My mind and thoughts felt fleeting and weary as I just placed one foot after the other and prayed that I didn't fall in the vestige world of All For One.
Ever since my battle with All Might I've spent my nights traversing this place in search of what went wrong, what happened with my Quirks to make them rebel against me?
I remembered how All For One had grabbed my face and the words which he spoke to me.
Did you really believe that you could get rid of me that easily?
Truth be told it did feel a little too easy to kill him, even if he was in critical condition, and him sabotaging my fight with All Might was proof that it was just that, too easy.
So I've sought to fix this problem.
By travelling inside of my Quirk factor I've yielded no results so far, even after a few months of doing the same routine. But still, even if I did manage to destroy whatever was left of All For One's lingering spirit I can't be sure, if I let that happen again it could be a massive problem. Hell back then I very nearly lost the fight because of it, what are the odds of me surviving a second time?
Walking through this dark cataclysm that blurred the line between life and death I eventually found myself in front of the core of my Quirk.
It was black and the dim light that always shrouded this place seemed to bend around it, almost as though it were a black hole that sucked in everything around it.
This looked... about how I expected my Quirk to look honestly.
I had no idea if this was going to work or not but-
I raised my hand and opened my palm before I slowly and steadily walked to my Quirks center with my arm raised to touch it.
I stopped right in front of the orb and looked directly inside of the hazy ball of miasma and darkness that seemed to crackle and give off black sparks of power that was drawing me .in, almost guiding my hand to tou-
Everything around me disappeared in an instant as my vestige flew through the core which seemed to stretch on forever, as I flew by I saw an assortment of memories flash through my eyes, through the perspective of those whose Quirks I stole, I saw Daigoro receiving One For All from Hikage, I saw Touya training until his skin and blood boiled just for a vain attempt at getting some of his fathers attention, I even saw how Pyroball attacked my home.
Finally it all came to a close and my eyelids automatically shut involuntarily, I felt ground underneath my bare feet that I could tell was both smooth and tough.
"So you've finally found me."
I remained unflinching at the sound of a familiar voice that would cause a regular man to beg on his knees.
"That stunt you pulled back when I was fighting Toshi, not cool. All For One."
I turned my head around to see a man who bore a striking resemblance to me in a suit much like mine a dozen or so meters away from me.
Truth be told he looked... surprisingly normal for the biggest super villain that ever walked the earth, I'd even go as far as to say he looked pretty handsome, the only thing that was really weird was his height. He was like a whole foot taller than me, and I'm six foot three!
He merely chuckled in amusement at my words." Oh come on, I hardly have anything to do around here. Much like the rest of the vestiges."
I honestly didn't care about the vestiges that reside inside of my Quirk. They were mostly criminals and old people who were on deaths door who wouldn't use their Quirks anyway. I could make better use of their abilities.
All For One's face became less tranquil and more serious all of a sudden." Do you wish to know how exactly you have my ability? Is that the reason your here? Or is it to finally destroy me completely?"
The second one, he needs to die. But then again... it sounds like he has something to do with me possessing All For One, to be honest I was just bullshitting about my dad being All For One's grandson to get under All Might's skin.
Maybe it's time that I learned my anime villain origin story.
I sighed and cursed my curiosity." Alright, how are me and you connected?"
At my words he then began to speak, don't know why honestly, maybe he's just really bored with being stuck in this wasteland of nothingness and needs to talk to someone? Even the guy who killed him?
"You see many, many years ago, before I managed to acquire any longevity Quirks, I was faced with a massive problem in my empire, namely what would happen once I'm gone, would my entire legacy simply fall apart? Would I be forgotten and removed from the history books? Would it be like I was never even there in the first place? I thought long and hard about how to solve this problem and finally found an answer. I'd produce a successor to take my place after I was gone. My Quirk cannot be passed on to others like my brothers can, at least not without preparing the body first, so I would have a child, given that Quirks are hereditary. However after a few years of having many offspring none of them developed my Quirk like I'd wanted. After they were given a chance to develop my Quirk and failed I would take their Quirk factor's, if they had any, and destroyed their Quirk gene's, as to ensure that I tied any loose ends in any of their children inheriting my Quirk, and erased myself from their memory. After a good few years of trying I eventually abandoned that little project when I found a Quirk that would extend my life, thus removing the need for a successor in the first place. Whilst I have no idea who your parents are, I'm merely assuming that one of them was the descendant of a child that slipped through my fingers. There you go, your the result of one of a breeding project I cast aside."
