A few hours earlier, at Tartarus, the prison built to hold the country's most dangerous criminals.
Inside the solitary confinement cell, All For One sat fully restrained in his metal chair, the wires of life support machines connected to his body from every angle. All Might approached with heavy steps and sat down behind the thick reinforced glass.
"I heard familiar footsteps." All For One spoke calmly, as though he had been waiting for this exact moment for a long time. "I was wondering when you'd come visit me."
All Might took the seat across from him, his expression rigid, his eyes burning with a seriousness that hadn't shifted an inch.
"Do you see this condition?" the former league leader continued, his voice carrying a cold amusement. "They monitor my brainwaves, my heartbeat, even my breathing. If I show any sign that I'm about to use my Quirk, those machine guns aimed at me fire instantly and end my life. It's a harsh, restricted existence here."
"You seem awfully cheerful and relaxed for someone waiting on a death sentence." All Might answered, his tone barely hiding its contempt.
All For One smiled coldly. "I have nothing to do now but think. And most of that thinking has been about you, and about what's happening out there."
"I didn't come here to make small talk with you." All Might cut him off sharply. "Answer my question. Where is Shigaraki Tomura?"
"I don't know." The answer came calm, in a way more unsettling than any shout could have been. "Honestly, I have no idea where he is right now. He left the nest. I gave him everything he needed to grow, and now he acts on his own and carves his own path."
All Might ground his teeth in anger. "Why him? Why that boy specifically? Why Shimura Nana's grandson?"
All For One's smile widened with deep malice. "Ah. So you figured that out." He paused, as though savoring every second of this discovery. "The answer is simple. I wanted to hurt you in the worst way possible. I thought long and hard about what would destroy your heart. You're the one who took everything from me, my power, my allies, my empire, so I had a debt to repay."
He continued, clearly enjoying his old enemy's suffering without bothering to hide it.
"And what better way than to take the grandson of your favorite mentor, the woman who passed you the power that defeated me, and turn him into the greatest villain? I wanted to make him stand against you, so that in the end you'd be forced to fight him. It was the perfect plan to torture you."
All Might stood in fury and struck the glass hard with his hand, his voice shaking with rage. "You're nothing but a monster! Manipulating people's lives like pawns in your sick game!"
"I don't care anymore." All For One replied with calm, provocative confidence. "What matters is that you lost your power. You call yourself the Symbol of Peace, but you were always just a false cover. Now that you've fallen and retired, this fragile society will start to collapse. The villains who hid in the shadows out of fear of you will begin coming out now. Your absence will create a chaos this world has never witnessed before."
He fell silent for a moment, then tilted his head slightly, as if recalling something interesting. His tone shifted to something more serious.
"But amid all this chaos I orchestrated, variables appeared that weren't part of the equation. I didn't expect you to place your hopes in a new vessel this quickly. That boy, Midoriya Izuku. He inherited your power to stand against Tomura, didn't he? An expected move from you, Toshinori."
His smile faded partway, replaced by a cold irritation.
"But what genuinely bothers me is that other anomaly traveling alongside him. Roronoa Zoro. A boy born into this Quirk obsessed society, yet completely lacking any Quirk I can see or steal. And still, he carries an aura that reminds me of things I thought I'd buried in a distant past. That terrifying pressure he used to drop my pawns at Kamino without ever touching them, and that savage will in his blades. It's a power that doesn't answer to the Quirk logic I built my rule on. He carries a will that refuses to bend, one that goes beyond the very reasoning my empire was founded on."
He returned to smiling, but it was a smile carrying a veiled threat now.
"While I move Tomura to break the world, you find yourself surrounded by a boy who carries your flame, and another who carries a blade threatening to tear the entire chessboard apart. Isn't that entertaining? Having that swordsman beside your heir creates a dangerous equation. But it won't change the absolute inevitability of your fall."
All Might regained his composure and stood tall with pride despite his frail frame. He looked at him with a firm, unwavering gaze that seemed to pierce straight through the glass.
"I may have retired. My era as the Symbol of Peace may have ended." He paused a moment. "But the will of fire will never go out."
He pointed a finger at All For One, his voice cutting through the cell with a force that seemed to shake its walls.
