All Might stared down Shigaraki and Kurogiri, not moving an inch when the pale villain started to go into a rant.
"Go. Take Aizawa with you. I'll be fine," All Might said.
"All Might, wait! Shigaraki can turn you to dust if he gets all five fingers on you, and the misty guy can make portals! Their monster is as strong as you!" Izuku whispered before joining his classmates in retrieving Aizawa from Hagakure's care at the edge of the plaza.
As Izuku and his group left the battle and carried Aizawa to the entrance, which he could see other people heading toward now that it was a beacon of light guiding the way, he thought back on Nomu. That thing was freakishly strong, fast and durable, possibly more so than All Might himself. He wondered what it was, if it was even human or if it was some sort of puppet, made specifically for fighting All Might, which it seemed to be. Nomu couldn't speak, only obeyed Shigaraki, was on par physically with All Might, and could take a Smash from One for All, even if it was Izuku's safe limit, the exact proportional power of which he had yet to figure out.
"Let go of me. I can walk on my own," Aizawa groaned, trying to wrestle free from his student's arms.
Kirishima had taken to carrying Aizawa, easily picking up the grown man and walking as though he were carrying his backpack, or the case his costume had come in. Izuku had to ask Kirishima what his workout routine was like some time, but he was getting off track.
"Aizawa," Shinso called.
"What?" Aizawa replied, and fell under Shinso's Brainwashing.
Shinso smirked, the small bit of humor bringing him down from the high of battle. Izuku remembered his friend making a last stand against the villains and actually managing to get them on the defensive, even getting Kurogiri to contemplate leaving early. He had put on bravado, acting far more confident than Izuku knew he really was, and had almost succeeded in driving the villains back for good. Bakugo had messed that up, and he knew the blond was still thinking about that, the rare pensive look on his face as he silently walked alongside the group. Bakugo prided himself on always winning, so knowing he had gotten in the way of a winning strategy must have been eating him up inside.
Izuku looked back at the fight that was raging behind the group. When the group had reached the stairs, Izuku snapped out of it and focused back on what Kirishima was trying to say to him.
"Midoriya?" Kirishima asked, frowning.
"Sorry, what did you say?" Izuku asked, smiling sheepishly.
"Could you take Aizawa and Float him up there?" the redhead asked.
"Yeah," Izuku said, taking his teacher in his arms.
"Hey. We're all worried about him. He'll be okay; he's All Might. He never loses. He always saves the day," Kirishima said, putting a hand on Izuku's shoulder as a comfort.
"Thanks, Kirishima. You're a good friend," Izuku said, before pushing off the ground and riding his momentum through the air and up the stairs.
As Izuku Floated up the stairs, he got a better look at All Might's fight, and it wasn't looking good. All Might's dress shirt was ripped, and he was bleeding from the wound that had limited his time as a hero all those years ago. He was bleeding from the mouth and he was breathing heavily, and Izuku knew what that meant; he was running out of time. Izuku had seen Thirteen and Aizawa talking about All Might while holding up three fingers, which meant he had been out of time before this whole thing started, but now? He was likely bordering on being forced out of his heroic form.
As he reached the top of the stairs, Izuku turned around to see that ten of his classmates had assembled around Thirteen, whose costume was ripped and torn in multiple places. Her helmet had been destroyed entirely, revealing her face to the class. Thirteen had light brown, wavy hair that was currently blown out of shape, most likely from whatever knocked her unconscious. Izuku walked over to the group and layed Aizawa on the ground next to her.
"Midoriya, what happened to Aizawa?" Yaoyorozu asked.
He looked around the group, trying to spot Yaoyorozu. Tsu, Kaminari, Iida, Sero, Jiro, Koda, Shoji, Yaoyorozu, Tokoyami and Sato were there, and they had all been trying to give Thirteen first aid, judging by the collection of their medical supplies around her body. He turned to Yaoyorozu and swallowed his disgust at this whole situation.
"Shigaraki's pet, Nomu, tore a piece of his face off. Right under his left eye. I managed to give him some basic first aid, and we tried to fight them off, but All Might told us to go. Bakugo, Shinso, Hagakure and Kirishima should be coming up the stairs any second now. What happened to Thirteen?" Izuku explained.
"She was attacked by a villain with claws the size of swords coming from his fingers. I took him down, only after he had cut Thirteen up," Tsu said, downcast.
