I am SUPER sorry for the late update. Like, beyond late, sheesh. If you guys want an explanation, I was waiting for The Owl House to conclude, and it did. When I watched the finale, I had to think some things over and apply what I want to do with this story to what happened at the end of the show. I realized that the latter half of what I had planned was going to pretty much fail miserably, so for the last month or so I had to do three things.

1 – I had to re-think all of what I wanted to do at the Boiling Isles. This meant overhauling EVERYTHING I had planned to do. Like, rework it from the ground up. Seriously, it was a mess looking back at it, but now I'm fairly certain that what I have planned can now work.

2 – Because of me overhauling all that junk with the boiling isles, I had to apply it to this and the rest of this "season" as you can call it. Things that I had originally wanted to set up that, thankfully, haven't been set up yet, I had to rework once again from the ground up, while also putting my AU into the picture.

3 – lastly, I had to think about what I wanted Luz to end up being by the end of this. And I've come up with that answer. Won't spoil anything, but believe me, I'm gonna have fun with it.

Also, I wanted to mention something that someone brought up in the comments on Ao3 about how this story was too Grim and Dark and that I wasted Julia's character.

To that I say, I'm gonna be 100% honest with you chief, you don't know anything about what I have planned for Julia. Read into that as much as you guys want.

As for the whole "too Grim and Dark" point they made, my response to that is: don't like it? Don't read it. What else were you expecting in a world that mirrors close to our own? The Human Realm of The Owl House is a mirror of our own, so of course scumbags like The Governor are going to exist, and people are greedy as hell.

Of course, Luz, who has the proverbial Devil on her shoulder, is going to do some really fucked up shit. This is obvious and should've been obvious since you saw the concept.

Am I being harsh? Yeah, I am, and no, I don't care. Look, you can criticize this work but do it constructively. This is not to say that the comment in question was anywhere near the levels of garbage you see in other fandoms, gods no, but at the same time do the constructive part of constructive criticism.

That being said, I've wasted enough of yall's time. Enjoy the chapter.

[Summer Break Shenanigans – Part 3]

Shigaraki had to admit that the last month had been extremely dull, especially for him. But then again, there wasn't really much he could do at the moment. The mind space was like a prison for him, so unless he sucked Luz into their shared mind to speak with her about stuff she probably was already figuring out on her own, there wasn't much else that he could do in terms of entertainment.

Well, that wasn't exactly true. There was one thing that was keeping him satisfied, and that was what was surrounding him.

Darkness surrounded him, but in that darkness there were cages. And in those cages amorous blobs of what used to be people. Glowing eyes of various colours filled the darkness, along with the occasional moan of pain.

Shigaraki smiled, staring at blobs. There was nothing more musical and wonderful to his ears than to hear the sounds of idiots who thought themselves to be any match for the collective power that was All For One, and for their punishment to be eternal slavery within the confines of the Quirk—forever to have their power used for the sole purpose of progressing his goals.

In this sense, Luz was truly a prodigy.

By seeing them as nothing more than powers, Luz's mind effectively made them less than human, something that he had a problem with within his own life when he had the Quirk. And because these people were powerless to do anything about their current scenarios, they couldn't do what they did to him and torment him, driving him insane.

In other words, they could not degrade the mind of his (possible) successor, as they had no mouth, and could not scream.

But then, the question remained, how was this possible? How did entities come out of Quirks that were stolen? Well, the answer to that one was rather simple. See, Quirks were fragments of people, so in a sense, she was stealing a fragment of that person alongside the Quirk, in this case being a part of their soul. Taking away what made them, them. Which, from what he gathered, was the very thing that she despised doing. Which was probably why she hadn't taken any more Quirks in a while.

Although, like most things he predicted, he was sure she would continue. There would come a point when she wouldn't have a choice, be it out of necessity, or by his hand.

After all, the "addiction" was him forcing her hand, making her take another Quirk to fuel his sadism. Influencing her actions, her emotions, and manipulating her without even uttering a word. While he couldn't take over her body, yet, he definitely could influence her.

