Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
Izumi Pov.
The fight had changed dramatically from what it had been just a few minutes ago. AFO wanted to kill me. The amount of hate she was throwing at me made that perfectly clear.
And the second was more important. Before, I was the one trying to create some advantage for All Might and Grandpa to exploit, but now, it was the other way around. I had two National Ranks cutting through AFO's defenses so I could hit her.
But it's working —or at least that's what I wanted to believe. My blows were imbued with my aura, and each blow on AFO's body pushed my aura into her like vibrations.
I was neither Deku nor Stars and Stripes, so I couldn't attack directly from the beginning in the world of vestiges; I had to make my way slowly.
But every hit I made, AFO slowed down; it was a ridiculously marginal amount. Still, there she was, getting slower and slower; her quirks were taking longer and longer to react, to move, to attack. It was working: each hit awakened more vestiges of the quirks within AFO, and it was starting to take its toll.
And AFO was horribly angry. If I hadn't sensed her Conqueror's Haki the day before when I spoke to her, it might have taken me a few moments to adjust to the thick miasma of her presence, but now I could move freely.
Oh, I could definitely feel my Haki screaming all over the place because of her presence, and my body was sweating buckets just from feeling the pressure of her Aura and Haki, but I was able to ignore it and focus on what I had to do.
Continue awakening vestiges.
AFO tried to stop me by attacking me directly. Still, All Might's fists and punches were so strong that they easily shattered any attempt at attack or defense. Together with Grandpa, who was able to cut through any trick AFO threw at me, I could focus on making my swords clash against her body.
Unfortunately, AFO wasn't as stupid as I'd hoped. There was a reason she was a damn demon at such a young age, and it wasn't just because of her Quirk-stealing ability.
AFO was terribly talented. I didn't know if she had a quirk for it or if it was just natural, but AFO was awfully gifted. The only good thing about her was that she hated being defensive and was really arrogant.
She could try to defend herself and use her aura to try to counter my aura and block most of my attempts to awaken the vestiges, but that would put her in a purely defensive situation.
She already had enough pressure and difficulty defending herself against two national ranks, but now she had to protect herself against a third? Especially from a 19-year-old student? Oh, she totally hated this situation.
So she decided not to defend herself against my attempts to awaken her vestiges, so I counterattacked. I waited until my swords collided with her body and my aura was pushed into her so that she could do the same.
She sent her own aura into my body. It was terribly difficult; my swords barely touched her for a fraction of a second at different points on her body, but AFO was able to calculate well enough that a few attempts succeeded.
My arms were shaking; in fact, my hands were terribly burned, and the burns were spreading further and further the more I hit AFO, but it still didn't stop me. I kept hitting and pushing my aura into AFO.
The only thing I really had to avoid was hitting Wado Ichimonji with it between my teeth; I really didn't want my whole face to start burning.
The only good thing that came out was that as more vestiges woke up, I could sense them more clearly within AFO. My haki was adapting —adapting to see the world of vestiges —so it was much easier to direct my aura to where they were sleeping.
After many exchanges within a short time, AFO finally seemed to tire.
"Enough!!!" AFO roared, raising her hands, her fingers filled with electricity, the sky clouded over, and she lowered her hands. Three bolts of lightning emerged from the sky and fell in our direction.
The three of us moved at the same time. All Might hit the thunder with his fist, making it disappear immediately, while Grandpa and I cut ours, me with more difficulty.
My hands were already trembling slightly. I could barely grasp my swords. Even if I used Haki, my fingers could barely wrap around my swords. I needed to hold on to them no matter what.
I immediately remembered Deku's Overlay when he used Blackhip to cover his body, keep it all together, and reinforce it.
I… could I do the same?
Megumi, when she used the Ten Shadows, there were several instances when the shadows were solid, like when I created my clones. I… could I do something similar? I… could I use Haki on my shadows?
Haki could be used on hundreds of things, even when using the powers of a Devil Fruit, but he didn't remember Moria, someone who had the Shadow Fruit, using Haki on his own shadow.
But Haki was willpower; it was imposing one's will on this world, capable of breaking logic.
So I gritted my teeth tightly, letting my shadows envelop my arms and the entire hilts of my swords. I took a deep breath and pushed my haki into my shadows. It was like swimming upstream, but I could see my shadows slowly solidify into something more substantial.
I smiled widely as I felt my shadows tighten their grip on my arms, causing them to stop shaking and hold onto my swords.