"Tsu, you did your best. That's all anyone can ask of any of us," Yaoyorozu said, putting a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.
"Shigaraki? Nomu?" Iida asked.
"Yeah. We've learned some things. Shigaraki sounds like the ringleader of this whole 'League of Villains'. Kurogiri, the mist man, is his second in command, and Nomu is their weapon, a … thing as strong as All Might, maybe even more powerful," Izuku said, feeling more tired than the first day after his beach training.
"How could it be stronger than All Might? He's the strongest there is!" Kaminari asked.
"Do you have any idea how long All Might has been a hero, you dunce? He's … he's gotta be getting old. Old enough to retire," Jiro said, losing the heat she usually had in her voice when she called out Kaminari.
Izuku looked out at the lip of the stairs, and noticed that the others hadn't come up over it yet. He knew what they had done; sent him off because they knew that he was more likely to go back to help because of his love for All Might. It was true; he did love All Might. He was like a father to him, much more than his actual one. He couldn't die, yet. He needed to live, if not to teach Izuku, then to teach his entire class, and make them into powerful heroes. He needed to win. He needed to go beyond. Bakugo, Kirishima, Shinso and Hagakure had gone back to help him do just that, and he had to admire that. Izuku began to walk toward the stairs once more.
"Midoriya, where are you going?" Yaoyorozu asked.
"I'm not gonna stay back and let All Might die. He's gonna win, and I'm gonna make sure of it," Izuku said.
"How are you going to do that?" Tsu asked.
"Plus Ultra style," Izuku said, putting on a smile for his worried classmates.
Izuku powered up, pushing the Super Strength of One for All into his legs. He crouched down and sprang up, soaring into the sky as he reached within himself and grabbed Float's core, letting him soar across the gap between the group of his friends and the fight. He heard the surprised gasps of his classmates behind him, but pressed on. He slowly released his grasp on Float, letting him slowly lower himself through the air, picking up speed as he approached the fight.
All Might was engaged in battle with Nomu. They were trading blows with each other, the air pressure blowing the unconscious bodies of the villains that All Might had taken down barely three minutes ago back without mercy. Izuku could see Bakugo, Kirishima, Shinso and Hagakure as well, barely being able to lean forward against the overwhelming force coming from the battle. Shigaraki and Kurogiri were doing the same, the mist man being blown back more due to his state of matter.
Izuku cocked back his fist as he neared Shigaraki, flooding his arm with One for All, but was caught off guard when Shigaraki suddenly snapped his attention to Izuku, reaching out his hand toward the approaching boy. He got closer and closer, struggling to let go of Super Strength and find Float again as he neared the touch of death.
"Young Midoriya, no!" All Might yelled.
"DEKU, WHAT THE FUCK?!" Bakugo screamed.
Time seemed to slow for Izuku. It was like he was seeing things in extreme slow motion, as his face came closer to Shigaraki's hand. Shigaraki wasn't moving, it was just that Izuku had built up enough speed as to make the collision inevitable. Izuku closed his eyes, searching for the core of One for All within him.
Izuku felt the core pierce through his chest, and let that piercing heat flow into his arm. Since the Flood Zone, Izuku had been devoting half of his mind to keeping his Super Strength at his safe limit, and that had been eating away at his energy and his focus. Now, though, was the time to let it all out, and Izuku let the comforting warmth that he had come to know well become a raging fire in his chest, flooding his arm with that searing heat that he knew would do the job.
He opened his eyes, seeing Shigaraki's eyes widen through the fingers of his hand-mask. Izuku felt the fabric of his costume on his arm rip apart, the pressure being generated by One for All tearing the costume's sleeve apart. He bared his teeth, ready for the pain he knew was coming.
If Izuku was going to die by Shigaraki's Quirk, he might as well give a devastating blow in return.
As soon as Izuku felt the fingers close on his face, he pushed his arm forward with all the power he could summon, and he sunk his fist into Shigaraki's face, hearing an oddly satisfying crunch as the villain was blown back from the immense power that had come from Izuku's punch, all while screaming out "SMASH!" with all his heart. Izuku himself was blown back, flying in the opposite direction as Shigaraki, toward his classmates.
