His yelling startled her a bit and she quickly duck down and held her breath, looking back at him as the monster came back their way. She missed him so much, even more so when she saw him like this. Why did he have to turn his back on heroism? Did he realize how much he had hurt her? How much she cared for him even now, even after he had most likely done so many unspeakable crimes? ''You're too loud, that's one of your bad habits!'' She retorted once the creature disappeared again.

The fact that he had called her Luci didn't escape her either. Not many people called her that, and even if they did no one said it like him. No one made her heart race this way. She let out a quiet huff as he walked past her and started telling her to go home. Didn't he take her seriously at all? He may be some important villain now, but she was a hero too! And not just some rookie! As he started walking away she followed him, speeding up and grabbing him by his wrist. ''Stop, Diego.'' She replied firmly. ''I'm not going anywhere, there are hero students down there and they are my responsibility.'' She tugged on his wrist. ''And so are you...'' She looked off to the side for a moment. ''You saved me, I'll admit as much. Thank you. But I'm still arresting you, and we are not leaving this place until the Elementalist has lost, so you are going to have to come with me.''

Diego Ibarra

Despite the circumstances she couldn't help but feel relieved to see Diego again like this. Sure, he was a feared villain now and committing crimes left and right, but he wasn't as corrupted as she thought. Maybe she was just deluding herself, but part of the same old Diego she used to laugh with was still present in his eyes and in the way he acted. Even better, he looked to be in good health. It was probably safe to assume he was eating well and looking after himself.

She smirked when he seemingly agreed to a temporary alliance. He probably came to the same realization as her, that they couldn't fight with two wildcards on the loose. She didn't like to ally herself with villains, but in rare cases such as this it might actually reduce the number of civilian casualties. Diego was strong and she knew it, far more of a fighter than she was. These Sango Brothers didn't know what they were in for when the duo of Diego and Luci united once more to take them down. ''Touché!'' She exclaimed, capitalizing on the moment he had given her by slicing into one of the Sango brothers with her talons, covering either side of him in sludge too, so that if he fell he would bounce off the ground and slowly come to a halt like he was bouncing up and down on a trampoline. And even if he didn't fall, it would still be really distracting while they fought. Flying towards the other brother, Lucille honed in on him and tried to draw all his attention, setting Diego up for a potential sneak attack.

Diego Ibarra

''Yeah, let's get to business.'' She smiled at Mar.

''Bakuretsu!'' Lucille decided to call out, knowing that she was going to draw way more attention to her than Mar once Mar was on the ground. Retsu should have plenty of ways to deal with a flying opponent, so trying to be all sneaky was a moot point. ''This is Phantasmagoria with her Heroes Association, stand down now, we've got you surrounded!'' Given that she was used to raise her voice around the rowdy UA students, shouting over all the chaos wasn't all that difficult.

She waited until the dust settled and flew a little closer. Goodness, they hadn't even been that slow getting to the scene and Retsu had already caused this much damage? ''Let's talk. I can vouch for your safety.'' She tried to meet Retsu's eyes with her determined own. She couldn't show her the same kindness she showed other lesser criminals, but she did want to take the non-violent path provided it was an option. If not, then Mar was most likely getting in position to jump her as they spoke.

She glanced around her, knowing how destructive Retsu was she didn't want to risk anymore damage be done to the city, or that anymore civilians got swept up in the fighting. If only it wasn't someone like Retsu, she would help with the evacuation efforts herself, but Retsu was a terrible match-up for both her and Mar, and they couldn't risk letting her get away because they split their focus.

Bakiri Retsu, Mar

It was like he couldn’t even hear her. Was he being controlled? Was someone threatening him? Who was putting him up to this? Where was the Diego she had made so many happy memories with? She looked at his fist as she realized what was about to happen. A gravity attack- she needed to make a move now-

Unfortunately there was nothing she could do, feeling the blow against her midsection as she was slammed backwards. It wasn’t all that powerful, not for Diego anyway, but it was still enough to knock the air out of her for a moment. This was bad, should she call in backup? With another hero on her side bringing in Diego and the Sango Brothers together would be a lot easier, but would that hero be too hard on Diego? What if they hurt him, or even went overboard and killed him? She knew she was compromising her mission, but she couldn’t risk it. She looked at the hot air balloons that dotted the sky around her. So many happy couples and here she was, unable to move on, unable to harbor feelings for anyone else. The guy she was in love with only saw her as a nuisance, as an enemy to brush aside while he continued to do evil deeds. It hurt. Her heart hurt more than any of Diego’s remarks, or attacks could.

It was because of that pain she knew she couldn’t give up on him. Having taken a moment to catch her breath, she flew forward once more, catching back up with the fighting. ‘‘Everyone, please don’t panic and evacuate the scene immediately! I am Phantasmagoria, I’m with the Heroes Association!’’ She looked back at Diego defiantly, but she knew a fight with him would only get compromised if they had these two idiot brothers on the sideline taking shots at them while their backs were turned. Honing in on the brothers, Lucille tried to attack from the blind spots Diego created with his attacks, hopeful that she could slash one or both of them with her talons while they were busy fending off that fearsome villain.

