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[The Fox and the Hare] Chapter 50 - Final Battle (II)
🕑 Added 2024-07-07 00:04:09 +0000 UTCAN: my Discord server can be found at /x7xdd53WqE.
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Previous chapter
“I almost wish All Might was alive so I could show him what came of his successor,” All For One said mockingly as he clenched his right hand, and Izuku started screaming in agony when he felt his body getting compressed and crushed as if he were in a hydraulic press.
However, at that moment, a massive red appendage slammed into the original All For One’s back and hit him so hard that his body left a deep ravine into the ground as it rolled and tumbled away, obliterating all the trees in his way.
When he got up from the ground, All For One’s head was twisted to his back like a doll, and his spinal cord appeared to have been crushed, but his Regeneration Quirk made it almost impossible for him to die from such ‘trivial’ wounds. All those wounds were cured in a matter of seconds.
⁂
Four golden chains suddenly burst from his back.
‘His Telekinesis hold on me broke?!’
With the apparition of the Adamantine Sealing Chains, not only was AFO's telekinetic grasp on Naruto cancelled, but he also stabbed through the two clones, making them disperse into mud.
With a roar, the demonic-looking Naruto lunged at the real AFO next, only for a rock spear to suddenly burst from the ground and slam heavily into his gut.
The protection of his ‘demon skin’ was formidable, to the point where it made him bulletproof. However, while the spear didn’t pierce through his body, the power behind the hit sent Naruto tumbling back like a ragdoll.
Simultaneously, Izuku shouted as he leapt at AFO’s last clone, green lightning coiling around his muscular body as he raised his leg to deliver a powerful kick:
“St. Louis Smash!”
A powerful shockwave flattened much of the still-standing vegetation around them, and the AFO Clone raised his arms above his head, groaning as he parried the powerful kick with his forearms.
With him being AFO’s last remaining clone, it was more durable than the others, but it still couldn’t withstand Izuku’s monstrous strength. Just as it began to collapse into mud, the clone spoke:
“Heavy Payload. Navel Laser.”
Izuku’s Danger Sense Quirk flared, and he rolled to the side, dodging the massive, deadly laser beam by a hair’s breadth.
“How dare you use that quirk?!” Izuku screamed in anger, recognising that it was Aoyama Yuga’s quirk that the AFO’s clone had fired at him.
The clone collapsed into a puddle of mud after firing that attack, but the real AFO answered his question with a mocking laugh:
“Why wouldn’t I dare? It was my quirk to begin with.”
But their conversation was abruptly cut short as Naruto rose from the place he crashed into after the rock spear attack and charged at AFO.
“Enough chatting, Izuku!” Naruto shouted. “Don’t give him time to breathe! Don’t give him time to think!”
All For One immediately used his telekinesis, and Izuku once again lost control over his body as AFO levitated him and threw him straight into Naruto.
Izuku let out a shout of frustration, but he threw his Blackwhip around the broken trunk of a tree, changing his trajectory and managing to avoid a collision with Naruto.
As for the blonde, he broke the sound barrier, leaving a sonic boom in his wake as he charged at AFO. His crimson claws tore through AFO’s body like a hot knife through butter.
“What?!” Naruto exclaimed in confusion.
It wasn’t blood that burst from AFO’s body, nor was it the sensation of tearing someone’s flesh apart that he felt from his claws. AFO collapsed in a puddle of mud. It had been a clone all alone. Three clones were far from AFO’s limit. AFO could Double himself as many times as he wanted.
“Behind you, Naruto!” Izuku yelled.
But even before Izuku’s words ended, Naruto controlled his Adamantine Sealing Chains to create a dome of golden light around himself.
‘Hypertrophy. Spearlike Bones. Body Bulk. Muscle Augmentation. Brawn Boost. Transforming Arms. Scalemail. Multiplier. Springlike Limbs. Kinetic Booster. Overclock.’ AFO listed in his mind the names of the quirks he was about to use.
