Chapter 32: Picking Up Pieces
Chapter Text
Following the events that transpired in Hosu, UA found itself in the middle of crisis management, the likes of which they haven't seen since the unfortunate death of Oboro Shirakumo thirteen years ago. The circumstances a near mirror to what they were seeing now, but much less involved, and far less high-staked.
While that had been a travesty, as would be the bare minimum for the early and unfortunate death of a promising hero student, it was nowhere near as bad as it is now. Shirakumo had been a second year on his work study, and came upon the scene in response to a villain attack. What made the difference was that that event was a one-off. Shirakumo hadn't been called out for a manhunt, nor had the villain in question been connected. He had been on a standard patrol when the villain attacked and did the most he could when that villain eventually came around to his position.
After the villain had been apprehended and rescue and emergency crews were on the scene sorting through the rubble and destruction that followed, they came upon his body, announced dead on arrival.
Eyewitness and victim reports all claimed that before he died, he had saved a group of children and their daycare worker from falling debris that the villain had caused. Shirakumo wasn't as fortunate. When word got back to UA about the death of one of their students, they had canceled classes and held a memorial service.
Reporters had tried to spin the details of his death to paint UA in a harsh light and pin the blame on them, but they had nothing substantial to go off of. The heroes on scene applauded Shirakumo's skill and commended his sacrifice. The people he saved thanked him with tears in their eyes. His friends that were there on the scene when he was found just wanted their friend back.
These thoughts reared their ugly head in Aizawa's mind once again as he sat in the teacher's lounge. While hazy on what happened last night, he was pretty sure that as soon as Shimura fainted, multiple things happened at once. Somebody had caught Shimura before he hit the ground and moved him to the couch while someone else had called Recovery Girl about the issue. The teachers that were present in the lounge - Zashi, Nem, and Thirteen for sure, Ectoplasm, Ishiyama, Snipe, and maybe Kan as well, dropped everything and bolted out of the room and headed for UA's main building. Aizawa was pretty sure he passed out as well, or possibly blacked out entirely, because he couldn't remember anything past that. All he knew was that he was suddenly in the lounge and the sun was shining outside.
"Aizawa!" Kan hissed, snapping his fingers in front of Aizawa's face. Aizawa minutely stiffened before he lazily looked to Kan, "Finally. Nezu's holding a meeting. He wants everyone there. Everyone's already left."
Aizawa blinked before taking a look around the room, finally noticing the bustling and movement that surrounded him was replaced with stark absentness. It was only him and Vlad in the room. He shook his head wearily before standing up, "Thanks. Let's not keep him waiting any longer than he already has been."
"They just left," Kan answered his unspoken question, "You were really out of it there. Is everything alright?"
Aizawa turned to him with a flat stare. Kan cleared his throat, "Let me amend that. Barring the obvious, is everything alright? It's not like you to zone out like that."
Aizawa ran a hand through his hair, searching for the words. He knows that Kan knows he's not alright and was just asking to be polite, so he wasn't going to answer him that way. He also didn't want to dump his problems on someone else when they've just been given a whole truckload's worth. His wellbeing isn't the priority right now, "I'll get over it. I always do."
Vlad made a non-committed sound in response, not buying Aizawa's attempt at pushing things off, but also not wanting to push the issue. They fell into silence as they walked the distance to the conference room. Despite it being morning, the hallways were empty and quiet. Nezu must've sent an email out canceling class. They eventually made their way to the conference room where they heard voices and a loud discussion happening on the other side.
Aizawa paused before the door, I thought we were right behind them. Was I really that out of it? He shrugged, bracing himself for whatever awaited him on the other side. He opened the door and was assaulted with the sudden noise of many voices overlapping, each one trying to speak over the other to get their points cross.
"We need to mobilize and go assist with recovery efforts in Hosu!" someone argued.
"And do what? Stand around and twiddle our thumbs? At this point the event has long since been resolved," another refuted.
"We need to pull out Kaminari and Todoroki. If Thirteen identified them, it's only a matter of time before the news outlets and their viewers do as well and plaster their names all over the place."
"Why stop at just those two? Why not pull everyone back as well? If everyone is back at UA, then it'd be easier to contain any further leaks or additional problems."
