"Zoro! Don't let him cut you!" Midoriya screamed, his voice ragged. "If he tastes a single drop of your blood, you'll be completely paralyzed!"
Zoro didn't look back. He expanded his Observation Haki to its absolute limit, feeling the suffocating, murderous intent radiating from the killer before him.
Stain's gaze stopped on Zoro. His bloodthirsty grin slowly faded, replaced by a cautious, calculating stare.
"You... you're the swordsman from the Sports Festival," Stain hissed.
The Hero Killer stared at the boy. His battle-hardened senses were picking up something incredibly strange. The aura around this green-haired teenager was nothing like Midoriya's, Todoroki's, or Iida's. It was terrifyingly heavy. It was the aura of a killer.
"Your energy is completely different from these children," Stain added, tightening his grip on his jagged blade. "But do you really think three blades will save you from the purge?"
"I'm not playing hero," Zoro growled around the white hilt in his mouth. "Come find out."
In a fraction of a second, Stain vanished.
His speed was unnatural, but thanks to his Haki, Zoro read the exact trajectory of the strike.
CLANG!
Zoro's swords clashed violently against Stain's jagged blade. Violent sparks illuminated the dark brick walls of the alleyway.
The physical pressure was immense. Stain didn't fight with the refined elegance of a swordsman; he attacked from dead, lethal angles like a starving beast.
"You truly are different from the rest," Stain grunted, pressing his blade down. "Your swords are heavy. You aren't fighting for fame or money like the rest of this trash."
"And you talk way too much for a killer," Zoro shot back, shoving Stain away with a burst of raw strength.
The two exchanged a flurry of blindingly fast strikes that Iida and Todoroki couldn't even track. But Zoro quickly realized a fatal problem.
His ordinary, unnamed katana in his left hand was groaning. Without Armament Haki to coat the steel, it was just a regular piece of metal going up against a monster.
In a crucial clash, Stain brought his sword down toward Zoro's head with terrifying force. Zoro raised his ordinary sword to block and parry the momentum.
CRAAAACK!
The sound of shattering metal echoed through the alley. The blade couldn't withstand the pressure, snapping clean in half as steel shards flew into the air.
Zoro's balance faltered for a microsecond. It was exactly the opening the beast was waiting for.
Twisting his body with impossible flexibility, Stain flicked a small throwing knife across Zoro's bicep.
A few drops of blood spilled. Stain leaped backward with a victorious smirk and immediately licked the blood right off his knife.
Zoro's body went completely rigid.
A freezing current locked his veins. The Sandai Kitetsu slipped from his right hand, clattering against the concrete. Zoro collapsed onto one knee, entirely paralyzed.
"No! Zoro!" Todoroki yelled in desperation, unleashing a massive wave of ice.
Stain effortlessly sliced the ice apart and walked toward Zoro with slow, deliberate steps.
"You fought with magnificent skill," Stain said, standing over the paralyzed swordsman. "But your weak tools were your downfall."
The Hero Killer raised his jagged sword high, preparing to sever the swordsman's neck. But he froze.
Stain looked down into Zoro's eyes. Both of the boy's eyes were blazing with a terrifying, unyielding fire. There wasn't a single trace of fear or regret in them. It was the gaze of a wild beast that absolutely refused to bow to death.
"You..." Stain whispered. The madness in his voice vanished, replaced by deep, profound respect. "Facing certain death, your spirit refuses to break. You are nothing like these fake heroes. You are a true warrior... and your death here will be an honor."
Stain swung his blade down with lethal force.
At that exact moment, Zoro let out a muffled, guttural roar that shook the alley.
Defying all human logic and medical science, driven by sheer, unadulterated willpower, Zoro shattered the physical binds of the Quirk for a single second. Ignoring the agonizing tearing of his muscle fibers, he forced his frozen body to twist.
He dodged the fatal blow to his neck.
CHAAAK!
Stain's jagged sword brutally slashed across Zoro's chest instead. It ripped entirely through his U.A. track suit jacket, carving a deep, bloody gash across his torso.
Blood splattered onto the cold ground. Midoriya gasped in absolute horror, feeling as if his own heart had stopped.
But despite the lethal wound, Zoro didn't fall.
He slowly turned his head toward Stain, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the concrete. A wild, feral, battle-crazed grin spread across his face.
"Hero?" Zoro coughed, blood dripping from his chin. "Save that garbage for someone else... I'm just a swordsman who's going to be the greatest."
With agonizing effort, Zoro reached down with his right hand and grabbed the Wado Ichimonji.
A deadly calm suddenly radiated from his body. It was a silence so profound that Stain took a step backward, driven entirely by pure survival instinct.
Zoro closed his eyes for a second, focusing all of his Observation Haki into a single point. He ignored the burning pain, ignored the bleeding, and slowly slid the sword into the scabbard at his hip.
"One-Sword Style..." (Ittoryu...)
Stain realized the mortal danger. He lunged at Zoro with all his speed, desperate to kill him before the technique was finished.
Zoro opened his eyes.
"Lion's Song!" (Shishi Sonson!)
A single flash of brilliant silver cut through the darkness.
No one saw Zoro move. All they saw was his back, standing five feet behind Stain, his sword fully extended. Stain was frozen mid-lunge.
Click.
Zoro calmly slid the sword perfectly back into its scabbard.
