Eraserhead had a guts feeling that something wasn't right here, it all just seemed too easy.
Taking his goggles off his eyes he placed them among his capture weapon that appeared as a scarf as he gazed on the Quirk stealing villain which was tied up and restrained in Quirk suppressors who was placed beneath his feet.
This all felt so... underwhelming. He expected more of a fight from someone with an ability like his, a Quirk that steals Quirks, the last man who had such a power was said to have ruled Japan from the shadows for over a century, at least according to underground rumors, and yet this one was caught so easily. It all seemed far too anticlimactic.
He did a double take as he started to hear sobs and whimpers coming from beneath his feet. Was- was be crying? Was the guy who can steal Quirks seriously sobbing in his own misery.
Truthfully Shota feels a little bad for him, the Quirkless are treated terribly in their society, with society's prejudices being aimed largely at the shrinking minority, it truthfully disgusts Shota, the Quirkless get fewer and fewer as the years fly by and the hatred is only getting worst as time goes on, with several laws actually being put in place that favour the Quirked heavily and a frightening number of the population actually end up... ending themselves. It's a tragedy honestly.
Still though this kid was rallying a group of villains, to do god knows what, and given the immense hatred that he will undoubtedly hold against hero society, as a formerly Quirkless boy, nothing good will have come out of it.
He really was dealt the short hand in life though, he was a victim of circumstances, having a Quirk that steals Quirks automatically puts that kid at the top of the HPSC's hit list, it's actually the reason that this mission was handled so thoroughly, because they ordered that the boy be dealt with using extreme prejudice. There was no outcome where he could even live a normal unmonitored life.
He was about to speak a few words of comfort, more out of impulse than anything else, he is a teacher afterall, however he notices a few moments before he opened his mouth that he wasn't crying he was... laughing. Madly cackling as though he'd just heard the funniest thing in the world, it was a little unbelievable at how hard he could laugh at the situation. Did he crack under the reality of the situation?
Only after a few minutes of laughing, and receiving weirded out glances from several heroes on the scene, did he finally restrain himself to smothered laughter.
"Is something funny?" He asked nonchalantly despite his usual poker face. No point in just standing around and he needs to watch over the boy, because orders.
The white haired young man just shook his head with a smile that stretched across his face never even faltering." Just a funny joke I thought of."
Aizawa actually wondered what could be so amusing at this current moment that the guy could actually smile genuinely at a time like this, when all his plans just fell apart.
The dark eyed man felt like entertaining him though." Oh, and what might be so funny that you can laugh at a time like this?"
His smile shrunk at that question but didn't leave his face. He looked almost nostalgic." I actually stole your Quirk at one point you know, decided not to keep it though, I'd be a little too overpowered if I did."
Shotas brows actually burrowed slightly at that. He isn't perfect at it however he likes to think that he can spot a liar when he sees one, that he can see if someone's being honest, and that didn't look like a lie." Oh really? I bet your kicking yourself for that right about now."
At those words Ryoto Saito, if he remembers correctly, snorted in amusement." Not really, as annoying as your Quirk is your just one man, one Quirk. That will never be enough to stop what I have planned." Well that was ominous.
Shotas eyes narrowed as he scrutinised the red eyed villain." I doubt you'll be doing anything in Tartarus." At his words the Quirk stealer just shrugged uncaringly.
"That only applies if I was the real me. The other me should have started the operation by now."
At those words Shota was a but puzzled but a ball of dread bubbled in his stomach unwillingly." What are you talking about?" His words were cautious.
All his words got was a look as though he were an idiot." You really thought I wouldn't see this coming? These are all just clones, the real team was sent on another mission hours ago, I wouldn't be surprised if they're already done. We're just here to keep you occupied."
Shotas blood immediately ran cold as his dry eyes widened and stared at the tied up villain beneath him who, after a few seconds, started to melt away with a shit eating grin on his face.
"Sayonara Shota!" With those parting words he turned brown and murky as he morphed into nothing but a muddy puddle. What the he-
"What the hell?!" Shota whipped his head around and every single villain behind then started to melt away into a puddle sludge much to the confusion of his fellow heroes and police officers.
