….
All For One pointed a trembling, mutated finger back toward the elevated platform where Dabi held Shigaraki.
"Look closely at his face! That pathetic child you've left in the hands of a Todoroki... his real name is….
"Tenko Shimura….!
"He is the biological grandson of your master, Nana Shimura!
"The legacy you failed to protect–!"
He expected crushing despair, the legendary hero's smile to shatter, and the devastating paralysis of grief to reopen his black sludge gate, allowing it to reclaim its vessel.
But All Might didn't even blink.
The starlight in his pupils didn't fade by a fraction of a millimeter.
In fact, the golden electricity arcing across his skin merely compressed, darkening into a heavy, volatile pressure that warped the very air around his knuckles.
Thanks to the ordeal Dabi had endured while uncovering the truth during the attack of the commercial district, the revelation carried no value at all because the trap had already been disarmed before it could ever be sprung.
"I already know exactly who he is, villain." All Might said, his voice dropping into a low, terrifyingly calm vibration that carried more weight than any heroic declaration. "And unlike five years ago... I will not let you use a dead woman's ghost to hide your cowardice!"
Before All For One could even register the lack of reaction, All Might broke the sound barrier, standard rules of gravity completely discarded as he re-engaged.
The sudden acceleration created a vacuum that forcefully snuffed out the remaining ambient fires in the lot.
He materialized directly above the levitating tyrant, his face locked in a feral, protective snarl as he bunched the entire reservoir of One For All's unspent embers directly into his right fist.
"This is the end of your era, All For One!"
With a thunderous explosion force that shattered the surrounding ice spires into glittering dust, All Might drove his fist downward.
"CAROLINA... SMASH!!!"
The double-handed cross-chop met the monster's skull head-on, delivering a prime-level strike that split the atmospheric pressure in two and completely dragged the Symbol of Evil down into the heart of the abyss.
….
Meanwhile, up above on the platform, Tomura Shigaraki's situation was one that couldn't be described with mere words.
Physical paralysis was one thing, but the absolute unexpected proceedings fractured his mind way worse.
Shigaraki was a complete mess, completely unraveled from the inside out.
Just a few minutes ago, his master had been confronting him about yet another failure.
But instead of the crushing disappointment or physical agony he had submissively prepared himself for, All For One had merely encouraged him.
He had given him the unconditional validation to try again, to fail again, to do whatever he wanted regardless of the body count or the results.
It was a pattern that had repeated itself again, and again, and again, throughout his entire life.
His Master had always supported him, rescued him from the streets when the heroes walked by without a second glance, and became everything Kotaro Shimura; The tyrannical, abusive man whose blood ran through his veins and who had spent years trying to control and suppress every part of his identity, had never been.
But then, the words All For One had just spat in a desperate bid to shatter All Might's psyche echoed through his mind.
Tenko Shimura;
The biological grandson of your master, Nana Shimura.
The name hit his consciousness like a structural collapse: Nana Shimura, a previous wielder of One For All, All Might's beloved mentor, and the woman his father had hated with a sickening, obsessive fervor for abandoning her family for the sake of the world.
Right then…. a thought crawled out from the blackest corners of his memories.
If his grandmother was All Might's master... if his existence was inextricably tied to the Symbol of Evil's ultimate rival... then Master finding him on that rainy day hadn't been an accident, destiny, or salvation.
Was he being manipulated this entire time?
"No... no, no, no..." A muffled, desperate whimper leaked through the frost sealing his jaw, his throat tight with a suffocating, ragged gasp. "Master... saved me... He wouldn't... He wouldn't..."
His brain violently rejected the logic, clawing frantically at the walls of his skull as it desperately tried to shut down rather than face the truth that everything he had built his life upon…
His–
Malice. Hatred.
And crusade to destroy the very same Hero Society…
Was nothing more than a carefully orchestrated lie, a dark joke played by a god who had always viewed him as a pawn.
At that exact second, the psychological backlash reached its excruciating tipping point, and Shigaraki felt as though he were being torn apart at a microscopic level.
"AUUHHHHHHGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRR!"
An agonizing existential disintegration that surpassed any physical pain he had ever endured while the ice block in his mouth reduced his unbearable horror to complete silence.
