Fractured Wings

The wind roared in my ears as the massive bird I'd crafted cut through the sky, it's wings slicing through the air with precision. The city sprawled beneath us, a labyrinth of glass and steel, it's lights flickering like distant stars. My hands gripped the edges of the bird's paper feathers, my mind focused on the task. 

But something prickled at the back of my neck, a faint unease that I couldn't shake. It wasn't fear. It wasn't even doubt. It was anticipation... but of what.

And then I heard it. 

A voice, raw and guttural, tearing through the night like a thunderclap. It wasn't just loud—it was violent, carrying a weight that made my chest tighten. He screamed my name, akin to an old excited friend. 

"KOBE!" 

The sound of it sent a jolt through me, like a spark igniting a long-dormant memory. My head snapped toward the source, and there he was... it was number 67. The number one ranked in the Eden project. His hair was the same greenish blonde and he had the same animalistic yellow eyes blazing like the sun, it was Daiki Tenma. 

The intensity in his eyes told me one thing. He was hunting me. 

The memories came flooding back, unbidden and unwelcome. The Eden Project. The fights. The fights that I had never won. Him always demanding more. Daiki was relentless. An unmovable force that thrived in conflict, on the thrill of the fight. He always looked at me as a challenge, as a vase he wanted to shatter. 

And now he was here. 

My hands tightened on the paper birds back, my mind racing. I couldn't fight him here, not with my team on board. Not in the air, where his speed and strength would only give him an overwhelming advantage. I needed to drop them. I needed to think. 

"Hold on!" I shouted to the others, my voice cutting through the wind. The bird dipped sharply, it's wings folding as we descended toward the rooftops below. The city rushed up to meet us, a blur of lights and shadows. I could feel Daiki closing in, his presence like a storm on the horizon. He was fast—faster than I remembered. The only thing close to that speed which I had fought in recent times was that fake All Might. 

The bird touched down on a rooftop, it's paper form dissolving into a flurry of sheets as I stepped off and onto another one and continued on in the air. I knew Daiki would ignore them and follow me. 

"Just go!" I shouted to them. 

I didn't need them in my way. 

But something shifted. A crack of destruction, a sudden shift in the balance of the world around me. A presence, a force, something fast, something deadly. 

I barely had time to react before something collided with me. 

The impact wasn't just forceful—it was devastating. A shockwave of momentum burst through my body, twisting my insides as I was hurled through the air. The world spun, buildings becoming blurs of steel and glass as I crashed through them, one after the other, each impact jarring, rattling me to my bones. 

My mind screamed, trying to process what had just happened. The hit had been clean, precise. No hesitation. This wasn't some amateur trying to prove a point—this was a killer's strike. 

I gasped, forcing my body to twist mid-air, pushing off a shattered floor as I attempted to slow myself. My hands grasped onto a broken steel beam, momentum still coursing through me like electricity. My body screamed in protest, but I forced it to obey. I skidded along the debris, my breathing ragged, my vision clearing just in time to see the figure land beside me in an instant. 

My chest tightened. 

I exhaled slowly, my body adjusting to the pain. No matter how much 'fight for the people' propaganda that the Eden Project tried stuffing down their golden boy, Daiki was built for destruction. 

And he looked like he wanted this fight badly. 

Daiki landed with a crash, the rooftop cracking beneath his feet. He straightened slowly, his yellow eyes locking onto mine. There was no hesitation in his gaze, no doubt. Just pure, unbridled excitement. 

I didn't respond. There was no point in words. Not with him. Daiki wasn't here to talk. He was here to fight. 

He moved first, a blur of motion that was too fast to follow His fist came at me with the force of a freight train, the air around it rippling with momentum he had built up. His fist moved in speeds that I could barely follow. My hands moved quickly and instinctively as I created a paper shield and dived out the way as it was of little use as his hand tore right through it with little effort. 

Daiki didn't give me a moment to recover. He was on me again, his movements fluid and precise, each strike carrying enough force to level a building. I dodged and weaved on instinct, my body signalling me to move before I could even think. It was like fighting a hurricane—no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't predict where the next blow would come from. 

I crafted a paper spear, it's tip sharp and deadly, and I thrust it towards him. He caught it mid-air, his hand closing around the shaft with ease. The momentum I'd built up vanished in an instant, the spear stopping and staying still in air. 

'He stopped it's motion.' 

I already knew about his quirk. I fought him enough times to know, he's spoke loudly about it back then for everyone to know. 

"Do better!" 

I backed away and formed multiple paper birds, sending them spiralling toward him in a chaotic flurry. He swatted them aside with ease, his control over momentum rendering them useless. But I wasn't trying to hurt him. 

As the birds swarmed around him, I folded a paper sword into existence, it's edge was razor sharp. I lunged forward, aiming for his side. He dodged at the last second, his movements almost too fast to follow. But I wasn't done. I pressed the attack, my sword slicing through the air with deadly precision. He blocked each strike with his arms, the momentum of my blows dissipating as soon as they made contact. 

I lunged closing the distance. My fists swung, aiming for his ribs. He twisted at the last second in a blur at the last second, my knuckles grazed his side before he retaliated. A knee to my gut—sharp and precise. Pain lanced through me, but I moved with it, using the force to propel myself back, regaining distance. 

Daiki grinned. "Better. But not enough." 

He shot forward again, a blur of motion. I ducked, my senses screaming as his arm barely missed my skull. I countered with a sharp kick, aiming for his knee, but he caught it, twisting me mid-air and hurling me back into the remains of a shattered wall. 

