There were no options. Saiki was intensely aware of that as he stared at the man in the breathing mask. Whoever this was, his image was one that shouldn't have been terrifying and yet somehow there was some... Some ineffable intensity he couldn't help but feel being in the same room, within a few feet of him. No eyes, and yet Saiki could feel the stare, the judgement, the analysis like unto being a specimen under a scientist's microscope. An object of study more than a person.
"What do you want with me?" What was it that told him to speak those words? Was it his nature, not wanting to dance around whatever danger the man might pose? Was it in hope for bargaining? Arguing his way out without any better options? Or was it simply some hope that if he cut to the heart of this conversation, the man would leave all the sooner, taking this unsettling feeling with him?
"Let's not put the cart before the horse, young man," the figure chided him, standing as straight and unmoving as ever. Stiff and inhuman. All the while the ominous breathing through his mask continued. "Allow me to introduce myself first. Though I hope you forgive me for not granting you my real name. For now you may call me All for One." He didn't bow, his spine remained straight. The only movement his raised arm, gesturing as if gifting his moniker to his prisoner.
"I'll be sure to put that on the invite to my next dinner party," the boy snarked, once again pulling against his restraints and finding no give in them whatsoever. "I'll ask again. What do you want from me?" There was something. There had to be. They wouldn't have been talking otherwise. Something that Saiki could give him. Something that...
He stilled. Realisation coming to him. His fear and agitation that pushed him to demand answers, that might have been what this All for One was after too. Answers. And being a villain, he probably had no compunctions for doing what he needed to in order to get them.
"You seem a little stressed," the man spoke through laboured breaths. "I understand. It is a difficult situation. I assure you, those restraints can take whatever you have so please don't harm yourself needlessly. After all, they once held a creature you might remember. He's in police custody now but I can say with certainty, he was far stronger than you are now and he would not have escaped your position."
A creature? He couldn't remember all that many 'creatures' he'd interacted with in the past– "The nomu," he realised suddenly. This was that thing's cage?!
"Just so. Well remembered," All for One congratulated him with false praise. "A failure for its particular purpose, but a meaningful one. After all, success and progress are rarely granted by a first attempt. A truth of life with which I understand you are intimately familiar." He paid no attention or comment to Saiki's grunt of dissatisfaction. "For most everyone in the world, success can be measured by how much toil it took to achieve it. But of course, there are also those chosen few, those blessed by fate to ascend to the grandest heights with nary a fraction of the effort you or I would need to expend."
"You know," Saiki said, giving the obvious villain a completely dead stare, "For a guy who has breathing trouble, you sure as hell like to talk."
All for One gave what could charitably be called a wheezing imitation of a good-natured laugh. "You aren't wrong. I do enjoy a good monologue for a captive audience. But you understand my perspective, yes? Just as I understand yours. Constantly living in the shadow of those who burn brightest as though it's the most natural thing in the world. Watching them breeze effortlessly through life. All Might, for example. Or your friend, what was her name? Midoriya?"
Saiki's eyes widened for an instant, then narrowed as he smirked. "Right. She was on your little shopping list too, right?" That was what that muscle freak implied. "I don't see her here. Sucks about whatever plan you had. I'm sure as shit not gonna help you."
"It would have been preferable if we had gathered all those we had wanted," the villain admitted, with the disappointment of one who returned home to find they bought the wrong type of bread at the convenience store. "I'm sure young Midoriya and I might have had a fascinating conversation. But no, the one I most dearly wished to meet was you, Saiki Saisei. For the moment, you are the one that most interests me. I believe you and I have much to offer one another."
"Yeah, looking forward to it."
The masked man gave an unsteady yet airy sigh. "Ah, sarcasm. The tool of youth, those not yet sufficiently confident in themselves to say what they truly mean."
"O-kay," Saiki growled, "How's this for saying what I mean? Go fuck yourself, I'm not giving you shit and you can shove whatever 'offers' you got up your ass. Straightforward enough for you?"
