Location: Subterranean Laboratory
The massive underground laboratory was brightly lit. It looked like a high-end university library.
Six identical clone bodies sat at large metal desks across the room. Piles of books covered the tables.
FLIP.
One of the clones turned a page rapidly.
SCRIBBLE.
Another clone wrote a long, complicated math formula on a large whiteboard.
Dr. Garaki stood near the center console. He held a clipboard and checked the brainwave monitors.
"The mental tether is holding up perfectly," Dr. Garaki said out loud, looking at the screens. "Giving each of them exactly five percent of the original Quirk worked."
Garaki injected the six bodies with memory and rapid-processing Quirks. Everything they read and learned flowed straight into the main body's brain.
They didn't start with the hardest subjects right away.
Over the last few days, they burned through the basics.
They cleared basic high school physics. Then they moved straight into intermediate college-level mechanics.
Right now, they were finally pushing into advanced mastery.
All For One sat at the biggest desk in the middle of the room. He held a heavy book about advanced Quantum Superposition.
His clones studied Chronological Relativity and Dimensional Coordinate Mapping.
He needed to understand these physical laws completely. He had to know how the universe actually worked before taking his next step.
Thump.
He closed his heavy book.
He rubbed his eyes. His brain needed a quick break from the massive information overload.
He leaned back in his comfortable chair.
His mind drifted back to the orders he gave out earlier this week.
*-*-*
Location: Europe
Time: Four Days Ago (Flashback)
Anna Scervino sat in a nice leather chair inside her European office. She wore a sharp black suit. Armed guards stood outside her glass door.
She looked at the secure communication monitor on her desk.
"Master," Anna greeted him. She bowed her head slightly.
"You look well, Anna," All For One's voice came through the speaker. He sounded warm and deeply paternal. "You managed to calmed down Europe."
"We do," Anna replied calmly, a hint of pride in her voice. "The other underground families tried to resist a few weeks ago. It didn't last long. The opposition fell easily. We control the ports, the politicians, and the streets."
"Good work," All For One praised her. "You handled it perfectly. Now, I have a new task for you. I need your people to hack the European government databases."
Anna grabbed a pen and a notepad from her desk.
"What exactly are we looking for?" Anna asked.
"Governments keep blood and DNA samples of all registered Pro Heroes," All For One explained. "I need you to find any hero with a Quirk related to space, dimensions, or time. Steal those stored samples."
Anna wrote the details down. She paused and looked up at the screen.
"What about the civilian registries?" Anna asked. "A lot of people have weak Quirks that fit that description. They won't be in the high-security government vaults."
"Check those too," All For One told her. "But for the civilians, we take a different approach. I am sending Gil back to you."
"Gil?" Anna raised an eyebrow.
"He has awakened his teleportation Quirk," All For One explained. "Gil will teleport into their homes while they sleep, or visit local hospitals to quietly take their blood. We leave zero trace. We are laying low."
"Understood," Anna nodded firmly. "I will send my acquisition teams out tonight."
*-*-*
Location: Somewhere in Egypt | Humarise Headquarters
Time: Two Days Ago (Flashback)
Flect Turn sat in a quiet, dim room.
He held a simple glass cup in his hand. He gripped the glass tightly.
He reached up with his other hand and held his own shoulder, right where the Covenant mark burned into his skin.
"Welcome back Master." Flect said to the secure monitor. He kept his eyes looking down respectfully.
All For One replied smoothly. "I see your Humarise group is growing fast. You are making a lot of noise."
Flect smiled a little. He set the glass cup down on his desk.
"Yes," Flect nodded. "The elites are terrified of Hero X. Paranoid billionaires and corrupt politicians think he is an uncontrollable threat. They want safety. They are quietly giving Humarise funds for protection."
All For One laughed softly through the speaker. He really liked that setup.
"Keep growing," All For One ordered him. "But use that money and your government connections for a specific goal."
"What do you need me to do?" Flect asked.
"Hack their international hero registries," All For One instructed. "Get the DNA samples of any Pro Hero related to space or time quirks. Including civilians"
"Civilians?" Flect asked.
