Leo 23 - Interesting guesses, time will tell if they are correct :P Let's just say that when it comes to me introducing All for One to the fic, literally no one has thus far managed to guess who exactly he is going to be :P
(***)
ONCE AGAIN, EXPECT SOME SERIOUS CONTENT WARNING! This time there is a rather open reference to something rather non-consensual, but it's not given a lot of details and... well, let's just say that the perpetrator gets what he deserves. If it's too tough for you, skip the part between
"Their hope is quickly strangled when they remember what happened to those outsiders who had ventured into this village in the past. If you have seen the truth behind the village, you'll never leave it. "
and
"He, personally, finds sex disgusting, pointless and the opposite of interesting. And using such a wonderful meta-ability to get laid like that is even more disgusting. All the wasted potential. Are he and Defiant the only people in this prefecture with some actual ambitions?"
(***)
The quick council meeting (one actually done online, they don't have the time to keep meeting regularly in person) ends up deciding that enlightenment of Tsunagu Hakamada, the head of the Tokyo SAT unit, might be of a long-term benefit to them all. Hawks is allowed to borrow Gargoyle (if Gargoyle agrees - and he does) to go on a trip the next day.
The rest of the day is mostly taken up by Defiant and Hijack going to Aldera through Eclipse' warpgate together with Tsukauchi (Aizawa's unofficial right-hand man when meta-abilities were involved at this point) to have a long and serious talk with Assistant Commissioner Mera about organization of the local branch of the Metahuman Network.
There was no reason to waste time with expanding. They needed to look for new metahumans, and Gremlin had several potential trails to follow. The local police, once the local police officers that have been enlightened by Mera finish looking through its database, should have more to add.
It wasn't Hosu where finding local metahumans was a fluke more than anything else.
(***)
"You'll give me good fights, eh?" Beast asks. "Not simple squishy humans, but actual superheroes to fight? Like those two I fought earlier?"
Goto Imasuji finally woke up from the post-resurrection stupor. High time, really. Getting your brain turned into red paste does that to people. It's even longer than the stupor you get from bleeding out to death or dying in other ways that do not destroy your brain completely.
"Yes." Overhaul says. He is sitting on a chair in one of the underground hallways of his villain lair. Next to him, Dabi and Mustard. The latter won't be that much of a help if the Beast goes on a rampage here, but Dabi will be crucial. "Or many, many squishy humans to kill. Generally speaking…" He lets himself smirk a bit. "We do a lot of killing nowadays."
"Good fights." Goto smiles maniacally. "Lots of blood getting spilled and guts exposed. Just what I need to make my heart beat faster. I think I like this offer. Very much."
Looks like the Shie Hasseikai just got itself another S-Rank villain. And a living tank that can scale up walls and enter buildings through the windows to massacre everyone inside. Brilliant.
"Any ideas for your supervillain name?" Overhaul asks. "It has become a kind of tradition among us nowadays."
Beast is nicely descriptive, but also bland. They can do better. Overhaul is interested in practicality - something that his genre-savviness ties in nicely with. But it's not like having a sufficiently intimidating nickname has no practical usages.
Intimidation. Infamy. Short codename to refer to each other on the battlefield. Etcetera.
"Not really." Imasuji replies. "Throw something nice sounding my way, and we'll have a deal."
"Fine." Overhaul nods. He already has an idea. Several in mind. He'll try it one by one… starting from the one he likes the most. "How does Carnage sound?" It describes Imasuji's standard modus operandi well.
"I like it." Imasuji smiles. Even Overhaul is slightly scared of that smile.
(***)
The talk that follows it isn't long. And mostly inconsequential. There is only one truly interesting part of it.
"So…" Overhaul decides that it's time to ask. "... what happened to your eye?"
That's one nasty cut. A bit deeper and Carnage wouldn't be sitting on a chair in front of him. Instead, he only lost his left eye. But the scarred cut goes all the way almost to his mouth. Knife? Sword? Something else?
For someone to wound Carnage in the melee… most likely a metahuman. Unless Overhaul's expertise in wounding people lied to him and this was a bullet wound, just under an unusual angle.
"Two fuckers happened." Carnage replies. It's clear that he doesn't like to speak about it. "Some vigilante duo from Tokyo. They've been going after local criminal cartels and people like me for a while. I didn't see their faces, but one was certainly a woman. I punched the man out, but not before he carved my eye out. That's when they retreated. Since they almost beat me up in the melee, they are almost certainly… What was the term? Metahumans?"
