Chapter 48: Battle Against The Strongest Hero (Final).
The atmosphere in Ground Beta had transcended the boundaries of a simple exam.
A dense, freezing mist swirled around the center of the intersection, reducing visibility to a milky white haze. The temperature plummeted, frost creeping rapidly across the asphalt, turning the grey streets into a jagged mirror of ice.
Yet, in the eye of this arctic storm, stood a sun.
All Might stood motionless. A thin layer of rime coated the shoulders of his Golden Age costume, and icicles clung to the tips of his defying gravity bangs. But his smile... that trademark, indomitable smile... burned with a warmth that the cold couldn't touch. It was terrifyingly reassuring.
Opposite him, Aokiji stood with his hands finally removed from his pockets. His posture was low, predatory—a stark contrast to his usual slouch.
His dark eyes darted rapidly, scanning the towering hero.
Muscle density. Wind pressure. Acceleration speed.
Aokiji's mind, usually a calm lake, was now a churning ocean of calculations. He was running simulations, predicting trajectories, trying to forecast the movement of the Symbol of Peace.
It's useless, Aokiji realized, a cold sweat freezing instantly on his temple. I can calculate the physics of a tsunami or the breaking point of steel. But this creature? He defies logic. There is no formula for 'The Strongest.'
[Class 1-A Observation Room]
The giant monitors bathed the students' faces in a pale, blue light. The room was thick with tension.
"Kuzan plans to face All Might alone, kero?" Asui asked, pressing a finger to her lip, her eyes wide.
"That is literal insanity!" Mineta gripped his head. "He's going to get pasted!"
"Doesn't he have the advantage?" Mina Ashido leaned forward, her horns grazing the screen. "I mean, All Might is a physical fighter. Punches shouldn't work on Kuzan's ice body, right?"
"That's how it appears at first glance," Todoroki interjected, his voice heavy. He stared at the screen with the eyes of someone who knew what raw power looked like. "But All Might's power is fundamentally different. It's not just impact; it's total annihilation. The wind pressure alone will scatter Aokiji's particles so far apart that reassembling himself would be like trying to build a snowman in a hurricane. It's a pipe dream."
"Kuzan must realize this," Yaoyorozu added, her hands clasped tightly together. "Yet, he is proceeding. He is betting everything on the fraction of a chance that Midoriya can escape."
"Are you bastards watching a different show or what?"
The harsh, gravelly voice cut through their analysis. The class turned to see Bakugo Katsuki. He stood apart from the group, his arms crossed, his red eyes narrowed into dangerous slits as he glared at the monitor.
"Can't you see it?" Bakugo growled, his voice vibrating with a mix of anger and something else—recognition. "Look at his eyes. There isn't a shred of fear in them. But it's more than that. He's not the same lazy extra from the Sports Festival."
Bakugo clenched his fists until his knuckles popped.
"That damn icy bastard... what happened to him to make him look like that?"
"Did he change?" Kaminari squinted, confused. "I don't get it."
"I don't know if I understand what Bakugo is saying," Kirishima murmured, stepping closer to the screen. "But looking at Kuzan now... yeah. He looks like he's not just trying to pass. He looks like he wants this fight.."
[Ground Beta]
All Might spread his arms wide, his chest expanding like a barrel.
"HAAAA!"
CLAP!
He brought his massive hands together.
It wasn't just a sound. It was a physical rejection of the atmosphere. The clap generated a spherical shockwave of high-pressure air that detonated outward. In an instant, the freezing mist was blown away. The frost on his costume shattered and vanished. The temperature in the street spiked back up to normal levels.
All Might stood amidst the clear air, clenching his fists, his smile widening.
"Ready or not, here I come!"
Aokiji didn't flinch at the display of power. He slammed his palm onto the pavement.
If I get hit once, reforming will be a dream.
"Ice Statues: Four Guardians."
Crrreeeaaak!
Four thick, jagged ridges of ice erupted from beneath Aokiji's hand. They snaked across the asphalt like white pythons, racing toward four different buildings surrounding the intersection. As the ice trails hit the walls, they surged upward, defying gravity.
Upon reaching the rooftop of each building, the ice molded itself. It twisted and hardened, forming four perfect, life-sized replicas of Aokiji, but in the color of ice. They stood on the precipices of the roofs—silent, frozen sentinels.
All Might didn't even glance at them. To him, they were parlor tricks.
"Too slow!"
Whhoooosh!
The pavement where All Might stood disintegrated. He was a blur of red and blue. In a fraction of a second—literally faster than the neurons in a human eye could fire—All Might crossed the distance.