"Yes," All For One answered.
"Understood," Flect replied fast.
*-*-*
Time: Present
The laboratory was quiet again.
The only sounds were the clones writing on the whiteboards and turning their book pages.
All For One opened his eyes, pulling himself out of his memories. He looked over at the doctor standing by the main console.
"Master, what about your body in that dimension? And the seven crowns" Dr. Garaki asked curiously.
"The utility clone I left inside the two-dimensional paper prison is doing its job." All For One replied casually. "It uses the Micro-Marionette Quirk to pull invisible strings inside my dead body. It expands the lungs to fake a normal breathing rhythm."
He picked his heavy physics book back up. He flipped to the exact page he left off.
"Keep the room quiet, Doctor," All For One said, staring at the complex math equations. "I have a lot of reading to do."
*-*-*
Location: Shibuya – Mt. Lady Agency
Time: Wednesday | 02:00 PM (Three Days Later)
Yu Takeyama sat at the long glass table in the main conference room.
She rubbed her temples. She looked completely exhausted.
A young man named Arata sat across from her. He wore a tight tank top and flexed his arms.
"So, my Quirk lets me harden my skin like concrete," Arata bragged loudly, leaning over the table. "I can totally take point on the street patrols. When we find a villain, I will rush in first and distract them while you grow. We will be an unstoppable combat duo."
Yu let out a long sigh. She picked up his application paper.
"Arata, I think you misunderstand the job posting," Yu said. "This is a logistics desk position. I need someone to answer police dispatch calls and file city damage reports. We are absolutely going to sit in this office. We are never doing street patrols together."
"..."
Arata blinked. His confident smile completely vanished.
"Oh," Arata muttered. "Just a desk job?"
"Yes," Yu confirmed, placing his paper down. "I appreciate you coming in. We will email you our final decision."
Arata stood up. He looked deeply disappointed.
SCRAPE.
He pushed his chair back.
CLICK.
He walked out of the conference room and closed the glass door behind him.
Yu slumped forward and rested her forehead flat against the cool glass table.
SWISH.
The main door slid open again. Kaito walked into the room carrying two cups of hot coffee.
He placed one cup right next to her head.
"How was the last applicant?" Kaito asked, pulling up a chair next to her.
Yu picked her head up and grabbed the coffee.
"Terrible," Yu groaned. "He thought we were starting a superhero combat squad. He wanted to fight villains with me."
Kaito chuckled and took a sip of his coffee.
"That makes forty interviews in three days," Kaito said. "I think we have enough options. Let's finalize the roster right now."
Yu opened her folder and pulled out three specific resumes. She placed them side by side on the table.
"These three are the best," Yu decided. "Sora for the radio. He can isolate the police scanner frequencies. Rei is perfect for the paperwork and PR damage control. She reads incredibly fast. And Renzo knows the entire city grid perfectly."
Kaito looked over the three files. He nodded in agreement.
"It is a small crew, and they cover all the blind spots," Kaito said. "I will run their final background checks tonight. I will send them their official offer letters tomorrow."
Yu smiled and took a big drink of her coffee. The hardest part of starting the business was over.
Kaito pushed the empty coffee cups aside. He pulled his digital tablet out of his bag and placed it on the table.
"The office is set," Kaito told her, shifting the topic completely. "Now we need to map out your combat development for the next months."
Yu sat up straight. She gave him her full attention.
Kaito drew a simple stick figure of a giant.
"You are twenty-two meters tall when you use your quirk," Kaito pointed at the screen. "You have a massive amount of surface area. What happens when you clap your hands together really fast at that size?"
Yu thought about it for a second.
"It makes a really loud noise?" Yu guessed.
"It compresses the air," Kaito corrected her smoothly. "If you cross your massive forearms or clap your hands together with full force, you create a physical wall of pressurized air. You can blow away crowds of villains or put out huge city fires instantly without ever touching them."
"..."
Yu's eyes widened. She never even considered using air pressure as a weapon.
"That is amazing," Yu admitted. "What else?"
"Mobility," Kaito continued. "You need to crouch low to the ground. You put all the tension directly into your giant calves. When you release it, you can propel yourself forward in a massive, micro-second dash."
