Author's Note:
I'm not sure if this fic will turn out serious or not but feel free to treat this as a mystery/joke fic, but more on the mystery side.
This is still subject to change but planned major characters will be Shigaraki (obviously), Spinner, Stain, Mustard, Curious, and Nagant.
Day 1, Monday
…
…
…
Tomura Shigaraki slumped in his seat, raising his right gloved hand to scratch the side of his cheek, his mind in full bewilderment on what's really going on.
He's currently wearing the official UA physical education uniform. It was a perfect copy, right down to the stylized U and A right in front. It was early in the morning, the wall clock visible in the nearest hallway saying it's not even past 8. The bench he's sitting on is just only partially shaded, but his sheer confusion alone is preventing him from feeling any sort of discomfort.
Not only he's stuck in UA, in full uniform, he's also aged down 4 years from 20 to 16. There were some students nearby minding their own business just as him. He discreetly scanned their faces but could not recognize a single one. Not a hint of his best friend Spinner, nor anyone familiar to him. As for his gloves, AFo said to make sure to wear them as often as possible in this brand-new world.
Everything is peaceful, normal, and boring. All for One wasn't lying when he said he's going to make a parallel universe and send him in.
But the real question is why is this parallel universe even needed? Why is he sent here? What's the meaning behind all this nonsense?! They have New Order in their grasp, they should have already won. There's literally no reason why this is ever needed. But asking AFO would only yield responses about he needs to learn something.
Tomura took a deep breath and sighed. It seems like it was just yesterday when AFO asked him if he could temporarily take over and use his physical form to help him fight the Buff American Hero Lady with renewed vigor. And he accepted, thinking it was going to be an epic father-son moment. He thought it was going to be awesome, a sign for heroes to give up, an intense back-to-back multiplayer co-op boss battle…
Yet everything just went to black, and he only returned to consciousness when AFO returned his body to him after taking the reality-warping Quirk he so badly wanted. No epic fights, no intense scenes, no glorious victories, nothing at all, not even a single Nomu was brought in. All for One himself didn't say much about the fight either, but he successfully took the Quirk it seems. He was glad, he was happy, and showered him praises even though Tomura didn't really do anything. Spinner was very happy as well.
So the next step is using that Quirk to bring down society once and for all, right?
Right…?
No. AFO went to have a talk with him. He first thought it's gonna be a plan for a one-last picnic before everything goes down, fishing, or maybe camping perhaps. But no, he said he plans to have him turned into a highschool student to learn about his mistakes.
What mistakes is he talking about? Yes he steamrolled through an army like there's no tomorrow but lost against heroes. But does that even count as a mistake when there's a literal reality-warp Quirk in their possession now? That alone invalidates all the reasons why he's even in this little alternate universe!
They should have been gearing up to beat Midoriya and hero society in one fell swoop now, not this… stupid highschool thing! What is even there to learn?
"Oh you're up this early, never expected this from you, Tomura…" came the gentle voice of All for One as he approached from behind the bench Tomura is on, the clacking of his shoes against the marble floor clearly audible. He was wearing his usual fancy attire and now-fixed breathing apparatus in a form of a Darth Vader-esque helmet as usual.
Despite him standing out in the scene like a sore thumb, everyone went on their merry ways as if he's completely invisible. And he is – to other people at least. As much as Tomura would like to have his adoptive father join him in this new world, he wouldn't – with the man's reasoning being that he needs to further understand and fine-tune New Order so they could have an easier time beating their enemies once he returned… or whatever he meant by that…
Tomura's adoptive father sat down beside him.
"Am I really gonna do this? What can I even learn from being a highschool student? What does villainy got to do with being a highschool student?"Tomura asked, leaning back against the armrest nearest to him, looking at his adoptive father with the same confusion that plagued him since this morning.
"Son, I got to tell you something. Something about your villain performance in the past few months… about the PLF…"
"The PLF? Yeah I lost but you got that reality-warp Quirk now, it doesn't matter."
"No son. While I appreciate your skill in holding off against powerful enemies that day, what's more important are the events before that, before the birth of the PLF itself… That faithful day you fought the MLA…"
"The Meta Liberation Army…?" Tomura drifted off and remembered that day. Early morning... Call from that stupid long-nosed idiot challenging him, and the League going there and wiping them out despite having less members than they have during the kidnapping of the explodey kid. He somehow won, and he simply chalked it as them being just that good, especially him and his vastly-improved widespread Decay he can suddenly do out of nowhere.
All for One faded off for a bit like a ghost being caught in video. A few static-like hiccups here and there but he went back to being stable.
"I won against stupid long-nosed idiot and took over his army, isn't that pretty cool on its own?" Tomura said, shrugging. His left gloved hand once again scratching the side of his cheek. "That makes me a good villain, right? I lost them all now but is that even relevant at this point?"
