Author's Note: I forgot to mention at the end of the previous chapter that All Might used an ultimate move I made up on the fly while writing the featured battle, Arkansas Smash. Hopefully a move called Arkansas Smash won't pop up in the actual manga or anime, because otherwise I'd have made a huge continuity error.

Disclaimer: I do now own My Hero Academia.

Episode 4 - Chimera

After Outcast's attack on the Stadium, All Might of course had to answer questions from the police. Most of this questioning occurred on route to the hospital. While the power of Noriko's quirk had healed All Might's injuries and had even cured the venom Outcast had injected him with, the medical team on sight at the stadium still wanted him to get checked out. The police interview and medical examination together only took about an hour or so. Once he was released from the hospital, All Might found David waiting right outside with his car.

"Everything still working okay?" David asked as All Might walked up.

All Might flexed his muscles. "The docs all said I'm in top shape!"

"Awesome. I'll take you back to the mansion, and then I'm heading back to Helios Tower."

"Why there?" All Might asked as they got in the car.

"Well for one thing, I need to make some repairs to your costume," David explained as he drove the car away the hospital. "It did take some damage during your battle with Outcast, after all. I also had a talk with Mr. Helios after you went off in the ambulance. I told him about a new support item I wanted to build and he gave me permission to use one of his labs to make it."

"Wait, is this a support item for me?"

"Yep. It's the little surprise I was hinting at last night. I told Mr. Helios it could really help you the next time this Outcast shows up again, which it should. He went ahead and gave me full access to the tower's facilities. Once I drop you off, I'm getting right to work."

"Thanks Dave. If I'm right about what Outcast really is, I'm going to need all the help I can get."

David gave him a sideways look. "You really do know something about this villain, don't you? Something you weren't willing to tell Kaito or anyone else."

All Might crossed his arms. "I didn't even tell the police, partly because I'm not entirely sure I'm right. Or maybe I'm just hoping I'm wrong."

"Mind letting me in on the big secret?"

"Outcast clearly had multiple quirks, and there's only one way that's possible. She has something to do with All For One."

"Wait, you mean the master villain from Japan you told me about once? Seriously?"

All Might nodded. "All For One can steal quirks and either keep them for himself or give them to others. I'm certain the reason Outcast has multiple quirks is because All For One gave them to her. In fact I recognized the electrical quirk we saw Outcast use. It used to belong to a hero by the name of Sergeant Blackout."

"I remember that guy. He was an American hero who moved to Japan because of the bad press he was getting for the overly aggressive way he took down villains. Didn't he die not long ago?"

"Yeah. He was killed while guarding a prison transport carrying some extremely dangerous villains. Supposedly it was an accident, but now I'm thinking All For One had to be involved in what happened to him."

David shook his head. "Okay, but why would All For One send Outcast here to Sunrise City?"

"Well…it could be because he wants to stop the Protectors from being formed. He might've learned about what Mr. Helios and Mr. Akizuki are planning and saw the team as a threat to him."

"Makes sense. I suppose All For One was the main reason you've been thinking of accepting the offer to join the Protectors in the first place. I mean you told me about how powerful he is, and about how he killed your mentor. Doesn't surprise me that you'd want to make defeating All For One a major priority."

All Might said nothing and turned his attention to the cityscape as the car drove along the highway. There was a more to the story than David knew, more that All Might wished he could tell him but dared not to. While it was possible All For One did know about the Protectors Initiative and wanted it stopped, All Might was certain the master villain had actually sent Outcast to kill him. This was because All Might possessed a power that was the opposite side of the coin to All For One, the power of One For All. Unfortunately All Might couldn't afford to let David in on this secret, lest he put him in danger.

"Anyway, if All For One does want to stop the Protectors from being formed, it looks like he may have succeeded," David continued. "Do you know how the other candidates for the team are doing?"

"Mr. Magnet should be out of the hospital tomorrow morning," All Might answered. "As for Tenth Power, they managed to save his hands somehow, but he's got a long recovery ahead of him. He'll be out of commission for quite some time. The only serious casualty of today's battle was Spectrum. Noriko was able to heal the skull fractures and hearing damage caused by Outcast's sonic attack, but there was some brain damage she couldn't fix. Spectrum's in a coma, and there's no telling when or if she'll wake up."

