….
Outside the monumental fifty-foot ice barrier, the staging zone was in complete disarray.
Paramedics, police officers, and civilian observers stared up at the sky in shock.
Only moments before, the live broadcast had shown All Might and Dabi holding total dominance over the field.
Victory had felt absolute.
Yet, in the blink of an eye, the colosseum floor had shattered into rot, Tartarus prisoners had appeared out of nowhere, and a heavy, bleeding silhouette had come hurtling straight over the crest of the glacial wall.
BOOM!
Endeavor slammed hard into the asphalt fifty meters behind the police barricades, skidding across the concrete.
While the surrounding hero trainees and emergency personnel stood frozen in confusion, trying to comprehend why Dabi had just unceremoniously tossed the Number Two Hero out of the arena, only a couple understood the exact situation.
Midoriya's wide, green eyes shrunk to pinpricks.
Having learned how All For One's quirk-stealing ability from the memories, the sudden extinguishing of Endeavor's flames right after those black-and-red rivets struck his spine can't be coincidence.
'No... it can't be...'
Midoriya thought, horror surging through his blood.
Without a second thought, he made a run for it, sprinting straight toward the smoking crash site.
"Hey! Midoriya!" Kirishima yelled from behind, thoroughly bewildered. "Where are you going?! What's wrong with you?!"
"Midoriya, halt! That area isn't secure!" Iida shouted, but still sprinted after him, completely unable to understand why their classmate was recklessly rushing toward the Flame Hero.
Simultaneously, a yellow blur flashed through the air as Gran Torino bounced off the tops of emergency vehicles, landing at the crash site at the exact same moment as Midoriya.
In the center of the crater, Endeavor groaned heavily.
Blood seeped from the twin puncture wounds in his back, staining the torn fabric of his hero suit a dark crimson. Yet, through sheer willpower, the man forced his trembling arms to push off the ground.
He rose to his feet, unsteady but upright.
Glaring back at the towering ice wall, Endeavor clenched his fists, preparing to ignite his flames and leap straight back over the barrier to re-enter the fight.
Grab!
A small, gloved hand tightly caught Endeavor's wrist.
Midoriya stood beside him, gasping for air. "Wait... Endeavor... You can't go back there!"
Endeavor paused, glaring down at the green-haired boy with incredulous indignation.
To the Number Two Hero in the nation, the situation was beyond ridiculous.
An unlicensed student; a mere child who hadn't even graduated his first year of hero high school; was physically holding him back and giving him orders?
Endeavor forcefully yanked his wrist free, dismissing the boy without a second glance.
"Get your hands off me, kid."
Before Endeavor could take another step, Gran Torino landed heavily in front of him, his yellow cape fluttering in the chilly wind.
"Just do as the kid says, Enji." He said, his face dark and unusually solemn. "This is not a fight you can handle... especially not in your current situation."
Endeavor gritted his teeth as he tried to push past the veteran hero. "Current situation? Don't be ridiculous, Torino! This small back wound is nothing! I can still move, I can still fight—"
"Midoriya! What are you doing?!" Uraraka called out as the rest of Class 1-A finally caught up, surrounding the crater.
"Deku, step back!" Bakugo barked, his brows furrowed in confusion and irritation as he looked between Midoriya and the bleeding Flame Hero. "Stop bothering the old man! He's trying to get back over the wall!"
"Wait! Please, everyone, just listen–!" Midoriya pleaded, his voice cracking as he reached out to stop Endeavor once more.
"You lost your Quirk, Flame Hero."
Gran Torino's voice cut through the air like a guillotine.
"This is your dead end."
The entire staging zone fell into a silence.
Endeavor froze mid-stride, his boot hovering inches above the cracked pavement.
Behind him, Bakugo, Shoto, Iida, Momo, and Kirishima all went rigid; their minds wildly scrambled to process the words Gran Torino had just uttered.
And slowly, their eyes drifted to Endeavor's face and shoulders.
The roaring, iconic beard of intense crimson fire that had illuminated the Number Two Hero for over two decades... was completely gone.
