A/N: Sorry, folks, I know it's way late on my schedule, but the next chapter is here!
P.S. Trigger warnings for graphic violence and mentions of sexual abuse in this chapter. If you wish to skip this subject matter, please message me, and I will be happy to send an abridged summary of this chapter's events.
A Future No More
Explosions were rocking the facility from all sides as Akarui led Kota and Eri into one of the side passages that had been left unguarded as the villains moved to intercept the heroes who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, leaving the path clear to the trio after Kota knocked the door off its hinges with a high-pressure water blast. Without hesitation, Akarui dashed down the hall and banked a sharp left at the first intersection, the two young heroes hot on his heels.
It wasn't too long before they encountered a villain who had been left to guard the passageway, even in spite of the heavy assault taking place outside. One of his quirks gave him four gorilla-like arms, but Akarui couldn't yet tell what his other power might be, and none of them were overly eager to find out. Kota leaped in front of the others with a shouting of the words, "Aqua Jet!" Water blasted out of his hands behind him, sending him rocketing forward fast enough to get him inside the reach of his opponent before the man could swing any of his bulky fists. This was followed by a punch to the gut that was augmented by a water burst that sent him smashing upward into the ceiling.
As he was dropped to the floor with a pained grunt, Eri moved forward to make her own move. Her horn glowed as she placed a hand on the villain, enveloping him in a bright light. When it faded, his extra arms were gone, and his appearance had become completely normal. "Alright, he's powerless," she informed the others, which led to them making a break for it down their chosen path once again. She had trained hard for several years, and as a result, she had learned how to rewind certain aspects of living beings instead of the entire organism if she so chose, one such ability being able to revert a person into a state of quirklessness. If it bothered her that she had mastered the ability that Chisaki had cultivated from her blood as a child, she never said a word on the matter.
The trio did not run into any more villains on their way to the vault, but Akarui had to keep them from tripping several-dozen traps along the way. In spite of this, Kota decided to ask, "Don't you think it's weird that we haven't seen anyone since four-arms back there?"
"Not especially," Akarui muttered as he used a few nanites to infect and disable a sensor that would respond to a pressure plate not two feet in front of them. "There's so many traps in here that it would be difficult for anyone to fight, including the villains."
"Since when does Shigaraki take his men's safety into consideration?" Kota scoffed while Eri kept an eye out for any approaching enemies.
"Since he risks damaging a vault full of irreplaceable quirks," Akarui answered as he stood up, his work done. "Besides which I'm expecting at least one or two more guards before we get into the storage area, and that their powers will be no joke. He's not stupid. Arrogant to the point of predictability, yes, but not unintelligent." He beckoned his comrades to follow him as he stepped past the now-defective trap.
"Any guesses as to who he'd have guarding something so important?" Eri asked as Kota blasted a turret that popped out of the wall into scrap metal without even blinking.
"No, but I imagine that we'll find out in a moment," Akarui answered as he glanced down at his wrist, which had a miniature hologram of the fortress on it. A few minutes after breaking in, he had managed to find a terminal to extract the data that he needed for their mission to succeed. He had also sent a copy of the map to the other heroes, but he gathered that they were still too busy to respond, given the rumbling floor and explosions that they could hear in the background.
"Are we almost there?" Eri asked.
"Next right, and there aren't any traps listed on the schematics," the young man nodded grimly.
"Doesn't mean that there aren't any," Kota pointed out.
"I know."
"What's the plan?"
"There's a pair of life-support capsules around the corner, but if I'm reading this correctly, they're not for any kind of Nomu we've seen before," Akarui said in a low tone as they approached the aforementioned corner. "As soon as we walk in that hallway, whatever's in there is gonna be woken up, and I doubt that it'll be in a chatty mood. We'll have to power our way through."
"Or I blast the life-support before they get a chance to wake up," Kota shrugged. "If this is the last line of defense, it's a pretty stupid one."
"Like I said before, Shigaraki isn't totally stupid, and the Doctor is sharper than most," Akarui grumbled. "If it weren't for my quirk, I'd say he's the next smartest person I know of after All For One and Melissa Shield."
"What's your point?"
"Not only are those life support capsules unlike any design I've seen these guys use before, the materials used to construct them are on par with things like Ingenium's metal, which if you recall, was able to withstand the full force of my brother's quirk for extended periods of time," the last Hogo-sha said as he turned a baleful eye on the watery hero. "You think your quirk can blast something like that?"
"Is there some way your nano tech could keep them from waking up?" Eri asked before the two of them could start arguing.
"I wish," Akarui muttered. "Any sort of tampering, even with tech like mine, and whatever's inside will be released. And without any idea of what their powers are, our best bet is to get in close and have Eri rewind them."
"I'll only be able to do one at a time if I rewind their quirks," Eri warned him. "I can rewind them both into a quirkless state, but that runs the risk of me accidentally affecting the two of you, since I'll be expelling my powers into an area instead of just concentrating on a single target."
"Then we'll do our best to restrain them so you can use Rewind individually," Akarui decided before he walked around the corner, his nanites spreading across his body as he did until he was clad in a blue suit with orange trim that bore a vague resemblance to a humanoid dragon, complete with scales and claws.
The two teenagers took a moment to be impressed before they followed their group leader, having heard an alarm blaring from where the capsules were supposed to be. Akarui had stopped about halfway down the hall as steam filled the air while the two capsules' doors slammed upward, allowing two figures to clamber out without the dizziness and fatigue that one normally could expect after being woken up from tech-induced comas.
"Finally!" a hearty voice called from within the steam- a voice that caused Kota to halt in place with wide eyes. "I dunno how long I've been out, but I know it's been way too long since I got to kill something!"
"As long as I get some of their blood once you're done, I don't mind watching," a girl's voice added, following by a sinister giggling that made Akarui's scalp prickle.
"Even for Shigaraki, this is going too far," Eri murmured in a trembling voice.
"You're telling me," he muttered as Himiko Toga stepped out of the steam with a bright-eyed smile that she quickly fixed on Akarui. "I thought we'd seen the end of this after Mina wasted that nutcase when you guys rescued me from Dabi."
"I guess this confirms your theories on Shigaraki's attempts to create Nomu more advanced than even the High-End," Kota added as he clenched his fists, water ready to fly at the first hint of trouble.
After learning the extent of Akarui's torment at the hands of Shigaraki's lieutenants, Mina had flown into a rage that her friends had seen but once before- the day that she had mutilated Switch. Unfortunately for Toga, time had not been kind to Ashid Queen's temperament, which had resulted in a fight where the blood-sucking fiend was reduced to a pile of bloodied goop and acid. Her body's destruction had been so complete that they had been sure they would never be bothered by the shape-shifter again.
Evidently, Shigaraki valued the woman's capabilities too much to allow her to rest, even now. The last Hogo-sha's best guess was that whatever was standing in front of him, be it some kind of new Nomu or even a clone, she would be even deadlier than the crazed woman had been in her prime.
"Akarui, dear, is that you?" Toga now asked as she noticed his glare, ignoring the younger heroes and tilting her head while her smile widened. "It is you, isn't it?! I'm so glad to see you again!"
"Hey, don't forget we're supposed to kill anything that gets this far," said the other speaker as he stepped into plain view, which caused Kota's teeth to be bared in a snarl as he recognized the hefty figure. "Wait a sec, I think I know that brat!" the villain known as Muscular exclaimed as he pointed at Kota. "You're the kid who was there when that blond chick got the better of me! The Water Hose heroes' kid!"
