Giran sat inside an empty bar, getting bored with waiting for his client to appear, and pulled a cigarette pack out of his pocket and brought one to his mouth before quickly lighting it and taking a nice, long and blissful puff of the sweet tobacco with his eyes closed for a moment, taking his time to savour the moment as his mouth filled with smoke.
"Giran."
His eyes instantly snapped open to see his Quirk stealing buddy sitting right in front of him with that ever present smile on his face that could seemingly calm or strike fear into anyone he chooses without so much as twitching.
He appeared so suddenly without making a sound that the silver haired broker to cough and sputter with smoke hazing in the air as a result of his client.
After a few seconds of sputtering Giran collected himself and sarcastically asked." Geez, can you not sneak up on a guy like that? Also your super late, mind tellin me why?"
Ryoto waved his hand unapologetically." I've got a lot of shit on my plate, anyway have you found any people willing to join?"
Giran ignored the dismissive words and immediately handed over a file of people who would fit nicely into Tatara's ranks, and boy were there a lot of them.
Finding people who want to join a new and powerful criminal organisation wasn't really difficult, many villains want a piece of the action and benefits that being a member of Ryoto's organisation would bring. The only problem is how picky the man is about who can join the organisation and who can't, he's the type of guy who doesn't accept bloodthirsty killers into his group, a trait that Giran actually likes about the guy, however most of the strongest villains are just that, mindless killers.
After reading the file Ryoto looked extremely satisfied with what the broker managed to accomplish in such a short amount of time and the look on his perpetually tranquil expression appeared grateful to the man." Thank you for your services Giran, you continue to impress me, this will undoubtedly be a great help."
He then pulled out a suitcase- he's just learned never to question where he gets these things- and slowly opened it before turning it to the broker.
Giran couldn't help but allow a massive grin to blossom on his face at the sight of what must be, at the very least, tens of millions of yen all stacked on top of each other in a neat fashion.
He took a stack of the Japanese currency before flipping through it with his finger and then throwing it back in with the many other dozens of it's kind before closing and picking up the suitcase of cash.
"Thank you for your generous donation, you truly are a gentlemen." At the banter Ryoto waved his hand in a fashion that screamed casuality.
"It's practically pennies to me, we've got some rich friends up on high so if you continue the good work then you can expect a lot more than that."
Giran maintained his grin but nodded in understanding. Truth be told the job was really easy for him because of his new Quirk that can come in really handy for the type of recruitment that his boss wants him to do, truth be told he's likely being grossly overpaid, something his boss seems aware of but doesn't really seem to care.
The two of them meet maybe once a month for him to get paid and for Ryoto to receive information and recruitment, overall this has been a pretty good gig for the both of them.
Giran got serious for a moment." However the heroes are on high alert now, you haven't exactly been subtle about what you're doing here and if your reckless like this going forward then-"
The silver haired man was cut out by a few chuckles, they were brief, almost inaudible, but they were there, and they came from his white haired client.
In response Ryoto held an amused smile on his face." Giran, whilst yes I'm not being subtle about my actions against the heroes I'm not an idiot, sure I don't care about remaining in the shadows, yes what I'm doing has risks, however I'm not going into this blind and stupid. I have plans upon plans upon plans put in place so that even if plan A fails I've still got the whole fucking alphabet, what I'm doing is gonna work, so don't worry about that."
For a moment Giran couldn't help but analyse his customers face for any trace of anything other than absolute confidence, because no matter how smart, no matter how strong, taking on an entire society isn't something a person can just plan out. However he came up dry and at such immense arrogance Giran couldn't help but laugh a little.
"Your insane aren't you?" He said with some playful banter.
His client shrugged with a mirroring grin on his face." If someone fails they're brilliantly insane, if someone succeeds they're insanely brilliant, and I sure as hell aren't the first one."
At those words Giran lost it for a moment with him laughing hysterically as he slapped his knee and laughed his head off for a good minute or so. Once he was done losing his shit he got up in a good mood at bring paid and knowing that someone like him is his client.
