As All Might, Toshinori had seen too much as a hero, and yet at this moment, he believed he hasn't seen enough. Though his weakened form was revealed to the world, he could still hear the cries of those around him, begging him to be their hero, and even if it meant his life, he was ready to face down All For One again.
Those thoughts were lost in the fog as a new light came before him.
He could feel the winds caressing wildly in a coordinated pattern, kicking up some debris as it grew more aggressive with each passing second. Lights like smoke that seemed it could vanish with a whisper had gathered under this wind, swirling to the center of its storm. Through the dust that had been kicked up, they could see something treacherous peaking through. There was a glow that seemed dim with no true solid form.
A creature created from it, Toshinori didn't know if it was an animal or monster that loomed over them. He heard a growl that shook him and he was almost ready to turn away from his enemy to this, determining it may be a new threat.
The other heroes as well as All For One had turned their attention away as well. They were now trying to see what was lurking among them. Without wondering how it could've slipped past them.
Then the dust began to clear, and they could see it, like a phantom without a solid shape, constantly shifting in its appearance, if Toshinori didn't know better he would think it was indecisive in what it was trying to become, shifting between a beast with many tails trying to bare its fangs and then a humanoid with horns gaping as if ready to swallow them all, the changes almost too sudden to truly track.
Then that light expanded forward, hiding a silhouette at the core that no one previously noticed. Toshinori tried not to cover his face as he was hit with the debris, he could feel the air heated and it was as if nothing but raw power was passing through, an energy he hasn't felt before.
All For One who could see nothing had clarity that this was a looming danger. Yet when those wisps of unidentified light brushed through him he felt a familiar sense of dread.
'It can't be!'
The light began to fall, compress but not dim, only becoming bright as it surrounded something, wrapping it like a coat, the light shifting as if it were the northern lights, pulsing black, and red.
Finally, the light began to clear to give an image, and what they saw no one could distinguish to call it a miracle or abomination. Sakura stood, with a hole gaping, shrouded in this cloak of suffocating aura, pulsing lines that looked like ink ran across her entire body from her forehead across her shoulder,s arms, chest, and further.
Her eyes seemed glazed, like a murky window unable to distinguish the sight on the other side.
"Sakura….." Toshinori choked out her name, his eyes trembling, knees buckling. He couldn't turn away from awe and horror as the gaping hole in her chest began to fill, he watched a gray material fabricate itself and mold with her flesh like clay until it forged into a beating heart that became covered again with bone that was lost to her ribcage, veins, blood and flesh filling the space and finally concealed by a distorted layer of what seemed to be skin.
She looked at her hand as if she was holding something.
The other heroes were looking on in shock, Gran Torino, who had seen Sakura in her state before couldn't turn away, despite that they were still in the middle of a battle. He had seen her laying there in a pool of blood, with her heart shattered into bits of flesh. Yet somehow she was able to rise again.
"So you've come back from the dead huh, Sakura Haruno?"
The girl didn't acknowledge All For One's spiteful question, as she continued to stare at her hand as if she couldn't comprehend anything else around her.
"Have you gone deaf child?" The attire on the villain's blazer began to expand at the arm, stretching as he created a concoction of quirks to unleash on the pink-haired girl in one go. "This time, I'll make certain you stay down for good. I think we can make good use of your corpse,"
The only response he received was her turning towards him fully, her chin raising but eyes glazed without any fear. But All For One was hit with that unknown force again that he had felt when he tried to take her power. Only this time it was more tangent.
"How annoying,"
He unleashed an attack of the compressed air force and kinetic energy strong enough to break apart the solid ground. The attack hit her head-on with no resistance. The other heroes were blown back by the sheer force of the shock wave, and Toshinori in his state was far too weak to bring himself to take his strong form to increase his speed and save Sakura in time.
"SAKURA,"
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"W-What the….?" Katsuki's hands trembled as the camera fell on the image of Sakura, blurring in the dust a bit but it was definitively her. He saw her standing, he'd seen her wound heal itself as if growing a new organ like a heart was simple. It meant that she wasn't gone and that the end of her life wouldn't be on his shoulders. But she wasn't trying to escape from the fray.
She was willing to stand in the middle of the storm even after she had nearly drowned in it. Now they were all too far to go back for her.
"S-Sakura?" Izuku had less to say than Katsuki even though his mind was running with questions as he tried to analyze the possibilities, he couldn't properly compute anything. He looked ready to cry.
