Chapter 13 - Conversations

Due to the fact that he has not yet been introduced as All for One in the book, I will refer to him as Shigaraki in this chapter.

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Chapter Start

"How long do you think he will stay there?" Dr. Kyudai asked, looking at the door that led into the room given to Kyoki after he started living in the house. "He has been in there for four days now."

Shigaraki, beside Kyudai, looked at the door. "I assume he is still watching All Might's video."

"Yes. The child is obsessed." Kyudai sighed, opening the door and peeking inside.

The room behind the door was pitch black, the only light emanating from the open door and the flat-screen TV playing a video of All Might saving people from a bus while laughing.

Kyoki sat on the ground in front of the TV, staring unevenly at the TV. After the video ended, it picked up the remote and replayed it, returned the remote to the ground beside it, and continued watching.

"He has been doing that for five days straight." Kyudai shivered, closing the door and returning it to darkness. "After you told him he had to kill All Might to overcome all his fear."

Shigaraki smiled, his red eyes glinting. "That shows his drive. Obsession leads to greatness, and I am sure he will fulfill my wish." He had told Kyoki that to rid itself of all its fear and pain, it needed to kill the symbol of peace, All Might.

After that, he played this famous recording of All Might, leading the child into a circle of watch and repeat. Shigaraki smiled, "How is Tomura doing?" He asked, turning to the doctor.

"He has been scratching a lot lately, so I allowed him out to have some fun." At this, one of Shigaraki's brows arched up, and the doctor quickly added, "With Kurogiri, of course."

"Right." Shigaraki returned his eyes to the door, asking, "What of the boy's quirk?"

"I was able to find the secret to the black ghosts, the negative ghosts, but not his revival." Dr. Kyudai said, picking up the tablet he was holding. "I assume the revival is a mutant quirk type while the others are emitters, but apart from that, I found nothing else."

"I see." Shigaraki muttered, "Try to find his birth parents. Maybe that would shed some light on his quirks. In the meantime, put me up to date with his quirk."

"Well, all his quirks are connected to an orb residing in his head but not there." He began explaining before quickly adding, "I mean, it is there spiritually, but not physically."

"I know what it means, doctor," Shigaraki said, looking down at the hold in his palm. "It is similar to All for One. A spiritual location where all the stolen quirk gathers, but that thing can only exist as long as there is a vessel to hold it, which is my body. The more quirk I steal with All for One, the more I gather into my 'vestige world.' With more quirks in my vestige world, my body needs to get equally powerful to be able to hold the vestige world from ripping me apart." He became silent and continued staring at the hole in his palm.

"Exactly." Dr. Kyudai said, scrolling through his tablet. His own is a bit different, however. Unlike yours, which is infinite in size, with only the body restricting how many quirks you can hold, he's finite."

"So, doctor. What else?" Shigaraki asked, turning to him. "I assume that's not all you found."

He nodded. "The vestige world is like an ocean. It increases the more people die near him. His 'eyes' absorb the remaining life force that escapes their bodies and add it to the ocean, increasing its volume. The more it is, the more black ghosts he can get."

"*Chuckle* The child is truly a horror vessel." Shigaraki grinned, placing his hands on the door, "Getting stronger the more people die beside him. What could get better than this?"

"Well, that is also a problem." Dr. Kyudai mumbled, looking up at Shigaraki. In contrast to yours, which can only be assessed by you in your dreams, his vestige world can be assessed easily by looking into his eyes. Though I doubt just anyone can venture in there as they will lose their mind and become his black ghost, anyone with a strong mind can. I am sure they can even go in and kill all the black ghosts."

"Hmmm." Shigaraki mumbled, thinking of something. "I came up with a plan to deal with that, but tell me about his negative ghosts."

"His negative ghost is also problematic." Dr. Kyudai mumbled, looking up at Shigaraki. "It only increases based on age, and at the moment 6 is the max, from 0 to 5 years old."

