Aftermath I

The scene was carnage.

There were fires. There was smoke. There were damaged and collapsed buildings. What was meant to be a city street, a city block, a city was nothing but rubble. Water gushed from broken pipes. Gas hissed, and exploded. Sewage thankfully was below ground but the pipes were probably leaking.

It was apocalyptic. No one knew for sure what had happened.

Bomb? Earthquake? Terrorist Attack? The damage was so bad no one knew for sure.

The cries and moans of the injured underscored everything.

The silence of the others was worse.

Rescue Heroes were frantically combing through the ruins looking for survivors. Paramedics were treating who they could. Police were doing the same. So were those civilians well enough to move. Everyone was helping. Even the media. This was no time to document anything.

"Shit! Medic!" There was an edge to the scream that brought the attention of those gathered.

The responder trembled for a few moments, just staring.

The scene was red.

There was blood everywhere. It was splashed on the debris. Splashed on the ground. Splashed on the hero, who was on his knees, head bowed. It ran in rivulets down his side. It covered the body that lay before the hero.

The responder gagged, looking at the damage with the knowledge of who the hero was and what had caused this carnage.

There was a pounding from behind the responder. Runners, they crested the mound of rubble that surrounded the scene, and similarly froze.

On his knees, blood covering blond hair and running down a side that was not there was not how anyone expected to see the Number One Hero. This was a man they had watched for years defeat villain after villain with barely a scratch. To see him like this…

At least one of the paramedics was more conscious of their job than the others. "Move!" came the yell as they skidded down the rubble slope. "Get me a spine board, now!" the order was added on.

The others rushed to comply.

"All Might!" The cry was urgent. "All Might!"

The hero's eyes fluttered and blood gushed from his mouth.

"Shit, get him down! Get pressure on the wound!" It was a misnomer to call it a wound. It wasn't even a gaping hole. All Might's left side just wasn't there. His intestines were bulging and leaking into the mess. His stomach wasn't visible and there was bubbling in the blood from his lungs. It was a miracle his heart hadn't stopped. It was a miracle his heart was still in his chest.

The paramedic pushed All Might down, straining even when the hero was unresisting. He was a large man. Other's helped and swiftly the Number One hero was strapped to a spine board and bandages pressed into his side. As they were lifting him, he stirred. His arm moved weakly but his grip was still strong.

"Is he?" More blood dribbled from All Might's mouth but his eyes were intense. "Is he?" The question came again.

The paramedic who'd taken charge figured out what the Hero was asking about and cast her eyes to the other body.

The man had been muscular. The clothes, what was left of them, were high class. They were drenched in blood and his hands were curled into fists. His head was missing though. He would be lying face down if he still had a face though the nap of the neck was still there. Blood covered everything and what looked suspiciously like brain matter was scattered around.

"He's dead," the paramedic said. "He's definitely dead," she added.

That appeared to be what All Might needed to hear. "I got him," the Number One hero murmured before he passed out.

"Move!" The medic yelled at those carrying the stretcher. They would wonder later why the Number One Hero wanted to be sure someone was dead. Right now, he was a patient, and they had to deal with that.

-ted-

"Clamp," Garaki called, holding out one blood covered hand.

The device was put into it and he immediately deployed it, fastening it on a weeping blood vessel.

"Retractor," he ordered next and inserted it in a tear holding the flesh back. "Forceps," he held out his hand again. "Not those, the small ones," he corrected the order. The smaller set was thrust into his hand.

Kyudai gritted his teeth and squinted as he probed ,and then pulled out the bone he found. It tinged to the floor. They weren't exactly doing this in the most sterile environment but he had to do the work now!

It was a miracle All For One was still alive!

They hadn't realised what was happening at first. At least, not until the explosions started. Then he'd found out. The Heroes, led by All Might, had raided JBQC's headquarters. There was only one reason for that. They had found All For One.

Garaki had known the battle would be fierce. Hisashi might have been confident of his abilities and the Doctor didn't doubt but he knew All Might was not the Number One Hero because he was weak.

