The impact struck like lightning.
At last, the demon dropped to one knee.
With his chest caved in and ragged coughs tearing out of him, anyone could see he had taken a mortal wound.
"Cough... this is..."
"Impact Reversal. A Quirk that sends back the force of any impact that comes at me. You really are strong. I couldn’t reflect it completely."
Holding the broken edge of his mask, he spoke in a leisurely tone.
The way he looked down from above was arrogant beyond measure, and yet nothing could have suited him better.
"You really do have every Quirk under the sun."
Kirishima slowly rose to his feet.
Thanks to the bastard kindly choosing not to follow up, he had managed to buy himself a little time.
That did not mean the situation had improved.
If anything, it was the worst it had ever been.
He flicked a glance at Jeanist, unconscious before he even knew when he had been struck, then faced forward again.
Losing a powerful ally was regrettable, but it wasn’t as though he had ever relied on having comrades beside him to fight.
Badly injured, alone, facing overwhelming enemies—he had fought through all of it.
He had always fought.
That was the man called Jin Peterson, and that was Kirishima Eijiro.
"Thanks for waiting. You didn’t look the type, but you’re more of a gentleman than I expected."
"There’s no need for that. You are impressive, but you are going to die."
"I don’t plan on dying. But if I do, then that’s as far as I go."
His chest, crushed inward along with his hardened skin by that monstrous impact, was not a pleasant sight.
Centered around a huge crater like the pit left by a fallen meteor, cracks spread in every direction, giving his demonic appearance an even more grotesque air.
But to the man who had seen, heard, and caused every kind of atrocity over more than a century, it meant nothing.
"Isn’t it a waste? Such brilliant talent. Aren’t you afraid of falling here, when you could have ruled above all others? It isn’t too late, boy. Take my hand even now. You will become a king."
The eyes fixed on him shone more fiercely than before.
They trembled with pain, but not with weakness.
An unbending will burned brighter, feeding on life itself.
"Become a king? I don’t need that. A crown handed down by someone else has no value. I’ll sit on the throne myself, place the crown on my own head, and take the scepter in my own hand. Right after I drive a blade into the old king’s gut. Isn’t that the proper way to inherit a throne?"
"Hahahahaha! Yes. You really... are just like me."
He threw his head back and laughed.
He was delighted.
And because of that, he found it all the more regrettable.
There could not be two suns in the sky, nor two tigers on one mountain.
That boy and he were destined to fight in the end.
In a different sense from All Might, this too was worthy of being called fate.
Paying tribute to that great talent and indomitable will, he finally named himself.
"Let me introduce myself properly. I am All For One, arch-enemy of All Might and the man who once ruled Japan as its king. And I am the one who will take your life."
"You seem to know who I am, so I guess there’s no need for introductions. I’m still just a nobody, anyway. But if I have to say one thing, it’s this: I’m not dead yet. If you want to say that, kill me first and say it over my corpse."
Kirishima steadied his body, wrecked by the tremendous impact, and charged again.
Fortunately, his tough body had endured the blow without losing too much output.
Once more, the battlefield of superhumans descended upon the mortal world at impossible speed.
Kirishima slipped past black spikes lashing out from all sides for his flesh, dodged fists that broke through the limits of perception, and drove his knee off the ground as he forced his way into the opening.
The instant the same technique from before knocked away his attack, he turned that very moment against his enemy and sent his other knee rising upward.
Unfortunately, it was blocked, but even All For One was forced back several steps.
"Hm. You came up with a counter that quickly?"
Instead of answering, Kirishima sprang forward again.
A complex exchange followed.
Fundamentally, even with his new method of movement, Kirishima lacked a little destructive power compared to All Might or the All For One before him.
Among fighters of the same level, his speed was bizarrely high, enough to keep pace to some extent, but the power in each individual strike was lacking.
On top of that, he had to attack while accounting for Impact Reversal, a perfect counter to him.
In a clash where split seconds were carved apart and slammed together, those were brutally unfavorable conditions.
In a situation where he was losing on every front, Kirishima balanced the scales through skill alone, skill that had reached the level of the divine.
Watching Kirishima unleash the violent history he had built as a warrior, All For One was impressed.
"So technique can be this extraordinary. It doesn’t suit me, but for you it truly is the right path."
"It’s the distilled essence of slaughter mankind has piled up endlessly since the first moment a human picked up a weapon and killed his own kind. No matter how amazing Quirks are, they were never going to push that aside so easily. People just forgot because they all turned their eyes toward the easier path."
"I see. But it still doesn’t suit me."
All For One flicked his fingers upward from below, creating a fierce blast of wind pressure.
