"Ch-Chisaki…"
The yakuza boss raised an eyebrow of mock concern. To think just a couple of weeks ago, the same boy was howling at him with blasphemous heretics.
But now...the lunatic known as Izuku Midoriya could barely raise his voice above the decibels of a whisper.
Kai didn't mind. He liked this version a lot better.
"What's the matter?" He asked, crossing a leg over the other, his free hands toying with the edge of his gloves. "Are you feeling unwell?"
"Chiiiiiiiiiisaki!"
This time Midoriya's voice came out a low grumble. Nowhere near what the boy could do at the peak of his illness, but a worrying sign nonetheless. He would rather not dirty his hands again.
Chisaki lowered his head and sighed. "Do try and relax, Midoriya-kun. I'm not here to fight…" Golden eyes raised once again to sight the greenette before sharpening in intimidation. "Not this time."
Suspended two meters off the ground was Izuku Midoriya, clothed in the same costume he donned during the raid of the Shie Hassaikai hideout. His hair spread across his head wildly from a mixture of sweat and dirt, and his face pale from weakness.
Only half of the young hero's body was visible to Chisaki in this room.
As for the other half, Chisaki made sure to stick it on the other side of the wall.
"Just what are you planning?" Izuku asked.
"I'm sure you already know what I want. I have repeatedly stated my desires during our little scuffle down in the basement. But I supposed your dogmatic beliefs turned you deaf to sense and reason." The man stood up and paced in circles around his chair, a palm spread flat in front of him as if seizing something — perhaps the world.
"I want to restore the Hassaikai back to its former glory. Cure the world of hero syndrome and return the world back to the way it was meant to be. But you heroes…" Chisaki's hand snapped shut, his glove taking the brunt of his rage as it exploded messily in the room. "You heroes just had to come in and ruin EVERYTHING."
"Chisaki...your plan...it was wrong." Midoriya began, his eyes gluing themselves to the floor. "You hurt innocents. You took away Mirio-senpai's Quirk…. You even killed Sir Nighteye. Did you really think the Hassakai will be able to last in a world where it has incited the rage of so many?"
Things were quiet after that.
Chisaki had ended his pacing, stopping with his back turned away from the brat who dared to criticize him.
Then, he shifted his head slowly, just enough to look at the green annoyance with a single blood-shot eye. "That's why I said your heroes screwed everything up! I was supposed to sneak away discreetly, taking both Eri and the finished product with me. But you idiots who don't know what's good for them made me a target! You guys ruined EVERYTHING!"
Midoriya had to cover his ears at that outburst. The man in front of him was dangerous and unstable. But he needed to buy himself a little bit more time. Just a little bit more to regain his strength.
Luckily, Chisaki managed to regain his cool.
"Now that I have gotten that out of my system…" Chisaki cranked his neck to the sides and found catharsis in hearing it pop. He then sat himself back down on his chair. His voice was dissonantly calm, but packing just enough of an disturbed menacing edge that kept his sole audience on guard.
It was like the calm after a storm. Except there lied a very intangible, yet very real threat in the air that the next one might be coming soon.
"I was hoping that you had just enough fun ruining my first plan that you would butt out of my next one." He looked towards the ceiling and was greeted with its mundane drabness. But his eyes saw past it and right onto the plateau of power that the gangster wished to ascend once more.
"Though, I can't guarantee what will happen to you by the end of it. But I suppose I can humor you a little… Consider it as a courtesy for letting me take shelter inside here rent free…"
"You want to kidnap Eri and take her away from us again, don't you?" Midoriya interjected. "I won't let you!"
Chisaki shut his eyes to give himself a short reprieve from the freckled eyesore, savoring the precious seconds to gather his wits. He opened them again, staring straight at the human wall ornament.
"I am well aware of that fact." Chisaki shook his head and massaged the bridge of his nose. "On the few times I did manage to come near Eri after the hideout raid, you always did your best to restrict my actions from within. It must have been tough...considering I have set myself as the dominant personality."
"And that's the reason why I'm proposing a truce." The man offered. "You let me take Eri back, and in exchange I will return your body to you."
"..."
"Come on." Chisaki prodded. "I'm sure you're also sick of sharing the same body with someone that you hate. Being stuck in a state like this isn't ideal for me, either."
