The world fell into silence in eastern Tokyo. As the seconds passed by, the only sounds were the distant crackle of fires, the whirring of helicopter blades spinning in the air and the splattering sound of blood hitting the floor.
SQUELCH!
The silence lasted four seconds as the earth was dyed red with All For One's exploding limb.
Four seconds where Japan held its breath.
Then Fujiwara Sae, who had been broadcasting for the past twenty nine minutes and had run out of professional distance somewhere around the twentieth, said the only thing she could think of to say.
"His... his arm." The camera held on it. The feed was live to every screen in the country and the camera held on it because the cameraman, like everyone else, could not look away.
What remained of All For One's right arm from the elbow down was not downright gore.
The concentrated misfiring of five stacked quirk systems at maximum output, all of them detonating inward rather than projecting outward, had expressed itself with honest physics of energy that had nowhere to go. The sleeve of his destroyed suit hung in blackened strips.
The Scale Mail that should have reinforced the arm's structure had been part of the failure cascade rather than a defense against it while the Strength Enhancers had amplified the damage rather than containing it.
The result was visible for all to see. All For One raised his remaining right arm to cover his mouth, only for blood to leak out the next second. He was a man who had lived through centuries, survived the crushing of his skull, and navigated the abyss of his own blindness. His pain reduction quirk only served this quality, hence screaming was out of the question.
However ... It wasn't any less damaging to him or his image. The liquid sound of blood hitting the scorched concrete couldn't be picked up by the high-sensitivity directional microphones of the news chopper due to the distance.
The sight however, carried the same impact to millions of living rooms regardless.
'What just happened?' All For one coughed out more blood in torrents as he analyzed his body. What leaked from beneath his remaining palm was a dark, visceral red. In an instant, he discovered his internal system was riddled with injuries from the backlash he had just sustained. What was worse, he had no idea why he sustained them to begin with. 'That .. that can't be. Backfiring in such a situation. I was sure I could last for at least three more minutes with my mask destroyed. Don't tell me I overestimated myself again.'
The mask on his face that Yuta had destroyed was more than just a decoration but a practical need. With his previous loss to All Might, his nose, and majority of his ears and facial tissue had been completely destroyed. Not only did it make regular functions nigh impossible but his weakened body was unable to properly contain and control the vast number of quirks he once had. After discarding a majority, with its creation, the mask served those artificial functions and helped regulate his body to handle what quirks he could still use.
The only reason he wasn't immediately in a precarious situation upon its destruction was recent adjustments, adaptation over the years and the addition of Edgeshot's foldabody quirk alongside the quirk of another hero he had stolen tonight.
From his own understanding, he should have been able to put in a few good minutes before needing to retreat. However the destruction of his arm completely overturned this. Logically, this shouldn't be happening. His analytical mind combed through his century of experience, searching for a logic that wasn't there. He hadn't felt an external impact, nor was there a projectile or gust of wind. There was no pro hero he knew of with this kind of ability. However, upon his attempt to attack, his quirks had misfired, exploding before they could even be released.
The first thought was Eraserhead had returned. However, that wouldn't explain this. Erasure deactivated quirks, not destabilized them. Something had gone very wrong.
"Well then ..." All For One stabilized his body. For the first time in over a century, he was experiencing the one thing he had engineered his entire life to avoid: The Unknown. "I suppose this is your doing, isn't it?" All For One uttered, directly at the duo opposite. He contracted the muscles around the stump to limit the bleeding.
All Might's eyes narrowed. "... Young Akutami .."
"Yes Sensei."
"Is this ..."
"More or less." Yuta's eyes narrowed with him. In reality however, 'It worked.' "It's just like you said, his body is just as damaged as yours is. Destroying the mask made it worse." Yuta uttered, his quirk's feel of All For One's complicated internal structure serving as the basis for his confirmation.
The lightning around All Might's right arm grew even bigger. "I see."
Back on the plane, after revealing his ability to fly them ahead, in order to conserve as much time as possible, All Might had revealed his situation to Yuta. Under this guise, Yuta had taken the opportunity to "learn" about this formidable enemy currently attacking Japan. However, there had been no plan formation around this. From the very start, the plan had always been to get All Might to Japan and have him defeat the enemy. Yuta on the other hand, with four hours on a jet and nothing to do except run scenarios his quirk was very well suited for, had of course been working on a plan B.
With a solid understanding of All For One's situation in the original timeline, All Might's reveal just conveniently gave him the excuse to justify it.
Listening to their conversation, All For One grunted in displeasure as his second hand ballooned.
Dark lightning arcs erupted as he channeled his quirks yet again. However ...
SQUELCH!
"Ugh .." The backlash returned yet again. The skin cracked and blood erupted from All For One's right arm.
However, due to not putting enormous force this time compared to before, his injuries were nowhere near as bad as losing an entire arm. Still, the development wasn't favourable to him in the slightest. All Might, originally on guard, had his eyes widen.
"He currently can't use any Emitter quirks at full strength, mainly the ones that rely on his limbs, without further damaging himself or risking having another arm blown off." Yuta's voice fell into All Might's ears.