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"Sakura!" Toshinori called out again to the dust. He thought that perhaps this time All For ONe had taken the girl down. But after the dust cleared, scattering grains against his skin, clearing, he saw that she was still there. Standing well and fine without a single scratch.
She glanced over at Toshinori, and he instantly felt himself grow tense. Quirks could be unique to individuals, they could evolve and change, but he had never seen or heard of something of this nature happening before.
"All Might, you look terrible," Her voice didn't sound like her own, though he could detect it, there was also another set of vocals mimicking hers. "Step back,"
But Toshinori wouldn't heed her instructions that easily. Though it was a miracle she had managed to bring herself back, like so many he still saw a child before him and he knew that she was instigating to fight this vicious villain on her own.
All For One had been the greatest threat to this world, and his predecessors had grown One for All to take him down and repair the damage that he had done to this world. Now, this girl was offering to take that burden off the shoulders of the users and handle it herself.
He couldn't allow that!
"Haruno stop! You don't know what you're getting into!" He reached out to her, but they were too far apart.
"Stand back, All Might," Something in her voice sent shivers through his entire being and when she looked at him with those eyes, he knew that there was amiss in her somewhere. Sakura was here but she wasn't entirely. He didn't know if it was possible to see someone's bloodlust, but the images that entered his mind of a distorted figure much like what he had seen looming around Sakura previously like a phantom made his stomach lurch.
"All For One," She called his voice without fear, Toshinori could feel their menacing intents clashing against each other. As if they were already doing battle without moving a step.
He started laughing, a maniacal laugh that would shake you to the core, running through like a pike to the gut. "So, you believe you can defeat me? This little call back from death has given you a greater deal of courage than you should retain girl. I'll show you what happens to brats like you, who think they are immortal,"
"The only one who wants to play immortal is you," Sakura said calmly. "And I intend to show you how wrong you are."
"What did you say?" He gritted.
"You're nothing new to me, and you'll end up just like all the others before you. Your true self revealed," Sakura said, glancing at All For One, "On the ground, powerless, pathetic,"
All For One was prideful in his power and mindset. He credited all of his efforts, cause, and the effect he was able to have on the entire world to his unique ability that he believed exceeded any others. No matter the quirk, position, or standing, he could always drag them down to nothing or raise them if he desired to. He was able to make people move like chess pieces to his will, but there was no board to create boundaries for the distance he wanted to take.
So to hear someone flippantly inform him, that his achievements, all that he was, could be taken in comparison to other mortals, it simply didn't sit well with him. And he was determined to put those who dared question him in their place. Beneath his feet.
"I've heard enough out of your mouth!"
Spring-like limbs, kinetic booster times four, strength enhancer times three, multiplier, hypertrophy, rivets, airwalk, spear-like bones. The combination of quirks bulked through his flesh and bone, expanding his strength and crudely mutating his limbs. It was like seeing the pause of a wild beast baring its fangs, jaw wide in preparation to snap closed, saliva falling, face scrunched to become the most terrifying image implanted in the mind.
Then there was the calm beast, who did not react to the posturing and held its shoulders slack, face lose, and eyes almost glazed like it had woken up from a nap. That the sense of danger would start to subside instead of gripping you, until eventually you looked away, and had your neck exposed.
'Forget about All Might,' A weakened hero exposed to the world, that was the ultimate effect, and society would be able to despair when it finally dawned on them that they had lost their great Symbol of Peace, that it was all an illusion, to begin with, and once they realized the deception, they would tear into the heroes once again. Yes, All Might could suffer through that ordeal of losing the image he had crafted.
It would be a fate worse than death.
'But she must fall,' He already knew that One for All had been passed to another, and he knew who it was. However, it was easy to kill a lion when it's a cub cut off from the pride. The issue was when another alpha emerged, with claws and fangs prepped and strong. Tomura wouldn't be able to handle her as he was now. And she would act as a gleam of hope for all those onlookers who see their hero fall from his throne.
It didn't matter if Toshinori lived, All Might would be lost this night. And he had to make sure that the path was cleared for the chain reaction to ignite.
If he couldn't take this power, then he would extinguish it before another could.
He hadn't launched his attack, as a powerful presence fell behind him and pressure on his side delivered him into one of the far buildings. The structure turned frail and crumbled around him like a sinkhole was taking everything with it. The area had already been evacuated, but he wondered if she considered that.
Or if she had disregarded that.