"I'm Water Hose, now," Kota said defiantly as he got into a fighting stance while he faced off against his most hated enemy. "And today's the day you're finally gonna get what's been coming to you for twelve years."
Unlike Toga, the heroes had no record of Muscular having been killed in battle, only that he had disappeared about three months ago without any explanation. Akarui had suspected that he was finally being augmented in some way for the Front, but had been unable to find solid proof. Now it seemed like those suppositions were being confirmed, and the timing was far from ideal, given his current roster.
With that in mind, he started to say, "Kota-"
"Save it, Hikari," Kota interrupted as Muscular's body began to swell in size, a maniacal grin splitting his scarred face from ear to ear. "I'm not about to stop you from taking on Toga, so don't you dare try to get in the middle of this. Don't waste your breath and let me do what I need to do- what is my right to do."
"You're definitely talking a bigger game than you were the last time we met, kid," Muscular said as he crouched in preparation to jump. "Your parents took out my eye, and your friends almost killed me more than once- think you can be the one to finish the job?!"
"Why don't you come and find out?" Kota replied in a dark tone as his eyes burned with hatred for the massive villain, water already swirling in his hands.
That was all the invitation that Muscular needed to leap over the heads of Eri and Akarui to head straight for Kota, who immediately beat a retreat down the hallway that they had come from. "Where you going, brat?!"
"Catch me if you can!" Kota shot back as he disappeared from his friends' line of sight. Muscular let out a delighted howl as he barreled after his prey, eager to shed blood for the first time in what felt like years.
Eri and Akarui couldn't afford to pay much attention to them, though. Akarui was eyeing Toga warily from behind the orange, jewel-like eyes of his nano-suit while his teammate hung back, waiting for an opportunity to strike at their enemy. In an effort to keep her attention focused on him, Akarui asked Toga, "How'd you come back like this? What's Shigaraki playing at?"
"You should really take a girl out to dinner before you start asking such personal questions," Toga giggled. In spite of the fact that she was well past the appropriate age to get away with it, she apparently still preferred to dress up in the school outfit of her high school years, though she was noticeably lacking in her usual weapon's choices. In fact, Akarui didn't see a single blade on her, nor did his suit's sensors detect any metal on her person.
She lives for making people bleed out, though, he thought as he flexed the claws on his fingers. How's she gonna do that without a weapon?
Seeing the movement from his hands, Toga let out an excited squeal before she said, "Oh, Akarui dear, you didn't have to try so hard to match me!"
"…What?"
"We're so in sync!" she laughed as she held up her right hand, her nails suddenly sprouting five-inch diamond claws. "I think mine look a lot prettier, though, wouldn't you agree?"
"Shigaraki must have given her another quirk," Eri surmised as she eyed the woman with a new degree of wariness. "Hopefully it was just the one…"
"Wow, Eri, I hardly recognized you!" Toga chirped as she finally seemed to take notice of the young heroine. "I wonder if you still bleed as much as you used to…?" She settled into a slight crouch as she added in a softer tone, "Only one way to find out, but I'll have to wait on you until after Akarui and I have been properly reacquainted. You don't mind waiting, do you?"
Before Eri could give an answer, a blur of blue smashed into Toga's stomach, sending her reeling while she coughed up blood. "I mind," Akarui growled as he lowered his leg, having felt that he'd tolerated enough insanity for one day. To Eri, he quickly added over his shoulder, "Even if she looks human, she's probably got powers on par with an advanced Nomu- more than just two quirks." And here's hoping super regeneration wasn't one of them.
"Ooh, look at it…" Toga said as wiped at her mouth and stared at the blood on her sleeve. "It's so pretty… And it's such a good way to get to know the people you like, right Akarui dear? Spilling your guts to each other?!" She dashed forward with a surprising swiftness given the injury she had just received, her claws aiming to swipe at his throat. "Come on, sharing is caring!"
"You're welcome to keep to yourself, this time!" Akarui yelped as he intercepted her attack by seizing her wrist in a vice grip that halted her momentum. Toga responded by displaying her trademark flexibility and evasive maneuvering to slip out of his grip and get behind him with her claws held to his throat. "Aw, crap baskets."
Guess I was right about Nomu-equivalent healing capabilities.
"You know, you smell like your brother," Toga whispered in his ear, causing him to shudder. "I remember the first night I saw him… He was the most handsome boy I'd ever seen, covered in beautiful red. You remind me of him so much, especially after Dabi let me get to know you… Do you remember our time together, Akarui dear?"
"Hard to forget," he replied with a slight growl in his throat. During his time as the Front's prisoner, he had been personally subjected to interrogations by Dabi in an effort to learn more about the Hero Alliance, but he had never cracked. Once he realized that his methods were getting him nowhere, the son of Endeavor had called upon one of his more unhinged comrades to try and wrest the information out of him, and when she was in the interrogation room, it became less of a struggle for Akarui to keep his secrets than it was to just maintain his sanity. Toga was creative and obsessive with the thought of getting to see his blood poured out on his skin, and on more than one occasion, Dabi or the Doctor had been forced to step in with a healing Nomu to keep him from actually bleeding to death. However, it wasn't just the fact that she had cut him up so many times that still haunted him, even in spite of the scars that he still bore as a testament to his survival. When she became especially frustrated by his reticence, Toga would use his body however she chose in order to satisfy desires darker than even bloodletting.
To feel her so close to him again was enough to make Akarui want to black out and escape into the safety of unconsciousness, so that he might be spared reliving those horrors in particular, but he managed to maintain his awareness with the same iron will that had seen him through his tortures without giving up anything on his friends. And when you die this time, I won't even leave a speck of your DNA for your boss to use, he vowed as he prepared to make his move.
Meanwhile, Eri was looking hesitant to approach, as it would be difficult for her to use her powers without catching him up in its effects, plus she would have to get in close with an opponent who was an expert in hand-to-hand combat. At the same time, she couldn't just stand there and wait for something to happen. So she cast her eyes about, looking for something, anything she could use to help Akarui, even if just a little. My quirk can't be the only thing I rely on in a fight! she reminded herself.
Then she saw a jagged piece of metal sticking out of the wall, which had been warped and fractured when Muscular had torn off after Kota, and she had an idea. With only a second of hesitation, she suddenly yelled, "Hey, Toga!" The blond woman's deranged gaze twitched over to her as she drew back her hand and added, "How's this for bleeding?" She then slapped the distorted wall, hardly even flinching when the metal bit into her flesh, spraying her blood across the hall.
"Oh!" Toga let out a delighted gasp, and for just a second, her grip on Akarui slackened.
That was all the time that he needed to yank on her arm and upend her so that she landed flat on her back in front of him, the breath being driven out of her lungs so that it would take even her a moment to recover- something that Akarui had no intention of letting her have. The nanites covering his face retracted so that she could see the animalistic, murderous fury that had infected his eyes before he slammed a clawed hand over her face, cutting into her cheeks with his claws as he did. "Eri, look away," he ordered as some of the nanites from his arm snaked across Toga's body and pinned her securely to the ground so that any movement would effectively strangle her.
The heroine, who had been using her quirk to rewind her damaged hand, looked at him askance as she saw his transformed face. "What are you going to do?" she asked him as his claws began to sink deeper into his enemy's face, who was giggling from underneath his hand, as if she hadn't a care in the world.
