This chapter is the continuation of Chapter 32: The Beginning Of The End
Third Person's POV
In an abandoned and almost wrecked part of Musutafu City, two 3rd-year students of Ketsubutsu Academy High School were searching for a group of civilians to send toward evacuation zones and those students were Yo Shindo and Tatami Nakagame.
"Jail-breaker showed up in the South Ward yesterday..." Shindo stated as he and his girlfriend Tatami walked down the abandoned road. "But everyone else got assigned to emergency zones elsewhere... We have got to guide the stragglers out of here. Let's resolve the situation quickly."
"The only ones left are bound to be a bunch of stubborn hardliners..." Tatami noted.
"I will tackle this negotiation with a charming smile just like Joke sensei would!" Shindo smirked as he winked at his girl.
"This is gonna suck..." Tatami muttered, pursing her lips.
"Anyway, let's get this over with!" Shindo stated, pointing at a building in front of them. "They're holed up in the Taguchi building, so let's get going!"
The two then reached the location of the civilian group: the Taguchi Building, a large indoor gym where they found a group of civilians taking shelter in there with support items by their sides which they would use to protect themselves.
"They are sending us kids now, huh?" an old man grumbled.
"Well, you wasted a trip. Buzz off." Others frowned at the two students.
"But it's quite dangerous here and your provisions won't last forever..." Shindo stated, trying to negotiate. "Please come with us and take shelter at Ketsubutsu Academy."
"And once everyone is crammed in the school, what happens when those devils decide to attack there?" the old man asked. "You kids think you can do all damn thing about it?"
"When they came for my shop, I gave those suckers a taste of their own medicine."
"Our eyes are wide open now."
"A man is got to protect his own hometown! We ain't putting our lives in anyone else's hands!"
"If they were only coming for money and valuables, then that would be one thing..." Shindo responded in a serious tone. "But jail-breakers and those Nomus are a different story. Someone witnessed the carnage yesterday not far from here. When you are up against someone driven solely by violence, well even the pro well even the pros would get slaughtered by things that far removed from humanity."
"As I said..." the old man scowled at Shindo. "We don't have faith in heroes, but only ourselves. All you heroes act so high and mighty thinking you can force people to live their lives one way or another."
"We are simply more proficient at combat than you fine people..." Shindo said, flashing a charming smile. "Please allow us to protect you."
"Oh yeah?" the old man asked, raising an eyebrow. "Look what's come of trusting smooth lines like that. Look, we aren't seeing eye-to-eye, so go home, kid. Our days of relying on heroes are over."
With that Shindo and Tatami left the building with disappointment.
"That sucked." Tatami teased her boyfriend. "Serious suckage, Yo... Suuuck city!"
"One little hit from my vibrate quirk and that whole tower would be rubble!!" Shindo grumbled angrily while gritting his teeth as he stomped down the road. "Gah, I would have dragged them out of there by force if we were allowed!!"
"That sucked." Tatami sighed before she received a call making her pull out her cell phone. "Psst, call from Makabe."
"How long are the cell towers even gonna last?" Shindo sighed, running a hand through his raven locks.
Tatami received the call and pressed the phone against her ear.
"You two gotta run! He's nearby!" a voice yelled out from the other side of the phone.
"Huh?!" Tatami asked in confusion.
This also caught Shindo's attention as he looked at Tatami with curiosity.
"Itejiro spotted him with his own eyes!" the person on the phone went on, referring to the jail-breaker. "He has headed your way! We won't make it in time... so get out of there now!!"
And right on cue, the approaching jail-breaker jumped and crashed onto a nearby building, revealing himself to actually be Muscular, a former member of the League of Villains and the Vanguard Action Squad, who was also one of the villains to attack the UA forest training camp and got involved into a fight with Izuku Midoriya almost a year ago.
"He's coming!" Tatami screamed.
"Jail-breaker!" Shindo gasped.