"You fear what you don't understand. Midoriya Izuku carries a pure heart and a will to save everyone, and Roronoa Zoro carries a pride and a steel strength that neither your darkness nor your stolen powers can ever break. Both of them were born into this world to build a future with no place in it for you."
"Listen to me well." He continued, his voice unshaken. "I will not let your plans succeed. And I will not let Shigaraki destroy what we built. Whatever happens, I will not die. I will live to see your end, and I will keep standing to watch the next generation, the sword and the flame, surpass you and defeat your evil forever."
All For One looked mildly surprised by the reaction, and for a brief second, an image of Midoriya and Zoro standing together flashed through his mind before his usual wicked smile returned.
"You won't die?" He said it with a tone dripping in false amusement. "What fascinating words indeed. It seems you're fighting hard against an inevitable fate, All Might."
At that moment, the prison guard's voice rang out over the speaker, cutting through the suffocating tension in the room.
"Visiting time is over, All Might. Please leave."
All Might rose from his chair and turned, but before walking out, he turned his head back.
"I will shatter your future into pieces, however much it takes."
He stepped toward the exit, continuing without pause.
"You're the one who's going to watch everything unfold, while you spend what's left of your days here."
All For One smiled wide, as though completely indifferent to the words.
"Heh... heh heh... hahaha..."
"What's left of my days!"
Evening finally settled over the Class 1-A dorm.
After a long day of the provisional hero license exam, the students returned to their rooms. A quiet had settled over the building, broken only by the low murmur of conversation drifting up from the common room downstairs.
Most of the class had gathered there without planning to. Some sat on the couches, others stretched out on the wooden floor, jackets shed in favor of comfortable clothes. Cups of tea and juice sat on the table in front of them, along with light snacks barely touched, since exhaustion had beaten out appetite.
Kaminari sighed and tossed his head back. "I still can't believe it's actually over."
Kirishima gave a tired smile. "Honestly, I thought the exam was going to be way easier than that."
Uraraka nodded in agreement, pulling her knees to her chest. "That second stage was harder than I expected."
Midoriya sat staring at the floor, lost in thought, replaying every moment of the exam in his mind, trying to break down his mistakes the way he always did.
Iida broke the silence, adjusting his glasses. "Regardless, we shouldn't relax too much."
Every eye turned toward him.
"Starting tomorrow, we go back to classes and training as normal." He said it in a serious tone.
Silence held for a second, then Kaminari let out a desperate cry and shot up from where he sat.
"What?! Not even one day off?!"
Several students laughed, while Mineta clutched his head as though he'd just been struck.
"That's not fair. Shouldn't we get some kind of break after all that?"
Sato smiled lightly. "This is UA."
Yaoyorozu sighed and took a small sip of her tea. "I think that's just how it is. We still have a long way to go before becoming pro heroes."
Quiet settled again. And despite the exhaustion clearly written on every face, a different kind of feeling filled the room. They had gotten through another trial, and moved one step closer to the dream that had brought all of them into UA in the first place.
At that moment, a faint metallic sound cut through the warm quiet.
Zoro was sitting in the dimmer corner of the room, away from the comfortable couches, leaning back against the cold wall with his elbows resting on it. Instead of relaxing or sipping tea with the rest of them, he was wiping down Wado Ichimonji's blade with a white cloth, focused entirely, his eyes tracking the faint light reflecting off the polished metal.
He paused the motion for a moment, studied the blade, then slid it back into its sheath with a sharp, audible click that pulled every eye in the room toward him.
"A break?" He said it in his rough, low voice, a faint mocking smile forming on his face without ever lifting his eyes to meet theirs. "If you think getting that plastic card means it's time to rest, then you're all dumber than I thought."
He raised his head slowly and gave Kaminari and Mineta a sharp look that froze the words in both their throats.
"That license isn't a year end reward. It's just official permission so the police don't bother you when some villain decides to try separating your heads from your bodies out on the street. All Might being gone means the worst hasn't come yet."
He pushed off his knee and rose slowly, then yawned with mild boredom as he settled his three swords back into his green sash.
"From now on, your lives are genuinely on the line. Anyone looking for a break and some rest can go crawl back to their mother and leave the field to whoever actually has the will to fight."
