The Collector's voice echoed across the industrial district like the voice of a vengeful god.
"I'M DISAPPOINTED!"
Ryuu looked up. On the roof they'd just left, a figure appeared. Metallic skin caught the rising sun, reflecting it in harsh flashes. Moving with fluid grace despite obvious deterioration.
The Collector had found them.
"Keep going," Kenji ordered, pushing Ryuu ahead of him down the fire escape. "Don't stop. Don't look back."
"But—"
"GO!"
Kenji turned, his coat billowing in the updraft of the rising heat. He didn't look at his son retreating down the metal stairs.
He had face the monster.
Kurogane Takeshi...The Collector.
Stood amidst the vents and piping, his metallic skin spasming like glitching video.
Black veins pulsed violently along his neck. He was dying, but that only made him a cornered animal with the power of a god.
"You disappoint me, Commander," The Collector sighed, the sound grating like steel on bone. "After all I offered you. After all the trust. You choose... betrayal."
"I chose my son," Kenji corrected, his voice calm.
He felt the power humming in his veins. Ryuu's amplification was a masterpiece.
Usually, Kenji's Echo-Echo required a conscious switch...normally he has to turn off the Fire quirk to use Barrier, then turn off Barrier to use Strength.
All in all...It was more like a toggle switch.
But now? Now it was a floodgate.
"You're a loose end," The Collector stated, raising a hand. The air distorted. "And I hate loose ends."
*Air Cannon x Impact Recoil*
An invisible wall of pressure slammed toward Kenji, strong enough to pulverize a tank.
Kenji didn't dodge. He stepped into it.
He activated all three stolen quirks simultaneously.
Super Strength anchored his feet to the roof. Barrier Creation formed a shimmering, hexagonal shield in front of him.
Fire Generation flooded the shield, turning it into a wall of white-hot plasma.
BOOOM!
The air pressure slammed into the barrier, but the barrier didn't crack. It held.
The Collector's eyes widened.
"Simultaneous activation? Without degradation? That's impossible for a copy-type like you."
"Not impossible," Kenji gritted out, the strain tearing at his muscles. "I just... evolved."
Kenji dropped the barrier and exploded forward.
He moved faster than sound, the Super Strength tearing up the roof tiles beneath his boots. He closed the thirty-meter gap in a heartbeat.
The Collector flinched, hastily erecting a wall of ice.
Kenji didn't stop. He wreathed his fist in fire, hardened his skin with the barrier, and put every ounce of super strength behind the blow.
"TRI-ASPECT ARTS: PROMINENCE BREAK!"
CRACK-BOOM!
The ice shattered into vapor. Kenji's fist connected with The Collector's metallic chest.
The villain launched backward, smashing through a ventilation unit, then a concrete partition, skipping across the roof like a stone across water.
He slammed into the far of an industrial wall, coughing up black blood.
"That power..." The Collector wheezed, wiping his mouth. His eyes locked onto Kenji with terrifying hunger. "That's his power, isn't it? The boy amplified you. He perfected the synthesis!"
"HAHAHAHAHA!!!!, SO IT CAN BE DONE!!!." The villain began to laugh, a wet, manic sound.
"Do you see, Yamamoto? Do you see why I need him?! Even a second-rate copycat like you becomes a god with his touch! Imagine what I could become!"
"You'll become nothing," Kenji said, walking forward. "Because you're not leaving this roof."
"You think you can kill me?" The Collector stood up. His skin shifted...from chrome, copper, lead. "I have forty-two stored quirks. You have three borrowed scraps."
"YOUR END IS NOW!!!." The Collector screamed, and the roof erupted.
Shadows lashed out like whips. Gravity increased tenfold. Explosions crackled in the air.
But Kenji danced through hell.
He used the Barrier to deflect the shadows, the Strength to fight the crushing gravity, the Fire to counter the cold.
It was a symphony of violence. He took hits though...a shadow whip sliced his cheek, an explosion scorched his side. But he kept moving forward.
'I've to Hold on,' Kenji told himself, feeling the amplification starting to flicker. Ryuu was getting further away. The connection was stretching thin. 'Just a little longer.'
He grabbed The Collector by the throat, driving him into the ground. He unleashed a point-blank blast of fire.
The Collector roared, his skin turning to diamond to resist the heat. He grabbed Kenji's wrist, and Kenji felt his energy drain..."Energy Vampirism."
"Die!" The Collector shrieked. Spikes of bone erupted from his chest, piercing Kenji's shoulder.
Kenji coughed blood, but he didn't let go. He smiled.
"Time's up, Kurogane."
"What?"
The tablet in Kenji's pocket beeped.
00:00:00
Deep inside the facility, the thermal charges on the main load-bearing pillars detonated.
The world dropped out from under them.
The roof split down the middle.
The entire eastern wing of the complex groaned, a sound like a dying leviathan, and began to slide into the abyss.
The Collector's eyes went wide with genuine fear and confusion.
He tried to scramble up, to fly, to teleport...but he was exhausted, damaged, and his unstable body was locking up from the trauma of the fight.
Kenji grabbed him.
He wrapped his arms around the villain, pinning his arms, locking them both together.
"Let go!" The Collector screamed, thrashing.
"You'll die too! You fool, you'll die too!"
"I died years ago," Kenji whispered, his violet eyes soft as he thought of a photo tucked in his pocket. "This? This is just checking out."
He looked past the villain, toward the edge of the roof where the fire escape was. He couldn't see Ryuu anymore.
'Good. He made it.'
Kenji Yamamoto closed his eyes. He poured every last drop of the fading Resonance into one final flare of heat, welding the two of them together as the concrete beneath them disintegrated.
"Go be a hero, Ryuu."
The floor gave way.
They fell into the fire together.
"YOU BASTA—"