Chapter 8 - Act 8: Future of Hell, Part 1

BOOM!...

An explosion settled off in the distance with a giant mushroom cloud that illuminated the sky. It carried rumbles through the ground, shifting rubble and debris that had settled not long ago.

Izuku's lungs burned before his eyes even opened. Dust filled his throat which caused a rough cough out of him. Consciousness forced its way back but his vision swam and for a moment he didn't move.

"W-where am I?..." His body felt distant, like it belonged to someone else.

Izuku's head turned sluggishly and that's when he saw his arm trapped beneath a slab of broken concrete.

"Crap, my arms pinned.." His fingers twitched which was a good thing and nothing felt broken.

"Just great..." He rasped. He inhaled to call out but dust hit his throat again, triggering another cough.

"Hey! Are you still alive down there?" Panda's voice called out although it was deeper now.

He began to peel away chunks of concrete before tossing them aside. Once the top layer was removed and the broken support column was pushed aside, Panda was revealed to be in his gorilla mode.

"I-I think so but my arm is pinned" He muttered

"Yeah, I can see that" Panda said as he crouched lower.

Sliding his fingers into the gap between slabs. He shifted the weight just enough for Izuku to pull his arm out.

Panda offered a hand which Izuku gladly accepted and hauled him upright like he weighed nothing. Izuku staggered at first but he quickly found his balance.

"Thanks Panda.." Izuku looked up at him

"I should be the one thanking you. That fireball was a bit too close for comfort, you saved our butts back there. But man, you look like a piece of burnt toast" Panda joked

"Trust me, It looks a lot worse than it actually is" Izuku said while shaking off the haze.

"Touché but we should find Kusakabe, If anyone's still alive and pretending they're not it's him" Panda huffed

"Hopefully he isn't far" Izuku nodded

Without another word the two of them started navigating the wreckage. As they searched, they started hearing the distant sounds of destruction somewhere far off in the distance.

After some wondering, something metallic caught Izuku's eye. He turned to his left and saw a katana jutting out from a pile of rubble.

"Hey Panda, is that..." Izuku started

"Kusakabe's katana? Looks like it" Panda finished

Together they cleared the debris one after another and eventually there he was. Kusakabe was on his back with both hands locked around his katana like a lifeline.

"I...just wanna go home..." Kusakabe said with his eyes closed.

"Man you really are hopeless" Panda let out a tired sigh.

He reached down, grabbed Kusakabe by the back of his coat, and hauled him out before setting him back down.

"What a mess" He said rolling his shoulders

The heat of Jogo's flames still lingered in the air even as the battlefield grew eerily still. Izuku's senses were on high alert but for the first time in what felt like an eternity, there was a moment to breathe.

"Alright. Now that we're not actively getting incinerated, you mind telling us who the hell you are?" Kusakabe dusted himself off then fixed his gaze on Izuku

"I'm Izuku Midoriya, I was with Nanami's team before I headed this way" He replied honestly.

"Yeah I got that much from earlier. I guess what I mean is that I've never seen you at Tokyo Jujutsu High. I definitely would've remembered someone like you" Kusakabe raised an eyebrow.

"I was actually wondering the same thing. You exactly don't seem like a regular sorcerer" Panda chimed in.

Izuku hesitated for a moment. There were bigger things to worry about than his background, and he barely understood this world himself. If they started asking questions he couldn't answer then things could turn complicated fast.

"It's...complicated. I'm from the countryside and I was taken under Nanami's wing" Izuku gave a white lie.

"This kid is Nanami's protege? When the hell did Nanami do that? I guess the guy has his reasons..." Kusakabe slumped back.

"I gotta say kid, those techniques you used back there are something else. It's definitely not normal" Kusakabe was cautious but didn't get the feeling that Izuku had any ill will.

"Speaking of "not normal" I can't help but notice you're...well...a talking panda plus a gorilla? but you're not a curse" Izuku decided to steer the conversation to Panda.

"Ah so you do have a brain under all that muscle. Yeah I'm not a curse, but I am a Cursed Corpse and a fully independent one at that. Technically a puppet but an advanced, self containing one" Panda grinned

"That's incredible. A puppet that can function completely independently and since you're capable of speech and complex thought, that mea-" Izuku began rambling.

"Alright alright, slow your roll" Panda waved a paw.

"Enough of this side tracking nonsense. Earlier you said you were with team Nanami and that they needed medical so what exactly happened" Kusakabe said while getting up and turning his attention back to Izuku.

"Right. The original team of Nanami, Megumi, and Ino met up with me and Yuji. Shortly after we split up Nanami and I met Maki and older guy who went by Zenin" Izuku began

"Naobito Zenin. Maki and him are family and also in the same clan" Kusakabe informed

"Got it. On our way there we ran into this octopus curse. It trapped us inside of its domain and separated us. Naobito almost lost an arm, Nanami was swarmed, and Maki was about to be dealt a killing blow before I stepped in. They had flesh wounds but they would survive" Izuku continued

"The only reason why we survived was because I had to go all out with my qui- I mean my technique" Izuku added

"Go all out huh? Just how powerful is this kid? The fact that two grade one sorcerers were having trouble with a curse like that yet this kid managed to exorcise it..." Kusakabe couldn't wrap his head around it.

"If they managed to survive that, why'd they have to be taken to Shoko?" Kusakabe asked curiously.

"After we got out...another curse appeared. He was way faster than the octopus and In an instant everyone was burned and on the floor. Nanami jumped in front of the flames that were meant for me..." Izuku's fists clenched.

"That's...damnit. Were any of them alive when you got to Shoko?" Kusakabe was concerned.

"Please tell me that Maki's ok!" Panda was also understandably concerned.

"Maki was breathing, unconscious but alive. As for the other two...I'm not sure. As soon as those explosions started I left in order to get any remaining sorcerers out of here. Shoko was the one that told me where you guys might be" Izuku finished.

"Thank goodness..." Panda was somewhat relieved but not knowing the others condition was still heavy on him.

"Well at least we know that one of them is ok for now. Any news on Megumi and the other two?" Kusakabe rubbed the back of his neck.

"Ino was hurt so Megumi took him to Shoko which left Yuji alone. Megumi eventually found us but then he was taken before any of us could do anything. As for Yuji I have no idea...I wanted to search for him but then all this happened"

"I get the feeling he doesn't know about Itadori being a vessel for Sukuna" Kusakabe thought grimly.

"Alright here's the plan, Panda and I will look for Itadori and see if we can find some stragglers on the way. You should, however find Fushiguro since you saw him last" Kusakabe suggested.

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Panda chimed in.

"Yeah, that works for me and thanks again for getting me out of that rubble Panda" Izuku bowed slightly

"It's no problem" Panda waved it off

"You two stay safe out here and hopefully we can meet up again later" Izuku said as he backed up, activated One For All and shot off.

"You too, countryside..." Kusakabe waved towards the sky.

With Izuku gone, Kusakabe and Panda were alone once again. Their eyes lingered in the direction Izuku shot off to in silence but Kusakabe decided to break it.

"Hey, Panda. This is definitely different than what I heard about Itadori" Kusakabe exhaled

"Nah, it wasn't him, it was Sukuna" Panda corrected but Kusakabe didn't answer right away.

"Don't forget that Itadori holds control over that body. At least that's the current story right?" Kusakabe looked down.

"I'll tell you this" Kusakabe began.

"Now that Gojo's gone, no matter what judgment comes later...I'm in favor of Itadori's execution. Sorry, but I won't be taking your side" Kusakabe said flatly.

"I-I figured.." Panda's shoulders sagged as another silent moment took place.

"But why'd you lie to Midoriya about us going after Itadori?" Panda questioned

"Judging by his story about wanting to get any remaining sorcerers out here and how he jumped in to save us. I'd say he's the type who throws himself into hell without thinking twice" Kusakabe replied

"It also seems pretty clear that Itadori is his friend. Now this could just be a shot in the dark but Midoriya doesn't seem to know that he's a vessel for Sukuna" He added

"So think about it, if I told him to look for Itadori then he'd be looking for Sukuna... even if I would've told him that he was a vessel" He paused

"I'd feel responsible if he didn't come back alive. So let's just hope he doesn't have to be in that situation anytime soon.." Kusakabe said grimly.

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[Act 8: Future of Hell, Part 1]

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"You've been dancing around my shadow for long enough" The words slithered through the space between them

"And now?" Sukuna's grin stretched

"I finally get to see what happens when I step into yours" His eyes gleamed.

Izuku felt the words settle on his shoulders like an invisible weight. His body reacted before his mind could catch up and started to take a step back.

"No...I can't let him get to me. I need to save Megumi and find a way to get Yuji back but how was his body taken over in the first place?" He stopped himself.

The bodies he'd passed on the way here flashed through his mind. He forced his foot forward instead with his eyes locking onto Sukuna's.

"The bodies I passed on the way here..." Izuku's fists clenched at his sides, his knuckles whitening under his gloves.

"That was your doing wasn't it?..." Izuku's voice was quiet but there was an edge to it.

Then ever so slowly a smirk curled across Sukuna's lips, amusement flickering in his crimson eyes. He tilted his head slightly, feigning ignorance

"Bodies you say? Now that's a little vague isn't it?" He rubbed his chin

"I'm talking ab- "Izuku's hands curled into fists.

