Zen Shigaraki’s heel stepped up on to the edge of a large piece of rubble, the air ruffled the fitted jacket he wore. His polished shoes shone under the clouded-over skies. The fortuitous notes of despair were willfully caught by his ears. Resting his right elbow on his raised knee he signed in contentment, truly there was no greater pleasure than the opportunity to dominate the masses in such a manner.

  —Ah, It certainly has been a while since I have had to scuff my palms with the joys of hard labor.

  Ruefully, he chuckled as he pointed down to the filthy defiant face of the lion-headed man, sprawled as he was among the unmoving bodies of his juniors. Truly… this night has been fruitful. His prolonged years had come with minor pleasantries and short-lived spatterings of interest.

  …Now? however.

  It was just one more chance to tactfully move the pieces on to the board of what he called his homeland.

  Honestly…

  How could he have known that his minor interest in the life of the grasping second class hero, could produce such an unexpected surprise. The firstborn son was just as much of a spitfire, and truthfully? He was fond of the despairing look that the young man sported, it reminded him of his youth. Back before he brought this world to heel, chaotic as it was, it had its charms.

  A missing baby tooth, white hair, green eyes, a malnourished face and a series of comics strewn across the floor of the barren room they at the time called home. The wall had fallen away in ruin, but they could peek out at the glowing skyline, their scavenged lamplight giving them warmth in the cold dark.

  Lavish as his domain was, it candidly could not compare to the stark scene before him, it was a piece of him that he could not part with. He was born in destitution and he grew in devastation, molded by strength and shaped by understanding.

  —His existence was truly second to none.

  “Now, Commissioner Hirota Sadao.” All For One intoned with barely restrained glee, “I have been meaning to personally gift you my thanks.” He could see the man reach for the firearm involuntarily cast aside by one of his downed subordinates. It would cause no harm, and his curiosity was momentarily peaked. But only thusly so, alas, it could not compare, for what could a sting do? When faced with a titan? The centuries old gentleman flicked his finger and the small arms simply fell apart, dismantled.

  A minor quirk taken nearly two years ago, it had its uses. And its worth grew as he continued to make use of it. Why bother fiddling with the rise of curiosities? When he could simply bind technology to his will. The only issue was his need to place five fingers on to the given gadget, but it was none too difficult when he had Kurogiri at his disposal.

  The crime lord ignored the lion man’s angry growls.

  Was he barring his fangs at him? How amusing.

  All For One opened his mouth in admonishment, “You see… I could not help but be moved by your hard line stance against public quirk use.” The disguised man put his other hand up to his chin in mocking thought, “Why some could even say that it borders on tyrannical, that it is a given right for the general public.” All for one clicked his tongue. “But you, yes you, have found it in your heart of hearts to campaign for a rescindment on quirk usage even under the law of self defense.”

  The prone commissioner looked at him with steel in his eyes. “Whoever you are, your actions only prove that quirk use should only be contained!” The man yelled from his position.

  The remark slipped from All For One’s shoulder. “Well I would like to revisit your stance regardless… Has it changed? Under these circumstances? I believe that you mentioned…’that with an increase in the police department’s budget, we could lower the rate of crime, far faster than even our greatest heroes could. Our bold and staunchest will be the bulwark of the future!’”

  “...So, what can you do to stop me?” The red eyes and miasma that surrounded him asked. His shadow cascaded out above the heteromorph man, enshrouding him further in the mist of darkness.

  All For One’s index finger glowed amethyst, the self serving commissioner opened his mouth to no doubt rebuff him. Instead, the disguised man lightly pointed upward, a trailing laser beam cut the mane of the offending mutant before he could even speak. Clipping his animalistic ear as hot dripping blood fell to the dirtied ground.

  “I wondered, how could you make such a thing possible? It took me none too long to see that this precinct has successfully covered up a startling revelation.” His voice was loud against their eerie surroundings.

  “...You’ve been embezzling funds. Was that little piece of machinery, that gaudy trinket all you could really accomplish? Now that it has failed, the question lingering at the tip of my mind is whether you follow what you preach when you are the only thing left standing between the good citizens of this ward and I?” His crimson eyes shifted beneath his service cap, his waning smile became strained. The heteromorph’s facial expression changed from his steeled look to a hardened smolder, reddening in anger, talons protracted.