"I updated your com device after we initially broke in so that it can broadcast a signal that will get us past the locks and allow us to retrieve what we came here for," he snapped. "Look for a compartment labelled 'Nana'." When she still hesitated, he glared up at her and shouted, "Go!"
Eri let out a small yelp, but she moved to do as she was told. Whatever was going on with Akarui right now, she did not want to anger him any more than he already seemed to be. So she dashed past the young man and his captive, who was now beginning to struggle as it dawned on her that her assignment was being compromised. Akarui held her down until Eri had made it past the doors, after which he drew back his other hand and flexed his razor-sharp claws.
It sounded like Toga was trying to say something, but his grip on her face was too tight by this point. She tried to kick him, but he batted away her leg, leaving several deep slash marks with his suit's claws when he did, and he never once broke eye contact with her. "You should have ignored the Doctor and killed me when you had the chance," he snarled before he felt the nanites in his suit vibrating in response to his command. As he registered the sensation, Akarui was glad that the base's alarms were blaring as they were, then.
Otherwise, Eri might have heard the dying, tortured screams of his victim as he made use of a particularly nasty, hidden function of his suit that he doubted even Bakugo would have been able to stomach.
"Stop flying around, you stupid brat!" Muscular shouted as he swung at Kota, who used a geyser from his hands to send him rocketing upward, out of the reach of the villain's huge arms.
"Right, like I'm just gonna stand there and let you pulp me!"
"Why not?" Muscular asked with a nasty grin on his face. "It's what your parents did."
"You think I'll fall for a taunt like that?!" Kota snapped as he stopped his ascent right before he would have hit his head on the ceiling. "I'm not the same kid you tried to kill last time!" The two of them had crashed into the garage, where there were multiple armed vehicles and even a tank parked inside. Of course, a fair number of them had been destroyed as their fight had progressed, but neither combatants cared overmuch.
"Nah, you're definitely more like that Midoriya guy," Muscular agreed. "But unlike him, you don't have any friends coming to help you when your power isn't enough!"
"Bold of you to assume that I don't have the power I need!" Kota countered before he began to descend head-first toward Muscular, the water spraying from his hands now whirling around his body to transform him into a watery torpedo.
The villain laughed again and shouted, "That's more like it! Show me your blood!"
"Pacific… SMASH!" Kota screamed as his attack slammed into Muscular, checking the massive villain's fist in place, and causing him to grunt in surprise when he couldn't make contact with his younger opponent.
"What the-?!"
"For the cause! For my Mom and Dad!" Kota shouted as the water surged forward, still whirling at vicious speeds to strike Muscular. "You've shed your last drop of blood!" The water cut into Muscular's massive body, shearing through his muscle fibers and the tendons that had been exposed to render the man's motor control absolutely useless by the time that Kota had shot past the villain and skidded to a stop against the tank.
He turned back around to see if Muscular had fallen, only to have his eyes widen as the huge villain laughed mockingly while turning around to face the young hero again. "Not bad, kid," he chuckled as his body began to knit itself back together. "If your parents had thought of that ten years ago, I would've been toast! But thanks to Shigaraki, my body can regenerate fast enough that even my own power doesn't put me at risk anymore!"
"Regeneration, huh?" Kota muttered as he got to his feet. "Good thing my teachers trained me to move with contingencies in mind, then." He held up a palm to face Muscular, who suddenly halted in place, a contorted look of pain on his face.
"What… the hell?!" The big man strained even harder to move his body, but he couldn't seem to make it happen, and the more he struggled, the more it hurt. "Did'ja get another quirk, too?! Is that it?!"
"Hardly," Kota said coldly. "This is my power, alone, and I've been saving this move just for you, in the event that we ever crossed paths. I remembered the first time that we met, you said something about your muscle fibers tearing through your skin whenever you used your quirk. I also remembered that once Firecracker was able to break apart the muscles in your arms, you were vulnerable to a direct impact in your chest."
"So… what?!"
"So when I hit you with all that water and tore apart your muscles, I made sure that it didn't go to waste," Kota answered as he fixed his enemy in place with a dark smile. "I can't control other liquids unless the water I produce from my body comes into direct contact and mixes with it, first. But since your quirk and my attack left your entry points so exposed, it was easy for me to mix my water into your bloodstream, which means…"
Before the villain could ask what he meant, his body began to swell, even larger than what his quirk normally did to him, and it was incredibly painful. He couldn't even speak, as his tongue had swelled up in his mouth, cutting off his airway enough to make him choke. Kota kept his hand in place as he continued to manipulate the blood inside of the man who had made his childhood into an empty hell with the death of his parents. He let the swelling continue until the skin on the man's face began to split apart before he growled, "You're done, Muscular." He clenched his fist and painted the cars behind his enemy a dark scarlet.
Eri ran through the room that contained the stolen quirks of the deceased, trying to ignore the crawling feeling that had come under her skin as she did. She spotted a computer terminal quickly enough and held her wrist over it as she tapped three buttons that Akarui had shown her to use when he had given her the equipment for the mission at hand. The terminal flashed to life and immediately began to blur through hundreds of panels of information as the program Akarui had written sought out their goal.
It only took a few seconds for the right file to be found, but with the explosions thundering around her and shaking the facility, as well as the thought that there might be more villains on the way to kill her and her friends, it felt like an eternity. As soon as the screen stopped moving and showed the file labeled 'Nana', she hit another button on her wristband which would order the computer to produce the desired quirk.
She turned around when she heard a beeping sound coming from her left, and saw one of the compartments in the wall sliding out, so she made a run for it, not wanting to waste even a second of the time being bought for the sake of the mission. She half-expected the compartment to be empty, which would confirm her suspicions that this whole thing was just a giant trap, but to her surprise, she was able to pull out a small vial that contained what looked like a web of rainbow-colored lightning. Hardly able to believe it, she triggered the com function on her wristband and said, "Does anyone read me? This is Lamillion, and I have the package."
"Water Hose here, I copy," Kota said almost immediately, filling Eri's heart with another measure of relief. "I've taken care of Muscular, and I have a probable means of escape. If Ground Zero or Hikari can hear me, please authorize a rendezvous outside the garage."
"This is Hikari, what's our means of retreat?" Akarui answered.
"We've got our pick between a few cars and a tank," the watery hero answered.
"Dust the tank, it's too slow to be of use to us, but we don't need them coming after us with it," Akarui ordered as the door to the room slid open. "I'm about to blow the room containing the quirks, so anyone else who copies, break off the attack and meet us on the east side of the base." As he approached, Eri winced at the sight of the blood splattered across his suit, but he didn't seem to care much. As he lowered his arm from his face, he told her, "Keep count of who's coming to meet us at the hangar. I'll need to know as soon as possible if we need to send reinforcements to any of the others."
"Alright." She waited while he used his nanites to plant several explosives around the room, acknowledging each hero as they answered that they would be able to make the rendezvous. After a few minutes had passed, Akarui returned to her and raised an eyebrow, having retracted his helmet. She quickly told him, "Everyone but Bakugo and Schnee have reported in."
Akarui frowned at that as he took the capsule containing One For All before saying, "Something's gone wrong. I can understand one of them not reporting in, but if they're both quiet, something's happening."
"Very astute, Kai Junior," a familiar voice said from their comlink, causing both Eri and Akarui to go very pale. "Now, if you'd be so kind as to put what you've found back where it belongs, and I'll make your friends' deaths painless."
