Guild Master here again, again.
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"He's dead! Ain't that enough for ya?!"
The sixth inheritor asked the second inheritor what else he could possibly want out of the fact that the sinister All for One had been confirmed to have been shot dead. Still, the stern face of the second inheritor remained tense at the fact this whole fight ended without the need of One for All.
"Did you already forget who it was that killed him? Why should we be celebrating when one giant monster dies from being mauled to death by an even bigger one? We still don't know where Bloodsoaked stands against humanity."
His response to his successor over the questions being asked of him silenced the entire room. Not knowing enough about how this re emerging threat operated left all the inheritors far too nervous for their own good. While All for One made his deeds of cruelty known to the world to feed his ego, this criminal operated discreetly and even outed all his competition for control without anybody knowing any better. This sort of professional criminal escaped all the inheritors' understandings about how the underworld of society operated.
Nobody even knew he existed until Nana stepped into her role.
Everyone else couldn't come up with anything concrete enough to go off of. Going after a ghost who always created a storm wherever he reappeared just made this situation go from having to fix a bike to open heart surgery. Only one inheritor felt something was wrong after hearing about his brother's death.
"... He's not dead."
When he had the entire room staring at him with dinner plates facing him, he elaborated the concerning news further.
"At least, not completely. Yes, I felt him fade after he was…"
He still couldn't say it. Despite the cruelty and evil his brother committed, he still was his only family.
"I can still feel him. It's beyond faint, but it still exists. Whenever I approach it, I-"
Trying to confirm the actual state of his brother's life caused something to deter the man from investigating any further. Reaching out to feel his brother's presence through the connection they shared caused a painful reaction that felt as though he opened a door leading out into a blinding snowstorm without clothing. A dangerous presence violently shoved the first inheritor back into One for All the split moment he attempted to investigate his brother's disappearance. Something that was likely far more powerful than his cruel brother now had its fangs buried deep into whatever remained of the twisted man.
"We must be cautious. This enemy is not one to be treated like our enemies of the past. They are capable of outmaneuvering us regardless of our efforts. Their roots dig deep within the country and its people. An intelligent and meticulous enemy such as this may prove to me more than anything ever encountered in the history of mankind…"
These words ran deep into the minds of the other inheritors. Nana herself knew first hand how elusive yet deadly Bloodsoaked can be. Scraps of rumors were all she could find on the killer after so many years of trying to hunt him down. The one time she fought him left the woman in critical condition while he just walked away right in front of her. Her sense of right and wrong could no longer justify sending Izuku into a fight she failed to win.
Midoriya needed to stop his mission to take on this murderer. He had fought far too much for the missions sent to him by the ones inside One for All. She feared for Izuku's wellbeing if he were to go too far in his pursuit against Bloodsoaked.
Musutafu City
Midoriya raced just ahead of Mirko as the reports coming in on Bloodsoaked now included the deaths of villains who were trying to ambush both the heroes and this one wanted individual. In his mind, he was already failing his mission to stop this rampaging killer from doing as they pleased.
Picking up on this strange behavior had been none other than the cunning junior hero Hitoshi Shinso. Several students from UA were selected from other classes besides 1-A to help in the effort to bring down Bloodsoaked. He had spent many months under the personal tutelage of Aizawa to help train his combat prowess as well as his physical capabilities to match those of his other schoolmates. Rigorous training which almost killed him in combination with having to relearn everything he knew how to fight shaped the young hero into someone a cut above your average combatant.
His personal nature to analyze people around him had the mind controller a bit worried for the one who helped come out of his shell back near the start of the school year. What used to be a somewhat nervous yet kind atmosphere felt cold and heartless as their squad closed in on the target. Something changed in Midoriya somewhere within the many months they didn't interact.
"Yo, Izuku!"
"..."
"... IZUKU!"
"Wha-"
In his desire to get to the fight, Midoriya hadn't expected the mind controller to use his quirk when he responded to Shinso. Izuku obediently did as told to stop at the next building rooftop as instructed by the concerned Hitoshi.
"What the hell is going on here?! Why did you do that?"
All Shinso gave Mirko next to the other heroes who were able to land nearby was a look of concern at Midoriya's brash actions. Mirko also could see where this kid was coming from, so she told the other heroes in her squad to take a moment to pause so that Shinso could talk to Izuku for a moment.
Throughout training and practice runs, Izuku had been an ideal team member with little to no problems in his performance. Right as the mission started had been when the young man shifted his normally amicable behavior into something almost unrecognizable. All those weeks of training with Izuku and Mirko never knew that Izuku had been capable of speeds that could beat her own. As a team leader, she needed to get to the bottom of things to prevent any unnecessary accidents. As a woman, seeing a young man outpace her left the woman a bit curious as to what else he could do better than her.
"Izuku? Are you okay? Is there anything you need to tell us?"
Even if Midoriya managed to resist his control, something should have happened physically as a response to the order in the first place. Not a single twitch or reaction from the other young teen told the mind controller that something was wrong.
"Mirko-san, he's not responding."
"So? Doesn't that just mean he broke your control or something?"
To prove his point, Shinso walked up to the unresponsive Izuku and shoved him hard. All that happened to him was that he took a few steps to catch himself before standing still again. It had been then Mirko started to realize something was wrong. Being perceived as a battle crazed bitch didn't change the fact that she still treated her mission seriously enough to read up on the dossiers on her team as a leader. That shove to break out Izuku seemed to be more than enough to break the control Shinso couldn't willingly do anymore.
"Izuku? Izuku, respond!"
