A/N: Hey everybody, it's me. I wanted to apologize for my prolonged absence, I had a horrible exam week into a family emergency back to back and my mind was completely off the book, but now I'm back and hopefully this won't happen again, at least not without a notice post if I ever have to take a break for personal reasons. Having said that, I'll be uploading the next chapters within the next coming days to catch up to schedule and I'll also settle on uploading around the same time of the day from now on (I'll clarify which time will it be in one of the next chapters). With all that out of the way, I hope you enjoy the chapter!
With a tone of disbelief, Kirishima spoke out loud. "What? Villains? No way… There's no way they managed to get into a hero school."
Walking up to Thirteen, Momo asked in a cautious tone. "Teacher, what about the trespasser sensors?"
"We have them, of course, but…" Half-responded Thirteen.
"Did they only appear here, or around the whole school?" Interrupted Todoroki with a question before explaining his thoughts. "Either way, if the sensors are not responding, that means that they have someone with a Quirk that can do that. An isolated area separated from the campus, during a time when a class is supposed to be here. They might be fools, but they're not dumb."
'Debatable.' Though Damian, though he let Todoroki have his moment.
"This surprise attack was carefully planned with some sort of goal in mind."
"Thirteen, start the evacuation. Try calling the school." Spoke again Eraser.
"These villains even had something to counteract the sensors. It's possible someone with radio-wave-type powers is interfering. Kaminari, use your Quirk to try to contact the school."
Speaking in a worried tone, Midoriya intervened. "What about you, sensei? Will you fight by yourself? With that many, even if you can erase their Quirks… Eraser Head's style is about capturing after erasing the enemy's Quirk. A frontal battle is…"
"You can't be a hero with just one trick," said Aizawa before turning to Thirteen. "I'm leaving it to you, Thirteen."
Then he jumped straight down the flight of stairs, defying gravity by literally falling diagonally for whole seconds. 'I'll give you points for the aura farm, but this is really a stupid strategy.' Thought Damian, seeing the man fearlessly jump into the fray.
Still, Damian could appreciate the seamless way in which Eraser combined throwing his bandages with throwing hands; the sidesteps weaving into a hook into a bandage throw and using the counter-weight to dodge an incoming attack. He had to give it to him, the man was good for a human fighter.
As Damian and Midoriya stood in place to appreciate Aizawa's fight, Iiya interrupted their fun. "This is no time for analysis. Hurry up!"
Turning around and catching up with the group, everyone was suddenly stopped by the same mist materializing in front of the exit of the USJ. As everyone stopped dead in their tracks, the mist spoke in a masculine tone. "Nice to meet you. We are the League of Villains. It may be presumptuous of us, but we have invited ourselves into the home of the heroes, U.A. High School, in order to have All Might, the Symbol of Peace, take his last breath."
"I believe All Might should have been here. Has there been some kind of change? Well, that is neither here nor there. This is the part I am to play."
'Tsk. He talks too fucking much." Complained Damian in his heart. Sadly for him, he had to let things happen as they were originally meant to happen because he needed time for All Might to pull up for the best outcome for him.
It was selfish, yes. But he was ready to do much worse in order to do what's needed for his own survival. Worst comes to worse, he could always intervene from afar as he didn't have any qualms in killing people who invaded here in order to slaughter children and heroes, unlike the others.
While Thirteen prepared to use her Quirk, Bakugo and Kirishima beat her to it as they rushed ahead using their abilities to hit Kurogiri, kicking up a cloud of dust in the process.
"Did you consider that you'd get beaten by us before you did it?" Said the redhead.
"Oh dear, that's dangerous," spoke the mist shaped into a man. "That's right. Even if you are students, you are still excellent golden eggs."
Realizing things will get complicated, Thirteen spoke with urgency. "Move away, you two!" Yet, before they could comply, Kurogiri dispersed his dark violet mist in a dome around the group of students as he spoke. "My job is to scatter you all and torture you to death!"
Moments before the dome was made, Iida managed to grab his closest classmates and get them out, but the others didn't have the same luck as they started to get teleported in small groups across the U.S.J. complex.
