Quirks Not Required

Chapter XVI

Garaki and Kato stood off stage "Are you ready?" The elder asked the young man, to which the young man snorted derisively.

"Thrilled. Then would you walk with me to the High Courts? And participate in the slapping down of the thieves."

"Of course! No-one dares poach from me, Daiten-kun, you're as much an investment to me as you are my pupil. As you've rightly pointed out we're in this together. You don't have to do this, you know…I have followed your project with active interest."

"I know. I suspect you helped delay it and as a result allowed us to find potential degradation. No, the time for me to lurk in the shadows and only be a name in scientific circles is over. Act I is over, now for Act II."

Garaki smiled coldly "And when will you reveal that you're a villain?"

"Act III. Everything worth doing is done in three's. Much like the inevitable end of the Jedi happening in Episode III. We do not speak of the Sequels. Anyway…it's showtime." With Garaki behind him the pair rolled out to the conference.

The applause felt unanimous but authentic. Almost as if a quirk had been used, Kato wheeled himself up to the microphone and detached one of them "Well…this is new. I suppose this is the part where I introduce myself like I'm part of an Anonymous meeting. Hi, I'm Daiten Kato and I'm the guy behind this latest scientific breakthrough. Go ahead, ask your questions and I'll try and speak simple."

Garaki meanwhile had stood at the podium with another, waited and watched with interest. He would smoothly interject into dialogue to clarify some of his protege's answers. Eventually the hour and a half interview press-conference finished, Neji had pressed a cup of some sort of coffee into Kato's hands and bundled him back into the car.

Then they were off, leaving dumbstruck reporters behind them, headlines of them decorated the billboards. Kato smirked at the flabbergasted look on the HSPC representatives face when he had to declare that the Heroes would have to apply for it out of their own pockets. "The first blows against the Hero elements of society have been made…How do you feel?"

Kato closed his eyes momentarily, in truth he felt empty and hollow but at the same time happy "It feels like a hollow victory. I thought it'd bring me some satisfaction; but I'm putting it down to being sleep-deprived."

Garaki chuckled "Sleep on it. I can almost guarantee that you'll feel better about it."

They arrived at the grounds of the High Court. It was an impressive building, it was a large white stone build, simple in its construction but with the subtle iconography of the Japanese Royal Family cut by hand onto the front of the building. "I had no idea that this was going to be taken so high up the judicial hierarchy."

Garaki chuckled, Shigaraki Sr had deep pockets only rivalled by his longer reach. "One of your backers, via me, has deep pockets and big influence. He doesn't deem you important to meet you personally but he and I go back to our school days; I've invested in you and he's invested in me."

Kato nodded "Because you're backing this project and he sees this as potential theft of your work he's running this up the chain."

Garaki nodded. Meanwhile Neji filed the information away; he owed the Nemuri a lot. The all-seeing quirk user considered Kato a friend and as a friend, Neji, would do whatever was needed to keep him safe. In the courtroom, it almost made Kato swear with such fury that a sailor would blush. The prosecution was practically laughed out of the courtroom, the basis of their complaint was 'The Head Doctor is Paraplegic and Quirkless and thus he isn't smart enough to have done this'. Kato and Garaki had won the case, gotten compensation and in the early afternoon of spring were heading to their headquarters where the surgery was going to take place.

"Please don't kill me, turn me into a Nomu or even give me an animated green super suit powered by my willpower." Kato stated as Shigaraki and Garaki began hooking him up to various machines.

Shigaraki chuckled, a genuine booming laugh before dissolving into a body shaking cough "And lose one of my few true friends and fellow proficienardo of 'the good times' when superheroes and villains, were nought but dreams and creations to distract us from the problems of the time…No, Daiten Kato will live."

Garaki smiled "I ran a genetics test on him…It turns out he's a Legacy." Shigaraki paused.

"A Legacy…that's surprising. Which one?"

"The Third, in his body his quirk lineage despite him not having an active quirk is unmistakable, considering he managed to stall against you even without One For All. The bloodline stems from his father, his mothers legacy isn't too remarkable, it indicates a strength quirk."

Shigaraki nodded and smiled toothily "Kato, would enjoy this. Garaki, upon completion of our intended operation, use one of his patches but key the patch to Fa Jin and my thrice-fold strength quirks and double-two of my kinetic booster, the original Fa Jin and a either recoil-reducer or spring-like limbs."

Garaki paused, "That's…a hefty and painful procedure. The risks of him turning…" He paused again.

Kato heard this "Sensei! Shigaraki! That…should work. If whatever this being a Legacy of the Third means and coupled with Fa Jin traces in my bloodline…Oh god. I'm going to be the guinea pig of my own theory!" With that he began to thrash against the restraints.

Shigaraki looked down on his newest associate "Are you backing out? Are you getting cold arms? I'd have said cold feet but…"

Kato snorted, the bad jokes momentarily defusing his angst "Garaki! My ideas and hypothesis haven't even been tested yet!"

Shigaraki chuckled "Oh but they have. Just because you do not of it does not mean that they're not being done."

"The cuts of meat, the ties to my past…you've been using them!"

"He catches on quick. I'll tell you this Kato…you're too good at being a villain. Now, are you prepared for a 'leap of faith'?"

"Nothing is true, everything is permitted. Let's do this, I have poison and daggers in my right hand and thirty pieces of silver and straw rope…" The quote was horribly taken out of context but the daggers, poison, rope and silver were rather apt in his own case.

Garaki placed his apprentice under the anaesthetic "This is the easy bit, waking him up is the hard part."

With that Garaki and Shigaraki got to work.

(Nemuri)

Nemuri sat with her in-laws, rather, her in-laws sat with her. They were waiting with barely held breath; they had bet Kyudai Garaki and the man had assured them that Kato would be in excellent hands.

Aizawa had also been present, the bug that he'd planted in Kato's computer had been going absolutely bonkers. All he had of Kato's guilt were a few phrases referring to something known as 'Project Patch'. It was linking rather closely to some murmurings from his contacts of new vigilantes, however, these vigilantes were marked as quirkless; yet somehow they were suddenly manifesting quirks. None of this was happening over the past couple of years.

Aizawa shoved the thoughts to one side. The evidence he had was at best circumstantial; yes, he had managed to get numerous petty villains sent down on vast amounts of circumstantial evidence. But Kato was now pretty much the darling of the world, Aizawa chuckled, he couldn't believe that he did not catch on sooner. All Kato wanted was what had been taken from him and now he was going to get it back; but Aizawa had a feeling that Kato was hiding something.

(Izuku)

Izuku found himself formless. He looked down but couldn't see the rest of his body. "It's about time we met…normally I'd have protested against even meeting you now…but Seven and Five managed to persuade the rest of us. You can call me Three…oh wait, you're not fully adjusted. Nod if you understand."

Izuku nodded "Good. Now, this is happening because my descendent, Daiten Kato has gotten himself in way over his head…for admirable reasons, anyway the man he's gotten involved with killed…every single one of us."

Izuku's eyes widened. "Three…there were a multitude of ways that could have been explained. Hello Number Nine, I'm Seven, please tell Eight that I am so proud of him and he should be much more careful in the future; One For All is an incredible enhancer but it doesn't make you unstoppable. Now as my blunt furthest predecessor rightly said, All-For-One killed almost all of us. And Daiten Kato is All-For-One's Right Hand Man's Number Two…tread carefully Nine, and picture me, The Time Is Right and most of us will assist you in bringing our skills to bear. Now go, your alarm is going off."

Izuku jerked awake as true to Number Seven, his alarm was going off. He rolled out of bed, and checked his phone. To his surprise he had three unread messages.

First Unread Message

Unknown Number: Yo! Broccoli, it's Jiro.

Second Unread Message
Unknown Number: U ok? Or are you extremely tired

Third Unread Message

Unknown Number: Dude, I'll catch you in the morning. Be at urs 6:30.

Izuku looked at his alarm, panic began to set in, his clock said 6:20! His eyes widened, clad in only his All-Might underwear he launched himself into the bathroom. He scrubbed and cleaned himself up and he'd just pulled on his school trousers and pulling his shirt on as his mother opened the door.

'Oh er hi…Jiro-chan. Please come in.' Izuku's heart sank partially, thankfully Jiro hadn't experienced the tears of the Midoriya's yet.

"IZUKU! Your friend is here! You don't want to be late!"

Izuku gulped, flustered, grabbed his blazer and forgot to do his shirt up and darted out to see Jiro.

(Jiro)

When she knocked on Green's door this morning, she wasn't expecting this. She'd half-expected Green himself to answer the door but wasn't expecting this. When she saw Midoriya-san standing in front of her, there was something in the elder Midoriya's eyes that unsettled her. There was a look almost like she was being scrutinised. "Welcome, please come in , please, please come in. Let me get Izuku. IZUKU! Your friend is here!"

Izuku entered the room, hair slightly damp and shirt undone revealing a well muscled physique. Furthermore with his being slightly damp and trickling onto his shirt revealing his shoulders and the bulging muscles. "Damn, Green is ripped…what the actual hell."

"Hey, Midoriya, you mind doing your shirt up? Not that I don't mind the view, mind doing your shirt up." Izuku flushed red, quickly finished getting dressed for Jiro to grab his tie; undo it and then redo it.

"You've not learnt to do that have you?"

"I haven't learnt a lot of things, Jiro." It was at that moment both Jiro and Midoriya realised that the retort was said without a stutter.

Jiro and Inko stared at the green haired boy "Izuku, you've managed to say that without a stutter. I've picked up on it, you never stuttered around me before but since Aldera it happened quite a lot."

Izuku gulped "It was because of my assumed quirklessness. It turns out my quirk required my body to be in shape and to quote Yagi-sensei 'chunky human salsa'."

Kyoka listened, Green's heartbeat had sped up but then resumed to normal, for him. "Is this to do with your erratic heartbeat whenever you're put on the spot about your quirk?"

Izuku and Inko stilled "And what do you know, Jiro-chan?" Inko asked dangerously. She knew Toshinori Yagi was All Might, she had seen how quickly Shimura Nana, Lady Float, had aged rapidly after a confrontation that had taken the life of Smokescreen.

Jiro stilled "I know that it's suspicious that Green at 14 or 15 he was like a 4-year-old activating his quirk the first time. Then he told me that he had a voice in his head, yet his quirk breaks his body…Midoriya, you said you got your quirk from someone and it's called One-For-All…Midoriya-san, what do you know?"

Inko looked at the duo "I certainly understand why Toshinori picked you, Izuku, you're both cut from the same cloth. From what I've put together Toshinori and You, Izuku are the only ones able to safely use OFA. This is hearsay, when I started as Hero Prosecutions, I was given a group of cold-cases starting with Daigoro Banjo…"

Kyoka stilled "Daigoro Banjo or Jiro Banjo Daigoro is my great-great-great-grandfather on my mothers side, Green…as a blood relative I DEMAND to know."

"Enough. Izuku, Jiro-chan, you're both going to be late; I have a meeting with Eraserhead today at lunch and after school, Jiro; Would it be possible if you could bring your parents over?" It was a request given as a question. The girl nodded before dragging her classmate out of the apartment.

(Mindscape)

Daiten Kato found himself on his knees. "You fucking idiot, but you're here now, my descendant we need to talk."