Chapter 9: The Unmovable Object and the Unstoppable Bore
The clash was immediate and apocalyptic. All Might moved like a golden comet, crossing the distance from the entrance to the plaza in the blink of an eye, rescuing the battered Aizawa and confronting the villains in a single, fluid motion. His first punches against the Nomu were like thunderclaps, each one carrying the force to level a city block. But the creature didn't even flinch. It simply absorbed the blows, its unnerving, beak-like face completely impassive.
"It's no use!" Shigaraki cackled, dancing with delight. "Nomu's Quirk is Shock Absorption! He was built to withstand your pathetic 100%!"
The students who remained—Midoriya, Tsuyu, and Mineta, who had been hiding in the water—watched in abject terror. This was All Might, the number one hero, the pillar of their society, and his fists were having no effect.
From his vantage point at the top of the stairs, Saitama watched the fight with a critical, analytical eye. He was no master tactician, but he knew power. He saw the immense energy All Might was putting into every blow. He also saw it was completely wasted.
"He's putting too much into it," Saitama commented quietly to no one in particular. "All that wind-up and fancy posing. It's inefficient. The bird-guy doesn't even feel it. Why doesn't he just hit him harder?"
Uraraka, who was standing nearby helping a wounded Thirteen, overheard him. "H-harder?" she stammered. "That's All Might! No one can hit harder than him!"
Saitama just gave a noncommittal shrug and went back to watching.
The fight became a brutal slugfest. All Might was fast, but the Nomu was just as fast, and its strength was clearly on par with his own. The villain got him in a horrifying bear hug, its massive claws digging deep into All Might's side, targeting the old, weak injury hidden beneath his heroic form. Blood dripped onto the ground. All Might roared in agony.
"The perfect spot!" Shigaraki shrieked. "Kurogiri, now! It's time to sever the hero's head from his body!"
Just as Kurogiri prepared to warp, a blur of green lightning shot across the plaza. Midoriya, acting on pure, desperate instinct, had leaped into the fray, his arm cocked back for a devastating Smash. At the same time, Bakugo blasted in from the side, pinning Kurogiri's physical body, while Todoroki froze the Nomu's right side and Kirishima tried to land a blow.
It was a desperate, heroic, and ultimately futile gesture. The Nomu broke free from the ice with sheer brute force, its grip on All Might unrelenting. They had bought him only seconds.
All Might, coughing blood, saw the students he had sworn to protect putting themselves in the line of fire for him. He saw his own limit, his time running out, steam beginning to pour from his body. He was trapped. He was failing. In a moment of pure desperation, his eyes scanned the area and landed on the one person who was not fighting, not cowering, but simply observing: the stone-faced consultant.
"CONSULTANT!" All Might roared, his voice strained. "GET THE STUDENTS AWAY FROM HERE! EVACUATE THEM! THAT IS A DIRECT ORDER!" He was trying to save them, to use his authority as a teacher to force the only other adult to do the logical thing and flee with the children.
Saitama heard the order. "Get the students away from here." He looked at the Nomu, a mindless engine of destruction about to obliterate everyone. He looked at the students, standing defiantly but hopelessly before it. He looked at All Might, trapped and bleeding.
The most logical, efficient way to get the students "away" from the danger… was to eliminate the danger.
"Man, what a drag," Saitama sighed, cracking his neck. His lunch break was officially over.
Shigaraki was gloating. "It's game over, All Might! There are no continues!"
The Nomu, free from its icy prison, reared back a fist to pulp the students before it.
All Might screamed their names.
And then Saitama was there.
He didn't run. He didn't vanish in a streak of light. One moment he was at the top of the stairs, the next he was standing between the Nomu and everyone else, his back to them. He hadn't even bothered to take his hands out of the pockets of his jumpsuit. He looked at the charging biological monstrosity with an expression of profound boredom.
"Okay," he said, his voice quiet but carrying in the sudden lull. "My turn."
He pulled his right hand from his pocket and threw a punch. There was no battle cry. No fancy name. No wind-up. It was just a punch. A simple, straight, economical jab that looked almost lazy.
"Normal Punch."
The fist connected with the Nomu's chest.
For a microsecond, nothing happened.
Then, the universe seemed to break.
The Nomu didn't fly backwards. It did not explode into gore. It simply… ceased to exist. It was utterly and completely obliterated on an atomic level. An invisible, silent wave of pure kinetic force erupted from the point of impact. This wave traveled through the Nomu and kept going. It hit the back wall of the USJ and blew a perfectly circular hole through it. It continued into the sky, where it parted the clouds in a massive, expanding circle, letting a brilliant sunbeam shine down directly onto the plaza.
The sound came a moment later. A cataclysmic BOOOOOOOOOOM that was less a noise and more a physical event, a shockwave that flattened every remaining villain, shattered every pane of glass for miles, and made the very foundations of the building scream.
Then, silence. A profound, ringing, absolute silence.
Shigaraki stood frozen, his hand trembling as he scratched his neck, a low, guttural sound of pure disbelief escaping his lips. All Might, free from the Nomu's grip, stood steaming, his muscular form flickering, his mind completely blank as he stared at the empty space where the invincible monster had been. The students—Midoriya, Bakugo, Todoroki, all of them—were catatonic, their brains refusing to process what their eyes had just seen.
Saitama stood in the middle of it all, lowering his fist. He looked at the faint wisp of smoke rising from his knuckles and frowned slightly.
"Crap," he said to himself. "I think I put too much into that one."
He then turned his head, his blank gaze falling upon the terrified, trembling forms of Shigaraki and Kurogiri. His voice, flat and devoid of any heroic passion, cut through the silence like a shard of glass.
"So," he asked. "You two. Are you the ones who broke the front gate this morning? Because that was really uncalled for."