"That isn't a problem." Shigaraki shook his head, confusing the doctor. "It isn't?" Dr. Kyudai asked, tilting his head.

Shigaraki held the doorknob, "No. Six is already enough. By the time Kyoki fights All Might, I expect him to be thirty. That should be MORE than enough ghosts to distract All Might with all the death they would cause."

"Right." Dr. Kyudai nodded, "I will keep working on his revival quirk while I also work on duplicating his vestige world."

Shigaraki nodded and entered the room, turning on the light. Kyoki quickly turned from the TV, a crazed smile on its face, its bangs completely obscuring the top half of its face, only revealing its tiny nose and mouth. "If I kill him, I will be able to deal with all my fear, right?"

"That's our ultimate objective. To kill the Symbol of Peace and become the Symbol of Fear. Our fears will all be gone, and we can leave without one." Shigaraki replied, kneeling in front of the child, "Now, I want to do something."

"Hmm?" Kyoki mumbled as the man removed the bangs that covered the child's face, causing it to quickly pull its head from Shigaraki's hands, looking to the ground. "N-no. I can't." The child muttered, fidgeting with their clothes.

"Right." Shigaraki nodded in understanding. He never expected all of Ankoku's influence to disappear like that. But he needed to check something, and now wasn't the time for this. "It will be quick."

Shigaraki grabbed the child's head and yanked it to himself. Removing the bangs, he stared straight into Kyoki's void-like eyes. When people look into a child's eyes, they usually fall into a trance, but he didn't. He willingly kept looking into the abyss, waiting for it to pull him in. He soon found himself in a world of darkness, the 'sky' emitting a faint light like sunlight through dark clouds, allowing him to see in the otherwise dark world.

Looking down, he found himself standing in a black, ever-expanding lake that rose up to his ankle. "This is different from what Kyudai described as an 'ocean.'" He looked around, noticing a black figure in the distance, walking toward him.

It was a minotaur made entirely of black bandages, standing 8 feet tall. "Hmm. Is the ocean used to transform those souls that wandered in here into black ghosts?" He muttered to himself, looking down to see the inky sea crawling up his legs as if trying to engulf him whole.

Before the black sea got up to his knee, it fell down to the ground, causing the water to ripple. It didn't have enough black water to transform the man into a black ghost.

"Interesting." Shigaraki mumbled, reaching down to touch the surface. "Does the area of the sea increase with the child's age like the negative ghosts or---"

Before he could finish his sentence, a roar rang out as the minotaur suddenly appeared in front of him, throwing a punch at the man. He raised his arm to grab the strike but immediately lowered his arm and jumped back.

"It seems that I can't use my quirks here." Shigaraki mumbled, watching as the minotaur quickly spun on his hill, throwing another punch at him. "But my physical strength here is not much different from what I have in my real body." He cleaned his fist, dodging another blow from the minotaur. "I guess it is based on your spiritual strength?"

He casually deduced how the world works, not caring about the raging minotaur attacking him. "If I kill the minotaur here, would it return to the black ocean?"

Deciding to test it out, he charged at the minotaur, dodging a punch from the monitor aimed at his head. Clenching his fist, Shigaraki attacked the monitor, who leaped more than 2 meters into the air. It spun and punched down at the man who blocked it with his arm, causing the water below him to part.

While still in the air, the minotaur punched down as Shigaraki quickly jumped back to dodge the devastating blow. Landing on the ground, the minotaur glared at the man who casually wiped the black water from his face.

They circled each other slowly, like two lions preparing for the right time to strike, eyes locked on their targets. A second later, they dashed at each other, their fists meeting in the middle. The water parted from the air pressure sent out by both fists colliding, as they began throwing a fury of punches at each other.

Shigaraki noted that his strength and speed were much less than the minotaur, but his experience and skill made them equal. The minotaur was a mindless beast, attacking the weak point by instinct and avoiding critical attacks by instinct.

