[MHA] Shoto Todoroki : Modern-Day Terrorist

[Nar_cisse]

Shoto's blood ran cold.

Why now ?

His jaw clenched so hard he could have broken his teeth.

"Dad, we've got to go"

Endeavor didn't even look at him.

Shoto shoved his mobile phone under his nose.

Endeavor frowned, pulled his nose away from the screen, his eyes squinting at the three letters and the location.

"What the-"

"All for One is in Tokyo"

President Pantu's head snapped towards him so quickly that the muscles in the back of her neck almost cracked.

"What did you just say ?"

*

The alley was a capital 'I', crossing in front of and behind Aizawa.

Nearly a dozen men were on the rooftops, the majority on the ground equally in front of and behind him.

Aizawa saw the curtains of one of the small houses move.

He hoped no civilians would go out because he had no idea how he would go on protecting them.

Aizawa acted quickly.

He raised his gun and fired two shots at chest height into the group in front of him.

Simultaneously he spun on his feet, pulled his capture scarf from the hand holding the knife and threw it at one of the soldiers behind him.

The man fell to the ground and slipped on it, white band wrapped around his hands, his feet flapping against the ground like a fish out of water.

Lightning flashed, illuminating the street.

With a sharp flick of his wrist Aizawa brought the man towards him, making him almost trip on his feet.

He shot the man between the eyes and then used him as a human shield as he crouched down in the protection of a doorway.

At the same moment, those on the rooftops opened fire.

The walls around him were riddled with bullets, cement and stone fragments flying like shrapnel in all directions.

Squinting to avoid collateral damage, Aizawa clenched his teeth and held on to the body.

It trembled between his hands, shaking from the spasms caused by the onslaught of bullets, and Aizawa had to hold the corpse closer to his body.

Tears of blood from the pierced forehead dripped onto Aizawa's left ear, staining his scarf and rolling down his sweater.

He wouldn't last long like this.

Aizawa quickly considered his options.

"The greatest good for the greatest number", Nezu's perfidious voice whispered in his ear.

Aizawa really had only one option.

He disarmed the corpse, stole his pistol and clipped it to his belt.

Leaning forward slightly, he then threw his weight against the door behind him, his left foot raised to act as a battering ram.

He thought he heard people screaming from behind the cacophony of rain and bullets.

The wooden door vibrated but didn't give way.

Aizawa struck again and again, his blows becoming more violent and desperate.

Aizawa couldn't see the roof, but when the volley of shots stopped, he knew they would soon reconsider the Quirks' option now that he had no one in his line of sight.

With a grunt, Aizawa tightened his grip on the corpse with his left hand and lifted it so that its torso protected Aizawa's face and its legs hung limply at knee height.

In one motion he placed the body between himself and the door, closed his eyes and shot the lock.

There was a clang covered by the sound of the rain.

Aizawa kicked the door open and it slammed against the wall.

He stepped straight into a small living room overflowing with furniture, his red eyes scanning the room in a flash.

A trembling couple stood at the thresold of a closed door.

The woman was holding a knife and the man, half-hiding her behind him, put his trembling hands in a triangular position in front of his torso.

He murmured a few words, then closed his eyes : he opened them a few moments later, confused, before realisation made him drop his position.

"You- you are...."

The rain, driven by the wind, came in and stained the wooden floor.

Aizawa, standing on the threshold facing the street, didn't answer, his eyes fixed on the gutters around the roof of the house opposite.

He tore off a very long piece of his shawl, wrapped it around the corpse's right wrist, then expertly threw the other end into one of the gutters, where it caught.

The corpse, slumped against Aizawa's torso, jerked upright like a puppet whose strings had just been reattached, its feet dragging on the ground, then rised on tiptoes before finally floating out of the house's recess.

The reaction was immediate : the dragged corpse strafed.

Aizawa, his hair sticking to his jaw, pressed himself against the right wall of the doorway, raised his rifle to the left and fired at all the soldiers who had stepped forward.

He fired three shots with expert precision.

Two men landed on their back, the third - a spray of blood that exploded like a bomb from his skull - hit a window sill and then slid down the wall, leaving a trail of crushed brain in his wake.

The dark street was lit by a flash of lightning.

Aizawa backed into the house, his hand on the doorknob, catching the image of the corpse he'd used as a decoy hitting the opposite facade, dangling like a hanged man.

He slammed the door and jumped back before throwing himself on the ground.

"Down, now !", he shouted.

The couple fell to their knees and Aizawa, lying on the ground, clenched his teeth and sent a lasso of white tape around their throats like a noose.

He clenched his teeth and pulled brutally forward ; the couple collided, shoulder to shoulder, hiccupped and fell face first. The man shot him a look of betrayal.

In the next instant, the entire living room was blasted by shots.

Aizawa pressed his forehead to the floor and closed his eyes, wrapping his arms around his head to protect them.

The small window by the door exploded.

Shattered glass flew in all directions as if it had been blown in by a bomb.

Bullets ripped through the walls like a sieve.

The TV shattered, the sofas shook as if there was an earthquake, the porcelain knickknacks on the shelves blew up in all directions like fireworks.

The door creaked under the onslaught of bullets and Aizawa stretched out his foot to hold it shut.

Foam, glass and cement fragments flew in all directions.

Something hit Aizawa's spine, right in the centre of his back.

He clenched his fists and tensed but didn't move, still covering his face

His eyes were his most precious possession : the rest of his body was worthless in comparison.

The shooting stopped.

Aizawa opened his eyes.

They must be going back on formation right outside.

His gaze met the man's.

Aizawa moved his lips without making a sound.

'Alone ?'

The man, trembling, catatonic, eyes wide open, was in shock.

It was his wife who pointed to the door behind them, shaking her head.

Her throat was red from the strangulation marks of Aizawa's scarf.

Preferring not to remove the scarf in case someone was looking through the window, Aizawa tore it off to relieve the pressure.

The remains of the scarf fell like ribbons on their shoulders.

Aizawa pointed at her and her husband then at the door behind them.

Then he showed his left hand - the one that still held the knife - and his five upturned fingers.

Looking into the civilian's eyes Aizawa silently counted down, lowering his fingers.

Three, two, one !

The woman jumped to her feet, pulled her husband by the collar of his shirt and opened the door.

Aizawa rose like an uncoiling snake, his gun pointed at the window, the handle of his knife wedged between his teeth.

He was currently in a blind spot.

The front door was to his left, the couple to his right, a long sofa facing the window a step away. Diagonally to his right was a corridor leading to three closed rooms.

Aizawa took a deep breath then made a half circle behind the sofa, his gun sweeping over the street outside as he raced through the living room.

At the threshold of the hallway, Aizawa caught a glimpse of the porch through the window.

He saw part of a back and shoulder sticking out.

Aizawa fired once.

It gave away his position, but he needed to distract them from the civilians.

Aizawa slipped into the darkness of the corridor as the living room was hit in the approximate direction from which he had just fired.

He moved away, his gun slightly lowered, his back to the doors.

He had to get out : there must be a window overlooking the other-

A blade pierced Aizawa from his back to his stomach.

 

[Nar_cisse]

Aizawa flinched, his legs weakening momentarily before he turned and elbowed the man behind him in the temple.

Aizawa felt something crack.

The soldier's head hit the wall so hard that it shook.

Blood - Aizawa's blood - dripped from the metal cone that served as his forearm.

Aizawa's eyes flashed red.

Aizawa raised his gun to fire, but someone - coming from the back door - slammed into him shoulder-first and tackled him.

Aizawa was knocked to the ground, and a searing pain shot up from his spine.

The man straddled him, his thighs blocking Aizawa's access to the weapons on his belt. He pressed down on his stomach as if squeezing a sponge, drawing more blood, making Aizawa groan.

The man punched him in the jaw.

Aizawa's head hit the ground and bounced two more times.

Black spots danced in his vision. Acid bile crawled up his throat.

The soldier raised his fist to strike again.

Aizawa lifted his torso as if to welcome the blow then threw up in his eyes.

The soldier let go of Aizawa to wipe his eyes.

Aizawa's vision suddenly cleared.

Ignoring his own vomit dripping down his neck, ignoring the sour smell burning his nostrils, he grabbed a ring of his capture scarf with both hands, pulled it around the soldier's neck, interlaced the bands and squeezed.

The soldier, still blinded, put his hands on his throat, tried to tear apart the tape, grabbed Aizawa's forearms and then punched the hollow of his elbow to make him let go.

Aizawa, his arms burning, a vicious gleam in his eyes, squeezed harder.

The soldier punched Aizawa more desperately, his soles slipping on the ground as he tried to get up but was constantly pulled forward by Aizawa's weight.

His nails clawed at Aizawa's jaw and neck, hitting his torso, sliding down until he found the wound in his stomach.

He stuck three fingers in and pulled the flesh out.

A sudden burst of rage gripped Aizawa.

He yanked the scarf and broke the soldier's neck.

The soldier collapsed on top of him and Aizawa, heart pounding, threw him aside as he rose to his feet.

His stomach felt like it had been torn in two.

A tsunami of pain hit Aizawa and he feared he would pass out.

Half bent over, one hand on his stomach, Aizawa blinked and staggered in search of his weapons.

His knife had cut the corner of his mouth when he fell.

They were at the foot of the first soldier, still slumped against the wall, shaking his head as if trying to wake up, his muscles rigid as if he'd been paralysed.

The back door opened again ; Aizawa drew the pistol at his waist and fired at two more soldiers.

The first shot missed, wasted, hitting the door frame, and the soldiers ducked their heads into their shoulders.

Aizawa, eyes blazing, hit one in the throat and the other in the cheekbone.

They collapsed in a heap, leaving the door open behind them.

Aizawa's muscles spasmed. He felt dizzy and weak.

With heavy steps, Aizawa reached the one still sprawled in the middle of the corridor.

He put the cold barrel to his temple to avoid missing and shot.

*
Rain and wind were against them, whipping their skin and blowing their hair back.

But it wasn't enough to stop their respective Hell Flames.

They flew across the city so fast they looked like meteors ripping through the dark sky.

The storm rolled and roared like waves above them, lightning flashes intermittently illuminating the city.

Shoto had an idea as to why All for One had come out of his lair, and he hoped more than anything else that it was just his paranoia playing tricks to him once again.

Blood sprayed diagonally across a flower painting.

The body collapsed on the commode.

Foggy minded, Aizawa searched the body until he found his gun, clipped it to his belt, then retrieved his own weapons.

Aizawa inhaled three times to clear his mind.

His clothes, soaked with cold rain, blood and vomit, scratched his skin and chilled him to the bone.

He tightened the grip on his knife with his left hand - his fingers were trembling - and took three deep breaths without making a sound.

Aizawa ran to the door on the other side of the corridor and kicked it open, his red eyes glowing in the dim light of the room.

A sweating soldier was waist-deep in the floor, a vortex of blue light swirling around him.

The moment Aizawa caught sight of him, the man let out a howl and tried to hide his face with his forearms.

An armed hand shot out of the glowing hole, followed by a body as the vortex visibly shrank.

At the same time, the front door was kicked in.

Aizawa glanced at the living room then at the relentlessly shrinking vortex.

He could end his torment, but that would mean losing another bullet.

'The greatest good for the greatest number'.

There were sounds of running.

Aizawa ran to the only window in the room, past the soldier trapped in his own tunnel.

The floating curtains swayed like shimmering waves.

Leaning on the ledge with his knife-holding hand, Aizawa jumped out with both feet.

The soldier's screams in the vortex became hysterical as his own domain closed in on him, crushing his ribs and tearing him in two.

Blood and guts splattered the walls up to the ceiling.

Aizawa landed bent over on the floor.

Someone grabbed his left shoulder. Aizawa freed himself by stabbing him in the solar plexus.

A soldier slapped his right wrist to make him drop his weapon, and Aizawa stabbed him in the throat.

The drops of blood that splashed onto his lips were the same color as his angry eyes.

A gleaming blade flashed across the edge of his sight, and Aizawa threw his head back.

The blow sliced his right bicep and Aizawa suddenly stumbled.

He pressed his gun against the soldier's stomach and fired at close range.

He saw two bodies fall on top of each other.

Aizawa shook his head to clear his mind, head painfully aching.

He covered his face with the hand that held his knife and swept the street with his gun, movements slow and pasty.

The falling rain prevented him from seeing well.

Aizawa lowered his weapon.

His breathing was fast and shallow, his skin icy.

He had lost - was still losing - too much blood.

Aizawa moved forward, stumbling over a body, clutching the wall with the hand that held the gun.

His nails scratched the rough, cold surface.

His left arm tingled.

He felt dizzy.

He froze momentarily against the wall, the rain pushed by the wind whipping his skin.

His shoulder had left a trail of blood on the stones, rain making it look like watercolors.

Aizawa, shoulders hunched, dragged himself heavily and slumped against the wall.

He could no longer feel his left hand.

Aizawa blinked.

The rain was an indistinguishable fog, choking him.

Aizawa dragged himself forward.

He left a trail of blood-soaked soles behind him, soon erased by the storm.

Aizawa kept going.

A gradual chill spread from the ends of his limbs to his chest, running up his arms like an icy ripple. Palpitations shook his heart, making it pound painfully in his chest.

Aizawa kept going.

His eyelids grew heavy, his eyelashes fluttered more slowly, his vision dimming.

He stopped.

A blurred silhouette stood in the rain.

Aizawa lifted his chin to get a better look.

The rain that hit the ground was like bullets in his ears. The world was gray and cold - hostile.

Aizawa, in agony, his head pressed against the wall, raised his gun with a heavy hand and put the barrel in his mouth.

"Don't do it"

The figure appeared before Aizawa. She didn't have to use the slightest force to make him lower it.

Aizawa's arm fell back against his body. His hand was shaking so much that he failed to bend his fingers to pull the trigger.

His gun slipped from his palm and fell into a puddle, water splashing his ankles.

He hadn't even realized how long it was since he'd lost his knife.

"Your stubbornness is admirable"

Aizawa's head rolled back against the wall, his throat exposed to the sky.

His eyes flickered slowly. The sky was gray, the storm raging.

A yellow lightning struck the clouds.

The rain trickled down his cheeks like tears.

He was so, so tired.

"Be proud of what you've accomplished"

Cold hands gently touched his face.

Aizawa continued to stare at the sky, his red eyes blazing like two lush fires on his pale skin.

"From now on, let me take over"

Fingers moved delicately up his face, stopping at his eyelids.

They pulled as if they wanted to nail his skin to his eyebrows.

Aizawa's eyes began to sting. The rain was like a needle salvo.

He stared at the sky as long as he could.

"It's time to rest, Eraserhead"

Aizawa's eyes rolled back in their sockets.

All for One, his hand illuminated by a reddish halo, gently stroked his cheekbone.

Then he dug his fingers into his corneas and gouged out his eyes.

 

[Nar_cisse]

There was a heartbreaking howl, as if an animal was tortured to death.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

At the same moment a bolt of lightning, bigger and more powerful than any of the previous ones, streaked across the sky, cutting through the night like a white flash.

The surrounding houses and buildings were momentarily flooded with light, shadows drived away before they snapped back like a rubber band.

My eyes darted to the right.

There was a river of blood running down an alley.

"This way !", I shouted to him

I turned right, Hell Flame blasting red from my feet.

The wind blew against us, pushing us backwards.

Dad went ahead while my hands flashed at full speed.

Tiger, ox, dog, rabbit, snake.

A tornado of wind sprang up and hurled us across the city at high speed.

My ears were ringing.

The city glided beneath our feet, the outlines of buildings blurring.

"Left !"

Dad spun around and suddenly we were above the bloody alley.

I could barely make out the area over his shoulder.

Three bodies lay motionless, slumped against a stained wall, as if their skulls had been smashed against the-

Someone was standing in the alleyway.

The figure was bathed in total darkness, head down, features indistinct.

The moment it raised its red eyes towards us, my heart leapt into my chest.

Aizawa.

The relief I felt was indescribable.

Nothing had happened to him after-

Suddenly, my father's Hell Flame was snuffed out and he free-falled in front of me.

My eyes widened as he plummeted like a bird that had just been shot.

What the-

The man turned his head towards me as he raised his hand.

My body froze in mid-air, as if caught in a web.

My blood pounded in my ears : I clenched my teeth and tried to free myself, but not a muscle in my body moved.

A thunderous bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, brightening the alley.

All for One was standing there, hand outstretched towards me, drops of water trickling down his skin.

His wide red eyes were locked on me.

He moved his hand carelessly to the right and my body followed at full speed.

I barely had time to strengthen my body with chakra before I hit the building head first.

My head flew back under the impact, my teeth grinding so hard it felt like they would break.

The wall shattered like straw while I clenched my jaw and closed my eyes, flying headfirst through four flats and half a dozen walls.

Pieces of cement, stone, broken furniture and shattered paintings flew in all directions in a spray of grey dust. I heard people screaming.

I didn't even have time to think, hitting each wall faster than the last, each new layer of concrete hit sending a shockwave that spread from my skull to my feet.

I opened my eyes to fresh air and icy rain.

I had emerged from the building, head fuzzy and my body aching, frozen in mid-air once more.

My eyelids fluttered open and I saw All for One about fifty meters away, still standing in his alley, staring at me coldly.

His lips moved and I read them as if I could hear him.

"Not enough ?"

The next thing I knew he was hurling me through Tokyo's tower 322 meters of steel.

First the metal bent and shattered as I flew through it. Then I bent and shattered.

Blood flowed from my hair to my forehead; I forced my eyes open again as the next metal beam approached at full speed.

My chakra fully flooded my body : kawarimi.

The next thing I knew I was crouched on a beam at the edge of the void, panting.

A screwdriver had taken my place, going through the next three hundred meters of the tower vertically at supersonic speed, its plastic handle disintegrating at every succinct impact.

All for One stood two hundred meters away, still in the alley, his red eyes following the decoy's path as it continued to traverse the tower.

He widened his eyes and turned just as I looked up at the fireball falling from the sky towards him.

Hidden in the flames of it was my father, face hardened.

His foot, engulfed in flames, crashed into All for One's jaw with such force that All for One's head snapped down and he spat out two teeth.

All for One was thrown into the tarmac, carving a twenty-meters-long gash in a straight line.

Dad landed heavily on the ground, rattling the alley. The ground cracked like ice beneath his feet, cracks spreading like a spider's web across the street and up the walls of the buildings.

His skin turned blue, flames flickering down the left side of his body as if he were about to burst into flames.

"Don't you dare lay a hand on my son in front of me"

He was furious.

All for One stood up calmly, back to my father, spat blood and dusted off his suit.

Steam rose from his split lip; he wiped the blood from it with the tip of his thumb, turned around slowly, and suddenly his lip was as good as new.

"You again, Endeavor ? You certainly have a knack for getting in my way"

He faced my father without the slightest fear, the fire on my father's body dissapearing.

All for One's hand twitched.

The very next moment my chakra-powered foot slammed into the back of his skull, sending him tumbling through two miles of buildings.

A cloud of dust and cement rose behind him : a hole in the shape of a human body cut through nearly three hundred houses and buildings.

There was sudden, furious honking, then the sound of pile-ups and crash.

"There's going to be casualties", I said, gaze locked on the prostrate form of All for One miles ahead.

He got up on one knee, spitting out bits of rubble and blood.

"I know", my father replied, phone to his ear, his eyes never leaving the gaping hole. "Masami, I'm in Tokyo" Break. "Yes, we are. All for One is here" New break 'Between Shibuya, Tokyo Tower and the Sumida River. Send a medical team for an urgently wounded Hero, evacuate civilians and contact the President, she's in the area"

The voice on the other end became clearer.

