Chapter 14: Ill Intent
People got sloppy when they felt safe. This was something that Akaguro Chizome had learned early on when he had made his first forays into the life of a professional hero. Give the average citizen a little security and they suddenly forget that the world is still teeming with people that could take everything away from them in a heartbeat.
Give a professional guard a few years of quiet inmates whom are unable to rise up against the 'undefeated' security of a renowned prison like Tartarus and even then, they will be lulled into that false sense of safety. They will make mistakes, assuming that all of those redundant measures being taken shield them from their own folly.
Back when he was a hero, one of the things that had irked him the most was how lightly they all took the dangers around them, those false heroes. He had taken up the mantle of a so-called 'vigilante' soon after, since few agreed with his strict guidelines of what a real hero was. No one wanted to hear the truth, or remember their own history.
Chizome watched the guard's eyes as the man's body shook, his hand still desperately reaching for the baton on his belt. His hand shook and tremored with his raw effort, but his paralysis was too far in, now, and it was now too late to recover from his mistake. With practiced ease, Akaguro took hold of his throat and squeezed.
A few minutes later, the guard stopped kicking, lack of oxygen to his brain causing his body to fall unconscious as a protective reflex. Once the man at his feet was motionless, he took the time needed to free himself from the rest of the restraints that were meant to hold him back from violence against his oppressors.
As he pulled the hard plastic mask that covered his face aside, he turned it around to look at the ugly device that had been designed to keep him from using his quirk. It was currently mottled with blood, still wet from when he had suddenly head-butted the guardsman that had been transferring him to another cell.
Stunned from the sudden violence, the young man had failed to react when Chizome had kicked his feet out from under him, pinning his body to the floor under his wiry frame. The mask covered his face fairly securely, but if they weren't going to go to the length of sewing the thing to his face, it wasn't going to be enough.
His tongue, longer than usual and enhanced by the nature of his personal genetic mutation, had managed to slip out from under the mask after he had viciously dislodged it just a fraction with the impact generated from his collision with the unwary guardsman's skull. Only the tip of that prehensile appendage had slipped from its containment.
But it was enough, as the guard's blood had been there, dripping onto his tongue with the finality of a death toll. The man had seen it, frozen in fear for a split second as realization of how damned he truly was settled in his dazed mind, and then the guard had panicked, trying to reach for his weapon, but far too late.
Now that he had freed both of his hands with the keys on the guard's belt, Akaguro took a moment to bind his broken thumb, a necessary sacrifice in getting his right hand free so that he could properly silence his captor. He looked over the rest of the gear and items on the man, disappointed with the baton but smiling widely as he found something in the guard's back pocket.
A small, folding blade. This guy probably only ever used the knife for things like peeling fruit, it was of cheap make and it didn't hold much in the way of an edge, but it was a blade, and it could cut. There was also a set of key cards, leaving Chizome wondering as to which areas of the prison he might now have access.
This all started when the guardsman had unwisely leaned over in a fashion that made it clear he wasn't paying any attention to his ward at all. It had almost felt like a necessity from Akaguro to punish him immediately, and the seasoned fighter had struck the guard before he'd even finished making the rest of his plan of attack.
As far as what came next... well, escape would be nice. Stain smiled from ear to ear; wouldn't it be fun if he busted out of a place like Tartarus?
.*.
What a strange and unexpected turn of events! To say that it wasn't vexing would be a lie, of course. Even the most well-made plans rarely survived contact with the enemy, so Shigaraki had a tendency to lay many backup plans when he worked out how he was going to achieve his goals. As a master chess player, he was always ready to lose a piece on the board.
But not Tomura... All-for-One had no contingency for losing the central player of all of his schemes. Of course, he had made sure to keep the boy he had given his surname to more or less out of the firing line as he grew and developed. He had taught the boy whom had once been known as Shimura Tenko to use others as well.
After all, with an army of disposable pawns, it was far less likely that the king would be captured. Not impossible, though. Even All-for-One himself now sat strapped to a chair, sealed deep down on the lowest level of Tartarus, gun turrets with cameras mounted upon the walls watching his every move. Whenever he stirred, they whirred.