"From sarcasm to vulgarity. Not unexpected. Still, I'm certain you will come to see things clearer with time to ruminate. We're more alike than you might realise." Moving more than he had for the entire conversation, he once again raised his hand and placed it on Saiki's shoulder, skin touching skin at the neck where the rumpled and soiled UA athletic uniform ended. "For now, I'll leave you with a parting gift, in honour of our first meeting." His hand withdrew, bringing with it a look of confusion and suspicion from the captive teenager.
"What did you do?" Saiki demanded. He had to have done something. A gift? What did that even mean? But the villain didn't answer. Instead, he simply turned and walked away. "Hey!" The footsteps sounded, and then with another noise that Saiki couldn't place, the steps went silent. The tense atmosphere disappeared with them.
He was alone again.
"Ragdoll!" Saiki called out to the still unconscious hero. Antipathy for her or not, they were in this shitty situation together. "Ragdoll! Damn it, wake up!" No response. She didn't even stir. "Damn it."
-(-)-
"Tell me what you see, Doctor," All for One commanded his associate, retaking his place in his chair. The one he had sat in for so very long. Any expense of his energy was trying. He had no desire to spend more than he needed to. Not with the promised time so close at hand. For that moment, for that encounter, he would need everything he had.
Said doctor stood at a bank of monitors. Some of them showed readouts that none but the most learned experts in the field of quirk biology would understand. Others were far more standard displays of vital signs. Heart rate, blood pressure and so on. Every readout dedicated to assessing the well-being of one subject. "Minimal changes so far," the doctor answered, looking from one monitor to another. "There was a jump in the readouts on his quirk factor at the moment of transfer. Less than we usually see when a subject is given a second quirk but he's still showing signs of deterioration consistent with an eventual failure." He turned, looked over his shoulder at the disfigured All for One. "Couldn't we have just duplicated the quirk? If it's so valuable–"
"Potentially valuable," All for One corrected him. "This test will tell us exactly how worthwhile this will be. As for duplication, you know as well as I how long that process can take. Time is not on our side. Tomura's attack on UA will have stirred up the heroes like swinging a crowbar at a hornets' nest. They will come for him one way or another." Sitting back comfortably in his chair, he steepled his hands together. "What we have is a case of grand opportunity running headlong into harsh and unyielding reality. We must achieve all we can with what time we have left."
-(-)-
All Might did his best to tune out the cacophonous noise. Not quite so loud as that where he sat in the UA staff meeting room. But if the cries and demands for answers from the news media were a dull murmur to them all the way up here, he didn't want to imagine what it was like down at the school gate.
The discussion between the teachers was hardly useful for the current crisis. The subject being how and why they failed. That they didn't understand the villains' aim until now. It was all meaningless until they could retrieve the student that they lost, but the great hero couldn't fault them. For the moment there was... Nothing more they could do. They had no idea where the League were, where Saisei might have been taken, what their plans for him might have been. But with a quirk like his, All Might feared Saisei might have already suffered a cruel fate by the time they reach him.
It was all his fault.
"It's possible the sports festival is to blame for their list of targets," Principal Nezu suggested, holding up a newspaper. "After all, we can see each and every one of them, Saisei, Midoriya, Bakugo and Todoroki, they all performed exceptionally well. With Saisei going on to win the whole thing, making him the priority target would be reasonable."
"Not to mention his upbringing," Midnight agreed. "Treated harshly for his parentage and orphan status, if there's anyone at this school they might consider a viable recruit, it would be him."
"Assuming they didn't get to him already," Present Mic chimed in with arms folded.
"Whaddya mean?" Snipe asked.
"Come on, you guys have to realise it by now. There's no way we can deny it. We kept that training camp secret for exactly this reason. The only people who knew where it was being held were us, Eraser, Vlad, the Pussycats and the students," he counted off on his fingers. "With what happened to the Pussycats it sure wasn't them, I'd trust all the teachers with my life, and that just leaves a student who leaked it. Eraser's always going on about how that kid has a chip on his shoulder. Maybe he's always been one of them and he was a priority so they could extract him."
