Saiki stared, failing to properly comprehend what he was seeing. Time seemed to slow down around him. He had experienced pain of all kinds any normal person could imagine and some they couldn't, besides. Burns. Breaks. Abrasions. Internal haemorrhaging. External haemorrhaging. Concussions. Contusions. Frostbite. Asphyxiation. Starvation. Dehydration. Yet none of it had prepared him for the inexplicable sensation all throughout his body. Like something inside him, part of his very being had been shredded. Was that it? Was that the loss of his quirk? Was that why Ragdoll hadn't woken up, because the trauma of the experience was so severe? He didn't know.
But it also didn't matter. What mattered was the sight he never could have imagined in this situation. He knew how helpless he was while he waited for whatever fate would befall him. He had hoped for rescue but knew in his gut it was a futile hope. How could the heroes come for him when they had as little idea where he was as he did? And yet...
And yet there she was. Katsumi Bakugo. The girl he pressured into sex, played games of degradation and humiliation with. The girl he was sure held mostly feelings of antipathy, frustration and reluctant lust for him. But... Here she was. Here to save him. Throwing herself in headfirst against a more dangerous villain than Saiki could have imagined before today. Teeth grit in determination, eyes creased in desperation.
The endless moment of clarity ended. The pain didn't matter. Whether he lost his quirk didn't matter. All that mattered was the girl who might have just thrown away her life to save his, doing what little he could to ensure such an outcome wouldn't come to pass. "Don't let him touch you!"
"No shit!" she roared back at him, her hands together, "STUN GRENADE!"
The villain also couldn't see. Saiki's regret that he didn't have time to warn her about that too was short lived though. For some reason All for One grunted in pain and cringed away despite his lack of eyes. What? A quirk. It must have been. He didn't just have Ragdoll's Search. That wouldn't be affected. He must have possessed another that let him see, that could still be blinded.
Saiki meanwhile was only left with spotty vision from the flash. He saw Katsumi blast her way over him. "How does this thing work?!" she demanded of him, trying to blast him out of his restraints.
"I don't know! It's rated for the USJ nomu's strength!"
"Haha, well," the harsh and garbled voice of the villain interrupted the barked words with a laugh. "It seems the show is about to begin." The villain didn't turn toward the two teenagers. Instead he ignored them completely, his head tilting up to look at what remains of the ceiling.
Just before it was entirely ripped away by a spandex-clad blonde. "Jeanist!"
"Moving!" the number three hero answered, his immaculate jeans cinched around his face as he leapt into the room. Threads spread out, launched at and ensnared the villain in a denim trap that locked his arms and legs down tightly.
"How the shit does this thing work, dammit?!" Katsumi demanded, slapping at a control panel's buttons.
"As always Queen Explosion Murder, your temper is as frayed as a pair of stonewashed jeans," Best Jeanist reprimanded her, not taking his eyes off the villain for an instant.
"You do it like this," a deep yet vibrant voice answered as a foot slammed full-force into the panel, smashing and shorting it out. No hesitation, the rabbit hero Mirko caught Saiki as he fell from the restraints. "Tough day, huh kid?" she asked with a smirk. "We've got you."
"Ragdoll!" Another hero, a familiar one to Saiki dropped into the building. However, he didn't pay the ensnared villain or Saiki any attention. Tiger's eyes were only for the teammate he had thought he lost. Her restraints were similarly destroyed in short order and the small woman carried in the feline hero's arms. "Oh Ragdoll, what has he done to you?!"
"It's over, 'All for One'," Best Jeanist informed the villain, "The assault on your little League of Villains was as flawless as the stitching of my denim. I suggest you come quietly."
"Of course you do," the villain responded casually. "You are heroes after all. There is nothing you love more than a clean victory. And now after so many public failures, there is nothing you need more. However..."
"Saiki!" Izuku shouted from the edge of the building. Someone else who came for him to rescue him.
But just like for Katsumi, all he could feel for her was fear. "Don't!" Something was wrong, he could sense it. "It's not over!"
