Yuuei Principal's Office.
Nezu.
"Cypher 814: Cherry Blossoms."
And in that moment, Nezu realizes... he truly is his own worst enemy.
Because while he's always been fascinated with puzzles, codes, and anything and everything that could be found between them... he has a list. A list of his favorites, each one being that of a numbered cypher.
And as of two months ago, he's collected 623.
So Nezu takes some time to think.
'A cypher that I've yet to collect or make... but 814? At the rate I collect them now, I'm not sure I'd ever reach such a number. Ah... Seiki doesn't see the future, he's from the future. So he's a time traveler, hm? His Quirk is even more outlandish that I thought. And cherry blossoms... they bring up bittersweet memories for me. So the overall situation is bittersweet.
'And that's... all I have to work with.
'No, 814! A date, of course. August 14th...? No, more likely to be April 18th. A little less on the nose that way. But what's the purpose of such a thing? The date in which we last met? So he decided to delay our next first meeting... but why?'
And so he looks at Seiki Yamazaki. At his mother.
A single glance, and he understands.
'Oh my, how scandalous. Hmm. So Seiki has near infinite time at his disposal, or maybe even infinite time... but he cannot decide the order in which he lives it, and must keep all the events that are 'real' on one concurrent timeline. So while he has kept his romp with Narumi, he doesn't trust me— or rather, doesn't want anyone to know more about him then they have to, and wants to keep every possible option open— which forces Seiki to relive our first moments, again and again and again.
'If I had to guess, it's been less then 12 times— he's yet to seem exhausted with me. But that could just be me pretending to be smarter than I am, trying my best to give off the impression that, while I cannot follow him through each loop...
'I am one of the closest to being capable of such a thing.
'As for being bittersweet...
'I have yet to try to kill him, or at the very least not in a way that he'd remember. And if such a situation is not ideal...
'Ah, so All For One is still alive, isn't he?
'That is the only reason that Seiki Yamazaki would come to me, and in person at that. He must somehow know that I thought of him as a precog, either through forcing a confession from me or Mirai, or spying on us in a way that we couldn't detect. He'd have more than enough time to accomplish such a thing.
'And I must've decided that All For One is the greater threat— no, the active threat. Yes, he might be formidable, but All For One is rather predictable in his villainy, whereas I haven't the slightest idea what would happen if I tried to push Seiki into a corner.
'I can already think of a few ways to do so.
'First off, Eraserhead... who is currently on campus, actually.
'So... Seiki doesn't fear him. Or rather, Seiki's already met the hobo hero, and knows how their Quirks interact. But...' Nezu studies Seiki's face closer. 'He is not the type to risk such a thing, unless he has no other option, or the risk is no longer as great as it was. Ah, so All For One pushed him into a corner before anyone else could. And All For One has yet to know about the Titan he now faces... Seiki would be a lot more worried if he did.
'Two, Quirk exhaustion. Pushing him naturally in such a way might be impossible, so maybe a specific strand of Trigger. If it follows him into the past, by latching onto his Quirk, all the better. Best not to rely on such an idea though.
'Three, mental incapacitation. Whether through a drug, a Quirk, or something else that doesn't force his Quirk to trigger on its own,' a conclusion that Nezu made from the research he's done on all of Seiki's semi-public actions as Atlas.
Not to mention his match with Overhaul— something that Nezu now knows about because despite avoiding the yakuza in question, and how such a match could've only happened in false time... such avoidance was done with annoyance, and arrogance. And if Seiki knows of Overhaul, but doesn't fear him in the slightest— then Overhaul cannot defeat Seiki Yamazaki. And if instant death cannot defeat him— then that means his Quirk will simply save himself.
Nezu idly wonders how Seiki made such a discovery.
And this makes Atlas a much greater threat than All For One could ever be.
But not an active one.
'Four, to simply... wait. Wait long enough that, to the point that Seiki's earliest 'save point,' is one in which he can't prevent me from releasing information of him to the world. So he is forced to choose between options that are not ideal, letting me set the stage,' Nezu thinks, but none of these options are ideal for him, either. 'That might not even be an option, though. For all I know he can always go back to the very day he awakened his Quirk.'
He must learn more about the boy before coming to a decision either way.
0.2 seconds have passed.
Then Nezu decides to wait a few seconds, to 'process' the information, before giving Seiki Yamazaki, who has mostly come to see him as a fond acquaintance, a flat look.
"Seiki Yamazaki... I know you have infinite time, and your mother means a lot to you, but really? Putting off your fight with All For One... for 16 days? Really?"
To which Narumi just whined. "Can we not..."