Toshinori's mouth was agape, as he watched the greatest villain of all time dive head-first into the building far into another street. It wasn't just a matter of power and speed, when it came to facing All For One, you had to possess a great will and mental fortitude. Somehow Sakura had forgone all of that in an instant and was able to break through his defenses. Even without eyes, he was still able to see them all and could counter, yet he wasn't able to against her all of a sudden.
'What's happened to her?' There was still this disturbing aura coming from her and Toshinori just felt like something was threatening to wrap its hands around his throat and choke the life out of him.
"What's going on with that girl Toshinori?" asked Gran Torino. "Is this normal for her quirk?"
"I don't know,"
The old teacher glared at his previous student in disbelief, "You're her teacher!"
He was her teacher like he was supposed to be for all of class A. And yet he had failed to notice his students, Shouto's difficult disposition with his family, Tenya's rage for the hero killer, and even Izuku's struggles in handling the power he passed on to him. Otherwise, he might have known better than to believe all of his students would sit back and let them handle their job of saving Katsuki. Of course, they had to intervene because of the hero's failings. And now here was another one of his students standing up to the villain he had been unable to put away.
"I'm not so sure," He had failed in many aspects as a teacher, and perhaps as a hero as well but he didn't want this pattern to continue. She had just brought herself back from the dead, he couldn't let her do that just to try and drag All For One into hell.
"Sakura, please stand down. You don't have to fight anymore, just get out of here!"
But she wouldn't look his way and he didn't have the strength to walk any closer to that aura. It was as if she was telling him that she knew, he was at his end as a hero. That she didn't want to leave this battle to him, to bet with high stakes when he was standing with one card in his hand.
'It hurts,' Sakura felt like her skin could fall off her body from the way the energy pulsing within felt like it was trying to lift it from her flesh.
She could feel her chakra as her byakugo seal was finally able to activate, but it felt like pushing against an opposite force of this other chakra. It made her body feel light and filled with virility and strength that was otherworldly. But it also caused pain, she knew she was in pain, but she was able to neglect it as if it were a discomfort that was breathable.
However, she knew that it wouldn't last long. Like a wave giving a warning for a tsunami.
'What is this?' She wondered staring at her hand, watching the visible chakra. This power was familiar and something dangerous about it lurked and yet she found it thrilling and enjoyed the feeling of it.
It was addicting to feel it surrounding her. It also burned her body, drowning in it, but never wanted to leave the water.
A shock wave hit back and the building scattered like the reaction of a rock hitting water. Splattering everything around. The concentrated attack came at Sakura like a large phantom, carrying the rubble and All For One's malice at her.
"Take cover!" Gran Torino exclaimed to the other heroes who were still trying to pull survivors from the debris and torn-up buildings.
"SAKURA!"
She took a stance, her fist pulled back similar to how Toshinori would hold his attack as All Might. He saw some of that energy gathering around her fist in a distorted manner, and when she threw forward against the attack.
Her fist unleashed a blast of chakra that created a shock wave that clashed against All For Ones. It didn't succeed in pushing the attack back, only bringing it to a halt when they collided.
All For One laughed as he came forward, "So now we're equal in power. That won't do you much good child. In a game, two players same strength will have to rely on their individuality and more importantly strategy crafted through experience. Something I have decades over you,"
Sakura stared at him, just like a still lion that hadn't gotten into a pouncing stance. "The front lines of war,"
"What?" He frowned, but he did not receive a response, one that would've delved into her history, instead she said with a small smile:
"You think after all that, something like you can hurt me?" Sakura sounded as if she was talking to someone else but there was a challenge in her eyes that made him tremble with fury. If she was willing to make the call to end her life, he would answer it.
"Let's see if we can change that!" With his quirks still active, spear-like bones piercing through his skin, jagged tough shells at his expanded knuckles, with muscle visible on the outer layer of his skin. All For One charged toward the pink-haired kunoichi.
"It's a shame you didn't give it to her All Might!" He mocked as he neared her. Toshinori's eyes widened, "Instead you chose Izuku Midoriya, right?"
Toshinori felt a tremor of fear. This was going to put Izuku in a lot of danger if this man was allowed to escape from there. He had realized the truth, not only that Toshinori had passed on his power, but also to whom. A boy that was yet to control the strength he had been given. And All For One was not above putting him down before his potential could bare fruit.
"The first will be her, and then him!" With that, All For One threw his fist forward toward the pink-haired girl. The force picked up grains and formed a cloud like a partial sandstorm erupting. Toshinori narrowed his eyes to keep his vision but it was blocked by all of the debris.
