A few minutes earlier, the other heroes ascended into the clouds and Kodai discussed plans with Hawks, "Shigaraki is too fast for Yanagi to keep up with, but if you can get one of your feathers inside Shigaraki. I could expand something inside him. It probably won't kill him, but it should help a lot at least."
Hawks nodded, "That could work yeah."
"I'm helping too!" Bakugo shouted and got on one knee.
Amajiki said, "But with that injury-"
"You guys stopped the bleeding already so stop your yammering! I wasn't asking. I'm gonna help put down the bastard that killed Best Jeanist!"
Ino observed them all with a smile plastering her face. 'Despite everything, they're all still so confident! I just hope they finish things fast... being this high up is making me lightheaded.' She wobbled a bit, but snapped back to reality when she heard her father's voice on the comms.
"Ino! What the hell are you doing up there?! How did you even get there?!"
Ino gulped, but tried to speak in a firm voice. "I can't tell you how I got up here. But I'm here to help the heroes!"
Everyone else could hear Inochi's voice over the comms and some of them turned their heads to her. Inochi replied, "Help the heroes? Ino, you've never been through a hero training course once in your life! You're just putting your life in danger! You have to get back here as soon as you can!"
Ino's mouth wobbled, "But Dad..." Her voice lacked confidence, and Minato pressed his earpiece. "Hello, is Ino's Dad there? This is the Yellow Flash speaking."
"Yes, I hear you, and if you heard everything I said, then you should send my daughter back. She has no business out there with you heroes!"
"I'm sorry sir, but we can't do that. Ino is an integral piece for our victory right now."
"What? How?"
"Your daughter's mind link ability is the only thing letting us fight effectively against Shigaraki and his Limbo quirk right now."
"Limbo??? I'm not following."
"It's an invisible clone quirk. Without Ino linking Sasuke's vision to the rest of us, we would almost all be dead right now."
There was silence on the other end for a while, "Ino, is this true?"
She cleared her throat and looked at Minato with thankful eyes before answering, "It is, Dad. I'm not a trained hero, but I can help here."
"Hm... Alright fine... But don't do anything beyond what you're currently doing! And for the rest of you, make sure she stays safe or you answer to me!"
Hawks smirked, "You have our word, sir."
Shigaraki got within eyesight and he side-eyed them, quickly aiming an air cannon toward them, but Jiro clashed with it in the middle using her own sound waves that barely canceled it out.
Hawks flew off Dark Shadow's back toward Shigaraki and Midoriya yelled while yanking Shigaraki around with the chains lodged in him, "Get back, Hawks! You can't hurt him!"
"I have my ways, Midoriya! Put some trust in the adults!"
Shigaraki thought, 'Hm, looks like they found some kind of way to perceive Limbo. That's odd. Could it have something to do with that blonde girl? Either way, being forced to move at the whims of these chains is getting annoying...'
Shigaraki blew a massive air cannon toward all of them, but Tokoyami flew out of the way and Midoriya canceled it out with a clap. Hawks engaged and flew around Shigaraki to avoid the clusters of fingers, looking for an opening.
At the same time, Bakugo jumped off of Tokoyami and blitzed past Shigaraki with an explosion that seared half his body, "Time to get payback for my foot, bastard!"
Back down on the ground, Nagant adjusted her scope to thermal and looked high up in the sky, but frowned. 'Damn... I don't think I can help anymore... Even if I landed a shot from this range, it's too far out of the effective range. Hopefully you guys can handle it all from here.'
Back up in the sky, Shigaraki emitted dozens of tendrils with mouths on the ends and destroyed the chains holding him, "Ah, the next step..."
Demonic wings molded from fingers emerged from Shigaraki's back, and he dodged an incoming attack from Bakugo. "Ha! Just how far can I go with this body?!"
Midoriya gritted his teeth, 'He can fly now?! That's really bad, but he seems more focused on evolving right now than destroying everything.'
Shigaraki perked up, "Seems like Limbo was destroyed... oh well, can always make another."
He clapped his hands and everyone observed another Limbo clone form with matching wings. Edgeshot yelled, "Don't give it the chance to assist!"
Nejire and Jiro shot a blast of energy and sound at it, and Bakugo swung rapidly downwards toward it. "Howitzer Impact!"
Minato threw his Kunai at Shigaraki and yelled, "Hawks! I'll create the opening!"
He teleported directly in Shigaraki's face, and they made eye contact. "I don't think we ever properly met."
Shigaraki darted to grab his face, but Minato weaved under it and sent a rasengan into his stomach. "Too slow," Shigaraki grunted, but it didn't even make him bleed.
Tendrils darted out from Ahigaraki's stomach to stab Minato, but he threw the kunai behind his back and teleported to it before sending an even larger rasengan into his back.
