….

  The corridor exploded into chaos.

  Overhaul's quirk activated as the concrete floor beneath them rippled like water before erupting into a forest of spikes - dozens of them, each one sharp enough to impale and positioned to eliminate escape routes.

  Rumi unched herself backward with her powerful legs, the spikes passing beneath her by centimeters. She ricocheted off the wall, using the momentum to attack from a different angle.

  Her kick came in fast and hard, aimed directly at Overhaul's head.

  He didn't even flinch. Just touched the ground.

  The wall crumbled from the force - Rumi's leg strength was no joke - but it had served its purpose. Overhaul was already moving, his hand touching the debris.

  The broken concrete reformed into projectiles that shot toward Rumi like bullets.

  She twisted midair, dodging most of them.

  One clipped her shoulder, drawing blood, but she didn't slow down. Just nded, assessed, and immediately unched another attack.

  But she couldn't get close.

  Every time she tried, Overhaul would reshape the terrain.

  Create barriers, form spikes and manipute the environment with such speed and precision that closing the distance became nearly impossible.

  "Your Quirk usage is quite remarkable" Overhaul said, his tone clinical and detached. "A body engineered for speed and impact - legs built to shatter distance, reflexes sharp enough to live inside the moment. But all that strength demands proximity."

  A faint pause. "And I have no intention of letting you get that close."

  He touched the wall.

  The entire corridor began to shift, the floor tilting at an angle that sent Rumi sliding backward.

  She dug her feet in, cws extending from her boots - a support item designed specifically for situations like this - and held her ground.

  "You talk too much." Rumi growled. Then she grinned, blood on her teeth. "And you are wrong about something."

  "Am I?"

  "I don't need to get close to kick your crappy face." She kicked the wall beside her.

  The impact sent cracks spiderwebbing through the concrete. The structural damage destabilized Overhaul's constructs, causing several of his spikes to crumble.

  "…Ingenious." he said, almost thoughtfully.

  Then his gaze hardened. "Unfortunately for you, ingenuity alone doesn't win fights."

  He touched the ground again.

  This time, instead of attacking, he sank into it - the concrete opened up beneath him like liquid, allowing him to move through the floor itself.

  Rumi's ears twitched, tracking the subtle vibrations through the ground. She jumped just as spikes erupted from where she had been standing.

  But Overhaul was already attacking from another angle. A pilr of stone shot up, clipping her leg and sending her spinning.

  She recovered midair, nding in a crouch. Blood dripped from a cut on her thigh.

  "You really do live up to that Rank Five title." Overhaul admitted, emerging from the floor ten meters away. "But this is my domain. Every surface here is an extension of my will. You cannot win a war of attrition against someone who controls the battlefield itself."

  Rumi's response was to ugh - wild and fierce. "Yeah? Then I guess I will just smash the whole pce apart until there's nothing left for you to hide behind."

  She unched herself forward again, but this time she wasn't aiming for Overhaul.

  She was targeting the walls, the floor, the ceiling - destroying the environment itself with devastating kicks that sent rubble flying.

  Overhaul was forced to dodge his own colpsing debris as he continuously reconstructed the battlefield, reshaping it faster each time Rumi shattered it.

  But he wasn't just defending anymore - he was studying her.

  Tracking her rhythm, anticipating her angles.

  A spike erupted at the precise moment she pivoted, carving into her arm.

  Another followed immediately, grazing her side before she could fully recover her footing.

  Rumi was bleeding from multiple wounds now, her Hero costume torn, but her grin never faded. This was the kind of fight she lived for - a real challenge, a genuine threat, an opponent who required everything she had.

  But Overhaul was getting frustrated. His attacks were becoming less precise, more aggressive.

  "You've reduced years of work to rubble." He said, and for the first time there was actual emotion in his voice. Anger. "Carefully built networks, resources gathered piece by piece, pns that took years to put in motion - undone because two heroes couldn't keep their noses out of business that had nothing to do with them."

  He smmed both hands on the ground.

  The entire corridor began to colpse.

  Walls, ceiling, floor - everything breaking down and reforming into a massive construct.