"Enough."
Suddenly, without warning, All Might in his true form stood over the room, his single word silencing Present Mic before he could continue speculating. "Saiki Saisei is a student of this school. Speculating on his allegiances based on his upbringing alone, while he may be in a life or death situation of our making, is disgraceful. Placing blame on him when he is not even here to defend himself, for an attack for which he was a victim, is deplorable behaviour for someone who is supposed to be one of his teachers."
Present Mic's hands raised defensively in the face of the sunken stare of the number one hero.
"Alright, let's take a breath," Midnight suggested, "We're all on edge but we get nothing out of pointing fingers or hurling insults."
All Might's glare lessened as he took in the words. Enough that Present Mic released the breath he had been holding. "You're right. Sorry, that was too far."
The number one hero shrank back down, literally and figuratively deflating as he realised the harsh words he had given. "I apologise as well. I just..." His posture sank even more as he dropped into his seat. "I should have been there."
"It was a matter of measuring risk," Nezu reminded him gently. "Your presence would have made it a more tempting target. We hoped with your absence the camp would have been safe. As the one who made the decision, the fault lies with me."
"Principal Nezu–"
Whatever Midnight intended to say to reassure the hyper-intelligent animal, it went unheard by All Might as his phone rang. "Sorry, I have to take this."
He stepped out into the hallway, shutting the door behind him.
His phone continued to ring but he didn't answer right away. He needed to collect himself. They could all point fingers or self-flagellate all they liked. Nothing would stifle the guilt and shame they all felt for so thoroughly failing their students. So many injured. So many left in dangerous condition by poison or wounds. The only solace All Might could take from it all was that Midoriya managed to make it out more or less intact, only suffering some heavy bruising to the face. And what might be the only reason she did...
Saisei.
What made All Might so furious at Present Mic's suggestion wasn't just that it was a horrible thing for him to say. It was that... Deep down, a part of him that wasn't worthy of being called All Might saw it as a possibility. He had his own misgivings about the boy. Not for his background but for his behaviour while at UA. He knew most of that can be pinned on the pain Saisei had caused Midoriya. Such personal reasons shouldn't colour his perceptions. Certainly not enough to accuse the boy of such heinous things.
He swallowed those fears and doubts, buried them in that unworthy part of himself where they belonged. Saiki Saisei, regardless of anything else, was his student and in danger. He could never look at himself in the mirror ever again if he even entertained the thought of abandoning him.
"Tsukauchi, what is it?"
-(-)-
"I don't know what they're doing over at UA, but we can tell there's some failure at the management level. These are kids' lives that are at stake here. Can we really trust them to have the students' best interests in mind when they're so clearly negligent?"
"I agree. If this is what happens to students of the finest school in the country, what does that say about the standards of hero education everywhere else? Or for the heroes themselves for that matter?"
"Ah, news media," Shigaraki chuckled, watching the news with his chin propped on one of his own hands, elbow leaning on the bar. "There's nothing better for spreading fear, doubt and mistrust. They're doing half the work for us."
"Gotta admit," Dabi shrugged, tilting his head to the side in a conciliatory gesture as he leaned on the wall, "Your plan worked pretty much perfectly. Whole country's freaking out and the heroes are all chasing their tails, doing damage control for their rep. But how long d'you think it'll last?"
"I imagine that depends on whether they get the boy back," Spinner supposed, wincing as he moved the wrong way without thought, aggravating his injuries. "We should have just killed him. Stain would have settled for nothing less for such a blemish on society claiming to be a hero. Not to mention it would have proven just how worthless the rest of them are for not being able to protect a single person under their direct supervision."
Toga pouted, drawing circles in the wood of the bar. "I wanted to play with him. He didn't bleed at the sports festival. I wanted to see if I could make him bleed. I wanted to taste it. He probably has super blood or something."
"You can bleed me all you want! / Eww, that's gross!"