Simultaneously, Midoriya came in from the front and shifted his arm, "Gear shift... Second Gear!"
He punched Shigaraki hard enough to make him vomit blood and Hawk's flew a feather into his mouth. Minato thought, 'He's still slower than me. If he evolved too much, though, that might change. Finish it, everyone!'
Kodai, despite being far away, got the message due to the mental link. Kodai pressed her fingers together, and a car expanded in Shigaraki's head, completely tearing off half his head from the inside.
Sasuke and Naruto flew up just in time to witness it, and everyone smiled. Midoriya thought, 'I'm sorry... Shigaraki.'
Shigaraki went limp, but this was only for a moment as he twitched and screamed, "I'M NOT FINISHED! OMNI-FACTOR UNLEASH!"
A disgusting cluster of tendrils, mouths, and fingers all bundled and crashed into each other into a Demonic mess with a glowing ball of energy at its center.
Everyone looked toward it as it cast its light on them like the sun. Hawks exclaimed, "How the hell can he still function with half his head gone?!"
Edgeshot questioned, "Is it even possible for him to die?!"
Minato remained calm and free-fell through the sky while thinking, 'He's getting desperate... we're getting close to the end.'
Sasuke analyzed the scene and pondered, 'There's no way he's evolved to the point of being immortal... There's gotta be a limit... but damn it, I can't use Amenotejikara anymore today.'
Shigaraki shrieked, "It's been fun, but I've had enough! It's time for you all to die so I can go back to destroying this world!"
The blast seemed to warp space itself as it accumulated with the power of everything Shigaraki had. And then it was let off and it expanded like a supernova. Everyone thought the same thing through the mental link. It was too large to run away from, evade, or do anything about as it blinded them all. Nejire closed her eyes, but she could still clearly see the light through them. "This is it..."
Although when it was less than a second from obliterating them all, so close that the heat became overbearing, it disappeared. Everyone blinked and started brainstorming what could have happened, but the answer came soon as Minato teleported on a mark he left on Shigaraki, "Here, you can have this back."
Minato appeared back on Tokoyami, and in his place, Shigaraki was hit point blank by his own omni-factor attack.
The explosion set off blew everyone away with forces greater than a hurricane, and Dark Shadow grew extra appendages to hold everyone in place. "Hold on!"
The turbulence was hard to gain control through, but Sasuke, Tokoyami, Bakugo, and Midoriya all recovered while the winds and light settled.
They all stared at the same spot where there was only a dark smoke cloud left behind. Naruto asked, "Do you think we got him?"
Mina said, "He's gotta be dead after that. No way anything could survive that."
Bakugo remarked, "Bastard better be gone."
Midoriya bit his lip, "Please let this be over..."
Mirio patted Minato's back, "You're amazing, Yellow Flash! You got him!"
Minato frowned, "Wait..."
Hope creeped into their minds, but it was crushed as the smoke dissipated and revealed a battered, but still alive Shigaraki huffing and puffing. Half his body was simply gone. His left arm, both of his legs down to the knees, one of his wings, half his head, and even a portion of his torso was missing in the shape of a crescent moon. He was covered in blood and his bones and organs stuck out, only the whites of his eye showed, but he was still alive, and slowly regenerating as his cells rapidly divided.
Yanagi grabbed herself, "No... how???"
Shigaraki spoke in a creaky voice, "Did you really think... that that would kill me? Hahaha... I've evolved beyond death! Now…"
Most of their hearts sank as they saw the formation of 4 auras around Shigaraki. Amajiki's voice was weak, "More Limbo clones... how can we..."
"THROW EVERYTHING YOU HAVE AT HIM!"
A bullet in the form of Bakugo's voice shot through everyone and he torpedoed toward Shigaraki, "HOWITZER IMPACT!"
Sasuke was already charging up his final arrow with Amaterasu and Chidori while Naruto merged his Rasenshuriken with it. He stated, "This will be our last chance! Don't let up!"
Naruto followed up, "We're finishing this here and now, believe it!"
The arrow was released and hit Shigaraki and his clones dead on right after Bakugo's attack. The clones were destroyed, but when the smoke cleared, Shigaraki still remained there as half a torso and a head.
Seeing that Shigaraki was still alive, Sasuke tried to fire off another, but the Susanoo faded away and they began falling. "Woah!" Naruto grabbed onto Sasuke and stretched out an arm to Dark Shadow who caught him. Naruto zipped the two of them on top of his back and Sasuke grabbed his head.
"Damn, I don't have anything left in me. It's up to you, Midoriya."
Shigaraki wheezed and raised his one good arm. "Still alive... At this point, I can extend my decay through my quirks! There's still no hope!" While slowly regenerating, tendrils shot out of him down to the earth and toward everyone else.
But Midoriya was ready. He could feel everyone's hope in him through the mental link. His mind raced, 'Sasuke... You helped me through my grief and develop my quirk... You even defeated AFO on your own...'
