Another month has passed, which means I'm going to put out another chapter! Yippee! Just a heads up, I got a new beta reader! Doc43Souls! So, yeah. Uh, aside from that, let's jump into the chapter!

Oh, but before that….

WARNING! THIS STORY CONTAINS SCENES/MENTIONS/IMPLICATIONS OF THE FOLLOWING: CANNIBALISM, EXTREME GORE, BULLYING, ABUSE, BRUTAL DEATH, HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION, AND HEAVY BLOODSHED.

IF ANY OF THESE THINGS BOTHER YOU, TURN BACK NOW!

IF THE WARNING DOES NOT APPLY TO YOU...

THIS STORY IS A FAN-BASED FICTION

I OWN NEITHER MY HERO ACADEMIA NOR DEMON SLAYER/KIMETSU NO YAIBA

ALL I OWN ARE MY OCS

Now, onto the chapter.

[Beta Read by Doc43Souls]

[Vol 3 – 1: Choices and Consequences – Part 1]

Nedzu would like to assume that he was always ahead of the game. It wasn't coming out of cockiness, or any form of a preconceived notion that he was superior to everyone else, but it came out of the fact that he was simply… better. And it wasn't gloating, nor was it him self-aggrandizing, but rather, it was a fact.

And it was all thanks to his Quirk, High-Specs. From the day he was born, unlike the rest of his nest, he was able to see the world from a different viewpoint. While his parents and siblings only focused on finding food or shelter, he was creating innovative ways to help jumpstart his species' evolution.

Unfortunately, he was caught by a couple of researchers before he could make any progress. They noticed his human-level intellect, and they got excited. Back then, he had no idea what a "Quirk" was, but looking back on it, he should've seen where it was going.

Unfortunately for him, past Nedzu had no idea what was about to happen. They were praising his very existence—calling him a miracle, and they treated him like a king! However, there was a dark undertone to it that past him never saw that future him did. He was the very first animal to have been born with a Quirk. Back then, he didn't know better, but now, well… needless to say, there were some humans out there who were… eager to experiment on him.

And experiment on him they did.

And it was hell.

He didn't want to go into detail, but, they had performed rather… sickening experiments on him, which all culminated to the day they turned him from a simple rat to a rat-bear-dog hybrid monstrosity by using state-of-the-art medical technology.

It was then that he learned the cruelty of humans.

They called him their masterpiece, and because his brain now consisted of that of a bear and a dog, rather than just a rat, his High-Specs Quirk evolved into something more… fitting for the new body he inhabited.

They ran tests on him to see just how far his intelligence went, with the final test comparing him to a modern-day Einstein with an IQ of 210. He easily outclassed them in both intellect, understanding, and recognition. When he surpassed them, the other scientists began to worry about just what they had created. Instead of viewing him as their masterpiece, they viewed him as a monster and tried to have him euthanized.

Luckily for him, he was able to escape the confines of the lab he had found himself in and was quick to integrate himself into society. He couldn't walk around naked everywhere he went, so he stole a black gold button waistcoat tailored for babies, along with a shirt, a pair of pants, and shoes, all tailored for toddlers.

After that, he got himself an ID, gave himself the name of Nedzu Amaterasu, the last name referring to The Sun God, though eventually he shortened it back down to Nedzu, and began to live within human society—the same society that experimented on him out their own hubris, and then when they realized the monster they had created, tried to have him killed.

In his time living amongst humans, he learned that humanity was far crueller than he had initially thought. Homelessness was on the rise, inequality between Quirkless individuals was also on the rise, and terroristic attacks from so-called villains had gone beyond any scale that could be used to measure the attacks, so much so that a new scale had to be created called the "Villain Threat Index scale" classifying certain villains from F-Rank Villians, i.e. your standard thugs, to SS class villains, i.e. world ending or society ending threats.

The heroes weren't much better, but at least they were the ones defending the generic populous, even if some of the heroes were scummy behind the scenes. He learned that most heroes did the job for money, namely because All Might, the continental exclaimed "Number One Pro Hero" could swoop in and save the day!