She didn't care to see it. She zipped down next to the rabbit hero and her childhood friend. "Kacchan, let's get him out of here!"
"Go," Mirko ordered, staring warily at the villain in their midst. The girls didn't need to be told twice, carrying him between them toward the wall as they began their ascent.
"Here!" the giant hero Mt Lady scooped them into a hand.
"I have unfortunate news for you all," All for One continued to speak, his arms expanding. At the same time, water pours from the mouths of the many restrained nomu in the room. "You, all of you, are mere distractions from the main event."
Jeanist's eyes widened. The pressure too much for his threads to contain as the villain's arms expanded. Whatever All for One planned to do, it would end badly for all of them. With little better option, he launched the villain upward, clear of the building, still contained by his threads for as little as that meant.
But, while he cleared the building, he did not clear Mt Lady. The opportunity for the villain was too good to pass up. A single powerful blast slammed into her head. With just that one strike, the giantess had been rendered unconscious, the teenagers she was holding unintentionally tossed away. It was all Katsumi could do to control the fall for the three of them as they descended a hundred feet. The best she could do was to slow them and make sure they didn't land inside the building again, though the difference had been made minimal with the walls collapsing under Mt Lady's weight.
And then it was revealed, the distance was no longer a measure of safety as more hovering sprays of water appeared around them. Nine in total. And the bodies that form from them were more than a small problem.
Thankfully one of the most dangerous of them was unconscious. But Muscular being out for the count was little more than a silver lining for the malevolent cloud that was the sudden appearance of the League of Villains.
"Master!" Shigaraki called out rapturously to the masked man floating comfortably above the building.
"Tomura," All for One answered with uncharacteristic care. "You seem to be in dire straits, my boy."
"All Might! He.. He came for us at the bar! But–"
"NOW, I AM HERE!" A shockwave, a blast of force washed over all present, pushing them downward as the primary coloured streak of the Symbol of Peace soared overhead. His fist cocked back. "ALLLLLL FOR ONE! DETROIT SMASH!" The rage, the hatred in his voice, something none present had ever heard from the world's greatest hero. He channeled all of that hatred into that single downward punch.
But, when the onlooking heroes and villains were able to look at the aftermath they saw the villain barely fazed, brought to the ground but none the worse for wear. His arms bulging and bulked up with ugly muscle and metal. "And One for All," the villain mocked in response, a smile audible in his voice.
From below, a grinning Mirko leapt up, her heel rotating around her as she flipped forward. "Luna Arc!" The villain was distracted! Wide open!
Is what she believed. "Time for the irritants to exit the stage." There was no sign, no indication of the attack coming. One instant the rabbit hero had been poised to slam her foot through All for One's breathing mask. The next she had been folded in half, blown away and slammed into the asphalt.
"Miss Mirko!" As fate would have it, or perhaps by design, the rabbit landed a stone's throw away from the two students left behind. "Hold on, I can help!" Momo promised as she runs over.
"Stop!" Mirko ordered with a shaking arm raised. "You two need to get out of here. Now!"
"But Saiki, the League, they–!" Momo tried to protest.
The rabbit woman glared at the villain's back, the devastation he had already left behind. The most galling part was how little she could do about that. One of the reasons being the two girls in front of her. "We'll keep them safe. We'll get them out. But we can't fight our hardest knowing you kids are here. Get gone."
"But–!"
"Do it or I'll put you back in the hospital myself!"
Out in front of the building, Saiki, Izuku and Katsumi stood defensively. They covered each other's blind spots, arranged in a triangle to keep an eye on all opponents. Katsumi's hands were shaking. The blast into the building was a heavy one and without her gauntlets to cover the toll it took, she was at far less than a hundred percent. Saiki was in bad shape for obvious reasons. Only Izuku was relatively fresh. However, being surrounded by nine of the most dangerous villains known to them was an unquestionably dangerous situation.