"Hehe, you said the same thing last time," Seiki said with a grin. "And you might as well just get used to it mom," Seiki continued, wrapping his arms around his mom in a way a son never should. "I don't think I'll ever get tired of this..."
"Is that so," Nezu said, a little unnerved at having performed such actions before, but doing his best not to show it. "If I may ask, what's the current plan?"
And to Nezu... this is the best way for him to understand Seiki Yamazaki.
Openly offer support, but only when prompted, and without any direction of his own. Letting Atlas pick the plan, let him lay out exactly how to take out the threat he faces. And every decision that Atlas makes is another insight into Japan's hidden Titan.
And surely, once Nezu finds something actually useful, he'll give himself a much better code.
"Well, we'll need Eraserhead..." Seiki's eyes swirl. A tell of his Quirk. "Who's already on campus. Neat. And we could use my uncle," an admittance that genuinely surprises Nezu, especially the following vulnerability he reads off of the Titan before him.
"And... and we'll need All Might." Seiki says hesitantly. "You might want to call him here before he, he um, runs out of time for the day."
Oh... how interesting.
*
Yuuei Conference Room, 45 Minutes Later.
"...All Might."
"...Nighteye."
It takes everything in his being not to openly cackle.
"Alright, now that everyone's arrived, we can get to why we're actually here," Nezu says, before turning to Atlas. "Do you want to take the lead, Atlas?"
"Eh, I guess," he mumbled. "But, um, before we start... I feel like I should say a few things. First off, uncle... you were wrong. Not a pre-cog. You just see, everyone just sees, the final attempt."
Nezu doesn't miss the way Mirai's eyes widen, only for his breath to hitch.
Yes...
That was something that he himself has thought about quite a lot in the last hour.
'Just how were your first few attempts at life, Atlas? Just what made you into the Titan you are today?'
"Second, I... I wanted to thank you, All Might."
"Thank me, young man? I don't believe we have met," All Might said sheepishly. "And if we have, and I've simply forgotten, THEN I MUST APOLOGIZE!"
Seiki let out a fond chuckle. "No, no... well, you technically did forget, but that's my fault, not yours. I had to cut that timeline anyway, since we met in a public space. Not to mention that you buffed up and gave yourself away, which led to people filming us together. Yeah... just bad all around, really."
And Nezu saw the way Toshinori tensed at the words 'buffed up,' and decided to diffuse that before it could go anywhere.
"All Might." Nezu spoke. "Seiki Yamazaki is a time-traveler, and it seems that he already knows of your malnourished form."
'He also almost certainly knows that there's more to your Quirk,' Nezu thinks, but doesn't say out loud. Curious as to whether Seiki will reveal what he knows or not. Curious as to what just Seiki has managed to figure out regarding One For All.
"I uh, I also know about your Quirk. One For All."
"Did um, did future me tell you about it?" All Might asked, trying his best to keep up.
"No, uh..." Seiki let out a dry laugh. "I actually forced it out of All For One."
"All For One?" Toshinori asked, his voice tense. And while Nezu knew that the jolly giant was going to follow that up with his usual 'AFO is bad, don't listen to him, don't trust him spiel,' Nezu's mouth was already open.
"Forced. You said forced," Nezu said firmly, staring at Seiki intently. "I must know how you did such a thing."
"...Quirk, Confession. When the user asks you a question, you must answer truthfully. Even if it is a truth you do not consciously know."
It takes Nezu a microsecond.
He cackles.
"HAHAHAHAHA! Oh, oh my, that is just too good," he says, wiping a tear from his eye. "Oh... and you can go back to that moment at any time, can't you?" Nezu asks, already knowing the answer to be true. "Ooooooh, you must've gotten at least something good out of him. Something nice and juicy. Even if I'm going to forget, I must know."
"The uh, the first Quirk he ever stole?" Seiki said, letting the question hang in the air.
"It was his mom's."
Silence.
"Wow, he really is a bitch, isn't he," Rinka Wolfe, Seiki's bodyguard mutters.
"Seiki. I, I find myself having to ask this," Mirai says hesitantly. "But now that I know the truth of your Quirk, I know that you are older than you appear. And I must know what led you to live the life you currently have. Because, even, even if you are family... you've broken the law. No, you've completely disregarded it, many times already. And while I know that the circumstances we find are selves in are not ours to choose, the choices we make are.
"So please, tell me... if, if you can. Because I fear that the truth is not pretty."
'Hmmm, I believe this is new territory,' Nezu thinks, looking over at Seiki. Seeing hesitance, as well as relief. As if he was at peace with something he's yet to say.
Something he must've told All Might already, so this won't be too much of a deal to reveal a second time.
Especially when he can always undo the conversation.
Seiki smiled thinly.