"I'll send the A and B teams to support-"

"No need", he said, "My son is with me"

Then he hung up.

All for One was now on his feet.

He watched us calmly over his dusty shoulder, sizing us up one by one.

A building halfway between him and us began to shake, chunks of wall falling onto another heap of rubble.

"He gouged out Aizawa's eyes", I said.

Aizawa lay prostrate against the wall behind us, chin pressed to his chest, hair plastered to his face.

There were two huge holes where his eyes used to be.

Blood ran from the empty sockets down his jaw as if he'd been crying tears of blood.

It was him I'd heard screaming earlier.

All for One blinked and my father lit up like a torch.

"All we need to do is make sure he does not see us coming, right ?", Dad said

Neither of us took our eyes off All for One.

My own chakra rolled furiously under my skin, coursing through my veins as if it were fire.

Above, the sky was quiet.

I regained control of the storm.

The rain became torrential, the wind destructive, the lightning deadly.

I hadn't liked Aizawa much lately, but he didn't deserve such a fate.

Arcs of yellow light crackled across my skin, straightening the hairs on my neck, electrifying my whole body.

I bent my legs, one hand going on the knob of my tantô hung on my back.

"Let's demolish him"

The moment the building between us collapsed, shielding us from All for One's line of sight, I disappeared in a shunshin, thunder bursting with a roar.

 

[Nar_cisse]

As the building midway between All for One, Shoto and Endeavour collapsed, a mighty bolt of lightning split the sky.

"Swap !"

Three lightning bolts struck almost simultaneously where All for One had stood a split second earlier, digging a crater and turning the earth upside down.

All for One leapt backwards four times in a row, thunder crashing behind him each time.

His senses sounded the alarm in his head.

On his left the wind whistled.

He barely had time to turn his head to the side and raise his hand to shield his face before a sword, bathed in a whitish, sizzling light, cut through his shoulder like butter.

All for One blinked in shock.

The sword sliced cleanly from his shoulder blade to his collarbone, went out of his torso, whirled and swung towards his throat.

Simultaneously, All for One heard the air crackle as if a thousand birds were chirping behind him.

The surrounding shadows stretched, driven away by an intense bluish light.

The sword grazed All for One's throat and froze, barely touching his skin, a trickle of blood rolling down his throat.

Standing behind All for One, sword in his left hand and chidori in his right, Shoto was once again immobilised by the invisible force.

All for One turned slowly and cautiously towards him, a triumphant glow in his eyes.

Shoto's gaze was cool, impassive.

All for One's fingers stretched towards him.

"You-"

A fireball as wide as the street slammed into All for One's back.

The second the flames struck All for One and sent him staggering forward, making him lose control of his Quirk, Shoto brought back his sword towards himself with a thread of chakra and shunshined to the nearest rooftop.

All for One was catapulted straight across the street.

He crashed through two parked cars which flipped several times from the collision then got turned to charred metal skeletons by the fire.

Endeavor walked slowly in the wake of his fireball, face hard and skin blue, flames running accross his forearms.

Shoto appeared to his left.

"Are you alright ?", Endeavor asked.

Neither of them looked away from All for One.

"Yes, I merely need to find a way of escaping his vigilance long enough to get inside his guard"

Shoto had a couple of seals on him.

If he got close enough, he could blow up All for One.

"I'll distract him", Endeavor said. "You finish him off"

Under normal circumstances, he would have made the safety and rescue of the civilians his first priority : yet All for One was far too dangerous for them to wilfully split their focus.

Shoto's sword blazed white, as if a thousand different winds blew back and forth across the blade in overlapping, opposing layers.

His sword sounded like a chainsaw.

"Alright", he said.

Between one thunderclap and the next, Shoto was gone.

All for One, who barely got through a second car, struggled to his feet, one hand on the ground for support.

Jaws clenched, he raised a bored eyebrow at the chaos before him.

He had landed at the foot of a road : civilians screamed at the sight of him and ran from their cars to escape.

The air was hot, for Endeavour was not far away, and even the tarmac beneath All for One's palms was warm.

Truly, he should have stolen his mother's Quirk when he had the opportunity.

The skin between his shoulder and neck swarmed as if alive while his flesh rebuilt itself.

His blood dripped down the hot tarmac, coagulating before his own eyes.

As soon as the rain hit the ground, it turned to hissing steam.

All for One's head snapped sideways : Shoto was half a step away, sword raised, red eyes glowing.

All for One decided on a new strategy.

He raised his palm then held it out towards Shoto.

The concrete beneath their feet rumbled then detached itself like a comma whose tip steered towards Shoto, before tearing itself fully off the ground and slamming into him.

The teenager's eyes widened.

All for One, his eyes irritated by the heat, blinked.

Shoto teleported to the wall of the neighbouring building, crouching vertically.

The building behind him was torn apart and chunks of cement and wall came crashing down on him from all directions.

Pieces of the street road broke off the ground and rushed towards him.

The boy dodged them, slicing some, hitting others and reducing them to dust, but soon everything turned into a hellish tornado of which he was the magnetized epicentre.

All for One didn't wait : he lunged at Endeavour, standing in the middle of the street.

Endeavour looked startled.

His flames went out.

Then a wicked smile stretched his lips and he rolled up his sleeves.

"You want a repeat of your last beating, don't you ?"

All for One, surprised at first, smiled contemptuously.

He didn't even bother to reply and picked up speed.

His gaze landed on a piece of debris lying at Endeavour's feet.

"Swap"

The world distorted for a moment ; All for One blinked.

As the world stabilised, All for One was confronted by a curtain of flames crashing down on him.

Then a fist burst from the flames and slammed into his jaw with the force of four oxen, sending him headlong into the ground.

The blow didn't hurt, not really - All for One was too strong - but it hurt his ego, partly because Endeavour was a second-rate hero.

The moment All for One hit the ground, blackish protuberances sprang up from all over his body, lunging at Endeavour like snakes pouncing to bite.

The Hero made no move to retreat as his fire died.

Next the sword, accompanied by the hum of a chainsaw, sliced the protuberances perpendicular, shattering them as though slicing mirrors.

All for One, seeing Shoto, turned his head back to where he should have been, where a vast prison of concrete, rubble, lamp post and benches formed an uneven sphere.

A hole - as if someone had punched out part of the sphere - overlooked them.

All for One's muscles cracked as his head jerked back towards the teenager.

The chainsaw sword plunged into All For One's mouth, slicing the corners of his lips, going through his open mouth, shredding his throat until his neck.

Shoto, still holding the sword, raised his hand to the sky and twelve bolts of lightning rained down on him.

The lightning struck All for One and spread along the length of the sword, running across Shoto's crackling skin before he directed it all back at All for One.

All for One's muscles spasmed : the hole in his throat burned as if ablaze.

All for One, sword still in his throat, smiled, the corners of his dry lips torn by the blade.

It was the boy who had taught him that trick.

The lightning running on his skin turned black.

Shoto dropped the sword and stepped back, whirling towards his father.

All for One inhaled, storing the energy in his chest, then spat out a bolt of black lightning at Shoto.

The sword in his mouth was obliterated.

All for One blinked : the beam travelled in a straight line, bisecting the road in two and ripping through the ground for thirty meters.

Neither the boy nor his father were there anymore.

All for One got to his feet, red eyes sweeping the street, his damaged mouth and throat repairing themselves.

The boy was tenacious, he could at least give him that.

All for One wondered if he'd inherit his tenacity once he'd steal his power.

All of a sudden, his vision blurred.

He put his hand to his temple and blinked feverishly to clear his vision.

Had he made a mistake while transplanting the eyes ? Should he have waited longer before using them ?

But his healing Quirk should ensure that the grafting and assimilation went smoothly.

Even if he was unable to deactivate Aizawa's eyes, All for One had total and absolute control over them.

"Are you finally feeling the effects of it ?"

All for One raised his head to the sky where the voice had come from.

Shoto Todoroki stood on the edge of a roof, the dark, stormy sky, dancing in his back. White flashes of lightning tore across the sky behind him, colliding in a thunderous roar and then spreading out in a network of glowing webs.

One, stronger than the others, lit up the sky and Shoto's face.

His red eyes, alert, were locked on All for One, the black commas spinning lazily in his eyes.

He glared at him, chin raised, head tilted slightly to one side, damp hair falling across his forehead.

"You didn't think you were the only one who could use poison, did you ?", he asked

He pointed to his own throat, showing where he'd scratched All for One earlier.

Obviously All for One wasn't the only one who had learnt from his opponent.

'Two against one", All for One said, eyes going over the surrounding rooftops in search of the father. "It seems rather unfair"

The son didn't dignify the remark with a reply, and the father didn't show his face.

Bad idea. Endeavor was extremely dangerous if given time to do as he pleased with his Quirk.

Still, All for One smiled.

"You won't mind if I decide to shake things up a bit, will you ?"

All for One concentrated all his energy in his throat, then shouted:

"Rise !"

His scream - amplified by one of his Quirks - was so powerful that it drowned out even the roar of the storm, the echo reverberating throughout the city.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then, across the city, blood-curdling bestial howls answered.

An army of Nomus emerged from the bowels of the city.

 

[Nar_cisse]

Even when the first Nomus rose from the sewers like an army of undead and spread panic and chaos throughout the city, Shoto did not look away from All for One.

Currently he was exhausted by the abysmal number of clones he kept active on his 'final solution' and other research projects.

He uninvoked a dozen of them, recovering chakra and accumulating more fatigue.

The roar of the Nomus scattered throughout the city barely reached his ears.

It was imperative that someone took care of All for One and as he had stolen Aizawa's Quirk and made it his own, the only person in the world capable of facing him was none other than Shoto Todoroki.

Shoto bent his legs. An ice sword appeared in his palm.

The Commission President's words were still lingering in his mind :

"You may not be an official Hero and you may have no credentials, it does not matter : help Endeavor and, if you get the chance, kill All for One. I want his head on a platter"

Shoto had never been one to follow orders, but he intended to follow this one.

*

The cries of the Nomus echoed throughout the city.

They sounded like angry, wounded beasts whose chains had just been broken and who were about to go on rampage.

A teenager emerged from a shop, bag in hand, headphones on, hunched over his laptop. His fingers scrolled down his screen at full speed.

A high-pitched sound suddenly broke through the cacophony of his music.

He turned back to the night shop's sliding doors slowly closing behind him.

He waited a few seconds, his eyes scanning the sidewalk left and right. Nothing.

He looked ahead again to where-

A huge hand closed over his face.

A scream crept up his throat, but he had no time to flee.

The teenager stiffened, jerked his chin back, and next thing he knew the thing clutched his skull between both hands, barely using its strength.

His skull exploded like an unripe grape.

Blood spurted like a fountain from his throat and splashed the shop's doors behind him.

Other Nomus shrieked across the city.

This Nomu let go of the body and screamed back to the sky, enraged yet exhilarated.

Excrement, garbage and dirt formed a dark layer over his body like a secondary skin.

Behind him the sewers he had freed himself from laid like a hole in the road, broken pipes jutting their sharp edges skywards.

Too much rain was pouring inside, pushing trash and dirt onto the sidewalk like sea foam.

The night clerk returned from the storeroom, whistling, headphones in his ears, the last three bottles of milk for the day in his hands.

His eyes wandered to the transparent doors stained by blood.

He screamed.

One of the bottles fell from his hands and rolled on the floor across the checkout.

It stopped in front of the bloody windows.

Red drops were already puddling inside.

The glass doors opened.

The night salesman, knees shaking, heart pounding against his chest, looked up at the hulking creature standing at the entrance.

Next to a headless corpse was a thing covered in shiny chrome scales that resembled an armour. It was so tall he couldn't see its shoulders.

The creature placed its hand on the doorframe, effectively preventing the sliding doors from closing. They hit his hand, retracted and hit his hand again, bumping against it as the limpid bell that accompanied the entrance of each new customer rang on and on.

Paralyzed, the salesman stopped breathing.

The creature tightened its grip on the doorframe its long, clawed fingers, dug in the plaster and made snowy clouds of white cracked paint rain.

The pool of blood grew, spreading across the entryway carpet.

The thing leaned forward.

Its broad, shiny, chrome shoulders appeared first.

Its head came next.

The moment its eyes fell on the salesman, the creature stopped moving.

Its malevolent eyes, slit like a reptile's, scrutinized the weak, fragile creature which, frozen, displayed its throat in submission.

He could hear its heartbeat - it sounded like thunder.

Suddenly his lips curled over black, dirty, wet gums.

The bits of skin that made up his cheekbones crawled up his cheeks, encasing his eyes in a prison of skin and scales, his eyes suddenly frighteningly.

The salesman pissed himself.

It looked like it was smiling.

*

Neito and Ochaco heard the screams only two blocks away.

Neito turned left first and Ochaco followed, jaws clenched.

They ran through random alleys guided by the screams, leaping over puddles, dodging garbage cans and stairs that sprouted from walls as if to trip them.

They leapt on the edge of a sidewalk in front of a road.

Someone honked in panic : tires squealed on the wet ground, yellow headlights illuminating Neito and then Ochaco.

Alarmed, Ochaco pulled Neito violently backward.

Blinded by the headlights she squinted, tucked her chin in her neck and backed away without stopping.

A deafening crash echoed through the area.

Someone screamed.

The piercing, gut-wrenching scream, sent a shiver of terror down Ochaco's spine. It sounded like someone dying.

She opened her eyes and saw the car embedded in the wall beside them, metal hood folded like an accordion.

Its front window was shattered, black smoke billowing from the engine.

The driver's head was buried in an airbag.

A trickle of blood dripped from the crushed beige balloon onto his seat.

His arms dangled from his body.

In the back seat was a baby, motionless, still in its seat.

Ochaco's heart pounded in her chest.

Neito pushed Ochaco away but she didn't even notice, her eyes still focused on the child.

"We have to help them", she said.

She didn't wait for an answer and went to the back door, pulling on the handle to open it.

The door creaked. It didn't move. Something seemed to have jammed the mechanism.

Using her Quirk purposefully-

"Move", Neito growled.

Shadows danced across his skin, licking the contours of his jaw.

His eyes suddenly turned black, sclera and iris altogether dissapearing.

Neito blinked and shook his head : they turned blue again.

He put his hands on the door.

The black shadow that inhabited his body darted to the car like ink.

The shadows wavered for a moment, running to the right then turning to the left, before dissolving into a million tiny dark snakes that slithered into the cracks of the door.

Ochaco tore herself from staring at the baby and glanced nervously over her shoulder.

She had no idea what was going on.

All for One had only asked her to let him know when she was alone with Aizawa : he was supposed to take care of him and nothing else.

"Please ! Please !"

Ochaco's and Neito's heads shot up in the direction of the apartments across the street.

The drumming rain mixed with the smoke from the car prevented them from seeing anything.

An ambulance siren wailed, blue and red lights illuminating the walls of the street. They could hear it but not see it.

Suddenly, there was the sound of sheet metal bending, as if a giant had just crashed into a mountain of steel.

Tires squealed in a high-pitched screech.

The rickety ambulance sped up from the left, honking alarmingly.

Something large and indistinct clung to its hood.

The ambulance slammed into the building in front of Neito and Ochaco, exactly where the previous screams had come from.

There was a sudden cacophony of noise and abruptly the building before them burst into flames.

The car door creaked open.

Ochaco struggled to push it open.

Even when she removed its seat belt with a click, the baby didn't react.

"It's okay", she murmured, looking nervously at what appeared to be his father in the front seat. "Let's get you out of here, okay ?"

The baby looked about two years old, maybe three. Old enough to understand and remember.

Ochaco forced herself to crawl further into the seat, hoping to hide the sight of the corpse behind the wheel with her shoulders.

A trembling hand pushed back the brown curls falling across the child's forehead.

All for One was only supposed to take care of Aizawa - civilians weren't-

Ochaco froze. Her breath got stuck in her throat. Her lips parted.

Her heart thundered in her chest.

He was dead.

The baby was dead.

High-pitched animal howls echoed down the street.

Neito glanced down the road, eyes squinting, trying to see what had made such a sound, when his gaze landed on a group.

Behind the black smoke and dust that clung to the crumbling facade of the burning building were three gigantic Nomus.

 

[Nar_cisse]

It wasn't until the ground beneath his feet suddenly heated up that All for One realized what was happening.

A geyser of lava erupted between his legs, both blasting and melting the concrete at the same time.

"Swap !"

There was barely time for All for One to switch places with the rubble of a destroyed wall further down the street.

Something squeezed his legs. He looked down.

Water tentacles were wrapping around his ankles.

He looked sharply up at Shoto.

The teenager's hands flashed so fast they were a blur, stringing together a series of odd gestures and positions.

All for One read his lips :

"Suiro no Jutsu"

A watery prison made of falling rain and stagnant puddles shut in on All for One.

All for One opened his mouth in shock, a 'Swap' at the edge of his tongue, whereas Shoto flicked his wrist.

Immediately, gallons upon gallons of water flowed into All for One's mouth and throat, painfully stuffing his stomach and bloating his lungs until they were on fire.

No matter how hard All for One looked at the boy, the water prison wouldn't disappear.

Could it be that he was immune to Aizawa's Quirk ? Or...

His mind flashed back to the summer camp and how the air around the boy had blurred at times, looking even illusory.

The boy had killed Bubigawara first - maybe because he knew better than anyone else what kind of threat he posed.

All for One, torrential amounts of water rushing into his mouth, raised his hand and shifted his full attention to Shoto.

The water squeezed his arm, forcing his hand down, yet All for One, jaw clenched, fought the pressure and kept raising his hand.

The more it rained, the larger his water prison grew, the drops fueling the bubble to titanic proportions.

Hundreds of gallons of water pressed painfully on his bones to break him.

All for One, muscles stiffened, fought until his hand was finally leveled to the boy.

If it truly was him, All for One was about to throw away all his plans.

Or maybe the doctor would be able to rebuild him from shattered bones and scattered flesh.

All for One clenched his fist.

Shoto, standing on the roof, widened his red eyes.

He exploded in a spray of blood and guts.

All for One waited, breathless, his eyes darting left and right as Shoto's bloody remains rained down on the street below.

The boy wasn't dead, of course. Too cunning to be fooled like that. He must have been hiding-

The water prison collapsed on itself, releasing All for One.

All for One, dripping, stared in amazement at the water trickling through his fingers.

What the-

An agonizing wail tore through the silence.

All for One looked up in time to see Endeavor coming out of an alleyway across the street from him. He ran towards the puddle of blood at the foot of the building where his son had been standing.

He threw himself into the red pool, right in the middle of the shredded flesh and scattered skull.

Blood dripped from the edge of the roof and down the front of the building.

Endeavor, kneeling in the wreckage of his son, looked completely mad as he brought back to his chest remains in armfuls.

All for One watched, stunned.

Certainly the child who could create Quirks could not die like this... ?

All of a sudden the storm subsided.

The thunder stopped rumbling, the rain stopped falling.

The clouds dispersed, driven away by the rising sun.

Something shone at the edge of his vision.

All for One turned his head.

There was nothing but an upside down street. Civilians were fleeing, looking over their shoulders as if believing he couldn't see them.

Endeavor's screams grew inhuman, turning into the moans of a wounded animal.

Crawling through his son's blood, his cries of pain reached hysterical levels. All for One turned his attention back to him.

He felt neither pity nor sympathy for the boy.

They had been two adversaries who did everything they could to outwit the other one.

He remembered when he'd lost his own brother, though the circumstances had been different.

Unlike Endeavor, All for One had never really been able to grieve because his brother had still been alive when he'd lost him.

