Sheltering its host from the sun, the symbiote continues to camouflage Izuku Midoriya as Spider-Man. A seemingly translucent shape swings overhead – the vigilante blends into the neighborhood as well as he can, but it's probably for the best that nobody thinks to look up either – his web lines stream along behind him as he goes. Light glistens and gleams along reflective window surfaces, only being temporarily blotted out when Spider-Man's body is passing by in front of them.
He's following closely behind the operation that's been put in place regarding Denki Kaminari as Electro. Vans and SUVs – which are as far from subtle as anyone could get but effective – these are the vehicles that track U.A's traitor at a distance. On foot trailing behind Kaminari is the additional spying of the pro hero Midnight; she's dressed down in civilian attire to be inconspicuously incognito. They're all hoping that Kaminari leads them right to the base of operations for the LOV.
When Kaminari pauses at the entry of an alley, Spider-Man stops along with the others to observe what Kaminari does next. They all tense when the villain looks left and right to search for anybody following him. Fortunately, he must not think anything of the vehicles in the area or the 'lady going for a neighborhood stroll' who is actually Midnight. He turns and enters the alley, lowering his guard.
Spider-Man looks down from the neighborhood rooftops as Kaminari walks towards a dead end from within the alley. He momentarily thinks that there may be some sort of secret wall entrance there. But then he's reminded of Electro's villainous allies. A warpgate like the ones that were present at the USJ opens at the end of the alley for Kaminari to use as a personalized doorway. There's no telling where the portal takes the villain and there's no way to find out by following when the portal closes.
Midnight curses when she turns the alley's corner to see that Kaminari is gone. She puts a finger to the commlink in her ear and connects to the van surveillance team nearby via radio lines, "Time for Plan B then.. We follow the GPS signal in his phone."
Spider-Man stays hidden and silent. For him, he's still going with Plan A. He keeps following the pro heroes so that they lead him to Electro and the other villains.
Denki Kaminari sheds the coat of his U.A uniform. With a tug and a pull of the tie around his neck, he frees himself up. The blonde baddie rotates his head to roll it out. The villain replaces one outfit for another. He embraces his identity as Electro by removing one mask and putting on another – although, the star shaped spark of a symbol over his face remains the same either way – Electro grins when Denki Kaminari is no more.
"Don't look so glum, Shinso, it's not like there was much to miss in class today" The U.A traitor notes the way his prisoner sulks in the shadows of the dark room that they reside in.
Hitoshi Shinso hardly has it in him to bother raising his head anymore. He merely glowers up at the villain in front of him by lifting his lidded eyes, "They're going to question my absence eventually."
Electro sighs as he shrugs off his captive's comment, "You're putting too much faith in a system that cares more about hero education than general education."
Shinso keeps his head down. "You just have an answer for everything.. Don't you?", the rhetorical question sounds exactly that – rhetorical – he closes his eyes when he sees Electro preparing to give an answer anyways.
"Only for the stuff that's obvious", Electro pats his old pal on the shoulder when stepping closer. There are two seats in the room now. One opposes the other. Of course, the villain's chair lacks quirk suppressing restraints when he sits down on it.
Shinso shakes the hand off his shoulder. "What's obvious should be your true self – you don't think anybody suspects you?" He has an aggressive bite back in his tone when he reopens his eyes to glare at Electro.
"Well.. You didn't", Electro's retort makes Shinso shrink back down. The villain continues on that topic by then asking in return, "Why would anyone else?"
Shinso is stumped. He slumps his shoulders in defeat along with his hung head. "I don't know", he miserably admits to having no clever comeback for that one.
"I never gave you or anybody else a reason to suspect me", Electro remains confident in his Hero Course student alibi as Denki Kaminari and cockily adds, "I'm squeaky clean!"
That last comment, at the very least, is something Shinso can refute. "No, Kaminari.. You're as dirty as they come.." He raises his head so that his glare meets the villain's gaze.
The villain leans forward. He places his hand on Shinso's shoulder again. "The name is Electro", an electrical current sends a spike through Shinso from the villain's hand.
Shinso twitches as he's hit by a strong amount of voltage. His body seizes and it takes him a moment to recover. Even when he gets his breath back, he's doing so by breathing heavily. "I thought you said you weren't trying to intimidate or coax me into joining you.. ?"