We're they all just clones?! Have they been led into a trap?!
Eraserhead allowed his jaw to drop at the revelation that they were played like a bunch of suckers.
What the hell is going on here?!
Ballarat didn't know what he was signing up for when he became a hero, he's always thought it was a cool job, you get to make lots of cash, use your Quirk as much as you want and the public love you. He didn't sign up to become involved with such powerful villains who were directing their anger at him.
"Who are these guys?!" A random hero from Kamino yelled both in panic and fear as hero after hero was picked off one by one and restrained by the villains who all seemed to have more than one Quirk! How is this possible?!
"Who cares, just keep attacking them!" A hero screamed loudly and brashly before holding his two gauntlet-like gloves up, carefully aiming at a man, who was somehow dressed in a professionally made hero costume, dressed in a green skintight suit with a black cape and after a few moments the gloves were bursting with blue energy that launched in a focused beam that would cleave the enemy in half... if it hit.
Reacting with speed that would put many pro heroes to shame the woman who he was aiming at shifted into a blur, completely avoiding the attack all together, and quick as a flash a fist met his face, which seemed to knock a few teeth out, with such force that his fellow hero was immediately knocked out.
The new hero had to do a double take at how swiftly one of his fellow heroes was dealt with, just who are these people? They're dealing with most of the heroes on the scene like they were nothing. No petty criminal should be this skilled!
He began to back up in fear as the criminal turned her eyes to him. Why did he feel so helpless all of a sudden? He's a hero, he shouldn't have to fear a few two bit thugs. What does he have to be afraid of?
Suddenly a wave of fear hit him and he wanted to be anywhere but in the eyes of these dangerous villains. He has to get out of here!
His legs moved on their own and he started to run in the opposite direction and the streets around him blurred together as he ran as fast as he could. He had to leave, he had to-
"Aaagh!" He yelled in pain slightly as a Wall of brilliant blue flames which lit up the dark streets of Hosu in the night appeared on the path in front of him. The flames were so hot that he didn't even need to be touched for his skin to feel the sting of heat.
"Running away, really? That's not very heroic." Ballarat felt the hairs on the back of his head rise and his bladder become looser just at the sound of such an eerie and soothing voice being directed solely at him, as though the eyes of a million people were on him, his body shook like a leaf and his muscles locked up against his will.
It took every piece of willpower he could muster simply to raise his head and stare at the one who caused his body to react in such a way.
Above him a young man with an eerily calm smile on his face descended at a leisurely pace despite the chaos of the situation and landed in front of him, with the azure flames almost bending to accommodate their master.
He couldn't look him in the eyes, no matter how hard he tried the power behind those red irises was so intense and absolute that he could do nothing but shrink into himself under this mysterious villains dominating gaze.
His eyes glowed for a second and he hummed to himself thoughtfully." A Quirk that allows it's user to copy the movements of someone they see with perfect recollection. Sounds useful for learning martial arts.
His mind was still recoiling from the presence that this villain seemed to give off and he had no time to digest the villains words before a hand grabbed his face and lifted him up.
He struggled and whimpered inside the hands of a monster. What is happening? What is he doing?!
"Your going to help me show the world my power. All you need to do, is sleep?"
He only had thoughts of fear and dread at the situation of being at the full mercy of a villain as consciousness slipped through his mind as though it were water.
What is happening to him? What did he do to deserve this?
Not very many of the heroes in Kamino were very strong to be honest, most of them were easily taken care of by my army of fellow revolutionists with multiple Quirks.
Some may argue that using Quirks to help liberate the Quirkless is hypocritical however I beg to differ, Quirks aren't bad they're the next step in human evolution, however just because Quirks are good doesn't mean that those who don't have them should be segregated as the Quirkless are. I'm not Izuku Midoriya, I don't intend to fuel a system that used to abuse me just because I now possess a Quirk. As long as I remember where I came from, and never lose myself in the feeling of being powerful, then nobody can stop me.
I touched my earpiece to speak with everyone in both Kamino and Hosu, both places that we struck tonight simultaneously." Everyone gather together, it's time for us to show the world who we are. Bring the heroes with you too." Oh this is gonna be good.
