….
Most of Class 1-A had descended on Kiyashi Ward Shopping Mall.
Right after their arrival, the group didn't waste any ti and had dissolved into smaller pairs. And once that was finished, few decided to go off individually for their personal shoppings.
Midoriya and Uraraka had ended up together in the general goods section, walking aimlessly.
"I want to buy so wrist weights." Midoriya said, checking his list. "A bit heavier. My current set isn't giving enough resistance for the new training regin."
He looked at her. "What about you, Uraraka?"
Uraraka opened her mouth to answer and made the mistake of looking at him directly.
The blush arrived with the subtlety of a fire alarm.
"Bug repellent!" she said very quickly. "I need to go find it, and it's probably in a different section. I will et you later. Bye!"
She was gone before Midoriya had finished processing the exchange.
He stood in the general goods aisle and looked at the space where she had been.
Then he looked at his list.
Heavy wrist weights.
He found the sporting goods section without difficulty.
…and was in the process of comparing two options.
"No way. Izuku Midoriya?"
….
The man who called him was hooded, face mostly obscured, making him mysterious.
However, the atmosphere around him seed contrary and so did his body language.
"I recognised you from the U.A Sports Festival." the man said, moving around to face him. "I watched the whole thing, and you were incredible." He paused. "And then you also saved those kids from the orphanage from that Nomu attack. I couldn't believe it when I heard."
Midoriya smiled reflexively, the automatic social response, then it stopped.
He replayed the sentence.
The orphanage kids?
The Sports Festival was public, and his performance there was aired on television, and even saved it across every hero analysis platform in the country.
That wasn't the part that had stopped him.
The orphanage incident, and especially his and his friends' involvent wasn't public knowledge.
The responding officer had been explicit about the details being managed, and civilian exposure minimised with the specifics not for public circulation.
So how did this man know?
Maybe it was soone from the orphanage itself, a staff mber, soone with a legitimate connection who had heard through a channel he hadn't considered.
Midoriya ran through the possibilities in the two seconds he had before the man stepped closer, and the proximity registered in an entirely different way.
Not recognition, but a particular alarm that bypassed the analytical brain and went straight to the part that was older and faster and less interested in charitable interpretations.
He stepped back, created distance and kept his expression even.
"You're unnecessarily sharp, Midoriya." the voice changed when it said this.
And in the movent of turning, in the fraction of a second where the hood shifted and the angle changed, Midoriya got a partial view of the face underneath.
He had seen that face before!!
Even though it wasn't one-on-one, and was from quite afar, he could never forget the man who orchestrated the USJ attack.
In particular, the dead give away a hand covering his face.
Shigaraki.
….
[Few Minutes Earlier]
Three floors up, Dabi's coffee cup hit the table harder than intended.
He had been watching and tracking student movents through the mall with the kind of paranoid vigilance that ca from knowing the League of Villains' patterns too well.
And there… a hooded figure approaching Midoriya.
Dabi was already on his feet, phone out, thumb moving to Kamui Woods' contact before the cup finished rattling.
Kamui had one job: evacuate bystanders in one clean sweep the mont things went hot.
Stain had a different role: To eliminate or restrain the main target.
That was why Dabi hadn't moved imdiately or reacted the second Tomura Shigaraki appeared.
He was waiting for Stain to get into position, and for every piece to align before triggering the trap.
He also trusted Midoriya not to drop his guard around a stranger, and even from this distance Dabi could see the subtle change in his posture proving that trust had been justified.
The preparation was finished and all that remained was timing.
….
Below, Shigaraki understood his cover was blown as Midorya already recognised him…
So he decided to go for Plan B and it was simple.
Shigaraki's hand was already moving toward Midoriya's neck this ti with force, as killing intent ca off him in waves that Dabi could feel from the third floor railing.
Midoriya's shoulders tensed, body already shifting into a fighting stance, and the first person to move was Stain.
The specially-made shuriken left his hand with lethal precision, aid at Shigaraki's neck.
The villain tried to dodge at the last second, managed to avoid the fatal strike but couldn't completely evade.