"Staples," Garaki requested. The equipment was given to him and he started stapling blood vessels and flesh together.

The aftermath of the battle had been worse than he'd ever considered. Multiple fatalities at JBQC's Headquarters and the surrounds. It was Kurogiri who'd summoned him. The misty man had insisted he go in the guise of a paramedic. How Kurogiri had known that All For One needed attention, Garaki didn't know. It wasn't something he'd designed in him.

"Sutures." He began stitching.

It was a sight that Garaki never thought he'd see. All For One on the ground, surrounded by blood. It should have been obvious that he was dead but something drove the Doctor to check.

He'd almost yelled when he felt a pulse. His head was missing but All For One clung to life tenaciously. Garaki had been panicking on how he'd get Hisashi's body out of there when Kurogiri had scooped them both up and he'd then begun working.

He'd stitched up what he could. He'd pulled bone fragments from where bone shouldn't go and he'd done his best to replenish the lost blood. It was amazing that he was still breathing, let alone anything else. Garaki wasn't sure that All For One would recover but if the flesh was that strong, he had to try.

He looked at his work. He'd stitched, clamped, stapled everything he could. He'd removed bones and pumped enough drugs into All For One to take down a pod of whales. He'd also inserted a tube into Hisashi's trachea and there was a steady pull of air to it. The oxygen bottle had already been changed once. "Surgical mesh," he ordered. "That white stuff," he explained.

The flexible material was given to him. Even with blood covering his hands, Garaki could keep a good grip on it. He placed it on All For One's chin and stretched it upwards. The mesh covered the gaping wound that was All For One's head. He didn't know what else to do with that. Steel plates would require time to make and there was nothing to hold them in place. He could only stretch skin so far. There was no bone. The mesh was a compromise. It would hold the brain matter in but also be easy enough to stretch later if need be.

If All For One recovered. That was the question.

Kyudai stepped back, looking at the body on the table. There was nothing more he could do. Except…

"You have to keep him alive," Kurogiri growled.

"I'm trying!" Garaki yelled back. Anyone else would have just walked away. "Call the brokers. Get every healing quirk you can."

It was a miracle All For One was still breathing but it was going to take more to keep him alive. And even more for him to be functional at the end of this.

The warp gate nodded. "Keep him alive!" The threat was ominous before the man disappeared.

"Keep him alive!" Garaki growled when he was alone with the beeping of the medical equipment. "Keep him alive!" He yelled. What did that moron think he was doing? No one lived through wounds like this! Only the…

Only the Prototypes.

Garaki gasped. He couldn't do that, could he? He couldn't change All For One. He knew that much. The man's quirk allowed him to adapt to multiple quirks but… He would support him. And right at the moment that was probably all he could do.

All For One had a formidable will to live. That alone would count for much but it wouldn't be enough.

It had to be done.

Garaki ran to his lab. His fingers were slick on the buttons but he drained the Prototype's tank. "Come with me," he ordered. The creature couldn't complain. It came with him.

"Pick him up, gently!" Kyudai ordered, pointing towards All For One.

The prototype obeyed. Of course it did. It had been programmed to obey Garaki but it knew All For One was its master, no matter what condition he was in.

"Bring him," Garaki instructed and walked back to the tube he kept the Prototype in.

With some maneuvering, All For One was placed in it. Garaki put more surgical tape on the trachea tube and connected it up to more breathing apparatus. He placed a mask on All For One's chin as well and applied a copious amount of silicon gel to close the gap. Sensors were placed over Hisashi's body and then Garaki stood back and activated the tube. Nutrient fluid flowed into it and slowly the level rose.

Eventually, All For One's body was floating in the nutrient fluid. It was cloudy with blood but the filtration system took care of that. It allowed Garaki to get a good look at Hisashi. There were various cuts and scrapes that he hadn't done anything about. They were nothing in the scheme of things. If you looked at him from the head down, the fight hadn't been bad. His head though… Even though Hisashi was breathing, it was with copious amounts of assistance and Kyudai didn't want to put sensors on that brain material that remained so he couldn't get any read on brain function. All For One was alive, technically but he had no idea how alive this counted as.