An irregular blast like that usually would not have mattered even if he took it head-on, but the destructive force crossed the line, and Kirishima tilted his head aside to evade it.
At that exact moment, a fist came flying into the space he had just vacated.
A simple trick, if obvious—but all the more effective for it. Kirishima raised his guard to cover his face, and the blow sent him flying backward.
As he dug his feet into the ground and stopped himself, All For One attacked first for the first time since the battle had begun.
"Ghk... damn..."
"Hm. Your combat instincts are excellent. Ridiculously so."
An impact that pierced through his defense forced a pained groan from Kirishima.
But he did not simply take the attack and collapse helplessly.
A front kick landed in time and drove the bastard back.
Because he had pushed rather than stabbed with an explosive snap, he took no damage from Impact Reversal.
Still, it was true that things were dangerous if this continued.
"It’s too hard to land a clean hit. I have to deceive him perfectly before I strike... and I don’t know if I can pull that off."
The difficulty of attacking was simply too high.
The one he had fought at USJ had charged in head-on with brute stupidity, making him relatively easy to handle.
The one before him now was different—an old monster tempered by countless battles, with razor-sharp combat instincts.
And his raw physical power was not weaker, if anything it was stronger.
A desperate struggle was unavoidable.
"So what? It’s not like I’ve only ever slaughtered easy opponents."
Even through his creaking body, Kirishima pushed his Quirk factor harder, drawing out the strength that still answered him faithfully.
Explosive power truly erupted and drove his body forward.
Like a shell bursting from its casing, his fist entered range without any preparatory motion and shot in like a flash.
"You’re persistent. Won’t you die already?"
"If you want that, do it yourself. Have you spent so long playing king that you’re only used to people who die when you tell them to? I’m not one of them, so try stopping my heart, All For One."
A jab obscured his vision, and then a kick came slashing down diagonally from above.
If it landed, it had enough force to shut down his leg for sure.
Impact Reversal spread out again in front of the sharply falling kick.
At that instant, the leg dropping downward swung back.
At the same time, the opposite leg rose in a diagonal arc toward All For One’s head.
The high-low feint, layered with another feint, finally detonated against him.
Watching him fly sideways, Kirishima pressed a hand to his aching chest.
"Well, I got one good shot in. But there’s no way that was enough to kill you. Not when you’re supposed to be a demon king."
"You understand well, boy."
Seeing All For One emerge from the collapsed rubble completely unharmed, Kirishima clicked his tongue.
He had thought he felt something obstructing the high kick at the very last moment of extension. So he had blocked it after all.
"Ha, you’re hopeless. Fine by me. Get off that throne quietly, Your Majesty the Demon King."
Kirishima shouted boldly and rushed in, his attack slicing through empty air.
To anyone watching, the collision that followed would have been enough to steal their breath.
The battle called storms and thunder and, at a glance, looked evenly matched.
But in reality, Kirishima was being pushed back little by little.
His explosive drive method had always been a technique that damaged his body from the outset in exchange for forcibly raising his output.
Unless his body itself became tougher, it was a double-edged sword that borrowed future physical ability at the cost of sacrifice in the present.
The internal damage building up, along with the damage from blocking and taking hits, had reached the point where it interfered with his movement.
Watching Kirishima slow more and more, All For One spoke indifferently.
"You’re getting weaker. Then let’s end this. You were magnificent, boy. A strong spirit worthy of great talent. I can vouch for that myself. You had the right to rule an era."
All For One pinned Kirishima’s lead arm in place by laying Impact Reversal against it, then seized the opposite hand.
At moments like this, his springlike musculature could create variables by extending his reach beyond what the opponent had judged possible.
Unable to react to the suddenly lengthened arm, Kirishima had his own arm forced upward.
With his torso thrown wide open, a powerful blow landed cleanly.
Kirishima spat blood and crumpled downward, and All For One kicked him as well, making sure to finish the job.
With a thunderous boom, Kirishima was launched away, crashed through a building, and vanished into it.
All For One slowly walked toward the pile of rubble stacked like a grave.
"You merely happened to meet me. To speak of luck or misfortune is an insult to people like us, so I won’t waste words on it. Farewell."
All For One’s arm swelled massively.
Just as that heavily drawn-back arm was about to drive into the rubble, an attack came.
"Having fun beating up a kid? Why don’t you play with me for a while instead?"
Faced with fury dropping from above, all All For One did was raise an arm.
That alone sent the attacker flying back.
But she did not care in the slightest.
Even with scratches all over her body, Rumi stuck out her red tongue, licked her lips, and shouted savagely.
"Ha! So if I take you out, this whole thing’s basically over. I don’t love the idea of a tag match, but you still need to go down."
