Latibule

64 - ᴛʜᴇ ꜱʏᴍʙᴏʟ ᴏꜰ ᴘᴇᴀᴄᴇ

Previously on Latibule:

He only smiled softly, trying to hide the regret I still saw seeping into his eyes. Furrowing my brows, I asked, "What is it?"

He took a step away from me, putting some distance between us. "It's nothing. Let's go."

I looked at his back with a frown as he made sure to stay a few steps ahead of me. He was acting like a stranger again and yet five minutes ago I was crying into his shirt. Why are you so confusing, Katsuki Bakugou?

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Latibule — Chapter 64///The Symbol Of Peace

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Reaching the streets, we smoothly blended into the crowd and Midoriya took out his phone to call Todoroki. A moment later Midoriya raised the phone to his ear.

"Yeah, how about you guys, no one saw you?"

Silence again. I'm not a nosy person but at that moment I wished I could overhear the other line, too, so I wouldn't have to wait on it like that.

We halted, looking up at the colourful screens on a house, one of them displaying a broadcast of what was happening at the place where All Might and All For One were. Midoriya spoke again. "Good. We're stopped in front of the station. Luckily we missed that last shockwave. Our rescue totally worked."

"A rescue? That's not what happened back there! You idiots just happened to be our best escape route!" Bakugou didn't waste a moment with his remark, showing that he'd been listening in on the conversation as well.

I sighed. Just Katsuki being Katsuki, I guess...

Kirishima seemed to understand the fact, too, for he took no offence and instead gave us a thumbs up, accompanied by a beaming smile. "You're welcome!"

Bakugou relaxed a little. "We had to get out of there so All Might could destroy that guy."

I nodded along, humming in agreement. "He most likely trusts the other heroes who're around enough to handle themselves and the villains shouldn't be much of a problem either. Though he is against all of them by himself at this point."

Helicopters buzzed over our heads. All of a sudden, on the screen, All Might was flying through the air towards the camera and the helicopter, being blown back by All For One's power.

I gasped in shock and horror. I knew All For One was strong but I thought... I thought All Might could take him if we just got out of the way!

"The scene below is straight out of a nightmare! Half of Kamino Ward was destroyed in a single horrifying incident." Meanwhile, we could only see smoke. Luckily Gran Torino had flown in and prevented All Might from crashing into the helicopter but that's all we'd seen. "All Might is currently fighting the villain who appears to have caused the blast! I can't believe it, how is one person so powerful? He has destroyed the city and is more than holding his own against the Symbol of Peace!"

All of us — the crowd, my friends and I — looked at the screens tensely, waiting for what would happen next. The helicopters from where it was filmed were quite high so we couldn't see All Might or All For One, but the grand scene was quite terrible. I could only imagine how many people would've found their ends if it weren't for the heroes. Somehow, though I knew I was useless, I felt the need to do something. Anything. But I couldn't so I stood there, watching the screens along with everybody else.

We could only see another big blast. It made buildings crumble and even the helicopters swerved, the camera swaying along. For the first time that day, I was glad I didn't have my quirk. The fear growing in my own chest was so heavy that, had I had to absorb everyone else's, too, it would've drowned me. I would've been devoid of any hope and light and love and the world inside me would've been crumbling just like the world around me. As it was, I still managed to stay afloat in the sea of emotions raging inside of me. And yet the lighthouse was getting hard to see, for it was slowly fading, taking peace and hope with it.

We could only stare at the screen when the fog cleared and the camera zoomed in. I didn't want to believe that the person on the screen was All Might. Yes, he wore All Might's clothes, but it seemed just the shell — or rather the heart — of his being. A skeletal thing that had thin arms and legs, hollow cheeks and sunken eyes, and absolutely none of the muscles we were used to seeing under the uniform of the Symbol of Peace. But instead of looking like the beacon of hope, his fist was bloodied and his posture quite so very questionable. I could only hope that his heart and intentions remained the same.

All Might clenched his fist, seeming to almost glow with determination. I could only assume that what followed was a conversation between the two men but during that All Might's posture became less certain and his blue eyes lost their glow. Slowly, his fist lowered as All For One kept mocking him, gesturing with his hands to impersonate a smile.

As All Might was frozen in place, the crowd started cheering him on. We all know he couldn't really hear us, for he was kilometres away. Thus, I suspected that the crowd was only trying to reassure themselves. Even Bakugou and Midoriya joined in on the cheering, both of them, as I noticed, holding back tears and failing to an extent (Midoriya more so than Bakugou).

I just stood there, not knowing what to do or what to feel. I was scared, yes. But with the rise in crime rates, didn't we have this a long time coming? Humanity didn't think that All Might would be around forever to secure our futures, did they? Did I?

I looked back up at the screen. Come on, All Might. It'll be a mess to clean up your legacy but... At least go out with a bang. Smile, I subconsciously started smiling, feeling a little sad at heart. Smile and win this, as you've always done.

One of the man's arms suddenly started crackling with energy, expanding into his previous muscle form. His whole hand started glowing little by little and his eyes lit up again. At that, All For One floated up into the air again, as if also readying himself for the last standoff.

Out of nowhere, flames covered the zoomed-in camera's view and when it zoomed out, it showed Endeavour, saying something to All Might. Edgeshot showed up right after the flame hero, also offering the Symbol of Peace some backup. One by one, a few more heroes showed up to get their unconscious colleagues off of the fighting site, thus granting All Might the chance to really give it his all. All that he had left, anyway.

At the same time, Edgeshot and Endeavour kept All For One occupied, though it did seem as if the latter took it more as a game. Having had enough, All For One blew All Might's "sidekicks" away, also starting to expand his muscle. He used it on only one arm until that arm was littered with metal and all else imaginable, at the same time getting as big as his whole body.

And then they both attacked. It caused an explosion like no other and we couldn't see anything. All For One seemed to be pushing All Might back quite a bit but at some instance that we couldn't see, All Might used a tactic that we — again — couldn't see and punched All For One into the ground. The force was groundbreaking and it also rolled into the air, making the news helicopters rise higher and flow further away to avoid it.

Everything was silent for the next few minutes, every breath could be heard. When the smoke cleared, we could see All Might weakly raising a victorious fist, which, for the briefest second, buffed up into his hero form.

I felt relief wash over me like the tide. At the same time, the crowd started ecstatically cheering, people jumping on top of each other and into group hugs in celebration of their ongoing lives.

Then All Might buffed up into his hero form fully, standing tall as the crowd chanted his name. While I realised that he was only doing his job as a hero, I also appreciated the sense of comfort it gave me. Not thinking much at all, I leaned my head on Bakugou's shoulder.

He tensed up for a moment and then relaxed, taking my hand that was already touching his and squeezing it. It was almost like saying, It's alright. We made it through. We're really safe now, and while I didn't know whether I actually believed it or not, it was nice to pretend, just for a moment, that I did.