As was something of a learned habit, everyone present more or less ignored Twice. Save for Toga who offered him a winning fanged smile.
"We were never keeping him," Shigaraki answered them. "Or killing him. The master wanted him so the master gets him. If you wanted a toy to play with you should've tried harder to capture one of the other brats."
"Hey, I wanted to," Muscular complained, taking up an entire booth to himself. Partially for no one wanting to sit in his proximity. "But Patchwork over there had to harsh my buzz. Gave me a serious case of blue balls."
"What do you imagine will happen to the boy?" Mister Compress asked. Clearly not out of concern if the smile in his voice was any indication.
Shigaraki pondered the possibilities. Saisei's quirk. Saisei as the base for a brand new ever-growing numu. Constantly getting stronger, more powerful. Completely under their control, ready for a second chance at destroying All Might. Worse, at the hands of one of his former students! "I hope it's something fun," he said, with a demented giggle.
-(-)-
A significant amount of time had passed. And in the underground laboratory of Doctor Garaki, the man himself was double and triple checking the results he had seen over the past few hours. "Well, you wanted to know if this quirk was anything special. We have our answer."
"Do tell, Doctor. I hope it's good news."
The moustachioed, aged physician pulled up several charts on the monitor. Not for his associate's benefit but for his own as an aid. "Initially, the results were less than promising. As I told you at the time, there were clear signs of deterioration. Less than usual but unmistakable."
"I do recall."
"However," the doctor continued, pointing up at one monitor and tracing a path along the chart, "After... one hundred and twelve minutes, the deterioration effectively halted."
"Effectively," All for One echoed, "Not entirely."
"Correct. After that time elapsed the deterioration continued, but it seems Saisei's quirk can extend to his quirk factor itself as you hoped. Any damage caused by overloading his quirk factor is regenerated as fast as it happens." He pulled up a medical file on another monitor, one showing a woman with the same red eyes as Saiki. "His mother's quirk was noted to be rather weak and slow as regeneration quirks go. However, I speculate the regeneration effect traded power for ubiquity. It works slowly, but it can regenerate anything given enough time."
"Anything," All for One echoed again, with sudden intent.
"It would need to be tested for more severe, debilitating and already improperly healed injuries and maladies," Garaki stated, knowing exactly what the blind and crippled man was asking, "But theoretically, yes."
"And even if it can't," the criminal mastermind speculated, "It is still valuable enough despite that. Thank you, Doctor. Your insight and expertise is as always indispensable."
"If you'll indulge me, I wasn't finished."
All for One, who had been in the process of rising from his chair, frowned in surprise, then smiled. "Doctor, indulging you has provided us with some of our greatest advancements and achievements. By all means, continue!"
The doctor nodded, turning back to the screens and once again tracing a finger along the chart. "As I said, two hours after receiving a second quirk, his own quirk began actively repairing the damage the overload caused. We know from our experiments the subject begins to show more severe symptoms after one hour. However, given the slower onset of the deterioration, those symptoms would have begun to appear at approximately two hours."
"Which was when his Comeback quirk began to repair the damage," All for One nodded once in understanding. "It activated in response to the strain as advertised."
"Yes, but then something interesting happened," the doctor continued with sudden excitement.
"This has all been more than interesting thus far, Doctor."
"Yes, but this!" Garaki insisted with wild enthusiasm. "Twenty-four minutes later, or one hundred and thirty-six minutes post receiving another quirk, the process began to reverse!"
The villain let an uncertain frown onto his face at the unclear statement. "Your excitement is getting the better of you, Doctor. Which process?"
"The deterioration!" the old man answered with frantic hand gestures. "It had stopped worsening but held at a steady rate, leaving the subject hovering at the point he would begin showing symptoms. But then not even half an hour later, suddenly his body, his quirk, some combination of the two, they began to fight back and alleviate the deterioration effect!" He slammed one of the keyboards hard enough to dislodge the keys to bring up another differential chart, pointing sharply up at it for his audience who couldn't see or read it. "The deterioration of his body from quirk factor overload, the activity of his quirk factor, they show a marked cause and effect! His quirk suddenly began working harder for seemingly no reason, no external stimulus! I believe this is the other facet of his quirk at work!"
