[The Fox and the Hare] Chapter 27 - All For One (II) (Patreon)

Chapter 27 - All For One (II)


"This is bad!" Mandalay shouted as she felt her telepathic link with Professor Eraserhead break. "Ragdoll, can you tell us what happened?"

"Eraserhead is still alive. He must've only lost consciousness. Kota-kun and Uzumaki Naruto are still alive too," Ragdoll reassured her thanks to her Search quirk.

Suddenly, the green-haired girl's face showed an expression of disbelief.

"This can't be! Kota-kun! I can't sense Kota-kun anymore!"

In her panic, Ragdoll broke into a run toward the door, forgetting all about their current circumstances.

"Ragdoll! Stop right there!" Vlad King shouted and seemingly punched the empty air.

A large glob of blood burst out from his gauntlet and landed on the exit door, coagulating and sealing it completely.

"What are you doing, Vlad King? Kota-kun! I have to go help him! I can't just sit here!"

"Come back to your senses!" he yelled at her, and the pro hero froze. "You know better than anyone what it means for someone to disappear from your quirk's detection."

Ragdoll's eyes were flooded with tears at his words. But Vlad King, with his no-nonsense attitude, cared little about others' feelings in such a dire situation.

"And, even if you go there, what will you do? You are not a combat type. What are you going to do against someone who incapacitated Eraserhead?"

Unable to keep silent anymore, the students of 1-A started shouting all at once:

"Sensei! Let us go!"

"You can't keep us here while Naruto and Aizawa-sensei are about to die out there!"

"Let us fight against the villains!"

But Vlad King was unmoved by their pleas. Taking a stand in front of the door that he had already sealed by solidifying his blood around it, he said seriously:

"From this moment onward, whoever attempts to do anything idiotic will be expelled! Do not think for even a second that I lack the authority to do so! You managed to survive at USJ only because of a combination of luck, Uzumaki Naruto's Quirk awakening, and the Rabbit Hero's timely arrival! Don't get too cocky! If you want to throw your lives away needlessly, then by all means do what you want. Just not while you are students at UA High."

"What kind of Pro Hero just stands on the sidelines and watches their colleagues die?!" Yaoyorozu unexpectedly shouted, her current attitude a far cry from her usually composed and polite behaviour.

"I am not a Pro Hero now. Right now, first and foremost, I'm a teacher. And as a teacher, it's my duty to protect my students' safety no matter the cost."

In truth, Vlad King was in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. However, although it was a very tough choice to make, as an experienced Pro Hero and as a UA High teacher, he knew what he had to do. He couldn't ignore the safety of over 30 young students just for the sake of rescuing Eraserhead and Uzumaki Naruto.

'I'm the only one left who can protect them now.'

With Pixie-Bob and Tiger gone to check on the source of the bestial roars and shrieks, he was the only fighter left to protect the kids. Mandalay and Ragdoll, with their Telepathy and Search quirks, were not fit for combat. He couldn't, in good conscience, leave the students' safety in their hands.

As the students of the 1-A class became quiet, Vlad King said in a more subdued voice:

"You should've gotten the hint by now that being a Pro Hero isn't all rainbows and sunshine. Real life isn't like a fairy tale; the heroes don't always win. Sometimes they die in the line of duty, losing their lives at the hands of the villains. Sometimes they are forced to make tough decisions. And sometimes, their decisions will lead to the rescue of some and the death of others."

"I cannot risk the safety of over thirty of you just for the sake of Eraserhead and Uzumaki Naruto. And that is a fact that I'll have to live with for the rest of my life. But this is the right thing to do in the current situation. This is the protocol. All I can do now is protect you and pray for their safety. We have already alerted the police and the HPSC. All Might, Mirko, Hawks, and even Endeavor are probably on their way as we speak, so don't cause any more trouble."


⁂


An explosive airburst erupted from AFO's palm, scouring everything from the ground's surface. Kota-kun, who had been hiding curled up in a ball under the collapsed trees, was no more. He was reduced to nothing but a smear of blood on the ground.

However, Naruto did not freeze in shock or disbelief. As much as he was enraged by the villain's ruthlessness, he did not let it cloud his mind. While AFO started gloating and provoking him with words, Naruto rushed to Eraserhead's side and activated his Adamantine Sealing Chains, creating a golden dome of light around them both.

