The sky was eerily still—until Hawks moved.
With a gust of wind and a blur of red, hundreds of razor-sharp feathers shot from his wings like guided missiles, whistling through the air toward their target.
Nine stood calmly atop the ruined rooftop, arms folded, cloak rippling in the wind. At the last moment, he lifted one hand.
WHHHHRRMMM!
A shimmering dome enveloped him—Air Wall. The feathers struck it like hail on glass, deflecting away in a dazzling display of speed and force.
Almost all of them.
Two feathers curved at impossible angles, snaking behind him like hunting serpents. One grazed his cheek.
Slice.
A thin line of red trickled down.
Nine's eyes opened slowly. His brow twitched.
"All those flashy moves , just for a drop of blood?"
The clouds churned above. Black rolled in like a wave, blotting out the sun. Thunder crackled across the sky as the first droplets of rain fell. Lightning coiled through the heavens.
Nine raised his arms as his Weather Manipulation quirk took full control.
[Downtown Sapporo– Ground Level]
The streets were flooded, not with water, but chaos.
Villains roamed between crumbling buildings, alongside twisted Nomus built for war. The city burned and bled under the weight of Nine's forces.
Team Hawks had scattered—heroes working in coordinated cells. The camera of a news drone caught glimpses of the action before being struck down by a bolt of lightning.
"Come on, tough guy!" Bakugo shouted, blasting forward with concussive bursts.
"Try me!"
Skullcracker's gauntleted fists slammed the pavement, sending chunks of debris flying.
The Nomu flanked him—muscles like steel cables, eyes glowing red. It roared and charged.
Bakugo zipped between them with surgical precision, blasting to the left and curving behind.
"Stun Grenade!"
He lobbed a bright flash from his hand. Both enemies flinched.
He shot upward, flipping mid-air.
"MURDERIMPACT!"
A fiery circular exploded downward as Bakugo hit the ground, crashing into the Nomu with nuclear force. It cratered the street. Skullcracker roared in rage.
"You're next, bone-boy!"
On the other sides ,
Yaoyorozu dodged between collapsed pillars, forming twin javelins from her arms. Neural's sound bursts rippled through the air, briefly making her vision blur and her creations fizzle.
But she gritted her teeth.
She ducked a sonic wave, countering with a sound-dampening grenade she constructed on the fly. She lobbed it.
Thump—KSHHH!
Neural screamed as silence enveloped the area. His powers faltered.
Two Nomu pounced from the side—but Yaoyorozu, prepared, launched a chain net cannon and bound them mid-air.
On Midoriya's side,
Windshear soared across rooftops, blades of vacuum slicing toward him. Two Nomus hunted from below, leaping in sync.
But Izuku was a storm of green lightning.
His Full Cowl at 20% surged with no damage, no fatigue—thanks to Enrai's brutal training. He leaped, dodged a blade, and shot forward in a blur.
"Manchester SMASH!"
A spinning kick crashed into Windshear's side, sending him careening into a building.
The Nomus lunged—one slashing, the other breathing black mist.
"Can't let them hit civilians," Midoriya muttered, analyzing their timing mid-battle.
"St. Louis SMASH: Rapid Style!"
He launched rapid low-powered kicks in a rhythmic dance, knocking them off balance, then launched himself upward.
Lightning flared across his body.
"Detroit Smash: Overdrive!"
BOOOOOM!
A shockwave exploded outward as one Nomu's chest caved in. The second was sent hurtling into a water tower.
Windshear tried to counter from behind—Midoriya somehow sensed it.
He ducked, grabbed Windshear's wrist mid-swing, and flipped him into a wall.
'Huh? what was that ?- I was able to somehow sense that he was about to attack me- I-it was similar to when I was fighting Enrai-sensei'
He then dashed between buildings,
"Get down!" he yelled as he saw a Girl trapped beneath a collapsing streetlamp and rubble.
He clenched his right hand.
"Delaware Smash: Air Shot!"
