On the top of a crumbled office building, framed by the dim hues of firelight and the night sky, Shigaraki Tomura stood with arms crossed and head slightly tilted, his eyes gleaming with manic joy. Below, Hosu city burned. Screams echoed off concrete, sirens wailed in every direction and the Nomu were easily disposing of pro heroes left and right.
Beside him, Kurogiri remained as still as ever, the gentle swirl of his smoke like form swayed still.
"Look at it," Shigaraki rasped, a grin pulling at the corners of his dry mouth. "Isn't it beautiful? All of this destruction… this chaos… The Nomu—My Nomu—they're all masterpieces. Stronger than everyone here, faster than anyone here. They're nothing in the face of my Nomu."
Kurogiri's voice came smooth, low and calm. "We've surpassed expectations. Their resilience is far beyond the other test models. Without any high level heroes nearby… this city will fall."
Shigaraki flexed his fingers, scratching at his neck. "Heh. I wonder how many more cities could crumble before us while all might can do nothing to stop us."
Then, he paused.
A sound.
Not the usual chaos of battle or the flickering flames of burning structures. This was different, it was an extremely loud sonic boom.
He turned his head slowly toward the distance.
Kurogiri followed his gaze, the fog around his collar tightening.
And then—BOOM!
Another thunderous sonic shockwave cracked the air like a whip. Shigaraki's hair whipped back from the force of it as a flaming ball tore through the clouds, aiming for the city. The speed was insane, the air itself was ripping apart, clearing a path for whoever this was.
Shigaraki's smirk faltered. Just slightly.
"The hell…?"
The "flaming ball" grew clearer. This wasn't a flaming ball at all. Wings carried it like a missile, and at the center of it all…
A boy?
…
The wind screamed into Dante's ears as he kept up his pace, the city was finally within reach, burning buildings stretched out beneath him. He saw heroes fighting for their lives, he even saw some very powerful faces like Endeavour fighting.
He would've gone down to help, but his eyes suddenly moved elsewhere.
His gaze was locked onto two figures standing calmly atop a building, unbothered by the destruction. Dante recognized them instantly.
They were the bastards that attacked the USJ.
His heart sank. The image of Aizawa, bloodied and destroyed during the USJ attack flashed in his mind. Shigaraki's cocky grin, that disgusting voice.
Dante's flames intensified, another sonic shockwave echoing out behind him. He didn't think. There wasn't a plan.
He dove down.
His rage burned through his flames. Fire surged violently from his arms and legs as he pushed himself even harder. They looked closer, Shigaraki turned his head just in time to see a blazing comet crash straight into them.
BOOOOOOM—!!!!!!
The building exploded into a storm of fire, concrete and steel. The upper half of the building totally disintegrated. A shockwave blasted through the nearby streets as Dante tore through the structures like a missile, obliterating everything in his path.
No hesitation at all.
He landed on the building, he was completely broken, arms missing and blood all over, smoke rising from his skin. Wings faltered and retreated back into him. Debris rained down and flames licked the shattered walls.
A fresh pair of arms grew out of his shoulders as his eyes scanned through the smoke, wild and searching.
"Where are you."
His sludge sense picked up the slightest movement.
He suddenly burst out from the cloud of debris like a missile, sludge tendrils launching him forward violently. His eyes, burning with rage, locked onto Shigaraki, who stood coughing dust.
——
A/N : think of this like ODM gear from AOT, just on crack.
——
Dante's first move was too strange to predict.
Another tendril snapped out and latched onto the steel framework of another building. He flung himself forward, twisting midair, his legs coated in fire. With a sharp exhale, he swung around behind Shigaraki and slammed both feet into his ribs with enough force to permanently cripple him. The villain was launched sideways, spinning like a ragdoll before he crashed through a pillar and hit the ground hard.
Dante didn't bother landing. Another tendril latched onto a nearby building and yanked him upward and he ricocheted off the structure like a possessed pendulum. He flew horizontally now, fire erupting from his elbows, body parallel to the ground. He twisted and came down with a blazing dropkick aimed at Shigaraki's already broken chest—only for Kurogiri's warp gate to appear in a flash of purple mist.
"Don't fucking run!"
Dante roared, shot another tendril sideways and swung around the gate entirely, hitting a support beam and vaulting himself back at an insane angle. He came at Shigaraki from behind again, leg trailing a whip of fire and struck him in the back of the skull with a savage spinning kick. Shigaraki's face bounced off the concrete, blood splattering like paint.
"Don't give up on me now, you son of a bitch." Dante growled, voice dripping with venom.
