Chapter 3
Spencer Estate, Servant Dormitory, July 24, 1998:
A few hours have passed since Izuku was released by Rebecca from the prison tube he had been left in for some period of time. Before leaving the lab, the green-haired young man asked if he could look over the files of what had been done to him since his capture. Nodding slowly to keep a calm front, Rebecca had pointed out the tossed aside files she had thrown in her disgust at what had been done to the at the time teenager. Izuku had thanked the young brunet S.T.A.R.S member and picked up the file, taking a deep breath he began to read through the file and notes of what had happened after his capture. It was only thanks to his face mask's rebreather, the only part of his mask he had on now after reactivating his hero costume, that Rebecca couldn't see the growing frown and grimace of anger that grew there.
Reading through this Doctor Birkin's notes of his findings regarding Izuku's DNA reminded the displaced hero way to much of the mad Doctor Garaki, or as he knew him Doctor Tsubasa. While Izuku couldn't understand everything that had been written in Birkin's file, what he could understand sent shivers of fear through him. The mad man had harvested samples from Izuku and had apparently used said samples to create B.O.Ws… Really Izuku was wondering at this point if Birkin was in any way related to Garaki based entirely on how similar the man's actions were to the creator of the NOMU. While Rebecca did not notice Izuku's growing anger and distress at first, she did notice when the young man had reached the final notes at the end of the file when Izuku whispered in shock and despair.
"I…I've been infected…"
Seeing the panic begin to grow in the young man, Rebecca attempted to reach out to him when Izuku seemed to suddenly freeze as if someone had yelled out to him. Izuku seemed to shut down for a few minutes caught in his thoughts, worried that he may have been having the beginnings of a mental breakdown Rebecca called out to him in a worried tone.
"H-hey Izuku, are you okay? Just take some deep breaths and try to keep calm-"
"GOD DAMN IT!!!"
Before Rebecca could finish, she was launched back again as an even larger storm of green-black electricity blasted from Izuku's body. Back against the wall and raising her arms to protect against the force induced wind and dust, Rebecca's fear had returned as she witnessed the ground and walls around the man crack from the force. Shakily getting back to her feet, the medic hurried towards the door worried that Izuku would collapse the room in his rage. Looking back when she made it to the door fear was replaced by shock and awe as the black energy separated from the green lightning becoming tendrils of black energy that smashed the remaining equipment in the room. At times the energy tendrils seemed to sharpen and slash through the walls like paper revealing the rebar supporting the structure. As Izuku's rampage continued, Rebecca called out to the young man repeatedly trying to get him back under control.
At first nothing seemed to happen, then the tendrils around Izuku began to dissipate followed closely by the green electricity. As the last sparks of energy vanished, Izuku seemed to breakdown in tears as he fell to his knees and slammed his fists into the ground, cracking it further in the process. Checking the ceiling for signs of caving in, Rebecca cautiously approached Izuku and placed a tentative hand on his shoulder. The moment the young woman placed her hand on his shoulder Rebecca had to fight back a blush at feeling how hard the muscle was under his… uniform? Putting the thoughts this observation brought up to the back of her mind for later, Rebecca tried her best to calm the now distraught and crying Izuku as best as she could.
"Izuku… I'm sorry this happened to you, and I promise that me and my team will do everything we can to ensure that you don't become like the other monsters Umbrella has made-" Rebecca didn't have a chance to finish as Izuku shook his head and spoke in a quiet and broken voice.
"N-no you don't understand Chambers-san…" Izuku now looked up at Rebecca, showing the young medic his despairing tear filled eyes, "They used me… my DNA, to make their B.O.Ws stronger… then when it couldn't get worse those bastards had plans to control me! The only reason they hadn't been able to was that my bodies unique biology broke down everything that was introduced into my body and created a resistance to it. Hell the only reason that Garaki rip off Birkin infected me with some sort of combination of two variants of their weaponized viruses… was just for shits and giggles!" Despair was slowly replaced by a deep anger that was reinforced by Izuku's eyes glowing an even brighter acidic green than when he was released.
"That bastard didn't care what would happen if I were to run out of control, no it was only pure chance that my body broke down both viruses and acclimated them to my body while I was in that damn pod."
Confusion ran through Rebecca at that. How could Izuku know that his body had acclimated to the viruses when he had been clearly out of control earlier? Rebecca was about to voice her confusion when a dull thrum seemed to run through the room they were still in. Eyes widening in fear realizing the stupidity of staying in such a damaged Underground room, Rebecca only had enough time to yell out before in a sudden green flash both she and Izuku were outside the room as it collapsed. Shaking at the realization that she had almost died… again… for what felt like the hundredth time in the last twenty-four hours, Rebecca had to fight to stay standing as the sheer exhaustion of the last few hours hit all at once.