"That shock was because you pissed me off", Electro keeps his hand on Shinso's shoulder – he sends a second surge of electricity into the defenseless captive – Shinso shakes as he's shocked again.
Shinso grits his teeth together – he feels them vibrating – and he seethes out through the pain another question for the villain that's torturing him, "And that one?"
Electro finally removes his hand from Shinso's shoulder. "To let you know not to piss me off again", but the threat of being harmed by the villain still remains.
The room's two occupants are suddenly disrupted by what feels like an earthquake. Dust seeps in through the ceiling as the foundation of the building is rocked. The walls tremble under the threat of being broken down.
Electro stumbles when the shaking floor causes him to lose his balance, "What the hell is going on?", he catches himself on a wall that shakes just as much.
Shinso, though just as scared by the sudden quaking of the room, thinks there may be some hope in the odd situation. "Could be that somebody suspected you afterall", he smiles at the thought of heroes coming to rescue him.
"Quiet", Electro threatens Shinso with an open handed reminder of the shocks he can give. When the harmful hand digs out a cellphone instead, Shinso breathes a sigh of relief. "Kurogiri should have warped me out by now", the villain toys with the device, "Something must be wrong."
Watching Electro struggle makes Shinso maintain his confidence that he dares to ask, "No signal?"
Electro doesn't give in to the goading though. He smiles while using his quirk to amplify the phone's signal, "Bad cell reception isn't a problem for a guy like me", he had done similar things when blocking signals at the USJ afterall. "Come on, Kurogiri, pick up.."
Shinso chews his bottom lip. He knows he probably shouldn't push it but he also knows that he may not get another opportunity like this. He keeps egging the villain on. "It's not so nice being stuck here, is it?"
Electro growls while getting more fed up with the situation. He raises his free hand to shock Shinso for pissing him off, "I won't be for much longer so shut up alread–"
But before Electro can get the shock off, he's the one who gets shocked – by the room caving inwards – the building crumbles around him and Hitoshi Shinso.
Ashen flakes float & flutter from the vacant void above meant to be called a sky. Efflorescence evaporates while falling to the earth like darkened snowflakes made out of soot. Dust drifts as a cloud of murky black particles, rolling in as a day dimming fog, and lingers there as a shade of tinted residue.
There's a vaporous form of cold condensation in the air as well. As though all heat has been reduced along with the loss of the sun's luminous light, a chilling drop in the atmosphere's temperature comes out of a sudden tenebrosity. Moisture and mildew is just shy of frosting when what seems to be an ice bath for the world washes over the area.
For what looks to go on for more acres than visually possible to see all of, a now flattened land stretches out in all directions. It's the opposite of being within an enclosed space – the furthest thing from having somebody trapped – a vast field with what looks like no end somehow seems to be the opposite of having a freeing effect. It's just debris strewn land with no structures in sight to be seen as standing.
Floating a few feet at the epicenter of the site of emptiness, is a man in a dark dress suit. He wears a contraption that covers his face and releases a flow of oxygen; metallic filters and tubing secrete a spray of gas. The ventilator provides support to the man's breathing. Yet, each breath that the man draws or releases is heavy and ever presently powerful.
All For One levitates within the wake of destruction that he caused. With a single snap of his fingers, a violent combination of nasty quirks cleared out a wide radius zone better than a tornado would have. It was his response to the heroes having tracked him and his successor down by tracing & following Denki Kaminari's phone signal.
Having firmly planted himself to the ground when the villain retaliated with the devastatingly powerful gust of wind, the vigilante called Spider-Man scurries out from the wreckage of waste. Debris litters the disastrous zone that was swept away that he may as well be a pest in a dump site. The symbiote helped to secure him to the floor with added anchor points via tendrils but that makes him appear no less as small as he is when under All For One's all encompassing darkness of a shadow.
Despite his face being devoid of having eye sockets, AFO tilts his head down to look directly at the tiny and seemingly insignificant arachnid themed vigilante. The villain's other heightened senses compensate for his lack of vision. He can hear the churning of both the symbiote and Spider-Man's stomach. He can smell the cold sweat seeping from the boy's pale skin. The villain can FEEL the fear radiating in the presence that he senses down below just as his own secretion of aura makes his presence absolutely known.
HIDE!
HIDE!
HIDE!
Izuku Midoriya's Spider-Sense has always yelled at him to MOVE. But never once has it SCREAMED at him to HIDE.
Until now.
