A/N: Alright, folks. This is it- the final secrets of Energon and Kurai's origins are about to be revealed. It's been pretty difficult to keep a lot of the stuff that's gonna go down in this chapter a secret from you guys, because I've been very excited to see what you guys would say about it, but now we're finally here.

Let's see what kind of hero Kai will be, shall we?

P.S. I did two pieces of artwork for this chapter, and both can be seen on my Instagram account. I'll talk more about them in the omake so that I don't put up any spoilers here.

Stand

Kurai was sure that his heartbeat was audible to the others in the room, as well as those listening in from the other side of the wall. It was pounding in his ears like a panicked drummer, and his flesh palm was sweating while his legs shook as he gazed upon the man behind the myth: All For One.

He was a tall man, but that was about all that Kurai could tell about him from his physique. His eyes, nose, ears, and hair had all been either burned off or ripped away at some point, probably during his fight with All Might the better part of a decade ago. His mouth and jaw were the only things that were not completely mutilated, but they were covered by a breathing apparatus that partially hid them from view. The rest of him was covered in bandages and hooked up to machines that were keeping him alive, as another testament to All Might's handiwork. Yet in spite of all these things, every part of Kurai's body- both real and artificial- wanted to run far, far away from this monster that could no doubt kill him with a snap of his fingers.

The instant that he felt that he could keep his voice under control, Kurai said, "He looks like a human fried potato."

All For One smiled and said, "I have All Might to thank for that fact." His voice was powerful and charismatic, even in his damaged state. Kurai might have wondered if he wasn't using some kind of psychic quirk to make himself sound more impressive if it weren't for the fact that the man would be shot in the head by an automated turret the instant that he tried to use a quirk. It was then that Kurai further understood how the man had instilled such loyalty in his minions- it wasn't just All For One's power, which was a fearsome thing in its own right. No, this villain was charismatic, and his voice carried the tones of absolute authority in them, as if him speaking something into action would make it so. Those two factors combined with his cunning made someone that people followed not out of fear, but of a genuine loyalty to the man himself, regardless of his own personal ambition or ideals.

The others were right; even like this, he's dangerous, Kurai thought warily as he and Tsukauchi sat down in the chairs that had been provided.

"All right, All For One, we checked out the coordinates you gave us, and we found one of your facilities for producing Nomu's, though there were only a few of them that remained when we got there," the detective said with a hard look in his eyes. "You wouldn't happen to be holding out on us, would you?"

"Detective, I assured you that you would find a facility used to create the Nomu, but I was never able to offer a guarantee that it would be found in a condition favorable to you," All For One answered smoothly. "Tomura has begun to plan things out in advance, I'm sure. If you are frustrated with the lack of knowledge you were able to obtain, I suggest you take it up with him. I held up my end of the deal as best as I could in my current condition. By the sound of the new young man's voice, I assume that you have come to fulfill yours'."

Tsukauchi turned to look at the young hero before he said, "It's your call. We've already acted on the intelligence that he provided, so we don't even need to entertain him anymore. If you back out now, no one will blame you."

"That would be such a shame," All For One interjected before Kurai could give his answer. "Who knows when I might remember something else that could be of use to you? But if you don't want to show me to your friends, I see no reason why I should show you mine."

"You don't have friends," Kurai said as he nodded to Tsukauchi. "You have minions and enemies, nothing else. Yours' is a pathetic existence." He had no idea where this fire was coming from, but he wasn't going to question it right now. He could wonder at his audacity later, when he wasn't sitting face-to-face with one of history's worst villains.

"My, my, such disrespect for you elders," All For One chuckled, his breath fogging up his mask for a second. "Here I thought a disciple of All Might would have better manners, if only for appearances to the public."

Kurai was tempted to retort that he and the average citizens of Japan weren't exactly on good terms right now, but he remembered the warden's warning about giving away too much information, and so he decided to change the subject. "You wanted to talk to me, here I am," he said shortly. "Sorry if I didn't bring a present."

"Oh, but you have," All For One smiled again. "I wanted the chance to speak to you, Kurai Hogo-sha, and ask if you have enjoyed the quirk that life has given you?"

"'Life' my ass," Kurai snorted, unamused. "I know it was you that gave me my powers. And to be honest, no, having a quirk that causes your brain to bleed when you try to vent your emotions like a normal kid wasn't exactly an enjoyable experience."

Instead of being perturbed, All For One actually gave off an air of being impressed for a moment. "I see that you're more informed than I originally thought," he said. "Well done, Hogo-sha."

"I don't want your praise, Potato Head."

All For One ignored this by saying, "It surprises me when you say that you have not enjoyed Inika, as from what I could see from the media exploits on you and your peers that you use your powers to great effect. Why hone a talent that you have no love for?"

"Because the fact that I could use it to do good outweighed my fear of its side effects," Kurai answered as he clenched his artificial hand. "Even the injuries that I sustained at the hands of your goons won't stop me from using this power- Inika, you called it?"

"Yes, in an old tongue, it means 'energies of a star', which I thought quite poetic, considering its origins," the old man replied. "And if you wish to cast blame for your injuries during the summer camp raid, you will not find the source here. That was all Tomura's doing."

"The actions of the master beget those of his students," Kurai shot back. "You trained Shigaraki and supplied him with the means to his end. You're guilty by association, if nothing else." He was starting to wonder if he was going to be hit with a tranquilizer, but since he hadn't spoken about any outside events that occurred after the battle at Kamino, it seemed like he was okay.

"Spoken like a true lawman," All For One chuckled. "At any rate, are you not curious about the origins of your powers? I know I would be in your shoes."

Despite his temptation to admit this was the case, Kurai decided to see if he could play a little mind game of his own. "Honestly, I can go either way," he shrugged. "I know that whoever you stole the quirk or quirks from is more than likely dead, or worse, a Nomu. If you want to talk, go right ahead, but don't expect me to sit like a dog begging for scraps."

All For One laughed again, which grated on Kurai's nerves, but he resisted the urge to fidget in his chair. Eventually, the villain said, "You have your father's spirit, that much is certain. In honor of that, I'll make another deal with you- an answer for an answer. How does that sound?"

"As long as you don't ask me anything that concerns current matters outside of your new house, I don't have an issue with that," Kurai answered readily. "I'd shake on it, but… Well, I hate you."

"Very well, then," All For One mused. "As a gesture of goodwill, I extend to you the first question, Hogo-sha."

"What makes my quirk so special that you'd sacrifice a base just to have the chance to talk with me?" Kurai asked bluntly, though he made sure to keep his voice level.

"Ah, a multi-faceted answer will be required, so get comfortable," All For One smirked. "Your quirk is the first success in an experiment that I had been failing at for over a century. I wanted to know how it turned out in the long run."

"What experiment?" Kurai inquired, his curiosity refusing to be contained.

"Ah-ah," his enemy chided him. "It's my turn to seek an answer, Hogo-sha. Patience will be required if you wish to know the whole truth."

Kurai's countenance darkened as he growled, "Then ask away, old man."

"I know our hosts don't want me knowing too much about the outside world, so I'll simply ask for a general idea of how your powers work," All For One replied. "How strong has Inika made you, Hogo-sha?"

Kurai held up a hand to stop Tsukauchi from interjecting, mouthing the words 'trust me' to him. "I would have thought that you knew the extent of my powers, as I nearly defeated the Nomu you engineered to kill All Might," he replied.

"Hmm," the man smirked again. "You are clever, Hogo-sha. It's true, I am aware of the details of your fight, but that was quite some time ago. I would like to know of a more recent benchmark that you passed."

"I helped All Might defeat Wolfram on I-island after he had gotten ahold of a crazy quirk enhancer," Kurai deadpanned. "Your doing, as I understand it. I was keeping pace with your most hated enemy, and I can spam explosive energy blasts with a moment's thought. When I first enrolled in the hero course, people believed that I could be the next number one hero." He did not mention that Akarui had been able to alter his neural physiology in order to give him a way to safely channel his powers without fear of death from overuse. He wants to know about the quirk that he gave me, so I'll only tell him about that.

"I think we both know that spot will go to someone else," All For One said in a conspirator's tone.

Kurai's teeth were bared in a snarl as he said, "Pursue that topic any further, and we are done here. I believe it's my turn now."

"My, my, aren't we touchy?" the villain chuckled. "But yes, you are correct. I believe you wanted to know the details of the experiment that resulted in your tremendous power, yes?"

"Yeah."

"As I said before, the beginnings of this experiment go back to my younger days, when I was first beginning to understand the full extent of what I could do," he began. "I knew that I could take and give quirks as I pleased, and every now and again, I would find someone capable of withstanding the powers of two quirks, like my brother and our mutual friend, Wolfram. Those who failed to contain the powers were either obliterated or became like puppets without any strings to manipulate, hardly of any use to me. Still, I had no issue with retaining many quirks, and so I knew that there had to be someone out there that could utilize three or more quirks without suffering either of those fates. I tried many times over the decades with quirks of varying strengths and combinations that were meticulously thought out or simply thrown together on a whim. Yet no matter how strong the test subject appeared to be, my experiment seemed destined to fail. It was quite vexing."

Kurai had to actively bite his tongue to keep from being sick or ranting at the man uncontrollably, which would likely result in his ejection from the facility. Stick it out, he told himself. You knew what this guy did, what he was capable of. Don't be surprised now.

