Chapter 278: Let’s go all out!

--Wednesday, July 8, 2172

Amidst a luxury cruise ship, Mrs. Yoshiko sat in a deck chair at the bow, sipping a lemonade beside her husband in comfortable silence. As waves crashed and people passed by, the elderly couple enjoyed the peaceful, quiet moment, slowly drinking their beverages.

“This is nice, just a bit boring. Not moving for so long makes me feel uncomfortable, haha.”

Setting his coffee cup aside, Mrs. Yoshiko's husband, Toshiaki-san, remarked in an amused tone. Mrs. Yoshiko nodded with a warm smile as she placed her lemonade on the table.

“It certainly is uncomfortable. I already miss Mr. Kai and the others a bit… A sedentary life is definitely not for us.”

“Yes, we are too young to sit around all day.” Toshiaki-san commented playfully, placing his cup on a nearby table, then adding in a calm voice as he stretched.

“But it seems someone is coming to offer us a bit of entertainment.”

“So it seems.” Mrs. Yoshiko remarked as she stood from her chair, her gaze fixed on a speedboat approaching at full throttle.

Just then, an alarm sounded on the cruise ship, and what appeared to be heroes emerged from various locations with serious expressions as the captain broadcast over the communication system, ordering the speedboat to change course. Quickly, the passengers, with varying levels of panic, began heading inside the ship. At that moment, a man with dark skin, nearly 2 meters tall, approached the couple and requested seriously.

“We may have encountered pirates; please allow me to escort you inside.”

“That's fine.” Toshiaki-san said casually, then followed the man inside with Mrs. Yoshiko while glancing out of the corner of his eye at the speedboat.

At that moment, the people protecting the cruise ship began unleashing long-range powers against the speedboat, which didn't retreat, ultimately causing a large explosion in the water. But to everyone's surprise, the speedboat soon emerged in the air from the site of the explosion, surrounded by a force field, before shooting toward them.

With a solemn expression, the man guiding the elderly couple transformed his arms into a kind of cannon, then ran toward the bow while shouting seriously.

“Don't stop! Quickly head inside!”

“What do you think, old man?”

Mrs. Yoshiko asked as knives from various outdoor kitchens on the bow flew toward her. Toshiaki-san smiled calmly, and while clenching his fists so hard they began to bleed, he remarked with a smile.

“They don't seem to be common pirates, so it's possible we 'old folks' might have to step up.”

“Fufu, just what I'd expect from my old man.”

Mrs. Yoshiko commented with a smile as more bladed weapons gathered around her. Toshiaki-san replied with a playful smile, revealing two sharp fangs in his mouth, while the blood dripping from his fists took the form of two beautiful blood swords.

“Well, the 'vampire' still has to show off in front of his wife from time to time.”

Just then, the flying speedboat reached above the bow, managing to break through the rain of attacks from the ship's defenders. The instant the force field disappeared, 12 people jumped onto the deck. But the moment they touched the wooden deck, 4 of them were immediately impaled by several knives, while another 5 were instantly decapitated by something so fast it only left a trail of blood in its wake.

“Truly terrifying… It seems they weren't exaggerating when they decided to send me.”

At that moment, a calm voice echoed from inside the speedboat, and a young man barely 1.5 meters tall flew out. Simultaneously, the young man snapped his fingers, and instantly, somehow, time around the speedboat seemed to rewind. The knives withdrew, and the blood and heads returned to their places.

“Hey, old woman, it seems we've really hit a wall here.”

At that moment, Toshiaki-san appeared beside Mrs. Yoshiko, surrounded by thin trails of blood and holding his blood swords, and commented in a grave tone. Mrs. Yoshiko nodded with a serious expression as the knives and swords around her began to spin rapidly, then calmly remarked.

“It seems we have to get a little more serious.”

As she spoke, a panther with dark purple fur materialized in front of Mrs. Yoshiko. Toshiaki-san nodded seriously as the blood trails around him gathered and condensed into a sphere that quickly flew to his mouth.

Swallowing the blood ball in one gulp, Toshiaki-san grew several centimeters, his muscles bulged, and his previously well-groomed hair rose against gravity. He then commented with a challenging smile.

“Then let's go all out!”

………

[How long can Mrs. Yoshiko and Toshiaki-san hold out?]

As his haki spiraled out of control, Kai asked while somehow feeling his control over the mini-self's aura grow significantly, almost indistinguishable from his own aura. The beautiful fairy replied in a cold, almost murderous tone as her dress transformed into a full-body, completely black armor, and a sword of the same color appeared in her hand.

[For now, they seem to be at a stalemate. But all communications were cut, and I can only get information through Mrs. Yoshiko's Accomplice, so I'm a bit limited. Although for now, she seems stable with no apparent injuries.]

[Notify me if anything changes, and take care of the rabble. I'm going to blow this son of a bitch's head off.]

“Sword Field.”

Kai replied with a cold voice as a hundred swords formed from thin air around him, and he fixed his gaze on the surprised Quirk thief. He had barely moved in the world seen in slow motion due to the acceleration of his thoughts.

[Understood, Master.]

As Sage raised her sword toward the sky, taking control of all the swords, Kai shot toward AFO at a terrifying speed that almost seemed like teleportation, appearing right in front of him.

Unbothered by the expression of terror forming on the arrogant “Symbol of Evil,” Kai unleashed a flurry of slashes while combining to the maximum all the attack properties of his auras—combining Armament Haki, Advanced Armament, Advanced Conqueror's haki, and the intensification properties of his aura.

