In the vast multiverse, decisions change fate, no matter how small or significant they seem to be. Even the decisions we make now can lead to bright or dark futures.
Not just for the ones who make the decisions, but the people around, no matter how far or near.
He wanted to test the new bullets; they must work. He paid too much for them, if they don't work, he'll kill his dealer for lying for selling such pieces of junk.
This has to work.
On special occasions, the change can come from those that don't know anything or those who don't play a significant role in the story.
The heroes were right there, all he has to do is pull his gun and shoot them. Just one will do, maybe two, he needs to see if these bullets work. If he was lucky, nobody would see him, he can run away amid the chaos.
There was Fat Gum, the fattest hero, and two new heroes in costume, he notices one of them from the first-year sports festival.
Is he going to do this?
He must, just to see if they work, if he wasn't being lied to.
You wouldn't believe how small a choice it takes for the whole world to change, a dash forward, a bottle slip, a matter of saying yes and-
No.
He breathes out, making his decision.
It's too risky, he can't go through with it, maybe in another day when some hero ends up in an alley during petrol, that will be a good time to test these out, not here, when he would certainly get caught and he doesn't want to end up in jail.
He kept the gun in his pocket and walk away.
Did you notice it?
The sudden change in this universe?
It didn't come from a hero
It didn't come from anyone important.
It came from a low-level thug, who choose to walk away.
This one moment, one that feels insignificant, will change the course of history…
and create a new monster.
What If Eri was beyond saving?
The villain had a choice to pull out his gun and shoot a quirk erasing bullet, he shot the gun and hit Tamaki, before confronting Red Riot and being defeated.
But in this timeline, he didn't shoot, instead, he did it later, he was eventually caught and arrested his fate remains unchanged.
But for his earlier choice, caused a chain reaction.
Since he had never taken the shot, Tamaki wouldn't have temporarily lost his quirk.
Without that information, the hero agencies wouldn't piece things together and start the investigation towards the Shie Hassaikai. Unaware that Overhaul, the leader of the Shie Hassaikai was using her adoptive daughter, Eri to create quirk erasing bullets.
And by the time they discovered that fact, it was too late…
A little girl lied down in her new bed. It was hard yet comfortable, but she doesn't feel comfortable.
It was the same thing over and over, day in and day out, experiments, death, being torn apart and put back together again, and it keeps getting worse.
No one is going to save her.
She's not in a new home. At least what he said, he said that this was a place where she couldn't harm anyone, that nobody will come to hurt her.
She knew he was lying because he was the one who hurt her.
He was a big liar, there was someone who tried to help her, but even then, the mean man took her away and the warm embrace she once held was gone.
She doesn't remember how it felt, it has been a long while since she felt any warm embrace from anyone. Only the cold touches of seats, the painful breaks, and the agony of reconstruction.
Wherever she is, Eri knew she was fully alone.
After months in this new cold place, she accepts one thing from her papa, the only truth he told.
No one is going to save her.
Everything was hopeless.
five years have passed, and still no progress
Ever since they arrived in the secure facility, Overhaul couldn't replicate the permanent quirk erasure from Eri's blood. On some occasions, it only took hours before the quirk returns, and on many occasions, the blood doesn't work at all.
The complaint from customers keeps piling up and he barely had enough to last a few months before funding runs dry.
What was he doing wrong?
What happened before all this?
He tried to care for her daughter, bring gifts and toys and all stuff that could help her, but no matter how much he tried, how many times he had his lackeys try to think of something, she only found no progress.
What was missing?
He sighed, thinking of another attempt in his next experimentation, to crack the formula that he lost long ago.
He entered the room, seeing her daughter, Eri.
She grew so fast, she's still a child but close to becoming a teenager. It made him realize just how long it has been. How time flies very quickly.
What doesn't change were her arms.
Still strapped in bandages from all the cuts and scars she collected over the years, so much so that her appearance seemed mummified.