Grieving for someone who was still alive was a strange and difficult process.

Still, All for One empathized with Endeavor.

He breathed deeply and looked at the rising sun high in the sky.

The clouds glowed pink and gold.

All for One, though still a little bewildered, decided to enjoy the moment.

He now owned Aizawa's Quirk - a Quirk he'd coveted for years - and the only being who could have posed the tiniest amount of trouble for him was now dead.

For sure the doctor could restore his body. Or maybe, with enough genetic material, he could even make a Nomu out of him.

A Nomu would be nice. They would finally be able to try and solve the mystery of the boy's Quirk.

All for One, in a merciful mood, decided to let Endeavor cry his heart out before being suddenly overcome by hatred and he tried futilely to kill him.

All Might's Quirk was next in line-

Something shimmered to his left.

All for One looked that way.

There was nothing there but the hole in the building the boy had shot him through.

All for One watched the ruins in silence.

He probably went through one or two misfortunate civilians on his way there, obliterating them before they got the time to realize what was happening to them.

His eyes roamed over the path of destruction he carved in the road.

Howls, shrilling and abrupt, could be heard at almost regular intervals throughout the city. To think he had brought out Nomus... he had expected the child to be a serious problem and thus foresaw an unexpected need for a distraction.

What a disappointment.

"Kurogiri"

The air behind him stirred.

Kurogiri appeared silently. He waited for his next orders.

The first sunbeams flooded the ragged street where they stood. They hit Endeavor at an angle, lighting both his back and shoulders.

Endeavor would come and find him, of course.

And then-

A warning rang in All for One's mind.

He watched Endeavor whimper in pain, puzzled, wondering what had drawn his attention.

"Master ?", Kurogiri asked.

All for One did not answer.

His eyes went from Endeavor and the heap of shreded flesh he had gathered to the half-destroyed buildings around them.

The sun was lighting up the street now and the shadows-

All for One's mind went blank.

This was it.

Neither Endeavor nor All for One nor anything else in this street had a shadow.

As soon as All for One realized it, the reality in which he found himself in shattered.

Cracks spread across his surroundings as if they were shattering mirrors.

Everything burst in a spray of shimmering splinters.

All for One blinked and suddenly the sky was stormy, the wind icy from the rain, and the world darkened from lack of sunlight.

Lightning flashed, illuminating the street.

Hundreds of wires were wrapped around All for One's body, tearing his clothes, digging deep in his skin, shredding his flesh.

Taped to his forehead, jaw, throat, heart, lungs, kidneys, elbows, hands, knees, and ankles were sheets of beige parchment bearing ominous ink symbols.

All for One heard only one word.

"Katon"

 

[Nar_cisse]

Glowing specks of fire flashed accross Neito's eyes while he stared at the burning building, whereas Ochaco rose from the car's back seat, aghast.
Crawling up the building's facade, the three Nomus let out high, inhuman cries.

One of them caught fire. He kept on crawling.

One floor above, a woman pushed open her balcony window, holding a boy on her hip.

Acrid black smoke rushed inside her apprtment, swirling around her. The woman coughed then covered her nose with her bathrobe's sleeve

The Nomus all turned to her.

The woman looked down as if to gauge the distance between her and the ground.

Neito bit his cheek, his eyes darting between her and the Nomus.

The fire was only one apartment away.

Oblivious to the danger, the woman held her child close to her chest and swung a leg over the window.

"Don't do it", Neito muttered

His worried eyes darted between her and the other three.

The burning Nomu climbed diagonally towards them.

Wind-driven smoke swept into the woman's apartment, hiding the Nomu in its wake.

She would not see it coming until it was too late.

Neito stepped forward then froze : his nails dug in his palms, leaving crescent creased flesh behind them. The fire cast shimmering shadows that flickered across his face.

If he shouted, he would draw the creatures' attention to them. If he made no movement, she and her child would die.

Neito clenched his jaws. His legs stiffened as if he wanted to move forward but his mind prevented him to do so.

Three Nomus...

He had seen what only one of them could do. He wasn't Todoroki : he obviously wouldn't be fast enough to pierce and destroy the heart of even one of them, let alone three nearly simultaneously.

The woman's foot slipped. She barely held on the windowsill in time.

Neito was on edge.

The only relevant Quirk he had at his disposal-

"He's dead"

Ochaco's voice snapped Neito back to reality.

He blinked, tore himself from the sight of the struggling woman and looked at her.

Her head was bent over her bloodied hands.

"The baby's dead and it's my fault..."

She met Neito's gaze.

She was crying, tears running down her cheeks.

"He was only supposed to go after Aizawa, do you get it ?"

Neito's blood ran cold.

"He said that no one would get hurt and that once he had what he wanted-"

She hiccupped and buried her face in her hands, shoulders twitching.

Had she just confessed to him ? Had she really fucking confessed to him ?

Fury ran through Neito like lightning.

Was she truly responsible for Yaoyorozu and Iida ? Was it her veritably her fault Kaminari and Hagakure had died ?

"What did you just say ?, " he said slowly, anger making his voice shiver

Neito's fingers clenched in a fist, his Quirk instinctually activating.

This time it was All Might's power that swelled his muscles and shook his body.

"What have I done ?" she cried. "My God, what have I done ?"

The woman screamed.

Neito caught her distorted reflection on the rear window of the car as the blazing Nomu hurled himself at her, screeching, disappearing with her inside her smoky apartment.

Rage overwhelmed Neito's thoughts, smothered his lucidity, awakened all the resentment and frustration that Nezu and his damned 'don't do anything' had forced him to bury deep in his gut.

"Fucking traitor", he spat.

Ochaco lifted her head from her hands, eyes wide.

Neito, strength increased tenfold, punched her square in the jaw.

The wind whistled : Ochaco slammed in the wall in which the car was embedded.

It collapsed on her.

A cloud of blasted cement and dust engulfed them.

Between them, in the background, the fire was spreading.

Neito bit his lip and shook his fist to get rid of the tingling pain, eyes shining like steel.

He'd learnt to regulate his strength in order to hurt without breaking his own bones in the process, but he couldn't hit as hard as All Might did and remain unscathed.

Then again, no one needed to hit as hard as All Might when it came to dealing with regular people.

She coughed.

"You killed Kaminari, didn't you ?"

Stunned and shell-shocked, Ochaco was unable to answer.

It was as if pure fire had shot up from her jaw to her skull, throbbing painfully in her bones.

Dust hung like a curtain between them despite the pouring rain.

Neito stepped on the edge of the broken wall.

"Is that why you got out of his room when I was in the corridor ?"

The more he spoke the angrier he got, his wrath fiercly burning in his chest.

He was far from dumb : one Nomu was already far beyond his abilities but three...

He hadn't applied to Yuei because he wanted to become a Hero. Rather, he was interested in the perks of the job.

With his Quirk, Neito would have no trouble breaking into the top ten : fame and influence would be a boon for his family. They'd be able to run their business in utter peace whereas Nezu would cover for them as long as his uncle worked for him.

His uncle who, moreover, had raised Neito as his own son and had drilled into him that there was no worse vice than disloyalty.

He'd eaten his heart out when Nezu had told him to shut up and swallowed his frustration and anger every time he saw that Uraraka bitch strutting through the corridors of Yuei as if nothing had happened.

"What did you truly think I was going to do when you confessed being All for One's whore ?"

He clenched his fist, muscles bulking, shadows creeping up his legs until they wrapped around his neck, threatening to spill on his face.

The dust cloud cleared.

Ochaco lay on her back on a broken piece of wall, rubble scattered around her.

Pieces of wall shrouded in a pink halo hovered over her body.

"Tell me what he's going to do to Aizawa" Neito growled

Ochaco propped herself up on one elbow and shook her head, new tears drawing clear furrows across her dirty cheeks.

"I can't"

Even if he was unable to stop the Nomus, he could at the very least deprive All for One of a pawn.

Neito raised his hand : shadows shot out of his palm like arrows, aimed at Uraraka.

She widened her eyes and threw herself on the side, the flying stones intercepting the shadow arrows.

The rubble burst in a shower of yellow dust and pebbles.

Neito saw Ochaco's shadow spin to the left.

Probably hoping to get around him and escape through the hole they'd just come through.

He spun around to follow her, silent shadows shooting out of his outstretched hand wave after wave.

They pierced her from all sides.

She collapsed.

Neito walked quietly to her, his soles kicking up mushrooms of dust every time they hit the ground.

He stopped before Ochaco's inert form, yellow dust still floating between them.

The shadows whispered in his ear : he spun fluidly on his heels and raised his arm to shield his face, a wall of shadows joining his gesture and blocking the stones hurled at high speed.

Neito did not need to look over his shoulder to know that it was her jacket he had stabbed : she had played the same trick at the tournament.

Ochaco, standing inside the building, wiped her cheeks one by one.

Her voice was now clear of tremolo.

"I won't let you kill me"

Neito smiled wickedly, the shadows completely filling his eyes until they were nothing but black holes.

The tone of his voice thickened as if several people were speaking simultaneously.

"Too bad you have no say about it"

Ochaco bent her legs, resolute : a pink halo wrapped around the debris of all sizes scattered around her. Pebbles and broken bits of wall hovered around her like planets orbiting around their center of gravity.

Neito noticed she didn't need to touch them.

He wondered how many other things she'd lied about.

The shadows climbed up Neito's legs, curled in the creases of his clothes, seeped on his body until they covered the last bit of his skin.

His hair turned black from root to tip.

He looked like a shadow, his body was the embodiment of midnight.

He raised his fist : the very air shimmered, the shadows swayed, and even the flickering light cast by the fire could not lighten this dark corner of the street where the shadows grew and deepened.

Ochaco, jaws clenched, prepared to-

Someone grabbed Neito's wrist.

"Why are two Yuei kids fighting ?"

Neito raised his head at the individual, lips curled over his gums like a wild beast.

"Hey, calm down kid, you don't have to look at me like that"

Hair disheveled as if she'd just rolled out of bed, clothes rumpled and a toothy grin on her face : Mirko stood before them.

*

A/N : If you want to read ahead of schedule (and not stay on this chapter for the next 2 weeks) go check the story's P@treon, Nar_cisseENG

 

[Eggmaster]

Nooooo mirko go away my Boi neither was going to do it.

AFO getting stuck in that genjutsu was hilarious.

 

[Nar_cisse]

The rain pelted the forest-green plastic tents.

Inside the computers were dry, but the men and women behind the screens were not.

"Where are my Heroes ?", asked Pantu sternly

She was leaning against a table, palms flat on it, face severe.

Before her, a large monitor showed an aerial view of the city.

Red dots scattered across Tokyo showed the Nomus they had found and whose locations they could more or less accurately pinpoint.

A total of thirteen.

And All Might was on the other side of the country.

"Mirko is now in Shinjuku"

Pantu lifted her head from the main monitor. She looked at the row of computers in front of her and at the man sitting behind one of them.

The official's stiff shoulders loosened, the tension easing from his body.

Even though no one spoke she saw the palpable relief caused by having one of the Top Ten Heroes on the scene.

Pantu herself, though still frowning, loosened her jaw a little.

"How many Nomus ?", she asked.

The man in front of her hurriedly tapped away at his computer.

"Three, according to the Heroes evacuating the area. And they're all together"

The news darkened the faces.

Pantu was unfazed, her mind racing through the options she had.
Outside, on the roof, someone was running, his boots thumping characteristically on puddles.

Pantu turned before he could cross the threshold.

Wind and rain rushed in.

Behind him, the building where Hawks and Dabi had fought was clashing against the stormy sky. It's access had been shut by the Commission's agents.

Pantu and her team had hurried to the roof of the building adjacent to get a better vantage point over the capital.

Panting, the man wasted no time catching his breath:

"We have confirmation that Endeavor and his son have successfully intercepted All for One not far from Shibuya," he said. "It seems that their fight is pushing all three of them towards Minato"

Pantu was already mulling over her pawns, the potential combinations she could make, the inevitable conflicts and the risks they would all face.

Minato was densely populated, but far less so than Shibuya.

She would have to rely on Endeavor and wonder boy to keep All for One in check while the other Heroes got rid of the Nomus.

She hoped she wasn't overestimating the teenager by entrusting him with such arduous task yet, for now, she had no other choice.

The man who had delivered the report rested two fingers on his earpiece, as if listening to someone else speaking in his ear.

The raindrops on his uniform shone like diamonds.

"Eraserhead has been found wounded in Shibuya and-"

The man turned white so fast he looked as if he was going to faint. He stumbled over his next words.

Pantu had no time for his antics.

"Go on"

"His eyes were gouged out"

There was a hush in the control tent ; everyone momentarily stopped typing

The President's shock turned to deadly calm.

Endeavor and his son had intercepted All for One in Shibuya : it was highly likely that All for One had stolen Eraserhead's Quirk.

"Two more Nomus have appeared in the south of the city, near Shinagawa"

"Torrential rains seem to have seeped into the city's underground : subway stations can no longer be used to evacuate civilians"

The more pressure she felt on her shoulders, the clearer Pantu's mind became.

"What about All for One ? Can Endeavor handle him ?"

"It seems so, yes", the computer scientist beside her replied.

Perhaps he hadn't had time to transplant Aizawa's eyes yet.

Either way, Endeavor and his son would have to hold out as long as they could, since the President couldn't spare anybody who could fight at high intensity without being a deadweight.

"Anything else ?", she asked the bearer of bad news.

He shook his head.

"Go back to your station"

She turned back to her staff : they were tasked with monitoring what happened in the city and deploying reinforcements.

Before her there were two rows of three people, their backs to the central monitor so she could see everyone's screens.

Parallel to the central rows, on the left and right, were two rows of three each, everyone there frantically working.

Though they carefully avoided her gaze, they all looked worried to various degrees.

Many of them lived in Tokyo : some of their families were even in the stricken areas.

She could see on their faces how torn they were between their duty and their private responsibilities.

Pantu pursed her lips : she couldn't afford any kind of insubordination from her own men, yet she didn't have time to make long speeches to boost them either.

"I know the situation is difficult", she said. "But our Heroes-"

A phone rang in one of the central row.

A man man answered and Pantu shut up. Bitter lines creased the corners of his mouth.

He wrote down the information quickly then put down the receiver and turned to face the president : all eyes were on him.

"Tokyo's Central Bank is under attack"

Feeling all eyes on her, Pantu was careful not to show any reaction.

She had to pretend that the situation was under control, that everything that was happening was part of some plan she had anticipated.

"Nomus ?"

"No, several groups of villains. Nothing indicates that they are with All for One"

Some had decided to capitalise on the chaos to carry out their plans.

Opportunistic, if not clever. More than she'd give some low-level villains credit for.

"Alright. Does anyone else have anything to share ?"

Pantu looked around the room.

Doubt clouded faces and darkened gazes.

Every second that passed was one less she could afford to give them coaxing and soothing.

Therefore she chose the harsh approach.

"Someone get me Crust : I want him to immediately go and assist Mirko. Tell Best Jeanist and God Sylvester to head to Shinagawa : they'll deal with the new Nomus in that area. I want Ryukyu and Edgeshot in Chiyoda. If even only one member of these groups falls in battle, they are to retreat and report to us immediately : they can only fight in duos, and only with those I've given clearance for"

Everyone typed furiously on their keyboards, carrying out her orders as quickly as possible.

"I hereby forbid solo Heroes from attacking Nomus : they must focus solely on protecting and evacuating civilians. Heroes who are not in the top 10 are expressly prohibited from attacking Nomus unless they are part of a team of at least 5 members : their goal is not to strike them down but rather to slow them down and limit the harm they inflict on civilians. No one will be held responsible for the property damages occuring under these orders"

"A new Nomu has been spotted in Chuo"

"There's another one in Toshima"

Pantu, hands clasped behind her back, didn't bat an eye, already rearranging her plans according to the new information.

"I want Present Mic, Cementos and Midnight in Chuo. Tell them to bring two more Heroes of their choice. I want Ectoplasm and Recovery Girl to set up an emergency care center in Hiroo : have all the support-type Heroes available and ready to take care of the wounded"

The hospital was located at the junction of Minato, Shibuya, and Meguro : placing an emergency center there was both beneficial and dangerous.

They could evacuate and treat the wounded faster yet if the Nomus managed to break through despite the Heroes... no. That wouldn't happen.

"As for the wounded in other districts, evacuate them to the nearest hospitals. Contact as many retired Heroes in Tokyo as possible and have them help in the civilians' evacuation"

Under other circumstances someone might have complained over her overzealousness, yet the fifteen red dots on the map deterred anyone from thinking about disobeying the orders they received.

"Contact the police station immediately : all highways leading to Tokyo are to be closed. No civilians are allowed to use their personal vehicles. All buses are to be requisitioned and used to transport civilians en masse to the outskirts of the city. I want the Tokyo's Bay closed, and I want Gang Orca and his team on standby there. I now render forbidden entry or leave from the harbour"

She overstepped her authority by ordering the Justice Department to do as she saw fit, but this was a critical situation. Nobody said a word.

"I want Heroes from surrounding cities to support police officers by setting up a security perimeter on the roads around Tokyo. Issue an order to the population : do not enter underground places and avoid subway lines"

The heavy rain only added to the difficulties : evacuating the civilians via the subway lines would have been the correct thing to do if, in top of the risk of drowning in the floods, Pantu could have been sure that All for One wouldn't take the opportunity to strike a fatal blow.

"If my orders are not carried out as given, I allow myself the right to revoke the license of any Hero present on the field for insubordination"

Nor was this the sort of thing she could casually order.

"I give you my word that Tokyo will not fall today"

Pantu glanced around the room, her steely gaze meeting everyone's with fierce intensity.

All for One was enacting the disaster scenario the Commission had been anticipating for months : he had managed to hide his pawns in the capital and was bringing them out into the open as if to mock them.

Pantu took this as a personal attack : she would use any means at her disposal to achieve her goals.

*

A/N : Guess who's back !

Still got nice surprises for this arc. Don't make the mistake of thinking this is over.

Also I wanted to thank everyone who commented and voted for the story accross all platforms over the last two weeks. I'll try to respond to as many people as possible but honestly I didn't expect to get as many interactions lmao.

Anyway you know the drill, if you want to read ahead of schedule, go check the story's P@treon, Nar_cisseENG

And see you wednesday in the next update everyone !

 

[Nar_cisse]

Mirko pushed Neito's fist away, amused.

He stumbled.

"If your special technique makes you lose track of who's your ally and who's your enemy, you might want to think about giving it up, kid"

The shadows withdrew from Neito's face, wrapping around his neck like a scarf.

Ochaco turned white at the sight of the Heroine.

One second she was fighting for her life and the next Mirko was there.

Neito cut in:

"It's-"

Something sputtered.

Mirko suddenly turned serious : she pressed two fingers to her ear and looked in the distance, far away over the surrounding buildings.

"President ?"

She had an earpiece.

"Crust ? How soon ?"

Silence.

"Can Hawks clear the area for me ? Three Nomus, that'll definitely cause a ruckus"

Ochaco glanced at Neito. He hadn't taken his eyes off her.

His blue eyes were a mixture of pure hatred and raw violence.

"I see", Mirko replied.

Ochaco had the urge to walk away yet she did not for fear of arousing his anger.

"Got two Yuei kids with me : what do I to do with them ?"

After a brief silence, Mirko turned to them.

"What are you ?"

Neito didn't answer, thus Ochaco was forced to stammer:

"Uravity and-"

"Meant your Quirks"

"Copy and gravity," Neito said. "She doesn't need to touch objects to control them"

Ochaco bit her cheek.

Mirko raised an eyebrow.