All For One's imaginary brows furrowed at their discussion. "I see. I take it Toshinori informed you about our last battle before you even arrived. Allowing you to conceive this elaborate scheme to destroy my mask."
The man straightened again. "Yet even that shouldn't have been enough to achieve this."
His speculation wasn't far off. Destroying the mask, while useful, wasn't enough to put the demon lord in this situation.
"Who said I was aiming to destroy your mask?" Yuta uttered, much to All For One's discomfort.
That chakra powered railgun had cost him more than half of his current chakra capacity. That attack had been utilized solely with the intention to blow All For One's damned potato head into bits. Plan B failed, and Plan C had to be concocted and enacted on the spot.
As for what had caused All For One's current state — the credit for that went to the leftover chakra that had seeped into his body from the railgun's attack.
All For One's body was not healthy. Quite the contrary, it was a compromised system held together by the external scaffolding of stolen quirks, the mask serving biological functions his own tissue could no longer perform, and the passive enhancers compensating for structural damage that had never fully healed.
Powerful, yes. Formidably, terrifyingly powerful.
But the power sat on a foundation that had been cracked six years ago and had not been repaired so much as worked around.
That wasn't even the end of it. Tonight alone, All For One had destabilized the equilibrium held for years by adding multiple quirks of varying strength, then added more strength enhancers to stabilize those quirks. Just like All Might, it had so many problems waiting for the right conditions to erupt.
Yet who would have thought those conditions would be fulfilled before the night was even over.
That leftover chakra residue, unfelt by someone in his state who had no chakra of his own, was the final nail in the coffin. It wasn't a living thing, but it carried the intent of his quirk.
His ability had always been about control. The External Control — the power to impose his will onto the physical laws of things outside himself — had never been simply limited to objects alone. As the human body was inherently complex, his quirk effect was just too negligible to actually be of any use to affect the biology of others even when powered with chakra.
Perhaps if it were a week prior, a similar situation would have changed nothing. Perhaps if All For One's condition were better, it would have been harder to achieve this effect with just leftover chakra. However his quirk was not what it used to be, and the leftovers of half his chakra was still a considerable amount.
By manipulating and redirecting the signals in All For One's body, two consecutive malfunctions had caused the man damage beyond repair. Yuta's leftover chakra had likewise been exhausted. However the enemy wasn't aware of that fact yet.
"... It seems there have been unexpected developments." Fujiwara Sae uttered into the microphone. "For unknown reasons, the enemy villain has suddenly lost one of his arms and seemingly damaged the other."
Her voice trembled as she spoke. "Just when we thought all hope was lost ..... In all my years of covering hero activity, I have never experienced anything like this."
'Hmm, this is really bad.' All For One stood in the ruins, seeing how the situation had turned yet again. He angled his ruined face towards Yuta, showing a gesture of dark appreciation.
"Well, it seems I've underestimated your methods yet again, Akutami Yuta. To push me to these lengths ... You truly are a specimen worthy of my acknowledgement."
There was no anger in his voice. Rather, true genuine delight. The expression twisted unnaturally across his damaged flesh.
The next moment, a distortion pulsed behind All Might and space folded inward like wet paper.
"Warp." The air ruptured and thick black oozed erupted behind them. With a blinding screech, a single Nomu thrust its arm for All Might.
'How many of these things does he have?' Yuta thought, twisting his feet as the earth rose. However, just as he made his move —
"Gah—!" The same thick, black, oily ooze erupted from Yuta's own mouth. 'Huh?' It tasted like rot and smelt like sewage, causing Yuta to retch more of it involuntarily.
Before he could even gag, the sludge expanded, wrapping around his torso like a living shroud. In the span of a heartbeat, the space where Yuta stood was empty.
"Akutami!" All Might roared, his fist swinging into the Nomu that just emerged.
'Shame. That was my last one.' A second later, Yuta materialized inches away from All For One.
The transition was violent. Yuta stumbled out as the black slime slid off his skin. The disorientation was immense. He barely had time to blink before a five-fingered shadow eclipsed his vision.
SPLAT.
All For One's remaining right hand clamped onto Yuta's face. The grip was tectonic as his fingers dug into Yuta's jaw and forehead.
"I've finally touched you." All For One smiled. 'Fortunately, I don't just have physical combinations.'
Warp bypassed the need for his limbs and was hard to guard against upon the first time experiencing. On the center of All For One's palm, a small, circular hole opened, glowing with red light.
Yuta's eyes widened at the sensation unlike anything he had ever experienced before. The next moment, wisps of red energy — the very manifestation of Yuta's quirk — emerged from his body, being dragged out of his skin.
The "Red Smoke" of Yuta's power flowed into the villain's hand.
"With your quirk... with this level of external regulation... I can stabilize my body and rewrite this failure. I will finish what I —" He was barely halfway through his speech when the flow, barely ten inches out of Yuta's body, stopped abruptly.
The vibrant red essence, halfway between Yuta and the villain's palm, suddenly frayed violently like a cat that just had its tail stepped on.
"Huh?" All For One's sightless gaze flickered in confusion.
Before he could think any further, two hands clamped onto All For One's remaining wrist. The force was monumental, proven by the sound of the villain's remaining arm-bones groaning.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?"
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