Nine for All: Shots

by KingVessel

A companion fic to Nine for All which explores backstories. After all, everyone has the potential to be the hero of their own story.

2. Chapter 2

Chapter 02: One for All - The First

---

Russia. A country with cold winters that are largely referred to as one of it's defining features.

At 0 degrees Celsius, natural water starts freezing.

At -16 degrees Celsius, car fuel starts freezing and renders gas dependent cars inoperable.

At -40 degrees Celsius, birds freeze and drop from the sky, shattering on impact the moment they crash against any surface.

At -71.2 degrees Celsius, Satoshi Shigaraki and Takashi Shigaraki watched their guardian slowly breathe his last as he bled out before them.

"W-What do we do, Nii-san...?" Takashi shivered, his weak body even more susceptible to the cold than anybody else. "Father isn't breathing... At this rate, he'll..."

"HE'S NOT OUR FATHER! DON'T YOU GET IT?!" Satoshi snapped, the icemade axe still dripping with blood in his hand. "FATHER DIED A LONG TIME AGO! THIS MAN IS JUST A ANIMAL WHO WALTZED INTO OUR HOME AND CLAIMED TO BE A FRIEND OF FATHER! THIS BASTARD DOESN'T EVEN QUALIFY AS A SHITTY STEPFATHER!"

Satoshi gasped for breath before continuing. "Also... He tried to touch you, Takashi. Forget everything else, that's something that warrants the death penalty!"

"But... but..." Takashi(13) fell into a quiet sob, causing his brother to try and comfort him.

"Stop crying!" Satoshi(15) ordered, adjusting his brother's scarf. In this deadly cold of Russia, they needed all the warmth they could get. "Your tears are gonna freeze up. And keep your mask on! Now, let's go!"

Satoshi led the run through the heavy snow as the storm picked up, leading his brother away from the rapidly cooling body.

"Wait... Are we going to leave?!" Takashi asked in a panic. "If we leave him outside, we're gonna become murderers! Let's take him inside, Nii-san. It's not too late."

"WOULD YOU QUIT IT?!" Satoshi rounded on Takashi. "DO YOU THINK HE'LL LET US LIVE IF HE WAKES UP?! THAT PIECE OF SHIT ALWAYS BEATS US UP AFTER GETTING DRUNK! JUST LEAVE HIM BE!"

"...please." Takashi held his brother's hands in his own, his tear-filled eyes full of beseechment. "Don't be like this."

"...didn't I tell you to stop crying?" Satoshi pulled his hands free to search for a handkerchief. "It's -50 degrees Celsius right now... Fine... I give up."

With {Stockpile} just acquired the previous day, it took little effort to drag the man back into their cabin.

"Hurry up and pack up." Satoshi wasted no time in looking for valuables. "Make sure to grab as much food as you can. I'll handle the cash."

"Uhh... what?"

"We're leaving this hellhole." Satoshi clarified as he emptied their stepfather's wallet. "Old man Rustem is headed to the city today so we'll hitch a ride with him and get away from here."

---

"What did you just say, you damn brat?!"

Takashi fell to the floor bleeding as the man's kick busted his lip open. The man wasted little time in stomping on him some more.

"I've done so much to raise you orphans! Your weakass mom got kidnapped and killed! Your old man died in that accident! As your landlord and father's friend, I took it upon myself to raise you up most of your lives! And you couldn't even bring me some food?! You couldn't catch any fucking fish just cause it snowed a little?! You brats are useless, especially with that older brother of your's going off somewhere whenever he feels like it!"

Satoshi stared in blank horror as he had just returned from collecting {Stockpile} to witness their guardian beat up his little brother who had inherited their Russian mother's frail body. '...stop it... don't hit Takashi!'

"Wait a sec..." The man had stopped to put a thoughtful hand to his chin. "You're about the age when you can entertain customers now. Satoshi's no good but they'll be into a frail one like you. In fact... I might as well break you in myself."

The moment his hand brushed Takashi's hair, Satoshi's axe had already hacked into the offending shoulder. Before the man could react beyond recoiling in pain, a quick burst of {Stockpile} sent the man out the still open door.

And with a leap, Satoshi slammed down on him, ripping out the frozen watery weapon out only to hack again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again...

---

"I'm getting angry just remembering it." Satoshi growled until he felt two arms hug him from behind.

"Don't worry, Nii-san." Takashi murmured into Satoshi's shoulder. "As long as you're with me, I'm fine with anything. It's like that story that Pa used to read us. One for All..."

Satoshi shuddered in response as he calmed down. "...and All for One."

The brothers smiled at each other for a bit... until Takashi spoke again.

"We're taking our comics along, right?"

"Of course, we are! They're too valuable to leave in this dump."

---

Unfortunately, things weren't that simple. They slowly made their way across the country, hoping to head to their father's homeland, Japan. However, they struggled every bit of the way.

Satoshi made liberal use of his Meta Ability against anyone who sought to harm them. As time passed, he soon almost lost count of how many he held now, even as he passed on the {Stockpile} Meta Ability to Takashi in order to aid his body while replacing it with {Enhanced Strength}. However, an incident happened in which they were separated.

After two years on the road, an incident occurred in which a human trafficker drugged the Shigaraki brothers and sold them separately. Takashi was placed into a group of trucks filled with fellow slaves to be smuggled to buyers.

"Dynamic Exit!" Takashi screamed as he burst through the locked truck door and ran into a nearby forest, doing his best to ignore the shot bullets as he had escaped as soon as he could.

Takashi's lungs hurt him immensely as he kept running. He had never hated his weak body as he did at the moment. "I'm pretty sure they'll quickly track me down because of my footprints. Damn snow!"

"Wait! Hold on!"

Takashi stared behind him as Truslivyy, one of the ones who had been captured as well, caught up. "T-T-Take me w-with y-you."

Takashi stared blankly at him before heavily refusing. "No! You left even more footprints in the snow to follow me! Two sets of footprints going in the same direction are way easier to follow that them being separate! You should've gone elsewhere instead following me!"

"S-Sorry..." Truslivyy shivered. "C-Can... C-C-Can we s-s-slow d-down a bit? My l-l-legs are about to f-f-freeze."

"You're Russian too, aren't you?" Takashi questioned. "I'm only half Russian and with this frail body of mine, I'm resisting better than you! Plus, it's only -14 degree Celsius right now!"

Truslivyy stared dully at the supposedly 'frail' boy with a body apparently more sturdy than his.

They continued on for an hour until they ran into something strange.

"Wait, is that a deer?"

The two came upon a dead deer, with fresh blood and injuries all over it's form.

"It's my first time seeing one for real." Truslivyy muttered.

Takashi frowned as he observed it's injuries. "I saw them all the time back home. Nii-san and I would hunt them down for food. But... it's been mauled... Go find a sharp rock."

"What?" Truslivyy stuttered.

"You've been complaining for the past hour about how cold you were." Takashi sighed as he kicked a nearby tree in frustration. "I'll skin that thing and wrap it around you so that you don't die-"

*BANG!*

"Enough games, kid." The slavers had caught up. "It's so annoying to deal with little children."

"...damnit." Takashi growled while Truslivyy shook next to him.

"No..." Truslivyy moaned as he took some steps back. "Not like this...!"

"The half-bred is our most expensive item, keep him alive." The leader ordered. "Feel free to shoot the other one."

"No...No! NO!" Truslivyy ran behind Takashi to use him as a shield, startling him as he was pushed forward slightly. "PLEASE, SAVE ME!"

Takashi gritted his teeth in frustration. 'I was wondering why there was a deer corpse out here in the wild with it's flesh and blood still warm!'

The leader and his accomplices frowned in confusion as the kids had been directing their gazes not at them but above them. Then they all heard the growl.

Behind the traffickers was a giant black bear, it's beady eyes alight with hunger.

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWRRR!"

The leader was the first to die, having his head swiped off and leading the others to shoot at it.

"Now's our chance! Let's get away from-!" Takashi's words were cut off when a straight tree branch was suddenly stabbed into his leg... by Truslivyy.

"Sorry... I'm sorry!" Truslivyy stammered, his eyes frenzied. "But they want you! They're treating you like precious cargo! They'll do whatever it takes to keep you alive! If they capture you, they won't bother chasing after me..."

Takashi glared as Truslivyy stumbled and ran away. "I'm sorry... But I want to live!"

"You bastard! You better hope my brother never finds you!" Takashi yelled before slowly pulling the branch out. Thankfully, it didn't go deep and it came out swiftly enough, although still leaving him bleeding heavily.

A deep growl reached him. Takashi turned to see the bear victorious amongst the corpses of the traffickers. "Well... you look mad... However..."

Takashi held up his impromptu weapon, praying that it wouldn't break quickly. "I have a brother I must meet again. So no, you can't kill or eat me."

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWRR!"

'I gotta focus on his wounds!' Red tendrils of energy rushed across his skin as he dashed forward, dodging a swipe to aim for a bullet wound in it's shoulder. 'Over there! Thank god for those trigger happy bastards!'

Takashi stabbed his impromptu spear into the wound but was suddenly thrown upwards as the bear recoiled onto it's hindlegs. With a swipe across his chest, Takashi was sent flying, bouncing across the snow until he came to a stop.

"Ah! That hurts!" Takashi coughed up blood. He looked up only to see the bear's claws already in motion to crush his head. In an instant, he threw himself forward to the ground, allowing the bear to slash through a tree instead.

'That tree got gutted like it was paper!' Takashi gaped as he beheld the tree slowly falling over. 'The moment I get hit, I'm dead! Running away in this environment and with my injuries are impossible... which means... I gotta face this thing head on! Like Nii-san would!'

Takashi dodged another swipe before getting up to stab into another wound.

"GWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRR!"

In it's pain throes, the bear sent a swipe that was too fast at Takashi, cutting into his chest and sending him flying. As the bear charged, Takashi took note of the wound he just stabbed, observing it's closeness to the heart.

As he stood up, his wounded leg throbbed. 'It's getting harder to move my legs.'

The bear roared as it was almost near him, causing Takashi to grit his teeth and roar back. 'Move, damnit!'

{Stockpile} granted him it's power, filling his body with immense energy that surpassed what he usually called upon. In a flash, Takashi slammed his weapon into the bear's wound, hitting it hard enough to send it backwards to its back despite it's momentum and greater size and stabbing into its chest instantly.

"Ha... ha..." Takashi panted. "I... won..."

He slumped down onto the bear's corpse. For a minute, his body was still before it jolted awake again.

"Over there!"

"What happened here... Did they run into a wild animal or something?"

The traffickers gasped as they came upon the battleground. Standing over the dead bear, was the halfbred brat they had been chasing. However...

"What the hell am I seeing...?"

"Did that kid... kill that bear...?"

The kid turned to them and instantly, they knew something was wrong. His movements with his limbs were too sharp and stiff, as if the person who moved them hadn't owned them all his life. His usually soft green eyes were glowing an ominous black while visible red tendrils of energy raced across his skin.

"Traffickers..." Daisy August's voice spoke through Takashi Shigaraki. "I'll feel some pleasure in killing you."

---

"Where is he?!"

Satoshi demanded of the trafficker he was strangling. He had just caught up with the trucks which had taken his brother. Naturally, he wasted no time in killing all the traffickers present, leaving the trafficker who was dressed differently from the others as he correctly assumed him to be the leader.

The captured humans stared in fascinated horror as they witnessed the teenage brother of the one who had escaped earlier, strangle their tormentor by simply pointing his grip at him.

"Did I stutter?" Satoshi growled. "Where. Is. My. Brother?! The. One. With. White. Hair. Like. Me?!"

With each pronunciation, he telekinetically slammed the man against every surface, even taking high up into the air before slamming him down.

"H-He ran off into the woods... Please... stop..."

"No." With a twist of his arm, the man screamed as his limbs were ripped off before being impaled on some stakes of ice. Unlike Daisy, he made sure to avoid vital areas so that his death was slow.

"T-Thank you!" The saved captives crowded Satoshi immediately, expressing awe at his existence.

Satoshi ignored them, staring at the forest in worry, before taking a deep breath and amplifying his voice with {Noise}

"TAKASHI! WHERE ARE YOU?! COME TO MY VOICE!"