For the moment Garaki didn't know what he could do but wait.

-ted-

There were two reasons Sir Nighteye was here, even though it was midnight. While not being known as an emotional man, he wanted to be at the Hospital where they were working on Toshinori. Those with Healing quirks were being flown in from around the country to work on All Might. There might even be some from overseas if they were close enough.

Healing Quirks were rare. At least those that seemed miraculous. Those like Recovery Girl's were good. There was no arguing that but right at the moment All Might had no stamina to spare. She was helping because even without her Quirk she was fully trained. Others could heal with seemingly no consequence. If he thought about it, he'd know the details of who was being summoned.

He was deliberately not thinking about it.

He wasn't at the hospital though. If he'd stayed there, the rumour, already running rampant that All Might had been grievously injured would be confirmed. Just standing here, directing did a lot to refute that and he'd already heard several people sigh in relief and make arguments to their co-workers that if All Might's Side Kick was here, then it couldn't be too bad.

They should trust their eyes. The damage around them said mutely that it really was that bad but if people had those beliefs, then he would use them. The Hero Commission was already working on a story to spin this somehow. They couldn't admit to the existence of All For One so something else would have to become the explanation. Mirai would help with that later, after they tied themselves into knots about it. For a political group they weren't very good at spin.

The other reason to be here was to find the body. And to examine the scene. If All For One was gone, that left a huge power vacuum in the Underworld. Most didn't think about it. Most didn't know about it but All For One's presence actually kept things under control. Not the petty villains, but the really big ones. They all owed allegiance to All For One in one way or another. They were kept under a modicum of control.

That control was gone now.

That's why they had to learn everything they could from the ruins of JBQC's Headquarters.

Which was why he was here now, where the battle had ended.

"Where's the body?" Mirai asked the workers who had accompanied him. He couldn't do all the lifting himself.

From the amount of blood on the ground they knew what he wanted. "Probably taken to the morgue," one of them told him.

That was fair. Sir Nighteye nodded. Removing bodies in a situation like this was normal. The living came first but bodies had to be removed before excavation could begin. He'd check the body later. Right now, he needed to search this area for clues.

"All right," Sir Nighteye said. "Fan out into a search grid, and look for things that don't belong," he instructed.

"Such as?"

He needed better helpers. "Anything that isn't rubble," he replied. Really, you'd think this was their first time at a rescue scene.

To be fair, this one was special. Most rescue scenes would not have a forensic look at them either. The group spread out and began searching. They at least understood that instruction. Mirai ran his eyes over the ground. All he could see was blood and rubble but that's why he was here.

"Got something!" The call came quite early but the area wasn't that large.

Sir Nighteye skidded down the rubble that was pushed away in a circle around them. It was testament to the power All Might had used that the rubble displayed the impact crater. The speaker pointed at something on the ground. They knew better than to touch it. It took him a moment to see it but when he did it was obvious. The colour was green. In a sea of red, green was obvious.

Mirai waved over the evidence photographer and those who would collect it. The area was lit up with artificial lights but the photographer still used flash as they photographed the ground from every angle and then the collector moved forward with a pair of tweezers and pulled at the thing.

What came out of the rubble was not something he had expected. It was leaf shaped and had a string attached to it. Blood dripped off it, revealing further green that shone in the light. It was like a gem. It was not something Toshinori had on him and Sir Nighteye couldn't see All For One wearing it either. It could have been dropped from one of the people who moved All Might or All For One's body but despite that Sir Nighteye had a feeling that it wasn't. They'd check, of course.

"Bag it," he instructed and when it was safely contained he took the bag and held it up to the light. The iridescence on it was unmistakable. It was beautiful but beyond being a pendant, he had no idea what it was or why it was here.

He'd find out because every bit of information was going to help.

-ted-