In the dark alley, silence hung heavy between Toge and the dead mass of flesh that was the Nomu's corpse. A faint, sickening squelching sound emanated from the grotesque entity.
The regeneration was a slow, hideous process. The torn and fibrotic tissues in the center of the Nomu's chest began to twitch and painfully knit together.
The demolished flesh was slowly reforming.
This was nothing like the instantaneous regeneration displayed in the arena; this was a struggle for survival. The Nomu was consuming every last bit of its remaining energy to maintain its form and repair the monumental damage.
A sharp smile spread across Toge's face. He squatted down opposite the body, as if watching a fascinating performance.
"Such stubbornness..." Toge muttered, his eyes carefully tracking the slow healing. "I wasted two precious wishes on you, you bastard, and I was about to be deeply disappointed."
He waved his hand dismissively in the air.
"It's good that you didn't completely let me down."
Toge slowly extended his hand toward the mutilated mass of flesh. His fist clamped around the Nomu's right arm—the one that had begun to regain some of its muscle mass but was still soft and weak from the damage All Might had inflicted.
He glanced at the digital clock on one of his tools, which indicated that the Hero Association's search team would be here in less than thirty minutes.
"Alright, let's start with the first part."
Toge tightened his grip, then pulled the arm with immense force.
"SHHHHWOOOP!!!"
It wasn't a tug; it was a severance. With a foul, disturbing sound of newly-healed tissues and muscles tearing apart, the entire arm was ripped clean from the Nomu's shoulder, and the body began to convulse.
Toge cast a quick look at the mangled arm in his hands, before his gaze turned cold.
Toge did not want to ruin the plot of the anime; thus, he left this arm for them to study, as it was crucial for later episodes. He would suffice with taking the main body.
Toge returned his attention to the amputated Nomu corpse, then gestured toward it.
"Now, the hard part is figuring out how to carry you home."
Realizing that the Nomu's massive weight would require exceptional strength to transport over long distances without attracting attention, Toge settled on his decision.
"Fine... I guess I'll use two more wishes."
Toge closed his eyes. He felt a familiar tingling sensation travel up his spine. With an internal voice that only he could hear, Toge consumed two additional wishes.
The first wish went toward a massive reinforcement of the muscles in his hands and forearms, and the second went toward strengthening his arms and shoulders to bear the weight of the enormous corpse. He felt a surge of brute muscular power that made him capable of crushing rocks with his bare hands.
Toge opened his eyes, a look of satisfaction on his face.
He stood next to the mass of flesh, bent his knees, and wrapped his now powerful arms around the Nomu's cold, slowly regenerating body.
"Let's go, you expensive experiment," Toge said calmly. He then lifted the massive corpse with an enormous yet manageable effort, and plunged into the darkness of the alley, leaving the severed arm behind as a "down payment" for the Hero Association.
Crisis of Mortality
Toge vanished into the dark alley, carrying the enormous fleshy mass of the Nomu's corpse on his shoulder. The Nomu no longer resembled the fast and arrogant entity that fought All Might; it was now merely a heavy, costly burden.
The consumed wishes had granted Toge the excessive physical strength he needed. His muscles barely groaned under the weight, yet he managed to move with surprising dexterity and speed through the back alleys and dimly lit streets of the city, avoiding any surveillance cameras or late-patrolling junior heroes.
As soon as Toge reached the house, he entered quickly before closing the door.
Toge turned on a dim lamp in the small living room. The room was simple: sparse furniture, dark wooden walls, and a faint smell of old wood.
Toge sighed under the weight of the burden, then carefully lowered the Nomu's corpse onto the wooden floor with a heavy, muffled thud.
Toge stood up to catch his breath, looking at the creature stretched out before him. He had been lucky. His plan to leave the severed arm succeeded in delaying the arrival of the search teams, granting him enough time.
Toge reached out and touched the Nomu's mutilated chest. The regeneration process had completely stopped now, but the tissues hadn't turned to ash, meaning death wasn't yet total. But what caught his attention was the extreme coldness emanating from the corpse.
"It's dying."
Toge sharply realized that the Nomu was expending its last remnants of energy to keep its vital functions at their lowest level. The overwhelming blows delivered by All Might hadn't killed it outright, but they caused internal damage that surpassed the Nomu's current regeneration capacity. With every minute that passed, the creature was drawing closer to true death and complete collapse.
This was the one point Toge hadn't accounted for in his plan. He had assumed the regeneration process would be automatic, but it required vital energy that the Nomu no longer possessed after the devastating fight.
If the Nomu died, it would become a useless mass of flesh, and Toge wouldn't be able to exploit it.
Toge clenched his jaw. He didn't have the luxury of waiting.
"Damn you, Hero... you didn't have to be this effective." Toge cursed before heading toward the kitchen.
Toge wasn't a doctor in his past life, but as a military personnel in a rapid-response unit, he had received intensive field first-aid training to deal with trauma and deep wounds. Therefore, he would at least try.
Toge pulled the cloak off his chest, then knelt beside the Nomu.
"Alright, monster... let's see if my first-aid skills can bring you back to life."
Toge took a breath, then began to palpate the wound, examining its nature. His old field first-aid skills were awakened, but they immediately crashed against the reality of the creature before him.
First Aid Assessment: "Oh my God..." Toge muttered, mocking himself.
"No, I won't be able to. Absolutely not."