"W-What...?" Shoto whispered, his throat suddenly bone-dry as he stared at his father's bare, unlit face. "Lost his... Quirk...?"
Endeavor slowly turned around. His face was twisted into a mask of bloodthirsty rage, his eyes burning with fury as he pointed a trembling finger at Gran Torino.
"Shut your mouth!" Endeavor roared, his voice echoing across the parking lot. "How dare you speak such utter nonsense! I am Endeavor! I am the second-ranked Pro Hero! A minor hit from a villain's rivet won't–!"
He stopped.
The words caught in his throat, suffocating him from the inside out.
Because at the back of his mind... beneath the screaming denial, the pride, and the rage... he felt it.
Or rather, he felt the terrible, hollow nothingness.
It was a sensation Endeavor had never experienced in his forty-five years of existence. Ever since he was a child, [Hellflame] had been a living, breathing organ inside his soul; an internal furnace that hummed beneath his sternum, warming his blood with every heartbeat.
Now, as he desperately willed the pilot light in his heart to ignite... there was only silence.
No heat, spark, or response.
It was as if an entire biological sense had been excised from his brain.
Endeavor looked down at his own trembling hands, his vision swimming as a cold blindness washed over his soul.
The fire that had defined his identity, fueled his dark obsession, and burned his family to ash... was simply gone.
….
Endeavor stood frozen in the staging area, staring down at his trembling, unlit hands.
Gran Torino's words echoed in his skull: "You lost your Quirk, Flame Hero. This is your dead end."
"No..." Endeavor rasped, his knuckles whitening as he clenched his fists. "No... that's impossible. A Quirk isn't something you can just... take..."
Suddenly, a harsh flicker of light caught his eye.
High atop a commercial building overlooking the staging plaza, a massive public news screen was broadcasting the live feed from the media helicopters hovering directly over Kamino Ward.
Endeavor's head snapped up, his eyes locking onto the screen.
Down in the basin, the scene was horrifyingly clear.
Dabi's sweep had been absolute.
The horde of liberated Tartarus prisoners, Nine, and his squad were all completely locked down; their bodies flash-frozen from the waist down.
Only two threats remained mobile on the field.
High on a marooned, crumbling mound of stone severed from the main floor, Tomura Shigaraki was thrashing like a rabid beast, his [Decay] hitting the gap Dabi had carved and stalling out entirely.
And in the center crater stood the Symbol of Evil.
All Might was already closing in to deliver the final strike, his prime golden aura blazing. But as Endeavor watched the screen, something on All For One's battered body made his breath catch in his throat.
From the puncture wounds along All For One's back and right arm, a sudden, blinding eruption of light tore through the purple warp mist.
It wasn't a generic fire Quirk, or the blue plasma Dabi wielded, nor was it an ordinary orange combustion.
It was a roaring, violent pillar of intense crimson fire.
The flames coiled around All For One's arm, crackling with intense and superheated pressure. The exact hue, the exact thermal density, the exact signature heat that had illuminated Japan for over twenty years... was now in the hands of the monster.
Endeavor's pupils shrunk to microscopic pins.
"That... that fire..."
He whispered, his voice cracking into a hollow, soundless gasp.
Beside him, Shoto's eyes widened too as he looked from the screen back to his father's bare, unlit face.
"Dad..."
Shoto breathed, the word heavy with a cold dread he had never felt before.
The visual proof slammed into Endeavor's mind like a sledgehammer.
The sharp, stinging impact in his spine... the sudden, unnatural coldness beneath his sternum... the complete silence where his internal furnace used to burn…
It hadn't been a physical blow.
All For One hadn't just attacked him from behind; he had stolen [Hellflame].
The very foundation of Endeavor's life, his decades of ruthless obsession, his blood, his pride, and his family's curse... had been cleanly ripped from his DNA and was now being paraded on live television as a stolen weapon to strike down All Might.
Endeavor staggered backward, his knees buckling under a weight far heavier than any physical injury.
He collapsed onto one knee in the dust, staring up at the screen in complete, broken horror as his stolen fire burned in the hands of a demon.
.
….
[To be continued…]
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