That's not a bad idea, but then it would make us look like we're hiding something.
As if someone was reading his thoughts, one of the responses he caught said the exact same thing. Aizawa huffed and silently slunk to one of three open seats, which were unfortunately at the bend of the table, where Nezu usually sat. Guess he wasn't as late as he feared. He felt their attention turn to him as soon as he sat down and dutifully ignored their looks that ask for his opinion on the matter. He didn't need to ignore them for long as the door opened once again, with Nezu and Yagi coming through.
"Thank you all for coming at such a short notice," Nezu greeted. He walked around the U-shaped conference table and sat at the chair directly in the middle, with Aizawa on his right and Yagi on his left. Sensing the meeting was about to start, everyone settled down in their seats.
"Before we truly get started, I would like to address some of the things I heard on the way in, particularly the comment about whether or not we should continue the internships or cancel them altogether," Nezu placed his paws flat on the table and looked at each of the people gathered. "Both Majima-kun and Inui-kun bring up good points. We should definitely bring our students back to where we can protect them, but we can't do so in a way that makes it look like that we have something to hide."
Ishiyama spoke up, "Do we not? It's all but confirmed that among the casualties in Hosu, one of our students was among them."
"Why would we need to hide that?" Nezu countered, "If anything, any attempts at trying to cover that up will have an even more negative response than if we came clean. Our integrity and ability to teach and protect may be brought into question, but we should never hide the truth, especially if it's already out there. If this were a contained incident, perhaps, but it's not.
"It's inevitable at this point that we will need to host a press conference in light of recent events, so rather than discuss about how what we should be doing about an event that's already happened, we need to focus on what's to come. Are we all in agreement?"
Nezu posed it as if it were a question, but it left no room for further discussion. He moved on, "First things first, we need to gather the facts of the situation. Let's start at the earliest point and move forward from there, yes?"
The following discussion was spent creating a rough timeline of events leading up to and through Hosu, with the catalyst they all agreed on was the injury and retirement of Ingenium, Iida's older brother. Ingenium was the first of the victims that didn't fit Stain's M.O, and it was shortly afterwards that the blue fires started to show up. When they got to this point, they looked to Aizawa for further elaboration.
Aizawa sighed and recapped his theory regarding the League's involvement with Stain. As he finished explaining it, he saw Nezu perk up and internally groaned. He was not prepared to have Nezu drill holes in a theory he felt confident in, even if he could admit to making some decent leaps in logic.
"That is a very astute observation, Aizawa-kun," Nezu remarked, "but I think that you're still a little off the mark. Judging by your face, you're already aware of the holes in your theory, so I won't be restating them. Regardless, it does explain some of the things that we've witnessed."
Nezu produced a remote and clicked a button. A holographic screen popped up in front of each of the teachers, displaying a highlight reel of sorts that showed footage from the USJ and now from Hosu.
"Shigaraki is clearly intelligent and extremely capable. He is able to cover his tracks entirely and hit people where it hurts, capitalizing on his enemy's weakness." Nezu spoke in tandem with the video that was playing, the scene that showed on screen was him taking down Eraserhead, slamming his head to the ground. Everyone winced at the sight, Aizawa absently rubbed the heel of his hand on his forehead where it made impact, "He was able to amass a significant number of villains under one banner without garnering any attention from the multiple heroes that frequent and monitor the underground, nor have any sign of in-fighting, a feat that hasn't been accomplished since before All Might's rise."
On his left, Yagi's face was set in a hard frown. He was staring at the screen, remembering everything about the attack on the USJ. He knew what Nezu was doing. Nezu was setting the stage for when the big reveal would happen, slowly and carefully painting the background in their minds that Shigaraki could very well be the harbinger of a second Dark Age. The successor of All For One, one that's been carefully groomed and meticulously molded into the villain they're facing now.
"On the surface, his attack at the USJ failed. The villains he brought were all apprehended, no casualties were reported, and All Might was able to suppress the monster, the Nomu, that's supposedly touted as their ultimate trump card. Are we all in agreement so far?" He asked the room, receiving a round of nods.
