A/N: Sorry this and the podcast came out late this time, folks. The last couple of weeks were kinda... loaded. I honestly thought about going on a hiatus, but I feel as though if I did that, it would be too tempting to just stop and not come back- for any of my projects. So, things are a bit rough for me right now, but I'll be damned if I'm not going to keep giving this project my best.
Go Beyond and all that, right?
My sob story/excuses aside, I hope you all find enjoyment in this chapter.
A Future Past
"Alright, Hikari, we're all here," Aizawa said in his usual flat tone as he stood in front of the entrance to class 1-A's dorm building. "Now's the time for some answers." Gathered inside the building with him was Class A, Principal Nezu, All Might, and the teenaged girl calling herself Eri, who had been roused with some cold water before being brought along.
During the course of her fight, a rewind had accidentally removed the colored contact lenses that she had been using to hide her naturally red eyes, having wanted to minimize the chances that anyone- hero or villain- would realize that she had some connection to the little girl that Deku and Kai had rescued. She had also tried to wash out all of the hair dye she had been using, but it turned out that the brand she had gotten her hands on was rather difficult to remove without special treatment, so her tresses up to her roots remained black as night.
Kurai had requested this gathering as soon as he had been seen by his homeroom teacher, and thanks to Nezu being told by Izuku that it had something to do with One For All, only those whom the Guardian Hero had permitted to be there were in attendance, even if they weren't completely sure of what was going on.
Having been prompted by the man, Kurai stepped up to be beside the teacher, his eyes still as black and lifeless as they had been since his awakening. His bearing and deathly appearance were unsettling enough that in spite of their joy at seeing him returned to life, most of his classmates had been unable to work up the courage to approach him, nor had he tried to reach out to any of them. Only Mina and Izuku had come in close proximity to him, and even then, only his girlfriend had actually touched him. In fact, she had pretty much been attached to him until now, when he apparently decided that he needed to stand on his own to speak properly.
"Understand that I've only got a few pieces to this puzzle," he began. "But I'll start with the most important one- the secret to my powers."
"Hold on, Young Hikari-" All Might began, but Kurai shot him a withering glare that surprised the man enough that he couldn't finish his thought.
"The power and its secrets are mine to do with as I choose, now," he said flatly. "You had a circle of people whom you trusted to know about this when the time was yours'- and these are the people I've chosen. I trust each of them implicitly, and that's all there is to it." He kept up his piercing gaze at the former hero until Toshinori Yagi realized that there really was nothing that he or any of the others could do to stop Kurai- One For All was in his hands now, for better or worse.
Once his teacher had subsided, Kurai turned back to his classmates, who now appeared even more unsettled by his presence. "You all know that I transferred Energon to Izuku before I died- what you don't know is how," he started again. "The truth is when we made our last stand against the villain on Nabu, Izuku transferred his quirk to me, first. This is what allowed us to break free and put the villain down, in spite of the fact that I was on my last legs. His powers combined with mine into a single force proved to be too much for even somebody like All For One's copycat to handle, though the same could be said of me. Only after the battle was over, and Izuku had used up all of his remaining strength, was I able to combine the capabilities of the two quirks in order to transfer my original powers to him. It didn't seem right to me that someone willing to give up his abilities in order to save everyone should be unable to pursue his dream of being a hero."
"You're talking about quirk transference like you've known about it being possible since before All For One fought All Might in Kamino," Kirishima said after the resurrected hero paused for breath. "Don't tell me your power is like All For One's, too?"
"Not exactly, but like Energon, it originally came from that man," Kurai answered. "Even more than that, it has deeper ties to his quirk than I would have thought possible. The truth is that while I am the first person to wield Energon as it is, Izuku is not the first holder of this power- One For All."
"One For All?" Yaoyorozu repeated as the others who did not know the full story began to exchange confused looks.
"It's a power that goes back generations, back to when All For One himself was a young man," Kurai elaborated. "It works like this- one person improves the power with their own physical abilities and quirk before handing it off to a successor. It grows more potent with each transfer, meaning that as the tenth holder, I have the potential to become even more powerful than Izuku would have with its strength."
"You're the tenth?" Iida asked him, his eyes narrowing with thoughtful suspicion. "If Midoriya was the ninth to use it, then… there's only one person who could be the eighth wielder of such a power!" As he spoke, he turned to look at All Might, prompting everyone else to turn and look at the skinny man, who suddenly looked very uncomfortable. "Sir? Is it true?"
"Yes," the older man sighed, wiping at his mouth as bit of red spilled between his teeth. "I found Young Midoriya and made him my successor. The truth is that six years ago, I was too wounded in a battle with All For One to keep being a pro for much longer, so I had to find someone who could carry on the torch after I was done."
