The warm, spring wind flew across the forest and fields, carrying scents of the blossoming flowers and moist soil. The rustle of the swaying leaves and the songs of the birds filled the seemingly calm atmosphere.

'It started,' Creati announced quietly. 'Both teams are progressing.'

Mariko looked to the west, as if trying to see through the forest. Her mind was flooded with an image of Eraser, standing in front of her, his comforting hand on her shoulder. They wanted to say something to each other, but no matter what their minds came up with, it was never enough to convey the true emotions. She was scared. Both of them were anxious and worried. They were going up against an entire army of villains, the Liberation Army. Each and every hero was training to overcome such things, to win in any combat. But the numbers? It seemed unreal. Were they really prepared for such battle?

Mariko glanced at her feet, tightening her fists.

'I want to see you again,' she thought, a lump growing in her throat. 'No, I will see you again. You are the strongest man that I know.' She forced herself to swallow her worries, having a clear goal in mind.

'I will do my best here. I will keep my friends safe.'

She ground her teeth, her head snapping back to the direction in which the Liberation Army base was hidden.

'The Endeavor's team has breached the morgue.' A voice of a hero announced from behind Mariko.

The group nodded, unable to speak in such tense atmosphere. From the corner of her eye, Senchi noticed some movement. She looked to the side. Earphone Jack was crouching, a worried expression twisting her face. She studied the features of the younger aspiring hero and noticed Creati leaning towards her classmate, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. Senchi smiled slightly, as Jiro looked up at her. They both nodded at each other and Senchi turned her head towards the front line.

With each second that passed, the wait slowly became unbearable. There was something in the air... Something menacing, terrifying... constantly haunting the ones awaiting in the forest. A threat of an unknown origin.

Senchi looked behind her shoulder, glancing at the faces of the young heroes. Everyone seemed focused and more or less anxious, carefully inspecting the horizon. The group consisted mainly of the students from the Class 1A, but the frontline was supported by two students from Class 1B, as well as Kaminari and Tokoyami, who were supposed to join them when their job in the front is done.

Mariko turned her head again and leaned forward, touching the ground. A weird sensation flooded over her body, a gut feeling pushing her into the state of constant alert.

As the minutes passed, they heard someone running across the forest. Senchi adjusted the grapple on her left forearm and unleashed her Quirk, focusing on the approaching target.

'It's Kaminari!' Jiro said the second a familiar, blond hairstyle popped from in between the trees.

'I am back!' he shouted and stopped running right in front of the group. 'They are attacking the Liberation Front. Everything seems to be fine.'

The group nodded and some people sighed in relief. Creati pressed her palm to her wireless headphone, listening to the comms, but the line was quiet.

Suddenly, the echo of the forest carried a loud bang, similar to explosion or a collapse of a building. The group straightened and listened carefully, as Earphone Jack and Tentacole dashed in front of the group, trying to gather the information about the situation. Tentacole grew out multiple limbs with eyeballs, reaching with his gaze above the broad, oak trees, while Jiro plugged her earphones into the ground, listening to the shock waves and vibrations.

'What's going on?'

'I... I am not sure,' Jiro responded, the frown on her face deepened.

'It's too far away for me to see, but I think I can catch a glimpse of a dust cloud. Did the building collapse?' Tentacole suggested.

'Maybe, but that's not all,' Jiro shook her head to the side. 'If this was just a collapsed building, I wouldn't hear such loud, rhythmical... steps.'

'Steps?' Tetsutetsu asked, shocked.

Mariko frowned, feeling a cold sweat creep down her spine. Something terrifying was happening out there and the fact that no information was being sent to them, slowly surrounded her with terror. Could the Endeavor group be...?

'No.'

She gritted her teeth, the energy bursting out from her body, as fear slowly turned into anger.

'They are safe.'

She shut her eyes, seeing Midnight, Present Mic and Aizawa.

'They are safe,' she repeated like a chant or an evening prayer.

'The huge thing is heading this way,' Jiro announced, her head snapping towards the group.

'What is this thing?'

'I-'

'What?! Those surrounding him were sent flying?' the students heard and turned their heads to one of the Pro Heroes at the back of the group.

Mariko clenched her right fist, her heartbeat speeding up, as an invisible hand tried grasping her throat. She swallowed, feeling her dry tongue.

'Fill in the spaces in the front! Don't let the line fall back!' the Pro Hero shouted, leading his three comrades across the forest. 'Work students, stay behind!'

Senchi stared at their backs, swiftly disappearing in between the trees, her heart racing in her chest.

'The heroes are all gathered together, right?' Mineta asked quietly, looking towards the front line direction. 'Why is it... why is the situation getting worse?'

