The battle had long since stopped resembling a fight between men.
It was closer to a natural disaster.
Sir Nighteye stood several blocks away, eyes wide as he watched the facility tear itself apart. The air trembled with every exchange, shockwaves rippling outward like invisible walls. Heroes and police alike were forced to keep their distance. Anyone who tried to move closer was driven back by sheer pressure alone.
"This is insane..." one officer muttered, shielding his face as a violent gust nearly knocked him over.
The wind howled, ripping debris from the ground and flinging it skyward. Cars slid across the street. Streetlights bent and snapped like twigs.
They barely see the figures of All Might and All for One.
Boom.
The building shuddered violently.
Then came All Might's voice, echoing through the chaos like thunder.
"DETROIT... SMASH!"
The explosion that followed was overwhelming.
The structure detonated from the inside out, concrete and steel bursting apart as if the building itself had been hollow. Entire sections of the facility were torn free, spiraling upward as a massive vortex formed around the impact point. The pressure crushed the air itself, creating a roaring cyclone of dust, fire, and debris.
Sir Nighteye threw his arm up to shield his eyes, his teeth gritting as the ground beneath him shook.
"Unbelievable..." he muttered. "That level of power... even after all this time..."
The street cracked beneath his feet.
A deep fissure split the road open, spiderwebbing outward as another collision rocked the battlefield. The shockwave rippled through the earth, forcing heroes to drop to one knee.
"Everyone stay back!" Nighteye shouted into his communicator. "Do not advance! You will die if you get any closer!"
Another blast erupted from the ruins.
This one was different.
Dark.
Violent.
The air screamed as a surge of energy burst outward, far more concentrated and deliberate than All Might's attacks.
A blinding flash swallowed the street.
Sir Nighteye felt himself lifted off the ground.
Before he could react, a powerful grip seized his arm and yanked him backward.
"Move!" a voice barked.
They hit the ground hard just as the shockwave tore past where he had been standing.
Cementoss slammed both palms into the street.
"Everyone behind me!" he roared.
The ground answered.
Stone surged upward in an instant, slabs of concrete folding and stacking themselves into a massive dome. Walls thickened layer by layer as the blast slammed into it, cracks racing across the surface.
"Ghh...!" Cementoss cried out, veins standing out as he forced more material into place. Sweat poured down his face as he reinforced the structure again and again.
The dome shook violently.
Chunks of stone broke apart, instantly replaced by new layers as Cementoss struggled to keep it standing.
"This is bad!" a hero shouted. "The pressure keeps rising!"
Sir Nighteye pushed himself up, staring at the glowing ruin beyond the dome.
"That attack..." he whispered. "That was All For One."
Another explosion slammed into the barrier.
Cementoss let out a strained groan. "I cannot hold this forever!"
Nighteye clenched his fists.
"At this rate," he said grimly, "not only the ward will be destroyed..."
The dome trembled again, cracking deeper.
"...Shinjuku itself will be leveled."
...
Nezu sat at the center of U.A.'s underground command room, paws folded neatly on the desk as rows of monitors filled his vision. Live drone feeds, satellite imagery, seismic readouts, quirk-output graphs. Every screen showed the same conclusion from a different angle.
The situation was deteriorating faster than projected.
Shinjuku's skyline shuddered as shockwaves rippled outward, windows shattering in distant buildings. Emergency sensors spiked and vanished as cameras were destroyed almost the moment they locked onto the epicenter. Static crawled across several feeds.
Nezu's ears twitched.
"...Ah. Structural integrity failure on three adjacent blocks," he noted calmly.
The phone rang again.
Nezu picked it up without a hint of surprise as the face of a woman came on screen.
"Madam president." Nezu greeted.
The Hero Commission President's voice came through immediately. "We are watching the same feeds you are. This level of output exceeds the acceptable threshold we agreed upon."
Nezu glanced at a monitor where the shockwave radius expanded another few meters.
"Acceptable thresholds tend to struggle when All For One is involved," Nezu replied evenly.
"That is not the point," the President said. "We authorized this operation under the assumption that collateral damage would be minimized. At this rate, Shinjuku will not be the only district affected."
Nezu adjusted his glasses and switched one of the screens to a readout of Cementoss's barrier. Stress fractures crawled across the model, glowing red.
"Cementoss is holding," Nezu said. "Barely, but holding. Gran Torino is preventing villain spillover, and Sir Nighteye has successfully locked down all surrounding routes. No civilians are within the immediate danger zone."
"And if that barrier fails?" another Commission member cut in over the call. "Do you have a contingency for that?"
Nezu's tail flicked once.
"Yes," he said. "Several. None of them are pleasant."
Silence followed, heavy and tense.
Another explosion rocked the feed. The drone camera spun wildly before stabilizing, revealing a crater that had not existed seconds prior. The quirk readings spiked again.
"All For One just released a composite attack," Nezu said quietly. "Multiple quirks layered together. He is testing our limits."
"That only reinforces our concern," the President replied. "This battle needs to end quickly. The longer it drags on, the more resources we burn, and the harder it becomes to manage the aftermath."
Nezu leaned back slightly, eyes never leaving the screens.
"With respect," he said, "ending this quickly is not something we can demand. It is something All Might must force."
"You are placing an extraordinary amount of trust in him," the President said.
Nezu nodded once. "Because there is no one else who should do this."
Another monitor flickered to life, showing Gran Torino streaking through debris, pinning a villain against a collapsed wall before vanishing again. Nearby, police units followed Sir Nighteye's precise commands, corralling captured villains and reinforcing perimeters.
"The operation is proceeding as designed," Nezu continued. "Simply at... higher intensity. than estimated"
A sigh came through the call. "If this continues at this scale, public infrastructure damage will be impossible to downplay."
Nezu's gaze settled on the central feed, where smoke parted just enough to reveal two figures colliding again, shockwaves distorting the air itself.
"Then we will address that after," Nezu said calmly. "What matters now is the outcome of that fight."
The President hesitated. "And if All Might fails?"
Nezu was silent for a moment.
"...Then the consequences extend far beyond property damage," he said softly.
The line went quiet.
Finally, the President spoke again, slower this time. "We are giving this operation our full support. But understand this, Principal Nezu. Every second this continues raises the cost."
Nezu inclined his head. "Understood."
The call ended.
Nezu remained seated, paws folded, eyes sharp and unblinking as the screens continued to shake with each devastating clash.
"...Finish it, Toshinori," he murmured.