"Don't even think about it, Saiyabrat!" Bakugo's voice shouted in the background. "He played us! They knew all alo-!" There was a sound of flesh striking flesh that cut the explosive hero off and made Akarui cringe as he realized that he had made a big mistake.
"Of course I knew," Tomura Shigaraki laughed. "You really thought that I would let this place be discovered so easily? I knew that if I dangled that power as a lure, you would all be unable to resist the chance to get it, especially you, Hikari. And really, that's what this is all about."
"What do you want with me?" Akarui demanded. "This isn't the first time you've tried to take me alive, so I know that it's not just my quirk that you want. You could've taken that off my corpse if you needed it so badly, so what's your angle?"
"You're right, I don't need your quirk," Shigaraki admitted. "I have several capable of increasing my mind already, so Solar Intelligence on its own is useless to me. No, I need your mind and your experiences with Inika and One For All."
"Why?"
"Because you're the only one left alive who knows the complete ins and outs of the two greatest powers ever created by All For One," the villain replied in a sibilant hiss. "You're the only one who can figure out how to make One For All do what I want it to do. Oh, and if you refuse, after I kill all of your friends, I'll turn them into Nomus."
"Good luck killing us, Wrinkles!" Awase shouted from his end. "Your elites haven't been able to do us in yet!"
"You're assuming that I've already used my best game pieces against you today," Shigaraki laughed. "You've been dealing with this fortress' pawns… Now you're gonna deal with the rooks, knights, and bishops."
"What, no queen?" Todoroki asked dryly. "If you think you're going to win against us without your best, you're sorely mistaken."
"Everyone, stop!" Akarui suddenly shouted into his piece. "Shigaraki, let's make a deal."
"A deal?" the lead villain chuckled. "This is new, coming from you."
"Yeah, well, I try to stay out of the field as much as I can, so all of this is kinda new for me," Akarui said grimly, holding up a hand to keep Eri from interrupting him. "There's only two ways that this can go, so here it is; either I come to you with One For All and do what you want, on the condition that you let all of my friends leave this place, alive and unharmed, or I destroy this quirk right now, and we both take heavy losses."
For a moment, Shigaraki was quiet, but he eventually said, "Even if you destroy the quirk, I can just revive it again. Why should I agree to those terms?"
"You know how to extract a quirk from a corpse," Akarui snapped. "But I'm willing to bet my life that you don't have a way to recover it once it's been destroyed in its inanimate form. And before you even try to play the bluff that I'm not holding the real quirk in my hand, save it. My scanners have already detected traces of Midoriya and my brother's DNA in this vial, so I know it's the real one."
"You'd give up everyone's lives that you care about, just to deny me that power?" Shigaraki asked with disbelief. "Doesn't seem very hero-like."
"Well, unlike everyone else here today, I'm not a hero," Akarui snorted. "I'm just tech support, which means that I'm not bound by the same moral code as the rest of them. If I have to make this sacrifice, I will, besides which I don't think you want to chance that I'm bluffing, especially given the lengths that you've gone to acquire and preserve this quirk. So what'll it be, Shigaraki?"
"…Fine, have it your way," the leader of the Front snarled. "But you'll pay for it in another way once this is all over with, be sure of that."
"I don't doubt it," Akarui replied bitterly. "Everyone else, don't bother with a rescue op this time. We all remember what happened to Real Steel, and I don't want a repeat of that on my conscience. I'm cutting my coms now, so… Goodbye. Don't do anything my brother wouldn't have wanted you to do." He slapped his wrist device angrily, cutting off his connection to the others.
Eri was looking at him with her jaw dropped, but somehow she managed to say, "You know he's going to double-cross you, right? Why would you agree to this?"
"I'm the smartest person in the country, of course I know what he's gonna do," Akarui snorted after he shut off her com device with his own. "Which is why I need you to listen to what I say next very carefully."
Akarui walked into the wing of the fortress where Bakugo and Weiss had gone with his hands held up and his nanotech stored in his bracelets. His breaths were shaky and his heart was pounding, but he continued on, knowing that this was what he had to do. If you're watching this Kurai, help me to do the right thing, like you would have, he thought as he turned a corner that had been blackened by an explosion. I wonder, did you feel like this when the time came?
He stopped when he saw Shigaraki standing slightly behind and between a beaten Bakugo and unconscious Weiss. "They're alive, as per our agreement," the leader of the villains said in a calm tone. "My pieces are standing by the hangar, ready to drop in on your friends the second you try to double-cross me." Bakugo was gagged, and he was glaring at the younger Hikari, but he ignored him for the time being.
"I may not be a hero, but I keep my word when it concerns my friends," Akarui replied in a similar tone.
"Weren't you saying just a minute ago that you'd sacrifice all of them in order to rob me of what's mine?" the villain asked with narrowed eyes.
"I can do it if it's necessary, but I don't think that it is, in this case," Akarui shrugged. "I may have to do your work today, but as long as they're out there, and alive, I know that they'll figure out a way to stop you. Even if it takes a thousand years, another All Might, or Deku, or Kai will rise up to end your tyranny. We may not be the fire that reduces you to ash, but as long as they carry the spark, my own life is inconsequential."
"Yes, it is of no consequence," Shigaraki agreed with his hideous smile. "But you're also wrong, Hikari. I have grown beyond even the strength of my master, to heights where no one else can ever go. No matter how much time passes, no matter what heroes come to challenge me, my world has come to stay."
"If that's true, then why do you fear this so much?" Akarui asked as he pulled the requested vial out of his pocket.
"I don't fear it," Shigaraki replied, his voice laced with irritation. "I just would rather use it to bring about an end to people like your friends with a little more efficiency than what I'm currently wielding. Now, are you going to make it do what I want, or am I gonna have to make this messy?"
Akarui held up his free hand in a halting motion when Shigaraki's palm neared Bakugo's face, who continued to glare up at the two of them without flinching. "One For All is passed along through the interaction of someone's DNA," he said as he approached the villain with measured steps. "Normally, this is done by the will of the current holder, but of course, that can't happen anymore."
"I already know all this," Shigaraki snapped. "I'm not big on patience, Hikari, so you'd better be going somewhere with this."
"Oh, I am," Akarui nodded as he came to a stop a few feet away from the villain, just outside his arm's reach. "The DNA is the key. Because everyone you've tried to inject it with has no blood relation to Kurai, the quirk won't accept them, due to their alien presence. Unfortunately, that means that my genetic code is probably the only one that the quirk will recognize and assimilate."
"And how does that help you here?" Shigaraki demanded as he narrowed his eyes at the younger man. "You think that I'll just let you take the power without bringing consequences down on your friends?"
"I didn't say that I had to take the quirk, just that my DNA needed to assimilate it, first," Akarui responded as stream of nanites congealed in his hand to form a syringe, which he then jabbed into his left arm with a grunt. As the small tube began to fill up with his blood, he went on to say, "Mix One For All with my blood, then inject it into yourself. The blood will be assimilated into your body, and the quirk along with it." With that, he pulled the syringe out and put it in the same hand that was holding the other vial.
When Shigaraki reached for it, however, Akarui's gauntlet reappeared around his hand and he said in a warning tone, "Send Bakugo and Schnee to the others, first. I know you have portal quirks that can accomplish that easily enough. Once they're safely through, I'll hand these over. Try to take it by force, and One For All goes away forever."
Shigaraki hissed with displeasure, but he conjured a portal beneath each of the heroes and dropped them through. "There, happy?"
