'Strength of mind: this determines your tactical and strategic thinking, your ability to plan and anticipate the enemy's movements. Experience is the greatest teacher as knowing the 'Art of War' verbatim will not teach you how to react to someone who's Quirk lets them change the battlefield with impunity. Strength of mind: this determines your tactical and strategic thinking, your ability to plan and anticipate the enemy's movements. Experience is the greatest teacher as knowing the 'Art of War' verbatim will not teach you how to react to someone who's Quirk lets them change the battlefield with impunity.'
—Excerpt from the recovered 'Tenets of Combat' likely authored by an underground hero or vigilante
Inko Midoriya watches the matches with interest. She knows many of them battling today: Tokoyami, dark and imperial who wins with ease; Kirishima whose loss breaks her heart even is she knows it was his worst possible matchup; Uraraka who wins without using her powers, exploiting her enemy's weakness viciously; and Iida who was so close to victory against Endeavour's son. She knows their names because Izuku talks of them constantly, and from the way his voice swells with warmth, she knows they are worthy of his love.
She watches her son win against Ashido and feels ill. It is the exact same way that Katsuki won his battle.
"Do not worry," Jin Mo-Ri, one her son's teachers, says in Korean. "Had you not seen Katsuki do the same, you would not be so upset."
She frowns. "I told him to win. How he wins matters. If he wins like that now, then what will he become later."
"Perhaps. But consider that he had no other way to win whilst also respecting his opponent. It was the expedient method. It was also kinder than taunting her with a protracted battle. He was paying her no attention for most of the battle. And when he did pay attention, he won easily."
Inko shakes her head as the intermission is called. "I'm going for a walk," she says to Mitsuki before heading out.
It gives her the opportunity to think and to clear her head. She doesn't like the idea of her son looking to Katsuki as inspiration for anything. A stand sells crepes and she indulges in one as she walks without thought to where she is going.
She spies Endeavour stalking across one of the hallways as she travels the bowels of the stadium. When she sees Izuku leaning pitifully against a wall, she wonders what has him so sad.
"Izuku."
He looks up, the sadness clearing away. "Kaa-san. Are you lost as well?"
She shakes her head. "No. You're the one with the bad sense of direction." He huffs. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, I…" He sighs, eyes scrunching in frustration. "What's the point of being a hero if I can't save anyone?"
She places her hands on his shoulders. "Who are you talking about?"
"Would you ever hurt me?" he asks suddenly instead of asking, eyes bright in a way that terrifies Inko.
"Never. I could never."
His shoulders shake as he tries holding in his tears. "Then why would"—He takes a shuddering breath—"Was dad kind to you?"
"Always." She pulls him close. "You have to explain if you want me to help."
He holds her tight. "I know. But it's not my secret to tell."
"You have a waiting room, right?" He nods against her. "Let's talk there."
She is not foolish enough to let Izuku lead her there. Instead, she asks him for the room number and finds her way there, glaring at anyone who so much as looks at them wrong. There is a TV showing the Festival and she seats Izuku before the screen.
"You're my son," she says. "I've told you before what that means to me."
"Mikumo."
She isn't ready for the pang of loneliness. For a moment she imagines him standing behind Izuku, perhaps the tiniest bit taller with hair as dark as Hisashi. It is just a vision of her long-held grief, not an objective truth.
"Yes, him. You are all I have left in this world. I could hurt you no more than the sun could stop shining."
The next contestants take their spot. Katsuki walks up one end whilst the girl Izuku won with does the same from the other end. The girl has a metal harness in addition to her jetpack.
"And Hisashi was always good to me. He was never cruel to me. Quiet, maybe, but never silent. Just like you get sometimes.
When the fight begins, the girl moves quickly, the harness seeming to aid her movement. She is fast enough to run past katsuki's explosions even if the boy doesn't attack ferociously. Her jetpack activates suddenly and she jukes in the opposite direction much faster than Katsuki can turn. Something metallic flies through the air and wraps around Katsuki.