  Overhaul was merging with his environment, incorporating the structure itself into his body.

  His form grew, arms multiplied and his lower body merged with the ground, giving him massive reach and stability.

  "This is what Quirks do." His voice echoed now from somewhere deep within the grotesque construct, resonant and distorted. "They give human beings the illusion of being something more than what they are. Heroes and vilins alike - all of you, infected. All of you, convinced your power grants you the right to impose your will on the world."

  He paused. "Shin Nemoto… Rikiya Katsukame… forgive me."

  Dabi's eyes widened slightly.

  He had been holding Eri, keeping her protected behind a wall of blue fmes while Rumi fought. But this was different from what he had expected.

  In the original timeline, Overhaul had fused with his subordinates after being pushed to his limits by Midoriya.

  But here, with two Pro Heroes attacking his base, he was escating faster. Desperately.

  The ground beneath them shook as Overhaul's massive form pulled itself together - a grotesque fusion of human, concrete, and the quirk-enhanced bodies of his subordinates.

  Rumi looked up at the monstrosity. "Well. That's new."

  "Need backup?" Dabi called out.

  "Hell no! This is exactly what I wanted!" Rumi's grin was feral. "But yeah, okay, maybe a little help wouldn't hurt!"

  Dabi carefully set Eri down in a protected alcove he had created with fmes - a barrier that would keep her safe from debris and attacks. "Stay here. Don't move until we are done."

  Eri nodded, eyes wide but trusting.

  Dabi stepped forward, blue fmes intensifying around his hands. "Alright then. Let's finish this."

  Overhaul's massive fused form surged forward, attacking with multiple limbs at once as spikes burst from the floor, walls, and ceiling, while stone fists the size of cars smmed down in relentless succession.

  Rumi dodged and weaved, her enhanced reflexes pushed to their limit. Each kick she delivered now had to target structural weak points - joints, connections, anywhere the fusion looked unstable.

  Dabi provided ranged support.

  Blue fmes hot enough to melt stone carved through Overhaul's attacks, creating openings for Rumi to exploit. He used his breathing technique to maintain maximum heat output without burning himself out.

  Total Concentration Breathing. In. Hold. Out.The fmes responded to his controlled breathing, burning hotter and more precisely than they ever had before.

  "Your Quirk…" Overhaul's voice echoed from somewhere within the shifting mass. "That isn't ordinary fire. What exactly are you?"

  "No comments." Dabi replied, sending a wave of blue fire that forced Overhaul to reconstruct his defenses.

  The battle found a vicious cadence - Rumi driving in from one fnk to force Overhaul's defense, Dabi striking from another with concentrated bursts of fme the instant an opening appeared.

  They exchanged no words. Coordination came instinctively, forged through long hours of shared combat drills; a shift of weight, a change in tempo, was enough.

  Yet Overhaul was evolving in real time.

  The quirks he had fused into himself began to integrate more seamlessly, regeneration accelerating as torn flesh reassembled almost the moment it was damaged. His offense grew less structured, more chaotic, attacks branching unpredictably and eroding the rhythm they had established.

  A massive stone fist swung down and caught Rumi cleanly, unching her through the corridor wall in a violent crash of shattered concrete.

  "Bunny!" Dabi's fmes surged brighter.

  Blue fire roared forward and tore straight through Overhaul's torso, burning a molten cavity through the grotesque construct.

  The hole sealed instantly.

  Overhaul ughed.

  "You still don't understand." his voice echoed through the mass. "I can rebuild anything. Destruction means nothing to me."

  The wall behind him exploded.

  Rumi burst back into the corridor, blood running down the side of her face but her grin wide and feral.

  "You know what your problem is?" she said, and she was grinning again. "You never shut up."

  Dabi's fmes stayed constant - hot, relentless.

  He wasn't trying to destroy the construct anymore, forcing Overhaul to rebuild.

  "He's not infinite." Dabi muttered, watching the seams form and close again. "Every rebuild costs him."

  The reconstructions were slower now, but barely noticeable.

  Rumi caught it too, and her approach changed immediately.

