"Your mission is complete, Toshinori."
Gran Torino closed his eyes for a moment, inhaling the dust of the battle, his mind conjuring old faces and young ones, generations passing the flame to generations. He continued with a bitterness mixed with certainty. "My era and Shimotsuki's era is over. Kenji's era and All Might's era is over."
Then he opened his eyes and looked toward the torn sky above Kamino. "Now it's your turn, Midoriya and Zoro. Your era begins now."
A few meters away, amid the destruction, the rubble began shifting violently and rocks scattered. Endeavor, the number two hero, appeared pushing aside massive chunks of concrete from his path. Blood covered his face and his lungs were drawing air with difficulty, but his features were tightened with fury and wounded pride after All For One had knocked him down with that surprise attack. Not far from him, Edgeshot was propping himself against a shattered wall. Despite taking a severe blow, he had maintained his consciousness and his sharp focus.
Endeavor shouted with his flames reigniting and dispersing the darkness of the arena, his voice coming out like the roar of a wounded lion. "Don't stand there like statues! There are still civilians under the rubble!"
The pro heroes surged forward like a beehive. Rescue operations began immediately, searching for victims trapped beneath the wreckage and pulling the injured out to transport them to the ambulances whose sirens had begun tearing through the silence of the night.
In the meantime, the special police forces and riot control units advanced with extreme caution toward the bottom of the crater where the nightmare lay.
All For One was sprawled on the ground. Despite his full consciousness and awareness of what was happening, his body was completely paralyzed. All Might's final blow had stripped him of any ability to move, shattering his empire with a single strike.
News helicopters began drawing closer and closer, training their searchlights on ground zero. And at the center, All Might was still standing in his massive muscular form. He was exerting a superhuman effort, wringing what remained of his spirit and blood, to maintain this shape before the cameras, drawing his familiar smile that had always given the world its reassurance.
"All Might! All Might! All Might!"
The chants continued thundering in the streets and behind the screens.
Behind one of the shattered walls at the edges of the arena, the students were watching the scene with broken breathing. Midoriya was crying in silence, gripping his shirt tightly above his heart, torn between the joy of victory and the sorrow of understanding what this moment meant for his teacher. Bakugo was grinding his teeth with eyes wide in a mixture of awe and a deep feeling of helplessness. Todoroki watched in solemn silence, respecting the moment and its power. Yaoyorozu covered her mouth with her hands, tears streaming from her eyes, while Iida and Kirishima stood rigid, trying to absorb the greatness of the hero who had sacrificed everything to save them.
In the crater, the police fitted heavy steel handcuffs around All For One's body and began transferring him into the Guillotine, the iron confinement capsule designed to transport him to Tartarus Prison.
As they dragged him inside, the tyrant turned his disfigured head with great difficulty. His blind eyes found All Might, and in a rough voice laden with accumulated venom, he said.
"This isn't over yet, Toshinori."
All Might maintained his smile, but his gaze was sharp as a sword. He replied with a steadiness that could shake mountains. "Yes it is. You've lost, and your place now is at the bottom of oblivion."
The armored capsule's doors sealed shut with a firm click. And the moment that sound was heard, the moment was sealed.
Hissssss.
Thick steam rose from the legendary hero's body. The massive muscles he had summoned with the last drops of his will dissolved, and the great body collapsed to return to its true form, thin and worn down. The form that had already been exposed to the world during the grinding battle.
There were no gasps of shock this time. Instead a heavy, suffocating, and painful silence settled. Journalists understood, and the entire world understood, that the muscular form they had just seen was the final display. The last farewell of the symbol of peace.
The journalists pressed forward carefully, drawing closer as the cameras recorded every detail without pause.
All Might raised his head slowly. There was nothing left to sustain and nothing left to hide. He looked directly into the lens of the nearest camera broadcasting to the whole world. And in a quiet, weary voice that nonetheless carried a message to pierce through souls, he said.
"The debt is repaid. And what I had to do, I have done."
He paused for a moment to catch his breath with difficulty, then continued, looking as if he were addressing an entire generation.
"Now. The future is in your hands."
Two days before that moment, silence had wrapped itself around the old wooden dojo.
Shimotsuki walked toward one of the corners and opened an old wooden drawer. The moment it opened, dust flew into the air and the smell of aged paper and forgotten memories filled the space. The old man sighed as he looked at the accumulated belongings, a faint smile forming on his lips. "Ah. Those were days."
He began sifting through old papers and faded photographs, searching for something specific. "Where is it. Where."
After careful searching, he picked up a small yellow paper, folded with care, with a phone number written on it in barely legible handwriting. He went directly to the landline phone in his home and began dialing the numbers slowly.