Yu leaned over the table, extremely eager now. "I can definitely do that. I just need to practice my footing so I don't tear up the asphalt."
Kaito turned the tablet off. He looked directly at her.
"Those are the basics," Kaito told her seriously. "If you want to compete with the top ranking pros in the future, we need to talk about Selective Expansion."
"What is that?" Yu asked.
"Right now, your Quirk is an all-or-nothing activation," Kaito explained. "Selective Expansion means you stay your normal human size, and you only grow your right arm to massive proportions to throw a punch."
Yu loved the idea. That would solve her collateral damage problem permanently.
"How do I learn that?" Yu asked excitedly. "Is it a meditation thing?"
Kaito leaned forward and rested his arms on the glass table.
"No," Kaito laid the reality out bluntly. "You've heard of Quirk Awakening?"
"Yes."
"We have to break your biological limits. To achieve it, we have to put you through serious physical trauma."
"...."
Yu stopped smiling.
"We have to repeatedly tear your muscle fibers and strain your arm bones in a controlled room," Kaito explained calmly. "Then we use top-tier medical equipment to heal you back together immediately. We do it over and over. We force your body to adapt to the partial growth through sheer physical stress."
"..."
Yu stared at him. The color completely drained from her face.
She violently shook her head.
"No... no... no," Yu said immediately.
Kaito paused. "No?"
"Absolutely not," Yu repeated. She crossed her arms tightly over her chest. "That sounds like actual torture. I hate pain. I really, really hate pain. If I have to break my own bones to get stronger, I am completely fine staying a middle-rank hero."
"..."
Kaito stared at her for three seconds.
"Hahaha."
Then, he threw his head back and laughed loudly.
It was a genuine, surprised laugh.
"What?" Yu asked defensively, her face turning slightly red. "I am serious!"
"I know you are," Kaito chuckled, shaking his head. "You are just the very first client I have ever had who flat-out refused a power-up. Most heroes are crazy. They will gladly put themselves through intense training to get stronger."
"Well, they can do that," Yu muttered. "There has to be another way to get stronger."
"There is," Kaito smiled. He tapped his tablet screen again. "Plan B. If you refuse to modify your biology, then we modify your equipment and your skills."
Slide.
He slid the tablet across the table.
Yu looked at the new digital blueprint. It showed a pair of sleek, high-tech metallic gauntlets.
"What are these?" Yu asked, zooming in on the design.
"Photon-Projection Gauntlets," Kaito explained. "Developers at Detnerat-Shield are building them right now. The metal is designed to scale up automatically when you activate your Quirk."
"Do they hit harder?" Yu asked.
"They shoot," Kaito answered. "When you are twenty-two meters tall, you generate a massive amount of kinetic energy just by moving around. These gauntlets absorb that kinetic energy and convert it into concentrated light beams. You can fire lasers directly from your wrists."
Yu's jaw literally dropped. "I can shoot lasers?!"
"Yes," Kaito nodded. "It gives you high-tier destructive power and ranged attacks without needing to tear your muscles apart."
Yu grabbed the tablet, staring at the blueprints with pure excitement. She loved Plan B.
"We are also completely changing how you fight up close," Kaito continued. "I am putting you through a strict Mixed Martial Arts camp starting tomorrow."
"Martial arts? Isn't the catch and cradle I learned last time not enough?"
Kaito said. "Not enough. Whether you are fighting a giant villain or a regular-sized one, you must focus on grappling, joint locks, and ground control."
Kaito raised his hands, demonstrating a simple grip in the air.
"If a giant villain tries to punch you, you grab their arm and drag them to the pavement," Kaito instructed. "You put them in an armbar or a chokehold. You subdue them instantly. The fight ends in ten seconds."
Yu smiled widely. She liked this plan a lot better.
No bone-breaking trauma. Just cool tech and incredibly smart fighting.
"I am completely on board," Yu agreed confidently. "Let's do the martial arts camp."
*-*-*
Location: U.A. Academy – Principal's Office
Time: Monday | 09:00 AM
The principal's office was warm and smelled like fresh tea.