---

As Takashi(Daisy) ripped his arm free of the last trafficker's ribcage, he started to walk away from the loud voice, being sure to step over the other cooling corpses around. "You and your brother wanted to get to Japan, right? I'll get you there, as long as I'm as far away from him as possible."

"TAKASHI! PLEASE, COME BACK! I KILLED ALL THE TRAFFICKERS! IT'S OKAY! PLEASE, DON'T BE DEAD!"

---

"I'M STILL WAITING FOR YOU!"

Satoshi's yells carried across the entire area, leaving the trafficked humans unsettled as Satoshi proved his unrelenting desire to be united with his brother, just as Takashi had displayed earlier to them.

"BE SURE TO COME BACK, TAKASHI! WITHOUT A HERO... LIKE YOU, I... CAN'T BECOME... A DEMON KING!"

Silence only greeted Satoshi as his voice faded into choking coughs... and nobody came out of the forest.

---

"Well, this is a surprise."

Takashi awoke suddenly. His wounds had been bandaged and he had been sleeping in a seaplane. As he stumbled out of the aircraft and looked for who had spoken, he noticed that it was nighttime and he was currently on a small island. "Where... Where am I?"

"An uninhabited island. No humans here but us. I checked."

"Who's there?!" Takashi whipped about in shock. The voice actually chuckled.

"Wow, now I know why Mikumo always teased me. It's funny when you're on the giving side of it. Come over here."

An unknown force took over Takashi's body to look at his reflection in the seaplane's glass. Except it wasn't his reflection. A woman stood there instead, yellowish green hair swirling about as she looked at him in amusement.

"Yo."

"Who are you?" Takashi stammered.

"A ghost... I think." Daisy murmured. "I think I'm like a visual personification of my Meta Ability... possibly..."

"...you're the one he took {Stockpile} from." Takashi dropped to his knees, unminding of the sand. "Does that mean that every single Meta Ability he has came with people like you?"

"Oh, yeah. Of course, he wasn't as easy to deal with compared to you." Daisy stretched before shaking her hair. "So um, I'm supposed to introduce myself, right? I'm August 5- no, no, no. I'm Daisy August V. Yeah, that's better. Before my Meta Ability was taken, I was an American ex-assassin/Executioner. Nice to meet you."

"Ah." Takashi was surprised at this development but saw no reason to not interact with the person inhabiting his body against her will, even if she was a former killer. Plus, if it was to be believed, she'd saved him by pushing {Stockpile} beyond what he could usually use due to his weak constitution. "I'm Takashi Shigaraki. I'm half Russian from my father's side. Um, I've never killed anybody other than that bear before."

"Hmm. I could tell."

"So, um, how could you possess my body?"

"Oh? I just wanted to do something. I guess I could only do so the moment you felt exhausted after killing that bear. Congrats on that by the way. Very impressive. You don't have a quarter of the willpower your brother's got to keep me and the rest in line."

"My brother? Yes! We have to find Nii-san!" Takashi jumped to his feet. "Do you know how we can get to him?"

"No. What I do know is a place for you to stay in at Japan. Plus," Daisy waved an arm over the seaplane, "I was able to find this thanks to one of Xeno's bases being nearby. You're welcome by the way. Rather than waste time and resources searching for him, go to Japan and settle yourself in so that you can properly welcome him."

"Right..." Takashi muttered. He wanted to meet his brother soon, but it was apparently impossible. She was right however. Japan was their destination anyway. Satoshi would be so surprised (and maybe proud) to meet Takashi well enough on the other side. "Alright! Let's go!"

"Great! Switch with me."

"Eh?"

"Do you know how to fly this plane?"

"...no. Please fly us, Miss Daisy."

---

After a year of settling himself into Japan in one Daisy's hideouts, which unbelievably had enough stashed away money for one to live comfortably for decades, Takashi finally found his way back to a familiar pub.

"Welcome!" Ichika Midoriya cheerfully greeted, twirling in a manner that emphasized her cuteness and body proportions. "Can I have your order?"

"...she's even peppier than you described..." Takashi muttered at the sight of her. The pub was filled with customers, and new workers that Daisy didn't know. "Can you please take me to the proprietress of this establishment?"

Ichika blinked in confusion but ultimately didn't question an excuse to leave work. She directed one of the workers to replace her and took him to the bar section.

"Ah? Who's the runt?" Mari Kin'niku growled as she laid eyes on Takashi. "If you ain't a paying customer, you better not waste my time."

Takashi gulped as he placed a nylon bag of sardines onto the counter. "I'm saying these words as exactly as Miss Daisy told me to. 'It's quite a few years late, but I finally got you those sardines, you extortionist, fraudulent, muscle-brained hag.' So there you go..."

Takashi trailed off as everyone stared at him in blatant shock while Mari's eyes were shadowed beneath her hair.

"...when you say Daisy..." Ichika spoke breathlessly as she grabbed Takashi's shoulders. "Do you mean...!"

"Daisy August V a.k.a. August 5th sends you her greetings, Midoriya-san." Takashi said, which only made Ichika risk bursting into tears when she and Takashi were suddenly grabbed by their heads and dragged upstairs.

Takashi could only scream for help, struggling as several of the customers and workers turned away and ignored the poor victims.

---

"I see..." Mari muttered. "So now, you're sharing a body with this runt?"

"Essentially." Takashi(Daisy) replied, ignoring Ichika as she hugged his head into her sizable bosom. "He's a refugee in need of a job. Please grant him this."

Takashi(Daisy) bowed his head in supplication. Mari hummed, mulling it over. "Fine then. Release the runt, Ichika. At least wait till he's legal before jumping him."

Ichika groaned as she released Takashi(Daisy). His looks were just her type!

Takashi sighed as he got back control. If he didn't want Daisy to be taking over whenever she felt like it, he would soon have to beat her in a contest of willpower. But how?

"How good is your Japanese, runt?"

"Ah." Takashi startled to attention. "It's passable. I can already speak and understand it thanks to my mother and Miss Daisy has taught me to read and write but I still have some problems understanding slangs."

"We can work with that. How do you feel about chores?"

"Fine, I think? I can cook well at least."

"Perfect, you're hired." Mari stood to her full height. "We were having too many girls here anyway. Don't get eaten alive, especially with how soft you look."

"Eh?"

"Ichika! Stop fondling his hair and go commission a uniform so that he can start paying off the 70,000,000 Yen debt!"

"70,000,000 Yen debt?!" Takashi choked.

"70,000,000 Yen?!" Daisy roared. "You went and increased it, you bitch!"

"What did I do to deserve that crazy debt?!" Takashi cried.

Mari gave off a devil's aura with her smiling reply. "You came to me with my former debtor who has two years of unauthorized skipping of work under her belt. Be grateful it wasn't flat out doubled."

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

---

Years passed as Takashi adapted to his new home. He still searched for Satoshi whenever he could, but had no such luck.

However, one fateful day... Takashi had just gone to the new carnival on a day off, until he heard the screams.

Takashi flinched as the explosion reached his ears. Abandoning his carnival ride, he rushed towards a blazing apartment building. Fourteen stories of hell.

As he stared at the burning building, the screams haunted his ears.

"Somebody call the fire department!"

"My daughter! Has anyone seen my daughter?!"

A distraught man begged of the people around him. As they all replied with worried shakes of their heads, Takashi went to one of them.

"Is there anyone still in that building?"

"We think his kid," The man pointed at the now weeping father, "is still stuck on the second floor. Some freak with a Meta Ability went all pyromaniac and torched this shit!"

Takashi shook before retreating. "Miss Daisy, we need to help."

"No, we don't." Daisy replied coldly. "You'll be risking your life even worse than others thanks to your condition. Don't be such a pain!"

Takashi felt the sensation of his body being moved against his will before fighting back. "No! With your Meta Ability, we can save them! We can be Heroes!"

"Why? Let me tell you a simple truth, Takashi. What you desire and what I desire have never been the same thing. Unless it involves you and Ichika Midoriya, I honestly can't care enough for any other living being on this planet. But you? Without exercising your own strength, what justification do you have to interfere in the lives of others? Listen up, Hero. There are two things to remember when attempting to use another person's power if you can't take it by force. First is to keep them willing and entertained enough to consider it in the first place. The second is to ensure that they cannot renegade so easily whenever they feel like it. And you haven't fulfilled either one. Now, convince me! You have no personal relations to these people, nor is your life in danger! What obligation do I have to help you?"

"...absolutely none." Takashi answered. "Becoming a Hero... is nothing more than a dream of mine."

"Dream?"

"Yeah, my dream. It's incomprehensible but it's what I've always admired. Nii-san and I are crazy in that manner after all. If he aims to become the Demon King who dominates all others for his ambitions, I aim to become the Hero who saves all others for my ambitions. So, I can't really say much but acknowledge my own desires. So, follow me!"

With a gut wrenching yell, Takashi ripped his body back under control and dashed towards a mask store which had been deserted during the panic. In his haste, he picked up the most fireproof one, which Daisy pointed out was coincidentally a full head covering tiger mask.

In an instant, he rushed back and leapt into the building in a flash, surprising the people beneath as well as the just arrived firefighters.

"What the hell was that?!"

"Was that a person?!"

A little while, Takashi jumped out of the second floor, landing hard enough to crack the tarmac with his descent. With his tiger mask, he came across as an intimidating figure until the child in his arms called for her daddy.

"My baby girl!" The father clutched his daughter into his arms while Takashi breathed softly. "T-Thank you so much."

"It's fine. Where's the bastard who did this?"

An explosion several blocks away answered his question, gathering everyone's attention.

"Well then." Takashi made a show of stretching his legs before suddenly taking off. He panted as Daisy had now granted him full access to {Stockpile}, easily running faster than any ordinary man as he followed the explosions.

---

The arsonist chuckled as he envisioned his master plan.

Setting half of the city ablaze of course!

The heavily muscled arsonist was dressed in a full-body fire retardant suit, dark in color with a protective mask and armored gauntlets.

He found himself in his nirvana when he stepped into the chemical factory situated downtown. Sure, he had to burn two of the guards that had been watching over the premises alive, but he enjoyed that part as well. The fat one went up in flames especially well.

"Just like the rest of the city will." The arsonist thought to himself, setting his forearms ablaze with an excited growl. "I can already see the sea of flames from here."

What he didn't see was the powerful blow that struck him in the back of the head, sending him flying face-first into several drums of chemicals, spilling them all over the factory floor. He pushed himself up, angry, but fortunately not covered in the slick, flammable chemicals.

Takashi stood back, cracking the knuckles on the hand he had just belted the villain with. "I punched you in the back of the head as hard as I could. That should have at least knocked you out. Don't tell the movies lied about that!"

"You hit too high and too hard." Daisy commentated. "Be sure not to die, okay? I want to see how far you can go, Hero."

"Who the fuck are you?" The arsonist asked heatedly.

"I..." Takashi fumbled with himself until he jumped to a high beam and adopted a Superhero pose, thrusting his chest out while putting his fists on his hips. "I am WILD TIGER!"

"That name sucks."

"That's a shitty name!" The arsonist unknowingly agreed, punctuating his words by blasting out flames out of his arms, barreling at Wild Tiger to scorch him.

Turning tail, Wild Tiger ran and dodged the arsonist's first pass, wondering how to safely deal with someone blasting fire left and right.

"I didn't think that some idiot would actually try to play hero after actual superpowers came into existence." The arsonist taunted, coming just short of burning Wild Tiger "Luckily, I'm perfectly fine with teaching you on how that's a bad idea! Just pay attention to Shokyaku-sensei!"

Jumping up high into the air, Shokyaku aimed both of his fists down below and fired. The flames struck the beam he was using as a platform, erupting with enough force to break the steel.

Wild Tiger shouted in surprise before moving quickly to jump up high with a boost from {Stockpile}. He flew up, finding himself momentarily airborne. He watched Shokyaku reel in his fists, using one to propel him higher up while aiming his other hand to shoot a fire ball straight at him.

Wild Tiger followed his instincts and flipped in the air. His feet touched the support beam behind him and used the support to leap off at a ninety-degree angle aimed toward the propelled Shokyaku. The fireball missed him, blasting the beam on his side with an uproarious boom. The entire structure they were fighting in creaked, groaning as its skeleton weakened.