Mariko shot the grapple towards the tree and quickly climbed it to the top, swiftly jumping from one branch to the other, lifting herself up towards the tree's crown. As she looked in the distance, her body tensed. The V-formations of birds surged up above the trees, flying away from the danger. Her hands tightened on the branch and she pulled herself even higher, risking the branch breaking under her weight.

When she looked across the horizon, she felt her blood freeze. A wave of terror washed over her, making her unable to move or say anything. She just stared in front of her, seeing a gigantic figure of a villain in the distance, mindlessly rampaging through anything on it's path.

'Ms. Midnight?!' as if through a layer of water or fog, Senchi heard Creati's voice.

The world around her felt like it begun to crumble. Her vision became slightly blurry and she could swear her hair reared on her head. For a second she could not hear anything except her own heartbeat. The overwhelming feeling of powerlessness grew stronger inside her body, until she felt like someone had made her swallow a weight, which immobilized her, pushing her body towards the ground. Even though her brain was screaming at her, ordering her to move, her feet seemed to be a fixture.

'Why is she... not doing that herself?'

Like a casted spell, Senchi broke free from her cage, regaining control over her body and heart. The worried voice of Mineta told her one thing.

She leaned forward, diving towards the ground from the top of the tree, gaining momentum for an immediate swing with the Binding Cloth.

'Senchi!' she heard Pinky shout behind her. 'We shouldn't engage!'

But it was too late. Mariko's mind was flooded with images of Midnight, her gorgeous, spiky hair, beautiful sky-blue eyes, the playful expressions she always made, the laughs and smiles they shared together. Her hanging out with Mic and Aizawa, all four of them casually enjoying some free time. Midnight bumping her elbow into Mariko every time Shota was around.

Senchi's body moved on it's own, picking up incredible speed as she zoomed through the forest, the grapple glove endlessly firing ahead, wrapping around branches of the trees.

'I will not allow it. I will not loose any of you,' she thought to herself, her rage growing inside her heart. 'How could they do this? How could there be so much violence? So much bloodshed?'

She fired the glove.

'How could they just not submit willingly? All For One is an insane man, an embodiment of pure evil. How could they follow him?' she asked herself, the faces of her friends and her beloved, flashing through her brain.

In a blink of an eye she rushed through the forest, her head snapping to the side, as her eyes caught a sight of something blood-freezing. Her body reacted before her brain could register the image. The skin of her forearms covered in goosebumps raising her hair and she felt as if someone spilled a bucked of ice-cold water on her sweaty neck. She turned her body to the side and changed the direction of the swing.

'No!' she screamed, her legs carrying her forward with incredible momentum. 'NO!'

She dropped to her knees, sliding on the damp ground in between pieces of debris scattered around a body. Her nostrils sensed the familiar, metallic scent and she quickly reached to her wounded friend.

'Midnight!' Mariko said, her eyes quickly covering with tears. She blinked furiously to clear her vision, and reached to her vest with shaking hands, trying to pull out something... anything, to save the teacher's life.

The woman grabbed her forearm.

'Senchi...' she said, her voice weak and shaky. She managed to lift her head from the ground, looking into Mariko's eyes. Her face was damaged, skin barked and bloody. 'Take care of Eraser and Mic. Make sure they will be... safe.'

'I will save you first,' the young hero responded, tears falling down her cheeks, leaving burning trails on her cold skin.

A faint smile curved Midnight's lips. The sparks in her sky-blue iris started fading away before Mariko's very eyes.

'You already did.'

Mariko gritted her teeth, as the woman's grasp on her forearm weakened. She cupped her palm, squeezing it gently. With her left hand, she reached to her vest again, quickly glancing at the Pro Hero's body, denying the fact that there was nothing she could possibly do.

'Leave it,' Midnight whispered.

A feeling of powerlessness washed over Mariko, slicing her heart like a dagger. This couldn't be happening. If only she was faster... If only she could be in the front line along with Midnight... If only she-

'Hold me,' she heard Midnight's voice like in a lucid dream.

Senchi pushed her legs towards the woman and as gently as she could, placed her head on her legs, keeping her crushed, massacred body in the least painful position.

'I want you to take this.' Midnight forced herself to look back at Mariko's face, glistening with tears in the sunlight seeping from between the trees. She raised her right palm, pushing her whip to Senchi's chest. 'Carry on my will.'

Mariko looked down at her hand, seeing Midnight's crimson nails blend in with her blood. She raised her left hand and grasped the whip, squeezing her eyes shut. She wanted to scream, she wanted to beg any god, any force in the universe to stop what was about to happen. But the lump in her throat tightened and no words left her mouth, her lips trembling as the tears continued streaming down her face.