The focused shockwave shattered the debris mid-air. Then, using a burst from his legs, he launched forward, driving a roundhouse kick into an oncoming villain's chest, sending the man flying through the wall.
------------------------------------------
High above, the two clashed in aerial combat.
Nine hurled bolts of lightning, blades of compressed air, and tried to crush Hawks with gravitational pressure.
But Hawks stayed mobile, flitting between attacks, feathers darting in like knives.
Nine bled from new wounds—but he smiled.
"You're fast."
Thunder cracked, wind howled, and lightning veined across the heavens like fury incarnate.
High above the crumbling skyline, Hawks darted between fractured skyscrapers and jagged air currents. His wings were moving at near invisible speeds, sending crimson feather blades hurtling toward Nine with deadly precision.
Most of them disintegrated against a shimmering translucent barrier — Nine's "Air Wall" quirk, a defensive dome of compressed force. But two feathers curved behind him with surgical stealth, one grazing his cheek.
A thin line of blood ran down Nine's face. He paused mid-air, touched his cheek with gloved fingers, then looked at the smear of crimson. His eyes narrowed, and his expression shifted from calculated calm to simmering rage.
"Unacceptable-" he muttered.
Then he raised his hand to the storming skies, and the clouds twisted unnaturally fast, churning like a hurricane on command.
BOOOOM!
A bolt of violet lightning tore through the air, exploding just a few meters from Hawks.
Hawks was nearing his limit. Half an hour of continuous flight, evasion, and feints had taxed even his speedster endurance. Blood dripped from a cut on his brow. His feathers were fewer, his breathing heavier.
"Okay… maybe I could use some help now-" he muttered, barely dodging another focused bolt of lightning.
Suddenly, steel threads sliced through the sky.
"ON YOUR LEFT!" shouted Best Jeanist, his arrival marked by a metallic whip of denim fibres. They wrapped around Nine mid-flight, halting his momentum.
"Target restrained-" Jeanist said, eyes focused.
But Nine's Air Wall flared again — the fibres strained against it, trembling.
"I'll hold him!"
Gang Orca charged in from below, letting out a high-frequency sonar scream that shattered windows and made even the Nomu flinch. The beast-man hero leaped and punched Nine's barrier with immense force. Cracks shimmered across it — not broken, but weakened.
Suddenly, the sunlight vanished. A massive shadow loomed over all of them.
Mount Lady.
She came charging, using her gigantic frame to slam a collapsed building's remains down toward Nine. Concrete and steel rained like meteors.
A collective shout of relief echoed from the students.
"Nice one, Mt. Lady!!" Bakugo grinned, eyes wide.
But then it happened.
SKRRAAAAKK!!
A dark blue dragon — summoned by Nine — erupted from the rubble with terrifying speed. Its fangs pierced Mount Lady's midsection with horrifying precision.
"AAAAAAAGHHHHH!!" she screamed.
A second later, a bolt of purple lightning slammed into her Head from above.
"NOOOOOOOO!!!" shouted Yaoyorozu, tears welling in her eyes.
"MOUNT LADY!!!" screamed Kamui Woods.
Mount Lady collapsed, her body falling backward like a giant toppling statue, shaking the earth. Blood spread across the broken streets beneath her.
Nine emerged from the cracked earth , cloaked in static and thunder.
With unnatural agility, he soared forward and kicked Gang Orca in the stomach, launching the massive hero into a storefront. Orca groaned.
Jeanist threw up another thread wall and dove in front of him just in time to block a bolt of lightning.
"Stay DOWN!"
Kamui Woods jumped from behind, vines bursting from his arms. They wrapped around Nine — only for Nine to twist, grab one vine, and launch Kamui into a wall like a ragdoll.
Then, silence — before Nine raised his arms to the sky.
From behind him, two new draconic constructs emerged from the clouds, glowing blue with lightning.
They roared.
One dragon spiralled toward Hawks.
The other barrelled toward the trio — Jeanist, Kamui, and Orca.