"Chambers-san… Rebecca-san are you okay?" the tired deadpan that said medic gave the greenet was almost enough to make Izuku flinch at the stupidity of his question.
"R-right… sorry, stupid question…" Izuku looked down at the floor, shame filling him as he realized that the room collapsing was his fault. "Rebecca-san I am so sorry that I lost control of myself, if I hadn't been so careless you wouldn't have been in danger-" "Stop." Before Izuku could continue with his self-deprecation, Rebecca placed her hands on his shoulders and pushing softly separated from the young man's hold.
"Izuku you can't just blame yourself for losing control like that. You had just found out such horrible things that had happened to you while trapped by these monsters. They even used what they got from you to improve their weapons… I am sure that anyone in your position would have reacted similarly if not worse to your situation." Tentatively, Rebecca raised one of her gloved hands and placed it on Izuku's cheek, over the large scar that ran across it. Izuku leaned into the contact and seemed to finally relax a bit, seeing the loss of tension in the young man, Rebecca continued speaking a tired smile on her lips.
"Now, what do you say we get out of here and try and find the rest of my team yeah?" Izuku, locking his once again emerald, green eyes with Rebecca's brown, nodded slowly responding with a quiet 'right' before following the medic back to the hidden entranceway. Reentering the shed the now duo jumped slightly as the entrance to the underground closed behind them. shrugging it off as a likely sensor they moved to exit the once again quiet shed. Both Rebecca and Izuku were on high alert as they walked towards the dark mansion the mid-afternoon sun barely breaking through the forest canopy.
Rebecca released a quiet sigh of relief when they reached the doors at the back of the mansion with no difficulty. Praying for another dose of luck, Rebecca tried the first door and with a quiet click it opened on well-oiled hinges showing a dark rear entry hall. Both young adults looked to each other before nodding slowly, Rebecca leading with her handgun and flashlight, while Izuku closed the door behind them and followed after the young medic. As the duo entered the halls they checked a few rooms finding… nothing. The entire wing, appearing to be some sort of servants quarters, was empty of people or anything else. After checking a few more rooms and still not finding anyone else, Izuku noticed that Rebecca was beginning to stagger from a combination of exhaustion and the injuries she had received from her previous encounters the night before.
It was only due to his trained reflexes that Izuku caught Rebecca when she was about to collapse from exhaustion. Without preamble, Izuku scooped the young medic into his arms, ignoring the tired sputtering and pink cheeks Izuku spoke softly to explain.
"Sorry Rebecca-san, but you need to rest. From what you told me earlier, you have been awake and in an almost constant state of adrenaline fueled fight or flight." Looking down, Izuku could see that Rebecca had come to a similar conclusion and nodded softly leaning into Izuku and closing her eyes. Seeing her breathing deepen into the light tones of sleep, Izuku gave a small smile, that while couldn't be seen due to his mask, reached his eyes that crinkled at the corners. Adjusting Rebecca so she would be more comfortable, Izuku walked back towards some of the rooms they had previously cleared. Walking into the room, Izuku could see that the room was… spartan. While the furniture was of high quality all there was in the room was a full size bed on a basic wood frame, a nightstand on the right side and a small dresser on the left. On the left wall was a door leading to an attached bathroom with the bare essentials, and a large closet on the right wall.
Setting Rebecca down on the bed, Izuku stepped back and looked down at the young woman that had saved him from his imprisonment.
'Izuku… can we talk?'
The sound of the familiar feminine voice in his mind brought a grimace and sad sigh as he walked to the door and with a quick twist engaged the lock. Walking back to an empty space between the bed and dresser, Izuku slowly slid down the wall until he was sitting with his back straight against the hardwood surface. Taking another deep breath, the greenet closed his eyes and concentrated inward until a sudden feeling of darkness enveloped him.
-Line Break-
Unknown Location:
It only felt like a moment passed as Izuku opened his eyes once again. Instead of the room he had been sharing with Rebecca-san earlier, Izuku now stood in a dark castle hall. Looking around, Izuku couldn't help but remember how this place had looked when he first came here. This place was the vestige world, a mental representation of his quirk One for All. When Izuku had first arrived in this place it was little more than an empty space filled with clouds of darkness that enveloped everything. Then as Izuku mastered more of his power the vestige world slowly grew revealing more and more of the quirks secrets, the largest of which lie within the room ahead of him. Looking up as he reached the end of the pillar filled hall, Izuku came upon what appeared to be a black iron door filled with images of nine different individuals fighting against monsters and one dark figure whose face was hidden by a full face mask.