"..." Izuku shifted uncomfortably in his place on the wall. Finally, he found his spot. "I'm sorry, but I can't agree to that!"
With a thunderous boom, the wall exploded and Izuku Midoriya bursted back into freedom.
Chisaki stared blankly at the boy, his face turning into a frown as a dust shower of shattered concrete descent upon his feisty challenger.
"How filthy."The capo commented dryly and he stood from his seat.
He had hoped that things would go down a little bit smoother. But he should have known better to expect anything from a diseased mind.
Chisaki slipped off his gloves. "Looks like our previous encounters weren't enough for you."
The currents of Full Cowl ran through Midoriya's body. All for One, Full Cowl: 20%!
They had fought at least a dozen times since the end of the Hideout Raid. With each of those battles fought to establish control over their body.
Eventually, this repetition grew into familiarity and Izuku found his instincts in battle sharpening.
In an almost strange way, he almost had to thank Chisaki for constantly fighting with him in this world where neither one could truly die.
Izuku side-stepped to dodge a stream of sharpened earth lances, and circled to the back of Chisaki. He dashed at the villain, flipping into the air when Chisaki swiped backwards at him.
"St. Louis…" He reared his leg back, focusing all his energy into this next move. "SMASH!"
Izuku swung his leg forward, hitting Chisaki right in the face and launching the villain across the room, where he laid amongst the concrete remnants of the wall that once trapped Midoriya.
Izuku leapt towards the stunned Chisaki, a foot kicking off the ceiling as he flipped into an overhead axe kick.
"Manchester Smash!"
Chisaki rolled out of the way, allowing the pile of debris to be pulverized in his stead.
From the cloud of dust that kicked up from his missed strike, Izuku managed to make out the figure of Chisaki and went on the pursuit.
He leaned away from a forward palm strike from Chisaki and landed a punch that knocked the yakuza boss straight onto the ground.
The boy was quick to close the distance between him and Chisaki, not wanting to give the man another chance to mess with the terrain.
But when an earthly pillar rose explosively from the ground and rammed him straight in the jaw, he knew he was too late.
Chisaki rose back to his feet and wiped the filth of his face with the sleeves of his jacket. His once flawless skin was now dotted with bright pink hives.
"This is why I hate this!"
The villain laid his hand on the floor again, the walls around them crumbled, and with it, the illusion of a room. They were now standing on a black plain with ends that no eyes could reach.
"Now, die!"
The ground erupted into tiny pieces, before quickly converging into an advancing geyser of spears. Izuku got off the floor, a sense of urgency fueling him as he stomped into the earth, pulverizing it just enough to deflect the trajectory of Chisaki's attack.
"What's wrong, hero?" Chisaki taunted from afar. "What happened to the absurd strength you had when you messed everything up for me? Can it be that without Eri, you're afraid of using it?"
When Izuku scowled, Chisaki took it as a sign that he was right.
"Some hero you are!" Chisaki spat, disgusted. "Let me guess, you're having trouble controlling it as well?"
Chisaki smirked at the lack of an answer. It seemed that he was right again. "In that case…" He slammed his hand on the ground. "Let me take the burden off of you!"
The ground roared as it was ripped apart once more, and two arching tendrils of solid rock soon hurtled towards Izuku from the distance, coming from both his left and right at once.
The green hero leapt up to dodge, allowing the stone structures to collide against each other.
He then landed with an axe kick to the ground, striking with enough force to send a rippling shockwave that destroyed the terrain within 15 meters radius from the origin of the collision.
Having been inside the effective range, Chisaki found his footing disrupted and his balance challenged as the area around him trembled and splintered wildly.
A more imminent threat loomed towards him in the form of Midoriya, who managed to cross the distance between them at the drop of a heartbeat.
The ensuing collision was fierce as Chisaki found himself lifted up by the gut-piercing fist and tossed up into the air. When he landed, he landed harshly, his body bouncing up slightly from the impact.
This time, Chisaki had a little more trouble getting up from the floor.
"How much longer can you last in that state? Five minutes? Ten minutes? Perhaps less than that?" Chisaki asked as he drew laborious breaths. He was kneeling on one knee, not quite recovered enough to move around.
"I can see that you're in a great amount of pain as well." Chisaki observed as he looked at the grimacing face of the teen in front of him. "How does it feel to be ripped apart by your own Quirk? Quirks are a terrible thing, wouldn't you agree?"