"So that explains all the similarities between you two, ribbit," Asui croaked. "I'm surprised more of us didn't figure it out before now."
"It's been one of the best-kept secrets for well over a hundred years, until now," All Might said as he gave Hikari a disapproving look.
The boy shrugged and said, "I'm not about to keep lying to all of them when they've more than earned the truth after everything we've been through together. The world knows about All For One and what he can do now, anyway."
"That doesn't explain this 'One For All' deal, though," Yang said as she crossed her arms with a frown. "What exactly is your quirk?"
"It was originally two quirks, kind of like how Energon used to be three separate abilities," Kurai answered. "Thing about this one is that it originated from All For One's younger brother- a man who was his polar opposite, right down to their ideals and their quirks."
"All For One had a brother?!" Kirishima yelped.
"His parents didn't think that one monster was bad enough?!" Kaminari added.
"All of you, quiet!" Aizawa snapped, his eyes flaring red, which got everyone to shut up. To Kurai, he said, "Continue, if you would."
"Thank you, sir," Kurai acknowledged briefly. "Yes, he had a brother. Initially, everyone thought that he was quirkless. At some point, All For One gave his brother a quirk that would allow him to stockpile and harness massive amounts of physical force. We're not exactly sure why he did this, but if I had to take a guess, I'd say that All For One was trying to get him to submit to his will. Either way, it turned out that the younger brother did have a power- one that would have been useless under pretty much any other circumstance. He could transfer his own quirk to someone else."
"The two powers merged together and became what we now know as One For All," Izuku added, moving to stand by his friend, who gave him a grim nod as he recognized the show of support. "For a long time, we assumed that the only thing to pass from person to person was the combined physical abilities of each prior holder, but when we went up against class B in the mock battles, we learned that wasn't the case."
"Izuku accidentally manifested the powers of One For All's fifth user, a quirk called 'Black Whip'," Kurai explained to the captive audience. "We've been led to believe that five other quirks exist within One For All, but given that All Might never used them- or even knew that they could be used- there's no telling whether or not I'd be able to use them, were I so inclined."
"Five other powers?" Jiro interrupted now. "Your math seems a little off, Hikari. Shouldn't that be seven other powers, plus yours'?"
"Not everyone who had One For All was born with a quirk," Mina said, surprising the others, though they supposed it made sense that she would know about all this. "And Kurai doesn't have Energon anymore because he passed it on to Izuku."
"I used One For All to enhance my 'Giving Heart' ability to the point where I was able to transfer the entirety of Energon into Izuku, instead of just a set portion of power," Kurai explained. "During the fight with Nine, at least a few of you would have seen what happened when it enhanced Energon- it can do that to any quirk it's combined with. That's why each holder has to be careful about who they give it to- in the wrong hands, it could be an even bigger menace than All For One."
"I wouldn't worry about that too much," Eri murmured from where she was standing next to Aizawa, who had told her not to try anything. "There's a reason why the quirk can't be stolen. Even if someone were to be tricked into giving the power to someone with evil intentions, I doubt that they would be able to hold onto it for very long."
"You know this how, exactly?" Class A's homeroom teacher asked pointedly. In spite of Kurai's insistence that she was Eri, and in no way a danger to the people in UA, the man was understandably wary of anyone who could bowl through half of their staff and students like ninepins.
"Yeah, you're what, the eleventh holder?" Kurai guessed as he shifted his gaze to focus on the girl who had brought him back to life.
"Yes," she nodded. "Where I come from, I am the eleventh user of this power, though there have been others who tried to claim it before it came to me."
"Where you come from?" All Might coughed again. "Something tells me that even I'm gonna have a hard time wrapping my head around this one…"
"I imagine you come from the future, right?" Kurai asked her, to which she nodded.
"The future?!" Ruby yelped. "Time travel quirks have always been theorized to exist, but I didn't think that they actually did!"
"When one eliminates the impossible, the only thing remaining is the truth," Tokoyami murmured. "The question to be asked now is how such a thing is possible. Hikari claims that this girl is Eri, yet the Eri we know cannot manipulate time or inanimate objects. So does she hail from some alternate world, or is there more to it than we can currently see?"
"I come from a future that no longer exists," Eri answered them calmly. "I have already changed events enough to know that things will not play out the same as they did in my time."
"How have you done that?" Izuku asked. "How did you come to have One For All? And how are you here in the first place?"
"I think it's best if I start with the biggest thing that I've changed since coming here, and the disaster that would have followed," Eri told them. "After I explain that, my circumstances will begin to make more sense. You will also benefit from insight into a threat that moves against you, even now."
