….
"This power explains why Nine had failed in his mission…."
All For One noted calmly, though the sheer force of her impact actually forced his boots to slide back an inch into the dirt.
The mention of that name struck Rumi like a lightning bolt.
Nine!!
The piece of trash who had threatened her family, working under the direct orders of the monster standing right in front of her.
Hearing his name tossed out so casually, as if her family's terror was nothing more than a failed task, snapped the final thread of her control.
A low, guttural growl vibrated in the back of her throat, sounding less like a human and more like an apex predator driven entirely by bloodlust.
The crimson in her eyes flared so brightly it practically cast a shadow in the dust.
"I am just getting started!" Rumi yelled, her instincts completely overriding the pain of her cracked ribs.
She didn't recoil from the block.
Instead, using his defensive arm as a springboard, she flipped instantly, her left leg whipping around like a piston driven by raw, vengeful fury–
"LUNA FALL!"
She dropped her heel like a falling meteor, smashing down onto his shoulder with enough force to crater the earth beneath them.
All For One's knees buckled slightly under the brutal assault, his quiet arrogance momentarily interrupted by the relentless ferocity of her.
But against the Symbol of Evil, raw savagery was a double-edged sword.
"An exceptional display of primal force." All For One muttered, his voice echoing from behind his dark mask.
While Rumi was mid-air, preparing to launch a third consecutive strike, the fingers on his right hand swelled into a grotesque combination of dark metallic growth and red veins.
"Spring Limbs. Kinetic Booster. Fourfold."
Before she could twist her body to dodge, an invisible, hyper-compressed wall of air erupted from his palm at point-blank range.
The Air Cannon caught Rumi squarely in the torso.
The sheer kinetic output violently countered her forward momentum, blasting her backward through the air.
She crashed heavily through a standing concrete pillar, tumbling across the rocky wasteland before finally grinding to a halt next to the heavily bleeding Best Jeanist.
She coughed violently, pressing a hand to her side as smoke rose from her boots, but her fingers were still clawing into the dirt, her feral eyes still locked onto the monster in front of them.
All For One casually dusted off his shoulder. "I understand your impatience to take revenge, and I can even appreciate the practice, experience, and raw instinct behind your attack... but against me, even the wildest beast is still nothing more than an animal."
Rumi didn't give him the satisfaction of an answer.
She simply spat a mouthful of bloody saliva into the dirt, her knuckles grinding against the rocky floor.
Her crimson eyes locked onto him with venom.
She was already crouching down, her muscles tensing as she prepared to launch herself into another all-out assault.
Meanwhile, crouched behind a ruined concrete wall just outside the main courtyard, Izuku, Eijiro, Tenya, and Momo were reaching their absolute breaking point.
They had promised each other they would limit their role to securing an escape route and nothing more.
Every second they watched Rumi, a woman deeply cherished by their Dabi-sensei, battle a literal monster alone that made it harder to honor the promise they had made.
Tenya's eyes turned bloodshot, his vision blurring from a cocktail of sheer terror and rage.
His fingers clamped down on both Eijiro's and Izuku's shoulders, gripping them so tightly his armor creaked, physically anchoring them to the ground.
For one long, agonizing moment, Tenya held them back, fully aware of the danger and able to feel it with every instinct he possessed.
Then his hands began to tremble, and at last, he let go.
Despite the overwhelming fear, the pressure, and the crushing weight that made their legs feel like lead, leaving them unable to force even a single step forward, their determination to help ultimately overpowered every instinct for self-preservation, bringing them within a single heartbeat of throwing themselves into the jaws of death.
But before they could cross that line, a sudden surge of spatial energy cut through the air.
Katsuki Bakugo materialized directly out of a geyser of bubbling black liquid right in front of All For One.
The sudden manifestation instantly caught the attention of Izuku's group, freezing them in their tracks.
"Ah, my apologies for the rough transit, Katsuki Bakugo…" All For One remarked with unsettling politeness.
"...and to you as well, Shoto Todoroki."
Right on cue, several more dark vortexes violently coughed inward.
Tomura Shigaraki and the remaining members of the League of Villains materialized onto the shattered concrete, coughing and hacking up the foul-smelling residue.