"GET BEHIND ME!" Kamui shouted.
"I'll reinforce it!" Jeanist layered his threads over a wooden wall Kamui hastily grew. Gang Orca roared, amplifying the defensive shield with a soundwave pulse.
The dragons hit like meteors. The force pushed the barrier back with deafening pressure.
"HOLD… ON!!" Jeanist groaned, his knees shaking.
"I CAN'T… KEEP IT… UUUUUUUP!!" Kamui screamed.
Then it happened.
A red spark in the clouds.
A piercing scream that echoed like judgment itself.
"HOOOOWITZEEEEEER… IMPAAAAACT!!"
Bakugo came tearing from the sky, trailing explosions like a comet. He slammed into the dragon attacking Hawks — the sheer force of the blast illuminated the sky, warping clouds and hurling the dragon's essence into vapor.
The blast rocked the battlefield.
"Bakugo!!" Midoriya shouted from the street, looking up with wide eyes.
Nine turned, looking skyward as Bakugo hovered, arms smoking, panting heavily — but grinning like a devil.
"Didn't like the weather-" he growled,
"so I brought the BOOM."
Hovering in the air, Nine unscathed looked down upon them all with narrowed, arrogant eyes. His aura pulsed with flickers of violet lightning, swirling like a tempest barely contained.
He sneered as more students and heroes regrouped.
"More ants… Joining the colony-" Nine growled, voice low and venomous.
On the ground, Bakugo wiped blood from his mouth, his grin wild and defiant.
"Tch. Bastard… I'm gonna kill ya!" he shouted, explosions igniting in his palms as his fury erupted with the sound of artillery.
At the crash site of the once-towering Mount Lady, Hawks landed beside her. Her colossal form had reverted back to her normal size. She lay unconscious, her body curled and riddled with deep gashes and bruises. But she was breathing — barely.
Hawks exhaled sharply, relief washing through him like rain.
"She's alive… Thank god."
He turned quickly to Yaoyorozu, who was already assessing Mount Lady's condition.
"Yaoyorozu-san, please—take her to the evacuation zone. There'll be medics there. She's critical, but she'll make it if we hurry."
Yaoyorozu nodded without hesitation. Her quirk flared to life — from her shoulder, plates of material rapidly constructed into a reinforced, wheeled medical cart. With gentle care, she placed Mount Lady on it.
"Thank you-" Hawks said, before releasing a small burst of air from his wings. The force propelled the cart across the broken terrain, speeding it toward the medical outpost in the distance.
"Please survive…" Yaoyorozu whispered under her breath as she sprinted behind it.
Just then, Midoriya landed next to Hawks, still flickering with emerald lightning. His eyes were wide with concern.
"Will she be alright?"
Hawks didn't look away from the direction of the cart.
"We can only hope."
But hope was fleeting.
The sky above them pulsed again — and in a flash of searing light, Nine hurled a barrage of violet energy beams downward like divine judgment. Hundreds of streaks tore through the air, splitting buildings and roads.
"Get behind me!" Midoriya roared.
He dashed forward, slamming his arms into the concrete and tearing up a massive slab of debris. He threw it upright, forming a crude but sturdy barrier that absorbed a cluster of bolts. The wall trembled with each impact, shaking from the raw energy.
Meanwhile, high above, Bakugo was locked in his own deadly dance.
The energy bolts had begun tracking him, relentlessly.
He twisted mid-air, using the remnants of a half-floating building as a platform. He ricocheted off the wall, launching himself toward Nine at high speed.
"YOU'RE MINE!!"
But from behind—an ambush.
A dragon, wreathed in midnight-blue texture, snapped forward, jaws wide. Bakugo barely dodged, the edge of its crackling maw grazing his leg. He spun wildly through the air, landing hard on the side of a floating concrete slab.
"AH—DAMN IT!" he hissed, clutching his thigh, blood running down. His breath was ragged, but his resolve was unshaken.
"BAKUGO!!" Midoriya shouted, his voice a mixture of panic and fury.