"A new threat?" Nezu asked, concern written into his fuzzy face.
"Yes, but from an old enemy," Eri informed them grimly. Her eyes flicked back and forth between Izuku and Kurai before they settled on the latter, and she started to speak again. "It begins with Kai," she murmured. "His death and the loss of One For All changes everything…"
Ten Years from Then…
The world was in chaos, now more than it had ever been before. Not since the dark times when quirks first manifested had such fear and uncertainty laid upon the globe.
This was the reality that heroes had been fighting against in a losing battle for a decade, now. Only a handful of the resistance cells still held out against the Global Paranormal Liberation Front, but in the last two years, their numbers had grown so small that they could no longer maintain contact with one another, even within the same country on occasion. Of all the pockets of resistance in Asia, only one held out as a consistent victor in their encounters against their old enemies.
The UA Hero Alliance led by Katsuki Bakugo relentlessly struck blow after blow against the villains, always causing the most trouble for the organization that had forced nearly every government in the world to bend to their will. They were fast, powerful, and their resolve was unmatched in all the world. Not every one of their members had attended UA back when heroics were taught as a career, but the group had been initially comprised of their student body, so the name had stuck.
When they first started, the group had been led by the hero Ingenium, who had surprised many of his older peers by stepping up to take charge in what could only be called the worst of times. Following an attack on their school that left nearly all of the faculty members dead, he had taken those he could into hiding before reemerging with an intent to fight back against the villains who had begun to seize power in a series of que de ta that was aiming to destabilize the Japanese government. Along with him were most of the other students from the hero course, including the Big Three, and in the first few weeks of their activity, they caused the newly-joined villain forces quite the number of headaches.
Then disaster struck, and the young heroes were left with the sudden and violent loss of their new leader at the hands of Tomura Shigaraki, who had acquired All For One's powers. Nearly a third of the students- Chargebolt, Can't Stop Twinkling, Creati, Tentacole, Froppy, and Tailman among them- that went against him that day had their quirks stolen before they were killed, which only added to Shigaraki's renown and capabilities. For a time following that incident, the UA Alliance went underground and were unheard from by anyone.
When they reemerged, it was with the hero Deku at its head, who claimed that he would fight in the name of his fallen friends. His closest advisor was the hero Lemillion, who coordinated their efforts from wherever their base happened to be at the time. He also doubled as Eri's guardian during this time, as Aizawa had managed to get her out of danger and into the Big Three's protection before rushing back into battle, where he would meet his demise during the initial strike from the Paranormal Liberation Front. Under their guidance, the UA Alliance continued to make life difficult for their enemies, and they hardly lost a friend in the six years that they fought together.
Then, the unthinkable occurred. Heroes began to openly defect to the side of the Front, having accepted their rule as the new status quo, and growing tired of being on the losing side of things. Early on in this set of events, UA was betrayed into an ambush that led to the death of Deku, and Shigaraki's acquisition of Energon, a quirk that made him nearly invincible when combined with the other powers he had acquired over the years. His friends tried to retaliate, but when the battle was over, only a handful of their original number remained alive.
Ashid Queen, Myrtenaster, Freezer Burn, Tsukuyomi, a restored Lemillion, Rule, Welder, and Battle Fist were the only heroes left to back up Ground Zero, but he made sure that they put their remaining strength to good use. He also saw to it that Eri began to train using her quirk while they were in hiding, as he recognized that her powers could be invaluable for saving their lives in a pinch, and it would do for the girl to be able to defend herself if someone came to try and exploit her like the Hassaikai had done when she was little. Formal hero education was nothing but a memory by that time, but Lemillion still proved to be an effective and encouraging teacher for the girl. He even went so far as to say that she would eventually save everyone as 'Lamillion', the heroine who would undo a million tragedies.
This became the new norm for about four years, when Akarui- whom Eri had managed to rewind back to health a couple of months after the war broke out - made an unsettling discovery. According to his cyber-sleuthing, there was a reason that Shigaraki had started to recruit heroes several years beforehand, other than just increasing the number of his soldiers.
He barged in on a meeting between Bakugo, Togata, and Eri, the former of them glaring at his ally with irritation. "Whaddya want, Saiyabrat?" he growled. He had stuck Akarui with the nickname shortly after the death of his brother, but the truth was that the younger Hikari knew it meant that Bakugo had acknowledged him as a comrade equivalent to Kurai's value.