It took not even a second for AFO to transform into a terrible creature that couldn’t even be called human anymore.
He was a 10-foot-tall behemoth now, a hulking monstrosity whose muscles looked like pythons. His skin turned into what looked like scaly armour with bony protrusions and two extra arms bearing the same appearance as the rest of his grotesque body grew out of his spine.
AFO didn’t attack Naruto who was protected by his Adamantine Sealing Chains. Instead, he changed his target to Izuku.
“Come, One For All!” AFO cackled as he cocked back his fists.
Izuku gathered the entire strength of his quirk into his arms.
“Double Detroit Smash!”
It was a move that would get people to laugh at him if he were a regular human fighting in a regular battle. However, the immense power of the One For All quirk changed things completely.
Nevertheless, despite Izuku using 100% of his OFA quirk, AFO caught his punches firmly in his hands.
The clash between the two generated a shockwave that spread even beyond the limits of the imperial garden of Tokyo and shattered the windows of all cars and buildings in a radius of 1 kilometre around them.
Simultaneously, AFO once again used the Double quirk that he had stolen from the villain Twice, and three clones just as monstrous as him came out of his body, rushing to block Naruto who started charging at him.
“You’re finally mine now, One For All!” AFO said and Izuku’s sight darkened.
The moment his sense of sight came back to him, he found himself in a place that didn’t look like the real world. And he wasn’t alone.
A silver-haired middle-aged man stood tall in front of him, an arrogant and confident smirk on his face. It was All For One. Aside from him, an army of hundreds of faceless, featureless humanoid silhouettes surrounded them from all sides. They were the embodiment of the quirks that AFO had stolen over the years of his very long life.
Before Izuku could make sense of the situation, the army of faceless humanoid silhouettes charged at him like a pack of hungry hyenas, using their teeth, claws, and any other part of their body to rip, tear, and break him.
“Struggle with all your might. It’s futile. You’re in the palm of my hand!” All For One said relaxedly as he watched Izuku desperately kick and punch all the faceless beings attacking him.
⁂ Mirko’s POV ⁂
A shockwave deafened some of the nearby heroes as Mirko burst at her fastest speed into the direction from which she could sense danger, pursuing the sniper who had been killing them from afar.
‘I won’t let them kill anyone else!’ Rumi thought, her body leaving afterimages in her wake.
She appeared as nothing but a white blur as she hopped from one building to another, running in a zigzag pattern.
The sound of a 4th gunshot reached Mirko’s ears, and her danger-sensing ability flared, warning her that the bullet was going to hit her from behind.
‘What? How? Where are they shooting from?!’
It made no sense for the bullet to hit her in the back because there were no buildings behind her. There was only open space, the Imperial Gardens where Naruto and Izuku were. Moreover, the sound of the gunshot came from the opposite side, ahead of Mirko.
Her questions were answered when a bullet appeared from behind a building to her right and made a turn like a homing missile, heading straight to her back.
“So you can remote-control your bullets! Interesting!” she said cockily, and her muscular thighs bulged as she squatted on the street before launching herself upwards.
The bullet missed her by a large margin and Mirko threw herself at the shooter like a rocket.
“Damn it!” came the shooter's voice, and she jumped off the rooftop of the building she had been hiding on, using an Air Walk quirk to fly away.
And it was not a moment too late because, merely a split second after she jumped off, the entire rooftop was pulverized by Mirko’s axe kick.
“Don’t run away now!” Mirko shouted and stepped on a falling piece of debris that was still in mid-air, lunging at the shooter again.
The purple-haired woman turned around and let herself fall into a freefall while pointing her elbow rifles at Mirko, shooting two bullets at the same time.
The rabbit girl was in mid-air. It was common sense that it was impossible for anyone to change direction and stop their momentum without a quirk related to flying.
But, to Lady Nagant’s disbelief, Mirko didn’t need to dodge her bullets.
“Luna Ring!” she shouted as she performed a cartwheel kick in the air, her two legs looking like a helicopter’s rotor blade as she kicked both bullets away with the metallic part of her rabbit shoes.
