UA's Immortal Teacher

Part 35

All Might fought to hold his head up high, feeling the exhaustion and pain wash over him in waves. They crashed down on him one after another, and he struggled to stand up under their onslaught. Everything was moving in flashes, little snatches of light his ruined eyes barely caught. His muscles trembled and shook under the enormous pressure of his nemesis in front of him. He didn't have the strength left to keep his entire body in his puffed-up state, so he was relying on a single arm.

Getting blasted back through several concrete walls had hurt. A lot. But then he saw Izuku-sensei being held up by his neck, and he rushed right back into action. There wasn't even a moment of hesitation involved. And, yeah, maybe Izuku-sensei wouldn't have died, but it was a knee-jerk reaction to run in there as fast as he could. Besides, it couldn't have been comfortable to be in that position.

At least Young Bakugo was safely out of harms way and he could now attack without holding back. All For One was starting to show the same signs of strain that he was, but All Might knew the villain was nowhere near done. He had been listing off the quirks he used with every hit, dozens of strength-enhancing quirks in total. And the man had to have some resilience quirks as well, otherwise he wouldn't have held up under half of the hits that he did.

Two thin strips of metal whirled past his face with startling speed, sinking into All For One's skin with a satisfying thunk. They were embedded deep into the skin of his other arm, and All For One bellowed in pain. All Might quickly seized his advantage and landed a powerful hit to his stomach, knocking the villain just as far back as he had been punched.

But unlike All Might, All For One was able to get up before the hero had the chance to land more blows. Except he didn't go straight for All Might. Instead, he ran right past him, gone in the blink of an eye. Speed augmentation too... The villain was going straight for Izuku-sensei with murderous rage, but All Might couldn't tell why. His old teacher wasn't doing anything much of importance, just smirking like he knew something they didn't.

And then All Might started to understand why his mortal enemy charged. If he was fighting against Izuku-sensei and his teacher made that face, he wouldn't wait for the green-haired man to systematically destroy him; he would take him out while he still could. And it was starting to look like Izuku-sensei and All For One knew each other prior to this event, something that Izuku-sensei hadn't bothered to mention beforehand.

Though it does make sense, All Might thought as he raced after the two, they are both so old that it would honestly be shocking if they hadn't met each other. Maybe I should have realized that they knew each other earlier... this is really reminding me of the first time I saw Izuku-sensei and Gran Torino together outside of work. I really didn't like the dressing-down Torino gave me after I asked if they knew each other... He used several words I don't think were appropriate and were in fact very mean.

All Might was pretty confident Izuku-sensei would dodge to the side like he usually did, rolling out of the way like All For One was a charging bull. But that's not what happened at all. No, instead Izuku-sensei just watched the man come after him with a calm patience that concerned All Might considering that there was a villain of untold power running straight at him. What is he doing?!

All Might watched in powerless horror as All For One's fist came down and made a sickening crunch when it crushed Izuku-sensei's form into the broken concrete. All of his muscles tensed, standing completely numb. His eyes couldn't move from the two of them, and through the haze of numbness red-hot rage coursed through his entire body like electricity. And, just for a moment, it fueled him and he felt like he did the last time he fought All For One, the death of his mentor clear on his mind.