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“That boy…
that power!”
All Might, once again in his muscular form, stopped with one foot still forward.
He stared at Ren in disbelief.
The boy had been on the edge of death.
So where had that sudden strength come from?
“Before we talk about my eyes,” Ren said, turning toward the silent mass of sludge, “I think I should clean up the thing in the way.”
He did not bother answering Midoriya’s question.
His body shuddered once.
A brutal shockwave burst outward.
The Sludge Villain was blasted apart, and a rain of reeking muck splattered across the shopping district.
“A newly awakened Quirk?” the villain shrieked as his main body recoiled.
“Damn it, what kind of monster are you?”
The Sludge Villain did not care about the pieces of himself scattered across the street.
As long as he had enough stamina, his Quirk could keep producing more sludge.
That was the reason he had abandoned Bakugo and chosen Ren in the first place.
Now, though, he was afraid.
Ren turned toward him and laughed under his breath.
“I don’t want to be called a monster by someone who treats other people’s lives like toys.”
The words had barely left his mouth before his body became a blur.
His pale knuckles drove forward, his fist smashing into the villain as if Ren meant to vent every ugly thing trapped inside his chest.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
The heavy impacts came one after another.
The Sludge Villain was driven back with every hit.
Nearby buildings trembled under the force, and windows shattered in glittering sheets.
Under Ren’s storm of attacks, the villain had no room to fight back.
Fear poured through him.
He did not know how much longer he could last.
Why did every boy he grabbed today turn out to be this terrifying?
Had his luck really rotted that badly?
Then Ren stopped.
“What?” The Sludge Villain’s face twisted. Find the original chapter at g.com.
“Out of strength already?
That’s more like it.
You’re just a…”
He did not finish.
Ren’s expression changed first, easing into something almost satisfied.
The villain’s flowing face warped in response, distorting like a nightmare clown.
“All right,” Ren said.
“I feel better now.
Time to end this.”
Power gathered in his arm.
The Sludge Villain felt it.
The air around Ren’s fist seemed to buckle under the pressure, and then came a sharp crack.
The villain’s main body burst apart.
The compressed force tore through him and kept going, making store signs creak and groan along both sides of the street.
Ren drew his fist back.
Only then did he glance around, careful and guilty in equal measure.
When he saw the crowd and heroes frozen in stunned silence, he let out a quiet breath.
For the record, he had tried very, very hard to control that punch.
The damage was still limited.
Probably.
Ren looked at the broken glass and scattered bricks across the shopping district.
Then he turned and slipped into a side alley.
There was no way he was waiting around for someone to bill him for this.
If they charged him for even half the damage, selling his whole body would not cover it.
As for the Sludge Villain?
The Pro Heroes could deal with him.
That was their job, not Ren’s.
Once he had left the center of the incident behind, Ren walked home with his phone in hand, frowning at a selfie on the screen.
Pale pupils.
Violet-tinted whites.
He had lived with these eyes for more than ten years.
For the first time, they looked unfamiliar.
Had the eyes he had always suspected were tied to Insight finally awakened?
Why?
Had nearly dying triggered the awakening condition?
The more Ren thought about it, the more reasonable it sounded.
From what he remembered of Insight in his old life, its deepest purpose was survival.
It was a power born to keep its holder alive.
Then Ren thought about everything he had done over the years, and his expression turned strange. Find the original chapter at g.com.
“So…” he muttered, “the reason it never awakened was because I trained so hard I never got close enough to dying?”
After all that, the culprit who had kept him labeled Quirkless for more than a decade might have been himself.
His feelings grew painfully complicated.
“Wait.”
Ren froze, then muttered in a low voice, “If Insight awakened, doesn’t that mean I’m basically always standing on the edge of death?”
“Interesting, young man.
So your Quirk is called Insight?”
The sudden voice ripped Ren out of his thoughts.
He stepped back on instinct, turned, and fell into a practiced defensive stance.
“Who’s there?”
Then he saw the uninvited guest behind him.
Ren grimaced.
The man wore a blue, red, and gold hero suit and had the kind of massive presence that made him look like he had stepped straight out of an American comic book.
The V-shaped blond tufts on his head, the bright smile, the blinding white teeth…
Ren rolled his eyes before he could stop himself.
“All Might?”
It came out like a question, but All Might easily heard the truth in his tone.
This strange boy was not surprised to see him in the city at all.
All Might paused, suddenly more attentive, and then he laughed.
“Ha ha ha!
It seems you are not shocked to find me here, young man.”
“Why would I be?” Ren said.
“You were at the shopping district just now.
You were about to save me too, until my Quirk awakened and made that unnecessary.”
“A keen eye, young man!”
All Might looked at Ren with open surprise.
In the few seconds between near-death and recovery, this boy had noticed his presence.
Add in that shocking power, and the truth became impossible to ignore.
Young Mikage was frighteningly sharp.
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Stick around, because there’s still a lot waiting just ahead.