  Will he forsake his beliefs? Will he strike me? I would not bet against it… and yet.

  The heteromorph’s face was shrouded in anger… but he held still. His face became moist, All For One mistook it for streaming tears were it not for the fact that drizzling rain rattled the rim of his hat.

  “You’ll get nothing from me you monster!” The mutant roared, all bluster and none of the teeth.

  The crime lord waited a beat and not longer for the mutant to beg for mercy, to strike him in his hypocrisy. Perhaps All For One could find the warmth in his cold dead heart to take him under his wing if he did either. However the plain response only made the crime lord’s mood drop.

  The rain grew in speed, killing any kicked up dust in the air. It ruined the steady rhythm that the emergency sirens repeatedly droned out around him.

  The disguised man’s smile finally fell, no longer amused, and All For One simply… let go.

  The lavender quirk factor that shot off from his index finger instantly turned everything in a short radius into black ash in the wind, “it matters not. I do not lack for unskilled labor.” He mused after a moment.

  How would he spin this tragedy to his benefit? A crack down on quirk usage would give him more opportunities to sow his influence against the National Diet’s would be oppression. On the other edge of the spectrum, it may cause the public to rally for a wider consensus on public meta ability usage. Giving him more opportunities to harvest the best quirks around him, simple musings, light thoughts…

  All For One stood up from his perch, his face devoid of emotion, and turned around. He was done here, It was time to collect or put his stars to rest. He had already harvested their quirks, they merely held the copies that he had so graciously returned thanks to the efforts of the good doctor. For now… he idly wondered, if he should continue with his draft.

  Should I plant these seeds for the future like my earlier project? Or would it be too garishly redundant?

  They had disobeyed him, although perhaps unknowingly, and partially he was at fault for that. His earlier test with these attendants proved that the experiment would need to be revised. It would not do for the sproutlings to be so willful. Mayhaps he was impressed by the children’s resourcefulness during the scuffle before he sent out Mr. Saturn, as they had so childishly dubbed. Unlike the isolation he bestowed on Shimura Nana’s grandson, their social dependence on each other made them more receptive to working together.

  Did they follow the boy because he was the strongest? Or was there a lick of charisma that caused his little vessels to follow him.

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  All those thugs he had made use of were addled with the benefits of the American version of trigger, and yet they were still discarded as the gnats they were. He was proud in a way, he could see the ease in which the children had used their quirks, not a single one had shied away from violence. He was soothed in how malleable those little vessels were. They may not have been outwardly dissimilar from that of the average child, but the darkness in their hearts just needed to be soothingly coaxed out.

  Like so many others… just like little Tenko… like Nomura.

  …Poor Number Six, he held higher hopes for the lad, and yet the boy had simply beaten the other in a manner akin to a street brawl. He wasn't surprised when he found the children unresponsive, but he was more than startled when he found his latest project to have joined them on the ground.

  Oh, where had he gone wrong?

  All For One noticed a lone helicopter closing in, the dark tint of the vehicle made it obvious to all that the police were still hovering as if they could touch him. Would he need to cut their lines of communication? Like he had for the Number One Brute of Japan?

  On this night their earlier game had started in earnest.

  He merely tipped the scales to his favor in their little shadow war, All Might had probed, and he kindly returned the message with his grace. Really, the barbarian had made his presence especially cumbersome over the past several days. His associates had been incarcerated and nearly seven of his drug rings were clipped at the head.

  But it was no matter, he only had to respond in kind as the opportunities arose. The blond man had tipped his hand too hard, and he would learn his lesson here.

  Tōya’s escape attempt may have been a flight of fancy that he patiently observed due to his fleeting whims, it was none too difficult for All For One to scoop him back up with the assistance of Kurogiri. But when the boy surged with newfound strength after his awakening, it stirred his mind with possibilities. He wanted to see …more.

  The surprising azure flames cascading out of his form, the proficiency of his movements. The boy had collected his wits with none of the bluster of youth. It was a stark contrast to the inane behaviour of his other subjects, Tomura, well his fall was a joy to see. And it was aligned perfectly with his estimations, Tōya’s was exactly opposite of that.

