Chapter 31 – Her True Strength

After such drama unfolded in the city, and All Might's retirement, life went back to usual again.

Hu Tao was also moved to the number two hero.

Things happened and the four foreigners enjoyed their time here as much as possible.

But... it could only get so interesting.

As the clock ticked, 6 months passed with nothing out of the ordinary happening.

And it was time...

(A/N I know people hate timeskips but honestly I can't see myself writing 20 odd chapters following the major plot with myself adding small twists and turns to it. And I just can't and it'll be a bit boring after a while so I just moved on)

...

Screech...

Her weapon scratched against the floor, leaving a long trail of indentations, but she didn't mind.

Behind her were thousands of people on the ground, not dead but nearly.

The butterfly left a mark on Shigaraki. It led her to a hospital, but due to unforeseen circumstances, the body was transported somewhere else.

So she was able to find this place.

It was very dangerous to barge into somewhere unauthorised and the place being a criminal organisation, but funnily enough Hu Tao's got used to it.

She was of course met with resistance, but hours later, they collapsed from exhaustion and heat rather than Hu Tao. She only dealt with a couple hundred. There were some that were quite strong like an ice guy and someone who could convert stress into power, but were swiftly dealt with by her.

She looked intrigued that such a massive place was able to go unnoticed by the authorities. There were signs on the wall saying things like 'Meta Liberation Army' and stuff.

She also spotted a giant leaning lifelessly on a pole, but she decided to leave it alone.

Slowly, she made her way into the place where her butterfly is, and she felt the connection getting stronger.

Walking into a room, she was once again confronted with a capsule of liquid, and inside was Shigaraki, peacefully sleeping.

Her staff glowed and with one quick strike, she cut open the entire command-desk and the wires leading to the machination.

The body fell, but gained consciousness mid air and unnaturally stopped in mid-air.

Then as if time was reversing it stood upright and looked at Hu Tao.

"The number two hero Hu Tao? What...?"

"I'm here to defeat you, simple right?" She smiled.

"Defeat me? What of the people here?"

"They all fell under me. They struggled a lot, and were quite troublesome but I dealt with them quickly." A proud expression appeared on her face.

"All of them?"

Just then, the room was busted open, showing three figures' outline behind the smoke and debris.

"Oooh. Reinforcements. It must've been that computer guy."

"Shigaraki, what happened?" A female voice asked.

"As you can see, the number two hero is here. My transformation is also incomplete." He grunted in response.

"You are... oh, I remember. You're Dabi, you're Himiko Toga, and you're Twice. Of course, those are the names you go with."

Without warning, a blue flame was launched into Hu Tao's face by Dabi.

"She seriously caused all that outside?"

"Yup!" An unfazed Hu Tao rose from the smoke, "time to fight!"

Signalling the start of the battle she rushed towards Shigaraki instantly, since he was the primary target.

"Hey hey buy me some time." He said to the others, then vanished.

Hu Tao sensed him around 200 meters away and frowned. Before she gave chase hundreds of Twices swarmed her.

A devastatingly high temperature was released by her, and burnt the extras to a crisp, but she then found herself alone in the room.

"Oh. Everyone left." A bit of annoyance followed, but just as she prepared to open a hole into the ceiling and capture them, a massive hand crushed down at her. Disregarding the room or any other object in it's way, it made it's way undisturbed onto Hu Tao.

The size comparison was laughable.

A shockwave spread out into the forest where the place was located.

Then, the entire cave collapsed in on itself, killing almost everyone there. Seeing this under the rubble, she frowned.

Not even caring about your comrades' lives.

Standing up again, she saw a towering figure made of rocks stand up. It was the exact one she saw sleeping before.

The sun also shone into the space, showing just how powerful that strike was to open an entire hole into the underground.

She patted some dust off her clothes, before her eyes closed.

I can't defeat him like this. I have to release my restraints which is quite surprising. But oh well.

Invisible material fell of her hands and feet, making craters into the ground. Then, a set of accessories wore itself onto her.

Hehe. My weights are gone, my crimson witch artifacts are on, and I have an adpetus's temptation on me. Let's see how well you fare...

Eating a dish in one gulp, her strength rocketed to an unprecedented height.

With a small motion, she became eye level with the giant, and gave a kick which completely threw it off balance, but it didn't meet the ground, instead it stopped and using her own momentum rebounded the force into a punch and hit Hu Tao.

She flew into the ground and uprooted hundreds of trees, before finally stopping from the friction that built up between her shoes and the ground.

Her figure was still standing, and as she came to a stop, her back bent backwards, with her hair dangling freely off her head. Then with extreme power in her core, she tensed it and brought her body back up with no extra movements.

A familiar pair of wings formed on her back, and she leaped high into the sky. The same glow mirrored the sun as the temperatures around her rose hundreds of degrees again.

However, unlike All Might, who to which the temperature decreased again after a couple seconds, Hu Tao could maintain such state for a long time.

It was a skill she learned that can speed up thinking and the brain's computation with flames. Being inapproachable due to the heat was just a side effect.