"Copy ? Like copying Quirks ? You can store them ?"

"Only if I'm in contact with the person's DNA," Neito said.

"Whose do you have right now ?"

"A classmate," he said, "and Eraserhead.

His eyes turned a vicious red : the pebbles floating around Uraraka fell like snow.

" And All Might"

Now Ochaco was on edge.

Mirko was speechless.

Then a broad smile curled her lips over her unusually sharp teeth.

"Heard that ?", she asked aloud, certainly for the one speaking through her earpiece

Running away when Neito was determined to catch her was difficult enough - especially with the Quirks he had - but with Mirko standing there, it was absolutely impossible.

Neito's eyes were a malicious red. He watched her with a knowing look, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.

"And what Quirk are you thinking of-"

"Uraraka is a spy for All for One," Neito said coolly. "Barely before you got here she confessed to me that she'd told him where and how to find Aizawa-sensei"

Ochaco's heart jumped in her throat.

Mirko blinked.

She remained silent for a moment as if she wasn't sure if she had truly heard what she heard.

Her earpiece sputtered again.

She tilted her head sideways as she studied Neito, as if listening to someone else speaking to her.

"Say that again ?"

Ochaco's throat turned to glass, her knees to straw.

Neito was calm as death, his gaze locked on her.

He hadn't blinked once since activating Aizawa's Quirk.

"Ochaco Uraraka, student at Yuei's 1-A Elite section, has confessed to me about giving informations concerning Eraserhead's activities and location to All for One. I intended to coerce her into revealing whatever else she knew but you got there first. Call Principal Nezu, he'll tell you himself : we've had our suspicions since the Summer Camp"

Ochaco's mind was a whirlpool of terror and confusion.

The back of her neck and her cheeks flushed : she knew she was peony-red, and she was afraid Mirko would notice.

"Neito", she stammered, voice shaking. "What are you talking about ?"

"She killed one of our classmates," Neito blandy said "Kaminari Denki, at the Summer Camp. It's not public information but the Commission should be aware. Ask the person you're talking to to call them and confirm what I'm saying"

Mirko's sharp eyes darted between Neito and Ochaco.

"Is what he's saying true ?"

Her gaze settled on Ochaco.

Ochaco forced herself not to shudder : this woman could knock her head off her shoulders with a slap.

"Kill ?" she asked, eyebrows furrowed. "Denki died when the dormitories exploded because of the bombs, how could I...?"

She hoped that Mirko couldn't hear the tremor in her voice.

"He didn't die from the explosion," Neito said evenly "but rather from the damage to his face from the shrapnel. He was brought to the hospital where you killed him"

He could barely keep his eyes open - Ochaco could tell by his twitching eyelids.

"How do you know all of these things ?", she asked, confused. "We were only told he died of post-operation complications"

"Your behavior has always been suspicious," Neito continued. "I shared my doubts with the Principal and we cross-checked our data. We were just waiting for the right moment to nail you"

A lie, of course : Nezu had other plans for Uraraka that Neito wasn't privy to - he couldn't either guess from the crumbs of information he had.

Spilling the beans in spite of the Principal's request was a double-edged sword : either he would be too upset over Aizawa to care for what Neito had said, or Neito had put his whole family in dire situation by speaking too much.

Neito thought the former was more likely.

"Now please Mirko, could you keep an eye on her while I moisten my eye s?"

The Heroine, still a bit confused, eventually nodded.

"Take your time kiddo" she said. "Nobody's going anywhere"

She shot Ochaco a sharp look, not accusatory but definitely wary.

Neito walked two steps away from Ochaco before closing his eyes. Relief was apparent in the way his eyelids relaxed.

He cupped his hands, gathering rain in his palms.

Her throat was dry and Ochaco had to clear it before she could speak.

"Ok" she said, deciding to go for a straigtforward approach "Let's say I really am the spy he's talking about : how could I have reached All for One, huh ? I had no service and the only time I was able to use my cell phone was when we left Sensei. Monoma saw what I wrote on my cell phone : I can show you myself"

She fumbled awkwardly through her pockets and finally found her cell phone, which she held out to Mirko with a hand she hoped wasn't too shaky.

"See there ? That's where we were a few minutes ago after we left Sensei : I sent our location to everyone in class"

Mirko first glanced at the cell phone and then, seemingly acting on an order only she could hear, picked it up and scrolled through the recipients.

"There is Shoto Todoroki, yeah" Mirko said aloud

Silence.

Mirko handed the cell back to Ochaco.

"It seems to match the information we've got"

Ochaco was filled with feverish hope: she saw her way out.

"See ? I told you notbing but truth"

She could barely hide her excitement.

Mirko gave no reply, her sharp gaze now directed at Neito, who took turns moistening and massaging his eyelids.

"On the other hand, Monoma sent a message to an unknown number and deleted it immediately afterwards"

"Is that true?", asked Mirko.

"I sent a text to my uncle, yes," Neito replied, opening his irritated eyes once again. "He lives in Tokyo ; I know he'll be able to help Sensei against All for One"

Mirko crossed her arms over her chest.

"Hero ?"

Neito's left eye twitched.

"I never said he was a Hero : he only has a license that allows him to practice his Quirk in public, nothing more nothing else"

Ochaco frowned.

Was that possible ?

Mirko, head cocked, was considering his answer.

"He must know lots of influential people" she remarked calmly.

She was trying pry more information out of him.

Neito smiled politely.

".. ok", Mirko finally said, "I don't have time to check which one of you is lying, but one thing is certain : none of you will get out of my sight, understood ?"

Neito grew white at the statement whereas Ochaco was relieved to be off the hook - for now.

"You want us to fight these...?"

He was so nervous he wasn't able to finish his sentence.

Mirko chuckled.

"Let 15-year-olds fight ? What's next ? Let you go at war for us ? We're definitely not desperate enough to send teenagers off to fight"

Their country would be in deep trouble the day their national security depended on teenagers unable to wipe their own butts properly

"You'll take care of the evacuation in duo," she said, adding : "And no one's gonna complain, understood ? I don't have time to deal with you both and your spy stories. If one of you is lying, the other can keep an eye on him and make sure he does his job properly. Best-case scenario, you're just getting all worked up over nothin' and we can clear it all up with the Commission once this whole mess is taken care of, got it ?"

Ochaco's stomach dropped.

Not the Commission. Everything but the Commission.

"Understood ?", Mirko stressed, eyebrows furrowed.

"Yes"

"As you say"

"I like that better", she said. "And in case any of you want to escape for whatever reason, you should know that the big boss" She tapped her earpiece "Has given me the green light to drop everything I'm doing and chase you to hell and back"

Ochaco could get away if she had a head start and no one was on her tail : Mirko, on the other hand, would only need three jumps to catch a full-on Ochaco.

Mirko slapped her gloves on her skin.

"Let's get to work", she said with a toothy grin. "We've got villains to crush"

It was imperative for Ochaco to escape.

*

A/N : If you want to read ahead of schedule, go check the story's P@treon, Nar_cisseENG

See you in the next update everyone !

 

[Nar_cisse]

Hey everyone, how are you ?

For those that wondered why I didn't post this last week, don't worry : I haven't abandonned the story.

I just broke my right hand and can't write anymore.

(And yeah, I'm obviously not the one typing this).

I've been told I will take five weeks to heal : thus I won't be able to write nor publish for the next month and maybe a bit more.

I have decided to suspend all publications, P@treon's included, where I will also suspend all due payments for the sake of fairness to paying members.

If you still want to read ahead while I'm recovering, I'll let P@treon's subscription available for the next 24 hours before I suspend everything.

Don't worry everyone, I'm still hell bent on getting to the end of the story - and we really will, it will just take a tad bit longer than the end of summer as I had planned.

Thanks for your comprehension everyone and, as always, see you in the next update.

 

[Badhumanism]

Im sorry you broke your hand, take all the time you need to get better, we, your readers, Will await you. So don't worry

 

[Nar_cisse]

Hey everyone, how are you doing ?

As we'll soon be getting back to the normal publication schedule (four times a week) I've decided to upload a quick resume of the last arc events because I'm pretty sure it's been too long for you to remember correctly.

Here it is :

- All Might has still not chosen who will be the next One for All bearer, but he's feeling like he needs to do it soon

- Chapters 159 - 160 : Shoto and Hawks plan the murder of Dabi + Shoto is actually planning to frame Hawks for it. Shoto is trying to convince Hawks not to use his Quirk because the ashes of his feathers would be an easy way to trace the murder back to him : and for this purpose he told Hawks not to worry and that Dabi will be weaker because Shoto is going to drug him beforehand

- Chapter 161 : New guy arrives in 1-A : it's Shindo, a canon guy with a name that I can't remember. Katsuki and Ochaco are kind of being presented as boyfriend/girlfriend

- Chapter 162 : Development about the way the other 1-A students act/are reacting to all of the recents events + their dead comrades + Momo leaving. We see more about Ochaco and Katsuki being all lovey dovey.

- Chapters 163-165 : Dabi gets an anonymous text from someone he knows to get to some place concerning important stuff he has to hide from Shoto. Beginning of the confrontation Dabi/Hawks ; Shoto getting really anxious and then Enji arrives

- Chapter 166 : At the same time Aizawa, Monoma and Uraraka are being chased down in Tokyo's streets by people who obviously want to kill them.

- Chapters 167- 171 : Intense fights Hawks/Dabi + Aizawa forces Uraraka and Monoma to leave because he has realized that the attackers only want him. All fo One appears out of nowhere in front of him.

- Chapter 172 : Shoto + Enji arrive where Dabi and Hawks fought. Hawks is not waking up. Touya is drowning in his blood because of the bone Hawks shot in his throat. At the begging of Enji, Shoto takes off the stuck bone : Touya faints. Or dies. It's unsure at this point if he will survive and if Hawks has managed to save him. Enji goes to kill Hawks but Shoto stands up to him and is like 'Over my dead body'.

- Chapter 173 : Confrontation Enji/Shoto. Shoto is seriously saying that if he has to fight him to protect Keigo, he won't hesitate a second. Enji is absolutely stunned. The Commission arrives.

- Chapter 174 : Pantu brings her own medic. They don't even know if Dabi will survive the transportation to a nearby hospital. If he does, he's going to Tartarus anyway. Shoto gets a text from Uraraka with AFO's location

- Chapters 175-176 : Shoto and Enji run to go save Aizawa. Aizawa fights like a madman. After a very intense fight (kind of John Wick worthy honestly), AFO manages to rip out Aizawa's eyes. Definitely one of my fav chaps.

- Chapters 177 -180 : Fight scenes. Shoto and Enji fight off AFO who now has Aizawa's Quirk. AFO has unleashed an army of Nomus on Tokyo.

- Chapter 181 : Uraraka sees a baby litteraly die in front of her. She starts having a mental breakdown and kind of says that she's working for AFO and she told him where to find Aizawa. Neito snaps and start beating the shit out of her. Mirko arrives last minute.

- Chapter 182 : The Commission reorganizes the way the Heroes handle the chaos in the city. It is litteraly becoming a bloodbath. Hint at someone/a group coming to help out.

- Chapter 183 : Neito tells to Mirko that Uraraka is a traitor. He tells her absolutely everything. Pantu, who talks to Mirko through an earbud, listen to everything. As they don't have the time to sort this out now, Neito and Ochaco are forced to stay with Mirko and evacuate civilians. If one of them try to flee, Mirko is ordered to beat him/her and bring the person back, without consideration for the civilians around her or fighting off the Nomus.

Ochaco realizes that whatever happens, at the end of this night she's absolutely fucked. She knows she has to find a way to flee now.


That's it for the resume, though we've still got plenty of funny stuff coming in this arc.
I'll see you soon in the new chapter, take care everyone !

 

[Eggmaster]

Still take care of yourself man prioritize tour hand recovery if it still in pain.

 

[Nar_cisse]

Still take care of yourself man prioritize tour hand recovery if it still in pain.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for your concern bro, though I had a few chapters stockpiled so I'll just use these and I'll start writing at a slow pace to get back on track

 

[Nar_cisse]

Genjutsu was a gamble.

It paid off.

The second All for One's eyes glazed over, Shoto shunshined in front of him.

He landed on a puddle, half crouched, his soles making no sound.

He reared up like a coiled snake, two ice kunais appearing in his palms at once, his fierce red eyes shining with a malevolent gleam.

Mouth ajar, arms dangling from his body, All for One was frozen in time.

Shoto aimed for the eyes : the semi-transparent blades mirrored the lightning that simultaneously cleaved the clouds. Wind whistled.

Ten centimeters from All for One's face, the kunais crashed against an invisible wall.

They shattered.

Ice shards rained on Shoto's hands, where only the broken hilts remained.

He slammed on the brakes and sprang backward, hair flying back and forth around his face.

Wary, he stopped a few meters away and examined All for One carefully.

His eyes were still empty, his muscles limp : still in Genjutsu.

Shoto carefully walked around All for One.

He squinted to see what his kunais had collided with : nothing.

The air didn't even shimmer.

Four ice blades, devoid of hilts, sprang up at regular intervals between the fingers of his left hand. He held them like a magician holding cards about to be flung.

With a flick of his wrist, the blades shot from his fingers, air whistling in their wake.

Two targeted the legs, one his heart and the last the throat.

All shattered against the invisible barrier.

Shoto stood still.

The hazy genjutsu's environment in which he had trapped All for One overlapped with real life, allowing him to keep an idea of what was going on.

He saw his illusory twin, made of white smoke, blow up on the rooftop behind him.

Shoto relived the entire fight in his mind, pausing at the scenes where they had managed to land a blow on All for One ; nothing had hinted at a hidden defense mechanism.

Or perhaps it was something that only switched on when he lost consciousness ?

It could have been a mechanism to protect him when he was asleep, and thus had activated in this state of artificial suspension close to sleep.

In any case, Shoto-

All for One's fingers twitched.

Shoto was already standing behind him, a chidori ready to pierce him the second he regained consciousness.

All for One's hand clenched and he stopped moving.

How was that possible ? He should have been trapped in an illusion, unable to-

The Genjutsu shifted : Shoto saw his father's smoky doppelganger rushing over the crushed remains of his body.

Shoto glanced at his clone crouching on the building to his right, eyebrows furrowed, eyes locked on All for One.

Shoto resumed his plotting : for now, All for One was occupied.

He raised his hand toward All for One : a stream of fire burst from his palm and smashed into him.

The fire struck the shield, split in two, and continued separately on either side of his body. None of them scratched him.

The stream of fire turned into crackling lightning. It burst in a series of explosions on impact with the invisible wall.

All for One's hand jerked.

Shoto glanced at his clone, who gave him a brief but meaningful look : he was wasting time they couldn't afford to waste.

But how could All for One move in the midst of a genjutsu?

He had no idea how it worked in Naruto's real world, but here, people under genjutsu turned into lethargic creatures, incapable of anything but breathing.

How ?

Crackling lightning became sharp wind : All for One's black cloak billowed in the wind, driven by a gust. On each side of him the ground shattered, cobblestones that made up the sidewalk abruptly broke apart and flew across the street as if hurled by a catapult.

All for One used to be able to see through Shoto's illusions, but that was because he was practically blind ; he had Aizawa's eyes, now, and never had Aizawa-

A memory flashed through Shoto's mind.

He remembered how he had crouched on the ceiling of Yuei's teacher's room and how, for a split second, Aizawa had looked straight at him.

All for One's whole hand shook.

The wind died in his palm. A new clone appeared on his left.

Immediately, a headache hit the back of his skull. Shoto swallowed down his weakness and forced himself to think about the next thing to do.

The clone picked up hand-sized chunks of rubble - pebbles and bits of metal - and aimed at different parts of All for One's body ; there had to be a threshold of weight, size or material. They had to try everything.

Everything hit the wall.

Shoto circled around All for One, assessing the neighborhood they were in, the distance to the buildings, and the possibility of blowing All for One up from an underground basement.

He was unable to perform even the smallest Earth Jutsu but if he could level the area with-

A pebble no bigger than a fingernail hit All for One's shoulder, rolled down his bicep and fell on his shoe.

Shoto and his clone watched in amazement as the tiny pebble rolled to the ground.

Their eyes met and the clone immediately popped up.

Shoto absorbed all the memories and the different ways he had thrown the numerous projectiles.

The pebble that had hit All for One had been the penultimate of the lot, hurled in a hurry by a clone who had focused more on the trajectory than the target.

Shoto picked up a pebble of about the same size and threw it straight at All for One - it hit the wall. He tried again with a smaller projectile - wall.

Shoto reproduced his clone's throw, a flawless bell shot that should have landed on All for One's head ; the pebble hovered over his skull, as if floating mid-air.

Shoto, lips pursed, attempted to focus on the trajectory rather than the target : this time, the pebble hit All for One right between the eyebrows.

An ice knife appeared in his hand ; he threw it again, focusing on the bell-shaped trajectory

The knife shattered against the wall.

Shoto's thoughts raced.

First, he'd thought it was a matter of density and mass, which turned out not to be the case, since pebbles smaller than the first one had failed to penetrate the barrier

Second, he'd thought it had something to do with trajectory : if that had been the case, the knife would have crossed the barrier.

Did intention have anything to do with it ?

If someone who meant no harm to All for One tried to touch him, could they get past his barrier ?

No, no, it didn't make sense : two pebbles had passed through the barrier, and both had been thrown by people who were extremely malicious toward All for One.

What if it was related to the nature of the object?

The ice knife hadn't penetrated the shield for it was inherently bad for All for One.

Shoto's eyes swept over the floor

Something harmless...

His eyes settled on a bush. He tore off a handful of leaves and threw the first one, carried by a slight gust of wind, in a bell-shaped trajectory.

It landed on All for One's bald head, slid against his ear, and wedged itself between the collar of his coat and his neck.

Shoto reached into his uniform pockets and pulled out some of the modified explosive tags his clones had been working on for months.

He halted when he saw them.

These tags were truly serious artillery, the kind of thing that could blow up a street if used alone, and an entire neighborhood if used in unison.

He had no ink, no parchment, no paper - nothing but these world-ending tags.

He had neither the time nor the energy to try and do better : All for One was vulnerable, and it was imperative that he struck now.

Considering how strong All for One was, he'd have to blow up the whole street if he wanted to hurt him at all.

But if he did so, the human casualties would be stratospheric.

Shoto hesitated.

The opportunity was too good to pass up : after that, All for One would be far too defensive to let a Genjutsu fool him for so long.

Evacuating the civilians would take time - time he didn't have.

But he could deal All for One a critical blow here and now. And who knew if he could really evacuate everybody ? He'd figured out the secret of All for One's defense : he had to take this opportunity.

If he really used his explosive tags, hundreds - if not thousands - of people would die.

He could blame it on a Quirk used by All for One - no one would ever know.

Even to him, the reasoning sounded weak.

But an opportunity like this...

He made his choice.

*

Author's note :

Glad to be back everyone !

Let's hope I've not lost too many readers with this break but honestly at this point I think I'm ready to write until the end just for one happy reader lmao.

Anyway, before anyone calls plot armor, you need to remember that the fact that Aizawa – thanks to his eyes - could spot/get out of Genjutsu cast by Shoto has been foreshadowed chapter 54.

If you want to read ahead of schedule, go check the story's P@treon, Nar_cisseENG

See you tomorrow for the next update !

 

[Nar_cisse]

Neito flung open the door to the stairwell. It slammed loudly against the wall.

The civilians in the corridor buried their heads in their shoulders but kept moving.

"Go down and it's the first one on the right," he said, "Go straight on for five hundred meters and you'll find a police station"

He repeated the same line to each group that walked past him.

