He still refused to give up.
Thick metal pillars, each wider than a human torso, came hurtling toward the two of them from more directions, in greater numbers.
Kirishima straightened his back and didn’t move.
Instead, he scoffed and said, "Fighting alone would’ve been fun, sure, but if I’ve got teammates, there’s no need to force it. Get to work, Todoroki, Bakugo."
At his words, part of the charging pillars froze in midair as they sliced through the space between them.
A raging explosion shattered the frozen metal into fragments.
"Quit ordering us around! You giant freak!"
"Talking like a ruthless employer is a little much."
As always, Bakugo shouted, while Todoroki wore a sour expression. Kirishima grinned and answered them both.
"Then how about, ‘Do it properly, both of you’?"
Bakugo fired off explosions over the steel barrier, and when pain shot through his hand, he snapped at All Might for no reason.
"What the hell are you getting pushed around by that stupid, old-fashioned final boss for, huh? All Might!"
"Bakugo boy..."
"Now’s the time to hit the villain."
Midoriya shouted when he finally saw his friends climbing up behind Todoroki.
"Todoroki! Everyone!"
"We’ll handle the metal!"
"Yaoyorozu, please take care of this side!"
"Yes!"
Sho transformed into a lion and charged out with Iida.
The two of them raced across the ruined ceiling, knocking aside the metal pillars.
Watching the children struggle, All Might said in a boiling voice, "If my students are motivating me this much, I can’t call this my limit! Beyond my limit, and farther still!"
At last, he shattered the metal pillar pressing in on him at point-blank range and launched himself toward the villain.
"That’s right! PLUS ULTRA!"
With the children scattering the metal pillars, it was much easier to push forward.
Even so, he crossed his arms and thrust them out toward the pillar flying straight at him.
"Carolina Smash!"
Under the massive burst of wind pressure, the storm of steel was smashed apart and sent flying.
All Might shot toward the villain with terrifying momentum.
"Give it up! Villain!"
That was when All Might’s charge, which looked ready to blast the villain away at any second, came to a halt.
Steel cables had wrapped around his limbs and yanked them back.
"At this level!"
All Might strained every muscle in his body, trying to tear the cables apart.
Then the villain reached out and clamped a hand around his throat.
"Ghk!"
"Give it up? That’s you, All Might."
Bulging, muscular arms tore through his clothes and began to turn red-hot.
The crushing force was clearly beyond anything a normal human could reach through training alone.
What is this power?
Before All Might could even finish the thought, the villain grabbed the old injury inflicted by his archenemy with his free right hand and wrenched it hard. A pained breath escaped him.
"Agh!"
"All Might!"
Midoriya screamed and tried to rush in, but the pain building in his left arm forced him to his knees.
Only then did All Might, hearing that voice, finally understand the situation.
"Muscle augmentation... a multiple-Quirk user. Don’t tell me...?"
"That’s right. When we drew up this abduction plan, he contacted us. He said he wanted to cooperate. When I asked why, he told me this: if All Might’s friend reached out to evil, he wanted to help however he could. It’s a shame you won’t get to see All Might’s face twisted in agony after learning that."
"All For One..."
"Did you only just realize?"
"That’s why I hate scum like you. People who toy with others’ hearts deserve to die."
At All Might’s grief-stricken voice, the villain’s sneer was met by a cold rebuke.
It wasn’t just a voice that reached him.
A massive slash flew out and severed the arm gripping All Might’s throat.
Blood burst from the severed wrist in a violent spray.
As red filled the air, everyone’s eyes turned toward the source of the voice.
There stood Johannes, his neatly combed hair now in wild disarray, holding a red sword up toward the sky.
Unlike when he had faced Kirishima, his expression was frighteningly cold.
"So you’re a traitor! You crazy old bastard!"
"Cut the crap. Since when did we have trust between us? You never trusted me in the first place, so what are you whining about betrayal for? Besides, I never liked you from the start. A grown man running wild while babbling about freedom—honestly, I wanted to cut off all your limbs and mount you as a trophy."
He laughed at the villain as he screamed in fury.
The villain growled and tried to threaten Johannes.