He opened the empty bar door to leave with a few final words.
"Give em hell kid."
And hell he'd give em.
I took my time to look over the list of people who Giran had so helpfully scouted for me, after our attacks on Kamino and Hosu many villains had seen for themselves our might as an organisation and our ruthlessness became apparent when nearly 300 heroes were left Quirkless- 289 to be exact- and the possibility of getting a second Quirk would be alluring to some, however ultimately I wouldn't accept them if that's all they wanted out of my organisation. Still I need to get rid of these Quirks.
I stared at the holes in my palms that I used to literally suck the souls out of all those heroes. Like I've said before having so many Quirks inside my body at once inevitably means that they'll collide with each other and create an imbalance in my body, I'm an anomaly amongst none nomu's given my bodys ability to handle all the Quirks I want however that doesn't mean holding so many Quirks in one body is a good idea.
As strong as One For All is at the end of day it's just a body enhancer, no matter how powerful it just doesn't sound right for All Might to have beaten All For One, over a centurys worth of accumulated power. The anime skimmed over All Mights victory however I have an actual explanation for the supervillains defeat.
All For One simply... lived far too long, 'Lifeforce', and I'm assuming several other longevity Quirks, will have taken their tole despite their effects, humans just aren't meant to live that long. His body hit it's expiration date.
I on the other hand won't face that problem, I have no desire to live forever, or rule over the world as a 'Demon Lord', I simply aim for a more just world and wanting to become immortal... meh. It just seems so painfully egomaniacal, what's the point of life if it will never end? What's the point of living if your days aren't numbered? What will create a sense of urgency that gets you out of bed every day?
Going on living just for the sake of it? That doesn't sound like any life worth living to me.
All For One's thirst to inflate his own ego is what got his head turned into mashed potatoes and his selfishness and complete lack of care or ability to feel strong emotions is what led to him not being able to steal One For All.
I enjoy having power however that doesn't mean that I enjoy being superior to others or that I think of myself as a higher being, no matter how powerful, intelligent or terrifying in the end I'm not a God, I'm just a human.
And you know what? That's enough for me.
I made myself up to look as presentable as possible as my demeanour immediately changed to that of someone extremely approachable and charismatic with the use of several social Quirks, as a person known for being extremely powerful I need to be friendly and understanding to counteract that, with 'Empath' I can read the emotions of others in order to determine how they are actually feeling, whilst it's not perfect mind reading I am able to deduce what they're probably thinking in the context of the situation, whether they're uncomfortable or relaxed, genuine or fake, trustful or not, it's a helpful Quirk for these kinds of situations.
I was waiting with Chojuro, the guy who I'd chosen to help me with recruitment both due to his strength and appearance, and despite his brutish appearance he was in reality a pretty smart guy and we were talking about we were gonna organise any new members and who they're gonna go to among groups in the organisation.
"Hoyo told me that he'd be fine with taking few dozen more but anything more than that would just be too much, maybe we need to start another division." He spoke gruffly as he brought a lighter to his cigar.
How our organisation is structured isn't dissimilar to an army, how it works is that we have five divisions that each have a Commander who takes charge of up to three hundred people with them having their own second in commands to help manage our manpower.
The Commanders of these divisions are Chojuro, Hoyo, Kiruka, Aoi and Tokohiro, However we're currently hitting critical max with the amount of people in each division so I'll need to extend the chain of command and that means promoting some of our members to have their own divisions.
There's no lacking in my organisation of powerful people, due to so many of them having multiple Quirks, however it takes more than just strength to lead, you need a sharp mind and the charisma to have people follow your lead without hesitation, to win the hearts and loyalty of your subordinates. This narrows down my options a bit.
I have a few options, first there's Hana, a twenty year old woman who holds three different Quirks which when used together make her a master of water.
Second there's a man named Katsu who's mutant Quirk gives him the appearance of an Eagle, when combined with a Quirk that enhances speed he's a bit too fast.
