A swarm moving as one across the sky above the battlefield drew every eye.
Bakugo’s pupils widened at the voice of that painfully ordinary guy who somehow always came through when it mattered, and he did not hesitate.
A massive explosion erupted, and as Bakugo shot up into the sky—the only place beyond the League of Villains’ reach—he saw Sho’s lion-transformed palm stretched out toward him.
Seeing the thick gray-white paw pad that made it look like a cat’s paw, Bakugo bared his teeth in a grin.
After a moment that felt like eternity, their hands finally met as one.
"Are you idiots or what?!"
The others, long since used to him snapping for no reason, only laughed.
Iida shouted, his hair whipping in the wind.
"Bakugo! On my signal, blast us forward like a storm!"
"You match my timing, damn it!"
"Must you really try to win even now?!"
As they bickered their way through the air, Todoroki, watching from behind a wall, spoke to Yaoyorozu.
"Just like we expected, everyone’s attention shifted over there! Now’s our chance—let’s get out!"
"Right!"
While the two slipped away, Kirishima noticed the unexpected variable and let out a faint laugh.
"Ah, right. Those guys were here too. Guess not sending them away earlier turned out to be the right call."
"Seriously? Unbelievable."
All Might laughed despite himself.
In the meantime, the League of Villains reacted in their own way.
Magne grabbed the suited man in the mask and gave him magnetism.
Repelled by the force of matching poles, he shot off like an arrow after Midoriya’s group.
Then, just as he charged ahead without slowing, a massive wall appeared in front of him.
"Titan Cliff!"
"What the—?!"
Mount Lady had survived thanks to Best Jeanist, but she had been unconscious. Now, to protect the kids, she launched a counterattack.
Growing huge in an instant, she blocked the oncoming man with her face, took the full hit, and collapsed with blood pouring from her nose.
Midoriya turned back and shouted, and even as consciousness faded from her, she forced out one last message.
"Mount Lady!"
"Rescue... comes first! Go! Move it, you little idiots!"
The League of Villains faltered for a moment, but quickly prepared to attack again.
"It’s not too late yet! One more shot and—"
"No. It’s too late."
As Spinner moved back toward Magne, Kirishima appeared behind him, grabbed the back of his head, and slammed him into the ground.
At the same time, Gran Torino appeared out of nowhere and kicked the other two unconscious so fast it was hard to even follow.
All Might grumbled at Gran Torino as he landed, half serious and half joking.
"You’re late!"
"You’re the one who’s too fast! And this brat—Midoriya, that one! Isn’t he getting more like you by the day? In all the worst ways!"
All Might could not deny it.
With a low groan, he muttered,
"To think they’d come to the scene after what happened in Hosu. Teenagers, honestly!"
"Ah, I’m obviously not included in that, right?"
"Of course not! Do you know who our Kirishima is?"
Kirishima, now fully out of [Demon Form], spoke while helping support Rumi, who had only just managed to subdue a Villain.
Watching Kirishima talk so smoothly and Rumi chime right in, All Might let out a sigh.
His chest and ribs were grotesquely caved in at a glance, and even his lower abdomen had turned not blue with bruising but a dark, ugly black.
He looked like he could collapse at any second.
"Let’s just say you’re not. Kirishima. I’ve got plenty I’d like to say to you too, but... sigh. What’s the point?"
"Shimura’s friend..."
At that moment, All For One, who had been buried in the building All Might smashed him into, rose to his feet and muttered the words.
Kirishima coolly assessed his own condition.
No matter how he looked at it, he was no longer fit to fight.
Those punks calling themselves the League of Villains, he could still probably crush somehow even in this state, but against that dark lord from a bygone age, he would not be able to lay a hand on him.
Rumi was in terrible shape too, so realistically there was nothing the two of them could do here.
It was time for them to leave the stage.
"Then Rumi and I will get the others out and pull back. All Might, you’re oblivious, timid, a complete amateur as a teacher, and stubborn as hell, but I do trust one thing—that you’re strong. And that you won’t back down in front of evil. So I’ll believe you’ll win. Let the older generation settle things among yourselves. Otherwise, how are the younger ones supposed to rise up?"
