….
Then, Katsuki Bakugo finally snapped–
"What else, dammit?! WHAT ELSE?!"
Bakugo shoved Kirishima's arm off his shoulder, stepping straight into Midoriya's space.
His face was flushed red, his teeth bared in a furious grimace.
"What else would a stupid, useless punk with zero regard for himself try to do?!!" Bakugo screamed on top of his lungs, his voice echoing across the quieted staging area. "You're trying to reach out your freaking hand to him, aren't you?!"
Uraraka gasped. "Bakugo-kun, stop–"
"LET GO OF ME!" Bakugo roared, twisting his shoulder away as Kirishima tried to grab him again.
This time, nobody moved to stop him.
Kirishima dropped his hands; Shoto stayed motionless; and Uraraka stepped back.
They weren't afraid of Bakugo's temper, but they could feel something had changed. This was different from the usual explosive Bakugo who threatened to blow people up or casually cursed about murder.
He stood with his hands clenched into tight fists, simply talking with fury.
"What do you make of this situation, huh?!" Bakugo shouted directly into Midoriya's face, his eyes bloodshot with pure frustration–
"Do you think this is still our childish fight?! Like back then, when I fell down in the river and you came crawling down the log, reaching out that damn hand to help me?!"
Midoriya flinched, his breath hitching.
"Argh... that damn look on your face!" Bakugo spat, his voice cracking with a mix of rage and long-buried guilt. "It's still the exact same fucking look! I hate it so much!!"
Bakugo stepped even closer, his shadow completely overlapping Midoriya's trembling frame.
"You want to save him?!"
Bakugo demanded, his tone dropping from a scream into a sharp, lethal whip-crack.
He leaned down until his eyes were level with Midoriya's tear-stained face. "...And let me guess. You don't even have a fucking plan, right?"
"..." Complete, dead silence fell over the group, and not a single student breathed.
Gran Torino stayed silent, his sharp old eyes watching the two boys. Toshinori stood frozen, clutching his gaunt chest as he looked at his successor.
Midoriya, who had been drowning in conflict, fear, and uncertainty ever since the vestige realm had started screaming, suddenly felt the fog in his mind completely vanish.
The fear evaporated, and the trembling in his hands stopped.
As Bakugo laid the truth bare, everything inside Izuku Midoriya crystallized into absolute clarity.
His slouching shoulders straightened as he raised his head and wiped the tears from his cheeks with the back of his glove, his wide green eyes shedding their panic as they hardened into an expression of unshakeable confidence.
Midoriya looked Bakugo dead in the eye.
"Yes." He declared, his voice steady, clear, and ringing with pure conviction–
"I want to help him out."
Bakugo stared at him for two long seconds.
Then, he let out a harsh, bitter scoff, running a hand through his spiky ash-blonde hair.
"I fucking knew it." He growled, turning his back slightly while glancing sideways at Deku–
"So cook something up, nerd."
Iida, Uraraka, and Kirishima gasped, their jaws dropping in utter disbelief as they stared at Bakugo.
Katsuki Bakugo had just agreed.
….
The air around the staging area remained deathly still, the weight of Midoriya's declaration, and Bakugo's agreement still baffling many.
Uraraka, Iida, and Kirishima looked back and forth between Midoriya and Bakugo, their minds scrambling to process the sheer absurdity of what was happening.
Bakugo, the boy who had spent his entire life spurning help, who viewed weakness as an insult, had just given Midoriya permission to do the impossible.
"Wait... Bakugo..." Iida stammered, stepping forward–
"Are you serious?! You're telling him to cook something up?! Look at the battlefield! This Shigaraki isn't even himself anymore. Absurdly enough, this villain named All For One has taken control of his body!"
"Shut up, Four-Eyes." Bakugo spat without turning around, his teeth gritted tight. "You think I don't fucking see that? Or I don't know the math?!"
He turned his head slightly, glare cutting sideways toward Midoriya.
"The nerd's got that stupid, reckless look in his eyes." Bakugo growled–
"If we don't give him a plan, he is going to throw himself straight into that mess like he always does. So if he wants to reach out his hand to that monster... he better make sure he doesn't get his arm bitten off."
Toshinori watched the exchange, a lump forming in his throat.
The sheer maturity in Bakugo's harsh words and the resolve in Midoriya's eyes proved one thing:
The next generation wasn't just inheriting the burden.
They were already adapting to it.
Gran Torino stepped forward.
"Hold your horses, kids." the old veteran grunted, his sharp eyes narrowing as he looked toward the horizon–
"Wanting to save a boy who was being controlled by a parasite is one thing….