It takes absolutely everything in him for the brave boy not to obey his survival instinct. His entire body trembles, and the shuddering sensation that has overtaken him isn't just because of the chilling bite of cold air that surrounds the site; his muscles tense & tighten while he involuntarily quivers all over.
A prickling crawl of the symbiote spreads all throughout his form as well. The living costume is disturbed into swimming around the surface of its host's skin. It too like the boy's danger detection ability has enough sense of preservation to desire to want to take Izuku Midoriya far away from AFO. The fibers of its flowing sustenance stand on end.
Danger. DANGER. DANGER!
Izuku Midoriya's head is in a spin. He can hardly think straight or focus. His Spider-Sense has never been this amplified before – not even when against the Nomu at the USJ – a sensory overload would be putting it lightly. It nearly brings him down to his knees. No.. Not nearly.. It does. He can't take it. He feels himself becoming faint. His vision darkens. He passes out.
So soon after making the deal that it did with its host, the symbiote has an awareness that it shouldn't disobey a recently developed rule. However, it very much prioritizes the safety of its host above all else. And so, against Izuku Midoriya's better wishes, the symbiote starts to take control of the boy's body. It knows Izuku Midoriya all too well. The brave boy would never run in the face of danger. So the symbiote does it for him.
All For One reacts to Spider-Man's scurrying with the activation of an awful quirk combination. One of the villain's arms pulsates before expanding into a veiny husk of flesh. The throbbing limb secretes scales that soon start to take shape into elongated snake heads. A living Hydra of sorts stretches out from the villain's arm to pursue the symbiote controlled vigilante. Giant serpents slither and shoot out like supersized versions of David Shield's mechanical helper arms.
The symbiote utilizes Izuku Midoriya's residually triggered Spider-Sense to evade the enlarged snakes. A flip forward dodges one of the serpent's snapping at his heels. A second dragon head darts across from down under the fleeing character. Spider-Man slides under a wall fragment from where a building was decimated. The Hydra comes crashing through the brick. Spider-Man runs up a beam that protrudes from the ground to gain height on the Hydra.
Fortunately, between the symbiote and his Spider-Sense, the whole co-pilot thing isn't a complete disaster while trying to keep him alive. Spider-Man bounds from a snake to another Hydra head. He's riding the dragon higher and higher but this keeps him away from their fangs at the very least. However, AFO's arm continues to grow and more serpents spread from it to make that a little more complicated.
If Izuku weren't unconscious, he'd probably be wondering why a guy with an unlimited number of quirks is limiting himself to just whatever this Hydra thing is. The truth of the matter is that All For One is toying with him. Like someone might play with a spider by stomping around or spraying it with water, this is all just a fun game to the villain.
All For One activates a new quirk. The scales strewn along the snakes start to glow. The symbiote sees this before it feels the heat that emits from that light. The symbiote reacts when fire radiates along the Hydra necks. This quirk activation secretes some sort of flame effect from the snakes. If Spider-Man doesn't abandon the serpents, then he'll be burned alive. Just one problem. His ride has taken him way too high into the sky for a safe landing if he were to jump.
The symbiote has no choice but to force him to jump anyways. Izuku Midoriya's body does a swan dive for him off the head of an enlarged serpent. The snake's mouth opens behind the boy while lurching to try and swallow him during his free fall.
With his arms outstretched, below and in between his armpits, the symbiote crafts a net of webbing. Akin to that of a wingsuit, Spider-Man develops a form of flight. He glides through the air while utilizing his altitude as a means of descent.
Spider-Man glides back to the ground where he rolls into a rough landing. But he's not quite found his footing. His Spider-Sense alerts him to a new threat. And then, the floor beneath his feet unearths itself. It turns out some of All For One's serpents burrowed themselves underground as well. The symbiote carries its host away from the massive snakes just before he can get swallowed by them.
The snakes suddenly sprout spires. Bone fragmentations as pointedly tipped as porcupine quills come forth and begin protruding from the serpents. One of the sharp protrusions catches Spider-Man's backside. The symbiote is torn through and Izuku Midoriya's skin is sliced. Blood dribbles behind Spider-Man as he goes tumbling along the ground.
All For One hovers over the fallen form of the vigilante. Spider-Man had not been officially apart of the raid on the LOV base but it's not something the villain ignores either. He knows all too well from experience that vigilantes can be just as annoyingly meddlesome as heroes can be.