Recalibrating to make sure that they fired unerringly should he deviate from the position of restraint he was meant to maintain. If Shigaraki somehow got free of the bonds that tightly held him to the chair and respirator he was attached to, those weapons would hail him with a stream of armor piercing bullets that would incapacitate if not outright kill him.
The best players knew that you couldn't win them all. Shigaraki had been alive for centuries, now, kept living by one of the quirks he had stolen early on well past the lifespan of an average human being. But despite the all-powerful nature of his own ability, even he had been defeated... again. This time at least he had not been so mortally wounded.
On the day that he had met his first great defeat at the hands of All-Might, he had for a moment been entirely dead, his own powers of regeneration and a merciful hero the only reason he had not been exsanguinated due to the massive wound had suffered to his head back then. Even now, he had no eyes, ears or nose, and could only breath due to the device he was attached to.
He could only perceive his surroundings thanks to a handful of sensory quirks he had taken, but those abilities caused him to see more than most could with their eyes. He had a multitude of other impressive abilities, too, many of which the heroes that had captured him were still unaware, but despite all of his power, he was now low on options.
His main piece had suddenly fallen to an unexpected move upon the board. Everything had been headed towards his eventual goal of using Tomura as the perfect vessel for his rebirth, or even failing that as the rightful heir to his legacy should Shigaraki ultimately experience personal failure and die. But now neither of these was a possibility.
With one bullet, some henchman of Kai Chisaki had ended all of All-for-One's plans. It had happened before anything could be done to stop it, and even Shigaraki had not accounted for its possibility. It felt like a check-mate of sorts. The heroes had gained ground they ironically didn't even realize they had made because of an event outside of them all.
How frustrating it was. With Tomura's quirk suddenly erased, Shigaraki could not even sense what had then happened to the boy. For all he knew at first, Tomura could have died from the shot that had stolen away the power than All-for-One had gifted him. That magnificent quirk, Decay, now gone forever.
Of course, Shigaraki had far more pawns than just Tomura, and using one such pawn that he had planted within the student class of U.A., he had since learned that Tomura was alive, and followed the events that came after where the heroes started moving the League participants into the school itself in some strange attempt at reformation.
It could be taken as an affront that they were trying to turn those whom had been his pawns, but Shigaraki never had any actual emotional attachment to his pieces, and it was hard to be insulted when it was clear that the fool heroes didn't even know the full breadth of what they were doing in the first place, making it impossible for them to be doing it to spite him.
His indignation remained firmly planted in his loss of the vessel that had been meant to acquire the coveted One-for-All quirk for him, the previous ability of his long-deceased sibling, and the only power that could truly rival his own. Normally he would have simply sighed and started over, seeking out another tool for the job...
However, he himself being captured put a severe hamper on his ability to do so. The only people he still had some semblance of control over were far too weak and not nearly resourceful enough to free him from a place like Tartarus, which made the entire affair appear very much like a losing hand. He could spy through Aoyama Yuga, but the boy's quirk wasn't much of anything, and the kid had no real connections.
Commanding the child to do anything that might help him be free of his prison would also almost certainly only worsen his position, since Aoyama was aware of his incarceration, and All-for-One was in no real position to threaten the child into obedience. Not that Yuga would have much of a chance of breaking into Tartarus anyways...
If he told Aoyama that he would kill him if he didn't do what he was told, there wasn't even any guarantee that a child whom honestly aspired to be a hero wouldn't simply sacrifice himself to thwart All-for-One, and Yuga might very well be aware that any threats against his family would be little more than a bluff at this point.
Should Aoyama really aspire to protect his parents, Shigaraki's reach was extremely limited in his current situation, and he would likely fail if he tried to execute them. Even if he managed to pull it off through his other minions, he would immediately lose Yuga as an asset, and no longer even be able to spy on U.A. through the quirk he had installed in the boy.
Biding his time seemed like the only option that might lead to his original plan of eventually stealing All-for-One, but his lockdown in Tartarus spelled a serious problem for his chances of coming up with it as a tenable goal. The boy who was currently the ninth wielder of that quirk, Midoriya Izuku, was growing more apt at using it daily.
Not only that, but Yagi had passed the quirk on to a quirkless kid, meaning that Midoriya would have his entire lifetime to master his abilities, all while Shigaraki sat helpless in Tartarus, All-for-One's power stagnated while his nemesis only ever continued to wax greater. From what Shigaraki knew of Izuku, the boy would likely become a far greater 'Symbol of Peace' than even Toshinori had been.
