—BOOOOM!!
"Guh, gyaaaaaaah!!"
At the last possible moment, Towa had jumped in, making herself the shield, taking the direct hit on her back.
"You... big woman...!"
"...Towa-chan...?"
"Fumiko-san!!"
Even through the special material school uniform, it was a point-blank dual-handed explosion. The shock reached from her back to her internal organs, and even the tough Towa couldn't help collapsing on the spot. Falling sideways to protect her agonizing back, she violently retched from her mouth.
"Eh, Fumiko!?"
"Hey, are you okay!?"
"...You damn idiot, Todoroki! Don't take your eyes off him!"
Todoroki snapped to attention at Towa's angry shout despite her pain, but it was already too late. Kurogiri had retrieved Nomu along with the ice encasing it, dropping it with a thud right before Shigaraki.
Quickly, Shigaraki touched both sides of Nomu's head for just a moment. The parts around Nomu's ears crumbled into dust with a crack, and the metal scraps inside similarly turned to dust as they spilled out.
However, perhaps because the contact was brief, unlike with Eraser Head, the entire body didn't crumble, and regeneration immediately began in that area...
"Like hell I'll let you!!"
Midoriya, charging in at that moment, made eye contact with him.
This time it wasn't a feint or holding a stun grenade, he had genuinely kicked off the ground to punch Shigaraki away.
"I told you you're too slow...!?"
For the third time, Shigaraki thrust out his palm to catch Midoriya's fist, but suddenly his vision was covered in black.
The instant he saw Midoriya's battle cry, Towa had stood up through the pain, taken off her school uniform, and thrown it over him, covering both his vision and his crumbling hands with the 'Decay' power.
Naturally, even though it was special material, it couldn't withstand Shigaraki's 'Decay'. After serving as a brief obstruction, it crumbled away into tattered dust.
But in that momentary gap, when Shigaraki looked forward again... he saw Midoriya's fist, wreathed in sparks many times larger than before, already approaching his face.
His friends hurt, his teacher injured, his peaceful, happy time ruined, their lives about to be trampled as if in some game.
How could he lose to such despicable scum, how could he forgive them, how could he let them take anything more?
Thinking of his friends, burning with justice, Midoriya Izuku's heart as a Hero manifested its power in this moment, breaking through another wall of 'One For All'.
"Kurogiri! N—"
"DETROIT... SMAAAAASH!!"
The swung fist caught Shigaraki in the face, and carrying with it what could be called a shockwave rather than just an explosion, blasted him away along with Kurogiri who was behind him.
Crossing the central area, the two were blown all the way to the opposite wall of the facility, crashing violently.
Everyone present was stunned by the power of the finishing blow unleashed by Midoriya, who should have been kinder, plainer, and meeker than anyone else.
"Deku, you..."
"This is Midoriya's..."
"Seriously... seeing it directly is insane...!"
"Ribbit..."
Bakugo, Todoroki, Kirishima, and Tsuyu couldn't hide their astonishment.
And...
(...Midoriya...! I knew it... you...!!)
Towa, unable to completely conceal her joy amidst the shock, desperately tried to suppress the grin threatening to spread across her face as she looked at Midoriya showing a glimpse of his potential.
"Haa—... Haa—... Haa—...! ...!"
Midoriya himself was gritting his teeth, enduring the intense recoil pain that had finally reached the fist he'd swung, no, his entire arm.
(It's not... broken. Probably... but it hurts, it's hot... I can't move it at all...! Maybe it's better than before... but I can't say I controlled it at all...!)
Midoriya collapsed to his knees with a thud.
Seeing this, Kirishima understood the recoil was severe, and a beat later Towa also rushed over, but...
"You... damn... brat...!"
The voice coming from beyond the dust cloud where they'd been blown away... informed everyone present that their momentary lapse had been fatal.
Shigaraki, standing up from the dust cloud, had lost the hand-shaped mask covering his face. The bulging eyes hidden beneath it... and his furious expression were now more visible.
The left half of his face was badly swollen, probably from Midoriya's punch... and upon closer look, some of his teeth were broken. Whether from that hit or not, blood flowed from his nose and mouth... perhaps he couldn't speak properly, his voice was slightly harder to understand than before.
"Nomu! Kill him!"
Responding to that call... Nomu, with its ears and eardrums regenerated, leaped out from the dust cloud at the edge of their vision, raising its fist as it closed in on Midoriya.
"Midoriyaaa!"
"U, uooooooh, come at meee!!"
Instinctively protecting the immobile Midoriya, Towa hugged him to her chest, making her body a shield as if a mother protecting her child, determined to protect Midoriya even at the cost of herself.
Further shielding them, Kirishima stood in Nomu's path, hardening his entire body, bracing to receive the fist strike. Roaring with intense spirit to drive out fear and anxiety, he steeled himself.
But such measures couldn't possibly defend against that blow. If this continued, both Kirishima and Towa would die.
Realizing this, Midoriya tried to shout for them to run... when he heard it.
The voice they'd been desperately waiting for in this crisis.
"I'm sorry I'm late... leave the rest to me."
And he saw it.
The figure of the No. 1 Hero rushing past him at wind-like speed, appearing before Kirishima.
"DETROOOOOOIT... SMAAAAAASH!!"
All Might's swung fist, with power incomparable to Midoriya's strike... scattered a tremendous shockwave around them, and with just one blow, sent the punched Nomu crashing through the building's ceiling and flying into the distant sky.
As if to prove he was the real deal, before everyone rendered speechless by the doubly shocking scene, he said,
"Everything's alright now. Why is that...?
Because I am here."
•••
[< support me and access 25+ upcoming Parts >]