RELAY || Virtual Reality AU

2

A tall woman stands before him, cape billowing in the wind. She's still shorter than him by a head, but her presence is commanding. It always has been, ever since he first met her in the housing district where he's based himself now that he's no longer living with his parents.

"Toshi, don't come after me" she says. "It's too dangerous, and we can't risk him getting hold of you. If I fail to take him down then it's going to be up to you to finish the job. I won't get a second chance at this."

He frowns. "You don't really think he can win, do you? I thought One For All was designed to beat him—how are you going to be in danger?"

"Let's hope I'm not," she says. "All the same, I want you logged out until I give the word it's safe. I won't underestimate him."

He gives his word, bringing up his HUD even as she walks away, but deactivates it once she turns her back. It's wrong. He knows it's wrong. That's not how it goes, he's meant to log out and be pacing back and forth all night until he gets the call from Gran Torino—but instead he finds himself following her as she speeds away down the narrow streets. Faster and faster she runs, and he chases, barely keeping up, losing sight of her until...

Until he turns a corner and is suddenly stood amid the ruins of a vast battle.

Buildings glitch and flicker around him, crumpled far more than the programmers had ever believed anyone could damage the Interface. Suddenly he's wheezing, exhausted from the run and the fight. Because he has been fighting, hasn't he? He's stood right there and in front of him is his foe, but it's all turned around because this isn't how it goes at all. Just a moment ago he was chasing his mentor so she should be the one—

Shimura Nana lies limply in All For One's grasp, body flickering. Even as Toshinori watches, All For One smiles haughtily at him and squeezes the massive hand around her head. There's no sound as she is crushed, no noise as she is dropped unceremoniously into a heap, ragdoll arms and legs clipping through each other.

All For One is fast, faster than Toshinori knows he ought to be (faster than he was , in reality) and less than a second later his fist makes contact, launching Toshinori backwards through the air until he makes solid and lasting contact with a wall. It crumples around him, and the prickle of pins and needles tells him that he's punched right though.

This is wrong. This isn't how it goes.

"And now, All Might," the voice says, low and mocking and the most menacing sound Toshinori has ever heard. "Now you can join her."

There is no broken body on the ground beside All For One. Just a solitary figure in the centre of a crater, raising his hands up to the sky.

Toshinori is fast, and strong, and before his foe can call down any more terror he has his hands around him, forcing him to his knees.

"No," he growls. "No, I'm not going anywhere. That's your job."

His hands spark and crackle as he calls upon his Exploit, stretching his mind around the alien ability far further than he ever has, hunting down commands he knows but never uses. The answer is here. The programme which will erase this virus, this malware from the Interface entirely, and with his hands grasping All For One he can pass it across...

The pain strikes hard, startling a scream which he recalls no one will hear.

All For One's voice is a hissing, venomous thing; spitting and stinging with each spiteful word. "That touch cuts both ways, Yagi Toshinori. You won't get me this time. You won't get me at ALL!"