Ignoring the familiar images, Izuku reached up and pushed the large doors opening them easily. Walking forward without worry Izuku looked upon the room and more importantly those who were in it. The room resembled an ancient throne or war room, it was circular and at the center was a large table. Around the table were nine throne like seats, of which eight of them were filled. Walking up to the only empty seat left at the table, Izuku sat and looked upon the faces of those who came before him. In front of Izuku were the previous holders of his quirk One for all.
Starting from the seat directly across from his was the first user; Yoichi Shigaraki, a man of average height but seemed to be sickly and malnourished with long stringy white hair. He was the younger brother of the generational nemesis of all of the holders, the quirk thief; All for One. When quirks had first appeared and All for One was rising to power in the shadows of the world, Yoichi challenged his brother, his sense of justice couldn't back down from attempting to stop his brother. All for One in retaliation and to hopefully bring his brother to his side, forced a Stockpile quirk onto Yoichi to give his at the time believed to be quirkless brother a taste of power. When this did not work, the villain king of the underworld imprisoned Yoichi in the name of protecting him. It was after some time that Yoichi was rescued by the future second wielder of OFA. It turned out that Yoichi wasn't quirkless originally but had an at the time useless quirk to pass down his quirk to another via the willing ingestion of the previous holders DNA. This quirk combined with the quirk forced upon him, stockpile, combined to create the antithesis of All for One, One for All.
Looking to Yoichi's right was the second wielder. Even after all the time Izuku had fought with the other vestiges the second and third users never gave him their names leading to Izuku simply naming them according to their quirks. This had been originally to prickle their collective pride at being compared to All for One, who also replaced his name with his quirk's name. unfortunately for Izuku, the two could care less what the young hero called them, and it was only with the defeat of their longtime foe and his successor Shigaraki Tomura that the two fully accepted their latest successor. The second user; named [Gearshift] was a man with short, salmon-spiky hair, a large scar was prominent across his face, a final memento of All for One during their last battle. From what Yoichi had explained to him, both the second and third users were leaders in the resistance movement during All for One's height of power during the 'Dark Age' of quirks. Second's own quirk, or meta ability as they were called back then, enabled the user to change the speed at which things accelerate through space even ignoring the laws of inertia. The two, unlike the successors after the fourth, were soldiers not heroes, this led to them growing a disdain towards the pro-hero profession. Receiving a short nod from the taciturn man, Izuku turned his gaze to the spot on Yoichi's left.
Sitting there with his arms crossed was said third wielder, or as Izuku called him [Fa Jin.] The man was tall with light, cold gray hair tied up in a spiky ponytail, a black bandana covering his forehead. His quirk allowed for the user to build up kinetic energy by performing repetitive movements, storing it and releasing the energy in bursts of speed and/or power. In all honestly most of Izuku's later victories towards the end of the war with Shigaraki and All for One was due to the pseudo-One hundred percent mode he used, combining his at the time max output of forty-five percent with [Fa Jin]. The former third-in-command of the Anti-Symbol of Evil Resistance only spared a glance to the boy before huffing and closing his eyes while leaning back into his seat.
This was not the case for the fourth user; Hikage Shinomori to the thirds right. Hikage's most eye-catching feature was the crack like scar that ran near his left eye, running from across his left eye to his left lower lip, he has white hair and slender green eyes. Unlike every other One for All user Hikage's damage did not come from their collective foe but from OFA itself. The fourth, hoping to bridge the gap between himself and All for One, secluded himself and dedicated himself to training to increase the power of One for All considering that his quirk was not inherently offensive. Unlike with the previous two users Hikage's quirk [Danger Sense] was a purely defensive mental type quirk that alerted one to danger via a sharp pain in the head. It was only an unfortunate side effect of his quirk that eventually drove him into his seclusion training, due to a mounting paranoia brought on by his quirks constant state of activity.
This training, however, was what led to his unintended downfall, in fact it wouldn't be known until All Might inherited the quirk that the vestiges would learn of the danger of One for All. The second white-haired successor looked at and gave a small smile to Izuku as he fidgeted with his hands. Chuckling softly at the man's timid twitching, Izuku gave a quick smile and nodded back before continuing his gaze to the seat after Hikage's. Sitting dressed in what looked like a leather biker outfit was the fifth user; Daigoro Banjo, also known as the pro-hero Lariat. Daigoro is a large muscular man with a wide build, square jaw, small dull blue eyes and was bald with a very short beard.
