(Izuku POV)

"WE ARE HERE!"

All Might stood menacingly in front of the villains that he threw across the room, completely ignoring me who was huddling in the corner behind a poorly timed shield I made a second too late. I was now covered in scrapes and bruises from the massive onslaught of debris that went flying everywhere from his "entrance". The other heroes were in the doorway, watching this go down. Kamui shot out his branches, pinning everyone to the walls, including me. Wonderful, now I have to go home and explain the splinters and rashes obtained from suffocation via a tree.

Mom's gonna give these guys the tongue-lashing of a lifetime when she hears what happened.

Dabi tried to burn the branches off but was kicked in the head by a small old man in a yellow cape and knocked unconscious. Kamui opened the door to reveal an entire police force, and then announced that Endeavor and a few other heroes were outside, preventing any escape. Finally, All Might turned to me, still hiding behind a shield and tied to the wall.  "I'm sure you were scared. You did well bearing it. I'm sorry, but It's fine now young man!" he assured. Before I could say anything, Kamui brought me from the wall and over to the heroes as if he was merely rescuing me from the situation and totally didn't attack me. I succeeded in holding back my rage and managed to keep my mouth shut.

Shigaraki ordered Kurogiri to get the Nomus, but apparently, they had all been destroyed. He was about to portal us all out of there when a thick, red vine pierced his chest and he fell down. Magne panicked, thinking that Kurogiri was dead. Edgeshot appeared behind the counter and explained that he knocked him unconscious by "playing with his insides". I didn't hear much after that, as I was panicking about the implications of what just happened. I squirmed in the branches' tight hold, trying to get out. Whether I wanted to get to Kurogiri or get out of there was hard to decide because of my fuzzy mind and racing heart.

There was the sound of shouting and then splashing. Black sludge burst out of thin air and spawned two Nomu into the battle. More sludge appeared on the other side of the small room and on the ceiling, dropping four more Nomus to fight the heroes. Just as the heroes got into battle mode, a twisted feeling in my gut swirled and then exploded out of my mouth like a geyser. The black consumed me and everything went dark.

I shut my eyes, willing the fear and pain to leave, and just like that it was gone. I slumped to the floor, delirious and unsteady. I coughed out the last of the sludge, only to realize that there was none; just an awful taste in my mouth. "Sorry, Dreemur," a voice said. I heard more splashing and blinked away the blur in my vision to see the rest of the League. "You failed again, huh, Tomura? Don't be discouraged, you can try again. I brought back your associates, as well as your new ally. You were right in believing that he is an important piece."

I manage to tear my eyes away from the man in the suit and look over the group. Spinner had a limp and Kurogiri was lying face down on the floor. I quickly run over to the others, shoving a bar of chocolate into Spinner's hands and dropping next to Kurogiri. I look him over, searching for any fatal wounds. His breathing and heart rate are stable, so he isn't in any danger yet; which is good because that means we don't need to worry about any strokes in the near future. I softly run my hand down his spine and feel a joint out of place in the cervical portion of his spine. I'm no chiropractor, but with what Edgeshot said, and what I'm feeling right now, I can tell that his internal organs were so twisted that they dislocated a vertebra in his spinal cord and paralyzed him.

"He isn't unconscious, just paralyzed." A collective sigh of relief went through the group and "Sensei" tilted his head. I was about to heal Kurogiri but the sound of something soaring through the air in our direction stopped me. "Sensei" quickly raised his hands and caught a fully-powered punch by All Might, the shockwave of it blowing us all back. "I'll have you return everything, All For One!" Ah, so he does have a name. "Will you kill me again, All Might?" 'Again'?

A cloud of dust filled the area, obscuring my vision. I tried to find where the other members of the League were but concluded that I couldn't see a thing. This was when I realized that my vision wasn't the only one being impaired. I managed to hold my place next to Kurogiri during the blast, so if I play my cards right, I still have a chance to get us out of the crossfire between these two. I immediately pour as much magic as I could into healing Kurogiri's spine and used blue magic to realign his organs and bones, healing those too as soon as they were all in place.

As soon as I finished, I quickly grabbed the currently disabled portal user and jumped over to the wall that the others slammed into. Not even a second later, All Might attacked All For One and was sent flying through several buildings. Spinner still had the chocolate but seems to have forgotten he was holding it. I can't blame him, that wall must've hurt. Tomura was shaking in pain, too. Kurogiri was finally recovering. Toga, Magne, Twice, and Compress were the only ones unharmed. They all started to get up, excluding Dabi who was still out cold. I'll check him for concussions later. All For One ordered Kurogiri to get us out of there, to which he quickly obliged. Compress turned Dabi into a small blue marble and shoved him in his pocket.

