Stain was sent flying backward by Iida's kick, the impact echoing through the narrow alley. For a brief instant, the Hero Killer felt his consciousness waver, the world spinning—but then he gritted his teeth and forced his mind to stay awake.
His gaze lifted.
The serpentine right eye glinted… and Iida froze in place instantly.
Stain twisted his wrist and hurled the cleaver, the blade slicing through the air before embedding itself in Iida's arm.
"Agh—!" Iida grunted in pain.
But he didn't fall.
Even as his body trembled, even as pain tore through his arm, the engines in his legs roared once more.
Recipro—!
Iida shot forward again.
Stain was still reeling from the previous impact, everything happening in split seconds, when Iida's kick slammed squarely into the villain's abdomen.
"GH—!"
The air was forced from Stain's lungs, his body involuntarily doubling over.
"IIDA!"
Midoriya suddenly appeared as a green blur.
Blood was still flowing from his wounded thigh, dripping onto the ground as he pushed his body beyond its limit—but he didn't stop.
He drew back his fist.
DETROIT—!
The impact came with full force.
SMASH!!
The punch landed squarely on Stain's face, the sharp sound of the impact echoing like thunder within the alley.
The combined force of the two attacks sent the Hero Killer hurtling backward, his body flying through the air until it crashed violently into the ice pillar at the far end, which exploded into shards and white mist.
A heavy silence fell.
Midoriya dropped to his knees immediately after. Iida ran to him, standing in front of him, even while injured, not taking his eyes off the smoke.
Both of them were breathing heavily.
The dust began to clear.
Among the shattered pieces of ice… Stain lay motionless, slumped among the wreckage.
His eyes were white, his body limp.
Iida swallowed dryly.
"…Is he… unconscious?"
Midoriya, still panting, forced a small, tired smile.
"…It looks like it."
----------------------------------------
Inside the mall, the clash between Woman and Violet had become a true moving disaster.
Woman didn't give her a second to breathe.
Every one of her blows made Violet's force field vibrate. The heroine was sent flying from store to store, windows exploding, mannequins and metal structures being reduced to scrap as the impact echoed through every floor.
"Hahahaha!" Woman laughed, her voice distorted and mocking. "Come on, bitch, hold steady for me!"
Woman shot toward Violet.
Before she could reach her, Woman was wrapped in a sudden force field and violently flung aside, crashing through the mall's central plaza.
The Nomu slowly rose from the smoke and debris… when something fell on her.
Another force field appeared above her and dropped from above like a wrecking ball, crushing Woman.
Violet floated to the center of the plaza, supported by the force field surrounding her, her chest rising and falling.
"Don't call me bitch."
That's when the floor behind her exploded.
Woman leaped out from behind, covered in dust with scratches on her clothes. She had dug under the force field.
The kick came brutally.
Violet was sent crashing into the escalators, which twisted and shattered under the impact, metal screeching as everything was crushed.
Woman advanced without hesitation, muscles contracting, her arm thickening grotesquely.
Body Mass Manipulation— 50-ton Punch.
The blow hit Violet's force field.
A giant column of dust, iron, concrete, and glass filled the mall, the impact echoing like enclosed thunder inside the building.
Woman jumped out of the dust cloud, landing a few meters away.
"Tsk…" she complained. "Annoying shields."
She tensed her body again.
Her muscles, especially in her legs, grew even more defined, ready for a powerful leap.
"Then I'll end this with—"
"TONY!"
Violet's voice echoed firmly through the dust.
Woman looked up, confused, just as Tony appeared from the upper floor, leaping toward her.
The Nomu spun her body in a wild reflex, claws extending to tear him apart—
And then… froze.
Tony made a swag face mid-air.
He bit his lower lip.
Squinted his eyes.
And shot a shamelessly seductive look.
Woman blinked.
"…Huh?"
Before she could react, her own face relaxed, her muscles betraying her intent, and… she made a swag face too.
"…What the hell am I doing?!"
That was Tony's Quirk.
Swag Face:
When Tony makes a swag face, anyone who looks at him is forced to imitate it for ten seconds.
"Now, Violet!" Tony shouted.
A purple aura exploded in the plaza.
Violet emerged from the dust wrapped in an intense purple energy, her eyes glowing like violet flames as her black hair floated around her like a cloak.
