My Hero Academia: The Dragon's Quirk

Uraraka's lips parted, her wide eyes filled with pure terror as Shin Nemoto's Confession Quirk forced her to speak. Her own will was no longer hers. In the middle of the tilting, dizzying room caused by Deidoro Sakaki's Sloshed Quirk, we could all only watch in horror, our own bodies struggling just to stay upright.

"I'm... I'm afraid..." Uraraka whispered, her voice trembling and full of shame. Tears began to stream down her cheeks. "I'm afraid... I'm not strong enough." Each word felt like a heavy weight being forcibly lifted from her soul. "I always try my best, but... everyone around me is so incredible. Deku-kun with his great power, Todoroki-kun, Iida-kun... even you, Tatsumi-kun."

She looked at me, and her desperate gaze pierced my heart. "I'm afraid I'll just be a burden. I'm afraid that when a real fight comes, I won't be able to do anything, and my friends... all of you... will get hurt trying to protect me." She sobbed. "I'm afraid... of being useless."

That painful truth hung in the air, more deadly than any weapon. Nemoto smiled coldly behind his mask. "How touching," he said cynically. "Look, Sakaki. This little hero is broken without us even laying a finger on her."

Sakaki laughed out loud. "I like this one! She's so honest!"

Seeing Uraraka, my good friend, being humiliated and psychologically tortured like that lit a fire within me. A cold, clear anger cut through the confusion caused by Sakaki's Quirk. I found a focal point. I couldn't let this continue. I knew I had to stop the source of the physical chaos first. I had to take down Sakaki.

"Ryukyu-san!" I yelled, my voice echoing in the room. "Give me a diversion!"

Ryukyu, also struggling to maintain her balance, understood immediately. She didn't try to attack. Instead, she slammed her powerful draconic tail on the floor with all her might.

BOOM!

The resulting vibration was so strong it made all of us jolt. It was a sudden sensory blast, a shock that disrupted the drunken rhythm created by Sakaki. For a split second, the entire world seemed to shake, and it was enough to distract Sakaki.

At the same time, I was starting to adapt. I stopped trying to stand upright like a human. I lowered my center of gravity, bent my knees, and let my body follow the strange tilt of the world. I was no longer fighting the current; I was dancing with it. I remembered my dream, the nimble movements of the original Tatsumi on uneven terrain. I felt the animalistic instinct of Incursio take over, giving me a primal balance that didn't depend on my inner ears.

Using the moment of distraction from Ryukyu, I shot forward. Sakaki, surprised by my sudden and stable attack, tried to dodge, but his dance-like movements now seemed clumsy compared to my low, swift motion. I didn't aim for his body. I aimed for the gourd of liquor at his waist. With one quick swipe using the flat side of the Incursio blade I summoned in an instant, I struck the gourd, shattering it and spilling its pungent contents onto the floor.

"My drink!" he shrieked in horror, his attention divided.

It was his second fatal mistake.

I lunged forward, slamming into him with my shoulder, and we both went tumbling to the floor. We were now in a close-quarters fight, a grapple on a still-tilting floor. Here, his drunken dance was useless. This was just a contest of pure physical strength. And with the base power from my training, I was far superior. I managed to reverse his position, pinning him to the floor. With one hard, controlled punch to his jaw, he was out cold.

Instantly, the torturous sensation of dizziness and nausea vanished. The world was stable again.

In the ventilation shaft above us, Momo watched everything with bated breath. She saw how Tatsumi adapted, how Ryukyu provided support, and how they took down one of the villains. But she also saw Nemoto, who was now turning his attention. 'Now it's just Nemoto,' Momo thought. 'His Quirk requires the target to respond verbally. How can they fight him without talking?'

After Sakaki fell, we all quickly regained our balance. The room fell silent again, leaving only Uraraka's suppressed sobs. Now, only Shin Nemoto remained. He didn't look afraid. He just stared at us coldly, his pistol raised.

"One down," he said flatly. "Still four heroes. I like my chances."

He aimed his weapon at Tsuyu. "You," he said. "The frog girl. You seem so calm and logical. But everyone has regrets. Tell me, what is the thing you regret most in your life?"

Tsuyu instinctively opened her mouth to reply "I'm not going to tell you," but she stopped, realizing it was a trap. She shut her mouth tightly.

Nemoto smiled faintly. "Not talking? No matter." He shifted his gun to Nejire. "What about you, member of the Big Three? With that much power, there must be a proportional fear, right? Tell me, what do you fear most about your own power?"

This was a relentless psychological assault. He was trying to break us from the inside, using our own doubts and fears as his weapon. We couldn't attack him from a distance because he would just shoot one of us. We also couldn't get close because of the risk of having to confess our deepest secrets.

"Yaoyorozu!" I yelled desperately into the communicator, my voice a whisper. "I need sound cancellation! Anything you can make to stop his voice from reaching us! Quick!"

"I'm already on it!" her tense voice replied.

Just as Nemoto was about to force Nejire to speak, several small objects fell from the ventilation grate above us. They landed on the floor without a sound and immediately let out a very high-pitched hissing noise. It was a sound I could barely hear, but its effect was incredible. The entire room was filled with a wave of white static, a disruptive frequency that made it difficult to hear anything clearly.

Nemoto flinched in surprise. He tried to shout his question again, but his voice was drowned out by the noise. His Quirk, which required the target to hear and understand his question clearly, was now useless.

Seeing his most powerful weapon neutralized, panic finally appeared in Nemoto's eyes for the first time. He tried to fire his pistol, but Ryukyu was already moving. With the speed of a dragon, she crossed the room and disabled Nemoto with one swift blow, sending him collapsing unconscious next to his partner.

The fight was over.

A true silence now enveloped the room. The hissing from Momo's devices slowly died down. I retracted my armor's manifestation, feeling an immense sense of relief. We had cleared the first hurdle.

I immediately went over to Uraraka, who was still sitting in the corner, hugging her knees. The others gave me some space. I knelt in front of her.

"Uraraka," I said softly.

She didn't look up. "You heard," she whispered, her voice full of shame. "Now you know... how weak I am. How I'm just a burden."

"I did hear," I answered honestly. "And what I heard wasn't weakness. What I heard was someone who cares so much about her friends that she's afraid of letting them down. What I heard was someone who has a heart so big that she places the safety of others above her own pride."

I looked at her until she finally raised her head. "You are not useless, Uraraka. You are the heart of your group of friends. You saved Midoriya in the entrance exam with a selfless act. You fought bravely at the festival. And you chose to come here tonight, risking your life to save Eri. Your fear of being a burden... that's proof that you care. And that... that is the mark of a true hero."

Tears welled in her eyes again, but this time, they were tears of relief. Nejire and Tsuyu came over and helped her to her feet, giving her a supportive hug. The bond between us, which had been fractured by my secrets, was beginning to be repaired through this painful honesty.

As we were regrouping, Momo's voice came over the communicator again, this time her tone was panicked. "Everyone, you have to move immediately! I... I'm detecting something else!"

"What is it, Momo-chan?" Uraraka asked.

"Vibrations!" she replied. "Very large and rhythmic vibrations, coming from beneath you! Something massive is moving under the floor!"

Before we could process her warning, the entire room shook violently. The concrete floor in the center of the hall began to crack, and from that crack, a giant arm made of rock and earth broke through. Then another arm. And then, a giant head.

Before us, Irinaka had used his Quirk to turn an entire section of the labyrinth into a living stone golem, which was now rising to destroy us.

Ryukyu's grim voice sounded beside me. "It seems," she said as she transformed into her mighty dragon form, "the main boss of this level has finally decided to appear."