"Damn! If only Kaito and Noriko had shown up a little sooner."

"Speaking of them, there is one thing I can't figure out. Why did Outcast retreat when they showed up?"

"Not sure. It could be she was afraid of them for some reason. Then again, I do remember Outcast referred to Noriko by her real name. I forgot about it until just now. It was sort of as if Outcast knew her and didn't want to fight her."

"Come to think of it, Outcast talked like she knew who I was too," All Might recalled.

"Think it means something, Toshi?"

Suddenly a thought occurred to All Might. "Actually…I do remember there was someone else involved in the so-called accident Sergeant Blackout was killed in. It was someone Kai, Noriko and I all knew."

"Seriously? Was it a villain you all took down together?"

"Actually, she was…". All Might shook his head. "No, I shouldn't speculate. A little later I'm going to call my old teacher, Gran Torino. He can do some digging for us and find out if my theory is right, but I'm really hoping I'm wrong about this. In the meantime, we'll need to make sure we're ready for the next time Outcast shows up."

The moment Edward entered his office, he headed straight for his desk, sat down and unlocked a special drawer only he had the key to. The drawer contained a bottle of scotch and three shot glasses. Normally Edward saved this scotch for special occasions, but after the fiasco at Morning Light Stadium and having to deal with the fallout that had followed, he felt like he needed a strong drink of something. Edward poured himself a glass and downed it in one gulp. He let out a long breath as the liquid burned a trail down his throat.

Suddenly Stephenie's voice came on over the intercom. "Mr. Helios? Ambassador Akizuki wishes to see you."

"Dammit," Edward cursed under his breath before pressing the intercom button. "Fine. Send him in."

Yukito entered the office and slammed the door shut before storming up to the desk. "What the hell happened today?"

"You think I know?" Edward responded as he poured himself another glass. "If I did, I would've told the damn reporters!"

Yukito slumped into the chair in front of Edward's desk. "This is a disaster! Everything we've planned is ruined!"

"Now don't be so overly dramatic, Yukito. We can still salvage this. After all, we still have most of our prospective team members for the Protectors. We should be able to get things back on track."

"Who was that villain who attacked the stadium? And how did she even know to attack the event?"

"She probably just picked the place at random."

Yukito hit the top of Edward's desk with the side of his fist. "Dammit Edward! This Outcast or whatever she calls herself attacked because she was after the heroes we gathered! What I want to know is how she knew to attack there? No one outside of our circle and the heroes we picked were supposed to know what the event was supposed to be about."

Edward slumped back in his chair. "You have a point. She didn't seem like any run of the mill villain."

"The witnesses all said she seemed to possess multiple quirks."

"A chimera," Edward remarked as he gently swirled the scotch in his glass.

"A what?"

"In the old Greek myths, a chimera was a creature with the front end of a lion, the hind end of a goat, and a snake for a tail. These days, the term is used to describe any kind of monster made from the parts of different animals. The villain who attacked the stadium seems to be the same sort of thing. Perhaps she's the product of some sort of genetic experiment. The question is, who would send her against us?"

"More importantly, where do we proceed from here?"

Edward downed his glass. "Like I said, this changes very little. The wedding will still go on tomorrow as planned, and we can simply replace the team members we lost today. We'll just have to pick a different time to announce the Protectors Initiative."

Yukito sighed. "I suppose so, but the sooner we get public support for the initiative, the better. Meanwhile, what're we going to do about that villain?"

"I've already got my people working on countermeasures to deal with her. In fact young Yagi's friend, David Shield told me his has an idea for some gear that should help Yagi defeat this Outcast. In the meantime, we can leave the matter of finding her and figuring out who she is to the police."

Suddenly the door burst open and Kaito stormed into the office. "We need to talk!"

Edward let out a heavy sigh. "Kaito, if you're here to rant about what a disaster today was, Yukito beat you to the punch. I've just spent the last few minutes assuring him that we can still salvage things."

"Oh I'm not worried about the plan going off the rails," Kaito told him. "I just want to know if you've started looking for replacements for the two losers who got taken out of commission today!"