They foolishly followed Denki Kaminari's phone signal to one of his spare sites. When AFO and Doctor Garaki noticed the security sensors were providing unusual readouts, they initiated their failsafe protocol. Garaki saw to it that AFO's successor and the others were to be transported away. Meanwhile, AFO himself would stay behind to confront them.
The heroes weren't expecting to be blown away by his presence – literally. Then again, they weren't expecting Spider-Man to have been here getting caught in the crossfire either.
All For One raises a hand. His front facing palm opens like the front of a canon. A quirk combination of laser type beamage charge from within his hand to be fired.
Spider-Man is quite capable of dodging such attacks. Usually. This attack, however, is made to cover a large ranged radius. Even if Spider-Man avoids a head on collision, there is no escaping the blast zone.
The only thing that can save Spider-Man is if – the attack gets blocked – All Might jumps in between the laser and the intended target.
"Always getting in the way… All Might", All For One grins behind his respirator mask when confronted with his arch nemesis – he holds no real resentment in the hero's disruption – All For One was hoping to draw out the number one hero for a much desired rematch.
"Get out of here!", All Might waves for Spider-Man to escape while still planting himself in between the vigilante and AFO. Smoke wafts from his form from where he took the brunt of the blast.
The symbiote responds with a nod. Then, it carries its host away to safety with a streamline of rapidly produced tendrils. Which leaves All Might to confront All For One alone.
They had been beneath the building when it collapsed. The basement. Or a bunker. A compartment tucked away for extra storage space. Apparently not even that was a safe place from All For One's destructive radius.
But, as it turns out, this worked in Hitoshi Shinso's favor. The collapse caused his chair to break and his quirk suppressing cuffs to come loose. He's free. Free to flee. Shinso crawls out from the wreckage while trying to keep his coughs and labored breathing to a minimum.
Electro appears to be nowhere in sight. Which makes this an easier escape. Shinso notices in the distance of a large clearing that All Might is keeping some insanely powerful villain at bay. Everybody is too preoccupied to notice him slipping away. For that, he's a little grateful. How he'd explain himself being there is a whole ordeal he wants to avoid for the sake of making sure there's no misunderstandings.
But exactly what Hitoshi Shinso was hoping to avoid is what happens next. A misunderstanding. Just not with any regular hero. With a vigilante. THE vigilante. Spider-Man happens to find him.
"It– It's not what it looks like.." Shinso holds his hands up to show that he has no ill intent. The show of surrender comes with a lot of nervous twitching & sweat though.
The symbiote steering Izuku Midoriya's body as Spider-Man for the both of them gauges the situation with a note of curiosity. It's familiar with the falling out between Hitoshi Shinso and its host. Perhaps there's a means of protecting and assisting its host by doing something here. And considering Shinso is in the same scenery as the villains without very much of an explanation…
The symbiote makes a judgement call as the ever 'heroic' Spider-Man. Spider-Man wraps up Hitoshi Shinso like a caught criminal in a cocoon of webbing. "Hey! What are– ?!", Shinso struggles but his resistance is to no avail.
Spider-Man stays silent whilst leaving a wrapped present for the authorities. With the rest of the LOV having slipped through their fingers, the exposure of a possible second traitor within U.A will make for a nice gift to them. Especially since Denki Kaminari appears to be nowhere in sight.
"You bastard! I turned them down for you! You're making a mistake!", Shinso continues to shout in protest against his criminal-like treatment all the while. If Izuku Midoriya were awake, perhaps he'd actually lend an ear to listen. The symbiote, however, tunes Shinso's screams out completely.
Shinso starts to panic. If he had thought Spider-Man sabotaged his chances at getting into the Hero Course before, then he was sorely mistaken. Something like THIS is what will do him in. His enrollment at U.A will be done and over with completely. And that's the bare minimum of what type of punishment he'd receive for something he doesn't even deserve.
Shinso has no other option but than to try and escape. Without his quirk suppressing cuffs, he thinks to use his brainwashing quirk. His mouth wasn't webbed, afterall. "You think you're a hero?! You don't even have a license!", he tries shouting insults to get the vigilante to respond.
But the symbiote does not speak. Spider-Man stays silent. His stare says a thousand words for him though. Shinso looks into white eyes that narrow into fine slithered slits.