He turned and walked away, heading for the elevator and his room.
Zoro left behind a silence heavier than the one before. His harsh words hadn't just been a scolding. They were a slap of reality that pulled everyone out of the high of their success. Midoriya watched his retreating back and clenched his fist tight. He understood exactly what Zoro meant.
But it was Kirishima who broke that silence first. He tightened his fist and struck it against his other palm, his eyes shining with genuine seriousness.
"He was harsh as usual, but he's completely right! That's the real meaning of manliness! We're not just students playing hero anymore. We're standing at the front of the cannon now."
Kaminari swallowed hard and wiped a cold bead of sweat from his forehead as he looked toward the elevator Zoro had disappeared into.
"Man. Sometimes I forget he's a student the same age as us. Did you guys see that look on his face? It was like someone who's faced death hundreds of times. He just blew the idea of a break clean out of my head."
Yaoyorozu sighed quietly and nodded. "The way he delivers a point is as sharp as his blades, but we can't deny the truth in it. The outside world isn't going to wait around until we're ready."
Iida adjusted his glasses with a quick motion and began chopping the air with his hand in his usual mechanical style, though his tone carried more weight than normal.
"Despite his complete lack of tact, Roronoa kun summed up the situation with striking precision! The Symbol of Peace's absence means that any complacency now amounts to negligence toward our future duty!"
Meanwhile, Uraraka glanced over at Midoriya, who was still staring into the space where Zoro had vanished. She could tell those words had struck something sensitive inside him.
"Deku kun. What do you think?" she asked quietly.
Midoriya nodded slowly, gripping his fist until his knuckles went white, a burning resolve flashing in his eyes.
"Zoro only said the truth. The absolute peace that used to protect us ended along with All Might's era. If we don't become stronger and more decisive, fast, we won't be able to save anyone when the real moment comes."
But amid all this discussion, one person hadn't paid any attention to their chatter.
From the shadows of the hallway leading to the common room, where he'd been listening to everything, Bakugo walked forward with slow, heavy steps. He didn't shout. Sparks didn't fly from his hands the way they usually did. That alone made his entrance impose an instant, suffocating silence over everyone.
Bakugo passed by Kirishima and Kaminari without giving them a glance, and stopped directly in front of Midoriya. He leaned forward slightly, his red eyes burning with a suppressed fury and a guilt that had been gnawing at his chest for a long time.
"Oi. Deku." He said it low and rough, in a tone none of them had ever heard from him before. "Follow me outside. Let's talk about your Quirk."
Midoriya froze in place, as though Bakugo's words had been a bullet punching straight through the wall of his calm. His eyes went wide with shock, and his lips trembled as he tried to process what he'd just heard.
"Ka... Kacchan..." Midoriya whispered, his voice caught in his throat.
It was midnight, and complete stillness had settled over the dorm. Nothing could be heard except the steady breathing of students sleeping in their rooms and the faint sound of night insects slipping in through half open windows.
On the ground floor, the dorm's main door opened with careful quiet. Bakugo stepped out with quick strides, both hands buried in his pockets, his dark expression hiding a storm of thoughts behind it.
A few seconds later, Midoriya appeared from behind the wall, watching Bakugo with hesitation, but with an unshakable determination. He didn't say a word, just followed silently from behind.
Upstairs, inside his own room, Zoro was still awake. He wasn't sleeping like the rest of the students. He sat on the floor in the middle of his room, lifting heavy weights, sweat pouring with every movement, the sound of metal striking the floor echoing quietly through the space.
Zoro suddenly stopped. His ears turned toward the sound of low voices and quiet footsteps outside, then caught the distinct scrape of shoes against the pavement beyond the dorm.
He set the weights down with a muffled thud and rose smoothly, moving toward the balcony. He pulled the curtain aside and stepped out into the cold air, crossing his bare arms over his chest, his eyes gleaming with focus in the darkness.
From his balcony, he had a clear view of the path leading to Ground Beta. He could see Bakugo walking ahead clearly, and a short distance behind him, Midoriya following with obvious caution.
Zoro's eyes narrowed, a clear crease forming between his brows.
"What's wrong with them?" he muttered to himself in his rough voice, the words blending into the night air. "At this hour?"
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