….
Inside the metaphysical void of the vestige plane, the dark, stagnant water violently churned into a tempest.
The moment Tenko buried his face into Midoriya's shoulder and let out that agonizing, child-like sob, the core foundation of the parasite's control cracked down the middle.
Above them, the monolithic, shadowy silhouette of All For One erupted in incandescent fury.
"You ungrateful, miserable little worm!"
All For One's voice thundered, no longer aristocratic or polite, but a distorted, screeching roar of pure indignation–
"I found you in the dirt, gave you purpose, and molded your hatred from nothing. You are my creation, my weapon, and you dare turn your back on me because of the words of that crude brat?!"
The shadow surged downward, tendrils of black, parasitic sludge lunging to wrap around the weeping child's throat and drag him back into the abyss.
Tenko didn't flinch, curl into a ball, or try to hide.
Slowly, the boy stepped back from Midoriya's embrace.
The tears staining his cheeks remained, but beneath the grief, a furious fire burned in his ruby eyes, carrying the same defiant steel that had once belonged to his grandmother, Nana Shimura.
"Saving me?"
Tenko rasped, his voice shifting from the high pitch of a crying child to the deep, jagged tone of a warrior reclaiming his soul–
"How is taking my life away, making me kill my mother and my sister... and then telling me that it was just who I was supposed to be... how is any of that saving me?"
Tenko took a step forward, the water beneath his feet turning to disintegrating ash.
"All those years, I thought the hatred was mine." Tenko continued, his fingers curling into trembling fists. "...and there was something wrong with me because I couldn't stop wanting to destroy everything around me. But now I understand... you kept feeding that hatred because it made me easier to control."
His red-rimmed eyes lifted toward All For One, no longer carrying the vacant despair of the child who had once surrendered himself.
"You aren't my savior!"
All For One shrieked. "SILENCE!"
The void buckled as the demon unleashed the full metaphysical weight of a hundred stolen Quirks within the mindscape.
Crimson lightning and towering tendrils of pure hatred descended like a guillotine to obliterate the boy's lingering consciousness.
For over a century, All For One had ruled Japan from the shadows.
He had killed Nana Shimura, crippled All Might, manipulated entire generations, and treated human lives like pieces on a shogi board.
In all his grand designs and meticulously planned contingencies, he had never imagined that the masterpiece he had spent fifteen years cultivating as his supreme weapon would simply slip through his fingers.
And worse: that his absolute defeat would be orchestrated by Nana Shimura's own blood, awakened by the absurd intervention of a boy carrying her will!
'Not to her bloodline... NOT TO HER GRANDSON!'
All For One threw everything into the strike.
Tenko didn't run, instead planting both feet into the void, throwing his arms wide, and driving all ten fingers into the dark foundation of his own mind.
"THIS IS MY BODY! GET OUT OF MY LIFE!"
The metaphysical realm didn't merely shake as it began to decay.
A blinding, white hot wave of unrestrained disintegration exploded from Tenko's core.
The black sludge of All For One's will was seized by the viral spread of Decay.
The shadow shrieked as its fingers, its arms, and its towering face began to crumble into harmless ash.
"Curse you…!
"CURSE YOU, TENKO SHIMURA–!"
With a final, deafening shatter that echoed through the soul, Tenko ripped the parasite's lingering roots entirely out of his body.
….
In the physical world of Kamino Ward, the atmospheric backlash reached an apocalyptic crescendo.
While the metaphysical soul war raged deep within the vestige realm, All For One realized he was losing his grip on the vessel.
Driven by existential terror, the demon forced Tomura Shigaraki's body to its brink. He violently siphoned every remaining scrap of the boy's vital energy, burning through his cellular lifespan just to forcefully keep the neural tether intact.
SKRRRRK–BOOOOOM!
The result was a catastrophic detonation.
Crimson bio electricity coiled with jagged, pitch black [Decay] vectors, erupting outward in an omnidirectional hurricane of pure annihilation.
The ground beneath their boots turned to red-hot molten slag, structural ice spires atomized into boiling steam, and a shockwave of lethal particulate matter tore across the basin.
Directly in the path of the storm hung…
Izuku Midoriya.
Suspended on the fading golden embers of [Float], his body was completely limp, head lolled back and wide green eyes glazed over in an unresponsive trance while his consciousness traversed the deep waters of the soul plane.
He was a defenseless target floating mere meters above a vortex of disintegration.
Dabi didn't hesitate for a microsecond.
Tapping into the absolute zenith of his [100% PHASE - 1] biology and his awakened [Dragon Core], he crossed the fractured ground in a sonic blur, standing firmly between the berserk villain and his unconscious student.
"FROSTFIRE COMBAT: ZERO FORTRESS!"
Dabi thrust both arms forward.
An impenetrable, towering bulwark of glacial ice erupted from the molten earth, instantly locking with a roaring cyclone of blinding sapphire plasma.
The dual elemental wall suffocated the resonance of the [Decay] waves.