A grappling hook, she thinks.
The girl pivots on the spot and Katsuki, tied to the end of the grappling hook, spins through the air. The crowd roars but Inko doesn't share the sentiment. Something about Katsuki is too calm for him to be worrying.
"Oh," Izuku says just before Katsuki grips the wire with both hands. The explosion breaks the wire and sends Katsuki flying.
Except, he lets off an explosion and rockets towards the girl. His speed, aided by gravity, is faster than the girl's reaction time. He slams into her and a cloud of smoke forms.
They wait a few anxious seconds before the smoke clears. Katsuki stands over an unconscious Mei. He nods to the girl when Midnight calls the match and stalks off the field.
"He respects her," Izuku says.
"Maybe. Why can't you tell me who you want to save?"
"Because if I tell you, I think you'll guess why. And that might as well be telling the secret."
Tokoyami enters the arena alongside the green-haired girl that beat Kirishima. He seems unconcerned by the possibility of her quirk despite it being a natural counter to his abilities.
When she takes his hand, she finds it shakes. She squeezes his hand until the shaking stops and a semblance of calm returns to him.
"Alright. Do you think you can save this person?"
"I don't know. But I have to try again."
When the match starts, the girl's vines dig deep into the ground just as Dark Shadow launches across the field. The dark creature—elder tree, her mind adds without approval—slams into a wall of vines and Tokoyami is forced to dodge the tendrils that rise up beneath him.
More vines appear where he lands and only Dark Shadow's quick attack slices through them and free Tokoyami.
"This isn't good," Izuku says as Dark Shadow drags Tokoyami away from danger. "She's already taken over too much of the field."
And she has. Dark Shadow vaults across the field and pulls Tokoyami with it until the are behind the girl.
The moment they land, vines break through the ground and wrap around them. Tokoyami and Dark Shadow struggle futilely as more vines surround them.
When Midnight rises from her seat to ask a question, Tokoyami roars back a response.
"He can't win…"
Izuku trails off as the darkness surrounds Tokoyami. Something large emerges from his torso similar to Dark Shadow but nothing like it at all. Where Dark Shadow seemed a shadow, this thing has obsidian scales that suck in the light and ropy muscles and gleaming claws sharper enough to cut through the vines as though they are paper.
The massive arm retreats into Tokoyami's body through the same portal it appeared in. The girl is wary. The stadium is silent. And Izuku hand shakes so hard she worries he will break her hand by mistake.
"No, no, no," he whispers. "Damn it, why didn't you tell me?"
"Izuku, that looked like—"
"A dragon," he intones gravely, "from the abyss."
When a flood of waves approaches Tokoyami, he shouts something. Dark Shadow lifts him just as the arm returns, this time with claws coated in dark fire.
The fire hurts her mind to look at. It reminds her of the time Izuku spoke of the birth of the universe, his eyes bright and feverish and bleeding. The dark flame doesn't so much burn as it does unravel the very existence of the vines until not even ash remains.
Her stomach lurches at the sight of these flames. They are too familiar. She knows how they work, has seen them many times before. Her grip around Izuku's hand tightens. He is here, and she uses that certainty to ground herself to the now.
Tokoyami lands on the stadium floor, heedless of the patch of dark fire beside him. His head is held high and his back ramrod straight. He says something to the girl. She looks to Tokoyami and then to the dragon's arm, before surrendering.
Midnight calls the match to the silence of the audience. The fire burning around the claws extinguishes and with it so do the flames still burning on the field. Mother and son watch Tokoyami walk away, head held high in victory.
"Izuku, how did he get to the abyss?" she asks numbly.
"I don't-I never took him there. I swear I didn't."
"I believe you." She takes a deep breath. "Izuku, I don't think you're the first person to touch the abyss."
He looks to her, the very expression of horror. "Kaa-san, d-don't make… please tell me you're making some horrible joke. Please."