"DAMN YOU! SAY SOMETHING!", Shinso desperately pleads now for a saving grace at being spared of this fate. But Spider-Man turns his back on the downed boy and says nothing still.
"Come to kill me a second time, All Might?", All For One greets his greatest rival with a presentative spread of his arms to show that he's very much alive since their last encounter. "Or shall I be the one killing you?", and then the villain's fingers start to fold in preparation for an attack. All Might's eyes broaden with anticipation.
All For One devastates the already devastated area once more with a mere snap of his fingers. All the number one hero can do in that moment is brace himself for the impact. He's already taken a direct hit head on from one of AFO's attacks. This second strike deals double damage.
Blood seeps out from the corners of the hero's mouth, but he wipes it away to hide any signs of weakness. Then he rises up to face the imposing suited figure of his arch nemesis. "You've gotten weak. You would have rescued everyone in time during your prime", All For One taunts his rival with a tone of amusement.
Out from the corner of his eye, All Might can see the charred corpses of his allies. The police that were trailing Kaminari got caught in the blast. He yells in a fit of rage, charging the villain responsible. Wasting no more pretenses, the battle begins.
All For One spins his still raised hand, calling upon the raging fires surrounding the area with pyrokinesis. The flames flash focus to a centered ball, combining to make one big blast. The inferno burns brightly as it's launched at the hero. But All Might intercepts, pausing his rush to bring his own hands up and claps them together as hard as he can. The collision causes a shockwave, the gust of wind booming with a thunderous sound as the flames are dispersed.
That same air begins to vibrate before it can disperse like the flames. All For One utilizes the noise provided by All Might's power, weaponizing it and redirecting it as a sonic boom. The air pressure is an after shock of the sound being centered. All Might brings his hands to his ears next, covering them as tight as he can to block out the deafening noise. Even with that defensive move, sound seeps in and causes his ear canal to bleed.
The lack of fire and heat in the air starts to become known. The temperature drops rapidly, controlled by All For One. All Might gasps, a breath of condensation, his massive body beginning to frost over. Before it can completely be encased in ice though, he flexes his muscles and makes the hardening shatter.
His body freed up, All Might takes the opportunity to go on the offensive. He closes a hand into a fist and brings it down. His punch hits the ground, making it shatter like glass instead of concrete. The unstable surface would trip up anyone other than All For One. But for the villain, all it does is give him a proper push off to begin levitating. The devil is now airborne again.
All For One whips an arm back and then swings it forward, fingers jutting out in a crazed spiral. All Might leaps back and watches as they morph into a reptilian form. A giant serpent bares its fangs, striking just as quickly as a real snake. All Might catches the bite before it can close on him, holding back its jaws. The bite force isn't strong enough to rival All Might's power, but it does force him to dig his feet into the ground for a good grip.
The floor starts to grab onto All Might's legs, holding him just the same as he's fighting back the snake. He glances down to see the rubble shifting and covering his feet but he can't move without compromising himself to the reptile. He has no choice but to pull in separate directions with his arms, snapping the serpent's jaw. It slinks to the floor, dead. Then All Might rips his feet free.
A news copter captures the chaos as it flies overhead, a reporter clinging to her microphone with a sweaty shaky hand. The pilot tries not to fly too close to the destruction for fear of being caught within the blast radius. The cameraman zooms in on the ground, lens focusing. Two figures are across from one another in one of the many craters that have been made.
It's still All Might versus All For One. The two titans clash time and time again. Their punches point at eachother but wind up drilling into the ground deeper and deeper.
All Might's arch nemesis attacks with another of his billion quirks, a bolt of electricity craning across the cracks in the ground. All Might leaps away before he can be made into an electrical conductor. But jumps right into a maelstrom of sewer water risen and controlled by All For One.
All Might fights the cyclone, using his signature Detroit Smash to clear the weather. The punch is powerful enough to help him land safely, but only momentarily. All For One is relentless, hurling steel beams and chunks of wrecked cars using a level of magnetism. The hero dodges and weaves, but also confronts some of the metal pieces head on. A front somersault to build up momentum and air pressure results in a California Smash. Scrap metal scatters the area.
All Might clears the football field distance between himself and All For One in an instant, winding up for a Carolina Smash. His hands in a cross position, he does a downward chop aimed for the villain's head with the intent to break his face further. But a seemingly invisible barrier puts a stop to that. "Nice try, All Might!", All For One says smugly before the forcefield expands and pushes All Might back.
