Ojiro quietly entered the dark hospital room of his classmate. He did a cursory survey of the shadowy room before his eyes settled on the form of the boy in the hospital bed ahead of him. He really did not want to do this. He did not want to have blood on his hands. However, his classmate had miraculously survived being stabbed through the heart, and he could not risk having his cover exposed when the boy woke up.
So, with a heavy heart, Ojiro decided that Mineta wouldn't wake up.
As he fought through his trepidation and approached the still unconscious boy, Ojiro couldn't help but remark how radically different of an experience it was to watch someone be killed than to be an active participant in someone's death, especially if it was the same person. His gloved hands were trembling as he reached for the boy's face.
He really didn't want to do this, but he had to. It was the only way.
There were a few ways he could go about it. He could pinch the boy's nostrils shut and cover his mouth to cut off his airways, but he didn't want to have to look Mineta in the face while he was doing it, as that may break his will to go through with it at all. He could just smother him with a pillow, as he wouldn't have to look anyone in the eye while it was happening, but it still felt too involved for the tailed boy's tastes.
He did also bring a syringe and a bottle of antifreeze to inject into the boy's IV drip, but something told him that just wasn't a great idea. Smothering it was, then.
With a heavy sigh, Ojiro began reaching for the unconscious boy's pillow, but he was violently accosted by a white scarf wrapping around him and pinning his tail to his back. His heart dropped when out from the shadows of the room stepped his homeroom teacher who was sending him the coldest glare he had ever received.
"I truly didn't want to believe it," the man growled, and Ojiro knew he was fucked. "I come back from the press conference with a bad feeling in my gut, and here you are trying to finish your classmate off to protect your already compromised cover."
"I can explain-" Ojiro hastily began to speak before he was cut off by Aizawa.
"Don't bother, you've been under surveillance since you got here," he growled, and several policemen entered the room. "What the hell even was your plan? There are cameras all over this hospital; were you going to smother him and then jump out of the window to go on the run? Or did you legitimately think you could get away with such a hastily slapped together murder scheme?"
Ojiro was as white as a sheet of paper. His cover was officially blown, and he needed to get out of there and back home to warn his parents before the redhead from the attack came sniffing around. He'd have to fight his way out-
Aizawa, reading the thoughts written across the boy's face, nipped those thoughts in the bud by slamming the boy into the wall headfirst, knocking him out.
"By the way, you're expelled," Aizawa deadpanned to the unconscious teen.
"That was a little rough, don't you think?" one of the cops asked the teacher.
"I don't care, he tried to hurt my student," Aizawa spat. "Hurry up and cuff him, then get him out of my sight."
The police acquiesced and slapped a pair of cuffs onto the unconscious boy's wrists before wrapping him in chains to prevent his tail from moving while he was restrained. Once done, they carried him out of the room and left the scruffy teacher alone with his other student.
Aizawa felt nothing but exhaustion when he sighed. That was one issue taken care of, so now he just had to figure out how not to worry about Midoriya. The press conference Nezu held alongside himself and Vlad King as the teachers on duty during the attack was a complete and utter shit-show. There were plenty of reporters there to lambast UA and hunt for soundbites and quotes to take out of context; that was fine, as that was expected given the situation. What was less fine, however, was the handful of people that tried to paint his student as a villain sympathizer in a roundabout way of attacking UA's credibility to create proper heroes.
Thankfully, no one asked about Muscular. He supposed that the details about him hadn't been released to the public, and he hoped that it stayed that way, but he wouldn't hold his breath. That said, one other thing unsettled him. Among the sea of reporters was a woman with light blue skin and lilac hair. Abnormalities like that weren't really noteworthy in their world of quirks, but the way that she sat the entire time with an eerie smile on her face and stared directly into his principal's eyes was very noteworthy.
She didn't ask any questions or even stand up at any point to be noticed. She just silently smiled at Nezu, never breaking her gaze at him for the duration of the press conference. He knew his boss was well aware of it if it unsettled him without even being the one the smile was directed at. He recognized the woman as the same reporter that interviewed Midoriya the day of the break-in, so the fact that she had nothing to say was way too odd for Aizawa to overlook.
There was no use agonizing over it any further. Midoriya's rescue was in the hands of several pros and the police, now. Mineta, Jiro, and Hagakure were safe and accounted for, and Yaoyorozu had apparently been discharged earlier that day. He could merely hope for the best and pray that Verdant wouldn't catch too much flak for slaughtering the League of Villains.
The League of Villains were nothing short of flabbergasted at the ballsy display from their captive. When Kurogiri realized that the audio to All For One's location was still on, he was initially going to inform him, but one look from Tomura stayed his hand, so they all became an audience to a teenager tearing the most powerful supervillain in the history of Japan (potentially the world) a new asshole. Once Tomura got over his shock, a warmth set into his very being. It wasn't the delicious sensation of vindication, though that was certainly present beside it.
No, this warmth was wholly unfamiliar to him. The closest thing he could liken it to was a strange feeling of pride in the hero brat…
Was this familial pride? Was that even a thing? He admittedly never felt much for his family other than fear, resentment, or outright hatred, though he had to wonder how much of that hatred was even his own at this point. He'd really have to sit down and sort out his mental and emotional turmoil away from his sensei at some point. The words of Stain about figuring out who he even was still rang in his mind…
"Pizza-La, Kamino store!" came a voice from outside of the bar's entrance following a knock.
All activity in the room ceased. Tomura eyed the door with a heavy mixture of confusion and suspicion before his gaze snapped towards his reptilian comrade. "Spinner, I fucking swear, if you ordered pizza…"
"It wasn't me this time, I promise!" Spinner frantically insisted.
Tomura turned back to the door just in time for All Might to smash through the wall as only All Might could. Before any of the League could react, they were each wrapped up in wood bindings, courtesy of Kamui Woods' Lacquered Chain Prison. As Dabi sneered and made to burn the roots constricting him, the small, yellow blur that was Gran Torino entered and kicked the consciousness right out of him.