"Heya! Let's play!!" Muscular laughed as he looked down from the building with a crazy grin on his face. "Just two of you?! That's not enough! Got any pals around?!"
"Tatami, get word to sensei that we need backup!" Shindo ordered, getting into a fighting stance. "And evacuate the civilians!"
"What about you, Yo?!" Tatami asked worriedly.
"I will demolish him!" Shindo responded, glaring at the villain.
"I love it out here..." Muscular laughed. "In the free world..."
"Our town is already torn apart!" the old man from the gym yelled as he and his companions started to rush out of the building. "No more!!"
"Wait!" Tatami cried out, stepping inside the building. "You can't stand up to that blood-crazed villain! You have to run!"
"Too bad you ain't our boss!" the old man grumbled, pushing Tatami out of the way.
"We don't want you to die!" Tatami yelled before her gaze trailed off outside the building. "Yo!"
Shindo who tried to take down Muscular on his own was now easily pinned down by that very villain with his muscle fibers, all beaten up and bruised.
"Come on, is that it?!" Muscular smirked before he noticed the civilians running out of the gym to save Shindo. "Spot a hero and you are bound to find 9 more... Sweet! Guess the saying is true!"
Shindo tried to reach his hands to free himself from Muscular.
"No use little guy." Muscular laughed, attempting to slowly crush the boy to death. "I got 12,000 layers of the muscle fiber as armor. No piddly power is gonna reach through to my actual body."
"Is that so?" Shindo smirked, making Muscular look at him in confusion. "Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. If there is anything heroes got to have at this point it's all rock-hard spirit that refuses to bend or break! Your brain will be milkshake when I'm done!"
And with that Shindo quickly released a Tremoring Earth attack in an attempt to stun and disorient the villain.
Tremoring earth!!
"In that case..." Muscular trailed off as he simply produced more muscle fibers to stabilize himself. "I gotta bulk up my armor!"
"Yo, no!!" Tatami cried out.
"Let's save that kid!" the old man announced.
"Time for a blood frenzy!" Muscular laughed maniacally as he was about to kill Shindo.
Right on cue, a sudden loud "SMASH" was heard and Muscular was flung onto the roof of a nearby house. Thick smoke covered the whole area and three young boys stepped onto the battlefield, revealing themselves to the villain as they walked out of the smoke; one with green hair, one with white hair, and the last one with dark blue hair. The white-haired boy quickly scooped the badly injured Shindo in his arms.
"Muscular..." the green-haired boy spoke up in a monotone voice. "No wonder my gift from the 4th won't shut up."
Muscular soon recovered from the attack before his face curled into a bloodthirsty smile as he recognized the voice.
"Hey, I know that voice!" Muscular grinned with joy. "I would never forget you! It's really you, right? Right?! Midoriya! I missed you, little guy! All these pathetic wimps just don't measure up! It's not enough!"
Midoriya looked over his shoulder and his gaze fell on the white-haired boy who was carrying Shindo in his arms, Kaneki.
"Get Shindo away from here, Kaneki-kun." Midoriya stated before his gaze fell on the dark blue-haired boy, Ayato. "Ayato-kun, please go and help the civilians."
"Okay!" Kaneki and Ayato nodded their head before they jumped away from the spot with Shindo.
"Hmph! Not so fast... don't run away!" Muscular stated with a smirk. "It's not like that. You have got me all wrong. I went out for revenge or anything so dramatic. The way I see it... going wild with my quirk is all I could ever ask for."
Muscular picked up a small stone and placed it inside the empty socket of his left eye.
"But I'm only human you know?" he added, grinning. "You taught me a new meaning of fun back then... and that was the point of no return!"
With that Muscular jumped toward the bottom of the building to Midoriya's surprise and threw it into the air, forcing Midoriya to jump away, as Muscular screamed to go at it with full power.
'He didn't jump high enough?' Midoriya thought.
"Let's go at it at full power, Midoriya!!" Muscular screamed out.