And just like a beast, its movement becomes predictable. Shigaraki slammed his foot into the minotaur's abdomen after the beast tried to block the punch he feinted at its head.

The minotaur slid back due to the hit, causing the water to move back with him. Growling, the beast charged at Shigaraki, who was massaging his fist, throwing a heavy punch at his head.

He moved to block it, but the minotaur suddenly moved to his side, throwing a devastating fist aimed at his ribs. Shigaraki wasn't expecting this, but he dodged it by flipping backward.

"Is it learning?" He looked up at the minotaur that dashed at him once more, chuckling. "Interesting." He met the eyes of the beast, noticing the drive to win in such a mindless monster. He couldn't help but chuckle once more.

And that's when all hell broke loose.

They skirted around each other whenever they got too close, fists clashing spectacularly as the water parted ways. However, it was still Shigaraki who landed the most blows, courtesy of his skills and experience.

But no matter what, whenever the minotaur is hurt, the black water just flows up and regenerates its wounds. The longer they fought, the more Shigaraki realized that HE was at a disadvantage.

"Kahahaha!" He laughed, flipping and cartwheeling out of the way of the minotaur's attack. He was exhausted, but the beast was still at its peak. "This is just what I need. A beast with infinite regeneration, stamina, and immense strength!" He laughed, flipping back while using his legs to kick the minotaur right in its lower jaw. "This will be useful when fighting the current One for All user."

Realizing what he said, Shigaraki slid backward on the water as the minotaur dashed at him like a truck. "I can beat him easily, but it will be fun to play with him." The man chuckled, dodging the minotaur's attack.

He had gone more on the defensive than attack, something that had NEVER happened before, causing the man to chuckle. Stopping, he watched the minotaur charge at him, smirking. "What do they call it again?" He wondered, clenching his fist. "Plus ultra?"

With that, he simply punched at the minotaur's head, causing it to explode as the headless body fell to the ground. Looking down at his fist, Shigaraki was genuinely shocked. "What the fu---"

*BOOM* The minotaur exploded into a massive wave of black water as it came down at him. Before he knew it, he was dragged out of the vestige world by an unknown force, an ear-piercing scream catching his ears.

Now back in his actual body, Shigaraki turned to see Kyoki rolling around on the ground, knocking things over while screaming out its lungs. Black blood spouted from its mouth and eyes as it quickly flowed back into its body. It was as if its body was a cup overflowing with water.

Dr. Kyudai quickly ran into the room to see what was happening, noticing the screaming child and turning to Shigaraki. "I assume you entered his vestige world and killed one of the black ghosts?"

Shigaraki nodded, watching as the child clawed at its face, drawing blood and leaving a deep scar while it screamed. "It seems like I can destroy a black ghost." He muttered, a tint of jealousy growing in him. In his vestige world, he has multiple black shadows representing the quirks he has stolen, but he couldn't kill them. They were like a shadow. As long as HE lives, they will live. "If he becomes the new host of All for One, would that weakness be removed?" He questioned himself, watching as the child calmed down, breathing heavily.

"I think so." Dr. Kyudai nodded, pushing up his glasses. "He is indeed a better host than Tomura."

Shigaraki didn't reply, walking up to the child. He stood over him, saying, "The pain is a part of growing, and it will work in your favor. Killing All Might would be impossible if you chose to avoid pain."

Kyoki smiled, "I--I don't hate it..." It was going to kill All Might. It was determined to get rid of all its fear. The pain was just a part of getting powerful enough to kill All Might.

"I'm glad." Shigaraki smiled, turning to Kyudai. "I want you to do something for me, but we should move out of this town first. I have already made a base in Osaka, where we will continue on Experiment Number 6."

"I will clean all our traces and call back Kurogiri and Tomura." Kyoki nodded, retreating out of the room.

Shigaraki grinned, turning to Kyoki, who was still smiling while lying on the ground. "I am sure Experiment Number 6 will be a fitting specimen to be a black ghost."

