Chapter 86: The Frozen Labyrinth and the Phantom Vanguard
[Tokyo - Shie Hassaikai Compound - 8:00 AM]
The morning mist clung heavily to the traditional wooden gates of the Yakuza estate. The air was thick with unspoken violence. Dozens of armed police officers stood in a rigid perimeter, flanking the assembly of Pro Heroes and U.A. students.
"We have a warrant to search these premises on suspicion of manufacturing illegal—" the police captain began, reading through a megaphone.
He didn't get to finish the sentence.
BOOOOOOM!
The massive, reinforced wooden gates exploded outward, sending jagged splinters flying like shrapnel. A towering, grotesque giant of a man—Rikiya Katsukame, one of the Eight Bullets—smashed through the dust, his eyes manic.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH OUR HOME?!" the giant roared, raising a fist the size of a minivan.
"Perimeter team! Now!" Sir Nighteye ordered.
The Dragon Hero, Ryukyu, didn't hesitate. In a flash of blinding light, she transformed into a massive, scaled beast, slamming her claws into the giant's chest. Simultaneously, Nejire Hado floated above, unleashing twin spirals of golden energy, while Uraraka and Tsuyu locked down the giant's legs.
Within exactly four seconds, the preemptive strike was crushed into the pavement.
"We will hold the surface!" Ryukyu roared over the chaos. "Go! Save the girl!"
"Infiltration squad, move!" Nighteye commanded.
Midoriya, Mirio, Aizawa, Fat Gum, Kirishima, and Aokiji sprinted past the subdued giant, breaching the ornate front doors of the main estate.
[The Hidden Maw]
The interior of the mansion was eerily quiet, a stark contrast to the warzone outside. Tatami mats and sliding paper doors lined the immaculate hallways.
"The entrance is here," Nighteye said, walking directly toward a wooden wall adorned with an expensive vase. Thanks to his Foresight, he already knew the exact sequence. He pressed a hidden panel behind the vase.
Click. Clack.
The solid wooden wall shuddered, then slowly slid open, revealing a dark, descending staircase made of raw, cold concrete. The smell of stale air and antiseptic wafted up from the abyss.
Mirio Togata didn't wait. "I'll check for traps!"
Phase. Mirio sank through the concrete floor, vanishing into the darkness, only to pop his head back up a moment later. "Clear! But it goes deep!"
The squad descended into the subterranean labyrinth. The opulent Japanese estate above was entirely gone, replaced by a claustrophobic, sterile bunker. Long, flickering fluorescent lights illuminated the endless, grey corridors.
"Keep your guard up," Aizawa warned, his capture scarf unfurling slightly around his neck. "They know we're here. They will try to separate—"
RUMBLE.
The entire underground facility violently shuddered. It wasn't an earthquake. It was a biological heave.
Before their eyes, the solid concrete walls began to ripple and warp like the surface of a disturbed lake. The floor twisted, rising and falling in violent, nauseating waves. The ceiling stretched and contracted.
"The walls are alive!" Kirishima yelled, stumbling as the ground beneath him suddenly pitched at a forty-five-degree angle.
Joi Irinaka—the villain known as Mimic—had injected himself with a lethal dose of Trigger, merging his entire consciousness with the subterranean concrete. He was turning the bunker into a living, churning stomach designed to crush them.
The squad scrambled, desperately trying to maintain their footing as the corridor contorted into a chaotic, spinning vortex of stone.
"I can't use my erasure! He's hidden completely inside the walls!" Aizawa shouted, his glowing red eyes scanning the shifting concrete.
"Leave this to me."
The voice was incredibly calm, slicing through the panicked shouting like a cold blade.
Aokiji Kuzan stepped forward. He didn't stumble. He simply let his heavy boots slide perfectly with the shifting angle of the floor. He crouched low, his dark trench coat billowing as the artificial wind of the collapsing maze whipped around him.
He placed his bare right palm flat against the violently undulating concrete floor.
He didn't use micro-bursts. He didn't throttle his output. He took a deep, unhindered breath, his dark eyes narrowing with absolute, terrifying authority.
"If you like playing hide and seek so much..." Aokiji murmured, his voice echoing through the twisting chamber. "...then stay hidden a little longer."
"ICE AGE."
The release was instantaneous. It was a thermodynamic apocalypse.
A blinding, ethereal blue light erupted from Aokiji's palm. The absolute zero didn't just coat the surface; it aggressively penetrated the concrete, plunging deep into the molecular structure of the labyrinth.
The violent, churning waves of the floor were frozen instantly in mid-heave. The collapsing walls were locked in place, transformed into jagged, beautiful glaciers of solid diamond-hard frost.
