𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗦 ⌈𝐈⌔𝐌 ✗ 𝔽!𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑫𝑬𝑹⌋

Chapter 123

CHAPTER 123: Between Memory and Reality

The sound made the air vibrate — not loud, not sharp — but deep, as if the world itself was holding its breath.

You didn’t see anything.
There was no flash, no image — only pressure.
It rippled through the ground, through the rain still frozen mid-fall, through the pulse in your veins. Every drop of water around you trembled, drawn toward something unseen.

It wasn’t fear that rooted you — it was awareness.
A presence.
Something vast and ancient brushing against the edge of your quirk, reaching through the fabric of the storm. You couldn’t name it, couldn’t describe it — but you felt it move, like a current beneath an ocean you could never touch.

Izuku’s body arched with the strain, his breath caught halfway between a gasp and a cry. Lightning sputtered along his arms, then stilled — suspended in mid-crackle.
Shigaraki’s scream fractured, the sound splitting into echoes that didn’t belong to one man.
And through all of it, that unseen pulse beat once — slow, deliberate, heavy.

Your knees buckled.
The rain struck the ground again all at once, as if time itself exhaled.

You gasped, blinking through the haze, the pressure easing just enough for air to fill your lungs again. Izuku was still standing — barely — lightning crawling weakly across his skin. Shigaraki loomed before him, his silhouette a blur of red cracks and writhing shadows.

You whispered, voice hoarse, “Izuku…”

He didn’t turn, didn’t answer. The world had narrowed to just the space between them — two forces locked in collision.

Then the lightning flared.

The air itself burned around Izuku. Every breath felt like swallowing glass; pain tore through his ribs, through his legs, through the quirk humming beneath his skin. But he didn’t stop. He couldn’t.

“One more step,” he muttered under his breath, teeth clenched hard enough to taste blood. “That’s all I need.”

The words vanished in the roar of wind and decay.

He pressed his palms together — Smokescreen burst outward in a violent exhale, but this time it wasn’t just smoke. The moisture from your rain folded into it, twisting into a dense, reflective mist. Vapor rose and thickened, reacting with the static of his lightning until it shimmered faintly, distorting the air.

Search flickered.

“Try and track me through that,” he hissed.

Shigaraki’s red eyes narrowed. He couldn’t see. Couldn’t sense. He clicked his tongue, irritation flashing across his face. “You think you can hide from me, Midoriya?” His hand slammed into the ground, and Decay pulsed outward like veins of black lightning, creeping, spreading, devouring everything it touched.

The fog turned crimson at the edges — boiling away as the Decay drew closer.

Izuku vanished into it.

A heartbeat later — boom.

He reappeared behind Shigaraki, the air bending around him as he shifted gears.

The speed was blinding — a flash of green light ripping through the dark.

Shigaraki’s head snapped to the side, reacting just in time. He raised his arm, jagged shards of earth spiraling upward to form a decaying wall.

“Predictable,” he growled.

But Izuku was already moving again.

He twisted midair — Blackwhip burst from his right arm, latching onto the collapsing debris. The pull launched him forward, Fa Jin releasing in tandem — all momentum, all fury, all willpower converging into one strike.