Violetsumire - After all the nasty shit he went through, I'd say he earn it. Let him have this :v
Barrytrey0430 - Nope :P
SmokyGhoul - *maniacal laughing*
draven32 - Close, close.
raw666 - Doing my humble best :P
detrametal - Bouncing leg of anticipation is finding its release :P Also it's great to hear that you so into it :D
dvd181 - Y E S, cliffhangers. Hate me for this, but this is how peak cliffhangers look like :3
(***)
Promised Monday release (also it's my birthday, huh) so that I'll stop feeling death stares about the cliffhanger. Enjoy :P
(***)
"You know, I always thought that the two of us are surprisingly similar." All for One says, completely ignoring the Air Pressure attacks that All Might unleashes against him.
"Your skills in psychological warfare have gotten sloppy." All Might replies dryly before attempting a Detroit Smash. Key word being 'attempting'.
Shit. He is just as strong as he was before that fight, isn't he? How did he even survive it? Why didn't he try to get his family back? Surely he at the very least had someone observe it.
Why isn't he taunting Toshinori about that?
Thus far they are both fighting at a leisure pace. Trying to get a better read on how much strength their opponent has. Enough to speak with each other, despite their fight still leveling buildings around there.
Said fight is occuring way too close to the edge of the evacuated area. This cannot stand. But it will probably have to.
"No, no." All for One replies. "Think about it. We are both Symbols. You, a Symbol of Peace. Me, a Symbol of Evil. And guess what?" He chuckles mockingly. "We both got there by climbing over the bodies of our allies and enemies. Do you like the view from the top, All Might?"
"Shut up already!" All Might yells at him. He manages to grab his hand, throw him onto the ground and deliver a Detroit Smash right into his face.
All for One effortlessly cancels this attack. What the hell?
Wait. It's Shock Absorption.
"You think that I would come fight you again without that quirk?" All for One chuckles before firing Air Cannon into his chest point black. All Might flies back. "I can learn from my own mistakes, you know. I'm on the lookout for Shock Nullification now. Can you imagine the irony of that? Two centuries of One for All gathering physical power to fight me… only for me to render it almost useless with a single quirk? How did it never occur to me to obtain such a quirk earlier? I think I'm getting sloppy as well."
Once again, All Might raises up. But he can feel his transformation slowly getting undone. He is running out of time. And running out of strength.
"Speaking about One for All…" All for One continues his monologue. "Where is he? Your son and successor. Really, to think that you resolved to nepotism, how horrible. What would Nana think?"
In a split second, All Might realizes the truth. All for One never told Garaki and his other lieutenants about him having a family. They didn't know about it. They didn't know about Izuku being brought up by Hisashi Shigaraki, the worst villain to ever live.
And neither did the All for One in front of him.
"You are not All for One." The figure in front of him freezes.
"Oh?" The white-haired head tilts a bit, staring at him questioningly. "What gave me away?"
As if he is falling for that. His enemy might escape. There might be someone overhearing this talk. He isn't saying it aloud. This isn't a comic book, but real life. Maintaining this conversation isn't worth risking his family's life.
"I wonder." All Might replies. "Who the hell are you then?"
Not-All for One smiles mockingly. His facial features start shifting. The mouth is still there, but everything else, even the clothes are… changing. Eyes where they shouldn't be. The Not-All for One is now a monster both on the inside and on the outside. He is only vaguely humanoid.
"I'm Doctor Garaki's greatest masterpiece." Even the voice is now distorted and inhuman. "A vat-grown clone of All for One… strengthened and altered by the same technology that gave birth to my long-lost brother, Number Six. You may call me Number Ten. Or, which is way more apt… Revenant. A ghost existing to exact vengeance on those that killed him."
Jesus Christ.
Congratulations Doctor Garaki. You have just elevated yourself to being an existential threat to Japan. Thus you are getting punched out all the way up to the Earth's orbit as soon as possible.