"Kid!!" Hawks added, eyes tracking both the dragon and Nine simultaneously.
With explosive force, Midoriya leaped into the sky and closed in on Nine with a burst of Full Cowl. His kick collided with Nine's barrier — the Air Wall shimmering before hurling him back like a cannonball.
Midoriya flipped mid-air, slamming into the side of a building, rubble crumbling beneath him.
Blood oozed from his forehead, running over his left eye.
His vision was split, red clouding one side, green lightning flickering on the other.
But he got up.
Then, Bakugo rejoined the fight.
Leaping from the rubble, he roared:
"STUN BOMBBBB!!"
A pulse of light and concussive force erupted, aiming for Nine's face.
But again — the Air Wall absorbed it like a shield of fate itself.
Nine raised his hand to retaliate, eyes glowing with wrath.
Then — a sudden shift.
His body jolted — not from an attack — but from within.
He twitched… stumbled mid-air.
A hand clutched the side of his head, and he let out a low groan.
His wings faltered, aura fluctuating like a short-circuiting storm. A vein pulsed visibly along his temple.
It didn't go unnoticed.
Hawks narrowed his eyes.
Kamui Woods and Jeanist, entangled with the remains of a defensive barrier, turned sharply toward the sky.
Midoriya, still crouched in the debris, whispered:
"…He's… faltering?"
And Bakugo, panting but grinning wickedly, clenched his fists.
"Heh… what's wrong? Finally feeling it?"
In perfect synchronicity, the same thought raced through the minds of every fighter present.
"Is he reaching his limit?"
But then… Nine's rage reached its boiling point.
The taunts, the stubborn resistance, the unwavering resolve of these so-called heroes — it all coalesced into a seething fury inside him.
"YOU… DAMMIT!!" Nine snarled, voice no longer human, but a deep, vibrating growl laced with a thousand echoes.
He raised his right arm toward the sky. From his palm, a vortex of energy burst forth like a signal to the heavens.
Above them, the clouds twisted unnaturally, swirling into a massive typhoon of dark purple energy mixed within clouds. Thunder cracked in a tight spiral, forming a monstrous cyclone directly above the battlefield. The sheer pressure forced the wind downward in a massive gale, flattening trees, breaking windows, and forcing everyone to brace themselves.
But Nine wasn't done.
From the folds of his tattered, scorched coat, he pulled out a silver injector filled with a glowing blue-violet fluid. Without hesitation, he jabbed it into his neck.
The moment the liquid coursed into his veins, a horrible transformation began.
Blue and purple cracks laced his body, glowing with unstable energy. His pupils dissolved, replaced with black sclera, and his irises shifted rapidly between a glowing purple and a ghostly blue—a disturbing heterochromia that pulsed with power.
His entire form radiated raw chaos. His breathing slowed, then steadied, becoming eerily calm. Then—
[FLASHBACK]
In a dimly lit chamber, All For One stood with his usual haunting calmness, placing three glowing injectors onto a metal tray. The blue fluid inside shimmered like bottled lightning.
"If you ever feel your body weakening," AFO said with a knowing grin, "use one of these. It'll grant you fifteen minutes of complete dominance. Your regeneration will improve. Your quirks will be amplified exponentially."
At his side, Re-Destro observed the glowing vials with cautious intrigue.
"And side effects?" he asked sceptically.
All For One chuckled, walking away with a wave of his hand.
" Do I look like someone who'd let a little thing like that go wrong?"
[FLASHBACK ENDS]
----
Back in the present, the answer to that question exploded into the world.
Nine spread his arms wide—and from his back, seven monstrous dragons burst forth in a cascade of violet lightning and storm. Each one hissed with a voice that sounded more like an earthquake than an animal.
"RAAAAAHHHH!!"
The ground shook as they took flight in different directions.
One tore through a skyscraper, shattering the building into falling rubble.
Another hurled itself at the ground, erasing a street, cars, and everything in its path.