"Ah, I think I remember now" Sukuna chuckled.

"Nanako!" Sukuna called to her.

Nanako came out of hiding, her face was pale and her expression frozen in a mixture of shock and despair. She walked stiffly until she stood just in front of Sukuna, hands trembling at her sides like she was trying to hold onto something that wasn't there anymore.

"He brought a hostage?!" Izuku unclenched his fists

"Now then, Nanako. Earlier Mimiko gave her life in order for your request to free someone come to fruition correct? " Sukuna said and Nanako flinched.

"Y-you...you killed her" She replied meekly

"Come now, don't blame me. As I said before, nothing is earned without sacrif- Sukuna was interrupted.

Izuku wasn't going to stand by any longer. One For All flooded his body and he flashed forward. He grabbed Nanako around the waist and yanked her backwards, momentum carrying them both past Sukuna in a green blur.

His eyes snapped to Megumi and Blackwhip launched outward, the tendril snapped through the air. He looked away and was prepared to jump as soon as it wrapped around Megumi.

The tendril almost reached but Sukuna's hand closed around the tendril. All of Izuku's forward momentum was brought to a halt instantly.

The whiplash that followed snapped Izuku backwards causing his grip on Nanako to waver. She tumbled from his arms and they both hit the ground, skidding across the street until they came to a stop.

Sukuna remained where he was, holding the tendril between two fingers. His expression was filled with disappointment .

"That's it? Was that really your plan? You could've just taken the girl and left, run off while you still had the chance. But no, you had to try and save both of them" Sukuna released the tendril with a flick.

Izuku yanked the tendril back and allowed it to go back into his arm. He put an arm up in front of Nanako

"If I can make a distraction then Nanako could run. I just need Sukuna to focus on me" Izuku tried devising a plan.

"Nanako, you need to run. I'll make an ope-" Before he could finish, Sukuna cut in.

SPLASH!

A small warm streak splashed across the side of Izuku's face, causing a full involuntary jolt through his body. He blinked twice before His hand rose on its own until his fingers touched the wetness on his cheek.

He looked at his hand and saw blood which made his pupils contract to pinpoints. He turned his head only to see Nanako's body on the floor but It had already collapsed by the time he looked. Her fingers still curled loosely around nothing while her school uniform darkened rapidly at the collar.

Her head rested three feet from her body and was tilted slightly to the side with her hair fanned out across the floor. Her eyes were still open but they were looking at him or at least they were pointed in his direction. 

But whatever had been behind them was already gone, there was simply nothing in those eyes. Nothing at all. Every system in Izuku's body that handled the automatic business of keeping him alive felt as if they froze. 

As if his biology had encountered something it fundamentally refused to process and had chosen shutdown over comprehension.

His mouth opened though no sound came out. A violent full-body tremor that started in his fingers and climbed through his wrists and forearms until it filled his whole body. 

"S-She w-was...she was right there. She was alive. She wa- I was going to..." The thought arrived in fragments of language that his mind kept trying to assemble but couldn't.

"Ah, I think I remember now. Did those bodies happen to look like that? Sorry my memory is a bit hazy at the moment" Sukuna watched him as he soaked it all in.

The coppery smell hit Izuku's lungs like a physical weight heavy enough to coat the inside of his throat. Every breath he forced himself to take was saturated with it and his stomach twisted from how overwhelming it was.

His eyes stayed locked on the place where she had fallen, on the body and the space above it where her head should have been and wasn't. 

"I-I-I was...I was supposed to..." His throat felt like it was being strangled.

"You look upset" Sukuna's voice slid through the air like a blade.

"Let me guess, you're probably thinking that if you'd been better. faster. stronger. She'd still be alive but that's thing though you almostcould have saved her" Sukuna tilted his head up and a smirk spread across his face

"That's the part that really cuts, isn't it? It's not the failure, it's the margin. The knowledge that you were close enough to taste it and it still wasn't enough" He chortled

"That's the disease that rots every hero from the inside out. You build your entire identity around saving people and then when one of them dies. When you're standing right there and it happens anyway you don't grieve for them. You grieve for the version of yourself that would have been fast enough. You mourn your own inadequacy and call it compassion" Sukuna's smirk turned to a scowl.

The grief in his chest was twisting and deep down Izuku fought against the dark allure of hatred that threatened to overtake his very soul. He could feel it building as the seed of malice sprouted in the corners of his thoughts.

"Stop..." The word barely made it past Izuku's lips.

He was a hero and the very idea of using his power solely for his own destructive ends repulsed him. Yet as he watched Nanako's lifeless body the line between controlled heroism and unbridled vengeance began to blur just like with Iida with Stain.

"Although, you didn't actually fail her per se since that would imply that you were ever a factor in the matter" Sukuna said with a hand on his chin.

"She was dead the moment I decided she would be and your presence changed nothing. She died the same way she would have died if you'd never come at all" Sukuna said as he picked up a small loose piece of the aged road and tossed it at Nanako's body.

"Shut up..." One For All responded before Izuku could stop it, the familiar veins glowing faintly as power stirred beneath the surface and Izuku's fists trembled.

"Strength and power is the only honest language that matters in this world. Everything else such as your justice, compassion, heroism...it's all theater for the masses" He shook his head

"And the weak? They're the most devoted audience of all because they need the performance. They need someone to stand on a stage and tell them that their lives have value because without that they'd have to confront the fact that they exist at the mercy of things like me" Sukuna gestured himself as he leaned forward

"I said shut up!" The lightning around Izuku flared brighter and blackwhip began to leak out and move in violent spasms.

"You want to know the best part about tonight, Midoriya? The absolute best part? The brat you befriended? He's been right here the entire time!" Sukuna smile gleamed as he pointed at his eye

"What?.." Izuku's head snapped up and his power was turned down.

"Every person I've killed tonight, everybody you passed on your way here, and every life I ended was with his hands and he'll be the one they blame!" Sukuna said as he brought his hands in front of his face and laughed

"He'llspend whatever's left of his miserable life knowing that he was the weapon I used to butcher people! The cherry on top is that you two made a promise about becoming heroes!! HAHAHA" Sukuna laughed like a madman

"You..." Izuku's voice was low. His fists unclenched as they shook from anger.

"You took his body...you killed innocent people...you enjoyed it..." Izuku's fist clenched again and cursed energy surged from them.

"I'm going to take him back from you..." The cursed energy around his fists pulsed with his heartbeat.

"I'm going to fight you until your grip on him breaks..." The cursed energy around his fist flared brighter

He took a step forward and One For All ignited in a rolling cascade. Each user's color bled through the veins of power in sequence like a torch being passed down a line of hands stretching back through generations.

"And if you ever crawl back to the surface and take control again I'll do it as many times as it takes" The last color that blazed through the veins of One For All was orange and it felt like it was staring back at Sukuna

"Now THAT is the version of you worth fighting!" Sukuna opened and lowered his stance.

"So show me what it's worth, hero!" Sukuna gestured with his palm

Izuku's foot cracked the pavement as he launched forward, his body a blur of emerald lightning and cursed energy. In that same instant Sukuna's grin turned razor sharp. Izuku's left fist was cocked back with cursed energy pouring out of it. 

Sukuna was prepared to tilt his head and dodge but at the least possible moment Izuku shifted his body. He switched the attack from his left arm to his left leg. 

The air whistled as his iron sole swept up towards Sukuna's head. Sukuna's eyes widened by a fraction as both of his arms shot up to block as the kick connected. 

CRACK!

The stockpiled power mixed with cursed energy sent Sukuna down the street. Sukuna tumbled over and over before slamming a hand into the ground, carving a trench to stop his momentum. 

When Sukuna raised his head he saw nothing so his gaze shot upward and saw Izuku coming down from above. He dodged to the left before Izuku's foot came down and cratered the road.

"Sixth: Smokescreen!" He yelled internally

In an instant Izuku activated Smokescreen, unleashing a thick veil of purple smoke that engulfed him and Sukuna. Sukuna skidded to a halt and In that moment the world dissolved into a haze of swirling amethyst mist. 

"Nanami was able to imbue his weapon with cursed energy. So that means..." Izuku's thoughts flashed back to his lesson with Nanami as he charged Fa Jin in his legs. 

Once he was done stayed crouched then reached up and detached his cowl with the respirator still clinging to it. Cursed energy flowed from his core, down his arms, into the fabric. Meanwhile Sukuna dispelled the mist around him and waited.

The cowl began to glow faintly with an eerie, ghostly light pulsing through it. It had been transformed into a decoy of his own presence. With a precise flick of his Blackwhip he sent the infused cowl towards Sukuna.

The decoy moved with uncanny grace, dancing through the smokey battlefield. Sukuna picked up on the energy and fixed his gaze on its presence. He scoffed inwardly, convinced that Izuku had made a novice mistake unworthy of his attention. 

"A mask? So the brat can't breathe in his own smoke" The cowl and respirator became visible as the smoke parted around them, tumbling forward like Izuku was charging recklessly.

"Dismantle!" Sukuna sent out a Dismantle to cut it in two.

Tink!

The respirator fell to the ground and there was no one behind the mask. In that moment of distraction Izuku acted with the explosive power of Fa Jin as he used Faux 100% in his legs to shoot through the smoke.

"A cheap trick..." Sukuna murmured as he realized too late

KA-THOOM!

