Hearing Shigaraki's explanation, All Might almost spoke.
The words were already forming in his mind.
How can you be so sure he would never change?
No one can predict the future.
That was the argument he had given many times before.
But when he looked into Shigaraki's eyes—
The words stopped in his throat.
Because those eyes were too sincere.
Too open.
There was no malice in them.
No guilt either.
Just a calm, unwavering honesty.
And faced with a gaze that direct, All Might suddenly found it impossible to say the usual heroic speech.
Still…
A faint sense of unease began to stir in his chest.
Something was off.
He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something about the boy standing in front of him felt strangely wrong.
His eyes drifted over Shigaraki's figure.
The blue-haired teenager looked… harmless.
His features were clean and youthful.
His posture relaxed.
A faint smile rested on his face, the kind that made him look like a normal student you might see walking home from school.
But at the same time—
His right hand hung loosely at his side.
And from the tips of his fingers…
A red liquid was slowly dripping.
It slid down his knuckles and fell onto the cracked pavement below.
That wasn't ketchup.
It was blood.
Fresh blood.
The blood of the murderer Shigaraki had just killed.
The contrast was striking.
On one side—
An innocent-looking boy with a gentle expression.
On the other—
A hand still stained with another person's life.
Kindness and cold decisiveness.
Two completely opposite qualities.
Yet somehow, both existed within Shigaraki at the same time.
And strangely enough—
They didn't seem to contradict each other.
Instead, they blended together with a disturbing naturalness.
"You…"
All Might began to speak, but stopped halfway.
It was that strange contradiction radiating from the boy that made him feel uneasy.
So he watched more carefully.
Studied him.
And after a few seconds—
All Might finally realized what exactly was bothering him.
Shigaraki was too calm.
He had just killed someone.
Yet his mind showed no sign of disturbance.
No ripple.
No lingering tension.
The faint smile on his face wasn't forced.
It wasn't an act.
It wasn't a mask hiding something underneath.
It was simply… natural.
That was the most disturbing part.
As someone who had lived through the chaotic era before the rise of modern hero society—someone who had spent decades fighting criminals on the front lines—
All Might had seen many killers.
Real killers.
People whose hands were soaked in blood.
Even the most vicious villains usually displayed some kind of emotional response after taking a life.
Some of them felt twisted joy.
Others felt pride, convinced their actions were justified.
Some became numb after killing so many times that emotion no longer reached them.
But one way or another—
Killing always left a mark.
Even monsters reacted to it.
Shigaraki didn't.
To him, the act of killing felt no more remarkable than eating or drinking.
Just another action.
Another event.
Another step in a sequence of cause and effect.
The feeling he gave off was so matter-of-fact that it felt almost surreal.
Like watching someone observe the sunrise.
A natural phenomenon that didn't require emotional commentary.
When All Might realized this—
A troubling thought briefly crossed his mind.
Could this boy…
Be someone born evil?
The idea flickered through his thoughts like lightning.
But almost immediately, he rejected it.
Because he could clearly sense something else.
Despite everything that had just happened—
Shigaraki didn't radiate hatred.
There was no murderous aura surrounding him.
No overwhelming hostility directed at the world.
So the theory of him being some kind of "born villain" didn't hold up.
In fact—
If All Might had not personally witnessed what had just happened…
If he had not seen Shigaraki move.
If he had not seen the speed, precision, and terrifying decisiveness of that killing blow—
Then based purely on the feeling Shigaraki gave off…
He might have mistaken him for nothing more than a perfectly ordinary student.
Just another teenager walking home after school.
But reality didn't allow that comforting illusion.
Because All Might had seen it with his own eyes.
The moment he let his guard drop—
The moment he looked away—
This same boy had slipped behind him and executed a murderer in cold blood.
With skill far beyond what someone his age should possess.
And after witnessing that…
How could All Might possibly convince himself that the blue-haired boy standing in front of him was just an ordinary student?
◇ BONUS & SUPPORT ◇
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 10 reviews — drop a comment!
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 60 chapters ahead on P@treon → patreon.com/StrawHatStudios