Chapter 14: Symbol of Peace vs. Fabricated Beast
A profound, unnatural silence descended upon the central plaza. The chaos of the sandstorm had been replaced by a tense, static-filled quiet, punctuated only by the distant groans of injured villains and the ragged breathing of the students. All Might stood like a colossus over the small, unconscious form of the boy who had reshaped the battlefield, his face a mask of deep, troubled confusion. The sheer, untamed power had been terrifying, but its source was a child. The contradiction was a dissonant chord in the hero's otherwise black-and-white world of justice.
The students of Class 1-A, scattered but safe, stared at their hero, their savior. A wave of pure, unadulterated relief washed over them, so potent it was nearly sickening. He was here. Everything would be okay now.
But the game was not over.
"So," a dry, grating voice cut through the silence, "you took out the glitched side-quest. How heroic of you."
All Might's head snapped up. His gaze locked onto Shigaraki Tomura, who was slowly, deliberately clapping, a mocking, hollow sound that echoed in the vast space. The Nomu stood beside him, its dead eyes fixed on the Symbol of Peace.
"But you're still in the final boss room, 'Hero'," Shigaraki hissed, his hand beginning its frantic, scratching dance on his neck. His initial glee at All Might's arrival had curdled into a focused, venomous malice. He would reclaim this stage.
"You've had your moment of distraction," Shigaraki spat. And then he gave the command. "Nomu. Kill him."
It was an ambush born of opportunity. All Might was still processing the enigma of Gaara, his focus momentarily fractured. The Nomu moved with a speed that defied its massive, muscle-bound frame. It didn't charge from the front; it shot forward like a cannonball, aiming for All Might's unprotected back, for the old, grievous injury that was the hero's greatest weakness.
All Might's heroic instincts, honed over a lifetime of battle, were all that saved him. He spun, not a moment to spare, his arm coming up to block. He didn't just block; he threw a punch, aiming to obliterate the threat in a single, decisive blow.
Fist met fist.
The resulting shockwave was apocalyptic. A visible dome of distorted air erupted from the point of impact. The remaining sand on the plaza floor was blasted away, and the students were thrown back, crying out in shock as a hurricane of pure force washed over them. The very ground beneath the two combatants cracked and splintered.
All Might's iconic smile was now a grim rictus of effort. He stared into the Nomu's vacant eyes and felt a sickening lurch in his gut. He had put enough force into that punch to level a city block. The Nomu hadn't even flinched.
"It's no use!" Shigaraki cackled from a safe distance.
All Might pushed back, creating space, and launched into a flurry of blows. Left! Right! An uppercut! Each punch landed with the sound of cracking thunder, each one a testament to the pinnacle of physical power. But it was like punching a mountain made of water. The Nomu's flesh would yield, its body would be thrown back, but it would absorb the kinetic energy, its strange, dark skin rippling like a disturbed liquid. There was no damage. No pain. Nothing.
From the shoreline, Midoriya watched, his mind racing faster than it ever had before, a frantic torrent of analysis and terror.
"His punches… they're not working," he stammered, his voice a choked whisper. "Normally, All Might would only need one punch… but the creature isn't being hurt! It's not just super-strength or regeneration… it's something else! The impact is being nullified somehow! It has to be a shock absorption Quirk!"
Beside him, Todoroki watched with a cold, analytical calm, his eyes narrowed. "Its movements are clumsy, all instinct and raw power. But that power is equal to All Might's. It doesn't react to pain because it likely doesn't feel it. It's not a living combatant. It's a puppet. A purpose-built weapon designed to counter him."
The fight was a brutal, earth-shaking spectacle. But for the first time in their lives, the students were watching their idol, the Symbol of Peace, struggle.
"You see, 'Hero'?" Kurogiri's calm voice echoed, as if narrating a documentary. "Your brute force is meaningless here. Our Nomu was created with the Quirk 'Shock Absorption'. He was designed, from his very conception, to render you obsolete."
