The black Nomu roared, before slamming Aizawa down on the concrete.
Aizawa felt his nose break, his goggles flying away, snapped clean in two. The Nomu grabbed his already injured arm and twisted, shattering it with ease.
"Erasure, it's a powerful quirk in the right circumstances, but right now, you're as good as quirkless."
Aizawa turned his head, activating his quirk on the monster, hoping to cancel its strength to allow him to free himself.
The Nomu broke Aizawa's other arm by slamming its palm down, but the underground hero refused to give Shigaraki the satisfaction of hearing his pain.
Izuku's eyes widened, he'd seen Aizawa use Erasure, but the monster still had its strength.
The monster's strength, it's natural, or rather, bioengineered.
Kurogiri chose this time to return, appearing at Shigaraki's side.
"Tomura, we have a situation." Kurogiri spoke.
"What is it?"
"A number of the kids escaped, the outside force is containing them for now." Kurogiri paused. "But I appear to have made a mistake, I sent the wrong child to face Sangata."
Shigaraki reached up, scratching at his neck. "So you're telling me the kid with that broken quirk is running around freely?"
Kurogiri nodded.
"If you weren't so useful, I'd kill you myself." Shigaraki stopped his assault on his neck, lowering his hand. "Game over. We need to leave, it's only a matter before the damn heroes show up. But first…"
Shigaraki paused.
"Shock Nomu, finish off Eraserhead, Bark Nomu, go kill some kids."
Fear shot through Tsuyu and Mineta, the two grabbing each other for support.
Mineta frowned, finding something warm and soft touching the palm of his hand. The purple boy looked across and went pale.
He spent the next ten seconds with his head under the water, Tsuyu's hand holding him down.
"You did well, Eraserhead." Shigaraki smirked. "But these Nomu, they're out of your league."
Aizawa grunted in pain. "Why?"
"To expose heroes and hero society for the fakes they are." Shigaraki shrugged. "A crusade of sorts."
"Li...Liar."
Shigaraki turned his head to look at the underground hero. "You're perceptive, I'll give you that. No, the crusade thing is just a front for my true goal."
"Destruction."
"Right in one." Shigaraki repositioned the hand on his face.
Aizawa coughed. "If you stand for nothing, what would you fall for?"
Rage flooded Shigaraki's body, his already fragile mental state deteriorating further. "Nomu, kill him."
The Nomu closed its hand around Aizawa's head, lifting it up before ramming it back into the concrete.
A pool of blood spread out from the point of impact, covering his broken goggles.
Izuku's feet moved before he could think, pushing himself away from the ground with Slingshot, and charging up One For All in his left arm, tearing the sleeve of his gym outfit.
His fist slammed into the black Nomu's chest.
The Nomu didn't move.
Izuku landed, looking down at his arm.
It wasn't broken, had he finally managed to control One For All's output.
No, that was all of One For All's power, then that means-
"Shock Absorption."
Izuku turned his head to look at Shigaraki.
"Any attack you throw at it, it can absorb, physical attacks are useless against it." Shigaraki smiled behind the hand on his face. "Nomus. Kill the child."
Slingshot pulled Izuku out of the way of the Shock Nomu's fist.
Physical attacks won't faze it, then I'll have to try something else.
Ducking forwards, Izuku avoided the Bark Nomu as it lumbered in, placing one hand on the Shock Nomu's leg and the other on the ground, activating Weld.
It took a few seconds, but the Shock Nomu's foot was merged to the concrete, stopping it from moving.
Diving through the black Nomu's legs, Izuku scooped Aizawa into his arms and used a telekinesis-boosted jump to get to the edge of the area in which Aizawa's fight with Shigaraki had taken place.
A second later, Tsuyu and Mineta landed next to him, the latter wrapped up in the former's tongue.
"Go." Aizawa spoke, barely able to open his mouth.
Izuku ignored him, his teacher's blood soaking his clothing.
Pressing the fingertips of his left hand to Aizawa's cheek, Izuku activated his One For All-enhanced Heal, his teacher's snapped arms rotating back into their correct place, his shattered orbital bone repairing itself.
Izuku turned his head to his classmates. "Tsu, Mineta, take Aizawa up the platform at the entrance, I've healed most of the major damage, I'm no Recovery Girl, he's still pretty beat up."
Mineta recoiled. "You can't possibly be thinking of going back in there, you were lucky to survive once."
He's right. You know it.
"I have too, that villain will set those monsters on the others if I don't distract them." Izuku tightened his fist. "That's something I can do."