Somewhere deep within the walls, a muffled, agonizing scream was abruptly silenced as Mimic's consciousness was flash-frozen into a state of suspended animation.
The deafening roar of the shifting maze was replaced by a profound, ringing silence. The underground corridor had been transformed into a surreal, breathtakingly beautiful crystal cavern of warped, frozen waves and jagged ice stalactites.
Izuku Midoriya stood on a frozen slant of concrete, his breath pluming in the suddenly freezing air. He looked at the massive, intricate glacier that had consumed the hallway.
A genuine, nostalgic smile broke through the heavy guilt on Midoriya's face.
Ice Age... Midoriya thought, feeling a surge of immense reassurance. It's been a long time since I heard that.
Aokiji slowly stood up, dusting off his right hand.
A small, delicate patch of white frost lingered on his right cheek. He exhaled a long, thick cloud of freezing vapor into the air. He didn't look at the frozen walls; he looked down at his own hand. He clenched and unclenched his fist.
No pain, Aokiji thought, his eyes widening slightly in quiet realization.
He searched his chest for the familiar, agonizing phantom chill that had plagued him since Kamino—the feeling of his quirk channels tearing. It wasn't there. There was only the smooth, effortless rush of his power.
A ghost of a smirk touched his lips. It seems my body is slowly returning to its prime.
"Incredible," Nighteye breathed, his glasses fogging up from the sudden drop in temperature. "You neutralized the structural threat completely."
However, because Aokiji had frozen the maze mid-warp, the architecture was permanently distorted. The single, straight corridor had been twisted and locked into a multi-tiered intersection, revealing three different frozen pathways leading deeper into the dark.
"The layout is completely ruined," Mirio said, his jaw set with fierce determination. "If we navigate this frozen maze together, we'll lose too much time. Eri is terrified right now. I can't make her wait another second."
Mirio didn't wait for permission.
"I'm going straight through!"
Mirio activated his Permeation, sinking directly through the thick, frozen wall of the corridor, bypassing the maze entirely and sprinting in a straight, intangible line toward Eri's location.
"Togata, wait!" Aizawa called out, but the boy was already a phantom.
"We have to split up to cover the intersecting paths!" Fat Gum shouted, pointing to a steep, downward-sloping tunnel of ice. "Red Riot! You're with me! We take the lower level!"
"Yes, sir!" Kirishima roared, sliding down the frozen ramp after the massive hero.
"That leaves us," Nighteye said, adjusting his fogged glasses. He looked at Aizawa, Midoriya, and Aokiji. "We take the central artery. Move quickly. Chisaki's elites will be waiting to stall us."
[The Central Artery - The Execution Squad]
The four remaining heroes sprinted down the main frozen corridor. Aokiji's boots didn't slip; he manipulated the micro-friction of the ice beneath his feet to propel himself effortlessly alongside Midoriya's Full Cowling.
The narrow, icy tunnel suddenly opened up into a massive, square concrete antechamber. The walls here hadn't been touched by the Ice Age.
Standing at the far end of the room, blocking the only steel door that led deeper into the compound, were three men.
They all wore the signature plague doctor masks.
Setsuno. Hojo. Tabe.
The Eight Bullets. The elite execution squad of the Shie Hassaikai.
"Overhaul said the heroes would come," Setsuno sneered, drawing a long, jagged katana from his hip.
Hojo cracked his knuckles, crystalline structures instantly violently erupting from his skin, turning his arms into deadly, jagged diamond maces.
Tabe simply laughed, a manic, hungry sound, his jaws snapping wildly.
"We are the disposable bullets," Setsuno declared, pointing his blade at the heroes. "And our only purpose is to make sure you bleed out in this room!"
Sir Nighteye stepped forward, his specialized hyper-density seals in his hands. Aizawa's scarf floated into the air, his eyes glowing a furious crimson.
But it was the two U.A. first-years who moved to the frontline.
Izuku Midoriya crouched low, the green lightning erupting around his entire body, the sheer voltage cracking the concrete beneath his boots. His eyes burned with the singular, unbreakable promise he had made to a crying little girl.
Aokiji Kuzan stepped up beside him. The micro-vents on his trench coat hissed, releasing a localized cloud of steam. He raised his right hand, and the moisture in the air instantly violently condensed into his razor-sharp, super-compressed ice dagger.
Aokiji spun the icy blade once in his hand, locking his dark, cold eyes onto the Yakuza elites.
The hesitation of the Provisional Exams was gone.
The Ice Prince was back. And he was holding a scalpel.
"Midoriya," Aokiji whispered, his breath pluming in the tense air.
"Yeah," Midoriya replied, his voice hard as steel.
"Let's clear the path."
.
.