Bakugo, launching toward Midoriya to help, was blindsided mid-air by a colossal tail. The force sent him crashing into a half-collapsed building, the structure burying him in rubble.
"BAKUGO!!" Midoriya screamed.
But another dragon struck Midoriya himself, slamming through the broken building like a wrecking ball. He was buried under concrete and smoke, a muffled cry echoing just before he disappeared.
Hawks, seeing Midoriya's position, flared his wings and launched toward the collapsing debris.
"Hang on kid, I've got you—!"
But fate had other plans.
Two dragons intercepted Hawks mid-flight, and one bit down hard onto his left wing.
A sickening crunch echoed in the sky as bones shattered and feathers scattered like dying embers.
"AGHHH—!!" Hawks grunted in agony, spiralling downward, barely managing to land on a rooftop before collapsing to one knee.
Nearby, Kamui Woods was entangling structures and trying to form a defensive barrier when a dragon lunged, faster than any of the others.
Its gaping mouth opened wide and in one horrifying instant—
CRUNCH!
The dragon bit down on Kamui's head.
There was no time for pain. No time for a scream.
His body dropped limp, crashing to the ground like a broken marionette, lifeless.
Gang Orca froze, his mouth wide in disbelief. The crushing weight of grief hit him like a train.
"KAMUI—NOOOOO!!" he bellowed, the sound a mixture of anguish and rage.
Hawks' eyes widened in horror. His pupils trembled, disbelief and guilt washing over him like a flood.
And Nine, standing amidst the destruction, His voice Vibrating.
"THIS is your end!"
Just as Nine was about to move ,
The ground beneath him trembled… then exploded.
A deafening BOOM ripped through the city as the rubble burying Bakugo Katsuki shattered like glass under an immense, fiery blast. One of the massive dragons pressing down on him was obliterated, its body disintegrating into violet embers mid-screech.
From the rising smoke and ash, Bakugo emerged, blood streaming from his brow, his combat suit torn at the shoulder and scorched across the chest. His breathing was ragged, chest heaving, but his crimson eyes burned with raw, unshakable fury.
"Bastard!" he spat, dragging his broken leg as he levitated into the air on miniature explosions.
"You thought that was enough to kill me?"
On the opposite side of the ruined avenue, a building shattered outward, its windows blasted apart by a green shockwave. Two of Nine's dragons were blown aside, screeching as they slammed into collapsed debris.
From the heart of that blast, Izuku Midoriya stepped out—green lightning coiling around his limbs, his eyes wide with horror.
His gaze found Hawks, kneeling on a rooftop with his wing half-torn and blood seeping from his ribs. And then—
His eyes fell on Kamui Woods.
The once-proud pro's lifeless body lay beside a broken lamppost, his head a shattered mess of blood and splintered mask. Midoriya froze, his breath caught in his throat.
His soul cracked.
His hands trembled… then clenched.
"KAMUI-SAN!!" he roared.
Then something changed.
A wave of blackish-green energy burst from his back—the whip-like tendrils of Blackwhip, more wild and aggressive than ever. They snarled like serpents, cracking through the air, and pierced two of the remaining dragons, wrapping and snapping through them like chainsaws.
But Nine grinned darkly as the bodies of the slain dragons dissolved—more burst from his back, accompanied by bolts of purple lightning that rained down on the battlefield with explosive force.
Midoriya and Bakugo leapt forward together, side by side. One cloaked in lightning and fury, the other bursting with explosive heat.
"Midoriya!" Bakugo growled.
"Let's finish this!" Midoriya snapped back.
Dragons rushed them. Midoriya's Blackwhip lashed and twisted, shielding them while Bakugo hurled Stun Grenades, AP Shots, and Cluster Blasts into the sky, vaporizing incoming threats.
Then—
"100%!!" Midoriya roared, his body suddenly crackling with blinding emerald force.
He punched forward, and the ground fractured in a straight line toward Nine, the shockwave demolishing buildings as it shattered through four of Nine's five air walls.