"Maybe," the younger man answered. "I did kill that Toga-Nomu, or whatever the hell it was, so I'd call it the start of a good day. Lamillion, you read me?" At the last part, he spoke into his wrist com.
"I read you," Eri's voice replied. "Ground Zero and Myrtenaster just dropped in on us."
"Good," Akarui nodded, even though she couldn't see him. "Haul ass, all of you, and don't come back. Tell Bakugo he can have all my stuff." He cut off the channel before the heroine could make a reply and retracted his gauntlet as to show Shigaraki that he wasn't going to try anything.
"Smart move, kid," the pale man chuckled as he held out his hand. "Now hand them over. And if this doesn't work, I'm going to kill you last."
"Don't worry," Akarui deadpanned as he tossed the requested items to the other man. "We Hikari's seem to have a habit of dying before all of our friends. Just place the nano syringe against the vial, the bots will take care of the rest."
"Heh." Shigaraki moved to do as he was instructed, his crimson eyes glowing with delight as he beheld the power to finally rid the world of its last heroes. The blood that Akarui had given was slowly funneled into the other vial through a miniscule opening made by the nanites that would also keep the quirk inside from being let out. As it began to mix, the sparks of lightning contained inside the cube started to take on a scarlet hue, deepening into an ominous maroon by the time the last of the blood had been absorbed. "At long last…" the man cackled as he tossed aside the nano syringe. "All For One and One For All…!" A small needle sprouted from one end of the tube, and he jammed it into his leg, his laughter building in pitch and volume until he was full-on shrieking with laughter.
"Stupid move, dipshit," Akarui said in a deadpan.
"Eh?"
"The quirk may move through the transfer of DNA, but if the vestiges inside the power don't like you, then there's nothing to be done," the younger man said as a dry smile decorated his lips. "Also, I'm guessing that you didn't have very good parents- you should know better than to inject yourself with something given to you by a stranger."
Shigaraki tried to step forward and disintegrate his enemy, only to feel his body suddenly stiffen up and leave him sprawled in a heap on the floor. "What… the hell… is this?!" he could barely grunt out.
"You assimilated the quirk in that vial with my DNA, which means that I'm technically its new owner, even if I can't control it, seeing as it was never introduced to my body directly. On the other hand, since it works automatically based on foreign blood samples, this turned out quite nicely for me."
"Foreign blood samples?" Shigaraki grunted, his eyes widening with outrage. "You insolent little-! You didn't!"
"Oh-ho, but I did," Akarui smirked as he conjured his clawed gauntlet on his right hand. "Blood Curdle, courtesy of Stain. Thanks to that power that you just injected yourself with after marking my blood as the primary agent, you're not going anywhere for at least a few minutes. Now, I know you have enough regeneration quirks in you to basically nullify any injury that I can give to you as soon as I make it, but I wonder how you'll do when my nanites start wreaking havoc on your nervous system?"
With that, he stabbed into Shigaraki's back with his claws and ordered his nanotech to begin the work for which he had truly designed it. For the first time in years, Shigaraki screamed in utter agony.
"We got what we needed?" Bakugo growled as Mina destroyed the last of his bindings. "Hikari owes me big-time for playing decoy for him. I'm not a punching bag for villains, dammit!"
"We're alive, and that's what matters right now," Weiss reminded him, having been revived by Eri's power only moments ago.
"Right here," the younger girl said as she held up a vial created by Akarui's nanites to contain One For All. "Hikari said that we should wait to try giving it to one of us once we were back at the base, just in case something goes wrong and we need to extract it again."
"Then let's get out of here," Kendo said as she started toward one of the cars that hadn't been destroyed by Muscular and Kota. However, she was stopped when a blast of azure flames melted it to slag in an instant.
"You're not going anywhere," a familiar voice called out as a lanky figure walked through the flames.
"All of you, stay back," Shoto declared as he stepped forward. "This one is mine." The others knew better than to question him, so they beat a hasty retreat from the hangar, with Yoarashi leading the way.
"Good luck, Todoroki!" he called back before the door slammed shut behind them.
"Shoto," Dabi said with a sinister grin as he gazed upon his enemy with his remaining eye. "It's been a while. Sorry about the way the last family reunion turned out."
Todoroki's eyes narrowed as he remembered the sight of his siblings and mother being reduced to ash in front of him and Endeavor's eyes, followed soon after by the Flame Hero himself. "Why did you let me live, Toya?" he asked as the air began to heat up between them. "You could have killed me just as easily as the others!"
"I just felt like it," the elder Todoroki replied with a shrug, stopping his younger sibling cold in his tracks. Seeing this, his grin widened before he added, "I had always wanted you to disappear, Shoto. From the first time your quirk appeared and confirmed to Endeavor that I was never going to live up to his dreams, I wanted you gone. But when I realized that even if you were out of my way, it wouldn't have mattered- because what Endeavor wanted shouldn't have mattered to anyone, especially his kids. I guess I wanted to see what you would do when you had your entire world ripped away from you, like when you tore everything from me by being born. Though I gotta say, I'm kinda disappointed- you've turned out to be more like the old man than any of us ever cared to be."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Shoto demanded angrily as blue fire began to flicker across Dabi's body.
"It means that you don't know when to give up and roll over, just like our dear old dad!" his brother shouted, right before he unleashed a barrage of blue flames, which Shoto blocked with his ice. "Come on, still hiding behind Mom?!" Dabi taunted. "Doesn't that ever get old?!"
Shoto gave his response in the form of an ice sheet that covered the floor, trapping his enemy's feet in place for a moment, and allowing him to conjure an ice spike that stabbed into his brother's leg. Dabi laughed again, saying, "Now that's more like it!" He lashed out with his fire, melting the ice as Shoto skated away and hurled fireballs of his own, forcing Dabi to duck under the counterattack.
"And you, Toya?" Shoto called out across the burning room. "How long are you gonna hide behind the scars that Dad gave you?"
"Hide behind?" Dabi laughed as he burned his leg wound closed. "The real me has emerged from them, Shoto! People think that fires cover your flesh with scars, but it's the scars that reveal what's really underneath! Besides which, I surpassed the old man long ago!"
"That's not really much of a benchmark for either of us at this point," the younger sibling said flatly.
"I suppose not," the elder smirked. "Now then, whaddya say we really get this rematch going?"
"Trust me, Toya, this isn't going to be much of a match."
"You're not wrong, little Shoto."
The group had to stop a few times for Awase and Weiss to disable the traps that Togata set off, seeing as he could phase through the initial reactions from the fortress defenses. As they ran, Bakugo sent Akarui a message informing him that there had been a change in their exit strategy, but they guessed that he was busy because he didn't answer them.
"You sure he's okay?" Kendo asked Eri, who nodded a couple of times in response.
"He explained his plan to me before we split up," she answered. "Right about now, his nanites should be working to disrupt Shigaraki's neurological pathways so that he can't use All For One or any of the quirks that he stole with it. He'll join us once he's finished up there."
"Wait, does that mean-?"
"He's planning to end Shigaraki, today," Bakugo grumbled as they turned a corner. "I was gonna do it if the creep showed his face, but he said that he'd earned it, seeing as his old man got killed to make sure that his sons would have a shot, plus the other hundred favors we owed him. Pisses me the hell off, but I hate being people's debt even more."
"Such a revelation makes me wonder whether we truly need One For All any longer, should his plan succeed," Tokoyami muttered as the ground began to quake, causing the heroes to all slide to a stop. "What's that?"