Izuku was caught by the wind currents and tumbled across the ground, narrowly missing the group of his friends and crashing into the wall of the Ruins Zone. He heard Shinso shout something, but the throb of his arm and the stinging in his face was louder and harsher than it had any right to be.
He could feel the skin where Shigaraki had touched him start to peel away, his face dusting in real time. It was slow, and agonizing, and Izuku begged for it to end. Having had enough of focusing on his decaying face, Izuku looked down at his right arm, expecting to find it reddish and twisted in the wrong direction, but finding it to be so much worse.
It was almost black it was such a deep purple, and Izuku was fairly sure he could see multiple shards of bone sticking out from his skin. Blood was seeping out from multiple points, mostly because of the bone stabbing out of him, but there were more than a few tears in Izuku's skin and muscle. The strange thing was that it didn't hurt. His arms had been getting numb because of the multiple uses and switching between Super Strength and Blackwhip, as well as landing multiple powerful hits, but now, it was just … nothing. He didn't feel anything, but somehow that made it hurt more, that he was so injured that Izuku's own brain was registering the injury, just letting him see the limp, purple thing in all of its blood soaked glory.
Izuku saw Shinso approaching him, but couldn't find the energy to say anything. He was slipping in and out of awareness, and Izuku knew that he was going to pass out soon. He hadn't seen what had happened to Shigaraki or Kurogiri as a result of his punch, but he knew he had seriously injured Shigaraki on account of the crunching sound he had heard as his blow connected.
"You're fine. It's not that bad," Shinso tried, but Izuku only laughed.
"I know how bad it is, Shinso. This is just like the entrance exam again," Izuku said, his voice weak.
"I think it's a bit different," Hagakure said, having appeared next to Shinso.
"I did one thing, and now I'm broken. I can throw one good punch, then I'm like this. I can't be a hero," Izuku said, baring his teeth as the pain flooded in from his arm, the adrenaline of battle seemingly wearing off.
"I think you've done pretty well in that department!" Shinso said, unusually emotional.
"Yeah! You've done more to help us than we could've imagined! Thank you, Midoriya!" Hagakure supported.
"Yeah. I guess you're right. I'm …" Izuku trailed off, passing out.
Everything was black.
It was like his vision of Lariat, since he could look at himself and see that most of his body was mist. Strangely, less of his body was smoke than before, the entirety of his head above his mouth, as well as his entire right arm being physical. He looked around, expecting to see something, but nothing was there.
Izuku looked around the void, waiting for something, anything to happen. He'd even take a punishment for his recklessness at the moment; anything to escape the agonizing silence that had overtaken his senses. It was painful having to stand there, silent, waiting for something to happen, but he powered through, standing in that same spot for what felt like hours.
"Nine," a woman's voice said, and Izuku looked behind him to see Nana Shimura, standing in her hero costume and smiling at him.
Izuku tried to talk, but his mouth was still mist.
"I get that you still can't talk here yet. Don't worry; you'll be able to eventually. You've done well in controlling Blackwhip and now Float. You've got a long way to go with your basic One for All control, as well as using multiple Quirks at once, but you'll get there," Nana said, smiling brightly.
"You just manifest my Quirk, Float. You might've noticed, but it's different to Blackwhip on a fundamental level. You manifested Five's Quirk out of an intense desire to capture and hold, but with Float, you gained it out of a desire to save and move. That's what is special about Float, Little Midoriya. It's a compassionate power, whereas Blackwhip is rough, and unwieldy. You'll find that your other Quirks will manifest under certain circumstances, but don't worry. Don't force it. They'll come to you naturally over time if you continue to train," Nana said, her wide smile turning into a different, almost melancholic kind of expression.
Izuku could tell there was something that was wrong. Nana was hesitating when starting sentences, and it looked like she had just been in an argument; her cheeks were flushed and her hands were shaking. Something was happening, and it was happening to all of the past users, Izuku could tell. He had felt something strange inside him ever since he had encountered Shigaraki. Nana saw his confused and worried expression, and laughed.
"You worry too much, Nine. We've been talking, us predecessors, and we've come to believe that the world is entering a time of turbulence. A threat is looming, a threat we're all familiar with. A historic enemy is on the rise, and we don't know if we're enough to combat him. You don't need to worry about that for now, though. Be good, Little Midoriya," Nana said, ruffling his hair at the end.