These days, the last of the Guardian Hero's family bore enough scars across his body to rival his brother in the last months of his life. Many of them had been earned through the course of his months of torture at the hands of Shigaraki's most trusted lieutenants following a surprise raid that led to his capture. Their brutal ministrations had served to leave his face littered with horribly twisted scars and a right eye that barely worked anymore. He had managed to get around this particular handicap by wearing a scouter modeled after Kurai's support item that filtered and enhanced reflected light in a way that his damaged retina could still process and comprehend in order to present a clear image to his mind. Even though Eri had offered to undo the damage once he had been rescued, he had elected to keep the injury, claiming that it 'kept him motivated'.
"I figured out why Shigaraki stopped hunting all of the heroes and started trying to recruit them," Akarui now answered as he shut the door behind himself. "Kurai has been dead for ten years, but One For All still exists."
"Hah?!" Bakugo gaped.
"One for what?" Togata asked, looking as puzzled as Eri felt.
"I'll explain the full details later, but Midoriya's quirk was capable of passing from person to person," Akarui said quickly. "Right before his death, Kurai was the final wielder of the quirk, and he was able to use it to give Midoriya his own powers, so that he would be able to continue his dream of being a hero."
"Oh, so that's really why his powers changed all of a sudden after that fight on Nabu," Togata nodded. "I remember Midoriya saying something about trying to give me his powers after I lost mine, too. Now that all makes more sense."
"What does that have to do with the power now?" Bakugo demanded. "I thought it disappeared when Hikari went six feet under."
"Apparently not," Akarui muttered as he pulled a flash drive from his pocket and plugged it into the computer built into the table. A hologram flashed to life, depicting Aokigahara, where a single red blip indicated the presence of a villain fortress. "This is it. I've been trying to figure out for ages where Shigaraki keeps the quirks he doesn't wanna use for himself, but hasn't made a Nomu to handle them yet. This is where he's keeping One For All."
"How do we know this is good intel?" Bakugo snorted.
"Have I steered you wrong before?"
"…Why wouldn't that quirk-stealing bastard wanna use All Might's power?" Bakugo muttered. When Eri and Togata's eyes widened, he growled out, "Oh really, you didn't figure that one out as soon as we told you that Deku wasn't born with his power?! Come on!"
"That's the thing- I don't think he can use it," Akarui said with a grin. "We might still have a chance to beat Shigaraki, and cut the head off the snake."
"Explain, Saiyabrat."
"After I broke into one of their research archives, I found a lot of files dedicated to people whom they've tried giving One For All to," Akarui began. "Shigaraki used some combination of All For One and a quirk that affects deceased tissue to extract One For All from the remnants of my brother's corpse after he realized that he could do it with Endeavor."
"That's how he got that fire quirk that nearly roasted me last time," Bakugo scowled. "Fantastic." He still had a harsh burn scar on his left arm from that incident. Shigaraki had been trying to destroy the flesh on his palms so that he wouldn't be able to produce his nitro-sweat, but Bakugo had managed to avoid that outcome, though just barely. Eri had offered to rewind the affected tissue, but since it didn't cause him any pain or affect his quirk, Bakugo had also elected to keep the scar, though unlike their resident tech expert, he refused to explain why.
"Exactly," Akarui agreed with a more grim expression. "Still, One For All isn't like most quirks- you can't take it by force, no matter who you are. We never really knew why- until now." He clicked a button on the side of the table, and a voice recording began to play.
The speaker was a man known only as 'Doctor' to the heroes, but whoever he was, it was clear that he held no small amount of influence within the villains' ranks. "Test subject number two-thirty-eight was also unable to retain the power of One For All, in spite of the fact that she believed herself to be a person of honor and integrity. She is also not the first to hear voices in her head when the quirk is transferred to her, but I can now document a definitive pattern: that only those who believe themselves to be righteous people are the ones to hear them. This is, however, the first time that the voices have been clear enough for someone to recall what they were saying. It seems that there is indeed a collective conscience that resides within One For All that can determine the worthiness of its next potential host. Based on what the late subject two-thirty-eight said, I personally believe this to be some sort of afterimage or echo of the spirits of those who possessed One For All in the past. A development of nearly equal interest; Shigaraki actually agrees with me on this matter, so we will continue to experiment in order to determine if there really is no way to make use of One For All. I shall begin by working to remove the secondary quirks that were recorded to have begun manifesting themselves in Izuku Midoriya before his passing of the quirk unto the deceased Guardian Hero, though it is certain to cost a great deal of time and effort, as we cannot use All For One to disentangle the combined powers in this scenario. If this endeavor fails, then I fear that this is one experiment that is doomed to yield no success. Nevertheless, I am nothing if not persistent." With that, the recording stopped, and Akarui stepped back with a triumphant smile on his face.
"How do you like that?" he asked the others. "Even dead, my brother and Midoriya are fighting back."
