A chill moved through the air.
Wisps of white drifted around the area, many attaching themselves to the heroes.
The feeling that someone was with them, watching over them, overcame everyone in the area.
Well, almost everyone.
"What's happening with him?!" Midoriya questioned, his gaze fixated on All For One as he seemed to be struggling against something no one could see.
"Doesn't matter, this is our chance!" Midnight said.
Midoriya sped forward, but it somehow felt like someone much faster was dragging him by the hand.
He jumped, suddenly feeling as light as air, and his fist pounded into All For One's face.
All For One outstretched his hand, then suddenly felt a mighty pull on it, forcing it back to his side.
His head snapped to you, seeing your eyes glowing, your body hovering a foot off the ground with six white wisps hovering around you.
Best Jeanist turned to you, then to everyone else. "Midnight, Nagant, keep Vie safe. I have a feeling her quirk is doing something to ours."
Nagant ran to you and turned, aiming her rifle at All For One.
A bullet streaked through the air and All For One tried to move but Best Jeanist's fibres kept him in place. One of the floating wisps flew towards his hands and danced along his fibres, making them emanate a faint white glow.
All For One pulled back, but the fibres, despite being threads, didn't break.
He held out his hand and tendrils began growing from his fingers, then another wisp circled around his hand and made them stop and return to him.
Bakugou jumped and aimed a shot at him.
What was meant to be a shockwave ended up as a strong but ineffective gust of wind at the cause of another wisp.
All For One stared at his hands as the smoke from Bakugou's explosions disappeared.
The blood on his hands began fighting back to drown him.
Shigaraki was stiff, watching every sin of All For One's past come back to bite him. All the ones that he hadn't made up for.
Everyone else seemed to have someone hugging them, holding their shoulder - whispering advice into their ears, lifting them up, cheering them on.
He, however, didn't feel anyone's hands on his back or someone hugging him tightly.
He felt chained to the ground with no one holding the key.
You turned your head, absently, and one of the wisps circling around you sped to him and began circling around him.
Five more that were drifting around sped to him and settled around him.
Suddenly, he didn't feel all that alone.
"Vie, how long can you do this for?" Midnight questioned as other heroes bashed All For One, suddenly making an impact.
You raised seven fingers.
"Three minutes have gone by," Nagant said. "She can keep all of this up for ten minutes in total."
"Then we've got to beat All For One in that time," Best Jeanist concluded.
Midoriya and Bakugou looked at each other, nodded, and moved.
Uraraka hovered above with what had to be hundreds of boulders floating next to her. "Release!" She, as well as the boulders, began falling.
Tsu jumped and grabbed Uraraka with her tongue.
Shinso took his scarf and used to to grab another boulder and threw it to join the shower of projectiles that Uraraka sent plummeting onto All For One.
Endeavour's flames engulfed the boulders and set them on fire.
They crashed into All For One but he quickly emerged.
Midoriya and Bakugou were there, waiting for him.
The moment he revealed himself from the rubble, Midoriya's fist pummeled his face and he was sent flying.
Bakugou was just above where he ended up, held up by Midoriya's Black Whip.
Howitzer Impact: Clutzer.
A blinding light came from his palm and shot to All For One.
Midoriya pulled him back as the deafening sound of explosions along with a tremendous quake surrounded the villain.
"Five minutes!' Midnight called.
The Symbol of Peace.
The Symbol of Evil.
It's a fight that's lasted decades, perhaps centuries.
It ends, Midoriya thought. In the next five minutes, it ends.
The seven wisps surrounding him were no longer like smoke, but raging white flames.
He flew into the air and sped to All For One, whose clothes were singed and his skin was bleeding and scarred.
Midoriya raised both fists in the air and pummeled into All For One's torso, feeling the cracking of All For One's ribs under his fists.
All For One jumped to his feet, painfully, and moved back.
None of his quirks obeyed him - every time he tried to activate any of them, it came out disappointing, as if he were a child that just learned what his quirk was.
Midoriya's quirks, however, were perfectly at his command.
"Four minutes!" Nagant reminded loudly.
No one dared get in Midoriya's way.
He was holding the feelings of seven people before him.
Seven plans of vengeance.
He had his friends' cries echoing in his ears like a bad dream.
Aoyama's cries of guilt. Someone chained to their mistakes, believing that he could never break free and grab his friends' hand.
Your tears of pain. The belief that you were meant to always be alone pounding at your mind without anyone knowing, with fear that if you were to try and go against it, someone would get hurt. Pure anger at the blood that coursed through your veins. Everything was taken and nothing could be given back.
Nothing would ever be taken by this cruel excuse for a human being again.
He picked up a boulder as if it were a football and kicked it, sending it zooming towards All For One and destroying it against his body.
"Damn it!" Nagant exclaimed, lifting her arm to reveal her rifle again. "Nomus incoming!"
An army of nomus approached, called by their master's defeat coming near.
Endeavour and Best Jeanist ran over to assist.
Bakugou looked at you and clicked his tongue. "Three minutes!"
Midoriya sped forward and grabbed All For One's arm, flipping him over and slamming him to the ground.
All For One began raising his hand to grab Midoriya, but Uraraka's voice screamed, "Release!" and a boulder planted itself on top of his arm.