I tossed Tomura a coin and jumped away from the group. He caught it, looked at it, and grinned. With a nod to the group, the League fled from the scene, leaving me in the danger zone. All Might and All For One were still trading blows and talking to each other, most likely instigating the other to fight harder. The gusts of air threw up more dust and debris, but I managed to either dodge or block the bits that came my way. Originally, I had planned on just leaving, but then All Might started spitting blood, and I got concerned and opted to stay and be the support.

All For One threw another powerful blow and All Might started to become weak, his hair falling and his face becoming hollow. Was his energy being drained? Was he dying?! --'No no no no NO NO NO! I have to help! I have to get in there!' -- But I couldn't move. I couldn't even breathe. All Might's arm- no, body- was DEFLATING, and All For One was mocking him. He looked like he had lost all muscle mass, and-- wait, have I seen this form before? He looks familiar... like that guy who walks around the school in a vertically-striped yellow suit. Oh, stars, they're the same person, aren't they? What was his name again? Doesn't matter, he's hurting right now. Move, Izuku! DO SOMETHING! ANYTHING!!

"You know, Tomura Shigaraki is Shimura's grandson," he grinned. All Might's eyes widened as All For One chuckled. "I kept thinking about what you would hate the most. I created chances for you and Tomura to meet. You defeated him, right? You smiled so proudly when you won, not knowing a thing." "Lies" "It's the truth! And you know it because that's exactly something I would do," he laughed. All Might looked at his fist as if he'd killed a puppy with it. I wasn't sure what was going on, but from what I could understand, this guy took in Tomura out of pure spite for All Might. I stepped towards All Might and placed a hand on his shoulder, discreetly filling his body with healing magic. "You know, All For One, you truly amaze me," I spoke. "Oh?" he hummed.

"You are everything wrong with humanity in physical form. The lengths humans will go to cause misery to others. Your determination to not only kill All Might but to destroy his image as well; it's astounding. You have the patience to play the long game and make him suffer as much as possible, the bravery to pull off the cruelest of acts so openly, the perseverance to destroy anyone and anything to get what you want, the kindness given only to the ones you use and manipulate, the desire to claim justice on those that cross you, and the integrity to be so honest about all of it. You are the very personification of what is wrong with humanity, and I am so amazed that you can pull it off so well. It makes me wonder. With all of those abilities... what color is your SOUL? I know it's not red, or this world would have been destroyed long ago. And can't be the others, as you have far too many traits to be any specific one... let's find out, shall we?"

The world flickered into a black void and our SOULS hovered in front of our chests. Figures All Might would be JUSTICE, but All For One? "Yeah, that's what I had anticipated. Black, the soul of HATRED. Capable of having every trait, and yet none at all. The color of corruption and agony. You have exchanged your humanity for immortality. Please, impress me more! Show the world why humans are a threat! Show them why we are a scourge! Show them the truth! And I will fight you, and show the world that there is hope for our species! I will be your new enemy, All For One! Now FIGHT me!" I yelled, summoning all of my magic, my SOUL becoming a white heart with a rainbow outline.

I was finally going all out.

(Asriel POV)

That soul... I've never seen a human with a black soul. And what's going on with Izuku's?! How is he using all the traits?! How strong are you, brother?

And then I saw something awful... their LV. All Might's was 5 (I guess even heroes have to kill sometimes...), All For One's was 20 (the maximum), but Izuku's... why is it so high? Izuku's never killed anyone, has he? So why does he have 12 LV? Who did he kill and why? It wasn't Stain, it wasn't the League, it wasn't any villains. Was it the Nomu? The Nomu would have had to kill hundreds, or even thousands for Izuku to have that much LV. Was it before he fell? No, his LV was 1 back then; so where?!

Izuku... what happened to you?

(Sans POV- been a while, huh?)

Shit. The humans can't see what's going on, but the monsters can. Izuku was trying to intimidate the villain by showing his bloodlust but revealed his stats in the process, allowing every single monster to see the truth. I look over to Toriel, and as expected, she's crying. Asgore looks like he's having war flashbacks. When the first human fell, Izuku ran to me, crying. He was covered in large cuts that I managed to heal, but he had to borrow some of my clothes because he was covered in blood, some of it was his, and some of it not. Through his tears and hiccups, he managed to tell me what happened. Another human fell into the Underground. She wore a red ribbon and held a cyan toy knife. But a second too late he realized it wasn't a toy. She was kind at first glance until he told her about his quirklessness, then she revealed her true nature. She pinned him down and stabbed him over and over, but not with the intent to kill, only to hurt. She was punishing him for existing, and he attacked her out of fear. But there was one huge problem: Izuku was too scared to control his magic and burned her to death.