"Fine! Then your precious granddaughter dies too! So you’re so obsessed with swords now you’d throw away your own blood? Do you even have the right to lecture me?"
"I ought to rip that mouth apart for all the nonsense it spits. Tch. You think a noble swordmaster would lift a blade for a criminal boss? I only tolerated your disgusting face for a moment because I had no choice. Now that another path has opened up, there’s no reason to lend my strength to a villain whose promise may not even be worth the breath it takes to make it."
"A dog that spent its whole life on a leash never changes its nature, even when it doesn’t know any better! Then die, old dog!"
Johannes sliced apart the mass of steel flying at him and said quietly, "This is all I can do for you. The rest is your job."
With his body still far from recovered, it was hard for Johannes to kill the villain.
Even now, he was only standing in place and cutting down the incoming attacks with his sword.
The opening he had created when he first severed the villain’s arm would not come again.
But he wasn’t worried.
All Might was here, along with the boy who had beaten him.
Though All Might himself was currently in danger of being crushed by a giant mass of metal.
"All Might! Detroit! Smash!"
Fortunately, Midoriya stepped in just in time, allowing the two of them to smash through the metal and land safely.
Well, All Might landed safely. Midoriya was thrown down hard, as if he had been flung aside.
Kirishima intercepted the incoming metal before it could take them both out.
Amid the repeated thunderclaps of battle, All Might asked the battered Midoriya, "Midoriya boy! Why would you throw yourself in like that with your body in this condition...?"
"Because... a hero is someone who saves people in trouble."
All Might stared blankly at Midoriya’s words for a moment, then burst out laughing.
He held out a hand to Midoriya and expressed his gratitude.
"Hahaha. Thank you. I am indeed in a little trouble right now. Lend me your hand, Midoriya boy."
"Yes!"
"If you’ve got time to act cool, move! Who do you think is holding the front line right now!"
"Huh? S-sorry. Kirishima boy."
"Sorry, Kirishima-chan."
Kirishima’s shout mercilessly shattered the two of them’s heroic atmosphere.
With embarrassed apologies from both of them, Kirishima said, his red eyes flashing, "Forget the apologies and let’s just get that thing’s jaw back in place already. I’ll tear through anything coming at us head-on, so the two of you just put everything into your attacks."
Still calm despite the rain of attacks, Kirishima finished speaking and exploded forward with the strength in his legs.
He ran ahead, batting away every attack that came at them.
The villain roared in a frenzy.
"Useless brat... you little punk with terrible manners!"
"That’s you!"
"You’ve wasted your age, haven’t you."
Bakugo and Johannes snapped back at him, blocking some of the attacks aimed at Kirishima.
The metal pillars that survived the slashes and explosions were stopped by the ice wall Todoroki raised.
By then, Kirishima, All Might, and Midoriya had reached the underside of the structure the villain was riding.
"This is my way!"
The bastard was spouting nonsense, but the force behind his attacks couldn’t be ignored.
As they drew closer, the attacks became more frequent and more powerful, but Kirishima kept charging like a proper lead blocker, taking every hit for the two of them.
Blood ran from the wounds that burst open again under the violent movement.
He deflected every blow from the massive mass of steel, then, with no strength left, dropped downward through the air with droplets of blood scattering around him and shouted, "Sorry I couldn’t clear everything out for you, but you can handle the last one, right? Go! Midoriya!"
Midoriya and All Might answered not with words but by leaping toward the villain at full speed.
A huge chunk of metal blocked their path, but neither of them cared.
Great power surged from their tightly clenched fists.
"The danger right in front of you!"
"Leap over it with everything you’ve got!"
"Saving people with everything you’ve got."
"That is what a hero is!"
As Kirishima fell below them, he could see the two of them calling out to him in turn.
He smiled, thinking that both of them were somehow able to say such embarrassing lines without dying of shame.
"Crush them with the tower!"
The villain, in a desperate frenzy, dropped the mass of metal.
Midoriya and All Might drove their drawn-back fists forward with all their strength.
"Double! Detroit! Smash!"
At the same time, the two fists surged forward and struck the same point.
A massive wave of force spread in every direction.