"So you didn't notice one thing that somehow none of them hit you? None of them had any Quirks that can fight back against you like how easy it was for Sand Hero Snatch to pin you down?"
Tomura's mouth slowly hung open. "Huh? So you got something to do with it? I thought you're in Tartarus?"
The main in the suit nodded slowly. "Tartarus is… not really up to the current standard when dealing with some Quirks I have. I communicated with you back when you emerged from Dr. Garaki's laboratory vat and they detected nothing. The truth is that, I'm the one who helped you through your fight against the MLA, also with your comrades as well."
"Really? Well gee thanks I guess?"
"No… it's not that. I'm sad to say this but for someone who will eventually become my successor, your performance that day is really lackluster."
"But that's the past! Those events happened already, why is it even relevant? While yeah I appreciate you helping us out but… making it such a big of a deal is just… weird…"
"But without me, you would have died in less than a second. Throwing your life away in a call you're not even sure if true is really not the best of critical thinking. What if it's a setup by the heroes? I was itching for a good fight that's why I didn't just warn you to not go there. I thought you would notice eventually but it seems you wouldn't if it weren't for me telling this to you right now."
Tomura blanked out, his gaze lingering onto his adoptive father's mask for a good five seconds before he realized… The call Re-Destro made towards him could easily be just a prank call by some kids and he would still fall for it.
For the future successor of AFO, that's beyond embarrassing.
"Er… sorry but- Why do we even need New Order again if you can just help us fight against an ENTIRE army while being imprisoned?"
"It's a combination of synapse dampeners, electrical impulse maskers, data distortion, and a bunch of other similar Quirks on my side just not to get detected. Then I directed a maximum strength Neural Degradation Quirk towards you and your team and then quickly inverting them and extending their effective took a lot of effort. New Order is just here to make things a lot easier for me."
"A neu-what?"
"I uh…" All for One leaned down for a bit, right hand stroking the bottom of his mask. "I casted a Dumb-Down spell onto you and your party and added an Inversion modification to it so it only works against your enemies."
"Hey! Where did you get those terms?" Tomura asked with a wide smile. "Since when did the old man become a gamer? I bet it's Spinner! It's got to be Spinner! You've been playing MMOs now?"
"With a little dash of Grand Theft Auto, thank you very much… can't seem to find any powerful guns but it's not really the main point-"
"You've got to rank up your character level… so what is it? Why didn't you get out of Tartarus? When you're clearly powerful enough to help us against an ENTIRE army? And why only now would you make this a big deal?"
"If I escaped, then heroes would be instantly alarmed and would try to take you down as soon as possible instead of letting you off the hook."
"Off… the hook?"
"You'll see what I'm talking about soon. This alternate reality is not simply for show. This time you'll defeat your enemies without my help. You'll learn to pick your fights. Try to challenge this alternate world's villains again without any plan and you'll be instantly annihilated."
"But you wouldn't just let me get pummeled, right?"
"If you manage to complete this mission, and by mission I mean defeat Midoriya, then you win."
"What do I get?"
All for One sighed. Tomura noticed the man's fingers twitching about. It could only mean that there's a silly grin behind that mask, and it made him more excited at the surprise. He hoped that it would involve fishing-
"Hmmm… During your further upgrade sessions before I fought Stars and Stri-"
"Who?"
"Buff American Superhero Lady."
"Oh, carry on."
"During your second upgrade session, I managed to get Mr. Chikazoku-"
"Mr. who?"
"Always-pissed-off IT guy."
"Oh, carry on."
"I managed to get my hands on my very own high-end you, me, and Spinner can finally play along, how do you think about that?"
"Woah…" Tomura just couldn't believe it. All for One has always seemed so busy to whatever evil schemes he's planning at the time. But him, Spinner, and his Dad can now play games? Well that changes a lot of things! At least he can enjoy some quality time with him before they go out again and challenge the heroes, or until the heroes recover and attack them again, whichever comes first.
"Yes I have Minecraft installed."
"Alright! That settles it! What do you want me to do? Don't worry Dad! I won't fail you this time!"
"Defeat Midoriya."
"In this school? He's enrolled in this school, right? Are we classmates?" Tomura immediately went into planning mode, his lips moving on their own without any sounds coming out. He thought about all the stupid cartoon traps he could use to defeat, heck even KILL that stupid green-haired idiot once and for all. Maybe a spike trap, or a bucket of corrosive acid perhaps? Maybe poison his drink? Maybe just kick his ass? Decay?
"Tomura, he's not enrolled here. I switched up a few things to keep everything fresh. Now I want you to make it out your first week normally, I will be visiting you randomly in your dreams in the next few days. Make sure to ask all the questions you need to ask because like I said, it's random."