"My boy, the only thing on my mind for the last few hours has been damage control. I will have Ms. Saint James start looking for new candidates for the Protectors as soon as possible."

Kaito took a breath and composed himself. "Alight, fine. But I want to be sure that the people you find will be an improvement over that old fossil, Tenth Power and that showgirl. Today was an audition and they failed, miserably!"

"Well you made it no secret that you never wanted Tenth Power or Ms. Spectrum on the team in the first place."

"Of course not! Dad, Tenth Power is yesterday's news. Don't get me wrong, he's been a good representative for the company, but we both know we've needed a fresh face for years. That's my role. As for Spectrum, I don't need anyone trying to steal the spotlight from me."

"Your points are well-taken, son. Now go home and let me worry about all this. Remember, you've got a wedding tomorrow."

Kaito nodded. "Fine. But I want to make it clear that I'm not going to let anyone screw things up for me. Not even you."

The Helios mansion had just about everything, including its own gym. After having made his phone call to Gran Torino in Japan and with David busy at Helios Tower's labs, All Might decided to use the gym for a short afternoon workout. He thought some exercise might help him work through a few things. Plus the young hero wanted to make sure he was in top shape for when Outcast showed up again. When All Might arrived at the gym however, he found two people waiting for him inside.

Both of the people in question wore plain black suits that screamed they were government agents of some kind. One of the two was a fairly young man with short red hair and greed eyes. The other was a young woman with white hair cut just above her shoulders and pale blue eyes.

"You must be Toshinori Yagi," the man identified. "Better known as the new young hero, All Might."

"Yes?" All Might confirmed, raising an eyebrow as he held the towel hanging over his neck with both hands. "Can I help you?"

"I'm Liam Finnegan with Division X," the redheaded man answered. "With me is my partner, Valerie Lancer."

"What's Division X?"

"It's classified," Valerie answered bluntly.

"We don't like too many people to know about us," Liam explained. "Not even other government agencies. Originally Division X was a special branch of the CIA, but you can ask anybody at the Agency and they'll tell you we don't exist. All I can say is it's our job to investigate and deal with any extremely delicate matters that may affect the balance of this superhuman society the world has today."

Though skeptical, All Might nodded. "What exactly do you want?"

"Tell me, are you planning to join the special team Edward Helios is attempting to put together?"

"I've been thinking about it, but haven't decided either way yet. To be honest, I'm leaning more towards not joining because of what happened today."

"What do you know about the Golden Skulls?" Valerie asked.

"I've fought them before, but all I really know about the group is what I've heard on the news about them," All Might answered. "Why?"

"You might be interested to know that the Golden Skulls may not be what they seem," Liam revealed.

"The members of the group captured by heroes and the police have been identified and thoroughly investigated," Valerie continued. "They're all petty career criminals motivated by money rather than some twisted ideology."

"Couldn't these criminals have been radicalized or something?" All Might suggested.

"It's possible," Liam admitted. "We're not ruling it out. The problem is nobody has been able to get anything out of these so-called terrorists during interrogation."

"Plus quite a few of the captured Golden Skull members end up meeting certain 'unfortunate accidents' upon being taken to prison," Valerie added. "It's also been discovered that many of these 'terrorists' have Swiss bank accounts in their name or in the names of close family members. Unfortunately the investigators still haven't been able to figure out where the money is coming from."

"My people and I are certain there's something more going on," Liam continued. "The problem is we haven't been able to capture any of the leaders. Each of them has a quirk that allows them to make a quick getaway in the midst of battle."

"Are you asking for my help with capturing these leaders?"

"Not at all. We're going to let the heroes and law enforcement agencies handling the case of the Golden Skulls worry about capturing the leaders. Like I said, we don't officially exist."

All Might crossed his arms. "So what do you want from me then?"

"We mainly wanted to find out if you were joining the Protectors," Liam answered.

"Why? Is there something I should know?"

Liam shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing we're certain about…yet. If there's one thing I've learned working intelligence, it's that you take absolutely everything with a grain of salt. All we have to go on right now are rumors, and rumors aren't enough to warrant serious action. My partner and I are really only here to observe."

All Might nodded. "Okay, then I guess I've told you what you want to know."

