He knew it was a trap.

There was no way anyone sound of mind would've ordered Endeavor's Tower demolition after he'd broke out of Tartarus, especially since they had no way of knowing if he'd left the country.

He'd planned on leaving the country.

He'd cleaned the house, cut down the estate's overgrown gardens with tools he'd found in the gardener shed, and littered the place with various protective seals.

Except those sharing his blood, nobody would ever be able to enter the Todoroki estate – and he was certain neither of his remaining siblings would want to come, even if to pay their respects to a father who hadn't raised them.

There was nothing tying to Japan anymore, no family nor friends except a grave and shambles of a vengeance he didn't feel like carrying out anymore.

What was the point ?

He'd killed those that had been responsible for his father's death, directly or not.

He could still finish those who had been aware of this devious scheme, but then he'd still be a boy in a hostile country with dementia as his sole friend.

Teka was waiting for him in Italy.

Endeavor's Tower was just a building, a painful reminiscence of his shortcomings, merely blocks of cement glued with self-loathing, a shining reminder of his numerous failures.

And dad had chosen to be buried at home, anyway, not at his tower. It didn't matter, really.

Shoto's grip tightened on his duffel bag.

He'd taken a few things for the trip, wishing to leave the house mostly undisturbed, a memorial of better times.

Dad wouldn't know anyway. It didn't matter if he went or not. Really, it didn't.

"Don't forget the tanto"

Shoto's fingers gently grazed the blade.

His had broken in a fight against All for One long ago. This one was his father, the one Teka had gifted him when he was young and he couldn't use his Quirk for long.

It was sturdy, though old, and there was a scratch on the pommel.

He sheathed it on his back.

His eyes didn't swirl red as he disappeared, Enji's figure vanishing with him.

*

His hair was flying around his face, moved by the cold wind.

He stood watch over the city, perched atop Endeavor's Tower, a dark figure with crystal eyes.

The capital was empty of civilians, so much so it could've passed for eerie.

A wrecking ball and a couple of bulldozers had been placed near the building but it was just for show.

Tanks were moving between the largest avenues, their cannon turning towards the Tower's highest levels – towards him.

Squads of soldiers were finishing drills here and there, and tents had been set up for the anticipated wounded.

At least two hundred Heroes were present, most in small circles and going over battle strategies that wouldn't last first contact.

The wind carried to Shoto's ears their desperate laughter and a couple of panicked calls to loved ones.

He wondered how desperate they had to be to fight him.

Japan was on the verge of destruction, whether they fought today or didn't : strives between civilians and law representatives were so numerous they were talking about the collapse of their society.

A civil war was coming, and they knew nothing would be left of Japan afterward.

Those in command bet on a victory against the big, bad wolf that would unite their countrymen and help them soothe the burn of the last months and forget – at least temporarily - everything that had happened.

Somebody pointed at him.

The word passed around like gunfire scattered by the wind and soon they were all aware of his presence.

He loomed over them like a bad omen, the monster in a children's story that wouldn't end well.

There were thousands here, and more waiting on the city's outskirts for when the first wave would inevitably fail.

He waited until they'd gone to their attributed places, Heroes circling the tower, two platoons of soldiers he recognized from the Special Forces on either side of him, medics, and certainly coordinators in the back.

"I am leaving the country", he said, his chakra-enhanced voice carried far. "I do not wish to fight"

The Commission had been a killing spree.

This would be a blood bath.

"Soldiers !", screamed who was certainly the highest-graded official here. "In position !"

He shakily pulled down what could've passed for a helmet.

Everyone pulled out their weapon and leaned forward, mentally preparing for the assault.

"This is my last warning", said Shoto, neither reaching for his sword nor activating his sharingan.

Yet they weren't backing down.

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Enji shook his head.

"Fools"

"Fire !"

Missiles blew up the building's top, chunks of cement raining below, tanks' barrels fuming, right as he was taking a large gulp of air, his lungs expanding.

A sea of fire burst from his mouth and rained down on them.

