The dust slowly settled over the Central Plaza, revealing a landscape of cracked concrete and absolute devastation.
Madara Uchiha stood alone. His back was straight, his long, spiky black hair whipping in the wind generated by the aftermath of the impact. He stood as the final human barrier between the "League of Villains" and the terrified students—Midoriya, Tsuyu, and Mineta—who were watching from the edge of the shipwreck zone.
Shigaraki Tomura, having picked himself up from the ground, began to scratch at his neck with violent, neurotic intensity. The sound of his fingernails rasping against his dry skin—scritch, scritch—echoed clearly in the terrifying silence.
"You..." Shigaraki muttered, his visible eye staring at Madara with a mixture of pure hatred and childish disbelief. "You are just a student... a high school kid... How are you moving that fast? This is cheating... The game balance is broken. There shouldn't be another boss character in the tutorial."
Madara didn't answer. He sank into a low combat stance, his legs spread for stability, his hands open and ready. The Sharingan in his eyes spun lazily, analyzing every twitch of muscle, every shift in the air pressure.
(He is crumbling mentally,) Madara analyzed coldly. (But he isn't the real threat. It's that thing standing next to him.)
Madara shifted his gaze to the massive, black creature with the exposed brain—"Nomu."
The beast stood motionless, like a statue carved from muscle and nightmares. It didn't breathe. It didn't blink. It radiated absolutely no killing intent because it had no mind to form intent with. It was a void.
"Nomu," Shigaraki ordered suddenly, pointing a trembling finger at Madara. "Crush him. Don't leave a single piece."
In the instant the command was given, Nomu vanished.
It didn't run. It simply ceased to exist in one spot and appeared in another, shattering the sound barrier in the process.
(Fast!)
Madara's Sharingan widened. The world slowed down in his crimson vision, framing the attack frame by frame, but his teenage body screamed in protest as it tried to keep up with what his eyes were seeing.
He saw the fist, the size of a boulder, approaching his face with catastrophic speed.
Madara didn't retreat. Instead, he stepped into the attack, slipping under the beast's massive arm. He dodged the punch by a margin of millimeters; the sheer air pressure from the missed blow sliced the skin of his cheek and split the concrete ground behind him.
"Too slow!"
Madara coated his fists in a dense, concentrated layer of blue chakra.
He spun with the speed of lightning, unleashing a barrage of precision strikes against the beast's torso.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Three consecutive hits—liver, ribs, kidney. Each punch carried enough kinetic force to shatter a boulder.
Nomu's massive frame shuddered, and it was forced back a step.
But Madara felt something was wrong.
The sensation of his fists connecting with the creature's body was unnatural. It wasn't hard like steel, nor was it soft like flesh. It felt... rubbery. Sponge-like.
(Shock absorption?) Madara realized the bitter truth while his knuckles were still grazing the beast's skin. (Physical strikes are being dispersed throughout its body!)
Before Madara could disengage, Nomu's other arm swung around in a wide, devastating arc.
There was no room to dodge. The speed was overwhelming.
Madara raised his arms in an "X" block, pumping every ounce of available chakra into his bones to reinforce them against the impact.
CRAAAACK!
The collision was like a freight train hitting a compact car.
Madara was launched backward like a cannonball. He flew across the entire length of the Central Plaza, heading straight for the artificial lake of the "Shipwreck Zone."
"Uchiha-san!" Midoriya screamed in horror.
Madara's boots hit the surface of the water with tremendous force.
Mineta and Tsuyu squeezed their eyes shut, expecting to see their classmate sink or be crushed by the impact.
But instead... the impossible happened.
In the split second his feet touched the liquid, Madara kneaded chakra into the soles of his feet with surgical precision.
He didn't sink.
He skated backward across the surface of the lake as if it were polished concrete. The water split behind him in a massive white wake, spraying mist into the air from the sheer velocity of his slide.
He skidded for ten meters, twenty meters... and then, he dug his heels in.
He stopped.
Madara stood firmly on top of the rippling water. The surface beneath his feet was churning, but he stood upon it as solid as a rock.
"I-Impossible..." Mineta stammered, his jaw dropping. "He's... He's standing on the water?!"
"Is that another quirk?!" Tsuyu croaked, her eyes wide. "Fire, super strength, and now walking on water? Who is he, kero?"
Madara had no time to show off.
He glanced down at his arms. The sleeves of his uniform were shredded, and his skin was an angry red from the impact. His bones ached deep inside, saved from shattering only by his chakra reinforcement.
(Its raw physical strength is leagues above my current vessel,) Madara admitted bitterly, wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. (A direct, solo engagement is suicide. I need an opening. I need to distract it long enough to deliver a blow it cannot absorb.)
On the shore, Nomu roared—a hollow, screeching sound—and launched itself toward the lake, shattering the concrete beneath it as it jumped to finish the job.
"Get away from him!"
Shoto Todoroki appeared at the water's edge, his right side covered in frost. Beside him, Izuku Midoriya leaped from the boat, green lightning crackling around his body.
"Todoroki-kun!" Midoriya shouted. "Now!"
Midoriya leaped into the air, activating One For All at 5% throughout his body, and focusing 50% into a single finger.
"DELAWARE... SMASH!"
He flicked his finger. The blast of wind pressure didn't hit Nomu directly, but it struck the water right in front of the beast, creating a massive wall of water that obscured the monster's vision and disrupted its momentum.
In that exact moment, Todoroki slammed his hand onto the surface of the lake.
"Ice Wave!"
The water froze instantly. The flash-freeze caught Nomu in mid-air, encasing its legs and lower torso in a massive prison of jagged ice, halting its advance in the middle of the lake.
Todoroki slid across the ice path he had created, and Midoriya landed next to Madara (who was still standing on the unfrozen patch of water).