"Futile!" Nine said coldly, watching the last barrier hold—until a surprise dragon slammed into Midoriya mid-air, hurling him across a broken overpass.
But even as Midoriya crashed through the debris, another explosion rang out from behind Nine.
BOOOOM!
Nine was flung into a mound of concrete, his coat reduced to tattered ribbons. His mask shattered, revealing a pale face streaked with blood, his eyes now completely overtaken by darkness and glowing fury.
His wounds started to regenerate, but now it was clear—his body wasn't healing like before. Instead of flesh, glowing purple cracks began to form, racing like lightning across his skin, spreading with every breath.
The serum had extended his limits… but it was also breaking him.
With a savage roar, Nine raised both hands—and five of his seven dragons broke formation, coiling like missiles and lunging directly at Bakugo.
Bakugo's body tensed. He stared at the monstrous forms—claws like spears, eyes glowing, mouths wide enough to devour him whole.
Time seemed to slow.
"Tch… this is it?!" he muttered.
"Like hell!"
But the ground beneath him surged—and suddenly, Best Jeanist appeared, hurling steel cables like vipers, wrapping around Bakugo and yanking him backward.
"Shikkou shiro!"-Jeanist.
Bakugo hit the ground and rolled, coughing violently, then gave a quick nod of gratitude.
Jeanist turned and sent dozens of reinforced threads spiralling into the sky, attempting to snare the dragons mid-flight.
Meanwhile, one of the dragons turned toward Hawks, who was struggling to rise, a single feather sword still clutched in his trembling hand.
"You're not taking me out…" he muttered, raising the blade.
He struck the dragon's head with it just as it came in for the kill.
CRACK!
The dragon's jaw deflected—but so did Hawks' arm. His shoulder snapped, the bone visibly displaced beneath his torn jacket.
"G-Ghhaa—!" Hawks fell to one knee, breath stolen by pain, feathers flickering out like dying embers.
"I can't… pass out now… Not now…"
His blurred vision drifted toward Nine—the enemy he loathed most. The monster that turned this war into a slaughter.
And then—
Midoriya's voice rang out, booming like thunder.
"BAKUGO—MOVE!!"
A tidal wave of energy burst from above. Midoriya, now afloat mid-sky, eyes glowing with green-white fire, veins pulsing with One For All's fury, let loose an earth-shaking blast of power.
"SMASHHHHHHH!!!"
The impact split the battlefield in two—Nine braced behind his air wall, cracks beginning to form even as he growled—
But Midoriya wasn't stopping.
His body glowed brighter. His Blackwhips expanded, fanning like wings behind him.
Thin, glowing lines—pinkish-blue in hue—began to crawl across his skin, like cracks of energy trying to burst free from his body. He grit his teeth, trembling, as his muscles spasmed under the pressure. Groans escaped him, his frame struggling to contain the raging power surging through every fiber of his being. In the next moment, his silhouette vanished behind a blinding aura of blue and golden lightning, erupting around him like a living storm.
His Blackwhip tendrils, now hardened like energy chains, lunged out, coiling around each of the seven dragon heads bearing down upon him and his allies.
With a shout that shook the battlefield, Midoriya pulled—yanking the colossal dragons mid-air, their shrieks of energy echoing across the city as they were dragged down. In the same motion, he launched himself forward, slamming into the air in front of Nine at a speed that made the villain's eyes widen in disbelief.
"Impossible—this speed—!" Nine hissed, but it was too late.
Midoriya's fist connected.
And then another.
One punch became two. Two became three.
As if time itself slowed around them, a barrage of titanic fists emerged, every one growing in size and intensity. In seconds, they tore through Nine's Air Wall, each strike pounding deeper into his armor, cracking it until finally—BOOM!—it shattered.
The upper half of Nine's armor exploded off, and he screamed as he was pummeled mid-air, body wracked in all directions, bones splintering under the weight of Midoriya's fury.
YOU DAMNED INSECT!!" Nine screamed in defiance. Overloaded with fury, he raised his hand skyward.