And then, it very much was nine. "GAH! All Might, that cold-cocking son of a–! Shit, where am I?" Muscular asked as he looks around, saw all of his comrades. And then, "Hey, it's the little hero and his damsel in distress! Looks like I get to make up for missed opportunities!" He blinked his one eye, looked left and right. Searched in his pockets. "Hey, anyone got a spare eye I can borrow?"
A high school girl none of them had met stared at Saiki, a delighted grin on her face as she twirled a knife in one hand. "Hi Saiki! I know we've never met but I'm Himiko Toga! You can call me Himiko! Would it be okay if I took some of your blood?! I really wanna try it!"
Saiki had no idea how to answer that even if he wanted to, which he didn't. He was more busy gathering himself. The pain and wrongness inside him had been fading quickly. Quickly enough he felt hope for something more than survival. But survival remained the first priority.
Suddenly the encirclement was interrupted. Not by rescue but by collateral damage. All Might's body kicked up dust as it slammed into and ruptured the concrete driveway from the force of the impact. He rolled, flipped back to his feet and skidded back, plowing through Muscular on the way through. He looked to the side, saw the three teenagers and grimaced. "Young students, I'll get you out of here!"
"Maybe not," Dabi interrupted, a wave of flame intercepting and blocking All Might's path.
"Sorry, sugar, your dance card's full," Magne taunted as she brings down her giant magnet. Something the great hero took effort to dodge, resisting the pull of her quirk attempting to force the two objects to collide.
"Luna Fall!" Mirko called once again, coming out of nowhere to drop her leg on the League's leader.
The villain with the power of decay wasn't fast enough to evade the attack, or strong enough to catch or block it. "Tomura Shigaraki!" And so Kurogiri intervened, forming a warp gate between her and Shigaraki in the instant before contact.
The other gate? Directly over the students. Izuku heard it, familiar with the odd sound the gates made from previous experience. In a flash, she launched up, caught the leg and used it to swing the pro, sending her in a collision course toward the ground. Right at the feet of Dabi. "Nice looking out, kid!" she praised with a grin.
"You sure about that?" The villain's hand wreathed in blue flames hovered above her head.
She gave no care as the flames washed over her. "BET YOUR ASS I AM!" she yelled back with a rising knee that forcibly slammed his smart mouth shut. And broke some teeth in the process.
"Izuku Midoriya!" Shigaraki spoke in a whining glee. The girl looked to see he had followed her up above the other two students, his arm outstretched. "I warned you what would happen the next time we meet!"
"Thread of HOPE!" Once again, a villain had been completely restrained by a multitude of constricting threads. "A warning as ill-considered as extreme cut-out jeans!"
With room to move and with Dabi temporarily incapacitated, All Might easily dispatched the magnet villain with a Missouri Smash, a chop to the back of her neck. "Mirko, Best Jeanist, I thank you! Get the students to safety! I shall deal with this!"
"We're not going down like this!" Dabi insisted from the ground, spreading a wave of fire around him, forcing Mirko back and away. Forcing the students in the direction of Shigaraki.
"Correct. You aren't. Forced Quirk Activation!" No one had ignored the most powerful villain among them. Yet none of them could react to a power they had no idea he possessed. Tendrils slithered out of All for One, weaved around Best Jeanist's attempts to block them to strike into Magne and Kurogiri. "Tomura," he spoke with the kindness of a doting father. "I didn't bring you here to have you fight on my behalf. All I wished for was to give you the opportunity to escape."
"What?!" Shigaraki looked at the warp gate that formed behind Toga. Felt the pull as the rest of the League were dragged toward her, and it. "Master, no! Let me help you!"
"There is nothing a father wants more than to see his child outlive him, to see that child thrive. Live, Tomura. I know you can do incredible things."
"Master! Father no! Don't do this!" He fought alongside Best Jeanist, gave his all to avoid the magnetic pull dragging him toward the portal. "Don't leave me alone like this!"
"Tomura, I believe in you."
