Shahryar - To be honest, TTB!Re-Destro is more of a primary villain. He is just The Man Behind the Man for the entire story. But in the end, he orchestrated and financed almost everything that happened, being pretty much replacement All for One but with actual leadership qualities and a plan. Kuroiro is de facto his equivalent in all of that (minus the primary villain thing), he is just a criminal rather than revolutionaire. Different types.
Jpx0999 - Am technically on hiatus until end of the year, started scribbling something original to keep myself in the writing mindset. No worries, we'll be back to writing :P Also DoA is finished, just waiting to be publicized here, so... no risks of me leaving things unfinished :P
fencer29 - It be like that sometimes :P
(***)
The final assault on the castle of the demon lord, the past unspoken ruler of the entirety of the Earth and Mankind as a species, should be a climactic battle, full of last minute plottwists, near-deaths, heroic second winds or even major character deaths.
That's not what ended up happening during the joint MLA/Metahuman Network attack on All for One's citadel in the Niigata Mountains.
Rather than a slow build-up towards the massive final battle, All for One's opponents got the real life equivalent of the Dragon Age: Inquisition plot (where the Inquisitor wasn't an idiot skipping the sidequests).
The Demon Lord lost most of his assets along the way, while his opponents grew stronger. It was no longer a fight of equals. Hell, it wouldn't be a fight of equals even if he was attacked only by the MLA or only by the Network.
He was still dangerous and intimidating, but he barely had any manpower left, most of his plans were foiled, most of his cards were spent and he had no potential allies left. A reminder that the heroes' hard work leading to this day paid off.
It was, as Mirai Sasaki stated earlier, a clean-up operation. MLA and the Network were there to round up what was left and erase the Radicals from history once and for all.
The only defeat condition for them was All for One managing to escape again, still with control over the Government. But they made sure to avoid that outcome.
This time, before the fighting started, they had Eclipse float over the administrative facility, covered in her shields, keeping her quirk's warp component active at all times to make sure that All for One could no longer warp himself out of it.
The attack, as it clearly became obvious, was a complete surprise to the defenders.
Geten opened the fight with a power move, once again. Although there was much less ice around the facility, he still managed to find enough of it to rain ice spears all over the Council's military base, the MLA warriors (led by Trumpet) advancing under the cover of a continuous rain of ice.
MLA brought two hundred members, most of them counted among what passed for elites among their organization. With strong combat quirks, and combat training comparable to the heroes.
The Council had about fifty TEU soldiers left standing, most of them demoralized, the remaining fifty that survived Deika either injured, having left the country for the Middle East, or, simply, deserted.
They put in token defense, before most of them tried to flee the encirclement. Unsuccessfully.
The MLA's assault on the TEU barracks lasted for less than thirty minutes before Trumpet contacted Nedzu and Destro, telling them that the enemy forces had been destroyed. What was left was cleaning up some stragglers before retreating.
MLA's casualties included four deaths and twelve injuries. The world's last operational Threat Elimination Unit was wiped out completely, the Meta-Liberation Army uninterested in taking prisoners.
The attack on the administrative center was, at least initially, only slightly more bumpy.
(***)
All for One feels like he should have raged or shouted when he heard the alerts. When he heard the initial reports.
Instead, he felt numb.
The Council of Twelve was, clearly, out of the game. With Nine's death, they lost their final pillar of support, their control over the gas prices together with some leftover voluntary supporters giving them at least some modicum of influence elsewhere.
Now?
Nothing.
His TEU no longer mattered, the MLA or the heroes were going to walk through what was left out of it without breaking a sweat.
He didn't foresee the team-up. He should have. It was obvious in hindsight, especially with Yoichi's son and Nedzu being there. Their hatred for Hisashi and his Radicals connected them.
Hell, he should have realized they went to bed together after how expertly Destro cornered him in Deika. He knew what sort of powers Hisashi used against Defiant. It was a clear sign that they had a line of communication open.
All for One issues orders to the remaining staff members to destroy all the data they can. The administrative center of the Council for Japan is large, but only narrowly less empty than the TEU barracks.
The Council was running dry on everything ever since the war ended.
But the electronic security, gates, some automatic turrets and so on should delay Defiant and his lackeys (Moderates or not) from reaching the center of the base too fast. Giving the Council the time to destroy as much as they could.
Is it still worth calling it 'Council'?
Hisashi is laying waste to his own base out of spite.