- - - - - - - - - -

All Might used his super strength to propel himself through the sky of the Tokyo ward Taitō, landing within Ueno Zoo and immediately knocking out the Polar Bear that had escaped its enclosure with one punch. Picking up the polar bear, he returned it to its cage, locking the gates.

"Sorry, All Might. Things have been hectic these days, and they managed to escape once more." The man in charge of the polar bear, who would have been mauled if All Might arrived a second later, apologized.

"HAHAHA!" All Might guffawed, waving, "DO NOT WORRY, MY DEAR CITIZEN. ALL MIGHT IS ALWAYS THERE TO HELP." He squatted and jumped into the sky, his strength allowing him to stay long in the air to simulate flight.

*BUZZ* His phone rang and looking at the caller ID caused him to freeze. "Nighteye..." He muttered, pondering if he should ignore it. He knew if he answered it, his sidekick would only shout and scold him. "But I can't." He cursed his greatness, answering the call.

"All Might. Return home and rest." A stern voice came from the other side of the phone, "I won't take no for an answer."

"I will return home soon..." All Might replied, landing in the middle of the street of Arakawa and knocking out a villain that was trying to hijack the car, picking him up and dropping him at the police station. "I promise." He said to Nighteye.

"No. You have been saying that for a month now." Nighteye replied, failing to mask his anger behind his calm tone. "Your only crisis right now is to get a good night's sleep."

"Right...I will---"

Before he could finish his sentence, Nighteye roared. "All Might, you aren't the ONLY hero. For 800 hours! Eight hundred hours of heroic work without rest! Don't you think that is enough?!"

"There are still people who need my help." All Might replied, rushing to stop a train from derailing. He gave a smile to the train driver, saluting and flying off.

"Yes, I understand that, but there are other heroes. You are taking their job away from them." Nighteye was calm once more, his statement about taking the other heroes' job away from them making All Might chuckle. "Have you ever eaten?"

"No..." All Might replied, instantly regretting. "I mean, yes. Yes!"

"Return home. Now." Nighteye hung up, not waiting for All Might to reply.

He landed on top of a skyscraper, taking in a deep breath. He brought his smile back to his face, fixing his hair. "Just one more crisis… One more, and I'll take a rest---"

"You should rest now, Toshinori." A voice he recognized caught his attention, causing him to look back.

Landing on the roof behind him was a tall and handsome man, standing about 6 feet, with a well-built physique. He has short gray hair and wears a full-body monochrome suit with a yellow cape, a belt with the letter "G" on it, yellow gloves and boots, and a dark domino mask resembling two diamonds.

"Ah! Gran Torino---" Before All Might could finish his sentence, Gran Torino suddenly appeared in front of him, performing a rounded kick to his head.

All Might could have dodged it because he is faster than Gran Torino, but it has become a routine not to avoid his sensei's attacks. "What was that for?!" All Might asked, massaging his head. The kick didn't hurt him a bit, but just like he doesn't avoid Gran Torino's attacks, he always acts as if it hurts.

"I just wanted to knock some senses into you." The man replied, landing at the edge of the building. "You had been working non-stop since the Holocaust one month ago. It is time to rest."

"Nighteye just told me that." All Might sighed, looking at the city below him. "But I can't stop. Not now that everyone is still hunting for the memories of that day."

"Guilt is a perfect thing to build a hero, but you are taking it to the point of unhealthy obsession." Gran Torino replied, glancing at the man. "It wasn't your fault that what happened that day happened. There was no way for you to stop the ghosts without killing the child."

"...Do you..." All Might wanted to ask something but stopped himself.

Even though he didn't finish his sentence, Gran Torino knew what he was about to ask. "I would have if I was in your position." He sighed, "You have never killed, Toshinori, so I understand that. But the time will come when you will HAVE to kill. Fate will one day catch up to you, and you will have to battle 'that man.' Killing him will be your only option, not locking him up."