Overhaul nods. They'll have to be on the lookout just in case those metahumans were still following Imasuji around. Then again, after getting a punch from Carnage, at least one of them probably looked much worse than Musutafu's newest supervillain.
"Do you want me to heal it?" Overhaul asks. It will take a while for a wound that has already healed, but he is sure that he can do it, eventually.
"Nah." Carnage surprises him. "Not until I find those two fuckers and break their fucking spines in half. In the meantime, I'll keep it like that to remind me of that."
(***)
"I might actually have a job for you." Overhaul says at the end of the meeting. "For you all. We're going on a road trip."
His supervillains look vaguely interested. Overhaul's orders tend to be surprisingly fun. In the bloodiest (or most ignitable) way imaginable, in most cases. Having one so soon after the last one was an interesting change of pace.
"There is a potential supervillain living in some village in the Nabu Mountains." Overhaul says. "With a very interesting quirk. We're going to go recruit him."
Hopefully, the man in question will cooperate. If not, well, Overhaul will be displeased.
Especially with him having to pay Kurogiri for every use of his quirk. Oh, it was a trifle when business was concerned. Teleporting contraband around was actually cheaper and safer than transporting it normally.
It's just that everything that puts the warper in danger (such as combat deployment), costs more. Kurogiri was a man of business, a fact that Overhaul actually respected. He'd still prefer to change it, though.
Unfortunately, the task that Kurogiri asked of him in order to obtain his soul was outside of his grasp right now. It was going to change soon, though. Very, very soon.
(***)
The village is… quaint. Way too silent. Some people are moving around it, doing their meaningless and inconsequential things. No words are exchanged, for their master is yet to realize the intrusion. Yet to mentally instruct them to behave not like the puppets they are.
Their present movement is purposeful. The lord of this village makes sure that they eat, drink and rest enough. Those who are satiated and unneeded are probably standing in their homes, staring at the walls.
Overhaul walks through the street alone. The puppets around him aren't ordered to maintain normal looks on their face. So he sees their real selves. Wherever he looks, he gets looks of horror, despair and, perhaps, a slight hope once they see an outsider.
Their hope is quickly strangled when they remember what happened to those outsiders who had ventured into this village in the past. If you have seen the truth behind the village, you'll never leave it.
He reaches the largest building in the village. The location of whatever official was running it in the past. Or perhaps some particularly wealthy inhabitant. Not like Overhaul cares. But he needs to make a proper entrance.
He touches the doorknob and within a heartbeat disassembles the entire front wall of the building, exposing its insides. He only left a few strategically placed pillars to avoid collapsing the entire structure accidentally. Small balls of wood, stone and metal rattle around him.
He is lucky. His target was on the ground floor. In the room right next to the entrance. Busy fucking some unfortunate village girl. Judging from the look on her face, she was fully conscious, but unable to move her body and forced to live through the whole thing without being able to resist or escape.
She isn't the only woman in the building that Overhaul can see. Someone had built himself a harem of mind-controlled sex slaves. For all his evil, even Chisaki is rather uncomfortable with what he sees in front of him.
He, personally, finds sex disgusting, pointless and the opposite of interesting. And using such a wonderful meta-ability to get laid like that is even more disgusting. All the wasted potential. Are he and Defiant the only people in this prefecture with some actual ambitions?
Oh, well. You use all the cards you can get if you truly want to win the game. That man will do. The real issue is getting to recruit him.
"What the…" The man stops disgusting Overhaul with his present activities and stares at him in shock. He looks to be approaching forty. A bit of odd, slightly purplish hair. Light hunchback. Clearly overweight.
"Yuu Shinsou, I believe." Overhaul says, while staring at him through what used to be a front wall of the building. "I've come to offer you a job."
"Who do you think you a…" Oh, no. That calls for Overhaul to establish a pecking order. According to the covert investigation Kurono organized beforehand, Shinsou requires physical contact to put you under his quirk. And Defiant isn't the only metahuman in Musutafu that put him back into training his meta-ability.
He doesn't even touch anything. Yet his quirk's grasp on all those small colorful balls on the ground is still strong. Within a second, they reform into a spear. One reaching all the way to Yuu's throat.