Not only that Rumi had kicked both bullets away, but she even used the moment she gained from kicking the second bullet to further increase her speed and launch herself at Nagant before she could react.
Mirko’s flying kick smashed Lady Nagat in full, her shin landing straight into her jaw and blasting her down like a cannonball.
People screamed in panic and scurried away in terror when Lady Nagant smashed violently into the streets below, creating a 10-metre-wide crater with her body.
Mirko landed next to her immediately and flicked her long white hair out of her face.
‘She’s just unconscious.’
The visuals would make one think that Lady Nagant was dead considering that she was lying in a deep crater, her body not moving. But Mirko’s excellent hearing picked up the sounds of her heartbeat.
‘Should I kill her?’
She hesitated.
Sure, Lady Nagant had just killed two of her fellow Pro Heroes. But Mirko had never executed someone after they were beaten. It was one thing to kill someone in battle, in the heat of the moment, and a different thing altogether to take someone’s life after they were already defeated, in cold blood.
‘But I can’t just leave her be either.’
They were in the middle of their final battle against All For One. The whole country’s future hinged on the result of their battle now. If she just let the shooter be and Lady Nagant regained her consciousness and came back to attack them when they least expected it, it would be the end for the heroes.
Steeling her resolve, Mirko gritted her teeth as she walked into the crater to Lady Nagant’s body. Once she got there, she raised her foot and stomped it hard two times, breaking both of Lady Nagant’s arms with a sickening sound.
‘With this, even if she were to regain her consciousness, she would not be a threat anytime soon.’
She was shaken off from her thoughts when a distant shout reached her ears. She was more than a kilometre away from the Imperial Gardens now but her rabbit ears clearly picked up the sound of Naruto screaming Izuku’s name.
⁂
“Izuku!” Naruto shouted when he saw that the green-haired boy’s eyes turned glassy and his posture slouched over.
Alas, he couldn’t rush to his help because the three monstrous clones of All For One blocked his way. Due to his Adamantine Sealing Chains, their Telekinesis didn’t work on him, but it wasn’t like AFO was left without options. The villain had dozens of other quirks he could use.
Black lightning took the shape of a trident in the 4 hands of the first clone.
“Black Lightning Trident!” the clone shouted as he threw the lightning trident at Naruto.
With his great speed, Naruto easily dodged his throw, but he was nearly caught in the explosion of lightning that followed after the trident slammed into the ground.
Blue fire appeared in the second clone’s two hands, while the two arms on his back shot two massive Air Cannon attacks.
“Fire Vortex!” the second clone shouted as the combination of his Blueflame and Air Cannon Quirks from his four arms created an immense tornado of blue fire. The attack had such a wide area of effect that Naruto was left with no choice other than to turtle up behind the safety of his Adamantine Sealing Chains’ protective dome of light.
Naruto’s chains weathered the tornado of fire, but the imperial gardens were incinerated, reduced to ash. Moreover, the hellfire spread outside the gardens into the rest of the city too, into the financial and residential districts.
“All For One!” Naruto screamed in anger when he heard the yells of the people in the distance.
He released his chain dome, bearing the brunt of the hellish blue flames with his demonic, crimson body as he charged at the clone controlling the fire.
But the third clone met his charge head-on and slammed his four fists at him violently.
In his demonic form, Naruto had even been able to overpower Mount Lady’s gigantification, but All For One’s clone managed to stop him in his tracks with his might.
“Don’t get in my way!” he shouted as he blocked the clone’s massive fists with his fox tails and the spear-tipped golden chains coming from his back impalled the clone in the chest, killing it instantly.
Despite that he killed one of AFO’s clones, Naruto’s worry and anxiety were increasing with every second that passed with him being unable to close the distance and shake Izuku awake.
‘If AFO gets Izuku’s quirk, we’re all finished!’
The ground underneath his feet transformed into a swamp, and 10 mud hands grabbed him by his arms, legs, and 6 tails to drag him into the depths below.
