Chapter 22: The Green Comet.
The world, for a moment, seemed to hold its breath. From their vantage point on the high ridge, Rock Lee and Shoto Todoroki watched the scene in the central plaza unfold with a horrifying clarity. The air was still, save for the faint groans of the defeated villains scattered across the stone floor. The water in the Flood Zone lay placid. And in the center of it all, the hulking, bird-like monster, the Nomu, stood over the broken form of their teacher. Shota Aizawa was motionless, a discarded toy in the hands of an abomination.
Tomura Shigaraki, the villain with the dismembered hand obscuring his face, giggled. It was a dry, grating sound that scraped at the nerves. He scratched his neck furiously, his red eyes darting around before they settled on the three students huddled in terror at the water's edge. Midoriya, Asui, and Mineta were paralyzed, small and fragile in the face of such monstrous power.
"Oh, look, Nomu," Shigaraki rasped, his voice dripping with gleeful malice. "It seems we missed a few of the small fry. Let's go say hello. It's time to clear the stage before the final boss arrives."
He gestured, and the Nomu, with a speed that defied its massive frame, turned and lunged towards the terrified students. Its fist, the size of a small car, was raised, ready to obliterate them.
Time seemed to slow down for Rock Lee. He saw the impending doom. He saw his classmates, their faces pale with a terror he had never known. He saw his teacher, defeated and bleeding. In that infinitesimal slice of a second, all the complex strategies and analytical thoughts burned away, leaving behind a single, primal, and absolute truth.
I must act.
His mind screamed in protest. Sora-sensei warned me. My body is not ready. The cost of this power is too great. I cannot rely on this!
But another, louder voice, the voice of his very soul, answered back. My teacher fought to protect us. My friends are about to die. If I wait, if I hesitate, I am not worthy of the uniform I wear. A hero saves people. That is all that matters.
He closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, making his choice. He would not wait for a hero. He would become one.
"The First Gate: Gate of Opening! OPEN!"
A tremor ran through his body as the natural inhibitors in his brain were blown away. The world snapped into a new, sharper focus.
"The Second Gate: Gate of Healing! OPEN!"
A wave of revitalizing energy surged through him, washing away the fatigue from his earlier fight and preparing his body for the ordeal to come.
"The Third Gate: Gate of Life! OPEN!"
The change was immediate and dramatic. His skin flushed a deep, alarming red as his heart rate and blood circulation exploded to superhuman levels. A thick mist of steam began to vent from his pores, shrouding him in a shimmering heat haze. The very pressure of his presence caused the pebbles around his feet to vibrate.
Todoroki, who had been about to unleash his own ice attack, stopped dead. He stared at the boy next to him, his usual icy composure shattered by utter disbelief. The sheer force, the raw, unadulterated life energy pouring off of Lee was palpable, a physical force that pushed against him. "What... what is that power?" he breathed, his voice barely a whisper.
The Nomu was just meters from Tsuyu Asui, its shadow falling over her. But it would not reach her.
A blur of green and red, leaving a trail of steam in its wake, shot down from the cliffside. Lee covered the distance in a single, impossible bound, appearing between the monster and his classmates like a thunderbolt. He didn't hesitate. His leg, glowing with a faint reddish light, swung up in a powerful arc, smashing into the Nomu's side.
CRACK! The sound echoed through the plaza, a testament to the incredible force of the blow. But the Nomu only shifted its weight by a few inches. It turned its head, its dead, vacant eyes fixing on this new, noisy insect that had dared to interrupt it.
Lee landed, digging a small trench in the stone with the force of his halt. He grit his teeth. It's not enough!
He exploded forward again, a furious storm of kicks and punches. Leaf Whirlwind! His movements were a blur, a continuous flurry of strikes hammering against the Nomu's dark flesh. It was like striking a mountain made of shock-absorbing gelatin. His blows, each powerful enough to shatter steel, were simply… nullified. The Nomu stood impassively, weathering the assault, before swinging a massive, club-like fist. Lee, using his incredible speed, dodged backwards, the blow pulverizing the ground where he had stood a moment before.
He stood panting, steam pouring from his body, his mind racing. This creature… it was designed to fight All Might. It negates physical impact. My strength, even with the Third Gate, is insufficient. To stop it, to even slow it down… I must offer more. I must pay a higher price.
He looked at his trembling hands, then at the terrified faces of his friends. He made his final decision.