A huge stream of smoke started to cover the Taguchi Building to the civilians' confusion, while Tatami headed outside. Kaneki, shrouded in smoke, arrived before handing Shindo over to her. Ayato also arrived at the scene just a second later.
"Glad you're here!" Kaneki smiled. "Take care of him okay?"
"Yo!" Tatami cried, scolding her unconscious boyfriend. "How could you be so dumb?!"
"We're sorry we didn't get here sooner..." Kaneki stated politely.
"He needs first aid!" Ayato added as he looked around his surroundings. "Darn, so many buildings already got wrecked... but no more damage from now on!"
"Right!" Tatami responded.
The civilians rushed out of the building to help Shindo and Tatami.
"Look you all need to get out of here..." Ayato stated. "This dude's crazy."
"But we don't need-"
The old man started to speak up but was cut off by Kaneki.
"Now it's not the time!" Kaneki frowned, pushing the civilians away from the battlefield. "Let's get moving people!"
As Ayato and Kaneki quickly moved the civilians and the Ketsubutsu students away from the spot, Ayato turned to look at Kaneki.
"We need to head back to Midoriya..." Ayato muttered.
"No need for that..." Kaneki smirked.
"Huh?" Ayato asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
"Didn't you sense it?" Kaneki asked.
Ayato remained silent for a moment before he smirked back at the white-haired boy.
"Oh, I see..." Ayato chuckled. "She is here, huh?"
"Right." Kaneki nodded his head. "She is gonna arrive here any second now to help out Midoriya. So, let's leave it to them. Besides, I got a text from Hawks. Right now, he and Best Jeanist are fighting a few villains on the other side of the city and Hawks asked for our help."
"Then let's go there..." Ayato stated.
"Yeah..." Kaneki responded.
With that, the two Ghoul quirk users left the site after helping the civilians and headed towards the other side of the city to help out the No.2 and No.3 pro heroes in their fight with the villains.
"Was that too much?" Midoriya asked En, the sixth user of the One For All Quirk if he overdid the use of his quirk, Smokescreen.
"Yeah, you have spread your control too thin..." En stated inside Midoriya's mind. "That's too much of my smokescreen."
"Got it!" Midoriya responded.
"Didn't mention how it could backfire if the opponent gets the drop on you?" En asked.
"Yes!" Midoriya nodded his head.
"One For All's influence has really opened the floodgates..." En explained. "Keep in mind that the greater power has been built up across 8 generations of users. It's a massive unwieldy power and as the 9th user, Of course, you are feeling the brunt more than any of us. So at times like this, try to relax a little. Our quirks are mostly standalone abilities... that will never rise to the level of ultimate moves. It's almost like you have too much respect for these quirks. Approach the problem strategically and use your tools to put together a plan. Instead, think of them as simply tools in your arsenal."
'Muscular... the man who was still standing after taking on 100% smashes.' Midoriya thought, getting all ready to fight back Muscular. 'No, I would never forget him either. Visibility with the 6th smokescreen and guide him towards me! Gotta dig up the memories of that night and that battle...'
Midoriya then charged forward as he used Float to hover above the city, as well as Smokescreen to reduce Muscular's vision, covering the streets below. Once again thinking back to his tactics from their fight, Midoriya used Danger Sense to dodge his incoming attacks and finally used Blackwhip to grab a hold of him to keep him contained on the ground.
"Cheap party tricks?" Muscular asked, quite annoyed. "What's the deal?!"
"I know Shigaraki and All For One released you. Where are they?" Midoriya asked.
"Who knows?" Muscular shrugged casually. "They just told me to go wild and then left me on my own. Why ask about them when I'm right here? You're bumming me out! And these little gimmicks... Boooring! Come on, let's have a rematch, mano a mano! No holds barred!!"
"Why do you rage like this?" Midoriya asked calmly.
"I just want to live without regrets." Muscular grinned.
"Regrets... Such as?"
"Such as not indulging and having fun every chance I get!"