"SAKURA NO"
A chuckle came through the screen and he froze, listening to her voice. "I'm sorry, my mistake,"
Toshinori felt his breath leave him as the fog was lifted to give a clear image, he saw All For One's fists clash against Sakura's smaller one, an explosion of energy against one another that created force. Then came the suffocation, like threads of steel wrapping around his throat, even though he breathed with the help of his life support mask.
Feeling that this sensation was the proximity of Sakura, All For One pulled back into the air.
"I suppose that last attack made you think we were on equal foot. It didn't occur to you I could control my power did it?" Sakura's grin widened, but there was a malicious look in her eyes as the aura around her grew thicker.
"Now it's my turn,"
Gran Torino didn't know if he could describe this as feeling like there was another All Might in front of him, he could barely keep his eyes open as the force hit him and his frail body had to stay low to avoid being blown away like the other heroes.
He was one of the few people that knew the truth about what happened that night with the hero killer. What role she had taken in. It was difficult to believe but he had seen her stand up against that intensity that knocked some heroes down and halted others including him.
Now here she was again, unreserved and taking on the man who had terrorized the world before he was even born. Was she really going to be the one to put out this dark flame? Was it a good thing?
'What is she?'
The helicopter continued circling above them like a vulture with the camera greedily capturing as much of the scene as it could for all the world to see. Sakura didn't know her face was currently on the big screen in the city, where people were meant to be evacuated, yet they were glued in place watching everything transpire. Including her classmates.
There was only one thing Sakura was focused on at the moment. The enemy before her.
"Don't get cocky little girl," He went another shock wave that broke through the streets and shoved everything in the area.
But when the clearing came, Sakura was no longer standing in place. All For One felt the presence behind, and that suffocating feeling in his throat before a heavy weight pushed him forward from his back. He slammed into the ground, feeling the earth part to make room for him, like a well-fit coffin. 'Impossible is this girl….stronger than All Might?! Than…..me!?'
His movements stuttered as he tried to bring himself to stand as quickly as he could. All For One wasn't aware that she was allowing him to do that. As she stood a few feet away, watching him struggle to stand. But when he did, he realized that she was trying to toy with him as a cat would with a mouse. Batting it as it tried to escape.
"I refuse...." He panted. "I refuse to be defeated by the likes of you!" All For One moved to the air, high above once again. He knew that she could not fly, and would have trouble reaching him here.
Sakura flexed her fingers absentmindedly, although All For One knew she was completely aware of his presence. She just had lackluster concern for it.
"Lose to the likes of me….." She smirked, her eyes blazing with an intensity that All For One could feel and didn't want to come near. Whatever this power was, it was consuming, like a beast suddenly opening its jaws and latching onto your neck. "Well then, let's find out!"
With a wicked smile, chakra poured through her arms, legs her entire body, the light grew stronger that it seemed to wrap around like a cloak of something wicked.
"You're not human....what are you?"
The chakra gathered in her fists until it morphed into the shape of some creature, knawing fangs and dead eyes filled with hunger.
"Goodbye, All For One,"
He put everything into the next attack, he punched back with a force greater than what he had given Toshinori by far. However for all the times, he mocked the number one hero for his dying flames, he was not the man he once was. The battle had taken its toll, and like a seasoned lion, he knew that he was outmatched this time by a newcomer. Viral and strong, while he was deteriorating in comparison.
'But I will not die!' He used the best combination of his quirks, and pushed beyond the limit, he could feel it, and this was going beyond what he had before. Perhaps it was the desperation to survive or the fear of meeting death. He delivered the attack with full force, which would take out more of the city.
That grand force he created was like a hurricane and Sakura was about to be hit dead. But when she unleashed her fists, though nothing solid collided, that energy was unleashed, like a phantom, it met the shockwave and they clashed hard. Sakura's however, tore through his attack and was coming straight for him.
It was like a beacon shooting into the air. And All For One was in the center.
Toshinori couldn't lift his jaw as he saw through the clearing dust his nemesis falling from the sky. His mask was destroyed, his clothing in tatters as if they were burned and his body smoking. He wasn't even sure if the man was still alive.
He didn't have a hard landing though and instead fell with his back meeting the open palm of Sakura's hand. She tossed him to the ground after the man took a strained breath. As if she had just tossed aside a used piece of paper.
Only then, did that light begin to dim and the suffocating presence vanished. Leaving only Sakura standing.
She glanced behind her, eyes meeting Toshinori's before she grinned brightly.
"All Might,"