Water rose to counter some of the attack yet it was too powerful : people took cover behind the tanks as Shoto turned dragon-like, a continuous stream of fire bursting from his lips as he moved around, making sure everyone around got some.

Shoto's head snapped to the side as he avoided a bullet that had been shot at near point-blank range. He grabbed the wrist holding the gun and threw the man over his shoulder.

The soldier fell through the ground, vanishing in its bowels, and Shoto let him go lest his hand got severed if he tried to yank him out.

"Up", said Enji casually, arms crossed

Reality shattered above Shoto's head, glass shards raining on him.

An octopus-like abomination screeched and fell on him, hundreds of mouths opening on its ball-like body to devour.

Down Aizawa was running from tank to tank, helping his students to get back on their feet.

None of them had been hurt by the blast, but it'd been a close call.

"Are you okay ?", he asked Shoji.

The boy nodded.

"Sensei", he said. "My ears are tingling..."

"Must've been the shock", muttered Aizawa, eyes strained on the fight atop the building.

His left eye was burning and he hoped it wasn't a defect from the surgery they hadn't noticed.

From down there they couldn't see the fight, merely bolts of lightning and bursts of fire as well as the black, thick tentacles.

"No", Shoji insisted. "Sometimes when Todoroki is nearby my senses tingle"

Aizawa froze.

The burning behind his left eye grew unbearable.

A bolt of lightning ripped the sky above the tower's roof, freezing midair as though time had stopped, the sky rumbling before all sounds ceased.

He looked around.

Everybody was frozen, some crouched on the ground, others getting comrades to safety, except for him and Shoji.

"How peculiar"

His voice resonated with the might of a thunderclap in the quietness.

Both Shoji and Aizawa looked up.

Shoto was perched atop the building, hands clasped behind his back, his shape lit by the suspended lightning as though he were glowing from the inside, the petrified fire looking like bursts of paint around him, dark tendrils looking as though they sprouted from his back, large and ominous.

He looked like a biblical painting, unsettling and blood-curdling.

"I didn't know somebody other than aizawa was sensible to this ability of mine"

Shoto's face shattered, a crack spreading outward from the scar coursing through his left eye.

The cracks spread to the sky and the earth.

The world shattered.

Aizawa's surroundings morphed back to the battle's beginning.

He heard their commander scream once more :

"-re !"

Half of their forces fell brutally to the ground, heads cleanly chopped off, blood spurting from their severed throats.

Shoto was still atop the intact Endeavor's Tower, Special Forces bodies spread around him, blood dripping down the building's facade.

The tanks looked like crushed soda cans.

Aizawa whipped his head around, heart thundering.

He caught Shoji's desperate gaze.

"Sensei"

But he hadn't spoken the words. His mouth had moved, and Aizawa had interpreted, but he hadn't spoken the words.

Shoji's chopped-off head kept spinning in a circle before it fell and rolled on the ground.

Aizawa blinked.

Half of their army had been destroyed in a fraction of a second.

Everyone still in one piece was arms limp, mouth agape, head craned towards Shoto, eyes dull, caught in the illusion of a battle they weren't fighting.

Chopped heads were flying, slashed by sharp winds, the mowing tornado killing people platoon by platoon and line by line, getting increasingly closer.

Aizawa stumbled, looked up.

Shoto watched him with the apathy of someone watching ants fight for their lives.

He grabbed Jiro and shook her.

Her head bobbed back and forth, her eyes unfocused.

"Wake up !", he screamed. "You need to wake up and fight !"

His red eye, previously closed to avoid accidentally shutting down somebody's Quirk, was bulging.

He tightened his grip on her collar, his fingers brushing her neck.

"Jiro !"

She blinked, and suddenly she was wide awake.

"Sensei !", she said, confused. "I was-"

But Aizawa was already onto the next student.

He looked up and certainly, Shoto was watching him, head cocked, though he made no move to stop him.

Aizawa through their platoon's ranks, fingers grazing everyone he ran by.

People blinked to life and ran to take cover.

