Hello everyone! In this chapter of Voidborne we're finally here, the moment many of you have been waiting for. The complete decimation of the Yaoyorozu parents is happening this chapter.
You didn't come here to listen to me blather on, enjoy this next instalment and have that sadistic itch scratched. Onwards, to the main event!
Izuku
As the Roses let loose their pent-up rage on the bastards, I make the beanbag float up and off to a side room so she doesn't have to see or hear the process of what's about to happen. Even if they made her life miserable, I wouldn't want her to have to witness a torture session as I have. You don't come out of a long stint of slaughters and torture the same as when you went into it. I don't want her to have to carry a similar burden to mine.
Setting down the beanbag I suddenly realize we're alone. In a side room I sound-proofed to block out the sounds of torture. While Momo's clothing situation was...less than modest.
Turning into a bumbling mess I panic slightly, yelping "Oh shit, I'm sorry I didn't think to give you something to cover yourself with better before now. I have no dishonourable intentions what so ever, I just didn't want you to see a torture session, even if they made your life miserable. Hang on a moment, bloody hell..." mumbling at break-neck speed as Pandora swiftly creates a copy of my travelling cloak that I wear over my armour. Looking away in embarrassment, I drape the cloak over her while trying not to notice her obvious blush.
After she's snuggled into the oversized cloak, she mumbles "It's okay...I wouldn't mind...if you wanted to" her face turning crimson and her expression somehow shy and inviting all at once. Ignoring Pandora's bout of uncontrollable laughter from the storage space, I try to divert my thoughts from the sudden invasion of perverse thoughts with little success. Calming myself to the point I won't have a mumbling episode halfway through the next part, I take a deep breath and prepare myself.
"I understand that part of you wants this, but can you say for certain that it's not just because I'm the first person you've ever met that showed you kindness? Are you sure that it's something you wouldn't regret later on? I don't want to take advantage of you being alone and scared like that, because I'd end up becoming like the very people I swore to destroy. A manipulator, a heart-breaker, a...villain" I explain slowly, her softly nodding as she takes it all in. She seems calmer, yet somehow more eager than ever to stay with me.
Internally I'm screaming at this situation. I have a girl that I can't deny would be a bombshell once she cleaned up and was back to full health throwing herself at me, yet I needed to try and get her to back down longer enough to make sure it's something she won't regret. I haven't even sorted out my messy feelings for Mei yet and this was happening to me.
As a bolt of inspiration hit me, I chuckle and lean in close to Momo whispering "How about this then, I'll let you in on a little secret. The name everyone calls me by outside is Judgement and most think I'm at least twenty-five. Even most of the people out there thinks so aside from Stain and Spinner. The truth is...I'm the same age as you" knowing that it was a bombshell and a half to drop on her.
Noticing the shocked look in her eyes I laugh lightly continuing "I kind of figured that would be your reaction, so here's the deal. There's a little girl at UA that I ended up rescuing from some people that were using her in a similar way your parents were. I ended up becoming her unofficial 'Papa' and want to make sure I'm nearby in case anyone decides to try and take her to use as a tool again. That's why I'm taking the UA entrance exam next year. The hero course one specifically.
I was planning on leaving you in the care of the...person I entrusted my daughter to, he wouldn't try and use you for your quirk, so you'll most likely be living on the same campus as I will at that point. If you still feel the same way you do now at that time, we can talk again about where to go with this" not missing the surprise and joy that blazed in her eyes when she heard those details.
Pandora creates a small bracelet similar to the one I made for Eri and hand it to her stating "When that time comes if you wish to talk, write your message on a piece of paper and tap it to the small black orb at the bottom. I'll get your message and talk as best I can. Oh yeah, and if you manage to guess which of the hero students I am before I tell you, I'll answer any one question you have about me. Sound like a deal?"
Momo
Stupid, stupid, stupid, why did I say that? Now he's going to think I'm some kind of cheap girl that'll just throw herself at people out of nowhere. Internally bracing myself for the berating that was sure to come, I look up and see his expression change rapidly through shock, confusion, understanding and comforting. He wasn't angry? I just sprung that on him and it doesn't upset him at all?
Instead of being angry or outright rejecting me he slowly and calmly explains why he isn't taking me up on my offer. He doesn't want to take advantage of me? He doesn't want to manipulate me? He doesn't want to be a...villain.
In the middle of his explanation my heart begins to ache for him. He saved me from hell, done more to make things better for people than most of the 'heroes' that I'd ever had the misfortune to come into contact with, yet he's so utterly terrified of falling to temptation and becoming a villain. I know he isn't trying to push me away, that he just wants to make sure I can be happy further down the line without regrets, yet each moment near him seems to fill my heart and soul with ever more love for him.
For the first time in my life, I know what it's like to be treated as my own person, to be cared for who I am and not what I can allow him to gain. To meet someone who embodies everything that those heroes were supposed to, without lie or deceit. To see what kindness looks like.
