Path to Pein: Side Villain

Ch 4: Time and curiosity

"Speaking"

"All Might Speaking"

'Thinking'

Flash-Forward/Flashback

I literally have no excuse for this. It's been nearly a year and I have done nothing with this story, well no more, its Chapter 4.

All Might regretted many things. Being pulled away from Nana, leaving her alone to fight All for One, his first encounter with the Villain, without backup, leading to the deaths of dozens of innocents, that one minor villain he accidently killed in his youth, and finally destroying the dream of a then Quirkless child. Prior to his last and final battle with All for One, he genuinely believed that anyone could become a hero regardless. Losing half of his internal organs changed that belief very quickly. And to top it all off, he couldn't even find the young man to apologize for his mistakes.

As the hero in disguise walked down the street, he recalled how he wanted One for All to be given to Izuku, but with him disappearing, he was no longer an option. Well, to say he completely disappeared would be an understatement. He all but vanished off grid. The last time somebody matching Izuku's description was reported, was a few months ago, when a pair of ringed purple eyes saved a lady from an assaulter, the suspect killing the man. And the woman was so distraught that it couldn't even be considered credible evidence. With Izuku gone, he put his mind towards the possible successors for One for All.

Sir Nighteye had put forward his pick for possible successor and All Might, in incognito, met young Togata briefly. He certainly was quite the character, reminding All Might of himself, but didn't want to make any sudden decisions. Being hasty was how he ended up in the situation with Izuku Midoriya in the first place. The current holder of One for All, wanted to at least interview the various first years that would be coming to UA in a handful of months. Perhaps one of them would stand out.

Somebody bumped into Toshinori's shoulder as they went the opposite direction. The man was tall, not the same level as All Might but still, had slicked to the side brown hair, a pair of dark sunglasses on and very pale skin. "Sorry about that, I had my mind occupied."

All Might nodded, before apologizing himself and walking away, while subtly checking to see if he still had his phone and wallet, which he did. You could never be too careful. Although for some reason, the Pro hero felt as if he met the man, perhaps in passing?

Petra Path walked forward taking stock of his surroundings. Izuku's path was made of the body of a pro hero. Although, the pro was a hero in name only. As it turns out the 'Hero' was harassing a couple of girls for 'Protection money' after saving them from a mugger. So, using Izuku's animal path, the Rinnegan bearer summoned a pair of massive dogs to rip apart the man, letting the women flee. He stopped when the man was dead, then stitched his body back together using the Naraka abilities he had learned recently. Not only that but, over the months, he had collected some more animal samples, but was limited in what he could find. He did contemplate breaking into the zoo after hours but chose not to risk it at the time. Of course, none of that trumped his biggest discovery.

What Izuku had discovered was when he converted the dead bodies of individuals into his paths, he could still use their quirks in life, simply because quirks were genetics that altered a body, and only needed stimulation. The Animal path, as he dubbed it, possessed a broad morphing quirk, meaning that should he ever need to make a 'Public' appearance, the animal path could serve as a stand in. It wasn't a perfect imitation, but if one only looked with a passing glance, they wouldn't notice anything off.

Drill Sargent, a military themed hero, and the body of Petra Path possessed a quirk that was both useful and in Izuku's mind a little powerful. It increased durability by twenty five percent and decreased the impact force of physical attacks by fifty percent, the downside was he was unfortunately a bit slower than most but that didn't matter. And when combined with the Petra Path's ability to absorb the energy behind Emitter based quirks, it made for a deadly combo against any emitter quirk.

Before Izuku could continue with his line of thought, he bumped into the thin form of All Might, not that anyone else knew it was him. With a quick apology, and the hero doing the same, they went on their way. Izuku, through his path had heard interesting details in the underworld, none more prominent then the boogieman of quirks. What was interesting was his name, the reversal of One for All. But as life like to do, it disappoints. All for One had dropped off the map about five and a half years ago, a shame, but it did give Izuku good information. Specifically, who put the hole in All Might's gut.