"The strengthening facet," All for One spoke, suddenly very still.
"Yes!" Another broken keyboard brought up the medical file of Saiki's other parent. "The parent quirks merged in the subject! That means anything the mother's quirk could regenerate, the father's quirk could strengthen! He can reinforce his own quirk factor and prevent deterioration completely! I–!" For the first time since his sudden frenzy began, the once disgraced doctor collected himself with a force of will. "I... Sir, he would be perfect as one of my children. Beyond perfect. But while it pains me to say it... Like you said, grand opportunity meets harsh reality. As much as I want to see what that quirk could do as the base for one of my children... It would be worth far more to you."
Of course, All for One recognised this as well. Of course he did. How could he not? A body that could improve without limits, become entirely untouchable by any outside force. It would take time and effort, but Saisei had already laid the groundwork for him. And with the boy close to the next wielder of One for All... The pieces fell so neatly into place for a new scheme it almost made him regret spending so long plotting his vengeance and spending so long cultivating Tomura. Well, at the very least that plan would bear some fruit in the coming conflict regardless. And it would serve as an excellent backup plan should this new one not pan out.
Not that he expected any such problems. After all, the acquisition of his newest quirk would tell him everything he needed to know to get the boy to cooperate.
-(-)-
Saiki had no idea how long he'd been in this damn room. All he could see were the containers. Ragdoll, who still hadn't woken up yet which was worrying. His only way to gauge time passing was when he suddenly felt like shit a few hours ago. That had to have been that All for One bastard's 'gift' at work, but thanks to knowing better how his quirk worked, he focused on wanting it to fix whatever the hell the bastard did. It took a while but the pain and weakness went away. He'd have to thank Ragdoll when she woke up... If she woke up.
He heard a noise. The first in a long while and it was familiar. Like... Splashing water? He didn't know what caused the sound but he knew what it meant. "Finally got more time for me, jackass?!" he shouted before he even saw him. "Whatever crap that 'gift' was, it didn't work!"
"On the contrary, Saiki Saisei," the harsh voice projected from the mask answered him as the villain came into view. "I promise you it succeeded beyond my wildest expectations."
Well... That was an unsettling comment but it didn't matter. "So what brings you by this time? Gonna tell me again how we're not so different, how you're a nice guy and not a guy who has a bunch of nutjob villains like Shigaraki working for him? Tell it again. Maybe I'll buy it this time."
"Facetious is a pleasant upgrade from sarcasm at least," the masked villain answered, sounding amused. "And as it happens, that is exactly what I intend to say. You and I have far more in common than you and the heroes you aspire to emulate, and yes I indeed am 'a nice guy'. After all, I gave you such a wonderful present, didn't I?"
A flat stare and dead silence was Saiki's response.
Not that it bothered the villain in the slightest. "Your quirk has largely been passive but I know you aren't unaware of it as a function of your body. Try flexing it."
"My quirk doesn't–"
"Indulge me."
Another long, hard stare. He knew nothing would come of it so he did as instructed, just to prove a point.
But...
Something moved. "Ergh..." Not just in his quirk. Something moved in his body. It felt like his back was on fire. "Agh!" he winced in pain as he felt something burst out.
"There we are," the villain marvelled. "Taken to it like a natural."
The boy panted as the pain ebbed, looks over his shoulder, then over his other shoulder. His eyes like saucers as he stared uncomprehending at what had spread out behind him. A set of long and narrow wings, thin as filament. Two pairs of them. "Wha... What the fuck?!"
"Quite majestic, wouldn't you say? Granted you would be better served seeing them in a mirror but I'm afraid I forgot to bring one. Don't have much use for them anymore." Was that supposed to be a joke?! "Did you know that dragonflies were among the very first insects to evolve the ability to fly? I imagine that makes them 'on brand' for you, as the heroes and their sycophants say."