His body spasmed violently, and with a deafening roar, he unleashed his final desperate strike—the biggest, most cataclysmic bolt of purple lightning yet. At the same time, three more dragons erupted from his spine, hurtling toward Midoriya.
But before the bolt could hit—
Midoriya, still airborne, was thrown away by a sudden force. He turned to see Hawks, bloodied and barely flying, shoving him aside mid-air with the last of his wing power.
"H-Hawks!?" Midoriya choked out, shocked.
The hero grinned weakly. "Kid… I'll leave it to you now."
The bolt struck him full-on.
Feathers vaporized. Clothes scorched.
he fell—like a burning star crashing to earth.
Hawks plummeted to the earth, body blackened and unmoving.
Midoriya screamed, "NOOOO!"
Before he could react, the three incoming dragons were blown off-course by furious explosions.
"Don't forget about me, you bastard!"
Bakugo blasted into their path, intercepting them with a thunderous roar. Flames danced around his cracked gauntlets and one leg, which was bleeding heavily.
He turned to Midoriya. "DEKU! Let's end this—together."
Midoriya, teeth clenched, nodded. "Hai!"
Best Jeanist, limping but alive, extended his torn arms. Threads of carbon-fiber fabric exploded from his body like a net, grabbing the remaining dragons, even as blood poured from his eyes and lips.
"FINISH THIS!"
Midoriya leapt atop a dragon mid-charge, bounding toward Nine.
Bakugo hurled himself into the sky, concentrating all his explosive fury into one singular move.
"VALKYRIE BURST!!" he roared.
Midoriya shouted, "UNITED SMASH!"
Together, they struck Nine from both sides.
BOOOOOOOOOM.
A shockwave of godlike force erupted across the landscape. A mushroom cloud exploded above the battlefield, clearing the thunderstorm that had loomed since the beginning. All went quiet.
When the dust began to settle—
Bakugo and Midoriya lay sprawled on the cracked ground. Bleeding, gasping, but alive. Midoriya groaned in pain, his limbs twitching under the weight of what he had done.
Nine stood in the center of a crater.
His body broken. Arms shattered. Legs twisted. His armor was gone, revealing a glowing, purple-veined form barely holding itself together. But he still stood.
He laughed—a ragged, broken sound.
"Hah… hah… you think you've won…?"
His black eyes glowed with madness.
"I'LL TAKE YOU DOWN WITH ME!"
His body surged, veins pulsating as pure purple electricity engulfed him. His form swelled into a chaotic mass of lightning, crackling and expanding like a mini sun.
Best Jeanist, still conscious, reacted instantly.
With the last of his strength, he grabbed Gang Orca, Hawks, Bakugo, and Midoriya with his threads and slingshotted them away, propelling them like a human web-slinger.
He took one last glance at Kamui Woods' lifeless body, heart heavy with grief—but there was no time. He dove into the nearby lake, pulling the others with him just as—
"This… ends now!" Nine roared.
KRAKOOOOOOOOOM!
The explosion was cataclysmic.
The entire city was vaporized in a single flash of purple lightning, leaving nothing but smoldering ash. The blast carved the land, leveled mountains, and sent a shockwave that vaporized everything in a kilometer radius.
The lake itself trembled violently. Jeanist and Orca, bruised and bleeding, barely held on.
Underwater, the pressure wave still struck them, knocking all but Jeanist and Orca unconscious.
Jeanist coughed blood and whispered, "I'll… leave this… to you now." He passed out, his threads releasing.
Gang Orca, missing an arm and bleeding heavily, gathered what little strength he had, clutching everyone to his chest, swimming with everything he had toward the shoreline.
When he reached land, he collapsed, eyes wide as he took in what remained.
The battlefield… was gone. The center where Nine once stood was now a blackened pit, not a single building standing in sight. The city had fallen—but they had won. Civilians were saved.
But on the other side of Japan… things were not going well.
And this war… was far from over.