Chapter 27: The Engine and the Eclipse
High above the shattered streets of Kamino, hidden among the torrential rain and the flashing lights of news helicopters, the Hero Public Safety Commission was watching.
Through the encrypted feeds of invisible, high-altitude stealth drones, the Commission President stared at the monitors in her Tokyo office. The situation had spiraled completely out of control. All For One, the mythical Emperor of the Underworld, was real and currently fighting in the crater. But worse, the Winged Sovereign's Vanguard had hijacked the battlefield. A rogue sniper, a golden-shield user, and now the paralyzed hero Ingenium—mysteriously healed and wielding an unregistered, god-like speed Quirk.
The President's face hardened into a mask of cold, bureaucratic absolute. If the public saw the Sovereign saving Kamino alongside All Might, the Commission's authority would evaporate overnight.
"The villains and the vigilantes are all localized in a single blast radius," the President stated to the tactical commander beside her. "Execute the Eclipse Protocol. Deploy the orbital strike drones and order the loyalist snipers to open fire. Level the crater."
"Ma'am, All Might is still down there," the commander hesitated. "The Symbol of Peace—"
"Will be remembered as a martyr who died stopping the greatest villain in history," she interrupted coldly. "Wipe them all out."
Two miles away from the crater, perched on the rusted spire of a Kamino radio tower, Kaina Tsutsumi heard the order.
Lady Nagant had kept her Commission frequencies open, tapping into the biometric comms she used to slavishly obey. Hearing the President coldly order the execution of the greatest hero in the world—and her new Swarm family—made her blood run ice cold. But the fear was instantly replaced by a razor-sharp, lethal clarity.
"Sovereign," Nagant whispered into her Swarm earpiece, her right arm smoothly morphing into her biomechanical sniper rifle. "The Commission just ordered an artillery wipe on the crater. They're treating All Might as acceptable collateral. I have four stealth drones and three Commission snipers locking onto your position."
"The sky is yours, Kaina," Nocturne's voice replied, absolutely unshaken. "Do not let a single bullet reach the crater."
Nagant smiled, a fierce, liberated grin spreading across her face. She pulled a handful of her bi-color hair, weaving it into specialized, explosive-tipped armor-piercing rounds. She loaded them into her arm.
"My pleasure," she whispered.
She swung her rifle upward, her enhanced vision cutting through the rain. She spotted the first invisible stealth drone perfectly masking its heat signature. Bang. The high-velocity round tore through the sky, striking the drone's cloaking generator. It exploded into a brilliant fireball high above the city, raining scrap metal onto the evacuated streets.
Three miles away, a Commission sniper lying on a rooftop lined up his crosshairs on Tensei Iida's glowing emerald engines.
Before the sniper could pull the trigger, his scope violently shattered. Nagant's bullet passed through the glass, embedding itself into the concrete inches from the man's face.
Nagant chambered another round, leaping from the radio tower to a neighboring skyscraper, moving like a phantom in the storm. For years, she had been the Commission's darkest secret. Tonight, she was their worst nightmare.
Down in the ruined subterranean vault, the Emperor of the Underworld was losing his patience.
All For One's featureless mask snapped toward Tensei Iida. The villain raised his massive, mutated arm. "A stolen pawn given cheap wings," AFO mocked, his voice vibrating with lethal intent. "I will strip that engine from your corpse!"
Air Cannon + Springlike Limbs + Kinetic Booster x4!
A catastrophic blast of invisible, hyper-compressed air erupted from All For One's palm, moving fast enough to level a skyscraper. It tore the concrete floor into jagged shrapnel, aimed directly at All Might and Tensei.
"I'm not a pawn!" Tensei roared, his emerald eyes burning.
The Celestial Engine exoskeleton ignited with a blinding, cosmic flash. Tensei didn't dodge backward. He launched himself forward, directly into the path of the air cannon.
At Mach 3, the world around Tensei stood entirely still. He could see the individual shockwaves of the compressed air rippling toward him. With a flawless, razor-sharp kick, Tensei sliced his glowing emerald leg completely through the center of the air blast. The sheer kinetic density of his Celestial Engine split the attack in half, sending the devastating winds crashing harmlessly into the vault walls on either side of All Might.
All For One's invisible gaze widened. He parted it?!
"And I'm not wearing wings!" Tensei shouted, appearing instantly in the air directly above the villain. "I am the engine!"