He tries to power up his escape quirk, but it doesn't work. Of course they put the base under a warp lockdown before starting the attack, they don't want Hisashi to escape them again. His enemies, clearly, learned from their past fights.
Hisashi has his own trump cards. Titan is summoned to their present position, but it'll take him a while to get there. His final distraction.
A message is sent to a friend on another continent. His last one. It's not even something Hisashi has done willingly, he set the message to be sent in case of the Niigata Mountains suffering communication blackout.
It did now, enemies jamming everything in the vicinity to hell and back.
Then, there is the last trump card.
"Apocrypha." Hisashi says calmly, his daughter giving him an expressionless look from his couch. With a last press of the button, Hisashi activates the scorched earth process for his own files. "We're leaving. I'm going to have you help me fight the way out until we reach Titan and get out of the warp jamming range. "
"No." Apocrypha replies calmly.
Silence. Despite everything that happened thus far, despite their… complicated relationship, Hisashi didn't expect that.
"What?" He asks, staring at her over the desk.
"I said, no." Aiko replies calmly. "I'm staying in this room until the heroes arrive, then I'm surrendering to them. The Council is over. Even if you escape from here, what are you going to do next, dad? Send the Government after the heroes out of spite? Ruining the country in the process? What's the point of it?"
"Did you lose your mind?" Shigaraki stands up from his seat. Aiko is clearly unconcerned with his height and the whole 'towering over her' thing.. "We're being attacked, and you want to just… surrender? Do you think they are going to play nice with you simply because you're young?"
"First of all, you're attacked." Aiko replies. "I no longer consider myself to be a part of the Council, especially as from my point of view, there is no longer anything to be a part of. Second of all, you still didn't answer my question. Do you even have any idea of what to do next?"
"Whatever I'll do next…" Shigaraki shoots back. "... will be better than dying here. What a great daughter I brought up, to just randomly decide to leave her father to death."
She doesn't like the words he used. But he doesn't care.
"Who said anything about dying?" Aiko asks dryly. "Defiant is attacking us alongside the MLA, despite the things that Nedzu was doing on the Gunga Mountain. The Number One Hero has already shown us that he straight up hates the Moderates, enough for his sidekicks to help stop their coup. What makes you think that he isn't open to negotiations?"
"Negotiations?!" Hisashi almost shouts at her right now. "You think that my brother's son will even consider negotiating with me?"
"Why not?" Aiko raises her brow at him. "You didn't destroy the country even nearly as much as the Moderates did with their world war. Why are you acting like he attacks you for revenge? The way I see it, he's attacking you because you're a threat to his Association."
All for One suddenly remembers Defiant saying some ungentlemanly things about his father. Sure, he also told them about Hisashi, but…
"Offer him that you'll lift the mind control willingly and give your quirks to someone who's about to die of old age." Aiko continues. Looks like another person who picked up the new 'official' name for the powers. "You're a treasure trove of blackmail material and political knowledge about the Japanese politics that he needs to secure his position and the safety of the Hero System. Unlike Overhaul, you didn't kill his mother. Unlike Yoichi, you didn't cause a war that left his family in its current state and messed up the lives of so many of his fellow heroes. You have arguments to persuade him to let you live. Sure, you'll be on house arrest, but isn't that better than whatever plan you have right now? Especially as…" She sighs. "... I don't think you have any."
Silence. Shigaraki staring at his daughter, his face as unreadable as ever. In moments like this, even Aiko fails to read him.
"You… appear awfully certain of that." All for One, says slowly. "Why is that?"
Dark clouds, so similar to Kurogiri's, burst out right next to her couch. The warp lockdown is off, Hisashi discovers it immediately when he feels that he can activate his escape quirk again, but why…
Out of the warpgate steps Defiant. No mask on his face, his equipment reduced to normal clothes with a bulletproof vest he probably borrowed from the police on top of it.
"Hello there, uncle." Izuku says dryly, the warpgate behind him closing as Eclipse reactivates her warp quirk. Aiko doesn't move for an inch, still looking at her father quietly. "I think that we really need to talk."
(***)
Titan walks towards the main compound, every step making the ground tremble, trees crushed under the giant's feet.
Nedzu shared Titan's backstory with Defiant and the others. A failed Councilor, his copy of quirk-stealing quirk not working properly. He could hold only a few quirks, no one knowing that when he started. Not even Yoichi knew it.