"One more thing," Valerie spoke. "What do you know about the villain who attacked Morning Light Stadium today?"

All Might gave a small sigh of frustration. "I can tell you she's not connected to the Golden Skulls."

"We already know as much," Liam revealed. "But you know something everyone else doesn't. We'd like you to share."

All Might considered this for a moment and decided to cooperate at least a bit. "Have you heard of a villain called All For One?"

Liam raised an eyebrow and nodded. "We've heard the legend. Supposedly he came about when quirks were still a minority, but that was a very long time ago."

"He's still around, and I'm certain he's the one who sent Outcast to attack the Stadium. If I had to guess, All For One probably heard about the Protectors and doesn't want them to happen."

Liam studied All Might for a moment before smiling and holding out his hand. "I'd say that theory tracks. Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Yagi."

Though hesitant, All Might shook the agent's offered hand. The young hero was certain though that Liam was holding something back, but then again he hadn't told Liam the full truth either.

"Should something else come up, we'll be in touch," Liam told All Might.

With those words, Liam and Valerie headed for the gym's exit. All Might watched the two of them as they left. Of course All Might had been unable to tell the mysterious agents the real reason All For One had sent Outcast to attack the stadium. Nobody could know about the secret of One For All, not even those closest to him. All might had to wonder though if Liam and his partner had sensed he had been holding something back, but decided not to worry about it and started his workout.

Liam and Valerie had made it out to the front yard of the property. The two had made sure none of the household staff or anyone else saw them as they left.

"Well? What did you find out?" Valerie asked her partner.

Liam looked at his right hand, the very same hand he had used to shake All Might's. The handshake had actually been the opening for Liam to use his quirk, Psychometry. By touching an object or another person, Liam was able to learn the entire past history of the person or object in question.

"I can tell you our Mr. Yagi is not part of Edward Helios's inner circle," Liam answered. "He was only invited to join the Protectors because of his skill as a hero and his relationship with both Kaito Helios and his fiancé. If we're right about the Helios Corporation, he's in the dark about it."

Valerie nodded. "But there was something he was holding back, wasn't there?"

"As always, your intuition is sharp. The reason this new villain, Outcast showed up was to come after him. Yagi is All For One's primary target."

"What makes him so special that some mythical villain would want to come after him?"

"The quirk he has? It wasn't originally his. It belonged to seven other people before him."

"You mean he inherited the same quirk that most of his family had, right?"

Liam shook his head. "Until high school, Toshinori Yagi was quirkless. The quirk he has was passed onto him by a hero named Nana Shimura."

Valerie's eyes widened in shock. "How is that even possible?"

"With the myriad of quirks that exist in the world, I'd say anything is possible. What I can tell you though is that everyone who's possessed this quirk have done battle against All For One. The quirk seems to be a weapon forged for the sole purpose of fighting him. Yagi is just one more link in a chain."

"Well if all this is true, Yagi's involvement in the Helios affair complicates things. The last thing we need is for this investigation to get pulled into this hidden war with All For One. What do you think we should do?"

"What we were sent here to do, observe and report. There's no justification for us to intervene yet. As far as everyone is concerned, we aren't here and never were."

Valerie nodded. "On that note, we shouldn't use the front gate since we let ourselves in."

"Then I suggest we let ourselves out the same way."

Valerie took hold of Liam's shoulder and the two vanished from the yard with a flash of purple light. No one had even seen them leave.

Noriko was in the sitting room of the Helios Mansion, trying to relax and forget about the horrible incident at Morning Light Stadium for at least a little while. Whenever she tried to think of something else though, the first thing that came to Noriko's mind was the wedding. Her impending marriage to Kaito was actually the last thing Noriko wanted to think about. Now that the big event was only a day away, it actually terrified her.

In the beginning, Noriko's engagement to Kaito was an easy thing for her to deal with. The arrangement had been made when they were both six, and back then Noriko hadn't been old enough to fully understand or appreciate what being engaged meant. Even as she got older the arrangement still didn't even seem real to Noriko. Her impending marriage was just something that existed in the far future, but now that far-off future was right around the corner. Ever since she graduated from U.A. and the wedding started getting closer and closer, Noriko felt almost as though she was inside a tank that was slowly filling with water, and the tank had now almost completely filled up.