"...Urgh...shut it."
Chisaki scratched the floor, and a monstrous garden of arms rose from the ground behind him. "I will cure all of you soon enough!"
The wave of hands washed towards the boy all at once— a challenge that Izuku met head on as he sprinted forward.
As the hands neared him, Izuku kicked, dodged, and punched them away. The distance between himself and Chisaki drawing nearer and nearer.
"Impertinent brat!" Chisaki growled, his fingers clawing into the ground harder. In an instant, the moving stones arms stopped, broke, and reformed above his enemy as a crowd of descending meteors.
Izuku leapt, rolled and kicked as he fought for his survival. At times, he would kick the rocks hard enough to shatter. Others, he would kick them against each other.
As he jumped away from yet another meteoroid, he felt his footing give away. He shot a brief glance downward, catching sight of the rupturing concrete— a telltale sign of Chisaki's Quirk.
Almost instantly, the splintered rocks bloomed into a flower of jagged petals, and Izuku Midoriya, caught in its growth, was blasted meters away.
With great difficulty, Izuku rolled onto his stomach, immediately recognizing that a couple bones in his ribs broke from Chisaki's prior attack. The rest of his body was scraped horribly, blood was spilling from everywhere, and his costume was destroyed almost completely.
He had to quickly remind himself that none of this was real. That none of what happened to him in this world would have a bearing on him in real life. That this battle was purely metaphysical.
If he broke his limbs in this world, he would recover within the span of a few hours. Even if he were to "die", he would "respawn" within the day. Having battled Chisaki multiple times in this mindscape, he was more aware of this than anyone.
Which means… Izuku Midoriya braced himself as his power spiraled out uncontrollably from within him. His viridian hair stood up under the influence of an arcane force, trails of blue flames leaked from the corner of his eyes. One For All: Full Cowl -100%.
He had only one shot at this.
Unlike the time with Eri, he would be immobilized immediately after using this power.
But as Chisaki was no longer in his dragon form, one shot might be all he needed.
Izuku knew he needed to win this. He needed to take back full control over his body. Then he would go up to the heroes and ask them to lock him up until they could somehow separate Chisaki from his body.
With no hesitation, he flashed in front of Chisaki, moving so fast that the man couldn't even react to him. His legs shattered from the power that they outputted and was now flailing around bonelessly in the air. But Izuku refused to let the pain stop him.
Not this time.
The only thing reflected in Chisaki's golden pupils was the image of his nearing fist.
"Smash!" He roared and drove his fist into Chisaki's face, launching him far enough across the plain that he could no longer see him.
The boy then fell limply onto the ground, having accomplished what he intended on doing. The only things that accompanied him were the agony of his broken limbs, but even that agony, was overshadowed by the catharsis of victory.
He finally won. Now all he had to do was wait for his body to wake up in real life.
"How naive!"
What?
The small grin on Midoriya's face faded away as he forced himself to look up. Standing over his fallen body was Chisaki, looking like he wasn't hurt at all.
"H-how is this possible? I hit you with everything I had!" Izuku managed to stammer out in his shock. He tried his best to move but his broken limbs wouldn't allow it.
Chisaki placed a boot on Midoriya's face for good measure. "You were fast, I will give you that. But just before I lost consciousness, I disassembled myself and put myself back together as good as new."
He ground his shoe against Midoriya's face. "Such a feat might be hard to do if we fought in real life. But as the dominant personality in this world, my durability has been pushed to the extreme."
Izuku's eyes widened in fear at that revelation.
"If I remember correctly, I was just about to tell you my plan before you interrupted me—" Chisaki stared at him with dead eyes that lacked compassion. "As a courtesy, I think I will tell you anyway. If this keeps up, you won't be in any position to stop me anyway."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh?" Chisaki raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. "You didn't notice? Every time that I kill you in this world, you come back a little bit weaker than before. Think of it as losing ownership in a company. If I started with sixty percent of the share, I would say I'm about seventy percent right now. Which means, I'm steadily edging you out."
Izuku's jaw dropped in horror. "It can't be!"
Chisaki gave a nonchalant shrug. "Don't worry, you won't be completely eradicated. I can't do that even if I wanted to. I will just keep you at around one percent and use your memories and experiences to get me through sticky situations."