But what changed was her behaviour.
Normally, she would try to escape, run away until he or one of his lackeys find her. He can't get his cure on the loose, the encounter with two heroes was too close from everything he'd build crumble at his feet.
And a good thing too. The hero with the million number became a serious threat than he suspected, as recent hero ranking results had placed Lemillion in sixth place, he managed to dodge the bullet there.
Since then, Eri didn't try, aside from the experimentation room and the bathroom, Eri never left her bedroom, all she did, all she ever done is lay down in her bed.
She didn't cry or wine, it was as though these attempts took away her emotions. She acts as if this was regular to her. It was a matter of progress and a way to cure this world of illness, and it made the brutal experimentations more tamed.
But her behaviour shifted the second Overhaul saw her.
"Is it time?" she spoke, in a calm, emotionless tone.
Overhaul blinked before sighing, "yes, it can't stop, not until we get what we wanted."
"What you wanted," Eri said.
"Eri…" Overhaul closed his eyes since he had taken in the child and despite his morally questionable choices what to do to her, he grew a small sense of attachment towards Eri. She didn't treat her like a lab rat by stuffing her in a steel cage, nor made done anything bad beyond the experiments and her escape attempts. He gave her a room to feel comfortable, a bed to rest, toys to play with, though she never interacted with him, he considered adding a Television, but it wouldn't help when most channels consist of heroes.
Even then, it was only a little amount of attachment, as his mind focused on what's important.
Curing the world.
"Believe me, if you allow me to do this and we get this right, I promise you I can give you a better life."
"Lies." The girl looks away, causing Overhaul to raise a brow at her.
"Excuse me?"
"Whatever you want from me, I'm not going to give it to you,"
"Listen here, young lady," he grabbed the girl on the arm, ready to start his experiment and activating his quirk, "your rebellion will do nothing but make you suffer, what's the point of fighting it when it leads nowhere, you have to do this, for the sake of me, and the world."
"And I don't care!" Eri quickly reacted and grab Overhaul by the shoulder. "You have done nothing but tear me apart and put back together, and I'm done with it, I want it to stop!"
"Then one last time," Overhaul said calmly, "I promise you, do this one last time and it will stop."
With that, he breathes out and activates his quirk.
Only… it didn't work.
Not the experiment, his quirk.
His daughter was still there, intact, and not in pieces.
Instead, what he saw was utter rage from the girl and a growth on her horn.
"Eri…" Overhaul speaks, "what are you doing?"
"What I should have done years ago"
For the first time, in as long as he remembers, as his daughter hold tight on his shoulder, gritting her teeth in fury. Overhaul was frightened, scared.
And in agony when Eri turned his own quirk against him.
Both screams, the girl in rage, the man in fear.
Before Overhaul could let his lungs out in pain, it was all over.
All he was, and what's left of him was an explosive puddle around the room, staining the bed, staining the untouched toys, the girl was covered in the blood and chunks of her so-called father.
When she registered what she did, Eri couldn't help but look at her hand, surprised yet pleased, her quirk was reverse and consider a possibility of not only reversing people but their powers, she saw her father absorbed a person into him to gain their quirk.
She hoped that by reversing the quirk activation it could instead get Eri to absorb his quirk into her.
It worked and she could feel the power in her. She now holds two quirks.
For the first time in her life, for something she wanted, to be free from the horrible man, to end him herself and take away everything he wanted, for the first time, she smiled.
And chuckled.
She was free from him.
Her attention was caught by the men kicking the door open, seeing more men in bird masks, shocked to see their boss in a bloody mess, there wasn't a trace of a body, just chunks of it.
And the young girl, standing up and walking towards them.
The men were frightened, they had encountered Overhaul and they knew how powerful he was, hence why they join him, but to see him dead and killed by his own daughter. They begin to regret their choice.
Just when Eri starts her slaughter throughout the facility.