Noriko was so lost in thought that she didn't notice someone coming into the room and walking up to her chair. "Noriko, dear? Is everything okay?"

The person speaking was an older woman with greying dark hair arranged in an elegant bun. She was currently wearing a stylish purple pantsuit with a pink blouse. This was Kaito's mother, Shiori Helios.

"I'm okay, ma'am. Just thinking about what happened today," Noriko told her.

"Oh yes, what happened at the stadium. How horrible!" Shiori declared as she sat in the chair across from Noriko. "Hero work must truly be wretched business."

"It would've been worse if Kaito and I hadn't shown up."

"Very true. The two of you really do make the perfect pair. I'm sure you're looking forward to making your union with him official tomorrow."

"Actually…to tell you the truth I'm a little nervous about the wedding."

Shiori smiled. "Believe it or not, I understand exactly what you're going through. It's normal to have cold feet right before a wedding. I remember feeling the same way right before I married Edward."

"Your marriage…it was a quirk marriage, wasn't it?"

"Well…yes. My father chose Edward for me partly because the two of us would produce an heir with a strong quirk. But I did have genuine feelings for Edward too. He and I were quite friendly with one another when we attended the university together. I don't think I was in love with him in the beginning, but I was quite fond of him. In the end I grew to love him over time."

"I see," Noriko responded as she looked towards the window.

Shiori got up from her chair. "Anyway, I simply wanted to check up on you. I'll leave you alone to relax."

Once Shiori was out of the room, Noriko reached into her pocket and pulled out the old photo of her, Kaoru and Kaito. She had been thinking about Kaoru more and more as the wedding got closer and closer. Noriko wished Kaoru was there, not to provide support or to act as a big part of the wedding like as her maid of honor. More than anything, Noriko wished that Kaoru would swoop in and save her from the fate she found herself trapped in. Noriko knew such a thing was simply a fantasy though and put the photo back in her pocket.

The hideout Dr. Garaki, Outcast and Carmine had been using was a small underground facility that had been procured by All For One's people. Originally the facility had been one of many undisclosed locations utilized by a certain American vice president during the early 2000s and had since been abandoned. At the moment Carmine was in the base's cafeteria trying to relax while having a sandwich, but relaxation was proving far out of his reach. This was because for the last several hours Outcast had been screaming with rage and tearing up her quarters. Carmine had asked Dr. Garaki if they should do something about Outcast's tantrum, but the mad scientist told him it was best to just let her get it out of her system.

While Carmine had been able to finish his sandwich, he was still very much on edge. He decided to go to his own quarters and put a pillow over his ears to try and block out the screams. The moment the aging mobster went out to the hallway though, the screaming stopped. Apparently Outcast had finished her tantrum. Carmine began to head for his quarters, but stopped.

Something had been nagging at Carmine ever since Outcast had returned from her mission. It was something Carmine could only learn from the masked villain's own lips. His curiosity outweighed his fear of dismemberment, so he decided to go and see how Outcast was doing. It didn't take Carmine long to reach Outcast's quarters. He went ahead and opened the door without knocking, as he knew Outcast would simply tell him to go away if he simply asked to enter.

Just about every piece of furniture in Outcast's room had been broken to bits, and there were massive cracks all over the walls. Carmine found Outcast huddled in a corner of the room, hugging her knees to her chest.

"What do you want?" Outcast asked, not looking up at Carmine.

"I, uh…came to see how you were doing," Carmine answered.

"Fine. Now go away."

Carmine stood in the doorway for a moment before stepping further into the room. "Sorry if it ain't none of my business, but something's been bugging me. How come you ran off before you finished the All Might kid?"

"I…couldn't fight Noriko," Outcast answered after a moment of silence. "I know she's one of the heroes now, but…I could never hurt her."

"Geez. Look, ya had to know this was coming. I mean your lady friend has been part of this from the beginning."

"I know. The Master and Dr. Garaki told me my brother and Noriko were set to be key members of this team my bastard father and Noriko's are trying to get started. But I somehow fooled myself into believing Noriko and I would never meet on the battlefield."

Carmine shrugged his shoulders. "What can ya do? It's just the hand you were dealt. It sucks, but I guess for you, this is just one of the consequences that comes with choosing to be a villain."