He was eight when he killed someone for the first time.

I grabbed one of dad's magic container prototypes, the one he was using to contain Izuku's magic, and stored her soul in it. Then I helped Izuku bury the body at the beginning of the ruins. There is a large patch of buttercups there now. Fortunately for Izuku, the next few humans didn't survive the fall. Or at least until the fourth human fell. Kindness was a soul train that was said to be the most dangerous due to it being affiliated with gaslighting traitors who were actually the main reason humans feared us in the first place. So when Izuku found the human with the green soul, he was scared to go near him. But then, the human reached out and befriended him... the rumors about kindness were true. No sooner than Izuku turned his back to show him to his family, the human raised his pan and swung it. Dad thinks that Izuku's first death happened in training... that was his second death. Kindness was the reason Izuku discovered the RESET button in the first place. Kindness is the reason Izuku knows what happens when he presses that button. And Kindness is the reason Izuku had to relive killing them both. And to top it all off, he did it more than once. He loaded his SAVE file over and over, again and again, hoping- praying- that there was a way to spare them... there wasn't.

The fifth and sixth humans were a pair of twins. They fell down about two years after Kindness and immediately threatened the first monster they saw. Perseverance was the brain and Justice was the brawn, both of them under the belief that the disappearance of the previous humans was the fault of monsters. Izuku cleared up the confusion only to become a target himself. Six human souls were hidden away. The final human to fall into the Underground, was determination. The fight he had with them was seemingly never-ending, as that human also had the ability to come back after death. It was like fighting his reflection. He had long since given up on any mercy from the fallen humans and opted to just take their souls at the first sign of malice or manipulation. And because he had someone to fight for, we got the seventh soul.

And the worst part? I remember the resets, which makes me literally the only person he can come to about this. Nobody else would understand, and if they did... I don't doubt they'll hate him. If they don't hate him for killing those humans, then they'll probably hate him for lying about it; and even more for "dragging me into it". And that's just the reaction he'd get from the monsters, that's not even covering how the humans would react. They'd probably try to lock him up, self-defense be damned. He's not wrong about humans doing everything they can to make someone suffer. Even a speck of dirt is enough for them to spread lies and slander about you. Lies that can ruin or even end your life. Lies that can get you or someone else killed. Lies that can start a war.

Humans can be so cruel...

(Author POV)

The world watched in awe as Angel, their new Symbol of Hope, fought All For One with not the slightest hint of mercy. His attacks put the sports festival and the USJ to shame. They looked like play fighting in comparison. Every time Izuku shot the villain with his magic, the black heart shook. His HP was quickly depleting, and he looked weaker and weaker by the second. Swing, dodge, fire, dodge, kick, block, punch, miss, and punch. With one final, overpowered punch, All For One was dead... and Izuku's LV raised once more to the maximum number, and then it glitched, and it went higher and higher and he was losing control. He was covered in black, but seconds later, it disappeared and his LV was 2.

The humans couldn't see what just happened, as it was all blocked by the tornado of dust that rose from Izuku's attack, but the monsters saw the strange phenomenon. "Wait, what? His LV just... reset?" Toriel whispered. Most of monsterkind sighed in relief, but Sans knew the truth. But maybe, just maybe, he could fake it. "nah, he probably just raised it to intimidate the guy. bloodlust is a scary thing," Sans commented. It was a plausible explanation and one that everyone could roll with. If Izuku's LV really did reset, that probably means he got so much LV from killing that villain that it overloaded and broke the limit, and now it seems to be stuck at 2, so everyone would probably assume that it was at one before but raised up to 2 after killing the most powerful villain in the world. Nobody knows how many people this guy has killed, but the sheer amount of exp he has right now is going to weigh on him for the rest of his life.

The guilt and pain Izuku felt in this moment were pushed- forced- down (he didn't deserve to grieve) once more, just like the many times he'd done this before. It definitely helped that the hopes and dreams of all the people watching poured into his soul. He could practically hear their shouts and cheers as their screams to "Win! Defeat him! Take him down! You can do it, hero!" pulsed within his soul. He could feel the whole world calling out to him, their hearts beating as one. Was this the power of HOPE? He never wanted this feeling to end because it was the only thing keeping him sane right now.

Angel raised his fist in victory, and the world roared.

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(And there you have it, everyone! You all wanted to know why he killed them, and there it is. I have been waiting so long to reveal this to you all and I now have the opportunity. I hope you're all happy! I have been reading all sorts of comics and books and took inspiration from their stories. I also looked up some soul traits on Google. Call out to NemaTale for the info on Kindness, and Glitchtale for hatred.

Note: I have been procrastinating on this chapter for way too long. -x-

So anyway, thank you all for reading and I'll see you soon!)