"Yeah, it's... it's not pretty. Not at all."
And then Seiki tells them.
Seiki tells them how, when he first awakened his Quirk... he told everyone he could about it. Happy to show off his new superpower. Something that makes Nezu tense, as well as Mirai and Toshinori. Because they all know that when Seiki awakened Time Loop, All For One had yet to die... or almost die.
Then he tells them how it took a single day for the HPSC to show up of his doorstep.
How they bought off his father, who immediately abandoned him and his mother.
How they gave him specialized one-on-one classes to be a hero.
How they told him...
They told him he'd be the next All Might.
That line, that line nearly made Toshinori fall to his knees. Nezu didn't miss the way that his old student nearly let go of his Quirk. It was still a little silly for him to be keeping it active, when everyone in the room knew about his time limit. Well, Seiki's followers might not, but when Seiki himself knew, that hardly mattered.
And while he doesn't go into detail of their training... Seiki says more than enough.
Just enough that...
That Nezu can't help the tears that fall from his eyes.
Deciding right then and there, just what he will do about Seiki Yamazaki.
'I truly am my own worst enemy...'
Then Seiki reveals how he hid the truth of his Quirk, never revealing his hard-save, because it simply felt right to do so. Something that Nezu already knew about— built in instincts that protected the user, and in some cases, harmed the user. It was similar to how blood type Quirks lacked a human's natural aversion to blood and gore, sometimes even being drawn to it. Which in a way, helps the user from feeling averse to their Quirk, but does nothing to help the user fit into society at large.
And when he revealed it, he was killed by his handler he'd come to trust as much as his mother.
By Yuki-nee.
A name spoken with so much vitriol that Nezu himself can't help but shiver.
'So that's how you discovered your auto-load on death...' Nezu thinks, but doesn't say.
Then Seiki reveals how...
How he had to go back to the beginning.
Then he gives a few sparse details regarding his second life, and while he doesn't reveal just how he's fucking all of his maids, his bodyguards, and his mom of all people, he does admit that he's too close to them to even consider going all the way back a second time.
Seiki admits that he's stuck with Nezu, Mirai, and Hikari (Mirai's mom) knowing of him.
And then he goes over his first encounter with All For One.
Revealing just how close they all were to the end of the world.
'Thankfully, Seiki's Quirk isn't nearly as reckless as Seiki himself,' Nezu thinks, before thinking once more, 'I wonder if I've said as much already...'
"...And, and that brings us to here," Seiki says finally. "And that's why I'd appreciate it if, if you didn't reveal me to anyone after this."
And while Nezu has already come to terms with Seiki's tragic past, having thought so much longer than everyone else in the room... Mirai was still sniffling, rubbing at his eyes.
And that was when the kindest Titan finally falls to his knees, two streams of tears running down both sides of his face.
"I... I AM SORRY, YAMAZAKI SHONEN!" All Might says. "I WAS NOT THERE WHEN YOU NEEDED ME. AND FOR THAT, I WILL ALWAYS BE SORRY."
"P-Please, um, please don't apologize to me," Seiki mumbled. "I don't deserve it."
"YOU ARE NOT AT FAULT FOR WHAT THEY MADE YOU DO—."
"I killed my father."
The words cut through the air.
"It wasn't a spur of the moment thing either. He, he hit my mother, and I... I had pretty much forgotten about him at that point, so that was the only real fact that stuck out to me. So I planned out his death in a way that couldn't be traced back to us."
"You aren't at fault for what they made you do," All Might repeated himself, softly.
"But I, I chose to do that—"
"After being trained to choose such a thing," Mirai cut in. "It's no surprise that murder was the first thing you resorted to. And while I don't condone it... I can't bring myself to report it, or to even make a fuss about it. Such a thing is simply... not your fault."
"T-Thanks, that, um, it means a lot," Seiki says, looking completely caught off guard. His mom wrapping her arms around him reassuringly, and Nezu notes, non-lewdly.
"Now I'll reveal everything I've learned about All For One—"
"Wait," Nezu says. "Before we continue. I have a new message that you must pass to my other selves. Because I am almost certain you will not keep this timeline."
He sees everyone perk up at that, ready to refute him. But he keeps talking.
"It's in his nature. Seiki wants to win against All For One in a way that best suits him, not us—" a statement that makes Seiki tense, and both Mirai and Toshinori stiffen— "and I do not fault him in the slightest. But," Nezu stalls his words, mostly for emphasis. "Seiki. Listen to me very carefully. I am mostly aware of our interactions have gone so far, but I cannot be certain of how they went. And I definitely can't be certain how they'll be in the future.
And depending on how we continue to meet, or how I learn of you, we might not be allies."