The velocity carved out a tunnel through the purple haze around him. He raised his arm and clenched his fist as 50% of OFA and cursed energy surged into it.

"Every person I've killed tonight, everybody you passed on your way here, and every life I ended was with his hands" Sukuna's words echoed

"SMAAASH!!" He was already upon Sukuna before he had time to react. 

BOOOOOM!!!

Sukuna rocketed backward down the street, the shockwave rippling outward in a violent wave. Every window around them shattered.

The cars that were left on the street flipped end over end, the street itself was ripped like paper. The fronts of nearby buildings crumbled as their facades collapsed.

The street was ripped apart and carved into along with the front of the buildings being torn to shreds. Sukuna tumbled through the destruction before slamming into the ground and skidding to a halt.

Silence followed the settling destruction. It wasn't long before Sukuna placed a hand on his knee and pushed upright. He rolled his shoulders, cracked his neck, and planted his feet.

Sukuna then felt something run down the side of his face. He reached up with two fingers and wiped it off. He brought his fingers into view and saw blood on them. Sukuna stared at it for a moment, then tilted his head back and laughed.

Blackwhip shot out from Izuku's arms and latched onto two nearby lampposts. He pulled himself back as much as he could until the tendrils strained and launched himself at Sukuna.

"HAHAHAHAHA!!! NOW THIS IS A FIGHT!!" His crimson eyes gleamed with something beyond mere amusement as he launched himself at Izuku

The two of them closed in on each other fast. Izuku reeled his arm back with his emerald cursed energy igniting around it while Sukuna did the same, allowing his red cursed energy to flare around his fist.

"COME AT ME!!" 

"DETROIT SMAAAASH!!"

The second their fists collided their cursed energy intertwined and fought against one another. The energies then illuminated so bright it was almost blinding and the pressure built by the collision exploded.

The air exploded into chaos as the two titanic wills clashed in a violent ballet of power. Both advisories were sent away from each other as a result, crashing back into the ground.

Izuku repositioned himself mid-air before his feet touched the ground. Once he landed he began running but he was slightly going backwards as he did. 

He was actively fighting against his own momentum that was pulling him back. He soon gained traction and he was finally able to take off towards Sukuna again.

Sukuna met him head on once more but this time they weren't exchanging a single blow but several of them. Izuku threw a right hook so Sukuna deflected and countered with a palm strike. Izuku twisted his body to absorb the blow on his forearm and drove his knee upward. 

Sukuna leaned back just enough to avoid it then swept low. Izuku flipped backward but Sukuna was already in his space with a brutal uppercut that caught Izuku in the jaw, snapping his head back.

"You'll be too close to dodge this..." Sukuna raised his arm and extended his index and middle finger.

BZZT!

"His fingers!" Danger sense warned Izuku and his gaze snapped back to Sukuna

"Disma-" At the last possible second Izuku swung his left arm in a wide sweeping arc through the air in front of Sukuna's extended hand.

WHOOOM!

A wave of wind pressure erupted from the force of One For All. The air slammed into Sukuna's whole arm just as he released the technique.

Sukuna's arm disobeyed his will as it was thrown off course. The Dismantle veered upward at an awkward angle and carved clean through the top half of a nearby building. The structure groaned before the cut portion slid and collapsed into the building next to it.

"So that's how it works. His technique is activated from his fingers..." Izuku analyzed.

"Using the wind pressure? How clever" For the first time something resembling genuine surprise flickered across his face.

"TEXAS SMASH!" Izuku regained his footing in an instant and used the opening he was given.

"GAH!" Sukuna was sent flying backwards. 

Sukuna quickly regained his balance and skidded to a stop. He doubled over slightly with one hand pressed against his abdomen but when he looked up he was grinning. 

"Heh. Not bad, brat!" He grinned but Izuku didn't let up as he was already about to deliver a follow up attack but Sukuna had a trick of his own.

"Izuku wait, it's me!" Yuji's voice echoed through the air making Izuku's breath hitch.

His focus that was once unshakable mere moments ago, wavered for just an instant. A single instant was all Sukuna needed. A devastating blow slammed into Izuku's stomach, sending him hurtling backward. 

The momentary lapse in judgment cost him dearly and his body was sent skidding across the ruined street. Izuku fought to reorient himself as the pain seared through his stomach but before he could fully recover Sukuna was already upon him.

"HAHAHAHA!! You should've seen your face!" Sukuna mocked as he slammed a fist into Izuku's face.

"He mimicked Yuji's voice to throw me off...a cheap trick.." He thought bitterly.

"He's screaming in here! clawing at the walls! Watching me use his body to break yours!" In a blur of motion Sukuna delivered a brutal kick to Izuku's midsection that launched him into the air.

Not one to let momentum go to waste the King of Curses pursued him. Izuku barely managed to react by flipping midair to regain control but Sukuna was already there.

He grabbed Izuku's wrist then slammed him into the side of a skyscraper before sending another brutal kick. The impact sent Izuku with Sukuna following suit with both careening up the side of the towering skyscraper. 

Izuku reorientated himself then slammed his feet into the side of the building, cratering part of the exterior wall. Glass blew outward in a glittering shower as momentum was halted with a jolt that was sent through his legs.

He crouched against the vertical surface like a spider while blackwhip kept attached. One For All crackled through his legs and he kicked off the wall to meet Sukuna head on again. They collided and zigzagged up the tower trading blows.

Each impact sent shockwaves rippling through the structure deep resonant booms that shook the entire building from foundation to crown. As their brutal exchange continued up the side of the skyscraper, Izuku managed to slam Sukuna into the exterior wall. 

He tried to punch Sukuna but he grabbed it, planted his feet on Izuku's torso, and shot him up the building even further. Sukuna followed close behind and sent out another punch but Izuku twisted his body to the right. He then slammed his left elbow into the back of Sukuna's skull.

His head rebounded off the surface as Izuku rotated and grabbed the back of his skull. He slammed his head into it causing spiderweb fractures to form. Izuku instantly jumped off the side of the building then lashed out Blackwhip to the left and right of Sukuna before slamming both heels into him.

CRASH! SHATTER!

The two combatants were ripped from the vertical battlefield, hurtling through shattered glass and falling debris until they crashed into the darkened interior of the building. They tumbled across a worn carpeted floor in a chaotic roll with the momentum carrying them into an office. 

They tumbled through several cubicles with Izuku landing with a heavy thud onto a sofa. A stray piece of paper fluttered onto his face and for a moment he was in a daze. The adrenaline of the attack was still coursing through his veins and with a quick reflexive jolt he jumped to his feet.

 He quickly snatched the paper from his face only to catch a glimpse of Sukuna across the room. He was seated in an office swivel chair with dark composure while looming in the moonlight. Then with slow deliberate flair he spun the chair around in an exaggerated turn, the motion was almost theatrical.

The chair came to a perfect stop, facing Izuku dead on as the light caught Sukuna's face. A wicked smirk played across his lips as his sharp eyes gleamed with amusement.

"Shall we continue?" Sukuna mused

They lunged at each other once again, shattering what little peace remained in the office. The moment their attacks were sent out they rippled through the office, sending papers, broken monitors, shattered glass, and anything that was in an office flying in all directions.

The room groaned under the force of their clash with desks flipping over and loose ceiling tiles crashing to the floor. Izuku used Blackwhip to snatch up a falling filing cabinet and hurled it at Sukuna. 

With a lazy flick of his wrist Sukuna cleaved through it effortlessly. The small push back against the momentum that dismantle had on the cabinet made the drawers slam open. Papers flew out and surrounded Sukuna as the two halves flew past him. 

SMACK!

A stray piece of paper covered Sukuna's face as Izuku rushed forward. Sukuna quickly hooked him under an overturned office desk and kicked it straight at Izuku.

The hero barely had time to bring up his arms before the impact sent him into a wall and dented it. However, Izuku wasn't stopping there, he jump up before planting his feet against the wall and launched off it.

"Dismantle!" Sukuna said after snatching the paper from his face

Danger sense rang out and Izuku shot black whip to the floor ultimately sliding underneath Sukuna's swipe. His slide transferred into a double kick into Sukuna's abdomen and sent him into the ceiling light fixture.

As Sukuna fell onto his stomach Izuku jumped up and grabbed the metal that held the fluorescent light tubes. Izuku yanked it free and swung it downwards just as Sukuna shot back up.

BONK!

The metal bent around Sukuna's head, Izuku followed up by lifting it and swinging it from the side. The King of Curses was sent into a row of cubicles that hadn't been demolished. 

Izuku dropped the mangled light fixture and jumped in after Sukuna but as he jumped through Sukuna grabbed a nearby chair and hurled it at Izuku.

CREAK! SNAP! 

The chair splintered into pieces but it served its purpose. Izuku was sent back from where he jumped from and into his own row of cubicles.

"You little runt!" Sukuna sneered.

Izuku crashed through several flimsy cubicle dividers, toppling over monitors and chairs before finally coming to a stop. He groaned and reached up, grabbing the edge of a desk to haul himself to his feet.

He adjusted his footing but stepped on a stray piece of paper which caused him to slip for a second. He caught himself as he leaned towards the desk but he felt his elbow bump into something.

CLICK

♪ You are my special ♪ 

Izuku's elbow had bumped into a conveniently placed radio. His danger sense activated and he lunged to the right, planted a hand onto the cubicle divider and flipped over it.