Aizawa's scarf shot out, wrapping around Izuku's wrist, pulling him back, away from the fountain, away from Shigaraki and his monsters.
"Run, get away from here. I ban you from intervening."
Izuku looked into his teacher, his green eyes burning with intensity. "Aizawa, you've given it your all, but you can't fight anymore. If I don't then who will, the others will die, my friends will die."
Shota looked back at the green-haired boy, his stomach constricting with fear, unable to stop himself from seeing Oboro in Midoriya's place.
But the boy was right, Shota, all though his bones were healed, was still in a pretty bad way, no fit state to fight.
"You know, you're getting detention everyday till you graduate U.A. if you do this." Shota coughed.
Izuku smiled slightly, before nodding. "I was kind of expecting that."
With that, Izuku was gone, another jump sending him flying back to the fountain, landing softly on the small wall around it, using Slingshot to dampen the force on his legs.
"You came back then?" Shigaraki's grin unsettled Izuku on a primal level.
"I won't let you hurt my classmates." Izuku stepped down from the wall, scanning the area to make sure all the playing pieces were accounted for.
Shigaraki. Kurogiri. The bark monster. Shit.
The other monster was missing, or at least most of it was, it had torn the leg welded to the ground from its body.
As Izuku watched the remaining limb began to smoke, dissolving to a liquid and evaporating away.
"Midoriya, watch out!"
Izuku looked up, seeing Mineta standing in front of where Aizawa laid, being tended to by Tsuyu, with his arm raised, pointing to behind the green-haired boy.
Using his telekinesis, Izuku pulled himself to safety, just as the Shock Nomu slammed both its fists down where he'd just been.
"It has multiple quirks, doesn't it?" Izuku straightened up. "Shock Absorption and Hyper Regeneration."
Shigaraki snorted. "Just like you it would seem."
Izuku kept his face impassive, trying not to give too much away. "He really is still alive, isn't he? All For One."
That caught Shigaraki off guard. "You know Sensei?"
That got his attention.
Izuku shrugged non-committally. "Who hasn't heard of the Merchant of Quirks?"
"You're lying." Shigaraki's expression darkened. "Shock Nomu, don't kill him, but hurt him enough so he'll talk."
Izuku hardened both of his arms, raising them into an x-block, just as the Nomu slammed their fist into the green-haired boy's defence.
Grunting, Izuku was forced backwards, his feet digging into the concrete.
I didn't copy this monster's quirks, Quirksmith mustn't be able to copy quirks when my skin is hardened. That means Hardening must fundamentally change the composition of the user's skin.
Izuku was pushed back further, his hardened skin starting to crack under the immense force from the bioengineered monster.
It's failing, it's not strong enough.
He could feel the pressure building on his arms, his bones felt like they were about to snap.
Forcing his arms to rehardened over the damaged sections, Izuku examined his options. He couldn't release Hardening to use another quirk without the monster turning his body to pulp.
It was like a simple circuit, Quirksmith was the battery, the quirk he wanted to use was the bulb and Izuku himself was the switch.
I can't use two quirks at once, I'd have to be consciously thinking about each quirk to keep it working, active quirks at least.
And if Quirksmith was like a circuit, then it stood to reason he could treat it as such.
But that presented its own problems, in both series and parallel, the Quirksmith circuit would still only have one switch. If he wanted to use two quirks, they'd both be active at the same time or not at all.
Resistance, right, if I imagine this as a parallel circuit then I can add a resistor large enough to reduce current, or rather the energy supplied by Quirksmith, to functionally zero.
Rotating his hands and opening his palms, Izuku fired his largest explosion from each, while maintaining the hardening of his forearms.
Yes!
The Nomu screeched, but remained unfazed, if anything, the acrid smoke from the explosions were making it angrier.
Izuku had felt the hardening weaken somewhat when he'd fired the explosions. However, it had returned to normal the second he had set the resistance of the explosive quirk high enough to turn it off.
It really must be like a parallel circuit. Without resistance on either quirk the power was split between them equally, half as strong as they would be if Izuku was using them alone. So, when he applied full resistance to Explosion, Hardening had all the power it would normally have.
Izuku tried Wave Motion next, the spiral energy blasts proving to be nothing more than a mild annoyance to the beast.
Then he'd just have to try Seed Breath.
Izuku opened his mouth, seeds shooting like machine gun fire, impacting on the Nomu's skin and sprouting vines.
The monster roared as the vines encased it, leaving only its eyes visible.
