The next day after the nomus attack, somewhere in Jaku General Hospital located in Jaku City, a fairly short old man, completely bald with a very large bushy mustache and wearing a long white lab coat, was currently observing multiple rows of tubes arranged in front of him. Inside those tubes, there were strange creatures immersed in a pink liquid, if Dante and his friends were here, they would have recognized them pretty easily, they were the monsters who attacked them during the greet and meet.
If a fan of the manga MHA was here, he would have understood that this place was a nomu research center and the short old man was the infamous person who created the nomus and one of AFO's faithful servants, Kyudai Garaki, also known by the public as Daruma Ujiko.
Currently, Dr. Garaki was conducting tests on the multiple nomus that participated in the attack on Strong Punch greet and meet. Garaki was truly excited, he firmly believed that his nomus would greatly help his master in his plans, but for that, he needed to make them stronger.
Just as Garaki was recording his new findings, he suddenly received a call. After answering, the face that appeared on the screen was that of a man of gigantic stature with strong, imposing features, short white hair, and luminous red eyes.
"Oh! Master!"
That's right, that man was Japan's most powerful villain, and All Might arch-nemesis: All For One!
"Sorry to disturb you in your work Doctor, I know you are busy."
"Indeed Master, thanks to yesterday's events, I managed to gather a lot of data, our dream of creating a being that can rival All Might is getting closer!"
"I see, that's a good thing to hear doctor, I'm counting on you, you alone can make it possible."
Bio-engineering a being capable of fighting All Might on equal terms had always been AFO and Garaki's goal. It had now been many years since this project had been started, first with the Instant-Villains project, then the Next-Level Villains project, and now the Nomu project. Seeing their goal getting closer, even AFO could not help but be a bit excited, after all, if they had a being capable of fighting All Might in their ranks, then their chances of destroying the heroes would be undoubtedly greater.
"Anyway doctor, I'm here to hear your report on this little experiment of ours, the Aichi incident, give me a full report about it, do not miss anything."
"Of course master!"
As if he had been waiting for this, doctor Garaki started to give his report with pride and a lot of excitement.
"Alright master, first I will start with the general report. During the test, we managed to kill every single person present at the event except three children who managed to flee, and we lost only ten nomus out of a hundred.
Thanks to our precautions, all cameras and security items had been destroyed before the start of the attack. Although there are three witnesses, they are just kids, the existence of the nomus should not be compromised too much."
Hearing the general report, AFO did not show any joy or sadness, he just kept listening.
"Now regarding the different objectives we had for this experiment, I have to say that it was a big success!
Our first objective was to test the nomu's usefulness in a real battle situation, and since we only lost ten of them, I can pretty sure affirm that although there are still a lot of things to correct, we are still clearly on the right track!
The second goal was to gather new bodies. Since only three kids managed to flee, our clean-up team was able to retrieve 567 fresh bodies, they will be extremely useful to further our research and create more nomus! Unfortunately, this method of gathering research materials is bound to attract a lot of attention, so I recommend we stick to buying and robbing corpses from the morgues.
Since we are on the topic, getting the hero's attention was one of our goals. Lately, the heroes have been getting a bit too close to one of our nomu factories, this event should be enough to distract them and give us the time to transfer all the valuables there to another place.
To end this report, I think we can say for sure that the project nomu is the most optimal way for us to manufacture powerful and loyal fighters to help us in our cause!"
The Aichi attack was indeed not random, the goals were plenty and the attack was planned from the beginning. Although the attack came out of nowhere for the heroes, Garaki and AFO had been planning this attack for weeks, they were even the ones to influence Strong Punch into organizing the greet and meet event.
"I see, good work my friend, I'm glad to see that we did not invest so much into this project for nothing."
Haraki was happy to see that his master was happy with his work, it motivated him even more.
"Master do not worry, with how things are going, the ultimate nomu should be ready in ten years! After that, All Might won't be a problem anymore, the world will be ours!"
