Lock's confused stare only made Tomura Shigaraki more agitated.
Shigaraki leapt to his feet, arms spreading wide as he proclaimed with a cult-like fervor:
"It seems you still don't understand…
We are the League of Villains!"
"Our goal is to kill All Might—the Symbol of Peace!
To destroy this society that oppresses the use of Quirks!
To establish a new dark order, and return the world to true freedom!"
"So?" Lock nodded casually, humoring him—but his face remained utterly disinterested.
The abrupt change nearly made Shigaraki choke. His voice faltered. His expression crumpled.
"That's… not how you're supposed to react. The teacher clearly said…"
Lock's apathy only made his irritation explode. His crimson pupils dilated, and he tore at his own neck with jittery intensity, fingernails scraping skin raw.
Shigaraki thought he understood Lock.
He thought Lock should share their hatred.
After all, Lock—before awakening magic—had been Quirkless. He'd been bullied constantly by classmates. Abusers used their Quirks freely while teachers only offered empty reprimands. No justice was served.
School bullying in Japan was common.
But what Lock suffered was far beyond normal.
Any child would grow warped or resentful after that.
AFO had analyzed the psychological data and crafted a recruitment spiel tailored precisely for Lock's past trauma.
If the original soul of this body were still here, he might have actually joined the League of Villains after hearing Shigaraki's speech.
But too bad for them.
They were recruiting Lock, not the broken boy who used to own his body.
Those childhood memories didn't belong to Lock. They were just fragments, nothing that could sway him now.
And Lock didn't resent society.
He had strength, freedom, and ambition of his own.
Why would he ever choose to become someone else's chess piece?
He planned on becoming the one who moves the pieces, not the pawn.
"…So." Shigaraki finally forced out a last attempt.
He stretched a trembling hand toward Lock and hissed:
"Join us. Help us destroy this Hero society.
If not… You won't leave this place alive."
"Oh?" Lock raised his hand as if to take the offer.
Shigaraki's eyes widened in triumph—
only for his smile to freeze.
Smack!
Lock slapped Shigaraki's hand away with enough force to make the air pop.
Then he lifted his chin and said coolly:
"Sorry.
I love saying 'no' to self-righteous fools like you.
I'm not interested in playing anti-social games with a giant baby blinded by hatred."
Giant baby.
Those two words were like hammers smashing Shigaraki's ego.
"You… you… YOU—!"
His body shook violently.
Blood dripped down his neck where his nails dug deeper, skin tearing under frenzy and humiliation.
Everything Lock did—Shigaraki interpreted as deliberate mockery.
"Kurogiri—kill him!"
The instant the command left his lips, Kurogiri moved.
His body expanded like a blooming vortex of black fog, reaching for Lock like an enormous hand.
But Lock had predicted this.
He pushed off the counter, lightning-fast, and slipped out of reach.
He knew perfectly well how dangerous Kurogiri's Warp Gate was.
It couldn't drop him into the deep sea or volcanic magma—not without prepared coordinates.
But Kurogiri could absolutely warp him somewhere fatal.
Lock landed lightly and counterattacked instantly.
Magic power surged through his veins like a storm of ice.
Light burst from his palms—so bright, so cold, it scorched the air.
A magic circle formed, vast and brilliant with frozen blue light.
The pressure of its power was suffocating.
Create—!
"Shape of Ice: SILVER WORLD!"
This was one of Gray's strongest techniques—an ultra-wide-range freezing spell.
The pinnacle of Ice-Make magic below forbidden and Lost Arts. The temperature plummeted instantly.
A massive ice-blue magic circle unfurled beneath Lock's hands.
Before Shigaraki or Kurogiri could react—
Everything froze.
A bone-deep chill stabbed through their bodies, bypassing clothing, ripping into bone marrow.
Blood slowed. Lungs seized. Hearts stiffened.
And then—
They became ice sculptures.
The entire bar transformed into a blizzard-ridden cavern.
Snowflakes drifted from nowhere.
Icicles speared down from the ceiling.
Frost swallowed the floor, the walls, the air itself.
Even oxygen seemed to freeze, held in shining crystal layers.
From outside, the whole building must have looked like a glacier erupting from the ground—rampaging ice swallowing the block.
This was not human power.
This was divine punishment.
A frozen kingdom.
And Lock stood at its center—cold, still, sovereign.
The king of winter.
He exhaled a faint cloud of frost and examined his handiwork.
Every wisp of Kurogiri's black mist was frozen solid.
Shigaraki's desperate, tear-stained face was trapped forever in ice.
Both would die soon.
But then—
A sludge-like mass of rotting black mud formed in the Silver World.
A tall, imposing silhouette stepped out.
With a casual sweep of his arm—
BOOM.
A shockwave shattered the ice.
Cracks raced across the frozen world like spiderwebs.
Fragments collapsed.
The Silver World stopped expanding.
Lock's pupils contracted sharply.
Because standing before him was—
All For One.
Not merely appearing.
But forced into revealing himself
by Lock's overwhelming magic.
The real battle
was only just beginning.
---
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