There was a heartbreaking howl, as if an animal was tortured to death.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
At the same moment a bolt of lightning, bigger and more powerful than any of the previous ones, streaked across the sky, cutting through the night like a white flash.
The surrounding houses and buildings were momentarily flooded with light, shadows drived away before they snapped back like a rubber band.
My eyes darted to the right.
There was a river of blood running down an alley.
"This way !", I shouted to him
I turned right, Hell Flame blasting red from my feet.
The wind blew against us, pushing us backwards.
Dad went ahead while my hands flashed at full speed.
Tiger, ox, dog, rabbit, snake.
A tornado of wind sprang up and hurled us across the city at high speed.
My ears were ringing.
The city glided beneath our feet, the outlines of buildings blurring.
"Left !"
Dad spun around and suddenly we were above the bloody alley.
I could barely make out the area over his shoulder.
Three bodies lay motionless, slumped against a stained wall, as if their skulls had been smashed against the-
Someone was standing in the alleyway.
The figure was bathed in total darkness, head down, features indistinct.
The moment it raised its red eyes towards us, my heart leapt into my chest.
Aizawa.
The relief I felt was indescribable.
Nothing had happened to him after-
Suddenly, my father's Hell Flame was snuffed out and he free-falled in front of me.
My eyes widened as he plummeted like a bird that had just been shot.
What the-
The man turned his head towards me as he raised his hand.
My body froze in mid-air, as if caught in a web.
My blood pounded in my ears : I clenched my teeth and tried to free myself, but not a muscle in my body moved.
A thunderous bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, brightening the alley.
All for One was standing there, hand outstretched towards me, drops of water trickling down his skin.
His wide red eyes were locked on me.
He moved his hand carelessly to the right and my body followed at full speed.
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I barely had time to strengthen my body with chakra before I hit the building head first.
My head flew back under the impact, my teeth grinding so hard it felt like they would break.
The wall shattered like straw while I clenched my jaw and closed my eyes, flying headfirst through four flats and half a dozen walls.
Pieces of cement, stone, broken furniture and shattered paintings flew in all directions in a spray of grey dust. I heard people screaming.
I didn't even have time to think, hitting each wall faster than the last, each new layer of concrete hit sending a shockwave that spread from my skull to my feet.
I opened my eyes to fresh air and icy rain.
I had emerged from the building, head fuzzy and my body aching, frozen in mid-air once more.
My eyelids fluttered open and I saw All for One about fifty meters away, still standing in his alley, staring at me coldly.
His lips moved and I read them as if I could hear him.
"Not enough ?"
The next thing I knew he was hurling me through Tokyo's tower 322 meters of steel.
First the metal bent and shattered as I flew through it. Then I bent and shattered.
Blood flowed from my hair to my forehead; I forced my eyes open again as the next metal beam approached at full speed.
My chakra fully flooded my body : kawarimi.
The next thing I knew I was crouched on a beam at the edge of the void, panting.
A screwdriver had taken my place, going through the next three hundred meters of the tower vertically at supersonic speed, its plastic handle disintegrating at every succinct impact.
All for One stood two hundred meters away, still in the alley, his red eyes following the decoy's path as it continued to traverse the tower.
He widened his eyes and turned just as I looked up at the fireball falling from the sky towards him.
Hidden in the flames of it was my father, face hardened.
His foot, engulfed in flames, crashed into All for One's jaw with such force that All for One's head snapped down and he spat out two teeth.
All for One was thrown into the tarmac, carving a twenty-meters-long gash in a straight line.
Dad landed heavily on the ground, rattling the alley. The ground cracked like ice beneath his feet, cracks spreading like a spider's web across the street and up the walls of the buildings.
His skin turned blue, flames flickering down the left side of his body as if he were about to burst into flames.
"Don't you dare lay a hand on my son in front of me"
He was furious.
All for One stood up calmly, back to my father, spat blood and dusted off his suit.
Steam rose from his split lip; he wiped the blood from it with the tip of his thumb, turned around slowly, and suddenly his lip was as good as new.
"You again, Endeavor ? You certainly have a knack for getting in my way"
He faced my father without the slightest fear, the fire on my father's body dissapearing.
All for One's hand twitched.
The very next moment my chakra-powered foot slammed into the back of his skull, sending him tumbling through two miles of buildings.
A cloud of dust and cement rose behind him : a hole in the shape of a human body cut through nearly three hundred houses and buildings.
There was sudden, furious honking, then the sound of pile-ups and crash.
"There's going to be casualties", I said, gaze locked on the prostrate form of All for One miles ahead.
He got up on one knee, spitting out bits of rubble and blood.
"I know", my father replied, phone to his ear, his eyes never leaving the gaping hole. "Masami, I'm in Tokyo" Break. "Yes, we are. All for One is here" New break 'Between Shibuya, Tokyo Tower and the Sumida River. Send a medical team for an urgently wounded Hero, evacuate civilians and contact the President, she's in the area"
The voice on the other end became clearer.
"I'll send the A and B teams to support-"
"No need", he said, "My son is with me"
Then he hung up.
All for One was now on his feet.
He watched us calmly over his dusty shoulder, sizing us up one by one.
A building halfway between him and us began to shake, chunks of wall falling onto another heap of rubble.
"He gouged out Aizawa's eyes", I said.
Aizawa lay prostrate against the wall behind us, chin pressed to his chest, hair plastered to his face.
There were two huge holes where his eyes used to be.
Blood ran from the empty sockets down his jaw as if he'd been crying tears of blood.
It was him I'd heard screaming earlier.
All for One blinked and my father lit up like a torch.
"All we need to do is make sure he does not see us coming, right ?", Dad said
Neither of us took our eyes off All for One.
My own chakra rolled furiously under my skin, coursing through my veins as if it were fire.
Above, the sky was quiet.
I regained control of the storm.
The rain became torrential, the wind destructive, the lightning deadly.
I hadn't liked Aizawa much lately, but he didn't deserve such a fate.
Arcs of yellow light crackled across my skin, straightening the hairs on my neck, electrifying my whole body.
I bent my legs, one hand going on the knob of my tantô hung on my back.
"Let's demolish him"
The moment the building between us collapsed, shielding us from All for One's line of sight, I disappeared in a shunshin, thunder bursting with a roar.
*
A/N : If you want to read ahead of schedule, go check the story's P@treon, Nar_cisseENG