"Probably Shigaraki's contingency plan," Weiss muttered as she held her rapier in a ready position while the group surrounded Eri in a defensive formation. "Whatever happens, we have to make sure that Eri, Kota, Ashido, and Togata make it out of here."
The ground trembled again before Kendo asked, "Why them in particular?"
"Eri and Kota because they're the next generation of heroes, and the other two because they're the most likely to be able to use One For All," the Regal Heroine reminded them briskly. "That quirk is the key to rallying other heroes under one banner again. With a new All Might leading the charge, we can finally turn this war around, like he did decades ago."
"We got your back, Schnee," Awase grinned as the most violent shake yet rocked the hallway. "No matter what's about to come crashing through here, we've still gotta be plus ultra. Right guys?"
The second that everyone had given their assent, half the wall down the hallway was shattered, forcing Weiss to conjure a repelling hex that sent the debris flying back into the resulting dust cloud. The heroes all braced themselves as they saw a massive shadow lumbering in the dust, at which many of them felt a sense of dread in their guts. "Don't tell me it's that guy," Bakugo growled.
"We beat him before, we'll do it again," Mina said confidently as a familiar figure stepped out of the dust, shaking the ground with every step that he took. "Shigaraki's been pulling out all the stops today, so should we really be surprised?"
"Everything I do… is for the sake of my master," rumbled Gigantomachia. "You die today, heroes."
"Your ugly ass lost to us last time, remember?!" Bakugo shouted up at the monster. "And if you think we're at the same level of strength that we used to be, you've made your last mistake! All of you, get the hell outta here! I can't go all-out with you extras getting in the way!"
"Yeah, there's gonna be a problem with that," Togata laughed nervously as he nudged Kendo with his elbow so that she would look in the direction that they had come from.
"What problem?"
"About fifty black Nomu coming up behind us," the hero answered her. "Might be four or five High-End, too. We're completely cut off."
"Not completely," Mina said as she hurled acid at the wall, which let out a hiss as it began to eat through the metal and concrete. "Give it about a minute, and we should be able to get out that way."
"Then I think this is gonna be the longest minute of our lives," Kota muttered as he levelled his hands at the approaching Nomu.
"You've been fighting for the losing side this whole time, Shoto!" Dabi said as he held his brother in chokehold. "You chose to align yourself with the people who exalted Dad as a hero among heroes, and now your world is ash. You should have known better." Both of them were covered in burns, though not all of them were scorch marks- some were frost damage.
"I chose to fight alongside the people who cared about me, and shaped me into being a real hero," Shoto grunted as he strained to break his brother's hold on him. "Dad was just a means to an end for my training. But Mom, Fuyumi, and Natsuo? They didn't deserve what you did- they were just as much of victims as we were, maybe even more so. You can't justify their deaths, no matter how you spin it."
"They didn't stand up to him," Dabi shrugged. "Fuyumi never understood to begin with, Natsu abandoned me, and Mom was the one who burned you, so she wasn't even clean in our childhood, either."
"None of us had a clean childhood," Shoto growled. "But at least after I was broken, I learned to let others help put me back together." With that, he shot a spike of ice from his elbow into Dabi's stomach, sending the elder Todoroki recoiling as he spun away, his flames decorating his left side once again.
"Tell me something, little brother," Dabi grinned as he held his stomach in while his own fire began to swirl about him. "Why did you want to become a hero at all, if the world made someone like Endeavor their number one?" His body may have been naturally resistant to cold attacks, but his brother had honed his powers to this degree, having known all along that this confrontation was inevitable.
"I wanted to show them what a hero should really be like," Shoto answered simply. "I wanted to unveil our father's true character by surpassing him, both body and spirit. But you chose to try and burn him, just like he burned us. Whether you realize it or not, you're more like him than I could ever be."
Finally, Dabi lost his smile in favor of a dark scowl that he levelled solely at his youngest sibling. "I'm nothing like that man," he hissed. "And now I'll burn away the last of his damned legacy."
"Funny, I was thinking the same thing," Shoto muttered as ice sheeted out of his body to cover the entire hangar in an instant, sending the atmosphere around them into a violent state of flux due to Dabi's flames. "No matter what happens next, you're not walking out of here alive, Toya."
"That's just what your friend said before I melted him into scrap metal," Dabi muttered as his flames intensified. "There won't even be a snowflake to remember you by, little Shoto. And you're wrong- I'll be the victor, because I'm on the winning side of history."
"No," Shoto growled while his brown eye shone with an icy light, even as his entire body became covered in frost, dropping the temperature in the room to subzero degrees, despite Dabi's hottest flames, which made him stumble back in surprise.
"What is-?"
"I will defeat you, Toya, because you are a criminal," the younger man said as ice began to creep across his brother's body, keeping him from moving in spite of his efforts to free himself with his fire. As he remembered the words of his long-dead friend, Shoto gave vent to the shout, "And I am a hero! Arctic Prominence… BURN!"
The second that Dabi's head had been encased in solid ice, Shoto unleashed all the firepower that he had. The same microsecond that his brother had been freed from the ice, blue flames roared across the room and mixed with orange to engulf the area in a raging inferno unlike anything that had been seen in nearly a decade.
In the instant that followed, half of Shigaraki's base was disintegrated, while the remainder was blown into fragments that shot out across the entire forest. As he felt himself being swallowed by the scorching light, Shoto closed his eyes and thought, Hikari, Midoriya, Iida, Momo… I'll see you soon.
The same blast that destroyed the Todoroki brothers tore apart the battle scene that the heroes had found themselves in, scattering them like windblown leaves across the forest. Only Bakugo, who had spent a lifetime training his body to withstand vicious explosions, was able to recover his balance fairly quickly and land on his feet amid the burning debris, his eyes going wide as he realized where the blast had come from. Slapping the com button on his suit's gear, he asked, "Freezer Burn, was that you?" When there was no answer, he shouted, "Dammit Todoroki, this isn't the time for com silence! If you can hear me, pick up the mic!"
"Bakugo," he heard Weiss say over the line. "We both know he would have reported in if he could."
Bakugo shut his eyes as he bared his teeth in a silent snarl as he felt the loss of one of UA's last great heroes. Then he heard a rumbling coming from not too far away, and his eyes glared at the recovering form of Gigantomachia. "Gale Force, do you read me?" he growled.
"Yeah, but I got separated from Kota," the larger hero replied worriedly. "Anyone know where he is?"
"We'll have to worry about him in a minute," Bakugo said curtly. "I need an assist- I'm taking out that mountain-sized bastard, once and for all." To himself, he added, If we've lost one of ours', then I'm not leaving until every single one of these villains are dust!
"But-!"
"The second you see me clear the tree line, send me a funnel that puts me on course to hit that monster!" Bakugo ordered. "We gotta fry him before he has a chance to completely recover!" He knew that even if the others were worried about their comrades, they would place priority on stopping the Front's biggest powerhouse while they had the chance.
"I'll assist, too," Weiss added. "I can enhance your speed, if you're going for what I think you are. Only…"
"What?" Bakugo asked when she hesitated.
"This might be a one-way ticket, considering who you're headed for," she replied worriedly. "Are you sure about this?"
"Damn right I am," the explosive hero growled. "Anyone else that copies, start looking for the kids. If either of you brats can hear me, regroup with the others where we started this mission. Saiyabrat, you better be on your way already, or I'm gonna kill you. I'll meet up with you guys soon- count on it."