"God willing this number still works." He muttered with irritation.
He placed the receiver to his ear. A ring. Then another. No one answering.
Shimotsuki began losing his patience. He clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Where have you gone, old man? You must be eating and ignoring calls."
He was about to disconnect the line when suddenly it opened, and a rough, cautious voice came through.
"Hello. Who is calling? Who are you?"
Shimotsuki exclaimed in irritation. "What's wrong with you? Where have you been buried?"
On the other end, Gran Torino's eyes widened in shock as he immediately recognized the voice. The last time he had seen him was at the hospital in Hosu when he came to visit Zoro.
"Shimotsuki?!" Torino said with astonishment. "Something very important must have happened or you would never call. You only surface rarely. It seems Zoro means a great deal to you."
"Yes, I care about him." Shimotsuki replied with complete seriousness. "Where are you right now?"
"I'm in the planning hall inside the police headquarters with the detectives and heroes. I couldn't answer quickly because of an ongoing meeting. I just stepped out of the hall to speak."
"Understood." Shimotsuki said in a decisive tone. "Is All Might there?"
Gran Torino furrowed his brows. "Yes, he's present. Why?"
"Go and hand him the phone. I want to speak with him."
Gran Torino sighed. "Very well. As you wish."
Gran Torino returned and opened the meeting room door slightly, poking his head inside and calling in a low voice. "Toshinori. Toshinori."
All Might turned toward him, wondering to himself what the old man wanted from him now at this critical time.
All Might excused himself from Detective Tsukauchi. "I apologize for the interruption, one moment and I'll return."
He stepped out into the corridor and looked at his former teacher. "What is it? What's the matter?"
Gran Torino said nothing. He simply extended the phone receiver toward him with a serious face.
All Might took the receiver with puzzlement and placed it to his ear. "Hello?"
The voice from the other end came through strong and firm. "Symbol of peace. Or, Toshinori Yagi."
All Might was caught off guard. He looked at Gran Torino with a questioning gaze: who is this?
The caller continued. "You don't know me personally, but you know a great deal about me from Nana Shimura. And from the old man beside you."
All Might began analyzing the words, and then his eyes suddenly widened. "Oh. You're the Ghost."
"I'm glad to hear your voice." Shimotsuki said quietly. "I also respect you a great deal. People like you are rare in this world. Your character and your nobility impress me. You remind me very much of your teacher. The name symbol of peace truly suits you."
All Might smiled with humility. "Thank you. Words like that from someone like you are something a person takes pride in."
Shimotsuki's tone shifted to become sharp and serious. "So as not to take up too much of your time, I'll go straight to the point."
"Yes, I'm listening."
"The matter concerns Zoro." Shimotsuki said with sternness. "I learned of the news of his kidnapping. It shocked me completely. I will not blame you, and I will not blame UA Academy for what happened."
The old man took a deep breath before releasing the weight of his words. "But the one thing I will say right now is that I am placing upon you full responsibility for rescuing Zoro and protecting him from that tyrant."
All Might gripped the phone with greater force as he listened.
"Nothing must happen to Zoro. I know exactly what that filth will try to do if he discovers his secret. And I know the boy is extremely stubborn. He has strong will and pride. He will not surrender and he will not submit to them no matter what they do to him, even if they threaten him with death. He will not fear that."
Shimotsuki paused for a moment then concluded with a tone carrying a warrior's plea. "He matters very much to me and to all of us. We must protect him. And sacrifice in the effort to save him is unavoidable."
All Might closed his eyes. He replied in a voice filled with unshakeable resolve. "I understand completely. Zoro matters very much to me as well. I care about him and I am indebted to him. Therefore, this moment is the appropriate one for me to repay the debt I owe."
Back in the present in Kamino, All Might stood in his thin form amid the lights of the cameras, looking at his shattered right arm.
The debt had been repaid. He had saved Zoro and Midoriya and the rest of the students, and had crushed the tyrant.
But inside the armored capsule that was cutting its way silently away from the arena, All For One was completely restrained, imprisoned in absolute darkness. And despite his crushing defeat and despite losing his objective, a quiet and frightening smile formed on his torn lips, betraying an extraordinary cunning.
"You protected them." The tyrant whispered in the darkness, his rough voice barely audible. "But now, Toshinori, in the euphoria of your victory and your idealism, you haven't yet grasped the scale of the catastrophe you've left behind."
He tilted his disfigured head slightly.
"You brought me down, yes. But you brought yourself down with me. The symbol that was holding this fragile society together is gone. You have left your world exposed, afraid, and without a protector."
.
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