♪ You are my spe-

SLASH!

Izuku landed on a desk on the other side and rebounded off it, launching himself at Sukuna. He spun mid-air and delivered a spin kick with his right leg to which Sukuna blocked.

Izuku shifted his body to follow with a kick from his left leg but Sukuna blocked that as well. As soon as the block was made, Sukuna delivered a gut punch and it connected. 

Izuku wasn't going down easy so he latched onto Sukuna's arm and bashed the bridge of his nose with his forehead that he channeled cursed energy into. The king of curses head snapped back which led to try and send out a dismantle in retaliation.

Izuku's danger sense warmed him and he channeled 85% of One For All into his palms in a panic, obliterating his hero gloves. He slammed them together but right before contact he applied cursed energy to them that created a cursed energy shockwave in all directions.

The force was cataclysmic, causing the skyscraper to shudder violently under the attack. Its structural integrity became compromised with cracks snaking through the walls and floor. The immense pressure of Izuku's thunderclap mixed with the damage they caused before and it forced the building's upper half to give way. 

For a moment the tension was palpable, the very foundation groaned as if protesting its inevitable collapse. The top half of the skyscraper they were in began to topple over, hurtling downward like a doomed leviathan. 

Amidst the chaos Sukuna and Izuku found themselves falling with it, suspended in a surreal plummeting background through the falling wreckage as if gravity had lost its grip. Yet even as they descended the battle did not pause, the roar of the collapsing building became the backdrop to their duel

"I won't be put down so easily, Sukuna!" Izuku twisted mid-air with blackwhip to launch himself at Sukuna.

"You just don't know when to quit, do you?!" Sukuna's voice carried over the roar of destruction

"Not until Yuji is free!" He declared.

CRASH!

Izuku slammed into him and the two combatants went crashing through the floor below them. Office tiles, drywall, and steel rebar exploded around them as they plummeted together in a chaotic grapple as they crashed through another floor.

CRASH!

Pain exploded through Izuku's side but he didn't let go. He wrapped his other arm around Sukuna's shoulder and slammed his fist towards Sukuna's face. Sukuna caught his wrist and drove a knee into Izuku's mid section to push him back. 

He used the momentum of their fall to swing Izuku around and hurled him toward a tumbling desk. Izuku's back slammed into it but he used it as a springboard to launch himself back at Sukuna.

With a sharp swipe of his hand Dismantle sliced through the air, carving through the debris. Izuku shot out blackwhip and pulled himself out of the way but he still ended up getting partially slashed.

"Air Force!" Izuku gritted his teeth countering immediately. 

The compressed air slammed into Sukuna's side which sent him spinning away but he recovered instantly. He planted his foot on a tumbling filing cabinet and launched at Izuku, as the filing cabinet was sent out Sukuna launched off a desk.

"You think you can save him?! You're no savior!" Sukuna snarled, driving an elbow into Izuku's face after he deflected the cabinet. 

"Watch me!" Izuku brushed off the strike and slammed his fist into Sukuna's gut.

BOOM! CRASH! SHATTER!

The decapitated upper half of the skyscraper began to tear into a building across from it with a violent bone rattling impact. With a final thunderous impact the broken skyscraper finally came to a stop, becoming wedged harshly against the neighboring building.

The descent was a chaotic free fall through a collapsing maze of steel and stone. The moment the building settled, chunks of office walls, desks, and shattered glass tumbled with them that created a violent hailstorm. 

Izuku and Sukuna slammed into the wreckage below with brutal force. Once the building had settled Izuku's body protested against him, his muscles strained from using them all night, and his lungs were burning.

He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth to clear away the blood that had gathered there. Across from him, Sukuna rose with far less strain but it was strain nonetheless. 

Blood trickled from a cut above his eye, from his nose, and from his right cheek. His clothes were torn and his body bruised but his grin hadn't faltered once.

"You know what I find fascinating about you, Midoriya? You're still standing! Jogo would've been on his knees three times over by now"  Sukuna let out a small scoff remembering the fight.

"But your body's starting to give Midoriya. Your breathing is climbing and the way your weight shifts to compensate for whatever's becoming wrecked and bruised underneath. You're even bleeding from injuries you obtained before we even fought" His eyes traced Izuku's injured form.

"And yet here you are despite that fact. Burning alive from the inside out for a boy you barely know" Sukuna scoffed

"I know enough. I know he doesn't deserve what you've done to him. So I don't care if I'm beaten or exhausted" Izuku's fist's re-clenched

"You think sacrifice ennobles you? That suffering for others gives your life meaning? That's not convincing, Midoriya. That's cowardice, weakness even and you're too afraid to face the oldest truth this world has ever produced. That in the end none of it survives and that includes your sacrifices, heroism, and the people you save..." He paused. 

"They all turn to dust and so will you. The difference with me however..." Sukuna tapped his chest.

"Is that Ieat when I want to eat. I kill whoever gets in my way. I take what I desire without hesitation, without regret, and without the indignity of pretending it requires justification!" Sukuna tapped his chest.

"THAT is freedom. THAT is strength. It's the only honest way to exist in a world that rewards nothing else" He leveled his gaze at Izuku.

"But you? You're nothing more than a slave. Chained by your ideals, dragged down by the weight of everyone who instills it within you and you call that strength?" Silence hung between them after that

"You're right about one thing..." Izuku finally spoke.

"I am chained. Chained to every person who ever believed in me. To the ones who fought beside me. To the ones who gave me everything they had and trusted me to carry it forward and sure it can be heavy sometimes but they're not dragging me down" Izuku continued.

"They're the reason I'm still standing here because they're the ones who lift me up" He took a step forward and Sukuna's grin faltered just slightly.

"Strength isn't about what one person can take! It's about what people can build together! What they pass on to the next generation!" Izuku voice gained force

"Look at you. A thousand years of doing whatever you want and killing whoever you please. No rules. No bonds. So what do you have to show for it?" His green eyes locked onto Sukuna's crimson ones. 

"Admit it Sukuna you're just bored. You came back to life after a millennium and the first thing you did was go looking for a fight because you have nothing else"

"All that power along with all that freedom you're so proud of and it's left you utterly empty" His voice grew sharper. 

"That's not freedom...that's a cage you built yourself and called a kingdom!" The words struck deep

"You think you understand me, boy?..." Sukuna's eyes narrowed and he was no longer smiling.

"I understand that you're a coward" The words hit like a slap.

"You stand there and talk about the weak clinging to hope, about heroism being theater, about reality being cruel and merciless...but you're the one running away. From connection. From responsibility. From anything that might actually give your existence meaning..." Izuku pushed as he took another step forward.

"Anyone can destroy. Anyone can give in to their worst impulses and call it liberation. But it takes real courage to care. To fight for something beyond yourself. To carry the weight of others and still keep moving forward!" Izuku's voice rose again.

"You say my ideals are a mask for weakness? Fine. But at least I'm not hiding behind nihilism because I'm too scared to admit I'm fundamentally alone!" He met Sukuna's gaze without flinching.

"I was born without power and society told me I was worthless, told me I'd never be a hero but I didn't give up. I didn't decide that nothing mattered because I found meaning in a life the world deemed meaningless..." His voice dropped but the intensity didn't waver.

"So yeah, maybe I'm chained and I'll carry those chains until they bury me. But you? You're a slave to your own hunger. Your own emptiness. You're not free, Sukuna...you're not even strong..." His green eyes blazed

"You're just hollow..." Izuku's voice dripped with something akin to pity and silence ensued for a moment.

"You'll regret those words..." Sukuna's voice was edged with genuine anger.

Izuku and Sukuna vanished from view, their movements too fast for the eye to follow. Only the shockwaves marked where they clashed as bursts of displaced air and crackling energy detonating throughout the collapsed structure.

CRACK!

They reappeared for a fraction of a second later in a single frozen frame in the middle of chaos with fists colliding in mid-air at the exact same instant. The impact point between their knuckles warped the air itself as it compressed into a visible distortion that rippled outward. 

The shockwave shattered what remained of the nearby walls, blew out a section of ceiling, and sent a spray of pulverized concrete racing outward in every direction.

CRACK! BOOM! CRASH!

The entire structure trembled under the force of their battle. Each exchange was faster, more violent than the last. Izuku appeared above Sukuna with a leg raised and brought it down in a devastating axe kick.

"Manchester Smash!" Sukuna raised both arms to block and the impact drove him through the floor he was standing on

WHAM! SCREECH!

Before Sukuna could recover Izuku grabbed him by the collar with Blackwhip and yanked him back up through the hole. Sukuna was then launched upward before he slammed into top of the structure and cratered it.

CRACK! 

"Alright, let's see how you handle this..." He swept both hands forward as he fell.

The slashes came in a barrage of not one nor two but a rapid-fire sequence of invisible blades. They carved through the air in a web of intersecting death and all of them aimed at the space Izuku occupied.

Izuku let danger sense guide him as he weaved through them just enough to take on minimal damage. A slash just barely cut his left shoulder while another cut under his right arm. A third grazed his thigh, opening a shallow cut that bled immediately and a fourth kissed the edge of his ear.

"ST. LOUIS SMAAAASH!!" As soon as Izuku shot past them, he retaliated immediately with a spinning kick infused with cursed energy that caught Sukuna's guard near his stomach.

