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CHAPTER START---
---Horizon Tower, Manhattan…
"Seriously?" Law asks after he appears in his office to see Nezu sitting at his desk, using his computer. "So you weren't hurt?"
"I wasn't sure if you'd come otherwise," Nezu says as an annoyed Law walks over to the desk.
"Of course I'd come. You just like being dramatic," Law sees Nezu is compiling data from the recent events. "Are those the confirmed Quirks he has?"
"Quite the list, including New Order."
"New Order?" Law scowls, thinking about it for a moment. "When I cut off her arms, they stayed on the battlefield.""And Ujiko acquired them afterward. Juzo is handling the interrogation as we speak. They'll tear any useful information out of him in no time."
"That's good, and how have you been?"
Nezu stops typing for a moment, then resumes his work. "I'm focused on the task at hand."
"So you're that mad…at me?"
"At everything," Nezu says as his keystrokes become furious. "At Pantu, at All For One, at myself, at Star and Stripe, at those filthy politicians, at—"
"Me?"
Nezu stops typing and leans forward, resting his elbows on the desk and rubbing his face. "You could have stopped him at any time. I've done the math, even with New Order, even if he got All For One now, you still could."
"Well, it would be annoying, but, yeah," Law walks over to the glass wall and looks down at Central Park, seeing a swarm of people outside his building protesting. "And I'm guessing they want me to get involved, too."
"Would you?"
"I gave my word, and he hasn't left Japan, so no."
"Did it at least entertain you?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Watching people struggle and die against Villains and Nomu. This is your revenge on Pantu, yes? So was it worth it? Or was it like all revenge, layered with regret?"
"I gave my word, Nezu. But, I may have been rash, emotional."
"You made up the rules, you can change them."
"Those rules are all I have left of my family. Everything else is gone."
"I don't think that's true, at least, not anymore. I was there the last time you spoke to them, remember?"
"Yeah, I kind of can't forget it," Law chuckles. "Gift and curse."
"Of that, I am painfully aware. Just as I am aware of them telling you to do whatever you want, no matter what the worlds tell you. And you told them that you'd save them, because that's what you wanted to do, even if they didn't want you to spend your life working towards that."
"And look what that got me."
"Well, you may not have them, but you have everything else in the world. Even a new family of your own. You can do anything you want, and be free of it all. All except the shackles of your past.
You've come a long way since we met four years ago. Not as far as I would have liked, due to external circumstances. But, for a while, I had it. The foundation of a perfect world. For just that one shining moment, it was real, all because of Horizon, the greatest Hero this world would have ever known. But we may never have that again."
Law chuckles. "A nice speech, but I was always resistant to that hero-centric propaganda."
"It's only propaganda if it's not true, and it was real for a while, not a dream anymore."
"That time is gone, so go back to dreaming." Law turns and walks away from the glass wall, walking toward the couch. "Besides, going back on your word isn't very heroic."
"True," Nezu says, which surprises Law as he takes his seat. "But we threw the most powerful Pro Hero in the world at this problem, and were found…lacking. So we need something more, something that never fails, never loses."
Those words resonate with Law for a moment, stirring up a storm of confused emotions in his chest.
Then he scoffs, "You dream too big."
He warps away, leaving Nezu to his work.
---4 Days Later…
Lying awake in bed, Midoriya turns on his side, staring at the sleeping Uraraka for a while, gently touching her hair.
Turning around, he glances at the clock, seeing that it was well past midnight, and like always, he can't sleep without those gruesome memories flooding his nightmares.
Closing his eyes for a few seconds, he contemplates all his options, then pushes the fear and hesitation down before sitting up.
He leans over and kisses Uraraka on the head before getting out of bed, ensuring she's comfortable under the blanket before stepping out of the room.
He moves through his apartment in silence, getting dressed in his full Hero Costume and packing a small backpack for the trip before settling on the couch.
He takes out his phone to record a video and send it to her, for her to see in a few hours, but decides against it.
Placing his phone on the living room table and leaning back into the couch.
He runs a hand through his messy green hair. "I can't take my phone or tracker, otherwise they'll probably show up and make things worse."
He removes a tracking implant from his shoulder and tosses it down the sink drain before leaving the apartment, abandoning his phone where it rests.
Stepping out onto the balcony, he sees the other skyscrapers surrounding them in Manhattan, and with one final glance back at his apartment, he hops over the railing.
Minutes later, a shipping container emerges from a purple Warp Gate in Korea, adding to the inventory of a large shipyard used to store relief materials for the civilians still trapped in Japan.
It's stacked atop a spire of identical containers in the busy yard, but the moment things quiet down.
The door opens, and Deku steps out.
He disappears in an instant, too fast for the cameras and leaping too high for anyone to notice, only feeling a sudden breeze wash over the area before he vanishes beyond the clouds.
Arriving above the clouds in the afternoon sky, he orients himself toward Japan and kicks the air, rushing directly toward All For One.
'One chance,' Deku thinks as he reaches to the ocean between both nations. 'If the Quirk Deleter Round doesn't work, then…Hopefully, One For All makes him arrogant enough to challenge Horizon. Then the people of Japan won't have to suffer much longer.'
In Deku's mind, there was absolutely no downside to this plan, and deep within Japan, All For One smiles.
He sits in what was Kyoto, within a fortress built by Nomu and Villains, working together.
Looking at the monitor, he sees Deku being tracked via radar, and beside him, Pantu is trapped in a tube, floating in liquid while restrained, forced to witness it all as the machines constantly keep her awake.