He forced himself to continue listening as All For One said, "As time went on, I lessened the frequency of my attempts to succeed. Indeed it occurred to me that such a thing might never come to pass- until you came along, Hogo-sha. In all my years, I had not thought to try such an experiment on a child, much less one without a quirk at all. I had always assumed that children would never survive such an ordeal. However, I then had an epiphany of sorts." All For One's lips curled into a cruel smile as he said, "Children are essentially blank slates, receptacles for whatever life inflicts upon them without knowledge of any other way of existing. People- myself once included- underestimate the resiliency of children. They accept what happens to them, no matter how terrible it is, because children are made to survive and adapt until they become adults that have forged their identities from the trials of their younger years. So it was with bestowing you with a trio of compressed powers that I believed could one day surpass All Might's." When Kurai was silent, he added, "There is your answer, Hogo-sha. While there are those who have functioned for a time with multiple quirks in their bodies that did not fuse with one another, you are the first living person to not only survive, but adapt and utilize three quirks until they combined into a single one. That is the secret of your immense power."

"…Wow," Kurai chuckled unexpectedly, causing Tsukauchi to look at him with concern. Still, he kept his temperament as he said, "I can see you're quite the pragmatist."

"I would like to think so," All For One agreed. "Now, I would like to know; what made you choose to waste the gift I bestowed upon you by becoming a hero? You could have done anything, taken anything you wanted with Inika. Why choose to be a public servant? Do you aspire to be like All Might, someone who wants to be a hero simply for the sake of it?"

"No," Kurai said with a slow shake of his head. "My goals aren't as noble as all that. I used to want to protect people so that none of them would have to suffer like I've had to, but lately I've come to the realization that I cannot save people from the demons that life conjures up for them. I can, however, punish those that seek to add to those burdens, and so I will. I'm not one to go out of my way for revenge, but any villain that crosses me will be made to regret the day that they chose the dark path."

"Well, look at that," All For One said slyly. "A hero who isn't afraid of a looser moral code. Perhaps you could bring down Tomura, given the opportunity. I doubt that fool, All Might, could bring himself to do it. After all, he couldn't finish me, and I killed his master."

"Like I said, I'm not like All Might," Kurai snapped, his patience starting to wear thin. I don't know how much more of this I can handle, he added to himself. Still, he had not been asked to leave yet, and his curiosity had not been fully sated. He drew in a deep breath before he asked, "So, if I was a success, am I to assume that there are others like me among the ranks of the League and any other associates you might have? People you hoped could surpass All Might?"

"Of course," All For One nodded. "In fact, you've already met them. I'm feeling charitable since I haven't been able to talk to anyone for a while, so I'll tell you who they are before you even bother to ask." The man's voice took on a darker tone as he said, "The Nomu, Hogo-sha. The Nomu are the results of my research into compounding quirks in a person's body."

"That's a lie!" Tsukauchi suddenly burst out. "The Nomu are mutated street thugs and members of your League that you have no other use for. They're not children!"

"That is correct, detective," All For One nodded. "Once I knew it was possible to do what I had done with Hogo-sha, I decided to pursue the subject more intensively once again. However, I couldn't use children so casually, as they would take far too long to train in using their powers properly, and not every combination would be guaranteed to produce favorable results. So I looked into bio-engineering in order to create a specimen strong enough to take on multiple quirks while retaining just enough brain function to obey my orders- after all, I couldn't have anyone getting any ideas that they could use their new powers to overthrow me, now could I? The gray Nomu were the first successes, but they were not as powerful as I had hoped they could be, which led to the eventual creation of the black ones, and beyond them, well…" He smiled again as he said, "For the time being, I'll say that it remains to be seen whether or not Hogo-sha wields the strongest quirk outside of my capabilities. Now… I do believe it's my turn to make an inquiry."

"I wouldn't hold my breath on getting a good answer at this point," Kurai gritted out. The fact that All For One was alluding to another unfinished experiment that might be even more destructive than his capabilities was an unsettling thought, to put it mildly. "The more you talk, the more I wish Endeavor would've burnt you to a crisp after All Might knocked you out."

"Now is that any way to treat someone who just extended a favor to you?" All For One admonished him. "Tsk, tsk, children these days."

"Either ask your question or shut up."

"Very well, why did you come here today?" the man inquired. "Surely you were advised to do otherwise."

"I was, but I also prefer to keep my word, even if it's to you," Kurai admitted. "Now, final question, and then I'm gone. Where is-?"

"If you plan to walk out after you've had your curiosity satisfied, I don't know that I'm inclined to answer if I don't get another question in return," All For One told them. "But if we were to reverse the pattern for the final round…?"

"Again, ask your question, or shut the hell up," Kurai snapped impatiently, not caring if the man knew that he had his attention now.

"Do you think that you will survive what is to come?" All For One asked ominously. "You know that Tomura will not remain in the shadows forever, and when he comes out to take my place, it cannot possibly end well for you."

"Heroes don't necessarily seek happy endings for themselves," Kurai retorted with a dark smile of his own. "But if nothing else, just to spite you and your apprentice, I will defeat him, and then I will have my happily ever after. I am going to break the cycle of misery that you and your brother began all those years ago." He clenched both of his fists again as he growled out, "Now as I was saying before… Where is Inika from? And what happened to the original owners?"

"Hmm," All For One mused. "One power was called 'Starfire', which allowed the young lady that possessed it to absorb the energy of the distant stars and release it in manner very similar to your own attacks. However, it was all but useless during the day, as it did not work to absorb direct sunlight. The woman's lover had the power to enhance his strength and reflexes in proportion to the amount of stimulus his mind received before he last used his quirk, though if he overdid it, he would be inflicted with severe head pains, not all that unlike the aneurisms you suffered. Their child was the truly special one, though."

Kurai felt cold and sick, but he could not find in him the strength to get up and walk out of the room before All For One unveiled the worst part of it all. "Their daughter possessed a quirk that allowed her to magnify the potential energy she built up within her body while she slept at night by venting her emotions and unleashing it as kinetic force. When combined, that family granted you the power of a star generated within your own body and expressed with your volatile emotions: Inika. Truly, it's a pity that they could not live to see the peak of their powers' potential in you." His mouth stretched into a wide smile as he added, "Are you certain that you don't want to continue talking, Hogo-sha? I'm quite enjoying this."

Kurai stood up and walked away from the glass, Tsukauchi quickly following without a word. However, the young hero stopped at the door long enough to say over his shoulder, "My name is not Hogo-sha. Not to you, anyway. You will remember my name as Kai, and the next time I visit you, it'll be to tell you that your empire is dust, and so is your apprentice. All Might may have arrived to stop you, but I am here… to crush you."

With that, he was out the door, ignoring the sounds of a madman's laughter that followed him.

Meanwhile, a cloaked figure stalked through the darkness of tunnels that had never seen the light of day, their movements somehow completely silent in spite of the fact that they were wearing heels that easily added two inches to her height. The person stopped at a recess in the wall that led into a dark room where service tools were once kept, now occupied by something much more dangerous than power tools and heavy machinery.

"Come on out," the woman crooned with a sultry voice. "It's time for you to complete the task your master gave you."

A pair of yellow eyes flashed to life and fixed their gaze on the woman, who met it without flinching. A low, hollow-sounding rumble echoed in the shadows, causing the woman to smile a little bit.

"Yes, that's right," she said softly. "You may go and spread your children as you please, only…" She reached into her cloak and then pulled out a single photograph, which the glowing eyes were drawn to. "Be sure to bring me this one- alive." There was a snorting sound from the dark corner, leading her to reply, "Yes, you served your master well when you dealt with his treasonous father, and you have been rewarded with the strength you will need to ensure the downfall of his wretched spawn. The boy does not need to arrive in a… pristine condition, but his life will be forfeit to me after the good doctor gets what he needs from him. Understand?"

The monster in the dark let out another threatening rumble before its eyes vanished, and the woman was left alone with her thoughts. As she looked down at the photo in the dim lighting of the tunnels, she murmured, "An eye for an eye? Sorry, but I don't play by those rules." The photo burst into flames, illuminating Cinder's hateful sneer before she was once again swallowed up by the shadows.

Kurai and Tsukauchi didn't speak for a long while, even once they were on their way back to UA in his car. When they did talk, it the detective who broke the silence. "I was using my quirk to monitor you and him while we were in there," he said as he turned down the radio, which was recapping the hero charts announcement from the earlier in the afternoon. Kurai's foul mood was not helped by the fact that Gang Orca had been taken off the top ten list while Endeavor had officially been given the number one spot.

"Yeah?" he muttered. "Did he lie about any of it?"

"No, but neither did you," the man said a little worriedly. "Are you really set on becoming a hero that only seeks out vengeance? Does saving people not matter to you anymore?" As they drew closer to the city, the traffic seemed to be getting thicker, so the man slowed his vehicle to match the pace of the other citizens around them.