Izuku watched as Nana turned to smoke and wafted away, and as a flash of rainbow light cycled through eight different colors in front of him. He knew that each color corresponded to a wielder of One for All, and he reached out to the source of the light, a small sphere in front of him. His physical arm touched it, and Izuku saw something.
He saw a man, but he was barely a man. He looked like he had burns covering his face above the mouth, and the man had a well made suit on. He reached out to Izuku, but Izuku pulled away, accidentally losing his footing somehow. He had thought that this realm responded to him, but the invisible floor collapsed from under him, and Izuku woke up.
Izuku woke up in a hospital bed. Looking at a clock, he saw that it was noon, the day after the USJ Incident. He looked around, seeing that it was Recovery Girl's infirmary at UA. Searching for the woman, he saw that Recovery Girl wasn't there, but someone else was; All Might in his true form, wrapped in bandages. Izuku and All Might locked eyes, neither wanting to address what had happened. All Might sighed, but smiled, but Izuku could tell that it was forced.
"You Floated," All Might said.
"I did. I also controlled my Super Strength enough that I could use it more than once. That, as well as Blackwhip, Float and focusing on fighting overloaded my brain, though. I couldn't handle using all my powers in conjunction in a fight. I just … broke down. The only way I could compete with Shigaraki was breaking myself," Izuku lamented.
All Might hummed in agreement, to Izuku's surprise. It was obvious that All Might was upset with how the situation had gone, but one thing was still in the back of Izuku's mind.
"Oh! What happened after I passed out?" Izuku asked.
"I defeated their Nomu. Shigaraki was knocked out by your punch, so their warper took his boss and left," All Might said, a grave tone to his voice.
"Oh, that's good," Izuku breathed.
"No. It isn't. I remained in my heroic form for so long that I decreased my time limit permanently," All Might said, looking away from Izuku.
"H-How much time do you have now?" Izuku asked.
"I'll be lucky to have my heroic form for two hours. I put everything I had into that fight, because I had to. The Nomu was made to kill me. It was given its Quirks and designed to be able to take me down. Shigaraki told me this during a rant after he sicced Nomu on me," All Might said.
"Quirks? That thing had more than one?" Izuku asked, taken aback.
"Yes. Shigaraki bragged about Nomu's Quirks to me as I fought it. Apparently, it had been given Shock Absorption and Super Regeneration, just the Quirks it needed to take me on. I suspect it was also given a strength enhancement power," All Might revealed.
"Aizawa tried to cancel its Quirk when we were facing the villains, but it still managed to take him down in one hit. It was as strong and fast as you without a Quirk," Izuku said, making All Might wince.
"I hate to say it, Young Midoriya, but I suspect that All for One may have returned. A puppet with multiple Quirks was right up that monster's alley," All Might said.
A pit formed in the bottom of Izuku's stomach. Nana had spoken of a lingering threat, a historic enemy that was on the rise once again. She had said that the past wielders of One for All had been discussing it, and a villain like All for One could definitely be the one to plunge the world into a state of fear and chaos, as he had all that time ago.
"That lines up with what Nana Shimura said to me," Izuku said, wary of how All Might would react.
"You had another vision?" All Might asked.
"Yes. She came to me and explained that the world is on a precipice. A dark time is coming, and a foe from the past is the one to blame. Nana had to be talking about All for One, right?" Izuku said.
"That's right. AFO is on the rise, and he's funding the League of Villains," All Might confirmed.
Izuku remembered something that Shigaraki had said. He had spoken about his 'Master', and Izuku connected the dots.
"Did Shigaraki talk to you about his Master?" Izuku asked, and All Might tensed every muscle in his body.
"You're telling me that Shigaraki is directly reporting to All for One?" All Might asked, his voice hoarse.
"I think so," Izuku said, letting his head hit the pillow.
That was the first time Izuku noticed the bandages wrapping around his head. He had been preoccupied with his vision, the return of All for One and finding out how All Might had fared in his fight to notice that he had five different bandages, all overlapping each other over his face. None of them crossed over his eyes, so he hadn't noticed a lack of depth perception.
Recovery Girl walked in, then, and when she saw that the two were awake, walked over to her desk to pick up two clipboards. She walked over to All Might first, and began to read from the clipboard the list of injuries he had sustained in his fight.