Shokyaku's eyes widened in loathing. He watched Wild Tiger leap after him, unable to defend as he didn't dodge fast enough. All he could do was watch the hero flying at him. Wild Tiger flew in with a shimmering fist planting itself in Shokyaku's stomach, robbing the villain of all his breath in a single blow that left him wheezing with a trickle of blood as an invisible force blew out his back.

Twice. That was two times the tiger masked hero had punched him. Compared to the first punch, this was much stronger in impact.

It left Shokyaku stunned long enough for Wild Tiger to grab hold of his legs and carry him along a catwalk. Reaching the wall, Wild Tiger wasted no time swinging him into it.

Unknown to either of them, the wall broke apart, leaving a wide hole for the gathered media and police to view the battle.

Shokyaku fought the bile and blood wishing to spill onto the floor. No, he would be damned if he gave that damn hero such a pathetic sight! He broke off into a run, forgoing his flames for his fists to pummel the masked bastard. His flames were almost exhausted anyway.

"YOU'RE REALLY STARTING TO GET ON MY NERVES!" Shokyaku howled madly as he swung his fists at Wild Tiger's face.

Wild Tiger swallowed back his anxiety. This was the moment he was waiting for!

Without the fear of Shokyaku's missed swings burning him with their flames, he stepped into the villain's guard while leaning his head to the side to avoid the strike. He clenched his fist with a pop and drove his fist deep into the same spot he had punched earlier.

Spit mixed with vomit and blood flew out of Shokyaku's open mouth from the blow. But he refused to go down.

With a mad snarl, he swung his fist into the side of Wild Tiger's face before he could react. Wild Tiger's head rang, swearing that his skull could have cracked if not for the full head mask.

The two jumped a space back, both staggered and glaring at one another with gritted teeth. Ignoring their pain, they both charged each other and planted their fists into each other's face with enough force to blow their heads back.

Pain went ignored as they began to pummel one another with their bare fists, the impact of knuckles meeting flesh echoing across the silent construction site.

Wild Tiger suffered an uppercut that would have broken his jaw if it weren't for {Stockpile}'s reinforcement. Shokyaku's head was violently thrown to the side by a sloppy left hook that caused his left eye to swell. Wild Tiger felt Shokyaku twist his fist in his gut, swearing he could feel his metal gauntlet threaten to pierce his skin. Shokyaku's nose was further broken by a straight punch to the face.

The brawl came to an end as the two dropped their fists tiredly. They were bruised, bleeding, nearly dead on their feet. They were growing tired. So, they settled for using their heads to end the fighting.

Literally.

Wild Tiger and Shokyaku roared as they headbutted another viciously.

While Wild Tiger was unmoved, Shokyaku staggered back, blinking wearily as he tried to settle his swimming vision. His head was splitting. He nearly fell back then and there. He pushed on though, his glare still as strong despite how crappy he felt.

"Go down, hero. Just go down already." Shokyaku growled softly, panting tiredly as his mask came undone and fell to the floor.

Wild Tiger frowned tiredly, cleaning his lips off of blood from his busted lip. He shook his head, frowning stubbornly. "No. You go do down."

With a roar, Wild Tiger dashed over to Shokyaku with his fist shimmering with red tendrils of energy.

Taken back the burst of speed and action, Shokyaku was forced to throw up his forearms to block.

His eyes went wide as Wild Tiger's fist met with his armored gauntlets and cracked them in one hit, rendering them useless as protection. Even worse, he could feel the force enter his wrists. He heard a snap of bone. If he were a lesser man, he would have cried out in pain. He bit back the shout of agony as he was sent skidding back. With one of his wrists broken, his arm dangled by his sides uselessly as he panted heavily, sweat matting his hair.

"G-God damn h-hero!" Shokyaku hissed venomously.

"Don't wear it out!" Wild Tiger rushed in for one last punch. Shokyaku roared as well as he copied him, raising his good fist. Their fists briefly grazed each other... before sinking into their faces with great impact!

"Huh. I always thought that cross counters were too unrealistic to happen in real life." Daisy murmured. "What do you know?"

There was a bit of silence until Shokyaku slipped downwards, completely out of the fight.

Wild Tiger panted softly, only to be nearly blown over by the cheers of the audience. Turning about in a panic, he noticed the destroyed wall... and the crowd outside, filled with police officers, ambulances and of course, spectators.

"Awesome!"

"That fucking rocked!"

"That's the same guy who saved people from that burning building, right?!"

"That young man saved my daughter!"

Wild Tiger stood there for a moment, until a cop reached out for him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You've got to come with me, kid." The police officer stated.

"Sorry. I have to decline, sir." Wild Tiger answered weakly. No one expected what happened immediately after he uttered those words.

It all happened in a flash. One moment he was standing still with a hand on his shoulder, and a split second afterward, he had freed himself and begun running toward the crowd.

He moved like a blur. Four officers tried to stop him, but he pivoted around them without losing his stride. He should have had a hard time passing through the gathered crowd that was now filming and taking shots with their phones.

Instead of that option, he went toward one of the police cars that were at the edge of the crime scene, jumped on the hood and used it like a platform to leap over the crowd, going far and wide enough to land on the roof of a nearby building.

"The name's Wild Tiger! And I'll probably be back!"

With that declaration, he didn't waste any time looking back, taking all the advantage he had over his would be pursers. He disappeared into the night long before the cops could manage to untangle themselves and their cars from the mass of stunned people.

---

"You idiot." Ichika chastised as she wrapped bandages around Takashi's cracked ribs. Thankfully, they along with his other injuries were already healing thanks to {Stockpile}'s constant activation.

Due to the fact that to circumvent his frail condition, Takashi had always been keeping {Stockpile} active on a low percentage for years unless he slept. This allowed him to easily go about with a properly functioning body.

"That stings..." Takashi winced as Ichika's fingers teased a bruise. Unbelievably, he had stumbled into his room with his impromptu hero costume still worn. However, he still really lived close to the pub and would have constant visitors like Ichika drop in unannounced.

Henceforth, Ichika had been downright shocked, before expressing some awe at Takashi for what he did when the News came on.

"A costumed vigilante has taken the whole of Japan's breath after being sighted saving lives from a burning building and then defeating the criminal responsible afterwards."

"A clash between Meta Beings is nothing new. However, we now have a Meta Being who acted in a heroic manner, defeating a criminal known especially for his arsonist tendencies and saving his victims beforehand. Whether this is a one time thing or an omen of what to come, it's clear that Japan's, no, the world's view on Meta Beings will experience a serious upheaval."

"You're news worthy now, Takashi." Ichika complimented as she dabbed his bruises. "Your actions are going to change everything the world believes about Meta Beings. Now then..."

Ichika finished her treatment and stepped back, twirling with a mischievous look on her face. "Does our little Hero want a reward~?"

Takashi went crimson at the tone of her voice. "Eh?! I mean... Eh?"

Ichika chuckled as she slowly strutted towards him. "Don't you know? Whenever a Hero does a good job, his maiden gives him a reward~"

"M-Maiden?!" Takashi nearly lost himself in his rampart fantasies.

Ichika suddenly reached out, causing Takashi to flinch as she cupped his cheeks, staring through him with those silver speckled green eyes that Takashi suddenly couldn't break away from.

"Here I come~." Ichika whispered, pressing her lips against his, Takashi's eyes blowing open in surprise. Her lips were very soft. Very warm. Very inviting.

Takashi unconsciously moved his lips against hers, she opening her mouth to push in her tongue against his lips and asking to be let in.

Takashi couldn't think properly but he still opened his mouth, letting her explore. Ichika's hands began to explore as well, rubbing his stomach and back, feeling his muscles through the bandages.

Takashi's hands raised hesitantly to touch her back, slowly rubbing as he descended to her ass, being encouraged by her moan of approval to grope each cheek.

Finally, they disconnected, panting slightly as a trail of saliva broke between them and Ichika knelt between his legs, palming his crotch. "Don't you want more~?"

Takashi was too flustered to reply, leaving helpless as Ichika pulled his pants down to expose his erect member.

Takashi let out a squeak, very much overcome with embarrassment, and slapped his hands to his face, unable to look at her as she pushed him down to his bed.

He groaned, throwing his head back to the pillows, thinking that she would probably be amused by his size, or how small it was. He completely missed Ichika's eyes widening, a bit of drool escaping her mouth when she looked at his cock, a bit of pre-cum coming out already.

She knew it was big from when she initiate some skinship during the few times she used his bathroom, but she did not expect this. She licked her lips, grabbed the base of the penis, and took a deep breath. She was going off porn right now, which wasn't really a good teacher, so she did what was natural – she dipped down and took his tip into her mouth.

Takashi gasped at the feeling of something warm and wet enveloping his manhood, and moved his hands away to see Ichika closing her eyes, going further down his cock while humming, being sure to slide her lips against it.

Takashi tried to protest, telling her that it was okay, that she didn't need to, but her tongue suddenly moved against his cock, causing him to buck accidentally. Ichika grunted, but refused to take it out, instead sliding it down further and further as Takashi let out a moan.

Well, at least he took a shower before this to wash off his blood and sweat – it shouldn't taste bad.

Ichika continued going down, a quiet, muffled moan escaping her as he went deeper. Thankfully, she didn't have much of a gag reflex, so she had no problems pushing the rest of his cock into her throat, breathing deeply through her nose.

Takashi sat up once her nose touched his navel, gasping out as the tight wetness surrounded his cock, feeling like he was about to explode –

"I-Ichika!" Takashi gasped out. "I – I think I'm about to cum, please get - !"

Unfortunately, Ichika let out an inquisitorial hum when she heard that, confused about why he wouldn't want to just cum, but the vibrations of her hum directly affected his cock in her throat, and Takashi couldn't stop himself from letting out a small yell as he came, shooting down her gullet as he grabbed and held her head down. This is what made Ichika gag slightly, surprised, and she started letting his cock out of her mouth even as he shot his load into her.

Finally, she got his cock out of her mouth, coughing slowly, and brought a hand to her mouth to prevent any of his load from escaping. Takashi managed to come to his senses, and panic immediately set in.

"I – I am so sorry! You – you probably didn't want that, I – I should've – I should've warned you earlier, I'm sorry, I –" But his interruptions were interrupted when she looked up at him, desire still in her eyes, and he audibly gulped. Takashi's apologies stammered to a stop as she slowly licked her lips, nodding to herself.

"Salty but delicious." She said and Takashi felt like he was now going to have a heart attack. She blatantly made him feel like he was going crazy.

"Y-you didn't need to …"

"I wanted to." She insisted, and moved to take off her own pants, sliding them down her legs. Takashi let out a gasp again when he saw that she had taken her panties with it, leaving her wet folds in plain view. Takashi was too tempted to look away, drawn to how puffy and slick her lower lips were with arousal.

He found his gaze turn back to her eyes, which were staring hungrily at him.

"Did …" He muttered, "… did I do that?"

"Mm-hm." She saddled up to him, pushing her breasts into his chest and giving him a quick kiss. "Now, let's get your cock back into fighting shape."

"H-huh? Uh, it's – it's ready."

"Hm?" Ichika blinked, a bit confused, and looked down. Sure enough, his cock was still hard, some cum still left over, and she resisted the temptation to bend over to lick it up. She rubbed it once against her inner thigh, and Takashi jolted at the sudden small burst of pleasure.

"Huh. Quick recovery time." Ichika commented, and Takashi scratched the back of his head sheepishly. It was probably thanks to {Stockpile} that he was good and ready to go, owing it to the quick recovery time the Meta Ability had granted him. Speaking of which, Takashi reached out mentally but was surprised to not feel Daisy's presence.

Huh. He'd been sure that she wouldn't have resisted the urge to comment on his utter lack of experience.

"In that case, we can get this done now."

With that, she pushed his chest, pressing him down and moved to straddle him, moving one long leg over him so she could sit down on his lap.

Takashi let out a small grunt at the feeling of her wetness on his manhood, and Ichika closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling. As she started to sit up, grabbing his cock in her hand, Takashi let out a small breath.

"B-but … what about …?"

