Chapter 20: Breaking Point: Ch 4
Random Bit: Ibara and Shoto have weirdly good character chemistry together.
-Rain of Sins-
-Breaking Point: Ch 4-
All for One, the most terrifying Villain in history, the man who had almost single handedly taken over Japan during the great collapse, the man who had wrought untold suffering throughout the world, the man who went toe to toe with All Might and stood his ground…
Smiled.
Now when someone like All for One was smiling, that was when sane people should start running, and this time was no exception.
The Villain hummed to himself as he 'watched' the screens in front of him. His tone, something between 'fascinated', 'smug' and 'humorous'.
Normally watching screens would be a difficult task, when you're missing both of your eyes, but All for One was All for One for a reason, and the multitude of quirks that he'd amassed over the centuries helped to compensate for his disabilities. And if he didn't have a quirk to help him with something, he just stole one.
The video currently playing, was the hijacked feed of the cameras in the USJ building. The video was being funneled directly to him, and when U.A. went to check the recordings, they would find them completely wiped of everything in the past 24 hours. He had originally done this so that he could monitor Tomura, and cover his student's tracks, but it had come in handy for an entirely different reason.
Ujiko's successor, the quirkless child… he had surpassed all of his expectations, and- dare he say, even impressed him.
That was an incredibly difficult thing to achieve.
Closing the feed with a wave of his hand, he used a quirk that allowed him to directly interact with computers to quickly pull up several sheets of information, containing seemingly random data that didn't relate, such as Hero patrols and prison occupancy.
"Endeavor, Endeavor, ah there you are, punctual as usual. Now let's see here, hmmm, he's a bit far away, so I'll need a way to distract the Heroes in this area, so… then while they're distracted with that, I'll have to warp someone expendable to start a prison break. Then it's just a matter of blocking off a few roads to direct the chase, and one final deadend at the destination… yes, that will work quite nicely."
All for One snapped his fingers, causing the tabs to minimize, and his voice call software to open. He had a few calls to make if this was going to work smoothly.
Impressing him was a very difficult thing to do, yes.
But it was also a very dangerous thing as well.
...It was time for stage two.
-Rain of Sins-
Izuku groaned as consciousness came to him.
Everything hurt.
Why did it hurt?
Oh. Right.
Izuku groaned a second time, as his memories came back to him.
"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" He muttered to himself before being interrupted by a coughing fit when a horrible pain laced up his side.
He had turned his back on that bird thing, like an idiot, and it had taken advantage of that. His memories were still mostly foggy, the initial impact must have dazed him, but the vague recollection of being squeezed so hard it hurt to breath, followed by weightlessness, and then hitting something really hard, painted a clear series of events.
Rolling over onto his stomach, a second set of violent coughs shook him, as he coughed up several globs of blood. Izuku winced as his side flared up again, and he tentatively brought a hand to his chest, noting that he most likely had several broken ribs.
Izuku wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and spat out the blood that had gotten stuck in his mouth, before gradually pushing himself up with the help of a nearby boulder.
Once he was on his feet again, albeit still leaning on the rock, he analized his environment.
The first thing of note was that it wasn't raining anymore, which meant he wasn't in the Downpour Zone anymore- a theory strengthened by the fact he could actually see the damn thing not too far away, with a small hole blown in the dome to lend credence to how he'd gotten out.
The second thing of note was the giant lake he'd landed not even five feet from, and was big and blue, but what really caught his attention was the commotion at the center. There was what appeared to be some kind of yacht, or small cruise ship, surrounded by a bunch of Villain-esq looking people trying to board it.
But before he could make out anything else, a giant surge of lighting erupted from the boat, arching across the lake's surface in a display of horrifying beauty, flash evaporating water into huge gouts of steam that caused a large rainbow. But Izuku wasn't busy thinking about how pretty the spectacle did or did not look.
'Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead.' He reeled back in shock. That zap definitely had its intended purpose, the Villains wouldn't be getting on the boat anytime soon, they wouldn't be getting on anything any time soon. They were deader than a doornail. Hell, he'd be just as dead if he'd fallen two feet to the left, and landed in shallow water.
First the shadow monster's rampage, now this? Jesus fucking Christ, this wasn't just a lack of restraint, it was straight up mass murder at this point! Why the Hell had he ever wanted to be in a room with these maniacs?!
Izuku shook his head, clearing away his thoughts. He didn't know, he didn't care right now, he just wanted to get out of here. He could think about everything later, rant until he was black and blue in the face, but he couldn't do that if he was dead.
He pushed himself off the rock and began the slow trudge towards the main center of the USJ, before freezing as an idea crossed his mind. Patting the pockets of his lab coat, he muttered to himself a bit before sighing in relief when he found he hadn't lost it.
