MHA: Lust Quirk

The ice hit Stain's legs and he jumped clear and the katana pulled free from my grip and my palm split open along the line the blade had carved.

Todoroki was at the mouth of the alley. His right arm was extended and ice was still growing from his hand, coating the walls, spreading across the wet concrete in a white sheet that crackled as it formed. His breath fogged. His school uniform was torn at the collar and he'd been running.

"Your location pin came through," he said.

I was on my knees. Both hands bleeding. The paralysis was cracking in pieces, my arms first, my torso next, my legs still locked.

"Took you long enough."

Stain landed on a fire escape landing above us. The ice had missed him. He was crouched on the metal grate with the katana across his knee and his yellow eyes moving between Todoroki and me. His bandages were singed from earlier and the serrated knife was on the ground where I'd knocked it from his hand.

Todoroki didn't wait. He swept his right hand across the alley and a wave of ice surged toward the fire escape. Stain vaulted sideways, kicked off the wall, dropped to the ground on the far side. Todoroki tracked him and sent another wave. The alley was narrow enough that the ice filled it wall to wall and Stain had to move upward, climbing the fire escape ladder, clearing the ice line by jumping from rung to rung.

But Stain had fought heroes with ranged Quirks before. He read the pattern in Todoroki's attacks after the fourth wave and when the fifth came he went through it. Punched through a thin section with his elbow and closed the distance in two steps and his katana came across aimed at Todoroki's chest.

Todoroki got his ice up as a shield. The katana cracked through it and the tip caught his cheek. A thin line of red opened below his left eye.

Stain's tongue was already out.

He licked the blood from the katana. Todoroki froze mid-step. Went rigid. Hit the ground.

Bloodcurdle. Two of us down.

My legs unlocked.

The paralysis broke all at once and I staggered up on legs that felt like they'd been asleep for hours. Pins and needles from my hips to my feet. My hands were slick with blood and the cuts on my ribs stung in the cold air.

Stain was standing over Todoroki. Katana up. The same stance he'd used on Iida and on me.

I hit him from the side.

Full speed, shoulder first. My shoulder caught him in the ribs and we went into the alley wall together and the brick cracked behind his back. He grunted.

He headbutted me. His forehead hit my nose and white light exploded across my vision and I tasted copper and my grip loosened and he rolled free. I swung blind and missed and he was already standing with the katana in his hand and my eyes were watering.

He was between me and everyone else. Three people on the ground behind him. Me in front of him with blood running from my nose and my hands and my ribs.

"Come on," I said.

He came. Fast. The katana aimed at my throat and I couldn't get my arms up in time.

Fire.

From behind me. A column of it. Orange and white and hot enough that the air in the alley rippled and the ice on the walls cracked and the water hissed into steam and the fire hit Stain in the chest and he flew backward.

I turned. Todoroki was on his knees. The paralysis had worn off. His left side was burning. Flames crawled up his arm and across his shoulder and licked at his jaw and his left eye was bright behind the fire and his right side was still frosted and the steam coming off the boundary between hot and cold made his outline waver.

He was using it. His hand was out and the flames were pouring from his left side and his jaw was tight and his eyes were wet and his ice hadn't been enough and his body had chosen for him.

Stain rolled. Extinguished the flames against the concrete. His bandages were blackened and the skin underneath was red and blistering and he was staggering.

I moved. Todoroki moved. He sent a wall of ice low, cutting off Stain's left. I came in from the right. Stain pivoted toward me and raised the katana and I threw a straight right into his gut with everything I had left and the impact folded him and the katana dropped.

Todoroki's ice caught Stain's legs before he landed. Frozen from the knees down. Locked to the concrete. He reached for the fallen katana and my foot got there first.

Stain looked up at me. His yellow eyes were steady. His face was burned and his legs were frozen and his weapons were gone.

Behind us, metal scraping on concrete. Iida, on his hands and knees. His left arm hung wrong. He had capture tape in his right hand and he crawled to Stain and wrapped it around his wrists with fingers that were shaking.

Three of us. Bleeding. Standing over the Hero Killer.

The alley was quiet. The ice was melting where the fire had hit. Water ran between the cracks in the concrete. Native was still breathing. Iida's arm was limp at his side. My hands were open and bleeding and I couldn't close my fists.

Stain looked at me. His mouth opened. He had too many teeth for a man with no nose and the gaps between them were dark.

"You are worthy of the title," he said.

His eyes rolled back. He went limp. The capture tape held.

Todoroki sat on the ground. His left side was still steaming. The fire was out but the heat lingered and the frost on his right side was melting. He was staring at his left hand.

"I used it," he said. To no one.

I sat next to him. My legs gave out and I just sat. The concrete was cold and wet and somewhere outside the alley sirens were getting closer. The Nomu attacks had drawn every pro hero in Hosu to the main streets.

Iida was kneeling next to Native, checking the wound on his back. His left arm wasn't moving.

I looked at my hands. The cuts were deep and the blood was still coming and the cold was making my fingers stiff. Under the torn shirt and the new cuts, the crescent mark Mina had left was still dark on my shoulder.

The sirens got closer. Red and blue light played across the alley entrance.

Todoroki was still looking at his hand.

"Hey," I said.

He looked at me.

"Thanks for coming."

His mouth moved. The corner of his lip shifted and his eyes got less flat. He looked at his hand again. Then at Stain. Then at the melting ice.

"Your nose is broken," he said.

"Yeah."

"It's crooked."

"Thanks."

We sat in the alley and bled and waited for the adults to show up.