His fist was already occupying the space where Aokiji's head was.
Aokiji saw nothing. Only a sudden eclipse.
SMASH!
There was no sound of impact, only the sound of obliteration. Aokiji's body didn't just break; it was atomized. The kinetic force turned him into a cloud of "diamond dust"—microscopic shards of ice glittering in the sunlight.
[Faculty Observation Room]
"He evaporated him," Midnight whispered. " I guess the fight now is already over.."
Cementoss, Ectoplasm, and Present Mic sat forward, their eyes glued to the screens. They were watching the Number One Student clash with the Number One Hero, and the gap seemed insurmountable.
All Might pulled his fist back, steam rising from his knuckles.
"I'll just add one more wind pressure wave to clear this dust," All Might announced to the empty air. "Don't die on me now, Kuzan Boy..."
But the dust didn't settle.
The millions of microscopic ice particles, which had been floating with a deceptive calm in the wake of the smash, suddenly woke up. The eerie stillness vanished instantly.
The glittering atoms began to storm violently around All Might's body. They spun and whipped like a localized blizzard concentrated on a single point, closing in on him with aggressive speed.
In a heartbeat, the swirling vortex slammed onto All Might' skin, fusing together and hardening into a thick, suffocating crust of super-compacted ice. It wrapped around his torso, his limbs, and his face, sealing him in a chaotic, jagged coffin.
At the exact same moment, on the rooftop of the building to the left—
CRACK!
One of the ice statues fractured. The shell fell away, and Aokiji stepped out from inside the ice clone. He was whole. His eyes were black and cold.
"HE MOVED?!" The students in the observation room screamed in unison.
"He transferred his consciousness to one of the replicas?!" Iida commented.
On the street, the ice coffin around All Might began to vibrate.
"HAHAHA!"
SHATTER!
With a simple flex of his muscles, All Might blew the ice prison apart. Shards the size of cars flew in every direction. He looked up, spotting Aokiji on the roof.
"I see! I am literally fighting an Ice Ghost, aren't I?" All Might roared, amused.
He punched the air in Aokiji's direction.
"SMASH!"
A cylinder of compressed air slammed into the building like a wrecking ball. The windows blew out, the concrete support pillars snapped, and the entire upper floor was pulverized. Aokiji and the rooftop were reduced to rubble instantly.
CRACK!
On the opposite side of the street, the second statue on the rooftop cracked open. Aokiji emerged again, panting slightly, his breath visible.
"Persistent!" All Might laughed.
Whooosh!
SMASH!
He leaped and punched the air one more time, smashing the second building. Aokiji vanished into powder again.
CRACK!
The third statue, further down the block, cracked open. Aokiji stepped out.
All Might landed on a pile of debris. He stopped attacking. He looked at the third Aokiji, his smile shifting into something more serious.
"I understand," All Might said, his voice carrying effortlessly to the rooftop. "You don't want me to throw you away. You want to keep me here. You are stalling for Young Midoriya."
All Might turned his back on Aokiji.
"But I will not play by your rules, Kuzan. I am leaving."
He bent his knees. The ground groaned in protest.
KABOOM!
All Might launched himself into the sky. The sound was deafening, a sonic boom that tore the air. The wind pressure stripped the remaining ice from his costume. He ascended like a rocket, aiming not for the fight, but for the finish line where Midoriya was fleeing.
Midoriya was sprinting across the rooftops, his lungs burning, his legs screaming.
I'm almost there! The gate is in sight!
"HAHAHAHA!"
The laugh descended from the heavens. Midoriya trembled, looking back over his shoulder. High above, blotting out the sun, All Might was arcing down toward him.
"What's wrong, Midoriya Shonen?! Isn't it time you faced me properly?!" All Might bellowed from fifty meters up.
Midoriya's heart sank. Kuzan-kun... he must have been defeated. If All Might is here... it's over.
Back on the rooftop.
Aokiji watched the hero fly away.
For a moment, the world slowed down. In the silence of his mind, he didn't see a school exam. He saw a memory.
The news report. The smoking crater in Hokkaido. The fear in his father's voice. The shadowed threat of All For One looming over his family.
If he couldn't stop the strongest hero for even a few minutes... how could he ever hope to stop the King of Villains?
No, Aokiji thought, his eyes narrowing into deadly points. I am not done.
He slammed both hands onto the roof tiles, cloning the move he did in Hokkaido.
"MAXIMUM OUTPUT."
BOOOM!