Whether she knew it or not, every action that she did that she considered as "bad", as well as every thought and word she spoke that made her look like an evil person was, in some way, influenced by him.

And while he could go at that for days on end, he still had to prepare for his master plan. Sure, it was fun to torment Luz and manipulate her, but he needed to keep his priorities straight. And that priority was making sure he could complete his goals. There was just one small issue with that. And that was the fact that he had no physical body. Without the ability to do anything physically, he could only do one thing, and that was the thing that he excelled in the most.

Planning.

Rikitatsu Shigaraki was a man of planning. He never did anything without a plan, a backup plan should that original plan fail, and another backup plan if that backup plan fell through. Some people would call him meticulous to a fault, and perhaps that was his downfall prior to his death, but he had plans in place should he ever die before his plan with Tomura would see through.

And right now, he was grinning ear to ear. He had been put in the perfect body for his backup plan to work, what with Luz being young, full of life, and completely oblivious to what it was he was attempting to do. This was not to mention that he was in the perfect spot to have direct access to what he called "the hub world of the Realms".

Or, as it was more commonly known: The Boiling Isles.

But, what was The Boiling Isles?

Well, The Boiling Isles, also referred to as The Demon Realm, was considered a "Realm between Realms." It almost mirrored Yggdrasil. Except, it only had two Realms it could bounce two and from, the first being The Human Realm, and the second being The Mutant Realm i.e. his realm.

The Human Realm and The Mutant Realm were loosely connected to The Demon Realm, but connected nonetheless. Or well, The Mutant Realm used to be connected, but he would get into that later. However, The Human Realm was still connected, meaning that he now had a shot at getting back there.

Oh, sure, getting to The Boiling Isles was going to be a difficult task, but not an impossible one.

You see, before everything that had happened, an event occurred that made him think about the possibility of there being other worlds out there. So, he asked the doctor to do some research on multiversal theory, and what he found was Titans Blood.

It was the very thing that made Gigantomachia as large as he was, and as loyal as he had been. Contrary to what The Doctor assumed was his brain failing and becoming dumber due to his Quirk Overload, the Titans Blood had been the thing that made him as loyal as he had been.

That small tangent aside, it was thanks to his finding The Titan's Blood that had allowed him to find out about The Boiling Isles. Truly, what the Doctor thought was a strange blood sample from some weird pet a girl had, turned out to be his biggest boon.

Titans Blood was a rare resource that sometimes leaked over into the two Realms, and was typically found in swamps—this was where he had found more of the stuff once he lost track of that girl and her strange pet dog thing. It made sense, seeing as The Boiling Isles was typically hot and humid. He had never been there for too long, but when he was, he had made an impact. He had a few friends in very high places, and a few pawns there too.

Pawns that were more loyal to him, than they were to their foolish emperor.

All he had to do was get his way there, and those pawns that he had made would come flocking to him, no matter the body he had been in. He had actually planned to extradite those people from The Boiling Isles back to his world. Unfortunatly, something unforeseen happened.

His world had gotten cut off when he ran out of Titan's Blood, and no more of it came to the swamps he had charted out in the world. His access to The Boiling Isles had been gone, and it made him panic. He had to do something. Unfortunately, he wasn't given much time, because when he was cut off, at the same time as this happened, his fight with All Might happened.

He perished in that fight, and his Quirk, along with his soul, was put into the body of Luz Noceda, which caused a mass Quirk Awakening Event, or a QAE. One that was more advanced than the one that happened in his world, because most of the Quirks that awakened, of the 10s, of thousands of Quirks were Quirks he had stole, making this QAE more devastating than the one that occurred in his world.

However, he no longer had to worry. That didn't matter anymore. What mattered here is that he was now able to potentially find more Titan's Blood. Once he got his hands, or more appropriately, once Luz got her hands on the Titan's Blood, he could connect her to The Boiling Isles. And then, from there, he could find a way to bridge back to his world, and continue his reign of terror!

And what was better… Luz was walking right into an opportunity to get some Titan's Blood without his intervention. It was truly ironic, how even when he was actively manipulating her that he got subpar results. Now that he was allowing her a moment of freedom from his suggestions and manipulations, she was doing what he needed of her.