"It's a safe day." She told him, beginning to rub the cock against her entrance, and Takashi threw his head back. "It's both our first time. Let's make it memorable."

Ichika's excitement didn't betray how nervous she was – this was her first time, so she wasn't sure if this was going to hurt or feel good. She took a deep breath, and decided to take it slow.

Closing her eyes, Ichika winced as he felt him penetrate her, Takashi letting out a gasp of pleasure as his tip was enclosed by the tight wetness of her walls. Ichika let out a tense breath, and continued bringing him deeper inside, eventually hitting her hymen. With another deep breath, Ichika pushed through, wincing as it was broken through.

Takashi grunted out as she finally managed to bottom out, resting her butt on his legs. He tried to ignore the intense pleasure that was shooting through his body as he realized something. "Are you – are you okay? It looked like you were hurt."

"Just … the hymen. And I'm not used to being – this full." She shook her head. "Give me a few minutes, then I can start moving."

"Okay." Takashi nodded, then a thought came to him to make this a bit better for her. He sat up, trying hard not to move himself too much in her, and began kissing her neck, being sure to kiss right under her jaw. Ichika hummed in appreciation, rubbing his shoulders as he peppered her with tiny kisses. She pulled him back so she could kiss him properly, both grunting as their tongues fought briefly for dominance.

Finally, Ichika felt the pain somewhat subside, and was ready to start moving. She pushed Takashi to lay on his back, keeping her hands on his chest as she sat up.

"Just lay there." she told him, adjusting herself. "I've got this."

With that, she began moving, and Takashi let out a moan, the pleasure immediately shooting through him as she began bouncing up and down.

Takashi raised his hands to grab her breasts, careful not to squeeze them tightly, and began rubbing his thumb against her nipple, trying to stimulate her some more. Ichika let out a small gasp of pleasure, the wet sounds between them arousing her even more. Her ass kept meeting his thighs with an small clapping noise, but she didn't care, the increase of pleasure within her too damn good to even register with her. Soon, the bed was squeaking to the sounds of their lovemaking.

Ichika was moaning, and her usually peppy or teasing face had completely broken. Her mouth was curved in a satisfied smile, her tongue lightly sticking out, and her eyes were squinting. She was so caught up in the feeling of him inside her, she didn't care of her appearance – not when she felt this good.

The sight of her face, that horny expression as she looked down at him with lust in her eyes – that broke Takashi's self-restraint.

He sat up again, feeling his cock push deeper inside her as she cried out, and kissed her hard, hands wrapping around her to hug her tightly. Ichika responded back, shoving her tongue into his mouth as he moved them, rolling so that her back met the mattress, and he began moving his hips without thinking, hammering into her without any regard to the sound. Ichika cried out in pleasure as he began fucking her in missionary, thankful that he lived alone in his house as they fucked.

As far as first-times go, this was much better than either of them expected. Thanks to Takashi's hardened life in Russia, travels across the world and the heavy work that Mari would sometimes put him through, his body's frail condition had been mitigated quite a bit. Plus, the fact that he had already came beforehand meant that his stamina was much better this time around.

Not so much for Ichika, who felt her walls clamp around his manhood as she came hard. Ichika had to bite his shoulder in order to muffle her scream, Takashi grunting out at the slight pain but continuing to fuck her. After being teased by her for years, Takashi didn't mind making her squirm a bit, lowering his hands to spread her legs, opening her up a bit more.

As her legs dangled in the air, Takashi continued to ram into her, feeling himself lose control to the pleasure. He wasn't far off now, feeling his orgasm rising within him, and decided to go out with a bang, bringing his lips back to hers to muffle his moans of pleasure.

Ichika's eyes rolled to the back of her head - since his cock didn't give her any breaks through her orgasm, she felt herself squirt again and again, littering his bed with her juices. Thankfully, the squeezing of her walls on his cock finally pushed him to cum again, groaning out as he shot his load in her.

Ichika grunted as well, squeezing her legs around him as he pumped her full. After a few minutes of cumming together, they finally relaxed, Takashi falling limp on top of her as she petted his hair. Ichika's pleasured face resumed its peppy default, and she let out a small hum. "My hips hurt a bit, but it was so worth it."

"Er – me too. S-sorry, I kinda – I kinda lost control."

"It's okay, so did I." Ichika assured him, and helped him sit up, looking down at the sheets and humming. "If you ever want to do this again, let me know. I'm more than happy to fuck you."

"R-really? I – I guess!"

"You're done?"

Takashi jumped at Daisy's voice, causing Ichika to giggle as she correctly guessed the cause. "Did you feel all that, Daisy?"

"Only at the beginning." Takashi(Daisy) took over and poked his cock. "This was a really weird feeling. So I just cut off from everything until I felt Takashi relax."

"Well, I'll go use your bathroom." Ichika slowly limped away, drawing Takashi's gaze to her ass, until Daisy took back his attention.

"Now that you're done with that, lets get down to business. If you're going to keep on at this Hero biz, you're gonna need better gear. And better skills." Daisy demanded. "If you're gonna put us at risk just to fulfill your fantasies, I'll at least make you strong enough to survive the danger!"

"Alright!" Takashi agreed. "I won't let you down!"

"Okay! We'll start with one hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups and a hundred squats!"

"Uh, okay?"

"Then, we'll move to pull-ups while hanging from a bar above flames which will burn you if you stop!"

"Wait, what?"

"Then we train your stamina by attaching heavy weights to your limbs. Do note that we won't be slowing down any of the earlier exercises in the slightest!"

"HUH?!"

"I shall call it 'Xeno Executor Training Plan ver2.0: How To Make The Hero Match An Executioner's Skill Even If He Dies!' Yup. Nice and good!"

"FOR SOMEONE WHO WANTS ME TO LIVE, ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!"

From then, Takashi suffered years of hell.

This is not a hyperbole.

He occasionally died and had to be resuscitated by Daisy jumpstarting his unstable heart with {Stockpile}.

---

"Now then, about our conversation yesterday..." Harumi Kiyama mumbled slowly with a rare serious expression on her constantly sleepy face. "They both show the same amount of skin, so why are swimsuits acceptable in public, while underwear is not?"

"A truly serious dilemma..." Daisy agreed.

"No, that's not it." Takashi deadpanned. "You asked me for directions to your car then fell asleep on me in an instant. Again."

During the previous day's break, Takashi had run into Harumi while searching for her car. The forgetful scientist was a woman with wavy short hair and brown eyes. She was usually dressed in a white long sleeved shirt, black pencil skirt and always wore a lab coat over it all.

In her free time whenever she wasn't teaching in middle school, she did personal chemical and physics experiments as a hobby. Takashi swore that one of them must have given her that horrible stripping habit of hers.

Right now, during a free day, Takashi enjoyed a sharing a cool drink with her in her home, willfully ignoring Ichika's catcalls of him going on a date.

Takashi was just hanging out with her. They weren't friends with benefits like he was with Ichika.

It's not like he was going on an outing with an attractive girl he was somewhat attracted to. It wasn't like he liked to listen to her rambling as she spoke over, while secretly enticed by her body whenever she stripped.

Right?

...

...

Oh no.

Takashi sighed into his hands and raised his face up only to see that Harumi had taken off her top due to the heat.

He blankly stared as he watched her pick up an ice cube from her glass of water and slowly rub it over her chest, leaving trails of liquid all over her skin as they slowly dribbled down into her bra.

Takashi swallowed against his will, belated remembering that he couldn't rebuke her this time as they were currently in her home. But still...

"W-What are you doing?! I'm still here, you know!"

"But I'm so hot... Plus, I don't think my curveless body could turn on any guy..."

"I'm turned on!" Takashi was too flustered to recognize what he just said so he pushed on. "Take it from a 'guy' like me, you look tired at worst. You're actually a really beautiful woman! So please stop stripping so carelessly. It's only a matter of time till you actually get arrested, or worse, assaulted!"

Harumi looked at Takashi as if he'd been the first man to seriously go against her compulsive stripping despite his attraction.

He most likely was.

Harumi stared at him with some amusement before she fell back onto her bed. Keeping her eyes locked on Takashi's, she grabbed a pillow and started fondling it. "Hey... What if I want to be assaulted?"

"Eh?" Takashi wished he wasn't so distracted by Harumi's skirt riding up, barely clinging to the bottom of her ass as she slowly writhed her long pantyhose clad legs about.

"What if I want to be pushed down... my clothes ripped off... that heavy weight all over me..." As Harumi spoke, she surreptiously unclipped her bra, letting it dangle dangerously free as a bit of nipple peeked out.

Takashi gulped before getting up suddenly and moving towards her only for his phone to ring. He snarled as the caller ID showed itself to be Mari.

"I'm..." Takashi didn't know how to say this, considering that they hadn't even started dating yet. Any further attempt to speak was cut off when Harumi slammed her lips over his, pushing him against the wall until she released him, causing him to look at her in confused elation.

"Be sure to hurry back." Harumi teased as she nibbled his neck.

Her message sent Takashi running. The vigor that he would show much later that night would only be dampened by his near fainting after his lungs threatened to give up after Round 3.

---

Wild Tiger hummed as he looked down into the warehouse full of thugs, being thankful for the stealth function of his suit that Harumi had added. Thanks to the lots of spare cash that Daisy had 'liberated' from Xeno's coffers, he had been able to acquire better gear.

He was now dressed in a Kevlar-lined outfit. His top was a zipped up white longcoat with tiger stripes designed all over it and his head was covered by a tiger themed metal helmet with sunglasses as a visor. (KingVessel: Think of Jungle Fury Red Ranger's helmet but white.)

"Harumi for tech support. Ichika for design. Me for training." Daisy teased. "What are you contributing?"

"Three words... Compliant guinea pig." With that, Wild Tiger dropped in, smashing in a metal container on impact.

"Shit! It's Wild Tiger!"

"Get him!"

Wild Tiger leapt again, dodging bullet fire as he took down the gangsters, one by one falling to him. "I'm looking for your boss! Where is he so I can bag him?"

After a brief beating of everyone present, Wild Tiger took notice to a thick door. Upon noticing it, he opened it just to see eight more thugs inside, apparently busy with their dinners.

With a roar, they all jumped up to attack the Vigilante, only to lose badly without him even overusing {Stockpile}.

'This is a weird feeling.'

"What is it?"

'I've spent half of my life needing {Stockpile} to function properly. I mean, the only time I turn it off is to sleep. But I find myself worried that I might be stronger than I thought...'

"Ah, you mean just now when you deactivated {Stockpile} for a bit and still dominated that last fool?" Daisy cackled. "Do you think my training is just me venting out my sadistic tendencies?"

'Yes.'

"Well, it's not. Thanks to my training, you can now go at least 15 minutes exerting your body without needing {Stockpile}." Daisy practically preened. "If I'm training someone, I'm thorough."

Wild Tiger walked down the hallway only to see another door. Behind this one was a large man, who grew even larger when he suddenly sported bear-like features.

"You ready to die, little kitty?"

Wild Tiger just stared before sighing. "Well, that's disappointing. Sorry to offend you but not only have I fought bigger, the bigger guy was an actual bloodthirsty bear than some cocky thug. And I was way weaker than I am now. With injuries, near hypothermia and exhaustion on top of that."

Bear guy growled and rushed forward, only for a single roundhouse kick to smash his head into the wall, leaving him hanging by his neck as Wild Tiger continued.

While Bear guy moaned, one of the defeated spoke up.

"Remember when I told you guys that my Meta Ability tells me when someone is lying? It didn't ping at all against him. Which means he didn't lie at all when he said that."

"Oh my god."

"Holy shit..."

"I know that I just curbstomped," Bear guy muttered from his hole, "but I really feel no shame in losing to a manly badass like that."

"Oh yeah, true that, Kiritetsu."

"Only an actual superhero could be that awesome."

"Our crew's rep's actually gonna increase from having a Superhero bust us instead of the cops!"

"Oh shit, that's totally true!"

---

Wild Tiger burst into an open area which seemed to be a fighting arena with surrounding spectators.

"Oh? It seems that we've got ourselves a visitor, boys."

Wild Tiger bristled. He knew that voice. He glared towards the source, sighting a throne-like space with a smug douchebag occupying it. Wild Tiger tilted his head at the familiar face although he couldn't put a name on it. Next to him was an empty throne, but the way a drink was set next to it implied that it's owner was just temporarily gone.

