….
[Kiyashi Ward Shopping Mall - Central Food Court]
Dabi let a cold smile pull at his mouth.
He came here hunting a stray dog and wound up catching the devil himself.
All For One.
The guy was either losing his mind, getting desperate, or Dabi's setup had worked a lot better than he gave it credit for.
Inside the wooden dome Kamui Woods had thrown up, Midoriya tried to make his brain catch up to his eyes.
First, Shigaraki was stuck to the floor; paralyzed by Stain's quirk.
Second, Dabi appeared out of nowhere with killing intent.
And then there was the hand reaching out of the purple mist.; the same teleportation quirk from USJ, but the presence behind it was different.
Throughout the proceedings, Midoriya had been a fraction of a second away from dying.
"What the hell?!"
He didn't usually swear, but this time the words just fell out of his mouth.
….
Through the gaps in the timber, people pushed against each other trying to see the courtyard.
"Is that the guy from the U.A.?" someone shouted. "The teacher with the fire?"
"Who's he fighting?"
"I can't see! The wood is blocking–"
A news crew was already shuffling their equipment around the perimeter, and a reporter pushed her earpiece in and spoke rapidly into a microphone.
"This is Akane Yamamoto reporting from Kiyashi Ward Mall. Pro Hero Kamui Woods has established an evacuation perimeter, and U.A. instructor Dabi is currently engaging an unidentified hostile in the main plaza. The situation is developing rapidly–"
….
Three floors up, Uraraka fumbled her limited-edition All Might figure.
"What–" Uraraka said.
Iida chopped his hands in the air. "Everyone needs to maintain order. This is an active villain scenario and we need to let the professionals handle–"
"Deku was right there." Uraraka grabbed the edge of the railing and pointed at the plaza below. "I just saw him."
Kirishima hopped on his toes, trying to see over a thick wooden branch. "I can't see anything, but that blue fire is definitely Dabi-sensei."
Yaoyorozu stood very still, phone already out.
Kirishima tried to move toward the scene.
Iida grabbed his shoulder and hauled him back. "Don't do that. Kamui Woods established these barriers for civilian safety."
Yaoyorozu was already calling. "I am contacting the police. Even if heroes are responding, they need backup and–" She paused, listening. "They're already on their way. Someone else called it in."
Uraraka pressed her hands against the rough bark of the barrier, trying to peer through the narrow gaps between the branches as flashes of blue fire lit the edges of a swirling purple void in the plaza.
Please be okay, Deku, she thought desperately. Please.
….
Down in the plaza, Dabi stared at the hand reaching out of the purple mist.
"I fucking hate teleportation villains." he muttered.
He was already getting ready to attack again, flames building intensity.
"Indeed." All For One's voice came from the void, carrying dark amusement. "Being on the receiving end of a spatial quirk user is quite annoying, isn't it?"
Dabi kept his eyes on the mist. "Midoriya. I am trusting you can take care of yourself."
The statement carried an unspoken instruction: stay out of the crossfire.
Midoriya had been struggling to breathe properly since the mist opened, and the sheer pressure coming off that portal felt like cinder blocks resting on his chest.
In a way, both successor candidates were in shock now.
Midoriya had never met this man face-to-face, but his instincts; amplified by the echoes of the previous users residing within him, screamed a singular, terrifying name.
But Dabi's words snapped Midoriya out of it. He took a defensive stance, One For All crackling across his body at 35%.
"I can handle myself." Midoriya said, voice steadier than he felt.
Dabi didn't bother continuing the conversation. He drew the flames inward until a dense, white-hot layer wrapped around his knuckles, the sudden surge in temperature cracking the tiles beneath his boots.
Then he moved straight at Tomura Shigaraki, blue fire compressing around his hands into something almost solid, heat intense enough to warp the air and fracture the nearby floor from sheer thermal stress.
If All For One wanted to intervene, he would have to fully commit, expose himself, risk–
"Let's not rush things." All For One said.