Someone so warm, gentle and caring to someone like me, someone that everyone was willing to turn their backs on. Someone that came down the stairs like an angel from on high and took me away from the clutches of my personal hell. Someone that held such righteous fury and discontent for the sake of the lost and the abandoned.
How could someone like him ever possibly become a villain as he feared?
I could feel his gaze focusing on me as he weighs up something in his mind. He smiles gently through the mask and reveals knowledge that proceeds to demolish any kind of common sense I had established. He was the infamous vigilante Judgement that I saw occasionally mentioned on the screen, notorious for slaughtering the worst of the monsters that inhabited the underworld across the entire planet. An infamous figure the same age as me.
Hearing him say that only two people knew this apart from me, people that had fought alongside him and he considered close friends brought me to a euphoric high. He trusted me with this sort of information. Information that could hurt him, get him caught if anyone else found out.
Still somewhat shell-shocked by the revelation he then proceeded to shatter my world view a second and then a third time in so many minutes. He had an adoptive daughter he had saved from similar circumstances to mine being looked after by the faculty at UA. He planned to take the hero course entrance exam. All this secret knowledge freely granted to me as a show of trust, of faith in me only drew me closer to him, made me want to be capable of standing beside him more.
Calming me down, he begrudgingly spoke of leaving me in the care of the same person that looks after his own adoptive daughter. I felt a burst of joy on hearing that knowledge. Anyone he would entrust the girl he whole-heartedly considers his daughter to is some I could bring myself to have some hope for their moral compass.
At that moment my brain caught up and fully understood the implications even before he laid it out clearly for me. I would be on the same campus as him one year from now. I would be able to find out who he was and dedicate myself to him, both as Judgement and the saviour behind the mask. I could be together with him, always.
The moment he handed me the bracelet, a way to contact and speak privately with him at any time along with his challenge brought me joy that equalled getting free from those chains. Escaping those chains brought an end to the misery and pain that was my old life. Putting on that bracelet and accepting his challenge gave me a direction to take my new life, a new world outside the mansion to cleanse and improve according to his dream.
Smiling in sweet bliss, I fall asleep with my arms wrapped around his neck and a fading thought of how hard it would be to wait a year to search for him. I'd manage to do it somehow. It'd all be worth it if it meant that I got to hold him close like this again.
Izuku
Looking down at her content peaceful smile, I knew that she had fallen hard for me. After so long without any love or even anything remotely considered affection, she probably would've felt the same about anyone who came to save her and showed her the slightest bit of kindness. Hopefully a year at UA would allow her to understand what kindness, concern and love were like so she would have a different perspective to work with when we next met face to face.
Turning the beanbag into a sling that hung across my neck, I lifted her up and carried her back into the main hall to inspect the gruesome aftermath of the Roses torture session. I have to say, they really weren't messing around with those baleful glares they were shooting the bastards when I carried Momo up. It was some of their most brutal work yet.
The father had his cock and balls removed, minced then shoved down his throat, his ribs fused back together to remain permanently sticking out of his chest, his leg bones splintered into enough pieces to resemble a multi-thousand piece 3-D puzzle and his arm bones removed and the flesh tied up in a bow tie behind his back. His ears were melted into the side of his head, his lips stitched shut and his vocal cords had been torn out and someone's quirk had fused a piece of surgical piping into the gap so he would live never able to order anyone else around again. A certain sense of irony considering how much he enjoyed power and authority.
The mother had received a similar treatment with her reproductive organs removed, a bowling ball shoved into the resulting cavity being the main difference between her and the father. Crafting a knife, I cackle with malicious intent "Anyone want to sign their work? It should make a clear statement about what happens to those that cross the line"
Needless to say, the decision was unanimous and swiftly agreed upon. They even left Stain and I a large gap in spot of honour at the centre of their backs. Drawing a knife of his own Stain grins savagely as he makes his way towards them, whereas I control mine from a distance to avoid waking the still slumbering Momo that was clinging to me with she had.
That didn't mean I wasn't sporting a chilling grin of my own the entire time I was leaving my signature behind.
Thanking Pandora for being smart enough to record everything that had happened since reaching the main hall as I had forgotten to turn on the camera to gather evidence to release to the world about their appalling treatment in my haste to get Momo out of here and confirmed to be in stable condition. Seems I have a bad habit of getting a bit too worked up at times.
As we all gathered up, my instincts suddenly started blaring in alarm as I threw up a thick shield of reenforced titanium over the front wall of the mansion and another around us just in time for something to put a colossal hole in wall, scattering chunks of titanium and wall towards us that were deflected off my second shield as a booming laughter echoes around the hall. "You shall not escape villains, for I am here!" came the echoing call of the one who I had revered as a god, only to see him as the pathetic two-faced imitator he was. The one that pushed me into starting my own crusade.