"Mirko. As simple and strong as ever. It’s been a long time."
"Huh? You know me?"
"Of course I do. Tell me, do you still visit those underground fight clubs these days?"
Rumi’s expression stiffened.
A memory surfaced from the reckless days of her high school years.
But only for a moment. True to her bold nature, she brushed it off completely, kicked off the ground, and shouted.
"Who cares! Just take a hit first!"
"It seems your personality hasn’t changed much."
A kick wrapped in a storm came crashing down from the sky.
All For One stepped sideways and avoided it.
The moment he tried to counter the airborne Rumi, her torso spun.
Caught by that unexpected strike launched in midair, he gave up on counterattacking and blocked instead, but he did not lose his composure.
"You have grown stronger. Even so, that won’t be enough."
"Then how about this, Your Majesty?"
After knocking Mirko away with Impact Reversal and reaching to seize her by the throat, All For One heard a familiar voice behind him.
Without realizing it, he turned his head.
And before him came a pair of glowing red eyes.
An attack that wagered everything on pure destructive power drove into him.
He raised both arms to block, but the impact exceeded the limits of weight and muscle, and it shoved him skidding backward.
Blood streamed from Kirishima’s mouth, but he stood calmly beside Mirko.
"You really are tough. Nice timing."
"Same to you, Rumi. If you hadn’t distracted him then, I really might’ve died."
"Hahaha! Come on. You’re not the kind of guy who dies just because someone tries to kill you."
"No, seriously, that was dangerous. So let’s go eliminate the source of the danger."
The moment he finished speaking, Kirishima lunged at All For One again, circling around him and unleashing a barrage of attacks.
Rumi moved at the same time.
Kirishima on the ground, Rumi in the air—their crossing attacks forced him onto the defensive for a while.
But his defense did not last long.
"I’m starting to tire of this. My time for playing with you is over."
As if making a declaration, he seized Mirko by the ankle.
Even though her kick had been wrapped in fierce wind pressure, he caught it as casually as if snatching a bug out of the air, then smashed her into the ground.
She reduced the impact as much as she could, but even so the blow made her cough up blood.
And when Kirishima’s attack rained down at the same moment, All For One chose to meet it head-on.
As a result, he had to release Mirko’s ankle, but Kirishima was the one who failed to hold his ground and took the hit.
Driven backward while carving a deep trench into the earth, Kirishima finally dropped to one knee.
It was the moment the fierce battle came to an end.
Kirishima braced on one knee and forced his trembling body upright, while Mirko clung to the rubble and barely regained her stance.
Then, behind All For One as he prepared the final blow, something unexpected happened.
An irregular liquid formed in midair and spat out Bakugo.
"What the hell is this?!"
"My apologies, Bakugo. I’m late."
The bastard apologized politely.
At the same time, several more masses of that same liquid appeared, and the League of Villains spilled out.
The words he offered to Shigaraki, who was on his knees and still dazed, were unexpectedly warm.
"You failed again, Tomura. Even so, you must never break. You can simply try again. We found your comrades like this, didn’t we? Even this boy... I judged him to be a precious piece for you. You can start over as many times as you like. That is why I am here. Everything exists for your sake."
As he stretched out a hand to Shigaraki and spoke, Kirishima sneered.
The man who had been wagging his tail at him just moments ago sounded ridiculous saying something like that now.
But the others seemed to feel differently.
Aside from Mirko, who could not properly steady herself but still burned with fighting spirit, no one could move beneath that overwhelming majesty.
Bakugo. Shigaraki. The rest of the League of Villains. Even Midoriya and the others who had been hiding.
The intangible force pouring off that great evil was breaking their spirits.
Kirishima’s mockery stabbed into the ears of those who had begun to collapse.
"Oh, Your Majesty. I’d be hurt if you tossed me aside the moment your adopted son showed up. You can give that amateur everything else, but there’s one thing you need to leave for me."
"Hm? Ah, yes, you were still here. Very well. And what is your share?"
"Your head."
Three clean hits had crushed his chest, and his abdomen was ruined too.
His heart and organs felt ready to stop at any moment, and the strain on his bones and muscles was so severe they were on the verge of tearing and breaking.
Even so, Kirishima did not shrink back.
Though his body was a wreck on the verge of collapse, the force pouring from him only grew stronger.
He looked like an asura, driving back the aura All For One had spread in every direction.
Rumi, barely able to stand, came to his side.
A taut tension settled over the battlefield.
Just as it seemed they would clash again at any second, Kirishima and All For One both lifted their heads toward the sky at the same time.
"Ha. So it wasn’t my kill after all."
"As expected, you came."
From the heavens, justice descended like a storm.
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