Izuku wanted to bring All Might down, not kill him no, but to prove to those who consider him to be a god among humans, that all he is, is a weak man with a weak ideals. And the hero's weakened form helps quite a bit. Call him vindictive, but all his life, people have forced him to follow their ideals, and rules, and not once could he decide for himself. All Might included. And before long, Petra Path approached a small stairwell into a river channel. He looked around to making sure nobody was looking at him before descending.

Once down there he made sure once again that nobody was watching him before opening a rusted door, once used prior to quirks.

Izuku walked around the ancient subway station that made his base. The base, created prior to quirks was shut down for one of many reasons, too expensive to maintain, improper location. Whatever it was he didn't care. How did he know it won't collapse? If it was likely to come down, it would have in the two centuries that quirks have been around for. That rational thought didn't stop Izuku from covering every crack he could find with concrete patch, just for a little peace of mind.

Before Izuku found the station, it was one big empty dusty room. There was plywood at the subway entrance and more creating a wall along the subway tunnels. Hell, he didn't know this subway station existed until he found an old map online dating from before the first-and second-generation quirks. Apparently, the city didn't want teenagers finding the place, so they buried the entranceway and paved over it. But the city didn't bother with the maintenance tunnels by reason of obscurity and a lock. Foolish but he's not going to complain.

Of course, the base's subway tunnels are still used, and while subway stations were designed to absorb vibrations, noise was a big factor. So, he and his two bodies scavenged anything that would dampen noise, from car seats to old blankets, and created about 7 inches of wall, before placing more plywood over those seven inches of insulation. He also used the cleaner material to act as echo dampeners. The noise wasn't perfect, but now he could at least sleep in the base.

As for electricity, he used some of his money to buy one of those hydro generators and placed it in the water way. He then routed the waterproof cables though the dirt to hid them from any passer byers and though the entryway. For excess energy storage, he salvaged some batteries from an abandoned electric car on the beach which he kept by the old subway stairs. Izuku knew lead acid batteries were unreliable so these older EV batteries could hold a longer larger charge for a smaller size. He did recover a few led batteries but mostly to use as emergency backups should his main system go down. And for power distribution he also bought a 4.5 kw power inverter.

What he uses was an old TV that was being throw out but wasn't damaged. It's antenna placed within tree branches outside, and it's cable painted to blend in. It didn't get too many channels, but it did get him news programs to keep an updated eye. If he needed Internet, he would go to an internet café with his laptop. He also kept a small fridge to store food that he buys. Just because he's a villain doesn't mean he's going to steal food from a store, they didn't do anything to him. The fridge was placed next to his bed, alongside the west wall when you enter.

He did have a small table, some old cabinets, a single chair, a small sofa, a countertop for preparing food, and a cheapo microwave. Not exactly comfort city but it was suffect. However, his biggest accomplishment was reactivating the pipes in the base. Do to misuse the water that came out initially was gross, but he was able to clear it out. Any water he drank, was purified and filtered. The unpurified water was used for standing bathing, and toiletry, which he was able to get working again. But the biggest space taker was the two large, repurposed fridges.

Awhile back he learned something about the two bodies he had. If the bodies weren't in use, they would begin to decay. Had he not learned of the ability to use the Naraka Path, he would have lost the ability to manipulate the two bodies. So, the fridges were designed to keep the bodies cold to prevent decomposition. It was gross, but necessary. He also got a large plastic folding table to use if he needs to work on a new body.

With that Izuku had the Petra body lay down in the open fridge, turned it on, and had the body fall asleep. The fridges had two cooling compressors rather than one to cool the bodies down much faster. He made sure to salvage them from old AC units, so they could keep running for longer. He then switched on the TV as he grabbed two slices of bread and made himself a small sandwich. Unfortunately, all that was really on was a few minor crimes, and how All Might spent an hour saving some families from a rampaging villain. Honestly how people haven't figured out All Might's time limit he doesn't know, although he himself was once blind so that might not count for much.