Just in time to see AFO fire dozens of laser beams from all over her body, the shots curving and following the three of us. I moved quickly, my Haki momentarily extending to my swords, and they cut through the shots with ease.
I ran towards AFO. Once I got close enough, I stomped the ground, let my shadows spread out beneath AFO, and manipulated them to create shadow spikes.
I wrapped my shadows in Haki to harden them. The shadows pierced AFO, holding her rigid, leaving me free to use my swords to strike AFO's body and push more aura into her body.
I smiled broadly. Perfect. My shadow had become a weapon, and I was going to use it.
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Darkness Pov.
I wasn't fast. Even though my physical abilities had significantly improved thanks to the Total Concentration Breathing Izumi taught us, I wasn't exactly a speed expert. My strengths were my defense and brute strength, and I was fine with that.
But I couldn't help but feel a little frustrated as I watched Izumi and the rest rush off in the direction of the High Orcs. I understood, I wouldn't be able to keep up with them, no way, so the best thing for me was to stay and defend the civilians, hunters, and heroes.
So I wasn't upset with anyone —just a little frustrated, which quickly evaporated as I continued my job of defending everyone present and preventing the High Orcs and Grimms from escaping to the shelters.
And I'll be damned if I didn't do my job properly. In these moments, there wasn't a second when I wasn't thankful to Izumi for forcing me to defend myself properly, for giving me a shield with which I could protect everyone behind me.
I wasn't sure if the me of a few months ago would have been able to defend myself properly against the High Orcs, and the answer is no. I wouldn't have defended myself at all; I would have let them beat me down, possibly leaving the civilians and my companions injured.
I was almost ashamed of that, so I held my shield tight and took any blow the High Orcs threw.
My Quirk was what Izumi called combat precognition. My Quirk and my body told me the perfect way to defend myself against an attack. The way to cushion the blow, reduce the damage, delay the attack, and render it useless.
And that also came with an indication of where the attacks would come from. Before, I was so focused on doing everything contrary to what my Quirk said to make the attack hurt more that I had overlooked it.
My quirk seemed to warn me of the attack the moment the opponent moved, giving me more than enough time to get into the right place to defend perfectly.
And as a side effect, my Quirk had also given me a body capable of defending myself, with enormous strength and a body more resistant than many metals and materials. I could let my body move easily while defending myself, and I wouldn't take any damage from hundreds of attacks.
Every so often, let my shield release a wave of flames to boost the strength of everyone around.
Heroes, hunters, and civilians all needed that little boost to survive. The aura cost increased with distance and blessed abilities, but it wasn't a problem. Thanks to my strength, my stamina, Izumi's training, the shield, and my Quirk, my aura barely took any damage when defending myself.
They barely made a dent in my aura so that I could continue all day like this.
"The dungeon boss has been found. Hold on until it's killed." Taylor's swarm's voice sounded above us. I could see some heroes and hunters cheering and sighing in relief.
I gripped my shield with renewed determination. I fended off the next group of High Orcs as the other hunters slaughtered them—another group for the rapidly forming pile of corpses.
"We need to contain the Dungeon boss. Do you have an idea?" I saw Taylor's swarm next to me.
"Contain it?" I asked in confusion. The swarm hissed annoyingly.
"It's moving too much, it's hard to kill it, it'll take too long," Taylor said, not explaining anything further. I gritted my teeth and looked at my shield.
"Will they be safe if I leave here?" I asked quickly, the swarm stirring for a few seconds.
"Yeah, I'm already moving the rest of the groups. Azula and Izumi released several groups quickly." Taylor said immediately, and I nodded and sighed.
"I... might have an idea," I said, biting my lip. The swarm didn't reply, but simply began forming a path toward the dungeon boss. I hesitated for a moment before starting to run.
It took me a few long seconds to get to the right place.
My eyes widened slightly. As I approached where they were fighting the dungeon boss, I was somewhat puzzled. The dungeon boss looked like a High Orc, smaller than the others, but definitely much more agile.
Surrounding them were Ruby, Taylor, Endeavor, Gran Torino, Ox-Izumi, Orochi-Izumi, and for some reason, Nue-Izumi and Azula were hugging each other while attacking. Why? I looked at that scene in bewilderment.
The dungeon boss was fast, not as fast as Ruby and the Izumi clones at full power, but fast enough to escape and play cat and mouse, so everyone was dancing around the dungeon boss trying to catch it.