Just then, the entire area was flooded with an oppressive aura of malice. It was as if a cloud composed of the purest of rage fell right on top of everyone in the building, villain or otherwise. The door to the building was kicked open, and in stepped a green-haired woman sporting the darkest gaze that Tomura had ever seen on anyone currently alive. She calmly walked right past a sweating Edgeshot and a very frazzled squad of armed cops that were waiting behind the door, and it became clear to everyone in the room where that vicious miasma was coming from. The sheer aura of violence that she was emanating was greater than even Stain's, and when those venomous chips of jade set their sights onto Tomura, he was launched back to a time in his life that he desperately wanted to forget.
Her unholy stare dissected him for everything he was worth, and the unmatched feeling of danger wafting about her damn near made him retreat into a fetal position to get away from his father. Not even in All Might's presence did he feel like such a child, and he was fucking All Might.
Speaking of All Might, he was both impressed and absolutely terrified at the display, and the embers of One For All seemed to be in agreement. The villains were physically bound, but even if they weren't, he doubted that they would be able to operate very well (if at all) with this sort of pressure bearing down on them. It was very clear that Inko Midoriya was no longer present, but Verdant certainly was.
"Where is my son?" the wrathful mother asked Tomura with a false calmness that didn't even attempt to hide the imminent danger that would befall everyone in the room should he answer wrong.
Unfortunately, Magne opted to try for a wrong answer.
"I see where the kid gets his mean streak from-" she started to joke before an instant pressure hit her chest, and she could swear that a phantom hand was tugging directly at her heart and trying to pull it out of her body entirely despite her wooden bindings. She looked up to see Verdant with her palm extended to her and her fingers curling as if to grab something from the air.
"One interesting thing about the human body is that our parts generally come in pairs," Verdant began in a clinical tone that gave everyone in the room a chill, villain or otherwise. "That, however, does not include our hearts, as we only get one of those. So, unless you want to see yours in the flesh, you'll cut the shit and answer my goddamn question: WHERE IS MY FUCKING SON?!"
"Mom?!" the congregation heard a teenage boy shout from a monitor on the wall.
"Izuku?!" she shouted back at the monitor, rational thought already beginning to leave her at the possibility of recovering her child. All Might had apparently called out to him as well and took the initiative to place a firm hand on her shoulder to keep her grounded in the situation at hand.
Then, a loud rumbling came from the monitor before the connection cut out completely. The duo's eyes widened, and very soon afterward, black sludge materialized in the air within the bar, sending an army of Nomus to their location. Within the chaos, the members of the League of Villains started regurgitating the same sludge and were quickly engulfed before disappearing right out of the rescue team's clutches.
The situation was now frantic, as the assembled pros and police were left to deal with the army of Nomus that were attacking them and the surrounding area. All Might and Gran Torino were certain that All For One was finally showing himself with this gesture. The Nomu were supposed to be neutralized by the other squad, but that clearly wasn't the case, so it was all too likely that the supervillain intervened. All Might needed to get there, and he needed to get there ASAP.
Verdant, meanwhile, was nothing short of livid. She was under no illusions that her son wasn't in the clutches of the Quirk Thief if the League themselves weren't in possession of him. Since the Nomu were supposed to be at the other base, it meant that All For One had dispatched of them and was likely holding her son hostage personally. She needed to get there and get her baby to safety.
Before All Might could leave the scene, the woman hopped onto his back, already knowing where he was headed.
"Verdant?!" he asked incredulously.
"Let's go, we don't have time to waste!" she responded. When he hesitated, she leveled a murderous scowl at him. "My baby boy is in danger, and if I have to tear All For One apart by his atoms to rescue him, then not even you are going to fucking stop me, All Might!"
All Might, against his better judgement, nodded and vacated the scene. Under any other circumstance, he would have refused, as he couldn't guarantee her safety in a battle against his greatest nemesis. However, he trusted her ability to take care of herself as much as he trusted Torino's, and she could easily get Young Midoriya out of harm's way and leave.
It had nothing to do with the fact that her wrath reminded him way too much of being scolded by his late sensei. That had absolutely nothing to do with it at all, and if anyone said otherwise, he'd deny it.
All For One was nettled. The consequences of that infernal brat's quirk robbing him of a significant portion of his power were greater than he had initially anticipated. It shouldn't have taken more than a few seconds to dispose of the filth before him if he chose not to indulge in a monologue, but it was going on 1 minute and 15 seconds, and Best Jeanist was still standing, albeit with a lot of difficulty. It was infuriating having to strain much harder to free himself of the man's thread bindings and having to aim his blasts with Air Cannon much more precisely because they just didn't have the destructive power they once did.
Kinetic Booster was gone. Strength Enhancer was gone. Impact Recoil was gone. Multiplier, Hypertrophy, Spearlike Bones, and Hardflame Fan were all gone, as well. He was lucky to retain Springlike Limbs to pair with Air Cannon so that he could retain even a fraction of the offensive potency he once held with his air blasts, but this predicament was quickly becoming the bane of his existence.
Izuku Midoriya wouldn't just die; All For One would strangle the life out of his mother while the boy was helpless to do anything but watch, and then he'd dismember the boy in front of All Might before beating the blonde buffoon to death with the boy's limbs. It was the least he could do for the little hellion stealing his property like a degenerate.
When All For One finally managed to puncture a hole through the man's abdomen shortly after he rescued the other incapacitated heroes from harm's way, he noticed the object of his hatred scurrying out of the hole with Ragdoll in his grasp. A black tendril shot out of the man's finger and stabbed the fleeing teen in the back of the leg, cutting his adrenaline-fueled escape attempt short.
Izuku quickly tossed Ragdoll away from the building as well as he could given his restraints toward the groaning Tiger just ahead of him, and she landed on her teammate with a thud that knocked the wind out of him even further.
"And just where in the hell do you think you're going, you downtrodden wretch?" the Symbol of Evil growled as he dragged the cuffed teen back to his side with Rivet Stab. "You don't get to escape your fate so easily. Your death will be no less horrific than your grandmother's, I shall guarantee it."
"What is your fixation with her, you fucking weirdo?" Izuku hissed, but he only received another stab in response, this time to his other leg.
Immediately afterward, several globs of black sludge materialized in the air around them, and the League of Villains was deposited onto the ground with them. Tomura shook the cobwebs out of his head before glaring venomously at All For One. The glare, much like most things from Tomura, went ignored.
