My Hero Academia: The Dragon's Quirk

The large steel door before us opened with a heavy groan, revealing a room we did not expect. Not a narrow corridor, but a spacious and surprisingly serene Japanese-style reception hall. The floor was made of gleaming dark wood, the walls were elegant shoji paper panels, and in the center was a beautifully arranged dry rock garden. The silence and beauty of this place felt utterly out of place, an eerie anomaly in the heart of this Yakuza den.

The hoarse, drunken laughter of Irinaka echoed from a hidden loudspeaker. "You think you can reach Chisaki-sama that easily, heroes? Welcome to the first level of my personal hell. Enjoy the reception."

As he finished speaking, all the shoji doors around us slid shut simultaneously, locking us inside. We were trapped. From behind two shoji doors at the end of a room, two figures stepped out. Deidoro Sakaki, the drunkard, grinned as he took a swig of his drink. Beside him, Shin Nemoto stood with a rigid posture, a pistol held calmly in his hand.

"We've been waiting for you," Nemoto said in his flat voice.

Ryukyu stepped forward, her half-dragon form radiating an intimidating aura of power. "We don't have time for this."

"Oh, but we have all the time in the world," Sakaki laughed. He stomped his foot on the floor, and instantly, my world tilted violently. I staggered to the side, my head filled with an incredible dizziness, as if I had just been spinning for an full hour. I saw my friends lose their balance as well. Uraraka and Nejire fell to the floor, while Tsuyu managed to stick herself to a nearby pillar. Even Ryukyu, with her immense power, seemed to struggle to keep her footing.

Sakaki's Sloshed Quirk had turned the entire room into a storm of disorientation.

"How are you going to fight if you can't even stand?" Sakaki sneered, dancing nimbly amidst the chaos he had created.

This was our first team fight inside the enemy's headquarters, and we were already incapacitated before the battle even began. I gritted my teeth, trying to focus, trying to fight the overwhelming nausea and dizziness. I knew that if we didn't find a way to overcome this soon, we would be picked off one by one.

Ryukyu was the first to react with force. She roared, and with a powerful, unbalanced leap, she tried to charge Sakaki. But her movements were slow and predictable in her current state. Sakaki easily dodged her with a laugh.

"Too slow, Dragon Lady!" he taunted.

I saw desperation begin to appear on my friends' faces. I had to do something. I remembered my training, Ryukyu's words about not relying on just one sense. I closed my eyes, trying to block out the confusing visual information of my tilting world. I focused on my dragon's heartbeat, on my primal connection to the ground beneath me. Slowly, I began to feel a different kind of balance, a primal equilibrium that didn't depend on my ears, but on my own center of gravity. I began to bend my knees, lowering my body, moving like an animal, not like a human.

Seeing me begin to adapt, Nemoto, the strategist, shifted his attention. He saw Uraraka, still struggling to get up, as the most emotionally vulnerable target. He aimed his pistol. "Tell me, little hero," he said, activating his Confession Quirk. "What is your greatest fear right now?"

Uraraka's eyes widened in horror as her mouth opened against her will. "I'm... I'm afraid... of being useless..." she whispered, tears beginning to flow.

Seeing my friend being psychologically tortured like that lit a fire in me, giving me clarity amidst the chaos. I would not let this happen. I manifested my Incursio leg guards, and with a powerful push, I slid across the wooden floor, ignoring the tilting sensation. My target wasn't Nemoto. My target was Sakaki. I had to shut down the source of the problem.

Sakaki, surprised by my speed, tried to dodge. But I had already anticipated it. I didn't try to hit him. I swung my armored leg, not at his body, but at the liquor gourd on his hip. My leg guard smashed into the gourd, shattering it and spilling its contents onto the floor.

"MY DRINK!" Sakaki shrieked in horror.

As his attention was diverted, Ryukyu, seeing the opening, swung her powerful tail, sweeping Sakaki's legs out from under him and sending him crashing to the floor. Quickly, she pinned him down. With Sakaki down, the effect of his Sloshed Quirk instantly vanished. The world became stable again.

We all regained our balance. Now, only Nemoto remained.

"Yaoyorozu!" I yelled into my hidden communicator, knowing she must be monitoring our situation. "Nemoto! Confession Quirk! Need sound cancellation!"

In a ventilation shaft somewhere above us, Momo immediately went to work. A few seconds later, several small devices fell from the ceiling and let out a high-pitched hissing sound, filling the room with a wave of white static that made it difficult to hear.

Nemoto, realizing his weapon had been neutralized, tried to fire a real bullet from his gun. But it was too late. Tsuyu, with her tongue, snatched the gun from his hand. Uraraka, now filled with a righteous anger, touched several pieces of a broken table and threw them at Nemoto. And Nejire, finally able to stand tall, unleashed a single Nejire Pike that incapacitated him instantly.

We had won our first battle, not with raw power, but with quick teamwork and adaptation. We tied up the two villains and left them. We didn't have time.

"Momo, we need a direction!" Ryukyu said.

"The path ahead should be straight!" she replied. "But be careful, I'm detecting very large vibrations up ahead!"

As we ran down the next corridor, we understood what she meant. The entire corridor in front of us was a living thing. The walls, floor, and ceiling were moving and pulsing, forming a giant golem made of concrete and rebar, blocking our path. Irinaka had decided to face us directly.

Ryukyu didn't hesitate. With an echoing roar, she transformed into her colossal dragon form, her size nearly filling the entire corridor. "All of you, stay behind me!" she commanded.

The battle between two dragons—one of flesh and scale, the other of concrete and steel—began. It was a battle of pure strength. Ryukyu tore chunks of concrete with her claws, while the golem constantly repaired itself and tried to crush us.

"We can't win like this!" I yelled. "We have to find his real body!" I closed my eyes, trying to feel the panicked human heartbeat inside the stone monster. I found it. Deep inside, in the golem's chest. "He's in the chest!"

This was our final gamble. "Nejire, Uraraka, Tsuyu, attack that point! Weaken its defenses!" I commanded. The three of them unleashed their combined attacks on the golem's chest. Meanwhile, I focused all my remaining strength into my right arm. 'Spear!'

The Incursio spearhead formed, more stable and stronger than before. Ryukyu, seeing what I was about to do, gripped the golem with all her strength, holding it in place. I ran along her scaly back, leaped, and with a war cry, I plunged my spear into the crack my friends had made.

I broke through, and found myself in a small, dark cavity. There, sat the small figure of Irinaka, connected to the walls with tubes. He looked at me in horror.

"You like playing with labyrinths, don't you?" I said, my voice distorted by anger and adrenaline. "Now, let's see how you get out of this one."

I didn't give him a chance to answer. I ripped him from the wall and knocked him out. Outside, the giant golem crumbled into dust.

We had won again. But we were all exhausted. As we were about to rest, the communicator from Momo buzzed, her voice panicked.

"Midoriya's team is in big trouble! I see it from another vent! They're facing Chisaki directly! And... and Mirio-senpai... he..." Her voice broke. "He's lost his Quirk!"

My heart felt like it stopped. We were too late. The worst-case scenario had happened.

"Where are they?!" Ryukyu roared.

Momo gave us the direction. All of us, with the last remnants of our strength, began to run as fast as we could through the now-silent labyrinth. We were no longer fighting to save Eri. We were now fighting to save our friends from the clutches of death itself.