Shigaraki groaned and pushed himself up, coughing blood, his hands twitching to touch the ground. Dante didn't him the chance. A sharp edged tendril lashed across the distance between them and wrapped around his wrist, yanking him off balance. Dante pulled himself forward, rocketing into Shigaraki's gut with his knee blazing and the air left the villain in a strangled wheeze.
News helicopters loomed above, documenting the entire exchange.
It wasn't enough.
Dante flipped midair, landing in a crouch, tendrils coiled like spring behind him. His fists clenched, fire cracking up his arms. He launched himself again, this time from a low angle, using tendrils to fly in a linear direction by hooking onto any debris or anything really and pulling himself toward it by retracting the sludge, flinging himself across the entire ruin, the debris only aiding him in this. Every move was unpredictable. He was everywhere, walls, beams, the air. He struck from places that shouldn't even be possible. A knee to the chin, an elbow to the jaw, a spinning flaming axe kick that completely destroyed Shigaraki's collarbone.
Kurogiri couldn't even track him, Dante was moving at speeds he couldn't even see.
His warp gates opened and closed uselessly. Every time Dante neared one, a tendril would hook onto something else and he'd veer off course. He was faster now, he was moving instinctively, not hesitating, his gaze was faster.
These motions were honed not by thought process or even instinct, it's like he could see everything, like he could process everything around him. It's as if he'd been forced to react to things even faster for 12 hours straight yesterday.
Then, Shigaraki screamed, barely.
"N-NOMU! Get… get him!"
From beyond the chaos, some of the Nomu being held off by heroes, turned around and headed to a different direction.
Back at the ruin, two hulking shadows suddenly emerged from the edge of the destroyed complex, strange inhuman bodies, exposed brains and disgusting animalistic snarls echoing like thunder.
Dante skid to a halt on a wall, tendrils holding him to the wall like a spider, chest rising and falling, fire still flowing out of his arms, shins and feet. He stared down at the approaching beasts, thinking of what to do.
"Right," he muttered, licking blood off his teeth. "All I can do is fight. So I'll fight."
One tendril lashed outward, latching onto some fallen debris, anchoring him again. His legs tensed.
As he flew forward, both of the Nomu attacked at the same time.
Dante twisted between their attacks, pushing his agility to its limits while his tendrils flung him around like a spider on fire. His elbows and knees blazed, flying forward to attack, each strike aiming to cripple. But these monsters weren't normal. One was grounded and very durable, he regenerated instantly. The other had wings and moved through the air with lesser speed than Dante, but way harder to hit.
Dante fought the best he could, he was moving around in a way no one could predict. He kicked the winged Nomu into a wall, only to be grabbed mid spin by the other and slammed through a support pillar. He coughed blood but refused to stay down. Again and again, he launched himself back into the fray, clawing, burning, screaming. But he couldn't ignore the fact that Shigaraki was gone.
While he was fighting, the cowardly bastard ran away.
A sharp rage began to burn brighter in Dante's ches. He dodged a punch that cracked a wall and landed in a crouch, panting, tendrils heavy behind him. Blood dripped from his forehead. The air around him shimmered with energy.
"Fucking coward," he growled through clenched teeth.
The grounded Nomu charged, fist rearing back. The flying one flanked from above, flying down to Dante.
Dante didn't move.
With a breath, his entire body burst into flames.
The air warped violently as his body ignited into colourful flames, red to orange, orange to white and then past the visible spectrum. Blues. Violets. White hot flame so intense it hissed rather than roared. The pavement beneath his feet began to liquify. The rubble and debris around him cracked and sagged as they started to melt from sheer heat.
Flames so hot the news chopper was forced to retreat.
The Nomu didn't stop. They couldn't comprehend the danger.
But the moment they closed in.
It got even worse.
A pulse of thermal force exploded outward like a supernova. His arms snapped wide and flames exploded out of him, a storm of destruction. The heat struck the flying Nomu mid air and it disintegrated instantly, bones turned to ash mid screech. The grounded one tried to charge through, roaring defiantly, but its skin continually melted and regenerated. It's eyes boiled. It's muscles tore apart under the pressure before it also collapsed.
Everything fell still.
Far away on a rooftop, Endeavour and several other heroes had just arrived, witnessing the inferno with wide eyes. They were just about to intervene, but they were stuck frozen in place, stunned by the sheer scale of Dante's fire. Even the flame hero himself felt it, heat unlike anything he'd ever produced.
Then, just as fast it had started, the flames flickered out.
Dante stood there for a second, sludge covering his bare body, smoke coiling from his skin like steam. His breathing was shallow, his eyes unfocused.
He took a single step forward in the direction Shigaraki had ran.
And collapsed.
The impact echoed across the ruined block.
Ash drifted in the air like snow and all that remained of the Nomu was dust.
Silence.
Then footsteps, hurried and concerned, rushed toward his unconscious body.