Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia, Overlord, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
The Sorcerer Hero: Deku
Chapter fourteen: Nazarick vs. the League of Villains, prelude
When All Might, Endeavor, Best Jeanist, and a number of other pro heroes followed Hawks over to the warehouse that Star and Stripe led notable Japanese pro heroes into, what they found waiting for them inside was nothing any of them could ever have expected. Similarly, it was something that none of them were ever going to forget, what they found inside waiting for them being a nightmare that would haunt them until the end of their days.
Star and Stripe, America's number one pro hero, plus all of the Japanese pro heroes she led into the warehouse, were partly decayed corpses that were animated by some unknown power. They all lunged at the heroes who came into the warehouse, but ranged attacks kept all of them at bay, and Hawks even sniped a few by shooting them in the heads with his feathers. He didn't will those used feathers back to him, he had them destroyed.
All Might was particularly horrified to see that so many notable heroes, including Cathleen, had all been turned into monsters greatly resembling the living dead from modern popular culture. It was little comfort to the Symbol of Peace that Cathleen and the other corrupted pro heroes had been put out of their misery. But this was still a great loss, and All Might had no idea how Japan was going to tell America their top hero died on foreign soil.
It was Hawks who first spotted a note stuck into the top of Kamui Woods's uniform, and using a feather he controlled he got the note out and flew it over to him. Hawks also didn't recall that feather back to him, he was afraid he might contract whatever turned the dead pro heroes into the monsters that they had been. Hawks then read aloud the note, but it was clear he was a good deal confused by what it was entailing.
"Stay off my back heroes," Hawks read aloud, "Signed AFO?" All Might immediately perked up when Hawks said the last part. Looking to the other heroes with him, Hawks said, "Do we know of any villains called Afo?" Hawks pronounced it like 'Ah-foe', thinking it was some manner of villain alias with a special pronunciation.
All Might asked Hawks to let him see the note, and when he did he saw the name of the person who had (seemingly) left the note. It wasn't a villain called Ahfoe, it was All For One. The Symbol of Peace no had no doubt left that All For One had indeed return, and that he was experimenting not just with the Nomus, but with a new breed of monsters that greatly resembled living dead from modern popular culture. All For One was even more sick than All Might thought.
...
Given the level of panic that could be caused in Japan if there were someone out there turning others into monsters that looked like undead (All Might sincerely hoped that they weren't actual undead like that), the Symbol of Peace had info on what happened to Cathleen and the pro heroes she led kept on a need to know basis. As far as the rest of Japan was aware, some of their most esteemed heroes plus a foreign hero were simply killed.
What made things even worse was, when the remains of the slain pro heroes were examined, they held no trace of having quirks. All of them were quirkless corpses. That further solidified the idea All Might had that his greatest nemesis of all time, All For One, was behind all of this. Also, All Might felt his heart nearly stop at the implication of that, as it meant or at least heavily suggested that All For One was now in possession of Cathleen's quirk.
If All For One isn't found and taken down for sure this time, Japan is... no, not just Japan, the entire world could be taken over by a terrible villain.
Ainz Ooal Gown was examining all of the Quirk Jewels he got from the heroes who busted into the warehouse he had set up as a trap. Ainz was in his form of Izuku Midoriya, in Izuku's old room at the Midoriya apartment, about an hour and a half before Inko was expected to wake up. As an undead, Ainz had no need for rest, so he was able to devote extra time to study. This included examining all of his new Quirk Jewels.
That included the Quirk Jewel containing the New Order quirk. It allowed the user to more or less set reality to their whims. They had to touch what they wanted to affect and say its name before setting a 'rule', but so long as all conditions were met, reality would be the plaything of the user of New Order. The potential of such a quirk greatly appealed to Ainz. It would be a power he'd be sure to make good use of in the future.
He put that Quirk Jewel away into his inventory before he got back to writing down more notes; the Sorcerer King had taken to keeping and inventory list of what all quirks he had Quirk Jewels of, as well as making notes on ones he felt to be of greater potential and or value. Right now, Ainz was ranking New Order very high up on that list. After that was done, Ainz put that notebook back into his inventory before checking on Izuku's homework.