That was when everything clicked: Humans were greedy. Their greed led them to do horrible things, or, manipulate a system meant for good to enhance their greediness. There were some shining diamonds in the pile of sewage, yes, but a majority of them were shallow in nature—all of which were driven by a capitalistic society hellbent on marketing everything and anything.

Upon coming to that realization, from that day forth, he grew a particular hatred toward humans as a whole, but, not to the point where he would willingly try to sabotage them. Because unlike those scientists, who saw him as little more than a mutated animal that they could test on, unlike the humans who would harm the innocent in both the guises of heroes and villains and unlike the humans who would wish to see others harmed because of certain traits, he was able to see beyond that.

In short: Nedzu saw humanity on a spectrum.

He knew that there were good humans, and bad humans, so he went out of his way to help the good humans… by hijacking The Top Hero School in all of Japan and becoming one of the most fierce politicians in all of the country, to such a degree that no one wanted to pick a fight with him, both physically and psychologically.

Because of that, he was able to learn a lot about human customs, culture, and laws. He had studied them to the point of pointing out loopholes—which he regularly used—as well as inconsistencies, to the point where some of the laws had to be changed. He was wicked smart and sharp, and it scared the HSPC.

So much so that they tried to tear him down legally.

They found out the hard way that nobody, and he meant nobody, messed around with him. From that day forth, U.A. and the HSPC, begrudgingly, entered an alliance and helped each other out when it was asked for.

So, because of that demonstration of pure intellect, and because he was so easily able to beat the HSPC, the defacto governing body of current-day Japan, he saw himself as far superior to the human race, which from his perspective, made sense.

However, he also knew his place. He was very familiar with the rather crude term "fuck around and find out." It was a saying that one of his staff members, Snipe, used quite frequently when it came to teaching his class about villain encounters. And while it was a rather blunt way of putting it, Nedzu would have to agree with that particular saying.

If there was one thing Nedzu was all about, it was observing, rather than bull-rushing his way through a threat. And, considering he just came off of a meeting with all the hero school principals, and one Yushiro Yamamoto warning them of the looming threat that was "Muzan Kibutsuji" he had gone straight into theorizing mode.

He was made aware of Demons and their prior existence after reading some niche history books, written by a man by the name of Agatsuma Zenitsu, regaling stories of him slaying mighty foes who, upon reading further, seemed similar to those with Quirks, but… not at the same time. Stories of creatures that could regenerate lost limbs as if they were never cut off at all, powers similar to electrokinesis, blood manipulation, transmogrification, the list went on, all with the same backlash of being killed by the sun's rays.

It would have sounded fantastical, had they not lived in the world they did now. The idea of people like this existing wasn't exactly a foreign concept, but what was a foreign concept was these people's dependency on eating the flesh of humans to get by.

Now that… that was beyond interesting. Just what exactly was it about these specific, clearly evolved versions of the human race, that made them unable to digest cooked, human-based food? The idea of there being another species higher above the food chain of the human race was… interesting to say the very least.

It was no wonder why the humans were so quick to exterminate them, and seemingly succeed in doing so. Had it not been for the fact that they clearly underestimated their declared opponent. Because, clearly they had missed a couple, and also, clearly whatever it was that had evolved the humans to becoming "Demons" was still around, meaning that they never really were killed off, to begin with.

And, there was one example that came to his mind.

The Hero Cannibal.

The person who this Yushiro figure was convinced was the supposed "Demon King" and someone who went by the name Muzan Kibutsuji. When he did some basic research into who this person was, Nedzu couldn't find anyone, even with his deepest connections inside both the HSPC and the criminal underground. Not a single person could find the identity of Muzan Kibutsuji, or if that was even the person's real name.

From what he was aware, Muzan Kibutsuji—the second coming, not the first, that of which he was specifically told by Yushiro himself—popped up around 4 to 5 years ago according to one of his sources. Using that information, Nedzu decided to look into missing person reports from 4 to 5 years ago. He reasoned that if this was a fake name, which he was heavily convinced was the case, then he could perhaps find the person's real identity.

And it didn't take him long to figure it out.

There was one case that caught his attention rather quickly from the Musutafu Times Newspaper. It was about a woman named Inko Midoriya, and how she was found brutally murdered, appearing to have been eaten, and that her son, Izuku Midoriya had disappeared.