"What the fuck did you do to me?!"
"I gave you a gift, as I said," the mysterious villain told him with complete, at least seeming, sincerity. "Think of it as a reward for all your toil in making it this far in life. I believe in rewarding hard work. More than the rest of the world does, certainly."
"You...! I...!" It caught him entirely flatfooted. What in the world should he say to something like this? How was he supposed to react to something like this?!
"Ah, you seem to be stuck on the more practical aspects of this. Allow me to explain. I have the ability to grant additional quirks to those I deem worthy of it. You, Saiki Saisei, are one such person. I gave you a second quirk. That discomfort you felt? That was your body adjusting to the new capability it had gained."
"And you just fucking did it?! Why?!"
"Isn't it obvious, Saiki Saisei?" the villain asked. "Because I believe as you do, hard work deserves reward. And you worked harder than anyone I've ever heard of to achieve as much as you have. With your limited quirk, you turned yourself into one of the most capable young people in the country. I don't say this to flatter you. I've seen your hospital records. Such dedication to excellence goes criminally unrewarded in our current society. Meanwhile someone mediocre or even worthless can stumble their way into incredible power by simply being in the right place at the right time. Take your friend Midoriya, for example."
"Fuck off." He shouldn't have been so snappish, he knew. What this guy had done, it was unheard of. But he was completely thrown by it. Any attempt to be pleasant or agreeable if he ever had the intention had gone completely out the window. "Izuku busts her ass just the same as I do! Also don't change the subject from how you grafted wings to my fucking back!"
"Flex your quirk again, they'll recede," the villain instructed him absently, not bothering to watch whether he did it or not. Instead he turned, no longer facing Saiki at all, not that he needed to. "I retrieved her records as well. Quirkless according to those records, until five months ago."
"Yeah, she couldn't use it before then!"
"And so her medical records would instead say she's quirkless?" The words were spoken plainly but it still felt like the villain was laughing at him. "Do you truly believe that, or do you choose to believe it?"
"Fuck you."
"Do you believe I'm the only one who can pass on quirks? Would you like to know where Midoriya got hers? You might guess. He followed her to your school."
Something cold and heavy settled in the hero student's gut. Some realisation he pushed away with everything he had.
And even without eyes, All for One saw it clear as day. "It really is cute how she names all her attacks the same way he does, isn't it?"
"You're lying!"
"You know it's true!" the villain insisted, turning to face the boy again. "I can hear it in your voice! Oh how he dotes on her! How he pays her such special attention!"
She said he offered to train her... "It's not true! That's impossible!"
"Just by being in the right place at the right time! That's all it took for All Might, the symbol of peace, to choose worthless, quirkless Izuku Midoriya to be his successor! To inherit the power that took him to the position of the world's greatest hero! A girl who had never trained a single day in her life suddenly given all the power any hero could ever ask for! Tell me, Saiki Saisei! Is that fair?! Is that just?!"
"The world isn't fair! I already know that!"
"Oh, yes of course you do!" The villain was almost gleeful in tearing apart Saiki's world view, his arms raised as if conducting a grand orchestra. "You have seen it every day of your life! But doesn't all of that pale in comparison to little Izuku Midoriya getting all of her impossible hopes and dreams handed to her on a platter! Do you think she laughed?"
"Shut up..."
"I believe she might have! Laughed at poor Saiki Saisei, thinking himself her equal or her superior, all the while unable to understand he never stood a chance! All your effort and toil come to a cruel joke at your expense!"
"Why are you telling me this?!" Saiki demanded. He tried to push back the fires of anger but he couldn't. It was like trying to put out a volcano. "What do you want from me?!"
"... What do I want?" asked All for One, his grand declarations softening to the tone of a personal, personable conversation. "I want you to take the chance you earned. I want you to seize the opportunities life has provided you and achieve the destiny you were denied. To take Izuku Midoriya's quirk."
"What?" Disbelief. Confusion. A failure to understand. All of those conveyed in a single word. "I can't...! How would I even–!"
