Chapter 21: The Price of Victory
A suffocating quiet descended upon the central plaza, broken only by the thick, wet sound of boiling rock.
The engineered monstrosity, the creature designed specifically to endure any physical blow and regenerate from any wound, was now nothing more than a charred, motionless husk. It slowly sank deeper into the viscous, glowing pool of liquid pavement, its carbonized flesh dissolving into the intense heat.
From the shallow waters of the Shipwreck Zone, Tsuyu Asui and Minoru Mineta stared with wide, unblinking eyes. Beside them, Izuku Midoriya trembled, his breath caught in his throat. The invincible villain was dead. And the classmate who had slain it was currently slumped against a fractured concrete wall, barely clinging to consciousness.
Sakazuki's vision swam, the edges of his sight darkening into a blurry vignette. Every shallow breath he took felt like a jagged knife dragging across his lungs. Several of his ribs were completely shattered from the point-blank blunt force trauma. Worse still, his mouth was as dry as desert sand; he had pushed his thermal output so far past its natural limit that his body was dangerously dehydrated. The internal furnace that fueled his quirk was completely empty.
A few yards away, Tomura Shigaraki stood frozen.
The pale villain stared at the bubbling magma pool, his single visible eye twitching erratically. His hands began to shake. Slowly, he reached up, his long, dry fingers digging violently into his own neck. He scratched with a frantic, unhinged desperation, peeling away layers of skin until dark blood began to well up beneath his fingernails.
"You broke it," Shigaraki muttered, his voice a strained, high-pitched wheeze of disbelief. "My Nomu. You completely broke my game. You... you dirty glitch."
Shigaraki's gaze snapped away from the molten pool and locked onto the battered teenager resting against the wall. Pure, unfiltered malice radiated from his thin frame. Logic and strategy evaporated from the villain's mind, replaced entirely by a childish, blinding tantrum.
"I will erase you!" Shigaraki shrieked, breaking into a desperate sprint. His hands reached out, all five fingers extended, aiming directly for Sakazuki's face.
Sakazuki watched the approaching threat with a cold, detached pragmatism. He willed his right arm to raise, attempting to ignite a defensive flare of heat. His muscles twitched, but his limb remained agonizingly heavy and entirely unresponsive. His body had reached its absolute physical limit. He could not fight back, nor could he evade. He simply kept his dark eyes open, refusing to look away from his impending end.
Suddenly, the shallow water nearby exploded outward.
Mineta and Tsuyu cried out, shielding their faces from the sudden spray. They could not even track the movement. It was nothing but a blinding flash of green lightning tearing through the damp air.
Midoriya crossed the distance in a fraction of a second, channeling the raw, unrefined power of his quirk entirely into his legs.
Just as Shigaraki's decaying fingers closed in on Sakazuki, the green-haired boy slammed into the villain. Midoriya lowered his head, driving his skull directly into Shigaraki's stomach with the force of a speeding vehicle.
The impact forced a violent gasp from Shigaraki's lungs as the wind was entirely knocked out of him. The collision sent both the villain and the student tumbling wildly across the hard, unforgiving concrete of the plaza. They rolled several times, a chaotic tangle of limbs, before finally separating and skidding to a halt.
For a brief second, the plaza was still again.
Then, Midoriya let out a visceral, throat-tearing scream.
He was sprawled on his stomach, digging his fingers frantically into the dirt. Both of his legs were mangled, the bones fractured and bent at deeply unnatural angles. The skin around his calves was already turning a sickening shade of purple. The sheer backlash of his own unrestrained quirk had completely destroyed his lower limbs. The green-haired boy sobbed, dragging himself an inch forward across the tiles, thoroughly overwhelmed by the excruciating agony, before his eyes rolled back and his head slumped heavily against the ground, unconscious.
Sitting against the cracked wall, Sakazuki stared at the fallen boy.
His analytical mind stalled, genuinely struggling to process what he had just witnessed. It defied every parameter of logic he possessed. The boy was incompetent. He possessed no control over his devastating power. He had just crippled himself entirely, rendering his own body useless in a hostile warzone, all to buy a few seconds of time for someone else.
Why? Sakazuki thought, a strange, unfamiliar tightness gripping his chest that had nothing to do with his shattered ribs. You lack the basic proficiency to wield your own strength. You gamble your life and permanently damage your own limbs on a reckless maneuver. It is entirely irrational.