A nomu suddenly appeared behind Uraraka, its hand raised, ready to crush her skull under its palm.
"Ochaco!" Tsu called.
Shigaraki suddenly appeared, grabbing the nomu's head and watching it disintegrate at his fingertips.
Uraraka's eyes widened, but she didn't get a chance to say thank you as he rushed off to fight some more.
They say war is life changing.
"Two minutes!"
Midoriya began counting down the seconds.
Yes, All For One was injured like he had never been before, but somehow, he didn't seem close to passing out.
"How disappointing," he sputtered with a grin. "A young boy trying to walk in the footsteps of his master... Not the first time I saw something so unsightly."
His teeth gritted, trying to bite back his words so he wouldn't lose time.
One minute and thirty seconds.
All For One raised his fist to land an attack but Midoriya jumped and punched before moving out of the way and doing it again.
One minute.
With not enough time left with your quirk holding back All For One's while powering up his, he didn't bothering dodging or strategizing.
His fists continuously pummeled All For One as the timer for your quirk kept going.
"Midoriya, hold your breath!" He heard Midnight's voice approaching behind him and took a big breath.
"Everyone stand back!" she shouted.
One of the wisps that surrounded you sped around, moving Uraraka, Tsu, Shinso, and Bakugou away from Midnight's viscinity.
"If he can't use his quirks," she ripped the fabric of her clothes, "then this should work!"
Midoriya's Black Whip kept All For One in place as the pale pink mist surrounded the two of them.
Thirty seconds.
All For One grabbed Midoriya's arm, a horrifyingly loud crack echoing throughout the battlefield and threw him.
"No!" Uraraka screamed. She ran forward and grabbed Midoriya from the air.
Five...
"Wait!" Midoriya winced from the pain in his arm. "Time's running out!"
Four...
He began running towards All For One.
Three...
Your right hand suddenly raised, the wisps around you encircling your forearm.
Two...
The glow in your eyes faded and the wisps around your arm shone brightly.
One.
Every wisp, instead of returning to you, all sped to Midoriya and you fell.
"Y/N!" Uraraka caught you, then her eyes followed the wisps.
Now, much like yours, Midoriya's eyes glowed.
The light green glow that radiated from your hands when you healed people was emitted from Midoriya's broken arm and it straightened.
His eyes widened and he looked at his hands, suddenly feeling much lighter, as if he wasn't fighting to stay awake. "Her life force..." he whispered.
All For One's quirks returned to him and he grew his arm tenfold and swiped the air, blowing Midnight's aroma away. "Finally!" He held out his arms beside him. "It has awoken! The perfect border between life and death!" All For One laughed. "Perfect!"
"No," Midoriya said, balling his hand into a fist. "You won't be taking from her any more."
"Of course not," All For One said, almost dismissively. "She doesn't have anything else for me to take - nothing important to her. After all, she finally loved a boy and I took him - I do hope he wasn't your friend, Izuku Midoriya. He was just collateral damage in this little family affair."
Uraraka gasped and tears filled her eyes, and Tsu pulled her into a hug, then Midnight put her arms around the both of them.
Endeavour's eyes filled with horror as he came to the realization that he lost another son.
Bakugou's glare seemed to be trying to tear right through him.
But Midoriya... he was suddenly filled with this almost irrational anger that he'd never felt before.
He had nothing to say but everything to do.
Forward he went, raising his fist that had more power than he knew what to do with.
It bashed into All For One's face and he jumped back before he was swatted like a fly by All For One's enlarged arm.
Bakugou stepped forward but Midnight put her arm in front of him. "Don't," she said. "You don't want to get in between that."
Midoriya pushed off the ground and it created a small divot beneath him before he flew into the sky.
He attached himself to the ground using Black Whip and began kicking his legs repeatedly.
All For One flew to him, much slower than usual, and Midoriya propelled forward.
He watched All For One smile and his rage was unmatched.
"What... are you smiling about?!"
Their fists collided once again, but this time, no one pulled back.
Midoriya felt the pain return to his arm.
All For One felt the result of the damage he maintained.
But the two kept pushing, trying to destroy the other.
"You will not... take from anyone... ever again!"
Midoriya saw through your eyes for the first time and saw the hands of those All For One took quirks from reaching out, trying to claw at him as if trying to get their quirks back.
Their lives back.
He felt someone's hands on his shoulder and she whispered, "Ghost."
All For One felt as if an entire crowd had yanked him back. His arm shrunk back to its original size and Midoriya's attack was taken head on.
They both plummeted to the ground and Uraraka ran to catch Midoriya.
All For One crashed into the ground and Midnight and Shinso went to check if he had finally been beaten.
"Well?" Bakugou questioned.
Shinso snapped in front of him and a smile appeared on his face. "He's gone!"
Uraraka let out a breath laugh and held Midoriya in her arms tightly. "You did it, Deku! You did it!"
Midoriya groaned quietly, then his eyes widened. "Wait, but Y/N-"
"She's alright." Nagant held you up with your arm around her neck. "Quite the quirk, she has."
"Quite the father, more like it," Bakugou spat, glaring at All For One as if that would add up to anything.
A small flame emerged from Midoriya's chest and his eyes stopped glowing. It returned to you and you took a deep breath, opening your eyes.
"Did you... Did you win?"
Midoriya smiled softly. "Yeah, we won."