This is going to be something a little bit different from your usual dose of Viral Latency. This project has as much weight as mainline VL, but because the story itself doesn't lend well to including this, it'll be considered a "side project".
These stories will mostly focus on the world of My Hero Academia after the events of Prototype, but before Viral Latency starts. "Side Stories Spanning Seasons" isn't mandatory to read, but I highly recommend it as a companion piece to VL. I hope you all enjoy it! This isn't taking away from the main story because these were already finished. However, they are all unedited. It's not terrible, but you'll see why I enjoy having 7imelock helping me edit and co-write my story!
SIDE STORIES SPANNING SEASONS (SSSS)
THE FOUR FACTIONS OF JAPAN: "THE SILENT WAR"
There was a war in Japan. Not the bloody, country destroying wars happening all over the world. Not the wholesale internal implosions. This was a quiet war. For now. It was waged with words, petty acts of violence, nonconformity, and silent secret decrees. The four factions vied for the very heart and soul of Japan, it seemed like the last stable country left on Earth.
There was of course, obviously the national government. Always resistant to change, socially conservative, and domineering even after they lost the Pacific War. The backing of an entire people reflexively, the control over much of the legal systems and military. Tied down by bureaucracy, internal hardliners, the global chaos, loss of their leash keeper America and so on.
Yet the national government had at its disposal the entirety of Japan. Where the other factions needed to expand from neighborhoods and cities, at every moment the government had access to every industry, business, and citizens. Ironically, they didn't realize that the combination of All For One and the Meta Liberation Army made Japan less violent and totally broken compared to the rest of the world. By virtue of its military and conscription of metahuman citizens, they just barely were able to stay on the same level as the other organizations just by inertia.
The rise of quirks and the sheer spotlight of differences it put on citizens made the government react harshly. First, it was documentation. They were encouraged as good, law abiding citizens to register themselves, what abilities they had, and all other relevant information. Then came the spying, ferreting out who was keeping themselves or family secreted away. There was the "official" registry, and the secret list the government maintained for possible or confirmed mutant citizens.
Then as these abilities became stronger and the world took a bloodier turn, the government reacted as predictable as anyone with two eyes could have seen coming.
Desperate not to end up like the rest of the world, they came up with decentralized, scattershot plans. turned to plans that veered between horrifying to foolhardy ventures. Trying to breed the "perfect" metahuman ability through eugenics, establishing proxy sanctioned organizations to do what the government couldn't, mass conscripting citizens, especially metahumans into the police or military. They built up such a surplus of manpower and mutant power that even Destro and All For One at their height couldn't fight them in a straight fight.
Even when the government utilized concentration camps, horrifying and at times pointless experiments, breaking up families and communities, they always retained a strong upper hand. Despite the genocides, they always had a majority of the thirty and older population on their side. The apathetic, the clueless, politically non-engaged, the nationalistic and the fearful. All were mostly on the national government's side.
Ironically, taking down Destro was one of their biggest coups, but also strengthened All For One since his own primary enemy was gone. He could fully focus on the government.
After the government, the next large faction was the Meta Liberation Army. Their leader, Destro marinated in a mix of Maoist, Leftist, and strangely enough, Jean-Jacques Rousseau philosophy. The second most numerous of the organizations, followed the idea of "swimming with the minnows to hide". Hearts and minds helped them grow to high numbers as their attractive ideology included "platforms" and ideas such as being open to western style individualism and radical cultural changes.
This mishmash, especially as a reaction to world wide atrocities and the government's attempt at control and peace led to a rather disjointed ideology. The ultimate freedom to use Quirks; the "might makes right '' of the strength of Quirks; the emphasis on metahuman community, charity and support to the point of communities that resembled communes more than traditional Japanese society; all these things both isolated and empowered them. The younger generation took to the MLA with gusto; the older, with disdain and fear.
It was also no surprise and each new and younger generation displayed more and more metahuman abilities compared to the older, "Quirkless" majority. The MLA represented a new, modern path forward that kept getting stronger since the end of World War Two and the extensive liberalization in the decades after.