"Of course it does," Kurai said with a roll of his eyes. "I never said that it didn't. I've just come to learn that trying to take on everyone's problems at once doesn't really help anybody. If I overdo it trying to protect everyone all the time, I'll just burn myself out, and then what use am I? I'd rather focus on a more realistic goal and just try to cut off the thorns at the source by destroying the villains causing these problems for people. If someone needs my help, I'll rescue them, of course, but I need my enemies to know that I mean business." He paused before saying, "All Might wasn't cruel, but he didn't really show mercy to evildoers, either. Whether he intended to or, not he created a presence of fear for those that lurk in the shadows, which kept them at bay and reduced crimes drastically. Izuku doesn't have that kind of intimidating presence, and I honestly doubt that he ever will- he's too kind to do that. To put an old cliché to use, he can be good cop, and I'll be bad cop."

"And you're okay with that?" Tsukauchi inquired. "The public might not thank you for it."

"To hell with them, they made Endeavor the number one hero," Kurai groused. "Besides, I don't get the feeling that me and common folks were ever meant to be on one another's good sides."

"I suppose that's fair," Tsukauchi said as he pulled onto a main street, which seemed to be in a complete standstill. He frowned before saying, "I know it's rush hour, but this seems a little excessive."

"I'll bet you anything that there's a villain causing trouble," Kurai sighed. "I guess we have to wait for the local heroes to handle it."

"You're not itching for some action?" Tsukauchi asked him.

"I'm not affiliated with an agency, so anything I do would have to be sanctioned by you, a law enforcer, which could go either way in regards to your career," Kurai pointed out. "The only way I'm going out there is if you're okay with it, or something attacks us."

One of the skyscrapers in the distance suddenly exploded into thousands of pieces, drawing both of their startled attention. The radio crackled before Tsukauchi turned it up to hear a dispatch officer announce, "We're getting reports from the field! Endeavor and Hawks appear to be teaming up against a black Nomu in the uptown district!"

Kurai turned down the radio as he looked at Tsukauchi and said, "We should go."

"You're crazy if you think that I'm going to let you fight a Nomu!" the detective sputtered. "Don't you remember what happened the last time you fought one of those?!"

"I meant that we should help with the evacuations," Kurai shot back, exasperated. "The citizens are gonna be panicking, the least we can do is try to stop a mass hysteria. I told you, I don't plan on fighting if I can help it."

The roof of the car suddenly let out a horrible screech that accompanied it caving downward, nearly knocking into their heads as a blood-curdling roar echoed across the road, prompting screams from the pedestrians and causing many nearby drivers to abandon their vehicles. At that moment, Tsukauchi craned his neck to give Kurai a flat look and mutter, "You were saying?"

"I hate it here," the boy grumbled before his door was ripped off of its hinges and a massive hand grabbed him up to send him flying after the warped metal and shattered glass. He used his quirk to twist his body in midair so that he was able to use his metal arm to grab at the ground that was rushing beneath him and slow himself enough to plant his feet firmly on the earth behind him. It was only then that he was able to look up and see just what had attacked him and the detective, and it was not a pretty sight.

It was another Nomu, which was clear due to the exposed brain, pitch-black skin, and red stripes. Most of the time, the beasts had a vaguely humanoid shape, but this one looked like something out of one of Mina's old movies, standing on a pair of inverted, triple-jointed legs that somehow supported a barrel-like body that had one spindly arm on the left side, and a muscular appendage with a huge, four-fingered hand on the right side. There were large mounds of grey flesh dotted across its body in random places that each resembled an abscess filled with puss, all of them at least four inches in diameter. The thing's head was the strangest part, because there was no neck between it and the shoulders whatsoever, there were more of the boils on the sides and back, and the eyes glowed yellow beneath the brain in a way that seemed vaguely familiar to the boy, though he decided to try and sort it out later, because it looked like he was about to be in a world of trouble.

"Get away from here!" he shouted at a few onlookers that appeared to be frozen with terror. "Get to safety, and if you see any other heroes, send them my way!"

"You're a hero?!" shouted a man that had rocks for hair. "You're just a kid!"

"I'm a hero, my name is Kai, nice to meet you, and get the hell out of here!" the boy bellowed as the Nomu rushed at him with startling speed, given its misshapen body, and drew back the massive hand as if to slap him.

What I wouldn't give to have my sword right now, Kai thought just before he caught the arm by the wrist, yanked the monster off-course, and used the same momentum to kick it far away from him, sending it crashing into a large tree in the middle of a park that they had been idling by. Good thing that was there. Around him, people were still screaming in fright and running in random directions, not really caring where they went, as long as it was away from the Nomu and the apparently-crazy teenager who was all that was standing between them and a painful demise.

Kurai had been forced to leave behind his sword and scouter at the school dorms, as communication devices and weapons were strictly prohibited at the prison. It had been tough enough to let them keep his arm, which he was very grateful that he had on right now. Without that, I'd be toast in a second, he thought as he kept an eye on the Nomu, which was already recovering, though there were some cuts and bruises that were still visible. Okay, so he can heal and he's strong, seems to be a common theme with the black ones, he told himself. Problem is, All For One was bragging about how they usually have at least three, like the one at the USJ possessing Shock Absorption on top of regeneration and super-strength. My hits are connecting and doing damage, so what's this one got up his sleeve for me?

He got his answer when the monster stretched out its distorted arm and shadows shot out of its fingertips, heading right for him and cutting through everything in its path- the ground, solid rock, even the trees were torn apart by its power. Without so much as a word, Kai raised his hands and unleashed a barrage of energon blasts that countered the shadows and kicked up a dust plume that obscured the Nomu from view. Knowing that such an obstruction would only buy him a second at best, Kurai channeled his powers through his Ajna chakra, granting him omnidirectional sight. He could see the people around that were trying to flee, the camera drones in the air that were fed by the news networks as they tried to make sense of what was happening, as well as the Nomu that was charging straight at him through the dust cloud.

He fired off a shot of condensed energy and then dove to the side, the small explosion serving to knock the monster off-course and give him time to release the Divine Eye before it could put too much strain on his mind or ocular senses. Part of his training had been to use his chakra ability in short bursts as opposed to extended periods of time that would leave him as worse than useless on the battlefield. Thank you for the advice, Izuku, he thought as he opened his eyes and watched the Nomu get back on its clawed feet. Gritting his teeth in a snarl, he growled out, "I know you don't understand this, but I'm gonna say it anyway- you picked the wrong day to mess with me."

Energy enveloped him in raging aura that sent dirt, debris, and even the air racing away from him as his wrath began to mount in preparation to take on this new pawn of the League.

Back at the dorms of UA, the first-year students of the hero course were all gathered in the common room, on the edge of their seats as they watched Endeavor and Hawks' battle with the flying Nomu unfold. Even Todoroki, who held nothing but disdain for his father, looked as though he feared greatly for the new number one hero. The atmosphere was drastically different than when they had each rooted for All Might at the battle of Kamino- there was no cheering the man on, and no fierce resolve in their minds that spoke of their confidence in their champion.

There was only dread in the air, and it laid heavily upon them.

"Hey guys?" Kirishima suddenly asked, startling almost everyone in the room. "Sorry to be the one that points this out, but… Wasn't Hikari supposed to be near there?" The silence that had been present in the room beforehand now seemed like a cacophony of noise compared to the void that descended on them now.

"You guys don't think…" Kaminari started to say, before Mina stood up from the spot on the couch that she had claimed.

"No way," she said vehemently. "He's not the type to go looking for trouble if he can help it, and that thing is keeping Endeavor on his toes. Ever since everything went down on I-island, Kurai wouldn't get caught up in a fight like that unless he had no other choice."

"She's right," Todoroki nodded. "If he's there, he'd be more likely to assist with the evacuation efforts than going to fight the Nomu."

"This just in!" The scene on the TV suddenly changed to a viewing of the news network's home station, where a nervous-looking man was peering closely at a sheet of paper that trembled in his hands. "Another fight has apparently broken out on the other side of Fukuoka. We don't have any eyewitness reports as of yet, but our drones have spotted only one hero caught up in battle with another Nomu, as the majority of the heroes in the city have gone to assist Endeavor and Hawks. Here's the footage, now."

The screen blinked, and Mina let out a scream as she and Ochaco held on to one another while they beheld the image of their worst fears. A figure clearly recognizable as Kurai was on the ground, trading blows with a grotesque Nomu, explosions and debris flying every which way as they tore through a city park. He looked largely unhurt so far, but he was fighting a black Nomu- and they all remembered what happened to him the last time that he had tangled with one of those. The reporter spoke again, saying, "I have no idea which hero that is down there, but whoever he is, he's incredibly brave for fighting such a nightmare on his own. We'll try to get more details on him, but in the meantime, we'll switch back to Endeavor's fight."

"Everyone, get your phones out!" Blake told the others. "Start searching for a streaming service or a channel that's going to keep monitoring his fight!" Before she had finished talking, the others were already on it, each of them calling out different names that they would check, as to avoid redundant searches.

It only took a few seconds for them to find one, but it felt like an eternity to the young heroes before Sero called out, "I got it! That channel that he did his interview with back when he was with Gang Orca is covering it!" Izuku snatched up the remote and punched in the channel, which changed the view from Endeavor and Hawks back to Kurai, who was now hurling a tree at the Nomu in an attempt to pin it down. This was foiled by some kind of shadow power that tore the tree to splinters, though Kurai still managed to land a follow-up Rasengan on the monster, which ripped apart its large arm and sent it flying once again.

It was then that Aizawa came running in to see the state of class. "Todoroki?" he asked, even as his eyes fell on the son of the number one pro. "So, you know about Endeavor?"