"I may not be able to defeat you," he said, his voice low and strained, but ringing with an unbreakable resolve. "But I will not allow you to harm my friends!" He took a deep, shuddering breath, a pained grimace on his face as he prepared to cross a threshold from which he had never returned.
"Even if it breaks my body completely! THE FOURTH GATE: GATE OF PAIN! OPEN!"
It was not a release. It was a detonation.
The world erupted in a pillar of brilliant, violent blue light. The azure aura was no longer a subtle shimmer; it was a raging inferno of visible energy, pouring off Lee's body in furious, crackling waves. His skin, already red, deepened to a dark, angry crimson, as if he were burning from the inside out. The veins on his temples and arms bulged, throbbing with a pressure they were never meant to contain. The very ground beneath his feet spiderwebbed and cracked under the sheer force of his unleashed spirit.
The pain was unimaginable. It was a fire in his blood, a thousand knives in his muscles, a scream in his very bones. But through the agony, there was also power. Power unlike anything he had ever felt.
His classmates stared, speechless. "His body…" Midoriya stammered, his analytical mind failing him. "The energy… it's tearing him apart from the inside!"
From his distant position, having just dealt with a group of villains near the entrance, Bakugo saw the brilliant blue pillar of light erupt in the central plaza. "What the hell is that now?!" he roared, a mixture of rage and confusion on his face.
Lee was no longer a student. He was a comet given human form, burning its life away for a few brilliant moments of glory.
He vanished.
He reappeared directly in front of the Nomu, his fist cocked back. The creature's instincts screamed danger, but its body was too slow to react. Lee's punch connected with the Nomu's chest. This time, there was no dull thud. There was a sonic BOOM that shook the entire plaza. The creature, for the first time, was physically launched backwards several meters, its feet dragging deep gouges in the stone.
The Nomu had been hurt. It had been moved.
Shigaraki stared, his hand falling away from his face in his shock. "Impossible! He's pushing the Nomu back! How can a simple speed Quirk have that much power?!"
It wasn't a fight anymore. It was a desperate, beautiful dance of destruction. Lee moved like a flickering phantom, a trail of blue light in his wake. He was too fast to see, too fast to track. He hammered the Nomu with a relentless barrage of attacks, each blow landing with the force of an explosion. He couldn't break its skin, he couldn't shatter its bones, but he could batter it. He could keep it reeling, disoriented, unable to focus on any other target. He was a force of pure kinetic violence, holding back an abyss of raw strength.
Furious, Shigaraki decided to end the "annoying NPC" himself. He rushed forward while Lee was engaged with the Nomu, his hand outstretched, aiming to grab Midoriya. "If I can't kill All Might, I'll just make him watch his student crumble to dust!"
Lee's head snapped towards the new threat. In the middle of dodging a blow from the Nomu, he kicked off the creature's chest, his body spinning like a drill, and shot across the plaza. He appeared in a flash of blue light directly in Shigaraki's path. Before the villain could even register his presence, Lee's foot connected with his side in a devastating side kick.
Shigaraki was sent tumbling through the air like a discarded toy, crashing hard into the dirt. "GAH!" he wheezed, clutching his ribs, a look of pure shock on his face. This... this side character had actually hit him.
But the desperate battle was taking its toll. Lee's movements, once impossibly fluid, became tinged with a slight, almost imperceptible hesitation. The blue aura around him flickered violently. The Gate of Pain was consuming him. The Nomu, sensing the shift, swung its fist in a wide, vicious arc. Lee tried to dodge, but his battered body was a fraction of a second too slow.
The blow connected with his shoulder, not a direct hit, but powerful enough to send him careening across the plaza. He crashed into the stone steps leading up to the entrance, his body tumbling in a broken heap before coming to a stop.
The brilliant blue aura sputtered, flickered one last time, and then extinguished completely. The Fourth Gate slammed shut.
A wave of absolute, crushing exhaustion washed over him. The pain, which had been a roaring fire, became a symphony of pure agony. His limbs felt like lead, his muscles like shredded rope. He managed to push himself onto one knee, his body steaming and trembling uncontrollably, his head bowed. He had nothing left. He had bought them time. He had protected his friends. Now, he could only wait for the end.
The Nomu, its singular purpose reasserted, lumbered towards the fallen, helpless boy, its massive fist raised for the final, killing blow.
