Chapter 92: The Emerald Comet and the Runaway Clock
[Tokyo - Shie Hassaikai Compound - The Final Chamber]
The ambient air inside the subterranean ruin simply ceased to exist. It was replaced entirely by a localized, catastrophic pressure system.
Izuku Midoriya did not flex. He did not yell. He merely took a single step forward, and the concrete beneath his boots instantly vaporized into fine, grey powder. The jagged, chaotic arcs of emerald electricity that usually whipped around him had condensed into a continuous, blinding aura of searing green voltage.
One For All: Full Cowling - 100%.
Overhaul's golden eyes widened behind his fused plague mask. The clinical, detached superiority he had maintained for the entire raid finally cracked, replaced by a cold, unfamiliar dread. The boy standing before him was no longer a student. He was a force of nature.
"You..." Overhaul snarled, slamming all four of his colossal, stone-fused arms onto the ground. "You are just a diseased pest!"
The entire architecture of the underground labyrinth answered his call. A torrential, towering tsunami of jagged concrete spikes, twisted steel rebar, and hardened earth erupted from the floor. It was a labyrinth of death, a tidal wave of deconstructed matter rushing forward to swallow Midoriya whole.
Midoriya did not brace for impact. He vanished.
A sonic boom shattered the remaining glass in the distant corridors. Midoriya became an emerald comet, a streak of blinding light that defied the very laws of physics. His speed completely bypassed Overhaul's ability to deconstruct and rebuild.
Midoriya didn't even need to touch the incoming spikes. The sheer, unfathomable kinetic wind pressure generated by his supersonic movement tore the monumental concrete wave into microscopic dust before it could even reach him.
From his vantage point amidst the ruined wall, Aokiji Kuzan watched the spectacle.
He leaned casually against a broken pillar, wiping a thin trail of blood from his chin, his dark eyes tracking the blinding green flashes. Aokiji's tactical mind processed the impossible data. Even at that blistering, reality-bending speed, Midoriya was meticulously angling his body to ensure the fierce wind pressure never touched the little girl strapped to his back.
A ghost of a smile, genuine and deeply respectful, touched Aokiji's lips. So that's the successor, Aokiji thought, the icy chill in his own veins acknowledging the burning sun in front of him.
To escape the relentless, shifting ground, Midoriya kicked off the pulverized floor, launching himself straight up toward the open, cavernous ceiling. He didn't fall back down. By kicking the very air itself with devastating leg strength, he ricocheted off the empty space, maintaining an aerial dominance that left Overhaul grounded and desperate.
"COME DOWN!" Overhaul roared, completely losing his clinical sanity.
The monstrosity gathered every ounce of biological and geological matter left in the compound, sending dozens of colossal, twisted tendrils of flesh and stone shooting up into the air to swat the hero out of the sky.
"I am the cure!" Overhaul screamed, his voice distorted and manic as the tendrils chased the green light. "I will erase this diseased society! I will dismantle your quirks and rebuild this world!"
Midoriya did not offer a counter-argument. He didn't waste breath on an ideology built on the torture of a child.
Midoriya simply stopped rebounding. He hung suspended at the apex of the cavern, gravity waiting to reclaim him. He twisted his torso, drawing his right arm back. All the searing, emerald voltage in the room rushed toward his clenched fist, compressing into a single, blinding point of infinite kinetic potential.
Overhaul sent every tendril, every defensive wall, and his own mutated arms rushing upward to intercept the strike.
Midoriya swung downwards.
SMASH.
The mid-air collision did not produce a sound; it produced a vacuum, followed instantly by a shockwave so severe it flattened the entire subterranean block.
Midoriya's fist tore through the colossal defenses as if they were wet paper. The reinforced concrete tendrils pulverized into ash. The fused biological appendages shredded into nothingness. The strike carried the weight of Mirio's sacrifice, Nighteye's blood, and Eri's tears.
The fist connected directly with Overhaul's face.