... I took a nice long moment to really process that chunk of information. Okay so my father was a child of one of this pricks bastards and I just got really lucky when I managed to inherit his Quirk? That's it? I'm not some thrown away science experiment of his?
It was still prickish to know that he had an unknown amount of children who he deemed failures before manipulating their memories, and I don't even know how he had those children and if the means were even humane, and casting them aside, but it did endulge my curiosity a little.
Bit of a relief in all honesty.
I nodded in satisfaction." Thank you for that, your long monologue gave me some answers."
I help up my hand with black sparks flying on it and in a flash of black All For One gasped at the hole in his chest.
It was a strange sight honestly, there was no blood, no organs, just nothing but a hole that was quickly spreading, much like the 'Decay' Quirk, and All For One simply stared at me calmly, probably trying to have some dignity in his final moments. I can respect that at least.
"Even erasing my soul from your Quirk factor won't be enough to completely get rid of me, All For One connects the two of us, every time you get an urge or an itch to steal a powerful Quirk I will be watching, everytime you steal a Quirk I will see the world through your eyes-" the cracks around his body spread to the point where he was a moment away from shattering.
"- you will never be rid of me."
He finally exploded in a cloud of dust that seemed to be washed away from existence by the hand of a wind that seemed to pass through this place.
And just like that the Demon Lord is dead.
"Ryoto, hey Ryoto."
I found conciousness again in the form of someone patting me on the cheek repeatedly. I opened my eyes to meet the eye of Aoi, my second in command.
She has changed a lot in these past few years, before she was a skittish little thing which could hardly have a person's eyes on them without getting flustered or shy, now she's quite a confident leader that has a fair amount of charisma and power as well as a sharp mind. If there's a better second in command that I could ask for then I can't think of one.
The black haired girl in question looked relieved to see me awake though." What happened to you? It's one O'clock so why the hell are you still asleep?"
She pulled the covers off of me only to be embarrassed that I was only wearing pyjama shorts. This girl really can't control herself around me can she?
It's not that I find the older girl unattractive, quite the opposite actually, but I can't allow myself to be distracted at a time like this when my puzzle pieces are finally starting to reveal themselves, when everything I've started to map out can take effect, besides she should find someone else, someone who's not so... well like me.
The world around me blurred as I changed into my usual attire in a flash so fast that Aoi had no idea what happened until I stopped.
I stood at the door of my room and looked back at her casually." Come on, we're gonna be late." Well we already were very late but she knew what I meant.
The black haired girl however wasn't as amused as me." Oh come on! You can't just leave me behind after I took the time to wake you up!"
Aoi walked besides her white haired leader, like she always did as his second in command, and they allowed their demeanor to turn far more serious when they walked by other members of Paragon.
"So how are you handling the new people under your command?" He asked offhandedly, as though regular friends discussed how many people they are leading to overthrow the government.
"It's fine, they're mostly well behaved and train every day like the rest of our members, though the fact that you dumped nearly sixty on me doesn't help." She grumbled that last part.
Ryoto scratched his cheek apologetically." I'm sorry, but your the best I have and we've been getting a lot of new members recently."
That's an understatement. It's been six months since their attack on Hosu and Kamino and they've been getting a large influx of people who saw first hand what they're capable of and how Ryoto managed to go toe to toe with All Might and, technically, come out the victor or are attracted to his charisma and charms that choose to join the organisation, they can thank the broker for that she supposes, she can appreciate when someone is loyal and reliable, especially in their line of... well not exactly work but revolution is close enough.
Ryoto's face immediately hardened and became serious." We made our first move six months ago, we have to do everything we can in order to prepare for what's to come-" he turned suddenly and opened a door to a room that was small but empty with a table in the middle that they could sit on.
She looked up at him, he looks far more serious than usual, what could he possibly need to tell her that's so important that he has to do so now?
"We need to talk Aoi, we're facing the entire world here, that means more than just the heroes."
She walked in and he closed the door behind her, making sure that nobody would hear what they were about to discuss.
Chimera stood in the middle of the woods, a safe distance from their base, and pocketed his cigar in preparation for what he was about to do.
His Quirk is powerful in many ways, enhanced strength, enhanced stamina, enhanced defence and speed however there's another element to his Quirk that he hasn't told many people about, a second mode of his power if you want to sound like a video game addict.
He just calls it Berserk mode, all his abilities are boosted to the max, his animalistic featured become more prominent and he can shoot a powerful laser out of his mouth that can put most ranged Quirks to shame. However in that form he always goes mad and indiscriminately attacks everything around him as he rampages until he runs out of steam.