With an aggressive yank of his tails, the mud hands broke, and Naruto used his golden chains to grab onto the solid ground beyond the edge of the swamp created by AFO’s clones, pulling himself out.
“Izuku!” Naruto screamed again, hoping against all odds that his friend would hear his voice and come back to his senses.
“What a troublesome fellow you are,” one of the remaining two clones said in anger. “Don’t you see it’s hopeless? Once I get my hands on One For All, no one will be able to stop me.”
As his four hands lit up with wind and blue flames again, the clone spoke:
“I could’ve killed you any time I wanted, Uzumaki Naruto. With my Decay quirk, one touch is all it would take for me to kill you. The only reason you’re still alive is because I want your chains. Give me your quirk, boy. Surrender, and I will let you live. Your quirk is valuable, but not as valuable as One For All. If you give me no choice, I will put you down like a dog. This is my last offer.”
Just as the clone finished his words, a white blur came down from the sky, and a familiar shout reached Naruto’s ears:
“LUNA FALL!”
It was Mirko’s most powerful super move, a downward kick that used the entire weight of her body and all the momentum that she gained from moving at the speed of sound.
A scream of pain came from the original All For One as the spearlike bones in his arm shattered from her kick, bringing him out of his mental world just as he was about to completely overwhelm Midoirya Izuku and steal his quirk.
He had been moments away from fulfilling his most ardent desire, his obsession!
Mirko had yet to even land on the ground with her feet after breaking AFO’s arm when his other three hands suddenly wrapped around the leg she used to kick her, not leaving her even a second to escape.
His heart filled with rage, All For One hoisted her up by the leg and slammed her into the ground repeatedly and savagely.
“Mirko!” Naruto shouted, but another Air Cannon and Blueflame combination blasted him several hundred metres away, throwing him out of the Imperial Gardens and making him leave human-sized holes in two skyscrapers before his body finally came to a stop.
He spat a mouthful of blood as he struggled to stand up to his feet.
But despite his internal injuries, he broke into a sprint, rushing back to the battlefield. In his craze, he unknowingly started running on all fours, resembling an actual fox rather than a human, and a seventh tail grew out of his back.
“Rumi! Rumi!” he shouted, his voice a mixture between that of a human and a beast.
When he finally arrived at the devastated Imperial Gardens again, Izuku had come back to his senses and was holding an unconscious and bleeding Mirko wrapped in his Blackwhip. He had strapped the rabbit girl to his back as he did his utmost to avoid and dodge All For One’s ruthless attacks.
But Naruto didn’t even register AFO and his remaining clone or the fact that Izuku was at the end of his wits, about to be overpowered by All For One and his Double.
The only thing registering in his mind was the river of blood flowing from Mirko’s cracked skull, staining her white hair crimson… …and the fact that he could not hear the sound of Rumi’s breathing or her heartbeats.
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Looking at Naruto with her red eyes sparkling in excitement, she said:
"Whaddya say? Do you wanna tag along? We're gonna have so much fun! And you'll get to see a Pro Hero in action with your own eyes too. Win-Win if you ask me~"
[...]
"Anyway, Tiger Bunny. I actually got this nickname in high school during my delinquent days."
"What? No way!" Naruto said while laughing and Mirko laughed together with him too.
"I'm serious. Ah, I sometimes miss those days! I used to love crushing other districts' school gangs and making them call me Aneki. Hahaha!"
At first, he thought she was joking but the joy he could hear in her laughter was a bit too pure to not be real.
[...]
"I don't remember the last time someone gave me a piggyback! Go! Go!" she said and giggled happily. "But are you okay? Your heart is beating as if to jump out of your chest," she said in fake worry as if she wasn't aware of what effect her posture would have on a teenage boy like him.
"Please don't tease me, Mirko-san," he said meekly.
"Your reactions are adorable," she said with a snicker, patting the top of his head.
[...]
"Am I your friend, Naruto?" she asked, her voice only a whisper this time.
"How is that a question? Of course you are!"