Overhaul calculated everything perfectly. The tip of the spear actually drew some blood. The sudden pain shocks the words out of the mind-controller.
"I think…" Overhaul says. "... that I'm the man who could kill you with a thought. But instead, would like to offer you a job. A job in the criminal syndicate that, at this point, controls the entire underworld of Musutafu. A criminal syndicate that with the help of meta-abilities like your mind-control might one day control not just the underworld… and not just of Musutafu."
The man in front of him clearly enjoys controlling people. Truly, doing that on an even greater scale sounds like a promotion. Not to mention no longer having to hide his… atrocious hobby from the world.
Shinsou seems to be thinking about it. Was the spear so much of an argument for caution? Personally, Overhaul wishes that the man at least donned some clothes. He sees things he'd prefer not to see.
"Where's the catch?" Shinsou asks, his eyes narrow.
"There's no catch." Overhaul replies. "All that I need of you is…"
(***)
Overhaul and the newest supervillain in his roster - who settled on the villain name of Dictator - leave the village, heading together towards the Kurogiri's warpgate.
Chisaki's crew is waiting for them in front of it. Chisaki came prepared.
"So…" Inquisitor says loudly when they go closer. "...the new guy. Did you put our boss under your mind control?"
"Yes, I did." Dictator replies involuntarily, his eyes widening in shock. "Wait, what…" Carnage and Dabi grin widely. This is going to be fun.
Overhaul wasn't an idiot. His lone entrance into the village was a test. A test that Yuu Shinsou failed. Now he was facing several angry villains, who - considering the fact that Chisaki being brainwashed meant that there was something that they didn't know about Shinsou's quirk - weren't looking directly at him. And weren't speaking. Merely waiting for the Inquisitor to end his small interrogation.
"How can we free him from your control without threatening his life or mind?" Inquisitor says. He was the one most threatened, but it's not like him getting mind controlled would be much of a threat with Carnage standing right behind him.
"I need to consciously decide to free him." Dictator's eyes grow wider in horror as the words keep leaving his mouth. "That or either be overwhelmed by pain enough to lose control or, presumably, dead."
Dabi sets him aflame a second later, without a hint of hesitation. Not giving him the time to use Overhaul to defend himself.
After two seconds of horrified screams of pain, Chisaki suddenly jerks up.
"Well, that was unpleasant." He announces. "I think that answering a question of his is the real trigger. I lost control right after I let him ask one in full… and then answered it. Kurono."
"Yes?" His right-hand man asks. In the background, Mustard is busy applying a fire extinguisher to the still screaming Dictator. It wasn't a lot of flames, Dabi was unexpectedly reserved. That or he was lucid enough not to risk killing Dictator instantly, merely because of the part of a sentence with a word 'presumably' involved.
Or perhaps he hoped to make the man suffer for some more. If he is still alive, you might set him on fire again. It's no fun doing that to people in a post-resurrection stupor.
"Interrogate the people you used for reconnaissance." Overhaul says. "If they made a mistake, kill them. If the Dictator got them under his mind control and had them lie to us, give them a bonus and a few free days to recover from the ordeal."
It wasn't immediately obvious, but some questions that the man asked him once he got him under his mind control suggested that he knew of Overhaul being out there and investigating him. This called for some internal investigation.
He is genre savvy enough to realize that killing underlings for things that they had no control over makes no sense. And getting caught in a quirk that they did not know about exact inner workings sounds like… well, something not under their control. Killing them for that was both wasteful and ruined the morale of those that remained behind.
Overhaul was smarter than that. The last thing he wants is someone making a simple mistake and freaking about getting murdered for it enough to flee into police protection on the spot. He can differentiate bad luck or lack of success from incompetence.
He killed only for mistakes that were sufficiently bad. Like mistaking the trigger of a mind-control quirk which almost led to Kai Chisaki being changed into a remotely operated puppet. He had to draw a line somewhere. His own life and existence of the Shie Hasseikai were a good place to do that.
"Sure." Kurono nods. "What about Shinsou?"
The flame was by now extinguished. Yuu was still alive, even if a ruined mess with third-degree burns that needed urgent medical help not to kill him. Of course, with Overhaul there, it was irrelevant.