He took one quirk too much. His primary quirk broke. It wasn't clear if he could still steal quirks, but most likely the answer was no. His mental faculties, impaired by the accident, made him unable to do so even if his quirk was still working.
He was still a kaiju, a one-man army kept around All for One's base in case of some serious intruders around.
Tsunagu Hakamada - who had a position with a good view over the carnage in front of him right now - had some rather bloodthirsty thoughts after discovering that it was Titan that stomped through Aichi's SAT.
Unfortunately for them, the police officers saw too much.
Now that his master summoned him, Titan walked.
He already crushed a significant part of the barracks, most of the MLA detachment only barely avoiding being squashed. Even now, Trumpet was overseeing the attempts to dig out those warriors that were buried under partially collapsed buildings.
Titan caused more casualties to the Meta-Liberation Army by walking towards his actual goal and accidentally crushing them than the TEU did while actually trying to fight.
Geten - furious after seeing his comrades killed - was still trying to stab him with ice, flying around on an ice platform, cursing the giant loudly. It wasn't working.
Neither stabbing, nor cursing, Titan barely noticing there was an enemy and not having enough cognitive faculties to feel insulted.
They were almost at the administrative center when Titan's march was interrupted by a small glacier erupting out of nowhere.
Amplitude, Geten decides. How kind of that hero to give Geten some much needed ammunition.
Amplitude's glacier only slows Titan down. The moment it's smashed through, Geten takes the ice for himself, the glacier changing shape. In a moment, Titan's limbs are bound with ice.
Geten does his best to pressurize the ice into the form with maximum possible durability. Titan apparently had no direct strength amplifying quirks, just gigantifying one plus some durability-enhancement and exhaustion-lifting, he should be…
Titan's hands turn into claws, tearing the chains of ice easily. Right, some freaky mole-like transformation quirk.
Shit.
Amplitude creates a pillar of ice. This time, yeah, this time it doesn't even seem to attack Titan in any way. Is he… purposefully making ammunition for Geten? Cool, he can use that.
This time, spikes of ice - as concentrated as possible - pierce Titan's calves, the kaiju temporarily brought to his knees.
Unfortunately, he has a weak regeneration quirk. It's actually starting to push the ice out of the injuries, Titan roaring in anger.
Well, fuck.
Geten can suddenly see Amplitude (why is he wearing a parka too, even if bi-coloured it's still pissing Geten off) waving at him. Motioning him to come down. What are the chances of this being a trap?
Screw that, Geten's pissed off at Titan enough to come down.
"Can you…" Todoroki asks when Geten gets closer. No introductions, no acknowledgment of Geten being from the MLA, the dog of the state goes straight to the point. "... get me closer to him with your platform and make him open his mouth for a moment?"
Ehh?
Two minutes later Geten gets to see Shoto Todoroki firing a (slightly) scaled down version of the thermal nuke that ended Dabi down Titan's throat. Knocking himself out in the process, but surviving the blast and stopping his own fall with his ice.
A moment later, the upper half of Titan's head crushes some trees nearly a kilometer away from the battlefield.
Note to self, Geten thinks while flying towards MLA positions. Heroes are fucking insane, but also kind of cool.
(***)
It started during the Gunga Mountain Raid. When Fumikage Tokoyami suddenly encountered no one else than Aiko Shigaraki.
To be honest, it wasn't a 'sudden' encounter. Shadow simply freaked out, said that someone's about to fire a large-scale attack that would probably level down most of the building, with their friends still inside, and offered to guide Fumikage to the perpetrator.
The perpetrator was a girl. More than that, a girl that wore an outfit resembling that of magical girls.
Shadow actually ended up stuttering when he realized that there was an actual magical girl in front of them.
Apparently, the villain in question could somehow 'twist' quirks in their line of sight (how the hell Shadow knew that, the quirk wasn't interested in saying). No way they could defeat her.
"I-I have an idea, Fumi!" Shadow suddenly announced. "Go out there and t-talk to her. Just repeat what I say, alright?"
It was incredibly, incredibly dumb. But, well, Tokoyami justified it as trying to buy time for Midoriya and the others to retreat.
"Uhm, hi?" He says, waving his hand. He approached her from the side, and she was focused on preparing her attack, so she actually didn't notice him and freaked out a little, jumping to the back and pointing her staff at him.
