There's an old saying that I think more people should take to heart.' Keep your friends close and keep your enemies closer.' The idea is that you know who your friends are and who your enemies are so that you aren't caught off guard by any possible oversights from either betrayals or surprise attacks.
Looking at it from that point of view it suddenly seems like a really smart thing to do. Which is what I'm doing right now.
The world of My Hero Academia is as large as my old world and it's not just Hero society which stands in my way. No. Two groups in particular come to mind.
The Meta Liberation Army. Originally founded by Chikara Yotsubashi, otherwise known as Destro, the MLA was a group that wanted to overthrow the government directly and replace it with a system that promotes the free use of Quirks in more than just someone with a Hero license.
To be honest I don't really have a problem with that on it's own. The Quirk restriction laws are surprisingly extreme for a society which values power above all else and the system in place hasn't changed at all to adapt to the ways of superhuman society, over 80% of the world have Quirks and the last time they were updated it was only around 30% so the system is long overdue for an overhaul.
Some may get the idea that my group is anti-Quirk but that's just not true, Quirks are the next stage in human evolution and trying to suppress them is an exercise in futility. It's kinda funny actually, in a world without Quirks 'All For One' wouldn't do anything on it's own.
However they don't stop at that.
Destro was a maniac who believed that those with Quirks were superior to those who lacked them and that society should have a hierarchy where a Quirks power will determine your place in society. That was the danger with Destro's words. He's the worst kind of madman. One who makes some really good points. The line between being a lunatic hellbent on power and someone who wants freedom becomes dangerously thin with his ideology.
And the new MLA is just as bad as they are. Rikiya Yotsubashi, otherwise known as Redestro, is essentially building up a cult to take Japan by force. Maybe I'm not one to talk since... the way we do things really isn't all that different. I also recruit people under the governments nose, I also make connections with those in high places to further my own cause and I also want to overthrow this society.
But no. Unlike Rikiya I do have a cause worth fighting for, a society where everyone is born, no matter how strong or weak, as a perfect equal. Where people like Daiki and Bakugo won't be rewarded for such disgusting behaviour, where another person like me won't need to appear and end the status quo because it just isn't doing what's best for the people and a world where heroes won't be necessary because villains won't even have to exist in the first place.
The MLA must be stopped in order for my cause to continue to prosper. But it won't be easy. They don't have so much quality as they do quantity, over 100,000 people ready to die for his cause no small feat. Whilst my group isn't small it isn't overly massive either, about 3,000 won't be enough to stop them head on.
They have four main leaders besides Redestro. They have Koko Hanabata, villain name Trumpet, the leader of the Hearts and Minds party, a powerful politician who can influence the government in many different ways due to his high status and even affect the views of other people. His Quirk, Incite, also allows him to empower his allies Quirks and bodies. I have no doubt that he also leaks information about what's going on inside of the government to the MLA.
They also have Chitose Kizuki, a woman who is the executive publisher of Shoowaysha publishing, a woman who is likely responsible for a large amount of the recruited foot soldiers in their army and for keeping Destro's manifesto in the front of bookstores around the country to push the liberation ideology onto civilians and to enforce subliminal messaging into the minds of the masses. Her Quirk, Landmine, allows her to touch something and make it a bomb, even people. She is undoubtedly giving the MLA a massive amount of sway over the media due to her position as a famous journalist.
Of course there's Tomoyasu Chikazoku, villain name Skeptic, who is a board member of feel good inc and a skilled hacker. However his intelligence can only be rivalled by his arrogance, he really reminds me of the Riddler with the way he rage quits whenever things don't go his way. Regardless he showed his ability to locate anyone anywhere in Japan at anytime via his access the feel good inc's satellite. He's threatening not because of his Quirk, Anthromorph, but his skills that would allow him to track me down if I left so much as a single digital fingerprint on the web. He's the entire reason that I only use untraceable burner phones which I destroy after a single use.
Then of course there's Geten... he's just kinda there to beat the shit out of anyone acting suspicious. What? You gotta have an enforcer.
I haven't even mentioned the fact that they have complete and unrestricted access to Detnerat's resources, a billion dollar company which makes the best support items in Japan, only I-Island really outdoes them in that department.
The MLA will be tricky for me to overcome. And if my plans go right then I might not be there to stop them, that job will be up to my allies. Either way I need to prepare carefully.
Still though I have a lot of loose ends to tie up. Well I don't need to tie them up but-
"You want us to what?!"