The mowing wind was getting increasingly closer.

Aizawa regrettably had to move back.

"Sensei !", screamed Inaza. "Keep going, I'll protect you !"

Inaza's muscles bulged, red lighting his skin, and he punched the ground between the end of their platoon and the incoming wind.

The ground shattered, a crack splitting both sides neatly, and wind swirled around Inaza's body as he raised blocks of earth higher, making the field unleveled so the wind would swoosh over them.

Jira's earphone jack buried themselves in the ground.

Sound waves made the ground more supple, and together they managed to raise a thick, protective wall.

The razor-sharp wind flew over them, Inaza grinding his teeth and using another wind current to make some sort of protective shield above their heads.

The wind dispersed.

They were screamed of joy. Jiro exhaled a relieved sigh.

Inaza looked back, wiping the sweat on his brow, hope sparkling in his eyes.

"If they-"

"How did you get your hands on Katsuki's Quirk ?"

Inaza choked, the sudden pressure on his neck making it hard to breathe.

He called on to the wind but Shoto scattered it with a lazy gesture.

"He gave it to me", Inaza wheezed, defiant. "Said we had to stop you"

Shoto snapped his neck with a flick of the wrist, eyes now a bloody red.

Inaza crumpled to the ground.

Jiro screamed, hands reaching for her mouth, nearly folding on herself.

Shoto cracked his neck.

"Do not put words in his mouth"

Jiro fell to the ground, blood spurting from her mouth, clenching her heart. Red was blooming beneath her fingers. She choked and fell, eyes wide open, revealing a knife buried deep in her chest.

A scream of rage burst from Sero's mouth.

He jumped forward, ground cracking beneath his feet, yellow veins glowing on his skin.

Shoto casually grabbed him by the throat, crushing his windpipe.

Sero choked, grasping for Shoto's face, clawing at his sleeve.

"Power is nothing if you don't know how to wield it", Shoto said, fire flickering on his cheekbone. "Even if it's the One for All"

Sero was burned to a crisp in a second.

Shoto let go of his charred body, wiping his hand on his pants.

"Who's next ?"

A boy with unremarkable dark hair sent tremors into the ground, trying to stall Shoto.

"Toko, you need to-"

Shoto's hands clasped shut on his ears.

He snapped his head cleanly, and the boy fell dead.

Tokoyami's dark shadow sprouted from its back, amplified by All Might's Quirk, looming like a gigantic monster over them.

"Let's-"

Dark Shadow took one look at Shoto and cowered in terror, refusing to advance.

"Dark Shadow ? What is happening ?", worried Tokoyami.

"I can't fight him, he's-"

Lightning tore through Tokoyami's chest, electricity filaments spreading across his body.

Dark Shadow popped.

Shoto took a step towards Aizawa, and Aizawa moved back.

Shoto's head snapped upward, chin moving a millimeter back, Midoriya's bulging fist flying past him, his red eyes following his fall.

The boy hit the ground and it cracked, dust flying everywhere.

"...you still end up with the One for All despite everything"

Midoriya held out a pained cry. His fist was shattered, splintered bone tearing his flesh.

Shoto grabbed Midoriya by the throat : the boy choked on his grip.

Aizawa leaped forward, his eyes briefly meeting Shoto's before he and Midoriya disappeared.

"I can't help but wonder if it's a coincidence or fate"

Midoriya was dangling above a three-hundred-meter void.

"Somebody up there has a sick sense of humor"

He tapped on Shoto's hand, turning increasingly red.

"I remember when you jumped off that building, what, two years ago ? The way your broken skull mended itself piece by piece, blood flowing backward to fill up your body. I thought I hated you but I didn't know what true hate was back then"

Something swooshed in the clouds.

Shoto looked up, eyes squinted.

A blotch of red and blue burst through a cloud and then disappeared behind another.

"What is she doing here ?"

She came to a halting stop a couple of meters from Shoto, floating in the sky, her red and blue cape flying like a flag behind her.

"Put that kid down", said Star and Stripes