"But reaching him while Dabi already decided to finish him off… is a completely different story."
Everyone turned their eyes toward the distance.
Miles away, the sky was violently tearing itself apart.
The shockwaves from Dabi's [Dragon Force] state were undulating through the air, sending ripples of superheated blue plasma and diamond-hard frost across the clouds.
Shoto murmured. "Dabi-sensei is clearly overwhelming that All For One, and I don't think this fight is going to last much longer."
"Which means..." Midoriya realized as his mind rapidly calculated the implication. "If Dabi-sensei wins... All For One dies, but... but Tenko Shimura… dies with him too."
Gran Torino said gravely. "Dabi isn't the type to play Hero in a situation like this, nor is he the kind to offer redemption or hold out a hand regardless of his opponent's past. More importantly, what exactly are you planning to do after you reach them?"
Midoriya clenched his fists, green sparks of 'One For All' flickering briefly over his knuckles before he forced them back down.
His mind was racing at a terrifying speed, pieces of information clicking together in his head.
He didn't blurt out secrets about vestige realms or spiritual links… His classmates didn't know about One For All, and now wasn't the time to explain it.
Instead, he kept his internal realization locked tight behind his eyes.
'All For One only took over because Tenko Shimura's mind completely broke.' Midoriya thought back. 'The moment he learned his entire life was a play, his willpower dropped to zero. But if Shigaraki's core consciousness wakes up, and if he decides to fight back against the man who destroyed his family….
'Maybe he can push All For One out from the inside!??'
Then, a chilling realization hit him.
'...And then what?'
'If Shigaraki regains control... what happens next? He's still the monster who wants to turn everything to dust. Waking him up doesn't automatically make him good. It just stops All For One.'
And there was an even more immediate, agonizing problem:
They were still just students.
Without provisional Hero licenses or official authorization in an active war zone, engaging in direct combat with Quirks was a massive legal violation.
The police were right behind them, and the Heroes were strictly enforcing civilian evacuation laws.
They couldn't just jump in or engage in a battle alongside Dabi.
Bakugo stared at him, his sharp red eyes narrowing as he watched the gears turning inside Midoriya's head. "Well, nerd? Stop standing there looking like a broken computer. What's the play?"
Midoriya swallowed hard, forcing his hands to steady as he looked up at Bakugo, Shoto, and his classmates.
"We obviously can't engage in combat." He said, his voice quiet, fast, and intensely focused. "...and even if we try to fight, we will just get in Dabi-sensei's way."
"Then what the hell are you planning to do?!" Bakugo demanded, stepping closer.
"...we don't have to intervene… we just have to rescue." Midoriya answered, his eyes locking onto Bakugo's. "...All For One's control over that body isn't absolute. If someone can get close enough... close enough to shout past the noise, to make him realize he is being used as a puppet... Shigaraki can reclaim his own body and reject All For One!"
Silence blanketed the group once more.
It sounded insane.
….and it was a strategy built on split-second timing, and navigating a battlefield that was beyond their capabilities.
Shoto stepped up beside Midoriya, white frost misting from his left side while a faint ember ignited on his right.
"Toya's heat field is sealing off the entire crater. If you're going in strictly to reach him with your voice, you will need a path through the thermal pressure. I can offset the ambient temperature long enough to give you a slipstream."
"I am coming too." Uraraka said firmly, stepping forward without a second of hesitation. "If we aren't fighting, we're maneuvering, and I can use Zero Gravity to clear falling debris without engaging the villain!"
"We will cover the flank." Kirishima barked, hardening his arms into jagged rock as Iida adjusted his glasses with a sharp, resolute nod. "By creating a human shield to keep the police from dragging you back until you reach the ledge!"
"Idiots." Bakugo growled, a dark, fierce smirk pulling at the corner of his lips as he cracked his knuckles. "You're trying to play legal technicalities in the middle of an apocalypse. So keep up... because I am opening the front door, and we aren't asking for permission."
Toshinori Yagi looked at his students, knowing he should stop them, or at least tell Master Gran Torino to stop them.
He needed to put an end to this before they threw their lives away.
Yet he simply stood there, because stopping them felt almost the same as sending them to their deaths.
They were risking the lives of many to save someone who might already be beyond redemption.
And yet, they were standing together, working around every limitation, every law, and every impossible obstacle, all for the sake of reaching a crying child trapped in the darkness.
For the first time since his skeletal form was exposed, he felt no fear for the future.
He didn't need to hold up the sky anymore.
"Go, Young Midoriya." Toshinori whispered, his gaunt face splitting into a proud, tear-stained smile. "Please reach him!"
.
….
[To be continued…]
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