"I told you I'm a man of my word," All For One said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Now then, who should I go for? I would have killed Eraserhead - after taking his quirk first, of course - but you were quite quick to jump to his protection... Let's see... shall I go for the rest of your classmates that are huddled together scared in the chalet, or should I see how long these golden chains can hold up before they break under my might? Decisions, decisions."

He let out a chuckle as he aimed his palm at the golden dome surrounding Naruto and the unconscious and bleeding Eraserhead.

"Air Canon."

Another shockwave burst from his palm, the air pressure so violent that it created a huge depression in the ground, blasting away everything.

When the wind died down, the landscape resembled the aftermath of a level F5 tornado. The entire forest had been leveled to the ground.

However, in the midst of all that destruction, a tiny portion of the forest seemed to be untouched.

"Magnificent," All For One said in heartfelt admiration. "To think it can even withstand such power. It was worth it. Not giving up on obtaining this quirk, even after so many years, was definitely worth it!"

Within the golden dome created by the Adamantine Sealing Chains, Naruto was breathing heavily, beads of sweat dripping down his forehead like rain. Although the chains could cancel other people's quirks upon contact and had an incredible defensive ability, they also had their limits because, at the end of the day, all quirks are powered by the human body. Quirks' activation depends on the body's stamina and reserves of energy. It was the truth for everyone.

"Since I'm already in the middle of it, I might as well continue testing until the very end. After all, there is no better way to test its limits than by attacking myself!"

As AFO said that, several quirks began activating on his right arm in quick succession, transforming it into a grotesque appendage that did not belong to a human being.

"Air Walk. Springlike Limbs. Kinetic Booster times four. Strength Enhancer times three. Multiplier. Hypertrophy. Rivets. Spearlike Bones. This is the ultimate combination of quirks that I have right now."

Plunging down from the sky in a free fall toward the dome of golden chains below, AFO screamed in exhilaration.

"You have made me go all out! You should feel honored, Uzumaki Naruto!"


⁂


The Uzumaki residence being half demolished, the dozens of heroes, and the large number of policemen and reporters that were crowding around the house quickly became the focal point of the entire Musutafu City.

Ever since the USJ incident, Uzumaki Naruto had become a national sensation. But he was not the only one who had been thrown into the spotlight; his family received plenty of attention too. While Minato was not much into social media, Kushina was very active on CrossChat; she had over a million followers solely because Naruto was her son. Her bubbly personality and her motherly beauty did nothing to decrease that number, quite the opposite.

That being said, when the news that Uzumaki Kushina and her adopted daughter were attacked by the League of Villains in their own home got out - the very same villains that had attacked the students at USJ a few months before - it set Musutafu City ablaze.

All Might, Kamui, Mount Lady, Death Arms, Backdraft, and a few others rushed to the scene right away. Not long after them, even the Rabbit Hero made her appearance. Judging by her attire—she was not wearing her pro hero costume—it seemed like she had been in the middle of working out at the gym when she got word of what happened to Naruto's mother and rushed to her aid straight away.

However, everything was already over by the time they arrived. All they found was the half-demolished house bearing the scars left behind by Kushina's Adamantine Sealing Chain and the severed arm belonging to the villain who had attacked them.

Nevertheless, only minutes after everyone's arrival at the scene, the Hero Network App sent an SOS signal to all the heroes who had their smartphones with them. The UA High's freshmen training camp was under attack!


⁂


If the forest looked like a tornado had passed through after AFO's Air Canon attack, this time around it was unrecognizable. All that remained was a deep crater over 150 meters in diameter.

At the bottom of that crater, still covered by the dome created by his Adamantine Sealing Chains, Naruto lay on all fours on the ground, seemingly out of breath and his entire body shaking uncontrollably.

Eventually, he reached his limits, and the Adamantine Sealing Chains dispersed into a shower of golden light.

His monstrous arm returning to normal now, AFO used his Air Walk quirk to float down into the crater and land in front of Naruto.

"What a shame. You could have lived. You could have become great."

As AFO said those words, five black and red tendrils came out from the fingers of his right hand, impaling Naruto in his arms, legs, and stomach.