As the air vibrated around her, she dived down as a massive fireball and landed square onto the giant's forehead.

He was pretty much defeated, but she didn't stop there.

Currently, she was feeling very strong and needed to vent this surge in strength before going to find Shigaraki, otherwise it could lead to unnecessary casualties.

She swung her staff from left to right and drew an arc in the air. The arc then travelled to the giant and cut its entire arm off.

She leaned forwards, and her legs rose. When she was sideways, she crouched down into a squatting position, and as if there was a wall behind her, she dashed off straight towards the giant's chest.

She penetrated through his chest and appeared on the other side. The hole smoked as it couldn't withstand such heat, but she wasn't done.

She didn't even stop herself, before another imaginary wall formed behind her, and jumped off it again, making another hole.

She repeated this many times, until the giant looked like a comical honeycomb.

Then she span her spear a few times in front and behind her, making circles and blocks of fire before becoming one with it.

The torrent of flames then leapt into the air in the shape of a dragon mixed with a butterfly. She had the wings of a butterfly but the body of a dragon.

It circled a couple times in the sky before diving down and engulfing the area.

Then, a sphere of yellow with a diameter of a hundred metres erupted into the sky. It then changed from yellow to red, then to blue, to red then to yellow again, before becoming fainter and fainter, until only a spot left, and that also disappeared with due time.

In the middle was a gaping hole that looked like the entrance to the abyss. Only, there was one source of light softening the darkness, and it was Hu Tao, floating in the middle.

The giant was completely and utterly defeated, scattered into ash into the sky. When it lands onto the soil, it will ultimately become nutrients for the vegetation.

"Phewwww" She said out loud, "as expected, that technique is still very strong. If I restrained myself whilst using it, it may have backfired on me. Ainz's scrolls always amaze me. That was a good rant, now I feel more energized and in control as ever. Where are they now?" She looked into the distance and spotted them.

She saw them circle around Shigaraki, remaining vigilant, whilst the target himself was meditating.

"Oooh. He's probably trying to control his powers. The question is, should I let them?"

"Nah, I'll get this over and done with."

"Wait, he finished?" Just as she was about to head over, Shigaraki stood up with resolution in his eyes, and he put his hands on the ground.

Then, the entire thing started to crack and decay, excluding his friends. Although they were in contact with the cracks, the spot they stood on didn't get affected.

The spreading of decay started to quickly make its way to Hu Tao, who was admiring the power.

"That's a very destructive ability. And he avoided his friends, so he has full control of it? Hmm, perhaps I should use..."

Another couple seconds later, the cracks were only 10 meters in front of her, but she still looked at it with a relaxed expression.

Then, she waved her staff across the earth in front of her. A small charred-black line was drawn into the soil, but it then expanded across the land.

A flame sprouted from the line, reaching tens of meters into the sky.

And surprisingly, the decay stopped at the fire.

"HEY!" She then shouted on the other side of the fire, "if you didn't know, your ability should be decay right? Just so you know, decay is a virus with negative life vitality. Against someone who controls positive life vitality, it's quite useless you know?"

Then, the flame began to move towards them. In its path, the destroyed ground started to regenerate. Flora and fauna scattered across the land, and it was even greener than before the decay.

With just seconds, the flame dissipated, leaving a completely beautiful and unharmed stretch of land.

"How annoying..." Shigaraki was dissatisfied with this.

"Should we fight her. She's very strong. I don't know why she isn't the number one hero yet."

"We will fight. We can't run anyway. She probably put a tracker on me but I don't know where it is, so she'll just track us down."

With resolution, they stood their ground and waited for Hu Tao to come to them.

And she did. Jumping up into the air, she expertly controlled her flames to propel her forward. It was another perk of her current form.

Three bursts later, she landed a couple meters in front of them, and then Dabi took the initiative by releasing the biggest wave of blue flames he could manage. He ignored the burning skin that was on his face.

She ignored the fire and walked through it calmly, hehe, the five piece set bonus of crimson witch is that I have complete flame immunity...

She was then attacked by Toga, who used various physical weapons. She propelled a chain at her, but Hu Tao then caught the chain, and manoeuvred her arm and hand, so that the chain became hers to control.

She waved her hand about in a certain way, and it eventually tightened, pulling Toga towards her.

Shigaraki saw this and decayed the chain. Twice followed up with hundreds of copies himself, Toga, Dabi and Shigaraki.

The sheer number soon overwhelmed her. She didn't want to kill everyone here with her elemental skill as only Shigaraki was her target, so she just stood her ground and attacked patiently.

Although, it was still very dangerous for the four, since every time she swung her spear, an intense heatwave soon followed. Carelessness here could kill.

The real Shigaraki then charged his fist behind him, whilst combining multiple quirks like All for One did, and with expert communication everyone moved out of the way, and he punched forwards at Hu Tao, who looked at him and also punched, completely overpowering him, and he was knocked backwards.

She soon followed up by another jab, but then to her surprise, Twice's real body took the brunt of the force. She felt multiple bones being broken inside him, as he flew and collapsed a distance away.