He needs that power boost though, for what him and the organisation are planning they all need to get as strong as they can, if he can just control all that power then he knows that he'd be one of the organisations strongest even without his second Quirk. He just needs to practice.
He took a nice deep breath of air as the birds inside of the trees all around him tweeted and sang peacefully in the silent forest.
Damn. Now he felt bad about what he going to do.
He gritted his teeth as he let out an involuntary roar, his tail grew longer, his teeth sharper, his horns bigger and more prominent amongst other features, with his eyes slitting.
He let out a second, much louder, scream but this one was far more uncontrollable and primal in nature than the first one.
Chimera's thoughts all went blank as he uncontrollably shook with a thirst for carnage as his instincts took over and he threw his fist into a tree with a resounding snap that resonated through the forest as his fist went through solid wood as though it were paper.
Chimera held his head as he growled in both pain and confusion but soon caved in at the poor attempt to remain coherent as white and brilliant red shined in his gaping maw and formed a ball of pure destruction that was unleashed in the form of a raging ray if devastation that tore through the woods and turned it into a fiery wasteland of destruction in one fell swoop.
He continued to roar violently as the fire spread from tree to tree and formed a forest fire that was rapidly spreading.
Chimera grabbed his head with both hands as he began sweating and screaming out in a way that swung between insanity and sanity.
"Quite the mess you've made right here."
At the hearing of another person's voice a mad Chojuro froze in place before slowly turning his gaze on the one responsible for calling out to him.
Ryoto spoke." You need to practice more Chimera. Then again I suppose that's why you're out here."
Chimera immediately snarled and started building up another round of molten hot energy that, after just a moment of build up, fired at Ryoto with the sole attempt to snuff his lights out.
A yellow wall of air immediately falls between the two and easily holds up against the attack with air being thrown everywhere and the attack not so much as cracking the near invincible barrier.
At the attempt on his life the red eyed leader doesn't flinch, instead he turns into a speeding blur and places his hand on Chimera's shoulder and after a second everything goes silent, then Chimera begins to shrink as his animalistic features become less obvious and Chojuro is revealed with his elbows on the ground, breathing heavily with sweat pouring out of his forehead.
Red eyes peer down at the wolf man for one silent moment before they speak." Are you alright Chojuro?"
At those worss Chojuro gritted his teeth and yelled." Of course I'm not alright! Can't you see when someone fails in front of you?!"
After he yells out Ryoto doesn't give any words in response and an awkward silence washes over the air. Chojuro feels like an idiot for losing his cool so he simply says." I'm sorry for yelling, it's just- argh, I can't seem to control this power, every time I do something like this-" he gestures to the destruction around him."- it feels like I really am the monster that they said I was. Maybe I-"
"You are not."
Chojuro raises his head at that statement with a worried look on his face." I tried to kill you, what if-"
"There's no use dwelling on 'what ifs', yes your Quirk is hard to control and has the potential for a lot of destruction, but whether you're a monster or not is up to you, not them. Whether or not you use your ability for the greater good and use your amazing power to strive to make the world better. You're only a monster if you start purposefully using your ability to hurt innocent people, if you don't then you can't be a monster."
At his leaders kind words Chojuro found himself looking up to those red eyes with awe as they extended a hand to help him up, despite how he just acted.
He looked at the hand for a moment, then he resolved himself and took it as he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his trusty cigar." Thanks for that."
Ryoto grinned at his words." It's not like that was enough to hurt me, I needed something from you anyway, that's actually why I'm here, I've got a mission for you."
The heteromorph blinked at his words but spoke shortly after." Sure, what do you need me for?"
At his question Ryoto's grin widened." Have you ever heard of the CRC?"
At the mention of that name Chojuro immediately scowled deeply. The CRC, also known as the Creature Rejection Clan, was a sadly large group of anti-heteromorphs that would commit hate crimes against mutants in the old days- they still do, nothing has really changed- and have recently been doinv the same to the Quirkless, though not to the same extent.
"What about em?" He asks suddenly in a bad mood as he was reminded about that particular group of fascists.
Ryoto frowned." The CRC has increased their hate crimes against both heteromorphs and the Quirkless since our little debut, I think that we should take matters into our own hands, if you catch my drift."
Chojuro's foul mood was immediately gone and his face made a wolfy grin at what he was proposing." What are we gonna do to em?"
Ryoto smirked at him." That's up to you, since a large number of your troops are heteromorphs I was suggesting that you spearhead the charge, make this personal ya know. Are you up for it"
Chojuro grinned in response to such an order and what would entail with this mission.
"I sure am, sir."
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