"Tomura, you have failed again," All For One began, and Tomura felt himself begin to burn white-hot internally. "But that is okay, as you're still learning. Even through all of the hiccups and persistent teenage rebellion, you will still become the new Symbol of Evil that this world needs. Of that, I am sure."
Tomura did not respond, only beginning to shake in his position on the ground. That, too, went ignored by his sensei, particularly in favor of something coming in hot on their location.
"Ah, he's finally here," All For One mused with a gleeful smile. "Kurogiri, get Tomura and his friends away from here. I have a legacy to exterminate."
Kurogiri hesitantly nodded and opened a warp gate, but Tomura did not move. Instead, the man looked to the green-haired teen gritting his teeth in pain near him.
"No, leave him here, Tomura," All For One immediately chastised. "He dies with All Might tonight."
Before Tomura could even think of rebutting, All Might appeared on scene and leveled a monstrous punch onto All For One. All For One caught the punch… or, more accurately, he attempted to catch the punch, but he could neither match nor negate the force of the attack and was sent smashing through several buildings.
"It's time to end this, All For One!" All Might mightily declared. "Once and for all!"
The swift response was an equally monstrous blast of air directed back at All Might that completely leveled the surrounding area. The blast knocked away not only the League of Villains, the downed heroes, and Izuku, but it crumbled the warehouse and exposed a frantic collection of teenagers before they were blanketed in rubble. That was admittedly an odd sight for the man, but he immediately brushed it off for more important matters.
All For One was now very nettled. The loss of Impact Recoil was already being felt, as that punch practically tore through his left arm and reduced it to a fine mist. He thanked his lucky stars that the putrid feline wasn't able to steal Super Regeneration from him. He could at least regrow the arm, though it would regrettably be sleeveless. It was all inconsequential, anyway. Even with his diminished capacity, he would liberate the blonde buffoon of his entrails and grind the Midoriya family's bones to dust in front of him.
Said Midoriya teen, meanwhile, was ignoring the fated clash between the two symbols in favor of struggling to get back to his feet. That burst of adrenaline he gained from hearing his mother's voice had run out, and he was back to fighting off unconsciousness with every fiber of his being. It took all of the willpower he could scrape from the deepest pits of his soul to finally make it to his feet, and what greeted him was the hazy sight of the League surrounding him. More specifically, Spinner and the two masked men from the bar were approaching him, and he could just barely make out whatever they were saying to each other:
"Are you sure this is a good idea? I am 100% behind you!"
"I don't care what the Big Boss wants. Tomura is my friend, and he wants Midoriya alive. I'm loyal to Tomura and Stain, not some weirdo in a suit."
"I sincerely hope this doesn't backfire-"
Mr. Compress was interrupted when a green blur burst onto the scene and slammed their boot into his face, knocking him away from Izuku and stopping the other two in their tracks before landing protectively in front of Izuku. That green blur was none other than an incensed Verdant.
"Take one step closer to my son, and I will end you," she hissed to the startled villains, projecting an even more violent aura than she had at the bar that got the attention of the remaining members of the League.
Spinner and Twice were momentarily rooted in place before the snarling parent, but Magne was not, and she figured that it was as good a time as any to delete the hero brat before he became a real problem in the future. Taking the opportunity to blitz the teen while his mother's back was turned, she hoisted her giant magnet above her head to bash the teen in the skull and paint the concrete with his brain matter.
One thing Verdant was not lacking in, however, was situational awareness. She heard the rough scuffle of Magne's approach and immediately spun around, pushing Izuku out of the way while she intercepted the attack with a stiff kick to Magne's head that dazed her long enough for a boot to her chest to plant her back to the ground. Verdant then dropped to the ground herself to duck the swipe from Spinner's sword and swept his legs out from under him in a single motion, sending him to the ground in a heap only for the woman to flip the attacking Twice right onto him.
She popped back up to her feet right in time to narrowly dodge a spike-tipped chain that struck at her like a pit viper. She bent, twisted, and contorted her body in ridiculous ways in-between backflips and handsprings in an effort to evade the following barrage of chains while simultaneously making sure to never stray too far from her son, but it was clear that the redhead sending the wave of iron death at her was trying to accomplish that very thing. Eventually, she got fed up and caught one of the chains in her grasp, momentarily startling the man before he appeared to consciously disperse that chain into links. It succeeded in keeping her focus on him long enough for Mr. Compress approach from behind, fully intent on sealing her away in a marble.
However, Mr. Compress was not anticipating a wall of ice to slam into him, harshly batting him away just as an all too familiar, screaming ash blonde flew into view and unleashed hell upon Kusari with a glorious explosion.
"Katsuki?!" Verdant incredulously shouted.
"Don't worry about Izuku, we got him!" Bakugo responded before he blasted out of the way of another barrage of chains that would have skewered him. "Kick these extras' asses, Aunty!"
She couldn't help the wicked grin that came over her as Bakugo sent another explosion at Kusari for good measure before leaving her to it.
As if the earlier magnificent explosion was the signal, the cavalry arrived in full force. Izuku watched as a flock of birds flew in from who knows where to harass the recovering Mr. Compress, meanwhile he faintly noticed a powerful electric shock and meters of tape in his periphery where Spinner and Twice were situated. He was brought back to focus by two hands on his cheeks, and he found a pair of golden, catlike eyes boring into his own. It took a few moments for his gassed brain to register her as the girl from the alley, and when he did so, he stared into her wide, focused eyes that were bereft of the twisted bloodlust he had seen earlier.
"Run," was all she said before she transformed into him right before his eyes, and she took off from the scene while wearing his face. Izuku had no time to think about that before he felt two slender arms hook under his armpits and carry him away from the scene. When it registered that he was flying, he looked up to see another head of long, green hair above him attached to a flying upper body.
"Tokage?" Izuku questioned as his vision finally began to fade.
"You know it," she smirked, but even in his exhaustion, he could still hear the worry in her voice. "You're safe, now."
Back on the ground, Magne had just regained her bearings from her brief tussle with Verdant, and the first thing she saw was Midoriya bolting past her and somehow free of his cuffs. She hurried to her feet and rushed after him to prevent his escape, eventually tackling him to the ground and grabbing a firm hold of his hair.