It was perfect! He couldn't have asked for a better chance! And with Luz being as suggestible as she was, well… this made things a million times easier. His plan was slowly but surely coming to fruition, and he couldn't have been any happier!

That was, of course, assuming Luz didn't catch onto him. That was his only fear. That she could figure him out, and once she did, she would go against him completely. But, he didn't think he was going to have to worry about that. He was fairly certain he had weaselled his way into her heart enough to make her think that he wasn't completely vile and allowed him the opportunity to do what it was he needed to do.

What was better for him, and possibly worse for her, was that her body was beginning to change. He had seen that her hair was turning white, and seen that his messing with her mentally and twisting of her mind into something more akin to him was having a real effect on her body. She was inheriting his albinoism. Her eyes were still that disgusting dark brown colour, but as time continued to move forward, they would slowly turn red.

There was just one thing he knew that wasn't going to change, but that didn't really matter.

Her skin colour.

In fact, he would prefer if it didn't, because it allowed him to use it as a scapegoat. Should he be able to return to his world, and should All Might find out, well, he wouldn't know who he was looking for. Sure the white hair might give it away, same with the eyes, but the skin colour gave him plausible deniability. Again, this was assuming he was going to be able to get that far. Because, right now, Luz was making a terrible mistake.

This Riley individual was going to get her killed. He could tell based on how she looked at Luz. They might have been family, but there was something in that woman's eyes that told Shigaraki that she was considering making Luz a corpse by the end of the day. A funny feeling, that was. A sense of familiarity struck his heart when he thought about that.

Ah~ good times!

Luz's life was playing mirror to his own. That was good. First persecution based on how one simply existed both in the past and the present. Now, there was seemingly a potential betrayal in the family. So long as this continued, and so long as enough tragedy strikes her, she'd be willing to listen to damn near anything he requested of her. It was only a matter of time before she gave way to her truest self. The truest self that All For One grants its user.

Complete, and total, unrivalled POWER. Free from one's limitations and morality. Free from one's perceptions of the law. The moment Luz went quote-on-quote crazy, was the moment that he would be able to grant her the fullest of All For One. Sure, the limitations were still in place, and sure, she would still need to make her body stronger, but did that really matter? If he was able to make the same genetic augmentations he did to his own body, then he could replicate them on Luz's.

Of course, that would mean he would need to have access to a geneticist who would be willing to do this. And, they would need more viable Quirks to do so. All in all, that stage of the plan was going to have to wait until he got back to his universe, and when he got back into contact with The Doctor.

But before that could happen, he still have to groom her into being his successor, should he not be able to get into contact with Tomura, or The Boiling Isles at a reasonable pace. He had no idea how many years could have passed in his time in this world. For all he knew, The Doctor did away with Tomura and left him completely successor-less.

Or worse, All Might found Tomura and scaled back the boy's rage, and completely turned him back to being Tenko Shimura. That wasn't desirable. So, this was going to be his backup plan, should he fail in going back to his world, or a variant of his world. Then, and only then, would Luz Noceda have to become his successor.

Which brought up the topic of a name change, much like he did with Tomura.

Names… what to change her name to should she accept—not that she would be given much of a choice, but he digressed. Tenko Shimura became Tomura Shigaraki. Shigaraki had to be a part of it…. "Hmm…" Rikitatsu thought, cupping his chin as he sat in the leather seat he was so graciously provided with in Luz's mental landscape.

He knew he was going to go for the traditional Japanese name route. He meant no offence, but a foreign name mixed with a Japanese name, to him, looked ugly as sin. The meaning could be what he was looking for, but something like Sam Shigaraki or Adjuka Shigaraki just didn't work for him. It looked wrong to him, so that was why he was going to keep it in his realm of knowledge.

And then, he got an idea!

"Ah! I know… Toshiko… Toshiko Shigaraki. Clever Child of Death. Should she become my successor, that will be the name I bestow upon her."

Shigaraki laughed, his eyes gleaming a bright red, and his laugh travelling throughout the mind space.