Forsaking the current objective to face Bloodsoaked for the time being, Mirko took Izuku by the shoulders to try and shake him out of his hypnotized state without avail. Hitoshi kept trying to break the dazed state, but he knew Midoriya had no longer been affected by his quirk. For some reason, Izuku was now suspended in his own mind against his will.
?
Going from racing across the rooftops of the city to standing in the middle of an empty hallway would throw off anybody from the sudden shift in momentum.
Observing where he now was, the familiar architecture of the mystery inheritor's place within One for All clued in the slightly annoyed Midoriya. Looking in the opposite direction of the endless hallway in front of him, his eyes widened to the fact that the other direction had no end to it either. His head snapped back and forth as though turning his head would somehow spawn an obvious exit from this endless corridor.
"Hello?! Anybody?! First?! Nana?!"
Nothing. Absolutely no response came from either direction of the hallway.
Not even an echo.
"Where are you?! I know you know I'm in here! What the hell is going on?!"
More silence further infuriated Izuku while the realization that he couldn't get a response from anybody sank in. Outside of this inner world, a war for society's safety raged on with him stuck in this mental prison. Without another logical decision to make, he did the one thing he could possibly do in a situation like this.
He ran.
Picking a single direction, Izuku charged his quirk to enhance his speed so that he could attempt to see if there was indeed an end to this empty space. Taking off at breakneck speeds created a bit of a vacuum within the hallway from Midoriya running at inhuman speeds.
Fifty Two Minutes Later
Gasping for air after coming to a trotting stop, Izuku fought to not vomit from trying to run relentlessly for the past half hour or so. This place just didn't have a way out of it.
He tried to break down the physical barriers keeping him trapped in this strange place without results. Unmarred surfaces were all he got for trying to smash his way out of this hallway. Not even the signs of scratches or cracks appeared after he relentlessly struck at his barriers. The earlier passionate drive from earlier dialed itself back a bit after Midoriya drove himself ragged for almost an hour. With no other options available, he did the next best thing for himself.
Midoriya sat on the floor with his back against the wall. His body thanked him for the break with a rush of dopamine to compensate for the brief respite. Just being able to breathe without the burn of his body impeding his ability to do so left the young man guilty for resting when the people he cared about were still outside fighting this battle without him.
"They're not."
It startled Izuku to hear the mysterious inheritor speak right in front of him. Turning his head upright, the one likely responsible for this temporary imprisonment was seen leaning against the wall opposite to Midoriya with their arms and legs crossed over each other. Before Izuku had the chance to state his lack of amusement at his situation, the blacked out shade interrupted him from speaking.
"As far as they're concerned, you stopped responding several seconds ago. Consider yourself lucky I'm not making you do this in real time."
Hearing the mysterious entity within One for All speak with such authority while Izuku remained helpless here in this place reignited his previous anger. An incredulous laugh passed through Izuku's lips in response to the words of this nameless asshole.
"Y-you? Ha! That maniac is still out there and the thing you want from me is a thanks?!What next?! You want me to blow you?! Huh?! Is that what gets you-"
Cutting off Izuku from his passionate rant against his situation, one solid frontal kick with the bottom of the shadow's boot both made Izuku bleed out his mouth and nose on top of cracking the previously unfazed walls and black marble floors. Making the pain worse was the same boot buried into the front of Izuku's torso. Inside of this space, one had an interesting amount of control over certain aspects of perceived reality. Nothing was an absolute within the quirk of One for All.
This allowed the unknown inheritor to inflict enough pain to kill a normal adult man twice over with his destructive blow. Feeling his bones being crushed along with his organs starting to pop like squashed grapes drove Izuku to claw at the foot planting him into the wall mercilessly.
"First time we met, you dug through my head and stole from me."
A slight increase of pressure caused another cup full of blood to splash out of Midoriya's mouth and nose.
"Then, you ask me to fight your battles for you. Even though I had to keep you from dying while doing so."
His still illegible face came closer to look Izuku in the eyes to deliver the last complaint with real venom dripping from every letter in the sentence.
"And now you insult me; after everything you've done to me? All I see is an ungrateful brat. I really don't see what he does in you for how fucking stupid you prove yourself to be over and over and over again."
Yanking his foot free from the tortured Izuku let the young man collapse back to the floor with a fully healed body. The lingering aches deep within his chest created excruciating coughs which prevented Midoriya from standing back up after such a taxing ordeal. Letting the pain fade away while the shade walked towards a door that wasn't there a moment ago, The shadow said one last thing before making their exit.
"Never come back here. If I ever see you here again, I will try to kill you."
Those ebony doors slammed open with a single shove from the blacked out inheritor. All Izuku had for company as he laid there on the floor was the silence of the hallway. An eerie, absent silence.
"AH!"
"What the fuck?!"
"Holy shit!"
A formerly unresponsive Izuku startled everyone around him with the yell from him waking back up from whatever unknown cause that left him invalid.
The instant the doors slammed shut behind him from within One for All, he was transported back into his original body in a jarring rush of regaining his bodily sensations. Scanning the people around him, Izuku saw Shinso directly in front of him while Mirko stood two meters away while she stood in a strange pose.
"... Sorry about that. Is everything okay?"
Relief that Izuku regained his faculties spread throughout his squad of heroes. It turns out that he woke up only seconds after he became unresponsive. Nobody told the clueless Izuku that Mirko had been intent on slapping Izuku with a hard open palm bitch slap. Shinso thankfully intervened long enough to prevent the woman from breaking the young man's jaw with her enhanced strength. The first thing that came out of Izuku's mouth put everyone back on the same page.
"Where are we with the operation?"
As it were, a new development left the initial plan completely ineffective with the losses of available heroes dropping like a stone. The current situation has moved to a different phase to counter the losses the heroes were experiencing against Bloodsoaked.