Tensei brought his heel down in an explosive axe-kick. All For One barely raised his un-mutated arm in time, manifesting a thick layer of Impact Recoil to absorb the blow.
The collision sounded like a thunderclap. The concrete beneath All For One shattered, sinking the villain three feet into the bedrock. The Impact Recoil Quirk attempted to bounce the kinetic energy back into Tensei, but the Sovereign's cosmic mutation absorbed the feedback, converting it instantly into more fuel for the exhaust vents.
Tensei bounced off the villain's guard and engaged his thrusters, becoming a continuous, blinding ring of emerald light circling All For One. He was moving so fast that AFO's Infrared Ray and Danger Sense Quirks were completely overwhelmed. The villain was being battered from every angle by supersonic, hit-and-run strikes.
"Toshinori!" Tensei's voice echoed from a dozen places at once, echoing around the crater. "His left side is lagging! The recoil Quirk takes a microsecond to reset! I'll strip his guard!"
All Might stood amidst the rubble, his muscle form smoking violently. The embers of One For All were fading. This was the end of his line. He could feel the ashes of his power burning away in his chest.
But looking at the emerald comet tearing apart All For One's defenses, All Might felt a massive, undeniable surge of hope. Society wasn't lost. The next generation—even those shaped in the shadows—would carry the fire.
"I hear you, Ingenium!" All Might roared, steam pouring from his lips. He clenched his right fist, pulling back his arm. The golden lightning of One For All flared with the blinding intensity of a dying sun. He channeled every single drop of power left in his body, the legacy of his master, and the hopes of the entire world, into his right arm.
All For One realized his peril. He roared in fury, combining Spearlike Bones, Rivet Stab, and Hypertrophy into a massive, jagged amalgamation of lethal spikes aimed to impale the circling speedster and the charging Symbol of Peace simultaneously.
"No you don't!" Tensei yelled.
He didn't hit the villain. Instead, Tensei ran in a hyper-tight, supersonic circle directly around All For One's mutated arm. The sheer speed generated a localized, extreme-pressure vacuum vortex. The vortex violently yanked All For One's monstrous arm upward, completely throwing the villain off balance and exposing his scarred torso.
The guard was stripped.
"NOW, ALL MIGHT!" Tensei roared, blasting himself out of the blast radius.
All Might crossed the distance in a heartbeat. He looked dead into the featureless black mask of the monster who had taken his master, scarred his body, and terrorized his city.
"Farewell, All For One," All Might whispered, the golden energy reaching critical mass.
He brought his fist down.
"UNITED STATES OF SMASH!"
The impact was beyond catastrophic. It was a localized earthquake.
The golden, blinding shockwave ripped downward, completely obliterating the villain's mask and driving All For One's skull thousands of feet into the bedrock. The crater expanded violently, the shockwave blasting upward, completely parting the storm clouds over Kamino and revealing the starry night sky above.
A hurricane of wind and dust blew across the ward. Up on the surface, Akio's Aegis Pulse flared brilliantly, protecting the civilians and the Vanguard from the apocalyptic fallout of the punch.
Slowly, the dust began to settle.
Deep in the bottom of the newly formed, massive canyon, All For One lay completely motionless, his mutated arm deflated, buried in the rubble.
Standing over him, his right arm completely broken and smoking, was All Might. The towering, muscular physique slowly hissed, deflating into the skeletal, exhausted form of Toshinori Yagi. He raised his unbroken left arm, pointing a single, trembling finger into the sky.
I won, the gesture said to the world.
A few yards away, Tensei Iida landed softly, the emerald fire of the Celestial Engine fading to a gentle, quiet hum. He looked at the skeletal Symbol of Peace, then up at the clear night sky.
High above, perched on the edge of a skyscraper, Lady Nagant lowered her smoking sniper rifle. Six Commission drones and three snipers lay disabled across the ward. Not a single bullet had reached the crater.
"The sky is clear, Sovereign," Nagant whispered into her comms, a profound, heavy peace settling over her shoulders. "The Symbol stands."
Standing on a rooftop overlooking the entire ruined ward, Rei Arata watched the Symbol of Peace raise his fist. The cosmic, violet energy in Rei's chest pulsed calmly. They had done it. They had neutralized the League, stopped the Commission's betrayal, and helped end the reign of All For One.
"Well done, Vanguard," Nocturne's voice hummed softly across their secure channel. "The age of the gods is over. The board is ours."