Ainz was still keeping up on the work of the boy whose life he had inherited. In addition to keeping Izuku at the top of the class, Ainz also had secured Izuku's place among Class 1-A of U.A. High School. Everyone in Class 1-A respected Izuku, even Bakugo albeit with some degree of reluctance. That level of respect is what Ainz felt was owed to someone as good as Izuku Modoriya. Ainz was going to keep it up, and not just because Ainz felt it was owed to Izuku.
...
Later that morning in the homeroom class at U.A., Aizawa told Class 1-A that finals were coming up, and that after that was some summer training camp. He also warned that those who fail in the finals are going to be given extra lessons, suggesting that failures would not get to go on the trip and be forced to do summer school to catch up. Ainz was able to tell this was another of Aizawa's 'rational deceptions' to make students work as hard as possible, but he still felt it a tad cruel.
Ainz placed third in the midterms; he could have placed first if he wanted, but he more desired to attract as little attention as possible, so he avoided the top spot in midterms as he figured that it'd draw more attention than he'd like. Above Ainz was Tenya and above Tenya was Yaoyorozu, which the Sorcerer King was fine with. Ainz did like how he was above everyone else, especially Bakugo who placed fourth. Ainz hoped Bakugo would remember the taste of humble pie.
The less academically inclined students sought out tutoring from the ones more academically inclined. Ainz heard Bakugo say something about tutoring Kirishima 'until he bleeds'. Such a way of putting things coming from Bakugo did not surprise Ainz in the least. Ainz noticed that a lot of his peers sought help from Yaoyorozu to study. Ainz was glad to see someone with a quirk that made them a valuable asset to Nazarick was valuable in other ways.
During an incident during lunch that day, Monoma of Class 1-B harassed Ainz's group while they were eating. Monoma was chopped on the back of the head by his classmate Itsuka Kendo. "Sorry about Monoma," Itsuka apologized to Ainz, Tenya, Todoroki, Ochaco, and Tsuyu, "He does that quite often. I think Kan-sensei needs to step up more to keep Monoma from harassing you guys."
"I think he's just trying to keep up healthy competition between our classes but is just taking it further than necessary and without realizing it," Ainz remarked, giving off an understanding air to put the worries of Class 1-A's rival class at ease. They have potential to help spread the name of Izuku Midoriya, and some of them have quirks that the Sorcerer King will want to be making some duplicates of later.
Nodding once in thanks for Ainz's understanding, Itsuka said, "Thanks, Midoriya. Anyway, I got it from an upperclassmen, Haya-senpai, that the practical portion of the finals will be us in the hero course against robots, like the practical portion of the entrance exams."
"Well that ought to be easy enough to get over kero," Tsuyu remarked. Ainz nodded in agreement; if all he had to fight in the practical portion of the finals were robots, then he didn't have to hold back like when he does against living opponents he wants to keep alive.
As Ainz and his group saw the two students from Class 1-B take off, Itsuka more or less dragging Monoma away, Ainz's group all turned to look at one another. "So how do you think the fight against the robots will go?" Tenya asked.
"Midoriya here ought to have no problem," Todoroki said evenly, "Given he can take down multiple of those big black skeleton warrior monsters single handedly and all at once."
"Even a Zero Pointer type robot would be no match for you, Midoriya," Ochaco said, "You got this one in the bag!"
Ainz acted a bit embarrassed, like a student being overly praised by friends. "I, err, umm, yes," Ainz said, "But why don't we talk about some of the rest of us here, like Todoroki? He's quite powerful as well, we cannot deny that."
The girls and Tenya nodded in agreement. "I heard that Todoroki is popular among the girls here at school kero," Tsuyu said.
"Oh yeah, I heard that too!" Ochaco said, "Hey Todoroki, are there any girls here at U.A. that you're interested in dating?"