I ignored the outburst of Mr Intelli and just spoke calmly and sternly with a hint of amusement." I need you to give my group full access to the Intelli company's satellite dish, oh and before I forget, your family is one of the board members of I-islan-
"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOUR ASKING OF ME?! OUR COMPANIES SATELITE IS WHAT GIVES NEARLY ALL OF JAPAN THEIR CONNECTION TO THE INTERNET! YOU CAN'T REA-"
"Mr Intelli." I spoke with a dark tone in my voice which instantly snuffed out any attempts that the man might have about starting to rebel against me. God I hate when they get rowdy like this.
"I'm so sorry that it sounded like I was making a request but this isn't negotiable, when I ask you for something take it as an order because I have enough on you and your family to send you all from riches to on the streets like-" I snapped my fingers for emphasis."- that. I can ruin your lives if I so please, so when I tell you to do something you do it. Do you understand?"
After a few seconds I repeated myself with a tint of demand in my voice." Do you understand?"
"...yes."
I allowed myself to smirk in satisfaction at how he caved into me so easily. The perks of being feared.
The thing about rich people is that they usually grow up with a large amount of privilege, they have the mentality that they are superior to others, even if they don't actively voice that train of thought they all think it, so if I want to have control over a bunch of arrogant wealthy people who were born with a silver spoon in their mouth then I have to make them submit to me.
My next words sealed the deal." Good. Now it'll do you good to remember your place, Intelli, and remember mine."
With those words I hung up my burner phone before taking it in my hands and snapping it in half before throwing it inside a bin that was located in this alley.
There's so much to be done and so little time to do it.
"A device that can enhance a person's Quirk without damaging their mind you say?" Doctor Garaki's ear actually perked up quite a bit at the idea of such a device.
Enhancing a person's Quirk isn't really something he's ever given much thought to in all honesty, the idea in itself would be useful to most however All For One never really had a need for technology like that, with his ability to stack numerous Quirks together in order to provide greater effects he's never had the need for an unnatural enhancement like that and so the doctor never really looked all that far into it.
Ryoto nodded to him as they spoke in his regular doctor's office as though they were simply a normal doctor and patient when in reality they're anything but." Yes, I'm interested in the idea of what exactly powers a Quirk. All that energy can't simply come from nowhere, what exactly does a Quirk factor tap into?"
Doctor Garaki was surprised to hear him asking such a question, for some reason many never take the time to question the how or why but just get distracted by what is. It's a nice to surprise to know that the next generation has some curiosity.
"That's a tricky question to answer." Garaki admitted freely. As brilliant as he is and as much as he's learned about Quirks over countless decades nobody can claim to know everything about Quirks. They still don't know what these powers really are.
However, this is a question which he can answer, at least to an extent." To put things simply Quirks build up power over time. As the generations progress and Quirks mix and evolve, as these abilities start to contain more raw power, they almost seem to add their combined power onto each other as time passes. As for what exactly that power is called I've dubbed it 'Quirk Radiation' or QR for short. To put it simply the more QR there is present inside a Quirk the stronger that person's Quirk factor is. As for how QR even came to be in the first place... I honestly couldn't tell you."
It's one thing that seems to boggle his mind, how in the world could countless genetic mutations like Quirks take place all over the world at just the same time? It just doesn't make any sense, the only words he can think to describe such an event with is really divine intervention.
And as a man of science he shuddered at the thought of religion.
Ryoto seemed to gain a thoughtful look on his face but asked another question regardless." What about trigger? How does that work?"
Garaki raised an eyebrow at that." Why are you asking? If your thinking of using that stuff then I can assure you that-"
Seeing where he was going the white haired man instantly shook his head." It's not that, it's just that this device apparently doesn't have any of the downsides of trigger so I'd just like to know how it works." He explained calmly to clear up any misunderstandings.
Seeing his reasoning the doctor understood and internally shrugged before beginning his explanation." Trigger is a drug which works by invoking extreme stress on both a person's mind and body in order to force a Quirk Awakening of sorts. For this reason whilst yes the Quirk is given a temporary power boost many people will find that their Quirk also shows different traits whilst being influenced on the drug. For example if someone with a Quirk that lets them grow spikes out of their body were to take trigger then the spikes would not only be tougher and longer but also burst out of his body at high speeds." He summed up the explanation as simply as he could.
"However, this isn't perfect. The user has no control over what exactly is being boosted and will often find that the control they have over their Quirk will be hindered. A few users with fire Quirks have had their flames run too hot and burned to death, a man who could turn his arms into rocket launchers tried to use it and he blew himself apart. To sum it up trigger isn't a safe drug to use and with how many Quirks you have you'd likely tear yourself apart if you tried to boost all of them all at once."
Ryoto lifted his hands defensively at the accusatory tone." I got it. Training good drugs bad."
