.
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Lazy Author's Note: Hey! So I'm trying to update each story weekly to not drop them but it may take me some time since I'm a little delayed with some stories, sorry!