….
The same black sludge materialized on a high, jagged ridge overlooking the scorched valley. And from the swirling, viscous anomaly, All For One stepped out onto the rocky outcrop.
"Pathetic. How low have I stooped to involve myself in a meager abduction of some kids?"
With a slight tilt of his head, he assessed the ruin.
He had already routed the captured Vanguard Action Squad back to the staging base via the sludge portals.
Now, standing near the geographic center between the main training camp and the valley where Dabi had unleashed his desperate, paradoxical awakening, All For One silently calculated.
"To believe even Gigantomachia would be subdued? How immensely wrong was my calculation of analysing his worth that day?"
All Far One couldn't help but admit this as his biggest miscalculation in the centuries of years he lived through.
His most loyal subordinate had been soundly defeated, and his plans for the first time had failed multiple times, by the same human.
Nevertheless, he is a being that cannot accept loss and end things here for today; he needs to trigger that could at the very least disrupt the fragile Public Image of Heroes and worthless peace the HPSC cherishes.
"Hm, it's unfortunate that I don't have much leisure. But this will most certainly send a message to your teacher."
That's when his sensory quirks spiked, picking up the approach of multiple beings. However, he focused all of it on two particular individuals, who are outpacing the rest of their classmates by a few hundred meters.
Katsuki Bakugo.
And Shoto Todoroki.
"I shall proceed now."
Immediately, an announcement reached the ears of the students:
"Attention all forces! The captured villains have just escaped! A long-range black sludge teleportation quirk was used! Be on high alert… the enemy is pulling back their forces!"
It was Mandalay's Quirk.
Shoto skidded to stop as the ice beneath his foot ended. "Esacped? If they're pulling back, then Toya–"
"Shut up and move!" Bakugo ignored the announcement as his pace only increased with a huge blast propelling him. "If they're running, it means they're cornered! And like HELL I am gonna let them GOO!!"
But Bakugo didn't see the darkness standing on the ridge above them.
Without any signs, a column of air slammed down from the sky like an invisible anvil. And the sheer atmospheric weight slammed both boys into the dirt, cracking the ground beneath them and forcing the oxygen straight out of their lungs.
"Should have listened to your teachers."
A sinister voice echoed through the trees. All For One hovered down from the ridge, his hand extended.
Dark, metallic tendrils, a combination of Rivets and Spearlike Bones, sprouted from his fingers, weaving into a dense cage that snapped around Bakugo.
"Get off me!" He snarled, his instincts screaming danger.
Ignoring the agonizing pressure in his ribs, he flipped onto his back and unleashed a max-output Stun Grenade directly into the air. The blast helped him to tear through the treeline, shattering the metallic tendrils.
"Leave your back to me."
At the exact same instant, Shoto slammed his right hand into the earth. A jagged ice erupted from the mountain slope, towering fifty feet high, physically separating All For One from Bakugo.
Shoto immediately followed up, going offensive with a torrent of high-intensity flames from his left side to create an escape route.
"Impressive reaction times." All For One commented, his voice sounding right beside Shoto's ear.
!?Shoto's eyes widened. 'How did he get behind me?'
Before he could pivot his left side.
"Your father's masterpiece." All For One whispered as a secondary pool of black sludge bubbled up beneath Shoto's boots. "Nevertheless, a bit too reliant on emotions for my taste."
"Todoroki!" Bakugo screamed.
Using his explosions he tore through the falling debris, his right hand hooked into spinning Howitzer Impact.
He wasn't trying to capture; he was aiming to decapitate.
Yet, All For One didn't look back.
He merely extended his left arm, which ballooned into a monstrous, grotesque fusion of muscle mass and spring-like structures.
It easily absorbed Bakugo's attack and redirected the concussive force directly back into his chest.
"Blug…!"
The shockwave cracked Bakugo's gauntlets, sending him violently crashing into a tree. Before Bakugo could stop his skid, the black sludge erupted directly inside his clothes, seeping into his mouth and nose, choking out his breath.
"That was quite easy for all the noise…"
"Bakugo! Todoroki!"
Izuku Midoriya burst through the treeline three seconds later.
His [Danger Sense] screaming so violently that blood trickled from his nose. His body was pushed past its limits, One For All's energy scorching through his bones, as he maintained the [Total Concentration] during the whole fight and run.
But he couldn't spot his friends.
Only the foul-smelling, bubbling residue of the black sludge remained, sinking slowly into the dirt.
"Where are the–?"
Just as he was about to ask, he spotted Bakugo gauntlet hand slipping through a black substance.
"Kacchan!!!!"
He used All For One to its max capacity for his body, but he was barely able to touch his fingers, before his friend was gone.
"No... no, no, no!"
He dropped to his knees, his hands tearing frantically into the mud where the sludge portals had just vanished, and he was seconds too late.
Behind him, Mezo Shoji sprinted into the clearing, his multiple ears extended, desperate to catch a lingering frequency.
"Midoriya... they're completely gone. There's no directional sound. It was a pure spatial displacement."
["Attention all units!!"]
It was Mandalay's Quirk announcement again.
["The primary training camp is secure, but we have multiple student injuries. Emergency services are inbound. All remaining students retreat to the facility immediately."]
"Midoriya…" Shoji placed a heavy, grounding hand on his friend's trembling shoulder. "We have to pull back and report this to the Pros. Standing here won't bring them back."
"There has to be something we can do…" Midoriya whispered, his fists clenching so hard the skin over his scarred knuckles turned white. "There has to be a way to track them… anything…"
"Midoriya! Shoji!" Momo's voice cut through the dark as she finally caught up to them, breathing heavily from the sprint.
After Shoji rapidly filled her in on the nightmare that had just unfolded, Midoriya dropped his head, staring hollowly at the trampled dirt. "It's my fault. I was too slow… if I had just reached them a second sooner, Shoto and Kacchan wouldn't have been taken."
"Wait, Midoriya, look at me." Momo interrupted, her analytical gaze sharpening as her mind raced to piece the chaotic data together. "Think about Mandalay's broadcast. If what you saw matches her warning… they didn't just take the students. The villains retrieved their own captured vanguard members as well, correct?"
Awase, stepping up to support them, immediately caught her drift. "Yeah… wait, you don't mean–"
Momo said, a surge of adrenaline replacing her panic as she quickly pulled up her tracking terminal. "The villains we incapacitated during the initial assault… we didn't just tie them up. We tagged them."
Awase nodded quickly, turning to the others. "She's right! We planted the custom trackers Yaoyorozu manufactured directly onto the captured ones before the vanguard could regroup."
"To be precise." Momo explained, her fingers flying across the device as the screen began to hum to life. "Those aren't ordinary beacons. They utilize a military-grade, heavily encrypted GPS receiver, and I physically fused the transmitters directly into the alloy of their restraints. If that specialized villain swept them all up in a hurry, they just unknowingly carried our tracking grid straight into the heart of their hideout."
Momo turned the monitor around, showing a digital map of the prefecture.
A tiny, glowing dot was pulsing steadily, miles away from the training camp, deep within an industrial district in Kamino Ward.
"Kachaan… Todoroki…." Midoriya looked at the pulsing dot.
The heavy, suffocating weight in his chest suddenly lifted, replaced by a cold, sharp focus.
….
Thirty minutes later, the atmosphere at the camp facility was grim.
Ambulances and police helicopters were being landed one by one.
Inside the main medical tent, Yosetsu Awase from Class 1-B sat on the edge of a cot, his arms heavily bandaged.
Momo Yaoyorozu stood beside him, holding the same receiving monitor.
.
….
[To be continued…]
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