"Wild Tiger! Welcome to our fight club! As a special demonstration, how about we give you a match to warm you up! God knows this is one f-f-freezing Christmas."

'Freezing...' Wild Tiger's eyes widened. 'I heard his voice before... I've seen that before... Yet... Why does he piss me off so much...?!'

The air thickened, being saturated with Wild Tiger's Killing Intent as several of the watching gangsters fainted and foamed from their mouths.

Wild Tiger took a single step before suddenly leaping towards the paralyzed leader. The leader yelped as Wild Tiger punched a hole in the protective glass covering the throne area before ripping and tossing it away.

"Bastard..." Wild Tiger grabbed him by the collar and hefted him up. "What's your name?"

"HIIII!" He trembled, causing Wild Tiger to shake him furiously.

"What's your name?! Answer me!"

A whip of energy suddenly wrapped around his neck, before suddenly yanking him off him. Wild Tiger was dragged back against someone who reeled him in and smashed him into a wall.

With a growl, he jumped down and faced his attacker only to freeze at his appearance.

Satoshi Shigaraki had grown just as comparably as Takashi had, gaining a muscular build hidden within a new looking impeccable black business suit.

"Satoshi Shigaraki!" Daisy growled.

Wild Tiger ignored her, focusing all of his attention on Satoshi. "Nii-san!"

"...eh?"

"You're Nii-san, aren't you?" Wild Tiger stepped forward in desperation and ripped off his helmet, baring his features to all. "It's me, Takashi-!"

Takashi's words were cut off when Satoshi suddenly wrapped a energy whip tight around his throat and raised a hand to create an ice spear. "All right, fool. You've got five seconds to pray before I kill you for impersonating my dead little brother."

"Get this off, you crazy maniac!" Takashi struggled to pull it off, making some headway with {Stockpile}.

"...hm. I'll give points for effort at least." Satoshi hummed. "Takashi would have said those exact same words in this situation."

"Impersonate this!" Takashi ripped off the whip, destroying it into motes of light. "Do you want me to bring up embarrassing moments of both of us together?! Fine! When we were still on the run from our home to Japan, you got your first blowjob from-"

"AAAAAAARRGH! Okay! I believe you! Just shut up, Takashi!"

Satoshi cut off as he was suddenly dragged into a hug by his little brother who laughed and sobbed at the same time.

He wrapped his hands around him. Takashi no longer felt as skinny and frail as he last felt him but Satoshi felt his Meta Ability recognize the familiar and tingly sensation of {Stockpile} beneath his brother's skin. "It's really you. I thought you were dead."

"We're both stubborn people, Nii-san. " Takashi hiccupped. "Why would you think me dead?"

"Damn that Truslivyy."

Truslivyy... "Ah. THAT BASTARD!"

Takashi whipped around just to see the mentioned coward freeze in his tracks just as he was near the door. "Truslivyy!"

Truslivyy whimpered from the sound of Takashi's roar. It felt like the Devil was coming right for him.

"What's your problem with my underling?

"Underling?"

"I'm aiming to be a Demon King after all." Satoshi shrugged. "A Demon King need underlings."

"Your underling stabbed my leg back in Russia, leaving me to face either a group of pissed off traffickers or a very hungry bear. Thankfully, I won but-"

"Wait." Satoshi cut Takashi off. "Hold on. He... He stabbed you?"

"Yeah. I'll show the scar later-"

"No need. You've never lied to me before." Satoshi turned to a trembling Truslivyy. "So, what is you said about my brother all those years ago? Something like "I saw him get bitten in half and dragged away." Am I right or did you say something else? Wait, there's no need to say anything in defense. No matter how much you beg for your life, I won't spare you for what you did to my brother."

"[D-Dark Bullet!]"

A bullet-sized ball of darkness shot forth from Truslivyy hand, only to be smacked away by Satoshi's hand which had become covered in shadows.

"W-What the hell?!" Truslivyy yelled in shock.

"[Dark Bullet.]"

Takashi blinked as Satoshi used either a similar Meta Ability or the same to repeat Truslivyy's own attack back on him, except that while Truslivyy's attacks were actually bullet-sized, Satoshi's were baseball-sized, which easily broke bones on impact from the sounds of it made from hitting Truslivyy's forearms and ribs.

"Quit whining." Satoshi's fury felt colder than any winter the Shigaraki Brothers had lived through in Russia. "I'm only using {Duplicate} to copy your own Meta Ability."

"A-Are you serious?" Truslivyy trembled. "T-This is my own Meta Ability just being copied?!"

"Why are you so shocked?" For every step Satoshi took forward, Truslivyy stumbled back away from him. "This simply highlights just how far you are below me and my brother. You were a coward who injured him and left him in a situation where you would have died, but Takashi did more than survive. He succeeded despite having more handicaps than you and won!"

"[D-Dark Press!]"

An orb of darkness with a Saturn-like ring around it appeared above Truslivyy and was promptly tossed over to Satoshi. Gravity was promptly multiplied by ten, cracking the ground underneath him. Everyone gaped however when Satoshi actually yawned while being unaffected. "Is that the best you can do?"

"[Dark Press.]"

A much larger orb with four orbiting orbs and five rings appeared overhead and was floated over to Truslivyy, who was then suddenly pressed to the ground as it shattered and caved in when subjected to Gravity x80. Truslivyy himself cried out as he felt several of his bones break and his organs rupture.

"I get it! I apologize! I'm sorry! Please, don't kill me! I-I beg of you!" Truslivyy was flat out crying now, bleeding from his mouth as most of his upper teeth ripped themselves downwards into his lower jaw.

"Did I not tell you from the start." Satoshi was unconvinced and unwilling. "No matter how much you beg for your life, I won't spare you. Pay for your crimes against my brother with your death."

"I don't want that payment!" Takashi got between Satoshi and Truslivyy, cutting off the Meta Ability from the former's concentration. "He's suffered enough. I'll hand him over to the police."

"...you're such a Hero, aren't you?" Satoshi burst into a smile. "I'm so glad to see that all those years apart never really changed you much. Plus, look at you, living the dream! If you can be a Hero, then there's definitely a chance of me succeeding in becoming a Demon King!"

"Yeah..." Takashi had forgotten how much Satoshi didn't mind killing people. It seemed that their time apart without Takashi to dissuade him as usual had caused him to slip further down that slope.

The brothers suddenly bristled at the sound of police sirens approaching.

"We should leave." Takashi instantly took one look at Truslivyy and decided he didn't need to be tied up. "Come on, Nii-san. Let's-"

Takashi stopped when he felt Satoshi caress his cheek before moving away.

"I've placed a tracker on you with one of my Meta Abilities. It won't matter where you are now. I won't ever lose you again. However, I've still got some work to do." Satoshi smirked before black liquid burst out of his mouth to envelop him before vanishing along with him.

"Shit." Daisy growled.

Shit indeed. 'What happened to you, Nii-san?'

"T-T-Thank y-you." Truslivyy gurgled, his mouth still bleeding heavily.

Ah. He almost forgot. Wild Tiger swiftly turned about and kicked the coward in the head, which instantly knocked him out.

---

"...so let me get this straight." Harumi muttered. "You met your long lost brother last night."

Takashi and Harumi went into the snowy woods for a picnic at a favorite spot of theirs and camp in for the night due to their vacation days coinciding for once.

"Yes." Takashi huffed, carrying most of the bags along.

"And now, he's aiming to be a... Demon King? For real?" Harumi questioned. "Aren't Demon Kings the bad guys?"

"It's not a matter of who's good or bad." Takashi clarified as they reached the spot and started setting up. "It's a matter of the motivational concepts they represent. The Hero represents Adventure while the Demon King represents Freedom."

"Adventure?"

"You know how frail I am." The woman took a look at Takashi's lean muscled figure. "What you currently see is a body that constantly got sick as a kid. I like saving people and I truly believe in justice and peace. But the true reason I wanted to be a Hero... was just to make my fantasies come through to reality."

"...I see." Harumi murmured. "Yeah, this makes more sense."

"R-Really?" Takashi was shocked at Harumi's acceptance. "You're not disappointed or anything?"

"It's actually pretty realistic, even if selfish, for a guy who wants to go out and save people in a flashy costume." Harumi rubbed his shoulder in acceptance. "But everyone acts selfish, especially if one isn't in another's way."

"My brother on the other hand aims to be free of everything." Takashi became a bit despondent as he spoke. "He never mentioned it even by accident, but I'm sure that he wished that he had more time to do whatever he wanted when we were kids. Instead, he's had to watch over me, simultaneously taking care of me after our parents died while guarding the both of us from our guardian."

Harumi blinked as she tried to comprehend that. "And... how does that link to becoming a Demon King?"

"Well... When you're the Demon King, you're easily one of the strongest mortals alive... And when you're that strong... can anyone really stop you from doing whatever you want?"

A cold breeze blew through as the scientist contemplated just how badly that mindset could go. "Only the Hero would stand a chance."

"L-Let's just go." Takashi nervously chuckled and kept moving. To be honest, it had been easier to laugh along with when he had been a kid. As an adult, he was a bit terrified of his brother because he had always known that Satoshi would succeed in that.

Just like Satoshi had believed in Takashi as well.

After they set camp in an empty cave overlooking the city and were done eating, Harumi revealed that she had a surprise for Takashi.

"Woah..." Takashi held Harumi's hands which were occasionally creating sparks of blue electricity in between them. "This is amazing."

Harumi smiled a bit more at his praise. "Don't say that. You make it sound like I could have chosen what ability I got. I lost a perfectly loyal alarm clock to it."

"I bought you that alarm clock two days ago." Takashi muttered as he interlocked their fingers together. "It was a special type that could ring recorded noises."

"Exactly. I changed the settings that instead of ringing a stupid alarm, I just hear the recorded sounds of us having sex, which in turn wakes me up into a horny mood."

"...is that why I got a surprise blowjob this morning? Not that I'm complaining but..."

Harumi chuckled and kissed him, making sure to push him down to his back as she did so.

For a few minutes, they laid there, idly making small talk while watching the falling snow until Takashi spoke again.

"I'm going to meet my brother." Takashi declared. If Satoshi was going to become a Demon King, he would undoubtedly aim for the ones capable of challenging him. As the Hero, Takashi was quite aware that he was a top member of that short list if not the top member.

"...what if you don't come back?" Harumi clenched his shirt in worry as she straddled him. "From what you've described him as, even if I'm sure that Satoshi won't kill you, he might not let you return."

"Then, I'll win and escape." Takashi leaned forward and kissed her forehead softly. "The Hero always wins in the end after all."

"This is reality, Takashi..." Harumi nipped his neck softly.

In response, he reared his hand back, before bringing it down in a light spank – eliciting a quiet whimper from the scientist as he slapped her ass and relished the gasp of hot breath against his neck.

She pouted and moved upwards, crashing her lips against his in a kiss filled with increasingly-heated passion, prompting him to teasingly spank her again. She was trying to have sex in this unbelievable location, after the heavy conversation they just had. Which meant she wanted a distraction, even if for a small while.

His hand slapped against Harumi's peachy ass again, earning a muffled whimper from the Scientist.

As his hand came down in another smack, he grabbed her ass and gave it a squeeze, savoring Harumi's muffled moan as he fondled her rear.

''Mm…'' Harumi broke off the kiss, panting lightly. ''Takashi… you perv…''

''You started it.'' He countered dryly.

Harumi huffed softly and shifted back, slipping out of his grip. The scientist quickly crawled back until she was at eye-level with his crotch; wasting no time in unzipping the front and fishing his cock out. Her delicate fingers felt chilly against his swelling cock, yet that only aroused him more – groaning softly as Harumi gently jerked him off.

Takashi tipped his head back and groaned, the frigid cold air contrasting sharply with the slightly-less-cold hand jerking his cock. What made it all the more erotic was the rare intense look on Harumi's face as she got him off, her eyes glued to his cock as she watched him get hard.

To his embarrassment, he saw a thin line of drool begin to dribble down her chin before she idly wiped it away, licking her lips and leaning in.