Violet's fist struck Woman's face with crushing force, sending the Nomu flying through the mall, breaking through internal walls until she disappeared on the other side of the building.
Violet landed softly beside Tony, still floating, the aura pulsing around her body.
She snapped her fingers.
"Stay at a safe distance," she said, her voice calm… but firm. "I'm fighting seriously now."
From deep inside the destroyed mall, Woman slowly rose, laughing softly… Even as her face regenerated.
"Hahaha…" she murmured. "NOw YoU'Ve pIsSeD mE OfF, bITcH!!"
----------------------------------------
Endeavor and Burnin advanced through the southern zone of Hosu, the cracked ground, shattered storefronts, and columns of smoke marking the path to the source of the chaos. Explosions echoed in the distance, each one more violent than the last.
They crossed a ruined street and then—
"Hah!" a hoarse voice cut through the air.
Gran Torino appeared in the thick of combat, the old hero landing a rapid series of blows on the Nomu from before, using his speed to drive it away from two civilians trapped behind an overturned car.
The impact sent the monster reeling, tearing its focus away from the civilians.
"Tsk…" Torino clicked his tongue. "Can't go all out with people still here…"
Just then, a wave of flame completely swallowed the Nomu, flames so dense the air shimmered around it. Torino instinctively turned his face toward the source of the attack.
"…Huh?"
Endeavor stood there, his gaze hard as steel.
"What…?" muttered Gran Torino. "Why is Todoroki here…?"
The flames slowly receded.
The Nomu emerged, charred, its skin scorched, smoke rising from its body… but still standing.
Endeavor frowned.
"I didn't put much into that flame…" he said with disdain. "But I've never seen anyone walk away from that conscious."
Meanwhile, Burnin was already in motion, guiding the civilians away from the area.
The Nomu began to contort, its muscles bulging suddenly.
"Hey, Todoroki!" Gran Torino started. "Be careful with this guy, he's got—"
The sentence died as a body violently slammed into the Nomu, the two of them sent crashing together into a nearby residential building. The impact threw up a pillar of dust, concrete exploding outward.
Endeavor and Gran Torino looked back, surprised.
"What was that?" asked Endeavor, fire flickering around him.
"…Something went right through that guy," Torino replied, confused. "And it looked like… a person."
Before they could even move—
Robot's cold presence passed between them.
Endeavor's and Gran Torino's eyes widened in the same instant.
"…?!" Both turned to attack—
But an invisible force slammed them into the ground.
The weight crushed down on their backs as if gravity had increased tenfold, the asphalt cracking beneath them.
Robot didn't even look at them.
He simply continued floating, passing over the two as if they were nothing.
At the impact site, Ryo was amidst the rubble, his body covered in wounds, bruises, and blood matting his hair. The Nomu he had hit lay unconscious behind him, embedded in the destroyed wall.
Ryo tried to get up.
He managed… for half a second before he pitched forward, his legs giving out.
Robot landed in front of him, his feet touching the ground without a sound.
"The way your body is acting indicates extreme exhaustion," the Nomu said, its voice cold and mechanical. "You've reached the limit of using your ability, from what I can see."
Ryo breathed heavily, his vision blurry.
Even so… he reached out.
His weak fingers grabbed Robot's metallic leg.
"…Still…" he murmured. "Not… done yet…"
Robot merely looked at him before enveloping him in telekinesis, slowly lifting him from the ground.
"This fight is over," it declared. "You will come with me."
Ryo's body hung suspended in the air, powerless.
Behind them, Endeavor and Gran Torino were still pinned against the ground, the invisible pressure crushing their backs against the cracked asphalt.
The number two hero gritted his teeth, the muscles in his arms trembling as he forced his own body against that artificial gravity.
"Tch… You'll need a lot more than that to stop me!" he snarled.
Through sheer brute force, Endeavor managed to move his arms… then his shoulders… until he finally lifted his torso, getting to his knees under the force that still tried to crush him.
His gaze lifted.
Robot was already ascending, Ryo suspended by telekinesis, the boy's body hanging limp and inert.
Endeavor took a deep breath, closed his eyes. For a second everything fell silent, until he opened them again.
Flames exploded from his back, violent, concentrated, the air tearing as he shot like a missile into the sky.
"HEY!" he roared, his voice echoing between the buildings. "YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!"
Robot turned in mid-air, processing the threat—
JET BURN!