BOOOOOM!!!

Sukuna was sent rocketing backward into the crater that was created. A massive hole was torn through the structure as Sukuna's body carved a path through it with rubble exploding outward into the night.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The structure groaned as the damage was too much for it to handle so it began to collapse. Izuku planted his feet and began charging Fa Jin again while the ground beneath him cracked and splintered.

Then he launched after Sukuna and the force of his jump obliterated what remained of the floor beneath him. The shockwave rippled outward and the entire collapsed building behind him was left in a cascading avalanche of steel and concrete.

"Gah...that power..." Wind roared past Sukuna's ears as he spun mid-flight but his mind was already working.

"He can vary the output of how much he can unleash which would explain the shifts in speed and force" He'd felt it from the beginning, the sheer destructive force Izuku wielded. 

"Those black tendrils are versatile but straightforward. Grappling, mobility, and capturing. Nothing complicated. Thepurple smoke he produced was unexpected but also straightforward"

"One thing is still bothering me though. How is he seeing my attacks?" That was the real question.

"Dismantle as well as cleave are invisible, imperceptible even to most sorcerers until they were already being cut apart. Yet this boy had been dodging and countering them as if he could sense them before they landed. It has to be some kind of precognitive technique"

"Then there was that red energy that envelopes his legs at the start. A temporary enhancement? Sukuna's eyes narrowed as he twisted in mid-air, finally stabilizing his flight.

"But what about that golden ene-" 

"CALIFORNIA SMAAASH!!" Izuku's fist slammed into Sukuna's face 

CRACK! BOOM! THOOM!

The punch connected with Sukuna's face and the impact sent him careening through the air at even greater speed. Sukuna tumbled uncontrollably through the air with buildings blurring past as he was sent flying toward another part of the city.

He slammed into the side of a high-rise, crashing through glass and steel before bursting out the other side. He finally managed to stabilize himself just before he hit the side of a building and landed on a rooftop with a harsh tumble through the gravel.

"So that's how it is..." He straightened slowly, blood dripping from a split lip.

"He's strong. Stronger than ever I expected but he's already starting to run out of steam" He wiped the blood from his mouth and glanced down at his injuries then a dark smile spread across Sukuna's face.

"He's been fighting relentlessly all night so it's only a matter of time" He raised one hand, focusing cursed energy inward.

"So I'll let him think he's winning. Let him believe his attacks are wearing me down until he thinks he's won..." Reverse curse technique began activating.

The cuts on his face began to close and the bruises on his body started to fade just slightly. They weren't fully healed but it was just enough. He cracked his knuckles and turned toward the direction Izuku would be coming from.

"There you are" Izuku appeared on the horizon, approaching Sukuna's position at breakneck speed.

BOOOOOM!!!

Their other hands locked together in a clash. The rooftop beneath them exploded into a crater causing gravel and concrete to scatter. A shockwave rippled outward in all directions, shattering every window and damaging the surrounding buildings.

They stood there as one was trying to gain control over the other but neither were giving an inch. Emerald cursed energy and red cursed energy spiraled around them, clashing violently where their powers met.

"You're stronger than I thought, I'll give you that!" Sukuna admitted

"I will have you return Yuji back to his body!" Izuku roared while pushing back

"Still on about that are we? HA, here's the difference between us Midoriya" Sukuna grinned

"I've just been warming up!" The cursed energy around Sukuna intensified.

He twisted his body with inhuman speed and hurled Izuku across the rooftop and before Izuku could recover, Sukuna was already on him. A brutal knee to his mid section that sent him crashing through a rooftop access door.

Izuku tumbled down the stairwell, slamming into walls before managing to catch himself with Blackwhip. He looked up and saw Sukuna dropping down through the opening with a crazed look on his face.

"Dismantle!"

Multiple slashes carved through the stairwell. Izuku barely managed to swing aside with Blackwhip, the invisible blades shearing through concrete and metal where he'd been standing. He landed on a lower floor and immediately fired three Air Force blasts.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Sukuna weaved through them effortlessly, closing the distance in a blur. His fist slammed into Izuku's guard with enough force to send him crashing through the wall and out into open air. Izuku flipped mid-flight and shot out Blackwhip to latch onto the building across the street.

"Cleave!" The tendrils were severed instantly and Sukuna appeared beside him mid-air, grabbed him by the face, and slammed him down into the street below.

BOOM!

Asphalt exploded outward, cars were sent flying, and the impact carved a crater into the road. Izuku coughed as pain exploded through his back. He tried to push himself up but Sukuna landed on top of him, driving his foot into Izuku's chest and pinning him down.

"Getting tired yet?" Sukuna's voice was mocking.

Izuku shot blackwhip from his mouth and it struck Sukuna in the face to make him reel back for just a moment. Izuku jabbed Sukuna's right kneecap which dropped him low enough for Izuku to twist his whole body to punch him in the face.

Sukuna was launched into a nearby building which gave Izuku some breathing room. He got up with some effort and quickly inspected his gauntlets but found that they were looking a little worse for wear. 

They were also notably dented which worried Izuku but he brushed it off. Sukuna burst from the building at blinding speed with a kick being sent his way. Izuku tilted back just in time for the kick to whip past his head but was followed up with a punch that Izuku deflected.

A second punch followed immediately then a third, then a fourth, each one thrown with the same casual violence. Izuku raised his guard while shifting his weight and trying to redirect the blows.

Izuku tried to counter with a quick right hook but Sukuna leaned back by an inch and the punch missed. Sukuna's elbow came up and slammed into Izuku's jaw. His head snapped sideways and he staggered, vision flashing, and his teeth clicking together. 

He barely stayed upright before Sukuna's knee followed and Izuku folded around it. His breath was ripped out of him and Sukuna grabbed him by the collar then lobbed him. Izuku flew through the air and crashed into the hood of a car, denting it so deeply the frame groaned. 

The windshield spiderwebbed instantly and the entire vehicle rocked on its suspension. Izuku threw himself to the side as danger sense rang out in his head. Cleave carved into the car and obliterated it but continued through the street.

Izuku scramble up in time to dodge Sukuna's knee that slammed down into the road. Izuku rolled to a stop then shot out blackwhip, Sukuna in turn grabbed them and yanked Izuku to him. As he was pulled Izuku turned the momentum into a somersault heel kick that Sukuna just barely sidestepped before slamming an elbow into the hero's face.

"You wanted him back right? So what's taking so long!" Sukuna roared after he grabbed Izuku's collar and flung him through the air.

Izuku rocketed through the air until he slammed into the side of a building. The concrete cratered around his body and the impact knocked the wind out of him so violently his vision went dark for a second. 

"C-Crap...I didn't want to admit it but...Sukuna was right. The fights I had before this along with using a power I haven't been able to properly learn is taking it's toll..." Izuku thought bitterly as he pushed off his stomach.

He got halfway up before his knee buckled and he caught himself on one hand. His fingers trembled against the pavement, his breath came out even more ragged than before and One For All flickered.

Izuku barely got to stand before Sukuna came at him with an attack aimed at his center mass. Izuku moved just in time as the fist passed close enough to graze the fabric of his costume but he became off balance. 

Sukuna transitioned the punch into a spinning back kick. Izuku was forced to block it with both forearms crossed. The force from it drove him back three feet and yet he managed to stay up right.

Izuku managed to step into Sukuna's pace to land a quick jab to The King of Curses jaw but Sukuna retaliated with a devastating backhand that sent Izuku crashing through the front of a convenience store. Glass shattered, shelves collapsed, and products scattered everywhere. 

Izuku crashed through the back wall and out into an alley beyond Before he could fully recover, Sukuna grabbed him by the collar and slammed him into the alley wall so hard the concrete cracked.

WHAM!

Sukuna drove a punch into Izuku's ribs, the right side of his face, and the left side of his face. His vision blurred and his body screaming in protest. Izuku tried to punch with his right arm but Sukuna caught it and began to squeeze. 

The metal of the mid-gauntlet began creaking with small cracks forming from the pressure. Izuku quickly shot blackwhip from his mouth again and Sukuna dodged it this time but that's all Izuku needed.

He wrenched Sukuna's arm to the side and whipped his right leg up and clocked Sukuna's chin causing him to lift off the ground. Izuku used that half-second window to rip free of the wall with concrete dust trailing off his back as he planted his feet on the ground.

Blackwhip lashed out from his arm and wrapped around Sukuna. Izuku pivoted on his heel then pulled with some strain before slamming Sukuna the ground to his left. Izuku glanced down at his gauntlets and made a decision.

He quickly clicked the button on his left wrist then the one on his right. Two sharp clicks followed and both gauntlets unraveled until they were bracelets. He pulled them free then slotted them into one of the pouches on his belt in a single. 

"They're too valuable to lose in a fight like this. If Sukuna gets his hands on them and crushes them then that's it they're gone for good. I can do this without them...I have to" Izuku then sprang into action.

"Ditching your equipment mid-fight? Either you're confident or you're stupid" Sukuna rose from the crater, cracking his neck with a casual twist.

Izuku slammed his foot into a dumpster and upon kicking it his iron soles absorbed the impact and immediately released a double impact. The dumpster was sent into Sukuna's path at double the speed as a result. 

