One Final Punch

Toshinori Yagi POV

Here and now, there was only us. Me and All For One, our ancient enemy.

The monster that had plagued Japan, no, the world, for ages, and would continue to do so if he wasn't stopped.

One For All will never have a tenth holder, I understand that much. It is a fact that is engrained in me, written in my bones, and I knew that the tenth, should there be one, will be torn apart by the force of One For All.

As much as I didn't want it to be true, it was. If I did not stop this monster today? He would never be stopped.

He would never die, and the power of All For One would be eternal.

It is something I will lay down my life to prevent, it is something that I have sacrificed much for already.

Friends have fallen to this madman, and I know nothing will stop his madness, except for death.

But for all the preparing I had done, for all the power I thought I had, it was nothing compared to what was needed. The first hit, so fast I was unable to track him in the slightest - so fast I didn't see what hit me - before I was used to crack Tartarus in half.

And I could do nothing but punch and punch and punch, tearing Tartarus down around me in the process.

Rocks faded into gravel, gravel faded into dust, and dust faded into nothingness as we fought.

Holes, cracks in the walls, opened up around us, but no water came in.

No water could enter, the air around me in a constant state of movement, crushing itself to the walls, as if to avoid the energy that sparked of both me and my enemy.

There was no security system in place, any weapons long since crushed flat against the walls, but in the same manner, there were no escapees here. No villains trying to run, as they all sought refuge on the floors below.

Floors that were quickly falling into the ocean beneth, sharing the fate this floor would soon hold.

Strong is something I was. Capable of making gravity act on objects was however not one of my skills.

For all the power, for all the destruction around me, I knew that this was only the beginning.

And I was proven correct when I saw sparks of red and black gather around the arm of the monster in front of me, and I lunged.

I lunged on the weakness he exposed, and I tried to end it here.

It didn't end, and I felt a pressure I had never felt before push me back, and I knew there was nothing I could do as I left the ground.

There was no levarage I could use to my advantage, the water around me not dense enough to support outburst of power large enough to turn me around.

To ensure I wasn't buried among the fish.

But then I remembered, I was pushed upwards.

Upwards, towards the city.

Oh no.

The first houses folded like paper. The rows beyond those didn't fare much better.

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Togata Mirio POV

This was what All Might meant when he said All For One was like no one else.

The force that was broke an island in half, casually tossing All Might like it was nothing.

It was... awe inspiring.

But I felt no awe. Because this was no hero, no defender of the innocent, no, this was a villain that exploited those innocent to his tune.

To his madness.

A childish giggle cut of my train of thought, and with that giggle came a wave of fire. Fire that I phased harmlessly through.

I felt myself fall into the floor and wow, the ceiling of Tartarus is thick.

Several meters thick in fact.

The moment I hit the floor below, I shot up again, through the roof and towards the mad woman.

This time I didn't phase myself as I moved through the ceiling, and I felt several meters of steel bend and break on me.

I cocked my fist back, charging it with One For All, all of I could muster, and I punched.

There was no mercy in my actions, no holding my fist back.

Because eight voices shouted at me in unison, that there was no place to hold this monster. This beast, this force of nature, that is nothing like anything ever seen before.

I punched, and a shadow lunged at me with all the power and ferocity I could expect. The air around us warped and wobbled, as the ground beneth me started to slide.

Tartarus was falling into the ocean, a small part of me said.

"So, hero, is this all you have? Is this how the savior of a million end, in a watery grave? Is this the end of One For All?"

The larger part simply pushed, because I couldn't give up now. Not until this monster was chained up in the deepest hole on earth.

If you end this thing here, will you not have accomplished your goal of saving a million, eight voices whispered to me, so sweet and enticing, yet so harsh and uninviting.

It was maddening, and I pushed.

I pushed myself and this thing through the air, floating as I had done so many times before, yet haven't even done once.

Every bolt of pure power it tried to kill me with was avoided with a warning coming far before it hit.

My whips, so familiar yet so strange whipped all around me, destroying each and every threat, follow the orders of the part of me that knew where the threats where coming from.

And the Shadow Queen? She was running, as nothing she did worked.

Fire that spread in large waves and consumed the ground beneth us, and it did nothing but annoy me.

Every element did nothing to me but annoy me, whips tearing apart anything that came near me, ripping it to pieces.

Lightning was an annoyance at best, even moving at speeds I could never anticipate, I knew how to use conductors to lead it away from me.

And earth? It did little but get me dirty, something the water washed away.

"So, Shadow Queen, is that all? Some water? If that is all, you can simply surrender, as your terror is over."

I was honestly dissapointed.

But she simply smiled, wider then ever before.

"I used many things to fight you, One For All, but water was not among them. Many destructive liquids yes, but those never touched you. And why surrender, when things are going so well for me?"

Well for her? Liquids that never touched me?

But what washed me clean of dirt? What liquid turned muddy on contact with me?

Except it didn't turn muddy. Because mud wasn't red.

And conductors weren't meant to smell like burnt flesh.

"And, lemillion, it's not me they fear."

I looked around me, and I saw deep gouges all around us.

Houses reduced to rubble with but the push of a whip.

No. It couldn't be.

"You might want to change the meaning of your name."

Cars over turned, people ripped from their homes and killed.

"I mean..."

She stopped, deliberatly, watching me as I searched around me.

A burnt body, with tentacles instead of fingers, and with wings.

The last thing we ate was chicken and octopus.

"...you already started..."

It couldn't be.

A head with what used to be long blue hair, horns sticking out from it, covered in blood.

"...with your friends. Perhaps killing a million is better, hmm?"

I wanted to lash out, and destroy her.

But she was right, I did that.

"You only saw you friends didn't you?" She continued without an answer, as a house fell down behind us. "Fourteen children were inside that house, a house you knocked down."

"WHY WON'T YOU JUST STOP TAKING?!" I shouted, pain evident in my voice.

She smiled at that, as if she found my pain amusing. She probably did.

"Oh, sweet, poor, little Mirio," the shadows around her grew larger and started crackling with eldritch energies, as they grew paler, almost a transparent sickly green shade, looking more like ghosts then shadows now, "I took nothing not freely given, and I took nothing from you."

Spoke no words, as they weren't needed, as One For All coursed through my veins with more power then ever.

I punched with all I had, as the monster lashed out with her ghosts.

My punch never reached it's target, and did little more then ruffle her clothes.

I had one final punch, one final chance to end this, and I failed.

I failed as energies that I could not and never would understand flowed through me, and I knew no more.