"You're not going anywhere, kid," she smugly denied before the hair in her hand began to dissolve into goop. Utterly bemused, she held up the "boy's" head to find that it was actually Toga in disguise. Before she could react, a barrage of enlarged grains of sand crashed into her and sent her tumbling away from the de-transformed girl. She growled and got back up to ring the girl's neck for screwing around as well as the neck of whoever attacked her. Unfortunately for her, twin shouts of, "Release!" echoed from a distance away, and Magne found herself slamming headfirst into an 18-wheeler that practically spawned from thin air and fell from the sky right in her path, allowing consciousness to forsake her.
Ochako and Yui were both pleasantly surprised that their impromptu combo move worked out so well. Toga, meanwhile, seized the moment and ran away as fast as she could. Ochako looked to the retreating blonde and immediately thought back to the cry for help she saw in the girl's eyes in the forest, but when she called out for her to wait, Toga was already long gone. Before she could dwell on it any further, Tsu landed beside them with Tokage's floating lower body in tow.
"We got him, ribbit! It's time to go," Tsu informed the duo as her tongue wrapped around Ochako's waist while Tokage's legs sat on Yui's shoulders, and the group quickly departed. They were followed by a massive Dark Shadow carrying Tokoyami and the injured pro heroes on their back with Bakugo blasting off behind them to guard against any potential villain attacks.
Tomura watched the entire fracas play out from his spot on the ground where All For One had left him, not moving an inch or saying a word all the while. The white-hot rage that was coursing through his veins was begging to be unleashed, and the horrible itching began to creep back up on him for the first time since he unlocked his memories. However, it wasn't directed at any of the hero brats that came for his cousin or even at the sister of the man he hated more than life itself.
A loud crash brought his attention to the space behind him, and he watched as All For One was sent careening through another set of buildings by the Symbol of Peace, only this time his suit was in much worse shape than it was when the League had arrived. His red eyes narrowed, and he turned to the misty villain beside him who still had a warp gate open. He eyed the man for a considerable amount of time as All For One got back up and shouted more taunts at All Might just to receive another Texas Smash in the background. Kurogiri's bright, yellow eyes gazed back at him in their silent stare-off amidst the continued sounds of All For One getting smacked around by his archenemy.
"Where do you stand, Kurogiri?" he finally asked his longtime companion.
The silence between the two was heavier than any pressure Verdant could exert onto them. Both men ignored the arrival of Gran Torino to plant a bulbous boot into Kusari's face before he could successfully ensnare Verdant in a web of chains, just as they ignored the unconvincingly unbothered taunts of All For One following All Might's furious smashes. Kurogiri knew exactly what the man was asking him, and he quite literally did not know how to answer.
He was created to serve All For One, but his given directive was explicitly to assist Tomura in his endeavors the best he could. It didn't help matters that he wasn't a mindless slave like the other Nomu; he maintained conscious thought and personal agency in order to better serve and guide the young man as he developed. He was as much a guardian in a paternal sense as he was a guardian in a literal sense.
He technically could not disobey either one, but it was Tomura's best interests at stake, and the flickering vestige of humanity haunting his programming like a specter had grown quite fond of the young lad over the years…
"I am with you," Kurogiri finally spoke.
Tomura nodded, the ghost of a smile showcasing itself on his face. That was all he needed. "Grab who you can. I have something to take care of, and then we're leaving."
Tomura didn't wait for the man to acquiesce before he turned and walked with purpose toward the area where the greatest ruckus was being caused. Along his path, he wandered into the battle between Kusari and his aunt (he'd really have to get used to acknowledging that) plus the flying dwarf. At some point, Kusari had managed to wrap them both in chains, but a flex of Verdant's hand brought the redhead down to the ground and clutching his kidney. He fought through the pain and shot a lone chain at her to pierce her skull, but the chain was intercepted and crumbled to dust by the newly arriving Tomura.
Tomura set the red-hot pinpricks of his gaze onto the man. "Cut the shit and pick up Dabi. We're leaving."
Kusari returned his stare, but the undercover operative's gaze was quizzical rather than perturbed. He eventually just shrugged and dispersed the chains wrapped around Verdant and Torino as he returned to his feet, then he slid his hands into his pockets and casually meandered away toward the unconscious Dabi.
Before Verdant or Torino could intervene, Tomura turned to them and put his hand up to stop them.
"Your son escaped," he began before eyeing the woman carefully. "I'm going to trust that you're a better parent than your brother so that my cousin doesn't turn out like him… or All Might."
With that, he turned around and picked up the pace toward the battle between All Might and All For One, leaving Torino in a state of utter confusion and Verdant in a mixture of bemusement and shock as the pieces quickly came together.
That shock steadily transformed into fury so cold that Torino caught a chill by proximity.
Meanwhile, All For One was not having a great time, though he would never admit it, not even to himself. He couldn't. He could never come out and say that his archenemy was pummeling him like a worn speed bag at a gym. It would mean that he wasn't as powerful as he assured himself to be even after his run-in with a divine cat, and that would transitively mean that he was wrong. That was impossible, as he was never wrong about anything. His plans always went according to his meticulous design, and if they didn't, it was because he calculated for that margin of error and had backup plans set in place.
He was a genius among geniuses.
He was the most powerful man alive, bar none.
He was the Symbol of Evil.
He was NOT getting smashed into the pavement by a dollar store Captain Hero.
"You've gotten weaker in your old age, All Might!" All For One spat (alongside some blood) to maintain his collected front.
"You should talk," All Might sneered. "You're barely using a fraction of the power you wielded in our last encounter. Did your stolen quirks abandon you, fiend?"
It took everything in the supervillain to keep it together at that wisecrack. He would kill this buffoon, and he would eradicate the last line of Shimuras not already under his thumb, both that woman and her bastard of a child-
Wait, where was the child?
All For One scanned the area for any sign of the boy's heat signature, but it was nowhere to be found. What he did find, however, was Tomura approaching the battle with purpose and an unreadable expression. All Might, on the other hand, was tense and ready to move at a moment's notice in case the young villain was there to provide backup.
"Tomura Shigaraki, where is the boy?" the supervillain growled.
"He escaped," Tomura answered simply.
All For One was momentarily silent, and he deeply sighed to mask the near aneurysm he was having. "So, another failure, then. I should not be so surprised. You still are not ready."
