Dante sat down at the main desk, the large computer in front of him booting up. The chair creaked as he leaned forward, slipping the disk of Ryujin's final fight into the drive.
There wasn't a password or an encryption or anything for some reason, but Dante was in.
The screen flickered, then opened into a black and white security feed.
The timestamp read 19 years ago. The location was an abandoned chemical facility on the edge of the city.
Ryujin stood in the center of the screen. His stance was wide, arms loose at his sides, breath calm.
Five figures surrounded him.
One of them was holding a massive metal hammer with lightning crackling around it.
Another was floating off the ground, wrapped in cloth like a cursed monk.
A third man had molten claws, clearly a high level fire quirk.
The forth was smaller but probably quicker, blades spinning around his wrists like propellers.
And the last was a hulking brute, covered in stone like armour, nearly three times the size of Ryujin.
The small one moved in fast, but Ryujin had already anticipated this, he moved out of the way and a long scaled arm burst out from his right shoulder, topped with a dragon-like head, the head snapped forward, fangs catching the attacker mid sprint. The dragon clamped down, searing hot breath scalding the man's face before hurling him into a steel tank.
The next was the molten claws guy, he raised both arms. Twin infernos surged forward, but Ryujin countered with a dragon head erupting out from his spine, mouth open wide as it met the flames with a blast of white hot fire, even hotter than the villain's. The two fires clashed midair, but Ryujin's was overwhelming. The villain staggered, screaming.
"That's two…" Ryujin muttered.
The stone brute moved in from the right, each step shaking the ground. At the same time, the floating monk levitated above, summoning a sphere of black energy.
*WHAM!*
The brute landed a crushing blow to Ryujin's side, sending him flying into a rusted beam. Bones cracked.
The monk released the sphere.
Ryujin raised both arms and from both palms srouted dragon heads, they coiled and crossed, forming an impromptu shield. The sphere hit—
*BOOM!*
The strange energy spread like ink in water, corroding everything it touched. But Ryujin's dragons fought it back, their bodies crumbling in effort.
Ryujin hit the ground hard, breathing heavily.
Then, he stood.
"You're all just animals wearing human skin."
From his back, four dragon heads erupted out, each glowing ferociously. They hissed as Ryujin bent his knees and surged forward.
He spun.
One dragon caught the fire villain mid recovery, bit his upper torso clean off.
Another spewed fire across the monk's chest, burning through the robes and reducing his arms to ash.
The small villain recovered and flew at Ryujin. But he caught him by the throat and a dragon grew out from his wrist, opening its mouth just inches away from the man's face.
*FWOOOOSH!*
There was nothing left but a scream.
Three down. Two to go.
The hammer wielder, charged with his weapon glowing with electricity. Ryujin raised his fists, fire crackling around him, and then—
From his chest, a larger dragon grew straight forward, launching a jet stream of fire so strong it bent the metal plating off the facility's wall behind the villain.
But the stone brute was still somehow standing.
Ryujin's face twisted, not in fear. But in defiance.
He roared and dozens of small dragon heads erupted across his back, like a hydras nest. They opened in unison and unleashed an inferno; a perfect sphere of blazing death around him.
The brute and hammer wielder were swallowed whole.
Silence.
The camera feed flicked, smoke and flames blotting out the lens.
When it cleared, Ryujin was barely standing.
One arm hung limp. The flames had melted his own body. But he stood, eyes locked on the camera.
"If someone finds this… keep growing strong, never give up on your dreams."
Then the screen turned black.
Dante stared at the screen, unmoving, eyes locked onto the last frozen frame, Ryujin, beaten but unbowed.
There wasn't any weakness in that fight.
Dante stood still for another moment, just looking at the screen.
Then, he turned.
Across the room, Dante had stacked some of Ryujin's journals and notebooks , he wanted to learn more about him, about how he does things. Each one labeled meticulously in Ryujin's handwriting. Combat strategies. Quirk theories. Personal notes. All of it untouched since the man's death.
Dante sat down infront of them.
He reached out and pulled one free.
And started to read through it.
Page after page turned slowly. Dante scanned through the lines carefully. He leaned over the table, elbows buried into the wood, mind absorbing every detail.
Time passed in silence.
Sometimes he paused, fingers frozen over a sentence or word. Not because he wouldn't understand it, but because he did understand it. The way Ryujin thought. The way he fought. The way he prepared for battle every single day without rest.
"What would life be like if he was still here? And how come he's not that popular, he was really powerful…"
The thought anchored in his chest.
His mind wandered for a moment—for some reason he thought of Kendou.
They were supposed to go out somewhere tomorrow, or well… later today. Just something simple. She looked really excited, like she wanted to pull him away from all of this sadness. He wanted to go. He really did.
But…
What kind of person would he be, dragging her into the kind of life he was about to lead?
She deserved to smile. To be safe. To live her life long and happy without any blood on her hands.
Dante dropped his gaze back to the manual.
And kept reading.
Hours blurred together.
The second hand on the old clock ticked on and on.
The digital clock on the wall blinked: 5:14 AM.
Then 5:46 AM.
And then finally it was 6:00 AM.
Dante hadn't blinked in a while. He hadn't yawned. He wasn't tired.
He was wide awake.