The families looked like clusters of refugees, parents' faces hard and worried, children wide eyed, hair disheveled, silent, a toy in their hand as consolation.

Some had filled backpacks, others had computers, wallets, and photo albums tucked under their arms, and some had nothing but themselves.

An old woman walking past him was clutching her hands in despair. Her palms were as wrinkled as a wilted apple.

"Can't you come with us ? We'd all feel safer if you did"

A few paused in the stairway and looked at him expectantly.

He wondered if they realized that he was a kid like any other or if wearing a costume made him somehow a supreme authority in their eyes, one over whom common sense no longer held sway.

Neito wondered whether the costume had dehumanized him so much that they failed to notice that he was just as frightened as they were.

His eyes darted back to Uraraka, who was in charge of knocking on doors and sending people back to him.

His hatred hit him so swiftly and violently that he forgot his fear.

As she moved down the corridor, he moved slightly to the side to keep her in sight.

He'd burn her slowly like Hagakure, disfigure her like Kaminari, tear off her legs like Iida.

"I have to supervize the evacuation," he said calmly. "But don't worry, the police will take care of you. Please move forward"

He pushed her gently but firmly forward ; she reluctantly stepped aside, lips pursed.

Shoes clicked on the darkened steps in a funereal rhythm.

A cry of joy shattered the deathly silence.

The corridor window looked out onto the street : a smiling white silhouette, hair flowing behind her, flew past.

Mirko, flying between two jumps, was laughing, three blue, drooling Nomus in her wake.

She wasn't supposed to interfere until her partner arrived, but the civilians were too compromised and Crust wasn't supposed to be far away : she'd thrown herself into the fight as soon as the President had told her to be careful.

When they heard her, the civilians looked relieved.

Neito wondered if she was doing it on purpose - if she knew that hearing her screaming in joy would soothe the civilians - or if she was just crazy.

He shifted a little to the left to keep Uraraka in sight.

Outside, Mirko made a sharp right turn between two close buildings.

The first Nomu on her tail failed to react in time : he landed on the building, rattling the whole structure.

Mirlo looked behind her : the residential area was a square of buildings grouped around a larger, wider one.

The street was wide enough to keep them from cornering her, but not wide enough to keep her from jumping from window to window, reproducing bell-shaped trajectories over the street.

She maintained a fast, punishing pace, but nothing that would fatigue her.

All she had to do was keep them busy enough until the evacuation was over, and then she would go all out.

"Come on,keep going !", she screamed cheerfully as she turned right.

They followed her like a flock of sheep - or rather, like a pack of rabid dogs.

According to the President, they were all armed with multiple Quirks - none of those following her had shown the slightest aptitude for it.

Maybe they were too dumb to figure out how to use them.

Her earpiece twitched, as it did every time the mic on the other end of the line was on.

"How is it going, Mirko ?", the President asked

Mirko's soles landed lightly on a window sill. She bent her legs to jump up.

"Bett-"

All of a sudden, a huge black hand popped out of the wall and closed over her face.

Mirko's adrenaline surged : she twisted her foot so that her ankle hit the edge of the wall and she stumbled.

Mirko fell three stories, headfirst, the hand above closing over empty space.

At the bottom, one of the three Nomus - the fastest - was waiting for her, his monstrous mouth wide like a black hole able of swallowing an entire couch. Yellow, drooling fangs, were so numerous he has no gums.

Mirko grinned broadly, used the wall as a springboard, and launched herself straight at him.

Spinning at the last moment, Mirko landed feet first, her left foot on his chin and the other on the top of his face.

She broke his nose.

He didn't react.

Mirko's red eyes flashed with ferocity.

She laughed maniacally as he shook his head, trying to make her fall into the gaping orifice that was his mouth.

Mirko's senses never failed her : the other two were quite far behind, and she could still see the third's hand through the wall, foolishly trying to catch air.

Mirko crouched over the gaping maw, a gleam of madness in her eyes.

She rubbed her gloved hands together, then grabbed both top and bottom row of teeth.

His fangs sank down her gloves. Blood trickled down her fingers.

Mirko smiled, sucked in a breath, then braced her muscles and pulled.

The monster didn't immediately grasp what she was doing.

When he felt his throat being torn apart, he struck with all his might.

The blows rained down on Mirko.

She felt her thighs shudder under the impact, her bones rattling like straw.

Her smile widened.

She tore the Nomu in two with the sheer power of her hands.

*

A/N : Very short chapter but the next one will make up for it

Give me your thoughts about the chapter or what you think will happen between Neito and Ochaco.

Check the story's P@treon, Nar_cisseENG , if you feel like it : we're getting so freaking close to the end of Part 2 I'm getting giddy.

See you all monday in the next update everyone !

 

[Nar_cisse]

Shoto took a deep breath through his nose, assessing his options and stretching his senses to cover the surrounding area.

His father was far away enough to help without getting hurt ; civilians, on the other hand, were another matter.

Shoto made pop up several of the clones working on his final project : the chakra he got back from them was meager and the accumulated fatigue was getting harder and harder to bear.

He clenched his jaw and refused to pity himself.

He would find a solution when this whole damn mess was over.

He created two clones and glanced at the one in charge of keeping All for One asleep.

Judging by the scowl on his face, the task was far more challenging than he'd expected : it was worse considering his mission was to weaken All for One's focus by stretching out time withing the illusion in order to get more of it in reality.

Shoto cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders.

Clone 1 jumped next to the Genjutsu focused one to transmit the new instructions.

"Ready ?", Clone 2 asked.

Shoto nodded, crackling arcs of yellow light dancing around his body.

He would have to be especially careful while handling civilians.

"Change your looks" he ordered.

The clone transformed into Yamato, his clothes changing into Jonin's common outfit.

The two clones on the roof morphed into Genma and Asuma.

Shoto stretched his sensing further, his brain registering and compartmentalizing every new energy he detected.

His headache spread from his scalp to his forehead, burning and throbbing. His eyes grew hot : it felt like someone was trying to unscrew his eyeballs with a screwdriver.

He buried exhaustian and pain behind the necessity of his goal : zero casualties.

He would have to go extremely fast - faster than he'd ever gone before.

"Whenever you want", Yamato breathed

Shoto reinforced his full body with chakra, paying special attention to his ankles, knees and thighs.

The last thing he wanted was for his legs to break, in which case he'd be completly fucked up.

The amount of chakra he poured onto his body was so great a layer of shimmering blue light coated his skin.

He breathed in one last time, filling his lungs full.

His clone had not blinked that Shoto was gone.

One second he was there, the next an earthquake shook the street, a gust of wind blowing from where he stood.

Cracks were spreading out from the place where he had jumped, turning into crevices.

The clone hadn't even reopened his eyes when Shoto smashed through the wall of a first-floor apartment.

The wall exploded inward, flying rubble scattering in all directions.

Still at the height of his leap, Shoto surveyed his surroundings quickly, his Sharingan moving so fast it looked like a streak of red light on his face.

An old woman, a puppy on her lap, was crouched behind a sofa.

The pieces of wall were still in free fall : the instant his soles grazed the floor, yellow light ran around his legs.

Shoto lifted the old woman and the dog, spun on his feet, and threw them through the holed wall.

Outside Yamato, Sharingan on, caught her gently ; she was still curled up against her dog, eyes closed, motionless as a statue, stuck between the inhalation she'd taken when Shoto had smashed through her living room wall and the exhalation she hadn't had time to take yet.

The rubble from the first wall he'd smashed while getting inside hadn't even had time to hit the floor before he'd already crashed through the wall of the next apartment.

Four people were hiding in a bathroom : Shoto shunshined so fast that the closed door was obliterated.

A couple was hugging their two children in a bathtub.

Shoto tore off the shower curtain, quickly flung it around them, grabbed all four as if they were a single bag, spun on his feet, and threw them through the window in front of him and across the apartment.

Shoto quickened his pace, heart pounding in his chest, leaving a lingering image where he'd already vanished.

He went so fast that the civilians, unable to even see him coming, looked like frozen figures stuck in time, faces contorted in terror, mouths open on throats that made no sound.

He cleared the entire second floor before the rubble from the first wall he'd smashed in hit the ground.

Not enough.

Another clone sprang from Shoto's body : the headache turned into monstrous dissonance.

The clone, wrapped in the same blue halo, jumped, feet joined, on the floor ; he broke it and landed on the first floor.

Shoto tightened his muscles and pumped more chakra in his legs : he didn't even leave anymore residual images, merely a trail of paper sheets flying in all directions, picture frames falling from walls, and hardwood floors shattering in splinters, unable to withstand the pressure of his footsteps.

Civilians went through their home's windows faster than the rain was falling.

Outside, between two hastily caught bodies, Genma created two more clones.

The Raido clone caught the civilians thrown from the ground floor, whereas the Gai one carried dozens of them on his shoulders, a thin coat of chakra sticking them to him to prevent an impromptu fall. He shunshined at full speed to the unofficial rescue zone defined by Endeavor's presence.

Shoto threw another family out the window, choosing at the last moment to send their cat with them, knowing full well that he couldn't afford to waste that millisecond on pets.

All for One looked up at the sky.

Out of the corner of his eye, Shoto saw the wires crisscrossing his body like a spider's web : Asuma and Genma - in between catching civilians - were working together.

All for One shifted slightly to the left, glassy eyes wandering, as if he were trying to see something closer.

He collided with the iron web, threads of steel sinking into his flesh and clothes.

Chakra strings dangled from Genma's fingers, at the end of which were explosive tags : he threw them in a bell shape, not really aiming at All for One.

One in the heart, one in the throat-

Shoto tore himself away from the spectacle and resumed his frantic run.

He was sweating profusely yet he was moving so fast the barely out beads were freezing. The wind blew his hair against his head and pushed his clothes against his skin.

He grabbed, wrapped in rags and threw the civilians so fast his hands were blurry.

Faster.

Shoto cleared building after building, his ground-floor clone speeding up to keep up.

Move faster, run faster-

Adrenaline pumping through his blood made him frantic.

Come on, come on !

He left pets behind. He had no time for them.

Have to be enough, have to do enough, because if you're not-

Even with his sharingan on, the landscape grew hazy.

Keep fucking going.

The second All for One opened his eyes again, the whole area exploded.

*

Inside, Neito and Ochaco had finished clearing the first building.

The smell of burning already permeated the place : the fire was getting closer.

Ochaco ran down the corridor, kicking open door after door.

She ran past a mirror and caught a glimpse of her reflection : she looked away before meeting her own gaze, her mouth set in a bitter line.

Neito, standing at the top of the stairs, gazed at her.

She was aware that he hadn't turned his back on her once since her half-confession ; he must have been afraid that she would stab him in the back.

It was indeed true that she'd went through a kitchen earlier and the thought had crossed her mind.

Her mind drifted back to the baby.

Seeing dead adults, ok, needing to kill a couple of teenagers because they had seen things they shouldn't have, reprehensible but understandable, but the fact that a baby - a being so small, so fragile, that hadn't asked to be born and hadn't stood in her way - died because of her...

Bitter taste rose to her throat.

She had never realized that her actions would have consequences.

She'd only seen the money and, to tell the truth, that was all she could still see.

Katsuki came to her mind.

Ochaco forced herself to think of something else.

She wondered what his expression would be when he found out she was a traitor. Maybe if she managed to escape, he'd chase her to the other side of the world and demand an explanation. So romantic.

She almost smiled, but Neito would have taken it as a personal slight.

She could see by his murderous look that he was dying to hit her until she couldn't remember her own name.

He'd held back earlier - without that, and with All Might's Quirk in his possession, he would have simply pulverized every bone in her skull.

She wondered what he'd think if she told him she regretted her life choices.

Of course, he wouldn't believe her for a second.

The money had its appeal, but perhaps she should have been more careful before signing a pact with the devil. But all that money...

She'd heard the Nomus screaming across the city : there were too many of them, too scattered for it to be a focused strike.

If she could get away - when she would - she might be able to make a break for a bank to fill her pockets.

She'd always dreamed of robbing a bank.

Then she'd disappear forever. That is, until All for One decided to drag her out of her hideout by her hair, or Todoroki - also dragging her by her hair - took her back to Katsuki for explanations before a quick execution at the hands of the Commission.

Getting caught had never been a question of 'if', only 'when'.

She'd known she was done for ever since Todoroki had stormed into her room with his witchcraft or illusion or whatever the hell was that thing was that made her feel like there were worms crawling in her stomach.

According to Neito, she'd been screwed up for far much longer, she just hadn't been aware of it.

Still, she would have preferred it if Katsuki was the one that had caught her red-handed the night she'd left Kaminari's room.

Katsuki was clever - he would have suspected something and would've eventually discovered the truth on his own. Obviously he'd have confronted her one day.

He would've hurt less if he'd discovered the truth on his own.

She really didn't want to see his face when he found out.

She had to get out of there tonight, no matter what Mirko threatened to do.

"Next building", Neito said.

This one was fully cleared.

Ochaco came back at a brisk pace, cheeks flushed.

Neito stepped back when he saw her coming ; he wanted her to walk down the stairs first.

It's true that she'd thought about pushing him down, using her Quirk to increase the weight of his body so he'd fall to his death.

Neito met her gaze, hostile. As if he'd heard her thoughts, his expression darkened and he switched on Aizawa's Quirk.

Ochaco wasn't even annoyed.

She was bound to get an opportunity and-

One of the Nomus screamed, its voice a high-pitched shrilly.

A large window overlooked the corridor they were in.

Something hit the wall next to the window with a loud thud.

A muscular, tanned arm - a human arm - flapped in front of the glass.

Mirko slid on this side, feet resting on a gutter.

Blood trickled from her forehead into her hair. She'd been bitten on her left shoulder. She'd lost her smile, a grave look on her face.

Suddenly Mirko's ears snapped back : her eyes flicked to the left, as if she were trying to see over her shoulder, her left elbow instinctively going for a hit between his eyes.

She expected him to strike her throat thus she leaned forward, muscles tensed, and lifted her left leg to kick him right in the jaw.

And the first Nomu-

Suddenly, a wave of searing pain washing over her from head to toe : Mirko arched her back, toes twitching, a wave of icy sweat breaking on her burning skin.

Mirko, red with pain, jaw clenched, lowered her eyes.

A huge black Nomu, unlike the other three, had sunk its teeth between her crotch and thigh.

He looked at her with his monstrous globular white eyes, blinking stupidly when their eyes met.

He smiled. Then he pulled violently.

Mirko's bones rattled : her femur rubbed against her pelvis, sending a jolt of scorching pain through her bones.

Her vision went white, her eyes glassy.

Mirko screamed.

A chill of icy terror ran through Neito and Ochaco simultaneously.

The Nomu's smile widened, blood staining his black gums and rolling over his teeth.

Then he bit off Mirko's leg.

A spray of blood splattered diagonally across the Nomu's face and the window through which Neito and Ochaco could see everything.

The other two Nomus pounced on her.

Her screams turned into cries of agony.

They tore her apart.

Paralyzed, Neito and Ochaco saw the three Nomus crouching around her through a screen of blood that turned the world scarlet. Behind the red curtain, the white mass was shrinking.

Pieces of bloody flesh and shreds of cloth rained down onto the street.

Ochaco looked at Neito.

She wiped her sweaty hands on her trousers, heart pounding, then backed slowly down the corridor she'd come from, sinking into the darkness.

Something squeaked under her shoe.

She looked down for a moment. A forgotten doll.

Neito's burning eyes were already on her, his blond hair floating above his head.

He gritted his teeth and hissed, not wanting to make too much noise to alert them.

"Don't fucking move or I'll-"

She stepped back again.

*
A/N : If you want to read ahead of schedule, go check the story's P@treon, Nar_cisseENG

See you in the next update !

 

[Nar_cisse]

The three Nomus were stuck to the window, greedily lapping up Mirko's blood as it dripped on the window.
The storm intensified.

Rain pelted against the glass, droplets turning to bloody beads when they hit the human remains.

They even ate her suit.

A bolt of lightning struck the sky, the red light - filtered by the bloody window - momentarily illuminated the dark corridor where Neito and Ochaco stood facing each other.

They were staring at each other.

The flash lit Neito's face obliquely : his hair were floating above his face, his piercing red eyes locked on her.

He leaned forward slightly, his knees bent as if he were about to pounce on her.

To his right was the empty staircase, to his left the window.

They could hear chewing and groans of pleasure from swallowing.

Another flash of lightning.

The light hit Ochaco at an angle. Her hands looked as if they were covered in blood.

With her back to the row of apartments, the window was to her right.

She was closest to it.

The Nomus were too busy eating, and the glass was too murky with blood and bits of flesh for them to notice them.

Ochaco felt deadly calm.

As the next bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, she tilted her head forward, exposing her lips to the light.

Her lips moved quietly:

"If you take a step forward, I'll scream"

Neito's eyes narrowed.

She'd do it.

Or at least she'd do it only if Monoma left her with no other choice.

She'd rather take the risk of... ending up like Mirko than to be captured and exhibited as a traitor for all to see. She'd rather die than suffer such humiliation.

Monoma would hurt her - she could see it in his eyes.

She'd hurt him as much as he intended to hurt her if it meant getting out of here alive.

Slowly, Ochaco took a step back.

Neito took a step forward.

They locked eyes.

Ochaco, lips pressed into a thin line, hesitated.

She could run, but the creatures would hear her.

Another bolt of lightning cut through the sky, flooding the corridor : Ochaco took two quick steps back as the lightning's roar drowned out everything.

She paused when the noise faded.

She glanced nervously at the window.

They kept on lapping and nibbling and chewing.

Neito took a step forward.

One of the Nomus lifted its head, nose up, as if sniffing the air.

Three consecutive thunderclaps.

Ochaco ran to the other end of the corridor, Monoma hot on her heels. The doors to all the apartments were open ; the corridor curved to the right, making an "L".

There was a fire escape but it opened on the inner street of the neighborhood, where the Nomus - and Mirko - had run earlier.

The thunder stopped.

Ochaco and Neito froze, not daring to move.

She risked turning around, spinning on the toes of her shoes.

Monoma was staring at her with his big, red, malicious eyes, way too close to her.

His hair fell back over his face, his eyes resuming their azure hue.

His sclera suddenly turned black, and Ochaco reacted instantly.

She stretched out her hands on either side of her body just as Neito reached for her.

Knickknacks, furniture, and cushions shimmered in pink light from the adjacent apartments ; Neito's shadows, running across the floor, stopped within an inch of Ochaco's shoes.

Ochaco, relieved, showed nothing : Neito's eyebrows were two straight, dark lines above his eyes.

There were at least thirty floating objects around them, ranging from glass jars filled with flowers to the brim to mirrors and keys.

Neito's eyes darted from one object to another.

She knew exactly what he was doing : counting and calculating, trying to figure out how to catch them in such a way that none of them would touch the ground.

He couldn't, they both knew it. There were too many of them.

Ochaco, feeling in a position of power, let go of all the suspended objects.

Neito's eyes widened ; he leaned forward, his right sole squeaking on the ground, his shadows splitting into threads to catch them all.

The objects froze a few centimeters off the ground.

From the looks of it, he could have barely caught ten of them.

Ochaco sent him a glance of warning.

She didn't wait for the next bolt of lightning before she slowly backed away.

Neito looked at her back away, eyes occasionally drifting back to the floating items in the middle of the corridor, torn between the desire to follow her and his compulsion to stay where he was.

Just as she rounded the corner Ochaco flicked her wrist, hurling the tornado of items straight at Neito.

He cursed : she ran at full speed, heart beating wildly.

She kicked open the emergency door just as a thunderclap, louder than the previous ones, erupted.