"Yeah, about that…" Tomura began before closing the distance between himself and All For One in the blink of an eye and slamming his hand on the man's chest while he was too taken aback at the sudden treachery to react in time. He quickly used Super Regeneration to combat the presumed slow decay, but he didn't account for Tomura's Decay to be exponentially faster than it should have been. He was left pushing Super Regeneration into maximum overdrive just to keep his entire midsection from crumbling in seconds should his focus lapse for even a moment.
"What have you done, Tomura Shigaraki?!" All For One desperately shouted in a mixture of alarm and betrayal.
"Tomura Shigaraki doesn't exist," he coldly responded with enough venom to kill fifty men. "He's as dead as Tenko Shimura. As dead as you are."
All Might froze at the mention of the Shimura name, and that's when Verdant and Gran Torino joined the fray.
"No, no, no…" All For One began almost pleadingly before his tone immediately soured. "You filthy, ungrateful wretch. I plucked you off the street when you had nothing and no one would dare sully themselves with you. You were nothing when I found you, and you've amounted to even less since then. You were supposed to carry the legacy of evil!"
"You just wanted to make me into another you," Tomura scoffed, and his dismissiveness set the supervillain off once more. "I'm nobody's damn vanity project. I am whoever the hell I want to be, and I'll do whatever the hell I want to do."
"You can do it in hell with your grandmother, your aunt, and your botched abortion of a cousin," the supervillain snarled before readying whatever quirks he could cobble together to kill his wayward vessel.
However, Tomura merely turned around and leisurely strolled away from him as if he was a negligible threat of equally negligible importance. He walked away as if All For One, THE All For One, was nothing to him anymore. Such impetuous disregard could only be met with impetuous retaliation, and the man roared in fury through his mask before moving to attack the treacherous welp. However, a hard punch to what was left of his face sent him rocketing backward. The impact felt like a toned-down punch from All Might, but the fist wasn't nearly as meaty. He peered up to view the culprit, and before him stood Verdant, her fury wafting off of her and bearing down on the area like a thick smog.
If he didn't know any better, he'd remark that Nana Shimura was back in front of him, eyes blazing and One For All poised to annihilate him. It was truly a pity that this would end the same way it had back then.
"It's true, isn't it?" she hissed to the recovering villain. "That boy is Kotaro's child, isn't he?"
All For One couldn't help but give them a sinister grin, though it went unseen due to the mask. In response, Verdant practically flickered in front of him and punched him right in his chest where he was actively combatting the decay, and it not only rocketed him away once more, it also allowed the decay to spread even further throughout his upper body, forcing him to strain even harder to literally keep himself together. Tomura took that moment to step into the warp gate that opened up beside him and vacated the area, leaving All For One to his fate.
"I WANT TO HEAR YOU SAY IT!" she hollered, a faint, green glow radiating from her form.
"Your anger is misplaced," All For One practically chortled. "Kotaro was the one who abused his child into psychopathy. I was merely there to reap the spoils."
All For One paused and hummed while the collective rage of the three heroes grew even further. "With that said, I suppose I can grant you that he would never have been in a situation to create that monster had I not killed his father and forced his mother to give him up in order to protect him from me. Maybe the old adage from before the Dawn of Quirks is true that the real culprit of generational trauma is the friends we made along the w-"
This time, he was interrupted by three different fists clobbering him: one from All Might to the face, one from Verdant to the sternum, and one from Gran Torino to his abdomen. The triple impact slammed him to the ground and practically cratered him under the force of their combined attack.
As All For One lay beaten and nearly crumbling at the feet of his nemesis, the breadth of his defeat finally began to sink in. He watched as All Might readied a final United States of Smash to finish the facial reconstructive surgery that he began half a decade prior, and in that moment with Verdant and Gran Torino glaring daggers at him on either side, he knew that his goose was cooked. There was no way for him to survive this encounter.
Well, not in his current vessel, anyway.
'I leave Plan B to you, Garaki,' was one of his final thoughts as All Might's fist followed its trajectory to his face. Plan B would work. He would be back in a new vessel and regain his lost collection. He would return with a vengeance beyond anyone's darkest nightmares. He would not disappear. He was the Symbol of Evil-
"SMASH!" All Might furiously bellowed, cutting off the desperate delusions of a man poised to be forgotten by history with a mountainous United States of Smash. The impact pancaked All For One's head entirely and reduced his mask to smithereens while the decay made quick work of the rest of his body. Before their very eyes, the Demon Lord that terrorized the nation for nearly 2 centuries was reduced to a pile of blood red dust.
The three living heroes that were arguably the most directly affected by All For One's reign of terror stared down at the pile of nothingness in silence, each feeling something profoundly different.
Once the adrenaline started to wear off and All Might could feel his body screaming at him to deflate, All Might was at a loss for words. He was having such immense difficulty processing the idea that he had just defeated All For One for good. All For One was dead right before his eyes. He had done it; he had finally (and officially) defeated his ultimate evil and avenged his sensei. He had assistance, certainly, but still…
Gran Torino damn near felt like crying. Hell, he couldn't even attempt to stop the lone tear that broke through and trailed down his wrinkled cheek. 40 years of grief, 40 years of agonizing, and 40 years of preparation for this very day. Here it finally was: justice for Nana.
Verdant, meanwhile, simply spat on the dust that was once All For One. "Rest in piss, motherfucker."
That shattered whatever atmosphere was developing like an errant baseball through a window, and Torino couldn't help but fall into a fit of tearful laughter. All Might found a smile forming onto his face, as well, and he hoisted his left arm with his fist pointed to the sky, almost as if he had a sixth sense for the cameras that were pointed at him from the news helicopters above.
Across Japan, the populous rejoiced at another triumph for their Symbol of Peace.
Kurogiri closely watched the young man he had placed his complete loyalty behind as he exhaled the events of the night away. He had warped the League (those of which he could recover) to another abandoned building far outside of Yokohama where those that were still conscious were doing their best to recover from the brief, surprise assault of the hero students. Everyone was accounted for except for Toga. Unfortunately, she was nowhere in sight when he went to collect her, so she was still at large.
At the center of the sentient Nomu's thoughts was his ward and newly committed leader. The young man drew his line in the sand in rather spectacular fashion. It may have untold consequences later on, as Dr. Garaki was fanatically loyal to All For One and would certainly not take treachery lying down. He could only hope the young man was ready for that eventuality, but for now, he was allowed to sit and process the new direction his life had just taken.