Daigoro was one of the very first generations of the recognized pro-heroes who had used his 'top grade' and 'super funky' quirk [Black Whip] to fight against early villains. [Black Whip] gave Daigoro the ability to produce black energy tendrils from his body that he used to both capture his enemies and travel through the city. It was only by happenstance that a young Daigoro found Hikage, who was dying due to the unknown side effects of One for All. While neither the hero nor the fourth user ever explained how exactly Daigoro was convinced to take the quirk, said pro would carry and hold the quirk until he transferred it to the sixth user before succumbing to his injuries after his final battle with All for One.
Giving another smile to Daigoro and receiving a thumbs up in response, Izuku looked to the sixth figure to the left of the Second. The sixth user; En, is a fairly short man with short, dark hair parted twice away from his narrow eyes. His attire consisted of a large red jacket with numerous straps and buttons and a high collar that obstructs his mouth and nose. Reserved but friendly, En was one of the first to instruct Izuku in the use of his quirk when he unlocked it during his time as a vigilante after the war with the MLA. En's quirk was [Smokescreen] a fairly simple quirk according to the original holder that only enabled the user to release a dark smokescreen to block the sight of those in the area of effect, including the user. In a similar circumstance to Daigoro, En would give a lock of his hair to his successor after being fatally wounded by the megalomaniacal quirk thief.
For the first time Izuku felt a small sense of shame built within himself as he looked to his left to see number seven. The seventh holder of his quirk; Nana Shimura, grandmother of the villain and Izuku's archnemesis Tenko Shimura aka Tomura Shigaraki. Nana is a beautiful woman with a tough demeanor. She is tall with a curvaceous yet muscular figure, fair skin and a small mole below her bottom lip, lips that were almost always in a smile. Besides her smile and beautiful face it was also her sharp and intelligent purple eyes that seemed to pull one in, her hair is dark and straight, kept shoulder-length, with the exception of a clump of short bangs hanging above her forehead and was usually styled in a half-up-half-down bun. The heroine's costume consisted of a dark, sleeveless bodysuit with a high collar, yellow elbow-length gloves, and white knee-high boots. Around her waist was a belt with an angular golden buckle, a small cape attached around the back which hung down to her knees, and over her shoulders was a longer cape, buttoned to the shoulders of her body suit.
Nana, from what Izuku had seen here in the vestige world and from what he was told by his own mentor All Might, was a kind woman with a strong sense of justice. She believed that a true hero should smile, no matter how grim the situation, people needed to be saved both body and heart. This ideal was passed down to All Might, and then from him to Izuku when the boy became the hero's successor. Nana when she received One for All used it in conjunction with her original quirk [Float] to fight, at this point the power within One for All was so large that it would break a person's body if they weren't prepared for it. The woman hero confided with Izuku that at first, much like All Might did with Izuku almost four decades later, Nana did not believe Yagi Toshinori could be a hero since he was quirkless. It was only later on along with her best friend Gran Torino, Nana was forced to change her mind and accepted Toshi's dream and gave him her quirk so he could eventually become the symbol of peace.
Though unknown to her successor, Nana had actually had a family; a husband and son, but when All for One murdered her husband Nana had no choice but to place her son in an orphanage for his safety before going to fight the Symbol of Evil. Unfortunately this choice had far reaching consequences for everyone especially Nana's only remaining family. Unaware of the reason why his mother left him, Nana's son; Kotaro Shimura developed a hatred for anything related to heroes. This would eventually lead him to begin abusing his family consisting of his young wife and their two children; Tenko and Hana. Even though he couldn't hear them at the time, Izuku felt the despair that filled the distraught Nana at learning that Tomura Shigaraki was her estranged grandson, twisted and manipulated into the childish psychopath of a villain by All for One. It was because of this link that Izuku had at first promised to try and save Tenko after seeing the vestige of his younger self within All for One during their first battle after the MLA.
This was the source of his guilt… in the end he couldn't keep his promise to the hero that had inspired his personal hero. By the end of the battle with Shigaraki and All for One, Izuku had lost so much and had been pushed to the absolute limit by the now two users of All for One, that the young hero had no other choice but to end the two villains to save everyone that was still alive. In the end though it didn't matter because when Izuku had laid the final blow to Tomura, the deranged young man had launched an unknown quirk that would eventually lead to his capture by Umbrella and sending him away from his remaining friends and family… his mom, Eri… his classmates, those who were still alive…
Izuku tried to fight back his tears as the feelings of loss once again hit him, he was on the cusp of breaking down when a soft hand landed on his shoulder. Looking over, with eyes brimming with tears, Izuku could only see the sad accepting smile of Nana.
