บท 98: Chapter 97
One day, Enji had promised Shoto that he would always protect him, no matter the consequences.
He had kept his promise even after it was too late and Shoto had gotten a taste of what it meant to be "alone".
He'd kept his promise even to the point of breaking the promise he'd made to the young man he'd once been, never to fall into his old ways again, to have nothing more to do with the Todoroki Empire, never to get his hands dirty again.
But he had ultimately killed for his son, and tonight, Enji Todoroki was ready to do it again.
- We're approaching the landing zone, so get ready!
The pilot's voice was metallic, electronic, barely audible over the noise of the helicopter's propellers.
Enji felt All Might's gaze on him but didn't turn around, his attention riveted on the dilapidated building they were flying over.
This was where Shoto's hero suit had given its last location before disappearing a few seconds earlier.
Which could only mean one thing: The League knew they were coming.
Enji's icy eyes took on the surrounding area in a single glance.
It was a dilapidated former industrial zone, abandoned years ago, like many places in Japan since the birth rate had plummeted.
There were few residents, or those that no one really cared about and that he could force himself to forget in order to relieve his conscience.
This was a good thing.
Enji would be able to go all out.
- Don't worry, Endeavor. We'll save Shoto-shonen.
Endeavor looked briefly at All Might and quietly observed him.
The blond giant stood firm, his gaze betraying nothing but his steely resolve.
There was something reassuring in the certainty of his posture and the calluses on his fists, covered with whitish scars. His haughty bearing and energetic power saturated the air around him, almost vibrating, giving him an almost intimidating aura.
Enji might not have liked him as a person, but All Might was All Might, and Enji wouldn't have wanted someone weaker than him at his side to fetch his son.
So he nodded slightly, much to the surprise of the blond giant.
Then he looked away.
- Landing in 10, 9, 8...
The khaki-clad co-pilot put his hand on the handle of the sliding door and continued to count into the microphone.
- ... 3, 2, 1,
He slided the door along its rails in one smooth motion.
The wind rushed into the cabin, rasping faces and whipping skins.
The co-pilot grabbed a handle and pressed himself against the wall of the helicopter to avoid being swept away in a moment of distraction.
The sound of the propellers turned into a deafening roar that prevented Enji from hearing his own breath.
The night was like a black hole, a bottomless pit ready to swallow you but unwilling to spit you out.
Enji threw himself from the helicopter without thinking.
He sliced through the night like a rocket, head forward, arms at his sides.
The wind blew his hair back, sticking to his skull. The air buzzed in his ears and, under his skin, his Quirk hummed like a volcano about to erupt.
Suddenly, Enji activated his Hell Flame in his legs.
Flames exploded from the soles of his feet, lifting him up until he floated in the air.
He landed on the ground with a thud, raising a cloud of dust and brutally heating up the atmosphere.
The next second, All Might landed beside him, head bent forward, one knee on the ground, right fist digging into the cement.
Cracks scattered across the asphalt, spreading like spider webs around them.
Enji hadn't flinched, his arms crossed over his chest, the flames burning like a river of fire on his suit.
All Might rose to his feet, jaws clenched, a grim expression on his face.
The two men surveyed the ruined building with almost fluorescent blue eyes, shining as if radiating their own light.
The air was heavy, saturated with energy, power, and the promise of unbridled violence.
All Might spoke first.
- All for one, we know you're in there. Get out.
Nothing happened.
A light breeze picked up, kicking up a grayish dust that passed for dirty snow in the dark night.
All Might opened his mouth again, but Endeavor cut him off:
- If you don't leave right now, I'll turn this building into a volcano!
New silence.
All Might cast a sideway glance at Endeavor.
The Fire Hero took a step forward, and the river of fire turned into a tornado of flames.
The air, suddenly heated and saturated, crackled like a thunderstorm.
Enji's skin reddened violently before becoming transparent as glass, his organs and power-blooded veins visible as daylight.
The earth rumbled, cracks zigzagging across the ground, cement buckling to form cracked ridges from which clouds of burning steam escaped.
All Might stepped back in surprise, pulling his foot away from a ridge that sent a puff of burning, suffocating air into his face.
His face instantly turned red, and he looked up at Endeavor, who was still getting dangerously close to the building.
He opened his mouth, then closed it again, deciding to trust his partner's judgment.
And there was still his son in the building.