"This life was never my choice!" Outcast snapped. "At least…not entirely. I did choose to become the Master's successor, but I did so because my only other option was certain death. Some days I feel like I would've been better off dead, especially now. And Noriko, she never chose to become a hero, or to be Kaito's fiancé."

"An arranged marriage, huh? I always thought that stuff was pretty dumb."

"Once, I think a month or so before I ended up with the Master, I tried to talk Noriko out of going through with the marriage…"

The afternoon was late and Kaoru was on her way home from school. It was one of those rare days when Kaoru had decided to attend, though she wasn't entirely sure why she bothered. As she reached her neighborhood, Kaoru spotted Noriko heading in the same direction as the Helios mansion. She was about to say hi when she noticed Noriko was wearing sunglasses. The reason this struck Kaoru as strange was because the sky at the moment was totally grey.

Kaoru immediately sensed something was off and quickly went over to her. "Yo, Noriko."

"Oh! Hello Kaoru," Noriko greeted. "I was just on your way over to your place to study with Kaito and a couple of our other classmates. Did you have a good day at school?"

"Never mind about my crappy day. What's with the sunglasses?"

"Um, my eyes are just a little sensitive today."

"You're lying." Kaoru removed Noriko's sunglasses and discovered that her left eye was swollen shut and covered with a big bruise. "Holy crap!"

"I, uh, uh…had a little accident at school during training yesterday. No big deal."

"Kaito did this, didn't he?"

Noriko flinched and looked away in shame. "It was my fault. Kaito and I were doing a training battle together at school, and I reacted a little too slowly during a critical moment. We ended up losing, so…"

"Shut up!" Kaoru snapped, causing Noriko to gasp. She noticed Noriko's frightened expression. "Wait! I didn't mean it like…dammit!"

"Why are you angry with me?"

"I'm not angry with you! You didn't do anything wrong! I'm angry at my son of a bitch half-brother for treating you like this!" Kaoru's hands clenched into fists at her sides. "I swear one of these days I'm gonna kill him."

Noriko quickly took both of Kaoru's hands. "Let's go somewhere to talk."

The two of them ended up going to a park very close to the Helios mansion. It was a park they both knew quite well. Very often they would come together to the park to play as children, though Kaito had often come along with them. Noriko took Kaoru over to the swing set and the two of them got into a couple of the swings.

"…Why do you put up with it?" Kaoru finally asked. "Why do you always take his abuse?"

"Because I'm engaged to him," Noriko answered. "In fact it won't be long now until I'm his wife."

Kaoru's grip tightened around the chains of the swings. "You're seriously going to go through with the wedding when the time comes?"

"I have to. Like it or not, it is my duty."

"Screw that! Does your duty involve you being Kaito's punching bag? Just walk away!"

"I can't. I have an obligation to my family, and a responsibility because of the quirk I was born with."

"That's just your parents talking! How you feel is way more important."

Noriko shook her head. "It's not that simple."

"Tell me something Noriko. Do you actually love my brother?"

"I…I know how…difficult Kaito can be. But he can also be very kind."

"That's not what I asked you."

Noriko smiled sadly at her. "It's the only answer I can give."

Kaoru jumped from the swing and got in front of her. "Dammit Noriko! You know what this is you're getting into, right? It's a quirk marriage! Part of your duty is going to be to try and churn out kids with a strong mix of your quirk and my brother's! Is that really the kind of life you want?"

"What I want…doesn't really matter. This is only just another part of the burden I bare."

"There you are, Noriko," a familiar voice cut in. The two saw Kaito standing before them a few feet away. "Yagi and the others are waiting. We should go."

Kaoru stood between Kaito and Noriko. "She's not going anywhere with you, you bastard!"

"I don't recall this being any of your business," Kaito told her. "And you know you shouldn't speak to your betters in such a manner."

Kaoru stormed up to him. "I said she's not going anywhere with you! Now get lost, or I swear…"

Kaito grinned. "That you'll what? Kill me? I'd like to see you try. In fact I dare you to. It'd be the best way for me to finally teach a quirkless piece of trash like you your proper place."