"That's one way of putting it." Garaki sweat dropped at his master's childish explanation.
However, his face suddenly became serious as he gained a thoughtful look and concluded." So a Quirk could, in theory, be boosted simply by increasing it's QR levels."
"In summary yes, though I myself have never really put much effort into altering the QR levels of a person's ability, with All For One simply never needing such a thing with his ability to use multiple Quirks in conjunction with each other, he didn't need a single Quirk to be especially strong when he could just use a dozen enhancers at once. At any rate what is this discussion all about?"
Ryoto's lips curved up slightly as he spoke with a devious tone." Oh nothing important. It's just that when All Might was injured his old friend David Shield wanted to find a way to keep the Symbol of Peace alive, so he created a device which could amplify a persons Quirk without altering their bodies chemical composition like trigger does, in other words a Quirk Amplifying Device."
Garaki paused for a moment and went over those words before the full gravity of what Shield had done really set in. The world's government had more or less decided that such technology like Quirk enhancers shouldn't be created and given out to anyone. Not even Heroes. Such a device would rock the entire base of superhuman society.
And All Might's friend had gone and created such a device.
Kyudai began to laugh at that. That the very man that scientist was trying to help would really be helping to destroy him instead. He personally found it quite amusing.
"Hahaha, oh that is amazing. I can only assume that you plan on taking that technology for yourself. The devastation you'd cause would probably throw Japan into chaos." The thought made him feel a shiver of excitement.
Ryoto smirked at that." Of course doctor, but all in due time. Afterall why rule just the underworld when I can rule the daylight as well."
Kyudai's smile never left his face but regardless he still asked." Oh? And just how are you going to accomplish that?"
All For One never did want to rule publicly, he hated the idea of having to be scrutinized by the people, back at a time when Quirks- or meta abilities if you want to be old fashioned- were the minority and hatred against them was high All For One was able to amass a huge amount of followers simply by using his wonderful ability to gain their loyalty. A lot of people even came to him wanting their powers to be removed, given that then they'd be accepted by society. He was always the one in charge, people just didn't know it.
And now Ryoto was tempting to go where his master didn't? What does he have planned.
Ryoto just gave a knowing smile and placed a finger over his lip with those pools of red possessing a dangerous look inside of them.
"Wouldn't want to ruin the surprise."
Detective Tsukauchi inwardly cursed at yet another dead end when it came to the Ryoto case. Every single spy they try to send in is rooted out immediately and returns Quirkless and quite frankly nobody is willing to take a job which will lose them their Quirk. Tsukauchi doesn't blame them though, who would willingly take a task like this?
However, he doesn't allow himself the right to rest, he created this monster by ignoring his moral compass and obeying the HPSC, maybe Ryoto never would have become a villain if he just gave some justice for his mother's death. Either way it's his job to stop him, but it isn't that simple.
The young man has proven himself to be surprisingly elusive, they haven't found so much as a single hair that proves he's guilty of anything. If Tsukauchi didn't know any better he'd think that Ryoto was dead.
The stress was getting to him and he's getting a lot of pressure from the Hero Commission to track down and stop the Quirk stealing villain, they've been on high alert since he made his big move, the appearance of a second All For One was enough to cause widespread panic among the higher ups, just his existence is enough to rock the foundations of this society that they've built. This entire system of value that they've given based on genetics isn't absolute with someone who can steal Quirks walking free.
And Toshi really doesn't seem to be in the state to stop him like he was with the first All For One.
His friends Quirk, One For All, is a power that's meant to defeat All For One, however his friend is in no condition to fight a second one. He really needs to pass on 'One For All' before it's too late to do so.
In the time which Ryoto made his day view the image which All Might represented was cracked when he failed to stop Ryoto, the crime rates spiked, not much but just enough to be noticeable. The image which his friend holds up cannot falter or be damaged. If it is then Tsukauchi doesn't know how Japan- no the world would cope.
He just hopes that they can put a stop to him now. Before it's too late.
Still Toshi is taking a teaching job at U.A that's starting in three months. Maybe he'll find a successor there.
If you enjoyed reading this story and want to read more then just head to my P atreon at The Magician 565 to read 10 Chapters in advance.
So yeah, All Might is gonna be getting a new successor. Comment above who you think it'll be. And of course I'm gonna be involving the device that David Shield made in the movie Two Heroes. I feel like the potential in that part of the plot can be expanded on a little so I just figured that I'd throw it in there. Also there's the MLA, they have different ideals to Paragon and I want to see what'll happen when people fighting for the rights of the Quirkless cross with those who believe in free use of Quirks throughout society.
Also a thank you to those who joined my P atreon. I really appreciate the support.