"The tearing pain inside my body… it's gone. What just happened?"
The man in the black suit stared at Masata with clear curiosity now, and the chill in Masata's spine only deepened.
He struggled to prop himself up and instinctively lowered his gaze toward his body—then froze.
Everything below his chest had transformed into a pool of flowing magma.
"This is… elementalization?!"
The scene was eerily similar to an ability Masata remembered from comics in his previous life.
His waist and legs were gone, replaced entirely by molten lava spreading across the shattered ruins.
Yet—he could feel them.
They were still part of him.
"A fascinating ability," the man in the suit said thoughtfully.
"To turn your body into an inorganic element in an instant… I wonder—can your head be transformed as well?"
He raised his hand, aiming directly at Masata.
The crisis wasn't over.
There was no time to dwell on the changes in his body as another attack surged forward.
Staring at the compressed air cannon rushing toward his head, Masata felt adrenaline flood his veins. In the thin line between life and death, his awareness of his body sharpened to an extreme.
"If I turn into magma completely, I can avoid this!"
The moment that thought formed—
The man in the suit suddenly seemed taller.
No—Masata realized—
My perspective dropped.
With a single thought, Masata's body collapsed into molten lava, dispersing across the ruins.
It was an indescribable sensation—like his consciousness itself had fused with the magma, as if he had become lava.
The attack followed immediately.
The compressed air cannon slammed into the molten ground, violently scattering magma in all directions.
"Damn it!"
The lava was blown apart, splashing across the ruins—yet Masata's body did not reappear.
"…So it really can fully transform," the man in the suit muttered with growing interest.
"What a beautiful ability. Even my Quirk couldn't touch you."
Slowly, the scattered magma began to flow back together.
First the feet.
Then the legs.
The torso.
Arms.
Finally, the head.
The molten form solidified back into Igarashi Masata.
Looking down at his bare body, Masata grimaced. With another thought, magma flowed upward, shaping itself into a crude robe that covered him.
"So elementalization doesn't heal physical injuries… and the energy consumption is massive."
The twisted left arm, the dull pain in his abdomen, the hollow exhaustion inside—his body was screaming warnings.
"I can't run like before. His attack speed is too fast."
Masata remembered it clearly—the danger had registered in his mind, but before his body could react, the air cannon had already struck.
"Elementalization can't last long… but right now, it's my only lifeline."
With this transformation, Masata discovered he could shift his body into magma with a single thought. While elementalized, physical damage simply didn't apply.
The previous attack proved it.
"So in this deadlock… there's only one way out."
"Big Spitfire!!"
Acting first, Masata raised his arm and unleashed a massive lava strike.
"Oh?" the man in the suit said calmly.
"You still have the strength to fight? Your stamina is impressive… but it's pointless."
He waved his hand casually.
The air in front of him hardened into an invisible wall.
Masata's overwhelming lava attack stopped dead in midair—then was shoved violently backward, as if struck by an unseen giant hand.
Magma scattered across the sky and rained down, splashing into burning pools across the ground.
But Masata didn't pause.
"Lava Zone!!"
Slamming his hand into the ground, a vast magma field erupted beneath his feet.
"It's not enough… not enough!"
"It has to be deeper. Wider. I need to escape!"
Masata forced more power out of his body.
The magma zone expanded violently, sinking deeper and deeper. Soon, half his body was submerged.
The raining magma from Big Spitfire became a smokescreen, obscuring the man in the suit's vision.
"Elemental…"
With a silent command, Masata dissolved into magma once more and slipped soundlessly into the molten pool.
Although it felt like a long sequence of actions, everything happened within mere seconds.
"…So he turned into magma and hid inside," the man in the suit said quietly.
For the first time, annoyance crept into his voice.
"Let's see if you can hide forever."
"[Musculoskeletal Springing] + [Power Storage] ×4 +
[Air Cohesion] + [Power Amplification] ×3 +
[Physical Proliferation] ×2."
As he whispered the sequence, his suit tore apart violently.
His right arm expanded grotesquely, muscles twisting and swelling until it resembled a giant's limb—completely disproportionate to his body.
This punch was nothing like before.
The fist tore through the air, generating a sonic boom, and slammed downward with catastrophic force.
"BOOM!!!"
The earth shook violently.
The magma pool was obliterated, transformed into a bottomless crater.
"…Did he escape?"
Irritation seeped through the steel helmet.
Sirens wailed in the distance.
Police helicopters' searchlights swept across the ruins.
"Tch… careless," the man muttered.
"Letting him slip away so easily. Just like Shigaraki said—troublesome."
"My condition isn't ideal right now. Facing All Might would be foolish."
"…Even if it's a shame to lose such a powerful Quirk, this will have to end here."
His voice softened.
Dark, viscous liquid surged up from behind him, wrapping around his body before pulling him into nothingness.
Silence returned.
Only the devastated neighborhood remained—
cratered streets, shattered buildings,
and molten magma slowly cooling in the pit.