At last, when the metal mass shattered into pieces and scattered everywhere, Midoriya and All Might were able to reach the villain.
"Go!"
"Take him down!"
"Beyond the farthermost point! PLUS ULTRA!"
The two fists, carrying everyone’s cheers on their backs, slammed into the villain.
A blinding explosion erupted and swallowed everyone’s vision.
David Shield, who had been trapped inside the steel structure the villain created and had finally found freedom, caught a blurred glimpse of All Might as he was flung away.
He was wearing the costume David himself had made, slicing through the sky with dignity.
At that moment, All Might transformed into a green-haired boy.
The small, slight boy who had come with All Might was cutting through the sky with a resolute expression.
Only then did he understand.
Fearfully trying to stop the tide of the age was not the answer.
That small realization escorted his fading consciousness away.
"Did they do it...?"
"They did it! They beat the villain!"
The children who had come to a party only to end up fighting a villain cheered with pounding hearts.
Kirishima walked over to Johannes, who had already sheathed his sword and was standing there using it like a cane.
"Are you all right?"
"No. I took such a grand beating that I’m not feeling too great. Still, seeing that insolent bastard’s face get smashed was satisfying."
Even with blood at the corner of his mouth, Johannes looked rather pleased, and Kirishima gave a wry smile.
He had thought of him as a cool old man, but it seemed there was a bit of spite in him after all.
"What will you do now?"
At the question, which carried a great deal of meaning, Johannes looked quietly at Kirishima.
His complicated blue eyes met Kirishima’s ominously glowing red ones.
"Who knows. If possible, I’d like to stay by my granddaughter’s side. Well, if you put in a good word for me, maybe I can get probation or something."
"I’m just a student, so I’m not sure how much help I can be. But I’ll ask All Might. In practical terms, I was the only one who actually fought you, and you didn’t hurt anyone else, so I think there may be room for leniency. You also helped decisively in taking that guy down."
"That would be more than enough. Truthfully, I’m not too worried about that part."
He answered with a bright laugh.
"I told you I never stood out much during my years as a hero, didn’t I? Still, I lived my whole life as a hero, so I do have some connections. If I’d truly committed a serious crime, I’d have to pay for it, but right now, even if I joined a criminal organization, I didn’t actually do anything."
That left out the fact that he had fought Kirishima entirely, but both of them just laughed.
They had exchanged sword and fist directly, but there was no real bad blood between them.
Even Kirishima, whose forehead had been cut open, saw his duel with Johannes less as a battle between villain and hero and more as a contest between two warriors.
Even if they had met under different circumstances, he probably would have fought him at least once.
"You’re right, I didn’t do anything. This was probably just the neighbor’s bird pecking at me."
"Hoho, what a ferocious bird. I’ll have to be careful."
At Kirishima’s tap-tap gesture against his own forehead, Johannes agreed with a sly smile.
"That aside, once things are settled, may I go to Japan?"
"Ah, that’s not something you need my permission for."
"It is something I need your permission for. I’ll be sticking close to you."
"Hm? Ah, because of your granddaughter."
"Exactly. I’d like to treat our granddaughter as soon as possible."
"I’m not sure things will work out that way, but... I’m fine with it."
"Thank you."
For a moment he wore a tender expression, then smiled warmly again at Kirishima’s permission.
It was hard to believe he was the same man who had been cursing the villain to his face.
The two of them laughed as they watched Melissa’s back as she ran toward the place that had collapsed so badly it had become a hill.
"She’s a good girl. I think our granddaughter will be just as lovely once she’s a bit older."
"Hmm. Sounds like your granddaughter is adorable."
"Of course! Do you know how angelic our granddaughter is!"
When Kirishima agreed, he suddenly turned into a doting grandfather and started bragging about his granddaughter.
Kirishima, who hated noisy people, wanted to run away, but before he knew it, Johannes’s hand had clamped tightly around his wrist.
In the end, Kirishima was trapped listening to the chatterbox Johannes talk about how kind and beautiful his granddaughter was, while the night wind brushed across his face and he smiled.
The night of sudden, fierce battle came to an end, carried out on good terms and with a new connection formed.
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