All Might didn't respond and kept looking down at the city. "Heroes are a licensed component of law enforcement. In certain circumstances, police are authorized to use lethal force. The same holds true for heroes. That would be cases like self-defense, protecting the innocent, averting a catastrophe." Gran Torino continued, "You are turning 35 this year, still too young. Age will make you realize that killing certain villains is doing the world a favor."

"But... he was just a child." All Might muttered, his smile disappearing from his face.

"Child. Woman. Man. Elderly. If they pose a threat to innocent civilians, no matter how damaged or misled they are, we are allowed to kill them." Gran Torino explained, cracking his neck. "Detective Tsukauchi had stated he shot the child and knocked it out after it revived, keeping it from summoning more negative ghosts. I am sure you thought of that, but the idea of killing a child made you abandon that plan."

All Might didn't respond, and Gran Torino continued, "In the end, you sacrificed the lives of hundreds of thousands because of your ideology." He turned to All Might, "You call yourself 'The Symbol of Peace,' right? You should do everything to uphold the peace of this world, be it killing a child...And sometimes, you have to sacrifice one civilian life to save many."

All Might grimaced, turning to his sensei. "What do you mean by that?"

"You will understand when the time comes. I am sure." Gran Torino replied, jumping off the building while shouting. "Return home to rest, Toshinori! We heroes will take it from here."

All Might stood on the top of the skyscraper, staring at the sky. "Symbol of Peace." He thought of it as a pillar of hope that people could always rely on during difficult times. "Killing to uphold peace and preserve society from evil. Can I really do that?"

Chapter End~~

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Word Count: 4063(mostly due to the author note. Without it, the word count would be 3541)

All for One's weakness of being unable to get rid of quirk might be eliminated if merged with Kyoki's quirk, Horror Vessel. What will happen if that happens? How much stronger do you think All for One will be?

Also, do anyone notice some abilities All Might should have by default due to his super speed that he don't have? Like phasing. At his prime, he moves as fast as Mach 100 ~ 300, so he should defiantly be able to phase. lol.

Gran Torino was very handsome, no homo, when he was young. Too bad we didn't get to see much of his younger days.

As for All Might. Do you think he will change from his Superman act to a more rational hero?

[Important Info below. MUST READ!!!]

Also, this is an explanation for those who don't understand the vestige world.

In simple term, the vestige world is an extra dimensional world for special quirks, and only three quirks that has been introduced has them. For each of these quirks, their vestige world are unique has different function but are all connected to the specific quirk.

One for All(quirk) - Its vestige world is where all the former holder of One for All resides, similar to how all the former Avatar spirits, from Avatar: The Last Airbender, resides in the spirit realm. For those who has caught up to My hero academia manga, you know what I am talking about.

All for One(quirk) - Its vestige world is where all the quirk All for One has stolen resides, taking the form of the shadows of the original owner of the quirk. It is infinity in size, meaning it can hold as many quirks as the holder of All for One(quirk) wants, but in return, their body need to be strong or the vestige world would literally tear their body apart.

The shadows in the vestige world can not be killed by the holder of All for One(quirk), even if they threaten the user's health, but can be killed by other means. An example is when the New Order quirk from Star and Stripe went berserk in the vestige world of Tomura, destroying multiple quirks.

Horror Vessel(quirk) - Its vestige world is where all the black ghosts resides. The world isn't infinite like All for One(quirk), having a limit of how much black ghosts can live in the world. In this world, there is something known as the Black Ocean. It is the ocean used to turn the souls that enters the vestige world into black ghosts, but if there isn't enough water, the transformation would end up a failure, as seen with Shigaraki. When a soul isn't transformed into a black ghost after a while, the other black ghosts residing in the vestige world would attack the soul with the intent to kill it.

To increase the amount of water in the vestige world, people have to die next to Kyoki, allowing his eyes to absorb the remaining life force of the person into the vestige world and turn it into black water for the Black Ocean. There is more about the vestige world, but telling them now will be a spoiler.