Diego Ibarra

It was painful how lovey dovey and couple oriented this whole fiesta seemed. If she didn’t know any better, she would think fate or God was somehow playing some kind of cruel joke on her. She knew that wasn’t the case, this was just work, and she had observer bias. Maybe she was just that bit better at spotting the couples because she wasn’t happy in love herself.

‘‘Hero! That’s a hero!’’ Two kids stopped their game and one of them pointed at her. It couldn’t be helped since she had shown up in her uniform. With a smile she waved back at them. ‘‘Phantasmagoria! It’s Phantasmagoria! She was waving at me!’’ The one kid laughed as they started running away while the other interjected. ‘‘Nuh-uh she was waving at me!’’

She wished she could have stayed in her spot and listened to more innocent chatter, but her reason for even being here in the first place was to stop criminals. Something which she unfortunately would have to do today. Noticing that something was up she immediately activated her quirk and transformed her arms into wings.

Oh well, it beats looking at happy couples with a heavy heart.

Following the hooded figure who was suspiciously flying through the sky without any sort of wings or other conventional modes of transportation, she happened across a skirmish by the time she arrived a few seconds after Diego.

‘‘Stop right there! In the name of the Heroes Association I order you all to stand down!’’ She called out, mistaking the hooded figure for one of the Flying Sango Brothers. ‘‘If you don’t surrender now I will take you in by force. Don’t make me repeat myself!’’ She only just managed to finish her demands when she felt a familiar pressure, one that could very easily take her out of the sky, or keep her from flying all together. It was powerful, unimaginably powerful, it almost felt like a natural counter to her quirk.

Why was this feeling so familiar?

Diego Ibarra

It was always the troublemakers and arrogant ones that were the first to cry foul if they felt wronged, so she wasn't all too surprised that both Rahul and Ylva spoke up. What she didn't expect was how personally Rahul seemed to take being called out. A tantrum like this she would expect from a first or second year student like Ylva, but Rahul was supposed to be in his fourth year and about to graduate, and yet he was making a scene because she told him not to hog the spotlight. Then he supposedly saved Enma from having a panic attack all by himself, despite small training accidents like this being commonplace. Sometimes it felt like she was teaching hero middle school. ''Your complaint has been duly noted.'' She smiled at Rahul.

''That goes for you too, Riis-san.'' She turned her attention to Ylva. ''Being assertive and blunt isn't necessarily bad, but you are all studying to become professional heroes. You need to be able to distinguish between when you should take the initiative and when you should follow the leader.'' The leader in this case being Farrin. ''Don't make your problems other people's problems. Now please,'' she indicated Farrin and took a couple of steps back. ''You're here to learn, let O'Rourke-san lead you!'' She smiled warmly. ''If any of you have a problem with what I said today, we can talk about it later in my office.'' She decided to hang back for a moment and continue observing as she took some more notes, scribbling down this conversation with Rahul and Ylva so that she would remember to log it later. She would have also have to apologize to Farrin for this diversion after the lesson was over.

junsuina, enma, 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐲, Kikurage Shimeiji, Farrin, Mafdet Khepri

She allowed herself a brief moment to relax, but even that was too long on the battlefield. The blood was draining fast from her body even though she was pressing a hand down on her wound. However, when Diego, her one and only love she had lost to villainy came out of the golem, rather than panic or doubt what she was seeing, she simply sighed and made her way up to her feet. ''I can't even rest for a few minutes, how cruel. ~'' She kept one hand on her wound as she stared him down. Fate had a way with playing the cruelest jokes on her.

''Don't try it.'' It wasn't so much her trying to negotiate as it was a warning. ''I'll do anything to protect my students.'' She transformed her free arm into a talon as the Diego clone charged at her. ''I'll even hurt you.'' She said coldly, charging at him to meet him in the middle. She was hurt, and she was scared, but she was also a hero and she knew that she couldn't give up until she took her dying breath. Too many people were relying on her. She thrust her talon at Diego, trying to impale him, but she was too slow for him in her current state. Instead, he retaliated by kicking into her wound, making her stumble and scream out in agony. As he tried to stomp on her head however, she quickly rolled out of the way. Giving up on suppressing her bleeding, she transformed her other arm too as she struggled to make her way up again. Maybe she had to go for the kill after all...

Just then, stray bullets that Retsu had fired from elsewhere flew past the mushroom platform and two of them connected with the Diego clone, one flying through his head, killing him right in front of her. She stared at him for another few seconds before deactivating her quirk, and for the first time in her life she understood what Diego must have felt when he watched her die in front of him.

How cruel...

She stood there for a moment, looking at the visage of her dead crush before collapsing on the spot.

Matsu, Jinx, Ylva Riis, Farrin, 𝕐 + 𝕐, Arataki Noa