Sukuna blocked as it slammed into him but he cut right through it with a quick dismantle. He was going to retaliate but the spray of garbage and rancid water had other plans as it forced his eyes shut for an instant.

Due to the assist Izuku got from literal garbage he was there to capitalize on the moment. He landed a two hit combination to Sukuna's jaw that whipped his head to the side then kicked off his chest. 

The rebound moved Sukuna backward while he backflipped into the air to gain height. Blackwhip snaked out and snagged a trash can lid from below and Izuku yanked it to his hand. He infused it with cursed energy until the metal hummed and flung it toward Sukuna like a frisbee. 

"Air Force!" His other hand was already raised, fingers aimed along the lid's trajectory.

BANG!

The compressed blast hit the lid mid flight and changed its path. The trajectory shifted hard right with the lid bouncing off the alley wall and cracked Sukuna across the side of the head. Blackwhip anchored to a fire escape to his left and a bare wall to his right, sling shotting himself forward. 

His danger sense screamed so he had to drop into a slide, his back scraped against the asphalt as a Dismantle carved through the air exactly where his torso had been a half-second prior. The invisible slash gouged a line into both alley walls simultaneously.

Izuku slid close enough to perform a bicycle kick to Sukuna's midsection. The impact was solid enough to lift the curse off the ground but it wasn't as powerful. Izuku immediately followed with a kip-up to spring up. 

Izuku was already reeling back his fist to drive into Sukuna but his hand closed around Izuku's fist mid-flight with a speed that shouldn't have been possible given his position. 

"That was creative I'll give you that" He pulled Izuku in, grabbed his other fist, and drove both heels into his sternum

Izuku felt something crack, it wasn't a full break but the sickening give of bone reaching its threshold. Before he could recover, Sukuna released his fist only to bury his own into Izuku's stomach. 

The blow sent Izuku staggering backwards and he tried switched stances. Izuku went southpaw then threw a jab to test the range but Sukuna parried it with one hand. Next he threw a low kick to the thigh only for Sukuna to check it with his shin without even looking down. 

Izuku tried to create space with a Blackwhip sweep and Sukuna casually sidestepped it, grabbed the tendril, and yanked Izuku off his feet. Sukuna shoulder bashed Izuku, sending him into a roll until he managed to get up.

"You're slowing down, your combinations are getting wider. Your recovery time is increasing and you're burning more energy on each attack than the one before" Sukuna observed, catching a right cross in his palm and holding it there.

"At this rate, you'll be unconscious in four minutes or be dead in six" He shoved Izuku backward.

Sukuna stepped into Izuku's space in the same instant before launching a palm strike to Izuku's chest that launched him off his feet. Izuku crashed through the chain-link fence at the end of the alley and tumbled out onto the street beyond. 

His body carved a trench through the asphalt before he came to a stop against the base of a streetlight. He lay against the base of the streetlight as the metal post hummed above him. His body had been running on fumes for the last few minutes as everything was catching up to him.

"I've hit everything I can think of...but...I got ahead of myself. I panicked and used One For All at 85% to create that shock wave. I let my emotions get the best of me and used at an output that exceeded what I should've used and it drained my energy. Not to mention fighting that octopus curse..." Izuku blinked as blood ran down from his hairline and into his left eye.

Sukuna stepped through the ruined chain-link fence and out onto the street. He walked with the unhurried patience of someone who had already decided how this ended and was simply allowing the formalities to play out. 

"I'll give credit where it's due, Midoriya. You made it further than most and those tricks of yours back in the alley were genuinely entertaining. Oh, what the hell all of it was!" Sukuna stopped and chuckled

"But you've been fighting me at half-capacity this entire time. You have more power than this and we both know it. I can feel it sitting behind every punch you throw, It's a reservoir you keep sealed shut. What a waste..." Sukuna was disappointed

"So how does this end for you I wonder" Sukuna looked down at Izuku

"Yuji is still in there...he's watching this. He's watching me lie on the ground...watching melosing to Sukuna while he's trapped!" He swallowed as he began to get up

"There's no future for Yuji if I stay on the ground. There's no version of this where I walk away with my body intact and my conscience clean. Unless I get up right now and hold nothing back" Izuku got up fully and even though he struggled to stay up right, he did so anyway.

"You asked me how this ends..." Izuku's voice was quiet but it carried. 

"The truth is...I don't know how it ends, I've never known. Every fight, every villain, every time I've thrown myself into something like this I never knew if I'd make it out..." He planted his feet and squared his stance and One For All began to charge.

"Because that's never been the point. A hero doesn't fight because they know they'll win. They fight because someone needs them and right now..." His fists tightened at his sides as each color of One For All coursed through his body one by one.

"Yuji needs me! So I don't care what happens to my body, I don't care if I can't lift my arms after this because I'll save him! I'll stop you! Even if I have to break every bone to save him I'll do it!!" Full Cowling 100% had been summoned.

BOOM!

Sukuna suddenly went airborne with his body rocketing backward so fast he broke the sound barrier, the sonic crack splitting the night sky. He crashed through a building on the far side of the street then through the building behind that one and disappeared in a cloud of pulverized concrete and rebar.

Izuku was already following as he closed the distance in a single bound with blue lightning trailing behind him. He found Sukuna mid-recovery, pulling himself out of a collapsed wall and drove a spinning heel kick into the side of his head.

The impact created a pressure wave that blew out every window and destroyed the entire block with glass erupting outward in a glittering cascade. Sukuna stabilized himself in the air and tried throwing a counter punch as Izuku blitzed him.

It connected with Izuku's forearm with an audible crack but to Sukuna's surprise Izuku tanked it. For a moment time slowed and that's when he saw Izuku's right arm and how the skin had deepened to a dark crimson.

Thin cuts split open along Izuku's knuckles, across the back of his hand, and up the length of his forearm from the sheer internal power coursing through him.

"He's destroying himself, not as an observation of weakness but as commitment. This boy was feeding his own body into the furnace of his power and didn't care what came out the other side" Time resumed and Izuku threw another punch with the same arm.

It connected with Sukuna's chest like a freight train, obliterating the street and buildings and the King of Curses went through another wall. Izuku was already closing in again as he came in low before launching himself upward with a kick aimed at Sukuna's chin. 

Sukuna swayed back just enough for the kick to graze him and shoot past overhead. The wind pressure and sheer power behind the quirk destroyed more of the city but Izuku was already rotating. 

"Double Wyoming Smash!" Izuku transformed the failed kick into a seamless follow up attack that Sukuna barely blocked just in time.

The impact rang after being shot down to the ground, Sukuna twisted his body mid-air and landed with a skid that tore a line through the asphalt.

Izuku raised his leg and stomped it down on the ground as he landed. The impact shattered the ground and launched cars into the air but he wasn't done yet. He punched the ground that caused it to split towards before it buckled and crumbled.

Sukuna's balance was thrown off and he moved to catch his footing while Izuku shot blackwhip out of his arms to grab multiple vehicles. With a mighty heave he slammed all of them onto Sukuna which led to them exploding.

KA-BOOM!

Sukuna responded instantly, almost shockingly so. One moment he was framed by flame and mangled cars then the next he was cutting the distance like the world had simply decided to make room for him. 

Izuku barely had time to register the movement before a backhand caught him across the temple. His vision snapped sideways before he crashed through a bus stop shelter and tumbled across the sidewalk in a spray of glass shards and blue sparks.

His shoulder hit a fire hydrant, shearing it clean off its bolts and a pillar of water erupted skyward. Izuku rotated and landed on his feet with a slide while the street became drenched in a sudden downpour of water.

Water cascaded off his body while blood ran from a gash on his temple and mixed with rivulets of water running down his face. Sukuna walked toward him with his hands in his pocket and Izuku glared as he spat blood to the floor.

WHOOSH!

The next moment they both shot forward, the force at which they accelerated split the water that pooled into the street. Izuku wasn't planning on attacking right away so at the last possible instant he slid under Sukuna. 

 "Cleave!" Sukuna's eyes narrowed as he whipped his body around on instinct.

The slash Sukuna unleashed carved into the ground harmlessly and Sukuna realized too late what was happening. Izuku's punch slammed into him from above and drove him into the ground with a thunderous impact. 

Concrete exploded outward in a crater, water erupting from the street in a ring. The shockwave kicked up a misty wall around them, turning the entire intersection into a foggy arena of water and debris.

Izuku landed, grabbed Sukuna by his ankles, spun him around, and flung him into the distance. Sukuna clipped the lip of a rooftop before slamming into a water tower that sat atop the next building over. 

"St. Louis Smash! " Izuku had already been chasing after him and was upon him in mere moments. 

The impact exploded the water tower, sending hundreds of gallons cascading down the side of the building in a sudden waterfall. Sukuna on the other hand was sent soaring high above into the dense clouds.

"He's doesn't have much left in him" Sukuna thought as he applied reverse curse technique

"Even though I've been passively using reverse curse technique, each blow that he's dealt was reset what I've healed. I could wait it out but..." It would feel like a waste to him

"No. He deserves better than that" Sukuna's expression shifted and the contemplation gave way to a strategy locked into place.

Izuku took a few breaths before crouching low and shooting off into the sky after Sukuna. Once he entered the clouds he couldn't see so he swiped one of his arms in a wide arc to dispel them. 