Garaki could already see his creation fighting a gruesome battle against All Might, he could not wait for it to happen, but...
"No doctor, ten years is too long, looking at how things are progressing, we won't have that much time. It has already been thirty years that All Might started his hero career, during all those years, he had been looking for us relentlessly... At this rate, he will find us in less than eight years, so I need your nomus to be ready as soon as possible.
I have waited for too long...it's time for me to get my hands on One For All."
Hearing the seriousness in his master's voice, Garaki knew that he could not let him down.
"Do not worry master, if we have five years, then I will do it in five years!"
Although AFO wasn't convinced, he did not let it show on his face. The reason AFO was so desperate was that he knew his final battle with All Might was approaching quickly, he knew that in the next decade, he would either be a king or he would die.
"Good, keep sending me reports on the research status and-"
Just as AFO was about to end the call, he suddenly remembered something.
"By the way doctor, if I remember correctly, you said you had a little personal goal to achieve right? How did that go?"
Hearing AFO mention this, Garaki could not help but show a complex expression, honestly, he was not sure how to answer. Noticing this, AFO became curious.
"What's wrong doctor? Did it not go well for you?"
Hearing this, Garaki finally explained.
"Sigh, It's not like that master, it's just that I think I miscalculated a bit."
"What do you mean?"
"Do you remember one year ago when we received the news of a kid that potentially had a strong quirk? Well, it has now been a year that we have been observing him, and I thought it was the perfect time for me to test a theory of mine, a theory related to my quirk singularity theory."
"Oh? A new theory?"
"Yes, you see master, one day as I was working on my quirk singularity theory, a certain thought struck me and I started to wonder: what if the quirk we awaken at the age of four is only the preliminary form of our quirk?"
"What do you mean doctor?"
"It's simple master, after looking at your quirk and All Might's quirk, I started to believe that quirks could evolve, I call it the quirk awakening theory!"
Hearing this new theory greatly interested AFO, if the doctor was right, this could greatly benefit them.
"I see, that's interesting doctor... So? What's the link between your theory and the little kid?"
To this, Garaki answered with a sigh.
"Well, I believe that for a quirk to awaken, the quirk holder needs to be put under certain conditions. I have already experimented with adult subjects so this time I wanted to experiment on a child, and since I believe that being put in a life-and-death situation is necessary for a quirk to awaken, I wanted to use this Dante to check it.
To that effect, I had prepared a little surprise just for our little friend, something that would make this situation the best environment possible for him to awaken. Unfortunately, it looks like my surprise was a bit too much for him, and instead of helping him, it broke him... I find it weird honestly, I thought my calculus was correct but looks like I was wrong."
Hearing this, AFO finally understood.
"I see... I remember him, the False Hope, right? I remember that his quirk awakening had caused quite a commotion, at that time we thought that he may have a powerful quirk so we put him under surveillance for a year, only to discover that his quirk merely allowed those around him to sleep better."
"That's right... Although the kid ended up being a disappointment, I thought that since he was there, he could at least be useful in helping me perfect my theory. If he did manage to awaken, then that would have allowed us to create an even more powerful nomu... Also, I have to admit that I hoped for his quirk to become something great after the awakening, I always have this feeling that there is more than meets the eye about this kid, but I don't know where to start. *Sigh*, then again, who would have thought that my surprise would have such an effect."
Until now, Dante had managed to fool everybody when it came to the true nature of his quirk. Since he remembered that some people had quirks that allowed them to detect lies, he then decided to pick an aspect of his quirk and use it to fool the world. Now, everybody thought that his quirk only helped people around him to sleep better (which was true by the way), even the earthquake that "happened" during his awakening was considered a simple coincidence. Thanks to that, Dante had managed to get rid of almost all the attention he received from his quirk awakening... it's just that one can't neglect the intuition of a man who studied quirks his entire life.