Izuku released Hardening, stumbling back as the Nomu struggled against the vines.
It won't hold.
He was right, the monster tore through the vines, taking a chunk out of its own shoulder it's as it did.
It didn't seem to notice, swinging both its fist down in Izuku again.
Hardening reactivated, Izuku blocked the blow, the force driving him back nearly five meters.
Explosion, Wave Motion and Seed Breath all haven't worked. Weld, Variable Mist and Speed are all useless right now, and I don't even properly know what Origami even does.
But I do have Slingshot.
Izuku touched his hardened fingerpads to the monster's arm, activating Slingshot's secondary ability, and watching as it floated a few inches off the ground, spinning as it panicked wildly.
Dropping his hardening, Izuku charged One For All into his arm and punched the Nomu in the chest. The monster's Shock Absorption quirk took a large part of the force, but not all due to a lack of contact with the ground.
The Shock Nomu shot fifty foot into the air, coming to a halt as the force from One For All ran out.
Shigaraki looked up at his floating monster with confusion, before taking a step forward.
Kurogiri placed a smokey hand on his young charge's shoulder, stopping him. "I wouldn't get any closer."
Izuku released Slingshot and the Nomu was hurled back down at the ground with immense speed.
Dust blew past the green-haired boy, clearing to reveal the Nomu led beak-down in a massive crater, stretching out to damage the wall of the fountain.
Water trickled down into the crater, pooling around the Nomu's still form.
But it still got up, angrier than ever, its wounds healing without a trace.
That's not good.
The Nomu's fists smashed into Izuku's hardened arms once again, resuming their stalemate.
It was becoming very clear that none of Izuku's quirks would be able to land a solid hit on the monster, so that meant defence was his best bet, running out time until help arrived.
That just left Black Hole and Rockfist. The former was too risky, Kurogiri would just do to him what he'd done to Thirteen. The latter quirk was unusable, as a mutant-type quirk Izuku couldn't use it, unless…
Izuku slipped into quirkspace, summoning the orbs of light that represented Hardening and Rockfist to rest in front of him, before closing his eyes.
I can't afford to damage my muscles again, like I did when I made Slingshot.
Reaching out to One For All, Izuku channelled its power, not in any part of his body, but internally, in his quirkspace.
Opening his eyes, Izuku looked down, his arms were sparking with pale blue energy, but in his physical body they remained normal.
"I did it."
Expanding both of the quirks, Izuku started by making a strand starting from the node that triggered the Hardening's transformation to the node that represented the effect of Rockfist.
The two quirks glowed silver, forcing Izuku to look away momentarily, turning back to see one compound quirk.
"Let's see if this worked." Izuku reached out and touched the new quirk. "Rockhard, created by Izuku Midoriya, aged 15, on April 14th 2179. Type, Transformation. Compound of Hardening and Rockfist, allows the holder to transform any part of their body into a hardened rock or mineral, the more damage the hardened area takes, the stronger it becomes."
Izuku blinked, exiting quirkspace, returning to the physical plane.
Activating Rockhard, Izuku's already armored arms transformed into rock, almost up to his elbows.
Shigaraki scratched his neck. "Another quirk? Fucking hax."
Glancing to one side, Izuku saw the Bark Nomu advancing on Tsuyu and Mineta as they slowly dragged Aizawa back towards the platform.
Pulling himself to one side, Izuku hit the ground running, directly at the Bark Nomu. Using Slingshot to repel against the ground, Izuku flipped over the Nomu, landing in front of the monster as it brought its fist down.
Izuku grunted as the massive fist slammed into his rock-hard forearms, forcing him backwards.
"Take Aizawa, go." Izuku transformed his lower legs into hardened rock, bracing himself. "Now!"
Tsuyu and Mineta picked up the pace, just about managing to carry a barely conscious Aizawa between them.
"Mid...Midoriya, don't…"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Aizawa, but I have to." Izuku took a step forward, pushing the Bark Nomu back slightly.
"What a pest." Shigaraki suddenly moved, his speed greater than what Izuku expected from someone without a speed quirk.
Izuku didn't have time to move, watching as the pale man's hand wrapped around his face.
Nothing happened.
Shigaraki chuckled. "You really are pretty cool, Eraserhead."
Izuku's flicked back, Tsuyu and Mineta were leaning Aizawa up, his eyes glowing red and his hair floating above his head.
The Bark Nomu's strength had reduced, Aizawa was erasing whatever strength quirk the monster had as well. Izuku kept one rock arm blocking the monster's fist, rearing the other back and punching the distracted Shigaraki in the face.