The stairs were bathed in darkness ; a single square of dim light from a plastic trapdoor on the roof faintly lit the place.

She didn't run downstairs ; leaning against the metal railing, Ochaco, bathed in pink light, leapt into the stairwell's hole.

Far behind her, glass shattered ; she heard the Nomus scream.

Ochaco hurled herself through the three floors like a cannonball : her body stopped short of hitting the ground.

She deactivated her Quirk and landed softly and quietly.

Far above, the Nomus were still shrieking.

There were two doors, one in front of the stairs - leading to the inner street of the residential area - and the other on the right of the stairs, leading to the first floor.

If she took the door leading inside, she would have no trouble avoiding the Nomus then she would sneak into the city, and after-

Something heavy and awfully heavy crushed Ochaco with all its might.

Ochaco rolled on the ground like a doll without strings, head smashing against the lowest step.

The pain that Neito had caused her when he had struck her earlier rekindled though her bones like a trail of gunpowder set on fire.

She opened groggy eyes, black spots flickering in her vision.

The screams of the Nomus were like whirlwinds crashing on the shore stairwell, echoing endlessly. She had the feeling they were getting closer.

Stunned, Ochaco stood up on one arm.

In the middle of the room, barely inches away behind her and the steps, was a shadowy figure on all fours, breathing heavily and growling.

Ochaco froze, terrified.

The shadow lunged at her.

Ochaco stifled a scream and pushed the thing away, Quirk on : a pink halo wrapped around the shadowy figure and slammed it against the door leading inside.

Simultaneously, there was a shower of thunder.

The Nomus, unleashed, howled.

The shadow raised its head, its face breaking into a tiny square of light.

Blond hair.

In panic, Ochaco crawled toward the door, half standing on her hands and feet, hoping to run as far-

The shadows wrapped painfully around her left ankle, pulling her sharply backward.

Ochaco crumpled on the floor, her chin slamming on the ground.

Her teeth snapped with a clatter on her tongue. Blood filled her mouth.

Shadows wrapped around both her legs, dragging her backward.

Her knees scraped on the floor. Ochaco dug her nails into the concrete, clawing as hard as she could, trying to find hold.
He yanked her more, her elbows rubbing against the ground.

Her left hand hit the foot of the stairwell railing ; she gripped it with all her might.

Shadows crawled up her thighs, wrapped around her forearms, pulling to make her let go.

Ochaco activated her Quirk, immediately multiplying her weight tenfold.

Shadows seeped under her clothes, crawled under her sweater, wrapped around her stomach like a ring of darkness, trying to pull her away.

Ochaco gritted her teeth, face flushed from the strain.

The shadows tightened around her left wrist, trying to make her let go at any cost.

Neito, still leaning against the second door, gasped, each breath wheezing and sharp.

His head rolled on the side : he looked hatefully at Ochaco through a curtain of blond hair, spitting between two hisses :

"You won't get away, bitch"

The shadows, already wild, grew violent.

They pulled her back, intent on tearing her apart if necessary to make her let go.

Ochaco's muscles groaned under the pressure, her skin stretching like rubber, some of her bones cracking.

He would break her in two.

All of a sudden, the shadows broke Ochaco's ankle.

A bolt of searing pain shot through her body.

She screamed.

The shadows buried themselves in her mouth, muffling the sound.

A veil of pain and anger shrouded Ochaco's eyes.

The shadows, heavy and thick in her throat, drowned her from within.

She let go and shifted her weight, turning lighter than air.

The shadows, still yanking, pulled her back fiercely.

Ochaco flew across the room, legs outstretched.

Monoma's eyes widened.

He couldn't move in time.

Ochaco crashed into him.

They rolled back and forth in a tangle of arms and legs.

The storm had turned deafening tempest.

Ochaco was astride Monoma, her hands around his throat, her weight tenfold.

Monoma turned purple, the pressure on his lungs unbearable.

For a moment, the shadows receded from his eyes.

Ochaco squeezed his throat with all her might, her nails digging into his flesh.

Monoma tried to rise up against her, to push her down, the shadows attempting to push her back with him.

She didn't move an inch.

The shadows lunged for Ochaco's broken ankle, pulling it savagely.

Ochaco screamed. Her vision went white.

Monoma pushed her aside, took a single breath, lungs on fire, then threw himself at her, resolute, his legs on either side of her body.

He strangled her with one hand, his broader palm easily covering most of her throat.

Ochaco rolled beneath him like a wild animal, struggling to escape.

Monoma raised his hand high above his head.

A beam of light struck the object he was holding. It glowed.

He stabbed Ochaco right in the ribs.

Another burst of pain.

She opened her mouth to scream ; he covered it with his free hand.

She bit into his palm with ferocity, making him scream in turn.

At the top of the stairs, the door slammed against the wall.

They heard the screaming Nomus.

Thanks to a hip thrust Ochaco rolled Neito on his back and got the upper hand.

The knife flew from Neito's palm to hers.

The glint of the gleaming blade reflected in his eyes.

"Here ! "

His scream echoed up the stairs. The Nomus screamed in response.

Ochaco's blood ran cold.

She stifled a shout of anger and frustration, then stabbed Monoma in the head, the blade digging into his ear.

Monoma screamed in pain, catching the blade as it sank into his ear.

His palm glowed yellow - All Might - was bleeding.

The knife tore deep in his flesh.

Ochaco pushed, forcing gravity onto the blade, and Neito resisted, pushing the knife back.

The knife went back and forth like a chainsaw in his palm, tearing his skin and crushing his flesh.

The tip sank, withdrew, and sank again at a different angle into Neito's eardrum.

Blood gushed from his ear like a hot spring.

The Nomus ran vertically down the walls, so quick they looked like a pack of wolves on the prowl.

Neither Ochaco nor Neito would make it out alive.

Ochaco jerked the blade back violently and recoiled on her buttocks, heart pounding, to hide under the stairs.

Neito was still screaming.

Ochaco, one eye closed from the blood running down it, held the knife in both hands, the blade aimed at her throat.

She'd rather kill herself than suffer the same fate as Mirko, but she wanted Neito to die in pain for preventing her escape.

The tip of the knife grazed her throat, a trickle of blood rolling down the blade.

She would die with dignity, neither captured nor paraded like a traitor.

She had lived her life as she saw fit, trying to take control of her own destiny.

She closed her eyes and tried to calm her heart. Her chest rose and fell rapidly.

The Nomus weren't far away.

She'd done her best, really.

A flash of blonde hair crossed her mind.

She had no regrets.

Ochaco pushed the knife down her neck.

*

A/N : Ochaco's Quirk of being more than it seemed is also not plot armor and was foreshadowed Chapter 66.

If you want to read ahead of schedule, go check the story's P@treon, Nar_cisseENG

See you in the next update everyone !

 

[Nar_cisse]

The door to the street slammed against the wall.

Ochaco gasped.

A person stood on the threshold, his whole body completely bathed in darkness.

Behind him the storm roared.

Wind-driven rain lashed the air. A bolt of lightning leapt from one black cloud to another, crackling furiously before splitting into a multitude of yellowish capillaries that momentarily lit up the sky.

The person took a step inside.

A vertical thunderclap lit the individual obliquely.

His white, gloved hands, reflected in Ochaco's terrified eyes.

She made no sound, no attempt to warn him ; the Nomus were still galloping up the walls, shaking the entire building.

The person raised his head.

One of the velvet gloves dropped between his shoes.

The first Nomu - the black one - pounced on thim, mouth open to decapitate, long clawed legs outstretched to grasp.

The human raised a long, slender arm, bare hand slightly bent, index finger outstretched, as if curiously trying to stroke the creature.

Suddenly, an explosion rocked Tokyo.

A column of fire and smoke rose over the horizon, far beyond the buildings. The clouds turned red, the storm took on the furious hue of blood, and the whole world was momentarily ablaze as if in broad daylight.

The contours of the individual's silhouette turned blood-red, lighting him up as if he were on fire, running up his body from his shoes to his face like an unrelenting fever.

Driven by gravity, the Nomu stepped into the hole of ruby light opened by the door.

His face caught fire as well, the contours of his bloody fangs glowing, the drops of saliva dripping from his lips turning to lava.

The fire gradually spread along his body as he moved into the light.

They reminded Ochaco of a famous biblical painting.

She pressed her blade harder against her throat ; a trickle of blood rolled down her neck.

The nonchalant man blinked slowly.

His eyelashes were ablaze. His eyes were the color of liquid gold.

The tip of the fang grazed the outstretched finger.

The Nomu exploded in a spray of blood.

A spurt splashed diagonally across Ochaco's face, staining her parted lips. A slimy chunk of liver landed on her cheek. It stuck there.

Her knife slipped from her hand.

Her eyes reflected his fiery silhouette.

The two remaining Nomus launched themselves at him from opposite directions.

The man spun on his heels, hands raised in a standing ovation, his long cloak billowing behind him.

The Nomus exploded simultaneously.

Ochaco was drenched in blood and blasted organs.

Still in shock, she could not look away him.

He was spotless ; not a drop of blood had stained his clothes.

Blood dripped from her once-brown hair down her cheeks, so red she looked like she'd painted her face.

Her heart was beating so fast she was sure it could be heard outside her body.

The man looked at her.

He had close-cropped auburn hair and yellow eyes, an appearance of deadly boredom that contrasted with a steely gaze.

Ochaco, sweating, swallowed loudly.

She still hadn't blinked.

He looked away, his gaze now on Neito.

He took two steps in his direction and stopped in front of him.

"That's where you were..."

His voice was deep and gravelly.

It sounded loud in the empty stairwell.

"It took me forever to find you"

The walls were stained with red, blood drops rolling off it as if they were seeping through its pores.

Ochaco straightened slightly.

"Who are you ?" she whispered.

He didn't even bother to look at her.

Glued to the wall, crouched, head bent over his knees, eyes locked with the floor, Neito held his bloody left ear in one hand, gaze glassy.

"Stand up"

With the toe of his shoe the man pushed back one of Neito's knees.

His leg buckled and fell limply to the side, as if it were boneless.

The man pondered the situation for a moment.

Ochaco watched in silence.

The man crouched down and gently pushed Neito's cupped hand to get a better look at what he was hiding.

Neito groaned.

His skin was icy cold.

His ear had been pierced in all directions, the tears creating a misshapen star with long and short arms, the epicenter of which was his perforated eardrum.

The man, face closed, observed the wound quietly.

Neito looked like he was about to faint.

"Who did this to you ?"

Ochaco's blood ran cold.

"Is it one of those things ?"

She cowered and backed further under the stairs.

Her soles squeaked on a puddle of blood.

"Neito, I asked you a question"

Ochaco held her breath.

Neito blinked.

His head jerked to the side, his chin drooping on his shoulder.

Ochaco hoped he would pass out.

A trickle of drool ran from Neito's parted lips down his cheek.

His eyes were two dull slits, devoid of light. He blinked slowly.

Then his chin moved slightly in Ochaco's direction.

The man's gaze followed the movement.

His eyes rested on her.

She thought she was going to piss herself.

"Did she do that to you ?"

His voice was calm, devoid of emotion. He pushed back the strands of hair that fell across Neito's forehead with the same hand he'd used to brush his ear.

His gloved fingers - when had he put them back on? - left a trail of blood on Neito's skin.

The man clicked his tongue in displeasure.

He took off the glove and tossed it to the floor, pulling another - clean - from his coat's pocket.

He put it on and stood up, turning to face Ochaco.

Ochaco's heart thundered in her throat. She felt like she was going to throw up. She tried to sink further under the stairs, her shoes sliding frantically along the floor, her nails scratching the wall behind her.

There was something dangerous in the man's eyes, something terrifying in a way that reminded her of Todoroki.

Neito drooled so much that his left cheek - the cheek pressed against his shoulder - turned wet and shiny.

"I asked a question" The man repeated calmly, "Did you do this to him ?"

He took a step forward. Ochaco tried to retreat further.

The man's expression darkened.

He slowly removed his gloves.

His hands were white and smooth, unblemished.

Ochaco tried to become one with the wall.

He took three steps forward then crouched, his gaze level with hers.

They studied each other for a moment in silence.

Then the man grabbed Ochaco by her hair and pulled her violently from her hiding place.

Ochaco screamed and struggled futilely.

With his left hand, he grabbed Ochaco by the throat and lifted her up.

Ochaco 's hands crept to her throat, tugging at his fingers one by one to make him let go - he was too strong.

Her feet kicked the air as she struggled.

"You're the girl he's supposed to team up with, aren't you ?"

She tried to strike the inside of his elbows - just as she'd been taught - to make him let go.

Ochaco turned red, then purple, veins in her throat throbbing.

The man stared at her with his calm, inexpressive yellow eyes, detached as if he were watching an insect fight its inevitable death.

She activated her Quirk, increasing her weight tenfoldto make him let go ; he pinned her against the wall for support and tightened his grip, squeezing harder.

The more time went by, the more desperate and wild she became, trying to kick him in the face.

He barely recoiled.

"I know you. Neito told me about you"

She scratched at his hands until they bled.

"There's nothing worse than a traitor"

Ochaco exploded in a spray of blood, guts, and intestines

*

A/N : If you want to read ahead of schedule, go check the story's P@treon, Nar_cisseENG

And see you in the next update everyone !

 

[Nar_cisse]

Endeavor looked around, phone pressed to his ear.

"We're at Atago-Jinja's entrance"

"How many civilians ?", his second-in-command asked

Endeavor looked around.

The place - a mixture of a public squarein front of the shrine and its parking lot - was empty.

"About three hundred people"

"We're in the area : we'll be there in a few minutes to evacuate them"

Endeavor hung up.

Standing in the middle of the square, arms dangling, he looked around, unsure of what to do.

He was not accustomed to being sidelined.

His son - who had suddenly appeared before him - had insisted that he had found a way to deal All for One a fatal blow, but that it would require the evacuation of all civilians in the area.

Endeavor nearly had a heart attack as he watched him explode in a cloud of smoke shortly after relaying his orders.

Once more his gaze swept over the area.

It had to be-

Endeavor blinked and suddenly mountains of civilians, wrapped in shower curtains or blankets, appeared in groups around him.

Whole families, dazed, stepped out of their shackles, exchanging looks of astonishment.

"How did we get here ?"

"I was in my bathroom barely a second before..."

One man carefully unfolded the shower rug he was wrapped in, shards of glass falling from it.

Everywhere it was the same pattern : families and individuals appeared wrapped in sheets, blankets, curtains or carpets, covered in shards of glass yet unharmed.

"Is that you Mr. Motohiro ?"

"I recognize you, you're my neighbor on the seventh floor"

Questions flew in all directions ; a deafening din filled the square.

The civilians closest to Endeavor stared at him in amazement and surprise, mouths agape.

Endeavor cleared his throat.

"Your attention please"

His voice, loud and clear, carried far.

Those who had been chatting seemed surprised to see him.

"We are evacuating your neighborhood for safety reasons : please proceed to the entrance of the shrine"

Endeavor had noticed that the civilians first appeared in front of him, then gradually farther away : if Shoto was indeed running - which, though crazy, seemed more likely than teleportation - clearing the front of the square would be crucial to avoid wasting time.

"Are your side-kicks evacuating us ?"

"And those things we heard screaming, where are they ? Weren't we better off inside ?"

Questions flew from all sides : Endeavor was overwhelmed by the influx of dozens of confused civilians who contributed to the general chaos, and those who sought answers.

That was why he never got involved in evacuations.

"Move to the shrine entrance's now"


Fire surged sharply on his skin to drive his point across, eyebrows furrowed on darkened eyes.

The nearest civilians backed away, repelled by the heat, while the others stared at him in confusion.

"Alright, alright, we're going..."

"No need to get all grumpy..."

Endeavor's persona was tough and intimidating because Enji himself was intimidating, but also - and especially - because he loathed when people didn't obey his every word.

The civilians walked slowly to the stairs, whispering to each other.

Some sat on the lowest steps ; many formed small groups at the foot of the Torii.

As groups and families appeared out of nowhere, Endeavor herded the first wave to walk up the stairs.

"Isn't it illegal to come here in the middle of the night ?"

One woman - holding a small girl's hand - approached Endeavor.

"Sir, please, we're cold..."

They were soaked to the skin ; the rain was still pouring heavily.

Endeavor was barely aware of it, burning as he was.

"The evacuation team will be here soon," he said. "They'll bring you blankets and food"

The woman smiled softly, thanked him profusely then dragged her daughter away, no doubt deciding to seek shelter under the trees that lined the high stairs leading to the temple.

Endeavor - his face stern as always - glanced at the shivering child clutching two of her mother's fingers in her chubby hand.

Without really knowing why, Touya suddenly came to his mind.

Endeavor unzipped his suit jacket and handed it to them.

He found himself in a black compression t-shirt, the kind he only wore when exercising.

"Take this"

The woman seemed surprised : Endeavor waited patiently for her to take it, even though he wanted to shove it in her hands.

The purpose of the jacket was to store and distribute Endeavor's heat, to cool him down when he used his Quirk too much : in these circumstances it was a heater without plug.

The woman put on the jacket ; it was so large that neither her hands nor her knees were discernible. She held her daughter on her hip and zipped the jacket up to her chin to keep them both warm.

Endeavor's body temperature rose several degrees as he walked through the civilians : many leaned forward to warm themselves, rubbing their numb hands in his wake.

Some, understanding what he was doing, took it upon themselves to speak to the newcomers, leading them towards the shrine's entrance.

The area was packed with people, civilians moving higher and higher in the stairs as new waves of evacuees poured in.

One only had to turn their head to see someone appear out of nowhere, as if they had suddenly sprung from the depths of reality.

Endeavor did a quick head count.

There were at least five hundred people, and the number was only-

A deafening explosion rang out.

A wave of searing heat swept across everything in its path, lifting a cloud of dust over the square and bending the trees horizontally.

The ground shook.

Civilians screamed and ducked for cover.

Instinctively, Endeavor turned toward the source of the noise, eyes squinting, forearms on his mouth for protection.

A glass skyscraper overlooked the square : behind it, a column of red fire shot from the ground into the sky like a fiery hurricane, threatening to consume everything in its path.

The clouds, black and heavy, reflected the explosion. The glowy red spread from cloud to cloud quickly.

The falling rain took on the color of spilled blood.

The screams of the civilians grew louder.

It looked like hell on earth.

*
President Pantu leaned closer to the microphone.

"Mirko ? Are you still there ?"

There was a sound of jerky breathing, as if someone was running.

Pantu glanced at the computer scientist who shrugged and shook his head helplessly.

She adjusted her earpiece.

"Mirko, I can hardly hear you. If you could-"

A wrenching scream of agony ripped through the air.

The man jolted.

The scream turned into a shrill howl of pain, making the earpiece crackle. Frowning, the President ripped off the earpiece and threw it on the table.

The computer scientist almost did the same but stopped short, two fingers on his earpiece.

"Problem ?", asked Pantu in a low voice.

All around them men and women were busy coordinating rescue teams, police work and Heroes teams.

Mirko's screams were confined to their own earpieces : no one had heard anything.

They waited a moment in silence, the computer scientist, eyebrows furrowed, listening intently to what was happening at the other end of the call.

He gestured for the President to speak into the microphone.

"Mirko ?"

The man's lips tightened as he tried to describe what he was hearing.

"It's like... it sounds like chewing"

Pantu picked up her earpiece and brought it to her ear.

She listened intently.

Regular, multiple clacking sounds were reminiscent of nibbling. There were swallowing sounds and pleased grumbling.

There were at least two people, maybe three.

Pantu calmly took off the headset and put it back on the table.