He reached into the left pocket on the inside of his coat, and pulled out a small medical mask. It was beaten up, and most of the light blue coloring had been washed out on account of it being soaking wet, but it was still in one piece.
"It's one of those medical face masks that doctors wear, with your tendency to catch chemicals on fire, boss wanted me to give one to you ."
His conversation with Yuyara flashed through his mind as he slipped the medical mask on. Hopefully looking more like a medical worker, or some first aid person, would make some of these maniacs pause before going straight to "kill on sight".
-Rain of Sins-
"P-Please, I-I didn't mean it! I'm sorry!" The small-time Villain pleaded as he cowerded against a broken wall of the Ruins Zone.
"Don't worry child," Ibara smiled kindly down at the fallen man. "You need not plead for forgiveness, for I have already forgiven you."
"Wha-?" The thug looked up at her in confused bewilderment, before a swift vine struck him upside the head, knocking him out.
"Unfortunately my word is not enough for the law, and you will still need to stand before the jury," She bowed slightly. "Please forgive me."
"... forgiveness huh?" A cold voice echoed from behind her. "You seem awfully willing to just throw that word around."
"Shoto," Ibara sighed softly as she turned around "I say it only because it is true."
Standing in front of her was none other than Shoto Toderoki, staring at her with a raised eyebrow. The two had been dropped into the ruins zone together, and in the short time since the ruins had become even more ruinous, with entire blocks being frozen solid and others completely ripped apart as her vines tunneled through and overgrew them.
"I forgive anyone who does wrong, and I do so willingly. The Lord requests that we forgive one another, treat our neighbors as our brothers, and strive for peace." She smiled at him and tilted her head slightly.
"Sure," Shoto drawled uncertainly, "But forgiving the Villains that just attacked you? That doesn't sound like you're genuine."
"Of course I'm genuine." She huffed, as if almost offended. "It's easy for me to do, because I don't allow myself to hold onto anger. The Lord says we should not hate, and so I do everything I can to let mine go. Once I started doing so, I understood the Lord's mighty wisdom! Not holding onto anger has made me much happier as a person, and it's easy to forgive people if you do not feel any negative feelings towards them!"
"Sounds like you've just never been given a good reason to hate someone." Shoto scoffed.
"Perhaps…" She gave him an odd look before a flash of understanding dawned on her face. "Or maybe you value your hate too much to let it go," she smiled sadly at him "because it's all you have…"
The ice user was about to reply, with a comment as cold as his ice, but he was cut off by a pained scream from the central hub of the USJ.
The two Heroes instinctively whirled their heads to look in the direction the scream had come from, before turning back to each other, a wordless understanding passing between the two.
"We're continuing this conversation later!" Shoto pointed at her before starting to run towards the hub.
"Absolutely, but first let's help our classmates!" Ibara said as she took after him.
-Rain of Sins-
Ms Midorya hummed to herself as she vacuumed, in the middle of cleaning her apartment. Just a quick glance would tell you that she was doing a lot better than she had been just a few months prior.
Her face had more color to it, she walked around humming and singing, and she had lost quite a large chunk of weight. Granted she wasn't back to what she considered 'her prime', and she was still a bit chubby, but it nonetheless was a major improvement.
The two main changes were a change of diet and a massive reduction in stress, although it could just be rolled into the later because less stress meant she didn't stress eat anywhere near as often.
The cause of this, of course, was Izuku. Her baby boy, her precious boy, had finally found himself. Even though she had promised him full support in anything he did, even him being a Hero, her boy had surprised her and instead found a nice, stable, and safe job as a lab assistant. He had stopped getting in the middle of those dangerous Hero fights, standing as close as he could be to the danger.
He had finally grown up.
And while that saddened her to no end, just as it would any parent, he just seemed so much happier in a place that he could thrive and express his talents.
Granted there had been a few scares that had caused her stress to spike right back through the roof- most notably when her boy had taken experimental steroids to try the U.A. exam! But he had assured her that there weren't any negative side effects to his 'serum', and that he hadn't gotten into U.A. He later claimed he wasn't trying to get in at all, but used it as a way to personally test his technology.
But the occasional scare aside, all-in-all things were looking up, and she couldn't be prouder of her little boy.
Inko hummed a happy tune as she finished vacuuming, putting away the clunky machine and pulling out a good old duster. But before she could do anything with it, she was interrupted by a knock on the door.
Blinking in confusion, she put the duster down and wandered her way over to the door, opening it to be greeted by a bundle of familiar long mint green hair.
"Hey Ms M! How's it going?"
"Yuyara!" Inko clapped in surprise. "It's been so long, how have you been? Oh- where are my manners? Come in, come in. Can I offer you anything to drink?"