"The press and their cameras are here, did you notice?" Revenant announces. All Might can hear the helicopters in the background. "Paranormal Liberation Front's mission is to end the era of heroes. And what better way to do that than by showing your true self to the world?" He begins to call up the quirks. "Air Cannon. Strength Enhancement Times Five. Power-Up Times Five. Heavy Payload."
He has to dodge it. He has to! If it's Heavy Payload, the result will be…
Oh no.
He is between Revenant and the non-evacuated part of the city. There are people behind him!
Revenant's face might look like a nightmare, but it's a nightmare that is smiling with a combination of sadism and satisfaction.
Then the world around All Might ends.
(***)
When the explosion dies out, All Might is still standing. He resembles a skeleton more than a man, but he is still standing. The ground, ruined buildings and people behind him survived the attack as well.
Everything else didn't.
A good chunk of Kamino Ward just stopped existing. Thousands must have died.
And then there are the cameras.
(***)
Millions were watching the news. Most of them are shocked by seeing the deflated All Might. By seeing their greatest defender and the strongest of heroes - the undefeated Symbol of Peace - reduced to a tattered wreck by a single blow from a villain.
Some, especially students of UA's classes 1-A and 1-B were shocked by something else. Because they recognized the tattered wreck on the screen as the man that they met right before departing to their ill-fated Training Camp.
The man that was introduced to them as Midoriya Izuku's father.
(***)
If Revenant hoped that showing All Might's weakness to the world would faze him, he was solely mistaken.
All Might has never truly enjoyed being the Symbol of Peace. For him, it was a necessity. A sacrifice that he was ready to do in order to save as many people as possible. He gave up everything he had or could have had for this goal. Even family - although fate decreed otherwise on that field.
For so many decades, he became the Symbol of Peace - because no one else could do that. He was a hero, yes. All he ever wanted was to save people. To stop the era of chaos and misery that he was born into. To create a world where people could smile. But the personality cult? The ability to shape the entire society with as much as a single interview?
He never wanted it. He remembered the tales. He remembered how much such power twisted All for One. From a resistance fighter during the birth of quirks into a monster. Becoming a Symbol for the society was a burden beyond imagination. Power, after all, corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely.
And his personality cult has long ago reached the level when he didn't dare to mention that he dislikes someone (for whatever reason), because that meant immediate ostracization. And probably a murder attempt or two by some overzealous fans. Wouldn't be the first time that has happened.
There was a reason why he never tried to use that power, even in a good way. Yes, he could improve lives of the quirkless, complex mutants and so on, perhaps. In different ways than by just simply donating his entire merchandise income to charities tending to them, and exerting some under-the-table influence to help them.
But that way lied damnation. If he made a first step on that road, the next ones would come naturally. Everything he would do, he would with good intentions. But eventually, eventually he would start equating himself with being right, morally and factually. After all, he was helping, right?
And he would start seeing those that disagreed with him as villains. And as time would pass, he would start listening to their arguments and reasons less and less. That's how many dictators started.
It happened way too many times during human history. He saw it happening too many times with heroes of lesser stature to a lesser degree. And Yagi Toshinori knew well enough how much of a fallible human being he was under the All Might's facade.
Hero with so much social influence and such a powerful quirk falling from grace… it would be disastrous. Symbol of Peace doing so, double so. It would further worsen the situation of those that in public perception would have caused his fall. So those he tried to help.
Simply speaking, he couldn't remain the Symbol of Peace - the one guarantee that the villains won't win, no matter how scary things seemed - if he took sides. The entire society could stand behind him, because he was a hero for everyone. He had enough strength to never have to choose whom to save.
Before All for One's death, he couldn't do that as it would mean that All for One won. After it, he couldn't do that - because however weaker he was, he was still the strongest hero by far. In a way, One for All never fell into bad hands because All for One killed its holders before they could fall into villainy.
For him, ignoring all the popularity that he got was hard enough. He knew himself well enough to know that he would eventually fall. Deep inside, under all the trained smiles and PR training he was just as much of a discordant engine of chaos that his son was. And 'chaos' and 'personality cult' were a really bad combination.
