̶U̶n̶ Scathed

-15-

I wake up in the UA Hospital, feeling better than I had in weeks. I stretch my arms over my head, and even the pulling in my staples was less painful.

"How do you feel? The quirk suppressants won't kick in for a while, but you probably have enough time before the battle actually starts to wait for them to start working. " Recovery Girl asked, helping me into a standing position.

"Great, actually. Where's Twice?"

She points towards the waiting room and hand me a lollipop. I shrug and pull off the wrapper, sticking the strawberry flavored candy in my mouth.

"I suppose I should let you go. But promise me something."

I turn a the door, a little bit confused.

"Yeah?"

"I've seen your group on the news, some sightings of you doing crimes and others of you... grocery shopping. Going on walks. And I think something about seeing those mundane tasks being performed by you guys on top of watching someone be tortured for no reason changed my mind about the hero society." She sighs, rubbing her eyes.

"I;ve know the system was flawed for a long time. But this time is the first occasion where I'm actually rooting for you. Be careful out there, all right?"

I freeze.

"We will. I'll come back one day so you can bake me cookies or something."

She smiles as I walk through the portal one of the heroes created, directly into a warzone.

"Ah, Tomura Shigaraki. I see that you've betrayed me." Sensei's voice comes from behind me, and I whip around to look him in the eye.

"Who wouldn't? You tried to kill my friends, not to mention the hundreds of innocent civilians that are in this city." I grit my teeth, trying to stall him so that the rest of my team and the heroes can surround him.

"It was necessary. I had to do it so that we could create a brighter future for ourselves and teh rest of the world. It's a small price to pay for-"

"Are you listening to yourself?!" I snap, yelling at him. Although he doesn't have a face, I can tell that he's taken aback.

"No matter. I had anticipated your reaction from the beginning, anyways. It seems as though I've raised you well; this plan was very well thought out, albeit predictable." He grins, and I feel dread pool in my stomach.

"Now, my real plan can begin."

"Don't!" I yell, but it's too late. the moment his words leave his mouth, the nearby buildings crumple to the ground.

"So, that's taken care of. Now I just have to wait for your friends to show up, and then I can use them to build a new future. Quirks are an interesting topic, you see. For example, I found one that can kill with a touch, and another that can create hundreds of thousands of clones. But these aren't useful in the wrong hands, so I've decided to take them for myself, along with all the quirks of everyone in this city."

"What... what will happen to the people when you're done?" I ask, voice shaking.

"I'll kill them." He says with a smile, before my vision fills with blue flames.

I hurl a blast of fire at the bastard, wincing at the pain. The suppressants definitely haven't kicked in yet, and I'll have to be careful if I don't want to hurt myself or others. Sure enough, my arm is already black with soot, but All For One isn't doing any better, even though he regenerates the burned skin in seconds.

"You... you!!" He yells, anger dripping from his voice. He flies over to me, but plummets to the ground halfway there as a knife embeds itself in his foot.

"Over here, fuckface!" Toga yells, hurling another knife at his foot. Spinner comes out of a swirling portal of words behind her, slashing at him with his sword. Just as he turns towards them, a garbage truck slams into his side.

"Managed to smuggle that one all the way from America when I visited a few years back. I knew it would have a good use." Mr. Compress pats his pockets, and Magne grins as she magnetizes another marble towards All For One.

I hear the footsteps of hundreds of clones behind us, and smile in satisfaction.

If he thought he was going to win against all fo us, then boy was he wrong.

Boy, was he right.

It feels like it's been forever and we're still fighting. every time we land a hit, he regenerates it just a quickly and hits us back Twice as hard. The heroes are depleted to half their numbers, with medics rushing away the injured before All For One can finish them off, and the remaining members look like they're ready to drop any moment now.

At some point, Kurogiri broke out of Ujiko's control, but just a few words from All For One sends him into a trance that takes almost a minute for him to shake himself out of.

Surrendering isn't even an option. If we do, he'll just murder everyone here and be done with it. At this point, we're just fighting for our lives.

Compress' prosthetic is mangled and useless, Magne's trying to stop a gushing wound in Toga's side, Spinner's sword is broken in half and ineffective at this point, and Shigaraki's Decay can't keep up with the regeneration rate of whatever quirk All For One is using.

"We've kept at this game long enough. It's time to end this boring act." All for One raises a hand.

I think back to a few years ago, when he used this same move to crush everyone in the surrounding area and fatally injure All Might. I know that we won't make it out of this.

I spare a glance at Shigaraki, then sprint at All For One's. Using a small blast of flame to propel myself into the air, I grab onto his shoulders and hang on tight as he spins around in an attempt to knock me off.

"Chill out for a minute! I get motion si-" Before I can finish, he plunges a sharpened arm into my shoulder, probably the effect of yet another quirk. He extends his arm out, with me dangling on the end of it, and sighs.

"You're stupider than you look, Todoroki. Your close range is-"

"Shut up, will ya? I don't want to spend my last moments listening to you tapping you head off."

"Dabi! Wait!" Tomura yells, tears running down his face.

"Sorry, Shiggy. See you on the other side!" I turn back to All For One and give him a crooked smile.

"What's that thing they say at the hero school? Oh, yeah." I lean in close, and he tries to fling me away once he realizes what I'm going to do, but it's too late for both of us.

"Plus Ultra."

With that, I let myself burst into flames.

This wasn't plus ultra.

This wasn't even beyond plus ultra, or whatever the extended version of that saying was.

The flames that erupted from Dabi were white with heat, and I'm thrown backwards with the sheer force of the blast. Someone's screaming, and I can't tell if it's me or Dabi or All For One or someone else but it hurts to listen to.

I feel my eyes burn as I try to look at the blast, and barely manage to make out the silhouette of a burnt shape inside the inferno.

When the flames finally die down, a single body falls from the sky. Hoping for the best, I run to catch them and brush the spot out of my eyes so I can see.