The strike hit the Nomu squarely in the stomach—a blast of compressed fire that launched it even higher, disrupting its stable flight and distorting the air around it.
The telekinesis failed and Endeavor grabbed Ryo in mid-air, pulling him into his arms before falling in free-fall. He spun his body at the last second and landed with a heavy thud, cracking the ground beneath his feet.
He then looked at the person he was carrying—
"...Huh?"
He recognized the bruised face, the exhausted body.
"Why the hell are you here?" he grumbled. "And why was that punk trying to take you…?"
"Heh… heh…" a hoarse, tired voice sounded beside him.
Gran Torino limped over to the two of them, moving with a slight limp but otherwise okay.
"Old man," Endeavor turned his head, surprised. "How did you get out of that pressure?"
"It vanished when you—" the old man cut himself off, frowning as he saw the boy in Endeavor's arms. "T-That doesn't matter now! We have to get this kid out of here!"
Endeavor frowned upon hearing that.
"Wrong," he corrected. "You have to get the kid out of here, and go to this location too."
He carefully placed Ryo on the ground, adjusting his position so Torino could pick him up and give him a small paper.
"I will stay…" He turned, flames rising around his body once more. "...and deal with this punk."
In the distance, against the night sky, Robot's silhouette stabilized its flight, regaining its balance. The number two hero took a step forward, fire roaring around him as he faced the High-End Nomu hovering in the night sky.
----------------------------------------
Anan gasped for breath as she ran toward the source of the destruction ahead. Each step echoed heavily against the broken asphalt, but her mind was racing even faster than her body.
"Ryo…"
She knew exactly what was at stake if he died. She knew the consequences, the hidden layers behind that boy. But, in that moment, it was irrelevant.
She wasn't thinking about the danger he posed…
She was thinking of him.
She pictured Ryo injured, exhausted… perhaps too scared to even scream for help. Anan's chest tightened.
"I promised… I promised I would be his hero."
And now she was there—running through the chaos, not knowing if she could do anything… but she had to try.
It was then that a figure passed by her like a comet.
Endeavor sliced through the air at high speed and crashed into a building in the distance. The fiery explosion tore through the structure, causing the upper floors to collapse.
Anan looked back, startled—
"Todoroki!"
Gran Torino shot out from an alley up ahead, the air jets on his feet bursting in short, precise bursts as he carried Ryo on his back.
Just above the buildings, a robotic silhouette advanced, floating.
The High-End Nomu pursued Gran Torino, its metallic head reflecting the light of the fires as its cold eyes analyzed the scene.
With a simple gesture, it hurled the debris it had been trailing—chunks of concrete, twisted beams, metal plates—and launched them at Gran Torino like projectiles.
"Tsk…!" Gran Torino clicked his tongue.
He weaved through the projectiles in a zigzag, using short bursts of air to change direction at the last second. Sometimes, he used the debris as platforms underfoot, jumping from one point to another.
But Ryo's weight on his back made his movements slower and harder to execute.
And that created an opening for a small, almost imperceptible fragment to strike the side of Gran Torino's head.
The hero lost his balance instantly.
His body spun in the air before slamming violently into the ground.
The impact sent Ryo flying forward, tumbling across the asphalt until he came to a stop just a few meters from Anan.
"Ryo…!"
She ran to him, and then saw the state the boy was in, making her eyes fill with tears.
Cuts, dried and fresh blood mixed, his uniform destroyed… his chest rising and falling unevenly.
"No… no…" her voice failed. "Ryo…! RYO!!"
Above them, a metallic voice echoed, cold and bored.
"Disgusting insects… you really won't stop being a nuisance."
Robot raised its arms.
The debris around it trembled—then deformed, reshaped by telekinesis into long, sharp stakes, dozens of them, floating like spears ready for the kill.
Anan stopped about a meter away from Ryo's body.
Without hesitation, she removed the stoppers from her fingers.
"…I won't let you!"
She thrust her hands forward.
The stakes shot toward her.
And in that same instant, absolute vacuum formed from Anan's fingertips.
The projectiles were violently sucked toward her fingers, disintegrating into dust before they could even get close.
SHHHHHHH—!
Robot tilted its head slightly.
"What a persistent nuisance."
With a subtle command, a single stake veered in the air, curving around the field—and struck Anan in the shoulder from behind.
"Agh—!"
She staggered, blood staining the white of her costume.
But she remained standing.