The blade kissed his cheek and it was enough.
The shuriken returned to Stain's hand, then he licked the blood from the blade without hesitation.
His quirk activated.
Shigaraki's body paralyzed, but he wouldn't understand that for another two seconds, and in that small interval, two things happened simultaneously:
First: Kamui Woods' quirk exploded through the east entrance like a forest deciding to relocate.
Imdiately, massive branches shot upward and outward, not attacking, but creating instant barriers; sectioning off the crowd; establishing clear zones and escape routes with precision that only ca from extensive disaster response training.
Second: Before the barriers could completely form, Dabi vaulted the third-floor railing.
His signature Blue flas erupted from his feet, controlling his descent, adjusting trajectory mid-fall with surgical precision and he landed exactly where he needed to be.
Directly in front of Shigaraki's face.
His fla-covered fist was already moving, a full-power strike aid to drive Shigaraki's head straight through the floor.
The kind of impact that would shatter concrete for fifty ters in every direction.
"You–!" Shigaraki's eyes widened as Dabi's hand closed in, just centiters from his face.
He tried to move but couldn't and only then he realized his body wouldn't respond to commands; paralyzed by Stain's quirk activating in his bloodstream.
Doesn't matter, Shigaraki thought with vicious satisfaction. Whoever touched is turning to dust–
But Dabi's hand was covered in flas.
Blue fire that burned hot enough to prevent physical contact, creating a thermal barrier that would vaporize skin before Decay could activate.
…a point-blank attack.
Just death incoming at the speed of superheated combustion.
If this had happened a month ago, Dabi wouldn't have pushed this hard from the start or committed such lethal force so imdiately.
But he was pissed.
This bastard had tried to target his family, had gotten close to his apartnt, and forced Dabi to feel that cold, sickening fear that ca with realizing the people he cared about were vulnerable.
That anger had been inside him all this ti, controlled but not extinguished.
So he had decided: no more holding back.
This attack might not kill Shigaraki, the man had surprising durability, but it would definitely leave him half-dead at minimum.
One inch away from contact–
Dabi's spider-sense scread a warning that made his teeth ache.
He twisted mid-attack, using his flas to alter trajectory, throwing himself sideways with everything he had.
A hand erged from a purple void that hadn't existed a heartbeat before.
Fingers reached out, and would have touched Dabi's shoulder, his neck, sothing vital.
Instead they closed on empty air as Dabi rolled away, already reigniting flas for a second strike.
"You dodged that?" the voice from the void carried genuine surprise. "Impressive reaction speed."
Dabi didn't need to see his face to recognize that voice.
"All For One." he said quietly, body coiled and ready.
The surprise in the void intensified. "Oh? So you do know about . Did All Might tell you?" A pause, considering. "How interesting. You're not what I expected, Dabi. Or perhaps should I refer to you as, Toya Todoroki."
Around them, the mall had descended into chaos.
Kamui's wooden barriers contained civilians in sectioned-off areas, people pressed against the barriers trying to see what was happening.
Stain was there too, helping control the crowd with sharp commands and an expression that suggested anyone who panicked would regret it.
"What the hell?!" A civilian woman scread. "Is that a villain attack?!"
"Everyone stay calm!" Kamui's voice bood from the entrance. "Heroes are responding! Please move toward the marked exits in an orderly–"
"QUIET!" Stain's voice cut through the panic like a blade. "You want to be a hero? Act like it. Move. Now. No screaming or running. Just move."
The civilians, shocked by the sheer authority in his voice, actually obeyed.
anwhile, in the center of the combat zone, Dabi and All For One stood face-to-face across fifteen ters of evacuated floor space.
Midoriya still didn't register what exactly was happening here but One For All was already crackling across his body at 35%, ready to intervene but smart enough to recognize this was beyond his current capabilities.
Shigaraki was still paralyzed, rage and frustration evident on his frozen face.
And Dabi…
Dabi smiled, cold, sharp and absolutely furious.
He was actually aiming for the small fish but… Who knows he might have caught a whale instead.
.
….
[To be continued…]
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