As he screamed in agony, he was reminded of how the god-like leader of the Akatsuki, Nagato, had pinned him to the ground in his previous life in a similar fashion by stabbing through his arms and legs and with his chakra rods.

But just as AFO used his Rivet quirk to lift the fox boy from the ground by the stab wounds and bring him to him, the black and red tendrils were unexpectedly slashed through cleanly.

A moment later, a sonic boom exploded and a great gale of wind raised a dense curtain of dirt and dust, cloaking the entire area in semi-darkness. Whoever the new arrival was, they had been moving at a speed faster than sound!

"Air Canon!" All For One shouted, his voice betraying the fact that he was starting to lose his patience.

But the violent air burst he blasted forth was too slow to hit the newly arrived enemy.

"What's with you and attracting the worst villains to attack you? Don't worry. You're in good hands. I came here to save you."

Opening his eyes, the first thing Naruto saw were two large crimson wings. He recognized the identity of his savior immediately. It was Hawks, the Number 4 Hero, and the crimson feathered wings were his famous all-purpose quirk, Fierce Wings. Currently, Naruto was being carried by several of his feathers. (1)

"Going against him alone would be suicide," Naruto said bluntly, all the while wincing from the burning pain coming from his stabbed-through arms, legs, and stomach. "He has too many quirks. He's too durable and strong. He has-"

"No faith whatsoever in the Number 4 Hero, huh? You're hurting my feelings," Hawks said jokingly, but his eyes were serious as he looked at the masked man floating in the air. "Don't talk anymore. Save up your strength. You need to live."

"Wait. Don't send me away yet!" Naruto yelled when he saw Hawks controlling his feathers to take him away from the battlefield.

But the winged hero didn't even look back at him, sending him off to safety with his feathers as quickly as possible.

As if Hawks had eyes in the back of his head, he had noticed the arrival of a new hero at the scene without even looking back.

"Take him to a doctor before he dies of blood loss," Hawks said, still not looking away from All For One.

The moment he was transferred from the feathers' hold into someone's arms, Naruto recognized them by their scent alone.

"Mirko?" he asked for confirmation.

"That's right, kiddo."

Her voice wasn't as chipper as usual.

"Put me down. I won't die from these stab wounds right away. You need to help Hawks or he'll die," Naruto said as quickly as he could. "That villain has at least five different quirks. No, even more. He made that crater you see there with a single punch."

"...How did you survive that?" she asked.

Naruto couldn't reply to her because, in the next moment, a huge burst of air aimed in their general direction forced Mirko to kick the ground and break into a run to evade the blast radius.

"Your opponent is me!" Hawks yelled as he dove at AFO, his speed so great that his body became a blur.

Despite his diving speed bordering on the speed of sound, AFO's reflexes were so great that he reacted to the winged hero's sword stab with time to spare; not only did he dodge the feathery sword's stab, but he also had the leisure to counterattack with a punch of his own.

Unlike in his fight against Naruto, who was still just a kid in his eyes, All For One did not underestimate Hawks. He hadn't taken Naruto seriously until a hole was gored into his throat. With Hawks, however, he didn't play around as much. Hawks' speed alone was enough to make him pay attention to him.

Hawks was able to dodge All For One's counterattacking punch, but he was not prepared for what followed next:

"Air Canon!"

An airburst blasted him away like a broken kite, smashing him brutally into a nearby mountain cliff. But he was far more durable than he looked at first glance. Right as AFO's Rivet quirk was about to impale him, Hawks flapped his crimson wings and flew away, inwardly shuddering as he looked at the way the cliff was shattered into pieces by the five black tendrils.

"Phew! That was close!" Hawks said lightly and broke the sound barrier once again as he lunged at All For One, this time slashing horizontally at his neck with his feather sword.

Metallic clangs and bright sparks flew as Hawks' feather sword clashed against the bony protrusions coming from AFO's arms due to his Sprealike Bones quirk.

"You are nothing but a fly buzzing around. Very annoying, but unable to actually do any harm. I've wasted enough time with you!" AFO said and, completely ignoring Hawks, he made a beeline towards Mirko who had just about convinced Naruto to leave the fight to the pros and started running away.

Despite his mixture of quirks and incredible power, AFO's current arsenal was not geared toward speed. Although Mirko was not running at full speed at that moment - she was afraid of going supersonic due to Naruto's wounds, AFO could not catch up to them in a short while with Hawks diving at him for guerilla attacks constantly.