"Mm, I see. Unfortunately, you weren't able to achieve your goal... but I am curious doctor, what was the surprise you prepared for him?"
"Oh, that? Well..."
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"You were not... yourself? What do you mean... Dante-kun?"
It had now been two days since the incident happened, currently, Dante, Kioko, and Ren were all staying in a hospital in the Aichi Prefecture.
"Mm... I don't remember much but... that first monster, the one who came out of the portal... it did something to me."
After they passed out, the trio woke up the next day in a hospital room, surrounded by doctors and nurses. After all the medical procedures were done, the trio soon were visited by the police who wanted to know exactly what happened, it was also then that they learned that nobody had survived except them and that Hayato was in an extended care unit. This news greatly impacted Ren and Kioko who still remembered Hayato's injuries and the guards who sacrificed their lives to save them, Dante though, remembered almost nothing. After that, it was decided that the kids would stay at the hospital for the next week and that they would receive psychological support to help them deal with the traumas.
Currently, Dante, Ren, and Kioko were all sitting in a triangle on Dante's bed, they were discussing the incident that almost killed them, more specifically, they were discussing Dante's weird behavior during the attack, after all, he almost caused their death, Hayato's status still being currently unknown.
"What do you mean it did something to you?"
"Mm... You see, I was really surprised when the monster appeared, but that was it, I was just surprised... but when it looked at me... I don't know how to explain it but... things changed, everything started to change."
"It looked at you? Everything changed? What do you mean Dante-kun?"
Dante's behavior had truly been weird during the whole incident, at first, even though he did not know why he acted like that, it was only after he woke up in the hospital that he was able to think about it and put the pieces of the puzzle together.
"You see, when I saw him at first, I was just surprised, but the more I looked at him, and the more he looked at me, the stronger my emotions became. My surprise became fear, fear became terror, terror became despair... I think that monster had a quirk capable of affecting my emotions, that's the only explanation I was able to find to explain it."
To this, both Ren and Kioko were perplexed.
"I see... But are you sure? I looked at him too but nothing happened to me."
"Me neither Dante-kun."
Hearing them both, Dante was able to confirm something.
"As I thought, that means this quirk can only work on one person at a time... or that he specifically targeted me."
This time, both Ren and Kioko were shocked.
"You think you were targeted?!"
"But why?"
Dante didn't bother to answer since he didn't have the answers... for now, that is.
'Guess it's time to dream.'
Soon, before the eyes of Ren and Kioko, Dante's eyes started to shine brightly.
FLASH!
As his eyes turned bright gold, scenes and images started to play in his mind. At first, everything was incoherent, but soon, the whole picture started to fall into place, and when his eyes returned to normal, Dante was no longer in the dark.
"I see... an experiment eh..."
Just now, Dante had dreamed of knowing exactly what happened. Although it cost him a lot of dream energy, Dante did not care, right now he had a year's worth of accumulated energy, and he was dying to understand what exactly happened, and although he didn't show it, the truth pissed him off to no end.
"Did you just..."
"Mm, I know everything now. To be honest with you guys... I'm pretty angry right now."
Without wasting too much time, Dante then explained to his friends what happened.
"The attack was planned and orchestrated by an organization called the Villain Factory, it's an extremely dangerous organization with the most dangerous villain in Japan at its head.
Their goal with this attack was to test these monsters, they call them 'nomus', they wanted to see how they would perform in a real fight as well as gather a huge amount of corpses for their operations.
Other than this, it looks like this organization had an eye on me for the past year... These bastards wanted to use this 'experiment' as they call it, to see if I could awaken my quirk under certain conditions.
As I suspected, that nomu truly was something prepared for me, its job was to amplify my emotions enough to increase my chances of awakening, but something seems to have gone sideways, and instead of causing me to awaken, that nomu's quirk made me go crazy."