"It is done," Kurogiri said to him, and the young man took a moment to let the weight of what he had done finally sink in before he nodded.
"Yeah, it is," he responded.
"What shall I call you?" Kurogiri questioned.
He took an even longer moment this time, likely in deliberation of how he would identify himself outside of All For One's influence. "For now, just Tomura. Shigaraki wasn't real, and Tenko Shimura is dead."
Kurogiri nodded. "How do you feel, Tomura?"
Tomura closed his eyes and inhaled for a solid 5 seconds, and then he smiled.
"Free."
Yuga Aoyama was navigating through a whirlwind of emotions to varying degrees of success. He had spent the last few days suffocating under tremendous guilt for causing his classmates to get hurt and abducted, and it was so bad that he wouldn't dare face any of them by visiting the hospital. He didn't deserve to see any of them after what he was forced to do. He wouldn't sully the same air as them with his presence after he sold them up the river to All For One.
Then, the very man who had been haunting his family's nightmares for so long was on TV doing battle with All Might himself. For the first time in years, Aoyama felt a flicker of hope in anything at all. He didn't have to put on his flamboyant façade to outright cheer when All Might punched the man through several buildings.
His parents joined him at some point due to the noise, and they watched alongside him, each member of the family on the edge of their seats all the while. The tears they were shedding when it became clear that All Might more than had the upper hand were sugary sweet, and the outright gasps that left their throats when one of the villains turned on All For One and gave the heroes the opportunity to put him down for good were a cacophony of sanguinity.
It was happening before their very eyes. The root of their torment for so long was being erased on live TV.
One United States of Smash later, and their nightmare was finally over.
Needless to say, the Aoyama household was inundated with sobbing and joyful embraces. For the first time in years, Yuga genuinely smiled. The man who was holding their lives in his twisted hands was gone. The man who preyed on his parent's desperation and held them at gunpoint forever after was no more.
They were finally free… until they weren't.
It didn't take long after his mother left their living room to start on a celebratory feast and his father left to retrieve something from his study for two explosions to shake the large house's foundation. Yuga didn't even get a chance to investigate before he started regurgitating black sludge against his will, and the sludge quickly swallowed him up and vanished without a trace.
Izuku awoke in a void once more. However, he was back on solid ground this time as opposed to floating in space. The blue flames surrounding him merely served to flood him with irritation. He was getting really sick of this, and he had no interest in whatever mind games the Shinigami wanted to play with him.
"Fret not this time, child, I have no desire to torment you during this meeting," the voice of Matatabi echoed from behind him. He turned to face the massive deity that towered over him even when it was sitting, and he was surprised by the absence of the threatening grin that he had become accustomed to. The death god had a calmness to them that almost put him on edge.
"You're a wise boy," the Shinigami complimented with a nod.
"…Why did you bring me here?" Izuku finally asked aloud, remaining incredibly wary of the situation.
"It is time to explain a few more things about your quirk in regards to our connection," Matatabi answered with a tilt of their head.
Izuku wasn't expecting that. He had honestly forgotten that there was more to his blue flames that Matatabi wasn't telling him; he didn't see himself using those aspects much, anyway, as the real possibility of death should he make even the slightest screw up was way too large.
"Then consider yourself lucky that you met the threshold for situational application completely by accident thanks to the attempted intrusion by Shigaraki," Matatabi responded to his thoughts with the return of their sharp-toothed grin.
"Right, that intrusion," Izuku began with a furrowed brow. "I remember All For One putting his hand on my head, and then there was a tug before everything faded to black. Then, I was back in the base with All For One freaking out in front of me. What happened during those lost minutes?"
"Shigaraki forced himself into your quirk in order to steal the one he sought," the death god answered, their grin only widening. "However, he found no stockpiler quirk of the sort, only me."
"…Do I even want to know what you did to him?" Izuku hesitantly ventured, not at all eased by the Shinigami's deep, menacing chuckle.
"I finally feasted on the souls he had stolen," they happily declared.
"Wait, souls? I thought he stole quirks," Izuku questioned in alarm, but Matatabi raised one of their tails to put the boy at ease.
"Quirks, as you know them, are intrinsically tied to one's soul. Just as I told him, stealing a quirk is tantamount to stealing a fragment of a person's soul. See for yourself."
With their other tail, Matatabi deposited a glowing, humanoid figure in front of him. It was a woman, and her form was light green and largely wispy, as if she was a projection or simply a construct rather than a fully realized person. When Izuku examined her more closely, the familiarity of the figure finally hit him.
"Is this… is this Ragdoll?" Izuku questioned in greater alarm than before.
"It appears Shigaraki made off with Shiretoko's quirk," Matatabi hummed. "She is not dead, so I cannot preemptively feast on her soul, even if only a fragment. She exists here as what you humans have taken to calling 'vestiges'."
Izuku what been struggling to wrap his brain around the current situation, but the mention of Ragdoll as a vestige made things clearer. "So, All For One stole her quirk, and now she's just… here? She's like the vestiges within One For All?"
Matatabi hummed once more, their pristine robes billowing in a nonexistent breeze. "Not quite. For all intents and purposes, her quirk is here, among many others. Our connection gives you greater influence over life and death such that you can reunite a soul with its physical body. Therefore, should you desire it so, you could reunite a soul fragment with its living host."
"Effectively returning their quirk to them…" Izuku mused as everything began to come together. "How many fragments are here?"
"Quite a few," the Shinigami answered, and with a fan of one of its tails, nearly a dozen other vestiges rose from the sapphire flames around Izuku.
He was surrounded by wispy figures of all different colors and sizes. Most were adults, but there were a few that looked to be very young children. The thought that All For One stole quirks from preschool children and likely did it with a smile made him queasy, but there was something else that he needed to know.
"Why are you helping me all of a sudden?" Izuku asked the massive cat with as much frankness as he could manage. "You literally torment me for sport and have said in the past that not helping me would just kill me sooner, which is what you want. So, why do all of this now?"
Matatabi's cheshire grin didn't unsettle Izuku as much as it did initially. Perhaps he was just used to it, but he didn't waver when the divine being stared him down for what felt like hours after the question.