"I…" Yuu tries to speak, but Overhaul doesn't let him. Instead, he touches his arm lightly. Within a second, the most pressing of wounds close.
He also merges his upper and lower teeth together. Lips too. Just enough to silence him. He can still breathe through the nose. And no ability to speak = no risk of being mind controlled. It's all about efficiency, really.
"If you obeyed me, I'd give you the world." Overhaul says. In his voice, something that is almost sadness. Not at Yuu's plight, but at the waste of potential. "I'd have realized whatever sick dreams you had in your head. Instead, you've proven that I can't trust you. So we'll have to make some changes."
Being genre-savvy includes occasionally reminding your underlings that yes. Perhaps you are rather squishy, as far as supervillains go. But if they piss you off enough… then death will be the privilege that they won't be given.
"I'm going to use you for training the finer details of my quirk, my dear Shinsou." Overhaul says, looking at the horrified face of the Dictator right in front of him. "It'll be painful. Horribly so. I'll experiment with your nerve receptors to see how much pain someone can feel before dying. I'll turn you inside out to see how long you can survive. I'll see how long you can continue breathing while missing one or two organs. Each time you die, I'll bring you back to start everything anew."
The horror on Shinsou's face is… well, Overhaul is disinterested in pain. He is no sadist. Pain is a mean to an end for him.
"And then, after weeks, months or years of that…" Overhaul says. 'Years' were added for some additional psychological torture. He doesn't need him years in the future. He needs him as soon as possible. But he doesn't have to know that. "... you'll break. You'll break so thoroughly that the very idea of disobeying my word will be alien to you. That you'll fail to understand what sort of madness made you even consider using your quirk on me. And then, once I'll become your god… then, in my endless generosity, I'll let you work for me."
He gestures to Kurono to pull Shinsou back into Kurogiri's warpgate. He also gestures at Mustard, Dabi and Carnage to wait.
Inquisitor, Blaze, Whiteline and Duststorm, their second villain league, leave as well. They got their lesson about not pissing their boss off. He doesn't need them for anything else tonight.
"I promised you some blood and guts." Overhaul says to Carnage. "And you, some nice things to burn." He adds while glancing at Dabi.
He points towards the village looming behind him. Village probably full of freshly freed people (something above one hundred, if Chisaki remembers the report correctly), too busy celebrating their freedom, trying to run away in case it was temporary or just failing to believe their luck. Or thanking whatever god took mercy on them.
"I need the Dictator to remain a secret." Overhaul announces. Most of the truly interesting usages of his quirk required the world to not be really aware of his existence. Especially in the case of the police and the heroes. "Leave none alive."
The crimson madness that dwells in their blood makes Dabi and Carnage adopt similar facial expressions.
"Mustard, gas cloud. Maximum size, minimal density.." Overhaul adds. " Make sure to notice any potential escapees." When he does so, his cloud is transparent and a slight irritant rather than something actually deadly. But he can still detect movement within it.
Mustard nods. Unlike his comrades, he doesn't find a lot of enjoyment in it. For him, it's work. Not passion. But he is getting paid for it, so he obeys the orders. With the indifference that normal people reserve for things as simple and normal as visiting a convenience store.
Overhaul leaves through the warpgate. Dabi and Carnage wipe the village out in less than twenty minutes.
There is only a single survivor. A young woman that was close to the edge of the village and, after spending a lot of time in the Dictator's harem, bolted immediately once his mind control vanished.
Mustard failed to detect her. On an impulse, she leaped into the river going down the mountain before the gas cloud reached her. She swam downstream, her profile thus much smaller than the one of a normal human.
She didn't go to the police. Instead, a few years in the future, she became the catalyst (and leader) of several metahuman pogroms throughout Japan. All because of the brief bout between Overhaul and Dictator. Neither of which cared about her existence.
Then again, not like either of them would care about what she did in the future. They weren't among her victims.
(***)
The massacre didn't remain undetected for long. Unfortunately, Dabi's little rampage caused a forest fire. The firefighters from the prefecture eventually stopped it, but it was still enough for every evidence of what happened in the village to be thoroughly destroyed.
Backdraft confirmed that it was Dabi. The temperature of the flames that started it was unmistakable. Unfortunately, that was all that the council found out.
113 new victims of Overhaul. A fact that didn't improve anyone's mood.