Revenant expected anguish. He failed to realize that he just freed All Might from the unwanted but necessary burden. That he did something that All Might expected to eventually happen. And sooner than later.
He already made preparations. Like warning Endeavor that this was going to happen. Or helping his son become a great hero that he always wanted to be.
But he… he still has a role to play. And one last duty to uphold before he'll finally be able to exit the stage.
He had to keep standing. No matter what happens.
(***)
Endeavor finally arrives at the scene. The assault on the PLF's base is basically over at this moment. There is only one threat left.
Too bad that it's a goddamn monstrosity that has just put All Might on the death's door with a single blow that has also leveled down half the city. It's a rather big threat. Endeavor is absolutely certain that he has never faced anyone even remotely close to this level.
The other heroes need time to evacuate whoever they can. He can see Tiger pulling people out of the ruins behind All Might, completely ignoring the fact that the another attack will probably end him together with everyone he was trying to save. The Number One Hero looks like he is barely able to stand straight.
"Endeavor!" The monster announces. Its voice sounds almost cheerful. Despite being distorted and creepy. "How nice of you to come by! How does that eternal second place of yours feel?"
Endeavor from a few months ago would have probably gotten angry at that. Not enough to act stupid. The villain in front of them has just destroyed a city! That's no place or time for acting on emotions. But his emotions would certainly flare up.
He changed. He doesn't even get angry at that. Not even the tiniest bit. There is only bitterness and sadness when hatred and anger once were.
"Look, do you see how weak your Number One is now?" Villain continues his little speech. "Guess what? I'm a perfect recreation of the villain that has torn his stomach and lung out. If you beat me, it'll be a sign that you truly become greater than All Might!"
Endeavor is almost certain that All Might lost said body parts due to falling for psychological tricks. Whatever that thing is, it knows where and how to stick a needle. Few months too late for it to work, but…
… does it know about it? Probably not.
He unleashes Jet Burn. The abomination replies with an air blast powerful enough to disperse it. Then it laughs.
"Fire Resistance times two." It says. "Air Cannon. Strength Enhancement times three. Power-Up times three." Its arms twist and change. And then, with a horrific, twisted and sadistic smile, it adds two more words. "Heavy Payload."
Endeavor wasn't in a position to see the earlier fight. But he had someone in his Agency's headquarters do it and report everything of use. He doesn't know that his enemy is calling up stolen quirks (or, well, copies of stolen quirks). But he knows how much of a difference the words Heavy Payload had earlier. He knows the panic on All Might's face when he heard it earlier.
There are heroes behind him. Heroes that are busy trying to save as many civilians as they can. Heroes that don't have even a fraction of his resistance and pure physical strength. There is only one thing left to do.
"PROMINENCE BURN!"
(***)
The second explosion to shake Kamino Ward is notably more subdued. Revenant, expecting Endeavor's retaliation, used some Fire Resistance quirks. Heavy Payload amplified the attack as expected, but the baseline attack was less powerful.
Then again, so was the man who decided to take it. But unlike exhausted and almost extinguished All Might, Endeavor's Prominence Burn had every inch of his strength put into it.
The attack was mostly repelled. But what was left after the 'mostly' repelled attack was enough to make Endeavor look no better than All Might. He was standing, yes. But that was all that could be said about him.
Revenant decided to remedy this immediately. Three seconds later Endeavor was impaled upon his Rivet Stabs. The man cried out in pain. Revenant promptly pulled him closer and slapped in the face.
With Spearlike Bones quirk on. Oh, that's one nasty wound. It will scar badly. Or, to be exact, it would scar badly if Endeavor was going to survive long enough for the wound to heal. It's unlikely to happen.
"Did you really think that you could defeat me?" Revenant laughs in the hero's face. This is his time of triumph. The time to change this day into the Paranormal Liberation Front's victory. The day for him to become like All for One - or perhaps, even better than he was?
Endeavor is floating in the air, still impaled on the Rivet Stabs. He seems to have avoided getting his vitals impaled, but… well, the human body is still a human body. If you get impaled like that, even if it's not something that kills you instantly, it will still hurt like hell and put you out of commission.
