"Honestly! You kids will send me to an early grave!"
Recovery Girl didn't wait for a response. She drove her needle in with a sharp motion, the faint glow of her syringe casting shadows across her furrowed face as she pressed the healing ointment over his chest with a pressure that left no room for argument.
Zoro didn't move. Didn't groan. He just stared at his bandaged hands as if trying to remember how he'd ended up here. Beside him on the wall, his three swords rested in silence, Wado Ichimonji, Sandai Kitetsu, and Yubashiri, still inside its quiet black sheath.
The sheath. How did he block my strikes with just his sheath?
The door slid open. All Might entered with his slightly hunched shoulders, away from work, he always looked smaller than he should. He threw an apologetic glance at Recovery Girl, who responded with a snort and turned her back.
He approached Zoro and stood. Silence.
Zoro raised his head first. "How does he do it? Yoroi. He blocks everything with his sheath like the blade is just decoration."
All Might sat down slowly in the chair across from him, his eyes on Yubashiri. "You tested it yourself."
"I tested it and got broken."
"No." All Might nodded toward the black blade. "You tested it and survived. That's a big difference." He paused a moment. "Yoroi has no Quirk. Never had one. He made the world believe his Haki and his experience were his Quirk, and everyone believed him."
Zoro closed his eyes. His fingers curled slowly over his knees.
"The summer training camp is coming soon." All Might stood. "What you're looking for, you won't find it in this room."
He left. Nothing more.
Zoro stayed alone with the quiet sound of Recovery Girl's breathing in the background, his eyes still fixed on Yubashiri.
I'll surpass the sheath. I'll surpass the blade.
Aizawa walked in with his smile leading the way. Nothing signals danger more than Aizawa smiling.
He announced the news in one quiet sentence: everyone was going to the summer camp. Those who failed the practical exam would pay double the price there. He left before anyone had time to complain.
After class, Kirishima stood on top of his chair with both arms spread wide. "Kiyashi Mall! Tomorrow! Who's with me?"
"Trivial nonsense." Bakugo slammed his bag shut and walked out without looking back, the door trembling behind him.
Todoroki picked up his bag calmly. "I have a visit." One sentence, then he walked away.
Midoriya turned toward Zoro. "What about you?"
Zoro yawned, looking toward the window. "My swords need oil and a whetstone. I'll come."
The noise hit Zoro in the face the moment he walked into Kiyashi Mall, a suffocating mix of thousands of voices, heavy footsteps, and the mingled scents of cheap food and perfume. Without his swords, everything felt lighter than it should. Lighter and more fragile.
The three walked together, Midoriya talking about equipment, Uraraka listening with her cheeks slowly reddening every time Midoriya got a little too close. Then Midoriya mentioned something about Aoyama's hints.
Uraraka stopped. Her fingers tightened on her bag strap. "I, I'm going to go look at something over there!" She pointed in a random direction and walked away quickly before anyone could respond.
Midoriya stared after her, confused. "Did I say something wrong?"
He turned toward Zoro. The empty space beside him needed no explanation.
On the third floor, Zoro stood in front of a glass display case showing Japanese whetstones. His fingers touched the cold glass as he compared them with his eyes, this one too heavy, that one with grains too far apart.
Then his fingers stopped.
Something below, right at the fountain on the ground floor. Not a sound. Not a movement. Something in the air itself, heavy and rotten like the smell of old blood.
Observation Haki.
He turned his back to the display case and ran.
He jumped from the first staircase directly, cut through a group of startled shoppers, and pushed past the crowd without apology. At the fountain, the picture was clear from ten meters away:
Shigaraki. His hand around Midoriya's neck. Four fingers only, the fifth hanging in the air as a silent reminder.
He forced him to sit, and on the wooden bench beside them, his fifth finger rested for just one second. The armrest crumbled silently into gray dust that fell onto the tiles.