The space between Dabi and the downed villain is distorted, and a massive wall of compressed air released from the mist.
Air Cannon, it is one of All For One's most versatile stolen quirks, allowed him to store air pressure and release it as devastating concussive blasts.
The attack came from an angle Dabi hadn't anticipated, the air compression creating a visible distortion before detonating.
But Dabi's spider-sense gave him a fraction of a second of warning, that familiar tingling at the edge of his senses that always came just before danger struck.
He twisted mid-lunge, recognizing the pattern from fighting similar quirks before.
Instead of being knocked away, he used his flames to create a counter-pressure, surfing the edge of the shockwave to actually accelerate his approach rather than slow it.
His flame-wreathed fist continued toward Shigaraki's face.
Inside the portal, All For One, recognizing the attack couldn't be fully stopped, immediately activated defensive measures.
He activated [Kinetic Booster] on Shigaraki's body, and a quirk that dramatically enhanced physical durability by reinforcing cellular structure against impact.
It was like wrapping someone in invisible armor that specifically countered kinetic energy.
At the same time, All For One layered [Multiplier] over it, a quirk capable of exponentially amplifying the effects of other abilities.
In this case, multiplying the defensive enhancement of [Kinetic Booster] by several factors.
The combination should have made Shigaraki's body tough enough to withstand even professional Hero-level strikes with minimal damage.
Should have.
All For One had been calculated based on Dabi's displayed strength during the Sports Festival and USJ incident.
He had calculated what he believed were sufficient defensive measures and underestimated them.
Dabi's knuckles connected with Shigaraki's jaw.
The [Kinetic Booster] quirk absorbed part of the impact, preventing Tomura Shigaraki's head from literally exploding on contact.
But Dabi's raw physical strength, enhanced by hundred percent [Super Soldier] integration, the [Arachnid Genome], and [Sun Breathing] all funneled into one strike.
The blue fire collided with the kinetic barrier, and the invisible armor held for a fraction of a second before giving way entirely.
Teeth snapped and flew across the courtyard.
The punch continued through, slamming Shigaraki's face into the concrete floor with enough impact to spider-web the ground in a three-meter radius.
Blue fire washed over Shigaraki's skin. The villain made a ruined, choking sound as the heat burned through his shirt.
The sheer system shock flooded Shigaraki's body with adrenaline. It burned right through the paralysis Stain's quirk [Bloodcurdle].
"It hurts…!" Shigaraki choked out.
He dragged himself backward, his hands slipping in his own blood. He scrambled away from Dabi, his limbs thrashing. "Master…! Master…! He is trying to kill me. Why is everyone–"
"Tomura. Be silent."
All For One's voice lacked its previous amusement.
Two high-tier defensive quirks hadn't been enough to protect his student from a single punch, and now the boy was crawling on the floor, bleeding and pleading in front of an enemy.
So he tried to instigate something else.
All For One's voice drifted out of the purple mist. "You're not what I expected, Dabi. Or perhaps should I refer to you as, Toya Todoroki." the voice from the void echoed, calm, polite, and dripping with condescension.
"Call me whatever you want." Dabi drawled, his voice a flat, freezing blade that sliced straight through the suffocating pressure. "It's not going to matter much when I burn your vocal cords out."
All For One chuckled – a rich, deep sound that made Midoriya's stomach twist. "Dr. Garaki was right to be fascinated by your recovery. You were a broken, dying thing when we found you. A vessel that couldn't even contain its own heat. And yet, here you stand, daring to go against me. I must admit, I am profoundly curious to dissect how you've achieved such a masterpiece of a body."
"You want to dissect me?" Dabi's lips curved into a jagged, lethal smile. "Come and try. I have been itching to repay you for the three years of rent I didn't ask for."
Again a brief wave of disappointment registered in All For One's thoughts.
If only it was him…This one possesses the will, strength and ruthlessness that Tomura lacks.
He shook off the thought, Tomura was his chosen successor.