Someone needs to get to a hospital. Fast. One more thing that Endeavor will never get to do.
"No." Endeavor replies and coughs out a mouthful of blood. "But I was a very good distraction, wasn't I?"
What?
"UNITED STATES OF…"
Revenant realizes the trap he fell into instantly. He tries to call up as many defensive quirks as he can, but that's when Endeavor ignites again. Gathering up strength for the second Prominence Burn.
Two ultimate attacks of two top heroes. Two fundamentally different forms of damage. Each requires completely different quirks to hold against them, especially when they are both fired point blank. And Revenant has no time to calculate how much strength his enemies have left, especially as All Might is attacking him from behind.
His attack can be a bluff. It most likely is a bluff, he beat that man up to the very verge of death. So he stacks up fire resistance, with only a single out of three Shock Absorption quirks he is carrying.
He realizes that All Might's attack wasn't a bluff when Endeavor cancels out his attack at the last second, and instead uses the gathered fire to propel himself sideways while melting the Rivet Stabs away.
"... SMASH!"
Somewhere else, Doctor Garaki is screaming in horror at the TV screen.
(***)
The dust cloud is still covering them. Almost entirely deflated, All Might is standing at the verge of a crater. Revenant is lying inside of it, unconscious or dead.
Endeavor is still standing. He looks better than All Might, but considering the wound his abdomen sustained, he probably needs urgent medical attention. But he has one last thing to do this evening.
"Sh…shit." All Might mutters. "I think that would be all from me. My quirk's gone."
Endeavor truly and honestly hopes that All Might will at least bother to explain his quirk to him. Because Enji Todoroki has absolutely no idea what sort of crazy quirk that man has/had, despite pursuing him for years. He had never heard of a quirk that can 'run out' like that.
It's mostly an empty curiosity at this point. It's not like it matters.
"Well, I guess I'll have to take it from here." Endeavor replies. He can barely move around. He is almost certain that Burnin is already sending a medical helicopter for him. "How do you want to end this? Cameras will soon be able to see us." The dust cloud from the last explosion can only give them so much privacy.
"I'd raise my fist." All Might replies. "One last gesture of victory. But h… honestly, I don't think I can. I broke my left hand earlier, then my right hand with that last attack and…"
Now it really sounds like he is Midoriya's father. Is there a gene that makes you regularly break your own bones? Or is that a part of their quirk? Probably the latter, but Endeavor wouldn't bet on that.
"I think that I can help you with that." The Flame Hero replies.
When the dust cloud finally parts, Japan gets to see the last victorious gesture of All Might. The fact that Endeavor is helping him by holding his right arm up by his wrist only makes it more symbolic.
(***)
1-A Chatroom
ZapZap: OMFG PLEASE TELL ME THAT I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO SAW IT
Riot: You mean, the part where All Might looks like Midoriya's dad?
ZapZap: YES
Grapevine: SO I WASN'T IMAGINING IT
OmletteDuFromage: OUI
AcidParty: WE NEED ANSWERS AND WE NEED THEM NOW
BlackDarkness: Mad banquet of darkness.
AcidParty: CreativeSpirit, you know something!
CreativeSpirit: I know a lot of things, but I know nothing about this.
AcidParty: Are you sure? You seem pretty close. Wink wink.
CreativeSpirit: What?!
CreativeSpirit: You are barking up the wrong tree. Uraraka is his girlfriend.
AcidParty: SHE IS WHAT
Riot: … Mina, even I noticed that.
LeadSinger: They started dating soon after the internships, sigh.
AcidParty: OMG
AcidParty: GRAVITYGIRL SPEAK TO US
GravityGirl: Ugh
GravityGirl: He isn't picking his phone up, and I'm not going to talk about his family matters without his explicit approval.
TurboMan: Let's stop being pushy about it, alright? If the connection is truly there, Midoriya's father has almost died and is in the hospital in critical condition. When our class president shows up, he will answer all our questions.