"Forget my old man," the boy said without looking away from the screen. "Look at who else is caught up in there!"

Aizawa frowned for a second before he too saw the battle unfolding on the screen, and when he did, he fell absolutely still, his eyes wide, much like the majority of his students.

Only one of them refused to be paralyzed in that moment. "Come on, Saiyaman!" Bakugo growled at the TV. "Start hitting back for real! This is nothing compared to I-island and those yakuza weaklings! Beat his ass!"

Bakugo's words shook Kirishima out of his stupor enough that he clenched his fists and added his voice to the rallying cry. "Go, Kai!" he shouted, not caring that their friend couldn't actually hear him. He had to believe that Kurai would feel his spirit reaching out to him, assuring him that his classmates were cheering him on, even if no one else was. "You got this, man!"

"Show the League it's time to stop messing with us!" Ojiro added.

"Win this!"

"Stand strong!"

"Plus Ultra!"

Everyone was on their feet as they roared with one voice, "Come on, Kai!"

Musutafu's female protected witness prison cells had been emptied into the cafeteria, where there were a handful of TV's spread throughout the hall. There were only a couple-dozen inmates who warranted the V.I.P. treatment, such as it were, and among them was a frail-looking woman with dark hair and dull violet eyes. She might have been considered easy pickings for the other prisoners, but they knew better than to target her.

One inmate had tried to corner her in the showers and had been sent to the hospital with broken bones and internal bleeding by the time the guards were done with her. Said guards had been given a written warning for inappropriate conduct, which told the other prisoners all that they needed to know- even if her husband had been revealed as a traitor, most people in law enforcement garnered nothing but respect for the late Commissioner Hogo-sha and his family. Apparently they had collectively decided that even though the two of them had done wrong, the fact that their children's lives had been held hostage from a distance was enough of a moral justification that Moka did not deserve to suffer the more brutal aspects of prison life. After that, no one dared to mess with the middle-aged widow.

Normally she wore the same vacant expression, day in and day out, and most of the inmates could hardly remember her saying a word to anybody, guards or otherwise. So it was nothing less than a total surprise when she suddenly stood up and stared at the closest TV with wide eyes. One of the guards, a woman named Hiyori, moved closer and asked, "Hogo-sha? You alright?"

Moka said nothing for a moment, but then she pointed at the TV and asked, "Can you turn up the volume, please?" Naturally, the fact that she had spoken and was addressing a specific subject was enough to draw the attention of the other prisoners, who all looked up to see the fight in Fukuoka violently unfolding.

At first, none of them understood the underlying specifics of what was happening, but one woman snorted and said, "Looks like Shigaraki's letting another one of those freaks out to play."

"Probably trying to make Endeavor look bad," commented another, though she didn't sound too upset over the fact. In this part of the prison, the Nomu were generally looked down on, but no one was going to complain if the new number one hero was forced into an early retirement- he'd given all of them some form of grief over the course of his career.

"That ain't Endeavor up there," said someone else as she craned her neck to get a better view of the screen. "Looks like one of those UA brats."

"Isn't he the one that helped that whale take down Amani?" another inmate inquired.

"Yep." The first speaker smirked as she added, "Looks like the brat is about to bite it. Too bad it's one of those Nomu freaks that'll get the pleasure."

"That Nomu will get no such pleasure," Moka said firmly, surprising the other women with the intensity of her voice and gaze as her knuckles whitened on the tabletop. "And Shigaraki is going to regret ever targeting him."

"Come on," chuckled yet another prisoner, while the others laughed at her. "UA has some real scrappers, sure- enough of us have been put in here by their graduates to know that. But a kid's a kid, and that kid is no All Might. He's toast."

"You're right, he's not like All Might," Moka replied without looking away from the screen. "He's going to be greater than he ever was. Keep watching, because you're about to witness something truly magnificent."

The others laughed at her again, with the first woman saying, "You're crazy, Hogo-sha. I'd have thought that a cop's wife would know what those Nomu freaks are capable of."

"I'm well aware," Moka nodded before she finally turned to fix a fiery glare on the woman who had dared to question her statement. "But more than that, I am aware of the capabilities of my son."

The hero known as Kai ducked under a shadow tendril that sprang from the Nomu's newly-restored arm, sweat flying from his hair as he managed to avoid having his skull split open. Where the hell are the other heroes?! he thought angrily. This is their city- why aren't they helping the people in danger?!

The situation was far from ideal in terms of a battleground. They were in a city park without any people in the immediate vicinity, yes, but the panicking mobs were making it difficult for anyone to actually flee to safety, so Kurai couldn't exactly let loose for fear of a stray energy blast going wild and hurting bystanders. If he was going to have a real chance at victory, he needed some way to lead the Nomu out of the city, or for other heroes to shield the citizens under their protection.

Kai was suddenly caught off guard when shadows sprang out of the ground to bind him in place, violently squeezing the air out of his lungs and making him feel like his head was going to pop. The Nomu started to approach him at a much slower pace than before, which made him nervous in more ways than one. Either he's running out of gas, which I seriously doubt, he thought rapidly as his head started to swim, or he's trying to capture me for the League. It would make sense, seeing as the Nomu hadn't attacked anyone else, unlike when they normally appeared, lashing out at anyone or anything that came too close to them. The fact that he had been the only target so far told him that this Nomu was present with a goal looming in whatever was left of its mind. Whatever the case, I'm not really interested in finding out why he's here. I just want him gone!

Energy burst from every pore in his body, exploding outward and disintegrating the shadows that were binding him and repelling the Nomu several yards away. The thing let out an angry snarl and leaped at him, swiping with the mutated arm again, leading him to perform a leg sweep that he finished off with a laser to the head, hoping to end things before they got any more out of hand.

Unfortunately, the Nomu turned itself at the last second to take the blast on one of its abscesses. The thing exploded with a mixture of nasty-smelling goop and several indistinguishable lumps of flesh that narrowly missed getting on the struggling hero. "Gross!" Kai spat as he backed away from the recovering monster. "Super-zit? That's the quirk you got?! I'd say it was pointless, but if its function is to make you so disgusting that I don't want to touch you, I won't lie- it's working."

The Nomu let out a wordless grunt as it stood, the wound already closing over, though this time the giant fluid sack did not remain. Seeing this, Kai muttered, "What's the point in taunting your enemies if they don't have a capacity to understand you?!" He was about to press the attack again, but something caught his attention in the corner of his peripheral sight.

Without really knowing why, he jumped back just in time to avoid a gray blob of flesh about two inches across that had six legs and little else in the way of defining features, though they could have just been covered by the residual slime. Normally, Kai would have wondered what on earth had just tried to get at him, but thanks to Mina, he'd played enough games and seen enough scary movies to get an idea of what would probably happen if he was grabbed by the little creature that had apparently been residing in the monster's body. "Nomu spawn?!" he yelped as he vaporized it with a large bolt of energy. "Seriously?!" Fortunately, the little monster did not seem to share its parent's regenerative capabilities, because it stayed dead once Kai had blasted it. Now he knew that it would be better to leave the abscesses alone if at all possible, because he could see a few more of the spawn creatures stirring in the muck.

"We're here to help!" a new voice shouted as a quartet of colorful heroes burst onto the scene. As soon as she saw Kai, the newcomer said, "Wait, a kid? You're the one holding this thing off?!"

Before he could answer, the Nomu spawn suddenly went into a frenzy, having apparently sensed new targets. Seeing this, Kai shouted, "Don't let those things touch you!"

He was too late, though. One of the heroes, a man with a green cape and metal bracers cried out as one of the creatures sunk its teeth into his ankle, causing him to fall over and start frothing at the mouth. The spawn's tentacles began to grow, enveloping his leg and spreading across until he had become a warped, grey-skinned version of the man that he had once been. As he staggered to his feet, they could see that his armor had been amalgamated into his twisted flesh, and his eyes were black and vacant- much like the weaker Nomu that everyone had seen in Hosu and Kamino.

"Hibiki!" the woman called out, but she was unable to reach him before Kai dusted the other drones, the energy blasts making it difficult for her to move forward. "What are you doing?!"

"Making sure that doesn't happen to the rest of you!" Kai snapped just before he was tackled by the black Nomu again. "Agh! See to your friend and keep civilians out of here! We don't need to give thing any more bodies!" He slammed his metal arm into the Nomu's brain, stunning it for a moment that bought him his freedom, which he used to leap high into the air. "Okay, I've had enough of this!" he seethed as light gathered between his palms. "Kamehameha!"

He fired the blast straight downward, obscuring the beast in a flash of blinding light that lit up the afternoon city park like a firework display. As he landed on his feet, Kai remained on high alert for any further danger. I blasted him hard enough that most of his body should be atoms, he thought as the seconds crawled by and the dust began to settle, even as the sounds of the mutated hero battling his friends raged in the background. The problem is if I didn't get his head…

A shadow loomed in the dust cloud, causing Kai's stomach to drop. "What does it take with these things?!" he shouted to no one in particular. The Nomu staggered out of the crater that had been made by the explosion, its flesh and skeletal structure quickly reforming from its monstrous body. He was about to add a round of profanities when he realized that he had either just scored a very lucky strike, or made a terrible mistake.