CLINK.
Principal Nezu set a small porcelain teacup on his desk. He wore his usual neat white shirt and red tie.
Toshinori Yagi sat in the guest chair. He wore a baggy yellow suit. Right now, he looked completely stressed out.
Nezu pushed three thick folders across the wood.
"You will be teaching Foundational Hero Studies across all three grades, Toshinori," Nezu explained cheerfully. "For the first-year students, the curriculum focuses on basic indoor battle trials. Standard hero versus villain scenarios. For the second and third-year seniors, the combat scales up heavily into advanced live sparring and large-scale, objective-based warfare."
Toshinori stared at the folders.
"I have a question," Toshinori said, leaning forward. "Let's say a student is doing a combat trial. They save the dummy and defeat the villain. But to do it, they completely smash a fake city block. Do they pass or fail?"
Nezu took a sip of his tea.
"We deduct heavy points for property damage and reckless endangerment," Nezu answered simply. "A hero must protect the infrastructure just as much as the civilians during combat."
Toshinori frowned. He raised his hand and nervously scratched the back of his head.
His entire career was built on punching villains so hard the weather changed. Deducting points for property damage during a fight felt incredibly confusing to him.
"Right," Toshinori muttered. "Deduct points. I need to write that down."
...
Deep inside Toshinori's mind, a quiet, shadowy space opened up into a circle of comfortable chairs.
The past users of One For All sat together.
They watched Toshinori's vision through a floating window in the air.
"That's five!" Daigoro Banjo, the fifth user, cheered loudly. He slapped his knee and pointed at the window.
En, the sixth user, groaned loudly. He slumped back into his chair and rubbed his face.
"He scratched his head five times in twenty minutes," Daigoro grinned, holding his hand out. "Pay up, En. I get another deep-tissue massage."
"I hate betting with you," En muttered, looking completely defeated.
Across the circle, Kudo and Bruce crossed their arms.
"He is going to be a terrible combat teacher," Kudo, the second user, complained.
"Exactly," Bruce, the third user, agreed. "He is going to tell those kids to just clench their butt cheeks and yell. PLUS ULTRA! There and then."
Hikage Shinomori, the fourth user, stretched his legs out and chuckled.
"Give the guy a break," Hikage smiled peacefully. "He is trying his best. It is honestly just nice to sit here and relax. And besides didn't he also got some ideas from Kaito last time. He can just follow that."
Nana Shimura sat next to him. She laughed warmly, feeling proud as she watched her student struggle with normal paperwork instead of fighting for his life. "Yeah, that kid Kaito was a perfect teacher. He basically knows anything."
Yoichi, the first user, just smiled at the group.
...
Back in the physical office, Nezu gently closed the folders.
"The grading rubrics will become second nature to you," Nezu reassured him. "Let's move on to a more pressing topic. Have you made a decision about the boy?"
Toshinori stopped looking at his notes. He sat up straight.
"Midoriya Izuku," Nezu clarified smoothly. "I now knew he is the Quirkless vigilante operating in Musutafu, Greenhood. He has an absolute drive to save people. Why are you hesitating?"
Toshinori let out a long, quiet sigh. He looked down at his large hands.
"I told to Melissa-chan first," Toshinori admitted. "David's daughter. If she wanted to become the next symbol of peace."
Nezu raised an eyebrow. "How did she react?"
"She politely turned me down," Toshinori smiled a little bit, remembering the call. "She told me she didn't want to fight on the front lines. She wants to be a top-tier scientist and manage her own agency. She wants to save people her own way."
"A very respectable choice," Nezu nodded. "So, that leaves young Midoriya. What is the problem?"
"The problem is me," Toshinori said honestly. "I am still healthy. All For One is locked away. There is no ticking clock. I don't have to rush to pass this power on."
Toshinori gripped his knees.
"Giving a teenager the most important Quirk in the world changes their entire life forever," Toshinori explained, his voice thick with anxiety. "It puts a massive target on their back. What if I give it to him and the pressure ruins his life? What if he isn't ready for the burden?"