"I-I don't blame you for what you had to do Izuku…" Her own tears began to build in Nana's eyes as she continued, "It… it wasn't fair of me to expect you to save Tenk- no Tomura. He was just too far gone, and with everything going on with that old bastard All for One joining in, you had no choice but to go for the kill… I-I am just so sorry that due to your hesitation because of your promise you can no longer go home… please forgive me Izuku." Tears were now flowing down the former pro hero's face as she began to break down only to stop when Izuku's hand grasped hers.
"Nana… it's not your fault-" Nana's eyes shot open as she looked up at the hardened emerald of Izuku's eyes. "It was ultimately my decision that led us to this situation… do I wish that I could go home?… yes, but I understand that we will likely never make it back to our home. So we must do what we can to help people here, like Rebecca-san and finding the rest of her team." Nana's tears had stopped falling at this point, her along with the rest of the vestiges were in awe of the fortitude of the youngest of their number. The group could all remember how Izuku had been when he first met All Might, how the young man had been nothing but a beaten down shell that was only one bad day away from either going full on villain, vigilante or offing himself in grief. He had come a long way from the beansprout of a fanboy who would cry a literal river at the drop of a hat.
Giving Nana one more squeeze to reassure her, Izuku took a shaky breath realizing that he would now have to face the last member of the vestiges, who was also the newest of them. Swallowing a lump and feeling a sharp pain in his heart, Izuku turned to his right… and almost broke.
There sitting to his right was the smiling form of his mentor/father figure; the former number one hero, All Might, aka Toshinori Yagi. Though it wasn't the All Might he remembered. Toshinori looked to be in his prime, no longer was he the emaciated skeleton of a man that he had trained under to become a hero. No this was the man who had become the Symbol of Peace and who had almost singlehandedly destroyed the Symbol of Evil before his injury partially crippled him. The man was tall at almost seven feet tall and built like an American comic book hero. Toshinori's skin was a healthy tan like he had never stayed a day inside, his face was chiseled in a way that would be considered roughish according to some tabloids. The man's hair was the same golden blond he remembered from his youth, brushed back with two tufts at the front raised in a 'V.' The former Symbol sat in his 'Golden-Age' costume and was giving his successor a now soft and sad smile instead of the heroic smiles he had been known for.
A sob escaped Izuku as he launched himself from his seat to his mentor/father figure, Toshinori only sighed sadly and wrapped his successor in an embrace, tears also starting to flow from his eyes. Around the table the other previous users of One for All looked on with an understanding sadness in their eyes, especially in the case of Nana and Yoichi. Both the first and seventh users understood that Izuku would be especially hurt by the presence of Toshinori and what that meant for the older man, for the only way that a vestige of the man would be here now… would mean that Toshi had died before Izuku was brought to this place.
"A-All Might-sensei… I am so sorry *sob* I-I wasn't strong enough to save you and everyone else… I failed you… I should have never received One for All… If I had been stronger or someone better had gotten the quirk then-" Before Izuku could continue to berate himself, the greenet was stopped when he felt a large hand chop to the top of his head. Leaning back with his hands covering the goose egg that attempted to grow, Izuku looked with confused tear-filled eyes to his mentor who was giving him an exasperated and sorrowful look. When Izuku opened his mouth to ask why his mentor had struck him, he was interrupted by said mentor speaking up in a gentle, chiding tone.
"Izuku my boy… this wasn't your fault. If anyone is responsible for my death, it is me and only me. I went to face All for One with the knowledge that it would be probably the last fight of my life,-" Toshinori held up his hand to stop his successor's rebuke before it could even start and continued. "but I also knew that if I didn't try to help as much as I could that I wouldn't be able to live with myself if anyone else, especially you, were to die." Reaching out with his large hands, Toshinori gently wiped the remaining tears from Izuku's face, then nearly blinded the whole room with the large smile he gave Izuku.
"HAHAHA! You should have seen it though when I gave that bastard a mad beat down… why if it hadn't been for that copied quirk he had gotten of little Eri-chan's, then I say that I would have finally taken down that blight on humanity with little issue!" Toshinori then proceeded with a boisterous laugh that brought a groan from the second and third users, a laugh and chuckle from the fourth and fifth, a hidden smile from the sixth and a combined facepalm from Yoichi and Nana. Izuku just looked at his childhood hero in admiration… until a fist hit said hero in the head in the form of one Nana Shimura.
"Damnit Toshi! What the hell is wrong with you! How could you joke at a time like this!?" The look the beautiful heroine was giving the former number one hero caused sweat to begin building on said man's brow.