I shot of into the air with the hero I just took down in my grasp. Even if we managed to shut down the communicators in both cities it won't be long before the heroes react. We need to leave.
It's about time we took action.
Every single one of my soldiers converged on my location, just as we planned. It brought a genuine smile to my face, seeing that so many people like me were working together. Before now most of us were alone, seeing us band together to fight for a common cause it's... heartwarming.
Putting on my usual mask of composure I spoke loud and clear so that my man and women could hear what we were going to do next.
"You've all done a good job, now it's time to show the world who we are, what we're going to do, that we aren't going to let them abuse us anymore!" They seemed to cling to my every word as I placed my hand on my earpiece once more.
"Shouko, bring us to the others."
In order for this operation to work we had to divide our forces, of about four hundred, into two so that we could cover both cities. I have complete trust in Aoi and the others ability to handle Hosu so it's time for me to do my part.
A massive portal of purple mist that smelled of Sulphur formed in front of me and I couldn't help but let a grin stretch across my face at the knowledge of what we were about to do.
"Follow me, we'll show the world our strength and our anger!" I screamed and ran through the portal with my allies following closely behind as we entered the other city which my friends secured for our scene.
The streets were damaged however there wasn't any trace of blood, much to my relief, I'd have hated if any civilians happened to get caught in the crossfire of our attack, whilst ignorant and foolish they were still innocent.
"Took you long enough, Ryoto." I turned my head at the familiar voice and found my eyes wandering to Aoi and the others who were holding several unconcious heroes and perched them on their knees with a camera man shaking, clearly petrified at the situation he was forced into, the stage is set. The world will watch.
I smiled gratefully at Aoi with my army pooling through the portal behind me and started to position the heroes for our next course of action." Thank you, you've all done a perfect job."
Seriously though it was almost unnerving how easily we look down so many heroes from two different cities. Were all heroes generally that weak? I'm disappointed. Then again maybe having an army at your back and call who all possess multiple Quirks is simply too much for a normal hero to handle. Plus a lot of the top ten were sent to catch the doubles.
Aoi rubbed the back of her head bashfully at the praise, with several of my allies sending her weirded looks at one of their strongest and coldest members being turned into a flushed schoolgirl, however I payed her obvious infatuation little mind. She is undoubtedly very attractive however I've simply got too much going on in my life, too many plans, to care about my love life.
The communicators in the city will all be down from Aoi's Radio blast, billions of yen worth of property damage was likely caused in this attack, but money was never the point of this attack, neither was pure destruction, so we have a good amount of time before All Might comes along. I'm confident that I can beat him in a one on one however these conditions, this early... beating him hear wouldn't mean as much as it could.
My gaze harden as blood red crashed down on the reporter who we've captured, he seemed to squirm and whimpers under my orders as I spoke.
"No matter what happens, don't you dare stop rolling." At my tone of voice the reporter could only nod his head meekly. It's time that me and my group showed the world the monster they've created, the one that will pay them back for all the prejudice they've showed. The monster who will end their insanity.
Because hating an entire group of people simply for being alive is wrong. No matter what I have to do they need to learn that lesson.
Shota Aizawa allowed himself to internally feel alarm as her recalled the words of the clone. What did he mean by a mission? Obviously he meant that the real him and the other villains were doing something whilst they were distracted with the clones but something wasn't right here. This timing can't be a coincidence.
Shota finds it strange that they knew exactly when to launch their own objective, whatever that is, they just so happened to go at the perfect time, not too late, not too soon, exactly when a lot of the best heroes would be distracted by a bunch of fakes. That can only meant that they learned about the raid beforehand and planned accordingly. Shota has to, begrudgingly, respect whoever came up with such an underhanded plan. He can only hope that whatever they do next isn't too bad.
However hoping for the best only seems to bring the worst.
"Eraser you have to see this!" The words of a fellow hero, Mrs Joke, snapped him out of his thought process and he turned to see a fellow hero holding a phone looking completely mortified for whatever reason. It was a bit concerning seeing the usually happy go lucky idiot who always joked about marrying him look so serious.