"Nnh…!"
But another stake appeared and hit her in the leg.
"Guh—!!"
Anan fell to her knees, her body trembling in pain.
Ryo stirred in front of her, waking up.
His vision was blurry, the world spinning. But, little by little, the figure before him came into focus.
Ryo's eyes widened as he saw his mentor injured.
"...Anan...? A-Anan?!"
She was bleeding, kneeling in front of him.
"No… no…" he tried to get up, his muscles refusing to obey. "I… I have to… get up…! I have to... GET UP!!"
Robot's voice sounded behind them.
"This ends here."
New stakes formed in the air.
Ryo panicked.
"S-STOP!!" he screamed, his throat burning.
"I can't… I can't let her die! I don't want to lose someone again!"
He reached out helplessly.
Anan turned her face to him, and even wounded… she smiled.
A calm, warm, maternal smile.
"Hey…" her voice was soft, despite the pain. "Everything going to be okay…"
Robot extended its arm.
"Disappear."
The stakes advanced.
"NO!!" Ryo screamed, the sound tearing through the air.
The stakes struck their target, blood filling the air as Anan's body was pierced—
Or it should have.
Something had thrown itself in front of Anan at the last second.
"…Gh."
Razor Beam's body stood for a moment, trembling.
He turned his head slightly, looking at Ryo over his shoulder.
A tired smile appeared on his face.
"Keep going… kid…"
And then, Razor Beam fell to the ground.
Anan's eyes widened.
"RAZOR—!!"
Anan leaned over Razor Beam's body, her hands trembling as she uselessly pressed against the hero's wounds.
Blood flowed warm between her gloved fingers, staining the shattered asphalt.
"W-why…?" her voice came out in sobs. "Why are you here? Why did you do this…?!"
The hero didn't answer.
A few meters away, Robot landed softly on the ground.
"What an inconvenient situation," he stated, raising his hand. The debris around them began to vibrate again. "But I don't care at all. Just disappear already."
But then… he stopped.
Something was wrong.
In front of Anan, a silhouette was slowly rising.
Ryo was standing... menacingly.
The boy remained still, his back to her, his body shrouded in distorted shadows. His green irises shone intensely, burning in the dark like sharp blades, charged with pure murderous intent.
Before Robot could process that change—
Ryo appeared right in front of him, in a single instant.
Robot's sensors reacted too late. His eyes widened beneath the metal helmet as Ryo's palm struck his stomach.
And in the next second, it began to glow in a green hue.
BOOOOM—!!!
A green explosion erupted from the impact, sweeping Robot away and tearing through the entire street ahead, ripping up the asphalt, bending poles, hurling cars, and sending a shockwave that echoed for blocks.
The Nomu was launched like a projectile across the city.
He tore through the top of a building, broke through the concrete, emerged from the other side, and only then managed to stabilize in the air.
But that lasted just a second.
Ryo emerged from the dust cloud ahead of him and landed a powerful kick.
Robot raised his arms to defend himself but was still hurled into another building several blocks away, crashing through the initial rooms until he came to a stop in an inner corridor.
He slowly rose from the rubble.
On the other side of the hallway, the dust shifted, making way for Ryo to advance.
The green aura around his body intensified, crackling like a living storm. An electric pulse surged from him and coursed through the hallway, sparking along the walls, ceiling, and floor, filling the space with threatening greenish charges.
The boy's gaze was filled with pure hatred.
Robot reacted, extending his arms, telekinesis wrapping around the corridor.
He clenched his hands together like an invisible press, crushing the entire hallway, burying Ryo under tons of concrete and steel.
The silence lasted half a second before the debris exploded in front of him.
Ryo emerged from the destruction and landed a direct punch to Robot's face, the impact echoing like thunder.
The Nomu was thrown out of the building.
He entered free fall, his senses disoriented, spinning in the air as he tried to regain control.
Robot looked up.
He saw Ryo leaping from the gaping hole, plummeting toward him.
He tore chunks from the building and launched them like missiles.
But Ryo dodged in mid-air, using the debris itself as platforms, leaping from one fragment to another with precision, becoming a beam of green light.
"Threat beyond parameters—!!"
Ryo's fist struck Robot once more.
The Nomu was slammed into a building below and crashed through every floor, from the top to the ground, leaving a trail of vertical destruction until he disappeared in a cloud of dust and concrete.