"Respectfully, no," Todoroki replied, "Don't get me wrong, I will agree that there are a lot of lovely looking girls here at U.A., especially among our year of the hero course. And if and when I do gain an interest in dating, I will be looking for female companionship. But I simply just lack any interest in dating right now."
Holding a hand to his chin, Tenya said, "Huh. Well there's no problem with that, although a lot of guys here are under the impression that you and Yaoyorozu were going to end up dating."
"I'm going to refrain from dating Yaoyorozu," Todoroki said, "On the basis that one of the boys over in Class 1-B has feelings for her. I had been taught by my older brother Natsuo to put friendship with guys over romance with girls, at least to an extent. I believe that helping the boy in Class 1-B who has feelings for Yaoyorozu get together with her would be following the teachings that Natsuo has been teaching me in."
Tenya, a bit of a dry look on his face, remarked, "I bet Natsuo would get along swimmingly with my older brother Tensei if that's the case." Ainz, although he didn't show it, was amused by the banter between friends he was seeing. It reminded him of his old guild mates back in YGGDRASIL. Yet another reason why Ainz was working undercover as Izuku Midoriya.
Time passed, and Class 1-A all passed the written portion of the finals, some easily and some by the skin of their teeth. But the main point was that they all passed. Soon, the day of the practical portion of the finals came, and Aizawa took Class 1-A, all of them in their hero costumes, out to one of the training grounds. "Students," Aizawa began, "Under normal circumstances, the practicals of the finals would see you all group up into ten pairs of two then go into separate arenas to fight a couple of villain robots."
"Has there been a change, Aizawa-sensei?" Yaoyorozu asked.
"A slight change," Aizawa replied, "Everything about how the practicals of the finals will go will be remaining the same aside from how the villain robots are being replaced with one U.A. teacher per pair."
"We're fighting teachers?" Tenya said, "Sir, we're still first year hero course students. You and the other teachers are experienced pro heroes."
"We will be holding back, Iida," Aizawa said, "And furthermore we'll be equipped with weights that will further limit us. If we had no such handicaps or were missing even one handicap, then what all fears you may have would be more well founded."
Raising a hand, Aoyama asked, "Sir, is there a reason for the change?"
Aizawa nodded once in the affirmative. "Villain activity has been on the rise as of late. If we went at the traditional pace when it came to training you, you would be woefully under prepared for dealing with the dangers that are popping up. As such, we've decided that amping things up was the best way to go." Ainz had to agree with the logic, and he was approving of the fact that the pro heroes are going to be holding back on first years.
Granted, there was no need for the pros to hold back against Ainz Ooal Gown, but they didn't need to know that they didn't need to do that. Aizawa explained that the pass conditions were to either capture the teacher they were fighting, or escape from the arena they were sent into via the exit gate that would be provided. The teams had thirty minutes to accomplish either task.
The students were then grouped up into ten teams of two, and Ainz found himself partnered with Bakugo. To their surprise, All Might was the teacher assigned to face them in the practicals. Even though Ainz was confident he could take All Might, he had to wonder what exactly the school was thinking putting the number one hero in Japan against a pair of first years. Wouldn't a far weaker hero be a safer bet?
Regardless, Ainz was planning to pass; it would not do to have a blemish of failure on the record of Izuku Midoriya.
In the arena that he and Bakugo were sent into, Ainz walked with him as Bakugo said, "Listen Deku, I think that our best bet is to just run for the escape gate."
Ainz was surprised to hear Bakugo suggested fleeing from All Might rather than try to fight him. "All Might has you that worried?"
"Being the strongest hero in Japan aside, All Might took down one of those big ass black skeleton warrior monsters," Bakugo said, a hint of trepidation in his tone, "Anyone who can smoke one of those monsters is NOT to be trifled with." Ainz was able to get that the main (if not only) reason that Bakugo was suggesting fleeing from All Might rather than try to fight him was due to All Might having taken down a Death Knight.
As Ainz calculated a ninety-one point six percent chance that Bakugo would have suggested trying to fight All Might if the Symbol of Peace did NOT take down one of the Death Knights, All Might rushed up to appear in front of the boys, making Bakugo take a half step back out of fright. "Well now, boys," All Might said, "Ready to prove your worth?"