  Instead of striking at weak points, she attacked everywhere - fast, chaotic bursts of motion that forced Overhaul to defend in multiple directions at once.

  "Deconstruct this!"

  She feinted left, drove right, and shattered a stone limb at the joint.

  By the time it reformed, she was already forcing another defense.

  Overhaul's breathing began to echo from within the construct. "Stop moving."

  His voice sharpened. "Stop… moving."

  "Nope." Rumi said.

  Dabi widened the fmes.

  The blue fire formed a perimeter around the battlefield - not striking, just burning, forcing Overhaul to pull his mass inward and defend from the heat.

  Stone didn't melt easily, but it did expand under heat - and expansion meant fractures, which began spreading across the construct not because of a single decisive blow, but through mounting pressure, steady accumution, and two opponents who simply refused to stop.

  Overhaul snarled. "You pests…"

  He swung a massive arm, but it crumbled halfway through the motion before the strike could nd; he rebuilt it instantly, slower this time, and Rumi seized the opening, unching upward and nding atop the construct before driving both legs down with explosive force.

  The impact detonating through the entire structure and forcing a scream from Overhaul - not because the stone shattered, but because the shockwave traveled straight through the construct into the human body at its center, the part he couldn't reinforce, the part still made of flesh, leaving the entire mass shuddering under the strain.

  Without the focus to maintain it, the structure began shedding mass. Stone colpsed away in huge chunks as the absorbed bodies separated and fell free.

  The entire construct colpsed inward, breaking apart in heavy sbs of stone and debris, and when the dust finally settled Kai Chisaki was left kneeling at the center of the wreckage.

  His arms trembling violently and his breathing ragged as he slowly looked up at them, disbelief burning in his eyes. "…How?"

  Rumi wiped blood from her cheek and grinned. "How? Because you are a weak ass bastard."

  Dabi stepped forward, blue fmes curling steadily at his side, regarding Chisaki with cold, ft eyes.

  "…Looks like you ran out of gas."

  Overhaul stared at them, breathing hard.

  For the first time since the fight began - he had nothing left to rebuild.

  Overhaul let out a low, bitter ugh. "You have no idea what you've interfered with. The quirk-destroying drug was meant to restore order, to return society to something stable. Heroes and your precious quirks are the reason everything is broken—"

  "Save it for the police." Dabi interrupted. He pulled out reinforced quirk-suppressing cuffs - designed for dangerous vilins - and locked them onto Overhaul's broken arms.

  He screamed in pain, but the cuffs held.

  Rumi already had her phone pressed to her ear. "Backup's en route - police, paramedics, everyone. They will lock this pce down and collect every piece of evidence."

  Dabi went back to Eri, carefully lifting her again. She buried her face in his shoulder, small body trembling.

  "It's over." he told her gently. "You are safe now."

  ….

  Meanwhile - U.A. Entrance Exam.

  Midoriya was having his own struggles.

  He stood in the center of Battle Center B, his chest heaving in a rhythmic, low-frequency hiss.

  His focus now is on the practical exam, which was again a brutal hit of reality to him.

  He could move faster than the 1-Pointers and outmaneuver the 3-Pointers, but without any quirk he cked the raw power to destroy them.

  He had spent the st ten minutes acting as a tactical coy - pulling trapped examinees out of harm's way and kicking debris into robot joints to disable them for others.

  But his body simply wasn't enhanced enough to destroy the robots…

  In the end, his own score remained at zero.

  Then the ground shook.

  The Zero-Pointer emerged - a mountain of treads and rusted steel.

  It wasn't a challenge; it was a disaster. As the massive shadow fell over the street, leaving no choice but to retreat for examinees.

  Midoriya turned to run, his mind already calcuting the fastest exit route–

  He heard the cry.

  A girl - the same one who had bumped into him before the exam, who had used her quirk to stop him from tripping - was trapped under debris in the Zero-Pointer's path.

  Everyone else was running away.

  Dabi's words echoed in his mind: "The first time you face real danger, your body's going to lock up. Your instincts will tell you to run. That's when the breathing matters – it keeps your head clear and your body moving, even when fear tries to shut you down."Midoriya's hands clenched into fists.