Shigaraki was blasted back, bouncing across the concrete and impacting against the wall of the fountain.
"Tomura." Kurogiri portaled to Shigaraki's side, crouching over him. "Are you okay?"
Shigaraki spat out blood, two teeth with it. "That bastard!"
Kurogiri sighed. "Tomura, I believe it is time we cut our losses."
"No." Shigaraki stood. "This brat has to die, I want to see the life leave his eyes."
"Tomura." Kurogiri warned. "You cannot allow your emotions to rule you."
"Screw your platitudes." Shigaraki brushed Kurogiri's hand off his shoulder. "He's going to die."
At the same time, Izuku deactivated Rockhard, before activating Slingshot, attaching all four strands to the Bark Nomu's armor, repelling him back towards the fountain, into the other Nomu.
Aizawa's hair fell, the man unable to continue using his quirk any longer.
Izuku let his arms drop, as he slowly walked towards the fountain.
I need to be stronger.
"Come to die, have you?" Shigaraki glared at him. "Shock Nomu, kill him."
"Don't worry Mr. Aizawa, I'm going to find a way to overcome the recoil."
"Find a quirk to negate the damage from One For All."
Izuku watched as the Shock Nomu charged at him, undoing his gym jacket and tossing it aside.
Shock Absorption.
Hyper Regeneration.
This is going to hurt.
The Nomu swiped his arm, sending a backfist screaming towards Izuku.
"Midoriya!"
The fist smashed into Izuku, he felt his bones snap and crumple, agony flooding his veins.
Izuku's limp body flew back, impacting into a lamppost, bending it over almost completely.
Tsuyu and Mineta watched in horror as their classmate's broken form dropped to the floor, blood pooling around his body.
Shota couldn't breath, unable to look away from Izuku's broken body, the image of Oboro's body laid over it.
The underground hero met Izuku's glassy eyes, his expression slightly shocked, smoke gently issuing from his mouth.
Shigaraki laughed raucously. "He's dead, he's dead, he's dead. Now for his friends."
Mineta was crying, pulling on a frozen Aizawa with all his might. "Faster, faster, Tsuyu!"
Tsuyu wasn't hearing him, her eyes unable to look away from Izuku as the smoke slowly obscured him from view.
Shigaraki raced towards the frog-like girl, hand outstretched. "I'm going to enjoy this."
Aizawa blink rapidly, trying to get his quirk to work, but he couldn't, his eyes were too dry.
A hand gripped Shigaraki's wrist before he could reach Tsuyu.
The smoke dispersed, Izuku stood, fully healed, his gym trousers ripped and torn, ending just below his knees, light blue sparks cracking around his body.
"He's alive!" Mineta dropped Aizawa in his shock.
"He's alive." Shigaraki's expression darkened.
Strength, times three, Hyper Regeneration, times two, Shock Absorption, times one, all passive.
Izuku had expected the emotions attached to the quirks copied from the Nomu to match its rage, but instead he felt fear and pain radiating from them. The Nomu wasn't angry, it was hurting.
At its core it was human, scared and alone.
Izuku tightened his grip on Shigaraki, his three new Strength quirks stacking to give him a 4.8x increase to his raw muscle power.
I overstrained Quirksmith again, One For All is at 110% now, much more and it'll destroy my body every time I use it.
"That monster was human, until you forced those quirks on it and twisted them into that." Izuku threw out his free arm, using Slingshot to repel the Bark Nomu and his armor before it could attack him.
Shigaraki shrugged. "Well, not me personally."
Izuku's eyes bored into Shigaraki, before he twisted and snapped the pale man's wrist.
Shigaraki cried in pain. "Nomu, kill-"
"You won't hurt them." Izuku planted his foot and spun on the spot, throwing Shigaraki back towards the fountain.
The black Nomu charged at Izuku, almost trampling its master, if not for Kurogiri opening a portal under Shigaraki before it could.
Izuku reached out to One For All, channeling into his legs before he leapt forwards, rocketing directly at the Nomu. He felt both his legs snap, although not as badly as normal, Shock Absorption took some of the recoil. Unfortunately it was more effective the more muscle mass the holder had, and Izuku had far less than the monster he'd copied the quirk from.
"TEXAS SMASH!"
Just as Izuku felt Hyper Regeneration heal his legs, he charged One For All into his right arm and punched the black Nomu.
And still the monster shrugged it off, barely moving, it's Shock Absorption quirk negating the backlash in Izuku's arm.