Standing smugly in front of the ruins of the front of the mansion was none other than All Might.
A savage snarl escapes my mouth as I growl "Stain, take the girl with the others and get them out of here. I'll stall the blond pretender myself then warp out to meet you all" before noticing his hesitation at who I would have to fight. Cackling slightly with pure rage fuelling my will, I speak "Don't worry about me, this is the best way for everyone to get out of this mess and I need to settle something with this bastard while I'm here. If you want to help me, get everyone out of here as quickly as possible and we can warp away sooner" readying myself to fight with everything I have.
Signalling everyone to escape as he cradles the terrified Momo he sighs "Alright, but you better get out of here in one piece...my son" worry clearly visible in his eyes as turns to follow them.
That jolly, mocking voice announces "Where do you think you're running to villains?" hurling a blast of air pressure at the retreating Roses and the still weak Momo looking on helplessly from Stain's chest as the blast hurtles towards them at high speed.
A thicker, more concentrated wall shaped into a cone with a flared base springs into existence between them and the blast, taking advantage of the having a known vector for the air blast to create the most effective barrier possible. After the air blast was dispersed by the barrier, I look at All Might condescendingly wagging a finger tutting "Now, now All Lies, shouldn't you be checking where the rest of the staff are before you try and target the rest of us? Not that I should expect much better for someone who only pretends for the cameras. You're not even half the hero many of those ranked below you are, you're just better at playing with public perception than them" my disappointment and disgust making him pause for a moment to consider my words.
"Where are they villain?" he bellows, still as self-righteous and arrogant as ever. Howling with laughter I splutter "Oh I'm the villain? Well, isn't that rich to hear from someone like you, here in this mansion of lies of all places especially. Do you have any idea what these 'upstanding pillars of the community' were doing? That they were doing actions sickening enough that an information broker who is willing to sell almost anything to anyone approached me and offered the information for free to try and stop? That those four corpses over there did worse things while being protected by heroes who are supposed to save people than most villain ever could over their entire careers?" causing his smile to start to drop slightly as I rounded on him and revealed the bombshell that I knew would hurt him the most at this moment.
"They were using their own fucking daughter as a machine to make support gear, with the full knowledge of several pro heroes that make use of them. They were keeping her locked in a basement with titanium spikes through her limbs chained to the wall! I'm going to guess you came here to save 'the poor, unfortunate saints' that were getting attacked by 'the big, scary villains' you blond ape. Well guess what chuckles, life is so much more an endless shading of grey than you like to think it is.
Perhaps the reason you're so stuck in that childish mindset is that it helps you sleep at night if you never have to consider how the real monsters are. Maybe it's just so you can have a nice, simple life where everything is black and white that you blind yourself to the monsters that do worse things inside the system that most villains ever have the opportunity to" my chest heaving as I took a grim sense of satisfaction at the look of dismay that spread across his face.
The signature grin that was always in place was gone, something no amount of pain or wounds had ever managed before. I'd made the 'symbol of peace' lose the smile he constantly wore like a mask to hide the hypocrite behind the mask. A slightly devious idea came to mind as I smirk taunting "Well if you want to call me a villain, go ahead. At least I don't lie and dance in front of the cameras." starting to shake with rage at the look of confusion on his face.
Deciding to torment him even further I mock "Oh, I should've guessed. The great, important 'symbol of peace' wouldn't remember such an event. After all, it was just five minutes to you, but to that child it was what brought his world crashing down around him. I believe the question was 'Can I be hero, even without a quirk?'. He asked the person who had spoken about how anyone could be a hero if he ever had a chance and you said no. He worshipped you All Might, looked up to you like a god and you shattered his hopes and dreams. So, after he saved the child held hostage by a villain that the heroes weren't willing to risk their necks for, I decided to do what you refused to, because you were so caught up in yourself you couldn't see past his quirklessness. I gave him hope and a chance to become a hero" taking a moment to indulge in gleeful joy at his horror.
"He always had the heart of a true hero inside him, all I did was just gave him the tools to reach his potential. I awakened his dormant power; I also happened to have transferred the knowledge of some rather potent training methods into his head recently. Training methods that would allow him to surpass you and be the hero you were too blind to see" enjoying his despair.
Gaining the signal that they were far enough away, I mock "Oh by the way, the staff are in the dining hall. They had no part in this travesty as far as we could tell, so we weren't about to get them involved for being unaware of their employer's sins. Have fun and remember this, fake..." Void heart wrapping around me and the others in the distance leaving my voice ringing in the air.
"...he shall be a greater hero than you could ever hope to be"
Oh boy, that was a long one. This is a chapter I took great joy in writing. I personally take issue with All Might for several reasons, some of which are mentioned in this chapter by Izuku.
Yes, I enjoy All Might bashing. Anyways, hope you all stay safe and healthy during the 2021 rendition of a Plague Inc. Game.