''Chu~'' Harumi murmured, smooching the tip of his cock.

He groaned softly as Harumi's lips immediately parted, allowing his cock entry into her mouth. Instantly, her wet warmth engulfed his shaft and he grit his teeth, stifling a sharp gasp as Harumi expertly sunk down his cock – easily managing to take in over two-thirds of his cock without even pausing.

She might have been less perverted than Ichika, but let it not be said she wasn't eager herself.

A shudder ran through him as her tongue curled around his cock, teasing his length as she slowly bobbed her head.

With a grunt, he laid a hand on her head and pushed her down further – prompting Harumi to moan and sink down all the way down the base, his cock dipping down her throat. Takashi groaned as his full length was surrounded by her hot mouth, made all the better by the sensation of her tongue stroking his length.

''Mm…'' Takashi tapped his arm, signaling that she needed to breathe.

Nodding slightly, he loosened his hold on her head, allowing the scientist to lift her head enough that she could breathe again – before she immediately plunged her head back down his cock, sucking him off with renewed effort.

Takashi shuddered at the lewd sensation, audibly hearing her slurp his cock each time she bobbed her head back up, only arousing him more.

After a minute more, Harumi stopped, rearing her head back and causing his cock to slip out her mouth – a thin trail of saliva hanging between her tongue and his cock. She quickly wiped it away and reached between her legs, grabbing the front of her pantyhose before boldly ripping it off; revealing her festive red panties before she pushed them aside, exposing her pussy.

''Nn…'' Takashi shivered as the cold air brushed against his cock, her saliva rapidly cooling. ''Harumi…''

''Don't worry…'' Harumi muttered, straddling his waist. ''I'll make you… nice and warm… Mn…''

With a breathy grunt, she grasped his cock and pointed it up, letting her lower herself down and impale herself on his cock. Instantly, Harumi moaned, her eyes fluttering shut as she greedily sunk down with her tight pussy clenching around his cock all the way.

Even with how tight she was however, she managed to take most of his cock inside, the familiar heat of her insides extracting a strained groan from him.

Harumi wasn't satisfied with just having him inside however – moaning softly as she rolled her hips forwards, inching further down his cock. Her arousal dribbled down his cock and let her sink down further until the tip of his cock bumped against her deepest parts; his full length snugly buried in her tight pussy.

The sensation aroused Harumi more, a lewd mewl passing her chilly lips.

''Mm… you're twitching… a lot…'' Harumi dimly noted, moaning as she raised her hips again. ''Make sure… to cum lots… inside me… alright?''

''Nn…'' Takashi grunted, grabbing her hips. ''You…''

Any words he intended to say were cut short as Harumi dropped down his dick again, her pussy tightly squeezing his length.

Harumi clearly knew the effect she was having on him, moaning softly as she rode his cock with slow, methodical bounces.

However any attempts at teasing melted away as Harumi's lust took control, a hot mewl passing her lips as she began bouncing with more vigor than before – bouncing up and down his twitching cock, causing him to be torn between wonderful warmth and frigid cold.

On reflex, he gripped her hips tightly and yanked her down his cock, eliciting a startled gasp from Harumi before it melted into a throaty moan, her bounces growing more feverish.

The lewd smacking of skin made his cock twitch with lust, prompting him to buck his hips and thrust up into Harumi; making the scientist moan approvingly as he speared into her quivering folds.

Even as her moans echoed around the snowy landscape, Harumi wouldn't stop moving, openly riding his dick until she reached her inevitable climax; even if it meant fucking him in plain view.

''Mm… a-ah… Takashi… Mn…'' Harumi moaned between breaths, whimpering when he brought his hand down and spanked her peachy ass again – making her pussy coil tighter around his cock.

Takashi groaned at the pleasurable sensation, spanking her again. In response, Harumi laid her hands on his chest and leaned forwards more, sticking her ass out as she impaled herself repeatedly on his length.

Her burning-hot pussy squeezed his length each time he bottomed out inside her hot tightness, eliciting more heated moans and mewls from the scientist as her mind got muddled with pleasure.

Harumi's bounces grew faster and more heated, the smacking of skin echoing around them as she all but slammed her hips down, moaning as his throbbing cock was buried inside her again.

Her pleasure was only enhanced each time he spanked her ass, sending sparks of pleasure rushing through her petite frame, which was starting to emit small sparks. Even as her pelvis began to tighten up, she kept moving, not daring to stop for even a second lest she cum the moment she did.

''A-Ah… Takashi~!'' Harumi mewled breathily, her hips buckling as electricity began sparking about her more vibrantly. ''I-I can't- a-ah~! ''

The scientist let out a cute cry as he bucked his hips, thrusting up into her pussy and tipping her over the edge. Her Meta Ability activated mid-orgasm, sending out bolts that seared random spots around them except the two lovers

Her hot and electrified inner walls tightly constricted his cock, the lewd sensation pushing him to his limit – and with a stifled groan, Takashi climaxed, shooting ropes of cum into Harumi's spasming pussy, making the scientist moan lowly as he filled her up.

''Mm…'' Harumi bit her lip, twitching as she endured the erotic sensation – slowly relaxing as her own orgasm ended, leaving her panting. ''Nn…''

Panting heavily, Takashi sat up on his elbows, groaning as her inner walls erratically spasmed around his length; the pleasurable sensation prompting him to grip her hips and gently roll her hips.

Takashi responded to this by pulling out of her, placing her on the picnic cloth after turning about and instantly thrusting into her once more, knocking out Harumi's breath as he pressed his full body over her's.

"Give me a safe word."

Harumi was about to about to ask for a clarification – but then, she felt the vibe in the air change. She was suddenly aware of Takashi's cock, buried in her pussy and suddenly hardening even more than it already was.

She stole a small glance behind her shoulder, and gulped when she saw red veins appearing to crawl up Takashi's legs towards the top of his head, his skin beginning to glow from within. She stared at him in a mixture of arousal and terror as Takashi slowly exhaled, releasing a soft plume of steam from his breath.

"Okay," Takashi breathed out and Harumi gulped at the sudden power in his voice, "now I really need to know what your safe word is."

"…"

"…"

"…shutdown." Harumi muttered, glancing down at where his cock was sticking in her pussy as sparks of blue electricity began dancing along her skin. Thankfully, it didn't seem to be hurting either of them, as that would've given both of them a nasty shock earlier, but from the look of determination and arousal on Takashi's face, Harumi realized that was the least of her problems.

Takashi let out a small sigh as he gripped her hips, causing her to shudder at the heat. "Okay. Are you ready?"

"Y-yes."

"Are you sure?"

Harumi faltered at that, hearing the brief concern in his voice – and then shoved herself back, letting out a small hiss as he filled her up again, and heard him gasping a bit.

"Takashi." She growled. "Dominate. Me."

"Alright," He nodded, "as you wish."

It was with that that Takashi properly began. Harumi let out a yelp as Takashi picked up the pace, thrusting in and out of her cunt – but at a speed she hadn't expected.

Takashi began ramming into her like a jackhammer, his hips beginning to blur even now as he got started on her. Harumi let out another loud moan as she felt the strength in her arms leave her and made her lay face down on the cold cloth.

This was – holy crap, he was so fast! His cock was blurring in and out of her! This was – Holy shit, this felt so good.

"Takashi!" The scientist yelled with a lustful tone, Takashi jumping a bit in surprise from her sudden shout that echoed throughout the empty cave. "Harder! Fuck my cunt harder! Fuck me like you know I love it!"

The hero only shook his head in response to her dirty talk, but still did as his girlfriend requested and began bucking his hips harder against her ass. He couldn't help but let out his own moan as his hips smacked against her wet and sparky ass with an audible clap, staring down at it and moaning at the sight of it jiggling from every thrust, and threw his hand back to smack her ass a bit harder, leaving a red mark but only making her moan louder.

Every thrust made a loud slapping sound that echoed throughout the empty cave, her ass taking the full force of {Stockpile}.

"More!" Harumi yelled, slamming her hand down on the picnic cloth and rolling her hips in tune to his fast thrusts. "More!"

Soon, he was fucking her just as wild as she had become, her pussy too good for him to control himself any longer.

Takashi's grip on her hips were enough to bruise, his eyes squeezed shut in bliss as they fucked hard. Izuku enjoyed how her pussy squeezed his cock tightly and Harumi enjoyed the Meta Ability-amplified rough sex and knowing that she wouldn't be walking straight for the rest of the weekend – much to her lustful pleasure.

Thank Jesus for Christmas and her school job as it meant that she could maximize her holidays just as much as her students could.

"God, yes! Fuck me more, Takashi! Use me as your cock sleeve!"

Takashi couldn't help but let out his own full blown moan as her pussy somehow squeezed tighter around his shaft, and he felt his orgasm rising within him again – no doubt that this would be the last time he came with Harumi today, and a good thing too since he was pretty sure she was going to be out of commission after this.

"Yeah, fuck me!" Harumi screamed, eyes screwing shut as she felt her orgasm about to rip through her and not caring about how loud her voice was as electricity sparked out from her. "Do it, Takashi, come and give me everything!"

Takashi let out a lustful moan as he collapsed on top of her, continuing to thrust in and out as he bent forward and kissed her shoulder blades while hugging her neck up towards him, his hips blurring even more as Harumi stuck her ass up into the air.

The two once simple and passionate lovers, albeit having their moments of roughness with each other, had thrown away the inhibitions. Now, the two were reduced to the horny youths they were. They had given into their natural urges, and indulged in them, with Takashi feeling proud and dominant for once, Harumi encouraging and longing, and both nothing short of lustful.

"Fuck yes! My cunt feels so good!" Harumi yelled indecently.

Takashi felt himself roll over and turned her on her side as he continued to thrust into her, Harumi lifting her leg as he continued to fuck her.

The brown-haired scientist let out a muffled scream as she grabbed her mouth with one hand and exploded with electricity again – Takashi had the idea to rub her clit while fucking her pussy, and was unable to stop herself from finally climaxing again, her juices spraying out and staining the picnic cloth further.

"F-Fuck!" Harumi moaned out, turning her head and kissing Takashi's lips, sticking her tongue into his mouth as she moaned in pleasure, continuing to cum as Takashi fucked her roughly.

It was very lucky that Takashi finally reached his limit as well – with a shudder, he finally felt himself release, and came in her pussy, the woman shuddering with glee as he filled her up, and held her tight enough to bruise as the two lovers gasped and moaned.

The glow of Takashi's body spread towards Harumi, causing her to seize up and scream as her body discharged a ridiculous amount of electricity this time, cracking across the cave and causing a sensory feedback as the two seemingly felt each other's orgasms simultaneously, causing Takashi to collapse onto Harumi in a tangled heap, both of them slipping into unconsciousness.

---

Takashi and Harumi woke up to a shadowy landscape, only to see Daisy above them with a flushed expression.

"What the?" Takashi weakly moaned only for Daisy to kiss him, surprising the Hero as he felt her tongue push past his lips in an instant.

"So this is Daisy..." Takashi tore his lips off to stare at his girlfriend, who had weakly propped herself up to stare as Daisy kissed down his neck.

"Shouldn't you be stopping this?!"

Harumi shrugged. "Nah. If whatever this is got bad enough for her to jump you instantly instead of questioning what we're doing here, it's better to let her vent."

"It's your fault!" Daisy growled heatedly as she started humping him. "When you activated {Stockpile}, I was exposed to everything! Every kiss! Every bite! Every suckle! And now, by some weird twist, I can feel {Stockpile} in Harumi as well!"

"Really?" Harumi looked to her spectral hands in wonder. "Ok. As your girlfriend, I hereby give you permission to fuck Daisy into submission. I have lots of experiments to run by when we leave."

"Wait-!" And then Takashi proceeded to be wrung dry again. It was especially worse as in this {Hazy World}, his body actually a bit stronger, thus lasted longer than he wished it to.

---

"Well, that was something." Harumi stretched her arms as they walked home. "To think that {Stockpile} could be multiplied in such a manner by DNA transfer."

Takashi said nothing, pointedly looking away from her.

Harumi chuckled nervously at Takashi's cold behavior. "Are you still mad about before? You know that you're free to unleash all your pent-up aggression on me if you like."