Izuku Midoriya disappeared 4 to 5 years ago.

Muzan Kibutsuji, aka The Hero Cannibal, appeared 4 to 5 years ago.

Nedzu was going to go on a limb and say that Izuku and Muzan were the same person. Either that or this was one massive, stupidly outrageous coincidence. And he was inclined to believe that it was the former, rather than the latter.

However, even with that information, the right thing to do was to report it to the police. But, that wasn't what Nedzu was going to do.

He was going to find Muzan Kibutsuji, aka Izuku Midoriya, and see what made him tick. And, depending on what it was his reasoning was for doing all these hero killings, he would either let him go free, or, he would have All Might alerted to the boy's location, and tell him who he was so that he could pit "The Symbol of Peace" against the self-proclaimed "Demon King."

Now, why would he do that? Well, the answer was extremely simple.

Just like him, Izuku wasn't human. Nedzu was an animal with a Quirk. Izuku was a "Demon," the same thing that Yushiro was—though interestingly Yushiro was a Demon who didn't require the eating of human flesh, something he'd also look into for research purposes—and therefore, Izuku couldn't be held under human law. It was the same reason why he couldn't be held under human law, and why he could get away with so much in such a short amount of time.

That, and he had a bias against humans for what their scientists did to him. So, he was going to keep this information to himself, and hopefully get the chance to meet this Izuku Midoriya fellow. And, depending on what he said, he would either help him out or, he would make his life a living hell.

Because anything to trip up the human race for his own sick kicks, and pseudo-revenge, was more beneficial to him than purely helping out humanity.

xxXXxxXXxx

Kai Chisaki was furious. Not only had Eri escaped, but, the people who he had sent after her to recapture her, came back empty-handed. It was already bad enough that Eri was gone, but the fact that his men had failed such a simple task had pushed him beyond his limits. However, he wasn't unreasonable. Far from it, actually. He was willing to hear them out if only to know why they had failed.

"Tell me…" Kai spat out, glaring down at his two henchmen with knit eyebrows. "How exactly did you fail to recapture her? Eri is a five-year-old child, with no control over her Quirk. She can barely put one foot in front of the other most of the time, and you mean to tell me you couldn't capture her? You better have a good reason as to why this happened, or you'll end up as a stain on the wall."

The man in front of him shrank into himself, shoulders tensed, swallowing something down—probably his fear—before he spoke up. "It had nothing to do with Eri, actually…" the man began, which now gained Kai's interest. "W-We had been able to find her rather quickly, and we had even cornered her in an alleyway! B-But then… she showed up."

"She?" Kai asked, his anger slowly coming down from its peak, and being replaced by curiosity. "Who do you mean "she?" was it a hero?" Kai questioned as the man averted eye contact. That told him immediately it wasn't a hero. But if it wasn't a hero, then who was it?

"We uh… don't know who she was. But… what we do know is that… she's the reason Kenji is dead. I don't think she even used her Quirk. She just… stepped forward, and Kenji was… sliced into three equal pieces. We were outmatched, and we had no choice but to run! Even if one of us slipped past her, we wouldn't have been able to escape her because she was so fast!" The man continued as Kai took a second to mull it over.

A mysterious woman with so much speed that she could dice a person into three halves just by walking past them… with how Quirks were shaping up, it wasn't exactly an outlandish claim—his Quirk was a great example of just how powerful Quirks could be.

Even still….

"Were you able to get enough of a visual to discern what she looked like?" Kai asked, now genuinely curious as to who this person was.

"Uh, if I may, sir?" the other grunt spoke up, as Kai turned his attention to him. Unlike the other man, he did not even so much as flinch upon being glared at. That showed that he was confident. Good. That was what he was looking for.

"You may speak," Kai replied as the thug nodded.

"I hung around for an extra minute or two. And, "she" turned out to be a "he" shapeshifting between the two sexes. Which implies he has more than one Quirk. Whatever that outlandish speed Quirk was, and whatever shapeshifting Quirk had been," the thug replied, as Kai's blood ran cold.

There was only one person in recorded history to have more than one Quirk.

And that man's name was All For One.

All For One had Eri.