"I'm sorry." She wipes away his tears before they form. "I told you about the anti-quirk riots. They didn't happen for no reason. When Taiwan sunk, quirkless people called for the head of the Imperial Heir. The Emperor stayed silent, and just when things were getting worse, Shikoku happened."
"The villain a-attack?"
"Is that what they tell you in school?" She shakes her head. "Izuku, the entire region went from peaceful to a battlezone in a single night. It was civilians fighting officers fighting villains fighting the imperial guard. It was madness and chaos. And at every single hotspot there were reports of dark fire."
"No, that's not p-possible."
"We don't know the reach of your quirk. We barely know anything. Who's to say someone else couldn't travel the abyss or call on the godflame?"
"H-how do you know that name?"
She blinks. "You said it before," she lies for the first time to her son.
He doesn't notice. "I can't…"
She merely holds him as the next contestants take the stage. She can't show her fear or hesitance. Because she never once thought of why Hisashi was so withdrawn in the days after the event. Everyone was shaken, everyone was tense. Even her husband in his white jacket that he rarely wore.
And yet, all she remembers is how silent he had been in the early hours of the morning, watching the aftermath of the event with her. It worries her now more than ever the possibility of his connections and how much chose not to tell her.
What did you do, Hisashi?
-TDB-
Ochaco Uraraka has questions. So many questions. All the questions, in fact. She isn't the only one in their booth with questions.
"Did anyone else just see the giant arms," Kirishima asks, eyes so wide she worries they'll fall out, "or the fire. You know the black fire. That fire."
Ashido elbows him. "Stop being stupid. We all saw it." She glances around the booth. "Right?"
Ochaco wants to sigh. Maybe if Iida were here, he would be able to get them to behave better. But no one has so much as seen a glimpse of him since his loss. She wonders if he's alright and decides she'll call him in the evening.
"I'm confused," Kaminari says, only half lucid. "Why did he have four arms?"
"Kaminari, dude, do us all a favour and shut up."
Ochaco, being the decent human being that she is, says, "Don't be mean. He's really stupid right now."
Ashido glances her way. "You're really vicious. I've read comment sections less vicious that you."
"No, I'm not. Tokoyami will tell us if he wants to." Ochaco stands and waves. "I have someone to beat."
She hopes to see Tokoyami on the way down and get some answers out him even if it would be easier to pull blood from stone. She does not.
Ochaco shrugs and puts on her best smile as walks to the arena. The audience is silent compared to how they were when Bakugou fought so she twirls and waves extravagantly. That garners some attention at the very least.
Shinsou is there already, staring at her intensely despite the bags under his eyes. I'll get him some chamomile tea right after I beat him, she decides. She may have a winning streak a mile long but she isn't cruel.
"Contestants ready," Midnight says through the speakers. "Fight."
Neither of them moves.
"You should just give up," Ochaco says. "I know all about your quirk and—"
"Really?"
Ochaco snaps her mouth shut and merely glares at Shinsou. He sighs.
"I guess you do know all about it," he admits, and raises his fists. "But I'm not giving up just because you asked."
Who is she to deny him his right to fight even if she does find it stupid?
She rushes forward, ready to win this fight quickly. His quirk is devastating in the right circumstances but so long as she refuses to answer anything he says, then he might as well be quirkless. And she knows his close combat skills are lacking.
When his elbow strikes her across her jawline, she admits she may have underestimated him a bit. She fails to dodge the knee to the side or the punch to the kidney. Ochaco grits her teeth through the blows and rolls back the first chance she has.
Her side is a mass of pain and she spits out some blood. Wiping her mouth probably leaves red smears but she doesn't care too much.
"That was mean," she says and watches him blush. Guilty, maybe?
She is more cautious this time. He narrowly avoids her first palm strike and scrambles to grab her wrists before the second. With his torso open, Ochaco takes the opportunity and knees him in the side. He gasps in pain.