At that exact sound, a precise, devastating wound erupted across Stain's chest. The Hero Killer's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed heavily onto his face, completely unconscious.
Zoro swayed, falling hard onto one knee. He was breathing heavily, his blood pooling on the asphalt beneath him. He looked down at the broken hilt of his ordinary sword and tossed it aside.
"This world is full of monsters..." Zoro muttered tiredly. "Skill alone isn't enough here. I'm going to need a third sword that doesn't break."
"Zoro!" Midoriya cried out, trying to crawl toward him. "Stay awake!"
A few feet away, Iida pushed himself up from the ground. The paralysis was fading. He looked at Midoriya, Todoroki, and the heavily bleeding Zoro. Tears of deep, profound regret streamed down his face.
"I'm sorry..." Iida sobbed, bowing his head. "Thank you... all of you. I was blinded by my own selfish anger. From now on, I swear... I will never act like this again. I will become a hero my brother can be proud of!"
They worked quickly. They tied Stain up tightly with heavy ropes and stripped him of all his knives and swords. Native, the Pro Hero, insisted on carrying Midoriya on his back. Todoroki and Iida rushed to Zoro's side, offering their shoulders to help him walk.
Zoro swatted their hands away. "I can walk," he grunted, forcing himself to his feet and limping alongside them, bleeding the whole way.
As they finally emerged from the dark alleyway and onto the main street, they were met with the chaotic flashing lights of the burning city. They began discussing calling an ambulance when a small figure dropped from the sky.
"You foolish boy!" Gran Torino barked, pointing a cane at Midoriya. "Why didn't you stay on the train like I told you?!"
Moments later, the other Pro Heroes who had been fighting the Nomus arrived on the scene. Their jaws dropped in absolute shock when they saw the infamous Hero Killer tied up and defeated by a group of bruised, bleeding teenagers.
High above the streets, Shigaraki watched through a pair of binoculars.
"They actually captured him," Shigaraki growled, scratching his neck furiously. Even though he hated Stain's guts, the killer was a powerful symbol that the League could use. "I won't let them have him. Nomu! Go get him!"
The winged Nomu, screeching from the sky, instantly folded its wings and entered a devastating, high-speed dive bomb, aiming straight for the group of heroes on the street.
Down below, Endeavor had just marched onto the scene, his flames illuminating the street.
Suddenly, Zoro's eyes snapped wide open. His Observation Haki flared violently. He didn't look at Endeavor or Gran Torino; he looked straight up into the dark sky.
"Shoto!" Zoro barked, his voice deadly serious. "Make me a path to the sky with your ice! Now!"
Todoroki was startled, but after what they had just survived, he didn't question the swordsman for a second. He slammed his right foot into the ground. A massive, towering pillar of solid ice erupted from the street, shooting upward at a steep angle like a launchpad.
Ignoring his bleeding chest, Zoro sprinted up the ramp, launching himself into the night sky like a rocket.
The Pro Heroes gasped.
As the winged Nomu dove out of the clouds, Zoro was already at the apex of his jump, meeting the monster in mid-air. He placed the Wado Ichimonji in his mouth and gripped the Sandai Kitetsu in his right hand. A terrifying, blood-red aura leaked from the cursed blade.
"Dragon Twister!" (Tatsu Maki!)
Zoro spun his body with hurricane force, creating a massive, spiraling tornado of razor-sharp wind. The wind sheared through the Nomu's tough, rubbery flesh, ripping its wings apart and halting its dive.
As the monster shrieked, Zoro raised both swords over his shoulders.
"Two-Sword Style: Rashomon!"
Zoro swung. The blades sliced cleanly through the air, completely severing the Nomu's exposed brain and head from its body. The headless corpse plummeted in one direction, while the head fell in another.
Having expended every last drop of his stamina, Zoro's eyes rolled back. He began free-falling from the sky, dropping like a lifeless corpse, his blood trailing behind him in the air.
"He's falling!" Gran Torino yelled.
Todoroki reacted instantly. With a wave of his right hand, he created a massive, curved slide of smooth ice that caught Zoro perfectly out of the air, allowing his unconscious body to slide gently down to the street level without taking any fall damage.
The street was dead silent.
Midoriya stared at the unconscious Zoro, his mind racing at a million miles an hour. How did he know the Nomu was coming before anyone else even heard it? Zoro is always interesting, what is this? Something related to sensory perception?!
Endeavor and Gran Torino were utterly speechless. A first-year U.A. student had just launched a suicidal aerial attack and successfully executed a monster that required multiple Pro Heroes to even scratch. It was absurd.
Nearby, tied to the ground, Stain briefly stirred. His heavy eyelids fluttered open just in time to see Zoro falling from the sky after destroying the monster.
"He protects... without a second thought..." Stain muttered weakly, a small, bloody smile on his face. "The true heir... to justice..."
Stain's eyes closed, and he passed out for good.
On the water tower miles away, Shigaraki crushed the binoculars in his hands until they turned to dust.
"That swordsman..." Shigaraki hissed, a vein popping in his forehead. He had ruined the USJ attack, and now he had ruined Hosu. "He is the number one obstacle. I will kill him."
.
.
For Advanced Chapters:
Pat re onis one of the biggest way to help your author to write more and also to get advanced chapters;
Pat re on.com/AZTh
Apple users should subscribe through the website, not the app, because the app costs about five extra dollars due to Apple's fees. That's why I strongly recommend using the web version.