Finally, they spoke. "You hand-delivered me the man who had not only been cheating death for several lifetimes but had also been playing the part of the reaper for just as long. In the process, I got a veritable feast of soul fragments that had been evading me for centuries. Incomplete souls are not nearly as satisfying to devour, so it was nice to have the remaining pieces after so long. Consider this as me throwing you a bone out of gratitude."
"Oh…" Izuku stammered. "Um, you're welcome, I guess."
Izuku stood amongst the flames, not knowing what to do with his hands in the presence of a thankful deity that was usually malevolent at the best of times. The deity in question did not speak, clearly content with allowing the awkward silence to drag. Eventually, Izuku remembered from his previous visit that he could leave the realm whenever he wished, and that was fantastic, as any longer in silence with the death god would probably kill him.
"Before you leave, there is one other thing you should be aware of," Matatabi spoke up in response to Izuku's thoughts, and the teen immediately picked up on the tone being less ambivalent and a touch graver than it previously was. "Shigaraki was killed shortly after you lost consciousness, but I did not receive all of his soul."
Silence hung over the two once more, but this one was tense, rather than awkward. Izuku's green eyes stared into Matatabi's green and yellow with the utmost intensity.
"What do you mean by that?" Izuku asked, his tone deadly serious.
"The quirk that came with Shigaraki's soul contained no further traces of it," Matatabi answered. "It is most likely a copy, meaning his original quirk containing that vestige is still at large."
"So, there's a chance that All For One could return," Izuku muttered with a darkening expression.
"I cannot say for certain," Matatabi admitted. "It is only his original quirk that still remains, so the possibility exists that his vestige could take over another vessel should it be implanted into another being. There also exists the likelihood that his quirk never finds its way into another vessel. Whichever way it goes, I truly loathe loose ends, so I'm tasking you with disposing of him. If you find the man, kill him. If you find the quirk, engulf it in my flames, and I will handle the rest."
"Understood," Izuku readily accepted their request.
"Excellent," Matatabi purred with their wicked grin returning. "Now, out!"
Izuku was no longer in the void. Instead, when he opened his eyes, he was met with the familiar white ceiling and walls of a hospital room.
"Fucking hell, trade one torment for another," Izuku muttered aloud.
"Language, mister," gently reprimanded a familiar voice from his bedside, and warmth immediately flooded him.
"Mom?" he asked while turning to face her, and his mother wrapped him in a tight, loving embrace.
"Oh, Izuku…" she practically choked out, holding him close as if he would disappear… again.
The tears started to pool for Izuku, as well, and he completed the hug with equal fervor. Mother and son bawled into each other, both completely ignoring the two men and chimera standing silently out of the way of their reunion.
"I'm so glad that you're safe," she whispered through her sobs, and her son could only nod through his own tears. Inko instinctively ran her hand through the wild, green curls atop her son's cranium, and he practically regressed into the crying 5-year-old from when it all began at her ministrations.
This kept up for several more minutes until the two finally broke the embrace and turned to the others in the room with them, revealing Nezu, an out-of-costume Gran Torino, and a deflated Toshinori.
"It is good to see you safe once again, Izuku," Nezu remarked with a genuine smile, and the others nodded in agreement.
"You usually call me 'Young Izuku'," the teen joked with the animal, and Nezu sighed.
"I was informed of everything that transpired at training camp," Nezu responded, his tone more downcast. "It would not be suitable to call you Young Izuku anymore; you've been forced to grow far too soon."
Izuku's face also fell at the reminder, and his mother drew him into another hug.
"It isn't your fault, sweetie," she gently assured him, and he merely sighed and nodded.
"With that said," Nezu continued, "your actions both at camp and far beyond have been nothing short of the gold standard of heroism, and many people would agree."
He motioned a paw to the other side of Izuku's bed, and Izuku was met with a bedside table drowning in cards, well wishes, and even a plate of fruit with a bouquet of flowers from the Pussycats. Izuku blue-screened at the sheer quantity of it all, much to the amusement of the adults.
"Your classmates were worried about you, whippersnapper," Torino spoke up with a smirk. "I probably don't have to remind you that they mounted a vigilante expedition just to rescue you. As dumb as it may have been, it was at least successful."
Izuku nodded dumbly. He vaguely remembered being carried away from the League of Villains by Tokage before he blacked out; he'd have to sit down and analyze the event later once the fog in his brain had cleared.
"Still, though," Izuku began while gazing at the table, lingering in the flowers with the Pussycats in mind. "That's quite a lot…"
"If you think that's enough, your mother had to pry Young Uraraka away from your bedside and force her to eat," Toshinori chuckled. "She couldn't force her to leave, though. She's still asleep out in the hallway."
Izuku was already overwhelmed with the love he was receiving, and that bit of information merely piled on. He internally made a promise to himself to take the scarf she got him for his birthday everywhere he went.
Right as the four adults had exited the room, Ochako bounded inside and attached herself to him for a solid 15 minutes. After assuring her that he was okay and didn't need another ankle monitor installed, the two dug into the plate of fruit he got and chatted about anything and everything as if nothing had happened. They sorted through the cards he got, and they were unsurprisingly from most of his classmates. He wasn't surprised to see a few from Yui and Tokage, either, but the card from Melissa Shield perplexed him beyond comprehension. How the hell did she learn about the event and get a card to Japan from I-Island so quickly?
Beyond even that, his gaze kept periodically flickering to the bouquet of flowers on the table from the Pussycats. The idea of a vestige of Ragdoll (among others) existing within his quirk made him feel icky. He couldn't use her quirk, but he still had it resting inside of him after it had been violently taken from her by a murderous kleptomaniac with Main Character Syndrome. That bothered him.
Eventually, he was able to convince her to go home after another hour, and he spent the following few hours napping to regain his stamina and allowing his pink flames to slowly treat the remaining damage his black fire did to him. His attention was captured by a knock at the door, however, and he was nothing short of surprised at the identity of his newest visitor.
"Mandalay?" Izuku questioned. It was always strange seeing pro heroes in casual clothes.
"Hello, Midoriya," she greeted him with a warm smile. "They told me that you finally woke up."
That stumped Izuku once again. "You were waiting on me to wake up?"
"Of course, I was," she happily confirmed. "So was Kota, though he'd never admit it."