"Nezu," Kan interjected, "We've already gone over Shigaraki's motivation when we met before the Sports Festival. Do we really need to do that again? I feel like our focus should be on how we're going to respond to why three of our students were present in Hosu in the same frame Stain was captured and dead bodies were."
Murmurs of agreement sounded around, glad that someone brought it up, but no one was brave enough to do so. Not until Kan, at least.
Nezu took Kan's comment with a small smile, "Because it's entirely connected. Please refresh us on what we decided Shigaraki's motivation was, Kan-kun."
Kan blinked, not expecting to be put on the spot. He looked around to the other teachers, all of whom were interested as well. He grunted and cleared his throat, "What we decided on was that Shigaraki wanted to create fear and panic, but not just for the sake of it. He wanted to get in our heads."
"Precisely, but why? What's the point of having people fear him? Why do people, no. Put yourself in his shoes. Why would you want to get in someone's head?"
"Because it makes people easier to control?" Kayama suggested. "If people fear you, they're prone to do what you want."
Nezu hummed, "A good guess, Kayama-san. Anybody else?"
"If you get into someone's head, you can do a lot of damage," Inui spoke up. He growled as he was mulling it over, "In a fight, if you get into your opponent's head, it's easy to trip them up and secure victory. Outside of a fight, if you do that, you can make them doubt themselves. You can condition them how you want in extreme cases."
That got the rest of the teachers thinking. The perks of the entire staff being heroes was that they all had their fair share of villains that have affected them in one way or another, whether physical or emotional. They also had experience in helping victims once they got them out of a bad situation. They knew that some villains commit crimes to commit crimes, with no other reason than they wanted to, and others had a reason behind it. They knew that heroes and villains weren't black and white.
"Are you suggesting that Shigaraki's actual goal is to make us inherently doubt ourselves?" Ishiyama asked after a spell.
Nezu shook his head, "No, you are all still thinking too close-minded. Shigaraki is using fear as a tool, and he is actively showing us that he is better, smarter, and stronger than us."
The table cracked, startling everyone in the room. Yagi, who was sitting quietly the whole time had been stewing in his thoughts, had buffed up in barely restrained anger, his fingertips digging into the tabletop. He had already been tense when he walked in, his mood having dipped as he caught the broadcast of Hosu under attack, and soured even further because he simply didn't have the time left to go aid. Now, it had rotted entirely, caused by the path that Nezu had chosen to take. Their discussion was inadvertently reminding him of every story Nana had told him of All For One, every interaction that she had with him before and up to when she died, every line of banter he managed to catch during their fight before he was whisked away. He heard the fear in her voice when she spoke about him, he saw the cracks in her smile, he saw how she was slowly being eaten away by it with every moment that All For One remained free.
"Shigaraki is using fear as a means to break our spirits," his voice sounding deeper and strained. "He means to not only cement himself in each of our minds as an insurmountable obstacle, but he also wants to make it so that we won't put up a fight when we inevitably clash because we've already exhausted ourselves fighting ourselves."
The teachers were stunned, all of them visibly deflating in their seats. All Might looked over each of them, as if he could gauge their mental states from how they reacted. For the most part, everyone stared back, but they all looked away the second he projected the persona he reserves for villains.
Kayama blew a strand of hair from her face, "Ok, great. We know his motivation and his possible goal. How is this connected to Hosu? How does this relate to how we react to the media coming for us?"
"Other than the obvious connection of Shigaraki being present and claiming responsibility for it and the USJ? Think of who was there." All Might replied, "Nezu, can you pull up the after-action reports from the heroes?
"Of course, give me a moment please."
Nezu swiped and tapped on the holographic screen in front of him. A moment later, the other screens were updated with the reports, some long and detailed, others as short a paragraph. All Might nodded his thanks and motioned for everyone to scroll through. He scrolled through as well to confirm, his frown deepening.
"That bastard," he commented quietly.
Majima scratched his chin and spoke up, a little confused, "I'm sorry, but I think I'm missing something here. These all look like normal reports. What are we looking for?"