"Stain.." Shigaraki began in a voice too quiet for anyone but Midoriya to hear, "was just bait. A magnet that gathered monsters like Dabi and Toga for me." He fixed Midoriya with eyes calm in the most terrifying way. "But I've understood the truth now. For this false society to collapse, the symbol must be crushed first. All Might." He paused. "You understand that, don't you? You're closest to him."
Shigaraki caught a glimpse of Uraraka approaching from a distance, her steps quick and her face pale. Then something else. Far heavier.
He raised his head.
Zoro stood five meters away. He didn't run. Didn't shout. He just stood and pushed.
The pressure spread in silence, an invisible wave that made the air itself grow heavier. Nearby shoppers drifted back without knowing why. A small child began to cry.
Their eyes met.
No weapon. No activated Quirk. Just Zoro standing with eyes empty in the wrong way. Not the emptiness of indifference, but the emptiness of someone who had already decided.
Seconds passed.
Shigaraki slowly lifted his hand from Midoriya's neck, as if setting something heavy down on a table. He stepped back once, twice, three times, into the crowd that knew nothing. Before disappearing completely, he turned one last time.
He drew his finger slowly across his throat. Eyes on Zoro alone.
Then the crowd swallowed him.
Uraraka rushed to Midoriya and grabbed his arm with both hands. "Are you okay?! Who was that?!"
Midoriya didn't answer right away. His hand rose slowly to his neck, fingers touching the spot where Shigaraki's fingers had rested. He looked toward the crowd, then toward Zoro.
Zoro wasn't looking at him. His eyes were still fixed on the point where the shadow had vanished.
The alarm sirens went off before any of them moved.
Police spread through the mall within minutes. Shoppers were evacuated amid a panic no one truly understood. The massive glass doors were locked shut, and the noisy place turned into an abandoned fortress under cold yellow lights.
In the interrogation room, Midoriya sat with his body still trembling slightly. Before him, Detective Tsukauchi wrote without stopping, and behind him All Might stood with an expression that revealed nothing.
"He's changed." Midoriya said in a quiet voice. "Shigaraki is no longer that random villain from the USJ. He's found conviction." He raised his eyes toward All Might. "And his only target now is you."
Tsukauchi set down his pen. "The League of Villains has become organized. Stain was only the beginning."
All Might said nothing. He just looked toward the window, and something in his shoulders bent a little more than usual.
Hours later, Midoriya walked out to find his mother, Inko, waiting. She threw herself on him before he could open his mouth, choking out broken words. In the police car cutting through the city lights, Midoriya closed his eyes.
It won't end here.
The room was alive. Machines, tubes, the sound of mechanical breathing filling the silence. On the only lit screen, footage from the Sports Festival played without sound.
Zoro falling. Zoro standing. Zoro falling again and coming back.
Shigaraki entered without a sound and stood in the middle of the room, his fingers curling and uncurling.
"Tomura."
The voice came from no specific place, it spread through the room as if it were part of the air itself.
"I saw him." Shigaraki said without raising his head.
"That's not enough." The screen froze on Zoro's face, a blank expression, eyes half-closed, as if asleep and awake at once. "This power doesn't belong to any known classification. No Quirk, no formula, no logic that explains it." A brief silence filled with the sounds of machines. "Bodies I don't understand bother me, Tomura."
Shigaraki finally raised his head. In his eyes was something resembling curiosity, and something else far colder.
"The summer camp."
"Yes." The voice didn't change in tone. "Bring him. Alive, Tomura." A pause. "Corpses don't answer my questions."
Shigaraki smiled slowly. His fingers stopped moving.
"As you wish, Sensei."
.
.
For Advanced Chapters:
The summer camp is in the midst of its tumultuous events. What will Zoro do, and what will happen to him and the other students?
Dabi devised a plan to restrain Zoro and isolate him from his friends, preventing him from rescuing Bakugo, who was also a target of the attack.
Chapter 75 is Available now
The fall of Mustard and Moonfish
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