Hearing the heavy breaths of Gigantomachia, Bakugo decided that he no longer had any time to waste. With an animal shout of rage, he shot up into the air and kept a sharp eye out for any of Weiss' hexes or Yoarashi's winds, and as soon as he saw both about a hundred yards away from where he was, he shot toward them, immersing himself in the whirling vortex and power of the sigils. Adding to them, he started to fill the whirling winds with fire as he unleashed his quirk to its fullest, heading right for the powerful enemy who had been responsible for the defeat and subsequent deaths of Ingenium and Red Riot, as well as several others.
"Here we go!" he roared as he passed through the last of Weiss' hexes, his target now clearly within view. "Oppenheimer IMPACT!"
Yet another thunderous explosion ripped the forest apart, this one casting a mushroom cloud of fire and smoke up into the air from the point of impact. Bakugo's roars mixed with those of Gigantomachia before the two of them were enveloped in his attack and lost to view.
Eri slowly came to, her vision bouncing up and down as the ground passed beneath her while the sound of someone breathing heavily echoed in her ears. It took her a couple of moments to realize that she was being carried over someone's shoulder, and as soon as she made the connection, she managed to grunt out, "What happened?"
"The mission went way south," her apparent rescuer answered heavily as they continued on through the smoking remnants of the forest. "I don't know exactly what happened, but I think Todoroki and Bakugo were responsible for those blasts- the base is just a scorch mark in the forest, now."
"Kota?" the girl mumbled.
"Can you walk on your own?" the boy asked over his shoulder as he began to slow down.
"I think so."
Kota quickly came to a stop and moved to set her on her feet once she had said so, and it was only then that she realized that he was bleeding heavily from multiple wounds. "Kota, you're-!"
"I've had worse," he grunted as he clutched at his ribs, where the longest cut could be seen. "We need to get moving again so we can meet up with any of the other survivors- hoping that there are any."
"Let me rewind you, at least," Eri said as her horn glowed and she placed a hand on her comrade. Within two seconds, his wounds were gone and his stamina had been restored.
"Thank you," he acknowledged. "Do you still have what we came here for?"
"Yes," she answered as she held up her wristband that Akarui had given her. "It's stored within the nanites."
"Good, I'd hate for all of this to be for nothing," the watery hero muttered as he gestured for her to follow him.
"Then you're about to really hate what's coming to you," a hoarse voice snarled, one that made both of the young heroes freeze in place as the speaker appeared before them from within a dark portal. "I accounted for some losses, but you and your friends really pissed me off today!" Shigaraki hissed as he tossed a barely-recognizable Akarui at their feet. "Little brat almost got me, I give him that. But I'm not about to let myself be killed or crippled by a bug that belongs in a lab! With my Transmutation quirk, I can rebuild myself, no matter how many nanites you inject me with!"
Akarui made a light groaning sound, which prompted Shigaraki to kick him savagely. "Shut up!" the deranged man shouted at him. "You'll get the rest of what's coming to you, that I promise! But first, I'm gonna make you watch these kids suffer, just like all your little friends!"
Both of the kids' heads suddenly throbbed as they were assaulted with memories that were not their own- images of each of the other heroes' final moments, some of them having been disintegrated in the flames, while the rest were murdered by a combination of Nomu and villains. By the time that the onslaught was over, both of them were on their hands and knees with tears running out of their eyes as they realized that it was all down to them- even Togata had been taken by a Nomu that possessed a phasing quirk similar to his permeation, which allowed it to clash with him no matter what his molecules were doing at that moment. There was no one who could come to save them this time.
Eri realized that they were all that remained of the UA Hero Alliance- that she was the only remaining hero from their number, and not even a proper one at that. Her world had come crashing down around her again, and this time, there was no hero to lift her out of the ashes of defeat. It's… over.
As her eyes burned with tears while her body trembled, Shigaraki let out a maniacal laugh and reached out for her head, preparing his Decay power as he did- after all, it was still his favorite way to kill people. "You had a good run, but it's game over for you, little heroes," he cackled.
That was right before he was hit with a water jet from Kota's hand, sending him reeling with a vile string of curses. "As long as there's one of us left standing, it's never over!" he shouted past the lump in his throat. "Deku taught me to persevere, no matter how bad things look, and Kai showed everyone that the will of a hero lives beyond their death! Even if I fall here, I will never truly die! The will of the heroes will rise again to challenge you- and next time, they'll win! You can't stop that, Shigaraki!"
"Why won't you brats just die already?!" Shigaraki screeched as he leaped toward Kota, Endeavor's flames sprouting from his hands to counter Kota's water.
"Kota, no!" Eri cried as they were both enveloped in steam.
"Don't worry!" Kota laughed past his tears as he waited for the inevitable from within the fog. "It'll all be okay!" Then there was cry of agony, and the forest air was filled only with the sounds of burning rubble and wood.
"…Kota?" Eri asked timidly, though she already knew that there would be no reply.
"You know, I think One For All has caused me enough problems," Shigaraki muttered as he walked out of the fog to menace Eri once again. As she fell back on her rear to try and scoot away from him, she became entangled in her cape while the villain added, "So I'm gonna dust it along with you. End of the line, kid."
"Not… yet." Shigaraki paused in his gait as he looked down to see that Akarui had fastened a grip on his leg and was holding on with a respectable strength, given how badly he had been beaten. "Like Kota said… It's not over… as long… as there's one of us left." He looked at Eri through bloodied, swollen eyes before he added, "Sorry, Eri. For every promise… I couldn't keep. I hope… that you'll be able… to keep all of yours'."
There was a small beeping sound that came from Akarui's gauntlet, followed by Eri letting out a small yelp as she felt her wrist being stabbed where her bracelet was resting. Her head swam, and her eyes glazed over as she lost consciousness.
She opened her eyes to see that she was standing in a dark place, lit only by the glows of ten blurry figures lined up in front of her, each of them possessing a different hue. It was impossible to make out any details for most of them beyond their auras' individual colors, save for four that stood apart from the others. The first shade was a frail-looking young man, while the second resembled a thin hero with sharp cheekbones and a golden aura that reminded Eri of a lion's majesty. Third was a face she still saw in her dreams and nightmares alike, his kind smile wreathed in green flames as he gazed upon her from the great beyond. The one furthest to her right glowed with a myriad of colors, and it was they who stepped completely away from the others, their visage becoming clearer the closer that they got. Once they were a few feet away, Eri gasped aloud and asked, "Is this-?"
"It's you," Kai said as he reached out to grasp her hand in his with a solemn expression on his face. "You're the Eleventh."
Shigaraki stood up from the skewered remains of the younger Hikari and turned to see that Eri was on her feet, her eyes veiled by her hair. "Oh, so you're gonna fight, too?" he taunted her. "Even knowing how this will turn out?" He had used Energon to kill Akarui- an ironically fitting end, considering all the work that the young man had put into perfecting the power for his brother.
"Everyone else was right," Eri replied in a shaky voice as she raised her gaze to look directly at her enemy. "As long as one of us stands…" White lightning erupted from her body while her horn glowed like a star before she finished, "…we all continue to stand."
"…So, you took on One For All," Shigaraki said in a calmer tone than she had expected. "And just what do you think you'll do with that, once you've beaten me?"
"What's it to you?"
