The sky above Mount Gunga had turned the color of ash hours ago. There was no sun. There was no moon. Only smoke, and fire, and screaming coming from every direction.

On the first battlefield, where the flying U.A. fortress hung above the ground like a suspended coffin, Shigaraki stood. He was no longer Tomura Shigaraki, the boy who hid his face behind a severed hand. He was something else now. His body writhed, and sounds escaped his throat that were not his voice. Sometimes All For One spoke from within him, and sometimes Tomura resisted. Around him, the earth was split open, buildings were reduced to rubble, and blood was mixed with dust.

Midoriya was there. Finally. After being trapped in Toga's snare, after flying through the sky on Star and Stripe's wings, he reached the flying fortress to find his friends on the ground. Bakugo lay motionless, his chest torn open, and his heart... had stopped. Edgeshot had entered his body as a thin thread, trying to fix what could not be fixed. Mirio stood beside Midoriya, gripping his shoulder, holding him back from exploding. "Don't move," Mirio said. "If you move now, you'll die." But Midoriya wasn't listening. He was looking at Bakugo. At his childhood friend. At the person who hated him, fought him, saved him, hated him again, and then... then came to apologize. And now he lay on the ground, heartless.

Somewhere else, in the streets of an abandoned city, All Might stood alone. The metal armor covering his body hissed, pieces of it flying off with every movement. There was no one. No heroes. No students. Just him, and All For One. All For One had returned to his youth thanks to Dr. Garaki's drug, and his body gleamed with a power All Might had long forgotten. "Is this all you have left?" All For One said. "Armor... and memories?" All Might didn't answer. He raised his metal fist. In his memory, he saw Nana Shimura. He saw Midoriya. He saw every child he had trained, every hero he had saved, every face that had smiled at him because he was the Symbol of Peace. Then he saw All For One raise his hand. "Goodbye, Symbol of Peace."

On a third battlefield, where Kamino Ward had been reduced to ruins that reminded everyone of an old battle, Todoroki stood before his brother. Dabi. Toya. There was no time for names anymore. Dabi burned, his body transforming into something neither human nor fire. He laughed. "Do you see, Shoto? This is my true power!" Endeavor lay on the ground, his right arm severed, bleeding. The Todoroki family was there, watching everything. The mother. The sister. The brother. The son who became a hero, and the son who became a monster. Todoroki raised his hand. "I'll stop you, Toya. Not as a hero. As a brother."

On a fourth battlefield, Uraraka was fighting. Toga Himiko stood before her, crying and laughing at the same time. "I love you, Ochaco! I love you so much that I want to become you!" Uraraka was bleeding, but she didn't stop. "Love isn't like this, Himiko. Love doesn't kill." But Toga wasn't listening. She was attacking. And as Uraraka clenched her fist, she knew this battle wasn't about power. It was about something else. Something no one understood except two women fighting in the ruins of a world that didn't know how to love.

In the sky, above all of this, helicopters were transporting the wounded. In field hospitals, doctors were screaming. In the streets of Japan, civilians were fleeing. In a secret operations room, Detective Tsukauchi stared at the screens, not knowing which battlefield to send help to first.

The Final War was not one war. It was five wars happening at the same time. Each one alone was enough to defeat the heroes. But they were doing everything at once. Because they had no other choice.

Then, in the middle of all this, contact with All Might was cut off. The screen showing him went black. Tsukauchi screamed into the radio: "All Might! All Might, answer!" There was no response. There was no sound. Only a heavy silence, as if the world itself had stopped breathing.