"Rivet Stab!" AFO shouted, and Hawks was forced to perform inhuman acrobatics in the air to avoid the seemingly heat-seeking tendrils homing in on him.

"Air Canon!"

"Shit! This is bad!" Hawks cussed.

So preoccupied he had been with dodging the Rivet Quirk's spear-like tendrils that he had not been prepared for AFO to instantly use his Air Canon quirk too.

The airburst caught him full-on and flung him away violently for the second time that day, sending him tumbling through the air for more than two kilometres.

With the annoyance out of the way, AFO let himself fall to the ground, momentarily stopping in one spot. Red lightning started flickering across his body as he activated several quirks at once, focusing on increasing his burst of speed to the maximum possible with the current quirks in his possession.

"Kinetic Booster times five. Springlike Limbs. Strength Enhancer times five. Hypertrophy."

AFO's leg muscles inflated almost like balloons as he squatted, and the soil beneath his feet collapsed like sand as he launched himself forward, leaving shockwaves in his wake. His actual running speed may not have been as fast as Mirko's, but his monstrous jumping strength more than made up for it, allowing him to catch up to them within mere moments.


⁂


Not long after she took Naruto in her arms and started running away (in spite of his protests), a peculiar feeling washed over her. She had hardly ever felt that sensation in her entire life, but it was impossible for her to not understand it. It was the survival instinct of a rabbit.

Due to the skittish nature of rabbits and their survival instinct as prey, her Rabbit Quirk allowed Mirko to instinctively feel if someone was stronger than her and if her life was in peril.

Looking back and seeing the monstrous appearance of All For One, she could feel it in her bones.

'If he lands even one flush hit on me, I will die.'

However, despite being in the midst of a life-or-death situation, a grin appeared on her face.

"A hero never backs away from their responsibilities!" she yelled to psych herself up and started running in a zig-zag pattern, making it difficult for AFO to use his jumping powers to its full potential.

With his jumping strategy rendered obsolete, AFO made use of his Air Walk quirk once more. In a manner reminiscent of how Bakugo used his explosions to propel himself forward, AFO began firing shockwaves from his Air Canon behind him, accelerating his body forward at top speed.

"Rivet Stab!"

But the black and red tendrils were shattered again before they could reach their target as Hawks cut in their way with his feather sword once more.

'I'm not the best against the durable, power types,' Hawks thought. He was at the end of his wits. 'The only reason Mirko and I have lasted for so long is because of our speed.'

He couldn't see any way out of their current predicament because he had no way of damaging AFO - the most he could do was be an annoyance - and Mirko had to carry the mortally wounded boy to safety.

"I've wasted enough time because of you! Begone!" AFO yelled infuriated at Hawks who kept getting in his way.

Hawks launched a hail of arrow-like feathers at All For One but he completely ignored that wide attack and pointed his finger at him as he said:

"Air Bullet!"

Unlike the huge shockwaves that he had launched until then, this time around, the range of the attack was far smaller… and the speed was far faster too!

"Oh no!" Hawk exclaimed, and his first reaction was to cover himself with his wings. However, the air bullet was even faster than he had anticipated. His wings weren't fast enough to cover his torso in time, and the air bullet pierced through his gut like a hot knife through butter.

The Number 4 Hero plummeted from the sky like a wounded bird, his crimson wings beating the air helplessly, unable to stop his descent before he smashed into the ground.

With Hawks out of the fight, All For One formed a gun shape with the fingers of his right hand and took aim at the back of the Rabbit Hero.


⁂


The same type of attack that had shot Hawks out of the sky was now aimed at her. Her instincts told her that if it landed, it would be over. Not just for her, but for the dying boy in her arms as well. If she stopped and turned around, she could easily dodge it; however, in that case, AFO would catch up to them. If Naruto wasn't bleeding, she would be able to run at her top speed and leave her pursuer in the dust. However, with a wounded person that she needed to protect, she couldn't afford to do any of that.

At that moment, in that state of intense stress and concentration, a peculiar change occurred within her. As her senses extended beyond her physical boundaries, her field of vision expanded, the clarity of her hearing increased manifold, and time seemed to slow down in her perception.

