The green creature swung its avian arm at Tsuyu — the gorilla arm half-melted from Ren's lightning.
Koda shook. Midoriya froze in terror. Tsuyu's breath halted.
Her pupils trembled.
...
"Midoriya! Tsuyu! Koda!!"
Ren's voice tore through the air like a whip. And that—
That was enough.
Midoriya's eyes snapped open.
Something inside him ignited.
'I… I have to do something!'
Pure energy crackled across his arms. His breath hitched. His muscles tensed.
"Detroit…"
He leapt forward with everything he had.
"SMASH!!"
BOOOOOOM!!!
The sound was so violent it felt silent for a second before the shockwave hit.
Air detonated.
Dust exploded upward.
The entire USJ dome shook.
Midoriya stared at his fist, trembling.
'I… I did it.'
'A real punch… without destroying myself…'
But—
The creature was still standing.
It had staggered back only two steps.
The avian arm that was swinging at Tsuyu hung limp — but not destroyed. Just dislocated. Bruised. Damaged.
Not broken.
Midoriya's pupils shrank in disbelief.
'I only hurt it… THIS much?!'
"Smash, huh?"
A soft, disgustingly calm voice crawled across the floor.
The hand-faced guy tilted his head.
"You an All Might fan—"
"You psycho!!"
Ren blurred in.
SNAP!
The black creature's arm shot out and seized Ren's forearm.
Ren's own momentum betrayed him — the sudden stop cracking his bone like a twig.
"ARGH—!"
Pain shot through him.
The creature grabbed Midoriya next, hoisting him like a doll.
Midoriya gasped, dangling helplessly.
The hand-faced villain approached Ren… slowly… savoring it.
"Ren-kun…"
His smile twitched unnaturally.
"We've played enough, don't you think?"
He scratched his neck so hard the skin flaked.
Ren glared, voice sharp enough to cut steel.
"You. Fucking. Psycho."
The villain's grin stretched wider — impossibly wide — as he extended a hand toward Midoriya's face.
One touch. That's all it would take.
His voice broke into a giggle.
"You know what happens if I touch him, right?"
Midoriya went pale.
Ren's expression twisted — pure, murderous hatred.
"If you dare touch him… I'll rip you to shreds."
"Oh? And how would you do th—"
Ren cut him off like a blade.
"I'll kill you the same way you killed your family."
Silence.
Total silence.
The hand-faced villain froze.
His pupils shrank to pinpricks beneath the hand covering his face.
"What… did you say?"
Ren bared his teeth in a savage smile.
"Shimura Tenko."
The villain's entire body jerked.
"H-How do you—"
BOOOOOM!!!
A colossal shockwave obliterated the USJ entrance doors.
Everyone — villains and students alike — turned toward the sound.
A figure stepped through the dust.
Tall.
Blonde.
Muscular.
Eyes burning with fury.
The students' faces lit up like they'd been given oxygen after drowning.
'You're finally here, old man…'
The towering figure cracked his neck, voice quivering with controlled rage.
"Don't worry…"
He stepped forward. Shadows tore away from him like fear itself fleeing.
"Because—"
His voice boomed through the entire plaza.
"I AM HERE!!"
But All Might wasn't smiling.
He moved at blinding speed, ripping through the villain crowd in a shockwave of displaced air.
In a blink, he reached Ren and Midoriya and tore them out of the Nomus' grip with brute force alone.
"Are you two alright?" All Might asked, voice low, serious.
"Y-Yeah…" Ren breathed, chest heaving.
His snapped arm was slowly resetting, the bones twitching back into alignment — but Seraph was several times slower now.
Midoriya, reaching the gathered students with Tsuyu and Koda, exclaimed as he ran:
"All Might, be careful! I hit that green one with one hundred percent of my strength and it only slightly bulged!"
Ren forced his muscles to contract, recharging kinetic energy with Surge and generating eletric energy with Livewire, his hair sparkling.
"Yeah… old man…" Ren exhaled. "They're engineered… specifically for us. Multiple quirks… just to counter you. And me."
All Might's eyes softened.
"You've grown, Ren."
Ren blinked, confused through the pain.
All Might added, "For villains to consider you a threat to take such countermeasures for."
Ren froze for a moment — and then gave a small, prideful smile.
"…Didn't think about it like that."
All Might nodded once.
"Ren — can you retrieve Aizawa? I'll deal with these two."
Ren didn't waste a second.
He compressed the energy he'd generated into pure electricity and shot forward like a bullet.
Multitask.
His consciousness split into six parallel tracks.
Five to maintain energy production.
One to enhance his nervous system, flooding his muscles with lightning to amplify speed.
His body blurred across the ground.
He was nearly at Aizawa when—
BOOM!
A massive black arm swung at him — the black Nomu, intercepting.
But another fist met it.
All Might's.
The collision detonated like a bomb.
All Might's eyes widened.
'He's… as strong as me.'
Then—
'My power… is being absorbed.'
The Nomu's fist was siphoning the kinetic force of All Might's blows.
But All Might held firm, blocking the Nomu from reaching Ren.
"GO!" All Might barked.
Ren didn't hesitate.
He seized Aizawa under the arms and dashed away — but just as he approached the stairs—
A flash of heat.
A beam of flames shot directly toward him.
Ren's reflexes took over.
He stomped down, vaulting himself and Aizawa upward, flipping over the beam as it carved a blazing line through the ground.
The wall behind them disintegrated to dust.
Ren whipped his head toward the source — the green Nomu stood there, chest swelling as it charged another blast.
"Is he a dragon too?!" Ren snapped, sprinting.
Another beam shot. Ren vaulted sideways. Then another — he spun away, still carrying Aizawa.
His Eagle Eye tracked each shot even without facing the Nomu.
He navigated the battlefield like a map in his head, avoiding beams while ensuring none hit the scattered classmates.
He reached Midoriya and the others and set Aizawa down.
"Take care of—"
Another beam seared past him. He jumped backward, narrowly avoiding it.
His lungs burned.
His brain felt like it was overheating.
Seraph was to busy fixing his body to relieve his mental fatigue as well.
'Damn it… how many beams can this thing fire…?'
Then—
Ren had an idea.
A risky one.
He split his consciousness into the three other parts.
One part dedicated to tracking classmates.
One calculated shot durations and cooldown windows.
One predicted trajectory curves.
The green Nomu kept firing, and Ren kept dodging — each dodge generated kinetic energy with Surge.
More energy. More speed. More power.
Then Ren broke toward All Might and the black Nomu at full speed.
"OLD MAN!!!" Ren roared.
"MOVE!"
All Might didn't question it.
He leapt straight upward.
And Ren skidded to a stop right in front of the black Nomu.
Just as the next beam fired.
He'd timed it perfectly.
"Thunder Step."
Lightning exploded through his nervous system.
For an instant, he stopped existing — or so it looked.
He reappeared meters away.
And the beam slammed directly into the black Nomu's chest.
To be continued...
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