"RNG eh? Carry on."
"As for now, I want you to just wait on this bench for a little while longer. Get a good view of your surroundings, immerse yourself in this new world, I'm sure you'll enjoy it. When you finish your mission, you'll be back to where we exactly left off. Heck maybe even go fishing-"
"Screw world domination, let's go fishing first!"
"Once you finish this quest, we'll go fishing." All for One slowly stood up and stretched his arms, cracking noises coming from his back a little too audible. A short grumble about getting too old, one last wave to his adopted son, and he walked off, disappearing into mist like nothing happened at all.
'Everything here is meant to represent something in the real world,' came in AFO's disembodied voice in Tomura's head, fading off eventually towards the end. 'Consider discovering them as bonus objectives.'
…
The young man-turned-teenager turned back to face whatever direction the bench is facing, and began thinking about all the possibilities aside from gaming all night, killing people, and gaming about killing people all night.
'So the main quest is defeating Midoriya huh? I bet killing him will do just nicely. So where could he be? Is he out there? Is he in this school? All for One didn't say anything more than a short description of this little highschool-universe 'plan' before me being sent here.
What about Spinner? Where could he be?'
Thinking about his best friend made him remember his other teammates. He was badly beaten during that day, A bunch of heroes arriving too many at the same time made it an absolute hell to focus on just one target, with him getting flung around on all directions like a dog's chew toy. When he recovered, they're now in a cave, with maybe just Dabi, Toga, and Always-Pissed-Off It Guy there, along with Spinner, AFO, and some Nomus.
'All Spinner told me is that the PLF lost to the heroes, and they had to evacuate on Machia. Compress was captured by the heroes as well…'
And when news of the Number One hero of America arriving to get them came in, All for One calmly asked him to take over his physical form. It was direct, simple, and straight-to-the-point. AFO took over, Tomura blacked out, AFO returned with New Order in tow just like that. He remembered even Spinner being absolutely flabbergasted how can an old guy casually going in and going back from defeating a top world hero without any scratches at all.
'Or maybe Dad used New Order to heal himself back up? But the woman's a reality-warper! How did he win?!'
AFO didn't mention anything more about the fight, no matter how much Tomura asked what happened. He just shrugged it off as some super secret technique that he shouldn't learn until he leveled up enough.
'I wonder what happened to the rest… Twice, Dr. Detnerat Doofenshmirtz, Bluepill Ultimate, and Ice Climber Deluxe? Were they captured as well? IT guy never said anything about them, nor could even be bothered to tell the rest of the story. Nah it's not like I even care… As a villain, I should only care about the very important people, and outside of AFO and Spinner, nobody matters at all. Everyone else is cannon fodder for the greater evil.'
Tomura stopped thinking as a cool early morning breeze wafted in front of his face. What lesson will he learn here? He's not into learning things and would rather find the quickest way to finishing things, just like a gamer grinding for the rarest monster drops.
'But the promise of fishing… I really wanted to go fishing… I really wanted to see if I can catch boots in lakes… I gotta do this! I should do this for Fishing trips! Camping Adventures! And Minecraft! Do it for the best evil Dad in the universe!'
Tomura looked down and glanced upon his gloved hands. He remembered All for One saying his Decay will get a rework so he couldn't just kill everyone in this little alternate universe. What he DIDN'T tell him is what his new Quirk would be like, and what he DID tell him is that someone very familiar will arrive to explain his new abilities for him.
So who could that familiar person be-?
"Shigaraki!" said a very familiar voice from behind the bench Tomura is on, he turned around and his eyes widened in what he saw. The gray ruffled hair, the small rounded spectacles, the way the person carried himself with the UA faculty uniform he's wearing. "Right on time!"
'You've got to be kiddin' me…'
It was Giran… and he looks like someone who would be in a high-ranking position here at UA- WAIT!
'Giran… UA… Must defeat Midoriya… I'm probably a hero student… Ah yes, the good ol' switcheroo… gotta love it...'
Tomura briefly glanced at his gloved hands. He's a hero student now, so could that be tied to All for One saying that he reworked his Decay? So that he could fit better as a hero student? What could he replace it with?
Giran eventually got up to him, standing behind the bench, with a warm fatherly smile – his teeth somehow lacking the almost-iconic gaps in it. Thoughts of him offering black market deals flashed by the teen's mind for a while, but he suddenly snapped back to reality, or in this case, warped reality.
"Taking a fresh breath of air, are we? The teachers saw you talking to a non-existent person here just now, figured out you're still hallucinating after all this time."
"Hallucinating?"
"Since you can get up on your own now, let's give you a quick tour. You would make a good candidate to UA's brand new SpecProCourse!"