"Well... yeah. We do need to settle this! In any case, now I can finally defeat you without anything holding me back, All For One!"
All Might looked awkward for a brief moment at Kirishima’s words, then pointed at All For One and shouted.
"Now it’s just the two of us left on this side! I’ll finish you!"
"Well, that was a blow. With just a single move, the whole tide turned cleanly around."
Despite the content of his words, All For One spoke calmly in response to Gran Torino’s still-vivid shout.
Black tendrils shot from his fingers toward All Might.
All Might dodged on reflex, and they instead pierced into Magne, who was lying behind him.
"Forced Quirk Activation—magnetism!"
"Huh? Huh?! Wait, no! You can’t just come flying at me like that—!"
All For One gave magnetism to Toga, who was standing in front of the warp, and to the rest of the League of Villains as well.
Toga screamed as she saw the other League members flying toward her, but a moment later they all slammed together and vanished into the warp.
Even then, Shigaraki forced himself to stay standing and shouted,
"Wait, hold on! No, Teacher!"
"I won’t let you—ugh!"
All For One swatted away Gran Torino, who tried to interfere, with a tendril from his other hand, and Shigaraki’s worried voice reached him.
"With your body like that, you... you can’t! I’m still not—!"
As Shigaraki was finally dragged into the warp, he remembered the first time he had met All For One.
It was when he had been abandoned alone in that forest of asphalt, with no one willing to help him.
After his Quirk first manifested, he had committed slaughter and lost his mind, collapsing there as a child. Not a single person had helped him.
Every last one of them had looked for a Hero, a Hero, some useless Hero, and walked past after giving him only a glance.
And now the one person who had become his salvation stood before a final battle. He could not fall away like this without doing anything.
But there are things in this world that willpower alone cannot overcome.
In the end, he too was swallowed by the warp.
Watching the closing crack, All For One muttered,
"Tomura. Keep fighting on. [Warp], plus Impact Reversal."
He forcibly warped Gran Torino right in front of himself and unleashed Impact Reversal.
All Might’s charging punch struck Gran Torino in the face instead.
"I-I’m sorry!"
"I came only to save Tomura, but if you insist on fighting, I’ll gladly indulge you. Because I hate you, you see. Long ago, with those fists of yours, you trampled my comrades one after another, and then you were praised as the Symbol of Peace. Standing atop our sacrifices and looking down at the view... I imagine the scenery was splendid, wasn’t it?"
Shoving aside the unconscious, floating Gran Torino, All Might threw a punch.
"Detroit Smash!"
"Barely canceled it out, did you? I won’t allow you to fight without restraint. There were so many Heroes, weren’t there? So many things to protect."
With the city collapsing and burning around them under the clash of two superhumans, All Might answered through gritted teeth.
His voice surged violently, reflecting the rage boiling inside him.
"Shut up. This is how you toy with people! You destroy them! You steal from them! You exploit every opening and rule over them! Over all of you who work hard every single day! Absurdity mocks and sneers at your lives! That is what I—"
"Dangerous. Then [Warp]."
"Cannot forgive!"
All Might seized All For One’s left arm just as he tried to do something, then drove him into the ground with a punch.
He breathed hard.
Hot steam rose from his entire body as he reached his time limit.
That was when a calm but malicious taunt rang out.
"Why so emotional, All Might? I’ve heard those same lines before. Hahaha. From Shimura Nana, the previous wielder of One For All."
At that low voice, All Might’s heart stopped.
At the same time, Kirishima and Rumi were leaving the battlefield, but with the destruction spread so insanely wide, he could not bring himself to ignore the people trapped under collapsed buildings.
He lifted rubble with difficulty, and when necessary smashed it apart to rescue people, until he suddenly coughed up blood.
One person who had survived in a lucky pocket of space crawled out and flinched in shock.
"A-are you okay?"
"Yeah. It’s nothing. In life, ribs break, lungs get punctured, ribs break again—that sort of thing happens. Hurry and go. It’s still dangerous here."
"Ah... right! Please be careful too, Hero!"