"You damn zygote, I should show you how Gran Torino learned to fear and emulate my training-" Toshinori was now white with fear backing into the back of his throne in the fetal position as his master walked towards him a familiar dread filling him. The rest of the vestiges could only stare in abject shock and horror at the change to one of their number towards their newest 'member.' Izuku on the other hand was at a loss of words how the seriousness of the situation had been so completely turned on its head. Back with the seventh and eighth, Nana was currently holding a now panicking Toshinori off the ground and shaking him like a tambourine. This was much to the surprise and enjoyment of the older vestiges considering Nana was at least a foot and a half shorter than the prime form of All Might's eight foot frame.
Daigoro was currently making a bet with a smirking Gearshift about how badly Nana was going to beat down Toshi, as Yoichi along with Hikage were trying to calm down the righteous feminine fury of the heroine. The cacophony of the room was brought to a sudden stop as the sound of laughter filled the hall like room. All of the vestiges looked to the source to find it was Izuku, laughing while also still crying slightly. Nana seeing this, released Toshinori, dropping the distracted hero and landing him on his ass as he fought off the dizziness of his impromptu assault by his master. Both Yoichi and Nana approached the still laughing Izuku slowly to ensure that he was okay. Nana reaching him first, placed a gentle hand on the boy and asked in a calm voice.
"Izuku are you okay?"
It took another few moments for Izuku to calm down both his laughter and tears before he looked up at the worried face of Nana before making eye contact with the other vestiges then returning his gaze to hers. Deciding to answer Izuku sighed sadly and nodded to the older woman, gesturing back to their seats, Nana took the hint and went back to her spot, noticing that the others had also returned to their respective seats.
"Look, I'm not going to say I am okay… because in many ways I am not okay…" Izuku was now giving the vestiges the same look he had developed while he had been fighting against All for One's forces as a vigilante. As the vestiges looked at the change in Izuku's eyes, some of them couldn't help but flinch at what they found. Where Izuku's normal gaze was warmth personified, filled with empathy and a want… no need to help others no matter the cost to himself. The look he had now was more akin to a career soldier or the deepest of underground heroes. His gaze was hard, filled with the conviction to do whatever was necessary to fulfil his objectives no matter what. Yoichi, Nana, and Toshinori looked down at this look knowing that it was because of their failure to finish off All for One that led this young kind boy to have to harden his heart to finish the two hundred year old battle between brothers.
"But I will continue to move forward… not just for me, but for all of those who weren't able to make it." With his words, images of those he had lost during the final battle flashed across his mind's eye
Tenya, sacrificing himself to save a group of civilians from an attacking group of Nomu…
Kirishima, standing over the still form of Kacchan as Edgeshot attempted to heal him, his hardened skin cracking and breaking as a Nomu with the quirk of Muscular continued to beat on him with a savage grin on its monstrous face…
Hagakure and Ojiro, Standing back to back as the formerly invisible girl used her newly awakened photo kinesis alongside Ojiro's weaponized tail quirk against a horde of Twice clones…
Images continued to spiral through Izuku's mind… of those who he had seen and those who he had heard from others…
'I'm not even sure what had happened with Tsu and Ochako's fight with Toga… then there was Shoto's fight with his brother Dabi and the rest of his family… I can only hope they all made it in the end.'
Fighting off the depressing thoughts of what may have happened he looked back up and continued what he had been saying.
"The fact is… we will probably never make it back home…" The rest of the group looked down in sadness at what their last successor had lost in the end. "but this does not mean that we couldn't be a hero here! I don't know if you guys were paying attention to much other than Yoichi, who had told me about what happened with the shit that Tsubasa rip-off tried to infect us with." Everyone then turned to the first in surprise at this before the white-haired man nodded and gave everyone a hand gesture for them to wait until after Izuku was done.
"Okay, so I think for the time being that we should work alongside Rebecca-san and her remaining team to bring the monsters of this Umbrella Corporation down!" nods and quiet sounds of agreement came from the others around the table. Nana, Toshinori, and Daigoro were giving him cheesy thumbs up gestures, much to his embarrassment. Before anyone could interrupt, Izuku spoke one more time to direct the conversation to the next major issue.
"Now I believe that we should turn our attention to Yoichi so he can explain in more detail about the effects the experiments had on my body." Toshinori stiffened at the fact that his successor had such a horrible thing happen to him, Nana was grinding her teeth and clenching her fist in anger, the rest except for Yoichi had similar responses to the seventh and eighth. Nodding slowly to Izuku, Yoichi sat straighter in his seat as he began to explain.