Izuku activated Rockhard in his arms, blocking the Nomu's fist.
Let's try speed over power.
Izuku started punching, again and again, using both his passive strength increase and One For All for a combined strength factor of around 55x.
But still it didn't work.
The Nomu wrapped its massive hand around Izuku and lifted him into the air, pulling its other hand back to punch him.
Izuku landed ten meters away, skipping along the concrete and coming to a halt close to the water's edge. This time Izuku got up a lot faster, the Shock Absorption taking the brunt of the damage, leaving him with a number of cuts and a few broken bones.
Hyper Regeneration activated, while the quirk itself was passive, it was constantly checking for injuries, healing them when it found them.
The final cut, across Izuku's cheek, sealed shut as the Nomu lumbered towards him.
I'm still not strong enough, but if I overstrain Quirksmith to increase One For All's power anymore, it will blow my limbs off when I use it.
A realisation struck Izuku.
It would blow limbs off, but I would just grow them back again.
Determination filled Izuku, jumping away from the Nomu and calling on One For All to supercharge his Speed quirk.
Time slowed to a crawl.
Izuku took a deep breath, he had hoped to at least have had the time to actually practice this super move he'd thought of the day before, but needs must.
One For All…
"...JET SET RUN!
Izuku set off running, moving through the plaza at blinding speed to the outside world, touching every villain as he passed, copying their quirks. He turned, heading towards the Conflagration Zone.
Racing from street to street, the air displaced from his movement extinguishing the flames, Izuku searched the Zone, finding the villains had crowded in the centre, the last of the three monsters already defeated.
Ducking around Iida's barely moving body, Izuku scooped up all the villains, some unconscious, some fleeing, and dumped them in a pile next to the incapcitated Claw Nomu, copying each of their quirks as he did.
Biting back the rising pain, Izuku moved on, sprinting in the direction of the Mountain Zone, giving Momo a wave she definitely wouldn't be able to see, collecting the already defeated villains and using Quirksmith on them.
Izuku smiled, the pain was getting easier to handle, before racing to the Landslide Zone. He shoulder barged each of the villains fighting Todoroki, copying their quirks at the same time, before the pain suddenly intensified.
I was wrong, the pain is getting so much worse.
Tripping slightly on the last one, Izuku only knocked him to the ground.
Izuku moved to go back to him, but his Speed quirk twinged, he'd used three out of the five seconds of superspeed he had before the quirk was exhausted, he didn't have the time.
So he kept on running, into the Ruins Zone, he didn't find any of his classmates, but he did find where the fight had taken place. In a room of one of the buildings, Izuku found it filled with defeated villains and blast marks.
These guys never stood a chance against Kacchan.
Copying the villains's quirks, Izuku went for the Downpour Zone, plowing into a group of villains, touching each one as he did. Izuku changed direction, heading back for the main plaza as his Speed quirk ran on fumes, the pain from massively overstrain Quirksmith nearly breaking his concentration.
Izuku tripped as his superspeed ran out, rolling across the concrete, bouncing slightly, before coming to a halt near the edge of the water, the same place he had started.
His body was on fire, unable to stop himself from screaming, pale blue energy sparking over him, at a frequency far greater than the last two times Izuku had overstrained his quirks.
But then, as soon as it came, the pain left.
Izuku blinked, he was standing in his quirkspace, but it was different, the black void was the same, but it's contents had changed.
In the center was Quirksmith and One For All, the two quirks equally sized, coloured red and pale green, the latter was lighter coloured than it had been before, with cyan blue sparks now running through it. Around them, all Izuku's copied quirks lit up the void like stars in the night sky, of all different colours.
Stepping forwards, Izuku touched Quirksmith, examining the twelve quirks contained within.
Helmet. Laser. Wooden Claws From His Hands. Chameleon. Shock Dispersion. Size. Bat. Jaw. Mantis. Prehensile Hair.
Looking up, Izuku could see so many more quirks.
126 quirks, 100 of them from the assembled army of villains.
Izuku remembered copying everyone of them, in fact, Izuku remembered what he had for dinner on September 3rd, 2167, a rather tasty Tonkatsu, his mom's of course, perfectly.
He had a memory quirk now, well, he had two of them, both passively granting him perfect memory and recall.
In total, 135 quirks, plus One For All
"I told you we would speak again soon."
Izuku turned, seeing the same tall dark-haired woman as the day before.
"Seven?"
The woman smiled, nodding her head slightly.
