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Panting, Izuku stood over Tomura’s slumped form. It had been a long battle, and there had been sacrifices—his mind still shied away from thinking who had been sacrificed—but he had finally won. The land around Izuku for several miles had been decayed to dust. He knelt down, dust sticking to his knees. Extending a hand, Izuku said, “It’s over now, Tomura. With your body like that, you can’t use your quirk any longer. I’ll get you medical treatment.”
Tomura lay curled up like a baby bird fallen from a nest. His skin looked desiccated and corpselike. He croaked, “Kill me.”
Izuku shook his head. “I’m going to help you. I promised your grandmother that I would.”
Tomura’s glassy eyes stared straight through him. “If you call yourself a hero, then kill me! It’s the only way for me to be free of it!”
“It?” Izuku frowned. “Do you mean All for One? Is his vestige still inside you?” They’d killed All for One in the earlier battle. The devastation had consumed most of the city as the heroes frantically tried to evacuate citizens. After that, Izuku had successfully lured Tomura away from the city and made certain no one else came with him. His friends would be angry at being left behind, but he couldn’t lose anyone else.
All for One had laughed in the end as he’d dragged as many heroes as possible to the grave with him. Izuku did not like to think of any part of the villain still lingering. “We’ll find a way to get All for One out of you. I know he brainwashed and manipulated you. I swear that I’ll—”
Tomura growled low in the back of his throat. “You know nothing! This world will burn! Death would be merciful compared to what is to come!” It did not sound like another futile threat from an angry, cornered villain. Tomura sounded like he was terrified out of his mind.
A bone cracked, shattering the air like a gunshot. Izuku had heard that sound up close and personal many times. Out of habit, he looked down at his own outstretched arm. But the sound had not come from him. Tomura’s body twisted like a pretzel as more bones cracked. Something black and inky oozed out of his eyes and shot up like geyser. Izuku leapt forward, but he was too late. A shower of blood struck him across the face. Tomura screamed one more time, then went silent. Izuku’s bloodstained hand hung in the air uselessly as the darkness coalesced into a humanoid shape.
All for One stood over the corpse of his former student, or as close as he could come to standing with nothing but mist below his waist. Tentacles poked out of the swirling shadows. The villain looked as young and healthy as he had post-regeneration, with curly white hair. But his skin contained the night sky, with miniature galaxies swirling under the surface. His eyes did not seem to be any color on the visible spectrum. They sucked in all surrounding light in the manner of a pair of black holes.
Izuku’s vision swirled. He felt his feet lift off the ground, although he hadn’t used Float. He barely stopped himself from flying over to the villain. His heart beat loudly. This couldn’t be happening. All for One had been on the verge of Japan off the map before his first defeat. Now he radiated an even more terrifying aura. It filled Izuku with rage, an unwanted fear, and something itchy under his skin.
With all his willpower, Izuku raised a shaking fist. He completely believed that he was about to die. Izuku lacked the strength to face All for One again, especially after his last battle had left him exhausted and injured all over. But he did not have the energy to run, either. If he attacked before the villain had time to completely reform his body, he might have a chance.
Casually, All for One said, “You win, little brother. Good game.”
Izuku froze, his fist still raised. Did he dare hope that this meant All for One was only a powerless ghost now?
The air filled with screams. Izuku looked in all directions, only to realize the screaming came from inside his head. The vestiges were wailing as if dying.
Energy crackled under Izuku’s skin. He stumbled, then fell backward onto the dust. It covered his face, choking him—no, that was the white mist rising out his nose. It did not hurt, precisely, but Izuku felt uncomfortably like his face was being rearranged. The screams in his head nearly made him pass out.
Then it was over. Izuku’s head was silent again. Yoichi’s ghost stood over him, except more solid than ever before. The First One for All user’s hair glowed like moonlight. Tiny stars swirled under his skin like a million freckles.
“I finally beat you for once, big brother,” Yoichi said cheerfully, his hands in his pockets.
“Yeah, yeah, don’t be a sore winner.” All for One sniffed. He still did not seem quite there, as if he had too much presence for the world to contain. “You got lucky. If you hadn’t somehow gotten my egg on your side, you never would have found a vessel capable of handling enough power to beat my puppet.”