'Being held by my friend...' Midnight whispered. 'This is the best death a hero could have asked for.'

Senchi wrapped her right palm around Midnight's ice-cold hand.

'I don't want you to-'

She opened her eyes to look at her teacher. As her gaze landed on lifeless, sky-blue eyes, she felt as if the world around her shattered.

'Midnight?'

The wind carried the sounds of the battle, the echoing stomps of the gigantic villain muffling the distant shouts of battling heroes and villains.

With a shaky hand, Mariko reached to the woman's eyes, lowering her eyelids. Midnight looked so calm, so peaceful. For a second, Senchi thought that she is just sleeping and will wake up momentarily.

'Kayama?'

The leaves around her continued whispering softly, gently swinging on the spring breeze.

Senchi gritted her teeth and shut her eyes, placing her forehead on top of the head of the stiff body of her friend. She grasped the whip so hard, her nails dug into her own skin, leaving bloody marks on it's surface. She smelled both the fresh and dry blood on her body and the alluring scent of the woman's perfumes. She sobbed, holding her body tightly in her arms. Then, she heard a quiet buzz of the comms device.

'We have lost the connection with the Endeavor team!'

The sound made her lift her head up. She took a deep breath in, wiping the tears from her face. Her heart started to beat faster, slowly filling with anger, which turned into fury and then into rage. She removed the headphone from Midnight's ear and put it on, her hand constantly shaking.

From the corner of her eye, she noticed a group of villains running towards her. She gently lowered Midnight's head to the ground and stood up, the draining energy exploding from her body. She stared at the group of seven villains storming in her direction. Mariko carefully stepped over Midnight's body, feeling her blood boil.

'We don't have any insight on the battlefield!' the lady on the other side of the headphone announced, clearly terrified.

Mariko stared at a villain, unfolding Midnight's whip and bringing it to her right hand. As the man opened his mouth to shout at her, she swiftly swung her arm, smacking him across the neck with the end of the whip, tearing his skin. The villain lost the balance and Mariko dashed forward. She placed her left hand on his face, draining him with such unearthly speed, he collapsed to the ground upon the touch. She easily dodged attacks of two other villains, who swung their fists at her, grasping the forearm of one of them. She redirected the villain to the side, covering herself from a blow from another attacker, then slid on the ground, knocking him off and draining the third enemy. As she felt the energy accumulate in her body, one of the members of the Liberation Army shot a few spikes at her from the top of his back. She cracked the whip and knocked the hedgehog villain to the ground, then punched one of them on the throat, amplifying the blow with her ability. The last villain froze in place, putting his hands above his head. Senchi took a step forward, the bloodlust and fury boiling in her veins. The criminal collapsed to the ground with a panicked expression in his eyes.

She shot him a warning glance and approached each of the villains, rolling on the grass around her, knocking down every single one of them, making sure they are unconscious. As she turned her back to the last man, his eyes turned white and flashed with a light. Sensing the danger from behind, Mariko rolled to the side and fired her grapple to the branch above, then kicked her feet on the tree trunk, launching herself at the villain. She slammed her feet into his face, dragging his head on the ground, filling his mouth with the dirt.

As all the villains went stiff, she heard loud, echoing bang in the distance. She turned her head towards the direction.

Should she come back to Yaomomo's team? Should she secure Midnight's body?

She glanced down at the dead woman.

'The Class 1A is full of capable heroes,' she thought to herself. 'They-'

Echoes of the forests carried a terrifying, blood-freezing roar.

'MASTER!' she heard, the sound bouncing off the trees, slowly fading away as it travelled across the hill.

Using her stored energy, Senchi quickly jumped to the highest branch above her head and straightened herself, looking ahead above the tree crowns. She held the closest branch tightly and squinted her eyes, as the wind blew in her face.

Around two kilometers away, she saw a cloud of smoke and a gigantic silhouette of a humanoid villain. Just like before, she felt her heart sink inside her chest. The beast was struggling against something she couldn't see from so far away, until eventually the echo carried another roar and a few seconds after that, the beast snapped and stormed ahead, freeing itself from whatever that was holding it back.

Mariko felt her stomach twist. She froze, unable to move or speak, watching the villain trample the trees on its way. She pressed the headphone to her ear, but there was no voice, just constant buzzing. As the figure of a villain started fading away, Mariko jumped down and walked towards the debris to kneel next to Midnight's body.

Without conscious control over her actions, she lifted her dead friend and turned towards the medical camp which was set up before the start of combat. As she started marching forward, a blank expression was clear in her eyes, the lively sparks now faded away.