He didn't even need an appearance to make that claim, because no one knew what All For One looked like. Only those who were present during All Might's battle with the behemoth knew what he looked like, and even then, not many survivors came out of it, because of just how brutal the collateral damage had been.

All For One was said to have thousands upon thousands of Quirks. Who said that a shapeshifting Quirk wasn't on that list? It was possible, and if that was the case….

His biggest rival in the criminal underground had his secret weapon. And he wasn't delusional enough to believe that he could get her back. However, that was going under the belief that All For One was still alive, and that he never reproduced. All For One was rumoured to be dead, and he was convinced that he was because All Might had been the one to defeat him.

So, there was a chance that All For One's offspring had Eri.

It was a 50/50 chance of either of the two options being possible. And because of that, his mini-panic attack stopped dead in his tracks. A 50% chance to get Eri back was better than a 0% chance. And while the issue of the person being able to shapeshift was still on the table, meaning they couldn't get the correct details of the person down, he could alternatively use his bought-out police force to track down Eri by giving them a description of the girl, and claim that she was kidnapped and that if she's seen, he wants to be notified.

Yeah… that could work.

"Thank you for this information, Takamichi. You're free to go," Kai said as the thug nodded, standing up, and leaving after bowing to him. Kai turned to face the man, who paled as he took off his right glove. "You, on the other hand, for your cowardice, will be punished."

The man couldn't even scream, before he was splattered against the wall as a messy stain of blood and viscera, thanks to Kai's Quirk, Overhaul.

Putting his glove back on, Kai snapped his fingers, as the wall next to him shifted—the reason being because of one of his lieutenants, Mimic—with the blood stain disappearing entirely. A silent thanks was given, as Kai walked forward and threw a small black plushie with a plague mask for a face onto the floor. A shadowy figure jumped from the wall into the plushie, which quickly caught up to him.

"So, Boss, what're we to do about this supposed shapeshifter!?" Mimic asked, as Kai hummed. Several ideas were flowing through his mind. But, the one that made sense to him was to get Chronos's opinion on the matter.

After all, Chronos was the brains of the operation. Don't get Kai wrong, he was the one in the lead of the Yakuza, but Chronos was his right-hand man. Without Chronos, they wouldn't be at this point. Chronos managed the funds, operated the drug ring, and did all of the dirty work, while Kai did all of the producing of the drugs, as well as test the drugs with the help of the other precepts.

"Let me speak to Chronostasis first before I come up with a game plan, Mimic. If even a quarter of what that thug said was true, then I don't want to walk in without some sort of second consensus on the matter, and whether or not it is worth it to even fight back," Kai replied, as Mimic nodded in silence.

The two split ways, as Kai went to his office. Waiting there was a man in a white robe, his hood down, exposing his long white hair. The man's bangs were oddly shaped, with one side having a long arrow, and the other having a short arrow. His beautiful blue eyes shone like sapphires, and his sculpted face was a sight to behold.

Truly, Chronostasis, aka Hari Kurono, was the only man that Kai could ever love in a romantic sense. Their status as lovers aside, it was business time, which was something that Hari immediately noticed. His expression switched from neutral to serious in seconds, as he spoke. "Sir, any news back on the Eri situation?"

"She was taken," Kai replied, as he closed the door to his office behind him. Hari cursed under his breath, clenching his right hand into a fist.

"Do we know by who?" Hari questioned as Kai shook his head.

"The only thing we know is that they're a shapeshifter, and they have multiple Quirks, as explained to me by Takamichi. I theorized that it could be either All For One or an offspring of his," Kai replied as Hari, once again, cursed, though this time it was louder and more aggravated.

"Fuck! You have to be kidding. That's the worst-case scenario!" Hari replied as Kai nodded.

"Yes, but, there is hope," Kai began as he put his hands in his pockets, leaning up against the door, his posture relaxed. "I believe we can use the police that we bought out to find her. If a large-scale search is jumpstarted, then we can possibly have her returned to us in a matter of days. We won't have to move so much as a finger. One phone call, and whoever took Eri will regret it."