Feeling the mist enveloping him, Damian analyzed the process of how Kurogiri's Quirk worked. 'Only after covering my whole body did I feel a connection open in a different part of the complex,' as he appeared in the air, he made a circular platform with complex runes in which he stood, looking for those who were teleported with him. 'And unlike the Hiraishin, there's no in-between zone you step through, and if there is it's miniscule. Seems like his Quirk works as a two-way door where the space between point A and point B are either infinitely reduced or superposed, fascinating.'
Finally Damian saw another two portals one after the other at different heights, though both were below his portal height, making it so the others couldn't see him initially. From one came Midoriya and from the other Asui Tsuyu, which quickly recovered and picked Midoriya up after kicking away a villain, getting up on the prop yacht.
Looking from above, Damian debated internally if he should silently get rid of all the villains or leave them to be used for Midoriya's growth, but knowing there was no Mineta to help them like it happened originally, he decided to intervene.
'Sorry, Midoriya, but I'm taking no chances.'
Making up his mind, Damian tapped into the flow of the equivalent mystical energy with the help of his own transformed energy and guided it to the water where a group of villains were surrounding his classmates. As he did, two violent currents of water suddenly started next to one of the villains, weaving themselves counter-clockwise like water snakes, catching and pushing the villains into two bundles before the shaped currents jumped out of the lake towards the shore.
At first Midoriya and Atsui became alert at seeing the villains suddenly get swept by a current of water, but then they became dumbfounded after seeing the villains scream in panic while being launched to the shore.
Interrupting their befuddlement, they heard a young man's voice. "Leave those ones to me."
Turning around in surprise, they calmed down after seeing it was Damian who had spoken as he descended next to them. Seeing him, Midoriya exhaled in relief as he spoke. "Damian-kun, you're here!"
"Midoriya, Atsui." Nodded Damian in response while looking towards the other areas.
"Call me Tsuyu-chan, Damian-chan." Said the frog heroine in the making.
"No thank you, but I'll call you Tsuyu if you want," spoke Damian while using both hands to point at her in a funny pose. "You can call me Damian too if you want, I don't really get along with the whole honorifics stuff." Said Damian with a smile, making Asui tilt her head for a second before she nodded slowly, caught off guard by how relaxed Damian seemed in this situation, though that subconsciously made her relax as well.
"Was the water your doing, Damian-kun?" Asked Midoriya, making Damian sigh in defeat.
"Yes, it's part of my Quirk, but more importantly, we should get moving. Let's go help our classmates so we can group up and leave."
Speaking in a mildly concerned tone, Tsuyu asked Damian. "But what about the villains you sent to shore, kero?"
"Don't worry about them, they're going nowhere." Said Damian as he pointed toward the part of the shore where he had sent them.
Looking towards where Damian was pointing, they saw the group of villains buried to the neck inside the earth, unable to move an inch.
"What a convenient Quirk, kero."
Smiling at her words, he spoke in a cheerful tone. "Yeah, the best Quirk ever if you ask me," he said, while Eva chimed inside his head. [You damn right it is.]
Interrupting their back and forth, Midoriya spoke with an anxious tone. "Damian-kun, let's go help the others."
Nodding his head in approval, Damian responded. "Yeah, let's do that. Do not move," and before they could ask what he meant, they felt the wind pick them up as the three of them took to the skies.
Although they started flailing due to a subconscious reaction, they quickly stopped and as they became momentarily speechless at the view of the complex from the sky.
As they flew, Midoriya got his mind back on track as he asked Damian. "Damian-kun, how should we move?"
"We'll separate and reinforce our classmates, since not everyone needs help, I'll send you to where you might be needed the most." 'Though everyone should end up winning, the landslide, collapse and squall zones should be the most unnecessary to intervene in. So then…'
Making their way rapidly through the zones, the quickly reached the mountain zone and after Damian made a quick assessment of the situation he gently dropped off Midoriya and Asui.
Without descending himself, he spoke to them. "Help Yaoyorozu and the rest, I'll leave this zone to you."
"What about you, Damian-kun?"
