Chapter 58: From Bad to Worse
Yui pulled back just enough to see his face.
Cid tried not to look at her, averting his gaze intentionally. She frowned and reached up, her hand lightly resting against his cheek as she forced him to meet her eyes anyway.
Whatever they'd done to him was still eating away at him, corroding him from the inside. He was hurting, far more than she had ever seen.
'He's not ok right now…, I need to get him away from here and somewhere calmer, so I can figure out what happened.' She thought while staring into his eyes
"Let's go somewhere quiet, okay?" she said. "You don't have to talk about it. We just need to get you away from this."
Cid hesitated.
"…What about the others?" His voice came out, low and tired. "They're still in trouble."
"They'll be fine." Yui's hold on him didn't loosen even a little. " They're stronger than you give them credit for, they can take care of themselves. Right now you need to worry about yourself."
He didn't like it, She could tell just from the twitch in his jaw. But after a second, he gave a small nod and sighed, going along with her plan. He was too tired right now to argue or convince her otherwise.
They took two steps when a portal opened behind them made of purple fog.
Cid snapped toward it and immediately pulled Yui behind him, positioning himself between her and the portal. His eyes moved over the portal analyzing its every flicker or fluctuation, quickly recognising it from the usj.
Slowly a tall man stepped through wearing a black mask with silver tubes running through it. He exuded a presence that made the air feel heavier just by existing and it set cid on edge more than anything thing he ever encountered in his life.
The man started clapping, slowly.
"Well done, boy. You're far more brutal than All Might ever was with his enemies. That's a good attitude to have in a world like ours." His tone made it obvious he was smiling under the mask.
Cid didn't answer the man's praise.
His eyes narrowed instead. One hand stayed on Yui, keeping her behind him and in contact with him so he could use his quirk on her. His eyes never left the masked man.
"Who are you," he said, in a short clipped tone, "and what do you want?"
The man made a low sound, almost amused.
"Ah. How rude of me. I didn't introduce myself." He sounded pleased about the question. "I'd forgotten how thoroughly society has worked to erase me from history. I suppose you could call me the opposite of the Symbol of Peace. The Symbol of Evil, if you like. I am All For One. The demon lord who ruled this country through fear at the dawn of quirks."
Cid tensed.
The name hit harder than any of the titles. Somewhere in the back of his head, an old warning from his time with the HSPC came back to him.
If a man ever identifies himself as All For One, he was not supposed to fight. He was supposed to run, as far as he could, as fast as he could, and not to look back. And now that man was standing right in front of him.
All For One kept talking as another figure stepped out of the portal while he spoke, pale, scratched up, red eyes dull and irritated. Shigaraki. Cid's gaze flicked to him once, then returned to All For One.
"I've been keeping an eye on you since our attack on the USJ," All For One said. "Watching your growth. Your progress. I must say, I'm pleased. That quirk of yours is exquisite. It's reaching power it should not be capable of, and yet it is. And it keeps progressing."
He extended a hand.
"Join me, Cid Kageno. Aren't you tired of this society of sheep that can't save themselves? Tired of politicians deciding what's best for you or what you should be allowed to do? Of looking over your shoulder, wondering when the HSPC will decide to put chains back on you, or go after the people you care about?" His voice stayed warm, kind even. "Why not tear it all down? Build something better from the ashes. Help me fix this broken system."
Cid didn't interrupt him, he let him keep talking. He had used the whole speech to plan, already knowing how this would end in a fight. If this man was even half as scary as the HSPC made him out to be he needed to get the others away from the fight before it started.
As it came to an end and All For One stood there waiting for his response he calmly looked at the offered hand and answered with a flat,
"No."
Before anyone could move, Yui vanished. Then with one glance back towards Aizawa and the others, and they were gone too, sent out of the clearing in the blink of an eye.
All For One sighed.
"My. How impulsive the youth of this generation have become."
Shigaraki clicked his tongue.
"I told you, Master. These brats are all brainwashed, hero worshipers."
"Yes, Tomura. It seems you were correct." There was a trace of genuine amusement in the masked man's voice. "How refreshing. Even I can be wrong after all this time."
Cid didn't answer.
He reached for them with his quirk and felt it fail to grab hold. The same resistance he'd felt from the Nomu in Osaka.
'Damn. It's just like that thing.'
His jaw tightened.
'This is going to be annoying. First I need to get the rest of my classmates out of the area, then I can—'
His thoughts were cut off as a blast slammed into the air in front of him, kicking up dirt and leaves in front of him. The attack never touched him due to him having infinity up already. The force of it still made the ground around his feet shudder.
"It's rude to get distracted while you're being spoken to," All For One said casually like he was teaching.
Cid looked back to him dryly as if saying, so is sneak attacking someone.
"I suppose if you won't join us, I'll just have to take that quirk of yours instead. Such a pity." A small pause. "Oh well."
He turned his head slightly.
"Kurogiri."
More portals tore open around the clearing. Nomu came spilling into the clearing one after another. The second the Nomu started hitting the ground, Cid was already gone.
He reappeared high over the clearing, smoke and fire spread out under him and with a better view he now realized half the forest was on fire now. Shigaraki crouched like he was going to jump and follow after him.
All For One lifted a hand.
"No, Tomura. Let him, I want to see his quirk in action myself." He didn't look away from cid he just stood there studying him
Cid swept his gaze across the forest, shrinking the trees in a wide wave, removing the canopy enough so everything blocking his line of sight was gone so he could see his classmates that were still scattered through the forest. He didn't wait, one after another, they vanished out of the woods and landed at the place he'd sent Yui and the others.
Then the flying Nomu started trying to swarm him.
They came in faster than he expected but not enough to be a problem. They clustered together in batches coming in from different directions trying to overwhelm him. Cid clicked his tongue as he tried shrinking them but again he felt the same interference he had against All For One and Shigaraki.
'Come on. How do they have this many of that same damn quirk? Are they copying it or something?'
He didn't try to take them head-on, instead he turned and lead them until they bunched up behind him, then formed a blue sphere no bigger than a marble and flicked it backward towards them
The space around it folded pulling everything that came near into the center. The Nomu were no exception, they got dragged and crushed into the center of the sphere.
Cid scanned the clearing again.
More portals were already opening along with them came more Nomu. If this kept up they would just wear him down with numbers.
His eyes locked on one of the gates.
An idea clicked into place, overcharge a red and send it through the gate and detonate it the instant it hits the other side.
'That shuts down their reinforcements and their escape route' He thought, then glanced back to where All For One and Shigaraki were earlier, they hadn't moved from their earlier positions..
Cid frowned.
'I don't like that they're just watching. He's planning something….'
The next portal opened, he fired anyway, The red orb shot through—
Then pain exploded up his left side.
A bone spike punched into his side at the same time an air cannon blasted the same spot, hard enough to fold him over and knock the breath out of his lungs. The impact dropped him out of the air.
As he fell, his eyes fell on the place All For One had been standing and it was empty.
'Damn it, I underestimated him. Even with him that far away he still made it all the way to me in that short amount of time.'
His eyes looked to the third attack already closing on him.
'Tch, not happening again' he thought