"That's amazing!" Togata said with a huge smile. "So, if we could take this quirk and give it to one of our friends, we might actually be able to turn all this around? The quirk is that strong?"
"It's what enabled All Might to beat All For One all those years ago," Bakugo nodded, his brow still etched with a frown. "The day that Deku and Hogo-sha teamed up against Nine… I've never seen anything like it, and I was there when All Might and All For One had their rematch. The only thing is…" His frown deepened, and the others worried at it.
"What is it, Ground Zero?" Eri asked him.
"It sounds like they've reached a point where they're tricking idiots into thinking that they're the good guys, so for all intents and purposes, the new candidates could end up being an actual hero with One For All's help," he muttered as he stared at the map of the Silent Forest. "But the quirk still won't take 'em. I remember All Might saying that he spent a long time looking for a successor before he decided to give it to Deku. He said that the power can only be passed on if the current user decides to hand it off."
"What does that have to with anything?" Togata asked, still trying to wrap his head around the thought of One For All to begin with.
"Well, Hikari's not exactly around to tell us who he would give it to, is he?" Bakugo snapped. "The quirk may not accept anybody, for all we know. But if we're gonna try to give it to somebody, our best chance at getting this to work is trying to give it to a person that he would've picked to succeed him!"
"Oh…" Togata said awkwardly, reluctant to point out the fact that they all knew- pretty much everyone who he would have chosen to entrust the power to was already long dead. "Well, if we do pull this off, who do you think would be our best bet, Hikari?"
Akarui thought hard for a few moments before he answered, "I can think of three potential candidates. First is Mina, for obvious reasons. I wish I could put Tenya on this list, but second would have to be Todoroki. He doesn't know about One For All, but I get the feeling that Kurai would have told him about it if he'd lived long enough. Third is you, Togata."
"Me?" the blond hero asked in surprise. "What makes you think that? He and I weren't super close."
"No, but he held a lot of respect for you, especially after you kept fighting against Chisaki following the loss of your powers," Akarui explained. "I also listened to some of his private memoirs that he left behind for me, and in some of them, he mentioned that before Midoriya came into the picture, you were actually the primary candidate to receive One For All from All Might. Given all that, I doubt that the quirk would reject you, but of course I can't be sure."
"Huh," Togata mused. "Man, I can't imagine having that kind of power, not to mention the weight that must've come with it. Hikari and Midoriya were actually more amazing than I gave 'em credit for, and I already thought that they were pretty awesome!"
"Alright, enough with the warm fuzzies," Bakugo growled. "We've got an attack to plan. Saiyabrat?"
"I wasn't able to find out much about the fortress itself, just that it's a Nomu factory, and that there are around thirty villains manning it at any given time, all of them with two quirks," Akarui explained. "If the alarms go off, I'd bet my last yen on them setting all the Nomu loose on us, too. Also, it's miles away from any cities, so we can't just ditch our gear and blend in with a crowd like we usually do with hit-and-run tactics."
"I don't want a hit-and-ditch," Bakugo growled as he slammed his fist into his palm to produce a small explosion. "We're gonna burn this factory to the ground."
"Actually, that's a smarter idea," Akarui mused as he put his chin in his hand. "If we just stole the capsule with the quirk, they'd know what we were up to, and they'd hunt us down with greater prejudice and fear than if we torch it to cover our tracks."
"Uh… That's gonna make them less angry?" Togata asked with a nervous chuckle.
"If they think- even if just for a little while- that we found a random base and blew it up, they won't be worried about us trying to use One For All ourselves," Akarui pointed out. "As soon as they realize our true objective, though, they're gonna come at us with everything they've got, and they won't stop until we're all dead and they have what they want again."
"I don't care about that," Bakugo said with a nasty smile as he peered at the marker that indicated the villains' base. "It's been too damn long since I got to blast something into dust- and if this kills a bunch of Nomu, then that's just a win-win for me."
"An extraction op like this is going to take all of our core members to pull off," Togata told Akarui, who was already deep in thought with probabilities and contingency plans swirling around his mind. "Even then, we might not have enough manpower to do it."
"We'll have enough," Akarui assured him as he met the other man's eyes. "I'm going with you this time."
"Like hell," Bakugo snapped, drawing their attention back to him again. "The last time you went into action with us, you lost the ability to pull your own weight."
"I saved your lives," Akarui pointed out with a frown. "I'm also not a kid anymore."
"You're not a hero, either."
"Heroes these days are outlaws," Kurai's brother snapped. "Besides, don't go talking like you're any more of the real deal than me- you were never fully licensed before the war broke out. There's also the fact that without my strategies and inventions, all of you would be dead at least a hundred times over. If I say I need to go to make a mission succeed, then I'm going."