"I'll go see if others need my help, you should be enough of a reinforcement for this area," then Damian turned around to take off, but before doing so he said. "Oh, and do try not to maim yourself while fighting, take it as a challenge if you will."
Without waiting for an answer, he picked up speed while sneakily manipulating the elements, making a spear out of the earth and impaling the hand of a villain that had sneaked up on the distracted Yaoyorozu, giving her enough time to knock the villain out with her metal staff.
Seeing how easily distracted his classmates were in this situation made him sigh, it reminded him that these were really just kids who were forced to face adults who came to possibly take their lives just to make U.A. and All Might look bad.
'Tsk, I already wanna blow All For One's brains out, what a distasteful fucker.'
Getting back on track after cursing AFO, Damian did what he actually wanted to do, getting lower to the ground where nobody could see him, he teleported out of the premises and after confirming that nobody noticed his teleportation with the help of his enhanced spatial perception, he teleported in all possible directions, exactly 150 meters away from the U.S.J. complex and marked a random tree with his temu hiraishin seal.
After confirming he got all directions covered, he teleported back in, just in time to see Aizawa getting his shit kicked in by the Nomu and he had to admit that the anime couldn't do real life justice as to how brutal it was to see Aizawa's arm bent at an unnatural angle while the skin around his elbow crumbled like ashes.
Clenching his teeth, he refrained from doing anything, telling himself repeatedly that All Might will arrive just in time, that he didn't need to interfere. Still, he created multiple constructs from tungsten carbide in the form of drill tips the size of an adult male's wrist and as long as 30 cm, using the wind to make it spin at a deadly velocity while creating a barrier that prevented any noise from leaking. Keeping them hovering just above him while he had a clear view of the Nomu.
'I'm less than 200 meters away, it would take less than a second for my attack to land, this Nomu is not supposed to be too resistant to penetrative attacks-' as he reassured himself, he heard Aizawa scream in pain while the pale psycho muttered what might as well be nonsensical gibberish to Damian. 'Please hurry the fuck up, All Might!'
And as if on cue, suddenly the doors of the USJ complex were blown off as a blonde giant with a pissed off expression calmly stepped through.
"It is fine now… because I'M HERE!"
Letting go of a breath he didn't know he was holding, Damian finally relaxed a bit but he still kept his guard up, ready to blow a limb off the Nomu if they tried to use Aizawa as a hostage since the Nomu was still on top of him due to Damian having sent Midoriya and Tsuyu away this time.
"I've been waiting, hero…" said Shigaraki in a muffled tone due to the hand on top of his face. "You trash of society."
Seeing his imposing self, the villains couldn't help but murmur in anxiety-riddled voices.
"That's All Might?"
"It's my first time seeing him in person."
"He looks so intimidating…"
Looking at his companions so afraid, a villain tried to snap them out of it. "Idiot's, don't hesitate. If we manage to kill him-UGH" but before he could finish his words, a giant blur passed by, knocking them all out cold as it made its way towards Shigakari and Aizawa.
"Carolina… SMASH!" Feeling the danger, the Nomu got up, blocking All Might's line of sight on Shigaraki and stopping him dead on his feet as the Nomu received the hit without budging, the aftershock creating a blast of wind behind it in the process.
'Damn, this is just the residual strength of OFA and I'm barely capable of following his speed… and here I thought I was doing good for myself.'
After All Might threw his double arm cross-slash, the Nomu tried to pin him in a bear hug but All Might dodged by bending backwards with practiced ease. Though he spoke with a bit of surprise in his tone before weaving his body into a right hook to the Nomu's stomach. "My hit had no effect?"
As Damian analyzed the prowess of both the creature and the hero, he noticed that All Might subtly tried to create space between them and Aizawa, probably trying to find a way to rescue the man.
'Tsk. This time there was no timing to rescue Aizawa before the fight and All Might's already on a timer. We can't afford to let this fight ending differently–Eva, get ready.'
[Ready when you are.] Muttered Eva, already understanding what he wanted to do.
Putting the drill tips inside his dimensional storage, Damian changed his focus, stopping any channeling and instead putting in practice a new method he came up with in his free time the last weeks.