The impact obliterated the plague mask, snapping the straps and shattering the beak. The shockwave rippled through the monstrosity's entire body, violently forcing the fused cells to separate. Overhaul was blasted out of the air, crashing into the cratered earth with a definitive, final thud.
The monster was broken. The Yakuza boss lay unconscious, his mutated form dissolving back into a battered, defeated man.
The dust began to settle.
Midoriya landed softly on his boots, his breathing heavy but steady. The battle was won.
But the danger had just escalated.
Aokiji immediately felt the shift in the atmosphere. The intense, blinding light emanating from the small horn on Eri's forehead did not dim. It grew exponentially brighter, harsher.
Midoriya suddenly gasped, falling to his knees. The green lightning sputtered and died. The Rewind factor was no longer healing broken bones; there were no more injuries to fix. It was now rewinding his very existence, rapidly pulling his cellular structure back toward nothingness.
Aokiji pushed off the pillar, his usual relaxed posture entirely gone. His jaw clenched tight, his dark eyes narrowing in profound alarm.
She doesn't know how to turn it off, Aokiji realized, his boots crunching rapidly over the debris as he closed the distance. Her quirk is running wild. If it continues, Midoriya will be erased from reality within seconds.
Aokiji needed a tactical counter. We need Erasure. Where is Aizawa? He scanned the ruined chamber, but the underground hero was still missing in the rubble.
There was no time to search. Midoriya let out a strained, agonizing groan, his hands gripping the dirt as his body began to lose its physical cohesion.
Aokiji slid to a halt right beside them. He didn't hesitate. He reached out with both hands, gripping Eri firmly by the shoulders, intending to physically rip the girl away from his classmate to break the biological connection.
The moment his skin made contact with hers, a catastrophic shock hit Aokiji's system.
ZAAAAAP!
Aokiji's eyes widened to their absolute limits. His pupils constricted into tiny pinpricks.
He didn't pull her off. He couldn't.
The Rewind energy instantly bypassed his elemental defenses, hooking directly into his quirk channels. Every single cell in Aokiji's body screamed in sudden, blinding agony. The temporal regression locked his nervous system completely. He was suddenly trapped in the same horrific feedback loop as Midoriya.
What... is this pressure?! Aokiji's mind raced, panic finally bleeding into his legendary composure. He tried to pull his arms back, but his muscles refused to obey. I can't even lift my arms... I can't even let go of her!
The agonizing phantom pain from his old Kamino injuries flared vividly, and then began to rewind further, threatening to unmake the years of grueling training and survival.
Midoriya was gasping for air beside him, and Aokiji was completely paralyzed, anchored to the surging anomaly.
Aokiji gritted his teeth, his breath coming in ragged, freezing gasps. He had only one desperate option left. He had to forcibly suppress her cells with his own element, risking severe hypothermia for the child.
He forced his quirk to awaken, ignoring the screaming of his rewinding cells. He gathered the absolute zero into his palms, intending to flash-freeze the girl into temporary suspended animation.
Forgive me, Eri, Aokiji thought, the frost beginning to rapidly coat his paralyzed fingertips.
He prepared to release the ice.
Suddenly, the blinding, warm light illuminating the ruin simply snuffed out.
The agonizing, tearing sensation in Aokiji's cells vanished instantly. The crushing paralysis evaporated. Aokiji stumbled backward, gasping heavily, catching himself on his knee as his internal temperature violently stabilized. Midoriya collapsed forward onto the dirt, unconscious but whole.
Aokiji wiped the cold sweat from his brow, his chest heaving. He looked up toward the source of their salvation.
Standing at the edge of the crater, covered in dust and bleeding from a severe head wound, was Shota Aizawa. The underground hero was barely conscious, his arms draped heavily over the shoulders of Uraraka and Tsuyu, who had desperately dug him out of his stone tomb.
Aizawa's head was hanging low, but his eyes were forced wide open, glowing with a fierce, unwavering, and exhausted crimson light, locked directly onto the little girl.
The Rewind was erased. The nightmare was finally over.
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