This world would be his, as would The Boiling Isles.

And Luz would be the one to do it all for him. Whether she liked it or not.

xxXXxxXXxx

Riley was conflicted. Scratch that, Riley was beyond conflicted. It was to the point where she was beginning to question her morals and her sanity. Luz, someone she considered to be close to her due to being her family, was All For One, i.e. the one that she was hired to kill.

She found this out when Luz used the same finger spear power that All For One did when she had defeated the Wet Bandits. And then, Luz did it again when she was making herself a bowl of assorted fruits and vegetables for a mid-afternoon snack.

This was probably one of the worst revelations that could've happened to Riley. She had expected finding All For One's identity to be tricky, if not downright impossible. But for her to realize and find out that Luz was All For One… haunted Riley.

Because now she had to kill Luz.

And therein lay the issue. Her willingness to kill Luz. She didn't want to, gods she didn't want to, but there was a lot at stake here. And yes, she was talking about the 10 million dollars.

Did she kill Luz for 10 million dollars, or did she not kill Luz and be potentially killed by one of the other assassins the Wittebanes employed? The choice was so obvious it wasn't funny—killing Luz was the worse of those choices, and yet there was something about it that she couldn't let go.

On the one hand, 10 million dollars was 10 million dollars.

On the other hand, Luz was her cousin.

As scummy as it was, she had to think about it. Over the last hour or so, Riley had been thinking about whether or not she was going to kill Luz, or if she was going to spare her and end up getting killed as a result.

Even if it wasn't said, it was implied that if she failed to do a job, she would be killed for it. After all, no one was allowed to know that one of the largest Mega Churches had hired guns. For as much as she hated the Wittebanes, she had to give them props for keeping such a massive thing like this a secret.

Now if only she could somehow come out of this by getting both of what she wanted—an alive Luz and the 10 Million dollars. Because as much as she wanted to be optimistic, there was nothing to suggest that it was ever a possibility.

She had to think realistically, and so, that was exactly what she did.

As it stood, Riley had next to no one on her side in terms of true loyalty. If one counted on shoddy trust, then that was the kind of people she had to lean on in times of stress. Those people being The Wittebanes, the other assassins that they had hired, and… that was about it. It was depressing, but that was the reality of it. Or, well, Luz was there too, but she was a target.

She had to kill Luz.

That was what she trying to come to grips with. She had to kill someone in her family. And… quite frankly, she felt conflicted about it. For starters, she barely knew Luz. She met her once and that was when she was 11 years old, and Luz was 5. The girl could barely put together understandable sentences at 5 years old.

So, in reality, was it that hard to do? If she only saw her once in her life and that was it up until now? She wasn't all that attached to Luz—hell, she barely even knew Camila, so if the woman hated her for doing her job, so be it.

And it would be so easy to do it. Luz had her defences down, as she was simply sitting back and watching the TV, fruit bowl in hand and remote in the other. All Riley had to do was simply touch her, activate her superpower, and be done with it.

But… that wasn't how her power worked. Her Bomb-Touch only worked if she hated the thing that she touched. And, for as petty as this sounded, she, unfortunately, didn't hate Luz. She hated All For One, but she didn't hate Luz. And because Luz was All for One, it cancelled out the hatred, and therefore she no longer could hate them.

Meaning her power wouldn't work on Luz.

That meant that the only thing that she could do was stab Luz in the back. Literally. Camila wasn't home because she was at work at the moment, and it was just her and Luz. Then again, she made a plan with Millie to take down All For One, so she couldn't forgo that. Even if it was super easy to kill her right now.

But… that begged the question. Did she kill her at all? Did she betray the assassins and join up with All For One instead? Did she stick with her family, or did she stick with where the money came from? For the last month, she had been loyal to The Wittebanes, but she hated them. However, 10 Million Dollars were at stake here.

"Fuck! What the hell am I going to do?!" Riley thought, brushing a hand through her hair as she stared at the back of Luz's head as she watched the TV. Riley had a knife in her hand behind her back so it was out of view. All she had to do was lunge forward and kill her. She'd tell Millie that she found All For One's identity, was in the same area as them, and they were defenceless. That would be the excuse.