As Bakugo chocked back a curse, Ainz cast a Fireball at All Might, only going half normal strength to gauge how much he could get away with turning the heat up on All Might. He was at level seventy so he ought to be able to take at least some punishment from someone like Ainz who was at level one-hundred. As it turned out, All Might was able to take it fairly well, but it did still throw him back a bit. Only the handicap weights kept All Might from flying away too much.
Ainz said, "Kacchan, can you cast an explosion right in front of us to mask our escape into an alleyway?" Bakugo, getting his wits back about him, did something he never thought he'd do; listen to Deku. But with All Might as their opponent, Bakugo was all too glad to help out with whatever plan it was Deku had for getting away from All Might.
Bakugo cast an explosion at the ground, big enough to mask the escape he and Ainz took. By the time All Might recovered, he saw nothing but a dark gray cloud of smoke from an explosion right in front of him. It was so wide a cloud it blocked his view of everything in front of him. "They're trying to escape," All Might said, "But I'll find them!"
...
All Might had no hope of finding Ainz and Bakugo, Ainz had subtly cast spells to cloak his and Bakugo's presence from All Might's knowing. He dropped the spells when he and Bakugo spotted the escape gate about a dozen meters ahead of them. After a quick bit of running, Ainz and Bakugo went through the gate, and an announcement was made saying that Midoriya and Bakugo had both escape, which signaled a pass condition.
Later on, the rest of the practical portions finished up, and everyone in Class 1-A passed save for Sero, Mina, Kaminari, Kirishima, and Sato. Sero's partner Mineta was given a pass, though. Additionally, as Ainz had anticipated, Aizawa revealed that everyone was going on the summer camp training trip, he was merely giving a rational deception to make everyone work harder. But the students who failed the practicals would have extra lessons at the camp.
There was some time before everyone had to leave for the summer camp training trip. It gave them all time to prepare. It would be time used very well by Ainz Ooal Gown.
Ainz had some of his top subordinates from Nazarick scout out various locations that piqued his interest, and within time he came across a few places of note. The first was a place called I-Island, where a man named David Shield did work. David was being secretly threatened by a man known as Wolfram who had three elite subordinates named Swordkil, Daigo, and Nobu.
Ainz was simply planning on killing Wolfram, doing so in a show that would make his subordinates swear themselves to him as he needed more followers in the second New World. But Ainz didn't kill Wolfram right away because, upon checking him with Detect Quirk, Ainz saw that Wolfram had two quirks, Metal Manipulation and Muscle Augmentation. Wolfram was the first second New Worlder to have two quirks and Ainz wasn't responsible for it.
Ainz instead just took Wolfram's quirks while Time Stop was active, cast a sleep spell on Wolfram, then dropped the Time Stop while making it look to Swordkil, Daigo, and Nobu that he killed him. The three elite subordinates, seeing how easily the skeletal man in the orange royal robe had killed their boss, all begged for mercy from Ainz, swearing to do whatever he said. Ainz said that he was wanting them all to work for him now, and they all agreed without hesitation.
Ainz's first order was telling them to tell him everything they knew about Wolfram having two quirks because as far as he knew people were only ever born with one. The three men all confessed that they had no idea about why Wolfram had two quirks, and one of them claimed he wasn't even aware that Wolfram had a second quirk. Ainz judged them to be honest with him, so he let it go, tossing Wolfram's 'corpse' into a portal.
Wolfram would awaken in a torture chamber in Nazarick where he would be interrogated for all that he knew. After all possible information of relevance was obtained from Wolfram, Ainz asked his Nazarick subordinates for an idea on what to do with him. Surprisingly, it was Mare who won the macabre raffle this time, and as he received his prize Aura muttered something under her breath about wanting to shove a living snake up Wolfram's ass. Wolfram was reported dead an hour later.