Nezu placed his teacup down on the saucer. He looked at the Number One Hero carefully.
"You are overthinking the shape of the gift, Toshinori," Nezu advised him. His voice was incredibly calm and steady.
Toshinori looked up. "What do you mean?"
"You are looking at your Quirk like a massive, completed statue," Nezu explained. "You are terrified that if you drop this giant statue onto a boy's shoulders, it will crush him."
Toshinori listened closely.
"Stop looking at it as a finished monument," Nezu told him. "Look at it as a foundation. Go talk to the boy face-to-face. Offer him the foundation, and simply ask him what kind of house he wants to build on top of it."
The heavy anxiety in Toshinori's chest finally broke.
The logic was incredibly simple, but it made perfect sense.
He didn't have to force Izuku to become the exact same Symbol of Peace.
He just had to give him the tools and let the boy decide his own future.
Toshinori nodded firmly. A bright, genuine smile appeared on his face.
"Thank you, Principal," Toshinori said, feeling a massive weight lift off his shoulders. "I will go meet with him right after the new school year starts."
"And also you still needed to know him personally first. And guide him properly after that. But the big question for us, if that boy will accept your power." Nezu added.
Scratch. Scratch.
"Haha... That too." Toshinori scratched his head.
*-*-*
Location: Shibuya – Private Training Gym
Time: Saturday | 08:00 AM (Three Days Later)
The private gym sat in the basement of the Mt. Lady Agency building. The floor was covered in thick blue training mats.
Kaito stood near the entrance. He wore a simple black athletic shirt and sweatpants.
Sora, Rei, and Renzo stood in front of him.
"Listen up," Kaito told the three new hires. "You three are the backbone of this place. If you mess up, Mt. Lady fails on the street."
The three of them nodded seriously.
"Sora," Kaito looked directly at him. "Monitor the police radios. Filter out the noise and find the big crimes before the local heroes do."
"Got it, Arisaka-san," Sora replied.
"Rei," Kaito turned to her. "You handle the media. Write the apology drafts for property damage before the reporters even start complaining."
Rei smiled confidently. "Already on it."
"Renzo," Kaito looked at the last guy. "Use your spatial grid Quirk. When she fights, route her away from the bridges and underground gas lines."
"Understood," Renzo said.
"Good. Head upstairs and set up your desks," Kaito told them.
The three employees turned around and walked out of the gym to start their very first shift.
Yu walked out of the locker room a minute later.
She wore a tight athletic tank top and black gym shorts. She pulled her blonde hair back into a firm ponytail.
"The gauntlet designs are officially approved," Kaito told her. "Detnerat-Shield started building them this morning. We get them next week."
"Awesome," Yu smiled. She reached up and stretched her shoulders. "So what are we doing today? Just stretching?"
"Physical conditioning and grappling," Kaito said.
Yu stopped stretching. She looked a bit confused.
"Why?" Yu asked.
"Because your Quirk is a strict multiplier," Kaito explained the science to her. "It multiplies your normal human body. If your base human legs are slow, your sprint as a giant will be terrible. If your human core is weak, a heavy punch from a villain will knock your giant body straight into a building."
Yu stared at him.
"Are you telling me I have to do actual cardio?" Yu complained. "Though that makes a lot of sense."
Kaito laughed. "You have to do strength, cardio, and flexibility training. The gauntlets are useless if you don't have the stamina to hold your arms up during a fight."
Yu dropped her head back. "Fine."
"I expect nothing less," Kaito smiled.
Kaito walked over to a gym bag on the floor. He pulled out a pair of padded red sparring gloves.
TOSS.
He threw them across the mat.
Yu caught them against her chest.
She looked up.
Kaito stood in the absolute center of the blue mat.
He tapped his own red gloves together. He flashed a highly competitive smirk.
"Put them on," Kaito challenged her casually. "Let's see if you can take a throw."
Yu smiled widely. She strapped the red gloves onto her hands. "Go easy on me please. After all, I saw your fight with Muscular last time. Don't hit me with your shoes this time."
"..."
_-_-_-_
Support the journey here:
patreon.com/Dr_Chad
(9 Advanced Chapters)