All of the flesh sacs that would be carrying the Nomu spawn were gone. So either they got zapped in the blast, or I'm about to have a swarm of the Alien's cousins all over the place. The sound of wet slithering coming from several directions at once caused his face to deadpan as he muttered, "Yeah, that seems about par for the course."

"Why's he just standing there?!" Yang shouted at the TV. "Those things are gonna get him if he doesn't do something, and that monster is regenerating right in front of him! Finish it already!"

"You idiot," Bakugo snapped. "You think Saiyaman doesn't know that? He's not attacking because he's got something up his sleeve!" He shot Izuku a glare as he added, "He's always hanging around Deku, and his old man was a long-time cop. He knows how to strategize, unlike you, ya blond bimbo."

"Who're you calling a-?!"

"Whoa, Sis!" Ruby shouted as she jumped on her sister's back before she could throw a punch. "Think of Zwei! He wouldn't want this!"

"Don't bring Zwei into this!"

"Everybody, shut up!" Mina screamed at them, though her eyes remained glued to the screen. "Just…! Stop it, okay?"

As Kurai started to move again, Izuku looked up to his teacher and asked, "Mister Aizawa… Do you think he's going to be okay?"

The man was quiet for a moment while his haggard eyes watched his young charge fighting for his life, unable to do anything to help him yet again. "I don't like his chances," he said, causing many of the students to slouch with despair. However, they perked up again as he said, "But if anyone has a chance at winning out of this class, it's Hikari."

Kai's chest was starting to ache from all the exertion and heavy breathing that he had been doing, but he remained steadfast as the spawn came closer and closer to him. Everything in his body wanted to run away, to put as much distance between him and these parasites as possible. Even still, he held fast to his chosen spot while he held his hands a few inches apart, gathering power between them as sweat crawled down his body. Just a little more… he thought as the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, one of the Nomu spawn skittering close enough to reach out and touch him. Now!

"Scattered BULLETS!" he roared, sending the condensed power into the air, where the ball exploded and rained down dozens of energon blasts in the area around him, vaporizing many of the creatures, and flinging the other ones away from him, as well as stunning the recovering Shadow Nomu again. Instead of being satisfied by this, Kai cursed violently. Who knows where they went now?! he seethed. He had been hoping to finish off all of the spore creatures with a wide-range attack, but some of them had managed to escape their doom. And that'll just make things worse if they get ahold of a new host!

"Hello?!" a man called out through the dust that had been kicked up by the latest attack. "Is there anyone still here?!"

"Get away!" Kai shouted desperately. "There are things in here that turn you into a half-Nomu if they get you! Get yourself and any other citizens to safety before they spread again!"

"Not a chance!" the other person shouted, even as the sand suddenly fell to the ground, clearing the air and revealing the destroyed park area. The speaker was a hero with dirty blond hair, and he was accompanied by three women with similar features. "We're not leaving a kid out here alone!"

"Look, Azuma!" one of the girls shouted as the sand near them started to stir. "That must be-!"

"Kill it!" Kai screamed. "Now!"

"Sand Coffin!" the four heroes shouted, causing the dirt to condense and then explode, turning into mud as the creature inside it was obliterated.

Kai allowed himself a short breath of relief as he said, "Thanks. There are more, so keep an eye out for them. The real problem is the big one that spawned them- I lost him in the dust, but he seems to be targeting me for some reason."

"Understood," the man said calmly. "We're the Dust Devils, a family agency stationed here in Fukuoka. You are?"

"I'm Kai from Musutafu," the boy answered as he continued to look around for the Nomu and its minions. "Are there any more heroes on the way?" He normally would have used Divine Eye to accomplish this, but he was already light-headed from the oxygen deprivation that the fight had subjected him to thus far.

"Most people are trying to help Endeavor and Hawks on the other side of the city," one of the other women said. "We were on our way to assist them, but some citizens flagged us down and said that you needed help."

"Yeah, one of the last heroes to show up got mutated, and his teammates had to fight him," Kai said as he blasted another dirt mound that was starting to move. "I haven't seen them in a bit."

"I'll go check it out," said the last woman, but her leader objected immediately.

"Don't be stupid, Sandy," he said tersely. "Splitting up in this scenario will more than likely get us all killed."

Sandy was about to give a snappy retort when the ground behind her suddenly burst open to admit a large gray figure, wearing a tattered hero's suit. Kai was blur, shooting across the clearing in the time it takes to blink, tackling the mutated hero before they could strike at Sandy. They landed and rolled over a few times in the dirt, but once they had gotten their bearings again, Kai had knocked the unfortunate hero unconscious with swift punch to the head.

"I guess we know what happened to the others," he said with a shudder.

"Yeah," Sandy said a little shakily. "Thanks, kid."

"I'm more worried about the big one at this point," Azuma said nervously. "I saw the footage from Hosu- those things are almost impossible to stop."

"You're telling me," Kai grumbled as he and the others kept annihilating every small mound of dirt in sight. "I'm the guy that fought the first one during the USJ incident at UA High, and this one is proving to be a bigger pain in my ass."

"Quit talking big," the second woman snapped at him. "Everyone knows that All Might beat that thing."

"Only after I held it off so that he was able to arrive in time," Kai shot back. "Look, my point is, if we're not careful, that thing is going to kill us, and then it's more than likely going to kill the panicked masses without much discrimination."

"But where is it?!" Sandy asked as she cast her eyes all about.

They got their answer sooner than expected when a monstrous hand shot out of the ground and wrapped itself around the first woman and shook her like a ragdoll, breaking her spine and killing her by pulping her head on a nearby stone that had somehow remained intact. Kai and the others recoiled from the horrible sight, even as the Nomu crawled out of the shadows of the nearby debris piles, now silent and more menacing than ever.

"Tiese…" the man breathed, tears spilling from his eyes. "No, no, no! You damned monster, you're dead for that!"

"No, don't!" Kai tried to warn him, but it was too late. Shadows flew out of the Nomu's fingers to skewer him repeatedly, killing him almost as fast as his partner. Knowing that the other two were just as likely to try something stupid, he shouted, "Don't you two start! I need you to find the other-! Oh, crap!"

He leaped back several yards as the two women let out strangled cries while their bodies were warped and remade into the semblance of a half-finished gray Nomu. Once they were done, the three creatures started to shuffle toward him, causing him to grit his teeth furiously. Why? he growled inwardly. What is all this for?! He directed his hatred at the Shadow Nomu as he helplessly seethed, Why did All For One have to succeed in making me?! Why did I pave the path to success for things like you to walk the earth?! He knew that the Nomu was incapable of answering his thoughts, but he still raged at it regardless.

So it was that he bared his teeth at the lumbering monsters as he shouted, "If this is the League's way of trying to scare me, forget it! You killed me once, and I refuse to let that happen again!" He prepared two Rasengan, one in each hand as he screamed, "The last time I fought one of your kind, Nomu, I went in knowing that I would die, likely without victory! Today, I'm walking over your corpse with my head held high!"

The two demi-Nomus stretched out their grotesque hands, which caused the sand to stir and rush at Kai from all sides, seeking to entrap and rip him to pieces. Kai lowered his head and murmured, "Sorry, Dust Devils." He then shot out of the oncoming storm to slam the whirling energy balls into the two mutates, sending them flying to the sides before Kai aimed a kick at their master's head, which he wound up passing straight through. What the-?!

The attacks were not enough to kill the warped heroes, but since they seemed to lack the healing powers of the original, it was likely that they would be out for some time. This did not solve the issue that Kai was facing in the fact that the Nomu seemed to be able to transform its own body into shadows instead of just manipulating dark energy. Even so…

As he skidded to a stop, he resumed his glare at the Nomu while it turned around to look at him and allowed him enough time to growl out, "You still don't scare me."

Then he was bludgeoned from behind, skidding through the dust to rest at the feet of the Shadow Nomu, leaving him dazed and tasting blood until he was roughly picked up by his enemy. "The wha…?" he slurred, struggling to keep conscious. With a supreme effort of will, he turned his concussed head to see that they had been surrounded by more than two dozen demi-Nomus. Some were wearing the remnants of hero costumes, but worse were the tatters that had once been the clothing articles of everyday citizens. No… he thought sluggishly. One of the smaller ones moved closer, and he could see a shirt that read, 'Just like my Daddy- a total catch.' There was a distorted baseball cap that had been ripped by some kind of horn, not unlike the one that Eri had on her head.

No… he thought, his blood beginning to boil. "No…" he managed to grunt. "That's… where I… draw the line."

In his dazed eye, he saw not just a random child that had become the victim of a terrible circumstance; he saw his younger self, a victim of All For One's sociopathic curiosities. As his head involuntarily swiveled back to his captor, the Shadow Nomu, he thought, So this is what I could have been, were our positions somehow reversed… In a way, when I survived and made his experiment a success, I made you too; not just All For One. Which means…

Kai gritted his teeth as he called on more power, flexing his muscles as he began to resist the Nomu's crushing grip. "You… are my mess to clean up!" he grunted. "Fear has kept ahold of me for too long now, but I'm not dying until I've done the job!"

"This battle is insane," the reporter was saying now while class 1-A continued to watch with baited breath. "This young hero has been beset by monsters that once stood as people, some of which seemed to be originally determined to assist him, but he's still going, all on his own!"