"You're the one who unleashed on me instead." Takashi's sharp words cut through Harumi. "Daisy at least has the excuse of not having a physical body for some years, then being suddenly exposed to sexual stimulation after years of withdrawal. You, on the other hand, do not. And after I told you it hurt..."

"I was, er, caught up in the moment..." Harumi pleaded unsuccessfully. "You know, having trouble holding back..."

"I said 'NO!' but you just had to join in with her...!"

"N-Nooo... One could say that it happened naturally... on impulse, really... And even if you said 'No, No'... You weren't altogether unsatisfied so..."

"...I died. Again... And not from training or Hero work like usual..."

"...I'm sorry."

---

Wild Tiger invaded Satoshi's HQ, easily bypassing several of the guards as he made his way thanks to Daisy's tips.

Wild Tiger stopped as he beheld... a ridiculously grandiose door. 'He wouldn't... No, he totally would...'

"Knock knock!"

"Who is it?"

"A guy who doesn't believe in doors!" With a sweeping kick, Wild Tiger blasted the huge doors off their hinges, raining them down on the space.

It was like a hall, except at the end was Satoshi behind a furnished desk. The elder Shigaraki grinned in approval as he sat up from kicking his legs forward.

"Welcome, Takashi! Or should I say Wild Tiger?" Satoshi spread out his arms in welcome. "It's been a while! Let's catch up!"

"Nii-san, what are you planning?" Wild Tiger pulled off his mask and tossed it away, showing that he was speaking as the younger Shigaraki Brother; Takashi, not the Hero; Wild Tiger. "We've always discussed being the Hero and the Demon King. I'm already aware that you'll technically be seen as a bad guy. But what's with the rumors that I'm hearing?! That you've been collecting and giving Meta Abilities?! I though you could only take them!"

"Indeed, I thought so, too!" Satoshi nodded in understanding. "It turns out that my Meta Ability can literally be compared to computer functions 'Cut & Paste'! All that time when we were kids, I just kept using 'Cut' instead! Well, it's not like I had a reason to give any of them back. Also, I was able to give you {Stockpile} after all."

"I-I just thought that me being your brother or someone of very similar DNA bypassed a loophole or something..." Even as he spoke, Takashi could tell how weak that explanation was. "It really was right there all along..."

Satoshi nodded in empathy. He'd slapped himself over the head when he'd first realized it himself. Of course, this had opened up a lot of opportunities he hadn't had before.

Right, in light of this, there was still an important matter to deal with. With a bright smile, Satoshi declared out right as he got and stalked over to him. "I'll cut down to the chase, Takashi! My current endgame is Country Domination! Then the world! Join me, Hero!"

"I refuse!" Takashi's answer was instant. "With the way you currently are, the Demon King you'll become utterly terrifies me!"

"No good?"

"No good."

"Unconditionally?"

"Unconditionally."

"I could blackmail you."

"No, you won't." Takashi clenched his fists. "We've never betrayed each other no matter the cause as we grew up. You won't start now, especially if you want me to be onboard with this, which I am not."

"True, you did trust me with your secret identity in an instant." Satoshi started walking around him in thought. "And you knew where to find me and never betrayed me to the authorities despite your suspicions and the 'rumors'."

"And the fact that I never got any surprise attacks or visits at my workplace or my home means that you never betrayed me either." Takashi replied. "However, -"

Two men stepped about, accompanied by guards who immediately pointed their guns at Takashi.

"Ah, you guys are late!" Satoshi yelled at them before quickly assuring one of the men who had a mutated jaw. "No. Not you two, you guys are on time. It's those idiot guards behind you. Leave. My brother's already been here for too long for your presence to matter much."

Satoshi moved towards the two men before dragging them forward, much to Takashi's discomfort.

"Look here. This man's jaws are mutating. He told me that his teeth are continually growing, shedding and regrowing." Indeed, the first man's teeth and jaws had deformed, forming into uneven fangs. "He's a timid guy, but he's never failed to take care of his aging parents. He's what we can both acknowledge as a good guy. Despite that, he was persecuted, being called a monster by others. Even his own parents who he gave so much to have alienated themselves from him."

Takashi gritted his teeth. That was a sad uncomfortable truth. While there had been 'generative' type Meta Abilities, there had also been 'transformative' types which had been recently popping up. While some were lucky to have theirs turn on and off like a switch, there were an unlucky few who's were slow and permanently 'on'.

"This man on the hand had no Meta Ability. He told me that he had been attacked by a group of people with powers of their own as he returned late from work one evening." Satoshi gestured to the second man. Unlike the gentleness from the first man, he had the expression of a recently humiliated person. "His trusty stungun had no effect on them and someone with tentacle-like hair immobilized, leaving him unable to move as they took away his possessions."

That... honestly got a lot less sympathy from Takashi, especially as the robbery victim looked like he was very willing to go commit murder.

"And now," Satoshi turned to face the two. "they've come to me for assistance in their troubles."

"Nii-san!" Takashi yelled. "Don't you dare! We both know that you're not doing that for free!"

"Yes." Satoshi made no secret of mincing his words. "And so do they."

"Please do it." The first man begged.

"Hurry up." The second man ordered.

Satoshi raised an eyebrow at his attitude before placing his hands over their faces. In an instant, {Fangs} was taken away, leaving the first man's face free of deformity. The second man grunted as {Drill Bones} manifested, puncturing through his skin and shirt as twisted spikes.

Takashi really didn't like the smile on that guy's face as he observed his new power.

"The next time that I'm in a tough spot," Satoshi clapped his hands. "You guys will come help me out, won't you?"

"Of course!" The first man burst into relieved tears. "I can meet my parents again...! Thank you! Seriously, thank you!"

"I'll never forget your kindness for as long as I live." The second man breathed out, already rushing out to get his revenge. "Now, I have some punks to go kill."

"Have fun..." Satoshi waved them off as the second man returned to carry the still crying first man, showing some hidden camaraderie in the way he gently patted the sobbing man's back. "Don't you see, Takashi? Even as I'm aiming to become a Demon King, I still see people and I use my Meta Ability for their sake."

"That's bullshit!" Takashi disagreed. "You just gained two loyal underlings without addressing their true problems! Weren't you aiming to become a 'free' Demon King?!"

"True..." Satoshi smiled as he thought back to the good old days. "However, Dreams change over the years... Hey, Takashi... The Hero is supposed to be strong, right? To be the Demon King's match..."

Takashi's eyes narrowed at the change in tone. "Nii-san! Are we doing it?! Right now?! Right here?!"

"Yeah, we're doing this..." Satoshi was suddenly next to Takashi, dropping a heavy hand right onto his shoulder. "So, let's begin the First Clash."

Both brothers swung about very quickly, smashing their forearms against each other hard enough to be recoiled away.

Satoshi hmphed as he pointed his arm, creating several ice boulders that shot at Takashi who dodged all of them, although with close calls.

As he slowed down to breathe a bit, one came too close, requiring him to roundhouse kick it back at the cost of a sprained leg.

"Wow!" Satoshi clapped his hands after evaporating the reflected boulder with {Hot Hands}. "I didn't know that {Stockpile} would grow as well as it has, considering how weak it was when I gave you."

Satoshi then snapped his fingers, creating an orange spark that shot towards Takashi. When it got close enough, it exploded into a giant fireball which might have killed Takashi had he not had the sense to dodge back from it.

As he struggled to get up from the crater he had made in the wall, he fell into a coughing fit which had him spitting blood. 'Dammit! I can't even touch him!'

"He's gotten smarter." Daisy groused. "Considering that you're a close range combatant, he won't let you get close in the slightest."

Takashi gritted his teeth and then charged forward. With a strong burst of {Stockpile}, he launched himself against a high spot on the wall, before shooting about the pillars in the hall, making use of the enclosed space to ricochet about like a human pinball and build up speed.

"Oh..." Satoshi rubbed his chin in fascination. "Not a bad idea. I won't try to stop your motions or dodge that! Go ahead and try to break my defenses, Hero!"

"I plan to!" Takashi shot forward, a bullet in human form as he shattered the last pillar and aimed a kick at Satoshi's chest. A hastily sprung wall of ice shattered without him slowing down in the slightest, causing Satoshi's grin to widen further as Takashi's kick connected with his {Gold} protected chest.

Takashi roared as his kick smashed both him and his brother through the wall and into a yard, surprising several people there.

"Boss?!"

"It's Boss!"

"Who's that bastard?!"

"Wait, that's Boss's brother!"

"Eh?! Boss had a brother?!"

"Of course, he did! Who else would be capable of sending Boss through a wall?!"

Satoshi's chuckles halted their muttering as he stood up and looked down on a panting Takashi, who was now clutching his chest and bleeding from his mouth as he coughed in exhausted stress.

"Look at you, how much both you and {Stockpile} have grown." Satoshi raised his hand as shadows appeared around it.

"[Dark Pull.]"

Takashi gasped as he was pulled forward like a piece of metal into the magnet that was his brother's hand.

"I'll take this back now." With that, Satoshi placed a hand over Takashi's face, willing his Meta Ability to take back {Stockpile}. "Let's see how well the Hero does without his MacGuffin."

"NO!" Takashi grasped his brother's arm, causing arcs of white and black lights to shine from both their hands as their powers raged against each other. With a loud crash, the brothers were recoiled away from each other.

That was too much as Takashi fell unconscious.

---

"Hey, you okay?"

Takashi awoke in the {Hazy World}, being watched over by a worried Daisy. "Where am I? What happened?"

"Satoshi tried to take {Stockpile} away." Daisy informed as she looked over him and slowly turned about to see the cracked landscape. "However, whatever happened to our powers must have merged them together and mutated them, as I was able to actually fight back along with you when you both popped into here."

"Really?"

Daisy nodded. "Remember when you fucked Harumi into the snow?" At Takashi's embarrassed nod, she continued. "Our Meta Abilities must have merged and mutated back then into a single power, becoming capable of more, including giving Harumi a portion of itself."

"I don't think so..." Takashi genuflected. "I think I might actually have a Meta Ability similar to Nii-san's. Except that rather than collecting and giving Meta Abilities via touch, mine actually just implants parts of itself into others via DNA transfer..."

"Implants...? Like installing... a new computer... to an already existing... Network...?"

Takashi and Daisy turned sharply to see the spectral form of Harumi present, her flickering blue form wreathed with electrical sparks.

"Are you really here, Harumi?" Takashi tried to hold her hands only to slip through.

"I'm... not... sure..." Harumi's vestige spoke. "It feels... like a... weak connection... I just... went to sleep... earlier... so this... might be... a dream..."

"Not a dream!" Daisy was at Harumi's side and was actually able to clap a hand onto her shoulder. "We're really here!"

"Oh... so I-"

The connection cut off as Takashi stumbled awake in the real world, realizing his location to be some sort of cell.

As Takashi blearily blinked and wondered at the IV drip attached to his forearm, the door opened, allowing Satoshi in.

"Oh, you're awake!" Satoshi grinned as he set down a plate of fresh soup, which Takashi dimly recognized as the type their mother made whenever either of them fell sick. "It's been two days, you know. You wouldn't wake up no matter what we did. Some of my underlings actually wanted me to just let you die, you know."

"What happened to them?"

"Splatter decorations for the wall." Satoshi replied cheerfully as he didn't just confess to gruesomely killing his own subordinates. "It's currently raining a bit heavily so I'm sure it'll wash off soon."

"...I see." Takashi murmured. "So, I lost, huh..."

"Yes, you did. So..." Satoshi leaned forward. "Have you changed your mind?"

"No. Both of us have always wished to pursue our 'freedom'." Takashi glared at his brother. "The Demon King you aim to become is one that steals away the 'freedom' of others, Nii-san. That goes against everything that we believed in as kids. What you're doing is inflicting leverage onto others like our guardian did to us when we were kids. 'After all I've done for you, all you have to do is stay in my presence and become my slave'. That's what 'm getting here."

Satoshi sighed as he stretched his legs. "Takashi. You do know that my current actions are actually helping Japan out a bit, considering how fucked up society's becoming. How can a Hero like you not be openminded? True enough, I'm aiming to take over the country, even if I copy that bastard a bit, but even you can tell that without me, society was on the brink of collapse. While your actions as Wild Tiger were still limited to just your home city, my actions on the other hand have reached to the entirety of Japan!"