And finally another man named Yuto who has a Quirk that lets him heal and energise others by either touching them or blasting them with green rays that he can shoot from his hands, he also has the option for these rays to do actual damage to others and is the organisations best medic.
All three are, at least in my eyes, good choices and I couldn't really go wrong with any one of them, I'll have to decide later after talking to them personally.
Our conversation on who would become yet another high ranking member of the organisation was sadly cut short when the massive door to the inside of this massive shed by the harbor opened slowly and in stepped a man who had the appearance of a lizard.
I instantly recognised this man as one of the people on Giran's list, Iguchi Shuichi, otherwise known as Spinner, a villain in the anime and doesn't possess many noteable skills in all honesty. It was strange seeing him in what looked like normal civilian clothes when I'm usually used to seeing him in what essentially amounted to shitty Stain cosplay.
Even if his Quirk was weak that didn't matter to me, I could always just give him a new one if he wants, what makes me want him in my organisation is his loyalty, given how he was loyal to the league in the anime to a fault, and it's always good to have loyal men and women in our ranks.
I just need to see for myself just what he's like.
The purple haired mutant saw the massive man who stood next to me and looked intimidated for a moment before forcing himself to remain casual however using 'Empath' showed me that he was feeling 'green' emotions, which means nervousness, and he had a hint of 'black' in there, which means fear. He's scared of us.
He approaches us and stops at just a few meters away." So, uh, are you the guys who beat All Might?" Not the best at social skills are you?
I snorted a little at his remark." I'd say it was closer to matching him than beating him, but yeah, we're those guys and I'm guessing your 'Spinner.'" I spoke referring to his villain name.
He merely nodded and looked a little uncomfortable for a moment before asking." So can I join you guys?"
His nervousness at the question was a little confusing." Sure you can, but tell me a little about yourself first." We had all of ten minutes before the next guy showed up, it's time to recruit.
Iguchi was all kinds of nervous when he showed up at the warehouse that silver haired guy told him too and tried his best to look confident, though he probably failed considering that he still felt like pissing himself.
Although his nervousness surprisingly found itself unfounded, there were two guys there to talk to him personally, and one of them was the man who fought All Might and is supposedly able to match him, he thought that he'd have this weird aura of strength around him but he was actually a surprisingly... nice person? It was a little surreal to the heteromorph, a guy who wasn't a mutant was treating him with kindness and took everything he said into consideration and he even felt that he got to know the guy pretty well even after just one talk.
He's weak, he even admitted that to them. He was born with a hideous, and nearly useless, Quirk and he doubts that he'd be of much use to them. But when the Quirk stealing guy said he wanted to help out mutants, as well as other races of people that were subjugated, he figured that he could make a stand, to try and be proud of who he is, but standing in front of two extremely powerful men was enough to make him realise how trivial he must really be to them.
Ryoto listened to all of this and in response he said.
"A person should never be thought of as trivial."
Huh?
Looking up to meet the eyes of the man who didn't seem to view him as useless Iguchi could only listen as he followed up with the words that the lizard man didn't know that he needed to hear.
"Appearance, power, whether you have a Quirk or not and whether it's useful, I don't believe that these should decide a persons worth. If it's the power of your Quirk that troubles you then I can get you another one, however remember this Spinner, a Quirk is simply a tool for a person to use, I want to create a society that doesn't define a person through something like a Quirk, you aren't trivial, the only thing trivial is this worlds twisted values."
Iguchi felt his heart go out to this kind man as he reached out a hand to drag the mutant man out of his dark world with the light of hope.
With his hand held out he asked Iguchi a question." Do you want to join us, Iguchi?"
Iguchi felt tears build up in his eyes at those words and it took all of his willpower to not collapse and start crying at what was happening. How was he being allowed to belong somewhere?
Staring at the hand that had a dark hole in it- must be how he steals Quirks- Iguchi immediately made up his mind and took the hand with a strong grip.
"Of course I do. If you'll be kind enough to take me that is."
For the first time in a long time for Iguchi the world didn't look so dark anymore.
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