He wrapped himself in blackwhip and pushed OFA to 100% in unison with Fa Jin and Gearshift. 'Kaachan... you got us all back on track... Minato... You saved all of our lives by redirecting that attack...'
He released dozens of blackwhips that tore through all of Shigaraki's tendrils and wrapped him in place. 'Ino... Naruto... Mina... Hawks... Tokoyami... The Vestiges... everyone... I'm truly grateful to you all.'
He felt the collective power of One For All and everyone else's strength flow into him as his fist reeled back while closing in on Shigaraki. He stared directly into his wide eye, 'Shigaraki... I'm sorry that I couldn't save you... But perhaps ending you is a form of saving you too.'
Everything overflowed beyond 100% and Midoriya screamed, "UNITED WORLD SMAAAASH!!!"
When his blow connected, it was like planets collided. The force sent everyone flying with shockwaves stronger than ones produced by any bomb ever detonated. All the clouds dissipated and it obliterated anything that was left of Shigaraki down to the last atom, leaving nothing to bury or regenerate from.
Midoriya held his fist out and his chest heaved as he tried to catch his breath in the clear sky. Nagant, the Business Course kids, the Heroes, and everyone else watching in person or through the video could see there was nothing left of Shigaraki.
Ino looked around and asked, "Do you guys think... It's finally over this time?"
Hawks straightened up and stated, "Yeah, it's done. We've won."
Naruto pumped his fist, "HELL YEAH!" Most people joined in on the cheers, across Japan, the world, and the millions of other people watching the stream. While some just felt relieved.
Nagant's arm turned back to normal and she smiled, "It's done."
"It's done?"
"So we won?"
Nagant nodded and the Nurses jumped up and cheered.
In the Oval Office, the President and his Secret Service watched the stream together, eating popcorn, and Harrison shot up out of his seat, pumping his fists, "I knew they could do it! Serves those bastards right! This is why the Yellow Flash is rank 1!"
Some of the secret service members raised a brow at him when remembering events before today, but didn't comment and cheered with him. Ultimately, everyone was happy and relieved that it was finally over.
A week later, Madam President sat in a meeting room around a round table with the other Board of Directors for the HPSC. Her eyes were sharp, and Hawks and Nagant stood at both of her sides. She drank her morning coffee and opened her mouth, but stopped when she heard Nagant loudly slurping up the last bits of her smoothie.
She side-eyed her, and Nagant put her hands behind her back. "Sorry."
Madam President picked up the file sitting in front of her and cleared her throat, "Now that all the commotion has settled down, we all have a lot of work to take care of. AFO and his associates have all been eliminated. And with the information the daughter of Inochi has obtained, we can soon call out any remaining connections that AFO once had. Let's not ignore that this all came with great cost though..."
She allowed a moment of silence and the rest of the board held grim expressions as she read over the reports. "Let's start with the international situation first... Every European Head of State was killed in Kisame's attack on the German Chancellery. The Head of State of China, along with much of the governing cabinet, was killed by a subdivision of AFO known as the Sound 5, and the President of the United States was also attacked by Obito, although he survived without much issue."
Her jaw tightened as she turned to the next page, "Now back home... we've suffered 1.2 million civilian casualties if we use data up to the start of the Liberation War. And millions more have been left injured. Among the licensed heroes: Mirko, Best Jeanist, Crust, and dozens of others died. While heroes like Present Mic are still in critical condition. Not to mention the dozens of billions in property damage across the nation that the villains caused..."
She let her words sink in and some of the men adjusted their ties while the room began to feel hotter. "It's... frankly an embarrassment that as a sovereign nation, we failed to properly contain a threat that was born in our own country. But perhaps most embarrassing of all, is that we relied on children as the backbone of our defenses against the worst of AFO's forces... Children that should have been worried about exams and festivals, instead had to resolve themselves to fight to the death against world-ending threats... And many did die or get permanently injured in the process."
Madam President and many others in the room looked down feeling a collective sense of shame, and she turned the page again. Reading the names of the casualties and injured in her head. Dead: Kinoko Komori, Nirengeki Shoda, and Mashirao Ojiro. Permanently injured: Katsuki Bakugo, Kouji Koda, and Shihai Kuroiro.
She stood up and spoke, "The world has seen what happens when we let corruption fester. When we value pure control over justice. When we fail to address the root cause of villainy. The old HPSC has failed, which is why moving forward we're going to have to completely overhaul how we do things. From quirk counseling, to the ranking system, to education, and many more things... If what happened now repeats itself with a similar figure to AFO rising up in the future, then this will have all been for nothing."
She closed the file and stared everyone in the eyes, finishing with Hawks who nodded at her, "We have work to do everyone. The world is watching, and we won't disappoint them."