Hari smirked, before laughing. "You're right! What fools! Good call, Kai," Hari said as Kai smirked under his mask. The man walked up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. They touched foreheads because Kai was never a fan of kissing, before separating. "We'll find Eri, and then, we can continue our work."

And Kai couldn't have agreed more.

xxXXxxXXxx

Mikan sat at home, sniffling. It wasn't that she was upset, or had just finished crying, but, it was something else. She had come down with a pretty nasty cold. Headaches, a bad cough, a runny nose, and chest pains. Her father argued that she could just take some medicine and go to school after that, but her mother put a stop to that almost immediately.

However, that didn't mean she couldn't do schoolwork. That was something that her parents made very clear to her. So, that meant she'd have to get the work she was supposed to have done… for the whole week from a classmate of hers. She hadn't been expecting to be sick for the whole week, but, nevertheless, such was life.

A whole week of her life passed doing nothing but staying in bed, drinking hot miso soup, taking medicine, drinking lemon tea for her throat, and sleeping. There was just one teeny tiny problem—she had no schoolwork. Namely, because she had none of the contacts of her classmates, aside from emails, none of which went answered. When that didn't work, she emailed Reiko, but she too hadn't been at school because she too got sick—probably from hanging around her.

So, that only left her with one option, and the one that made her the most fidgety. The new kid, Muzan Kibutsuji. Aka, her crush. Bright and early in the morning, she emailed him, hoping that she would get a response, as well as dreading it because that meant he'd be at her house while she was her most vulnerable state, i.e. her being sick.

A part of her kind of hoped that she'd be ignored. But, much to both her joy and her chagrin, he responded and said that he'd be over by 4:30 PM after school.

This led her to now, as she sat at the dinner table, medical mask over her mouth and nose, sitting across from the well-dressed green-and-black-haired teenager, who had a blank copy of one of this week's school assignment in front of him, helping her do today's math assignment.

They had been at the same spot for around about five or so hours—it was 9:30 PM right now, and her father going to be home soon, hopefully. She actually wanted to see her dad tonight rather than just have him kiss her forehead and say goodnight to her when she was already nearly asleep, but, she digressed.

They had already finished their English studies, and, their social studies work, which left this, and studying for a final exam that was coming up in a week to end the year. But, that wasn't even the worst of it.

She had her crush over, at her place, helping her do her homework! It wasn't a stretch to say that, normally, this was the perfect opportunity to let her feelings known! She was 15 for christ-sakes, all of the girls in the school had boyfriends and girlfriends—hell, even Reiko had a girlfriend! She was the only one who didn't have a boyfriend or girlfriend! It was completely embarrassing! If it wasn't for her being sick, she would've made her move by now!

All in all, it was a horrible time to catch a cold.

"Are you okay over there, Tsukauchi-san? Your face is a little redder than normal," Muzan spoke, breaking her out of her thoughts. She felt her face heat up with embarrassment after being caught red-handed. She had been staring at him from time to time, and she guessed that he noticed her blushing at him.

"I-I, um… well… I'm sick so… uh… it's just a fever I—"

"It's not a fever, I'm not stupid, Tsukauchi-san," Muzan interrupted, as he put down his pencil. She blinked, confusion dancing about in her mind. Did he… know? Muzan stood up, and walked around the table, before standing next to her, taking a knee and smiling. "My Quirk is… special. It allows me to sense certain things about people. It's more than just enhanced senses, but, that is one of the many facets of my Quirk."

As he said that, he took one of her hands, and placed a hand over them. Her cheeks reddened further, as he lowered her mask, leaning forward, their faces close. "Your heart's pounding in your chest. You're excited, that much is obvious," Muzan said, his voice silky smooth as it flowed in her ears. Her stomach filled with butterflies, as he leaned in closer.

She could smell his breath, and it was minty, but not overly so. Their eyes met, chocolate brown meeting crimson red, her heart picking up speed. "I've known about that silly little crush you've had on me since it began," the red-eyed teen whispered, a smile spreading on his lips, as Mikan's cheeks now matched the colour of his eyes.

"I-I—"

He placed a finger on her lips, making her shut up. It was a silent message, telling her to stay quiet. She did, and she was rewarded for doing so. He came closer, and suddenly, his lips were against her own. Shock took over her whole system, as a flurry of emotions surged throughout her whole body. Excitement, joy, confusion, whimsy—all of it! She reciprocated, even if it was unwarranted.