She smiled - it wasn't one of her usual teasing grins this time. It was a pure, happy smile
[...]
"Mirko? Could you give me an answer, please?"
"Rumi," she said quietly. "From now on, call me Rumi."
"Is that a yes?" he said, his voice betraying how hopeful he was.
Standing up from her chair, Mirko rose on her tippy toes to press a soft kiss on his cheek.
"That's all you're going to get for now," she said coyly as she looked up at him.
[...]
"You're not good at pouting. It won't work on me," he said, inwardly amused by her act.
"Strange, Eri-chan told me pouting is super effective on you."
Outside of his will, he snorted in amusement.
"Well, if that doesn't work, maybe this will."
As she said those words, she took another gulp of beer and then, catching him completely by surprise, she grabbed him by the collar of his sweatshirt and covered his lips in an open-mouthed kiss.
[...]
“Finally home,” Naruto muttered when he and his father appeared in front of their home’s entrance door.
“I know you’re tired, but hold on. It’s almost over,” Minato said in encouragement, patting him on the shoulder.
Naruto nodded wordlessly and went ahead to open the door. Before he could touch the door handle, the door suddenly opened, and someone jumped into his arms. It was Mirko.
⁂
At that moment, in the blink of an eye, his life with Rumi over the past two years all flashed through his mind.
Whether it was his previous or current life, he had never loved another girl as much as her.
He was going to marry her. They were going to make a family together. They were going to-
‘She’s dead.’
All For One and Izuku both stopped fighting and distanced themselves from each other as a feeling of danger like never before washed over them both.
A roar that couldn’t have come from a human burst from Naruto’s chest, and his body deformed like that of an abomination, almost like a Nomu, as it increased in size explosively.
Izuku was left dumbstruck when All For One and his Double were suddenly covered by a black ooze.
All For One was going to run away, teleporting with his Warp Quirk!
But AFO’s Warp Quirk was cancelled as a massive crimson tail, much thicker and longer than a 16-wheeler truck, slammed into him and his clone. The clone exploded into a puddle of mud upon impact, and the original was blasted away with such strength that his body left sonic booms behind.
Izuku felt his knees grow weak as an enormous creature came to his side. It no longer bore any resemblance to a human being. Crimson red and tall enough to rival a skyscraper, the creature looked just like the legendary nine-tailed fox from the myths.
The enormous fox appeared to be sniffing him for a moment before saying in a very deep voice:
“Call Naruto’s father. The girl can still be saved.”
Saying that, the gigantic fox made a huge leap towards the ocean, in the direction in which he had blasted AFO away.
⁂
Despite the Ultimate Combination of Quirks that AFO had used to turn his body into that of a monster, Kyuubi’s tail strike had pulverized one leg and two of his four arms and crushed half of his internal organs as well.
All For One had barely managed to swim up from the depths of the ocean and was in process of regenerating his body when Kyuubi’s massive body landed on top of the water with a massive splash, raising enormous waves.
“Stay away, beast!” All For One screamed, aiming one of the still-working two hands from the left side of his body at the fox.
A sphere of light gathered around his hand. The accumulation of energy was so intense that the space in its vicinity appeared to be distorted.
It was one of AFO’s most powerful quirks, the same quirk that he had used to defeat Gigantomachia in the past with only one hit. It was so powerful that even AFO’s own body, which was strengthened by dozens of body-enhancing quirks, could not withstand its recoil. He was going to sacrifice an arm to cast that attack.
But he had no choice. His intuition was telling him that anything less than that wouldn’t leave a scratch on the titanic monster in front of him.
“Heavy Payload! Impure Beam!”
All For One’s arm was obliterated as a beam of energy thicker than his own body exploded forth, catching the enormous fox in full.
Even as the world went white, blinding Kyuubi and the drones that were filming their battle from a distance, All For One let out a pained laugh.