"That may be, but what is UA thinking, letting a kid like him out to fight in a situation like this?!" her co-anchor demanded. "He shouldn't be anywhere near that mess!"

"Does that really matter right now?" the first speaker shot back, exasperated. "Right now, that boy- that hero- is the only one standing between these new monstrosities and the rest of Fukuoka! Endeavor and Hawks have their hands full as it is, can you imagine if they had to fight this Nomu in addition to the other one? Kai is standing strong where many others have fallen, so why should it matter how old he is or who he's affiliated with?"

"Yeah!" Hagakure shouted at the TV. "This lady knows what's up!"

"He's totally outnumbered now…" Mina said in a pitiful tone, her eyes unblinking as she ignored the words being tossed about in favor of paying total attention to the fight that was continuing to unfold in the corner of the screen. "Kurai, please… make it back to me alive."

No one said anything, but Iida suddenly moved over to grip one of her hands and stand next to her with a determined look in his eyes as he watched the battle continue. He did not speak, but the action said enough that Mina felt just a tiny bit better.

"Gyah!" Kai unleashed rings of energy that arced away from his body, flattening the Shadow Nomu and pushing back its minions a fair way. Before he could go anywhere, though, his own shadow seized his legs and would not let him go. "Tch." He seemed annoyed more than anything as he fired a laser burst into the ground, tearing it up and allowing the intense light to disrupt the shadow's contamination, which granted him freedom of movement again.

Let's try that Muladhara power again, he thought as he began to focus on the chakra located at the base of his spine. He knew that if he wanted to be able to quickly deal with many moving targets simultaneously while trying to avoid getting ensnared by the Nomu's Shadow quirk, the root chakra's power was the best way for him to go. When it did not seem to be working, he frowned, noticing that his enemies were once again coming for him. I can't run away, or they'll just take to the streets, and then who knows what will happen? He kept trying to push for the power that he had once touched upon during the provisional licensing exam, but it continued to remain just out of his reach.

"Why?" he seethed. "I don't fear these things! I faced All For One and shed his hold on me! I have no fear left! Why can't I do this?!" He cast his eyes about, keeping track of the approaching creatures as he shouted, "I'm not afraid of any of you!"

Then his eyes fell on the demi-Nomu that had once been a child again, and he knew that his words were ringing falsely, especially in his own ears. I do fear them, he realized despairingly, hardly noticing when one of the other mutated civilians tackled and pinned him to the ground, expanding like a balloon that seemed to grow heavier the larger it became.

The pressure forced air out of his lungs, and he was unable to suck anything in to replenish his now oxygen-deprived body. Spots swam in front of his eyes and he strained to get his hands underneath him in order to push the massive weight off his back, but he couldn't get the leverage that he needed to do so. His ribs began to crack from the still-increasing pressure, sending stabbing pains throughout his chest, causing him to let out a hoarse scream that came out as little more than a gasp.

With a burst of spastic, hysterical strength, he heaved his shoulders, lifting himself up high enough to take in a deep breath- right before the mutate increased its weight yet again, putting him back into his personal indentation in the earth. Letting out a more substantial scream of pain, he managed to get out the one word; "Help!"

He had been able to get his elbows in underneath him, so his chest had room to expand a little bit, but he was still trapped, and breathing was a painful labor. Every muscle wanted to cave into the pressure and just escape into the rest that unconsciousness would grant him, but his stubborn nature and the terror of what could happen to him if he was taken to the League of Villains kept him from giving into that fate. There's gotta be some more heroes around here! he thought as he strained to keep his lungs functioning, and his shaking arms locked in place beneath him. Someone will come, right? This is a major city, there's gotta be someone who can come and save me!

He was in over his head. That had become painfully obvious the moment he had been outnumbered, but the hero in him wouldn't allow for a retreat until he had done everything in his power to stop the Nomu's rampage. He had grown up with a quirk that had given him strength enough to conquer almost every obstacle that came against him through sheer power and skill born of tireless dedication to his craft. Now, that same power was failing him, which in turn was causing him to fail the people depending on him. Knowing that, and desperate for a reprieve from the pain and ominous weight above him, he sucked in another agonizing breath and screamed out, "Somebody…! Help me!" Tears fell down his face, mixing with the blood that spilled from the gash on his cheek as his call remained unanswered. "Please!" he tried again, his head pounding like a jackhammer. "I can't beat them on my own! I'm trapped, I need help! Somebody, please! I don't wanna die again!"

He waited for several seconds, but the only thing he heard was the shuffling sounds of the Nomu and its servants moving restlessly around him, apparently content to wait until he either died or blacked out beneath their comrade. Beyond that, he could just make out the sounds of a city in panic as an inhuman roar tore across the afternoon sky. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he realized that it must be the other Nomu that had been engaged by Endeavor and Hawks.

With that understanding came another thought: no one was coming to save him. Everyone's focus was on the monster that could hold its own against the top two heroes in the country. That was the biggest threat to Fukuoka right now, and everything else could be dealt with in the aftermath. His struggle was insignificant in the light of that fact.

I'm going to die here, he thought as his arms gave out and allowed his body to completely sink back into the unforgiving earth. If not here, at the hands of Shigaraki and his goons… But either way, it's over. He knew what lay beyond the veil of death for him, and yet the knowledge that he would once again be reunited with his uncle and other ancestors brought him no comfort in that moment. He could only feel a deep disappointment in himself and the despair that he had failed his family and friends at home once again.

As darkness filled mind and eyes, he allowed them to close in accompaniment with the defeated thought, It's… all over.

"Whoa, whoa, what's he doing?!" Sato cried as they watched the boy go limp beneath the weight crushing him into the ground, looking utterly spent. "Is he outta gas or something?!"

"No, no, no…" Mina started to cry as her whole body shook in terror.

"Don't tell me you're just giving up, Saiyaman!" Bakugo suddenly roared, explosions sparking in his hands. "Get on your feet! You're the one that showed us how to stand, no matter what comes at you!"

"Come on, Kurai!" Izuku added, his energy matching that of his rival. "You can't give up, not when we're all waiting for you to come home!"

"Get up!" Bakugo shouted again. "Show this thing that when life knocks you down, you get back up and say, 'You hit like a bitch!'"

Kai's fingers tightened as he felt something stir inside of him- not his chakra, but in the heart of his very being. He could feel a gentle warmth enveloping his bleeding soul, lifting it out of the crushing darkness and into the brilliant light of a hero's unwavering resolve. He didn't know how, but he knew where that strength was coming from. I have people waiting for me, he told himself. I have promises to keep, and not only to them, but to myself. And I can't accomplish any of that if I'm captured or killed. So fear or not… Stand UP, Kai!

Straining his abused muscles as hard as he dared, he unleashed a huge blast of energy from his back that sent the demi-Nomu rolling like a bowling ball to crash into the other mutates, scattering them like ninepins. He then swung his body up and around, planting his feet firmly beneath him just in time to catch the black Nomu's left foot with his metal arm and grab it hard enough to crack the bones. "I am afraid of you, Nomu. I am." As he shoved back his enemy mightily, he got back up, forcing his sore muscles and damaged bones to go beyond their limits. In haggard voice, he said, "I fear what you represent, not just to others, but to me, a fellow monster created by All For One… But that doesn't mean… that I can't fight back!" He wiped at his eyes before fixing them on the monster that was limping along as its foot repaired itself. Kai stood tall in defiance of his enemy's power as his skin began to burn with a crimson hue.

He could feel it in his stomach- the root of his chakra path, which had been tightly sealed for so long by his fear of knowing what he really was, had finally opened back up to him, granting him the power that he needed right then, sharpening his instincts and reflexes beyond the speed of thought itself. Without perceiving any tangible hints of danger, he leaped sideways and laid flat one of the larger demi-Nomus with a kick while using scarlet energy bolts to knock over another six like ninepins, all while keeping his eyes on the black one. None of the blasts were lethal, as he hoped that the people that had been taken over by the Nomu spawn could be returned to normal, unlike the ones that had been created by the League of Villains.

He wanted to take down the weaker ones before he focused on the big Nomu again, so he allowed his body to work on its own with only a general thought to guide its actions. It was difficult, maintaining an awareness while surrendering nearly all of his control to his flesh itself, and he couldn't keep it up for very long, given how draining the power was to use, but it was proving quite effective. Where before he had been concerned with getting any nearby civilians caught up in the crossfire, he now knew to trust in his instincts to channel his powers so that his worst fears would not come to pass. His fear still stood before him, but he would not surrender to it- only to his own determination would he give control in this moment.

There was a danger to this, however. He was so detached from his surroundings that it wasn't until he had been striking at the first Nomu for a good ten seconds before he realized that there were no more of the mutated ones, and that it was time for a different approach before he burned through the last of his energy. As he released the power of the Muladhara chakra and felt his conscious self resume control of his body, he staggered and nearly fell as the humming river of energy that was required to sustain him in that state was cut off. His restored sense of pain didn't help when he fell to his hands and knees again as his body reminded him that he had some serious wounds that would require medical attention as soon as humanly possible.

The Nomu had somehow been relieved of both legs before then, but it was growing them back, which was the heart of the real issue at hand. Due to Endeavor's battle with a black Nomu in Hosu, heroes had formed the theory that the dark creatures could be killed if their heads were completely destroyed, but when he had blasted the brain of this one earlier it hadn't seemed to do much. Unless… As he forced his shrieking legs to get him back on his feet, he recalled how this Nomu had been able to vanish into the shadows and even turn itself incorporeal. Did it let my attack phase through back then?