  Keep your mind clear.He started running toward the Zero-Pointer.

  Take a deep breath.He sucked in a volume of air that made his chest pte creak. His blood pressure skyrocketed, his veins bulging with oxygen-saturated crimson.

  He wasn't just running - he moved like a piston in motion.

  Don't be nervous. Don't be afraid… control your breathing…He leaped, the jump wasn't just a physical act.

  Mid-air, he reached for the One For All's power once again channelling it into his arm, with the same output.

  As he pulled the energy into his right arm, he forced his breathing to its absolute limit - he was using the internal pressure of his lungs to create a buffer around his bones.

  "SMAAAASH!"

  The punch connected and collision was a tectonic event. The Zero-Pointer's reinforced pting didn't just dent; it underwent structural liquefaction.

  The shockwave of the punch, amplified by the high-pressure oxygen in Midoriya's muscles, sent a ripple through the air that shattered every remaining window in the mock city.

  The titan toppled.

  And Midoriya was falling.

  The damage to him was also no less severe, but not catastrophic as it would have been ten months ago.

  His legs were fractured - shattered by the sheer mechanical stress of the leap - and his right arm hung at a sickening angle, the skin turning into deep purple.

  The pain was incredible, but his breathing never stopped or wavered.

  Land... I need to nd... keep the rhythm... don't let the lungs colpse...Something grabbed him.

  The girl he had saved had activated her quirk - Zero Gravity - making him weightless before he could hit the ground.

  They floated gently down together as the Zero-Pointer crashed behind them, creating a cloud of dust and debris.

  Midoriya's consciousness was fading. The pain from his broken limbs was overwhelming.

  But his st thought before passing out was satisfaction.

  He had saved someone. Like a real Hero would.

  ….

  [U.A. High School - Monitor Room]All Might stood before the monitors dispying Midoriya's rescue, firmly in his muscle form, hands csped behind his back and a proud smile set across his face.

  "Young Midoriya" he murmured softly. "You truly possess the heart of a hero."

  The other teachers were talking excitedly about the dispy of power. About the destruction of a Zero-Pointer and whether to count it as points or not.

  But All Might's attention was divided.

  Because on another monitor - one showing news feeds from around the city - a breaking story was developing.

  [—massive vilin arrest at what appears to be a Yakuza compound. Pro Hero Mirko, currently ranked Number 5, led the operation alongside an unnamed underground hero. Sources confirm they've recovered evidence of illegal quirk experimentation and rescued a young girl who was being held captive—]The news footage showed Rumi emerging from the compound, battered but victorious. And beside her, a figure in a dark hero costume carrying a small white-haired girl.

  The camera zoomed in. The underground Hero's face was partially obscured by his mask, but his eyes were visible.

  All Might recognized those eyes immediately.

  "Young Dabi…" he murmured.

  So while Midoriya had been taking his first steps toward becoming a hero at the entrance exam, Dabi had been taking down an entire vilin organization and saving a child.

  All Might smiled again.

  The next generation was rising. Midoriya with his selfless heroism and Dabi with his tactical precision and unwavering determination.

  Perhaps the future wouldn't be as dark as he had feared.

  Perhaps there was hope after all.

  On the monitor, Midoriya was being loaded into an ambunce, Recovery Girl already rushing to treat his injuries.

  On the news feed, Dabi was handing Eri over to paramedics while Rumi gave a statement to the police.

  Two different scenes. Two different approaches to heroism.

  But the same result: people saved, vilins stopped, hope preserved.

  All Might leaned back in his chair, exhaustion and pride warring in his expression.

  "The future is in good hands." he said quietly to the empty room.

  Then he stood, preparing to go check on Midoriya personally.

  The Symbol of Peace's time was ending.

  But the next generation was ready to carry the torch forward.

  And that was enough.

  .

  ….

  [To be continued…]

  ★─────??★??─────★

  Author Note:Visit to instantly access +2 chapter for free, avaible for Free Members as well. For additional content please do support me and gain access to +12 more chapters.-->.com/WrightBrothers