  All For One joined his hands behind his back as he skipped from one broken piece of brick wall to another untouched portion of sidewalk. The rain hit his shoulder, with increasing frequency, it almost smelled like copper or perhaps chlorine?

  Did some pipes burst from his laser focused attack? A light was peeking out of the corner of his eyesight, it was a small little thing, the crime lord would have chalked it up as a survivor or a buried vehicle, its battery yet to die. But the little white dot moved at first slowly and then it was gone, blinking out of existence.

  Perhaps it was wisp or firefly? He shook his head, he was getting sidetracked.

  The sounds around him died down, almost as if he went deaf.

  He finally noticed that the rain around him was gone, oh there was rain, it soaked the area around him. But all the rain around a twenty foot radius was missing. One moment it was there and then the next second… it was gone.

  No… something was wrong.

  He looked up at the last second and a hammer of light consumed him.

  How!?

  All he felt was all encompassing pain, he didn't feel the air in his ears evaporate or the pounding pain of thousands of pounds of force raining down on him.

  He used his quirks to redirect the flow of energy that assaulted him. He couldn't think, he just did.

  He had a molten scale skin quirk as a resistance against flame heroes, a redirection quirk for altering the trajectory of mass, several amplification quirks synergized with the two base foundational meta abilities at his disposal. The last was a bubble defensive quirk that projected out from his wrists, it worked similarly to an extension of his own body, a fragile thing really. But it gave him a moment to breathe when he mixed it with an enlargement quirk. It now encompassed his whole being.

  The air around him violently expanded, ionizing and breaking down in a second. He didn't need it, he had an oxygen efficiency quirk that allowed him to go without oxygen for months. The soil likewise underwent instantaneous vaporization, that which did not, melted. His legs dug into the slushy material.

  His thoughts were buffeted by the adrenaline that coursed through his veins. The dome was breaking, cracking with barely a moment to spare. At the last second Kurogiri warped him away from the offending attack. He would be wroth with the undead puppet were it not for the fact that had the nomu instead tried to redirect the attack then Kurogiri would have been consumed by the pillar of light.

  Dead in a second, truly a waste of resources.

  He was angry, perhaps the beast-man actually had an answer to his naive question. It only took a few minutes for the punchline to hit.

  He chuckled at his state of being, his clothing was a mess, but it was no matter.

  He made use of his bodymorph quirk, throwing away the ruined articles of clothing he procured from one of the policemen. Instead he kept the face of the man he killed, and changed into a sleek suit that fit his imposing figure.

  “Kurogiri, how many of our gifts has the Number One hero found?” He asked, there it was, that sole helicopter, was it transmitting his location to the weapon in the sky that attacked? It was farther away from his location before he had been warped away, doubtfully planning an escape after believing him dead.

  He’d have to fix that issue.

  he flicked his finger slightly above the cockpit of the helicopter, the main rotor was separated from the frame of the vehicle. The blades were sent flying away like a disk as the rest of the body rotated out into a downward spin, crashing with a loud explosion.

  “He has found twenty-six of them sensei.” The garbled tone of Kurogiri’s voice poked out from the tiny wisp near his ear. “I don’t believe he will be able to find them all, even with the clues you have provided.”

  “Thank you, have you found the location of the offending weapon in the sky.” All For One mused, at the preplanned idea, he lifted out from under his sleeve in safekeeping. The crime lord called in a few favors so that there were stopgaps before the Hero could get to his trigger bombs if he found them.

  He was no fool, One For All’s greatest asset was its strength and speed, merely drawing a map and sending off the barbarian would just get the hero back in no time. Any fool could navigate the familiar landscape of Japan. All For One needed to make this game fairer, and he did enjoy his fleeting games. For that reason, he included more opposing players, those that held deep seated grudges against All Might. Perhaps one of them could even slow down the hulking brute, although he wouldn't count on it.

  But it always pays to be prepared…

  “I have, shall I open up a gate for you to re-gift their thanks, Sensei?” The nomu asked in a polite tone if veiled by agitation. A curiosity of the nomu’s that All For One noted with interest. Truly the doctor, what would he do without him? How could one make such marvels?

  The large cloudy gate opened up in front of him, it clouded his view by the dark purple mist, until the crime lord poked his head out to the other side. There he found the vastness of space on the other side. The machine he originally mistook for a space station under further inspection looked more like an unmanned piece of machinery.