(Long explanation ahead, you can skip it if you don't care about the nerd-ish details.)
Inside the barrier meant for sound isolation, Damian creates a shell that extends about one and a half meters around him in all directions by subtly altering the electromagnetic coupling constants inside this radius, effectively lowering the dynamic viscosity and the collisional cross-section inside this layer of air; basically reducing skin friction. Then he imposes a tiny coherent oscillatory phase on air molecules immediately adjacent to his suit–a controlled, low-amplitude waveform. This wave locks molecules into a coherent slip-layer, forcing transition to laminar flow instead of turbulent eddies.
Finally, where the flow starts to separate or form eddies, he projects micro-countervortices that destructively interfere with growing turbulence, dissipating chaotic energy instead of letting it feed into drag.
Now as he was ready to burst into action, all he had to do was wait for the right opportunity to act. All the while Shigaraki blabbed away the weaknesses of his 'war beast' like a third rate villain.
"It doesn't work because of shock absorption," he said as All Might barely dodged a swiping blow from Nomu and returned an uppercut to his chest. Though he remained worried about Aizawa as he fought, making him put more effort on his punches, each one of them creating wind currents on the opposite side of where it landed on Nomu. "In order to cause damage to Nomu, it would be most effective to slowly gouge out his flesh. Whether he'd let you do that is a different issue though." Said Shigaraki as he raised his arm in a shrug, gloating at the situation."
"Thank's for telling me that," said All Might in a confident tone as he got behind Nomu and locked his arms on his waist, "If that's true, then it's easier for me."
After speaking All Might put Nomu in a suplex, the impact creating a cloud of dust around them and making Shigaraki cover his face with his arms.
"Hey, he-"
Before he could finish complaining as he blinked a figure was suddenly standing in between himself and Aizawa, appearing as though teleporting. And before he could speak any more nonsense this figure picked up Aizawa and flew away, albeit at a slower pace, careful enough as to not cause any more damage to the wounded teacher but fast enough for Shigaraki to not be able to do anything about him.
"Young Damian! Gah-" Muttered All Might, who was brought back to reality by the Nomu grabbing him by his old wound after having avoided the suplex with the help of Kurogiri's portal while now the creature was grabbing him, locking him in place, making him bleed in the process.
"Tsk. Who cares if they live a bit longer," said Shigaraki while looking at Damian and Aizawa, now far away flying in the air as he scratched his neck profusely. Turning back to look at the trapped All Might, he stopped scratching himself as he spoke. "Were you trying to keep him from moving by sticking him deep in the concrete? You won't be able to stop him like that… Because Nomu is as strong as you are."
Laughing sinisterly, he turned to Kurogiri. "This is good, Kurogiri. It's an unexpected opportunity."
Nomu then tightened his grip, making All Might wince as he let go of the Nomu's waist to try and free himself.
Grunting his words, All Might said: "This is your first offense? You better prepare yourselves…"
Scratching himself again in exasperation, Shigaraki spoke while scratching himself. "...Kurogiri…"
"I do not want blood and guts overflowing within me, but I would be happy to take in someone as great as you. You are too fast to see with the human eye-"
*SWISH* *SWISH*
Yet before Kurogiri could ramble with another speech, a whistling sound was heard twice in quick succession as two spinning blurs impacted the field, one impaling Shigaraki's thigh and perforating it cleanly through and burying itself in the ground as the other did the same to the left hand of Nomu that was holding All Might by his wound. Though the drill lost all speed and fell harmlessly after exiting the Nomu's forearm.
"You all talk too fucking much." Said Damian while looking coldly at them now free of burdens as Aizawa appeared resting securely next to Thirteen by the entrance of the complex.
"All Might!"
Just as Damian hit landed, Midoriya was rushing rapidly in full cowling mode from the opposite side of the entrance, but at the last second it started to wear off due to having spent his FC timer fighting in the mountain zone and rushing over here. That's when Bakugo appeared next to the baffled Kurogiri, blowing him away with an explosion while screaming. "Die! You bastard!"