"Don't get any closer." The villain says confidently. Or, well, she appears confident. Her staff is shaking a little, she clearly didn't expect him to pop up out of nowhere. Someone lacks combat training but is a good actress.
"No, no, alright, I'm not planning to." Tokoyami raises his hands just in case. She feels jumpy and he has no idea what her quirk actually does. "I actually wanted to talk with you."
What the hell is Shadow planning?
"You wanted to… what?" The magical girl blinks at him.
"I wanted to talk with you." Fumikage replies. Is he actually lying now? Shadow clearly wanted to talk with her, and they are to a big degree the same person, so… "Are you alright?"
Villain stares at him slackjawed for a solid few seconds (so much about stoicism), before managing to speak.
"I'm about to destroy the whole facility, with your friends inside." Fumikage can't help but feel like she doesn't exactly enjoy that fact. Was she hoping that he was going to somehow stop her and that's why she said it. "And you ask me if I'm alright?"
"Well, your outfit is clearly inspired by the protagonist of that magical girl show that was canceled after the second season because the war started." Tokoyami says. "And the whole story's main theme was about magical girls being used to wage war kind of against their will, and all the associated angst. So when I saw your outfit, I kind of got worried."
Honestly, Tokoyami actually knows that himself. Mostly because it's hard to not watch anything magical girl-themed when your quirk is sapient and could watch them forever and not get bored. He just needed Shadow to give him a push to actually ask about it.
It seems that the villain had problems processing someone asking them such a question. Or that the hero she was fighting was a fan of magical girl anime. It was a very awkward silence, both sides really not knowing what to say, even Shadow shut up finally.
"Look, if someone asks, we fought and you kept me occupied for so long that I only demolished the building once everyone left, alright?" The magical girl decides to confirm Blackwing's suspicions. By jumping for a pretext to NOT blow the building with people inside.
"Alright, I mean, it's great, but, err, my point stands." Tokoyami actually speaks for himself now. Mission accomplished, but now it's Fumikage himself that's actually kind of worried about her. "Are you sure you're alright? You're pretty much my age, you being ordered to kill people against their will is just, errr… I mean, where are your parents?"
"I'm helping my father." The villain replies, suddenly avoiding his eyes. "And you're here to kill people too, despite being my age."
"I'm here to save people, not kill." Fumikage corrects her. "We were ordered to avoid killing. Also I decided to be here and save the people that were imprisoned in this facility. My parents don't know, because I don't want them to worry about me."
There is something on the girl's face that Fumikage's mind can only summarize as 'emotional damage'. Oof, he hit a painful spot.
Fumikage Tokoyami decided that making sure that the villain in front of him doesn't renege on the deal and kill everyone in the facility takes priority. As a result, they end up (in a very awkward atmosphere) chatting for the next few minutes.
He also learned her villain name. And got (the girl clearly surprised that she was willing to share it with him) some internet contact with her.
Midoriya discovering that one of his direct underlings was chatting on the internet with an S-Rank villain for who knows how long (Tokoyami ended up confessing because he had to do that when the war council moved over to 'how to kill Apocrypha' section) resulted in a lot of things.
Starting from Tokoyami having his access to confidential intel irreversibly revoked, and then getting some really nasty lectures from both Principal Sasaki and Senior Commissioner Aizawa, and ending with some major alterations to the plan.
Tokoyami, wisely, decided to not mention the fact that right after Esuha Bridge Aiko ended up warping secretly to Musutafu so that she, Fumikage and Shadow could go to a cinema to watch a movie based on a recent magical girl anime.
If they ended up making out afterwards, no one had to know.
All of this led to the rather unexpected confrontation between Defiant and All for One, with Aiko doing her best to appear calm while in fact she was incredibly, incredibly worried and nervous.
"It's…" Hisashi says, as venomously as humanly possible. "... it's always my family members, isn't it? I just can't get a single one to actually stay loyal."
"I'd argue that your daughter was extremely loyal to you, and still is." Defiant replies dryly. "Enough to actually negotiate in your stead. The deal she offered you? It's on the table. It's ironic, but while your world mind control scheme disgusts me, I suffered more because of my father's actions than yours. Get rid of your quirk, forget about the Council, and live a normal life. You won't be the god emperor of the world, you won't be the demon lord of Japan, but you'll at least have a daughter. You could even try to reconnect with Asa if you put enough effort into that."
He doesn't like it. But if that was the price for getting Aiko to not fight them? Izuku would stomach knowing that All for One was living his second life as an unassuming political advisor of the Hero Association's.