Deep within the fractured fragments of his shattered mind, the adult persona of Tomura Shigaraki began to regress, collapsing back into the weeping, terrified form of young Tenko Shimura.
Through the static of his childhood trauma, a memory burst into focus with blinding clarity.
He remembered sneaking into his father's forbidden study with his sister, Hana, the crisp feel of old paper beneath their small hands as they uncovered a hidden photograph of a beautiful woman with a mole beneath her lower lip, smiling warmly with an aura of absolute benevolence.
At that age, he hadn't understood the weight of the cape or the burden of the legacy, recognizing her only through Hana's hushed, excited whispers.
"She was a hero, I guess." his childhood self had remarked softly, tracing the faded ink of his grandmother's face.
That little boy had wanted to be a Hero too, before the itching began, before the house turned to dust, and before a hand closed around his face and renamed him a monster.
Standing beside him at the edge of the platform, Dabi cast a sideways glance at the shuddering, broken wreck.
Through his perception, he could read the complete collapse playing out in the boy's eyes.
For a single, fleeting second, a tiny flicker of pity touched Dabi's gaze.
He recognized that look: the hollow, crushing realization of realizing you were merely a product of someone else's twisted ambition.
Shigaraki was just another child whose life had been systematically ruined by the monsters of the old era.
Dabi didn't say a word to comfort him, nor did he mock him.
Let him stew in it, Dabi thought silently, turning his cold, glowing eyes back toward the roaring battlefield below where All Might was driving All For One into the earth.
His entire world just ended.
The cleanup... can wait for the aftermath.
Leaving the shivering, broken boy behind to drown in his deep despair, Dabi focused entirely on the final strokes of the war below.
….
Meanwhile, on the safe side behind Dabi's towering ice wall, the staging ground was progressing at a frantic, chaotic pace.
Sirens wailed in a chorus as ambulances, fire engines, and police cruisers flooded the staging area. Heavy barricades were dragged into position by officers to keep back media crews and bewildered onlookers.
Emergency personnel moved wounded heroes onto stretchers while radio chatter buzzed incessantly through the chilly air.
Standing near an emergency vehicle, Shoto Todoroki pulled out a borrowed phone and dialed a familiar number. Before the second ring could even finish, a frantic voice answered on the line.
"Shoto?! Shoto, is that you?!" Fuyumi cried out, her voice trembling violently with emotion.
"Fuyumi, it's me." Shoto said softly, his tone low and steady despite the utter exhaustion clinging to his frame. "I am safe, and Bakugo is fine too. Don't worry... yes, Miss Rumi is safe as well. Dabi and All Might are handling everything here."
On the other end, a ragged, shuddering sigh of pure relief broke through Fuyumi's tears. ["Thank God... Thank God... Please just stay back, Shoto. We're all watching the broadcast... and Mo–"]
She sounded as though she desperately wanted to say more, perhaps about their mother sitting beside her in the hospital room, but the paramedic who had lent Shoto the phone had only given him a strict few seconds window.
"I have to go, Fuyumi." Shoto murmured, ending the call before she could finish. Beside him, Bakugo had already tossed his borrowed phone back to an officer, crossing his arms with a sullen grunt.
Just then a yellow blur zipped through the blockade and skidded to a halt on the asphalt.
Gran Torino arrived at the scene, only to be met by a monolithic wall of solid ice that stretched far into the sky, completely sealing off the central combat zone.
He stood frozen for a second, his jaw slightly slack behind his yellow mask as he stared up at the sheer scale of the glacial structure.
"What in the hell...?" he muttered to himself, utterly bewildered. "What is going on here?!"
Before he could process the sight, he caught movement in his peripheral vision.
A small group of Class 1-A students: Izuku Midoriya, Eijiro Kirishima, Tenya Iida, Koji Koda, and Momo Yaoyorozu, spotted the veteran hero and immediately sprinted toward him.
"Gran Torino!" Midoriya called out.
Gran Torino's eyes widened when he recognized them, but his shock doubled as his gaze landed on the two boys running right alongside the group: Katsuki Bakugo and Shoto Todoroki, the very students who had been kidnapped.
"You kids?!" Gran Torino barked, his sharp eyes darting between them. "What are you doing here?! And how–"
.
….
[To be continued…]
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