He just needed more hardening, and more trials.
All For One attacked without warning.
He didn't aim at Dabi, but targeted Midoriya.
Hurting All Might's successor would send a much better message to his old nemesis.
[Air Cannon] activated again, but this time at full power instead of the restrained version used to intercept Dabi.
The air compressed violently in a massive sphere; All For One storing the maximum amount of atmospheric pressure his quirk could contain.
Then he released it and the shockwave erupted with enough force to level buildings.
The compressed air expanded at supersonic speed, creating a visible distortion wave that screamed toward Midoriya.
With that speed and power, dodging was nearly impossible for a first-year student.
But even if Midoriya somehow managed to evade, the attack was so powerful it would shatter Kamui Woods' barrier behind him; and the expanding shockwave would hit every civilian sheltering there with lethal force.
So there was no choice, Midoriya couldn't dodge, and he had to stand his ground and take the hit.
Midoriya braced himself, every muscle tensing as he activated One For All at 40%; pushing past his normal safe limit, green lightning crackling across his entire body.
[Black Whip] erupted from both arms simultaneously, the dark tendrils wrapping around his forearms like reinforced gauntlets.
Additional tendrils shot into the ground, anchoring him to the concrete like guy-wires on a tower.
I can take this and I have to….
The [Air Cannon] blast approached, air compressing so violently it was visible, reality itself distorting–
Dabi appeared in front of him.
When did he move?!
The [Air Cannon] hit Dabi at full force.
The shockwave was designed to destroy buildings, to obliterate anything in its path through pure devastation.
All For One had put genuine power behind this strike; not holding back, genuinely trying to kill.
Dabi crossed his arms in an X-guard position, blue flames erupting to maximum intensity around his body.
The fire didn't stop the full force; couldn't, really, since Air Cannon was pure pressure, but it created a thermal barrier that disrupted the air flow, reducing the attack's cohesion slightly.
The shockwave hit.
Dabi's feet carved deep trenches in the concrete as he was pushed backward, the force enormous even for his enhanced durability.
His arms took the brunt of the impact.
Blood vessels burst in his forearms from the pressure, but his accelerated healing was already working to repair the damage. He held position for three seconds of sustained force.
When the shockwave finally dissipated, Dabi remained standing; arms shaking slightly.
Ten feet behind him, Midoriya hadn't been touched. The timber barricades holding the civilians were completely unharmed.
Dabi looked back over his shoulder, expression unreadable beneath the pain he was suppressing.
"What did I say?" he asked. He sounded incredibly tired. "I told you to try not to get in the way. Why do you always decide to play hero when you are nowhere near ready yet?"
Midoriya opened his mouth. He raised a hand, pointing vaguely at the barricades to explain about the people sheltering there.
"Don't answer." Dabi said as he turned his back on the boy and faced the purple portal again. "I already know why. Because you are a brat with a hero complex and zero sense of self-preservation. You are exactly like your mentor."
He turned back to face All For One's void, rolling his shoulders despite the pain in his arms.
"But here is the thing about playing hero before you are ready–"
Blue flames erupted across his entire body again, temperature spiking to levels that made the air shimmer and the remaining concrete floor tiles crack from thermal stress.
"–you force the adults to clean up your mess, and unlike your other teachers, I am not very patient in cleaning up others' messes."
His flames intensified further, shifting from blue to white at the core.
"So stay behind me, Midoriya. Just watch and learn, this is what it actually looks like when someone's ready to fight this battle."
The temperature continued rising, heat waves visible now, the mall's sprinkler system activating in futile response.
And All For One, for the first time in decades, felt something almost like concern.
This Dabi wasn't just strong. He'd tanked a full-power [Air Cannon]; something that should have killed or severely injured even experienced pro heroes, and was still standing.
Interesting, All For One thought.
The temperature continued rising.
And All For One, for the first time in decades, felt something almost like concern.
.
….
[To be continued…]
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