Kaoru nearly raised her fist to punch Kaito in the face when she saw her half-brother's palms starting to glow with a gold light. She realized he was preparing to use his quirk against her. Kaito wasn't going to hold anything back. Suddenly Kaoru was filled with fear. She realized that if she followed through with her attack, she'd likely be dead.

"Kaito! Kaoru! Stop!" Noriko called as she put her sunglasses back on and ran over to Kaito's side. "I'll go with you Kaito. Kaoru and I are done talking."

The palms of Kaito's hands stopped glowing and he and Noriko began to walk off. As they left, Kaito put an arm around Noriko and looked back at Kaoru, sneering at her as they continued to walk away. Feeling absolutely disgusted with herself, Kaoru went over to the tree that was behind the swing set and thought of Kaito's sneering face as she looked at its trunk. Kaoru punched the tree, imaging she was punching Kaito. The punch brought her no satisfaction though, only pain.

"…Noriko was right," Outcast continued. "I was powerless. Always have been, in every way. It's why Kaito always got everything and I always got nothing. He was born into a rich family with a powerful quirk, and I was just the quirkless daughter of a maid."

Carmine put a hand to his chin. "But ya ain't powerless now, are ya? All For One and the Doc turned you the perfect fighting machine. You wiped the floor with four heroes earlier! Right now you're one of the baddest villains out there."

"What's your point?"

"My point is you no longer have to take your half-brother's crap! Now I just got an idea. There's a way for you to take out all those heroes permanently without having to fight your lady friend."

Outcast rose to her feet. "What do you mean?"

"I'll tell ya in a minute," Carmine answered as he pulled his phone from his pocket. "First, let me call my guys." He picked a number to call and put the phone to his ear. "Vito! You and Jimmy at the hotel? Good! Now listen up. Tomorrow, we're gonna crash a wedding."

Author's Note: I'd like to take this moment to thank Firebolt-The Blazing Saint for helping me with this chapter. He found a small typo I had somehow managed to miss even after making multiple edits. Anyway, this seems like a good time to talk about one of this story's central characters.

Kaoru/Outcast: While this is supposed to be a tale of one of All Might's "Young Age" adventures, the truth is Kaoru is the character this story is really about. The initial idea for Rage of the Outcast was actually born a couple of years ago when I was working an afternoon to evening shift at my previous job. I had gotten to think about the MHA anime and the episode(s) featuring All For One's debut, and while I was putting back a shopping cart an idea came to mind. What if there was a character like Midoriya/Deku who was born quirkless but also far more "cynical" about heroes than he was? And what if this character had been found by All For One?

It took a long time to get from that initial idea to this story. I decided I needed to first immerse myself in the world of MHA, and the very evening I had my initial idea for Kaoru's characters, I went out and bought almost every volume of the MHA manga that had come out so far at the time. It actually took a couple of weeks to obtain every single volume that was available. Eventually I also obtained the MHA: Vigilantes manga for a little more background regarding the world of the series. It wasn't until I finally saw the Two Heroes movie when I decided to set Rage of the Outcast during All Might's days in America with David Shield.

There were a lot of technical problems I had to work through first before this story could finally come into being. I realized I first needed to answer these two questions:

1.) How would Kaoru meet All For One?

2.) Why would All For One decide to give Kaoru a few quirks?

It actually took a while to figure out the answers to both questions. For the answer to the first question, I ended up drawing inspiration from one of my favorite classic novels, The Count of Monte Cristo. This is how Kaoru ended up getting arrested for a crime that she didn't commit. As for the answer to the second question, it dawned on me that Tomura Shigaraki may not have been All For One's first attempt at grooming a successor. This notion was confirmed when I read the most recent volumes of Vigilantes.

I also ended up putting a lot of thought into what quirks Kaoru should have. Overall I'm pretty pleased with how she turned out. Incidentally, the mask Kaoru/Outcast wears in this final version of the story was inspired by another Alexander Dumas story, The Man in the iron Mask (which I still haven't actually read but have seen the movie version of). Anyway, I also tried making Outcast the Darth Vader to All For One's Emperor Palpatine (Tomura's more like Kylo Ren). I'd like to think I succeeded to a certain extent.

Please review and let me know what you think.