Once again, the ground is uprooted and rock crumbles. All Might staggers back, huffing heavily as he tries to recover from the blow. The villain's killing aura weighs on the hero, a crushing pressure that makes his muscles sore and his quirk tingle in the base of his skull. Another shockwave crosses the expansion, and All Might braces for it. No time to dodge. He has to endure the force of the impact.
Suddenly, an explosion lights up the sky with the color orange. All Might turns his head to see the news chopper was struck by one of All For One's quirk attacks, back rotor burning as it spirals out of control. It's going to crash. All Might squats down, calf muscles primed for takeoff. But he's suddenly blindsided by something swatting at his face. It was in his peripheral vision so fast that he had no time to avoid it. A long limb with a claw at the end of it cuts across his right eye.
The hero cries out and instinctively places a hand over the wound. His one good eye sees that the limb that cut him recedes back into All For One's hand. "Keep your eyes on me, All Might!", the villain continues taunting his opponent with a tone of amusement. All Might growls, vision in his damaged eye completely fading. It closes on its own, eyelids glued together by blood.
But All Might is only momentarily hindered. He forces himself to push beyond his limits and moves as fast as he can to intercept the falling helicopter. It's just about to collide with a weak structure when All Might catches it in his bare hands. The chunk of metal leans against the hero and makes his back arch as he tries to fight its momentum. The top rotor spins still, resisting All Might's grip.
While All Might is preoccupied with prioritizing a rescue, All For One begins prepping the fatal final blow. A culmination of powerful quirks transform one of his arms into a killing strike. Hypertrophy to enlarge his fist, another quirk that generates rivet-like growths, drill-like bone structures also applied, and several kinetic boosters combined with strength enhancers. Impact recoil and multipliers are added to the springlike limb quirk to top it off. The crucial combination aims for All Might to kill him with his back turned.
All Might senses the incoming danger and reacts with an instinct that only a veteran pro would have. All Might responds with a counterattack. All For One collides with All Might's attack by intercepting it with his killing blow, picking up from where he left off. Their fists collide, sheer strength disrupting the crater they're in and sinking the surface even deeper. A sonic boom erupts from the power output.
Blood dribbles down from All Might's knuckles, his fist still grinding against All For One's. The amount of effort that he had to put into that punch drained him. Literally. Half of the hero's body has sunken in, muscles shrinking and steam wafting off his skinnier form. The time limit of his power is starting to reach its breaking point.
The reporter that the hero had rescued gasps when she sees what his true form looks like. The cameraman pulls back from the video recorder that he's holding, checking to see if what he's capturing is actually real. It very much is. All Might's true appearance is exposed to the world.
"D- Damn you..", All Might growls through gritted teeth as he continues struggling against All For One's fist.
"Ashamed that you can no longer sustain the symbol of peace you made yourself out to be? Well, have fear then.. Have fear. Because.. I am here", the villain grins from behind his respirator mask while asking, "Where is your smile now, All Might?"
"Perhaps this will provide some solace.. Nana Shimura has a grandson", All Might's one good eye widens, "And his name.. Is Tomura Shigaraki!" In that moment, the hero is just Toshinori Yagi, fragile and small. "And he's always HATED you LIKE ME!", the weakened symbol of peace starts to fall as he's pushed back by All For One's mixture of sheer power and this revelation.
All Might recovers, coughing on his own blood, but fighting back still nevertheless. His feet dig into the ground and he pushes against All For One's fist again. His body begins reverting back to its muscle form as he puts in overtime and denies the villain's claims, "You're lying!"
"This is too good to be a fabrication. You know it's true because it's the kind of thing that I'd do", All For One counters casually in contrast to All Might's desperation, "I've engineered the encounters between you and he like at USJ. You defeated him so soundly. You won, with a smile. So proud despite your ignorance! So sure of your own superiority!" Toshinori becomes more anguished with each sentence, feeling the truth behind the words like they're backhanded strikes. "Who is superior now?!", All For One laughs gleefully.
"HOW DARE YOU!", All Might yells back in the villain's face. Blood and spit splatters against the scarring.
All For One takes delight in his sworn enemy's rage, relishing in his anger and goading him to continue, "I haven't seen you this angry since I killed Na-"
"KEEP MY MASTER'S NAME OUT OF YOUR VILE MOUTH!", Toshinori's throat shouts in protest over his own yelling as much as his arm groans in pain against All For One's.