All For One looked over the disheveled group, his gaze ultimately settling on his apprentice. "I see you have failed once again, Tomura."
Shigaraki flinched, his fingers instantly clawing at his neck as a wave of humiliation and rage washed over him.
He prepared for the scolding, for the crushing disappointment.
However, All For One's tone remained perfectly smooth, completely devoid of anger or disappointment.
He extended a hand toward the young villain, his voice carrying a deeply unsettling warmth. "But do not be discouraged. There is no need to be disheartened. Look at what you have built. You are still the leader of League of Villains. And more importantly, you have brought Katsuki Bakugo and Shoto Todoroki to me. I deem them both highly important pieces for your future."
The Symbol of Evil stepped closer to his fractured student, his looming shadow swallowing Shigaraki completely. "Continue trying, Tomura. Fail, learn, and try again as many times as you like. Do not worry about the setbacks, because everything I do... everything I have gathered here today... is for your sake."
For a split second, an outsider without context might have been amused, thinking All For One was the most patient, nurturing teacher in the world.
But beneath that warmth lay a sickening reality.
It was a twisted grooming process, treating human lives as nothing more than disposable chess pieces for his own ultimate supremacy.
Just a few yards away in the wreckage, the true cost of his ruthlessness was visible. Best Jeanist lay motionless in a crater, his chest barely rising. Mt. Lady, Tiger, and Gang Orca were severely battered, pinned beneath heavy concrete slabs.
Rumi Usagiyama was on one knee, gasping for air, her knuckles bloody and white as she forced her trembling legs to stand again.
She wanted to tear him apart, but her body was reaching its physical limit.
Behind the ruined wall, Izuku Midoriya watched the nightmare unfold.
His hyper-vigilant quirk, picked up a crucial detail:
All For One hasn't noticed our location yet.
The opportunity to act was staring him right in the face.
Izuku's instincts immediately screamed to activate One For All: Full Cowl, spark his lightning, leap across the clearing to grab both Katsuki and Shoto, and vanish into the grid.
Unlike the disaster during the forest camp ambush where he was left broken and helpless on the ground, this time, the chance to rescue them was physically within his grasp.
He braced his legs to move anyway, willing to risk it all.
But suddenly, the sky itself seemed to shatter.
A sonic boom ripped through the atmosphere as a golden comet plummeted from the clouds like a meteor, tearing through layers of ash and smoke with the force of an extinction-level event.
The air pressure inverted.
The absolute malice radiating from All For One was instantly met with an equal, opposing force of pure heroic fury.
"HAVE NO FEAR, BOYS!!!"
The voice thundered, a deafening, raw roar. It was a golden wall of absolute defiance throwing itself between the children and the devil.
"BECAUSE I AM HERE!!!"
All Might materialized from the blinding shockwave, his eyes glowing like twin stars of pure retribution amidst the dust.
Instead of his usual warm, peaceful smile, his lips peeled back into a feral, protective snarl as he brought a colossal, maximum-output overhead strike crashing toward All For One's skull.
The villain, detecting the attack, raised his arms, channeling a hard-light barrier of overlapping quirks to block the blow.
BOOM!
The impact generated a shockwave, tearing the ground asunder and violently throwing Katsuki, Tomura, Shoto, and the members of League of Villains backward skid.
All Might kept his legendary smile pinned to his face, but inside, his blood was boiling.
He was suffocating under a massive weight of hidden anxiety.
If he had been even a single moment later, he would have had to answer to his colleague, Dabi, about Rumi's condition.
To the Symbol of Peace, that would have been the most humiliating thing imaginable.
Time and time again, Dabi had stood as the absolute asset for Hero Society.
From the USJ attack to stepping up and personally training his successor, Midoriya, and the rest of Class 1-A into true survivors, Dabi had carried a burden that should have belonged to the No. 1 Hero.
All Might had no shame in admitting it to himself: without Dabi, the students wouldn't be standing today.
Dabi had effectively taken his place when his own embers began to fade.
But not anymore.
Standing face-to-face with the devil, All Might vowed to repay everything Dabi had done for UA and for society.
Even if it was a debt of blood and sacrifice he knew he could never truly balance.
.
….
[To be continued…]
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