Simultaneously, Todoroki made his presence be known by freezing the injured half of Nomu, making it lose enough strength for All Might to free himself and jump away. "All I heard was that you all are here to kill All Might."
After that Kirishima rushed in, managing to hit the shocked Shigaraki, throwing him meters away. "Don't forget me!"
Looking at them with the same apathetic look on his face, Todoroki spoke contemptuously. "The Symbol of Peace cannot be killed by the likes of you."
"AGH-IT HURTS!" As Shigaraki groaned in pain at the gaping wound on his left thigh, he stubbornly stood up again, shedding all the coherent evil villain speeches as he ordered the Nomu. "Nomu!"
Hearing his call, the Nomu lifted himself with uncanny athleticism as the limps of his frozen half fell carelessly. "How can he still move when his body's broken?" Asked Midoriya as they all stared in shock.
Feeling something's wrong, All Might warned his students. "Get back, everyone!" And sure enough, the Nomu started to regenerate all his damaged areas at a speed visible to the naked eye, regrowing limbs in seconds.
"What?! His Quirk wasn't Shock Absorption?" Stated All Might.
"I didn't say that was all he had! This is his super-regeneration…" Shigaraki spoke with an eerie tone, managing to calm himself down the more he spoke. "Nomu has been modified to take you at 100%."
"Now then, first we need to get our gate back. Go, Nomu-" And as soon as Shigaraki finished his words, Damian blinked again into existence next to Bakugo, surprising even All Might. And as Nomu started his dash forward, Damian had already grabbed Bakugo by his nape, using the wind to send him crashing towards the others.
Watching All Might ready to intercept the Nomu and save him, Damian used a spell so his voice would reach All Might directly. "There's no time to worry about me, focus on beating the Nomu."
After finishing his words, Damian focused on limit testing his defences against the strongest enemy he has faced so far. Thankfully he wasn't stupid enough to rush in unprepared, just stupid enough to put limit test with his life on the line, so before he did his move he had already prepared a multiple layered barrier to take the hit.
Just a fraction of a second after he warned All Might the Nomu was already on his face making a punching motion, as the fist closed within inches of Damian's face, the space between him and the Nomu seemed to shatter like there was a glass wall in between them, breaking the first energy barrier that had turned into something akin to a non-newtonian fluid.
Then the fist impacts the second barrier that acts as a lattice of atom sized springs meant to transform the residual kinetic energy of the Nomu's punch into potential energy through tension after which Eva regulated and distributed the generated tension to be dispersed conically around the point of impact as a heat wave.
What Damian failed to consider properly is that the heat wave produced after this process that took less than a second was more potent than what he estimated, sending him flying through a concrete wall and to a metal beam as a result.
Thankfully he kept a simple fourth barrier that could withstand the concrete but due to the strain the calculations of his second layer barrier caused to both him and Eva this last defence was flimsy at best, so after going through the concrete wall it broke, making him impact the metal beam with a loud-
*THUD*
"FUCK." Screamed Damian in his native tongue as he fell to the ground, standing on one knee with a pained expression. 'That fucking hurt, but I guess withstanding a goddamn bullet train to the face and only having an aching back is a good trade.'
[Yeah, but this won't work in high level combat unless we have time to prepare,] reproached Eva in a half-pissed half-concerned tone after helplessly seeing Damian gamble with his life like that. 'You're right, but at least now we know that-'
But before Damian could excuse himself, Eva cutted him short, now with a tone fully pissed off after confirming he came out mostly fine. [It also overwhelms us both with useless calculations, leaving us defenseless for a follow up, just admit it was a stupid idea and stop trying to act like your favorite character, I cannot act as a substitute ability index for you.]
As Damian was left tongue-tied after noticing Eva was pissed for the first time at him since they've met–and with reason–he tried to apologize but he was distracted by a hulking blonde giant suddenly standing next to him with a mortified expression as he hoisted him up without speaking and transported Damian next to his other classmates who were looking at him with bewildered expressions, especially Bakugo.
Feeling confused at the actions of All Might, Damian questioned him with a bit of annoyance in his voice. "Why did you rush to me?! You should've went for the-"
"Young Damian," but he was met with All Might's serious, stone cold voice, silencing him. "As a teacher I must say it disappoints me how reckless you were, do you think I would let my students get hurt in front of me?"