A geyser of ice erupted beneath his feet. Aokiji didn't just jump; he fired himself like a railgun. He shot into the sky, a comet of blue-white frost tearing through the humidity of the summer air, chasing the rocket that was All Might.
High in the air, All Might felt a chill on the back of his neck. A primal warning.
He twisted his body in mid-air, looking back.
Aokiji was there. He was right behind him, suspended in the sky. But Aokiji wasn't reforming into a human shape. He was glowing with an intense, blinding blue-white light. He was destabilizing his entire element.
All Might's eyes widened. He threw his arms up in a cross-guard defense to protect his face.
Aokiji opened his mouth, his voice echoing like a cracking glacier.
"ICY EXPLOSION!!"
FWWOOOOOM!
It wasn't an impact. It was a detonation of absolute zero.
A massive, apocalyptic explosion of white vapor erupted in the sky. It expanded outward like a cumulonimbus cloud, swallowing All Might, swallowing the light of the sun, and engulfing the tops of the skyscrapers.
"WHOA!"
The students opened their mouths as the screens turned white. The teachers stood up from their chairs.
Midoriya, still running on the roof, felt a blast of freezing wind hit his face. He looked up and saw a towering mushroom cloud of white frost dominating the sky—like the smoke of a bomb, but made of pure ice.
"What..." Midoriya gritted his teeth.
He turned to the Escape Gate, which was only six buildings away.
No time to wonder, I have to take the chance Aokiji made for me!
Green sparks erupted. Midoriya channeled every ounce of power he had. He leaped, vaulted, and sprinted, diving through the air.
Whoosh!
He crossed the threshold of the gate after more few seconds of running.
[BUZZER SOUND]
"Final Exam: Ground Beta. Team Kuzan and Midoriya... PASS!"
[Observation Room]
"YEEAAAAAAH!"
The room exploded.
"They did it! They actually passed!"
In the same happy room, Bakugo didn't cheer.
He was pressed against the screen, his face twisted in a snarl of pure, unadulterated fury. He stared at the aftermath of the explosion on the screen.
"What the..." Bakugo hissed, his voice shaking. "That bastard... How did he get that strong in such a short time?! Which Pro Hero trained him?! Who taught him to fight like that?!"
[Somewhere in Kamakura - The 'Chill Vibes' Agency]
ACHOO!
The Banana Hero, Tadashi, sneezed violently. He was holding a double-scoop waffle cone, about to hand it to a stunning blonde foreigner with blue eyes.
The woman stared at him. "Seriously? Are you still going to serve me that?"
"No! No! I'll change it immediately! Hahaha!" Tadashi laughed nervously, wiping his nose.
He looked at the line of customers winding out the door. I guess someone is talking about me.
Silence reigned.
Midnight stood, paralyzed by the image on the screen. "What kind of performance was that... Kuzan..."
Present Mic adjusted his glasses, his voice devoid of its usual hype. "He looks completely different from the slacker at the Sports Festival. Seriously... does anyone know what happened last week?"
Cementoss shook his head. "That level of elemental control... creating a detonation in mid-air..."
Aizawa sat silently, staring at the monitor.
I knew, Aizawa thought, his dark eyes narrowing. I knew he had hidden potential. I knew he needed a push. But none of us managed to wake the sleeping monster inside him. What exactly happened during his internship? What did he see?
On the screen, the white dust and freezing clouds began to clear.
The camera zoomed out to reveal the aftermath.
It was a sight that defied explanation.
Between four skyscrapers, spanning the entire width of the street, was a colossal, intricate structure.
It was a spiderweb. A gigantic web made of thick, frozen cables of ice, connecting the buildings together. The glass of the skyscrapers was frosted over, and the street below was a rink.
And there, caught in the dead center of the web, suspended fifty meters above the ground, was All Might.
The Symbol of Peace was completely frozen in a block of clear ice, his arms raised in defense, his legs tangled in the thick strands of the web. He wasn't touching the ground. He was hung up like a fly caught by a winter spider.
Crack...
On a rooftop one hundred and fifty meters away, the fourth and final ice statue developed a fissure.
Chunks of ice fell away.
Aokiji stumbled out of the ice shell.
He didn't look triumphant. He looked drained. His skin was deathly pale, almost translucent. His breath came in ragged, visible puffs of mist. His right hand was trembling uncontrollably as he braced himself against the roof tiles.
He looked up at the suspended, frozen form of the strongest hero in the world.
"Arara..." Aokiji whispered, his voice hoarse and shivering.
"It's always annoying... reaching a new level of cold..."
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