Katsuki took a step forward. It was finally the day that he blew away all these extras and proved to everybody that he was the next number 1. Then his mind wandered to Deku, the crying nerd. Why does he still think about him, the quirk less fucker did the right thing and left for everybody's sake. 'But what if he did the unthinkable?' There's no fucking way he did that, the nerd is too softhearted to go through with his advice. The explosive blond banished all thought as he walked into the UA Entrance Exam door. He never noticed the purple ringed eyes watching him from across the street.

Petra path walked into a seedy night bar. It's been about a week since the UA exams took place. And some rumors are flying around, none more prevalent than All Might becoming a teacher. It ordered a cheap shot of alcohol to blend in, despite it not being able to taste it. Izuku found that a little bit of liquid now and again keeps the body form drying out so that was he does on the occasion. And then Petra heard something, interesting.

"So, there's this group of folks that are planning an attack. More specifically an attack against the golden boy."

It didn't take much for Petra to know who they were talking about. It turned just slightly enough to look at the one who spoke, a grey haired man, wears glasses, a gap in his teeth and is smoking. The gray smoker was smirking.

"Come on, you have a greater reason than most to get revenge, after all it's the same system that made the golden boy what he is. The same system that caused you to lose everything just because you had a less then appropriate quirk." The man was speaking to a mutant quirk user, likely discriminated against heavily based on his giant spider head.

"I'm not sure, Giran, I mean I have pickpocketed before and shoplifted but to attack a hero, that specific one, it's just..." The spider headed man hesitated. Giran gave a smirk.

"I can see that you're conflicted, and I totally understand, Listen, it's not set in stone yet, and likely won't be happening anywhere from between a couple weeks to a couple of months from now. Give me a ring if you change your mind." Giran let out a puff as the mutant quirk user left. "Quite the tall order Sensei."

Izuku decided it was time to get involved. "I couldn't help overhearing your, endeavor. Perhaps an associate and I may be of assistance?" Petra spoke as it got up and sat down on the previously occupied chair.

"Oh, and who might you be my unknown friend?" The smoker was shrewd and wasn't willing to take outright risks.

"I will only tell you, if I decide you're trustworthy." Petra could see the gears turning in the gap-toothed man's head. "It's not you, it's me, I don't take unnecessary risks." The gray-haired man smirked.

"Smart, names mean a lot of power in this world, and you shouldn't just give yours too just anybody." The smoker took another puff. "So why exactly do you want to partake in our, extracurricular activity?"

'Time to make a believable lie.' Izuku thought to himself. "The man goes out often and claims anyone can be a hero, but shattered the dream of a child, a personal friend to myself and my associate. Eventually that friend of ours died, and the hero never showed up to save him. While I do have personal doubts about the success of this task, I do want to knock him down a few pegs." Giran grinned, probably thought he had Izuku pegged.

"Ah, so a revenge type, eh? Well, who am I to judge? Sure, you can help, always glad to have some assistance. Do you have some kind of burner phone to use?" Petra shook his head. "Bit new to this game, eh? Well, that's okay." The man handed the living corpse a card with an address written on it. "Come to this location at 9 pm sharp three days from now. I'll have something for you. If you're even a minute late, I'll assume that you're not coming and leave."

Petra nodded his head slipping the card into his jacket pocket, before zipping it up. He thanked the broker and downed the rest of his shot, before leaving the establishment. Giran just watched from his seat. 'He's different from the rest of the unsavory folks I deal with. It felt like I was talking to a brick wall with zero emotions. A little like sensei almost. I wonder if I should directly introduce him to Tomura and Kurogiri? Probably not, based on his desires he makes no long-term plans, and his only goal is All Might. Still...'

I'm not going to have Izuku meet the leadership quite yet, after all he's not a big-name player, so no credibility to speak of. I've never actually seen a story where Izuku smuggles in with the USJ fodder. So that'll be exciting. Also guess what? I now have a discord server, AlcorUzukaze's Fanfiction Bash. Link on my AO3 Story posting.