Whatever the case was, he knew that in order to defeat this Nomu, he needed to destroy every cell of it so that it could not even cast a shadow to flee into. I hope that people are far enough away for this to work without anyone else getting hurt, he thought as he shifted the flow of his quirk to pour into his Swadhisthana chakra, focusing on the joy that he had felt when he rescued Eri and given his brother reason to smile again. Just for a second, he thought. I need this for less than a moment.

His hair and eyes shone with an orange light as he called upon the power that had nearly driven him insane in his fight against Overhaul, granting him speed and power to rival All Might in his prime. The second that his enemy came within striking range, he kicked him up into the reaches of the stratosphere, far higher than where a raging fire could be seen bellowing out into space itself, some miles away.

Endeavor, Kai realized as he leaped after the Nomu, leaving a sizeable crater in the ground with a violent rush of wind pressure to trail his movements. His lingering animosity toward the other hero interrupted the flow of his chakra, taking away the orange light as soon as he made the connection between the fire and its owner. However, he was quick to put aside the unworthy thoughts- he had more important things to worry about right now.

Frost was beginning to coat his body by the time he drew alongside the Nomu that he had been fighting and grabbed on to it by the big arm, even as the yellow light of his quirk began to blaze forth, enveloping them in a cocoon of raw energy. This was not a transformation or a proper technique- it was simply an outpouring of everything that Kai had left in him at that moment.

"Is that… is the Nomu doing that?!" the formerly skeptical reporter gaped as the footage began to shake and flicker with static in response to the unbelievably bright light shining above Fukuoka, the luminance surpassing even Endeavor's fading Prominence Burn. Everyone in the Hogo-sha household were on the edge of their seats as the light of Hellfire and Energon engulfed the sky above Fukuoka, obscuring the Guardian Hero from view as he prepared for the final push.

"No, that's gotta be Kai!" his co-anchor replied, nearly standing up from her chair with the nervous energy that had built up in the room. "He must be going all-out, just like Endeavor! If anything, I'd say he might pushing himself even harder than the number one hero!"

"How can a kid be as strong as Endeavor, though?!" the man asked as he continued to gape at the unfolding fight. "I've never seen anything like it!" Despite his earlier disparaging comments against the boy, there was no denying the young hero's strength now.

"Kurai…" Akarui whispered as the light continued to intensify, startling his aunt and cousin with the use of his actual voice. "Come on…" His entire body was shaking as he tried in vain to inch out of his wheelchair while he declared, "I'm watching you!"

Kai thought of his family, who were likely cheering him on, and the friends that he had come to hold so dear who must be worried for him. He thought of the girl that he loved, and what future he dreamed of having with her as he began to increase the rate of power output to a level that was incredibly painful for him, but he wasn't going to stop now. Lastly, he thought of his father, the man who had born the guilt of knowing that his decisions had led to the emergence of the League under All For One and Shigaraki's leadership, all for the sake of the son he loved enough to die for.

Dad… He thought clearly, in spite of the rush of the moment. I will live to be a hero. The Nomu was trying viciously to throw him off, unable to use its shadows to flee in the maelstrom of light that he had conjured. He tightened his grip hard enough to make Nomu's bones snap as he pushed his quirk to greater heights, further than he had ever dared to dream that he could climb.

No matter what it takes, Dad, no matter what I must overcome, he thought as he flexed his metal arm and used it to rend the creature's bulging arm clean off its shoulder, his constant barrage of raw energy preventing it from regenerating the flesh and bone. I swear I will be a hero who can stand beneath the weight of the sacrifices you made. With another savage movement, he ripped the thinner arm out of its socket and incinerated it in his own hand. I swear it!

He shattered the creature's spine with a devastating kick, though it wasn't enough to set it free from the storm of Energon that he was still sustaining, nor was it a lethal strike. It was a mistake for you to accept my power from All For One, he reflected silently as he upped the pressure within field of luminance so much that the clouds around and above him began to dissipate and race away as if in in fear of what was to come. The outcomes born of that one mistake is the true nature of the inheritance that you left for your sons to shoulder.

From deep within, he focused on the image of his quirk that All For One had painted for him; a star that beat in his chest, sending the lifeblood of his power flowing throughout his body. It wasn't as bright could be yet, but it burned with enough power that he knew he could do what was required of him. Everything that resulted from your wrong, Dad… I am the hero who will make it right.

"This is all I have left to use against you, Nomu…" he finally breathed out as sweat poured down his brow. The freezing subzero temperatures of the stratosphere had quickly become inconsequential before the wrath of Energon. "This everything I can give to defeat what could have been…" He was surprised to feel tears sting his eyes as he grunted, "I'm sorry, whoever you were. I can't undo what he did to you, but I can end the nightmare. I can do what must be done!" The energy around them began to draw in and condense on itself as their momentum began to die, slowing their ascent to a mere crawl.

The Nomu's limbs finally started to grow back, but by then, it was too late. "Now it's over!" Kai screamed as he flexed all the muscles in his body, willing his flesh to exert every single drop of power that he could spare. "For everything that I have done to further the cause of our creator, this… is my first… ATONEMENT!" The energy that he had been building up and compressing in the air around them exploded in a flash of light that made it look as though the sun itself had come to descend upon Japan in all its brilliant glory. Buildings shook down to their foundations, and the ground rumbled in fear of the display of power that Kai had unleashed.

Within the energy storm, he could just make out the Nomu, screeching as its body was torn apart and incinerated, piece by piece. Kai kept up the pressure, determined to hold on until the regenerative capabilities of his enemy were completely exhausted, and it was nothing but a bad memory. His vision swam in and out of focus, and his head felt like it was trying to tear itself apart, but he continued the attack.

I will win, and I will live! He vowed as he watched his enemy continue to fade away, unable to hear its screams past the pounding in his ears. I am Kai, the hero that will stand guard against and crush all evil that comes before him!

On the ground, far below the conclusion of the battle, the citizens of Fukuoka were forced to shield their bodies from the broken glass that was spraying out of all of the buildings that surrounded them, as well as protecting their eyes from the piercing glare of Energon's light while the ground beneath them shook in fear of the unnatural wrath in the sky above. Heroes wondered at the source of a light that could outshine Endeavor while villains across the nation felt something in their minds once again taking root- something that had been absent and nearly forgotten following All Might's retirement. It took a moment for some of them to recall what the feeling was exactly, but by the time the cold sweat had begun to gather on their brows, they remembered it well.

The villains of Japan were once again afraid.

Class 1-A was completely silent as the light above the skies of Japan began to fade away, leaving nothing that they could see for several seconds as the camera lenses readjusted to the reduced glare. Many of them felt as though their hearts had stopped when they couldn't see Kurai anywhere, and the anchors were reporting that they could find no sign of the hero or the monster that had taken to the skies like Endeavor and his own enemy had done only moments ago.

Just as Kirishima drew in a breath to yell at the TV, the camera zoomed in to reveal a solitary figure hurtling toward the ground at high speed. At first the class was relieved when they realized that the Nomu was nowhere to be seen, but that soon turned back into panic when they came to the conclusion that Kurai was unconscious, given his limp form and closed eyes.

"He's gonna die if someone doesn't catch him!" Weiss yelped.

"Thanks for stating the obvious, Snow Angel!"

"Kacchan, this isn't the time!"

"Guys, look!" Kaminari shouted as he pointed at the screen. "Is he-?!"

Kai was nearly unconscious, but he refused to give in just yet. Every part of his body that could be felt was in pain, save for one limb. That single appendage had the potential to save his life, but he needed perfect timing to pull it off, and he couldn't rely on any of his chakra powers anymore- he was too spent to do much more than conjure a handful of blasts and maybe enhance his body for a few seconds.

He cracked his eyes open as the wind continued to lash at his face, allowing him to see the ground far below him, and the skyscrapers that were fast approaching. Perfect.

Flexing his metallic fingers, he conjured two sparks of Energon and forced them to collide in his palm, the force of them exploding just enough to change his trajectory so that he was headed for the closest building- or rather, to set him on a path that would see him falling right alongside it. It doesn't matter what I come into contact with, the roof of that thing or the ground, either one will kill me at this speed, he reasoned. Need to slow down…

The same second that he passed by the roof of the building, Kai sent traces of his flagging strength throughout his frame, allowing him to right his body so that he was falling feet-first alongside the glass-and-concrete structure. He shot out his mechanical hand and dug his fingers deeply into the side of the building, carving out a huge gash in the stone and slowing his descent considerably.

He cried out in agony as his shoulder was wrenched from its socket, but he refused to let go. Shards of concrete pelted him and cut his body, but he kept digging his hand into the rock, knowing that if he cut himself any slack at all, it was the end for him. With the last vestiges of his powers, he unleashed bolts of energy from his feet in pairs beneath him, forcing them to explode against one another in order to create a series of shockwaves and thermal updrafts that would aid in slowing him down. It couldn't provide much in the way of counterforce, but he needed every little bit of help that he could get right now. I won't let this be the end! He screamed internally as he shut his eyes against the debris trying to cut at his visual receptors. All For One, League, anyone that threatens us- you're not getting rid of me like this!