"Oh yeah, and what're you gonna do while we're trashing the place?" Bakugo snorted. "You gonna lecture the High-End until they get bored and leave?"
"I was thinking something more along the lines of infecting their computer's cloud systems with a virus that'll screw with the gene-splicing process for when they turn corpses into Nomu." Akarui's own face lit up with a slightly nasty grin as he said this. "The Front is definitely gonna hate me after this one."
"So prep it and give it to one of the others to make the drop," Bakugo told him. "I won't have people to spare watching your scrawny ass."
"Yeah you will, if you follow my strategy," Akarui replied as he maintained his smirk. "Face it, Bakugo, there's not a lot you can do to stop me if I want to go."
"I can knock your teeth in."
"Then good luck with the booby traps you know are gonna be in there," Akarui shrugged. "I couldn't pull the schematics before I would have been found out by their security systems, but I'll know how to counteract them on sight."
"That sounds convenient."
"Indeed. But it is also what happened. Now are you ready to stop arguing in circles, or are you gonna let me help you blow up the factory?"
"…You're only getting one guard, got it?"
"Two," Akarui said with a shake of his head. "Don't worry, I won't take any of your favorites. I've already contacted a friend of ours' from the Shiketsu cell who wants to lend us a hand. Also…" He turned his gaze on Eri, whose chin firmed up as she realized where he was about to go. "I think it's about time she gets her chance to take on the people who took away her home."
"I'm in," Eri said before either of the men could object. Looking up at them, she said, "I'm older now than you were when you first started fighting villains, Ground Zero. Lemillion has been training me for years, and I'm ready to start being a hero like all of you- like Kai and Deku were."
Togata looked concerned, but Bakugo simply chuckled and said, "You've sure grown up, squirt. I've been waiting for you to say this for a while, now."
"You don't have a problem with her going, but you gave me crap?" Akarui complained.
"She's been trained to fight, you're an IT guy," the explosive hero snorted.
"Tell that to the guy whose arm I cut off on I-island."
"Eri, are you sure about this?" Togata asked his ward worriedly. "I probably won't be able to protect you if you come with us. I'd feel more comfortable if we started you off with a smaller mission, ya know?"
"We don't have that kind of time," the white-haired girl said with a swift shake of her head. "Trust that you taught me what I need to know, okay? I won't be alone, either- Hikari will be with me, and he's the smartest person we know. He'll make sure that we're both okay."
"I will do that," Akarui nodded. "You've got my word, Togata. Eri will be okay once all is said and done- and me too, if anyone cares."
"You'd better be," Bakugo warned him. "Your brother had a bad habit of promising not to die and then breaking his word. If you don't make it back with the rest of us, I'll kill you."
"I figured."
"Well, Eri… If this is gonna be your first mission, then there's something I gotta show you!" Togata said with a proud smile.
After informing the other members of the UA Alliance about their next target, as well as the origins of One For All itself, the group started getting ready to head out. Everyone had various reactions to learning about the origins of Izuku and Kurai's power, but all of them had seen enough crazy things that allowed them to accept it as the truth without much fuss. Mina seemed more energetic than usual, a rare sight these days. Following the death of Kurai, she had been devastated, and the subsequent deaths of her other friends had turned her into a permanently grim-faced figure who only seemed to really come alive when she was fighting villains.
"You're looking well, considering what we're about to head into," Weiss said as she strapped on her rapier.
"For years, all we've done is stuff that just annoys them more than anything," Mina replied as she threw on her costume's winter coat. "But if we can take back One For All and use it against them like All Might did? We might actually be able to start winning instead of just surviving. And I don't know about you, but I'd like a change in the current win-lose ratio."
"Honestly, I'll just be happy if we can all make it through this in one piece," Weiss replied. "The last time we went all-in like this, it cost us." Ten months back, Akarui had been taken hostage by Dabi, who had intended to deliver him to Shigaraki so that his quirk could be made to serve their cause. The villain's plan had been foiled, but he managed to escape, and he killed Tetsutetsu, though not before the metallic hero managed to take his right eye and ear. Apparently Dabi had barely survived his wounds, and his face had been so damaged that the sensory organs destroyed by Real Steel couldn't be healed, even with the quirks at Shigaraki's disposal.
There had been a lot less pyrrhic victories under Bakugo's guidance than the others had honestly expected, but of course, this was war- not everyone could be saved, as unfortunate as it was. To that effect, Mina told her friend, "Of course I want everyone to come home safely, too. If Akarui is taking the lead on this one, I have total faith that we'll all come out of this as winners."