But curiously, unlike previous times, Kai could see a kind of ghostly black fire suddenly form on his weapons the moment everything mixed. While executing the slashes, Kai, both curious and cautious, directed part of his attention toward his inner “voice,” where he saw something that left him confused.

The mini-self now wore a furious smile on its face while standing, copying each of his movements as if it were truly a second self and not something almost alien to him as before. Although surprised by the event, Kai quickly pushed it from his mind and focused on the fight, as it was necessary to take down the Quirk-stealer rat as soon as possible to rescue Mrs. Yoshiko.

…

When he finally managed to deflect the explosion, All Might quickly jumped to pursue AFO without the slightest intention of letting him escape, causing a powerful air blast. But when he was halfway there, the Symbol of Peace suddenly felt a brutal pressure that made his eyes widen as dark lightning began to flicker all around.

Although he already knew that pressure and had felt it several times—being the pressure Kai could emit with his Quirk—it now seemed somewhat different. More than simple pressure or intimidation, it felt almost like suppression, as if under the gaze of an infinitely superior being, something he had felt once before from Kai on the spider island.

But, although that time Kai felt like a god among men looking down from above, this time it was a bit different. Somehow it felt as if the very king of hell had appeared to unleash a slaughter. This sensation caused a solemn expression to form on All Might's face, and he quickly kicked the air forcefully to shoot toward the surface.

Upon reaching the surface, All Might encountered a scene that left him speechless. Kai was in the air, surrounded by a large number of dark electrical arcs, with his swords and different parts of his body covered by a strange, ghostly black fire. Simultaneously, his sworn enemy, the man he had vowed to stop, was in front of Kai, cut into pieces with an expression of disbelief on his face.

At the same time, a hundred black swords surrounded by ghostly black fire moved through the air at terrifying speeds. The swords left in their wake a carnage of blood and entrails of Nomus amid brutal explosions that shook the mountain so intensely it seemed it might collapse at any moment.

That apocalyptic scene inevitably brought to All Might's mind the nickname Present Mic invented for the terrifying boy during the sports festival: The Demon King. Such a scene was something only a Demon King could create—a being capable of bringing destruction and death without pause with just a casual blink.

But just then, All Might saw how the pieces of his sworn enemy in the air suddenly attracted each other at a terrifying speed, then reformed. Instantly, the Demon King moved. Moving at a speed even he found difficult to follow, Kai unleashed a rapid succession of flying slashes directed at AFO, who was trying to flee while using all his power without reserve.

Wind blades, brutal energy spears, black lightning, black energy spheres, plasma slashes, laser beams, strange heads, elongated black rivets, and more—all shot out from a panicked AFO trying to escape. But no matter how strong or flashy they were, each and every attack was sliced apart by those dark flying slashes before landing on the mountain, creating a series of explosions that completely deformed the land.

“Machia!!!”

At that moment, AFO shouted with all his might, and a large amount of dark liquid formed in the distance, from which emerged a gigantic being with earthy, stone-like skin, an enormous jaw, and canine features. Knowing who it was, All Might gave one last look at the terrifying Kai pursuing AFO, then kicked the air and shot toward the new enemy.

“Master!!” The colossal creature roared powerfully at the sky as it appeared, making the air vibrate. At that moment, a heroic voice resounded with strength.

“Texas Smash!!!”

With the announcement, the creature was struck squarely in the face by the Symbol of Peace, causing it to shoot through the air as if it were paper, while a brutal shockwave capable of uprooting trees joined the symphony of destruction. At that moment, All Might kicked the air to pursue the flying creature. As he approached, he performed a mid-air flip, then announced powerfully as he struck toward the creature's head.

“Carolina Smash!!!”

All Might's unrestrained power caused the creature to shoot toward the ground while its incredibly hard skin cracked and large amounts of blood began to spill, creating a colossal crater. At that moment, All Might unleashed a rapid succession of punches on the creature, causing colossal shockwaves to strike it with immense speed and force, destroying it from the inside out.

Amid his rapid barrage of punches, All Might suddenly felt his danger alarms go off, making him turn his head to look at Kai, where he saw an incredible scene. AFO, who had been reduced to pieces again, reformed once more. But this time, unlike before, he didn't take his original form; instead, he transformed into a gigantic, grotesque mass of flesh, from which a large number of deformed faces formed.

…

[Did you manage to identify it?]

As golden rings formed at high speed around the enormous mass of twisted flesh, Kai asked his reliable assistant in a cold voice. The beautiful fairy dressed in armor replied in a similar tone while looking at the mass of flesh.

[Yes, Master, I'm ready at any moment.]

[Then synchronize with me. I will “turn off” the quirk that is reviving him at the exact moment.] Kai replied as he gripped his swords tightly and crouched slightly.

At that instant, the dark electrical arcs crackling all over Kai's body thickened and became more active. Soon, the young man disappeared, leaving behind only an electrical trail. Almost instantaneously, Kai appeared above the enormous mass of flesh that seemed about to take off at any moment. Simultaneously, Kai spun to unleash a brutal electrical slash at the mass while announcing in a cold voice.

“Lightning Annihilation!”

With Kai's announcement, a brutal current of dark electricity erupted from within the mass of flesh, creating enormous electrical arcs, thicker than a person, that reached up to the sky and destroyed everything around. At the same time, the mass of flesh divided into hundreds of pieces carbonized from the inside out. Instantly, a brutal pressure concentrated on it, as Kai announced coldly.

“Royal Silence.”

But at that moment, as Sage touched a piece of the carbonized flesh mass, one of the eyes turned to look at Kai full of hatred, and all the pieces began to glow simultaneously. This led Kai to exclaim with fury.

“Son of a bitch!”

***

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