The sub atomic cold flash froze the expanding black vectors into crystalline glass, while the incinerating ultraviolet heat vaporized the drifting ash before a single molecule could cross the perimeter toward Midoriya.
Dabi braced his body against the rattling concussion, his dragon scales shimmering under the strain, refusing to yield a single inch of ground.
SNAP-CRACK!
The metaphysical tether inside the abyss snapped with the deafening force of shattered reality.
?!!Midoriya's consciousness rebounded into the mortal realm.
His lungs seized, pulling in a sharp, burning gasp as his eyes snapped wide open.
The golden light of [Float] flickered out, and his boots hit the frozen dirt with a heavy thud.
Dabi lowered his arms, the draconic scales along his skin and neck slowly smoothing back into his normal, healed complexion as he regulated his core body temperature.
He exhaled a long, steady plume of lukewarm steam, his turquoise eyes tracking the convulsing villain across the basin before casting an exhausted glance back over his shoulder.
"So."
Dabi muttered, his voice dry, raspy, and layered with the weariness of someone who had just held back a calamity–
"Mind telling me what the hell happened inside that head of his? While I was out here playing shield, burning through my reserves, and flash freezing his decay vectors so you wouldn't get turned into dust... what kind of ridiculous nonsense did you feed that kid to make him tear his master to pieces?"
Midoriya swallowed hard, rubbing the back of his neck as he caught his breath.
"I... I went into the vestige plane." He started.
"And?" Dabi prompted, raising an eyebrow.
He didn't question the strange term.
Dabi had experienced something similar himself, that strange inner space within his own mind where he had encountered the real Toya, so the idea wasn't entirely unfamiliar.
Midoriya continued, his tone gaining ground. "Then... I got angry."
Dabi hadn't expected those words from the green-haired boy, especially not from someone who usually carried himself with such restraint.
Midoriya admitted, his gaze dropping briefly to the frosted ground–
"I told him that if he truly hated this hypocritical world and wanted to destroy it to create a place where people like him could exist, then he needed to stop being a puppet and do it with his own hands, becoming the destruction he wanted to bring."
?...?Dabi froze.
A dead silence occupied them.
For three agonizing seconds, Dabi simply stared at Izuku Midoriya, a visible vein twitching near his temple.
'Did I... did I actually break this kid?'
A sudden wave of self-reflection washed over Dabi.
He remembered the brutal drills at Dagobah Beach, beating the hesitation out of the boy's soul, drilling him to view power pragmatically, and telling Class 1-A that he would rather have a violent winner than a polite loser.
'Holy shit…!'
Dabi thought, internally groaning–
'I only tried to give him a backbone, and the idiot turned around and used reverse psychological terrorism to egg on a mass murderer. Gosh… If Aizawa or All Might heard that speech…'
Dabi pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a pained hiss of breath–
"You told the leader of the League of Villains... to go ahead and destroy the world with his own hands? Are you out of your mind, Izuku? Do you have any idea how that sounds coming from an aspiring Symbol of Peace?"
Midoriya didn't flinch.
Instead, recognizing he was still in an active calamity zone and refusing to remain a sitting liability behind his teacher, Midoriya channeled One For All across his frame.
Green electricity began to crackle intensely around his muscles.
The instant his resolve hardened, dark energy hissed outward from his palms.
THWIP-CRACKLE!
Dozens of high tension cords of [Blackwhip] erupted from Midoriya's hands as he carefully controlled each one instead of lashing out blindly.
He wrapped the dark, green-sparking tendrils in tight coils around his forearms, ankles, and core like living compression armor.
He dropped into a grounded, low center of gravity defense, bracing against the residual shockwaves while holding the rear guard directly behind Dabi's wide back.
His green eyes flared with unbreakable determination as he looked directly into his teacher's face.
"I said it because of two things, Sensei." Midoriya declared–
"First, I told him that if he ever tries to hurt innocent people with his own hands, I will be standing right in front of him to stop him. And second..."
Midoriya gave a small, confident, fearless smirk.
"...I told him because I knew it didn't matter what he wanted to destroy. As long as you're standing here, Dabi-sensei... you would never let him lay a finger on anyone anyway."
.
….
[To be continued…]
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Author Note:
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-->[email protected]/WrightBrothers
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A Small Recommendation
Hey everyone!
I wanted to take a moment to recommend another MHA fanfiction to you guys.
My friend OrgoWriters has recently released:
🔥 MHA: I Became Endeavor, Now I'll Fix Everything
If you're an MHA fan, I'd definitely recommend giving it a try. It's a different take on Endeavor, with a redemption-focused story and some interesting ideas about how things could have turned out differently.
I've seen some of what he's planning for the story, and honestly, I'm looking forward to seeing where he takes it. 😂
So if you're looking for another MHA fic to read, go give it a shot and show him some support!
And yes, before anyone asks — I'm still here working on MHA: Blue Sun. 😂
— WrightBrothers