"Just kill her. Come on. It's so easy. It can't be that hard." As Riley thought that, she shook her head. "No! She's my family! I can't kill her. Not… so brazenly…." Riley's grip on the knife grew tighter as her eyes drilled metaphorical holes in the back of Luz's head.

"What to do, what to do?! I mean, All For One, or Luz, was said to have 5 to 10 unique abilities. I've only seen one, so I don't know if just stabbing her would work. If it didn't, then I would potentially lose my life and my power. Goddamnit… I know I shouldn't be conflicted on this, but seriously, what the fuck am I supposed to do?!" Riley thought, chewing the inside of her lip.

Seriously, what was she going to do? Sure, it would be easy to just kill her right here, and right now. But at the same time, Luz was her cousin. Luz was some of the only family she had left. If she killed Luz or made an attempt to kill Luz, it would probably end in disaster.

At the same time, though… "NO! Fuck me, no! I can't! I can't do it!" Riley thought, pocketing the knife. No matter how much she tried to justify it, she couldn't kill Luz.

Not alone, anyway….

She had to find some reason to hate Luz. Even if the hate was artificial. She still had a day before the plan went into action. It couldn't be that hard, could it?

Then again, this was Luz Riley was talking about here. Finding a reason to hate Luz would be rather hard…

Unless…

She blamed Luz for the death of her father's brother. The thing that caused her father to spiral and start abusing her.

"That could work…." Immediately, she felt a swath of anger flush over her. It was manufactured, sure, but it worked. Now she at least could kill Luz. Riley reached out to touch Luz, the tips of her fingers narrowly brushing over the teen's head.

She was going to go with the excuse that she had found out All For One's identity. Screw keeping the plan with Millie, she was going to—

"Stop." Riley hesitated for a second, frowning in thought, putting her hand down. "Bad idea. If something goes down, and Bomb-Touch fails, I'm going to be in for one hell of an experience. I'll wait till tomorrow…." As Riley thought that, she pocketed her hand as Luz stood up, stretching.

"¡Ese fue un buen episodio!" Luz groaned in Spanish, before looking over her shoulder. "Hey, Riley, I'm gonna go publish that video I was working on. Do me a favour and text my mom when she's gonna get home, 'kay?" Luz asked, not giving Riley a chance to say anything as she made her way to the basement floor, aka Luz's computer room.

"Son of a bitch…." Riley thought, dragging out her phone and opening up the messaging app with Camila's contact in it.

xxXXxxXXxx

"So… Humans have superpowers now? Since when?" An echoey voice came from what appeared to be a mirror as a thin but muscular man in a white suit with a black tie, ashen long blond hair and green eyes, along with the makings of a bit of stubble around his chin, spoke.

"Since a month ago. The World Health Organization dubbed it "The Mass Power Awakening Event. Or, the MPAE. And before you ask, there is seemingly no way to reverse it." As the man spoke, he sneered, looking down at the floor.

"Is something the matter?" The voice asked as the man scoffed.

"Nothing. I'm just thinking about what recently happened. Even though I disowned her, Julia was cursed with such tainted blood, and expect our newborn son to be the same. We are hopeful, though, that the Wittebane blood shall not be tainted by it through this son of ours."

"I see… Good. Try and keep it that way. And what about The Agent I sent? Do you approve?" The voice asked as the man frowned.

"She is unorthodox, but at the same time, for as much as I hate the idea of witchcraft and superpowers as a whole, when it benefits us, I see no reason not to approve. Plus, it shall help us in eliminating the person who we are trying to kill. Someone who we know will become a thorn in our side," the man replied as the voice hummed.

"And who might this person be? Curious, is all…" The voice asked as the man huffed.

"All For One." The name came out like tar from the man's mouth. With the amount of venom leaking from his lips, if said venom was real, it would kill 30 herds of elephants. His hatred ran deep. And if one heard it, it would send a shiver down their spine, should they be pure of heart, at least.