And then, the world shook.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
The main doors of the USJ were not opened; they were obliterated, blown off their hinges and sent flying inwards by a sheer, invisible force. Standing in the sunlit entrance, his colossal form casting a long, heroic shadow, was All Might. His iconic smile was gone, replaced by a mask of deep, righteous, and terrifying fury.
He took in the scene in an instant. The defeated villains. The terrified students. The broken body of his colleague, Aizawa. And the small, steaming form of Young Lee, kneeling in exhausted defiance before the monster that had caused all of this.
A low growl rumbled in All Might's chest. He looked at the villains, his voice a low promise of absolute retribution.
"HAVE NO FEAR," he said, his voice quiet, yet carrying more weight than any shout. "FOR I AM HERE."
The final battle began. It was a clash of gods, a whirlwind of power that tore the plaza apart. All Might quickly discovered the Nomu's shock absorption, the creature weathering his most powerful blows. He was trapped, his body held in the Nomu's unbreakable grip, while Kurogiri prepared a portal to slice him in half.
But he was not alone. Bakugo and Kirishima blasted and shielded him. Todoroki froze the Nomu, making its body brittle. And Midoriya, in a final act of reckless bravery, launched himself forward. It was this combined, desperate effort from his students that gave All Might the opening he needed.
He broke free. And he unleashed hell.
"A real hero is someone who always finds a way to smash through adversity!" he roared. "GO BEYOND! PLUS… ULTRA!"
A storm of hundreds of punches, each one faster and stronger than the last, hammered the Nomu. The creature's shock absorption was overwhelmed, bypassed, and utterly destroyed. A final, cataclysmic right hook connected, and the Nomu was launched like a cannonball, soaring out of the USJ and disappearing as a speck in the sky.
Silence. It was truly over. All Might stood panting, steam pouring from his body as his time limit dwindled.
The remaining villains were stunned into inaction. Shigaraki was on the ground, trembling with rage and disbelief. His masterpiece, his anti-Symbol of Peace, was gone. His eyes darted around the plaza, filled with hate, and landed on the collapsed form of Rock Lee, who was now being cautiously approached by Midoriya and Uraraka.
"It's him…" Shigaraki hissed, pushing himself up, his injured side screaming in protest. "It's all his fault! That noisy, eyebrowed… that bug! If it wasn't for him, Nomu would have killed the brats and All Might would have been next! He ruined it! He ruined my game!" His eyes gleamed with a psychopathic light. "Fine! If I can't kill All Might, then at least I'll kill him! I'll crush the bug that got in my way!"
He lurched forward, his hand outstretched, his Decay Quirk ready to turn Lee to dust.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The sharp cracks of gunfire echoed through the dome. Shigaraki cried out in pain and shock as bullets tore through the flesh of his right arm and both of his legs. He stumbled and fell, staring in disbelief at his bleeding wounds.
At the entrance, a line of Pro Heroes stood ready. Snipe was there, his gun still smoking. Present Mic, Cementoss, and the rest of the U.A. staff had arrived.
"Sorry we're late," Principal Nezu's cheerful voice called out from his position on a hero's shoulder. "We gathered everyone as soon as we could."
Shigaraki screamed in frustration. "Kurogiri! Get us out of here! Now!"
The purple mist enveloped the injured villain leader, and in a flash, they were gone.
The crisis was finally, truly over. Medics swarmed the plaza, their first priority being the grievously injured Aizawa and Thirteen. Another team rushed to Lee, their faces etched with concern as they took in his condition—his body was covered in what looked like severe strain injuries, his limbs twitching from nerve damage, and he was completely unresponsive, having finally succumbed to the pain and exhaustion.
All Might, his form flickering as he fought to hold on, walked over to where Lee was being carefully placed on a stretcher. He looked down at the boy, his heart filled with an overwhelming mixture of pride, awe, and deep concern. He placed a giant, gentle hand on Lee's head, his thumb stroking his hair.
"You did good, my boy," he whispered, so quietly only he could hear. "You did more than good. You were a true hero today."
He turned away as his time ran out, disappearing in a puff of steam just before the other heroes reached him. The students were gathered, shaken and crying, and escorted out of the dome of their broken dreams. They had all survived. But they were not the same children who had entered that morning. They had looked into the abyss, and one of their own, the quiet boy with the big eyebrows, had leaped into it for their sake.