"Just hold out a little longer, Ujiko, with One For All, I'll be unstoppable." he then uses Telepathy to connect with Shigaraki. "Tomura, use your new Quirks and bring me Deku. He will be here in moments."
All For One gets no response, but senses Shigaraki flying away from his fortress seconds later, ready to finally prove his worth.
High above Japan, Deku bursts through the clouds as he approaches his target, eating an energy bar from his backpack while kicking the air.
'The last intel drop we got put him around here. I should start by searching in—'
A deafening roar rips him out of his thoughts.
He looks down just in time to see a beam of white fire rising toward him.
He punches the air and dashes to the side, and a second later, a large western dragon flies past him, ascending above.
"What the hell? Dragon?" Deku turns his back to the earth and keeps the dragon in his sight, carefully observing as it circles above.
'It's definitely Ryukyu's Quirk, but with white hair. Shigaraki?' He analyzes it in a fraction of a second.
Ryukyu's Dragon Quirk gives it this form. Hawk's Fierce Wings Quirk to add the red feathers onto the wings. Kamui Woods's Quirk, along with a few others, to add to the hardened armored scales.
And Endeavor's flames, amplified to be bright white, covered the wings, feathers, and claws, and provided his fire breath.
"He gave you the Top 10 Pro Heroes Quirks!" Deku grits his teeth and launches upward to Shigaraki.
Shigaraki opens his mouth and dives toward Deku, releasing a beam of white flames and spiraling energy at the Hero.
'Nejire's Quirk!' Deku punches the air to propel himself to the side, avoiding the attack before rushing Shigaraki from another angle.
Shigaraki swipes at Deku, using wood and armor to enhance his claws to an absurd degree, but Deku kicks his hand, shattering the entire appendage with his metal boots.
Shigaraki screams, but before he can finish, Deku rockets through his flaming wings and arrives above him in the sky, then spins and kicks the air above, launching himself downward into Shigaraki.
The force of Deku's kick clears every cloud from the sky, forming a shockwave that is felt on the ground far below as he tackles the dragon down to the city below.
They shatter the sound barrier ten times over before hitting the ground like a tactical nuke, blasting shockwaves out for hundreds of meters and forming a crater.
And at the epicenter, Pro Hero, the strongest Pro Hero in the world, Deku, surrounded by the blood and guts of what once was Tomura Shigaraki.
Deku looks around, expecting an army of Villains and Nomu to descend upon him, but only sees rubble and destruction in every direction.
Until he feels All For One appearing behind him.
Deku leaps forward, clearing nearly two hundred meters in an instant, avoiding the hand that almost grabbed his head, and pivots to face the Villain.
"I suppose I should be thanking you," All For One says. "Tomura failed me so many times, and he'd outlived his usefulness days ago. After all, he being the only suitable host for Decay was all he was good for."
Deku narrows his eyes at the man, memories from just a few days ago flooding his mind.
The death of his friends, of Jaku City. Bakugo, most of his classmates, all his mentors and personal heroes.
All Might.
He grits his teeth and takes a fighting stance at the memory of All Might being crushed into a marble and fired at UA.
"So, tell me, Hero, what do you—"
All For One can't even finish his taunt before Deku is in front of him, launching a punch directly at his face.
He doesn't react, simply remaining still and activating Permeation, allowing Deku to pass through him and emerge from the other side.
Deku skids to a stop and looks back, All For One already having turned to face him.
"Young people are so rude. You—" All For One stops talking, feeling something hit the back of his neck.
He frowns and reaches back, removing the Quirk Deleter Round from his skin and holding the now-empty casing in front of him.
"Ahh, you threw it then outran it to distract me, very clever," he says while making the casing float above his palm. "But I can't be affected by external things such as this. You gambled, and lost."
"That doesn't mean I'll give up," Deku rushes in and puts all his strength into a kick.
Only for All For One to backhand his metal boot, shattering his ankle and shin in the process.
The Hero is sent tumbling across the ground before he catches himself into a roll and rushes in with his one good leg.
Ignoring the pain, Deku punches from a distance, sending a horizontal tornado at the villain, protecting himself from Quirks like Recoil.
But from the dust-cloud he kicked up, All For One reaches out with his hand.
Deku suddenly finds his vision blocked by All For One's massive palm as it's less than an inch from his head.
Internally, All For One smiles, the culmination of centuries of work finally at hand.
'This is the story, where the Villain wi—'
Deku suddenly disappears, swapped with Horizon in his new Hero Costume, sword already brimming with energy, and in full swing toward All For One.
All For One's senses are overwhelmed, from hearing, sight, and his sensation of pain.
Every cell in his body feels like it's bathing in the sun as his Quirk desperately works to heal him, ignoring the sensation of being pushed through hundreds of meters of rock and dirt as he's knocked back.
Moments later, with his brain still rattling around his skull, he rises to his feet, finding himself in the throne room of his fortress beside Pantu's pod.
All his plans had been undone in less than a second, and looking dow,n he could see the massive slash in his body was deep, but not deep enough to reach the glowing orange light where his heart should be.
'He knew about it, he was careful…' All For One's mind works like a supercomputer to analyze everything.
Every piece of information, every Quirk, every variable, every unexpected possibility.
And yet, it could come to only one conclusion.
The conclusion that, four years ago, no one would have believed.
For not even Horizon himself would have expected, that in four short years, he'd break one of his sacred contracts, to save his friend, Izuku Midoriya…
END CHAPTER---
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