"I won't let you–!" All Might tried to intercede but was pushed back by another wave of force, stalling him just long enough.
Best Jeanist couldn't overcome the strength of the pull. Was forced to let go, else he abandon everyone here in facing All for One to fight the entire League alone. The threads frayed, then tore, and then Shigaraki was pulled away from him to disappear through the warp gate. The last of the League to do so, screaming all the way.
The gate shut. The League were gone.
Leaving only All for One.
"Best Jeanist," All Might spoke, staring at the masked villain. "Mirko. The two of you get the students out of here. Then evacuate the area."
Jeanist didn't waste a moment. He dragged Saiki and Katsumi away, while Mirko tried to force Izuku to go along with them.
With difficulty. "All Might!" she called out, didn't know what she even wanted to say. "He's–!"
"I know, young Midoriya," he assured her. "I know." He knew better than anyone what this likely meant for him. But it was his duty to end this, one way or another. His time was almost up. The symbol of peace would soon be no more and the world would need a new one. But for now, in this moment, he needed to do everything he could to put away the monsters of the past. To put an end to the evil he allowed to survive all those years ago. Midoriya deserved to seek her own future, free of the burdens of his failures.
"All Might! ALL MIGHT!" she cried. Mirko gave up on being nice and hoisted the girl onto her shoulder before leaping away, even as the green-haired girl teared up as she screamed for her idol.
All Might smiled. He thought he told her to cool it with the waterworks.
The smile fell from his face as he once again settled all of his attention on his nemesis. The man who stole the life of his mentor, a woman who was like a mother to him. The man who even then hovered a few feet in the air. "Is that hers?" he asked. "Is that her quirk you're using to stay up there?"
"Hm?" All for One hummed in question. "Hers? Ah, you refer to Nana Shimura, your predecessor, yes? Would it surprise you to know I have no idea myself? After all, her quirk was so ordinary. I certainly took it before I discarded her lifeless body but only as a final insult for an irritating woman. I gathered several like it both before and after hers. Many of them capable of much more."
"Monster! Even now you insult her memory!"
"Ahahahahaha!" His laugh was a loud and boisterous thing. "Insult her memory. It's funny you might say that, All Might. After all, we are both all about leaving legacies at this stage in our lives, aren't we? And mine just went through that warp gate."
"Would you like to know, All Might? Who Tomura Shigaraki truly is?"
-(-)-
"Saiki!" Momo and Kyoka shouted as they saw him walk toward them alongside Izuku and Katsumi, still in his ruined gym uniform.
Momo openly cried as she rushed forward and wrapped him in a hug. "I was so worried!" she sobbed into his shoulder. She held him like that for a good few seconds, only letting go to accede to the need for giving the same treatment to Izuku. "About all of you!" And then to Katsumi.
"Get off me."
"I'm sorry, I can't!" she protested, squeezing her tighter. "Just... Thank you! Thank you so much!"
The blonde looked away awkwardly, made no move to return the hug. Merely muttered, "Yeah, well... You're... Whatever. Welcome, I guess. I didn't do it for you."
The emotional girl was finally able to release the more standoffish one, her sentiments delivered adequately. She took her boyfriend's hand, no intention of releasing it any time soon.
Kyoka, much more subdued, approached, rubbing her arm. Shooting awkward and uncertain looks at the green-haired girl at Saiki's side. "You're... You're good, right?" she asked Saiki. "I could only hear, but..."
He had no idea whether he was actually okay. This whole thing, he didn't know how to even begin processing it. But for the moment, the person he was forced him to answer, "Yeah, I'm good."
Kyoka nodded slightly, taking him at his word. She smiled a fragile little smile, taking his other hand.
The group of five walked further into downtown Yokohama, inevitably gravitating to the crowd that had gathered in front of a screen showing the battle in progress. It seemed the news media had arrived on the scene of Kamino Ward. Showing the entire world the battle between All for One and All Might.
And together, they watched the end of the Symbol of Peace.