"You knew I would do this, didn't you?"
"I did." Seven reached out to touch the energy ball that represented One For All.
"How?"
Seven smiled, looking over her shoulder at Izuku. "That, is something you can't know yet."
Izuku sighed. "I thought you might say that."
Seven walked over to stand in front of Izuku, ruffling his hair with her hand. "Good luck, Izuku. I'd say to stay safe, but we both know that isn't going to happen."
"He returned?" Shigaraki looked confused, staring at the sparking boy as he writhed on the floor in agony. "What's wrong with this brat?"
Kurogiri stepped forwards. "According to our source, when he overstrains his quirk, he somehow gets stronger, he must have copied every quirk he could find."
"He was only gone a few seconds, surely-"
Kurogiri interrupted Shigaraki. "The boy has many quirks, our source says he has a speed quirk of some kind."
Izuku felt the pain subside as he returned from his quirkspace, slowly pushing himself to his feet, his balance slightly off.
I did it, One For All's power, it's at 180%.
"You know, I see now why Sensei is so interested in you." Shigaraki was scratching his neck again. "And also see why he wanted us to kill you if you wouldn't join us, you're a threat."
"I think we both know my answer to that one."
Shigaraki shrugged. "Sure, sure, that's why you have to die."
"You can try." Izuku glared back at the pale man.
Shigaraki sighed, before turning his head to the Bark Nomu. "Kill him, rip his head from his body."
The white Nomu lumbered towards the green-haired boy, towering over him.
Shigaraki chuckled. "This is your death, brat."
Izuku took a deep breath, preparing himself, a two-prong plan forming in his mind.
One that would take out the white Nomu, lightening the load for the heroes when they arrived, and one to signal them.
"It's over, Shigaraki." Izuku started pouring the power of One For All into his left arm. "You've lost."
"Why have I lost, brat?" Shigaraki sneered at the green-haired boy.
"All you came here to do today was kill and destroy, you fight for nothing and no-one but yourself." A swirling rainbow of light gathered around Izuku's fist. "You lack resolve."
Activating Variable Mist, Izuku called on his Perfect Recall, the chemical formula and structure for Disperse Red 9 that he'd gotten from Momo, coming to the front of his mind.
"Go beyond!"
One For All, 180%!
"DETROIT SMASH!"
Izuku punched the Bark Nomu, its wooden armor shattering on impact, and breathed out a massive cloud of red smoke. A massive tornado of wind shot upwards from Izuku's point of contact with the Nomu, taking the red smoke with it, hidden from view in its core.
The shockwave from Izuku's punch blasted through the facility, ripping part of the roof away, shattering every last pane of glass. The Bark Nomu, rocketed up and away, landing somewhere in the Landslide Zone by Izuku's reckoning.
Izuku set a grim smile on his face, the wind and dust clearing to reveal his still raised left arm had been blown apart, from just above the elbow, blood and bone splattered all around him.
The visera began to steam, evapouring as Izuku's left arm began to regrow, first the bone, then the muscles and tendons, before finally, the skin.
Whole and unblemished.
Izuku lowered his arm, looking Shigaraki straight in the eye.
"This is your Game Over."
Mirai and Toshinori shielded themselves with their arms as the massive gust of air blew past them.
Toshinori lowered his arm. "That was One For All, that was nearly as powerful as I was before my injury."
Mirai repressed the urge to wince at his former friend's comment. "Look, above the roof."
"Red smoke." Toshinori swelled, assuming his hero form despite being past his limit. "Something is very wrong, I have to go!"
"Toshinori, wait!" Mirai reached out to touch All Might as he sprinted away, his fingertips barely brushing the blond giant.
Mirai's eyes widened as his quirk activated, images flashing through his mind.
All Might clashing with a monster taller than even him. Two teenagers dragging Eraserhead away. A green-haired boy lying on the ground.
This fight wasn't Toshinori's death.
But it was Izuku Midoriya's, crumbled to ash and dust.
The doors to the USJ slammed open, revealing the figure of All Might, his suit jacket held in one hand.
Behind him stood Sato, Kirishima, Ashido, Sero and Shoji, the villains they'd been fighting now defeated by the No.1 Hero.
"IT'S FINE NOW! BECAUSE I AM HERE!"
The first thing Izuku noticed was that All Might wasn't smiling.
All Might always smiled, no matter the threat.
The corners of a smile appeared from either side of the hand on Shigaraki's face. "I've been waiting, hero, the Symbol of Peace. Worthless trash."
Shigaraki laughed.