For a few seconds, the central plaza remained silent — only the distant sound of running water and debris hitting the ground echoed through the air.
Then, Shigaraki's laughter cracked like thunder.
"HAHAHAHA! I had actually forgotten that the iron ball released that little guy!" he said, excited as if he were watching a kids' cartoon. "What was his name again…?"
Kurogiri sighed.
"Sentinel, Tomura."
"That! That!" Shigaraki snapped his fingers, satisfied. "You know I'm terrible with names… Anyway!"
He pointed eagerly at the tall, slender black humanoid made of shifting metal plates. The Sentinel stood up without making a sound, as if the machine were carved from solid shadow.
"What a spectacle!!!" Shigaraki exclaimed, buzzing with excitement. "It crushed All Might and those brats in seconds! So THAT's what killed the number two hero in the U.S.! HAHA!"
The Sentinel's visor flickered.
It analyzed Midoriya.
THREAT LEVEL: 6.8
Analyzed Kirishima.
THREAT LEVEL: 3.6
Low. Irrelevant.
The machine slowly turned toward the forest — a trail of destruction stretching like an artillery tunnel. On its internal display, the highlighted objective appeared:
VERIFY PRIORITY TARGET STATUS
Thrusters ignited on its feet and arms, and the Sentinel began to lift off.
Midoriya immediately recognized its trajectory.
"It's going after Takeda!!"
But it didn't even rise a full meter before a red-and-yellow flash sliced through the air — like a shot of light.
SMAAAACK!
The Sentinel was launched backward, crashing into the ground with a metallic boom.
It tried to lift its head…
Another punch.
And another.
And another.
A torrent of high-speed strikes made the Sentinel's armor vibrate like it was being crushed inside a hurricane.
It was Dash.
And he was furious.
"THIS IS FOR MY FRIEND!!" Dash shouted, punching, kicking, ripping through the air with such speed that colorful streaks formed around him.
The Sentinel tried to fire its blazing cannon through the slit in its face…
But Dash struck its head aside before the laser could fire.
The Sentinel shifted vision modes, reducing everything to slow motion.
CALCULATING COUNTERMEASURE…
COUNTERMEASURE CALCULATED.
A laser shot in a precise direction — narrowly missing Dash.
The machine was learning.
Adapting.
But not enough.
A gigantic shadow rose behind it.
DETROIT… SMASH!!!
All Might burst forward, wrapped in determination, landing a blow that hurled the black machine several meters until it slammed into a concrete wall.
The creature tried to rise — but the ground froze violently, and tons of ice buried it again.
Todoroki exhaled, focused, his hands pale as snow.
All Might looked at everyone, breathing heavily.
"Are you two alright?" he asked Midoriya and Kirishima.
Both nodded.
Todoroki, however, frowned.
"We still don't know about Takeda…"
The name hit All Might like a bucket of ice.
He clenched his teeth.
"Midoriya! Kirishima! Go after him now. He's injured and alone — hurry!"
"Yes, sir!" the two answered in unison.
Behind them, Todoroki's ice began to crack…
A red glow appeared underneath.
All Might stepped forward, placing himself between the students and the Sentinel.
"And this thing…" he said, heavy and prepared. "We'll handle it."
Dash stood beside him, charged with rage-fueled energy.
Todoroki cooled the air around them.
And Bakugo staggered in, explosions still smoking.
"DAMN IT, MY HEAD IS FUCKING KILLING ME! I'M GONNA SKIN THIS METAL TRASH ALIVE!!"
----------------------------------------
The forest had been torn apart as if a meteor had crashed straight into it.
At the center of a massive crater, surrounded by shattered trunks and soil ripped up like raw flesh, lay Ryo Tanaka — or what was left of him.
His body was twisted over the wreckage.
His breathing, short and uneven.
The right side of his chest rose and fell like he was trying to breathe with only half a lung.
"...d-damn…" a thin breath escaped between his teeth.
His left arm was a disaster.
Fractured, crushed, twisted at impossible angles.
Parts of the muscle had split open, exposing living tissue, and warm blood slipped down in thin trails from the ruined elbow.
Several ribs were broken — every breath shoved shards of glass deeper inside him.
His neck burned.
His legs trembled.
His vision was already filling with black dots.
He couldn't feel half of his body, and the other half… was pure pain.
The distant sound of explosions reached him muffled, like it came from underwater. Screams echoed from the direction of the plaza — Midoriya trying to reach the forest, Kirishima calling his name — but Shigaraki and Kurogiri blocked the path, while the Sentinel waged war against All Might and the others.
Ryo could only think one thing:
Why was he doing this?
Why… again?
U.A…
The training…
The effort…
The fights…
For what?
"…I… what am I… even doing…?" he muttered, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.
Was it because he believed he could change his pathetic life?
Because he thought that by entering the best hero school, everything would… fix itself?
Ridiculous.
"…I… hate this…" his voice came out broken, barely a sound.
And it was true.
He hated it.
He hated heroism.
He hated the expectations.
He hated the idea of saving a world that never wanted to save him.
He hated everything.
So then…
Why keep trying?
Why get up?
Why go on?
His eyelids grew heavy — and the warmth of death began to embrace him with an almost familiar comfort.
It was so… easy… to rest.
And in the middle of that numbness, a forgotten fragment of memory lit up.
An old afternoon.
Him, four years old, spilling a puzzle on the floor.
Pieces scattered like fallen stars.
He had cried.
Thinking he had ruined everything again.
His mother lifted him in her arms.
Warm.
Soft.
Safe.
And whispered:
"Ryo… don't let your mistakes stop you from trying again."