"Right so first you need to understand that due to Izuku now fully adapting and incorporating One for All into his body, as well as, pushing it past the Singularity Event, has had an unforeseen side effect…" Everyone was now giving the first user a look of shock and incredulity before the voice of Fa Jin cut through.
"What 'side effects' Yoichi?"
"*sigh* Well the fact is that even after the singularity, One for All was still in a process of evolution when Izuku landed in the hands of Umbrella. The quirk had begun to enter a state of hyper adaptation, basically pushing to make Izuku's body the best vessel possible. Now at first this wouldn't have really affected him seeing that the worse that would have happened if we had still been in our world, would have been Izuku gaining a moderate healing factor from his injuries and maybe a resistance to painkillers or anesthesia…"
Another sigh escaped the younger brother of the Symbol of Evil, before he continued.
"That unfortunately isn't the case now. That doctor that attempted to experiment on us basically dialed all of these to eleven. Izuku is now pretty much immune to any type of anesthetic or tranquilizer and the loss of tissue and blood caused a mutation to occur creating a light regeneration factor… These by themselves wouldn't have been too bad, in fact the regeneration factor had helped to correct almost all except the worse damage to your arms and legs from your overuse of One for All in the beginning.-"
Izuku was shocked hearing this, having not even noticed the lack of pain in his hands and legs, caused by the muscle and tendon damage from going over his limit with his quirk one to many times. Before he could celebrate, what Yoichi suddenly hit him… this is what happened before Birkin had injected that combination virus into him. The greenet was also confused on what had happened to the control systems the higher ups had attempted to install to turn him into a weapon. Voicing his concerns, Yoichi nodded and continued, while the others tried to absorb what they had heard so far.
"Izuku to answer your questions I will be starting in reverse order. First all of the attempts to control you via cybernetics were removed by a combination of your healing factor and the energy that now runs through your body unconsciously breaking down all of the organic components, including some form of parasite that had been placed on your spinal cord. The organic components where then broken down and used to reinforce your still healing limbs and joints. The parasite was also broken down and used to increase your synapse response, increasing your reaction time by a factor of ten or more along with increasing your learning and knowledge retention. Hehe, you could probably give your previous principal a run for his money now."
All levity left the man's face as he prepared to explain the most important changes to the young man.
"Finally we come to the coup de grace… from what I could see the virus that man had infected you with had two major parts to it. One was to effectively make you ultra adaptive, meaning that you would be likely to survive in any environment by literally evolving thousands if not millions of years in just moments. Now I'm sure I don't have to tell you how bad of an idea that is, considering the amount of pain that would come with that would likely result in a person becoming a mindless beast that would only have access to some higher brain function… at least until they eventually became a large blob of living cancerous flesh, teeth and eyeballs."
The entire room shuddered at the thought of that happening to the young man, said young man was shaking in disgust and anger at the fate that likely would have befell him. Nodding in agreement at the rest's reactions to the news, Yoichi continued.
"This would definitely be the case if you were infected with just the one virus and didn't have One for All as well. The second strain of virus seemed to be the originator of the first, and in some ways seemed to stabilize the rampant mutation nature of the first. On top of this, this second virus worked to 'streamline' all of your bodies functions. If you had been normal base level human, this combination would have likely put you at peak human or even above peak human ability."
"Now that is not to say that the virus didn't have its own dangers. It seems that on top of the improvements, the virus would have likely burned out your frontal cortex, leaving you a brainless lump of instincts that would refuse to die."
A shudder of realization ran through Izuku realizing that a variant of the second virus, 'Progenitor' if what he remembered from Birkin's notes was right, was the reason for this 'zombie' outbreak. Yoichi, seeing Izuku about to fall into a muttering spree, cut in before the young man could start.
"Izuku, before you go off on one of your tangents I need to finish the explanation." Smiling lightly at the red face of embarrassment on Izuku's face, Yoichi continued. "Now like the parasite, One for All attacked and cannibalized both of the viruses and adapted them to your body. In fact it was a good thing that you were put in suspended animation for so long because you would have likely lost your mind from the pain of the changes your quirk made to your body."
"After the changes made by One for All, you now have a hyper-regenerative factor. You could likely even regrow limbs and major organs in moments as long as you have the right amount of energy. On top of this, any and all remaining damage, except for your scars for some reason, has been healed. Your bones are now stronger than Damascus steel, your muscle fibers have been refined to the point of being compared to carbon nanotubes wrapped in titanium. Even your joints have been reinforced giving you a flexibility that likely would have that pink girl Ashido green with envy."
