Hey I hope yall like this i think I did it pretty well. But please do tell me if I made Cid too emotional or if it came out of nowhere im trying to make him feel more like he should her you know.
Chapter 36: Hell Let Lose part 4
Mirio's arrival bought Cid the split second he needed.
The Nomu's spike hand had torn through the top of his shoulder instead of his chest, but the pain was immediate and sharp. Blood poured freely down his arm as he forced himself to stay upright. His focus never left the civilians below. The falling debris were still a threat, and he couldn't afford to stop.
Gritting his teeth, Cid pushed through the pain and kept moving. He shrank the largest pieces mid-fall, breaking their momentum, then quickly pulled the rest away from the people scrambling below. It was messy, but it worked. Within moments the immediate danger was cleared.
Only then did he allow himself to stumble back a step.
His vision blurred at the edges. The blood loss from his head wound combined with the new gash in his shoulder was catching up fast. He pressed a hand to the bleeding shoulder, eyes narrowing in focus. With a thought he shrank the wound, forcing the torn muscle and skin to close enough to stop the worst of the bleeding.
The sharp headache exploded behind his eyes the moment he did it making it far worse then before.
'I've already pushed too far.'
His body was screaming at him to stop. His ribs ached with every breath, his head throbbed, and his vision kept swimming. But Mirio was already engaging the Nomu head-on, buying him time. Cid couldn't just stand there and watch.
He forced himself to move.
Appearing on a nearby rooftop, Cid stayed at range. He used his Quirk sparingly now only when it was absolutely necessary. Each use sent fresh pain lancing through his skull, but he kept going. He couldn't let Mirio fight this thing alone.
The Nomu was adapting fast.
It had already learned to track Cid's eye movements to predict where he would appear. Now it was learning Mirio's patterns too, the way he phased through attacks, the timing of his strikes. Every exchange made it faster, more precise and got closer to landing a hit.
Cid's breathing grew heavier. His legs felt unsteady beneath him.
'This has gone on too long. If this thing breaks through and reaches more civilians…'
His gaze locked onto the Nomu as it lunged at Mirio again. An idea formed from the training the HSPC had drilled into him as a child.
'It's a threat, an enemy. KILL IT'
Instead of expanding space like he had been doing, Cid tried the opposite.
He focused on the air around the Nomu's neck and upper chest and tried to collapse it. To shrink the space itself inward, to crush.
The Nomu reacted instantly.
It twisted violently, as if it could feel the pressure of the space around its throat tightening. The attack wasn't perfect, Cid's control was shaky, barely holding together, but it was enough to catch the creature off guard. The Nomu managed to jerk its head aside at the last second, but the collapsing space sheared through the right side of its chest and tore its right arm clean off at the shoulder.
The Nomu let out a distorted sound and staggered back.
Cid didn't even get to see the full result.
The moment the technique ended, the backlash hit him like a truck.
His knees buckled. He dropped to the rooftop, gasping for air, hands braced against the concrete. His vision swam violently and his head felt like someone drove a hot spike through it. Blood trickled from the corners of his eyes, hot and thick. Sweat poured down his face as his lungs burned. The shoulder wound he had shrunk earlier returned to its original size, causing blood to pour freely once more.
He was completely drained.
'What? Why…?'
His thoughts were sluggish, confused. Expanding space for the concussive blasts had been exhausting, yes, but this… this had taken everything he had left. It felt like his Quirk had fought him every step of the way, like he was trying to force something that didn't want to be moved.
As he sat there in pain he figured it out.
'Compressing space… it resists more than expanding it. Like trying to overpack a box that keeps pushing back…'
The realization came dimly, through the haze of pain and exhaustion.
Below him, Mirio was now fighting the Nomu alone. The creature had already begun regenerating its missing arm, though slower than before. It was wounded, but still dangerous. Mirio moved with everything he had, phasing through attacks and landing heavy blows, but he was clearly on the defensive.
Cid tried to push himself up. His arms shook. His vision darkened at the edges.
Cid stayed on his knees for several long seconds, chest heaving as he tried to drag air into his lungs. His eyes burned. Blood still trickled from the corners of them, mixing with the sweat running down his face. The world around him felt distant, muffled by the pounding in his skull and the sharp ache in his ribs.
He tried to push himself up.
His arms shook violently. His body refused to listen. The moment he put weight on them, they gave out. He dropped forward, barely catching himself before his face hit the rooftop. He landed with his head tilted sideways laying against a pile of rubble. He couldn't move anymore. His body had finally hit its limit and crashed straight through it then colapsed.
All he could do was watch.
Through blurry vision, he saw Mirio fighting alone now. The Nomu had noticed how weak he'd become and was actively trying to get past Mirio to reach him. Mirio was doing everything he could to keep the creature's attention, phasing through attacks and striking back whenever he had an opening, but it was clear he was being forced onto the defensive. Every time the Nomu lunged toward Cid's position, Mirio had to intercept it.
Cid's hands twitched against the concrete, but he couldn't even lift them properly.
'This… this is pathetic.'
The thought slipped in before he could stop it.
He had thought he was getting stronger. After everything, after USJ, after the training with Nighteye, after forcing himself to use his Quirk to its full power instead of running from it, he had actually believed he was making real progress. That he was becoming someone who could protect people. Someone who wouldn't fail again and again.
But here he was.
Laying on a rooftop like a broken doll while Mirio risked his life to keep that thing away from him. While civilians were still in danger. While the fight dragged on because he couldn't do anything more.
His breathing hitched.
The cold focus he had forced into place that kept him focused all night finally cracked under the weight of everything he had been holding back. The trauma the burning city brought up, The crushing guilt of what he had done. The terror of almost dying just minutes ago. The relief that Mirio had made it in time. It all came rushing up at once now that he had nothing left to suppress it with.
He was tired.
Tired of pretending he was fine. Tired of pushing everything down so he could keep moving forward. Tired of feeling like no matter how hard he tried, it still wasn't enough.
Tears mixed with the blood at the corners of his eyes as he watched Mirio take another heavy hit just to keep the Nomu from reaching him.
'Why… Why am I just laying here, again? Why can't I do anything? Why am I always forced to fail?'
The thoughts were quiet. Bitter. Frustrated.
He had come so far… and yet here he was, powerless to do anything.
The frustration clawed up his throat, mixing with everything else he had been holding down for so long. It all crashed together at once, too heavy to shove back down now that his body had nothing left to give.
Ryukyu and Nejire arrived in a blur of motion followed a few minutes after by Fat Gum and Tamaki. More heroes were closing in from the streets below. The tide was turning.
Cid barely registered any of it.
His arm twitched. Slowly, painfully, he dragged it across the rooftop until his fingers curled digging into the top of the roof and through the blood pooling beneath his shoulder. He clenched his fist around it, knuckles going white as the warm, sticky liquid squeezed between them.
'I'll get stronger.'
The thought started quiet, but it grew louder with every beat of his heart.
'SO STRONG I WON'T LOSE EVER AGAIN, SO I WONT BE HELPLESS AGAIN.'
It roared through him like fire, burning away the doubt. Tears cut clean tracks down his bloodstained cheeks as the words echoed in his mind, fierce and unyielding. He would never be this helpless again. Never again.
---
Ok so I know a few of you might not like how this ended or want cid to come out on top but trust I have a plan this is the perfect fuel for him to grow. Also i hope yall dont mind but this whole arc is going to majorly effect the rest of the book.