He sees Seiki's eyes narrow. 'Good, he's taking this seriously.'
"In a lot of ways, you are more dangerous than All For One. However," he continues, cutting off whatever... pretty much everyone in the room was about to say. "I did not openly act against you in any of our previous interactions, because of All For One. You are more dangerous, yes, but you aren't an active threat."
The words hang in the air for a bit.
"...But somethings different, for you to bring this up now," Seiki eventually says.
Nezu nodded. "Everyone only sees the last attempt, this attempt. The Commission was my cage, you told me to tell you that. And, if I end up burning the world to the ground, it was always going to burn eventually. You told me to tell you that too, word for word. Repeat that back to me, and I will never act against you," Nezu says. "You don't even have to tell me the first part, but I will tell you that, interacting with me in any capacity will lead to me learning the truth of your Quirk some way or another."
And now Nezu has been defeated by none other than himself. Because Seiki Yamazaki now has the keys to his heart, and as long as he says those words, he'll forever have his support.
"The Commission was my cage, huh?" Seiki mutters, a look of realization. "So the rumors have some truth to them..."
"Yes, my past is also quite unpleasant. And while I won't do something as rash as compare traumas, I find myself envious," Nezu admits. "Your mother cares a lot more for you than mine ever did..."
A statement that results in a rather awkward silence.
Mirai let out a cough. "Ahem. Um, we're going to talk about All For One? Who, I'm guessing, is somehow still alive?"
"YES... I ALSO WANT TO KNOW HOW HE STILL LIVES. I WAS CERTAIN THAT... that in what I thought would be my final moments, that I did what I must."
"Ah... that's just the thing," Seiki said with a morbid chuckle. "You did kill him."
And then Seiki revealed everything he's uncovered... which was quite a lot.
All 1,361 Quirks that All For One has ever stolen, where they currently are, to the best of his knowledge.
All 508 of his current Quirks.
How one of All For One's closest confidants, Kyudai Garaki, has cracked the code to just what makes a Quirk, and has learned how to clone them. Not only that, but he's provide All For One with two secret bases filled with genetically engineered soldiers fitted out with aforementioned cloned Quirks.
How All For One has let Kyudai Garaki clone his own Quirk multiple times.
How their enemy is now All For One, the Quirk.
That all Quirks are alive.
And how All For One, the Quirk, will do whatever it can to bring back it's master.
"Seiki. Can All For One, the Quirk, possess a holder of One For All?" Nezu finds himself asking.
He watches as Seiki's eyes swirl.
"...No, it can't. It... it actually tried to possess All Might when All For One, the man, died... and when it was unable to do so, it didn't have an opportunity to try again. Because that was when it realized it had more than enough 'life force' to sustain All For One's corpse, and after Garaki collected it, and kept the body 'stable,' it just waited for an opportunity to resurrect its other half... which it eventually got, when Kyudai gave it Super Regeneration."
"I see. And what happens if All For One were to pass itself to you?"
Seiki bit his lip.
"I don't know, and I... I'm scared to even ask, really. Because it only sort of knew what my Quirk was in one timeline, and All For One immediately decided above all else that it must take my Quirk if it wanted to survive in any capacity. So if I ask that question..." Seiki trails off.
"The Quirk might realize, then and there, that the only way for it to live is to transfer itself to you. And if that happens, it might convince itself that it must act on its own... and if it were to succeed..." Nezu continues.
"It might follow me into my other timelines."
'And what a dreadful end to the world that would be,' Nezu thinks.
"...SEIKI YAMAZAKI." All Might states boldly, grabbing everyone's attention. His face slowly growing more and more serious the more he learned of what his rival has become.
And Nezu's eyes widen as he realizes what's about to happen.
"YOU KNOW OF MY QUIRK, ONE FOR ALL. YOU KNOW HOW ALL OF ITS USERS HAVE CULTIVATED THIS POWER TO THIS POINT FOR A SINGLE PURPOSE. AND NOW, THE PERSON WITH THE BEST CHANCE OF SLAYING WHAT HE... IT HAS BECOME, STANDS BEFORE ME. YOU... YOU MIGHT NOT BELIEVE YOURSELF TO BE A HERO... BUT THIS IS BIGGER THAN HEROES AND VILLAINS. THE THING THAT STANDS AGAINST US IS SIMPLY TOO GREAT A THREAT TO NOT CONSIDER THE OPTION.
"ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE MY POWER, ONE FOR ALL, FOR YOURSELF?
"ARE YOU WILLING TO BECOME THE NINTH?
"TO USE MY GIFT TO SLAY ALL FOR ONE, ONCE AND FOR ALL?"
*
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