They stayed like that for what felt like minutes, enjoying the moment. The kiss deepened, as he pushed forward, the weight of his body almost pressing up against her own. It made her skin tingle, and strangely enough, for her nipples to harden. It felt… different. This feeling, she didn't want it to end.

But, it did…

And then… a sharp, stabbing pain filled her body, as her eyes widened. Any joyous feelings she had filtered away, replaced by pain, as Muzan stepped away. Her eyes widened, as a puffy tendril slinked back behind him. His crimson, cat-like eyes stared down at her, as he smiled. "But, if you're going to be my lover… then, well, you can't be human anymore, now can you?"

She had no idea what that meant, as panic filled her chest. She felt her arms twitch and contort. Her muscles hardened and softened, softened and hardened. Her teeth stung, her nerves were on fire, and her vision was going in and out of focus. She had no idea what was going on, but breathing became harder and harder to do.

And then, the pain ceased. Everything just… stopped. Her fingers twitched, and her teeth stopped hurting, and in the end, she felt… normal. Muzan reached a hand out to her. She eyed it, hesitantly, unknowing of what to do.

He… did something to her. Mikan didn't know what that was, but whatever it was, it was over now. But, there was one thing that did change something about this. He had used her feelings against her. He used his Quirk on her. He had done something to her and tricked her into being intimate with him. She felt… used, and disgusted with herself.

"Don't be," Muzan's voice cut through her thoughts, as her eyes widened. "Don't be disgusted with yourself. Don't feel used. You weren't. I simply made it so that we could be together. Truth be told, I feel the same way about you as you do about me. But in that prior state you were in, I couldn't be with you. It wouldn't have ended well. But now, we can be together. I've made that possible."

Mikan blinked, confusion, anger, and bewilderment filling her mind. "D-Did you... read my mind?"

Muzan smiled. "Yes, I did. And… It turns out… you were Quirkless. Powerless. You were part of the minority," Muzan continued, telling her to her face one of her most closely kept secrets. She panicked, scuttling away from him.

"N-No! S-Stop it! S-Stop reading my mind!" Mikan begged. She felt small now like she was staring up at someone whom she shouldn't have trusted. She didn't know what he was, but now, he was in her home, and he had done something to her. Something irreversible. She had been changed into something. Something that had allowed them to "be together" so to speak.

"Alright," Muzan said, as she looked up at him. She didn't notice before, but, only now had she noticed that she had been crying. "However, now, you're just like me. A Demon. And now, the games changed. We're apex predators. We eat those who are below us. And take a guess what species that is."

Her eyes widened in horrific realization. "H-Humans…" Mikan murmured, as Muzan smiled. It wasn't a sadistic smile, nor was it filled with malice, it was… prideful.

"Humans, like… your mother and father. Mikan Tsukauchi. You will not remember this command, but, as your King… as your ruler. Go to the police station where your father works, and… devour them. All of them, devour them all. If you are to be my Queen, then you are to match me in power."

His voice was commanding, and…

She couldn't possibly say no.

"Yes… my love…" her voice was completely devoid of emotion. Her lover ordered her to do something. And do it she shall. After all…

He was The King, and she was to become The Queen.

-To Be Continued-

I know this chapter has probably been the shortest one since the first, but, this is an introductory chapter into the major establishing arc that will lay upon the frontier of Izuku's rise to power and infamy within the world of My Hero Academia, even further than what he's known for. The next chapter is when we'll get to see what his thoughts are, and his reasonings—which was probably obvious to everyone reading.

Also, for those worrying that I'm rushing a relationship, don't worry about it. The next chapter will explain Izuku's intentions with what's going on here.

Anyway, that's all from me. I don't know if Doc wants to say something here but they can if they want to. Until next time everyone, peace!

Hello, dear viewers, as the dear author has said above – I'm the new beta for this (and others) story. I'm very happy to work with DeathlyJazzHands and I'll try my best at making the chapters look clean, but I'm only human and may miss something. If you spot a mistake – don't hesitate to point at it in the reviews!