….
All Might stood frozen as he stared at the roaring, crimson inferno coiling around All For One's right arm.
He had trusted Dabi completely.
For the first time in decades, the Symbol of Peace hadn't felt the overwhelming weight of having to hold up the entire sky on his own shoulders.
He had allowed himself to focus solely on the demon in front of him, relying on Dabi to secure the perimeter and hold the line.
To rely on a fellow hero... to share the burden of being the wall that protects the world... it was a feeling Toshinori had almost forgotten.
And yet, looking at those stolen Quirk [Hellflame], reality hit him like a physical blow.
Enji…
All Might held no illusions about Endeavor's past.
The horrifying truth about the Todoroki household, its abuse, dark obsession, and shattered lives, was a tragedy that could never be defended or erased.
Enji would have to answer for those sins, and Hero society would judge him for them.
Toshinori was not his judge.
But as a Hero?
Whatever his moral failings at home, Enji Todoroki had never once faltered in his duty to the public.
He was a man who had dedicated every waking second of his life to standing as a bulwark against the dark.
For a titan like that to have his very essence, his fire, stolen and paraded like a trophy by the ultimate evil... it was an unacceptable tragedy.
All Might slowly raised his arm, wiping the blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.
He neither dropped his stance nor allowed his posture to sag.
Even as the golden electricity arcing from his skin flickered under the extreme strain of his prime output, he forced his legendary smile back onto his face.
All For One's sightless face tilted upward, a wheezing, distorted laugh.
"Look at you, Toshinori..."
He mocked, gesturing with the stolen [Hellflame] blazing on his palm–
"The Flame Hero's pride... his lifetime of ambition... condensed into a simple Quirk and stripped away in a single second. Does it break your heart? To know that while you played the savior, your dearest rival was rendered useless right behind your back?"
"You mock his fire as if it makes you whole, All For One..." All Might's deep voice rumbled, vibrating with fury. "You take, you consume, and you parade stolen power like a child wearing a crown he didn't earn! But a Quirk is not the whole man!"
All For One's grin widened, though his breathing was growing ragged. "You sound desperate, Symbol of Peace. Are you trying to convince me... or are you simply running out of time?"
"Out of time?" All Might echoed, his eyes shrinking to sharp, starlight pinpricks. "Yes... you truly have run out of time, All For One!"
It was a bold declaration, but both men knew the silent truth hanging between them.
All Might's time in his prime form was rapidly burning away; every second spent maintaining One For All at this scale was tearing his body apart from the inside out.
Yet, behind them, the secondary battlefield had already been rendered irrelevant.
Dabi was handling Tomura Shigaraki… It wasn't that he was weak.
The boy was a force of absolute destruction, his [Decay] Quirk reducing hundreds of tons of ice and bedrock to dust within seconds.
But Dabi's dual-element mastery, his sub-zero glacial barriers, and his terrifying tactical foresight completely shut down every avenue of attack.
Shigaraki was marooned, isolated, and overwhelmed.
Dabi had completely cleared the field.
The Tartarus mob was flash-frozen, Shigaraki was contained, and no reinforcements were coming.
The stealing of [Hellflame] was a cruel emotional blow, but tactically?
It changed nothing.
Deep inside his ruined chest, panic finally began to claw at All For One's mind.
The grand grandstanding was an act.
He didn't care about the League, the escaped convicts, or Shigaraki anymore.
All For One was, above all else, a parasite who prioritized his own survival.
His mind raced, frantically calculating an escape route. 'I can abandon this entire operation, disappear into hiding, and rebuild everything from scratch. I just have to escape Kamino first.'
But as he scanned the surrounding basin, a suffocating despair settled over him.
...and contrary to what everyone assumed, he hadn't stolen Kurogiri's Warp Gate Quirk. Stealing two Quirks simultaneously was impossible for him, so all he had done was trigger the Doctor's remote signal to open the gate from Tartarus.
He had no long-range transport, no mobility being beaten to pulp, his life-support was failing, and the sky above was locked down.
There was no trick left to play.
"There are no more actors coming onto your stage, All For One." All Might declared, lowering his body into a low-center combat stance as golden embers exploded around his frame–
"It is just you, and me!"
The air pressure inside the basin dropped as All Might drew back his right fist, the remaining embers of One For All roaring like a dying star inside his chest.
"ALL FOR ONE!"
All Might lunged forward, a shockwave detonating beneath his boots that pulverized the bedrock into fine powder.
All For One threw his right hand forward, attempting to unleash the stolen [Hellflame] alongside a barrage of boosters.
But his body was already broken, his reflexes lagged by a fraction of a millisecond as the offence charged straight at him.
All Might slipped under the crimson wall of fire with fluidity.
CRACK!
A sweeping left hook shattered All For One's defensive bone blades into splinters.
BOOM!
A brutal straight right caught the villain squarely in the chest, crushing his ribs and sending him tumbling across the ice bed.
All Might didn't give him a single second to breathe.
Closing the gap at sound-breaking speed, he raised both arms above his head, preparing to deliver the absolute final blow that would seal the demon away forever.
"THIS IS THE END!" All Might bellowed, his voice echoing across the entire ward.
"Toshinori–!" All For One shrieked, driving a desperate, point-blank force blast straight into All Might's exposed chest.
THUMMMMM–!
The concussive explosion tore through the air, and the force of the impact didn't stop All Might's strike, but the sheer physical strain on Toshinori's body finally reached its limit.
KASSHHH!
A blinding plume of white steam erupted violently from All Might's torso.
Down in the staging plaza, up in the news helicopters, and across millions of screens worldwide, time seemed to stop.
Right before the eyes of the entire world, the towering, god-like, seven-foot muscular frame of the Symbol of Peace began to shrink and collapse.
The broad, boulder-like shoulders deflated, and the defined, golden physique dissolved into a gaunt, skeletal frame.
His iconic hero suit sagged loosely over a frail, bone-thin body, exposing his sunken chest, dark-rimmed eyes, and blood dripping heavily from his mouth.
An absolute silence fell over the world.
In the broadcast chopper, the reporter dropped his microphone onto the floorboards, his mouth hanging open in sheer horror.
In the city squares, citizens backed away from the giant screens, covering their mouths.
Children clutched their parents, crying without understanding why their invincible Hero had suddenly shrunk into an old, dying man.
"W-What is that...?" a civilian in Shibuya sobbed. "Who... who is that?!"
"No... no, that's not All Might!" a student screamed. "Where is All Might?!"
Down near the medical vans, Class 1-A stood paralyzed.
Midoriya buried his face in his gloved hands, tears streaming down his cheeks, while Bakugo's eyes widened, his jaw trembling as he watched their idol's secret stripped bare before humanity.
Every single eye in the world was locked on that frail, coughing figure standing in the middle of the frozen crater.
All For One, coughing up dark blood as he lay pinned to the bedrock, looked up through his shattered visor and began to wheeze with sickening, hysterical delight.
"Hahaha... AHAHAHA!" All For One cackled, his voice broadcast through the silent atmosphere. "Look at you! Look at the true face of the Symbol of Peace! A hollow, pathetic, crippled husk! Is this the hero you worshipped, Japan?! Is this the man you relied on to save you?!"
Toshinori coughed heavily, blood spilling onto his chin.
His slender legs trembled under the sudden weight of his frail form.
The illusion was gone, and the secret he had protected for years was laid bare for all of creation to see.
He looked at his thin, bony hands, and he felt the coldness in his gut.
And then... he looked up.
.
….
[To be continued…]
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