Robot slowly rose from the wreckage, a hand reaching up to clutch its dented helmet. Its systems were hastily readjusting, its regeneration working nonstop.
That's when a shadow emerged from the dust cloud to its left.
Two intense green eyes ignited in the darkness.
Instinct took control of its body.
Robot pivoted and threw a heavy punch toward the silhouette.
But it hit nothing, because Ryo was no longer there.
The boy appeared beside him and landed a sharp punch to its torso.
The Robot tried to counter with another blow— Ryo dodged and landed another hit.
It tried again—
Another dodge.
Another punch.
They fell into a brutal exchange, but it soon became clear it wasn't a fair fight.
Ryo began to dominate completely.
His strikes came in rapid succession, falling like rain, hitting the Robot's helmet over and over—then its abdomen, its chest, back to the head just to snap it back and continue the onslaught.
Each blow left Robot more and more disoriented.
The combo ended with a violent uppercut, Ryo's fist wreathed in green energy slamming into the Robot's chin and launching it upward, crashing through several floors before smashing through the side of the building.
The Robot managed to stabilize itself in the air with difficulty, letting out a distorted roar of rage.
"AAAARRRGH—!!"
Telekinetic power exploded around it.
Entire chunks of buildings, columns, beams, concrete and steel were torn free and pulled toward it, swirling like a deadly swarm, forming a chaotic field of destruction as it tried to locate Ryo.
A green blur shot past it.
Robot spun around—
And saw only a green bolt ricocheting off the surrounding debris, moving too fast to track, weaving a web of light that crisscrossed the space in every direction.
The next instant, blows began to rain down on it.
Coming from all sides.
Sharp impacts erupting from the left, the right, above, below.
Every attempt to block only resulted in more blows, faster, more violent, until its guard was forcibly broken.
Robot's vision narrowed to disconnected flashes: the green glow, the impact, the loss of consciousness, and another impact.
A kick sent it reeling sideways.
A punch crushed its torso.
And then a brutal dropkick launched it backward, sending it tumbling through the air.
Ryo landed on a large piece of debris above it.
Then he shot forward.
The concrete fragment exploded behind him, and Ryo descended like a projectile, concentrating all the green energy into a single point.
The punch hit the Robot square on.
A black flash erupted from the impact, illuminating the sky, scattering the clouds and echoing like thunder across the city.
On the other side, Endeavor, emerging from the building he had crashed into, stopped abruptly upon seeing the flash in the distance.
"...What is that?"
On the destroyed street, kneeling beside Razor Beam's body, Anan looked up at the same black flash. Her face was still marked by recent tears... yet she seemed serene seeing that light, which looked beautiful to her eyes.
"Ryo…"
Robot was driven into the ground like a meteor.
The impact generated a colossal explosion, the ground giving way beneath it, shockwaves reverberating in every direction, as a massive column of smoke rose into the sky.
In the center of the crater, Robot groaned, a metallic, distorted sound escaping his artificial throat as his regeneration worked frantically to repair the catastrophic damage to his body.
With effort, he rose from the wreckage.
The dust cloud was too dense to see anything.
Then, Ryo landed beside him, his feet touching the broken ground.
The pressure of the landing was enough to sweep the dust away around him, fully revealing the boy's figure, still enveloped in the pulsating green aura.
Robot trembled at his core, then struggled to raise his hand, his fingers shaking as he tried to activate his telekinesis one more time.
But Ryo was no longer where he'd been.
In the blink of an eye, he appeared right in front, crouching before Robot, coming face-to-face with his torso. The green glow reflected in the Nomu's cracked helmet.
"Sorry… I'm going to have to borrow your move, Razor…"
He opened his hand and struck a palm blow against Robot's abdomen.
The black surface lit up from within, green lines spreading like living cracks before expanding violently.
Internal Razor Beam
The energy exploded from the inside out.
Robot's body was cleaved open in a perfect arc, like a crescent moon, his matter torn apart internally before he could even react.
"H-h-how…?"
Robot's question would never be answered.
His body disintegrated, reduced to fine particles that dissolved into the air, carried away by the hot wind still sweeping through the crater.
Silence claimed the place soon after.
The green aura around Ryo began to fade, the lightning dissipating bit by bit as he remained there, motionless, staring at the empty space where Robot had existed just seconds before.
"I told you... I was gonna... kick your ass…"