"Didn't he sacrifice himself the last time he voluntarily took part in a battle?" Weiss pointed out.
"That was ten years ago," Mina shrugged. "I'm sure he knows what he's doing, this time around. Besides, the stakes are higher now- he knows there's no room for screw-ups. He'd only come under these circumstances if he believed that it was the best option. We'll even have backup this time."
"Yeah, one person, apparently," Kendo muttered, having overheard part of their conversation. "Anyone know who it is?"
"Hey, guys!" a deep, cheerful voice called from the entrance. "Man, it's hard to find this place!"
"I think that's the point, Mister Yoarashi," added another familiar voice, though this one was fairly unexpected.
"C'mon, kid! How many times do I have to you to call me Inasa?! I'd even settle for Gale Force at this point!"
"Yoarashi? And Kota?" Mina asked of no one in particular. "How'd Akarui get them to come along?" The teenage boy was dressed in a hero outfit that somewhat resembled swimming gear, save that it came with heavy gauntlets that reminded them of Bakugo's first costume design.
"Something tells me that the kid was a last-minute addition," Kendo sighed as she and the others began to approach the loud hero. In spite of her appearance, the girl was actually relieved to have Gale Force as their backup- they all were. His powers were only rivalled by that of Todoroki and Bakugo, so having him on their assault team would be a major asset.
"Yoarashi, how've you been?" Akarui called out as he moved to shake hands with the tall man.
"Not too bad, actually!" the loud hero laughed as he returned the gesture. "Water Hose here just took out a whole patrol of villains on his own, just the other day! I was so proud of him, I decided that he should come with us! He'll be a big help, I promise!"
"Stop embarrassing me," Kota begged in a deadpan tone.
"We'll be glad to have all the help we can get," Shoto said as he moved to greet the other hero as an old friend. "It's good to see you again."
"Same to you, Todoroki!"
"I didn't account for Kota coming along, but this'll work out well," Akarui said as he looked the younger hero-in-training up and down. "Hey, kid, I'm running this op. I know the basics of your quirk, but I need to know what kind of villains were you able to take out on your own. And how many?"
"There were eight of them, and two got jumped up on quirk enhancers," Kota replied quickly. "All of them were mid-to-long-range fighters, so I was able to use my quirk to counter their powers and then get in close for some hand-to-hand. Once they were each off-balance or just stunned enough, I waterlogged them into submission."
"It only took him a couple of minutes, too!" Yoarashi added. "After we beat the Front, this kid's gonna be rocking the charts! He's got so much passion, it gets me excited just thinking about it!"
"Please kill him or me," Kota complained as he placed a gloved hand over his face. "He's exhausting."
"Anyone else feelin' some Suneater vibes off this guy?" Togata laughed as he approached and laid an arm across the younger hero's shoulders. "You gotta have some more confidence in yourself around your friends, my man!"
"Oh great, now there's two of them."
It was dawn the next morning when the fortress came into view for the hero team. Akarui had armed himself with a handful of his inventions, so even if he didn't have a battle-oriented quirk, he could still hold his own, even against villains like the ones guarding the fortress. He would also be taking both Eri and Kota along with him for his part of the mission, as it would likely be the least combative path on the op.
The plan was simple enough. While most of the heroes would be busy distracting the guards and Nomu with property damage and other manners of violence, the three youngest members of the group would be sneaking into the vault to get what they came for, as well as plant explosives to ensure that at least that part of the building went down. The heavy hitters- Bakugo, Todoroki, Yoarashi, Togata, and Tokoyami- would each be taking on a separate wing of the fortress in an effort to spread their enemy's defenses as thinly as possible. Mina, Weiss, Kendo, Kodai, and Awase would each trail behind one of the other heroes in order to take out any stragglers, as well as damage the structure itself so that it would eventually collapse under its own weight.
"Each team's quota is six villains, plus however many Nomu get in your way," Akarui reminded them as he used a device on his wrist to double-check that all of his systems were working properly. "Get in, get out, meet back at Deku Base." There was a brief pause before he added, "You all have your disguise kits on you, right?" It had become standard for their teams to carry cosmetic-altering packets with them in order to change their appearances right after a raid. Each one contained hair dyes, colored contact lenses, scissors, makeup- anything that a hero could need to alter their given appearance as to present an image entirely different from the images that went along with their 'wanted' posters.
"We know our jobs, Saiyabrat," Bakugo growled once everyone had finished double-checking their gear. "Just make sure you blast this place to hell and get out, yourself. I don't wanna have to come back and save your ass again."
"Sure thing," the younger man grinned as he clenched his fist, after which an armored gauntlet appeared over his hand.
"Whoa, what's that?" Mina asked him.