Izumi and Azula finally caught up, slicing the dungeon boss in half. I almost wanted to sigh in relief until I saw the dungeon boss's corpse regenerate. My mind went blank.
"It regenerates," Taylor said, landing next to me. This time, her real body looked taut and tired. "Or rather, it revives. It's capable of taking damage without regenerating, but once it's dealt fatal damage, its regeneration activates."
"It returns to full health, and one of the marks on its body disappears. We have to kill it as many times as the marks on its body," Taylor said solemnly. I looked at her in disbelief.
"There must be around 300!" I squealed in disbelief.
"And that's the problem. We could do it sooner or later, but it would take a long time." Taylor said, frustratedly. "The worst part is, they seem to get new marks when a High Orc is killed," Taylor added, leaving me in shock.
"Wait, so all the other groups-" I tried to say, but Taylor nodded tiredly.
"Yes, but we can't stop killing High Orcs, we can't capture and contain them in any way, so the others have to kill them, but that only gives more life to the dungeon boss, and more High Orcs die than the times we kill the dungeon boss. Their marks are slowly increasing," Taylor said, frustratedly.
"Izumi tried to break the boss's essence stone?" I asked quickly, and Taylor nodded.
"Yes, and he did, but it also regenerates," Taylor said immediately.
I gulped loudly and clutched my shield. I finally saw the problem and why they needed someone who could hold off the dungeon boss.
"Okay… I'm coming in, let me try something." I said nervously, and Taylor wrinkled her nose.
"Okay, any plan is better than the one we have, none." Taylor said dryly, I laughed dryly, Taylor launched herself at the dungeon boss once more, and so did I.
It was difficult to reach; the dungeon boss moved around and attacked anyone who approached it. It was extremely elusive; it escaped even when the three Izumi (plus Azula) tried to corner it.
After a few attempts, I finally got close enough to catch the dungeon boss's attention. The High Orc boss charged in my direction. I let my body move on its own, intercepting the… tonfa-sword? With my shield.
The dungeon boss looked almost disappointed and tried to back away from me. I activated my shield. Something odd about the shield: Izumi had only mentioned that the I-island dungeon boss could repel enemies with its shield, but it turns out it could also pull enemies in.
Even without the need to give the expected shield benefits, it was a secondary ability of the shield, and it was perfect.
My shield activated, and with a burst of concentrated fire, it forcefully pulled the dungeon boss towards me. It seemed surprised when its pushback didn't work, and it stayed by my side. Orochi Izumi took advantage of the moment to slash the dungeon boss's throat, taking another life from it.
I watched as the dungeon boss quickly regenerated and was ready to escape once more, but I simply reactivated my shield. The dungeon boss stood still before being pulled in my direction, and I used my shield to smack it in the face.
The dungeon boss was slightly disoriented before a fiery fist from Endeavor vaporized its head.
The dungeon boss regenerated once more. I prepared to launch the attraction once more, but to my surprise, the dungeon boss charged in my direction, almost seeming enraged. I simply moved my body; instead of taking the hit, I forcefully swung my shield forward and intercepted the blow before it could land.
My shield hit the High Orc's fist, throwing its arm to the side, leaving it completely open. Ox-Izumi came in and slashed the dungeon boss in half vertically.
"How far can you go, Darkness?!" Taylor shouted quickly. I watched as the dungeon boss regenerated. In fact, its body seemed to move before it fully regenerated and tried to slip away.
I activated my shield and pulled in its half-regenerated body. By the time it was fully healed, Taylor was on top of the dungeon boss, and Yubashiri pierced its heart.
"All day!" I replied to Taylor. I smiled widely. Who cared that continuing to use the shield ability would drain my aura quickly? The dungeon boss had to die, here and now, as soon as possible.
Everything continued to happen quickly. The regeneration of the dungeon boss took only a few moments to complete, at which point I thwarted the monster's escape, defended myself against its attack, and one of the others came to finish it off.
We repeated this, over and over and over again. 5, 10, 30, 80, 150, 200 times, and more. It almost seemed endless, but we all continued. I continued without wavering, without lowering my shield.
The dungeon boss went from a sadistic smile at the start, to a furious one as it died over and over again, to a desperate one when the marks on its body began to quickly disappear without it being able to recover them.
Finally, the dungeon boss breathed its last as the last visible mark disappeared from its body. Izumi and Azula were the last to strike it, so the dungeon boss's body was burned entirely as it fell completely dead.