"President, what do you think this means ?"

Pantu's face was smooth and imperturbable.

"For now - and until we hear from her again - let's consider Mirko out of the picture"

Pantu had trusted her by allowing her to step in before her colleague showed up : obviously, Mirko had gotten caught up in the heat of the moment and done as she'd pleased.

They hoped that she'd dropped her earpiece between jumps.

"Tell Crust to stand by right outside the neighborhood"

Three Nomus made the area one of the most dangerous : if Mirko was jeopardized, a lesser Hero wouldn't stand a chance.

Pantu was forced to establish a strategic retreat until she had other top Heroes at her disposal.

She was well aware that this meant abandoning the local civilians to their fate, but the whole capital was in a critical situation : she couldn't afford to send group after group of Heroes to the slaughterhouse.

"I want Crust to track down Uraraka and Monoma ; he shall find them and bring them to me. Violence authorized if necessary"

Crust had the ideal Quirk for capture missions.

"Done"

"Now where are Endeavor and his-"

Simultaneously, a thunderous blast reverberated through the city.

A mighty gust of wind swept through Tokyo.

It rattled the walls of the tent, threatening to uproot it, then swept inside like a tornado.

Some laptops fell to the ground ; computer screens, pushed by the sheer force of the wind, were barely caught on time.

Pantu, eyes squinting, covered her face with her forearm and stepped outside.

A mushroom of red and orange smoke rose up the sky, so high that its peak licked the clouds.

The city took on a reddish hue, the rain - reflecting the explosion - giving the impression that drops of lava were raining on them.

The wind, a mixture of dust, ash and rain, brought back the smell of fire.

Clouds of gray dust billowed along the streets, spreading like wildfire across the streets and drowning all surrounding buildings.

The city was plunged into chaos, fear, and uncertainty.

How many civilians would die, suffocated by the dust and lack of air ?

How many of their Heroes would sacrifice themselves in futility for rescues doomed to fail ?

What would the death toll be by the time the sun had fully risen ?

Events were spiraling out of control.

They wouldn't make it.

Or rather, Pantu wouldn't be able to make them get out of this crisis.

She had already shown too much zeal, ordered too many things to too many people who were hardly in her purview.

Someone else - someone more competent and organized - had to take over.

"Bring me my cell phone"

She spoke loudly, lifting her head slightly over her shoulder to be heard, her eyes never leaving the spectacle unfolding before her.

On contact with the clouds, the red explosion opened like a flower in full bloom, stretching horizontally across the sky.

It was as if the sky had caught fire.

Someone came running back with a mobile phone.

Pantu grabbed it and quickly dialed a number she knew by heart.

"President ?"

She didn't even turn to the man next to her.

"Speak"

"It seems all the Nomus are now heading in the same direction"

She stopped typing.

"Where are they going ?"

"To Minato"

*

A/N :

If you like the story and want to read ahead of schedule, go check the story's P@treon, Nar_cisseENG

See you in the next update everyone !

 

[Nar_cisse]

Endeavor took a step forward.

"Sho-"

Shoto suddenly appeared, panting, carrying half a dozen people on his shoulders.

All of the civilians in the near vicinity turned to look at him, startled.

His skin was dripping with sweat, his hair slicked back for the wind - generated by his speed - had blown it back.

He slowly knelt - his thighs shaking - and laid them all on the ground.

Men and women wrapped in blankets blinked in surprise and looked around in disbelief.

"How...?"

Their eyes darted back and forth between Shoto, the crowded square and the remains of the blast they could still see in the distance.

A woman caught her husband's eye.

"Darling, isn't the noise and fire going on in the direction we're living in... ?"

The man, still stunned at appearing nowhere in the middle of the night, took a few seconds to answer, his dumbfounded eyes turning to Shoto.

"Are you the one who saved us ?"

Shoto was breathing like a laboring ox, his shoulders rising and falling quickly, his chest swelling like a balloon before suddenly collapsing.

He nodded sharply, head down, then coughed vigorously, hands on his shivering knees.

His muscles were hot and aching, his vision blurred, his mind fuzzy.

"You... you saved us all by yourself?

Disbelief and wonder.

People crowded him ; he was too weak to tell them to back off.

His headache had spread like a fever through his body : he'd never felt so weak, not even in Nagano.

He felt like he was on the right path for another chakra exhaustion.

Shoto wanted to answer and stand up ; instead, his legs gave out and he fell to his knees on the floor.

His body lurched forward ; the world shook and the ground came abruptly closer to his face.

A hand caught his shoulder.

Shoto blinked.

Rain - or perhaps it was sweat - trickled down his hair, making it hung limply around his face.

He was pulled back to his knees and only allowed to be held this way for the man holding him had the radiance of the sun.

"You're a mess"

If he had the strength, he would have smiled.

It was exactly what his grandmother would have said to him if she'd been there.

His shoulders were dusted.

His clothes were smoky, black wisps rising in curls around him, soot staining his skin and ash covering his hair, as if the explosion had been on his heels, about to slam its maw on his ankles like a fiery monster, and he'd barely been quick enough to escape.

"Glad got here in one piece," he breathed

For a brief moment he had thought he wouldn't be able to escape ; he'd entertained the possibility of leaving behind the last group of civilians in the neighborhood, just as he'd done with their pets - without any qualms.

"What's that noise ?"

A strange sound echoed in his ears, as if a multitude of people were running.

Even in this altered state of mind, Shoto sensed that his father was smiling.

He squeezed his shoulder with emotion.

"Applause. They're clapping for you, son"

Shoto blinked.

It took a few seconds for his brain to reconcile his father's words with the sound he was hearing.

Then the absurdity of the situation hit him hard, and he let out a wheezing laugh overcome by a sudden coughing fit.

Endeavor, smiling softly, patted him on the arm and then looked around.

There was a brief fuss and some words were exchanged that Shoto didn't bother understand ; a few seconds later, his father handed him a bottle of water and pulled out three bags of sugar from his pocket

"Drink, no one's looking"

Endeavor used his large body as a shield between his son's exposed face and the rest of the world.

Without checking to see if he was telling the truth, Shoto lowered his mask and drank the bottle in one gulp.

His throat felt like it was on fire.

Thanks to his Quirk, he filled the bottle to the brim three times in a row and drank just as fast.

His hands were shaking.

Enji looked at him, tore open the sugar packets and put them into his hands.

Shoto mumbled a thanks then swallowed the three of them followed by a sip of water.

He then rested his forehead on his father's shoulder and breathed in through his nose several times to calm himself, eyes closed.

The world stopped spinning beneath his feet.

He didn't pull up his mask for now : the cold air and the rain did him good.

Absent-mindedly, he remarked to himself that he'd once again lost control of the storm he'd created.

"All for one" he muttered. "I need to-"

"You don't need to do anything," his father interrupted him calmly and firmly. "The only thing you're going to do is stay here and rest"

Shoto frowned but didn't lift his head from his father's shoulder.

The warmth emanating from him soothed his mind and chased away his headache.

He protested :

"The attack was perfect, he must-"

His breathing was still a little ragged.

"There's little chance he'll make it. All I have to do is deliver the ultimate blow and then"

"I have no idea what you've done to cause this explosion," Enji said in a low voice, making sure no one was listening, "But right now there are more serious things to worry about than finishing off All for One. Did you think for a second how easy it would be for him to take care of you if you went back there in your condition ?

Shoto grunted.

"He's a mess too…"

"I remember vividly the state you were in after the Tokyo Giant incident," Endeavor said. "If you have to end up in a coma to win, it's not worth it. No fight that require your death is worth it, I hope you do know that"

Shoto, eyes still closed, smiled slightly.

It had been a long time since he'd been chastised by a worried, sanctimonious dad.

Endeavor, eyes still wary, wanted to hug his son yet the curious - if respectful - looks of the civilians prevented him from doing so.

He hated public displays of affection - and Shoto did too - and they were already doing a lot.

He just rubbed his back lightly, like anyone would for a friend who'd puked and was about to do so again.

"I don't know how you managed to save all those people so quickly," Endeavor muttered, "But I'm infinitely grateful to you"

It had taken Shoto only ten seconds to evacuate an entire neighborhood ; not even Hawks could boast of clearing an area that quickly.

Still, he didn't like to see him so weakened.

Shoto murmured so quietly that Enji almost didn't hear him :

"Are you proud of me ?"

"Of course" he replied matter of factly

As if it was something new.

Shoto smiled and Enji, looking at him, noticed it immediately.

He knew that he should have been organizing the evacuation of the civilians until his subordinates arrived, but his son needed him.

"I'm glad," Shoto said. You took so much shit because of all the stupid things I've done..."

Shoto rambled on, his tongue loosened by fever and exhaustion.

"You didn't do anything", Enji countered.

He'd suspected that Shoto was feeling guilty about the media fallout from the hangar video released a few months ago, yet he hadn't been sure for his son had avoided the subject every time he'd tried to bring it up.

"Don't lie to make me feel better"

Enji never lied to him.

"Now people know that I can be a good person, too"

The hand that was rubbing Shoto's back stopped abruptly : Enji squeezed his shoulder, unable to answer.

His son was a good person.

It hurt him that he was incapable of seeing it himself.

He opened his mouth to answer ; suddenly, Shoto froze.

Endeavor gave him a worried look.

"Is something wrong ?"

Eyes wide open, Shoto abruptly pulled his mask up over his face.

He jumped to his feet in fright, eyes roaming over their surroundings.

Enji followed him a second behind, glancing around uneasily.

"They're here"

There were only noisy civilians gathered in groups, making a slow, lazy exodus toward the shrine's staircase.

"Who ?"

Shoto's eyes were locked on something high behind him.

"Look"

Enji followed his gaze.

In front of them - on top of the building - stood a huge, black creature, covered in shining scales like a knight's breastplate.

A Nomu, but a Nomu unlike any he'd ever seen.

On either side of it opened half a dozen portals, black and misty.

Endeavor's hand - still on his son's shoulder - tightened.

Buildings, shops and skyscrapers surrounded the shrine ; Shoto's head slowly turned around, eyes surveying the area.

Looming high, and enclosing them in an iron vise, were thirty-eight Nomus.

*

A/N : If you like the story and want to read ahead of schedule, go check the story's P@treon, Nar_cisseENG

See you in the next update everyone !

 

[Nar_cisse]

There was a lull during which the civilians didn't perceive the threat looming over them.

The rain pelted hard, the ground was muddy.

Still too many people, confused, were scrambling to their feet, haggard, trying to figure out where they were and what to do.

Endeavor, heart pounding, muscles tense, had just finished looking at the circling Nomus, water trickling down his bare arms.

Black portals were still opening here and there, dumping new creatures on the buildings' roofs.

Civilians made a slow, limp exodus toward the shrine's steps, clustering around the Torii, barely beginning - or not - the ascent.

They talked loudly, the infernal din of their discussions mingling with the downpour.

Endeavor, taut as a bow, hadn't slept in 36 hours, keeping his eyes open thanks to sheer adrenaline pumping through his bloodstream.

Shoto, exhausted, was tense, tension of anticipation stiffening his muscles and knotting his shoulders.

Endeavor's eyes darted from one Nomu to the next, his expression harder each time one emerged from a portal.

He tried to gauge the magnitude of the impending disaster, but even in the wildest situation he'd ever been in, he'd never had to protect so many civilians.

The longer they waited, the more absurd the number of Nomus grew ; yet if they attacked first, they risked provoking an onslaught they weren't sure they could handle - even with two of them.

Shoto was sweating profusely, his chest rising and falling quickly, his breath still short and sharp from the evacuation.

Water trickled down his burning skin, mixing with his sweat and seeping under his clothes.

His eyes were nothing more than two slits, his eyes so narrowed they looked like snake's.

His hair was slicked on his forehead and cheekbones, making a dark curtain over a sharingan that glowed malevolently.

They were too many of them, they both knew it.

"Dad-"

"Civilians first," Endeavor growled in a low voice. "But you're not allowed to die, do you hear me ?"

Thunder rumbled.

Two thin ice knives appeared in Shoto's palms.

"Be careful", he answered quietly.

Neither of them took their eyes off the swarming Nomus high up.

Shoto bent his legs, a shiver of adrenalin and apprehension electrifying his body.

Every time he thought he'd come full counted them all, new Nomus would emerge from dark portals, increasing his restlessness.

If it had been merely him and his father, they could have used God Mode in concert in an unparalleled display of power ; yet civilians were too weak and frail for his father to even bring lava out of the earth's crust.

The heat would cause the humid air to boil, and the civilians would end up roasting in their own skin.

Shoto himself was more than a little spent - in part because All for One had stunned him by sending him headfirst through cement and metal - and mostly because of all the energy he'd been exerting continuously for the past few months.

There would be no flashy jutsus nor grand displays of strength.

It would be a brutal, gruesome bloodbath of unprecedented violence.

Shoto tightened his grip on his knives.

For the first time in many years, he considered the possibility of losing.

His eyes flicked back to his father.

He would never agree to abandon civilians to their fate ; Shoto wasted no time suggesting the idea.

A genjutsu-clad clone of Shoto suddenly appeared on his right, his headache now pounding against the walls of his skull.

This was no fighting clone - Shoto had enough left to make one.

They shared a short look and the clone disappeared, sneaking through the Nomu's iron vice.

Suddenly, Shoto's head snapped to the right, his ears picking up sound faster than his mind, his wet hair flying around his face spraying drops of water everywhere.

A Nomu with huge mosquito wings swooped down on the civilians gathered at the foot of the shrine, arms outstretched to grasp.

Shoto's knife transformed into a frozen spear ; it whistled out of his right hand, slicing through air like a razor blade.

The Nomu turned his head to Shoto just as the tip of the spear pierced his skull from side to side.

He was dragged along like a rag doll, his legs flapping like a wind-swept banner behind him, blood spurting from his throat.

Civilians below were soaked in blood and bits of flesh.

They raised their heads a second too late, stunned, pieces of shattered skull - like shards of glass - sliding down their hair.

The spear struck the sixth step of the shrine's stairs, skewering the Nomu there, cracks spreading in web.

The tip had blown out his brain ; he was already dead.

Blood and grey matter, sticky, pooled on the steps.

The first civilians screamed.

Shoto rose from his crouch, his right arm - the one he'd thrown with - slowly retracting to his side.

He exhaled a cloud of vapor.

Endeavor, side by side with his son but facing the opposite direction, prepared for the assault, flames licking his fingertips.

All hell broke loose.

Nomus sprang from all sides like an army bent on destroying them all.

The flying ones were so numerous they looked like swarms of giant mosquitoes ; for a moment they converged, blotting out the meager light projected by the thunderbolts.

The whole shrine was shrouded in darkness as if there was an eclipse.

Fire gushed from Endeavor's back, charring a flying Nomu that had tried to catch him off guard.

The creature let out a shrill scream but kept moving ; Endeavor spinned smoothly around and grabbed him by the skull, his nails digging into his exposed brain.

Blue fire blasted from his hand.

The Nomu's screams grew agonizing ; Endeavor, merciless, charred him, his skin looking like glass.

The bust of a Nomu emerged from the ground behind Endeavor's ankles ; he opened his jaw on a row of bloody fangs.

A shadow was cast across his face ; he lifted his head.

Shoto's knife sliced savagely through his skull.

He struck three times, shattering the skull with the first blow, pulverizing the brain with the second, and overreacting with the third.

Blood splattered across his face.

Still panting, Shoto struck a fourth time.

His red eyes shone malevolently as he looked around.

He's saved all the civilians ; he'd done what his father or Keigo would have done, did what the good Shoto, the better Shoto, would have done.

Now that blood had to be shed, he could satisfy his inner Shoto until drunkeness.

Endeavor let go off the charred Nomu.

The body crashed heavily into the mud.

The screams of the civilians were horrific, like sinners burning in hell.

Blood, chaos and pain were everywhere.

At the edge of the field a Nomu was bent over a woman, holding her with both hands as if she were a piece of meat ; she struggled, screamed, begged.

He bit off her throat.

Civilians at the foot of the shrine's screamed like damned, pushing each other violently, trampling those who had fallen in order to reach the stairs, clogging the entrance in their panic.

Two winged Nomus hovered above them.

One of them dove.

Shoto's eyes flashed : he spun sideways, hurling his second knife at full speed.

His eyes briefly met his father's : Endeavor faintly nodded, face solemn.

Shoto disappeared in a kawarimi, substituting himselsf with the knife he'd thrown, which fell into the mud at Endeavor's feet.

Shoto suddenly reappeared above the crowd, parallel to and back to them, body perpendicular to the falling Nomu.

The creature jerked back in surprise, its wings turning the other way to lift him up.

Far above him, to his left, the other Nomu was flying : he noticed Shoto and swooped down on them.

Shoto cupped his hands around his mouth.

Katon : Goukakyuu no Jutsu

A fireball the size of a meteorite shot out of his mouth, incinerating both Nomus at close range.

Rain crackled upon contact with the heat, turning to steam.

The top of the surrounding trees burst into flames, the nearest ones incinerated from leaf to root in a matter of seconds, a blackened, cracking trunk the only trace of their existence.

The group of civilians beneath him screamed as they scattered, people pushing and shoving each other to escape the mayhem.

It wouldn't be enough.

Shoto grabbed the Nomu above him by the throat, spun them around, and with a short but powerful blast of Hell Flame, sent them both crashing headfirst into the ground below.

They landed at the bottom of the stairs, where the steps met the grassy slope.

The Nomu hit the edge of the steps at full speed, his neck snapping under the impact, the crushed edge turning to dust and pebbles.

Shoto was still holding him by the neck : a sharp bolt of pain shot up his right arm , rattling his teeth.

He stood up, his foot on the creature's neck to hold him down, shoving his head deep in the mud he couldn't breathe.

The Nomu flapped his arms and legs like a fish out of water, unable of moving his torso because of his broken upper spine : but already steam was escaping from his limp neck, proof that he was already healing.

Civilians ran around him, giving Shoto looks he didn't bother to notice, shouting things he couldn't hear.

All his attention was absorbed by the Nomu under his shoe, bucking and rolling, trying to push him away thanks to sharp, violent jerks.

Shoto grabbed the mosquito wings that spread around him like fans, huge and translucent, and ripped them off cruelly.

*

A/N : If you like the story and want to read ahead of schedule, go check the story's P@treon, Nar_cisseENG

 

[Nar_cisse]

The Nomu screamed ; blood spurted from his back.

Shoto lifted his foot off his neck.

The Nomu straightened up.

Shoto strengthened his leg with chakra and kicked, shattering his skull with his heel.

His head exploded like a ripe watermelon, spattering the steps, the damp grass, and the ankles of a man running up the steps of the shrine.

Shoto's head turned toward the nomu still up in the sky ; suddenly, something heavy hit him head on.

Shoto barely had time to lower his head to absorb the blow and the force of the impact before another Nomu lunged at his back.

The two monsters pinned him against each other, their powerful legs burrowing into the soft earth, their nails ripping his clothes and scratching his skin.

The pressure they exerted on him was unbearable, his bones shaking under their might.

It was like two steamrollers exerting their full strength against a walnut.

Red-faced and short of breath, Shoto tried to push them away, yet his position was precarious, his shoes slipping on the mud.

He felt as if he were trying to push back two mountains simultaneously.

One's cold fangs skimmed over his skin.

The third Nomu - the one still flying - flew down, mouth wide open ready for beheading.

The Nomu facing Shoto bit his bicep and pulled, attempting to tear the flesh away ; Shoto smothered his cry of pain and let rage overwhelm him.

Ice spikes burst from every inch of his skin, spearing the two Nomus and killing the one behind him in one fell swoop.