Next, Ainz's attention was drawn to the activities over on a certain island where a villain called Nine was terrorizing a certain family because of their healing quirks. This man, Nine, wanted those healing quirks to offset a drawback to his powerful quirk. He even killed a father who had one of the healing quirks, but it only worked when used on someone with the right blood type, and Nine's blood type wasn't the right one.
Ainz, intrigued by the healing quirks as he had so few under his sway, went to the island, finding Nine and his three subordinates; a woman known as Slice, a beast like man known as Chimera, and a ninja like guy wrapped up in red bandages called Mummy. Ainz cast Time Stop to examine Nine, and here he found that Nine had several quirks, as well as beginning to show signs of suffering from Quirk Overload Sickness.
What really caught the attention of the Sorcerer King was one of Nine's quirks was called All For One. Examining it, Ainz saw it functioned like a combination of Harvest Quirk and Bestow Quirk, but the user takes the quirk into themselves and keeps it within before deciding to give it to another. Ainz also saw it was a synthetic copy, meaning that someone out there had the original. Ainz was going to find out who, it could be a threat to his plans.
Regardless, Ainz used Harvest Quirk on Nine while he was frozen in time, took all of his quirks. Ainz then did with Nine what he did with Wolfram, making Nine's subordinates think Ainz killed him before tossing his corpse into a portal but in reality Ainz just made Nine fall asleep and sent him to Nazarick for interrogation. Ainz was able to get Slice, Chimera, and Mummy to all swear themselves to him and his name.
Ainz, after all info was obtained from Nine, asked his Nazarick subordinates for ideas on what to do with him. Setsuna Wahid from the World Heritage combat maids got the win, and took him off to 'experiment on him to see how much peyote humans can tolerate'. According to what Lupus's pallet swap said, humans (at least ones from the second new world) have a far lower tolerance for peyote than vampires such as herself and Shalltear, given Nine had died of a peyote overdose.
Also on the island, Ainz as he marveled about the healing quirk he took from Nine, Cell Activation 'A', had found two kids who, due to Nine, were now orphaned. Mahoro Shimono and Katsuma Shimono, age ten and six respectively. Older sister Mahoro had a quirk called Hologram that let her make holograms of whatever her imagination can come up with basically, and make them as big as she so chose, but the holograms can't interact with the real world.
Younger brother Katsuma, however, had the other healing quirk Nine was after, a variant of Cell Activation that apparently wasn't limited by the target's blood type; Cell Activation 'A' apparently only worked if the target's blood type was A. Ainz was also impressed that the kids, despite their youth, had amazing potential; Mahoro was level twelve and Katsuma was level eleven, and both of them have natural quirk capacities above the common limit of four; six for Mahoro and five for Katsuma.
Similarly as he did with Eri, Ainz took in Mahoro and Katsuma; Chocho Buwuhara and Rem Anisawa who live in the apartment above one of the Mr. Suzuki owned businesses were given the duty of looking after and raising Eri, and there was enough space in the apartment for two more kids, so Ainz expanded their family by assigning them Mahoro and Katsuma as well.
After the business with Nine, Ainz turned his attention towards a man called Flect Turn, running an organization called Humanirise. Ainz learned that they wanted to make the world quirkless basically, but that would not do for Ainz's plans. So Ainz cast Time Stop, took Flect Turn's quirk Reflect, then knocked him out with a sleep spell before tossing him into a portal into Nazarick. Flect Turn had no info of value, so he was given to Demiurge who won the raffle this time.
Ainz, after telling Demiurge to have fun with Flect Turn (said 'fun' ended up killing Flect Turn), was able to get a number of elite subordinates to swear loyalty to him; a woman named Beros, twin brothers named Ena and Dio, a man named Leviathan, a man named Rogone, and a man named Sidero. Flect Turn's organization ended up going into chaos that swallowed the country that they were in, but it was no skin off of Ainz's metaphorical nose.
Ainz's time approaching the summer break training camp for his class at U.A. was fast approaching, so he was going to be focusing on that.