Then he hit the ground, and all that could be seen was a pile of rocks and another dust cloud. Onlookers approached with cautious eyes, as they were unable discern whether or not they were looking at a temporary burial mound. Just as the camera crews arrived on the scene, a fist shot up from the miniature crater, admitting the worn and battered- but very much alive- form of Kai, who shrugged off the rest of the rubble before he grit his teeth and grabbed his right arm, very obviously biting back a curse as the adrenaline began to wear off and he registered the full pain of his numerous wounds.

"It is now confirmed," said a blue-haired woman as she turned to look at the news' camera while pointing at the wounded boy, even as the people around them shouted in praise of his victory. "This young man- This hero has defeated the second black Nomu that appeared today! Like Endeavor, he stands in defiance of those that would attack the innocent. Truly, we are witnessing the dawn of a new age, with Endeavor as our champion, and this new defender giving us hope that the next generation can rise to the occasion when the time comes!"

Back at his school, everyone in freshman Class A- and many other students across the campus- were cheering and hollering at their school mate's victory. Mina was crying in ball on the couch, but also laughing at the same time while Ochaco hugged her. Iida, Izuku, Todoroki, and Kirishima were likewise huddled together, letting out huge breaths of relief and laughter as they realized that the battle had been won and that Kurai was going to come home safely. Ruby and Yang were hollering like children at a sporting event while Blake and Tokoyami could be seen wiping sweat from their brows. Even Aizawa was seen to be patting the shoulder of a stunned-looking Ojiro, which was the equivalent of many tears of relief from the man.

Only Bakugo did not join in on the festivities, instead looking on with what many might have called a glare. However, those that knew him well saw that he was fixing this moment in his mind as a set memory, one in which he would always come back to look on as the day that he finally grew to respect Kai's power and what he stood for, as would many others across the nation beside him.

In Kurai's childhood home, Akarui was grinning broadly while tears streaked down his face as he beheld his brother's triumphant ascent into the ranks of the great champions who fought to preserve peace and justice in their time. Shukin was practically jumping up and down with a huge smile of his own as he shouted, "That's my cousin! Villains better start running, cos your boy Kai is on the scene!"

His mother, Sakura, was a little more reserved in her celebrations, but she did grasp her nephew's forearm as she said, "You must be proud."

"I… am," the boy breathed out, his voice hoarse. "Prouder… than… I can say."

In Musutafu's white collar prison wing, Moka bowed her head and let out a long-held breath while the others in the cafeteria gave varying expressions of approval. It might have seemed strange, criminals celebrating a hero's victory, but even hardened convicts found Nomu incredibly disturbing. There was also the fact that many of inmates in this wing had lost minions to the League's inhumane experiments over the years, so as far as they were concerned, such a blow to Shigaraki's forces was something worth acknowledging with respect, even if it was a hero who had done the deed.

The fact that their colleagues and minions would someday have to deal with him was a thought that they would have to consider at length at a later date.

Back at Fukuoka, the reporter looked like she wanted to add more to the narrative, but she was startled when the boy came to stand slightly behind and to the side of her, breathing hard, and clutching at his injured shoulder. "Oh, young man!" she said as she turned and put the microphone in his face. "Did you have something you wanted to say?"

The hero-in-training simply focused on his labored breathing for a few seconds before he looked directly at the camera, grimaced and said, "Ha. Not dead."

There was a stunned silence for several seconds before the reporter coughed and said, "I'm sorry, but… What do you mean by that?"

"It means… that I am Kai, the Guardian Hero from UA High School. And I just want to tell everyone out there… hero and villain alike… that I'm not going anywhere… anytime soon," he panted, each word and breath seeming like its own great effort. "I've worked too hard… I've come too far… and lost too much… to be stopped, now…"

His vision swam in and out of clarity, allowing the past and present to mesh together in front of him. Behind the wide-eyed reporter, and in front of the equally anticipatory citizens beyond her, he could see himself on a familiar hospital bed, with an even more familiar figure beside him, holding him close as she whispered words of encouragement that had come to mean more to him than any public commendation ever could or would.

"A real hero?" he could see her asking him. "They don't give up when life keeps knocking 'em down. They pick themselves up and stand their ground. And I know that my hero has it in him to come back from this. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday, I know that the hero Kai is going to triumph over every villain that comes up against him."

His wounds throbbed with the agony of victory, but the past wasn't done with him yet, nor was he through with making use of the present. "You're gonna be the best hero that the world has ever seen, Kurai," Mina's memory reminded him as her fingers caressed his wounded flesh and wound through his black-and-gray tresses. "You've been getting knocked down, yeah, but you've also been standing up to the forces of evil, keeping the rest of us safe since we started at UA, and you're not stopping now."

I haven't stopped… he thought as his eyes continued to waver in and out of focus while his body swayed dangerously until he found it in himself to hold steady for one last statement while he had the attention of his entire homeland. So I suppose it's time I actually got started.

Kai forced his gaze to sharpen as he fixed his eyes back on the camera while gritting his teeth and baring them in the approximation of a smile. While doing so, he also made a show of holding up and clenching his metal fist as he said in a carrying voice, "I am here… to stand my ground."

Kai: I am... still alive? I was not expecting that.

Mataras: Mate, did you really think I was going to have a Nomu do you in? Come on.

Kai: I dunno, you just about killed me the first time I fought the first one. Would it really have been much of a stretch?

Mataras: Hmm. Touché.

Deku: There was a lot to unpack in this chapter.

Mataras: Like I said, I've been building up to the reveals in this chapter for more than two years at this point.

Kai: You seriously had all of that planned out from the beginning?

Mataras: Maybe not the setting in which it took place, but yes. My original idea for you was essentially, 'What if there was a template for the Nomu who became a hero?' That's pretty much where this entire story came from.

Akarui: You took a very long time to answer that question.

Kai: And apparently it's not done being answered, either.

Mataras: Hah! Nope. We're not stopping this story anytime soon, I can tell you that.

Deku: You've really advanced a lot of your skill sets with this story- I can see why you'd like to keep it going.

Mataras: True. I definitely feel as though my writing has continued to improve throughout this narrative, and my artwork has certainly come a long way. Voice work, too.

Akarui: You mentioned that you had made two art pieces for this chapter, right? I can see that one of them is the new cover art, but what's the other one?

Mataras: If you pop over to my Instagram the_red_swordsman you'll be able to see a drawing of the Nomu that Kai had to fight. I kind of got the aesthetics for it by basing it on the Flood-infected forms of the Sangheili in the Halo series, as well as the idea to make it have a 'spore' power.

Kai: Yeah, about that guy... Was he-?

Mataras: Based on the man who killed your father? Yep.

Akarui: ...When is Kurai going to figure that out in-story?

Mataras: He won't. I decided to go the dramatic irony route for this one, especially since you guys have no leads on who killed your father, an it would take a stretch of logic bigger than I can stomach for you guys to learn about that.

Kai: Seems like I'll have enough to deal with, anyways. Probably best not to dump something like that on me right now.

Deku: I'm just glad that we don't have to say goodbye yet. And now you can really own your hero identity!

Mataras: The Guardian Hero, indeed. I have every faith that you'll lie up to your name and promise to always stand your ground. Not many sons these days take it upon themselves to right the wrongs committed by their fathers, so for that, you have my respect.

Kai: Thanks. I do have to say, I'm wondering how All Might's gonna feel about me riffing off his catchphrase when he's been training Izuku to be his proper successor...

Akarui: Well, you didn't steal it outright... Plus, you put your own spin on it, so I doubt you'll catch too much flak for it, especially given what you were able to pull off just now. People want a new All Might, and you're not a bad stand-in until Deku here can really get his ass in gear.

Deku: I'm actually not sure which one of us is more powerful, now...

Mataras: And that is a question that we will have to answer another time. For now, I'll say thank you to our readers for sticking this out so long, and to ym fellow Americans, may you have a great Independence Day!

Kai: See you all for the epilogue to this phase!

Akarui: Next time- Visionaries

Deku: Go Beyond!

Mataras: Plus Ultra!

Kai: I wonder what the fourth phase will be about?

Next time on Your Hero Academia: Unveiling...

"Young man! Kai, do you have a comment on today's fight?!"

"Is the League of Villains targeting Fukuoka for some reason?!"

"How does UA plan to handle an event like this if it comes to their doorstep again?!"

"Do you have a message for the League?!"

"Your name already had a small following, but the events of today seem to have attracted new fans by the tens of thousands! How does it feel to know that people are already looking to you as the new rising star of the next generation of heroes?!"

Kurai blinked at the cacophony of noise and flashing lights that had come greet him in the nighttime atmosphere outside the hospital doors. There were reporters everywhere, most of whom he had assumed would allow him to pass by in favor of waiting on Endeavor to make his exit from the building. At the most, he had expected a handful of questions to be directed at him, so that he might be used as a way to pass the time while they waited on the Number One hero. Evidently, this was not to be the case.

Hawks was smart enough to dodge this media circus before they gathered, he thought wearily as he kept his head down and started to make his way toward the squad car that would provide him an escape. He had hoped that the popular hero would still be around in order to take away some of the attention, if not Endeavor, but it seemed that he had exhausted all of his luck for the day. He was also moving slowly on account of his injuries, and he just wanted to be able to lie down again and not move for several days.