That wouldn't do. After all, Toshinori Yagi had been able to defeat him... twice. It would be far too great a risk to allow Midoriya to continue to grow unopposed, like a weed that has gone rampant in the garden. He was still young so there was time to deal with him now, but that wouldn't remain the case forever.
Shigaraki couldn't risk a true and final defeat at the hands of One-for-All because he failed to handle the boy while he was still yet relatively vulnerable. Slowly All-for-One let out a controlled breath from his mouth, which was his only option after all since he lacked a nose to do so. His mouth was set in a rare frown.
Even in the face of adversity it was quite common for Shigaraki to smile, since he knew he was smarter than his opponents, and that they didn't know the half of his far-reaching plans. But with the loss of Tomura and what he had to consider now, even his expression had sobered. It was sad, really, but sometimes you just couldn't have what you wanted.
It was a basic strategy that he now considered; if he couldn't have One-for-All, then he would have to ensure that no one else could. Like the now lost quirk Decay, it was time for that power to disappear from the world. It was alright, really; All-for-One was still more than powerful enough to get everything else he wanted without it.
Midoriya Izuku needed to die, and as he felt the weight of his large body pressing back into the chair he was strapped to, Shigaraki changed the nature of his plans, carefully considering what would need to happen to make sure that event occurred.
.*.
Jaku Hospital of the city of the same name was rather lively today. Several important persons from affiliated orphanages and nursing homes had all decided to vie for Garaki Kyudai's time on the same day. Normally the balding, aged doctor and scientist would have been more than happy to see them, but today he had to have his secretary make up an excuse for his absence.
The short man walked quickly down the empty passage he currently traversed, adjusting his goggles upon his rounded face as he peered carefully in both directions to make certain that he was in fact alone. Reasonably sure that no one was going to notice him, he slipped into the morgue and looked around to make sure that was empty too.
Satisfied that he was isolated, Kyudai strode over to one wall, where a hidden panel allowed him to open an equally hidden door. He went inside quickly, making sure to close the door behind himself with haste so that no one would see the open door from the morgue side. Then he walked down the lit corridor beyond and into his secret lab.
Obviously, if anyone found out that he, the Chairman of Jaku Hospital, world renowned scientist and philanthropist, was harboring a secret laboratory within the hospital's basement, he would certainly find himself in a world of trouble. As he passed the giant containers full of liquid to his left and right, Kyudai mused to himself as he observed the bodies that floated within them.
No, the world would not handle his theft of the occasional corpse well, even with all of his contributions to quirk-based healing processes. They especially wouldn't approve if they ever caught wind of what he used those bodies for, his precious Nomu.
After arriving finally to the room that served as his innermost sanctum, the controls and monitors for every system in the hospital including the secret ones now at his fingertips, Kyudai sat down. Folding his hands upon his ample stomach, he finally responded to the mental summons that he had received earlier.
"I did not expect to hear from you, All-for-One, please excuse the time it has taken to reply. You rarely deign to use the quirk you modified within me to communicate like this, but I suppose seeing as where you are now it makes perfect sense. I assume that the reason you would reach out to me specifically must be important, yes?"
Speaking directly into Kyudai's mind, a cluster of impressions and desires more than words assailed him, though his conscious brain turned those signals into words, since such was much easier to understand, though those words conveyed more meaning than usual due to his ability to sense the will and thoughts behind them.
He imagined All-for-One's baritone voice sounding out those words, "Garaki Kyudai... no, Ujiko Daruma. I have decided on a use for the Nomu in your possession. I understand that you are reticent to use the prototypes, as you have conveyed that you feel that they are not ready, but the fish I am hunting should be more than small enough for them to be capable of the task."
The mustached scientist leaned forward in his chair, his gaze intense even if Shigaraki couldn't actually see it, "You want to use my children before they are ready? I know you to be a very patient man, so if you are even suggesting this, I can only guess that whatever you need them for is extremely urgent. I assume you already have a plan of action?"
With a sensation that felt like a wide grin, All-for-One's voice resounded in his mind, "Of course."