Egg? Izuku couldn’t figure out why All for One looked at him when saying that. He couldn’t figure out what All for One had for eyes, except they had neither pupils nor irises. Izuku shivered. Even this small movement felt difficult with his body so heavy.
“Like you don’t gloat far more than me when you win.” Yoichi laughed. “Heroes and villains was a fun game. What do you want to play next?”
All for One tapped his chin, considering. “How about aliens or pirates?”
“I pick pirates. You can be the good guy next time, big brother.” Yoichi grinned. “I’m in the mood to be bad. It gets so dull, playing by a mortal moral code.”
All for One nodded, his shadowy tentacles twisting. “I’ll play the noble marine captain who is tracking down the sea monster that murdered his younger brother.”
“Except I’m working with the sea monster!” Yoichi clapped his hands. He seemed to have a dozen of them. “What a great twist! Maybe I’ll be brainwashed or maybe I betrayed you, I haven’t decided yet.”
“What?” Izuku croaked. His mouth wasn’t working right. No other words came out. His limbs felt detached from his body. But those last words had infuriated him enough to give him energy to speak that single syllable. Nearly half of Musutafu was dead, and this had all been a game?
Yoichi looked down. “He can move! Your egg is hatching, big brother. This is exciting!” Yoichi knelt down next to Izuku. “Hi, little one. I’m your uncle.”
“You’re not,” Izuku slurred, ready to tell Yoichi where he could stuff his smile. Having endured enough shocks today, Izuku’s brain refused to understand what he was hearing.
“If you were a human, your brain would melt out of your ears from the sound of my true voice,” Yoichi said. “That’s what happened to numbers two through seven. They were fun toys, but not very durable. Maybe you can play with us next time.”
All for One knelt down on Izuku’s other side. “He can see and hear us. I’d say that’s a good sign that the shell is cracking.”
Izuku tried to speak again, but a tingling running down his body straight to his tongue stopped him. He thrashed and writhed on the ground. One second he felt like a disembodied ghost floating in nothingness, with no form. The next, he felt mad energy bouncing all over, eating its way out from under his skin. He groaned.
Yoichi asked, “You got him off a mortal woman? How did she live long enough?”
“Oh, she didn’t.” All for One shrugged. “I brought her back to life a dozen times during the pregnancy. She lost a few memories and her nerves never quite recovered.”
“Even so, I doubt it would have worked if he hadn’t been such a natural at keeping himself locked in. I was a thousand years old before I could set tentacle on a mortal world without destroying it.” Yoichi watched Izuku’s struggles with a rapt expression. “How long does this usually take?”
All for One shrugged. “Anywhere from a nanosecond to a century.”
Izuku tried with all his strength to stand up and punch Yoichi. Instead of a body, he had nothing but waves of white hotness filling him. But his rage superseded everything else. He didn’t understand much of this conversation, but he understood that he’d been betrayed. Thousands were dead, including people he’d cared about, and it had all been a game to Yoichi. “Kill…” Izuku growled.
In response to his rage, a blazingly white tentacle shot out of his body.
Yoichi caught it easily. “You’re making good progress, little one! Keep at it!”
Izuku stared with shock. That tentacle…was his arm? It was part of him. He did not have arms, or even a torso. Just a glowing ball. How was he seeing? As soon as he made the mistake of thinking that, his vision vanished. Formless darkness surrounded him. He screamed, but no sound came out.
Distantly, Yoichi said, “He’s hurting, big brother.”
All for One’s faint voice replied, “Maybe he’s still too undeveloped. He’s only been in the egg for sixteen years.”
“Has it really been that short a time?” Yoichi asked. “It’s not healthy for a baby to be born prematurely. Maybe we should come back later.”
All for One said, “I agree. I was too impatient. My child can play with us for our next game.”
Izuku felt something, like a touch on his head except he no longer had a head. More like a similar type of energy to his own brushed against him.
Then the light vanished. Izuku lay on the dusty ground, alone and completely naked. He’d sunk into a crater in the ground. Whatever those monstrosities had been, they were gone and no longer threatened the world. He reached up his hand toward the sky, counting five fingers. He could move his arm and see. It nearly made him faint from relief.
Except a nagging terror in the back of Izuku’s mind demanded, What did they mean, come back later?