"How is he holding up?" Izuku asked, the implication that Kota was safe and back with the Pussycats bringing him a smile.
"He's doing wonderfully thanks to you. You've had a profound effect on him; that's part of why I'm here."
Before Izuku could question any further, the woman dropped into a deep bow at his bedside. Izuku had just stopped thinking that his surprise could peak by this point.
"Thank you, thank you so much," she began with her forehead to the ground. "You saved his life and changed it at the same time. That monster would have torn him apart if it weren't for you. I'm forever in your debt."
Izuku took a moment to gather his thoughts before he spoke. "You don't have to thank me, truly. I was just doing the right thing. He was in danger, so I protected him."
"You didn't just protect him," Mandalay insisted as she stood back up. "You transformed his entire philosophy towards heroics."
Izuku blinked. "I did?"
Mandalay nodded with a sad smile. "You may or may not already know about his situation, but his parents were Water Hose, and they were killed by Muscular when he was barely 3 years old. He'd spent the last few years hearing everyone tell him how noble their sacrifices were, as if it was a good thing that they were gone in the place of innocents. Dying while protecting the public is the most honorable death a hero could have, but how could anyone expect a child that young to grasp that when he loses his own parents?"
Mandalay sighed and took a seat beside the bed, meanwhile, Izuku remained silent and allowed her to take a breather.
"All he could reason was that his pro hero parents left him, and people were congratulating them for it," Mandalay continued. "He hated everything related to heroics afterward, and he only tolerated us because he had to. Then, he met you."
She gave him one of the warmest smiles Izuku had ever received from anyone besides his mother. "You fought and bled for him. You put your life on the line to protect him from the same monster that took his parents. I think he finally understands what their sacrifice really meant, and it's thanks to you."
Izuku was trying (and failing) to keep his blush contained at the off-duty hero's praise. "L-like I said, I was just doing the right thing."
Mandalay snickered at the boy steadily getting flustered, and she patted him on the shoulder to put him at ease. Then, her smile dimmed, and she regarded him seriously. "Now, the other thing I came to tell you: Muscular."
Izuku's back straightened, and his blush vanished. He matched her serious countenance with one of his own and waited for her to continue.
"Some people will call you a bad person for doing it," she carefully spoke, watching his facial expressions as she did so. "Others will think less of you for it. A lot of people will hold it over your head for the entirety of your career."
Brown eyes were locked onto green, and she leaned in just a bit to emphasize what she was going to say. "I am not one of those people. You did the right thing, and the world is better for it. If ever you need me for anything at all, no matter what it is, I will be there."
Of all the things Izuku was expecting from her, be it sympathy, empathy, assurances that there wasn't any other way, or even a stern reprimand, unabashed understanding and gratitude were certainly not among them. Granted, Muscular killed her cousin, so maybe she just had less inclination to scold the boy who exacted roundabout vengeance. It really wasn't worth thinking about, if he was being honest. What was done was done.
Her soft smile returned, and she patted his shoulder once again. "I'm glad you're safe, Midoriya. You'll be a wonderful pro when you graduate because you're a wonderful hero already."
"Thank you, Mandalay," Izuku responded with a smile of his own before his eyes widened. "Oh, is Ragdoll at this hospital by any chance?"
"Yes, actually," she answered, though she wasn't sure why he'd be asking. "I visited her before I came to you. Why?"
"This is going to be very hard to believe, but…"
"I believe you 100%, kitten!"
Ragdoll was exceptionally easier to convince than Mandalay had been. The idea that someone could steal and give quirks as they pleased was hard enough to fathom, but Ragdoll's newfound quirkless status was proof enough. However, the thought that a teenager's quirk was such unmitigated bullshit that it gave him a connection to the fucking Shinigami and allowed him to raise the recently dead and reunite fragmented souls was way too much to accept. It did put the thing Kota said about, "Welcome back to the land of the living," into a new light for Mandalay, though.
"Are you sure you're okay to try this, Tomoko?" Mandalay asked the excitable woman. "I don't want you to get your hopes up in case this doesn't work…"
Izuku felt like he should have been offended by that comment, but even he had to agree. Her concerns were valid. Wielding his blue fire for anything other than talking to ghosts and occasionally scaring his classmates was still very unfamiliar territory for him.
"I'm positive, Shino," she answered with a determined expression. "I believe in him, and I wanna try it. The worst that can happen is that it doesn't work, and nothing changes."
…That definitely wasn't the worst that could happen to either of them if this failed, but Izuku appreciated her optimism, nonetheless.
"Alright," she sighed, and she turned to Izuku. "If she trusts you with this, then so will I."
Izuku nodded and took a deep breath before approaching Ragdoll's bed. Blue flames bloomed in his palms, and he carefully extended them toward the pro. He inched toward her little by little as the blue fire intensified, and the flames steadily reached out and began to cover Ragdoll like a blanket. Soon, she was engulfed in the blue fire, but she wasn't showing any signs of discomfort.
"It kinda tickles," she remarked, eliciting a snort from her longtime friend and nearly causing Izuku to break his concentration.
Despite the near hiccup, Izuku remained locked in and kept at it until he felt a light tug coming from Ragdoll's direction, but she hadn't moved an inch. Reasoning that her soul was reaching out for its missing piece, he decided to empower the sensation by intensifying the flames even further. Almost immediately, that tug became a violent yank, ripping an ethereal presence out of Izuku and shooting into the curious woman, snapping the teen's concentration entirely. Izuku just barely caught himself from falling over while Ragdoll gasped in shock.
"Tomoko, what happened?!" Mandalay hurried to her side in a panic.
"I feel… whole again," Ragdoll breathed out with increasingly widening eyes. "I can sense everyone again! Ryuko and Yawara are still in the food court! The nurse for this room is taking a smoke break near the ICU! And there's a man masturbating in the bathroom down the hall!"
"Holy shit…" Mandalay remarked after a brief moment of shock. "It fucking worked!"
'Why in the fuck would you know that?' Izuku internally screamed at the last observation until he found himself being glomped by the newly re-quirked hero.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, kitten!" Ragdoll beamed in gratitude before her expression became determined on a dime. "I swear on my 4 remaining lives that I will protect you from Pixie-Bob!"
…There was entirely too much to unpack from that statement, so Izuku just left it alone and nodded his thanks.