"The bigger picture," Aizawa answered. "Look at the reports again. They all start with absolutely no activity, then immediately they're swamped. They go from a quiet night to a citywide attack. No matter how good of a hero you are, that sort of whiplash is enough to throw you off. And then, they come into contact with not one, not two, but three Nomus. One was enough to fight All Might, what hope would they have for fighting three of them?"
"But the reports also say that they were defeated," Ishiyama commented, "So they weren't as strong as the one from USJ."
"They were defeated by Endeavor and Conduit, both of whom have strong quirks that can surpass the regeneration factor they were reported to have. But before they came along, how were they faring?"
Snipe scoffed, "About as well as a pile of hay in a windstorm."
"The heroes that were left in Hosu after Stain and Shigaraki were rookies and sidekicks. The heroes that went in to catch Stain were strong, but none had the real capability to do significant damage. Shigaraki threw them in the deep end with a weight tied to their feet, and then he showed his face. He showed how easy it was for him to control the fight, and how weak they were in comparison.
"Their reports show they admitted to feeling useless, whether in response to suppressing the Nomus or seeing how easy it was for someone else to do what they were struggling with. If Shigaraki was able to make pro heroes, rookie or not, feel useless, how do you think the students that saw everything firsthand feel?"
Yamada looked at them, worry painting his features, "He's targeting the students?"
Nezu picked up the conversation from here, "Yes, it appears that Shigaraki is attempting to cut off the flow of heroes from the very beginning. If he can make them feel weak, worthless, insignificant, or useless before they can grow into themselves, then heroes, as we know them, will cease to exist."
"Well, we can't just close the school off!" Kan expressed, "We can teach them just fine, but knowledge and experience are two very different things. For them to be the best heroes they can be, they need to be out in the field."
"And I wholeheartedly agree," Nezu replied, "However, if he is targeting our students, that would be the same as serving them up on a silver platter."
"So what do we do now? We're stuck between a rock and a hard place." Ectoplasm asked.
"I do not know."
"How do we make sure Kaminari and Todorki are still of sound mind? What about Shimura? He's made progress, but I've noticed that he's still struggling with things."
Inui answered this time, "We watch and observe. We support them to the best of our ability while making it so we aren't suffocating them."
Ishiyama asked, "How do we make sure Shigaraki can't affect us?"
Nezu shook his head ruefully, "The very fact that you're asking that question means that it's too late."
"Can we stop him?" Kayama almost pleaded.
"We have to," All Might replied, standing up and exiting the room.
Kagero walked through the portal and was met with All For One and the Doctor standing side by side in front of a simple operating table with straps and clamps placed where the arms and legs would rest. The Doctor was a small, bald, and rotund man with a bushy brown mustache and big circular goggles resembling gears. He wore a white lab coat with a grey button up shirt with a loose black tie and brown pants.
All For One was holding a small vile in his hands, the sticker on the front looking like a family tree. The vial was filled to the brim with a slightly viscous fluid, saturated with the strands of DNA that contained a person's quirk factor.
"Young lord, welcome, welcome," the Doctor greeted. "Master says that you would like to try out another quirk."
"Is it ready?" Kagero asked, skipping all pleasantries.
"I started working on it as soon as you left with that hero. I must say, you brought a fascinating specimen to me."
All For One hummed in agreement, "I agree. I couldn't help myself and took it for a test run." He demonstrated by flicking his wrist the same way Ruya had done and the same dark mass of shadows with jagged teeth and red eyes came to life. All For One waved his arm this way and that, the mass following his movements like a puppet on strings. He brought his arm down and the mass disappeared.
Kagero's eyes were sparkling the whole time, his hands twitching as he wished he brought his notebook along as well so he could write down his notes and observations. All For One chuckled and produced a notebook from within his jacket and handed it over. Kagero graciously took it, bowing deeply.
"I never thought I'd see the day you would come to the lab and not have your notebook, young lord," the Doctor teased.
"In all honesty, I was expecting to swap quirks and then leave immediately," Kagero replied a little sheepishly, "But having seen that, I can't believe I didn't even think to try it out beforehand. May I?"
"Of course."
Kagero walked towards the table behind them and began to take his shirt off but a hand from All For One stopped him, "You won't need to get on the table for this. I assume you'll want your quirks back after you're through with using this one, correct?" Kagero nodded, "Then there's no need. I will do it, it is in my possession already."
