Hearing All Might's words, Shigaraki Tomura rolled his eyes.
What a joke.
Did All Might seriously think he was the type to fall for such an obvious provocation and walk straight into danger himself?
Please.
Did he look that stupid?
Trying to bait him out from behind Muscular and Kurogiri with such low-level taunts?
As if.
When your strength wasn't enough, survival always came first.
You could act cool later.
But you only got one life.
Throwing it away just to look impressive?
That was idiotic.
And Shigaraki Tomura was no idiot.
Besides, if he truly possessed enough power to defeat All Might head-on right now, would he even bother with all these schemes and traps?
He would've already walked out, beaten All Might into the ground, then turned around and beaten All For One as well before declaring himself ruler of the entire world.
Why would he still be hiding behind plans and manipulation like some mastermind lurking in the shadows?
After all—
the more someone relied on schemes, the more they understood the limits of human ability…
Unless one transcended humanity itself and stopped being human altogether—
…Ahem.
Wrong script.
Still, the principle remained the same.
The deeper someone sank into plotting and manipulation, the easier it became for those schemes to consume them in return.
And unfortunately, in the face of overwhelming power, conspiracies and tricks often became meaningless.
Shigaraki had no intention of becoming the sort of fool who one day drowned in his own schemes and got beaten to death by someone wielding absolute strength.
Thinking that, he waved his hands dismissively and firmly rejected All Might's "friendly" invitation to fight.
"No, no, no. I'm not going over there."
"Anyone with a brain knows that the moment I get close, you'll throw a supersonic punch straight into my face."
"I'm not stupid."
"Besides, fighting you head-on? That's the kind of thing people fantasize about, not something sane people actually do."
"You're All Might."
"The Symbol of Peace."
"The strongest man in modern society."
"If I fought you directly, there's no way the current me could win."
"At least I have that much self-awareness."
"So forget about fair fights."
At that point, Shigaraki paused.
Then, wearing an expression full of malicious amusement, he deliberately exposed one of All Might's secrets.
"Even when your transformation time runs out…"
"I still won't get close to you."
"Because someone like you would definitely crawl back to your feet even after being heavily injured."
"Even after your stomach was ripped open and your intestines were spilling onto the ground…"
"You'd still drag yourself over and punch me into the dirt."
"I've heard about that incident, you know."
"So yeah…"
"I'll pass on doing something that suicidal."
Beside him, Kurogiri's mouth twitched slightly.
He looked at Shigaraki with complete speechlessness.
After all, as one of All For One's trusted subordinates, he naturally knew exactly who Shigaraki was talking about.
And that was precisely why he found this entire scene absurd.
Because the person All Might had beaten half to death while grievously injured…
was literally Shigaraki's own teacher.
All For One.
Shigaraki was openly exposing his teacher's most humiliating defeat.
Did this kid seriously think that was acceptable behavior?
Still, despite complaining internally, Kurogiri wisely kept his mouth shut.
Nor did he intend to report this conversation to All For One afterward.
After all, casually exposing his teacher's embarrassing history was perfectly normal behavior for Shigaraki.
Kurogiri had long since grown numb to it.
Besides, even if he did tell All For One, the man probably wouldn't blame Shigaraki at all.
He might even accuse Kurogiri of trying to stir trouble instead.
All For One's tolerance toward Shigaraki had always been ridiculously high.
Sometimes Kurogiri genuinely suspected they were blood relatives.
Because the level of indulgence was simply unreasonable.
…
Meanwhile, after realizing that Shigaraki had absolutely no intention of approaching him and had fully committed himself to shameless survival tactics, All Might developed a massive headache.
Because as long as Shigaraki refused to come closer, All Might couldn't find an opportunity to attack.
But compared to that problem, another issue bothered him even more.
Transformation time.
That was his greatest secret.
So how did an enemy he had only encountered twice know about it?
Only a handful of people should have known.
Questions immediately began piling up in All Might's mind.
And with them came the earlier suspicions he had tried to suppress.
How had the operation been leaked?
Only a very small number of trusted individuals had known the details.
Could there really have been a traitor among them?
But almost immediately, All Might rejected the idea.
Because he suddenly remembered something important.
There was indeed one other person who knew this secret.
The man responsible for the catastrophic wound in his body.
The reason his transformation time had been reduced to only three hours per day.
The source of everything—
All For One.
And while All Might's thoughts churned with doubts because of the "accidental" information Shigaraki had revealed, Shigaraki himself casually pulled out his phone and checked the time.
Almost an hour had passed.
Seeing that, Shigaraki gestured toward Kurogiri.
It was time to leave.
After all, they had stalled long enough.
The preparations outside should already be complete by now.
"Heh. Alright."
"Chat time's over."
"We still have work to do."
Then Shigaraki grinned viciously.
"Oh, and since we're leaving anyway, I don't mind telling you one more thing…"
"Next, we're going to play with your companions."
"And with all those obedient little sheep you were so desperate to protect."
"As for you, All Might…"
"Just stay here quietly and watch us kill your comrades one by one."
"After all…"
"There's nothing you can do except wait."
The reason Shigaraki deliberately threw out those threats before leaving wasn't because he failed to understand that villains who talked too much usually died quickly.
Of course he understood that.
But for certain goals, these words needed to be said.
"Damn you!"
All Might's expression instantly darkened.
At this point, he was completely certain that Shigaraki had learned about his time limit from All For One.
And more importantly—
those two definitely had a connection.
Because their styles were far too similar.
Both ruthless.
Both cunning.
Both willing to use any means necessary.
"You…"
"What exactly is your relationship with All For One?!"
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