"Uchiha," Todoroki said coldly, his heterochromatic eyes locked on the trapped enemy. "You look like you're struggling."
"That move was reckless, Uchiha-san!" Midoriya said frantically, his eyes scanning Madara's bruised arms. "That monster... it's too strong!"
Madara glanced at them from the corner of his eye. He didn't thank them, but he recognized the tactical advantage of their arrival.
"It possesses Shock Absorption," Madara said quickly, his voice sharp and clinical. "Your punches won't hurt it, Midoriya. And your ice, Todoroki, will only hold it for a few seconds. Look."
Just as Madara predicted, the massive block of ice began to crack. Nomu was flexing its muscles, shattering the frozen prison with brute force alone.
"We need a strike that destroys it completely on a cellular level. Something it cannot absorb," Madara stated. "I will create the opening. You two... ensure it doesn't escape."
Madara raised his hands, bringing his index and middle fingers together in the familiar cross seal.
He pushed the remaining chakra in his body to the limit, dividing his energy evenly.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
(Kage Bunshin no Jutsu)
POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF!
Four clouds of white smoke exploded around Madara on the water.
Four identical copies of Madara Uchiha burst forth.
"Go!" the original Madara commanded.
The four clones launched themselves at the breaking ice with blinding speed.
The first clone leaped and grappled Nomu's right arm, pinning it against the ice.
The second clone slid between the beast's legs and kicked out its knee, forcing it to buckle.
The third and fourth clones jumped onto its back, wrapping their arms around its thick neck and locking their legs around its torso, applying a chokehold with every ounce of strength they possessed.
"Now!" Madara shouted.
Nomu thrashed wildly, trying to shake off the clones that clung to it like leeches. It crushed one clone with its free hand, sending it popping into smoke, but the remaining three held on for one second... two seconds... three seconds.
That was all Madara needed.
The original Madara leaped high into the air, positioning himself directly above the beast.
He took a deep breath—inhaling until his lungs burned. He gathered every remaining spark of fire-nature chakra in his gut, converting it into a volatile inferno.
"Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!"
(Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu)
Madara exhaled.
A massive sphere of flame erupted from his lips. It wasn't just a fireball; it was a miniature sun.
The inferno swallowed the three clones (who vanished instantly) and engulfed Nomu completely.
The heat was so intense that the massive glacier Todoroki had created vaporized in a blink, and the lake water beneath began to boil and hiss.
"HOOOOOM!"
The orange and gold glow illuminated the entire USJ dome, lighting up the stunned faces of the students.
Madara landed on a floating chunk of ice, gasping for air. His chest heaved violently, and blood was now dripping freely from his nose. His vision in his left eye was beginning to blur.
"What incredible heat..." Todoroki whispered, raising an arm to shield his face from the thermal blast.
Slowly, the roaring flames died down.
Everyone looked toward the center of the impact.
Nomu was standing there. Its black skin was charred completely, its bones exposed, and the smell of burnt flesh filled the air. It wasn't moving.
"Did... did we get him?" Midoriya asked, his voice trembling with hope.
Madara let out a short, cynical laugh, despite his exhaustion. "Don't be naive..."
Before their eyes, the nightmare unfolded.
The charred tissue began to bubble. The burnt flesh fell away, revealing pink, raw meat underneath that rapidly turned black and hardened. Muscle fibers re-knit themselves. The eye that had melted reformed.
In less than ten seconds, Nomu regenerated back to its original form, as if the fire had never touched it.
"Super Regeneration..." Madara whispered, trying to steady his breathing. "Shock Absorption... and Super Regeneration. That thing was built to be immortal."
On the shore, Shigaraki laughed maniacally. "Hahaha! Do you see? Nomu is the 'Anti-Symbol of Peace'! Your ninja tricks won't kill him! He was made to withstand 100% of All Might's power, so what did you think your little fire would do?"
Shigaraki waved his hand dismissively.
"Nomu... play time is over. Kill them all. Start with the brat with the red eyes."
The beast launched itself.
Its speed was even faster this time.
Madara was drained. His chakra reserves were dangerously low. Midoriya and Todoroki were frozen in horror at the sight of the regeneration.
Madara raised his trembling fists.
(Is this the end?) Madara thought. (To die in a child's body, at the hands of a biological puppet? What a joke...)
But he didn't lower his gaze. He prepared for the final clash, ready to fight with his teeth if necessary.
The massive claw was inches from Madara's face.
But suddenly.
Time stopped.
Not because of a quirk... but because of a sound.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The main entrance doors of the USJ exploded.
They didn't open. They were ripped from their steel hinges and launched across the hall, embedding themselves into the opposite wall like meteors.
Nomu stopped mid-attack, turning its head toward the source.
The dust cleared at the entrance, revealing a towering silhouette wearing a suit, though the tie was gone.
He wasn't smiling.
There was no trace of the bright, reassuring grin that the world knew.
His face was contorted in fury. A cold, silent, terrifying rage that no one had ever seen before.
He took a single step, and the ground beneath their feet shook.
"There is no need to worry anymore..."
He spoke in a low voice, but it cut through the noise of the battle and echoed in every corner of the dome. A voice that carried the weight of a mountain.
All Might raised his head, his blue eyes glowing with holy wrath as he looked at the injured students and the monster threatening them.
"BECAUSE... I AM HERE!"
Madara felt the crushing weight lift from his shoulders.
The tension left his muscles, and he allowed himself to drop to one knee on the ice, gasping for breath.
He looked at Midoriya and Todoroki, who had tears welling up in their eyes from the sheer relief of being saved.
Madara wiped the blood from his nose and looked toward the Number One Hero.
A small, faint smile—one of genuine respect—touched his lips.
"You're late..." Madara whispered, his voice raspy. "...Symbol."