  Ah, technology it always surprised, the hunk of metal was utilitarian in its form. It was a shame, he hoped to personally admonish the offending individuals. Alas, he would have to make due with this small act of reprisal. His left arm joined him in the void, just as he was building up the meta factor, the machine in the void appeared to be charging up a second volley.

  Now that would not do…

  He struck first, his tactile energy quirk lanced out without abandon. The effect was instant as he rent asunder one section from the other, smaller explosions consecutively dotted the surface of the rather large space laser.

  The ancient man leaned out of the warp gate as it closed. How long would it take before he could see the rapidly falling ruin in the sky. He idly wondered.

  But no, he had much to do, and so little time to get it done.

  “Now to find two of my sproutlings.” He drummed his fingers against his thigh, the wind whistled, the shimmering rain oppressive on the murky atmosphere. The sky looked nearly crimson from all the kicked up particles.

  …It truly felt like home.

  Tōya finished his long winded spiel, it was the only time in his entire life where he felt like he had spoken so much. It didn't help that he was speaking at an increasing rate, his voice felt raspy in overuse by the end of it. Mirko's small smirk got larger by the minute of it while the dispatcher had quieted down, keyboard rhythmically clacking from the other end of the line.

  He had waited for reproach from either professional, or quick dismissal due to his obvious lack of credentials. But he was touched by Mirko easily vouching for him.

  “This is classified as a crisis right?” The tan hero put her hand on her hip as she spoke to the phone.

  “Correct.” The clipped voice on the other end came out in static. Even now the noises behind her sounded frantic with the voices of so many people responding to the calls of heroes.

  “Then under the law, as a hero I’m allowed to enlist aid from a civilian, he’s my responsibility.” She lifted an arm and pointed a thumb to her chest, sporting a closed-eyed smile.

  The voice on the other end came out with more emotion than in their entire call. “Then his actions will reflect on you Mirko, don’t forget that you are still under supervision by the Hero Public Safety Commission, for that roaming agency position." The smile was heard in those words.

  “W-wait, wait, wait —actually could I take a second to think this over?!” Usagiyama’s voice shook. “I don't think I can take any more penalties on my performance review,” she whined.

  I might need to rescind that thought.

  The other line threw the novice hero a bone, as they heard shuffling papers, “you don’t have to worry, from our earlier reports. It appears that you've been showing a stellar performance in our internal reports.”

  “R-really?!”

  “Yes, really.” Tōya barely heard the voice on the other end, but even he could tell that the woman was probably buttering her up. It didn't matter, if they lived through this then what would a shitty mark on her record mean. His opinion of her mildly rose, she was a hero if she still planned to join his little dance. Stalling All For One was next to impossible unless they worked to his ego, providing even a modicum of entertainment would give them any morsel of time.

  Time… the one resource he needed badly.

  The other line went dead with a beep, as Mirko ended the call. A drop of rain hit the screen of the cellphone, at the moment it was just a drizzle, but it was sure to get worse. The rabbit hero commented, “that’s not good, shit’s about to get slurry.” She placed the device in the inner pocket of her jacket for safekeeping.

  “Alright, you heard the dispatcher, we have a few minutes before help is on the way.” Tōya said with some hesitation. He'd thought about telling her to reconsider, but at this point it’d be too disrespectful. She knew what she was getting into, he'd give her the same courtesy Mirko had shown him.

  Tōya turned, Mirko was by his side, ready to begin their no doubt futile last stand against the old bastard.

  Until a giant laser blanketed the sky, closer than he was willing to stand.

  Mirko jumped back, even she was taken by surprise at whatever just happened. The pillar of light caused the dust around them to be kicked up with intensity.

  “Is this the Safety Commission?!” Tōya yelled to the hero next to him, the ringing sound of the bright light was making it difficult to speak through. He’d never seen this, not even in his past life. It was certainly possible with how much technology had advanced though.

  “Fuck no!” The girl next to him shouted in surprise. “They’d at least warn us to get back!” She covered her eyes with the back of her hand. Bracing against the force of the attack or whatever it was.

  Tōya wondered if that could take out the old man, but he doubted it. Hopefully it’d give them a chance to surprise him.