As soon as the clouds dispersed he saw Sukuna but what he saw could only be described as death and his danger sense reinforced this idea. Sukuna's fingers were pressed together and the area around him had darkened and all the features on his face became shrouded.

"Domain Expan-" He almost got the words out but Izuku moved faster than thought.

His hands shot out and seized Sukuna's wrists before he wrenched them apart, breaking the hand symbol. The bones in his right hand screamed as something in his forearm gave way with a muffled wet pop. 

"NOT AGA-" Izuku's eyes were wild and furious.

"Checkmate..." Sukuna's face darkened. His wrists may have been seized but his hands were still free.

The slashes came from everywhere and nowhere all at once. Invisible slashes that carved through the space between them with the precision of a master surgeon and the cruelty of a butcher.

They opened across Izuku's chest in rapid succession as each cut split fabric, skin, and muscle in clean diagonal lines that crossed over each other. His torso was a ruin of intersecting gashes, each one precise enough to devastate without killing. 

Exactly enough to end a fight and exactly enough to make continuing physically impossible for anything that was bound by the limits of a human body. Blood erupted from the wounds all at once in a sudden, violent outpouring that misted the air between them in a fine red spray, backlit only by the sputtering blue of Izuku's rapidly failing power. 

Izuku's hands began to slip from Sukuna's wrists, his fingers uncurling one by one as his strength drained out of him. The blue energy around him flickered and with a final weak pulse it started to die.

"You made me work harder than anyone has in centuries so take that with you" Sukuna said quietly.

"I won't..." His head snapped up.

His right hand, the one that was barely a hand anymore, shot upward and seized the collar of Yuji's Jujustu High uniform. His fingers twisted into the fabric with a grip that had no business existing, powered by something that transcended the physical.

"I WON'T LET YOU WIN!" The roar tore itself from his throat with blood shooting out alongside it.

"That stubborn, almost cliche heroic final stand..." Sukuna always hated it.

"SMAAAAAAAASH!" Cursed energy flooded into Izuku's left fist, it was a desperate surge that mixed with the One For All and whatever strength he had left. 

The punch connected with Sukuna's face dead center and every cloud near them parted away. Sukuna went down like a falling star as he plummeted through the air. He hit and tumbled through the street below with an impact that split the road open until he plowed into a fueling station.

KA-BOOM!

The fireball swallowed the station whole, then kept expanding, consuming the canopy along with the attached mini-mart and two parked vehicles that had been abandoned during the evacuation. 

High above Izuku watched the explosion bloom but One For All as he was already falling. He too began plummeting towards the ground with nothing but the wind roaring past him. Building began to come into view a little too fast for his own good.

"I...need to...do something..." He willed float to activate just enough to slow him down until it gave out again.

Even though he slowed down he was still too high so he shot out blackwhip to the edge of a rooftop. He slowed but it snapped a moment later so he shot out another then another, each time they snapped.

He gave float another shot before hitting the ground without any major damage. He landed on his side, bounced once, and rolled across the cracked pavement in a tangle of limp limbs before coming to rest face-down next to the split in the road.

For a long moment he just stayed there to allow himself to breathe even if each inhale felt like a knife against his ribs.

"I-I need to...get up" After what felt like an eternity he finally moved.

His body shook so violently it looked like he was vibrating. Every muscle fiber that hadn't already torn was screaming at him to stop, to lie down, to accept that this was as far as he went.

He got to his knees and stopped to pace himself so he took a moment to stare ahead. The fuel station was still burning, casting everything in that wavering orange light while smoke rolled through the streets in thick waves.

"Y-yuji..." His vision swam but he saw a figure just barely beyond the flames.

He pushed himself up with everything he had and stumbled forward. The figure swatted away the flames and stepped through them. Izuku blinked and in the next moment he was falling over but someone steadied him.

"I'll admit it, Midoriya. You're stronger than anyone I've faced " Sukuna backhanded him.

He crashed into the crumpled remains of a sedan that had been flipped by the fuel station explosion, his back slamming against the warped driver's side door hard enough to dent it further inward. He slid down the metal and crumpled at the base of the car.

"Y-you...shouldn't be...standing!" Izuku choked out as Sukuna closed the distance and lifted him up by the throat.

"Did you ever stop to ask yourself why I was still standing after every kick and punch you threw at me? Well the answer is simple"Sukuna raised his free hand to his face and a white aura with a touch of yellow ignited, healing every wound he had sustained.

"Reverse Cursed Technique" Sukuna said with a laugh and Izuku shattered the moment he heard those words.

"Positive energy?" Izuku had asked Nanami.

"Basically, Positive Energy is the opposite of Cursed Energy. It is normally only produced through Reverse Cursed Techniques which are only used to heal injuries and are incredibly rare" Nanami had stated.

"No..." Sukuna's words felt physical and the echo of Nanami's words only reinforced it. 

"Every time you landed something meaningful, every hit that actually threatened to slow me down I healed it. Not all the way but just enough to stay standing, keep fighting, and to keep enjoying the entertainment" The golden glow faded from his hand and Izuku gritted his teeth as his eyes shut.

"So how does it feel? To know that all your effort meant absolutely nothing! I told you that you would regret those words earlier and now your just a pathetic weakling!" He shook Izuku as he dangled in his grasp.

Izuku's mangled left hand rose from his side. His fingers, swollen, split, and stained dark with dried blood had reached up and wrapped around Sukuna's wrist. He didn't have the strength to pry it away but he had enough Just to hold on. 

It was enough to make contact, to say with the only part of his body that still answered him that he was still here. His eyes opened, they were both bloodshot but one was half-swollen shut. 

Despite that fact they still had the same fire, that same stubborn infuriating flame that no amount of damage could seem to extinguish. It was burning into the King of Curses from a face that had no business being conscious right now.

Sukuna loathed that look. Loathed it with an intensity that surprised even him. It wasn't the defiance itself since he could respect defiance. Rather it was what the defiance meant, It was the implication that this broken and utterly defeated boy still believed that he could win.

That hope still had a place in a world where Sukuna existed. That there was something worth fighting for beyond survival and it disgusted him, enraged him, and somewhere in a place he would never acknowledge it unsettled him.

"I just realized what part of the city we're in..." Something brushed against his senses so he looked around and so his smile returned.

"I'm going to paint a very vivid picture for you, hero!" Izuku barely had time to process the words before the world blurred. 

His back crashed through a nearby building, rubble and glass exploding around him. Izuku was on his back coughing violently as pain shot through every nerve in his body. He weakly pushed himself up even if his body felt like it was quicksand.

His breaths came ragged and uneven but even with his vision blurred from exhaustion he saw something through the haze he saw movement. He heard soft footsteps and shuffling fabric before a hand grabbed his arm, trying to help him sit up 

"Hey, kid. Kid, are you okay? Can you hear me?" An older voice called out to him 

Izuku let the man help him sit up. His body screamed in protest, every joint and muscle filing its own individual complaint but he managed it. He blinked trying to focus and the relief in the man's eyes was immediate but that's when Izuku saw what was behind him.

"S-so many....people..." Izuku's heart dropped

They were packed into the hollowed out shell of the building like prey trapped in a cage. Families clung to each other in tight knots, elderly men and women sat motionless, their lips moving in silent prayers to gods that felt very far away, and children buried their faces in their parents arms.

"Seventy....at least seventy people are in here.." His stomach twisted violently.

"N-no...not here!" The realization set in like ice in his veins, chilling him to his very core.

This was the evacuation point, this was where they'd been sent. Izuku had just been hurled through their wall of safety which led the most dangerous thing alive directly to their door.

Step

Every hair on the back of Izuku's neck stood on end while the temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees. The man who'd helped him up went rigid with his hand still on Izuku's arm, his fingers suddenly became a vice.

Izuku turned toward the hole in the wall and standing in the center of it, silhouetted against the orange glow of the still burning fuel station was Sukuna. He took a few steps forward, surveying the masses like he had just conquered a kingdom.

His four crimson eyes swept the room with an ethereal red glow and the room broke into chaos. A woman near the back let out a wail that barely sounded human. A man scrambled backward so hard he knocked over three people behind him. 

Sukuna drank it in with his eyes half-closed and his head tilted slightly, like a sommelier savoring a particularly fine vintage.

"You know, Midoriya...I'm starting to think you're cursed" His voice was conversational.

Izuku's body trembled as he forced himself to rise with every muscle protesting against the action. Around him the weight of despair pressed in, he could see the huddled terrified civilians as each face was etched with a look that wanted someone to save them.

"Death has been following you like a shadow. First it was those sorcerer punks and now all these people" His gaze swept lazily over the frightened crowd as if their terror were the sweetest melody to his ears. 

"G-get back! Everyone get back! Get away!" Izuku shouted over his shoulder.

He turned back to Sukuna with his arms spread wide. A human shield who was broken, bleeding, and barely conscious but positioned himself between the King of Curses and seventy innocent lives.

"D-Don't...Sukuna, please!" The word tore out of him, stripped of every pretense of heroic composure.

"Leave them out of this! They're innocent people that have nothing to do with this!"

"You think that matters? You think I care about innocence? I've told you already that heroism is just theater for the masses. A performance to make the weak feel safe in a world that was never built for them" With a single flick of his fingers. 

The invisible slash carved across both of Izuku's ankles simultaneously, severing tendons and splitting skin in two clean lines that dropped him like a puppet with its strings cut.