It didn't matter who it was, a bird mask man, a person in a lab coat, someone in regular attire, she kills them all, blew them up to bit with her newfound quirk. She didn't care for them because they didn't do anything and helped the monster who made her suffer, them being there was all the proof she needs.
Some tried to fight back, but they had no match, one touch was all she needs to finish them off, either from her Reverse or Overhaul. They were blocking her way for escape.
And now, she's at the end.
After killing the guards, she opened the doors at the one-way entrance of the facility, during her escape, they managed to put everything full lockdown, ceasing every door to close, they couldn't open even she had access.
So instead, she used her quirk to break and open them.
Leaving a big hole as she punches through the hardened steel.
The first thing she saw, she had to cover her eyes to how bright it was, the leak of sunlight gazing onto her for the first time in years.
She takes a few steps forward, feeling the new heat instead of the cold room temperature she felt, as soon as she could withstand the light, she removed her arm and saw her new surroundings.
A wide-open green field, it was… the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
She took in the new fresh air, taking in this image and tread towards it. She didn't mind if her bare feet were getting dirt from the ground, she welcomes it, feeling the grass smoothing her scared legs, the taller, grown grass felt her arms, and she open them to experience the feeling of grass. Despite blood being smeared on said grass.
It was significant, but she felt… at peace.
Right up to when she stood in the middle of the field, she stops in her tracks, everything around her, everything she did, she was in her own disbelief, she couldn't believe what she had to do to get out of that place.
It was enough for her to kneel and think about her father.
The man who she grew a mixed emotion of hatred, yet attachment, it was hard to describe it, but like something she didn't want to lose even if she hates it, she doesn't know what she's feeling, but she cried in tears, as though she had lost something so close and couldn't bare letting it go.
But she had to, Eri wasn't sure how long the suffering would take before he stops, she wasn't sure if he would stop.
She wasn't sure if killing him was the right thing to do.
But it was the best thing she had ever done, watching him shaken, watching him in fear, it was everything she ever wanted to see, to see him in the same pain, the same fear, the same thing that he had done to her.
Only that she couldn't bring him back.
Why would she?
Eri look up at the sky, calming down from her tears, and brought another feeling she couldn't also describe more than one word.
She was free.
And yet, she felt like she was still in the same cage.
Standing up, she notices a car driving by at the distance, a road that paid no attention to the girl.
Road leads to cities.
Cities lead to people.
People that can help her.
Or harm her.
Either way, it gave the blood-covered young girl, a sense of hope.
She couldn't stay in the field forever; she must leave behind the undiscovered facility and take her first steps into the real world.
Elsewhere, in the depths of the max security prison, Tartarus, the former Symbol of Peace pay a visit for his weekly conversation. One he has taken since the capture.
Even if he's a hero, he still goes through security check-ups like everyone else, placing his pocketed items on the side and going through the metal detectors before getting his stuff back.
"Another chat?" the security guard said, who seen the Yagi so many times that it became a routine.
"Unfortunately, yes," he answered, "trying to get through with him."
"You know he won't listen," the guard pointed out, "everyone locked up here wouldn't give out anything or listen."
"I know,"
"Then why do you keep trying?"
The retired hero takes a sigh, thinking about the reason he was here, thinking about the person he tries to talk with, for almost five years, he didn't say a single word. He doubts today would be different, but he at least has to try.
He looked at the guard and gave him an honest answer.
"Because that's what heroes do."
After the chat with the guard, he was cleared to proceed and entered an interrogation room, he has five minutes to talk, afterwards, he'll wait another week before he can talk to him again.
He walked and sat on his seat, all while looking at the villain he wanted to speak with, someone who was close yet far too gone. The boy who caused so much for his former student's life and now captured, spending the rest of his life in a cell.
Before he was the former leader of the disbanded League of Villains and grandson of his late sensei.
Tomura Shigaraki.
To be continued…