"Ah, he's mad." Muttered Shigaraki with a mocking grin on his face before turning to Kurogiri. "...but did he take Nomu's punch so easily?"
Ignoring the deranged antics of the creepy looking Shigaraki, All Might turned around to face the Nomu again, speaking with a voice that failed to hide his praise and sound stern. "But I commend your spirit, one day you'll make a splendid hero."
Hearing the high praise from this world's number one hero, Damian this time truly felt embarrassed, as he only saved Bakugo out of selfish reasons, there was nothing heroic in his actions as All Might made it sound.
Looking at the villains, All Might spoke again, this time with a tone as professional as it was cold. "And you all, don't you know how to hold back?"
Taking a step forward with his healthy leg and ignoring his other bleeding one, Shigaraki spoke with the same detached tone. "It was to rescue my companions, you see? I had no choice. I mean, earlier, that… plain looking kid was about to hit me with his full strength, you know?"
"Violence for the sake of others makes it admirable, isn't that right, hero?" Added Shigaraki with a mocking tone. "You know what, All Might? I'm angry. I'm angry at this world that categorizes the same violent acts as heroic or villainous, deciding what's good and what's bad."
Extending his hands and tilting his head, he spoke in a sarcastic tone. "Symbol of Peace? Ha. You're just a device to repress violence. Violence only breeds violence. The world will know this once we kill you!"
"That's preposterous! The eyes of white collar criminals like you burn silently. You just want to enjoy this yourself, don't you, you liar?"
And behind the mask, the wide eyed Shigaraki muttered in a lower tone. "Ah, he's figured me out already?"
"It's three versus six." Todoroki said calmly.
"Kacchan already exposed the fog's weakness!" Added Midoriya.
"These guys are crazy, but if we back up All Might, we can push them back!" said Kirishima full of determination.
"No!" Denied All Might firmly as he motioned with his left hand. "Run away."
"You should've been in trouble if I hadn't-" spoke again Todoroki, but he wouldn't get to finish his words as Damian cut him off.
"Got it." Was all he said while using the wind to lift everybody.
"Wha–what is happening?" Asked Kirishima, his prior determination replaced by anxiety as he flailed around hopelessly.
"What are you doing, you bastard!" Cursed Bakugo at Damian. "I think 'thank you for saving my helpless ass' are the words you should be spewing, you rude brat." Said Damian, cutting him off with a glare of his own. "And you heard the man, we would only be liabilities in this fight, so shut up."
Looking at the ascending teenagers, All Might spoke with a boisterous voice. "Thank you, Young Damian. And don't worry, young men, it's alright. Just watch as a pro gives it everything he's got."
"But All Might, you're bleeding… and your tim-" said Midoriya, but he felt Damian's hand on his shoulder as he stopped himself from saying anything too compromising. In response to his words, All Might merely gave him a thumbs up, signaling for the young boy to trust him.
"Nomu, Kurogiri, get him. I need to get treated, so make it quick and let's go home." Said Shigaraki.
As Shigaraki retreated limping, both Nomu and All Might rushed in, meeting in the middle while mirroring each other with a straightforward right hook. The shockwave generated from the impact reverberated omnidirectionally as Kurogiri and Shigaraki were sent flying.
"Hey, hey. You talked about his shock absorption yourself earlier, didn't you?" Said Shigaraki while landing with a strain, feeling the pain in his injured leg flare up again.
"Yes, I did!" Answered All Might before he started exchanging a flurry of punches with the Nomu mirroring his actions, the force of their impacts generating wind that made Damian and the rest fly away further before he stabilized himself 20 or so meters away.
"W-Wow!…" Exclaimed Kirishima in awe.
"A head-on fist fight?" Asked Midoriya to no one in particular.
"Ugh. I can't get near them." Said Kurogiri with exasperation.
While exchanging blow for blow, All Might somehow still had room to speak his thoughts out loud, if it was to deter the villains or because he was just that simple-minded, Damian was none the wiser. "If your Quirk isn't shock nullification but shock absorption, then there's a limit to it, right?"
