Moonfish jumped.
It wasn't an attack. It was a declaration.
He rose into the air on his extended tooth-blades the way something rises that doesn't belong in this world, his empty eyes fixed on their flesh.
"Let me have your meat..."
The words came out warped around the blades.
Bakugo moved forward.
"Bakugo" Todoroki started.
But the first explosion had already fired.
Bakugo rose into the air, both palms burning, eyes narrowed on that body elevated above the blades. Moonfish launched a full spread of blades toward him, ten at once, cutting from different angles.
Todoroki didn't move back. He shifted Koshi from his right arm to his back and extended his left hand toward the ground.
The ice came up fast.
A wide white wall absorbed every blade at once. The sound was like swords buried in stone.
Bakugo landed scowling.
"I told you not to rush." Todoroki kept his voice level.
"And I didn't listen." Bakugo turned his red eyes toward him. "The monster's right there. What do you want me to do, stare at him?"
Moonfish disappeared between the trees.
The silence he left behind was worse than any noise.
"He's using the terrain." Todoroki said quietly, sweeping the fractured ice with a quick look. "He picks his height, attacks, disappears. He knows exactly where to stand."
"Even though he looks like a skinny little freak!" Bakugo ground his teeth then shouted into the trees: "Get out here, you bastard!"
Moonfish appeared from the opposite direction entirely.
A full wave of blades poured from his mouth like steel rain, covering the distance between them.
"Move!" Bakugo jumped left.
His palms flared.
"Don't." Todoroki's voice, firm, cold, raising another ice barrier to catch the spread. "Any large flame in this dry forest and the trees go up. The gas in the air becomes a fuse. Everyone burns."
Bakugo swallowed the explosion.
"I know!" He said it with more force than necessary.
Moonfish disappeared again.
Todoroki looked left.
The purple fog was thickening there, crawling between the roots at a patient pace.
The retreat route was cut too. The villains were closing the circle deliberately, Moonfish ahead, gas behind, dense trees on both sides. And Koshi on his back hadn't moved.
Todoroki let the small flame on his left hand die.
Ice only. Unless the equation changes.
Hundreds of meters away, the silence had a different quality. The kind that thinks.
Zoro sat on a rock at the edge of the gas zone. His sword still sheathed. Both hands resting on his knees. The pink-bordered cloud where Mr. Compress had dropped him still drifted slowly with the air.
He led me in and let the gas do the work. A professional move. This operation isn't random.
Footsteps.
He raised his head.
Awase came through the trees breathing hard, Yaoyorozu on his back. Her hair loose, blood running from the left side of her head, her eyes fighting off unconsciousness.
"Found you." Awase kept his voice low, adjusting her weight carefully.
Yaoyorozu extended her hand. A small sealed mask sat in her palm.
Zoro took it and put it on without a word.
"Why did they ask me to look for you? What's the reason, and do you have a plan?" She started, her voice tired but clear.
"Yes, there is a plan". Zoro approached and whispered the plan in her ear.
"Understood."
Awase stepped forward for a brief second, his palm pressing firmly against the heavy fabric of Zoro's shoulder as he adjusted Yaoyorozu's weight. It was a quick, grounding touch—a silent gesture of solidarity before the storm.
The silence returned.
Then Zoro's hand moved slowly toward the handle of Wado Ichimonji. Not gripping it. Just touching it.
Awase caught the movement immediately. "What is it?"
Zoro didn't answer.
Because he wasn't hearing anything. He was feeling a weight. The kind that comes before large things.
Then the trees exploded.
The Nomu came out of the dark the way things come that have no concept of stopping, no warning, no buildup. The massive saw in its mechanical arm cut a wide arc through the air directly toward them.
Zoro moved.
Wado Ichimonji cleared the sheath in a fraction of a second. Steel met steel in a collision that everyone within a hundred meters heard. The ground cracked under his feet. Both arms shook.
The saw stopped.
"Awase."
He didn't turn around.
"Take Yaoyorozu and run."
The Nomu pushed harder. The saw inching forward, the ground churning beneath Zoro's feet as he held his position.
"Now."
Awase hesitated one second.
Then he held Yaoyorozu tight and moved.
Yaoyorozu didn't look ahead. She looked back.
She saw Zoro standing alone in the middle of the pink mist. One sword—Sandai Kitetsu—slid slowly out of its sheath. As it emerged, the blade turned completely black. The massive saw was still pushing against him.
He hadn't moved back a single step.
She closed her eyes.
They were running.
Not running, fleeing. With everything left in their bodies.
Dark Shadow filled the forest behind them. Not just by size, by sound. By the way trees cracked before it was visible. By the heavy breathing that shook the air itself.
Midoriya vaulted over a fallen trunk. A massive black arm passed beneath him by a fraction of a second, shattering what had been there.
"It's faster than I expected!" Shoji called, jumping left to avoid another swipe.
"Just keep moving!" Midoriya scanning as he ran. Darkness everywhere. Too thick.
I need light. Any large source of light.
Dark Shadow tore through the trees ahead of them instead of going around, straight through, demolishing everything in its path to cut them off.
Midoriya stopped.
Shoji stopped beside him.
The enormous shadow filled the space in front of them. Its red eyes blazing. Its cry shook the ground beneath their feet.
Darkness from every direction. No path forward. No path back.
Then Midoriya heard an explosion.
Not far.
He raised his head. Through the trees, through the dark, a faint orange flash lit up and disappeared.
Explosions. Bakugo is there.
His mind worked in a single second.
Fire weakens Dark Shadow. Bakugo produces more explosive force than anything out here. If he could get Tokoyami to that light.
But Dark Shadow was directly in front of him. Between him and those explosions.
He turned to Shoji.
Something in his eyes changed, not fear. Something closer to a decision made with no intention of going back on it.
"Shoji." His voice was steady despite his broken breathing. "When I move... just follow me."
"What are you going to do?"
Midoriya pushed Full Cowl to its limit. Green lightning fractured across his entire body.
And looked directly at Dark Shadow.
.
.
For Advanced Chapters:
Chapter 83 is Available Now
The Silence Before the Storm
All For One's plan with Doctor Garaki. Zoro's refusal to surrender. Midoriya and the others finally arriving in Kamino. What will happen next?
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