"Was there really no other path for you... Goto Imasuji?"
"Nope! You trying to sympathize with me or something?! Peddle that crap somewhere else!! 'cause all you will find in my soul is blood and violence!"
With that Muscular broke free from Midoriya Blackwhip and was about to attack the green-haired boy.
"Seems like this fight is inevitable." Midoriya sighed.
"You turned out really boring kid!" Muscular commented.
Then all of a sudden, the tendons in Muscular's Muscle Augmentation started to unravel, making him gasp out in shock. Midoriya immediately realized that it was happening because of Shindo's previous attack on Muscular just a few minutes ago.
"In the gaps between those muscles, you coat yourself with the strands depleted of energy that tend to rip and tear away." Midoriya pointed out. "A guy who shies away from tactics and strategy won't purposely jump to a lower floor like that and I noticed how your muscle armor is uneven in spots. I guess someone's been honing those vibrations in the meantime, huh?"
"Sneaky little!" Muscular snarled, gritting his teeth in fury.
As soon as Muscular raised a fist to punch Midoriya, right on cue a sound of hundreds of birds chirping echoed loudly through the air as a familiar figure jumped in front of the green-haired boy protectively and thrust their highly concentrated electric arm into Muscular's chest which went through his thick layers of muscle fiber in ease.
The hand that pierced through his chest had a high concentration of electricity which misinterpreted the lightning nature as 'electrical signals from the nerves, making his muscles contract and his whole body involuntarily go stiff while also receiving damage at the same time.
Soon after that, the individual quickly pulled out their arm from his chest. Muscular yelped out loud in pain and coughed out some blood before he immediately fell back to the ground. His eyes began to close as he started to lose consciousness.
"Looks like you're on time, Nana-chan..." Midoriya stated with a small smile.
The individual with raven locks named Nana Osaki turned back to look at her friend.
"I'm here!" she smirked. "Sorry, I'm late. I was busy training with Shoto."
Nana's POV
"Won't this kill him?" Midoriya asked.
"Nah." I shook my head before looking back at Muscular's now unconscious body. "My Lightning Blade quirk can only kill someone if I pierce my hand right through their heart. But here I pierced my hand right through the middle of his chest and also there were a lot of muscle layers in his body. So, he'll be fine."
As Muscular wasn't fully unconscious, I heard him mumble quietly something by himself.
"N-Nana... Osaki..." Muscular whispered. "T-Training camp... Hostage... A-All For One's target..."
I furrowed my eyebrows as I looked back at Midoriya again.
"What the hell is he talking about?" I asked.
"Don't know." Midoriya shrugged.
I sighed and shook my head.
"I'll go and drop him at the police station..." I stated. "You go and meet up with Toshi-chan. He's waiting for you."
"Okay." Midoriya nodded his head.
I quickly altered Muscular's gravity making him fly up in the air while I wrapped one of the tails of my Rinkaku kagune around his form before he and I zoomed away through the air and headed to the nearest police station, Daina Police Station. When we reached our destination, I landed in front of the police station.
"Halt!" the police guards called out, pointing their guns at me. "State your business!"
"I'm a UA student from the hero course..." I stated, showing my provisional license to them. "I captured the jail-breaker, Muscular. You have iron maidens here, right?"
"Wait, that's jail-breaker!" one of them exclaimed in shock.
"Hurry and tie him up with a metal restrain or something before he wakes up." I insisted. "Please, hurry up."
More police quickly came out from inside the building and rushed forward before they put a heavy restraint on the villain.
"N-Nana Osaki..." Muscular suddenly spoke up, his eyes opened up a bit.
"Looks like you gained your consciousness." I frowned at him.
"Be careful, kiddo..." he smirked at me lazily as he gazed at me through his half-lidded eyes. "He's also looking for you..."
"Who?" I asked while my frown deepened even more.
"Okay, enough talking!" one of the police called out. "Let's take him in!"