After that Nomu connected a right hook straight to All Might's old wound, making him wince before he recovered, locking hand with Nomu and pushing him back as he spoke with a strained voice. "Made to fight me?... If you can withstand me at 100%... then I'll force you to surrender from beyond that!"
Going back to a direct exchange of blows, All Might slowly started to overwhelm the Nomu, making it incapable of keeping up as it received more and more direct hits to its body.
Sending the Nomu flying with a right, All Might jumped in pursuit as he spoke loud enough for everyone to hear while the Nomu got back and intercepted him mid-air, getting hit on the face as they took the fight to the ground. "A hero…" spoke All Might on the ground while blocking Nomu's attack, tossing it into the ground and jumping again to land on its face with a right kick. "...can always break out of a tough spot!"
Dodging his kick, Nomu jumped and evaded All Might but it was intercepted in the air as All Might grabbed him by his arm, spinning around before he threw Nomu into the ground at high speed, creating a spider-web-like crack at the point of impact as dust flew high up.
'Holy shit, and you're telling me this is a low level fight between supers in the multiverse.' Damian thought in awe at the speed, strength and resilience of both parties, but especially of All Might's as he should be merely a shell of his prime former self.
As the Nomu rebounded from the impact, All Might already appeared on the ground next to it, preparing for a final attack. "Hey villain, have you ever heard these words? Go beyond… PLUS… ULTRA!"
And as though a baseball on a home run, the Nomu was sent flying out of the complex, breaking the dome as it was sent far away to who knows where. Snapping out of his amazement, Damian took a step back as he had already positioned himself and the others on the ground and taking advantage of their awe stricken yet distracted minds, he teleported in the direction of the Nomu's flying path.
Reappearing outside the U.S.J complex, Damian could feel with his spatial perception an influx of people entering the complex while some quickly departed from the main group in the direction the Nomu was sent to. Knowing he was on a timer, he flew just above the trees, chasing the Nomu that quickly lost its initial acceleration and fell a couple hundred meters away from the fight.
Standing in front of the barely writhing flesh golem, Damian couldn't help but comment. 'Jeez, to be sent away so far, just how hard can that old man hit?' Still, he didn't get distracted and while chuckling he quickly put the partial Quirk he 'borrowed' from AFO's data set and put a hand over the Nomu's chest. As the Quirk stealing property kicked in as within seconds Damian felt changes to his physiognomy occur in real time, and with his near perfect control over his body, he was fascinated as he analyzed the changes that were happening.
He had no idea how the adaptation/compatibility part of AFO's Quirk worked as he hadn't assimilated that part of the data set, but he even back then he had a 'hunch' that he wouldn't need it as he was quite literally made for this–and sure enough–instead of the crude grafting type process the Nomu's go through where multiple Quirks get shoved in and are forcefully held together by the Nomu's hyper regeneration (or so he assumed), the energy from the nexus that inundated his whole body at all times as it passively nourished him was actively guiding the 'essence' that made up the Quirks, helping it weave itself onto Damian's genetic code seamlessly, and as a result his veins start to glow inwardly with a faint golden hue, making him feel a warm sensation throughout his whole body.
First it came the shock absorption, as his body develops a micro-layered energy sheath between muscle fibers he can feel a vibration traveling throughout every corner of his body, now there existed an extra layer within himself that could absorb and regulate the kinetic force he absorbed through any and all collisions between himself and the rest of the world.
Then came the strength enhancing quirk, faintly increasing the muscle density in his body without bulking him up unnecessarily. More importantly, he could feel all the soft and hard tissue within himself become more resilient–harder, but without sacrificing any of its elasticity and flexibility. Lastly, he could feel the natural restrictions his nervous system imposes on the muscle fibers loosen, permitting him to use however much he needed naturally.
Finally it was the super regeneration, as it changed his life signature Damian could feel his heartbeat synch with the pulsating nexus in his mind, his energy helping to rewrite every cell in his body as well as his DNA itself, letting them create a new genetical blueprint; one for its current state and another that acted as an ever-evolving baseline, a back up capable of adapting to any future changes and remember them, making it so he could use any compatible energy available to him to regenerate back to this prime state.