All of the other vestiges either began chuckling or laughing uproariously in the case of Daigoro and Toshinori, while Izuku himself blushed an almost atomic red that glowed in the dark. The blushing young man began stuttering out uncomprehendingly and flinging his arms out in denial at… something? Yoichi, exasperated by how the group had devolved into a cacophony of laughs and jibes at Izuku's still prevalent need to downplay himself even after everything he had accomplished. And the boy had accomplished quite a lot; just from the beginning of his first year at U.A. Izuku and his classmates were involved in no less than three run ins with some of the most dangerous villains(the USJ, the attack on Hosu with Stain, and the summer camp attack), two different international incidents(I-island, and Humarise incident), a war, Hell Izuku was a major part of taking down three of the most dangerous groups of villains known in his time(Kai Chisaki and the Eight Precepts of Death, fighting Nine and his group on Nabu Island, and finally defeating Shigaraki and All for One in the final battle.)
It was an undeniable fact that Izuku Midoriya was an excellent hero… but unfortunately due to the ten years of abuse at the hands of everyone in his childhood, with the exception of his mother, Izuku had next to no self-worth. These two traits combined in probably the worst way possible creating a self-destructive martyr complex in the young man. This was shown especially when Izuku had left U.A. the first time to fight against All for One and the League of Villains. In the few months he had been fighting the overwhelming odds and protecting everyone he could, Izuku had worked himself to near death stating that it didn't matter what happened to him as long as he could still protect and save others. While Gearshift and Fa Jin wouldn't admit it, they along with the rest of the vestiges were extremely worried about Izuku's state of mind, not even All Might when he was still alive could dissuade the young hero before Izuku left his only support behind.
Now here they were, Izuku having defeated his greatest foe, but having lost… everything. It was just too cruel a fate for the young man, and if Yoichi were to have any say in it, Izuku deserved to rest… to grieve… before Yoichi could continue his thoughts, a cleared throat brought the white haired originator of One for All out of his thoughts. Looking up he could see all eyes on him seeming to be waiting on him. Having a sudden inspiration, a small smile came to Yoichi's face, only to be replaced by an irritating distracted head tilt and eye smile.
"Oh, sorry… did you say something?"
Silence… silence filled the room, everyone from the fourth and up looked at Yoichi in confusion, while second and third just gave him a deadpan worthy of the ages. Fa Jin sighed in disappointment at the first before speaking.
"Two hundred year old anime jokes aside… We were wondering if there were any other effects the virus had on Izuku's body."
His face losing all levity, Yoichi nodded and spoke his tone worried.
"Yes there is one more thing… The virus is still attempting to make changes to Izuku's body, but the problem is I have no idea what it may be doing or attempting to do. One for All is slowing down the progression of the changes and somewhat directing them, but I do not know where it will end."
Everyone was looking at each other in worry at what this could mean for their successor, especially Nana and All Might. Turning to the young hero, everyone was shocked again to find that Izuku didn't look to be panicking or even worried. Seeing the looks of everyone directed to him, Izuku gave a genuine smile that would warm the coldest of Siberian winters.
"Everything is going to be okay you guys… I don't know how I know but… it's just a feeling I guess. No matter what happens, I know that in the end we'll be in this together-" after this, Izuku seemed to fall into himself doubt seeming to grow in his eyes, "Y-you'll stay with me right?" All Might, Nana, and Yoichi felt a sudden knife in the heart at the worried and sad tone in the young man's voice. While the others didn't show it outwardly, they too felt a twinge at the tone Izuku spoke with.
All Might giving Izuku his patented smile, stood and reached over to his successor and pulled him into an embrace filled with warmth and fatherly pride.
"Of course my boy, we will be here for you until the end. You will not be alone again, I promise."
The rest of the vestiges nodded to Toshinori's words almost bringing Izuku to tears again, though this time in happiness. Before the group could continue their conversation, Hikage felt a sudden feeling of dread as his quirk activated. Izuku had also felt the quirk activate and with a worried look on his face the greenet moved to the entrance in a hurry to return to the waking world…
-Line Break-
The change from the quirk space to the real world was only lightly disorienting as Izuku looked around the room to try and find what had caused [Danger Sense] to activate. Before he could even move to get up a sudden click of a gun hammer caused the young hero to freeze. When Izuku's vision finally cleared and he was able to see the room, Izuku could see that someone was standing between him and the still sleeping Rebecca. Looking closer Izuku could see a similar emblem on the man's chest denoting the man as a member of the S.T.A.R.S team. As he was about to speak to talk down the older man, the officer spoke out in a commanding tone.
"Alright who are you, and what did you do to my teammate? You have ten seconds to answer, then I will assume you are complicit to what ever the fuck is going on in this place… ten-"