CreativeSpirit: What about all 1-B students' questions?
CreativeSpirit: Monoma is flooding my inbox with messages that I don't know how to answer.
BoomBoom: Tell that -censored- that if he won't -censored- behave I'm going to visit him.
CreativeSpirit: Huh, it worked.
(***)
"... In the end, the raid was a success." The policeman continues his report in front of the National Public Safety Commission.
The men gathered in the room were mostly sidelined with the HPSC's ascension, but it's not like they mysteriously ran out of power. One of them was still a minister, responsible for overseeing the Japanese police. That gave him a lot of influence, even if mostly behind the curtain.
"We have managed to apprehend S-Rank villains Muscular and Deathmonger." The policeman continues. "The former was defeated by All Might, the latter by Yoshihiro Maki, one of the captured UA students. Even more importantly, two SS-Ranks, Liberator and Purity, were also arrested. The former by Tenko Shimura, whose betrayal was apparently false. The latter, once again, by Yoshihiro Maki. There is also the Revenant, who was provisionally marked as triple S-Rank villain, and who was apprehended by Endeavor and All Might."
"Makes you wonder what the hell the rat is doing to his students." One of the chairman comments. "Jesus Christ, we had half of the top hero rooster there, and most of the major arrests were done thanks to his first year students!"
"Weren't they assisted by the heroes?" Another chairman asks.
"Well, both SS-Rank's captures and Deathmonger were technically done with the heroes' assistance." The reporting policeman admits. "Shimura was helped by Gran Torino, while Maki by Miruko and Crust. However in both cases the heroes admitted that villains were essentially detained before their arrival." It's just that the people that incapacitated the villains in question weren't yet heroes. The legality of the whole mess was a bit… murky.
"Illegal quirk usage?" Another member of the Commission asks. Minister sighs painfully.
"Good luck trying to apprehend them for that without starting a civil war." He replies. Thankfully it was just a random remark, as it was rather obvious that the person in question wasn't dumb enough to actually propose that. "Especially Yoshihiro Maki. Let's just announce that due to being kidnapped their quirk usage was a legitimate self-defense, and write all of their arrests as citizen's arrests. I assume that Miruko, Crust and Gran Torino won't have anything against that. Those kids deserve some recognition."
Hero Commission president will have a lot against that. But considering the mess that just happened and how badly the police were prepared for it (and how HPSC did jack shit, except for trying to brand the whole kidnapping as UA's fault for Villain Rehab Course), the minister was ready to tell her to go screw herself.
He really wanted to see the look on her face when he would do that. HPSC acted like NPSC was its lap dog. Considering the loss of Thunderbolt, Endeavor suddenly getting all friendly with UA and the humiliation that this whole event was to the HPSC, it was perhaps the best time to reassert himself.
They needed to change a lot of things to prepare for what was coming.
The only thing that the minister was curious about was whether Yoshihiro Maki knew that someone was recording his little family time with Purity. With both audio and video. Whoever it was, they then anonymously uploaded it to the internet.
Seeing the supposed 'villain in training' apprehend Deathmonger and Purity, but not before giving the latter a trashtalk of a century (according to the minister's son, half of the lines were already memes on the internet) was a bit of a PR blow to the HPSC.
As its lackeys spend the last three days trashtalking UA for having the gall to let such a person enroll into their Hero Course.
And then Endeavor (from the hospital bed, no less) announced that Mieko Eto was instrumental in arresting Eclipse. And that without her warpgate, Overhaul would have rescued her mother. So both the supervillain kids that HSPC kept trashing about for days have actually apprehended (or assisted in apprehending) their villainous parents.
Nedzu has also done a press conference explaining that Miyuki Tagawa's 'murder victim' was a person who tried to rape her. Without knowing that his victim is poisonous. A bit too deep of a scratch, her extremely toxic fingernails driven in too deep… and suddenly, her future was ruined. Until UA decided to extend its hand.