"Now where was I?" The man asked as he scratched his chin in contemplation. "Right my plan."
"When you heroes cornered me in the hideout, I was honestly quite scared. I was wondering how I could continue to survive now that my plan was revealed to the public and the League of Villains had betrayed me. Most of the members of the Hassaikai were arrested too, so I was in a tight spot even if I somehow defeated you." Chisaki explained, his unblinking eyes hiding the smile forming underneath his mask. "But then a garbage by the name of Izuku Midoriya decided to punch me in the air where no one could see what we were doing."
"Yes!" Chisaki pointed a finger at the boy underneath his foot. "I'm talking about you."
"When you stumbled during the final moments of our fight, I took advantage and disassembled both you and Eri in one fell swoop. I then reassembled you, Katsukame and myself together, with Eri restored firmly in my grasp."
"..." Izuku turned his head down in shame. If only he didn't screw up then things wouldn't be as bad as they were right now.
"Fortunately, the dumb girl somehow lost consciousness through the process and didn't see what happened. And, luckily, all of us managed to survive the crash landing with Katsukame's humongous frame. When we landed, I decided to put the next phase of my plan into action."
"The next phase of your plan?"
Chisaki nodded. "Yes, I cleverly separated our bodies from Katsukame and rebuilt it under your likeness. Then with the same precision and technique, I reconstructed Katsukame to look like me and had him arrested under the illusion of my defeat. But in reality, I was standing right there, with Eri right in my hands."
Izuku's stomach churned in disgust. "How can you treat your own subordinate like that?"
"But sadly, that was where I ran into some stumbling blocks." Chisaki sighed as he lifted his shoe off Izuku's face and resumed pacing around in circles.
"I didn't take into account the degree of the sickness that infected you all. The heroes, they crowded around us, asking us with their stinky breaths if we were ok. Then in the middle of the chaos, they somehow managed to lead Eri away from me."
"And then…" Chisaki's eyes narrowed in anger. "...there was the case with the bullets."
"I planned on retrieving them at one point during the aftermath of our battle. But the police had already taken it into their custody! When I tried to trick them into showing the bullets to me, the dumb girls from your school pulled me aside and insisted that I had my wounds checked by a doctor."
"To top it all off…" Quivers of fury had now infected the yakuza leader's voice, his previous tranquility nowhere to be heard. "You heroes stupidly lost to the League of Villains when they attacked the prisoner convoy and caused the bullets to fall into their hands."
"But…" Like before, Chisaki seemed to have managed to calm himself down, his voice relaxed from his confidence. "Everything is going to be just fine. With your body, I will earn the trust of the heroes. Then, when the stars align, I will take back Eri and resume the production of my bullets. I might even work with you idiots to put an end to Shigaraki and the League of Villains. I certainly owe them a debt for tricking me."
"But Chisaki, the moment you return to evil, the heroes will track you down again!"
Chisaki stared at the boy like he was the dumbest thing in the world. "That's why I have taken over your body, idiot. Now, everything that I do will be linked to you. The moment that things get too tough, I will separate from your body and let you take the blame for everything. I might even alter your brain so that you would never be able to spill the truth to anyone. All the while, with the power that I would have amassed by that point, I will continue to pull the strings from the shadow and become a figure of legend."
Izuku's face paled. "...How can this be…?"
"I can already picture the headlines!" Chisaki waved a hand horizontally in front of him to pantomime reading the paper. "U.A. Student Descent to Villainy! Should We Question the Integrity of the Nation's Hero Schools?"
Chisaki stopped his pacing and returned to Midoriya, squatting down right in front of the boy's head. "And then with the frenzy of the media, it might trigger a domino effect that will lead to the abolishment of the hero system!"
The villain took Izuku's head in his fingers. "I pity you, Midoriya. If only you hadn't gotten yourself involved with Eri and I, then you could have continued living your stupid dream. But now, at the end, all you will end up as is the biggest smear on your school's legacy."
"S-stop this, Chisaki." Izuku pleaded. "This isn't right."
Chisaki simply looked at him with dead gold eyes. "See you later, hero."
He applied pressure with his fingers and popped Izuku like a gorey balloon.
"It is I, who will be the next overlord of evil."