Endeavor didn't follow through on his threat.
- You have three seconds to get out.
All Might pursed his lips but said nothing.
The heat underfoot became unbearable.
- Two seconds
Endeavor waited a heartbeat.
Then he abruptly raised his hands to the sky.
- One.
For a second, nothing happened.
Then, suddenly, the ground shook as if an earthquake had struck the region.
All Might realized with confusion that the earthquake was confined to their immediate surroundings, barely affecting the surrounding neighborhoods, but destroying everything in their immediate vicinity.
The dilapidated buildings surrounding the large plaza where they stood shook violently before collapsing in on themselves with a deafening noise.
A crack opened beneath Endeavor's feet, spreading in a straight line up to the front building before turning into a crevasse halfway up, bubbles of burning steam bursting into the night air before the crevasse turned into a ravine, collapsing the central part of the building.
Then, from the bowels of the earth, a veritable volcano erupted from the ground, lifting the building in two and shattering it in the center, engulfing two floors in a pit of molten lava.
*
I saw the look of triumph in Dabi's eyes and was seized with a violent urge to gouge them out with my nails.
As a warning, my kunai sank into the tender, quivering skin of his neck, a needle-thin trickle of blood sliding down to his shoulder.
He smiled, his lips curled over teeth so wide that his face looked like it was about to split in two.
For a second, the image of the old Teka was superimposed on his own.
- You've grown weak. Before, you wouldn't have hesitated for a second to slit my throat and be done with me.
That was almost ten years ago, and he was the potential murderer living under the same roof as me.
Since then, I'd grown up and survived numerous murder attempts.
- What video ?
- You were always dangerous. I noticed it the second Endeavor brought you home in your car seat.
I deliberately showed him my contempt.
- You're pathetic, Touya. A decade later and your life still revolves around me.
He continued his monologue, deaf to my words or deliberately ignoring me.
- I couldn't understand what made you so special back then. You were just a weird kid who didn't talk much and spent his time watching the world unfold.
His right hand was shaking and he made a visible effort to raise it slowly.
I made no effort to stop him, for I was capable of breaking every bone in his body before he could even blink.
He pointed at my temple, my head, my brain, and whatever else he thought he'd find there.
- But you understood what we were saying. Not like a precocious kid, because I've seen precocious kids, and they weren't like you, not so different, not so...
He fell silent, his eyes shining with a strange sparkle.
Then he licked his lips.
- You were already different. You knew things you shouldn't have. Sometimes you acted like you were older than your sister or I. Nothing ever surprised you, as if you'd done it all, lived it all. As if you'd already lived.
I batted my eyelashes, impassive.
- What video?
- You're dangerous. I realized it the night I came into your room and found you hiding under the bed
- You tried to kill me
- You knew I was coming. And instead of running up your mother's skirt, you waited for me to come so I wouldn't get away. You planned my murder.
A breath of laughter, condescending and mocking, escaped my lips.
- Says the man who entered my room at the stroke of midnight. Says the man who managed to find a child's jawbone and throw it into the flames after faking his own murder (my smile widened and I forced my eyes to become two crescent moons so he would notice) Says the man who spent ten years of his life planning a two-bit "revenge" and ends up with a knife at his throat in less than a minute.
- You know, Shoto, I don't hate you.
I raised an eyebrow that reflected everything I thought about him and his bullshit.
- Maybe you really don't hate me, but that doesn't mean I don't
It was that 'video', that bluff that wasn't a bluff, that was the only thing that kept me from slitting his throat and crushing his brain with glee in the same second.
- But you've always been an excellent liar, so allow me to doubt you.
I wondered how long I'd have to put up with his little antics before I cut his jugular and watched him bleed to death.
There was a time when I was patient, but I've lost that along with my inability to project myself into the future.
- I don't lie. Haven't done so in a long time, anyway. But if I'm here today, it's not out of revenge or anything like that. No, I'm aware that you were just a child - or at least a child whose hands were never stained with blood - and that I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you.
His eyes shone with a honesty and I saw the red-haired Touya again, the child whose hand quivered when he lied.
His hand wasn't shaking.
- If I've come back after all these years, it's because you are dangerous and must be stopped at all costs
*
Author's note :
250 power stones = sunday bonus chapter
If you want to support me/read ahead of schedule, you can do so on my P@treon, Nar_cisseENG
See you in the next update everyone !
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