The one before him was incapacitated : Shoto glanced at the flying Nomu getting lower, the well-known thrill of a Genjutsu about to be unleashed at his fingertips.

The faces of the two people hemmed in by the ice spikes blurred in the Nomu's mind.

He turned slightly to the right, his mouth agape.

Under Shoto's sadistic gaze, he beheaded the Nomu.

The corpse of the speared one hadn't even touched the ground when Shoto beheaded the flying Nomu with one stroke of his ice sword.

The two bodies fell simultaneously, their heads rolling down the gentle slope surrounding the stairs, the latter banging against the former like marbles.

Shoto pulled himself out of his iceberg and simultaneously shot a bolt of fire at their heads, burning them to a crisp.

Careful, he incinerated fully the skewered Nomu.

The fire spread over grass, but was doused by the rain with a sizzling sound.

Shoto stood in a ring of scorched grass, eyes taking in the chaos around him.

The Nomus had stormed the area, killing and devouring civilians.

Those who had managed to escape the madness at the bottom of the stairs had run up, oblivious and elated, only to collide with new Nomus.

Shoto's palm crackled like usual, electricity foreshadowing chidori bouncing from finger to finger in a frenzy.

Shoto closed his hand and smothered the surging energy.

He could use his fire and ice to a certain extent for they had a different pool of energy than his chakra. However, he was near out of chakra and could do no more than keep his Sharingan awake and strengthen his body.

Shunshin was out of the question ; he was limited to the most basic kawarimi.

Four shurikens of ice appeared in Shoto's hands ; he hurled them like lightning at the four Nomus scattered on the steps and preventing the civilians from reaching the shrine.

An ice axe, stronger and thicker than his previous weapons, sprang from his palm.

Shoto swung it skillfully, sharingan trailing the four shuriken in a blur of red light.

When the first shuriken reached the Nomu's face, Shoto swapped with it.

He suddenly appeared in midair as if out of another realm, his malevolent gaze trained on the Nomu, who, back to him, was holding a writhing old man.

With a sickening suction noise, Shoto sliced him in half from head to toe.

His severed entrails fell to the grass like a swarming sack of maggots, his soft guts jiggling against each other.

The right half of his body fell down the stairs ; the left half slid down the grassy slope, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

The rescued old man blinked.

His beard was dirtied by blood.

His mouth dropped open : his cry of horror rang out only when Shoto swapped with the second shuriken, beheading the following one.

His silhouette flashed across the stairs like a mirage, visible for a second as a bolt of lightning lit the area, then fading back into darkness.

Shoto shot up the stairs in a definite bastardization of the Hiraishin.

The third Nomu stood in the middle of the stairs, crouched over a pool of blood.

Long black hair hung from his mouth. He blurted out.

Shota sliced his face horizontally at the level of his mouth : the body fell backwards.

Shota grabbed it with his left hand, his fingers digging into the soft and gooey flesh of his brain.

He immolated him.

With a kick, Shoto sent him tumbling down the other side of the stairs. He rolled, limp, across the scorched grass.

Shoto's eyes flickered to the third one.

He swapped places with an icy shuriken at the end of its curve, leveled with a Nomu's legs.

Shoto appeared crouched, silent as a shadow.

The Nomu - at the junction of the stairs and the grass - was bent forward, pulling a screaming teenage girl by her ankles. Her cheeks were streaked with tears and snot ; she clung helplessly to the muddy grass, digging furrows with her nails.

Shoto slashed his knees in one swift motion.

The Nomu fell onto the girl's back, blood pouring from his stumps.

Unaffected by the pain, he crawled over the girl, his long hands tugging at her shirt, his nails leaving red furrows on her neck ; he sought her throat.

The girl's screms grew hystericals.

Shoto's axe tore vertically through the Nomu's skull, slamming until his teeth.

Blood spurted onto the wide-eyed teenager.

It drowned her hair, flowed between her lips and dripped onto her t-shirt. Her skin turned dark red.

She fluttered her eyelashes, blood droplets shooting out everywhere.

Feverish, she stared at the man she could see through the bloody crack of the creature's shattered skull.

With a kick Shoto pushed him aside, leaving the axe in his skull.

The lifeless body rolled on the grass where he set it on fire with a flick of his wrist.

The girl had not taken her eyes off him, her thoughts blank.

She didn't move, didn't even try to scream.

Shoto barely glanced at her before he swapped with the last shuriken, the one at the foot of the fourth nomu that stood at the top of the stairs.

As soon as he appeared under the second Torii, a thunderous blast struck Shoto right in the chest.

Air was forced out of his lungs.

Propelled by the blow, he flew over the stairs.

His eyes were locked on the Nomu whose outstretched fist was crackling, sparks arcing across his forearm.

The shock itself numbed him briefly : pain throbbed in waves from his chest, harmonizing with his headache.

Shoto clenched his jaw : two icy kunais entwined with icy wire popped into his hands.

He threw them, each heading for the edge of the stairs.

He pulled on the wires ; his body was yanked down as a bolt of lightning scorched the air above his head.

Shoto landed, legs bent, halfway down the stairs.

The body of one of the Nomu he'd killed lay burning three steps below.

The one that attacked him stepped to the edge of the stairs and tilted his head to the side, studying him curiously.

Unlike the others, his brain was not bare.

His skin was black - as if covered with glistening scales - but here and there, pale pink spots lighted it up.

Shoto also examined him quietly, right hand sliding slowly from his thigh to his lower back.

More than anything, he had to save his energy.

Thanks to his sharingan, Shoto noticed exactly when the muscles in his right leg twitched.

Shoto leaned to the left, hidden hand outstretched toward the burning corpse.

The Nomu leapt, the step from which he jumped shattering in a burst of rubble.

Shoto, muscles tensed, spinned sharply : the body, held in place by an ice rope, was hurled forward like a cannonball.

The ice rope turned to boiling water.

The nomu, his feet off the ground, had already crossed half the distance between them.

He hit the body head-on.

The very instant the nomu slammed against the corpse, Shoto clapped his hands.

The burning carcass blew up like a blazing star.

The pink nomu took the brunt of the explosion.

His skin burned like a dried leaf, fire devouring his body from head to toe in a split second.

Shoto didn't wait ; strengthening his body, he jumped straight into the fire and hit the Nomu square in the chest.

The burning pink Nomu crashed down the steps, destroying them one by one as the impact of the blow propelled him all the way up to the Torii.

A cloud of steam had risen from the blast's collision with the rain ; a flurry of ice shurikens emerged from it and rained down on the Nomu.

He raised his arm ; Shoto swapped with one of them and popped close to the Nomu, tantô in hand.

He cut his arm down the elbow.

The Nomu snapped his mouth open : Shoto, sensing another bolt of lightning, stayed within range of the attack, intent on redirecting the energy and shooting it back.

He raised his sword to behead.

Suddenly, a foul breath hit his face.

His instincts kicked in : Shoto swapped places with another shuriken, landing further down the stairs.

Acid shot out of the Nomu's mouth, obliterating all the shurikens.

Slightly out of breath, Shoto stood still for a moment.

He'd only ever seen one person with this kind of Quirk.

He raised his hand to the sky ; within a five meters circle, all the falling rain turned to ice tears.

His Sharingan caught the image of the pink-spotted Nomu slowly raising his head to the sky, gazing at the falling ice with a strange sense of wonder.

Suddenly, Shoto appeared behind him, sword clenched in his fist, about to slit his throat.

Frowning, the Nomu snapped his head towards the sword ; his teeth closed on the ice blade, smashing it to pieces.

Shoto dropped his sword and struck his back knees in one smooth motion.

The Nomu collapsed to his knees.

Shoto grabbed his skull, his nails clawing at his forehead and eyebrows until he found a firm grip.

He jammed his thumbs into his eyes and ripped his eyeballs apart : a sticky, fetid liquid ran down his fingers.

The Nomu screamed and hit Shoto's hands to make him let go, inadvertently hitting himself too.

Shoto, an evil glint in his eyes, dug his fingers deeper.

The Nomu smashed Shoto's hands, breaking his right wrist.

Fueled by adrenaline, Shoto ignored the pain and dug his fingers deeper until they hit bone.

Then he yanked brutally out.

The Nomu struggled, jerking his head around, spewing streams of acid everywhere, hoping to hit Shoto.

Shoto, muscles bulging from the effort, let out a grunt, face flushed.

He tore the Nomu's head off with an ominous snap.

White lightning flashed, seizing on the image of blood spurting in an arc across the red bars of the Torii.

Bits of shredded flesh sprinkled Shoto's forehead and eyebrows.

Breathing heavily, he held both halves of the Nomu's head in his hands.

Shoto wiped his forehead with the back of his wrist, inadvertently spreading blood over a larger portion of his skin, eyes roaming over the shrine's chaos.

His eyes landed on his father ; he saw him, fist ablaze, pulling out a Nomu's heart and promptly burning it.

Thus Shoto allowed himself a second to catch his breath.

Exhaustion seeped into his bones, his headache - certainly more concussion than aching - making it painful to move his head.

The two halves of the head combusted.

Exhaling, he threw them to the ground scornfully.

He put his left hand on his right wrist, a green halo spreading from his fingers.

He might not have bothered to heal his head after diving headfirst into cement and metal, but a broken wrist was the kind of stuff that would have him killed in a fight.

It was then that something bright and shiny up in the clouds caught his eye.

A burning body was falling from the sky.

*

A/N : If you like the story and want to support it, go check its P@treon, Nar_cisseENG

See you in the next update everyone !

 

[Nar_cisse]

Going as fast as he could without shunshin, the clone shot across the square like a rocket.

Nomus fell from the skyscrapers like rain.

Some, mid-jump, spread their wings and shot off in all directions, squawking like vultures.

Civilians looked up, pale and numb, a few mouths wide open, a raised finger following the flying creatures.

The clone ran through the crowd, weaving between civilians, a gust of wind in his wake.

To his left, a small girl of no more than five or six sat on the ground, crying loudly, her face raised to the sky.

Without slowing down, the clone ducked down just as a Nomu swooped overhead.

The tip of a transparent wing brushed his hair.

The creature closed its mouth on the girl's throat and swooped skyward, snatching her away.

The clone, jaws clenched, kept running, eyes focused on the Nomus-free zone between two buildings.

He couldn't afford to waste what little energy the original had given him on somebody as inconsequential as a child.

Really, he was doing the right thing : killing All for One would save more lives in the long run than rescuing a poor little girl.

Besides, children were all cruel and self-centered, so one less on earth-

"Hotaru !"

A wrinkled old man in a plaid shirt and torn shorts hurried past the clone without seeing him, his frightened gaze turned to the sky.

He ran in all directions, barefoot, sometimes turning left, slowing down, then running in the opposite direction again, trying to follow the Nomu who had picked up the girl from the ground, arms raised in the hope of catching her if she fell.

Under Shoto's stunned gaze, the old man trampled on glass shards : he bled instantly, leaving bloody footprints.

Under Shoto's aghast gaze, the desperate old man kept rushing in every direction, his eyes locked on the sky.

He passed a woman lying on her back, her belly ripped open by claws, her intestines spilling out : he kept running, arms outstretched, deaf to the rest of the world, yet unable to do anything but run.

Up above, the Nomu shook the girl by the throat as if she were a toy.

Shoto slammed on the brakes, raising a cloud of dust.

Sharingan came to life as he spun, eyes darting from right to left at lightning speed.

A flying nomu swooped down a few meters to his right : Shoto charged through the crowd, feet barely touching the ground.

The disemboweled woman screamed hysterically, her eyes frozen on the Nomu leaning over her body, greedily devouring her organs.

Shoto leaped over her, one foot outstretched.

The Nomu, its gums smeared with flesh, lifted its snout as if to sniff something, unable to see the genjutsu cloaked clone.

This time Shoto hit purposefully.

His head, ripped from his shoulders, shot across the square at supersonic speed.

Shoto landed softly behind him as his beheaded body collided with the woman's.

She fainted.

Shoto set them both on fire with a flick of his wrist.

For the rest of the world, the Nomu was decapitated by an invisible force before he and his victim were brutally immolated.

Shoto ran and caught up with the flying Nomu as he lowered himself enough to reach civilians.

Vines sprouting from under his fingernails curled around his wrists and up his forearms, climbing up his body as if they were alive.

Suddenly, something heavy landed on his back, capsizing him.

The Nomu, on the verge of grabbing a fewx civilians, veered to the side, plummeting until he was dangerously close to the ground.


He leapt skyward, rearing up like a bull at a slaughterhouse, trying to shake the thing off his back.

Shoto, standing on the Nomu's back, tugged at the vines as he would a horse's reins.

The thorns scratched the thin layer of ice on his palms.

The Nomu arched itself, soaring through the lowest clouds : the accumulated moisture soaked them both to the bone.

Shoto tightened his grip on the vines.

In return the Nomu shifted to the right until he flew upside down, trying to make him fall off.

A thin layer of chakra covered Shoto's soles. He remained firmly in place as the nomu spun wildly and erratically in the sky.

Ground and sky merged until they were but a blur, skyline spinning on itself like a crazy clock.

The Nomu with the little girl was barely a few meters lower.

Shoto, light puke behind his lips, snapped sharply the vines.

The Nomu refused his order and soared higher, flying through cloud after cloud.

Shoto, jaw clenched and eyes narrowed, hit wet fog after wet fog, each new cloud he encountered like a face slap.

He looked down : the ground was receding and the angry Nomu was still flying higher.

Thunder rumbled so hard he felt he heard it right in his own ears : the Nomu and the little girl were whirling a dozen meters below, making '8' loops.

Shoto pulled at the reins, trying to push the Nomu to the left.

The beast, furious, defied the command and rose even higher.

Shoto, frustrated, stared angrily at the little girl, now a blur in the dark night.

An ice blade surged into his palm : he didn't bother to make the hilt.

He thrust it into the Nomu's skull with an obscene satisfaction.

Blood spilled onto his fingers.

The Nomu breathed out a sigh and fell, eyes rolling.

The wind whipped Shoto's skin, pushing his hair skyward and ruffling his clothes.

He tightened his hold on the Nomu's shoulder, then struck six brutal blows in quick succession, eyes shining sickly.

They plummeted through clouds like a fallen comet.

Shoto's gaze swept over the area, sharingan spinning lazily in his eyes.

The Nomu, the little girl still tightly clasped between his teeth, whirled around to complete the loop of his '8'.

Only a meter above them, Shoto leaped obliquely, a spark erupting from the rear of his foot.

The Nomu's body burst ablaze, lighting up the sky like a falling sun, momentarily drawing everyone's attention.

The Nomu below raised his head, the child dangling limply between his teeth.

Shoto, looking glum, landed on his back like a cannonball, knocking his breath out of him.

The Nomu buckled, as if he would break.

Shoto heard his bones crack.

Two thin knives appeared in his hands.

Crouching down, he thrust both blades into the corners of the Nomu's lips, tearing the flesh from his cheeks to his ears.

The Nomu let out a muffled groan, jaw hanging limply from his face.

The girl fell like a shattered doll, arms hanging down her body, black pigtails flowing around her face.

Shoto stood motionless for a moment, knives an inch from the Nomu's eardrums, a trickle of blood running down his hands, gaze locked on the running old man.

His eyes widened when he saw the little girl fall ; he stumbled over a corpse, picked himself up without looking down, then ran faster, arms raised to the sky.

Beneath Shoto, the Nomu reared up like a devil.

Annoyed, Shoto twisted the knives to mute his grunts.

He grind his ears, warm blood running down his palms.

The little girl landed in the arms of the old man, who dropped to the ground, relieved.

Without taking his eyes off them, Shoto drove obliquely his blades through the Nomu's ears, pulverizing his brain to a pulp.

The Nomu let out a howl of terrible pain. Shoto incinerated him in a river of blue fire to shut him forever, himself ablaze like a torch.

His eyes briefly met those of the original standing at the top of the steps.

Headless bodies burning like logs, trails of blood, broken trees and obliterated steps traced his path to the second Torii.

Below, the old man buried his head in the child's hair, holding her gently to his chest.

His lips moved ; Shoto could only read the words, the cries of the burning Nomu and the spattering rain, now vapor, filling his ears.

It was a lullaby.

She'd died the second Nomu had grabbed her by the throat.

It was never about saving her - or anyone else.

Shoto used the knives as handlebars and pulled hard to the right, forcing the falling Nomu to turn around.

The Nomu's wings flapped feebly, flames licking the membrane but going no further.

The Nomu glided for a few moments then fell sideways like an airplane without engine.

Shoto tried to steady himself, mentally preparing for the impact.

The body under his fingers was nothing but scorched skin and charred flesh.

Shoto looked up at the roof of the building.

All the Nomus had thrown themselves into the fray ; there was no one left above.

A few feet from the ground, Shoto flexed his muscles : the fire devoured the translucent wings until ash.

Shoto jumped up, thus pushing the Nomu down.

Landing in a roll on the roof of a skyscraper, below the burn corpse shattered glass.

Wasting no time, Shoto picked himself up and dashed across the city, leaping from rooftop to rooftop.

He crossed the untouched districts in a matter of seconds.

Then came the kilometer of void.

Shoto landed on the roof of the last building overlooking his masterpiece.

One of Minato's most densely populated districts had been completely obliterated.

There were no ruined buildings, no debris, nor life of any kind, merely a perfect circle of destruction where yellow dust lay like sand in a crater the size of ten football stadiums.

It looked as if a meteorite had leveled the area, leaving only the imprint of its passage through a twenty-meter deep hole.

Shoto solemnly etched in his mind the extent of the devastation he had wrought.

He chillingly realized the kind of power he possessed and the impact such a threat would have on the world.

They would all loathe him.

It didn't really matter.

His eyes settled on the two dark silhouettes in the middle of his crater.

All for One lay on the ground, arms and legs missing, blood trickling from the stumps of his limbs and spilling into the stagnant pool of blood beneath his body.

There was a gaping hole in his torso, as if a bear had sunk its claws into his chest and dug through his flesh all the way to his pelvis.

His intestines, glistening, were exposed.

His breath was wet and wheezy as though his throat was clogged.

Shoto's eyes narrowed.

His flesh wasn't swarming - his regeneration wasn't taking over.

He didn't waste a second.

He disappeared in a shunshin, tanto in hand.

Black Mist didn't even have time to turn his head before a sword pierced his metal torso from front to back.

Black Mist spun, hands outstretched ; a black portal sprang from his fingertips, growing like a vortex.

Shoto, leaning forward, ran underneath, unconcerned.

A bolt of lightning streaked across the sky and struck Black Mist.

He groaned and fell to the ground, momentarily stunned by the strike.

All for One raised his head, chin barely touching his chest, unable to move.

The skin on his face had burned away : he had no eyebrows, no eyelids, no cheeks.

All that remained were shreds of bloody flesh hanging from bare bones.

His red eyes, two beams of light, took a moment to focus on the moving figure running at him.

He erupted in laughter as Shoto ran up to him, eyes shining hysterically.

"Go ahead, kill me !"

Black Mist, terrified, knees on the ground, looked up at All for One and Shoto's recoiling back.

"Master !"

Lightning crackled across Shoto's skin, raising the hairs on the back of his neck.

For a hundred meters around, the ground turned into a misty black portal.

Shoto had expected this.

He hurled himself at All for One, arms wide open, and closed them around him as if in a hug while they both fell through the portal.

He exploded in a blast of lightning.

*

A/N : If you like the story and want to read ahead of schedule, go check its P@treon, Nar_cisseENG

Tell me what you thought about the chapter in the comments.

And see you in the next update !