Tomura's mind went blank for a brief moment, his face contorting into a mixture of curiosity and confusion. So he IS a hero student! So everything must be switched! And what's this SpecPro?
"I have a lot of questions…"
Giran gave him a gentle pat on the back and nudged him to go forward with him, straight to the UA hallways… hallways that would look so much better crumbled to dust. Add in the cries for help from desperate people escaping the chaos, and it's like a symphony of villainy.
Even though Tomura is wearing the standard UA uniform, people passing by them still gave him stares. Must it be because of his dry-looking skin? Well that doesn't make sense when there are people with literal monstrous heads nearby them as well.
They would fit better as villains in the real world, and now there's a bunch of them looking like students here. Strange…
"Can you remember anything? Like anything at all?" Giran asked, keeping a hand placed on the boy's back as they walked.
"Do you remember being a notorious underground information broker?"Tomura countered back, sarcasm reeking in his response, hoping to get a kick out of Giran, but got nothing but pats on the back instead. If he wanted to piss him off, he would have to up his game.
"It seems that the drugs are still affecting your head. The dean of UA would never do such a thing!"
'Giran is UA's dean… nice…'
"Nah… I really can't remember anything…" Tomura said, completely faking a dizzy tone. What All for One said is to simply defeat Midoriya, although he also said something about discovering things as bonus objectives… Knowing his adoptive father, AFO would surely take him to activities more than fishing if he managed to figure out everything – and maybe the ol' man would even forgive him for being too lousy during the MLA event! Win/Win!
Now if only he could figure out the most efficient way to find them all…
"I need a backstory…" Tomura said, he himself not knowing why.
"Remember anything about a drug factory? You and a bunch of other kids were rescued there last week from being test targets for some new hallucination drug."
"That's a very nice excuse for me knowing a lot of things in this new world…"
"But that was last week ago? According to all tests, you should be up and running as a normal kid right now."
"Nah, I came from another reality," Tomura said with a light giggle afterwards. He wondered a bit if 'hero' activities in this alternate universe would involve him disintegrating things… but heroes already do collateral damage every time they fight so…
'Heh… this could be fun…'
"Giran, what's my Quirk?"
"Giran huh? Looks like the science lab would still need to run more tests on the neural effects of the hallucinogen used on you…"
"Nah I'd like to call you Giran now, it makes a good nickname. So what's my Quirk?"
"Based on some Quirk info on you, your abilities are listed under Wasteland, specifically Wasteland 27."
"Why the number?"
"There are 26 other similar Quirks to yours. And since you're not listed under the national Quirk registry list, it's got a temporary name given to it. If you want you can suggest a better name, if it's not taken that is."
"What does Wasteland do? Does it decay things and disintegrate them?"
"Yes, but not people-"
"OH COME ON!"
"Hey now, Shigaraki. You're an up-and-coming hero student, killing people is a complete no-no. And while you can't disintegrate people. Tests of your Quirk while you're still unconscious showed some other interesting things," Giran said with a nod to a passing adult Tomura doesn't know. "People making skin-contact with all five fingers of your hand simultaneously, will get instantly dehydrated for quite some time like they were instantly transported in the middle of the desert for the entire duration. While you were being rescued, you flailed around and accidentally made contact with two of your rescuers."
"What happened?"
"I was not there to witness such an event but reports say that the fluids on the eyes dried up and made it a real pain to see for the remainder of the operation. Good thing it has no effect on internal fluids but they're both gulping down water even two hours after being touched."
"So I can't disintegrate people, but send them into excruciating pain?" A wide menacing grin appeared on Tomura's face. Pain versus instant kills sounds way better. He could already imagine All for One rubbing his hands and laughing like a lunatic comic book villain, just like he always wanted. He planned the Quirk to have this new effect! He had to!
"So what about the bunch other kids?"Tomura asked, hoping it's the rest of the League.
'I hope Spin's in there, couldn't care about anyone else.'
"Alright, let's get you settled-"Giran continued, not answering Tomura's question.
"What's SpecPro?"
"Special Program. It's a placeholder name for the new hero course UA's cooking up at the time, but it just stuck. It's for people with villainous Quirks to show those non-believers that they can be heroes too."
"Sounds religious if you ask me."
"Try not to kill your classmates, will ya?"
"Oh don't worry, these hands are perfectly safe and are entirely incapable of inflicting horrible horrible damage!"
"Makihara's pretty tough, but he'll be able to handle this group…" Giran muttered to himself as he walked, eyeing up a poster with a lot of listed words on it far too long that he almost bumped into a metal pole.
Tomura thought for a bit for about 5 seconds, which is very long for his standards, before replying back. "Who the heck is Makehoro?"