"A-All For One." Muscular responded meekly as he again started to lose consciousness. "He's still after you..."
I went completely stiff on my spot as the police squad carried now again unconscious Muscular into the police station. My blood ran cold while my heart started to beat faster than usual.
All For One's still after me?! Isn't he now after Izuku because of One For All? What does he want from me now?
I sighed and shook my head.
"Now it's not the time to think about this..." I whispered to myself, running a hand through my raven locks.
I quickly dashed away from there and made my way to meet up with All Might and Midoriya. Shortly after I arrived in a small alleyway and landed in front of All Might and Midoriya.
"Hey, guys." I smiled.
"Nana-chan." All Might smiled back. "Are you okay? Did you get hurt?"
"No, I'm fine..." I responded before looking at my friend. "What about you, Izuku? You hurt?"
"I'm all right..." Midoriya responded, looking down at the Mid-Gauntlets in his arms.
"Your arms and legs?" All Might asked.
"Just fine, thanks to you..." Midoriya muttered. "Good thing you ordered this from America before the border was shut down. These mid-gauntlets compression support items."
These gauntlets of Midoriya's were sent by Prof. David Shield and his Melissa Shield from America. The last time I saw them was at the I-Expo in the I-Island which was held last year at the beginning of our summer vacation.
"Well, they're just test samples but they are made for endurance." All Might explained. "They should reinforce your whole body, though they won't survive your output at 100%. So no going overboard before the big rematch, got it?"
"Right..." Midoriya nodded his head before he looked at me. "Nana-chan, what was Muscular blabbering about earlier?"
"What happened?" All Might asked worriedly.
I sighed and rubbed my forehead.
"Well... you see..." I muttered. "When I dropped him at the police station, he told me that All For One was still after me."
"What?!" All Might gasped in shock.
"Why?" Midoriya frowned.
"Don't know." I shrugged. "I never knew what All For One wanted from me and I still don't know. I thought I was off the hook, but it seems like that's not the case... That bastard is still after me and he might have a bigger reason this time..."
All Might frowned slightly a bit as he looked down at the ground.
Flashback (All Might's POV)
"By the way..." David trailed off. "Does she know?"
"Huh?" All Might asked.
"Does Nana know who killed her parents? Did you tell her?" David asked. "I felt so bad when I saw her today, you know."
All Might sighed before taking a seat on a chair near David.
"We didn't tell her yet." All Might whispered.
"Why not?" David frowned. "It's been years now, Toshi. I remember after that incident, pro heroes from Japan who were close to Daisuke and Junko came here to investigate the incident... You, Eraser Head, Midnight, Endeavor, Present Mic, and Best Jeanist... All of you were here... You all ran around like madmen trying to capture the murderer. You know who it is, then why not tell her? Nana deserves to know."
"I can't bring myself to tell her, you know." All Might mumbled. "No one can... we were there but couldn't save her parents. We failed as heroes, David... I just couldn't bring myself to tell her that my forever enemy All For One killed her parents..."
David sighed and looked away from his friend.
"Nana will never forgive you if she finds out the truth and that you all were hiding this from her..." David commented.
"I know, Dave..." All Might sighed, putting a hand on his face. "I know..."
Flashback ended
Right at that moment, All Might's phone went off. All Might quickly then snapped out of his daze and pulled out his cell phone. It was Keigo calling.
"Hello?" All Might stated. "Hawks?"
"Are Midoriya-kun and Nana-chan doing okay?" Keigo asked from the other side.
"Nana-chan, let's go." Midoriya mumbled. "We still have a lot to do."
"Yeah." I nodded my head before I looked at All Might. "Sorry, Toshi-chan. Gotta run!"
And with that Midoriya and I zoomed away from the alleyway leaving All Might all by himself.
Third person's POV
"Yeah. No problem so far." All Might responded as he turned to look at his students. "Actually they just got back and now they're gone again. They're probably wary of putting you or anyone else in danger."
