Chapter 4: The Blaze of a Star
The battlefield was already burning when Ryuji Midoriya arrived.
The sky above was split by light and shadow, clouds torn apart by forces no human body should have been able to command. Heroes clashed with nightmares made flesh, and at the center of it all stood All For One, smiling as if the war were nothing more than a game already won.
Ryuji didn't look at him at first.
He focused on the machine.
The Final Output Containment System unfolded around him, anchoring itself into the fractured ground with stabilizing pylons that screamed as they locked into place. Energy conduits flared to life, forming a lattice of light that dwarfed even the largest heroes nearby.
"What the hell is that?" someone shouted.
Ryuji didn't answer.
His hands moved with practiced calm, fingers dancing across the control interface as the system recognized his quirk signature.
Authorization accepted.
Containment threshold: Unverified.
Estimated survival rate: Negligible.
Ryuji exhaled.
"Yeah," he muttered. "Sounds about right."
All For One finally turned his attention toward him.
"Oh?" the ancient villain mused, eyes gleaming. "Another child offering himself up? How nostalgic."
Ryuji looked up then—really looked at him.
"You don't get it," he said, voice steady despite the tremor creeping into his limbs. "This isn't about stopping you."
All For One laughed. "Isn't it?"
Ryuji's lips curved into a small, almost peaceful smile.
"It's about making sure you can't keep going."
He activated his quirk.
Plus Ultra ignited.
The air screamed.
Not exploded—screamed—as pressure warped reality around Ryuji's body. Invisible energy flooded into the containment system, lighting its channels like veins filled with liquid sunlight.
Numbers spiked instantly.
Power output exceeded projections.
Containment rings strained, adaptive alloys rewriting themselves faster than physics should allow. The ground beneath the machine cracked, then fused into glass.
Ryuji felt it immediately.
His bones vibrated like tuning forks. Blood vessels ruptured in microscopic cascades. His heart stuttered under the sheer demand placed upon it.
But the machine held.
All For One's smile faltered.
"What… are you doing?" he demanded.
Ryuji coughed, blood flecking his lips—but his hands never left the controls.
"I spent my whole life," he said hoarsely, "being told I was too much. Too dangerous. Too unstable."
The machine roared as output climbed higher.
"I believed them," Ryuji continued. "So I stopped trying to hold the power."
Containment reached critical mass.
"I built something that could."
The system fired.
Not a blast.
A drain.
Energy was ripped from the battlefield itself—shockwaves collapsing inward instead of outward, stripping All For One's stolen quirks of their momentum, destabilizing his layered defenses.
For the first time in decades—
All For One staggered.
"No—!" he snarled. "That power—give it to me!"
His quirk reached out instinctively, tendrils of theft lashing toward Ryuji.
Ryuji laughed softly.
Blood ran freely now. His vision dimmed, edges blackening.
"No," he said simply. "You don't get this one."
He slammed the final override.
The containment system locked.
Plus Ultra surged beyond safety limits, pouring everything Ryuji had—everything he was—into the machine. The glow around him intensified, his silhouette dissolving into light.
The pain was unimaginable.
Every cell screamed as it was forced beyond its limits, energy tearing through pathways never meant to carry it. His heart seized, restarted, then faltered again.
He thought of Izuku.
Of a freckled smile and earnest eyes.
Go further, he thought. Just… not like this.
All For One watched in disbelief as the power he coveted burned itself away—denied to him utterly.
Ryuji's body began to break down.
Skin split into lines of light. His form flickered, destabilizing as the energy tore free of its vessel.
Still, he smiled.
"Guess this is it," he whispered.
The final surge hit.
The containment system detonated inward, collapsing its own core to prevent fallout—compressing god-level output into a singular, blinding point that tore through All For One's defenses and shattered the battlefield's center.
When the light faded…
The machine stood silent.
Cracked. Smoking.
Victorious.
Ryuji Midoriya was gone.
No ashes.
No body.
Just a scorched imprint where he had stood—and a lingering warmth in the air, like sunlight after a storm.
All For One stared at the empty space, fury twisting his features.
"That quirk…" he hissed. "That power…!"
He roared, rage echoing across the ruined field.
Izuku arrived seconds too late.
He saw the machine.
The crater.
The place where his brother should have been.
And something inside him shattered completely.
Next: A Brother BreaksIzuku's collapse. All For One's gloating. And the moment One For All begins to unravel.