It was not something as simple as just getting in "the zone" due to her intense concentration. It was something more. It wasn't only her perception of time and space that had changed; her entire body went through a metamorphosis. There were no visible changes, but, as Rumi was deeply familiar with her physique, she could distinguish the stark difference in her sense of balance, the strength of her leg muscles, the capacity of her lungs, and even the degree of impact she felt in her joints and bones when running.

Her quirk had awakened.


⁂

"Air Bullet!" All For One said and a burst of air shot from the tip of his index finger like from a real gun.

However, the Rabbit Hero unexpectedly twisted her body and the air bullet missed her thin waist by a hair.

'A fluke,' All For One thought, clicking his tongue as he prepared to shoot another bullet with his Air Canon quirk.

However, as he fired his air bullet again, AFO started getting restless. She had managed to dodge it once; it could be chalked up to a mistake on his part the first time. But dodging his air bullet a second time, without even turning to look at him, was unsettling. It may have been coincidence the first two times, but when it happened again and again, it became a pattern.

'Don't tell me!' AFO thought, having a hard time believing it. 'Did she just experience a quirk awakening?'

In his pursuit of Uzumaki Naruto, although only a very short time passed, All For One and Mirko were already more than a hundred kilometres away from the training camp by now.

"Usagiyama Rumi!" All For One screamed at the top of his lungs. "If you take this away from me, you will pay with your life!"

However, Mirko didn't entertain him with a reply. If she had been afraid of the Villains' retaliation, she wouldn't have become a Pro Hero in the first place. Therefore, she just kept running at a constant speed towards Musutafu City, just fast enough for AFO not to be able to catch up to her but slow enough to not cause Naruto's wounds to worsen. Her goal was to meet with the rest of the Pro Heroes who were bound to flock towards UA High's training camp to rescue the students after the SOS signal that had been sent on the Hero Network app.

Although she was unable to inform anyone directly of her exact situation and whereabouts, the HPSC could track her location through the GPS thanks to her smartphone. For the smart people at the top of the organisation, it should not be difficult to deduce what was going on considering that she and Hawks had been moving together away from the camp at such a tremendous speed.

That being said, it was only a matter of time before the rest of the heroes converged on her location – and, with his intellect, All For One could see through her intentions too. That's why he went as far as to start threatening Mirko in order to make her stop.

"Uzumaki Naruto is mine! I will stop at nothing to get what I want. Do you hear me?"

When Mirko continued ignoring him, he shouted again:

"I know about your mother! I know about the orphanage you've been secretly funding for years! I know everything about you! You and everyone else you hold dear will pay for what you did today!"

Although AFO's screams faded into the distance – a clear sign that he had given up on his pursuit for the moment – Mirko's visage did not lighten up.

'How did he find out about the orphanage?'

As far as she knew, aside from her mother, nobody else knew about her charitable actions. She had kept it a secret not only because she was not the type to blow her own trumpet but also for the sake of not giving the Villains a weak point to exploit. Furthermore, most people did not even know that she had a mother. The public at large thought that she was an orphan.

Feeling Naruto's breathing starting to get shallower, Mirko stopped her train of thought and began worrying about him.

"Fight on, Naruto. You have to hold on."


⁂⁂⁂


AN: In the canon, Mirko showed the survival instinct of a rabbit during the fight with the group of High-End Nomus.

In this fic, the evolution of her quirk was based on that canon instance and on the fact that rabbits in real life have an almost 360-degree field of view due to how their eyes are positioned in their head. That being said, after her quirk's awakening, her sense of danger and her perception are like an improved version of Spiderman's "spider-sense". Her physical abilities have increased accordingly as well.

Many thanks to Bigtrunk who came up with this suggestion about Mirko's quirk's evolution.

Before some people ask "Where were All Might and the rest of the heroes?", remember that Hawks, All Might, and Mirko moved at tremendous speeds. By the time All Might and the rest arrived at the training camp, AFO, Hawks, and Mirko were long since gone.

(1) Not a typo. For those who have forgotten, after her heroic deeds at USJ and after killing the Hero Killer, Mirko rose up in the Hero rankings. Now, she is right behind All Might and Endeavour. It is mentioned at the beginning of Chapter 23. That means that, in this fic, Hawks is the Number 4 Hero at the moment.