What Dante and Garaki did not know though, was that the reason for the emotion-intensifying plan's failure was because of Dante's mental imbalance caused by the difference between his mind in the dream world and his mind in reality. After the nomu's quirk attacked his mind even more, Dante's mind wasn't able to handle it and collapsed temporarily.
"So you are telling me all those people died because some bastards wanted to experiment?!"
Ren whose dream was to become a great hero was livid, the all thing was so ridiculous that he could not even get angry. Kioko on the other hand was more interested in something else.
"But why you Dante-kun?"
Hearing this, Dante smiled wryly.
"I was targeted because it was convenient."
"Convenient?"
"Mm. Their goal was to prove a theory or something and they needed to see if their theory worked on kids. Since I was there and they already knew me, they decided to just use me as their guinea pig... So yeah... I was targeted out of convenience."
Right now, Dante was speaking without showing too many emotions, no anger, no sadness, nothing. The truth was, this event taught him a lot of things and he needed some time alone to digest them.
Ren and Kioko on the other hand could not hold back their anger, the bulging veins on their forehead and their bloodshot eyes betrayed the immense wrath growing in them. Seeing them on the brink of a stroke, Dante simply told them to calm down.
"Calm down you two. Right now it is useless to be angry."
""But!""
"Enough."
Hearing the finality in his tone, both Ren and Kioko knew that it was useless to continue.
"I need some time alone."
After he said that, his two friends got the clue and left for their own beds, they too needed to think.
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Now that he was alone, Dante was finally able to think.
'They really got me... AFO, Kyudai Garaki.'
Ren and Kyoko may not know them, but Dante sure knew who they were. When he saw the nomu appear that day, he immediately knew that they were behind it, but he had no idea that they had their eyes on him for the last twelve months.
'Now that I think about it, the big fight between All Might and All For One should happen in what? 5 or 6 years right? Maybe they are preparing for it...'
Right now, Dante was in a weird mood, he felt no anger at the fact that he had been played and used as a guinea pig and he felt no sadness at the fact that one of his close friends was currently between life and death.
'I have no right to feel angry or sad. In the end, I brought this upon myself.
Not following the plot?
I don't want to be too op?
Damn, looks like I became one of those stupid and naive main characters I hate so much.'
He felt no anger nor did he feel sadness... he only felt stupid.
Up till now, Dante had made a lot of choices, some were good, others were bad, and every choice he made had consequences.
'These people died because I was weak.
These people died because I chose to be weak.
These people died because I pursued fun above everything else.
These people died because I took it all like a game.
These people died because I was arrogant...'
The more he thought about it, the more he found himself stupid, and more and more tears started to come out of his eyes.
That day, Dante let his tears flow down freely, he did not stop them. Every tear he shed was an apology to each people that died because of him. To be honest, the incident that happened wasn't his fault, even if he truly tried to be strong, he still would not have the power to save them all, but he didn't care. That day, Dante learned a valuable lesson the hard way, and unfortunately for him, he wasn't the one who paid the greatest price for it.
Dante cried silently for a good hour, but at the end of it, he was not the same man anymore. A part of him died with all those people, and he would never forget them. Instead of wallowing in misery, Dante decided to change radically.
'All For One, Kyudai Garaki... You think I am useless right? You think you are tough right? Good, I will show you all what happens when I really want something.
Starting today, no more bullshit, no more excuses.
Starting today, I will become this world's greatest badass and bring all those weaklings to my feet!
Until now I didn't have any real goal, I just wanted to have fun... but now?
It's decided, I want to make those villains regret the fact that they didn't kill me while they could, and I have the perfect quirk to do that!
It has always pissed me off how the villains always seem in control, this time, they will know despair!
I want to dominate!'
That day, the man with the greatest power in the entire world changed.
That day, the man decided to banish all the limits he imposed on himself.
That day, the man became the worst nightmare of all the villains in existence.
'Now let's play for real!'
RUMBLE!!!