Before she can tag him with her powers, he slams his head forward. She hears her nose crunch and feels like an explosion has gone off on her face.
Okay, I'm ending this, she thinks before kneeing him in the side again.
She twists and breaks his hold on her writs before slamming her palm straight into his sternum. She slides forward and pulls one of his arms back as she kicks his ankle to unbalance him. Without gravity to hold him down, he topples over easily right onto her shoulders.
She hoists him in a fireman's carry and dashes to the edge of the arena regardless of his kicks and blows. She tips him over and deactivates her quirk. He slams onto the ground with a gasp of pain.
"Shinsou is out of bounds," Midnight announces just before the crowd erupts into applause. She gives them a thumbs up.
"You're vicious," Shinsou whimpers from his spot on the ground.
She extends a hand to the boy. "I'll make it up to you."
Shinsou smiles weakly at her, and she feels her heart skip a beat. He takes her hand gently. "Want to go on a date?"
It takes her a moment to process the words he has just uttered. A second more for her face to flush red.
"What, you can't just-why would—" She stops uttering coherent words.
She stops only when Shinsou laughs. "I guess I win this round."
"I hate you."
"That's not a no."
-TDB-
The doorway appears, and the World Walker becomes one with the material world. The abyss fades away in streaks of green lightning, and the real-world beckons sweetly.
It is a room, large as an auditorium, that the World Walker appears in. A single desk frames the room, and the man sitting behind it wears the purest of whites. A chrysanthemum carving looms over the man, real gold blades crossed beneath the flower, a reminder of the dynasty he represents.
The Emperor raises a hand to forestall the guards in the room, all wearing the perfect white uniform of the Royal Guard. They are all powerful, and were they not owned by the Chrysanthemum throne, they would easily be contenders for the number one hero spot.
"You. You died."
The World Walker acknowledges this with a nod and approached. The operator within speaks and the Emperor listens.
"I ensured they were protected."
The World Walker considers this. Finds it lacking. Reminds the Emperor of his place.
"You saved my son, and I will forever be grateful that he lives. My debt is repaid."
The World Walker breathes the godflame and sets the Emperor's desk alight with infernal fire. The Emperor does not move and shows no fear. He waves his hand, an order to the people in the room.
The Royal Guard move to enforce their Emperor's directive.
The World Walker forms a doorway between himself and the bolts of lightning and lets them pass through to the darkness hiding beyond mortal understanding. Another doorway opens as the agent creates a field of electromagnetic potential that would crush a human easily. The creature beyond the doorway eats the electromagnetic field, neutralising the guard.
One moves fast as the light itself, so fast that the World Walker would fail to react under any other circumstance. But there is a creature in the abyss that makes deals as it breathes. And in exchange for protection against light, the World Walker would let it feast upon light itself.
A pillar of obsidian rises and protects the World Walker from the first physical strike. The agent creates dozens of beams of hardlight, all strong enough to carve a hole through a mountain of steel. The obsidian pillar eats of the light, sapping the agent of her power until she collapses.
A warp quirk attempts to engulf him in waves of frozen time so the World Walker shunts that power to a distant sun in the abyss. Another doorway opens to a small singularity and the concept of time breaks down around the agent, and he is trapped in a loop of his last five seconds, unable to escape.
And as all this is happening, dozens of illusions fill the air. There are monsters and nightmares and a normal human being would be crushed by the weight of these illusions. They illusions have mass and could very well harm. The operator within the World Walker stares at these illusions in contempt before opening a doorway beneath their creator and depositing her to the other side of the Imperial Villa. The illusions vanish with her disappearance.
Despite all of the World Walker's preparation, the sudden bolt of superheated plasma almost catches it by surprise. Almost and only because of the operator's sudden hesitance at the sight of the green wave of superheated death, hot as the sun but tightly contained and focused. The World Walker takes control once more and finds a creature within the abyss that will be able to handle this heat. In the same moment, dozens of doorways appear over the humans in the room to protect them from the immense heat. The agent almost looks chastised by his actions. The World Walker takes pity on the child and simply shunts him out the room without much malice.