"Rebuild. Even when it seems impossible."
"Keep standing."
That voice…
That embrace…
Something inside him vibrated.
First like a spark.
Then like a breath.
Then a blazing flare climbing up his spine.
A soft, pulsing green light began to rise from his chest.
Sparks crawled across his broken body.
His fractured ribs cracked back into place.
Torn tissue sealed with a burning warmth.
Bones realigned.
And the mutilated arm, wrapped in rising light, began to rebuild itself like a sculpture reconstructed piece by piece.
Still lying down, he heard his mother's sweet voice again…
"Keep standing, my son."
The light grew.
"…keep…" Ryo murmured.
He pressed his hand against the ground.
"…keep standing…"
Energy pulsed through his whole body.
He rose, fully restored, his body glowing with green arcs that sliced through the air like lightning.
At that same instant, the Sentinel still fighting All Might — froze.
Its visor detected an abnormal signal within the forest.
IRREGULAR ENERGY SIGNATURE
ELIMINATION PRIORITY ALTERED
The machine abandoned All Might, and the others tried to stop it.
Nothing slowed the Sentinel.
It shot toward the forest.
Meanwhile, Ryo's mind reached a peak of absolute focus.
Flow state.
The world around him vanished.
He was no longer in the forest or at U.A.
He stood in a white, infinite, silent space, surrounded by floating puzzle pieces — infinite of them — each glowing a specific color, like fragments of life itself.
When he moved his hand, a part of his body — behind him — broke apart into thousands of pieces and rearranged itself, as if he were made of the same structure he was trying to understand.
Ryo touched a blue piece.
It fit perfectly into another, revealing the intimate structure of matter, as if he knew every atom by name.
Then came a yellow piece, stabilizing everything, creating the ideal containment for the ones that slipped away.
And when the white piece — the perfect union of the two — completed the set…
The world exploded in light.
In Ryo's right hand was a beam of pure green light, clean and perfect.
A beam of transmutation guided by the weak force, while the strong force wrapped around every particle, containing the reactions, holding each neutron, and sustaining every impulse with near-divine precision.
He didn't consciously know what he was creating.
But instinct guided his hands like those of a cosmic craftsman.
Ryo opened his eyes.
The Sentinel was only meters away, charging at him, headlights blazing.
"…take… take the pieces of my life… you piece of shit," he muttered, lifting his hand, veins glowing.
Conceptual Rite: E-Waver
And with that, he fired it at the Sentinel, and a green flash swallowed the entire forest.
----------------------------------------
The flash faded slowly, and the silence that followed seemed to swallow the entire forest. Bit by bit, the heroes forced their eyes open, still blinking against the light that had blinded them.
All Might was the first to recover some vision — and what he saw made his narrowed eyes fly wide open.
The Sentinel was standing a few meters ahead… or rather, what was left of it.
A perfectly spherical hole, with scorched edges and disintegrated matter, occupied almost the entire right side of the machine's torso. It was so large it looked as if part of its chest had simply been erased.
The lights on its visor flickered twice, weakly… and then went out completely.
The metallic body tipped forward slowly, crashing onto the ground with a heavy, definitive THUD.
"W-What… what happened?" Midoriya muttered, still squinting, unable to see anything but blurry shapes.
Shigaraki was also staggering, part of his face twisted as he tried to blink away the blindness. He was inches away from touching Kirishima's face, ready to end him… when his vision finally returned just enough to notice something.
He saw a figure surrounded by a trembling green glow, sparks dancing in the air around it like tiny stars on the verge of death.
He blinked.
The figure vanished.
And reappeared beside him.
Walking calmly.
Serene.
And terrifyingly close.
"Tch—!" Shigaraki tried to react on pure instinct, his arm lifting to disintegrate him.
But he didn't even have time to breathe.
The punch struck his side with a black-green FLASH, so dense and bright the air itself seemed to vibrate.
Shigaraki flew like a ragdoll, disappearing into the trees as he shattered trunks on the way.
"W-Who's there?!" Kirishima yelled, still half-blind, hands raised as if that would help with anything.
Kurogiri, who had already fully regained his sight, turned immediately.
"Tomura! Damn it… We need to leave… now."
He barely finished the sentence — and froze.
Ryo was standing in front of him.
His eyes wide open, empty, unfocused — a consciousness that felt as if it existed on another plane entirely.
The green aura crackled around him like living electricity.
Kurogiri felt… fear.
A primal fear that rattled even his mist.
Ryo lifted his hand — slow, almost gentle — but before he could touch the villain, his body finally demanded its price.
The weight crashed down on him like a mountain.
The aura burst into scattered sparks, like a flame dying out.
The energy left him in a single wave.
And the boy collapsed, falling to his knees before tipping to the side.
Kurogiri blinked, tense — but that was all he needed.
In less than a second he was gone, opening a warp gate, dragging the unconscious Shigaraki through, and disappearing.
Ryo's vision, blurry and wavering, still caught the silhouettes approaching.
All Might running toward him.
Dash right behind, his face tense, his eyes still glowing with adrenaline.
Kirishima stumbling in the distance, arms raised:
"C-Can someone tell me what's going on?! I'm still seeing white everywhere!!"
The voices sounded muffled… as if they were coming through water.
And amid the distant noise, amid the chaos, something warm and familiar touched him.
"It's all right now, sweetheart…"
"You can rest for a bit."
Ryo's eyes closed, the green glow in his pupils fading, and he finally drifted into sleep.
And for the first time since entering U.A… he felt at peace.
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(A/N: Bonus chapter as promised, it's a third shorter than usual, but I hope you understand because I'm not used to doing two in one day.)