The best of it all was that he could feel that like any other of the abilities absorbed from data sets, he can turn them on and off like they had a switch just by channeling his will through the nexus in his mind palace.
[Ew.] As he marveled in these changes, he was snapped back to reality by the disgusted voice of Eva, which he understood immediately why it was. In front of him, the Nomu that had lost all its Quirks started to deform into a mass of flesh, its DNA collapsing as there was no super regeneration to hold the mutilated creature together.
Not wanting to leave evidence and curious to examine whatever was left after AFO's grafting process, he quickly whisked the lifeless mesh of meat into his inventory before teleporting away, the ones coming for the Nomu still far away due to the absorption process happening faster than the time it took for Damian to catch up to the now dead creature.
Arriving back on the ship of the artificial lake in the U.S.J complex, he quickly teleported behind the villains buried neck deep in the ground, using a simple spell to put them all to sleep before taking out two of them and sealing the holes, teleporting back close to his original position before chasing the Nomu.
Walking from a corner, he was quickly intercepted by a U.A teacher who reprimanded him sternly but with a hint of concern under the sternness. "Student! Where have you been? Are you okay? Your friends said you disappeared in the middle of the fight. What happened?"
Putting on an apologetic face and tone, Damian answered. "I'm sorry, sensei. I saw these two trying to sneak away in the middle of the fight and chased them down just in case."
Unable to reprimand Damian after his solid excuse, the teacher merely sighed in defeat and said patiently. "Haa, you did a good job, but I'll take it from here. You should go and gather with the rest of the student body outside, leave those two to me."
Nodding along, Damian left the villains on the ground and made his way to the entrance, where he was met with a group of police officers arresting and escorting the villains out and his classmates reunited in front of a man in a coat and hat, full 90's private detective get-up style, only Midoriya being absent from the group.
Seeing him coming out, Yaoyorozu, Kirishima and Sero get up to him with worried expressions as Tokoyami and Todoroki stared at him from their spots, 'sneakily' inching closer to the group to be within hearing distance.
"Damian-kun, are you alright? Why did you take so long to come out?" Asked Yaoyorozu, breaking her usually rigid formal speech.
Smiling inwardly at their worry for him, Damian shrugged off their concerns with the same excuse he used on the professor he met moments before, assuring them that he was in perfect condition, and in perfect condition he was, as even the damage he received from crashing onto the metal beam after the attack from Nomu was mended by his new super regeneration Quirk.
And before they could ask other questions, the detective Naomasa started to answer the student's questions about the injured, capturing everyone's attention and saving Damian from any further lying.
Once it was confirmed that everybody would make it, they all got back on the school bus and took off to the school campus following Naomasa's directives.
On the way back, Damian kept quiet as everyone talked about what had just happened. 'Hey, Eva,' he suddenly spoke inwardly. [Yes?] She asked back.
'I'm sorry."
[For?...]
'You're right, it was stupid of me to limit test with such a powerful enemy from the jump. And you're right about the other stuff too…' he started, and she muttered, caught off guard by his words. [...I'm sorry too, maybe I was too harsh on you-]
But he didn't let her finish. 'No, you know as well as me that it's better to just be direct and ruthless when pointing out my faults. I shouldn't experiment so recklessly in real life situations… I still kind of forget I cannot be so careless with my life since I'm not alone anymore. I guess a part of me still can process that all of this is… you know, real, not a game or a dream.'
Feeling the genuine emotions behind his words, Eva's tone softened and became one filled with warmth as she spoke. [Even then, I'm sorry for lashing out like that, I just don't want you to put yourself in danger unnecessarily.]
Smiling to himself, he reciprocated the warmth. 'I know, and thank you. I really don't know how I'd deal with my arrogance and my fucked up mind if you weren't here.'
Smoothing things over as quickly they went back to their usual banter once the serious talk was over as they analyzed everything that had happened on what they could've done better while Damian switched back to his usual social butterfly self while engaging with what everybody was talking about as the bus rode in constant, steady speed.