"My newest invention, courtesy of Schnee Industries," he snickered. "Nano tech. Next time a villain tries to take me hostage, I'll have a nasty surprise waiting for them."
"I'm glad to see that some of my family's resources are being put to good use," Weiss muttered thinly. Toward the end of the first year in the war that had swept the globe, her family's company had stunned everyone by lending its support to the villains. When Weiss had confronted her father about it, he stated that it was always best for a business to lend support to the winning side, and that just wasn't the heroes anymore. Weiss and her sister, Winter, refused to join their father and brother in their support of the villains, and now the elder Schnee led one of the more active resistance cells in the States, their main focus being the destruction of her father's bigger assets. Weiss had considered going home to join her, but after the loss of Iida and many others, she decided to stay and help her friends in their fight. Besides, there were several holdings of her father's that she had been able to damage throughout her stay in the orient, so she was able fulfill both goals simultaneously.
Each time they had hit one of Schnee Industries' facilities, Akarui had requested that they turn over any technological prototypes that they got ahold of to him- now they knew why. As he retracted the gauntlet into what looked like a wristwatch, Akarui stood up and said, "Alright, people. Graveyard shift is gonna be over in thirty minutes, so be in position in twenty. I see AA defenses, so try to stay below their line of sight, especially those of you who like using height to your advantage. There are also at least ten enhanced villains on patrol in the trees and on the outside of the building itself. Bakugo, you get first strike."
"Damn right I do." He started walking off toward the southern end of the fortress, Weiss following him close behind. "Make sure you all go plus ultra, extras." This got the others to laugh a little bit before they also began to break into their teams.
Tokoyami and Mina headed for the west, followed by Togata and Kodai heading east. Todoroki, Yoarashi, Awase, and Kendo would be taking the front gate, since it was the most heavily fortified, though they would separate into two teams once they were inside. Once they had trashed the initial defenses, Akarui would move in with the kids to head for the archives where quirks were being stored for later use.
Turning to the younger heroes now, Akarui asked them, "You guys ready?"
"Yeah," Kota nodded as he clenched his fists. "I'm ready to do some real damage to these guys after what they did to Deku and Firecracker."
"As long as you use that motivation to get the mission done, I look forward to seeing what you can do," the young genius said approvingly. "How about you, Eri?"
"I'm ready," she nodded. "I'm gonna be a hero that your brother would be proud of." She was dressed in what would apparently be her hero costume; a blue battle skirt that reminded Akarui of the azure color that his brother used to wear, green sleeves that matched Izuku's verdant hair, and surprisingly, Togata's very own cape from when he had saved Eri from the Hassaikai. He had a newer one that Akarui had made for him a couple of years ago, but he had kept ahold of the one he had used to protect the little girl, and now it was hers' to carry.
Akarui smiled at Eri and ruffled her hair the way he remembered Kurai would do with him before saying, "Then let's see what you've got, Lamillion."
Litrosh: Looks like we're going to be keeping this segment pretty short this time- Mataras isn't feeling up to playing out our usual shenanigans.
Lamillion: He'll be okay, right? I know he took some of those last reviews pretty hard.
Litrosh: Those have very little to do with his current mind frame- he more or less expected to face that sort of backlash. He's dealing with some issues that are fully unrelated to this story.
Deku: Knowing him, though, he'll probably manifest some of those frustrations in the next few chapters or so...
Litrosh: Oh, absolutely.
Lamillion: Next time- A Future No More
Litrosh: The heroes finally have a real shot at victory against Shigaraki's forces... What could possibly go wrong?
Deku: I believe in you, Eri! Go Beyond!
Lamillion: Plus Ultra!
Next time on Your Hero Academia: Renewal...
"Save it, Hikari," Kota interrupted as Muscular's body began to swell in size, a maniacal grin splitting his scarred face from ear to ear. "I'm not about to stop you from taking on Toga, so don't you dare try to get in the middle of this. Don't waste your breath and let me do what I need to do- what is my right to do."
"You're definitely talking a bigger game than you were the last time we met, kid," Muscular said as he crouched in preparation to jump. "Your parents took out my eye, and your friends almost killed me more than once- think you can be the one to finish the job?!"
"Why don't you come and find out?" Kota replied in a dark tone as his eyes burned with hatred for the massive villain, water already swirling in his hands.
That was all the invitation that Muscular needed to leap over the heads of Eri and Akarui to head straight for Kota, who immediately beat a retreat down the hallway that they had come from. "Where you going, brat?!"
"Catch me if you can!" Kota shot back as he disappeared from his friends' line of sight. Muscular let out a delighted howl as he barreled after his prey, eager to shed blood for the first time in what felt like years.