Fly High, Burn Bright

Chapter 1

"On your left!" I shouted, my voice echoing through the rubble of a building as my eye caught sight of one of the members of the League of Villains rapidly approaching Keigo. I wanted to drop what I was doing and rush in to help, but I was busy with my own opponent - a large man with more muscle mass than that of ten bodybuilders combined. Even that brief moment of distraction cost me dearly, and I jumped backwards, narrowly avoiding the attacker's blow. I gritted my teeth as the man forced me to dodge from side to side just to avoid being skewered by his oversized hands, cursing myself for letting myself get into the situation in the first place.

My belt of throwing daggers and blades was lighter than I'd hoped, with one of the knives lying sadly on the ground meters away from me, where the villain had forced me to drop it, and with him pushing me farther and farther, it was almost impossible to focus hard enough to activate my quirk. I leapt backwards again and drew one of my daggers, weaving in between the crushed building and past the attacks in an attempt to get close enough to do some damage to the villain. He didn't seem to be expecting me to actually go on offence mode after being pushed so far back, because I managed to put a slash through his torso, but it barely had an effect on the man. He roared out in pain, but the wound seemed to only annoy him into charging with even more strength than before.

He was the type that used his brawn more than his brains, and I nimbly dodged another one of his attacks, ducking under him and through his legs. The villain - I think I'd heard him be addressed as Muscular before, so he definitely wasn't that creative - paused briefly in surprise, which gave me a moment to focus. I imagined how the world looked from his perspective right now, and created an image of myself charging towards him, completely erasing my actual self. Satisfied with it, I released my quirk and watched as the typical hazy look crossed over Muscular's eyes before sprinting around him. Although I ran right past him, and there was no way he could've missed me, my quirk disguised me.

The image of myself charging at him from where I'd stood earlier was all he could see, and while he was preoccupied with the fake, I managed to get behind the villain, slicing the back of his knees with my dagger and making him tumble forward. As soon as I made contact with Muscular, I felt the mental image flicker and disappear altogether, but it was already enough. The villain was incapacitated. I pulled a set of handcuffs off of my belt, securing his hands - I was a little worried that with his quirk, he'd be able to break free, but then again, the handcuffs were made to withstand even the strongest of quirks, so they'd have to do for now. Still, just in case, I used the remaining rope I still had to tie up the villain. Muscular had been a real pain in the ass to fight, and I didn't really feel like doing it again any time soon.

With the brute out of the way, I turned my attention to where the other villains were.  I spotted a few heroes that I didn't really know that well fighting off a large nomu, but they seemed to be doing well enough. Keigo, on the other hand... He was struggling against what looked like a humanoid lizard who was dual-wielding two slim swords that looked like katanas, but they were moving too fast for me to see properly. Even Keigo, who was quicker and more agile than almost anyone else I knew, seemed to be having trouble keeping up with his opponent. I gave myself another second to scan the surroundings, but every other hero was doing fine on their own. 

I ran towards the two, the villain still unaware of me, but Keigo already saw me, and, with a smirk, adjusted his grip on his two feather swords, changing from defense to offence. As I silently sprinted towards them, I focused on the mind of the opponent, imagining him seeing an image of myself approaching him from the front. His eyes glazed over for a brief moment as I activated my quirk, and although it took a lot of effort, I managed to keep the mental image moving constantly as the villain now fought against both Keigo and the hallucination of myself that he saw in front of him. While he was distracted with his nonexistent opponent, now focusing most of his attacks on the mental image that I forced into his mind, Keigo managed to twist one of the katanas out of the villain's grip, and I kicked my foot out, my heel meeting his wrist and sending the second sword flying. 

Keigo shot me a grateful smile as he quickly pinned the villain to the ground, forcing his hands behind his back, and I let the mental image of myself fade from his mind. The hazy look left his eyes, and even though I knew it was only a small win, I squatted beside the restrained villain, a playful smirk on my face. 

"What is it? Is the poor lizard confused?" I mocked, and the villain snarled slightly, forcing Keigo to press him even further into the rubble of the ground. I leaned down so that my mouth was only centimeters from where I assumed his ears would be. "Bold of you villains to assume you'd be able to get away with ransacking a school without any consequences." My voice was a deadly whisper. 

"The name's Spinner, and you better remember it," he hissed back, but decided to stop struggling as Keigo cuffed his two scaly arms together. "You'll be lucky to leave with your lives."

"What's that supposed to mean, you overgrown reptile?" When he didn't answer me, I grabbed his long face in my hand, forcing the villain - Spinner - to look up at me. After another moment of silence, I squished his face between my fingers, drawing a dagger with my other hand, teasing Spinner's neck with the blade. "If I ask a question," I hissed quietly, "I expect answers." 

Spinner stayed silent, so I stood, sheathing the dagger and yanking him to his feet by his handcuffs. Before he had time to react, I grabbed his head in my hands and drove it down onto my knee, breaking his snout-like features, but the villain only laughed. Red blood dripped from where I kneed him, and it took all of my willpower not to punch his scaly little face in right then and there. Control yourself. He's already restrained and can't run away. No need to cause any unnecessary damage, I told myself, but one nagging part of me wanted to force the villain through as much pain as possible. The only thing that held me back was Keigo.

Even though he was often just as violent in battles as I was, he always disapproved when I'd continue to fight someone even after they weren't a threat any more. In a way, I could see where he was coming from, but I still seethed. He's a villain. He just tried to destroy a school full of children. He deserves the pain. Spinner's manic laugh forced me back to reality and I took a deep breath to clear my head. Forcing an answer out of him through pain obviously wouldn't work. 

"Spinner. If you agree to give us all information you have on the League of Villains, we'll make sure to have your sentence reduced." Although the words hurt me to say, I understood they would probably be our best chance at getting answers out of the lizard-like man. 

"A reduced sentence, huh?" Spinner stopped laughing, a cocky smirk taking over instead. "That sounds great, but I'd prefer no sentence at all."

Keigo and I exchanged a glance. No way, he seemed to say. But we need the information! I argued back silently. In the brief second that we had our silent debate, Spinner shrunk into a glowing orb that dropped onto the rubble. Confused, I reached forward to grab it, but a small girl with messy white-blond buns swept in, grabbing the ball in between her fingers and slipping away, all in what felt like less than a millisecond. Shit. Is this what Spinner meant?  

I whirled around back to where I'd tied up Muscular before, but he, too, was gone. In fact, every villain who'd been present mere seconds ago seemed to vanish into thin air, and the girl with the buns was already out of sight, too. Half in disappointment, half in frustration, I kicked a stray rock, ignoring the pain that shot through my foot. Another failed mission. The League is just getting stronger and stronger.