All for One doesn't make it known, but there is a sudden click in his mind. Six must have gotten the message. The mental signal power was active, the rest was… a matter of some time.
"Dad, please." Aiko says. This time, with actual emotions on her face. She must have read his answer from his face. "It doesn't have to end like this."
"I'm…" All for One says slowly. "...sick and tired of Yoichi ruining everything. We were so close to fixing the world, to make it better for everyone before that little shit decided to throw a temper tantrum and run everything into the ground. The answer is no. And you're going to have to kill me here, or I'm going to burn everything you've built to the ground."
Izuku sighs, before glancing at Aiko.
"I think you should step out of the room for a moment." He says. He… genuinely regrets the answer. For a moment, something in All for One's face made him think that Hisashi was at least considering it. Unfortunately, the wounded pride and spite for his brother triumphed. "I don't want you to see…"
All for One pulls on the mental signal power sending a message to Six and opens his mouth. Black sludge bursts out of it, beginning to envelop him. His final trump card, one that he didn't plan to use because leaving Aiko behind wasn't part of the plan, but…
Defiant tries to grab him, but his resistance power is still on. Aiko wasted maybe a second, leaping towards Defiant and hugging him as closely as possible.
"IGNITE!" She shouts. He does so, his quirk discharges enveloping them both. Boosting her quirk beyond what it could normally do.
She refused to hurt her father, even now. He was… cold for a long time, but back then, before his life's work began to crumble, they were closer. Much closer. There was a reason why, even after all of that, she still tried to make him surrender.
But… there was another way of solving this conundrum. And she took it in the short few seconds before All for One vanished from the room.
(***)
The warp is successful (and, as a summoning quirk, ignoring the lockdown mechanics), but unpleasant. All for One falls to his knees, coughing the rest of the sludge out of his mouth. Disgusting.
"Are you alright, friend?" Six asks. All for One's face raises. The man is slightly overweight, approaching his sixties, wearing his uniform of a general of the Russian Army. Also as jovial as always, but his eyes are cautious.
"W-where are we?" All for One asks. It's clearly someone's office, but…
"In my dacha." Six replies. "Moscow outskirts. What happened to you?"
That was a good question. All for One raises from his floor, checking himself. A moment later he realizes.
Aiko's power could alter other powers in her line of sight. Defiant's proximity must have supercharged it.
She didn't alter his powers. She destroyed them completely. Resistance? Gone. Meltdown? Gone. Escape? Gone.
Mindcontrol? Gone as well. Years of hard work undone in an instant by his traitorous daughter.
Only All for One itself was there, too powerful to be influenced by her. That was all that All for One needed to eventually take revenge. He was going to gather up powers, then return to Japan and hand them to people to make them follow him.
Villains. He was going to create villains. Heroes were in for some rather nasty times. And one day? One day he was going to get One for All too. If Yoichi ruined his dreams, he was going to ruin his own.
He starts by moving fast, putting his hand on Six's forehead before the man could react, the process of stealing his quirks limiting his ability to move or call for help, their wills clashing as All for One tries to dig the quirks out of another holder of similar quirks.
He only got a few, and not even the mind-control one, before Six decided to give him the final fuck you and broke a fake tooth filled with poison. How classic. What Shigaraki got had to be enough.
Someone storms in, having heard the sound of Six's body falling to the floor. A bodyguard. All for One fires Six's own main combat quirk, a concentrated gust of air killing the man instantly, throwing his body outside together with most of what was left from the door.
He can hear shouts outside. Six was paranoid enough to surround himself with what was left of his TEU boosted with some spetsnaz soldiers. It was going to be a hard fight. But also a good beginning.
So many quirks for him to steal.
He was looking forward to returning to Japan.
(***)
Next two chapters is going to be an epilogue. Let's just say that the efforts of Defiant & Co. made some SIGNIFICANT changes, and canon-time events (covered by chapter 100) will be significantly different.
Yes, that's Air Cannon +black sludge Summon quirks in action. Older than anyone assumed.
Also chad Tokoyami seducing a supervillain to switch sides with Shadow-provided magical girl trivia. Fumikage is one of the few Network members with normal family background and no supreme education (Yaoyorozu) about political matters, resulting in him being... err... the closest thing the Network really has to a normal teenager during normal teenager things.
Funny results, ngl.
Also Amplitude is terrifying.