The blinding light coming from the energy beam’s explosion didn’t affect him because he had no eyes. Therefore, he could ‘see’ the result of his attack just fine with his other sensory quirks. He had gone as far as to sacrifice an arm for the sake of killing the beast… …but it had not been enough.
A few patches of burnt fur were all that All For One’s most powerful attack had to show for it. Kyuubi was left virtually unharmed.
“I did all I could. You win, monster,” All For One said in a voice of defeat.
Kyuubi didn’t deign him with a verbal answer. Two rows of terrifying teeth longer than humans were tall were revealed as he opened his mouth and sank his fangs into All For One’s body.
However, at the last moment, despite feeling his body getting torn apart by the massive fox’s jaws, All For One’s appearance of defeat vanished as he put his sole remaining hand on Kyuubi’s fangs and shouted:
“Decay!”
All For One burst into laughter as Kyuubi’s front teeth decayed from his touch, and it started spreading to the rest of his body too… but his laughter died in his throat when he realised that the Decay suddenly stopped spreading any further.
It was only when two spear-tipped golden chains impalled what was left of his already mutilated body that AFO understood why: the giant fox was still Naruto and the golden chains were his Adamantine Sealing Chains, the ones that had stopped his Telekinesis, and now his Decay too. They were Uzumaki Naruto’s anti-quirk quirk.
“No… NOO!” All For One screamed as he choked on his blood.
He tried to activate his numerous quirks, all of them, but none of them were answering his call.
“I am All For One! I am the Lord of Crime!”
He had lived for centuries. His plans had led to All Might’s death, and he had defeated the government of Japan too. He had single-handedly taken control of a country!
“I can’t die here!”
He had been only a few seconds away from obtaining One For All again! With One For All, he would have become the most powerful man in the world. The whole world was his to conquer! It was his for the taking!
“Not now! Not after all these years!”
However, suspended by the Adamantine Sealing Chains that had impaled him in the chest, All For One could do nothing but roar in helpless rage and despair.
Kyuubi didn’t eat him. He held AFO by the chains in front of his eyes, watching unblinkingly as life seeped out of his body.
Finally, the self-proclaimed Symbol of Evil, the Demon Lord, drew his last breath. All For One was dead.
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AN: I’d like to remind you that, in the canon, Star and Stripe destroyed many of AFO/Shigaraki’s Quirks. But that fight didn’t happen in this fic. With his arsenal of quirks intact and adding Twice’s Quirk on top of it, he was much stronger than in the canon.
PS: I didn't use Star and Stripe in my fic because New Order is simply too powerful. She could've single-handedly ended the war in Japan. Shigaraki beating her in the canon was one of the thickest plot armour moments I've ever seen in any anime lol. She should've easily beaten him. It made no sense that she lost.
Anyway. I hope you enjoyed the final battle. There is only the Epilogue left now 😊
Comments
Kyle Hayle
I’m literally giving you a salute right now. Absolute fucking masterpiece!
Zyro Asmodeus
Exactly
Grumpy Wolf
He'd get sent to the bottom of the ocean, killed by gravity, water pressure, and drowning too 😂
Zyro Asmodeus
They were fighting above water at that he'd get much worse of a death from that
Grumpy Wolf
All she had to do was say something like. 1. I am not affected by gravity. 2. The gravity for the area in front of me is x1000 times stronger. Shigaraki would've turned into a smear of blood on the ground
Zyro Asmodeus
Bro introduced one of the most busted quirks to exist and says nah they lost
Grumpy Wolf
Yeah, man, villains had some serious plot armour in MHA. Even more than heroes sometimes
Zyro Asmodeus
Glad we agree on the Stars and Stipes fight being pure plot armor
charger2040
I'm just giving credit where credit is due
Grumpy Wolf
😅 don't do me a standing ovation man haha But i'm glad you loved the fic so far. Thank you for your support
charger2040
THAT.WAS.BEAUTIFUL.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND THE OSCAR FOR ONE OF THE BEST FANFICTION CROSSOVER GOES TO MR. GRUMPYWOLF!!!!!!!!!!!
G 21
👏👏