"One line of thinking would be to keep Midoriya-kun completely isolated to prepare to counter what's to come..." Hawks stated. "But if the ones who cracked open Tartarus like an egg come well prepared themselves, it's all over anyway. Like the boy said, proactively seeking out the enemy raises our odds of victory. I realize this puts you in a tough position, but please do your best to support both Nana-chan and Midoriya-kun in the meantime."
"Well, now we've another problem though." All Might muttered.
"What is it?" Hawks asked, frowning.
"Young Midoriya and Nana-chan fought jail-breaker Muscular today and he said that All For One is still after Nana-chan." All Might informed him.
"That's not good." Hawks mumbled as his frown deepened a bit. "What else did Muscular say?"
"Just only that."
"Okay... then please keep an eye on both Nana-chan and Midoriya-kun and inform Eraser-san about this situation. He's Nana-chan's adoptive father after all. He should know. And please don't worry about this. Let's see what we can do..."
Nana's POV
As Midoriya and I zoomed through the air together, I thought back to how things ended up like how it was now.
Thanks to cutting-edge medical treatment and Recovery Girl's arrival at the hospital, a large number of patients recovered and were discharged. Midoriya wasn't far behind.
A few weeks back when Midoriya was still admitted to the hospital, a doctor met with him, who alongside All Might and his mother Inko Midoriya, informed him that he had been warned that more extreme injuries would've left him immobilized, but that the situation was different now.
He explained how in the past, the injuries were contained within his body, like little explosions, but this time they made their way to the surface. He also mentioned that thanks to using Blackwhip to wrap and reinforce his limbs from the inside out to keep them from shattering, as well as the drastic changes to his body since then, going from 5% to 45% capacity, the injuries were nowhere near as severe.
Despite that, he warned that his limbs could still become immobilized so he advised Midoriya to be careful.
After the doctor left, Midoriya's mother Inko asked for an explanation which Midoriya and All Might agreed to give, thus sharing the secret of One For All with her. Inko understood that her son could contain the power by being Quirkless but also that he was being targeted for it, so she asked what would happen to him.
All Might told her that they were making arrangements to protect him at U.A. but Midoriya announced he won't be returning. Inko became concerned as her son explained that Shigaraki could locate him, quite possibly at any time like now and he stated his desire not to see anyone else get hurt and resolved to stop Shigaraki and All For One before they reached top strength and before the worst could happen.
Inko then warned that he was in the hospital now because he couldn't win last time but her son reasoned that he would get stronger before telling her his reasons why he had to go and promised to return home to her. All Might then declared that he knew he couldn't stop Midoriya from going, so he offered to join him.
All Might later contacted Best Jeanist informing him of this turn of events, who accepted it, saying that Midoriya might be the only one who could determine Shigaraki's location after thinking of using the green-haired boy as the focal point of their efforts, so they would follow in his wake while maintaining a safe distance.
I also later insisted on them putting me into their team as I had my own reasons to fight and get stronger: firstly Shigaraki is my relative and my cousin, secondly, I promised Nana Shimura-san to try to save Shigaraki, and lastly, Touya was still alive and was out there somewhere, so I had no other choice but to I search and find the man I love and save him from the path of destruction.
There was no way I could let go of Touya just like that when I knew I had the capability to save him. So, after listening to my reasons, Keigo accepted my requests and put me into their own small team of heroes.
Before checking out from the hospital and saying his final farewell to UA, Midoriya visited Gran Torino and gave him Nana Shimura-san's regards, which Gran Torino accepted with a smile. He admitted he should have tried to kill Shigaraki and advised my green-haired friend to not be so rigid with his beliefs, saying that death could be seen as another form of salvation.
Gran Torino then handed Midoriya his yellow cape before Midoriya left the UA High and teamed up with me, All Might, and the Top 3 heroes who were Endeavor, Keigo, and Best Jeanist to stop the League of Villains and Shigaraki once and for all.