The Nomu found its opening. It weathered another one of All Might's thunderous blows and lunged forward, its massive, vice-like hands clamping down on the hero's torso. Its fingers dug deep, finding the scarred, ruined tissue of All Might's old injury.
A sharp, undeniable grunt of pain escaped All Might's lips. The students gasped. It was the first time they had ever heard such a sound from him.
"Yes! That's it, Nomu! Squeeze him! Squeeze the life out of our great and mighty Symbol!" Shigaraki shrieked with delight.
"Now, allow me to assist," Kurogiri said. He opened a swirling warp gate directly at All Might's feet. At the same time, another gate opened in front of the Nomu's torso. The plan was as simple as it was gruesome: to have the Nomu hold All Might in place while Kurogiri's warp cut him in half.
"ALL MIGHT!" Midoriya screamed, and despite his terror, he began to run forward.
But he was too far away. Someone else was closer.
"STAY AWAY FROM HIM!" a familiar, furious voice roared. Katsuki Bakugo, having recovered from his sandy burial, launched himself through the air like a human missile. He landed and unleashed a massive, targeted explosion directly at Kurogiri's one physical vulnerability—the metal brace around his neck.
BOOM!
Kurogiri cried out, his misty form flickering as he was thrown back, the warp gates snapping shut an instant before they could connect. At the same time, Kirishima, his body hardened, charged the Nomu's leg with a defiant roar, the attack doing no damage but momentarily distracting the beast.
All Might saw his opening, created not by a Pro Hero, but by the reckless, beautiful bravery of his own students. A fire ignited in his chest, a fire of pride and furious resolve.
They're just children, he thought, a surge of adrenaline washing through him. And they're fighting with everything they have, risking their lives for me… A real teacher! A real HERO! I must answer that spirit with everything I have!
With a mighty roar, he broke the Nomu's grip. "You say this thing was made to absorb the shock of my punches?!" he bellowed, his voice filled with a new, terrifying power. "Then I'll just have to give it more than it can handle!"
He planted his feet. "Every hero has a motto, villain! Mine is…"
He began to punch.
The first blow was a blur. The second was faster. The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth came in a single, earth-shattering instant. The sound was no longer a series of impacts, but a continuous, deafening roar, like a jet engine at full throttle. The air pressure alone created a swirling hurricane in the plaza. The Nomu's shock absorption was overwhelmed. Its regeneration could not keep up. Its flesh was being torn, shredded, and vaporized faster than it could possibly heal.
"...GO BEYOND!"
He drew back his right fist one last time, every ounce of his remaining power, every fiber of his being, focused into a single point.
"PLUS… ULTRA!!!"
The final punch connected with the Nomu's face, and the beast was launched backwards. It flew like a cannonball, a black speck against the sky, crashing through the massive glass dome of the USJ and disappearing into the horizon, finally gone.
A profound, ringing silence fell. All Might stood, his body trembling, steam pouring from him like a boiling kettle. His time was up. He had won.
Shigaraki was having a tantrum, scratching at his neck and stomping his feet like a furious child. "He cheated! He used a cheat code! This wasn't supposed to happen!"
It was then that the sounds of the outside world finally returned. The heavy footsteps of Pro Heroes. Snipe appeared at the entrance, his rifle at the ready. Cementoss and the others were right behind him. The cavalry had arrived.
"It's game over," Snipe's voice declared.
Kurogiri knew it was over. "Shigaraki Tomura, we must go." He began to envelop the furious Shigaraki in his mist. Shigaraki took a few parting shots, trying to decay the students, but Snipe's bullets forced him back.
As the warp began to consume him, Shigaraki's hateful, red eye scanned the plaza. It passed over All Might, steaming and triumphant. It passed over his terrified students. And it finally settled on the still, unconscious form of Gaara, who was now being cautiously circled by the newly arrived heroes.
"Game over… for now," Shigaraki's voice hissed from the disappearing mist. "But we still got a rare piece of loot out of it…"
His cryptic, ominous words hung in the air as he vanished, leaving behind a wrecked battlefield, a class of traumatized students, and a victorious, but dangerously weakened, Symbol of Peace.
.
.