"For such a determined young man as yourself, it should be simple," the villain assured him. "Her trust is already yours for the taking, the girl thinking of you as a pitiable, lovelorn fool. Use that. I'll even offer assistance should you need it. The success, the admiration of the masses, it can all be yours! Everything you have done has led you to this singular opportunity to achieve everything you ever wished for! All you must do is take it!"
The anger. The resentment. In one instant he felt it so intensely it burned. And then the next… It seemed to get snuffed out with almost contemptuous ease. He finally understood. He understood everything. Except, "What do you get out of this?"
"Of course this isn't entirely out of charity," All for One admitted without shame. "My ambition is to see a changed world. One that has thrown off the shackles of a false hero society to replace it with one that rewards people like us, people who do what they must to succeed."
Saiki smirked. "I get it."
"Then what is your answer, Saiki Saisei."
"My answer is you're not as good at it."
"... Pardon?"
The boy's eyes move away from the villain to Ragdoll, still unconscious, still motionless. "You're not as good at it as Ragdoll was." There was no longer even a hint of a smile as his eyes returned to the villain who had once again gone very still. "You took her quirk, didn't you? You said you give people quirks but they can't just come from nowhere or you'd be a god. You wouldn't need me or anyone else. You took Ragdoll, and now here you are hammering away at my weak points just like she did. But like I said, you're not as good at it. Maybe get a little practice in, take another run at it some other time."
The villain didn't move for a good few seconds. Whether out of confusion or for a moment of thought, Saiki couldn't guess. Until, "Ha, ha ha, hah hah hah hah!" The villain's laugh was a rough, laboured thing. His body stiff and rigid as he gasped for air. "Ah, I see. To have made such a novice mistake," the villain lamented, shaking his head as much as he was able. "I've never quite gotten past the joy of finding an interesting new quirk. Like a child unwrapping a birthday present, I just want to play with it right away. But, here is the danger of it, I suppose. Had I simply ignored what that woman's quirk was telling me, I might have fared better. Truly a shame." His attention returned to the captive hero student. "It seems you've given your answer then."
"Go fuck yourself," Saiki told him flatly. "Ragdoll's quirk might not have told you this. I know a user when I see one. I'm nobody's puppet."
"Oh, I assure you, you are a puppet," said the masked villain, all pretense of friendliness gone. The tension and danger he brought returns to full force. "A puppet of the society to which you have yoked yourself. Casting aside everything up to and including self-preservation. After all," his forearm raised, his hand facing palm up. Saiki tensed as realisation dawned, "If you know I took her quirk, you should know I don't need you to get what I want from you."
"No." His eyes widened in terror and he had every reason to fear. He stood by everything he said. He wouldn't betray everyone he cared about, wouldn't shackle himself to a man like this. Even wanting to save himself didn't change that. But, "Fuck you! FUCK YOU!" He retreated as far as his restraints would allow as he yelled at the quirk-stealing villain. "DON'T COME ANY FUCKING CLOSER YOU–!"
"Tsk, that vulgarity again," the villain tutted, sounding all too amused as his hand reached out. "The world will be better off without a hero like you."
"NO–!" Once again skin touched skin. He didn't know what to do! What could he do?! His quirk was everything! It was the only thing that let him get as far as he had! He needed it! And now some bastard was just going to take it and that's it?! It couldn't be like that! It couldn't end like that!
He couldn't move. He couldn't retreat. He couldn't fight back. All he could do... Was all he had ever done. Rely on the one good thing his parents gave him. To beg his quirk. 'Don't let this happen! Not like this! Please!' Tears leaked from his eyes as his whole world shrank down to the hand on his shoulder.
Saiki couldn't see it, but underneath the heavy breathing apparatus, the legendary villain All for One frowned.
BOOM!
In one spectacular blast, half of the roof was obliterated, crashing to the floor of the laboratory in great chunks. A girl of ash blonde hair crashing down into the room like the hammer of God.
"DIE!"