"A little tired from work, but other than that I've been fine." Yuyara smirked, leaning against the doorframe. "And I'd love to take you up on that, but I'm unfortunately not here for a visit," She held up a large brown bag, half open to reveal a stack of books and papers. "Izuku was busy today, so he asked if I could drop these off here for him."
The two had wound up running into each other awhile back due to their frequent proximity to Izuku, and had unexpectedly goten along surprisingly well, with Inko happy to finally meet a friend of her son's, and Yuyara having an extreme weak spot for anything directed at her with a 'family' vibe. (Something Inko's motherly nature definitely counted for)
"Oh, thank you, I'll be sure to put them in his room." Inko gratefully took the bag "But are you sure you don't want to come inside for a drink?"
"Nah," Yuyara waved a gloved hand dismissively. "I already have to deal with enough coffee on a daily basis as is. If I drink anymore, It'll give me a heart attack."
"You know coffee isn't the only drink in the world, right? I also have tea and some grape juice."
"Ugh," Yuyara cringed. "You can keep your grass water, I'll stick with my coffee."
"More tea for me then," Inko hummed. "But I didn't hear a no to the Grape Juice."
"Meh," The scientist shrugged. "Honestly I would if I could, but the Boss has me running ragged today, I just don't got the time. I'm here to drop off those papers for the kid, and even staying to chat is probably pushing it if I'm gonna get everything done today."
"Strange that you're putting so much emphasis on being busy today ." Inko smiled one of those patented mother smiles- the one that said she knew something.
"Heh, you got me," Yuyara smirked as she turned and started walking away. "I'll make sure to stop by later in the week, if only to give Green a hard time."
"Feel free to drop by anytime, my door is always open for a friend of Izuku's," Ms Midorya smiled warmly, before her head shot up as she remembered something.
"Oh, wait! I almost forgot! Please wait just two seconds!" Inko ducked back inside for a short while, heading over to the kitchen, before emerging with two paper bags.
"Here," She handed them to Yuyara, and answered her question before they could ask. "They're lunches. Izuku was in such a rush this morning that he forgot to eat breakfast, so he's bound to be hungry and I decided to whip him up something special."
"Ok, yea, I get that," The mint haired girl held up the second bag, one with Ujiko's name written on it "But why is there one for the boss?"
Inko sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose "That silly old man is just like Izuku, he'll get so wrapped up in his work that he forgets to eat!" She frowned and poked the bag. "Also, tell him that he needs to come over for dinner sometime, so that we can talk about what all he has Izuku getting up to in that lab, I don't want my son doing anything too dangerous."
"Didn't I already do that for you though? ...like twice?"
"W-Well yes," Inko puffed out a cheek and pouted. "But he distracted me the whole time with his stories, and interesting conversations."
"Whatever you say Ms M." Yuyara laughed and dodged a playful swat as she made her way towards the stairs- waving over her shoulder as she left.
Inko huffed, but smiled as she let out a sigh and closed the door. She really shouldn't worry so much about Izuku, he had stopped trying to throw himself in front of danger, but she couldn't help it, he was still her baby boy.
She shook her head, and lightly slapped her cheeks.
Izuku was fine! It wasn't like he was fighting Villains or anything!
-Rain of Sins-
' What the hell? ' Izuku thought to himself in panic as he huddled behind a large rock, unknowingly the exact same rock that Tsu and Mineta had been hiding behind just a few minutes prior.
In the middle of the hub laid a myriad of, hopefully, unconscious villains. Almost 40 of the poor men and women, beaten and strewn about like used children's toys. But what really caught Izuku's attention was the pro Hero Eraser Head in the center of it all, beaten, bloodied, and thoroughly defeated.
Also in the center was a blueish-white haired Villain covered in hands, with two Heroes in training laid out around his feet. One was a green costumed girl, who was curled up, clutching a wound on her right side that Izuku couldn't see. And the other was a purple midget, standing protectively in front of the girl with tears of fright streaming down his face.
But what also caught Izuku's attention was the open staircase to his left, and the large, completely unguarded, and oh-so-beautiful doors at the top, that promised an escape from this madness.
Izuku looked from the Villain, to the doors, then back to the Villain, and then back to the doors, while biting his lip.
Now there was a decision here, one of those finicky moral questions that would have stumped a lesser man. Fortunately Izuku was a man of science- of logic! And some basic deduction, and logical thinking made it obvious that, even though the purple-grape-diaper-boy didn't look all that impressive, he was still accepted into U.A. which meant that he was able to pass the combat trial. And if he could destroy tens of giant robots, surely he could handle one lowly thug.
But almost as if in direct response to Izuku's reasoning, another large group of Villains emerged from the landslide area, and entered the main hub.
"Shit."