"Your chest wound opened up, you received three broken ribs, you had a concussion and you broke a toe," Recovery Girl said. "You only remain with the concussion," she tagged on, moving onto Izuku.
"You broke your right arm in multiple places, sprained all of the muscles in your shoulder, fractured two vertebrae in your spine, received a concussion and five instances of rot on your face brought on by the Quirk of a villain," she said, grimacing as she mentioned the decay. "I managed to heal you almost completely, only a light concussion remaining, but you'll keep the scars from your arm and face for the rest of your life," she continued.
Izuku stayed quiet, absorbing that information. His arm was still bandaged, so he couldn't see the scars, but he could move his fingers and hand around just fine, so reasoned that he could take them off soon and get a look at the scars. Recovery Girl walked away from the beds and sat at her desk, shaking her head in disapproval.
"You boys really are too much alike for your own good. You're willing to risk it all to save it all, which is commendable, but also dangerous. Yagi, you need to teach this boy that his life is worth something. Midoriya, you might be the only one to convince this meathead that he needs to slow down," Recovery Girl said, talking too much sense for either hero's liking.
Izuku took a moment to think about that. She was right. Izuku had always been willing to put his own safety at risk to help another person, and that probably stemmed from Bakugo convincing him that he wasn't worth anything, and that it would be better if he died anyway. He also knew that, due to his unique relationship with All Might, he might be the only one to convince the man that there are other heroes. All Might acted as if he was the hero, and that was finally catching up with him, if it already hadn't when he had gotten a hole punched in his chest.
"Um, how are the others?" Izuku asked.
"Just fine. There were virtually no injuries other than you two. A few of those kids may need counselling, though. Hell, I think that every hero should have a mandated therapist. Some of those children, though, really are something. That red haired boy has been going around and offering to talk with anyone who wants. He's going to be good," Recovery Girl said, spinning around to sign some papers.
"Kirishima really is one of the most compassionate people I've ever met. He'll be a great hero," Izuku said, smiling to himself.
"So will you," All Might said, causing Izuku to whip his head around.
"Huh?" Izuku asked, caught off guard.
"I know how much you did to protect your friends. That's admirable. You also displayed an innate control over your Quirks. If you trained that, and became able to use your different Quirks as naturally as you use your arms and legs, you'd be unstoppable," All Might praised.
"I'm nowhere near that point, though. I've barely learned how to use One for All's base strength without hurting myself, and my full power and my safe limit have such a gap in power between them that it feels impossible to close it," Izuku said.
"That's reasonable, but also dumb. I've never expected you to be able to control One for All right away. I'd say that, based on footage from your battle training and what I saw at the USJ, you're using about five percent of One for All at your safe limit," All Might judged.
"Really? Five percent? That's so little!" Izuku cried.
"Yes, but look what you've been able to do with it. You've survived your first villain encounter within your first week of high school. Some people never encounter a villain in their lives, and, while they're lucky, they don't have the skills and the control over their Quirks to save themselves. That's why we do what we do," All Might said.
Izuku contemplated that, and looked out the window. It was strange, but he felt okay. He knew that he probably should be more upset by what had happened, but he had expected to see at least some action before he had left school. He was the successor of All Might, the Symbol of Peace himself, so Izuku expected to prove himself as soon as possible.
He looked out the window, wondering if the event had been reported on, and if his mother had seen the news. Inko had reacted strongly to the news of One for All, so he wondered how she would react to the news of her only son being attacked by a small army intent on leaving him dead. Izuku winced, knowing he'd have to explain when he went home. Speaking of …
"Um, when can I be sent home?" Izuku asked.
"Today. You only really have a slight concussion, which means that you can be accompanied home by a staff member if you'd like. If not, you can wait here and heal completely before heading home by yourself. Which will it be?" Recovery Girl explained.
"I want to go home today," Izuku said, beginning to sit up.
"Hold on. I still need to remove your dressings," Recovery Girl said, pushing Izuku down onto the bed again.
As Recovery Girl unwrapped the bandages on his arm, Izuku was surprised at how small the scars were. By the damage to his arm he had seen, he would have thought amputation was in the question, but now, all that remained was a perfectly functional arm, littered with tiny, thin lines that had once been where bone was breaching his skin. He flexed his arm experimentally, and found that there was no pain, or that might have been the medication he had obviously been put under.
Next, Recovery Girl unwrapped the dressings on Izuku's face. As she took the bandages off, Izuku could feel the points at which the scar tissue was located due to the fabric rubbing against the sensitive skin. He could feel that the scars were sizable, but didn't know much other than that.
When he saw the scars using a mirror handed to him by Recovery Girl, Izuku knew that Inko was going to kill him. They were five points, each unique in how they splayed out and had spread to the other skin on his face. The scars were dots, two at the lower points of his jaw, two at his temples and one at the top of his forehead, that jaggedly spread out about a centimetre from their starting point. Izuku had felt the rot slow down as he passed out, so maybe it drew on the victim's life force? Or maybe the strength of the decay depended on the focus of Shigaraki, or the duration of his touch? Shigaraki had only managed to touch Izuku's face for an instant, before Izuku had launched him with his Smash.
Even All Might was disturbed, and the man had his fair share of gnarly scars. Izuku looked out the window again, thinking of how he was going to explain to Inko how he got the scars. He couldn't tell her that he had leapt toward an insane villain, who he knew had the power to decay things with a touch, and actively sacrificed his own arm and a fifth of his face, to rescue All Might from a creature designed to kill him.
"What even is my life anymore?" he muttered to himself, touching the scars gently.
"You'll want to spread this over your scars daily to prevent the tissue from tightening, as well as making them fade quicker," Recovery Girl said, handing Izuku an ointment in a white bottle.
"Thank you," Izuku said, pocketing the ointment.
After that, Izuku was able to go to the locker area, grab his things and leave, accompanied by Present Mic, who didn't ask to escort Izuku just to ask him about how Aizawa had been hurt and how he was doing now. Truthfully, Izuku didn't know how Aizawa's condition was, but he wanted to find out, so Mic promised to tell him first when he found out. Izuku thanked his English teacher as he exited the car UA had provided them, stepping out into the parking lot of his apartment building.
He made his way up the stairs, quietly figuring out how he'd greet his mother. He knew he was in some serious trouble, but didn't believe that Inko would really lose her patience with him. If Izuku knew anything, it was that Inko Midoriya had endless patience. She also had endless fury if you crossed her, something Izuku avoided doing, but he had a feeling that he had done just that by arriving with the scars on his arm and face.
Izuku stepped into his home and was immediately assaulted by a hug. Inko wrapped her arms around him, which was impressive given their height and size difference by now. Izuku hugged her back, and the two stood there for a moment, just hugging.
"My baby!" Inko cried.
"Hi, Mom!" Izuku said, laughing at Inko's reaction.
The two moved to the living room, and Izuku decided to rip the band-aid off immediately to save himself from dancing around the point, something he had gotten particularly bad at.
"You WHAT?" Inko screamed.
"I'm sorry! I know! It was bad, but it saved my friends!" Izuku said.
"Honey, I'm glad you have friends! I am! If you have to injure yourself to help them, though, do you really have to stay at UA?" Inko asked.
Izuku leaned away from Inko in shock. It had only been about a week. How could she? Izuku knew that it was only out of a motherly instinct to protect her son, but he couldn't imagine himself dropping out of UA, his dream school, just as he had made it in. Izuku felt betrayed, to an extent, because he knew that Inko knew that he had always wanted this, and now that he had a Quirk, he had it. He was living his dream, but she wanted to end that. Izuku knew that she was only worried, but he still felt betrayed.
"I'm sorry, Mom, but I'm going to be a hero. I love you, but you can't stop that," Izuku said.
"Please, consider my side of this! After this, everyone is going to know that UA is fallible. Villains invaded a school facility and attacked students, almost killing one of them. I'll have to watch my baby leave the house every single day, not knowing if you'll come back at the end of the day. Do you have any idea how stressful that will be?" Inko said.
"I do. I get it. It had to have been frightening for you, but I was there. I felt my skin fall off my face, and my arm fold under my own power. I need to stay at UA, learn to control my Quirk so that nothing like the USJ can ever happen again," Izuku argued.
Inko looked like she was about to cry. Izuku went to put a hand on her shoulder, but Inko pulled away, standing up and walking out of the room. Izuku went to follow, but decided that it would be best if he gave his mother some time to think about his decision. He leaned back and closed his eyes, resting after the longest week of his life.