Kirishima could not even manage a reply, and only waved a hand vaguely.
As he watched the woman hurry away, Rumi staggered over.
"Ah, damn it! I could die from the embarrassment!"
"Hm? Why?"
Kirishima tilted his head, and Rumi openly showed her wounded pride.
"Because I got dropped by that bastard’s first hit without even dodging it! If I’d fought with you from the start, maybe it would’ve gone a little better!"
"I didn’t dodge it either. I just endured it with my body because my Quirk has absurdly high defense."
"I said it’s embarrassing either way!"
As the two traded banter, a tremor rolled through the ground from somewhere behind them.
Kirishima let out a sigh.
"Sounds like they’re making it flashy. Tch. If possible, I wanted to be the one to take that man down."
"Oh, you too? Same here."
Just then, a four-story building that had been leaning at an angle finally gave way under the vibration and collapsed.
It was a fair distance away, but the two of them grasped the situation instantly and threw themselves into motion.
Kirishima reactivated [Demon Form] in an instant, exchanged a glance with Rumi, and each did what they had to do.
The wind pressure from his iron fist blasted away the falling building, and Rumi rescued the child beneath it.
Looking at the child, whose eyes were wide with shock as hiccups shook them, Kirishima released [Demon Form], bent over, and coughed violently.
"Urk! Cough, cough! Damn it, I really can’t move anymore, buddy. You okay?"
After blinking a couple of times, the child looked worried for Kirishima instead.
"I think I should be asking you that, mister."
"Kid, it’s fine if you call me mister. It’s true, after all."
"Huh?"
The child stared blankly at Kirishima’s random remark.
And then, without caring, he burst out with fierce denial.
"But I cannot forgive you for calling me mister!"
"What are you even saying?!"
Rumi roughly scrubbed Kirishima’s head and spoke.
Holding the still-dazed child in her arms, she turned her gaze toward the source of the tremors.
"Quit talking nonsense and let’s go. This is really our limit. And see that helicopter up there? Even if we technically have permission to fight, nothing good comes from us getting noticed. Let’s pull out for now."
"Tch. Yeah, we should. This isn’t my fight today, after all. But..."
Kirishima clicked his tongue and let the words trail off.
He did not say it aloud, but he did not want to retreat like this, without settling things, leaving everything to All Might.
But it was also true that he was still lacking against that dark lord of ancient times.
So today, he decided to step aside and let those who were each other’s true nemeses settle it.
With a vow that whatever the outcome, next time he would never again retreat so helplessly, he started walking.
At that same moment, All Might roared back in fury.
"Do not speak my master’s name with your filthy mouth!"
He remembered her as she had always been—proud and strong.
To All Might, she had been both mother and teacher.
She had been the direction of his life, his ideal itself. She was not someone that creature had any right to speak of.
But All For One, his shattered mask revealing a grotesque face with no eyes, no nose, no ears beneath it, did not stop.
"A woman whose ideals far outpaced her ability. As the one who created One For All, she was almost embarrassing. What an unsightly death she had. Now then, where shall I begin..."
"Enough!"
The instant All Might shouted in rage and raised his fist, All For One caught the opening and did not miss it.
A Quirk from his hand that repelled the air blasted All Might far beyond the sky.
As All Might flew through the air coughing blood, headed straight for the helicopter filming everything above, Gran Torino intercepted him and pulled him to safety.
Flying with one arm around All Might’s waist, he said,
"This is just like six years ago, isn’t it? Toshinori, calm down. You fell for his provocation like this before too, and let him get away. With a hole punched through your stomach, no less. That’s your fatal flaw. Don’t talk to him at all! Just—"
"Yes..."
"His fighting style is completely different now, and so are the Quirks he’s using. You can’t land a meaningful hit head-on. The only way is to catch him off guard! You can still move, can’t you? Then go beyond your limit! Isn’t this the crucial moment?!"
"Yes...!"
All Might answered shortly but with grim resolve, his Muscle Form already half undone.
Across the battlefield turned to ruins in every direction, that desperate resolve echoed hollowly.
The night air rippled with ill omen.
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