We all watched for a few seconds, waiting for it to regenerate. We finally looked up at the sky at the same time. The Gate seemed to shake for a few seconds before it appeared to break as it slowly began to close.
"Yay! Dungeon boss dead!" Ruby cheered happily as she picked up Crescent Rose, though she could tell she was tired.
"Well done, Darkness! Excellent work! You deserve a reward when this is all over! " Ox-Izumi said as he placed his hand on my head, his proportionally enormous hand that seemed bigger than my entire face. Don't get wet, don't get wet, don't get wet.
"Get your mind out of the gutter, Darkness," Azula said dryly as she approached, and I blushed deeply.
"I wasn't thinking about anything!" I squealed in denial, Azula gave me a flat look. I groaned slightly.
"It's not time to celebrate! We still have to kill the stragglers! " Taylor shouted as the rest of her swarm began to form paths once more.
"No rest for the good, well done everyone." Gran Torino growled as he took off. Endeavor clicked her tongue and started running too.
"Very good -"
"No, the dungeon boss is dead, now return to the original." Taylor said immediately, interrupting Orochi-Izumi. "Power up, Izumi, and end that massive fight already." Taylor growled. The Izumi clones looked conflicted for a few seconds.
"Fine." Izumi grunted before all his clones disappeared into the shadows. The four of us sighed in relief.
"I hope they stop fighting already. The fight seemed to escalate once again." Taylor sighed as she massaged her temple in worry.
"Calm down, All Might and Ryuma are there, they probably have everything under control!" Ruby said, trying to sound calm, I could see the tension in her eyes, the same one I felt.
"Surely, we'd better go kill the other monsters so they don't have anything to worry about," Azula said as she waved her sword. Taylor nodded. The four of us fell silent as we caught our breath.
"By the way, really, Darkness? Getting turned on just by Izumi's hand? " Taylor said, almost disappointed, looking in my direction. I could feel my ears heating up.
"They're so big! You saw them! I'm sure they could wrap around my entire neck with just one hand!" I exclaimed, completely blushing. Taylor slapped her hand against her face.
"I'm sure he could even lift you with one hand," Ruby added playfully. I moaned loudly as I hugged myself.
"He can do that now," Taylor said tersely.
"It's all about the size, Taylor, the size!" Ruby replied. "I mean, I love that Izumi is thin and a little tall, very masculine, he's like a model and all, it's sexy. But him being all muscular, thick, and much taller… I can't say I dislike him," Ruby said with a crooked smile.
"I agree! Just imagining his new size around manipulating my body like a toy while his muscles suffocate me- mmmh !! " I said quickly as I started breathing rapidly while imagining several more scenes.
"For the love of-" Taylor moaned tiredly.
"I'm sure with his snake form, he could constrict your entire body," Azula pointed out. I froze for a few moments as the image of Izumi's body wrapped around my body, pressing all his muscles against me- mmmmhh!
I let myself fall to the ground when my knees gave way.
"Et tu, Azula?" Taylor asked in a suffering voice. Azula smiled widely.
"Don't play innocent, Taylor, you're also fantasizing about several things." Azula mocked, and Taylor blushed slightly.
"But I'm more than capable of holding my own in this situation! We still have monsters to kill!" Taylor defended herself, Azula just snorted mockingly.
"Hey…speaking of sizes…" Ruby began timidly, drawing our attention. "…as long as Izumi is in Totality with Ox, does Izumi's cock grow too?" Ruby suddenly asked.
"""RUBY!!""" we all squealed at the same time, I could feel myself blush deeply at the thought.
"What?! We were all thinking the same thing! " Ruby defended herself, Taylor groaned in frustration.
"Not on the battlefield!" Taylor repeated, sufferingly.
"On the contrary, it's an excellent motivator! We have something to look forward to! " Ruby replied.
"Just... shut up and let's go kill some High Orcs." Azula growled as she closed her eyes in frustration. Ruby pouted. I bit my lip as I stood up.
"Do you think... Izumi's cock is normal, or will it be shaped like an animal?" I asked shyly with a lascivious smile as I crossed my legs slightly and floated them silently. "I don't think I'd mind either option," I added lasciviously.
""Darkness!!!""
Author's Notes: The dungeon boss fight was shorter than I expected, but I wanted to finish it in this chapter to continue the fight against AFO.