The voice went silent, muttering something under their breath before speaking up. "All For One, you say? Good… that one… I remember meeting a person who went by that name. It was long ago, 10 years or so. I doubt we're talking about the same person, but I digress. They almost foiled everything I had planned for, but now that we have a chance to exterminate them, do so. Millie should be more than enough."

And with that, the connection was severed. Tyler Wittebane frowned. He hated talking to that damned Emperor Belos. Wizards, Warlocks, and Witches, no matter what they were or what their goals were, should all be extinct. The moment the job was done, Tyler would personally kill that Witch that Belos sent.

And then he'd kill Belos by stepping across that threshold and lay waste to him with as much bullet fire as possible. No one, not even a skilled magic user, could withstand the might of a fully automatic assault rifle.

"Disgusting, filthy, wretched demon spawn," Tyler spat, turning away from the mirror with nothing but vile things to say. His wife was upstairs doing motherly things, such as tending to the baby and later cooking. He'd chop down some wood later for the fireplace and then prepare the table. The butlers and the Maids meanwhile would do the cleaning.

A part of him was glad that Julia was gone. Don't get him wrong, she was a wonderful daughter before her curse showed up. Once that happened, he knew that a demon must have possessed her, and no matter how much he tried to pray for her, it wouldn't go away. She was already showing signs of demonic possession when she talked about liking women.

No self-respecting Christian would lay with a person of the same sex. It was sinful, downright disgusting, and morally irreprehensible. He wanted to gag just thinking about it.

"No more thinking about that mistake. I have better things to do with my time…." Tyler thought as he walked out of the basement of his manor. He had climbed up at least two flights of stairs to get there, and when he was done, he was going to lock the door behind him.

Later, after he got done cleaning himself after talking to that wretch of a man named Belos, he would organize a meeting with the assassins he had currently available to regroup and spend all of their efforts on killing All For One. Gravesfield was a small town. 12 assassins should easily be able to kill that damned cursed child.

Theoretically, someone like All For One would be seen as a blessing. Until one realized that they kept the powers after the fact, only making them more sinful and detestable. The Governor had the right idea, but the wrong approach.

All For One couldn't be used. That was clear, considering they killed and stole all the other children who had "attended" that slaughter fest, then proceeded to give up all of those powers to other people, spreading the plague.

All For One was The Devil in disguise.

And if he could kill The Devil, even if it was through someone else, then it would earn him a spot in heaven. No doubt about it! After all, it was those who were chosen by God's mission to exterminate Devilishness and Sin, was it not? The Wittebanes, a family of witch hunters, fit the bill more than anyone else.

It was Tyler's birthright to do this! All For One should feel proud.

The day he put the bullet in the back of that wretches head, would be the day his soul would be cleansed of any sin he could have committed in the past. For he would be the one who killed The Deceiver, The Beast, and the mocker of the Holy Trinity.

He already lost his Daughter to that Devilry. He was not about to lose the town he loved the most to it. Call him a hypocrite, or call him hateful all you want, he had the town's best interest at heart. Who cared what the others said, he was God's chosen, and he wasn't about to let anyone else tell him otherwise.

No one and he meant no one, was going to stand in the way of his Crusade.

Luz Noceda was going to die.

Now, why didn't he tell his assassins All For One's identity? Well, Tyler always loved mind games. It had been a thing of his since he was but a wee child. His assassins were also superpowers scum, so why should he help them? It was up to them to figure it out.

Was it petty? Yes. Did he care? No.

Why should he, a man clean of sin and chosen by God, help Devilish Sinners? It wasn't his job to do that. His job—his family's job—was to kill them.

Besides, the result would be the same. Luz would die, and she would kill the others whilst they tried to kill her. It was just that simple. He did not need to intervene.

That, and he didn't want to sic his assassins on the innocent woman Camila. Some of the people he hired were straight-up psychopaths. Young, yes, but murderous nonetheless. They wouldn't spare her, and he didn't need innocent casualties on his consciousness.

Now all he had to do was get every assassin to meet up in the area, and then it would be over. Luz would be pinned down in all corners, and he would win.

As he said before, and as he would say time and time again…

No one got in the way of his Crusade.

-To Be Continued-