The loss of Destro, their charismatic, personally powerful leader dealt a mighty blow, and within a few decades, they retreated to their home cities. Like the loss of a unifying Daimyo, the feudal lords went back to their lands and bickered until the legacy of Destro would rear its head in the future…
Then, the third and seemingly last organized faction. All For One's organization. They had no official name, just referred to by his metahuman nickname. Just his existence and power made him the boogeyman of Japan. What could the strongest metahuman do once their power was stolen from them? To empower All For One, or to be spread and gifted to others.
But his charisma was on-par with Destro, and often appealed to the older generation. He styled himself as "The Daimyo". Which resonated heavily with the older population, thus chipping away at both the national government's and MLA's base of support. He offered a more Japanese traditional style of culture that existed within the DNA of the nation for centuries. Many powerful metahumans not under the MLA or government were killed, recruited, or had their Quirks taken by All For One. He did provide protection, security, and was ironically more proactive to crises.
The secret to his success was the subversion of the criminal underworld, many legitimate businesses and corporations. His path appealed to the conservative nature of crime and business. After all, the government was nationalizing at a furious rate, their foreign markets almost dead, and of course the crackdown on organized crime driving the moneymakers into the boogeyman's arms.
His final point of influence was of course, the buying and selling of metahuman abilities to those without the genetic lottery. For those who found their powers too unstable, unsightly, or a plain annoyance, they could essentially make free money by selling something they cared nothing about. And for the buyers, they could finally feel special in a society that prized collectivism above all else. They could finally attain real power, akin to buying their first gun.
Among his other actions was inserting or forcibly creating agents into every opposing organization except for the last "organization".
But All For One's main passion was about securing his power base and taking care of his brother. He scoured Japan and even risked international travel to obtain healing Quirks as conventional medicine failed his brother. His love was so great, he would even transfer his brother's pain to himself. But that is a story for another time.
As the shadow war drew on, he became crueler and more murderous to anyone not under his banner. When the situation would be "balanced" in the coming decades, his organization would be stymied by the settling of "peaceful" times, with the stringent restrictions and recording from the government databases of quirks.
Additionally, the establishment of Heroes as empowered legal servants that could use their Quirks quickly grew popular as a way to finally utilize quirks in a useful manner. "Heroes" were just the term they used to associate them with goodness and the pop culture baggage with it.
These were the three big organized factions.
But I said four factions, did I not?
The "unaffiliated". The most disorganized, patchwork, and random groups of people. These were what historians would later call the first vigilantes, first villains, and the first heroes.
They ranged from neighborhood watches made up of metahumans to deter community threats, to people going out to fight injustice with the power they had all alone, or taking back what they thought was rightfully theirs from the government or corporations.
To the government, they were a nuisance to be jailed or press ganged. To the MLA, they were misguided and ripe for recruitment. To All For One, they were a source of Quirks and target practice. And for the longest time, these masses of isolated islands were only notable because they had Quirks, unlike much of the population of the time.
But the seasons change, the dice are cast, and even the rats can have the hearts of lions once the fire rises from the sparks. And that spark was One For All.
THE CULT OF ALL FOR ONE
His underlings had the most amusing name for him in the beginning of those dark times. They would chant "All For One", proud that they dedicated their lives and resources just for him. A living cult he hadn't even intended on or to carefully cultivate. In a world where powers were a lottery chance, he alone could rig the system.
His currency wasn't always cash. It could be favors, deals, or even a whimsical mood. Wealth was meant to advance his progress. Investments always paid off.
This is how he became a faction unto himself. Where every other game in town relied on random chance, he could pick and choose his teams and personnel. A near unkillable juggernaut by way of genetic gambling? Why fight him, when he could simply take his power and put a few revolver rounds in him?
Loyalty and subversion could always carry the day. And if things got a little too heated?
A few city blocks could be sacrificed for the greater good.