Izuku was torn. That feeling, that burning desire in his heart, the one that he had blindly followed for so long was back with a vengeance, stronger than it had ever been before. Hammering against his chest, flaring up in a blazing inferno and screaming at him to run out there and do something, to save someone!
His mind clamped down on it, the cold logic that had been drummed into him over the past months telling him to stop standing around like an idiot, to use the distraction for all it was worth, to run out those doors and never look back.
He needed to get out there and save them!
No, that would just get him killed! He needed to get out of this death trap and notify the proper authorities!
He couldn't leave an innocent person to die!
Yea, just as "innocent" as that shadow thing , which attempted to KILL him!
THIS IS MY CHANCE TO BE A HERO!
SHUT UP! I GAVE UP ON THAT JUST LIKE THEY GAVE UP ON ME!
Izuku grit his teeth and clenched his hands, gripping the stone so hard that small cracks began to form. But with his head down, he missed the Villain's hand shooting forward.
...but he couldn't miss the bone chilling scream that followed.
The scientist's head shot up, and he watched in abject horror as the small boy's face seemed to dissolve like something out of a horror movie. Using his arms as leverage, Izuku vaulted over the rock, his eyes darting back and forth from the Villain and the doors, still torn on what to do. But before he could do anything, his choice was made for him.
With the force of a hurricane, and the wind force to match it, the doors of the USJ, his escape, were blasted open, along with a decent segment of the wall around them. A large dust cloud ballooned around the entrance, but even that couldn't completely obscure the huge figure stomping forward.
"YOU DON'T NEED TO FEAR ANYMORE… FOR I AM HERE!"
But fear… fear was the only thing Izuku felt at that moment.
All Might, the strongest man in the world, took one step forward, and then blurred .
A huge gust of wind blasted through the area, as the mere speed at which All Might was moving, displaced the air with so much force that Izuku had to hold an arm up to shield his face. Squinting through the wind, he could see the effects of All Might, but not the man himself.
A scream here, a Villain sent flying there, Izuku whipped his head back and forth trying to keep up, but he was always seemingly just a split second too late, and only the aftermath was there.
To his left.
To his right.
Behind him.
Izuku whipped his head around and began hyperventilating as Villain after Villain was struck down around him, and the students seemingly just disappeared when he looked away. Even with everything his serum had given him, he couldn't keep up!
But why!? Where was he!? Where was All Mig-
But then the wind stopped.
And a shadow materialized in front of him.
For a scant few milliseconds he worried that the shadow beast had caught up with him, but he quickly realized it was much, much worse.
It was an absolute Titan of a man, one who towered so high over Izuku that he obscured the lights above them as he leaned over. It was All Might, with his arm cocked back for one of his smashes, and his signature grin missing, replaced with an angry snarl.
Izuku… Even with all his work, with his serum, and unfathomable hours of analyzing, Izuku did the only thing he could do in this situation.
He closed his eyes and whispered.
"Mom, Ujiko… I'm so sorry."
The fist connected, and produced such a powerful shockwave that it blasted away the rubble and vaporized the rock that Izuku had been hiding behind.
…
?
…
??
…
???
"I'm not… dead?"
Izuku carefully peeled one of his eyes open to see that a different shade of black obscuring his vision, not one of shadows, but of black, leathery scales. He stumbled backwards, gasping heavily, eyes wide, and tears of relief beginning to form.
All Might gawked in open shock at the monster that had just seemingly appeared out of thin air, and took one of his strongest attacks without so much as flinching.
And Nomu, Jeremy, growled- actually growled at the man who dared attack his master.
The number one Hero blinked and took a moment to compose himself after being overextended, but Jeremy decided that he wasn't feeling that courteous, and returned the favor with a blistering right hook of his own. One that caught All Might square in the jaw and sent him careening backwards.
The pro quickly collected himself and twisted in the air to land on his feet. He rubbed his cheek and eyed his opponent warilly, choosing to ignore the Villain in the coat scampering away, in favor of the bigger threat.
All Might scowled.
Nomu growled.
And the two rushed forward.
-End Chapter-
Ok, I lied, there's two more chapters of this arc.
It was only supposed to be this one, but then as I was rewriting it, I was like "I can do a better fight scene than this", and then I decided to add in a bit to check up with Shoto, and then the aftermath of the whole thing suddenly doubled in length, and it felt like way too much crammed into one chapter, with things jumping all over, so I'm cutting it in two.
*Sips Hot Chocolate*
Also yes I know that how much Izuku is swearing is out of character, but that should tell you just how stressed out this whole thing has him.
Also Also, writing All Might's overwhelming strength from the opposing side, is kinda fun, but also gives off an odd amount of horror-fic vibes.
AND JEREMY RETURNS! (just a tad smarter than in cannon) HIP HIP! HOORAY!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone