December 25 - Day 13

9:00 pm

'Stupid moronic imbeciles… thinking they're superior in every way…' Tomoyasu grit his teeth, his grip on his laptop tightening as the chattering of the people behind him intensified. But as much as he would just like to repeatedly bash all their heads on concrete right then and there, he cannot afford to do so, them being alive is crucial to his overall plan. But the moment 'being alive' stopped mattering, he'll gladly have them executed in the most painful way possible, most of them that is.

Before long, after a few seconds (in a trip that felt like an eternity), the elevator door in front of him opened, and out he immediately went, followed closely by Trumpet. The two of them then stood beside the elevator door to let the rest of the occupants leave – Spinner, Twice, Toga, Magne, and Dabi - basically the entirety of the League of Villains, minus their leader.

Tomoyasu observed them as they exited, giving a small discreet nod towards the last person, who just rolled his eyes in response. For a moment he wanted to roll his eyes back at him, but he managed to hold himself back. Now is not the right time for that. "Just go straight ahead. The secret underground entrance is just right over there," he instructed the League, pointing over towards the general direction of said secret underground entrance.

And within a few minutes, after loads of nonsensical chattering, the group eventually left the scene.

Taking a deep breath and sighing, Tomoyasu slowly turned his head towards Trumpet just standing right beside him. It's been around over two weeks ever since the 'Deika City Terror Attack' ended and the politician is still somehow looking down and dejected. "Look pal," Tomoyasu spoke up, casually slinging an arm onto the other man's shoulder. "I know the Revival Party didn't go the way we expected it to go, but look on the bright side! The true Liberation is upon us!" he added, making his voice sound like it was meant to lift up spirits. It just ended up sounding incredibly forced.

In response, Trumpet just slightly nodded before walking away as well towards the general direction the League went.

"Can you just cut it out with the moping? You're pissing me off." Tomoyasu shook his head, cursing under his breath afterwards at the same time pulling out a phone from his pocket. "Also now if you may excuse me, I have some more important matters to attend to…" he added, grumbling a bit as he planted his left hand on a nearby wall and activated his Quirk, melting that portion of the wall and then rising from it an almost-identical copy of himself – laptop, posture, annoyed look and all.

"Go downstairs and attend the event in my stead. You know what to do," he told his copy, in which it immediately went on its way. Now left completely alone, he started walking towards the nearest hallway, flicking the lights off as he passed by their switches. He needs to make everything as dark as possible as to avoid being seen by the wrong people.

He continued walking through the empty hallways, flicking more and more lights off. Once he reached a point where he's now satisfied with the darkness levels, he turned his attention back to the phone he's holding and did a few quick presses on it before holding it up to his ear. "Hey," he said into it.

Responding to him was no more than a constant static, accompanied by strange distorted sounds, with the audio cutting off at certain intervals. Amidst all the noise, he could also hear someone talking in the background. "Hmm… sometimes I wonder about the superiority of my tech…" he muttered to himself as he shoved the phone back to his pocket and opened up the laptop he's carrying, balancing it on the palm of his left hand. He then double-clicked on a particular icon and opened up a program, in which he then did a few tweaks in its settings. Afterwards, he closed it back and got the phone to his ear again.

As expected, the static issues are now drastically lessened, although still somewhat present. "Issues minimized, what seems to be the problem on your end?"

"I'm having a hard time re-connecting back to Machia's transmitter. I need a little help here," came a response, just barely recognizeable amidst the now-reintensifying levels of static.

"Understood. Initiate the warp sequence," Tomoyasu replied, immediately putting the phone down and long-pressing the middle section of it with his thumb. Now normally he doesn't like being called in to fix someone else's problems, but being called in specifically because his programs are being too good at their job? That's a different story. If anything, all his leftover annoyance from both Trumpet and the League immediately disappeared.

"Initiating warp. Stand back," came a loud distorted voice from the phone before it automatically cut itself off.

With that said, Tomoyasu stepped back a few steps. Before long, a swirling vortex of black gelatinous goo materialized in front of him, in which he immediately entered. It was a portal of sorts. On the other side is a spacious concrete room, almost pitch black and devoid of anything. "Note to self, bring an actual flashlight next time…" he mumbled to himself in a bored expression as he pulled up his phone again and turned on its built-in torch function, illuminating the area. Almost immediately afterwards, he heard the all-too familiar sound of a goo portal dematerializing, followed closely by a low inhuman growl.

Tomoyasu turned around, and as expected, there's a Nomu right behind him, its mouth still dripping black ooze, and making odd movements as if it's trying to taunt him into attacking it, all while still making otherworldly noises that would be utterly terrifying to regular people.

But not to him. Tomoyasu knew how the things operate. There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of. "These things badly need an update…" he could only grumble to himself as he turned his back on it to instead survey the area he's teleported in. But as he observed around and illuminated the emptiness, he couldn't help but feel an odd sense of peace, as if for once there are no human idiots around to contend with-

Tomoyasu shook his head, clearing off the random thoughts. "Okay where was I?" he asked himself, setting him back to the present.

Looking around once again, he eventually found the exit, and then proceeded towards it. Outside is just a dark narrow hallway, once again all concrete and devoid of lighting. If it weren't for his phone's torch function, everything would have been completely pitch black, and filled with inhuman noises as if there are Nomus lurking around every corner.

And indeed there are. Every few meters there are random entrances, and each and every one of them lurks a Nomu. He ignored them all.

After a while of walking on the dark halls, Tomoyasu eventually reached a door. Pushing through it, he's immediately greeted by a large spacious lair, filled with rows upon rows of giant glass cylindrical vats, with fleshy humanoid abominations inside of each and every one of them, suspended in thick glowing neon pink sludge. Tomoyasu continued to scan his gaze around some more, just utterly unimpressed. The whole mess of metal cables strewn across the dusty tiled floor, not to mention the whole area itself barely has any decent lighting, is already more than enough to piss him off. Rolling his eyes on it all, he was about to close the door when he heard strange growls behind him – apparently the Nomu that was used to teleport him in followed him all the way here.

"Okay since I'm in a relatively good mood today, come on in," he spoke to the Nomu in a casual tone, despite fully knowing it can't understand a word he's saying and is very much just a mindless drone that runs on its 'pre-installed' instincts. But still, the creature eventually managed to get in without as much ruining the door. Almost immediately, it wasted no time and began reaching its arms onto him again as if 'taunting' him once more.

Tomoyasu just stared at it for a short while before moving on, going towards a path he knew will lead him towards the thing that needed fixing. After a few moments, he eventually reached a wide-open area with neatly-aligned rows of Nomu vats, each containing such Nomus that are slightly different-looking from the standard ones, on either side. And situated at the very end is a large easily-noticeable control panel of sorts connected to a network of screens displaying nothing but static.

"I still have not a clue why you keep warping me back there instead of just here…" he spoke upon nearing a short rotund old man, wearing a laboratory coat, tinkering with some buttons on the left side of said control panel.

"Oh you know me. Just taking some precautions in case someone undesired follows you in," the old man replied, adjusting his unique spectacles for a brief while before looking up to face him. "Anyways, so as you can see I'm having some problems here…"

Tomoyasu turned his attention towards the static-filled screens of the control panel, with some heavily distorted audio slipping through every now and then through the speakers. "Hmmm… probably just a loose piece of code, this'll just take a moment."

"You really have to bring a Nomu here? Can't you just leave it outside?"

"Doc, that Nomu followed me here. Not my fault. But if there's someone who's going to get rid of it now, that'll be you," Tomoyasu ordered the old man beside him, who immediately replied with a whole bunch of excuses (or so what he thought of it considering the Doctor just started rapid-firing random science jargon into him that he lost interest in it halfway through), before placing down his laptop on a nearby flat surface. He then opened it up and activated a specific program.

"It was suddenly like that just an hour ago. I don't know why. I didn't do anything with it."

"Garaki, I am fully aware of my adaptive jamming system's superiority. Now please, shut up." Tomoyasu rolled his eyes as he started on the tedious process of tweaking his jamming system's settings to allow the particular device he's working on to be let through. "Is Gigantomachia's transmitter a relatively new piece of tech or just patched-up junk from ten years ago?"

"More like a 'hand-me-down' two years ago."

"Ah yes, 15 years outdated. Not surprising…" Tomoyasu commented as he worked, not even bothering to glance over. "This should only take a while…" he added, continuing to tweak his jamming system's settings. Contrary to what he expected, he actually found himself having quite a hard time, which ironically just made him further impressed by himself. After around two minutes, only then he finally finished. "Done," he said as he stepped back after pushing a particular button on the control panel keypad labeled with a megaphone icon.

And just like that, the audio is now back to being crisp and clear. But before Garaki could speak up, Tomoyasu managed to say something first, "I have cameras set up there, why just settle for audio when we can have video?"

"You're not coming back to stand onstage as well?" Garaki asked, setting his attention onto the live video now playing on the control panel's multiple screens – the focus directly onto the Gunga Mountain Villa underground stage.

"I have decided I will no longer attend there. I already sent a copy there of myself anyways-"

"-And with that, ITS SECOND COMING! As we walk down a deeper path of LIBERATION!" suddenly came in the loud voice of Re-Destro through the speakers, startling the two, and even the Nomu standing behind them all this time. "The Metahuman Liberation Army and the League of Villains will UNITE under a NEW NAME!"

"What the-?!" Garaki chuckled a bit to himself as he adjusted his spectacles, amused by the former MLA Grand Commander's words and expression. "You really weren't lying when you told me your boss is the most pathetic person you knew. How did he even lose against Shigaraki with that Quirk of his?"

"Exactly. That Decay moron does not stand a chance against him. Re-Destro's Stress-Energy Field completely negates any touch-based Quirks, and that includes Decay and all of its effects, and yet here we are…" Tomoyasu chuckled as well as he watched the events through the screen, occasionally glancing over to check if his copy is still acting normal as it stood behind Tomura. "For all the talk about power. For all the talk about how the strongest should rule over the weak. For all the talk about how we're all family. At the slightest hint of danger he'll throw everyone else in front of him and go stand in a tower far away from it all. He's nothing but a fake. A coward. A pathetic joke masquerading as a leader." He then sighed, shaking his head. "But ironically, that's his best trait, for me at least. His strings are so easy to pull it's not even funny."

Garaki nodded, shoving his hands onto the pockets of his lab coat. "You really don't use the term 'Meta Abilities' like the rest of them, huh?"

"No. Not at all. Unless I'm with them, of course. Meta Abilities as a term is outdated. Anyone who still seriously uses that term to this day are nothing but fools." Tomoyasu paused to observe the events happening through the screens. "Although I'm not stopping anyone from calling them as such. All the more better for me to know how much of a fool they are."

"Whatever floats your boat." Garaki once again nodded in agreement. "By the way, how did you solve the whole shutdown of in-and-out communications? Shouldn't people be already asking about methods they could use to at least see the outside world? Obviously the MLA won't just accept being stranded in a mansion with not even a hint of a periscope, right?"

"That, I definitely have planned in advance for. I recently gave people access to my satellites through their electronic devices, and by access I mean they're just going to see looped footage I collected from August in the previous year," came Tomoyasu's quick reply, his lips curling into a menacing grin. "In reality, they're all completely in the dark. They have absolutely no idea what's about to happen to them." He chuckled to himself. "Everyone in the army who's not aligned to me is completely unaware of what's happening outside. Baby steps, Garaki, baby steps..."

"I like your enthusiasm. I wish my old boss had that. While All for One is more or less carrying a name and all, but from a villain standpoint? He's less than lackluster these days. I'm expecting big things from this partnership!" Garaki nodded, expecting a nod in return from the tall lanky person in front of him, but got nothing in response. Instead he just turned his attention back to the multiple screens, showing the former Grand Commander of the MLA still talking about how much of a Liberation symbol Shigaraki is.

"All for One has got to be the biggest moron on the planet. Imagine having a Quirk to steal and stack up powers and still utterly failing to accomplish more than being All Might's punching bag. If I had a Quirk like that. I would have been Demon Lord within a month!"

"He just never gave any defensive Quirk the time of day. And if ever the chance he did get them, he'll still use them to go on the offensive, misusing their pimary purpose." Garaki shook his head, remembering the massive failures of All for One over the years, and his utter inability to adapt against a vast array of modern Quirks. "There's a reason I haven't warped him in yet even if I easily could."

"Let him rot in prison. Absolute failures like him deserve it!" Tomoyasu gritted his teeth, his irritation overwhelming at the extreme wasted potential of the supposed 'Dark Emperor' of Japan, and his overpowered Quirk. "As for me. You want destruction? You want power? You want chaos that your utter failure of an old boss failed to achieve? Then you've come to the right person. Let's see if you've got what it takes to work under me."

Garaki simply responded with a nod.

The both of them then turned their attentions to the screens, watching the event unfold further. But after just a short while, right after the rest of the League of Villains came out of the shadows behind the main stage, and the re-branding of the Metahuman Liberation Army as the Paranormal Liberation Front (which Tomoyasu found extremely cringeworthy), the old man asked a question again, "have you told them about Sector Zero yet?"

"Sector Zero will get its time soon. As of now. I'm just focusing on the tiny bits first. This last-minute partnership threw a sizeable wrench onto the grand scheme of my plans, and I'm still in the process of adjusting them. And for a plan that took two decades in the making, these adjustments I speak of will definitely take a while. Don't rush me." Tomoyasu turned around and pointed at the Nomu behind them – who's been watching the control panel screens with them for quite some time now. "Be like this guy over here, be patient- WHAT THE HELL is this Nomu even doing here?!"

"He's bothering no one, just let him be." Garaki shrugged.

"Whatever… as long as he's not bothering anyone."

Before long, the first and main part of the Gunga Mountain Villa event reached its completion – The new set of lieutenants are established. As for the second part (the overall celebration), Tomoyasu took no more further interest in it. It is not of importance anymore. "Leave, get back to my room," he spoke into the screen, eyes locked onto his copy still standing in the middle of the stage even though the rest of the League, as well as Trumpet and Re-Destro, already went towards the backstage.

Immediately, upon completion of his sentence, the copy started walking off. Tomoyasu then reached over and shut off the screens afterwards, the audio automatically cutting off as well.

"That's quite the Quirk you have there." Garaki couldn't help but give out praise, decently impressed by the Quirk of the person beside him.

"The copies obey my commands as long as I can see them, whether physically or through a screen, regardless of my actual distance to them," came the reply. "Alright, let's get to phase two."

Garaki nodded in response, immediately fishing for his phone and placing it on a nearby flat surface beside Tomoyasu's laptop. Before long, it rang.

"Hey Doc. I managed to make Machia submit. So about that upgrade you promised…?"

Tomoyasu could only shake his head upon hearing the smug voice of Shigaraki from the phone. Arms crossed, he then gestured over to Garaki in front of him to warp him in. In response, the Doctor beckoned over to a small black Nomu just standing in a dark corner just minding its own business. Said creature immediately perked up in response as if sensing the gesture despite not even looking in the general direction. It began making its way to them, mindful of the metal cables strewn all over the floor, as well as the much larger full-sized Nomu nearby.

'The teleporter Nomu…' Tomoyasu thought to himself as he observed the creature slowly waddling over in its two shoed feet, clearly being significantly slowed down with the huge metal cable attached on its rear end. He had seen how it worked (requiring tweaking the tubes sticking out of its glass-encased brain), and while impressive, he'd seen other teleporting Quirks that don't require some 'person' to vomit out disgusting black liquid to be used as a portal. But still, it was certainly advantageous to have an ally with access to one, it's about time the Liberation Army gets its own teleporter.

Soon enough, after a short while of Garaki making fine adjustments over to his little Nomu, the other far bigger Nomu just nearby them suddenly took a step back and began spitting out black ooze, in which it eventually became a swirling black portal. From it stepped in Tomura Shigaraki, still wearing his red jacket from the event.

"Doc. You should have been there," he said in his usual dry-sounding voice. "You should have seen the power I suddenly manifested! Everthing is dusted right before my very eyes!"

"Ah, that's Quirk Singularity, Tomura Shigaraki." The Doctor gently placed the tiny Nomu he's carrying and off it went on its way back to where it came from. "Your Quirk evolved mid-flight. And people say I'm the lunatic?"

Tomoyasu, discreetly nodding to himself, silently moved out of the two and into some area behind them, immediately turning a nearby wooden table into a humanoid gorilla-like Anthropomorph golem. As natural with his Quirk, it made no more noise other than light sloshing, and Shigaraki is none the wiser. Good. He then made another golem from another nearby wooden table.

As the other two continued their conversation, he carefully maneuvered the golems beside his target, minding the Nomu that's still present (although now just standing quietly in a corner - Perhaps a by-product of being used as a teleport medium?). But contrary to what he expected, before he could even enact the next step, Tomura happened to turn around and notice him.

"Who the hell is this moron over here-? Hey aren't you one of those Liberation nobodies I so effortlessly absolutely crushed?" Shigaraki gave him one exaggerated nod, one eyebrow raised and mocking him. "Next time you idiots plan another ambush against me, maybe, I dunno? Send in 2 thousand next time?"

Tomoyasu's left eyebrow twitched. If there's ever a word he always had a hard time taking in, and that is being called stupid – and right now Shigaraki is throwing those things at him in droves. 'Chill out, you just need to knock out this moron and put him in a stasis vat… tell the golems to punch in unison and knock him out…' he couldn't even finish his thoughts as Tomura launched another barrage of insults on him. Arms shaking, his vision darkening, he could see Garaki discreetly waving his hands to him as if telling him he should NOT attempt what he's about to do. 'Calm down… tell the golems to-"

"Maybe even send in 3 thousand?! Hell send in everyone! I'll just go forth and dust them all!"

With gritted teeth and balled fists, Tomoyasu glared at the two copies and yelled out at the top of his lungs, "RIP HIS HANDS OFF!" The order echoed throughout the underground lair.

Shigaraki did not get any time to react as the two golems beside him suddenly grabbed hold of both his arms and squeezed them tight, easily breaking them right down to the bone in a loud crunch. And after a quick twist and pull, both arms came off in a bloody mess. The entire process took less than a second. Despite the copies looking frail, they're phenomenally strong, and their stamina infinite. Tomoyasu could easily remember just around two weeks ago when he sent in just fifteen of them to effortlessly plow through thousands of Twice clones to clear a path for some necessary clean-up. Not a single clone of his was even lost that day.

Taking one heavy step forward, mind full of nothing but pent-up rage, Tomoyasu then lunged towards a now-handless Shigaraki, making sure to push himself off with his legs with maximum force at the very last moment, hurling a punch directly on his midsection, following it with an uppercut, causing his target to accidentally bite his lip, spewing out more blood. Not wasting any seconds, Tomoyasu once again launched another strike straight into the now-bleeding lip, sending a few teeth flying off of their sockets and making Shigaraki stumble backwards.

He may not be the strongest brawler, in fact he's the farthest thing from it, but the sheer audacity of Shigaraki to mock him will NOT be tolerated. Violently shoving a protesting Garaki out of the way, he grabbed his laptop nearby and swung it as hard as he could, bashing it right into Shigaraki's face in a resounding smack, staining it red with his blood. He then went through and followed it up with yet another bash, slamming the laptop back with as much force as he can muster, the sound of the blow echoing throughout the lair.

"DO YOU LITERALLY HAVE ANY IDEA THAT YOU ONLY WON BECAUSE OF ME?!" Tomyasu yelled at Shigaraki's bleeding face as he held him up by the collar of his shirt, the laptop now dropped to the ground. "DID YOU EVER ASK YOURSELF HOW COME EVERYTHING IS JUST SO EASY FOR YOU THAT DAY, HUH?! HUH?!"

"Er… Chikazoku…?"

"SILENCE!" Tomoyasu yelled at the old man now beside him, sending him also stumbling backwards, a look of absolute fear in his face. Quickly, he turned his attention back to hs original target and immediately dragged him to the nearest Nomu vat and slammed his face into the reinforced glass, startling the abomination within. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH MANAGING I DID THAT DAY BECAUSE YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A MASSIVE BRAINDEAD MORON WHO CAN'T EVEN THINK?!"

"Haha! You're just mad because you lost!" Shigaraki taunted, seemingly unfazed and still trying to 'use Decay' on him despite his complete lack of hands. "Loser!" he taunted again, causing Tomoyasu to wind up and clobber his head onto the glass once more with such a force that a loud audible cracking was heard.

"I just want to make a show that day. I JUST WANT to make Re-Destro THINK you and your pathetic League are real threats. YES MY PLAN WORKED BUT HOLY GOD-DAMNED HELL!" Tomoyasu yelled out as he shoved Tomura onto the floor, immediately slamming his right shoe directly into the stump of a left arm, sputtering blood a good two meters away. "DO YOU EVEN HAVE A GOD-DAMNED BRAIN?! YOUR QUIRK DID NOT EVOLVE! WE JUST DRUGGED YOU UP! YOU'RE STILL THE SAME USELESS DOLT YOU STARTED AS! YOU ONLY WON BECAUSE OF ME!" Tomoyasu shouted, launching yet another kick onto the right stump, mind racing and fully remembering how much he had to carefully manage his men that day as to carefully ferry Tomura closer and closer to Re-Destro's tower, all while still making everything look authentic.

It was extremely hard. Tomura literally did nothing but run forward with arms outstretched. He didn't even bother to evade most of the attacks thrown at him, as well as react against ranged Quirks and flying troops. He mostly just ignored them like they didn't exist and literally just ran forward. And faking such a villain with an ungodly amount of stupidity is like hell. Tomyasu expected him to at least act like he knows something, but he didn't.

He already knew something's not right when he noticed that Shigaraki somehow simply had no problem walking into an obvious trap, lured in by a person he doesn't even know, using a threat he has absolutely no way to confirm if it's even true in the first place, but what he didn't expect is the phenomenal level of utter stupidity Shigaraki would soon demonstrate on the actual fight itself, as well as his absolute lack of awareness.

By all means, Tomura might be the single most brainless person Tomoyasu ever saw, with the rest of the League members coming in tied to the second. If it weren't for his plans against the MLA, Geten would have just easily impaled all six of them less than a second after the fight started.

But of course, at the end of the day, another major part of why the plan only worked is because of Re-Destro being a gigantic coward (both literally and figuratively). And that same fear is what 'allowed' Decay to spread through him in the first place.

All in all, the two wrongs did eventually make a right-

"Loser…!"

"WHY YOU LITTLE PIECE OF SH-"

"ENOUGH!" came the loud voice of Garaki, just as a loud gunshot sound is heard throughout the lair. "Tomura is part of the plan! He's crucial to the plan! He's irreplaceable! We're going to need him! Are you out of your mind?! Calm down!"

Tomoyasu, amidst his still-darkened vision of rage, slowly nodded. Hands still trembling, he gradually lowered the pistol he's (now) holding onto, thinking he's quite lucky he didn't hit Tomura anywhere. "Part of the plan…." He whispered through gritted teeth. "Part of the plan…" While he so badly wanted to put a bullet through the other villain's useless head right then and there, but in the end of it all, "this moron… is part of the plan…"

"Part of the plan?! Have you two been collabo-"

Tomoyasu launched his right shoe and directly slammed it onto Tomura's face, instantly silencing him. Rolling his eyes afterwards as he put his pistol back in his handgun holster attached on the right side of his belt, he then walked over and picked up his now-bloodstained laptop on the floor. If it weren't for it being specially reinforced in case of events such as this occurred, it would have been completely shattered into pieces. "You're seriously not going to shut up?" he taunted Tomura as he skipped past him. He was about to once more slam another foot onto Tomura's face when Garaki held up a hand.

"I wouldn't waste any more energy on him if I were you. He's not worth it." The doctor shook his head and gestured for Tomoyasu to follow him as he began walking. "He's just simply too mentally-challenged to even understand more than a quarter of the things you're about to say to him. Do I even need to elaborate it for you when you saw it first-hand during the Revival Party?" He shook his head in disappointment. "Shigaraki there supposedly has a goal of destroying hero society, and yet did nothing but antagonize other villains. He can't even understand his own damn words. Stop trying to reason with him."

Tomoyasu paused. He was about to say something after a short while but in the end he just cut himself off, feeling rather pleased that now not only him share the sentiments that Shigaraki is just ungodly stupid. But still, "by the way, did All for one ever mess with this thing? Did you do anything to him?" he asked, genuinely curious, as he gestured over to his clones to pick the bloodied villain up as well as his severed hands. "No person is this stupid, right?" he added.

"All for One specifically told me to not do a damn thing to him. Shigaraki's utter incompetence is authentic. A natural talent." Garaki said as he continued walking ahead, waving a hand nonchalantly along the way. "Imagine wanting to kill All Might for 14 years straight, and also having a caretaker with the ability to warp, for 14 years straight, and never figuring out you can use that to accomplish your mission instantly…"

Tomoyasu couldn't help but cringe, as well as feel a strange phantom pain on his stomach. 14 years? Tomura never figured out such basic common sense for 14 years straight? "I already have low respect for All for One, and with this moron over here being his 'successor'? Well… I just lost ALL respect I had for him."

"You're not the only one. Now bring him over. I've got something special for him."

'The stasis vat…' Tomoyasu could only chuckle to himself. Gesturing over to his golems to follow him with their quarries, he then proceeded to trail behind the Doctor, ignoring all the blathering Tomura (who's still somehow not knocked out) is doing about how he'll level up and kill him eventually. He has no need to listen to him anymore. At the end of this little trip, Tomura will very much 'disappear' altogether and might as well be dead.

After a short while of walking, minding the large metal cables scattered around, all five of them (including the two golems) eventually reached an entrance over at the rightmost side of the underground lair, and in they go. It's a strange pathway of sorts, its walls and ceiling filled to the brim with more metal cables, some even far larger than the largest ones seen outside, all leading into another dark concrete room containing only three glass vats– drastically different in appearance from all the ones outside, significantly larger in scale, and more complex in build.

The one on the left is covered in ragged cloth, and its liquid shining a bright green instead of the usual neon pink. The vat on the right is shattered and empty. The one in the middle is much larger than the other two, with much more cables plugged right into it. "I suspect there's a story to these three vats? Are they All for One-related perhaps?"

"The two small vats I don't want to talk about," Garaki muttered, his tone of embarrassment, as he kept walking towards the biggest vat in the room. "As for this big one. This one is originally meant to enhance Tomura's physical form for him to be able to receive the All for One Quirk without any dangerous drawbacks, as well as some other things I don't want to talk about anymore," the Doctor said as he stepped aside and faced Tomoyasu, a smug grin now etched on his bespectacled face. "Although of course, we're not doing any enhancing today." He then nodded and turned back towards the vat. "This here vat's been completely 'repurposed' into the 'stasis vat' you ordered. Anyone suspended in this pool is technically frozen in time. Well they'll still age but you get the idea."

Tomoyasu grinned to himself before turning over to Tomura being carried by his two golems. "You hear that, you brainless moron? You're going to get the stasis upgrade!"

In response, Tomura mumbled something back. But whatever it is, it's too incomprehensible to decipher.

Garaki chuckled as well, adjusting his spectacles afterwards before going to the vat's built-in control panel at its left side. "I'll open up the hatch, get your men over those stairs and toss Shigaraki and his hands in."

"You heard the man, get up there and toss them in," Tomoyasu told his golems, which then immediately walked off, carrying Tomura (who's still blathering about things he doesn't care about) and his hands with them. As the two slowly went up the stairs to reach the top of the vat, he couldn't help but notice the overall dark lighting of the place – much darker than outside. "Question? Why is everything so dark? Does Nomu creation have something to do with exposing them to as less light as possible?"

"Well actually uh…" Garaki muttered over as he kept on pressing buttons on his control panel. "Actually I just want to keep things dark so that everything looks more like a villain's lair," he added, awkwardly giggling to himself as he said so.

"Whatever, old man."

Soon enough, Tomura and his severed hands are dumped into the vat, the hatch being closed almost immediately. And seemingly as if the vat liquid is nothing but paralysis fluids (as Garaki said), right away Tomura stopped moving and just slowly sunk down into the bottom of the vat along with his hands. After a few seconds, long thin cables descended from the topmost part of the vat and attached themselves to Tomura, arranged like some sort of life support. "Is all that blood alright to be mixed up with that fluid?" Tomoyasu asked, slightly cringing at the sight of all the blood gushing out of Tomura's wounds and mixing into the fluid he's currently suspended in.

"That's fine. No need to worry about that," Garaki replied. "Now let me just finish some other things here and… done!" the Doctor loudly pressed a button which caused bubbles to rise around the now-suspended Tomura inside the vat. "Now he's practically stuck there for the time being. All paralyzed, completely unaware of everything."

"Good." Tomoyasu nodded to him, slowly making his way out of the 'room', only now noticing that the 'taunting' Nomu is once again behind him, and following him as he walked. "Alright, let's talk business."

Garaki soon caught up with him and quickly gestured to the taller man to follow him instead as he started walking towards an area with far fewer vats and metal cables lined up. "Shoot. What would it be?" he asked as he clasped his hands on his back.

"I'm going to go straight to the point…" Tomoyasu's voice trailed off as he securely held onto his bloodied laptop. He then took a deep breath and sighed, his now-disappointment barely being concealed as he focused his sights upon the rows of Nomus still suspended within the vats lining up every corner of the underground lair. "Regarding these Nomus, are these really the best you can do…?"

"You sound horribly unimpressed, Mr. Chikazoku." Garaki chuckled to himself as he continued to walk. "These things make the perfect disposable grunts. Cheap and easy to make, they offer instant additional manpower in a pinch."

Tomoyasu shook his head. "Garaki, I don't need grunts, much less disposable grunts. What I need are capable people on the field. Capable enough to ensure that a task is done. The balloon Nomu you made that's specifically designed to be as silent-and-deadly as possible? Curious still survived that!" he spoke out, his voice inadvertently raising towards the end, mirroring his frustration on that utter worthless balloon Nomu that did the Takoba Beach assassination mission. "Can your Nomus even be more than just disposable? Right now almost all my people are preparing for the Revival Party re-shoot and I'm currently low on field agents. Can your Nomus ever be field agents?"

The doctor muttered and mumbled to himself for a short while, fidgeting his fingers along the way as he walked. "Well you see uh… Chikazoku uh… there's some things about-"

"You're stuck to making them mindless freaks?"

"Yes but uh… they're cheap and easily available and uh… easy to make, and you can quickly boost your manpower with them!"

"Garaki… I need capable men on the field… not mindless freaks…" Tomoyasu stopped walking, his left hand going up and rubbing his temples in annoyance – annoyance to himself for letting the old man strike a last-minute partnership with him just as he's about to take over the MLA, as well as to the said old man himself, for very much all he can make are useless abominations. "And even then, despite you calling them as cheap cannon fodder, they're so useless that they can't even do their 'disposable' job right." Tomoyasu paused a bit, just barely containing himself from yelling at his new partner. "You're out here talking like they're 'instant manpower' but what the hell have they accomplished? Die within five seconds upon deployment?"

Garaki stopped walking, nervously adjusting his coat. By all means, Tomoyasu is right. The Nomus are just that, disposable. They have barely done a thing worthy to be called as an accomplishment. They simply die too easily despite their regenerative abilities.

"As artificial beings, they lack Backforce – the first and most important line of defence. If All Might slammed a six year old onto solid concrete, the concrete will break and the child will be very much just knocked out and barely harmed. But yet if he slammed a Nomu into concrete, the thing will outright splatter into a million pieces! Heroes these days are all about hitting big, and these things can't even survive such hits! And even if they can they also have that massive glaring obvious weak spot right on top of their heads! Their brains are even colored in such a stark contrast to their bodies that they're visible from outer space!" Tomoyasu paused, immediately taking deep breaths trying to calm himself down. "I'm going to be honest with you, Doc. Your Nomus are nothing more than pathetic jokes."

Garaki lightly stumbled backwards in surprise. "But-but-but I-"

Tomoyasu raised a hand, one part of him regretting in raising his voice. He then sighed once more. "Since you want to work with me now and ditch your useless old boss, I say throw them out. Every single one of them. Nomus are now nothing but relics of the past. We have to get on with the times-"

"But I have High-End Nomus too!" Garaki wiped off some sweat off his forehead and ran towards the nearest vat containing a Nomu, one that looks drastically different from the usual ones. "These things pack a real punch!" he yelled out as he repeatedly tapped the glass, getting a significant reaction out of the Nomu sealed within.

Tomoyasu could only facepalm once more as he followed. "They're just new software installed in the same outdated hardware as the rest of these things. They still have no Backforce, and they still have the same glaring weakness as the rest of them. The most these things can do is die in four minutes instead of ten seconds."

"B-But remember that one time when ENDEAVOR went on the news when he fought-"

"I'm going to make a guess. The Number Two did NOT aim for the head?" He asked in a smug manner. "I wouldn't be surprised. Heroes these days seem to be going for show rather than practicality." He turned towards the control panel of the vat of the High-End Nomu Garaki is talking about. Without any prior warning, he suddenly spoke, "how do you let this thing out?"

"Oh it's right here-"

Tomoyasu quickly slammed down the 'release' button and moved out of the way of the front side of the vat, shoving the doctor with him – who only now realized the slip-up he just did. The vat, on the other hand, then began flushing out its pink liquid enclosed within, and the cables attached to the Nomu detaching and retracting upwards. The glass container eventually opened, sending the barely-conscious humanoid abomination plopping down onto the floor and making small sloppy movements. Not wasting any time, Tomoyasu pulled out his pistol and delivered a bullet straight into the High-End Nomu's exposed brain. Needless to say, it died instantly.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"Your Nomus die instantly to a centuries-old human invention. Face it, old man, your creations are outdated. Obsolete. All the cool kids these days are using Valkyries and Dreadnoughts, and you're still using whatever-the-hell these things are. Why can't you get on with the times?" Tomoyasu shoved the Doctor out of his way once more and slammed down another 'release button' on the next vat, once more shooting the Nomu dead with his pistol. "A single Dreadnought will absolutely obliterate every single Nomu in this lair within seconds, and you know it." He moved on again, slammed another button, and shot another High-End Nomu dead.

"Hey! You can't just kill them all!"

Tomoyasu stopped, and with all his might, stopped himself from slamming down another button. Hurriedly composing himself and placing the pistol back in its holster, he then faced the Doctor – now crying over the third dead High-End Nomu. "Anyways," he sighed. "I want you to update yourself and start making things actual modern villains use, you got that? All for One is no more, the guy can't even help himself out of prison. Just stop with these useless creatures, understand?"

"But my Nomus…"

Tomoyasu stepped closer, minding the dead Nomu. "We're going to make a complete overhaul here. We're going to re-build everything from the ground-up." He then turned around and started walking away, prompting the still-crying Doctor to follow him. "I have with me several million Yen snatched up from Curious's bank account, restarting your work should be easy."

"But I worked with these for decades…"

"Better to start anew towards the right path than continue repairing that one rotting wooden bridge on top of a raging river. The Nomus are a thing of the past, what lies ahead of us will not need of them anymore." Tomoyasu then quickly sought the nearest flat surface and opened up his laptop, quickly typing into it. "Jackpot. Radar scans show that I-Island is still within general range of the country. We could take this opportunity to do some shopping there and stock up." He turned to Garaki now beside him, holding onto a piece of brain from one of the dead Nomus. "What else do you need to at least craft your own Valkyries and Dreadnoughts?"

"I just need some genetic samples… I can do the rest..."

"We'll look for a cheap one then… and maybe we can get some new glass vats as well…" Tomoyasu closed his laptop and started walking towards the general direction of the main control panel, with the Doctor once again following closely behind him. There's still that Nomu who's still following him along, but at this point Tomoyasu now considered it as harmless amusement and simply shrugged its existence off. "So I'm going to be busy in the next few days and-"

"You need more capable manpower?"

Tomoyasu raised an eyebrow, noticing Garaki suddenly speaking up – although his voice still sounded off. "Why of course I could always need more capable manpower, why?"

"Humarise. Terrorist organization situated around Europe. Bases its principles over my old work on Quirk Singularity Theory."

Raising his eyebrows even further in a combined emotion of shock and amazement, Tomoyasu quickly opened up his laptop again and began researching about them. As it turned out, it's true. They are basing their principles off of Garaki's work. "Well well well this definitely opens up more options! You know I'm not easily impressed, but this has certainly impressed me!" he could only grin to himself upon seeing the potential of allying up with this other terrorist organization, and maybe pull a few strings as well.

"Although-"

"No time for that, Doc!" Tomoyasu menacingly giggled to himself as he closed off the laptop. "Oh this is glorious! I'll go find a way to hit them up, and then you give them a good ol' dose of let's be friends and then BAM! Terrorist Team-Up!" He giggled maniacally once more. "Okay… but before that I have to be the leader of the PLF first." He paused a bit. "Garaki?"

"Huh?" came the reply of the Doctor as he took off his goggles and wiped off some tears within it.

"Oh come on, quit your whining! I'm already going to give this whole place an entire fix, all expenses paid! You're going to start fresh onto a better path. Abandon these stupid Nomus already. Although before you do so, I have one final mission for them…"

Tomoyasu couldn't help but giggle some more. He was raging over just a few moments ago but now he's almost flying in glee. Everything is turning out right for once! Allying with another terrorist organization? That's perfect! As for his opinions on Garaki, one part of him is still wondering as to why he would suddenly ally with him on the sole reason of 'wanting to do evil', could it be a by-product of working with All for One for almost two centuries? He doesn't know. He doesn't care. All that matters now is that his plans are already in forward motion despite some setbacks earlier.

Over 20 years of planning is about to go fully underway.

And as for the next major step? Fully 'acquire' the Paranormal Liberation Front.

'With Tomura out of the way, this should be easy…'


Notes:

Skeptic being the main villain is inspired by these canon events:

- Skeptic, for some weird reason, went down Re-Destro's tower during the middle of the Deika City Attack, coincidentally at the right time so he could get enough distance away before Machia arrives. And despite having his satellites, he didn't warn anyone of anything until Machia's already present at the city.

- He has an anime-only shot of him being all too happy at editing Curious's death news.

- Gunga Mountain Villa somehow got ambushed despite Skeptic having satellites. He also conveniently didn't notice the nationwide internships going on.

- He got on Machia and escaped, not even bothering to tell the others to hop on as well.

- After he war arc, he just casually hung out with the LoV and NOT once planned anything about letting Re-Destro free. It's like he finally got to be the MLA leader he's always wanted.

- There's many more but I won't talk about them yet!

...

Yeah… Skeptic's clearly something else… that's why he gets to be The Mine Woman's main villain! He's a far greater mastermind than AFO ever was!

...

...

Also about his partnership with Dr. Garaki here in this fic, this one is inspired by Garaki somehow being able to watch the Revival Party LIVE despite not having satellites of his own, as well him being able to connect to Machia's transmitter to hear the PLF announcement despite Gunga Mountain Villa being completely blocked from government radar. Garaki is obviously NOT a tech genius, but he just somehow keeps connecting into Skeptic's systems… it's almost as if he's allied with Skeptic in the first place…