"There are those who have banded together, wielding their power in vain. Those who oppose my methods just like you." Satoshi revealed as he offered a spoonful of soup which was grudgingly accepted. "Compared to you, they are an extremely dangerous existence but not as awe-inspiring as you. As a result, they were killed quite simply not by my actions or hand, but in my name by my underlings."

Takashi spat his soup out, having lost whatever little appetite he had. "And they've labelled you as a Supervillain for that."

"Exactly! Just as you're the first Hero, I'm the first Supervillain! I should copy Megamind and do a presentation soon. It's like the world that we read about in our comics."

"That's why-"

A sudden rumble sounded above before a sudden force impacted, knocking the brothers to the ground from it's sheer force.

"Stay here!" Satoshi ordered as he went out. The brief moment the door was open, he saw an immense thunderstorm dominating the sky. The way his Meta Abilities pleasantly vibrated in his chest gave him an idea on who was responsible.

As soon as his brother left, he jumped off his bed, gently ripped off his IV drips and prepared to leave.

As he stepped forward, the door banged open and revealed a harried Harumi who gasped in happiness at her luck and instantly glomped Takashi.

"You're alive!" Harumi peppered Takashi's face and neck with relieved kisses as she held him tight. After a moment of breathing in his scent, she stepped back. "We need to leave. Right now, your brother's camp is under attack."

"Wait, it's not you?" Takashi asked as they ran through the chaos. "Wasn't that your Meta Ability back then?"

"I just enticed them a bit." Harumi muttered as a took a quick break to hide behind a wide pillar. "The guys fighting your brother were already prepared. I just launched a preemptive strike and gave them the initiative to attack while I could search for you unheeded in the chaos."

"Wait." Takashi's voice raised in trepidation. "Doesn't that mean that we're likely to be attacked by everyone else?!"

"All the more reason to leave." Harumi nodded before suddenly gasping as Takashi pulled her forward, allowing a swung bat to miss her head. In an instant, Harumi's electrified back kick broke through the metal bat and sent her assailant flying into a wall. "Huh. Super strength really is convenient."

"Is it just me or was {Stockpile} a bit stronger than usual?" Takashi questioned. "I would've needed more effort to do that and I'm more physically fit than Harumi."

"Amazing." Daisy commented. "Rather than being divided, I can actually feel our overall power being increased instead."

"We should hurry." Harumi kept moving until Takashi stopped suddenly, his gaze trained elsewhere. Harumi followed his gaze and blanched when she saw Satoshi facing off four attackers at once. And winning if the relaxed looks on his face was anything to go by.

Harumi turned back and tightened her grip on Takashi's arm, nearly feeling herself choke on the rising up tears. "No."

"I have to."

"Why do you have to?!" Harumi clutched his shirt and dragged him close. "I can tell just by looking at you. The stress of whatever's happened here is tearing you down! Are... Are you going to die here...?"

"...if Nii-san goes ahead without anyone to stop him, Japan, no... the world will suffer." Takashi gave a sad smile. "I can't let him."

"Why does it have to you?" Harumi started to sob. "Why can't it be someone else to deal with him?!"

"Because we are brothers." Takashi smiled softly. "We've always been connected and we will always be connected. One for All and All for One. Just like the musketeers, we've been drawn together by more than just blood."

Takashi tipped Harumi's face upwards and kissed her for the final time. "Goodbye, Harumi. And give my farewell to Ichika too."

"I... I..." Harumi stretched her hand futile as Takashi separated from her. "I love you!"

Takashi gave a quick smile and mouthed some words back, causing Harumi to run the other way as she started crying heavily after she read his lips.

"I love you too. I have for quite a while."

---

Satoshi ducked under a wide swing from an elongated arm. It looked interesting to take at first but further observation proved that the Meta Ability would be hard to master without proper training.

No good.

In his blind spot, a guy got ready to shoot a bazooka at Satoshi. Satoshi turned in time to see his brother's fist smash into the guy's jaw, sending him flying.

For a moment, the image was overlapped with a smaller, sicker Takashi beaning over a guy who had nearly attacked him with a metal pipe. Just like now, Satoshi hadn't been aware of his presence until his very lovable and equally protective brother took him down for him.

"Ha!" Satoshi rejoiced as he and Takashi stood back to back. "I knew you'd come around soon enough!"

"Don't misunderstand, Nii-san." Takashi argued. "I just couldn't ignore you and run away when I could."

"Don't be so dramatic." Satoshi swung his arm forward, releasing a blast of fire that blew away everyone in front of him in an instant.

"Don't be so hypocritical." Takashi breathed before going on the offensive, launching into an offensive streak that sent several of their attackers flying.

The brothers worked in tandem for a bit, with Takashi taking out every one who came too close and Satoshi blasting away everyone far enough away from his constantly moving brother.

It actually brought a happy smile to Satoshi's face. The Demon King and the Hero, always constant against each other, yet invincible together against everyone else. Why wouldn't Takashi join him?!

In his negligence, a figure appeared behind him. There was no time to move, to block, to attack.

Only certain Death awaited Satoshi as he swung a large serrated sword at his neck.

A right fist swung in, smashing straight into the assailant's lower abdomen without hesitation as the attacker threw his full body weight into the blow.

Takashi roared as his attack sent the assailant flying off the roof and into the next one, which was easily thirty meters away.

Satoshi sighed as he sidestepped the assailant's dropped weapon.

The others wavered, leaving themselves vulnerable as Satoshi unleashed a huge blast of ice, not only getting rid of the rest of them, but also sealing off access to the roof.

For a few seconds, the brothers stared each other down as while their breathing slowed down amidst the battle and flames raging beneath them, their adrenaline didn't.

"So what now, Hero?" Satoshi questioned as he gingerly flexed his shoulders. "Are you going to kill me here if you can't subdue or convince me to change my ways? A Demon King is not so fickle!"

"I don't want to hear that from someone who didn't finish the comic he was inspired by!" Takashi entered a combat pose. "The Hero struggled and struggled until they won! Did you know, Nii-san? The Demon King will always lose in the end!"

"This is reality, Takashi!" Satoshi spread out his arms, referring to all the chaos around them. "Ever since the appearance of superpowers, reality itself has been bashed down into mud! And mud is malleable, Takashi! And I will become it's sculptor!"

"I'm part of that mud!" Takashi yelled. "And so are you!"

Satoshi sighed in relief as Takashi had just finally said something that made sense. "And that's just the thing. With My Meta Ability... and how the 'mud', which is to say the entire Status Quo, is changing the world due to the existence of real life superpowers... I can do and become... whatever the fuck... I want... No more cold days... No more limits... No more of those above me... After all... I am here... C'mon, Takashi... Join me."

"...I can't do that." Takashi shook his head. "The Hero would never agree to that and you know that I wouldn't either."

The brothers stared down each other until an explosion blew off a nearby roof. In an instant, their battle began anew!

Takashi smashed a fist against {Gold} protected face, barely managing to dodge {Hot Hands}'s flames as Satoshi's fist rocketed by. Not letting up, Takashi pressed on, keeping inside Satoshi's space so as to keep pressure on his brother's close range weakness.

Satoshi grunted as he suffered another blow to the cheek. Just because he was protected from external attacks did not mean that his internal organs were safe from particularly sharp hits.

Takashi dodged a particularly wide swipe of Satoshi's arm and kicked him away. His eyes promptly widened as he realized his mistake in an instant. He promptly dodged away, ice stakes longer than he was tall being stabbed down in his wake as he sprinted about the roof's space.

As soon as he came to a stop, he stomped down hard on the roof's already cracked surface, tilting up a large concrete piece.

With immense power, he struck it with his palm, shooting several pieces of rock at his brother. Satoshi blocked his face as he activated {Gold} over his entire body, unintentionally blocking his view.

Takashi took advantage, smashing a fist into his guard and breaking a forearm as he sent Satoshi flying. As soon as he came to a stop, he immediately thrusted an arm out.

"[Dark Press!]"

Takashi fell under the gravitational hold, straining as his body struggled against the unnatural weight.

"[Dark Push!]"

Takashi was repelled away, smacking and rolling until he stopped against the ice wall that blocked out everyone else.

"It's tough being the Hero, isn't it?!" Satoshi yelled as he pressed on, smashing a {Gold} reinforced fist where Takashi's head had just been against the ice and punching a hole through it.

Takashi closed the distance and kicked Satoshi's shins, leaving him vulnerable as Takashi got behind him and pulled him into a ground shaking Suplex!

However, Satoshi's fist lashed out and scored Takashi in the ribs, forcing him to release him instantly.

For a moment the brothers stayed separated as they panted heavily. Then Satoshi started chuckling darkly.

"The Hero doesn't dare to kill..." Satoshi muttered as he slowly got back up. "But the Demon King can do anything... to end his enemy's life."

"There he is!"

"Shoot him!"

A deluge of bullets rained down on Satoshi, causing him to barely raise a barrier with {Ice Shards}, protecting him from danger. However, he was unaware of a hidden danger.

"NO!" Takashi's voice cracked. He used the energy he had left to leap toward his brother and wrap his arms around his waist from behind.

Satoshi turned his head to look at him out of the corner of his eye.

"Nii-san..." Tears formed in Takashi's eyes and began running down his cheeks. Satoshi's eyes widened as he made a crucial realization too late.

A bone-like spear shot from one of the attackers, intended for the elder Shigaraki's blind spot, but instead impaled Takashi straight through the stomach.

The world deadened for Satoshi as Takashi was flung to the side, a lot of blood already coming out of his back.

The Demon King's breathing ran shaky.

"TAKASHI!"

He moved to catch his little brother as fast as possible, ignoring his attackers.

"WHO WAS THAT?!"

"Considering his reaction, probably someone important."

"No matter then! Keep at it!"

"Make the bastard pay!"

With a shuddering breath, Satoshi tapped his hand against the ground.

Spears of ice sprouted up from beneath him, tearing through both buildings, allies and foes as the impaled were sent up screaming in pain and terror.

It was like an icy hell brought up into the world by a Demon.

Satoshi paid it all no mind as he held his dying brother in his arms, very aware of slowly spreading puddle of red on the bright ice.

"Why... Why did you do that?" Satoshi's tears dripped down unto Takashi's relieved face. "Why would you do that?"

"Why indeed...?" Takashi coughed, blood spilling out his lips and unto Satoshi's shirt. "I... guess... my body... just moved... before I... could think... on it..."

He coughed some more, spilling some blood and causing Satoshi to regret not searching for Healing powers. Unfortunately, they wouldn't come into existence for a few years.

"It's fine... I just wanted... to protect you... like you... used to..."

"Takashi... Do you hate me for wanting to become the Demon King?"

"...I hate... what you want... to become... You're not free... just dominating..."

"...do you... hate me..."

"I'm literally... bleeding out... for you... here..." Takashi weakly chuckled. "Besides... I've always... admired you... Nii-san... was my... Hero... after all..."

Takashi suddenly fell into a rasping cough.

"It's cold... Why is it cold...? It feels like Russia again... Those horribly cold winters..."

"Takashi?" Satoshi shook his brother who didn't respond as he stared off and kept mumbling.

"Nii-san... please turn up... the heat... It's... too.. cold..."

"Takashi!" Flames burst forth from a rapidly freed arm, surrounding them in an instant. It was no use.

Takashi breathed one final puff of cold air before Satoshi felt the ever present star of stockpiled power beneath his brother's body taper off.

Several miles away, Harumi burst into fresh tears much to Ichika's trepidation, spiritually aware of Takashi's death.

"Don't do this to me, Takashi. Don't do this to me, Takashi, come on...No, no...Oh no, no, no... Please, please, don't do this...!"

Takashi didn't respond as Satoshi burst into fresh tears.

Even in his death, he looked to his brother with an unregretful smile.

---

The Progenitor Hero

---

KingVessel: This was stressful... and probably too long... For those of you noting the absence of that doomsday clock, it refers to something that will occur in the main story and I realized how utterly exhausting it would be to make a mental calendar of years to an incoming WHAM when everyone else can just enjoy the suddenness of it. Damn you, Fate/Zero.