MHA: Hands on, Quirks Up!

A high, manic laugh rose in the distance.

"HAH! HAHAHAHA! Kurogiri, look at this!" Tomura's laugh ripped through the air. "This is what future heroes act like now? What a joke! This freak is supposed to be better than us?! Look at him! Foaming at the mouth, laughing like a lunatic while he tortures my Nomu!"

He clutched his sides and doubled over with laughter, as if the sight of Nomu being brutalized was the funniest thing he'd ever seen.

He jabbed a finger toward me, giggling like a toddler. "All Might would cry if he saw this. These are the next protectors of society? You're not a hero. You're just another broken freak with a power fetish! Just another monster! No different from the rest of us."

I stopped paying attention to Nomu. It's already finished.

However, there was no point leaving this mouth-breathing skinbag alive. I couldn't even consider him a villain. He was just something that needed to be put down.

I was right in front of him in a blink, a blur of black sparks.

"You're a funny guy," I chuckled without humor. "You had that thing built to fight All Might. And yet I'm the one who broke it. Me. Not a Symbol. Not a pro hero. Not a teacher. Just me."

He barely noticed before my fist buried itself in his gut. His breath caught, a strangled wheeze leaving his lips as he folded forward.

"Bet you thought having that monster meant you'd win everything. Well look where we are now. You're coughing up spit, and I'm still standing."

"You—!" he choked.

I cut him off with a hard kick to the chest. He collapsed onto the ground like a rag doll. He wheezed and tried to crawl, but I was already there.

"Going somewhere?" I asked as my boot came down hard on his back, pinning him flat.

He reached out with his other hand, probably trying to decay my foot. What a dumb bastard.

So I stomped down on his wrist with a brutal crack. 

He shrieked in pain.

Kurogiri blinked towards us, warp gate swirling open.

Unfortunately for him, I had an eye on him the whole time.

My hand whipped out and grabbed his armor mid-phasing. I yanked it forward and slammed it into the ground, then I hammered down punches on it. Afterwards, I kicked the core away like trash, hearing it rattle against rubble.

Tomura growled behind me, rage and desperation churning. I didn't even need to turn around to know what he was doing.

The tentacle-eye on my shoulder saw his hand reaching out.

I elbowed backward without looking. My elbow connected with his jaw with a loud crack, snapping his head sideways. Then I spun around, backhanding him across the face.

He dropped to his knees, disoriented and shaking. 

My left leg swept around and planted on the center of his back. With both hands, I yanked his arms upward behind him.

"It seems like you're proud of these arms..."

I pulled.

CRACK.

Both shoulders popped from their sockets, joints twisting in ways they were never meant to.

Tomura howled.

I let go and grabbed his neck and hoisted him upward with one hand. My other hand carefully pulled off the hand mask that covered his face.

I made sure to use only four fingers for both actions.

His eyes went wide. 

I smiled.

"If I remember correctly, you said this was your father."

"You piece of shit, put that down! DON'T YOU FUCKING TOUCH HIM!"

His fury cracked mid-scream, collapsing into a sob as I held the hand in front of his face, smiled, and laid my fifth finger against it.

The hand crumbled to dust.

"I just killed your fucking daddy. What are you going to do about it? You gonna cry?"

Then I pressed my fifth finger against his neck.

"KUROGIRI!" Tomura shrieked. "KUROGIRI! NOMUUU! HELP ME!!"

"Yeah," I laughed. "Keep crying, you little bitch."

A massive fist slammed into my side, catching me off guard. 

But I didn't feel anything; I had Shock Absorption too.

Still, the force knocked Tomura out of my grip, and gave Kurogiri the opening.

A flash of mist, and both of them were gone.

Just me and Nomu now.

"Fuck!" I hissed, pacing forward. "Not this shit again."

Nomu charged, dust and debris billowing behind it.

The ground cracked beneath me as I closed the gap, my body reinforced with every weapon I'd stolen. Machete in one arm, axe in the other, and tentacles lashing from my back.

I spun low, axe-arm cleaving toward its leg. It staggered. I raised my machete, about to stab it into Nomu's brain.

And then it all stopped.

The spark. The surge. Gone.

One For All winked out like a dying flame.

My body felt heavier instantly, as if gravity had just remembered I existed. The raw edge of power I'd been riding collapsed, and everything else came crashing with it.

The absorbed quirks—Tomura's Decay, Shoji's quirk, Aizawa's Erasure, shock absorption, super regeneration, strength and speed enhancers—were still there, but way worse.

The amount I could retain? Twenty percent. Now? A pathetic ten percent. One For All no longer amplified them.

"Shit—shitshitshit—!"

Nomu roared and slammed me with a backhand. I was able to no-sell it again with the shock absorption, but how many more could I take? 

I darted left, trying to pivot behind it with whatever speed I had left.

It immediately grabbed me, slamming and tossing me around like garbage.

Why…

Why did I play with it? Why did I waste time?! I should've ended it when I had the chance.

It clawed into me, ripping through my armor.

I tried to extend the tentacles again, but Nomu grasped them and tore them from my shoulders.

It was in front of me, claws raised, talons gleaming.

Not like this. Not after everything.

"I AM HERE!"