"I imagine that with that power, you would be able to unite all the so-called heroes of the world against my forces, and rise victorious over the dark army," he replied in a mocking tone. "What happens after that? Who fixes the mess that you'll leave behind?"
"I haven't gotten there, yet," Eri shot back as her muscles shivered with violent energy. She felt as though her skin might burst from the combined physical prowess now contained within her body. "I'll worry about that after you're nothing but a memory."
"Not very smart, kid," Shigaraki giggled. "You think I took over the world just by throwing my minions at everyone? No, I had to learn how to think, first. If you can't do that, you'll just become an even worse tyrant than you think I am, all because your decisions will be based on silly little whims."
"I'd hardly call a decade-long dream a 'whim'," Eri shot back, even as the horn on her head glowed to an almost blinding degree.
"Even so, why don't we take this chance to start over, you and I?" the skinny man offered, giving his enemy pause. "I've lost a great deal today, as have you. If we combine what's left of our resources and learnt to cooperate with each other, we could bring the Liberation Front and the heroes together in order to create a truly peaceful and just society, one where labels like 'hero' and 'villain' can be nothing more than abstract concepts. It's obvious by now that quirk you stole has no intention of submitting to me- but that doesn't mean that I can't help you put its power to a proper use. With All For One and One For All combined, our power would be unmatched in all the world- a world that we can make however we please. Think of it- no more suffering, no more death like we've seen today. It's a world full of many destinies of our choosing." He paused before extending a hand and adding, "Come, join my comrades and me."
Eri's answer was swift as the lightning coming from her body, which erupted into a frenzy as she said, "I desire one, noble destiny! That's worth far more than any power you could ever offer me!"
Shigaraki's countenance darkened before he snarled, "Then you've chosen doom!" He leaped forward, the lightning reflecting off his body as he reached out to grab Eri by the head, only to be stopped dead in the air by her seizing his arm and holding him in place with a flinty expression on her face.
"I'm going to rewind you until there's nothing left," she told him fiercely. "Even your regeneration abilities won't be enough to stop my quirk when it's combined with One For All."
"True, but I suggest you look more carefully at your target before you act next time," Shigaraki said before he dissolved into mud in her grip, startling her as she felt someone grab her cape from behind. "I've found that Twice wasted a fair number of opportunities like this one during that time he refused to make doubles of himself. Either way, you're done!"
She could feel death coming for her, now. It wasn't just a concept that she would be forced to reconcile with when the moment came anymore; the time had come. As it descended upon her, she feared it, as all humans do at their core. And in that moment, she could only act based upon that fear. There was no plan, no clever technique that could get her out of this. The only thing she could do was react.
"Help me!" she screamed as she turned and threw her body weight against Shigaraki, sending them both tumbling to the ground, whereupon Eri felt the power inside of her respond to her terror and desperation. The lightning covering her exploded outward, and her vision was obscured completely by the golden light from her horn. She thought that she heard Shigaraki cry out with some unidentifiable emotion for a second, but then it was lost as she felt everything around her begin to change.
It was almost as though wind was rushing across the forest, but something about this felt even more intense- as if the wind was coursing through the very marrow of her existence, not just the space around her. Eri could feel the ground beneath her trembling in fear of whatever desperate power she had unleashed. She wasn't sure what exactly was happening, but she could no longer feel Shigaraki nearby, so after a moment of blindly lashing out with her powers, she began to try and contain them.
It proved to be more difficult than she would have thought, but somehow she managed to calm the storm of energy and allow the light to die away. The instant that she had, however, her body gave out, and she fell flat on the forest floor. As the wind around her began to die down, she found it rather odd that she could hear the rustling of the leaves on the trees that shouldn't have been there in the first place.
Present Day…
"After I woke up, I wandered out of the forest and managed to make my way to a town close by," Eri concluded as she looked out at the stunned gathering. Even Aizawa looked supremely unsettled as she went on to say, "I quickly realized what had happened once I reached civilization and saw the date- that I had inadvertently gone past even the normal limits of One For All and combined it with my original quirk to rewind the world and everyone in it approximately ten years. The voices of the past users told me to come to UA so that I could get help. When I realized that Kai hadn't been buried yet, it was obvious to me that this would be my best chance to revive him and explain everything to you. I don't know whether or not this means I actually altered the flow of time itself, but whatever the case, you now know my story."
There was a long, long silence that followed her words, and when it was broken, it was by a sound most unexpected. Everyone was startled when Kurai's shoulders began to shake while a huge grin split his face right before he doubled over with full-body laughter. "You gotta be kidding me," he giggled as everyone looked at him askance, even Mina. "So… what you're telling me is… there was absolutely no real reason to bring me back to life?!" He fell over backwards, his laughter building up in pitch and volume until he sounded like he had lost his ability to reason- and with everything that had already happened to him, some of his friends couldn't help but wonder if that truly was the case.
Kai: What was that about not going on a hiatus?
Mataras: I got sick, the wife got sick, the kids got sick, and shit beyond my control was still flying about in my life for nearly three weeks in a row. Bite me.
Litrosh: Okay, I think we're going to make this another short segment!
Deku: I take it this means that we're going to be moving back into current events?
Mataras: Correct, though I will be covering what happened in Eri's future more comprehensively at a later date.
Kai: Wait, is this going to be that separate Akarui-centric story that some of our readers have been asking for?
Mataras: It won't be its own thing, but yes, Akarui will be the main narrator of that story segment when it comes about.
Deku: How long will it be until that happens?
Mataras: Spoilers.
Kai: Why do you even ask?
Litrosh: Next time- The Dead Walk
Kai: After learning about what's to come, will Class 1-A still be ready to Go Beyond?
Deku: We're always ready to be Plus Ultra!
Mataras: Ha! Good bloody luck with that, mate.
Next time on Your Hero Academia: Renewal...
Class 1-A had dealt with a lot during the course of their first year in training to become heroes, but now even their teachers had to question whether they were about to be pushed past an acceptable limit. In the last hour, they had learned of a power that transcended time and the tragic story of its bearer who now stood among them. They now knew that All For One would threaten their world again in a different form, and that it was already on the move. Todoroki had learned that his eldest sibling lived as a remorseless killing machine, forged in the fires of hatred of their father. Weiss now knew where her family's true loyalties would lie if the tides of profit were to change. Perhaps worst of all, All Might and Deku knew the true extent of what their failures could have brought upon the world.
Then again, the sight of their newly-resurrected classmate, one of the now-two holders of One For All, laughing like a maniac on the floor in front of all of them after what they had just heard, might just take the cake for them. After a few seconds of this, however, one person decided that they'd had enough of his inexplicable behavior.
"Kurai, cut it out!" Mina shouted as she grabbed him up by the shirt and forced him into a sitting position. "What the hell is that supposed to mean, there was no point to her bringing you back?! Did you not just hear what happens in a world without you? It literally goes to hell, forget everything we went through after you died, already!" He just stared at her for a second before his giggling fit resumed, tears streaming out of his eyes as he continued to cackle without pause.
"I guess he finally went and lost his mind," Kaminari said sadly as the others could do nothing but watch as their friend inched closer to insanity, an intruder that had been waiting by the door to his mind for quite some time, even if it had not always been as obnoxious an observer at all times.
"If anyone has a right to it…" Jiro said in an equally somber tone. Even so, it hurt all of them to see the formerly strong-willed boy reduced to such a sorry state.
Everyone's impending sorrow was immediately scared out of them when something rather unexpected happened.