She held it up to show Shota what could incite such a reaction out of the jokester and he immediately understood what was going on.
Ryoto Saito was on the news, live for all of Japan to see. This is not good.
"- I was once nothing but a Quirkless boy, tired of life, I had nothing to lose and wanted nothing more than to simply die. However I refuse to let this twisted world push me and my people around any longer. This doesn't need to end violently, if you simply give into our desire for a fair and just world then we can avoid pointless violence-"
Shota felt like cold water was just dumped on him as the white haired young man continued to talk to Japan, to the world, and couldn't stop the feeling of incoming dread from washing over him at the realisation of what precisely the Quirk stealer was doing.
He was turning the people against their own system.
Watching the news from his phone the CEO of Detnerat listened intently with many of his employees doing the same.
"- when I was fifteen years old I awakened my Quirk, it's called All For One, a Quirk that can both steal and give Quirks to others. Quite ironic that I went from Quirkless to having a Quirk like mine so quickly wouldn't you say?"
At those words Rikiyas forehead, and receding hairline, turned dark purple as he squeezed his phone involuntarily to the point it cracked as a showing of horror at the idea of such a Quirk existing. This is not good for him. Not good at all.
"Overhaul you need to look at this!" Chronostasis spoke with a tone that conveyed the message that whatever he was watching was important.
Normally Kai would show aggression, or even lash out, at such abrupt words being spoken to him, however he let it slide given that Chrono was his right hand man and took the phone out of his hand.
"- we don't need this society that beats down the weak and puts Quirks above all else, a person's status in society shouldn't depend on your Quirk, it should depend on their actions and values, not a random factor that your born or not born with. Don't meekly allow this society to oppress you, allow them to know that your not going to let such injustice stand. I ask all of you, either those who are Quirkless or possess an impractical Quirk and those of you who actually want to serve real justice for this society to side with me. We can show this world, this society that we won't submit to them-"
Overhaul narrowed his eyes at the obvious idealist and felt his hand twitch. So there's a new big player in the court huh?
"- trust me when I tell you that I hate every action of terrorism that I must commit to achieve my goals, that I will commit if this society doesn't see reason. However that won't stop me from doing what needs to be done. It won't stop me from serving actual justice in this world."
Okay that was a bit of a lie, not a whole one but I can't deny that having opponents to use my power on is a feeling that gets my blood pumping. However the main reason that I'm doing this isn't to make enemies, it's to get revenge, to sever this twisted worlds fate.
I smiled with both feelings of bitterness and grimness running through me." All I seek is a world without mindless prejudice, a world where people won't be allowed to hate so terribly horrible hatred like that won't be real in my world, everyone will be born perfectly equal. I'm not foolish enough to tell you that my world will be perfect, however at the very least, it will be both honest and fair."
That's what I really want at the end of the day, this world was unfair to me, from killing my real mother, my parents abandoning me, for being born Quirkless and shamed relentlessly for it. This world is a cruel place, I want to change that.
I stared at the camera with intense resolve and conviction clouding my red gaze." If you heroes wish to stop me then I dare you, just don't go making me look like a monster for wanting to change this society you've created. One that abandoned me, one that rejected me, one that tortured me." My words were laced with venom at the end which made the camera man tremble.
I stared into the eyes of anyone who might be viewing." Oh and to all you heroes out there you should know one thing-"
"- just being there isn't enough."
Suddenly a blur entered my sensory Quirks field of vision and I couldn't help but grin, what a welcome development.
"All of you leave, now." My allies were confused by my words but my look of seriousness didn't fade as I repeated myself." Go back to-" I turned my head just in time.
"Detroit Smash!" All Mights fist met my open palm and using several Quirks, to reduce the damage and counter his raw strength in my own, I held him back with my bare hands.
Ignoring the looks of horror and shock from my friends I simply grinned at the old wounded shell that hides behind the moniker 'Symbol of Peace'. What a joke.
Wind flew everywhere as from the strike but I couldn't help but grin madly at the blonde man who glared at me behind blue eyes.
"Hello All Might!"
If you want to read more then go to my P atreon, The Magician 565, where you can read 6 chapters in advanced to this one.