"GAH!!" The scream ripped out of him before he could stop it.

His legs simply ceased to function and he collapsed face first onto the debris strewn floor. Choked by the concrete dust that filled his mouth. White-hot agony blazed up from his ankles, so intense it whited out his vision completely

He couldn't see or breathe, he could only feel the warmth of blood around his ankles and the horrifying, fundamental wrongness of legs that would not answer him no matter how desperately his brain screamed at them to move.

Izuku couldn't even push himself up before his head was gripped. Sukuna's fingers threaded through Izuku's hair and wrenched his face upward without any pretense of care, forcing his gaze toward the civilians.

"Look at them Midoriya...look at their eyes. You see it don't you?that last bit of hope that still blinds them" Sukuna's voice was a dark whisper in Izuku's ear.

Their eyes, every single one of them looking at him. At the hero on the floor. At the last thing standing between them and death now lying face down in his own blood with a monster's hand on his skull.

"These are the lives you as a hero bleed for, break yourself for, stand in front of as a shield to protect them, and for what? So they could see you crawl?" His fingers pressed into Izuku's scalp even further

Izuku's limbs had abandoned him completely not from exhaustion, not from pain, but from something deeper. Something that felt like every system in his body had simply given up, the signals from his brain arriving at destinations that had already closed their doors.

"Then let me show you exactly what your heroism has amounted to" His grip forced Izuku's gaze to remain locked forward. 

Sukuna's other arm extended slowly until it was level with the side of Izuku's head. Four fingers were spread as if he was reaching out to the civilians and all Izuku could do was watch as tears rolled down his face.

"You should understand this by now. In this world the weak exist for one purpose and one purpose alone..." Sukuna's fingers curled inward all except two.

"Cannon fodder" Sukuna flicked and the world went silent.

it was like someone had reached into reality and turned the volume to zero. Izuku's heartbeat, the crumbling of the city beyond the walls, the whimpers, the prayers, and the ragged breathing of seventy terrified people.

Every sound that had ever existed was swallowed whole, leaving behind a vacuum so total it felt like being buried alive in nothing. In that silence, the slashes materialized slowly as if Sukuna were drawing them by hand, savoring each stroke.

Thin lines appeared on the walls first with hairline fractures that split the concrete with the delicacy of a calligrapher's brush, each one opening a fraction wider as it traveled. They crawled across the floor next as shallow grooves split the debris and dust in perfect parallel lines moving with the lazy certainty of a tide coming in.

Inch by inch and foot by foot the invisible blades carved their path through the room with a patience that was worse than speed. Speed would have been mercy but this was theater created by Sukuna and the film reel had been slowed.

The cuts were a breath away now and then reality snapped back into place. The film reel jumped forward like someone had cut the frames between before and after then spliced them together with nothing in between.

Sound returned all at once, not gradually but in a wall of noise that hit like a concussion blast. The walls shredded and the floor split open in jagged intersecting lines that raced to the edges of the room and beyond. 

The back half of the building simply ceased to exist and Izuku's mind couldn't process any of what happened fast enough. His brain tried to assemble what his eyes were showing him into something coherent or something that belonged in a world where things like this didn't happen.

But the information arrived in fragments with each one worse than the last. What came first were droplets that were carried through the air until it landed on his face and lips. Second was the taste of copper followed by the sounds of percussion of remains having been separated from bodies they belonged to.

Then finally his eyes caught up and everyone was gone. One second ago they had existed, filled with fear and prayers and the desperate belief that someone would save them and now they were nothing. 

Shapes on the floor that didn't look like they had ever been people. Blood, there was so much blood that it seemed impossible for it to exist. Sukuna then released Izuku's head and it dropped due to the muscles in his neck no longer working.

 His body had decided that holding his head up meant continuing to look and it would rather shut down than do that for one more second. Izuku's breath came in thin rattling gasps of someone whose body was still running but whose mind had hit a wall it couldn't climb over.

"You know what your problem is, Midoriya?" Sukuna's voice came from above and behind him.

"It's not that you're weak. Because you're not. I meant what I said, you hit harder than anyone has in a very long time" A pause ensued as a soft crunch of rubble came from beneath his shoe

"And it's not that you lack conviction either. That suicidal determination of yours is... remarkable in its own pathetic way" He circled around until he was in front of Izuku and crouched down low enough that his face entered Izuku's fixed thousand-yard stare.

"Your problem is that you carry the weight of lives you were never strong enough to hold. You make...promises" He said the word like it was something rotting. 

"You look people in the eye, people like them and you let them believe for a moment that you can keep them safe" He moved enough to gesture the blood

"You let them put their faith in you. You let children and praying mothers hide behind you like you're something more than just another body that bleeds" He reached out and pressed a single finger against Izuku's forehead. Tilting his head up to force those empty green eyes to meet his.

"And then you failed...and they died...yet you survived. Now you get to live with a horror far greater than death itself" He held the gaze for a long quiet moment.

"Maybe your society was right, you are worthless..." Sukuna retracted his finger and Izuku's head dropped again as he stood up.

This was supposed to be a sanctuary but now Izuku Midoriya knelt among the dead in a mass grave. Seventy lives painted across his skin like a testament to every promise he'd ever made and the exact weight of what it meant to break them.

Izuku's breathing had eventually settled into something shallow and mechanical. The rhythm of a body that was keeping itself alive out of habit rather than desire. The faces of the civilians flashed across his senses but he didn't summon them. 

They simply appeared, projected onto the inside of his eyelids every time he blinked, searing into his memory with the permanence of a brand. Sukuna's parting gift was already unwrapping itself right before his very eyes.

Below him however something shifted in the blood. It was a subtle ripple that was barely perceptible in the pool of crimson directly beneath Izuku's bowed head. The kind of movement that could have been caused by a drop falling from his chin or by the floor settling or by nothing at all. 

He could see himself in it but that reflection soon faded as something else began to take shape. The reflection in the blood shifted, its features dissolving and reforming into something that wore the shape of a person. It reformed into something the way a shadow wears the shape of the thing that casts it and all it had was a smile.

"I tried to tell you before, didn't I? "Stop dwelling on heroism. Stop clinging to a title that was only ever a leash" Izuku didn't respond, he just stared at the thing in the blood with eyes that had nothing left in them.

"You felt it didn't you? The moment you let go up there, the moment you stopped holding back you felt what you really are. What you could be" The reflection shifted. The smile remained but something beneath it changed and the shadow deepened. 

The presence behind it pressing closer to the surface of the blood like a face pressing against a window from the other side.

"They all failed you, Izuku. The ones who gave you this power. The ones who trained you. The ones who told you that self sacrifice meant something. Now look around you" Izuku didn't need to look since the evidence was on his skin.

"This is what your so-called heroism gets you. A floor full of the people you swore to protect and a body too broken to even mourn them properly" The voice spoke with the gentleness of something that understood pain intimately.

"But it doesn't have to end here..." The reflection's hand moved.

It rose from the surface of the blood slowly, emerging as if the pool of crimson beneath Izuku's knees were a threshold between two places. The shadow on the other side had simply decided to reach across.

The hand materialized finger by finger, each one formed from the blood itself, dark and glistening and impossibly real. It extended upward with a palm open, like an invitation written in the language of the dead.

"Take my hand, Izuku. I am here for you now so let's switch and in exchange you think about what I've said" Izuku reached out and accepted the hand.

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To be continued

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Waves rolled onto the shore in gentle rhythms, whispering against the sand before retreating into the deep. The wind carried a salty breeze through the air and seagulls cried softly in the distance, their voices blending into the natural symphony of the coast.

"A home. Somewhere quiet... somewhere untouched by the weight of everything that came before." The waves rose and fell, indifferent to the words carried on the wind.

"I always thought about building something like that. A small place by the ocean where the world felt far away. I'd wake up with the sun, listen to the waves... maybe even finally get around to reading all those books I bought and never opened." Nanami's voice carried a faint trace of amusement.

"I'd go through them page by page. Like I was taking back all the time I lost." Another step. Another ripple. The water darkened as the sun inched lower, its light stretching across the sea like golden silk.

"But I'm tired...exhausted even...." The confession lingered before the breeze carried it away.

Then something shifted behind him. A warmth that hadn't been there a moment ago, pressing gently against his back like sunlight through a gap in the clouds. Nanami paused. Turned slowly.

A golden vestige stood on the shore. A being composed of shimmering embers drifting in endless, graceful loops, and radiating not heat but kindness. A luminescence that seemed to mend the scars of time simply by existing.

It reached out with one hand extended and Nanami stared at it. His heart was heavy with the weight of lost time and regret so he hesitated. But in the quiet of that hesitation he found no threat in the presence before him.

Nanami extended his hand to the vestiges and the world was engulfed in golden radiance, folding the shore and the sea and the tired man who had only ever wanted a quiet place by the ocean into a single point of light.

The waves rolled on, the sun touched the horizon, and the beach was empty. Somewhere, in a place beyond the weight of everything that came before, a page turned.

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Authors Note:

I hate word limits. I had to delete several important things :)

P.S. I looked into powerscaling/wiki info for Izuku and yeah...I gotta change somethings in chapter 6 right after this publishes.

P.P.S. I got a little sick while working on this due to overworking myself so I'm taking a small break to rest.