And yet, despite the harsh critique ringing in his mind, Sakazuki could not deny the reality in front of him. That reckless, incompetent boy had thrown himself into the line of fire without a single trace of hesitation. He had acted as a living shield.
Five meters away, Shigaraki groaned, pushing himself up onto his hands and knees. He coughed violently, clutching his bruised abdomen where Midoriya had struck him.
"You little brat..." Shigaraki hissed, struggling to his feet. He glared at the unconscious Midoriya, then shifted his furious gaze back to Sakazuki. "I will turn you both into dust!"
Before Shigaraki could take a single step forward, a deafening explosion rocked the entire facility.
The massive, reinforced metal doors at the top of the main entrance stairs were violently blown off their hinges, twisting through the air before crashing into the plaza below.
A towering silhouette stood in the open doorway, the gray light of the overcast sky framing his massive shoulders. He was not wearing his brightly colored hero costume, but rather a simple white dress shirt and dark slacks. More importantly, the trademark, comforting smile that always graced his face was completely absent. His jaw was set in stone, his blue eyes shadowed by a deep, palpable fury.
"I had a bad feeling, so I tore myself away from my interviews and hurried here," the Symbol of Peace spoke. His voice was uncharacteristically low, completely lacking its usual booming cheer, yet it echoed into every corner of the dome. "It is fine now. I am here."
All Might did not run down the stairs. He simply vanished.
A localized hurricane swept through the plaza. In the blink of an eye, the towering hero materialized between the villains and the injured students. He did not punch Shigaraki directly, but the sheer wind pressure generated by his arrival blasted the villain backward, sending Shigaraki tumbling uncontrollably until he crashed near the swirling mist of his accomplice.
"Tomura Shigaraki," Kurogiri's polite voice wavered slightly as the mist wrapped around the battered villain. "The Nomu has been destroyed. We are entirely outmatched against All Might in this state. If we stay, we will be captured. We must retreat immediately."
Shigaraki gripped his bruised stomach, his erratic gaze darting between the towering figure of All Might and the two broken students on the ground. The hatred in his eye was venomous. "This is not over... Next time, we will kill you, Symbol of Peace."
The purple fog surged outward, completely engulfing the pale man. A second later, the vortex collapsed in on itself, leaving the plaza completely empty of the invading force.
The oppressive tension finally broke.
Footsteps echoed from the perimeter of the plaza as Katsuki Bakugo, Shoto Todoroki, and Eijiro Kirishima rushed out from their respective zones, their eyes widening at the scale of the destruction.
All Might exhaled a long, heavy breath, the intense fury slowly leaving his posture. He dropped down to one knee, resting his massive hands on his thighs as he carefully surveyed the immediate aftermath.
He looked at the glowing, bubbling lake of melted concrete, immediately recognizing the lethal, decisive tactics required to bring down a bio-engineered nightmare. Then, his gaze shifted. He looked at Midoriya, whose legs were completely shattered from an undeniable act of self-sacrifice, and finally, he looked at Sakazuki, whose body was bruised, bleeding, and pushed far past its mortal limits.
The Number One Hero felt a profound wave of respect wash over him. These were not children needing to be rescued. They were warriors who had held the line.
"You fought bravely," All Might said softly, his deep voice carrying a gentle, fatherly warmth as he looked between the two boys. "The villains have fled. The ambulances are already outside. You can rest now."
Sakazuki's eyelids fluttered, feeling as though they were made of lead. The agonizing pain in his chest made it difficult to speak. He did not ask for water, nor did he demand immediate medical attention for his broken ribs.
He forced his dry, cracked lips apart, his dark eyes shifting weakly toward the unconscious green-haired boy lying on the dirt.
"I am fine..." Sakazuki whispered, his voice a ragged, exhausted rasp. "Just... that boy..."
His head tilted forward, his chin resting against his chest as the lingering adrenaline completely faded from his veins, finally allowing the dark embrace of unconsciousness to pull him under.
.
.
[Author's Note]
I must confess, I am deliberately avoiding making Sakazuki's Quirk function like a Logia for now. I believe it is a skill he will acquire during his career after further developing his Quirk. I feel he would be "broken" (overpowered) if he possessed the full extent of his power within this current timeframe.