"You're too weak!", All For One activates another quirk that amplifies the power of his arm's force. Additional arms begin to unfold from the original limb, also pushing down.
"That's because I wasn't putting my back into it!", All Might yells back. He gives it all that he's got. Everything that's left in the tank. From one arm to the other in one crucial swing. A power transfer from his occupied hand to the other.
All For One had manipulated Nana Shimura's grandson into becoming a villain after killing her. He had stolen away that boy's life. No more. All Might vows that he'll never allow this man to destroy anyone's life ever again.
The whole color spectrum radiates from All Might's left arm to his right. Red arcs like an electrical surge, shifting to green and then sparking purple. His veins glow red and then yellow. He can feel the power of One For All's previous users culminating for this singular moment, "United..", he calls upon each of them to come together and make a decisive attack.
The arm holding All For One back breaks, becoming crippled, power leaving it in favor of the other. All Might's remaining arm bulks up, swelling in size and gleaming with energy. "States of..", all of the moves that he created are nothing compared to his finisher, "SMASH!"
All For One's face shatters on impact, his entire skull collapsing. The scarring that had healed reopens, muscle tissue and blood fresh. And the villain is carried down into the ground by All Might's most powerful punch yet. A cyclone comes forth, all of the wind channeling into that singular swing. Windows beyond the destruction site shatter from how far the sound carries when the hit connects. And All For One is buried into the ground, a grave just for him.
The last of One For All within All Might's system is gone. The red and blue suit of All Might hangs loosely from the skeletal frame of Toshinori Yagi, bloodied and tattered. He's just as worn down and bruised as the villain, the first time ever that the number one hero has been shown to sweat in combat. Ash and soot darken his face, splotches of dried blood crusting over his wounded eye.
But the hero's single remaining eye still stares ahead. Through the smoke. At the distant receding figure of Spider-Man.
All Might moves, albeit slowly. He raises his unbroken arm up, high above his head. It's the stance he takes after every fight he wins. This is his final victory. The world sees him standing triumphantly.
The police weren't even allowed afterwards to canvas the area for this one. Despite losing some of their own. The HPSC seized control of all operations under the operative division title of 'Damage Control'. It's been a coverup method utilized in the past per particular hero battles that were made to be kept out of media attention, and despite the live streamed broadcast of the match between All Might & All For One, The Commission wants to disclose as much details about the fight as possible.
The number of casualties, if any, are kept out of any official record. AFO's detainment and disposal was unreported. Not even what led to this momentous moment in history about Denki Kaminari being a traitor to U.A was shared with the general public. Anything to do with the incident is being handled behind the scenes.
The forensics team that had been dispatched by the HPSC scout and scour the site. They were given specific orders. To find blood if any has been left at the scene. They do, indeed, find blood.
An HPSC agent collects a sample of DNA per the division director's orders. It's not until later when the blood will be tested that they'll discover it belongs to Izuku Midoriya.
AUTHOR NOTES
Relieved to have gotten AFO out of the way (the dude is just too OP, especially for a story/verse of this level) but it was also fun getting to write him as what I hopefully conveyed as a fearsome foe.
Apologies to anyone that was expecting the Electro VS Spidey confrontation this chapter! That's a personal rematch that comes later... Heh.
Till then, I'll delve into your reviews from last time!
Nova-x-Prime: Recent chapters may have been slightly be on the shorter side I suppose but I promise the next one will be much lengthier with a lot going on to celebrate both the holidays & being the 40th chapter mark!
Racan: She's a competitor for best girl status, surprisingly! But we'll just have to see where things go relationship wise as the story progresses, won't we?
CapoPerk: Glad that you're enjoying the 'Costume Chronicles' saga so far! There's plenty more to come with both the symbiote & Toru's relationship to Izuku and understanding eachother!
Sebas602: I hope that I can keep you on the edge of your seat because your theories are sooooo close and yet also shy of what's actually unraveling currently! Shinso, Kaminari, and the symbiote are all complicated affairs that will see their resolution in ways that I think will prove satisfying to your expectations!
theMAX360: Another set of theories and suggestions that are super close to the plans I've got in motion and yet just short of being not quite the case! All I can promise is that the equivalency of these turns of events to come will hopefully satisfy the same!
Hope to see you all next time and Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, etc. !
-Courtesy of your holly jolly neighborhood author!