Dust filled my lungs as I rolled to my feet, my mind working overtime. He was overwhelming. I had to adapt. Find an opening. Use his own speed against him. 

Daiki charged again, his fists a flurry of strikes. I dodged, barely, feeling the rush of air as his blows missed me by inches. I struck out where I could—elbows, knees, anything to slow him down. But none of it fazed him. His grin widening with each exchange. 

I needed to change the game. Daiki was too fast, too strong, too everything. If I kept playing by his rules, I'd lose. So I stopped trying to match him and started thinking like me. 

My mind raced, calculating, strategizing. Daiki was a force of nature, a hurricane of momentum and raw power. But I wasn't powerless. I can't overpower him, so I'll just outthink him. 

I flicked my wrist, and a paper clone of myself materialized in front of me, it's form identical to mine. It charged at Daiki, a decoy meant to buy me time. Daiki didn't hesitate. His fist shot forward, a blur of motion, and the clone disintegrated into a flurry of paper scraps. But by the time he realized it was fake, I was already moving. 

I folded myself into a paper glider, the thin sheets of paper forming wings that caught the air as I slipped away silently. Daiki's head snapped toward me, his yellow eyes narrowing. He grinned, that wild, unhinged grin that sent shivers down my spine. 

"Running already, Kobe?" he taunted, his voice carrying over the chaos. "I thought you were better than that!" 

I didn't respond. Instead, I soared higher, my glider cutting through the air as I positioned myself above him. My hands moved in a blur, folding and shaping paper into small, compact bombs. I rained them down on him, each one exploding with concussive force. The rooftop erupted in a series of blasts, the shockwaves rippling through the air. 

Daiki dodged most of them, his movements impossibly fast. But one caught him off guard, the force of the explosion sending him skidding across the rooftop. He laughed, the sound wild and unhinged, as he wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. 

"Now we're talking!" he shouted, his voice carrying over the chaos. "This is what I've been waiting for!" 

But I wasn't done. I folded the glider into a massive paper hammer, it's head the size of a car. I swung it down with all my might, the force of the blow enough to shatter concrete. Daiki caught it, he absorbed the momentum. For a moment we were locked in a stalemate, the hammer trembling between us. 

Then he smirked. 

With a roar, he redirected the hammer's momentum, sending it—and me—flying into a nearby building. The impact was brutal, the structure groaning as I crashed through multiple floors. Pain shot through my body, but I forced myself to move, to think. I couldn't afford to stay down. Not with him coming for me. 

The fight escalated, the surrounding's within the city bared the brunt of it. Fortunately it wasn't even real. 

At one point I created a massive paper dragon, it's wings slicing through the air as it lunged at Daiki. The beast descended on him with it's claws outstretched. Daiki met it head-on, his fists moving faster than I could track. Each blow shattered a part of the dragon, it's fragments scattered like confetti. 

But I wasn't done. I used the fragments to create a swarm of paper wasps, each one sharp and deadly. They didn't make a sound but they were able to sting and cut, they just did little to no damage. 

Daiki just swatted them away. He laughed as he done so, "Seriously Kobe? Just bugs?" 

He didn't let me move on the offensive anymore, I realized that from another powerful blow to the gut that I wasn't able to dodge in time before being sent through another set of buildings. This time as I was landing I spotted some heroes and civilians below me and some in the same building that I had just landed in. 

"Hey—" 

"Get out of here!" I screamed as I rose, I didn't care if they did or not. 

The hero was stomping over to me while civilians ran out the room, he looked like he was angry, he got in a stance as if wanting to fight me... Jeez, sometimes I just forget that I'm Soryu. 

Before the prick could do any more, he was splattered into meat paste, and splotches of blood splashed the walls and even parts of my clothing. 

Daiki was back, stronger than ever, not holding back any more. 

There was a maniacal grin on his face as he slowly turned to look to me. 

As he faced me, he dodged a elongated spear aimed at the center of his head. Next he ran straight for me in a crouched position, using the momentum of his dodge. 

I jumped and flipped over a fast strike he delivered and struck downwards with a knife of paper. 

He wasn't even in that position anymore, as I touched ground I followed my instinct and dropped to the ground placing my hands on the ground and I kicked my legs upwards and spun, catching his chin. 

The blow wasn't strong enough, in fact my foot stopped as my shin hit his shirt. It was hard. 

It was rock solid, still in place. He stopped motion on his shirt, when he stops an objects momentum the object is indestructible through force. If I hit any harder or wasn't trained any harder, my bone would have shattered easily. 

But now I'm vulnerable. In the split second that I am now caught between the floor and him, his momentum is back up and his fist is inches away from my fist. 

BANG! 

A gun shot came and was less than a second away from penetrating his skull. He, of course, was able to back away before it became a problem for him. The bullet embedded itself into the wall. His yellow eyes turned towards the source of the shot. 

"What the—" he muttered lowly with danger in his tone. 

I followed his gaze, my chest heaving as I tried to catch my breath. Standing on a nearby rooftop was Nagant, her sniper rifle trained on Daiki. Her expression was calm, almost bored, but the sharpness remained in her eyes that told me she meant business. 

"So another want's to join—!" 

"AAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!" 

A loud and guttural scream came from the distance, a fair distance from where Daiki and I had just been. 

The scream was clearly of pain. And the sound of the voice was... The number 1 hero. All Might.