CHAPTER 116: A Heartbeat Away
The battlefield was chaos—a swirling tempest of smoke, lightning, and destruction. Shigaraki’s ragged breaths cut through the air like serrated blades, his decaying hand hovering over Katsuki’s prone body, claws gleaming with deadly intent. His lips curled into a twisted grin.
“Killing you will be the perfect welcoming gift for Midoriya,” he sneered, voice thick with malice.
Your heart seized with fury—raw, primal. Katsuki wasn’t just a classmate. He was your friend. Someone who had bled, broken, and clawed his way through every battle with a defiance that refused to die. The image of him, bruised and battered but still standing, still smirking through pain, ignited something fierce inside you.
You wouldn’t let that fire be extinguished.
“You won’t touch him!” you screamed, forcing your broken body forward. Pain lanced through your limbs, but the water answered your rage—spiking upward in jagged arcs that tore through the battlefield with untamed fury. You launched yourself at Shigaraki, a tidal blade in your hand and a storm in your heart.
The collision was seismic. The force of your power clashed with his decaying aura, and the two opposing forces crackled in defiance. The impact sent shockwaves outward, hurling debris and water in every direction. Electricity danced in the air, hissing through the downpour.
Shigaraki’s twisted grin only deepened. “Ah… so eager to die in his place?”
Your teeth clenched, eyes burning with defiance. “I’m not dying. I’m protecting what matters.”
Your arms trembled from the pressure as his hand scraped against your water shields. Rain slicked your face, mixed with blood and tears. But still, you stood your ground. Still, you pushed back.
From the wreckage behind you, Aizawa’s voice tore through the static of the comms, urgent and hoarse:
“Anyone available—help Wavebreaker! Now!”
And like a flare in the darkness, Mirio burst into view, his soaked cape whipping behind him. “Looks like it’s Big Three time!” he declared, landing beside you with a grin full of heart and steel.
Tamaki and Nejire followed in perfect sync, eyes sharp, power already gathering.
Mirio winked. “Hey, Shigaraki! You know, the reason you hurt people… is probably ‘cause you don’t have any friends.”
The words, spoken so casually, struck like a whisper into a storm. For just a moment—a sliver of something human flickered across Shigaraki’s face.
A child’s sorrow. Tenko Shimura’s eyes, wide and terrified.
And then came the voice. All For One. A guttural snarl from within: “No… the body isn’t as melded as I thought.”
Shigaraki’s fingers twitched.
But there was no time to hesitate.
“This ends now,” Tamaki growled, his voice shaking—not from fear, but from resolve.
His body mutated in an instant—massive appendages made of armored bone, reinforced flesh, claws, shells, and tentacles all fused into one monstrous creation. With a thunderous roar, he hurled them toward Shigaraki.
The impact was cataclysmic. The ground erupted in a spray of rock and lightning as the constructs collided, smoke and mist swallowing everything.
Silence followed.
And then—
As the dust thinned and the crater settled, Shigaraki stood tall, unharmed. His tattered coat flapped in the wind, and his lips curled into something between amusement and menace.
YOU ARE READING
𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗦 ⌈𝐈⌔𝐌 ✗ 𝔽!𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑫𝑬𝑹⌋
FanfictionBorn into a family of heroes, a girl with a water-manipulating quirk struggles to control her own power. Torn between her mother's shining legacy and her father's fears, she enters U.A. High determined to prove she belongs among the next generation...