The firefighters on the scene failed to notice that they were observed the whole time. By two different groups that changed the Nabu Mountains into their stronghold and felt worried by the incursion. In the end, however, nothing significant happened that night.
(***)
"You look like shit." She says to him, returning from the grocery run. The vigilante lying on the bed groans painfully. The bandages on his face (he is going to miss having a nose, damn you Imasuji) turns his reaction into a mumble. "So, pretty normal, I'd say."
She puts down the groceries and takes off her hoodie. Her long ears perk up, finally free. She looks reassured by not having to keep them hidden anymore.
"You don't have to remind me of that each time you see me, Rumi." He says. His body is still in quite a bit of pain from that punch. If anything, he has to admit that he is tougher than he thought. Beast's punch could shatter stone. How is he even still alive?
The underground doctor that she dragged him to claimed that he'd get better after some resting. Some cracked bones, nothing actually broken. But there were a lot of cracked bones, so if Imasuji punched him again…
"I don't have to." She says, while giving him a shit-eating grin. "But I like to. You look like shit, Akaguro."
He sighs painfully. He can't even draw a sword at her, because she took it. No stabbing people until he recovers. Ugh.
"Remind me again, why did I think it was a good idea to marry you?" Akaguro Chizome - known in Tokyo as a vigilante Stain - asks, while carefully raising himself into a sitting position on the bed.
"Because you wanted to marry someone who could actually fight you to a stalemate." Rumi Chizome - known in Tokyo as a vigilante Luna - replies. "And maybe because you have a fetish for rabbit women, who knows."
Might also be the fact that he completely didn't care about her looking sorta weird. She could kick his ass. Nothing else mattered (at least he won the one fight which was supposed to decide whose surname they were taking, small mercy).
Honestly, what was the world coming to? Rabbit people? The Incredible fucking Hulk murdering people at random throughout Japan? And that's without mentioning several other superpowered individuals (all of them criminals) that they eliminated in the meantime.
"One of those theories is correct." Stain replies. "I'm not telling you which one, so figure it out for yourself." She grins at him. "Any news?"
"Beast was spotted in Musutafu." She says. She visited a friendly information broker on her way back, as their plan was. "In Aldera, apparently. Local SAT unit tried to get him down, but he got away."
"He got away?" Stain asks, every word leaving his mouth with thoughtful slowness. "He didn't slaughter them to the last one, but he actually ran away?"
"Yeah." She replies. "Apparently none of the SAT troopers was wounded. So he is either more wounded than we thought, or someone in Musutafu police actually knows about superpowers. Enough to have some serious countermeasures in place."
Serious is an understatement. The local police unit actually forced the Beast to flee? Special Assault Teams are elites of the elites, yes. Chizome knows something about it (he wasn't part of one of them for long, but he still knows what to expect from them). But Beast?
You have to know what to expect to have a chance with that monster. Stain stalked and observed him for weeks, fully aware of the meta-abilities, learning everything he could in order to prepare for the battle ahead. And their ambush plan still failed. Imasuji was wounded, but Stain almost died.
And he had Luna on his side. Luna who, while her technique was so-so, had incredible reflexes, speed and agility.
In all honesty, they both suspect that he has some physical strengthening power on his own. He is resilient and strong. Too resilient and strong. Stronger and more resilient than his wife. Resilient enough to keep standing after a punch that could cave in a stone wall. Strong enough to almost slice Beast's head apart with a combat knife when he got too close.
Their ambush was perfect. It still failed. Musutafu SAT achieved the same. Hence, they certainly knew about superpowers. Or had some superpowered vigilantes on their side to hold Beast at bay and force him to escape.
There was simply no other option.
"I think…" Stain says. "... that it might be a good idea to visit Musutafu once I heal properly."
(***)
Ah yes, the most terrifying ship in the history of BNHA. Miruko x Stain. You want to hear the most horrible thing ever? They are significantly older than in canon. Enough to have a child. *shivers*. Also they are pretty much hunting supervillains for sport. With very little superpowers on their side. They are like DoA equivalent of The Boys, except working in a private sector and villain-focused. Huh.
Dictator is going to get a VERY serious lesson in why trying to cross Chisaki was his life's most horrible decision. And yes. His surname is there for a reason. After all, didn't Ryo Inui mention off-handedly that Shinsou had a very controlling and abusive father? ;) I wonder what happened to him.