And before the last can steal enough kinetic energy to punch a hole all the way through earth and out the other side, the World Walker opens a doorway to an area of infinite negative mass and waits very patiently until the woman understands all of the kinetic energy she generates is sucked away by that negative singularity. And when she does, the World Walker opens a doorway to the same time loop trapping her ally and leaves her in it.
It is over soon. These six Roya Guards who could invade and hold a city collectively, and individually are equal to All Might or All For One lay on the ground, damaged but still drawing breath.
And yet, despite the strength of the World Walker, the Emperor shows no fear.
The Emperor watches the World Walker but does not activate his quirk. What point is there in ripping the Imperial Villa apart when the attack will not harm the World Walker? It is this man's greatest weakness. His control of the earth eclipses all who came before. To the Emperor, raising a mountain is simple. But the magnitude of his powers mean that he cannot use it against anything less than a large town.
"Are you done having a tantrum," the Emperor asks patiently, almost like a parent scolding a child. "I expected more of you."
The operator within the World Walker speaks again.
"The boy was innocent of any crime. I killed my son to save my son. That boy called me father, thought I was his father, and looked to me for protection before it was done. He cursed me to his dying breath. All of that just to please the masses."
The World Walker does not care for the rebuttal of this man who can silence volcanoes and silence tectonic plates.
"Tell me what you want and begone."
The World Walker does so with pleasure. In a few minutes a new accord is struck and the World Walker steps through reality to the darkness. Travelling across the abyss is an exercise in navigating streams of relative sanity and avoiding the true dangers here. A winged creature, the secret-keeper itself, proves its benevolence and permits the World Walker to ride in the wake of its gargantuan wings.
That shortcut deposits this one near the bones of a dragon. The World Walker inspects this creature. Its frame lacks the echo of the godflame and its bone structure is more serpentine than that of other dragons. It is still warm to the touch, but its last wish has been spent. It simply waits for the wish to be fulfilled in full.
When a patch of the unreal lines up with the mortal coil, the World Walker forms the doorway and banishes the barriers between worlds. With a mighty step vaster than reality, a new room becomes reality.
A man sits in this shrouded room, the hiss of a breathing mask filling the air, and the beep of life support increasing in tempo for a moment as All For One inspects the World Walker. The great villain is silent for a long moment.
"Are you the reason the Imperial family's increased security these past two days?"
The World Walker offers no answers and instead asks a question.
"You are still a rude man," All For One says. "And yes, Shikoku shows no signs of contamination. Tell me, did you believe you could live a life of mundanity after what we did?"
The World Walker does not set anything on fire. It is a close thing.
"It took me a few months to piece everything together. I do not find myself annoyed, you see. It is incredibly rare for one man to move both I and the Emperor. My people diverted attention and you accomplished the Emperor's mission. It was a brilliant masterstroke."
The malevolence of All For One permeates the air. The World Walker would collapse if not for having witnessed the indifference of gods. As it is, this is nothing more than mildly interesting.
"Do not attempt to do so again. My patience runs thin. Do not forget that I am the strongest man alive. Your powers will not protect you from my wrath."
The operator within the World Walker laughs. "You may be that," the Operator says without fear, "but even the strongest man must be polite and offer his guests tea. It's been a long time since I had any."
All For One lets the malice fade from the air. Soon enough, the two are seated and drinking tea. Speaking as though they are allies when they are the furthest from it.
The World Walker finds this unnecessary but it is the wish of its operator. And so it cedes control and waits, patiently cataloguing any and all threats.
A/N:
That's all from me for now. Thank you for reading this. If you enjoyed the story leave a favourite and if you have any questions just drop a review. But know all of that is unnecessary, and as always your readership is quite enough for me. Cheers.