Ainz had his new elite subordinates he gathered while taking down Wolfram, Nine, and Flect Turn formed into their own group, separate from the Shie Hassaikai. From this group, Ainz called Beros to see him at the Shie Hassaikai compound. There, with Albedo and Demiurge standing behind him, Ainz with an illusion spell up to show his skeletal self wearing his orange Royal robe, addressed Beros who stood next to Rappa. He was addressing them both.
"Beros, Rappa," Ainz began as he sat at his desk, "I'm trying to investigate this one organization called the League of Villains. With what info that I already have on them, the League of Villains is bound to be a threat to my plans."
"What would you have us do, boss man?" Rappa asked.
"I need the two of you to get scouted by a recruiter and brought to the League of Villains," Ainz said, "You will be doing undercover work for me."
"I assume you plan to take them out as soon as you learn of where to find them and gather enough info on them first," Beros began.
Ainz nodded in confirmation. "Indeed, Beros. This may require the long game to be played, and you two will have to play the part of loyal members of the League of Villains. Beros, Rappa, you two will be provided with a small comm device each, which which you can relay whatever info you learn to where Mr. Kurono will be stationed. They're protected from hacking and being detected, but it may be wise to sneak away if possible anyway before you attempt communication."
Beros and Rappa were each given a small comm device each, additionally Beros was given a quiver of twenty arrows from the first New World. This is actually the first magic item Ainz gave out to a second New Worlder, but it's not from Nazarick or YGGDRASIL. The quiver's enchantment made it so that spent arrows magically reappear, essentially giving Beros unlimited arrows. Ainz never said it was magic, and passed it off as advanced quirk based technology.
Ainz also subtly applied enchantments to both Beros and Rappa that protected their thoughts and intentions from being sussed out except by Ainz himself. It wouldn't do if his secret agents getting into the League of Villains were sussed out. As soon as all other topics were covered, Ainz sent the two on their task. After the door closed behind them, Demiurge set up protections to prevent any spying on Ainz's office room at the Shie Hassaikai compound.
"These humans in the League of Villains ought to be slaughtered wholesale, Lord Ainz," Albedo said, "They had dared to commit the ultimate sin of getting in your way."
"I agree that the humans who have caused offense to Lord Ainz ought to be killed to a man," began Demiurge, "But I believe we shouldn't slaughter them immediately."
Albedo turned to look at Demiurge, looking at him as if he'd grown another head suddenly. "You would hesitate to punish humans who have offended our lord?" Albedo began.
"These humans in the League of Villains are the party behind the creation of these monsters called Nomus," Demiurge began, "Plus they have the means of replicating and artificially creating the powers that the humans of this world all clamor around. Gaining access to what all they have at their disposal could be of great value to Lord Ainz, as well as help him with his conquests."
Ainz nodded in agreement with Demiurge. "He's right, Albedo. Although they are a thorn in my side right now, the League of Villains could potentially be turned into both a boon and a valuable asset to my goals here." Ainz reached into his inventory and pulled out the Quirk Jewel that held the copy of All For One that he took from Nine. The Sorcerer King held it as he looked right at it.
"...From what we gathered on the League of Villains from interrogating the men I've killed," Ainz said, "As well as what else we know, the League of Villains is led by a man named All For One. He is a man with powers comparable to the ones I gained when I resurrected here. As such, All For One has to go down." Ainz put the Quirk Jewel he held back into his inventory.
"...And I'm going to be the one to take his life."
END, CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Author's notes;
This chapter briefly covers the fallout of the previous chapter before going on to cover the finals that Ainz and his classmates have to do. The results are the same aside from Bakugo and Izuku swapping places in the midterms, and the results from the finals are the same. Same pairs, same opponents, same outcomes.
Ainz then makes the first three movies moot as he gathers more subordinates, as well as collect the Shimono siblings after seeing their great potential (he used illusion magic to make himself look okay to the kids), then sent Beros and Rappa on a mission to infiltrate the League of Villains so that he can spy on them and gather intel.
The next chapter will see the League of Villains start to form, as well as start this mini-arc in earnest. Take care.