Kagero nodded again and took a knee before All For One, staring straight ahead.
"If you don't fight, it will hurt less," All For One advised before placing his hand on his head.
Kagero felt the tug on his quirks and pulled back on instinct but immediately stopped himself. The extremely miniscule tug back caused a searing pain to rack his body, eliciting a small cry from him. It felt like being sucked into a vacuum through a hole the size of a 500-yen coin. The pain started off as a small pinch but expanded as it felt like it was tearing away from the body. As he continued to stamp down his efforts to fight back, the pain lessened, but only just.
Kagero lost track of time as he felt his quirks be torn from him like ripping out stitches one at a time, with each rip bringing it closer and closer to the hole that was All For One. Eventually the final stitch was ripped and the pain stopped, but now he felt cold and empty, like entering an abandoned house. What was once full of life and warmth was now nothing but a shell with the memories etched into the seams and surfaces.
Without his quirks, he was powerless. Weak. Small. Helpless. Useless. He hated it. He loathed it. He wanted it to stop. Then it did. He felt the new quirk come in and felt it settle in his body. Now, the cold was welcoming. Where his quirks brought him warmth, Nightmare made him comfortable with the cold, as if he were in a cold sweat. It felt sickly, but comforting at the same time.
The transfer wasn't as seamless as he would've liked. Other than the initial tug he felt from Kagero, the quirks came with no problem. The issue was Nightmare. All For One had to search for it, as if it was hiding in the recesses of his inventory of quirks he had acquired over the years, trying to never be used by someone that wasn't its owner. If it were a person, they would've been running blindly in a massive library among shelves and shelves of books, taking random turns. He found it, it was only a matter of time. He saw their foot peeking out behind a cover, and with sick satisfaction, he yanked it by its ankle and felt it claw at the ground, trying to fight back.
He brought it to the yen-sized hole and shoved it through.
He felt Kagero eagerly tug at the quirk and helped him assimilate it in his system, ensuring that it would work properly. When he was satisfied that it would, he closed the hole, leaving it trapped on the other side.
He took his hand off Kagero's head and sensed him breathing a little heavily. He stepped back, allowing the Doctor to give him a quick look over.
"Looks like a standard emitter-type quirk, no visible mutations," the Doctor reported, "Look up for me, young lord." Kagero did and the Doctor froze, "I stand corrected, one visible mutation. Heterochromia in the eyes."
"What? Let me see," Kagero walked towards the small sink in the room to the tiny mirror that sat above it.
Instead of their normal green they were now heterochromatic, his left eye an amber yellow and his right an ocean blue. Looks like the quirk comes with a slight mutation as well.
"Other than that, how do you feel?"
Kagero flexed his hands and hopped a few times on the balls of his feet, shaking his arms out as if he were warming up for an exercise, "Good. Solid. Cold, but not uncomfortable."
"How does the quirk feel?" All For One asked.
Kagero closed his eyes and concentrated. He focused on the quirk, not what it could do, but how it felt, "It feels anxious and scared. Like a child hiding under the covers."
"Can you activate it?"
Kagero focused the quirk's power in his right hand and flicked it like how All For One did it earlier. The black mass appeared again, his mind supplying that Ruya had called it a Prowler. He waved his arm around as it moved forward, following his movements. A few seconds after it appeared and traveled, it dissipated once again.
All For One smiled, "Wonderful. Would you like to test out its full capabilities?"
"You have a volunteer?"
"He's been here for a while now." All For One waved to a door on the side.
In the next room over, the volunteer was sat on a chair, his hands strapped to the arms and his ankles to the legs. He had a metallic band around his mouth gagging him. His head was down, staring at the floor, but he looked up sensing a new presence.
Kagero looked at him and smiled, "Mohican. What a wonderful surprise. I'm so glad you've decided to help me try out this new quirk."
Kagero created another Prowler and had it circle around him. Mohican struggled in his bonds, his screams completely muffled by the gag. As the Prowler rounded again and came to the front, it jumped at him.
Mohican screamed in terror.