He even mentioned Bakugou as someone genuinely regretting his previous behavior. And only incorporated into the Villain Rehab Course because he was conclusively proven to not participate in any of the bullying cases that ended fatally.
Add Shimura running a long con that nobody knew about, and all the other Villain Rehab kids being rescued with none of them cooperating with their captors. And yes, at least one of attempts to make them cooperate was recorded and anonymously publicized as well and Uyemura was already getting a lot of good rep for it.
The result was HPSC's monumental humiliation. One that probably stung twice as badly because it happened right after the HPSC felt like it just won its war against the rat principal. Nedzu was probably busy celebrating.
"We still lost the Symbol of Peace." One of the chairman commented. Yes, the minister managed not to think about it for ten minutes, thank you very much. "What's more, almost every remaining supervillain in the country is now a part of the Paranormal Liberation Front. Except for Mr. Compress, Stain and, perhaps, Dabi."
No one saw the Arch-Arsonist since the attack, but one of the heroes did see him almost burning Overhaul to death. It looked like some internal struggle within the PLF, but why did Dabi lashed out like that?
Strange.
"It was hardly a victory for us." Minister admits. "Endeavor seems to be off to a good start, but let's be real. Losing All Might is going to be a massive pain in the ass for everyone involved."
At least the Paranormal Liberation Front received a massive blow.
(***)
1-A Chatroom
CreativeSpirit: Let's get ready to welcome our missing friends back! They are all safe and unharmed. Police should be releasing them soon, they are still taking their testimonies about their time among the villains.
CreativeSpirit: Also it turns out that Tenko Shimura was faking defection, and has not only sabotaged the villain base from the inside but has also apprehended Liberator, an SS-Rank villain.
Riot: WHAT THE HELL
AcidParty: Didn't he almost kill Midoriya?!
CreativeSpirit: Bakugou Katsuki. Am I correct to assume that you know something? Being the person who shot Shimura off Midoriya before he could kill him, and all that.
BoomBoom: listen ponytail
BoomBoom: I got a -censored- character development during the internships
BoomBoom: when nerd tells me to do something, I do it, no questions asked
BoomBoom: because he probably has a plan but no time to explain it to me
BoomBoom: even when he tells me to let crustyface disintegrate his arm and only then bomb him away
Riot: wait, THAT WAS MIDORIYA'S PLAN ALL ALONG?!
BoomBoom: besides I heard him telling you through the radio to bomb the noumus after Tenko switches sides, so don't act so innocent, ponytail
CreativeSpirit: He forgot to mention that the disintegration bit was a part of the plan, so I assumed that Tenko switched sides for real, especially with how shocked Izuku appeared afterwards.
CreativeSpirit: …I'm going to kill Midoriya for being THIS reckless and self-destructive.
GravityGirl: I'm going to help you hide the corpse.
TurboMan: … tell me if you need a distraction or an alibi. I'll give you a hand.
BoomBoom: welcome to the character development club, four eyes
GravityGirl: Also still no contact with him, it has been two days now?
GravityGirl: -Censored- this, I'm visiting him.
(***)
Whether All Might's decision to keep the Symbol of Peace publicly apolitical was a good one is, honestly, for you to decide (or whether it was mostly post-AFO trauma). Even the good guys can sometimes make mistakes. From my point of view, if he tried to engineer the society, even in a good way, he'd just create more villains afraid that he's going to become a dictator. The personality cult he has in canon is cool mostly because he never seems to indulge in politics and similar things. Professional hero to the core. It could very easily become very, very bad.
The next chapter includes (among other things) Uraraka Ochaco applying Midoriya's school of psychological counseling to Midoriya himself, a discovery why exactly he reacted that way or another to Bakugou's veiled apology during the internships and... well, you're going to start realizing wtf actually happened during Kamino and with the whole serial betrayal thing. You'll find out this Friday :P
Also yes, that was All for One at his peak strength, expect missing the combat experience. And overbearing hatred for All Might from canon. Probably the reason why he was taken down so easily(?). All for One would block the final attack and would certainly not turn his back to All Might, no matter what was happening.